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diff --git a/10337-0.txt b/10337-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d81a457 --- /dev/null +++ b/10337-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2262 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10337 *** + +Note: The html version of this E-book includes illustrations. See + http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/1/0/3/3/10337/10337-h/10337-h.htm + or + http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/1/0/3/3/10337/10337-h.zip + + + + +LADY INTO FOX + +By + +DAVID GARNETT + +ILLUSTRATED WITH WOOD ENGRAVINGS + +BY R. A. GARNETT + +1922 + + + + + + + +TO + +DUNCAN GRANT + + + +[Illustration: MR. AND MRS. TEBRICK AT HOME] + + +Wonderful or supernatural events are not so uncommon, rather they are +irregular in their incidence. Thus there may be not one marvel to speak +of in a century, and then often enough comes a plentiful crop of them; +monsters of all sorts swarm suddenly upon the earth, comets blaze in +the sky, eclipses frighten nature, meteors fall in rain, while mermaids +and sirens beguile, and sea-serpents engulf every passing ship, and +terrible cataclysms beset humanity. + +But the strange event which I shall here relate came alone, unsupported, +without companions into a hostile world, and for that very reason +claimed little of the general attention of mankind. For the sudden +changing of Mrs. Tebrick into a vixen is an established fact which we +may attempt to account for as we will. Certainly it is in the +explanation of the fact, and the reconciling of it with our general +notions that we shall find most difficulty, and not in accepting for +true a story which is so fully proved, and that not by one witness but +by a dozen, all respectable, and with no possibility of collusion +between them. + +But here I will confine myself to an exact narrative of the event and +all that followed on it. Yet I would not dissuade any of my readers from +attempting an explanation of this seeming miracle because up till now +none has been found which is entirely satisfactory. What adds to the +difficulty to my mind is that the metamorphosis occurred when Mrs. +Tebrick was a full-grown woman, and that it happened suddenly in so +short a space of time. The sprouting of a tail, the gradual extension of +hair all over the body, the slow change of the whole anatomy by a +process of growth, though it would have been monstrous, would not have +been so difficult to reconcile to our ordinary conceptions, particularly +had it happened in a young child. + +But here we have something very different. A grown lady is changed +straightway into a fox. There is no explaining that away by any natural +philosophy. The materialism of our age will not help us here. It is +indeed a _miracle_; something from outside our world altogether; an +event which we would willingly accept if we were to meet it invested +with the authority of Divine Revelation in the scriptures, but which we +are not prepared to encounter almost in our time, happening in +Oxfordshire amongst our neighbours. + +The only things which go any way towards an explanation of it are but +guesswork, and I give them more because I would not conceal anything, +than because I think they are of any worth. + +Mrs. Tebrick's maiden name was certainly Fox, and it is possible that +such a miracle happening before, the family may have gained their name +as a _soubriquet_ on that account. They were an ancient family, and have +had their seat at Tangley Hall time out of mind. It is also true that +there was a half-tame fox once upon a time chained up at Tangley Hall in +the inner yard, and I have heard many speculative wiseacres in the +public-houses turn that to great account--though they could not but +admit that "there was never one there in Miss Silvia's time." At first I +was inclined to think that Silvia Fox, having once hunted when she was +a child of ten and having been blooded, might furnish more of an +explanation. It seems she took great fright or disgust at it, and +vomited after it was done. But now I do not see that it has much bearing +on the miracle itself, even though we know that after that she always +spoke of the "poor foxes" when a hunt was stirring and never rode to +hounds till after her marriage when her husband persuaded her to it. + +She was married in the year 1879 to Mr. Richard Tebrick, after a short +courtship, and went to live after their honeymoon at Rylands, near +Stokoe, Oxon. One point indeed I have not been able to ascertain and +that is how they first became acquainted. Tangley Hall is over thirty +miles from Stokoe, and is extremely remote. Indeed to this day there is +no proper road to it, which is all the more remarkable as it is the +principal, and indeed the only, manor house for several miles round. + +Whether it was from a chance meeting on the roads, or less romantic but +more probable, by Mr. Tebrick becoming acquainted with her uncle, a +minor canon at Oxford, and thence being invited by him to visit Tangley +Hall, it is impossible to say. But however they became acquainted the +marriage was a very happy one. The bride was in her twenty-third year. +She was small, with remarkably small hands and feet. It is perhaps worth +noting that there was nothing at all foxy or vixenish in her appearance. +On the contrary, she was a more than ordinarily beautiful and agreeable +woman. Her eyes were of a clear hazel but exceptionally brilliant, her +hair dark, with a shade of red in it, her skin brownish, with a few dark +freckles and little moles. In manner she was reserved almost to shyness, +but perfectly self-possessed, and perfectly well-bred. + +She had been strictly brought up by a woman of excellent principles and +considerable attainments, who died a year or so before the marriage. And +owing to the circumstance that her mother had been dead many years, and +her father bedridden, and not altogether rational for a little while +before his death, they had few visitors but her uncle. He often stopped +with them a month or two at a stretch, particularly in winter, as he was +fond of shooting snipe, which are plentiful in the valley there. That +she did not grow up a country hoyden is to be explained by the +strictness of her governess and the influence of her uncle. But perhaps +living in so wild a place gave her some disposition to wildness, even in +spite of her religious upbringing. Her old nurse said: "Miss Silvia was +always a little wild at heart," though if this was true it was never +seen by anyone else except her husband. + +On one of the first days of the year 1880, in the early afternoon, +husband and wife went for a walk in the copse on the little hill above +Rylands. They were still at this time like lovers in their behaviour and +were always together. While they were walking they heard the hounds and +later the huntsman's horn in the distance. Mr. Tebrick had persuaded her +to hunt on Boxing Day, but with great difficulty, and she had not +enjoyed it (though of hacking she was fond enough). + +Hearing the hunt, Mr. Tebrick quickened his pace so as to reach the edge +of the copse, where they might get a good view of the hounds if they +came that way. His wife hung back, and he, holding her hand, began +almost to drag her. Before they gained the edge of the copse she +suddenly snatched her hand away from his very violently and cried out, +so that he instantly turned his head. + +_Where his wife had been the moment before was a small fox, of a very +bright red._ It looked at him very beseechingly, advanced towards him a +pace or two, and he saw at once that his wife was looking at him from +the animal's eyes. You may well think if he were aghast: and so maybe +was his lady at finding herself in that shape, so they did nothing for +nearly half-an-hour but stare at each other, he bewildered, she asking +him with her eyes as if indeed she spoke to him: "What am I now become? +Have pity on me, husband, have pity on me for I am your wife." + +So that with his gazing on her and knowing her well, even in such a +shape, yet asking himself at every moment: "Can it be she? Am I not +dreaming?" and her beseeching and lastly fawning on him and seeming to +tell him that it was she indeed, they came at last together and he took +her in his arms. She lay very close to him, nestling under his coat and +fell to licking his face, but never taking her eyes from his. The +husband all this while kept turning the thing in his head and gazing on +her, but he could make no sense of what had happened, but only comforted +himself with the hope that this was but a momentary change, and that +presently she would turn back again into the wife that was one flesh +with him. + +One fancy that came to him, because he was so much more like a lover +than a husband, was that it was his fault, and this because if anything +dreadful happened he could never blame her but himself for it. + +So they passed a good while, till at last the tears welled up in the +poor fox's eyes and she began weeping (but quite in silence), and she +trembled too as if she were in a fever. At this he could not contain his +own tears, but sat down on the ground and sobbed for a great while, but +between his sobs kissing her quite as if she had been a woman, and not +caring in his grief that he was kissing a fox on the muzzle. + +They sat thus till it was getting near dusk, when he recollected +himself, and the next thing was that he must somehow hide her, and then +bring her home. + +He waited till it was quite dark that he might the better bring her into +her own house without being seen, and buttoned her inside his topcoat, +nay, even in his passion tearing open his waistcoat and his shirt that +she might lie the closer to his heart. For when we are overcome with +the greatest sorrow we act not like men or women but like children +whose comfort in all their troubles is to press themselves against their +mother's breast, or if she be not there to hold each other tight in one +another's arms. + +When it was dark he brought her in with infinite precautions, yet not +without the dogs scenting her after which nothing could moderate their +clamour. + +Having got her into the house, the next thing he thought of was to hide +her from the servants. He carried her to the bedroom in his arms and +then went downstairs again. + +Mr. Tebrick had three servants living in the house, the cook, the +parlour-maid, and an old woman who had been his wife's nurse. Besides +these women there was a groom or a gardener (whichever you choose to +call him), who was a single man and so lived out, lodging with a +labouring family about half a mile away. + +Mr. Tebrick going downstairs pitched upon the parlour-maid. + +"Janet," says he, "Mrs. Tebrick and I have had some bad news, and Mrs. +Tebrick was called away instantly to London and left this afternoon, and +I am staying to-night to put our affairs in order. We are shutting up +the house, and I must give you and Mrs. Brant a month's wages and ask +you to leave to-morrow morning at seven o'clock. We shall probably go +away to the Continent, and I do not know when we shall come back. Please +tell the others, and now get me my tea and bring it into my study on a +tray." Janet said nothing for she was a shy girl, particularly before +gentlemen, but when she entered the kitchen Mr. Tebrick heard a sudden +burst of conversation with many exclamations from the cook. + +When she came back with his tea, Mr. Tebrick said: "I shall not require +you upstairs. Pack your own things and tell James to have the waggonette +ready for you by seven o'clock to-morrow morning to take you to the +station. I am busy now, but I will see you again before you go." + +When she had gone Mr. Tebrick took the tray upstairs. For the first +moment he thought the room was empty, and his vixen got away, for he +could see no sign of her anywhere. But after a moment he saw something +stirring in a corner of the room, and then behold! she came forth +dragging her dressing-gown, into which she had somehow struggled. + +This must surely have been a comical sight, but poor Mr. Tebrick was +altogether too distressed then or at any time afterwards to divert +himself at such ludicrous scenes. He only called to her softly: + +"Silvia--Silvia. What do you do there?" And then in a moment saw for +himself what she would be at, and began once more to blame himself +heartily--because he had not guessed that his wife would not like to go +naked, notwithstanding the shape she was in. Nothing would satisfy +him then till he had clothed her suitably, bringing her dresses from the +wardrobe for her to choose. But as might have been expected, they were +too big for her now, but at last he picked out a little dressing-jacket +that she was fond of wearing sometimes in the mornings. It was made of +a flowered silk, trimmed with lace, and the sleeves short enough to sit +very well on her now. While he tied the ribands his poor lady thanked +him with gentle looks and not without some modesty and confusion. He +propped her up in an armchair with some cushions, and they took tea +together, she very delicately drinking from a saucer and taking bread +and butter from his hands. All this showed him, or so he thought, that +his wife was still herself; there was so little wildness in her +demeanour and so much delicacy and decency, especially in her not +wishing to run naked, that he was very much comforted, and began to +fancy they could be happy enough if they could escape the world and live +always alone. + +From this too sanguine dream he was aroused by hearing the gardener +speaking to the dogs, trying to quiet them, for ever since he had come +in with his vixen they had been whining, barking and growling, and all +as he knew because there was a fox within doors and they would kill it. + +He started up now, calling to the gardener that he would come down to +the dogs himself to quiet them, and bade the man go indoors again and +leave it to him. All this he said in a dry, compelling kind of voice +which made the fellow do as he was bid, though it was against his will, +for he was curious. Mr. Tebrick went downstairs, and taking his gun from +the rack loaded it and went out into the yard. Now there were two dogs, +one a handsome Irish setter that was his wife's dog (she had brought it +with her from Tangley Hall on her marriage); the other was an old fox +terrier called Nelly that he had had ten years or more. + +When he came out into the yard both dogs saluted him by barking and +whining twice as much as they did before, the setter jumping up and down +at the end of his chain in a frenzy, and Nelly shivering, wagging her +tail, and looking first at her master and then at the house door, where +she could smell the fox right enough. + +There was a bright moon, so that Mr. Tebrick could see the dogs as +clearly as could be. First he shot his wife's setter dead, and then +looked about him for Nelly to give her the other barrel, but he could +see her nowhere. The bitch was clean gone, till, looking to see how she +had broken her chain, he found her lying hid in the back of her kennel. +But that trick did not save her, for Mr. Tebrick, after trying to pull +her out by her chain and finding it useless--she would not come,--thrust +the muzzle of his gun into the kennel, pressed it into her body and so +shot her. Afterwards, striking a match, he looked in at her to make +certain she was dead. Then, leaving the dogs as they were, chained up, +Mr. Tebrick went indoors again and found the gardener, who had not yet +gone home, gave him a month's wages in lieu of notice and told him he +had a job for him yet--to bury the two dogs and that he should do it +that same night. + +But by all this going on with so much strangeness and authority on his +part, as it seemed to them, the servants were much troubled. Hearing the +shots while he was out in the yard his wife's old nurse, or Nanny, ran +up to the bedroom though she had no business there, and so opening the +door saw the poor fox dressed in my lady's little jacket lying back in +the cushions, and in such a reverie of woe that she heard nothing. + +Old Nanny, though she was not expecting to find her mistress there, +having been told that she was gone that afternoon to London, knew her +instantly, and cried out: + +"Oh, my poor precious! Oh, poor Miss Silvia! What dreadful change is +this?" Then, seeing her mistress start and look at her, she cried out: +"But never fear, my darling, it will all come right, your old Nanny +knows you, it will all come right in the end." + +But though she said this she did not care to look again, and kept her +eyes turned away so as not to meet the foxy slit ones of her mistress, +for that was too much for her. So she hurried out soon, fearing to be +found there by Mr. Tebrick, and who knows, perhaps shot, like the dogs, +for knowing the secret. + +Mr. Tebrick had all this time gone about paying off his servants and +shooting his dogs as if he were in a dream. Now he fortified himself +with two or three glasses of strong whisky and went to bed, taking his +vixen into his arms, where he slept soundly. Whether she did or not is +more than I or anybody else can say. + +In the morning when he woke up they had the place to themselves, for on +his instructions the servants had all left first thing: Janet and the +cook to Oxford, where they would try and find new places, and Nanny +going back to the cottage near Tangley, where her son lived, who was the +pigman there. + +So with that morning there began what was now to be their ordinary life +together. He would get up when it was broad day, and first thing light +the fire downstairs and cook the breakfast, then brush his wife, sponge +her with a damp sponge, then brush her again, in all this using scent +very freely to hide somewhat her rank odour. When she was dressed he +carried her downstairs and they had their breakfast together, she +sitting up to table with him, drinking her saucer of tea, and taking her +food from his fingers, or at any rate being fed by him. She was still +fond of the same food that she had been used to before her +transformation, a lightly boiled egg or slice of ham, a piece of +buttered toast or two, with a little quince and apple jam. While I am on +the subject of her food, I should say that reading in the encyclopedia +he found that foxes on the Continent are inordinately fond of grapes, +and that during the autumn season they abandon their ordinary diet for +them, and then grow exceedingly fat and lose their offensive odour. + +This appetite for grapes is so well confirmed by Aesop, and by passages +in the Scriptures, that it is strange Mr. Tebrick should not have known +it. After reading this account he wrote to London for a basket of grapes +to be posted to him twice a week and was rejoiced to find that the +account in the encyclopedia was true in the most important of these +particulars. His vixen relished them exceedingly and seemed never to +tire of them, so that he increased his order first from one pound to +three pounds and afterwards to five. Her odour abated so much by this +means that he came not to notice it at all except sometimes in the +mornings before her toilet. What helped most to make living with her +bearable for him was that she understood him perfectly--yes, every word +he said, and though she was dumb she expressed herself very fluently by +looks and signs though never by the voice. + +Thus he frequently conversed with her, telling her all his thoughts and +hiding nothing from her, and this the more readily because he was very +quick to catch her meaning and her answers. + +"Puss, Puss," he would say to her, for calling her that had been a habit +with him always. "Sweet Puss, some men would pity me living alone here +with you after what has happened, but I would not change places while +you were living with any man for the whole world. Though you are a fox I +would rather live with you than any woman. I swear I would, and that too +if you were changed to anything." But then, catching her grave look, he +would say: "Do you think I jest on these things, my dear? I do not. I +swear to you, my darling, that all my life I will be true to you, will +be faithful, will respect and reverence you who are my wife. And I will +do that not because of any hope that God in His mercy will see fit to +restore your shape, but solely because I love you. However you may be +changed, my love is not." + +Then anyone seeing them would have sworn that they were lovers, so +passionately did each look on the other. + +Often he would swear to her that the devil might have power to work some +miracles, but that he would find it beyond him to change his love for +her. + +These passionate speeches, however they might have struck his wife in an +ordinary way, now seemed to be her chief comfort. She would come to him, +put her paw in his hand and look at him with sparkling eyes shining +with joy and gratitude, would pant with eagerness, jump at him and lick +his face. + +Now he had many little things which busied him in the house--getting his +meals, setting the room straight, making the bed and so forth. When he +was doing this housework it was comical to watch his vixen. Often she +was as it were beside herself with vexation and distress to see him in +his clumsy way doing what she could have done so much better had she +been able. Then, forgetful of the decency and the decorum which she had +at first imposed upon herself never to run upon all fours, she followed +him everywhere, and if he did one thing wrong she stopped him and showed +him the way of it. When he had forgot the hour for his meal she would +come and tug his sleeve and tell him as if she spoke: "Husband, are we +to have no luncheon to-day?" + +This womanliness in her never failed to delight him, for it showed she +was still his wife, buried as it were in the carcase of a beast but with +a woman's soul. This encouraged him so much that he debated with himself +whether he should not read aloud to her, as he often had done formerly. +At last, since he could find no reason against it, he went to the shelf +and fetched down a volume of the "History of Clarissa Harlowe," which he +had begun to read aloud to her a few weeks before. He opened the volume +where he had left off, with Lovelace's letter after he had spent the +night waiting fruitlessly in the copse. + + "Good God! + + "What is now to become of me? + + "My feet benumbed by midnight wanderings through the heaviest dews + that ever fell; my wig and my linen dripping with the hoarfrost + dissolving on them! + + "Day but just breaking...." etc. + +While he read he was conscious of holding her attention, then after a +few pages the story claimed all his, so that he read on for about +half-an-hour without looking at her. When he did so he saw that she was +not listening to him, but was watching something with strange eagerness. +Such a fixed intent look was on her face that he was alarmed and sought +the cause of it. Presently he found that her gaze was fixed on the +movements of her pet dove which was in its cage hanging in the window. +He spoke to her, but she seemed displeased, so he laid "Clarissa +Harlowe" aside. Nor did he ever repeat the experiment of reading to her. + +Yet that same evening, as he happened to be looking through his writing +table drawer with Puss beside him looking over his elbow, she spied a +pack of cards, and then he was forced to pick them out to please her, +then draw them from their case. At last, trying first one thing, then +another, he found that what she was after was to play piquet with him. +They had some difficulty at first in contriving for her to hold her +cards and then to play them, but this was at last overcome by his +stacking them for her on a sloping board, after which she could flip +them out very neatly with her claws as she wanted to play them. When +they had overcome this trouble they played three games, and most +heartily she seemed to enjoy them. Moreover she won all three of them. +After this they often played a quiet game of piquet together, and +cribbage too. I should say that in marking the points at cribbage on the +board he always moved her pegs for her as well as his own, for she could +not handle them or set them in the holes. + +The weather, which had been damp and misty, with frequent downpours of +rain, improved very much in the following week, and, as often happens in +January, there were several days with the sun shining, no wind and light +frosts at night, these frosts becoming more intense as the days went on +till bye and bye they began to think of snow. + +With this spell of fine weather it was but natural that Mr. Tebrick +should think of taking his vixen out of doors. This was something he had +not yet done, both because of the damp rainy weather up till then and +because the mere notion of taking her out filled him with alarm. Indeed +he had so many apprehensions beforehand that at one time he resolved +totally against it. For his mind was filled not only with the fear that +she might escape from him and run away, which he knew was groundless, +but with more rational visions, such as wandering curs, traps, gins, +spring guns, besides a dread of being seen with her by the +neighbourhood. At last however he resolved on it, and all the more as +his vixen kept asking him in the gentlest way: "Might she not go out +into the garden?" Yet she always listened very submissively when he told +her that he was afraid if they were seen together it would excite the +curiosity of their neighbours; besides this, he often told her of his +fears for her on account of dogs. But one day she answered this by +leading him into the hall and pointing boldly to his gun. After this he +resolved to take her, though with full precautions. That is he left the +house door open so that in case of need she could beat a swift retreat, +then he took his gun under his arm, and lastly he had her well wrapped +up in a little fur jacket lest she should take cold. + +He would have carried her too, but that she delicately disengaged +herself from his arms and looked at him very expressively to say that +she would go by herself. For already her first horror of being seen to +go upon all fours was worn off; reasoning no doubt upon it, that either +she must resign herself to go that way or else stay bed-ridden all the +rest of her life. + +Her joy at going into the garden was inexpressible. First she ran this +way, then that, though keeping always close to him, looking very sharply +with ears cocked forward first at one thing, then another and then up to +catch his eye. + +For some time indeed she was almost dancing with delight, running round +him, then forward a yard or two, then back to him and gambolling beside +him as they went round the garden. But in spite of her joy she was full +of fear. At every noise, a cow lowing, a cock crowing, or a ploughman in +the distance hulloaing to scare the rooks, she started, her ears pricked +to catch the sound, her muzzle wrinkled up and her nose twitched, and +she would then press herself against his legs. They walked round the +garden and down to the pond where there were ornamental waterfowl, teal, +widgeon and mandarin ducks, and seeing these again gave her great +pleasure. They had always been her favourites, and now she was so +overjoyed to see them that she behaved with very little of her usual +self-restraint. First she stared at them, then bouncing up to her +husband's knee sought to kindle an equal excitement in his mind. Whilst +she rested her paws on his knee she turned her head again and again +towards the ducks as though she could not take her eyes off them, and +then ran down before him to the water's edge. + +But her appearance threw the ducks into the utmost degree of +consternation. Those on shore or near the bank swam or flew to the +centre of the pond, and there huddled in a bunch; and then, swimming +round and round, they began such a quacking that Mr. Tebrick was nearly +deafened. As I have before said, nothing in the ludicrous way that arose +out of the metamorphosis of his wife (and such incidents were +plentiful) ever stood a chance of being smiled at by him. So in this +case, too, for realising that the silly ducks thought his wife a fox +indeed and were alarmed on that account he found painful that spectacle +which to others might have been amusing. + +Not so his vixen, who appeared if anything more pleased than ever when +she saw in what a commotion she had set them, and began cutting a +thousand pretty capers. Though at first he called to her to come back +and walk another way, Mr. Tebrick was overborne by her pleasure and sat +down, while she frisked around him happier far than he had seen her ever +since the change. First she ran up to him in a laughing way, all smiles, +and then ran down again to the water's edge and began frisking and +frolicking, chasing her own brush, dancing on her hind legs even, and +rolling on the ground, then fell to running in circles, but all this +without paying any heed to the ducks. + +But they, with their necks craned out all pointing one way, swam to and +fro in the middle of the pond, never stopping their quack, quack quack, +and keeping time too, for they all quacked in chorus. Presently she came +further away from the pond, and he, thinking they had had enough of this +sort of entertainment, laid hold of her and said to her: + +"Come, Silvia, my dear, it is growing cold, and it is time we went +indoors. I am sure taking the air has done you a world of good, but we +must not linger any more." + +She appeared then to agree with him, though she threw half a glance over +her shoulder at the ducks, and they both walked soberly enough towards +the house. + +When they had gone about halfway she suddenly slipped round and was off. +He turned quickly and saw the ducks had been following them. + +So she drove them before her back into the pond, the ducks running in +terror from her with their wings spread, and she not pressing them, for +he saw that had she been so minded she could have caught two or three of +the nearest. Then, with her brush waving above her, she came gambolling +back to him so playfully that he stroked her indulgently, though he was +first vexed, and then rather puzzled that his wife should amuse herself +with such pranks. + +But when they got within doors he picked her up in his arms, kissed her +and spoke to her. + +"Silvia, what a light-hearted childish creature you are. Your courage +under misfortune shall be a lesson to me, but I cannot, I cannot bear to +see it." + +Here the tears stood suddenly in his eyes, and he lay down upon the +ottoman and wept, paying no heed to her until presently he was aroused +by her licking his cheek and his ear. + +After tea she led him to the drawing room and scratched at the door till +he opened it, for this was part of the house which he had shut up, +thinking three or four rooms enough for them now, and to save the +dusting of it. Then it seemed she would have him play to her on the +pianoforte: she led him to it, nay, what is more, she would herself pick +out the music he was to play. First it was a fugue of Handel's, then one +of Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words, and then "The Diver," and then +music from Gilbert and Sullivan; but each piece of music she picked out +was gayer than the last one. Thus they sat happily engrossed for perhaps +an hour in the candle light until the extreme cold in that unwarmed room +stopped his playing and drove them downstairs to the fire. Thus did she +admirably comfort her husband when he was dispirited. + +Yet next morning when he woke he was distressed when he found that she +was not in the bed with him but was lying curled up at the foot of it. +During breakfast she hardly listened when he spoke, and then impatiently, +but sat staring at the dove. + +Mr. Tebrick sat silently looking out of window for some time, then he +took out his pocket book; in it there was a photograph of his wife taken +soon after their wedding. Now he gazed and gazed upon those familiar +features, and now he lifted his head and looked at the animal before +him. He laughed then bitterly, the first and last time for that matter +that Mr. Tebrick ever laughed at his wife's transformation, for he was +not very humorous. But this laugh was sour and painful to him. Then he +tore up the photograph into little pieces, and scattered them out of the +window, saying to himself: "Memories will not help me here," and turning +to the vixen he saw that she was still staring at the caged bird, and +as he looked he saw her lick her chops. + +He took the bird into the next room, then acting suddenly upon the +impulse, he opened the cage door and set it free, saying as he did so: + +"Go, poor bird! Fly from this wretched house while you still remember +your mistress who fed you from her coral lips. You are not a fit +plaything for her now. Farewell, poor bird! Farewell! Unless," he added +with a melancholy smile, "you return with good tidings like Noah's +dove." + +But, poor gentleman, his troubles were not over yet, and indeed one may +say that he ran to meet them by his constant supposing that his lady +should still be the same to a tittle in her behaviour now that she was +changed into a fox. + +Without making any unwarrantable suppositions as to her soul or what had +now become of it (though we could find a good deal to the purpose on +that point in the system of Paracelsus), let us consider only how much +the change in her body must needs affect her ordinary conduct. So that +before we judge too harshly of this unfortunate lady, we must reflect +upon the physical necessities and infirmities and appetites of her new +condition, and we must magnify the fortitude of her mind which enabled +her to behave with decorum, cleanliness and decency in spite of her new +situation. + +Thus she might have been expected to befoul her room, yet never could +anyone, whether man or beast, have shown more nicety in such matters. +But at luncheon Mr. Tebrick helped her to a wing of chicken, and leaving +the room for a minute to fetch some water which he had forgot, found her +at his return on the table crunching the very bones. He stood silent, +dismayed and wounded to the heart at this sight. For we must observe +that this unfortunate husband thought always of his vixen as that gentle +and delicate woman she had lately been. So that whenever his vixen's +conduct went beyond that which he expected in his wife he was, as it +were, cut to the quick, and no kind of agony could be greater to him +than to see her thus forget herself. On this account it may indeed be +regretted that Mrs. Tebrick had been so exactly well-bred, and in +particular that her table manners had always been scrupulous. Had she +been in the habit, like a continental princess I have dined with, of +taking her leg of chicken by the drumstick and gnawing the flesh, it had +been far better for him now. But as her manners had been perfect, so the +lapse of them was proportionately painful to him. Thus in this instance +he stood as it were in silent agony till she had finished her hideous +crunching of the chicken bones and had devoured every scrap. Then he +spoke to her gently, taking her on to his knee, stroking her fur and fed +her with a few grapes, saying to her: + +"Silvia, Silvia, is it so hard for you? Try and remember the past, my +darling, and by living with me we will quite forget that you are no +longer a woman. Surely this affliction will pass soon, as suddenly as +it came, and it will all seem to us like an evil dream." + +Yet though she appeared perfectly sensible of his words and gave him +sorrowful and penitent looks like her old self, that same afternoon, on +taking her out, he had all the difficulty in the world to keep her from +going near the ducks. + +There came to him then a thought that was very disagreeable to him, +namely, that he dare not trust his wife alone with any bird or she would +kill it. And this was the more shocking to him to think of since it +meant that he durst not trust her as much as a dog even. For we may +trust dogs who are familiars, with all the household pets; nay more, we +can put them upon trust with anything and know they will not touch it, +not even if they be starving. But things were come to such a pass with +his vixen that he dared not in his heart trust her at all. Yet she was +still in many ways so much more woman than fox that he could talk to her +on any subject and she would understand him, better far than the +oriental women who are kept in subjection can ever understand their +masters unless they converse on the most trifling household topics. + +Thus she understood excellently well the importance and duties of +religion. She would listen with approval in the evening when he said the +Lord's Prayer, and was rigid in her observance of the Sabbath. Indeed, +the next day being Sunday he, thinking no harm, proposed their usual +game of piquet, but no, she would not play. Mr. Tebrick, not +understanding at first what she meant, though he was usually very quick +with her, he proposed it to her again, which she again refused, and +this time, to show her meaning, made the sign of the cross with her paw. +This exceedingly rejoiced and comforted him in his distress. He begged +her pardon, and fervently thanked God for having so good a wife, who, in +spite of all, knew more of her duty to God than he did. But here I must +warn the reader from inferring that she was a papist because she then +made the sign of the cross. She made that sign to my thinking only on +compulsion because she could not express herself except in that way. For +she had been brought up as a true Protestant, and that she still was one +is confirmed by her objection to cards, which would have been less than +nothing to her had she been a papist. Yet that evening, taking her into +the drawing room so that he might play her some sacred music, he found +her after some time cowering away from him in the farthest corner of the +room, her ears flattened back and an expression of the greatest anguish +in her eyes. When he spoke to her she licked his hand, but remained +shivering for a long time at his feet and showed the clearest symptoms +of terror if he so much as moved towards the piano. On seeing this and +recollecting how ill the ears of a dog can bear with our music, and how +this dislike might be expected to be even greater in a fox, all of whose +senses are more acute from being a wild creature, recollecting this he +closed the piano and taking her in his arms, locked up the room and +never went into it again. He could not help marvelling though, since it +was but two days after she had herself led him there, and even picked +out for him to play and sing those pieces which were her favourites. + +That night she would not sleep with him, neither in the bed nor on it, +so that he was forced to let her curl herself up on the floor. But +neither would she sleep there, for several times she woke him by +trotting around the room, and once when he had got sound asleep by +springing on the bed and then off it, so that he woke with a violent +start and cried out, but got no answer either, except hearing her +trotting round and round the room. Presently he imagines to himself that +she must want something, and so fetches her food and water, but she +never so much as looks at it, but still goes on her rounds, every now +and then scratching at the door. + +Though he spoke to her, calling her by her name, she would pay no heed +to him, or else only for the moment. At last he gave her up and said to +her plainly: "The fit is on you now Silvia to be a fox, but I shall keep +you close and in the morning you will recollect yourself and thank me +for having kept you now." + +So he lay down again, but not to sleep, only to listen to his wife +running about the room and trying to get out of it. Thus he spent what +was perhaps the most miserable night of his existence. In the morning +she was still restless, and was reluctant to let him wash and brush her, +and appeared to dislike being scented but as it were to bear with it for +his sake. Ordinarily she had taken the greatest pleasure imaginable in +her toilet, so that on this account, added to his sleepless night, Mr. +Tebrick was utterly dejected, and it was then that he resolved to put a +project into execution that would show him, so he thought, whether he +had a wife or only a wild vixen in his house. But yet he was comforted +that she bore at all with him, though so restlessly that he did not +spare her, calling her a "bad wild fox." And then speaking to her in +this manner: "Are you not ashamed, Silvia, to be such a madcap, such a +wicked hoyden? You who were particular in dress. I see it was all +vanity--now you have not your former advantages you think nothing of +decency." + +His words had some effect with her too, and with himself, so that by the +time he had finished dressing her they were both in the lowest state of +spirits imaginable and neither of them far from tears. + +Breakfast she took soberly enough, and after that he went about getting +his experiment ready, which was this. In the garden he gathered together +a nosegay of snowdrops, those being all the flowers he could find, and +then going into the village of Stokoe bought a Dutch rabbit (that is a +black and white one) from a man there who kept them. + +When he got back he took her flowers and at the same time set down the +basket with the rabbit in it, with the lid open. Then he called to her: +"Silvia, I have brought some flowers for you. Look, the first +snowdrops." + +At this she ran up very prettily, and never giving as much as one glance +at the rabbit which had hopped out of its basket, she began to thank him +for the flowers. Indeed she seemed indefatigable in shewing her +gratitude, smelt them, stood a little way off looking at them, then +thanked him again. Mr. Tebrick (and this was all part of his plan) then +took a vase and went to find some water for them, but left the flowers +beside her. He stopped away five minutes, timing it by his watch and +listening very intently, but never heard the rabbit squeak. Yet when he +went in what a horrid shambles was spread before his eyes. Blood on the +carpet, blood on the armchairs and antimacassars, even a little blood +spurtled on to the wall, and what was worse, Mrs. Tebrick tearing and +growling over a piece of the skin and the legs, for she had eaten up all +the rest of it. The poor gentleman was so heartbroken over this that he +was like to have done himself an injury, and at one moment thought of +getting his gun, to have shot himself and his vixen too. Indeed the +extremity of his grief was such that it served him a very good turn, for +he was so entirely unmanned by it that for some time he could do nothing +but weep, and fell into a chair with his head in his hands, and so kept +weeping and groaning. + +After he had been some little while employed in this dismal way, his +vixen, who had by this time bolted down the rabbit skin, head, ears and +all, came to him and putting her paws on his knees, thrust her long +muzzle into his face and began licking him. But he, looking at her now +with different eyes, and seeing her jaws still sprinkled with fresh +blood and her claws full of the rabbit's fleck, would have none of it. + +But though he beat her off four or five times even to giving her blows +and kicks, she still came back to him, crawling on her belly and +imploring his forgiveness with wide-open sorrowful eyes. Before he had +made this rash experiment of the rabbit and the flowers, he had promised +himself that if she failed in it he would have no more feeling or +compassion for her than if she were in truth a wild vixen out of the +woods. This resolution, though the reasons for it had seemed to him so +very plain before, he now found more difficult to carry out than to +decide on. At length after cursing her and beating her off for upwards +of half-an-hour, he admitted to himself that he still did care for her, +and even loved her dearly in spite of all, whatever pretence he affected +towards her. When he had acknowledged this he looked up at her and met +her eyes fixed upon him, and held out his arms to her and said: + +"Oh Silvia, Silvia, would you had never done this! Would I had never +tempted you in a fatal hour! Does not this butchery and eating of raw +meat and rabbit's fur disgust you? Are you a monster in your soul as +well as in your body? Have you forgotten what it is to be a woman?" + +Meanwhile, with every word of his, she crawled a step nearer on her +belly and at last climbed sorrowfully into his arms. His words then +seemed to take effect on her and her eyes filled with tears and she wept +most penitently in his arms, and her body shook with her sobs as if her +heart were breaking. This sorrow of hers gave him the strangest mixture +of pain and joy that he had ever known, for his love for her returning +with a rush, he could not bear to witness her pain and yet must take +pleasure in it as it fed his hopes of her one day returning to be a +woman. So the more anguish of shame his vixen underwent, the greater his +hopes rose, till his love and pity for her increasing equally, he was +almost wishing her to be nothing more than a mere fox than to suffer so +much by being half-human. + +At last he looked about him somewhat dazed with so much weeping, then +set his vixen down on the ottoman, and began to clean up the room with a +heavy heart. He fetched a pail of water and washed out all the stains of +blood, gathered up the two antimacassars and fetched clean ones from the +other rooms. While he went about this work his vixen sat and watched him +very contritely with her nose between her two front paws, and when he +had done he brought in some luncheon for himself, though it was already +late, but none for her, she having lately so infamously feasted. But +water he gave her and a bunch of grapes. Afterwards she led him to the +small tortoiseshell cabinet and would have him open it. When he had done +so she motioned to the portable stereoscope which lay inside. Mr. +Tebrick instantly fell in with her wish and after a few trials adjusted +it to her vision. Thus they spent the rest of the afternoon together +very happily looking through the collection of views which he had +purchased, of Italy, Spain and Scotland. This diversion gave her great +apparent pleasure and afforded him considerable comfort. But that night +he could not prevail upon her to sleep in bed with him, and finally +allowed her to sleep on a mat beside the bed where he could stretch down +and touch her. So they passed the night, with his hand upon her head. + +The next morning he had more of a struggle than ever to wash and dress +her. Indeed at one time nothing but holding her by the scruff prevented +her from getting away from him, but at last he achieved his object and +she was washed, brushed, scented and dressed, although to be sure this +left him better pleased than her, for she regarded her silk jacket with +disfavour. + +Still at breakfast she was well mannered though a trifle hasty with her +food. Then his difficulties with her began for she would go out, but as +he had his housework to do, he could not allow it. He brought her +picture books to divert her, but she would have none of them but stayed +at the door scratching it with her claws industriously till she had worn +away the paint. + +At first he tried coaxing her and wheedling, gave her cards to play +patience and so on, but finding nothing would distract her from going +out, his temper began to rise, and he told her plainly that she must +wait his pleasure and that he had as much natural obstinacy as she had. +But to all that he said she paid no heed whatever but only scratched the +harder. Thus he let her continue until luncheon, when she would not sit +up, or eat off a plate, but first was for getting on to the table, and +when that was prevented, snatched her meat and ate it under the table. +To all his rebukes she turned a deaf or sullen ear, and so they each +finished their meal eating little, either of them, for till she would +sit at table he would give her no more, and his vexation had taken away +his own appetite. In the afternoon he took her out for her airing in the +garden. + +She made no pretence now of enjoying the first snowdrops or the view +from the terrace. No--there was only one thing for her now--the ducks, +and she was off to them before he could stop her. Luckily they were all +swimming when she got there (for a stream running into the pond on the +far side it was not frozen there). + +When he had got down to the pond, she ran out on to the ice, which would +not bear his weight, and though he called her and begged her to come +back she would not heed him but stayed frisking about, getting as near +the ducks as she dared, but being circumspect in venturing on to the +thin ice. + +Presently she turned on herself and began tearing off her clothes, and +at last by biting got off her little jacket and taking it in her mouth +stuffed it into a hole in the ice where he could not get it. Then she +ran hither and thither a stark naked vixen, and without giving a glance +to her poor husband who stood silently now upon the bank, with despair +and terror settled in his mind. She let him stay there most of the +afternoon till he was chilled through and through and worn out with +watching her. At last he reflected how she had just stripped herself and +how in the morning she struggled against being dressed, and he thought +perhaps he was too strict with her and if he let her have her own way +they could manage to be happy somehow together even if she did eat off +the floor. So he called out to her then: + +"Silvia, come now, be good, you shan't wear any more clothes if you +don't want to, and you needn't sit at table neither, I promise. You +shall do as you like in that, but you must give up one thing, and that +is you must stay with me and not go out alone, for that is dangerous. If +any dog came on you he would kill you." + +Directly he had finished speaking she came to him joyously, began +fawning on him and prancing round him so that in spite of his vexation +with her, and being cold, he could not help stroking her. + +"Oh, Silvia, are you not wilful and cunning? I see you glory in being +so, but I shall not reproach you but shall stick to my side of the +bargain, and you must stick to yours." + +He built a big fire when he came back to the house and took a glass or +two of spirits also, to warm himself up, for he was chilled to the very +bone. Then, after they had dined, to cheer himself he took another +glass, and then another, and so on till he was very merry, he thought. +Then he would play with his vixen, she encouraging him with her pretty +sportiveness. He got up to catch her then and finding himself unsteady +on his legs, he went down on to all fours. The long and the short of it +is that by drinking he drowned all his sorrow; and then would be a beast +too like his wife, though she was one through no fault of her own, and +could not help it. To what lengths he went then in that drunken humour I +shall not offend my readers by relating, but shall only say that he was +so drunk and sottish that he had a very imperfect recollection of what +had passed when he woke the next morning. There is no exception to the +rule that if a man drink heavily at night the next morning will show the +other side to his nature. Thus with Mr. Tebrick, for as he had been +beastly, merry and a very dare-devil the night before, so on his +awakening was he ashamed, melancholic and a true penitent before his +Creator. The first thing he did when he came to himself was to call out +to God to forgive him for his sin, then he fell into earnest prayer and +continued so for half-an-hour upon his knees. Then he got up and dressed +but continued very melancholy for the whole of the morning. Being in +this mood you may imagine it hurt him to see his wife running about +naked, but he reflected it would be a bad reformation that began with +breaking faith. He had made a bargain and he would stick to it, and so +he let her be, though sorely against his will. + +For the same reason, that is because he would stick to his side of the +bargain, he did not require her to sit up at table, but gave her her +breakfast on a dish in the corner, where to tell the truth she on her +side ate it all up with great daintiness and propriety. Nor she did make +any attempt to go out of doors that morning, but lay curled up in an +armchair before the fire dozing. After lunch he took her out, and she +never so much as offered to go near the ducks, but running before him +led him on to take her a longer walk. This he consented to do very much +to her joy and delight. He took her through the fields by the most +unfrequented ways, being much alarmed lest they should be seen by +anyone. But by good luck they walked above four miles across country and +saw nobody. All the way his wife kept running on ahead of him, and then +back to him to lick his hand and so on, and appeared delighted at taking +exercise. And though they startled two or three rabbits and a hare in +the course of their walk she never attempted to go after them, only +giving them a look and then looking back to him, laughing at him as it +were for his warning cry of "Puss! come in, no nonsense now!" + +Just when they got home and were going into the porch they came face to +face with an old woman. Mr. Tebrick stopped short in consternation and +looked about for his vixen, but she had run forward without any shyness +to greet her. Then he recognised the intruder, it was his wife's old +nurse. + +"What are you doing here, Mrs. Cork?" he asked her. + +Mrs. Cork answered him in these words: + +"Poor thing. Poor Miss Silvia! It is a shame to let her run about like a +dog. It is a shame, and your own wife too. But whatever she looks like, +you should trust her the same as ever. If you do she'll do her best to +be a good wife to you, if you don't I shouldn't wonder if she did turn +into a proper fox. I saw her, sir, before I left, and I've had no peace +of mind. I couldn't sleep thinking of her. So I've come back to look +after her, as I have done all her life, sir," and she stooped down and +took Mrs. Tebrick by the paw. + +Mr. Tebrick unlocked the door and they went in. When Mrs. Cork saw the +house she exclaimed again and again: "The place was a pigstye. They +couldn't live like that, a gentleman must have somebody to look after +him. She would do it. He could trust her with the secret." + +Had the old woman come the day before it is likely enough that Mr. +Tebrick would have sent her packing. But the voice of conscience being +woken in him by his drunkenness of the night before he was heartily +ashamed of his own management of the business, moreover the old woman's +words that "it was a shame to let her run about like a dog," moved him +exceedingly. Being in this mood the truth is he welcomed her. + +But we may conclude that Mrs. Tebrick was as sorry to see her old Nanny +as her husband was glad. If we consider that she had been brought up +strictly by her when she was a child, and was now again in her power, +and that her old nurse could never be satisfied with her now whatever +she did, but would always think her wicked to be a fox at all, there +seems good reason for her dislike. And it is possible, too, that there +may have been another cause as well, and that is jealousy. We know her +husband was always trying to bring her back to be a woman, or at any +rate to get her to act like one, may she not have been hoping to get him +to be like a beast himself or to act like one? May she not have thought +it easier to change him thus than ever to change herself back into +being a woman? If we think that she had had a success of this kind only +the night before, when he got drunk, can we not conclude that this was +indeed the case, and then we have another good reason why the poor lady +should hate to see her old nurse? + +It is certain that whatever hopes Mr. Tebrick had of Mrs. Cork affecting +his wife for the better were disappointed. She grew steadily wilder and +after a few days so intractable with her that Mr. Tebrick again took her +under his complete control. + +The first morning Mrs. Cork made her a new jacket, cutting down the +sleeves of a blue silk one of Mrs. Tebrick's and trimming it with swan's +down, and directly she had altered it, put it on her mistress, and +fetching a mirror would have her admire the fit of it. All the time she +waited on Mrs. Tebrick the old woman talked to her as though she were a +baby, and treated her as such, never thinking perhaps that she was +either the one thing or the other, that is either a lady to whom she +owed respect and who had rational powers exceeding her own, or else a +wild creature on whom words were wasted. But though at first she +submitted passively, Mrs. Tebrick only waited for her Nanny's back to be +turned to tear up her pretty piece of handiwork into shreds, and then +ran gaily about waving her brush with only a few ribands still hanging +from her neck. + +So it was time after time (for the old woman was used to having her own +way) until Mrs. Cork would, I think, have tried punishing her if she had +not been afraid of Mrs. Tebrick's rows of white teeth, which she often +showed her, then laughing afterwards, as if to say it was only play. + +Not content with tearing off the dresses that were fitted on her, one +day Silvia slipped upstairs to her wardrobe and tore down all her old +dresses and made havoc with them, not sparing her wedding dress either, +but tearing and ripping them all up so that there was hardly a shred or +rag left big enough to dress a doll in. On this, Mr. Tebrick, who had +let the old woman have most of her management to see what she could make +of her, took her back under his own control. + +He was sorry enough now that Mrs. Cork had disappointed him in the hopes +he had had of her, to have the old woman, as it were, on his hands. True +she could be useful enough in many ways to him, by doing the housework, +the cooking and mending, but still he was anxious since his secret was +in her keeping, and the more now that she had tried her hand with his +wife and failed. For he saw that vanity had kept her mouth shut if she +had won over her mistress to better ways, and her love for her would +have grown by getting her own way with her. But now that she had failed +she bore her mistress a grudge for not being won over, or at the best +was become indifferent to the business, so that she might very readily +blab. + +For the moment all Mr. Tebrick could do was to keep her from going into +Stokoe to the village, where she would meet all her old cronies and +where there were certain to be any number of inquiries about what was +going on at Rylands and so on. But as he saw that it was clearly beyond +his power, however vigilant he might be, to watch over the old woman and +his wife, and to prevent anyone from meeting with either of them, he +began to consider what he could best do. + +Since he had sent away his servants and the gardener, giving out a story +of having received bad news and his wife going away to London where he +would join her, their probably going out of England and so on, he knew +well enough that there would be a great deal of talk in the +neighbourhood. + +And as he had now stayed on, contrary to what he had said, there would +be further rumour. Indeed, had he known it, there was a story already +going round the country that his wife had run away with Major Solmes, +and that he was gone mad with grief, that he had shot his dogs and his +horses and shut himself up alone in the house and would speak with no +one. This story was made up by his neighbours not because they were +fanciful or wanted to deceive, but like most tittle-tattle to fill a +gap, as few like to confess ignorance, and if people are asked about +such or such a man they must have something to say, or they suffer in +everybody's opinion, are set down as dull or "out of the swim." In this +way I met not long ago with someone who, after talking some little while +and not knowing me or who I was, told me that David Garnett was dead, +and died of being bitten by a cat after he had tormented it. He had long +grown a nuisance to his friends as an exorbitant sponge upon them, and +the world was well rid of him. + +Hearing this story of myself diverted me at the time, but I fully +believe it has served me in good stead since. For it set me on my guard +as perhaps nothing else would have done, against accepting for true all +floating rumour and village gossip, so that now I am by second nature a +true sceptic and scarcely believe anything unless the evidence for it is +conclusive. Indeed I could never have got to the bottom of this history +if I had believed one tenth part of what I was told, there was so much +of it that was either manifestly false and absurd, or else contradictory +to the ascertained facts. It is therefore only the bare bones of the +story which you will find written here, for I have rejected all the +flowery embroideries which would be entertaining reading enough, I +daresay, for some, but if there be any doubt of the truth of a thing it +is poor sort of entertainment to read about in my opinion. + +To get back to our story: Mr. Tebrick having considered how much the +appetite of his neighbours would be whetted to find out the mystery by +his remaining in that part of the country, determined that the best +thing he could do was to remove. + +After some time turning the thing over in his mind, he decided that no +place would be so good for his purpose as old Nanny's cottage. It was +thirty miles away from Stokoe, which in the country means as far as +Timbuctoo does to us in London. Then it was near Tangley, and his lady +having known it from her childhood would feel at home there, and also it +was utterly remote, there being no village near it or manor house other +than Tangley Hall, which was now untenanted for the greater part of the +year. Nor did it mean imparting his secret to others, for there was only +Mrs. Cork's son, a widower, who being out at work all day would be +easily outwitted, the more so as he was stone deaf and of a slow and +saturnine disposition. To be sure there was little Polly, Mrs. Cork's +granddaughter, but either Mr. Tebrick forgot her altogether, or else +reckoned her as a mere baby and not to be thought of as a danger. + +He talked the thing over with Mrs. Cork, and they decided upon it out of +hand. The truth is the old woman was beginning to regret that her love +and her curiosity had ever brought her back to Rylands, since so far she +had got much work and little credit by it. + +When it was settled, Mr. Tebrick disposed of the remaining business he +had at Rylands in the afternoon, and that was chiefly putting out his +wife's riding horse into the keeping of a farmer near by, for he thought +he would drive over with his own horse, and the other spare horse tandem +in the dogcart. + +The next morning they locked up the house and they departed, having +first secured Mrs. Tebrick in a large wicker hamper where she would be +tolerably comfortable. This was for safety, for in the agitation of +driving she might jump out, and on the other hand, if a dog scented her +and she were loose, she might be in danger of her life. Mr. Tebrick +drove with the hamper beside him on the front seat, and spoke to her +gently very often. + +She was overcome by the excitement of the journey and kept poking her +nose first through one crevice, then through another, turning and +twisting the whole time and peeping out to see what they were passing. +It was a bitterly cold day, and when they had gone about fifteen miles +they drew up by the roadside to rest the horses and have their own +luncheon, for he dared not stop at an inn. He knew that any living +creature in a hamper, even if it be only an old fowl, always draws +attention; there would be several loafers most likely who would notice +that he had a fox with him, and even if he left the hamper in the cart +the dogs at the inn would be sure to sniff out her scent. So not to take +any chances he drew up at the side of the road and rested there, though +it was freezing hard and a north-east wind howling. + +He took down his precious hamper, unharnessed his two horses, covered +them with rugs and gave them their corn. Then he opened the basket and +let his wife out. She was quite beside herself with joy, running hither +and thither, bouncing up on him, looking about her and even rolling over +on the ground. Mr. Tebrick took this to mean that she was glad at making +this journey and rejoiced equally with her. As for Mrs. Cork, she sat +motionless on the back seat of the dogcart well wrapped up, eating her +sandwiches, but would not speak a word. When they had stayed there +half-an-hour Mr. Tebrick harnessed the horses again, though he was so +cold he could scarcely buckle the straps, and put his vixen in her +basket, but seeing that she wanted to look about her, he let her tear +away the osiers with her teeth till she had made a hole big enough for +her to put her head out of. + +They drove on again and then the snow began to come down and that in +earnest, so that he began to be afraid they would never cover the +ground. But just after nightfall they got in, and he was content to +leave unharnessing the horses and baiting them to Simon, Mrs. Cork's +son. His vixen was tired by then, as well as he, and they slept +together, he in the bed and she under it, very contentedly. + +The next morning he looked about him at the place and found the thing +there that he most wanted, and that was a little walled-in garden where +his wife could run in freedom and yet be in safety. + +After they had had breakfast she was wild to go out into the snow. So +they went out together, and he had never seen such a mad creature in all +his life as his wife was then. For she ran to and fro as if she were +crazy, biting at the snow and rolling in it, and round and round in +circles and rushed back at him fiercely as if she meant to bite him. He +joined her in the frolic, and began snowballing her till she was so wild +that it was all he could do to quiet her again and bring her indoors for +luncheon. Indeed with her gambollings she tracked the whole garden over +with her feet; he could see where she had rolled in the snow and where +she had danced in it, and looking at those prints of her feet as they +went in, made his heart ache, he knew not why. + +They passed the first day at old Nanny's cottage happily enough, without +their usual bickerings, and this because of the novelty of the snow +which had diverted them. In the afternoon he first showed his wife to +little Polly, who eyed her very curiously but hung back shyly and seemed +a good deal afraid of the fox. But Mr. Tebrick took up a book and let +them get acquainted by themselves, and presently looking up saw that +they had come together and Polly was stroking his wife, patting her and +running her fingers through her fur. Presently she began talking to the +fox, and then brought her doll in to show her so that very soon they +were very good playmates together. Watching the two gave Mr. Tebrick +great delight, and in particular when he noticed that there was +something very motherly in his vixen. She was indeed far above the child +in intelligence and restrained herself too from any hasty action. But +while she seemed to wait on Polly's pleasure yet she managed to give a +twist to the game, whatever it was, that never failed to delight the +little girl. In short, in a very little while, Polly was so taken with +her new playmate that she cried when she was parted from her and wanted +her always with her. This disposition of Mrs. Tebrick's made Mrs. Cork +more agreeable than she had been lately either to the husband or the +wife. + +Three days after they had come to the cottage the weather changed, and +they woke up one morning to find the snow gone, and the wind in the +south, and the sun shining, so that it was like the first beginning of +spring. + +Mr. Tebrick let his vixen out into the garden after breakfast, stayed +with her awhile, and then went indoors to write some letters. + +When he got out again he could see no sign of her anywhere, so that he +ran about bewildered, calling to her. At last he spied a mound of fresh +earth by the wall in one corner of the garden, and running thither found +that there was a hole freshly dug seeming to go under the wall. On this +he ran out of the garden quickly till he came to the other side of the +wall, but there was no hole there, so he concluded that she was not yet +got through. So it proved to be, for reaching down into the hole he felt +her brush with his hand, and could hear her distinctly working away with +her claws. He called to her then, saying: "Silvia, Silvia, why do you do +this? Are you trying to escape from me? I am your husband, and if I keep +you confined it is to protect you, not to let you run into danger. Show +me how I can make you happy and I will do it, but do not try to escape +from me. I love you, Silvia; is it because of that that you want to fly +from me to go into the world where you will be in danger of your life +always? There are dogs everywhere and they all would kill you if it were +not for me. Come out, Silvia, come out." + +But Silvia would not listen to him, so he waited there silent. Then he +spoke to her in a different way, asking her had she forgot the bargain +she made with him that she would not go out alone, but now when she had +all the liberty of a garden to herself would she wantonly break her +word? And he asked her, were they not married? And had she not always +found him a good husband to her? But she heeded this neither until +presently his temper getting somewhat out of hand he cursed her +obstinacy and told her if she would be a damned fox she was welcome to +it, for his part he could get his own way. She had not escaped yet. He +would dig her out for he still had time, and if she struggled put her in +a bag. + +These words brought her forth instantly and she looked at him with as +much astonishment as if she knew not what could have made him angry. +Yes, she even fawned on him, but in a good-natured kind of way, as if +she were a very good wife putting up wonderfully with her husband's +temper. + +These airs of hers made the poor gentleman (so simple was he) repent his +outburst and feel most ashamed. + +But for all that when she was out of the hole he filled it up with great +stones and beat them in with a crowbar so she should find her work at +that point harder than before if she was tempted to begin it again. + +In the afternoon he let her go again into the garden but sent little +Polly with her to keep her company. But presently on looking out he saw +his vixen had climbed up into the limbs of an old pear tree and was +looking over the wall, and was not so far from it but she might jump +over it if she could get a little further. + +Mr. Tebrick ran out into the garden as quick as he could, and when his +wife saw him it seemed she was startled and made a false spring at the +wall, so that she missed reaching it and fell back heavily to the ground +and lay there insensible. When Mr. Tebrick got up to her he found her +head was twisted under her by her fall and the neck seemed to be broken. +The shock was so great to him that for some time he could not do +anything, but knelt beside her turning her limp body stupidly in his +hands. At length he recognised that she was indeed dead, and beginning +to consider what dreadful afflictions God had visited him with, he +blasphemed horribly and called on God to strike him dead, or give his +wife back to him. + +"Is it not enough," he cried, adding a foul blasphemous oath, "that you +should rob me of my dear wife, making her a fox, but now you must rob me +of that fox too, that has been my only solace and comfort in this +affliction?" + +Then he burst into tears and began wringing his hands and continued +there in such an extremity of grief for half-an-hour that he cared +nothing, neither what he was doing, nor what would become of him in the +future, but only knew that his life was ended now and he would not live +any longer than he could help. + +All this while the little girl Polly stood by, first staring, then +asking him what had happened, and lastly crying with fear, but he never +heeded her nor looked at her but only tore his hair, sometimes shouted +at God, or shook his fist at Heaven. So in a fright Polly opened the +door and ran out of the garden. + +At length worn out, and as it were all numb with his loss, Mr. Tebrick +got up and went within doors, leaving his dear fox lying near where she +had fallen. + +He stayed indoors only two minutes and then came out again with a razor +in his hand intending to cut his own throat, for he was out of his +senses in this first paroxysm of grief. But his vixen was gone, at +which he looked about for a moment bewildered, and then enraged, +thinking that somebody must have taken the body. + +The door of the garden being open he ran straight through it. Now this +door, which had been left ajar by Polly when she ran off, opened into a +little courtyard where the fowls were shut in at night; the woodhouse +and the privy also stood there. On the far side of it from the garden +gate were two large wooden doors big enough when open to let a cart +enter, and high enough to keep a man from looking over into the yard. + +When Mr. Tebrick got into the yard he found his vixen leaping up at +these doors, and wild with terror, but as lively as ever he saw her in +his life. He ran up to her but she shrank away from him, and would then +have dodged him too, but he caught hold of her. She bared her teeth at +him but he paid no heed to that, only picked her straight up into his +arms and took her so indoors. Yet all the while he could scarce believe +his eyes to see her living, and felt her all over very carefully to find +if she had not some bones broken. But no, he could find none. Indeed it +was some hours before this poor silly gentleman began to suspect the +truth, which was that his vixen had practised a deception upon him, and +all the time he was bemoaning his loss in such heartrending terms, she +was only shamming death to run away directly she was able. If it had not +been that the yard gates were shut, which was a mere chance, she had got +her liberty by that trick. And that this was only a trick of hers to +sham dead was plain when he had thought it over. Indeed it is an old and +time-honoured trick of the fox. It is in Aesop and a hundred other +writers have confirmed it since. But so thoroughly had he been deceived +by her, that at first he was as much overcome with joy at his wife still +being alive, as he had been with grief a little while before, thinking +her dead. + +He took her in his arms, hugging her to him and thanking God a dozen +times for her preservation. But his kissing and fondling her had very +little effect now, for she did not answer him by licking or soft looks, +but stayed huddled up and sullen, with her hair bristling on her neck +and her ears laid back every time he touched her. At first he thought +this might be because he had touched some broken bone or tender place +where she had been hurt, but at last the truth came to him. + +Thus he was again to suffer, and though the pain of knowing her +treachery to him was nothing to the grief of losing her, yet it was more +insidious and lasting. At first, from a mere nothing, this pain grew +gradually until it was a torture to him. If he had been one of your +stock ordinary husbands, such a one who by experience has learnt never +to enquire too closely into his wife's doings, her comings or goings, +and never to ask her, "How she has spent the day?" for fear he should be +made the more of a fool, had Mr. Tebrick been such a one he had been +luckier, and his pain would have been almost nothing. But you must +consider that he had never been deceived once by his wife in the course +of their married life. No, she had never told him as much as one white +lie, but had always been frank, open and ingenuous as if she and her +husband were not husband and wife, or indeed of opposite sexes. Yet we +must rate him as very foolish, that living thus with a fox, which beast +has the same reputation for deceitfulness, craft and cunning, in all +countries, all ages, and amongst all races of mankind, he should expect +this fox to be as candid and honest with him in all things as the +country girl he had married. + +His wife's sullenness and bad temper continued that day, for she cowered +away from him and hid under the sofa, nor could he persuade her to come +out from there. Even when it was her dinner time she stayed, refusing +resolutely to be tempted out with food, and lying so quiet that he heard +nothing from her for hours. At night he carried her up to the bedroom, +but she was still sullen and refused to eat a morsel, though she drank a +little water during the night, when she fancied he was asleep. + +The next morning was the same, and by now Mr. Tebrick had been through +all the agonies of wounded self-esteem, disillusionment and despair that +a man can suffer. But though his emotions rose up in his heart and +nearly stifled him he showed no sign of them to her, neither did he +abate one jot his tenderness and consideration for his vixen. At +breakfast he tempted her with a freshly killed young pullet. It hurt him +to make this advance to her, for hitherto he had kept her strictly on +cooked meats, but the pain of seeing her refuse it was harder still for +him to bear. Added to this was now an anxiety lest she should starve +herself to death rather than stay with him any longer. + +All that morning he kept her close, but in the afternoon let her loose +again in the garden after he had lopped the pear tree so that she could +not repeat her performance of climbing. + +But seeing how disgustedly she looked while he was by, never offering to +run or to play as she was used, but only standing stock still with her +tail between her legs, her ears flattened, and the hair bristling on her +shoulders, seeing this he left her to herself out of mere humanity. + +When he came out after half-an-hour he found that she was gone, but +there was a fair sized hole by the wall, and she just buried all but her +brush, digging desperately to get under the wall and make her escape. + +He ran up to the hole, and put his arm in after her and called to her to +come out, but she would not. So at first he began pulling her out by the +shoulder, then his hold slipping, by the hind legs. As soon as he had +drawn her forth she whipped round and snapped at his hand and bit it +through near the joint of the thumb, but let it go instantly. They +stayed there for a minute facing each other, he on his knees and she +facing him the picture of unrepentant wickedness and fury. Being thus on +his knees, Mr. Tebrick was down on her level very nearly, and her muzzle +was thrust almost into his face. Her ears lay flat on her head, her gums +were bared in a silent snarl, and all her beautiful teeth threatening +him that she would bite him again. Her back too was half-arched, all her +hair bristling and her brush held drooping. But it was her eyes that +held his, with their slit pupils looking at him with savage desperation +and rage. + +The blood ran very freely from his hand but he never noticed that or the +pain of it either, for all his thoughts were for his wife. + +"What is this, Silvia?" he said very quietly, "what is this? Why are you +so savage now? If I stand between you and your freedom it is because I +love you. Is it such torment to be with me?" But Silvia never stirred a +muscle. + +"You would not do this if you were not in anguish, poor beast, you want +your freedom. I cannot keep you, I cannot hold you to vows made when you +were a woman. Why, you have forgotten who I am." + +The tears then began running down his cheeks, he sobbed, and said to +her: + +"Go--I shall not keep you. Poor beast, poor beast, I love you, I love +you. Go if you want to. But if you remember me come back. I shall never +keep you against your will. Go--go. But kiss me now." + +He leant forward then and put his lips to her snarling fangs, but though +she kept snarling she did not bite him. Then he got up quickly and went +to the door of the garden that opened into a little paddock against a +wood. + +When he opened it she went through it like an arrow, crossed the paddock +like a puff of smoke and in a moment was gone from his sight. Then, +suddenly finding himself alone, Mr. Tebrick came as it were to himself +and ran after her, calling her by name and shouting to her, and so went +plunging into the wood, and through it for about a mile, running almost +blindly. + +At last when he was worn out he sat down, seeing that she had gone +beyond recovery and it was already night. Then, rising, he walked slowly +homewards, wearied and spent in spirit. As he went he bound up his hand +that was still running with blood. His coat was torn, his hat lost, and +his face scratched right across with briars. Now in cold blood he began +to reflect on what he had done and to repent bitterly having set his +wife free. He had betrayed her so that now, from his act, she must lead +the life of a wild fox for ever, and must undergo all the rigours and +hardships of the climate, and all the hazards of a hunted creature. When +Mr. Tebrick got back to the cottage he found Mrs. Cork was sitting up +for him. It was already late. + +"What have you done with Mrs. Tebrick, sir? I missed her, and I missed +you, and I have not known what to do, expecting something dreadful had +happened. I have been sitting up for you half the night. And where is +she now, sir?" She accosted him so vigorously that Mr. Tebrick stood +silent. At length he said: "I have let her go. She has run away." + +"Poor Miss Silvia!" cried the old woman, "Poor creature! You ought to be +ashamed, sir! Let her go indeed! Poor lady, is that the way for her +husband to talk! It is a disgrace. But I saw it coming from the first." + +The old woman was white with fury, she did not mind what she said, but +Mr. Tebrick was not listening to her. At last he looked at her and saw +that she had just begun to cry, so he went out of the room and up to +bed, and lay down as he was, in his clothes, utterly exhausted, and fell +into a dog's sleep, starting up every now and then with horror, and then +falling back with fatigue. It was late when he woke up, but cold and +raw, and he felt cramped in all his limbs. As he lay he heard again the +noise which had woken him--the trotting of several horses, and the +voices of men riding by the house. Mr. Tebrick jumped up and ran to the +window and then looked out, and the first thing that he saw was a +gentleman in a pink coat riding at a walk down the lane. At this sight +Mr. Tebrick waited no longer, but pulling on his boots in mad haste, ran +out instantly, meaning to say that they must not hunt, and how his wife +was escaped and they might kill her. + +But when he found himself outside the cottage words failed him and fury +took possession of him, so that he could only cry out: + +"How dare you, you damned blackguard?" And so, with a stick in his hand, +he threw himself on the gentleman in the pink coat and seized his +horse's rein, and catching the gentleman by the leg was trying to throw +him. But really it is impossible to say what Mr. Tebrick intended by his +behaviour or what he would have done, for the gentleman finding himself +suddenly assaulted in so unexpected a fashion by so strange a touzled +and dishevelled figure, clubbed his hunting crop and dealt him a blow on +the temple so that he fell insensible. + +Another gentleman rode up at this moment and they were civil enough to +dismount and carry Mr. Tebrick into the cottage, where they were met by +old Nanny who kept wringing her hands and told them Mr. Tebrick's wife +had run away and she was a vixen, and that was the cause that Mr. +Tebrick had run out and assaulted them. + +The two gentlemen could not help laughing at this; and mounting their +horses rode on without delay, after telling each other that Mr. Tebrick, +whoever he was, was certainly a madman, and the old woman seemed as mad +as her master. + +This story, however, went the rounds of the gentry in those parts and +perfectly confirmed everyone in their previous opinion, namely that Mr. +Tebrick was mad and his wife had run away from him. The part about her +being a vixen was laughed at by the few that heard it, but was soon left +out as immaterial to the story, and incredible in itself, though +afterwards it came to be remembered and its significance to be +understood. When Mr. Tebrick came to himself it was past noon, and his +head was aching so painfully that he could only call to mind in a +confused way what had happened. + +However, he sent off Mrs. Cork's son directly on one of his horses to +enquire about the hunt. + +At the same time he gave orders to old Nanny that she was to put out +food and water for her mistress, on the chance that she might yet be in +the neighbourhood. + +By nightfall Simon was back with the news that the hunt had had a very +long run but had lost one fox, then, drawing a covert, had chopped an +old dog fox, and so ended the day's sport. + +This put poor Mr. Tebrick in some hopes again, and he rose at once from +his bed, and went out to the wood and began calling his wife, but was +overcome with faintness, and lay down and so passed the night in the +open, from mere weakness. + +In the morning he got back again to the cottage but he had taken a +chill, and so had to keep his bed for three or four days after. + +All this time he had food put out for her every night, but though rats +came to it and ate of it, there were never any prints of a fox. + +At last his anxiety began working another way, that is he came to think +it possible that his vixen would have gone back to Stokoe, so he had his +horses harnessed in the dogcart and brought to the door and then drove +over to Rylands, though he was still in a fever, and with a heavy cold +upon him. After that he lived always solitary, keeping away from his +fellows and only seeing one man, called Askew, who had been brought up a +jockey at Wantage, but was grown too big for his profession. He mounted +this loafing fellow on one of his horses three days a week and had him +follow the hunt and report to him whenever they killed, and if he could +view the fox so much the better, and then he made him describe it +minutely, so he should know if it were his Silvia. But he dared not +trust himself to go himself, lest his passion should master him and he +might commit a murder. + +Every time there was a hunt in the neighbourhood he set the gates wide +open at Rylands and the house doors also, and taking his gun stood +sentinel in the hope that his wife would run in if she were pressed by +the hounds, and so he could save her. But only once a hunt came near, +when two fox-hounds that had lost the main pack strayed on to his land +and he shot them instantly and buried them afterwards himself. + +It was not long now to the end of the season, as it was the middle of +March. + +But living as he did at this time, Mr. Tebrick grew more and more to be +a true misanthrope. He denied admittance to any that came to visit him, +and rarely showed himself to his fellows, but went out chiefly in the +early mornings before people were about, in the hope of seeing his +beloved fox. Indeed it was only this hope that he would see her again +that kept him alive, for he had become so careless of his own comfort in +every way that he very seldom ate a proper meal, taking no more than a +crust of bread with a morsel of cheese in the whole day, though +sometimes he would drink half a bottle of whiskey to drown his sorrow +and to get off to sleep, for sleep fled from him, and no sooner did he +begin dozing but he awoke with a start thinking he had heard something. +He let his beard grow too, and though he had always been very particular +in his person before, he now was utterly careless of it, gave up +washing himself for a week or two at a stretch, and if there was dirt +under his finger nails let it stop there. + +All this disorder fed a malignant pleasure in him. For by now he had +come to hate his fellow men and was embittered against all human +decencies and decorum. For strange to tell he never once in these months +regretted his dear wife whom he had so much loved. No, all that he +grieved for now was his departed vixen. He was haunted all this time not +by the memory of a sweet and gentle woman, but by the recollection of an +animal; a beast it is true that could sit at table and play piquet when +it would, but for all that nothing really but a wild beast. His one hope +now was the recovery of this beast, and of this he dreamed continually. +Likewise both waking and sleeping he was visited by visions of her; her +mask, her full white-tagged brush, white throat, and the thick fur in +her ears all haunted him. + +Every one of her foxey ways was now so absolutely precious to him that I +believe that if he had known for certain she was dead, and had thoughts +of marrying a second time, he would never have been happy with a woman. +No, indeed, he would have been more tempted to get himself a tame fox, +and would have counted that as good a marriage as he could make. + +Yet this all proceeded one may say from a passion, and a true conjugal +fidelity, that it would be hard to find matched in this world. And +though we may think him a fool, almost a madman, we must, when we look +closer, find much to respect in his extraordinary devotion. How +different indeed was he from those who, if their wives go mad, shut them +in madhouses and give themselves up to concubinage, and nay, what is +more, there are many who extenuate such conduct too. But Mr. Tebrick was +of a very different temper, and though his wife was now nothing but a +hunted beast, cared for no one in the world but her. + +But this devouring love ate into him like a consumption, so that by +sleepless nights, and not caring for his person, in a few months he was +worn to the shadow of himself. His cheeks were sunk in, his eyes hollow +but excessively brilliant, and his whole body had lost flesh, so that +looking at him the wonder was that he was still alive. + +Now that the hunting season was over he had less anxiety for her, yet +even so he was not positive that the hounds had not got her. For between +the time of his setting her free, and the end of the hunting season +(just after Easter), there were but three vixens killed near. Of those +three one was a half-blind or wall-eyed, and one was a very grey +dull-coloured beast. The third answered more to the description of his +wife, but that it had not much black on the legs, whereas in her the +blackness of the legs was very plain to be noticed. But yet his fear +made him think that perhaps she had got mired in running and the legs +being muddy were not remarked on as black. One morning the first week +in May, about four o'clock, when he was out waiting in the little copse, +he sat down for a while on a tree stump, and when he looked up saw a fox +coming towards him over the ploughed field. It was carrying a hare over +its shoulder so that it was nearly all hidden from him. At last, when it +was not twenty yards from him, it crossed over, going into the copse, +when Mr. Tebrick stood up and cried out, "Silvia, Silvia, is it you?" + +The fox dropped the hare out of his mouth and stood looking at him, and +then our gentleman saw at the first glance that this was not his wife. +For whereas Mrs. Tebrick had been of a very bright red, this was a +swarthier duller beast altogether, moreover it was a good deal larger +and higher at the shoulder and had a great white tag to his brush. But +the fox after the first instant did not stand for his portrait you may +be sure, but picked up his hare and made off like an arrow. + +Then Mr. Tebrick cried out to himself: "Indeed I am crazy now! My +affliction has made me lose what little reason I ever had. Here am I +taking every fox I see to be my wife! My neighbours call me a madman and +now I see that they are right. Look at me now, oh God! How foul a +creature I am. I hate my fellows. I am thin and wasted by this consuming +passion, my reason is gone and I feed myself on dreams. Recall me to my +duty, bring me back to decency, let me not become a beast likewise, but +restore me and forgive me, Oh my Lord." + +With that he burst into scalding tears and knelt down and prayed, a +thing he had not done for many weeks. + +When he rose up he walked back feeling giddy and exceedingly weak, but +with a contrite heart, and then washed himself thoroughly and changed +his clothes, but his weakness increasing he lay down for the rest of the +day, but read in the Book of Job and was much comforted. + +For several days after this he lived very soberly, for his weakness +continued, but every day he read in the bible, and prayed earnestly, so +that his resolution was so much strengthened that he determined to +overcome his folly, or his passion, if he could, and at any rate to live +the rest of his life very religiously. So strong was this desire in him +to amend his ways that he considered if he should not go to spread the +Gospel abroad, for the Bible Society, and so spend the rest of his days. + +Indeed he began a letter to his wife's uncle, the canon, and he was +writing this when he was startled by hearing a fox bark. + +Yet so great was this new turn he had taken that he did not rush out at +once, as he would have done before, but stayed where he was and finished +his letter. + +Afterwards he said to himself that it was only a wild fox and sent by +the devil to mock him, and that madness lay that way if he should +listen. But on the other hand he could not deny to himself that it might +have been his wife, and that he ought to welcome the prodigal. Thus he +was torn between these two thoughts, neither of which did he completely +believe. He stayed thus tormented with doubts and fears all night. + +The next morning he woke suddenly with a start and on the instant heard +a fox bark once more. At that he pulled on his clothes and ran out as +fast as he could to the garden gate. The sun was not yet high, the dew +thick everywhere, and for a minute or two everything was very silent. He +looked about him eagerly but could see no fox, yet there was already joy +in his heart. + +Then while he looked up and down the road, he saw his vixen step out of +the copse about thirty yards away. He called to her at once. + +"My dearest wife! Oh, Silvia! You are come back!" and at the sound of +his voice he saw her wag her tail, which set his last doubts at rest. + +But then though he called her again, she stepped into the copse once +more though she looked back at him over her shoulder as she went. At +this he ran after her, but softly and not too fast lest he should +frighten her away, and then looked about for her again and called to her +when he saw her among the trees still keeping her distance from him. He +followed her then, and as he approached so she retreated from him, yet +always looking back at him several times. + +He followed after her through the underwood up the side of the hill, +when suddenly she disappeared from his sight, behind some bracken. +When he got there he could see her nowhere, but looking about him found +a fox's earth, but so well hidden that he might have passed it by a +thousand times and would never have found it unless he had made +particular search at that spot. + +But now, though he went on his hands and knees, he could see nothing of +his vixen, so that he waited a little while wondering. + +Presently he heard a noise of something moving in the earth, and so +waited silently, then saw something which pushed itself into sight. It +was a small sooty black beast, like a puppy. There came another behind +it, then another and so on till there were five of them. Lastly there +came his vixen pushing her litter before her, and while he looked at her +silently, a prey to his confused and unhappy emotions, he saw that her +eyes were shining with pride and happiness. + +She picked up one of her youngsters then, in her mouth, and brought it +to him and laid it in front of him, and then looked up at him very +excited, or so it seemed. + +Mr. Tebrick took the cub in his hands, stroked it and put it against his +cheek. It was a little fellow with a smutty face and paws, with staring +vacant eyes of a brilliant electric blue and a little tail like a +carrot. When he was put down he took a step towards his mother and then +sat down very comically. + +Mr. Tebrick looked at his wife again and spoke to her, calling her a +good creature. Already he was resigned and now, indeed, for the first +time he thoroughly understood what had happened to her, and how far +apart they were now. But looking first at one cub, then at another, and +having them sprawling over his lap, he forgot himself, only watching the +pretty scene, and taking pleasure in it. Now and then he would stroke +his vixen and kiss her, liberties which she freely allowed him. He +marvelled more than ever now at her beauty; for her gentleness with the +cubs and the extreme delight she took in them seemed to him then to make +her more lovely than before. Thus lying amongst them at the mouth of the +earth he idled away the whole of the morning. + +First he would play with one, then with another, rolling them over and +tickling them, but they were too young yet to lend themselves to any +other more active sport than this. Every now and then he would stroke +his vixen, or look at her, and thus the time slipped away quite fast and +he was surprised when she gathered her cubs together and pushed them +before her into the earth, then coming back to him once or twice very +humanly bid him "Good-bye and that she hoped she would see him soon +again, now he had found out the way." + +So admirably did she express her meaning that it would have been +superfluous for her to have spoken had she been able, and Mr. Tebrick, +who was used to her, got up at once and went home. + +But now that he was alone, all the feelings which he had not troubled +himself with when he was with her, but had, as it were, put aside till +after his innocent pleasures were over, all these came swarming back to +assail him in a hundred tormenting ways. + +Firstly he asked himself: Was not his wife unfaithful to him, had she +not prostituted herself to a beast? Could he still love her after that? +But this did not trouble him so much as it might have done. For now he +was convinced inwardly that she could no longer in fairness be judged as +a woman, but as a fox only. And as a fox she had done no more than other +foxes, indeed in having cubs and tending them with love, she had done +well. + +Whether in this conclusion Mr. Tebrick was in the right or not, is not +for us here to consider. But I would only say to those who would censure +him for a too lenient view of the religious side of the matter, that we +have not seen the thing as he did, and perhaps if it were displayed +before our eyes we might be led to the same conclusions. + +This was, however, not a tenth part of the trouble in which Mr. Tebrick +found himself. For he asked himself also: "Was he not jealous?" And +looking into his heart he found that he was indeed jealous, yes, and +angry too, that now he must share his vixen with wild foxes. Then he +questioned himself if it were not dishonourable to do so, and whether +he should not utterly forget her and follow his original intention of +retiring from the world, and see her no more. + +Thus he tormented himself for the rest of that day, and by evening he +had resolved never to see her again. + +But in the middle of the night he woke up with his head very clear, and +said to himself in wonder, "Am I not a madman? I torment myself +foolishly with fantastic notions. Can a man have his honour sullied by a +beast? I am a man, I am immeasurably superior to the animals. Can my +dignity allow of my being jealous of a beast? A thousand times no. Were +I to lust after a vixen, I were a criminal indeed. I can be happy in +seeing my vixen, for I love her, but she does right to be happy +according to the laws of her being." + +Lastly, he said to himself what was, he felt, the truth of this whole +matter: + +"When I am with her I am happy. But now I distort what is simple and +drive myself crazy with false reasoning upon it." + +Yet before he slept again he prayed, but though he had thought first to +pray for guidance, in reality he prayed only that on the morrow he would +see his vixen again and that God would preserve her, and her cubs too, +from all dangers, and would allow him to see them often, so that he +might come to love them for her sake as if he were their father, and +that if this were a sin he might be forgiven, for he sinned in +ignorance. The next day or two he saw vixen and cubs again, though his +visits were cut shorter, and these visits gave him such an innocent +pleasure that very soon his notions of honour, duty and so on, were +entirely forgotten, and his jealousy lulled asleep. + +One day he tried taking with him the stereoscope and a pack of cards. + +But though his Silvia was affectionate and amiable enough to let him put +the stereoscope over her muzzle, yet she would not look through it, but +kept turning her head to lick his hand, and it was plain to him that now +she had quite forgotten the use of the instrument. It was the same too +with the cards. For with them she was pleased enough, but only +delighting to bite at them, and flip them about with her paws, and never +considering for a moment whether they were diamonds or clubs, or hearts, +or spades or whether the card was an ace or not. So it was evident that +she had forgotten the nature of cards too. + +Thereafter he only brought them things which she could better enjoy, +that is sugar, grapes, raisins, and butcher's meat. + +By-and-bye, as the summer wore on, the cubs came to know him, and he +them, so that he was able to tell them easily apart, and then he +christened them. For this purpose he brought a little bowl of water, +sprinkled them as if in baptism and told them he was their godfather and +gave each of them a name, calling them Sorel, Kasper, Selwyn, Esther, +and Angelica. + +Sorel was a clumsy little beast of a cheery and indeed puppyish +disposition; Kasper was fierce, the largest of the five, even in his +play he would always bite, and gave his godfather many a sharp nip as +time went on. Esther was of a dark complexion, a true brunette and very +sturdy; Angelica the brightest red and the most exactly like her mother; +while Selwyn was the smallest cub, of a very prying, inquisitive and +cunning temper, but delicate and undersized. + +Thus Mr. Tebrick had a whole family now to occupy him, and, indeed, came +to love them with very much of a father's love and partiality. + +His favourite was Angelica (who reminded him so much of her mother in +her pretty ways) because of a gentleness which was lacking in the +others, even in their play. After her in his affections came Selwyn, +whom he soon saw was the most intelligent of the whole litter. Indeed he +was so much more quick-witted than the rest that Mr. Tebrick was led +into speculating as to whether he had not inherited something of the +human from his dam. Thus very early he learnt to know his name, and +would come when he was called, and what was stranger still, he learnt +the names of his brothers and sisters before they came to do so +themselves. + +Besides all this he was something of a young philosopher, for though his +brother Kasper tyrannized over him he put up with it all with an +unruffled temper. He was not, however, above playing tricks on the +others, and one day when Mr. Tebrick was by, he made believe that there +was a mouse in a hole some little way off. Very soon he was joined by +Sorel, and presently by Kasper and Esther. When he had got them all +digging, it was easy for him to slip away, and then he came to his +godfather with a sly look, sat down before him, and smiled and then +jerked his head over towards the others and smiled again and wrinkled +his brows so that Mr. Tebrick knew as well as if he had spoken that the +youngster was saying, "Have I not made fools of them all?" + +He was the only one that was curious about Mr. Tebrick: he made him take +out his watch, put his ear to it, considered it and wrinkled up his +brows in perplexity. On the next visit it was the same thing. He must +see the watch again, and again think over it. But clever as he was, +little Selwyn could never understand it, and if his mother remembered +anything about watches it was a subject which she never attempted to +explain to her children. + +One day Mr. Tebrick left the earth as usual and ran down the slope to +the road, when he was surprised to find a carriage waiting before his +house and a coachman walking about near his gate. Mr. Tebrick went in +and found that his visitor was waiting for him. It was his wife's uncle. + +They shook hands, though the Rev. Canon Fox did not recognise him +immediately, and Mr. Tebrick led him into the house. + +The clergyman looked about him a good deal, at the dirty and disorderly +rooms, and when Mr. Tebrick took him into the drawing room it was +evident that it had been unused for several months, the dust lay so +thickly on all the furniture. + +After some conversation on indifferent topics Canon Fox said to him: + +"I have called really to ask about my niece." + +Mr. Tebrick was silent for some time and then said: + +"She is quite happy now." + +"Ah--indeed. I have heard she is not living with you any longer." + +"No. She is not living with me. She is not far away. I see her every day +now." + +"Indeed. Where does she live?" + +"In the woods with her children. I ought to tell you that she has +changed her shape. She is a fox." + +The Rev. Canon Fox got up; he was alarmed, and everything Mr. Tebrick +said confirmed what he had been led to expect he would find at Rylands. +When he was outside, however, he asked Mr. Tebrick: + +"You don't have many visitors now, eh?" + +"No--I never see anyone if I can avoid it. You are the first person I +have spoken to for months." + +"Quite right, too, my dear fellow. I quite understand--in the +circumstances." Then the cleric shook him by the hand, got into his +carriage and drove away. + +"At any rate," he said to himself, "there will be no scandal." He was +relieved also because Mr. Tebrick had said nothing about going abroad to +disseminate the Gospel. Canon Fox had been alarmed by the letter, had +not answered it, and thought that it was always better to let things be, +and never to refer to anything unpleasant. He did not at all want to +recommend Mr. Tebrick to the Bible Society if he were mad. His +eccentricities would never be noticed at Stokoe. Besides that, Mr. +Tebrick had said he was happy. + +He was sorry for Mr. Tebrick too, and he said to himself that the queer +girl, his niece, must have married him because he was the first man she +had met. He reflected also that he was never likely to see her again and +said aloud, when he had driven some little way: + +"Not an affectionate disposition," then to his coachman: "No, that's all +right. Drive on, Hopkins." + +When Mr. Tebrick was alone he rejoiced exceedingly in his solitary life. +He understood, or so he fancied, what it was to be happy, and that he +had found complete happiness now, living from day to day, careless of +the future, surrounded every morning by playful and affectionate little +creatures whom he loved tenderly, and sitting beside their mother, whose +simple happiness was the source of his own. + +"True happiness," he said to himself, "is to be found in bestowing love; +there is no such happiness as that of the mother for her babe, unless I +have attained it in mine for my vixen and her children." + +With these feelings he waited impatiently for the hour on the morrow +when he might hasten to them once more. + +When, however, he had toiled up the hillside, to the earth, taking +infinite precaution not to tread down the bracken, or make a beaten path +which might lead others to that secret spot, he found to his surprise +that Silvia was not there and that there were no cubs to be seen either. +He called to them, but it was in vain, and at last he laid himself on +the mossy bank beside the earth and waited. + +For a long while, as it seemed to him, he lay very still, with closed +eyes, straining his ears to hear every rustle among the leaves, or any +sound that might be the cubs stirring in the earth. + +At last he must have dropped asleep, for he woke suddenly with all his +senses alert, and opening his eyes found a full-grown fox within six +feet of him sitting on its haunches like a dog and watching his face +with curiosity. Mr. Tebrick saw instantly that it was not Silvia. When +he moved the fox got up and shifted his eyes, but still stood his +ground, and Mr. Tebrick recognised him then for the dog-fox he had seen +once before carrying a hare. It was the same dark beast with a large +white tag to his brush. Now the secret was out and Mr. Tebrick could see +his rival before him. Here was the real father of his godchildren, who +could be certain of their taking after him, and leading over again his +wild and rakish life. Mr. Tebrick stared for a long time at the handsome +rogue, who glanced back at him with distrust and watchfulness patent in +his face, but not without defiance too, and it seemed to Mr. Tebrick as +if there was also a touch of cynical humour in his look, as if he said: + +"By Gad! we two have been strangely brought together!" + +And to the man, at any rate, it seemed strange that they were thus +linked, and he wondered if the love his rival there bare to his vixen +and his cubs were the same thing in kind as his own. + +"We would both of us give our lives for theirs," he said to himself as +he reasoned upon it, "we both of us are happy chiefly in their company. +What pride this fellow must feel to have such a wife, and such children +taking after him. And has he not reason for his pride? He lives in a +world where he is beset with a thousand dangers. For half the year he is +hunted, everywhere dogs pursue him, men lay traps for him or menace him. +He owes nothing to another." + +But he did not speak, knowing that his words would only alarm the fox; +then in a few minutes he saw the dog-fox look over his shoulder, and +then he trotted off as lightly as a gossamer veil blown in the wind, +and, in a minute or two more, back he comes with his vixen and the cubs +all around him. Seeing the dog-fox thus surrounded by vixen and cubs was +too much for Mr. Tebrick; in spite of all his philosophy a pang of +jealousy shot through him. He could see that Silvia had been hunting +with her cubs, and also that she had forgotten that he would come that +morning, for she started when she saw him, and though she carelessly +licked his hand, he could see that her thoughts were not with him. + +Very soon she led her cubs into the earth, the dog-fox had vanished and +Mr. Tebrick was again alone. He did not wait longer but went home. + +Now was his peace of mind all gone, the happiness which he had flattered +himself the night before he knew so well how to enjoy, seemed now but a +fool's paradise in which he had been living. A hundred times this poor +gentleman bit his lip, drew down his torvous brows, and stamped his +foot, and cursed himself bitterly, or called his lady bitch. He could +not forgive himself neither, that he had not thought of the damned +dog-fox before, but all the while had let the cubs frisk round him, each +one a proof that a dog-fox had been at work with his vixen. Yes, +jealousy was now in the wind, and every circumstance which had been a +reason for his felicity the night before was now turned into a monstrous +feature of his nightmare. With all this Mr. Tebrick so worked upon +himself that for the time being he had lost his reason. Black was white +and white black, and he was resolved that on the morrow he would dig the +vile brood of foxes out and shoot them, and so free himself at last +from this hellish plague. + +All that night he was in this mood, and in agony, as if he had broken in +the crown of a tooth and bitten on the nerve. But as all things will +have an ending so at last Mr. Tebrick, worn out and wearied by this +loathed passion of jealousy, fell into an uneasy and tormented sleep. + +After an hour or two the procession of confused and jumbled images which +first assailed him passed away and subsided into one clear and powerful +dream. His wife was with him in her own proper shape, walking as they +had been on that fatal day before her transformation. Yet she was +changed too, for in her face there were visible tokens of unhappiness, +her face swollen with crying, pale and downcast, her hair hanging in +disorder, her damp hands wringing a small handkerchief into a ball, her +whole body shaken with sobs, and an air of long neglect about her +person. Between her sobs she was confessing to him some crime which she +had committed, but he did not catch the broken words, nor did he wish to +hear them, for he was dulled by his sorrow. So they continued walking +together in sadness as it were for ever, he with his arm about her +waist, she turning her head to him and often casting her eyes down in +distress. + +At last they sat down, and he spoke, saying: "I know they are not my +children, but I shall not use them barbarously because of that. You are +still my wife. I swear to you they shall never be neglected. I will pay +for their education." + +Then he began turning over the names of schools in his mind. Eton would +not do, nor Harrow, nor Winchester, nor Rugby.... But he could not tell +why these schools would not do for these children of hers, he only knew +that every school he thought of was impossible, but surely one could be +found. So turning over the names of schools he sat for a long while +holding his dear wife's hand, till at length, still weeping, she got up +and went away and then slowly he awoke. + +But even when he had opened his eyes and looked about him he was +thinking of schools, saying to himself that he must send them to a +private academy, or even at the worst engage a tutor. "Why, yes," he +said to himself, putting one foot out of bed, "that is what it must be, +a tutor, though even then there will be a difficulty at first." + +At those words he wondered what difficulty there would be and +recollected that they were not ordinary children. No, they were +foxes--mere foxes. When poor Mr. Tebrick had remembered this he was, as +it were, dazed or stunned by the fact, and for a long time he could +understand nothing, but at last burst into a flood of tears +compassionating them and himself too. The awfulness of the fact itself, +that his dear wife should have foxes instead of children, filled him +with an agony of pity, and, at length, when he recollected the cause of +their being foxes, that is that his wife was a fox also, his tears broke +out anew, and he could bear it no longer but began calling out in his +anguish, and beat his head once or twice against the wall, and then cast +himself down on his bed again and wept and wept, sometimes tearing the +sheets asunder with his teeth. + +The whole of that day, for he was not to go to the earth till evening, +he went about sorrowfully, torn by true pity for his poor vixen and her +children. + +At last when the time came he went again up to the earth, which he found +deserted, but hearing his voice, out came Esther. But though he called +the others by their names there was no answer, and something in the way +the cub greeted him made him fancy she was indeed alone. She was truly +rejoiced to see him, and scrambled up into his arms, and thence to his +shoulder, kissing him, which was unusual in her (though natural enough +in her sister Angelica). He sat down a little way from the earth +fondling her, and fed her with some fish he had brought for her mother, +which she ate so ravenously that he concluded she must have been short +of food that day and probably alone for some time. + +At last while he was sitting there Esther pricked up her ears, started +up, and presently Mr. Tebrick saw his vixen come towards them. She +greeted him very affectionately but it was plain had not much time to +spare, for she soon started back whence she had come with Esther at her +side. When they had gone about a rod the cub hung back and kept stopping +and looking back to the earth, and at last turned and ran back home. But +her mother was not to be fobbed off so, for she quickly overtook her +child and gripping her by the scruff began to drag her along with her. + +Mr. Tebrick, seeing then how matters stood, spoke to her, telling her he +would carry Esther if she would lead, so after a little while Silvia +gave her over, and then they set out on their strange journey. + +Silvia went running on a little before while Mr. Tebrick followed after +with Esther in his arms whimpering and struggling now to be free, and +indeed, once she gave him a nip with her teeth. This was not so strange +a thing to him now, and he knew the remedy for it, which is much the +same as with others whose tempers run too high, that is a taste of it +themselves. Mr. Tebrick shook her and gave her a smart little cuff, +after which, though she sulked, she stopped her biting. + +They went thus above a mile, circling his house and crossing the highway +until they gained a small covert that lay with some waste fields +adjacent to it. And by this time it was so dark that it was all Mr. +Tebrick could do to pick his way, for it was not always easy for him to +follow where his vixen found a big enough road for herself. + +But at length they came to another earth, and by the starlight Mr. +Tebrick could just make out the other cubs skylarking in the shadows. + +Now he was tired, but he was happy and laughed softly for joy, and +presently his vixen, coming to him, put her feet upon his shoulders as +he sat on the ground, and licked him, and he kissed her back on the +muzzle and gathered her in his arms and rolled her in his jacket and +then laughed and wept by turns in the excess of his joy. + +All his jealousies of the night before were forgotten now. All his +desperate sorrow of the morning and the horror of his dream were gone. +What if they were foxes? Mr. Tebrick found that he could be happy with +them. As the weather was hot he lay out there all the night, first +playing hide and seek with them in the dark till, missing his vixen and +the cubs proving obstreperous, he lay down and was soon asleep. + +He was woken up soon after dawn by one of the cubs tugging at his +shoelaces in play. When he sat up he saw two of the cubs standing near +him on their hind legs, wrestling with each other, the other two were +playing hide and seek round a tree trunk, and now Angelica let go his +laces and came romping into his arms to kiss him and say "Good morning" +to him, then worrying the points of his waistcoat a little shyly after +the warmth of his embrace. + +That moment of awakening was very sweet to him. The freshness of the +morning, the scent of everything at the day's rebirth, the first beams +of the sun upon a tree-top near, and a pigeon rising into the air +suddenly, all delighted him. Even the rough scent of the body of the cub +in his arms seemed to him delicious. + +At that moment all human customs and institutions seemed to him nothing +but folly; for said he, "I would exchange all my life as a man for my +happiness now, and even now I retain almost all of the ridiculous +conceptions of a man. The beasts are happier and I will deserve that +happiness as best I can." + +After he had looked at the cubs playing merrily, how, with soft stealth, +one would creep behind another to bounce out and startle him, a thought +came into Mr. Tebrick's head, and that was that these cubs were +innocent, they were as stainless snow, they could not sin, for God had +created them to be thus and they could break none of His commandments. +And he fancied also that men sin because they cannot be as the animals. + +Presently he got up full of happiness, and began making his way home +when suddenly he came to a full stop and asked himself: "What is going +to happen to them?" + +This question rooted him stockishly in a cold and deadly fear as if he +had seen a snake before him. At last he shook his head and hurried on +his path. Aye, indeed, what would become of his vixen and her children? + +This thought put him into such a fever of apprehension that he did his +best not to think of it any more, but yet it stayed with him all that +day and for weeks after, at the back of his mind, so that he was not +careless in his happiness as before, but as it were trying continually +to escape his own thoughts. + +This made him also anxious to pass all the time he could with his dear +Silvia, and, therefore, he began going out to them for more of the +daytime, and then he would sleep the night in the woods also as he had +done that night; and so he passed several weeks, only returning to his +house occasionally to get himself a fresh provision of food. But after a +week or ten days at the new earth both his vixen and the cubs, too, got +a new habit of roaming. For a long while back, as he knew, his vixen had +been lying out alone most of the day, and now the cubs were all for +doing the same thing. The earth, in short, had served its purpose and +was now distasteful to them, and they would not enter it unless pressed +with fear. + +This new manner of their lives was an added grief to Mr. Tebrick, for +sometimes he missed them for hours together, or for the whole day even, +and not knowing where they might be was lonely and anxious. Yet his +Silvia was thoughtful for him too and would often send Angelica or +another of the cubs to fetch him to their new lair, or come herself if +she could spare the time. For now they were all perfectly accustomed to +his presence, and had come to look on him as their natural companion, +and although he was in many ways irksome to them by scaring rabbits, yet +they always rejoiced to see him when they had been parted from him. This +friendliness of theirs was, you may be sure, the source of most of Mr. +Tebrick's happiness at this time. Indeed he lived now for nothing but +his foxes, his love for his vixen had extended itself insensibly to +include her cubs, and these were now his daily playmates so that he knew +them as well as if they had been his own children. With Selwyn and +Angelica indeed he was always happy; and they never so much as when they +were with him. He was not stiff in his behaviour either, but had learnt +by this time as much from his foxes as they had from him. Indeed never +was there a more curious alliance than this or one with stranger effects +upon both of the parties. + +Mr. Tebrick now could follow after them anywhere and keep up with them +too, and could go through a wood as silently as a deer. He learnt to +conceal himself if ever a labourer passed by so that he was rarely seen, +and never but once in their company. But what was most strange of all, +he had got a way of going doubled up, often almost on all fours with his +hands touching the ground every now and then, particularly when he went +uphill. + +He hunted with them too sometimes, chiefly by coming up and scaring +rabbits towards where the cubs lay ambushed, so that the bunnies ran +straight into their jaws. + +He was useful to them in other ways, climbing up and robbing pigeon's +nests for the eggs which they relished exceedingly, or by occasionally +dispatching a hedgehog for them so they did not get the prickles in +their mouths. But while on his part he thus altered his conduct, they on +their side were not behindhand, but learnt a dozen human tricks from +him that are ordinarily wanting in Reynard's education. + +One evening he went to a cottager who had a row of skeps, and bought one +of them, just as it was after the man had smothered the bees. This he +carried to the foxes that they might taste the honey, for he had seen +them dig out wild bees' nests often enough. The skep full was indeed a +wonderful feast for them, they bit greedily into the heavy scented comb, +their jaws were drowned in the sticky flood of sweetness, and they +gorged themselves on it without restraint. When they had crunched up the +last morsel they tore the skep in pieces, and for hours afterwards they +were happily employed in licking themselves clean. + +That night he slept near their lair, but they left him and went hunting. +In the morning when he woke he was quite numb with cold, and faint with +hunger. A white mist hung over everything and the wood smelt of autumn. + +He got up and stretched his cramped limbs, and then walked homewards. +The summer was over and Mr. Tebrick noticed this now for the first time +and was astonished. He reflected that the cubs were fast growing up, +they were foxes at all points, and yet when he thought of the time when +they had been sooty and had blue eyes it seemed to him only yesterday. +From that he passed to thinking of the future, asking himself as he had +done once before what would become of his vixen and her children. Before +the winter he must tempt them into the security of his garden, and +fortify it against all the dangers that threatened them. + +But though he tried to allay his fear with such resolutions he remained +uneasy all that day. When he went out to them that afternoon he found +only his wife Silvia there and it was plain to him that she too was +alarmed, but alas, poor creature, she could tell him nothing, only lick +his hands and face, and turn about pricking her ears at every sound. + +"Where are your children, Silvia?" he asked her several times, but she +was impatient of his questions, but at last sprang into his arms, +flattened herself upon his breast and kissed him gently, so that when he +departed his heart was lighter because he knew that she still loved him. + +That night he slept indoors, but in the morning early he was awoken by +the sound of trotting horses, and running to the window saw a farmer +riding by very sprucely dressed. Could they be hunting so soon, he +wondered, but presently reassured himself that it could not be a hunt +already. + +He heard no other sound till eleven o'clock in the morning when suddenly +there was the clamour of hounds giving tongue and not so far off +neither. At this Mr. Tebrick ran out of his house distracted and set +open the gates of his garden, but with iron bars and wire at the top so +the huntsmen could not follow. There was silence again; it seems the fox +must have turned away, for there was no other sound of the hunt. Mr. +Tebrick was now like one helpless with fear, he dared not go out, yet +could not stay still at home. There was nothing that he could do, yet he +would not admit this, so he busied himself in making holes in the +hedges, so that Silvia (or her cubs) could enter from whatever side she +came. At last he forced himself to go indoors and sit down and drink +some tea. While he was there he fancied he heard the hounds again; it +was but a faint ghostly echo of their music, yet when he ran out of the +house it was already close at hand in the copse above. + +Now it was that poor Mr. Tebrick made his great mistake, for hearing the +hounds almost outside the gate he ran to meet them, whereas rightly he +should have run back to the house. As soon as he reached the gate he saw +his wife Silvia coming towards him but very tired with running and just +upon her the hounds. The horror of that sight pierced him, for ever +afterwards he was haunted by those hounds--their eagerness, their +desperate efforts to gain on her, and their blind lust for her came at +odd moments to frighten him all his life. Now he should have run back, +though it was already late, but instead he cried out to her, and she ran +straight through the open gate to him. What followed was all over in a +flash, but it was seen by many witnesses. + +The side of Mr. Tebrick's garden there is bounded by a wall, about six +feet high and curving round, so that the huntsmen could see over this +wall inside. One of them indeed put his horse at it very boldly, which +was risking his neck, and although he got over safe was too late to be +of much assistance. + +His vixen had at once sprung into Mr. Tebrick's arms, and before he +could turn back the hounds were upon them and had pulled them down. Then +at that moment there was a scream of despair heard by all the field that +had come up, which they declared afterwards was more like a woman's +voice than a man's. But yet there was no clear proof whether it was Mr. +Tebrick or his wife who had suddenly regained her voice. When the +huntsman who had leapt the wall got to them and had whipped off the +hounds Mr. Tebrick had been terribly mauled and was bleeding from twenty +wounds. As for his vixen she was dead, though he was still clasping her +dead body in his arms. + +Mr. Tebrick was carried into the house at once and assistance sent for, +but there was no doubt now about his neighbours being in the right when +they called him mad. For a long while his life was despaired of, but +at last he rallied, and in the end he recovered his reason and lived to +be a great age, for that matter he is still alive. + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10337 *** |