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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/1273-h.zip b/1273-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..53a7c9f --- /dev/null +++ b/1273-h.zip diff --git a/1273-h/1273-h.htm b/1273-h/1273-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b70c60f --- /dev/null +++ b/1273-h/1273-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,2034 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII" /> +<title>The Autobiography of a Slander</title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + P { margin-top: .75em; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + H1, H2 { + text-align: center; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + } + H3, H4, H5 { + text-align: left; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; + } + BODY{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + table { border-collapse: collapse; } + td { vertical-align: top; border: 1px solid black;} + td p { margin: 0.2em; } + .blkquot {margin-left: 4em; margin-right: 4em;} /* block indent */ + + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .pagenum {position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; + color: gray;} + + .citation {vertical-align: super; + font-size: .8em; + text-decoration: none;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> +</head> +<body> +<h2> +<a href="#startoftext">The Autobiography of a Slander, by Edna Lyall</a> +</h2> +<pre> +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Autobiography of a Slander, by Edna Lyall + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The Autobiography of a Slander + + +Author: Edna Lyall + + + +Release Date: October 14, 2007 [eBook #1273] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A SLANDER*** +</pre> +<p><a name="startoftext"></a></p> +<p>Transcribed from the 1890 Longmans, Green, and Co. edition by +David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org</p> +<h1>THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A SLANDER</h1> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">by</span><br /> +EDNA LYALL</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="smcap">author +of</span> ‘<span class="smcap">donovan</span>’ +‘<span class="smcap">we two</span>’ ‘<span +class="smcap">in the golden days</span>’<br /> +‘<span class="smcap">knight errant</span>’ <span +class="smcap">etc.</span></p> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: center"><i>Trust not to each +accusing tongue</i>,<br /> + <i>As most week persons do</i>;<br /> +<i>But still believe that story false</i><br /> + <i>Which ought not to be true</i></p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Sheridan</span></p> +</blockquote> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>NEW EDITION</i><br /> +(<span class="smcap">thirty-ninth to forty-first +thousand</span>)</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span +class="smcap">london</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">longmans</span>, <span +class="smcap">green</span>, <span class="smcap">and co.</span><br +/> +<span class="smcap">and new york</span>: 15 <span +class="smcap">east</span> 16<sup>th</sup> <span +class="smcap">street</span><br /> +1890</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>All rights reserved</i></p> +<p style="text-align: center">DEDICATED<br /> +TO ALL<br /> +WHO IT MAY CONCERN</p> +<h2>MY FIRST STAGE</h2> +<blockquote><p>At last the tea came up, and so<br /> +With that our tongues began to go.<br /> +Now in that house you’re sure of knowing<br /> +The smallest scrap of news that’s going.<br /> +We find it there the wisest way<br /> +To take some care of what we say.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><i>Recreation</i>. <span +class="smcap">Jane Taylor</span>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>I was born on the 2nd September, 1886, in a small, dull, +country town. When I say the town was dull, I mean, of +course, that the inhabitants were unenterprising, for in itself +Muddleton was a picturesque place, and though it laboured under +the usual disadvantage of a dearth of bachelors and a superfluity +of spinsters, it might have been pleasant enough had it not been +a favourite resort for my kith and kin.</p> +<p>My father has long enjoyed a world-wide notoriety; he is not, +however, as a rule named in good society, though he habitually +frequents it; and as I am led to believe that my autobiography +will possibly be circulated by Mr. Mudie, and will lie about on +drawing-room tables, I will merely mention that a most +representation of my progenitor, under his <i>nom de +théatre</i>, Mephistopheles, may be seen now in London, +and I should recommend all who wish to understand his character +to go to the Lyceum, though, between ourselves, he strongly +disapproves of the whole performance.</p> +<p>I was introduced into the world by an old lady named Mrs. +O’Reilly. She was a very pleasant old lady, the wife +of a General, and one of those sociable, friendly, talkative +people who do much to cheer their neighbours, particularly in a +deadly-lively provincial place like Muddleton, where the standard +of social intercourse is not very high. Mrs. O’Reilly +had been in her day a celebrated beauty; she was now grey-haired +and stout, but still there was something impressive about her, +and few could resist the charm of her manner and the pleasant +easy flow of her small talk. Her love of gossip amounted +almost to a passion, and nothing came amiss to her; she liked to +know everything about everybody, and in the main I think her +interest was a kindly one, though she found that a little bit of +scandal, every now and then, added a piquant flavour to the +homely fare provided by the commonplace life of the +Muddletonians.</p> +<p>I will now, without further preamble, begin the history of my +life.</p> +<p style="text-align: center">* * * * *</p> +<p>“I assure you, my dear Lena, Mr. Zaluski is nothing less +than a Nihilist!”</p> +<p>The sound waves set in motion by Mrs. O’Reilly’s +words were tumultuously heaving in the atmosphere when I sprang +into being, a young but perfectly formed and most promising +slander. A delicious odour of tea pervaded the +drawing-room, it was orange-flower pekoe, and Mrs. O’Reilly +was just handing one of the delicate Crown Derby cups to her +visitor, Miss Lena Houghton.</p> +<p>“What a shocking thing! Do you really mean +it?” exclaimed Miss Houghton. “Thank you, cream +but no sugar; don’t you know, Mrs. O’Reilly, that it +is only Low-Church people who take sugar nowadays? But, +really, now, about Mr. Zaluski? How did you find it +out?”</p> +<p>“My dear, I am an old woman, and I have learnt in the +course of a wandering life to put two and two together,” +said Mrs. O’Reilly. She had somehow managed to ignore +middle age, and had passed from her position of renowned beauty +to the position which she now firmly and constantly claimed of +many years and much experience. “Of course,” +she continued, “like every one else, I was glad enough to +be friendly and pleasant to Sigismund Zaluski, and as to his +being a Pole, why, I think it rather pleased me than +otherwise. You see, my dear, I have knocked about the world +and mixed with all kinds of people. Still, one must draw +the line somewhere, and I confess it gave me a very painful shock +to find that he had such violent antipathies to law and +order. When he took Ivy Cottage for the summer I made the +General call at once, and before long we had become very intimate +with him; but, my dear, he’s not what I thought +him—not at all!”</p> +<p>“Well now, I am delighted to hear you say that,” +said Lena Houghton, with some excitement in her manner, +“for it exactly fits in with what I always felt about +him. From the first I disliked that man, and the way he +goes on with Gertrude Morley is simply dreadful. If they +are not engaged they ought to be—that’s all I can +say.”</p> +<p>“Engaged, my dear! I trust not,” said Mrs. +O’Reilly. “I had always hoped for something +very different for dear Gertrude. Quite between ourselves, +you know, my nephew John Carew is over head and ears in love with +her, and they would make a very good pair; don’t you think +so?”</p> +<p>“Well, you see, I like Gertrude to a certain +extent,” replied Lena Houghton. “But I never +raved about her as so many people do. Still, I hope she +will not be entrapped into marrying Mr. Zaluski; she deserves a +better fate than that.”</p> +<p>“I quite agree with you,” said Mrs. +O’Reilly, with a troubled look. “And the worst +of it is, poor Gertrude is a girl who might very likely take up +foolish revolutionary notions; she needs a strong wise husband to +keep her in order and form her opinions. But is it really +true that he flirts with her? This is the first I have +heard of it. I can’t think how it has escaped my +notice.”</p> +<p>“Nor I, for indeed he is up at the Morleys’ pretty +nearly every day. What with tennis, and music, and riding, +there is always some excuse for it. I can’t think +what Gertrude sees in him, he is not even +good-looking.”</p> +<p>“There is a certain surface good-nature about +him,” said Mrs. O’Reilly. “It deceived +even me at first. But, my dear Lena, mark my words: that +man has a fearful temper; and I pray Heaven that poor Gertrude +may have her eyes opened in time. Besides, to think of that +little gentle, delicate thing marrying a Nihilist! It is +too dreadful; really, quite too dreadful! John would never +get over it!”</p> +<p>“The thing I can’t understand is why all the world +has taken him up so,” said Lena Houghton. “One +meets him everywhere, yet nobody seems to know anything about +him. Just because he has taken Ivy Cottage for four months, +and because he seems to be rich and good-natured, every one is +ready to run after him.”</p> +<p>“Well, well,” said Mrs. O’Reilly, “we +all like to be neighbourly, my dear, and a week ago I should have +been ready to say nothing but good of him. But now my eyes +have been opened. I’ll tell you just how it +was. We were sitting here, just as you and I are now, at +afternoon tea; the talk had flagged a little, and for the sake of +something to say I made some remark about Bulgaria—not that +I really knew anything about it, you know, for I’m no +politician; still, I knew it was a subject that would make talk +just now. My dear, I assure you I was positively +frightened. All in a minute his face changed, his eyes +flashed, he broke into such a torrent of abuse as I never heard +in my life before.”</p> +<p>“Do you mean that he abused you?”</p> +<p>“Dear me, no! but Russia and the Czar, and tyranny and +despotism, and many other things I had never heard of. I +tried to calm him down and reason with him, but I might as well +have reasoned with the cockatoo in the window. At last he +caught himself up quickly in the middle of a sentence, strode +over to the piano, and began to play as he generally does, you +know, when he comes here. Well, would you believe it, my +dear! instead of improvising or playing operatic airs as usual, +he began to play a stupid little tune which every child was +taught years ago, of course with variations of his own. +Then he turned round on the music-stool with the oddest smile I +ever saw, and said, “Do you know that air, Mrs. +O’Reilly?”</p> +<p>“Yes,” I said; “but I forget now what it +is.’”</p> +<p>“It was composed by Pestal, one of the victims of +Russian tyranny,” said he. “The executioner did +his work badly, and Pestal had to be strung up twice. In +the interval he was heard to mutter, ‘Stupid country, where +they don’t even know how to hang!’”</p> +<p>“Then he gave a little forced laugh, got up quickly, +wished me good-bye, and was gone before I could put in a +word.”</p> +<p>“What a horrible story to tell in a drawing-room!” +said Lena Houghton. “I envy Gertrude less than +ever.”</p> +<p>“Poor girl! What a sad prospect it is for +her!” said Mrs. O’Reilly with a sigh. “Of +course, my dear, you’ll not repeat what I have just told +you.”</p> +<p>“Not for the world!” said Lena Houghton +emphatically. “It is perfectly safe with +me.”</p> +<p>The conversation was here abruptly ended, for the page threw +open the drawing-room door and announced ‘Mr. +Zaluski.’</p> +<p>“Talk of the angel,” murmured Mrs. O’Reilly +with a significant smile at her companion. Then skilfully +altering the expression of her face, she beamed graciously on the +guest who was ushered into the room, and Lena Houghton also +prepared to greet him most pleasantly.</p> +<p>I looked with much interest at Sigismund Zaluski, and as I +looked I partly understood why Miss Houghton had been prejudiced +against him at first sight. He had lived five years in +England, and nothing pleased him more than to be taken for an +Englishman. He had had his silky black hair closely cropped +in the very hideous fashion of the present day; he wore the +ostentatiously high collar now in vogue; and he tried to be +sedulously English in every respect. But in spite of his +wonderfully fluent speech and almost perfect accent, there +lingered about him something which would not harmonise with that +ideal of an English gentleman which is latent in most +minds. Something he lacked, something he possessed, which +interfered with the part he desired to play. The something +lacking showed itself in his ineradicable love of jewellery and +in a transparent habit of fibbing; the something possessed showed +itself in his easy grace of movement, his delightful readiness to +amuse and to be amused, and in a certain cleverness and rapidity +of idea rarely, if ever, found in an Englishman.</p> +<p>He was a little above the average height and very finely +built; but there was nothing striking in his aquiline features +and dark grey eyes, and I think Miss Houghton spoke truly when +she said that he was ‘Not even good-looking.’ +Still, in spite of this, it was a face which grew upon most +people, and I felt the least little bit of regret as I looked at +him, because I knew that I should persistently haunt and harass +him, and should do all that could be done to spoil his life.</p> +<p>Apparently he had forgotten all about Russia and Bulgaria, for +he looked radiantly happy. Clearly his thoughts were +engrossed with his own affairs, which, in other words, meant with +Gertrude Morley; and though, as I have since observed, there are +times when a man in love is an altogether intolerable sort of +being, there are other times when he is very much improved by the +passion, and regards the whole world with a genial kindliness +which contrasts strangely with his previous cool cynicism.</p> +<p>“How delightful and home-like your room always +looks!” he exclaimed, taking the cup of tea which Mrs. +O’Reilly handed to him. “I am horribly lonely +at Ivy Cottage. This house is a sort of oasis in the +desert.”</p> +<p>“Why, you are hardly ever at home, I thought,” +said Mrs. O’Reilly, smiling. “You are the lion +of the neighbourhood just now; and I’m sure it is very good +of you to come in and cheer a lonely old woman. Are you +going to play me something rather more lively to-day?”</p> +<p>He laughed.</p> +<p>“Ah! Poor Pestal! I had forgotten all about +our last meeting.”</p> +<p>“You were very much excited that day,” said Mrs. +O’Reilly. “I had no idea that your political +notions—”</p> +<p>He interrupted her</p> +<p>“Ah! no politics to-day, dear Mrs. O’Reilly. +Let us have nothing but enjoyment and harmony. See, now, I +will play you something very much more cheerful.”</p> +<p>And sitting down to the piano, he played the bridal march from +‘Lohengrin,’ then wandered off into an improvised +air, and finally treated them to some recollections of the +‘Mikado.’</p> +<p>Lena-Houghton watched him thoughtfully as she put on her +gloves; he was playing with great spirit, and the words of the +opera rang in her ears:—</p> +<blockquote><p>For he’s going to marry Yum-yum, Yum-yum,<br +/> +And so you had better be dumb, dumb, dumb!</p> +</blockquote> +<p>I knew well enough that she would not follow this moral +advice, and I laughed to myself because the whole scene was such +a hollow mockery. The placid benevolent-looking old lady +leaning back in her arm-chair; the girl in her blue gingham and +straw hat preparing to go to the afternoon service; the happy +lover entering heart and soul into Sullivan’s charming +music; the pretty room with its Chippendale furniture, its +æsthetic hangings, its bowls of roses; and the sound of +church bells wafted through the open window on the soft summer +breeze.</p> +<p>Yet all the time I lingered there unseen, carrying with me all +sorts of dread possibilities. I had been introduced into +the world, and even if Mrs. O’Reilly had been willing to +admit to herself that she had broken the ninth commandment, and +had earnestly desired to recall me, all her sighs and tears and +regrets would have availed nothing; so true is the saying, +“Of thy word unspoken thou art master; thy spoken word is +master of thee.”</p> +<p>“Thank you.” “Thank you.” +“How I envy your power of playing!”</p> +<p>The two ladies seemed to vie with each other in making pretty +speeches, and Zaluski, who loved music and loved giving pleasure, +looked really pleased. I am sure it did not enter his head +that his two companions were not sincere, or that they did not +wish him well. He was thinking to himself how simple and +kindly the Muddleton people were, and how great a contrast this +life was to his life in London; and he was saying to himself that +he had been a fool to live a lonely bachelor life till he was +nearly thirty, and yet congratulating himself that he had done so +since Gertrude was but nineteen. Undoubtedly, he was seeing +blissful visions of the future all the time that he replied to +the pretty speeches, and shook hands with Lena Houghton, and +opened the drawing-room door for her, and took out his watch to +assure her that she had plenty of time and need not hurry to +church.</p> +<p>Poor Zaluski! He looked so kindly and pleasant. +Though I was only a slander, and might have been supposed to have +no heart at all, I did feel sorry for him when I thought of the +future and of the grief and pain which would persistently dog his +steps.</p> +<h2>MY SECOND STAGE</h2> +<blockquote><p>Bear not false witness, slander not, nor lie;<br +/> +Truth is the speech of inward purity.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>The Light of Asia</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>In my first stage the reader will perceive that I was a +comparatively weak and harmless little slander, with merely that +taint of original sin which was to be expected in one of such +parentage. But I developed with great rapidity; and I +believe men of science will tell you that this is always the case +with low organisms. That, for instance, while it takes +years to develop the man from the baby, and months to develop the +dog from the puppy, the baby monad will grow to maturity in an +hour.</p> +<p>Personally I should have preferred to linger in Mrs. +O’Reilly’s pleasant drawing-room, for, as I said +before, my victim interested me, and I wanted to observe him more +closely and hear what he talked about. But I received +orders to attend evensong at the parish church, and to haunt the +mind of Lena Houghton.</p> +<p>As we passed down the High Street the bells rang out loud and +clear, and they made me feel the same slight sense of discomfort +that I had felt when I looked at Zaluski; however, I went on, and +soon entered the church. It was a fine old Gothic building, +and the afternoon sunshine seemed to flood the whole place; even +the white stones in the aisle were glorified here and there with +gorgeous patches of colour from the stained glass windows. +But the strange stillness and quiet oppressed me, I did not feel +nearly so much at home as in Mrs. O’Reilly’s +drawing-room—to use a terrestrial simile, I felt like a +fish out of water.</p> +<p>For some time, too, I could find no entrance at all into the +mind of Lena Houghton. Try as I would, I could not distract +her attention or gain the slightest hold upon her, and I really +believe I should have been altogether baffled, had not the rector +unconsciously come to my aid.</p> +<p>All through the prayers and psalms I had fought a desperate +fight without gaining a single inch. Then the rector walked +over to the lectern, and the moment he opened his mouth I knew +that my time had come, and that there was a very fair chance of +victory before me. Whether this clergyman had a toothache, +or a headache, or a heavy load on his mind, I cannot say, but his +reading was more lugubrious than the wind in an equinoctial +gale. I have since observed that he was only a degree worse +than many other clerical readers, and that a strange and +delightfully mistaken notion seems prevalent that the Bible must +be read in a dreary and unnatural tone of voice, or with a sort +of mournful monotony; it is intended as a sort of reverence, but +I suspect that it often plays into the hands of my progenitor, as +it most assuredly did in the present instance.</p> +<p>Hardly had the rector announced, “Here beginneth the +forty-fourth verse of the sixteenth chapter of the book of the +prophet Ezekiel,” than a sort of relaxation took place in +the mind I was attacking. Lena Houghton’s attention +could only have been given to the drearily read lesson by a very +great effort; she was a little lazy and did not make the effort, +she thought how nice it was to sit down again, and then the +melancholy voice lulled her into a vague interval of thoughtless +inactivity. I promptly seized my opportunity, and in a +moment her whole mind was full of me. She was an excitable, +impressionable sort of girl, and when once I had obtained an +entrance into her mind I found it the easiest thing in the world +to dominate her thoughts. Though she stood, and sat, and +knelt, and curtseyed, and articulated words, her thoughts were +entirely absorbed in me. I crowded out the Magnificat with +a picture of Zaluski and Gertrude Morley. I led her through +more terrible future possibilities in the second lesson than +would be required for a three-volume novel. I entirely +eclipsed the collects with reflections on unhappy marriages; took +her off <i>viâ</i> Russia and Nihilism in the State +prayers, and by the time we arrived at St. Chrysostom had become +so powerful that I had worked her mind into exactly the condition +I desired.</p> +<p>The congregation rose. Lena Houghton, still dominated by +me, knelt longer than the rest, but at last she got up and walked +down the aisle, and I felt a great sense of relief and +satisfaction. We were out in the open air once more, and I +had triumphed; I was quite sure that she would tell the first +person she met, for, as I have said before, she was entirely +taken up with me, and to have kept me to herself would have +required far more strength and unselfishness than she at that +moment possessed. She walked slowly through the churchyard, +feeling much pleased to see that the curate had just left the +vestry door, and that in a few moments their paths must +converge.</p> +<p>Mr. Blackthorne had only been ordained three or four years, +and was a little younger, and much less experienced in the ways +of the world, than Sigismund Zaluski. He was a good +well-meaning fellow, a little narrow, a little prejudiced, a +little spoiled by the devotion of the district visitors and +Sunday School teachers; but he was honest and energetic, and as a +worker among the poor few could have equalled him. He +seemed to fancy, however, that with the poor his work ended, and +he was not always so wise as he might have been in Muddleton +society.</p> +<p>“Good afternoon, Miss Houghton,” he +exclaimed. “Do you happen to know if your brother is +at home? I want just to speak to him about the choir +treat.”</p> +<p>“Oh, he is sure to be in by this time,” said +Lena.</p> +<p>And they walked home together.</p> +<p>“I am so glad to have this chance of speaking to +you,” she began rather nervously. “I wanted +particularly to ask your advice.”</p> +<p>Mr. Blackthorne, being human and young, was not unnaturally +flattered by this remark. True, he was becoming well +accustomed to this sort of thing, since the ladies of Muddleton +were far more fond of seeking advice from the young and +good-looking curate than from the elderly and experienced +rector. They said it was because Mr. Blackthorne was so +much more sympathetic, and understood the difficulties of the day +so much better; but I think they unconsciously deceived +themselves, for the rector was one of a thousand, and the curate, +though he had in him the makings of a fine man, was as yet +altogether crude and young.</p> +<p>“Was it about anything in your district?” he +asked, devoutly hoping that she was not going to propound some +difficult question about the origin of evil, or any other obscure +subject. For though he liked the honour of being consulted, +he did not always like the trouble it involved, and he remembered +with a shudder that Miss Houghton had once asked him his opinion +about the ‘Ethical Concept of the Good.’</p> +<p>“It was only that I was so troubled about something Mrs. +O’Reilly has just told me,” said Lena Houghton. +“You won’t tell any one that I told you?”</p> +<p>“On no account,” said the curate, warmly.</p> +<p>“Well, you know Mr. Zaluski, and how the Morleys have +taken him up?”</p> +<p>“Every one has taken him up,” said the curate, +with the least little touch of resentment in his tone. +“I knew that the Morleys were his special friends; I +imagine that he admires Miss Morley.”</p> +<p>“Yes, every one thinks they are either engaged or on the +brink of it. And oh, Mr. Blackthorne, can’t you or +somebody put a stop to it, for it seems such a dreadful fate for +poor Gertrude?”</p> +<p>The curate looked startled.</p> +<p>“Why, I don’t profess to like Mr. Zaluski,” +he said. “But I don’t know anything exactly +against him.”</p> +<p>“But I do. Mrs. O’Reilly has just been +telling me.”</p> +<p>“What did she tell you?” he asked with some +curiosity.</p> +<p>“Why, she has found out that he is really a +Nihilist—just think of a Nihilist going about loose like +this, and playing tennis at the rectory and all the good +houses! And not only that, but she says he is altogether a +dangerous, unprincipled man with a dreadful temper. You +can’t think how unhappy she is about poor Gertrude, and so +am I, for we were at school together and have always been +friends.”</p> +<p>“I am very sorry to hear about it,” said Mr. +Blackthorne, “but I don’t see that anything can be +done. You see, one does not like to interfere in these sort +of things. It seems officious rather, and +meddlesome.”</p> +<p>“Yes, that is the worst of it,” she replied, with +a sigh. “I suppose we can do nothing. Still, it +has been a great relief just to tell you about it and get it off +my mind. I suppose we can only hope that something may put +a stop to it all—we must just leave it to +chance.”</p> +<p>This sentiment amused me not a little. Leave it to +chance indeed! Had she not caused me to grow stronger and +larger by every word she uttered? And had not the +conversation revealed to me Mr. Blackthorn’s one vulnerable +part? I knew well enough that I should be able to dominate +his thoughts as I had done hers. Finding me burdensome, she +had passed me on to somebody else with additions that vastly +increased my working powers, and then she talked of leaving it to +chance! The way in which mortals practise pious frauds on +themselves is really delightful! And yet Lena Houghton was +a good sort of girl, and had from her childhood repeated the +catechism words which proclaim that, “My duty to my +neighbour is to love him as myself . . . To keep my tongue from +evil-speaking, lying, and slandering.” What is more, +she took great pains to teach these words to a big class of +Sunday School children, and went, rain or shine, to spend two +hours each Sunday in a stuffy school-room for that purpose. +It was strange that she should be so ready to believe evil of her +neighbour, and so eager to spread the story. But my +progenitor is clever, and doubtless knows very well, whom to +select as his tools.</p> +<p>By this time they had reached a comfortable-looking, red-brick +house with white stone facings, and in the discussion of the +arrangements for the choir treat I was entirely forgotten.</p> +<h2>MY THIRD STAGE</h2> +<blockquote><p>Alas! such is our weakness, that we often more +readily believe and speak of another that which is evil than that +which is good. But perfect men do not easily give credit to +every report; because they know man’s weakness, which is +very prone to evil, and very subject to fail in words.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Thomas À +Kempis</span>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>All through that evening, and through the first part of the +succeeding day, I was crowded out of the curate’s mind by a +host of thoughts with which I had nothing in common; and though I +hovered about him as he taught in the school, and visited several +sick people, and argued with an habitual drunkard, and worked at +his Sunday sermon, a Power, which I felt but did not understand, +baffled all my attempts to gain an entrance and attract his +notice. I made a desperate attack on him after lunch as he +sat smoking and enjoying a well-earned rest, but it was of no +avail. I followed him to a large garden-party later on, but +to my great annoyance he went about talking to every one in the +pleasantest way imaginable, though I perceived that he was +longing to play tennis instead.</p> +<p>At length, however, my opportunity came. Mr. Blackthorne +was talking to the lady of the house, Mrs. Courtenay, when she +suddenly exclaimed:—</p> +<p>“Ah, here is Mr. Zaluski just arriving. I began to +be afraid that he had forgotten the day, and he is always such an +acquisition. How do you do, Mr. Zaluski?” she said, +greeting my victim warmly as he stepped on to the terrace. +“So glad you were able to come. You know Mr. +Blackthorne, I think.”</p> +<p>Zaluski greeted the curate pleasantly, and his dark eyes +lighted up with a gleam of amusement.</p> +<p>“Oh, we are great friends,” he said +laughingly. “Only, you know, I sometimes shock him a +little—just a very little.”</p> +<p>“That is very unkind of you, I am sure,” said Mrs. +Courtenay, smiling.</p> +<p>“No, not at all,” said Zaluski, with the audacity +of a privileged being. “It is just my little +amusement, very harmless, very—what you call +innocent. Mr. Blackthorne cannot make up his mind about +me. One day I appear to him to be Catholic, the next +Comtist, the next Orthodox Greek, the next a convert to the +Anglican communion. I am a mystery, you see! And +mysteries are as indispensable in life as in a +romance.”</p> +<p>He laughed. Mrs. Courtenay laughed too, and a little +friendly banter was carried on between them, while the curate +stood by feeling rather out of it.</p> +<p>I drew nearer to him, perceiving that my prospects bid fair to +improve. For very few people can feel out of it without +drifting into a self-regarding mood, and then they are the +easiest prey imaginable. Undoubtedly a man like Zaluski, +with his easy nonchalance, his knowledge of the world, his +genuine good-nature, and the background of sterling qualities +which came upon you as a surprise because he loved to make +himself seem a mere idler, was apt to eclipse an ordinary mortal +like James Blackthorne. The curate perceived this and did +not like to be eclipsed—as a matter of fact, nobody +does. It seemed to him a little unfair that he, who had +hitherto been made much of, should be called to play second +fiddle to this rich Polish fellow who had never done anything for +Muddleton or the neighbourhood. And then, too, Sigismund +Zaluski had a way of poking fun at him which he resented, and +would not take in good part.</p> +<p>Something of this began to stir in his mind; and he cordially +hated the Pole when Jim Courtenay, who arranged the tennis, came +up and asked him to play in the next set, passing the curate by +altogether.</p> +<p>Then I found no difficulty at all in taking possession of him; +indeed he was delighted to have me brought back to his memory, he +positively gloated over me, and I grew apace.</p> +<p>Zaluski, in the seventh heaven of happiness, was playing with +Gertrude Morley, and his play was so good and so graceful that +every one was watching it with pleasure. His partner, too, +played well; she was a pretty, fair-haired girl, with soft grey +eyes like the eyes of a dove; she wore a white tennis dress and a +white sailor hat, and at her throat she had fastened a cluster of +those beautiful orange-coloured roses known by the prosaic name +of ‘William Allan Richardson.’</p> +<p>If Mr. Blackthorne grew angry as he watched Sigismund Zaluski, +he grew doubly angry as he watched Gertrude Morley. He said +to himself that it was intolerable that such a girl should fall a +prey to a vain, shallow, unprincipled foreigner, and in a few +minutes he had painted such a dark picture of poor Sigismund that +my strength increased tenfold.</p> +<p>“Mr. Blackthorne,” said Mrs. Courtenay, +“would you take Mrs. Milton-Cleave to have an +ice?”</p> +<p>Now Mrs. Milton-Cleave had always been one of the +curate’s great friends. She was a very pleasant, +talkative woman of six-and-thirty, and a general favourite. +Her popularity was well deserved, for she was always ready to do +a kind action, and often went out of her way to help people who +had not the slightest claim upon her. There was, however, +no repose about Mrs. Milton-Cleave, and an acute observer would +have discovered that her universal readiness to help was caused +to some extent by her good heart, but in a very large degree by +her restless and over-active brain. Her sphere was scarcely +large enough for her, she would have made an excellent head of an +orphan asylum or manager of some large institution, but her quiet +country life offered far too narrow a field for her energy.</p> +<p>“It is really quite a treat to watch Mr. Zaluski’s +play,” she remarked as they walked to the refreshment tent +at the other end of the lawn. “Certainly foreigners +know how to move much better than we do: our best players look +awkward beside them.”</p> +<p>“Do you think so?” said Mr. Blackthorne. +“I am afraid I am full of prejudice, and consider that no +one can equal a true-born Briton.”</p> +<p>“And I quite agree with you in the main,” said +Mrs. Milton-Cleave. “Though I confess that it is +rather refreshing to have a little variety.”</p> +<p>The curate was silent, but his silence merely covered his +absorption in me, and I began to exercise a faint influence +through his mind on the mind of his companion. This caused +her at length to say:</p> +<p>“I don’t think you quite like Mr. Zaluski. +Do you know much about him?”</p> +<p>“I have met him several times this summer,” said +the curate, in the tone of one who could have said much more if +he would.</p> +<p>The less satisfying his replies, the more Mrs. +Milton-Cleave’s curiosity grew.</p> +<p>“Now, tell me candidly,” she said at length. +“Is there not some mystery about our new neighbour? +Is he quite what he seems to be?”</p> +<p>“I fear he is not,” said Mr. Blackthorne, making +the admission in a tone of reluctance, though, to tell the truth, +he had been longing to pass me on for the last five minutes.</p> +<p>“You mean that he is fast?”</p> +<p>“Worse than that,” said James Blackthorne, +lowering his voice as they walked down one of the shady garden +paths. “He is a dangerous, unprincipled fellow, and +into the bargain an avowed Nihilist. All that is involved +in that word you perhaps scarcely realise.”</p> +<p>“Indeed I do,” she exclaimed with a shocked +expression. “I have just been reading a review of +that book by Stepniak. Their social and religious views are +terrible; free-love, atheism, everything that could bring ruin on +the human race. Is he indeed a Nihilist?”</p> +<p>Mr. Blackthorne’s conscience gave him a sharp prick, for +he knew that he ought not to have passed me on. He tried to +pacify it with the excuse that he had only promised not to tell +that Miss Houghton had been his informant.</p> +<p>“I assure you,” he said impressively, “it is +only too true. I know it on the best authority.”</p> +<p>And here I cannot help remarking that it has always seemed to +me strange that even experienced women of the world, like Mrs. +Milton-Cleave, can be so easily hoodwinked by that vague +nonentity, ‘The Best Authority.’ I am inclined +to think that were I a human being I should retort with an +expressive motion of the finger and thumb, “Oh, you know it +on the best authority, do you? Then <i>that</i> for your +story!”</p> +<p>However, I thrived wonderfully on the best authority, and it +would be ungrateful of me to speak evil of that powerful though +imaginary being.</p> +<p>At right angles with the garden walk down which the two were +pacing there was another wide pathway, bordered by high closely +clipped shrubs. Down this paced a very different +couple. Mrs. Milton-Cleave caught sight of them, and so did +curate. Mrs. Milton-Cleave sighed.</p> +<p>“I am afraid he is running after Gertrude Morley! +Poor girl! I hope she will not be deluded into encouraging +him.”</p> +<p>And then they made just the same little set remarks about the +desirability of stopping so dangerous an acquaintance, and the +impossibility of interfering with other people’s affairs, +and the sad necessity of standing by with folded hands. I +laughed so much over their hollow little phrases that at last I +was fain to beat a retreat, and, prompted by curiosity to know a +little of the truth, I followed Sigismund and Gertrude down the +broad grassy pathway.</p> +<p>I knew of course a good deal of Zaluski’s character, +because my own existence and growth pointed out what he was +not. Still, to study a man by a process of negation is +tedious, and though I knew that he was not a Nihilist, or a +free-lover, or an atheist, or an unprincipled fellow with a +dangerous temper, yet I was curious to see him as he really +was.</p> +<p>“If you only knew how happy you had made me!” he +was saying. And indeed, as far as happiness went, there was +not much to choose between them, I fancy; for Gertrude Morley +looked radiant, and in her clove-like eyes there was the +reflection of the love which flashed in his.</p> +<p>“You must talk to my mother about it,” she said +after a minute’s silence. “You see, I am still +under age, and she and Uncle Henry my guardian must consent +before we are actually betrothed.”</p> +<p>“I will see them at once,” said Zaluski, +eagerly.</p> +<p>“You could see my mother,” she replied. +“But Uncle Henry is still in Sweden and will not be in town +for another week.”</p> +<p>“Must we really wait so long!” sighed Sigismund +impatiently.</p> +<p>She laughed at him gently.</p> +<p>“A whole week! But then we are sure of each +other. I do not think we ought to grumble.”</p> +<p>“But perhaps they may think that a merchant is no +fitting match for you,” he suggested. “I am +nothing but a plain merchant, and my I people have been in the +same business for four generations. As far as wealth goes I +might perhaps satisfy your people, but for the rest I am but a +prosaic fellow, with neither noble blood, nor the brain of a +genius, nor anything out of the common.”</p> +<p>“It will be enough for my mother that we love each +other,” she said shyly.</p> +<p>“And your uncle?”</p> +<p>“It will be enough for him that you are upright and +honourable—enough that you are yourself, +Sigismund.”</p> +<p>They were sitting now in a little sheltered recess clipped out +of the yew-trees. When that softly spoken +“Sigismund” fell from her lips, Zaluski caught her in +his arms and kissed her again and again.</p> +<p>“I have led such a lonely life,” he said after a +few minutes, during which their talk had baffled my +comprehension. “All my people died while I was still +a boy.”</p> +<p>“Then who brought you up?” she inquired.</p> +<p>“An uncle of mine, the head of our firm in St. +Petersburg. He was very good to me, but he had children of +his own, and of course I could not be to him as one of +them. I have had many friends and much kindness shown to +me, but love!—none till to-day.”</p> +<p>And then again they fell into the talk which I could not +fathom. And so I left them in their brief happiness, for my +time of idleness was over, and I was ordered to attend Mrs. +Milton-Cleave without a moment’s delay.</p> +<h2>MY FOURTH STAGE</h2> +<blockquote><p>Oh, the little more, and how much it is!</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">R. +Browing</span>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Mrs. Milton-Cleave had one weakness—she was possessed by +an inordinate desire for influence. This made her always +eagerly anxious to be interesting both in her conversation and in +her letters, and to this end she exerted herself with unwearying +activity. She liked influencing Mr. Blackthorne, and spared +no pains on him that afternoon; and indeed the curate was a good +deal flattered by her friendship, and considered her one of the +most clever and charming women he had ever met.</p> +<p>Sigismund and Gertrude returned to the ordinary world just as +Mrs. Milton-Cleave was saying good-bye to the hostess. She +glanced at them searchingly.</p> +<p>“Good-bye, Gertrude,” she said a little +coldly. “Did you win at tennis?”</p> +<p>“Indeed we did,” said Gertrude, smiling. +“We came off with flying colours. It was a love +set.”</p> +<p>The girl was looking more beautiful than ever, and there was a +tell-tale colour in her cheeks and an unusual light in her soft +grey eyes. As for Zaluski, he was so evidently in love, and +had the audacity to look so supremely happy, that Mrs. +Milton-Cleave was more than ever impressed with the gravity of +the situation. The curate handed her into her victoria, and +she drove home through the sheltered lanes musing sadly over the +story she had heard, and wondering what Gertrude’s future +would be. When she reached home, however, the affair was +driven from her thoughts by her children, of whom she was +devotedly fond. They came running to meet her, frisking +like so many kittens round her as she went upstairs to her room, +and begging to stay with her while she dressed for dinner. +During dinner she was engrossed with her husband; but afterwards, +when she was alone in the drawing-room, I found my opportunity +for working on her restless mind.</p> +<p>“Dear me,” she exclaimed, throwing aside the +newspaper she had just taken up, “I ought to write to Mrs. +Selldon at Dulminster about that G.F.S. girl!”</p> +<p>As a matter of fact she ought not to have written then, the +letter might well have waited till the morning, and she was +over-tired and needed rest. But I was glad to see her take +up her pen, for I knew I should come in most conveniently to fill +up the second side of the sheet.</p> +<p>Before long Jane Stiggins, the member who had migrated from +Muddleton to Dulminster, had been duly reported, wound up, and +made over to the Archdeacon’s wife. Then the tired +hand paused. What more could she say to her friend?</p> +<p>“We are leading our usual quiet life here,” she +wrote, “with the ordinary round of tennis parties and +picnics to enliven us. The children have all been +wonderfully well, and I think you will see a great improvement in +your god-daughter when you next come to stay with +us”—“Oh dear!” sighed Mrs. Milton-Cleave, +“how dull and stupid I am to-night! I can’t +think of a single thing to say.” Then at length I +flashed into her mind, and with a sigh of relief and a little +rising flush of excitement she went on much more rapidly.</p> +<p>“It is such a comfort to be quite at rest about them, +and to see them all looking so well. But I suppose one can +never be without some cause of worry, and just now I am very +unhappy about that nice girl Gertrude Morley whom you admired so +much when you were last here. The whole neighbourhood has +been dominated this year by a young Polish merchant named +Sigismund Zaluski, who is very clever and musical and knows well +how to win popularity. He has taken Ivy Cottage for four +mouths, and is, I fear, doing great mischief. The Morleys +are his special friends, and I greatly fear he is making love to +Gertrude. Now I know privately, on the very best authority, +that although he has so completely deceived every one and has +managed so cleverly to pose as a respectable man, that Mr. +Zaluski is really a Nihilist, a free-lover, an atheist, and +altogether a most unprincipled man. He is very clever, and +speaks English most fluently, indeed he has lived in London since +the spring of 1881—he told me so himself. I cannot +help fancying that he must have been concerned in the +assassination of the late Czar, which you will remember took +place in that year early in March. It is terrible to think +of the poor Morleys entering blindfold on such an undesirable +connection; but, at the same time, I really do not feel that I +can say anything about it. Excuse this hurried note, dear +Charlotte, and with love to yourself and kindest remembrances to +the Archdeacon,</p> +<p>“Believe me, very affectionately yours,</p> +<p style="text-align: right">“<span class="smcap">Georgina +Milton-Cleave</span>.</p> +<p>“P.S. It may perhaps be as well not to mention +this affair about Gertrude Morley and Mr. Zaluski. They are +not yet engaged, as far as I know, and I sincerely trust it may +prove to be a mere flirtation.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center">* * * * *</p> +<p>I had now grown to such enormous dimensions that any one who +had known me in my infancy would scarcely have recognised me, +while naturally the more I grew the more powerful I became, and +the more capable both of impressing the minds which received me +and of injuring Zaluski. Poor Zaluski, who was so +foolishly, thoughtlessly happy! He little dreamed of the +fate that awaited him! His whole world was bright and full +of promise; each hour of love seemed to improve him, to deepen +his whole character, to tone down his rather flippant manner, to +awaken for him new and hitherto unthought-of realities.</p> +<p>But while he basked in his new happiness I travelled in my +close stuffy envelope to Dulminster, and after having been tossed +in and out of bags, shuffled, stamped, thumped, tied up, and +generally shaken about, I arrived one morning at Dulminster +Archdeaconry, and was laid on the breakfast table among other +appetising things to greet Mrs. Selldon when she came +downstairs.</p> +<h2>MY FIFTH STAGE</h2> +<blockquote><p>Also it is wise not to believe everything you +hear, not immediately to carry to the ears of others what you +have either heard or believed.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Thomas À +Kempis</span>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Though I was read in silence at the breakfast table and not +passed on to the Archdeacon, I lay dormant in Mrs. +Selldon’s mind all day, and came to her aid that night when +she was at her wits’ end for something to talk about.</p> +<p>Mrs. Selldon, though a most worthy and estimable person, was +of a phlegmatic temperament; her sympathies were not easily +aroused, her mind was lazy and torpid, in conversation she was +unutterably dull. There were times when she was painfully +conscious of this, and would have given much for the ceaseless +flow of words which fell from the lips of her friend Mrs. +Milton-Cleave. And that evening after my arrival chanced to +be one of these occasions, for there was a dinner-party at the +Archdeaconry, given in honour of a well-known author who was +spending a few days in the neighbourhood.</p> +<p>“I wish you could have Mr. Shrewsbury at your end of the +table, Thomas,” Mrs. Selldon had remarked to her husband +with a sigh, as she was arranging the guests on paper that +afternoon.</p> +<p>“Oh, he must certainly take you in, my dear,” said +the Archdeacon. “And he seems a very clever, +well-read man, I am sure you will find him easy to talk +to.”</p> +<p>Poor Mrs. Selldon thought that she would rather have had some +one who was neither clever nor well-read. But there was no +help for her, and, whether she would or not, she had to go in to +dinner with the literary lion.</p> +<p>Mr. Mark Shrewsbury was a novelist of great ability. +Some twenty years before, he had been called to the bar, and, +conscious of real talent, had been greatly embittered by the +impossibility of getting on in his profession. At length, +in disgust, he gave up all hopes of success and devoted himself +instead to literature. In this field he won the recognition +for which he craved; his books were read everywhere, his name +became famous, his income steadily increased, and he had the +pleasant consciousness that he had found his vocation. +Still, in spite of his success, he could not forget the bitter +years of failure and disappointment which had gone before, and +though his novels were full of genius they were pervaded by an +undertone of sarcasm, so that people after reading them were more +ready than before to take cynical views of life.</p> +<p>He was one of those men whose quiet impassive faces reveal +scarcely anything of their character. He was neither tall +nor short, neither dark nor fair, neither handsome nor the +reverse; in fact his personality was not in the least impressive; +while, like most true artists, he observed all things so quietly +that you rarely discovered that he was observing at all.</p> +<p>“Dear me!” people would say, “Is Mark +Shrewsbury really here? Which is he? I don’t +see any one at all like my idea of a novelist.”</p> +<p>“There he is—that man in spectacles,” would +be the reply.</p> +<p>And really the spectacles were the only noteworthy thing about +him.</p> +<p>Mrs. Selldon, who had seen several authors and authoresses in +her time, and knew that they were as a rule most ordinary, +hum-drum kind of people, was quite prepared for her fate. +She remembered her astonishment as a girl when, having laughed +and cried at the play, and taken the chief actor as her ideal +hero, she had had him pointed out to her one day in Regent +Street, and found him to be a most commonplace-looking man, the +very last person one would have supposed capable of stirring the +hearts of a great audience.</p> +<p>Meanwhile dinner progressed, and Mrs. Selldon talked to an +empty-headed but loquacious man on her left, and racked her +brains for something to say to the alarmingly silent author on +her right. She remembered hearing that Charles Dickens +would often sit silent through the whole of dinner, observing +quietly those about him, but that at dessert he would suddenly +come to life and keep the whole table in roars of laughter. +She feared that Mr. Shrewsbury meant to imitate the great +novelist in the first particular, but was scarcely likely to +follow his example in the last. At length she asked him +what he thought of the cathedral, and a few tepid remarks +followed.</p> +<p>“How unutterably this good lady bores me!” thought +the author.</p> +<p>“How odd it is that his characters talk so well in his +books, and that he is such a stick!” thought Mrs. +Selldon.</p> +<p>“I suppose it’s the effect of cathedral-town +atmosphere,” reflected the author.</p> +<p>“I suppose he is eaten up with conceit and won’t +trouble himself to talk to me,” thought the hostess.</p> +<p>By the time the fish had been removed they had arrived at a +state of mutual contempt. Mindful of the reputation they +had to keep up, however, they exerted themselves a little more +while the <i>entrées</i> went round.</p> +<p>“Seldom reads, I should fancy, and never thinks!” +reflected the author, glancing at Mrs. Selldon’s placid +unintellectual face. “What on earth can I say to +her?”</p> +<p>“Very unpractical, I am sure,” reflected Mrs. +Selldon. “The sort of man who lives in a world of his +own, and only lays down his pen to take up a book. What +subject shall I start?”</p> +<p>“What delightful weather we have been having the last +few days!” observed the author. “Real genuine +summer weather at last.” The same remark had been +trembling on Mrs. Selldon’s lips. She assented with +great cheerfulness and alacrity; and over that invaluable topic, +which is always so safe, and so congenial, and so ready to hand, +they grew quite friendly, and the conversation for fully five +minutes was animated.</p> +<p>An interval of thought followed.</p> +<p>“How wearisome is society!” reflected Mrs. +Selldon. “It is hard that we must spend so much money +in giving dinners and have so much trouble for so little +enjoyment.”</p> +<p>“One pays dearly for fame,” reflected the +author. “What a confounded nuisance it is to waste +all this time when there are the last proofs of ‘What +Caste?’ to be done for the nine-o’clock post +to-morrow morning! Goodness knows what time I shall get to +bed to-night!”</p> +<p>Then Mrs. Selldon thought regretfully of the comfortable easy +chair that she usually enjoyed after dinner, and the ten +minutes’ nap, and the congenial needle-work. And Mark +Shrewsbury thought of his chambers in Pump Court, and longed for +his type-writer, and his books, and his swivel chair, and his +favourite meerschaum.</p> +<p>“I should be less afraid to talk if there were not +always the horrible idea that he may take down what one +says,” thought Mrs. Selldon.</p> +<p>“I should be less bored if she would only be her natural +self,” reflected the author. “And would not +talk prim platitudes.” (This was hard, for he had +talked nothing else himself.) “Does she think she is +so interesting that I am likely to study her for my next +book?”</p> +<p>“Have you been abroad this summer?” inquired Mrs. +Selldon, making another spasmodic attempt at conversation.</p> +<p>“No, I detest travelling,” replied Mark +Shrewsbury. “When I need change I just settle down in +some quiet country district for a few months—somewhere near +Windsor, or Reigate, or Muddleton. There is nothing to my +mind like our English scenery.”</p> +<p>“Oh, do you know Muddleton?” exclaimed Mrs. +Selldon. “Is it not a charming little place? I +often stay in the neighbourhood with the +Milton-Cleaves.”</p> +<p>“I know Milton-Cleave well,” said the +author. “A capital fellow, quite the typical country +gentleman.”</p> +<p>“Is he not?” said Mrs. Selldon, much relieved to +have found this subject in common. “His wife is a +great friend of mine; she is full of life and energy, and does an +immense amount of good. Did you say you had stayed with +them?”</p> +<p>“No, but last year I took a house in that neighbourhood +for a few months; a most charming little place it was, just fit +for a lonely bachelor. I dare say you remember it—Ivy +Cottage, on the Newton Road.”</p> +<p>“Did you stay there? Now what a curious +coincidence! Only this morning I heard from Mrs. +Milton-Cleave that Ivy Cottage has been taken this summer by a +Mr. Sigismund Zaluski, a Polish merchant, who is doing untold +harm in the neighbourhood. He is a very clever, +unscrupulous man, and has managed to take in almost every +one.”</p> +<p>“Why, what is he? A swindler? Or a burglar +in disguise, like the <i>House on the Marsh</i> fellow?” +asked the author, with a little twinkle of amusement in his +face.</p> +<p>“Oh, much worse than that,” said Mrs. Selldon, +lowering her voice. “I assure you, Mr. Shrewsbury, +you would hardly credit the story if I were to tell it you, it is +really stranger than fiction.” Mark Shrewsbury +pricked up his ears, he no longer felt bored, he began to think +that, after all, there might be some compensation for this +wearisome dinner-party. He was always glad to seize upon +material for future plots, and somehow the notion of a mysterious +Pole suddenly making his appearance in that quiet country +neighbourhood and winning undeserved popularity rather took his +fancy. He thought he might make something of it. +However, he knew human nature too well to ask a direct +question.</p> +<p>“I am sorry to hear that,” he said, becoming all +at once quite sympathetic and approachable. “I +don’t like the thought of those simple, unsophisticated +people being hoodwinked by a scoundrel.”</p> +<p>“No; is it not sad?” said Mrs. Selldon. +“Such pleasant, hospitable people as they are! Do you +remember the Morleys?”</p> +<p>“Oh yes! There was a pretty daughter who played +tennis well.”</p> +<p>“Quite so—Gertrude Morley. Well, would you +believe it, this miserable fortune-hunter is actually either +engaged to her or on the eve of being engaged! Poor Mrs. +Milton-Cleave is so unhappy about it, for she knows, on the best +authority, that Mr. Zaluski is unfit to enter a respectable +house.”</p> +<p>“Perhaps he is really some escaped criminal?” +suggested Mr. Shrewsbury, tentatively.</p> +<p>Mrs. Selldon hesitated. Then, under the cover of the +general roar of conversation, she said in a low voice:—</p> +<p>“You have guessed quite rightly. He is one of the +Nihilists who were concerned in the assassination of the late +Czar.”</p> +<p>“You don’t say so!” exclaimed Mark +Shrewsbury, much startled. “Is it +possible?”</p> +<p>“Indeed, it is only too true,” said Mrs. +Selldon. “I heard it only the other morning, and on +the very best authority. Poor Gertrude Morley! My +heart bleeds for her.”</p> +<p>Now I can’t help observing here that this must have been +the merest figure of speech, for just then there was a +comfortable little glow of satisfaction about Mrs. +Selldon’s heart. She was so delighted to have +“got on well,” as she expressed it, with the literary +lion, and by this time dessert was on the table, and soon the +tedious ceremony would be happily over.</p> +<p>“But how did he escape?” asked Mark Shrewsbury, +still with the thought of “copy” in his mind.</p> +<p>“I don’t know the details,” said Mrs. +Selldon. “Probably they are only known to +himself. But he managed to escape somehow in the month of +March 1881, and to reach England safely. I fear it is only +too often the case in this world—wickedness is apt to be +successful.”</p> +<p>“To flourish like a green bay tree,” said Mark +Shrewsbury, congratulating himself on the aptness of the +quotation, and its suitability to the Archediaconal +dinner-table. “It is the strangest story I have heard +for a long time.” Just then there was a pause in the +general conversation, and Mrs. Selldon took advantage of it to +make the sign for rising, so that no more passed with regard to +Zaluski.</p> +<p>Shrewsbury, flattering himself that he had left a good +impression by his last remark, thought better not to efface it +later in the evening by any other conversation with his +hostess. But in the small hours of the night, when he had +finished his bundle of proofs, he took up his notebook and, +strangling his yawns, made two or three brief, pithy notes of the +story Mrs. Selldon had told him, adding a further development +which occurred to him, and wondering to himself whether +“Like a Green Bay Tree” would be a selling title.</p> +<p>After this he went to bed, and slept the sleep of the just, or +the unbroken sleep which goes by that name.</p> +<h2>MY SIXTH STAGE</h2> +<blockquote><p>But whispering tongues can poison truth.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Coleridge</span>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>London in early September is a somewhat trying place. +Mark Shrewsbury found it less pleasing in reality than in his +visions during the dinner-party at Dulminster. True, his +chambers were comfortable, and his type-writer was as invaluable +a machine as ever, and his novel was drawing to a successful +conclusion; but though all these things were calculated to cheer +him, he was nevertheless depressed. Town was dull, the heat +was trying, and he had never in his life found it so difficult to +settle down to work. He began to agree with the Preacher, +that “of making many books there is no end,” and +that, in spite of his favourite “Remington’s +perfected No. 2,” novel-writing was a weariness to the +flesh. Soon he drifted into a sort of vague idleness, which +was not a good, honest holiday, but just a lazy waste of time and +brains. I was pleased to observe this, and was not slow to +take advantage of it. Had he stayed in Pump Court he might +have forgotten me altogether in his work, but in the soft luxury +of his Club life I found that I had a very fair chance of being +passed on to some one else.</p> +<p>One hot afternoon, on waking from a comfortable nap in the +depths of an armchair at the Club, Shrewsbury was greeted by one +of his friends.</p> +<p>“I thought you were in Switzerland, old fellow!” +he exclaimed, yawning and stretching himself.</p> +<p>“Came back yesterday—awfully bad +season—confoundedly dull,” returned the other. +“Where have you been?”</p> +<p>“Down with Warren near Dulminster. Deathly dull +hole.”</p> +<p>“Do for your next novel. Eh?” said the other +with a laugh.</p> +<p>Mark Shrewsbury smiled good-naturedly.</p> +<p>“Talking of novels,” he observed, with another +yawn, “I heard such a story down there!”</p> +<p>“Did you? Let’s hear it. A nice little +scandal would do instead of a pick-me-up.”</p> +<p>“It’s not a scandal. Don’t raise your +expectations. It’s the story of a successful +scoundrel.”</p> +<p>And then I came out again in full vigour—nay, with +vastly increased powers; for though Mark Shrewsbury did not add +very much to me, or alter my appearance, yet his graphic words +made me much more impressive than I had been under the management +of Mrs. Selldon.</p> +<p>“H’m! that’s a queer story,” said the +limp-looking young man from Switzerland. “I say, have +a game of billiards, will you?”</p> +<p>Shrewsbury, with prodigious yawn, dragged himself up out of +his chair, and the two went off together. As they left the +room the only other man present looked up from his newspaper, +following them with his eyes.</p> +<p>“Shrewsbury the novelist,” he thought to +himself. “A sterling fellow! And he heard it +from an Archdeacon’s wife. Confound it all! the thing +must be true then. I’ll write and make full inquiries +about this Zaluski before consenting to the +engagement.”</p> +<p>And, being a prompt, business-like man, Gertrude +Morley’s uncle sat down and wrote the following letter to a +Russian friend of his who lived at St. Petersburg, and who might +very likely be able to give some account of Zaluski:—</p> +<blockquote><p>Dear Leonoff,—Some very queer stories are +afloat about a young Polish merchant, by name Sigismund Zaluski, +the head of the London branch of the firm of Zaluski and Zernoff, +at St. Petersburg. Will you kindly make inquiries for me as +to his true character and history? I would not trouble you +with this affair, but the fact is Zaluski has made an offer of +marriage to one of my wards, and before consenting to any +betrothal I must know what sort of man he really is. I take +it for granted that “there is no smoke without fire,” +and that there must be something in the very strange tale which I +have just heard on the best authority. It is said that this +Sigismund Zaluski left St. Petersburg in March 1881, after the +assassination of the late Czar, in which he was seriously +compromised. He is said to be an out-and-out Nihilist, an +atheist, and, in short, a dangerous, disreputable fellow. +Will you sift the matter for me? I don’t wish to +dismiss the fellow without good reason, but of course I could not +think of permitting him to be engaged to my niece until these +charges are entirely disproved.</p> +<p>With kind remembrances to your father,</p> +<p style="text-align: right">I am, yours faithfully<br /> +<span class="smcap">Henry Crichton-Morley</span>.</p> +</blockquote> +<h2>MY SEVENTH STAGE</h2> +<blockquote><p>Yet on the dull silence breaking<br /> +With a lightning flash, a word,<br /> +Bearing endless desolation<br /> +On its blighting wings, I heard;<br /> +Earth can forge no keener weapon,<br /> +Dealing surer death and pain,<br /> +And the cruel echo answered<br /> +Through long years again.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">A. A. +Procter</span>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Curiously enough, I must actually have started for Russia on +the same day that Sigismund Zaluski was summoned by his uncle at +St. Petersburg to return on a matter of urgent business. I +learnt afterwards that the telegram arrived at Muddleton on the +afternoon of one of those sunny September days and found Zaluski +as usual at the Morleys. He was very much annoyed at being +called away just then, and before he had received any reply from +Gertrude’s uncle as to the engagement. However, after +a little ebullition of anger, he regained his usual philosophic +tone, and, reminding Gertrude that he need not be away from +England for more than a fortnight, he took leave of her and set +off in a prompt, manly fashion, leaving most of his belongings at +Ivy Cottage, which was his for another six weeks, and to which he +hoped shortly to return.</p> +<p>After a weary time of imprisonment in my envelope, I at length +reached my destination at St. Petersburg and was read by Dmitry +Leonoff. He was a very busy man, and by the same post +received dozens of other letters. He merely +muttered—“That well-known firm! A most unlikely +story!”—and then thrust me into a drawer with other +letters which had to be answered. Very probably I escaped +his memory altogether for the next few days: however, there I +was—a startling accusation in black and white; and, as +everybody knows, St. Petersburg is not London.</p> +<p>The Leonoff family lived on the third storey of a large block +of buildings in the Sergeffskaia. About two o’clock +in the morning, on the third day after my arrival, the whole +household was roused from sleep by thundering raps on the door, +and the dreaded cry of “Open to the police.”</p> +<p>The unlucky master was forced to allow himself, his wife, and +his children to be made prisoners, while every corner of the +house was searched and every book and paper examined.</p> +<p>Leonoff had nothing whatever to do with the Revolutionary +movement, but absolute innocence does not free people from the +police inquisition, and five or six years ago, when the Search +mania was at its height, a case is on record of a poor lady whose +house was searched seven times within twenty-four hours, though +there was no evidence whatever that she was connected with the +Nihilists; the whole affair was, in fact, a misunderstanding, as +she was perfectly innocent.</p> +<p>This search in Dmitry Leonoff’s house was also a +misunderstanding, and in the dominions of the Czar +misunderstandings are of frequent occurrence.</p> +<p>Leonoff knew himself to be innocent, and he felt no fear, +though considerable annoyance, while the search was prosecuted; +he could hardly believe the evidence of his senses when, without +a word of explanation, he was informed that he must take leave of +his wife and children, and go in charge of the gendarmes to the +House of Preventive Detention.</p> +<p>Being a sensible man, he kept his temper, remarked courteously +that some mistake must have been made, embraced his weeping wife, +and went off passively, while the pristav carried away a bundle +of letters in which I occupied the most prominent place.</p> +<p>Leonoff remained a prisoner only for a few days; there was not +a shred of evidence against him, and, having suffered terrible +anxiety, he was finally released. But Mr. +Crichton-Morley’s letter was never restored to him, it +remained in the hands of the authorities, and the night after +Leonoff’s arrest the pristav, the procurator, and the +gendarmes made their way into the dwelling of Sigismund +Zaluski’s uncle, where a similar search was prosecuted.</p> +<p>Sigismund was asleep and dreaming of Gertrude and of his +idyllic summer in England, when his bedroom door was forced open +and he was roughly roused by the gendarmes.</p> +<p>His first feeling was one of amazement, his second, one of +indignation; however, he was obliged to get up at once and dress, +the policeman rigorously keeping guard over him the whole time +for fear he should destroy any treasonable document.</p> +<p>“How I shall make them laugh in England when I tell them +of this ridiculous affair!” reflected Sigismund, as he was +solemnly marched into the adjoining room, where he found his +uncle and cousins, each guarded by a policeman.</p> +<p>He made some jesting remark, but was promptly reprimanded by +his gaoler, and in wearisome silence the household waited while +the most rigorous search of the premises was made.</p> +<p>Of course nothing was found; but, to the amazement of all, +Sigismund was formally arrested.</p> +<p>“There must be some mistake,” he exclaimed, +“I have been resident in England for some time. I +have no connection whatever with Russian politics.”</p> +<p>“Oh, we are well aware of your residence in +England,” said the pristav. “You left St. +Petersburg early in March 1881. We are well aware of +that.”</p> +<p>Something in the man’s tone made Sigismund’s heart +stand still. Could he possibly be suspected of complicity +in the plot to assassinate the late Czar? The idea would +have made him laugh had he been in England. In St. +Petersburg, and under these circumstances, it made him +tremble.</p> +<p>“There is some terrible mistake,” he said. +“I have never had the slightest connection with the +revolutionary party.”</p> +<p>The pristav shrugged his shoulders, and Sigismund, feeling +like one in a dream, took leave of his relations, and was +escorted at once to the House of Preventive Detention.</p> +<p>Arrived at his destination, he was examined in a brief, +unsatisfactory way; but when he angrily asked for the evidence on +which he had been arrested, he was merely told that information +had been received charging him with being concerned in the +assassination of the late Emperor, and of being an advanced +member of the Nihilist party. His vehement denials were +received with scornful incredulity, his departure for England +just after the assassination, and his prolonged absence from +Russia, of course gave colour to the accusation, and he was +ordered off to his cell “to reflect.”</p> +<h2>MY TRIUMPHANT FINALE</h2> +<blockquote><p>Words are mighty, words are living;<br /> +Serpents with their venomous stings,<br /> +Or bright angels crowding round us,<br /> +With heaven’s light upon their wings;<br /> +Every word has its own spirit,<br /> +True or false, that never dies;<br /> +Every word man’s lips have uttered<br /> +Echoes in God’s skies.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">A. A. +Procter</span>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>My labours were now nearly at an end, and being, so to speak, +off duty, I could occupy myself just as I pleased. I +therefore resolved to keep watch over Zaluski in his prison.</p> +<p>For the first few hours after his arrest he was in a violent +passion; he paced up and down his tiny cell like a lion in a +cage; he was beside himself with indignation, and the blood leapt +through his veins like wildfire.</p> +<p>Then he became a little ashamed of himself and tried to grow +quiet, and after a sleepless night he passed to the opposite +extreme and sat all day long on the solitary stool in his grim +abode, his head resting on his hands, and his mind a prey to the +most fearful melancholy.</p> +<p>The second night, however, he slept, and awoke with a steady +resolve in his mind.</p> +<p>“It will never do to give way like this, or I shall be +in a brain fever in no time,” he reflected. “I +will get leave to have books and writing materials. I will +make the best of a bad business.”</p> +<p>He remembered how pleased he had been when Gertrude had once +smiled on him because, when all the others in the party were +grumbling at the discomforts of a certain picnic where the +provisions had gone astray, he had gaily made the best of it and +ransacked the nearest cottages for bread-and-cheese. He set +to work bravely now; hoped daily for his release; read all the +books he was allowed to receive, invented solitary games, began a +novel, and drew caricatures.</p> +<p>In October he was again examined; but, having nothing to +reveal, it was inevitable that he could reveal nothing; and he +was again sent back to his cell “to reflect.”</p> +<p>I perceived that after this his heart began to fail him.</p> +<p>There existed in the House of Preventive Detention a system of +communication between the luckless prisoners carried on by means +of tapping on the wall. Sigismund, being a clever fellow, +had become a great adept at this telegraphic system, and had +struck up a friendship with a young student in the next cell; +this poor fellow had been imprisoned three years, his sole +offence being that he had in his possession a book of which the +Government did not approve, and that he was first cousin to a +well-known Nihilist.</p> +<p>The two became as devoted to each other as Silvio Pellico and +Count Oroboni; but it soon became evident to Valerian Vasilowitch +that, unless Zaluski was released, he would soon succumb to the +terrible restrictions of prison life.</p> +<p>“Keep up your heart, my friend,” he used to +say. “I have borne it three years, and am still alive +to tell the tale.”</p> +<p>“But you are stronger both in mind and body,” said +Sigismund; “and you are not madly in love as I +am.”</p> +<p>And then he would pour forth a rhapsody about Gertrude, and +about English life, and about his hopes and fears for the future; +to all of which Valerian, like the brave fellow he was, replied +with words of encouragement.</p> +<p>But at length there came a day when his friend made no answer +to his usual morning greeting.</p> +<p>“Are you ill?” he asked.</p> +<p>For some time there was no reply, but after a while Sigismund +rapped faintly the despairing words:—</p> +<p>“Dead beat!”</p> +<p>Valerian felt the tears start to his eyes. It was what +he had all along expected, and for a time grief and indignation +and his miserable helplessness made him almost beside +himself. At last he remembered that there was at least one +thing in his power. Each day he was escorted by a warder to +a tiny square, walled off in the exercising ground, and was +allowed to walk for a few minutes; he would take this opportunity +of begging the warder to get the doctor for his friend.</p> +<p>But unfortunately the doctor did not think very seriously of +Zaluski’s case. In that dreary prison he had patients +in the last stages of all kinds of disease, and Sigismund, who +had been in confinement too short a time to look as ill as the +others, did not receive much attention. Certainly, the +doctor admitted, his lungs were affected; probably the sudden +change of climate and the lack of good food and fresh air had +been too much for him; so the solemn farce ended, and he was left +to his fate. “If I were indeed a Nihilist, and +suffered for a cause which I had at heart,” he telegraphed +to Valerian, “I could bear it better. But to be kept +here for an imaginary offence, to bear cold and hunger and +illness all to no purpose—that beats me. There +can’t be a God, or such things would not be +allowed.”</p> +<p>“To me it seems,” said Valerian, “that we +are the victims of violated law. Others have shown tyranny, +or injustice, or cruelty, and we are the victims of their +sin. Don’t say there is no God. There must be a +God to avenge such hideous wrong.”</p> +<p>So they spoke to each other through their prison wall as men +in the free outer world seldom care to speak; and I, who knew no +barriers, looked now on Valerian’s gaunt figure, and brave +but prematurely old face, now on poor Zaluski, who, in his weary +imprisonment, had wasted away till one could scarcely believe +that he was indeed the same lithe, active fellow who had played +tennis at Mrs. Courtenay’s garden-party.</p> +<p>Day and night Valerian listened to the terrible cough which +came from the adjoining cell. It became perfectly apparent +to him that his friend was dying; he knew it as well as if he had +seen the burning hectic flush on his hollow cheeks, and heard the +panting, hurried breaths, and watched the unnatural brilliancy of +his dark eyes.</p> +<p>At length he thought the time had come for another sort of +comfort.</p> +<p>“My friend,” he said one day, “it is too +plain to me now that you are dying. Write to the procurator +and tell him so. In some cases men have been allowed to go +home to die.”</p> +<p>A wild hope seized on poor Sigismund; he sat down to the +little table in his cell and wrote a letter to the +procurator—a letter which might almost have drawn tears +from a flint. Again and again he passionately asserted his +innocence, and begged to know on what evidence he was +imprisoned. He began to think that he could die content if +he might leave this terrible cell, might be a free agent once +more, if only for a few days. At least he might in that +case clear his character, and convince Gertrude that his +imprisonment had been all a hideous mistake; nay, he fancied that +he might live through a journey to England and see her once +again.</p> +<p>But the procurator would not let him be set free, and refused +to believe that his case was really a serious one.</p> +<p>Sigismund’s last hope left him.</p> +<p>The days and weeks dragged slowly on, and when, according to +English reckoning, New Year’s Eve arrived, he could +scarcely believe that only seventeen weeks ago he had actually +been with Gertrude, and that disgrace and imprisonment had seemed +things that could never come near him, and death had been a +far-away possibility, and life had been full of bliss.</p> +<p>As I watched him a strong desire seized me to revisit the +scenes of which he was thinking, and I winged my way back to +England, and soon found myself in the drowsy, respectable streets +of Muddleton.</p> +<p>It was New Year’s Eve, and I saw Mrs. O’Reilly +preparing presents for her grandchildren, and talking, as she +tied them up, of that dreadful Nihilist who had deceived them in +the summer. I saw Lena Houghton, and Mr. Blackthorne, and +Mrs. Milton-Cleave, kneeling in church on that Friday morning, +praying that pity might be shown “upon all prisoners and +captives, and all that are desolate or oppressed.”</p> +<p>It never occurred to them that they were responsible for the +sufferings of one weary prisoner, or that his death would be laid +at their door.</p> +<p>I flew to Dulminster, and saw Mrs. Selldon kneeling in the +cathedral at the late evening service and rigorously examining +herself as to the shortcomings of the dying year. She +confessed many things in a vague, untroubled way; but had any one +told her that she had cruelly wronged her neighbour, and helped +to bring an innocent man to shame, and prison, and death, she +would not have believed the accusation.</p> +<p>I sought out Mark Shrewsbury. He was at his chambers in +Pump Court working away with his type-writer; he had a fancy for +working the old year out and the new year in, and now he was in +the full swing of that novel which had suggested itself to his +mind when Mrs. Selldon described the rich and mysterious +foreigner who had settled down at Ivy Cottage. Most happily +he laboured on, never dreaming that his careless words had doomed +a fellow-man to a painful and lingering death; never dreaming +that while his fingers flew to and fro over his dainty little +keyboard, describing the clever doings of the unscrupulous +foreigner, another man, the victim of his idle gossip, tapped +dying messages on a dreary prison wall.</p> +<p>For the end had come.</p> +<p>Through the evening Sigismund rested wearily on his +truckle-bed. He could not lie down because of his cough, +and, since there were no extra pillows to prop him up, he had to +rest his head and shoulders against the wall. There was a +gas-burner in the tiny cell, and by its light he looked round the +bare walls of his prison with a blank, hopeless, yet wistful +gaze; there was the stool, there was the table, there were the +clothes he should never wear again, there was the door through +which his lifeless body would soon be carried. He looked at +everything lingeringly, for he knew that this desolate prison was +the last bit of the world he should ever see.</p> +<p>Presently the gas was turned out.</p> +<p>He sighed as he felt the darkness close in upon him, for he +knew that his eyes would never again see light—knew that in +this dark lonely cell he must lie and wait for death. And +he was young and wished to live, and he was in love and longed +most terribly for the presence of the woman he loved.</p> +<p>The awful desolateness of the cell was more than he could +endure; he tried to think of his past life, he tried to live once +again through those happy weeks with Gertrude; but always he came +back to the aching misery of the present—the cold and the +pain, and the darkness and the terrible solitude.</p> +<p>His nerveless fingers felt their way to the wall and faintly +rapped a summons.</p> +<p>“Valerian!” he said, “I shall not live +through the night. Watch with me.”</p> +<p>The faint raps sounded clearly in the stillness of the great +building, and Valerian dreaded lest the warders should hear them, +and deal out punishment for an offence which by day they were +forced to wink at.</p> +<p>But he would not for the world have deserted his friend. +He drew his stool close to the wall, wrapped himself round in all +the clothes he could muster, and, shivering with cold, kept watch +through the long winter night.</p> +<p>“I am near you,” he telegraphed. “I +will watch with you till morning.”</p> +<p>From time to time Sigismund rapped faint messages, and +Valerian replied with comfort and sympathy. Once he thought +to himself, “My friend is better; there is more power in +his hand.” And indeed he trembled, fearing that the +sharp, emphatic raps must certainly attract notice and put an end +to their communion.</p> +<p>“Tell my love that the accusation was +false—false!” the word was vehemently repeated. +“Tell her I died broken-hearted, loving her to the +end.”</p> +<p>“I will tell her all when I am free,” said poor +Valerian, wondering with a sigh when his unjust imprisonment +would end. “Do you suffer much?” he asked.</p> +<p>There was a brief interval. Sigismund hesitated to tell +a falsehood in his last extremity.</p> +<p>“It will soon be over. Do not be troubled for +me,” he replied. And after that there was a long, +long silence.</p> +<p>Poor fellow! he died hard; and I wished that those comfortable +English people could have been dragged from their warm beds and +brought into the cold dreary cell where their victim lay, +fighting for breath, suffering cruelly both in mind and +body. Valerian, listening in sad suspense, heard one more +faint word rapped by the dying man.</p> +<p>“Farewell!”</p> +<p>“God be with you!” he replied, unable to check the +tears which rained down as he thought of the life so sadly ended, +and of his own bereavement.</p> +<p>He heard no more. Sigismund’s strength failed him, +and I, to whom the darkness made no difference, watched him +through the last dread struggle; there was no one to raise him, +or hold him, no one to comfort him. Alone in the cold and +darkness of that first morning of the year 1887, he died.</p> +<p>Valerian did not hear through the wall his last faint gasping +cry, but I heard it, and its exceeding bitterness would have made +mortals weep.</p> +<p>“Gertrude!” he sobbed. +“Gertrude!”</p> +<p>And with that his head sank on his breast, and the life, which +but for me might have been so happy and prosperous, was +ended.</p> +<p style="text-align: center">* * * * *</p> +<p>Prompted by curiosity, I instantly returned to Muddleton and +sought out Gertrude Morley. I stole into her room. +She lay asleep, but her dreams were troubled, and her face, once +so fresh and bright, was worn with pain and anxiety.</p> +<p>Scarcely had I entered the room when, to my amazement, I saw +the spirit of Sigismund Zaluski.</p> +<p>I saw him bend down and kiss the sleeping girl, and for a +moment her sad face lighted up with a radiant smile.</p> +<p>I looked again; he was gone. Then Gertrude threw up both +her arms and with a bitter cry awoke from her dream.</p> +<p>“Sigismund!” she cried. “Oh, +Sigismund! Now I know that you are dead indeed.”</p> +<p>For a long, long time she lay in a sort of trance of +misery. It seemed as if the life had been almost crushed +out of her, and it was not until the bells began to ring for the +six o’clock service, merrily pealing out their welcome of +the new year morning, that full consciousness returned to her +again. But, as she clearly realised what had happened, she +broke into such a passion of tears as I had never before +witnessed, while still in the darkness the new year bells rang +gaily, and she knew that they heralded for her the beginning of a +lonely life.</p> +<p>And so my work ended; my part in this world was played +out. Nevertheless I still live; and there will come a day +when Sigismund and Gertrude shall be comforted and the slanderers +punished.</p> +<p>For poor Valerian was right, and there is an Avenger, in whom +even my progenitor believes, and before whom he trembles.</p> +<p>There will come a time when those self-satisfied ones, whose +hands are all the time steeped in blood, shall be confronted with +me, and shall realise to the full all that their idle words have +brought about.</p> +<p>For that day I wait; and though afterwards I shall be finally +destroyed in the general destruction of all that is unmitigatedly +evil, I promise myself a certain satisfaction and pleasure (a +feeling I doubtless inherit from my progenitor), when I watch the +shame, and horror, and remorse of Mrs. O’Reilly and the +rest of the people to whom I owe my existence and rapid +growth.</p> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A SLANDER***</p> +<pre> + + +***** This file should be named 1273-h.htm or 1273-h.zip****** + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/2/7/1273 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The Autobiography of a Slander + + +Author: Edna Lyall + + + +Release Date: October 14, 2007 [eBook #1273] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A SLANDER*** + + + + +Transcribed from the 1890 Longmans, Green, and Co. edition by David +Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org + + + + + +THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A SLANDER + + +BY +EDNA LYALL + +AUTHOR OF 'DONOVAN' 'WE TWO' 'IN THE GOLDEN DAYS' +'KNIGHT ERRANT' ETC. + + _Trust not to each accusing tongue_, + _As most week persons do_; + _But still believe that story false_ + _Which ought not to be true_ + + SHERIDAN + +_NEW EDITION_ +(THIRTY-NINTH TO FORTY-FIRST THOUSAND) + +LONDON +LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. +AND NEW YORK: 15 EAST 16th STREET +1890 + +_All rights reserved_ + +DEDICATED +TO ALL +WHO IT MAY CONCERN + + + + +MY FIRST STAGE + + + At last the tea came up, and so + With that our tongues began to go. + Now in that house you're sure of knowing + The smallest scrap of news that's going. + We find it there the wisest way + To take some care of what we say. + + _Recreation_. JANE TAYLOR. + +I was born on the 2nd September, 1886, in a small, dull, country town. +When I say the town was dull, I mean, of course, that the inhabitants +were unenterprising, for in itself Muddleton was a picturesque place, and +though it laboured under the usual disadvantage of a dearth of bachelors +and a superfluity of spinsters, it might have been pleasant enough had it +not been a favourite resort for my kith and kin. + +My father has long enjoyed a world-wide notoriety; he is not, however, as +a rule named in good society, though he habitually frequents it; and as I +am led to believe that my autobiography will possibly be circulated by +Mr. Mudie, and will lie about on drawing-room tables, I will merely +mention that a most representation of my progenitor, under his _nom de +theatre_, Mephistopheles, may be seen now in London, and I should +recommend all who wish to understand his character to go to the Lyceum, +though, between ourselves, he strongly disapproves of the whole +performance. + +I was introduced into the world by an old lady named Mrs. O'Reilly. She +was a very pleasant old lady, the wife of a General, and one of those +sociable, friendly, talkative people who do much to cheer their +neighbours, particularly in a deadly-lively provincial place like +Muddleton, where the standard of social intercourse is not very high. +Mrs. O'Reilly had been in her day a celebrated beauty; she was now grey- +haired and stout, but still there was something impressive about her, and +few could resist the charm of her manner and the pleasant easy flow of +her small talk. Her love of gossip amounted almost to a passion, and +nothing came amiss to her; she liked to know everything about everybody, +and in the main I think her interest was a kindly one, though she found +that a little bit of scandal, every now and then, added a piquant flavour +to the homely fare provided by the commonplace life of the Muddletonians. + +I will now, without further preamble, begin the history of my life. + +* * * * * + +"I assure you, my dear Lena, Mr. Zaluski is nothing less than a +Nihilist!" + +The sound waves set in motion by Mrs. O'Reilly's words were tumultuously +heaving in the atmosphere when I sprang into being, a young but perfectly +formed and most promising slander. A delicious odour of tea pervaded the +drawing-room, it was orange-flower pekoe, and Mrs. O'Reilly was just +handing one of the delicate Crown Derby cups to her visitor, Miss Lena +Houghton. + +"What a shocking thing! Do you really mean it?" exclaimed Miss Houghton. +"Thank you, cream but no sugar; don't you know, Mrs. O'Reilly, that it is +only Low-Church people who take sugar nowadays? But, really, now, about +Mr. Zaluski? How did you find it out?" + +"My dear, I am an old woman, and I have learnt in the course of a +wandering life to put two and two together," said Mrs. O'Reilly. She had +somehow managed to ignore middle age, and had passed from her position of +renowned beauty to the position which she now firmly and constantly +claimed of many years and much experience. "Of course," she continued, +"like every one else, I was glad enough to be friendly and pleasant to +Sigismund Zaluski, and as to his being a Pole, why, I think it rather +pleased me than otherwise. You see, my dear, I have knocked about the +world and mixed with all kinds of people. Still, one must draw the line +somewhere, and I confess it gave me a very painful shock to find that he +had such violent antipathies to law and order. When he took Ivy Cottage +for the summer I made the General call at once, and before long we had +become very intimate with him; but, my dear, he's not what I thought +him--not at all!" + +"Well now, I am delighted to hear you say that," said Lena Houghton, with +some excitement in her manner, "for it exactly fits in with what I always +felt about him. From the first I disliked that man, and the way he goes +on with Gertrude Morley is simply dreadful. If they are not engaged they +ought to be--that's all I can say." + +"Engaged, my dear! I trust not," said Mrs. O'Reilly. "I had always +hoped for something very different for dear Gertrude. Quite between +ourselves, you know, my nephew John Carew is over head and ears in love +with her, and they would make a very good pair; don't you think so?" + +"Well, you see, I like Gertrude to a certain extent," replied Lena +Houghton. "But I never raved about her as so many people do. Still, I +hope she will not be entrapped into marrying Mr. Zaluski; she deserves a +better fate than that." + +"I quite agree with you," said Mrs. O'Reilly, with a troubled look. "And +the worst of it is, poor Gertrude is a girl who might very likely take up +foolish revolutionary notions; she needs a strong wise husband to keep +her in order and form her opinions. But is it really true that he flirts +with her? This is the first I have heard of it. I can't think how it +has escaped my notice." + +"Nor I, for indeed he is up at the Morleys' pretty nearly every day. What +with tennis, and music, and riding, there is always some excuse for it. I +can't think what Gertrude sees in him, he is not even good-looking." + +"There is a certain surface good-nature about him," said Mrs. O'Reilly. +"It deceived even me at first. But, my dear Lena, mark my words: that +man has a fearful temper; and I pray Heaven that poor Gertrude may have +her eyes opened in time. Besides, to think of that little gentle, +delicate thing marrying a Nihilist! It is too dreadful; really, quite +too dreadful! John would never get over it!" + +"The thing I can't understand is why all the world has taken him up so," +said Lena Houghton. "One meets him everywhere, yet nobody seems to know +anything about him. Just because he has taken Ivy Cottage for four +months, and because he seems to be rich and good-natured, every one is +ready to run after him." + +"Well, well," said Mrs. O'Reilly, "we all like to be neighbourly, my +dear, and a week ago I should have been ready to say nothing but good of +him. But now my eyes have been opened. I'll tell you just how it was. +We were sitting here, just as you and I are now, at afternoon tea; the +talk had flagged a little, and for the sake of something to say I made +some remark about Bulgaria--not that I really knew anything about it, you +know, for I'm no politician; still, I knew it was a subject that would +make talk just now. My dear, I assure you I was positively frightened. +All in a minute his face changed, his eyes flashed, he broke into such a +torrent of abuse as I never heard in my life before." + +"Do you mean that he abused you?" + +"Dear me, no! but Russia and the Czar, and tyranny and despotism, and +many other things I had never heard of. I tried to calm him down and +reason with him, but I might as well have reasoned with the cockatoo in +the window. At last he caught himself up quickly in the middle of a +sentence, strode over to the piano, and began to play as he generally +does, you know, when he comes here. Well, would you believe it, my dear! +instead of improvising or playing operatic airs as usual, he began to +play a stupid little tune which every child was taught years ago, of +course with variations of his own. Then he turned round on the music- +stool with the oddest smile I ever saw, and said, "Do you know that air, +Mrs. O'Reilly?" + +"Yes," I said; "but I forget now what it is.'" + +"It was composed by Pestal, one of the victims of Russian tyranny," said +he. "The executioner did his work badly, and Pestal had to be strung up +twice. In the interval he was heard to mutter, 'Stupid country, where +they don't even know how to hang!'" + +"Then he gave a little forced laugh, got up quickly, wished me good-bye, +and was gone before I could put in a word." + +"What a horrible story to tell in a drawing-room!" said Lena Houghton. "I +envy Gertrude less than ever." + +"Poor girl! What a sad prospect it is for her!" said Mrs. O'Reilly with +a sigh. "Of course, my dear, you'll not repeat what I have just told +you." + +"Not for the world!" said Lena Houghton emphatically. "It is perfectly +safe with me." + +The conversation was here abruptly ended, for the page threw open the +drawing-room door and announced 'Mr. Zaluski.' + +"Talk of the angel," murmured Mrs. O'Reilly with a significant smile at +her companion. Then skilfully altering the expression of her face, she +beamed graciously on the guest who was ushered into the room, and Lena +Houghton also prepared to greet him most pleasantly. + +I looked with much interest at Sigismund Zaluski, and as I looked I +partly understood why Miss Houghton had been prejudiced against him at +first sight. He had lived five years in England, and nothing pleased him +more than to be taken for an Englishman. He had had his silky black hair +closely cropped in the very hideous fashion of the present day; he wore +the ostentatiously high collar now in vogue; and he tried to be +sedulously English in every respect. But in spite of his wonderfully +fluent speech and almost perfect accent, there lingered about him +something which would not harmonise with that ideal of an English +gentleman which is latent in most minds. Something he lacked, something +he possessed, which interfered with the part he desired to play. The +something lacking showed itself in his ineradicable love of jewellery and +in a transparent habit of fibbing; the something possessed showed itself +in his easy grace of movement, his delightful readiness to amuse and to +be amused, and in a certain cleverness and rapidity of idea rarely, if +ever, found in an Englishman. + +He was a little above the average height and very finely built; but there +was nothing striking in his aquiline features and dark grey eyes, and I +think Miss Houghton spoke truly when she said that he was 'Not even good- +looking.' Still, in spite of this, it was a face which grew upon most +people, and I felt the least little bit of regret as I looked at him, +because I knew that I should persistently haunt and harass him, and +should do all that could be done to spoil his life. + +Apparently he had forgotten all about Russia and Bulgaria, for he looked +radiantly happy. Clearly his thoughts were engrossed with his own +affairs, which, in other words, meant with Gertrude Morley; and though, +as I have since observed, there are times when a man in love is an +altogether intolerable sort of being, there are other times when he is +very much improved by the passion, and regards the whole world with a +genial kindliness which contrasts strangely with his previous cool +cynicism. + +"How delightful and home-like your room always looks!" he exclaimed, +taking the cup of tea which Mrs. O'Reilly handed to him. "I am horribly +lonely at Ivy Cottage. This house is a sort of oasis in the desert." + +"Why, you are hardly ever at home, I thought," said Mrs. O'Reilly, +smiling. "You are the lion of the neighbourhood just now; and I'm sure +it is very good of you to come in and cheer a lonely old woman. Are you +going to play me something rather more lively to-day?" + +He laughed. + +"Ah! Poor Pestal! I had forgotten all about our last meeting." + +"You were very much excited that day," said Mrs. O'Reilly. "I had no +idea that your political notions--" + +He interrupted her + +"Ah! no politics to-day, dear Mrs. O'Reilly. Let us have nothing but +enjoyment and harmony. See, now, I will play you something very much +more cheerful." + +And sitting down to the piano, he played the bridal march from +'Lohengrin,' then wandered off into an improvised air, and finally +treated them to some recollections of the 'Mikado.' + +Lena-Houghton watched him thoughtfully as she put on her gloves; he was +playing with great spirit, and the words of the opera rang in her ears:-- + + For he's going to marry Yum-yum, Yum-yum, + And so you had better be dumb, dumb, dumb! + +I knew well enough that she would not follow this moral advice, and I +laughed to myself because the whole scene was such a hollow mockery. The +placid benevolent-looking old lady leaning back in her arm-chair; the +girl in her blue gingham and straw hat preparing to go to the afternoon +service; the happy lover entering heart and soul into Sullivan's charming +music; the pretty room with its Chippendale furniture, its aesthetic +hangings, its bowls of roses; and the sound of church bells wafted +through the open window on the soft summer breeze. + +Yet all the time I lingered there unseen, carrying with me all sorts of +dread possibilities. I had been introduced into the world, and even if +Mrs. O'Reilly had been willing to admit to herself that she had broken +the ninth commandment, and had earnestly desired to recall me, all her +sighs and tears and regrets would have availed nothing; so true is the +saying, "Of thy word unspoken thou art master; thy spoken word is master +of thee." + +"Thank you." "Thank you." "How I envy your power of playing!" + +The two ladies seemed to vie with each other in making pretty speeches, +and Zaluski, who loved music and loved giving pleasure, looked really +pleased. I am sure it did not enter his head that his two companions +were not sincere, or that they did not wish him well. He was thinking to +himself how simple and kindly the Muddleton people were, and how great a +contrast this life was to his life in London; and he was saying to +himself that he had been a fool to live a lonely bachelor life till he +was nearly thirty, and yet congratulating himself that he had done so +since Gertrude was but nineteen. Undoubtedly, he was seeing blissful +visions of the future all the time that he replied to the pretty +speeches, and shook hands with Lena Houghton, and opened the drawing-room +door for her, and took out his watch to assure her that she had plenty of +time and need not hurry to church. + +Poor Zaluski! He looked so kindly and pleasant. Though I was only a +slander, and might have been supposed to have no heart at all, I did feel +sorry for him when I thought of the future and of the grief and pain +which would persistently dog his steps. + + + + +MY SECOND STAGE + + + Bear not false witness, slander not, nor lie; + Truth is the speech of inward purity. + + _The Light of Asia_. + +In my first stage the reader will perceive that I was a comparatively +weak and harmless little slander, with merely that taint of original sin +which was to be expected in one of such parentage. But I developed with +great rapidity; and I believe men of science will tell you that this is +always the case with low organisms. That, for instance, while it takes +years to develop the man from the baby, and months to develop the dog +from the puppy, the baby monad will grow to maturity in an hour. + +Personally I should have preferred to linger in Mrs. O'Reilly's pleasant +drawing-room, for, as I said before, my victim interested me, and I +wanted to observe him more closely and hear what he talked about. But I +received orders to attend evensong at the parish church, and to haunt the +mind of Lena Houghton. + +As we passed down the High Street the bells rang out loud and clear, and +they made me feel the same slight sense of discomfort that I had felt +when I looked at Zaluski; however, I went on, and soon entered the +church. It was a fine old Gothic building, and the afternoon sunshine +seemed to flood the whole place; even the white stones in the aisle were +glorified here and there with gorgeous patches of colour from the stained +glass windows. But the strange stillness and quiet oppressed me, I did +not feel nearly so much at home as in Mrs. O'Reilly's drawing-room--to +use a terrestrial simile, I felt like a fish out of water. + +For some time, too, I could find no entrance at all into the mind of Lena +Houghton. Try as I would, I could not distract her attention or gain the +slightest hold upon her, and I really believe I should have been +altogether baffled, had not the rector unconsciously come to my aid. + +All through the prayers and psalms I had fought a desperate fight without +gaining a single inch. Then the rector walked over to the lectern, and +the moment he opened his mouth I knew that my time had come, and that +there was a very fair chance of victory before me. Whether this +clergyman had a toothache, or a headache, or a heavy load on his mind, I +cannot say, but his reading was more lugubrious than the wind in an +equinoctial gale. I have since observed that he was only a degree worse +than many other clerical readers, and that a strange and delightfully +mistaken notion seems prevalent that the Bible must be read in a dreary +and unnatural tone of voice, or with a sort of mournful monotony; it is +intended as a sort of reverence, but I suspect that it often plays into +the hands of my progenitor, as it most assuredly did in the present +instance. + +Hardly had the rector announced, "Here beginneth the forty-fourth verse +of the sixteenth chapter of the book of the prophet Ezekiel," than a sort +of relaxation took place in the mind I was attacking. Lena Houghton's +attention could only have been given to the drearily read lesson by a +very great effort; she was a little lazy and did not make the effort, she +thought how nice it was to sit down again, and then the melancholy voice +lulled her into a vague interval of thoughtless inactivity. I promptly +seized my opportunity, and in a moment her whole mind was full of me. She +was an excitable, impressionable sort of girl, and when once I had +obtained an entrance into her mind I found it the easiest thing in the +world to dominate her thoughts. Though she stood, and sat, and knelt, +and curtseyed, and articulated words, her thoughts were entirely absorbed +in me. I crowded out the Magnificat with a picture of Zaluski and +Gertrude Morley. I led her through more terrible future possibilities in +the second lesson than would be required for a three-volume novel. I +entirely eclipsed the collects with reflections on unhappy marriages; +took her off _via_ Russia and Nihilism in the State prayers, and by the +time we arrived at St. Chrysostom had become so powerful that I had +worked her mind into exactly the condition I desired. + +The congregation rose. Lena Houghton, still dominated by me, knelt +longer than the rest, but at last she got up and walked down the aisle, +and I felt a great sense of relief and satisfaction. We were out in the +open air once more, and I had triumphed; I was quite sure that she would +tell the first person she met, for, as I have said before, she was +entirely taken up with me, and to have kept me to herself would have +required far more strength and unselfishness than she at that moment +possessed. She walked slowly through the churchyard, feeling much +pleased to see that the curate had just left the vestry door, and that in +a few moments their paths must converge. + +Mr. Blackthorne had only been ordained three or four years, and was a +little younger, and much less experienced in the ways of the world, than +Sigismund Zaluski. He was a good well-meaning fellow, a little narrow, a +little prejudiced, a little spoiled by the devotion of the district +visitors and Sunday School teachers; but he was honest and energetic, and +as a worker among the poor few could have equalled him. He seemed to +fancy, however, that with the poor his work ended, and he was not always +so wise as he might have been in Muddleton society. + +"Good afternoon, Miss Houghton," he exclaimed. "Do you happen to know if +your brother is at home? I want just to speak to him about the choir +treat." + +"Oh, he is sure to be in by this time," said Lena. + +And they walked home together. + +"I am so glad to have this chance of speaking to you," she began rather +nervously. "I wanted particularly to ask your advice." + +Mr. Blackthorne, being human and young, was not unnaturally flattered by +this remark. True, he was becoming well accustomed to this sort of +thing, since the ladies of Muddleton were far more fond of seeking advice +from the young and good-looking curate than from the elderly and +experienced rector. They said it was because Mr. Blackthorne was so much +more sympathetic, and understood the difficulties of the day so much +better; but I think they unconsciously deceived themselves, for the +rector was one of a thousand, and the curate, though he had in him the +makings of a fine man, was as yet altogether crude and young. + +"Was it about anything in your district?" he asked, devoutly hoping that +she was not going to propound some difficult question about the origin of +evil, or any other obscure subject. For though he liked the honour of +being consulted, he did not always like the trouble it involved, and he +remembered with a shudder that Miss Houghton had once asked him his +opinion about the 'Ethical Concept of the Good.' + +"It was only that I was so troubled about something Mrs. O'Reilly has +just told me," said Lena Houghton. "You won't tell any one that I told +you?" + +"On no account," said the curate, warmly. + +"Well, you know Mr. Zaluski, and how the Morleys have taken him up?" + +"Every one has taken him up," said the curate, with the least little +touch of resentment in his tone. "I knew that the Morleys were his +special friends; I imagine that he admires Miss Morley." + +"Yes, every one thinks they are either engaged or on the brink of it. And +oh, Mr. Blackthorne, can't you or somebody put a stop to it, for it seems +such a dreadful fate for poor Gertrude?" + +The curate looked startled. + +"Why, I don't profess to like Mr. Zaluski," he said. "But I don't know +anything exactly against him." + +"But I do. Mrs. O'Reilly has just been telling me." + +"What did she tell you?" he asked with some curiosity. + +"Why, she has found out that he is really a Nihilist--just think of a +Nihilist going about loose like this, and playing tennis at the rectory +and all the good houses! And not only that, but she says he is +altogether a dangerous, unprincipled man with a dreadful temper. You +can't think how unhappy she is about poor Gertrude, and so am I, for we +were at school together and have always been friends." + +"I am very sorry to hear about it," said Mr. Blackthorne, "but I don't +see that anything can be done. You see, one does not like to interfere +in these sort of things. It seems officious rather, and meddlesome." + +"Yes, that is the worst of it," she replied, with a sigh. "I suppose we +can do nothing. Still, it has been a great relief just to tell you about +it and get it off my mind. I suppose we can only hope that something may +put a stop to it all--we must just leave it to chance." + +This sentiment amused me not a little. Leave it to chance indeed! Had +she not caused me to grow stronger and larger by every word she uttered? +And had not the conversation revealed to me Mr. Blackthorn's one +vulnerable part? I knew well enough that I should be able to dominate +his thoughts as I had done hers. Finding me burdensome, she had passed +me on to somebody else with additions that vastly increased my working +powers, and then she talked of leaving it to chance! The way in which +mortals practise pious frauds on themselves is really delightful! And +yet Lena Houghton was a good sort of girl, and had from her childhood +repeated the catechism words which proclaim that, "My duty to my +neighbour is to love him as myself . . . To keep my tongue from +evil-speaking, lying, and slandering." What is more, she took great +pains to teach these words to a big class of Sunday School children, and +went, rain or shine, to spend two hours each Sunday in a stuffy school- +room for that purpose. It was strange that she should be so ready to +believe evil of her neighbour, and so eager to spread the story. But my +progenitor is clever, and doubtless knows very well, whom to select as +his tools. + +By this time they had reached a comfortable-looking, red-brick house with +white stone facings, and in the discussion of the arrangements for the +choir treat I was entirely forgotten. + + + + +MY THIRD STAGE + + + Alas! such is our weakness, that we often more readily believe and + speak of another that which is evil than that which is good. But + perfect men do not easily give credit to every report; because they + know man's weakness, which is very prone to evil, and very subject to + fail in words. + + THOMAS A KEMPIS. + +All through that evening, and through the first part of the succeeding +day, I was crowded out of the curate's mind by a host of thoughts with +which I had nothing in common; and though I hovered about him as he +taught in the school, and visited several sick people, and argued with an +habitual drunkard, and worked at his Sunday sermon, a Power, which I felt +but did not understand, baffled all my attempts to gain an entrance and +attract his notice. I made a desperate attack on him after lunch as he +sat smoking and enjoying a well-earned rest, but it was of no avail. I +followed him to a large garden-party later on, but to my great annoyance +he went about talking to every one in the pleasantest way imaginable, +though I perceived that he was longing to play tennis instead. + +At length, however, my opportunity came. Mr. Blackthorne was talking to +the lady of the house, Mrs. Courtenay, when she suddenly exclaimed:-- + +"Ah, here is Mr. Zaluski just arriving. I began to be afraid that he had +forgotten the day, and he is always such an acquisition. How do you do, +Mr. Zaluski?" she said, greeting my victim warmly as he stepped on to the +terrace. "So glad you were able to come. You know Mr. Blackthorne, I +think." + +Zaluski greeted the curate pleasantly, and his dark eyes lighted up with +a gleam of amusement. + +"Oh, we are great friends," he said laughingly. "Only, you know, I +sometimes shock him a little--just a very little." + +"That is very unkind of you, I am sure," said Mrs. Courtenay, smiling. + +"No, not at all," said Zaluski, with the audacity of a privileged being. +"It is just my little amusement, very harmless, very--what you call +innocent. Mr. Blackthorne cannot make up his mind about me. One day I +appear to him to be Catholic, the next Comtist, the next Orthodox Greek, +the next a convert to the Anglican communion. I am a mystery, you see! +And mysteries are as indispensable in life as in a romance." + +He laughed. Mrs. Courtenay laughed too, and a little friendly banter was +carried on between them, while the curate stood by feeling rather out of +it. + +I drew nearer to him, perceiving that my prospects bid fair to improve. +For very few people can feel out of it without drifting into a +self-regarding mood, and then they are the easiest prey imaginable. +Undoubtedly a man like Zaluski, with his easy nonchalance, his knowledge +of the world, his genuine good-nature, and the background of sterling +qualities which came upon you as a surprise because he loved to make +himself seem a mere idler, was apt to eclipse an ordinary mortal like +James Blackthorne. The curate perceived this and did not like to be +eclipsed--as a matter of fact, nobody does. It seemed to him a little +unfair that he, who had hitherto been made much of, should be called to +play second fiddle to this rich Polish fellow who had never done anything +for Muddleton or the neighbourhood. And then, too, Sigismund Zaluski had +a way of poking fun at him which he resented, and would not take in good +part. + +Something of this began to stir in his mind; and he cordially hated the +Pole when Jim Courtenay, who arranged the tennis, came up and asked him +to play in the next set, passing the curate by altogether. + +Then I found no difficulty at all in taking possession of him; indeed he +was delighted to have me brought back to his memory, he positively +gloated over me, and I grew apace. + +Zaluski, in the seventh heaven of happiness, was playing with Gertrude +Morley, and his play was so good and so graceful that every one was +watching it with pleasure. His partner, too, played well; she was a +pretty, fair-haired girl, with soft grey eyes like the eyes of a dove; +she wore a white tennis dress and a white sailor hat, and at her throat +she had fastened a cluster of those beautiful orange-coloured roses known +by the prosaic name of 'William Allan Richardson.' + +If Mr. Blackthorne grew angry as he watched Sigismund Zaluski, he grew +doubly angry as he watched Gertrude Morley. He said to himself that it +was intolerable that such a girl should fall a prey to a vain, shallow, +unprincipled foreigner, and in a few minutes he had painted such a dark +picture of poor Sigismund that my strength increased tenfold. + +"Mr. Blackthorne," said Mrs. Courtenay, "would you take Mrs. +Milton-Cleave to have an ice?" + +Now Mrs. Milton-Cleave had always been one of the curate's great friends. +She was a very pleasant, talkative woman of six-and-thirty, and a general +favourite. Her popularity was well deserved, for she was always ready to +do a kind action, and often went out of her way to help people who had +not the slightest claim upon her. There was, however, no repose about +Mrs. Milton-Cleave, and an acute observer would have discovered that her +universal readiness to help was caused to some extent by her good heart, +but in a very large degree by her restless and over-active brain. Her +sphere was scarcely large enough for her, she would have made an +excellent head of an orphan asylum or manager of some large institution, +but her quiet country life offered far too narrow a field for her energy. + +"It is really quite a treat to watch Mr. Zaluski's play," she remarked as +they walked to the refreshment tent at the other end of the lawn. +"Certainly foreigners know how to move much better than we do: our best +players look awkward beside them." + +"Do you think so?" said Mr. Blackthorne. "I am afraid I am full of +prejudice, and consider that no one can equal a true-born Briton." + +"And I quite agree with you in the main," said Mrs. Milton-Cleave. +"Though I confess that it is rather refreshing to have a little variety." + +The curate was silent, but his silence merely covered his absorption in +me, and I began to exercise a faint influence through his mind on the +mind of his companion. This caused her at length to say: + +"I don't think you quite like Mr. Zaluski. Do you know much about him?" + +"I have met him several times this summer," said the curate, in the tone +of one who could have said much more if he would. + +The less satisfying his replies, the more Mrs. Milton-Cleave's curiosity +grew. + +"Now, tell me candidly," she said at length. "Is there not some mystery +about our new neighbour? Is he quite what he seems to be?" + +"I fear he is not," said Mr. Blackthorne, making the admission in a tone +of reluctance, though, to tell the truth, he had been longing to pass me +on for the last five minutes. + +"You mean that he is fast?" + +"Worse than that," said James Blackthorne, lowering his voice as they +walked down one of the shady garden paths. "He is a dangerous, +unprincipled fellow, and into the bargain an avowed Nihilist. All that +is involved in that word you perhaps scarcely realise." + +"Indeed I do," she exclaimed with a shocked expression. "I have just +been reading a review of that book by Stepniak. Their social and +religious views are terrible; free-love, atheism, everything that could +bring ruin on the human race. Is he indeed a Nihilist?" + +Mr. Blackthorne's conscience gave him a sharp prick, for he knew that he +ought not to have passed me on. He tried to pacify it with the excuse +that he had only promised not to tell that Miss Houghton had been his +informant. + +"I assure you," he said impressively, "it is only too true. I know it on +the best authority." + +And here I cannot help remarking that it has always seemed to me strange +that even experienced women of the world, like Mrs. Milton-Cleave, can be +so easily hoodwinked by that vague nonentity, 'The Best Authority.' I am +inclined to think that were I a human being I should retort with an +expressive motion of the finger and thumb, "Oh, you know it on the best +authority, do you? Then _that_ for your story!" + +However, I thrived wonderfully on the best authority, and it would be +ungrateful of me to speak evil of that powerful though imaginary being. + +At right angles with the garden walk down which the two were pacing there +was another wide pathway, bordered by high closely clipped shrubs. Down +this paced a very different couple. Mrs. Milton-Cleave caught sight of +them, and so did curate. Mrs. Milton-Cleave sighed. + +"I am afraid he is running after Gertrude Morley! Poor girl! I hope she +will not be deluded into encouraging him." + +And then they made just the same little set remarks about the +desirability of stopping so dangerous an acquaintance, and the +impossibility of interfering with other people's affairs, and the sad +necessity of standing by with folded hands. I laughed so much over their +hollow little phrases that at last I was fain to beat a retreat, and, +prompted by curiosity to know a little of the truth, I followed Sigismund +and Gertrude down the broad grassy pathway. + +I knew of course a good deal of Zaluski's character, because my own +existence and growth pointed out what he was not. Still, to study a man +by a process of negation is tedious, and though I knew that he was not a +Nihilist, or a free-lover, or an atheist, or an unprincipled fellow with +a dangerous temper, yet I was curious to see him as he really was. + +"If you only knew how happy you had made me!" he was saying. And indeed, +as far as happiness went, there was not much to choose between them, I +fancy; for Gertrude Morley looked radiant, and in her clove-like eyes +there was the reflection of the love which flashed in his. + +"You must talk to my mother about it," she said after a minute's silence. +"You see, I am still under age, and she and Uncle Henry my guardian must +consent before we are actually betrothed." + +"I will see them at once," said Zaluski, eagerly. + +"You could see my mother," she replied. "But Uncle Henry is still in +Sweden and will not be in town for another week." + +"Must we really wait so long!" sighed Sigismund impatiently. + +She laughed at him gently. + +"A whole week! But then we are sure of each other. I do not think we +ought to grumble." + +"But perhaps they may think that a merchant is no fitting match for you," +he suggested. "I am nothing but a plain merchant, and my I people have +been in the same business for four generations. As far as wealth goes I +might perhaps satisfy your people, but for the rest I am but a prosaic +fellow, with neither noble blood, nor the brain of a genius, nor anything +out of the common." + +"It will be enough for my mother that we love each other," she said +shyly. + +"And your uncle?" + +"It will be enough for him that you are upright and honourable--enough +that you are yourself, Sigismund." + +They were sitting now in a little sheltered recess clipped out of the yew- +trees. When that softly spoken "Sigismund" fell from her lips, Zaluski +caught her in his arms and kissed her again and again. + +"I have led such a lonely life," he said after a few minutes, during +which their talk had baffled my comprehension. "All my people died while +I was still a boy." + +"Then who brought you up?" she inquired. + +"An uncle of mine, the head of our firm in St. Petersburg. He was very +good to me, but he had children of his own, and of course I could not be +to him as one of them. I have had many friends and much kindness shown +to me, but love!--none till to-day." + +And then again they fell into the talk which I could not fathom. And so +I left them in their brief happiness, for my time of idleness was over, +and I was ordered to attend Mrs. Milton-Cleave without a moment's delay. + + + + +MY FOURTH STAGE + + + Oh, the little more, and how much it is! + + R. BROWING. + +Mrs. Milton-Cleave had one weakness--she was possessed by an inordinate +desire for influence. This made her always eagerly anxious to be +interesting both in her conversation and in her letters, and to this end +she exerted herself with unwearying activity. She liked influencing Mr. +Blackthorne, and spared no pains on him that afternoon; and indeed the +curate was a good deal flattered by her friendship, and considered her +one of the most clever and charming women he had ever met. + +Sigismund and Gertrude returned to the ordinary world just as Mrs. Milton- +Cleave was saying good-bye to the hostess. She glanced at them +searchingly. + +"Good-bye, Gertrude," she said a little coldly. "Did you win at tennis?" + +"Indeed we did," said Gertrude, smiling. "We came off with flying +colours. It was a love set." + +The girl was looking more beautiful than ever, and there was a tell-tale +colour in her cheeks and an unusual light in her soft grey eyes. As for +Zaluski, he was so evidently in love, and had the audacity to look so +supremely happy, that Mrs. Milton-Cleave was more than ever impressed +with the gravity of the situation. The curate handed her into her +victoria, and she drove home through the sheltered lanes musing sadly +over the story she had heard, and wondering what Gertrude's future would +be. When she reached home, however, the affair was driven from her +thoughts by her children, of whom she was devotedly fond. They came +running to meet her, frisking like so many kittens round her as she went +upstairs to her room, and begging to stay with her while she dressed for +dinner. During dinner she was engrossed with her husband; but +afterwards, when she was alone in the drawing-room, I found my +opportunity for working on her restless mind. + +"Dear me," she exclaimed, throwing aside the newspaper she had just taken +up, "I ought to write to Mrs. Selldon at Dulminster about that G.F.S. +girl!" + +As a matter of fact she ought not to have written then, the letter might +well have waited till the morning, and she was over-tired and needed +rest. But I was glad to see her take up her pen, for I knew I should +come in most conveniently to fill up the second side of the sheet. + +Before long Jane Stiggins, the member who had migrated from Muddleton to +Dulminster, had been duly reported, wound up, and made over to the +Archdeacon's wife. Then the tired hand paused. What more could she say +to her friend? + +"We are leading our usual quiet life here," she wrote, "with the ordinary +round of tennis parties and picnics to enliven us. The children have all +been wonderfully well, and I think you will see a great improvement in +your god-daughter when you next come to stay with us"--"Oh dear!" sighed +Mrs. Milton-Cleave, "how dull and stupid I am to-night! I can't think of +a single thing to say." Then at length I flashed into her mind, and with +a sigh of relief and a little rising flush of excitement she went on much +more rapidly. + +"It is such a comfort to be quite at rest about them, and to see them all +looking so well. But I suppose one can never be without some cause of +worry, and just now I am very unhappy about that nice girl Gertrude +Morley whom you admired so much when you were last here. The whole +neighbourhood has been dominated this year by a young Polish merchant +named Sigismund Zaluski, who is very clever and musical and knows well +how to win popularity. He has taken Ivy Cottage for four mouths, and is, +I fear, doing great mischief. The Morleys are his special friends, and I +greatly fear he is making love to Gertrude. Now I know privately, on the +very best authority, that although he has so completely deceived every +one and has managed so cleverly to pose as a respectable man, that Mr. +Zaluski is really a Nihilist, a free-lover, an atheist, and altogether a +most unprincipled man. He is very clever, and speaks English most +fluently, indeed he has lived in London since the spring of 1881--he told +me so himself. I cannot help fancying that he must have been concerned +in the assassination of the late Czar, which you will remember took place +in that year early in March. It is terrible to think of the poor Morleys +entering blindfold on such an undesirable connection; but, at the same +time, I really do not feel that I can say anything about it. Excuse this +hurried note, dear Charlotte, and with love to yourself and kindest +remembrances to the Archdeacon, + +"Believe me, very affectionately yours, + +"GEORGINA MILTON-CLEAVE. + +"P.S. It may perhaps be as well not to mention this affair about +Gertrude Morley and Mr. Zaluski. They are not yet engaged, as far as I +know, and I sincerely trust it may prove to be a mere flirtation." + +* * * * * + +I had now grown to such enormous dimensions that any one who had known me +in my infancy would scarcely have recognised me, while naturally the more +I grew the more powerful I became, and the more capable both of +impressing the minds which received me and of injuring Zaluski. Poor +Zaluski, who was so foolishly, thoughtlessly happy! He little dreamed of +the fate that awaited him! His whole world was bright and full of +promise; each hour of love seemed to improve him, to deepen his whole +character, to tone down his rather flippant manner, to awaken for him new +and hitherto unthought-of realities. + +But while he basked in his new happiness I travelled in my close stuffy +envelope to Dulminster, and after having been tossed in and out of bags, +shuffled, stamped, thumped, tied up, and generally shaken about, I +arrived one morning at Dulminster Archdeaconry, and was laid on the +breakfast table among other appetising things to greet Mrs. Selldon when +she came downstairs. + + + + +MY FIFTH STAGE + + + Also it is wise not to believe everything you hear, not immediately to + carry to the ears of others what you have either heard or believed. + + THOMAS A KEMPIS. + +Though I was read in silence at the breakfast table and not passed on to +the Archdeacon, I lay dormant in Mrs. Selldon's mind all day, and came to +her aid that night when she was at her wits' end for something to talk +about. + +Mrs. Selldon, though a most worthy and estimable person, was of a +phlegmatic temperament; her sympathies were not easily aroused, her mind +was lazy and torpid, in conversation she was unutterably dull. There +were times when she was painfully conscious of this, and would have given +much for the ceaseless flow of words which fell from the lips of her +friend Mrs. Milton-Cleave. And that evening after my arrival chanced to +be one of these occasions, for there was a dinner-party at the +Archdeaconry, given in honour of a well-known author who was spending a +few days in the neighbourhood. + +"I wish you could have Mr. Shrewsbury at your end of the table, Thomas," +Mrs. Selldon had remarked to her husband with a sigh, as she was +arranging the guests on paper that afternoon. + +"Oh, he must certainly take you in, my dear," said the Archdeacon. "And +he seems a very clever, well-read man, I am sure you will find him easy +to talk to." + +Poor Mrs. Selldon thought that she would rather have had some one who was +neither clever nor well-read. But there was no help for her, and, +whether she would or not, she had to go in to dinner with the literary +lion. + +Mr. Mark Shrewsbury was a novelist of great ability. Some twenty years +before, he had been called to the bar, and, conscious of real talent, had +been greatly embittered by the impossibility of getting on in his +profession. At length, in disgust, he gave up all hopes of success and +devoted himself instead to literature. In this field he won the +recognition for which he craved; his books were read everywhere, his name +became famous, his income steadily increased, and he had the pleasant +consciousness that he had found his vocation. Still, in spite of his +success, he could not forget the bitter years of failure and +disappointment which had gone before, and though his novels were full of +genius they were pervaded by an undertone of sarcasm, so that people +after reading them were more ready than before to take cynical views of +life. + +He was one of those men whose quiet impassive faces reveal scarcely +anything of their character. He was neither tall nor short, neither dark +nor fair, neither handsome nor the reverse; in fact his personality was +not in the least impressive; while, like most true artists, he observed +all things so quietly that you rarely discovered that he was observing at +all. + +"Dear me!" people would say, "Is Mark Shrewsbury really here? Which is +he? I don't see any one at all like my idea of a novelist." + +"There he is--that man in spectacles," would be the reply. + +And really the spectacles were the only noteworthy thing about him. + +Mrs. Selldon, who had seen several authors and authoresses in her time, +and knew that they were as a rule most ordinary, hum-drum kind of people, +was quite prepared for her fate. She remembered her astonishment as a +girl when, having laughed and cried at the play, and taken the chief +actor as her ideal hero, she had had him pointed out to her one day in +Regent Street, and found him to be a most commonplace-looking man, the +very last person one would have supposed capable of stirring the hearts +of a great audience. + +Meanwhile dinner progressed, and Mrs. Selldon talked to an empty-headed +but loquacious man on her left, and racked her brains for something to +say to the alarmingly silent author on her right. She remembered hearing +that Charles Dickens would often sit silent through the whole of dinner, +observing quietly those about him, but that at dessert he would suddenly +come to life and keep the whole table in roars of laughter. She feared +that Mr. Shrewsbury meant to imitate the great novelist in the first +particular, but was scarcely likely to follow his example in the last. At +length she asked him what he thought of the cathedral, and a few tepid +remarks followed. + +"How unutterably this good lady bores me!" thought the author. + +"How odd it is that his characters talk so well in his books, and that he +is such a stick!" thought Mrs. Selldon. + +"I suppose it's the effect of cathedral-town atmosphere," reflected the +author. + +"I suppose he is eaten up with conceit and won't trouble himself to talk +to me," thought the hostess. + +By the time the fish had been removed they had arrived at a state of +mutual contempt. Mindful of the reputation they had to keep up, however, +they exerted themselves a little more while the _entrees_ went round. + +"Seldom reads, I should fancy, and never thinks!" reflected the author, +glancing at Mrs. Selldon's placid unintellectual face. "What on earth +can I say to her?" + +"Very unpractical, I am sure," reflected Mrs. Selldon. "The sort of man +who lives in a world of his own, and only lays down his pen to take up a +book. What subject shall I start?" + +"What delightful weather we have been having the last few days!" observed +the author. "Real genuine summer weather at last." The same remark had +been trembling on Mrs. Selldon's lips. She assented with great +cheerfulness and alacrity; and over that invaluable topic, which is +always so safe, and so congenial, and so ready to hand, they grew quite +friendly, and the conversation for fully five minutes was animated. + +An interval of thought followed. + +"How wearisome is society!" reflected Mrs. Selldon. "It is hard that we +must spend so much money in giving dinners and have so much trouble for +so little enjoyment." + +"One pays dearly for fame," reflected the author. "What a confounded +nuisance it is to waste all this time when there are the last proofs of +'What Caste?' to be done for the nine-o'clock post to-morrow morning! +Goodness knows what time I shall get to bed to-night!" + +Then Mrs. Selldon thought regretfully of the comfortable easy chair that +she usually enjoyed after dinner, and the ten minutes' nap, and the +congenial needle-work. And Mark Shrewsbury thought of his chambers in +Pump Court, and longed for his type-writer, and his books, and his swivel +chair, and his favourite meerschaum. + +"I should be less afraid to talk if there were not always the horrible +idea that he may take down what one says," thought Mrs. Selldon. + +"I should be less bored if she would only be her natural self," reflected +the author. "And would not talk prim platitudes." (This was hard, for +he had talked nothing else himself.) "Does she think she is so +interesting that I am likely to study her for my next book?" + +"Have you been abroad this summer?" inquired Mrs. Selldon, making another +spasmodic attempt at conversation. + +"No, I detest travelling," replied Mark Shrewsbury. "When I need change +I just settle down in some quiet country district for a few +months--somewhere near Windsor, or Reigate, or Muddleton. There is +nothing to my mind like our English scenery." + +"Oh, do you know Muddleton?" exclaimed Mrs. Selldon. "Is it not a +charming little place? I often stay in the neighbourhood with the Milton- +Cleaves." + +"I know Milton-Cleave well," said the author. "A capital fellow, quite +the typical country gentleman." + +"Is he not?" said Mrs. Selldon, much relieved to have found this subject +in common. "His wife is a great friend of mine; she is full of life and +energy, and does an immense amount of good. Did you say you had stayed +with them?" + +"No, but last year I took a house in that neighbourhood for a few months; +a most charming little place it was, just fit for a lonely bachelor. I +dare say you remember it--Ivy Cottage, on the Newton Road." + +"Did you stay there? Now what a curious coincidence! Only this morning +I heard from Mrs. Milton-Cleave that Ivy Cottage has been taken this +summer by a Mr. Sigismund Zaluski, a Polish merchant, who is doing untold +harm in the neighbourhood. He is a very clever, unscrupulous man, and +has managed to take in almost every one." + +"Why, what is he? A swindler? Or a burglar in disguise, like the _House +on the Marsh_ fellow?" asked the author, with a little twinkle of +amusement in his face. + +"Oh, much worse than that," said Mrs. Selldon, lowering her voice. "I +assure you, Mr. Shrewsbury, you would hardly credit the story if I were +to tell it you, it is really stranger than fiction." Mark Shrewsbury +pricked up his ears, he no longer felt bored, he began to think that, +after all, there might be some compensation for this wearisome dinner- +party. He was always glad to seize upon material for future plots, and +somehow the notion of a mysterious Pole suddenly making his appearance in +that quiet country neighbourhood and winning undeserved popularity rather +took his fancy. He thought he might make something of it. However, he +knew human nature too well to ask a direct question. + +"I am sorry to hear that," he said, becoming all at once quite +sympathetic and approachable. "I don't like the thought of those simple, +unsophisticated people being hoodwinked by a scoundrel." + +"No; is it not sad?" said Mrs. Selldon. "Such pleasant, hospitable +people as they are! Do you remember the Morleys?" + +"Oh yes! There was a pretty daughter who played tennis well." + +"Quite so--Gertrude Morley. Well, would you believe it, this miserable +fortune-hunter is actually either engaged to her or on the eve of being +engaged! Poor Mrs. Milton-Cleave is so unhappy about it, for she knows, +on the best authority, that Mr. Zaluski is unfit to enter a respectable +house." + +"Perhaps he is really some escaped criminal?" suggested Mr. Shrewsbury, +tentatively. + +Mrs. Selldon hesitated. Then, under the cover of the general roar of +conversation, she said in a low voice:-- + +"You have guessed quite rightly. He is one of the Nihilists who were +concerned in the assassination of the late Czar." + +"You don't say so!" exclaimed Mark Shrewsbury, much startled. "Is it +possible?" + +"Indeed, it is only too true," said Mrs. Selldon. "I heard it only the +other morning, and on the very best authority. Poor Gertrude Morley! My +heart bleeds for her." + +Now I can't help observing here that this must have been the merest +figure of speech, for just then there was a comfortable little glow of +satisfaction about Mrs. Selldon's heart. She was so delighted to have +"got on well," as she expressed it, with the literary lion, and by this +time dessert was on the table, and soon the tedious ceremony would be +happily over. + +"But how did he escape?" asked Mark Shrewsbury, still with the thought of +"copy" in his mind. + +"I don't know the details," said Mrs. Selldon. "Probably they are only +known to himself. But he managed to escape somehow in the month of March +1881, and to reach England safely. I fear it is only too often the case +in this world--wickedness is apt to be successful." + +"To flourish like a green bay tree," said Mark Shrewsbury, congratulating +himself on the aptness of the quotation, and its suitability to the +Archediaconal dinner-table. "It is the strangest story I have heard for +a long time." Just then there was a pause in the general conversation, +and Mrs. Selldon took advantage of it to make the sign for rising, so +that no more passed with regard to Zaluski. + +Shrewsbury, flattering himself that he had left a good impression by his +last remark, thought better not to efface it later in the evening by any +other conversation with his hostess. But in the small hours of the +night, when he had finished his bundle of proofs, he took up his notebook +and, strangling his yawns, made two or three brief, pithy notes of the +story Mrs. Selldon had told him, adding a further development which +occurred to him, and wondering to himself whether "Like a Green Bay Tree" +would be a selling title. + +After this he went to bed, and slept the sleep of the just, or the +unbroken sleep which goes by that name. + + + + +MY SIXTH STAGE + + + But whispering tongues can poison truth. + + COLERIDGE. + +London in early September is a somewhat trying place. Mark Shrewsbury +found it less pleasing in reality than in his visions during the dinner- +party at Dulminster. True, his chambers were comfortable, and his type- +writer was as invaluable a machine as ever, and his novel was drawing to +a successful conclusion; but though all these things were calculated to +cheer him, he was nevertheless depressed. Town was dull, the heat was +trying, and he had never in his life found it so difficult to settle down +to work. He began to agree with the Preacher, that "of making many books +there is no end," and that, in spite of his favourite "Remington's +perfected No. 2," novel-writing was a weariness to the flesh. Soon he +drifted into a sort of vague idleness, which was not a good, honest +holiday, but just a lazy waste of time and brains. I was pleased to +observe this, and was not slow to take advantage of it. Had he stayed in +Pump Court he might have forgotten me altogether in his work, but in the +soft luxury of his Club life I found that I had a very fair chance of +being passed on to some one else. + +One hot afternoon, on waking from a comfortable nap in the depths of an +armchair at the Club, Shrewsbury was greeted by one of his friends. + +"I thought you were in Switzerland, old fellow!" he exclaimed, yawning +and stretching himself. + +"Came back yesterday--awfully bad season--confoundedly dull," returned +the other. "Where have you been?" + +"Down with Warren near Dulminster. Deathly dull hole." + +"Do for your next novel. Eh?" said the other with a laugh. + +Mark Shrewsbury smiled good-naturedly. + +"Talking of novels," he observed, with another yawn, "I heard such a +story down there!" + +"Did you? Let's hear it. A nice little scandal would do instead of a +pick-me-up." + +"It's not a scandal. Don't raise your expectations. It's the story of a +successful scoundrel." + +And then I came out again in full vigour--nay, with vastly increased +powers; for though Mark Shrewsbury did not add very much to me, or alter +my appearance, yet his graphic words made me much more impressive than I +had been under the management of Mrs. Selldon. + +"H'm! that's a queer story," said the limp-looking young man from +Switzerland. "I say, have a game of billiards, will you?" + +Shrewsbury, with prodigious yawn, dragged himself up out of his chair, +and the two went off together. As they left the room the only other man +present looked up from his newspaper, following them with his eyes. + +"Shrewsbury the novelist," he thought to himself. "A sterling fellow! +And he heard it from an Archdeacon's wife. Confound it all! the thing +must be true then. I'll write and make full inquiries about this Zaluski +before consenting to the engagement." + +And, being a prompt, business-like man, Gertrude Morley's uncle sat down +and wrote the following letter to a Russian friend of his who lived at +St. Petersburg, and who might very likely be able to give some account of +Zaluski:-- + + Dear Leonoff,--Some very queer stories are afloat about a young Polish + merchant, by name Sigismund Zaluski, the head of the London branch of + the firm of Zaluski and Zernoff, at St. Petersburg. Will you kindly + make inquiries for me as to his true character and history? I would + not trouble you with this affair, but the fact is Zaluski has made an + offer of marriage to one of my wards, and before consenting to any + betrothal I must know what sort of man he really is. I take it for + granted that "there is no smoke without fire," and that there must be + something in the very strange tale which I have just heard on the best + authority. It is said that this Sigismund Zaluski left St. Petersburg + in March 1881, after the assassination of the late Czar, in which he + was seriously compromised. He is said to be an out-and-out Nihilist, + an atheist, and, in short, a dangerous, disreputable fellow. Will you + sift the matter for me? I don't wish to dismiss the fellow without + good reason, but of course I could not think of permitting him to be + engaged to my niece until these charges are entirely disproved. + + With kind remembrances to your father, + + I am, yours faithfully + HENRY CRICHTON-MORLEY. + + + + +MY SEVENTH STAGE + + + Yet on the dull silence breaking + With a lightning flash, a word, + Bearing endless desolation + On its blighting wings, I heard; + Earth can forge no keener weapon, + Dealing surer death and pain, + And the cruel echo answered + Through long years again. + + A. A. PROCTER. + +Curiously enough, I must actually have started for Russia on the same day +that Sigismund Zaluski was summoned by his uncle at St. Petersburg to +return on a matter of urgent business. I learnt afterwards that the +telegram arrived at Muddleton on the afternoon of one of those sunny +September days and found Zaluski as usual at the Morleys. He was very +much annoyed at being called away just then, and before he had received +any reply from Gertrude's uncle as to the engagement. However, after a +little ebullition of anger, he regained his usual philosophic tone, and, +reminding Gertrude that he need not be away from England for more than a +fortnight, he took leave of her and set off in a prompt, manly fashion, +leaving most of his belongings at Ivy Cottage, which was his for another +six weeks, and to which he hoped shortly to return. + +After a weary time of imprisonment in my envelope, I at length reached my +destination at St. Petersburg and was read by Dmitry Leonoff. He was a +very busy man, and by the same post received dozens of other letters. He +merely muttered--"That well-known firm! A most unlikely story!"--and +then thrust me into a drawer with other letters which had to be answered. +Very probably I escaped his memory altogether for the next few days: +however, there I was--a startling accusation in black and white; and, as +everybody knows, St. Petersburg is not London. + +The Leonoff family lived on the third storey of a large block of +buildings in the Sergeffskaia. About two o'clock in the morning, on the +third day after my arrival, the whole household was roused from sleep by +thundering raps on the door, and the dreaded cry of "Open to the police." + +The unlucky master was forced to allow himself, his wife, and his +children to be made prisoners, while every corner of the house was +searched and every book and paper examined. + +Leonoff had nothing whatever to do with the Revolutionary movement, but +absolute innocence does not free people from the police inquisition, and +five or six years ago, when the Search mania was at its height, a case is +on record of a poor lady whose house was searched seven times within +twenty-four hours, though there was no evidence whatever that she was +connected with the Nihilists; the whole affair was, in fact, a +misunderstanding, as she was perfectly innocent. + +This search in Dmitry Leonoff's house was also a misunderstanding, and in +the dominions of the Czar misunderstandings are of frequent occurrence. + +Leonoff knew himself to be innocent, and he felt no fear, though +considerable annoyance, while the search was prosecuted; he could hardly +believe the evidence of his senses when, without a word of explanation, +he was informed that he must take leave of his wife and children, and go +in charge of the gendarmes to the House of Preventive Detention. + +Being a sensible man, he kept his temper, remarked courteously that some +mistake must have been made, embraced his weeping wife, and went off +passively, while the pristav carried away a bundle of letters in which I +occupied the most prominent place. + +Leonoff remained a prisoner only for a few days; there was not a shred of +evidence against him, and, having suffered terrible anxiety, he was +finally released. But Mr. Crichton-Morley's letter was never restored to +him, it remained in the hands of the authorities, and the night after +Leonoff's arrest the pristav, the procurator, and the gendarmes made +their way into the dwelling of Sigismund Zaluski's uncle, where a similar +search was prosecuted. + +Sigismund was asleep and dreaming of Gertrude and of his idyllic summer +in England, when his bedroom door was forced open and he was roughly +roused by the gendarmes. + +His first feeling was one of amazement, his second, one of indignation; +however, he was obliged to get up at once and dress, the policeman +rigorously keeping guard over him the whole time for fear he should +destroy any treasonable document. + +"How I shall make them laugh in England when I tell them of this +ridiculous affair!" reflected Sigismund, as he was solemnly marched into +the adjoining room, where he found his uncle and cousins, each guarded by +a policeman. + +He made some jesting remark, but was promptly reprimanded by his gaoler, +and in wearisome silence the household waited while the most rigorous +search of the premises was made. + +Of course nothing was found; but, to the amazement of all, Sigismund was +formally arrested. + +"There must be some mistake," he exclaimed, "I have been resident in +England for some time. I have no connection whatever with Russian +politics." + +"Oh, we are well aware of your residence in England," said the pristav. +"You left St. Petersburg early in March 1881. We are well aware of +that." + +Something in the man's tone made Sigismund's heart stand still. Could he +possibly be suspected of complicity in the plot to assassinate the late +Czar? The idea would have made him laugh had he been in England. In St. +Petersburg, and under these circumstances, it made him tremble. + +"There is some terrible mistake," he said. "I have never had the +slightest connection with the revolutionary party." + +The pristav shrugged his shoulders, and Sigismund, feeling like one in a +dream, took leave of his relations, and was escorted at once to the House +of Preventive Detention. + +Arrived at his destination, he was examined in a brief, unsatisfactory +way; but when he angrily asked for the evidence on which he had been +arrested, he was merely told that information had been received charging +him with being concerned in the assassination of the late Emperor, and of +being an advanced member of the Nihilist party. His vehement denials +were received with scornful incredulity, his departure for England just +after the assassination, and his prolonged absence from Russia, of course +gave colour to the accusation, and he was ordered off to his cell "to +reflect." + + + + +MY TRIUMPHANT FINALE + + + Words are mighty, words are living; + Serpents with their venomous stings, + Or bright angels crowding round us, + With heaven's light upon their wings; + Every word has its own spirit, + True or false, that never dies; + Every word man's lips have uttered + Echoes in God's skies. + + A. A. PROCTER. + +My labours were now nearly at an end, and being, so to speak, off duty, I +could occupy myself just as I pleased. I therefore resolved to keep +watch over Zaluski in his prison. + +For the first few hours after his arrest he was in a violent passion; he +paced up and down his tiny cell like a lion in a cage; he was beside +himself with indignation, and the blood leapt through his veins like +wildfire. + +Then he became a little ashamed of himself and tried to grow quiet, and +after a sleepless night he passed to the opposite extreme and sat all day +long on the solitary stool in his grim abode, his head resting on his +hands, and his mind a prey to the most fearful melancholy. + +The second night, however, he slept, and awoke with a steady resolve in +his mind. + +"It will never do to give way like this, or I shall be in a brain fever +in no time," he reflected. "I will get leave to have books and writing +materials. I will make the best of a bad business." + +He remembered how pleased he had been when Gertrude had once smiled on +him because, when all the others in the party were grumbling at the +discomforts of a certain picnic where the provisions had gone astray, he +had gaily made the best of it and ransacked the nearest cottages for +bread-and-cheese. He set to work bravely now; hoped daily for his +release; read all the books he was allowed to receive, invented solitary +games, began a novel, and drew caricatures. + +In October he was again examined; but, having nothing to reveal, it was +inevitable that he could reveal nothing; and he was again sent back to +his cell "to reflect." + +I perceived that after this his heart began to fail him. + +There existed in the House of Preventive Detention a system of +communication between the luckless prisoners carried on by means of +tapping on the wall. Sigismund, being a clever fellow, had become a +great adept at this telegraphic system, and had struck up a friendship +with a young student in the next cell; this poor fellow had been +imprisoned three years, his sole offence being that he had in his +possession a book of which the Government did not approve, and that he +was first cousin to a well-known Nihilist. + +The two became as devoted to each other as Silvio Pellico and Count +Oroboni; but it soon became evident to Valerian Vasilowitch that, unless +Zaluski was released, he would soon succumb to the terrible restrictions +of prison life. + +"Keep up your heart, my friend," he used to say. "I have borne it three +years, and am still alive to tell the tale." + +"But you are stronger both in mind and body," said Sigismund; "and you +are not madly in love as I am." + +And then he would pour forth a rhapsody about Gertrude, and about English +life, and about his hopes and fears for the future; to all of which +Valerian, like the brave fellow he was, replied with words of +encouragement. + +But at length there came a day when his friend made no answer to his +usual morning greeting. + +"Are you ill?" he asked. + +For some time there was no reply, but after a while Sigismund rapped +faintly the despairing words:-- + +"Dead beat!" + +Valerian felt the tears start to his eyes. It was what he had all along +expected, and for a time grief and indignation and his miserable +helplessness made him almost beside himself. At last he remembered that +there was at least one thing in his power. Each day he was escorted by a +warder to a tiny square, walled off in the exercising ground, and was +allowed to walk for a few minutes; he would take this opportunity of +begging the warder to get the doctor for his friend. + +But unfortunately the doctor did not think very seriously of Zaluski's +case. In that dreary prison he had patients in the last stages of all +kinds of disease, and Sigismund, who had been in confinement too short a +time to look as ill as the others, did not receive much attention. +Certainly, the doctor admitted, his lungs were affected; probably the +sudden change of climate and the lack of good food and fresh air had been +too much for him; so the solemn farce ended, and he was left to his fate. +"If I were indeed a Nihilist, and suffered for a cause which I had at +heart," he telegraphed to Valerian, "I could bear it better. But to be +kept here for an imaginary offence, to bear cold and hunger and illness +all to no purpose--that beats me. There can't be a God, or such things +would not be allowed." + +"To me it seems," said Valerian, "that we are the victims of violated +law. Others have shown tyranny, or injustice, or cruelty, and we are the +victims of their sin. Don't say there is no God. There must be a God to +avenge such hideous wrong." + +So they spoke to each other through their prison wall as men in the free +outer world seldom care to speak; and I, who knew no barriers, looked now +on Valerian's gaunt figure, and brave but prematurely old face, now on +poor Zaluski, who, in his weary imprisonment, had wasted away till one +could scarcely believe that he was indeed the same lithe, active fellow +who had played tennis at Mrs. Courtenay's garden-party. + +Day and night Valerian listened to the terrible cough which came from the +adjoining cell. It became perfectly apparent to him that his friend was +dying; he knew it as well as if he had seen the burning hectic flush on +his hollow cheeks, and heard the panting, hurried breaths, and watched +the unnatural brilliancy of his dark eyes. + +At length he thought the time had come for another sort of comfort. + +"My friend," he said one day, "it is too plain to me now that you are +dying. Write to the procurator and tell him so. In some cases men have +been allowed to go home to die." + +A wild hope seized on poor Sigismund; he sat down to the little table in +his cell and wrote a letter to the procurator--a letter which might +almost have drawn tears from a flint. Again and again he passionately +asserted his innocence, and begged to know on what evidence he was +imprisoned. He began to think that he could die content if he might +leave this terrible cell, might be a free agent once more, if only for a +few days. At least he might in that case clear his character, and +convince Gertrude that his imprisonment had been all a hideous mistake; +nay, he fancied that he might live through a journey to England and see +her once again. + +But the procurator would not let him be set free, and refused to believe +that his case was really a serious one. + +Sigismund's last hope left him. + +The days and weeks dragged slowly on, and when, according to English +reckoning, New Year's Eve arrived, he could scarcely believe that only +seventeen weeks ago he had actually been with Gertrude, and that disgrace +and imprisonment had seemed things that could never come near him, and +death had been a far-away possibility, and life had been full of bliss. + +As I watched him a strong desire seized me to revisit the scenes of which +he was thinking, and I winged my way back to England, and soon found +myself in the drowsy, respectable streets of Muddleton. + +It was New Year's Eve, and I saw Mrs. O'Reilly preparing presents for her +grandchildren, and talking, as she tied them up, of that dreadful +Nihilist who had deceived them in the summer. I saw Lena Houghton, and +Mr. Blackthorne, and Mrs. Milton-Cleave, kneeling in church on that +Friday morning, praying that pity might be shown "upon all prisoners and +captives, and all that are desolate or oppressed." + +It never occurred to them that they were responsible for the sufferings +of one weary prisoner, or that his death would be laid at their door. + +I flew to Dulminster, and saw Mrs. Selldon kneeling in the cathedral at +the late evening service and rigorously examining herself as to the +shortcomings of the dying year. She confessed many things in a vague, +untroubled way; but had any one told her that she had cruelly wronged her +neighbour, and helped to bring an innocent man to shame, and prison, and +death, she would not have believed the accusation. + +I sought out Mark Shrewsbury. He was at his chambers in Pump Court +working away with his type-writer; he had a fancy for working the old +year out and the new year in, and now he was in the full swing of that +novel which had suggested itself to his mind when Mrs. Selldon described +the rich and mysterious foreigner who had settled down at Ivy Cottage. +Most happily he laboured on, never dreaming that his careless words had +doomed a fellow-man to a painful and lingering death; never dreaming that +while his fingers flew to and fro over his dainty little keyboard, +describing the clever doings of the unscrupulous foreigner, another man, +the victim of his idle gossip, tapped dying messages on a dreary prison +wall. + +For the end had come. + +Through the evening Sigismund rested wearily on his truckle-bed. He +could not lie down because of his cough, and, since there were no extra +pillows to prop him up, he had to rest his head and shoulders against the +wall. There was a gas-burner in the tiny cell, and by its light he +looked round the bare walls of his prison with a blank, hopeless, yet +wistful gaze; there was the stool, there was the table, there were the +clothes he should never wear again, there was the door through which his +lifeless body would soon be carried. He looked at everything +lingeringly, for he knew that this desolate prison was the last bit of +the world he should ever see. + +Presently the gas was turned out. + +He sighed as he felt the darkness close in upon him, for he knew that his +eyes would never again see light--knew that in this dark lonely cell he +must lie and wait for death. And he was young and wished to live, and he +was in love and longed most terribly for the presence of the woman he +loved. + +The awful desolateness of the cell was more than he could endure; he +tried to think of his past life, he tried to live once again through +those happy weeks with Gertrude; but always he came back to the aching +misery of the present--the cold and the pain, and the darkness and the +terrible solitude. + +His nerveless fingers felt their way to the wall and faintly rapped a +summons. + +"Valerian!" he said, "I shall not live through the night. Watch with +me." + +The faint raps sounded clearly in the stillness of the great building, +and Valerian dreaded lest the warders should hear them, and deal out +punishment for an offence which by day they were forced to wink at. + +But he would not for the world have deserted his friend. He drew his +stool close to the wall, wrapped himself round in all the clothes he +could muster, and, shivering with cold, kept watch through the long +winter night. + +"I am near you," he telegraphed. "I will watch with you till morning." + +From time to time Sigismund rapped faint messages, and Valerian replied +with comfort and sympathy. Once he thought to himself, "My friend is +better; there is more power in his hand." And indeed he trembled, +fearing that the sharp, emphatic raps must certainly attract notice and +put an end to their communion. + +"Tell my love that the accusation was false--false!" the word was +vehemently repeated. "Tell her I died broken-hearted, loving her to the +end." + +"I will tell her all when I am free," said poor Valerian, wondering with +a sigh when his unjust imprisonment would end. "Do you suffer much?" he +asked. + +There was a brief interval. Sigismund hesitated to tell a falsehood in +his last extremity. + +"It will soon be over. Do not be troubled for me," he replied. And +after that there was a long, long silence. + +Poor fellow! he died hard; and I wished that those comfortable English +people could have been dragged from their warm beds and brought into the +cold dreary cell where their victim lay, fighting for breath, suffering +cruelly both in mind and body. Valerian, listening in sad suspense, +heard one more faint word rapped by the dying man. + +"Farewell!" + +"God be with you!" he replied, unable to check the tears which rained +down as he thought of the life so sadly ended, and of his own +bereavement. + +He heard no more. Sigismund's strength failed him, and I, to whom the +darkness made no difference, watched him through the last dread struggle; +there was no one to raise him, or hold him, no one to comfort him. Alone +in the cold and darkness of that first morning of the year 1887, he died. + +Valerian did not hear through the wall his last faint gasping cry, but I +heard it, and its exceeding bitterness would have made mortals weep. + +"Gertrude!" he sobbed. "Gertrude!" + +And with that his head sank on his breast, and the life, which but for me +might have been so happy and prosperous, was ended. + +* * * * * + +Prompted by curiosity, I instantly returned to Muddleton and sought out +Gertrude Morley. I stole into her room. She lay asleep, but her dreams +were troubled, and her face, once so fresh and bright, was worn with pain +and anxiety. + +Scarcely had I entered the room when, to my amazement, I saw the spirit +of Sigismund Zaluski. + +I saw him bend down and kiss the sleeping girl, and for a moment her sad +face lighted up with a radiant smile. + +I looked again; he was gone. Then Gertrude threw up both her arms and +with a bitter cry awoke from her dream. + +"Sigismund!" she cried. "Oh, Sigismund! Now I know that you are dead +indeed." + +For a long, long time she lay in a sort of trance of misery. It seemed +as if the life had been almost crushed out of her, and it was not until +the bells began to ring for the six o'clock service, merrily pealing out +their welcome of the new year morning, that full consciousness returned +to her again. But, as she clearly realised what had happened, she broke +into such a passion of tears as I had never before witnessed, while still +in the darkness the new year bells rang gaily, and she knew that they +heralded for her the beginning of a lonely life. + +And so my work ended; my part in this world was played out. Nevertheless +I still live; and there will come a day when Sigismund and Gertrude shall +be comforted and the slanderers punished. + +For poor Valerian was right, and there is an Avenger, in whom even my +progenitor believes, and before whom he trembles. + +There will come a time when those self-satisfied ones, whose hands are +all the time steeped in blood, shall be confronted with me, and shall +realise to the full all that their idle words have brought about. + +For that day I wait; and though afterwards I shall be finally destroyed +in the general destruction of all that is unmitigatedly evil, I promise +myself a certain satisfaction and pleasure (a feeling I doubtless inherit +from my progenitor), when I watch the shame, and horror, and remorse of +Mrs. O'Reilly and the rest of the people to whom I owe my existence and +rapid growth. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A SLANDER*** + + +******* This file should be named 1273.txt or 1273.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/2/7/1273 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + + +THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A SLANDER + + + + +MY FIRST STAGE + + + +At last the tea came up, and so +With that our tongues began to go. +Now in that house you're sure of knowing +The smallest scrap of news that's going. +We find it there the wisest way +To take some care of what we say. +RECREATION. JANE TAYLOR + + +I was born on the 2nd September, 1886, in a small, dull, country +town. When I say the town was dull, I mean, of course, that the +inhabitants were unenterprising, for in itself Muddleton was a +picturesque place, and though it laboured under the usual +disadvantage of a dearth of bachelors and a superfluity of +spinsters, it might have been pleasant enough had it not been a +favourite resort for my kith and kin. + +My father has long enjoyed a world-wide notoriety; he is not, +however, as a rule named in good society, though he habitually +frequents it; and as I am led to believe that my autobiography will +possibly be circulated by Mr. Mudie, and will lie about on drawing- +room tables, I will merely mention that a most representation of my +progenitor, under his nom de theatre, Mephistopheles, may be seen +now in London, and I should recommend all who wish to understand his +character to go to the Lyceum, though, between ourselves, he +strongly disapproves of the whole performance. + +I was introduced into the world by an old lady named Mrs. O'Reilly. +She was a very pleasant old lady, the wife of a General, and one of +those sociable, friendly, talkative people who do much to cheer +their neighbours, particularly in a deadly-lively provincial place +like Muddleton, where the standard of social intercourse is not very +high. Mrs. O'Reilly had been in her day a celebrated beauty; she +was now grey-haired and stout, but still there was something +impressive about her, and few could resist the charm of her manner +and the pleasant easy flow of her small talk. Her love of gossip +amounted almost to a passion, and nothing came amiss to her; she +liked to know everything about everybody, and in the main I think +her interest was a kindly one, though she found that a little bit of +scandal, every now and then, added a piquant flavour to the homely +fare provided by the commonplace life of the Muddletonians. + +I will now, without further preamble, begin the history of my life. + + +"I assure you, my dear Lena, Mr. Zaluski is nothing less than a +Nihilist!" + +The sound waves set in motion by Mrs. O'Reilly's words were +tumultuously heaving in the atmosphere when I sprang into being, a +young but perfectly formed and most promising slander. A delicious +odour of tea pervaded the drawing-room, it was orange-flower pekoe, +and Mrs. O'Reilly was just handing one of the delicate Crown Derby +cups to her visitor, Miss Lena Houghton. + +"What a shocking thing! Do you really mean it?" exclaimed Miss +Houghton. "Thank you, cream but no sugar; don't you know, Mrs. +O'Reilly, that it is only Low-Church people who take sugar nowadays? +But, really, now, about Mr. Zaluski? How did you find it out?" + +"My dear, I am an old woman, and I have learnt in the course of a +wandering life to put two and two together," said Mrs. O'Reilly. +She had somehow managed to ignore middle age, and had passed from +her position of renowned beauty to the position which she now firmly +and constantly claimed of many years and much experience. "Of +course," she continued, "like every one else, I was glad enough to +be friendly and pleasant to Sigismund Zaluski, and as to his being a +Pole, why, I think it rather pleased me than otherwise. You see, my +dear, I have knocked about the world and mixed with all kinds of +people. Still, one must draw the line somewhere, and I confess it +gave me a very painful shock to find that he had such violent +antipathies to law and order. When he took Ivy Cottage for the +summer I made the General call at once, and before long we had +become very intimate with him; but, my dear, he's not what I thought +him--not at all!" + +"Well now, I am delighted to hear you say that," said Lena Houghton, +with some excitement in her manner, "for it exactly fits in with +what I always felt about him. From the first I disliked that man, +and the way he goes on with Gertrude Morley is simply dreadful. If +they are not engaged they ought to be--that's all I can say." + +"Engaged, my dear! I trust not," said Mrs. O'Reilly. "I had always +hoped for something very different for dear Gertrude. Quite between +ourselves, you know, my nephew John Carew is over head and ears in +love with her, and they would make a very good pair; don't you think +so?" + +"Well, you see, I like Gertrude to a certain extent," replied Lena +Houghton. "But I never raved about her as so many people do. +Still, I hope she will not be entrapped into marrying Mr. Zaluski; +she deserves a better fate than that." + +"I quite agree with you," said Mrs. O'Reilly, with a troubled look. +"And the worst of it is, poor Gertrude is a girl who might very +likely take up foolish revolutionary notions; she needs a strong +wise husband to keep her in order and form her opinions. But is it +really true that he flirts with her? This is the first I have heard +of it. I can't think how it has escaped my notice." + +"Nor I, for indeed he is up at the Morleys' pretty nearly every day. +What with tennis, and music, and riding, there is always some excuse +for it. I can't think what Gertrude sees in him, he is not even +good-looking." + +"There is a certain surface good-nature about him," said Mrs. +O'Reilly. "It deceived even me at first. But, my dear Lena, mark +my words: that man has a fearful temper; and I pray Heaven that +poor Gertrude may have her eyes opened in time. Besides, to think +of that little gentle, delicate thing marrying a Nihilist! It is +too dreadful; really, quite too dreadful! John would never get over +it!" + +"The thing I can't understand is why all the world has taken him up +so," said Lena Houghton. "One meets him everywhere, yet nobody +seems to know anything about him. Just because he has taken Ivy +Cottage for four months, and because he seems to be rich and good- +natured, every one is ready to run after him." + +"Well, well," said Mrs. O'Reilly, "we all like to be neighbourly, my +dear, and a week ago I should have been ready to say nothing but +good of him. But now my eyes have been opened. I'll tell you just +how it was. We were sitting here, just as you and I are now, at +afternoon tea; the talk had flagged a little, and for the sake of +something to say I made some remark about Bulgaria--not that I +really knew anything about it, you know, for I'm no politician; +still, I knew it was a subject that would make talk just now. My +dear, I assure you I was positively frightened. All in a minute his +face changed, his eyes flashed, he broke into such a torrent of +abuse as I never heard in my life before." + +"Do you mean that he abused you?" + +"Dear me, no! but Russia and the Czar, and tyranny and despotism, +and many other things I had never heard of. I tried to calm him +down and reason with him, but I might as well have reasoned with the +cockatoo in the window. At last he caught himself up quickly in the +middle of a sentence, strode over to the piano, and began to play as +he generally does, you know, when he comes here. Well, would you +believe it, my dear! instead of improvising or playing operatic airs +as usual, he began to play a stupid little tune which every child +was taught years ago, of course with variations of his own. Then he +turned round on the music-stool with the oddest smile I ever saw, +and said, "Do you know that air, Mrs. O'Reilly?" + +"'Yes," I said; "but I forget now what it is.'" + +"'It was composed by Pestal, one of the victims of Russian tyranny," +said he. "The executioner did his work badly, and Pestal had to be +strung up twice. In the interval he was heard to mutter, 'Stupid +country, where they don't even know how to hang!'" + +"Then he gave a little forced laugh, got up quickly, wished me good- +bye, and was gone before I could put in a word." + +"What a horrible story to tell in a drawing-room!" said Lena +Houghton. "I envy Gertrude less than ever." + +"Poor girl! What a sad prospect it is for her!" said Mrs. O'Reilly +with a sigh. "Of course, my dear, you'll not repeat what I have +just told you." + +"Not for the world!" said Lena Houghton emphatically. "It is +perfectly safe with me." + +The conversation was here abruptly ended, for the page threw open +the drawing-room door and announced 'Mr. Zaluski.' + +"Talk of the angel," murmured Mrs. O'Reilly with a significant smile +at her companion. Then skilfully altering the expression of her +face, she beamed graciously on the guest who was ushered into the +room, and Lena Houghton also prepared to greet him most pleasantly. + +I looked with much interest at Sigismund Zaluski, and as I looked I +partly understood why Miss Houghton had been prejudiced against him +at first sight. He had lived five years in England, and nothing +pleased him more than to be taken for an Englishman. He had had his +silky black hair closely cropped in the very hideous fashion of the +present day; he wore the ostentatiously high collar now in vogue; +and he tried to be sedulously English in every respect. But in +spite of his wonderfully fluent speech and almost perfect accent, +there lingered about him something which would not harmonise with +that ideal of an English gentleman which is latent in most minds. +Something he lacked, something he possessed, which interfered with +the part he desired to play. The something lacking showed itself in +his ineradicable love of jewellery and in a transparent habit of +fibbing; the something possessed showed itself in his easy grace of +movement, his delightful readiness to amuse and to be amused, and in +a certain cleverness and rapidity of idea rarely, if ever, found in +an Englishman. + +He was a little above the average height and very finely built; but +there was nothing striking in his aquiline features and dark grey +eyes, and I think Miss Houghton spoke truly when she said that he +was 'Not even good-looking.' Still, in spite of this, it was a face +which grew upon most people, and I felt the least little bit of +regret as I looked at him, because I knew that I should persistently +haunt and harass him, and should do all that could be done to spoil +his life. + +Apparently he had forgotten all about Russia and Bulgaria, for he +looked radiantly happy. Clearly his thoughts were engrossed with +his own affairs, which, in other words, meant with Gertrude Morley; +and though, as I have since observed, there are times when a man in +love is an altogether intolerable sort of being, there are other +times when he is very much improved by the passion, and regards the +whole world with a genial kindliness which contrasts strangely with +his previous cool cynicism. + +"How delightful and home-like your room always looks!" he exclaimed, +taking the cup of tea which Mrs. O'Reilly handed to him. "I am +horribly lonely at Ivy Cottage. This house is a sort of oasis in +the desert." + +"Why, you are hardly ever at home, I thought," said Mrs. O'Reilly, +smiling. "You are the lion of the neighbourhood just now; and I'm +sure it is very good of you to come in and cheer a lonely old woman. +Are you going to play me something rather more lively to-day?" + +He laughed. + +"Ah! Poor Pestal! I had forgotten all about our last meeting." + +"You were very much excited that day," said Mrs. O'Reilly. "I had +no idea that your political notions--" + +He interrupted her + +"Ah! no politics to-day, dear Mrs. O'Reilly. Let us have nothing +but enjoyment and harmony. See, now, I will play you something very +much more cheerful." + +And sitting down to the piano, he played the bridal march from +'Lohengrin,' then wandered off into an improvised air, and finally +treated them to some recollections of the 'Mikado.' + +Lena-Houghton watched him thoughtfully as she put on her gloves; he +was playing with great spirit, and the words of the opera rang in +her ears:- + + +For he's going to marry Yum-yum, Yum-yum, +And so you had better be dumb, dumb, dumb! + + +I knew well enough that she would not follow this moral advice, and +I laughed to myself because the whole scene was such a hollow +mockery. The placid benevolent-looking old lady leaning back in her +arm-chair; the girl in her blue gingham and straw hat preparing to +go to the afternoon service; the happy lover entering heart and soul +into Sullivan's charming music; the pretty room with its Chippendale +furniture, its aesthetic hangings, its bowls of roses; and the sound +of church bells wafted through the open window on the soft summer +breeze. + +Yet all the time I lingered there unseen, carrying with me all sorts +of dread possibilities. I had been introduced into the world, and +even if Mrs. O'Reilly had been willing to admit to herself that she +had broken the ninth commandment, and had earnestly desired to +recall me, all her sighs and tears and regrets would have availed +nothing; so true is the saying, "Of thy word unspoken thou art +master; thy spoken word is master of thee." + +"Thank you." "Thank you." "How I envy your power of playing!" + +The two ladies seemed to vie with each other in making pretty +speeches, and Zaluski, who loved music and loved giving pleasure, +looked really pleased. I am sure it did not enter his head that his +two companions were not sincere, or that they did not wish him well. +He was thinking to himself how simple and kindly the Muddleton +people were, and how great a contrast this life was to his life in +London; and he was saying to himself that he had been a fool to live +a lonely bachelor life till he was nearly thirty, and yet +congratulating himself that he had done so since Gertrude was but +nineteen. Undoubtedly, he was seeing blissful visions of the future +all the time that he replied to the pretty speeches, and shook hands +with Lena Houghton, and opened the drawing-room door for her, and +took out his watch to assure her that she had plenty of time and +need not hurry to church. + +Poor Zaluski! He looked so kindly and pleasant. Though I was only +a slander, and might have been supposed to have no heart at all, I +did feel sorry for him when I thought of the future and of the grief +and pain which would persistently dog his steps. + + + +MY SECOND STAGE + + + +Bear not false witness, slander not, nor lie; +Truth is the speech of inward purity. +THE LIGHT OF ASIA. + + +In my first stage the reader will perceive that I was a +comparatively weak and harmless little slander, with merely that +taint of original sin which was to be expected in one of such +parentage. But I developed with great rapidity; and I believe men +of science will tell you that this is always the case with low +organisms. That, for instance, while it takes years to develop the +man from the baby, and months to develop the dog from the puppy, the +baby monad will grow to maturity in an hour. + +Personally I should have preferred to linger in Mrs. O'Reilly's +pleasant drawing-room, for, as I said before, my victim interested +me, and I wanted to observe him more closely and hear what he talked +about. But I received orders to attend evensong at the parish +church, and to haunt the mind of Lena Houghton. + +As we passed down the High Street the bells rang out loud and clear, +and they made me feel the same slight sense of discomfort that I had +felt when I looked at Zaluski; however, I went on, and soon entered +the church. It was a fine old Gothic building, and the afternoon +sunshine seemed to flood the whole place; even the white stones in +the aisle were glorified here and there with gorgeous patches of +colour from the stained glass windows. But the strange stillness +and quiet oppressed me, I did not feel nearly so much at home as in +Mrs. O'Reilly's drawing-room--to use a terrestrial simile, I felt +like a fish out of water. + +For some time, too, I could find no entrance at all into the mind of +Lena Houghton. Try as I would, I could not distract her attention +or gain the slightest hold upon her, and I really believe I should +have been altogether baffled, had not the rector unconsciously come +to my aid. + +All through the prayers and psalms I had fought a desperate fight +without gaining a single inch. Then the rector walked over to the +lectern, and the moment he opened his mouth I knew that my time had +come, and that there was a very fair chance of victory before me. +Whether this clergyman had a toothache, or a headache, or a heavy +load on his mind, I cannot say, but his reading was more lugubrious +than the wind in an equinoctial gale. I have since observed that he +was only a degree worse than many other clerical readers, and that a +strange and delightfully mistaken notion seems prevalent that the +Bible must be read in a dreary and unnatural tone of voice, or with +a sort of mournful monotony; it is intended as a sort of reverence, +but I suspect that it often plays into the hands of my progenitor, +as it most assuredly did in the present instance. + +Hardly had the rector announced, "Here beginneth the forty-fourth +verse of the sixteenth chapter of the book of the prophet Ezekiel," +than a sort of relaxation took place in the mind I was attacking. +Lena Houghton's attention could only have been given to the drearily +read lesson by a very great effort; she was a little lazy and did +not make the effort, she thought how nice it was to sit down again, +and then the melancholy voice lulled her into a vague interval of +thoughtless inactivity. I promptly seized my opportunity, and in a +moment her whole mind was full of me. She was an excitable, +impressionable sort of girl, and when once I had obtained an +entrance into her mind I found it the easiest thing in the world to +dominate her thoughts. Though she stood, and sat, and knelt, and +curtseyed, and articulated words, her thoughts were entirely +absorbed in me. I crowded out the Magnificat with a picture of +Zaluski and Gertrude Morley. I led her through more terrible future +possibilities in the second lesson than would be required for a +three-volume novel. I entirely eclipsed the collects with +reflections on unhappy marriages; took her off via Russia and +Nihilism in the State prayers, and by the time we arrived at St. +Chrysostom had become so powerful that I had worked her mind into +exactly the condition I desired. + +The congregation rose. Lena Houghton, still dominated by me, knelt +longer than the rest, but at last she got up and walked down the +aisle, and I felt a great sense of relief and satisfaction. We were +out in the open air once more, and I had triumphed; I was quite sure +that she would tell the first person she met, for, as I have said +before, she was entirely taken up with me, and to have kept me to +herself would have required far more strength and unselfishness than +she at that moment possessed. She walked slowly through the +churchyard, feeling much pleased to see that the curate had just +left the vestry door, and that in a few moments their paths must +converge. + +Mr. Blackthorne had only been ordained three or four years, and was +a little younger, and much less experienced in the ways of the +world, than Sigismund Zaluski. He was a good well-meaning fellow, a +little narrow, a little prejudiced, a little spoiled by the devotion +of the district visitors and Sunday School teachers; but he was +honest and energetic, and as a worker among the poor few could have +equalled him. He seemed to fancy, however, that with the poor his +work ended, and he was not always so wise as he might have been in +Muddleton society. + +"Good afternoon, Miss Houghton," he exclaimed. "Do you happen to +know if your brother is at home? I want just to speak to him about +the choir treat." + +"Oh, he is sure to be in by this time," said Lena. + +And they walked home together. + +"I am so glad to have this chance of speaking to you," she began +rather nervously. "I wanted particularly to ask your advice." + +Mr. Blackthorne, being human and young, was not unnaturally +flattered by this remark. True, he was becoming well accustomed to +this sort of thing, since the ladies of Muddleton were far more fond +of seeking advice from the young and good-looking curate than from +the elderly and experienced rector. They said it was because Mr. +Blackthorne was so much more sympathetic, and understood the +difficulties of the day so much better; but I think they +unconsciously deceived themselves, for the rector was one of a +thousand, and the curate, though he had in him the makings of a fine +man, was as yet altogether crude and young. + +"Was it about anything in your district?" he asked, devoutly hoping +that she was not going to propound some difficult question about the +origin of evil, or any other obscure subject. For though he liked +the honour of being consulted, he did not always like the trouble it +involved, and he remembered with a shudder that Miss Houghton had +once asked him his opinion about the 'Ethical Concept of the Good.' + +"It was only that I was so troubled about something Mrs. O'Reilly +has just told me," said Lena Houghton. "You won't tell any one that +I told you?" + +"On no account," said the curate, warmly. + +"Well, you know Mr. Zaluski, and how the Morleys have taken him up?" + +"Every one has taken him up," said the curate, with the least little +touch of resentment in his tone. "I knew that the Morleys were his +special friends; I imagine that he admires Miss Morley." + +"Yes, every one thinks they are either engaged or on the brink of +it. And oh, Mr. Blackthorne, can't you or somebody put a stop to +it, for it seems such a dreadful fate for poor Gertrude?" + +The curate looked startled. + +"Why, I don't profess to like Mr. Zaluski," he said. "But I don't +know anything exactly against him." + +"But I do. Mrs. O'Reilly has just been telling me." + +"What did she tell you?" he asked with some curiosity. + +"Why, she has found out that he is really a Nihilist--just think of +a Nihilist going about loose like this, and playing tennis at the +rectory and all the good houses! And not only that, but she says he +is altogether a dangerous, unprincipled man with a dreadful temper. +You can't think how unhappy she is about poor Gertrude, and so am I, +for we were at school together and have always been friends." + +"I am very sorry to hear about it," said Mr. Blackthorne, "but I +don't see that anything can be done. You see, one does not like to +interfere in these sort of things. It seems officious rather, and +meddlesome." + +"Yes, that is the worst of it," she replied, with a sigh. "I +suppose we can do nothing. Still, it has been a great relief just +to tell you about it and get it off my mind. I suppose we can only +hope that something may put a stop to it all--we must just leave it +to chance." + +This sentiment amused me not a little. Leave it to chance indeed! +Had she not caused me to grow stronger and larger by every word she +uttered? And had not the conversation revealed to me Mr. +Blackthorn's one vulnerable part? I knew well enough that I should +be able to dominate his thoughts as I had done hers. Finding me +burdensome, she had passed me on to somebody else with additions +that vastly increased my working powers, and then she talked of +leaving it to chance! The way in which mortals practise pious +frauds on themselves is really delightful! And yet Lena Houghton +was a good sort of girl, and had from her childhood repeated the +catechism words which proclaim that, "My duty to my neighbour is to +love him as myself . . . To keep my tongue from evil-speaking, +lying, and slandering." What is more, she took great pains to teach +these words to a big class of Sunday School children, and went, rain +or shine, to spend two hours each Sunday in a stuffy school-room for +that purpose. It was strange that she should be so ready to believe +evil of her neighbour, and so eager to spread the story. But my +progenitor is clever, and doubtless knows very well, whom to select +as his tools. + +By this time they had reached a comfortable-looking, red-brick house +with white stone facings, and in the discussion of the arrangements +for the choir treat I was entirely forgotten. + + + +MY THIRD STAGE + + + +Alas! such is our weakness, that we often more readily believe and +speak of another that which is evil than that which is good. But +perfect men do not easily give credit to every report; because they +know man's weakness, which is very prone to evil, and very subject +to fail in words. +THOMAS A KEMPIS. + + +All through that evening, and through the first part of the +succeeding day, I was crowded out of the curate's mind by a host of +thoughts with which I had nothing in common; and though I hovered +about him as he taught in the school, and visited several sick +people, and argued with an habitual drunkard, and worked at his +Sunday sermon, a Power, which I felt but did not understand, baffled +all my attempts to gain an entrance and attract his notice. I made +a desperate attack on him after lunch as he sat smoking and enjoying +a well-earned rest, but it was of no avail. I followed him to a +large garden-party later on, but to my great annoyance he went about +talking to every one in the pleasantest way imaginable, though I +perceived that he was longing to play tennis instead. + +At length, however, my opportunity came. Mr. Blackthorne was +talking to the lady of the house, Mrs. Courtenay, when she suddenly +exclaimed:- + + +"Ah, here is Mr. Zaluski just arriving. I began to be afraid that +he had forgotten the day, and he is always such an acquisition. How +do you do, Mr. Zaluski?" she said, greeting my victim warmly as he +stepped on to the terrace. "So glad you were able to come. You +know Mr. Blackthorne, I think." + +Zaluski greeted the curate pleasantly, and his dark eyes lighted up +with a gleam of amusement. + +"Oh, we are great friends," he said laughingly. "Only, you know, I +sometimes shock him a little--just a very little." + +"That is very unkind of you, I am sure," said Mrs. Courtenay, +smiling. + +"No, not at all," said Zaluski, with the audacity of a privileged +being. "It is just my little amusement, very harmless, very--what +you call innocent. Mr. Blackthorne cannot make up his mind about +me. One day I appear to him to be Catholic, the next Comtist, the +next Orthodox Greek, the next a convert to the Anglican communion. +I am a mystery, you see! And mysteries are as indispensable in life +as in a romance." + +He laughed. Mrs. Courtenay laughed too, and a little friendly +banter was carried on between them, while the curate stood by +feeling rather out of it. + +I drew nearer to him, perceiving that my prospects bid fair to +improve. For very few people can feel out of it without drifting +into a self-regarding mood, and then they are the easiest prey +imaginable. Undoubtedly a man like Zaluski, with his easy +nonchalance, his knowledge of the world, his genuine good-nature, +and the background of sterling qualities which came upon you as a +surprise because he loved to make himself seem a mere idler, was apt +to eclipse an ordinary mortal like James Blackthorne. The curate +perceived this and did not like to be eclipsed--as a matter of fact, +nobody does. It seemed to him a little unfair that he, who had +hitherto been made much of, should be called to play second fiddle +to this rich Polish fellow who had never done anything for Muddleton +or the neighbourhood. And then, too, Sigismund Zaluski had a way of +poking fun at him which he resented, and would not take in good +part. + +Something of this began to stir in his mind; and he cordially hated +the Pole when Jim Courtenay, who arranged the tennis, came up and +asked him to play in the next set, passing the curate by altogether. + +Then I found no difficulty at all in taking possession of him; +indeed he was delighted to have me brought back to his memory, he +positively gloated over me, and I grew apace. + +Zaluski, in the seventh heaven of happiness, was playing with +Gertrude Morley, and his play was so good and so graceful that every +one was watching it with pleasure. His partner, too, played well; +she was a pretty, fair-haired girl, with soft grey eyes like the +eyes of a dove; she wore a white tennis dress and a white sailor +hat, and at her throat she had fastened a cluster of those beautiful +orange-coloured roses known by the prosaic name of 'William Allan +Richardson.' + +If Mr. Blackthorne grew angry as he watched Sigismund Zaluski, he +grew doubly angry as he watched Gertrude Morley. He said to himself +that it was intolerable that such a girl should fall a prey to a +vain, shallow, unprincipled foreigner, and in a few minutes he had +painted such a dark picture of poor Sigismund that my strength +increased tenfold. + +"Mr. Blackthorne," said Mrs. Courtenay, "would you take Mrs. Milton- +Cleave to have an ice?" + +Now Mrs. Milton-Cleave had always been one of the curate's great +friends. She was a very pleasant, talkative woman of six-and- +thirty, and a general favourite. Her popularity was well deserved, +for she was always ready to do a kind action, and often went out of +her way to help people who had not the slightest claim upon her. +There was, however, no repose about Mrs. Milton-Cleave, and an acute +observer would have discovered that her universal readiness to help +was caused to some extent by her good heart, but in a very large +degree by her restless and over-active brain. Her sphere was +scarcely large enough for her, she would have made an excellent head +of an orphan asylum or manager of some large institution, but her +quiet country life offered far too narrow a field for her energy. + +"It is really quite a treat to watch Mr. Zaluski's play," she +remarked as they walked to the refreshment tent at the other end of +the lawn. "Certainly foreigners know how to move much better than +we do: our best players look awkward beside them." + +"Do you think so?" said Mr. Blackthorne. "I am afraid I am full of +prejudice, and consider that no one can equal a true-born Briton." + +"And I quite agree with you in the main," said Mrs. Milton-Cleave. +"Though I confess that it is rather refreshing to have a little +variety." + +The curate was silent, but his silence merely covered his absorption +in me, and I began to exercise a faint influence through his mind on +the mind of his companion. This caused her at length to say: + +"I don't think you quite like Mr. Zaluski. Do you know much about +him?" + +"I have met him several times this summer," said the curate, in the +tone of one who could have said much more if he would. + +The less satisfying his replies, the more Mrs. Milton-Cleave's +curiosity grew. + +"Now, tell me candidly," she said at length. "Is there not some +mystery about our new neighbour? Is he quite what he seems to be?" + +"I fear he is not," said Mr. Blackthorne, making the admission in a +tone of reluctance, though, to tell the truth, he had been longing +to pass me on for the last five minutes. + +"You mean that he is fast?" + +"Worse than that," said James Blackthorne, lowering his voice as +they walked down one of the shady garden paths. "He is a dangerous, +unprincipled fellow, and into the bargain an avowed Nihilist. All +that is involved in that word you perhaps scarcely realise." + +"Indeed I do," she exclaimed with a shocked expression. "I have +just been reading a review of that book by Stepniak. Their social +and religious views are terrible; free-love, atheism, everything +that could bring ruin on the human race. Is he indeed a Nihilist?" + +Mr. Blackthorne's conscience gave him a sharp prick, for he knew +that he ought not to have passed me on. He tried to pacify it with +the excuse that he had only promised not to tell that Miss Houghton +had been his informant. + +"I assure you," he said impressively, "it is only too true. I know +it on the best authority." + +And here I cannot help remarking that it has always seemed to me +strange that even experienced women of the world, like Mrs. Milton- +Cleave, can be so easily hoodwinked by that vague nonentity, 'The +Best Authority.' I am inclined to think that were I a human being I +should retort with an expressive motion of the finger and thumb, +"Oh, you know it on the best authority, do you? Then THAT for your +story!" + +However, I thrived wonderfully on the best authority, and it would +be ungrateful of me to speak evil of that powerful though imaginary +being. + +At right angles with the garden walk down which the two were pacing +there was another wide pathway, bordered by high closely clipped +shrubs. Down this paced a very different couple. Mrs. Milton- +Cleave caught sight of them, and so did curate. Mrs. Milton-Cleave +sighed. + +"I am afraid he is running after Gertrude Morley! Poor girl! I +hope she will not be deluded into encouraging him." + +And then they made just the same little set remarks about the +desirability of stopping so dangerous an acquaintance, and the +impossibility of interfering with other people's affairs, and the +sad necessity of standing by with folded hands. I laughed so much +over their hollow little phrases that at last I was fain to beat a +retreat, and, prompted by curiosity to know a little of the truth, I +followed Sigismund and Gertrude down the broad grassy pathway. + +I knew of course a good deal of Zaluski's character, because my own +existence and growth pointed out what he was not. Still, to study a +man by a process of negation is tedious, and though I knew that he +was not a Nihilist, or a free-lover, or an atheist, or an +unprincipled fellow with a dangerous temper, yet I was curious to +see him as he really was. + +"If you only knew how happy you had made me!" he was saying. And +indeed, as far as happiness went, there was not much to choose +between them, I fancy; for Gertrude Morley looked radiant, and in +her clove-like eyes there was the reflection of the love which +flashed in his. + +"You must talk to my mother about it," she said after a minute's +silence. "You see, I am still under age, and she and Uncle Henry my +guardian must consent before we are actually betrothed." + +"I will see them at once," said Zaluski, eagerly. + +"You could see my mother," she replied. "But Uncle Henry is still +in Sweden and will not be in town for another week." + +"Must we really wait so long!" sighed Sigismund impatiently. + +She laughed at him gently. + +"A whole week! But then we are sure of each other. I do not think +we ought to grumble." + +"But perhaps they may think that a merchant is no fitting match for +you," he suggested. "I am nothing but a plain merchant, and my I +people have been in the same business for four generations. As far +as wealth goes I might perhaps satisfy your people, but for the rest +I am but a prosaic fellow, with neither noble blood, nor the brain +of a genius, nor anything out of the common." + +"It will be enough for my mother that we love each other," she said +shyly. + +"And your uncle?" + +"It will be enough for him that you are upright and honourable-- +enough that you are yourself, Sigismund." + +They were sitting now in a little sheltered recess clipped out of +the yew-trees. When that softly spoken "Sigismund" fell from her +lips, Zaluski caught her in his arms and kissed her again and again. + +"I have led such a lonely life," he said after a few minutes, during +which their talk had baffled my comprehension. "All my people died +while I was still a boy." + +"Then who brought you up?" she inquired. + +"An uncle of mine, the head of our firm in St. Petersburg. He was +very good to me, but he had children of his own, and of course I +could not be to him as one of them. I have had many friends and +much kindness shown to me, but love!--none till to-day." + +And then again they fell into the talk which I could not fathom. +And so I left them in their brief happiness, for my time of idleness +was over, and I was ordered to attend Mrs. Milton-Cleave without a +moment's delay. + + + +MY FOURTH STAGE + + + +Oh, the little more, and how much it is! +R. BROWING. + + +Mrs. Milton-Cleave had one weakness--she was possessed by an +inordinate desire for influence. This made her always eagerly +anxious to be interesting both in her conversation and in her +letters, and to this end she exerted herself with unwearying +activity. She liked influencing Mr. Blackthorne, and spared no +pains on him that afternoon; and indeed the curate was a good deal +flattered by her friendship, and considered her one of the most +clever and charming women he had ever met. + +Sigismund and Gertrude returned to the ordinary world just as Mrs. +Milton-Cleave was saying good-bye to the hostess. She glanced at +them searchingly. + +"Good-bye, Gertrude," she said a little coldly. "Did you win at +tennis?" + +"Indeed we did," said Gertrude, smiling. "We came off with flying +colours. It was a love set." + +The girl was looking more beautiful than ever, and there was a tell- +tale colour in her cheeks and an unusual light in her soft grey +eyes. As for Zaluski, he was so evidently in love, and had the +audacity to look so supremely happy, that Mrs. Milton-Cleave was +more than ever impressed with the gravity of the situation. The +curate handed her into her victoria, and she drove home through the +sheltered lanes musing sadly over the story she had heard, and +wondering what Gertrude's future would be. When she reached home, +however, the affair was driven from her thoughts by her children, of +whom she was devotedly fond. They came running to meet her, +frisking like so many kittens round her as she went upstairs to her +room, and begging to stay with her while she dressed for dinner. +During dinner she was engrossed with her husband; but afterwards, +when she was alone in the drawing-room, I found my opportunity for +working on her restless mind. + +"Dear me," she exclaimed, throwing aside the newspaper she had just +taken up, "I ought to write to Mrs. Selldon at Dulminster about that +G.F.S. girl!" + +As a matter of fact she ought not to have written then, the letter +might well have waited till the morning, and she was over-tired and +needed rest. But I was glad to see her take up her pen, for I knew +I should come in most conveniently to fill up the second side of the +sheet. + +Before long Jane Stiggins, the member who had migrated from +Muddleton to Dulminster, had been duly reported, wound up, and made +over to the Archdeacon's wife. Then the tired hand paused. What +more could she say to her friend? + +"We are leading our usual quiet life here," she wrote, "with the +ordinary round of tennis parties and picnics to enliven us. The +children have all been wonderfully well, and I think you will see a +great improvement in your god-daughter when you next come to stay +with us"--"Oh dear!" sighed Mrs. Milton-Cleave, "how dull and stupid +I am to-night! I can't think of a single thing to say." Then at +length I flashed into her mind, and with a sigh of relief and a +little rising flush of excitement she went on much more rapidly. + +"It is such a comfort to be quite at rest about them, and to see +them all looking so well. But I suppose one can never be without +some cause of worry, and just now I am very unhappy about that nice +girl Gertrude Morley whom you admired so much when you were last +here. The whole neighbourhood has been dominated this year by a +young Polish merchant named Sigismund Zaluski, who is very clever +and musical and knows well how to win popularity. He has taken Ivy +Cottage for four mouths, and is, I fear, doing great mischief. The +Morleys are his special friends, and I greatly fear he is making +love to Gertrude. Now I know privately, on the very best authority, +that although he has so completely deceived every one and has +managed so cleverly to pose as a respectable man, that Mr. Zaluski +is really a Nihilist, a free-lover, an atheist, and altogether a +most unprincipled man. He is very clever, and speaks English most +fluently, indeed he has lived in London since the spring of 1881--he +told me so himself. I cannot help fancying that he must have been +concerned in the assassination of the late Czar, which you will +remember took place in that year early in March. It is terrible to +think of the poor Morleys entering blindfold on such an undesirable +connection; but, at the same time, I really do not feel that I can +say anything about it. Excuse this hurried note, dear Charlotte, +and with love to yourself and kindest remembrances to the +Archdeacon, + +"Believe me, very affectionately yours, + +"GEORGINA MILTON-CLEAVE. + +"P.S. It may perhaps be as well not to mention this affair about +Gertrude Morley and Mr. Zaluski. They are not yet engaged, as far +as I know, and I sincerely trust it may prove to be a mere +flirtation." + + +I had now grown to such enormous dimensions that any one who had +known me in my infancy would scarcely have recognised me, while +naturally the more I grew the more powerful I became, and the more +capable both of impressing the minds which received me and of +injuring Zaluski. Poor Zaluski, who was so foolishly, thoughtlessly +happy! He little dreamed of the fate that awaited him! His whole +world was bright and full of promise; each hour of love seemed to +improve him, to deepen his whole character, to tone down his rather +flippant manner, to awaken for him new and hitherto unthought-of +realities. + +But while he basked in his new happiness I travelled in my close +stuffy envelope to Dulminster, and after having been tossed in and +out of bags, shuffled, stamped, thumped, tied up, and generally +shaken about, I arrived one morning at Dulminster Archdeaconry, and +was laid on the breakfast table among other appetising things to +greet Mrs. Selldon when she came downstairs. + + + +MY FIFTH STAGE + + + +Also it is wise not to believe everything you hear, not immediately +to carry to the ears of others what you have either heard or +believed. +THOMAS A KEMPIS. + + +Though I was read in silence at the breakfast table and not passed +on to the Archdeacon, I lay dormant in Mrs. Selldon's mind all day, +and came to her aid that night when she was at her wits' end for +something to talk about. + +Mrs. Selldon, though a most worthy and estimable person, was of a +phlegmatic temperament; her sympathies were not easily aroused, her +mind was lazy and torpid, in conversation she was unutterably dull. +There were times when she was painfully conscious of this, and would +have given much for the ceaseless flow of words which fell from the +lips of her friend Mrs. Milton-Cleave. And that evening after my +arrival chanced to be one of these occasions, for there was a +dinner-party at the Archdeaconry, given in honour of a well-known +author who was spending a few days in the neighbourhood. + +"I wish you could have Mr. Shrewsbury at your end of the table, +Thomas," Mrs. Selldon had remarked to her husband with a sigh, as +she was arranging the guests on paper that afternoon. + +"Oh, he must certainly take you in, my dear," said the Archdeacon. +"And he seems a very clever, well-read man, I am sure you will find +him easy to talk to." + +Poor Mrs. Selldon thought that she would rather have had some one +who was neither clever nor well-read. But there was no help for +her, and, whether she would or not, she had to go in to dinner with +the literary lion. + +Mr. Mark Shrewsbury was a novelist of great ability. Some twenty +years before, he had been called to the bar, and, conscious of real +talent, had been greatly embittered by the impossibility of getting +on in his profession. At length, in disgust, he gave up all hopes +of success and devoted himself instead to literature. In this field +he won the recognition for which he craved; his books were read +everywhere, his name became famous, his income steadily increased, +and he had the pleasant consciousness that he had found his +vocation. Still, in spite of his success, he could not forget the +bitter years of failure and disappointment which had gone before, +and though his novels were full of genius they were pervaded by an +undertone of sarcasm, so that people after reading them were more +ready than before to take cynical views of life. + +He was one of those men whose quiet impassive faces reveal scarcely +anything of their character. He was neither tall nor short, neither +dark nor fair, neither handsome nor the reverse; in fact his +personality was not in the least impressive; while, like most true +artists, he observed all things so quietly that you rarely +discovered that he was observing at all. + +"Dear me!" people would say, "Is Mark Shrewsbury really here? Which +is he? I don't see any one at all like my idea of a novelist." + +"There he is--that man in spectacles," would be the reply. + +And really the spectacles were the only noteworthy thing about him. + +Mrs. Selldon, who had seen several authors and authoresses in her +time, and knew that they were as a rule most ordinary, hum-drum kind +of people, was quite prepared for her fate. She remembered her +astonishment as a girl when, having laughed and cried at the play, +and taken the chief actor as her ideal hero, she had had him pointed +out to her one day in Regent Street, and found him to be a most +commonplace-looking man, the very last person one would have +supposed capable of stirring the hearts of a great audience. + +Meanwhile dinner progressed, and Mrs. Selldon talked to an empty- +headed but loquacious man on her left, and racked her brains for +something to say to the alarmingly silent author on her right. She +remembered hearing that Charles Dickens would often sit silent +through the whole of dinner, observing quietly those about him, but +that at dessert he would suddenly come to life and keep the whole +table in roars of laughter. She feared that Mr. Shrewsbury meant to +imitate the great novelist in the first particular, but was scarcely +likely to follow his example in the last. At length she asked him +what he thought of the cathedral, and a few tepid remarks followed. + +"How unutterably this good lady bores me!" thought the author. + +"How odd it is that his characters talk so well in his books, and +that he is such a stick!" thought Mrs. Selldon. + +"I suppose it's the effect of cathedral-town atmosphere," reflected +the author. + +"I suppose he is eaten up with conceit and won't trouble himself to +talk to me," thought the hostess. + +By the time the fish had been removed they had arrived at a state of +mutual contempt. Mindful of the reputation they had to keep up, +however, they exerted themselves a little more while the entrees +went round. + +"Seldom reads, I should fancy, and never thinks!" reflected the +author, glancing at Mrs. Selldon's placid unintellectual face. +"What on earth can I say to her?" + +"Very unpractical, I am sure," reflected Mrs. Selldon. "The sort of +man who lives in a world of his own, and only lays down his pen to +take up a book. What subject shall I start?" + +"What delightful weather we have been having the last few days!" +observed the author. "Real genuine summer weather at last." The +same remark had been trembling on Mrs. Selldon's lips. She assented +with great cheerfulness and alacrity; and over that invaluable +topic, which is always so safe, and so congenial, and so ready to +hand, they grew quite friendly, and the conversation for fully five +minutes was animated. + +An interval of thought followed. + +"How wearisome is society!" reflected Mrs. Selldon. "It is hard +that we must spend so much money in giving dinners and have so much +trouble for so little enjoyment." + +"One pays dearly for fame," reflected the author. "What a +confounded nuisance it is to waste all this time when there are the +last proofs of 'What Caste?' to be done for the nine-o'clock post +to-morrow morning! Goodness knows what time I shall get to bed to- +night!" + +Then Mrs. Selldon thought regretfully of the comfortable easy chair +that she usually enjoyed after dinner, and the ten minutes' nap, and +the congenial needle-work. And Mark Shrewsbury thought of his +chambers in Pump Court, and longed for his type-writer, and his +books, and his swivel chair, and his favourite meerschaum. + +"I should be less afraid to talk if there were not always the +horrible idea that he may take down what one says," thought Mrs. +Selldon. + +"I should be less bored if she would only be her natural self," +reflected the author. "And would not talk prim platitudes." (This +was hard, for he had talked nothing else himself.) "Does she think +she is so interesting that I am likely to study her for my next +book?" + +"Have you been abroad this summer?" inquired Mrs. Selldon, making +another spasmodic attempt at conversation. + +"No, I detest travelling," replied Mark Shrewsbury. "When I need +change I just settle down in some quiet country district for a few +months--somewhere near Windsor, or Reigate, or Muddleton. There is +nothing to my mind like our English scenery." + +"Oh, do you know Muddleton?" exclaimed Mrs. Selldon. "Is it not a +charming little place? I often stay in the neighbourhood with the +Milton-Cleaves." + +"I know Milton-Cleave well," said the author. "A capital fellow, +quite the typical country gentleman." + +"Is he not?" said Mrs. Selldon, much relieved to have found this +subject in common. "His wife is a great friend of mine; she is full +of life and energy, and does an immense amount of good. Did you say +you had stayed with them?" + +"No, but last year I took a house in that neighbourhood for a few +months; a most charming little place it was, just fit for a lonely +bachelor. I dare say you remember it--Ivy Cottage, on the Newton +Road." + +"Did you stay there? Now what a curious coincidence! Only this +morning I heard from Mrs. Milton-Cleave that Ivy Cottage has been +taken this summer by a Mr. Sigismund Zaluski, a Polish merchant, who +is doing untold harm in the neighbourhood. He is a very clever, +unscrupulous man, and has managed to take in almost every one." + +"Why, what is he? A swindler? Or a burglar in disguise, like the +HOUSE ON THE MARSH fellow?" asked the author, with a little twinkle +of amusement in his face. + +"Oh, much worse than that," said Mrs. Selldon, lowering her voice. +"I assure you, Mr. Shrewsbury, you would hardly credit the story if +I were to tell it you, it is really stranger than fiction." Mark +Shrewsbury pricked up his ears, he no longer felt bored, he began to +think that, after all, there might be some compensation for this +wearisome dinner-party. He was always glad to seize upon material +for future plots, and somehow the notion of a mysterious Pole +suddenly making his appearance in that quiet country neighbourhood +and winning undeserved popularity rather took his fancy. He thought +he might make something of it. However, he knew human nature too +well to ask a direct question. + +"I am sorry to hear that," he said, becoming all at once quite +sympathetic and approachable. "I don't like the thought of those +simple, unsophisticated people being hoodwinked by a scoundrel." + +"No; is it not sad?" said Mrs. Selldon. "Such pleasant, hospitable +people as they are! Do you remember the Morleys?" + +"Oh yes! There was a pretty daughter who played tennis well." + +"Quite so--Gertrude Morley. Well, would you believe it, this +miserable fortune-hunter is actually either engaged to her or on the +eve of being engaged! Poor Mrs. Milton-Cleave is so unhappy about +it, for she knows, on the best authority, that Mr. Zaluski is unfit +to enter a respectable house." + +"Perhaps he is really some escaped criminal?" suggested Mr. +Shrewsbury, tentatively. + +Mrs. Selldon hesitated. Then, under the cover of the general roar +of conversation, she said in a low voice:- + +"You have guessed quite rightly. He is one of the Nihilists who +were concerned in the assassination of the late Czar." + +"You don't say so!" exclaimed Mark Shrewsbury, much startled. "Is +it possible?" + +"Indeed, it is only too true," said Mrs. Selldon. "I heard it only +the other morning, and on the very best authority. Poor Gertrude +Morley! My heart bleeds for her." + +Now I can't help observing here that this must have been the merest +figure of speech, for just then there was a comfortable little glow +of satisfaction about Mrs. Selldon's heart. She was so delighted to +have "got on well," as she expressed it, with the literary lion, and +by this time dessert was on the table, and soon the tedious ceremony +would be happily over. + +"But how did he escape?" asked Mark Shrewsbury, still with the +thought of "copy" in his mind. + +"I don't know the details," said Mrs. Selldon. "Probably they are +only known to himself. But he managed to escape somehow in the +month of March 1881, and to reach England safely. I fear it is only +too often the case in this world--wickedness is apt to be +successful." + +"To flourish like a green bay tree," said Mark Shrewsbury, +congratulating himself on the aptness of the quotation, and its +suitability to the Archediaconal dinner-table. "It is the strangest +story I have heard for a long time." Just then there was a pause in +the general conversation, and Mrs. Selldon took advantage of it to +make the sign for rising, so that no more passed with regard to +Zaluski. + +Shrewsbury, flattering himself that he had left a good impression by +his last remark, thought better not to efface it later in the +evening by any other conversation with his hostess. But in the +small hours of the night, when he had finished his bundle of proofs, +he took up his notebook and, strangling his yawns, made two or three +brief, pithy notes of the story Mrs. Selldon had told him, adding a +further development which occurred to him, and wondering to himself +whether "Like a Green Bay Tree" would be a selling title. + +After this he went to bed, and slept the sleep of the just, or the +unbroken sleep which goes by that name. + + + +MY SIXTH STAGE + + + +But whispering tongues can poison truth. +COLERIDGE + + +London in early September is a somewhat trying place. Mark +Shrewsbury found it less pleasing in reality than in his visions +during the dinner-party at Dulminster. True, his chambers were +comfortable, and his type-writer was as invaluable a machine as +ever, and his novel was drawing to a successful conclusion; but +though all these things were calculated to cheer him, he was +nevertheless depressed. Town was dull, the heat was trying, and he +had never in his life found it so difficult to settle down to work. +He began to agree with the Preacher, that "of making many books +there is no end," and that, in spite of his favourite "Remington's +perfected No. 2," novel-writing was a weariness to the flesh. Soon +he drifted into a sort of vague idleness, which was not a good, +honest holiday, but just a lazy waste of time and brains. I was +pleased to observe this, and was not slow to take advantage of it. +Had he stayed in Pump Court he might have forgotten me altogether in +his work, but in the soft luxury of his Club life I found that I had +a very fair chance of being passed on to some one else. + +One hot afternoon, on waking from a comfortable nap in the depths of +an armchair at the Club, Shrewsbury was greeted by one of his +friends. + +"I thought you were in Switzerland, old fellow!" he exclaimed, +yawning and stretching himself. + +"Came back yesterday--awfully bad season--confoundedly dull," +returned the other. "Where have you been?" + +"Down with Warren near Dulminster. Deathly dull hole." + +"Do for your next novel. Eh?" said the other with a laugh. + +Mark Shrewsbury smiled good-naturedly. + +"Talking of novels," he observed, with another yawn, "I heard such a +story down there!" + +"Did you? Let's hear it. A nice little scandal would do instead of +a pick-me-up." + +"It's not a scandal. Don't raise your expectations. It's the story +of a successful scoundrel." + +And then I came out again in full vigour--nay, with vastly increased +powers; for though Mark Shrewsbury did not add very much to me, or +alter my appearance, yet his graphic words made me much more +impressive than I had been under the management of Mrs. Selldon. + +"H'm! that's a queer story," said the limp-looking young man from +Switzerland. "I say, have a game of billiards, will you?" + +Shrewsbury, with prodigious yawn, dragged himself up out of his +chair, and the two went off together. As they left the room the +only other man present looked up from his newspaper, following them +with his eyes. + +"Shrewsbury the novelist," he thought to himself. "A sterling +fellow! And he heard it from an Archdeacon's wife. Confound it +all! the thing must be true then. I'll write and make full +inquiries about this Zaluski before consenting to the engagement." + +And, being a prompt, business-like man, Gertrude Morley's uncle sat +down and wrote the following letter to a Russian friend of his who +lived at St. Petersburg, and who might very likely be able to give +some account of Zaluski:- + + +Dear Leonoff,--Some very queer stories are afloat about a young +Polish merchant, by name Sigismund Zaluski, the head of the London +branch of the firm of Zaluski and Zernoff, at St. Petersburg. Will +you kindly make inquiries for me as to his true character and +history? I would not trouble you with this affair, but the fact is +Zaluski has made an offer of marriage to one of my wards, and before +consenting to any betrothal I must know what sort of man he really +is. I take it for granted that "there is no smoke without fire," +and that there must be something in the very strange tale which I +have just heard on the best authority. It is said that this +Sigismund Zaluski left St. Petersburg in March 1881, after the +assassination of the late Czar, in which he was seriously +compromised. He is said to be an out-and-out Nihilist, an atheist, +and, in short, a dangerous, disreputable fellow. Will you sift the +matter for me? I don't wish to dismiss the fellow without good +reason, but of course I could not think of permitting him to be +engaged to my niece until these charges are entirely disproved. + +With kind remembrances to your father, + +I am, yours faithfully, + +HENRY CRICHTON-MORLEY. + + + +MY SEVENTH STAGE + + + +Yet on the dull silence breaking +With a lightning flash, a word, +Bearing endless desolation +On its blighting wings, I heard; +Earth can forge no keener weapon, +Dealing surer death and pain, +And the cruel echo answered +Through long years again. +A. A. PROCTER + + +Curiously enough, I must actually have started for Russia on the +same day that Sigismund Zaluski was summoned by his uncle at St. +Petersburg to return on a matter of urgent business. I learnt +afterwards that the telegram arrived at Muddleton on the afternoon +of one of those sunny September days and found Zaluski as usual at +the Morleys. He was very much annoyed at being called away just +then, and before he had received any reply from Gertrude's uncle as +to the engagement. However, after a little ebullition of anger, he +regained his usual philosophic tone, and, reminding Gertrude that he +need not be away from England for more than a fortnight, he took +leave of her and set off in a prompt, manly fashion, leaving most of +his belongings at Ivy Cottage, which was his for another six weeks, +and to which he hoped shortly to return. + +After a weary time of imprisonment in my envelope, I at length +reached my destination at St. Petersburg and was read by Dmitry +Leonoff. He was a very busy man, and by the same post received +dozens of other letters. He merely muttered--"That well-known firm! +A most unlikely story!"--and then thrust me into a drawer with other +letters which had to be answered. Very probably I escaped his +memory altogether for the next few days: however, there I was--a +startling accusation in black and white; and, as everybody knows, +St. Petersburg is not London. + +The Leonoff family lived on the third storey of a large block of +buildings in the Sergeffskaia. About two o'clock in the morning, on +the third day after my arrival, the whole household was roused from +sleep by thundering raps on the door, and the dreaded cry of "Open +to the police." + +The unlucky master was forced to allow himself, his wife, and his +children to be made prisoners, while every corner of the house was +searched and every book and paper examined. + +Leonoff had nothing whatever to do with the Revolutionary movement, +but absolute innocence does not free people from the police +inquisition, and five or six years ago, when the Search mania was at +its height, a case is on record of a poor lady whose house was +searched seven times within twenty-four hours, though there was no +evidence whatever that she was connected with the Nihilists; the +whole affair was, in fact, a misunderstanding, as she was perfectly +innocent. + +This search in Dmitry Leonoff's house was also a misunderstanding, +and in the dominions of the Czar misunderstandings are of frequent +occurrence. + +Leonoff knew himself to be innocent, and he felt no fear, though +considerable annoyance, while the search was prosecuted; he could +hardly believe the evidence of his senses when, without a word of +explanation, he was informed that he must take leave of his wife and +children, and go in charge of the gendarmes to the House of +Preventive Detention. + +Being a sensible man, he kept his temper, remarked courteously that +some mistake must have been made, embraced his weeping wife, and +went off passively, while the pristav carried away a bundle of +letters in which I occupied the most prominent place. + +Leonoff remained a prisoner only for a few days; there was not a +shred of evidence against him, and, having suffered terrible +anxiety, he was finally released. But Mr. Crichton-Morley's letter +was never restored to him, it remained in the hands of the +authorities, and the night after Leonoff's arrest the pristav, the +procurator, and the gendarmes made their way into the dwelling of +Sigismund Zaluski's uncle, where a similar search was prosecuted. + +Sigismund was asleep and dreaming of Gertrude and of his idyllic +summer in England, when his bedroom door was forced open and he was +roughly roused by the gendarmes. + +His first feeling was one of amazement, his second, one of +indignation; however, he was obliged to get up at once and dress, +the policeman rigorously keeping guard over him the whole time for +fear he should destroy any treasonable document. + +"How I shall make them laugh in England when I tell them of this +ridiculous affair!" reflected Sigismund, as he was solemnly marched +into the adjoining room, where he found his uncle and cousins, each +guarded by a policeman. + +He made some jesting remark, but was promptly reprimanded by his +gaoler, and in wearisome silence the household waited while the most +rigorous search of the premises was made. + +Of course nothing was found; but, to the amazement of all, Sigismund +was formally arrested. + +"There must be some mistake," he exclaimed, "I have been resident in +England for some time. I have no connection whatever with Russian +politics." + +"Oh, we are well aware of your residence in England," said the +pristav. "You left St. Petersburg early in March 1881. We are well +aware of that." + +Something in the man's tone made Sigismund's heart stand still. +Could he possibly be suspected of complicity in the plot to +assassinate the late Czar? The idea would have made him laugh had +he been in England. In St. Petersburg, and under these +circumstances, it made him tremble. + +"There is some terrible mistake," he said. "I have never had the +slightest connection with the revolutionary party." + +The pristav shrugged his shoulders, and Sigismund, feeling like one +in a dream, took leave of his relations, and was escorted at once to +the House of Preventive Detention. + +Arrived at his destination, he was examined in a brief, +unsatisfactory way; but when he angrily asked for the evidence on +which he had been arrested, he was merely told that information had +been received charging him with being concerned in the assassination +of the late Emperor, and of being an advanced member of the Nihilist +party. His vehement denials were received with scornful +incredulity, his departure for England just after the assassination, +and his prolonged absence from Russia, of course gave colour to the +accusation, and he was ordered off to his cell "to reflect." + + + +MY TRIUMPHANT FINALE + + + +Words are mighty, words are living; +Serpents with their venomous stings, +Or bright angels crowding round us, +With heaven's light upon their wings; +Every word has its own spirit, +True or false, that never dies; +Every word man's lips have uttered +Echoes in God's skies. +A. A. PROCTER. + + +My labours were now nearly at an end, and being, so to speak, off +duty, I could occupy myself just as I pleased. I therefore resolved +to keep watch over Zaluski in his prison. + +For the first few hours after his arrest he was in a violent +passion; he paced up and down his tiny cell like a lion in a cage; +he was beside himself with indignation, and the blood leapt through +his veins like wildfire. + +Then he became a little ashamed of himself and tried to grow quiet, +and after a sleepless night he passed to the opposite extreme and +sat all day long on the solitary stool in his grim abode, his head +resting on his hands, and his mind a prey to the most fearful +melancholy. + +The second night, however, he slept, and awoke with a steady resolve +in his mind. + +"It will never do to give way like this, or I shall be in a brain +fever in no time," he reflected. "I will get leave to have books +and writing materials. I will make the best of a bad business." + +He remembered how pleased he had been when Gertrude had once smiled +on him because, when all the others in the party were grumbling at +the discomforts of a certain picnic where the provisions had gone +astray, he had gaily made the best of it and ransacked the nearest +cottages for bread-and-cheese. He set to work bravely now; hoped +daily for his release; read all the books he was allowed to receive, +invented solitary games, began a novel, and drew caricatures. + +In October he was again examined; but, having nothing to reveal, it +was inevitable that he could reveal nothing; and he was again sent +back to his cell "to reflect." + +I perceived that after this his heart began to fail him. + +There existed in the House of Preventive Detention a system of +communication between the luckless prisoners carried on by means of +tapping on the wall. Sigismund, being a clever fellow, had become a +great adept at this telegraphic system, and had struck up a +friendship with a young student in the next cell; this poor fellow +had been imprisoned three years, his sole offence being that he had +in his possession a book of which the Government did not approve, +and that he was first cousin to a well-known Nihilist. + +The two became as devoted to each other as Silvio Pellico and Count +Oroboni; but it soon became evident to Valerian Vasilowitch that, +unless Zaluski was released, he would soon succumb to the terrible +restrictions of prison life. + +"Keep up your heart, my friend," he used to say. "I have borne it +three years, and am still alive to tell the tale." + +"But you are stronger both in mind and body," said Sigismund; "and +you are not madly in love as I am." + +And then he would pour forth a rhapsody about Gertrude, and about +English life, and about his hopes and fears for the future; to all +of which Valerian, like the brave fellow he was, replied with words +of encouragement. + +But at length there came a day when his friend made no answer to his +usual morning greeting. + +"Are you ill?" he asked. + +For some time there was no reply, but after a while Sigismund rapped +faintly the despairing words:- + +"Dead beat!" + +Valerian felt the tears start to his eyes. It was what he had all +along expected, and for a time grief and indignation and his +miserable helplessness made him almost beside himself. At last he +remembered that there was at least one thing in his power. Each day +he was escorted by a warder to a tiny square, walled off in the +exercising ground, and was allowed to walk for a few minutes; he +would take this opportunity of begging the warder to get the doctor +for his friend. + +But unfortunately the doctor did not think very seriously of +Zaluski's case. In that dreary prison he had patients in the last +stages of all kinds of disease, and Sigismund, who had been in +confinement too short a time to look as ill as the others, did not +receive much attention. Certainly, the doctor admitted, his lungs +were affected; probably the sudden change of climate and the lack of +good food and fresh air had been too much for him; so the solemn +farce ended, and he was left to his fate. "If I were indeed a +Nihilist, and suffered for a cause which I had at heart," he +telegraphed to Valerian, "I could bear it better. But to be kept +here for an imaginary offence, to bear cold and hunger and illness +all to no purpose--that beats me. There can't be a God, or such +things would not be allowed." + +"To me it seems," said Valerian, "that we are the victims of +violated law. Others have shown tyranny, or injustice, or cruelty, +and we are the victims of their sin. Don't say there is no God. +There must be a God to avenge such hideous wrong." + +So they spoke to each other through their prison wall as men in the +free outer world seldom care to speak; and I, who knew no barriers, +looked now on Valerian's gaunt figure, and brave but prematurely old +face, now on poor Zaluski, who, in his weary imprisonment, had +wasted away till one could scarcely believe that he was indeed the +same lithe, active fellow who had played tennis at Mrs. Courtenay's +garden-party. + +Day and night Valerian listened to the terrible cough which came +from the adjoining cell. It became perfectly apparent to him that +his friend was dying; he knew it as well as if he had seen the +burning hectic flush on his hollow cheeks, and heard the panting, +hurried breaths, and watched the unnatural brilliancy of his dark +eyes. + +At length he thought the time had come for another sort of comfort. + +"My friend," he said one day, "it is too plain to me now that you +are dying. Write to the procurator and tell him so. In some cases +men have been allowed to go home to die." + +A wild hope seized on poor Sigismund; he sat down to the little +table in his cell and wrote a letter to the procurator--a letter +which might almost have drawn tears from a flint. Again and again +he passionately asserted his innocence, and begged to know on what +evidence he was imprisoned. He began to think that he could die +content if he might leave this terrible cell, might be a free agent +once more, if only for a few days. At least he might in that case +clear his character, and convince Gertrude that his imprisonment had +been all a hideous mistake; nay, he fancied that he might live +through a journey to England and see her once again. + +But the procurator would not let him be set free, and refused to +believe that his case was really a serious one. + +Sigismund's last hope left him. + +The days and weeks dragged slowly on, and when, according to English +reckoning, New Year's Eve arrived, he could scarcely believe that +only seventeen weeks ago he had actually been with Gertrude, and +that disgrace and imprisonment had seemed things that could never +come near him, and death had been a far-away possibility, and life +had been full of bliss. + +As I watched him a strong desire seized me to revisit the scenes of +which he was thinking, and I winged my way back to England, and soon +found myself in the drowsy, respectable streets of Muddleton. + +It was New Year's Eve, and I saw Mrs. O'Reilly preparing presents +for her grandchildren, and talking, as she tied them up, of that +dreadful Nihilist who had deceived them in the summer. I saw Lena +Houghton, and Mr. Blackthorne, and Mrs. Milton-Cleave, kneeling in +church on that Friday morning, praying that pity might be shown +"upon all prisoners and captives, and all that are desolate or +oppressed." + +It never occurred to them that they were responsible for the +sufferings of one weary prisoner, or that his death would be laid at +their door. + +I flew to Dulminster, and saw Mrs. Selldon kneeling in the cathedral +at the late evening service and rigorously examining herself as to +the shortcomings of the dying year. She confessed many things in a +vague, untroubled way; but had any one told her that she had cruelly +wronged her neighbour, and helped to bring an innocent man to shame, +and prison, and death, she would not have believed the accusation. + +I sought out Mark Shrewsbury. He was at his chambers in Pump Court +working away with his type-writer; he had a fancy for working the +old year out and the new year in, and now he was in the full swing +of that novel which had suggested itself to his mind when Mrs. +Selldon described the rich and mysterious foreigner who had settled +down at Ivy Cottage. Most happily he laboured on, never dreaming +that his careless words had doomed a fellow-man to a painful and +lingering death; never dreaming that while his fingers flew to and +fro over his dainty little keyboard, describing the clever doings of +the unscrupulous foreigner, another man, the victim of his idle +gossip, tapped dying messages on a dreary prison wall. + +For the end had come. + +Through the evening Sigismund rested wearily on his truckle-bed. He +could not lie down because of his cough, and, since there were no +extra pillows to prop him up, he had to rest his head and shoulders +against the wall. There was a gas-burner in the tiny cell, and by +its light he looked round the bare walls of his prison with a blank, +hopeless, yet wistful gaze; there was the stool, there was the +table, there were the clothes he should never wear again, there was +the door through which his lifeless body would soon be carried. He +looked at everything lingeringly, for he knew that this desolate +prison was the last bit of the world he should ever see. + +Presently the gas was turned out. + +He sighed as he felt the darkness close in upon him, for he knew +that his eyes would never again see light--knew that in this dark +lonely cell he must lie and wait for death. And he was young and +wished to live, and he was in love and longed most terribly for the +presence of the woman he loved. + +The awful desolateness of the cell was more than he could endure; he +tried to think of his past life, he tried to live once again through +those happy weeks with Gertrude; but always he came back to the +aching misery of the present--the cold and the pain, and the +darkness and the terrible solitude. + +His nerveless fingers felt their way to the wall and faintly rapped +a summons. + +"Valerian!" he said, "I shall not live through the night. Watch +with me." + +The faint raps sounded clearly in the stillness of the great +building, and Valerian dreaded lest the warders should hear them, +and deal out punishment for an offence which by day they were forced +to wink at. + +But he would not for the world have deserted his friend. He drew +his stool close to the wall, wrapped himself round in all the +clothes he could muster, and, shivering with cold, kept watch +through the long winter night. + +"I am near you," he telegraphed. "I will watch with you till +morning." + +From time to time Sigismund rapped faint messages, and Valerian +replied with comfort and sympathy. Once he thought to himself, "My +friend is better; there is more power in his hand." And indeed he +trembled, fearing that the sharp, emphatic raps must certainly +attract notice and put an end to their communion. + +"Tell my love that the accusation was false--false!" the word was +vehemently repeated. "Tell her I died broken-hearted, loving her to +the end." + +"I will tell her all when I am free," said poor Valerian, wondering +with a sigh when his unjust imprisonment would end. "Do you suffer +much?" he asked. + +There was a brief interval. Sigismund hesitated to tell a falsehood +in his last extremity. + +"It will soon be over. Do not be troubled for me," he replied. And +after that there was a long, long silence. + +Poor fellow! he died hard; and I wished that those comfortable +English people could have been dragged from their warm beds and +brought into the cold dreary cell where their victim lay, fighting +for breath, suffering cruelly both in mind and body. Valerian, +listening in sad suspense, heard one more faint word rapped by the +dying man. + +"Farewell!" + +"God be with you!" he replied, unable to check the tears which +rained down as he thought of the life so sadly ended, and of his own +bereavement. + +He heard no more. Sigismund's strength failed him, and I, to whom +the darkness made no difference, watched him through the last dread +struggle; there was no one to raise him, or hold him, no one to +comfort him. Alone in the cold and darkness of that first morning +of the year 1887, he died. + +Valerian did not hear through the wall his last faint gasping cry, +but I heard it, and its exceeding bitterness would have made mortals +weep. + +"Gertrude!" he sobbed. "Gertrude!" + +And with that his head sank on his breast, and the life, which but +for me might have been so happy and prosperous, was ended. + + +Prompted by curiosity, I instantly returned to Muddleton and sought +out Gertrude Morley. I stole into her room. She lay asleep, but +her dreams were troubled, and her face, once so fresh and bright, +was worn with pain and anxiety. + +Scarcely had I entered the room when, to my amazement, I saw the +spirit of Sigismund Zaluski. + +I saw him bend down and kiss the sleeping girl, and for a moment her +sad face lighted up with a radiant smile. + +I looked again; he was gone. Then Gertrude threw up both her arms +and with a bitter cry awoke from her dream. + +"Sigismund!" she cried. "Oh, Sigismund! Now I know that you are +dead indeed." + +For a long, long time she lay in a sort of trance of misery. It +seemed as if the life had been almost crushed out of her, and it was +not until the bells began to ring for the six o'clock service, +merrily pealing out their welcome of the new year morning, that full +consciousness returned to her again. But, as she clearly realised +what had happened, she broke into such a passion of tears as I had +never before witnessed, while still in the darkness the new year +bells rang gaily, and she knew that they heralded for her the +beginning of a lonely life. + +And so my work ended; my part in this world was played out. +Nevertheless I still live; and there will come a day when Sigismund +and Gertrude shall be comforted and the slanderers punished. + +For poor Valerian was right, and there is an Avenger, in whom even +my progenitor believes, and before whom he trembles. + +There will come a time when those self-satisfied ones, whose hands +are all the time steeped in blood, shall be confronted with me, and +shall realise to the full all that their idle words have brought +about. + +For that day I wait; and though afterwards I shall be finally +destroyed in the general destruction of all that is unmitigatedly +evil, I promise myself a certain satisfaction and pleasure (a +feeling I doubtless inherit from my progenitor), when I watch the +shame, and horror, and remorse of Mrs. O'Reilly and the rest of the +people to whom I owe my existence and rapid growth. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg Etext The Autobiography of a Slander, by Lyall + diff --git a/old/autos10.zip b/old/autos10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a01f21b --- /dev/null +++ b/old/autos10.zip |