diff options
Diffstat (limited to '1273-h')
| -rw-r--r-- | 1273-h/1273-h.htm | 2034 |
1 files changed, 2034 insertions, 0 deletions
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. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +http://www.gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +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 + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at http://www.gutenberg.org/about/contact + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: +http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + +</pre></body> +</html> |