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diff --git a/1273.txt b/1273.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..df505e2 --- /dev/null +++ b/1273.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2048 @@ +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*** + + + + +Transcribed from the 1890 Longmans, Green, and Co. edition by David +Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org + + + + + +THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A SLANDER + + +BY +EDNA LYALL + +AUTHOR OF 'DONOVAN' 'WE TWO' 'IN THE GOLDEN DAYS' +'KNIGHT ERRANT' ETC. + + _Trust not to each accusing tongue_, + _As most week persons do_; + _But still believe that story false_ + _Which ought not to be true_ + + SHERIDAN + +_NEW EDITION_ +(THIRTY-NINTH TO FORTY-FIRST THOUSAND) + +LONDON +LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. +AND NEW YORK: 15 EAST 16th STREET +1890 + +_All rights reserved_ + +DEDICATED +TO ALL +WHO IT MAY CONCERN + + + + +MY FIRST STAGE + + + At last the tea came up, and so + With that our tongues began to go. + Now in that house you're sure of knowing + The smallest scrap of news that's going. + We find it there the wisest way + To take some care of what we say. + + _Recreation_. JANE TAYLOR. + +I was born on the 2nd September, 1886, in a small, dull, country town. +When I say the town was dull, I mean, of course, that the inhabitants +were unenterprising, for in itself Muddleton was a picturesque place, and +though it laboured under the usual disadvantage of a dearth of bachelors +and a superfluity of spinsters, it might have been pleasant enough had it +not been a favourite resort for my kith and kin. + +My father has long enjoyed a world-wide notoriety; he is not, however, as +a rule named in good society, though he habitually frequents it; and as I +am led to believe that my autobiography will possibly be circulated by +Mr. Mudie, and will lie about on drawing-room tables, I will merely +mention that a most representation of my progenitor, under his _nom de +theatre_, Mephistopheles, may be seen now in London, and I should +recommend all who wish to understand his character to go to the Lyceum, +though, between ourselves, he strongly disapproves of the whole +performance. + +I was introduced into the world by an old lady named Mrs. O'Reilly. She +was a very pleasant old lady, the wife of a General, and one of those +sociable, friendly, talkative people who do much to cheer their +neighbours, particularly in a deadly-lively provincial place like +Muddleton, where the standard of social intercourse is not very high. +Mrs. O'Reilly had been in her day a celebrated beauty; she was now grey- +haired and stout, but still there was something impressive about her, and +few could resist the charm of her manner and the pleasant easy flow of +her small talk. Her love of gossip amounted almost to a passion, and +nothing came amiss to her; she liked to know everything about everybody, +and in the main I think her interest was a kindly one, though she found +that a little bit of scandal, every now and then, added a piquant flavour +to the homely fare provided by the commonplace life of the Muddletonians. + +I will now, without further preamble, begin the history of my life. + +* * * * * + +"I assure you, my dear Lena, Mr. Zaluski is nothing less than a +Nihilist!" + +The sound waves set in motion by Mrs. O'Reilly's words were tumultuously +heaving in the atmosphere when I sprang into being, a young but perfectly +formed and most promising slander. A delicious odour of tea pervaded the +drawing-room, it was orange-flower pekoe, and Mrs. O'Reilly was just +handing one of the delicate Crown Derby cups to her visitor, Miss Lena +Houghton. + +"What a shocking thing! Do you really mean it?" exclaimed Miss Houghton. +"Thank you, cream but no sugar; don't you know, Mrs. O'Reilly, that it is +only Low-Church people who take sugar nowadays? But, really, now, about +Mr. Zaluski? How did you find it out?" + +"My dear, I am an old woman, and I have learnt in the course of a +wandering life to put two and two together," said Mrs. O'Reilly. She had +somehow managed to ignore middle age, and had passed from her position of +renowned beauty to the position which she now firmly and constantly +claimed of many years and much experience. "Of course," she continued, +"like every one else, I was glad enough to be friendly and pleasant to +Sigismund Zaluski, and as to his being a Pole, why, I think it rather +pleased me than otherwise. You see, my dear, I have knocked about the +world and mixed with all kinds of people. Still, one must draw the line +somewhere, and I confess it gave me a very painful shock to find that he +had such violent antipathies to law and order. When he took Ivy Cottage +for the summer I made the General call at once, and before long we had +become very intimate with him; but, my dear, he's not what I thought +him--not at all!" + +"Well now, I am delighted to hear you say that," said Lena Houghton, with +some excitement in her manner, "for it exactly fits in with what I always +felt about him. From the first I disliked that man, and the way he goes +on with Gertrude Morley is simply dreadful. If they are not engaged they +ought to be--that's all I can say." + +"Engaged, my dear! I trust not," said Mrs. O'Reilly. "I had always +hoped for something very different for dear Gertrude. Quite between +ourselves, you know, my nephew John Carew is over head and ears in love +with her, and they would make a very good pair; don't you think so?" + +"Well, you see, I like Gertrude to a certain extent," replied Lena +Houghton. "But I never raved about her as so many people do. Still, I +hope she will not be entrapped into marrying Mr. Zaluski; she deserves a +better fate than that." + +"I quite agree with you," said Mrs. O'Reilly, with a troubled look. "And +the worst of it is, poor Gertrude is a girl who might very likely take up +foolish revolutionary notions; she needs a strong wise husband to keep +her in order and form her opinions. But is it really true that he flirts +with her? This is the first I have heard of it. I can't think how it +has escaped my notice." + +"Nor I, for indeed he is up at the Morleys' pretty nearly every day. What +with tennis, and music, and riding, there is always some excuse for it. I +can't think what Gertrude sees in him, he is not even good-looking." + +"There is a certain surface good-nature about him," said Mrs. O'Reilly. +"It deceived even me at first. But, my dear Lena, mark my words: that +man has a fearful temper; and I pray Heaven that poor Gertrude may have +her eyes opened in time. Besides, to think of that little gentle, +delicate thing marrying a Nihilist! It is too dreadful; really, quite +too dreadful! John would never get over it!" + +"The thing I can't understand is why all the world has taken him up so," +said Lena Houghton. "One meets him everywhere, yet nobody seems to know +anything about him. Just because he has taken Ivy Cottage for four +months, and because he seems to be rich and good-natured, every one is +ready to run after him." + +"Well, well," said Mrs. O'Reilly, "we all like to be neighbourly, my +dear, and a week ago I should have been ready to say nothing but good of +him. But now my eyes have been opened. I'll tell you just how it was. +We were sitting here, just as you and I are now, at afternoon tea; the +talk had flagged a little, and for the sake of something to say I made +some remark about Bulgaria--not that I really knew anything about it, you +know, for I'm no politician; still, I knew it was a subject that would +make talk just now. My dear, I assure you I was positively frightened. +All in a minute his face changed, his eyes flashed, he broke into such a +torrent of abuse as I never heard in my life before." + +"Do you mean that he abused you?" + +"Dear me, no! but Russia and the Czar, and tyranny and despotism, and +many other things I had never heard of. I tried to calm him down and +reason with him, but I might as well have reasoned with the cockatoo in +the window. At last he caught himself up quickly in the middle of a +sentence, strode over to the piano, and began to play as he generally +does, you know, when he comes here. Well, would you believe it, my dear! +instead of improvising or playing operatic airs as usual, he began to +play a stupid little tune which every child was taught years ago, of +course with variations of his own. Then he turned round on the music- +stool with the oddest smile I ever saw, and said, "Do you know that air, +Mrs. O'Reilly?" + +"Yes," I said; "but I forget now what it is.'" + +"It was composed by Pestal, one of the victims of Russian tyranny," said +he. "The executioner did his work badly, and Pestal had to be strung up +twice. In the interval he was heard to mutter, 'Stupid country, where +they don't even know how to hang!'" + +"Then he gave a little forced laugh, got up quickly, wished me good-bye, +and was gone before I could put in a word." + +"What a horrible story to tell in a drawing-room!" said Lena Houghton. "I +envy Gertrude less than ever." + +"Poor girl! What a sad prospect it is for her!" said Mrs. O'Reilly with +a sigh. "Of course, my dear, you'll not repeat what I have just told +you." + +"Not for the world!" said Lena Houghton emphatically. "It is perfectly +safe with me." + +The conversation was here abruptly ended, for the page threw open the +drawing-room door and announced 'Mr. Zaluski.' + +"Talk of the angel," murmured Mrs. O'Reilly with a significant smile at +her companion. Then skilfully altering the expression of her face, she +beamed graciously on the guest who was ushered into the room, and Lena +Houghton also prepared to greet him most pleasantly. + +I looked with much interest at Sigismund Zaluski, and as I looked I +partly understood why Miss Houghton had been prejudiced against him at +first sight. He had lived five years in England, and nothing pleased him +more than to be taken for an Englishman. He had had his silky black hair +closely cropped in the very hideous fashion of the present day; he wore +the ostentatiously high collar now in vogue; and he tried to be +sedulously English in every respect. But in spite of his wonderfully +fluent speech and almost perfect accent, there lingered about him +something which would not harmonise with that ideal of an English +gentleman which is latent in most minds. Something he lacked, something +he possessed, which interfered with the part he desired to play. The +something lacking showed itself in his ineradicable love of jewellery and +in a transparent habit of fibbing; the something possessed showed itself +in his easy grace of movement, his delightful readiness to amuse and to +be amused, and in a certain cleverness and rapidity of idea rarely, if +ever, found in an Englishman. + +He was a little above the average height and very finely built; but there +was nothing striking in his aquiline features and dark grey eyes, and I +think Miss Houghton spoke truly when she said that he was 'Not even good- +looking.' Still, in spite of this, it was a face which grew upon most +people, and I felt the least little bit of regret as I looked at him, +because I knew that I should persistently haunt and harass him, and +should do all that could be done to spoil his life. + +Apparently he had forgotten all about Russia and Bulgaria, for he looked +radiantly happy. Clearly his thoughts were engrossed with his own +affairs, which, in other words, meant with Gertrude Morley; and though, +as I have since observed, there are times when a man in love is an +altogether intolerable sort of being, there are other times when he is +very much improved by the passion, and regards the whole world with a +genial kindliness which contrasts strangely with his previous cool +cynicism. + +"How delightful and home-like your room always looks!" he exclaimed, +taking the cup of tea which Mrs. O'Reilly handed to him. "I am horribly +lonely at Ivy Cottage. This house is a sort of oasis in the desert." + +"Why, you are hardly ever at home, I thought," said Mrs. O'Reilly, +smiling. "You are the lion of the neighbourhood just now; and I'm sure +it is very good of you to come in and cheer a lonely old woman. Are you +going to play me something rather more lively to-day?" + +He laughed. + +"Ah! Poor Pestal! I had forgotten all about our last meeting." + +"You were very much excited that day," said Mrs. O'Reilly. "I had no +idea that your political notions--" + +He interrupted her + +"Ah! no politics to-day, dear Mrs. O'Reilly. Let us have nothing but +enjoyment and harmony. See, now, I will play you something very much +more cheerful." + +And sitting down to the piano, he played the bridal march from +'Lohengrin,' then wandered off into an improvised air, and finally +treated them to some recollections of the 'Mikado.' + +Lena-Houghton watched him thoughtfully as she put on her gloves; he was +playing with great spirit, and the words of the opera rang in her ears:-- + + For he's going to marry Yum-yum, Yum-yum, + And so you had better be dumb, dumb, dumb! + +I knew well enough that she would not follow this moral advice, and I +laughed to myself because the whole scene was such a hollow mockery. The +placid benevolent-looking old lady leaning back in her arm-chair; the +girl in her blue gingham and straw hat preparing to go to the afternoon +service; the happy lover entering heart and soul into Sullivan's charming +music; the pretty room with its Chippendale furniture, its aesthetic +hangings, its bowls of roses; and the sound of church bells wafted +through the open window on the soft summer breeze. + +Yet all the time I lingered there unseen, carrying with me all sorts of +dread possibilities. I had been introduced into the world, and even if +Mrs. O'Reilly had been willing to admit to herself that she had broken +the ninth commandment, and had earnestly desired to recall me, all her +sighs and tears and regrets would have availed nothing; so true is the +saying, "Of thy word unspoken thou art master; thy spoken word is master +of thee." + +"Thank you." "Thank you." "How I envy your power of playing!" + +The two ladies seemed to vie with each other in making pretty speeches, +and Zaluski, who loved music and loved giving pleasure, looked really +pleased. I am sure it did not enter his head that his two companions +were not sincere, or that they did not wish him well. He was thinking to +himself how simple and kindly the Muddleton people were, and how great a +contrast this life was to his life in London; and he was saying to +himself that he had been a fool to live a lonely bachelor life till he +was nearly thirty, and yet congratulating himself that he had done so +since Gertrude was but nineteen. Undoubtedly, he was seeing blissful +visions of the future all the time that he replied to the pretty +speeches, and shook hands with Lena Houghton, and opened the drawing-room +door for her, and took out his watch to assure her that she had plenty of +time and need not hurry to church. + +Poor Zaluski! He looked so kindly and pleasant. Though I was only a +slander, and might have been supposed to have no heart at all, I did feel +sorry for him when I thought of the future and of the grief and pain +which would persistently dog his steps. + + + + +MY SECOND STAGE + + + Bear not false witness, slander not, nor lie; + Truth is the speech of inward purity. + + _The Light of Asia_. + +In my first stage the reader will perceive that I was a comparatively +weak and harmless little slander, with merely that taint of original sin +which was to be expected in one of such parentage. But I developed with +great rapidity; and I believe men of science will tell you that this is +always the case with low organisms. That, for instance, while it takes +years to develop the man from the baby, and months to develop the dog +from the puppy, the baby monad will grow to maturity in an hour. + +Personally I should have preferred to linger in Mrs. O'Reilly's pleasant +drawing-room, for, as I said before, my victim interested me, and I +wanted to observe him more closely and hear what he talked about. But I +received orders to attend evensong at the parish church, and to haunt the +mind of Lena Houghton. + +As we passed down the High Street the bells rang out loud and clear, and +they made me feel the same slight sense of discomfort that I had felt +when I looked at Zaluski; however, I went on, and soon entered the +church. It was a fine old Gothic building, and the afternoon sunshine +seemed to flood the whole place; even the white stones in the aisle were +glorified here and there with gorgeous patches of colour from the stained +glass windows. But the strange stillness and quiet oppressed me, I did +not feel nearly so much at home as in Mrs. O'Reilly's drawing-room--to +use a terrestrial simile, I felt like a fish out of water. + +For some time, too, I could find no entrance at all into the mind of Lena +Houghton. Try as I would, I could not distract her attention or gain the +slightest hold upon her, and I really believe I should have been +altogether baffled, had not the rector unconsciously come to my aid. + +All through the prayers and psalms I had fought a desperate fight without +gaining a single inch. Then the rector walked over to the lectern, and +the moment he opened his mouth I knew that my time had come, and that +there was a very fair chance of victory before me. Whether this +clergyman had a toothache, or a headache, or a heavy load on his mind, I +cannot say, but his reading was more lugubrious than the wind in an +equinoctial gale. I have since observed that he was only a degree worse +than many other clerical readers, and that a strange and delightfully +mistaken notion seems prevalent that the Bible must be read in a dreary +and unnatural tone of voice, or with a sort of mournful monotony; it is +intended as a sort of reverence, but I suspect that it often plays into +the hands of my progenitor, as it most assuredly did in the present +instance. + +Hardly had the rector announced, "Here beginneth the forty-fourth verse +of the sixteenth chapter of the book of the prophet Ezekiel," than a sort +of relaxation took place in the mind I was attacking. Lena Houghton's +attention could only have been given to the drearily read lesson by a +very great effort; she was a little lazy and did not make the effort, she +thought how nice it was to sit down again, and then the melancholy voice +lulled her into a vague interval of thoughtless inactivity. I promptly +seized my opportunity, and in a moment her whole mind was full of me. She +was an excitable, impressionable sort of girl, and when once I had +obtained an entrance into her mind I found it the easiest thing in the +world to dominate her thoughts. Though she stood, and sat, and knelt, +and curtseyed, and articulated words, her thoughts were entirely absorbed +in me. I crowded out the Magnificat with a picture of Zaluski and +Gertrude Morley. I led her through more terrible future possibilities in +the second lesson than would be required for a three-volume novel. I +entirely eclipsed the collects with reflections on unhappy marriages; +took her off _via_ Russia and Nihilism in the State prayers, and by the +time we arrived at St. Chrysostom had become so powerful that I had +worked her mind into exactly the condition I desired. + +The congregation rose. Lena Houghton, still dominated by me, knelt +longer than the rest, but at last she got up and walked down the aisle, +and I felt a great sense of relief and satisfaction. We were out in the +open air once more, and I had triumphed; I was quite sure that she would +tell the first person she met, for, as I have said before, she was +entirely taken up with me, and to have kept me to herself would have +required far more strength and unselfishness than she at that moment +possessed. She walked slowly through the churchyard, feeling much +pleased to see that the curate had just left the vestry door, and that in +a few moments their paths must converge. + +Mr. Blackthorne had only been ordained three or four years, and was a +little younger, and much less experienced in the ways of the world, than +Sigismund Zaluski. He was a good well-meaning fellow, a little narrow, a +little prejudiced, a little spoiled by the devotion of the district +visitors and Sunday School teachers; but he was honest and energetic, and +as a worker among the poor few could have equalled him. He seemed to +fancy, however, that with the poor his work ended, and he was not always +so wise as he might have been in Muddleton society. + +"Good afternoon, Miss Houghton," he exclaimed. "Do you happen to know if +your brother is at home? I want just to speak to him about the choir +treat." + +"Oh, he is sure to be in by this time," said Lena. + +And they walked home together. + +"I am so glad to have this chance of speaking to you," she began rather +nervously. "I wanted particularly to ask your advice." + +Mr. Blackthorne, being human and young, was not unnaturally flattered by +this remark. True, he was becoming well accustomed to this sort of +thing, since the ladies of Muddleton were far more fond of seeking advice +from the young and good-looking curate than from the elderly and +experienced rector. They said it was because Mr. Blackthorne was so much +more sympathetic, and understood the difficulties of the day so much +better; but I think they unconsciously deceived themselves, for the +rector was one of a thousand, and the curate, though he had in him the +makings of a fine man, was as yet altogether crude and young. + +"Was it about anything in your district?" he asked, devoutly hoping that +she was not going to propound some difficult question about the origin of +evil, or any other obscure subject. For though he liked the honour of +being consulted, he did not always like the trouble it involved, and he +remembered with a shudder that Miss Houghton had once asked him his +opinion about the 'Ethical Concept of the Good.' + +"It was only that I was so troubled about something Mrs. O'Reilly has +just told me," said Lena Houghton. "You won't tell any one that I told +you?" + +"On no account," said the curate, warmly. + +"Well, you know Mr. Zaluski, and how the Morleys have taken him up?" + +"Every one has taken him up," said the curate, with the least little +touch of resentment in his tone. "I knew that the Morleys were his +special friends; I imagine that he admires Miss Morley." + +"Yes, every one thinks they are either engaged or on the brink of it. And +oh, Mr. Blackthorne, can't you or somebody put a stop to it, for it seems +such a dreadful fate for poor Gertrude?" + +The curate looked startled. + +"Why, I don't profess to like Mr. Zaluski," he said. "But I don't know +anything exactly against him." + +"But I do. Mrs. O'Reilly has just been telling me." + +"What did she tell you?" he asked with some curiosity. + +"Why, she has found out that he is really a Nihilist--just think of a +Nihilist going about loose like this, and playing tennis at the rectory +and all the good houses! And not only that, but she says he is +altogether a dangerous, unprincipled man with a dreadful temper. You +can't think how unhappy she is about poor Gertrude, and so am I, for we +were at school together and have always been friends." + +"I am very sorry to hear about it," said Mr. Blackthorne, "but I don't +see that anything can be done. You see, one does not like to interfere +in these sort of things. It seems officious rather, and meddlesome." + +"Yes, that is the worst of it," she replied, with a sigh. "I suppose we +can do nothing. Still, it has been a great relief just to tell you about +it and get it off my mind. I suppose we can only hope that something may +put a stop to it all--we must just leave it to chance." + +This sentiment amused me not a little. Leave it to chance indeed! Had +she not caused me to grow stronger and larger by every word she uttered? +And had not the conversation revealed to me Mr. Blackthorn's one +vulnerable part? I knew well enough that I should be able to dominate +his thoughts as I had done hers. Finding me burdensome, she had passed +me on to somebody else with additions that vastly increased my working +powers, and then she talked of leaving it to chance! The way in which +mortals practise pious frauds on themselves is really delightful! And +yet Lena Houghton was a good sort of girl, and had from her childhood +repeated the catechism words which proclaim that, "My duty to my +neighbour is to love him as myself . . . To keep my tongue from +evil-speaking, lying, and slandering." What is more, she took great +pains to teach these words to a big class of Sunday School children, and +went, rain or shine, to spend two hours each Sunday in a stuffy school- +room for that purpose. It was strange that she should be so ready to +believe evil of her neighbour, and so eager to spread the story. But my +progenitor is clever, and doubtless knows very well, whom to select as +his tools. + +By this time they had reached a comfortable-looking, red-brick house with +white stone facings, and in the discussion of the arrangements for the +choir treat I was entirely forgotten. + + + + +MY THIRD STAGE + + + Alas! such is our weakness, that we often more readily believe and + speak of another that which is evil than that which is good. But + perfect men do not easily give credit to every report; because they + know man's weakness, which is very prone to evil, and very subject to + fail in words. + + THOMAS A KEMPIS. + +All through that evening, and through the first part of the succeeding +day, I was crowded out of the curate's mind by a host of thoughts with +which I had nothing in common; and though I hovered about him as he +taught in the school, and visited several sick people, and argued with an +habitual drunkard, and worked at his Sunday sermon, a Power, which I felt +but did not understand, baffled all my attempts to gain an entrance and +attract his notice. I made a desperate attack on him after lunch as he +sat smoking and enjoying a well-earned rest, but it was of no avail. I +followed him to a large garden-party later on, but to my great annoyance +he went about talking to every one in the pleasantest way imaginable, +though I perceived that he was longing to play tennis instead. + +At length, however, my opportunity came. Mr. Blackthorne was talking to +the lady of the house, Mrs. Courtenay, when she suddenly exclaimed:-- + +"Ah, here is Mr. Zaluski just arriving. I began to be afraid that he had +forgotten the day, and he is always such an acquisition. How do you do, +Mr. Zaluski?" she said, greeting my victim warmly as he stepped on to the +terrace. "So glad you were able to come. You know Mr. Blackthorne, I +think." + +Zaluski greeted the curate pleasantly, and his dark eyes lighted up with +a gleam of amusement. + +"Oh, we are great friends," he said laughingly. "Only, you know, I +sometimes shock him a little--just a very little." + +"That is very unkind of you, I am sure," said Mrs. Courtenay, smiling. + +"No, not at all," said Zaluski, with the audacity of a privileged being. +"It is just my little amusement, very harmless, very--what you call +innocent. Mr. Blackthorne cannot make up his mind about me. One day I +appear to him to be Catholic, the next Comtist, the next Orthodox Greek, +the next a convert to the Anglican communion. I am a mystery, you see! +And mysteries are as indispensable in life as in a romance." + +He laughed. Mrs. Courtenay laughed too, and a little friendly banter was +carried on between them, while the curate stood by feeling rather out of +it. + +I drew nearer to him, perceiving that my prospects bid fair to improve. +For very few people can feel out of it without drifting into a +self-regarding mood, and then they are the easiest prey imaginable. +Undoubtedly a man like Zaluski, with his easy nonchalance, his knowledge +of the world, his genuine good-nature, and the background of sterling +qualities which came upon you as a surprise because he loved to make +himself seem a mere idler, was apt to eclipse an ordinary mortal like +James Blackthorne. The curate perceived this and did not like to be +eclipsed--as a matter of fact, nobody does. It seemed to him a little +unfair that he, who had hitherto been made much of, should be called to +play second fiddle to this rich Polish fellow who had never done anything +for Muddleton or the neighbourhood. And then, too, Sigismund Zaluski had +a way of poking fun at him which he resented, and would not take in good +part. + +Something of this began to stir in his mind; and he cordially hated the +Pole when Jim Courtenay, who arranged the tennis, came up and asked him +to play in the next set, passing the curate by altogether. + +Then I found no difficulty at all in taking possession of him; indeed he +was delighted to have me brought back to his memory, he positively +gloated over me, and I grew apace. + +Zaluski, in the seventh heaven of happiness, was playing with Gertrude +Morley, and his play was so good and so graceful that every one was +watching it with pleasure. His partner, too, played well; she was a +pretty, fair-haired girl, with soft grey eyes like the eyes of a dove; +she wore a white tennis dress and a white sailor hat, and at her throat +she had fastened a cluster of those beautiful orange-coloured roses known +by the prosaic name of 'William Allan Richardson.' + +If Mr. Blackthorne grew angry as he watched Sigismund Zaluski, he grew +doubly angry as he watched Gertrude Morley. He said to himself that it +was intolerable that such a girl should fall a prey to a vain, shallow, +unprincipled foreigner, and in a few minutes he had painted such a dark +picture of poor Sigismund that my strength increased tenfold. + +"Mr. Blackthorne," said Mrs. Courtenay, "would you take Mrs. +Milton-Cleave to have an ice?" + +Now Mrs. Milton-Cleave had always been one of the curate's great friends. +She was a very pleasant, talkative woman of six-and-thirty, and a general +favourite. Her popularity was well deserved, for she was always ready to +do a kind action, and often went out of her way to help people who had +not the slightest claim upon her. There was, however, no repose about +Mrs. Milton-Cleave, and an acute observer would have discovered that her +universal readiness to help was caused to some extent by her good heart, +but in a very large degree by her restless and over-active brain. Her +sphere was scarcely large enough for her, she would have made an +excellent head of an orphan asylum or manager of some large institution, +but her quiet country life offered far too narrow a field for her energy. + +"It is really quite a treat to watch Mr. Zaluski's play," she remarked as +they walked to the refreshment tent at the other end of the lawn. +"Certainly foreigners know how to move much better than we do: our best +players look awkward beside them." + +"Do you think so?" said Mr. Blackthorne. "I am afraid I am full of +prejudice, and consider that no one can equal a true-born Briton." + +"And I quite agree with you in the main," said Mrs. Milton-Cleave. +"Though I confess that it is rather refreshing to have a little variety." + +The curate was silent, but his silence merely covered his absorption in +me, and I began to exercise a faint influence through his mind on the +mind of his companion. This caused her at length to say: + +"I don't think you quite like Mr. Zaluski. Do you know much about him?" + +"I have met him several times this summer," said the curate, in the tone +of one who could have said much more if he would. + +The less satisfying his replies, the more Mrs. Milton-Cleave's curiosity +grew. + +"Now, tell me candidly," she said at length. "Is there not some mystery +about our new neighbour? Is he quite what he seems to be?" + +"I fear he is not," said Mr. Blackthorne, making the admission in a tone +of reluctance, though, to tell the truth, he had been longing to pass me +on for the last five minutes. + +"You mean that he is fast?" + +"Worse than that," said James Blackthorne, lowering his voice as they +walked down one of the shady garden paths. "He is a dangerous, +unprincipled fellow, and into the bargain an avowed Nihilist. All that +is involved in that word you perhaps scarcely realise." + +"Indeed I do," she exclaimed with a shocked expression. "I have just +been reading a review of that book by Stepniak. Their social and +religious views are terrible; free-love, atheism, everything that could +bring ruin on the human race. Is he indeed a Nihilist?" + +Mr. Blackthorne's conscience gave him a sharp prick, for he knew that he +ought not to have passed me on. He tried to pacify it with the excuse +that he had only promised not to tell that Miss Houghton had been his +informant. + +"I assure you," he said impressively, "it is only too true. I know it on +the best authority." + +And here I cannot help remarking that it has always seemed to me strange +that even experienced women of the world, like Mrs. Milton-Cleave, can be +so easily hoodwinked by that vague nonentity, 'The Best Authority.' I am +inclined to think that were I a human being I should retort with an +expressive motion of the finger and thumb, "Oh, you know it on the best +authority, do you? Then _that_ for your story!" + +However, I thrived wonderfully on the best authority, and it would be +ungrateful of me to speak evil of that powerful though imaginary being. + +At right angles with the garden walk down which the two were pacing there +was another wide pathway, bordered by high closely clipped shrubs. Down +this paced a very different couple. Mrs. Milton-Cleave caught sight of +them, and so did curate. Mrs. Milton-Cleave sighed. + +"I am afraid he is running after Gertrude Morley! Poor girl! I hope she +will not be deluded into encouraging him." + +And then they made just the same little set remarks about the +desirability of stopping so dangerous an acquaintance, and the +impossibility of interfering with other people's affairs, and the sad +necessity of standing by with folded hands. I laughed so much over their +hollow little phrases that at last I was fain to beat a retreat, and, +prompted by curiosity to know a little of the truth, I followed Sigismund +and Gertrude down the broad grassy pathway. + +I knew of course a good deal of Zaluski's character, because my own +existence and growth pointed out what he was not. Still, to study a man +by a process of negation is tedious, and though I knew that he was not a +Nihilist, or a free-lover, or an atheist, or an unprincipled fellow with +a dangerous temper, yet I was curious to see him as he really was. + +"If you only knew how happy you had made me!" he was saying. And indeed, +as far as happiness went, there was not much to choose between them, I +fancy; for Gertrude Morley looked radiant, and in her clove-like eyes +there was the reflection of the love which flashed in his. + +"You must talk to my mother about it," she said after a minute's silence. +"You see, I am still under age, and she and Uncle Henry my guardian must +consent before we are actually betrothed." + +"I will see them at once," said Zaluski, eagerly. + +"You could see my mother," she replied. "But Uncle Henry is still in +Sweden and will not be in town for another week." + +"Must we really wait so long!" sighed Sigismund impatiently. + +She laughed at him gently. + +"A whole week! But then we are sure of each other. I do not think we +ought to grumble." + +"But perhaps they may think that a merchant is no fitting match for you," +he suggested. "I am nothing but a plain merchant, and my I people have +been in the same business for four generations. As far as wealth goes I +might perhaps satisfy your people, but for the rest I am but a prosaic +fellow, with neither noble blood, nor the brain of a genius, nor anything +out of the common." + +"It will be enough for my mother that we love each other," she said +shyly. + +"And your uncle?" + +"It will be enough for him that you are upright and honourable--enough +that you are yourself, Sigismund." + +They were sitting now in a little sheltered recess clipped out of the yew- +trees. When that softly spoken "Sigismund" fell from her lips, Zaluski +caught her in his arms and kissed her again and again. + +"I have led such a lonely life," he said after a few minutes, during +which their talk had baffled my comprehension. "All my people died while +I was still a boy." + +"Then who brought you up?" she inquired. + +"An uncle of mine, the head of our firm in St. Petersburg. He was very +good to me, but he had children of his own, and of course I could not be +to him as one of them. I have had many friends and much kindness shown +to me, but love!--none till to-day." + +And then again they fell into the talk which I could not fathom. And so +I left them in their brief happiness, for my time of idleness was over, +and I was ordered to attend Mrs. Milton-Cleave without a moment's delay. + + + + +MY FOURTH STAGE + + + Oh, the little more, and how much it is! + + R. BROWING. + +Mrs. Milton-Cleave had one weakness--she was possessed by an inordinate +desire for influence. This made her always eagerly anxious to be +interesting both in her conversation and in her letters, and to this end +she exerted herself with unwearying activity. She liked influencing Mr. +Blackthorne, and spared no pains on him that afternoon; and indeed the +curate was a good deal flattered by her friendship, and considered her +one of the most clever and charming women he had ever met. + +Sigismund and Gertrude returned to the ordinary world just as Mrs. Milton- +Cleave was saying good-bye to the hostess. She glanced at them +searchingly. + +"Good-bye, Gertrude," she said a little coldly. "Did you win at tennis?" + +"Indeed we did," said Gertrude, smiling. "We came off with flying +colours. It was a love set." + +The girl was looking more beautiful than ever, and there was a tell-tale +colour in her cheeks and an unusual light in her soft grey eyes. As for +Zaluski, he was so evidently in love, and had the audacity to look so +supremely happy, that Mrs. Milton-Cleave was more than ever impressed +with the gravity of the situation. The curate handed her into her +victoria, and she drove home through the sheltered lanes musing sadly +over the story she had heard, and wondering what Gertrude's future would +be. When she reached home, however, the affair was driven from her +thoughts by her children, of whom she was devotedly fond. They came +running to meet her, frisking like so many kittens round her as she went +upstairs to her room, and begging to stay with her while she dressed for +dinner. During dinner she was engrossed with her husband; but +afterwards, when she was alone in the drawing-room, I found my +opportunity for working on her restless mind. + +"Dear me," she exclaimed, throwing aside the newspaper she had just taken +up, "I ought to write to Mrs. Selldon at Dulminster about that G.F.S. +girl!" + +As a matter of fact she ought not to have written then, the letter might +well have waited till the morning, and she was over-tired and needed +rest. But I was glad to see her take up her pen, for I knew I should +come in most conveniently to fill up the second side of the sheet. + +Before long Jane Stiggins, the member who had migrated from Muddleton to +Dulminster, had been duly reported, wound up, and made over to the +Archdeacon's wife. Then the tired hand paused. What more could she say +to her friend? + +"We are leading our usual quiet life here," she wrote, "with the ordinary +round of tennis parties and picnics to enliven us. The children have all +been wonderfully well, and I think you will see a great improvement in +your god-daughter when you next come to stay with us"--"Oh dear!" sighed +Mrs. Milton-Cleave, "how dull and stupid I am to-night! I can't think of +a single thing to say." Then at length I flashed into her mind, and with +a sigh of relief and a little rising flush of excitement she went on much +more rapidly. + +"It is such a comfort to be quite at rest about them, and to see them all +looking so well. But I suppose one can never be without some cause of +worry, and just now I am very unhappy about that nice girl Gertrude +Morley whom you admired so much when you were last here. The whole +neighbourhood has been dominated this year by a young Polish merchant +named Sigismund Zaluski, who is very clever and musical and knows well +how to win popularity. He has taken Ivy Cottage for four mouths, and is, +I fear, doing great mischief. The Morleys are his special friends, and I +greatly fear he is making love to Gertrude. Now I know privately, on the +very best authority, that although he has so completely deceived every +one and has managed so cleverly to pose as a respectable man, that Mr. +Zaluski is really a Nihilist, a free-lover, an atheist, and altogether a +most unprincipled man. He is very clever, and speaks English most +fluently, indeed he has lived in London since the spring of 1881--he told +me so himself. I cannot help fancying that he must have been concerned +in the assassination of the late Czar, which you will remember took place +in that year early in March. It is terrible to think of the poor Morleys +entering blindfold on such an undesirable connection; but, at the same +time, I really do not feel that I can say anything about it. Excuse this +hurried note, dear Charlotte, and with love to yourself and kindest +remembrances to the Archdeacon, + +"Believe me, very affectionately yours, + +"GEORGINA MILTON-CLEAVE. + +"P.S. It may perhaps be as well not to mention this affair about +Gertrude Morley and Mr. Zaluski. They are not yet engaged, as far as I +know, and I sincerely trust it may prove to be a mere flirtation." + +* * * * * + +I had now grown to such enormous dimensions that any one who had known me +in my infancy would scarcely have recognised me, while naturally the more +I grew the more powerful I became, and the more capable both of +impressing the minds which received me and of injuring Zaluski. Poor +Zaluski, who was so foolishly, thoughtlessly happy! He little dreamed of +the fate that awaited him! His whole world was bright and full of +promise; each hour of love seemed to improve him, to deepen his whole +character, to tone down his rather flippant manner, to awaken for him new +and hitherto unthought-of realities. + +But while he basked in his new happiness I travelled in my close stuffy +envelope to Dulminster, and after having been tossed in and out of bags, +shuffled, stamped, thumped, tied up, and generally shaken about, I +arrived one morning at Dulminster Archdeaconry, and was laid on the +breakfast table among other appetising things to greet Mrs. Selldon when +she came downstairs. + + + + +MY FIFTH STAGE + + + Also it is wise not to believe everything you hear, not immediately to + carry to the ears of others what you have either heard or believed. + + THOMAS A KEMPIS. + +Though I was read in silence at the breakfast table and not passed on to +the Archdeacon, I lay dormant in Mrs. Selldon's mind all day, and came to +her aid that night when she was at her wits' end for something to talk +about. + +Mrs. Selldon, though a most worthy and estimable person, was of a +phlegmatic temperament; her sympathies were not easily aroused, her mind +was lazy and torpid, in conversation she was unutterably dull. There +were times when she was painfully conscious of this, and would have given +much for the ceaseless flow of words which fell from the lips of her +friend Mrs. Milton-Cleave. And that evening after my arrival chanced to +be one of these occasions, for there was a dinner-party at the +Archdeaconry, given in honour of a well-known author who was spending a +few days in the neighbourhood. + +"I wish you could have Mr. Shrewsbury at your end of the table, Thomas," +Mrs. Selldon had remarked to her husband with a sigh, as she was +arranging the guests on paper that afternoon. + +"Oh, he must certainly take you in, my dear," said the Archdeacon. "And +he seems a very clever, well-read man, I am sure you will find him easy +to talk to." + +Poor Mrs. Selldon thought that she would rather have had some one who was +neither clever nor well-read. But there was no help for her, and, +whether she would or not, she had to go in to dinner with the literary +lion. + +Mr. Mark Shrewsbury was a novelist of great ability. Some twenty years +before, he had been called to the bar, and, conscious of real talent, had +been greatly embittered by the impossibility of getting on in his +profession. At length, in disgust, he gave up all hopes of success and +devoted himself instead to literature. In this field he won the +recognition for which he craved; his books were read everywhere, his name +became famous, his income steadily increased, and he had the pleasant +consciousness that he had found his vocation. Still, in spite of his +success, he could not forget the bitter years of failure and +disappointment which had gone before, and though his novels were full of +genius they were pervaded by an undertone of sarcasm, so that people +after reading them were more ready than before to take cynical views of +life. + +He was one of those men whose quiet impassive faces reveal scarcely +anything of their character. He was neither tall nor short, neither dark +nor fair, neither handsome nor the reverse; in fact his personality was +not in the least impressive; while, like most true artists, he observed +all things so quietly that you rarely discovered that he was observing at +all. + +"Dear me!" people would say, "Is Mark Shrewsbury really here? Which is +he? I don't see any one at all like my idea of a novelist." + +"There he is--that man in spectacles," would be the reply. + +And really the spectacles were the only noteworthy thing about him. + +Mrs. Selldon, who had seen several authors and authoresses in her time, +and knew that they were as a rule most ordinary, hum-drum kind of people, +was quite prepared for her fate. She remembered her astonishment as a +girl when, having laughed and cried at the play, and taken the chief +actor as her ideal hero, she had had him pointed out to her one day in +Regent Street, and found him to be a most commonplace-looking man, the +very last person one would have supposed capable of stirring the hearts +of a great audience. + +Meanwhile dinner progressed, and Mrs. Selldon talked to an empty-headed +but loquacious man on her left, and racked her brains for something to +say to the alarmingly silent author on her right. She remembered hearing +that Charles Dickens would often sit silent through the whole of dinner, +observing quietly those about him, but that at dessert he would suddenly +come to life and keep the whole table in roars of laughter. She feared +that Mr. Shrewsbury meant to imitate the great novelist in the first +particular, but was scarcely likely to follow his example in the last. At +length she asked him what he thought of the cathedral, and a few tepid +remarks followed. + +"How unutterably this good lady bores me!" thought the author. + +"How odd it is that his characters talk so well in his books, and that he +is such a stick!" thought Mrs. Selldon. + +"I suppose it's the effect of cathedral-town atmosphere," reflected the +author. + +"I suppose he is eaten up with conceit and won't trouble himself to talk +to me," thought the hostess. + +By the time the fish had been removed they had arrived at a state of +mutual contempt. Mindful of the reputation they had to keep up, however, +they exerted themselves a little more while the _entrees_ went round. + +"Seldom reads, I should fancy, and never thinks!" reflected the author, +glancing at Mrs. Selldon's placid unintellectual face. "What on earth +can I say to her?" + +"Very unpractical, I am sure," reflected Mrs. Selldon. "The sort of man +who lives in a world of his own, and only lays down his pen to take up a +book. What subject shall I start?" + +"What delightful weather we have been having the last few days!" observed +the author. "Real genuine summer weather at last." The same remark had +been trembling on Mrs. Selldon's lips. She assented with great +cheerfulness and alacrity; and over that invaluable topic, which is +always so safe, and so congenial, and so ready to hand, they grew quite +friendly, and the conversation for fully five minutes was animated. + +An interval of thought followed. + +"How wearisome is society!" reflected Mrs. Selldon. "It is hard that we +must spend so much money in giving dinners and have so much trouble for +so little enjoyment." + +"One pays dearly for fame," reflected the author. "What a confounded +nuisance it is to waste all this time when there are the last proofs of +'What Caste?' to be done for the nine-o'clock post to-morrow morning! +Goodness knows what time I shall get to bed to-night!" + +Then Mrs. Selldon thought regretfully of the comfortable easy chair that +she usually enjoyed after dinner, and the ten minutes' nap, and the +congenial needle-work. And Mark Shrewsbury thought of his chambers in +Pump Court, and longed for his type-writer, and his books, and his swivel +chair, and his favourite meerschaum. + +"I should be less afraid to talk if there were not always the horrible +idea that he may take down what one says," thought Mrs. Selldon. + +"I should be less bored if she would only be her natural self," reflected +the author. "And would not talk prim platitudes." (This was hard, for +he had talked nothing else himself.) "Does she think she is so +interesting that I am likely to study her for my next book?" + +"Have you been abroad this summer?" inquired Mrs. Selldon, making another +spasmodic attempt at conversation. + +"No, I detest travelling," replied Mark Shrewsbury. "When I need change +I just settle down in some quiet country district for a few +months--somewhere near Windsor, or Reigate, or Muddleton. There is +nothing to my mind like our English scenery." + +"Oh, do you know Muddleton?" exclaimed Mrs. Selldon. "Is it not a +charming little place? I often stay in the neighbourhood with the Milton- +Cleaves." + +"I know Milton-Cleave well," said the author. "A capital fellow, quite +the typical country gentleman." + +"Is he not?" said Mrs. Selldon, much relieved to have found this subject +in common. "His wife is a great friend of mine; she is full of life and +energy, and does an immense amount of good. Did you say you had stayed +with them?" + +"No, but last year I took a house in that neighbourhood for a few months; +a most charming little place it was, just fit for a lonely bachelor. I +dare say you remember it--Ivy Cottage, on the Newton Road." + +"Did you stay there? Now what a curious coincidence! Only this morning +I heard from Mrs. Milton-Cleave that Ivy Cottage has been taken this +summer by a Mr. Sigismund Zaluski, a Polish merchant, who is doing untold +harm in the neighbourhood. He is a very clever, unscrupulous man, and +has managed to take in almost every one." + +"Why, what is he? A swindler? Or a burglar in disguise, like the _House +on the Marsh_ fellow?" asked the author, with a little twinkle of +amusement in his face. + +"Oh, much worse than that," said Mrs. Selldon, lowering her voice. "I +assure you, Mr. Shrewsbury, you would hardly credit the story if I were +to tell it you, it is really stranger than fiction." Mark Shrewsbury +pricked up his ears, he no longer felt bored, he began to think that, +after all, there might be some compensation for this wearisome dinner- +party. He was always glad to seize upon material for future plots, and +somehow the notion of a mysterious Pole suddenly making his appearance in +that quiet country neighbourhood and winning undeserved popularity rather +took his fancy. He thought he might make something of it. However, he +knew human nature too well to ask a direct question. + +"I am sorry to hear that," he said, becoming all at once quite +sympathetic and approachable. "I don't like the thought of those simple, +unsophisticated people being hoodwinked by a scoundrel." + +"No; is it not sad?" said Mrs. Selldon. "Such pleasant, hospitable +people as they are! Do you remember the Morleys?" + +"Oh yes! There was a pretty daughter who played tennis well." + +"Quite so--Gertrude Morley. Well, would you believe it, this miserable +fortune-hunter is actually either engaged to her or on the eve of being +engaged! Poor Mrs. Milton-Cleave is so unhappy about it, for she knows, +on the best authority, that Mr. Zaluski is unfit to enter a respectable +house." + +"Perhaps he is really some escaped criminal?" suggested Mr. Shrewsbury, +tentatively. + +Mrs. Selldon hesitated. Then, under the cover of the general roar of +conversation, she said in a low voice:-- + +"You have guessed quite rightly. He is one of the Nihilists who were +concerned in the assassination of the late Czar." + +"You don't say so!" exclaimed Mark Shrewsbury, much startled. "Is it +possible?" + +"Indeed, it is only too true," said Mrs. Selldon. "I heard it only the +other morning, and on the very best authority. Poor Gertrude Morley! My +heart bleeds for her." + +Now I can't help observing here that this must have been the merest +figure of speech, for just then there was a comfortable little glow of +satisfaction about Mrs. Selldon's heart. She was so delighted to have +"got on well," as she expressed it, with the literary lion, and by this +time dessert was on the table, and soon the tedious ceremony would be +happily over. + +"But how did he escape?" asked Mark Shrewsbury, still with the thought of +"copy" in his mind. + +"I don't know the details," said Mrs. Selldon. "Probably they are only +known to himself. But he managed to escape somehow in the month of March +1881, and to reach England safely. I fear it is only too often the case +in this world--wickedness is apt to be successful." + +"To flourish like a green bay tree," said Mark Shrewsbury, congratulating +himself on the aptness of the quotation, and its suitability to the +Archediaconal dinner-table. "It is the strangest story I have heard for +a long time." Just then there was a pause in the general conversation, +and Mrs. Selldon took advantage of it to make the sign for rising, so +that no more passed with regard to Zaluski. + +Shrewsbury, flattering himself that he had left a good impression by his +last remark, thought better not to efface it later in the evening by any +other conversation with his hostess. But in the small hours of the +night, when he had finished his bundle of proofs, he took up his notebook +and, strangling his yawns, made two or three brief, pithy notes of the +story Mrs. Selldon had told him, adding a further development which +occurred to him, and wondering to himself whether "Like a Green Bay Tree" +would be a selling title. + +After this he went to bed, and slept the sleep of the just, or the +unbroken sleep which goes by that name. + + + + +MY SIXTH STAGE + + + But whispering tongues can poison truth. + + COLERIDGE. + +London in early September is a somewhat trying place. Mark Shrewsbury +found it less pleasing in reality than in his visions during the dinner- +party at Dulminster. True, his chambers were comfortable, and his type- +writer was as invaluable a machine as ever, and his novel was drawing to +a successful conclusion; but though all these things were calculated to +cheer him, he was nevertheless depressed. Town was dull, the heat was +trying, and he had never in his life found it so difficult to settle down +to work. He began to agree with the Preacher, that "of making many books +there is no end," and that, in spite of his favourite "Remington's +perfected No. 2," novel-writing was a weariness to the flesh. Soon he +drifted into a sort of vague idleness, which was not a good, honest +holiday, but just a lazy waste of time and brains. I was pleased to +observe this, and was not slow to take advantage of it. Had he stayed in +Pump Court he might have forgotten me altogether in his work, but in the +soft luxury of his Club life I found that I had a very fair chance of +being passed on to some one else. + +One hot afternoon, on waking from a comfortable nap in the depths of an +armchair at the Club, Shrewsbury was greeted by one of his friends. + +"I thought you were in Switzerland, old fellow!" he exclaimed, yawning +and stretching himself. + +"Came back yesterday--awfully bad season--confoundedly dull," returned +the other. "Where have you been?" + +"Down with Warren near Dulminster. Deathly dull hole." + +"Do for your next novel. Eh?" said the other with a laugh. + +Mark Shrewsbury smiled good-naturedly. + +"Talking of novels," he observed, with another yawn, "I heard such a +story down there!" + +"Did you? Let's hear it. A nice little scandal would do instead of a +pick-me-up." + +"It's not a scandal. Don't raise your expectations. It's the story of a +successful scoundrel." + +And then I came out again in full vigour--nay, with vastly increased +powers; for though Mark Shrewsbury did not add very much to me, or alter +my appearance, yet his graphic words made me much more impressive than I +had been under the management of Mrs. Selldon. + +"H'm! that's a queer story," said the limp-looking young man from +Switzerland. "I say, have a game of billiards, will you?" + +Shrewsbury, with prodigious yawn, dragged himself up out of his chair, +and the two went off together. As they left the room the only other man +present looked up from his newspaper, following them with his eyes. + +"Shrewsbury the novelist," he thought to himself. "A sterling fellow! +And he heard it from an Archdeacon's wife. Confound it all! the thing +must be true then. I'll write and make full inquiries about this Zaluski +before consenting to the engagement." + +And, being a prompt, business-like man, Gertrude Morley's uncle sat down +and wrote the following letter to a Russian friend of his who lived at +St. Petersburg, and who might very likely be able to give some account of +Zaluski:-- + + Dear Leonoff,--Some very queer stories are afloat about a young Polish + merchant, by name Sigismund Zaluski, the head of the London branch of + the firm of Zaluski and Zernoff, at St. Petersburg. Will you kindly + make inquiries for me as to his true character and history? I would + not trouble you with this affair, but the fact is Zaluski has made an + offer of marriage to one of my wards, and before consenting to any + betrothal I must know what sort of man he really is. I take it for + granted that "there is no smoke without fire," and that there must be + something in the very strange tale which I have just heard on the best + authority. It is said that this Sigismund Zaluski left St. Petersburg + in March 1881, after the assassination of the late Czar, in which he + was seriously compromised. He is said to be an out-and-out Nihilist, + an atheist, and, in short, a dangerous, disreputable fellow. Will you + sift the matter for me? I don't wish to dismiss the fellow without + good reason, but of course I could not think of permitting him to be + engaged to my niece until these charges are entirely disproved. + + With kind remembrances to your father, + + I am, yours faithfully + HENRY CRICHTON-MORLEY. + + + + +MY SEVENTH STAGE + + + Yet on the dull silence breaking + With a lightning flash, a word, + Bearing endless desolation + On its blighting wings, I heard; + Earth can forge no keener weapon, + Dealing surer death and pain, + And the cruel echo answered + Through long years again. + + A. A. PROCTER. + +Curiously enough, I must actually have started for Russia on the same day +that Sigismund Zaluski was summoned by his uncle at St. Petersburg to +return on a matter of urgent business. I learnt afterwards that the +telegram arrived at Muddleton on the afternoon of one of those sunny +September days and found Zaluski as usual at the Morleys. He was very +much annoyed at being called away just then, and before he had received +any reply from Gertrude's uncle as to the engagement. However, after a +little ebullition of anger, he regained his usual philosophic tone, and, +reminding Gertrude that he need not be away from England for more than a +fortnight, he took leave of her and set off in a prompt, manly fashion, +leaving most of his belongings at Ivy Cottage, which was his for another +six weeks, and to which he hoped shortly to return. + +After a weary time of imprisonment in my envelope, I at length reached my +destination at St. Petersburg and was read by Dmitry Leonoff. He was a +very busy man, and by the same post received dozens of other letters. He +merely muttered--"That well-known firm! A most unlikely story!"--and +then thrust me into a drawer with other letters which had to be answered. +Very probably I escaped his memory altogether for the next few days: +however, there I was--a startling accusation in black and white; and, as +everybody knows, St. Petersburg is not London. + +The Leonoff family lived on the third storey of a large block of +buildings in the Sergeffskaia. About two o'clock in the morning, on the +third day after my arrival, the whole household was roused from sleep by +thundering raps on the door, and the dreaded cry of "Open to the police." + +The unlucky master was forced to allow himself, his wife, and his +children to be made prisoners, while every corner of the house was +searched and every book and paper examined. + +Leonoff had nothing whatever to do with the Revolutionary movement, but +absolute innocence does not free people from the police inquisition, and +five or six years ago, when the Search mania was at its height, a case is +on record of a poor lady whose house was searched seven times within +twenty-four hours, though there was no evidence whatever that she was +connected with the Nihilists; the whole affair was, in fact, a +misunderstanding, as she was perfectly innocent. + +This search in Dmitry Leonoff's house was also a misunderstanding, and in +the dominions of the Czar misunderstandings are of frequent occurrence. + +Leonoff knew himself to be innocent, and he felt no fear, though +considerable annoyance, while the search was prosecuted; he could hardly +believe the evidence of his senses when, without a word of explanation, +he was informed that he must take leave of his wife and children, and go +in charge of the gendarmes to the House of Preventive Detention. + +Being a sensible man, he kept his temper, remarked courteously that some +mistake must have been made, embraced his weeping wife, and went off +passively, while the pristav carried away a bundle of letters in which I +occupied the most prominent place. + +Leonoff remained a prisoner only for a few days; there was not a shred of +evidence against him, and, having suffered terrible anxiety, he was +finally released. But Mr. Crichton-Morley's letter was never restored to +him, it remained in the hands of the authorities, and the night after +Leonoff's arrest the pristav, the procurator, and the gendarmes made +their way into the dwelling of Sigismund Zaluski's uncle, where a similar +search was prosecuted. + +Sigismund was asleep and dreaming of Gertrude and of his idyllic summer +in England, when his bedroom door was forced open and he was roughly +roused by the gendarmes. + +His first feeling was one of amazement, his second, one of indignation; +however, he was obliged to get up at once and dress, the policeman +rigorously keeping guard over him the whole time for fear he should +destroy any treasonable document. + +"How I shall make them laugh in England when I tell them of this +ridiculous affair!" reflected Sigismund, as he was solemnly marched into +the adjoining room, where he found his uncle and cousins, each guarded by +a policeman. + +He made some jesting remark, but was promptly reprimanded by his gaoler, +and in wearisome silence the household waited while the most rigorous +search of the premises was made. + +Of course nothing was found; but, to the amazement of all, Sigismund was +formally arrested. + +"There must be some mistake," he exclaimed, "I have been resident in +England for some time. I have no connection whatever with Russian +politics." + +"Oh, we are well aware of your residence in England," said the pristav. +"You left St. Petersburg early in March 1881. We are well aware of +that." + +Something in the man's tone made Sigismund's heart stand still. Could he +possibly be suspected of complicity in the plot to assassinate the late +Czar? The idea would have made him laugh had he been in England. In St. +Petersburg, and under these circumstances, it made him tremble. + +"There is some terrible mistake," he said. "I have never had the +slightest connection with the revolutionary party." + +The pristav shrugged his shoulders, and Sigismund, feeling like one in a +dream, took leave of his relations, and was escorted at once to the House +of Preventive Detention. + +Arrived at his destination, he was examined in a brief, unsatisfactory +way; but when he angrily asked for the evidence on which he had been +arrested, he was merely told that information had been received charging +him with being concerned in the assassination of the late Emperor, and of +being an advanced member of the Nihilist party. His vehement denials +were received with scornful incredulity, his departure for England just +after the assassination, and his prolonged absence from Russia, of course +gave colour to the accusation, and he was ordered off to his cell "to +reflect." + + + + +MY TRIUMPHANT FINALE + + + Words are mighty, words are living; + Serpents with their venomous stings, + Or bright angels crowding round us, + With heaven's light upon their wings; + Every word has its own spirit, + True or false, that never dies; + Every word man's lips have uttered + Echoes in God's skies. + + A. A. PROCTER. + +My labours were now nearly at an end, and being, so to speak, off duty, I +could occupy myself just as I pleased. I therefore resolved to keep +watch over Zaluski in his prison. + +For the first few hours after his arrest he was in a violent passion; he +paced up and down his tiny cell like a lion in a cage; he was beside +himself with indignation, and the blood leapt through his veins like +wildfire. + +Then he became a little ashamed of himself and tried to grow quiet, and +after a sleepless night he passed to the opposite extreme and sat all day +long on the solitary stool in his grim abode, his head resting on his +hands, and his mind a prey to the most fearful melancholy. + +The second night, however, he slept, and awoke with a steady resolve in +his mind. + +"It will never do to give way like this, or I shall be in a brain fever +in no time," he reflected. "I will get leave to have books and writing +materials. I will make the best of a bad business." + +He remembered how pleased he had been when Gertrude had once smiled on +him because, when all the others in the party were grumbling at the +discomforts of a certain picnic where the provisions had gone astray, he +had gaily made the best of it and ransacked the nearest cottages for +bread-and-cheese. He set to work bravely now; hoped daily for his +release; read all the books he was allowed to receive, invented solitary +games, began a novel, and drew caricatures. + +In October he was again examined; but, having nothing to reveal, it was +inevitable that he could reveal nothing; and he was again sent back to +his cell "to reflect." + +I perceived that after this his heart began to fail him. + +There existed in the House of Preventive Detention a system of +communication between the luckless prisoners carried on by means of +tapping on the wall. Sigismund, being a clever fellow, had become a +great adept at this telegraphic system, and had struck up a friendship +with a young student in the next cell; this poor fellow had been +imprisoned three years, his sole offence being that he had in his +possession a book of which the Government did not approve, and that he +was first cousin to a well-known Nihilist. + +The two became as devoted to each other as Silvio Pellico and Count +Oroboni; but it soon became evident to Valerian Vasilowitch that, unless +Zaluski was released, he would soon succumb to the terrible restrictions +of prison life. + +"Keep up your heart, my friend," he used to say. "I have borne it three +years, and am still alive to tell the tale." + +"But you are stronger both in mind and body," said Sigismund; "and you +are not madly in love as I am." + +And then he would pour forth a rhapsody about Gertrude, and about English +life, and about his hopes and fears for the future; to all of which +Valerian, like the brave fellow he was, replied with words of +encouragement. + +But at length there came a day when his friend made no answer to his +usual morning greeting. + +"Are you ill?" he asked. + +For some time there was no reply, but after a while Sigismund rapped +faintly the despairing words:-- + +"Dead beat!" + +Valerian felt the tears start to his eyes. It was what he had all along +expected, and for a time grief and indignation and his miserable +helplessness made him almost beside himself. At last he remembered that +there was at least one thing in his power. Each day he was escorted by a +warder to a tiny square, walled off in the exercising ground, and was +allowed to walk for a few minutes; he would take this opportunity of +begging the warder to get the doctor for his friend. + +But unfortunately the doctor did not think very seriously of Zaluski's +case. In that dreary prison he had patients in the last stages of all +kinds of disease, and Sigismund, who had been in confinement too short a +time to look as ill as the others, did not receive much attention. +Certainly, the doctor admitted, his lungs were affected; probably the +sudden change of climate and the lack of good food and fresh air had been +too much for him; so the solemn farce ended, and he was left to his fate. +"If I were indeed a Nihilist, and suffered for a cause which I had at +heart," he telegraphed to Valerian, "I could bear it better. But to be +kept here for an imaginary offence, to bear cold and hunger and illness +all to no purpose--that beats me. There can't be a God, or such things +would not be allowed." + +"To me it seems," said Valerian, "that we are the victims of violated +law. Others have shown tyranny, or injustice, or cruelty, and we are the +victims of their sin. Don't say there is no God. There must be a God to +avenge such hideous wrong." + +So they spoke to each other through their prison wall as men in the free +outer world seldom care to speak; and I, who knew no barriers, looked now +on Valerian's gaunt figure, and brave but prematurely old face, now on +poor Zaluski, who, in his weary imprisonment, had wasted away till one +could scarcely believe that he was indeed the same lithe, active fellow +who had played tennis at Mrs. Courtenay's garden-party. + +Day and night Valerian listened to the terrible cough which came from the +adjoining cell. It became perfectly apparent to him that his friend was +dying; he knew it as well as if he had seen the burning hectic flush on +his hollow cheeks, and heard the panting, hurried breaths, and watched +the unnatural brilliancy of his dark eyes. + +At length he thought the time had come for another sort of comfort. + +"My friend," he said one day, "it is too plain to me now that you are +dying. Write to the procurator and tell him so. In some cases men have +been allowed to go home to die." + +A wild hope seized on poor Sigismund; he sat down to the little table in +his cell and wrote a letter to the procurator--a letter which might +almost have drawn tears from a flint. Again and again he passionately +asserted his innocence, and begged to know on what evidence he was +imprisoned. He began to think that he could die content if he might +leave this terrible cell, might be a free agent once more, if only for a +few days. At least he might in that case clear his character, and +convince Gertrude that his imprisonment had been all a hideous mistake; +nay, he fancied that he might live through a journey to England and see +her once again. + +But the procurator would not let him be set free, and refused to believe +that his case was really a serious one. + +Sigismund's last hope left him. + +The days and weeks dragged slowly on, and when, according to English +reckoning, New Year's Eve arrived, he could scarcely believe that only +seventeen weeks ago he had actually been with Gertrude, and that disgrace +and imprisonment had seemed things that could never come near him, and +death had been a far-away possibility, and life had been full of bliss. + +As I watched him a strong desire seized me to revisit the scenes of which +he was thinking, and I winged my way back to England, and soon found +myself in the drowsy, respectable streets of Muddleton. + +It was New Year's Eve, and I saw Mrs. O'Reilly preparing presents for her +grandchildren, and talking, as she tied them up, of that dreadful +Nihilist who had deceived them in the summer. I saw Lena Houghton, and +Mr. Blackthorne, and Mrs. Milton-Cleave, kneeling in church on that +Friday morning, praying that pity might be shown "upon all prisoners and +captives, and all that are desolate or oppressed." + +It never occurred to them that they were responsible for the sufferings +of one weary prisoner, or that his death would be laid at their door. + +I flew to Dulminster, and saw Mrs. Selldon kneeling in the cathedral at +the late evening service and rigorously examining herself as to the +shortcomings of the dying year. She confessed many things in a vague, +untroubled way; but had any one told her that she had cruelly wronged her +neighbour, and helped to bring an innocent man to shame, and prison, and +death, she would not have believed the accusation. + +I sought out Mark Shrewsbury. He was at his chambers in Pump Court +working away with his type-writer; he had a fancy for working the old +year out and the new year in, and now he was in the full swing of that +novel which had suggested itself to his mind when Mrs. Selldon described +the rich and mysterious foreigner who had settled down at Ivy Cottage. +Most happily he laboured on, never dreaming that his careless words had +doomed a fellow-man to a painful and lingering death; never dreaming that +while his fingers flew to and fro over his dainty little keyboard, +describing the clever doings of the unscrupulous foreigner, another man, +the victim of his idle gossip, tapped dying messages on a dreary prison +wall. + +For the end had come. + +Through the evening Sigismund rested wearily on his truckle-bed. He +could not lie down because of his cough, and, since there were no extra +pillows to prop him up, he had to rest his head and shoulders against the +wall. There was a gas-burner in the tiny cell, and by its light he +looked round the bare walls of his prison with a blank, hopeless, yet +wistful gaze; there was the stool, there was the table, there were the +clothes he should never wear again, there was the door through which his +lifeless body would soon be carried. He looked at everything +lingeringly, for he knew that this desolate prison was the last bit of +the world he should ever see. + +Presently the gas was turned out. + +He sighed as he felt the darkness close in upon him, for he knew that his +eyes would never again see light--knew that in this dark lonely cell he +must lie and wait for death. And he was young and wished to live, and he +was in love and longed most terribly for the presence of the woman he +loved. + +The awful desolateness of the cell was more than he could endure; he +tried to think of his past life, he tried to live once again through +those happy weeks with Gertrude; but always he came back to the aching +misery of the present--the cold and the pain, and the darkness and the +terrible solitude. + +His nerveless fingers felt their way to the wall and faintly rapped a +summons. + +"Valerian!" he said, "I shall not live through the night. Watch with +me." + +The faint raps sounded clearly in the stillness of the great building, +and Valerian dreaded lest the warders should hear them, and deal out +punishment for an offence which by day they were forced to wink at. + +But he would not for the world have deserted his friend. He drew his +stool close to the wall, wrapped himself round in all the clothes he +could muster, and, shivering with cold, kept watch through the long +winter night. + +"I am near you," he telegraphed. "I will watch with you till morning." + +From time to time Sigismund rapped faint messages, and Valerian replied +with comfort and sympathy. Once he thought to himself, "My friend is +better; there is more power in his hand." And indeed he trembled, +fearing that the sharp, emphatic raps must certainly attract notice and +put an end to their communion. + +"Tell my love that the accusation was false--false!" the word was +vehemently repeated. "Tell her I died broken-hearted, loving her to the +end." + +"I will tell her all when I am free," said poor Valerian, wondering with +a sigh when his unjust imprisonment would end. "Do you suffer much?" he +asked. + +There was a brief interval. Sigismund hesitated to tell a falsehood in +his last extremity. + +"It will soon be over. Do not be troubled for me," he replied. And +after that there was a long, long silence. + +Poor fellow! he died hard; and I wished that those comfortable English +people could have been dragged from their warm beds and brought into the +cold dreary cell where their victim lay, fighting for breath, suffering +cruelly both in mind and body. Valerian, listening in sad suspense, +heard one more faint word rapped by the dying man. + +"Farewell!" + +"God be with you!" he replied, unable to check the tears which rained +down as he thought of the life so sadly ended, and of his own +bereavement. + +He heard no more. Sigismund's strength failed him, and I, to whom the +darkness made no difference, watched him through the last dread struggle; +there was no one to raise him, or hold him, no one to comfort him. Alone +in the cold and darkness of that first morning of the year 1887, he died. + +Valerian did not hear through the wall his last faint gasping cry, but I +heard it, and its exceeding bitterness would have made mortals weep. + +"Gertrude!" he sobbed. "Gertrude!" + +And with that his head sank on his breast, and the life, which but for me +might have been so happy and prosperous, was ended. + +* * * * * + +Prompted by curiosity, I instantly returned to Muddleton and sought out +Gertrude Morley. I stole into her room. She lay asleep, but her dreams +were troubled, and her face, once so fresh and bright, was worn with pain +and anxiety. + +Scarcely had I entered the room when, to my amazement, I saw the spirit +of Sigismund Zaluski. + +I saw him bend down and kiss the sleeping girl, and for a moment her sad +face lighted up with a radiant smile. + +I looked again; he was gone. Then Gertrude threw up both her arms and +with a bitter cry awoke from her dream. + +"Sigismund!" she cried. "Oh, Sigismund! Now I know that you are dead +indeed." + +For a long, long time she lay in a sort of trance of misery. It seemed +as if the life had been almost crushed out of her, and it was not until +the bells began to ring for the six o'clock service, merrily pealing out +their welcome of the new year morning, that full consciousness returned +to her again. But, as she clearly realised what had happened, she broke +into such a passion of tears as I had never before witnessed, while still +in the darkness the new year bells rang gaily, and she knew that they +heralded for her the beginning of a lonely life. + +And so my work ended; my part in this world was played out. Nevertheless +I still live; and there will come a day when Sigismund and Gertrude shall +be comforted and the slanderers punished. + +For poor Valerian was right, and there is an Avenger, in whom even my +progenitor believes, and before whom he trembles. + +There will come a time when those self-satisfied ones, whose hands are +all the time steeped in blood, shall be confronted with me, and shall +realise to the full all that their idle words have brought about. + +For that day I wait; and though afterwards I shall be finally destroyed +in the general destruction of all that is unmitigatedly evil, I promise +myself a certain satisfaction and pleasure (a feeling I doubtless inherit +from my progenitor), when I watch the shame, and horror, and remorse of +Mrs. O'Reilly and the rest of the people to whom I owe my existence and +rapid growth. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A SLANDER*** + + +******* This file should be named 1273.txt or 1273.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/2/7/1273 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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