diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'old')
| -rw-r--r-- | old/autos10.txt | 1975 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/autos10.zip | bin | 0 -> 36686 bytes |
2 files changed, 1975 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/old/autos10.txt b/old/autos10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d5b1e4a --- /dev/null +++ b/old/autos10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1975 @@ +Project Gutenberg Etext The Autobiography of a Slander, by Lyall + + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the copyright laws for your country before posting these files!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. Do not remove this. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations* + +Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and +further information is included below. We need your donations. + + +The Autobiography of a Slander + +by Edna Lyall + +April, 1998 [Etext #1273] + + +Project Gutenberg Etext The Autobiography of a Slander, by Lyall +******This file should be named autos10.txt or autos10.zip****** + +Corrected EDITIONS of our etexts get a new NUMBER, autos11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, autos10a.txt + + +This etext was prepared from the 1890 Longmans, Green and Co. edition +by David Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk + +Project Gutenberg Etexts are usually created from multiple editions, +all of which are in the Public Domain in the United States, unless a +copyright notice is included. Therefore, we do NOT keep these books +in compliance with any particular paper edition, usually otherwise. + + +We are now trying to release all our books one month in advance +of the official release dates, for time for better editing. + +Please note: neither this list nor its contents are final till +midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement. +The official release date of all Project Gutenberg Etexts is at +Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month. A +preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment +and editing by those who wish to do so. To be sure you have an +up to date first edition [xxxxx10x.xxx] please check file sizes +in the first week of the next month. Since our ftp program has +a bug in it that scrambles the date [tried to fix and failed] a +look at the file size will have to do, but we will try to see a +new copy has at least one byte more or less. + + +Information about Project Gutenberg (one page) + +We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work. The +fifty hours is one conservative estimate for how long it we take +to get any etext selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright +searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc. This +projected audience is one hundred million readers. If our value +per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2 +million dollars per hour this year as we release thirty-two text +files per month, or 384 more Etexts in 1998 for a total of 1500+ +If these reach just 10% of the computerized population, then the +total should reach over 150 billion Etexts given away. + +The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away One Trillion Etext +Files by the December 31, 2001. [10,000 x 100,000,000=Trillion] +This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers, +which is only 10% of the present number of computer users. 2001 +should have at least twice as many computer users as that, so it +will require us reaching less than 5% of the users in 2001. + + +We need your donations more than ever! + + +All donations should be made to "Project Gutenberg/CMU": and are +tax deductible to the extent allowable by law. (CMU = Carnegie- +Mellon University). + +For these and other matters, please mail to: + +Project Gutenberg +P. O. Box 2782 +Champaign, IL 61825 + +When all other email fails try our Executive Director: +Michael S. Hart <hart@pobox.com> + +We would prefer to send you this information by email +(Internet, Bitnet, Compuserve, ATTMAIL or MCImail). + +****** +If you have an FTP program (or emulator), please +FTP directly to the Project Gutenberg archives: +[Mac users, do NOT point and click. . .type] + +ftp uiarchive.cso.uiuc.edu +login: anonymous +password: your@login +cd etext/etext90 through /etext96 +or cd etext/articles [get suggest gut for more information] +dir [to see files] +get or mget [to get files. . .set bin for zip files] +GET INDEX?00.GUT +for a list of books +and +GET NEW GUT for general information +and +MGET GUT* for newsletters. + +**Information prepared by the Project Gutenberg legal advisor** +(Three Pages) + + +***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS**START*** +Why is this "Small Print!" statement here? You know: lawyers. +They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with +your copy of this etext, even if you got it for free from +someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our +fault. So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement +disclaims most of our liability to you. It also tells you how +you can distribute copies of this etext if you want to. + +*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS ETEXT +By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm +etext, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept +this "Small Print!" statement. If you do not, you can receive +a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this etext by +sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person +you got it from. If you received this etext on a physical +medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request. + +ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM ETEXTS +This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG- +tm etexts, is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor +Michael S. Hart through the Project Gutenberg Association at +Carnegie-Mellon University (the "Project"). Among other +things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright +on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and +distribute it in the United States without permission and +without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth +below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this etext +under the Project's "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark. + +To create these etexts, the Project expends considerable +efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain +works. Despite these efforts, the Project's etexts and any +medium they may be on may contain "Defects". Among other +things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other +intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged +disk or other etext medium, a computer virus, or computer +codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment. + +LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES +But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below, +[1] the Project (and any other party you may receive this +etext from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext) disclaims all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including +legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR +UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT, +INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE +OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE +POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. + +If you discover a Defect in this etext within 90 days of +receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any) +you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that +time to the person you received it from. If you received it +on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and +such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement +copy. If you received it electronically, such person may +choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to +receive it electronically. + +THIS ETEXT IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS". NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS +TO THE ETEXT OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT +LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A +PARTICULAR PURPOSE. + +Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or +the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the +above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you +may have other legal rights. + +INDEMNITY +You will indemnify and hold the Project, its directors, +officers, members and agents harmless from all liability, cost +and expense, including legal fees, that arise directly or +indirectly from any of the following that you do or cause: +[1] distribution of this etext, [2] alteration, modification, +or addition to the etext, or [3] any Defect. + +DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm" +You may distribute copies of this etext electronically, or by +disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this +"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg, +or: + +[1] Only give exact copies of it. Among other things, this + requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the + etext or this "small print!" statement. You may however, + if you wish, distribute this etext in machine readable + binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form, + including any form resulting from conversion by word pro- + cessing or hypertext software, but only so long as + *EITHER*: + + [*] The etext, when displayed, is clearly readable, and + does *not* contain characters other than those + intended by the author of the work, although tilde + (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may + be used to convey punctuation intended by the + author, and additional characters may be used to + indicate hypertext links; OR + + [*] The etext may be readily converted by the reader at + no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent + form by the program that displays the etext (as is + the case, for instance, with most word processors); + OR + + [*] You provide, or agree to also provide on request at + no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the + etext in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC + or other equivalent proprietary form). + +[2] Honor the etext refund and replacement provisions of this + "Small Print!" statement. + +[3] Pay a trademark license fee to the Project of 20% of the + net profits you derive calculated using the method you + already use to calculate your applicable taxes. If you + don't derive profits, no royalty is due. Royalties are + payable to "Project Gutenberg Association/Carnegie-Mellon + University" within the 60 days following each + date you prepare (or were legally required to prepare) + your annual (or equivalent periodic) tax return. + +WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO? +The Project gratefully accepts contributions in money, time, +scanning machines, OCR software, public domain etexts, royalty +free copyright licenses, and every other sort of contribution +you can think of. Money should be paid to "Project Gutenberg +Association / Carnegie-Mellon University". + +*END*THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + + +THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A SLANDER + + + + +MY FIRST STAGE + + + +At last the tea came up, and so +With that our tongues began to go. +Now in that house you're sure of knowing +The smallest scrap of news that's going. +We find it there the wisest way +To take some care of what we say. +RECREATION. JANE TAYLOR + + +I was born on the 2nd September, 1886, in a small, dull, country +town. When I say the town was dull, I mean, of course, that the +inhabitants were unenterprising, for in itself Muddleton was a +picturesque place, and though it laboured under the usual +disadvantage of a dearth of bachelors and a superfluity of +spinsters, it might have been pleasant enough had it not been a +favourite resort for my kith and kin. + +My father has long enjoyed a world-wide notoriety; he is not, +however, as a rule named in good society, though he habitually +frequents it; and as I am led to believe that my autobiography will +possibly be circulated by Mr. Mudie, and will lie about on drawing- +room tables, I will merely mention that a most representation of my +progenitor, under his nom de theatre, Mephistopheles, may be seen +now in London, and I should recommend all who wish to understand his +character to go to the Lyceum, though, between ourselves, he +strongly disapproves of the whole performance. + +I was introduced into the world by an old lady named Mrs. O'Reilly. +She was a very pleasant old lady, the wife of a General, and one of +those sociable, friendly, talkative people who do much to cheer +their neighbours, particularly in a deadly-lively provincial place +like Muddleton, where the standard of social intercourse is not very +high. Mrs. O'Reilly had been in her day a celebrated beauty; she +was now grey-haired and stout, but still there was something +impressive about her, and few could resist the charm of her manner +and the pleasant easy flow of her small talk. Her love of gossip +amounted almost to a passion, and nothing came amiss to her; she +liked to know everything about everybody, and in the main I think +her interest was a kindly one, though she found that a little bit of +scandal, every now and then, added a piquant flavour to the homely +fare provided by the commonplace life of the Muddletonians. + +I will now, without further preamble, begin the history of my life. + + +"I assure you, my dear Lena, Mr. Zaluski is nothing less than a +Nihilist!" + +The sound waves set in motion by Mrs. O'Reilly's words were +tumultuously heaving in the atmosphere when I sprang into being, a +young but perfectly formed and most promising slander. A delicious +odour of tea pervaded the drawing-room, it was orange-flower pekoe, +and Mrs. O'Reilly was just handing one of the delicate Crown Derby +cups to her visitor, Miss Lena Houghton. + +"What a shocking thing! Do you really mean it?" exclaimed Miss +Houghton. "Thank you, cream but no sugar; don't you know, Mrs. +O'Reilly, that it is only Low-Church people who take sugar nowadays? +But, really, now, about Mr. Zaluski? How did you find it out?" + +"My dear, I am an old woman, and I have learnt in the course of a +wandering life to put two and two together," said Mrs. O'Reilly. +She had somehow managed to ignore middle age, and had passed from +her position of renowned beauty to the position which she now firmly +and constantly claimed of many years and much experience. "Of +course," she continued, "like every one else, I was glad enough to +be friendly and pleasant to Sigismund Zaluski, and as to his being a +Pole, why, I think it rather pleased me than otherwise. You see, my +dear, I have knocked about the world and mixed with all kinds of +people. Still, one must draw the line somewhere, and I confess it +gave me a very painful shock to find that he had such violent +antipathies to law and order. When he took Ivy Cottage for the +summer I made the General call at once, and before long we had +become very intimate with him; but, my dear, he's not what I thought +him--not at all!" + +"Well now, I am delighted to hear you say that," said Lena Houghton, +with some excitement in her manner, "for it exactly fits in with +what I always felt about him. From the first I disliked that man, +and the way he goes on with Gertrude Morley is simply dreadful. If +they are not engaged they ought to be--that's all I can say." + +"Engaged, my dear! I trust not," said Mrs. O'Reilly. "I had always +hoped for something very different for dear Gertrude. Quite between +ourselves, you know, my nephew John Carew is over head and ears in +love with her, and they would make a very good pair; don't you think +so?" + +"Well, you see, I like Gertrude to a certain extent," replied Lena +Houghton. "But I never raved about her as so many people do. +Still, I hope she will not be entrapped into marrying Mr. Zaluski; +she deserves a better fate than that." + +"I quite agree with you," said Mrs. O'Reilly, with a troubled look. +"And the worst of it is, poor Gertrude is a girl who might very +likely take up foolish revolutionary notions; she needs a strong +wise husband to keep her in order and form her opinions. But is it +really true that he flirts with her? This is the first I have heard +of it. I can't think how it has escaped my notice." + +"Nor I, for indeed he is up at the Morleys' pretty nearly every day. +What with tennis, and music, and riding, there is always some excuse +for it. I can't think what Gertrude sees in him, he is not even +good-looking." + +"There is a certain surface good-nature about him," said Mrs. +O'Reilly. "It deceived even me at first. But, my dear Lena, mark +my words: that man has a fearful temper; and I pray Heaven that +poor Gertrude may have her eyes opened in time. Besides, to think +of that little gentle, delicate thing marrying a Nihilist! It is +too dreadful; really, quite too dreadful! John would never get over +it!" + +"The thing I can't understand is why all the world has taken him up +so," said Lena Houghton. "One meets him everywhere, yet nobody +seems to know anything about him. Just because he has taken Ivy +Cottage for four months, and because he seems to be rich and good- +natured, every one is ready to run after him." + +"Well, well," said Mrs. O'Reilly, "we all like to be neighbourly, my +dear, and a week ago I should have been ready to say nothing but +good of him. But now my eyes have been opened. I'll tell you just +how it was. We were sitting here, just as you and I are now, at +afternoon tea; the talk had flagged a little, and for the sake of +something to say I made some remark about Bulgaria--not that I +really knew anything about it, you know, for I'm no politician; +still, I knew it was a subject that would make talk just now. My +dear, I assure you I was positively frightened. All in a minute his +face changed, his eyes flashed, he broke into such a torrent of +abuse as I never heard in my life before." + +"Do you mean that he abused you?" + +"Dear me, no! but Russia and the Czar, and tyranny and despotism, +and many other things I had never heard of. I tried to calm him +down and reason with him, but I might as well have reasoned with the +cockatoo in the window. At last he caught himself up quickly in the +middle of a sentence, strode over to the piano, and began to play as +he generally does, you know, when he comes here. Well, would you +believe it, my dear! instead of improvising or playing operatic airs +as usual, he began to play a stupid little tune which every child +was taught years ago, of course with variations of his own. Then he +turned round on the music-stool with the oddest smile I ever saw, +and said, "Do you know that air, Mrs. O'Reilly?" + +"'Yes," I said; "but I forget now what it is.'" + +"'It was composed by Pestal, one of the victims of Russian tyranny," +said he. "The executioner did his work badly, and Pestal had to be +strung up twice. In the interval he was heard to mutter, 'Stupid +country, where they don't even know how to hang!'" + +"Then he gave a little forced laugh, got up quickly, wished me good- +bye, and was gone before I could put in a word." + +"What a horrible story to tell in a drawing-room!" said Lena +Houghton. "I envy Gertrude less than ever." + +"Poor girl! What a sad prospect it is for her!" said Mrs. O'Reilly +with a sigh. "Of course, my dear, you'll not repeat what I have +just told you." + +"Not for the world!" said Lena Houghton emphatically. "It is +perfectly safe with me." + +The conversation was here abruptly ended, for the page threw open +the drawing-room door and announced 'Mr. Zaluski.' + +"Talk of the angel," murmured Mrs. O'Reilly with a significant smile +at her companion. Then skilfully altering the expression of her +face, she beamed graciously on the guest who was ushered into the +room, and Lena Houghton also prepared to greet him most pleasantly. + +I looked with much interest at Sigismund Zaluski, and as I looked I +partly understood why Miss Houghton had been prejudiced against him +at first sight. He had lived five years in England, and nothing +pleased him more than to be taken for an Englishman. He had had his +silky black hair closely cropped in the very hideous fashion of the +present day; he wore the ostentatiously high collar now in vogue; +and he tried to be sedulously English in every respect. But in +spite of his wonderfully fluent speech and almost perfect accent, +there lingered about him something which would not harmonise with +that ideal of an English gentleman which is latent in most minds. +Something he lacked, something he possessed, which interfered with +the part he desired to play. The something lacking showed itself in +his ineradicable love of jewellery and in a transparent habit of +fibbing; the something possessed showed itself in his easy grace of +movement, his delightful readiness to amuse and to be amused, and in +a certain cleverness and rapidity of idea rarely, if ever, found in +an Englishman. + +He was a little above the average height and very finely built; but +there was nothing striking in his aquiline features and dark grey +eyes, and I think Miss Houghton spoke truly when she said that he +was 'Not even good-looking.' Still, in spite of this, it was a face +which grew upon most people, and I felt the least little bit of +regret as I looked at him, because I knew that I should persistently +haunt and harass him, and should do all that could be done to spoil +his life. + +Apparently he had forgotten all about Russia and Bulgaria, for he +looked radiantly happy. Clearly his thoughts were engrossed with +his own affairs, which, in other words, meant with Gertrude Morley; +and though, as I have since observed, there are times when a man in +love is an altogether intolerable sort of being, there are other +times when he is very much improved by the passion, and regards the +whole world with a genial kindliness which contrasts strangely with +his previous cool cynicism. + +"How delightful and home-like your room always looks!" he exclaimed, +taking the cup of tea which Mrs. O'Reilly handed to him. "I am +horribly lonely at Ivy Cottage. This house is a sort of oasis in +the desert." + +"Why, you are hardly ever at home, I thought," said Mrs. O'Reilly, +smiling. "You are the lion of the neighbourhood just now; and I'm +sure it is very good of you to come in and cheer a lonely old woman. +Are you going to play me something rather more lively to-day?" + +He laughed. + +"Ah! Poor Pestal! I had forgotten all about our last meeting." + +"You were very much excited that day," said Mrs. O'Reilly. "I had +no idea that your political notions--" + +He interrupted her + +"Ah! no politics to-day, dear Mrs. O'Reilly. Let us have nothing +but enjoyment and harmony. See, now, I will play you something very +much more cheerful." + +And sitting down to the piano, he played the bridal march from +'Lohengrin,' then wandered off into an improvised air, and finally +treated them to some recollections of the 'Mikado.' + +Lena-Houghton watched him thoughtfully as she put on her gloves; he +was playing with great spirit, and the words of the opera rang in +her ears:- + + +For he's going to marry Yum-yum, Yum-yum, +And so you had better be dumb, dumb, dumb! + + +I knew well enough that she would not follow this moral advice, and +I laughed to myself because the whole scene was such a hollow +mockery. The placid benevolent-looking old lady leaning back in her +arm-chair; the girl in her blue gingham and straw hat preparing to +go to the afternoon service; the happy lover entering heart and soul +into Sullivan's charming music; the pretty room with its Chippendale +furniture, its aesthetic hangings, its bowls of roses; and the sound +of church bells wafted through the open window on the soft summer +breeze. + +Yet all the time I lingered there unseen, carrying with me all sorts +of dread possibilities. I had been introduced into the world, and +even if Mrs. O'Reilly had been willing to admit to herself that she +had broken the ninth commandment, and had earnestly desired to +recall me, all her sighs and tears and regrets would have availed +nothing; so true is the saying, "Of thy word unspoken thou art +master; thy spoken word is master of thee." + +"Thank you." "Thank you." "How I envy your power of playing!" + +The two ladies seemed to vie with each other in making pretty +speeches, and Zaluski, who loved music and loved giving pleasure, +looked really pleased. I am sure it did not enter his head that his +two companions were not sincere, or that they did not wish him well. +He was thinking to himself how simple and kindly the Muddleton +people were, and how great a contrast this life was to his life in +London; and he was saying to himself that he had been a fool to live +a lonely bachelor life till he was nearly thirty, and yet +congratulating himself that he had done so since Gertrude was but +nineteen. Undoubtedly, he was seeing blissful visions of the future +all the time that he replied to the pretty speeches, and shook hands +with Lena Houghton, and opened the drawing-room door for her, and +took out his watch to assure her that she had plenty of time and +need not hurry to church. + +Poor Zaluski! He looked so kindly and pleasant. Though I was only +a slander, and might have been supposed to have no heart at all, I +did feel sorry for him when I thought of the future and of the grief +and pain which would persistently dog his steps. + + + +MY SECOND STAGE + + + +Bear not false witness, slander not, nor lie; +Truth is the speech of inward purity. +THE LIGHT OF ASIA. + + +In my first stage the reader will perceive that I was a +comparatively weak and harmless little slander, with merely that +taint of original sin which was to be expected in one of such +parentage. But I developed with great rapidity; and I believe men +of science will tell you that this is always the case with low +organisms. That, for instance, while it takes years to develop the +man from the baby, and months to develop the dog from the puppy, the +baby monad will grow to maturity in an hour. + +Personally I should have preferred to linger in Mrs. O'Reilly's +pleasant drawing-room, for, as I said before, my victim interested +me, and I wanted to observe him more closely and hear what he talked +about. But I received orders to attend evensong at the parish +church, and to haunt the mind of Lena Houghton. + +As we passed down the High Street the bells rang out loud and clear, +and they made me feel the same slight sense of discomfort that I had +felt when I looked at Zaluski; however, I went on, and soon entered +the church. It was a fine old Gothic building, and the afternoon +sunshine seemed to flood the whole place; even the white stones in +the aisle were glorified here and there with gorgeous patches of +colour from the stained glass windows. But the strange stillness +and quiet oppressed me, I did not feel nearly so much at home as in +Mrs. O'Reilly's drawing-room--to use a terrestrial simile, I felt +like a fish out of water. + +For some time, too, I could find no entrance at all into the mind of +Lena Houghton. Try as I would, I could not distract her attention +or gain the slightest hold upon her, and I really believe I should +have been altogether baffled, had not the rector unconsciously come +to my aid. + +All through the prayers and psalms I had fought a desperate fight +without gaining a single inch. Then the rector walked over to the +lectern, and the moment he opened his mouth I knew that my time had +come, and that there was a very fair chance of victory before me. +Whether this clergyman had a toothache, or a headache, or a heavy +load on his mind, I cannot say, but his reading was more lugubrious +than the wind in an equinoctial gale. I have since observed that he +was only a degree worse than many other clerical readers, and that a +strange and delightfully mistaken notion seems prevalent that the +Bible must be read in a dreary and unnatural tone of voice, or with +a sort of mournful monotony; it is intended as a sort of reverence, +but I suspect that it often plays into the hands of my progenitor, +as it most assuredly did in the present instance. + +Hardly had the rector announced, "Here beginneth the forty-fourth +verse of the sixteenth chapter of the book of the prophet Ezekiel," +than a sort of relaxation took place in the mind I was attacking. +Lena Houghton's attention could only have been given to the drearily +read lesson by a very great effort; she was a little lazy and did +not make the effort, she thought how nice it was to sit down again, +and then the melancholy voice lulled her into a vague interval of +thoughtless inactivity. I promptly seized my opportunity, and in a +moment her whole mind was full of me. She was an excitable, +impressionable sort of girl, and when once I had obtained an +entrance into her mind I found it the easiest thing in the world to +dominate her thoughts. Though she stood, and sat, and knelt, and +curtseyed, and articulated words, her thoughts were entirely +absorbed in me. I crowded out the Magnificat with a picture of +Zaluski and Gertrude Morley. I led her through more terrible future +possibilities in the second lesson than would be required for a +three-volume novel. I entirely eclipsed the collects with +reflections on unhappy marriages; took her off via Russia and +Nihilism in the State prayers, and by the time we arrived at St. +Chrysostom had become so powerful that I had worked her mind into +exactly the condition I desired. + +The congregation rose. Lena Houghton, still dominated by me, knelt +longer than the rest, but at last she got up and walked down the +aisle, and I felt a great sense of relief and satisfaction. We were +out in the open air once more, and I had triumphed; I was quite sure +that she would tell the first person she met, for, as I have said +before, she was entirely taken up with me, and to have kept me to +herself would have required far more strength and unselfishness than +she at that moment possessed. She walked slowly through the +churchyard, feeling much pleased to see that the curate had just +left the vestry door, and that in a few moments their paths must +converge. + +Mr. Blackthorne had only been ordained three or four years, and was +a little younger, and much less experienced in the ways of the +world, than Sigismund Zaluski. He was a good well-meaning fellow, a +little narrow, a little prejudiced, a little spoiled by the devotion +of the district visitors and Sunday School teachers; but he was +honest and energetic, and as a worker among the poor few could have +equalled him. He seemed to fancy, however, that with the poor his +work ended, and he was not always so wise as he might have been in +Muddleton society. + +"Good afternoon, Miss Houghton," he exclaimed. "Do you happen to +know if your brother is at home? I want just to speak to him about +the choir treat." + +"Oh, he is sure to be in by this time," said Lena. + +And they walked home together. + +"I am so glad to have this chance of speaking to you," she began +rather nervously. "I wanted particularly to ask your advice." + +Mr. Blackthorne, being human and young, was not unnaturally +flattered by this remark. True, he was becoming well accustomed to +this sort of thing, since the ladies of Muddleton were far more fond +of seeking advice from the young and good-looking curate than from +the elderly and experienced rector. They said it was because Mr. +Blackthorne was so much more sympathetic, and understood the +difficulties of the day so much better; but I think they +unconsciously deceived themselves, for the rector was one of a +thousand, and the curate, though he had in him the makings of a fine +man, was as yet altogether crude and young. + +"Was it about anything in your district?" he asked, devoutly hoping +that she was not going to propound some difficult question about the +origin of evil, or any other obscure subject. For though he liked +the honour of being consulted, he did not always like the trouble it +involved, and he remembered with a shudder that Miss Houghton had +once asked him his opinion about the 'Ethical Concept of the Good.' + +"It was only that I was so troubled about something Mrs. O'Reilly +has just told me," said Lena Houghton. "You won't tell any one that +I told you?" + +"On no account," said the curate, warmly. + +"Well, you know Mr. Zaluski, and how the Morleys have taken him up?" + +"Every one has taken him up," said the curate, with the least little +touch of resentment in his tone. "I knew that the Morleys were his +special friends; I imagine that he admires Miss Morley." + +"Yes, every one thinks they are either engaged or on the brink of +it. And oh, Mr. Blackthorne, can't you or somebody put a stop to +it, for it seems such a dreadful fate for poor Gertrude?" + +The curate looked startled. + +"Why, I don't profess to like Mr. Zaluski," he said. "But I don't +know anything exactly against him." + +"But I do. Mrs. O'Reilly has just been telling me." + +"What did she tell you?" he asked with some curiosity. + +"Why, she has found out that he is really a Nihilist--just think of +a Nihilist going about loose like this, and playing tennis at the +rectory and all the good houses! And not only that, but she says he +is altogether a dangerous, unprincipled man with a dreadful temper. +You can't think how unhappy she is about poor Gertrude, and so am I, +for we were at school together and have always been friends." + +"I am very sorry to hear about it," said Mr. Blackthorne, "but I +don't see that anything can be done. You see, one does not like to +interfere in these sort of things. It seems officious rather, and +meddlesome." + +"Yes, that is the worst of it," she replied, with a sigh. "I +suppose we can do nothing. Still, it has been a great relief just +to tell you about it and get it off my mind. I suppose we can only +hope that something may put a stop to it all--we must just leave it +to chance." + +This sentiment amused me not a little. Leave it to chance indeed! +Had she not caused me to grow stronger and larger by every word she +uttered? And had not the conversation revealed to me Mr. +Blackthorn's one vulnerable part? I knew well enough that I should +be able to dominate his thoughts as I had done hers. Finding me +burdensome, she had passed me on to somebody else with additions +that vastly increased my working powers, and then she talked of +leaving it to chance! The way in which mortals practise pious +frauds on themselves is really delightful! And yet Lena Houghton +was a good sort of girl, and had from her childhood repeated the +catechism words which proclaim that, "My duty to my neighbour is to +love him as myself . . . To keep my tongue from evil-speaking, +lying, and slandering." What is more, she took great pains to teach +these words to a big class of Sunday School children, and went, rain +or shine, to spend two hours each Sunday in a stuffy school-room for +that purpose. It was strange that she should be so ready to believe +evil of her neighbour, and so eager to spread the story. But my +progenitor is clever, and doubtless knows very well, whom to select +as his tools. + +By this time they had reached a comfortable-looking, red-brick house +with white stone facings, and in the discussion of the arrangements +for the choir treat I was entirely forgotten. + + + +MY THIRD STAGE + + + +Alas! such is our weakness, that we often more readily believe and +speak of another that which is evil than that which is good. But +perfect men do not easily give credit to every report; because they +know man's weakness, which is very prone to evil, and very subject +to fail in words. +THOMAS A KEMPIS. + + +All through that evening, and through the first part of the +succeeding day, I was crowded out of the curate's mind by a host of +thoughts with which I had nothing in common; and though I hovered +about him as he taught in the school, and visited several sick +people, and argued with an habitual drunkard, and worked at his +Sunday sermon, a Power, which I felt but did not understand, baffled +all my attempts to gain an entrance and attract his notice. I made +a desperate attack on him after lunch as he sat smoking and enjoying +a well-earned rest, but it was of no avail. I followed him to a +large garden-party later on, but to my great annoyance he went about +talking to every one in the pleasantest way imaginable, though I +perceived that he was longing to play tennis instead. + +At length, however, my opportunity came. Mr. Blackthorne was +talking to the lady of the house, Mrs. Courtenay, when she suddenly +exclaimed:- + + +"Ah, here is Mr. Zaluski just arriving. I began to be afraid that +he had forgotten the day, and he is always such an acquisition. How +do you do, Mr. Zaluski?" she said, greeting my victim warmly as he +stepped on to the terrace. "So glad you were able to come. You +know Mr. Blackthorne, I think." + +Zaluski greeted the curate pleasantly, and his dark eyes lighted up +with a gleam of amusement. + +"Oh, we are great friends," he said laughingly. "Only, you know, I +sometimes shock him a little--just a very little." + +"That is very unkind of you, I am sure," said Mrs. Courtenay, +smiling. + +"No, not at all," said Zaluski, with the audacity of a privileged +being. "It is just my little amusement, very harmless, very--what +you call innocent. Mr. Blackthorne cannot make up his mind about +me. One day I appear to him to be Catholic, the next Comtist, the +next Orthodox Greek, the next a convert to the Anglican communion. +I am a mystery, you see! And mysteries are as indispensable in life +as in a romance." + +He laughed. Mrs. Courtenay laughed too, and a little friendly +banter was carried on between them, while the curate stood by +feeling rather out of it. + +I drew nearer to him, perceiving that my prospects bid fair to +improve. For very few people can feel out of it without drifting +into a self-regarding mood, and then they are the easiest prey +imaginable. Undoubtedly a man like Zaluski, with his easy +nonchalance, his knowledge of the world, his genuine good-nature, +and the background of sterling qualities which came upon you as a +surprise because he loved to make himself seem a mere idler, was apt +to eclipse an ordinary mortal like James Blackthorne. The curate +perceived this and did not like to be eclipsed--as a matter of fact, +nobody does. It seemed to him a little unfair that he, who had +hitherto been made much of, should be called to play second fiddle +to this rich Polish fellow who had never done anything for Muddleton +or the neighbourhood. And then, too, Sigismund Zaluski had a way of +poking fun at him which he resented, and would not take in good +part. + +Something of this began to stir in his mind; and he cordially hated +the Pole when Jim Courtenay, who arranged the tennis, came up and +asked him to play in the next set, passing the curate by altogether. + +Then I found no difficulty at all in taking possession of him; +indeed he was delighted to have me brought back to his memory, he +positively gloated over me, and I grew apace. + +Zaluski, in the seventh heaven of happiness, was playing with +Gertrude Morley, and his play was so good and so graceful that every +one was watching it with pleasure. His partner, too, played well; +she was a pretty, fair-haired girl, with soft grey eyes like the +eyes of a dove; she wore a white tennis dress and a white sailor +hat, and at her throat she had fastened a cluster of those beautiful +orange-coloured roses known by the prosaic name of 'William Allan +Richardson.' + +If Mr. Blackthorne grew angry as he watched Sigismund Zaluski, he +grew doubly angry as he watched Gertrude Morley. He said to himself +that it was intolerable that such a girl should fall a prey to a +vain, shallow, unprincipled foreigner, and in a few minutes he had +painted such a dark picture of poor Sigismund that my strength +increased tenfold. + +"Mr. Blackthorne," said Mrs. Courtenay, "would you take Mrs. Milton- +Cleave to have an ice?" + +Now Mrs. Milton-Cleave had always been one of the curate's great +friends. She was a very pleasant, talkative woman of six-and- +thirty, and a general favourite. Her popularity was well deserved, +for she was always ready to do a kind action, and often went out of +her way to help people who had not the slightest claim upon her. +There was, however, no repose about Mrs. Milton-Cleave, and an acute +observer would have discovered that her universal readiness to help +was caused to some extent by her good heart, but in a very large +degree by her restless and over-active brain. Her sphere was +scarcely large enough for her, she would have made an excellent head +of an orphan asylum or manager of some large institution, but her +quiet country life offered far too narrow a field for her energy. + +"It is really quite a treat to watch Mr. Zaluski's play," she +remarked as they walked to the refreshment tent at the other end of +the lawn. "Certainly foreigners know how to move much better than +we do: our best players look awkward beside them." + +"Do you think so?" said Mr. Blackthorne. "I am afraid I am full of +prejudice, and consider that no one can equal a true-born Briton." + +"And I quite agree with you in the main," said Mrs. Milton-Cleave. +"Though I confess that it is rather refreshing to have a little +variety." + +The curate was silent, but his silence merely covered his absorption +in me, and I began to exercise a faint influence through his mind on +the mind of his companion. This caused her at length to say: + +"I don't think you quite like Mr. Zaluski. Do you know much about +him?" + +"I have met him several times this summer," said the curate, in the +tone of one who could have said much more if he would. + +The less satisfying his replies, the more Mrs. Milton-Cleave's +curiosity grew. + +"Now, tell me candidly," she said at length. "Is there not some +mystery about our new neighbour? Is he quite what he seems to be?" + +"I fear he is not," said Mr. Blackthorne, making the admission in a +tone of reluctance, though, to tell the truth, he had been longing +to pass me on for the last five minutes. + +"You mean that he is fast?" + +"Worse than that," said James Blackthorne, lowering his voice as +they walked down one of the shady garden paths. "He is a dangerous, +unprincipled fellow, and into the bargain an avowed Nihilist. All +that is involved in that word you perhaps scarcely realise." + +"Indeed I do," she exclaimed with a shocked expression. "I have +just been reading a review of that book by Stepniak. Their social +and religious views are terrible; free-love, atheism, everything +that could bring ruin on the human race. Is he indeed a Nihilist?" + +Mr. Blackthorne's conscience gave him a sharp prick, for he knew +that he ought not to have passed me on. He tried to pacify it with +the excuse that he had only promised not to tell that Miss Houghton +had been his informant. + +"I assure you," he said impressively, "it is only too true. I know +it on the best authority." + +And here I cannot help remarking that it has always seemed to me +strange that even experienced women of the world, like Mrs. Milton- +Cleave, can be so easily hoodwinked by that vague nonentity, 'The +Best Authority.' I am inclined to think that were I a human being I +should retort with an expressive motion of the finger and thumb, +"Oh, you know it on the best authority, do you? Then THAT for your +story!" + +However, I thrived wonderfully on the best authority, and it would +be ungrateful of me to speak evil of that powerful though imaginary +being. + +At right angles with the garden walk down which the two were pacing +there was another wide pathway, bordered by high closely clipped +shrubs. Down this paced a very different couple. Mrs. Milton- +Cleave caught sight of them, and so did curate. Mrs. Milton-Cleave +sighed. + +"I am afraid he is running after Gertrude Morley! Poor girl! I +hope she will not be deluded into encouraging him." + +And then they made just the same little set remarks about the +desirability of stopping so dangerous an acquaintance, and the +impossibility of interfering with other people's affairs, and the +sad necessity of standing by with folded hands. I laughed so much +over their hollow little phrases that at last I was fain to beat a +retreat, and, prompted by curiosity to know a little of the truth, I +followed Sigismund and Gertrude down the broad grassy pathway. + +I knew of course a good deal of Zaluski's character, because my own +existence and growth pointed out what he was not. Still, to study a +man by a process of negation is tedious, and though I knew that he +was not a Nihilist, or a free-lover, or an atheist, or an +unprincipled fellow with a dangerous temper, yet I was curious to +see him as he really was. + +"If you only knew how happy you had made me!" he was saying. And +indeed, as far as happiness went, there was not much to choose +between them, I fancy; for Gertrude Morley looked radiant, and in +her clove-like eyes there was the reflection of the love which +flashed in his. + +"You must talk to my mother about it," she said after a minute's +silence. "You see, I am still under age, and she and Uncle Henry my +guardian must consent before we are actually betrothed." + +"I will see them at once," said Zaluski, eagerly. + +"You could see my mother," she replied. "But Uncle Henry is still +in Sweden and will not be in town for another week." + +"Must we really wait so long!" sighed Sigismund impatiently. + +She laughed at him gently. + +"A whole week! But then we are sure of each other. I do not think +we ought to grumble." + +"But perhaps they may think that a merchant is no fitting match for +you," he suggested. "I am nothing but a plain merchant, and my I +people have been in the same business for four generations. As far +as wealth goes I might perhaps satisfy your people, but for the rest +I am but a prosaic fellow, with neither noble blood, nor the brain +of a genius, nor anything out of the common." + +"It will be enough for my mother that we love each other," she said +shyly. + +"And your uncle?" + +"It will be enough for him that you are upright and honourable-- +enough that you are yourself, Sigismund." + +They were sitting now in a little sheltered recess clipped out of +the yew-trees. When that softly spoken "Sigismund" fell from her +lips, Zaluski caught her in his arms and kissed her again and again. + +"I have led such a lonely life," he said after a few minutes, during +which their talk had baffled my comprehension. "All my people died +while I was still a boy." + +"Then who brought you up?" she inquired. + +"An uncle of mine, the head of our firm in St. Petersburg. He was +very good to me, but he had children of his own, and of course I +could not be to him as one of them. I have had many friends and +much kindness shown to me, but love!--none till to-day." + +And then again they fell into the talk which I could not fathom. +And so I left them in their brief happiness, for my time of idleness +was over, and I was ordered to attend Mrs. Milton-Cleave without a +moment's delay. + + + +MY FOURTH STAGE + + + +Oh, the little more, and how much it is! +R. BROWING. + + +Mrs. Milton-Cleave had one weakness--she was possessed by an +inordinate desire for influence. This made her always eagerly +anxious to be interesting both in her conversation and in her +letters, and to this end she exerted herself with unwearying +activity. She liked influencing Mr. Blackthorne, and spared no +pains on him that afternoon; and indeed the curate was a good deal +flattered by her friendship, and considered her one of the most +clever and charming women he had ever met. + +Sigismund and Gertrude returned to the ordinary world just as Mrs. +Milton-Cleave was saying good-bye to the hostess. She glanced at +them searchingly. + +"Good-bye, Gertrude," she said a little coldly. "Did you win at +tennis?" + +"Indeed we did," said Gertrude, smiling. "We came off with flying +colours. It was a love set." + +The girl was looking more beautiful than ever, and there was a tell- +tale colour in her cheeks and an unusual light in her soft grey +eyes. As for Zaluski, he was so evidently in love, and had the +audacity to look so supremely happy, that Mrs. Milton-Cleave was +more than ever impressed with the gravity of the situation. The +curate handed her into her victoria, and she drove home through the +sheltered lanes musing sadly over the story she had heard, and +wondering what Gertrude's future would be. When she reached home, +however, the affair was driven from her thoughts by her children, of +whom she was devotedly fond. They came running to meet her, +frisking like so many kittens round her as she went upstairs to her +room, and begging to stay with her while she dressed for dinner. +During dinner she was engrossed with her husband; but afterwards, +when she was alone in the drawing-room, I found my opportunity for +working on her restless mind. + +"Dear me," she exclaimed, throwing aside the newspaper she had just +taken up, "I ought to write to Mrs. Selldon at Dulminster about that +G.F.S. girl!" + +As a matter of fact she ought not to have written then, the letter +might well have waited till the morning, and she was over-tired and +needed rest. But I was glad to see her take up her pen, for I knew +I should come in most conveniently to fill up the second side of the +sheet. + +Before long Jane Stiggins, the member who had migrated from +Muddleton to Dulminster, had been duly reported, wound up, and made +over to the Archdeacon's wife. Then the tired hand paused. What +more could she say to her friend? + +"We are leading our usual quiet life here," she wrote, "with the +ordinary round of tennis parties and picnics to enliven us. The +children have all been wonderfully well, and I think you will see a +great improvement in your god-daughter when you next come to stay +with us"--"Oh dear!" sighed Mrs. Milton-Cleave, "how dull and stupid +I am to-night! I can't think of a single thing to say." Then at +length I flashed into her mind, and with a sigh of relief and a +little rising flush of excitement she went on much more rapidly. + +"It is such a comfort to be quite at rest about them, and to see +them all looking so well. But I suppose one can never be without +some cause of worry, and just now I am very unhappy about that nice +girl Gertrude Morley whom you admired so much when you were last +here. The whole neighbourhood has been dominated this year by a +young Polish merchant named Sigismund Zaluski, who is very clever +and musical and knows well how to win popularity. He has taken Ivy +Cottage for four mouths, and is, I fear, doing great mischief. The +Morleys are his special friends, and I greatly fear he is making +love to Gertrude. Now I know privately, on the very best authority, +that although he has so completely deceived every one and has +managed so cleverly to pose as a respectable man, that Mr. Zaluski +is really a Nihilist, a free-lover, an atheist, and altogether a +most unprincipled man. He is very clever, and speaks English most +fluently, indeed he has lived in London since the spring of 1881--he +told me so himself. I cannot help fancying that he must have been +concerned in the assassination of the late Czar, which you will +remember took place in that year early in March. It is terrible to +think of the poor Morleys entering blindfold on such an undesirable +connection; but, at the same time, I really do not feel that I can +say anything about it. Excuse this hurried note, dear Charlotte, +and with love to yourself and kindest remembrances to the +Archdeacon, + +"Believe me, very affectionately yours, + +"GEORGINA MILTON-CLEAVE. + +"P.S. It may perhaps be as well not to mention this affair about +Gertrude Morley and Mr. Zaluski. They are not yet engaged, as far +as I know, and I sincerely trust it may prove to be a mere +flirtation." + + +I had now grown to such enormous dimensions that any one who had +known me in my infancy would scarcely have recognised me, while +naturally the more I grew the more powerful I became, and the more +capable both of impressing the minds which received me and of +injuring Zaluski. Poor Zaluski, who was so foolishly, thoughtlessly +happy! He little dreamed of the fate that awaited him! His whole +world was bright and full of promise; each hour of love seemed to +improve him, to deepen his whole character, to tone down his rather +flippant manner, to awaken for him new and hitherto unthought-of +realities. + +But while he basked in his new happiness I travelled in my close +stuffy envelope to Dulminster, and after having been tossed in and +out of bags, shuffled, stamped, thumped, tied up, and generally +shaken about, I arrived one morning at Dulminster Archdeaconry, and +was laid on the breakfast table among other appetising things to +greet Mrs. Selldon when she came downstairs. + + + +MY FIFTH STAGE + + + +Also it is wise not to believe everything you hear, not immediately +to carry to the ears of others what you have either heard or +believed. +THOMAS A KEMPIS. + + +Though I was read in silence at the breakfast table and not passed +on to the Archdeacon, I lay dormant in Mrs. Selldon's mind all day, +and came to her aid that night when she was at her wits' end for +something to talk about. + +Mrs. Selldon, though a most worthy and estimable person, was of a +phlegmatic temperament; her sympathies were not easily aroused, her +mind was lazy and torpid, in conversation she was unutterably dull. +There were times when she was painfully conscious of this, and would +have given much for the ceaseless flow of words which fell from the +lips of her friend Mrs. Milton-Cleave. And that evening after my +arrival chanced to be one of these occasions, for there was a +dinner-party at the Archdeaconry, given in honour of a well-known +author who was spending a few days in the neighbourhood. + +"I wish you could have Mr. Shrewsbury at your end of the table, +Thomas," Mrs. Selldon had remarked to her husband with a sigh, as +she was arranging the guests on paper that afternoon. + +"Oh, he must certainly take you in, my dear," said the Archdeacon. +"And he seems a very clever, well-read man, I am sure you will find +him easy to talk to." + +Poor Mrs. Selldon thought that she would rather have had some one +who was neither clever nor well-read. But there was no help for +her, and, whether she would or not, she had to go in to dinner with +the literary lion. + +Mr. Mark Shrewsbury was a novelist of great ability. Some twenty +years before, he had been called to the bar, and, conscious of real +talent, had been greatly embittered by the impossibility of getting +on in his profession. At length, in disgust, he gave up all hopes +of success and devoted himself instead to literature. In this field +he won the recognition for which he craved; his books were read +everywhere, his name became famous, his income steadily increased, +and he had the pleasant consciousness that he had found his +vocation. Still, in spite of his success, he could not forget the +bitter years of failure and disappointment which had gone before, +and though his novels were full of genius they were pervaded by an +undertone of sarcasm, so that people after reading them were more +ready than before to take cynical views of life. + +He was one of those men whose quiet impassive faces reveal scarcely +anything of their character. He was neither tall nor short, neither +dark nor fair, neither handsome nor the reverse; in fact his +personality was not in the least impressive; while, like most true +artists, he observed all things so quietly that you rarely +discovered that he was observing at all. + +"Dear me!" people would say, "Is Mark Shrewsbury really here? Which +is he? I don't see any one at all like my idea of a novelist." + +"There he is--that man in spectacles," would be the reply. + +And really the spectacles were the only noteworthy thing about him. + +Mrs. Selldon, who had seen several authors and authoresses in her +time, and knew that they were as a rule most ordinary, hum-drum kind +of people, was quite prepared for her fate. She remembered her +astonishment as a girl when, having laughed and cried at the play, +and taken the chief actor as her ideal hero, she had had him pointed +out to her one day in Regent Street, and found him to be a most +commonplace-looking man, the very last person one would have +supposed capable of stirring the hearts of a great audience. + +Meanwhile dinner progressed, and Mrs. Selldon talked to an empty- +headed but loquacious man on her left, and racked her brains for +something to say to the alarmingly silent author on her right. She +remembered hearing that Charles Dickens would often sit silent +through the whole of dinner, observing quietly those about him, but +that at dessert he would suddenly come to life and keep the whole +table in roars of laughter. She feared that Mr. Shrewsbury meant to +imitate the great novelist in the first particular, but was scarcely +likely to follow his example in the last. At length she asked him +what he thought of the cathedral, and a few tepid remarks followed. + +"How unutterably this good lady bores me!" thought the author. + +"How odd it is that his characters talk so well in his books, and +that he is such a stick!" thought Mrs. Selldon. + +"I suppose it's the effect of cathedral-town atmosphere," reflected +the author. + +"I suppose he is eaten up with conceit and won't trouble himself to +talk to me," thought the hostess. + +By the time the fish had been removed they had arrived at a state of +mutual contempt. Mindful of the reputation they had to keep up, +however, they exerted themselves a little more while the entrees +went round. + +"Seldom reads, I should fancy, and never thinks!" reflected the +author, glancing at Mrs. Selldon's placid unintellectual face. +"What on earth can I say to her?" + +"Very unpractical, I am sure," reflected Mrs. Selldon. "The sort of +man who lives in a world of his own, and only lays down his pen to +take up a book. What subject shall I start?" + +"What delightful weather we have been having the last few days!" +observed the author. "Real genuine summer weather at last." The +same remark had been trembling on Mrs. Selldon's lips. She assented +with great cheerfulness and alacrity; and over that invaluable +topic, which is always so safe, and so congenial, and so ready to +hand, they grew quite friendly, and the conversation for fully five +minutes was animated. + +An interval of thought followed. + +"How wearisome is society!" reflected Mrs. Selldon. "It is hard +that we must spend so much money in giving dinners and have so much +trouble for so little enjoyment." + +"One pays dearly for fame," reflected the author. "What a +confounded nuisance it is to waste all this time when there are the +last proofs of 'What Caste?' to be done for the nine-o'clock post +to-morrow morning! Goodness knows what time I shall get to bed to- +night!" + +Then Mrs. Selldon thought regretfully of the comfortable easy chair +that she usually enjoyed after dinner, and the ten minutes' nap, and +the congenial needle-work. And Mark Shrewsbury thought of his +chambers in Pump Court, and longed for his type-writer, and his +books, and his swivel chair, and his favourite meerschaum. + +"I should be less afraid to talk if there were not always the +horrible idea that he may take down what one says," thought Mrs. +Selldon. + +"I should be less bored if she would only be her natural self," +reflected the author. "And would not talk prim platitudes." (This +was hard, for he had talked nothing else himself.) "Does she think +she is so interesting that I am likely to study her for my next +book?" + +"Have you been abroad this summer?" inquired Mrs. Selldon, making +another spasmodic attempt at conversation. + +"No, I detest travelling," replied Mark Shrewsbury. "When I need +change I just settle down in some quiet country district for a few +months--somewhere near Windsor, or Reigate, or Muddleton. There is +nothing to my mind like our English scenery." + +"Oh, do you know Muddleton?" exclaimed Mrs. Selldon. "Is it not a +charming little place? I often stay in the neighbourhood with the +Milton-Cleaves." + +"I know Milton-Cleave well," said the author. "A capital fellow, +quite the typical country gentleman." + +"Is he not?" said Mrs. Selldon, much relieved to have found this +subject in common. "His wife is a great friend of mine; she is full +of life and energy, and does an immense amount of good. Did you say +you had stayed with them?" + +"No, but last year I took a house in that neighbourhood for a few +months; a most charming little place it was, just fit for a lonely +bachelor. I dare say you remember it--Ivy Cottage, on the Newton +Road." + +"Did you stay there? Now what a curious coincidence! Only this +morning I heard from Mrs. Milton-Cleave that Ivy Cottage has been +taken this summer by a Mr. Sigismund Zaluski, a Polish merchant, who +is doing untold harm in the neighbourhood. He is a very clever, +unscrupulous man, and has managed to take in almost every one." + +"Why, what is he? A swindler? Or a burglar in disguise, like the +HOUSE ON THE MARSH fellow?" asked the author, with a little twinkle +of amusement in his face. + +"Oh, much worse than that," said Mrs. Selldon, lowering her voice. +"I assure you, Mr. Shrewsbury, you would hardly credit the story if +I were to tell it you, it is really stranger than fiction." Mark +Shrewsbury pricked up his ears, he no longer felt bored, he began to +think that, after all, there might be some compensation for this +wearisome dinner-party. He was always glad to seize upon material +for future plots, and somehow the notion of a mysterious Pole +suddenly making his appearance in that quiet country neighbourhood +and winning undeserved popularity rather took his fancy. He thought +he might make something of it. However, he knew human nature too +well to ask a direct question. + +"I am sorry to hear that," he said, becoming all at once quite +sympathetic and approachable. "I don't like the thought of those +simple, unsophisticated people being hoodwinked by a scoundrel." + +"No; is it not sad?" said Mrs. Selldon. "Such pleasant, hospitable +people as they are! Do you remember the Morleys?" + +"Oh yes! There was a pretty daughter who played tennis well." + +"Quite so--Gertrude Morley. Well, would you believe it, this +miserable fortune-hunter is actually either engaged to her or on the +eve of being engaged! Poor Mrs. Milton-Cleave is so unhappy about +it, for she knows, on the best authority, that Mr. Zaluski is unfit +to enter a respectable house." + +"Perhaps he is really some escaped criminal?" suggested Mr. +Shrewsbury, tentatively. + +Mrs. Selldon hesitated. Then, under the cover of the general roar +of conversation, she said in a low voice:- + +"You have guessed quite rightly. He is one of the Nihilists who +were concerned in the assassination of the late Czar." + +"You don't say so!" exclaimed Mark Shrewsbury, much startled. "Is +it possible?" + +"Indeed, it is only too true," said Mrs. Selldon. "I heard it only +the other morning, and on the very best authority. Poor Gertrude +Morley! My heart bleeds for her." + +Now I can't help observing here that this must have been the merest +figure of speech, for just then there was a comfortable little glow +of satisfaction about Mrs. Selldon's heart. She was so delighted to +have "got on well," as she expressed it, with the literary lion, and +by this time dessert was on the table, and soon the tedious ceremony +would be happily over. + +"But how did he escape?" asked Mark Shrewsbury, still with the +thought of "copy" in his mind. + +"I don't know the details," said Mrs. Selldon. "Probably they are +only known to himself. But he managed to escape somehow in the +month of March 1881, and to reach England safely. I fear it is only +too often the case in this world--wickedness is apt to be +successful." + +"To flourish like a green bay tree," said Mark Shrewsbury, +congratulating himself on the aptness of the quotation, and its +suitability to the Archediaconal dinner-table. "It is the strangest +story I have heard for a long time." Just then there was a pause in +the general conversation, and Mrs. Selldon took advantage of it to +make the sign for rising, so that no more passed with regard to +Zaluski. + +Shrewsbury, flattering himself that he had left a good impression by +his last remark, thought better not to efface it later in the +evening by any other conversation with his hostess. But in the +small hours of the night, when he had finished his bundle of proofs, +he took up his notebook and, strangling his yawns, made two or three +brief, pithy notes of the story Mrs. Selldon had told him, adding a +further development which occurred to him, and wondering to himself +whether "Like a Green Bay Tree" would be a selling title. + +After this he went to bed, and slept the sleep of the just, or the +unbroken sleep which goes by that name. + + + +MY SIXTH STAGE + + + +But whispering tongues can poison truth. +COLERIDGE + + +London in early September is a somewhat trying place. Mark +Shrewsbury found it less pleasing in reality than in his visions +during the dinner-party at Dulminster. True, his chambers were +comfortable, and his type-writer was as invaluable a machine as +ever, and his novel was drawing to a successful conclusion; but +though all these things were calculated to cheer him, he was +nevertheless depressed. Town was dull, the heat was trying, and he +had never in his life found it so difficult to settle down to work. +He began to agree with the Preacher, that "of making many books +there is no end," and that, in spite of his favourite "Remington's +perfected No. 2," novel-writing was a weariness to the flesh. Soon +he drifted into a sort of vague idleness, which was not a good, +honest holiday, but just a lazy waste of time and brains. I was +pleased to observe this, and was not slow to take advantage of it. +Had he stayed in Pump Court he might have forgotten me altogether in +his work, but in the soft luxury of his Club life I found that I had +a very fair chance of being passed on to some one else. + +One hot afternoon, on waking from a comfortable nap in the depths of +an armchair at the Club, Shrewsbury was greeted by one of his +friends. + +"I thought you were in Switzerland, old fellow!" he exclaimed, +yawning and stretching himself. + +"Came back yesterday--awfully bad season--confoundedly dull," +returned the other. "Where have you been?" + +"Down with Warren near Dulminster. Deathly dull hole." + +"Do for your next novel. Eh?" said the other with a laugh. + +Mark Shrewsbury smiled good-naturedly. + +"Talking of novels," he observed, with another yawn, "I heard such a +story down there!" + +"Did you? Let's hear it. A nice little scandal would do instead of +a pick-me-up." + +"It's not a scandal. Don't raise your expectations. It's the story +of a successful scoundrel." + +And then I came out again in full vigour--nay, with vastly increased +powers; for though Mark Shrewsbury did not add very much to me, or +alter my appearance, yet his graphic words made me much more +impressive than I had been under the management of Mrs. Selldon. + +"H'm! that's a queer story," said the limp-looking young man from +Switzerland. "I say, have a game of billiards, will you?" + +Shrewsbury, with prodigious yawn, dragged himself up out of his +chair, and the two went off together. As they left the room the +only other man present looked up from his newspaper, following them +with his eyes. + +"Shrewsbury the novelist," he thought to himself. "A sterling +fellow! And he heard it from an Archdeacon's wife. Confound it +all! the thing must be true then. I'll write and make full +inquiries about this Zaluski before consenting to the engagement." + +And, being a prompt, business-like man, Gertrude Morley's uncle sat +down and wrote the following letter to a Russian friend of his who +lived at St. Petersburg, and who might very likely be able to give +some account of Zaluski:- + + +Dear Leonoff,--Some very queer stories are afloat about a young +Polish merchant, by name Sigismund Zaluski, the head of the London +branch of the firm of Zaluski and Zernoff, at St. Petersburg. Will +you kindly make inquiries for me as to his true character and +history? I would not trouble you with this affair, but the fact is +Zaluski has made an offer of marriage to one of my wards, and before +consenting to any betrothal I must know what sort of man he really +is. I take it for granted that "there is no smoke without fire," +and that there must be something in the very strange tale which I +have just heard on the best authority. It is said that this +Sigismund Zaluski left St. Petersburg in March 1881, after the +assassination of the late Czar, in which he was seriously +compromised. He is said to be an out-and-out Nihilist, an atheist, +and, in short, a dangerous, disreputable fellow. Will you sift the +matter for me? I don't wish to dismiss the fellow without good +reason, but of course I could not think of permitting him to be +engaged to my niece until these charges are entirely disproved. + +With kind remembrances to your father, + +I am, yours faithfully, + +HENRY CRICHTON-MORLEY. + + + +MY SEVENTH STAGE + + + +Yet on the dull silence breaking +With a lightning flash, a word, +Bearing endless desolation +On its blighting wings, I heard; +Earth can forge no keener weapon, +Dealing surer death and pain, +And the cruel echo answered +Through long years again. +A. A. PROCTER + + +Curiously enough, I must actually have started for Russia on the +same day that Sigismund Zaluski was summoned by his uncle at St. +Petersburg to return on a matter of urgent business. I learnt +afterwards that the telegram arrived at Muddleton on the afternoon +of one of those sunny September days and found Zaluski as usual at +the Morleys. He was very much annoyed at being called away just +then, and before he had received any reply from Gertrude's uncle as +to the engagement. However, after a little ebullition of anger, he +regained his usual philosophic tone, and, reminding Gertrude that he +need not be away from England for more than a fortnight, he took +leave of her and set off in a prompt, manly fashion, leaving most of +his belongings at Ivy Cottage, which was his for another six weeks, +and to which he hoped shortly to return. + +After a weary time of imprisonment in my envelope, I at length +reached my destination at St. Petersburg and was read by Dmitry +Leonoff. He was a very busy man, and by the same post received +dozens of other letters. He merely muttered--"That well-known firm! +A most unlikely story!"--and then thrust me into a drawer with other +letters which had to be answered. Very probably I escaped his +memory altogether for the next few days: however, there I was--a +startling accusation in black and white; and, as everybody knows, +St. Petersburg is not London. + +The Leonoff family lived on the third storey of a large block of +buildings in the Sergeffskaia. About two o'clock in the morning, on +the third day after my arrival, the whole household was roused from +sleep by thundering raps on the door, and the dreaded cry of "Open +to the police." + +The unlucky master was forced to allow himself, his wife, and his +children to be made prisoners, while every corner of the house was +searched and every book and paper examined. + +Leonoff had nothing whatever to do with the Revolutionary movement, +but absolute innocence does not free people from the police +inquisition, and five or six years ago, when the Search mania was at +its height, a case is on record of a poor lady whose house was +searched seven times within twenty-four hours, though there was no +evidence whatever that she was connected with the Nihilists; the +whole affair was, in fact, a misunderstanding, as she was perfectly +innocent. + +This search in Dmitry Leonoff's house was also a misunderstanding, +and in the dominions of the Czar misunderstandings are of frequent +occurrence. + +Leonoff knew himself to be innocent, and he felt no fear, though +considerable annoyance, while the search was prosecuted; he could +hardly believe the evidence of his senses when, without a word of +explanation, he was informed that he must take leave of his wife and +children, and go in charge of the gendarmes to the House of +Preventive Detention. + +Being a sensible man, he kept his temper, remarked courteously that +some mistake must have been made, embraced his weeping wife, and +went off passively, while the pristav carried away a bundle of +letters in which I occupied the most prominent place. + +Leonoff remained a prisoner only for a few days; there was not a +shred of evidence against him, and, having suffered terrible +anxiety, he was finally released. But Mr. Crichton-Morley's letter +was never restored to him, it remained in the hands of the +authorities, and the night after Leonoff's arrest the pristav, the +procurator, and the gendarmes made their way into the dwelling of +Sigismund Zaluski's uncle, where a similar search was prosecuted. + +Sigismund was asleep and dreaming of Gertrude and of his idyllic +summer in England, when his bedroom door was forced open and he was +roughly roused by the gendarmes. + +His first feeling was one of amazement, his second, one of +indignation; however, he was obliged to get up at once and dress, +the policeman rigorously keeping guard over him the whole time for +fear he should destroy any treasonable document. + +"How I shall make them laugh in England when I tell them of this +ridiculous affair!" reflected Sigismund, as he was solemnly marched +into the adjoining room, where he found his uncle and cousins, each +guarded by a policeman. + +He made some jesting remark, but was promptly reprimanded by his +gaoler, and in wearisome silence the household waited while the most +rigorous search of the premises was made. + +Of course nothing was found; but, to the amazement of all, Sigismund +was formally arrested. + +"There must be some mistake," he exclaimed, "I have been resident in +England for some time. I have no connection whatever with Russian +politics." + +"Oh, we are well aware of your residence in England," said the +pristav. "You left St. Petersburg early in March 1881. We are well +aware of that." + +Something in the man's tone made Sigismund's heart stand still. +Could he possibly be suspected of complicity in the plot to +assassinate the late Czar? The idea would have made him laugh had +he been in England. In St. Petersburg, and under these +circumstances, it made him tremble. + +"There is some terrible mistake," he said. "I have never had the +slightest connection with the revolutionary party." + +The pristav shrugged his shoulders, and Sigismund, feeling like one +in a dream, took leave of his relations, and was escorted at once to +the House of Preventive Detention. + +Arrived at his destination, he was examined in a brief, +unsatisfactory way; but when he angrily asked for the evidence on +which he had been arrested, he was merely told that information had +been received charging him with being concerned in the assassination +of the late Emperor, and of being an advanced member of the Nihilist +party. His vehement denials were received with scornful +incredulity, his departure for England just after the assassination, +and his prolonged absence from Russia, of course gave colour to the +accusation, and he was ordered off to his cell "to reflect." + + + +MY TRIUMPHANT FINALE + + + +Words are mighty, words are living; +Serpents with their venomous stings, +Or bright angels crowding round us, +With heaven's light upon their wings; +Every word has its own spirit, +True or false, that never dies; +Every word man's lips have uttered +Echoes in God's skies. +A. A. PROCTER. + + +My labours were now nearly at an end, and being, so to speak, off +duty, I could occupy myself just as I pleased. I therefore resolved +to keep watch over Zaluski in his prison. + +For the first few hours after his arrest he was in a violent +passion; he paced up and down his tiny cell like a lion in a cage; +he was beside himself with indignation, and the blood leapt through +his veins like wildfire. + +Then he became a little ashamed of himself and tried to grow quiet, +and after a sleepless night he passed to the opposite extreme and +sat all day long on the solitary stool in his grim abode, his head +resting on his hands, and his mind a prey to the most fearful +melancholy. + +The second night, however, he slept, and awoke with a steady resolve +in his mind. + +"It will never do to give way like this, or I shall be in a brain +fever in no time," he reflected. "I will get leave to have books +and writing materials. I will make the best of a bad business." + +He remembered how pleased he had been when Gertrude had once smiled +on him because, when all the others in the party were grumbling at +the discomforts of a certain picnic where the provisions had gone +astray, he had gaily made the best of it and ransacked the nearest +cottages for bread-and-cheese. He set to work bravely now; hoped +daily for his release; read all the books he was allowed to receive, +invented solitary games, began a novel, and drew caricatures. + +In October he was again examined; but, having nothing to reveal, it +was inevitable that he could reveal nothing; and he was again sent +back to his cell "to reflect." + +I perceived that after this his heart began to fail him. + +There existed in the House of Preventive Detention a system of +communication between the luckless prisoners carried on by means of +tapping on the wall. Sigismund, being a clever fellow, had become a +great adept at this telegraphic system, and had struck up a +friendship with a young student in the next cell; this poor fellow +had been imprisoned three years, his sole offence being that he had +in his possession a book of which the Government did not approve, +and that he was first cousin to a well-known Nihilist. + +The two became as devoted to each other as Silvio Pellico and Count +Oroboni; but it soon became evident to Valerian Vasilowitch that, +unless Zaluski was released, he would soon succumb to the terrible +restrictions of prison life. + +"Keep up your heart, my friend," he used to say. "I have borne it +three years, and am still alive to tell the tale." + +"But you are stronger both in mind and body," said Sigismund; "and +you are not madly in love as I am." + +And then he would pour forth a rhapsody about Gertrude, and about +English life, and about his hopes and fears for the future; to all +of which Valerian, like the brave fellow he was, replied with words +of encouragement. + +But at length there came a day when his friend made no answer to his +usual morning greeting. + +"Are you ill?" he asked. + +For some time there was no reply, but after a while Sigismund rapped +faintly the despairing words:- + +"Dead beat!" + +Valerian felt the tears start to his eyes. It was what he had all +along expected, and for a time grief and indignation and his +miserable helplessness made him almost beside himself. At last he +remembered that there was at least one thing in his power. Each day +he was escorted by a warder to a tiny square, walled off in the +exercising ground, and was allowed to walk for a few minutes; he +would take this opportunity of begging the warder to get the doctor +for his friend. + +But unfortunately the doctor did not think very seriously of +Zaluski's case. In that dreary prison he had patients in the last +stages of all kinds of disease, and Sigismund, who had been in +confinement too short a time to look as ill as the others, did not +receive much attention. Certainly, the doctor admitted, his lungs +were affected; probably the sudden change of climate and the lack of +good food and fresh air had been too much for him; so the solemn +farce ended, and he was left to his fate. "If I were indeed a +Nihilist, and suffered for a cause which I had at heart," he +telegraphed to Valerian, "I could bear it better. But to be kept +here for an imaginary offence, to bear cold and hunger and illness +all to no purpose--that beats me. There can't be a God, or such +things would not be allowed." + +"To me it seems," said Valerian, "that we are the victims of +violated law. Others have shown tyranny, or injustice, or cruelty, +and we are the victims of their sin. Don't say there is no God. +There must be a God to avenge such hideous wrong." + +So they spoke to each other through their prison wall as men in the +free outer world seldom care to speak; and I, who knew no barriers, +looked now on Valerian's gaunt figure, and brave but prematurely old +face, now on poor Zaluski, who, in his weary imprisonment, had +wasted away till one could scarcely believe that he was indeed the +same lithe, active fellow who had played tennis at Mrs. Courtenay's +garden-party. + +Day and night Valerian listened to the terrible cough which came +from the adjoining cell. It became perfectly apparent to him that +his friend was dying; he knew it as well as if he had seen the +burning hectic flush on his hollow cheeks, and heard the panting, +hurried breaths, and watched the unnatural brilliancy of his dark +eyes. + +At length he thought the time had come for another sort of comfort. + +"My friend," he said one day, "it is too plain to me now that you +are dying. Write to the procurator and tell him so. In some cases +men have been allowed to go home to die." + +A wild hope seized on poor Sigismund; he sat down to the little +table in his cell and wrote a letter to the procurator--a letter +which might almost have drawn tears from a flint. Again and again +he passionately asserted his innocence, and begged to know on what +evidence he was imprisoned. He began to think that he could die +content if he might leave this terrible cell, might be a free agent +once more, if only for a few days. At least he might in that case +clear his character, and convince Gertrude that his imprisonment had +been all a hideous mistake; nay, he fancied that he might live +through a journey to England and see her once again. + +But the procurator would not let him be set free, and refused to +believe that his case was really a serious one. + +Sigismund's last hope left him. + +The days and weeks dragged slowly on, and when, according to English +reckoning, New Year's Eve arrived, he could scarcely believe that +only seventeen weeks ago he had actually been with Gertrude, and +that disgrace and imprisonment had seemed things that could never +come near him, and death had been a far-away possibility, and life +had been full of bliss. + +As I watched him a strong desire seized me to revisit the scenes of +which he was thinking, and I winged my way back to England, and soon +found myself in the drowsy, respectable streets of Muddleton. + +It was New Year's Eve, and I saw Mrs. O'Reilly preparing presents +for her grandchildren, and talking, as she tied them up, of that +dreadful Nihilist who had deceived them in the summer. I saw Lena +Houghton, and Mr. Blackthorne, and Mrs. Milton-Cleave, kneeling in +church on that Friday morning, praying that pity might be shown +"upon all prisoners and captives, and all that are desolate or +oppressed." + +It never occurred to them that they were responsible for the +sufferings of one weary prisoner, or that his death would be laid at +their door. + +I flew to Dulminster, and saw Mrs. Selldon kneeling in the cathedral +at the late evening service and rigorously examining herself as to +the shortcomings of the dying year. She confessed many things in a +vague, untroubled way; but had any one told her that she had cruelly +wronged her neighbour, and helped to bring an innocent man to shame, +and prison, and death, she would not have believed the accusation. + +I sought out Mark Shrewsbury. He was at his chambers in Pump Court +working away with his type-writer; he had a fancy for working the +old year out and the new year in, and now he was in the full swing +of that novel which had suggested itself to his mind when Mrs. +Selldon described the rich and mysterious foreigner who had settled +down at Ivy Cottage. Most happily he laboured on, never dreaming +that his careless words had doomed a fellow-man to a painful and +lingering death; never dreaming that while his fingers flew to and +fro over his dainty little keyboard, describing the clever doings of +the unscrupulous foreigner, another man, the victim of his idle +gossip, tapped dying messages on a dreary prison wall. + +For the end had come. + +Through the evening Sigismund rested wearily on his truckle-bed. He +could not lie down because of his cough, and, since there were no +extra pillows to prop him up, he had to rest his head and shoulders +against the wall. There was a gas-burner in the tiny cell, and by +its light he looked round the bare walls of his prison with a blank, +hopeless, yet wistful gaze; there was the stool, there was the +table, there were the clothes he should never wear again, there was +the door through which his lifeless body would soon be carried. He +looked at everything lingeringly, for he knew that this desolate +prison was the last bit of the world he should ever see. + +Presently the gas was turned out. + +He sighed as he felt the darkness close in upon him, for he knew +that his eyes would never again see light--knew that in this dark +lonely cell he must lie and wait for death. And he was young and +wished to live, and he was in love and longed most terribly for the +presence of the woman he loved. + +The awful desolateness of the cell was more than he could endure; he +tried to think of his past life, he tried to live once again through +those happy weeks with Gertrude; but always he came back to the +aching misery of the present--the cold and the pain, and the +darkness and the terrible solitude. + +His nerveless fingers felt their way to the wall and faintly rapped +a summons. + +"Valerian!" he said, "I shall not live through the night. Watch +with me." + +The faint raps sounded clearly in the stillness of the great +building, and Valerian dreaded lest the warders should hear them, +and deal out punishment for an offence which by day they were forced +to wink at. + +But he would not for the world have deserted his friend. He drew +his stool close to the wall, wrapped himself round in all the +clothes he could muster, and, shivering with cold, kept watch +through the long winter night. + +"I am near you," he telegraphed. "I will watch with you till +morning." + +From time to time Sigismund rapped faint messages, and Valerian +replied with comfort and sympathy. Once he thought to himself, "My +friend is better; there is more power in his hand." And indeed he +trembled, fearing that the sharp, emphatic raps must certainly +attract notice and put an end to their communion. + +"Tell my love that the accusation was false--false!" the word was +vehemently repeated. "Tell her I died broken-hearted, loving her to +the end." + +"I will tell her all when I am free," said poor Valerian, wondering +with a sigh when his unjust imprisonment would end. "Do you suffer +much?" he asked. + +There was a brief interval. Sigismund hesitated to tell a falsehood +in his last extremity. + +"It will soon be over. Do not be troubled for me," he replied. And +after that there was a long, long silence. + +Poor fellow! he died hard; and I wished that those comfortable +English people could have been dragged from their warm beds and +brought into the cold dreary cell where their victim lay, fighting +for breath, suffering cruelly both in mind and body. Valerian, +listening in sad suspense, heard one more faint word rapped by the +dying man. + +"Farewell!" + +"God be with you!" he replied, unable to check the tears which +rained down as he thought of the life so sadly ended, and of his own +bereavement. + +He heard no more. Sigismund's strength failed him, and I, to whom +the darkness made no difference, watched him through the last dread +struggle; there was no one to raise him, or hold him, no one to +comfort him. Alone in the cold and darkness of that first morning +of the year 1887, he died. + +Valerian did not hear through the wall his last faint gasping cry, +but I heard it, and its exceeding bitterness would have made mortals +weep. + +"Gertrude!" he sobbed. "Gertrude!" + +And with that his head sank on his breast, and the life, which but +for me might have been so happy and prosperous, was ended. + + +Prompted by curiosity, I instantly returned to Muddleton and sought +out Gertrude Morley. I stole into her room. She lay asleep, but +her dreams were troubled, and her face, once so fresh and bright, +was worn with pain and anxiety. + +Scarcely had I entered the room when, to my amazement, I saw the +spirit of Sigismund Zaluski. + +I saw him bend down and kiss the sleeping girl, and for a moment her +sad face lighted up with a radiant smile. + +I looked again; he was gone. Then Gertrude threw up both her arms +and with a bitter cry awoke from her dream. + +"Sigismund!" she cried. "Oh, Sigismund! Now I know that you are +dead indeed." + +For a long, long time she lay in a sort of trance of misery. It +seemed as if the life had been almost crushed out of her, and it was +not until the bells began to ring for the six o'clock service, +merrily pealing out their welcome of the new year morning, that full +consciousness returned to her again. But, as she clearly realised +what had happened, she broke into such a passion of tears as I had +never before witnessed, while still in the darkness the new year +bells rang gaily, and she knew that they heralded for her the +beginning of a lonely life. + +And so my work ended; my part in this world was played out. +Nevertheless I still live; and there will come a day when Sigismund +and Gertrude shall be comforted and the slanderers punished. + +For poor Valerian was right, and there is an Avenger, in whom even +my progenitor believes, and before whom he trembles. + +There will come a time when those self-satisfied ones, whose hands +are all the time steeped in blood, shall be confronted with me, and +shall realise to the full all that their idle words have brought +about. + +For that day I wait; and though afterwards I shall be finally +destroyed in the general destruction of all that is unmitigatedly +evil, I promise myself a certain satisfaction and pleasure (a +feeling I doubtless inherit from my progenitor), when I watch the +shame, and horror, and remorse of Mrs. O'Reilly and the rest of the +people to whom I owe my existence and rapid growth. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg Etext The Autobiography of a Slander, by Lyall + diff --git a/old/autos10.zip b/old/autos10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a01f21b --- /dev/null +++ b/old/autos10.zip |