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diff --git a/13242-0.txt b/13242-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e43e316 --- /dev/null +++ b/13242-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8507 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13242 *** + +Note: The Table of Contents and the list of illustrations were added +by the transcriber. + + + + +LIPPINCOTT'S MAGAZINE OF POPULAR LITERATURE AND SCIENCE + +April, 1876. + +Vol. XVII, No. 100. + + + + + + +TABLE OF CONTENTS + + ILLUSTRATIONS + + THE CENTURY ITS FRUITS AND ITS FESTIVAL. + IV.--THE CENTENNIAL EXPOSITION UNDER ROOF. + + SKETCHES OF INDIA. + IV.--CONCLUSION. + + THE COLLEGE STUDENT by JAMES MORGAN HART. + + SONNET by MAURICE THOMPSON. + + THE HOUSE THAT SUSAN BUILT by SARAH WINTER KELLOGG. + + AFTER A YEAR by KATE HILLARD. + + THE BERKSHIRE LADY by THOMAS HUGHES. + + THE SABBATH OF THE LOST + + THE ATONEMENT OF LEAM DUNDAS by MRS. E. LYNN LINTON. + CHAPTER XXIX. THE FRIEND OF THE FUTURE. + CHAPTER XXX. MAYA--DELUSION. + CHAPTER XXXI. BY THE BROAD. + CHAPTER XXXII. PALMAM QUI NON MERUIT. + + THE SING-SONG OF MALY COE by CHARLES G. LELAND. + + LETTERS FROM SOUTH AFRICA BY LADY BARKER. + + DINNER IN A STATE PRISON by MARGARET HOSMER. + + FAREWELL by AUBER FORESTIER. + + THE INSTRUCTION OF DEAF MUTES by JENNIE EGGLESTON ZIMMERMAN. + + OUR MONTHLY GOSSIP. + THE CITY OF VIOLETS by ELISE POLKO. + LA BEFANA. + ERNESTO ROSSI. + BISHOP THIRLWALL'S PRECOCITY. + FREAKS OF KLEPTOMANIA. + + LITERATURE OF THE DAY. + BOOKS RECEIVED. + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + THE BRIDGE ACROSS LANSDOWNE RAVINE, CONNECTING MEMORIAL AND + HORTICULTURAL HALLS. + GIRARD AVENUE BRIDGE--ONE OF THE APPROACHES TO THE EXHIBITION GROUNDS. + MAIN BUILDING. + MACHINERY HALL. + HON. JOSEPH R. HAWLEY, PRESIDENT OF THE CENTENNIAL COMMISSION. + GENERAL ALFRED T. GOSHORN, DIRECTOR-GENERAL OF THE CENTENNIAL + COMMISSION. + JOHN WELSH, ESQ., PRESIDENT OF THE CENTENNIAL BOARD OF FINANCE. + AGRICULTURAL BUILDING. + HORTICULTURAL HALL. + MEMORIAL HALL, WITH EXTENSION. + INDIGO-FACTORY NEAR ALLAHABAD. + MUSSULMAN SCHOOL AT ALLAHABAD. + MÂLERS AND SONTALS. + GRAIN-AND-FLOUR MERCHANT OF PATNA. + A TIGER-HUNT, ELEPHANT-BACK. + BENGAL WATER-CARRIERS. + BRAHMANS OF BENGAL. + BENGALESE OF LOW CASTE. + CHARIOT OF THE PROCESSION OF THE RATTJATTRA, AT JAGHERNÂTH. + THE PORT OF CALCUTTA. + + + + +LIPPINCOTT'S MAGAZINE + +OF + +_POPULAR LITERATURE AND SCIENCE_. + +APRIL, 1876. +Vol. XVII, No. 100. + + + + +THE CENTURY ITS FRUITS AND ITS FESTIVAL. + +IV.--THE CENTENNIAL EXPOSITION UNDER ROOF. + +[Illustration: THE BRIDGE ACROSS LANSDOWNE RAVINE, CONNECTING MEMORIAL +AND HORTICULTURAL HALLS.] + +None of the European exhibitions we have sketched partook of the +nature of an anniversary or was designed to commemorate an historical +event. Some idea of celebrating the close of the calendar half-century +may have helped to determine the choice of 1851 as the year for +holding the first London fair; but if so, it was only with reference +to the general progress during this period, and not to any notable +fact at its commencement. Still less did the later exhibitions owe any +portion of their significance and interest to their connection with a +date. They afforded occasion for comparison and rivalry, but no shape +loomed up out of the past claiming to preside over the festival, to +have its toils and achievements remembered, and to be credited with a +share in the production of the harvests garnered by its successors. + +In our case it is very different. Here was the birth-year of the Union +coming apace. It forced itself upon our contemplation. It appealed +not merely to the average passion of grown-up boys for hurrahs, +gun-firing, bell-ringing, and rockets sulphureous and oratorical. It +addressed us in a much more sober tone and assumed a far more +didactic aspect. Looking from its throne of clouds o'er half the (New) +World--and indeed, as we have shown, constructively over the Old as +well--it summoned us to the wholesome moral exercise of pausing a +moment in our rapid career to revert to first principles, moral, +social and political, and to explore the germs of our marvelous +material progress. Nor could we assume this office as exclusively for +our own benefit. The rest of Christendom silently assigned it to the +youngest born for the common good. Circumstances had placed in our +hands the measuring-rod of Humanity's growth, and all stood willing to +gather upon our soil for its application, so far as that could be +made by the method devised and perfected within the past quarter of +a century. It was here, a thousand leagues away from the scene of the +first enterprise of the kind, that the culminating experiment was to +be tried. + +[Illustration: GIRARD AVENUE BRIDGE--ONE OF THE APPROACHES TO THE +EXHIBITION GROUNDS.] + +To what point on a continent as broad as the Atlantic were they to +come? The European fairs were hampered with no question of locality. +That Austria should hold hers at Vienna, France at Paris, and Britain +at London, were foregone conclusions. But the United States have a +plurality of capitals, political, commercial, historical and State. +Washington, measured by house-room and not by magnificent distances, +was too small. New York, acting with characteristic haste, had already +indulged in an exposition, and it lacked, moreover, the rich cluster +of associations that might have hallowed its claims as the "commercial +metropolis." Among the State capitals Boston alone had the needed +historical eminence, but, besides the obvious drawback of its +situation, its capacity and its commissariat resources, except for +a host of disembodied intellects, must prove insufficient. There +remained the central city of the past, the seat of the Continental +Congress, of the Convention and of the first administrations under +the Constitution which it framed--the halfway-house between North and +South of the early warriors and statesmen, and the workshop in which +the political machinery that has since been industriously filed at +home and more or less closely copied abroad was originally forged. +Where else could the two ends of the century be so fitly brought +together? Here was the Hall of 1776; the other hall that nearly two +years earlier received the first assemblage of "that hallowed name +that freed the Atlantic;" the modest building in a bed-chamber of +which the Declaration of Independence was penned; and other localities +rich with memories of the men of our heroic age. + +The space of a few blocks covered the council-ground of the Union. +Those few acres afforded room enough for the beating of its political +heart for twenty-five years, from the embryonic period to that of +maturity--from the meeting of a consulting committee of subject +colonists to the establishment of unchallenged and symmetrical +autonomy. + +The growth of Philadelphia from this contracted germ was only less +remarkable than that of the government. The capital of the provincial +rebels had expanded into one fit for an empire, comparable to Vienna +as a site for a World's Exposition and a caravanserai for those who +should attend it. Such advantages would have caused its selection had +the question been submitted in the first instance to the unbiased vote +of various quarters of the Union, all expected and all prepared to +contribute an equal quota, according to population and means, of the +cost. But the enterprise of the community itself anticipated such +decision. Its own citizens hastened to appropriate the idea and +shoulder the responsibility. They felt that the standpoint wherefrom +they were able to address their countrymen was a commanding one, and +they lost no time in lifting up their voice. Aware that those who +take the initiative have always to carry more than their share of the +burden, they were very moderate in their calls for aid; and the demand +for that they rested chiefly upon the same ground which naturally +sustained part of their own calculations of reimbursement in some +shape, direct or indirect--local self-interest. The dislike to the +entire loss of a large outlay on an uncertain event is not peculiar to +this commercial age. Appeals on the side of patriotism and of +public enthusiasm over the jubilee of a century would be at least as +effective with the American people as with any other in the world; +but they could not be expected to be all-powerful, and to need no +assistance from the argument of immediate and palpable advantage. +In default of subscriptions to the main fund from distant towns and +States, these were invited to provide for the cost of collecting, +transporting and arranging their individual shares of the display. +This they have generally, and in many cases most liberally, done, in +addition to direct subscriptions greater in amount than the provinces +of either Austria, France or England made to their respective +expositions. Withal, it could surprise no one that Pennsylvania and +her chief city would have to be the main capitalists of an undertaking +located on their own soil. + +These came forward with a promptness that at once raised the movement +above the status of a project. The city with a million and a half, and +the State with a million, replenished the exchequer of the association +after a fashion that ensured in every quarter confidence in its +success, and at the same time extinguished what little disposition +may have been manifested elsewhere to cavil at the choice of location. +These large subventions very properly contemplated something more than +the encouragement of a transient display, and were for the most part +devoted to the erection of structures of a permanent character, such +as the Art-Gallery or Memorial Hall and the Horticultural Building. To +endowments of this description, called forth by the occasion, we might +add the Girard Avenue Bridge, the finest in the country, erected by +the city at the cost of a million and a half, and leading direct to +the exhibition grounds. The concession of two hundred and sixty +acres of the front of Fairmount Park, with the obliteration of costly +embellishments that occupied the ground taken for the new exposition +buildings, may be viewed in the light of another contribution. + +[Illustration: MAIN BUILDING.] + +A treasury meant to accommodate seven millions of dollars--three +millions less than the Vienna outlay--still showed an aching void, +which was but partially satisfied by the individual subscriptions of +Philadelphians. It became necessary to sound the financial tocsin +in the ears of all the Union. Congress, States, cities, counties, +schools, churches, citizens and children were appealed to for +subscriptions. The shares were fixed at the convenient size of ten +dollars each, hardly the market-value of the stock-certificate, +"twenty-four by twenty inches on the best bank-note paper," which +became the property of each fortunate shareholder on the instant of +payment. But these seductive pictures belonged to a class of art with +which the moneyed public had become since '73 unhappily too familiar. +They had to jostle, in the gallery of the stock-market, a vast +and various collection exhaustive of the whole field of allegory, +mythological and technical, and framed in the most bewitching aureoles +of blue, red and green printer's ink. It seemed in '72 much more +probable that the Coon Swamp and Byzantium Trans-Continental Railway +would be able, the year after completion, to pay eight per cent. on +fifty thousand dollars of bonds to the mile, sold at seventy in the +hundred, than it did in '75 that ten millions of fifty-cent tickets +could be disposed of in six months at any point on the Continent. Thus +it happened that the exchange of Mr. Spinner's twenty square inches of +allegory for the three square feet of Messrs. Ferris & Darley's went +on slowly, and it became painfully obvious that the walls of but an +imperceptible minority of American homes would have the patriotic +faith and fervor of their occupants attested a century hence by these +capacious engravings, as that of a hundred years ago is by rusty +muskets and Cincinnati diplomas. + +Still, the stock did not altogether go a-begging. The adjacent +State of New Jersey signed for the sum of $100,000, more remote New +Hampshire and Connecticut for $10,000 each, and little Delaware for +the same. Kansas gave $25,000. Five thousand were voted by the city +of Wilmington, and a thin fusillade of ten-dollar notes played slowly +from all points of the compass. This was kept up to the last, and with +some increase of activity, but it was a mere affair of pickets, that +could not be decisive. + +Undismayed, the managers fought their way through fiscal brake and +brier, the open becoming more discernible with each effort, till in +February, 1876, Congress rounded off their strong box with the neat +capping of a million and a half. The entire cost of administration and +construction was thus covered, and the association distinguished from +all its predecessors by the assurance of being able on the opening day +to invite its thousands of guests to floors laden with the wealth of +the world, but with not an ounce of debt. + +The assistance extended in another and indirect form by the States +collectively and individually was valuable. Congress appropriated +$505,000 for the erection of a building and the collection therein +of whatever the different Federal departments could command of the +curious and instructive. Massachusetts gave for a building of her own, +and for aiding the contribution of objects by her citizens, $50,000; +New York for a like purpose, $25,000; New Hampshire, Nevada and West +Virginia, $20,000 each; Ohio, $13,000; Illinois, $10,000; and +other States less sums. The States in all, and in both forms of +contribution, have given over four hundred thousand dollars--not +a fourth, strange to say, of the sums appropriated by foreign +governments in securing an adequate display of the resources, energy +and ingenuity of their peoples. It does not approach the donation of +Japan, and little more than doubles that of Spain. In explanation, it +may be alleged that our exhibitors, being less remote, will encounter +less expense, and a larger proportion of them will be able to face +their own expenses. + +Great as is the value to a country of a free and facile interchange of +commodities and ideas between its different parts, of not less--under +many circumstances far greater--importance is its wide and complete +intercourse with foreign lands. Provincial differences are never +so marked as national. The latter are those of distinct +idiosyncrasies--the former, but modifications of one and the same. To +study members of our own family is only somewhat to vary the study of +ourselves. Really to learn we must go outside of that circle. Hence +the tremendous effect of the world-searching commerce of modern times +in the enlightenment and enrichment of the race. + +For the best fruits of the exposition its projectors and all concerned +in its success looked abroad. In this estimate of highest results they +had the example of Europe. It was remembered that British exports +rose from one hundred and thirty-one millions sterling in 1850 to two +hundred and fourteen in 1853--an increase equal to our average annual +export at present, and double what it was at that time. The declared +satisfaction of Austria with her apparent net loss of seven millions +of dollars by the exhibition of 1873, in view of the offset she +claimed in the stimulus it gave to her domestic industry and the +extended market it earned for her foreign trade, was also eloquent. We +must therefore address the world in the way most likely to ensure its +attention and attendance. The chief essential to that end was that it +should be official. Government must address government. + +[Illustration: MACHINERY HALL.] + +Naturally, this necessity was apparent from the beginning. Congress +was addressed betimes, and the consequence was a sufficiently sonorous +act of date March 3, 1871, assuming in the title to "provide for +celebrating the one hundredth anniversary of American independence." +It made, however, no provision at all for that purpose financially. On +the contrary, it provided very stringently that the Federal treasury +should not be a cent the worse for anything contained in the bill. It +furnished, however, the stamp wanted. It "created" the United States +Centennial Commission, and it directed the President, as soon as +the private corporators should have perfected their work, to address +foreign nations, through their diplomatic representatives and our +own, in its behalf. A commissioner and alternate were appointed by the +President, on the nomination of the respective governors, from each +State and Territory, who should have "exclusive control" of the +exhibition. + +Subsequently, an act of June 1, 1872, established a Centennial Board +of Finance, as a body corporate, to manage the fisc of the exhibition, +provide ways and means for the construction of the buildings according +to the plans adopted by the commission, and after the close of the +exhibition to convert its property into cash and divide the same, +after paying debts, _pro rata_ among the stockholders. This was to be +done under the supervision of the commission, which was to wind up +the board, audit its accounts, and make report to the President of the +financial outcome of the affair. An inroad on the terms of this act +is made by the law of last winter, which makes preferred stock of +the million and a half then subscribed by the Federal government--a +provision, however, the literal enforcement of which, by the covering +back of so much money into the treasury of the United States, is, +in our opinion, not probable. It will doubtless be made a permanent +appropriation, in some form, for the promotion of the arts of industry +and taste. + +Ten millions of dollars was the authorized capital of the new board. +Events have proved the amplitude of this estimate. + +As early as the third day of July, 1873, the President was enabled, +by the notification of the governor of Pennsylvania, to make formal +proclamation that provision had been made for the completion of the +exposition structures by the time contemplated. Nearly three years was +thus allotted for preparation to home and foreign exhibitors. A +year later (June 5, 1874) an act of a single sentence requested the +President "to extend, in the name of the United States, a respectful +and cordial invitation to the governments of other nations to be +represented and take part in" the exposition; "_Provided, however_, +that the United States shall not be liable, directly or indirectly, +for any expenses attending such exposition, or by reason of the same." +The abundant caution of this _italically_ emphatic reservation will +scarcely preclude the extension to the representatives of foreign +governments of such measure of hospitality, on occasion, as they may +have in the like case offered our own. + +Acts permitting the Centennial medals to be struck at the mint, and +admitting free of duty articles designed for exhibition, were passed +in June, 1874. The Secretary of the Treasury gave effect to the +latter by a clear and satisfactory schedule of regulations. Under its +operation foreign exhibitors have all their troubles at home; their +goods, once on board ship, reaching the interior of the building with +more facility and less of red tape than they generally meet with in +attaining the point of embarkation. + +The answers of the nations were all that could be desired, and largely +beyond any anticipation. Their government appropriations will exceed +an aggregate of two millions in our currency. Great Britain, with +Australia and Canada, gives for the expenses of her share of the +display $250,000 in gold; France, $120,000; Germany, _$171,000_; +Austria, $75,000; Italy, $38,000 from the government direct, and the +same sum from the Chamber of Commerce, which is better, as indicating +enlightenment and energy among her business-men; Spain, amid all her +distractions, $150,000; Japan, an unknown quantity in the calculations +of 1851, no less than $600,000; Sweden, $125,000; Norway, $44,000; +Ecuador, $10,000; the Argentine Confederation, $60,000; and many +others make ample provision not yet brought to figures, among them +Egypt, China, Brazil, Chili, Venezuela, and that strange political +cousin of ours at the antipodes, begotten and sturdily nurtured by the +Knickerbockers, the Orange Free State. In all, we may reckon at forty +the governments which have made the affair a matter of public concern, +and have ranked with the ordinary and regular cares of administration +the interest of their people in being adequately represented at +Philadelphia. Many other states will be represented by considerable +displays sent at private expense. It results that we shall have +twenty-one acres under roof of the best products of the outer +world--more than the entire area of the London exposition of 1851. A +Muscovite journal, the _Golos_, expresses a wide popular sentiment in +declaring that our exposition "will have immense political importance +in the way of international relations." The people suspect they have +found what they have long needed--a great commercial, industrial and +political 'change to aid in regulating and equalizing the market of +ideas and making a common fund of that article of trade, circulating +freely and interchangeable everywhere at sight. Practically, the +territory of the United States is an island like Great Britain. +Everything that comes to Philadelphia, save a little from Canada, will +traverse the sea. We are assuming the metropolitan character, whereto +isolation is a step. All the imperial centres, old and new, have been +seated on islands or promontories. Look at England, Holland, Venice, +Carthage, Syracuse, Tyre, Rome and Athens. Shall we add New York and +San Francisco--little wards as they are of a continental metropolis? + +A unanimous, graceful and cordial bow of acceptance having thus swept +round the globe in response to the invitation of the youngest +member of the family, let us glance at the preparations made for the +comfortable entertainment of so august an assemblage. An impression +that its host was not yet fully out of the woods, that the +chestnut-burs were still sticking in his hair, and that the wolf, the +buffalo and the Indian were among his intimate daily chums, may have +tended to modify its anticipations of a stylish reception. The rough +but hearty ways of a country cousin who wished to retaliate for city +hospitalities probably limited the calculations of the expectant +world. This afforded the cousin aforesaid opportunity for a new +surprise, of which he fully determined to avail himself. It is not +his habit to aim too low, and that was not his failing in the present +instance. + +[Illustration: HON. JOSEPH R. HAWLEY, PRESIDENT OF THE CENTENNIAL +COMMISSION.] + +The edifices, according to the original plan, were to excel their +European exemplars not less in elegance and elaboration than in +completeness for their practical purposes, in adaptation and in +capacity. The uncertainty, however, of success in raising the +necessary funds in time enforced the abandonment of much that was +merely ornate--a circumstance which was proved fortunate by the excess +in the demands of exhibitors over all calculations, since the means +it was at first proposed to bestow upon the artistic finish of the +buildings were needed to provide additional space. As it is, the +architectural results actually attained are above the average of such +structures in general effect. The Main Building strikes the eye, at an +angle of vision proper to its extent, more pleasingly than either +of the English or French structures; while for the massiveness and +dignity unattainable by glass and iron Memorial Hall has no rival +among them, and its façade is inferior chiefly in richness of detail +to the main entrance at Vienna. Were it otherwise, some shortcoming +in point of external beauty might be pardoned in erections which are +meant to stand but for a few months, and which can have no pretensions +to the monumental character belonging to true architecture. +Suitability to their transient purpose is the great thing to be +considered; and their merit in that regard is amply established. +Mr. P. Cunliffe Owen, familiar with all the minutiæ of previous +expositions, declares them supreme "in thoroughness of plan and energy +of construction"--a judgment designed to coyer the whole conception +and administration of the exhibition, and one which, coming from a +disinterested and competent foreign observer, may be cited as an +amply expressive tribute to the zeal and fidelity of those in control. +Ex-Governor Hawley of Connecticut, president of the commission, is +a native of North Carolina, and brings to the cause a combination +of Southern ardor with Northern tenacity. The secretary of the +commission, Mr. John L. Campbell of Indiana, was a good second in +that bureaucratic branch of the management. The trying charge +of supervising the work generally, conducting negotiations and +correspondence, and leading as one harmonious body to the objective +point of success an army of artists, contractors, superintendents, +clerks, exhibitors, railroad companies and State and national +commissioners, fell to General A.T. Goshorn of Ohio, director-general. +We do not know that anything more eloquent can be said of him than +simply thus to name what he had to do and point to what he has done. +The duties of procuring the ways and means and controlling their +expenditure devolved upon the Centennial Board of Finance. Of this +body Mr. John Welsh is Chairman; Mr. Frederick Fraley, Treasurer; and +Mr. Thomas Cochran, Chief of the Building Committee. Their office +was fixed upon the grounds at an early stage of the proceedings. Mr. +Welsh, more fortunate than Wren, has been able while yet in the flesh +to point to his monument, and see it rising around him from day to +day. + +The exposition is peculiarly fortunate in its site. Had historical +associations determined the choice of the ground, the array of them +in Fairmount Park would have sufficed to justify that which has +been made. Its eminences are dotted with the country-houses of the +Revolutionary statesmen and with trees under which they held converse. +On one of them Robert Morris, our American Beaumarchais, enjoyed +his financial zenith and fell to its nadir. To another the wit and +geniality of Peters were wont to summon for relaxation the staid +Washington, the meditative Jefferson, Rittenhouse the man of +mathematics, the gay La Fayette with enthusiasm as yet undamped by +Olmütz, and his fellow-_émigrés_ of two other stamps, Talleyrand and +the citizen-king that was to be. The house of one of the Penns looked +down into a secluded dell which he aptly dubbed Solitude, but which +is now the populous abode of monkeys, bears and a variety of other +animals, more handsomely housed than any similar collection in +America. + +[Illustration: GENERAL ALFRED T. GOSHORN, DIRECTOR-GENERAL OF THE +CENTENNIAL COMMISSION.] + +Knolls not appropriated by the villas of the old time, or from which +they have disappeared, offered admirable locations for some of the +buildings of the exposition, and a broad and smooth plateau, situated +precisely where it was wanted, at the point nearest the city, offered +itself for the largest two, the Main Building and Machinery Hall, with +room additional for the Art Building. The amphitheatrical depression +flanked on the east by this long wall of granite and glass, and +spreading northward to the heights occupied by Horticultural Hall and +the Agricultural Building, was assigned to the mushroom city to be +formed of the various State and foreign head-quarters, restaurants, +the Women's Pavilion, the United States Government Building, that of +the press, a monster dairy, a ditto brewery, and a medley of other +outcroppings of public and private spirit. To this motley and +incoherent assemblage a quiet lakelet nearly in the centre would +supply a sorely-wanted feature of repose, were it not to be vexed by +a fountain, giving us over bound and helpless to the hurly-burly. +But that is what every one will come for. When each member of the +congregated world "tries its own expressive power," madness not +inappropriately rules the hour. Once in a hundred years a six months' +carnival is allowable to so ponderous a body. Civilization here aims +to see itself not simply as in a glass, but in a multitude of glasses. +To steer its optics through the architectural muddle in the basin +before us it will need the retina that lies behind the facets of a +fly. + +[Illustration: JOHN WELSH, ESQ., PRESIDENT OF THE CENTENNIAL BOARD OF +FINANCE.] + +Eighteen hundred and eighty feet long, four hundred and sixty-four +wide, forty-eight to the cornice and seventy to the roof-tree, are +figures as familiar by this time to every living being in the United +States as pictures of the Main Building. At each corner a square tower +runs up to a level with the roof, and four more are clustered in the +centre of the edifice and rise to the height of a hundred and twenty +feet from a base of forty-eight feet square. These flank a central +dome one hundred and twenty feet square at base and springing on iron +trusses of delicate and graceful design to an apex ninety-six feet +above the pavement--the exact elevation of the interior of the old +Capitol rotunda. The transept, the intersection of which with the nave +forms this pavilion, is four hundred and sixteen feet long. On each +side of it is another of the same length and one hundred feet in +width, with aisles of forty-eight feet each. Longitudinally, the +divisions of the interior correspond with these transverse lines. +A nave one hundred and twenty feet wide and eighteen hundred and +thirty-two feet long--said to be unique for combined length and +width--is accompanied by two side avenues a hundred feet wide, and as +many aisles forty-eight feet wide. An exterior aisle twenty-four feet +wide, and as many high to a half-roof or clerestory, passes round the +whole building except where interrupted by the main entrances in the +centres of the sides and ends and a number of minor ones between. + +The iron columns which support the central nave and transept are +forty-five feet high, the roof between rising to seventy. Those of +the side avenues and transepts are of the same height, with a +roof-elevation of sixty-five feet. The columns of the centre space +are seventy-two feet high. In all, the columns number six hundred +and seventy-two. They stand twenty-two feet apart upon foundations of +solid masonry. Being of rolled iron, bolted together in segments, they +can, like the other constituents of the building, be taken apart and +erected elsewhere when the gentlemen of the commission, their good +work done and the century duly honored, shall fold their tents like +the Arabs, though not so silently. + +A breadth of thirty feet will be left to the main promenades along and +athwart, of fifteen feet to the principal ones on either side, and of +ten feet to all the others. Narrow highways these for traversing the +kingdoms of the world, but, combined, they nearly equal the bottom +depth of the Suez Canal, very far exceed the five feet of the Panama +Railway, and still farther the camel-track that sufficed a few +centuries ago to link our ancestors to the Indies. The berths of +the nations run athwartship, or north and south as the great ark is +anchored. The classes of objects are separated by lines running in the +opposite direction. Noah may be supposed to have followed some such +arrangement in his storage of zoological zones and families. He had +the additional aid of decks; which our assemblers of the universe +decline, small balconies of observation being the only galleries of +the Main Building. Those at the different stages of the central towers +will be highly attractive to students who prefer the general to the +particular, or who, exhausted for the time, retire to clear their +brains from the dust of detail and muster their faculties for another +charge on the vast army of art. From this perch one may survey mankind +from China to Peru through "long-drawn aisles" flooded with mellow +light, the subdued tones of the small surface that glass leaves open +to the paint-brush relieved with a few touches of positive color to +destroy monotony. These are assisted by the colored glass louvres, +which have no other artistic merit, but serve, where they are placed +over the side-entrances, to indicate the nation to whose department +belongs that particular vomitorium. + +Four miles of water- and drainage-pipe underlie the twenty-one and a +half acres of plank floor in this building. The pillars and trusses +contain thirty-six hundred tons of iron. The contract for it was +awarded in July, 1874, and it was completed in eighteen months, being +ready for the reception of goods early in January last. The cost +was $1,420,000, and in mechanical execution the iron-, glass- +and wood-work is pronounced fully equal to either of the British +structures and superior to those of the Continent. In economy of +material for producing a given result it is probable that the iron +trusses and supports of the English buildings are as much excelled as +the iron bridges of this country surpass those of Great Britain in the +combination of lightness with strength. Our metal is better, and its +greater cost has united with the scarcity of labor which so stimulated +ingenuity in other departments of industry to enforce tenuity of form. +Foreign engineers wonder that our viaducts stand, but somehow they do +stand. + +The turrets and eagles of galvanized sheet iron, not being intended +to support anything but jokes, need not be criticized as part of +the construction. The tiled pavements of the vestibules, designed to +sustain, besides criticism of the he-who-walks-may-read order, the +impact of the feet of all nations, are more important. Their pattern +is very fair--their solidity will doubtless stand the test. The turf +and shrubbery meant to brighten the _entourage_, especially at the +carriage concourse on the east front, we can hardly hope will fare so +well. The defence of their native soil, to prevent its being rent from +them by the heedless tread of millions and scattered abroad in the +shape of dust, will demand the most untiring struggles of the guardian +patriots in the Centennial police service. + +Shall we step northward from the middle of this building to Memorial +Hall, or thread the great nave to the western portal and enter the +twin tabernacle sacred to Vulcan? The answer readily suggests itself: +substantials before dessert--Mulciber before the Muses. Let us get +the film of coal-smoke, the dissonance of clanking iron and the +unloveliness of cog-wheels from off our senses before offering them +to the beautiful, pure and simple. We come from the domain of finished +products, complete to the last polish, silently self-asserting and +wooing the almighty dollar with all their simpers. We pass to their +noisy hatching- and training-ground, where all the processes of +their creation from embryo to maturity are to be rehearsed for +our edification. We shall here become learned in the biography of +everything a machine can create, from an iron-clad to a penknife or +a pocket-handkerchief. In the centre of the immense hall, fourteen +hundred and two by three hundred and sixty feet and covering fourteen +acres, the demiurges of this nest of Titans, an engine--which if +really of fourteen hundred horse-power must be the largest hitherto +known--is getting together its bones of cast and thews of wrought +iron, and seems already like the first lion "pawing to be free." Its +first throb one would fancy inevitably fatal to the shell of timber +and glass that surrounds it. + +[Illustration: AGRICULTURAL BUILDING.] + +Before it is brought to the test let us explore that shell. To +our eye, its external appearance is more pleasing than that of the +building we just left. The one central and four terminal towers, with +their open, kiosk-like tops, are really graceful, and the slender +spires which surmount them are preferable to the sham of sheet-iron +turrets. Thanks, too, to the necessity of projecting an annex for +hydraulic engines from one side of the middle, the building is +distinguished by the possession of a front. The main cornice is forty +feet in height upon the outside; the interior height being seventy +feet in the two main longitudinal avenues and forty feet in the one +central and two side aisles. The avenues are each ninety feet in +width, and the aisles sixty, with a space of fifteen feet for free +passage in the former and ten in the latter. A transept ninety feet +broad crosses the main building into that for hydraulics, bringing +up against a tank sixty by one hundred and sixty feet, whereinto +the water-works are to precipitate, Versailles fashion, a cataract +thirty-five feet high by-forty wide. + +The substitution of timber for iron demands a closer placing of the +pillars. They are consequently but sixteen feet apart "in the +row," the spans being correspondingly more contracted. This has +the compensating advantage, æsthetically speaking, of offering more +surface for decorative effect, and the opportunity has been fairly +availed of. The coloring of the roof, tie-rods and piers expands over +the turmoil below the cooling calm of blue and silver. To this the +eye, distracted with the dance of bobbins and the whirl of shafts, can +turn for relief, even as Tubal Cain, pausing to wipe his brow, lifted +his wearied gaze to the welkin. + +Machinery Hall has illustrated, from its earliest days, the process of +development by gemmation. Southward, toward the sun, it has shot forth +several lusty sprouts. The hydraulic avenue which we have mentioned +covers an acre, being two hundred and eight by two hundred and ten +feet. Cheek by jowl with water is its neighbor fire, safe behind bars +in the boiler-house of the big engine; and next branches out, over +another acre and more, or forty-eight thousand square feet, the domain +of shoes and leather under a roof of its own. + +Including galleries and the leather, fire and water suburbs, this +structure affords more than fifteen acres of space. Over that area it +rose like an exhalation in the spring and early summer of 1875. At the +close of winter it existed only in the drawings of Messrs. Pettit & +Wilson. Under the hands of Mr. Philip Quigley it was ready to shelter +a great Fourth of July demonstration. This matches the rapidity of +growth of its neighbor before described. The Main Building, designed +by the same firm, had its foundations laid by Mr. R.J. Dobbins, +contractor, in the fall of 1874, but nothing further could be done +till the following spring. The first column was erected, an iron +Maypole, on the first day of the month of flowers, and the last on the +27th of October. Three weeks later the last girder was in place. All +had been done with the precision of machinery, no pillar varying half +an inch from its line. Machinery, indeed, rolled the quadrant-shaped +sections of each column and riveted their flanges together with +hydraulic hammers; great steam-derricks dropped each on its appointed +seat; and the main tasks of manual labor in either building were +painting, glazing, floor-laying and erecting the ground-wall of +masonry, from five to seven feet high, that fills in the outer columns +all round to a level with the heads of theorists who, holding that _la +propriété c'est le vol_, assert the propriety of theft. + +Following Belmont Avenue, the Appian Way of the Centennial, to the +north-west, we penetrate a mob of edifices, fountains, restaurants, +government offices, etc., and reach the Agricultural Building--the +palace of the farmer. The hard fate of which he habitually +complains--that of being thrust into a corner save when he is wanted +for tax-paying purposes--does not forsake him here. The commission +does not tax him, however, and the boreal region whereto he and his +belongings are consigned is in no other way objectionable than as +not being nearer the front. The building is worthy of a Centennial +agricultural fair. Five hundred and forty by eight hundred and twenty +feet, with ten acres and a quarter under roof, it equals the halls of +a dozen State cattle-shows, The style is Gothic, the three transepts +looking like those of as many cathedrals stripped of the roof, the +extrados taking its place. The nave that spits them is a hundred and +twenty-five feet wide, with an elevation of seventy-five feet. An +ecclesiastical aspect is imparted by the great oriel over the main +entrance, and the resemblance is aided by a central tower that +suggests the "cymbals glorious swinging uproarious" in honor of the +apotheosis of the plough. The materials of this bucolic temple are +wood and glass. The contract price was $250,000. Its contents will +be more cosmopolitan than could have been anticipated when it was +planned. Germany claims five thousand feet and Spain six thousand. +Among other countries, tropical America is fully represented. + +Besides this indoor portion of the world's farm-steading, a barnyard +of correspondent magnitude is close at hand, where all domestic +animals will be accommodated, and the Weirs, Landseers and Bonheurs +will find many novelties for the portfolio. A race-track, too, is an +addendum of course. What would our Pan-Athenaic games be without it? + +From this exhibition of man's power over the fruits of the earth and +the beasts of the field we cross a ravine where the forest is allowed +to disport itself in ignorance of his yoke, and ascend another +eminence where floral beauty, gathered from all quarters of the globe, +is fed in imprisonment on its native soil and breathes its native +climate. We predict that woman will seek her home among the flowers on +the hill rather than in the atelier specially prepared for her in the +valley we have passed. Her tremendous struggles through the mud, while +yet the grounds were all chaos, to get sight of the first plants that +appeared in the Horticultural Building, left no doubt of this in our +mind. + +[Illustration: HORTICULTURAL HALL.] + +No site could have been more happily chosen for this beautiful +congress-hall of flowers. It occupies a bluff that overlooks the +Schuylkill a hundred feet below to the eastward, and is bounded by the +deep channels of a pair of brooks equidistant on the north and south +sides. Up the banks of these clamber the sturdy arboreal natives as +though to shelter in warm embrace their delicate kindred from abroad. +Broad walks and terraces prevent their too close approach and the +consequent exclusion of sunlight. + +For the expression of its purpose, with all the solidity and grace +consistent with that, the Moresque structure before us is not excelled +by any within the grounds. The curved roofs of the forcing-houses +would have the effect upon the eye of weakening the base, but that, +being of glass and showing the greenery within, their object explains +itself at once, and we realize the strong wall rising behind them and +supporting the lofty range of iron arches and fretwork that springs +seventy-two feet to the central lantern. The design of the side +portals and corner towers may be thought somewhat feeble. They and the +base in its whole circuit might with advantage have been a little more +emphasized by masonry. The porticoes or narrow verandahs above them on +the second story are in fine taste. The eruption of flag-poles is, +of course, a transient disease, peculiar to the season. They have no +abiding-place on a permanent structure like this, and will disappear +with the exposition. + +Entering from the side by a neat flight of steps in dark marble, we +find ourselves in a gayly-tiled vestibule thirty feet square, between +forcing-houses each a hundred by thirty feet. Advancing, we enter +the great conservatory, two hundred and thirty by eighty feet, and +fifty-five high, much the largest in this country, and but a trifle +inferior in height to the palm-houses of Chatsworth and Kew. A gallery +twenty feet from the floor will carry us up among the dates and +cocoanuts that are to be. The decorations of this hall are in keeping +with the external design. The woodwork looks out of place amid so much +of harder material; but there is not much of it. + +Outside promenades, four in number and each a hundred feet long, lead +along the roofs of the forcing-houses, and contribute to the portfolio +of lovely views that enriches the Park. Other prospects are offered +by the upper floors of the east and west fronts; the aërial terrace +embracing in all seventeen thousand square feet. The extreme +dimensions of the building are three hundred and eighty by one hundred +and ninety-three feet. Restaurants, reception-rooms and offices +occupy the two ends. The contractor who has performed his work so +satisfactorily is Mr. John Rice. + +A few years hence this winter-garden will, with one exception to which +we next proceed, be the main attraction at the Park. It will by that +time be effectively supplemented by thirty-five surrounding acres of +out-door horticulture, to which the soil of decomposed gneiss is well +suited. + +Passing from the bloom of Nature, we complete our circuit with that +which springs from the pencil, the chisel and the burin. Here we +alight upon another instance of inadequate calculation. That the +art-section of the exposition would fill a building three hundred and +sixty-five by two hundred and ten feet, affording eighty-nine thousand +square feet of wall-surface for pictures, must, when first proposed, +have struck the most imaginative of the projectors as a dream. The +actual result is that it proved indispensably necessary to provide an +additional building of very nearly equal dimensions, or three hundred +and forty-nine by a hundred and eighty-six feet, to receive the +contributions offered; and this after the promulgation of a strict +requirement that "all works of art must be of a high order of merit." +Half the space in the extension had been claimed by Great Britain, +Germany, France, Belgium, Austria and Italy before ground was broken +for its foundation; and recent demands at home have rendered necessary +a further projection of the wings, with the effect of giving to the +building the form of a Greek cross. + +This building is on the rear, or north side, of Memorial Hall, and is +the first portion of the fine-art department that meets the eye of +one coming from Horticultural Hall. It is of comparatively temporary +character, being built of brick instead of the solid granite that +composes the pile in front of it. Its architectural pretensions are of +course inferior. It is the youngest of all the exposition buildings, +the present spring witnessing its commencement and completion. The +drying of such green walls in such manner as to render them safe for +valuable pictures has been compassed by the use of "asbestos" brick, +which is said to be fire- as well as water-proof. Failure in this +regard would be of the less moment, inasmuch as a great proportion +of the contents will be drawings and engravings. In interior plan the +extension will closely imitate the main building. + +Memorial Hall, as its name implies, contemplates indefinite +durability. What Virginia and Massachusetts granite, in alliance with +Pennsylvania iron, on a basis of a million and a half of dollars, +can effect in that direction, seems to have been done. The façade, +designed by Mr. Schwarzmann, is in ultra-Renaissance; the arch and +balustrade and open arcade quite overpowering pillar and pediment. The +square central tower, or what under a circular dome would be the +drum, is quite in harmony with the main front so tar as proportion +and outline are concerned; but there is too much blank surface on +the sides to match the more "noisy" details below it. This apart, the +unity of the building is very striking. That its object, of supplying +the best light for pictures and statuary, is not lost sight of, is +evidenced by the fact that three-fourths of the interior space is +lighted from above, and the residue has an ample supply from lofty +windows. The figures of America, Art, Science, etc. which stud the +dome and parapet were built on the spot, and will do very well for the +present. The eagles are too large in proportion, and could easily fly +away with the allegorical damsels at their side. + +The eight arched windows of the corner towers, twelve and a half by +thirty-four feet, are utilized for art-display. Munich fills two with +stained glass: England also claims a place in them. The iron doors of +the front are inlaid with bronze panels bearing the insignia of the +States; the artist prudently limiting himself to that modest range of +subjects in recognition of the impossibility of eclipsing Ghiberti +at six months' notice. Thirty years is not too much time to devote +to completing the ornamentation of this building. Five, seven or ten +millions of people will pass through it in the course of its first +year, and among them will be some capable of making sound suggestions +for its finish. The wisdom that comes from a multitude of counsels +will remain to be sifted. Then will remain the creation of the artists +who are to carry the counsels into execution. We shall be fortunate if +the next three decades bring us men thoroughly equal to the task. + +[Illustration: MEMORIAL HALL, WITH EXTENSION.] + +It would be an unpardonable neglect of the maxim which enjoins +gratitude to the bridge that carries us safely over were we to +complete our tour of the exposition structures without a glance at the +graceful erections, diverse in magnitude and design, which overleap +the depressions so attractive to the student of the picturesque and +so trying to the pedestrian. The æsthetic capabilities of bridge +architecture are very great, and a fine field is here offered for +their display. The flat expanses of Hyde Park, the Champs de Mars +and the Prater could afford no such exhibition. The ground and the +buildings became, perforce, two sharply distinct things; and the +blending into unity of landscape and architecture could be but +imperfectly attained. Here the case is very different. With the aid of +an art that embraces in its province alike the fairy trellis and the +monumental arch and pilaster, the lines of Memorial Hall and +other permanent edifices may be led over the three hundred acres +appropriated to the exposition. From the foundation of a bridge-pier +to the crowning statue of America, the artist finds an uninterrupted +range. + +The work of his foster-brother, the artisan, has certainly been well +done. The structures we have been traversing are, in their way, works +of art--very worthy, if not the choicest conceivable, blossoms of +our century-plant. For fitness, the quality that underlies beauty +throughout Nature from the plume to the tendril and the petal, they +have not been surpassed in their kind. Every flange, bolt, sheet and +abutment has been well thought out. Whatever the purpose, to bind or +to brace, to lift or to support, everything tells. + + + + +SKETCHES OF INDIA. + +IV.--CONCLUSION. + + +The Koutab Minar, which I had first viewed nine miles off from one +of the little kiosquelets crowning the minarets of the Jammah +Masjid, improved upon closer acquaintance. One recognizes in the word +"minaret" the diminutive of "minar," the latter being to the former +as a tower to a turret. This minar of Koutab's--it was erected by the +Mussulman general Koutab-Oudeen-Eibeg in the year 1200 to commemorate +his success over the Rajpút emperor Pirthi-Raj--is two hundred and +twenty feet high, and the cunning architect who designed it managed to +greatly intensify its suggestion of loftiness by its peculiar shape. +Instead of erecting a shaft with unbroken lines, he placed five +truncated cones one upon another in such a way that the impression +of their successively lessening diameters should be lengthened by the +four balconies which result from the projection of each lower cone +beyond the narrower base of the cone placed on it--thus borrowing, as +it were, the perspective effects of five shafts and concentrating them +upon one. The lower portion, too, shows the near color of red--it is +built of the universal red sandstone with which the traveler becomes +so familiar--while the upper part reveals the farther color of white +from its marble casing. Each cone, finally, is carved into reeds, like +a bundle of buttresses supporting a weight enormous not by reason of +massiveness, but of pure height. + +The group of ruins about the Koutab Minar was also very fascinating +to me. The Gate of Aladdin, a veritable fairy portal, with its +bewildering wealth of arabesques and flowing traceries in white marble +inlaid upon red stone; the Tomb of Altamsh; the Mosque of Koutab,--all +these, lying in a singular oasis of trees and greenery that forms a +unique spot in the arid and stony ruin-plain of Delhi, drew me with +great power. I declared to Bhima Gandharva that it was not often in a +lifetime that we could get so many centuries together to talk with at +once, and wrought upon him to spend several days with me, unattended +by servants, in this tranquil society of the dead ages, which still +live by sheer force of the beautiful that was in them. + +"Very pretty," said my companion, "but not by force of the beautiful +alone. Do you see that iron pillar?" We were walking in the court of +the Mosque of Koutab, and Bhima pointed, as he spoke, to a plain iron +shaft about a foot in diameter rising in the centre of the enclosed +space to a height of something over twenty feet. "Its base is sunken +deeper in the ground than the upper part is high. It is in truth a +gigantic nail, which, according to popular tradition, was constructed +by an ancient king who desired to play Jael to a certain Sisera that +was in his way. It is related that King Anang Pal was not satisfied +with having conquered the whole of Northern India, and that a certain +Brahman, artfully seizing upon the moment when his mind was foolish +with the fumes of conquest, informed him there was but one obstacle +to his acquisition of eternal power. 'What is that?' said King Anang +Pal.--'It is,' said the Brahman, 'the serpent Sechnaga, who lies under +the earth and stops it, and who at the same time has charge of Change +and Revolution.--'Well, and what then?' said King Anang Pal.--'If the +serpent were dead there would be no change,' said the Brahman.--'Well, +and what then?' said King Anang Pal.--'If you should cause to be +constructed a great nail of iron, I will show you a spot where it +shall be driven so as to pierce the head of the serpent.' It was done; +and the nail--being this column which you now contemplate--was duly +driven. Then the Brahman departed from the court. Soon the king's mind +began to work, to question, to doubt, to harass itself with a thousand +speculations, until his curiosity was inflamed to such a degree that +he ordered the nail to be drawn out. With great trouble and outlay +this was done: slowly the heavy mass rose, while the anxious king +regarded it. At last the lower end came to his view. Rama! it was +covered with blood. 'Down with it again!' cries the joyful king: +'perhaps the serpent is not yet dead, and is escaping even now.' +But, alas! it would not remain stable in any position, pack and shove +howsoever they might. Then the wise Brahman returned. 'O king,' said +he, in reply to the monarch's interrogatories, 'your curiosity has +cost you your kingdom: the serpent has escaped. Nothing in the world +can again give stability to the pillar or to your reign.' And it was +true. Change still lived, and King Anang Pal, being up, quickly went +down. It is from this pillar that yon same city gets its name. In the +tongue of these people _dilha_ is, being interpreted, 'tottering;' and +hence Dilhi or Delhi. It must be confessed, however, that this is not +the account which the iron pillar gives of itself, for the inscription +there declares it to have been erected as a monument of victory by +King Dhara in the year 317, and it is known as the Lâth (or pillar) of +Dhara." + +[Illustration: INDIGO-FACTORY NEAR ALLAHABAD.] + +Next day we took train for Agra, which might be called Shah Jehan's +"other city," for it was only after building the lovely monument to +his queen--the Taj Mahal--which has made Agra famous all over +the world, that he removed to Delhi, or that part of it known as +Shahjehanabad. Agra, in fact, first attained its grandeur under Akbar, +and is still known among the natives as Akbarabad. + +"But I am all for Shah Jehan," I said as, after wandering about the +great citadel and palace at the south of the city, we came out on the +bank of the Jumna and started along the road which runs by the river +to the Taj Mahal. "A prince in whose reign and under whose direct +superintendence was fostered the style of architecture which produced +that little Mouti Masjid (Pearl Mosque) which we saw a moment ago--not +to speak of the Jammah Masjid of Delhi which we saw there, or of the +Taj which we are now going to see--must have been a spacious-souled +man, with frank and pure elevations of temper within him, like that +exquisite white marble superstructure of the Mouti Masjid which rises +from a terrace of rose, as if the glow of crude passion had thus +lifted itself into the pure white of tried virtue." + +A walk of a mile--during which my companion reviewed the uglinesses +as well as the beauties of the great Mogol reign with a wise and +impartial calmness that amounted to an affectionate rebuke of my +inconsiderate effusiveness--brought us to the main gate of the long +red stone enclosure about the Taj. This is itself a work of art--in +red stone banded with white marble, surmounted by kiosques, and +ornamented with mosaics in onyx and agate. But I stayed not to look +at these, nor at the long sweep of the enclosure, crenellated and +pavilioned. Hastening through the gate, and moving down a noble alley +paved with freestone, surrounded on both sides with trees, rare plants +and flowers, and having a basin running down its length studded with +water-jets, I quickly found myself in front of that bewilderment of +incrustations upon white marble which constitutes the visitor's first +impression of this loveliest of Love's memorials. + +I will not describe the Taj. This is not self-denial: the Taj cannot +_be_ described. One can, it is true, inform one's friends that the red +stone platform upon which the white marble mausoleum stands runs some +nine hundred and sixty feet east and west by three hundred and twenty +north and south; that the dome is two hundred and seventy feet high; +that the incrustations with which the whole superstructure is covered +without and within are of rock-crystal, chalcedony, turquoise, +lapis-lazuli, agate, carnaline, garnet, oynx, sapphire, coral, Pannah +diamonds, jasper, and conglomerates, brought respectively from +Malwa, Asia Minor, Thibet, Ceylon, Temen, Broach, Bundelcund, Persia, +Colombo, Arabia, Pannah, the Panjab, and Jessalmir; that there are, +besides the mausoleum, two exquisite mosques occupying angles of the +enclosure, the one built because it is the Moslem custom to have +a house of prayer near the tomb, the other because the architect's +passion for symmetry demanded another to answer to the first, whence +it is called _Jawab_ ("the answer"); that out of a great convention of +all the architects of the East one Isa (Jesus) Mohammed was chosen to +build this monument, and that its erection employed twenty thousand +men from 1630 to 1647, at a total cost of twelve millions of dollars; +and, finally, that the remains of the beautiful queen variously known +as Mumtazi Mahal, Mumtazi Zemani and Taj Bibi, as well as those of her +royal husband, Shah Jehan, who built this tomb to her memory, repose +here. + +[Illustration: MUSSULMAN SCHOOL AT ALLAHABAD.] + +But this is not description. The only way to get an idea of the Taj +Mahal is--to go and see it. + +"But it is ten thousand miles!" you say. + +"But it is the Taj Mahal," I reply with calmness. And no one who has +seen the Taj will regard this answer as aught but conclusive. + +But we had to leave it finally--it and Agra--and after a railway +journey of some twelve hours, as we were nearing Allahabad my +companion began, in accordance with his custom, to give me a little +preliminary view of the peculiarities of the town. + +"We are now approaching," he said, "a city which distinguishes itself +from those which you have seen by the fact that besides a very rich +past it has also a very bright future. It is situated at the southern +point of the Lower Doab, whose fertile and richly-cultivated plains +you have been looking at to-day. These plains, with their wealth, +converge to a point at Allahabad, narrowing with the approach of the +two rivers,--the Ganges and the Jumna--that enclose them. The Doab, +in fact, derives its name from _do_, "two," and _ab_, "rivers." But +Allahabad, besides being situated at the junction of the two great +water-ways of India--for here the Jumna unites with the Ganges--is +also equally distant from the great extremes of Bombay, Calcutta, +and Lahore, and here centres the railway system which unites these +widely-separated points. Add to this singular union of commercial +advantages the circumstance--so important in an India controlled by +Englishmen--that the climate, though warm, is perfectly wholesome, and +you will see that Allahabad must soon be a great emporium of trade." + +"Provided," I suggested, "Benares yonder--Benares is too close by to +feel uninterested--will let it be so." + +"Oh! Benares is the holy city. Benares is the blind Teiresias of +India: it has beheld the Divine Form, and in this eternal grace its +eyes have even lost the power of seeing those practical advancements +which usually allure the endeavors of large cities. Allahabad, +although antique and holy also, has never become so wrapped up in +religious absorption." + +On the day after our arrival my companion and I were driven by +an English friend engaged in the cultivation of indigo to an +indigo-factory near the town, in compliance with a desire I had +expressed to witness the process of preparing the dye for market. + +"Not long ago," I said to our friend as we were rolling out of the +city, "I was wandering along the banks of that great lagoon of Florida +which is called the Indian River, and my attention was often attracted +to the evidences of extensive cultivation which everywhere abounded. +Great ditches, growths of young forests upon what had evidently been +well-ploughed fields within a century past, and various remains of +settlements constantly revealed themselves. On inquiry I learned that +these were the remains of those great proprietary indigo-plantations +which were cultivated here by English grantees soon after Florida +first came under English protection, and which were afterward +mournfully abandoned to ruin upon the sudden recession of Florida by +the English government." + +"They are ruins of interest to me," said our English friend, "for one +of them--perhaps some one that you beheld--represents the wreck of my +great-great-grandfather's fortune. He could not bear to stay among the +dreadful Spaniards and Indians; and so, there being nobody to sell to, +he simply abandoned homestead, plantations and all, and returned to +England, and, finding soon afterward that the East India Company was +earnestly bent upon fostering the indigo-culture of India, he +came here and recommenced planting. Since then we've all been +indigo-planters--genuine 'blue blood,' we call ourselves." + +Indigo itself had a very arduous series of toils to encounter before +it could manage to assert itself in the world. The ardent advocates +of its azure rival, woad, struggled long before they would allow its +adoption. In 1577 the German government officially prohibited the use +of indigo, denouncing it as that pernicious, deceitful and corrosive +substance, the Devil's dye. It had, indeed, a worse fate in England, +where hard names were supplemented by harsh acts, for in 1581 it was +not only pronounced _anathema maranatha_ by act of Parliament, but the +people were authorized to institute search for it in their neighbors' +dye-houses, and were empowered to destroy it wherever found. Not more +than two hundred years have passed since this law was still in force. +It was only after a determined effort, which involved steady +losses for many years, that the East India Company succeeded in +re-establishing the culture of indigo in Bengal. The Spanish and +French in Central America and the West Indies had come to be large +growers, and the production of St. Domingo was very large. But the +revolt in the latter island, the Florida disasters and the continual +unsettlement of Mexico, all worked favorably for the planters of +India, who may now be called the indigo-producers of the world. + +[Illustration: MÂLERS AND SONTALS.] + +The seed is usually sown in the latter part of October in Bengal, as +soon as the annual deposit of the streams has been reduced by drainage +to a practicable consistency, though the sowing-season lasts quite on +to the end of November. On dry ground the plough is used, the _ryots_, +or native farm-laborers, usually planting under directions proceeding +from the factory. There are two processes of extracting the dye, known +as the method "from fresh leaves" and that "from dry leaves." I found +them here manufacturing by the former process. The vats or cisterns of +stone were in pairs, the bottom of the upper one of each couple being +about on a level with the top of the lower, so as to allow the liquid +contents of the former to run freely into the latter. The upper is the +fermenting vat, or "steeper," and is about twenty feet square by three +deep. The lower is the "beater," and is of much the same dimensions +with the upper, except that its length is five or six feet greater. As +the twigs and leaves of the plants are brought in from the fields the +cuttings are placed in layers in the steeper, logs of wood secured by +bamboo withes are placed upon the surface to prevent overswelling, and +water is then pumped on or poured from buckets to within a few inches +of the top. Fermentation now commences, and continues for fourteen or +fifteen hours, varying with the temperature of the air, the wind, +the nature of the water used and the ripeness of the plants. When the +agitation of the mass has begun to subside the liquor is racked off +into the lower vat, the "beater," and ten men set to work lustily +beating it with paddles (_busquets_), though this is sometimes done by +wheels armed with paddle-like appendages. Meanwhile, the upper vat is +cleaned out, and the refuse mass of cuttings stored up to be used as +fuel or as fertilizing material. After an hour and a half's vigorous +beating the liquor becomes flocculent. The precipitation is sometimes +hastened by lime-water. The liquor is then drained off the dye by the +use of filtering-cloths, heat being also employed to drain off the +yellow matter and to deepen the color. Then the residuum is pressed in +bags, cut into three-inch cubes, dried in the drying-house and sent to +market. + +The dry-leaf process depends also upon maceration, the leaves being +cropped from the ripe plant, and dried in the hot sunshine during two +days, from nine in the morning until four in the afternoon. + +On the next day, at an early hour in the morning, my companion and +I betook us to the Plain of Alms. I have before mentioned that +Allahabad, the ancient city of Prayaga, is doubly sanctified because +it is at the junction of the Jumna and the Gauges, and these two +streams are affluents of its sanctity as well as of its trade. The +great plain of white sand which is enclosed between the blue lake-like +expanses of the two meeting rivers is the Plain of Alms. In truth, +there are three rivers which unite here--the Ganges, the Jumna and +the Saravasti--and this thrice-hallowed spot is known in the Hindu +mythologic system as the Triveni. + +"But where is the third?" I asked as we stood gazing across the +unearthly-looking reaches of white sand far down the blue sweep of the +mysterious waters. + +"Thereby hangs a tale," replied my companion. "It is invisible here, +but I will show you what remains of it presently when we get into the +fort. Here is a crowd of pilgrims coming to bathe in the purifying +waters of the confluence: let us follow them." + +As they reached the shore a Brahman left his position under a great +parasol and placed himself in front of the troop of believers, who, +without regard to sex, immediately divested themselves of all clothing +except a narrow cloth about the loins, and followed him into the +water. Here they proceeded to imitate his motions, just as pupils in +a calisthenic class follow the movements of their teacher, until the +ceremonies of purification were all accomplished. + +[Illustration: GRAIN-AND-FLOUR MERCHANT OF PATNA.] + +"A most villainous-faced penitent!" I exclaimed as one of their number +came out, and, as if wearied by his exertions, lay down near us on the +sand. + +Bhima Gandharva showed his teeth: "He is what your American soldiers +called in the late war a substitute. Some rich Hindu, off somewhere +in India, has found the burden of his sins pressing heavily upon +him, while at the same time the cares of this world, or maybe bodily +infirmities, prevent him from visiting the Triveni. Hence, by the most +natural arrangement in the world, he has hired this man to come in his +place and accomplish his absolution for him." + +Striking off to the westward from the Plain of Alms, we soon entered +the citadel of Akbar, which he built so as to command the junction of +the two streams. Passing the Lâth (pillar) of Asoka, my companion led +me down into the old subterranean Buddhistic temple of Patal Pouri +and showed me the ancient Achaya Bat, or sacred tree-trunk, which its +custodians declare to be still living, although more than two thousand +years old. Presently we came to a spot under one of the citadel towers +where a feeble ooze of water appeared. + +"Behold," said my friend, "the third of the Triveni rivers! This is +the river Saravasti. You must know that once upon a time, Saravasti, +goddess of learning, was tripping along fresh from the hills to the +west of Yamuna (the Jumna), bearing in her hand a book. Presently she +entered the sandy country, when on a sudden a great press of frightful +demons uprose, and so terrified her that in the absence of other +refuge she sank into the earth. Here she reappears. So the Hindus +fable." + +On our return to our quarters we passed a verandah where an old +pedagogue was teaching a lot of young Mussulmans the accidence +of Oordoo, a process which he accomplished much as the "singing +geography" man used to impart instruction in the olden days when I was +a boy--to wit, by causing the pupils to sing in unison the A, B, +C. Occasionally, too, the little, queer-looking chaps squatted +tailor-wise on the floor would take a turn at writing the Arabic +character on their slates. A friendly hookah in the midst of the +group betrayed the manner in which the wise man solaced the labors of +education. + +On the next day, as our indigo-planter came to drive us to the Gardens +of Chusru, he said, "An English friend of mine who is living in the +Moffussil--the Moffussil is anywhere _not_ in Calcutta, Bombay or +Madras--not far from Patna has just written me that word has been +brought from one of the Sontal villages concerning the depredations of +a tiger from which the inhabitants have recently suffered, and that +a grand hunt, elephant-back, has been organized through the combined +contributions of the English and native elephant-owners. He presses me +to come, and as an affair of this sort is by no means common--for it +is no easy matter to get together and support a dozen elephants and +the army of retainers considered necessary in a great hunt--I thought +perhaps you would be glad to accompany me." + +Of course I was; and Bhima Gandharva, though he would not take any +active part in the hunt, insisted upon going along in order to see +that no harm came to me. + +On the next day, therefore, we all took train and fared south-eastward +toward Calcutta, as far as to Bhagalpur, where we left the railway, +sending our baggage on to Calcutta, and took private conveyance to +a certain spot among the Rajmahal Mountains, where the camp had been +fixed by retainers on the day before. It was near a village of +the Sontals, which we passed before reaching it, and which was a +singular-enough spectacle with its round roofed huts and a platform at +its entrance, upon which, and under which, were ghastly heaps of the +skulls of animals slain by the villagers. These Sontals reminded me +of the Gónds whom I had seen, though they seemed to be far manlier +representatives of the autochthonal races of India than the former. +They are said to number about a million, and inhabit a belt of country +some four hundred miles long by one hundred broad, including the +Rajmahal Mountains, and extending from near the Bay of Bengal to the +edge of Behar. So little have they been known that when in the year +1855 word was brought to Calcutta that the Sontals had risen and were +murdering the Europeans, many of the English are said to have asked +not only _Who_ are the Sontals? but _What_ are the Sontals? + +The more inaccessible tops of the same mountains, the Rajmahal, are +occupied by a much ruder set of people, the Mâlers, who appear to have +been pushed up here by the Sontals, as the Sontals were themselves +pressed by the incoming Aryans. + +[Illustration: A TIGER-HUNT, ELEPHANT-BACK.] + +As we arrived at the camp I realized the words of our English +friend concerning the magnitude of the preparations for a tiger-hunt +undertaken on the present scale. The tents of the sportsmen, among +whom were several English army officers and civil officials, besides +a native rajah, were pitched in a beautiful glade canopied by large +trees, and near these were the cooking-tents and the lodging-places +of the servants, of whom there was the liberal allowance which +is customary in India. Through the great tree-trunks I could see +elephants, camels and horses tethered about the outskirts of the camp, +while the carts, elephant-pads and other _impedimenta_ lying about +gave the whole the appearance of an army at bivouac. Indeed, it was +not an inconsiderable force that we could have mustered. There were +fifteen or twenty elephants in the party. Every elephant had two men, +the _mahaut_ and his assistant; every two camels, one man; every +cart, two men; besides whom were the _kholassies_ (tent-pitchers), +the _chikarries_ (native huntsmen to mark down and flush the tiger), +letter-carriers for the official personages, and finally the personal +servants of the party, amounting in all to something like a hundred +and fifty souls. The commissary arrangements of such a body of men and +beasts were no light matter, and had on this occasion been placed by +contract in the hands of a flour-and-grain merchant from Patna. As +night drew on the scene became striking in the extreme, and I do not +think I felt the fact of India more keenly at any time than while +Bhima Gandharva and I, slipping away from a party who were making +merry over vast allowances of pale ale and cheroots, went wandering +about under the stars and green leaves, picking our way among the huge +forms of the mild-countenanced elephants and the bizarre figures of +the camels. + +[Illustration: BENGAL WATER-CARRIERS.] + +On the next day, after a leisurely breakfast at eight--the hunt was +to begin at midday--my kind host assigned me an elephant, and his +servants proceeded to equip me for the hunt, placing in my howdah +brandy, cold tea, cheroots, a rifle, a smooth-bore, ammunition, an +umbrella, and finally a blanket. + +"And what is the blanket for?" I asked. + +"For the wild-bees; and if your elephant happens to stir up a nest +of them, the very best thing in the world you can do is to throw it +incontinently over your head," added my host, laughing. + +The tiger had been marked down in a spot some three miles from camp, +and when our battle-array, which had at first taken up the line of +march in a very cozy and gentleman-militia sort of independence, +had arrived within a mile of our destination the leader who had +been selected to direct our movements caused us all to assume more +systematic dispositions, issued orders forbidding a shot to be fired +at any sort of game, no matter how tempting, less than the royal +object of our chase, and then led the way down the glade, which now +began to spread out into lower and wetter ground covered by tall +grasses and thickets. The hunt now began in earnest. Hot, flushed, +scratched as to the face by the tall reeds, rolling on my ungainly +animal's back as if I were hunting in an open boat on a chopping +sea, I had the additional nervous distraction of seeing many sorts +of game--deer, wild-hogs, peafowl, partridges--careering about in the +most exasperating manner immediately under my gun-muzzle. To add to my +dissatisfaction, presently I saw a wild-hog dash out of a thicket +with her young litter immediately across our path, and as my elephant +stepped excitedly along one of his big fore feet crunched directly +down on a beautiful little pig, bringing a quickly-smothered squeak +which made me quite cower before the eye of Bhima Gandharva as he +stood looking calmly forward beside me. So we tramped on through the +thickets and grasses. An hour passed; the deployed huntsmen had +again drawn in together, somewhat bored; we were all red-faced and +twig-tattooed; no tiger was to be found; we gathered into a sort of +circle and were looking at each other with that half-foolish, half-mad +disconsolateness which men's faces show when they are unsuccessfully +engaged in a matter which does not amount to much even after it _is_ +successfully achieved,--when suddenly my elephant flourished his +trunk, uttered a shrill trumpeting sound, and dashed violently to one +side, just as I saw a grand tiger, whose coat seemed to be all alive +with throbbing spots, flying through the air past me to the haunches +of the less wary elephant beside which mine had been walking. +Instantly the whole party was in commotion. "_Bagh! bagh!_" yelled the +mahauts and attendants: the elephants trumpeted and charged hither and +thither. The tiger seemed to become fairly insane under the fusillade +which greeted him; he leapt so desperately from one side to the other +as to appear for a few moments almost ubiquitous, while at every +discharge the frantic natives screamed "_Lugga! lugga!_" without +in the least knowing whether he _was_ hit (_lugga_) or not, till +presently, when I supposed he must have received at least forty shots +in his body, he fell back from a desperate attempt to scale the back +of the rajah's elephant, and lay quite still. + +[Illustration: BRAHMANS OF BENGAL.] + +"I thought that last shot of mine would finish him," said one of +the English civil officials as we all crowded around the magnificent +beast. + +"Whether it did or not, I distinctly saw him cringe at _my_ shot," +hotly said another. "There's always a peculiar look a tiger has when +he gets his death-wound: it's unmistakable when you once know it." + +"And I'll engage to eat him," interjected a third, "if I didn't blow +off the whole side of his face with my smooth-bore when he stuck his +muzzle up into my howdah." + +"Gentlemen," said our leader, a cool and model old hunter, "the +shortest way to settle who is the owner of this tiger-skin is to +examine the perforations in it." + +Which we all accordingly fell to doing. + +"B----, I'm afraid you've a heavy meal ahead of you: his muzzle is as +guiltless of harm as a baby's," said one of the claimants. + +"Well," retorted B----, "but I don't see any sign of that big bore of +yours, either." + +"By Jove!" said the leader in some astonishment as our search +proceeded unsuccessfully, "has _anybody_ hit him? Maybe he died of +fright." + +At this moment Bhima Gandharva calmly advanced, lifted up the great +fore leg of the tiger and showed us a small blue hole just underneath +it: at the same time he felt along the tiger's skin on the opposite +side to the hole, rolled the bullet about under the cuticle where +it had lodged after passing through the animal, and deftly making an +incision with his knife drew it forth betwixt his thumb and finger. He +handed it to the gentleman whose guests we were, and to whom the +rifle belonged which had been placed in our howdah, and then modestly +withdrew from the circle. + +"There isn't another rifle in camp that carries so small a bullet," +said our host, holding up the ball, "and there can't be the least +doubt that the Hindu is the man who killed him." + +Not another bullet-hole was to be found. + +"When _did_ you do it?" I asked of Bhima. "I knew not that you had +fired at all." + +"When he made his first leap from the thicket," he said quietly. "I +feared he was going to land directly on you. The shot turned him." + +At this the three discomfited claimants of the tiger-skin (which +belongs to him who kills) with the heartiest English good-nature burst +into roars of laughter, each at himself as well as the others, and +warmly shook Bhima's hand amid a general outbreak of applause from the +whole company. + +Then amid a thousand jokes the tiffin-baskets were brought out, and we +had a royal lunch while the tiger was "padded"--i.e., placed on one +of the unoccupied elephants; and finally we got us back to camp, where +the rest of the day was devoted to dinner and cheroots. + +From the tiger to the town, from the cries of jackals to those of +street-venders,--this is an easy transition in India; and it was only +the late afternoon of the second day after the tiger-hunt when my +companion and I were strolling along the magnificent Esplanade of +Calcutta, having cut across the mountains, elephant-back, early in the +morning to a station where we caught the down-train. + +[Illustration: BENGALESE OF LOW CASTE.] + +Solidity, wealth, trade, ponderous ledgers, capacious ships' +bottoms, merchandise transformed to magnificence, an ample-stomached +_bourgeoisie_,--this is what comes to one's mind as one faces the +broad walk in front of Fort William and looks across the open space to +the palaces, the domes, the columns of modern and English Calcutta; +or again as one wanders along the strand in the evening when the +aristocrats of commerce do congregate, and, as it were, gazette the +lengths of their bank-balances in the glitter of their equipages and +appointments; or again as one strolls about the great public gardens +or the amplitudes of Tank Square, whose great tank of water suggests +the luxury of the dwellers hereabout; or the numerous other paths of +comfort which are kept so by constant lustrations from the skins +of the water-bearers. The whole situation seems that of ease and +indulgence. The very circular verandahs of the rich men's dwellings +expand like the ample vests of trustees and directors after dinner. +The city extends some four and a half miles along the left bank of the +Hooghly, and its breadth between the "Circular Road" and the river +is about a mile and a half. If one cuts off from this space that part +which lies south of a line drawn eastward from the Beebee Ross Ghât +to the Upper Circular Road--the northern portion thus segregated being +the native town--one has a veritable city of palaces; and when +to these one adds the magnificent suburbs lying beyond the old +circumvallation of the "Mahratta Ditch"--Chitpore, Nundenbagh, +Bobar, Simla, Sealdah, Entally, Ballygunge, Bhovaneepore, Allypore, +Kidderpore--together with the riverward-sloping lawns and stately +mansions of "Garden Reach" on the sea-side of town, and the great +dockyards and warehouses of the right bank of the river opposite the +city, one has enclosed a space which may probably vie with any similar +one in the world for the appearances and the realities of wealth +within it. + +But if one should allow this first impression of Calcutta--an +impression in which good eating and the general pampering of the flesh +seem to be the most prominent features--to lead one into the belief +that here is nothing but money-making and grossness, one would commit +a serious mistake. It is among the rich babous, or commercial natives, +of Calcutta that the remarkable reformatory movement known as "Young +India" has had its origin, and it would really seem that the very same +qualities of patience, of prudence, of foresight and of good sense +which have helped these babous to accumulate their wealth are now +about being applied to the nobler and far more difficult work of +lifting their countrymen out of the degradations of old outworn +customs and faiths upon some higher plane of reasonable behavior. + +"In truth," said Bhima Gandharva to me one day as were taking our +customary stroll along the Esplanade, "you have now been from the west +of this country to the east of it. You have seen the Past of India: I +wish that you may have at least a glimpse of its Future. Here comes a +young babou of my acquaintance, to whom I will make you known. He is +an enthusiastic member of 'Young India:' he has received a liberal +education at one of the numerous schools which his order has so +liberally founded in modern years, and you will, I am convinced, be +pleased with the wisdom and moderation of his sentiments." + +Just as I was reaching out my hand to take that of the babou, in +compliance with Bhima's introduction, an enormous adjutant--one of +the great pouched cranes (_arghilahs_) that stalk about Calcutta +under protection of the law, and do much of the scavenger-work of the +city--walked directly between us, eyeing each of us with his red round +eyes in a manner so ludicrous that we all broke forth in a fit of +laughter that lasted for several minutes, while the ungainly bird +stalked away with much the stolid air of one who has seen something +whereof he thinks but little. + +The babou addressed me in excellent English, and after some +preliminary inquiries as to my stay in Calcutta, accompanied by +hospitable invitations, he gradually began, in response to my evident +desire, to talk of the hopes and fears of the new party. + +"It is our great misfortune," said he, "that we have here to do with +that portion of my countrymen which is perhaps most deeply sunk in the +mire of ancient custom. We have begun by unhesitatingly leading in the +front ourselves whenever any disagreeable consequences are to be borne +by reason of our infringement of the old customs. Take, for example, +the problem of the peculiar position of women among the Hindus. +Perhaps"--and here the babou's voice grew very grave and earnest--"the +human imagination is incapable of conceiving a lot more wretched than +that of the Hindu widow. By immemorial tradition she could escape it +only through the flames of the _satti_, the funeral-pile upon which +she could burn herself with the dead body of her husband. But the +_satti_ is now prohibited by the English law, and the poor woman who +loses her husband is, according to custom, stripped of her clothing, +arrayed in coarse garments and doomed thenceforth to perform the most +menial offices of the family for the remainder of her life, as one +accursed beyond redemption. To marry again is impossible: the man who +marries a widow suffers punishments which no one who has not lived +under the traditions of caste can possibly comprehend. The wretched +widow has not even the consolations which come from books: the decent +Hindu woman does not know how to read or write. There was still one +avenue of escape from this life. She might have become a _nautchni_. +What wonder that there are so many of these? How, then, to deal with +this fatal superstition, or rather conglomerate of superstitions, +which seems to suffer no more from attack than a shadow? We have begun +the revolution by marrying widows just as girls are married, and by +showing that the loss of caste--which indeed we have quite abolished +among ourselves--entails necessarily none of those miserable +consequences which the priests have denounced; and we strike still +more deeply at the root of the trouble by instituting schools where +our own daughters, and all others whom we can prevail upon to +send, are educated with the utmost care. In our religion we retain +Brahma--by whom we mean the one supreme God of all--and abolish all +notions of the saving efficacy of merely ceremonial observances, +holding that God has given to man the choice of right and wrong, +and the dignity of exercising his powers in such accordance with his +convictions as shall secure his eternal happiness. To these cardinal +principles we subjoin the most unlimited toleration for other +religions, recognizing in its fullest extent the law of the adaptation +of the forms of relief to the varying moulds of character resulting +from race, climate and all those great conditions of existence which +differentiate men one from another." + +[Illustration: CHARIOT OF THE PROCESSION OF THE RATTJATTRA, AT +JAGHERNÂTH.] + +"How," I asked, "do the efforts of the Christian missionaries comport +with your own sect's?" + +"Substantially, we work together. With the sincerest good wishes for +their success--for every sensible man must hail any influence +which instills a single new idea into the wretched Bengalee of low +condition--I am yet free to acknowledge that I do not expect the +missionaries to make many converts satisfactory to themselves, for +I am inclined to think them not fully aware of the fact that in +importing Christianity among the Hindus they have not only brought the +doctrine, but they have brought the _Western form_ of it, and I fear +that they do not recognize how much of the nature of substance this +matter of form becomes when one is attempting to put new wine into old +bottles. Nevertheless, God speed them! I say. We are all full of hope. +Signs of the day meet us everywhere. It is true that still, if you put +yourself on the route to Orissa, you will meet thousands of pilgrims +who are going to the temple at Jaghernâth (what your Sunday-school +books call Juggernaut) for the purpose of worshiping the hideous idols +which it contains; and although the English policemen accompany the +procession of the Rattjattra--when the idol is drawn on the monstrous +car by the frenzied crowd of fanatics--and enforce the law which now +forbids the poor insane devotees from casting themselves beneath +the fatal wheels, still, it cannot be denied that the devotees are +_there_, nor that Jaghernâth is still the Mecca of millions of debased +worshipers. It is also true that the pretended exhibitions of the +tooth of Buddha can still inspire an ignorant multitude of people to +place themselves in adoring procession and to debase themselves with +the absurd rites of frenzy and unreason. Nor do I forget the fact that +my countrymen are broken up into hundreds of sects, and their language +frittered into hundreds of dialects. Yet, as I said, we are full of +hope, and there can be no man so bold as to limit the capabilities of +that blood which flows in English veins as well as in Hindu. Somehow +or other, India is now not so gloomy a topic to read of or to talk +of as it used to be. The recent investigations of Indian religion and +philosophy have set many European minds upon trains of thought which +are full of novelty and of promise. India is not the only land--you +who are from America know it full well--where the current orthodoxy +has become wholly unsatisfactory to many of the soberest and most +practically earnest men; and I please myself with believing that it is +now not wholly extravagant to speak of a time when these two hundred +millions of industrious, patient, mild-hearted, yet mistaken Hindus +may be found leaping joyfully forward out of their old shackles toward +the larger purposes which reveal themselves in the light of progress." + +At the close of our conversation, which was long and to me intensely +interesting, the babou informed us that he had recently become +interested with a company of Englishmen in reclaiming one of the +numerous and hitherto wholly unused islands in the Sunderbunds for the +purpose of devoting it to the culture of rice and sugar-cane, and +that if we cared to penetrate some of the wildest and most picturesque +portions of that strange region he would be glad to place at our +disposal one of the boats of the company, which we would find lying at +Port Canning. I eagerly accepted the proposition; and on the next day, +taking the short railway which connects Calcutta and Port Canning, we +quickly arrived at the latter point, and proceeded to bestow ourselves +comfortably in the boat for a lazy voyage along the winding streams +and canals which intersect the great marshes. It was not long after +leaving Port Canning ere we were in the midst of the aquatic plants, +the adjutants, the herons, the thousand sorts of water-birds, the +crocodiles, which here abound. + +[Illustration: THE PORT OF CALCUTTA.] + +The Sunderbunds--as the natives term that alluvial region which +terminates the delta of the Ganges--can scarcely be considered either +land or sea, but rather a multitudinous reticulation of streams, the +meshes of which are represented by islands in all the various stages +of consistency between water and dry land. Sometimes we floated along +the lovely curves of canals which flowed underneath ravishing arches +formed by the meeting overhead of great trees which leaned to each +other from either bank; while again our course led us between shores +which were mere plaits and interweavings of the long stems and +broad leaves of gigantic water-plants. The islands were but little +inhabited, and the few denizens we saw were engaged either in fishing +or in the manufacture of salt from the brackish water. Once we landed +at a collection of huts where were quartered the laborers of another +company which had been successfully engaged in prosecuting the same +experiment of rice-culture which our friend had just undertaken. It +was just at the time when the laborers were coming in from the fields. +The wife of the one to whose hut my curiosity led me had prepared his +evening meal of rice and curry, and he was just sitting down to it as +I approached. With incredible deftness he mingled the curry and the +rice together--he had no knife, fork or spoon--by using the end-joints +of his thumb and fingers: then, when he had sufficiently amalgamated +the mass, he rolled up a little ball of it, placed the ball upon +his crooked thumb as a boy does a marble, and shot it into his mouth +without losing a grain. Thus he despatched his meal, and I could not +but marvel at the neatness and dexterity which he displayed, with +scarcely more need of a finger-bowl at the end than the most delicate +feeder you shall see at Delmonico's. + +The crops raised upon the rich alluvium of these islands were +enormous, and if the other difficulties attending cultivation in +such a region could be surmounted, there seemed to be no doubt of +our friend the babou's success in his venture. But it was a wild and +lonesome region, and as we floated along, after leaving the island, +up a canal which flamed in the sunset like a great illuminated baldric +slanting across the enormous shoulder of the world, a little air came +breathing over me as if it had just blown from the mysterious regions +where space and time are not, or are in different forms from those +we know. A sense of the crudity of these great expanses of +sea-becoming-land took possession of me; the horizon stretched away +like a mere endless continuation of marshes and streams; the face of +my companion was turned off sea-ward with an expression of ineffably +mellow tranquillity; a glamour came about as if the world were again +formless and void, and as if the marshes were chaos. I shivered with a +certain eager expectation of beholding the shadowy outline of a great +and beautiful spirit moving over the face of the waters to create a +new world. I drew my gaze with difficulty from the heavens and turned +toward my companion. + +He was gone. The sailors also had disappeared. + +And there, as I sat in that open boat, midst of the Sunderbunds, at +my domestic antipodes, happened to me the most wondrous transformation +which the tricksy stage-carpenters and scene-shifters of the brain +have ever devised. For this same far-stretching horizon, which had +just been alluring my soul into the depths of the creative period, +suddenly contracted itself four-square into the somewhat yellowed +walls of a certain apartment which I need not now further designate, +and the sun and his flaming clouds became no more nor less than a +certain half dozen of commonplace pictures upon these same yellowish +walls; and the boat wherefrom I was about to view the birth of +continents degraded itself into a certain--or, I had more accurately +said, a very uncertain--cane chair, wherein I sit writing these lines +and mourning for my lost Bhima Gandharva. + + + + +THE COLLEGE STUDENT. + + +The most marked trait in American college life is its spirit of caste. +This same spirit, it is true, manifests itself in other lands--in +England, France and Germany. In fact, it reached its extreme +development in the last-named country: the very term _Philistia_ is of +German coinage. The causes that originated and kept alive this +spirit in Europe are obvious. During the Middle Ages students enjoyed +privileges such as made them, in the strictest legal sense, a distinct +class. Thus, they had the right to wear side-arms, and had their own +courts of justice. Some of these privileges have survived, in England +and Germany at least, to the present day. Yet even in Germany the old +student spirit is evidently on the wane, and is doomed to extinction +at a day not far distant. In America, on the contrary, where like +causes have never operated, the spirit exists in force. It is due +to peculiar causes--to college life, to locality and to the mode of +teaching. + +The tendency to monkish seclusion lingers in England and America, +the lands that have led the van in political and social progress. The +motives that urged the monks of the olden time to turn their backs +upon the world and bury themselves in cloisters were praiseworthy: +but for such havens of peace, letters might have perished. When the +Reformation was carried out in England, and the sequestration of +Church property left immense convents idle, it was only natural that +the newly-established colleges and halls should convert the buildings +to their own uses. The dormitory system of Oxford and Cambridge, +accordingly, has an historic right of being; and, growing by natural +laws, it has become so rooted in the national life that nothing short +of a political revolution, greater even than that of the seventeenth +century, could eradicate it. The founders of our earliest colleges +were governed by the desire to make them conform as closely as might +be to the English model. There is scarcely the trace of a disposition +to look to the institutions of continental Europe for guidance. This +was a matter of course. The founders of our colleges and the men +whom they selected to be teachers were Englishmen by descent or by +education, trained after the English fashion--seeking freedom in +America, yet at heart sympathizing with English thought, English +habits and English prejudices. Hence the establishment of our +dormitory system--not at once nor in all the fullness of a system. The +colleges were at first little more than schools. The scholars boarded +with the professors: there were no funds for the erection of separate +buildings. But soon we see the evidences of a persistent effort to +make each college an embryonic Oxford or Cambridge. Harvard, Yale and +Princeton before completing the first half century of existence were +committed to the dormitory system. Other colleges have followed the +example thus set. The exceptions are too few to need enumeration. + +The mildest judgment that can be passed upon the system is that it has +cost us dear. Were all the figures accurately ascertained and summed +up, were we able to see at a glance all the money that has been +expended for land and brick and mortar by the hundreds of colleges +between Maine and California, even such an aggregate, startling enough +in itself, would fail to reveal the whole truth. We should have to +go behind the figures--to consider what might have been effected by a +more judicious investment of those millions--how many professorships +might have been permanently established, how many small colleges, now +dragging out a sickly existence, too poor to live, too good to die, +might have become vigorous branches in the tree of knowledge. What +have we in return for the outlay? A series of structures concerning +which the most ardent friend of the system cannot but admit that +they are inelegant, uninspiring and unpractical. Some of the newer +dormitories at Harvard and Yale, it is true, are decided improvements. +They are well built and supplied with many conveniences that will +serve to make student life less heathenish. But they can scarcely be +called beautiful, and they certainly are not inspiring. The heart of +the student or the visitor at Oxford swells within him at the sight of +the grand architecture, the brilliant windows, the velvet turf. It is +pardonable in us to wish for ourselves a like refining beauty. But +is it not becoming in us to confess, without repining, that we cannot +realize the wish? Oxford is not merely the growth of ages: it is the +product of certain peculiar ages which have gone. Men build now for +practical purposes, not for the glorification of architecture. The +spirit of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance will probably never +return, or, if it should, it will come as a folk-spirit, neither +springing from nor governed by the colleges, but carrying them along +with it. Hence, our colleges may content themselves with playing a +less ostentatious part, and the most zealous alumnus need not think +less of his alma mater for observing her limitations. + +We are not concerned with the dormitory system in all its bearings, +but only in so far as it directly affects the student. The fact is +significant that a large majority of our collegians pass their term +of four years, vacations excepted, in practical seclusion. They are +gathered in large numbers in dingy and untidy caravanseries, where +the youthful spirit is unchecked by the usual obligations to respect +private property and individual quiet. President Porter, in his work +on _The American Colleges_, endeavors to prove that the dormitory +system is, upon the whole, favorable to discipline. The facts are +against his argument. The evils of student life are two--vice and +disorder. So far as the former is concerned, no system has succeeded, +or will ever succeed, in extirpating it. Vice may be punished, but +it is too deeply rooted in human nature to be wholly cured. Its +predominating forms are drinking and gambling, neither of which is +checked by the dormitory system. At Oxford, for instance, both +these vices prevail despite the most elaborate system of gates and +night-patrols. Our college faculties must perforce content themselves +with detecting vice, and punishing it when detected. The most +satisfactory and appropriate means of detection is to watch closely +the way in which the student performs his college duties. No man +can waste his time over cards or the bottle without betraying his +dissipation in the recitation-room. Here, and not in the dormitory, +is the professor's hold upon the student. The dormitory system, so far +from restraining, rather tends to diffuse vice and render its practice +easy. + +Disorder is different from vice. The latter, the doing of things wrong +in themselves or made wrong by force of opinion, shuns observation: +the former courts it. The disorderly act is in many instances harmless +enough in itself, and the evil lies in doing it in an improper place +and at an improper time. Hence it is that good students, who would +scorn to stoop to vice, so often suffer themselves to be led to the +commission of an act of disorder. We may even go to the extent of +admitting that occasionally college disorder is not without a certain +color of reason. It is the youthful way of resenting a real or an +imaginary grievance. When a class discovers that it or some of its +members have been treated too severely, according to its standard, by +a certain professor, what more natural than to create a disturbance in +the recitation-room or in public? In itself considered, the act is a +youthful ebullition, and we might be tempted at first to look upon it +as something venial and pass it by in silence. Reflection, however, +should lead us to the opposite conclusion. There is nothing that a +college faculty cannot afford to pardon sooner than disorder. +The reason is almost self-evident. There is nothing that ruins so +effectually the general tone of the college and demoralizes all the +students, good and bad. Vice moves in rather narrow circles--much more +narrow than those in authority are apt to perceive. It does not affect +the great body of students, who are filled with robust life, and whose +very faults are conceits and extravagances rather than misdeeds. But +disorder spreads from one to another: originating with the morally +perverse, it gathers sufficient volume and momentum to overpower at +times even the very best. To protect the better class of students, +then, were there no other reason, the faculty is bound to interfere +energetically and in season. Its position is not unlike that of the +commander of a regiment. The colonel will not unfrequently wink at a +certain amount of dissipation among the officers, and even among the +privates. He may say to himself that the offence is one hard to prove, +that perhaps it will wear itself out in time, that perhaps it is best +not to draw the reigns too tightly. But no commanding officer +can afford to tolerate for an instant the slightest movement of +insubordination. He must put it down on the spot, without regard to +consequences, and without stopping to inquire into abstract questions +of right and wrong. No one, of course, will assert that the head of +a college is to act according to the military code. The differences +between soldier life and college life are fundamental. Yet there are +certain resemblances which prompt and justify the wish that a touch at +least of the military spirit might be infused into our colleges. +The spirit, be it carefully observed, and not the forms, for the +incompatibility between the military and the literary-scientific +methods has been demonstrated repeatedly, the most recent evidence +being furnished by those colleges that have attempted to combine, +under the terms of the Congressional land-grant, agriculture, the +mechanic arts, classical studies and military tactics. But a touch of +the military spirit would be possible and beneficial in many ways. +It would make the relationship between professor and student +more tolerable for both parties. The mental drill and substantial +information acquired through the college course are undoubtedly great. +Still greater is the formative influence exercised by the body of +students upon the individual member. But the greatest lesson of the +course--and the one which seems to have escaped the otherwise close +observation of President Porter--should be the lesson of deference to +position and authority. This deference to one's superiors in age and +position, this respect due to the professor simply because he is a +professor, and aside from any consideration of his personal character +or attainments, should be the first thing to impress itself upon the +student's mind, the last to forsake it. For it is a high moral gain, +a controlling principle that will stand the graduate in good stead +through all the vicissitudes of after-life. Unless it be acquired we +may say with propriety that the college course has fallen short of its +highest aim. For the acquisition of this spirit of respect, military +training is superior to civil. One officer salutes another, the +private salutes his officer, simply because the person saluted is an +officer. It may be that he is disagreeable or boorish in manners, or +even notoriously incompetent. This matters not: so long as he wears +the epaulettes he is entitled to an officer's salute. Honor is shown, +not to the transient owner of the title, but to the title itself. + +The inculcation of a kindred spirit in all our colleges is devoutly to +be wished. It exists already in some of the older ones, especially +in the New England States, and in not a few of the very +recently-established ones. But even where it does exist it has not +full sway: it does not set, as it should set, the keynote to college +life in all its variations. And in very many colleges it is unable to +establish itself because of gross disorder. Should this opinion seem +harsh and sweeping, the reader, if a student or a graduate, has only +to recall to mind the instances that he himself must have observed of +discontent and disorder growing out of trifling causes and culminating +perhaps in a "class-strike." Let him consider the waste of time, +the ill-temper, the censorious, invidious spirit engendered by this +fermentation, the loss of faith in the conduct, and even the honesty, +of the faculty. Can he conceive of anything more likely to frustrate +all the aims of college study? Yet in nine-tenths of the cases of +public disorder it will be safe to assume that the dormitory +system lies at the base of the evil. Where it does not occasion the +grievance, it furnishes at least the machinery for carrying matters +to a direct issue. Community of life suggests of itself community of +action. The inmates of a dormitory acquire insensibly the habit of +standing by one another. This is so evident that it needs no proof. +But an illustration of the workings of the dormitory system and its +opposite in one and the same place will not come amiss. When the +Cornell University was founded, some of the trustees opposed the +erection of dormitories. Others, assuming that the people of Ithaca, +to whom a college was a novelty, could not or would not furnish +sufficient accommodation, argued that dormitories were an absolute +necessity. They carried the point: the Cascadilla was converted into a +large boarding-house for both professors and students, and the greater +part of South University was laid out in student-rooms. Both buildings +were full. This state of affairs lasted during the first year and part +of the second. Disturbances of various kinds were not infrequent; and +although no one of them was very serious, yet in the aggregate they +were a severe tax upon the faculty's time and patience. But before the +end of the second year many of the students discovered that life +in town was more comfortable, and accordingly they gave up their +university rooms. At the opening of the academic year 1870-1871 +perhaps three-fourths, certainly two-thirds, were lodged in town. The +change was significant. During the entire year, although individual +students were disciplined for individual offences, the faculty was +not once forced to punish public disorder. This phenomenon will appear +still more remarkable when we consider that meanwhile the so-called +"class-feeling" had sprung up, and that students admitted from other +colleges had endeavored to introduce certain traditional practices. +The year 1870-1871 was perhaps too good to be repeated. The next year +witnessed at least one discouraging exhibition of student-manners, and +since then there have been explosions from time to time. For all that, +the general tone at Cornell is excellent. The transitory disturbances +seem to leave behind them no abiding ill-will, and there is +certainly less friction between faculty and students than at any like +institution. Nowhere in this country is college life more free from +petty annoyance, dislike and mistrust, and hereditary prejudices. It +should be added, that those students who now reside in the university +buildings belong almost exclusively to what is known as the working +corps. They are type-setters in the printing-office, or are engaged +upon the university farm, or in the workshops connected with the +department of the mechanic arts. Their time is too valuable to them to +be wasted. The experience of the Sheffield Scientific School resembles +that of Cornell. In one respect it is even better. This school has +never had a dormitory system. Its managers, imbued thoroughly with the +German and French spirit of study, have resisted successfully from the +outset every inducement to follow the usual college system. Although +growing up in the shadow of one of the oldest colleges in the country, +and exposed to formidable competition, and still more formidable +criticism, the Sheffield Scientific has adhered strictly to its +self-appointed mission. It has regarded instruction in science as +its sole object. Whatever tended to this object has been adopted: +everything else has been rejected as irrelevant. We are not concerned +in this place with the general reputation of the Sheffield Scientific +at home and abroad. Singling out only one of its many merits, we can +point to it with pride as the first institution to solve effectually +the knotty problem of discipline. The means of its success are +anything but occult. It has made its pupils feel from the moment +of entrance that they were young men, and must act as such. It has +refused to encumber itself with expensive and useless dormitories, +and the faculty has in the main left the students to themselves. But +whenever interference became necessary, it has acted promptly, without +undue haste or severity, and also without vacillation. Here, at least, +we do not find the ruinous practice of suspending a student one week, +only to take him back the next. The mere existence, then, of the +Sheffield Scientific--to say nothing of its success--by the side of +the powerful corporation of Yale College is fatal to every argument in +favor of the dormitory system. + +Most of our colleges are situated in small towns. To this +circumstance, more than to any other, perhaps, is due the +exclusiveness which, in its exaggerated manifestations, is so puzzling +to the city visitor. Petty items of life and character, intrigues, +quarrels and social jealousies have an importance which the world +outside cannot understand. They affect the college more or less +directly. The professor finds it doubly hard to exercise his vocation +in a place where the details of his home life are known and exposed +to comment. The student's power for mischief is increased. He has +only too much reason for believing that he is indispensable from the +business point of view. Besides, as every one knows, close contact in +narrow circles has a tendency to cramp the mind. Trifling annoyances, +real or imaginary, are apt to rankle in the spirit unless they +be brushed away by the quick, firm touch of the great world. +_Kleinstädtisches Leben_, despite its many advantages, fails to +develop the burgher in every direction. It leaves him one-sided, if +not exactly narrow-minded. Professor C.K. Adams, in his admirable +essay upon "State Universities,"[1] has touched upon this point with +reference to studies. His words should be carefully weighed: "If the +best education consisted simply of making perfect recitations and +keeping out of mischief, the smallest college would be incomparably +the best college. But the best education is far more than that. +Perhaps it is correct to say that it is an inspiration rather than an +acquisition. It comes not simply from industry and steady habits, but +far more largely from that kindling and glowing zeal which is best +begotten by familiar contact with large libraries and museums and +enthusiastic specialists.... It is the stir, the enthusiasm, the +unceasing activity, and, above all, the constant intercourse with men +of the same pursuits and the same ambitions, that develop the greatest +energies and secure the highest successes." + +[Footnote 1: _North American Review_, Oct., 1875.] + +Professor Adams, it will be observed, is contrasting small colleges +with larger ones. We are not bound by his concessions in favor of the +former. And we may also take the liberty of advancing his comparison +a step by claiming for large cities, no less than for large colleges, +the superiority over small ones. Without intending disrespect, we may +even put the direct question, Would not your own university, for whose +advantages you are contending, be better off to-day had it been placed +in Detroit instead of Ann Arbor? Is there not something dwarfing +in the atmosphere of a small country town, where character is +undiversified and life uneventful? Were books the sole source of +knowledge, were the acquisition of ideas and principles the sole aim, +we could wish for our professors and students nothing better than +monotony of life. But success, whether in professional or +scholarly pursuits, depends largely upon temper and practical +judgment--qualities which are developed by contact with the busy +world. Whoever has had the experience, knows that life in large cities +is both stimulating and sobering. It enlarges one's range of ideas +and sympathies: it also keeps idiosyncrasies within proper bounds. The +individual does not lose his individuality, but rather intensifies +it: he loses only the exaggerated sense of his own importance. We must +regard it, then, as unfortunate that so many of our seats of learning +are out of the world, so to speak. Our professors would probably +do their work better--that is to say, with greater freshness of +spirit--and would exert a wider influence, were they thrown more in +the company of men of the world. In like manner, our colleges would +play a more direct part in the affairs of the country. The history of +the German universities suggests a lesson. Is it a mere accident that +the oldest and the youngest German universities are in large cities? +In the Middle Ages, before the political organization of the country +had fairly entered upon its morbid process of disintegration, we find +Vienna, Prague[2] and Leipsic heading the list. Subsequently, each +petty duke and count, moved by the sense of his autonomy, sought +to establish a university of his own. The Reformation increased the +spirit of rivalry. Most of these second- and third-rate universities +have passed away or have been merged in others. The three youngest, +Berlin, Munich and Strasburg, are all in large cities, and are +all three the direct offspring of political and educational +reorganization. As Germany is now constituted, it would be impossible +to found a new university in a small town. Such places as Jena, +Erlangen, Greifswald, Rostock, Marburg and Giessen barely hold their +own against the strong movement in favor of concentration. + +[Footnote 2: Heidelberg comes between Vienna and Leipsic, but +Heidelberg was then a much more important town than at present.] + +The wholesome influence of large surroundings upon students is +perhaps even more marked than upon professors. History teaches us with +singular clearness that small towns are precisely the ones in which +student character is distorted out of all proportion. No better +example can be found than the University of Jena. From the time of its +foundation down to the present century the name of Jena stood for all +that was wild, absurd, and outrageous. In a village whose permanent +population did not exceed four thousand, students were crowded by +hundreds and thousands. To speak without exaggeration, they ruled +Philistia with a rod of iron, in defiance of law and order, and not +infrequently of decency itself. On this point we have an eye-witness +of unquestionable veracity. In 1798, Steffens, a young Dane brimful of +enthusiastic admiration for German learning, arrived in the course +of his travels at Jena. He gives the following account of his first +impressions of German student manners:[3] "I looked out into the +neighborhood so strange to me, and a restless suspicion of what was +to come ran through my mind. Then we heard in I the distance a loud +shouting like the voices of a number of men, and nearer and nearer +they seemed to come. Lights had been brought shortly before, and, +as the uproar was close upon us, a servant burst in to warn us to +extinguish them. We asked with curiosity why, and what the shouting +mob wanted. We suspected, indeed, that it was students. The servant +told us that they were on their way to the house of Professor A----, +who was unpopular with them--I knew not why--to salute him with their +Pereat, or college damnation. The cry of some hundred students grew +plainer and plainer. 'Out with lights!' was called, and just then +we heard the panes of glass clatter when the warning was not quickly +enough complied with. I confess that this circumstance, occurring so +soon after my arrival, filled me with a kind of gloom. It was not such +things as this that had called me to Jena: these were not the voices +which I had wished and expected to hear, and my first night was a sad +one." + +[Footnote 3: _German Universities_. Translated by W.L. Gage. +Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott & Co., 1874. Steffens little imagined at +the time that he was destined to become a German professor.] + +Jena, be it said in her praise, is no longer what she was: her +students no longer break window-panes or perform the _Gänsemarsch_ or +elect their beer-duke of Lichtenhain. The great herd has scattered, +and the few who are left dwell with their professors in peace. But has +the spirit of brutality passed wholly away? Perhaps loving parents who +have placed their sons under the "protecting" influence of some quiet +country town believe so. It is almost a pity to disturb their +faith. Yet truth is uncompromising. Let us record and ponder the +fact--epithets are superfluous--that in the year of grace 1874, in +a small college town not one hundred miles distant from the City +of Brotherly Love, students supposed to be guided and restrained by +influences more distinctively "Christian" than any that ever mitigated +the barbarism of Jena, could become utterly lost to all recollection +of father and mother, brother and sister, could forget their own +manhood, could steal under cover of night to the house of an unpopular +professor and bombard the windows, to the peril of his wife and +mother, and of his child in the cradle. + +Truly, we have been surfeited with mistaken praise of small colleges +and rural virtue. We have a right to demand that our colleges, +whatever they may undertake or omit, shall teach at least the +first lesson of life--manliness. This lesson is not best learned +by withdrawing one's self from the world, burying one's self in an +obscure and unrefined village, foregoing social intercourse with +amiable men and women, and wrapping one's self in a mantle of +traditional prejudice. President Porter, although a staunch defender +of the existing college system, concedes its weakness. He says (p. +168): "It is no paradox to say that the first essay of the student's +independence [i.e., the independence of college as contrasted with +school] is often an act of prostrate subserviency to the opinion of +the college community. This opinion he has little share in forming: +he does little else than yield himself to the sentiment which he finds +already formed.... It [this community] is eminently a law unto itself, +making and enforcing such laws as no other community would recognize +or understand--laws which are often strangely incongruous with the +usually received commandments of God and man.... No community is +swayed more completely by the force of public opinion. In none does +public opinion solidify itself into so compact and homogeneous a +force. Before its power the settled judgments of individual opinion +are often abandoned or overborne, the sacred associations of +childhood are relaxed, the plainest dictates of truth and honor are +misinterpreted or defied." + +It may surprise us to find the author contending, only a few pages +farther on, for "the civilizing and culturing influences which spring +from college residence and college associations." The truth is that +the case has two sides to it. No friend of education could wish to +see student opinion or student sentiment banished wholly from student +life--to reduce study to a mere intellectual process without any trace +of _esprit de corps_. Some such spirit is not only good in itself, but +is natural and unavoidable. Three hundred or four hundred young men +cannot associate freely day by day for years in succession, pursuing +the same studies under the guidance of the same teachers, without +establishing a certain community of sentiment and action, from which +the student's intellectual efforts must derive a great share of +their nourishment. Yet, admitting the principle, we cannot justify or +palliate the excess to which it has been carried. We insist upon the +observance of certain limits, which no man, whether old or young, +learned or unlearned, is at liberty to transgress. And when these +limits are transgressed we have a right to regard the offenders as all +the more culpable because of their advantages. The circumstance that +they come of a "good stock," as it is called, and are pursuing liberal +studies, is only an aggravation of the offence. We expect youthful +extravagances, waste of time, neglect of opportunities, exaggerated +self-importance, a supercilious way of looking down upon the +outside world--these are all phases of growth, and are usually +short-lived--but we cannot tolerate any violation of the rights of +property, any overawing of individual conscience, any breach of public +order, any disregard of public decency. Such offences we must resent +and punish, not only for the sake of those injured, but in the best +interests of the offenders themselves. We cannot afford to let the +most promising class of our young men entertain even for the brief +period of four years false and pernicious views of the fundamental +principles of life. It is the duty of every community to suppress +error _en voie de fait_, wherever it may occur. And if it is our +duty to suppress, it is no less our duty to prevent. Common sense +and experience teach us that danger must arise from gathering large +numbers of young men in places too small to hold them in check. Are +we not at liberty to borrow an example from the history of President +Porter's own college? In the days when the president was a young +professor, Yale was a small college and New Haven was a small town. +The name of the college then was, to speak mildly, notorious. The Yale +of thirty or forty years ago seemed to personify everything that was +obnoxious and lawless in our college life: in no other place did the +conflict between "town" and "gown" assume such dimensions and lead to +such deplorable results. Yet the Yale of to-day, although the number +of students has trebled, will compare favorably with any college +or university. The students, without having lost a particle of true +manliness and independence, riot less and learn more: they show in +every way that they are better students and better citizens. Wherein, +then, lies the secret of the change? Evidently, in the circumstance +that the city has outgrown the college. New Haven is no longer an +insignificant town, but has become the seat of a large local trade and +the centre of heavy manufacturing and railroad interests. Like other +cities, it has established a paid fire department and a strong police +force for the protection of all its residents, the college included. +It is no longer overshadowed, much less over-awed, by the college. On +the contrary, the observation forces itself upon the visitor in New +Haven that the college, notwithstanding its numerous staff of able +professors, notwithstanding its great body of students, its libraries +and scientific collections, is far from playing the leading part in +municipal matters. It is only one among many factors. Life and its +relations are on an ampler scale: the wealth and refinement of the +permanent population are great, and are growing unceasingly. In a few +years more New Haven will be fairly within the vortex of New York. +This change, which has come about so gradually that those living in it +perhaps fail to perceive it readily, has affected the college in many +ways. It has made the life of the professors more agreeable, more +generous, so to speak, and it has toned down the student spirit +of caste. The young man who enters Yale feels, from the moment of +matriculation, that he is indeed in a large city, and must conform +to its regulations--that there are such beings as policemen and +magistrates, whom he cannot provoke with impunity. Even were this all, +it would be gain enough. But there is another gain of a far higher +nature. The student perceives that outside his college world lies a +larger world that he cannot overlook--a world whose society is worth +cultivating, whose opinions are backed by wealth and prestige. It does +not follow from this that he ceases to be a student. Companions and +study make him feel that he is leading a peculiar life, that he is a +member of an independent organization. But he does not feel--and this +is the main point--that he has retired from the world or that he can +set himself up against the world. + +In this connection we have to be on our guard against the opposite +extreme--namely, the inference that the larger a city the better for +the college. The very largest cities are perhaps not favorable to +the growth of institutions of learning. Even in Germany, where the +university system rests upon a different basis and adapts itself more +readily to circumstances, the leading capitals, Berlin and Vienna, are +at a disadvantage. The expenses of living are so great as to deter all +but the wealthy or the very ambitious, and the pomp and pageantry +of court and nobility, the numerous _personnel_ of the several +departments of state, finance, war and justice throw the less +ostentatious votaries of science and letters into the shade. +Nevertheless, the universities of Berlin and Vienna can scarcely +be said to be threatened with permanent decline. The governments of +Prussia and Austria recognize the necessity of a great university in +a great capital to give tone to the administrative departments and to +resist the spread of the spirit of materialism. Besides, the resident +population of each of these cities is entitled to a university, and +would be sufficient of itself to support one. We may rest assured, +therefore, that the Prussian government will act in the future as +it has done in the past, by sparing no efforts to make the +Frederico-Gulielma the head of the Prussian system in fact as well as +in name. Nevertheless, it must be admitted that the present hard times +and the unsettled state of society in Berlin tend to restrict the +number of students. The remarkable contrast presented in the sudden +growth of the Leipsic University shows how even matters of education +are influenced by social and economic laws. This Saxon city seems +marked out by Nature for a seat of learning. It combines almost all +attractions and advantages. It is accessible from every quarter, the +climate is good for North Germany, and the neighborhood is pleasant, +although anything but picturesque. The newer houses are well built, +rooms and board are not expensive. The inhabitants are wealthy and +highly cultured, the book-trade is enormous, and the banking-business +considerable. Yet trade does not move with the fever-heat of +speculation: the life of the city is quiet and regular. Amusements +of a high order are within the reach of every one. These minor +attractions, combined with the more important ones offered by the +university itself, will explain to us how it is that Leipsic has taken +the foremost rank. Students who are used to city ways, and who would +have chosen Berlin ten or twenty years ago, now come here because of +the cheapness of living. Others, tired of the monotony of the smaller +university towns, come to get a foretaste of the world that awaits +them after the completion of their studies. The temper of the +students is admirable. Rarely if ever do they betray any traces of the +hectoring spirit which still lingers at Heidelberg, for instance. +But for the display of corps-caps and cannon boots and an occasional +swagger in the street, one might pass an entire semester in Leipsic +without realizing that the city contains three thousand students. +Undoubtedly, the young men perceive, like their colleagues of Yale, +that their surroundings are too much for them. + +Another prolific source of trouble is the class system. Whether this +system is to be maintained as it is, or to be modified, or to be +abandoned for another more in accordance with the needs of the age, +are questions which must be kept in abeyance. The answer will +depend upon the view which we take of higher education in the main. +Meanwhile, let us consider the system in its operations during the +past and at the present day. Here, as so often before, Germany affords +us a warning example of the dangers consequent upon the recognition +of class distinctions. The comparatively harmless practice of +_Deposition_--a burlesque student-initiation which sprang up in the +sixteenth century and obtained a quasi sanction from no less a +person than Luther--degenerated in the seventeenth century into +_Pennalisimus_. Newly-matriculated students, called Pennalists (the +modern term is _Füchse_), were maltreated by the elder ones, the +Schorists, and were pillaged and forced to perform menial services +"such as a sensible master would hesitate to exact of his servant[4]." +The Schorists considered themselves a licensed corporation. To give an +idea of their deportment, not merely toward the younger students, but +even toward the university itself, it will suffice to state that they +conducted their orgies at times in the public streets without fear +or shame. In 1660, during the student insurrection at Jena, +they assaulted and dispersed the Academic Senate in session. The +governmental rescripts of those days are taken up with accounts of the +evil and the means proposed for curing it. The matter was even brought +before the Imperial Diet. Pennalismus was not suppressed until the +close of the century, after the various governments had resorted to +the most stringent measures. Such excesses have, of course, never +been committed in America; yet we observe the same spirit of +insubordination to superiors and domination over inferiors betraying +itself in the New World. When we hear of "rushing," "hazing," +"smoking-out" and the like, we must admit to ourselves that the animus +is the same, although the form be only ludicrous. And what shall we +say to performances such as the explosion of nitro-glycerine? Much may +be urged in extenuation of the offences of the German students in the +seventeenth century. Their sensibilities were blunted by the horrors +of a Thirty Years' War; they had been born and reared amid bloodshed +and rapine; some of them must have served in the campaigns of Banér, +Torstenson and Wrangel, where human life went for nothing, and honor +for less than nothing. Some of them, perhaps, could not name their +parents. They were waifs of the camp, their only education the crumbs +of knowledge picked up in the camp-school mentioned by Schiller in his +_Wallenstein_. Our students, on the contrary, are anxiously shielded +against temptation and are carefully trained for their work. Why, +then, should they be the only set of persons to disobey, as a set, the +rules of public order? The answer suggests itself: Because they have +acquired the habit of joint action without the sense of individual +responsibility. + +[Footnote 4: The words of the decree of the Imperial Diet, 1654. See +Von Raumer, _Geschichte. der Pedagogik_, iv. 45.] + +The advantages of the present system of instruction by classes are +not to be overlooked. Yet they are attended with one serious evil. +The members of a class, reciting day by day, term after term, upon the +same subjects, acquire the notion of a certain average of work. The +class, as a unit, has only so much to learn, and the professor is not +to exceed this maximum. Furthermore, each class gauges its work by +the work of its predecessors. The Sophomore class of this year, for +instance, is not willing to do more than the Sophomore class of last +year. To introduce more difficult text-books, or to increase the +number of hours, or to lengthen the lessons, is injustice. The notion +of unity extends itself to social relations. Each member considers +himself identified with his comrades. Tradition--everywhere a power, +and especially powerful in college--establishes nice distinctions. It +lays down the rule that one class shall not wear beaver hats or carry +canes--that another class shall steal the town-gates on a particular +night of the year or publish scurrilous pamphlets. Each member of the +class must do certain things or must refrain from them, not because +he wishes to, but because he is a member of the class. The strength of +this community of feeling and interests can be estimated only by one +who has experienced it. Were its operations confined to the relations +among students, they would be less formidable. We might perhaps +shrug our shoulders and leave the young men "to fight it out among +themselves." The case becomes quite different, however, when a class +arrays itself in opposition to its professor or to the entire faculty. +Then we see plainly the dangers of insubordination. The immature and +inexperienced set themselves above their elders: they arrogate to +themselves the right of deciding what they shall learn, how much they +shall learn, how they shall learn it. And, being a class, they +stand or fall as a class. They exhibit tenacity of purpose and an +unscrupulous use of improper means. Many a professor has learned to +his cost what it is to be defied by his class. + +An example will be more instructive than vague generalities. About +seven years ago a gentleman was engaged by one of our colleges to take +charge of a new department until a permanent appointee might be found. +The resident faculty committed one blunder after another. It added the +new study outright without adjusting it to the previous studies. It +also fixed upon Saturday as the day for beginning. Thus, the students +were prejudiced against their new instructor before they had even seen +him. Besides, they regarded the innovation as an "interloper." The +victim to student rule may now tell his own story: "I took the 6 A.M. +train Saturday morning from the city. After breakfast I was directed +by the president to go to a certain room, unaccompanied, to meet the +Sophomore class. One hundred hyenas! My entrance was greeted with +groans, 'Ahas!' 'Hums!' I spent half an hour in the vain attempt to +explain the subject. Before I was half through I had made up my mind +to return to the city by the first train. On leaving the room I met +Professor ----, who comprehended the situation at a glance. He said +that he had been through it all himself--that it had taken him two +years to get control of his classes. I learned afterward that this is +the usual time allowed for such purpose. The president on meeting me, +said in his usual abrupt, nervous brogue, 'It's nothing against the +men, sir! It would be just the same if it were anybody else, sir! +(!!!). Just go on, sir.' I finally decided 'to go on, sir,' but I +hardly retain my self-respect when I remember how I submitted for +three months to a series of petty annoyances unworthy the lowest +_gamins_ of New York. Students purposely made mistakes to give others +an opportunity to groan. The Sophomore class was divided into two +sections after the third week. By dint of strict watching, which +so absorbed my attention that I could do little in the way of +instruction, I succeeded in obtaining tolerable order. Usually, a +painful silence was observed, every one knowing that there was a +hand-to-hand fight going on for the mastery. The Junior class could +not be divided because of other studies. Their recitations (?) +continued to be a bedlam, a pandemonium. I afterward learned that some +students, who already had some knowledge of the subject, remained +on purpose to create disturbance. One of them, a son of a trustee, I +caught blowing snuff through the room. It was a favorite trick of the +class to drop a bundle of snuff in the stove. Each one of the +fifteen recitations that I had with this class was spoiled by some +disturbance. On two occasions some of them stole the keys of the room +and locked me in with part of the class. Fortunately, I was able to +drive back the bolt. The president was less lucky. Twice he and his +entire class were obliged to climb down from the window by a ladder. +There is no use in multiplying words. The treatment to which I +was subjected was shameful. What made it even worse was, that the +authorities permitted such conduct toward one whom they had invited +to take the initiative in beginning a new study. It was a +perfectly-understood thing that I had accepted the temporary +appointment more to relieve the college than for my own benefit." + +The writer of the above is now one of the leading professors in +another college. His name and reputation are among the best in the +land. He writes concerning his present position: "We have here two +hundred and fifty students, all told. The utmost courtesy prevails, +both in the recitation-room and in the streets. During the five years +that we have been in existence as a college I do not remember that a +single rude act has been committed toward any professor. I attribute +this to a variety of circumstances. We began with a small body +of students, who gave tone to the subsequent ones. We have no +dormitories. The college is in a city too large to be controlled by +students. Nothing could be pleasanter than the intercourse between +town and college. Not a gate has been carried off, no loud shouting is +heard. If there are night-revels, nobody ever hears of them. We have +no prizes, no honors, no marking system. We hold rigid examinations, +and watch the tendency to negligence if it shows itself." + +One circumstance may lead us to take a more hopeful view of the +situation. The colleges--and consequently the classes--are growing +larger. At Yale and Harvard, for instance, the classes exceed two +hundred on entrance. It is clear that so large a body cannot cohere +very firmly. The sense of homogeneousness is lost. Furthermore, the +class is divided into sections and sub-sections. The occasions on +which the student can see his entire class together are becoming +comparatively few. The so-called elective studies will also help to +keep down the class spirit. In many colleges the curriculum is no +longer an inflexible routine. On reaching a certain standing the +student, although not entirely free to select his studies, has at +least an option. He may take German instead of Greek, French in place +of Latin, advanced mathematics or the natural sciences in place of +both. Whatever estimate we may set upon the intrinsic value of +such options, we can scarcely doubt their efficacy in the matter of +discipline. The class which branches out on different lines of study +has already ceased to be a class. The results of the system of free +selection established at the Cornell University are very instructive. +We find here three or four courses of study, now running parallel, now +overlapping one another, and outside of them the elective students who +follow partial courses or specialties. The university has scrupulously +refrained from the official use of the terms Senior, Junior, Sophomore +and Freshman, and arranges the students' names in the index in +alphabetical order. The sections in certain departments, especially in +the modern languages and history, are made up of students of all four +years. Even the courses themselves are not inflexible. The policy +of accepting _bonâ fide_ equivalents has been adopted, and has given +satisfaction to both teachers and pupils. There are probably not +twenty students in the university at this moment who have recited side +by side on exactly the same subjects and in the same order for three +years. Hence the absence of any strong class feeling. Although those +who have attended the university the same number of years may try hard +at times to convince themselves and others that they are a class in +the ordinary sense, they meet with little success. Individual freedom +of opinion and conduct is the rule, and such a thing as class coercion +is an impossibility. At one time it was argued by the adversaries of +the university that this laxity must result in lowering the standard +of scholarship. But recent events lead us to the opposite conclusion. +The Saratoga regatta last summer proved that the Cornell students are +not wanting in muscle, and the inter-collegiate contest of this winter +shows still more conclusively that they are not wanting in brains. +Cornell entered in four of the six contests, and won four prizes--one +second and three firsts. Two of these first prizes, be it observed, +far outrank the others as tests of scholarship--namely, those in Greek +and in mathematics. No shallow theory of luck will explain this sudden +and remarkable success. The older colleges will do well to inquire +into causes, and to ask themselves if their young rival is not +possessed of a new power--if sturdiness of character and independence +of thought are not more efficient than mere routine. After all, is it +surprising that the institution which is most liberal should attract +to itself the most progressive minds? + +JAMES MORGAN HART. + + + + +SONNET. + + I saw a garden-bed on which there grew, + Low down amid gay grass, a violet, + With flame of poppy flickering over it, + And many gaudy spikes and blossoms new, + Round which the wind with amorous whispers blew. + There came a maid, gold-haired and lithe and strong, + With limbs whereof the delicate perfumed flesh + Was like a babe's. She broke the flowering mesh + Of flaunting weeds, and plucked the modest bloom + To wear it on her bosom all day long. + So in pure breasts pure things find welcomest room, + And poppied epics, flushed with blood and wrong, + Are crushed to reach love's violets of song. + +MAURICE THOMPSON. + + + + +THE HOUSE THAT SUSAN BUILT. + + +Susan--Susan Summerhaze--was twenty-nine, and had never had a lover. +You smile. You people have a way of smiling at the mention of a maiden +lady who has never had a lover, as though there was a very good joke +in the matter. You ought to be ashamed to smile. You have a tear for +the girl at the grave of her lover, and for the bride of a month in +her widow's cap, and even for her who mourns a lover changed. But +in each of these cases the woman has had her romance: her spirit has +thrilled to enchanted music; there is a consecrated something in her +nature; a tender memory is hers for ever. + +Nothing is so pathetic as the insignificant. Than a dead blank, +better a path marked by--well, anything, perhaps, except dishonor. The +colorless, commonplace life was especially dreary to my Susan, because +of a streak of romance--and a broad streak it was--that ran from end +to end of her nature. + +It's another provoking way you people have of laughing at romantic +young women. Sentimental, you call them. I tell you it's the most +womanly thing in the world to be sentimental. A woman's affections +reaching out toward a man's heart is as much a part of Nature, and +just as pretty a thing in Nature, as the morning-glory--or let us take +the old and oft-used yet good illustration of the ivy and the +oak. When the woman's reaching affections attain the sought heart, +everybody cries out, "How sweet and tender and graceful!" But if they +miss of the hold, then there is derision. Here, as everywhere else, +there are cheers for success and no pity for failure. + +Well, however you may receive it, the truth must be acknowledged: my +Susan was sentimental. She had had her longings and dreams, and an +abundance of those great vague heartaches which only sentimental +people can have. She had gone through with the whole--the sweet hopes, +the yearning expectancy, the vague anxiety, the brooding doubt, the +slow giving up--the reluctant acceptance of her fading life. Her +romance died hard. Very gradually, and with many a protest, the woman +of heartaches and sentiment glided into the practical and commonplace +maiden lady who served on all sorts of committees and watched with +sick people. + +At an early age, when she was barely sixteen, the suggestion had been +forced on Susan that it was her duty to spread her wings and leave +the paternal nest to earn her living. Of course she went to teaching. +That's what such people as Susan always do in like circumstances. At +first her earnings went into the family fund to buy bread for little +mouths that were not to blame for being hungry, and shoes for little +feet that did not know wherefore they had been set to travel life's +road. But after a while a portion of Susan's salary came to be +deposited in bank as her very own money, to have and to hold. She had +now reached the giving-up period of her life, when the heartaches were +dulling, and the nameless longings were being resolved into occasional +lookings back to the time when there had been hopes of deliverance +from the commonplace. Having tasted the sweets of being a capitalist, +Susan came in process of time to be eager at money-getting and at +money-saving and at speculating. The day arrived when my sentimental +Susan had United States bonds and railroad stocks, and owned a half +acre in city lots in a great, teeming, tempestuous State metropolis. + +It was at this period in her affairs that Susan received a gift +of fifteen hundred dollars from her bachelor uncle Adolphus, "as a +token," so the letter of transmission read, "of my approval of your +industry and of your business ability and successes, and as a mark of +my gratitude for your kindness to me twenty-one years ago when I was +sick at your father's house. You were the only one of my brother's +children that showed me any consideration." + +"Twenty-one years ago!" exclaimed Gertrude, Susan's younger sister, +when she had read the letter through. "Why, that was before I was +born! How in the world could I show him consideration? I wish to +goodness he'd come here now and get sick. I'd show him consideration: +I'd tend him like an own mother." + +"Susie didn't tend him like an own mother," said Brother Tom, who was +two years younger than Susan. "I remember all about it. All she did +for him was to keep the flies off with an apple-tree limb, and she was +for ever letting it drop on his face." + +"I recollect all about it," said Susan: "I pity myself now when I +remember how tired and sleepy I used to get. The room was always so +quiet--not a sound in it but the buzzing of the lazy flies and poor +uncle's hard breathing. I used to feel as though I were in prison or +all alone at a funeral." + +"But self-abnegation has its reward, Susie," said Brother Tom, lifting +his eyebrows and shrugging his shoulders. + +"Oh, I'm free to acknowledge that I performed the duties at that +bedside very reluctantly," Susan answered. "I had many a cry over my +hard fate. Indeed, I believe I always had to wash off the tear-stains +before going to the task. I can recall now just how the little +red-eyed girl looked standing before the glass with towel and brush. +But still, I did keep the flies off, and I did bring uncle fresh water +from the well, and perhaps I deserve a reward all the more because the +work was distasteful." + +"Mother used to try to make me do it," said Brother Tom. "I remember +how I used to slip away from the table while she was pouring out +father's fourth cup of coffee, and put for the playground, to escape +that fly-brush. I wasn't a good boy, alas! or I might now be a happy +man with all my debts paid. I wish my mother had trounced me and made +me keep those flies off Uncle Adolphus." + +Brother Tom was one of those people who are always trying to say and +look funny things. Sometimes he succeeded, and sometimes he didn't. + +"Anyhow, I think it's a shame," Gertrude said, pouting--"downright +mean for Uncle Adolphus to give you all that money, and never give me +a cent." + +"Very likely." Susan replied dryly. + +"Well, it is, Susie. You've got lots more money now than you know what +to do with: you don't need that money at all." + +"Don't I?" + +"No, you don't, Susie: you know you don't. You never go into society, +and you wear your dresses the same way all the time, just as Grandma +Summerhaze does. But I'm just making my _début_"--and Gertrude flushed +and tossed her head with a pretty confusion, because she was conscious +of having made a sounding speech--"and I need lots of things, such as +the rest of the girls have." + +"My dear Gertrude," began Brother Tom, "'beauty unadorned'--" + +"Oh, do, pray, Tom, have mercy upon us!" Gertrude said testily. +"Unfortunately, I happen not to be a beauty, so I need some adorning. +Moreover, I don't admit that beauty can do without adorning. There's +Minnie Lathrop: she's a beauty, but she wouldn't improve herself by +leaving off flowers and ribbons and laces, and dressing herself like +a nun. Dear me! she does have the loveliest things! Mine are so shabby +beside them. I'm about the tag-end of our set, anyhow, in matters of +dress. I think, Susie, you might give me a hundred or two dollars." + +"To waste in ribbons and bonnets?" asked business-woman Susan. + +"Why, Susie, how you do talk! A body would think you had never worn a +ribbon, and that you'd gone bareheaded all the days of your life. But +you needn't talk: it's not so long ago but I can remember when you +were as fond of dress as any girl in the city. I remember how you used +to tease mamma for pretty things." + +"Which I never got, even though I was earning them over and over." +Susan spoke half sadly, half bitterly. + +"Well, you ought to have had nice things, Susie, when you were in +society," Gertrude insisted. "Girls can't get married if they're +shabby and old-fashioned." + +"That's true," said Susan gravely. + +"I think," continued her sister, "it's the meanest feeling, the +sheep-ish-est"--Gertrude syllabled the word to make sure of her hold +on it--"in this world to know that the gentlemen are ashamed to show +you attention. Now, I'm cleverer and better-looking than lots of girls +in our set--Delia Spaulding, for instance--but I don't have half the +attention she receives, just on account of her fixings and furbelows." + +"And Miss Spaulding always manages to keep ahead in those +sublimities," said Brother Tom. + +"Yes," assented Gertrude briskly. "No matter what on earth the rest +of us girls get, Delia Spaulding manages to have something to cast +us into the shade. It makes me so mad! Now, last week at Mrs. +Gildersleeve's, when I dressed for the party I thought I looked really +nice. I felt a complacency toward myself, as Margaret Pillsbury would +say. But when I got to the party, there was Delia Spaulding prinked +out with such lights and shades and lustres that I looked plain as +a Quaker in comparison with her--or with any of the other girls, for +that matter. Do you know, Susie, what the feeling is to be always +behind in dress?" + +"Yes," Susan answered, a piteous shadow coming into her face as +memories of the heart-burning days were evoked, "but I am glad to have +done with all the vanity and heartache that comes of it." + +"But yet, Susie, you ought to know how to feel for me." + +"I do know how," Susan answered. + +"Then why don't you help me across some of the heartache?" + +"I might help you into a worse heartache by my meddling," Susan +suggested. + +"You don't want anybody to marry you because you dress well and are +stylish?" said Brother Tom, undertaking to explain Susan's meaning. + +"I don't know that I want anybody to marry me for any reason," +Gertrude flashed out, her cheeks flushing, "but I like to go, once in +a while, to young people's gatherings, and then I like to be dressed +so that gentlemen are not ashamed to be seen with me." + +"A fellow ought to have pluck enough to stand up for the merit of a +young lady, no matter how she's dressed." + +"Now, Tom, for pity's sake, don't talk heroics," said Gertrude. "I've +seen you at parties shying around the poorly-dressed girls and picking +out the pretty-plumaged birds. I know all about your heroism. I'm not +blaming you, you understand: I don't like to dance or promenade with +a gentleman not well dressed. Next to looking well yourself, you wish +your partner to look well. That's nature.--But what are you going to +do with your fifteen hundred dollars, anyhow, Susie?" + +"I shall add something to it and build a house on one of my lots." + +"'Pon my soul!" said Brother Tom, laughing. + +"How perfectly absurd!" exclaimed Gertrude. "Suppose your house should +burn down as soon as it's finished, as the First Congregational church +did?" + +"I'd get the insurance on it, as the Congregational church didn't." + +"What in the world do you want with a house? Are you going to live in +it yourself? Are you going to get married?" asked Brother Tom. + +"I have two objects in building the house," Susan explained. "One is +to secure a good investment for my money: the other is to exercise my +ingenuity in planning a model house." + +"And in the mean time I am to keep on being Miss Nobody," Gertrude +said warmly, "and lose all the chances of fortune. I wouldn't have +believed, Susie, that you could be so hard-hearted;" and tears began +to gather in Miss Gertrude's pretty eyes. "It must be that you want an +old-maid sister for company," she added with some spite.' + +Tom went out of the room whistling. He was apt to run if he perceived +a fight waxing. He had a soft place in his silly heart for his pretty +young sister. He wished Susan would do something for Gertrude: +he thought she might. He'd feel considerably more comfortable +in escorting Gertrude to parties if she ranked higher in the +dress-circle. He'd help her if he could, but he was already behind at +his tailor's and at Hunsaker's cigar-shop. + +"I'm invited to Mrs. Alderson's next week," Gertrude continued, "and +I've nothing on earth to wear but that everlasting old white muslin +that I've worn five times hand-running." + +"I heard you say that Amanda Stewart had worn one dress to all the +parties of this season," Susan remarked. + +"Amanda Stewart can afford to wear one dress: her father's worth +millions, and everybody knows it. Everybody knows she can have a dozen +new dresses for every day of the year. But we poor folks have got +to give ocular demonstration of our ability to have new dresses, or +nobody will ever believe that we can. Everybody knows that I wear that +white muslin because I can't afford any other, I do wish I could have +a new dress for Mrs. Alderson's: it will be a dreadfully select party. +I've rung all the changes possible on that white muslin: I've worn +pink trimmings, and white trimmings, and blue trimmings, and I've worn +flowers; and now I'm at my wit's end." + +"I wish I were able to advise you," Susan said. + +"Advise me?" Gertrude exclaimed impatiently. "What good would advice +do? It takes money to get up changes in evening dresses." + +"You poor little goose!" said Susan with a grave smile, "I suppose I +was once just as foolish. Well, here are twenty-five dollars you may +have. It is really all I can spare, for I mean to go at building my +house immediately." + +"Susie, you're a duck!" cried the delighted Gertrude, eagerly taking +the bills. "I can get along nicely with twenty-five dollars for this +time, but, oh dear! the next time!" + +But Susan did not heed her sister's foreboding cry. Getting pencil and +paper, she was soon engaged in sketching the ground-floor of a cottage +house. It was to cost about twenty-six hundred dollars. This was +years before the day of high prices, when a very cozy house could be +compassed for twenty-six hundred. + +The following three weeks were very busy weeks for Susan, though all +she did was to work at the plan of her house. Her mother grumbled. +Brother Tom made his jokes, and Gertrude "feazed," to use her own +word. The neighbors came and went, and still Susan continued to +sit with drawing-tools at her desk, sketching plan after plan, and +rejecting one after another. + +"I declare, Susie," said her sister, "I don't believe Christopher Wren +gave as much thought to the planning of St. Paul's as you have to that +cottage you're going to build. I believe in my heart you've made a +thousand diagrams." + +"Well," Susan retorted, "I don't suppose anybody's been hurt by them." + +"You wouldn't say that if you had to clear up the library every +morning as I have to. Those sketches of yours are everywhere, lying +around loose. I have picked them up and picked them up, till they've +tired me out. 'Parlor, dining-room, kitchen, pantry:' I've read this +and read it, till it runs in my head all day, like 'rich man, poor +man, beggar-man, thief.' I've marked off the figures on all the +papering in this house into 'parlor, dining-room, kitchen, pantry." + +"I don't see a mite of reason in Susan's being so particular about +that house," said the mother, "seein' she's going to rent it. Now, if +she was going to live in it herself, or any of the rest of the +family, it would be different, Anyway, these plans all look to me like +first-rate ones," she continued, glancing from one to another of half +a dozen under her spectacles--"plenty good enough for renting-houses. +Now, this one is right pretty, 'pears to me, and right handy.--What's +the reason this one won't do, Susan?" + +"Why, mother, don't you see the fault?" Susan replied. "There's no way +of getting to the dining-room except through the kitchen." + +"To be sure!" said the mother. "Of course that would never do, for, +of all things, I do despise to have folks stalking through my kitchen +when the pots and kittles are all in a muss, as they're always like to +be at meal-times. What ever did you draw it this way for, Susan?" + +"Well, I didn't see how it was coming out till it was finished." + +"To be sure! Well, now, what's the matter with this one?" and the +mother singled out another sketch. "This one seems to be about right." + +"Why, yes, I think it's splendid," said Gertrude, leaning over her +mother's shoulder and studying the plan under consideration. "There's +the cellar-way opening from the pantry, and there's a movable slide +between dining-room and pantry, right over the sink.--Why, Susie, I +think this is wonderfully nice. Why don't you adopt this plan?" + +"The objection to it is that the pantry has no window: it would be as +dark as a pocket. Don't you see there can't be a window?" + +"So there can't," said Gertrude. + +"That spoils the whole thing," said the mother. "If there's anything I +do despise, it's this thing of fumblin' 'round in a dark pantry; and, +before everything else, I want my mouldin'-board so I can see what +goes into my bread. Now, I never noticed about that window, and I +s'pose would never have minded about it till the house was built an' +I'd gone in to mix my bread. Then wouldn't I have been in a pretty +pickle? Clean beat! Well, I suppose there's something or other the +matter with all these plans?" + +"Yes," said Susan, "they're all faulty." + +"I don't see any fault in this one, Susie," said Gertrude. + +"That one has the kitchen chimney in the pantry," Susan explained. + +"Dear me! that would never do," said the mother. "Of all things, I +dote on a cool pantry. What with the baking and the laundry-work, that +chimney would keep the pantry all the while het up. It would be handy +for canned fruits and jellies in the winter, though--so many of ours +froze and bursted last winter." + +"Now, this one," said Gertrude--"I'm sure this is all right, Susie. I +can't see anything wrong about this one." + +"Why, don't you see? That kitchen hasn't a door in it except the +cellar-door," said Susan. + +"Well, I declare!" Gertrude said. "What ridiculous plans you do make, +Susie! The idea of planning a kitchen without a door!" + +"Why, that would never do, Susan," the mother objected. "Folks never +could take all the victuals and things down through the cellar." + +"I warrant I could plan a house, and a model house, the first time," +Gertrude boasted. + +"Try it," replied Susan quietly. + +"I know I can," Gertrude insisted, settling herself with paper and +pencil. + +"I believe I'll try my hand," said the mother. "I've housekept so long +I likely know what are the belongings of a handy house;" and she too +settled herself with paper and pencil and spectacles. + +There was silence for a few minutes as the three drew lines and rubbed +them out. + +Presently Brother Tom came in. "Well, for ever!" he exclaimed, with +the inevitable laugh. "What are you people all about? Have you all +gone house-mad? Are you, too, going to build a house, Gert?" + +"No, I'm just helping Susie: she can't get any plan to suit her." + +"Why don't you call on me, Susie? Let me have a pencil and a scrap of +paper: I can plan a house in the half of no time." + +"Here," Susan answered, furnishing the required materials, and +enjoying, meanwhile, the thought of the discomfiture which, as she +felt sure, awaited these volunteer architects. + +"Do see mother's plan!" laughed Gertrude after a while, peeping over +that lady's shoulder. "Her kitchen is large enough for a prosperous +livery-stable, and it has ten windows; and here's the parlor--nothing +but a goods-box; and she hasn't any way of gettin; to the second +floor." + +"Put in an elevator," said Brother Tom. + +This drew Gertrude's attention to Tom's sketch, so she went across, +and looked it over. Man-like, he had left out of his plan everything +in the way of a pantry or closet, though he had a handsome +smoking-room and a billiard-hall. + +Not at all disconcerted by the criticisms of his plan, Tom proceeded +with wonderful contrivance to run a partition with his pencil +across one end of his roomy smoking apartment for pantry and ladies' +clothes-presses. + +"That's just like a man," Gertrude said. "He'd have all the dishes and +all the ladies' dresses toted through the smoking-room." + +"Well, see here," Tom said: "I can take closets off this bedroom;" and +the division-line was quickly run. + +"And, pray, whose bedroom is that supposed to be?" Gertrude asked. "It +might answer for a retired bachelor who has nothing to store but an +extra shirt: it wouldn't do for a young lady with such hoops as they +wear these days. She couldn't squeeze in between the bed and washstand +to save her flounces. You ain't an architect, Tom: that's certain." + +"Well, now, let's see your plan," challenged the gentleman; and he +began to read from Gertrude's paper: "'Parlor, sewing-room--' Now +that's extravagant, Gert. I think your women-folks might get along +without a special sewing-room. Why can't they sew in the dining-room?" + +"That's handsome, and very gallant," answered Gertrude. "Your men can +have a billiard-room and a smoking-room, while my poor women can't +even have a comfortable place for darning the men's stockings and +sewing on their shirt-buttons. Oh, men are such selfish creatures!" + +"Well, now," said Brother Tom, "I'll leave it to Susie if those +tenants of hers can afford to have a special sewing-room." + +"And I'll leave it to Susie if--" + +But Susan interrupted her: "You and Tom must settle your disputes +without my help. There, now! I think I have my plan decided upon at +last. After a hundred and one trials I believe I have a faultless +sketch." + +"Let's see it," said one and another, all gathering about the speaker. + +Susan explained her plan. The only objection to it came from the +mother. She was afraid if things were made so dreadful handy the folks +would get to be lazy; and, anyhow, there wasn't any use in having +things so nice in a rented house: they'd get put out of kilter right +away. + +But Susan had set out to build a perfect house, and she was not to be +frightened from her object. So in process of time there were delivered +into the owner's hands the keys of the house that Susan had built. + +Three lines in a morning paper inviting a tenant brought a throng of +applicants. Susan, like the generality of landlords, had her face +set against tenants with certain encumbrances, so a score or more of +applicants had been refused the house before the close of the first +day. + +Toward evening a gentleman called to see Miss Summerhaze, announcing +himself as Mr. Falconer. When Susan entered the parlor she found a +heavy-set, rather short man, who had bright gray eyes, a broad full +forehead, and was altogether a very good-looking person. + +"I have called," he said immediately, "to inquire about the house you +have advertised for rent on North Jefferson street." + +"I am ready to answer your inquiries," said Susan, like the +business-woman she was. + +After the questions usual in such circumstances, by which Mr. Falconer +satisfied himself that the house would probably answer his purpose, +it became Susan's turn to satisfy herself that he was such a tenant as +she desired for her model house. "Before going to look at the house," +she said, "I ought to ask you some questions, for I feel particular +about who goes into it." + +Susan had occasion at a later day to remember the shade of uneasiness +that came into Mr. Falconer's face at this point. "I trust I shall be +able to answer all your questions to your satisfaction," he said. + +"Do you keep dogs?" This is the first question Susan asked. + +Mr. Falconer smiled, and looked as though he wondered what that had to +do with the matter. + +"I ask," Susan hastened to explain, "because dogs often tear up the +grounds." + +"Well, no, I don't keep dogs," Mr. Falconer answered. + +"Have you boys?" + +Mr. Falconer smiled quietly, and replied, "No, I haven't any boys." + +"Three or four rough boys will ruin a house in a few months," Susan +said in her justification. "Have you any children?--a large family?" + +"What do people do who have large families and who must rent houses?" +Mr. Falconer asked. + +"Why, go to people more anxious to rent than I am." + +"No," said Mr. Falconer, returning to the question: "I am +unfortunately a bachelor." + +"Do you propose keeping bachelor's hall?" Susan asked in quick +concern. "Excuse me, but I could not think of renting the house to a +bachelor or bachelors. It is a rare man who is a house-keeper. Things +would soon be at sixes and sevens with a set of men in the house." + +"I do not wish to rent the house for myself, but for a friend." + +"Well, I propose the same questions in reference to your friend that I +have asked concerning yourself." + +"Well, then," Mr. Falconer replied, still smiling, "my friend does not +keep dogs; she has no boys; she has one little girl." + +"Your friend is a lady--a widow?" + +"No--yes, I mean to say." + +"Do I understand that she is a widow?" + +"Yes, of course." + +There was a confusion in Mr. Falconer's manner that Susan remembered +afterward. + +"Can you give me references, Mr. Falconer?" and Susan looked him +straight in the eye. + +"Well, yes. Mr. Hamilton of the Hamilton Block I know, and Mr. +Dorsheimer of the Metropolitan Hotel. I am also acquainted with Andrew +Richardson, banker, and with John Y. Martindale, M.C." + +"Those references are sufficient," Susan said, her confidence +restored. "I will make inquiries, and if everything is right, as I +have no doubt it is, you can have the house if you should find that it +suits you. Will you go over now and look at it? It is scarcely a half +block from here." + +"Yes, if you please: I should like the matter settled as soon as +possible." + +So Susan put on her bonnet and brought a bunch of keys, and walked +away with Mr. Falconer to show the house which she had built. And a +proud woman was Susan as she did this, and a perfect right had Susan +to be a proud woman. She had, indeed, built a model house as far +as twenty-six hundred dollars could do this. That amount was never, +perhaps, put into brick and mortar in better shape. So Mr. Falconer +thought, and so he said very cordially. + +"Oh," sighed our poor Susan when she was again at home, "how good it +seems to have such appreciation!" + +Susan made inquiries of Mr. Hamilton of the Hamilton Block concerning +Mr. Falconer. + +"Very nice man--very nice man, indeed!" Mr. Hamilton answered briskly: +"deals on the square, and always up to time." + +So the papers were drawn up, and Mr. Falconer paid the first month's +rent--forty dollars. + +"Here, Gertrude," Susan said, handing her sister a roll of bills: +"half the rent of my house I shall allow you. Make yourself as pretty +as you can with it." + +"Oh, you blessed darling angel!" Gertrude cried in a transport. +"You're the best sister that ever lived, Susie: you really are. Make +myself pretty! I tell you I mean to shine like a star with this money. +Twenty dollars a month! Delia Spaulding spends five times as much, I +suppose. But never mind. I have an eye and I have fingers: I'll make +my money do wonders." + +This Gertrude indeed did. She knew instinctively what colors and what +shapes would suit her form and face and harmonize with her general +wardrobe. So she wasted nothing in experiments or in articles to be +discarded because unbecoming or inharmonious. If Gertrude's toilets +were less expensive than Delia Spaulding's, they were more unique +and more picturesque. Indeed, there was not in her set a more +prettily-dressed girl than Gertrude, and scarcely a prettier girl. Her +society among the gentlemen was soon quoted at par, and then rose to a +premium. + +Promptly on the first day of the second month Mr. Falconer called to +pay Susan's rent. + +"How does your friend like the house?" she asked with a pardonable +desire to hear her house praised. + +"Very much indeed. She says it is the most complete house of its kind +that she ever saw. Who was your architect, Miss Summerhaze? I +ask because the question has been asked of me by a gentleman who +contemplates building an inexpensive residence." + +"I planned the house," Susan answered, a light coming into her face. + +"Indeed! In all its details?" + +"Yes, I planned everything." + +"Have you studied architecture?" + +"Not until I undertook to plan that house." + +"That is your first effort? You never planned a house before?" + +"No." + +"You ought to turn builder: you ought to open an architect's office." + +Susan laughed at the novel suggestion, for that was before the days +when women were showing their heads in all the walks of life. + +"'Miss Summerhaze, Architect:' that would make a very unique card. It +would get abundant advertising free of expense, for everybody would +talk about it. There is no reason," continued Mr. Falconer, "why women +should not be architects: they have the taste, and they are the best +judges as to household conveniences--the only proper judges, indeed." + +This has now a very commonplace sound, but for the period it was +fresh and original, and seemed so to Susan. Indeed, the idea was +fascinating: she thought Mr. Falconer a wonderfully bright and +suggestive man. + +"I wish there were other things women could do besides teaching and +taking in sewing," Susan said. + +"Well, why don't you put yourself in the lead in this matter, Miss +Summerhaze? Somebody or bodies must step to the front. A revolution in +these matters is bound to come. Why shouldn't you become an architect? +Why shouldn't you go into a work for which you have evidently +remarkable talent? Why shouldn't you become a builder?" + +"Well," said Susan, smiling, "there is no pressing call for me to earn +money. I have had my work-day, and have sufficient means to meet my +simple wants. Besides, I am not pining or rusting in idleness. The +management of my little means gives me employment. I happen to be +one of those exceptional women who 'want but little here below,' +especially in the way of ribbons and new bonnets. As you perceive, I +give myself little concern about matters of dress." + +"And why shouldn't you give yourself concern about matters of dress, +Miss Summerhaze? Pardon me, but I think it your duty to look as well +as you can. You cannot do this without bestowing thought on matters of +dress." + +"Why," said Susan, laughing, "what possible difference can it make to +anybody how I look?" + +"It makes a difference to every person whom you encounter," Mr. +Falconer replied incisively. + +"To you?" Susan challenged laughingly. + +"Yes, a good deal of difference to me," the gentleman replied +promptly. "The sight of a woman artistically dressed affects me like +fine music or a fine painting." + +"But have you no commendation for the woman who is independent enough +to rise above the vanities of fashion?" Susan asked with some warmth. + +"Most certainly I have. I admire the woman who rises above vanities of +whatever nature. By all means throw the vanities of dress overboard, +but don't let sense and taste go with them. But I am making a lengthy +call: I had forgotten myself. Excuse me. Good-morning;" and Mr. +Falconer went out, and left Susan standing in the parlor just opposite +an oil-painting over the mantel. + +She lifted her eyes to the picture. A simple little landscape it was, +where cows stood in a brook which wound in and out among drooping +willows. Susan always liked to look at this picture, because she knew +it was well painted. The cows had a look of quiet enjoyment in their +shapely figures. A coolness was painted in the brook and a soft +wind in the willow-branches. She stood there before it this morning +thinking how sweet it would be to move some man's soul as a fine +painting might move it. Then she sighed, and went to divide her +month's rent with her sister. + +"Gertrude," she said, "do I look very old-fashioned?" + +"Of course you do," said Gertrude. "You look fully as old-fashioned as +grandma does--more old-fashioned than mother does. I do wish, Susie, +you would dress better. You make me feel terribly sheepish sometimes. +You can afford to dress well." + +"I have decided to get a new dress," said Susan. "What shall it be? +and how shall it be made? Something for the street." + +"Oh, I know exactly what you ought to have," Gertrude said with +enthusiasm. "A dark-blue merino, a shade lighter than a navy, with +blue velvet bretelles. You would look superb in it, Susie: you'd be +made over new." + +"I never looked superb in anything," said Susan with a smile through +which one saw a heartache. + +"Because you never had pretty things to wear, Susie--because you never +dressed becomingly." The tears were actually in Gertrude's eyes, so +keen was her sympathy with any woman who didn't wear pretty things. +"Mayn't I go and select your dress this afternoon? Please let me: I +know the exact shade you ought to have." + +Susan gave her consent, and away sailed Gertrude to the shops, +brimming with interest. + +Through the enterprising management of this exuberant lady the new +blue dress soon arrived from the dressmaker's, bearing at its throat a +white favor in the shape of a good-sized bill. But then the dress was +handsome and stylish, and Susan when duly arrayed in it did indeed +seem made over. + +"Susie, you look really handsome," Gertrude said when she had wound +her sister's abundant chestnut hair into a stylish coil, and had +arranged with artistic touches the inevitable laces and ribbons. "Just +come to the glass and look at yourself." + +To the mirror went Susan--poor Susan who had always thought herself +plain--and there, sure enough, was a handsome face looking into hers, +growing momently handsomer with surprise and pleasure kindling in the +eye and spreading over cheek and brow. + +Susan, be it understood, was by no means an ill-favored woman even in +her old-fashioned dress. She had a very good complexion, blue eyes, +large and dark and warm; and a mouth of some character, with mobile +lips and bright even teeth. But nobody had ever called her handsome +till to-day, neither had anybody called her plain. She had simply +passed unmarked. But what she had all along needed was somebody +to develop her resources, somebody to do just what had been done +to-day--to get her into a dress that would bring out her clear +complexion, that would harmonize with the shade of her earnest eyes; +to take her hair out of that hard twist at the back of the head, and +lay it tiara-like, a bright mass, above the brow; to substitute soft +lace for stiff, glazed linen, and a graceful knot of ribbon for +that rectangular piece of gold with a faded ambrotype in it called a +breastpin. And, too, she needed that walk she took in the crisp air to +bring the glow into her cheek; and then she needed that meeting with +Mr. Falconer, which chanced in that walk, to heighten the glow and to +brighten her already pleased eyes. The meeting took place at the door +of her house. It was an arrested, lingering look which he gave +her, and doubtless it was the character of this look, conscious and +significant, that deepened the glow in her face, + +"I wonder if I affected him like a fine picture or a fine strain of +music?" Susan asked herself in passing him. + +"Miss Summerhaze must be acting on the hint I gave her," thought +Mr. Falconer; and he went on with a little smile about his mouth. It +pleased him to think he had influenced her. + +Thus it was that this man and this woman came to think of each other. +And now you are guessing that this thinking of each other advanced +into a warmer interest--that these two people fell in love if they +were not too far gone in years for such nonsense. Well for us all that +there are hearts that are never too old for the sweet nonsense--the +nonsense that is more sensible than half the philosophy of the sages. +Your guess is so good that I should feel chagrined if I were one of +those writers who delight in mysteries and in surprising the +reader. But my highest aim is to tell a straight-forward story, so +I acknowledge the guess correct, so far, at least, as my Susan is +concerned. I have said that the romance in her nature died hard; but +it never died at all. This man, this almost stranger, was rousing it +as warmth and light stir the sleeping asphodels of spring. The foolish +Susan came to think of Mr. Falconer whenever she made her toilet--to +thrill at every sight of him and at his lightest word. But this was +not till after many other meetings and interviews than those this +story has recorded. As Mr. Falconer was frequently at the house which +Susan built, and as this was less than a block removed from the one +she occupied, there naturally occurred many a chance meeting, when +some significant glance or word would send Susan's heart searching for +its meaning. + +And these chance meetings were not all. + +"Who was it that called, Susie?" Gertrude asked one evening when +her sister came up from a half-hour's interview with some one in the +parlor. + +"The gentleman who rents my house," Susan replied, her face turned +from Gertrude. + +"What is he for ever coming here for?" + +"He came to tell me that there were some screws loose in a +door-hinge," Susan answered. + +"For pity's sake!" exclaimed Gertrude. "That's a great thing to come +bothering about! Why didn't he get a screw-driver and screw up the +screws?" + +"It's my place to keep the house in order," said Susan. + +"The report of things out of order usually sets landlords in a feaze, +but you keep as serene as the moon with your tenant's complaints. +He's always finding something out of order, which seems strange, +considering that the house is brand-new." + +Not many days after Gertrude had occasion to repeat her question to +Susan: "Who was it called?" + +She received the reply she was expecting: "The man who rents my +house." + +"Indeed! What's the matter now? another screw loose?" Gertrude asked. + +"He wanted to suggest an alteration in the pantry." + +"Why, he's for ever wanting alterations made! I don't see how you can +be so patient with his criticisms: we all know you are house-proud. +I wouldn't listen to that man: he'll ruin your house with his +improvements. I don't know, anyhow, what he can mean by saying in +one breath that it is a perfect house, and in the next asking for an +alteration." + +"I'm sure I don't know," said Susan; and then her heart went into a +happy wondering as to what Mr. Falconer could mean. + +"What is it this time?" Gertrude asked about three days after in +reference to "the man who rents my house," as described by Susan. +"Does he want another story put on your house?" + +"No, he simply wanted to say that it would suit him to pay the rent +semi-monthly, instead of monthly," Susan answered somewhat warmly. + +"And, pray, what's his notion for that?" Gertrude asked. + +"I didn't inquire," replied Susan shortly, resenting the evident +criticism in her sister's tone. + +But Susan did inquire why it was--inquired not of Mr. Falconer, but of +her own heart. + +"I don't see any reason for his making two errands to do a thing that +could be done in one call. Instead of putting off pay-day, after the +manner of most men, he proposes to anticipate it. Well, perhaps you +and he understand it: I don't." + +Why was this? Was it because it would double his visits to her? Was +Susan vain or foolish that she thus questioned herself? + +It was perhaps a little singular that Mr. Falconer's name had never +passed between these two sisters; neither had Gertrude ever seen the +gentleman who made these frequent business-calls on Susan. + +"The man who rents my house:" this reply told something--all that +Gertrude cared to know on the subject; whereas the reply, "Mr. +Falconer," would have conveyed no information. And because the name +had never been mentioned Susan was startled one morning after one +of Gertrude's fine parties. She was sitting at the window with a new +magazine while the young people talked over the party. + +"I liked him so much," said Gertrude. "He says such bright, sensible +things: he's so original. Some men are good to dance, and some are +good to talk: he's good for both." + +"I heard him when he asked for an introduction to you," said Brother +Tom. "He designated you as the young lady in the blonde dress: then he +said, 'Her dress is exquisite--just the color of golden hair. I never +saw a more beautiful toilette.'" + +"Isn't that delightful?" cried Gertrude in a transport. "You precious +old Tom, to hear that! I'll give you a kiss for it." + +"I wonder," said Brother Tom, recovering, "if he can be the same +Falconer I've heard the boys talk about?" + +Susan had been hearing in an indolent way the talk between Tom and +Gertrude, but now her heart was bounding, and she was listening +intently. + +"They tell about a Falconer who holds rather suspicious relations with +a handsome woman somewhere in the city. He rents a house for her where +she lives all alone, except that there's a baby and a servant-girl." + +Alas for Susan! she knew but too well that this was her Mr. Falconer. + +Tom continued: "The fellows have quizzed him about his lady, and have +tried to find out who she is, and how he's connected with her, but +he's close as a clam about the matter." + +"Perhaps it's a widowed sister," Gertrude suggested. + +"Then why doesn't he say so? and why doesn't he go there and live with +her, instead of boarding at a hotel? and why doesn't she ever go out +with him? They say she never goes out at all, but keeps hid away there +like a criminal." + +"I'd like to know how the fellows, as you call them, could have +found all this out unless they employ spies?" Gertrude spoke testily, +feeling a strong inclination to stand up for the man who had paid +her a handsome compliment. "There probably are two Falconers. I know +there's nothing wrong about my Mr. Falconer, otherwise Mr. Richmond +wouldn't have introduced him to me." + +"I wish I had thought to inquire if he's the man, but till this moment +I've not thought of that talk of the boys since I heard it. It takes +women to remember scandal and repeat it," said Brother Tom sagely. +"But I'll inquire about it, Gerty. Don't go to dreaming about Mr. +Falconer till I find out." + +"Hold your tongue, you great _idjiot_!" said Gertrude, wrapping with +lazy grace a bright shawl about her and settling herself on a sofa +to nap off the party drowsiness. "Go on down town and find out," she +continued, her heavily-lashed lids dropping over the sleepy eyes: "go +along!" + +So Tom went down town, Gertrude went to sleep, and Susan was left to +her thoughts. What had these thoughts been about all these weeks +that the question had never arisen as to the connection between Mr. +Falconer and the woman who occupied her house, "Who is she?" Now, +indeed, Susan asked the question with a burning at her heart. If she +was simply a friend or a sister, why this reticence and mystery +of which Tom had spoken? If she was his wife, why any reticence or +mystery? Besides, Mr. Falconer had said he was a bachelor. + +Susan could contrive no answers to these questions that brought any +relief to her vexed heart. She had no courage to make inquiries of +others, lest the character of her interest might be discovered. Guilt +made her cowardly. + +She was yet turning the matter over and over when Brother Tom +returned. She scanned his face with a keen scrutiny, eager to get at +what he had learned, yet not daring to ask a question. + +When Tom had pinched Gertrude's drowsy ear into consciousness he +poured into it this unwelcome information: "I've found out that your +Mr. Falconer is the man. But who the lady is I have not been able to +discover. She is an inscrutable mystery--a good heroine for Wilkie +Collins." + +"Who told you?" Gertrude demanded in a challenging tone. + +"Jack Sidmore: he knows your Mr. Falconer well. Why, Falconer's no +new man: he's an old resident here. He's of the firm of Falconer, +Trowbridge & Co., grain-dealers on Canal street. You know Phil +Trowbridge?" + +"I'm sure there's nothing wrong about Mr. Falconer, or he wouldn't +have been at Minnie Lathrop's party." said Gertrude resolutely. + +"Well, Jack Sidmore knows the gentleman, and he says there is no doubt +he has suspicious relations with Miss or Madam The-Lord-knows-who. So, +you see, you're to drop Mr. Falconer like a hot potato--to give him +the cut direct." + +"It would be a shame to if he's all right, and I feel certain he is," +said Gertrude, still showing fight. + +"Now, look here, Gert: don't be foolish. It won't do to compromise +yourself. Be advised by me: I'm your guardian angel, you know. You can +spare Mr. Falconer: your train will be long enough with him cut off." + +"He's the most interesting acquaintance I've made this winter," said +Gertrude persistently. + +"Don't you say so, Sue? Oughtn't Gertrude to cut him? You've heard +what we've been talking about, haven't you?" + +"Please don't appeal to me," Susan managed to say without lifting her +eyes from the blurred page before her. + +She had been more than once on the point of telling Gertrude and Tom +what she knew about Mr. Falconer--that it was her house he had +rented for his friend, etc. But everything about the matter was so +indefinite. She was fearful of exposing her unhappy heart, and she had +withal some vague hope of unsnarling the tangled skein when she should +find opportunity to think. So she allowed them to finish up their +discussion and to leave the room without a hint of the facts in her +knowledge. + +When they had gone the set, statuesque features relaxed. A stricken +look settled like a shadow over them. You would have said, "It will +never depart: that face can never brighten again." + +The thing in Susan's heart was not despair. There was the +suffering that comes from the blight of a sweet hope, from the rude +dispossession of a good long withheld. But overriding everything else +was humiliation--a feeling of degradation, such as some deed of shame +would engender. Her spirit was in the dust, for she knew now that she +had given her love unasked. Was not this enough, after all the years +of longing and dreary waiting and sickening commonplace? Could not +the Fates have let her off from this cup, so bitter to a proud woman's +lips? Why should she be delivered over to an unworthy love? Why should +they exact this uttermost farthing of anguish her heart could pay? But +is he unworthy? is this proved? asked the sweet voice of Hope. Then +the face which you were sure could never brighten, did brighten, but, +alas! so little; for there was another voice, a voice that dismayed: +"Why otherwise the silence, the mystery?" Persistently the question +was repeated, till Mrs. Summerhaze came in and asked Susan to do some +marketing for dinner. + +"You look all fagged, anyway: the fresh air 'll be good for you." + +So Susan put on her bonnet and went out, feeling there was nothing +could do her any good. She drew her veil down, the better to shut away +her suffering from people, and a little way from home turned into a +meat-market. She was in the centre of the shop before she discovered +Mr. Falconer a few yards away, his back turned to her. She +involuntarily caught at her veil to make sure it was closely drawn. +She held it securely down, and hurried away at random to the remotest +part of the shop, though her ear was all the while strained to hear +what Mr. Falconer was saying. + +He was ordering sundry packages to be sent to No. 649 North Jefferson +street--Susan's house. In her remote corner, from behind her veil, +with eager eyes Susan looked at the face that to her had been so +noble, at the form which had seemed full of graceful strength. She +would have yielded up her life there to have had that face and form +now as it had been to her. He went out of the shop, and she went about +making her purchases in a dazed kind of way that caused the shopman +to stare. Then she wandered up the street past her home to 649 North +Jefferson street, to the house she had built with such abounding +pride and pleasure. How changed it now seemed! It had become a haunted +house--haunted by the ghosts of her faith and peace. + +For three days Susan as much as possible kept away from the family, +and appeared very much engaged with Prescott's _Conquest of Peru_. But +at the breakfast-table on the third day she received a start. Gertrude +and Tom had been at a party the evening before. (They averaged some +four parties a week.) Tom looked surly and Gertrude defiant. + +"Why, Tom, what's the matter with you?" the mother asked. "'Pears to +me I never did see you so pouty as you be this morning. What's gone +crooked?" + +"Perhaps Gertrude can inform you," Tom answered severely. + +Gertrude flushed with annoyance, but tossed her head. + +"Why, what's happened, Gertrude?" + +"Nothing for Tom to make such a fuss about. He's mad at me because I +won't insult a gentleman who is invited to the best houses, and who is +received by the most particular young ladies of my acquaintance." + +"At any rate," retorted Tom, "I heard Jack Sidmore tell his sister +that she was not to recognize Mr. Falconer. I have warned Gertrude +that a great many people believe him to be a suspicious character, and +some know him to be such, so far as women are concerned, and yet last +night Gertrude accepted his company home." + +"Hadn't you gone home with Delia Spaulding? Was I to come trapesing +home alone?" said Gertrude by way of justification. + +"Now, Gert, be fair: didn't I tell you that I'd be back immediately?" + +"Yes, but I knew something about the length of your 'immediatelies' +when Delia Spaulding was concerned." + +"You might have had Phil Trowbridge as an escort." + +"Phil Trowbridge! I hate him!" said Gertrude with such vehemence that +the very line which parted her hair was crimsoned. + +"Well, what's that other man done?" asked the mother, who had not lost +her interest in the original question. "What do folks have against +him?" + +"Why, he's rented a house and set up a woman in it, and nobody knows +who she is, and he won't let out a word about her. If she's an honest +wife or his sister or a reputable friend, why the deuce doesn't he +say so? Jack Sidmore says there isn't any doubt but that the woman +is Falconer's mistress, to speak in plain English. Hang it! Gertrude +can't take a hint." + +"Falconer! Why, Susan, ain't that the name of the man who rented your +house?" cried the mother. + +Susan felt all their eyes turned on her, and knew that she was +cornered. So she said "Yes," and raised her coffee-cup to her lips, +but set it down quickly, as she felt her hand trembling. + +"And did he rent it for a _lady friend?_" Tom asked, putting a +significant stress on the last two words. + +"He did," Susan answered. + +"And is there living in your house, right here beside us, a mysterious +woman with a baby?" Gertrude asked eagerly. + +"There's a woman living in my house, and she has a little girl," said +Susan on the defensive. + +"And does Mr. Falconer visit her?" + +"Perhaps so: I have no spies out." + +"Why, Susie! how strange! You never told me a word about it. I never +dreamed that Mr. Falconer was the man who had rented your house, and +who has been running here so much," Gertrude said. + +"Well, I'd get that woman out of my house as quick as ever I could if +I was you, Susan," said Mrs. Summerhaze. "Like as not the house will +get a bad name, so you'll have trouble renting it." + +"I'm more concerned about Gertrude's name," Tom said. + +Gertrude's eyes flashed daggers at Tom. + +"Of course Gertrude mustn't keep company with Mr. Falconer," said the +mother. "Young girls can't be too particular who they 'sociate with." + +Susan said nothing on the subject, though by far the most concerned +of the party on her sister's account. It was significant and alarming, +the warmth and persistence with which Gertrude defended Mr. Falconer. +It was evident that her interest was in some way enlisted. Was it +sympathy she felt, or was hers a generous stand against a possible +injustice? Whatever the feeling, there was danger in this young and +ardent girl becoming the partisan of an interesting man. Yet how could +she, the involved, bewildered Susan, dare warn Gertrude? How could +she ever do it? Would it not seem even to her own heart that she was +acting selfishly? How could she satisfy her own conscience that she +was not moved by jealousy? Besides, what could she say? Gertrude knew +all that she could tell her of Mr. Falconer and his relations--knew +everything except that she, Susan, had loved--and, alas! did yet love +unasked--this unworthy man. + +Ought she, as her mother had advised, demand possession of her house? +She shrunk from striking at a man--above all, this man--whom so many +were assaulting. No. She would leave God to deal with him. Besides, +there might be nothing wrong. All might yet be explained, all might +yet be set to rights, all--unless, unless Gertrude--Oh, why should +there arise this new and terrible complication? Gertrude with her +youth and beauty and enthusiasm--why must she be drawn into the +wretchedness? + +For days, feverish, haunted days, Susan went over and over these +questions and speculations. In the mean time, Tom entered another +complaint against Gertrude. "She gave the greater part of last evening +to the fellow," he said. + +"The party was stiff and stupid: Margaret Pillsbury's parties always +are--no dancing, no cards. Mr. Falconer was the only man there who +could say anything." This was Gertrude's defence, given with some +confusion, and with more of doggedness than defiance in her tone. + +"I told you, Gertrude, you had ought to stop keeping company with Mr. +Falconer," said her mother. + +"If she doesn't stop, she will force me to insult the gentleman," said +Brother Tom resolutely. + +Gertrude looked at the speaker as though she would like to bite him +with all her might. + +"Now, don't go to getting into a fuss," the mother said to Tom. +"Gertrude must stop, or else she'll have to stop going to parties and +stay to home." + +Gertrude did not speak, but Susan, glancing up, saw a set look in the +young face that struck a terror to her heart. She believed that +she could interpret her sister's every look and mood--that she knew +Gertrude by heart. + +"By their opposition they are only strengthening her interest:" this +was Susan's conclusion. + +In the mean time, Mr. Falconer's next pay-day was approaching. With a +dreadful kind of fascination Susan counted the hours that must bring +the interview with him. She longed yet dreaded to meet him. Would he +look changed to her? would she seem changed to him? How should she +behave? how would he behave? Would she be able to maintain a calm +coldness, or would her conscious manner betray her mistrust, her +wounded heart? So great, at times, grew her dread of the meeting that +she was tempted to absent herself, and to ask her mother or Tom to see +Mr. Falconer and receive the rent-money. But she did not dare trust +either of these. Tom might take that opportunity of conveying +the insult with which he had threatened Mr. Falconer, while the +plain-spoken mother would be certain to forbid him Gertrude's society, +and probably give him notice to vacate Susan's house. No, she must +stay at home and abide the meeting; and, after all, what would she not +rather do and suffer than miss it? + +But an interview with Mr. Falconer came sooner than Susan had +anticipated. It was in the early evening, immediately after tea, that +the servant brought her Mr. Falconer's card, on which was written, "An +emergency! May I see you immediately?" + +Susan hid the card in her dress-pocket, and went wondering and +blundering down stairs and into the parlor. + +Mr. Falconer rose and came quickly forward. His manner was nervous +and hurried; "I thank you for this prompt response to my appeal, +Miss Summerhaze. You can do a great kindness for me; and not for me +only--you can serve a woman who is in sore need of a friend." + +Susan's heart was ready to leap from her bosom. Was she to be asked +to befriend this woman toward whom people's eyes were turning in +mistrust, and about whom their lips were whispering? + +"May I depend on you?" Mr. Falconer asked. + +"Go on," said Susan vaguely. + +"But may I depend upon you? upon your secresy?" + +"In all that is honest you may depend upon me," she replied. + +"Briefly, then. The lady for whom I rented your house is my sister. I +could never tell you her story: it ought never to be told. But the +man she married betrayed all her trust, and made her life one long +nightmare of horrors. At length, in a drunken fury one wretched autumn +night, in the rain and sleet, he turned her and her baby into the +street at midnight, and bolted the doors against them. Then she +resolved to fly from him and be rid of him for ever. A train was about +leaving the dépôt, some three blocks distant. Without bonnet or shawl, +the damp ice in her hair and on her garments, she entered the car, the +only woman in it. She came to me. Thank God! she had me to come to!" + +Mr. Falconer was crying; so was Susan. + +"The beneficent law gives the child to the father," Mr. Falconer +continued. "The father is now in the city seeking the child. He has +his detectives at work, and I have mine. In his very camp there is a +man in my service. Fortunately, I out-money him. Now, my sister knows +of Patterson's being here. (The man's name is Patterson.) She has +grown pitifully nervous, and is full of apprehension. She is very +lonely. I must get her away from that house, and yet I must keep +her here with me: she has no one else to look to. I don't know, Miss +Summerhaze, why I should come to you for help when there are hundreds +of others here whom I have known so much longer. I am following an +impulse." + +He paused and looked at Susan, as if waiting for her reply. Happy +Susan! Eager, trembling, her face glowing with a tender enthusiasm, a +tearful ecstasy, feeling that it would be sweet to die in the service +of this man whom her thoughts had so wronged, she gave her answer: "I +am so glad you have come to me! Anything on earth I can do to aid you +I will do with all my heart--as for myself. Let your sister come here +if that will suit you." + +It was what he wanted. + +"I am sorry I have not made your sister's acquaintance: would it be +convenient for me to go with you this evening and get acquainted with +her?" + +"Perfectly convenient, and I should be glad to have you go." + +"I will bring my bonnet and shawl, and we will go at once." + +"If you please." + +Susan quickly crossed the parlor, but stopped at the door: "Perhaps +your sister would feel more secure and more at peace to come to us +right away--to-night. Sha'n't I bring her away to-night?" + +"It would be a great mercy if you would do so, Miss Summerhaze," Mr. +Falconer replied with an earnest thankfulness in his voice. + +"Then please wait a few minutes till I explain things a little to my +mother;" and with a quick, light step Susan hurried away. + +Great were the surprise and interest awakened in the household by the +revelation she made in the next ten minutes. + +"Have her come right along to-night, poor thing!" the mother said, +overflowing with sympathy. + +Gertrude was triumphant. There was a warm glow on her cheek, and such +a happy light in her eyes as Susan afterward remembered with a pang. +"She had better have my room: it is so much more cheerful than the +guest-chamber," Gertrude said. + +Even Brother Tom, though demonstrated to have been on the wrong side, +was pleased, for he was good-natured and generous in his light manner. + +So Susan went back to Mr. Falconer, feeling that she had wings and +could soar to the heavens. And she was happier yet as she walked that +half block, her arm in his, feeling its warmth and strength. It is +all very well to speculate in stocks and to build houses, but for such +hearts as Susan's there is perhaps something better. + +Too soon for one of them their brief walk was ended, and Susan sat in +the neat, plainly-furnished parlor waiting the return of Mr. Falconer, +who had gone to seek his sister. When at length the door opened, Susan +sat forgetful, her gaze intent on the rare face that appeared by +Mr. Falconer's side. It was not that the face was beautiful, though +perhaps it was, or had been. It was picturesque, made so in great +measure by a stricken look it had, and a strange still whiteness. +It was one of those haunting faces that will not let themselves be +forgotten--a face that solemnized, because it indexed the mortal agony +of a human soul. + +"Miss Summerhaze, this is my sister, Mrs. Patterson." said Mr. +Falconer, + +With a sweet cordiality of manner the lady held out her hand: "My +brother has often told me about you: I am very glad to make your +acquaintance." + +Susan was greatly interested. "And I am very glad too," she said, +a tremor in her voice. She wanted to run away and cry off the great +flood of sympathy that was choking her. "Dear lady, may I kiss +you?" she wanted to say. "Poor dear! she needs brooding." This Susan +thought, and she wished she dared put out her arms and draw the sad +face to her bosom, the sad heart against her own. + +They talked over their plans, and then Mrs. Patterson and the little +girl went home with Susan. + +During Mrs. Patterson's stay with the Summerhazes, Mr. Falconer made +frequent calls, though his movements were marked by great caution, +lest they might betray the pursued wife to her husband. These calls +were of a general character, designed for the household, and not +exclusively for Mrs. Patterson. And they were continued after the lady +had returned to No. 649. But they were to Susan tortures. They were +but opportunities for noting the interest between Mr. Falconer and +Gertrude. This was evident not alone to Susan, or she might have had +some chance of charging it to the invention of her jealousy. Tom and +Mrs. Summerhaze had both remarked it. + +"He's well to do, Tom says, and stands respectable with the +business-men," the mother commented to Susan; "and Gertrude 'pears +fond of him, and he does of her; so I can't see any good reason why +they shouldn't marry if they want one another. Anyhow, it's better for +girls to marry and settle down and learn to housekeep--" + +"Yes, yes," cried Susan's heart with pathetic impatience, "it's +better, but--" + +"Instead of going to parties in thin shoes and cobweb frocks: I wonder +they don't all take the dipthery. And then they set up till morning. +I couldn't ever stand that: I'd be laid up with sick headache every +time. Besides, they eat them unhealthy oysters and Charlotte rooshes, +and such like: no wonder so many people get the dyspepsy. Yes, I think +Gertrude had better take Mr. Falconer if he wants her to. Ain't that +your mind about it, Susan?" + +"She had better accept him if--if--they love each other." Then Susan +grew faint and soul-sick, and something in her heart seemed to die, as +though she had spoken the fatal words that made them each other's for +ever--that cut her loose from her sweet romance and sent her drifting +into the gloom. + +That evening Mr. Falconer called. Susan said she was not well, and +kept her room. Gertrude had planned to go to the opera with Tom, but +she decided to remain at home. Long after Tom had gone out Susan in +her chamber above could hear from the parlor the murmur of voices--Mr. +Falconer's and Gertrude's. They were low and deep: the topic between +them was evidently no light one. While she listened her imagination +was busy concerning their subject, their attitudes, their looks, and +even their words. And every imagining was such a pain that she tried +to close her ear against their voices. Then she went to her mother's +room. Here, being forced to reply to commonplaces when all her thought +was strained to the parlor, she was soon driven back to her own +chamber. She turned the gas low and lay on a lounge, her face buried +in the cushion, abandoned to a wrecked feeling. + +After a time she heard some one enter her room. She sat up, and saw +Gertrude standing beside her, the gas turned high. She wished her +sister would go away: she hated the sight of that beautiful, glad +face. She turned her eyes away from it, and then, ashamed to begrudge +the young thing her happiness, she lifted her stained lids, to +Gertrude's face and smiled all she possibly could. She tried in that +moment to feel glad that the disappointment and grief had come to +her instead of Gertrude. Her heart was inured to a hard lot, but +Gertrude's had always been sheltered. It would be a pity to have it +turned out into the cold: her own had long been used to chill and to +hunger. + +"Susie, won't you go with us sleigh-riding to-morrow evening?" +Gertrude asked. "Mr. Falconer and I have planned a sleighing-party for +to-morrow evening. They say the sleighing is perfectly superb." + +"Is that what you've been doing?" Susan asked, feeling somehow that +there would be a relief in hearing that it was all. + +"That's a part of what we've been doing." A rosy glow came into +Gertrude's cheek, and the old mean, jealous feeling came back into +Susan's heart. "Mr. Falconer wants you to go," said Gertrude. + +"He does not," Susan returned in a fierce tone. She was forgetting +herself: her heart was giddy and blind with the sudden wave of +bitterness that came pouring over it. "He wants you: nobody wants me. +Go away!" + +"Of course I'll go away if you want me to," Gertrude replied, pouting +and looking injured, but yet lingering at Susan's side. She had +come to tell something, and she didn't wish to be defrauded of the +pleasure. "I guess you're asleep yet, Susie. Wake up and look at +this;" and Gertrude held her beautiful white hand before Susan's eyes, +and pointed to a superb solitaire diamond that blazed like a star on +her finger. She sat down beside her sister. "I'm engaged, Susie, and +I came up here to ask your blessing, and you're so cross to me;" and +Gertrude put her head on Susan's shoulder and shed a few tears. + +Susan could have cried out with frantic pain. "But," she thought, +"I knew it was coming. After all, I am glad to have the suspense +ended--to be brought to face the matter squarely." + +In response to Gertrude's reproach Susan said in a low tone that was +almost a whisper, "I congratulate you: I think you are doing well." + +"Of course I'm doing well," Gertrude said, lifting her head and +speaking with triumphant animation. "He's wealthy and handsome, and +half the girls in our set are dying for him. But we've been about the +same as engaged for months. But about two weeks ago we had an awful +quarrel, all about nothing. But we were both so spunky I don't believe +we ever would have made up in the wide world if it hadn't been for +Mr. Falconer. He just went back and forth between us until I agreed +to grant Phil an interview. So Phil came round to-night; and don't you +believe the conceited thing brought the ring along!" + +Susan was listening with wide-opened, staring eyes, like one in a +trance. It wasn't Mr. Falconer, then; and who in the world was Phil? +Was she awake? Had she heard aright? Yes, there was the ring and there +was Gertrude, and she was still speaking: "I've already picked out my +bridesmaids, I'm going to have Nellie Trowbridge--Phil's sister, you +know--she's going to stand with Tom; and you're going to stand with +Mr. Falconer, because he's the senior partner in Phil's firm: and then +I'm going to have Delia Spaulding and Minnie Lathrop, because they'll +make a good exhibition, they're so stylish." + +On and on Gertrude went, talking of white satin and tulle and lace and +bridal veils and receptions. And Susan sat and listened with a happy +light in her eyes, and now and then laughed a little glad laugh or +spoke some sweet word of sympathy. + +At a late hour in the night Susan put her arms around her sister and +kissed the happy young face once, twice, three times, and said, in no +whisper now, "God bless you, dear!" Then Gertrude went away to happy +dreams, and left Susan to happy thoughts--at last. + +No, not at last. The "at last" did not come till the next evening, +when by Mr. Falconer's side, warm and snug under the great wolf-robe, +Susan heard something. With the something there came at length to the +tired, hungry, waiting heart the thrill, the transport, the enchanted +music that makes this earth a changed world. + +SARAH WINTER KELLOGG. + + + + +AFTER A YEAR. + + Dear! since they laid thee underneath the snow + But one brief year with all its days hath past. + Methought its hurrying moments flew too fast: + I would have had them lingering, move more slow; + For of the past one happy thing I know, + That thou wert of it; but these swift days flee, + And bear me to a future void of thee. + Yet still I feel that ever as I go + I know thee better, and I love thee more. + As one withdraws from a tall mountain's base + To see its summit, bright, remote and high, + So hath my heart through distance learnt its lore, + The knowledge of thy soul's most secret grace-- + Those silent heights that lose themselves in sky. + +KATE HILLARD. + + + + +THE BERKSHIRE LADY. + + +_To the Editor of Lippincot's Magazine_: + +SIR: There are few pleasanter ways of passing a desultory hour than +haphazard reading amongst old numbers of a good magazine. I say +advisedly "a desultory hour," for when it comes to more than that the +habit is apt to become demoralizing. And, excellent as many English +magazines are, I must own that for this particular purpose I give +the preference to our American cousins. It would not be easy to say +precisely why, but so it is. One feels lighter after them than one +does after the same time given to their English confrères. It may be +that there is more abandon, more tumbling in them--much more of that +borderland writing (if one may use the phrase) so good, as I think, +for magazine purposes, which you skim with a kind of titillating doubt +in your mind whether it is jest or earnest--whether you are to take +seriously, or the writer intended you to take seriously, what he +is telling you; and so you may drop into a sort of dreamy +_Alice-in-Wonderland_ state, prepared to accept whatever comes next in +a purely receptive condition, and without any desire to ask questions. + +It was in such a frame of mind, and with considerable satisfaction, +that I found myself some time since sitting in a friend's house with +a spare corner of time on my hands, in a comfortable armchair, and a +number of old _Lippincotts_ on the table by my side, the odds and +ends of the collection of a young countrywoman of mine of literary and +Transatlantic tastes. I glanced through some half dozen numbers taken +up at hazard, recognizing here and there an old friend--for I have +been an on-and-off reader in these pages for years--and getting just +pleasantly pricked with a number of new ideas, as to which I felt no +responsibility--no need of ticketing or labeling or packing them--when +I came suddenly upon a paper which sharply roused me from my mood of +_laisser aller_. It was by your accomplished and amusing contributor +Lady Blanche Murphy, and the subject just such a one as one would wish +to happen on under the circumstances--Slains Castle, one of the oldest +and most romantic of the grim palace-keeps which are dotted over +Scotland, round which legends cluster so thick that there is not one +of their towers, scarcely a slender old mullioned window, which is not +specially connected with some stirring tale of love, war or crime. But +Slains stands pre-eminent among Scotch castles on other grounds, and +has an interest which the doings of the earls of Errol, its lords, +could never have won for it. The Wizard of the North has thrown his +spell over it, and, whether Sir Walter Scott intended it or not, +Slains is accepted now as the Elangowan Castle in _Guy Mannering_. + +Now, with all these rich stores to work on, these exceeding many +flocks and herds of Northern legend and glamour, Lady Blanche should +surely have been content, and not have descended into the South of +England, upon a quiet country-house in Berkshire, to seize its one +ewe lamb and claim that the heroine of the story which I hope to tell +before I get to the end of my paper was none other than the termagant +Countess Mary, hereditary lord high constable of Scotland, and the +owner of Slains Castle at the beginning of last century. + +Sir, I am bound to admit that this audacious claim spoilt my +wanderings up and down the pages of your excellent magazine, and I +resolved that whenever I should find time I would write to you to +revindicate the claims of the "Berkshire Lady" to be native born and +entirely unconnected with the Countess Mary or Slains Castle. I can +scarcely remember the time when I did not know the story, which indeed +all Berkshire boys--or at any rate all Bath-road Berkshire boys--took +as regularly as measles in early youth. But let me explain to +New-World readers what I mean by a Bath-road Berkshire boy. Our royal +county of Berks is in shape somewhat like a highlow or ancle-jack boot +with the toe toward London, and at the tip of the toe Windsor Castle, +which, as we all know, looks down on the Thames as it finally leaves +the county, of which it has formed the northern boundary for more than +one hundred miles. The sweet river--for in spite of all pollution it +is still sweet at Windsor--has run all along the top of the boot +and down the instep, and along the toes, taking Oxford, Abingdon, +Wallingford, Henley, Reading and Maidenhead in its way, with other +places historically interesting in a small way over here, but which +would scarcely be known by name even in the best-drilled classes of +your public schools. Along the sole of the boot, from the heel at +Hungerford, but sloping gently upward till it joins the Thames at +Reading, runs another stream (a river we call it in little England)-- + + The Kennet swift, for silver eels renowned. + +Now, before the Great Western Railway had opened up the county the +only main line of road which passed through it was the great Bath +road, which entered near the toe at Windsor and ran along the sole for +the greater part of the way by the side of the Kennet to the extreme +heel at Hungerford. All the northern part of the county--the Thames +valley and Vale of White Horse, and the hill-district which separates +these from the Vale of Kennet--was at that time pierced only by +cross-country roads, and remained during the pre-railroad era one of +the most primitive districts of the West of England. Its inhabitants +retained their broad drawling speech, very slightly modified from +Tudor times, and looked with a mixture of distrust and envy even on +their fellow county brethren in the Kennet Valley, who were being +demoralized by their daily intercourse with London through the +constantly growing traffic of the Bath road. Along that thoroughfare, +besides strings of post-chaises, vans and wagons, ran daily more than +one hundred coaches most of which started from Bristol, and made the +journey to London in the day. The best of them did their ten miles an +hour, and so punctually that many of the inhabitants preferred setting +their watches by the "York House." the "Tantivy" or the "Bristol Mail" +rather than by the village clock. It were much to be desired that +their gigantic successor would follow their excellent example more +faithfully in this matter. + +Notwithstanding the distrust with which we of the back country were +bred to regard the metropolitan varnish which was thus undermining the +ancient Berkshire habits and speech along our one great artery, it was +always, I am bound to admit, a high day for the dweller in uncorrupted +Berkshire when business or pleasure drew him from his home in the +downs or rich pastures of the primitive northern half of the county by +devious parish ways to the nearest point on the great Bath road, where +he was to meet the coach which would carry him in a few hours "in +amongst the tide of men." I can still vividly recall the pleasing +thrill of excitement which ran through us when we caught the first +faint clink of hoof and roll of wheels, which told of the approach +of the coach before the leaders appeared over the brow of the gentle +slope some two hundred yards from the cross-roads, where, recently +deposited from the family phaeton (dog-carts not having been yet +invented), we had been waiting with our trunk beside us in joyful +expectation. Thrice happy if, as the coach pulled up to take us on +board, we heard the inspiring words "room in front," and proceeded to +scramble up and take our seats behind the box, waving a cheerful +adieu to the sober family servant as he turned his horse's head slowly +homeward, his mission discharged. + +The habit of our family, and of most others, was to attach ourselves +to one particular coach or coachman on the road, as thus special +attention was secured for ladies or children traveling alone, and +preference as to places should there happen to be a glut of would-be +passengers. I cannot honestly say that the old Bath-road coachman +was, as a rule, an attractive member of society, though the mellowing +effects of time and the traditions of the road (helped largely by the +immortal sayings and doings of Mr. Tony Weller) have done much for his +class. He was often a silent, short-tempered fellow, with a very keen +eye for half-crowns, and no information to speak of as to the country +which passed daily under his eyes. But there were plenty of exceptions +to the rule, of whom Bob Naylor was perhaps the most remarkable +example. He had no doubt been selected as our guardian on the road for +his kindly and genial nature and great love of children, and for his +repute as one of the safest of whips. But, besides these sterling +qualities, he was gifted with irrepressible spirits, a good voice and +ear, and a special delight in the exercise of them. To county magnate +or parson or stranger seated by him on the box he could be as decorous +as a churchwarden, and talk of politics or cattle or county business +with all due solemnity. But he was only at his best when "the front" +was occupied by boys, or at any rate with a strong sprinkling of boys, +amongst whom he was quite at his ease, and who were even more eager +to hear than he to sing and talk. And of both songs and talk he had +a curious and ample store. Of songs his own special favorites, I +remember, were a long ballad in which a faithful soldier is informed +on his return to his native village that his own true love "lives with +her own granny dear," which he, his mind running in military grooves, +takes for "grenadier," with temporarily distressing results--though +all comes right at last--and a lyrical description of an upset of his +coach, the only one he ever had, written by a gifted hostler. But on +call he could give "The Tight Little Island," "Rule Britannia" or any +one of a dozen other insular melodies. + +Then his talk was racy of his beloved road, of which he would recount +the glories even in the days of its decline, when the cormorant iron +way was already swallowing stage after stage of the best of it. He +would narrate to us the doings and feats of mighty whips--notably of +a never-to-be-forgotten dinner at the Pelican Inn, Newbury, to which +were gathered the _élite_ of the Bath-road cracksmen. At that great +repast we heard how "for wittles there was trout, speckled like a +dane dog, weal as wite as allablaster, sherry-wite-wine, red-port, +and everything in season. Then for company there was Sir Pay (Sir H. +Peyton), Squire Willy boys (Vielbois), Cherry Bob, Long Dick, _and_ +I; and where would you go to find five sech along any road out of +London?" But his crowning story, which he never missed as he cracked +his four bays along on the first stage west out of Reading, was that +of the Berkshire Lady, which, alas! my gifted countrywoman has now +laid covetous hands on and claimed for that dour Lady Mary Hay, +hereditary lord high constable of Scotland, + +The "Berkshire Lady" is so bound up in my mind with my early friend +of the road, from whom I first heard it, that I have let Memory fairly +run away with me. But now, if your readers will pardon me for this +gossip, I will promise to stick to my text. + +At the beginning of the last century the fortune of one of the last of +the "Great Clothiers of the West," John Kendrick, was inherited by a +young lady, his granddaughter, who thus became the mistress of Calcott +Park, past which the Bath road runs, three miles to the west of +Reading. The house stands some three hundred yards from the road, +facing due south, with a background of noble timber behind it, and +in front a gentle slope of fine green turf, on which the deer seem to +delight in grouping themselves at the most picturesque points. Miss +Kendrick is said to have been beautiful and accomplished, and it is +certain that she was an eccentric young person, who turned a deaf +ear to the suits of many wooers, for, as the ballad quoted by your +contributor says-- + + Many noble persons courted + This young lady, 'tis reported; + But their labor was in vain: + They could not her love obtain. + +This metrical version of the story is, I fear, lost except the +fragments which I shall quote; at least I have sought for it in vain +in all likely quarters since reading Lady Blanche's article. + +So Miss Kendrick lived a lonely and stately life in Calcott Park. + +Now, at this time there was a young gentleman of the name of Benjamin +Child, a barrister of the Temple, belonging to the western circuit, of +which Reading is the first assize-town. He came of a family which had +seen better days, but his ancestors had suffered in the civil war, and +he had no fortune but his good looks. His practice was as slender as +his means, but nevertheless he managed to ride the western circuit +after the judges of assize. The arrival of the judges in a county-town +in those days was a signal for hospitalities and festivities in which +the circuit barristers were welcome guests, and one spring assizes +Benjamin Child found himself at a wedding and ball, where no doubt he +carried himself as a young gentleman of good birth and town breeding +should. + +Next morning he received at his lodgings a written challenge, +which alleged that he had grievously injured the writer at the +entertainments on the previous day, and appointed a meeting in Calcott +Park on the following morning to settle the affair in mortal combat. +In those days no gentleman could refuse such an invitation, +and accordingly Child appeared at the appointed time and place, +accompanied by another young barrister as his second. The rendezvous +was at a spot near the present lodge, and the young men on arriving +found the lawn occupied by two women in masks, while a carriage +was drawn up under some trees hard by. They were naturally in some +embarrassment, from which they were scarcely relieved when the ladies +advanced to meet them, and Child learned that one of them was his +challenger, the mortal offence being that he had won her heart at the +Reading ball, and that she had come there to demand satisfaction. + + So, now take your choice, says she-- + Either fight or marry me. + + Said he, Madam, pray, what mean ye? + In my life I ne'er have seen ye, + Pray, unmask, your visage show, + Then I'll tell you, ay or no. + + _Lady_. I shall not my face uncover + Till the marriage rites are over. + Therefore, take you which you will-- + Wed me, sir, or try your skill. + +Benjamin Child retires to consult with his friend, who advises him-- + + If my judgment may be trusted, + Wed her, man: you can't be worsted. + If she's rich, you rise in fame; + If she's poor, you are the same. + +This advice, coupled perhaps with the figure and appearance of his +challenger, and the family coach in the background, prevails, and the +two young men and the masked ladies drive to Tilchurst parish church, +where the priest is waiting. After the ceremony the bride, + + With a courteous, kind behavior, + Did present his friend a favor: + Then she did dismiss him straight, + That he might no longer wait. + +They then drive, the bride still masked, to Calcott House, where he is +left alone in a fair parlor for two hours, till + + He began to grieve at last, + For he had not broke his fast. + +Then the steward appears and asks his business, and + + There was peeping, laughing, jeering, + All within the lawyer's hearing; + But his bride he could not see. + "Would I were at home!" said he. + +At last the dénouement comes. The lady of the house appears and +addresses him: + + _Lady_. Sir, my servants have related + That some hours you have waited + In my parlor. Tell me who + In this house you ever knew? + + _Gentleman_. Madam, if I have offended + It is more than I intended. + A young lady brought me here. + "That is true," said she, "my dear." + +His challenger was the heiress of Calcott, where he lived with her for +many years; and + + Now he's clothed in rich attire, + Not inferior to a squire. + Beauty, honor, riches, store! + What can man desire more? + +They had two daughters, through one of whom the property has descended +to the Blagraves, the present owners. + +And so ends the story of "The Berkshire Lady," and if it should meet +the eye of your accomplished contributor I trust she will for ever +hereafter give up all claim on behalf of Lady Mary Hay. + +Perhaps, too, some of your readers may be led to visit the scene +of these doings if they ever come to wander about the old country. +Reading is only an hour from London now-a-days, and I will promise +them that they will not easily find a fairer corner in all England. +The Bath road, it is true, is now comparatively deserted, and no +well-appointed coaches flash by in front of Calcott Park. But it is +an easy three miles' walk or ride from Reading Station, and by missing +one train the pilgrim may get a glimpse of English country-life under +its most favorable aspects, while at the same time, if skeptical as +to this "strange yet true narration," as the metrical chronicler calls +it, he may at any rate satisfy himself as to the marriage of B. Child +and the Berkshire Lady, and the birth of their two daughters, by +inspecting the parish register at Tilchurst church for the years 1710 +to 1713. + +THOMAS HUGHES. + + + + +THE SABBATH OF THE LOST[1]. + + + Mid homes eternal of the blessed + Erewhile beheld in trance of prayer, + A secret wish the saint possessed + To see the regions of despair. + + The Power in whose omniscient ken + The thoughts of every heart abide + Sent him to those lost souls of men, + A splendid spirit for his guide-- + + Michael, the warrior, the prince + Of those before the throne who dwell, + The brightest of archangels since, + Eclipsed, the son of morning fell. + + Down through the voids of light they sped + Till Heaven's anthems faintly rung + Through darkening space, and overhead + Earth's planets dim and dwindled hung. + + Still downward into lurid gloom + The saint and angel took their way, + Moving within a clear cool room, + The light benign of heavenly day. + + The wretched thronged on every side. + "Have mercy on us, radiant twain! + O Paul! beloved of God!" they cried, + "Pray Heaven for surcease of our pain." + + "Weep, weep, unhappy ones, bewail! + We too our prayers and tears will lend: + Our supplication may prevail, + And haply God some respite send." + + Then upward from the lost there swept + Entreaty multitudinous, + As every wave of ocean wept: + "O Christ! have mercy upon us!" + + And as their clamor rose on high + Beyond the pathway of the sun, + Heav'n's happy legions joined the cry, + Their voices melting into one. + + The saint, up-gazing through the dew + Of pity brimming o'er his eyes, + Discerned in Heav'n's remotest blue + The Son of God lean from the skies. + + Then through their agonies were heard + The tones which still'd the angry sea, + The voice of the Eternal Word: + "And do ye ask repose of me? + + "Me whom ye pierced with curse and jeer, + Whose mortal thirst ye quenched with gall? + I died for your immortal cheer: + What profit have I of you all? + + "Liars, traducers, proud in thought, + Misers! no offering of psalms + Or prayer or thanks ye ever brought-- + No deed of penitence or alms." + + Michael and Paul at that dread speech, + With all the myriads of Heaven, + Fell on their faces to beseech + Peace for the lost one day in seven. + + The Son of God, who hearkens prayer, + In mercy to those souls forlorn + Bade that their torments should forbear + From Sabbath eve to Monday morn. + + The torments swarmed forth at the gate-- + Hell's solemn guardians let them pass: + Those awful cherubim who wait + All sorrowful surveyed the mass. + + But from the lost a single cry, + Which rang rejoicing through the spheres: + "O blessed Son of God most high! + Two nights, a day, no pain or tears?" + + "O Son of God, for ever blessed! + Praise and give thanks, all spirits sad: + A day, two nights of perfect rest? + So much on earth we never had!" + +[Footnote 1: See Fauriel, _Hist. de la Poésie provençale_, tom. i. ch. +8.] + + + + +THE ATONEMENT OF LEAM DUNDAS. + +BY MRS. E. LYNN LINTON, AUTHOR OF "PATRICIA KEMBALL." + + +CHAPTER XXIX. + +THE FRIEND OF THE FUTURE. + + +Instead of going home when she left Steel's Corner, Leam turned up +into the wood, making for the old hiding-place where she and Alick had +so often sat in the first days of her desolation and when he had been +her sole comforter. She was very sorrowful, and oppressed with doubts +and self-reproaches. As she climbed the steep wood-path, her eyes +fixed on the ground, her empty basket in her hand, and her heart as +void of hope or joy as was this of flowers, she thought over the last +hour as she might have thought over a death. How sorry she was that +Alick had said those words! how grieved that he loved her like this, +when she did not love him, when she could never have loved him if even +she had not been a Spaniard and her mother's daughter! + +But she did not wish that he was different from what he was, so that +she might have been able to return his love. Leam had none of that +shifting uncertainty, that want of a central determination, which +makes so many women transact their lives by an If. She knew what she +did not feel, and she did not care to regret the impossible, to tamper +with the indefinite. She knew that she neither loved Alick nor, wished +to love him. Whether she had unwittingly deceived him in the first +place, and in the second ought to sacrifice herself for him, unloving, +was each a question on which she pondered full of those doubts and +self-reproaches that so grievously beset her. + +As she was wandering drearily onward Mr. Gryce saw her from a side +path. He struck off to meet her, smiling, for he had taken a strong +affection for this strange and beautiful young creature, which he +justified to himself as interest in her history. + +This acute, suspicious and inquisitive old heathen had some queer +notions packed away in his wallet of biological speculations--notions +which supplemented the fruits of his natural gifts, and which +he always managed to harmonize with what he already knew by more +commonplace means. He had been long in the East, whence he had brought +a cargo of half-scientific, half-superstitious fancies--belief +in astrology, mesmerism, spiritualism, and cheiromancy the most +prominent. He could cast a horoscope, summon departed spirits, heal +the sick and read the reticent by mesmeric force, and explain the past +as well as prophesy the future by the lines in the hand. + +So at least he said; and people were bound to believe that he believed +in himself when he said so. He had once looked at Leam's hand, and had +seen something there which, translated by his rules, had helped him +on the road that he had already opened for himself by private inquiry +based on the likelihood of things. Crime, love, sorrow--it was no +ordinary history that was printed in the lines of her feverish little +palm, as it was no ordinary character that looked out from her intense +pathetic face. There was something almost as interesting here as a +meditation on the mystic Nirvana or a discourse on that persistent +residuum of all myths--Maya, delusion. + +It was to follow up the line thus opened to him that he had attached +himself with so much zeal to his landlord, unsympathetic as such a man +as Sebastian Dundas must needs be to a metaphysical and superstitious +student of humanity, a born detective, shrewd, inquisitive and +suspicious. But he attached himself for the sake of Leam and her +future, saying often to himself, "By and by. She will come to me by +and by, when I can be useful to her." + +Meanwhile, Leam received his cares with the characteristic +indifference of youth for the attentions of age. She was not at the +back of the motives which prompted him, and thought him tiresome with +his mild way of getting to know so many things that were no concern of +his. The shrewd guesses which he was making, and the terrible mosaic +that he was piecing together out of such stray fragments as he could +pick up--and he was always picking them up--were hidden from her; and +she understood nothing of the mingled surmise and certainty which made +his interest in her partly retrospective and partly prophetic, as +he fitted in bit by bit that hidden thing in the past or foresaw the +discovery that must come in the future. She only thought him tiresome +and inquisitive, and wished that he would not come so often to see +papa. + +It did not take a large amount of that faculty of thought-reading +which Mr. Gryce claimed as so peculiarly his own to see that something +unusual had happened to disturb poor Leam to-day. As she came on, so +wrapped in the sorrow of her thoughts that the world around her was +as a world that is dead--taking no heed of the flowers, the birds, +the sweet spring scents, the glory of the deep-blue sky, while the +flickering shadows of the budding branches played over her like the +shadow of the net in which she had entangled herself--she looked the +very embodiment of despair. Her face, never joyous, was now infinitely +tragic. Her dark eyes were bright with the tears that lay behind them; +her proud mouth had drooped at the corners; she was walking as one +who neither knows where she is nor sees what is before her, as one for +whom there is no sun by day and no stars for the night--lost to all +sense but the one faculty of suffering. She did not even see that some +one stood straight in the path before her, till "Whither and whence?" +asked Mr. Gryce, barring her way. + +Then she started and looked up. Evidently she had not heard him. He +repeated the question with a difference. "Ah! good-morning to you, +Miss Dundas. Where are you going? where have you been?" he said in +his soft, low-pitched, lisping voice, with the provincial accent +struggling through its patent affectation. + +"I am going to the yew tree and I have been to Steel's Corner," she +answered slowly, in her odd, almost mathematically exact manner of +reply. + +"From Steel's Corner! And how is that excellent young man, our deputy +shepherd?" he asked. + +"Better," she said with even more than her usual curtness, and she was +never prolix. + +"He has been fearfully ill, poor fellow!" said Mr. Gryce, in the +manner of an ejaculation. + +She looked at the flowers with which the wood was golden and azure. +"Yes," was her not too eloquent assent. + +"And you have been sorry?" + +"Every one has been sorry," said Leam evasively. + +"Yes, you have been sorry," he repeated: "I have read it in your +face." + +He had done nothing of the kind: he had guessed it from the fact of +her daily visits, and he had surmised a special interest from that +other group of facts which had first set him thinking--namely, that +Steel's Corner owned a laboratory--two, for the matter of that; that +old Dr. Corfield was a clever toxicologist; that Leam had stayed there +during her father's honeymoon; and that her stepmother had died on +the night of her arrival. "And your average Englishman calls himself +a creature with brains and inductive powers!" was his unspoken +commentary on the finding of the coroner's jury and the verdict of the +coroner. "Bull is a fool," the old heathen used to think, hugging his +own superior sagacity as a gift beyond those which Nature had allowed +to Bull in the abstract. + +"I have known him since I was a child. Of course, I have been sorry," +said Leam coldly. + +She disliked being questioned as much as being touched. The two, +indeed, were correlative. + +"Early friendships are very dear," said Mr. Gryce, watching her. He +was opening the vein of another idea which he had long wanted to work. + +She was silent. + +"Don't you think so?" he asked. + +"They may be," was her reluctant answer. + +"No, they are--believe me, they are. The happiest fate that man or +woman can have is to marry the early friend--transform the playmate of +childhood into the lover of maturity, the companion of age." + +Leam made no reply. She was afraid of this soft-voiced, large-eyed, +benevolent old man who seemed able to read the hidden things of life +at will. It disturbed her that he should speak at this moment of the +happiness lying in the fulfillment of youthful friendship by the way +of mature love; and, proud and self-restrained as her bearing was, Mr. +Gryce saw through the calmer surface into the disturbance beneath. + +"Don't you think so?" he asked for the second time. + +"How should I know?" Leam answered, raising her eyes, but not looking +into her companion's face--looking an inch or two above his head. "I +have seen too little to say which is best." + +"True, my child, I had forgotten that," he said kindly. "Will you take +my word for it, then, in lieu of your own experience?" + +"That depends," said Leam. "What is good for one is not good for all." + +"But safety is always good," returned Mr. Gryce, meaning to fall back +on the safety of love and happiness if he had made a bad shot by his +aim at safety from the detection of crime. + +A scared look passed over Leam's face. It was a look that meant a cry. +She pressed her hands together and involuntarily drew back a step, +cowering. She felt as if some strong hand had struck her a heavy blow, +and that it had made her reel. "You are cruel to say that. Why should +I marry--?" She began in a defiant tone, and then she stopped. Was she +not betraying herself for the very fear of discovery? + +"Alick Corfield, for instance?" put in Mr. Gryce, at a venture. "He +may serve for an illustration as well as any one else," he added with +a soothing kind of indifference, troubled by the intense terror that +came for one moment into her face. How soon he had startled her +from her poor little hiding-place! How easy the assumption of +extraordinary, powers based on the clever use of ordinary faculties! +Your true magician is, after all, only your quiet and accurate +observer. "You are not vexed that I speak of him when I want a +name?" he asked, after a pause to give Leam time to regain her +self-possession, to readjust the screen, to fasten once more the mask. + +"Why should I be vexed?" she said in a low voice. + +"He is not disagreeable to you?" + +"No, he is my friend," she answered. + +"And a good fellow," said Mr. Gryce, lisping over a maple twig. "Don't +you think so?" + +"He is good," responded Leam like a dry and lifeless echo. + +"An admirable son." + +"Yes." + +"A devoted friend--a friend to be trusted to the death; a man without +his price, incorruptible, with whom a secret, say, would be as safe as +if buried in the grave. He would not give it even to the wind, and no +reed on his land would whisper 'Midas has ass's ears.'" + +"He is good," she repeated with a shiver. Yet the sun was shining and +the spring-tide air was sweet and warm. + +"And he would make the most faithful and indulgent husband." + +There was no answer. + +"Do you not agree with me?" + +"How should I know?" she answered; and she said no more, though she +still shivered. + +"Be sure of it--take my word for it," he said again, earnestly. + +"It is nothing to me. And I hate your word _indulgent_!" cried Leam +with a flash of her mother's fierceness. + +Mr. Gryce, still watching her, smiled softly to himself. His love of +knowledge, as he euphemistically termed his curiosity, was roused to +the utmost, and he was like a hunter who has struck an obscure +trail. He wished to follow this thing to the end, and to know in what +relations she and her old friend stood together--if Alick knew what +he, Mr. Gryce, knew now, and had offered to marry her notwithstanding; +and whether, if he had offered, Leam had refused or accepted. +Observation and induction were hurrying him very near the point. Her +changing color, her averted eyes, her effort to maintain the pride and +coldness which were as a rule maintained without effort, the spasm +of terror that had crossed her face when he had spoken of Alick's +fidelity, all confirmed him in his belief that he was on the right +track, and that the lines in her hand coincided with the facts of +her tragic life. Tragic indeed--one of those lives fated from the +beginning, doomed to sorrow and to crime like the Orestes, the +Oedipus, of old. + +But if he was curious, he was compassionate: if he tortured her now, +it was that he might care for her hereafter. That hereafter would +come--he knew that--and then he would make himself her salvation. + +He thought all this as he still watched her, Leam standing there like +a creature fascinated, longing to break the spell and escape, and +unable. + +"Tell me," then said Mr. Gryce in a soft and crooning kind of voice, +coming nearer to her, "what do you think of gratitude?" + +"Gratitude is good," said Leam slowly, in the manner of one whose +answer is a completed thesis. + +"But how far?" + +"I do not know what you mean," she answered with a weary sigh. + +Again he smiled: it was a soft, sleepy, soothing kind of smile, that +was almost an opiate. + +"You are not good at metaphysics?" he said, coming still nearer and +passing his short thick hands over her head carressingly. + +"I am not good at anything," she answered dreamily. + +"Yes, at many things--to answer me for one--but bad at dialectics." + +"I do not understand your hard words," said Leam, her sense of injury +at being addressed in an unknown tongue rousing her from the torpor +creeping over her. + +How much she wished that he would release her! She had no power to +leave him of her own free-will. A certain compelling something in +Mr. Gryce always forced her to do just as he wished--to answer his +questions, stay when he stopped, follow when he beckoned. She resented +in feeling, but she obeyed in fact; and he valued her obedience more +than he regretted her resentment. + +"How far would you go to prove your gratitude?" he continued. + +"I do not know," said Leam, the weary sigh repeated. + +"Would you marry for gratitude where you did not love?" + +"No," she answered in a low voice. + +"Would you marry for fear, then, if not for gratitude or love? If you +were in the power of a man, would you marry that man to save yourself +from all chance of betrayal? I have known women who would. Are you one +of them?" + +Again he passed his hands over her head and across and down her face. +His voice sounded sweet and soft as honey: it was like a cradle-song +to a tired child. Leam's eyes drooped heavily. A mist seemed stealing +up before her through which everything was transformed--by which the +sunshine became as a golden web wherein she was entangled, and the +shadows as lines of the net that held her--where the songs of the +birds melted into distant harmonies echoing the sleepy sweetness of +that soft compelling voice, and where the earth was no longer solid, +but a billowy cloud whereon she floated rather than stood. A strange +sense of isolation possessed her. It was as if she were alone in the +universe, with some all-powerful spirit who was questioning her of the +secret things of life, and whose questions she must answer. Mr. Gryce +was not the tenant of Lionnet, as the world knew him, but a mild yet +awful god, in whose presence she stood revealed, and who was reading +her soul, like her past, through and through. She was before him there +as a criminal before a judge--discovered, powerless--and all attempt +at concealment was at an end. + +"Tell me what you know," said the soft and honeyed voice, ever +sweeter, ever more soothing, more deadening to her senses. + +Leam's whole form drooped, yielded, submitted. In another moment she +would have made full confession, when suddenly the harsh cry of +a frightened bird near at hand broke up the sleepy harmonies and +scattered the compelling charm. Leam started, flung back her head, +opened her eyes wide and fixed them full on her inquisitor. Then she +stiffened herself as if for a personal resistance, passed her hands +over her face as if she were brushing it from cobwebs, and said in a +natural voice, offended, haughty, cold, "I did not hear what you said. +I was nearly asleep." + +"Wake, then," said Mr. Gryce, making a movement as if he too were +brushing away cobwebs from her face. After a pause he took both her +hands in his. "Child," he said, speaking naturally, without a lisp +and with a broader provincial accent than usual--speaking, too, with +ill-concealed emotion--"some day you will need a friend. When that day +dawns come to me. Promise me this. I know your life and what lies in +the past. Do not start--no, nor cover your face, my child. I am safe, +and so are you. You must feel this, that I may be of use to you when +you want me; for you will want me some day, and I shall be the only +one who can save you." + +"What do you know?" asked Leam, making one supreme effort over herself +and confronting him. + +"Everything," said Mr. Gryce solemnly. + +"Then I am lost," she answered in a low voice. + +"You are saved," he said with tenderness. "Do not be afraid of me: +rather thank God that He has given you into my care. You have +two friends now instead of one, and the latest the most powerful. +Good-bye, my poor misguided and bewildered child. A greater than you +or I once said, 'Her sins, which are many, are forgiven her, because +she loved much.' Cannot you take that to yourself? If not now, nor yet +when remorse is your chief thought, you will later. Till then, trust +and hope." + +He turned to leave her, tears in his eyes. + +"Stay!" cried Leam, but he only shook his head and waved his hand. + +"Not now," he said, smiling as he broke through the wood, leaving her +with the impression that a chasm had suddenly opened at her feet, into +which sooner or later she must fall. + +She stood a few moments where the old philosopher and born detective +had left her, then went up the path to the hiding-place where she +had so often before found the healing to be had from Nature and +solitude--to the old dark-spreading yew, which somehow seemed to be +more her friend than any human being could be or was--more than even +Alick in his devotedness or Mr. Gryce in his protection. And there, +sitting on the lowest branch, and sitting so still that the birds +came close to her and were not afraid, she dreamed herself back to the +desolate days of her innocent youth--those days which were before she +had committed a crime or gained friend or lover. + +She had been miserable enough then--one alone in the world and one +against the world. But how gladly she would have exchanged her present +state for the worst of her days then! How she wished that she had died +with mamma, or, living, had not taken it as her duty to avenge those +wrongs which the saints allowed! Oh, what a tangled dream it all was! +she so hideously guilty in fact, and yet that thought of hers, if +unreal and insane, that had not been a sin. + +But she must wake to the reality of the present, not sit here dreaming +over the past and its mystery of loving crime. She must go on as if +life were a mere holiday-time of peace with her, where no avenging +Furies followed her, lurking in the shadows, no sorrows threatened +her, looking out with scared, scarred faces from the distance. She +must carry her burden to the end, remembering that it was one of her +own making, and for self-respect must be borne with that courage of +despair which lets no one see what is suffered. Of what good to dream, +to lament? She must live with dignity while she chose to live. When +her grief had grown too great for her strength, then she could take +counsel with herself whether the fire of life was worth the trouble of +keeping alight, or might not rather be put out without more ado. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX. + +MAYA--DELUSION. + + +Leam was not dedicated to peace to-day. As she turned out of the road +she came upon the rectory pony-carriage--Adelaide driving Josephine +and little Fina--just as it had halted in the highway for Josephine to +speak to her brother. + +Adelaide was looking very pretty. Her delicate pink cheeks were rather +more flushed and her blue eyes darker and fuller of expression than +usual. Change of air had done her good, and Edgar's evident admiration +was even a better stimulant. She and her mother had ended their +absence from North Aston by a visit to the lord lieutenant of the +county, and she was not sorry to be able to speak familiarly of +certain great personages met there as her co-guests--the prime +minister for one and an archbishop for another. And as Edgar was, she +knew, influenced by the philosophy of fitness more than most men, she +thought the prime minister and the archbishop good cards to play at +this moment. + +Edgar was listening to her, pleased, smiling, thinking how pretty +she looked, and taking her social well-being and roll-call of grand +friendships as gems that enriched him too--flowers in his path as well +as roses in her hand, and as a sunny sky overarching both alike. She +really was a very charming girl--just the wife for an English country +gentleman--just the mistress for a place like the Hill, the heart of +the man owning the Hill not counting. + +But when Leam turned from the wood-path into the road, Edgar felt +like a man who has allowed himself to be made enthusiastic over but +an inferior bit of art, knowing better. Her beautiful face, with its +glorious eyes so full of latent passion, dreaming thought, capacity +for sorrow--all that most excites yet most softens the heart of a man; +her exquisite figure, so fine in its lines, so graceful yet not weak, +so tender yet not sensual; as she stood there in the sunlight the +gleam of dusky gold showing on the edges of her dark hair; her very +attitude and action as she held a basket full of wild-flowers which +with unconscious hypocrisy she had picked to give herself the color of +an excuse for her long hiding in the yew tree,--all dwarfed, eclipsed +Adelaide into a mere milk-and-roses beauty of a type to be seen +by hundreds in a day; while Leam--who was like this peerless Leam? +Neither Spain nor England could show such a one as she. Ah, where +was the philosophy of fitness now, when this exquisite creation, more +splendid than fit, came to the front? + +Edgar went forward to meet her, that look of love surprised out of +concealment which told so much on his face. Adelaide saw it, and +Josephine saw it, and the eyes of the latter grew moist, but the lips +of the other only closed more tightly. She accepted the challenge, and +she meant to conquer in the fight. + +Wearied by her emotions, saddened both by the love that had been +confessed and the friendship that had been offered, this meeting with +Edgar Harrowby seemed to Leam like home and rest to one very tired and +long lost. The bright spring day, which until now had been as gray as +winter, suddenly broke upon her with a sense of warmth and beauty, and +her sad face reflected in its tender, evanescent smile the delight of +which she had become thus suddenly conscious. She laid her hand in +his frankly: he had never seen her so frankly glad to meet him; and a +look, a gesture, from Leam--grave, proud, reticent Leam--meant as much +as cries of joy and caresses from others. + +"Good-morning, Miss Dundas: where have you been?" said Edgar, his +accent of familiar affection, which meant "Beloved Leam," in nowise +overlaid by the formality of the spoken "Miss Dundas." + +"Into the wood," said Leam, her hand, as if for proof thereof, +stirring the flowers. + +"It is a new phase to see you given to rural delights and +wild-flowers, Leam," said Adelaide with a little laugh. + +"But how pleasant that our dear Leam should have found such a nice +amusement!" said Josephine. + +"As picking primroses and bluebells, Joseph?" And Adelaide laughed +again. + +Somehow, her laugh, which was not unmusical, was never pleasant. It +did not seem to come from the heart, and was the farthest in the world +removed from mirth. + +Leam looked at her coldly. "I like flowers," she said, carrying her +head high. + +"So do I," said Edgar with the intention of taking her part. "What are +these things?" holding up a few cuckoo-flowers that were half hidden +like delicate shadows among the primroses. + +"You certainly show your liking by your knowledge. I thought every +schoolboy knew the cuckoo-flower!" cried Adelaide, trying to seem +natural and not bitter in her banter, and not succeeding. + +"I can learn. Never too late to mend, you know. And Miss Dundas shall +teach me," said Edgar. + +"I do not know enough: I cannot teach you," Leam answered, taking him +literally. + +"My dear Leam, how frightfully literal you are!" said Adelaide. "Do +you think it looks pretty? Do you really believe that Major Harrowby +was in earnest about your giving him botanical lessons?" + +"I believe people I respect," returned Leam gravely. + +"Thanks," said Edgar warmly, his face flushing. + +Adelaide's face flushed too. "Are you going through life taking as +gospel all the unmeaning badinage which gentlemen permit themselves +to talk to ladies?" she asked from the heights of her superior wisdom. +"Remember, Leam, at your age girls cannot be too discreet." + +"I do not understand you," said Leam, fixing her eyes on the fair face +that strove so hard to conceal the self within from the world without, +and to make impersonal and aphoristic what was in reality passionate +disturbance. + +"A girl who has been four years at a London boarding-school not to +understand such a self-evident little speech as that!" cried Adelaide, +with well-acted surprise. "How can you be insincere? I must say I have +no faith, myself, in Bayswater _ingénues_: have you, Edgar?" with the +most graceful little movement of her head, her favorite action, and +one that generally made its mark. + +"I do not understand you," said Leam again. "I only know that you are +rude: you always are." + +She spoke in her most imperturbable manner and with her quietest face. +Nothing roused in her so much the old Leam of pride and disdain +as these encounters with Adelaide Birkett. The two were like the +hereditary foes of old-time romance, consecrated to hate from their +birth upward. + +"Come, come, fair lady, you are rather hard on our young friend," said +Edgar with a strange expression in his eyes--angry, intense, and yet +uncertain. He wanted to protect Leam, yet he did not want to offend +Adelaide; and though he was angry with this last, he did not wish her +to see that he was. + +"Dear Leam! I am sure she is very sweet and nice," breathed Josephine; +but little Fina, playing with Josephine's chatelaine, said in her +childish treble, "No, no, she is not nice: she is cross, and never +laughs, and she has big eyes. They frighten me at night, and then I +scream. Your are far nicer, Missy Joseph." + +Adelaide laughed outright; Josephine was embarrassed between the weak +good-nature that could not resist even a child's caressing words and +her constitutional pain at giving pain; Edgar tried to smile at the +little one's pertness as a thing below the value of serious notice, +while feeling all that a man does feel when the woman whom he loves +is in trouble and he cannot defend her; but Leam herself said to the +child, gravely and without bitterness, "I am not cross, Fina, and +laughing is not everything." + +"Right, Miss Dundas!" said Edgar warmly. "If the little puss were +older she would understand you better. You unconscionable little +sinner! what do you mean? hey?" good-humoredly taking Fina by the +shoulders. + +"Oh, pray don't try and make the child a hypocrite," said Adelaide. +"You, of all people in the world, Edgar, objecting to her naïve +truth!--you, who so hate and despise deception!" + +While she had spoken Fina had crawled over Josephine's lap to the +side where Edgar was standing. She put up her fresh little face to be +kissed. "I don't like Learn, and I do like you," she said, stroking +his beard. + +And Edgar, being a man, was therefore open to female flattery, whether +it was the frank flattery of an infant Venus hugging a waxen Cupid +or the more subtle overtures of a withered Ninon taking God for her +latest lover--with interludes. + +"But you should like Leam too," he said, fondling her, "I want you to +love me, but you should love her as well." + +"Oh, any one can get the love of children who is kind to them," said +Adelaide. "You know you are a very kind man, Edgar," in a quiet, +matter-of-fact way. "All animals and children love you. It is a gift +you have, but it is only because you are kind." + +The context stood without any need of an interpreter to make it +evident. + +"But I am sure that Leam is kind to Fina," blundered Josephine. + +"And the child dislikes her so much?" was Adelaide's reply, made in +the form of an interrogation and with arched eyebrows. + +"Fina is like the discontented little squirrel who was never happy," +said Josephine, patting the plump little hand that still meandered +through the depths of Edgar's beard. + +"I am happy with you, Missy Joseph," pouted Fina; "and you," to Edgar, +whom she again lifted up her face to kiss, kisses and sweeties being +her twin circumstances of Paradise. + +"And with sister Leam: say 'With Leam,' else I will not kiss you," +said Edgar, holding her off. + +She struggled, half laughing, half minded to cry. "I want to kiss +you," she cried. + +"Say 'With Leam,' and then I will," said Edgar. + +The child's face flushed a deeper crimson, her struggles became more +earnest, more vicious, and her laugh lost itself in the puckered +preface of tears. + +"Don't make her cry because she will not tell a falsehood," +remonstrated Adelaide quietly. + +"She does not like me. Saying that she does would not be true, and +would not make her," added Leam just as quietly and with a kind of +hopeless acceptance of undeserved obloquy. + +On which Edgar, not wishing to prolong a scene that began to be +undignified, released the child, who scrambled back to Josephine's +lap and hid her flushed and disordered little face on the comfortable +bosom made by Nature for the special service of discomposed childhood. + +"She is right to like you best," said Leam, associating Edgar as the +brother with Josephine's generous substitution of maternity. + +"I don't think so. You are the one she should love--who deserves her +love," he answered emphatically. + +"Come, Joseph," cried Adelaide. "If these two are going to bandy +compliments, you and I are not wanted." + +"Don't go, Adelaide: I have worlds yet to say to you," said Edgar. + +"Thanks! another time. I do not like to see things of which I +disapprove," was her answer, touching her ponies gently and moving +away slowly. + +When she had drawn off out of earshot she beckoned Edgar with her +whip. It was impolitic, but she was too deeply moved to make accurate +calculations. "Dear Edgar, do not be offended with me," she said +in her noblest, most sisterly manner. "Of course I do not wish to +interfere, and it is no business of mine, but is it right to fool that +unhappy girl as you are doing? I put it to you, as one woman anxious +for the happiness and reputation of another--as an old friend who +values you too much to see you make the mistake you are making now +without a word of warning. It can be no business of mine, outside the +purest regard and consideration for you as well as for her. I do not +like her, but I do not want to see her in a false position and with a +damaged character through you." + +Had they been alone, Edgar would probably have accepted this +remonstrance amicably enough. He might even have gone a long way in +proving it needless. But in the presence of Josephine his pride took +the alarm, and the weapon intended for Leam cut Adelaide's fingers +instead. + +He listened patiently till she ended, then he drew himself up. +"Thanks!" he drawled affectedly. "You are very kind both to Miss +Dundas and myself. All the world knows that the most vigilant overseer +a pretty girl can have is a pretty woman. When the reputation of Miss +Dundas is endangered by me, it will then be time for her father to +interfere. Meanwhile, thanks! I like her quite well enough to take +care of her." + +"Now, Adelaide, you have vexed him," said Josephine in dismay as Edgar +strode back to where Leam remained waiting for him. + +"I have done my duty," said Adelaide, drawing her lips into a thin +line and lowering her eyebrows; and her friend knew her moods and +respected them. + +On this point of warning Edgar against an entanglement with Leam she +did really think that she had done her duty. She knew that she wished +to marry him herself--in fact, meant to marry him--and that she would +probably have been his wife before now had it not been for this girl +and her untimely witcheries; but though, naturally enough, she was not +disposed to love Leam any the more because she had come between her +and her intended husband, she thought that she would have borne the +disappointment with becoming magnanimity if she had been of the +right kind for Edgar's wife. With Adelaide, as with so many among us, +conventional harmony was a religion in itself, and he who despised its +ritual was a blasphemer. And surely that harmony was not be found in +the marriage of an English gentleman of good degree with the daughter +of a dreadful low-class Spanish woman--a girl who at fifteen years +of age had prayed to the saints, used her knife as a whanger, and +maintained that the sun went round the earth because mamma said so, +and mamma knew! No, if Edgar married any one but herself, let him at +least marry some one as well fitted for him as herself, not one like +Leam Dundas. + +For the sake of the neighborhood at large the mistress of the Hill +ought to be a certain kind of person--they all knew of what kind--and +a queer, unconformable creature like Leam set up there as the Mrs. +Harrowby of the period would throw all things into confusion. Whatever +happened, that must be prevented if possible, for Edgar's own sake and +for the sake of the society of the place. + +All of which thoughts strengthened Adelaide in her conviction that she +had done what she ought to have done in warning Edgar against Leam, +and that she was bound to be faithful in her course so long as he was +persistent in his. + +Meanwhile, Edgar returned to Leam, who had remained standing in the +middle of the road waiting for him. Nothing belonged less to Leam +than forwardness or flattery to men; and it was just one of those odd +coincidences which sometimes happen that as Edgar had not wished her +good-bye, she felt herself bound to wait his return. But it had the +look of either a nearer intimacy than existed between them, or of +Leam's laying herself out to win the master of the Hill as she would +not have laid herself out to win the king of Spain. In either case it +added fuel to the fire, and confirmed Adelaide more and more in the +course she had taken. "Look there!" she said to Josephine, pointing +with her whip across the field, the winding way having brought them in +a straight line with the pair left on the road. + +"Very bold, I must say," said Josephine; "but Leam is such a +child!--she does not understand things as we do," she added by way of +apology and defence. + +"Think not?" was Adelaide's reply; and then she whipped her ponies and +said no more. + +"Why does Miss Birkett hate me?" asked Leam when Edgar came back. + +"Because--Shall I tell you?" he answered with a look which she could +not read. + +"Yes, tell me." + +"Because you are more beautiful than she is, and she is jealous of +you. She is very good in her own way, but she does not like rivals +near her throne; and you are her rival without knowing it." + +Leam had looked straight at Edgar when he began to speak, but now she +dropped her eyes. For the first time in her life she did not disclaim +his praise, nor feel it a thing that she ought to resent. On the +contrary, it made her heart beat with a sudden throb that almost +frightened her with its violence, and that seemed to break down her +old self in its proud reticence and cold control, leaving her soft, +subdued, timid, humble--childlike, and yet not a child. Her face was +pale; her eyelids seemed weighted over her eyes, so that she could +not raise them; her breath came with so much difficulty that she was +forced to unclose her lips for air; she trembled as if with a sudden +chill, and yet her veins seemed running with fire; and she felt as +if the earth moved under her feet. What malady was this that had +overtaken her so suddenly? What did it all mean? It was something like +that strange sensation which she had had a few hours back in the +wood, when Mr. Gryce had seemed to her like some compelling spirit +questioning her of her life, while she was his victim, forced to +reveal all. And yet it was the same, with a difference. That had been +torture covered down by an anodyne: this was in its essence ecstasy, +if on the outside pain. + +"Look at me, Leam," half whispered Edgar, bending over her. + +She raised her eyes with shame and difficulty--very slowly, for their +lids were so strangely heavy; very shyly, for there was something in +them, she herself did not know what, which she did not wish him to +see. Nevertheless, she raised them because he bade her. How sweet and +strange it was to obey him against her own desire! Did he know that +she looked at him because he told her to do so? and that she would +have rather kept her eyes to the ground? Yes, she raised them and met +his. + +Veiled, humid, yearning, those eyes of hers told all--all that she +herself did not know, all that Edgar had now hoped, now feared, as +passion or prudence had swayed him, as love or fitness had seemed the +best circumstance of life. + +"Leam!" he said in an altered voice: she scarcely recognized it as +his. He took her hand in his, when suddenly there came two voices on +the air, and Mr. Gryce and Sebastian Dundas, disputing hotly on the +limits of the Unknowable, turned the corner and came upon them. + +Then the moment and its meaning passed, the enchanted vision faded, +and all that remained of that brief foretaste of Paradise before the +serpent had entered or the forbidden fruit been tasted was the bald, +prosaic fact of Major Harrowby bidding Miss Dundas good-day, too much +pressed for time to stop and talk on the Unknowable. + +"Disappointed, baulked, ill-used!" were Edgar's first angry thoughts +as he strode along the road: his second, those that were deepest and +truest to his real self, came with a heavy sigh. "Saved just in time +from making a fool of myself," he said below his breath, his eyes +turned in the direction of the Hill. "It must be a warning for the +future. I must be more on my guard, unless indeed I make up my mind to +tempt fortune and take the plunge--for happiness such as few men have, +or for the ruin of everything." + +Meanwhile, pending this determination, Edgar kept himself out of +Leam's way, and days passed before they met again. And when they did +next meet it was in the churchyard, in the presence of the assembled +congregation, with Alick Corfield as the centre of congratulation +on his first resumption of duty, and Leam and Edgar separated by the +crowd and stiffened by conventionality into coldness. + +Maya--delusion! That strange trouble, sweet and thrilling, which +disturbed Leam's whole being; Edgar's unfathomable eyes, which seemed +almost to burn as she looked at them; his altered voice, scarcely +recognizable it was so changed--all a mere phantasy born of a +dream--all, what is so much in this life of ours, a mockery, a +mistake, a vague hope without roots, a shadowy heaven that had +no place in fact, the cold residuum of enthralling and bewitching +myths--all Maya, delusion! + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI. + +BY THE BROAD. + + +After that scene in the pony-carriage Leam began to take it to heart +that little Fina did not love her. Hitherto, solicitous only to do +her duty unrelated to sentiment, she had not cared to win the child's +rootless and unmeaning affection: now she longed to hear her say to +Major Harrowby, "I love Leam." She did not care about her saying it to +any one else, but she thought it would be pleasant to see Edgar smile +on her as he had smiled at Josephine when Fina had crawled on to her +lap that day of Maya, and said, "You are far nicer, Missy Joseph." + +She would like to have Edgar's good opinion. Indeed, that was only +proper gratitude to a friend, not unwomanly submission to the great +young man of the place. He was invariably kind to her, and he had done +much to make her cheerless life less dreary. He had lent her books to +read, and had shown her pretty places in the district which she would +never have seen but for him: he talked to her as if he liked talking +to her, and he had defended her when Adelaide was rude. It was +right, then, that she should wish to please him and show him that she +deserved his respect. + +Hence she put out her strength to win Fina's love that she might hear +her say, when next Major Harrowby asked her, "Yes, I love Leam." + +But who ever gained by conscious endeavor the love that was not given +by the free sympathies of Nature? Hearts have been broken and lives +ruined before now for the want of a spell strong enough to turn +the natural course of feeling; and Leam's success with Fina was no +exception to the common experience. The more she sought to please her +the less she succeeded; and, save that the child grew disobedient in +proportion to the new indulgences granted, no change was effected. + +How should there be a change? Leam could not romp, was not fond +of kissing, knew no childish games, could not enter into childish +nonsense, was entirely incapable of making believe, never seemed to +be thinking of what she was about, and had big serious eyes that +oppressed the little one with a sense of awe not conducive to love, +and of which she dreamed with terrifying adjuncts when she had had too +much cake too late at night. What there was of sterling in Leam had +no charm for, because no point of contact with, Fina. Thus, all her +efforts went astray, and the child loved her no better for being +coaxed by methods that did not amuse her. At the end of all she still +said with her pretty pout that Leam was cross--she would not talk to +her about mamma. + +One day Learn took Fina for a walk to the Broad. It was the +most unselfish thing she could do, for her solitary rambles, her +unaccompanied rides, were her greatest pleasures; save, indeed, when +the solitude of these last was interrupted by Major Harrowby. This, +however, had not been nearly so often since the return of the families +as before; for Adelaide's pony-carriage was wellnigh ubiquitous, and +Edgar did not care that the rector's sarcastic daughter should see him +escorting Leam in lonely places three or four times a week. Thus, the +girl had fallen back into her old habits of solitude, and to take +the child with her was a sacrifice of which she herself only knew the +extent. + +But, if blindly and with uncertain feet, stumbling often and straying +wide, Leam did desire to find the narrow way and walk in it--to know +the better thing and do it. At the present moment she knew nothing +better than to give nurse a holiday and burden herself with an +uncongenial little girl as her charge and companion when she would +rather have been alone. So this was how it came about that on this +special day the two set out for the Broad, where Fina had a fancy to +go. + +The walk was pleasant enough, Leam was not called on to rack her +brains--those non-inventive brains of hers, which could not imagine +things that never happened--for stories wherewith to while away the +time, as Fina ran alone, happy in picking the spring flowers growing +thick on the banks and hedgerows. Thus the one was amused and the +other was left to herself undisturbed; which was an arrangement that +kept Leam's good intentions intact, but prevented the penance which +they included from becoming too burdensome. Indeed, her penance was so +light that she thought it not so great a hardship, after all, to make +little Fina her companion in her rambles if she would but run on alone +and content herself with picking flowers that neither scratched nor +stung, and where therefore neither the surgery of needles nor the +dressing of dock-leaves was required, nor yet the supplementary +soothing of kisses and caresses for her tearful, sobbing, angry pain. + +The Broad, always one of the prettiest points in the landscape, was +to-day in one of its most interesting phases. The sloping banks were +golden with globe-flowers and marsh "mary-buds," and round the margin, +was a broad belt of silver where the starry white ranunculus grew. All +sorts of the beautiful aquatic plants of spring were flowering--some +near the edges, apparently just within reach, tempting and perilous, +and some farther off and manifestly hopeless: the leaves of the +water-lilies, which later would be set like bosses of silver and gold +on the shimmering blue, had risen to the surface in broad, green, +shining platters, and the low-lying branches of the trees at the edge +dipped in the water and swayed with the running stream. + +It was the loveliest bit of death and danger to be found for miles +round--so lovely that it might well have tempted the sorrowful to take +their rest for ever in a grave so sweet, so eloquent of eternal peace. +Even Leam, with all the unspoken yearnings, the formless hopes, of +youth stirring in her heart, thought how pleasant it would be to go to +sleep among the flowers and wake up only when she had found mamma in +heaven; while Fina, dazzled by the rank luxuriance before her, ran +forward to the water's edge with a shrill cry of delight. + +Leam called to her to stand back, to come away from the water and the +bank, which, shelving abruptly, was a dangerous place for a child. The +footing was insecure and the soil treacherous--by no means a proper +playground for the rash, uncertain feet of six. Twice or thrice Leam +called, but Fina would not hear, and began gathering the flowers with +the bold haste of a child disobeying orders and resolved to make +the most of her opportunity before the time came of her inevitable +capture. + +Thus Leam, walking fast, came up to her and took her by the arm in +high displeasure. "Fina, did you not hear me? You must not stand +here," she said, + +"Don't, Leam, you hurt me--you are cross: leave me alone," screamed +Fina, twisting her little body to free herself from her step-sister's +hand. + +"Be quiet. You will fall into the river and be drowned if you go on +like this," said Leam, tightening her hold; and those small nervous +hands of hers had an iron grasp when she chose to put out her +strength. + +"Leave me alone. You hurt me--oh, you hurt me so much!" screamed Fina, +still struggling. + +"Come with me, then. Do as you are bid and come away," returned Leam, +slightly relaxing her grasp. Though she was angry with the child, she +did not want to hurt her. + +"I shan't. Leave me alone. You are a cross, ugly thing, and I hate +you," was Fina's sobbing reply. + +With a sudden wrench she tore herself from the girl's hands, slipped, +staggered, shrieked, and the next moment was in the water, floating +downward with the current and struggling vainly to get out; while +Leam, scarcely understanding what she saw, stood paralyzed and +motionless on the bank. + +Fortunately, at this instant Josephine drove up. She was alone, +driving her gray ponies in the basket phaeton, and saw the child +struggling in the stream, with Learn standing silent, helpless, struck +to stone as it seemed, watching her without making an effort to save +her. "Leam! Fina! save her! save her!" cried Josephine, who herself +had enough to do to hold her ponies, in their turn startled by her own +sudden cries. "Leam, save her!" she repeated; and then breaking down +into helpless dismay she began to sob and scream with short, sharp +hysterical shrieks as her contribution to the misery of the moment. +Poor Josephine! it was all that she could do, frightened as she was +at her own prancing ponies, distracted at the sight of Fina's danger, +horrified at Leam's apparent apathy. + +As things turned out, it was the best that she could have done, for +her voice roused Leam's faculties into active life again, and broke +the spell of torpor into which horror had thrown them. "Holy St. Jago, +help me!" she said, instinctively turning back to first traditions and +making the sign of the cross, which she did not often make now, and +only when surprised out of conscious into automatic action. + +Running down and along the bank, with one hand she seized the branch +of an oak that swept into the water, then plunged in up to her +shoulders to catch the child drifting down among the white ranunculus. +Fortunately, Fina was still near enough to the shore to be caught as +she drifted by without absolute danger of drowning to Leam, who waded +back to land, drawing the child with her, not much the worse for her +dangerous moment save for the fright which she had suffered and the +cold of her dripping clothes; in both of which conditions Leam was her +companion. + +So soon as she was safe on shore the child began to scream and cry +piteously, as was perhaps but natural, and when she saw Josephine she +tore herself away from Leam and ran up to her as if for protection. +"Take me home to nurse," she sobbed, climbing into the little low +phaeton and clinging to Josephine, who was also weeping and trembling +hysterically. "Leam pushed me in: take me away from her." + +"You say what is not true, Fina," said Leam gravely, trembling as much +as Josephine, though her eyes were dry and she did not sob. "You fell +in because you would not let me hold you." + +"You pushed me in, and I hate you," reiterated Fina, cowering close to +the bosom of her warm, soft friend. + +"Do you believe this?" asked Leam, turning to Josephine and speaking +with all her old pride of voice and bearing. Nevertheless, she was as +white as those flowers on the water. It was madame's child who accused +her of attempting to kill her, and it was the child whom she had so +earnestly desired to win who now said, "I hate her," to the sister of +the man to whom she longed to hear her say, "I love Leam." + +"Believe that you pushed her in--that you wanted to drown dear little +Fina? No!" cried Josephine in broken sentences through her tears. +"She mistakes.--You must not say such dreadful things, my darling," +to Fina. "Dear sister Leam would not hurt a hair of your head, I am +sure." + +"She did: she pushed me in on purpose," persisted the shivering child, +beginning to cry afresh. + +On which, a little common sense dawning on Josephine's distracted +mind, she did her best to stop her own hysterical sympathy, +remembering that to go home, change their wet clothes, have something +warm to drink and be put to bed would be more to the purpose for +both at this moment than to stand there crying, shivering and +recriminating, with herself as the weak and loving judge, inclining to +both equally, to settle the vexed question of accident or malice. + +"Good gracious! why are we waiting here?" she cried, drying her eyes +quickly and ceasing to sob. "You will both get your deaths from cold +if you stand here in your wet clothes.--Come in, dear Leam, and I will +drive you home at once.--Fina, my darling, leave off crying, that's +my little angel. I will take you to papa, and you will be all right +directly. I cannot bear to see you cry so much, dear Fina: don't, my +pet." + +Which only made the little one weep I and sob the more, children, +like women, liking nothing better than to be commiserated because of +distress which they could; control without difficulty if they would. + +Seating the child at the bottom of the carriage and covering her with +the rug, Josephine flicked her ponies, which were glad enough to +be off and doing something to which they were accustomed, and soon +brought her dripping charge to Ford House, where they found Mr. Dundas +in the porch drawing on his gloves, his horse standing at the door. + +"Good heavens! what is all this about?" he cried, rushing forward to +receive the disconsolate cargo, unloading one by one the whole group +dank and dismal--Josephine's scared face swollen with tears, white +and red in the wrong places; Leam's set like a mask, blanched, rigid, +tragic; Fina's now flushed and angry, now pale and frightened, with +a child's swift-varying emotions; and the garments of the last two +clinging like cerements and dripping small pools on the gravel. + +"Learn pushed me into the river," said Fina, beginning to cry afresh, +and holding on by Josephine, who now kissed and coaxed her, and said, +"Fina, my darling, don't say such a wicked thing of poor Leam: it is +so naughty, so very naughty," and then took to hugging her again, as +the mood of the instant swayed her toward the child or the girl, +but always full of womanly weakness and kindness to each, and only +troubled that she had to make distinctions, as it were, between them. + +"What is it you say, Fina?" asked Mr. Dundas slowly--"Leam pushed you +into the river?" + +"Yes," sobbed Fina. + +"I did not, papa. And I went in myself to save her," said Leam, +holding her head very straight and high. + +Mr. Dundas looked at her keenly, sternly. "Well, no, Leam," he +answered, with, as it seemed to her, marked coldness and in a strange +voice: "with all your unpleasant temper I do not like to suppose you +could be guilty of the crime of murder." + +The girl shuddered visibly. Her proud little head drooped, her fixed +and fearless eyes sank shamed to the ground. "I have always taken care +of Fina," she said in a humbled voice, as if it was a plea for pardon +that she was putting forward. + +"You pushed me in, and you did it on purpose," repeated Fina; and Mr. +Dundas was shocked at himself to find that he speculated for a moment +on the amount of truth there might be in the child's statement. + +Cold, trembling, distressed, Leam turned away. Would that sin of hers +always thus meet her face to face? Should she never be free from +its shadow? Go where she would, it followed her, ineffaceable, +irreparable--the shame of it never suffered to die out, its remorse +never quenched, the sword always above her head, to fall she knew not +when, but to fall some day: yes, that she did know. + +"But you must go up stairs now," said Josephine with a creditable +effort after practicality: "we shall have you both seriously ill +unless you get your clothes changed at once." + +Mr. Dundas looked at her kindly. "How wise and good you are!" he said +with almost enthusiasm; and Josephine, her eyes humid with glad tears, +her cheeks flushed with palpitating joy, sank in soul to him again, +as so often before, and offered the petition of her humble love, which +wanted only his royal signature to make an eternal bond. + +"I love little Fina," she said tremulously. It was as if she had said, +"I love you." + +Then she turned into the house and indulged her maternal instinct by +watching nurse as she undressed the child, put her in a warm bath, +gave her some hot elderberry wine and water, laid her in her little +bed, and with many kisses bade her go to sleep and forget all about +everything till tea-time. And the keen relish with which she +followed all these nursery details marked her fitness for the post +of pro-mother so distinctly that it made nurse look at her more than +once, and think--also made her say, as a feeler--"Law, miss! what a +pity you've not had one of your own!" + +Her tenderness of voice and action with the child when soothing her at +the door had also made Sebastian think, and the child's fondness for +this soft-faced, weak and kindly woman was setting a mark on the man's +mind, well into middle age as she was. He began to ask himself whether +the blighted tree could ever put forth leaves again? whether there was +balm in Gilead yet for him, and nepenthe for the past in the happiness +of the future. He thought there might be, and that he had sat long +enough now by the open grave of his dead love. It was time to close +it, and leave what it held to the keeping of a dormant memory only--a +memory that would never die, but that was serene, passive and at rest. + +So he pondered as he rode, and told Josephine's virtues as golden +beads between his fingers, to which his acceptance would give their +due value, wanting until now--their due value, merited if not won. And +for himself, would she make him happy? On the whole he thought that +she would. She worshiped him, perhaps, as he had worshiped that other, +and it was pleasant to Sebastian Dundas to be worshiped. He might do +worse, if also he might do better; but at least in taking Josephine he +knew what he was about, and Fina would not be made unhappy. He forgot +Leam. Yes, he would take Josephine for his wife by and by, when the +fitting moment came, and in doing so he would begin life anew and be +once more made free of joy. + +He was one of those men resilient if shallow, and resilient perhaps +because shallow, who, persecuted by an evil fortune, are practically +unconquerable--men who, after they have been prostrated by a blow +severe enough to shatter the strongest heart, come back to their old +mental place after a time smiling, in nowise crushed or mutilated, and +as ready to hope and love and believe and plan as before--men who are +never ennobled by sorrow, never made more serious in their thoughts, +more earnest in their aims, though, as Sebastian had been, they may +be fretful enough while the sore is open--men who seem to be the +unresisting sport of the unseen powers, buffeted, tortured as we see +helpless things on earth--dogs beaten and horses lashed--for the mere +pleasure of the stronger in inflicting pain, and for no ultimate good +to be attained by the chastening. The souls of such men are like +those weighted tumblers of pith: knocked down twenty times, on +the twenty-first they stand upright, and nothing short of absolute +destruction robs them of their elasticity. As now when Sebastian +planned the base-lines of his new home with Josephine, and built +thereon a pretty little temple of friendship armed like love. + +His heart was broken, he said to himself, but Josephine held the +fragments, and he would make himself tolerably content with the rivet. +Still, it was broken all the same; which simply meant that of the two +he loved madame the better, and would have chosen her before the other +could she have come back; but that failing, this other would do, even +Josephine's love being better than no love at all. Besides, she +had her own charms, if of a sober kind. She was a sweet-tempered, +soft-hearted creature, with the aroma of remembrance round her +when she was young and pretty and unattainable: consequently, being +unattainable, held as the moral pot of gold under the rainbow, +which, could it have been caught, would have made all life glad. The +sentimental rest which she and her people had afforded during the +turbulent times of that volcanic Pepita had also its sweet savor of +association that did not make her less delightful in the present; +and when he looked at her now, faded as she was, he used to try and +conjure back her image, such as it had been when she was a pretty, +blushing, affectionate young girl, who loved him as flowers love the +sun, innocently, unconsciously, and without the power of repulsion. + +Also, she had the aroma of remembrance about her from another +side--remembrance when she had been madame's chosen friend and +favorite, and the unconscious chaperon, poor dear! who had made his +daily visits to Lionnet possible and respectable. He pitied her a +little now when he thought of how he had used her as Virginie's hood +and his own mask then; and he pitied her so much that he took it on +his conscience, as a duty which he owed her and the right, to make +her happy at last. Yes, it was manifestly his duty--unquestionably the +right thing to do. The petition must be signed, the suppliant raised; +Ahasuerus must exalt his Esther, his loving, faithful, humble Esther; +and when inclination models itself as duty the decision is not far +off. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII. + +PALMAM QUI NON MERUIT. + + +All North Aston rang with the story of little Fina's peril, +Josephine's admirable devotion and Leam's shameful neglect--so +shameful as to be almost criminal. It was the apportionment of +judgment usual with the world. The one who had incurred no kind of +risk, and had done only what was pleasant to her, received unbounded +praise, while the one who was of practical use got for her personal +peril and discomfort universal blame. They said she had allowed the +child to run into danger by her own carelessness, and then had done +nothing to save her: and they wondered beneath their breath if she had +really wished the little one to be drowned. She was an odd girl, you +know, they whispered from each to each--moody, uncomfortable, and +unlike any one else; and though she had certainly behaved admirably to +little Fina, so far as they could see, yet it was not quite out of the +nature of things that she should wish to get rid of the child, who, +after all, was the child of no one knows whom, and very likely spoilt +and tiresome enough. + +But no one said this aloud. They only whispered it to each other, +their comments making no more noise than the gliding of snakes through +the evening grass. + +As for Fina, she suffered mainly from a fit of indigestion consequent +on the shower of sweetmeats which fell on her from all hands as the +best consolation for her willful little ducking known to sane men and +women presumably acquainted with the elements of physiology. She was +made restless, too, from excitement by reason of the multiplicity of +toys which every one thought it incumbent on him and her to bestow; +for it was quite a matter for public rejoicing that she had not been +drowned, and Josephine, as her reputed savior, leapt at a bound to the +highest pinnacle of popular favor. + +It made not the slightest difference in the estimation of these clumsy +thinkers that the thing for which Josephine was praised was a pure +fiction, just as the thing for which Leam was condemned was a pure +fiction. Society at North Aston had the need of hero-worship on it at +this moment, and a mythic heroine did quite as well for the occasion +as a real one. + +No one was so lavish of her praise as Adelaide. It was really +delightful to note the generosity with which she eulogized her friend +Joseph, and the pleasure that she had in dwelling on her heroism; +Josephine deprecating her praises in that weak, conscious, and +blushing way which seems to accept while disclaiming. + +She invariably said, "No, Adelaide, I do not deserve the credit of it: +it was Leam who saved the child;" but she said it in that voice and +manner which every one takes to mean more modesty than truth, and +which therefore no one believes as it is given; the upshot being that +it simply brings additional grist to the mill whence popularity is +ground out. + +Her disclaimers were put down to her good-natured desire to screen +Leam: she had always been good to that extraordinary young person, +they said. But then Josephine Harrowby was good to every one, and if +she had a fault it was the generalized character of her benevolence, +which made her praise of no value, you see, because she praised every +one alike, and took all that glittered for gold. Hence, her assurances +that Leam had really and truly put herself into (the appearance of) +actual danger to save Fina from drowning, while she herself had done +nothing more heroic than take the dripping pair of them home when all +was over--she forgot to add, sit in the carriage and scream--went for +nothing, and the popular delusion for all. She was still the +heroine of the day, and <ipalmam qui non meruit_ the motto which the +unconscious satirists bestowed on her. + +She did not mean it to be so--quite the contrary--but wrong comes +about from good intentions to the full as often as from evil ones. +Her design was simply to be truthful, as so much conscientious +self-respect, in the first instance, and to do justice to Leam in +the second; but between her good-natured advocacy and Adelaide's +undisguised hostility maybe the former did Leam the most harm. + +The child's past danger was quite sufficient reason why Josephine +should come more frequently than usual to Ford House. It was only +natural that she should wish to know how the little one went on. The +cold, sore throat, rheumatic fever, measles that never came, might +yet be always on the way, and the woman's fond fears were only to be +quieted by the comforting assurance of her daily observation. Leam +did get a cold, and a severe one, but then Leam was grown up and +could take care of herself. Fina was the natural charge of universal +womanhood, and no one who was a woman at all could fail to be +interested in such a pretty, caressing little creature. And then +Sebastian Dundas loved best the child which was not his own; and +that, too, had its weight with Josephine, who somehow seemed to +have forgotten by now that little Fina was madame's child--false and +faithless madame--and was not part and parcel of the man she loved, +as also in some strange sense her own. Madame's initial dedication had +touched her deeply both at the time and ever after; the likeness of +name was again another tie; and that subtle resemblance to herself +which every one saw and spoke of seemed to round off all into an +harmonious whole, and give her a right which even Mrs. Birkett did not +possess. + +It was about a week after the accident when Josephine went one +morning, as usual, to ask after Fina, and be convinced by personal +inspection that the pretty little featherhead, the child of many +loves, was well. She was met in the drawing-room by Mr. Dundas, who +when he greeted her took both her hands in his in a more effusive +manner than he had ever permitted himself to show since Pepita's +death, save once before he had decided on madame and when Josephine +had one day touched an old chord tenderly. + +Holding her thus, he led her to the sofa with a certain look of +purpose in his face, of loving proprietorship in his bearing, that +made poor fond Josephine's foolish heart knock loudly against her +ribs. + +Was it then coming at last, that reward of constancy for which she +had borne so much suspense, so many delays, such long dull days and +tearful nights? Was the rickety idol of her whole life's worship +really about to bless her with his smiles? + +She cast down her eyes, trembling, blushing. She was thirty-five years +of age, but she was only a great girl still, and her love had the +freshness which belongs to the cherished sentiment of girlhood ripened +into the confessed, patient, unchanging love of maturity. + +"You have been always good to me, Josephine," began Mr. Dundas, still +holding her hand. + +Josephine did not answer, save through the crimson of her telltale +cheeks and the smile akin to tears about her quivering mouth. + +"I think you have always liked me," he went on to say, looking down +into her face. + +Josephine closed her hand over his more warmly and glanced up swiftly, +bashfully. Was there much doubt of it? had there ever been any doubt +of it? + +"And I have always liked you," he added; and then he paused. + +She looked up again, this time a certain tender reproach and surprise +lying behind her evident delight and love. + +"Had not my darling Virginie come between us you would have been my +wife long ago," said Mr. Dundas, the certainty of her acceptance at +any time of their acquaintance as positive to him as that the famished +hound would accept food, the closed pimpernel expand in the sunlight. +"I was always fond of you, even in poor Pepita's time, though of +course, as a man of honor, I could neither encourage nor show my +affection. But Virginie--she took me away from the whole world, and I +lost you, as well as herself, for that one brief month of happiness." + +His eyes filled up with tears. Though he was wooing his third bride, +he did not conceal his regret for his second. + +By an effort of maidenly reserve over feminine sympathy Josephine +refrained from throwing her arms round his neck and weeping on his +shoulder for pity at his past sorrow. She had none of the vice of +jealousy, and she could honestly and tenderly pity the man whom she +loved for his grief at the loss of the woman whom he had preferred to +herself. She did, however, refrain, and Sebastian could only guess at +her impulse. But he made a tolerably accurate guess, though he seemed +to see nothing. He knew that his way was smooth before him, and that +he need not give himself a moment's trouble about the ending. And +though, as a rule, a man likes the excitement of doubt and the +sentiment of difficulties to be overcome, still there are times when, +if he is either very weary or too self-complacent to care to strive, +he is glad to be assured that he has won before he has wooed, and has +only to claim the love that is waiting for him. Which was what Mr. +Dundas felt now when he noted the simplicity with which Josephine +showed her heart while believing she was hiding it so absolutely, and +knew that he had only to speak to have the whole thing concluded. + +"And now I have only half a heart to offer you," he said plaintively: +"the other half is in the grave with my beloved. But if you care to +ally yourself to one who has been the sport of sorrow as I have, if +you care to make the last years of my life happy, and will be content +with the ashes rather than the fires, I will do my best to make you +feel that you have not sacrificed yourself in vain. Will it be +a sacrifice, Josephine?" he asked in a lower tone, and with the +exquisite sweetness which love and pleading give to even a commonplace +voice. + +"I have loved you all my life," said Josephine simply; and then +dissolving into happy tears she hid her face in his breast and felt +that heaven was sometimes very near to earth. + +Sebastian passed his arms round her ample comely form and pressed her +to his heart, tenderly and without affectation. It was pleasant to him +to see her devotion, to feel her love; and though he disliked tears, +as a man should, still tears of joy were a tribute which he did not +despise in essence if the method might have been more congenial. + +"Dear Josephine!" he said. "I always knew what a good soul you were." + +This was the way in which Sebastian Dundas wooed and won an +honest-hearted English lady who loved him, and who, virtue for virtue, +was infinitely his superior--a wooing in striking contrast with the +methods which he had employed to gain the person of a low-class, +half-savage Spanish girl, whom he had loved for her beauty and who +took him for her pleasure; also in striking contrast with those +he employed to gain Madame de Montfort, a clever adventuress, who +balanced him, in hand, against her bird in the bush, and decided that +to make sure of the less was better than to wait for the chance of the +greater. But Josephine felt nothing humiliating in his lordliness. She +loved him, she was a woman devoid of self-esteem; hence humiliation +from his hand was impossible. + +Just then pretty little Fina came running to the window from the +garden, where she was playing. + +"Come here, poppet," said Mr. Dundas, holding out his left hand, his +right round comely Josephine. + +She came through the open window and ran up to him. "Nice papa!" she +lisped, stroking his hand. + +He took her on his knee, "I have I given you a new mamma, Fina," he +said, kissing her; and then he kissed Josephine for emphasis. "Will +you be good to her and love her very much? This is your mamma.". + +"Will you love me, little Fina?" asked Josephine in a voice full of +emotion, taking the child's fair head between her hands. "Will you +like me to be your mamma?" + +"Yes," cried Fina, clapping her hands. "I shall like a nice new mamma +instead of Learn. I hate Leam: she is cross and has big eyes." + +"Oh, we must not hate poor Leam," remonstrated Josephine tenderly. + +"I cannot understand the child's aversion," said Mr. Dundas in a +half-musing, half-suspicious way. "Leam seems to be all that is good +and kind to her, but nothing that she does can soften the little +creature's dislike. It must be natural instinct," he added in a lower +voice. + +"Yes, perhaps it is," assented Josephine, who would have answered, +"Yes, perhaps it is," to anything else that her lover might have said. + +"Where is Leam, my little Fina? Do you know?" asked Sebastian of the +child. + +"In the garden. She is coming in," answered Fina; and at the word Leam +passed before the window as Fina had done. + +"Leam, my child, come in: I want to speak to you," said her father, +with unwonted kindness; and Leam, too, as Fina had done before her, +passed through the open window and came in. + +The two middle-aged lovers were still sitting side by side and close +together on the sofa. Fina was on her stepfather's knee, caressing his +hand and Josephine's, which were clasped together on her little lap, +while his other arm encircled the substantial waist of his promised +bride, whose disengaged hand rested on his shoulder. + +"Leam," said the father, "I have given you--" + +He stopped. The name which he was about to utter, with all its +passionate memories, was left unsaid. He remembered in time Leam's +former renunciation of the new mamma whom he had once before proposed. + +"I have asked Josephine Harrowby to be my wife," he said after a short +pause. "She has consented, and made me very happy. Let me hope that it +will make you happy too." + +He spoke with forced calmness and something of sternness under his +apparent serenity. In heart he was troubled, remembering the past and +half fearing the future. How would she bear herself? Would she accept +his relations pleasantly, or defy and reject as before? + +Leam looked at the triad gravely. It was a family group with which she +felt that she had no concern. She was outside it--as much alone as in +a strange country. She knew in that deepest self which does not palm +and lie to us that all her efforts to put herself in harmony with +her life were in vain. Race, education and that fearful memory stood +between her and her surroundings, and she never lost the perception of +her loneliness save when she was with Edgar. At this moment she looked +on as at a picture of love and gladness with which she had nothing +in common; nevertheless, she accepted what she saw, and if not +expansive--which was not her way--was, as her father said afterward, +"perfectly satisfactory." She went up to the sofa slowly and held out +her hand. "You are welcome," she said gravely to Josephine, but the +contempt which she had always had for her father, though she had tried +so hard of late to wear it down, surged up afresh, and she could +not turn her eyes his way. What a despicable thing that must be, she +thought--that thing he called his heart--to shift from one to +the other so easily! To her, the keynote of whose character was +single-hearted devotion, this facile, fluid love, which could be +poured out with equal warmth on every one alike, was no love at +all. It was a degraded kind of self-indulgence for which she had no +respect; and though she did not feel for Josephine as she had felt for +madame--as her mother's enemy--she despised her father even more now +than before. + +Also a rapid thought crossed her mind, bringing with it a deadly +trouble. "If Josephine was her stepmother, would Major Harrowby be her +stepfather?" They were brother and sister, and she had an idea that +the family followed the relations of its members. She did not know +why, but she would rather not have Major Harrowby for her stepfather +or for any relation by law. She preferred that he should be wholly +unconnected with her--just her friend unrelated: that was all. + +"Thank you, dear Leam!" said Josephine gratefully; and Leam, looking +at her with large mournful eyes, said in a soft but surprised tone of +voice, "Thank me!--why?" + +"That you accept me as your stepmother so sweetly, and do not hate me +for it," said Josephine. + +Leam glanced with a pained look at Fina. "I have done with hate," she +answered. "It is not my business what papa likes to do." + +"Sensible at last!" cried Mr. Dundas with a half-mocking, half-kindly +triumph in his voice. + +Leam turned pale. "But you must not think that _I_ forget mamma as you +do," she said with emphasis, her lip quivering. + +"No, dear Leam, I would be the last to wish that you should forget +your own mamma for me," said Josephine humbly. "Only try to love me +a little for myself, as your friend, and I will be satisfied. Love +always your own mamma, but me too a little." + +"You are good," said Leam softly, her eyes filling with tears. "I do +like you very much; but mamma--there is only one mother for me. None +of papa's wives could ever be mamma to me." + +"But friend?" said Josephine, half sobbing. + +"Friend? yes," returned Leam; and for the first time in her life she +bent her proud little head and kissed Josephine on her cheek. "And I +will be good to you," she said quietly, "for you are good." She did +not add, "And Edgar's sister." + +The families approved of this marriage. Every one said it was what +ought to have been when Pepita died, and that Mr. Dundas had missed +his way and lost his time by taking that doubtful madame meanwhile. +Adelaide and her mother were especially congratulatory; but, though +the rector said he was glad for the sake of poor Josephine, who had +always been a favorite of his, yet he could not find terms of too +great severity for Sebastian. For a man to marry three times--it was +scarcely moral; and he wondered at the Harrowbys for allowing one of +their own to be the third venture. And then, though Josephine was a +good girl enough, she was but a weak sister at the best; and to +think of any man in his senses taking her as the successor of that +delightful and superior madame! + +Mrs. Birkett dissented from these views, and said it would keep the +house together and be such a nice thing for Fina and Leam: both +would be the better for a woman's influence and superintendence, and +Josephine was very good. + +"Yes," said the rector with his martial air--"good enough, I admit, +but confoundedly slow." + +To Edgar, Adelaide expressed herself with delightful enthusiasm. +She was not often stirred to such a display of feeling. "It is _the_ +marriage of the county," she said with her prettiest smile--"the very +thing for every one." + +"Think so?" was his reply, made by no means enthusiastically. "If +Joseph likes it, that is all that need be said; but it is a marvel +to me how she can--such an unmanly creature as he is! such a muff all +through!" + +"Well, I own he would not have been my choice exactly," said Adelaide +with a nice little look. "I like something stronger and more decided +in a man; but it is just as well that we all do not like the same +person; and then, you see, there are Leam and the child to be +considered. Lean is such an utterly unfit person to bring up Fina: +she is ruining her, indeed, as it is, with her capricious temper and +variable moods; and dear Josephine's quiet amiability and good sense +will be so valuable among them. I think we ought to be glad, as +Christians, that such a chance is offered them." + +"Whatever else you may be, at least you are no hypocrite," said Edgar +with a forced smile that did not look much like approbation. + +She chose to accept it simply. "No," she answered quite tranquilly, "I +am not a hypocrite." + +"At all events, you do not disguise your dislike to Leam Dundas," he +said. + +"No: why should I? I confess it honestly, I do not like her. The +daughter of such a woman as her mother was; up to fifteen years of age +a perfect savage; a heathen with a temper that makes me shudder when I +think of it; capable of any crime. No, don't look shocked, Edgar: I am +sure of it. That girl could commit murder; and I verily believe that +she did push Fina into the water, as the child says, and that if +Josephine had not got there in time she would have let her drown. And +if I think all this, how can I like her?" + +"No, if you think all this, as you say, you cannot like her," replied +Edgar coldly. "I don't happen to agree with you, however, and I think +your assumptions monstrous." + +"You are not the first man blinded by a pair of dark eyes, Edgar," +said Adelaide with becoming mournfulness. "It makes me sorry to see +such a mind as yours dazzled out of its better sense, but you will +perhaps come right in time. At all events, Josephine's marriage with +Mr. Dundas will give you a kind of fatherly relation with Leam that +may show you the truth of what I say." + +"Fatherly relation! what rubbish!" cried Edgar, irritated out of his +politeness. + +Adelaide smiled. "Well, you would be rather a young father for her," +she answered. "Still, the character of the relation will be, as I say, +fatherly." + +Edgar laughed impatiently. + +"Society will accept it in that light," said Adelaide gravely, glad to +erect even this barrier of shadows between the man of her choice and +the girl whom she both dreaded and disliked. + +And she was right in her supposition. Brother and sister marrying +daughter and father would not be well received in a narrow society +like North Aston, where the restrictions of law and elemental morality +were supplemented by an adventitious code of denial which put Nature +into a strait waistcoat and shackled freedom of action and opinion +with chains and bands of iron. Perhaps it was some such thought as +this on his own part that made Edgar profess himself disgusted with +this marriage, and declare loudly that Sebastian Dundas was not worthy +of such a girl as Josephine. His hearers smiled in their sleeves when +he said so, and thought that Josephine Harrowby, thirty-five years of +age, fat and freckled, was not so far out in her running to have got +at last--they always put in "at last"--the owner of Ford House. It was +more than she might have expected, looking at things all round; and +Edgar was as unreasonable as proud men always are. With the redundancy +of women as we have it in England, happy the head of the house who can +get rid of his superfluous petticoats anyhow in honor and sufficiency. +This was the verdict of society on the affair--the two extremities of +the line wherefrom the same fact was viewed. + +As for Josephine herself, dear soul! she was supremely happy. It was +almost worth while to have waited so long, she thought, to have such +an exquisite reward at last. She went back ten years in her life, and +grew quite girlish and fresh-looking, and what was wanting in romance +on Sebastian's part was made up in devotion and adoration on hers. + +Sebastian himself took pleasure in her happiness, her adoration, the +supreme content of her rewarded love. It made him glad to think that +he had given so good a creature so much happiness; and he warmed his +soul at his rekindled ashes as a philosophic widower generally knows +how. + +Only Leam began to look pitifully mournful and desolate, and to shrink +back into a solitude which Edgar never invaded, and whence even Alick +was banished; and Edgar was irritable, unpleasant, moody, would +take no interest in the approaching marriage, and, save that his +settlements on Josephine were liberal, seemed to hold himself +personally aggrieved by her choice, and conducted himself altogether +as if he had been injured somehow thereby, and his wishes disregarded. + +He was very disagreeable, and caused Joseph many bitter hours, till +at last he took a sudden resolution, and to the relief of every one +at the Hill went off to London, promising to be back in time for +"that little fool's wedding with her sentimental muff," as he +disrespectfully called his sister and Sebastian Dundas, but giving no +reason why he went, and taking leave of no one--not even of Adelaide, +nor yet of Leam. + +[TO BE CONTINUED.] + + + + +THE SING-SONG OF MALY COE.[1] + + In he city of Whampo' + Live Joss-pidgin-man[2] name Coe: + Mister Coe he missionaly,[3] + Catchee one cow-chilo,[4] Maly. + + Father-man he leadee[5] book, + Maly talkee with the cook: + Good olo[6] father talkee Josh,[7] + But China-woman talkee bosh. + + Bym'by Maly gettee so + She only Pidgin-English know,[8] + And father-man he solly[9] see + She thinkee leason[10] like Chinee. + + One day some flin[11] flom[12] Boston come + And askee, "Mister Coe at home?" + He servant go to opee door, + But Maly lun[13] chop-chop[14] before. + + An' stlanger[15] say when in he come, + "Is Mister Coe, my dear, at home?" + And Maly answer velly tlue, + "My thinkee this tim no can do."[16] + + He olo father, still as mouse, + Chin-chin Joss topsidey house:[17] + Allo tim he make Joss-pidgin,[18] + What you Fan-kwai[19] callee 'ligion. + + He gentleum much stare galow[20] + To hearee girley talkee so; + And say, "Dear child, may I inquire + Which form of faith you most admire?" + + And Maly answer he request: + "My like Chinee Joss-pidgin best: + My love Kwan-wán[21] with chilo neat, + And Joss-stick[22] smellee velly sweet." + + "Afóng, our olo cook down stairs, + Make teachee Maly Chinee players:[23] + Say, if my chin-chin Fô[24]--oh joy!-- + Nex time my born, my bornee boy!"[25] + + "An' then my gettee nicey-new + A ittle dacket[26]--towsers too--And + And lun about with allo[27] boys, + In bu'ful boots that makee noise." + + Tear come in he gentleum eyes, + And then he anger 'gin to lise:[28] + He wailo[29] scoldee Mister Coe + For 'glectin' little Maly so. + + An' Mister Coe feel velly sore, + So go an' scoldy comprador; + An' comprador, with hollor[30] shook, + Lun[31] downy stairs and beatee cook. + + And worsey állo-állo pain, + Maly go Boston homo 'gain: + No filee-clackers[32] any more, + Nor talk with cook and comprador. + + MORAL PIDGIN. + + If Boston girley be let go, + She sartin sure to b'lieve in Fô, + And the next piecee of her plan + Is to lun lound[33] and act like man. + + So, little chilos,[34] mind you look, + And nevee talkee with the cook: + You make so-fashion, first you know + You catchee sclape,[35] like Maly Coe. + +CHARLES G. LELAND. + +[Footnote 1: "The Ballad of Mary Coe."] + +[Footnote 2: _Joss-pidgin-man_, clergyman.] + +[Footnote 3: Missionary.] + +[Footnote 4: Had a female child.] + +[Footnote 5: _Leadee_ or _leedee_, read.] + +[Footnote 6: _Olo_, old.] + +[Footnote 7: _Talkee Josh_ (or Joss), converses on religion.] + +[Footnote 8: _Pidgin-English_, the patois spoken in China, +meaning business-English, _pigeon_ being the ordinary Chinese +pronunciation of English.] + +[Footnote 9: _Solly_, sorry.] + +[Footnote 10: _Leason_, reason.] + +[Footnote 11: _Flin_, friend.] + +[Footnote 12: _Flom_, from.] + +[Footnote 13: _Lun_, run.] + +[Footnote 14: _Chop-chop_, fast.] + +[Footnote 15: _Stlanger_, stranger.] + +[Footnote 16: "I think it can't be done"--i.e., "You cannot see him."] + +[Footnote 17: _Chin-chin Joss top-sidey house_, he is praying up +stairs.] + +[Footnote 18: Devotion.] + +[Footnote 19: _Fan-kwai_, foreigner; lit. "foreign devil."] + + +[Footnote 20: _Galów, galáw_ or _galá_, a meaningless word, but much +used.] + +[Footnote 21: _Kwan-wán_, a Chinese female divinity represented with a +babe in her arms.] + +[Footnote 22: _Joss-stick_, a stick composed of fragrant gum, etc., +burnt as incense.] + +[Footnote 23: Prayers.] + +[Footnote 24: _Chin-chin Fô_, worship Buddha.] + +[Footnote 25: Chinese women believe that by frequent repetition of +a prayer to Fô they can secure the privilege of being born again as +males.] + +[Footnote 26: _Dacket_, jacket.] + +[Footnote 27: _Allo_, all.] + +[Footnote 28: _Lise_, rise.] + +[Footnote 29: _Wailo_, run, go.] + +[Footnote 30: Horror.] + +[Footnote 31: Run.] + +[Footnote 32: Fire-crackers.] + +[Footnote 33: Run round.] + +[Footnote 34: Children.] + +[Footnote 35: Scrape.] + + + + +LETTERS FROM SOUTH AFRICA. + +BY LADY BARKER. + + +MARITZBURG. November, 1875. + +The weather at the beginning of this month was lovely and the climate +perfection, but now (I am writing on its last day) it is getting very +hot and trying. If ever people might stand excused for talking about +the weather when they meet, it is we Natalians, for, especially at +this time of year, it varies from hour to hour. All along the coast +one hears of terrible buffeting and knocking about among the shipping +in the open roadsteads which have to do duty for harbors in these +parts; and it was only a few days ago that the lifeboat, with the +English mail on board, capsized in crossing the bar at D'Urban. The +telegram was--as telegrams always are--terrifying in its vagueness, +and spoke of the mail-bags as "floating about." When one remembers the +vast size of the breakers on which this floating would take place, it +sounded hopeless for our letters. They turned up, however, a few days +later--in a pulpy state, it is true, but quite readable, though +the envelopes were curiously blended and engrafted upon the letters +inside--so much so that they required to be taken together, for it +was impossible to separate them. I had recourse to the expedient +of spreading my letters on a dry towel and draining them before +attempting to dissever the leaves. Still, we were all only too +thankful to get our correspondence in any shape or form, for precious +beyond the power of words to express are home-letters to us, so far +away from home. + +But to return to our weather. At first it was simply perfect. Bright +hot days--not too hot, for a light breeze tempered even the midday +heat--and crisp, bracing nights succeeded each other during the first +fortnight. The country looked exquisitely green in its luxuriant +spring tints over hill and dale, and the rich red clay soil made a +splendid contrast on road and track with the brilliant green on either +hand. Still, people looked anxiously for more rain, declaring that not +half enough had fallen to fill tanks or "shuits" (as the ditches are +called), and it took four days of continuous downpour to satisfy these +thirsty souls even for the moment. Toward the middle of the month the +atmosphere became more oppressive and clouds began to come up in thick +masses all round the horizon, and gradually spread themselves over the +whole sky. The day before the heaviest rain, though not particularly +oppressive, was remarkable for the way in which all manner of animals +tried to get under shelter at nightfall. The verandah was full of big +frogs: if a door remained open for a moment they hopped in, and then +cried like trapped birds when they found themselves in a corner. As +for the winged creatures, it was something wonderful the numbers in +which they flew in at the windows wherever a light attracted them. +I was busy writing English letters that evening: I declare the +cockroaches fairly drove me away from the table by the mad way in +which they flung themselves into my ink-bottle, whilst the smell of +singed moths at the other lamp was quite overpowering. Well, after +this came rain indeed--not rain according to English ideas, but a +tropical deluge, as many inches falling in a few hours as would fill +your rain-gauges for months. I believe my conduct was very absurd that +first rainy night. The little house had just been newly papered, and +as the ceiling was not one to inspire confidence, consisting as it did +merely of boards roughly joined together and painted white, through +which and through the tiles beyond the sky could be seen quite +plainly, I suffered the gravest doubts about the water getting in and +spoiling my pretty new paper. Accordingly, whenever any burst of rain +came heavier than its immediate predecessor, I jumped out of bed in a +perfect agony of mind, and roamed, candle in hand, all over the +house to see if I could not detect a leak anywhere. But the +unpromising-looking roof and ceiling stood the test bravely, and not a +drop of all that descending downpour found its way to my new walls. + +By the way, I must describe the house to you, remarking, first of all, +that architecture, so far as my observation extends, is at its lowest +ebb in South Africa. I have not seen a single pretty building of any +sort or kind since I arrived, although in these small houses it would +be so easy to break by gable and porch the severe simplicity of the +unvarying straight line in which they are built. Whitewashed outer +walls with a zinc roof are not uncommon, and they make a bald and +hideous combination until kindly, luxuriant Nature has had time to +step in and cover up man's ugly handiwork with her festoons of roses +and passion-flowers. Most of the houses have, fortunately, red-tiled +roofs, which are not so ugly, and mine is among the number. It is so +squat and square, however, that, as our landlord happens to be +the chief baker of Maritzburg, it has been proposed to christen it +"Cottage Loaf," but this idea requires consideration on account of the +baker's feelings. In the mean time, it is known briefly as "Smith's," +that being the landlord's name. It has, as all the houses here have, a +broad projecting roof extending over a wide verandah. Within are four +small rooms, two on either side of a narrow passage which runs from +one end to the other. By a happy afterthought, a kitchen has been +added beyond this extremely simple ground-plan, and on the +opposite side a corresponding projection which closely resembles a +packing-case, and which has been painted a bright blue inside and out. +This is the dining-room, and evidently requires to be severely handled +before its present crude and glaring tints can be at all toned down. +At a little distance stands the stable, saddle-room, etc., and a good +bedroom for English servants, and beyond that, again, among large +clumps of rose-bushes, a native hut. It came up here half built--that +is, the frame was partly put together elsewhere--and it resembled a +huge crinoline more than anything else in its original state. Since +that, however, it has been made more secure by extra pales of bamboo, +each tied in its place with infinite trouble and patience by a knot +every inch or two. The final stage consisted of careful thatching +with thick bundles of grass laid on the framework, and secured by +long ropes of grass binding the whole together. The door is the very +smallest opening imaginable, and inside it is of course pitch dark. +All this labor was performed by stalwart Kafir women, one of whom, a +fearfully repulsive female, informed my cook that she had just been +bought back by her original husband. Stress of circumstances had +obliged him to sell her, and she had been bought by three other +husband-masters since then, but was now resold, a bargain, to her +first owner, whom, she declared, she preferred to any of the others. +But few as are these rooms, they yet are watertight--which is a great +point out here--and the house, being built of large, awkward blocks +of stone, is cool and shady. When I have arranged things a little, it +will be quite comfortable and pretty; and I defy any one to wish for a +more exquisite view than can be seen from any corner of the verandah. +We are on the brow of a hill which slopes gently down to the hollow +wherein nestles the picturesque little town, or rather village, of +Maritzburg. The intervening distance of a mile or so conceals the +real ugliness and monotony of its straight streets, and hides all +architectural shortcomings. The clock-tower, for instance, is quite a +feature in the landscape, and from here one cannot perceive that the +clock does not go. Nothing can be prettier than the effect of the +red-tiled roofs and white walls peeping out from among thick clumps +of trees, whilst beyond the ground rises again to low hills with deep +purple fissures and clefts in their green sides. It is only a couple +of years since this little house was built and the garden laid out, +and yet the shrubs and trees are as big as if half a dozen years had +passed over their leafy heads. As for the roses, I never saw anything +like the way they flourish at their own sweet will. Scarcely a leaf is +to be seen on the ugly straggling tree--nothing but masses of roses of +every tint and kind and old-fashioned variety. The utmost I can do +in the way of gathering daily basketsful appears only in the light of +judicious pruning, and next day a dozen blossoms have burst forth to +supply the place of each theft of mine. And there is such a variety +of trees! Oaks and bamboos, blue gums and deodars, seem to flourish +equally well within a yard or two of each other, and the more distant +flower-beds are filled with an odd mixture of dahlias and daturas, +white fleur-de-lis and bushy geraniums, scarlet euphorbias and +verbenas. But the weeds! They are a chronic eyesore and grief to every +gardener. On path and grass-plat, flower-bed and border, they flaunt +and flourish. "Jack," the Zulu refugee, wages a feeble and totally +inadequate warfare against them with a crooked hoe, but he is only a +quarter in earnest, and stops to groan and take snuff so often that +the result is that our garden is precisely in the condition of the +garden of the sluggard, gate and all. This hingeless condition of the +gate, however, is, I must in fairness state, neither Jack's nor our +fault. It is a new gate, but no one will come out from the town to +hang it. That is my standing grievance. Because we live about a mile +from the town it is next to impossible to get anything done. The town +itself is one of the shabbiest assemblages of dwellings I have +ever seen in a colony. It is not to be named on the same day with +Christchurch, the capital of Canterbury, New Zealand, which ten years +ago was decently paved and well lighted by gas. Poor sleepy Maritzburg +consists now, at more than forty years of age (Christchurch is not +twenty-five yet), of a few straight, wide, grass-grown streets, which +are only picturesque at a little distance on account of their having +trees on each side. On particularly dark nights a dozen oil-lamps +standing at long intervals apart are lighted, but when it is even +moderately starlight these aids to finding one's way about are +prudently dispensed with. There is not a single handsome and hardly a +decent building in the whole place. The streets, as I saw them after +rain, are veritable sloughs of despond, but they are capable of being +changed by dry weather into deserts of dust. It is true, I have only +been as yet twice down to the town, but on both visits it reminded me +more of the sleepy villages in Washington Irving's stories than of a +smart, modern, go-ahead colonial "city." There are some fairly good +shops, but they make no show outside, and within the prices of most of +the articles sold are nearly double the same things would bring either +at Melbourne or at Christchurch. As D'Urban is barely a month away +from London in point of communication, and New Zealand (when I knew +it) nearly treble the distance and time, this is a great puzzle to me. + +A certain air of quaint interest and life is given to the otherwise +desolate streets by the groups of Kafirs and the teams of wagons which +bring fuel and forage into the town every day. Twenty bullocks drag +these ponderous contrivances--bullocks so lean that one wonders how +they have strength to carry their wide-spreading horns aloft; bullocks +of a stupidity and obstinacy unparalleled in the natural history of +horned beasts. At their head walks a Kafir lad called a "forelooper," +who tugs at a rope fastened to the horns of the leading oxen, and in +moments of general confusion invariably seems to pull the wrong string +and get the whole team into an inextricable tangle of horns and yokes. +Sometimes of a quiet Sunday morning these teams and wagons I see +"out-spanned" on the green slopes around Maritzburg, making a +picturesque addition to the sylvan scenery. Near each wagon a light +wreath of smoke steals up into the summer air, marking where some +preparation of "mealies" is on foot, and the groups of grazing +oxen--"spans," as each team is called--give the animation of animal +life which I miss so sadly at every turn in this part of the world. + +In Maritzburg itself I only noticed two buildings which made the least +effect. One is the government house, standing in a nice garden and +boasting of a rather pretty porch, but otherwise reminding one--except +for the sentinel on duty--of a quiet country rectory: the other is a +small block comprising the public offices. The original idea of this +square building must have come from a model dairy. But the crowning +absurdity of the place is the office of the colonial secretary, +which stands nearly opposite. I am told that inside it is tolerably +comfortable, being the remains of an old Dutch building: outside, it +can only be compared to a dilapidated barn on a bankrupt farm, +and when it was first pointed out to me I had great difficulty, +remembering similar buildings in other colonies, in believing it was a +public office. + +The native police look very smart and shiny in their white suits, and +must be objects of envy to their black brethren on account of their +"knobkerries," the knobbed sticks which they alone are permitted to +carry officially in their hands. The native loves a stick, and as he +is forbidden to carry either an assegai--which is a very formidable +weapon indeed--or even a knobkerry, only one degree less dangerous, +he consoles himself with a wand or switch in case of coming across +a snake. You never see a Kafir without something of the sort in his +hand: if he is not twirling a light stick, then he has a sort of rude +reed pipe from which he extracts sharp and tuneless sounds. As a race, +the Kafirs make the effect of possessing a fine _physique_: they walk +with an erect bearing and a light step, but in true leisurely savage +fashion. I have seen the black race in four different quarters of the +globe, and I never saw one single individual move quickly of his +own free will. We must bear in mind, however, that it is a new and +altogether revolutionary idea to a Kafir that he should do any work at +all. Work is for women--war or idleness for men; consequently, their +fixed idea is to do as little as they can; and no Kafir will work +after he has earned money enough to buy a sufficient number of wives +who will work for him. "Charlie," our groom--who is, by the way, a +very fine gentleman and speaks "Ingeliss" after a strange fashion +of his own--only condescends to work until he can purchase a wife. +Unfortunately, the damsel whom he prefers is a costly article, and her +parents demand a cow, a kettle and a native hut as the price of her +hand--or hands, rather--so Charlie grunts and groans through about +as much daily work as an English boy of twelve years old could manage +easily. He is a very amusing character, being exceedingly proud, +and will only obey his own master, whom he calls his great inkosi +or chief. He is always lamenting the advent of the inkosi-casa, or +chieftainess, and the piccaninnies and their following, especially the +"vaiter," whom he detests. In his way, Charlie is a wag, and it is as +good as a play to see his pretence of stupidity when the "vaiter" +or French butler desires him to go and eat "sa paniche." Charlie +understands perfectly that he is told to go and get his breakfast of +mealy porridge, but he won't admit that it is to be called "paniche," +preferring his own word "scoff;" so he shakes his head violently and +says, "Nay, nay, paniche." Then, with many nods, "Scoff, ja;" and +so in this strange gibberish of three languages he and the Frenchman +carry on quite a pretty quarrel. Charlie also "mocks himself" of the +other servants, I am informed, and asserts that he is the "indema" +or headman. He freely boxes the ears of Jack, the Zulu refugee--poor +Jack, who fled from his own country, next door, the other day, and +arrived here clad in only a short flap made of three bucks' tails. +That is only a month ago, and "Jack" is already quite a _petit maître_ +about his clothes. He ordinarily wears a suit of knickerbockers and +a shirt of blue check bound with red, and a string of beads round his +neck, but he cries like a baby if he tears his clothes, or still worse +if the color of the red braid washes out. At first he hated civilized +garments, even when they were only two in number, and begged to be +allowed to assume a sack with holes for the arms, which is the Kafir +compromise when near a town between clothes and flaps made of the +tails of wild beasts or strips of hide. But he soon came to delight in +them, and is now always begging for "something to wear." + +I confess I am sorry for Jack. He is the kitchen-boy, and is learning +with much pains and difficulty the _wrong language_. My cook is +also French, and, naturally, all that Jack learns is French, and +not English. Imagine poor Jack's dismay when, after his three years' +apprenticeship to us is ended, he seeks perhaps to better himself, +and finds that no one except madame can understand him! Most of +their dialogues are carried on by pantomime and the incessant use, +in differing tones of voice, of the word "Ja." Jack is a big, +loutish young man, but very ugly and feeble, and apparently under the +impression that he is perpetually "wanted" to answer for the little +indiscretion, whatever it was, on account of which he was forced to +flee over the border. He is timid and scared to the last degree, and +abjectly anxious to please if it does not entail too much exertion. +He is, as it were, apprenticed to us for three years. We are bound to +feed and clothe and doctor him, and he is to work for us, in his own +lazy fashion, for small wages. The first time Jack broke a plate his +terror and despair were quite edifying to behold. Madame called him +a "maladroit" on the spot. Jack learned this word, and after his work +was over seated himself gravely on the ground with the fragments of +the plate, which he tried to join together, but gave up the attempt at +last, announcing in his own tongue that it was "dead." After a little +consideration he said slowly, several times, "Maldraw, ja," and hit +himself a good thump at each "ja." _Now_, I grieve to say, Jack +breaks plates, dishes and cups with a perfectly easy and unembarrassed +conscience, and is already far too civilized to care in the least for +his misfortunes in that line. Whenever a fowl is killed--and I came +upon Jack slowly putting one to death the other day with a pair of +nail-scissors--he possesses himself of a small store of feathers, +which he wears tastefully placed over his left ear. A gay ribbon, worn +like a bandeau across the forehead, is what he really loves. Jack +is very proud of a tawdry ribbon of many colors with a golden ground +which I found for him the other day, only he never can make up his +mind where to wear it; and I often come upon him sitting in the shade +with the ribbon in his hands, gravely considering the question. + +The Pickle and plague of the establishment, however, is the boy Tom, +a grinning young savage fresh from his kraal, up to any amount +of mischief, who in an evil hour has been engaged as the baby's +body-servant. I cannot trust him with the child out of my sight for a +moment, for he "snuffs" enormously, and smokes coarse tobacco out of +a cow's horn, and is anxious to teach the baby both these +accomplishments. Tom wears his snuff-box--which is a brass cylinder +a couple of inches long--in either ear impartially, there being huge +slits in the cartilage for the purpose, and the baby never rests till +he gets possession of it and sneezes himself nearly into fits. Tom +likes nursing Baby immensely, and croons to him in a strange buzzing +way which lulls him to sleep invariably. He is very anxious, however, +to acquire some words of English, and I was much startled the other +day to hear in the verandah my own voice saying, "What is it, dear?" +over and over again. This phrase proceeded from Tom, who kept on +repeating it, parrot-fashion--an exact imitation, but with no idea of +its meaning. I had heard the baby whimpering a little time before, and +Tom had remarked that these four words produced the happiest effect in +restoring good-humor; so he learned them, accent and all, on the spot, +and used them as a spell or charm on the next opportunity. I think +even the poor baby was puzzled. But one cannot feel sure of what +Tom will do next. A few evenings ago I trusted him to wheel the +perambulator about the garden-paths, but, becoming anxious in a very +few minutes to know what he was about, I went to look for him. I found +him grinning in high glee, watching the baby's efforts at cutting his +teeth on a live young bird. Master Tom had spied a nest, climbed the +tree, and brought down the poor little bird, which he presented to +the child, who instantly put it into his mouth. When I arrived on the +scene Baby's mouth was full of feathers, over which he was making a +very disgusted face, and the unhappy bird was nearly dead of fright +and squeezing, whilst Tom was in such convulsions of laughter that +I nearly boxed his ears. He showed me by signs how Baby insisted on +sucking the bird's head, and conveyed his intense amusement at the +idea. I made Master Tom climb the tree instantly and put the poor +little half-dead creature back into its nest, and sent for Charlie to +explain to him he should have no sugar--the only punishment Tom cares +about--for two days. I often think, however, that I must try and +find another penalty, for when Tom's allowance of sugar is stopped he +"requisitions" that of every one else, and so gets rather more +than usual. He is immensely proud of the brass chin-strap of an old +artillery bushy which has been given to him. He used to wear it across +his forehead in the favorite Kafir fashion, but as the baby always +made it his first business to pull this shining strap down over Tom's +eyes, and eventually over Tom's mouth, it has been transferred to his +neck. + +These Kafir-lads make excellent nurse-boys generally, and English +children are very fond of them. Nurse-girls are rare, as the Kafir +women begin their lives of toil so early that they are never very +handy or gentle in a house, and boys are easier to train as servants. +I heard to-day, however, of an excellent Kafir nurse-maid who was +the daughter of a chief, and whose only drawback was the size of +her family. She was actually and truly one of _eighty_ brothers and +sisters, her father being a rich man with twenty-five wives. That +simply means that he had twenty-five devoted slaves, who worked +morning, noon and night for him in field and mealy-patch without +wages. Jack the Zulu wanted to be nurse-boy dreadfully, and used to +follow Nurse about with a towel rolled up into a bundle, and another +towel arranged as drapery, dandling an imaginary baby on his arm, +saying plaintively, "Piccaninny, piccaninny!" This Nurse translated +to mean that he was an experienced nurse-boy, and had taken care of a +baby in his own country, but as I had no confidence in maladroit Jack, +who chanced to be very deaf besides, he was ruthlessly relegated to +his pots and pans. + +It is very curious to see the cast-off clothes of all the armies of +Europe finding their way hither. The natives of South Africa prefer an +old uniform coat or tunic to any other covering, and the effect of a +short scarlet garment when worn with bare legs is irresistibly droll. +The apparently inexhaustible supply of old-fashioned English coatees +with their worsted epaulettes is just coming to an end, and being +succeeded by ragged red tunics, franc-tireurs' brownish-green jackets +and much-worn Prussian gray coats. Kafir-Land may be looked upon as +the old-clothes shop of all the fighting world, for sooner or later +every cast-off scrap of soldier's clothing drifts toward it. Charlie +prides himself much upon the possession of an old gray great-coat, so +patched and faded that it may well have been one of those which toiled +up the slopes of Inkerman that rainy Sunday morning twenty years ago; +whilst scampish Tom got well chaffed the other day for suddenly making +his appearance clad in a stained red tunic with buff collar and cuffs, +and the number of the old "dirty Half-hundred" in tarnished metal on +the shoulder-scales. "Sir Garnet," cried Charlie the witty, +whilst Jack affected to prostrate himself before the grinning imp, +exclaiming, "O great inkosi!" + +Charlie is angry with me just now, and looks most reproachfully my way +on all occasions. The cause is that he was sweeping away sundry huge +spiders' webs from the roof of the verandah (the work of a single +night) when I heard him coughing frightfully. I gave him some +lozenges, saying, "Do your cough good, Charlie." Charlie received them +in both hands held like a cup, the highest form of Kafir gratitude, +and gulped them all down on the spot. Next day I heard the same +dreadful cough, and told F---- to give him some more lozenges. But +Charlie would have none of them, alleging he "eats plenty to-morrow's +yesterday, and dey no good at all;" and he evidently despises me and +my remedies. + +If only there were no hot winds! But the constant changes are so +trying and so sudden. Sometimes we have a hot, scorching gale all day, +drying and parching one's very skin up, and shriveling one's lovely +roses like the blast from a furnace: then in the afternoon a dark +cloud sails suddenly up from behind the hills to the west. It is over +the house before one knows it is coming: a loud clap of thunder shakes +the very ground beneath one's feet, others follow rapidly, and a +thunderstorm bewilders one for some ten minutes or so. A few drops of +cold rain fall to the sound of the distant thunder, now rolling away +eastward, which yet "struggles and howls at fits." It is not always +distant, but we have not yet seen a real thunderstorm; only a few of +these short, sudden electrical disturbances, which come and go +more like explosions than anything else. A few days ago there was a +duststorm which had a very curious effect as we looked down upon it +from this hill. All along the roads one could watch the dust being +caught up, as it were, and whirled along in dense clouds, whilst the +poor little town itself was absolutely blotted out by the blinding +masses of fine powder. For half an hour or so we could afford to +watch and smile at our neighbors' plight, but soon we had to flee +for shelter ourselves within the house, for a furious hot gale drove +heavily up behind the dust and nearly blew us away altogether. Still, +there was no thunderstorm, though we quite wished for one to cool +the air and refresh the parched and burnt-up grass and flowers. Such +afternoons are generally pretty sure to be succeeded by a cold night, +and perhaps a cold, damp morning; and one can already understand +that these alternations during the summer months are apt to produce +dysentery among young children. I hear just now of a good many such +cases among babies. + +I have been so exceedingly busy this month packing, arranging and +settling that there has been but little time for going about and +seeing the rather pretty environs of Maritzburg; besides which, the +weather is dead against excursions, changing as it does to rain or +threatening thunderstorms nearly every afternoon. One evening we +ventured out for a walk in spite of growlings and spittings up above +among the crass-looking clouds. Natal is not a nice country, for women +at all events, to walk in. You have to keep religiously to the road +or track, for woe betide the rash person who ventures on the grass, +though from repeated burnings all about these hills it is quite short. +There is a risk of your treading on a snake, and a certainty of your +treading on a frog. You will soon find your legs covered with small +and pertinacious ticks, who have apparently taken a "header" into your +flesh and made up their minds to die sooner than let go. They must +be the bull-dogs of the insect tribe, these ticks, for a sharp needle +will scarcely dislodge them. At the last extremity of extraction +they only burrow their heads deeper into the skin, and will lose this +important part of their tiny bodies sooner than yield to the gentlest +leverage. Then there are myriads of burs which cling to you in green +and brown scales of roughness, and fringe your petticoats with their +sticky little lumps. As for the poor petticoats themselves, however +short you may kilt them, you bring them back from a walk deeply +flounced with the red clay of the roads; and as the people who wash do +not seem to consider this a disadvantage, and take but little pains to +remove the earth-stains, one's garments gradually acquire, even when +clean, a uniform bordering of dingy red. All the water at this time +of year is red too, as the rivers are stirred up by the heavy summer +rains, and resemble angry muddy ditches more than fresh-water streams. +I miss at every turn the abundance of clear, clean, sparkling water +in the creeks and rivers of my dear New Zealand, and it is only after +heavy rain, when every bath and large vessel has been turned into a +receptacle during the downpour, that one can compass the luxury of +an inviting-looking bath or glass of drinking-water. Of course this +turbid water renders it pretty difficult to get one's clothes properly +washed, and the substitute for a mangle is an active Kafir, who makes +the roughly-dried clothes up into a neat parcel, places them on a +stone and dances up and down upon them for as long or short a time as +he pleases. Fuel is so enormously dear that the cost of having clothes +ironed is something astounding, and altogether washing is one of +the many costly items of Natalian housekeeping. When I remember the +frantic state of indignation and alarm we were all in in England three +years ago when coals rose to £2 10s. a ton, and think how cheap I +should consider that price for fuel here, I can't help a melancholy +smile. Nine solid sovereigns purchase you a tolerable-sized load of +wood, about equal for cooking purposes to a ton of coal; but whereas +the coal is at all events some comfort and convenience to use, the +wood is only a source of additional trouble and expense. It has to be +cut up and dried, and finally coaxed and cajoled by incessant use of +the bellows into burning. Besides the price of fuel, provisions of all +sorts seem to me to be dear and bad. Milk is sold by the quart bottle: +it is now fourpence per bottle, but rises to sixpence during the +winter. Meat is eightpence a pound, but it is so thin and bony, and +of such indifferent quality, that there is very little saving in that +respect. I have not tasted any really good butter since we arrived, +and we pay two shillings a pound for cheesy, rancid stuff. I hear that +"mealies," the crushed maize, are also very dear, and so is forage for +the horses. Instead of the horses being left out on the run night and +day, summer and winter, as they used to be in New Zealand, with an +occasional feed of oats for a treat, they need to be carefully housed +at night and well fed with oaten straw and mealies to give them a +chance against the mysterious and fatal "horse-sickness," which +kills them in a few hours. Altogether, so far as my very limited +experience--of only a few weeks, remember--goes, I should say that +Natal was an expensive place to live in, owing to the scarcity and +dearness of the necessaries of life. I am told that far up in the +country food and fuel are cheap and good, and that it is the dearness +and difficulty of transport which forces Maritzburg to depend for +its supplies entirely on what is grown in its own immediate vicinity, +where there is not very much land under cultivation; so we must look +to the coming railway to remedy all that. + +If only one could eat flowers, or if wheat and other cereals grew as +freely and luxuriously as flowers grow, how nice it would be! On the +open grassy downs about here the blossoms are lovely--beautiful lilies +in scarlet and white clusters, several sorts of periwinkles, heaths, +cinnerarias, both purple and white, and golden bushes of citisus or +Cape broom, load the air with fragrance. By the side of every "spruit" +or brook one sees clumps of tall arum lilies filling every little +water-washed hollow in the brook, and the ferns which make each ditch +and water-course green and plumy have a separate shady beauty of their +own. This is all in Nature's own free, open garden, and when the least +cultivation or care is added to her bounteous luxuriance a magnificent +garden for fruit, vegetables and flowers is the result; always +supposing you are fortunate enough to be able to induce these lazy +Kafirs to dig the ground for you. + +About a fortnight ago I braved the dirt and disagreeables of a +cross-country walk in showery weather--for we have not been able to +meet with a horse to suit us yet--and went to see a beautiful garden +a couple of miles away. It was approached by a long double avenue of +blue gum trees, planted only nine years ago, but tall and stately as +though a century had passed over their lofty, pointed heads, and with +a broad red clay road running between the parallel lines of trees. The +ordinary practice of clearing away the grass as much as possible round +a house strikes an English eye as bare and odd, but when one hears +that it is done to avoid snakes, it becomes a necessary and harmonious +adjunct to the rest of the scene. In this instance I found these +broad smooth walks, with their deep rich red color, a very +beautiful contrast to the glow of brilliant blossoms in the enormous +flower-beds. For this garden was not at all like an ordinary garden, +still less like a prim English parterre. The beds were as large as +small fields, slightly raised and bordered by a thick line of violets. +Large shrubs of beautiful semitropical plants made tangled heaps of +purple, scarlet and white blossoms on every side; the large creamy +bells of the datura drooped toward the reddish earth; thorny shrubs of +that odd bluish-green peculiar to Australian foliage grew side by side +with the sombre-leaved myrtle. Every plant grew in the most liberal +fashion; green things which we are accustomed to see in England in +small pots shoot up here to the height of laurel bushes; a screen of +scarlet euphorbia made a brilliant line against a background formed by +a hedge of shell-like cluster-roses, and each pillar of the verandah +of the little house had its own magnificent creeper. Up one standard +an ipomea twined closely; another pillar was hidden by the luxuriance +of a trumpet-honeysuckle; whilst a third was thickly covered by an +immense passion-flower. In shady, damp places grew many varieties +of ferns and blue hydrangeas, whilst other beds were filled by gay +patches of verbenas of every hue and shade. The sweet-scented verbena +is one of the commonest and most successful shrubs in a Natal garden, +and just now the large bushes of it which one sees in every direction +are covered by tapering spikes of its tiny white blossoms. But the +feature of this garden was roses--roses on each side whichever way you +turned, and I should think of at least a hundred different sorts. +Not the stiff standard rose tree of an English garden, with its few +precious blossoms, to be looked at from a distance and admired with +respectful gravity. No: in this garden the roses grow as they might +have grown in Eden--untrained, unpruned, in enormous bushes covered +entirely by magnificent blossoms, each bloom of which would have won +a prize at a rose-show. There was one cloth-of-gold rose bush that +I shall never forget--its size, its fragrance, its wealth of +creamy-yellowish blossoms. A few yards off stood a still bigger and +more luxuriant pyramid, some ten feet high, covered with the large, +delicate and regular pink bloom of the souvenir de Malmaison. When I +talk of _a_ bush I only mean one especial bush which caught my eye. I +suppose there were fifty cloth-of-gold and fifty souvenir rose bushes +in that garden. Red roses, white roses, tea roses, blush-roses, moss +roses, and, last not least, the dear old-fashioned, homely cabbage +rose, sweetest and most sturdy of all. You could wander for acres and +acres among fruit trees and plantations of oaks and willows and +other trees, but you never got away from the roses. There they were, +beautiful, delicious things at every turn--hedges of them, screens of +them and giant bushes of them on either hand. As I have said before, +though kept free from weeds by some half dozen scantily-clad but +stalwart Kafirs with their awkward hoes, it was not a bit like a trim +English garden. It was like a garden in which Lalla Rookh might have +wandered by moonlight talking sentimental philosophy with her minstrel +prince under old Fadladeen's chaperonage, or a garden that Boccaccio +might have peopled with his Arcadian fine ladies and gentlemen. It was +emphatically a poet's or a painter's garden, not a gardener's garden. +Then, as though nothing should be wanting to make the scene lovely, +one could hear through the fragrant silence the tinkling of the little +"spruit" or brook at the bottom of the garden, and the sweet song of +the Cape canary, the same sort of greenish finch which is the parent +stock of all our canaries, and whose acquaintance I first made in +Madeira. A very sweet warbler it is, and the clear, flute-like notes +sounded prettily among the roses. From blossom to blossom lovely +butterflies flitted, perching quite fearlessly on the red clay walk +just before me, folding and unfolding their big painted wings. Every +day I see a new kind of butterfly, and the moths which one comes upon +hidden away under the leaves of the creepers during the bright noisy +day are lovely beyond the power of words. One little fellow is a great +pet of mine. He wears pure white wings, with vermilion stripes drawn +in regular horizontal lines across his back, and between the lines are +shorter, broken streaks of black, which is at once neat and uncommon; +but he is always in the last stage of sleepiness when I see him. + +I am so glad little G---- is not old enough to want to catch them all +and impale them upon corks in a glass case; so the pretty creatures +live out their brief and happy life in the sunshine, without let or +hinderance from him. + +The subject of which my mind is most full just now is the purchase of +a horse. F---- has a fairly good chestnut cob of his own; G---- +has become possessed, to his intense delight, of an aged and +long-suffering Basuto pony, whom he fidgets to death during the day +by driving him all over the place, declaring he is "only showing +him where the nicest grass grows;" and I want a steed to draw my +pony-carriage and to carry me. F---- and I are at dagger's drawn on +this question. He wants to buy me a young, handsome, showy horse of +whom his admirers predict that "he will steady down presently," whilst +my affections are firmly fixed on an aged screw who would not turn +his head if an Armstrong gun were fired behind him. His owner says +Scotsman is "rising eleven:" F---- declares Scotsman will never see +his twentieth birthday again. F---- points out to me that Scotsman has +had rough times of it, apparently, in his distant youth, and that he +is strangely battered about the head, and has a large notch out of one +ear. I retaliate by reminding him how sagely the old horse picked his +way, with a precision of judgment which only years can give, through +the morass which lies at the foot of the hill, and which must be +crossed every time I go into town (and there is nowhere else to go). +That morass is a bog in summer and a honey-comb of deep ruts and +holes in winter, which, you must bear in mind, is the dry season here. +Besides his tact in the matter of the morass, did I not drive Scotsman +the other day to the park, and did he not comport himself in the +most delightfully sedate fashion? You require experience to be on the +lookout for the perils of Maritzburg streets, it seems, for all +their sleepy, deserted, tumble-down air. First of all, there are the +transport-wagons, with their long span of oxen straggling all across +the road, and a nervous bullock precipitating himself under your +horse's nose. The driver, too, invariably takes the opportunity of a +lady passing him to crack his whip violently, enough to startle any +horse except Scotsman. Then when you have passed the place where the +wagons most do congregate, and think you are tolerably safe and +need only look out for ruts and holes in the street, lo! a furious +galloping behind you, and some half dozen of the "gilded youth" of +Maritzburg dash past you, stop, wheel round and gallop past again, +until you are almost blinded with dust or smothered with mud, +according to the season. This peril occurred several times during +my drive to and from the park, and I can only remark that dear old +Scotsman kept his temper better than I did: perhaps he was more +accustomed to Maritzburg manners. + +When the park was reached at last, across a frail and uncertain wooden +bridge shaded by large weeping willows, I found it the most +creditable thing I had yet seen. It is admirably laid out, the natural +undulations of the ground being made the most of, and exceedingly well +kept. This in itself is a difficult matter where all vegetation runs +up like Jack's famous beanstalk, and where the old proverb about the +steed starving whilst his grass is growing falls completely to the +ground. There are numerous drives, made level by a coating of smooth +black shale, and bordered by a double line of syringas and oaks, +with hedges of myrtle or pomegranate. In some places the roads run +alongside the little river--a very muddy torrent when I saw it--and +then the oaks give way to great drooping willows, beneath whose +trailing branches the river swirled angrily. On fine Saturday +afternoons the band of the regiment stationed here plays on a clear +space under some shady trees--for you can never sit or stand on the +grass in Natal, and even croquet is played on bare leveled earth--and +everybody rides or walks or drives about. When I saw the park there +was not a living creature in it, for it was, as most of our summer +afternoons are, wet and cold and drizzling; but, considering that +there was no thunderstorm likely to break over our heads that day, I +felt that I could afford to despise a silent Scotch mist. We varied +our afternoon weather last week by a hailstorm, of which the stones +were as big as large marbles. I was scoffed at for remarking this, and +assured it was "nothing, absolutely nothing," to _the_ great hailstorm +of two years ago, which broke nearly every tile and pane of glass in +Maritzburg, and left the town looking precisely as though it had been +bombarded. I have seen photographs of some of the ruined houses, and +it is certainly difficult to believe that hail could have done so much +mischief. Then, again, stories reach me of a certain thunderstorm one +Sunday evening just before I arrived in which the lightning struck a +room in which a family was assembled at evening prayers, killing the +poor old father with the Bible in his hand, and knocking over every +member of the little congregation. My informant said, "I assure you +it seemed as though the lightning were poured out of heaven in a jug. +There were no distinct flashes: the heavens appeared to split open and +pour down a flood of blazing violet light." I have seen nothing like +this yet, but can quite realize what such a storm must be like, for I +have observed already how different the color of the lightning is. The +flashes I have seen were exactly of the lilac color he described, and +they followed each other with a rapidity of succession unknown in +less electric regions. And yet my last English letters were full of +complaints of the wet weather in London, and much self-pity for the +long imprisonment in-doors. Why, those very people don't know what +weather inconveniences are. If London streets are muddy, at all events +there are no dangerous morasses in them. No matter how much it rains, +people get their comfortable meals three times a day. _Here_, rain +means a risk of starvation (if the little wooden bridge between us and +the town were to be swept away) and a certainty of short commons. +A wet morning means damp bread for breakfast and a thousand other +disagreeables. No, I have no patience with the pampered Londoners, +who want perpetual sunshine in addition to their other blessings, for +saying one word about discomfort. They are all much too civilized and +luxurious, and their lives are made altogether too smooth for them. +Let them come out here and try to keep house on the top of a hill +with servants whose language they don't understand, a couple of +noisy children and a small income, and then, as dear Mark Twain says, +"they'll know something about woe." + + + + +DINNER IN A STATE PRISON. + + +An invitation to take dinner with a friend in the State's prison +was something new and exciting to a quiet little body like me, and I +re-read Ruth Denham's kindly-worded note to that effect, and thought +how odd it was that we should meet again in this way after ten years' +separation and all the changes that had intervened in both our lives. +We had parted last on the night of our grand closing-school party, +after having been friends and fellow-pupils for five years. She was +then fifteen, and the prettiest, brightest and cleverest girl at +Lynnhope. I was younger, and felt distinguished by her friendship, and +heart-broken at the idea of losing her, for she was going abroad with +her family, while I remained to complete my studies at the institute. + +I had plenty of letters the first year, but then her father died, and +with him went his reputed fortune. A painful change occurred in the +position of the Welfords in consequence, and Ruth became a teacher, as +I heard, until she met and married a young man from the West, whither +she returned with him immediately after the ceremony. She had written +to me once after becoming Ruth Denham, and her letter was kind and +cordial as her old self, but the correspondence thus renewed soon +ceased. I was also an orphan, but a close attendant at the couch of +my invalid aunt; and Ruth's new strange life was too crowded with +pressing duties to permit her to write regularly to her girlhood's +companion, whom she had not seen for years. My aunt had now recovered +so far as to indulge a taste for travel. We were on our way by the +great railroad to the Pacific coast, and we stopped at the small +capital of one of the newest States to discover that Ruth Denham was +a resident there, the wife of the lieutenant-governor, who was +consequently the warden of the State prison. The note I held in my +hand was in answer to one I had despatched to her an hour before +by the hands of a Chinaman from the hotel, and it was as glad and +affectionate as I could wish: + + "My husband is quite ill with sciatica, which completely + lames him, as well as causing him intense pain. I am his only + attendant, or I would fly to you at once, my dearest Jenny. I + am so sorry you leave by the midnight train for San Francisco + to-morrow, but must be content to see you as much of the + day as you can spare us, and hope for a longer visit on your + return. We dine at four: may I not send the carriage for you + as early as two o'clock? + + "Your loving friend, + + "RUTH DENHAM." + +I had my aunt's permission to leave her, and was ready at the +appointed hour to find the carriage there to the minute; and a very +comfortable, easy conveyance it proved over one of the worst roads I +ever traveled on. + +The prison was about a mile from the outskirts of the straggling town, +which boasted two or three fine State buildings, in strong contrast +with its scattering and mostly mean and shambling dwellings. Some +hot springs had been discovered near the site, and over them had been +erected a wooden hotel and baths of the simplest order of architecture +and on the barest possible plan of ornament or comfort. Just beyond +this edifice was the prison, situated at the rise of one hill and +under the shadow of another and more considerable one. It was built of +a softish, light-colored stone dug from a neighboring quarry, as the +driver told me, and looking even at a cursory glance too destructible +and crumbling to secure such desperate and determined inmates. + +"They used to keep 'em in a sort o' wooden shed," said my driver, +alluding to the prisoners, "until they got this shebang fixed up. +Pretty smart lot of chaps they were, for they built it themselves +mostly, and made good time on it, too." + +It was surrounded by a high wooden fence, within which a stone wall of +the same material as the building was in course of construction. + +"If it wasn't Sunday," said my companion as we drove through the +guarded gate, "you could see 'em at work, for they're putting up their +defences, and doing it first-rate, too." + +I had only time for a glance at the inside of the enclosure. We were +already at the principal entrance, which was a wide door opening into +a hall, with a staircase leading up to the second floor. On the right +hand was a strongly-grated iron door opening into the main corridor +between the cells: the other side seemed to be devoted to offices and +quarters for the guards. I saw knots of men about, but only the two +at the entrance appeared to be armed, and they had that lounging, easy +air, that belongs to security and the absence of thought. It was in +every respect opposite to my preconceived idea of a penitentiary, and +all recollection of its first design fled when I saw Ruth's cheery +face, bright and handsome as ever, beaming on me from the first +landing, and felt her warm, firm arms clasping me in an embrace of +affectionate welcome. It was my friend's home, and nothing else, from +that moment, and a very pretty, daintily-ordered home it was. She had +five rooms on the second floor, with a kitchen below: this was her +parlor in front, a bright, well-furnished room, tastefully ornamented +with pictures, some of which I recognized as her own paintings in our +school-days; and here was her dining-room to the left, with a small +guest-chamber that she hoped I would occupy when I returned. The other +rooms on the west of the parlor were hers and Nellie's--Oh, I had not +seen Nellie, her five-year-old, nor her dear husband, who was so much +better to-day, though he could not rise without difficulty; and would +I therefore come and see him? + +As Ruth gave me thus a passing glance at her household arrangements, +I saw through the open door of an apartment back of the dining-room a +light shower of plaster fall to the ground, marking the oilcloth that +covered the floor, and for one instant sending out into the hall a +puff of whitish dust. + +"Oh, that is one of the effects of our terribly dry climate," said +Ruth, following my glance and noticing the dust: "every little while +portions of our walls crumble and fall in like that. There is no +doubt a sad litter in Mr. Foster the clerk's room, where that shower +occurred: he has gone to the city for the day, however, and it can be +cleared before his return. Here is my husband, Jenny." + +In a recess by the parlor window, on a lounge, Mr. Denham was trying +to disguise the necessity for keeping his tortured limb extended by an +appearance of smiling ease. He was a handsome, frank-faced man, with +a firm, fearless eye and a gentle, kindly mouth, and I could readily +understand my friend's look of sweet content when I saw him and her +child Nellie, who was hanging over her papa with the fond protecting +air of a precocious nurse. I sat down quickly beside them to prevent +my host's attempting to rise, and the hour that elapsed before dinner +flew by in interesting conversation. + +"I am so sorry I had to go for a little while," said Ruth, returning +to announce that meal, "but my good Wang-Ho is sick to-day, and I had +to help him a little." + +"Where is Lester, Ruth?" asked her husband. + +"Oh, he is kind and helpful as ever, but he does not understand making +dessert, you know, Edward." + +"That's true, and Miss Jane will excuse you, I am sure, for she and +I have been reviewing the principal features of pioneer-life, and she +professes herself rather in love with it than otherwise." + +"It is all so fresh and enjoyable, despite its discomforts and +inconveniences," I said; "and need I quote a stronger argument in its +favor than yourself, my dear Ruth? You seem perfectly happy, and I +really cannot see why you should not be so." + +She had her golden-haired little girl in one arm, and she laid the +other hand caressingly on her husband's shoulder, "There is none: +I _am_ happy," she said in a low, earnest tone; and then added +laughingly, "or I shall be as soon as Edward gets well of sciatica and +Wang-Ho recovers from his chills." + +Mr. Denham begged us to go before him, and his wife led the way to the +dining-room. + +"Poor fellow!" she whispered, "he suffers horribly when he moves, and +I tried to persuade him to have his dinner sent into the parlor, but +in honor of your presence he will come, and he doesn't want us to see +him wince and writhe under the effort." + +Just as we entered the dining-room a young man came in by another +door, carrying a tray with dishes. I had seen plenty of Chinamen, +but this was not one, nor could I reconcile his appearance with the +position of a servant. He was tall, well-made, and his face, though +unnaturally pale, was decidedly good-looking. He wore a pair of coarse +gray pantaloons with a remarkable stripe down one leg, but had on a +beautifully clean and fine, white shirt fastened at the throat with a +diamond button. The weather was warm, and he was without coat or vest, +and had a sash of red knitted silk, such as Mexicans wear, round his +middle. + +Ruth took the dishes from him and placed them on the table. "Please +tell Wang-Ho about the coffee, Lester," she said as he retired. + +"Is that man a servant, Ruth?" I asked in an astonished whisper. + +"No," she replied in the same low tone: "he is a murderer condemned +for life." + +Mr. Denham hobbled in and slid down upon a seat. I appreciated his +gallant attention, but it was painful to see the effort it cost: +besides, much as I had seen, and familiar as I was becoming with +pioneer life, to be waited on at dinner by a young and handsome +murderer condemned to prison for life was a sensation new and +startling, and I was full of curiosity as to the nature of his crime +and the peculiar administration of the Western penal code that made +house-servants of convicts. Seeing my perturbation, Ruth evidently +intended to relieve it by the explanatory remark of "He is a 'trusty,' +Jenny dear," but really threw no light whatever on the subject. + +It was a very nice dinner, served tastefully and with a home comfort +about everything connected with the table that seemed most unlike +a prison. Mr. Denham's intelligence and cheerfulness added to the +delusion that I was enjoying the hospitalities of a cultivated Eastern +home. He and his wife had kept themselves thoroughly familiar with all +topics of general interest through the medium of periodicals, and had +much to ask about the actual progress of improvements they had read of +and the changes occurring among dear and familiar Eastern scenes. + +Lester came in again with the empty tray, and quietly gathered the +plates from the table preparatory to placing dessert. I wanted to look +at him--indeed, a fascination I could not resist drew my eyes to his +face like a magnet--yet, somehow, I dared not keep them there: the +consciousness of meeting his glance, and feeling that I should then be +ashamed of my curiosity, made them drop uneasily every time he turned; +and once when I found his gaze rest on me an instant, I felt myself +color violently under the quiet look of his steel-gray eyes. + +One thing was very observable in the little group: the child Nellie +was intensely fond of the man, and he himself seemed to entertain and +constantly endeavor to express an exalted admiration for Mr. Denham. +While the latter was speaking Lester's animated looks followed every +word and gesture: he anticipated his unexpressed wishes, and watched +to save him the trouble of moving or asking for anything. + +"No, no, Nellie, stay and finish your dinner: Lester is not quite +ready for you yet." Her mother said this in reference to the child's +eagerness to follow the trusty attendant from the room, and her +neglect of her meal in consequence. "Nellie is in the habit of +carrying up the sugar and cream for the coffee, and she thinks Lester +cannot possibly get on if she does not assist," said Ruth in smiling +explanation as Nellie hastened after him. + +The next instant there was the mingled sound of a heavy fall or +succession of falls outside, and one quick, stifled scream from the +child. + +"The dumb-waiter, quick! It has broken from its weights and scalded +Nell with the hot coffee," cried Ruth, making a spring toward the door +by which Lester had gone out. + +Her husband, forgetting his lameness, was instantly at her side, but +some force held the door against them both, and abandoning it after +the first effort, the father turned hurriedly to the one leading +into the hall. I sat nearest that, and in the excitement I had moved +quickly aside, so that when it was flung violently open the moment +before my host the governor of the prison reached it, I was thrust +back against the wall, from which place, half dead with fright, I saw +the hall crowded with convicts, the foremost of whom held a pistol +directly toward Mr. Denham's head. + +It snapped with a sharp report, and when the smoke cleared I found +Mr. Denham had dodged the fire and was closed in a scuffle with the +villain for the weapon. A dozen more seemed to spring on him from the +threshold; I heard his wife's cry of agony; and then the door at the +other side burst in, and Lester, with his gray eyes gleaming like a +flame, bounded over the body of a bloody convict that fell from his +grasp as he broke into the room. Quick as thought he caught up one +of the heavy chairs in his hands, and bringing it down with desperate +force on the heads of the governor's assailants, felled one, while the +other staggered back and dropped his pistol. Mr. Denham caught it +like a flash, and fired it in the face of a wretch who was aiming +at Lester's heart. The convicts fell back, and over their bodies the +governor and his aid sprang into the crowded hall. + +"The child! the child! O God! my little daughter!" It was Ruth's voice +in tones of such anguish and terror as I never before heard uttered by +human voice. + +She was looking from the window into the yard below, and there she +beheld Nellie lifted up as a shield against the guns of the guards by +a party of the escaping convicts. The little creature was deadly white +and perfectly silent: her great blue eyes were wide and frozen with +fright, and her little hands were clasped in entreating agony and +stretched toward her mother. + +"Stand behind me and shoot them down, governor," cried Lester, dealing +steady blows with the now broken chair, and trying to make his own +body a shield for Mr. Denham. The governor continued to fire on the +convicts, who were pouring in a steady stream down the stairs from +out of the room where I had seen the shower of dust, and through the +ceiling of which, as it was afterward, proved, they had cut a hole, +and so escaped from the upper corridor of the prison. + +I tried to hold Ruth in my arms, for in her frenzy to reach her child +she had flung up the window and endeavored to drop from it at the risk +of her life. "They will not dare to hurt her: God will protect her +innocent life," was all I could say, when a random ball from below +struck the window-frame, and, glancing off, stunned without wounding +the wretched mother. She fell, jarred by the shock, and I drew her as +well as I could behind the door, on the other side of which lay the +two bleeding prisoners who had tried to take her husband's life. + +Groans, shouts, curses, yells and pistol-shots sounded in the hall and +on the stairs; only the back of the chair remained in Lester's grasp, +but heaps of men felled by its weight and crushed by their struggling +fellows had tumbled down and been kicked over the broken balustrade to +the hall below. + +The guards had rallied from their surprise, and sparing the escaped +for the sake of the precious shield they bore, turned their fire upon +the escaping, cutting them off until the whole corridor below was +blocked with wounded, dead and dying. One more man appeared at the +clerk's door: he was a powerful fellow with a horse-pistol and a +stone-hammer. Lester had staggered back from a flying iron bar aimed +at his head by a villain he struck at without reaching, and who had +bounded down the stairs to receive his death from the guard's musket +at the door. The prisoner with the horse-pistol saw his advantage, +and, cursing the governor in blasphemous rage, aimed at him as he +fled. Recovering himself, Lester struck for his arm, but not soon +enough to stop the fire: the charge reached its object, but not his +heart, as it was meant to do. It glanced aside, and Mr. Denham's +pistol dropped: his right arm fell maimed at his side; but the field +was clear, and Lester, catching the fallen pistol, went down the +stairs over the bodies in a series of flying leaps. + +"Where's my wife?" exclaimed Mr. Denham, turning round dizzily and +trying to steady his head with his uninjured hand. "Tell her I've gone +for Nellie;" and he made an effort to rush after Lester, but, +reaching the top of the stairs, dropped suddenly upon a convict's body +stretched there by his own pistol. Then I saw by the reddish hole +in his trousers just below the knee that he had been wounded before, +though he did not know it, and was now streaming with blood. + +"Where's Nell? where's Edward?" asked Ruth, sitting up with a ghastly +face, and looking at me in a bewildered stare. + +"All right, all safe, tell the lady," cried a clear, exulting voice +from below: "here's sweet little Miss Nellie, without a scratch on +her." + +It was Lester's shout from the yard, and it rang through all the +building. + +"Do you hear, Ruth? do you hear?" I screamed, beside myself with joy +and thankfulness. "He has saved your husband a dozen times, that hero, +and now he brings back your child to you. Oh, what a noble fellow! how +I envy him his feelings!" + +He was in the room by this time with Nellie in his arms: he heard me +and gave me just one look. I never saw him again, but I never shall +forget it, for it revealed the long agony of a blighted life that +moment struggling into hope again through expiation. He did not wait +for Ruth's broken cry of gratitude, but was gone as soon as the child +was in her arms. + +"Come, boys," I heard him cry cheerily outside, "lend a hand to help +the governor to his room: he's got a scratch or two, and the doctor's +coming to dress them. He will be all right again before we can get +things set straight round here." + +Governor Denham's wounds were not so slight as Lester hoped, but they +were not dangerous, and when, to prevent my aunt's alarm for my safety +(for the news of "the break" spread rapidly through the town), I +parted from my friends before nightfall and rode back to the hotel +as I had come, I left three of the most excitedly grateful and happy +people behind me I had ever seen. + +"I suppose it is no use to urge it further, Ruth darling," said her +husband as we parted, "but I really wish you would go to San Francisco +with our friend and let Nellie have a chance to forget the shock +she has endured. You need the change too, if you would ever think of +yourself." + +"It is because I do think of myself that I prefer to remain where I am +happiest," said Ruth decidedly. "As for Nell, she is a pioneer child, +and will soon be as merry and fearless as ever. But, Jenny dear, we +owe you an apology for the novel dinner-party we have given you. When +you come back it will seem like a frightful dream, and not a reality, +we shall all be so quiet and orderly again." As we stood alone in the +hall, from which every sign of the late terrible conflict had been +removed save the bloodstains that had sunk into the stone beyond the +power of a hasty washing to obliterate, Ruth said in a low whispering +tone that was full of pent-up feeling, "I told you that Lester was +a murderer condemned for life, Jenny, but there were extenuating +circumstances in connection with his crime. That is not his name we +call him by: I do not even know his real one, but I am convinced that +he belongs to educated and reputable people, and that he suffers the +keenest remorse for the wild life that led him so terribly astray. He +became desperately attached to a Spanish girl, who was married as a +child to a brutal fellow who deserted her, and she thought him dead. +She and Lester were to be married, I believe, when the missing husband +reappeared and tormented them both. The girl he treated shockingly, +and it was in a fit of rage at his abuse of her that Lester killed +him; but appearances were all against the deed, and he was convicted +of murder in the second degree and sentenced for life. Edward is kind +and discriminating, and he pitied him. Lester told his story freely, +and my husband gained his lasting gratitude by taking care of the +wretched girl and paying her passage in a vessel bound for her native +town in Mexico. The only favor we could show him here was to separate +him from the wretches in the common prison by making him a 'trusty' +or prison-servant. He understood our motive in doing so, and was very +thankful and most reliable. What we owe him to-day you know: he makes +light of it, protesting that he only picked up Nell from the gulch +where the escaped convicts had dropped her on their way to the hills; +but he cannot lessen the debt: it is too great to be calculated even." + +The subsequent report proved that twenty-eight prisoners had conspired +to effect the break, and by secreting the tools they wrought with in +their sleeves passed in on Saturday from the wall-building to cut an +entrance through the ceiling of their own corridor into the loft above +Mr. Foster's room, through which they dropped while the family were at +dinner, choosing that hour so as to produce a surprise and secure the +child, who always went below with Lester to help carry up the coffee. +Of the whole number, five were killed outright and six wounded: twelve +escaped uninjured, but were nearly all afterward retaken; and five +repented their share in the movement or lacked courage to carry it +out, and so remained in the prison. The most interesting item of the +whole came to me at San Francisco in my friend's letter. It said: "We +are looking forward with great delight to your visit, and planning +every pleasure our sterile life can yield to make it enjoyable. But +you will not see Lester: he is gone. His pardon, full and entire in +view of his courage and fidelity, and the manly stand he took against +the murderous plotters, came on Monday last, and at nightfall he left +the prison to go by the stage to meet the midnight train. 'To Mexico!' +were his last words to us. Heaven bless him, and grant him wisdom and +courage to retrieve the past and open a fair bright future!" + +MARGARET HOSMER. + + + + +FAREWELL. + + [From Friederich Bodenstedt's _Aus dem Nachlasse + Mirza-Schaffys._] + + + Aloft the moon in heaven's dome. + Sultry the night, tempests foretelling: + For the last time before I roam + I see the surf in splendor swelling. + + A ship glides by, a shadowy form, + Faint roseate lights around me sparkle, + A gathering mist precedes the storm, + And far-off forest tree-tops darkle. + + The silver-crested waves are lashing + The pebbly shore tumultuously: + Absorbed I watch their ceaseless dashing, + Myself as still as bush or tree. + + Within arise fond memories + Of moonlight evenings long since vanished, + Once full of life as waves and breeze, + From this familiar shore now banished. + + Hushed in the grove is the birds' song, + Spring's blossoms tempests caused to perish; + Yet what through eye and ear did throng + The heart for evermore will cherish. + +AUBER FORESTIER. + + + + +THE INSTRUCTION OF DEAF MUTES. + + +While I was a teacher in the Illinois Institution for the Deaf and +Dumb the following letters were written by some of the pupils. The +first was written the day after Thanksgiving, and ran thus: + + "DEAR MOTHER: We had Thanks be unto God, no school yesterday, + Turkey mince-pies, and many other kinds of fruits." + +The day after Christmas a boy wrote: "We had Glory to God in the +highest, no school yesterday, and a fine time." What he really meant +to say was, that they had a motto in evergreens of "Glory to God in +the Highest," and they had also a holiday. + +This motto, by the way, got up by the pupils themselves, was striking. +It was placed over one of the dining-room doors, and the ceiling +being very low it was necessarily put just under it. A single glance +sufficed to show the utter impossibility of getting the "Glory" any +higher. + +The younger pupils write in almost every letter, "There are ---- +pupils in this institution, ---- boys and ---- girls. All of the +pupils are well, but some are sick." This is English pretty badly +broken. + +These letters serve to illustrate a remark which Principal Peet of the +New York institution made to me not long ago: "The great difficulty in +instructing deaf mutes is in teaching them the English language." +In this, of course, he had reference to the deaf mutes of our own +country, and his statement appears, on its face, paradoxical. That +American children should learn at least to read the English language, +even when they cannot speak it, seems quite a matter of course. The +fact is, however, different. The first disadvantage under which the +deaf mute labors is the limited extent to which his mental powers have +been developed. This deficiency is attributable to two causes--his +deprivation of the immense amount of information to be gained by the +sense of hearing, and his want of language. Before an infant, one +possessed of all its faculties, has acquired at least an understanding +of articulate language, it has but vague and feeble ideas. No clear, +distinct conception is shaped in its mind. "Ideas," says M. Marcel in +his essay on the _Study of Languages_, "are not innate: they must be +received before they can be communicated. This is so true that native +curiosity impels us to listen long before we can speak.... Impression +... must therefore precede expression." Real thought, therefore, +it will be seen, grows with the child's acquisition of language--an +acquisition which is obtained in the earlier years entirely through +the organ of hearing. This principal avenue to the mind is closed +to the deaf mute. It is evident, therefore, that, lacking these two +fundamental sources of all knowledge, his mental growth is incredibly +slower than that of the hearing child. All that can be learned by +means of the other senses is, however, learned rapidly, these being +quickened and stimulated by the absence of one. Hence, the deaf-mute +child of eight or ten years of age often appears as bright and +intelligent as his more favored playmate. The latter, however, has a +store of knowledge and a fund of thought wholly unknown to the deaf +mute. + +But it is the want of written language, and the obstacles in the way +of its acquirement, which constitute the chief disability of the deaf +mute in the attempt to gain an education. If you set a child of seven +years of age to learn Greek, requiring him to receive and express his +ideas wholly in that language, you would not hope for any very clear +expression of those ideas with less than a year's instruction, nor +would you expect him to appreciate the delicate beauties of the +_Odyssey_ in that length of time. The progress of the deaf mute in +any language, even the most simply constructed, is greatly slower than +that of the hearing child. The latter is assisted at every step by +his previous knowledge of his vernacular. The former does not think in +words, as you have done from your earliest recollection. Undertake to +do your thinking in a foreign tongue, of which you have but a limited +knowledge: the attempt is discouraging. The deaf mute thinks in signs. +This, his only vehicle of thought, is a hindrance instead of a help in +learning written language, there being no analogy whatever between the +two methods of expressing ideas. + +With these tremendous odds against him the deaf-mute child is set to +the task of acquiring a knowledge of written language. His ideas (in +signs) shape themselves in this wise: "Horses, two, run fast." Of +course he does not think these words. The idea of a horse, its shape +and color, is probably imaged in his mind, or if the horse be not +present to his sight, the sign which he uses for that animal comes +into his thought. He next touches or grasps or holds up two of his +fingers, which he uses on all occasions to express number. Then +the idea of running by means of its sign, and lastly that of speed, +suggest themselves, the last two, however, being probably closely +connected, as in our own minds. + + +Observe, here, that the order in which the thoughts arrange themselves +is different from the manner of those who think by means of words. The +main idea is "horse," and he gives it the preference, as the older and +more simply constructed languages always did. It is reserved for our +cultured and perfected language to describe an object before +telling what that object is. Who will say that it is according to +philosophical principles that we say, "A fine large red apple," +instead of "An apple, fine, red, large"? A deaf-mute boy tells me that +he saw two dogs fighting yesterday. He explains it in signs in this +manner: "Dogs, two, fight; first, second ear bit, blood much. Second +ran, hid; saw yesterday, I." Thus the fact is arranged in his mind. +Let him attempt to translate--for it is nothing but translation--this +simple statement into English. The perplexity which first seizes the +hapless school-boy over his "Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres" +is nothing to it. Like him, he must go hunting, as if for a needle +in a haystack, for the word to put first. It is the last idea in his +sign-sentence. Then he slowly learns to pick out the words and arrange +them in English order--an order, as I said before, not founded on +philosophical principles, but in most instances wholly arbitrary. +This is by no means an easy task. Years of training do not ensure +him against ludicrous lapses. A fair percentage of the whole number +educated learn to construct sentences with tolerable accuracy; a +smaller percentage of these acquire fluency, precision and, in some +rare instances, grace of expression; but a large proportion never +become good English scholars. + +The method of beginning their instruction is by means of simple +familiar objects, or, where these cannot be obtained, illustrations +of them. A picture of a horse is placed, at one end of the teacher's +blackboard. Instantly two fingers of each hand go up to the top of +each little head. If it were a picture of an animal with longer ears, +each would make an ass of himself. So far so good, only they do not +know the name of this animal, familiar as they are with him. The +teacher writes the name under the picture. The article "A" is also +written, which, though it puzzles them, they must take on trust. It +cannot be explained at this stage. The teacher then holds up an ear +of corn. Of course they know that very well, and make the sign for it, +shelling the fore finger. It is then laid upon the opposite end of +the blackboard, and its name written under it. A short pause, with a +glance first at the horse and then at the corn, soon brings out +the sign for "eats," which is written in its proper place, and the +sentence is complete. The little "ignorants," as they are dubbed by +the older pupils, are then plunged head and ears into the task of +learning to form the written characters as well as the construction of +sentences. It is setting foot in an unexplored wilderness. No ray of +light penetrates the darkness of that wilderness save the tiny torch +just placed in their hands. + +Mr. Isaac Lewis Peet, principal of the New York institution, before +referred to in this paper, has lately been preparing a textbook for +the use of deaf-mute instructors, which promises to be of great +value. It reduces the whole of the earlier stages of instruction to a +perfected system, by which each part of speech, with the various +moods and tenses of the verbs, the different cases of nouns, etc., is +brought out in successive stages entirely by means of sentences. A +few illustrations will suffice to show the scope of the work, which +promises to be of much value also in the ordinary school-room, for +which it is likewise designed by the author. An object, such as a +pitcher, is placed on the teacher's desk. A pupil is required to come +forward and touch it. The teacher then asks the question, writing it +upon the blackboard or spelling it upon his fingers, "What did John +do?" Answer, "He touched the pitcher." A change from a boy to a girl +brings out another pronoun; a change of objects, another noun; a +change of actions, another verb. + +In this way, by gradual, systematic stages, the language is taught by +actual and constant use, the teacher doing away entirely with signs +in the school-room. This is an end constantly aimed at in deaf-mute +instruction, as it forces the pupils to use language instead of signs +to express their thoughts. By constant effort at first, and constant +practice, words gradually take the place of signs in their modes of +thought, though not perhaps entirely. + +Objective ideas are readily acquired by deaf mutes, their perceptive +faculties being usually keen and quick. Abstract subjects are less +readily apprehended, and sometimes cause great surprise. One Sunday +morning Dr. Gillett, principal of the Illinois institution, had for +the Scripture lesson in the chapel the "Resurrection." When he had +made it plain and simple for the comprehension of the new pupils, some +of the ideas, brought out by the lesson caused great astonishment, and +even consternation among them. The little fellows shook their heads in +utter skepticism at the thought of themselves dying. + +"I'm not going to die," said one. "Sick people die: I'm well and +strong;" standing on his feet and shaking his arms in attestation of +the fact. + +"But you will be sick some time," said Dr. G., "and you will have to +die." + +But they did not believe him in the least. The next morning one little +fellow met the principal and said, "You said yesterday I was going to +die: well, here I am, and I ain't dead yet." + +On Monday morning, when they assembled in school, they were still full +of the new ideas. "Dr. Gillett had said they all had to die: would +they, truly?" they asked me. I could only confirm the statement. +Whereupon they all began drawing graves, tombstones, weeping willows, +and all such funereal paraphernalia upon the blackboards. It was +a solemn scene, save for my own irrepressible laughter, which they +thought very unaccountable when they learned that I must suffer a like +fate. I explained as cheerfully as I could the delights of going to +heaven, whereupon one boy burst into tears, saying he did not want to +go to heaven: he would rather go home and see his mother. + +One asked if we should go to heaven in the cars. I said I had been +told that we should go through the air, perhaps fly there. A little +girl immediately held up a wood-cut of a vulture, saying, "Ugly thing! +I don't want to be one." A boy whose new skates lay spoiling for the +ice in his trunk asked if he could skate there. Not having quite +the faith of the author of _Gates Ajar_, I could not answer "Yes" +unhesitatingly. A girl asked if fishes went to heaven. I answered +"No." "Where, then?" I replied that we ate the fishes, but was greatly +troubled afterward lest she should confound me with the question, +"What becomes of the snakes?" + +In addition to the ordinary one-hand alphabet, the only one commonly +used by deaf mutes, there are five others. One of these is the +two-hand alphabet, sometimes used by hearing children at school. It is +clumsy and inconvenient, however. A second is made by the arms alone. +Still a third is formed by means of the body and arms also, in +various positions, to represent the different letters, and is used +in signaling at a distance. It is not often learned by deaf mutes, +however. A fourth is made entirely with the feet. But the most curious +of all is the facial or expression alphabet. Various emotions and +passions expressed on the face represent, by means of their initial +letters, the letters of the alphabet. Thus, A is indicated by an +expression of avarice, B by boldness, C by curiosity, D by devotion, +etc. This alphabet is sometimes so admirably rendered that words can +easily be spelled by means of it by the spectators. + +Deaf mutes also excel in pantomime. A large amount of gesture and +pantomime is naturally employed in their conversation, and it thus +becomes easy to train them to perform pantomimic plays. I have seen +one young man, a deaf mute, whose narration in this manner of a hunter +who made a pair of buckskin breeches, hung them up during the summer, +drew them on when the rainy season came on, and found a hornet's nest +within, was interpreted amid roars of laughter. Thus told, it was far +more vivid than words could have possibly made it, and infinitely more +amusing. + +The sign-language, growing slowly from natural signs--i.e., signs +representing the shape, quality or use of objects, or the action +expressed by verbs--has at length become a perfected system. This +language is the same throughout Europe and America, so that deaf mutes +from any country of Christendom who have acquired the regular system +can readily communicate with each other, however diverse their +nationality. Being formed from analogy, many of the signs are +exceedingly expressive. Thus, the sign for "headache" is made by +darting the two forefingers toward each other just in front of the +forehead. The sign for "summer" is drawing the curved forefinger +across the brow, as if wiping off the sweat. "Heat," or rather +"hotness," is expressed by blowing with open mouth into the hand, +and then shaking it suddenly as if burned. "Flame" and "fire" are +represented by a quivering, upward motion of all the fingers. The +memory of the ancient ruffled shirt of our forefathers is perpetuated +in the sign for "genteel," "gentility" or "fine." It is the whole open +hand, with fingers pointing upward, shaken in front of the breast. +"Gentleman" and "lady" are expressed by the signs for "man" +(the hat-brim) and "woman" (the bonnet-string), followed by the +ruffled-shirt sign. The sign for "Jesus" is doubtless the most tender +and touching in the whole language. It is made by touching the palm +of each hand in succession with the middle finger of the other. This +represents the print of the nails. The name "Jesus" itself does not +convey so pathetic and expressive a meaning as does this sign. + +Hearing persons who understand the sign-language sometimes find it +exceedingly convenient as a means of communicating when they wish to +be private, I remember an amusing incident occurring at a festival +which I attended while teaching in the Illinois institution. Another +teacher and myself sat apart, surrounded by entire strangers. Near +by stood a lady in a gorgeous green silk dress, with many gaudy +accessories. My companion remarked in signs to me upon her striking +costume. I replied in like manner, expressing my appreciation of so +magnificent a proportion of apple-green silk. There was a great deal +of lady, but a great deal more of dress. + +"See them dummies, Jake," she remarked to her husband at her side, +whose dazzling expanse of bright-figured velvet waistcoat and massive +gold chain was in admirable keeping with his wife's attire. It was a +_landscape_, begging the word, after Turner's own heart. "Them's two +dummies from the asylum, I know," she continued. "Let's watch 'em make +signs." And she gazed upon us from the serene heights of green sward +with an amused, patronizing smile. + +We dared not laugh. Dummies we had been dubbed, and dummies we must +remain to the end of the scene. Were ever mortals in such a fix? We +talked _them_ over well, however, while suffering tortures from our +pent-up emotions. + +"That there one's rayther good-looking," ventured the proprietor of +the velvet and gold. + +"Not so mighty, either," said his wife, bridling. "Face is too +chalky-like, and the other one is too fat." This was near being the +death of us both, as the two critics together would have turned +the scale at near five hundred. Consternation seized us just then, +however, as we saw a fellow-teacher approaching us who would be sure +to address us in spoken language and reveal us as two cheats. Hastily +retreating from the scene, we made our way to an anteroom, where it +was not considered a sin to laugh. + +The instruction of deaf mutes in articulate speech has of late years +attracted considerable attention in both Europe and America. In +some of the European schools, in the Clark Institute at Northampton, +Massachusetts, and in a few of our State institutions it is brought +to great perfection. There are also special schools for this system of +teaching in most of our large cities. The majority of pupils in these +schools converse with ease, and understand readily what is said +to them by means of the motion of the lips. The Clark Institute at +Northampton, already referred to, under the conduct of Miss Harriet +Rogers, is the largest and most widely known of the schools for this +special method of instruction in this country. This is not a +State institution, but one endowed by the munificence of a private +gentleman, and consequently subject to none of the restrictions +imposed on the public institutions. Of course, only the most promising +pupils are sent there, and from these a careful selection is made, by +which means the highest possible success is ensured. Some of the +State institutions, however, burdened as they are with a large and +unassorted mass of pupils, have made most encouraging progress in +this direction. Of these, one of the most successful is the Illinois +institution. In its last published report the correspondence between +the principal and the parents of those pupils who have been taught by +this method is given, showing the utmost satisfaction at the progress +made and results attained. + +Deaf mutes are divided into two classes--viz., entire mutes and +semi-mutes. The first comprises those who either have been born deaf +or have become so at so early an age as to have retained no knowledge +of articulate speech. The second class embraces those who have lost +their hearing after attaining such an age as still to be able to talk. +Speech is more easily and perfectly learned if the pupil has learned +to read before the loss of hearing. A knowledge of the sounds and +powers of the letters enables him to acquire the pronunciation of new +words with much greater facility than would be otherwise possible, +giving him a foundation on which to build his acquisition of spoken +language. To this last class, semi-mutes, articulation is invaluable, +enabling them to pursue their education with less difficulty, and +also to retain their power of communication with the outside world. In +regard to entire mutes, the utility of the accomplishment is seriously +questioned by some experienced educators. The fact must be admitted +that, while a much larger number of entire mutes can be taught to +converse intelligently and agreeably than would be imagined by those +unacquainted with the results obtained, the great mass of the deaf and +dumb must still be instructed wholly by means of written language. In +most instances, to ensure success, instruction should be begun at a +very much earlier age than it is possible to receive them into school, +and constantly practiced by all who hold communication with the pupil, +doing away entirely with the habit of using signs. It also requires +pupils of bright, quick mind, keen perceptive faculties, and an amount +of intelligence and perseverance on the part of the parents not found +in the average parent of deaf mutes; for it is well known that a +very large proportion of deaf mutes come from the poorer and more +illiterate classes. This is mainly attributable to the fact that by +far the larger number lose their hearing in infancy or early childhood +through disease--scarlet fever, measles and diphtheria being probably +the most frequent causes of deafness. Among those able to give +skillful nursing and to obtain good medical aid the number of cases +resulting in deafness is reduced to a minimum. Accidents, too, causing +deafness, occur more frequently among those unable to give their +children proper care. Congenital deafness is also probably greater +among the laboring classes, and is undoubtedly due to similar causes. + +The methods used in the teaching of articulation form a subject of +much interest. The system has materially changed within the past few +years. The first step to be taken is to convey a knowledge of the +powers of the consonants and sounds of the vowels. Formerly, this +was done by what was called the "imitation method." The letter H was +usually the point of attack, the aspirate being the simplest of all +the powers of the letters. The teacher, holding up the hand of the +pupil, makes the aspirate by breathing upon his palm. This is soon +imitated, and thus a starting-point is gained. The feeling produced +upon the hand is the method of giving him an idea of the powers of the +consonants. A later and better system is that called "visible speech." +This is a system of symbols representing positions of the mouth and +tongue and all the organs of speech, and if the pupil does what +the symbols direct he cannot help giving the powers of the letters +correctly. By this method a more distinct and perfect articulation is +gained, with one-half the labor of the other method. As fast as +the powers of the letters are learned, the spelling of words is +undertaken. Many words are pronounced perfectly after a few trials: +others, however, often defy the most strenuous and persevering effort. + +Entire mutes who undertake articulation are like hearing children +endeavoring to keep up the full curriculum of a modern school and +pursue the study of music in addition: the ordinary studies demand +all the energies of the child. Articulation consumes much time and +strength. Exceptional cases are of course to be found which are indeed +a triumph of culture, but the great mass of the deaf and dumb must +always be content with written language. + +Articulation is also exceedingly trying to the unused or long-disused +throat and lungs. In this the teachers are likewise sufferers. The +tax upon the vocal organs is necessarily much greater than that in +ordinary speaking schools. But the disuse of the vocal organs in +articulate speech does not indicate that they are wholly unused. A +lady visiting an institution for the deaf and dumb a few years ago +poetically called the pupils the "children of silence." Considering +the tremendous volume of noise they are able to keep up with both +feet and throat, the title is amusingly inappropriate. A deaf-and-dumb +institution is the noisiest place in the world. + +In summing up the results usually attained, let no discontented +taxpayer grumble at the large outlays annually made in behalf of the +deaf and dumb. If they learned absolutely nothing in the school-room, +the intelligence they gain by contact with each other, by the lectures +in signs, by intercourse with teachers, and the regular and systematic +physical habits acquired, are of untold value. Add to this a tolerable +acquaintance with the common English branches, such as reading, +writing, arithmetic--one of their most useful acquirements--geography +and history, and we have an amount of education which is of +incalculable value. + +JENNIE EGGLESTON ZIMMERMAN. + + + + +OUR MONTHLY GOSSIP. + +THE CITY OF VIOLETS. + + +Wartburg, with its pleasant memories of delightful excursions during +the previous summer, was covered with snow, as if buried in slumber, +when I dashed past it on the 25th of March. A gray mantle of mist +obscured the sky, and by all the roadsides stood bushes loaded with +green buds shivering in the frosty air. The exquisite landscape, which +I had last seen glowing with such brilliant hues, now appeared robed +in one monotonous tint of gray, and the ancient towers and pointed +roofs of Weimar loomed with a melancholy aspect through the dense +fog. Only the welcome of my faithful friends, Gerhard Rohlfs and +his pretty, fair-haired wife, was blithe and gay. The brave desert +wanderer and bird of passage has now built himself a little wigwam or +nest near the railway-station: the grand duke of Weimar gave him for +the purpose a charming piece of ground with a delightful view. On the +25th of March a light veil of snow still rested on the ground, but two +days later we were listening to the notes of the lark and gathering +violets to take to Schiller's house and adorn the table of the beloved +singer. Everything was illumined by the brilliant sunlight--the +narrow bedstead on which he died, and all the numerous withered +laurel-wreaths and bouquets of flowers that filled it--while outside, +in Schiller's little garden, in the bed where his bust is placed, +violets nodded at us between the leaves of the luxuriant ivy. + +And we carried in our hands bouquets of violets when we stood before +Goethe's house to pay our respects to the lady who in these bustling +days remains a revered memento of the times of Carl Augustus and his +poet-friend--Ottilie von Goethe. The beloved daughter-in-law of +the great master of song lives in the poet's house in the utmost +seclusion: few strangers know that she receives visitors. Only on rare +occasions is the classic little _salon_ opened in the evening to +a select few--only now and then, when the health of the aged lady +permits it, a circle of faithful friends gather round her listening +eagerly to her vivid descriptions of long-past days. The grand +duke himself often knocks at this door, and the grand duchess and +princesses take pleasure in coming hither. With deep emotion we +crossed the threshold over which Goethe's coffin was borne, and with +light step ascended the broad, easy staircase of the house that we +had so often heard described. Half-effaced frescoes, which had gleamed +over the head of the king of poesy, looked down upon us, and our eyes +wandered over the bronze figures past which Goethe had walked day +after day. + +On reaching the second story, Ottilie von Goethe came forward to greet +us, looking like an apparition from another world. Her figure was +small and fragile, but there was an aristocratic repose in all her +movements. A white lace cap trimmed with dark-red velvet bows rested +on her hair, which was arranged over her temples in thick gray curls, +framing her face, from which a pair of brown eyes greeted us with a +bright, cordial glance. A white knit shawl covered her shoulders and a +black silk dress fell around her in ample folds. At her side stood her +younger sister, a canoness, who was paying her a few days' visit--an +amiable lady with a very cheerful temperament. Ottilie von Goethe +shared the violets with her. An easy conversation commenced. Frau von +Goethe was very much interested in Herr Rohlfs' travels and Edward +Vogel's fate, and said that one of her grandsons also cherished the +same ardent, restless longing to see foreign countries and people. +Then she spoke of her own journeys to Italy, "a long, long time ago," +and of the charms of Venice and Verona. Underlying the words was a +slight tone of regret that she was now not only bound to the spot, but +also to the house, for invalids cannot venture out of doors to enjoy +the spring until the first of May, and September drives them back into +their quiet cell. "How often one longs for a distant horizon!" she +sighed. My eyes wandered over the wilderness of ancient roofs upon +which the windows of Goethe's house looked out, and discovered a small +spot where the blue mountain-peaks appeared. + +"Why, there is a distant horizon!" I involuntarily exclaimed. + +"Ah, but even that is so near!" replied Frau von Goethe, smiling. + +The room where we were, as well as the adjoining apartment into which +we were allowed to peep, was full of relics of all kinds. Each article +probably had its special history, from the paintings and drawings +on the walls and the old-fashioned chests, chairs and tables, to the +cups, vases, glasses, coverlets, and cushions arranged in the neatest +order, some standing or lying around the apartment, others visible +through the glass doors of a cupboard. But the most interesting object +to me was the portrait of Goethe painted by Stieler. It has been +made familiar to all by copies, and represents the poet, though at +an advanced age, in the full possession of his physical strength. He +holds in his hand a letter, from which he is in the act of looking up: +the face is turned slightly aside. It seems as if the glance was one +of greeting to some friend who is just entering. The colors are still +wonderfully fresh and the expression bewitching. The large eyes beam +with the fire of genius, Olympian majesty is enthroned upon the brow, +and the curve of the lips possesses unequaled grace and beauty. A more +aristocratic, noble mouth cannot be imagined. Who could have resisted +the eloquence of those lips? + +"This picture is not in the least idealized: it is a perfect likeness +of my father-in-law," observed Frau von Goethe, and added that this +portrait by Stieler was one of the best which had ever been painted. +Not far from the superb portrait of the father appears the melancholy +face of the son, August von Goethe, but I sought in vain for a picture +of the bud so early broken, Goethe's granddaughter, the lovely Alma, +who died in Vienna. + +Fran von Goethe noticed with evident pleasure our eager interest in +her surroundings, and showed us many a relic. As she spoke of the +radiance of those long-past days which still gilded her quiet life, +she seemed to me like the venerable figure in the tale of the "Seven +Ravens," who relates marvelous stories to a listening group. Gradually +a throng of shapes from the dim past entered the small room and +gathered round the speaker, who suddenly became transfigured by the +light of youth. She was again the poet's cheerful nurse, the fair +flower of the household, the happy mother, the intellectual woman, the +centre of a brilliant circle. I gazed as if at a buried world, which +suddenly became once more alive: its inhabitants, clad in antique +garments, walked past us, stared in astonishment, and seemed to say, +We too were happy and beloved, feted and praised, the blue sky arched +over us also, and we plucked violets and rejoiced in their fragrance +till the deep, heavy sleep came. + + Wait--only wait: + Soon thou too will rest. + +It was a cold, feeble hand I respectfully kissed at parting, and I +remained under its spell, lingering in the strange world conjured +up by Ottilie von Goethe, till we stood before Goethe's pretty +summer-house and the blue violets peeped at us from the turf. The +windows stood wide open, the mild breeze swept gently in, and the sun +also looked to see if everything was in order in "der alte Herr's" +rooms. Far away between the trees gleamed the white pillars of the +house, and the ground at our feet was covered with a blue carpet. It +is said that nowhere in North Germany are there so many violets as +in the vicinity of Weimar. And why? Because, as the people poetically +say, "der alte Herr," whenever he went to walk, always filled his +pockets with violet-seeds, and scattered them everywhere with lavish +hands. + +ELISE POLKO. + + + + +LA BEFANA. + + +Putting out of the question the Piazza of St. Peter's with Bernini's +encircling colonnades, which is a special thing and unlike anything +else in the world, the Piazza Navona is the handsomest piazza in Rome. +It is situated in the thickest and busiest part of the city, far out +of the usual haunts of the foreign residents, and nearly in the centre +of that portion of the city which is enclosed between the Corso and +the great curving sweep of the Tiber. It is handsome, not only +from its great space and regular shape--a somewhat elongated double +cube--but from its three fountains richly ornamented with statuary +of no mean artistic excellence, and from the clean and convenient +pavement which, intended for foot-passengers only, occupies all the +space save a carriage-way close to the houses encircling it. This +large extent of pavement, well provided with benches, and protected +from the incursion of carriages, which make almost every other part of +Rome more or less unsafe for all save the most wide-awake passengers, +renders the Piazza Navona a playground specially adapted for +nurses and their charges, who may generally be seen occupying it in +considerable numbers. But on the occasion on which I wish to call the +reader's attention to it the scene it presents is a very different and +far more locally characteristic one. + +We will suppose it to be about midnight on the fifth of January, the +day preceding the well-known revel, now come to be mainly a children's +festival, which English people call Twelfth Night and celebrate by the +consumption of huge plumcakes and the drawing of lots for the offices +of king and queen of the revels. The Italians call it the festival +of the "Befana," the word being a readily-perceived corruption of +"Epifania." Of course the sense and meaning of the original term have +been entirely forgotten, and the Befana of the Italian populace is a +sort of witch, mainly benevolent indeed, and especially friendly to +children, to whom in the course of the night she brings presents, to +be found by them in the morning in a stocking or a shoe or any +other such fantastic hiding-place. But Italians are all more or less +children of a larger growth, and at Rome especially the populace of +all ages, ever ready for _circenses_ in any form, make a point of +"keeping" the festival of the Befana, who holds her high court on her +own night in the Piazza Navona. + +We will betake ourselves thither about midnight, as I have said. It +is a bitterly cold night, and the stars are shining brilliantly in the +clear, steely-looking sky--such a night as Rome has still occasionally +at this time of year, and as she used to have more frequently when +Horace spoke of incautious early risers getting nipped by the cold. +One of the first things that strikes us as we make our way to the +place of general rendezvous muffled in our thickest and heaviest +cloaks and shawls is the apparent insensibility of this people to the +cold. One would have expected it to be just the reverse. But whether +it be that their organisms have stored up such a quantity of sunshine +during the summer as enables them to defy the winter's cold, or +whether their Southern blood runs more rapidly in their veins, it is +certain that men, women and children--and especially the women--will +for amusement's sake expose themselves to a degree of cold and +inclement weather that a Northerner would shrink from. + +For some days previously, in preparation for the annual revel, +a series of temporary booths have by special permission of the +municipality been erected around the piazza. In these will be sold +every kind of children's toys--of the more ordinary sorts, that is +to say; for Roman children have never yet been rendered fastidious in +this respect by the artistic inventions that have been provided for +more civilized but perhaps not happier childhood. There will also be +a store of masks, colored dominoes, harlequins' dresses, monstrous and +outrageous pasteboard noses, and, especially and above all, every kind +of contrivance for making a noise. In this latter kind the peculiar +and characteristic specialty of the day are straight tin trumpets +some four or five feet in length. These are in universal request among +young and old; and the general preference for them is justified by the +peculiarly painful character of the note which they produce. It is a +very loud and vibrating sound of the harshest possible quality. One +feels when hearing it as if the French phrase of "skinning the ears" +were not a metaphorical but a literal description of the result of +listening to the sound. And when hundreds of blowers of these are +wandering about the streets in all parts of the town, but especially +in the neighborhood of the Piazza Navona, making night hideous with +their braying, it may be imagined that those who go to their beds +instead of doing homage to the Befana have not a very good time of it +there. + +It is a curious thing that the Italians, who are denizens of "the land +of song," should take especial delight in mere abundance of discordant +noise. Yet such is unquestionably the case. They are in their festive +hours the most noisy people on earth. And the farther southward you +go the more pronounced and marked is the propensity. You may hear boys +and men imitating the most inharmonious and vociferous street-cries +solely for the purpose of exercising their lungs and making a noise. +The criers of the newspapers in the streets must take an enthusiastic +delight in their trade; and I have heard boys in the street who had +no papers to sell, and nothing on earth to do with the business, +screaming out the names of the different papers at the hour of their +distribution at the utmost stretch of their voices, and for no reason +on earth save the pleasure of doing it--just as one cock begins to +crow when he hears another. + +The crowd on the piazza is so thick and close-packed that it is a +difficult matter to move in any direction when you are once within it, +but good-humor and courtesy are universal. An Italian crowd is always +the best-behaved crowd in the world--partly, I take it, from the +natural patience of the people, and the fact that nobody is ever in a +hurry to move from the place in which he may happen to be; and partly +as a consequence of the general sobriety. Even on such a night of +saturnalia as this of the Befana very little drunkenness is to be +seen. Although the crowd is so dense that every one's shoulder is +closely pressed against that of his neighbor, there is a great deal of +dancing going on. Here and there a ring is formed, carved out, as it +were, from the solid mass of human beings, in which some half dozen +couples are revolving more or less in time to the braying of a bagpipe +or scraping of a fiddle, executing something which has more or less +semblance to a waltz. The mode in which these rings are formed is at +once simple and efficacious. Any couple who feel disposed to dance +link themselves together and begin to bump themselves against their +immediate neighbors. These accept the intimation with the most perfect +good-humor, and assist in shoving back those behind them. A space +is thus gained in the first instance barely enough for the original +couple to gyrate in. But by violently and persistently dancing +up against the foremost of the little ring the area is gradually +enlarged: first one other couple and then another are moved to follow +the example, and they in their turn assist in bumping out the limits +of the ring till it has become some twenty feet or so in diameter. +These impromptu ball-rooms rarely much exceed that size, but dozens +of them may be found in the course of one's peregrinations around the +large piazza. The occupants of some of them will be found to consist +of town-bred Romans, and those of others of people from the country. +There is no mistaking them one for the other, and the two elements +rarely mingle together. The differences to be observed in the bearing +and ways of the two are not a little amusing, and often suggestive of +considerations not uninstructive to the sociologist. The probabilities +are that the music in the case of the first mentioned of the above +classes will be found to consist of a fiddle--in that of the latter, +of a bagpipe, the old classical _cornamusa_, which has been the +national instrument of the hill-country around the Campagna for it +would be dangerous to say how many generations. In either case there +seems to be an intimate connection between the music and the spirit of +the public for which it is provided. The peasant of the Campagna and +of the Latian, Alban and Sabine hills takes his pleasure, even that of +the dance, as an impertinent Frenchman said of us Anglo-Saxons, _moult +tristement_. That indescribable air of sadness which, as so many +observers have concurred in noting, broods over the district which +they inhabit seems to have communicated itself to the inmost nature +and character of the populations. They are a stern, sad, sombre and +silent race, for what I have said above of a tendency to noisiness and +vociferation must be understood to apply to the town-populations only. +Their dance is generally much slower than that of the city-folk. In +these latter days increased communication has taught some of them to +assimilate their dancing with more or less successful imitation to the +waltz, but in many cases these parties of peasants may still be seen +practicing the old dances, now wholly unknown in the city. But whether +they are keeping to their old figures and methods or endeavoring to +follow new ones, the difference in their bearing is equally striking. +The dancing of peasants must necessarily be for the most part heavy +and awkward, but despite this the men of the Campagna and the hills +are frequently not without a certain dignity of bearing, and the women +often, though perhaps not quite so frequently, far from devoid of +grace. Especially may the former quality be observed if, as is likely, +the dancers belong to the class of mounted herdsmen, who pass their +lives on horseback, and whose exclusive duty it is to tend the herds +of half-wild cattle that roam over the plains around Rome. These are +the "butteri" of whom I wrote on a former occasion in these pages--the +aristocracy of the Campagna. And it is likely that dancers on the +Piazza Navona on a Befana night should belong to this class, for the +Campagna shepherd is probably too poor, too abject and too little +civilized to indulge in any such pastime. + +Little of either grace or dignity will be observed in the +Terpsichorean efforts of the Roman _plebs_ of the present day. +Lightness, _brio_, enjoyment and an infinite amount of "go" may be +seen, and plenty of laughter heard, and "lazzi"--sallies more or less +imbued with wit, or at least fun, and more or less repeatable to ears +polite. But there is a continual tendency in the dancing to pass +into horse-play and romping which would not be observed among the +peasantry. In a word, there is a touch of blackguardism in the city +circles, which phase could not with any justice or propriety be +applied to the country parties. + +But it is time to go home. The moon is waning: _suadentque cadentia +sidera somnum_, if only there were any hope of being able to be +persuaded by their reasonable suggestions. But truly the town seems to +afford little hope of it. We make our way out of the crowd with some +difficulty and more patience, and are sensible of a colder nip in the +January night-air as we emerge from it into the neighboring streets. +But even there, though the racket gradually becomes less as we leave +the piazza behind us, there is in every street the braying of those +abominable tin trumpets, and we shall probably turn wearily in our +beds at three or four in the morning and thank Heaven that the Befana +visits us but once a year. + +T.A.T. + + + + +ERNESTO ROSSI. + + +The stage of Paris has long been conceded to be the first in the +world. In France the player is not only born--he must be made. Before +the embryo performer achieves the honors of a public début he has been +trained in the classes of the Conservatoire to declaim the verse of +Racine and to lend due point and piquancy to the prose of Molière. +He is taught to tread in the well-beaten path of French dramatic art, +fenced in and hedged around with sacred traditions. If he attempts +to embody any one of the characters of the classic drama, every tone, +every gesture, every peculiarity of make-up, every shade and style in +his costume, is prescribed to him beforehand. Originality of treatment +and of conception is above all things to be avoided. So spoke Molière, +so looked Lekain, so stepped Talma; therefore all the succeeding +generations of players must so speak and look and walk. Let us imagine +the process transferred to our English stage--the shades of Burbage +and Betterton prescribing how Hamlet and Richard III. should be +played--the manners of the seventeenth century forcibly transferred +to our modern stage. The process would be intolerable. Worse still, it +would have the effect on our comparatively undramatic race of crushing +out every spark of originality and of wholly hindering the development +of histrionic talent. With the French such results are happily, to a +certain extent, impossible. There is scarcely any French man or woman +of ordinary intelligence who does not possess sufficient capacity for +acting to be capable of being trained into a very fair performer. The +preponderance of beautiful women on the French stage above those to +be found in other stations of life may be accounted for on the ground +that any young girl of the lower classes possessing extraordinary +beauty and ordinary intelligence can readily, from the bent of her +national characteristics, be trained into an actress. But while the +high-comedy theatres and those of the melodrama flourish, there can +be no doubt but that the highest type of acting finds no chance for +development in France. The actor who possesses one spark of genius +soon escapes from the galling fetters of classicism and tradition, and +takes refuge in comedy or in melodrama. Thus did Frédéric Lemaître +in his prime, and thus, too, in later days, did the accomplished and +brilliant Lafontaine. + +From these causes, or from others of a kindred nature, the French +tragic stage has within our generation possessed no actor of +commanding genius. One actress indeed adorned it for a few brief +years--the great Rachel. But she, strange and unnatural production +of unnatural art, was a phenomenon, and one not likely to be soon +reproduced. The art of the Comédie Française is to-day inimitable. +Like Thalberg's playing, it is the very apotheosis of the mechanical. +There talent is trained and cut and trimmed into one set fashion, till +the very magnitude of the work becomes imposing, as the gardens of +Le Nôtre in their grand extent almost console the spectator for the +absence of virgin forests and of free-gushing streams. But could the +forest be brought side by side with the parterre, could Niagara pour +its emerald floods or Trenton its amber cascades side by side with the +Fountain of Latona or the Great Basin of Neptune, Nature, terrible +in her grandeur, would rule supreme. Such has been the comparison +afforded by the appearance of Ernesto Rossi on the Parisian stage. +It was Shakespeare and genius coming into direct competition with +perfectly-trained talent and with Racine. + +Early last October a modest announcement was made that Signor Rossi +would give two performances at the Salle Ventadour, one of them to +be for the benefit of the sufferers by the Southern inundations. +_Othello_ was the play selected for both occasions. The first night +arrived. The unlucky opera-house, shorn of its ancient popularity, was +not half filled. Public curiosity was not specially aroused. Nobody +cared particularly to see an Italian actor perform in a translation of +a play by an English dramatist. Of the scanty audience present, +fully one-half were Italians, and the rest were mostly English, lured +thither by the desire of comparing the new actor with his great +rival, Salvini. There was a sprinkling of Americans and a scanty +representation of the Parisian public. + +When Othello came upon the stage the foreign actor received but a cool +and unenthusiastic greeting. His appearance was a disappointment +to those familiar with the majestic bearing and picturesque garb of +Salvini. His dress was unbecoming, and the dusky tint of his stage +complexion accorded ill with his blue eyes. Then, too, his conception +of the character jarred on the ideas of those who had seen the other +great Italian actor. It was hard to dethrone the majestic and princely +Moor, the stately general of Salvini's conception, to give place to +the frank, free-hearted soldier, intoxicated with the gladness of +successful wooing, that Rossi brings before us. Certain melodramatic +points, also, in the earlier acts, such as the "Ha!" wherewith Rossi +with upraised arms starts from Desdemona when Brabantio reminds him + + "She has deceived her father, and may thee," + +seemed exaggerated and out of place. In the scenes with Iago he +equaled Salvini, yet did not in any one point surpass him. Nor did +he in any way imitate him. The fury of the two Othellos is widely +different. Salvini is the fiercer, for Rossi's rage has a background +of intensest suffering. One is an enraged tiger, the other a wounded +lion. Both are maddened--the one with wrath, the other with pain. +But in the last act, with the unutterable anguish of its closing +scenes--the swift remorse, the unavailing agony of that noble nature, +too late undeceived, the wild, pathetic tenderness wherewith Othello +clasped the dead Desdemona to his heart, smoothing back her loosened +tresses with an inarticulate cry of almost superhuman love and +woe--the horror of the catastrophe was all swallowed up in a sympathy +whose pain was wellnigh too great to be aroused by mimic despair. The +fall of the curtain was greeted with a tempest of applause. Men +sprang to their feet and wildly waved their hats in the air. Shouts of +"Bravo, Rossi!" and "Vive Rossi!" arose on all sides. Ladies stood +up in the boxes waving their handkerchiefs, and every hand and throat +joined in the universal uproar. Before noon the next day every seat in +the house was engaged for the second representation. The great actors +of the French stage came to study the acting of this new genius who +had so suddenly made his appearance in their midst. To this sudden +success succeeded the announcement of a prolonged engagement, the +failing health of the younger Rossi having decided his father to +relinquish all immediate idea of an American tour. + +The second character that Rossi assumed was Hamlet, and in this he +achieved the greatest success of his Parisian engagement. The opera +of Thomas had rendered the public familiar with the personage of the +hero, and the magnates of the Grand Opera came to the Salle Ventadour +to study this new and forcible presentment of the baritone prince, +who wails and warbles through the operatic travesty of Shakespeare's +masterpiece. That the impersonation will prove wholly acceptable to +all Shakespearian critics in England or America is extremely doubtful. +For the Hamlet of Rossi is mad--undeniably, unmistakably mad--from the +moment of his interview with the Ghost. But once accept that view, and +the characterization stands unrivaled upon our modern stage. Nothing +can be imagined at once more powerful or more pathetic than that +picture of a "noble mind o'erthrown," alternating between crushed, +hopeless misery and wild excitement--thirsting for the rest and peace +that only death can bestow, yet shrinking from the fearful leap +into the dim unknown beyond the grave. The scene with the Queen is +inimitably grand. One feels that the entrance of the Ghost comes +only in time to stay the frenzied hand, and then follows the swift +revulsion when Hamlet, melting into tenderest pathos, kneels at his +mother's feet to beseech her to repent--a mood that changes anew to +frenzy when his wild wandering thoughts are turned toward the King. +It is only in the last scene of the play that the approach of death +scatters the clouds that have so long obscured the grief-tortured +brain. Nothing can be imagined finer or more picturesque than this +closing scene. On the raised daïs in the centre of the stage, and +on the throne from which the King has been hurled, the dying prince, +conqueror and sovereign in this last supreme moment, dominates the +scene of death and carnage, triumphant over all, even in the clutches +of his own relentless doom. + +As the Hamlet of Rossi is unmistakably mad, so his Macbeth is an +undeniable craven and criminal. I can compare this personation to +nothing so much as to that of a man haunted by a fiend. For the steps +of Macbeth are dogged ever by an unseen devil--namely, his own evil +yet coward nature. He is wicked and he is afraid. The whole physique +of Rossi in the scene in the first act where the king heaps favors and +commendations on his valiant warrior was eloquent of conscious guilt: +the constrained attitude, the shifting, uneasy glance, told, louder +than words, of a wicked purpose and a stinging conscience. From +the moment of the murder the wretched thane lives in a perpetual +atmosphere of fear. He is afraid of everything--first of his own +unwashed hands, and next of the dead king; then of Banquo and of +Banquo's ghost; and finally he is afraid of all the world. It is only +at the last that the mere physical courage of the soldier reasserts +itself, and Macbeth, driven to bay by Fate, fights with the fierce +energy of despair. + +As to Rossi's Lear, it is not to be criticised. Words fail when the +heartstrings are thrilled to trembling and to tears. The pathos +of Lear's recognition of Cordelia was past the power of words to +describe. He stands at first gazing in vague bewilderment at the face +of his child, then into the darkened and troubled gaze steals anew the +light of reason and of recognition: unutterable sorrow, inexpressible +remorse, sweep across the quivering features, and with an inarticulate +sob Lear would fain sink on his knees at his wronged daughter's feet +to pray for pardon. That people rose and left the house in a very +passion of tears is the fittest criticism that can be bestowed upon +this personation. + +The list of the Shakesperian characters closed with Romeo. Rossi was +the divinest of lovers, in spite of his forty years and his stalwart +proportions, and the balcony scene was an exquisite love-duet that +needed not the aid of music to lend it sweetness. But in the Italian +version the play was so cut and garbled that there could be little +pleasure in listening to it for any one familiar with the original. + +Outside of his Shakespearian répertoire, Rossi has appeared in only +two plays--the _Kean_ of the elder Dumas, and _Nero_, a tragedy +by Signer Cosso, The first, originally written for Lemaître, is an +ill-constructed, improbable melodrama. But it contains one grand +scene--namely, that where Kean, whilst playing Hamlet, goes mad upon +the stage; and this scene Rossi renders superbly. As to Nero, it is +marvelous to witness the complete eclipse of the refined, accomplished +gentleman and intellectual actor behind the brutal physiognomy of the +wicked emperor. It is Hamlet transformed into a prize-fighter. + +In person, Signor Rossi is less strikingly handsome than is his +rival, Salvini, but he possesses a singularly attractive and pleasing +countenance. He is a Piedmontese, blue-eyed and fair-complexioned, +with chestnut hair, the abundant locks of which are just touched with +gray. He is tall and finely proportioned, with the chest of a Hercules +and the hands and feet of a duchess. Off the stage he is peculiarly +pleasing in manner, and is said to be a noble-hearted and generous +gentleman, as well as an amiable and genial companion, singularly free +from conceit and delighting in his art. + +L.H.H. + + + + +BISHOP THIRLWALL'S PRECOCITY. + + +We do not remember to have seen in the various notices relative to the +late Bishop Connop Thirlwall, the well-known historian, any mention +of his precocity, which must have been almost without a parallel. +Thirlwall came of a long line of clergymen. His father was chaplain +to Dr. Percy (_Percy's Reliques_), bishop of Dromore, and in 1809 +he published some specimens of the early genius of his son under +the title of "_Primitiæ; or, Essays and Poems on Various Subjects, +Religious, Moral and Entertaining._ By Connop Thirlwall, eleven years +of age. Dedicated by permission to the Bishop of Dromore." In the +preface it is stated that at three years old Connop read English so +well that he was taught Latin, and at four read Greek with an ease and +fluency that astonished all who heard him. An accidental circumstance +revealed his talent for composition when he was seven. Mrs. Thirlwall +told her elder son, in her husband's absence, to write out his +thoughts on a certain subject. Connop asked leave to do the same, and +produced to her astonishment the following: "How uncertain is life! +for no man can tell in what hour he shall leave the world. What +numbers are snatched away in the bloom of youth, and turn the fine +expectation of parents into sorrow! All the promising pleasures of +this life will fade, and we shall be buried in the dust. God takes +away a good prince from his subjects only to transplant him into +everlasting joy in heaven. A good man is not dispirited by death, +for it only takes him away that he may feel the pleasures of a better +world. Death comes unawares, but never takes virtue with it. Edward +VI. died in his minority, and disappointed his subjects, to whom he +had promised a happy reign." These reflections were probably +suggested by some sermon the boy had heard, but the composition is an +extraordinary piece of work at such an age. + +His effusions are on various themes, and comprise quite a pretty +little poem, written when he was eleven, on Tintern Abbey. But perhaps +the most remarkable circumstance of all is that this youthful prodigy +lived to amply fulfill the promise of his youth, and proved as +sagacious and moderate in the use of knowledge as he was marvelous +in his powers of acquiring it. There is a remarkable tribute to these +powers in John Stuart Mill's _Autobiography_, where he says: "The +speaker with whom I was most struck, though I dissented from nearly +every word he said, was Thirlwall, the historian, since bishop of +St. David's, then a chancery barrister, unknown except by a high +reputation for eloquence acquired at the Cambridge Union. His speech +was in answer to one of mine. Before he had uttered ten sentences I +set him down as the best speaker I had ever heard, and I have never +since heard any one whom I placed above him." + + + + +FREAKS OF KLEPTOMANIA. + + +A few months ago England, more especially the part thereof contiguous +to royal Windsor, was thrown into consternation by the report that +a box had been discovered, sunk just below water-mark in the Thames, +attached by a string to a tree, and containing a number of keys, which +were believed to belong to doors leading to the royal jewel-coffers. +The nine days' wonder which this intelligence, naturally enough, +produced, has since had a curious explanation. They were not keys of +the royal apartments at all, but Eton keys, the fruits of the +kleptic propensities of an unfortunate Eton boy, who--like a very +distinguished and noble member of Mr. Disraeli's cabinet, who is said +even now not to be able to resist the temptation offered at cabinet +councils by "Dizzy's" green kid gloves--had already paid the penalty +for similar offences by being sent away. A most extraordinary +instance of this propensity occurred a few years ago at a very wealthy +nobleman's house in the north of England. During a visit there +a lady's diamonds disappeared. There was great and general +consternation, and the detective police were summoned from London. The +jewels were subsequently discovered in a closet attached to the noble +host's dressing-room. + + + + +LITERATURE OF THE DAY. + + +Round my House: Notes of Rural Life in France in Peace and War. By +Philip Gilbert Hamerton. Boston: Roberts Brothers. + +The time has at last come when Englishmen and Americans seem disposed +to study the character of the French people with some care and to +judge it with impartiality. The overthrow of its military power did +less to lower the nation in the eyes of foreigners than its subsequent +course has done to raise it; and now that it is fairly entering on +a new career in a mood and under auspices that cannot but awaken +the strongest hopes, we have probably seen the last of the typical +Frenchman of the Anglo-Saxon imagination--a being capable of the most +frantic actions and incapable of a serious thought, a compound of +frivolity and ferocity, the fit subject and facile instrument of a +despotism that knew how to gratify his vanity while restraining his +mad ebullitions. Among the excuses that might be offered for such +misconceptions is the dearth of information in the literature of +France itself in regard to the life and habits of the general mass of +the population. In these days it is to novels that we chiefly go +for pictures of character and manners, and French novels are almost +exclusively devoted to pictures of Parisian manners. Balzac, it +is true, has given us delineations of provincial life; but the +delineations of Balzac are often more enigmatical than the problems +of real life, and even if we could always accept the portraitures they +give us as undistorted, they generally presuppose a knowledge on the +part of the reader on those points on which the foreigner is most apt +to be ignorant. In any case, we shall be best instructed by a writer +who both understands our lack and is able to supply it, and these +qualifications, with others scarcely less essential, Mr. Hamerton +has brought to his task. He has thoroughly familiarized himself with +French usages, but he has not lost his sense of the difference between +them and those of his own land, and of the consequent necessity for +explaining as well as describing, and of tracing peculiarities to +their source. If he is free from the common prejudices of the foreign +observer, he has not adopted the passions or the partialities of the +native. He can write with fairness of different classes and factions, +and can discriminate between ordinary impulses and actions and those +that have their origin in strong excitement. Finally, he neither +overloads us with facts and statistics nor seeks to amuse us with +fancies or caricatures. He is always sober and always agreeable. + +The matter of this volume was collected during a fixed residence of +several years in one of the central provinces of France. No doubt Mr. +Hamerton had a previous acquaintance with the country and with its +language far exceeding that of the mere tourist, and his wife, it +appears, is a Frenchwoman, the daughter of an ex-préfet. But he makes +few allusions to any former experiences, and draws no comparisons +between the conditions of life or the characteristics of the people in +different provinces. This is perhaps to be considered a defect in the +book, though it might not have possessed the same attractiveness had +its scope been wider. It is an advantage, too, that the locality was +not one which excites curiosity by its strongly marked features or +abnormal types. Travelers often seem to imagine that they have only to +tell us about Brittany or Gascony to win our interest, whereas it is +precisely such regions that have the least novelty for us, just as +the scenery of the Scottish Highlands has been made more familiar +to Americans than that of almost any other part of Britain. Mr. +Hamerton's house, as he gives us clearly to understand, though he +suppresses names, was in the neighborhood of Autun. The situation +was a strictly rural one, but with easy access to the town and the +feasibility of reaching Paris, Lyons or Geneva in a night's journey +by rail. It had, he writes, "one very valuable characteristic in great +perfection--namely, variety. There was nothing in it very striking at +first sight, but we had a little of everything." It was in an elevated +plain about fifteen miles in diameter and nearly circular, girt by a +circus of hills rising fifteen hundred feet above the general level. +A trout stream ran through the property. There were pretty estates +around of about two hundred acres each, with houses in general of +modest dimensions and architecture, though occasionally aspiring to +the dignity of châteaux. Roman and mediæval remains, with architecture +of different periods, were to be found in the city, as well as a +public library and art-gallery, cafés and the inevitable _cercle_. The +flora, owing to the diversities of elevation, was varied, and while +vineyards clothed the foot of the slopes and gigantic old chestnuts +looked down on them from above, the vegetation of the hill-tops +was that of Lancashire or Scotland. It follows, of course, that the +pursuits and habits of the population were correspondingly various, +and there was ample opportunity for studying the different classes of +society, from the noblesse to the peasants. The results of this study +are presented, not in the form of labored analyses, but in easy and +flowing sketches, sometimes in the form of narrative, always full of +illustrative details, and winning without much discussion or argument +a ready assent to the author's conclusions. Many statements in the +book will, of course, not be new to generally well-informed readers, +but it is not often that they come with the same force and freshness +from direct observation, and still more rarely is their relation to +each other or their bearing on the subject to which they relate +so clearly and correctly indicated. Among the points on which Mr. +Hamerton has thus thrown a stronger light are the characteristics and +position of French ladies, divided, "in this part of the world," he +writes, "into two distinct classes: the home women and the visiting +women--_les femmes d'intérieur_, and _les femmes du monde_; the exact +theory of the _mariage de convenance_, which is popularly but +wrongly considered as based on mere mercenary motives; and the mental +condition of the peasant, with his natural quickness of intellect and +his stupendous ignorance, his adherence to tradition and ingrained +superstitiousness, and his suspicion of the nobles and tendency to +emancipate himself from clerical influence. It is France in a state +of transition that Mr. Hamerton paints, and his anticipations have +already to some extent been justified by events. "My hope for France +is," he says, "that a system of regularly-working representative +government may be the final result of the long and eventful +revolution, and that this form of government may give the country +certain measures which it very greatly needs. A thorough system +of national education is one of them, a real religious equality is +another. These would never be conceded by a French monarchy of any +type with which past experience has made the country familiar.... The +only chance of real representation lies in the Republic." + + + + +_BOOKS RECEIVED_. + + +Improved Diary, or Marginal Index-Book of Daily Record: a Diary +provided with Marginal Indices so arranged that any day of the year +may be referred to at once, and the various subject-matters recorded +in it may be arranged for ready reference, together with Calendars, +Interest Table, etc. Devised and arranged by M.N. Lovell. Published +exclusively by the Erie Publishing Co., Erie, Pa. + +The Review of Gen. Sherman's Memoirs. Examined Chiefly in the light of +its own Evidence. By C.W. Moulton. Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co. + +The Chevalier Casse-Cou: The Search for Ancestors. Translated from the +French original. By Thomas Picton. New York: R.M. De Witt. + +Proceedings of American Association for the Cure of Inebriates, held +at Hartford, Conn., Sept. 28, 1875. Baltimore: Wm. K. Boyle & Sons. + +Brief Biographies. Vol. II. English Radical Leaders. By R.J. Hinton. +New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons. + +Foot Notes; or, Walking as a Fine Art. By Alfred Barren. Wallingford, +Conn.: Wallingford Printing Co. + +Circulars of Information of the Bureau of Education. No. 7. +Washington: Government Printing-office. + +In Doors and Out; or, Views from the Chimney-corner. By Oliver Optic. +Boston: Lee & Shepard. + +Among my Books. (Second Series.) By Jas. Russell Lowell. Boston: James +R. Osgood & Co. + +The Reading Club and Handy Speaker, No. 3. By George M. Baker. Boston: +Lee & Shepard. + +Her Dearest Foe. (Leisure-Hour Series.) By Mrs Alexander. New York: +Henry Holt & Co. + +Pebbles from Old Pathways. By Minnie Ward Patterson. Chicago: C.J. +Burroughs & Co. + +Bridge and Tunnel Centres. By John B. McMaster. New York: D. Van +Nostrand. + +Safety Valves. By Richard H. Buel, C.E. New York: D. Van Nostrand. + +Guido and Lita. By the Marquis of Lorne. New York: Macmillan & Co. + +The Asbury Twins. By Sophie May. Boston: Lee & Shepard. + +Sea-Weed and Sand: Poems. By Ben Wood Davis. + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Lippincott's Magazine of Popular +Literature and Science, April, 1876., by Various + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13242 *** |