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diff --git a/13770-0.txt b/13770-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7fe239f --- /dev/null +++ b/13770-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8715 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13770 *** + +LIPPINCOTT'S MAGAZINE + +OF + +_POPULAR LITERATURE AND SCIENCE_. + + +Vol. XII, No. 33. + +DECEMBER, 1873. + + + + +TABLE OF CONTENTS + + THE NEW HYPERION [Illustrated] By EDWARD STRAHAN. + VI.--Shall Auld Acquaintance Be Forgot? + AUTUMN LEAVES. By W. + SKETCHES OF EASTERN TRAVEL [Illustrated] By FANNIE R. FEUDGE. + III.--Bangkok. + LIFE AT THE NATIONAL CAPITAL. + A DAY'S SPORT IN EAST FLORIDA By S.C. CLARKE. + THE LIVELIES By SARAH WINTER KELLOGG. + In Two Parts--II. + HISTORY OF THE CRISIS By K. CORNWALLIS. + SAINT MARTIN'S TEMPTATION by MARGARET J. PRESTON. + THE LONG FELLOW OF TI By J.T. McKAY. + THE PROBLEM By CHARLOTTE F. BATES. + MONACO By R. DAVEY. + A PRINCESS OF THULE By WILLIAM BLACK. + Chapter XXII--"Like Hadrianus And Augustus." + Chapter XXIII--In Exile. + Chapter XXIV--"Hame Fain Would I Be." + OUR MONTHLY GOSSIP + Mr. E. Lytton Bulwer By L. GAYLORD CLARK. + Salvini's Othello By A.F. + A Letter From New York By MARGARET CLAYSON. + NOTES. + LITERATURE OF THE DAY. + Books Received. + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + THE REGISTER. + A VIRTUOSO. + DELIGHTS OF THE VERLOBTEN. + THE CHURCHYARD LOVER. + ON THE FIRST STEP. + THE LEGAL PROFESSION AND PROFESSION OF FRIENDSHIP. + EFFUSION. + SELF-CONTROL. + LOSING TIME + GRAND DUKE'S PALACE, BADEN. + THE WOOD-PATH. + SCENE OF MATTHISSON'S POEM IMITATING GRAY'S "ELEGY." + "WINE OR BEER!" + ENTRANCE TO THE ALT-SCHLOSS. + "KELLNER!" + TYROLEAN. + THE KING OF SIAM RETURNING TO HIS PALACE. + ELEPHANT ARMED FOR WAR. + THE GREAT GILDED BOODDH. + FUNERAL PILE FOR THE SECOND KING. + SEVENTY-SECOND CHILD OF THE KING OF SIAM. + ENTRANCE TO THE ROYAL HAREM. + + + + +THE NEW HYPERION. + +FROM PARIS TO MARLY BY WAY OF THE RHINE. + +VI.--SHALL AULD ACQUAINTANCE BE FORGOT? + + +My first dinner in the avenue of Ettlingen followed upon the +twelve-barreled bath, but was far from being so glacial a, +refreshment. As I descended, quite pink and glowing, I found eight or +ten individuals in the dining-room. They were French and Belgians, and +exchanged a lively conversation in half a dozen provincial accents. +The servants too talked French in levying on the cook for provisions: +for this, as I have since learned, the domestics of my snug little +boarding-house were deemed somewhat pretentious by the serving-people +of the vicinity, who considered the tongue of Paris a sort of court +language, for circulation among aristocrats only, and supposed that +even in France the hired folk all talked German. My reception at the +cheerful board was as cordial as possible. + +[Illustration: THE REGISTER.] + +Placed opposite me, our young hostess was looking in my direction with +an intentness that struck me as singular. My passport was uppermost in +my mind. I was not, however, very uneasy, for the reply of Sylvester +Berkley would soon arrive and put an official seal upon my standing. +It occurred to me, however, that I was a traveler accompanied by no +other baggage than a tin box and an umbrella, and introduced by a +coachman who had no reason whatever for forming lofty notions of my +respectability. The landlady, whom I had scarcely seen on my arrival, +was pretty, neat and quick, and an argument suggested itself that +seemed adapted to her station and habits. I was base enough to take +out my watch, a very fine Poitevin, and make an advertisement of that +pledge under pretence of comparing time with the mantel-clock. This +precious manoeuvre appeared quite successful. + +Very soon my ideas of apprehension and defiance were followed by other +thoughts of a very different kind. The expression of the youthful +housekeeper was not only softened in continuing to watch me, but +it took on a look of great kindness and good-humor--a look that the +finest watch in the world would never have inspired. On my own side +I furtively examined this gentle yet scrutinizing physiognomy. +Surely those gentle glances and my own faded old eyes were not entire +strangers. + +When Winckelmann was filling the villa Albani with antiques, it +often happened to him to clasp a fair Greek head in his arms and go +pottering along from torso to torso till he could find a shoulder fit +to support his lovely burden. Such was my exercise with this pleasant +head in its neat cambric cap; but in place of consulting my memory +with the proper coolness, I am afraid I questioned my heart. + +Immediately after the coffee my pretty hostess, passing my chair, with +a quick motion in going out made me a slight gesture. I followed her +into a small office or ante-chamber adjoining. The furniture was very +simple; the indicator, with a figure for every bell, decorated the +wall in its cherry-wood frame; the keys, hanging aslant in rows, +like points of interrogation in a letter of Sévigné's, formed a +corresponding ornament; and a row of registers on the desk completed +the furniture. One of these books she drew forward, opened and +presented for my signature, still flashing over my face that intent +but benevolent glance. + +"Monsieur, have the goodness to inscribe your name, the place you came +from, and that of your destination." + +I took the pen, and, with the air of complying exactly and courteously +with her demand, folded the quill into three or four lengths, and +placed it weltering in ink within my waistcoat pocket. I was looking +intently into my hostess's face. + +I think no American can observe without peculiar complacency the neat +artisanne's cap on the brows of a respectable young Frenchwoman. This +cap is made of some opaque white substance, tender yet solid, and the +theory of its existence is that it should be stainless and incapable +of disturbance. It is the badge of an order, the sign of unpretending +industry. The personage who wears it does not propose to look like +a "dame:" she contentedly crowns herself with the tiara of her rank. +Long generations of unaspiring humility have bequeathed her this +soft and candid sign of distinction: as her turn comes in the line +of inheritance she spends her life in keeping unsullied its difficult +purity, and she will leave to her daughters the critical task of its +equipoise. If she soils or rumples or tears it, she descends in her +little scale of dignities and becomes an ouvrière. If she loses it, +she is unclassed entirely, and enters the half-world. The porter's +wife with her dubious mob-cap, and the hard, flaunting grisette with +her melancholy feathers and determined chapeau, are equally removed +from the white cap of the "young person." To maintain it in its vestal +candor and proud sincerity is not always an easy task in a land where +every careless student and idle nobleman is eager to tumble it +with his fingers or to pin among its frills the blossom named +love-in-idleness: Mimi Pinson has to wear her cap very close to her +wise little head. To herself and to those among whom she moves nothing +perhaps seems more natural than the successful carriage of this white +emblem, triumphantly borne from age to age above the dust of labor +and in the face of all kinds of temptation; but to the republican from +beyond the seas it is a kind of sacred relic. The Yankee who knows +only the forlorn aureoles of wire and greased gauze surrounding the +sainted heads of Lowell factory-girls, and the frowsy ones of New +York bookbinders, is struck by the artisanne cap as by something +exquisitely fresh, proud and truthful. + +My landlady's cap was as far removed from pretence as from vulgarity. +Her hair was brown, smooth, old-fashioned and nun-like. I looked +at her hand, which, having replaced the pen, was inviting me with a +gesture of its handsome squared fingers to contribute my autograph, +I made my note, pausing often to look up at my beautiful +writing-mistress: "PAUL FLEMMING, American: from Paris to Marly--by +way of the Rhine." + +I had not finished, when, lowering her pretty head to scrutinize +my crabbed handwriting, she cried, "It is certainly he, the +américain-flamand! I was certain I could not be mistaken." + +"Do you know me then, madame?' + +"Do I know you? And you, do you not recognize me?" + +"I protest, madame, my memory for faces is shocking; and, though there +are few in the world comparable with yours--" + +She interrupted me with a gesture too familiar to be mistaken. A +tumbler was on the desk filled with goose-quills. Taking this up +like a bouquet, and stretching it out at arm's length to an imaginary +passer-by, she sang, with a mischievous professional _brio_, "Fresh +roses to-day, all fresh! White lilacs for the bride, and lilies for +the holy altar! pinks for the button of the young man who thinks +himself handsome. Who buys my bluets, my paquerettes, my marguerites, +my penseés?" + +It was strangely like something I well knew, yet my mind, confused +with the baggage of unexpected travel, refused to throw a clear light +over this fascinating rencounter. + +The little landlady threw her head back to laugh, and I saw a small +rose-colored tongue surrounded with two strings of pearls: "Very well, +Monsieur Flemming! Have you forgotten the two chickens?" + +It was the exclamation by which, in his neat tavern, I had recognized +my brave old friend Joliet: it was impossible, by the same shibboleth, +to refuse longer an acquaintance with his daughter. + +My entertainer, in fact, was no other than Francine Joliet, grown +from a little female stripling into a distracting pattern of a woman. +Twelve years had never thrown more fortunate changes over a growing +human flower. + +[Illustration: A VIRTUOSO.] + +The acquaintance being thus renewed, I could not but remember my last +conversation with Joliet--his way of acquainting me with her absence +from home, his mention of her godmother in Brussels, and his strange +reticence as I pressed the subject. A slight chill, owing perhaps to +the undue warmth of my admiration for this delicate creature, fell +over my first cordiality. I asked a question or two, assuming a kind, +elderly type of interest: "How do you find yourself here in Carlsruhe? +Are you satisfactorily placed?" + +"As well as possible, dear M. Flemming. I am a bird in its nest." + +"Mated, no doubt, my dear?" + +"No." + +"You are not a widow, I hope, my poor little Francine?" + +"No." She blushed, as if she had not been pretty enough before. + +"They call you madame, you see." + +"A mistress of a hotel, that is the usual title. Is it not the custom +among the Indians of America?" + +"The godmother who took care of you--you perceive how well I know your +biography, my child--is she dead, then?" + +"No, thank Heaven! She is quite well." + +"She is doubtless now living in Carlsruhe?" + +"No, at Brussels." + +"Then why are you here? why have you quitted so kind a friend?" + +My catechism, growing thus more and more brutal, might have been +prolonged until bedtime, but on the arrival of a new traveler she left +me there, with a pen in my hand and a quantity of delicious cobwebs in +my head, saying gently, "I will see you this evening, kind friend." + +The same evening, after a botanizing stroll in the adjoining wood--a +treat that my tin box and I had promised each other--I found myself +again with Francine. Full of curiosity as I was concerning her +adventures, I determined that she should direct the conversation +herself, and take her own pretty time to tell the more personal parts +of the story. + +The stage grisette is perpetually exploring the pockets of her apron. +Francine, who wore a roundabout apron of a white and crackling nature, +adorned her conversation by attending to the hem of hers. When she +asked about my last interview with her father, she ironed that +hem with the nail of her rosy little thumb; when she fell into +reminiscences of her mother, she smoothed the apron respectfully and +sadly; when she proposed a question or a doubt, she extracted little +threads from the seam: at last, perfectly satisfied with the apron, +she laid her two small hands in each other on its dainty snow-bank, +and resigned herself to a perfect torrent of remarks about the horse, +the van, the little cabin among the roses, the small one-eyed dog and +the two chickens. Conversation, a thing which is manufactured by an +American girl, is a thing which takes possession of a French girl. + +All the while I remained uninstructed as to why my little Francine had +left her protectress, why she was keeping house at Carlsruhe, and on +what understanding her customers called her madame. + +I was obliged to take next day a long alterative excursion among the +trees of the Haardtwald: in fact, her gentle warmth, her freshness, +her nattiness, the very protection she shed over me, were working sad +mischief to my peace of mind. I came upon an old shepherd, who, with +his music-book thrown into a bush in front of him, was leaning back +against a tree and drawing sweet sounds out of a cornet-à-piston. + +"Even so," I said, "did Stark the Viking hear the notes of the +enchanted horn teaching every tree he came to the echo of his +true-love's name." + +But the churlish shepherd, the moment he caught sight of me, put +up his pipe, whistled to his dogs and rejoined the flock. I was +dissatisfied with his unsocial retreat. I felt, with renewed force, +that a note was lacking to the full harmony of my life, and I threw +myself upon a bank. I tried not to see the artificial roads of +the forest, alive with city carriages. I believed myself lost in a +primeval wood, and I examined the state of my heart. I perceived with +concern that that organ was still lacerated. The languid, musical +pageant of my youth streamed toward me again through the leafy aisles, +and I remembered my high aspirings, my poems, my ideals: the floating +vision of a Dark Ladye passed or looked up at me through the broken +waves of Oblivion; she listened to my rhapsodies with the old puzzling +silence; she confided to me certain Sibylline leaves out of her diary; +then she receded, cold and unresponsive, a statue cut out of a shadow. +I was obliged to untie my cravat. Finally, I fell asleep and dreamed +of Mary Ashburton crowned with the neat workwoman's cap of Francine +Joliet. I returned to dinner considerably exalted, and just touched +with rheumatism. + +The soup was glacial, the roast was steaming, the conversation was +geographical. "Pray, M. Flemming," said my neighbor (he had been +stealing a look at the register of visitors' names), "can cattle be +wintered out of doors as far north as Pennsylvania, or only up to +Virginia?" + +"Pray," said another, "is not New York situated between the North +River and the Hudson?" + +The prayer of a third made itself audible: "Ought we to say +'Delightful _Wy_oming,' after Campbell, or Wy_o_ming?" + +"We ought to eat with thankfulness the good things set before us," I +replied, with some presence of mind. "Excuse me, gentlemen," I added, +to carry off my vivacity, "but I think informing conversation is a +bore until after the nuts and raisins. A Danish proverb says that he +who knows what he is saying at a feast has but poor comprehension +of what he is eating. On my way hither, breakfasting at Strasburg, I +enjoyed a lesson in geography, and I aver that though the lesson was +elementary, I breakfasted very badly." + +[Illustration: DELIGHTS OF THE VERLOBTEN.] + +"Who was the teacher?" asked the explorer of Wyoming, a German, in the +tone of a man to whom no professor of Geography could properly be a +stranger. + +"The teacher," I answered with a smile, "was one Fortnoye--" + +I did not finish my sentence. At that name, Fortnoye, a kind of +electric movement was communicated around the board. Every eye sought +the face of Francine, who, troubled and confused, fell upon the cutlet +placed before her and cut it feverishly into flinders. Evidently there +was a secret thereabouts. When coffee was on, I applied myself to +satisfying the topographic doubts of my neighbors, but the name of the +geographical professor was approached no more. + +When dinner was over, and only two stranded Belgians remained at +table, discussing whether the Falls of Niagara plunge from the United +States into Canada, or from Canada into the United States, I stole +into the narrow office, believing I should see Francine. + +She was not there, but the register was lying on the desk. I fell to +turning the leaves over furiously: I felt that I was on the trail of +Fortnoye. I was not long in amassing a quantity of discoveries. Going +back to the previous year, I found the signature of Fortnoye in March +and April; in July and September, Fortnoye bound up and down the +Rhine; in the depth of the winter, Monsieur Tonson-Fortnoye come +again! Evidently one of the most frequent guests of my delicate +Francine was the interpreter of _Cosmos_ in Strasburg, the +white-bearded mystifier of the champagne-cellar, the finest +singing-voice in Épernay. + +[Illustration: THE CHURCHYARD LOVER.] + +Toward ten o'clock, as I paced the little grove called the Oak Wood, +I saw at the miniature lake four persons, who were regaining the bank +after trying to detach the little boat moored by the shore. They were +just the four from our social table with whom I best agreed. I joined +the party, and, hooking now a friendly arm to the elbow of one, now +to that of another, I soon obtained all they had to communicate on +the subject which occupied my mind. Each knew Fortnoye intimately: the +result of my quadratic amounted to the following: + +_First_. Fortnoye, educated at the Polytechnic School in Paris, is a +man of grave character and profound learning. + +_Second_. Fortnoye is a roysterer, latterly occupied in extending the +connection of a champagne-house at Épernay. He is a Bohemian, even +a poet: he can rhyme, but strictly in the interests of commerce--he +composes only drinking-songs. + +_Third_. Fortnoye is an exploded speculator, dismissed from the French +Board: obliged to beat a retreat to Belgium, he soon found himself in +Baden, where he had good luck at the green table shortly before the +war. + +_Fourth, and last_. (This was from the man of Wyoming.) Fortnoye +only retreated to Belgium as a refuge for his demagogic opinions. He +belongs to the innermost circle of the Commune and to all the French +and Italian secret associations. He is represented in the background +of several of Courbet's pictures. He has been everywhere: in Italy +he joined the society of the Mary Anne, where he met the celebrated +Lothair. This order has a branch called the Society of Pure +Illumination. If he has liberty to return into France, it is because +he is connected with the detective police. + +The information, extensive as it was, did not altogether satisfy me. I +made little of the inconsistencies betrayed by the various counsels +of the Areopagus, but I closed the whole solemnity with one crucial +interrogatory: "What the dickens does Fortnoye come prowling around +Francine Joliet's house for?" + +The answer was not calculated to please me: "She is young and +attractive: Fortnoye advanced the funds to set her up in the house." + +But my morose thoughts were distracted by the scene around us. The +moon burst up above the trees of the Oak Wood--a fine ample German +moon, like a Diana of Rubens. Close to our sides passed numerous young +couples, holding hands, clasping waists, chattering gayly, or walking +in silence with a blonde head laid on a burly shoulder. One of +my companions pointed out a specially stalwart and graceful young +apprentice, whose elbow, supported on a rustic bench, was bent around +a mass of beautiful golden hair. + +"An eligible _verlobter_," said he. + +I thought of Perrette and the tall young man who had helped pull her +milk-cart. My friend continued: "Betrothal hereabouts is a serious +institution. The girl who loses her _verlobter_ becomes a widow. Woe +betide her if she dreams of replacing him too early! She will find +herself followed by ill looks and contemptuous tongues: she even runs +the risk of having nobody to marry better than a dead man, if we may +believe the history of Bettina of Ettlingen." + +"The history of Bettina of Ettlingen? That sounds like the title to a +ballad." + +"It is a recent history, which you would take for a legend of the +twelfth century." + +[Illustration: ON THE FIRST STEP.] + +I cannot help it. In face of that word _legend_ my mind stops and +stares rigidly like a pointer dog. The moment was favorable for a good +story: the sky was covered with flocked clouds, behind which the ample +German moon, shorn of half its brightness, took suddenly the pale +gilded tint of sauerkraut. The wandering lovers, half effaced in the +gloom, looked like straying shades in an Elysium. + +"Ettlingen is between Carlsruhe and Rastadt, an hour's walking as you +go to Kehl. The flowers grow there without thinking about it, and sow +their own seed. It is therefore a simple thing to be a gardener, and +Bettina's father, the florist, attended entirely to his pipe, leaving +the cares of business to his apprentice, whose name was Nature. +Bettina, as became the daughter of a gardener, was a kind of rose: +Wilhelm, the baker's young man, would have thrown himself into the +furnace for her. But there came along Fritz, the dyer, who had been +in France and who wore gloves. She continued a while to promenade with +Wilhelm under the chestnut trees which surround the fortifications +of Ettlingen, but one night she suddenly withdrew her hand: 'You had +better find a nicer girl than I am: I do not feel that I could make +you happy.' Wilhelm disappeared from the country. His departure, which +was the talk of Ettlingen, caused Bettina more remorse than regret. +For six months she shut herself up: then, hearing nothing of her +lover, she reappeared shyly on the promenade, divested of rings, +ear-drops and ornaments. The beautiful Fritz, in his loveliest gloves, +intercepted her beneath the chestnuts, and, armed with her father's +consent, proposed himself for her _verlobter_. + +"'Not yet,' she answered: 'wait till I wear my flowers again.' + +"In Germany, as in Switzerland and Italy, natural flowers are +indispensable to a young girl's toilet. To appear at an assembly +without a blooming tuft at the corsage or in the hair is to indicate +that the family is in mourning, the mother sick or the lover +conscripted. + +[Illustration: THE LEGAL PROFESSION AND PROFESSION OF FRIENDSHIP.] + +"With an exquisite natural sense, Bettina, daughter of a gardener, +would never wear any flowers but wild ones. About this time there was +a grand fair at Durlach: almost all Ettlingen went there, and Bettina +too, but as spectatress only, and without her flowers. + +"The dances which animated the others made her sad. She left the ball +and wandered on the hillside. There, beneath the hedge of a sunken +road, she recognized her beauteous Fritz. Poor Fritz! he was refusing +himself the pleasure of the dance which he might not partake with her. +Ah, the time for temporizing is over! Bettina determines that to-day, +in the eyes of every one, they shall dance together, and he shall be +recognized as her _verlobter_. She looks hastily around for flowers. +The hill is bare, the road is stony: an enclosure at the left offers +some promise, and Bettina enters. + +"It was a cemetery. Animated with her new resolve, she thought little +of the profanation, and crowned herself with flowers from the nearest +grave. In an hour the villagers from Ettlingen saw her leaning on +Fritz's shoulder in the waltz. That night the shade of Wilhelm stood +at her bed-head: 'You have accepted the flowers growing on my grave +and nourished from my heart. I am once more your _verlobter_.' + +"Next day Fritz came, radiant, with a silver engagement-ring, which he +was to exchange for that on Bettina's finger, returned by Wilhelm at +his departure. But the ring was gone. At night Wilhelm reappeared, and +showed the ring on his finger. Some time passed, and Bettina lost a +good part of her beauty, distracted as she was between the laughing +Fritz in the daytime and the pale Wilhelm at night. She was a sensible +girl, however, and persuaded herself, with Fritz's assistance, that +the vision was created by a disordered fancy. But she caused inquiry +to be made about the grave in the cemetery at Durlach: the answer +came: 'Under the first stone in the line at the right of the gate +lies the body of Wilhelm Haussbach of Ettlingen, where he followed the +trade of baker.' + +"Then she knew that she had robbed her lover's grave to adorn herself +for a new _verlobter_. After this the ghost of Wilhelm began to +invade her promenades with Fritz, and she walked evening after evening +beneath the chestnuts between her two lovers. + +"The gardener's daughter never looked fairer than on her wedding-day. +Armed with all her resolution, and filled with love for Fritz, +she presented herself at the altar. The priest began to recite the +sacramental words, when he came to a pause at the sight of Bettina, +pale and wild-eyed, shivering convulsively in her bridal draperies. + +"Wilhelm was again at her side, kneeling on the right, as Fritz on +the left. He was in bridegroom's habit, and he offered a bouquet of +graveyard-flowers--the white immortelle and the forget-me-not. When +Fritz rose and put the ring on her finger she felt an icy hand draw +the token off and replace it by another. At this, overcome with +terror, and making a wild gesture of rejection both to right and left, +she ran shrieking out of the church. + +"Such is the true and authentic story of Bettina," concluded my +narrator. "You may see Bettina any day at Ettlingen, a yellow old maid +forty years of age. Every Sunday she goes to mass at Durlach, where +she employs the rest of the day in tending flowers on a grave, the +first grave in the line to the right of the gateway." + +I returned to the house with this grim and tender little idyll +crooning through my brains. I took my key and bed-candle, and asked +the porter if a letter had arrived for me from Sylvester Berkley. Not +a line! This silence became inconvenient. Not only did I rely upon +Berkley for my passport, the certificate of my character, but likewise +for the revictualing of my purse. As I passed the small throne-room +of Francine, where she sat vis-à-vis with all her keys and bells, a +light, a presence, an amicable little nod informed me that a friend +was there for me, and sent a bath of warm and comfortable emotion all +over my poor old heart. + +[Illustration: EFFUSION.] + +It was late. Francine, at a little velvet account-book, was executing +some fairy-like and poetical arithmetic in purple ink. I had the +pleasure, before a half hour had passed, of making her commit more +than one error in her columns, do violet violence to the neatness of +her book, and adorn her thumb-nail with a comical tiny silhouette. +My gossip, which had this encouraging and proud effect, was commenced +easily upon familiar subjects, such as the old rose-garden and the +chickens, but branched imperceptibly into more personal confidences. +I found myself growing strangely confidential. Soon I had sketched for +Francine my life of opulent loneliness, my cook and my old valet, my +philosopher's den at Marly, my negligent existence at Paris, without +family, country or obligations. + +Her good gray eyes were swimming with tears, I thought. With a look +of perfect natural sweetness she said, "To live alone and far from +kin and fatherland, that is not amusing. It is like one of the small +straight sticks of rose my father would take and plant in the sand in +a far-away little red pot." + +A delicious vignette, I confess, began to be outlined in my fancy. I +cannot describe it, but I know Francine was in the middle repairing +a stocking, while my own books and geographical notes, in a state +of dustlessness they had never known actually, formed a brown bower +around her. Somewhere near, in an old secretary or in a grave, was +buried the ideal of an earlier, haughtier love; wrapped up in a stolen +ribbon or pressed in a book. + +She continued simply, "I am very much alone myself. Without the visits +of Monsieur Fortnoye I should be dead of ennui. I am so glad to find +you know him, monsieur!" + +[Illustration: SELF-CONTROL.] + +This jarred upon me more than I can say. I assumed, as one can at +my age, an air of parental benevolence, in which I administered my +dissatisfaction: "Fortnoye is a roysterer, a squanderer, a wanderer +and a _pètroleur_. At your age, my child, you are really imprudent." + +"He is a little wild, but he is young himself. And so good, so +generous, so kind! I owe him everything." + +"On what conditions?" said I, more severely perhaps than I meant. +"Your relations, my daughter, are not very clear. Is he then your +_verlobter_?" + +She looked at me with an expression of stupefaction, then buried her +face in her hands: "He my intended! Has he ever dreamed of such a +thing? Am I not a poor flower-girl?" + +And she was sobbing through her fingers. + +My nights were sweet at Carlsruhe. My slumber was ushered in with +those delicious dream-sketches that lend their grace to folly. Each +morning I wondered what surprise the day would arrange for me. + +The little wood was hidden from my window by an early fog: the birds +were silent. I was meditating on my singular position, in pawn as it +were under the care of Joliet's good daughter, when I heard my name +pronounced at the bottom of the stairs. It was Sylvester Berkley. + +The briskness of our friendships depends on the time when--the place +where. To men in prison a familiar face is the next thing to liberty. + +Some years ago I had an absurd dispute with a neighbor about a +party-wall at Passy, and was obliged to go to the Palace of Justice at +ten every morning for a week. My forced intercourse with those solemn +birds in black plumage had a singular effect on me. While among them +I felt as if cut off from my species, and visiting with Gulliver some +dreadful island peopled with mere allegories. As the time passed +I grew worse: I dragged myself to the Cité with horror, and before +returning home was always obliged to wash out my brains by a short +stroll in Notre Dame or amongst the fine glass of the Sainte Chapelle. +One day, pacing the pale and shuffling corridors of the palace, +waiting for an unpunctual lawyer, and regarding the gowns and caps +around me with insupportable hate, at the turning of a passage--oh +happiness!--a face was revealed in the distance, the face of a friend, +the face of an old neighbor. At the bright apparition I made an +involuntary sign of joy: the owner of the face seemed no less pleased. +We walked toward each other, our hands expanded. All of a sudden a +doubt seemed to strike us both at the same moment: he slackened his +pace, I slackened mine. We met: we had never done so before. It was +a little mistake. We saluted each other slightly and gravely, and +separated once more, as wise in our looks as that irreproachable hero +who, after marching up the hill with his men, pocketed his thoughts +and marched down again. + +My meeting with Berkley Junior was not precisely similar, but +connected with the same feelings and associations. I dashed down four +steps at a time, precipitated myself on him like a bird of prey, and +wrung his hands again and again with fondest violence. + +Now, up to that date my relations with Sylvester Berkley had been of +a frigid and formal description. I had met him two or three times with +his hearty old relation, and had borne away the distinct impression +that he was a prig. While the uncle would breakfast in his tub, like +Diogenes, off simple bones and cutlets, Sylvester ate some sort of +a mash made of bruised oats: while the nephew made an untenable +pretension to family honors, the elder talked familiarly of the +porcelain trade, freely alluding to the youth as a piece of precious +Sèvres that had cracked. + +He met my advances with a calmness, imprinted with astonishment, that +recalled me to myself. Against such a refrigerator my heart and fancy +recovered their proper level: I had been caressing an iceberg in a +white cravat. I examined my emotions, and found, to my shame, that my +warmth had a selfish origin in the fact that I was alone in Carlsruhe, +greatly in need of a passport and a purse. + +"Do you intend shortly to quit the archducal seat?" asked Sylvester, +by way of an agreeable remark. + +"I have the strongest obligations to be at home," I returned. "I only +await your kind assistance about my passport." + +"It is expected at the office, but I fear it will not be received in +time for you to take the next train. I fear we shall be obliged to +keep you with us until thirty minutes past one." + +He conferred on me, with his neck and his hand, a salute which had the +effect of being made from a distant window. Then he departed. + +To ask such a man for money was not easy. I dressed myself and marched +in great haste to the gay quarter of the town, having made up my mind +to depend on the mercies of the chief jeweler and the merits of my +Poitevin watch. It had cost a thousand francs, and would surely, after +many a service rendered, help me now to regain my home. + +Another disappointment--not a pawn-broker to be found in Carlsruhe! +I was ready to look upon myself as a fixture in the town, when a +brilliant idea flashed upon me. One of my neighbors at table was +transportation-agent at the railway dépôt. What so opportune for me +as a credit on the railway company? With his recommendation my watch +would surely be security enough. + +Delighted with the thought, and with my own cleverness in originating +it, I made briskly for the Ettlingen Gate, before which the road +passes. Glancing at the clock on the dépôt, I regulated first my watch +by the time of the place, in order that no doubt might be cast on its +perfect regularity. I was holding it in my hand, my eyes still riveted +on the great clock, as I stepped over the nearest rails. A shout, +mixed with imprecations, was audible. My coat was seized by a vigorous +fist, I was rudely pushed, my watch escaped, and the train from +Frankfort, which was just entering the dépôt, only rendered it to my +hands crushed, peeled and pounded. Instead of a thousand francs, my +old friend would hardly bring five dollars. + +[Illustration: LOSING TIME] + +After such a catastrophe what remained for me to do? Evidently to +humble my pride and beg an obolus of young Berkley. I represented +to myself that the victory over my own false shame was worth many +watches, and I began to compose a little speech intended for his ear, +in which I compared myself to Dante at the convent door. + +I found him in his office clasping a hand-valise. "I am about to +go away by your train," he said, without waiting for me to speak or +remarking my shabby-genteel expression of heroism. He added, as he +handed me a great sealed envelope, "There is your passport. Nothing +imperative requires my stay here: I shall accompany you, then, as far +as the station of Oos, and while you are continuing your route toward +your beloved metropolis, I will go and finish my leave of absence at +Baden-Baden, where I am claimed by certain conditions of my liver." + +[Illustration: GRAND DUKE'S PALACE, BADEN.] + +I was so nervous and uncertain of myself that this little change in +the horizon upset me completely. For the life of me I could not, at +that moment, and at the risk of seeing him drop his bag and rain its +contents over the official courtyard, rehearse my awkward accident +and disreputable beggary. On the other hand, it was much to gain a +friendly companion and pass arm-in-arm with him to the ticket-office. +Leaving every other plan uncertain, I determined to start from +Carlsruhe in his diplomatic shadow. + +I dashed with surprising agility into the house to ask for my account +with Francine. I was about to explain that I would quickly settle +with her from Paris, when the thoughtful little woman anticipated me. +"Monsieur Flemming," she said, with her sweet supplicating air, "you +left the city without meaning it. If you would like a little advance, +monsieur, I am quite well supplied just now. Dispose of me: I shall be +so thankful!" + +The money of Fortnoye! the thought was impossible. It was impossible +to resist taking her bright brown head between my hands and secreting +a kiss somewhere in the laminations of the artisanne cap. + +"Dear infant! I shall be an unhappy old fellow if I do not see you +again very soon." + +--And I was off, dragged by those obligations of the time-table which +have no tenderness toward human sentiment. At one o'clock I was at the +railway with Sylvester. I was uncertain of my plans, and the confusion +of the dépôt added nothing to the clearness inside my head. Berkley +advanced first to the ticket-seller's window. "A first-class place for +Baden-Baden," said he. + +"How many?" briskly asked the clerk, seeing us together. + +At that moment Sylvester heard a ghostly voice at his ear: "You may +get a couple." The voice was mine. + +Berkley got them and paid. I had reflected that my letter of credit +from Munroe & Co. would undoubtedly be drawn on Baden-Baden, and had +suddenly taken a resolution to try the effect of the springs on my +unfortunate stoutness. + +We got down at the Gasthaus zum Hirsch, but I had already sold the +ruins of my chronometer, and was twenty-five francs the richer for the +transaction. + +I cannot call Baden-Baden a city: it is a stage. It is a perpetually +set-scene for light opera. Everything seems dressed up and artificial, +and meant to be viewed, as it were, in the glare of the foot-lights. +But instead of the shepherds in white satin who ought to be the +performers in this ingenious theatre, it is the unaccustomed stranger +who is forced into the position of actor. As he toils up the steep and +slovenly streets, faced with shabby buildings that crack and blacken +behind their ill-adjusted fronts of stucco and distemper, he +cheapens rapidly in his own view: he feels painfully like the hapless +supernumerary whom he has seen mounting an obvious step-ladder behind +a screen of rock-work on his way to a wedding in the chapel or a +coronation in the Capitol. The difference is, that here the permission +to play his rôle is paid for by the performer. + +But I, as I sat hugging my knee in the hotel bed-room, was possessed +by loftier feelings. If there is one faculty which I can fairly +extol in myself, it is that of displaying true sentiment in false +situations. My thoughts, with incredible agility, went back to +Francine. A knock came at the door, and my emotions received a chill: +my visitor could be none but Berkley, in whose face I should see a +reminder that I owed him for my car-fare. + +In place of frigid politeness, however, the diplomatist wore all +that he knew of good-fellowship and Bohemianism. He was now clad +in tourists' plaid, and stood upon soles half an inch thick--a true +Englishman on his travels. + +"Come, old boy!"--old boy, indeed!--"you must taste the pleasures of +Baden-Baden: it is but four o'clock, and we can see the Trinkhalle, +the Conversations-Haus, and plenty besides before dinner. Is there any +place in particular where you would like to go?" + +[Illustration: THE WOOD-PATH.] + +I looked solemnly at him. "I would fain visit the Alt-Schloss," I +said. + +"With all my heart!" replied Sylvester, tapping his legs and admiring +his boots. This unpromising comrade was wearing better than I +expected. + +[Illustration: SCENE OF MATTHISSON'S POEM IMITATING GRAY'S "ELEGY."] + +"Shall we have a carriage?" he pursued. At this question my face +contracted as by the effect of a nervous attack. I thought of the few +pence I possessed. I assumed the determined pedestrian. + +"For shame!" I cried: "it is but three miles. Where are your tourist +muscles? I should like to walk." + +"Nothing simpler," said the man of facile views: "we shall do it +within the hour." + +[Illustration: "WINE OR BEER!"] + +I breathed again. We set off. We had before us cliffs and hills, +with small Gothic towers printed on the blue of the sky; but the +mountain-path beneath our steps was sanded, graveled, packed, rolled, +weeded, and provided with coquettish sofas at every hundred steps. +I, who happened that afternoon to feel the emotions of Manfred, would +gladly have exchanged these detestable conveniences for precipices, +storms and eagles. + +"How ridiculous," I said with a little temper, "to go to a ruin by way +of the boulevards!" + +"Ah," said my companion of complaisant manners, "you like Nature? It +is but the choosing." + +And Berkley, perfectly acquainted with the locality, directed our +steps into a narrow path hardly traced through the woods. Here at +least were flowers and grass and sylvan shadows. No sooner did I +smell the balm of the pine trees than my heart resigned itself, with +exquisite indecision, to the thoughts of Francine Joliet and the +memories of Mary Ashburton. I glanced at Berkley: he seemed, in Scotch +clothes, a little less impenetrable than he had appeared in white +cravat and dress-gloves. I cannot restrain my confidences when a man +is near me: I buttonholed Sylvester, and I made the plunge. "I used to +talk of the Alt-Schloss," I murmured, "with one whom I have lost." + +"Ah, I comprehend: with my late uncle, perhaps." + +"No, sir, not with any cynic in a tub, but with a maiden in her +flower. It was one of the best points I made with Miss Ashburton." + +"The Alt-Schloss is indeed a picturesque construction," said the +diplomate, by way of generally inviting my confidence. + +"We were conversing about the poems of Salis and Matthisson," I +pursued. "I had in my pocket a little translation of Salis's song +entitled 'The Silent Land,' and endeavored to bend the dialogue in +a suitable direction, but these allusions are incredibly hard to +introduce in conversation, and we happened to stray upon Baden-Baden. +I asked Miss Ashburton if she had been here, and she answered, 'Yes, +the last summer.' 'And you have not forgotten?' I suggested--'The +old castle,' she rejoined. 'Of course not. What a magnificent ruin it +is!'" + +[Illustration: ENTRANCE TO THE ALT-SCHLOSS.] + +"What tact your friend displayed," said Berkley, "to feign utter +unconsciousness of the green tables, and see nothing but ruins in +Baden-Baden!" + +"Permit me to say," I replied quickly, "that it is not agreeable to +me to have that lady alluded to, however distantly, in connection with +gambling-tables. The Ashburtons had been probably drinking the waters, +for her mother was noticeably stout and florid. But to continue with +the poets. I explained to her that the ruins of the Alt-Schloss had +suggested to Matthisson a poem in imitation of an English masterpiece. +Matthisson made a study of Gray's 'Elegy,' and from it produced his +'Elegy on the Ruins of an Ancient Castle.' Miss Ashburton became +nationally enthusiastic, and said she should like very much to see the +poem. Her wish was usually my law, but the translation of the other +song being in my pocket, I was obliged to palm it off upon her; and +after conceding that Matthisson had written his 'Elegy' with unwonted +inspiration, I sailed in upon that tide of feeling--with a slight +inconsequence, to be sure--and declaimed my version from Salis. Miss +Ashburton, sir, was obliged to turn away to hide her tears." + +"I used to hear from my uncle of your attachment," said Sylvester, +with his politest air of condolence, "and I assure you my opinion ever +has been that your feelings did you honor. Nothing, in my view, is so +becoming to gray hairs and the evening of life as fidelity to a first +passion." + +"Lord forgive you, Berkley!" I exclaimed, startled out of all +self-possession by his impertinence. "What on earth do you mean? You +are completely ignorant of what you are talking about. I have hardly +any gray hairs, and some excellent constitutions are gray at thirty. +You are partly bald yourself: I know it from the way you turn up your +love-locks. And it was not Miss Ashburton I was talking about. That +is, if I did derive my reminiscences from her, it was with an object +of a very different character at the end of the perspective. I have +adopted other views; that is, I have lately had presented to my +mind--" + +[Illustration: "KELLNER!"] + +With these rhetorical somersaults, like the flappings of a carp upon +the straw, did I express the mental distractions I was suffering +from, and the tugs at my heart respectively administered by +Francine's cap-strings and Mary Ashburton's shadowy tresses. Berkley, +diplomatically approving the landscape before us, would not get angry, +would not be insulted, and offered no prise to my difficult temper. + +"Tell me now, Sylvester," said I after a few minutes' silence. "You +are young, yet you have seen the world. What is the best refuge, in +your view, for a man of delicate sentiments and of ripe age? Would you +recommend such a person to shut himself up for ever in a hermitage +of musty books, and to flirt there eternally with the memories of his +young loves, who are become corpulent matrons or angular maids? Or, +don't you think, now, that an autumnal attachment--provided some sweet +and healthy intelligence comes in contact with his own--is a capital +thing in its way? The crackling fireside instead of the lovers' +walk? The perfection of rational comfort subservient to, rather than +dominating, his early dreams? Respectful affection, fidelity and +fondest care as the conditions surrounding one's character, and +upholding it in its best symmetry? Cannot the poet think better if his +body is kept snug? Cannot the man of feeling remember better if his +slippers are toasted and his buttons sewed? In fact, is not +one's faith to a beloved ideal best shown by acquiring a fresh +standing-point to see it from?" + +"No doubt Hamlet's mother thought so," said Sylvester rather brutally, +"and married King Claudius solely to brighten her ideal of her first +husband." A more appropriate remark, it seemed to me, might have +been found to chime in with my speculations. "But here," pursued +the statesman, compromisingly, "are old memories protected by modern +conveniences. Here is the 'Repose of Sophie.'" + +We had mounted a terrace from whose eminence the whole spread of the +valley was visible. Profanation! No sooner had we attained the plateau +than a covered gallery appeared, and a Teutonic voice was heard with +the familiar inquiry, "Will the gentlemen take wine or beer?" + +Was ever a man of delicacy and feeling so ruthlessly treated as I? +To be tempted by circumstances into pouring out one's most intimate +confessions to an icy person to whom one owes money, and then to have +even this imperfect confidence interrupted by a tavern-waiter in an +apron! Miserable hireling! give us solitude and meditation, not beer! + +Flying the "Repose of Sophie" without the concession of a glance, we +mounted toward the ancient castle, whose ruins seemed ready to roll on +us down the hillside. It was indeed romantic. The wind, in plaintive, +melodious tones, searched our ears as it came perfumed from the tufted +walls. We penetrated through a scene of high and mossy rocks, bound in +the lean embrace of knotted ivy, and finally by a dismantled postern +we intruded into the castle. Sacrilege again! The stone-masons were +tranquilly working here and there, solidifying old ruins and very +probably fabricating new ones. The wind, whose sighing we had admired, +was the cat-like harmony of the æolian harps: these harps were +artlessly stretched across each of the old vaulted windows. We arrived +at the high portal of the ancient manor, a genuine Roman construction +of Aurelius Aquensis--a gateway with a round arch: it was obstructed +by hired cabs, by whole herds of venal donkeys saddled and bridled, +and by holiday-makers of Baden in Sunday clothes preserved for ten +or fifteen years. The old pile itself is transformed into a hostelry. +Gray was wrong: the paths of glory lead not to the grave, but to the +_gasthaus_; and Matthisson could have imitated the "Elegy" about as +well in the gaming-hall as among these rejuvenated ruins. + +The modern idea of a wood is a graveled chess-board on a large +scale, flooded at night with gas: the modern idea of a ruin is a +dancing-floor, with a few patched arches and walls lifted between +the wind and our nobility. We shave the weeds away and produce a fine +English turf: we root up the brambles and eglantines which might tear +the skirts of the ladies. Our lovers, our poets and romancers must fly +to distant glades if they would not walk in the shade of trees that +have been transplanted. + +I was considering the sorry triumph of the stage-machinists of +Baden-Baden, when Berkley, who had disappeared, came in sight again. +Our dinner, he said, was ready--ready in the guards' hall. I retreated +with a sudden cry of alarm. I had rather dine at the hotel; I had +rather not dine at all; I was not in the least hungry. It was the +emptiness of my pocket that caused this sudden fullness, of the +stomach. Berkley made light of my objections. + +"Listen! You can hear from this mountain the dinner-bells of the city. +We should arrive too late. Although you hate restored castles, you +need not refuse to dine with me in one." + +[Illustration: TYROLEAN.] + +The noble hall was a scene of vulgar festivity, where the ubiquitous +kellner, racing to and fro with beer and plates of sausage, solved the +problem of perpetual motion. It was not easy, in such circumstances, +to maintain the flow of poetic association, but I accomplished the +feat in a measure. As the shades of evening closed around the hill, +and the bells of twenty dining-tables ascended to us through the +still air, I thought of Gray's curfew--of that glimmering Stoke-Pogis +landscape that faded into immortality on his sight. I thought of +Matthisson's "Elegy" on this forlorn old dandy of a castle. I thought +of the sympathetic chest-notes with which I read to Mary Ashburton the +"Song of the Silent Land." + +I thought of Francine, and of the condition of base terror I was in +when I ran away from her with the man who momentarily represented my +solvency, my credit and my respectability. May the foul fiend catch +me, sweet vision, if I do not find thee soon again! A Tyrolean, who +entered by stealth, persuaded a heart-rending lamentation to issue +from his wooden trumpet: although the acid sounds proceeding from this +terrible whistle set my teeth on edge and caused me at first to start +off my seat, yet I rewarded him with such a competency in copper as +made his eyes emerge from his face. A singing-girl and some blonde +bouquet-sellers had equal cause to rejoice in my generosity. It is +when a gentleman is landed finally on his coppers that he becomes +penny-liberal. I glanced defiance at Berkley, my creditor, as I +showered largess on these humble poets. + +We descended under the stars, and I began to think that illuminated +gravel-roads were, at night, susceptible of some apology. We returned +to the city by easy stages, with a halt at the "Repose of Sophie." +At the hotel there was given me, re-directed in the pretty hand of +Francine, an unlimited credit from Munroe & Co. on the house of Meyer +in Baden-Baden. I was a freeman once more. + +EDWARD STRAHAN. + +[TO BE CONTINUED.] + + + + +AUTUMN LEAVES. + + + My life is like the autumn leaves + Now falling fast, + Which grew of late so fresh and fair-- + Too fair to last. + + The mar of earth and canker-worm + The foliage bears; + So my poor life of sin and care + The impress wears. + + As shine the leaves before they fall + With brighter hue, + And each defect of worm and time + Is lost to view, + + So may my life, when fading, shine + With brighter ray, + And brighter still as nearer to + The perfect day. + + And as new life still springs again + From fallen leaves, + And richer life a thousand-fold + From gathered sheaves; + + So, God, if aught in me was good, + The good repeat, + And let me from my ashes breathe + An influence sweet. + +W. + + + + +SKETCHES OF EASTERN TRAVEL. + +III.--BANGKOK. + + +We left Singapore--which, though an English colony, is a very Babel of +languages and nations--in a Bombay merchantman, whose captain was an +Arab, the cook Chinese, and the fourteen men who composed the crew +belonged to at least half that many different nations, whilst our +party in the cabin were English, Scotch, French and American. After +eight days of rather stormy weather we disembarked at the mouth of +the Meinam River, thirty miles below the city of Bangkok. Owing to +the sandbar at the mouth, large vessels must either partially unload +outside, or wait for the flood-tide when the moon is full to pass the +bar; and to avoid the delay consequent upon either course, we took +passage for the city in a native sampan pulled by eight men with long +slender oars. The trip was a delightful one, giving us enchanting +glimpses of the grand old city long before we reached it. Amid the +mass of tropical foliage, gleaming out from among clustering palms +and graceful banians, we could discern the gilded spires of gorgeous +temples and palaces, of which Bangkok boasts probably not less than +two hundred. The temples, with their glittering tiles of green and +gold, and graceful turrets and pinnacles from which hang tiny tinkling +bells that ring out sweet music with every passing breeze, their tall, +slender pagodas and picturesque monasteries, stand all along the banks +of the river, its most conspicuous adornments. But pre-eminent, both +for height and splendor, is Wat Chang, visible, all but its base, from +the very mouth of the river. Its central spire, full three hundred +feet in height, towers grandly above the surrounding turrets and +pagodas, the white walls gleaming out from the dark foliage of the +banian, and the feathery fringes of the palm reflected on its shining +roof. + +[Illustration: THE KING OF SIAM RETURNING TO HIS PALACE.] + +The two main entrances to the royal palace are of white masonry very +elaborately adorned. Groups of elegant columns support a capital +composed of nine crowns rising one above the other, and terminating in +a slender spire of some forty feet. The whole is inlaid in exquisite +mosaics of porcelain, the various colors arranged in quaint devices, +so as to produce the happiest effect, while the reflection of the +sun's rays upon the glazed tiles, the numberless turrets and pinnacles +of the lofty pile, and the porticoes and balconies of pure white +marble opening from every window, and leading to delectable +conservatories, luxurious baths or fairy groves and arbors, present, +as grouped together, a sight worth a trip across the waters to enjoy. +The engraving represents one of these entrances, and His Majesty +Somdetch Phra Paramendr Maha Mongkut, the late supreme king of Siam, +on his return from his usual afternoon promenade. This "promenade," +however, was not a walk, a ride or a drive, but an airing in one of +the royal state barges. For the late king, true to the usages of his +forefathers, continued to the very close of his life to make all his +tours, public and private, with very rare exceptions, by water. This +has heretofore been the custom of all classes, the gently-flowing +Meinam being the Broadway of Bangkok, and canals, intersecting the +city in every direction, its cross streets. Every family keeps one or +more boats and a full complement of rowers; palaces and temples +have their gates on the river; and upon its placid waters move in +ever-varying panorama life's shifting scenes of weddings and funerals, +business and pleasure, from early morn till long past midnight. Only +since the accession of the present kings have streets been constructed +along the river-banks; and these young princes, as a sort of +concession to European customs, now take occasional drives in open +carriages, attended by liveried servants, though for state processions +boats are still in vogue. His Majesty the late king was ordinarily +conveyed to the jetty in a state palanquin, and handed from it into +his boat, without the sole of his boot ever touching the ground. This +has been the custom of Siamese monarchs from time immemorial, but I +have sometimes seen both the late kings wave aside their bearers and +jump with agile dexterity into their boats, as if it were a relief to +them to lay aside courtly etiquette and act like ordinary mortals. +The royal palanquins are completely covered with plates of pure gold +inlaid with pearls, and the cushions are of velvet embroidered, and +edged with heavy gold lace. They are borne by sixteen men robed in +azure silk sarangs and shirts of embroidered muslin. The umbrella is +of blue, crimson or purple silk, and for state occasions is richly +embroidered, and studded with precious stones. So also are those +placed over the throne, the sofa, or whatever seat the king happens to +occupy. + +[Illustration: ELEPHANT ARMED FOR WAR.] + +[Illustration: THE GREAT GILDED BOODDH.] + +The late supreme king, who died in 1868 at the age of sixty-five, was +tall and slender in person, of intellectual countenance and noble, +commanding presence. His ordinary dress was of heavy, dark silk, +richly embroidered, with the occasional addition of a military coat. +He wore also the decorations of several orders, and a crown--not +the large one, which is worn but once in a lifetime, and that on the +coronation-day--but the one for regular use, which is of fine gold, +conical in shape and the rim completely surrounded by a circlet of +magnificent diamonds. This prince, the most illustrious of all +the kings of Siam, spent many of the best years of his life in the +priesthood as high priest of the kingdom. He was a profound scholar, +not only in Oriental lore, but in many European tongues and in the +sciences. In public he was rather reticent, but in the retirement of +the social circle and among his European friends the real symmetry +of his noble character was fully displayed, winning not only the +reverence but the warm affection of all who knew him. He died +universally regretted, and the young prince now reigning as supreme +king is his eldest surviving son: the second king is his nephew. + +[Illustration: FUNERAL PILE FOR THE SECOND KING.] + +Among the choice treasures of Siam are her elephants, but they belong +exclusively to the Crown, and may be employed only at the royal +command. They are used in state processions and in traveling by the +king and members of the royal family, and in war at the king's mandate +only. It is death for a Siamese subject, unbidden by his sovereign, to +mount one of His Majesty's elephants. In war they are considered +very effective, their immense size and weight alone rendering them +exceedingly destructive in trampling down and crushing foot-soldiers. +The howdah is placed well up on the animal's back, and in it sits a +military officer of high rank, with an iron helmet on his head, and +above him a seven-layered umbrella, as the insignia of his royal +commission. On the croup sits the groom, guiding the royal beast +with an iron hook, while all about the officer are disposed lances, +javelins, pikes, helmets and other munitions of war, which he +dispenses as they are needed during the progress of a battle. I have +been told that as many as six or seven hundred of these colossal +creatures are often marched and marshaled in battle together; and +so perfectly are they trained as to be guided and controlled without +difficulty, even amid the din of firearms and the conflict of +contending armies. Sometimes on the king's journeys into the interior +a train of fifty or sixty will be marched in perfect order, their +stately stepping beautiful to behold, but their huge feet coming down +with a jolt that threatens to dislocate every joint of the unfortunate +rider. + +I have spoken of the gorgeousness of the Bangkok temples, but I must +not forget to mention the colossal statue of Booddh that reposes in +one of them. It is one hundred and seventy feet in length, of solid +masonry, perfectly covered with a plating of pure gold, and rests +quite naturally upon the right side, the recumbent position indicating +the dreamless repose the god now enjoys in _nirwâna_. This is supposed +to be the largest image of Gautama, the fourth Booddh, in existence, +and it is an object of the profoundest veneration to every devout +Booddhist. + +Incremation of the dead is the custom in Siam, and while there I was +present at several royal funerals, each marked by more lavish display +of costly magnificence than we Americans ever see on this side the +water. Shortly after I left the country occurred the death of the +patriotic second king, so well and favorably known among us as Prince +T. Momfanoi, the introducer of square-rigged vessels and many other +improvements, and afterward as King Somdet Phra Pawarendr Kamesr Maha +Waresr. The body was embalmed, and lay in state for nearly a year +before the burning took place. The count de Beauvoir reached Bangkok +just in time to see the royal catafalque, of which he gives a somewhat +amusing account. He says: "The body, having been thoroughly dried +by mercury, was so doubled that the head and feet came together, and +after being tied up like a sausage was deposited in a golden urn +on the top of the mausoleum." He speaks of the state officers in +attendance by day and by night, and the dead king, from the golden urn +on the very summit of the altar, holding his court with the same pomp +and parade as during his life. A more affecting ceremony is the coming +at noon and eve of the crowds of beautiful women, not yet absolved +from their wifely vows, to converse with their loved and lamented +lord, and the depositing of letters and petitions in the great golden +basket at the foot of the mausoleum, with the confident expectation +that these loving missives will reach the deceased and be answered by +him. These royal catafalques are costly and magnificent, being covered +with plates of gold, while the silks and perfumes consumed with a +single body cost thousands of dollars. + +M. de Beauvoir describes an interview with the king, surrounded by ten +of his offspring, including the seventy-second child. I well remember +the eldest son, the present supreme king, now in his twentieth year, +looking when five years old the exact counterpart of this one--his +graceful little figure, dimpled cheeks, eyes lustrous as diamonds, and +the glossy, raven hair, close shaven at the back, while the foretop +was coiled in a smooth knot, fastened with jeweled pins and twined +with fragrant flowers. The dress was very simple--only two garments of +silk or embroidered muslin--but the deficiency was more than made +up by jewelry, of which, in the form of chains, rings, anklets and +bracelets, he wore almost incredible quantities, while his golden +girdle was studded with costly diamonds. + +[Illustration: SEVENTY-SECOND CHILD OF THE KING OF SIAM.] + +[Illustration: ENTRANCE TO THE ROYAL HAREM.] + +Polygamy prevails in its fullest extent in Siam, especially among +those of noble or royal lineage; and the higher the rank the larger +the number of wives, those of the supreme king amounting ordinarily to +five or six hundred. Of these, the "superior wife" holds the rank +of queen: she resides within the harem proper, where are the private +apartments of the king, and her children are always the legal heirs. +For the other wives or concubines, their children and attendants, +there is a whole circle of buildings, connected by balconies with the +palace royal. All these are handsomely fitted up, but what is called +"the harem" pre-eminently is more gorgeous than our dreams of fairy +palaces or enchanted castles of genii. Long suites of apartments +with frescoed walls, ceilings of gold and pearl, floors inlaid with +exquisite mosaics of silver and ebony, and with hangings of costly +lace, velvet and satin, huge waxen candles, and lamps fed with +perfumed oil that are never suffered to expire, mirrors, pictures, and +statuettes innumerable, with cups, basins, and even spittoons, of +pure gold,--all these are but a tithe of the lavish adornments of this +Oriental paradise, where birds sing, flowers bloom, and the sounds +of low sweet music ever greet the ear of the favored visitor. The +accompanying engraving will give some idea of the general appearance +of the entrance to the harem, with its burnished roof of green and +gold, its graceful turrets and mosque-like pinnacles, and its base +of pure white marble, chaste and elegant. But neither language nor +pictorial illustration can convey to the mind any adequate realization +of its bewildering beauty; and Count de Beauvoir but echoes the +language of every traveler who has visited Bangkok when he declares, +in his recent work, that "its temples and palaces are the most +splendid of even the gorgeous East." + +FANNIE R. FEUDGE. + + + + +LIFE AT THE NATIONAL CAPITAL. + + +There are few cities where life is so well put upon the stage as in +Washington, so far as opportunity for satisfaction and enjoyment is +considered. A certain grandeur characterizes all the approaches to +the city. From the west you descend upon it by a way that leads out +of cloudy mountain-chains and over chasms spanned by an awful +trestle-work; from the south, passing our national Mecca, the Tomb +of Washington, your highway is the picturesque Potomac, which here, +nearly three hundred miles from the sea, broadly embays itself as +if to mirror the magnificence of the place; from the north the track +winds along the banks of the Delaware, white with its coastwise +commerce, in and out among the beautiful bridges that arch the +Schuylkill, across the broad Susquehanna, past blazing forges and +foundries, and over the long and lonely expanses of the two Gunpowder +Rivers--desert wastes of water, stretching for miles away without a +sail, without a light, in the melancholy grandeur of a very dream of +desolation. If it is at night that you step from the station, halfway +down the distance you presently see the ray of a street-lamp throw up +the façade of the Patent Office in broken light and shadow; you see +before you and under the hill the twinkle of scattered groups of +light; you see, far off, the long row of the Treasury columns half +lost in darkness, and you will remember pictured scenes of bivouacs +among the ruins of Baalbec. And if it is in the morning that you +arrive, fresh from the turbulence of Broadway, from the quaint and +tortuous hillside lanes of Boston, from the elegant monotony +of Philadelphia, the impression made upon you is still not very +different. Though you are in the heart of the place, it seems to lie +before you like a city in the distance. Now the mist is stripped away +from some massive marble pile; now a prospect opens of river and wood +and the pillared heights of Arlington; now a lofty heaven reveals +a waning moon, it may be--for every square has its horizon--the +morning-star flames out, a red and yellow sunrise burns behind the +silver cloud of the Capitol dome, and the whole city, in its splendor +and its squalor, bared to view, gives you a suffocating sense of the +pettiness of all other places before the opulence of sky, the width +and height, the light and space and air, that Washington affords. + +The concentric labyrinth of the city's plan is indeed something +altogether unique; but whether it owes its origin to the fear of the +old French barricade or to a desire for grandeur and scope, the effect +attained is the same one of airy magnificence--monstrous avenues +crossing the right angles of the streets in diagonals radiating from +the White House and the Capitol, and all tiresomeness prevented by +the accommodating way which these avenues have of turning out for any +edifice that fancies their situation; while to keep upon them you are +so perpetually crossing one street or losing your way down another +that you may almost imagine yourself a spider walking across a web. + +The designer of all this must have had a city in his mind's eye that +rivaled Napoleon's Paris--buildings, monuments, marbles, fountains, +trees, and everywhere great spaces and shining skies. For years, +though, this visionary city has existed only among the castles of the +air, and it is within a little while that the District government has +begun to put in a substantial underpinning to the cloudy fabric. But +although wretched thoroughfares and dilapidated dwellings, until the +last decade, have characterized the place, the fine public buildings +have for a long while awaited their fit surroundings--buildings mostly +of the Grecian types, which, however unfit they might be for a land +where damp dark heavens make all the spires that can spring up to +catch the sunshine a necessity, are perfectly appropriate to a climate +where the long hot summers demand the shelter of flat roofs and cool +protecting porticoes. There are, then, already, the Patent Office, +with its massive Doric simplicity; the Treasury, with the superb +extent of its columned sides; the Post Office, with its dazzling +Corinthian splendor; the Institution, with its romantic towers and +turrets of dark red stone, ivy-grown and in the midst of gardens; and +the Capitol, whose dome rises over the city, so pale, so perfect and +so buoyant that it seems only a cloud among the clouds--a pile that by +daylight looks like a white altar of liberty set on its hilltop among +velvet lawns and embowering trees, and which by starlight--when you +see the sentinel lamps throw out the great shadows of the arches at +its foundation, see the lofty flights of steps with their exquisite +gradation, see the long flying lines of the rows of columns, monoliths +of marble, taking a sparkle of light and retreating into distance and +darkness, and follow up the heights till your eye rests on the shadowy +dome hanging in the mid-heavens with the stars themselves--seems in +its vast white sublimity the shrine of nothing less than the Genius of +the nation. And by and by, when the building shall be quite complete, +and shrubbery shall have grown in the new grounds, when the almond and +the tulip tree and that burning bush the scarlet Japan quince, shall +have come to blossom there, and the giant magnolia shall lift its +snowy urns of incense about the spot, imagination will be able to +conjure up no image of majesty and beauty eclipsing the reality. For +all this and much more is now under way: streets have been leveled and +paved and parked, embankments have been terraced, boulevards have been +planted with mile-long rows of lindens, blossoming gardens have been +laid out, fountains have been opened, and such dwellings erected with +their grass-plots and their water-jets before them, in place of the +bare old barracks and shanties, that it is now a city of parks and +palaces. Your carriage can roll for leagues over streets whose roadway +is smooth as a floor, past squares rich in the foliage and flower +of their season, enchanting pictures of river and height unveiled at +every turn, and the squalor once so prominent is seen striking its +tents, while only the splendor remains. There is hardly a street but +down its vista some allurement is displayed: this one reaches far +away, through the green of willows and the blue of distance, across +the Long Bridge and into the hills of Virginia; that one ends in the +Agricultural Department and its delightful grounds; down these the +Institution is seen at various angles in various guises; while the +great Pennsylvania Avenue gives you at one end the Capitol dome, +always a thin and pale blue mist about its whiteness, with the shining +colonnades that bear it lifted high over the tossing treetops below, +and at the other end the southern façade of the Treasury, rising +before you like an antique temple, while noble views open at every +intersection of the cross-streets there; and toward nightfall the +distant mists of the river-country beyond build up sunsets unrivaled +in their gorgeousness. + +There are few more interesting thoroughfares in the world than this +avenue. Here ruler and ruled jostle each other; here thunder the +liveried equipages of foreign nobles; here saunters the President, and +nobody turns to look. Sooner or later all the famous of the world +are tolerably sure to be met upon it: as we walk there History walks +beside us and mighty shadows move before us. Washington has dashed +down that avenue in his yellow chariot that was painted with cupids +and drawn by six white horses; Hamilton, Jefferson, La Fayette, +Burr, and all the gods of the republic have trodden it before us; +dishonoring British squadrons have marched upon it; it has shaken to +the tread of our own legions; and great forms begin to loom in the +national memory that have just passed from its daily crowds. Nor does +all its interest belong to the past: those daily crowds themselves are +full of perpetual dramas in which the actors are unknown perhaps to +fame or fiction, but none the less real and in sad earnest with their +play. Here goes a little withered man in his threadbare coat: he has +a proud and scowling face, but he pauses with a singularly sweet and +gentle manner at every group of children, black or white. He is an old +numismatician, a foreigner, and his youth in Europe was given to +the gathering of coins and medals till he had a nearly unrivaled +collection, and he came over the sea, hoping to dispose of them to +the government of this country. Failing in his purpose, his means +dwindling day by day, he was obliged to pledge a portion of his +treasure that he might be able to live. It cut him to the heart +to divide the collection: he had the history of the world in those +incontrovertible records of brass and silver and gold, currency of the +old Hindoo, of the Assyrian--medals where Alexander's superb profile +shone crowned as Apollo--coins of the Ptolemies, of the Cæsars, of +almost every people and generation from the beginning of civilization +till to-day. But divide them he did, and left a part of them in other +hands, and went to the North. There, driven by necessity, he pledged +another portion; and after a while, wishing to redeem the latter +pledge, and not being allowed to do so, he began a lawsuit to obtain +it. The court decided the case against him; and the little man, half +crazed, unable to obtain the portion he had pledged in Washington, and +now seeing this also leave him, cried out in the open court, "O unjust +judge! God shall demand your soul of you!" And the judge, with a +sudden exclamation, fell backward, and before the sun set he was dead. +The little numismatician returned to Washington, and having failed in +all the hopes of his life, took translating and any other writing he +could find to do. But there a certain high official having treated him +unworthily, he adjured him much as he had adjured the unjust judge; +and a fortnight afterward the official had gone to join the judge. It +is hardly surprising if there were a vague feeling toward this really +excellent man and scholar as toward one having the evil eye, whom +people dread to meet and fear to offend. + +But here is another individual with another experience. Gems are his +passion, and for years he has sacrificed to it. He is only an old +clerk on a moderate salary, but no misadventure has ever disturbed his +plans, and year by year he has added some treasure to his hoard till +it is unique as it is precious. There are rings of bishops and kings; +jeweled baubles from Egyptian tombs and gold-wrought ornaments of the +Montezumas; a cameo where a single face with its shadows makes six +laughing and six weeping outlines; a cat's-eye quartz to which the +one the king of Siam has is perhaps the mate; diamonds and pearls, +amethysts and topazes, beryls and opals, single emeralds of rare +beauty and doublets of great size, rubies of the real pigeon's blood, +and sapphires whose heart is blue as the bluest midnight, but whose +angles refract a radiance red as fire; chains of carved beads; seals, +intaglios,--to almost all of them some legend attaching. + +Here passes a person very different from either of these--a tall and +martial figure, a filibustero in every clime, hunted with blood-hounds +in the Spanish sierras when Don Carlos needed him, floating naked +on bladders down the Danube, with despatches in his mouth, when +the Hungarians were sore pressed. Here goes a jolly, happy man, who +contentedly lets title and coronet go by across the sea while he +practices law in the Patent Office. Here on the avenue go up and +down all these people, and countless others with stories as pointed, +whether it be such a story as that of Captain Suter, whose treacherous +servant bartered all the gold of California for a single drink, or of +this black man who to-day is free and yesterday was a slave. + +But attractive as this picturesque grouping of avenues and edifices +may be, the attraction does not belong to the outside alone: inside +the great doors of the majestic halls you will find that time has +wings while you pass in review the trophies of all the zones, and +of the meteoric heavens too, preserved in the Smithsonian, or the +archives of the country in the Patent Office. This latter is indeed a +place of enchantment. The Pompeiian hall has something of the air of a +hall dressed for legerdemain, and if you pause to think you will +note a strange wizardry at work there. You linger before a little +printing-press, and as if magical clouds rose and shut out the +work-day world, the skies of Greece are overhead and the Ancient +searching for his lever with which to move the world passes down the +room and lingers with you; for surely he has found the lever, and +surely the world has been moved with it, the boundaries of empires +broken up, kings discrowned, republics ruined. Go farther: a case +of toys: harmless trifles enough, arrests you--cannon a finger long, +batteries the size of a lady's spool-stand, but the reduced models of +death-dealing engines whose power of wholesale slaughter may one day +revolutionize the codes of nations and abolish warfare. In another +case you observe only a lump of coal, a phial of pitch, a flask of +oil; and the necromancer of the place has dipped his rod down into the +central darkness of the earth and drawn up light like the day's. Yet +beyond: an iron stirrup and a slender spur, and the sewing-girl has +but to set her foot there and escape the shapes that dog her. Not far +away, again, we remember the Oriental magician, who as often as +the king cut off his head grew another in its place, as we see the +machinery for a feat almost as wonderful in the exact anatomy of steel +springs and leather ligaments made to fit upon the very nerves of +volition themselves, till the halt walk and the maimed are made whole. +In this spot is the jar into which the fisherman shut the afrite; in +that are the great genii who gather in a harvest; and in still another +there lies a tiny thing answering your touch with no louder noise than +a buzz and a click, but its whisper can be heard from end to end of +the land, and it runs beneath the roar of ocean to carry the voice +of one world to another. In fact, within these crystal cells the +intelligence of all our millions is concreted; and it is no wonder +that in the face of the marvels here inventors are sometimes seized +with a temporary madness, and have to be cared for till the fit +passes. + +Inside the Capitol too there is much to detain you: the vast +fireproof library of Congress; the legislative halls; the marble room, +wainscoted in mirrors, where you can see the Senators slide between +the pillars accompanied by the multiplying train of not one but a +hundred shadows, and where you can wonder to your heart's content +what a room lined with looking-glass has to do with legislation; the +storied bronze doors, and the bronze staircases hidden away in the +dark, in and out the intricacies of whose balustrades all manner of +forest-life is cast--the deer bounding beneath the branches, and the +birds fluttering over their nests, which the serpent slides along to +rifle. In the older portion of the building is the national order of +architecture designed by Jefferson, the columns of which are clustered +cornstalks, and in whose capitals the acanthus leaf is pushed aside +by the curling tobacco. The lower corridors, too, are pictured +with representations of our natural history in bird and flower and +fruit--far fitter decoration than the swarming cherubs and cupids and +numberless unwarrantable little Loves that tumble about on the other +walls, intrude themselves on battle-scenes, and hover round the +appalling frescoes of Liberty, Law, Legislation and Religion in the +President's room, after a fashion that would be too free and easy for +the villa of Lucullus, but which is not altogether discordant with the +splendid leprosy of gilding with which the whole interior is infected; +which is to be seen oozing from the caissons overhead in huge +stalactites, damasked in broad sheets on the paneling, glaring in +lattice-work, bosses, scrolls and frets, and trickling everywhere over +the efflorescence of the plaster decorations. There are two or three +committee-rooms, likewise, very elaborately, though very questionably, +decorated, and usually on exhibition to rural visitors, who gape at +them with a happy sense of the proprietorship of such pomp. The least +unworthy of these is the room set apart for the Committee on Military +Affairs: vivid wreaths of laurel decorate the ceiling much more +effectively than do the sprawling females of most of the other places; +a couple of large battle-pieces illuminate the walls, and cornice, +panel and pilaster are simply adorned with frescoed arms and muniments +of war. Another is the room of the Agricultural Committee, where, with +his group of Romans, Cincinnatus, called from the plough, fills the +upper section of one end, and confronts his modern compeer, Israel +Putnam; above two side doors little scenes of grain-harvesting +illustrate the difference between the old and the new way of +going afield; and circling overhead are the Seasons and their +attendants--Spring, with armfuls of blossoms and cherubs letting loose +the doves; Summer, whose sprites are shooting down arrows of fervid +heat; Autumn, with his grapes and sheaves, and his followers festive +with lute and tambourine; and old Winter, moving through angry clouds, +while his children pour out the showers and blow blasts from their +shells. In the room of the Committee on Naval Affairs on both sides +as you enter rise grayly the vestibules of vast temples, typifying, +perhaps, the sea as the gateway of all nations: above them, much +foreshortened, Neptune and Amphitrite, Æolus, Oceanus, Nereus and +Thetis, accompany a new sea-goddess, America, with scores of nymphs +interspersed--all of them riding on sea-horses and simpering sadly; +while in the great panels around the sides of the room other nymphs, +painted at full length in lively colors, are bearing aloft various +symbols of the sea--this one a sextant, that a chart, another a +compass, a fourth a bannerol, sufficiently prosaic in idea, though +not ungraceful in fact, as witness the floating damsel who carries a +barometer lightly as a mermaid carries her glass, or the figure with +the red-gold hair whose back alone we see as she unrolls her map. +But it is not easy to say why we should recur to mythology for our +national ornamentation, or why the ancient Greeks should be called +in where our own history needs the canvas, or why these aërial young +women should so comfortably usurp the place of the Guerriere and +Constitution, the dauntless little boat between the fires on Lake +Erie, or the unsurpassed sea-scenes of storm and calm along our own +coast. + +But there is far more than all this pride of the eyes to detain you +within the Capitol: there is the great arena where our political +athletes contend, and where, by daily observation of their faces, +daily hearing of their voices, daily notice of their manners, one +becomes familiar as if by personal acquaintance with the heroes of the +day. In past times the heroes were such as Webster, Calhoun and Clay. +Now they are others--men whom this belittling age of the telegraph and +the reporter brings so near us that there is at least little chance +of their ever looming up in undue proportion through the mists of +tradition. It is Henry Wilson, sitting in the Vice-President's chair, +a notable example of the possibilities in a republic; or it is +Sumner, with that gray head which all men honor as a type of political +integrity, albeit not untinctured with arrogance; or it is another +sort of man that engages your attention, one whom you recognize at +once, for certainly there is no one but knows that face--a face so +easy to caricature that there is no insult of the pencil that has +not been offered it, but which is not the less expressive of an +indomitable will, an untamable spirit, and a mind like a torch, +throwing light on everything it approaches. From the instant that +General Butler rises the discussion, however dull before, bristles +into excitement, and one could hardly wish for an hour of racier +enjoyment than is afforded by the debate when he desires to gain +a point over able but envious opponents, who never attack him +single-handed, and to meet whom, their shafts flying on every side, he +brings up his subtlety of argument, his readiness, his audacity, his +wit and repartee and forensic skill, till he winds them in their +own toils. Perhaps while you have been observing these and other +notabilities of the day, another personage has come upon the floor by +prescriptive right of past membership, and has arrested your gaze. +He is a gentleman of portly presence, who looks out of a pair of keen +dark eyes, and still possesses some of the great personal beauty +for which in his youth he was remarkable. He is the last of the +old statesmen; he has had a part in many of the scenes that we call +history; he was the compeer of Webster and Clay and Crittenden and +Calhoun; and one would not marvel if he looked but contemptuously +on the fevered measures and boyish ecstasies and advocacies of +their successors. Familiar with modern languages and literatures, an +encyclopædia of ancient and mediæval learning, a master of the science +of government, as old as the century, and one of its conspicuous +figures, perhaps but a single thing is wanting to make Mr. Cushing a +chief: he does not believe in the people. + +Thus it is easily seen that your life at the Federal Capital, if you +possess either an eye for beauty or an interest in affairs, may be +full of enjoyment and variety. Your companions are people of mark; +you learn, by returning, when summer does, to the small scandals and +personalities of common towns, how large is the outlook in Washington; +the theatre of the world opens before you there; you feel that you +assist at the making of history, if you are not yourself a part of +events. + +But this is one side of life. There is another and a more purely +social side which is a very different thing. Into this affairs of +state do not enter; with the right or wrong of vital questions it does +not concern itself at all; and in fact it is doubtful if politics are +not thought there mere subsidiaries to the authority of Fashion, and +if the fair wives and daughters of our lawgivers do not regard the +great machinery of state as something ordained solely to sustain them +in their brilliant round as the wind of the juggler's fan supports his +paper butterflies upon their airy flight. In this life an etiquette +reigns that has no law of its being save that of vague tradition--an +etiquette at variance with that of other regions, and through which +the female population is resolved into what might be termed, in the +parlance of the place, a committee of the whole on "calling." This +etiquette rules the wives of important functionaries with a rod +of iron. By some occult method of reasoning they have reached the +conclusion that their husbands' popularity, and consequent lease +of power, depend upon their own faithful performance of what is +considered to be social duty, and they devote themselves to it with +a zeal worthy of a better cause. On certain days of the week their +houses are open to all who choose to come; and both residents and +passing travelers, all who wish to inspect the inside of such homes +among the other sights of the town, throng the doors, leave cards +and partake of refreshments. Of course many strange occurrences are +incidental to such occasions; and so the lady whose beauty had been +made famous must have thought when unknown crowds flocked to see her, +destroying daily a vase or a statuette, a photograph or a book, +but always staring with all their eyes, and one day crowning their +enormities with a procession of deaf-mutes from an asylum, which filed +in and gazed and filed out again, in total silence of course, save now +and then a crack of nimble finger-joints. + +All the other days in the week the great lady is occupied in returning +these visits, hunting for obscure addresses, trailing her rich +garments over third-story stairs; and it is no uncommon thing for her +to have the names of one or two thousand people in her visiting-book, +on whom she is to call, provided she can find them. Of course the call +is brief, the faces are unknown, the conversation is void, and the +only satisfaction attained is in checking off that particular name as +done with. Certainly this great lady's lot is not altogether enviable. +In the daytime she is claimed by calls, in the night-time by balls; +at nine in the morning people on business begin to clamor for her +husband, at ten, if he is a Congressman, he goes to his committee, +at twelve Congress meets to adjourn at five; and if after that some +political dinner, at which great things are to be adjusted, does not +take him to itself till nearly midnight, constituents, schemers and +lobbyists do. What sort of home-life there can be where the master of +the house is out all day and the mistress is out all night, remains a +matter of conjecture. + +But there are wheels within wheels; and all the wheels are not so +thoroughly oiled as to make things run with perfect smoothness; and +thus in the progress of this very "calling" sad disturbances +arise. Shall the Senators' wives make the first call on the Cabinet +ministers' wives? By no means: the Cabinet ministers are but creatures +of a day, ephemera, who draw their breath by and with the advice and +consent of the Senate: they must respect their creator. Shall the +Senators' wives call first upon the wives of the justices of the +Supreme Court? There is a doubt: the Supreme Court is the last resort +of the law of the land, a reverend and hoary institution, and its +judges, having a life-lease, will be judges still when the Senators +shall have passed away; but no, again--the Senators make the justices. +The Representatives shall make the first call on the Senators' wives +of course; but how about the Speaker's wife? She is the third in +succession from the presidency, says the new-comer: she is nothing +but a Representative still, says the compelling etiquette. Finally, +through some incomprehensible regulation, whose framer forgot that +though democracies may be rude they must not be inhospitable, the +wives of the foreign ambassadors, representatives of sovereign states, +have to go the whole round and knock first at every door before being +fairly accredited to Society. But once established, be it said in +passing, the foreigners have a full revenge accorded them; for in vain +the native youth aspire, the freshest belles hover round the titled +flames, not perhaps till their wings are singed, but till successive +seasons have taught them that Cleopatra's beauty is useless without +Cleopatra's pearls. Meantime, to give one last discomfort to +the "calling" system, the ubiquitous reporter presents himself, +deliberately overturns the card-basket in the hall and notes the +names there; and the lady of the house sees herself, her dress, her +deportment and her guests photographed in the morning paper with +startling distinctness. + +But the calling is the brightest part of this social side of life. The +other part is the night-life--not the night-life of gambling saloons +and their kind: of that dark underground existence Society has no +knowledge, though he who left it at daybreak and will go back to it at +midnight clasps the last débutante in his arms and whirls with her to +the sweet waltz-music--but the night-life of the Season. + +A Washington season is a generic thing: women come to the place for +the sake of it, as they go nowhere else. Through the system of +calling just described official society is accessible to all, and the +introductions obtained there to people of the more select circles, +when fortified by wealth and pertinacity, open the whole charmed round +of pleasure. Society in other cities is totally unlike Society +in Washington. There it is an interchange of kindliness between +households of friends: it is the festivity of happy anniversaries, the +union of families in new ties, the cherishing of long acquaintance. +But in Washington--except so far as the small number of residents +is concerned--its whole purpose and meaning are anomalous: each +Administration brings a new following, each Congress has a new rabble +at its heels; friendships are accidents of the day, diplomacy is +carried on by dining; every party has a political purpose, every +civility a double meaning. Nevertheless, the sparkle of wit, the +kindling of enthusiasm, are not absent from it; on the contrary, there +is more of that than elsewhere, for it is sustained by the chosen +intellect and beauty of the continent. You may meet admirals there who +have sailed round the world, generals who have fought mighty battles, +priests who may yet be popes, men and women who are figures of +the century: they will tell you the romance of their travel, the +heart-beat of their successes, and you will contrive to hear it for +all the accompanying roar and sweep in which they are the lay figures +for aspirants to measure, and the property of reporters. In such a +Society of course all asperities are softened: this man's daughter +dances with the son of his arch-enemy; deference is accorded to the +opinion of a woman on public matters as if she already possessed her +right of suffrage; there is an exhilaration in meeting and avoiding +and overlooking, in the light and skillful skating over dangerous +surfaces, while a rare freedom unites with a gentle even if politic +courtesy, which it is delightful to meet to-night and which allures +you to seek it to-morrow. Society without a conscience it is, +possibly, but for all that sufficiently fascinating. + +Let us look at one of its scenes: not a "state sociable" nor a hotel +"hop," and not a President's "levee." There are fine ladies who have +lived forty years in Washington without attending that pandemonium, +the levee, where the crowd seizes one with a hundred hands till +flounce and furbelow are crushed in its grasp, and where, while the +court reigns in the Blue Room, the mob are disporting themselves in +the magnificence of the East Room, the parlor of the people, where +they have the reddest of red curtains, the broadest of gold cornices, +the portraits of their public servants in the panels between square +rods of looking-glass; where the huge chandeliers shine with a +thousand pendants and a thousand jets, and where, because foreign +crowds tread bare marble floors, they have on theirs a tufted velvet, +and so revolve rejoicing on the biggest carpet in the world, like the +medley of a vast kaleidoscope--old people with one foot in the grave, +children in arms, a bride with veil and orange-blossoms, cripples, +heroes, dwarfs and beauties, all together. Not on any such scene of +the Season let us look, where the doors are locked behind us at eleven +o'clock, but on one of its "balls and masks begun at midnight, burning +ever to midday." It is like an Aztec revel for its flowers: the great +stairways, leading up and down between the rooms that glow with light +and resound with the tones of flute and violin, are wound with shrubs +where art conceals everything but the branch and blossom; doors are +arched with palms and long banana leaves; flowers swing from lintel +and window and bracket, stream from the pictures, crown the statues; +sprays of dropping vines wreathe the chandeliers that shed the soft +brilliance of wax-lights around them; mantels are covered with moss; +tables are bedded with violets; tall vases overflow with roses and +heliotropes, with cold camellias and burning geraniums; the orchestra +is hidden with latticed bloom and bud; and yellow acacias and scarlet +passion-flowers and a great white orchid with a honeyed breath +encircle the fern-filled basin where a fountain plays. The murmur of +music, the wealth of perfume, make the atmosphere an enchantment. A +crowd of gorgeous hues and tissues, bare bosoms and blazing jewels, +ascend and descend the stairs: here are women the fame of whose beauty +is world-wide, wearing lace whose intricate design, over the pale +shimmer of some perfectly tinted silk beneath, represents the labor of +a lifetime, wearing necklaces and tiaras of diamonds, where the great +stones set in a frosty floral splendor seem to throb with a spirit +of their own. There of course is the President; yonder is the +Chief-Justice; here again the general of all our armies; here flash +the glittering insignia of soldiers, here the fantastic array of +diplomats; down one vista the dancers float through their mazes, down +another shine the crystal and gold and silver of the tables red with +burgundy and bordeaux, tempting with terrapin and truffle, with spiced +meats and salads, pastries, confections and fruits; and close by is +the punch-room. You have your choice of the frozen article, or of that +claret concoction to hold whose glowing ruby a bowl has been hollowed +in the ice itself, or of the champagne punch, where to every litre of +the champagne a litre of brandy, a litre of red rum, a litre of green +tea, are given, and where you see a flushed and fevered damsel dipping +the ladle and tossing off her jorum as coolly as though she had not +had her three wines at dinner that day, and had not, in half the +houses of her dozen morning calls, sipped her sherry or set down her +little punch-glass empty of its delicious mixture of old spirits and +fermenting fruit-juices. Perhaps that sight sets you to thinking. You +may have been attracted earlier in the night by her delicate toilette +and her face pure as a pearl: you saw her later, warm from the dance, +eating and drinking in the supper-room: then her partner's arm was +round her waist, her head was on his shoulder, and she was plunging +into the German, whirling to maddening measures, presently caught in +a new embrace, flying from that man's arms to another's, growing wild +with the abandon of the figure, hair flying, dress disordered, powder +caked, face burning, till, pausing an instant for the champagne in +a servant's hands, your girl with the face as pure as a pearl seemed +nothing but a bacchante. And you ask yourself, "What is to be the end, +for her, of these midnights rich in every delight of vanity--the thin +slipper, the bare flesh, the brain loaded with false tresses, the +pores stopped with the dust of white and pink ball, the heated dance, +the indigestible banquet, the scanty sleep to get which she doses +herself nightly with some tremendous drug?" You wonder what emotions +are stimulated by the whirling dances, the rich dainties, the breath +of the exotics, the waltz-music, the common contact, the emulation of +dress, the unseasonable hours, the twice-breathed air, the everlasting +drams. "I saw Florimonde going the round of her half dozen parties the +other night," wrote a "looker-on in Venice" toward the close of the +last season. "What a resplendent creature she was, the hazel-eyed +beauty, with the faintest tinge of sunset hues on her oval cheeks! +Her dress was of that peculiar tarnished shade of pink--like yellow +sunshine suffusing a pale rose--which made the white shoulders rising +from it whiter and more polished yet; the panier and scarf were of +yellowest point lace; and a necklace of filigree and of large pale +topazes, each carved in cameo, illuminated the whole. Maudita went out +with Florimonde, too, that night, as she had gone every night for two +months before. Skirt over skirt of fluffy net flowed round Maudita, +and let their misty clouds blow about the trailing ornaments of long +green grasses and blue corn-flowers that she wore, while puffs and +falls half veiled the stomacher of Mexican turquoise and diamond +sparks, whose device imitated a spray of the same flowers; and in +among the masses of her glittering, waving auburn hair rested a +slender diadem of the turquoise again--that whose nameless tint, half +blue, half green, makes it an inestimable treasure among the Navajoes, +as it was once among the Aztecs, who called it the chalchivitl; +each cluster of Maudita's turquoises set in a frost-work of finest +diamonds--a splendid toilette indeed, as fresh and radiant as the +morning dew upon the meadows. When they set out on the love-path, that +is. When they came home from it, and from all the fatigues and fervors +of the German, a metamorphosis. The gauzy dress was so fringed and +trodden on and torn that it seemed to hold together, like many an +ill-assorted marriage, by the cohesion of habit alone; the hair--Madge +Wildfire's was of more respectable appearance; the powder had fallen +on arms and shoulders; and to my critical eyes, if to no others, the +sunset hues remained on only one of Florimonde's cheeks; and those +enticing shadows round Maudita's eyes when she went out--for the best +of eyes are dulled by too much wear and tear--does antimony 'run,' +or had some pugilistic partner given her a 'black eye'? Not that the +damsels came home in such trim on every night of the season: this was +the accumulation of six parties in one night, the last of the Germans, +when the fun grew fast and furious, the figures and the favors more +fantastic; when daylight was breaking ere the champagne breakfast was +eaten; and when the drunken coachman, out all night, had kept them +shivering in the porch an endless while, and had jolted them about the +carriage afterward. But they had had a glorious time: their eyes were +dancing like marsh-lights, their laughter was ringing like a peal of +bells, the jests and bon-mots and flattery they had heard were running +off their lips like rain; they had made Goodness knows what conquests, +they had made Goodness knows how many engagements; and oh, they +were so tired! I ran into their room to see them next day: it was +afternoon, and they were still in bed. There was nothing remarkable in +that, they said: some girls were obliged to stay in bed two days out +of every week through sheer fatigue, and some got so excited they +couldn't sleep at all, except by means of morphia, and that made them +sick a couple of days, any way; but as for themselves, they had never +given out yet, and never meant to do so. While she was speaking, +Florimonde's voice faltered, and the sentence was finished under the +breath. Her voice had given out. At the moment the muscles round that +handsome mouth of hers began to twitch ridiculously: she yawned and +threw up her arms, as a baby stretches itself, and stiffened in that +position, with her teeth set and her eyes rolled out of sight, and +lay there like a corpse. Florimonde had given out. As I sprang to +investigate this surprising condition of things, there came a sudden +gurgle and a groan from Maudita, who had risen in her own little bed +at my motion. I turned to see her clutching her throat, as if her +hands were the claws of a wild-cat: she was laughing and howling and +crying all at once; her face was of a dark purple tint; her body--that +lithe and supple waltzing body of hers--was bending itself rigidly +into the shape of a bow, resting by the head and the heels on the +bed--the dignified Maudita!--and the foam was standing half an inch +high on her mouth. Maudita had given out too. Of course the doctor +came presently and separated the patients, and gave them pills and +powders and bromides without end; and there were watchers to keep the +delicate creatures, whom it took three or four people to hold in +their fits, from injuring themselves; and at last sleep came with +the all-persuading chloral, and with the awaking from that powerful +chloral-given sleep came an imbecile sort of state, whose scattered +wits were full of small cunning and spites, that told secrets and told +lies, and could not pronounce names; and lips were blistered and eyes +were swollen and purblind; and Florimonde and Maudita must keep Lent +in spite of themselves. But how long do you suppose they will keep it? +and in what way? As the good formalist fasts on Friday, with dishes of +oysters escalloped deliciously on the shell, with toasted crabs, +and bass baked in port wine. Will Florimonde forego her low necks +or Maudita her blonde powder? Will there be any less excitement or +rivalry in their private theatricals and concerts for charity? Will +the flirtations be any less extraordinary at the high teas? The mind +will be perhaps a little flighty; the health will not be so firm; +there will be a good deal of morbid sorrow over imaginary misdeeds, +and none at all over real ones; there will be compensatory +church-going, with delightful little monogram-covered prayer-books. +But will the flesh be mortified by any real rough sackcloth and ashes? +It is hardly to be hoped. Neither Lent, nor religion, nor judgment, +nor anything but poverty and absolute impotence, will put a period to +the wild pursuit of pleasure that a fashionable season begins. Ill for +the next generation, the mothers of which are wrecks before its birth! +Well for Florimonde and Maudita, with all the dew and freshness of +their youth destroyed, if at length, thoroughly ennuyées, they do not +put a piquancy and flavor of sin into their pleasure, as the old West +Indian toper dashes his insipid brandy with cayenne!" + +Doubtless on such phenomena of the Season as these the ashes with +which the priest sprinkles the heads of the penitents while he murmurs +_Memento, homo, quod pulvis es, et in pulverem reverteris_, falls like +the Vesuvian dust upon Pompeiian revels, and they are buried beyond +sight and hearing, for a time at least. But we all know that ashes +are a fertilizer, and by and by there blossoms above the ruins a later +season which is to the earlier one what the spirit is to the body. +Everywhere outdoors, then, it is spring: the damp and windy weather +has blown away, the sky is as blue as the violets and hyacinths +starting untended in the sod that the soft showers have clad in a +vivid verdure, and sunbeams are pouring over dome and obelisk and +pillared lines of marble till they shine with dazzling lustre through +the light screens of greenery. Then come the "kettle-drums," with +sunset looking in for company; then the receptions are held in rooms +full of sunshine, with open windows letting in the outside fragrance +and bird-song and glimpses of charming landscape, or they are turned +into fêtes-champêtres in the surrounding gardens; then come the +riding-parties to the Falls, where last night's sylph may be to-day's +Amazon in the midst of exceedingly grand scenery. Then, too, is the +time for the moonlit boating where the Potomac narrows between steep +and romantic banks of a sylvan wildness, and where the long oars of +the swift rowers bear you as if on wings; for picnics to Rock Creek, +a region of rude beauty, where the woods abound in lupines and pink +azaleas, and the great white dogwood boughs stretch away into the +darkness of the forest like a press of moonbeams, and where at dark +your horses ford the stream and climb the hill, and bring you over the +Georgetown Heights, past villas half-guessed by starlight among their +gardens and fountains, and in by a market picturesque with a hundred +torches flaring over the heads of mules and negroes and venders and +higglers--piles of game, crisp vegetables and scarlet berries. And +with this comes the excursion down river, sheet after sheet of the +shining stream opening on woody loveliness remote in azure hazes, +to Mount Vernon among its blossoming magnolias and rosy Judas trees, +where the great tomb stands open with its sarcophagi, and where +Eleanor Custis's harpsichord keeps strange company with the grim key +of the Bastile that has never been moved since Washington hung it on +the nail--where the quaint old rooms and verandahs and conservatories +invite the guests, and the garden with its breast-high hedges of +spicy box invites the lovers. Now the few ancestral mansions embower +themselves in an aristocratic seclusion of trees and vines that shut +them in with their birds and flowers and sunshine, and the Van Ness +Place, where Washington came to lay out the city, adorns all its +ancient and mossy magnificence with fresh drapery of leaves and +flowers. The halls of Congress, too, are still open all day, the drama +growing livelier as the adjournment draws nearer; and at evening the +drives are thronged with fine equipages winding down the Fourteenth +street way, out by the Soldiers' Home, through Harewood, or up by +the Anacostia branch and the wild Maryland hill-roads, where +wide-stretching pictures are revealed between the forest trees, while +sometimes one sees, with its two rivers--one shining like silver, one +red and turbid--the city lying far away, much of its outline veiled +and the color of its baked brick and stone and marble mellowed in the +distance, till through the quivering air and among all its towering +trees it looks like a vision of antique temples in the midst of +gardens of flowers. And now the numberless squares and triangles and +grass-plots of the city are green as Dante's newly-broken emeralds, +are a miracle of spotless deutzia and golden laburnum, honeysuckle and +jasmine: half the houses are covered with ivies and grapevines; the +Smithsonian grounds surround their dark and castellated group of +buildings in a wilderness of bloom; and the rose has come--such roses +as Sappho and Hafiz sung; deep-red roses that burn in the sun, roses +that are almost black, so purple is their crimson, roses that are +stainless white, long-stemmed, in generous clusters, making the air +about them an intoxication in itself--roses fit to crown Anacreon. +Twice a week during all this sweet season the Marine Band has been +blowing out its music in the President's Grounds and in the Capitol +Park late in the warm afternoon, and every one promenades in gala +attire beneath the trees and over the shady slopes till the tunes die +with the twilight, and many a long-delaying love-affair culminates as +the stars come out and the perfumed wind casts down great shadows from +the swinging branches overhead, while indulgent duennas gossip on, +oblivious of dew; and at midnight the mocking-birds begin to bubble +and warble a wild sweet melody everywhere throughout the dark and +listening city. For one brief month, you see, it is politics and power +set down in Paradise--let only the envious say as strangely out of +place as the serpent there. And finally the festivities of this almost +ideal spring season, where the world of Fashion and the world of +Nature meet at their best, come to an end with Decoration Day--the +last day ere the spring brightens into the blaze of summer--a day +that robs death of its terrors, and seems to carry one back to that +primeval period when the old death-defying Egyptians made their +festivals with flowers, as we stand in that desolation of the dead +on the heights of Arlington, and see the billows of graves stretching +away to the horizon, wave after wave, crested with the line of +white headstones, and every mound heaped with flowers that have been +scattered to the tune of singing children's voices, while below the +peaceful river floats out broadly; and far across its stream, over all +the turfy terraces and above the plumy treetops that hide the arched +and columned bases of its snowy splendor, the dome of the country's +Capitol rises--a shining guardian of the slumbers of the dead. + + + + +A DAY'S SPORT IN EAST FLORIDA. + + + Through these green tents, by eldest Nature dressed, + He roamed, content alike with man and beast. + Where darkness found him, he lay glad at night: + There the red morning touched him with its light. + +R.W. EMERSON + +On the 18th of February we arrived in the yacht off Mosquito Inlet +about sunrise, and as the tide served our pilot took us in over the +bar, which happened to be smooth at the time, and we anchored just +above the junction of the Halifax and Hillsboro Rivers. Rivers they +are called by the Floridians, but are long stretches of salt water +lying parallel with the coast, and separated from the sea by a sandy +beach of a mile in width, which is covered with a growth of pitch-pine +and palmetto scrub. In New York and New Jersey such waters are called +bays, and on the coast of Carolina they are sounds. They furnish a +convenient boat-navigation for the people, who in consequence do most +of their traveling by water. + +Here we found lying at anchor a couple of large Eastern schooners: +they were waiting for cargoes of live-oak, which was being cut by a +large force of men in the employ of the Swifts, a firm that supplies +all this timber for the American navy. A lighthouse is much needed +here, the entrance being narrow, with only eight or ten feet of water +at high tide. The Victoria followed us in, and we had not been long +at anchor when a canoe came down the river under sail, and rounding to +alongside, a tall young man in white duck jacket and trousers stepped +on board, and accosted our pilot: "How are you, Pecetti? So you are +taking up my trade?" + +"Well, yes: I've shipped as pilot for this cruise, and Al. Caznova +has the other yacht.--Captain Morris, this is Mr. Weldon, one of the +branch pilots." + +"How do you do, Mr. Weldon? Is there a collector of the port here?" + +"There's a deputy living in that cottage that you see on the bluff to +the left--Major Allen; and there is his boat coming down the river." + +"Any hotel here, Mr. Weldon?" + +"Yes, there is a very good one at New Smyrna, about three miles up the +river: Mr. Loud keeps it." + +"We think of stopping here two or three days: where would be the best +place to anchor the yachts?" + +"If you are going to Loud's, you can anchor near Major Allen's: there +is good holding ground, and you would be in sight of your vessel." + +"Won't you stop and take breakfast, Mr. Weldon? and we will get you to +show us the way to the hotel." + +"Much obliged, but I want to see the pilot of the other yacht. You can +see the hotel when you get to Major Allen's;" and he departed. + +"I believe I have seen that man before," said Captain Morris. "We sent +a party ashore here in '63 to get wood, and they were fired upon by +the natives, and one man was killed. I shelled the place and burned a +house or two, and we took a couple of prisoners and left them at St. +Augustine. I think this young fellow was one of them." + +Presently a yawl boat, rowed by two negroes, with the revenue flag +flying, came alongside, and a stout man of middle age came on board. +Morris came forward: "Mr. Allen, the collector, I suppose? I am master +and owner of this yacht, the Pelican of New York, a pleasure-vessel +on a cruise. The other schooner is also a yacht: she belongs in +Montréal." + +"All right, captain! I will step below and look at your papers, if you +please. A handsome vessel, upon my word!" + +"We are just going to breakfast, major: you will join us, I hope?" + +This the major did, and being a Yankee of fluent speech, we soon +learned all about him--how he had served in a Massachusetts regiment, +and had been the first secretary of state under the new constitution +of Florida. This has an imposing sound, but when we learn that almost +all the better class of whites were mere unreconstructed rebels, +leaving only a few poor whites, some carpet-baggers from the North +and the negroes from whom to select the State officers, the position +ceases to seem exalted. During breakfast he told us all about New +Smyrna and its people, which was not much, since there are only five +or six houses there. The conjecture of Captain Morris about the pilot +was correct: he was of a good old rebel family, every man of whom of +suitable age had been in the Confederate service. + +Major Allen went to visit the Victoria, and on his return we both got +under way and beat up the river about two miles, anchoring in three +fathoms water under the bluff on which stands the collector's house. +About noon a boat from each yacht started for the hotel. The river +here expands into a bay of a mile in width, containing several +islands, some of them wooded, and some low and grassy. The main +channel of the Hillsboro' River comes in from the south, half a mile +wide, with ten or twelve feet of water. On the west side the bay is a +low island with a creek between it and the mainland. On this mainland +is a shell bluff, twelve feet high, on which stands the hotel--a long +two-story building, with a piazza in front and out-buildings behind. +In the front yard are young orange, olive and fig trees, with two +splendid oleanders fifteen feet high, one on each side the door. +Another tropical plant, seen at the North in greenhouses, but here +growing ten feet high in the open air, is the American aloe or +century-plant. This house will accommodate twenty-five boarders, but +it was not full at the time; so we obtained rooms. It is one of the +most comfortable places in Florida, with a well-kept table, provided +with fish, oysters, turtle and game. New Smyrna is about thirty miles +from Enterprise, on the St. John's River: to this place there are +three or four steamers weekly from Jacksonville. + +A hunting-party was organized to go the next day to Turnbull's Swamp, +which lies a few miles west of Loud's, and contains deer, turkeys and +ducks, with bears and panthers for those who desire that kind of +game. The party consisted of Captain Morris and Roberts of our yacht; +Colonel Vincent and two of the Englishmen from the Victoria, with +Weldon the pilot, and a tall Ohio hunter named Halliday, who lived in +the woods near Loud's. He took three fox-hounds, and Morris brought +his deer-hounds ashore. They took with them a mule and cart, with a +tent and blankets, intending to stay in the swamp over night. Captain +Herbert and I preferred to go a-fishing, and we hired a man to get +bait and take us to the ground in his boat. Doctor White went off by +himself to shoot birds for his collection. + +About eight A.M. we anglers sailed out of the creek, and stood across +the bay with a light southerly breeze. Our boatman was one of the +Minorcan race, of whom there are many on this coast, descendants of +the men of Turnbull's colony of 1767. He was a cousin of our pilot, by +name Pecetti--a stout, well-built man forty years old, with keen black +eyes and curling dark hair and beard, and a great fisherman with line +and net. He lived near the inlet, and had the kind of boat commonly +used in these shallow waters--flat-bottomed, broad in the beam, with +centre-board and one mast set well forward. He had dug a peck or two +of the large round clams, and two or three throws of his cast-net as +we came through the creek procured a dozen mullet. + +We ran into a channel between the eastern shore of the bay and an +island, and came to in a deep channel near the shore, which was marshy +and covered with a dense growth of mangrove bushes. + +"Now," said Pecetti as he made fast the painter to a projecting limb, +"if the sand-flies don't eat us up, we ought to get some fish here." + +"What kind of fish do you find here?" asked Herbert. + +"Mostly sheepshead, some groupers and snappers, trout, bass, and +whiting. For sheepshead you want clam bait--for the others, mullet is +best. Rig up your rods and I will bait for you." + +I had a bamboo bass-rod, with a large reel: the captain had a light +salmon-rod, with click reel. Pecetti selected for us some stout +Virginia hooks tied on double gut, with four-ounce sinkers, the tide +being quite strong here and half flood. + +I found the bottom alongside the boat with about twelve feet of line, +and left my hooks upon it as directed. Soon I felt a slight touch, but +pulled up nothing but bare hooks. Twice was I thus robbed by the small +fish which swarmed about us, and which get the bait before the larger +ones can reach it; but the third time I felt a heavy downward tug, and +found myself fast to a strong fish, which fought hard to keep at the +bottom, and made short but furious rushes here and there, so that I +had to give him line. In a few minutes he tired himself by his own +efforts, and I wound him up toward the surface, but no sooner did he +approach daylight than he surged downward again. Five minutes' play +of this sort exhausted him, and I lifted on board a five-pound +sheepshead, the same thick-set, arched-backed fish, with his six dusky +bars on a silvery ground, which we buy in Fulton market at half a +dollar the pound, and which the wise call _Sargus ovis_. In the New +York waters it is a scarce fish, but runs larger than on the Southern +coast, sometimes up to ten or twelve pounds. Here they do not average +more than four pounds, a seven-pounder being rare. I agree in opinion +with Norris, whose theory is that those found on the coasts of +the Middle states are the surplus population of more Southern +waters--perhaps the magnificoes of their tribe, who, like the rich +planters in the good old times, like to amuse themselves at Cape May +or Long Branch. + +But to return to our muttons. Here Captain Herbert pulled up a +handsome silvery fish of about a pound weight. + +"A whiting!" cried Pecetti, "and the best fish in the river." Next +I hooked a couple of sheepshead, but lost one by the breaking of a +hook--a common accident, the jaws of this fish being very powerful. +Herbert now got hold of a big one, which played beautifully on his +elastic rod, and gave him a long fight and plenty of reel music, but +was finally saved, a six-pound sheepshead. + +Pecetti, who had waited on us attentively, baiting our hooks and +taking off our fish (a service of some danger to a tyro, as the +sheepshead is armed with sharp spines), had a hook baited with +mullet away astern of the boat. This line was now straightened out +by something heavy, which he pulled in, hand over hand, and lifted on +board a handsome fish, near two feet long, with darkly mottled sides +and shaped like a cod-fish. "That's a nice grouper," said he--"ten +pound, I think." This is a percoid, _Serranus nigritus_ of Holbrook, +and one of the very best table-fishes of these waters. + +We took six or eight more sheepshead, and the captain caught a +handsome, active fish of about four pounds weight, resembling the +squetegue or weakfish of New York, but having dark spots on the back, +like the lake-trout of the Adirondacks. This is the salt-water +trout, so called, though it is not a salmonine: it is _Otolithus +Caroliniensis_, the weakfish being _Otolithus regalis_. + +Next I hooked a strong fish which seemed disposed to run under the +mangrove roots. "That's a big grouper," cried Pecetti. "Keep him away +from the roots, or you will lose him." + +I did my best, but he was too strong: the rod bent into a hoop with +the strain, but I had to let him run, and he took to his hold under +the bank, from whence I was not able to dislodge him, and had to break +my line, losing hooks and snood. While this was going on, Herbert, who +had put on a mullet bait and let it float down the current, hooked and +secured after five minutes' play a channel bass or redfish of about +seven pounds. This is a fish peculiar to the Southern waters, good +on the table when in season, which is the spring and summer: in the +winter it spawns, and is not so good. When above ten or twelve pounds +in weight it is of a brilliant copper-red on back and sides: the +smaller ones are of a steel-blue on the back, and iridescent when +first caught. It grows to the weight of fifty or sixty pounds, runs in +great schools, and in habits and play when hooked resembles the allied +species _Labrax lineatus_, the striped bass. Cuvier named the species +_Corvina ocellata_, from the black spot which it bears near the tail. + +The bottom here was rather foul, being covered with old logs and +branches of the mangroves, which, being a very heavy wood, had sunk +to the bottom and become covered with barnacles and other crustaceae, +which attracted the fish to this spot. They bit well, but so did the +sand-flies: as soon as the breeze died away they came out from the +bushes in clouds, and attacked us so fiercely that we were obliged to +quit. + +"We'll go down toward the inlet," said Pecetti: "there's good +fishing-ground and more breeze." So he set the sail, and we ran down +the river, past the yachts, about a mile, where we came to anchor near +a bluff covered with trees, in a deep channel. Here we first caught +blackfish or sea-bass, of small size, but plenty; also snappers, +lively fish of the perch family, of a red color, and from a pound to +two pounds in weight, which usually take a mullet bait, in the swift +current near the surface. Then a school of sheepshead came along, +of which we got a dozen. After these we found bass, of which we took +eight, weighing from six to ten pounds each; also three fine groupers, +the largest twelve pounds. Pecetti caught a Tartar in the shape of +a monstrous sting-ray, four feet across, with a tail three feet long +armed with formidable spines. This creature lives on the bottom, his +food being chiefly mollusks and crustaceae, for the disposal of which +he has a huge mouth with a pavement of flat enameled teeth. He lies +usually half buried in the sand, and is much dreaded by the fishermen, +who are in danger of treading on him as they wade to cast their nets. +In that case he strikes quick blows with his whiplike tail, the jagged +spines of which make very dangerous wounds, apt to produce lockjaw. + +After much difficulty our boatman got the ray alongside the boat with +his gaff-hook, and gave it a few deep cuts in the region of the heart +with a large knife. The blood spurted out in big jets, as from the +strokes of a pump, which soon exhausted its strength, and Pecetti +dragged it ashore and cut off its tail for a trophy. As the creature +was dying it ejected from its stomach a quart or more of small +bivalves, which must have been recently swallowed. + +"That makes the best bait for sharks," said Pecetti: "I always bait +with sting-ray when I can get it." + +As the rays and sharks both belong to the order of placoids, it +appears that the shark is not particular about preying on his kindred. + +"Are sharks plenty here?" I inquired. + +"Indeed they are!" said Pecetti: "I wonder we have not had our lines +cut by them. I have caught half a dozen in an hour's time right here. +I think I can show you one very quick." He went ashore and launched +the ray's carcass down the current. It floated slowly away, but had +not gone fifty yards when it was seized by a shark, which tugged and +tore at it, till directly a second and a third arrived and struggled +furiously for it, lashing the water into foam with their tails. +Presently more came up, till there were five or six of the monsters +all fighting for the prey, which they soon devoured. "There, you see +how soon they smelt the blood. What you think of sharks, now?" + +"I think," said I, "that this is not exactly the place to bathe in." + +The tide being now well on the ebb, the fish stopped biting, perhaps +driven away by the sharks, and we sailed down to the inlet, where +there is a long sandy beach fringed with mangroves: behind these, low +hillocks of sand covered with saw-palmetto extend across to the +ocean, perhaps half a mile; and here is an expanse of sandy beach some +hundreds of yards in width at low tide, hard and smooth, so that one +could drive from St. Augustine to the south end of the peninsula were +it not for the creeks and inlets. + +On the river-front is a long bed of oysters, growing up to high-water +mark, the upper ones poor, called "raccoon oysters" by the natives, +but the lower ones, which are mostly covered with water, large, fat +and delicious. We gathered about a bushel of these, built a fire of +dead mangrove wood, which is the best of fuel, and when we had a good +bed of coals threw on the oysters. The heat, at the same time that it +roasted them, obliged them to open their valves, so that it was both +easy and pleasant to take them on the half shell. Besides these free +gifts of Nature, we had with us from the hotel biscuits, cold meat and +doughnuts. While we were eating, a handsome sailboat from the hotel +came to the beach: it contained a party of ladies and gentlemen who +were going for shells, which are numerous on the sea-beach, though not +many of the finer sorts are found so far north. After a heavy storm +the paper nautilus is sometimes found. Sea-beans of various kinds +are numerous, and the search for them, and the polishing of them when +found, seem to be the principal occupations of many Florida tourists. +Were it not for the sharks, this would be a fine bathing-beach. +Whether they are man-eaters or not, may be a question, but we +preferred to give ourselves the benefit of the doubt. + +On our return to Loud's we found Doctor White very busy skinning his +birds. + +"What is this, doctor?--a jay? It looks rather different from our blue +jay." + +"Yes: this is the Florida jay: it has no crest, you perceive. Here is +another Southern bird, the fish-crow, smaller than ours, you see. +Here I have a white heron and a wood-ibis. These will give me work for +to-day." + +"What game did you see, doctor?" inquired Captain Herbert. + +"I saw some quails in the palmetto scrub behind the house, and shot +one to see if it differs from ours. It is the same bird, _Ortyx +Virginiana_: they call it partridge in the South--rather smaller than +ours at the North. In the swamp I found snipe, _Scolopax Wilsonii_: +they call them here jacksnipe. Here is one of them: did you ever see a +fatter bird?" + +"I should like to go and look them up to-morrow morning," said the +captain. "How far away were they?" + +"About half a mile only, north-west. You will find some small ponds, +and near them the snipe were plenty: there were wood-ducks there +also." + +"I will go with you, captain," said I. "We will take Morris's old +pointer, Dash: he is steady and staunch." + +About four o'clock that afternoon the hunting-party returned, +bringing in three deer, six wild turkeys, twenty-five ducks, ten +gray squirrels, and three rabbits, besides a wild steer, killed by +Halliday. They had also killed a wild-cat, and a small alligator about +seven feet long. A good heap of game it made. + +"What are you going to do with that alligator, Captain Morris?" asked +the doctor. + +"I thought I should like to take home his hide to put in my hall. He +was going for one of my hounds when I shot him." + +"I will take off the skin for you," said the doctor: "you had better +pack it in salt till you get to New York. We will save that wild-cat's +skin, too: it is a handsome pelt--_Felis rufus_, the Southern lynx." + +"Well done!" cried Mr. Loud, who just then came out to the cart. +"That's the biggest gobbler I have seen this year. I must weigh that +bird: bring out the scales, Peter. So--eighteen pounds, and this other +sixteen: fine birds indeed! Who killed them?" + +"Colonel Vincent killed the largest, and I two of the others," said +Dr. Macleod of the Victoria. "Captain Morris, I think, shot three +turkeys and a deer; Mr. Weldon killed two deer; Halliday shot the +steer and the cat, and the small game was pretty equally divided +between us, I believe." + +We had that night a fine supper of venison steaks, roast ducks, stewed +squirrels, oysters and fish, all well cooked by Mr. Loud's old negro, +who was really an artist. + +S.C. CLARKE. + + + + +THE LIVELIES. + +IN TWO PARTS.--II. + + +When Dr. Lively had accomplished his part toward relieving immediate +suffering, when he saw system growing gradually out of the chaos, when +he saw that he could be spared from the work, he began to consider his +personal affairs. + +"I can't start again here," he said to Mrs. Lively. "Office and living +rooms that would answer at all cannot be had for less than one hundred +and fifty dollars a month, and that paid in advance, and I haven't a +cent." + +"What in the world are we going to do?" + +"I'll tell you what I've been thinking about: I met in the +relief-rooms yesterday an old college acquaintance--Edward Harrison. +He lives in Keokuk, Iowa, now--came on here with some money and +provisions for the sufferers. He would insist on lending me a few +dollars. He's a good fellow: I used to like him at college. Well, he +told me of a place near Keokuk where a good physician and surgeon is +needed--none there except a raw young man. It has no railroad, but +it's all the better for a doctor on that account." + +"No railroad! How in the world do the folks get anywhere?" + +"It's on the Mississippi River, and boats are passing the town every +few hours." + +"The idea of going from Chicago to where there isn't even a railroad! +What place is it?" + +"Nauvoo." + +"Nauvoo! That miserable Mormon place?" + +"Harrison says there is only an occasional Mormon there now--that it's +largely settled by Germans engaged in wine-making." + +"Grapes?" asked Napoleon. + +"That boy never comes out of his dreaming except for something to eat. +Dear me! the idea of living among a lot of Germans!" said Mrs. Lively, +returning to the subject. + +"There's a French element there, the remnants of the Icarians--a +colony of Communists under Cabet," the doctor explained. + +"What! those horrid Communists that turned Paris upside down?" Mrs. +Lively exclaimed. + +"Oh no," said the doctor. "They settled in Nauvoo some twenty years +ago, I believe." + +"Dear! dear! dear! it's very hard," said the lady. + +"My dear, I think we are very fortunate. Harrison says there's plenty +of work there, though it's hard work--riding over bad roads. He +promises me letters of introduction to merchants there, so that I can +get credit for the household goods we shall need to begin with and +for our pressing necessities. He has already written to a man there +to rent us a house, and put up a kitchen stove and a couple of plain +beds, and to have a few provisions on hand when we arrive. I purpose +leaving here to-morrow, or the day after at farthest." + +"But how are we ever to get there without money?" + +"We can get passes out of the city. So, my dear, please try to feel +grateful. Think of the thousands here who can't turn round, who are +utterly helpless." + +"Well, it never did help me to feel better to know that somebody was +worse off than I. It doesn't cure my headache to be told that somebody +else has a raging toothache. Grateful! when I haven't even a change of +clothes!" + +"Go to the relief-rooms and get a change of under garments," Dr. +Lively advised. + +"I won't go there and wait round like a beggar, and have them ask me a +million of prying questions, and all for somebody's old clothes," Mrs. +Lively declared. + +"Now, my dear," her husband remonstrated, "I have been a great deal +in the relief-rooms, and I believe there are no unnecessary questions +asked--only such as are imperative to prevent imposition." + +"The things don't belong to them any more than they do to me." + +"Perhaps not as much. They were sent to the destitute, such as you, so +you shouldn't mind asking for your own," the doctor argued. + +"Think what a mean little story I should have to tell! I do wish you'd +bought that house. If we'd lost fifty thousand!--but a few bed-quilts +and those old frogs and bugs and dried leaves of yours! The most +miserable Irish woman on DeKoven street can tell as big a story of +losses as we can." + +"I'll go to the relief-rooms and get some clothes for you," said the +doctor decidedly: "I'm not ashamed." + +"I won't wear any of the things if you bring them," said Mrs. Lively. + +"Oh, wife," said the doctor, his face pallid and grieved, "you are +wrong, you are wrong. Are you to get no kind of good out of this +calamity? Is the chastisement to exasperate only? to make you more +perverse, more bitter?" + +"You are very complimentary," was the wife's reply. + +The doctor was silent for a moment: then he took up his hat. "I'm +going to try to get passes out of the city," he said. + +He had a long walk by Twelfth street to the rooms of the committee +on transportation. Arrived at the hall, he found two long lines of +waiting humanity reaching out like great wings from the door, the men +on one side, the women on the other. He fell into line at the very +foot, and there he waited hour after hour. For once, the women held +the vantage-ground. They passed up in advance of the men to the +audience-room, being admitted one by one. The audience consumed, on +the average, five minutes to a person. At length all the women had had +their turn: then, one by one, the men were admitted. Slowly Dr. Lively +moved forward. He had attained the steps and was feeling hopeful of a +speedy admission, when the business-session was pronounced ended for +the day, and the doors were closed. He went back drooping, and related +his experience to his wife. + +"You don't mean to say you've been gone all this afternoon and come +back without the passes?" she exclaimed. + +"That's just how it is," answered the doctor. + +"Well, I'll warrant I would have got in if I'd been there," she said. + +"Yes, you'd have got an audience, for, as I have said, the women were +admitted before the men. My next neighbor in the line said he had been +there three days in succession without getting into the hall." + +"Well, I'll go in the morning, and I'll come home with a pass in an +hour, I promise you." + +The next morning Mrs. Lively started for the hall at eight o'clock, +determined to procure a place at the head of the line. But, early +as was the hour, she found the doors already besieged. There were +at least three dozen women ahead of her. She took her place very +ungraciously at the foot of the line. At nine the doors were opened, +and the first comers admitted. Ten o'clock came, and Mrs. Lively was +still in the street--had not even reached the stairs. Eleven o'clock +came--she stood on the second step. At length she had reached the top +step but one, and it was not yet twelve. + +"It doesn't seem fair," she said to the doorkeeper, "that the men +should have to wait, day after day, till all the women in the city are +served." + +"No," assented the keeper, "it is not fair. Now, there are men in that +line who have been here for four days. They'd have done better +and saved time if they'd gone to work in the burnt district moving +rubbish, and earned their railroad passage." + +Mrs. Lively's suggestion of unfairness proved an unfortunate one for +her, for the keeper conceived the idea of acting on it. + +"It isn't fair," he repeated, "and I mean to let some of those fellows +in." + +"Oh, do let me in first," she cried, but the keeper had already +beckoned to the head of the other line, and was now marching him into +the hall. + +"No use for you to try for a pass," said the inner doorkeeper after a +few words with the petitioner. "You must have a certificate from some +well-known, responsible person that your means were all lost by the +fire, or you cannot get an audience. Must have your certificate, sir, +before I can pass you to the committee." + +The man thus turned back went sorrowfully down the steps into the +street, and the next man passed in-doors. + +"You want a pass for yourself," said the inner keeper. "The committee +refuse in any circumstances to issue passes to able-bodied men. If you +are able to work, you can earn your fare: plenty of work for willing +hands. No use in arguing the matter, sir," he continued resolutely: +"you can't get a pass." + +"But I haven't a dollar in the world," persisted the man. + +"Plenty of work at big prices, sir. Women and children and the sick +and helpless we'll pass out of the city, but we need men, and we won't +pass them out." + +He turned away from the petitioner and beckoned the head woman to +enter. This one had her audience, and came back crying. Mrs. Lively +was now at the head of the line. Her turn had at last come. + +"Session's over," announced the keeper, and closed the doors. + +Some scores of disconsolate people dispersed in this direction and +that. Mrs. Lively and a few others sat down on the steps, determined +to wait for the reopening of the doors. After a weary waiting in the +noon sun, which was not, however, very oppressive, the doors were +again opened, and Mrs. Lively was admitted to the audience-room. At +the head of one of the long tables sat George M. Pullman, to whom Mrs. +Lively told her small story. Then she asked for passes to Nauvoo +for herself, husband and son. She was kindly but closely questioned. +Didn't she save some silver and jewelry? didn't her husband save his +watch? etc. etc. + +Mrs. Lively acknowledged it. "But," she added, "we haven't a change of +clothes--we haven't money enough to keep us in drinking-water." + +"Buy water!" said Mr. Pullman with a decided accent of impatience. +"Don't talk about buying water with that great lake over there. Wait +till Michigan goes dry. I've brought water with my own hands from Lake +Michigan. Money for water, indeed!" + +"So has my husband brought water from the lake," replied the lady with +spirit: "he brought two pails yesterday morning, and it took him three +hours and a half to accomplish it. I presume your quarters are nearer +the lake than ours." + +"Well, well, I can't give your husband a pass. He can raise money on +his watch, can get a half-fare ticket, or he can work his way out. +We don't like to see our men turning their backs on Chicago now: some +have to, I suppose. I ought hardly to give you a pass, but I'll give +you one, and your child;" and he gave the order to the clerk. + +In another moment she was on her way to the Chicago, Burlington and +Quincy ticket-office to get the pass countersigned. At three o'clock +she reached her quarters with the paper, having been absent seven +hours. + +As the pass was good for three days only, despatch was necessary in +getting matters into shape and in leaving the city. Dr. Lively pawned +his watch--a fine gold repeater--for twenty dollars, and the next day, +with an aching heart but smiling face, turned his back on the city +whose bold challenges, splendid successes and dramatic career made it +to him the most fascinating spot, the most dearly loved, this side of +heaven. + +In due time these Chicago sufferers were landed at Montrose, a +miserable little village in Iowa, at the head of the Keokuk Rapids. +Just across the wonderful river lay the historical Nauvoo, fair and +beautiful as a poet's dream, though the wooded slopes retained but +shreds of their autumn-dyed raiment. Mrs. Lively was pleased, the +doctor was enthusiastic. They forgot that "over the river" is always +beautiful. They crossed in a skiff at a rapturous rate, but when they +had made the landing the disenchantment began. A two-horse wagon was +waiting for passengers, and in this our friends embarked. The driver +had heard they were coming, and knew the house that had been engaged +for them--the Woodruff house, built by one of the old Mormon elders. +The streets through which they drove were silent, with scarcely a +sound or sight of human life. It all looked strange and queer, unlike +anything they had ever seen. It was neither city nor village. The +houses, city-like, all opened on the street, or had little front +yards of city proportions, and to almost every one was attached the +inevitable vineyard. It was indeed a city, with nineteen out of every +twenty houses lifted out of it, and vineyards established in their +places; and all the houses had an old-fashioned look, for almost +without exception they antedated the Mormon exodus. + +The Livelies were set down in a street where the sand was over the +instep, before a stiff, graceless brick building, standing close up in +one corner of an acre lot. On one side, in view from the front gate, +was a dilapidated hen-house--on the other, a more unsightly stable +with a pig-sty attached. All the space between the house and +vineyard, in every direction, was strewn with corncobs and remnants +of haystacks, while straw and manure were banked against the house to +keep the cellar warm. In front was a walled sewer, through which the +town on the hill was drained, for the Livelies' new home was on "the +Flat," as the lower town is called. The view from the front took in +only a dreary hillside covered with decaying cornstalks. + +The doctor moved a barrel-hoop which fastened the gate, and it +tottered over, and clung by one hinge to the worm-eaten post, from +which the decaying fence had fallen away. A hall ran through the +house, and on either side were two rooms. The second floor was a +duplicate of the first, so that the house contained eight small rooms, +nine by eleven feet, exactly alike, each with a huge fireplace. There +was not a pantry, a closet, a clothes-press, a shelf in the house. Not +a room was papered: all were covered with a coarse whitewash, smoked, +fly-specked and momently falling in great scales. The floors were +rough, knotty and warped; the wash-boards were rat-gnawed in every +direction; all the woodwork was unpainted and gray with age. + +Two beds and a kitchen stove had been set up on the bare floors. On a +pine table in the cramped kitchen were a few dishes, tins and pails, +a loaf of bread, a ham, some coffee and sugar. Mrs. Lively sat down +in the kitchen on a wooden chair with a feeling of utter desolation in +her heart. Napoleon looked longingly at the loaf of bread. The doctor +flew round in a way that would have cheered anybody not foregone to +despondency. He brought in some cobs from the yard and kindled a fire +in the stove, filled the tea-kettle, and put some slices of ham to fry +and some coffee to boil. + +"Go up stairs, dear," he said to Mrs. Lively, "and lie down while +I get supper ready. You are tired: I feel as smart as a new whip. I +haven't been a soldier for nothing: I'll give you some of the best +coffee you ever drank. Nappy, run across the street and see if you +can't get a cup of milk: I see the people have a cow. Won't you lie +down?" he continued to his wife. She looked so ineffably wretched that +his heart ached for her. + +"I think I shall feel better if I do something," she said drearily; +"but," she continued, firing with something of her old spirit, "how in +the world is anybody to do anything here? Not even a dishcloth!" + +"Oh, never mind," laughed the doctor, piling the dusty dishes in a +pan for washing, "we'll just set the crockery up in this cullender to +drain dry." + +"We'd better turn hermits, go and winter in a cave, and be done with +it. How are we ever to live?" + +"Why, my dear, I never felt so plucky in my life. We mustn't show the +white feather: we must prove ourselves worthy of Chicago. Come, now, +we'll work to get back to Chicago. We can live economically here, and +when we get a little ahead we can start again in Chicago. Only think +of these eight rooms and an acre of ground, three-fourths in grapes, +for six dollars a month! Ain't it inspiriting? I've seen you at +picnics eating with your fingers, drinking from a leaf-cup, making +all kinds of shifts and enjoying all the straits. Now we can play +picnicking here--play that we are camping out, and that one of these +days, when we've bagged our game, we're going home to Chicago. Now, +we'll set the table;" and he began moving the dishes, pans and bundles +off the pine table on to chairs and the floor. + +"Isn't this sweet," said Mrs. Lively, "eating in the kitchen and +without a tablecloth?" + +"We'll have a dining-room to-morrow, and a tablecloth," said the +doctor cheerfully. + +Thanks to his friend Harrison's letters, Dr. Lively readily obtained +credit for imperative family necessities. If ever anybody merited +success as a cheerful worker, it was our doctor. He did the work of +ever-so-many men, and almost of one woman. Pray don't despise him when +I tell you that he kneaded the bread, to save Mrs. Lively's back; that +he did most of the family washing--that is, he did the rubbing, the +wringing, the lifting, the hanging out--and once a week he scrubbed. +When he wasn't "doing housework" he was in his office, busy, not with +patients, but in writing articles for magazines and papers. Then +he set to work upon a book, at which he toiled hopefully during the +dreary winter, for he was almost ignored as a physician, although +there seemed to be considerable sickness. He heard of the other doctor +riding all night. Indeed, if one could believe all that was said, this +physician never slept. True, this man was not a graduate of medicine. +He had been a barber, and had gone directly from the razor to the +scalpel; but that did not matter: he had more calls in a week than Dr. +Lively had during the winter. + +"The idea of being beaten by a barber!" exclaimed Mrs. Lively. "Why +don't you advertise yourself?" + +"There's no paper here to advertise in." + +"Then you ought to have a sign to tell people what you are--that you +were surgeon of volunteers in the army; that you had a good practice +in Chicago; that you're a graduate of two medical schools; that you +write for the medical journals and for the magazines. Why don't you +have these things put on a big sign?" + +"It would be unprofessional." + +"To be professional you must sit in that miserable office and let +your family starve. Why don't you denounce this upstart barber?--tell +people that he hasn't a diploma--that he doesn't know anything--that +he couldn't reduce that hernia and had to call on you?" + +"That's opposed to all medical ethics." + +"Medical fiddlesticks! You've got to sit here like a maiden, to be +wooed and won, and can't lift a finger or speak a word for yourself. +Then there's that woman with the broken arm--Joe Smith's wife. Why +shouldn't you tell that the barber didn't set it right, and that you +had to reset it? I saw some of Joseph Smith's grandchildren the other +day," she continued, suddenly changing the subject, "and I must say +they don't look like the descendants of a prophet." + +For a brief period in the unfolding spring Mrs. Lively experienced a +little lifting of her spirits. The season was marvelously beautiful in +Nauvoo: one serious expense, that for fuel, was stayed, and there was +the promise of increased sickness, and thus increased work for the +doctor. But this gleam was followed almost immediately by a shadow: +a scientific paper which he had despatched to a leading magazine +came back to him with the line, "Well written, but too heavy for our +purposes." [1] + +"I knew it was," said Mrs. Lively. "You write the driest, +long-windedest things that ever I read." + +Dr. Lively sighed, took his hat and went out, while Mrs. Lively, after +some moments of irresolution, set about getting dinner. + +"Now, where's your father?" she impatiently demanded when the dinner +had been set on the table. + +"Dunno," answered Master Napoleon through the potato by which his +mouth was already possessed. + +The Little Corporal, as he was sometimes called by virtue of his +illustrious name, was a lean-faced lad with no friendly rolls +of adipose to conceal the fact that he was cramming with all his +energies. + +"Why in the name of sense can't he come to his dinner?" + +Napoleon gave a gulping swallow to clear his tongue. "Dunno," he +managed to articulate, and then went off into a violent paroxysm of +choking and coughing. + +"Why don't you turn your head?" cried the mother, seizing the said +member between her two hands and giving it an energetic twist that +dislocated a bone or snapped a tendon, one might have surmised from +the sharp crick-crack which accompanied the movement. "What in the +name of decency makes you pack your mouth in that manner? Are you +famished?" + +"A'most," answered the recovered Napoleon, resettling himself, face to +the table, and resuming the shoveling of mashed potato into his mouth. + +"That's a pretty story, after all the breakfast you ate, and the lunch +you had not two hours ago! Where under the sun, moon and stars do you +put it all?" + +"Mouth," responded Napoleon, describing with his strong teeth a +semicircle in his slice of brown bread. + +"Tell me what can be keeping your father," said Mrs. Lively, returning +to her subject. + +"Can't." + +"He'll come poking along in the course of time, I suppose, when all +the hot things are cold, and all the cold things are hot. Just like +him. And I worked myself into a fever to get them on the table piping +hot and ice-cold. From stove to cellar, from cellar to well, I rushed, +but if I'd worked myself to death's door, he'd stay his stay out, all +the same." + +"Reason for stayin', I s'pose," suggested Napoleon. + +"Yes, of course you'll take his part--you always do. For pity's sake, +what has your mother ever done that you should side against her?" + +"Dunno." + +"Dunno! Of course you don't. I'll tell you: She tended you through +all your helpless infancy: she nursed you through teething, and +whooping-cough, and measles, and scarlet fever, and chicken-pox, +and mercy knows what else. Many's the time she watched with you the +livelong night, when your father was snoring and dreaming in the +farthest corner of the house, so he mightn't hear your wailing and +moaning. She's toiled and slaved for you like a plantation negro, +while he--" + +"He's comin'," interrupted Napoleon, without for a moment intermitting +his potato-shoveling. "Walkin' fast," continued the sententious lad, +swallowing immediately half a cup of milk. + +Dr. Lively came hurrying into the dining-room. + +"For pity's sake, I think it's about time," the wife began pettishly. + +"Have you seen my purse anywhere about here?" the gentleman asked with +an anxious cadence in his voice. + +"Your purse!" shrieked Mrs. Lively, turning short upon her husband and +glaring in wild alarm. + +"Lost it?" asked Napoleon, digging his fork into a huge potato and +transferring it to his plate. + +"Go, look in the bed-room, Nappy: I think I must have dropped it +there," said the father. + +Napoleon rose from his chair, but stopped halfway between sitting and +standing for a farewell bite at his bread and butter. + +"For mercy's sake, why don't you go along?" Mrs. Lively snapped out. +"What do you keep sitting there for?" + +"Ain't a-settin'," responded Nappy, laying hold of his cup for a last +swallow. + +"Standing there, then?" + +"Ain't a-standin'." + +"If you _don't_ go along--" and Mrs. Lively started for her son and +heir with a threat in every inch of her. + +"Am a-goin'," returned the son and heir; and, sure enough, he went. + +During this passage between mother and child Dr. Lively had been +keeping up an unflagging by-play, searching persistently every part +of the dining-room--the mantelpiece, the clock, the cupboard, the +shelves. + +"In the name of common sense," exclaimed the wife, after watching him +a moment, "what's the use of looking in that knife-basket? Shouldn't +I have seen it when I set the table if it had been there? Do you think +I'm blind? Where did you lose your purse?" + +"If I knew where I lost it I'd go and get it." + +"Well, where did you have it when you missed it?" + +"As well as I can remember I didn't have it when I missed it." + +"Well, where did you have it before you missed it?" + +"In my pocket." + +"Oh yes, this is a pretty time to joke, when my heart is breaking! +I shouldn't be surprised to hear of your laughing at my grave. Very +well, if you won't tell me where you've been with your purse, I can't +help you look for it; and what's more, I won't, and you'll never find +it unless I do, Dr. Lively: I can tell you that. You never were known +to find anything." + +"Not there," said Napoleon re-entering the room and reseating himself +at the table. "Milk, please," he continued, extending his cup toward +his mother. + +"You ain't going to eating again?" cried the lady. + +"Am." + +"Where _do_ you put it all? I believe in my soul--Are your legs +hollow?" + +"Dunno." + +"Do, my dear," remonstrated Dr. Lively, "let the child eat all he +wants. You keep up an everlasting nagging, as though you begrudged him +every mouthful he swallows." + +"Oh, it's fine of you to talk, when you lose all the money that comes +into the family--five thousand dollars in Chicago, and sixty dollars +now, for I'll warrant you hadn't paid out a cent of it; and all +those accounts against us! Had you paid any bills? had you? You won't +answer, but you needn't think to escape and deceive me by such a +shallow trick. If you'd paid a bill you'd been keen enough to tell it: +you'd have shouted it out long ago. Pretty management! Just like you, +shiftless! Why in the name of the five senses didn't you pay out the +money before you lost the purse? You might have known you were going +to lose it: you always lose everything." + +"Bread, please," called Napoleon, who had taken advantage of the +confusion to sweep the bread-plate clean. + +"In the name of wonder!" exclaimed the mother, snatching a half loaf +from the pantry. "There! take it and eat it, and burst--Do," she +continued, turning to Dr. Lively, "stop your tramp, tramping round +this room, and come and eat your dinner. There's not an atom of reason +in spending your time looking for that purse. You'll never see it +again. Like enough you dropped it down the well: it would be just like +you. I just know that purse is down that well. Carelessness! the idea +of dropping your purse down the well!" + +Without heeding the rattle, Napoleon went on eating and Dr. Lively +went on searching--now in the dining-room, now in the kitchen, now in +the hall. + +Mrs. Lively soon returned to her life-work: "What's the sense in +poking, and poking, and poking around, and around, and around? Mortal +eyes will never see that purse again. I've no question but you put it +in the stove for a chip this morning when you made the fire. Who ever +heard of another man kindling a fire with a purse? Will you eat your +dinner, Dr. Lively, or shall I clear away the table? I can't have the +work standing round all day." + +Notwithstanding his worry, the doctor was hungry, so he replied by +seating himself at the table. "There's nothing here to eat," he said, +glancing at the empty dishes and plates. + +"If that boy hasn't cleared off every dish!" cried the housekeeper. +"Why didn't you lick the platters clean, and be done with it?" and she +seized an empty dish in either hand and disappeared to replenish it. + +While her husband took his dinner she went up stairs and ransacked the +bed-room for the missing purse. "What are you sitting there for?" she +exclaimed, suddenly re-entering the dining-room, where Dr. Lively was +sitting with his arms on the table. "Why don't you get up and look for +that purse you lost?" + +"No use, you said," Napoleon put in by way of reminder. + +"For pity's sake, arn't you done eating yet?" + +"Just am," answered the corporal, rising from his seat, yet chewing +industriously. + +Mrs. Lively began to gather the dirty dishes into a pan. "What are you +going to do about it, Dr. Lively?" she asked meanwhile. + +"I don't know what we _can_ do about it, except to cut off +corners--live more economically." + +"As if we could!" cried Mrs. Lively, all ablaze. "Where are there +any corners to cut off? In the name of charity, tell me. I've cut +and shaved until life is as round and as bare as this plate." With a +mighty rattle and clatter she threw the said plate into the dish-pan +and jerked up a platter from the table. Holding it in her left hand, +she proceeded: "Do you know, Dr. Lively, what your family lives on? +Potatoes, Dr. Lively--potatoes; that is, mostly. How much do I pay out +a month for help? A half cent? Not a quarter of it. How much is wasted +in my housekeeping? Not a single crumb. It would keep any common woman +busy cooking for that boy. I tell you, Dr. Lively, I can't economize +any more than I do and have done. I might wring and twist and screw +in every possible direction, and at the year's end there wouldn't be a +nickel to show for all the wringing and twisting and screwing. There's +only one way in which the purse can be made up--there's only one way +in which economy is possible. You can save that money, Dr. Lively: +you're the only member of the family who has a luxury." + +"Hang me with a grapevine if I've got any luxury!" said the doctor +with something of an amused expression on his face. + +"Tobacco," suggested Napoleon. + +"Yes, it's tobacco. You can give up the nasty weed, the filthy habit." + +"Do it?" asked Napoleon. + +"Don't think I shall," replied the doctor coolly. + +"Then I'll save the money," responded Mrs. Lively with heroic voice +and manner. "I had forgotten: there is one other way. Dr. Lively, I'm +housekeeper, laundress, cook, everything to your family. And what do +I get for it? Less than any twelve-year-old girl who goes out to +service. I have the blessed privilege of lodging in this old Mormon +rat-hole, and I have just enough of the very cheapest victuals to +keep the breath in my body; and one single, solitary thing that is not +absolutely necessary to my existence--one thing that I could possibly +live without." + +"What?" asked Napoleon, gaping and staring. + +"It is sugar--sugar in my coffee. I'll drink my coffee without sugar +till that sixty dollars is made up. I'll never touch sugar again till +that money is made good--never!" and into the kitchen sailed Mrs. +Lively with her pan of dishes. + +"Sugar, please," demanded Napoleon the next morning at the +breakfast-table. Dr. Lively passed over the sugar-bowl. + +"How can you have the heart to take so much?" said the mother, +watching Napoleon as he emptied one heaping spoonful and then another +into his coffee-cup. "But I might have known you'd leave your +mother to bear the burden all alone. All the economizing, all the +self-denial, must come on my shoulders. And just look at me!--nothing +but skin and bones. I've got to make up everybody's losses, +everybody's wasting. It's a rare thing if I get a warm meal with the +rest of you: I'm all the while eating up the cold victuals and scraps +and burnt things that nobody else will eat." + +"I'd eat 'em," said Napoleon. + +"Of course you'd eat them. There's nothing you wouldn't eat, in the +heavens above or the earth beneath. And all the thanks I get is to be +taunted with stinginess." + +"Take some?" asked Napoleon, passing the sugar-bowl to his mother. + +"Never!" she exclaimed, drawing back as though a viper had been +extended to her. "Take the thing away--set it down there by your +father's plate. I said I'd use no more sugar till that money was made +good. When I say a thing I mean it." + +"Now, Priscilla," remonstrated the doctor, "what is the use of +breaking in on your lifelong habits? You'll make yourself sick, that's +all." + +"Dr. Lively, you're trying to tempt me: why can't you uphold me? It +will be hard enough at best to make the sacrifice. Yes, I shall make +myself sick, but it won't hurt anybody but me. I can get well again, +as I've always had to." + +"Perhaps so, after a druggist's bill and hired girl's wages. Every +spoonful of sugar you save may cost you ten dollars." + +"Then, why don't you give up that vile tobacco? I won't use any sugar +till you do. All you care about is the money my sickness will cost--my +suffering is nothing." Mrs. Lively raised her cup to her lip, then set +it back in the saucer with a haste that sent the contents splashing +over the sides. + +"Bitter?" asked Napoleon. + +"Bitter! of course it's bitter--bitter as tansy. It sends the chills +creeping up and down my backbone, and the top of my head feels as if +it was crawling off. I believe I shall lose my scalp if I don't use +sugar." + +"To stick it on?" asked Napoleon with a stolid face. + +"Oh, it's beautiful in my only child to laugh at a mother's +discomfort!" "Ain't a-laughin'," he replied. + +"What are you doing if you ain't laughing?" + +"Eatin'." + +"Of course: you're always eating." Again Mrs. Lively essayed her +coffee, but fell back in her chair with an unutterable look. "Oh, I +can't!--I cannot do it!" she exclaimed. + +"Don't," Napoleon advised. + +Mrs. Lively with a sudden jerk sat bolt upright, as straight as a +crock. "Who asked you for your advice?" she demanded sharply. + +The young Lively swallowed three times distinctly, and then replied, +while shaking the pepper-box over his potato, "Nobody." + +"Then, why can't you keep it to yourself?" + +"Can." + +"Then, why don't you do it?" + +"Do." + +"You exasperating boy! Wouldn't you die if you didn't get the last +word?" + +"Dunno." + +"Look here, Napoleon Lively: you've got to stop your everlasting +talking. Your chatter, chatter, chatter just tries me to death. I'm +not--" + +Here Dr. Lively, overcome with the absurdity of this charge, did +a very unusual thing. He broke into laughter so prolonged and +overwhelming that Mrs. Lively, after some signal failures to edge in +a word of explanation, left the table in the midst of the uproar and +dashed up stairs, where she jerked and pounded the beds with a will. + +The next day Mrs. Lively was canning some cherries which the doctor +had taken in pay for a prescription. The air was filled with the +mingled odor of the boiling fruit and of burning sealing-wax. The cans +were acting with outrageous perversity, for they were second-hand and +the covers ill-fitting. Her blood was almost up to fainting heat, and +she was worried all over. She had to do all her preserving in a +pint cup, as she expressed it in her contempt for the diminutive +proportions of the saucepan which she was using. + +"Here 'tis," said Napoleon, suddenly appearing at the kitchen-door. + +"Here what is?" demanded Mrs. Lively shortly, without looking up. Her +two hands were engaged--one in pressing the cover on a can, the other +in pouring wax where a bubble persistently appeared. + +"This," answered Napoleon. + +"What?" + +"Purse." + +"Purse!" she screamed. "Is the money in it?" She dropped her work and +took eager possession of it. "Where did you find it?" + +"Big apple tree," replied Napoleon. + +"Under the apple tree?" + +"Fork," was the lad's emendation. + +"Why in the name of sense do you have to bite off all your sentences? +They are like a chicken with its head off. Do you mean to say that you +found the purse in the fork of the big apple tree?" + +"Do; and pipe." + +"Pipe! of course. One might track your father through a howling +wilderness by the pipes he'd leave at every half mile. Don't let him +know you've found the purse, and to-morrow morning I'm going to see +if I can't have some of his bills paid before the money is lost, as it +would be if he should get it in his hands." + +The next morning Mrs. Lively felt under her pillow, as on a former +occasion, and, as on that former occasion, found the purse where she +had put it the night before. She gave it into Napoleon's hands after +breakfast, and despatched him to settle the bills. In less than half +an hour he was back. + +"Did you pay all the bills?" she asked. + +"No." + +"How many?" + +"None." + +"Why don't you go along and pay those bills, as I bade you?" + +"Have been." + +"Then, why didn't you settle the bills?" + +"Couldn't." + +"If you don't tell me what's the matter--Why couldn't you?" + +"No money!" + +"No money? Where's the purse?" + +"Here 'tis;" and he handed it to her. + +She opened it and found it empty. "Where's the money?" she demanded in +great alarm. + +"Dunno." + +"What did you do with it?" + +"Nothin'." + +By dint of a few dozen more questions she arrived at the information +that when he had opened the purse to pay the first bill he found it +empty. + +"Why didn't you look on the floor?" + +"Did look." + +"And feel in your pocket?" + +"Did." + +"I suppose you couldn't be satisfied till you'd opened the purse +to count the money. You're a perfect Charity Cockloft with your +curiosity. And then you went off into one of your dreams, and forgot +to clasp the purse. Go look for it right at the spot where you counted +the money." + +"Didn't count it." + +"Well, where you opened the purse in the street." + +"Didn't open it in the street." + +"The money just crawled out of the purse, did it?" + +"Dunno." + +The house was searched, the store, the street, but all in vain. Dr. +Lively was questioned: Did he take the money from the purse when it +was under her pillow? He didn't even know before that the purse had +been found. The house had been everywhere securely fastened, and the +bed-room door locked. + +"Well, it's very mysterious," said Mrs. Lively. "That money went just +as the other did in Chicago. We must be haunted by the spirit of some +burglar or miser." + +Cards were posted in the stores and post-office, offering five dollars +reward for the lost money. + +"A pretty affair," said Mrs. Lively, "to payout five dollars just for +somebody's shiftlessness!" + +"To recover sixty we can afford to pay five," said the doctor. + +Shortly after this an express package from Chicago was delivered for +the doctor at his door. Mrs. Lively was quite excited, hoping she +scarce knew what from this arrival. The half hour till the doctor came +home to tea seemed interminable. She sat by watching eagerly as the +doctor cut the cords and broke the seals and unwrapped--what? Some +things very beautiful, but nothing that could answer that ceaseless, +persistent cry of the human, "What shall we eat, what shall we drink, +and wherewithal shall we be clothed?" + +"Nothing but some more of those miserable sea-weeds!" exclaimed Mrs. +Lively, "and the express on them was fifty cents." + +"They are beautiful," cried the doctor with enthusiasm. + +"Beautiful! What have we got to do with the beautiful? We've done with +the beautiful for ever. I feel as if I never wanted to see anything +beautiful again. And you'll have to spend your time collecting geodes +to send back for the miserable trash. I hate those old sea-weeds. You +left everything we owned to perish in that fire, and brought away only +that case of sea-weeds. I'll take it some time to start the fire in +the stove. Beautiful! What right have you to think of the beautiful? +It's a disgrace to be as poor as we are. The very bread for this +supper isn't paid for, and never will be. Come to supper!" She snapped +out these last words in a way inimitable and indescribable. + +"Priscilla," said the husband in a sad, solemn way, "I never knew +anybody in my life who seemed so utterly exasperated by poverty as +you." + +"You never knew anybody else that was tried by such poverty." + +"I saw thousands after the Chicago fire." + +"Yes, when they had the excitement all about them." + +"And who is the object of your exasperation? Who is responsible for +your circumstances? Who but God?" + +"God didn't lose that sixty dollars, and He didn't lose that money in +Chicago." + +"Well, now, my dear, I'm working hard at my book, and I think I'm +making a good thing of it. I hope it'll bring us a lift." + +"A book on that horrid subject isn't going to sell. I wouldn't touch +it with a pair of tongs: I'd run from it. Nobody'll read it but a +few old long-haired geologists. I'd like to know what good all your +geology and botany and those other horrid things ever did you. You +couldn't make a cent out of all them put together. You're always +paying expressage on fossils and bugs and sea-weeds and trash. All +that comes of it is just waste." + +"Does anything but waste come of your fault-finding?" + +"Now, who's finding fault?" + +Dr. Lively left the table and took down his case of sea-weeds, and +turned it over in his hand. + +"The only thing that came through the fire," he said musingly. + +"And of what account is it?" said Mrs. Lively. + +"It may prove to be of value," he said. "To-night's addition will make +my collection very fine. I may take some premiums on it at fairs." +He sat down and began to compare the specimens just received with his +previous collection. + +"What is the use of looking over those things--miserable sea-weeds? +You'd better bring in some wood and draw some water: it nearly breaks +my back to draw water up that rickety-rackety well." + +"Good Heavens!" cried Dr. Lively, springing to his feet like one +electrified. "What does it mean?" + +Mrs. Lively gazed at him: his hand was full of money, greenbacks. + +"I found them here, among the sea-weeds in the case." He counted +them out on the table, Mrs. Lively standing by watching him, for once +speechless. "It's just the amount we lost, and the same bills. See +here: ten five-hundred-dollar bills, and this change that we lost in +Chicago; and four ten-dollar bills and four fives that were lost here. +They are the same bills. Who put them here?" + +"I don't know," replied Mrs. Lively in a low tone: "I didn't." She +spoke as though she was dealing with something supernatural. + +In the case of sea-weeds, the only thing that came through the fire! +How often had she pronounced it worthless! What a spite she had +conceived against it! How the sight of it had all along exasperated +her! + +"It is very strange," said the doctor, believing in his secret soul +that his wife had put the money there and forgotten it. "Have you no +recollection of putting the money here?" he said cautiously. "Try to +think." + +"I never put it there," she said in a subdued, dazed way: "I know I +never did." + +Napoleon came in eating an apple. He was informed of the discovery, +and closely questioned. "Don't know nothin' 'bout it," he declared. +"Go back to Chicago?" he asked. + +"Yes," answered the doctor. "The money's here, however unaccountably: +we'll accept the fact and thank God." The doctor's lip quivered, +and Mrs. Lively burst into tears. "We will go back home, to the most +wonderful city in the world. If possible, we'll buy the very lot where +we lived, and build a little house. Many of those who lived in the +neighborhood, my old patients, will return, and so I shall have a +practice begun. I shall start for Chicago in the morning. You can +make an auction of the few traps we have here, and follow as soon as +possible. You'll find me at Mrs. B----'s boarding-house on Congress +street." + +There was some further planning, so that it was eleven o'clock before +they retired. Napoleon went to bed hungry that night, if indeed since +the Chicago fire he had ever gone to bed in any other condition. +He dropped off to sleep, however, and all through his dreams he was +eating--oh such good things!--juicy steaks, feathery biscuits, flaky +pies, baked apples and cream. He awoke with an empty feeling, an old +familiar feeling, which had often caused him to awake contemplating a +midnight raid on the cupboard. But poor Napoleon had been restrained +by conscientious scruples and by the fear of his mother's tongue, for +he appreciated the altered condition of the family. But now they were +all rich again there was no longer any necessity for pinching his +stomach. There were in the cupboard some biscuits intended for +breakfast, and some cold ham. He remembered how tempting they had +looked as his mother set them away. Now they fairly haunted him as +he lay thinking how favorable the moonlight was to his contemplated +burglary. He left his bed, not stealthily: he was not of a nature +to be specially mortified by discovery. He made his way to the +dining-room. In one of the recesses made by the chimney Dr. Lively had +constructed a kind of cupboard, and in the other recess he had put +up some shelves, where their few books and the case of sea-weeds +lay. Napoleon cut some generous slices of ham, and with the biscuits +constructed several sandwiches. Then he seated himself by the window +for the benefit of the moonlight. This brought him within a few +feet of the shelves where the sea-weeds were. There he sat in his +night-dress, his bare feet on the chair-round, vigorously eating his +sandwiches. Suddenly he heard a soft, stealthy, gliding noise in the +hall. It was as though trailing drapery was sweeping over the naked +floor. He gave a gulping swallow, paused in his eating and listened +intently. The stillness of death reigned through the house. He crammed +half a sandwich in his mouth and began a cautious chewing. Again the +trailing sound, and again his jaws were stilled. At the door entered +a tall figure in flowing white robes. Steadily it advanced upon him, +seeming to walk or glide on the air. For once there was something in +which he was more interested than in eating. At last the ghost stood +close beside him, and he saw with his staring eyes that it wore a +veil and carried its left hand in its bosom. The boy sat rooted with +horror, his tongue loaded, his cheeks puffed with his feast, afraid +to swallow lest the noise of the act should reveal him. The figure +withdrew its hand from its bosom: it held a roll of bankbills. It +reached out for the case of sea-weeds, laid the bills carefully +between the cards, returned these to the case and the case to the +shelf. It stood a moment in the broad moonlight, then lifted the veil, +and revealed to the astonished boy the face of his mother. She stood +within two feet of him, her eyes on his face, but she did not speak. + +"Mother! mother!" he cried with a sense of the supernatural on him, +"what's the matter?" He seized her by the arm: he shook her. + +"What is it? what do you want? where am I? what does this mean?" were +questions she asked like one newly awakened. "What are you doing here, +Napoleon?" + +"Eatin'." + +"Eating! what for?" + +"Hungry." + +"What time is it?" + +"Dunno." + +"What am I doing here?" + +"Hidin' money;" and Napoleon took a bite from his long-neglected +sandwich. + +"What do you mean?" + +"Mean _that_." + +"Stop bobbing off your sentences. Tell me what it all means." + +Napoleon stood up, laid his sandwiches on the chair, took down the +sea-weeds and showed her the bills among them. + +"Who put these here?" + +"You." + +"When?" + +"Just now." + +"I did not." + +"You did." + +By this time Dr. Lively, who had been restless and excited, was +awake, and down he came to the family gathering. By dint of persistent +inquiries he at length arrived at the facts in the case, and drew the +inevitable conclusion that his wife had been walking in her sleep, and +that to her somnambulism were to be referred the mysterious emptyings +of his purse. + +Mrs. Lively was mortified and subdued at being convicted of all the +mischief which she had so persistently charged to her husband. And she +said this to him with her arms in a very unusual position--that is, +around her husband's neck. + +"Oh, you needn't feel that way," he said, choking back the quick +tears. "If you hadn't hid that money maybe we never could have got +back home. But I'll hide my own money, after this, while I'm awake: I +sha'n't give you another chance to hide money in sea-weeds. Strange, I +should have snatched just those sea-weeds, and left everything else to +burn! All these things make me feel that God has been very near us." + +"Yes," said the wife, "He has whipped me till He's made me mind." + +The husband kissed her good-bye, for he was starting for Chicago. Then +he stepped out into the dewy morning, and hurried along the silent +streets, witnesses of the crushed aspirations of the thousands who had +gone out from them. But he thought not of this. A gorgeous Aurora was +coming up the eastern heights: his lost love was found. He was going +home: all earth was glorified. + +SARAH WINTER KELLOGG. + +[Footnote 1: While desirous of affording full scope to a talent for +realistic description, we must protest against allusions bordering on +personality.--ED.] + + + + +HISTORY OF THE CRISIS. + + +The crisis of 1873 seems destined to be the most memorable of all the +purely financial panics in the history of the United States. Certainly +no panic, involving such widespread disturbance of the ordinary course +of business was ever before known, either in the Old World or the New, +on a paper-money basis, for the collapse of the speculative bubble at +Vienna a few months earlier was a mere trifle in comparison, although +it set us the example of throttling a panic by closing the avenue to +the exchange of securities. I mention Vienna as a case in point, for +Austrian finances are such that the nation is kept in a chronic state +of suspension, and I am not aware that any prominent _bourse_ in +Europe except the one mentioned ever adopted a similar proceeding in a +like emergency. + +This panic was not the result of paper-money inflation, nor of +inflated values, nor of reckless over-trading, nor of in-ordinate +speculation. The trade and commerce of the country were in a sound +and prosperous condition, and the prices of securities in Wall street +were, on the average, hardly in excess of real values, and in some +instances a little below them. It is true that the old trouble of +tight money was beginning to be felt, and the bears on the Stock +Exchange were trying to aggravate the natural monetary activity which +invariably attends the flow of currency westward to move the crops +early in the fall of the year, by "locking up" greenbacks and +otherwise. On the 6th of September the weekly return of the New York +banks, State and National, belonging to the Clearing-house, showed +that their legal-tender reserve had fallen to a little less than half +a million above the twenty-five per cent., which the National banks in +the large cities are required by the "National Currency Act" to +keep on hand against their deposits and notes; but this excited no +apprehension, and hardly occasioned surprise among those aware of the +drain of money for crop-moving purposes--the outward flow from Chicago +and Cincinnati to what I may call the agricultural districts having +been much larger than usual this season. After the four months of +unparalleled and continuous stringency experienced in the previous +winter and spring, when rates varying from a sixty-fourth to +seven-eighths of one per cent., per diem were paid in addition to +the legal seven per cent, per annum for call loans on first-class +collaterals--during all of which time stocks were firmly supported--it +is not to be supposed that Wall street or the general public felt much +uneasiness about the loan market or the financial prospect generally. +The deposits in the New York banks not only showed no falling off, but +were over two hundred and twelve millions against two hundred and nine +millions at the corresponding period in the previous year. The fall +trade had opened auspiciously; the earnings of the railways were +from five to fifteen per cent., larger than in 1872; the crops were +abundant--the cotton crop, in particular, being estimated at four +millions of bales--and it was supposed that the experience of +stringency just referred to had placed the banks, the speculative +community and the merchants in a conservative attitude, prepared +against a recurrence of dear money, and that therefore we should +escape a repetition of the painful ordeal. + +The element of distrust, however, aroused by the suspension of +the Brooklyn Trust Company, and subsequently that of the New York +Warehouse Company, in connection with the failure of Francis Skiddy & +Co, and another old-established mercantile house similarly situated, +had not died out when the suspension of Kenyon Cox & Co., involving +that, also, of the Chicago and Canada Southern Railway Company, fell +like a thunderbolt on Wall street. This failure derived its importance +from the fact of Daniel Drew being a general partner in the house, +although originally he had gone into it as a special partner with +$300,000 capital, and from its being the financial agent of this new +but important enterprise--a line of large extent, and involving very +heavy expenditures in construction and equipment. Kenyon Cox & Co., +as financial agents, and Daniel Drew individually, as a director and +officer of the company, had approved its contracts and endorsed its +acceptances. A large amount of the latter became due on the 13th +of September, and a million and a half of them in amount would have +matured within thirty days afterward; but on the morning of that date +the firm formally suspended, and the joint obligations of the +house and the railway company went to protest. Fortunately for the +bondholders, the road had just previously been completed, although +much still remained to be done to put it in the condition originally +designed. Here comes the rub and the cause of the whole difficulty. +The company depended for its means of construction on the sale of its +bonds, as so many companies before it had done. The sale of the bonds +in this country fell far short of the expectations of the financial +agents, and they were equally disappointed in a market for them +abroad. They were thus caught in the unpleasant position of being +pledged to heavy obligations with little or no money coming in to +meet them with. Failing their ability to pay these out of their +own pockets, or relief in some way from the company, the result was +inevitable. As, however, Daniel Drew was believed to be a man of great +wealth, notwithstanding his loss of nearly a million and a half by +the North-western "corner" in November, 1872, the failure of his house +created much surprise and distrust. All new railway undertakings +and the bankers identified with them were immediately regarded with +suspicion, and that suspicion was fatal. + +The effect on the Stock Exchange was immediate, though less visible in +the decline of prices than in a reversal of the current of speculation +in favor of the bears, in a disturbance of credits and in general +uneasiness. Jay Cooke & Co., who were known to be heavily involved in +that colossal undertaking, the construction of the Northern Pacific +Railway, and Fisk & Hatch, who had identified themselves with the +Central Pacific, and subsequently the Ohio and Chesapeake Road, as +financial agents, were the first to feel the shock in the shape of a +run on their deposits; and on the 18th of September the former firm +suspended simultaneously at its offices in New York, Philadelphia +and Washington, dragging down with it the First National Bank of +Washington, of which one of the partners, Ex-Governor H.D. Cooke, was +president. The downfall of this great house was regarded as little +less than a national misfortune, and the prevailing distrust was so +aggravated by the event that Wall street went wild over the news; and +"long" stocks were thrown overboard on the Exchange without regard to +price, while the bears were emboldened to put out fresh "shorts" with +a recklessness never before witnessed, the question of real values +being entirely unheeded in the excitement and demoralization that +prevailed. On the following morning the suspension of Fisk & Hatch--a +house only second in prominence--sent another thrill of consternation +through the street. Prices on the Stock Exchange continued to fall +rapidly, and during the day twenty-one additional failures occurred +among stock-houses and private bankers belonging to the Board, nearly +all of whom had been of good standing and accustomed to transact a +large business. Early on Saturday, the 20th, the Union Trust Company, +an institution with seven millions and a half of deposits, closed its +doors, and the National Trust Company, with about five millions of +deposits, did likewise; while the National Bank of the Commonwealth +failed, apparently with little hope of resumption, mainly in +consequence of having certified cheques for a private banking and +stock firm to the amount of $225,000 in excess of its balance. The +Bank of North America was temporarily embarrassed from a similar +cause, another stock firm having similarly defaulted to no less an +amount than $400,000. Here we have two conspicuous instances of the +danger attending the custom of certifying brokers' cheques for large +sums beyond the amount to their credit; and no greater warnings than +these should be needed by the banks to decline such risks, which are +neither justified by the profits resulting therefrom, nor just to +their stockholders and depositors, while they are clearly opposed to +the spirit of the National Banking Law. + +Following the suspensions last referred to, Wall street grew still +wilder than before, and in the rush to sell securities many of the +brokers abandoned themselves to a state of frenzy, while rumors of +fresh failures passed from lip to lip with startling rapidity. The +fact that during the morning the associated banks, in accordance with +the recommendation of a committee of their own officers appointed on +the previous day, had agreed to issue to each other seven per cent. +certificates of deposit to the amount of ten millions, on the +security of government bonds at par and approved bills receivable at +seventy-five per cent. of their face value, as well as to equalize the +legal-tender notes held by all for their common benefit and security, +had no influence in tranquilizing the public mind, although it showed +a determination on their part to stand or fall together. As these +certificates were to run till the 1st of November, and to be used +as the equivalent of legal tenders in making the exchanges among +themselves, the importance, as well as the advisability, of the +measure, under the circumstances, was apparent, although the +limitation as to amount looked like the application of a standard +of measurement to that which could not be measured. The legal-tender +notes, when "stocked" preparatory to their equal division, amounted to +a fraction less than ten per cent. of the deposits. + +The pressure of sales of stock was almost entirely for cash. No money +could be borrowed, either at the banks or elsewhere, on securities of +any kind, and loans--which the borrowers were unable to pay off--were +being called in in all directions. As compared with the quotations +current on the eve of Kenyon Cox & Co.'s failure, the stock-list +showed a decline of from twelve to thirty per cent. + +At noon the distraction was so great, and the sacrifices being made +were so enormous, that universal ruin appeared to be impending; and +the seeming impossibility of doing business any longer in such a +condition of affairs without bringing about a state of chaos, and +involving the banks in the general destruction, made itself manifest +to the president and governing committee of the Stock Exchange, +who yielded to the solicitations of the banks and closed the Stock +Exchange at half-past twelve until further notice. + +The reeling crowd paused to take breath, and felt a sense of relief in +this sudden stoppage of the course of business, although accomplished +by a proceeding so unexpected and revolutionary. The usual Saturday +bank statement was omitted, and men left Wall street that evening only +to gather in a dense crowd at the Fifth Avenue Hotel to discuss the +situation. + +Meanwhile, the failure of Jay Cooke & Co. in Philadelphia was quickly +followed there by the suspension of several prominent private banking +and stock firms and some small ones, a panic in stocks, and a run upon +the banks, involving the failure of two of their number--the Citizens' +and the Union Banking Company. Advices of a few suspensions of banks +and banking-houses in different parts of the country had also been +received, none of much importance, but all serving to deepen the +prevailing gloom, and make men fear that the worst was still to come. +Representative bankers and merchants had been telegraphing to the +government at Washington for some measure of relief from the moment +of Jay Cooke & Co.'s suspension, but none had as yet been extended, +except in the shape of an order, on Saturday, to buy ten millions +of United States bonds, of which the assistant treasurer was, in +consequence of the excitement, only able to buy less than two millions +and a half at the equivalent of par in gold, the price to which he was +limited. + +The President, who had been on his way from Pittsburg to Long Branch +on Saturday, was, in company with the Secretary of the Treasury, at +the Fifth Avenue Hotel on Sunday, the 21st, and gave audience to a +large number of leading merchants and bankers, who urged upon him the +necessity of immediate action on the part of the Treasury to save +the country from further disaster, the issue of the "reserve" of +forty-four millions of greenbacks as a loan to, or deposit with, the +banks being the remedy generally suggested. The President, however, +was firmly opposed to this, and suggested that a week of Sundays would +probably afford more relief than anything else, but promised to do +whatever seemed advisable within the limits of the law. On the next +morning the assistant treasurer gave notice that he would continue +the purchase of bonds, paying for them at the average prices of the +Saturday previous. This he did until Thursday morning, when he ceased +buying, twelve millions in all having been bought up to that time, and +the available currency balance in the Treasury, without encroaching on +the forty-four millions of unissued greenbacks, being exhausted. + +On Monday there was a run on most of the city savings banks, which was +met by an agreement among their officers to avail themselves of +their legal privilege to require thirty or sixty days' notice of +the intended withdrawal of deposits; and this being announced by the +respective institutions, the run, as a natural consequence, ceased, +and, fortunately, without the slightest popular disturbance. On +the 22d the Security Trust Company and a private banking-house in +Pittsburg, Pa., suspended, as also a banking-firm at Wilmington, Del. +The failure of Henry Clews & Co. on the afternoon of Tuesday, the +23d, followed by that of Clews, Habicht & Co., London, caused fresh +uneasiness. This house, being the financial agent of the Burlington +and Cedar Rapids Railway, a new line, had been run upon for some days +previously, and it showed much strength in holding out so long. The +news was almost simultaneously received that the Baltimore banks had +agreed upon the issue of six per cent. certificates in the manner +adopted by the New York association, and that five National banks in +Petersburg, Va., had closed their doors. On the morning of the +24th Howes & Macy, known to be a very strong and conservative +banking-house, suspended, and this added fuel to the flame of +excitement, and wild rumors of impending failures were again afloat. +The steady but quiet run which had been kept up on the banks now +increased, and they decided upon the issue of another ten millions of +certificates, and a third issue of a like amount, if required. +They also agreed to certify cheques "payable only through the +Clearing-house" until the first of November, the payment of currency +for cheques, for the accommodation of their dealers, to be optional in +the interval with each individual bank. This involved a suspension of +currency payments by all the banks in the association. The failure of +the Dollar Savings Bank and a private banking-house at Richmond, +Va., was reported on the same day, as also that of a banking-firm at +Baltimore, and another at Wilkesbarre, Pa. On the 25th there was no +change in the situation in New York, but the banks of Cincinnati, +Chicago and New Orleans suspended currency payments, as those of +Baltimore had done previously, and two banks at Memphis, Tenn., three +at Augusta, Ga., all those at Danville, Va., and a savings bank at +Selma, Ala., closed their doors. On the 26th six National banks at +Chicago suspended, and a trust company, and two banks at Charleston, +S.C., in addition to a banking-house at Washington; and the last day +of the week, the 27th, opened on anything but an encouraging prospect. +The telegrams from Europe reported an unsettled market for American +securities; gold for a short time rose to 115-1/2; seven of the +Louisville banks suspended, and the Boston and Washington banks voted +to suspend currency payments, and (those of each city) to issue ten +millions of certificates on the New York basis. But toward the close +of the day favorable rumors were circulated regarding settlements +on the street; and a petition for reopening the Stock Exchange was +circulated, while stocks, which had been informally quoted very low, +advanced several per cent. + +During all this week there had been a dead-lock in business in Wall +street, although a crowd of persons not belonging to the Exchange +gathered on Broad street daily to buy or sell stocks for cash on +delivery, the sellers forced by their necessities, and the buyers +eager to secure stocks at lower prices than had been known for years. +But there were so few persons provided with "the sinews of war" +that the aggregate of transactions was small. The usual weekly bank +statement was again omitted by the Clearing-house from motives of +policy, but it transpired that the whole of the New York associated +banks held on the morning of the 27th only twelve millions two hundred +thousand of greenbacks, an aggregate still further reduced, at one +time, to a point below ten millions, against nearly thirty-five +millions--bank average--on the 20th, the date of the last statement +issued. Their determination to sustain each other was, however, +so strong that it tended to inspire confidence in their ability to +weather the storm. It was also made known that they had agreed, on the +resumption of business by the Stock Exchange, not to certify cheques +except against actual balances while any certificates of their own +issue remained outstanding. Twenty millions of these had been issued +up to this time, and the additional ten millions before referred to +were ordered to be issued in like manner, as required. The Treasury +paid out during that week, including the previous Saturday, in New +York and elsewhere, about thirty-five millions of greenbacks--namely, +twenty-two millions in exchange for $5000 and $10,000 certificates of +deposit--used as legal tenders at the Clearing-house, and presented +by the banks for redemption, for which there is a special reserve of +notes in the Treasury--and about thirteen millions for the purchase +of the twelve millions of bonds already mentioned. It also sent to +the National banks in the West and South three millions of new +notes, issued under the act of July, 1870, authorizing an addition +of fifty-four millions to the three hundred millions of bank-note +circulation previously outstanding, nearly the whole of which has now +been issued. + +The bank failures West and South, and the pressing requirements to +move produce to the ports, led to very urgent demands for currency in +Wall street, and certified bank-cheques were quoted at a discount of +from two to four per cent. as compared with greenbacks, while fears +were entertained that the continued suspension of business would be +only productive of harm. Hence, when the governing committee decided +to reopen the Stock Exchange on the morning of Tuesday, the 30th, a +feeling of positive relief was experienced. + +On Monday, the 29th, only two unimportant country-bank failures +were reported, and encouraging accounts were received from the West, +although the suspension of a wool-manufacturing company in New York +and an iron-manufacturing company in Massachusetts--each employing +some hundreds of men--and the discharge of more than a thousand men +from the locomotive works at Paterson, N.J., showed that the crisis +had already affected labor. On all sides an anxiety to retrench +was shown, and large numbers, in the aggregate, were thrown out of +employment all over the country. The retail trade was very unfavorably +affected, the losses sustained by the crisis, combined with the +scarcity of currency, causing people to expend as little as possible; +and this feature, resulting from the crisis, is likely to be a marked +one for a considerable time to come. + +During the previous week bills on Europe had been, as a rule, +unsalable, and rates of exchange were depressed to a very low point, +bankers' sterling at sixty days being quoted on Friday at 103 @ 105, +and merchants' bills at 101 @ 102-1/2. The difficulty or impossibility +of selling exchange greatly embarrassed shippers and retarded the +movement of produce from the West; but owing to a heavy reduction +by the steamship lines of the rates of freight to induce shipments, +strenuous efforts were made to take advantage of it, and the exports +from New York for each of the two weeks noticed were valued at about +six millions and a half, while for the week ending October 4 the +valuation was unusually large--namely, $8,378,130. This was the most +encouraging feature of the time, especially in view of the previous +heavy preponderance of the exports over the imports at New York, the +value of the former having increased forty-eight millions during the +first nine months of 1873, as compared with the corresponding period +in 1872, while the latter were twenty-seven millions less, and while +our exports of specie were also seventeen and a half millions smaller. +The receipts for customs duties, however, fell far short of the usual +amount, and the movement of goods out of bond was correspondingly +light. Under the improved feeling visible on Monday, the 29th, the +foreign exchange market became less unsettled, and rates began to +improve rapidly; so that on Tuesday bankers' bills on England at +sixty days had risen to 106-1/2 @ 106-3/4, and mercantile to 104-1/2 +@ 105-1/2. Before this, however, the Bank of England had advanced its +rate of discount from three to four per cent., and again from four to +five per cent., and we had received cable advices of the shipment of +about eight millions of gold from England for the United States, with +further shipments in anticipation, partly the proceeds of American +negotiations previous to the panic, and partly to make grain payments. +The shippers of cotton and general produce were cheered by this +opening of a market for their bills at such a decided improvement +in rates, and on the Produce Exchange the return of confidence was +marked, while quotations, which had been depressed, showed an upward +tendency. + +Meanwhile, the Stock Exchange opened punctually at the appointed time, +and the opening prices were higher than those previously current in +the informal market on the street. But it would have been too much to +expect a settled market after such demoralization as had prevailed +and such ruinous sacrifices as had been made. The improvement was +not sustained, and prices were depressed from two to eight per cent., +during the next three days, chiefly under sales to make settlements +between parties on the street. + +Occasional failures, both among stock and banking-houses and the +mercantile and manufacturing community, and in as well as out of New +York, were still reported, including three large city dry-goods firms; +and the pressure for greenbacks to send to the country continued to +be so severe that from three to four per cent., was paid for them, +as compared with certified bank-cheques, for several days, though the +premium dwindled to one-half and one per cent., before the end of the +week, advancing a week later, however, to one and one and a half. The +difficulty of moving produce from the West also continued very great, +owing to the almost total dead-lock in the domestic exchanges, but +otherwise the excitement and alarm attending the crisis seemed to have +passed away, leaving only its depressing effects still visible. Money +became comparatively accessible to first-class borrowers on call. But +the bank statement was again omitted on the following Saturday, and +it was announced that none would be made until after the banks had +resumed greenback payments, and till the certificates of their own +creation had been withdrawn. The deposits held by the banks at the +close of business on that day, October 4, had been reduced to about a +hundred and fifty-three millions, against over two hundred and seven +millions and a quarter on September 13. + +Before the middle of the month the continued drain of gold to the +United States--the shipment from England of about sixteen millions of +dollars having been reported from the beginning of the crisis to the +18th of October--caused the Bank of England to further advance its +discount rate to six per cent., and shortly afterward to seven per +cent. But, notwithstanding, the price of gold gradually declined to +107-3/4, a lower point than it had touched since 1861. The New York +banks meanwhile lost rather than gained strength, and their aggregate +of greenbacks under control of the Clearing-house was reduced to +less than six millions, although this fact was not published. It was, +however, at the same time believed that three or four millions more +were distributed among them, of which they made no return to the +association. Currency during the latter half of the month began to +return somewhat rapidly from the West in the shape of collections by +the merchants, and this, in turn, led to remittances to the South, +where it was greatly needed for the cotton crop, the movement of which +had been almost entirely arrested. Affairs on the Stock Exchange were, +in the interval, unsettled, and enormously heavy sacrifices were made +in order to adjust differences between brokers, as well as by outside +parties in pressing need of cash. On Tuesday, the 14th of October, +almost another panic prevailed, and prices touched a lower point than +they had before reached. New York Central sold down to 82, Lake Shore +to 57-1/2, Western Union to 45, Rock Island to 80-1/2, Pacific Mail +to 25, Wabash to 32-3/4, Ohio and Mississippi to 21, Union Pacific to +15-1/2, North-western to 32, St. Paul to 23, St. Paul Preferred to 50, +and Harlem to 100, while the feeling of the street was worse than at +any time during the crisis; but a quick recovery took place from the +extreme point of depression, and the resumption of greenback payments +by the Cincinnati banks, following that of the Chicago banks, led +to an improved feeling in both financial and commercial circles. The +National Trust Company of New York also, about the same time, resumed +payment. It was noticeable, however, that little or none of the money +reported by the express companies as coming from the West was received +by the New York banks--a natural result of their suspension of +currency payments, which virtually forced individuals and corporations +to be their own bankers. The banks had ceased to perform this +function: they were utterly unable to maintain their reserve, cash +cheques or discount commercial paper for their customers, and so far +the National banking system had failed. + + +Having reviewed the disastrous course of this crisis up to the date +of writing, I will briefly consider its causes. It may be traced +remotely, in some degree, to the distrust of American railway +securities in Europe which attended the reckless administration of +the Erie Railway under Fisk and Gould, and which lingered after their +overthrow, indisposing capitalists, as well as small investors, to +have anything to do with American railways. It is true that a market +still remained there for these securities, but it was a much more +limited one than it probably would have been but for the Erie scandal, +and within the last year or two it was entirely glutted. Financial +agents found it impossible to float a new American railway loan even +where the security offered was a first mortgage bond. Thus, Jay Cooke +& Co. were greatly disappointed with respect to the sale of their +Northern Pacific bonds abroad, and nearly as much so in the demand for +them at home; but they were pledged to the undertaking, their +solvency became dependent on its success, and they were sanguine that +confidence in the great enterprise would grow with every mile of new +road constructed. + +Mr. Jay Cooke undoubtedly looked forward to a subsidy from Congress +for carrying the mails over the new line, and in all likelihood would +have obtained it but for the Credit Mobilier _exposé_, which caused +both Congress and the people to "shut down," not only on everything +having the appearance of a "job," but on much besides. The ill odor +into which that investigation brought the Union Pacific Railway and +all who had been connected with its construction was a heavy blow at +new enterprises of a similar character where government land-grants +were involved; and the vexatious suit which Congress authorized +against the Union Pacific Company and all concerned was another blow +at confidence in the same direction. + +The formation and rapid spread of the Grangers' association in the +West, and its avowed design to make war upon the railway interest with +a view of securing cheap transportation to the seaboard, was another +disturbing element, undermining confidence in railway property. +But the greatest and the immediate cause of the crisis was the +over-building of railways; and hard indeed are likely to be the +fortunes of the unfinished enterprises of this character arrested by +its blighting influence; for capital for years to come will be very +slow in finding its way into the bonds of roads to be built by the +proceeds of their sale. It was a false and dangerous system--and the +event has proved its unsoundness--for new companies to rely from +the outset upon this source for the means of construction. It was a +hand-to-mouth policy, resting upon so precarious a foundation that, in +the light of experience, we can only wonder that eminent and otherwise +conservative bankers should have adopted it to the extent they did, +thereby not only jeopardizing their own position, but imperiling the +whole financial community. About six thousand miles of new railways +were constructed in the United States in 1872, of which it may be +estimated that at least seven-eighths were in advance of the national +requirements. Not a few of those now unfinished or just completed +will, like the New York and Oswego Midland, be forced into bankruptcy, +and it will be long before all the ruins left by the crisis will be +cleared away. A shock has been given to the entire railway interest of +the country, the full effect of which has not yet been felt; and those +who expect the prices of railway securities to rule as high, for a +considerable period to come, as they did before the panic, are +likely to be disappointed. After all panics we have had more or less +wearisome stagnation and depression, growing out of impoverishment +and distrust of new ventures; and this last one will hardly prove an +exception to the rule. The mercantile interest, too, will probably +continue for some time to suffer in consequence of the monetary +derangements resulting from it and the want of adequate banking--or +rather currency--facilities for bringing forward cotton and general +produce from the West and South for shipment; and here and there +houses that have so far withstood the strain will break down under it. +But in a rapidly growing country, with inexhaustible resources, like +this, recovery from such disasters is, fortunately, far quicker than +among the less progressive nations of Europe. + +One eminently satisfactory feature of the panic in securities was, +that it did not extend to United States bonds, greenbacks or National +bank-notes. Bonds were of course depressed in sympathy with the +scarcity of money and the demoralization prevailing in the general +stock market, but there was not the slightest loss of confidence in +them among holders, nor any pressure to sell, except to relieve urgent +necessities among the banks and others having need of currency. The +paper money of the country proved itself the most valuable kind of +property that any one could possess; whereas under like circumstances, +in former times, when banks under the State laws could practically +issue as many notes as they chose, much of it would have been left +worthless and the remainder depreciated. But our currency system is +defective in one essential particular: it is not elastic. It is, so +to speak, hide-bound at seven hundred and ten millions of paper, +exclusive of fractional currency, three hundred and fifty-six millions +of which are legal-tender notes, and three hundred and fifty-four +millions National bank-notes. The safety-valve of a country's +circulating medium is its elasticity, and the sooner Congress +authorizes free National banking on the present basis of ninety per +cent. of currency to the par of United States bonds deposited with the +Treasury, or devises some other means of affording relief, the better +for the interests of the nation. The law requiring the banks in the +large cities to keep always on hand a reserve in greenbacks equal to +twenty-five per cent. of their deposits and circulation, and those in +the country a reserve of fifteen per cent., should also be amended, +the percentage being too high by one-half. It is for the interest +of every bank to keep a reserve adequate to its own requirements and +safety, and the existing restriction instead of being an element of +strength is a source of weakness. Then, again, as National +bank-notes are guaranteed by a pledge of United States bonds at the +before-mentioned rate of ninety per cent. of notes to the par of the +former, the banks ought not to be required to redeem their own notes +in greenbacks on demand; and each bank should be allowed to count the +notes of other banks--but not its own nor specie, except on a specie +basis--as a portion of its reserve. To require the banks to redeem +their notes with legal tenders, on presentation, when there are only +two millions more of the latter than of the former in circulation, +is to demand of them what they would find it impossible to do in the +remote but nevertheless possible contingency of the bank currency, +or any large portion of it, being simultaneously presented for +redemption. + +As a measure looking to the resumption of specie payments, however, +it would be well to abolish the National bank circulation altogether. +This could be done by Congress authorizing the Treasury--through an +amendment to the Bank act--to replace the National bank-notes with new +greenbacks, and cancel an equivalent amount of the bonds pledged for +the redemption of the former. After that was accomplished we should +have a circulation based directly upon the undoubted credit of the +United States, and the government would be saved the twenty millions +(more or less) of coin per annum which it now pays to the National +banks as interest on three hundred and fifty-four millions of the +bonds thus deposited, for it could withdraw these, by purchase +with the greenbacks thus issued in substitution for the surrendered +National bank currency, as fast as the exchange of the one for the +other might be made. This saving of interest alone would strengthen +the government for a return to the gold standard, which could be +effected without any contraction of the volume of paper money, except +to the extent of the coin thrown into circulation: and the resumption +of specie payments by the Treasury--greenbacks to be convertible into +coin only at the Treasury and sub-treasuries--would be resumption by +the entire country, for gold would no longer command a premium. The +National banks thus deprived of their own notes would have to bank on +greenbacks, just as the State banks--which have no circulation--do at +present. + +It is obvious that resumption could be accomplished in this way on +a very much smaller reserve of coin than would be necessary if each +individual bank had also to resume simultaneously with the Treasury, +as would be the case under the present mixed currency system, for +the whole of the reserve would be concentrated in the hands of the +government, instead of being scattered among the banks all over +the country. The credit of the government would, of course, be much +stronger than that of any individual bank, and the demand for gold +in exchange for greenbacks would probably be very small in comparison +with the amount of coin belonging to the Treasury, even at the +beginning of resumption, when the element of novelty in it, not +distrust, might induce conversion. The banks would then have no more +occasion for gold than they have now, greenbacks still retaining their +legal-tender character unaltered. + +Had the country been on a specie basis when this crisis came upon us, +the twenty millions of coin held by the New York banks at that time +would have been available for their relief, and have formed a part of +the circulation; whereas for all practical purposes it was useless to +them, and consequently to the people, as money; and in like manner all +the heavy importations of gold which have since taken place, and +been converted into American coin, have failed to enter into the +circulation, as they would have done on the specie standard. The whole +of the forty-four millions of Treasury gold-notes, convertible +into coin on demand, held by the banks and the public on the 1st +of September would in that event have formed a part of the active +currency of the nation, instead of lying as dormant as the whole +eighty-seven millions of gold--part of which they represented--in the +Treasury. + +That part of the currency of any country which is in specie is +necessarily elastic, because it is the money of the world, embodying +the value which it represents, and subject to that ebb and flow, in +accordance with the laws of trade, which attends the circulation of +gold and silver coin everywhere. Supply follows demand, and a nation +with a specie currency inevitably attracts the precious metals by +outbidding other nations in the rate of interest it offers for them. +Why, therefore, should we shut ourselves out from the advantages of +this form of communion with the commercial world by postponing the +resumption of specie payments a day longer than we are compelled to? + +K. CORNWALLIS. + + + + +SAINT MARTIN'S TEMPTATION. + + + For forty-and-five long years + I have followed my Master, Christ, + Through frailty and toils and tears, + Through passions that still enticed; + Through station that came unsought, + To dazzle me, snare, betray; + Through the baits the Tempter brought + To lure me out of the way; + Through the peril and greed of power + (The bribe that _he_ thought most sure); + Through the name that hath made me cower, + "_The holy bishop of Tours!_" + Now, tired of life's poor show, + Aweary of soul and sore, + I am stretching my hands to go + Where nothing can tempt me more. + + Ah, none but my Lord hath seen + How often I've swerved aside-- + How the word or the look serene + Hath hidden the heart of pride. + When a beggar once crouched in need, + I flung him my priestly stole, + And the people did laud the deed, + Withholding the while their dole: + Then I closed my lips on a curse, + Like a scorpion curled within, + On such cheap charity. Worse + Was even than theirs, my sin! + And once when a royal hand + Brake bread for the Christ's sweet grace, + I was proud that a queen should stand + And serve in the henchman's place. + + But sorest of all bestead + Was a night in my narrow cell, + As I pondered with low-bowed head + A purpose that pleased me well. + 'Twas fond to the sense and fair, + Attuned to the heart and will, + And yet on its face it bare + The look of a duty still; + And I said, as my doubts took wing, + "Where duty and choice accord, + It is even a pleasant thing, + _To the flesh_, to serve the Lord." + + I turned and I saw a sight + Wondrous and strange to see-- + A being as marvelous bright + As the visions of angels be: + His vesture was wrought of flame, + And a crown on his forehead shone, + With jewels of nameless name, + Like the glory about the Throne. + "Worship thou me," he said; + And I sought, as I sank, to trace, + Through his hands above me spread, + The lineaments of his face. + I pored on each palm to see + The scar of the _stigma_, where + They had fastened him to the Tree, + But no print of the nails was there. + Then I shuddered, aghast of brow, + As I cried, "Accurst! abhorred! + Get thee behind me! for thou + Art Satan, and not my Lord!" + He vanished before the spell + Of the Sacred Name I named, + And I lay in my darkened cell + Smitten, astonied, shamed. + Thenceforth, whatever the dress + That a seeming duty wear, + I knew 'twas a wile, _unless + The print of the nail was there_! + +MARGARET J. PRESTON. + + + + +THE LONG FELLOW OF TI. + + +Colman put down his book and looked about the parlors and piazzas of +the hotel, and went and spoke to the barkeeper: "Have you seen Mr. +Field lately?" + +"No: he hasn't been in here since supper." + +Colman went out and walked down toward the head of the lake. Passing +out of the shadow of the trees, the open shore was before him, and the +wharf at some distance, with the tiny steamer, the Wanita, lying by it +in the moonlight. There was some one coming along the sandy road, and +Colman leaned against a tree and waited for him. The dark side of the +boat was toward him, and though it was quite late, a light showed in +one of her windows. When the person on the beach came near Colman, he +turned and stood watching the light till it went out, and then came +on. Colman stepped out, and the comer said, "Halloa, Phil! is that +you? You startled me. Going in?" + +Philip only nodded, and they walked back to the house together, Field +whistling absently. They went up to their room, and Field sat by the +window while Colman struck a light. + +"Dan," said Philip abruptly, "I want you to come on with me +to-morrow." + +Field was looking out through the trees toward the wharf and boats at +the head of the lake. He turned sharply and answered: "Phil, you're a +prig. I'll do nothing of the kind." + +"We've been here long enough, Dan," Philip went on, taking no notice +of the rudeness except in his manner. "I shall go north in the +morning. I wish you would come with me." + +"The deuce you do!" Field retorted. "You may do as you please. We came +to stay as long as we enjoyed it here, and there's nothing to go for, +that I know of." + +No more was said. Colman went to bed, and Field sat smoking by the +window. After a while he forgot his cigar, and it went out. He heard +the wind whispering among the trees that almost brushed his face. +Through the branches he got glimpses of the lake placid under the +moon, and the black breadths of shadow below the opposite hills. He +sat a long while, and the house became still. He seemed alone with the +night, and the hush and awe of it touched him and moulded his thought. +It was very late when he got up at last. The lamp was still burning, +and Field had not taken off his hat. He went over and sat down on the +edge of the bed, and looked at his sleeping friend until the latter +opened his eyes. + +"Phil," said Field, "you're not a prig, but I'm a fool. I'm coming +with you in the morning." + +"All right, Dan," Philip answered. "I'm glad you are coming. +Good-night." + +They went on north next day with no definite plan, came to the lower +lake and the old fort on the cliff, and, taking a great liking to the +place, lingered in the neighborhood from day to day. They happened +one evening upon a queer, secluded public-house across the lake, where +they fell in with a long, lean, leathery young native, who appeared +to be a guide and waterman, and told them stories of the hunting and +fishing among the lakes and mountains in a vein of unconscious humor +and a low, even, husky voice which the friends found very agreeable. +They met him again at a fair and horse-race at Scalp Point, and found +their liking for him increased. Finally, they were to go south at noon +on Friday, and then put it off till the night boat. After supper they +took out the skiff from the rocky landing for a last row. They pulled +round under the dark cliffs that rose sheer from the water and were +crowned with the wall of the old fort, the cliffs themselves seamed +across with strata of white, like mortar-lines of some Titanic +masonry. They gave chase to a tug puffing northward half a mile to the +right, towing two or three canal-boats through the still water and the +stiller night. Then a sail came ghostily out of the shadow astern, and +stole on them as they drew away and waited for it. By and by the boat +crept up, dropped away a little from the light wind, and passed close +to leeward. There was one man in her sitting in the stern, and the +whole made hardly a sound. They knew the man at the tiller: it was the +long fellow again. He took them in, and they talked as they drifted +on. The lights behind the locusts fell far astern. + +"Come, come!" said Colman at last: "this won't do. We have a long pull +now, and we're to be off at two in the morning." + +Field turned and asked the young fellow if he was engaged for a week +or two. No, not especially: he had been running parties a good deal +off and on, but they were getting pretty thin now, and there was not +much call for boats. + +"Will you go with me on a gunning and fishing cruise through the +lakes?" asked Field; and the long fellow said he'd go with him +as soon as any other man, and when should they start? "To-morrow +morning," answered Field, "any time you like." + +They got into the skiff, threw off the line, and pulled back to the +Fort House; that is, Field pulled and Colman lay in the stern and +listened to the water gurgling under the boat. They landed and climbed +up the rocks. + +"So you're going back?" said Colman. "Dan, I wish you'd come home." + +Field flushed and turned sharply. "Oh, hang your preaching, Phil!" +he snapped out. "You're too infernally flat. Who said anything about +going back?" + +The steamer was due in three or four hours. They went straight to +bed, and it seemed about ten minutes afterward when Colman woke with +a start and saw Field striking a light: it was twenty minutes of two. +They waited an hour for the boat, walking about or sitting by the +fire. Then the landlord came in with a lantern and said the boat was +coming, and they went down to the wharf and waited for her. The bell +rang, the wheels ploughed in, the friends bade each other good-night, +gave a hearty grip of the hand, and then there was one left alone. +Field went back to bed. In the morning he made himself a rough outfit +of clothes and boots, and started on foot with his guide. He did not +know the guide's name, and called him "Long" to begin with, and the +guide answered as if that had been his name from his christening, only +glancing askance at Field the first time with a twinkle in his eye, +and would give no other name after that. "A name was only a handle to +a man, any way, and one was as good as another, or better." + +It would be hard to define the motive that led Field to answer. "Well, +if it's the same to you, Long it is. You can call me Meadow when you +don't think of anything better." + +Long had an evident admiration for his companion which increased every +day. Field was a good shot, as good a fisherman as himself, rowed +and walked and sailed with about equal strength and skill, could do +wonderful tricks of tossing balls and other feats, could eat +anything or go without, sleep anywhere, and be good-humored in any +circumstances; and Field found Long a trusty, self-contained, clever +fellow, and was much entertained by his dry humor and amusing stories +of bear-hunts and deer-hunts and queer adventures. They tramped that +region pretty thoroughly, camping out at nights or sleeping at the +nearest of the little settlements. + +One morning they took a boat at the head of the lake and rowed down +toward a pond on the east side among the hills, where Long said the +ducks came "so thick you couldn't see through 'em, and where the water +was so shallow and the mud so deep that, when the ducks were shot, the +Devil couldn't get 'em 'thout he had a dog." After a while a wind +came swooping down on the quiet water through a dip in the hills, and +nearly blew the skiff's bows out of water. The sleeping lake woke up, +pitched and foamed, and beat upon the bows and dashed over the young +men till they were nearly as wet as the waves themselves. Field was +pulling to Long's stroke, the wind fluttering his hair in his eyes and +the water running down his back, but he would not say anything till +Long did. Presently Long looked round over his shoulder, and hailed, +"I guess we'd best throw up and get a tow: I hear the Wanita coming +down." + +Presently the little steamer came along and threw them a line. Long +caught it and made it fast. They were nearly jerked out of the water +or flung into it, and then went boiling along in the steamer's wake. +A boat-hand drew in the line, and they climbed out, swaying and +floundering through a cloud of spray, and all the passengers crowding +back to see. They went forward and up on deck, and the captain spoke +to Long from the pilot-house, calling him Trapp. Long talked to him +through the window and introduced Field when he came along: "Mr. +Meadow, Cap'n Charner. I'm showing him bear-tracks and things around +the pond." + +"How do you do, captain?" said Field. "Don't know me in the part of +Neptune, eh?" + +"Oho!" said the captain, glancing aside from the wheel. "It's you, is +it? Where's your friend?--Trapp," he continued, "you'd better take +Mr. Meadow down and get Hess to dry his coat." They went down to the +little cabin, where a trim, plainly dressed, but very pretty girl was +busy with some sewing. She started and laughed when she saw Long and +how wet he was. Then she saw there was somebody else, and she blushed +a little. + +"Mr. Meadow, Hess," and "Miss Hessie Charner, Meadow," introduced +Long; and he told her what the captain had bidden him. + +The girl brought a coat of her father's for Field, and hung his up +to dry near the furnace, and the three chatted together till the boat +warped in to the wharf at her trip's end. + +Long did not know how it was, but it happened constantly after that +that they fell in with the Wanita somewhere on her trip. He found that +accident pleasant enough at first, but somehow changed his mind before +long, and managed that they did not happen upon the boat the next day. +That afternoon Field had some business in Bee, and set off in that +direction, engaging to meet Long with traps and bear-bait at the +Hexagon Hotel the next morning. His business in Bee could not have +required much time, for when Long happened down at Leewell that +evening, Field was smoking with Captain Charner in the little cabin of +the Wanita, the captain's daughter sitting by with some sewing. Long +sat with them a while, but he would not smoke, and his conversation +could not be called brilliant or amusing. Field, on the other hand, +talked his best and was in the highest spirits. Long got up and went +away presently, with only a good-night to the captain. + +One evening, a little later, two persons were looking out on the lake +and the dark hills beyond, and talking in low tones by the rail on the +lower deck of the Wanita as she lay at her wharf. A tall man passed +down along the shore, and went by without looking round. An hour +later Field was walking quickly along the shore-road in the moonlight, +crushing the gravel and whistling an air under his breath, when Long +came out of the shaded piece ahead and started past without any sign +of recognition. + +On Thursday of that same week Field left Long at a point on the east +side of the lake, to go to Bee; and half an hour after arriving there +was out on the Leewell road, on horseback, galloping south, singing +a stave of a song as he dashed along. There was a dance that night at +the George Hotel, and Field was there, the handsomest and gayest +of men; and there was no prettier girl in the rooms than the one he +brought and danced so well with, and whom no one else knew. Late at +night, looking up from her flushed and happy face in a pause of the +dance, his eyes fell on another face, neither flushed nor happy, +looking at him from a door across the length of the saloon, and he was +doubly spirited and devoted after that. He did not see the face again, +but he was half conscious of being watched as the ball came at last to +an end, and he saw his charge home to the house of the friend in the +town with whom she was to spend the night. He turned away with a set +face when the door had closed upon her, and walked back quickly the +way he had come, peering into the shadows, but he saw nothing. He got +his horse from the stable and rode north along the shore as the gray +morning stole over the sky and the ever-sleeping hills and the broad, +calm, misty lake. He gave the black mare heel and rein, and brought +her white and panting into Bee. He did not put on the rough clothes +again, but went as he was to meet Long at the appointed place across +the lake. He ordered the boatman who rowed him to wait. Long was +waiting for him, lying on a grassy slope. He nodded when Field came +up. + +"Long," said the latter, "I guess this is about played out." + +"Just about," answered Long, looking at him steadily without moving. +"guess you'd best quit." + +"Very well, come up to the Ti House at noon and we'll settle up." And +he turned and strode away. He was smoking on the porch of the Ti House +when Long came up about noon. He took down his feet from the rail, +threw away his cigar and went in with him. He sat down at a table, and +Long took a chair opposite without a word. Field made a calculation +on a scrap of paper, took out a roll of bills' and counted out the +amount. "There, Long," he said good-humoredly, "this week won't be up +till Monday, but we'll call it even time." + +Something unpleasant came into the guide's eyes when Field said +"Long." "I'll trouble you," he said, "not to mention that there name +again, meaning me." + +He put out his long arm and knuckled hand and drew the bills across +the board. He counted out part and pushed the rest back. "This is +mine," he said: "I'd ha' made about that on the lake, average luck. I +don't want to be beholden to you, nor you to me." + +"As you please," answered Field, folding up the bills. He wrote on a +slip of paper, wrapped it round the roll and tied all with a bit of +string: "I'll keep this for you if you say so. When you want it, just +let me know. There is my number." + +He twirled a card across the table, and it fell face down before Long. +He took it up without turning it over, tore it across and dropped it +on the floor. + +"Stranger," he said, "you and me's quits. I don't know you and you +don't know me. But if I was a friend of yours, and advisin' you what +was best for you, I'd say to you, 'Go home.'" His skull-cap drawn +forward, and his face set and threatening, he leaned forward with his +powerful arms on the table and spoke in his usual low, unemphatic way, +and with his deliberate, huskily-musical voice. Field laughed: his +right arm was back upon the arm of his chair, and his fingers under +his coat played with something that clicked. + +"Just so," Long went on, as if Field had spoken, perhaps a shade +darker in the face, but with the same even manner and voice. "Our +bears don't carry no coward's devil-fingers that kill by p'inting at +twenty foot, but they hev got teeth and claws." + +Field started up and flushed like fire. "Did you say _coward_?" he +said. "By ----! that's more than I'll take from you!" And his voice +and his hand on the back of his chair shook a little as he spoke. + +Long lay back in his chair, folded his arms and nodded: "You heard +what I said. Maybe it ain't York English, but it's such as we hev in +these parts." + +Field stood a minute looking at him. Then he drew out a silver-mounted +revolver from his pocket and laid it on the table. + +"There," he said, "I make you a present of it. Be careful: it is +loaded and cocked." + +Long looked up with something like admiration in his face. He took the +pistol in his hand, went to the window and fired the six barrels, one +after the other. The landlord came in to see what it was. + +"Mr. Wannock," said Long, "lockup this pistol till Mr. Meadow calls +for it." + +"It is not mine," said Field: "I gave it to you, and you took it." + +Long went out without a word. + +Field did not go home. He was back and forth about the lakes, mostly +about the upper one, for a week or two after that. He turned up in all +sorts of places, fished in deep water and shoal, rowed and shot and +climbed the mountains. He fell in with the Wanita and her people very +often. One evening--it was Thursday, the twentieth--he was in the +village of Ti, and walked out with his cigar, alone. He strolled +up the road to the high levels and walked on. The moon was high and +bright, and the country about him surpassingly peaceful and beautiful +under the white sheen. He came at last to the old fort and wandered +through the ruins, ghostly and weird in the calm moonlight. A flock +of sheep was lying under the trembling old walls. "Peace and war," +he muttered to himself, and leaned against a crumbling wall a little +while, looking at the dreamy picture. He got up on the old ramparts +and picked his way out till he stood on the outermost point of the +star, where the massive wall stands almost as solid as when the +Frenchmen built it a century and a half ago. This outer angle of the +fort rises sheer from the edge of the perpendicular cliff whose foot +is washed by the waters of the lake. + +Field sat down on the stones with his feet hanging over, and looked +down and around. The still, bright water, the hills bright and black +in light or shadow, and the serene sky made a scene exceedingly solemn +and impressive. Below, in the sombre shadow of the cliff, Field heard +the faint, musical bubble of the water among the rocks, and a sheep +bleated once behind the ruined fort: those were the only sounds. He +dropped the end of his cigar, and watched the spark till it went out +suddenly far down. + +The scene very naturally reminded him of his friend. Down there they +had rowed together--twice was it, or three times? Strange that he had +forgotten already, but it seemed a long time since. Below this wall on +the left they had stood the first day they were here, and chipped bits +of mortar and stone for mementoes. He remembered how Phil had hunted +the whole place for a flower without finding one--he wondered whether +it was for any one in particular that he had wanted it so much. Yes, +it seemed an age since that day, and how everything had changed! Under +the cliff there to the left--he could not see it, but he knew it +was there--was the little wooden wharf where he had parted from Phil +between night and morning. And he wished to God he had gone home with +him. + +He heard a crunching sound behind him, and looked round sharply. +Then he turned and got up on his feet, and stood with his back to +the precipice. The long fellow stood in the path facing him, with his +hands in his pockets and his dark face in the shadow. A glance told +Field, what he knew already, that there was only one way to go back. +His face was white, but there was no more tremor in his voice than if +he had leaned against a pyramid instead of a hundred feet of thin air, +when he said, "Well?" + +There was something just a little strained and by no means pleasant +to hear in the familiar, husky voice that answered, "Ain't it kind o' +dangerous out there? Suppose you was to fall off there?" + +"I don't choose to suppose it," was the steady answer. "Let's talk +about something else." + +"It ain't pleasant to think of, is it?" the huskily-musical voice +went on. "It must be something like a hundred foot to the rocks down +there." He paused and began again: "Moonshine's a queerish light, +though, ain't it? Makes you look as white now as if you was scared." + +"That's very strange, isn't it?" Field replied. "Do you think it would +have the same effect on you if you stood in my place?" + +"I'm ---- if I don't!" Long broke out, with a twitching motion of his +head, and trembling as he spoke; "and I'd be so cold my teeth would +chatter and my veins grog." + +"Come," Field said sternly, beginning to feel that if he stood much +longer on that spot he should grow dizzy and fall, "let's have no more +of this. Have you anything you wish to propose? If you haven't, I'll +trouble you to move on and let me pass." + +"I propose," replied the other, with a twist of his head, as if there +was something in his throat hard to swallow, speaking slowly and +repeating the words--"I propose to throw you over." + +Field knew that the fellow united the strength of the bear and the +agility of the wild-cat. He knew that, even if he had not the terrible +disadvantage of position, he would stand no chance in a struggle. +Glancing down, he caught the flash of a wave upon the black rocks +far below. But he only bit his lip and stood still, a little whiter +perhaps, but his eyes never flinching from the other's face. When he +did not speak, Long asked, "Do you know what that means?" + +The answer came straight and startling, "Yes, it means death." + +"I guess you're about right," Long continued. "And I calculate you're +about as well prepared as you'll 'most ever be." + +Field began to show the strain upon his nerves and the sense of his +desperate state, but only by the evident tension of the muscles of the +jaw and the unnatural calm of his manner and low, forced tone. "Very +likely," he said; and added slowly, "but I'll not go alone." + +"Maybe not. I don't much care," was the sullen reply. "This place +or that since you come, there ain't much choice. But if you've got +anything on your mind that you'd like to have off before you quit, +you'd best have it up." + +"I have only one thing to say to you," was the reply: "you are not +going to throw me over." There was a dimness in his young eyes then +and a rising in his throat. He thought of a great many things and +people in a very brief space, and the world and a score of friendly +faces seemed very sweet and hard to let go. And yet at the same time +another and sterner self steadfastly put all that aside, and triumphed +over the shrinking of the flesh from the dreadful certainty, and of +the spirit from the dread unknown; and to the long fellow's advance +and fierce question, "Who'll hinder me?" he cried aloud, "I will." He +turned and shut his eyes, gathered himself together, and sprang out +into the awful abyss. With his arms by his side and his feet together, +swift and straight as an arrow, he dropped through the moonlight +and through the black shadow, and struck with a quick, keen plunge a +moment afterward a dizzy distance down. + +Lying on his face, looking down with staring eyes, and clinging +fiercely to the stones for a great fear that took hold of him and +shook him, the long fellow suddenly heard the shock of an oar, and +saw round to the left a boat slide out of the black shadow under the +cliffs and into the calm stretch of moonlit water. He rose up then and +fled for miles like a hunted hare. + +Field was quickly missed, and suspicion immediately set upon long Bill +Trapp. More people knew of the little drama they and one more had +been playing than either had any idea of. A boy from the Ti House had +passed Field up near the old battle-ground, and coming back from the +village soon after had followed Trapp and seen him turn up toward +the old fort. A handkerchief was found on the top of the cliff marked +"D.F.," and Field's hat was found among the rocks along the shore. A +warrant was issued for Trapp's arrest, and he was hunted high and low +by a posse of constables, but not taken. And meanwhile Field was lying +unconscious in an old farm-house by the lake-side a mile or two north. +Old Trapp had been out that night, looking for his son--he and +Bill's mother had been a good deal worried about him the last week +or two--and the old man had been down to Ti inquiring for him, having +heard nothing of him for some days. He was pulling out, on his +way home, from under the rocks below the fort, and saw the two men +standing out in the angle of the wall high up. He saw the awful leap +and plunge, rowed round and fished out the limp shape of a young man +he had never seen, worked the water out of him, rowed him home and +carried him and laid him in bed. He left him there, breathing but +unconscious, and went for Dr. Niedever of Rawdon. He must have struck +his head in some way: there was a cut on his forehead, but no other +serious injury that could be seen. If he had struck sidewise, it would +not have mattered much whether it was water or rock that he struck; +but his leap had carried him beyond the debris at the cliff's foot, +and, coming down perfectly straight as he did, ten feet deeper water +would have let him off little the worse. As it was, he was unconscious +for some time. When he came to himself he was extremely weak and +hungry, and perfectly contented to let them do with him as they +pleased. The doctor's daily visits, the movements of the queer old +couple as they came in and out, fed him and gave his draughts, the +homely old place and the placid expanse of the lake which he saw by +turning his head, were as much and no more to him than his own body +lying there day after day. They were parts of a pantomime, of which he +was actor and spectator, but in which he had no special interest, and +which he was perfectly happy to go to sleep and leave. Gradually his +brain cleared, and slowly he got back the thread of recollection where +it had broken so sharply, and began to spin again; and among the first +clear new ideas that took shape out of his scattered wits was one, +that the queer old couple had been exceedingly good to him, and that +they had no special reason for kindness in his case; and, second, +that this gruff, ruddy, Indian-haired doctor was a man of skill and +decision, and one not too fond of Mr. Daniel Field. + +The second Sunday afternoon Field was lying quietly looking out on the +lake from the bed, and thinking in a mood uncommonly serious for +him, not very complacent nor very proud. Some feelings that had been +stronger than he cared to resist these last few weeks had grown vague +and intermittent--some new ones had come into their place. + +Dr. Niedever came in and looked at him, giving him no greeting and +treating him brusquely enough. He took a turn about the room, and +faced round. "Well, young man," he said, "we pulled you through a +pretty tight place." + +The manner and tone angered Field. "That's your trade, isn't it?" he +answered. "I suppose money will pay you." + +"Money!" roared the old doctor. "Of course you'll pay, and pay well. +But do you think I've done it for your sake, or your money? Look here: +he served you right when he threw you over." + +"I suppose he'd hang as well as another," answered Field. + +"He wouldn't hang. There's no evidence but hearsay and surmise against +him. If you had died, your body would never have been found. A hundred +good men would testify to his character, and I'd have been one. He +stands a worse chance now than if you were anchored to the bottom of +the lake. I haven't saved your life for his sake nor for yours: I have +done it for this old man. You owe me nothing but money, but everything +you've got, and all you'll ever have, and the chance of redeeming +yourself, you owe to old Joe Trapp; and I wish him joy of his debtor!" + +"Now, old man," Field answered, "you can go. You needn't come back. I +haven't the money now, but old Trapp will give you my card out of my +coat. Send your bill to that address and I'll pay you when I can." + +The doctor stood looking at him a minute with his hands in his +pockets, his red face scowling savagely. He muttered something, turned +on his heel and went down. Old Trapp was away at the time, and came +home an hour later. He came up and into Field's room with his queer +gait and face and stooping old figure. + +"My friend," said Field, "I'll trouble you to bring me my clothes: I'm +going to get up." + +The old man went down and brought them, helped him to dress and come +down stairs, and set him by the fire in an easy-chair. The old wife +brought and laid on the table a knife, a bunch of keys, a letter, a +card-case and cigar-case, a handkerchief newly washed and ironed, +a pair of soiled gloves, some pennies and trifles, and two rolls of +bills. + +"They was wet, you know, and we had to dry 'em separate," said the old +man, "but you'll find 'em right, I guess." + +Field flushed up when he saw one of the rolls: it was tied with a +string, and a bit of paper about it was marked in pencil, partly +obliterated, "Long Fellow of Ti." He put that package into his pocket +with the' other things, and left the other roll of money on the table. + +"You two people have done uncommonly neighborly by me," he said. "I +should like to know your reason." "I guess most anybody'd done it, +stranger," answered Trapp. "Like's you'd be done by, you know, ef +you'd ha' been me, wouldn't you?" + +"No, I'll be hanged if I would!" broke out Field. "But look here, +friends: you think he threw me down. He did not: I jumped off myself. +He did not touch me." + +"Oh, God bless you!" cried the bowed old wife, her worn face turning +radiant upon him and bright drops starting in the dull old eyes. They +were almost the first words he had heard her speak. Though she had +been very attentive to him all along, she had done it almost in +silence and with an averted face. Her voice was high and almost sweet. +Field talked on then, and told them several things at which they both +fell to crying like children. He took out one bill from the roll on +the table and made the old man take the rest. "I do not pretend that +money can pay what I owe you," he said, "but what I have you must let +me give you for my own satisfaction." + +During the next few days, while he gathered his strength, our friend +sat about the house in the sunny places and took a strong liking for +the simple, kind old wife, and told her by degrees the story of his +life and his friends. In that wonderful air he rallied like magic. +He took longer and longer walks, keeping well out of sight of prying +eyes, though the place was retired enough, for that. Thursday morning +of that week he borrowed some clothes of the farmer and made a bundle +of his own. He bade the old couple good-bye, not without regret on +either side. As the Wanita ploughed up the lake that day on her return +trip, a man came down from the hurricane-deck into the cabin, sat by +the table and took up a magazine lying there and turned it over. +He was dressed in coarse, ill-fitting, homespun clothes, and had a +newly-healed scar on his forehead. His upper lip was roughly shorn, +and the rest of his face covered with a two or three weeks' beard. He +was not an attractive-looking person, certainly, and yet the pretty +girl sewing by the window, her face quite wan and worn-looking now, +glanced at him many times in a flurried, nervous way; and when he was +gone she went and took up the old magazine, opened it where a leaf was +turned down, and read these lines of an old-fashioned ballad: + + Oh, alone and alorn, as the night came down, + Sir Reginald walked on the wet sea-sands; + And all as he walked came Marianne, + King's daughter of all those lands. + +That evening, as the dusk was coming on, Hester Charner walked on the +path along the lake, round toward the forest, and suddenly in a shaded +place she met the unkempt stranger of the boat She started back and +almost screamed. His face had a dark look that scared her. + +"Is it you, Mr. Meadow?" she entreated. + +"No," he answered: "Meadow's dead--drowned in the lake for ever, I +hope to God." + +The girl drew back with a little cry. "Then he did kill him?" she +wailed. "Oh, I wish I might die! I wish he'd killed me!" + +"Oh, you false girl!" Field broke out. "But he did not kill him. I +killed him myself. He would if I hadn't, and served him right, too. +But he did not put a finger on him. I saved him from murder--him and +me. Yes, _you_--don't shrink--you drove him to it; and you would have +been the guiltier of the two. You were as good as promised to him--you +know you were--and you should have been proud to be. He would have +given his life for you any day, and you broke your faith for a +smooth--faced, brazen fop, who played with you to your peril, and +despised you in his heart all the while for a false jade. You may +thank Trapp all your life for cutting that short when he did, and +thank God you can yet be an honest wife to an honest man." + +As he thus spoke there came a watery feeling into his eyes, and a +yearning to take the girl to his heart and brave all the world for her +sake. He hated the long fellow as he had never done before, and cursed +him in his heart while he praised him with his lips. But he kept his +thoughts upon a picture of a gray old farm-house by the water-side, +and a bent old man and woman therein, and went on playing his game, +and won it. + +Her face paled, and she clasped her hands. "Where is he?" she asked +eagerly. + +"He's lying to-night in Aleck Jarley's cabin, back of the haystack." + +She was turning away, but he stopped her. "Wait a minute," he said. +"Here is some money belonging to Trapp: you can give it to him." + +The money was in her hand before he had finished speaking. She folded +her shawl across her breast and turned away in the direction he had +indicated. + +The next morning Field started for home. He had just one dollar in his +pocket and two hundred miles of ground to get over. He walked, caught +a ride now and then, got a lift on a canal-boat two or three times, +ate bread and drank water and slept in barns or under grain-stacks. +He came walking into Colman's office one morning looking cheerful but +somewhat disreputable. Colman did not know him at first. When they had +shaken hands. Colman looked in his friend's shaggy face and asked, "Is +it all square, Dan?" + +"All square, Phil," answered Field, looking the other as straight in +the eyes; + +"Well, I'm glad you pulled through, Dan," said Colman; "but you'd +better have come home with me." + +"Well, I don't know, Phil," Field answered musingly: "I'm not sure +whether I'm sorry or glad." + +J.T. McKAY. + + + + +THE PROBLEM. + + + Two parted long, and yearning long to meet, + Within an hour the life of months repeat; + Then come to silence, as if each had poured + Into the other's keeping all his hoard. + + And when the life seems drained of all its store, + Each inly wonders why he says no more. + Why, since they've met, does mutual need seem small, + And what avails the presence, after all? + + Though silent thought with those we love is sweet, + The heart finds every meeting incomplete; + And with the dearest there must sometimes be + The wide and lonely silence of the sea. + +CHARLOTTE F. BATES. + + + + +MONACO. + + +There are three ways of reaching Monaco from Nice--by sea, by rail, +and by carriage _viâ_ the Corniche road. This last is the longest, but +by far the most interesting route. The railroad takes you to Monaco in +about an hour, and the steamer employs pretty nearly the same time. A +carriage, on the other hand, requires not less than five hours for +the journey, but then the scenery passed through is perhaps the most +striking in Southern Europe. I have often gone on foot, leaving Nice +early in the morning, and arriving in Monaco at about four in the +afternoon, having been able to rest fully two hours on the way. Once +beyond the town, the road begins to ascend what is called the Montée +de Villefranche, and at every step the views become more and more +varied and picturesque. Presently an olive wood is traversed, and the +town is lost to sight until the summit of the mountain which separates +the Bay of Nice from that of Villefranche is attained. This olive wood +is of great antiquity, and, like almost all similar thickets in this +part of the country, doubtless owes its origin to the Romans, who are +said to have introduced the tree into the Maritime Alps and the south +of France. Many of the trees are very large, and their trunks are +black and much twisted, their branches long and weird-looking, but +the exceeding delicacy of their foliage, which is dark green on the +outside and silver gray on the inner, lends them a very fascinating +appearance, especially on a moonlight night, when the arching boughs +of an olive grove look exactly as if covered with shawls of rich black +lace. The leaf of the olive tree, which is an evergreen, is attached +to the bough by a very slender stalk, so that the slightest wind +sets it in motion, as it does that of the quivering aspen. The fruit +resembles an acorn without its cup, and is brown and dingy. The flower +is very insignificant. + +The olive trees at Nice are cultivated on terraces cut like deep steps +up the mountain-side. All the earth which fills these terraces +has been placed there by human labor; and when it is taken into +consideration that many hundreds of miles of mountain-side have been +thus redeemed from waste, that the work dates back at least fifteen +centuries, and was performed at a period when agricultural implements +were of the rudest, they must be acknowledged as among the most +gigantic of undertakings. They are from ten to twenty feet high, about +a quarter of a mile long, and from fifteen to twenty-five feet wide. +In order to form them the rock had to be cut away, blasting being of +course unknown at the time, and every handful of earth brought up from +the plain below, often to a height of two thousand feet. The Provençal +writers consider them the work of the Moors, but it is probable that +they were commenced under the Phoceans and the Romans and continued by +the Arabs. I have been shown several terraces the masonry of which +was undoubtedly Roman, and coins bearing the effigies of the earlier +Cæsars have been often found in the brick work. Corn is grown on them +under the shadow of the olive trees, to whose branches the vine is +frequently twined. I have seen two wheat-harvests gathered in one year +on these narrow terraces, and nothing can be imagined more charming +than their appearance late in autumn. Then the golden corn waves +beneath garlands of vine heavily laden with luscious fruit, the olive +tree, emblem of peace, waves its silvery foliage overhead, the peach +is ripe, and so are the bright green October figs, and there is a +mellowness in the air that makes one almost inclined to believe that +the age of gold has returned to earth. + +As the summit of the mountain is approached vegetation becomes less +luxuriant, and finally disappears altogether. Mont Borron, for so is +the mountain in question called, is about two thousand five hundred +feet high, and the plateau at its top is barren and rocky, though the +short tufty thyme and myrtle grow in great abundance, to the delight +of the sheep and bees. The view obtained hence is amongst the most +beautiful in the world. Facing you is the deep blue Thyranean Sea, +sparkling with sails, and often on a clear day with the hazy outline +of the island of Corsica distinctly visible on its horizon. To the +right lies Nice, with all her domes, towers, churches, hotels, quays +and the interminable line of her palatial villas traced out as in a +map. Then range after range of mountains of every shape and nature, +grass grown, rocky, forest-covered, barren, rise one above the other +until the mists of distance alone efface them from sight. Along the +coast of France can be counted, from this point, not less than fifteen +separate bays and as many peninsulas and capes. Wherever the eye +lingers it is sure to discover enchanting districts--gardens of +surpassing loveliness, where grow groves of orange and lemon trees +white with blossom or golden with fruit; stately palms of many +varieties; the two-leaved eucalyptus; rose-bushes whose flowers are +far more numerous than their leaves; magnolia and camellia trees +capable of producing a thousand flowers; villas of Venetian, English, +Swiss, Italian, and Oriental architecture. Here by the sea is one of +such perfectly classical appearance that every moment one expects to +see issue from its marble peristyle the gracefully shaped Ione, Julia +or Lydia; there is a sweet little cottage, half buried in banksia +roses, which might have been transported from the Branch, Cape May or +the Isle of Wight. But if the view to your right is beautiful for its +luxuriant fertility, that to the left surpasses it in grandeur. Below +you is the pretty village of Villefranche, with its old church +and forts half hidden amongst the palms, which, together with the +innumerable aloe-plants of colossal proportions, give the scene a +truly African character. Villefranche reflects herself and her palms +upon the surface of the most mirror-like of bays, for even in the +stormiest weather no ripple stirs its waters--waters so deep that +the largest ships of war can anchor in them close to the shore. +The American frigates cruising in the Mediterranean usually make +Villefranche their winter resort, and the stately presences of the +Richmond, Plymouth, Shenandoah and Juniata are often to be seen here, +giving life to a scene which otherwise would lack animation. Beyond +Villefranche the long hilly peninsula of Beaulieu and St. Hospice +stretches for fully three miles out into the bay, as green as an +emerald, with some twenty pleasure-boats usually clustering about its +shores, for the cork woods of St. Hospice are famous for picnics and +merrymaking, and its little hotel is renowned throughout Europe for +its fish-dinners. + +Behind Villefranche, and continuing for fully fifty miles along the +Italian coast, rise the majestic mountains of the Riviera. Nothing +can be imagined more awe-striking than their appearance: their weird +shapes, their gloomy ravines, their fearful precipices, beetling over +the sea many thousand feet, their crags, peaks, chasms and desolate +grandeur produce a panorama of unsurpassed magnificence. But what +impresses one most is perceiving that, however barren they seem, they +are nevertheless thickly peopled. Towns, villages, convents, villas +and towers cover them in all directions, and in positions often truly +astonishing. Yonder is quite a large town clustering round the extreme +peak of a mountain at least three thousand feet high, and utterly bald +of vegetation; there is Eza perched upon a rock rising perpendicularly +from the sea, so that a stone thrown from the church-tower would fall +straight into the waves below through fifteen hundred feet of space; +far away in the distance, and close upon the shore, looking as white +as a band of pearls, are the villas of Mentone, and just in front of +them the castle-crowned heights of Monaco; yonder, almost touching the +clouds, is the famous sanctuary of Laghetto, and there is Augustus's +monument at La Tarbia--a solitary round tower, so solidly built that +it has resisted the ravages of eighteen centuries. + +But what pen can describe the splendor of this scene? what brush +reproduce its ever-changing hues, its delicate mists, its broad +shadows, the deep blue of the sea, the rosy tint which Aurora casts +over all, or the vivid purples and crimsons which glow upon the +mountain-crags and strew the indigo of the Mediterranean with +jasper, ruby, Sapphire and gold when the sun falls to rest behind the +beautiful Cape of Antibes? Nature defies Art in such a spot as this, +and seems to triumph in bewildering our delighted senses with the +infinite variety of her products. Here her sea and mountains are +sublime in their grandeur, and at our feet are wild violets and heath +and rosemary and thyme, each, too, sublime in its way. She defies us +with her colors, her odors, and even with her music, for overhead "the +lark at heaven's gate sings," and the bees go buzzing home laden with +honey stolen from the wild honeysuckle, caper and myrtle which grow +abundantly around. + +It was my fortune once to escort to this view the illustrious French +artist Paul Delaroche. His delight can be better imagined than +described. "Ah!" he exclaimed, "ceci c'est trop bien!" He assured me +that no painter could attempt it excepting perhaps Turner, and +vowed that although he had visited many lands he had never witnessed +anything to surpass it. Turner perhaps could have reproduced such a +scene, for he possessed the power of giving the general effects of +extended landscapes admirably, without entering too minutely into +their details. In the "Loreto necklace" and "Golden bough" he has +painted two marvelously varied views full of ranges of mountains, +rivers, lakes and classic buildings, without confusion, and with great +skill displayed in portraying various and vaporous distances. + +But it is high time that we leave the fine arts and hasten on to +Monaco. Space, like time, is limited, and much as I should love to +conduct my readers all the long way on foot, to show them the monster +olive tree at Beaulieu, which is seven yards in circumference, and +reputed the largest of its species in the world, to pause a little +amidst the Roman ruins of La Tarbia and the Saracenic remains of Eza +and Roccabruna, I must hasten on to the capital of the Liliputian +dominions of his Serene Highness Prince Florestan II. + +Let me entertain you with a very brief account of the history of this +singular little princedom. Monaco is one of the most ancient places in +Europe. Five hundred years before our Blessed Lord came to redeem the +world, Hecate of Melites wrote an account of the city, which he called +_Monoikos_ (the "isolated dwelling"), and declared it to be even then +so old a town that the people had lost all tradition of its origin, +except that some of their priests asserted Hercules to have founded it +after his feat of slaying Geryon and the brigands before he left Italy +for Spain. The Romans, in fact, called it _Portus Herculis Monceci_, +and for short "_Portus Monceci_." During the Middle Ages Hercules +was entirely cast aside, and the town was spoken of as Monaco. The +tradition of its original foundation is carefully preserved in the +civic coat-of-arms, which represents a gigantic monk with a club in +his hand--Hercules in a friar's robe. In the days of Charlemagne +the Moors invaded Monaco, and remained there until A.D. 968, when a +Genoese captain named Grimaldi volunteered to assist the Christian +inhabitants in driving the infidels from their shores. He was +victorious, and was rewarded for his bravery and skill by being +proclaimed prince of Monaco. In the family of his descendants the +little territory still remains. + +The Grimaldis were powerful rulers, wise and brave, and having secured +independence, they maintained it at all cost through centuries of +trouble. Fifty-eight sieges has Monaco sustained from either the +French or the Genoese, but she never lost her independence excepting +for a few years at a time. In 1428 a terrible tragedy of great +dramatic interest occurred in the castle. John Grimaldi was prince, +and married to a Fieschi Adorno of Genoa, a lovely lady, but a +faithless. She had not long been a wife ere she fixed her affections +on her husband's younger brother, Lucian, and induced him to murder +his brother and usurp the throne. Accordingly, Lucian, aided by his +mistress, stabbed John Grimaldi in his bed, and having thrown the body +into the sea, proclaimed himself prince. He reigned but a short time. +Bartolomeo Doria, nephew of the Genoese doge, Andrea Doria the Great, +murdered him at a masquerade given in his palace to celebrate his +infamous sister-in-law's birthday. The galleys of the doge awaited +the assassin without the port, and transported him back in safety to +Genoa--a circumstance which gave rise to a suspicion that Andrea was +himself privy to the deed. As to the wicked lady, she was banished to +the castle of Roccabruna, where she died miserably, abandoned by all. +A legend says she went distracted, and in a fit of insanity flung +herself headlong over the rocks into the sea. + +In 1792 the French Republic destroyed the principality, but it was +restored through the interest of Talleyrand in 1815. A revolution +broke out in 1848, which obliged the prince to declare Monaco a free +town, and which also deprived His Highness of Mentone and Roccabruna. +When the French annexed Nice they also added the two last-mentioned +towns to their dominions, but had to pay Prince Florestan four +millions of francs for his feudal right. + +If Monaco is not a very large principality, it is in a pecuniary sense +exceedingly flourishing. In 1863 His Highness made the acquaintance of +M. Blanc, the famous gambling-saloon "organizer" of Homburg, and, on +the receipt of the trifling consideration of twelve million francs and +an annual tax of one hundred and fifty thousand, consented to allow +him to establish the world-famous saloons at Monte Carlo, about a mile +and a half from the capital. + +The people of Monaco pay few taxes, enjoy many privileges, like and +laugh at their sovereign, and by no means desire annexation either to +France or Italy. By law they are strictly prohibited from gambling, +and are a quiet, thrifty, peace-loving set, kept in order by an army +of sixty-one men, ten officers and a colonel, of whom more anon. Just +at present the court of "Liliput" has given room for a great deal +of gossip. His Serene Highness the hereditary prince, and Her Serene +Highness the princess, after a few months of matrimonial bliss, have +quarreled and separated. It happened on this wise. (The information I +give I know to be correct, as it was communicated to me by an intimate +friend of the young princess, and I was at Nice myself when the affair +occurred.) About four years ago the young prince of Monaco married, +through the influence of the empress Eugenie, the Lady Mary Douglas, +sister of the duke of Hamilton and daughter of H.I.H. the princess +Mary of Baden, duchess of Hamilton, and grand-daughter of the +celebrated Prince Eugene Beauharnois. The wedding was magnificent, and +the bride and bridegroom appeared exceedingly well pleased with each +other. After a brief honeymoon both their highnesses returned to +Monaco to reside with the reigning prince and princess. Very soon +afterward the young lady commenced making bitter complaints to +her friends of the court etiquette, which she declared was utterly +unendurable, especially to a free-born Englishwoman. An instance will +suffice: One morning Her Serene Highness came down to breakfast before +the whole family was assembled. To her amusement, she beheld on each +plate an egg labeled "For His Serene Highness, the reigning prince," +"For H.S.H. the reigning princess," "For H.S.H. the hereditary +prince," "For H.S.H. the hereditary princess." Being in a hurry and +hungry, "Her Serene Highness the hereditary princess" sat herself +down and ate her own egg and the eggs of her neighbors. Horror! Court +etiquette was over-thrown. The egg destined for the august prince +Florestan II. had been eaten by his own daughter-in-law! The outraged +majesty of Monaco was indignant, and the youthful aspirant to the +throne by no means mild in his reproaches. However, true Douglas as +she is, the old blood of Archibald Bell-the-cat boiled over, and the +princess Mary is reported to have read the serene family a famous +lecture. Matters went on in this way until the poor girl could stand +it no longer, and one fine day escaped from "jail," ran down to the +station and took the first train for Nice. A telegram was sent to +the gendarmerie at Nice to arrest her as soon as she got out of the +carriage. Accordingly, to her terror, when she put her foot on terra +firm a there stood two gendarmes ready to pounce upon her. It was, +however, no joke to arrest an imperial princess, for such Lady Mary +is by birth. The men hesitated, but not so the princess. Brought up +at Nice, she knew all the roads and bypaths of the place by heart. +Tucking up her petticoats, instead of going out by the ordinary exit +she made off as fast as her heels could carry her out of the station +to the fence which separates the lines from the road, climbed over it +and ran as swiftly as a hunted deer through the fields, pursued by +the two gendarmes, who, however, soon gave up the chase. Her Serene +Highness finally reached the Villa Arson, almost two miles distant, +terribly frightened and with her clothes pretty nearly torn off +her back. Here she found that noble-hearted and Christian woman her +mother, from whom she has never since separated. Nor has she yielded +up to her husband her little son, born soon after the flight from +Monaco. Vain have been the young man's attempts to induce her to +return to him, vain his appeals to the pope to use his influence, vain +even the threats of law. Last winter the prince induced the king +of Italy to permit an attempt to abduct the child from the princess +whilst she was staying in Florence with the grand duchess Marie of +Russia, but the guards of the imperial lady prevented the emissaries +of the Florentine syndic from even entering the palace, and the next +day the princess of Monaco fled with her child to Switzerland. What +the future developments of this singular affair will be time will +show. The husband seems determined not to yield, and has recently +employed the celebrated lawyer M. Grandperret as his counsel. It +is stated that undue influence of a malicious kind has been used to +prejudice both the duchess of Hamilton and her daughter against the +prince, but all who know the truly lofty mind of the duchess will be +sure that, although the reason for the princess's conduct has never +transpired, it must be a very good one, or her mother would never +uphold her as she does. Not the slightest blame is attributable to +the princess of Monaco, and her reputation remains utterly above +suspicion. + +The station of Monaco is about ten minutes' walk from the town, which +we now see is built upon a lofty rock forming a kind of peninsula +jutting out from the mainland in the shape of a three-cornered hat. It +is about two hundred feet high, and rises almost perpendicularly from +the water on three sides, and that which joins the rest of the coast +is ascended by a winding and steep road which passes under several +very curious old gates and arches, originally belonging to the castle. +The castle crowns the centre of the rock, and is a most romantic +construction, possessing bastions, towers, portcullises, drawbridges +and all the paraphernalia of a genuine mediæval fortress. It was built +upon the site of a much more ancient edifice in 1542, and is a very +remarkable specimen of the military architecture of the fifteenth and +sixteenth centuries. During the French Revolution it was used as a +hospital for wounded soldiers, and subsequently fell into a state of +pitiable decay. It has, however, been repaired with great taste by the +present prince within the last few years. Internally, it possesses +a magnificent marble staircase and some fine apartments. One long +gallery is said to have been painted in fresco by Michael Angelo, but +it has been so much restored that the original design alone remains. +Another gallery is covered with good pictures by the Genoese artist +Carlone. Five doors open on this latter gallery--one leading to the +private chambers of the prince; another to those of the princess; a +third into a room where the duke of York, brother of George IV., was +carried to die; a fourth to the famous Grimaldi hall; and the fifth +to the room where Lucian Grimaldi was murdered, as already related, +by Bartolomeo Doria. This chamber was walled up immediately after +the crime, and only reopened in 1869, after a lapse of three hundred +years. The Grimaldi hall, or state chamber, is a large square +apartment of good proportions and handsomely decorated. Its chief +attraction is the chimney-piece, one of the finest specimens of +Renaissance domestic architecture now extant. It is very vast, lofty +and deep, constructed of pure white marble and covered with the most +exquisite bas-reliefs imaginable. Under Napoleon I. it was taken +down to be removed to Paris, but was replaced in 1815. The chapel is +handsome, and covered with good frescoes and splendid Roman mosaics. +The gardens are very delightful, abounding with shady bowers and +beautiful tropical plants. In one of the alleys is a tomb of the time +of Cæsar, bearing this inscription: + + JUL. CASAR + AUGUSTUS IMP. + TRIBUNITIA + POTESTATE + DCI. + +The streets of Monaco are very narrow, and possess but few handsome +houses. The little shops are very neat and the place is exceedingly +clean. The principal church, dedicated to Saint Nicholas, is very +ancient, and possesses two or three good pre-Raphaelite pictures. It +is attached to a recently-restored Benedictine abbey, the mitred abbot +of which does the duties of bishop. He is an exceedingly pleasant +old gentleman, very chatty and unassuming. The Jesuits have a superb +college and convent in Monaco, which is the residence of the Father +Provincial of Piedmont and California. This may appear a somewhat +extensive jurisdiction, but California was placed under the direction +of the provincial of Piedmont when it was first discovered and only +a missionary station. The port (_Portus Hercults_) is small, but well +situated: about eight hundred and fifty little vessels and steamers +enter it annually. Surrounding the port are some excellent bathing +establishments, and not far from it rises Monte Carlo with its +magnificent casino. + +I cannot bid adieu to Monaco without relating a little anecdote in +which I was an involuntary actor. It chanced that one day in 1870 +business took me to Monaco, and I arrived in that capital on the +anniversary of the birthday of the reigning princess. The little town +was decorated with flags and banners; a _Te Deum_ was sung in the +abbey church, and after high mass a review of the "army" took place +in front of the castle, on the Grande Place. Now I happened to be well +acquainted with the captain, who, the instant he saw me watching the +manoeuvres, took the opportunity to come over and invite me to dine +with the officers that evening, when they were to be regaled at a +banquet at the expense of the princess. I of course accepted, and was, +at about four in the afternoon, taken over the guard-house, which +is exquisitely clean and neatly furnished, and contains a handsome +chapel, a billiard-room and a well-supplied reading-room. Dinner was +served at five o'clock, and a very good one it was. The dining-room +had been, in days of yore the refectory of an ancient convent, and the +men sat at two long white-wood tables placed facing each other in the +centre of the chamber, while the officers were accommodated with a +table to themselves at the top of the room. During the repast a good +deal of jesting went on, toasts were drunk and wine circulated freely. +Some hot heads amongst the youngsters began to turn, and it became +pretty evident that it was more prudent to consign the men to the +barracks than to allow them to go out after dark through the town. The +colonel consequently gave the captain a hint to that effect. It soon +got noised about, however, and when the colonel retired to his private +room to smoke, his key was suddenly turned from without, and he +was locked in. The same thing happened to the captain and myself. +Presently the most awful noises resounded through the building: "the +army" was in a state of insubordination. Some dozen young fellows came +up to the colonel's door and declared that they would not release him +unless he granted the extra leave which was theirs by right. Furious +was the gallant colonel, and no less so my friend the captain. They +swore terrible vengeance, but the "army" cared little for their +threats. Over each door throughout the whole building is a circular +window, just large enough for a man to put his head through. Wishing +to see what was going on, I got up on a chair and looked out. Down +the corridor was a tide of upturned excited faces. Out of the +next loophole to mine appeared the infuriated face of the colonel. +Presently some bright wit in the lower part of the house was inspired +with the brilliant idea of firing off a gun. This decided matters, +and, making a terrible effort, the colonel burst open his door, and +rushing down the corridor with drawn sword, soon intimidated the +revolutionists. By and by the captain and myself were released from +durance vile, and before twenty minutes elapsed the "revolt" was +over. Decided as was the action of the colonel, it was as kindly +as possible. He treated his men as they deserved--like unruly +boys--locked them up for the night, and promised them a holiday when +they were good. + +When I left the guard-house that night it was already long after dark: +the last trains from Monte Carlo were due within half an hour of each +other. I hastened to the station. Almost at its entrance I met an +old friend whose face, I noticed, was deadly pale. He was a man of +considerable influence, and I at once concluded that he had received +bad news from the seat of war. I asked eagerly what was the matter. +"Can you keep a secret?" "Of course I can," I answered. "If you +divulge this one it may have serious consequences for yourself," he +returned gravely. "I promise to keep silent." "Well, then, there has +been a fight before Sedan. Napoleon III. has laid his sword at the +feet of William of Prussia." "My God!" I cried, "is it possible?" "It +is but too true. I have just seen a ciphered telegram which came _viâ_ +Cologne and Turin. It is not known in Nice, and will not be so for +hours yet. Do not say a word about it: if you do it may cost you dear. +No one will believe you, and they will take you for a spy, a Prussian +or a pessimist." I understood at once the prudence of this advice. +Presently the train came up, we parted, and I took my place. The +third-class carriages were full of volunteers, recruits and conscripts +from Mentone. They were singing _à tue tête_ the Marsellaise. I +shall never forget the terrible impression the song made on me. The +triumphant words shouted out by the men seemed more sorrowful than +those of the _De profundis_: + + Allons, enfants de la patrie, + Le jour de gloire est arrivé. + +"The day of glory" indeed _had_ arrived. On we went as fast as the +wind, and the singing continued uninterruptedly until we reached Nice. +Here I found the station full of soldiers preparing to start by the +2 A.M. train. When we entered the station, hearing the shouts of "Le +jour de gloire," they joined in enthusiastically. The next morning by +daybreak the official despatch arrived. To describe the consternation +it produced would be impossible, or the frantic glee with which +the Republic was proclaimed. The next day the mob tore down all the +imperial eagles and bees from the public buildings; M. Gavini, the +Bonapartist prefect, had to escape the best way he could over the +frontier, and madame his wife made her way to the station under a +shower of potatoes, eggs and carrots, and a volley of insults and +coarse epithets; Gambetta's father, a fine white-headed old gentleman, +a grocer, was carried in triumph through the streets; the timid +trembled for their lives; the wildest reports were circulated; the +town was placed in a state of siege; but "le jour de gloire" did not +arrive. It has not arrived yet, and may not do so for some time to +come; but it must arrive sooner or later, or there will be no such +thing as peace in Europe. + +R. DAVEY. + + + + +A PRINCESS OF THULE. + +BY WILLIAM BLACK, AUTHOR OF "THE STRANGE ADVENTURES OF A PHAETON." + +CHAPTER XXII. + +"LIKE HADRIANUS AND AUGUSTUS." + + +The island of Borva lay warm and green and bright under a blue sky; +there were no white curls of foam on Loch Roag, but only the long +Atlantic swell coming in to fall on the white beach; away over there +in the south the fine grays and purples of the giant Suainabhal shone +in the sunlight amid the clear air; and the beautiful sea-pyots flew +about the rocks, their screaming being the only sound audible in the +stillness. The King of Borva was down by the shore, seated on a stool, +and engaged in the idyllic operation of painting a boat which had been +hauled up on the sand. It was the Maighdean-mhara. He would let no +one else on the island touch Sheila's boat. Duncan, it is true, was +permitted to keep her masts and sails and seats sound and white, but +as for the decorative painting of the small craft--including a little +bit of amateur gilding--that was the exclusive right of Mr. Mackenzie +himself. For of course, the old man said; to himself, Sheila was +coming back to Borva one these days, and she would be proud to find +her own boat bright and sound. If she and her husband should resolve +to spend half the year in Stornoway, would not the small craft be of +use to her there? and sure he was that a prettier little vessel never +entered Stornoway Bay. Mr. Mackenzie was at this moment engaged in +putting a thin line of green round the white bulwarks that might have +been distinguished across Loch Roag, so keen and pure was the color. + +A much heavier boat, broad-beamed, red-hulled and brown-sailed, was +slowly coming round the point at this moment. Mr. Mackenzie raised +his eyes from his work, and knew that Duncan was coming back from +Callernish. Some few minutes thereafter the boat was run in to her +moorings, and Duncan came along the beach with a parcel in his hand. +"Here wass your letters, sir," he said. "And there iss one of them +will be from Miss Sheila, if I wass make no mistake." + +He remained there. Duncan generally knew pretty well when a letter +from Sheila was among the documents he had to deliver, and on such +an occasion he invariably lingered about to hear the news, which was +immediately spread abroad throughout the island. The old King of Borva +was not a garrulous man, but he was glad that the people about him +should know that his Sheila had become a fine lady in the South, and +saw fine things and went among fine people. Perhaps this notion of +his was a sort of apology to them--perhaps it was an apology to +himself--for his having let her go away from the island; but at all +events the simple folks about Borva knew that Miss Sheila, as they +still invariably called her, lived in the same town as the queen +herself, and saw many lords and ladies, and was present at great +festivities, as became Mr. Mackenzie's only daughter. And naturally +these rumors and stories were exaggerated by the kindly interest and +affection of the people into something far beyond what Sheila's +father intended; insomuch that many an old crone would proudly and +sagaciously wag her head, and say that when Miss Sheila came back to +Borva strange things might be seen, and it would be a proud day for +Mr. Mackenzie if he was to go down to the shore to meet Queen Victoria +herself, and the princes and princesses, and many fine people, all +come to stay at his house and have great rejoicings in Borva. + +Thus it was that Duncan invariably lingered about when he brought +a letter from Sheila; and if her father happened to forget or be +preoccupied, Duncan would humbly but firmly remind him. On-this +occasion Mr. Mackenzie put down his paint-brush and took the bundle of +letters and newspapers Duncan had brought him. He selected that from +Sheila, and threw the others on the beach beside him. + +There was really no news in the letter. Sheila merely said that she +could not as yet answer her father's question as to the time she might +probably visit Lewis. She hoped he was well, and that, if she could +not get up to Borva that autumn, he would come South to London for +a time, when the hard weather set in in the North. And so forth. But +there was something in the tone of the letter that struck the old man +as being unusual and strange. It was very formal in its phraseology. +He read it twice over very carefully, and forgot altogether that +Duncan was waiting. Indeed, he was going to turn away, forgetting +his work and the other letters that still lay on the beach, when he +observed that there was a postscript on the other side of the last +page. It merely said: "Will you please address your letters now to No. +---- Pembroke road, South Kensington, where I may be for some time?" + +That was an imprudent postscript. If she had shown the letter to any +one, she would have been warned of the blunder she was committing. But +the child had not much cunning, and wrote and posted the letter in the +belief that her father would simply do as she asked him, and suspect +nothing and ask no questions. + +When old Mackenzie read that postscript he could only stare at the +paper before him. + +"Will there be anything wrong, sir?" said the tall keeper, whose keen +gray eyes had been fixed on his master's face. + +The sound of Duncan's voice startled and recalled Mr. Mackenzie, who +immediately turned, and said lightly, "Wrong? What wass you thinking +would be wrong? Oh, there is nothing wrong whatever. But Mairi, she +will be greatly surprised, and she is going to write no letters until +she comes back to tell you what she has seen: that is the message +there will be for Scarlett. Sheila--she is very well." + +Duncan picked up the other letters and newspapers. + +"You may tek them to the house, Duncan," said Mr. Mackenzie; and then +he added carelessly, "Did you hear when the steamer was thinking of +leaving Stornoway this night?" + +"They were saying it would be seven o'clock or six, as there was a +great deal of cargo to go on her." + +"Six o'clock? I'm thinking, Duncan, I would like to go with her as far +as Oban or Glasgow. Oh yes, I will go with her as far as Glasgow. Be +sharp, Duncan, and bring in the boat." + +The keeper stared, fearing his master had gone mad: "You wass going +with her this ferry night?" + +"Yes. Be sharp, Duncan!" said Mackenzie, doing his best to conceal his +impatience and determination under a careless air. + +"Bit, sir, you canna do it," said Duncan peevishly. "You hef no things +looked out to go. And by the time we would get to Callernish it wass a +ferry hard drive there will be to get to Stornoway by six o'clock; and +there is the mare, sir, she will hef lost a shoe--" + +Mr. Mackenzie's diplomacy gave way. He turned upon the keeper with +a sudden fierceness and with a stamp of his foot: "---- ---- you, Duncan +MacDonald! is it you or me that is the master? I will go to Stornoway +this ferry moment if I hef to buy twenty horses!" And there was a +light under the shaggy eyebrows that warned Duncan to have done with +his remonstrances. + +"Oh. ferry well, sir--ferry well, sir," he said, going off to the +boat, and grumbling as he went. "If Miss Sheila was here, it would be +no going away to Glesca without any things wis you, as if you wass a +poor traffelin tailor that hass nothing in the world but a needle and +a thimble mirover. And what will the people in Styornoway hef to say, +and sa captain of sa steamboat, and Scarlett? I will hef no peace from +Scarlett if you wass going away like this. And as for sa sweerin, it +is no use sa sweerin, for I will get sa boat ready--oh yes, I will get +sa boat ready; but I do not understand why I will get sa boat ready." + +By this time, indeed, he had got along to the larger boat, and his +grumblings were inaudible to the object of them. Mr. Mackenzie went to +the small landing-place and waited. When he got into the boat and sat +down in the stern, taking the tiller in his right hand, he still held +Sheila's letter in the other hand, although he did not need to reread +it. + +They sailed out into the blue waters of the loch and rounded the point +of the island in absolute silence, Duncan meanwhile being both sulky +and curious. He could not make out why his master should so suddenly +leave the island, without informing any one, without even taking with +him that tall and roughly-furred black hat which he sometimes wore on +important occasions. Yet there was a letter in his hand, and it was a +letter from Miss Sheila. Was the news about Mairi the only news in it? + +Duncan kept looking ahead to see that the boat was steering her right +course for the Narrows, and was anxious, now that he had started, to +make the voyage in the least possible time, but all the same his eyes +would come back to Mr. Mackenzie, who sat very much absorbed, steering +almost mechanically, seldom looking ahead, but instinctively guessing +his course by the outlines of the shore close by. "Was there any bad +news, sir, from Miss Sheila?" he was compelled to say at last. + +"Miss Sheila!" said Mr. Mackenzie impatiently. "Is it an infant you +are, that you will call a married woman by such a name?" + +Duncan had never been checked before for a habit which was common to +the whole island of Borva. + +"There iss no bad news," continued Mackenzie impatiently. "Is it a +story you would like to tek back to the people of Borvabost?" + +"It wass no thought of such a thing wass come into my head, sir," said +Duncan. "There iss no one in sa island would like to carry bad news +about Miss Sheila; and there iss no one in sa island would like to +hear it--not any one whatever--and I can answer for that." + +"Then hold your tongue about it. There is no bad news from Sheila," +said Mackenzie; and Duncan relapsed into silence, not very well +content. + +By dint of very hard driving indeed Mr. Mackenzie just caught the boat +as she was leaving Stornoway harbor, the hurry he was in fortunately +saving him from the curiosity and inquiries of the people he knew on +the pier. As for the frank and good-natured captain, he did not show +that excessive interest in Mr. Mackenzie's affairs that Duncan had +feared; but when the steamer was well away from the coast and bearing +down on her route to Skye, he came and had a chat with the King of +Borva about the condition of affairs on the west of the island; and he +was good enough to ask, too, about the young lady that had married the +English gentleman. Mr. Mackenzie said briefly that she was very well, +and returned to the subject of the fishing. + +It was on a wet and dreary morning that Mr. Mackenzie arrived in +London; and as he was slowly driven through the long and dismal +thoroughfares with their gray and melancholy houses, their passers-by +under umbrellas, and their smoke and drizzle and dirt, he could not +help saying to himself, "My poor Sheila!" It was not a pleasant place +surely to live in always, although it might be all very well for a +visit. Indeed, this cheerless day added to the gloomy fore-bodings +in his mind, and it needed all his resolve and his pride in his own +diplomacy to carry out his plan of approaching Sheila. + +When he got down to Pembroke road he stopped the cab at the corner and +paid the man. Then he walked along the thoroughfare, having a look +at the houses. At length he came to the number mentioned in Sheila's +letter, and he found that there was a brass plate on the door bearing +an unfamiliar name. His suspicions were confirmed. + +He went up the steps and knocked: a small girl answered the summons. +"Is Mrs. Lavender living here?" he said. + +She looked for a moment with some surprise at the short, thick-set +man, with his sailor costume, his peaked cap, and his voluminous gray +beard and shaggy eyebrows; and then she said that she would ask, and +what was his name? But Mr. Mackenzie was too sharp not to know what +that meant. + +"I am her father. It will do ferry well if you will show me the room." + +And he stepped inside. The small girl obediently shut the door, and +then led the way up stairs. The next minute Mr. Mackenzie had entered +the room, and there before him was Sheila bending over Mairi and +teaching her how to do some fancy-work. + +The girl looked up on hearing some one enter, and then, when she +suddenly saw her father there, she uttered a slight cry of alarm and +shrunk back. If he had been less intent on his own plans he would have +been amazed and pained by this action on the part of his daughter, +who used to run to him, on great occasions and small, whenever she +saw him; but the girl had for the last few days been so habitually +schooling herself into the notion that she was keeping a secret from +him--she had become so deeply conscious of the concealment intended +in that brief letter--that she instinctively shrank from him when he +suddenly appeared. It was but for a moment. + +Mr. Mackenzie came forward with a fine assumption of carelessness +and shook hands with Sheila and with Mairi, and said, "How do you do, +Mairi? And are you ferry well, Sheila? And you will not expect me this +morning; but when a man will not pay you what he wass owing, it wass +no good letting it go on in that way; and I hef come to London--". + +He shook the rain-drops from his cap, and was a little embarrassed. + +"Yes, I hef come to London to have the account settled up; for it wass +no good letting him go on for effer and effer. Ay, and how are you, +Sheila?" + +He looked about the room: he would not look at her. She stood there +unable to speak, and with her face grown wild and pale. + +"Ay, it wass raining hard all the last night, and there wass a good +deal of water came into the carriage; and it is a ferry hard bed you +will make of a third-class carriage. Ay, it wass so. And this is a new +house you will hef, Sheila?" + +She had been coming nearer to him, with her face down and the +speechless lips trembling. And then suddenly, with a strange sob, she +threw herself into his arms and hid her head, and burst into a wild +fit of crying. + +"Sheila," he said, "what ails you? What iss all the matter?" + +Mairi had covertly got out of the room. + +"Oh, papa, I have left him," the girl cried. + +"Ay," said her father quite cheerfully--"oh ay, I thought there was +some little thing wrong when your letter wass come to us the other +day. But it is no use making a great deal of trouble about it, Sheila, +for it is easy to have all those things put right again--oh yes, +ferry easy. And you have left your own home, Sheila? And where is Mr. +Lavender?" + +"Oh, papa," she cried, "you must not try to see him. You must promise +not to go to see him. I should have told you everything when I wrote, +but I thought you would come up and blame it all on him and I think it +is I who am to blame." + +"But I do not want to blame any one," said her father. "You must not +make so much of these things, Sheila. It is a pity--yes, it is a ferry +great pity--your husband and you will hef a quarrel; but it iss no +uncommon thing for these troubles to happen; and I am coming to you +this morning, not to make any more trouble, but to see if it cannot be +put right again. And I do not want to know any more than that, and I +will not blame any one; but if I wass to see Mr. Lavender--" + +A bitter anger had filled his heart from the moment he had learned how +matters stood, and yet he was talking in such a bland, matter-of-fact, +almost cheerful fashion that his own daughter was imposed upon, and +began to grow comforted. The mere fact that her father now knew of all +her troubles, and was not disposed to take a very gloomy view of them, +was of itself a great relief to her. And she was greatly pleased, too, +to hear her father talk in the same light and even friendly fashion of +her husband. She had dreaded the possible results of her writing home +and relating what had occurred. She knew the powerful passion of which +this lonely old man was capable, and if he had come suddenly down +South with a wild desire to revenge the wrongs of his daughter, what +might not have happened? + +Sheila sat down, and with averted eyes told her father the whole +story, ingenuously making all possible excuses for her husband, and +intimating strongly that the more she looked over the history of the +past time the more she was convinced that she was herself to blame. It +was but natural that Mr. Lavender should like to live in the manner to +which he had been accustomed. She had tried to live that way too, and +the failure to do so was surely her fault. He had been very kind to +her. He was always buying her new dresses, jewelry, and what not, and +was always pleased to take her to be amused anywhere. All this she +said, and a great deal more; and although Mr. Mackenzie did not +believe the half of it, he did not say so. "Ay, ay, Sheila," he said, +cheerfully; "but if everything was right like that, what for will you +be here?" + +"But everything was not right, papa," the girl said, still with her +eyes cast down. "I could not live any longer like that, and I had to +come away. That is my fault, and I could not help it. And there was +a--a misunderstanding between us about Mairi's visit--for I had said +nothing about it--and he was surprised--and he had some friends coming +to see us that day--" + +"Oh, well, there iss no great harm done--none at all," said her father +lightly, and perhaps beginning to think that after all something was +to be said for Lavender's side of the question. "And you will not +suppose, Sheila, that I am coming to make any trouble by quarreling +with any one. There are some men--oh yes, there are ferry many--that +would have no judgment at such a time, and they would think only about +their daughter, and hef no regard for any one else, and they would +only make effery one angrier than before. But you will tell me, +Sheila, where Mr. Lavender is." + +"I do not know," she said. "And I am anxious, papa, you should not go +to see him. I have asked you to promise that to please me." + +He hesitated. There were not many things he could refuse his daughter, +but he was not sure he ought to yield to her in this. For were not +these two a couple of foolish young things, who wanted an experienced +and cool and shrewd person to come with a little dexterous management +and arrange their affairs for them? + +"I do not think I have half explained the difference between us," said +Sheila in the same low voice. "It is no passing quarrel, to be mended +up and forgotten: it is nothing like that. You must leave it alone, +papa." + +"That is foolishness, Sheila," said the old man with a little +impatience. "You are making big things out of ferry little, and you +will only bring trouble to yourself. How do you know but that he +wishes to hef all this misunderstanding removed, and hef you go back +to him?" + +"I know that he wishes that," she said calmly. + +"And you speak as if you wass in great trouble here, and yet you will +not go back?" he said in great surprise. + +"Yes, that is so," she said. "There is no use in my going back to the +same sort of life: it was not happiness for either of us, and to me it +was misery. If I am to blame for it, that is only a misfortune." + +"But if you will not go back to him, Sheila," her father said, "at +least you will go back with me to Borva." + +"I cannot do that, either," said the girl with the same quiet yet +decisive manner. + +Mr. Mackenzie rose with an impatient gesture and walked to the window. +He did not know what to say. He was very well aware that when Sheila +had resolved upon anything, she had thought it well over beforehand, +and was not likely to change her mind. And yet the notion of his +daughter living in lodgings in a strange town--her only companion a +young girl who had never been in the place before--was vexatiously +absurd. + +"Sheila," he said, "you will come to a better understanding about +that. I suppose you wass afraid the people would wonder at you coming +back alone. But they will know nothing about it. Mairi she is a very +good lass: she will do anything you will ask of her: you hef no need +to think she will carry stories. And every one wass thinking you will +be coming to the Lewis this year, and it is ferry glad they will be to +see you; and if the house at Borvabost hass not enough amusement +for you after you hef been in a big town like this, you will live in +Stornoway with some of our friends there, and you will come over to +Borva when you please." + +"If I went up to the Lewis," said Sheila, "do you think I could live +anywhere but in Borva? It is not any amusements I will be thinking +about. But I cannot go back to the Lewis alone." + +Her father saw how the pride of the girl had driven her to this +decision, and saw, too, how useless it was for him to reason with her +just at the present moment. Still, there was plenty of occasion here +for the use of a little diplomacy merely to smooth the way for the +reconciliation of husband and wife; and Mr. Mackenzie concluded in +his own mind that it was far from being injudicious to allow Sheila to +convince herself that she bore part of the blame of this separation. +For example, he now proposed that the discussion of the whole question +should be postponed for the present, and that Sheila should take him +about London and show him all that she had learned; and he suggested +that they should then and there get a hansom cab and drive to some +exhibition or other. + +"A hansom, papa?" said Sheila. "Mairi must go with us, you know." + +This was precisely what he had angled for, and he said, with a show of +impatience, "Mairi! How can we take about Mairi to every place? Mairi +is a ferry good lass--oh yes--but she is a servant-lass." + +The words nearly stuck in his throat; and indeed had any other +addressed such a phrase to one of his kith and kin there would have +been an explosion of rage; but now he was determined to show to Sheila +that her husband had some cause for objecting to this girl sitting +down with his friends. + +But neither husband nor father could make Sheila forswear allegiance +to what her own heart told her was just and honorable and generous; +and indeed her father at this moment was not displeased to see her +turn round on himself with just a touch of indignation in her voice. +"Mairi is my guest, papa," she said. "It is not like you to think of +leaving her at home." + +"Oh. it wass of no consequence," said old Mackenzie carelessly: indeed +he was not sorry to have met with this rebuff. "Mairi is a ferry +good girl--oh yes--but there are many who would not forget she is a +servant-lass, and would not like to be always taking her with them. +And you hef lived a long time in London--" + +"I have not lived long enough in London to make me forget my friends +or insult them," Sheila said with proud lips, and yet turning to the +window to hide her face. + +"My lass, I did not mean any harm whatever," her father said gently: +"I wass saying nothing against Mairi. Go away and bring her into the +room, Sheila, and we will see what we can do now, and if there is a +theatre we can go to this evening. And I must go out, too, to buy some +things; for you are a ferry fine lady now, Sheila, and I was coming +away in such a hurry--" + +"Where is your luggage, papa?" she said suddenly. + +"Oh, luggage!" said Mackenzie, looking round in great embarrassment. +"It was luggage you said, Sheila? Ay, well, it wass a hurry I wass +in when I came away--for this man he will have to pay me at once +whatever--and there wass no time for any luggage--oh no, there wass no +time, because Duncan he wass late with the boat, and the mare she had +a shoe to put on--and--and--oh no, there was no time for any luggage." + +"But what was Scarlett about, to let you come away like that?" Sheila +said. + +"Scarlett? Well, Scarlett did not know, it was all in such a hurry. +Now go and bring in Mairi, Sheila, and we will speak about the +theatre." + +But there was to be no theatre for any of them that evening. Sheila +was just about to leave the room to summon Mairi when the small girl +who had let Mackenzie into the house appeared and said, "Please, m'm, +there is a young woman below who wishes to see you. She has a message +to you from Mrs. Paterson." + +"Mrs. Paterson?" Sheila said, wondering how Mrs. Lavender's +hench-woman should have been entrusted with any such commission. "Will +you ask her to come up?" + +The girl came up stairs, looking rather frightened and much out of +breath. + +"Please, m'm, Mrs. Paterson has sent me to tell you, and would you +please come as soon as it is convenient? Mrs. Lavender has died. It +was quite sudden--only she recovered a little after the fit, and then +sank: the doctor is there now, but he wasn't in time, it was all so +sudden. Will you please come round, m'm?" + +"Yes--I shall be there directly," said Sheila, too bewildered and +stunned to think of the possibility of meeting her husband there. + +The girl left, and Sheila still stood in the middle of the room +apparently stupefied. That old woman had got into such a habit of +talking about her approaching death that Sheila had ceased to believe +her, and had grown to fancy that these morbid speculations were +indulged in chiefly for the sake of shocking bystanders. But a dead +man or a dead woman is suddenly invested with a great solemnity; and +Sheila with a pang of remorse thought of the fashion in which she had +suspected this old woman of a godless hypocrisy. She felt, too, that +she had unjustly disliked Mrs. Lavender--that she had feared to go +near her, and blamed her unfairly for many things that had happened. +In her own way that old woman in Kensington Gore had been kind to her: +perhaps the girl was a little ashamed of herself at this moment that +she did not cry. + +Her father went out with her, and up to the house with the dusty ivy +and the red curtains. How strangely like was the aspect of the house +inside to the very picture that Mrs. Lavender had herself drawn of +her death! Sheila could remember all the ghastly details that the old +woman seemed to have a malicious delight in describing; and here they +were--the shutters drawn down, the servants walking about on tiptoe, +the strange silence in one particular room. The little shriveled +old body lay quite still and calm now; and yet as Sheila went to the +bedside, she could hardly believe that within that forehead there was +not some consciousness of the scene around. Lying almost in the same +position, the old woman, with a sardonic smile on her face, had spoken +of the time when she should be speechless, sightless and deaf, while +Paterson would go about stealthily as if she was afraid the corpse +would hear. Was it possible to believe that the dead body was not +conscious at this moment that Paterson was really going about in +that fashion--that the blinds were down, friends standing some little +distance from the bed, a couple of doctors talking to each other in +the passage outside? + +They went into another room, and then Sheila, with a sudden shiver, +remembered that soon her husband would be coming, and might meet her +and her father there. + +"You have sent for Mr. Lavender?" she said calmly to Mrs. Paterson. + +"No, ma'am," Paterson said with more than her ordinary gravity and +formality: "I did not know where to send for him. He left London some +days ago. Perhaps you would read the letter, ma'am." + +She offered Sheila an open letter. The girl saw that it was in her +husband's handwriting, but she shrank from it as though she were +violating the secrets of the grave. + +"Oh no," she said, "I cannot do that." + +"Mrs. Lavender, ma'am, meant you to read it, after she had had her +will altered. She told me so. It is a very sad thing, ma'am, that she +did not live to carry out her intentions; for she has been inquiring, +ma'am, these last few days as to how she could leave everything to +you, ma'am, which she intended; and now the other will--" + +"Oh, don't talk about that!" said Sheila. It seemed to her that the +dead body in the other room would be laughing hideously, if only it +could, at this fulfillment of all the sardonic prophecies that Mrs. +Lavender used to make. + +"I beg your pardon, ma'am," Paterson said in the same formal way, as +if she were a machine set to work in a particular direction, "I only +mentioned the will to explain why Mrs. Lavender wished you to read +this letter." + +"Read the letter, Sheila," said her father. + +The girl took it and carried it to the window. While she was there, +old Mackenzie, who had fewer scruples about such matters, and who +had the curiosity natural to a man of the world, said to Mrs. +Paterson--not loud enough for Sheila to overhear--"I suppose, then, +the poor old lady has left her property to her nephew?" + +"Oh no, sir," said Mrs. Paterson, somewhat sadly, for she fancied she +was the bearer of bad news. "She had a will drawn out only a short +time ago, and nearly everything is left to Mr. Ingram." + +"To Mr. Ingram?" + +"Yes," said the woman, amazed to see that Mackenzie's face, so +far from evincing displeasure, seemed to be as delighted as it was +surprised. + +"Yes, sir," said Mrs. Paterson: "I was one of the witnesses. But Mrs. +Lavender changed her mind, and was very anxious that everything should +go to your daughter, if it could be done; and Mr. Appleyard, sir, was +to come here to-morrow forenoon." + +"And has Mr. Lavender got no money whatever?" said Sheila's father, +with an air that convinced Mrs. Paterson that he was a revengeful man, +and was glad his son-in-law should be so severely punished. + +"I don't know, sir," she replied, careful not to go beyond her own +sphere. + +Sheila came back from the window. She had taken a long time to read +and ponder over that letter, though it was not a lengthy one. This was +what Frank Lavender had written to his aunt: + +"MY DEAR AUNT LAVENDER: I suppose when you read this you will think I +am in a bad temper because of what you said to me. It is not so. But +I am leaving London, and I wish to hand over to you, before I go, the +charge of my house, and to ask you to take possession of everything +in it that does not belong to Sheila. These things are yours, as you +know, and I have to thank you very much for the loan of them. I have +to thank you for the far too liberal allowance you have made me for +many years back. Will you think I have gone mad if I ask you to stop +that now? The fact is, I am going to have a try at earning something, +for the fun of the thing; and, to make the experiment satisfactory, +I start to-morrow morning for a district in the West Highlands, where +the most ingenious fellow I know couldn't get a penny loaf on credit. +You have been very good to me, Aunt Lavender: I wish I had made a +better use of your kindness. So good-bye just now, and if ever I come +back to London again I shall call on you and thank you in person. + +"I am your affectionate nephew, + +"FRANK LAVENDER." + +So far the letter was almost business-like. There was no reference +to the causes which were sending him away from London, and which had +already driven him to this extraordinary resolution about the money +he got from his aunt. But at the end of the letter there was a brief +postscript, apparently written at the last moment, the words of which +were these: "Be kind to Sheila. Be as kind to her as I have been cruel +to her. In going away from her I feel as though I were exiled by man +and forsaken by God." + +She came back from the window the letter in her hand. + +"I think you may read it too, papa," she said, for she was anxious +that her father should know that Lavender had voluntarily surrendered +this money before he was deprived of it. Then she went back to the +window. + +The slow rain fell from the dismal skies on the pavement and the +railings and the now almost leafless trees. The atmosphere was filled +with a thin white mist, and the people going by were hidden under +umbrellas. It was a dreary picture enough; and yet Sheila was thinking +of how much drearier such a day would be on some lonely coast in the +North, with the hills obscured behind the rain, and the sea beating +hopelessly on the sand. She thought of some small and damp Highland +cottage, with narrow windows, a smell of wet wood about, and the +monotonous drip from over the door. And it seemed to her that a +stranger there would be very lonely, not knowing the ways or the +speech of the simple folk, careless perhaps of his own comfort, and +only listening to the plashing of the sea and the incessant rain on +the bushes and on the pebbles of the beach. Was there any picture of +desolation, she thought, like that of a sea under rain, with a slight +fog obscuring the air, and with no wind to stir the pulse with the +noise of waves? And if Frank Lavender had only gone as far as the +Western Highlands, and was living in some house on the coast, how sad +and still the Atlantic must have been all this wet forenoon, with the +islands of Colonsay and Oronsay lying remote and gray and misty in the +far and desolate plain of the sea! + +"It will take a great deal of responsibility from me, sir," Mrs. +Paterson said to old Mackenzie, who was absently thinking of all the +strange possibilities now opening out before him, "if you will tell +me what is to be done. Mrs. Lavender had no relatives in London except +her nephew." + +"Oh yes," said Mackenzie, waking up--"oh yes, we will see what is to +be done. There will be the boat wanted for the funeral--" He recalled +himself with an impatient gesture. "Bless me!" he said, "what was I +saying? You must ask some one else--you must ask Mr. Ingram. Hef you +not sent for Mr. Ingram? + +"Oh yes, sir, I have sent to him; and he will most likely come in the +afternoon." + +"Then there are the executors mentioned in the will--that wass +something you should know about--and they will tell you what to do. As +for me, it is ferry little I will know about such things." + +"Perhaps your daughter, sir," suggested Mrs. Paterson, "would tell me +what she thinks should be done with the rooms. And as for luncheon, +sir, if you would wait--" + +"Oh, my daughter?" said Mr. Mackenzie, as if struck by a new idea, +but determined all the same that Sheila should not have this new +responsibility thrust on her--"My daughter?--well, you was saying, +mem, that my daughter would help you? Oh yes, but she is a ferry young +thing, and you wass saying we must hef luncheon? Oh yes, but we will +not give you so much trouble, and we hef luncheon ordered at the other +house whatever; and there is the young girl there that we cannot leave +all by herself. And you hef a great experience, mem, and whatever you +do, that will be right: do not have any fear of that. And I will come +round when you want me--oh yes, I will come round at any time--but my +daughter, she is a ferry young thing, and she would be of no use to +you whatever--none whatever. And when Mr. Ingram comes you will send +him round to the place where my daughter is, for we will want to +see him, if he hass the time to come. Where is Shei--where is my +daughter?" + +Sheila had quietly left the room and stolen into the silent chamber +in which the dead woman lay. They found her standing close by the +bedside, almost in a trance. + +"Sheila," said her father, taking her hand, "come away now, like a +good girl. It is no use your waiting here; and Mairi--what will Mairi +be doing?" + +She suffered herself to be led away, and they went home and had +luncheon; but the girl could not eat for the notion that somewhere or +other a pair of eyes were looking at her, and were hideously laughing +at her, as if to remind her of the prophecy of that old woman, that +her friends would sit down to a comfortable meal and begin to wonder +what sort of mourning they would have. + +It was not until the evening that Ingram called. He had been greatly +surprised to hear from Mrs. Paterson that Mr. Mackenzie had been +there, along with his daughter; and he now expected to find the old +King of Borva in a towering passion. He found him, on the contrary, as +bland and as pleased as decency would admit of in view of the tragedy +that had occurred in the morning; and indeed, as Mackenzie had never +seen Mrs. Lavender, there was less reason why he should wear the +outward semblance of grief. Sheila's father asked her to go out of +the room for a little while; and when she and Mairi had gone, he said +cheerfully, "Well, Mr. Ingram, and it is a rich man you are at last." + +"Mrs. Paterson said she had told you," Ingram said with a shrug. "You +never expected to find me rich, did you?" + +"Never," said Mackenzie frankly. "But it is a ferry good thing--oh +yes, it is a ferry good thing--to hef money and be independent of +people. And you will make a good use of it, I know." + +"You don't seem disposed, sir, to regret that Lavender has been robbed +of what should have belonged to him?" + +"Oh, not at all," said Mackenzie, gravely and cautiously, for he did +not want his plans to be displayed prematurely. "But I hef no quarrel +with him; so you will not think I am glad to hef the money taken away +for that. Oh no: I hef seen a great many men and women, and it was no +strange thing that these two young ones, living all by themselves in +London, should hef a quarrel. But it will come all right again if we +do not make too much about it. If they like one another, they will +soon come together again, tek my word for it, Mr. Ingram; and I hef +seen a great many men and women. And as for the money--well, as for +the money, I hef plenty for my Sheila, and she will not starve when I +die--no, nor before that, either; and as for the poor old woman that +has died, I am ferry glad she left her money to one that will make a +good use of it, and will not throw it away whatever." + +"Oh, but you know, Mr. Mackenzie, you are congratulating me without +cause. I must tell you how the matter stands. The money does not +belong to me at all: Mrs. Lavender never intended it should. It was +meant to go to Sheila--" + +"Oh, I know, I know," said Mr. Mackenzie with a wave of his hand. "I +wass hearing all that from the woman at the house. But how will you +know what Mrs. Lavender intended? You hef only that woman's story of +it. And here is the will, and you hef the money, and--and--" Mackenzie +hesitated for a moment, and then said with a sudden vehemence, "--and, +by Kott, you shall keep it!" + +Ingram was a trifle startled. "But look here, sir," he said in a tone +of expostulation, "you make a mistake. I myself know Mrs. Lavender's +intentions. I don't go by any story of Mrs. Paterson's. Mrs. Lavender +made over the money to me with express injunctions to place it at the +disposal of Sheila whenever I should see fit. Oh, there's no mistake +about it, so you need not protest, sir. If the money belonged to me, I +should be delighted to keep it. No man in the country more desires +to be rich than I; so don't fancy I am flinging away a fortune out of +generosity. If any rich and kind-hearted old lady will send me five +thousand or ten thousand pounds, you will see how I shall stick to it. +But the simple truth is, this money is not mine at all. It was never +intended to be mine. It belongs to Sheila." + +Ingram talked in a very matter-of-fact way: the old man feared what he +said was true. + +"Ay, it is a ferry good story," said Mackenzie cautiously, "and maybe +it is all true. And you wass saying you would like to hef money?" + +"I most decidedly should like to have money." + +"Well, then," said the old man, watching his friend's face, "there iss +no one to say that the story is true, and who will believe it? And +if Sheila wass to come to you and say she did not believe it, and she +would not hef the money from you, you would hef to keep it, eh?" + +Ingram's sallow face blushed crimson. "I don't know what you mean," he +said stiffly. "Do you propose to pervert the girl's mind and make me a +party to a fraud?" + +"Oh, there is no use getting into an anger," said Mackenzie suavely, +"when common sense will do as well whatever. And there wass no +perversion and there wass no fraud talked about. It wass just this, +Mr. Ingram, that if the old lady's will leaves you her property, who +will you be getting to believe that she did not mean to give it to +you?" + +"I tell you now whom she meant to give it to," said Ingram, still +somewhat hotly. + +"Oh yes--oh yes, that is ferry well. But who will believe it?" + +"Good Heavens, sir! who will believe I could be such a fool as to +fling away this property if it belonged to me?" + +"They will think you a fool to do it now--yes, that is sure enough," +said Mackenzie. + +"I don't care what they think. And it seems rather odd, Mr. Mackenzie, +that you should be trying to deprive your own daughter of what belongs +to her." + +"Oh, my daughter is ferry well off whatever: she does not want any +one's money," said Mackenzie. And then a new notion struck him: "Will +you tell me this, Mr. Ingram? If Mrs. Lavender left you her property +in this way, what for did she want to change her will, eh?" + +"Well, to tell you the truth, I refused to take the responsibility. +She was anxious to have this money given to Sheila, so that Lavender +should not touch it; and I don't think it was a wise intention, for +there is not a prouder man in the world than Lavender, and I know that +Sheila would not consent to hold a penny that did not equally belong +to him. However, that was her notion, and I was the first victim of +it. I protested against it, and I suppose that set her to inquiring +whether the money could not be absolutely bequeathed to Sheila direct. +I don't know anything about it myself; but that's how the matter +stands, as far as I am concerned." + +"But you will think it over, Mr. Ingram," said Mackenzie quietly--"you +will think it over, and be in no hurry. It is not every man that hass +a lot of money given to him. And it is no wrong to my Sheila at all, +for she will hef quite plenty; and she would be ferry sorry to take +the money away from you, that is sure enough; and you will not be +hasty, Mr. Ingram, but be cautious and reasonable, and you will see +the money will do you far more good than it would do Sheila." + +Ingram began to think that he had tied a millstone round his neck. + +CHAPTER XXIII. + +IN EXILE. + + +One evening in the olden time Lavender and Sheila and Ingram and +old Mackenzie were all sitting high up on the rocks near Borvabost, +chatting to each other, and watching the red light pale on the bosom +of the Atlantic as the sun sank behind the edge of the world. Ingram +was smoking a wooden pipe. Lavender sat with Sheila's hand in his. The +old King of Borva was discoursing of the fishing populations round the +western coasts, and of their various ways and habits. + +"I wish I could have seen Tarbert," Lavender was saying, "but the Iona +just passes the mouth of the little harbor as she comes up Loch +Fyne. I know two or three men who go there every year to paint the +fishing-life of the place. It is an odd little place, isn't it?" + +"Tarbert?" said Mr. Mackenzie--"you wass wanting to know about +Tarbert? Ah, well, it is getting to be a better place now, but a year +or two ago it wass ferry like hell. Oh yes it wass, Sheila, so you +need not say anything. And this wass the way of it, Mr. Lavender, that +the trawling was not made legal then, and the men they were just like +devils, with the swearing and the drinking and the fighting that went +on; and if you went into the harbor in the open day, you would find +them drunk and fighting, and some of them with blood on their faces, +for it wass a ferry wild time. It wass many a one will say that the +Tarbert-men would run down the police-boat some dark night. And what +was the use of catching the trawlers now and again, and taking their +boats and their nets to be sold at Greenock, when they went themselves +over to Greenock to the auction and bought them back? Oh, it was a +great deal of money they made then: I hef heard of a crew of eight men +getting thirty pounds each man in the course of one night, and that +not seldom mirover." + +"But why didn't the government put it down?" Lavender asked. + +"Well, you see," Mackenzie answered with the air of a man well +acquainted with the difficulties of ruling--"you see that it wass not +quite sure that the trawling did much harm to the fishing. And the +Jackal--that was the government steamer--she was not much good in +getting the better of the Tarbert-men, who are ferry good with their +boats in the rowing, and are ferry cunning whatever. You know, the +buying boats went out to sea, and took the herring there, and then the +trawlers they would sink their nets and come home in the morning as +if they had not caught one fish, although the boat would be white with +the scales of the herring. And what is more, sir, the government knew +ferry well that if trawling was put down, then there would be a ferry +good many murders; for the Tarbert-men, when they came home to drink +whisky, and wash the whisky down with porter, they were ready to fight +anybody." + +"It must be a delightful place to live in," Lavender said. + +"Oh, but it is ferry different now," Mackenzie continued--"ferry +different. The men they are nearly all Good Templars now, and there is +no drinking whatever, and there is reading-rooms and such things, and +the place is ferry quiet and respectable." + +"I hear," Ingram remarked, "that good people attribute the change to +moral suasion, and that wicked people put it down to want of money." + +"Papa, this boy will have to be put to bed," Sheila said. + +"Well," Mackenzie answered, "there is not so much money in the place +as there wass in the old times. The shop-keepers do not make so much +money as before, when the men were wild and drunk in the daytime, and +had plenty to spend when the police-boat did not catch them. But the +fishermen, they are ferry much better without the money; and I can +say for them, Mr. Lavender, that there is no better fishermen on the +coast. They are ferry fine, tall men, and they are ferry well dressed +in their blue clothes, and they are manly fellows, whether they are +drunk or whether they are sober. Now look at this, sir, that in the +worst of weather they will neffer tek whisky with them when they go +out to the sea at night, for they think it is cowardly. And they are +ferry fine fellows, and gentlemanly in their ways, and they are ferry +good-natured to strangers." + +"I have heard that of them on all hands," Lavender said, "and some day +I hope to put their civility and good-fellowship to the proof." + +That was merely the idle conversation of a summer evening: no one paid +any further attention to it, nor did even Lavender himself think again +of his vaguely-expressed hope of some day visiting Tarbert. Let us now +shift the scene of this narrative to Tarbert itself. + +When you pass from the broad and blue waters of Loch Fyne into the +narrow and rocky channel leading to Tarbert harbor, you find before +you an almost circular bay, round which stretches an irregular line +of white houses. There is an abundance of fishing-craft in the harbor, +lying in careless and picturesque groups, with their brown hulls and +spars sending a ruddy reflection down on the lapping water, which is +green under the shadow of each boat. Along the shore stand the tall +poles on which the fishermen dry their nets, and above these, on the +summit of a rocky crag, rise the ruins of an old castle, with the +daylight shining through the empty windows. Beyond the houses, again, +lie successive lines of hills, at this moment lit up by shafts of +sunlight that lend a glowing warmth and richness to the fine colors +of a late autumn. The hills are red and brown with rusted bracken and +heather, and here and there the smooth waters of the bay catch a tinge +of other and varied hues. In one of the fishing-smacks that lie almost +underneath the shadow of the tall crag on which the castle ruins +stand, an artist has put a rough-and-ready easel, and is apparently +busy at work painting a group of boats just beyond. Some indication +of the rich colors of the craft--their ruddy sails, brown nets and +bladders, and their varnished but not painted hulls--already appears +on the canvas; and by and by some vision may arise of the far hills +in their soft autumnal tints and of the bold blue and white sky moving +overhead. Perhaps the old man who is smoking in the stern of one of +the boats has been placed there on purpose. A boy seated on some nets +occasionally casts an anxious glance toward the painter, as if to +inquire when his penance will be over. + +A small open boat, with a heap of stones for ballast, and with no +great elegance in shape of rigging, comes slowly in from the mouth of +the harbor, and is gently run alongside the boat in which the man +is painting. A fresh-colored young fellow, with voluminous and +curly brown hair, who has dressed himself as a yachtsman, calls out, +"Lavender, do you know the White Rose, a big schooner yacht?--about +eighty tons I should think." + +"Yes," Lavender said, without turning round or taking his eyes off the +canvas. + +"Whose is she?" + +"Lord Newstead's." + +"Well, either he or his skipper hailed me just now and wanted to know +whether you were here, I said you were. The fellow asked me if I +was going into the harbor. I said I was. So he gave me a message for +you--that they would hang about outside for half an hour or so, if you +would go out to them and take a run up to Ardishaig." + +"I can't, Johnny." + +"I'd take you out, you know." + +"I don't want to go." + +"But look here, Lavender," said the younger man, seizing hold of +Lavender's boat and causing the easel to shake dangerously: "he asked +me to luncheon, too." + +"Why don't you go, then?" was the only reply, uttered rather absently. + +"I can't go without you." + +"Well, I don't mean to go." + +The younger man looked vexed for a moment, and then said in a tone of +expostulation, "You know it is very absurd of you going on like this, +Lavender. No fellow can paint decently if he gets out of bed in the +middle of the night and waits for daylight to rush up to his easel. +How many hours have you been at work already to-day? If you don't give +your eyes a rest, they will get color-blind to a dead certainty. Do +you think you will paint the whole place off the face of the earth, +now that the other fellows have gone?" + +"I can't be bothered talking to you. Johnny. You'll make me throw +something at you. Go away." + +"I think it's rather mean, you know," continued the persistent Johnny, +"for a" fellow like you, who doesn't need it, to come and fill the +market all at once, while we unfortunate devils can scarcely get a +crust. And there are two heron just round the point, and I have my +breech-loader and a dozen cartridges here." + +"Go away, Johnny!" That was all the answer he got. + +"I'll go out and tell Lord News, tead that you are a cantankerous +brute. I suppose he'll have the decency to offer me luncheon, and I +dare say I could get him a shot at these heron. You are a fool not to +come, Lavender;" and so saying the young man put out again, and he was +heard to go away talking to himself about obstinate idiots and greed +and the certainty of getting a shot at the heron. + +When he had quite gone, Lavender, who had scarcely raised his eyes +from his work, suddenly put down his palette and brushes--he almost +dropped them, indeed--and quickly put up both his hands to his head, +pressing them on the side of his temples. The old fisherman in the +boat beyond noticed this strange movement, and forthwith caught +a rope, hauled the boat across a stretch of water, and then came +scrambling over bowsprit, lowered sails and nets to where Lavender had +just sat down. + +"Wass there anything the matter, sir?" he said with much evidence of +concern. + +"My head is a little bad, Donald," Lavender said, still pressing his +hands on his temples, as if to get rid of some strange feeling. "I +wish you would pull in to the shore and get me some whisky." + +"Oh ay," said the old man, hastily scrambling into the little black +boat lying beside the smack; "and it is no wonder to me this will come +to you, sir, for I hef never seen any of the gentlemen so long at the +pentin as you--from the morning till the night; and it is no wonder +to me this will come to you. But I will get you the whushky: it is a +grand thing, the whushky." + +The old fisherman was not long in getting ashore and running up to the +cottage in which Lavender lived, and getting a bottle of whisky and a +glass. Then he got down to the boat again, and was surprised that he +could nowhere see Mr. Lavender on board the smack. Perhaps he had lain +down on the nets in the bottom of the boat. + +When Donald got out to the smack he found the young man lying +insensible, his face white and his teeth clenched. With something of a +cry the old fisherman jumped into the boat, knelt down, and proceeded +in a rough and ready fashion to force some whisky into Lavender's +mouth. "Oh ay, oh yes, it is a grand thing, the whushky," he muttered +to himself. "Oh yes, sir, you must hef some more: it is no matter +if you will choke. It is ferry good whushky, and will do you no harm +whatever; and oh yes, sir, that is ferry well, and you are all right +again, and you will sit quite quiet now, and you will hef a little +more whushky." + +The young man looked round him: "Have you been ashore, Donald? Oh +yes--I suppose so. Did I tumble? Well, I am all right now: it was +the glare of the sea that made me giddy. Take a dram for yourself, +Donald." + +"There is but the one glass, sir," said Donald, who had picked up +something of the notions of gentlefolks, "but I will just tek the +bottle;" and so, to avoid drinking out of the same glass (which was +rather a small one), he was good enough to take a pull, and a strong +pull, at the black bottle. Then he heaved a sigh, and wiped the top of +the bottle with his sleeve. "Yes, as I was saying, sir, there was none +of the gentlemen I hef effer seen in Tarbert will keep at the pentin +so long ass you; and many of them will be stronger ass you, and will +be more accustomed to it whatever. But when a man iss making money--" +and Donald shook his head: he knew it was useless to argue. + +"But I am not making money, Donald," Lavender said, still looking a +trifle pale. "I doubt whether I have made as much as you have since I +came to Tarbert." + +"Oh yes," said Donald contentedly, "all the gentlemen will say that. +They never hef any money. But wass you ever with them when they could +not get a dram because they had no money to pay for it?" + +Donald's test of impecuniosity could not be gainsaid. Lavender +laughed, and bade him get back into the other boat. + +"'Deed I will not," said Donald sturdily. + +Lavender stared at him. + +"Oh no: you wass doing quite enough the day already, or you would not +hef tumbled into the boat whatever. And supposing that you was to hef +tumbled into the water, you would have been trooned as sure as you +wass alive." + +"And a good job, too, Donald," said the younger man, idly looking at +the lapping green water. + +Donald shook his head gravely: "You would not say that if you had +friends of yours that was trooned, and if you had seen them when they +went down in the water." + +"They say it is an easy death, Donald." + +"They neffer tried it that said that," said the old fisherman +gloomily. "It wass one day the son of my sister wass coming over from +Saltcoats--But I hef no wish to speak of it; and that wass but one +among ferry many that I have known." + +"How long is it since you were in the Lewis, did you say?" Lavender +asked, changing the subject. Donald was accustomed to have the talk +suddenly diverted into this channel. He could not tell why the young +English gentleman wanted him continually to be talking about the +Lewis. + +"Oh, it is many and many a year ago, as I hef said; and you will know +far more about the Lewis than I will. But Stornoway, that is a fine +big town; and I hef a cousin there that keeps a shop, and is a very +rich man whatever, and many's the time he will ask me to come and see +him. And if the Lord be spared, maybe I will some day." + +"You mean if you be spared, Donald." + +"Oh, ay: it is all wan," said Donald. + +Lavender had brought with him some bread and cheese in a piece of +paper for luncheon; and this store of frugal provisions having been +opened out, the old fisherman was invited to join in--an invitation he +gravely but not eagerly accepted. He took off his blue bonnet and said +grace: then he took the bread and cheese in his hand and looked round +inquiringly. There was a stone jar of water in the bottom of the boat: +that was not what Donald was looking after. Lavender handed him the +black bottle he had brought out from the cottage, which was more +to his mind. And then, this humble meal despatched, the old man was +persuaded to go back to his post, and Lavender continued his work. + +The short afternoon was drawing to a close when young Johnny Eyre came +sailing in from Loch Fyne, himself and a boy of ten or twelve managing +that crank little boat with its top-heavy sails. "Are you at work yet, +Lavender?" he said. "I never saw such a beggar. It's getting quite +dark." + +"What sort of luncheon did Newstead give you, Johnny?" + +"Oh, something worth going for, I can tell you. You want to live in +Tarbert for a month or two to find out the value of decent cooking +and good wine. He was awfully surprised when I described this place to +him. He wouldn't believe you were living here in a cottage: I said +a garret, for I pitched it hot and strong, mind you. I said you were +living in a garret, that you never saw a razor, and lived on oatmeal +porridge and whisky, and that your only amusement was going out at +night and risking your neck in this delightful boat of mine. You +should have seen him examining this remarkable vessel. And there were +two ladies on board, and they were asking after you, too." + +"Who were they?" + +"I don't know. I didn't catch their names when I was introduced; but +the noble skipper called one of them Polly." + +"Oh, I know." + +"Ain't you coming ashore, Lavender? You can't see to work now." + +"All right! I shall put my traps ashore, and then I'll have a run with +you down Loch Fyne if you like, Johnny." + +"Well, I don't like," said the handsome lad frankly, "for it's looking +rather squally about. It seems to me you're bent on drowning yourself. +Before those other fellows went, they came to the conclusion that you +had committed a murder." + +"Did they really?" Lavender said with little interest. + +"And if you go away and live in that wild place you were talking of +during the winter, they will be quite sure of it. Why, man, you'd come +back with your hair turned white. You might as well think of living by +yourself at the Arctic Pole." + +Neither Johnny Eyre nor any of the men who had just left Tarbert knew +anything of Frank Lavender's recent history, and Lavender himself was +not disposed to be communicative. They would know soon enough when +they went up to London. In the mean time they were surprised to find +that Lavender's habits were very singularly altered. He had grown +miserly. They laughed when he told them he had no money, and he +did not seek to persuade them of the fact; but it was clear, at all +events, that none of them lived so frugally or worked so anxiously +as he. Then, when his work was done in the evening, and when they met +alternately at each other's rooms to dine off mutton and potatoes, +with a glass of whisky and a pipe and a game of cards to follow, what +was the meaning of those sudden fits of silence that would strike in +when the general hilarity was at its pitch? And what was the meaning +of the utter recklessness he displayed when they would go out of +an evening in their open sailing boats to shoot sea-fowl, or make a +voyage along the rocky coast in the dead of night to wait for the +dawn to show them the haunts of the seals? The Lavender they had met +occasionally in London was a fastidious, dilettante, self-possessed, +and yet not disagreeable fellow: this man was almost pathetically +anxious about his work, oftentimes he was morose and silent, and then +again there was no sort of danger or difficulty he was not ready to +plunge into when they were sailing about that iron-bound coast. They +could not make it out, but the joke among themselves was that he had +committed a murder, and therefore he was reckless. + +This Johnny Eyre was not much of an artist, but he liked the society +of artists: he had a little money of his own, plenty of time, and +a love of boating and shooting, and so he had pitched his tent at +Tarbert, and was proud to cherish the delusion that he was working +hard and earning fame and wealth. As a matter of fact, he never earned +anything, but he had very good spirits, and living in Tarbert is +cheap. + +From the moment that Lavender had come to the place, Johnny Eyre made +him his special companion. He had a great respect for a man who could +shoot anything anywhere; and when he and Lavender came back together +from a cruise, there was no use saying which had actually done +the brilliant deeds the evidence of which was carried ashore. But +Lavender, oddly enough, knew little about sailing, and Johnny was +pleased to assume the airs of an instructor on this point; his only +difficulty being that his pupil had more than the ordinary hardihood +of an ignoramus, and was rather inclined to do reckless things even +after he had sufficient skill to know that they were dangerous. + +Lavender got into the small boat, taking his canvas with him, but +leaving his easel in the fishing-smack. He pulled himself and Johnny +Eyre ashore: they scrambled up the rocks and into the road, and then +they went into the small white cottage in which Lavender lived. The +picture was, for greater safety, left in Lavender's bed-room, which +already contained about a dozen canvases with sketches in various +stages on them. Then he went out to his friend again. + +"I've had a long day to-day, Johnny. I wish you'd go out with me: the +excitement of a squall would clear one's brain, I fancy." + +"Oh, I'll go out if you like," Eyre said, "but I shall take very good +care to run in before the squall comes, if there's any about. I don't +think there will be, after all. I fancied I saw a flash of lightning +about half an hour ago down in the south, but nothing has come of it. +There are some curlew about, and the guillemots are in thousands. You +don't seem to care about shooting guillemots, Lavender." + +"Well, you see, potting a bird that is sitting on the water--" said +Lavender with a shrug. + +"Oh, it isn't as easy as you might imagine. Of course you could kill +them if you liked, but everybody ain't such a swell as you are with a +gun; and mind you, it's uncommonly awkward to catch the right moment +for firing, when the bird goes bobbing up and down on the waves, +disappearing altogether every second second. I think it's very good +fun myself. It is very exciting when you don't know the moment the +bird will dive, and whether you can afford to go any nearer. And as +for shooting them on the water, you have to do that, for when do you +get a chance of shooting them flying?" + +"I don't see much necessity for shooting them at any time," said +Lavender as he and Eyre went down to the shore again, "but I am glad +to see you get some amusement out of it. Have you got cartridges with +you? Is your gun in the boat?" + +"Yes. Come along. We'll have a run out, any how." + +When they pulled out again to that cockle-shell craft with its stone +ballast and big brown mainsail, the boy was sent ashore and the two +companions set out by themselves. By this time the sun had gone down, +and a strange green twilight was shining over the sea. As they got +farther out the dusky shores seemed to have a pale mist hanging around +them, but there were no clouds on the hills, for a clear sky shone +overhead, awaiting the coming of the stars. Strange indeed was the +silence out here, broken only by the lapping of the water on the sides +of the boat and the calling of birds in the distance. Far away the +orange ray of a lighthouse began to quiver in the lambent dusk. The +pale green light on the waves did not die out, but the shadows grew +darker, so that Eyre, with his gun close at hand, could not make out +his groups of guillemots, although he heard them calling all around. +They had come out too late, indeed, for any such purpose. + +Thither on those beautiful evenings, after his day's work was over, +Lavender was accustomed to come, either by himself or with his +present companion. Johnny Eyre did not intrude on his solitude: he was +invariably too eager to get a shot, his chief delight being to get to +the bow, to let the boat drift for a while silently through the waves, +so that she might come unawares on some flock of sea-birds. Lavender, +sitting in the stern with the tiller in his hand, was really alone in +this world of water and sky, with all the majesty of the night and the +stars around him. + +And on these occasions he used to sit and dream of the beautiful time +long ago in Loch Roag, when nights such as these used to come over the +Atlantic, and find Sheila and himself sailing on the peaceful waters, +or seated high up on the rocks listening to the murmur of the tide. +Here was the same strange silence, the same solemn and pale light in +the sky, the same mystery of the moving plain all around them that +seemed somehow to be alive, and yet voiceless and sad. Many a time his +heart became so full of recollections that he had almost called aloud +"Sheila! Sheila!" and waited for the sea and the sky to answer him +with the sound of her voice. In these bygone days he had pleased +himself with the fancy that the girl was somehow the product of all +the beautiful aspects of Nature around her. It was the sea that was in +her eyes, it was the fair sunlight that shone in her face, the breath +of her life was the breath of the moorland winds. He had written +verses about this fancy of hers; and he had conveyed them secretly to +her, sure that she, at least, would find no defects in them. And many +a time, far away from Loch Roag and from Sheila, lines of this conceit +would wander through his brain, set to the saddest of all music, +the music of irreparable loss. What did they say to him, now that +he recalled them like some half-forgotten voice out of the strange +past?-- + + For she and the clouds and the breezes were one. + And the hills and the sea had conspired with the sun + To charm and bewilder all men with the grace + They combined and conferred on her wonderful face. + +The sea lapped around the boat, the green light on the waves grew +somehow less intense; in the silence the first of the stars came out, +and somehow the time in which he had seen Sheila in these rare and +magical colors seemed to become more and more remote: + + An angel in passing looked downward and smiled, + And carried to heaven the fame of the child; + And then what the waves and the sky and the sun + And the tremulous breath of the hills had begun, + Required but one touch. To finish the whole, + God loved her and gave her a beautiful soul. + +And what had he done with this rare treasure entrusted to him? His +companions, jesting among themselves, had said that he had committed +a murder: in his own heart there was something at this moment of a +murderer's remorse. + +Johnny Eyre uttered a short cry. Lavender looked ahead and saw that +some black object was disappearing among the waves. + +"What a fright I got!" Eyre said with a laugh. "I never saw the fellow +come near, and he came up just below the bowsprit. He came heeling +over as quiet as a mouse. I say, Lavender, I think we might as well +cut it now: my eyes are quite bewildered with the light on the water. +I couldn't make out a kraken if it was coming across our bows." + +"Don't be in a hurry, Johnny. We'll put her out a bit, and then let +her drift back. I want to tell you a story." + +"Oh, all right," he said; and so they put her head round, and soon she +was lying over before the breeze, and slowly drawing away from those +outlines of the coast which showed them where Tarbert harbor cut into +the land. And then once more they let her drift, and young Eyre took +a nip of whisky and settled himself so as to hear Lavender's story, +whatever it might be. + +"You knew I was married?" + +"Yes." + +"Didn't you ever wonder why my wife did not come here?" + +"Why should I wonder? Plenty of fellows have to spend half the +year apart from their wives: the only thing in your case I couldn't +understand was the necessity for your doing it. For you know that's +all nonsense about your want of funds." + +"It isn't nonsense, Johnny. But now, if you like, I will tell you why +my wife has never come here." + +Then he told the story, out there under the stars, with no thought of +interruption, for there was a world of moving water around them. It +was the first time he had let any one into his confidence, and perhaps +the darkness aided his revelations; but at any rate he went over all +the old time, until it seemed to his companion that he was talking to +himself, so aimless and desultory were his pathetic reminiscences. He +called her Sheila, though Eyre had never heard her name. He spoke of +her father as though Eyre must have known him. And yet this rambling +series of confessions and self-reproaches and tender memories did form +a certain sort of narrative, so that the young fellow sitting quietly +in the boat there got a pretty fair notion of what had happened. + +"You are an unlucky fellow," he said to Lavender. "I never heard +anything like that. But you know you must have exaggerated a good deal +about it: I should like to hear her story. I am sure you could not +have treated her like that." + +"God knows how I did, but the truth is just as I have told you; and +although I was blind enough at the time, I can read the whole story +now in letters of fire. I hope you will never have such a thing +constantly before your eyes, Johnny." + +The lad was silent for some time, and then he said, rather timidly, +"Do you think, Lavender, she knows how sorry you are?" + +"If she did, what good would that do?" said the other. + +"Women are awfully forgiving, you know," Johnny said in a hesitating +fashion. "I--I don't think it is quite fair not to give her a +chance--a chance of--of being generous, you know. You know, I think +the better a woman is, the more inclined she is to be charitable to +other folks who mayn't be quite up to the mark, you know; and you see, +it ain't every one who can claim to be always doing the right thing; +and the next best thing to that is to be sorry for what you've done +and try to do better. It's rather cheeky, you know, my advising you, +or trying to make you pluck up your spirits; but I'll tell you what +it is, Lavender, if I knew her well enough I'd go straight to her +to-morrow, and I'd put in a good word for you, and tell her some +things she doesn't know; and you'd see if she wouldn't write you a +letter, or even come and see you." + +"That is all nonsense, Johnny, though it's very good of you to think +of it. The mischief I have done isn't to be put aside by the mere +writing of a letter." + +"But it seems to me," Johnny said with some warmth, "that you are as +unfair to her as to yourself in not giving her a chance. You don't +know how willing she may be to overlook everything that is past." + +"If she were, I am not fit to go near her. I couldn't have the cheek +to try, Johnny." + +"But what more can you be than sorry for what is past?" said the +younger fellow persistently. "And you don't know how pleased it makes +a good woman to give her the chance of forgiving anybody. And if we +were all to set up for being archangels, and if there was to be no +sort of getting back for us after we had made a slip, where should we +be? And in place of going to her and making it all right, you start +away for the Sound of Islay; and, by Jove! won't you find out what +spending a winter under these Jura mountains means! I have tried it, +and I know." + +A flash of lightning, somewhere down among the Arran hills, +interrupted the speaker, and drew the attention of the two young men +to the fact that in the east and south-east the stars were no longer +visible, while something of a brisk breeze had sprung up. + +"This breeze will take us back splendidly," Johnny said, getting ready +again for the run in to Tarbert. + +He had scarcely spoken when Lavender called attention to a +fishing-smack that was apparently making for the harbor. With all +sails set she was sweeping by them like some black phantom across the +dark plain of the sea. They could not make out the figures on board of +her, but as she passed some one called out to them. + +"What did he say?" Lavender asked. + +"I don't know," his companion said, "but it was some sort of warning, +I suppose. By Jove, Lavender, what is that?" + +Behind them there was a strange hissing noise that the wind brought +along to them, but nothing could be seen. + +"Rain, isn't it?" Lavender said. + +"There never was rain like that," his companion said. "That is a +squall, and it will be here presently. We must haul down the sails. +For God's sake, look sharp, Lavender!" + +There was certainly no time to lose, for the noise behind them was +increasing and deepening into a roar, and the heavens had grown black +overhead, so that the spars and ropes of the crank little boat could +scarcely be made out. They had just got the sails down when the first +gust of the squall struck the boat as with a blow of iron, and sent +her staggering forward into the trough of the sea. Then all around +them came the fury of the storm, and the cause of the sound they had +heard was apparent in the foaming water that was torn and scattered +abroad by the gale. Up from the black south-east came the fierce +hurricane, sweeping everything before it, and hurling this creaking +and straining boat about as if it were a cork. They could see little +of the sea around them, but they could hear the awful noise of it, and +they knew they were being swept along on those hurrying waves toward a +coast which was invisible in the blackness of the night. + +"Johnny, we'll never make the harbor: I can't see a light," Lavender +cried, "Hadn't we better try to keep her up the loch?" + +"We _must_ make the harbor," his companion said: "she can't stand this +much longer." + +Blinding torrents of rain were now being driven down by the force +of the wind, so that all around them nothing was visible but a wild +boiling and seething of clouds and waves. Eyre was up at the bow, +trying to catch some glimpse of the outlines of the coast or to make +out some light that would show them where the entrance to Tarbert +harbor lay. If only some lurid shaft of lightning would pierce the +gloom! for they knew that they were being driven headlong on an +iron-bound coast; and amid all the noise of the wind and the sea they +listened with a fear that had no words for the first roar of the waves +along the rocks. + +Suddenly Lavender heard a shrill scream, almost like the cry that a +hare gives when it finds the dog's fangs in its neck, and at the same +moment, amid all the darkness of the night, a still blacker object +seemed to start out of the gloom right ahead of them. The boy had no +time to shout any warning beyond that cry of despair, for with a wild +crash the boat struck on the rocks, rose and struck again, and was +then dashed over by a heavy sea, both of its occupants being thrown +into the fierce swirls of foam that were dashing in and through the +rocky channels. Strangely enough, they were thrown together; and +Lavender, clinging to the sea-weed, instinctively laid hold of his +companion just as the latter appeared to be slipping into the gulf +beneath. + +"Johnny," he cried, "hold on!--hold on to me--or we shall both go in a +minute." + +But the lad had no life left in him, and lay like a log there, while +each wave that struck and rolled hissing and gurgling through the +channels between the rocks seemed to drag at him and seek to suck him +down into the darkness. With one despairing effort, Lavender struggled +to get him farther up on the slippery sea-weed, and succeeded. But his +success had lost him his own vantage-ground, and he knew that he was +going down into the swirling waters beneath, close by the broken boat +that was still being dashed about by the waves. + +CHAPTER XXIV. + +"HAME FAIN WOULD I BE." + + +Unexpected circumstances had detained Mrs. Kavanagh and her daughter +in London long after everybody else had left, but at length they were +ready to start for their projected trip into Switzerland. On the day +before their departure Ingram dined with them--on his own invitation. +He had got into a habit of letting them know when it would suit him to +devote an evening to their instruction; and it was difficult indeed to +say which of the two ladies submitted the more readily and meekly +to the dictatorial enunciation of his opinions. Mrs. Kavanagh, it is +true, sometimes dissented in so far as a smile indicated dissent, but +her daughter scarcely reserved to herself so much liberty. Mr. Ingram +had taken her in hand, and expected of her the obedience and respect +due to his superior age. + +And yet, somehow or other, he occasionally found himself indirectly +soliciting the advice of this gentle, clear-eyed and clear-headed +young person, more especially as regarded the difficulties surrounding +Sheila; and sometimes a chance remark of hers, uttered in a timid +or careless or even mocking fashion, would astonish him by the rapid +light it threw on these dark troubles. On this evening--the last +evening they were spending in London--it was his own affairs which he +proposed to mention to Mrs. Lorraine, and he had no more hesitation in +doing so than if she had been his oldest friend. He wanted to ask her +what he should do about the money that Mrs. Lavender had left him; and +he intended to be a good deal more frank with Mrs. Lorraine than with +any of the others to whom he had spoken about the matter. For he was +well aware that Mrs. Lavender had at first resolved that he should +have at least a considerable portion of her wealth, or why should she +have asked him how he would like to be a rich man? + +"I do not think," said Mrs. Lorraine quietly, "that there is any use +in your asking me what you should do, for I know what you will do, +whether it accords with any one's opinion or no. And yet you would +find a great advantage in having money." + +"Oh, I know that," he said readily. "I should like to be rich beyond +anything that ever happened in a drama; and I should take my chance of +all the evil influences that money is supposed to exert. Do you know, +I think you rich people are very unfairly treated." + +"But we are not rich," said Mrs. Kavanagh, passing at the time. +"Cecilia and I find ourselves very poor sometimes." + +"But I quite agree with Mr. Ingram, mamma," said Cecilia--as if any +one had had the courage to disagree with Mr. Ingram!--"rich people are +shamefully ill-treated. If you go to a theatre, now, you find that all +the virtues are on the side of the poor, and if there are a few vices, +you get a thousand excuses for them. No one takes account of the +temptations of the rich. You have people educated from their infancy +to imagine that the whole world was made for them, every wish they +have gratified, every day showing them people dependent on them and +grateful for favors; and no allowance is made for such a temptation to +become haughty, self-willed and overbearing. But of course it stands +to reason that the rich never have justice done them in plays and +stories, for the people who write are poor." + +"Not all of them." + +"But enough to strike an average of injustice. And it is very hard. +For it is the rich who buy books and who take boxes at the theatres, +and then they find themselves grossly abused; whereas the humble +peasant who can scarcely read at all, and who never pays more than +sixpence for a seat in the gallery, is flattered and coaxed and +caressed until one wonders whether the source of virtue is the +drinking of sour ale. Mr. Ingram, you do it yourself. You impress +mamma and me with the belief that we are miserable sinners if we are +not continually doing some act of charity. Well, that is all very +pleasant and necessary, in moderation; but you don't find the poor +folks so very anxious to live for other people. They don't care much +what becomes of us. They take your port wine and flannels as if +they were conferring a favor on you, but as for _your_ condition and +prospects in this world and the next, they don't trouble much about +that. Now, mamma, just wait a moment." + +"I will not. You are a bad girl," said Mrs. Kavanagh severely. "Here +has Mr. Ingram been teaching you and making you better for ever so +long back, and you pretend to accept his counsel and reform yourself; +and then all at once you break out, and throw down the tablets of the +law, and conduct yourself like a heathen." + +"Because I want him to explain, mamma. I suppose he considers it +wicked of us to start for Switzerland to-morrow. The money we shall +spend in traveling might have despatched a cargo of muskets to some +missionary station, so that--" + +"Ceilia!" + +"Oh no," Ingram said carelessly, and nursing his knee with both his +hands as usual, "traveling is not wicked: it is only unreasonable. A +traveler, you know, is a person who has a house in one town, and who +goes to live in a house in another town, in order to have the pleasure +of paying for both." + +"Mr. Ingram," said Mrs. Kavanagh, "will you talk seriously for one +minute, and tell me whether we are to expect to see you in the Tyrol?" + +But Ingram was not in a mood for talking seriously, and he waited to +hear Mrs. Lorraine strike in with some calmly audacious invitation. +She did not, however, and he turned round from her mother to question +her. He was surprised to find that her eyes were fixed on the ground +and that something like a tinge of color was in her face. He turned +rapidly away again. "Well, Mrs. Kavanagh," he said with a fine air +of indifference, "the last time we spoke about that I was not in the +difficulty I am in at present. How could I go traveling just now, +without knowing how to regulate my daily expenses? Am I to travel with +six white horses and silver bells, or trudge on foot with a wallet?" + +"But you know quite well," said Mrs. Lorraine warmly--"you know you +will not touch that money that Mrs. Lavender has left you." + +"Oh, pardon me," he said: "I should rejoice to have it if it did not +properly belong to some one else. And the difficulty is, that Mr. +Mackenzie is obviously very anxious that neither Mr. Lavender nor +Sheila should have it. If Sheila gets it, of course she will give it +to her husband. Now, if it is not to be given to her, do you think I +should regard the money with any particular horror and refuse to touch +it? That would be very romantic, perhaps, but I should be sorry, you +know, to give my friends the most disquieting doubts about my sanity. +Romance goes out of a man's head when the hair gets gray." + +"Until a man has gray hair," Mrs. Lorraine said, still with some +unnecessary fervor, "he does not know that there are things much more +valuable than money. You wouldn't touch that money just now, and all +the thinking and reasoning in the world will never get you to touch +it." + +"What am I to do with it?" he said meekly. + +"Give it to Mr. Mackenzie, in trust for his daughter," Mrs. Lorraine +said promptly; and then, seeing that her mother had gone to the end +of the drawing-room to fetch something or other, she added quickly, +"I should be more sorry than I can tell you to find you accepting this +money. You do not wish to have it. You do not need it. And if you did +take it, it would prove a source of continual embarrassment and regret +to you, and no assurances on the part of Mr. Mackenzie would be able +to convince you that you had acted rightly by his daughter. Now, if +you simply hand over your responsibilities to him, he cannot refuse +them, for the sake of his own child, and you are left with the sense +of having acted nobly and generously. I hope there are many men who +would do what I ask you to do, but I have not met many to whom I +could make such an appeal with any hope. But, after all, that is only +advice. I have no right to ask you to do anything like that. You asked +me for my opinion about it. Well, that is it. But I should not have +asked you to act on it." + +"But I will," he said in a low voice; and then he went to the other +end of the room, for Mrs. Kavanagh was calling him to help her in +finding something she had lost. + +Before he left that evening Mrs. Lorraine said to him, "We go by the +night-mail to Paris to-morrow night, and we shall dine here at five. +Would you have the courage to come up and join us in that melancholy +ceremony?" + +"Oh yes," he said, "if I may go down to the station to see you away +afterward." + +"I think if we got you so far we should persuade you to go with us," +Mrs. Kavanagh said with a smile. + +He sat silent for a minute. Of course she could not seriously mean +such a thing. But at all events she would not be displeased if he +crossed their path while they were actually abroad. + +"It is getting too late in the year to go to Scotland now," he said +with some hesitation. + +"Oh most certainly," Mrs. Lorraine said. + +"I don't know where the man in whose yacht I was to have gone may be +now. I might spend half my holiday in trying to catch him." + +"And during that time you would be alone," Mrs. Lorraine said. + +"I suppose the Tyrol is a very nice place," he suggested. + +"Oh most delightful," she exclaimed. "You know, we should go round by +Switzerland, and go up by Luzerne and Zurich to the end of the Lake +of Constance. Bregenz, mamma, isn't that the place where we hired that +good-natured man the year before last?" + +"Yes, child." + +"Now, you see, Mr. Ingram, if you had less time than we--if you +could not start with us to-morrow--you might come straight down by +Schaffhausen and the steamer, and catch us up there, and then mamma +would become your guide. I am sure we should have some pleasant days +together till you got tired of us, and then you could go off on a +walking-tour if you pleased. And then, you know, there would be no +difficulty about our meeting at Bregenz, for mamma and I have plenty +of time, and we should wait there for a few days, so as to make sure." + +"Cecilia," said Mrs. Kavanagh, "you must not persuade Mr. Ingram +against his will. He may have other duties--other friends to see, +perhaps." + +"Who proposed it, mamma?" said the daughter calmly. + +"I did, as a mere joke. But of course, if Mr. Ingram thinks of going +to the Tyrol, we should be most pleased to see him there." + +"Oh, I have no other friends whom I am bound to see," Ingram said with +some hesitation, "and I should like to go to the Tyrol. But--the fact +is--I am afraid--" + +"May I interrupt you?" said Mrs. Lorraine. "You do not like to leave +London so long as your friend Sheila is in trouble. Is not that the +case? And yet she has her father to look after her. And it is clear +you cannot do much for her when you do not even know where Mr. +Lavender is. On the whole, I think you should consider yourself a +little bit now, and not get cheated out of your holidays for the +year." + +"Very well," Ingram said, "I shall be able to tell you to-morrow." + +To be so phlegmatic and matter-of-fact a person, Mr. Ingram was sorely +disturbed on going home that evening, nor did he sleep much during the +night. For the more that he speculated on all the possibilities that +might arise from his meeting those people in the Tyrol, the more +pertinaciously did this refrain follow these excursive fancies: "If +I go to the Tyrol I shall fall in love with that girl, and ask her to +marry me. And if I do so, what position should I hold, with regard to +her, as a penniless man with a rich wife?" + +He did not look at the question in such light as the opinion of the +world might throw on it. The difficulty was what she herself might +afterward come to think of their mutual relations. True it was, that +no one could be more gentle and submissive to him than she appeared +to be. In matters of opinion and discussion he already ruled with an +autocratic authority which he fully perceived himself, and exercised, +too, with some sort of notion that it was good for this clear-headed +young woman to have to submit to control. But of what avail would this +moral authority be as against the consciousness she would have that it +was her fortune that was supplying both with the means of living? + +He went down to his office in the morning with no plans formed. The +forenoon passed, and he had decided on nothing. At mid-day he suddenly +be-thought him that it would be very pleasant if Sheila would go and +see Mrs. Lorraine; and forthwith he did that which would have driven +Frank Lavender out of his senses--he telegraphed to Mrs. Lorraine +for permission to bring Sheila and her father to dinner at five. +He certainly knew that such a request was a trifle cool, but he had +discovered that Mrs. Lorraine was not easily shocked by such audacious +experiments on her good nature. When he received the telegram in +reply he knew it granted what he had asked. The words were merely, +"Certainly, by all means, but not later than five." + +Then he hastened down to the house in which Sheila lived, and +found that she and her father had just returned from visiting some +exhibition. Mr. Mackenzie was not in the room. + +"Sheila," Ingram said, "what would you think of my getting married?" + +Sheila looked up with a bright smile and said, "It would please me +very much--it would be a great pleasure to me; and I have expected it +for some time." + +"You have expected it?" he repeated with a stare. + +"Yes," she said quietly. + +"Then you fancy you know--" he said, or rather stammered, in great +embarrassment, when she interrupted him by saying, + +"Oh yes, I think I know. When you came down every evening to tell me +all the praises of Mrs. Lorraine, and how clever she was, and kind, +I expected you would come some day with another message; and now I +am very glad to hear it. You have changed all my opinions about her, +and--" + +Then she rose and took both his hands, and looked frankly into his +face. + +"--And I do hope most sincerely you will be happy, my dear friend." + +Ingram was fairly taken aback at the consequences of his own +imprudence. He had never dreamed for a moment that any one would have +suspected such a thing; and he had thrown out the suggestion to Sheila +almost as a jest, believing, of course, that it compromised no one. +And here, before he had spoken a word to Mrs. Lorraine on the subject, +he was being congratulated on his approaching marriage. + +"Oh, Sheila," he said, "this is all a mistake. It was a joke of mine. +If I had known you would think of Mrs. Lorraine, I should not have +said a word about it." + +"But it is Mrs. Lorraine?" Sheila said. + +"Well, but I have never mentioned such a thing to her--never hinted it +in the remotest manner. I dare say if I had she might laugh the matter +aside as too absurd." + +"She will not do that," Sheila said. "If you ask her to marry you, +she will marry you: I am sure of that from what I have heard, and she +would be very foolish if she was not proud and glad to do that. And +you--what doubt can you have, after all that you have been saying of +late?" + +"But you don't marry a woman merely because you admire her cleverness +and kindness," he said; and then he added suddenly, "Sheila, would you +do me a great favor? Mrs. Lorraine and her mother are leaving for the +Continent to-night. They dine at five, and I am commissioned to ask +you and your papa if you would go up with me and have some dinner with +them, you know, before they start. Won't you do that, Sheila?" + +The girl shook her head, without answering. She had not gone to any +friend's house since her husband had left London, and that +house, above all others, was calculated to awaken in her bitter +recollections. + +"Won't you, Sheila?" he said. "You used to go there. I know they +like you very much. I have seen you very well pleased and comfortable +there, and I thought you were enjoying yourself." + +"Yes, that is true," she said; and then she looked up, with a strange +sort of smile on her lips, "But 'what made the assembly shine?'" + +That forced smile did not last long: the girl suddenly burst into +tears, and rose and went away to the window. Mackenzie came into the +room: he did not see his daughter was crying: "Well, Mr. Ingram, and +are you coming with us to the Lewis? We cannot always be staying in +London, for there will be many things wanting the looking after in +Borva, as you will know ferry well. And yet Sheila she will not go +back; and Mairi too, she will be forgetting the ferry sight of her own +people; but if you wass coming with us, Mr. Ingram, Sheila she would +come too, and it would be ferry good for her whatever." + +"I have brought you another proposal. Will you take Sheila to see the +Tyrol, and I will go with you?" + +"The Tyrol?" said Mr. Mackenzie. "Ay, it is a ferry long way away, but +if Sheila will care to go to the Tyrol--oh yes, I will go to the Tyrol +or anywhere if she will go out of London, for it is not good for +a young girl to be always in the one house, and no company and no +variety; and I was saying to Sheila what good will she do sitting by +the window and thinking over things, and crying sometimes? By Kott, it +is a foolish thing for a young girl, and I will hef no more of it!" + +In other circumstances Ingram would have laughed at this dreadful +threat. Despite the frown on the old man's face, the sudden stamp of +his foot and the vehemence of his words, Ingram knew that if Sheila +had turned round and said that she wished to be shut up in a dark +room for the rest of her life, the old King of Borva would have +said, "Ferry well, Sheila," in the meekest way, and would have been +satisfied if only he could share her imprisonment with her. + +"But first of all, Mr. Mackenzie, I have another proposal to make to +you," Ingram said; and then he urged upon Sheila's father to accept +Mrs. Lorraine's invitation. + +Mr. Mackenzie was nothing loath: Sheila was living by far too +monotonous a life. He went over to the window to her and said, +"Sheila, my lass, you was going nowhere else this evening; and it +would be ferry convenient to go with Mr. Ingram, and he would see +his friends away, and we could go to a theatre then. And it is no new +thing for you to go to fine houses and see other people; but it is new +to me, and you wass saying what a beautiful house it wass many a +time, and I hef wished to see it. And the people they are ferry kind, +Sheila, to send me an invitation; and if they wass to come to the +Lewis, what would you think if you asked them to come to your house +and they paid no heed to it? Now, it is after four, Sheila, and if you +wass to get ready now--" + +"Yes, I will go and get ready, papa," she said. + +Ingram had a vague consciousness that he was taking Sheila up to +introduce to her Mrs. Lorraine in a new character. Would Sheila +look at the woman she used to fear and dislike in a wholly different +fashion, and be prepared to adorn her with all the graces which he had +so often described to her? Ingram hoped that Sheila would get to like +Mrs. Lorraine, and that by and by a better acquaintance between them +might lead to a warm and friendly intimacy. Somehow, he felt that if +Sheila would betray such a liking--if she would come to him and say +honestly that she was rejoiced he meant to marry--all his doubts would +be cleared away. Sheila had already said pretty nearly as much as +that, but then it followed what she understood to be an announcement +of his approaching marriage, and of course the girl's kindly nature at +once suggested a few pretty speeches. Sheila now knew that nothing +was settled: after looking at Mrs. Lorraine in the light of these +new possibilities, would she come to him and counsel him to go on and +challenge a decision? + +Mr. Mackenzie received with a grave dignity and politeness the +more than friendly welcome given him both by Mrs. Kavanagh and her +daughter, and in view of their approaching tour he gave them to +understand that he had himself established somewhat familiar relations +with foreign countries by reason of his meeting with the ships and +sailors hailing from those distant shores. He displayed a profound +knowledge of the habits and customs and of the natural products of +many remote lands which were much farther afield than a little bit of +inland Germany. He represented the island of Borva, indeed, as a +sort of lighthouse from which you could survey pretty nearly all the +countries of the world, and broadly hinted that so far from insular +prejudice being the fruit of living in such a place, a general +intercourse with diverse peoples tended to widen the understanding and +throw light on the various social experiments that had been made by +the lawgivers, the philanthropists, the philosophers of the world. + +It seemed to Sheila, as she sat and listened, that the pale, calm and +clear-eyed young lady opposite her was not quite so self-possessed +as usual. She seemed shy and a little self-conscious. Did she suspect +that she was being observed, Sheila wondered? and the reason? When +dinner was announced she took Sheila's arm, and allowed Mr. Ingram to +follow them, protesting, into the other room, but there was much more +of embarrassment and timidity than of an audacious mischief in her +look. She was very kind indeed to Sheila, but she had wholly abandoned +that air of maternal patronage which she used to assume toward the +girl. She seemed to wish to be more friendly and confidential with +her, and indeed scarcely spoke a word to Ingram during dinner, so +persistently did she talk to Sheila, who sat next her. + +Ingram got vexed. "Mrs. Lorraine," he said, "you seem to forget that +this is a solemn occasion. You ask us to a farewell banquet, but +instead of observing the proper ceremonies you pass the time in +talking about fancy-work and music, and other ordinary, every--day +trifles." + +"What are the ceremonies?" she said. + +"Well," he answered, "you need not occupy the time with crochet--" + +"Mrs. Lavender and I are very well pleased to talk about trifles." + +"But I am not," he said bluntly, "and I am not going to be shut out by +a conspiracy. Come, let us talk about your journey." + +"Will my lord give his commands as to the point at which we shall +start the conversation?" + +"You may skip the Channel." + +"I wish I could," she remarked with a sigh. + +"We shall land you in Paris. How are we to know that you have arrived +safely?" + +She looked embarrassed for a moment, and then said, "If it is of any +consequence for you to know, I shall be writing in any case to Mrs. +Lavender about some little private matter." + +Ingram did not receive this promise with any great show of delight. +"You see," he said, somewhat glumly, "if I am to meet you anywhere, I +should like to know the various stages of your route, so that I could +guard against our missing each other." + +"You have decided to go, then?" + +Ingram, not looking at her, but looking at Sheila, said, "Yes;" and +Sheila, despite all her efforts, could not help glancing up with +a brief smile and blush of pleasure that were quite visible to +everybody. + +Mrs. Lorraine struck in with a sort of nervous haste: "Oh, that will +be very pleasant for mamma, for she gets rather tired of me at times +when we are traveling. Two women who always read the same sort of +books, and have the same opinions about the people they meet, and +have precisely the same tastes in everything, are not very amusing +companions for each other. You want a little discussion thrown in." + +"And if we meet Mr. Ingram we are sure to have that," Mrs. Kavanagh +said benignly. + +"And you want somebody to give you new opinions and put things +differently, you know. I am sure mamma will be most kind to you if you +can make it convenient to spend a few days with us, Mr. Ingram." + +"And I have been trying to persuade Mr. Mackenzie and this young lady +to come also," said Ingram. + +"Oh, that would be delightful!" Mrs. Lorraine cried, suddenly taking +Sheila's hand. "You will come, won't you? We should have such a +pleasant party. I am sure your papa would be most interested; and we +are not tied to any route: we should go wherever you pleased." + +She would have gone on beseeching and advising, but she saw something +in Sheila's face which told her that all her efforts would be +unavailing. + +"It is very kind of you," Sheila said, "but I do not think I can go to +the Tyrol." + +"Then you shall go back to the Lewis, Sheila," her father said. + +"I cannot go back to the Lewis, papa," she said simply; and at this +point Ingram, perceiving how painful the discussion was for the girl, +suddenly called attention to the hour, and asked Mrs. Kavanagh if all +her portmanteaus were strapped up. + +They drove in a body down to the station, and Mr. Ingram was most +assiduous in supplying the two travelers with an abundance of +everything they could not possibly want. He got them a reading-lamp, +though both of them declared they never read in a train. He got them +some eau-de-cologne, though they had plenty in their traveling-case. +He purchased for them an amount of miscellaneous literature that would +have been of benefit to a hospital, provided the patients were strong +enough to bear it. And then he bade them good-bye at least half a +dozen times as the train was slowly moving out of the station, and +made the most solemn vows about meeting them at Bregenz. + +"Now, Sheila," he said, "shall we go to the theatre?" + +"I do not care to go unless you wish," was the answer. + +"She does not care to go anywhere now," her father said; and then the +girl, seeing that he was rather distressed about her apparent want of +interest, pulled herself together and said cheerfully, "Is it not too +late to go to a theatre? And I am sure we could be very comfortable +at home. Mairi, she will think it unkind if we go to the theatre by +ourselves." + +"Mairi!" said her father impatiently, for he never lost an opportunity +of indirectly justifying Lavender. Mairi has more sense than you, +Sheila, and she knows that a servant-lass has to stay at home, and she +knows that she is ferry different from you; and she is a ferry good +girl whatever, and hass no pride, and she does not expect nonsense in +going about and such things." + +"I am quite sure, papa, you would rather go home and sit down and have +a talk with Mr. Ingram, and a pipe and a little whisky, than go to any +theatre." + +"What I would do! And what I would like!" said her father in a vexed +way. "Sheila, you have no more sense as a lass that wass still at the +school. I want you to go to the theatre and amuse yourself, instead +of sitting in the house and thinking, thinking, thinking. And all for +what?" + +"But if one has something to be sorry for, is it not better to think +of it?" + +"And what hef you to be sorry for?" said her father in amazement, and +forgetting that, in his diplomatic fashion, he had been accustoming +Sheila to the notion that she too might have erred grievously and been +in part responsible for all that had occurred. + +"I have a great deal to be sorry for, papa," she said; and then she +renewed her entreaties that her two companions should abandon their +notion of going to a theatre, and resolve to spend the rest of the +evening in what she consented to call her home. + +After all, they found a comfortable little company when they sat round +the fire, which had been lit for cheerfulness rather than for warmth, +and Ingram at least was in a particularly pleasant mood. For Sheila +had seized the opportunity, when her father had gone out of the room +for a few minutes, to say suddenly, "Oh, my dear friend, if you care +for her, you have a great happiness before you." + +"Why, Sheila!" he said, staring. + +"She cares for you more than you can think: I saw it to-night in +everything she said and did." + +"I thought she was just a trifle saucy, do you know. She shunted me +out of the conversation altogether." + +Sheila shook her head and smiled: "She was embarrassed. She suspects +that you like her, and that I know it, and that I came to see her. If +you ask her to marry you, she will do it gladly." + +"Sheila," Ingram said with a severity that was not in his heart, "you +must not say such things. You might make fearful mischief by putting +these wild notions into people's heads." + +"They are not wild notions," she said quietly. "A woman can tell what +another woman is thinking about better than a man." + +"And am I to go to the Tyrol and ask her to marry me?" he said with +the air of a meek scholar. + +"I should like to see you married--very, very much indeed," Sheila +said. + +"And to her?" + +"Yes to her," the girl said frankly. "For I am sure she has great +regard for you, and she is clever enough to put value on--on--But I +cannot flatter you, Mr. Ingram." + +"Shall I send you word about what happens in the Tyrol?" he said, +still with the humble air of one receiving instructions. + +"Yes." + +"And if she rejects me, what shall I do?" + +"She will not reject you." + +"Shall I come to you for consolation, and ask you what you meant by +driving me on such a blunder?" + +"If she rejects you," Sheila said with a smile, "it will be your own +fault, and you will deserve it. For you are a little too harsh with +her, and you have too much authority, and I am surprised that she +will be so amiable under it. Because, you know, a woman expects to +be treated with much gentleness and deference before she has said she +will marry. She likes to be entreated, and coaxed, and made much of, +but instead of that you are very overbearing with Mrs. Lorraine." + +"I did not mean to be, Sheila," he said, honestly enough. "If anything +of the kind happened it must have been in a joke." + +"Oh no, not a joke," Sheila said; "and I have noticed it before--the +very first evening you came to their house. And perhaps you did not +know of it yourself; and then Mrs. Lorraine, she is clever enough to +see that you did not mean to be disrespectful. But she will expect you +to alter that a great deal if you ask her to marry you; that is, until +you are married." + +"Have I ever been overbearing to you, Sheila?" he asked. + +"To me? Oh no. You have always been very gentle to me; but I know how +that is. When you first knew me I was almost a child, and you treated +me like a child; and ever since then it has always been the same. +But to others--yes, you are too unceremonious; and Mrs. Lorraine will +expect you to be much more mild and amiable, and you must let her have +opinions of her own." + +"Sheila, you give me to understand that I am a bear," he said in tones +of injured protest. + +Sheila laughed: "Have I told you the truth at last? It was no matter +so long as you had ordinary acquaintances to deal with. But now, if +you wish to marry that pretty lady, you must be much more gentle if +you are discussing anything with her; and if she says anything that +is not very wise, you must not say bluntly that it is foolish, but you +must smooth it away, and put her right gently, and then she will be +grateful to you. But if you say to her, 'Oh, that is nonsense!' as +you might say to a man, you will hurt her very much. The man would not +care--he would think you were stupid to have a different opinion from +him; but a woman fears she is not as clever as the man she is talking +to, and likes his good opinion; and if he says something careless +like that, she is sensitive to it, and it wounds her. To-night you +contradicted Mrs. Lorraine about the _h_ in those Italian words, and +I am quite sure you were wrong. She knows Italian much better than you +do, and yet she yielded to you very prettily." + +"Go on, Sheila, go on," he said with a resigned air. "What else did I +do?" + +"Oh, a great many rude things. You should not have contradicted Mrs. +Kavanagh about the color of an amethyst." + +"But why? You know she was wrong; and she said herself a minute +afterward that she was thinking of a sapphire." + +"But you ought not to contradict a person older than yourself," said +Sheila sententiously. + +"Goodness gracious me! Because one person is born in one year, and one +in another, is that any reason why you should say that an amethyst +is blue? Mr. Mackenzie, come and talk to this girl. She is trying to +pervert my principles. She says that in talking to a woman you have to +abandon all hope of being accurate, and that respect for the truth is +not to be thought of. Because a woman has a pretty face she is to be +allowed to say that black is white, and white pea-green. And if you +say anything to the contrary, you are a brute, and had better go and +bellow by yourself in a wilderness." + +"Sheila is quite right," said old Mackenzie at a venture. + +"Oh, do you think so?" Ingram asked coolly. "Then I can understand how +her moral sentiment has been destroyed, and it is easy to see where +she has got a set of opinions that strike at the very roots of a +respectable and decent society." + +"Do you know," said Sheila seriously, "that it is very rude of you to +say so, even in jest? If you treat Mrs. Lorraine in this way--" + +She suddenly stopped. Her father had not heard, being busy among +his pipes. So the subject was discreetly dropped, Ingram reluctantly +promising to pay some attention to Sheila's precepts of politeness. + +Altogether, it was a pleasant evening they had, but when Ingram had +left, Mr. Mackenzie said to his daughter, "Now, look at this, Sheila. +When Mr. Ingram goes away from London, you hef no friend at all then +in the place, and you are quite alone. Why will you not come to the +Lewis, Sheila? It is no one there will know anything of what has +happened here; and Mairi she is a good girl, and she will hold her +tongue." + +"They will ask me why I come back without my husband," Sheila said, +looking down. + +"Oh, you will leave that all to me," said her father, who knew he +had surely sufficient skill to thwart the curiosity of a few simple +creatures in Borva. "There is many a girl hass to go home for a time +while her husband he is away on his business; and there will no one +hef the right to ask you any more than I will tell them; and I will +tell them what they should know--oh yes, I will tell them ferry +well--and you will hef no trouble about it. And, Sheila, you are a +good lass, and you know that I hef many things to attend to that is +not easy to write about--" + +"I do know that, papa," the girl said, "and many a time have I wished +you would go back to the Lewis." + +"And leave you here by yourself? Why, you are talking foolishly, +Sheila. But now, Sheila, you will see how you could go back with me; +and it would be a ferry different thing for you running about in the +fresh air than shut up in a room in the middle of a town. And you are +not looking ferry well, my lass, and Scarlett she will hef to take the +charge of you." + +"I will go to the Lewis with you, papa, when you please," she said, +and he was glad and proud to hear her decision; but there was no happy +light of anticipation in her eyes, such as ought to have been awakened +by this projected journey to the far island which she had known as her +home. + +And so it was that one rough and blustering afternoon the Clansman +steamed into Stornoway harbor, and Sheila, casting timid and furtive +glances toward the quay, saw Duncan standing there, with the wagonette +some little distance back under charge of a boy. Duncan was a proud +man that day. He was the first to shove the gangway on to the vessel, +and he was the first to get on board; and in another minute Sheila +found the tall, keen-eyed, brown-faced keeper before her, and he was +talking in a rapid and eager fashion, throwing in an occasional scrap +of Gaelic in the mere hurry of his words. + +"Oh yes, Miss Sheila, Scarlett she is ferry well whatever, but there +is nothing will make her so well as your coming back to sa Lewis; and +we wass saying yesterday that it looked as if it wass more as three or +four years, or six years, since you went away from sa Lewis, but now +it iss no time at all, for you are just the same Miss Sheila as we +knew before; and there is not one in all Borva but will think it iss a +good day this day that you will come back." + +"Duncan," said Mackenzie with an impatient stamp of his foot, "why +will you talk like a foolish man? Get the luggage to the shore, +instead of keeping us all the day in the boat." + +"Oh, ferry well, Mr. Mackenzie," said Duncan, departing with an +injured air, and grumbling as he went, "it iss no new thing to you to +see Miss Sheila, and you will have no thocht for any one but yourself. +But I will get out the luggage--oh yes, I will get out the luggage." + +Sheila, in truth, had but little luggage with her, but she remained on +board the boat until Duncan was quite ready to start, for she did +not wish just then to meet any of her friends in Stornoway. Then she +stepped ashore and crossed the quay, and got into the wagonette; and +the two horses, whom she had caressed for a moment, seemed to know +that they were carrying Sheila back to her own country, from the +speed with which they rattled out of the town and away into the lonely +moorland. + +Mackenzie let them have their way. Past the solitary lakes they +went, past the long stretches of undulating morass, past the lonely +sheilings perched far up on the hills; and the rough and blustering +wind blew about them, and the gray clouds hurried by, and the old, +strong-bearded man who shook the reins and gave the horses their heads +could have laughed aloud in his joy that he was driving his daughter +home. But Sheila--she sat there as one dead; and Mairi, timidly +regarding her, wondered what the impassable face and the bewildered, +sad eyes meant. Did she not smell the sweet strong smell of the +heather? Had she no interest in the great birds that were circling in +the air over by the Barbhas mountains? Where was the pleasure she used +to exhibit in remembering the curious names of the small lakes they +passed? + +And lo! the rough gray day broke asunder, and a great blaze of fire +appeared in the west, shining across the moors and touching the blue +slopes of the distant hills. Sheila was getting near to the region of +beautiful sunsets and lambent twilights and the constant movement and +mystery of the sea. Overhead the heavy clouds were still hurried on +by the wind; and in the south the eastern slopes of the hills and the +moors were getting to be of a soft purple; but all along the west, +where her home was, lay a great flush of gold, and she knew that +Loch Roag was shining there, and the gable of the house at Borvabost +getting warm in the beautiful light. + +"It is a good afternoon you will be getting to see Borva again," her +father said to her; but all the answer she made was to ask her father +not to stop at Garrana-hina, but to drive straight on to Callernish. +She would visit the people at Garra-na-hina some other day. + +The boat was waiting for them at Callernish, and the boat was the +Maighdean-mhara. + +"How pretty she is! How have you kept her so well, Duncan?" said +Sheila, her face lighting up for the first time as she went down the +path to the bright-painted little vessel that scarcely rocked in the +water below. + +"Bekaas we neffer knew but that it was this week, or the week before, +or the next week you would come back, Miss Sheila, and you would want +your boat; but it wass Mr. Mackenzie himself, it wass he that did all +the pentin of the boat; and it iss as well done as Mr. McNicol could +have done it, and a great deal better than that mirover." + +"Won't you steer her yourself, Sheila?" her father suggested, glad to +see that she was at last being interested and pleased. + +"Oh yes, I will steer her, if I have not forgotten all the points that +Duncan taught me." + +"And I am sure you hef not done that, Miss Sheila," Duncan said, "for +there wass no one knew Loch Roag better as you, not one, and you hef +not been so long away; and when you tek the tiller in your hand it +will all come back to you, just as if you wass going away from Borva +the day before yesterday." + +She certainly had not forgotten, and she was proud and pleased to see +how well the shapely little craft performed its duties. They had a +favorable wind, and ran rapidly along the opening channels, until in +due course they glided into the well-known bay over which, and shining +in the yellow light from the sunset, they saw Sheila's home. + +Sheila had escaped so far the trouble of meeting friends, but she +could not escape her friends in Borvabost. They had waited for her for +hours, not knowing when the Clansman might arrive at Stornoway; and +now they crowded down to the shore, and there was a great shaking +of hands, and an occasional sob from some old crone, and a thousand +repetitions of the familiar "And are you ferry well, Miss Sheila?" +from small children who had come across from the village in defiance +of mothers and fathers. And Sheila's face brightened into a wonderful +gladness, and she had a hundred questions to ask for one answer she +got, and she did not know what to do with the number of small brown +fists that wanted to shake hands with her. + +"Will you let Miss Sheila alone?" Duncan called out, adding something +in Gaelic which came strangely from a man who sometimes reproved his +own master for swearing. "Get away with you, you brats: it wass better +you would be in your beds than bothering people that wass come all the +way from Styornoway." + +Then they all went up in a body to the house, and Scarlett, who had +neither eyes, ears nor hands but for the young girl who had been the +very pride of her heart, was nigh driven to distraction by Mackenzie's +stormy demands for oatcake and glasses and whisky. Scarlett angrily +remonstrated with her husband for allowing this rabble of people to +interfere with the comfort of Miss Sheila; and Duncan, taking her +reproaches with great good-humor, contented himself with doing her +work, and went and got the cheese and the plates and the whisky, while +Scarlett, with a hundred endearing phrases, was helping Sheila to take +off her traveling things. And Sheila, it turned out, had brought +with her in her portmanteau certain huge and wonderful cakes, not of +oatmeal, from Glasgow; and these were soon on the great table in the +kitchen, and Sheila herself distributing pieces to those small folks +who were so awestricken by the sight of this strange dainty that they +forgot her injunctions and thanked her timidly in Gaelic. + +"Well, Sheila my lass," said her father to her as they stood at the +door of the house and watched the troop of their friends, children +and all, go over the hill to Borvabost in the red light of the sunset, +"and are you glad to be home again?" + +"Oh yes," she said heartily enough; and Mackenzie thought that things +were going on favorably. + +"You hef no such sunsets in the South, Sheila," he observed, loftily +casting his eye around, although he did not usually pay much attention +to the picturesqueness of his native island. "Now look at the light +on Suainabhal. Do you see the red on the water down there, Sheila? Oh +yes, I thought you would say it wass ferry beautiful--it is a ferry +good color on the water. The water looks ferry well when it is red. +You hef no such things in London--not any, Sheila. Now we must go +in-doors, for these things you can see any day here, and we must not +keep our friends waiting." + +An ordinary, dull-witted or careless man might have been glad to have +a little quiet after so long and tedious a journey, but Mr. Mackenzie +was no such person. He had resolved to guard against Sheila's first +evening at home being in any way languid or monotonous, and so he had +asked one or two of his especial friends to remain and have supper +with them. Moreover, he did not wish the girl to spend the rest of +the evening out of doors when the melancholy time of the twilight +drew over the hills and the sea began to sound remote and sad. Sheila +should have a comfortable evening in-doors; and he would himself, +after supper, when the small parlor was well lit up, sing for her one +or two songs, just to keep the thing going, as it were. He would let +nobody else sing. These Gaelic songs were not the sort of music to +make people cheerful. And if Sheila herself would sing for them? + +And Sheila did. And her father chose the songs for her, and they were +the blithest he could find, and the girl seemed really in excellent +spirits. They had their pipes and their hot whisky and water in this +little parlor; Mr. Mackenzie explaining that although his daughter was +accustomed to spacious and gilded drawing-rooms where such a thing +was impossible, she would do anything to make her friends welcome and +comfortable, and they might fill their glasses and their pipes with +impunity. And Sheila sang again and again, all cheerful and sensible +English songs, and she listened to the odd jokes and stories her +friends had to tell her; and Mackenzie was delighted with the success +of his plans and precautions. Was not her very appearance now a +triumph? She was laughing, smiling, talking to every one: he had not +seen her so happy for many a day. + +In the midst of it all, when the night had come apace, what was this +wild skirl outside that made everybody start? Mackenzie jumped to his +feet, with an angry vow in his heart that if this "teffle of a piper +John" should come down the hill playing "Lochaber no more" or "Cha +till mi tualadh" or any other mournful tune, he would have his chanter +broken in a thousand splinters over his head. But what was the wild +air that came nearer and nearer, until John marched into the house, +and came, with ribbons and pipes, to the very door of the room, which +was flung open to him? Not a very appropriate air, perhaps, for it was + + The Campbells are coming, oho! oho! + The Campbells are coming, oho! oho! + The Campbells are coming to bonny Lochleven! + The Campbells are coming, oho! oho! + +But it was, to Mr. Mackenzie's rare delight, a right good joyous tune, +and it was meant as a welcome to Sheila; and forthwith he caught the +white-haired piper by the shoulder and dragged him in, and said, "Put +down your pipes and come into the house, John--put down your pipes and +tek off your bonnet, and we shall hef a good dram together this night, +by Kott! And it is Sheila herself will pour out the whisky for you, +John; and she is a good Highland girl, and she knows the piper was +never born that could be hurt by whisky, and the whisky was never yet +made that could hurt a piper. What do you say to that, John?" + +John did not answer: he was standing before Sheila with his bonnet in +his hand, but with his pipes still proudly over his shoulder. And he +took the glass from her and called out "Shlainte!" and drained every +drop of it out to welcome Mackenzie's daughter home. + +[TO BE CONTINUED.] + + + + +OUR MONTHLY GOSSIP + +MR. E. LYTTON BULWER. + + +In looking over, not very long since, a long--neglected, thin +portfolio of my twin-brother, the late Willis Gaylord Clark of +Philadelphia, I came across a sealed parcel endorsed "London +Correspondence." It contained letters to him from many literary +persons of more or less eminence at that time in the British +metropolis; among others, two from Miss Landon ("L.E.L."); two +from Mrs. S. C. Hall, the versatile and clever author of _Tales +and Sketches of the Irish Peasantry_, cordial, closely--written and +recrossed to the remotest margin; one from her husband, Mr. S.C. Hall; +three or four from Mr. Chorley; and lastly, five or six elaborate +letters from Mr. E. Lytton Bulwer, sent through his American +publishers, the Brothers Harper, by Washington Irving, then secretary +of legation to the American embassy "near the court of St. James." +Enclosed with these last-mentioned letters was a communication from +Miss Fanny Kemble, to whom they had been sent for perusal, and who, +in returning them, did not hesitate to say that she did Not share his +young American correspondent's admiration for the author of _Pelham_. +She had met him frequently in London society, and regarded his manners +as affected and himself as a reflex of his own conceited model of +a gentleman--a style which Thackeray perhaps did not too grossly +caricature when he made Chawls Yellowplush announce, from his +own lips, his sounding name and title to a distinguished London +drawing-room as "Sa-wa-Edou-wah'd-à-Lyttod-à-Bulwig!" + +The poems which my brother had written for two London journals at +the time of their first appearance and sudden popularity, the +_London Literary Gazette_ and, I believe, the _Athenæum_, led to the +correspondence I have mentioned; and from the letters of Mr. Bulwer I +have extracted a few passages, as somewhat personal in their nature, +besides being characteristic of his tone of thought and manner of +expression at that period of his career: + +"An author who has a just confidence in his attainments and powers, +who knows that his mind is imperishable and capable of making daily +additions to its own strength, is always more desirous of seeing the +censures (if not _mere_ abuse) than the praises of those who aspire to +judge him; and any suggestions or admonitions thus bestowed are seldom +disregarded. But if he is to profit by criticism, the _motive_ must +be known to him. It is by no means natural to take the advice of an +enemy. When the critic enters his department of literature in the +false guise of urbanity and candor merely to conceal an incapable and +huckstering soul, he only awakens for himself the irrevocable contempt +of the very mind that he would gall or subdue; since that mind, under +such circumstances, invariably rises _above_ its detractor, and leaves +him exposed on the same creaking gibbet that he has prepared for the +object of his fear or envy." + +"Seldom indeed is it that injustice fails to be seen through, or that +the policy of interested condemnation escapes undetected. They first +produce the excitements, then furnish the triumphs, of genius." + +"There is a charm in writing for the pure and intelligent young worth +all the plaudits of sinister or hypocritical wisdom. At a certain age, +and while the writings that please have a gloss of novelty about +them, hiding the blemishes that may afterward be discovered as +their characteristics,--_then_ it is that the young convert their +approbation into enthusiasm. An author benefits in a wide and +most pleasing range of public opinion by this natural and common +disposition in the young; and the only cloud thrown athwart the rays +of pleasure thus saluting his spirit is flung from the thought that +they who are thus moved by the movings of his own mind may come in +a few years to look upon his pages with hearts less ardent in their +sympathies, and with altered eyes, which have acquired additional +keenness by looking longer upon the world." + +"The competent American _littérateur_ has a glorious career +before him. So much is there in your magnificent country, hitherto +undescribed and unexpressed, in scenery, manners, morals, that all +may be wells from which he may be the first to drink. Yet it cannot be +expected--for it has passed to a proverb that escape from persecution +and detraction can never and nowhere be the lot of literature--that +there will not be many instances, even in America, where every attempt +on the part of gifted writers (and young writers especially, who are +commonly regarded with eyes of invidious jaundice by the elders, +whose waning reputations they may through industry either supplant or +explode) will be rendered an uneasy struggle, and sometimes almost a +curse, by the envy of those who deny approval while blind to success, +and the affected disdain of those who exaggerate demerit. Yet +these obstacles warm the spirit of honest ambition, and enhance its +inevitable conquests." + +"It is a sight of gratification and pride to behold a laborer in the +vineyard of letters escaping from the envy, the jealousy, the rivalry, +the leaven of all uncharitableness, with which literary intercourse +is so often polluted. The writers of England have been tardy in +their justice, not only to the progress, circumstances and customs +of America, but to her intellectual offspring; and the time is not +remote--nay, has already dawned--when, in this regard, the spirit of +Change wields his wand and finds obedience to his prerogatives." + +"'No hostility between nations affects the arts:' so said the old +maxim, but it has rarely been found a truism. They who feel it, feel +also the virtue which dictated the aphorism. Men whose object is to +enlighten the nations or exalt the judgment or (the least ambition) to +refine the tastes of others--men who feel that this object is dearer +to them than a petty and vain ambition--feel also that all who labor +in the same cause are united with them in a friendship which exists +in one climate as in another--in a I republic or in a despotism: these +are the best cosmopolites, the truest citizens of the world." + +The foregoing extracts will make it obvious that Mr. Bulwer was +at that time sore at the treatment he had received at the hands +of certain of his critics, who were by no means unanimous in their +estimation of his genius. He was very sensitive at all times of +adverse comment upon his writings. Thackeray wounded him woefully when +he made "Chawls Yellowplush" review him characteristically in _Punch_. +These most amusing papers ought to have been included in Thackeray's +published miscellaneous writings, but they were not, although Bulwer +is humorously travestied in _Punch's_ "Prize Novelists," together with +Lover, Ainsworth, and Disraeli. The subjoined will show the style +of the "littery" footman, who, as a critic, "sumtimes gave kissis, +sumtimes kix": + +"One may objeck to an immence deal of your writings, witch, betwigst +you and me, contain more sham sentiment, sham morallaty and sham potry +than you'd like to own; but in spite of this, there's the _stuf_ +you; you've a kind and loyal heart in your buzm, bar'net--a trifle +deboshed, praps: a keen i, igspecially for what is comick (as for your +tragady, it's mighty flatchulent), and a ready pleasn't pen. The man +who says you're an As, is an As himself. Dont b'lieve him, bar'net: +not that I suppose you will; for, if I've formed a correck opinion of +you from your wuck, you think your small beear as good as most men's. +Every man does--and wy not? We brew, and we love our own tap--amen; +but the pint betwigst us is this steupid, absudd way of crying out +because the public don't like it too. Wy _should_ they, my dear +bar'net? You may vow that they are fools, or that the critix are your +enemies, or that the world should judge your poams by _your_ critikle +rules, and not by their own. You may beat your brest, and vow that +you are a martyr, but you won't mend the matter." + +After these general remarks, the critic-footman takes up the subject +of style, and argues with a good deal of ingenuity and force in favor +of simplicity and terseness, especially in his performance of _The +Sea-Captain_: + +"Sea-captings should not be eternly spowting, and invoking gods, hevn, +starz, and angels, and other silestial influences. We can all do it, +bar'net: no-think in life is easier. I can compare my livery buttons +to the stars, or the clouds of my backr pipe to the dark vollums that +ishew from Mount Hetna; or I can say that angles are looking down from +them, and the tobacco-silf, like a happy soil released, is circling +round and upwards, and shaking sweetness down. All this is as easy as +to drink; but it's not potry, bar'net, nor natral. Pipple, when their +mothers reckonise them, don't howl about the suckumambient air, and +paws to think of the happy leaves a-rustling--leastways, one mistrusts +them if they do...Look at the neat grammaticle twist of Lady Arundel's +spitch too, who in the cors of three lines has made her son a prince, +a lion with a sword and coronal, and a star. Wy gauble, and sheak up +metafers in this way, bar'net? One simile is quite enuff in the best +of sentences; and I preshume I need not tell you that it's as well to +have it _like_ while you are about it. Take my advice, honrabble sir: +listen to an umble footman: it's genrally best in potry to understand +perffickly what you mean yourself, and to igspress your meaning +clearly affterward: the simpler the words the better, praps. You may, +for instans, call a coronet an 'ancestral coronal,' if you like, as +you might call a hat a 'swart sombrero,' a glossy four-and-nine, +a 'silken helm, to storm impermeable,' and 'lightsome as a breezy +gossamer;' but in the long run it's as well to call it a hat. It _is_ +a hat, and that name is quite as poeticle as another." + +The remarks of Mr. Yellowplush upon some of the segregated passages +are amusing enough. Take the following, for example: + + Girl, beware! + The love that trifles round the charm it gilds, + Oft ruins while it shines. + +Igsplane this, men and angles! I've tried every way; backards, +forards, and all sorts of trancepositions: + + The love that ruins round the charm it shines + Gilds while it trifles oft, + +or-- + + The charm that gilds around the love it ruins, + Oft trifles while it shines, + +or-- + + The ruins that love gilds and shines around + Oft trifles while it charms, + +or-- + + Love while it charms shines round and ruins oft + The trifles that it gilds, + +or-- + + The love that trifles, gilds and ruins oft + While round the charm it shines. + +All witch are as sen sable as the ferst passadge. Sir Mr. Bullwig, +ain't I right? Such, barring the style, was the tenor of many of the +critiques upon Bulwer's writings which appeared about that period, and +which, as is now well known, "wrought him much annoy," versatile and +powerful as his genius has since proved itself. + +L. GAYLORD CLARK. + + + + +SALVINI'S OTHELLO. + + +It might have been supposed that whatever the fate of the stage among +other races, it would always maintain its position as one of the great +instruments of popular culture with the English-speaking nations, +linked as it is inseparably with the immortal name of Shakespeare in +his double capacity of author and actor, and possessing as it does +in his works a body of dramatic literature supreme alike in all +intellectual qualities and in fitness for scenic representation. Yet +it is but the other day that we were reminded by the announcement of +Macready's death of the long interval that had elapsed since the last +of the English tragedians had dropped a sceptre which there was no +one to take up; and now it is an actor of another race, speaking a +different language, who presents himself to fill the vacant place, and +to interpret for us anew creations which we study indeed more closely +than ever in the printed page, but of which we had ceased to ask for +any adequate palpable embodiment. Our impression, however, of a drama +is and must be incomplete until we have seen it on the stage: it must +be put in action before our eyes ere we can hope fully to understand +it. The amount of thoughtful and learned criticism to which +Shakespeare's plays have been subjected makes us forget at times that +the ultimate test of their excellence is to be found on the boards, +and that they were meant, above all things, to be acted. + +Taking Othello as Salvini presents him to us, and merely in the +light of a dramatic performance, having cast from out our minds the +recollection of all that we have ever heard, read or thought about the +character--more than this, forgetting our native English and knowing +Shakespeare only through the libretto in our hands (of which, however, +we must forbear to speak slightingly, for from it, we are told, +Salvini himself has gained his knowledge of the part),--putting +ourselves in this mental attitude, the performance may safely be said +to defy criticism, or rather to be above it, except such criticism +as accords with enthusiastic admiration. It is absolutely without +a shortcoming, seen from this standpoint. His majestic bearing, +his beautiful elocution, his pure voice, his graceful, expressive +gestures, and above all his perfect freedom from affectation or +self-consciousness, delight us throughout; and when to these qualities +are added the marvelous vigor of expression and force of passion with +which he shakes his audience from the middle of the play on, one feels +as if there were nothing more to ask of acting. No description, in +fact, can do justice to the perfect consistency and harmony of his +conception, or to the marvelous delicacy of his points, which are +yet as penetrating as they are subtle, and which never fail of their +effect, whether rendered by a gesture whose power of expression seems +to make words superfluous, as when in reply to Iago's hypocritically +sympathetic "I see this has a little dashed your spirits," which +is answered in the play by "Not a jot, not a jot," Salvini tries to +speak, but chokes with the words, and lifting his hand with a motion +of denial and deprecation, tells us what he would fain say, but +cannot; or by an intonation of voice, as when in answer to Iago's +"You would be satisfied?" he replies, marking the difference between +conditional and imperative with a tone that would of itself betray him +born to command-- + + Vorrei, che dico--io voglio + (Would?--Nay, I _will_). + +And when in his desperate pain and fury, maddened by the poison +working within, he drags Iago to the front of the stage, and holding +him by the throat speaks Shakespeare's meaning, if not Shakespeare's +words, thick and fast, as if he were not an actor, but Othello +himself, and while his audience listen with bated breath and +quick-beating hearts, he hurls him to the ground, and in the uncurbed +fury of his mood raises his foot to spurn him like a dog,--then he +rises far above ordinary dramatic effect: his art does "hold the +mirror up to Nature." We feel that we have seen Othello. + +Again, in the fourth act, when Iago brings home to him the realization +of his wife's infidelity, what can be finer than the sharpening of +his voice from stress of pain, changing from the full roundness of +its usual masculine robustness to a high womanish key, as he asks the +fatal questions, "Che disse? Che? Che fece?" What words could have +said so much as the dumb show with which he signifies that terrible +fact of which he can neither ask nor hear in words? And who can doubt +when he hears that cry of agony that bursts from his lips at Iago's +gross confirmation of his suggestion that it is the cry of a man +stabbed to the heart? His suffering is as real to us as the agony of +a lion would be if we stood by and saw some one drive a knife into the +beast up to the hilt. It equals in reality any exhibition of simple +unfeigned bodily pain, with all its intensity of violence. The word +"rant" never once comes into our minds. + +Salvini expresses everything. He demands nothing from his audience but +eyes and ears; he _acts_ the part in every detail; he does just what +he aims to do. His motion is as unconscious and unfettered as that of +a deer or a tiger: whether he paces with a stealthy, restless tread up +and down the back of the stage, reminding us irresistibly of a caged +wild beast, or whether he half crouches, then drags himself along, and +then darts upon Iago in the last scene, it is always plain that his +body is the servant of his mind: he moves in harmony with his mood. + +Despite, therefore, the natural tendency to scrutinize closely +the claims of a foreigner seeking to rule over our hearts as the +vicegerent of Shakespeare's sovreignty, there has been, and happily +can be, no question in regard to one essential point. That Salvini is +a born actor, a great tragedian, none will be bold enough to dispute. +In that rare combination of intellectual and physical qualities without +which no particular gift would justify his pretensions--intensity of +emotion, subtlety of perception, a power of impersonation implying of +itself the union of all the natural requirements with a mastery in their +display attainable only by consummate art--it is hard to believe that he +can ever have been excelled; though doubtless the mingled fire and +pathos of Kean transcended in their effect any like exhibition ever +witnessed on the stage. Except for the few--if any still survive--who can +remember the Othello of Kean, living recollection affords no opportunity +for a judgment founded on comparison. + +The only question therefore which it is possible to raise relates to +Salvini's conception of the character--a question such as must always +exist in the case of any representation of Shakespeare, with whose +creations no actor can ever hope to identify himself, however he may +modify our former impressions. Let it be remembered, too, that an +actor's conception of a character must never be vague, undefined or +shadowy, as that of a mere reader may well be, and probably will be in +the exact degree in which he is a keen and appreciative student. The +actor must not strive to suggest all possible solutions, but must +hold firmly to one, and that the most dramatic; he must seize upon +the salient points; his subtleties must not be too subtle for gesture, +glance and tone to express; he must choose which meaning out of many +meanings he shall enforce, which mood out of many moods he shall make +predominate. + +The exceptions which have been taken to Salvini's performance all rest +upon the notion that he has misconceived the character. It is superb, +we are told, but it is not Shakespeare. It is a representation not of +Othello the Moor, but of a Moor named Othello. The idea that dominates +throughout is that of race: the character loses its individuality +and becomes a mere type, an embodiment of the tropical nature, an +illustration of Byron's lines: + + Africa is all the sun's, + And as her earth her human clay is kindled. + +The unbridled passion, the revengeful fury, is that of a savage. The +anguish and indignation of a noble spirit believing itself outraged +and wronged are transformed into the blind rage and capricious fury of +a wild beast. + +This objection seems to us to spring from the state of mind often +induced by long familiarity with a subject, in which the gain of +minute knowledge is accompanied by a loss of the force and vividness +of the first impression. People study Shakespeare as they study +the Bible, softening whatever they find revolting until they have +convinced themselves that it does not exist. Actors in general share +in this sentiment or strive to gratify it. Othello's complexion is +forgotten in the reading, and becomes in the representation such +that the spectator feels no repugnance to his marriage with the fair +Desdemona. Betrayed through the mere openness and generosity of his +nature, he acts only as a sensitive and vehement nature would be +compelled to act in so terrible a complication, and the emotions +kindled by his demeanor and conduct are never those of horror and +repulsion, but only of pity and admiration. + +But, however noble and pathetic such a rendering may be, it consorts +better with the ideas and demands of the present time than with those +of the Elizabethan age. The dramatist who began by writing _Titus +Andronicus_ had at least no instinctive distaste to repulsive +subjects, no fear of shocking his audience by an exhibition of untamed +barbarity. Othello is "of a free and open nature," he is "great of +heart," he is above doing wrong without provocation, real or supposed. +But his nature admits no possibility of self-control, of reason in +the midst of doubts, of patience under injury. His temperament betrays +itself in physical exhibitions wild and portentous. "You are fatal +_then_ when your eyes roll so," is the suggestive cry of Desdemona. In +his perplexity and fury he swoons and foams. He overhears an insult to +Venice and slays the traducer. His language to the wife whom he +still loves while believing himself dishonored by her is such that "a +beggar, in his drink, could not have laid such terms upon his callet." +He outrages her kinsman and a throng of attendants by striking her in +their presence. Her protestations of innocence serve only to inflame +him, and he cuts short her last pleadings with his murderous hand in +a way which would have forced M. Dumas _fils_ himself to cry out, "Ne +tue la _pas_!" + +How are this fury and this credulity, both equally insensate, to +be explained, how are they to be reconciled with traits that +compel sympathy and admiration, except as the workings of a nature +essentially uncivilized? The object of a great drama is to exhibit men +not as they appear in the ordinary affairs of life, but while subject +to those fiery tests under which all that is foreign or acquired melts +away, and the primal components of the character are revealed in their +bareness and in their depths. Othello's race is the hinge on which +the tragedy turns. It throws a fatality on that marriage which seems +unnatural even to those who yet do not suspect that the discordancy +lies deeper than in the complexion. It makes him the easy victim of a +plot which would otherwise only have ensnared its concoctor. It sweeps +away all impediments to the catastrophe, making it swift, inevitable +and dire. And it is by seizing upon this central fact that Salvini has +been enabled to render his performance artistically perfect. Were the +conception radically false, there could not be the same unity in the +execution, the same harmony in the details. We shall not assert +that his is the ideal Othello, or that such an Othello is possible. +Shakespeare's creations cannot be bounded by the limit of another +idiosyncrasy. But we hold that, if he does not put into the character +all that belongs to it, he puts nothing into it that does not belong +to it. We may miss in the accents of his despair a pathos capable of +assuaging our horror; but this latter emotion, equally legitimate, +is commonly stifled altogether, leaving us more disposed to linger +lovingly beside the dead than to shudder and exclaim with Ludovico, +"The object poisons sight;--let it be hid." + +A.F. + + + + +A LETTER FROM NEW YORK. + + +I have come from the country. I have seen Salvini. All emotion has to +be expressed now in the above form, for Salvini rules. He is simply +the greatest actor since Rachel, and his troupe the most perfect ever +seen in this country. The whole plane of their acting is forty steps +higher than we are accustomed to; therefore it has been slow of +gaining appreciation, and the panic having burst over the devoted city +just as Salvini opened, the houses have been poor. He should play, too +(all actors should), in a smaller house than the Academy of Music. His +first great success may therefore date from a matinée at Wallack's, +where he had the most distinguished audience I have ever seen in +New York, on Saturday, October 11th. Salvini lunched while here with +Madame Botta, and expressed himself surprised that any one should care +to go to hear him who could not understand the language. "I am sure +I should not go," said the great actor. He thinks he has not had a +success, but he will not think so after he becomes accustomed to his +audiences. He is in private one of the most cultivated and intelligent +of men, and has brought to the practice of his art a scholar's study, +a soldier's experience and a gentleman's taste. I say a soldier's +experience, for Salvini has been a soldier, and fought for united +Italy in 1857 and earlier. + +Nilsson is much improved by marriage. Her beauty is softer, she has +gained flesh--not to the detriment of that girlish outline, but to the +improvement of those somewhat aggressive cheek-bones. She sings better +than ever, with rounded voice. Never since the days of Salvi and +Steffanoni have we had such opera in New York. The orchestra is +better, Maurel is superb, Capoul is still better, and Campanini is +very admirable. We miss Jamet very much in Mephisto, but every one +else is better than before. The house is not gay--it misses many of +its old habitués. Five empty boxes in a row tell of the financial +troubles. It was the fashion to laugh at the Wall street men, but they +gave gayety and life and movement up town as well as down town. Many +of those whose names are recorded on the wrong side of the list were +our most generous givers and most amiable hosts. Their misfortunes +cause nothing but regrets. + +The races at first felt the effects of the panic, but the crowd on +Saturday, the 11th of October, was immense. Somebody must get the +money that everybody loses; therefore somebody can still afford to go +to the races, and the last day was also very full. Two drags set the +English example of having the horses taken off and dining on the top +of the coach. The notes of a key-bugle from one of them seemed to +suggest Mr. Bob Sawyer and Mr. Ben Allen; but whether those young +gentlemen were of the party or not I did not hear. With our delicious +sky, and particularly this golden autumn, there seems to be no reason +why we should not adopt the fashions of Chantilly and Ascot. We are, +however, a gregarious people, and the tendency is to gather together +under the protection of the grand stand. + +Poor Maretzek is always the first to go, and it is understood that +his opera is among the great unpaid. Every one is sorry for the poor +singers, always excepting Lucca, whose jealousy of Nilsson is so +aggressive that she has declared that she would sing her off the +boards of the Academy of Music. _She_ is driven like a bad angel out +of Paradise, while the starry Nilsson in magnificent triumph sings +on superbly to constantly increasing houses at the Academy, and is +lunched and fêted to her heart's content. + +The Evangelical Alliance has gone, and left behind it nothing but +animosities. It was really a vast movement of the Presbyterian Church: +Geneva and Calvin were the exclusive proprietors. Episcopalians, +Unitarians and Baptists, Methodists and Universalists, were requested +to stand aside. The communions were always at some Presbyterian +church. Perhaps _they_ thought the Episcopal Church exclusive, as some +one said an Englishman carried his pride into his prayers, and said, +"O Lord, I do most _haughtily_ beseech thee," and that the Unitarians +felt "that any man who had been born in Boston did not see the +necessity of being born again." + +Every one is extremely well dressed, in spite of the panic. The hair +is worn plain and off the brow, let us thank the genius of Fashion, +so that every woman has a purer, better look. Nothing destroys the +expression of a good woman like breaking over that line which Nature +has made about the forehead. Our women have made themselves into +wicked Faustinas and vulgar Anonymas long enough with their frizzes +and short curls and "banging," as the square-cut straight lock on the +forehead is called. Let us see the Madonna brow once more. The high +ruff, the sleeve to the elbow, the dress cut to show the figure, all +bring-back the days of our great-grandmothers: the opera is filled +with Copley's portraits. The bonnets, too, are delightfully large, +with long feathers. Every new fashion brings out a new crop of +beauties, but I could not see what beauties were brought out by those +bold bonnets of last year, which were hung on at the back of the head. + +We expect great fun from Dundreary rehearsing _Hamlet_ for private +theatricals. Mr. Sothern has been asked to write down Dundreary, that +so great an eccentric conception may not be lost to the world. He +answers that he has twelve volumes of Dundreary literature! That shows +how much industry goes to even an "inconsiderate trifle." This fine +actor and most accomplished and agreeable man has been playing in two +of the poorest plays ever presented to a New York audience. Nothing +but a capital "make up," resembling one of the most fashionable men in +town, who is Sothern's particular friend, has given them point--even +_then_ only to New Yorkers. Sothern's fondness for practical joking +has brought about so many false charges that he is getting very tired +of being fathered with every stupid trick which any one chooses to +play, and will probably drop that form of wit, so really unworthy of +his great genius and true refinement, for the man who could invent +Dundreary and who can play Garrick is a genius. + +I assisted with four thousand others at the first representation +of the _Magic Flute_ at the Grand Opera House, where the late James +Fisk's monogram is decently covered up by Gothic shields, hastily +improvised after _that_ distinguished actor met the reward of +his crimes. I heard lima di Murska for the first time. She is an +unpleasant miracle, compelling your reluctant astonishment. Such vocal +gymnastics I never heard. The flute and the musical-box are left in +the background, but her voice is nasal and disagreeable at first. +Lucca's splendid, rich, full organ rang out gloriously by contrast, +although her constitutional jealousy showed itself unpleasantly in +some parts of the opera where Murska was so deliriously applauded. +Lucca, little woman, conquered herself at last, and handed the flowers +up to her rival with a pretty grace which was loudly applauded. It is +strange that the tact of woman, usually so apprehensive, does not more +often see the good effect of generosity. + +One effect of the panic, it is to be hoped, will be to make the +dinners less magnificently heavy. I am sure every lady in New York who +was last winter constrained to sit from seven o'clock until eleven at +those monstrously elaborate and expensive dinners which have become so +much the fashion, will be glad to dine in a more simple manner, in +a shorter time, with less display, and with fewer courses, and fewer +excitements. One entertainer last winter introduced live swans and +small canaries to enliven his dinner. The swans splashed rather +disagreeably. + +"Do you know why he had the swans?" said a lady to a gentleman. + +"I suppose, he wanted the _Ledas_ of society," said the gentleman. + +"Well, yes," said the lady, "but I did not know, although he is as +rich as a Jew, that he was a Jupiter." + +The faces of the "panicstricken" seem to look brighter, although +everybody talks of "shrinkage" and ruin. Meanwhile the beautiful +weather keeps the carriages going and Fifth Avenue looking gay. "I +shall fail, but my wife need not give up her horses," said a young +broker the other day. The old days of commercial morality, when people +reduced their style of living because they had failed, seem to have +gone out of fashion. + +A letter from New York, this Queen of Commerce, is almost necessarily +mercantile, as is our conversation. + +"How you all talk stocks and money!" said a gentleman just arrived +from a ten years' sojourn in Europe. "When I went away you were +talking of books, of art, of social ethics, of fine women, of good +dinners, of whist and bezique: now you are all talking of longs and +shorts, bulls and bears, a fraction of per cent., etc. etc.--all of +you, men, women and children." + +We have a beautiful collection at the Art Museum in Fourteenth street +of jewelry, objets d'art, and a good ceramic display, all clustered +round the Di Cesnola sculptures and pottery. This collection, founded +on the idea of the South Kensington Museum, makes a most agreeable +lounging-place in the Kruger mansion, and is, in the absence of most +of the opulent owners of private picture-galleries and the closing of +the National Academy, almost our only artistic amusement at present. +But the first of December will throw open many hospitable doors, and +the new pictures and statues which have been accumulated during +the past summer will become in one sense the property of the gazing +public. + +MARGARET CLAYSON. + + + + +NOTES. + + +Amongst the traditional scenes of the drama probably none plays a part +more useful than the village festival. This merrymaking appears twice +or thrice in an ordinary pantomime, regularly adorns the melodrama, is +almost an essential of the opera, could not be dispensed with in the +plays of the _Fanchon_ type, and may even relieve the sombre tints of +dire tragedy. We all know the charming spectacle: peasant youths and +maidens, clad in all the wealth of the dramatic wardrobe, are skipping +around a Maypole; presently Baptiste and Lisette are discovered +kissing behind a pasteboard hedge, and are drawn out with universal +laughing, in the midst of which enters the recruiting-sergeant with +his squad and whisks off poor Baptiste to the wars. It is a pleasing +scene--a trifle monotonous now with repetition; and for this latter +reason it might be well to vary it by substituting the rural Feast of +the Onion, which a 'correspondent of the Cambrai _Gazette_ witnessed +in the suburbs of Gouzeaucourt. Every year, between June 24th and July +2d, the inhabitants of the two neighboring villages of Gouzeaucourt +and Gonnelieu perform the ceremony of "turning the onion"--that is to +say, they dance in a circle, joining hands, on the village green of +one or the other hamlet. Thanks to this ancient custom, the two French +communes raise the finest onions in the department, this vegetable +never failing, as carrots are apt to do in that locality: on the +contrary, the onions are well-grown, finely rounded, and in short, +magnificently "turned." On this festive occasion three or four hundred +persons of every age and condition dance around a well in Sunday best, +rigged out in ribbons and with smiling faces. The more they hop the +bigger the crop of onions; and naturally they skip and sing till out +of breath, always repeating the popular song, "Ah! qu'il est malaisé +d'être amoureux et sage." Surely, all this would form a pleasant +variety on the ordinary festal scene of the stage; and we hasten +to remind the fastidious that though this ceremony is the Feast +of Onions, yet it does not appear that that odorous esculent need +actually be present; besides, even if it were, surely a garland of +"well-turned" onions would add strength to the picturesque ropes of +theatrical paper roses. The well, too, would replace with a certain +grace the too familiar pole. And again, since all ages and conditions +assist at this feast, it would utilize that extraordinary company of +figurantes, varying from the longest and slimmest to the shortest +and plumpest, which every manager thinks it incumbent to put upon +the stage for the rural fête. Finally, to complete the tableau +satisfactorily, it appears that this year at Gonnelieu, at the height +of the dancing, half a dozen gendarmes rushed upon the scene, causing +a general stampede among the disciples of the onion and a hasty +adjournment of the festival. What law against irregular assemblages +was infringed by these onion-worshipers is not clear, for one can +hardly detect sedition lurking under the rustic ditty, and it is +equally difficult to suspect an Orsini bomb conspiracy of being +typified by the conjuring of prodigious prize onions. + +It is a vast pity that so many excellent stories are "almost too good +to be true." Such a tale seems to be the one which explains the origin +of that prodigious collection of monkeys that forms so large a part of +the population of the Jardin d'Acclimation in Paris; and yet, as this +curious account has not been questioned, so far as we are aware, by +those who ought to know the facts, it is hardly gracious in us +to begin the relation of it by gratuitous skepticism. A Bordeaux +ship-owner, who is noted for insisting on a strict obedience to +instructions on the part of his captains, some time ago gave written +orders to one of the latter to bring back from Brazil, whither he was +going, one or two monkeys--"_Rapportez-moi 1 ou 2 singes_." The _ou_ +was so badly written that the captain read "1002 singes;" and +the result was that the owner, three months after, found his ship +returning, to his utter stupefaction, overrun with monkeys from +keel to mast-head. However, inflexibly just even in his surprise, +he recognized the fault to be that of his own hasty handwriting, and +praised the scrupulous captain who had executed his apparent order +even to the odd pair of monkeys over the thousand. For a week apes +were a drug in the Bordeaux market, and, adds the story, the Jardin, +hearing the news, took care not to lose so good an opportunity of +laying in a large stock. + +The traditional union of fidelity, obedience to orders, strict +discipline and stupidity in the old-fashioned military servant is +wittily illustrated in a story told by the _Gazette de Paris_ at the +expense of a captain of the Melun garrison. This officer, who had been +invited to dine at a neighboring castle, sent his valet with a note +of "regrets," adding, as the boy started, "Be sure and bring me my +dinner, Auguste, when you have left the letter." The soldier took the +letter to the castle and was told, of course, "It's all right." "Yes, +but I want the dinner," said the lad: "the captain ordered me to bring +it back, and I always obey orders." The baroness, being informed +of the good fellow's blunder, carried out the joke by despatching a +splendid repast. The officer, too amused to make any explanation to +his servant, merely sent him back at once to buy a bouquet to carry +with his compliments to the baroness. Successfully accomplishing this +feat, the brilliant Auguste was handed a five-franc piece from the +lady. "That won't do," says the honest fellow: "I paid thirty francs +for the flowers." The difference was made up to him, and he returned +to the fort, quite proud at having so ably discharged his duty. We +think this incident will fairly match some of the experiences which +our own officers are fond of narrating, regarding the way in which +their servants have interpreted and executed their orders. + + + + +LITERATURE OF THE DAY. + + +Sub-Tropical Rambles in the Land of the Aphanapteryx. By Nicholas +Pike. New York: Harper & Brothers. + +The story of a bright and educated traveler is always a capital one, +and Mr. Pike has done wonders for Mauritius, which would seem in +itself to be one of the most deplorably dull and fatiguing prominences +on the face of the sea. An enthusiastic botanist and naturalist, as +well as an interested ethnologist, this lively observer relieves the +monotony of a seemingly easy consulate and repulsive population by +watching all the secrets of animated nature around him. It is a very +bloodthirsty island that his fates have guided him to: everything +bites or stings or poisons. When wading out into the sea for +shells, Mr. Pike is attacked by "a tazarre, a fish something like +a fresh-water pike," which comes right at him repeatedly, "like a +bulldog," and is only subdued by being speared in the head with a +harpoon. Creatures elsewhere the most evasive and timid are here +found fighting like gladiators: the eels bite everybody within their +reach--one of these combative eels caught by our author measured +twelve feet three inches; the fresh-water prawns "strike so sharply +with their tails as to draw blood if not carefully handled." The +exquisite polyps and anemones, whose painted beauty our author is +never weary of relating, have mostly poisoned weapons concealed under +their flounces, and treat the naturalist who would coquet with them +to a swelled arm or a lamed hand. Centipedes, scorpions and virulently +poisonous snakes animate the land, while the shoals, where the natives +declare there are "more fish than water," teem with every sort of +man-eating shark, and with the cuttle-fish watching for his prey from +each interstice of the coral-reef. The latter, often of immense size, +are caught and eaten, both fresh and salt, some fishermen collecting +nothing else: they dexterously turn the ugly stomach inside out and +thread it on a string slung round the neck. The horror of the lobster +for these cuttle-fish is something curious; and it affords a gauge for +the sensitiveness of crustaceae (and incidentally an argument against +those who maintain the greater reasonableness of fishing than of +hunting on account of the lower organization of the prey) to learn +that the lobster must not be taken to market in company with the +cuttle-fish, "or the flesh will be spoilt before he gets there, the +creature being literally sick from fright." Meantime, in the ooze +which forms a connecting link between sea and shore lurks the +mud-laff, indescribably hideous in shape, leprous-looking, slimy, and +darting a greenish poison through the spines on its back. Treading on +one of these, the poor naked fisherman is apt to die of lockjaw; +and Mr. Pike's kitten, having its paw touched with a single spine, +perished of convulsions in an hour. Some of the sea-carnivora, +however, are so beautiful that one is ready to forgive their more or +less Clytemnestra-like tempers. Of some gymnobranchiata the writer +observes: "I never saw any living animals with such gorgeous +colors--the most vivid carmine and pure white, mixed with golden +yellow in the bodies and mantles, and the gills of pale lemon-color +and lilac. No painting could give an idea of the harmony of the +shades as they blended into each other, or the undulating grace of the +movements of the mantles. I have sat for an hour at a time watching +them, lost in admiration, and frequently turning them over to see the +expert way they would contract the elegant gill-branches, and reopen +them as soon as they had righted themselves." Such are some of the +animated charms of Paul and Virginia's island. Of Bernardin Saint +Pierre's romance as an illustration of the spot, Mr. Pike dryly +observes that writers when about to draw largely on their imaginations +should be careful to conceal the actual whereabouts of their stories: +we live in an age of exploration that is sure to "display their +ridiculous side when reduced to fact." There was, however, a +foundation in fact, quite enough for the purpose of a prose poem, in +the loves and deaths of Paul and Virginia: it is doubtless the island +scenes alone that Mr. Pike would satirize. The great shipwreck was in +1744, a year of famine, which the wise and prudent French +governor, the most able man who ever adorned the colony, M. Mahé de +Labourdonnais, was unable to avert. The ship St. Géran, sent with +provisions from France, was ignorantly driven on the reef shortly +before dawn, and all perished save nine souls. There were on board two +lovers, a Mademoiselle Mallet and Monsieur de Peramon, who were to +be united in marriage on arriving at the island, then called Isle de +France. The young man made a raft, and implored his mistress to remove +the heavier part of her garments and essay the passage. This the pure +young creature refused to do, with that exaggerated modesty which has +been called mawkishness in the story, but which in a real occurrence +looks very like heroism. Their bodies were soon washed ashore together +in the harbor, since called the Bay of Tombs. Two structures of +whitewashed brick under some beautiful palms and feathery bamboos, in +an inland garden called "Pamplemousses" (the Shaddocks), now cover the +remains of the ill-starred lovers. Mr. Pike appears to have visited +the site but once, when, as there had been heavy rains, he could not +reach the tombs. He is evidently more in his element when wading after +sea-urchins. His observations on such races as coolies, Chinese and +Malabar-men are all, however, to the purpose. The island is peopled +with these varieties, in addition to a mixed white population, the +Indians having been brought from Hindostan for the cane-fields since +the English occupation in 1810, and serving a good purpose. Their +manners illustrate the lower horrors of the Hindoo mythology, they +appearing to worship pretty exclusively a race of gods and goddesses +invented for robber tribes, who are appeased only by blood-curdling +rites: our author saw their young men running, with yells and +contortions, over a bed of live coals twenty-five feet across to earn +the favor of one such cruel goddess. The Chinese, though in worship +they exhibit the milder sacrificial spirit of offering sheets +of paper, yet in a more stolid way show an equal talent for +self-sacrifice. A neighbor of Mr. Pike's, an excellent quiet fellow, +having gambled with his own servant for his shop, stock and person, +was seen one morning sweeping and serving customers, whilst the +youngster sat leisurely smoking, the game having gone contrarily. +"There was no appearance of triumph on the boy's face: master and +servant reversed their places with the most perfect _sang-froid_." +Of the Creoles, we learn that they believe the presence of pieces of +coral in the house induces headache; of the women from Malabar, that +they can only wear toe-rings after marriage; of the handsomest Indian +tribe in the island, the Reddies, we are told that the boys marry +at five or six, their bride living with the father-in-law or other +husband's relative and rearing children to him: when the boy grows +up, his wife being then aged, he "takes up with some boy's wife in a +manner precisely similar to his own, and procreates children for the +boy-husband." The remaining wonder of Mauritius appears to be the +great Peter Both Mountain, so nearly inaccessible that a rage for +climbing it has been developed. The first successful attempt was +made by Claude Penthé, who planted the French flag on it in 1790, and +English ascents were made in 1832, 1848, 1858, 1864 and 1869. We must +not omit, however, the Aphanapteryx, though Mr. Pike does: it is a red +bird which in Mauritius has survived its whilom companion the dodo, +and which is to be described in a future volume. Mr. Pike has obliged +us with a book of admirable temper, inexhaustible research and fine +manly spirit: we could wish for our own sakes nothing better than +that all our sub-tropical and tropical consulships were filled by +his brothers, and that they would all make volumes out of their +experiences. + +Thoreau, the Poet-Naturalist. By William Ellery Ghanning. Boston: +Roberts Bros. + +Mr. Charming is a boon, and we would not have missed his lucubration +on any account. Now we know how Margaret Fuller talked and in what +dialect they wrote _The Dial_. It was with this sententiousness, +this solemn attitude over the infinitely little, this care to compose +paragraphs out of short sentences completely disconnected, that the +old Concord philosophy was enunciated. Nobody outside the circle ever +caught the exact accent except one of Dickens's characters--Mr. F.'s +aunt--who would interrupt a dinner conversation to observe, "There's +milestones on the Dover road." "Above our heads," says Mr. Channing, +"the nighthawk rips;" "see the frog bellying the world in the warm +pool;" "the rats scrabbling." This sententiousness is consistent, on +Mr. Channing's part, with the most stupefying ignorance of words and +things, as in the sentence, "forced to conceal the raveled sleeve of +care by buttoning up his outer garments." It is particularly imposing +in the judgments, nearly always severe, of individuals, and the reader +lays down the present book sure that here, at last, he has found a +truly superior person. Schoolcraft is simply "poor Schoolcraft," and +of course subsides; Miss Martineau is "that Minerva mediocre;" Carlyle +is "Thomas Carlyle with his bilious howls and bankrupt draughts +on hope." Hawthorne, he learns, though we cannot tell from whence, +"thought it inexpressibly ridiculous that any one should notice man's +miseries, these being his staple product," and was "swallowed up in +the wretchedness of life;" also, "the Concord novelist was a handsome, +bulky character, with a soft rolling gait; a wit said he seemed like a +_boned pirate_." From these more or less contemptuous views of mankind +at large Mr. Channing turns with a kind of somersault to an intense +admiration for Thoreau. Could he but write of him in his own +style--supposing him to have a style--he would have been in danger +of producing a sensible book, and _nous autres_ would have lost one +delight; but it is the perfection of comedy to see the apocalyptic +trio--Emerson stepping off grandly and gladly into the clouds--Thoreau, +his principal disciple, following with a good imitation of the gait, but +with evident self-consciousness--and finally Mr. Channing-- + + to see him's rare sport + Step in Emerson's tracks with legs painfully short. + +It would be unfair to judge Henry D. Thoreau by the indiscreet +laudations of his friends. He was cut out more nearly in the pattern +of a hermit than any man of modern time. His love of solitude was +probably sincere, his surliness was his breeding, and he extracted +from his painful, unsocial habitudes the peculiar poetry which suits +with hardship. It was not for him to sing of summer and nectarines, +nor to honestly appreciate or kindly judge those who did so; but +he sang of winter, of crab-apples, of cranberries, of reptiles, of +field-mice, with just the right accent and with a tingling vibration +of life in his chords. The Bernard Palissy of literature, he modeled +his frogs and water-snakes so true that they seemed better than birds +of paradise. + +Babolain. From the French of Gustave Droz. New York: Henry Holt & Co. + +This is a tragical little romance which draws the reader along with +it by every line in every page, yet its power is derived from the +resources of caricature: it is rather the hollow side of a comic mask +than a true expression of pathos. Scientific and stupid, Professor +Babolain enters the world of Paris armed with his innocence, his +uncle's legacy, his deep learning and his utter ignorance. A couple +of adventuresses, mother and daughter, swoop down upon him as a lawful +prey, and he is quickly a doting husband and a terrified son-in-law. +The sole redeeming trait about the younger woman, who is a beauty and +who paints, is that she never makes the least pretence of loving +him: in his first moments of adoration she mystifies him heartlessly, +crushing him with her wit and confounding him with her art: +"Difficult? oh no! In the first place, you need rabbits' hair: that +is indispensable. If you had no rabbits, or if you were in a country +where rabbits had no hair, painting could not be thought of." She +never melts, except when he presents her with a rivière of diamonds, +and, after finding a leisure moment to give birth to a little girl, +rushes off to Italy with Count Vaugirau, followed promptly by a +certain Timoleon. This Timoleon, who loves her unsuccessfully, is the +beneficiary of poor Babolain, borrowing his money at the same time +that he tries to borrow his wife, and returning with outrageous +reproaches to the hero impoverished and desolate. This precious friend +is a specimen of all the rest. The very daughter, sole consolation +of her parent's straitened existence, but ill fulfills the rapturous +anticipations of early fatherhood. He is at first her nurse and +teacher: "I saw the satin-like skin of her little neck, and behind her +ear, fresh and pink like the petal of a flower, the soft curls upon +the nape of her neck, half hair, half down, sucking in with their +greedy roots the sweet juices of this living cream." He throws his +hat into the river to teach her the laws of gravity. But she grows up +ungrateful and estranged, and, having married an ambitious physician, +allows her father to live as a neglected pensioner under a part of her +roof. The details of Babolain's decline are exquisitely painful, but +partake of that style of exaggeration and caricature which causes even +the heartless beings who make up his world to seem more like grotesque +puppets with bosoms of wood than responsible beings to be really +execrated and condemned. As the abused victim, starving and ragged, +treads the road of sacrifice to death, our sympathy is checked by +the consciousness of his unmitigated and needless pliancy, until we +withhold the tribute of sorrow due to the misfortunes of a Lear or a +Père Goriot. The romance, however, though sketched out extravagantly +between hyperbole and parable, fairly scintillates with brilliancies +and good things: we could hardly indicate another imported novel of +the length actually containing so much. Nothing can be more comical +than the grand airs of the ladies, whether in their poor or rich +estate, or than the perpetual suite of victimizations endured by the +helpless Babolain: the muses of Comedy and Tragedy rush together over +the stage to crush this fly with their buskins. The translator of +_Babolain_ reveals his quality by calling pantaloons, in several +places, _pants_, and by adopting an ugly locative common enough in New +York--"Perhaps I did not have that amount," for "perhaps I had not," +etc. The work revels in that buff binding which has given to the +_Leisure Hour Series_ the popular sobriquet of the "Linen Duster +Series," a livery now well known as the certain indication of honest +entertainment and literary excellence. + +Impressions et Souvenirs. Par George Sand. Paris: Levy Frères; New +York: F.W. Christern. + +This little collection of papers is made from Madame Sand's private +journal, the extracts being sometimes recent and sometimes thirty +years old, sometimes short and sometimes improved into essays, and +in any case stitched together by the slightest of threads. A few +allusions, hardly important enough to be called anecdotes, reveal the +relations of the authoress with the great men of the time, and the +least momentous recital becomes charming from the assured ease and +native grace of this veteran artist's style. One amusing reminiscence +is the odd paradox of Théophile Gautier, that plants are unwholesome +absorbents of vital air, and that for him the ideal of a garden would +be a succession of asphaltum paths, with fine-cushioned seats, and +narghiles for ever burning in the guise of flowers and shrubbery. A +retort of Sainte-Betive's shows the sincerity of his free-thinking +opinions. Madame Sand having declared that she was sure we had +three souls--one for our bodily organs, one for society and one for +worship--the critic replied, "I wish we could be sure that we had +one." There is a delightful chapter, dated 1831, where Chopin and +Delacroix encounter each other at the author's Paris home, where the +painter explains the principle of reflections to Maurice Sand, and +Chopin plays the piano so entrancingly for his auditor that the +episode of a bed-room on fire passes by unnoticed. Of Maurice Sand, +gifted son of an inspired mother, there is an exquisite chapter of +literary criticism tempered with maternity. Other papers treat of +infantine instruction as practiced by the writer herself, and readers +are conscious of a thrill of envy at the thought of that little circle +of Dudevantine grandchildren learning the elements of spelling and +grammar from such a mistress of style, and with all the advantages +due to the noble teacher's genius for simplification. A chapter on +punctuation, which has been largely quoted both in French and English, +is incorporated, and there are eventless and fascinating records of +the wonderful drives around Nohant. The little brochure is a pure cup +of refreshment. + + + + +_Books Received_. + + +The Nesbits; or, A Mother's Last Request, and Other Tales. By Uncle +Paul. New York: Catholic Publication Society. + +Rouge et Noir. From the French of Edmond About. By E.R. Philadelphia: +Claxton, Remsen & Haffelfinger. + +Florida and South Carolina as Health Resorts. By William W. Morland, +M.D., Harv. Boston: James Campbell. + +Third Annual Report of the Board of Education of the State of Rhode +Island. Providence: Providence Press Co. + +High Life in New York. By Jonathan Slick. Illustrated. Philadelphia: +T.B. Peterson & Brothers. + +Pay-day at Babel, and Odes. By Robert Burton Rodney, U.S.N. New York: +D. van Nostrand. + +Report of the Commissioner of Fisheries of the State of New York. +Albany: The Argus Company. + +Lord Hope's Choice. By Mrs. Ann S. Stephens. Philadelphia: T.B. +Peterson & Brothers. + +The New Japan Primer. Number One. San Francisco: A.L. Bancroft & Co. + +Miss Leslie's New Cook Book. Philadelphia: T.B. Peterson & Brothers. + +Artiste: A Novel. By Maria M. Grant. Boston: Loring. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Lippincott's Magazine. Vol. XII, No. +33. December, 1873., by Various + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13770 *** |