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| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:43:15 -0700 |
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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/13931-0.txt b/13931-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..cb33dd9 --- /dev/null +++ b/13931-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3557 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13931 *** + +Master Of His Fate + +by + +J. MACLAREN COBBAN + +1890 + + + + + + + +Contents. + + +Chapter + + I. Julius Courtney + II. A Mysterious Case + III. "M. Dolaro" + IV. The Man of the Crowd + V. The Remarkable Case of Lady Mary Fane + VI. At The Bedside of the Doctor + VII. Contains a Love Interlude +VIII. Strange Scenes in Curzon Street + IX. An Apparition And a Confession + + + + + To Z. Mennell, Esq. + + My dear Mennell, + + It has been my fortune to see something of the practice of the art + of healing under widely different conditions, and I know none who + better represents the most humane and most exacting of all + professions than yourself. The good doctor of this story--the born + surgeon and healer, the ever young and alert, the self-forgetful, + the faithful friend, gifted with "that exquisite charity which can + forgive all things"--is studied from you. + + It is one of the greatest pleasures of my life to inscribe your + name on this dedicatory page, and to subscribe myself, + + Your sincere friend and grateful patient, + + J. Maclaren Cobban. + + London, November 1889. + + + + +Chapter I. + +Julius Courtney. + + +The Hyacinth Club has the reputation of selecting its members from among +the freshest and most active spirits in literature, science, and art. +That is in a sense true, but activity in one or another of those fields +is not a condition of membership; for, just as the listening Boswell was +the necessary complement of the talking Johnson, so in the Hyacinth Club +there is an indispensable contingent of passive members who find their +liveliest satisfaction in hearing and looking on, rather than in +speaking and doing. Something of the home principle of male and female +is necessary for the completeness even of a club. + +The Hyacinth Club-house looks upon Piccadilly and the Green Park. The +favourite place of concourse of its members is the magnificent +smoking-room on the first floor, the bow-windows of which command a view +up and down the fashionable thoroughfare, and over the trees and the +undulating sward of the Park to the gates of Buckingham Palace. On a +Monday afternoon in the beginning of May, the bow-windows were open, and +several men sat in leather lounges (while one leaned against a +window-sash), luxuriously smoking, and noting the warm, palpitating life +of the world without. A storm which had been silently and doubtfully +glooming and gathering the night before had burst and poured in the +morning, and it was such a spring afternoon as thrills the heart with +new life and suffuses the soul with expectation--such an afternoon as +makes all women appear beautiful and all men handsome. The south-west +wind blew soft and balmy, and all nature rejoiced as the bride in the +presence of the bridegroom. The trees in the Park were full of sap, and +their lusty buds were eagerly opening to the air and the light. The +robin sang with a note almost as rich and sensuous as that of the +thrush; and the shrill and restless sparrows chirped and chattered about +the houses and among the horses' feet, and were as full of the joy of +life as the men and women who thronged the pavements or reclined in +their carriages in the sumptuous ease of wealth and beauty. + +Of the men who languidly gazed upon the gay and splendid scene from the +windows of the Club, none seemed so interested as the man who leaned +against the window-frame. He appeared more than interested--absorbed, +indeed--in the world without, and he looked bright and handsome enough, +and charged enough with buoyant health, to be the ideal bridegroom of +Nature in her springtide. + +He was a dark man, tall and well built, with clear brown eyes. His black +hair (which was not cropped short, as is the fashion) had a lustrous +softness, and at the same time an elastic bushiness, which nothing but +the finest-tempered health can give; and his complexion, though tanned +by exposure, had yet much of the smoothness of youth, save where the +razor had passed upon his beard. Thus seen, a little way off, he +appeared a young man in his rosy twenties; on closer view and +acquaintance, however, that superficial impression was contradicted by +the set expression of his mouth and the calm observation and +understanding of his eye, which spoke of ripe experience rather than of +green hope. He bore a very good English name--Courtney; and he was +believed to be rich. There was no member of whom the Hyacinth Club was +prouder than of him: though he had done nothing, it was commonly +believed he could do anything he chose. No other was listened to with +such attention, and there was nothing on which he could not throw a +fresh and fascinating light. He was a constant spring of surprise and +interest. While others were striving after income and reputation, he +calmly and modestly, without obtrusion or upbraiding, held on his own +way, with unsurpassable curiosity, to the discovery of all which life +might have to reveal. It was this, perhaps, as much as the charm of his +manner and conversation, that made him so universal a favourite; for how +could envy or malice touch a man who competed at no point with his +fellows? + +His immediate neighbours, as he thus stood by the window, were a pair of +journalists, several scientific men, and an artist. + +"Have you seen any of the picture-shows, Julius?" asked the painter, +Kew. + +Courtney slowly abstracted his gaze from without, and turned on his +shoulder with the lazy, languid grace of a cat. + +"No," said he, in a half-absent tone; "I have just come up, and I've not +thought of looking into picture-galleries yet." + +"Been in the country?" asked Kew. + +"Yes, I've been in the country," said Courtney, still as if his +attention was elsewhere. + +"It must be looking lovely," said Kew. + +"It is--exquisite!" said Courtney, waking up at length to a full glow of +interest. "That's why I don't want to go and stare at pictures. In the +spring, to see the fresh, virginal, delicious green of a bush against an +old dry brick wall, gives a keener pleasure than the best picture that +ever was painted." + +"I thought," said Kew, "you had a taste for Art; I thought you enjoyed +it." + +"So I do, my dear fellow, but not now,--not at this particular present. +When I feel the warm sun on my back and breathe the soft air, I want no +more; they are more than Art can give--they are Nature, and, of course, +it goes without saying that Art can never compete with Nature in +creating human pleasure. I mean no disparagement of your work, Kew, or +any artist's work; but I can't endure Art except in winter, when +everything (almost) must be artificial to be endurable. A winter may +come in one's life--I wonder if it will?--when one would rather look at +the picture of a woman than at the woman herself. Meantime I no more +need pictures than I need fires; I warm both hands and heart at the fire +of life." + +"Ah!" said Kew, with a wistful lack of comprehension. + +"That's why I believe," said Courtney, with a sudden turn of reflection, +"there is in warm countries no Art of our small domestic kind." + +"Just so," said Kew; while Dingley Dell, the Art critic, made a note of +Courtney's words. + +"Look here!" exclaimed Dr. Embro, an old scientific man of Scottish +extraction, who, in impatience with such transcendental talk, had taken +up 'The St. James's Gazette.' "What do you make of this queer case at +the Hôtel-Dieu in Paris? I see it's taken from 'The Daily Telegraph;'" +and he began to read it. + +"Oh," said Kew, "we all read that this morning." + +"Dr. Embro," said Courtney, again looking idly out of window, "is like a +French journal: full of the news of the day before yesterday." + +"Have you read it yourself, Julius?" asked Embro, amid the laughter of +his neighbours. + +"No," said Julius carelessly; "and if it's a hospital case I don't want +to read it." + +"What!" said Embro, with heavy irony. "You say that? You, a pupil of the +great Dubois and the greater Charbon! But here comes a greater than +Charbon--the celebrated Dr. Lefevre himself. Come now, Lefevre, you tell +us what you think of this Paris hospital case." + +"Presently, Embro," said Lefevre, who had just perceived his friend +Courtney. "Ha, Julius!" said he, crossing to him and taking his hand; +"you're looking uncommonly well." + +"Yes," said Julius, "I am well." + +"And where have you been all this while?" asked the doctor. + +"Oh," said Julius, turning his gaze again out of window, "I have been +rambling everywhere, between Dan and Beersheba." + +"And all is vanity, eh?" said the doctor. + +"Well," said Julius, looking at him, "that depends--that very much +depends. But can there be any question of vanity or vexation in this +sweet, glorious sunshine?" and he stretched out his hands as if he +burgeoned forth to welcome it. + +"Perhaps not," said Lefevre. "Come and sit down and let us talk." + +They were retiring from the window when Embro's voice again sounded at +Lefevre's elbow--"Come now, Lefevre; what's the meaning of that Paris +case?" + +"What Paris case?" + +Embro answered by handing him the paper. He took it, and read as +follows:-- + + "About a month ago a strange case of complete mental collapse was + received into the Hôtel-Dieu. A fresh healthy girl, of the working + class, about twenty years of age, and comfortably dressed, + presented herself at a police-station near the Odéon and asked for + shelter. As she did not appear to be in full possession of her + mental faculties, she was sent to the Hôtel-Dieu, where she + remained in a semi-comatose condition. Her memory did not go + farther back than the hour of her application at the + police-station. She was entirely ignorant of her previous history, + and had even forgotten her name. The minds of the medical staff of + the Hôtel-Dieu were very much exercised with her condition; but it + was not till about a week ago that they succeeded in restoring to + any extent her mental consciousness and her memory. She then + remembered the events immediately preceding her application to the + police. It had come on to rain, she said, and she was hurrying + along to escape from it, when a gentleman in a cloak came to her + side and politely offered to give her the shelter of his umbrella. + She accepted; the gentleman seemed old and ill. He asked her to + take his arm. She did so, and very soon she felt as if her strength + had gone from her; a cold shiver crept over her; she trembled and + tottered; but with all that she did not find her sensations + disagreeable exactly or alarming; so little so, indeed, that she + never thought of letting go the gentleman's arm. Her head buzzed, + and a kind of darkness came over her. Then all seemed to clear, and + she found herself alone near the police-station, remembering + nothing. Being asked to further describe the gentleman, she said he + was tall and dark, with a pleasant voice and wonderful eyes, that + made you feel you must do whatever he wished. The police have made + inquiries, but after such a lapse of time it is not surprising that + no trace of him can be found." + +"Well?" asked Embro, when Lefevre had raised his eyes from the paper. +"What do you think of it?" + +"Curious," said Lefevre. "I can't say more, since I know nothing of it +but this. Have you read it, Julius?" + +"No," said Julius; "I hate what people call news; and when I take up a +paper, it's only to look at the Weather Forecasts." Lefevre handed him +the paper, which he took with an unconcealed look of repulsion. "If it's +some case of disease," said he, "it will make me ill." + +"Oh no," said Lefevre; "it's not painful, but it's curious;" and so +Julius set himself to read it. + +"But come," said Embro, posing the question with his forefinger; "do you +believe that story, Lefevre?" + +"Though it's French, and from the 'Telegraph,'" said Lefevre, "I see no +reason to disbelieve it." + +"Come," said Embro, "come--you're shirking the question." + +"I confess," said Lefevre, "I've no desire to discuss it. You think me +prejudiced in favour of anything of the kind; perhaps I think you +prejudiced against it: where, then, is the good of discussion?" + +"Well, now," said the unabashed Embro, "I'll tell you what I think. +Here's a story"--Julius at that instant handed back the paper to +him--"of a healthy young woman mesmerised, hypnotised, or somnambulised, +or whatever you like to call it, in the public street, by some man that +casually comes up to her, and her brain so affected that her memory +goes! I say it's inconceivable!--impossible!" And he slapped the paper +down on the table. + +The others looked on with grim satisfaction at the prospect of an +argument between the two representatives of rival schools; and it was +noteworthy that, as they looked, they turned a referring glance on +Courtney, as if it were a foregone conclusion that he must be the final +arbiter. He, however, sat abstracted, with his eyes on the floor, and +with one hand propping his chin and the other drumming on the arm of his +chair. + +"I'm not a scientific man," said the journalist who was not an Art +critic, "and I am not prejudiced either way about this story; but it +seems to me, Embro, that you view the thing through a very ordinary +fallacy, and make a double mistake. You confound the relatively +inconceivable with the absolutely impossible: this story is relatively +inconceivable to you, and therefore you say it is absolutely +impossible." + +"Is there such a thing as an absolute impossibility?" murmured Julius, +who still sat with his chin in his hand, looking as if he considered the +"thing" from a long way off as one of a multitude of other things. + +"I do not believe there is," said the journalist; "but--" + +"Don't let us lose ourselves in metaphysics," broke in Embro. Then, +turning to Courtney, whose direct intelligent gaze seemed to disconcert +him, he said, "Now, Julius, you've seen, I daresay, a good many things +we have not seen,--have you ever seen or known a case like this we're +talking about?" + +"I can't say I have," said Julius. + +"There you are!" quoth Embro, in triumph. + +"But," continued Julius, "I don't therefore nail that case down as +false." + +"Do you mean to say," exclaimed Embro, "that you have lived all your +years, and studied science at the Salpétrière,--or what they call +science there,--and studied and seen God knows what else besides, and +you can't pronounce an opinion from all you know on a case of this +sort?" + +"Oh yes," said Julius, quietly, "I can pronounce an opinion; but what's +the use of that? I think that case is true, but I don't know that it is; +and therefore I can't argue about it, for argument should come from +knowledge, and I have none. I have a few opinions, and I am always ready +to receive impressions; but, besides some schoolboy facts that are +common property, the only thing I know--I am certain of--is, as some man +says, '_Life's a dream worth dreaming_.'" + +"You're too high-falutin for me, Julius," said Embro, shaking his head. +"But my opinion, founded on my knowledge, is that this story is a +hallucination of the young woman's noddle!" + +"And how much, Embro," laughed Julius, rising to leave the circle, "is +the argument advanced by your ticketing the case with that long word?" + +"To say 'hallucination,'" quoth Lefevre, "is a convenient way of giving +inquiry the slip." + +"My dear Embro," said Julius,--and he spoke with an emphasis, and looked +down on Embro with a bright vivacity of eye, which forewarned the circle +of one of his eloquent flashes: a smile of expectant enjoyment passed +round,--"hallucination is the dust-heap and limbo of the meanly-equipped +man of science to-day, just as witchcraft was a few hundred years ago. +The poor creature of science long ago, when he came upon any +pathological or psychological manifestation he did not understand, used +to say, '_Witchcraft_! Away with it to the limbo!' To-day he says, +'_Hallucination_! Away with it to the dust-heap!' It is a pity," said +he, with a laugh, "you ever took to science, Embro." + +"And why, may I ask?" said Embro. + +"Oh, you'd have been great as an orthodox theologian of the Kirk; the +cocksureness of theology would have suited you like your own coat. You +are not at home in science, for you have no imagination." + +It was characteristic of the peculiar regard in which Julius was held +that whatever he said or did appeared natural and pleasant,--like the +innocent actions and the simple, truthful speech of a child. Not even +Embro was offended with these last words of his: the others laughed; +Embro smiled, though with a certain sourness. + +"Pooh, Julius!" said he; "what are you talking about? Science is the +examination of facts, and what has imagination to do with that? Reason, +sir, is what you want!" + +"My dear Embro," said Julius, "there are several kinds of facts. There +are, for instance, big facts and little facts,--clean facts and dirty +facts. Imagination raises you and gives you a high and comprehensive +view of them all; your mere reason keeps you down in some noisome +corner, like the man with the muck-rake." + +"Hear, hear!" cried the journalist and the artist heartily. + +"You're wrong, Julius," said Embro,--"quite wrong. Keep your imagination +for painting and poetry. In science it just leads you the devil's own +dance, and fills you with delusions." + +Julius paused, and bent on him his peculiar look, which made a man feel +he was being seen through and through. + +"I am surprised, Embro," said he, "that one can live all your years and +not find that the illusions of life are its best part. If you leave me +the illusions, I'll give you all the realities. But how can we stay +babbling and quibbling here all this delicious afternoon? I must go out +and see green things and beasts. Come with me, Lefevre, to the +Zoological Gardens; it will do you good." + +"I tell you what," said Lefevre, looking at the clock as they moved +away; "my mother and sister will call for me with the carriage in less +than half an hour: come with us for a drive." + +"Oh yes," said Julius; "that's a good idea." + +"And I," said Lefevre, "must have a cup of tea in the meantime. Come and +sit down, and tell me where you have been." + +But when they had sat down, Julius was little inclined to divagate into +an account of his travels. His glance swept round and noted everything; +he remarked on a soft effect of a shaft of sunshine that lit up the +small conservatory, and burnished the green of a certain plant; he +perceived a fine black Persian cat, the latest pet of the Club, and +exclaimed, "What a beautiful, superb creature!" He called it, and it +came, daintily sniffed at his leg, and leaped on his lap, where he +stroked and fondled it. And all the while he continued to discuss +illusion, while Lefevre poured and drank tea (tea, which Julius would +not share: tea, he said, did not agree with him). + +"It bothers me," he said, "to imagine how a man like Embro gets any +satisfaction out of life, for ever mumbling the bare dry bones of +science. Such a life as his might as well be passed in the receiver of +an air-pump." + +"Still the old Julius!" said the doctor, with a smile. "Still dreaming +and wandering, interested in everything, but having nothing to do!" + +"Nothing to do, my dear fellow?" said Julius. "I've all the world to +enjoy!" and he buried his cheek in the soft fur of the cat. + +"A purpose in life, however," said Lefevre, "gives an extraordinary zest +to all enjoyment." + +"To live," said Julius, "is surely the purpose of life. Any smaller, any +more obvious purpose, will spoil life, just as it spoils Art." + +"I believe, my boy, you are wrong in both," said Lefevre. "Art without a +purpose goes off into all sorts of madness and extravagance, and so does +life." + +"You really think so?" said Julius, his attention fixed for an instant, +and looking as if he had set up the point and regarded it at a distance. +"Yes; perhaps it does." But the next moment his attention seemed given +to the cat; he fondled it, and talked to it soothingly. + +"I am sure of it," said Lefevre. "Just listen to me, Julius. You have +wonderful intelligence and penetration in everything. You are fond of +science; science needs men like you more than the dull plodders that +usually take to it. When you were in Charbon's class you were his +favourite and his best pupil,--don't I remember?--and if you liked you +could be the greatest physician of the age." + +"It is treason to yourself to say such a thing." + +"Your fame would soon eclipse mine." + +"Fame! fame!" exclaimed Julius, for an instant showing irritation. "I +would not give a penny-piece for fame if all the magicians of the East +came crying it down the streets! Why should I seek fame? What good would +it do me if I had it?" + +"Well, well," said Lefevre; "let fame alone: you might be as unknown as +you like, and do a world of good in practice among the poor." + +Julius looked at him, and set the cat down. + +"My dear Lefevre," said he, "I did not think you could urge such common +twaddle! You know well enough,--nobody knows better,--first of all, that +there are already more men waiting to do that kind of thing than can +find occupation: why should I go down among them and try to take their +work? And you know, in the next place, that medical philanthropy, like +all other philanthropy, is so overdone that the race is fast +deteriorating; we strive with so much success to keep the sickly and the +diseased alive, that perfect health is scarcely known. Life without +health can be nothing but a weariness: why should it be reckoned a +praiseworthy thing to keep it going at any price? If life became a +burden to me, I should lay it down." + +"But," said Lefevre, earnestly, "your life surely is not your own to do +with it what you like!" + +"In the name of truth, Lefevre," answered Julius, "if my life is not my +own, what is? I get its elements from others, but I fashion it myself, +just as much as the sculptor shapes his statue, or the poet turns his +poem. You don't deny to the sculptor the right to smash his statue if it +does not please him, nor to the poet the right to burn his +manuscript;--why should you deny me the right to dispose of my life? I +know--I know," said he, seeing Lefevre open his mouth and raise his hand +for another observation, "that your opinion is the common one, but that +is the only sanction it has; it has the sanction neither of true +morality nor of true religion! But here is the waiter to tell you the +carriage is come. I'm glad. Let us get out into the air and the +sunshine." + +The carriage was the doctor's own; his mother, although the widow of a +Court physician, was too poor to maintain much equipage, but she made +what use she pleased of her son's possessions. When Lady Lefevre saw +Julius at the carriage-door, she broke into smiles and cries of welcome. + +"Where have you been this long, long while, Julius?" said she. "This is +Julius Courtney, Nora. You remember Nora, Julius, when she was a little +girl in frocks?" + +"She now wears remarkable gowns," chimed in the doctor. + +"Which," said Julius, "I have no doubt are becoming." + +"My brother," said Nora, with a sunny smile, "is jealous; because, being +a doctor, he must wear only dowdy clothes of dingy colours." + +"We have finished at school and college, and been presented at Court," +laughed Lady Lefevre. + +"And," broke in the brother, "we have had cards engraved with our full +name, _Leonora_." + +"With all this," said Lady Lefevre, "I hope you won't be afraid of us." + +"I see no reason," said Julius. "For, if I may say so, I like everything +in Nature, and it seems to me Nature has had more to do with the +finishing you speak of than the schoolmistress or the college +professor." + +"There he is already," laughed Lady Lefevre, "with his equivocal +compliments. I shouldn't wonder if he says that, my dear, because you +have not yet had more than a word to say for yourself." + +By that time Lefevre and Julius were seated, and the carriage was +rolling along towards the Park. Julius sat immediately opposite Lady +Lefevre, but he included both her and Nora in his talk and his bright +glances. The doctor sat agreeably suffused with delight and wonder. No +one, as has been seen, had a higher opinion of Courtney's rare powers, +or had had more various evidence of them, than Lefevre, but even he had +never known his friend so brilliant. He was instinct with life and +eloquence. His face shone as with an inner light, and his talk was +bright, searching, and ironical. The amazing thing, however, was that +Julius had as stimulating and intoxicating an influence on Nora as, it +was clear, Nora had on him. His sister had not appeared to Lefevre +hitherto more than a beautiful, healthy, shy girl of tolerable +intelligence; now she showed that she had brilliance and wit, and, +moreover, that she understood Julius as one native of a strange realm +understands another. When they entered the Park, they were the observed +of all. And, indeed, Leonora Lefevre was a vision to excite the worship +of those least inclined to idolatry of Nature. She was of the noblest +type of English beauty, and she seemed as calmly unconscious of its +excellence and rarity as one of the grand Greek women of the Parthenon. +She had, however, a sensuous fulness and bloom, a queenly carriage of +head and neck, a clearness of feature, and a liquid kindness of eye that +suggested a deep potentiality of passion. + +They drove round the Row, and round again, and they talked and laughed +their fill of wisdom and frivolity and folly. To be foolish wisely and +gracefully is a rare attainment. When they had almost completed their +third round, Julius (who had finished a marvellous story of a fairy +princess and a cat) said, "I can see you are fond of beasts, Miss +Lefevre. I should like to take you to the Zoological Gardens and show +you my favourites there. May we go now, Lady Lefevre?" + +"By all means," said Lady Lefevre, "let us go. What do you say, John?" + +"Oh, wherever you like, mother," answered her son. + +Arrived in the Gardens, Julius took possession of his companions, and +exerted all his arts to charm and fascinate. He led the ladies from cage +to cage, from enclosure to enclosure, showed himself as familiar with +the characters and habits of their wild denizens as a farmer is with +those of his stock, and they responded to his strange calls, to his +gentleness and fearlessness, with an alert understanding and confidence +beautiful to see. His favourites were certain creatures of the deer +species, which crowded to their fences to sniff his clothes, and to lick +his hands, which he abandoned to their caresses with manifest +satisfaction. His example encouraged the queenly Nora and her sprightly +mother to feed the beautiful creatures with bread and buns, and to feel +the suffusion of pleasure derived from the contact of their soft lips +with the palm of the hand. After that they were scarcely astonished +when, without bravado, but clearly with simple confidence and enjoyment, +Julius put his hand within the bars of the lion's cage and scratched the +ears of a lioness, murmuring the while in a strange tongue such fond +sounds as only those use who are on the best terms with animals. The +great brute rose to his touch, closing its eyes, and bearing up its head +like a cat. + +Then came an incident that deeply impressed the Lefevres. Julius went to +a cage in which, he said, there was a recent arrival--a leopard from the +"Land of the Setting Sun," the romantic land of the Moors. The creature +crouched sulking in the back of the cage. Julius tapped on the bars, and +entreated her in the language of her native land, "Ya, dudu! ya, +lellatsi!" She bounded to him with a "_wir-r-r_" of delight, leaned and +rubbed herself against the bars, and gave herself up to be stroked and +fondled. When he left her, she cried after him piteously, and wistfully +watched him out of sight. + +"Do you know the beautiful creature?" asked Lady Lefevre. + +"Yes," answered Julius quietly; "I brought her over some months ago." + +Lefevre had explained to his mother that Julius had always been on +friendly or fond terms with animals, but never till now had he seen the +remarkable understanding he clearly maintained with them. + +"Look!" said Lady Lefevre to her son as they turned to leave the +Gardens. "He seems to have fascinated Nora as much as the beasts." + +Nora stood a little aloof, regarding Julius in an ecstasy of admiration. +When she found her mother was looking at her, her eyes sank, and as it +were a veil of blushes fell over her. Mother and son walked on first, +and Julius followed with Nora. + +"He is a most charming and extraordinary man," said the mother. + +"He is," said the son, "and amazingly intelligent." + +"He seems to know everything, and to have been everywhere,--to have been +a kind of rolling stone. If anything should come of this, I suppose he +can afford to marry. You ought to know about him." + +"I believe I know as much as any one." + +"He has no profession?" queried the lady. + +"He has no profession; but I suppose he could afford it," said Lefevre +musingly. + +"You don't like the idea," said his mother. + +"Not much. I scarce know why. But I somehow think of him as not having +enough sense of the responsibility of life." + +"I suppose his people are of the right sort?" + +"I suppose they are; though I don't know if he has any people," said he, +with a laugh. "He is the kind of man who does not need parents or +relations." + +"Still, hadn't you better try to find out what he may have in that +line?" + +"Yes," said Lefevre; "perhaps I had." + + + + +Chapter II. + +A Mysterious Case. + + +The two friends returned, as they had arranged, to the Hyacinth Club for +dinner. Courtney's coruscating brilliancy sank into almost total +darkness when they parted from Lady and Miss Lefevre, and when they sat +down to table he was preoccupied and silent, yet in no proper sense +downcast or dull. Lefevre noted, while they ate, that there was clear +speculation in his eye, that he was not vaguely dreaming, but with alert +intelligence examining some question, or facing some contingency; and it +was natural he should think that the question or contingency must +concern Nora as much as Julius. Yet he made no overture of +understanding, for he knew that Courtney seldom offered confidence or +desired sympathy; not that he was churlish or reserved, but simply that +he was usually sufficient unto himself, both for counsel and for +consolation. Lefevre was therefore surprised when he was suddenly asked +a question, which was without context in his own thought. + +"Have you ever found something happen or appear," said Julius, "that +completely upsets your point of view, and tumbles down your scheme of +life, like a stick thrust between your legs when you are running?" + +"I have known," said Lefevre, "a new fact arise and upset a whole +scientific theory. That's often a good thing," he added, with a pointed +glance; "for it compels a reconstruction of the theory on a wider and +sounder basis." + +"Yes," murmured Julius; "that may be. But I should think it does not +often happen that the new fact swallows up all the details that +supported your theory,--as Aaron's rod, turned into a serpent, swallowed +up the serpent-rods of the magicians of Egypt,--so that there is no +longer any theory, but only one great, glorious fact. I do admire," he +exclaimed, swerving suddenly, "the imagination of those old Greeks, with +their beautiful, half-divine personifications of the Spirits of Air and +Earth and Sea! But their imagination never conceived a goddess that +embodied them all!" + +"I have often thought, Julius," said Lefevre, "that you must be some +such embodiment yourself; for you are not quite human, you know." + +The doctor said that with a clear recollection of his mother's request. +He hoped that his friend would take the cue, and tell him something of +his family. Julius, however, said nothing but "Indeed." Lefevre then +tried to tempt him into confession by talking about his own father and +mother, and by relating how the French name "Lefevre" came to be +domiciled in England; but Julius ignored the temptation, and dismissed +the question in an eloquent flourish. + +"What does a man want with a family and a name? They only tie him to the +earth, as Gulliver was tied by the people of Lilliput. We have life and +health,--_if_ we have them,--and it is only veiled prurience to inquire +whence we got them. A man can't help having a father and a mother, I +suppose; but he need not be always reminding himself of the fact: no +other creature on earth does. For myself, I wish I were like that +extraordinary person, Melchizedek, without father and without mother, +without descent, having neither beginning of days nor end of life." + +In a little while the friends parted. Lefevre said he had work to do, +but he did not anticipate such work as he had to turn to that night. +Though the doctor was a bachelor, he had a professional residence apart +from his mother and sister. They lived in a small house in Curzon +Street; he dwelt in Savile Row. Savile Row was a place of consequence +long before Regent Street was thought of, but now they are few who know +of its existence. Fashion ignores it. It is tenanted by small clubs, +learned societies, and doctors. It slumbers in genteel decorum, with its +back to the garish modern thoroughfare. It is always quiet, but by nine +o'clock of a dark evening it is deserted. When Dr Lefevre, therefore, +stepped out of his hired hansom, and prepared to put his latch-key in +his own door, he was arrested by a hoarse-voiced hawker of evening news +bursting in upon the repose of the Row with a continuous roar of +"Special--Mystery--Paper--Railway--Special--Brighton--Paper--Victoria +--Special!" It was with some effort, and only when the man was close +at hand, that he interpreted the sounds into these words. + +"Paper, sir," said the man; and he bought it and went in. He entered his +dining-room, and read the following paragraph;-- + + "A Mysterious Case. + + "A report has reached us that a young man, about two or four and + twenty years of age, whose name is at present unknown, was found + yesterday (Sunday) to all appearance dead in a first-class carriage + of the 5 P.M. train from Brighton to Victoria. The discovery was + only made at Grosvenor Road Station, where tickets are taken before + entering Victoria. At Victoria the body was searched for purposes + of identification, and there was found upon him a card with the + following remarkable inscription:--'_I am not dead. Take me to the + St. James's Hospital._' To St. James's Hospital accordingly the + young man was conveyed. It seems probable he is in a condition of + trance--not for the first time--since he was provided with the + card, and knew the hospital with which is associated in all men's + minds the name of Dr Lefevre, who is so famous for his skill in the + treatment of nervous disorders." + +In matters of plain duty Dr Lefevre had got into the excellent habit of +acting first and thinking afterwards. He at once rang the bell, and +ordered the responsible serving-man who appeared to call a cab. The man +went to the door and sounded his shrill whistle, grateful to the ears of +several loitering cabbies. There was a mad race of growlers and hansoms +for the open door. Dr Lefevre got into the first hansom that drew up, +and drove off to the hospital. By that time he had told himself that the +young man must be a former patient of his (though he did not remember +any such), and that he ought to see him at once, although it is not + for the visiting physician of a hospital to appear, except +between fixed hours of certain days. He made nothing of the mystery +which the newspaper wished, after the manner of its kind, to cast about +the case, and thought of other things, while he smoked cigarettes, till +he reached the hospital. The house-physician was somewhat surprised by +his appearance. + +"I have just read that paragraph," said Lefevre, handing him the paper. + +"Oh yes, sir," said the house-physician. "The man was brought in last +night. Dr Dowling" [the resident assistant-physician] "saw him, and +thought it a case of ordinary trance, that could easily wait till you +came, as usual, to-morrow." + +"Ah, well," said Lefevre, "let me see him." + +Seen thus, the physician appeared a different person from the cheerful, +modest man of the Hyacinth Club. He had now put on the responsibility of +men's health and the enthusiasm of his profession. He seemed to swell in +proportions and dignity, though his eye still beamed with a calm and +kindly light. + +The young man led the way down the echoing flagged passage, and up the +flight of stone stairs. As they went they encountered many silent female +figures, clean and white, going up or down (it was the time of changing +nurses), so that a fanciful stranger might well have thought of the +stairway reaching from earth to heaven, on which the angels of God were +seen ascending and descending. A stranger, too, would have noted the +peculiar odours that hung about the stairs and passages, as if the +ghosts of medicines escaped from the chemist's bottles were hovering in +the air. Opening first an outer and then an inner door, Lefevre and his +companion entered a large and lofty ward. The room was dark, save for +the light of the fire and of a shaded lamp, by which, within a screen, +the night-nurse sat conning her list of night-duties. The evening was +just beginning out of doors,--shop-fronts were flaring, taverns were +becoming noisy, and brilliantly-lit theatres and music-halls were +settling down to business,--but here night and darkness had set in more +than an hour before. Indeed, in these beds of languishing, which +stretched away down either side of the ward, night was hardly to be +distinguished from day, save for the sunlight and the occasional +excitement of the doctor's visit; and many there were who cried to +themselves in the morning, "Would God it were evening!" and in the +evening, "Would God it were morning!" But there was yet this other +difference, that disease and doctor, fear and hope, gossip and +grumbling, newspaper and Bible and tract, were all forgotten in the +night, for some time at least, and Nature's kind restorer, sleep, went +softly round among the beds and soothed the weary spirits into peace. + +Lefevre and the house-physician passed silently up the ward between the +rows of silent blue-quilted beds, while the nurse came silently to meet +them with her lamp. Lefevre turned aside a moment to look at a man whose +breathing was laboured and stertorous. The shaded light was turned upon +him: an opiate had been given him to induce sleep; it had performed its +function, but, as if resenting its bondage, it was impishly twitching +the man's muscles and catching him by the throat, so that he choked and +started. Dr Lefevre raised the man's eyelid to look at his eye: the +upturned eye stared out upon him, but the man slept on. He put his hand +on the man's forehead (he had a beautiful hand--the hand of a born +surgeon and healer--fine but firm, the expression of nervous force), and +with thumb and finger stroked first his temples and then his neck. The +spasmodic twitching ceased, and his breath came easy and regular. The +house-doctor and the nurse looked at each other in admiration of this +subtle skill, while Lefevre turned away and passed on. + +"Where is the man?" said he. + +"Number Thirteen," answered the house-doctor, leading the way. + +The lamp was set on the locker beside the bed of Thirteen, screens were +placed round to create a seclusion amid the living, breathing silence of +the ward, and Lefevre proceeded to examine the unconscious patient who +had so strangely put himself in his hands. + +He was young and well-favoured, and, it was evident from the firmness of +his flesh, well-fed. Lefevre considered his features a moment, shook his +head, and murmured, "No; I don't think I've seen him before." He turned +to the nurse and inquired concerning the young man's clothes: they were +evidently those of a gentleman, she said,--of one, at least, who had +plenty of money. He turned again to the young man. He raised the left +arm to feel the heart, but, contrary to his experience in such cases, +the arm did not remain as he bent it, nor did the eyes open in obedience +to the summons of the disturbed nerves. The breathing was scarcely +perceptible, and the beating of the heart was faint. + +"A strange case," said Lefevre in a low voice to his young comrade--"the +strangest I've seen. He does not look a subject for this kind of thing, +and yet he is in the extreme stage of hypnotism. You see." And the +doctor, by sundry tests and applications, showed the peculiar exhausted +and contractive condition of the muscles. "It is very curious." + +"Perhaps," said the other, "he has been--" and he hesitated. + +"Been what?" asked Lefevre, turning on him his keen look. + +"Enjoying himself." + +"Having a debauch, you mean? No; I think not. There would then have +probably been some reflex action of the nerves. This is not that kind of +exhaustion; and it is more than mere trance or catalepsy; it seems the +extremest suspensory condition,--and that in a young man of such +apparent health is very remarkable. It will take a long time for him to +recover in the ordinary way with food and sleep," he continued, rather +to himself than to his subordinates. "He needs rousing,--a strong +stimulant." + +"Shall I get some brandy, sir?" asked the nurse. + +"Brandy? No. That's not the stimulant he needs." + +He was silent for a little, moving the young man's limbs, and touching +certain muscles which his exact anatomical knowledge taught him to lay +his finger on with unerring accuracy. The effect was startling and +grotesque. As a galvanic current applied to the proper nerves and +muscles of a dead body will produce expressions and actions resembling +those of life, so the touch of Lefevre's finger made the unconscious +young man scowl or smile or clench his fist according to the muscles +impressed. + +"The brain," said Lefevre, "seems quite sound,--perfectly passive, you +see, but active in its passivity. You can leave us, nurse," said he; +then, turning to the house-physician, he continued: "I am convinced this +is such a peculiar case as I have often imagined, but have never seen. +This nervous-muscular suspension is complicated with some exhaustive +influence. I want your assistance, and I ask for it like this, because +it is necessary for my purpose that you should give it freely, and +without reserve; I am going to try the electrode." + +This was a simple machine contrived by Lefevre, on the model of the +electric cylinder of Du Bois-Reymond, and worked on the theory that the +electricity stored in the human body can be driven out by the human will +along a prepared channel into another human body. + +"I understand," said the assistant promptly. He apprehended his chief's +meaning more fully than the reader can; for he was deeply interested and +fairly skilled in that strange annex of modern medical science which his +chief called psycho-dynamics, and which old-fashioned practitioners +decline to recognise. + +"Get me the machine and the insulating sheet," said Lefevre. + +While his assistant was gone on his errand, Lefevre with his right hand +gently stroked along the main lines of nerve and muscle in the upper +part of his patient's body; and it was strange to note how the features +and limbs lost a certain constriction and rigidity which it was manifest +they had had only by their disappearance. When the house-physician +returned, the sheet (a preparation of spun-glass invented by Lefevre) +was drawn under the patient, and the machine, with its vessels of +chemical mixture and its conducting wires, was placed close to the bed. +The handles attached to the wires were put into the patient's hands. + +"Now," said Lefevre, "this is a trying experiment. Give me your +hand--your left; you know how to do; yes, the other hand on the machine, +with the fingers touching the chemicals. When you feel strength--virtue, +so to say--going out of you, don't be alarmed: let it go; use no effort +of the will to keep it back, or we shall probably fail." + +"I understand," repeated the assistant. + +Then, holding his hand,--closely, but not so as to constrain the +muscles,--Lefevre put his own left on the machine according to the +direction he had given his assistant,--with his fingers, that is, +dipping into the chemicals from plates in the bottom of which the wires +conducted to the patient's hands. A shiver ran through the frame of both +Lefevre and his companion, a convulsive shudder passed upon the +unconscious body, and--a strange cry rang out upon the silence of the +ward, and Lefevre withdrew his hands. He and the house-physician looked +at each other pale and shaken. The nurse came running at the cry. +Lefevre looked out beyond the screen to reassure her, and saw in the dim +red reflection of the firelight a sight which struck him gruesomely, +used though he was to hospital sights; all about the ward pale scared +figures were sitting up in bed, like corpses suddenly raised from the +dead. He bent over his patient, who presently opened his eyes and stared +at him. + +"Get some brandy and milk," said Lefevre to his companion. + +"Who? Where am I?" murmured the patient in a faint voice. + +"I am Dr Lefevre, and this is St. James's Hospital." + +"Doctor?--hospital?--oh, I'm dreaming!" murmured the patient. + +"We'll talk about that when you have taken some of this," said Lefevre, +as the house-physician reappeared with the nurse, bearing the brandy and +milk. + +Lefevre presently told him how he had been found in the train, and taken +for dead till the card--"this card," said he, taking it from the top of +the locker--was discovered on him. The young man listened in open +amazement, and looked at the card. + +"I know nothing of this!" said he. "I never saw the card before! I never +heard your name or the hospital's till a minute ago." + +"Your case was strange before," said Lefevre; "this makes it stranger. +Who journeyed with you?" + +"A man,--a nice, strange, oldish fellow in a fur coat." And the young +man wished to enter upon a narrative, when the doctor interrupted him. + +"You're not well enough to talk much now. Tell me to-morrow all about +it." + +The doctor returned home, his imagination occupied with the vision of a +train rushing at express speed over the metals, and of a compartment in +the train in which a young man reclined under the spell of an old man. +The young man's face he saw clearly, but the old man's evaded him like a +dream, and yet he felt he ought to know one who knew the peculiar repute +of the St. James's Hospital. Next day the young man told his story, +which was in effect as follows: He was a subaltern in a dragoon regiment +stationed in Brighton. On Sunday afternoon he had set out for London on +several days' leave. He had taken a seat in a smoking-carriage, and was +preparing to make himself comfortable with a novel and a cigar, when an +elderly gentleman, who looked like a foreigner, came in as the train was +about to move. He particularly observed the man from the first, because, +though it was a pleasant spring day, he looked pinched and shrunken with +cold in his great fur overcoat, and because he had remarked him standing +on the platform and scrutinizing the passengers hurrying into the train. +The gentleman sat down in the seat opposite the young officer, and drew +his fur wrap close about him. The young officer could not keep his eyes +off him, and he noted that his features seemed worn thin and arid, as by +passage through terrific peril,--as if he had been travelling for many +days without sleep and without food, straining forward to a goal of +safety, sick both in stomach and heart,--as if he had been rushing, like +the maniac of the Gospel, through dry places, seeking rest and finding +none. His hair, which should have been black, looked lustreless and +bleached, and his skin seemed as if his blood had lost all colour and +generosity, as if nothing but serum flowed in his veins. His eyes alone +did not look bloodless; they were weary and extravasated, as from +anxious watching. The young officer's compassion went out to the +stranger; for he thought he must be a conspirator, fleeing probably from +the infamous tyranny of Russian rule. But presently he spoke in such +good English that the idea of his being a Russian faded away. + +"Excuse the liberty I take," said he, with a singularly winning smile; +"but let me advise you not to smoke that cigar. I have a peculiarly +sensitive nose for tobacco, and my nose informs me that your cigar, +though good as cigars go, is not fit for you to smoke." + +The young officer was surprised that he was rather charmed than offended +by this impertinence. + +"Let me offer you one of these instead," said the strange gentleman; "we +call them--I won't trouble you with the Spanish name--but in English it +means 'Joys of Spain.'" + +The officer took and thanked him for a "Joy of Spain," and found the +flavour and aroma so excellent that, to use his own phrase, he could +have eaten it. He asked the stranger what in particular was his +objection to the other cigar. + +"This objection," said he, "which is common to all ill-prepared +tobaccos, that it lowers the vital force. You don't feel that yet, +because you are young and healthy, and gifted with a superabundance of +fine vitality; but you may by smoking one bad cigar bring the time a day +nearer when you must feel it. And even now it would take a little off +the keen edge of the appetite for pleasure. How little," said he, "do we +understand how to keep ourselves in condition for the complete enjoyment +of life! You, I suppose, are about to take your pleasure in town, and +instead of judiciously tickling and stimulating your nerves for the +complete fulfilment of the pleasures you contemplate, you begin--you +were beginning, I mean, with your own cigar--to dull and stupefy them. +Don't you see how foolish that is?" + +The young officer admitted that it was very foolish and very true; and +they talked on thus, the elder exercising a charm over the younger such +as he had never known before in the society of any man. In a quarter of +an hour the young man felt as if he had known and trusted and loved his +neighbour all his life; he felt, he confessed, so strongly attracted +that he could have hugged him. He told him about his family, and showed +him the innermost secrets of his heart; and all the while he smoked the +delicious "Joy of Spain," and felt more and more enthralled and +fascinated by the stranger's eyes, which, as he talked, lightened and +glowed more and more as their glance played caressingly about him. He +was beginning to wonder at that, when with some emphatic phrase the +stranger laid his fingers on his knee, upon which a thrill shot through +him as if a woman had touched him. He looked in the stranger's face, and +the wonderful eyes seemed to search to the root of his being, and to +draw the soul out of him. He had a flying thought--"Can it be a woman, +after all, in this strange shape?" and he knew no more ... till he woke +in the hospital bed. + +That was the patient's story. + +"Just look over your property here," said the doctor. "Have you lost +anything?" + +The young man turned over his watch and the contents of his purse, and +answered that he had lost nothing. + +"Strange--strange!" said Lefevre--"very strange! And the card--of course +the stranger must have put it in your pocket." + +"Which would seem to imply," said the young man, "that _he_ knows +something of the hospital." + +"Well," said Lefevre, "we must see what can be done to clear the mystery +up." + +"Some of those newspaper-men have been here," said the house-physician, +when they had left the ward, "and they will be sure to call again before +the day is out. Shall I tell them anything of this?" + +"Certainly," said Lefevre. "Publicity may help us to discover this +amazing stranger." + +"Do you quite believe the story?" asked the house-physician. + +"I don't disbelieve it." + +"But what did the stranger do to put him in that condition, which seems +something more than hypnotism?" + +"Ah," said Lefevre, "I don't yet understand it; but there are forces in +Nature which few can comprehend, and which only one here and there can +control and use." + + + + +Chapter III. + +"M. Dolaro." + + +Next day men talked, newspaper in hand, at the breakfast-table, in the +early trains, omnibuses, and tramcars, of the singular railway outrage. +It was clear its purpose was not robbery. What, then, did it mean? +Some--probably most--declared it was very plain what it meant; while +others,--the few,--after much argument, confessed themselves quite +mystified. + +The police, too, were not idle. They made inquiries and took notes here +and there. They discovered that the five o'clock train made but two +pauses on its journey to London--at Croydon and at Clapham Junction. At +neither of those places could a man in a fur coat be heard of as having +descended from the train; and yet it was manifest that he did not arrive +at Grosvenor Road, where tickets were taken. After persistent and wider +inquiries, however, at Clapham Junction (which was the most likely point +of departure), a cabman was found who remembered having taken up a +fare--a gentleman in a fur coat--about the hour indicated. He +particularly remarked the gentleman, because he looked odd and foreign +and half tipsy (that was how he seemed to him), because he was wrapped +up "enough for Father Christmas," and because he asked to be driven such +a long way--to a well-known hotel near the Crystal Palace, where +"foreign gents" were fond of staying. Being asked what in particular had +made him think the gentleman a foreigner, cabby could not exactly say; +he believed, however, it was his coat and his eyes. Of his face he saw +little or nothing, it was so muffled up; yet his tongue was English +enough. + +Inquiry was then pushed on to the hotel named by the cabman. A gentleman +in a fur coat had certainly arrived there the evening before, but no one +had seen anything of him after his arrival. He had taken dinner in his +private sitting-room, and had then paid his bill, because, he said, he +must be gone early in the morning. About half an hour after dinner, when +a waiter cleared the things away, he had gone to his room, and next +morning he had left the hotel soon after dawn. Boots, half asleep, had +seen him walk away, bag in hand, wrapped in his greatcoat,--walk away, +it would seem, and dissolve into the mist of the morning, for from that +point no further trace could be got of him. No such figure as his had +been seen on any of the roads leading from the hotel, either by the +early milkman, or by the belated coffee-stall keeper, or night cabman. +Being asked what name the gentleman had given at the hotel, the +book-keeper showed her record, with the equivocal name of "M. Dolaro." +The name might be Italian or Spanish,--or English or American for that +matter,--and the initial "M" might be French or anything in the world. + +In the meantime Dr Lefevre had been pondering the details of the affair, +and noting the aspects of his patient's condition; but the more he noted +and pondered, the more contorted and inexplicable did the mystery +become. His understanding boggled at its very first notes. It was almost +unheard of that a young man of his patient's strong and healthy +constitution and temper should be hypnotised or mesmerised at all, much +less hypnotised to the verge of dissolution; and it was unprecedented +that even a weak, hysterical subject should, after being unhypnotised, +remain so long in prostrate exhaustion. Then, suppose these +circumstances of the case were ordinary, there arose this question, +which refused to be solved: Since it was ridiculous to suppose that the +hypnotisation was a wanton experiment, and since it had not been for the +sake of robbery, what had been its object? + +The interest of the case was emphasised and enlarged by an article in +'The Daily Telegraph,' in which was called to mind the singular story in +its Paris correspondence a day or two before, of the young woman in the +Hôtel-Dieu, which Lefevre had forgotten. The writer remarked on the +points of similarity which the case in the Brighton train bore to that +of the Paris pavement; insisted on the probable identity of the man in +the fur coat with the man in the cloak; and appealed to Dr Lefevre to +explain the mystery, and to the police to find the man "who has alarmed +the civilised world by a new form of outrage." + +Lefevre was piqued by that article, and he went to see his patient day +after day, in the constant hope of finding a solution of the puzzle that +perplexed him. The direction in which he looked for light will be best +suggested by remarking what were his peculiar theory and practice. +Lefevre was not a materialistic physician; indeed, in the opinion of +many of his brethren, he erred on the other side, and was too much +inclined to mysticism. It may at least be said that he had an open mind, +and a modest estimate of the discoveries of modern medical science. He +had perceived while still a young man (he was now about forty) that all +medical practice--as distinct from surgical--is inexact and empirical, +that, like English common law, it is based merely on custom, and a +narrow range of experience; and he had therefore argued that a wider +experience and research, especially among decaying nations, might lead +to the discovery of a guiding principle in pathology. That conviction +had taken him as medical officer to Egypt and India, where, amid the +relics of civilisations half as old as time, he found traditions of a +great scientific practice; and thence it had brought him back to study +such foreign medical writers as Du Bois-Reymond, Nobili, Matteucci, and +Müller, and to observe the method of the famous physicians of the +Salpétrière. Like the great Charbon, he made nervous and hysterical +disorders his specialty, in the treatment of which he was much given to +the use of electricity. He had very pronounced "views," though he seldom +troubled his brethren with them; for he was not of those who can hold a +belief firmly only if it is also held by others. + +More than a week had passed without discovery or promise of light, when +one afternoon he went to the hospital resolved to compass some +explanation. + +He walked at once, on entering the ward, to the bedside of his puzzling +patient, who still lay limp as a dish-clout and drowsy as a sloth. He +tested--as he had done almost daily--his nervous and respiratory powers +with the exact instruments adapted for the purpose, and then, still +unenlightened, he questioned him closely about his sensations. The young +officer answered him with tolerable intelligence. + +"I feel," he ended with saying, "as if all my energy had +evaporated,--and I used to have no end,--just as a spirit evaporates if +it is left open to the air." + +The saying struck Lefevre mightily. "Energy" stood then to Lefevre as an +almost convertible term for "electricity," and his successful +experiments with electricity had opened up to him a vast field of +conjecture, into which, on the smallest inflaming hint, he was wont to +make an excursion. Such a hint was the saying of the young officer now, +and, as he walked away, he found himself, as it were, knocking at the +door of a great discovery. But the door did not open on that summons, +and he resolved straightway to discuss the subject with Julius Courtney, +who, though an amateur, had about as complete a knowledge of it as +himself, and who could bring to bear, he believed, a finer intelligence. + +He first sought Julius at the Hyacinth Club, where he frequently spent +the afternoon. Failing to find him there, he inquired for him at his +chambers in the Albany. Hearing nothing of him there, and the ardour of +his quest having cooled a little, he stepped out across the way to his +own home in Savile Row. + +There he found a note from his mother, with a touch of mystery in its +wording. She said she wanted very much to have a serious conversation +with him; she had been expecting for days to see him, and she begged him +to go that evening to dinner if he could. "Julius," said she, "will be +here, and one or two others." + +The mention of Julius as a visitor at his mother's house reminded him of +his promise to that lady to find out how the young man was connected: +engrossed as he had been with his strange case, he had almost forgotten +the promise, and he had done nothing to fulfil it but tap ineffectually +for admission to his friend's confidence. He therefore considered with +some anxiety what he should do, for Lady Lefevre could on occasion be +exacting and severe with her son. He concluded nothing could be done +before dinner, but he went prepared to be questioned and perhaps rated. +He was pleased to find that his mother seemed to have forgotten his +promise as much as he had, and to see her in the best of spirits with a +tableful of company. + +"Oh, you have come," said she, presenting her cheek to her son; "I +thought that after all you might be detained by that mysterious case you +have at the hospital. Here's Dr. Rippon--and Julius too--dying to hear +all about it;" but she gave no hint of the serious conversation which +she said in her note she desired. + +"Not I, Lady Lefevre," Julius protested. "I don't like medical +revelations; they make me feel as if I were sitting at the confessional +of mankind." + +Noting by the way that Julius and his sister seemed much taken up with +each other, and that Julius, while as fascinating as ever, and as ready +and apt and intelligent of speech, seemed somewhat more chastened in +manner and less effervescent in health,--like a fire of coal that has +spent its gas and settled into a steady glow of heat,--he turned to Dr +Rippon, a tall, thin old gentleman of over seventy, but who yet had a +keen tongue, and a shrewd, critical eye. He had been an intimate friend +of the elder Lefevre, and the son greeted him with respect and +affection. + +"Who is the gentleman?" said Dr Rippon, aside, when their greeting was +over. "It does an old man's heart good to see and hear him," and the old +doctor straightened himself. "But he'll get old too; that's the sad +thing, from my point of view, that such beauty of person and swift +intelligence of mind _must_ grow old and withered, and slow and dull. +What did you say his name is, John?" + +"His name is Courtney--Julius Courtney," said Lefevre. + +"Courtney," mused the old man, stroking his eyebrow; "I once knew a man +of that name, or, rather, who took that name. I wonder if this friend of +yours is of the same family; he is not unlike the man I knew." + +"Oh," said Lefevre, immediately interested, "he may be of the same +family, but I don't know anything of his relations. Who was the man, may +I ask, that you knew?" + +"Well," said the old gentleman, settling down to a story, which Lefevre +was sure would be full of interest and contemporary allusion, for the +old physician had in his time seen many men and many things--"it is a +romantic story in its way." + +He was on the point of beginning it when dinner was announced. + +"I should like to hear the story when we return to the drawing-room," +said Lefevre. + +Over dinner, Lefevre was beset with inquiries about his mysterious +case:--Was the young man better? Had he been very ill? Was he handsome? +What had the foreign-looking stranger done to him? and for what purpose +had he done it? These questions were mostly ignorant and thoughtless, +and Lefevre either parried them or answered them with great reserve. +When the ladies retired from table, however, more particular and curious +queries were pressed upon him as to the real character of the outrage +upon the young man. He replied that he had not yet discovered, though he +believed he was getting "warm." + +"Is it fair," said Julius, "to ask you in what direction you are looking +for an explanation or revelation?" + +"Oh, quite fair," said Lefevre, welcoming the question. "To put it in a +word, I look to _electricity_,--animal electricity. I have been for some +time working round, and I hope gradually getting nearer, a scientific +secret of enormous--of transcendent value. Can you conceive, Julius, of +a universal principle in Nature being got so under control as to form a +universal basis of cure?" + +"Can I conceive?" said Julius. "And is that electricity too?" + +"I hope to find it is." + +"Oh, how slow!" exclaimed Julius,--"oh, how slow you professional +scientific men become! You begin to run on tram-lines, and you can't get +off them! Why fix yourself to call this principle you're seeking for +'electricity'? It will probably restrict your inquiry, and hamper you in +several ways. I would declare to every scientific man, 'Unless you +become as a little child or a poet, you will discover no great truth!' +Setting aside your bias towards what you call 'electricity,' you are +really hoping to discover something that was discovered or divined +thousands of years ago! Some have called it 'od'--an 'imponderable +fluid'--as you know; you and others wish to call it 'electricity.' I +prefer to call it 'the spirit of life,'--a name simple, dignified, and +expressive!" + +"It has the disadvantage of being poetic," said Dr Rippon, with grave +irony; "and doctors don't like poetry mixed up with their science." + +"It _is_ poetic," admitted Julius, regarding the old doctor with +interest, "and therefore it is intelligible. The spirit of life is +electric and elective, and it is 'imponderable:' it can neither be +weighed nor measured! It flows and thrills in the nerves of men and +women, animals and plants, throughout the whole of Nature! It connects +the whole round of the Cosmos by one glowing, teasing, agonising +principle of being, and makes us and beasts and trees and flowers all +kindred!" + +"That is all very beautiful and fresh," said Lefevre, "but--" + +"But," interrupted Julius, "it is not a new truth: the poet divined it +ages ago! Buddha, thousands of years ago, perceived it, and taught that +'all life is linked and kin;' so did the Egyptians and the Greeks, when +they worshipped the principle of life everywhere; and so did our own +barbaric ancestors, when the woods--the wonderful, mystic woods!--were +their temples. Life--the spirit of life!--is always beautiful; always to +be desired and worshipped!" + +"Yes," said old Dr Rippon, who had listened to this astonishing rhapsody +with evident interest, with sympathetic and intelligent eye; "but a time +will come even to you, when death will appear more beautiful and +friendly and desirable than life." + +Courtney was silent, and looked for a second or two deadly sick. He cast +a searching eye on Dr Rippon. + +"That's the one thought," said he, "that makes me sometimes feel as if I +were already under the horror of the shade. It's not that I am afraid of +dying--of merely ceasing to live; it is that life may cease to be +delightful and friendly, and become an intolerable, decaying burden." + +He filled a glass with Burgundy, and set himself attentively to drink +it, lingering on the bouquet and the flavour. Lefevre beheld him with +surprise, for he had never before seen Julius take wine: he was wont to +say that converse with good company was intoxicating enough for him. + +"Why, Julius," said Lefevre, "that's a new experience you are +trying,--is it not?" + +Julius looked embarrassed an instant, and then replied, "I have begun it +very recently. I did not think it wise to postpone the experience till +it might become an absolute necessity." + +Old Dr Rippon watched him empty the glass with a musing eye. "'I sought +in mine heart,'" said he, gravely quoting, "'to give myself unto wine, +yet acquainting mine heart with wisdom.'" + +"True," said Julius, considering him closely. "But, for completeness' +sake, you ought to quote also, 'Whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not +from them; I withheld not my heart from any joy.'" + +Lefevre looked from the one to the other in some darkness of perplexity. + +"You appear, John," said the old doctor, with a smile, "not to know one +of the oldest and greatest of books: you will find it included in your +Bible. Mr Courtney clearly knows it. I should not be surprised to hear +he had adopted its philosophy of 'wisdom and madness and folly.'" + +"Surely you cannot say," remarked Julius, "that the writer of that book +had what is called a 'philosophy.' He was moved by an irresistible +impulse, of which he gives you the explanation when he uses that +magnificent sentence about having 'the world set in his heart.'" + +"Yes," said the old doctor, in a subdued, backward voice, regarding +Julius with the contemplative eyes of memory. "You will, I hope, forgive +me when I say that you remind me very much of a gentleman who took the +name of Courtney. I knew him years ago: was he a relation of yours, I +wonder?" + +"Possibly," said Julius, seeming scarcely interested; "though the name +of Courtney, I believe, is not very uncommon." Then, turning to Lefevre, +he said, "I hope you don't think I wish to make light of your grand +idea. I only mean that you must widen your view, if you would work it +out to success." + +With that Lefevre became more curious to hear Dr Rippon's story. So when +they went to the drawing-room he got the old gentleman into a secluded +corner, and reminded him of his promise. + +"Yes," said the doctor, "it is a romantic story. About forty years +ago,--yes, about forty: it was immediately after the fall of Louis +Philippe,--I went with my friend Lord Rokeby to Madrid. He went as +ambassador, and I as his physician. There was then at the Spanish Court +a very handsome hidalgo, Don Hernando--I forget all his names, but his +surname was De Sandoval. He was of the bluest blood in Spain, and a +marquis, but poor as a church mouse. He had a great reputation for +gallant adventures and for mysterious scientific studies. On the last +ground I sought and cultivated his acquaintance. But he was a proud, +reserved person, and I could never quite make out what his studies were, +except that he read a great deal, and believed firmly in the Arabic +philosophers and alchemists of the middle ages; and he would sometimes +talk with the same sort of rhapsodical mysticism as this young man +delights you with. We did not have much opportunity for developing an +intimacy in any case; for he fell in love with the daughter of our Chief +Secretary of Legation, a bright, lovely English girl, and that ended +disastrously for his position in Madrid. He made his proposals to her +father, and had them refused; chiefly, I believe, on account of his +loose reputation. The girl, too, was the heiress of an uncle's property +on this curious condition, it appeared,--that whoever should marry her +should take the uncle's name of _Courtney_. Don Hernando and the young +lady disappeared; they were married, and he took the name of Courtney, +and was forbidden to return to Madrid. He and his wife settled in Paris, +where I used to meet them frequently; then they travelled, I believe, +and I lost sight of them. I returned to Paris on a visit some few years +ago, and I asked an old friend about the Courtneys; he believed they +were both dead, though he could give me no certain news about them." + +"Supposing," said Lefevre, "that this Julius were their son, do you know +of any reason why he should be reserved about his parentage?" + +"No," said the old man, "no;--unless it be that Hernando was not +episcopal in his affections; but I should think the young man is +scarcely Puritan enough to be ashamed of that." + +Lefevre and the old man both looked round for Julius. They caught sight +of him and Leonora Lefevre standing one on either side of a window, with +their eyes fixed upon each other. + +"The young lady," said the old doctor, "seems much taken up with him." + +"Yes," said Lefevre; "and she's my sister." + +"Ah," said the old doctor; "I fear my remark was rather unreserved." + +"It is true," said Lefevre. + +He left Dr Rippon, to seek his mother. He found her excited and warm, +and without a word to spare for him. + +"You wanted," said he, "some serious talk with me, mother?" + +"Oh yes," said she; "but I can't talk seriously now: I can scarcely talk +at all. But do you see how Nora and Julius are taken up with each other? +I never before saw such a pair of moonstruck mortals! I believe I have +heard of the moon having a magnetic influence on people: do you think it +has? But he is a charming man!"--glancing towards Julius--"I'm more than +half in love with him myself. Now I must go. Come quietly one afternoon, +and then we can talk." + +Her son abstained from recounting, as he had proposed to himself, what +he had heard from Dr Rippon: he would reserve it for the quiet +afternoon. He took his leave almost immediately, bearing with him a deep +impression--like a strongly bitten etching wrought on his memory--of his +last glimpse of the drawing-room: Nora and Julius set talking across a +small table, and the tall, pale, gaunt figure of Dr Rippon approaching +and stooping between them. It seemed a sinister reminder of the words +the old doctor had addressed to Julius,--"_A time will come when death +will appear more beautiful and friendly and desirable than life!_" + + + + +Chapter IV. + +The Man of the Crowd. + + +In a few days Dr Lefevre found a quiet afternoon, and went and told his +mother the story of the Spanish marquis which he had got from Dr Rippon. +She hailed the story with delight. Courtney was a fascinating figure to +her before: it needed but that to clothe him with a complete romantic +heroism; for, of course, she did not doubt that he was the son of the +Spanish grandee. She wished to put it to him at once whether he was not, +but she was dissuaded by her son from mentioning the matter yet to +either Julius or her daughter. + +"If he wishes," said Lefevre, "to keep it secret for some reason, it +would be an impertinence to speak about it. We shall, however, have a +perfect right to ask him about himself if his attentions to Nora go on." + +Soon afterwards (it was really a fortnight; but in a busy life day melts +into day with amazing rapidity), Lefevre was surprised at dinner, and +somewhat irritated, by a letter from his mother. She wrote that they had +seen nothing of Julius Courtney for three or four days,--which was +singular, since for the past three or four weeks he had been a daily +visitor; latterly he had begun to look fagged and ill, and it was +possible he was confined to his room,--though, after all, that was +scarcely likely, for he had not answered a note of inquiry which she had +sent. She begged her son to call at his chambers, the more so as Nora +was pining in Julius's absence to a degree which made her mother very +anxious. + +With professional suspicion Lefevre told himself that if Julius, with +his magnificent health, was fallen ill, it must be for some outrageous +reason. But even if he was ill, he need not be unmannerly: he might have +let his friends who had been in the habit of seeing him daily know what +had come to him. Was it possible, the doctor thought, that he was +repenting of having given Nora and her mother so much cause to take his +assiduous attentions seriously? He resolved to see Julius at once, if he +were at his chambers. + +He left his wine unfinished (to the delight of his grave and silent man +in black), hastily took his hat from its peg in the hall, and passed out +into the street, while his man held the door open. In two minutes he had +passed the northern gateway of the Albany, which, as most people know, +is just at the southern end of Savile Row. Courtney's door was speedily +opened in response to his peremptory summons. + +"Is your master at home, Jenkins?" asked Lefevre of the well-dressed +serving-man, who looked distinguished enough to be master himself. + +"No, doctor," answered Jenkins; "he is not." + +"Gone out," said Lefevre, "to the club or to dinner, I suppose?" + +"No, doctor," repeated Jenkins; "he is not. He went away four days ago." + +"Went away!" exclaimed Lefevre. + +"He do sometimes go away by himself, sir. He is so fond of the country, +and he likes to be by himself. It is the only thing that do him good." + +"Becomes solitary, does he?" said Lefevre. "Yes; intelligent, impulsive +persons like him, that live at high pressure, often have black moods." +That was not quite what he meant, but it was enough for Jenkins. + +"Yes, sir," said Jenkins; "he do sometimes have 'em black. He don't seem +to take no pride in himself, as he do usual--don't seem to care somehow +if he look a gentleman or a common man." + +"But your master, Jenkins," said Lefevre, "can never look a common man." + +"No, sir," said Jenkins; "he cannot, whatever he do." + +"He is gone into the country, then?" asked Lefevre. + +"Yes, sir; I packed his small port-mantew for him four days ago." + +"And where is he gone? He told you, I suppose?" + +"No, sir; he do not usual tell me when he is like that." + +It did not seem possible to learn anything from Jenkins, in spite of the +apparent intimacy of his conversation, so Lefevre left him, and returned +to his own house. He had sat but a little while in his laboratory (where +he had been occupying his small intervals of leisure lately in +electrical studies and experiments) when, as chance would have it, the +last post brought him a note from Dr Rippon. Its purport was curious. + +"_I think_," the letter ran, "_you were sufficiently interested in the +story I told you some week or two ago about one Hernando Courtney, not +to be bored by a note on the same subject. Last night I accompanied my +daughter and son-in-law to the Lyceum Theatre. On coming out we had to +walk down Wellington Street into the Strand to find our carriage, and in +the surging crowd about there I am almost sure I saw the Hernando +Courtney whom I believed to be dead_. Aut Courtney aut Diabolus. _I have +never heard satisfactory evidence of his death, and I should very much +like to know if he is really still alive and in London. It has occurred +to me that, considering the intimacy of yourself and your family with +the gentleman who was made known to me at your mother's house by the +name of Courtney, you may have heard by now the rights of the case. If +you have any news, I shall be glad to share it with you."_ + +Considering this in association with the absence of Julius, Lefevre +found his wits becoming involved in a puzzle. He could not settle to +work, so he put on overcoat and hat, and sallied out again. He had no +fixed purpose: he only felt the necessity of motion to resolve himself +back into his normal calm. The air was keen from the east. May, which +had opened with such wanton warmth and seductiveness, turned a cold +shoulder on the world as she took herself off. It was long since he had +indulged in an evening walk in the lamp-lit streets, so he stepped out +eastward against the shrewd wind. Insensibly his attention forsook the +busy and anxious present, and slipped back to the days of golden and +romantic youth, when the crowded nocturnal streets were full of the +mystery of life. He recalled the sensations of those days--the sharp +doubts of self, the frequent strong desires to drink deep of all that +life had to offer, and the painful recoils from temptation, which he +felt would ruin, if yielded to, his hope of himself, and his ambition of +filling a worthy place among men. + +Thus musing, he walked on, taking, without noting it, the most +frequented turnings, and soon he found himself in the Strand. It was +that middle time of evening, after the theatres and restaurants have +sucked in their crowds, when the frequenters of the streets have some +reserve in their vivacity, before reckless roisterers have begun to +taste the lees of pleasure, and to shout and jostle on the pavements. He +was walking on the side of the way next the river, when, near the +Adelphi, he became aware of a man before him, wearing a slouch-hat and a +greatcoat--a man who appeared to choose the densest part of the throng, +to prefer to be rubbed against and hustled rather than not. There was +something about the man which held Lefevre's attention and roused his +curiosity--something in the swing of his gait and the set of his +shoulders. The man, too, seemed urged on by a singular haste, which +permitted him to be the slowest and easiest of passengers in the thick +of the crowd, but carried him swiftly over the less frequented parts of +the pavement. The doctor began to wonder if he was a pickpocket, and to +look about for the watchful eye of a policeman. He kept close behind him +past the door of the Strand Theatre, when the throng became slacker, and +the man turned quickly about and returned the way he had come. Then +Lefevre had a glimpse of his face,--the merest passing glimpse, but it +made him pause and ask himself where he had seen it before. A dark, +foreign-looking man, with a haggard appeal in his eye: he tried to find +the place of such a figure in his memory, but for the time he tried in +vain. + +Before the doctor recovered himself the man was well past, and +disappearing in the throng. He hurried after, determined to overtake +him, and to make a full and satisfying perusal of his face and figure. +He found that difficult, however, because of the man's singular style of +progression. To maintain an even pace for himself, moreover, Lefevre had +to walk very much in the roadway, the dangers of which, from passing +cabs and omnibuses, forbade his fixing his attention on the man alone. +Yet he was more and more piqued to look him in the face; for the longer +he followed him the more he was struck with the oddity of his conduct. +He had already noted how he hurried over the empty spaces of pavement +and lingered sinuously in the thronged parts; he now remarked further +that those who came into immediate contact with him (and they were +mostly young people who were to be met with at that season of the night) +glanced sharply at him, as if they had experienced some suspicious +sensation, and seemed inclined to remonstrate, till they looked in his +face. + +Lefevre could not arrive at a clear front view till, by Charing Cross +Station, the man turned on the kerb to look after a handsome youth who +crossed before him, and passed over the road. Then the doctor saw the +face in the light of a street-lamp, and the sight sent the blood in a +gush from his heart. It was a dark hairless face, terribly blanched and +emaciated, as if by years of darkness and prison, with the impress of +age and death, but yet with a wistful light in the eyes, and a firm +sensuousness about the mouth that betrayed a considerable interest in +life. He turned his eyes away an instant, to bring memory and +association to bear. When he looked again the man was moving away. At +once recognition rushed upon him like a wave of light. The terribly +worn, ghastly features resolved themselves into a kind of death-mask of +Julius! The wave recoiled and smote him again. Who could the man be, +therefore, who was so like Julius, and yet was not Julius?--who could he +be but Julius's father,--that Hernando Courtney whom Dr Rippon believed +he had seen the evening before? + +Here was a coil to unravel! Julius's father--the Spanish marquis that +was--supposed to be dead, but yet wandering in singular fashion about +the London streets, clearly not desiring, much less courting, +opportunities of being recognised; Julius not caring to speak of his +father, apparently ignoring his continued existence, and yet apparently +knowing enough of his movements to avoid him when he came to London by +suddenly removing "into the country" without leaving his address. What +was the meaning of so much mystery? Crime? debt? political intrigue? or, +what? + +The mysterious Hernando went on his way, by the southern sweep of +Trafalgar Square and Cockspur Street, to the Haymarket, and Lefevre +followed with attention and curiosity bent on him, but yet with so +little thought of playing spy that, if Hernando had gone any other way +or had returned along the Strand, he would probably have let him go. And +as they went on, the doctor could not but note, as before, how the +object of his curiosity lingered wherever there was a press of people, +whether on the pavement or on a refuge at a crossing, and hurried on +wherever the pavement was sparsely peopled or whenever the persons +encountered were at all advanced in years. Indeed, the farther he +followed the more was his attention compelled to remark that Hernando +sharply avoided contact with the weakly, the old, and the decrepit, and +wonder why the young people of either sex whom he brushed against should +turn as if the touch of him waked suspicion and a something hostile. +Thus they traversed the Haymarket, the Criterion pavement, and, flitting +across to the Quadrant, the more popular side of Regent Street, among +pushing groups, weary stragglers, and steady pedestrians. Lefevre had a +mind to turn aside and go home when he was opposite Vigo Street, but he +was drawn on by the hope of observing something that might give him a +clue to the Courtney mystery. When Oxford Circus was reached, however, +Hernando jumped into a cab and drove rapidly off, and Lefevre returned +to his own fireside. + +He sat for some time over a cigar and a grog, walking in imagination +round and round the mystery, which steadfastly refused to dissolve or to +be set aside. His own honour, and perhaps the peace of his mother and +sister, were involved in it. He was resolved to ask Julius for an +explanation as soon as he could come to speech with him; but yet, in +spite of that assurance which he gave himself, he returned to the +mystery again and again, and beset and bewildered himself with +questions: Why was Julius estranged from his father? What was the secret +of the old man's life which had left such an awful impress on his face? +And why was he nightly haunting the busiest pavements of London, in the +crowd, but not of it, urged on as by some desire or agony? + +He went to bed, but not to sleep. In the quiet and the darkness his +imagination ranged without constraint over the whole field of his +questionings. He went back upon Dr Rippon's story of the Spanish +marquis, and fixed on the mention of his occult studies. He saw him, in +fancy, without wife or son, cut off from the position and activities in +his native country which his proper rank would have given him, sequester +himself from society altogether, and give himself up to the study of +those Arabian sages and alchemists in whom he had delighted when he was +a young man. He saw him shun the daylight, and sleep its hours away, and +then by night abandon himself like another Cagliostro to strange +experiments with alembic and crucible, breathing acrid and poisonous +vapours, seeking to extort from Nature her yet undiscovered +secrets,--the Philosophers Stone, and the Elixir of Life. He saw him +turn for a little from his strange and deadly experiments, and venture +forth to show his blanched and worn face among the throngs of men; but +even there he still pursued his anxious quest of life in the midst of +death. He saw him wander up and down, in and out, among the evening +crowd, delighting in contact with such of his fellow-creatures as had +health and youth, and seeking, seeking--he knew not what. From this +phantasmagoria he dozed off into the dark plains of sleep; but even +there the terribly blanched and emaciated face was with him, bending +wistful worn eyes upon him and melting him to pity. And still again the +vision of the streets would arise about the face, and the sleeper would +be aware of the man to whom the face belonged walking quickly and +sinuously, seeking and enjoying contact with the throng, and strangely +causing many to resent his touch as if they had been pricked or stung, +and yet urged onward in some further quest,--an anxious quest it +sometimes resolved itself into for Julius, who ever evaded him. + +Thus his brain laboured through the dead hours of the night, viewing and +reviewing these scenes and figures, to extract a meaning from them; but +he was no nearer the heart of the mystery when the morning broke and he +was waked by the shrill chatter of the sparrows. The day, however, +brought an event which shed a lurid light upon the Courtney difficulty, +and revealed a vital connection between facts which Lefevre had not +guessed were related. + + + + +Chapter V. + +The Remarkable Case of Lady Mary Fane. + + +It was the kind of day that is called seasonable. If the sun had been +obscured, the air would have been felt to be wintry; but the sunshine +was full and warm, and so the world rejoiced, and declared it was a +perfectly lovely May day,--just as a man who is charmed with the smiles +and beauty of a woman, thinks her complete though she may have a heart +of ice. Lefevre, as he went his hospital round that afternoon, found his +patients revelling in the sunlight like flies. He himself was in +excellent spirits, and he said a cheery or facetious word here and there +as he passed, which gave infinite delight to the thin and bloodless +atomies under his care; for a joke from so serious and awful a being as +the doctor is to a desponding patient better than all the drugs of the +pharmacopoeia: it is as exquisite and sustaining as a divine text of +promise to a religious enthusiast. + +Dr Lefevre was thus passing round his female ward, with a train of +attentive students at his heels, when the door was swung open and two +attendants entered, bearing a stretcher between them, and accompanied by +the house-physician and a policeman. + +"What is this?" asked Lefevre, with a touch of severity; for it was +irregular to intrude a fresh case into a ward while the physician was +going his round. + +"I thought, sir," said the house-physician, "you would like to see her +at once: it seems to me a case similar to that of the man found in the +Brighton train." + +"Where was this lady found?" asked Lefevre of the policeman. He used the +word "lady" advisedly, for though the dress was that of a hospital nurse +or probationer, the unconscious face was that of an educated +gentlewoman. "Why, bless my soul!" he cried, upon more particular +scrutiny of her features--"it seems to me I know her! Surely I do! Where +did you say she was found?" + +The policeman explained that he was on his beat outside St James's Park, +when a park-keeper called him in and showed him, in one of the shady +walks, the lady set on a bench as if she had fainted. The keeper said he +had taken particular notice of her, because he saw from her dress and +her veil she was a hospital lady. When he first set eyes on her, an old +gentleman was sitting talking to her--a strange, dark, foreign-looking +gentleman, in a soft hat and a big Inverness cape. + +"Good heavens!" exclaimed the doctor. "The very man! That's the meaning +of it. And I did not guess!" + +His assistant and the policeman gazed at him in surprise; but he +recovered himself and asked, with a serious and determined knitting of +the brows, if the policeman had seen the old gentleman. The policeman +replied he had not; the gentleman was nowhere to be seen when he was +called in. The keeper saw him only once; when he returned that way +again, in about a quarter of an hour, he found the lady alone and +apparently asleep. She had a very handsome umbrella by her side, and +therefore he kept within eye-shot of her on this side and on that, lest +some park-loafer should seize so good a chance of thieving. He thus +passed her two or three times. The last time, he remarked that she had +slipped a little to one side, and that her umbrella had fallen to the +ground. He went to pick it up, and it struck him as he bent that she +looked strangely quiet and pale. He spoke to her; she made no reply. He +touched her--he even in his fear ventured to shake her--but she made no +sign; and he ran to call the policeman. They then brought her straight +to the hospital, because they could see she was a hospital lady of some +sort. + +"It must--it must be the same!" said Lefevre. + +"I thought, when I first heard of it below," said the house-physician, +"that it must be the same man as was the cause of the other case, in the +Brighton train." + +"No doubt it is the same. But I was thinking of it in another--a far +more serious sense!" Then turning to the waiting policeman, he said, "Of +course, you must report this to your inspector?" + +"Yes, sir," said the policeman. + +"Give him my compliments, then, and say I shall see him presently." + +Yet, he thought, how could he speak to the official, with all that he +suspected, all that he feared, in his heart? With his attention on the +_qui vive_ with his experiences and speculations of the night, he was +seized, as we have seen, by the conclusion that the "strange, dark, +foreign-looking gentleman" of the park-keeper's story was the same whose +steps he had followed the evening before, without guessing that the man +was perambulating the pavement and passing among the crowd in search, +doubtless, of a fresh victim for occult experiment or outrage! That +conclusion once determined, shock after shock smote upon his sense. What +if the mysterious person were really proved to be Julius's father? What +if he had entered upon a course of experiment or outrage (he passed in +rapid review the mysteries of the Paris pavement and the Brighton train, +and this of the Park)--outrage yet unnamable because unknown, but which +would amaze and confound society, and bring signal punishment upon the +offender? And what--what if Julius knew all that, and therefore sought +to keep his parentage hidden? + +"She is ready, doctor," said the Sister of the ward at his elbow, adding +with a touch of excitement in her manner as he turned to her, "do you +know who she is? Look at this card; we noticed the name first on her +linen." + +Dr Lefevre looked at the card and read, "Lady Mary Fane, Carlton +Gardens, S.W." + +"I suspected as much," said he. "Lord Rivercourt's daughter. It's a bad +business. She has been learning at St Thomas's the duties of nurse and +dresser, which accounts for her being in that uniform." + +He went to the bed on which his new patient had been laid, and very soon +satisfied himself that her case was similar to that of the young +officer, though graver much than it. He wrote a telegram to Lord +Rivercourt, sent the house-physician for his electrical apparatus, and +returned to the bedside. He looked at his patient. He had not remarked +her hitherto more than other women of his acquaintance, though he had +sometimes sat at her father's table; but now he was moved by a beauty +which was enhanced by helplessness--a beauty stamped with a calm +disregard of itself--the manifest expression of a noble and loving soul, +which had lived above the plane of doubt and fear and gusty passion. Her +wealth of lustrous black hair lay abroad upon her pillow, and made an +admirable setting for her finely-modelled head and neck. As he looked at +this excellent presentment, and thought of the intelligence and activity +which had been wont to animate it, resentment rose in him against the +man who, for whatever end, had subdued the noble woman to that +condition, and a deep impatience penetrated him that he had not +discovered--had even scarcely guessed--the purpose or the method of the +subjugation! + +It was, however, not speculation but action that was needed then. The +apparatus described in the case of the young officer was ready, and the +house-physician was waiting to give his assistance. The stimulation of +Will and Electricity was applied to resuscitate the patient--but with +the smallest success: there was only a faint flutter, a passing slight +rigidity of the muscles, and all seemed again as it had been. The +exhausting nature of the operation or experiment forbade its immediate +repetition. Disappointment pervaded the doctor's being, though it did +not appear in the doctor's manner. + +"We'll try again in half an hour," said he to his assistant, and turned +away to complete his round of the ward. + +At the end of the half-hour, Lefevre and the house-physician were again +by Lady Mary's bedside. Again, with fine but firm touch, Lefevre stroked +nerves and muscles to stimulate them into normal action; again he and +his assistant put out their electrical force through the electrode; and +again the result was nothing but a passing galvanic quiver. The doctor, +though he maintained his professional calm, was smitten with alarm,--as +a man is who, walking through darkness and danger to the rescue of a +friend, finds himself stopped by an unscalable wall. While he sought +fresh means of help, his patient might pass beyond his reach. He did not +think she would--he hoped she would not; but her condition, so +obstinately resistant to his restoratives, was so peculiar, that he +could not in the least determine the issue. Imagination and speculation +were excited, and he asked himself whether, after all, the explanation +of his failure might not be of the simplest--a difference of sex! The +secrets of nature, so far as he had discovered, were of such amazing +simplicity, that it would not surprise him now to find that the +electrical force of a man varied vitally from that of a woman. He +explained this suspicion to his assistant. + +"I think," said he, "we must make another attempt, for her condition may +become the more serious the longer it is left. We'll set the Sister and +the nurse to try this time, and we'll turn her bed north and south, in +the line of the earth's magnetism." But just then the lady's father, the +old Lord Rivercourt, appeared in response to the doctor's telegram, and +the experiment with the women had to wait. The old lord was naturally +filled with wonder and anxiety when he saw his apparently lifeless +daughter. He was amazed that she should have been overcome by such +influence as, he understood, the old gentleman must wield. She had +always, he said, enjoyed the finest health, and was as little inclined +to hysteria as woman well could be. Lefevre told the father that this +was something other than hystero-hypnotism, which, while it reassured +him as to his daughter's former health, made him the more anxious +regarding her present condition. + +"It is very extraordinary," said the old lord; "but whatever it is,--and +you say it is like the young man's case that we have all read +about,--whatever it is,"--and he laid his hand emphatically on the +doctor's arm,--"she could not be in more capable hands than yours." + +That assurance, though soothing to the doctor's self-esteem, added +gravely to his sense of responsibility. + +While they were yet speaking, Lefevre was further troubled by the +announcement that a detective-inspector desired to speak with him! +Should he tell the inspector all that he had seen the night before, and +all that he suspected now, or should he hold his peace? His duty as a +citizen, as a doctor, and as, in a sense, the protector of his patient, +seemed to demand the one course, while his consideration for Julius and +for his own family suggested the other. Surely, never was a simple, +upright doctor involved in a more bewildering _imbroglio_! + +The detective-inspector entered, and opened an interview which proved +less embarrassing than Lefevre had anticipated. The detective had +already made up his mind about the case and his course regarding it. He +put no curious questions; he merely inquired concerning the identity and +the condition of the lady. When he heard who she was, and when he caught +the import of an aside from Lord Rivercourt that it would be worth any +one's while to discover the mysterious offender, professional zeal +sparkled in his eye. + +"I think I know my man," said he; and the doctor looked the lively +interest he felt. "I am right, I believe, Dr Lefevre, in setting this +down to the author of that other case you had,--that from the Brighton +train?" Lefevre thought he was right in that. "'M. Dolaro:' that was the +name. I had charge of the case, and was baffled. I shan't miss him this +time. I shall get on his tracks at once; he can't have left the Park in +broad daylight, a singular man like him, without being noticed." + +"It rather puzzles me," said the doctor, "what crime you will charge him +with." + +"It is an outrage," said Lord Rivercourt; "and if it is not criminal, it +seems about time it were made so." + +"Oh, we'll class it, my lord," said the detective; "never fear." + +The detective departed; but Lord Rivercourt seemed not inclined to stir. + +"You will excuse me," said Lefevre; "but I must perform a very delicate +operation." + +"To be sure," said the old lord; "and you want me to go. How stupid of +me! I kept waiting for my daughter to wake up; but I see that, of +course, you have to rouse her. It did not occur to me what that machine +meant. Something magneto-electric--eh? Forgive one question, Lefevre. I +can see you look anxious: is Mary's condition very serious?--most +serious? I can bear to be told the complete truth." + +The doctor was touched by the old gentleman's emotion. He took his hand. +"It is serious," said he--"most serious, for this reason, that I cannot +account for her obstinate lethargy; but I think there is no immediate +danger. If necessity arises, I shall send for you again." + +"To the House," said Lord Rivercourt. "I shall be sitting out a debate +on our eternal Irish question." + +Lefevre was left seriously discomposed, but at once he sent for the +house-physician, summoned the Sister and the nurse, and set about his +third attempt to revive his patient. He got the bed turned north and +south. He carefully explained to the two women what was demanded of +them, and applied them to their task; but, whatever the cause, the +failure was completer than before: there was not even a tremor of muscle +in the unconscious lady, and the doctor was suffused with alarm and +humiliation. Failure!--failure!--failure! Such a concatenation had never +happened to him before! + +But failure only nerves the brave and capable man to a supreme effort +for success. Still self-contained, and apparently unmoved, the doctor +gave directions for some liquid nourishment to be artificially +administered to his patient, said he would return after dinner, and went +his way. The society of friends or acquaintances was distasteful to him +then; the thought even of seeing his own familiar dining-room and his +familiar man in black, whose silent obsequiousness he felt would be a +reproach, was disagreeable. All his thought, all his attention, all his +faculties were drawn tight to this acute point--he must succeed; he must +accomplish the task he had set himself: life at that hour was worth +living only for that purpose. But how was success to be compelled? + +He walked for a while about the streets, and then he went into a +restaurant and ordered a modest dinner. He broke and crumbled his bread +with both hands, his mind still intent on that one engrossing, acute +point. While thus he sat he heard a voice, as in a dream, say, "The very +doctor you read about. That's the second curious case he's got in a +month or so.... Oh yes--very clever; he treats them, I understand, in +the same sort of way as the famous Dr Charbon of Paris would.... I +should say so; quite as good, if not better than Charbon. I'd rather +have an English doctor any day than a French.... His name's in the +paper--_Lefevre_." Then the doctor woke to the fact that he was being +talked about. He perceived his admirers were sitting at a table a little +behind him, and he judged from what had been said that his fresh case +was already being made "copy" of in the evening papers. The flattering +comparison of himself with Dr Charbon had an oddly stimulating effect +upon him, notwithstanding that it had been uttered by he knew not +whom,--a mere _vox et præterea nihil_. He disclaimed to himself the +truth of the comparison, but all the same he was encouraged to bend his +attention with his utmost force to the solution of his difficult +problem--what to do to rouse his patient? + +He sat thus, amid the bustle and buzz of the restaurant, the coming and +going of waiters, completely abstracted, assailing his difficulty with +questions on this side and on that,--when suddenly out of the mists that +obscured it there rose upon his mental vision an idea, which appealed to +him as a solution of the whole, and, more than that, as a secret that +would revolutionise all the treatment of nervous weakness and +derangement. How came the idea? How do ideas ever come? As inspirations, +we say, or as revelations; and truly they come upon us with such amazing +and inspiriting freshness, that they may well be called either the one +or the other. But no great idea had ever yet an epiphany but from the +ferment of more familiar small ideas,--just as the glorious Aphrodite +was born of the ferment and pother of the waves of the sea. Lefevre's +new idea clothed itself in the form of a comparative question--_Why +should there not be Transfusion of Nervous Force, Ether, or Electricity, +just as there is Transfusion of Blood?_ + +He pushed his dinner away (he could scarcely have told what he had been +eating and drinking), called for his bill, and returned with all speed +to the hospital. He entered his female ward just as evening prayers were +finished, before the lights were turned out and night began for the +patients. He summoned his trusted assistant, the house-physician, again. + +"I am about to attempt," said he, "an altogether new operation: the +patient has remained just as I left her, I suppose?" + +"Just the same." + +"Nervous Force, whether it be Electricity or not, is manifestly a fluid +of some sort: why should it not be transfused as the other vital fluid +is?" + +"Indeed, sir, when you put it so," said the house-physician, suddenly +steeled and brightened into interest, "I should say, 'why not?' The only +reason against it is what can be assigned against all new things--it has +not, so far as I know, been done." + +"Exactly. I am going to try. I think, in case we need a current, so to +say, to draw it along, that we shall use the apparatus too; we shall +therefore need the women." + +"You mean, of course," said the young man, "you will cut a main nerve." + +"I shall use this nerve," said Lefevre, indicating the main nerve in the +wrist,--upon which the young man, in his ready enthusiasm, began to bare +his arm. + +"My dear fellow," said Lefevre, "do you consider what you are so +promptly offering? Do you know that my experiment, if successful, might +leave you a paralytic, or an imbecile, or even--a corpse?" + +"I'll take the risk, sir," said the young man. + +"I can't permit it, my boy," said Lefevre, laying his hand on his arm, +and giving him a look of kindness. "Nobody must run this risk but me. I +don't mean, however, to cut the nerve." + +"What then, sir?" + +"Well," said Lefevre, "this Nervous Force, or Nervous Ether, is clearly +a very volatile, and at the same time a very searching fluid. It can +easily pass through the skin from a nerve in one person to a nerve in +another. There is no difficulty about that; the difficulty is to set up +a rapid enough vibration to whirl the current through!" He said that in +meditative fashion: he was clearly at the moment repeating the working +out of the problem. + +"I see," said the young man, looking thoughtful. + +"Now, you are a musician, are you not?" + +"I play a little," said the young man, with a bewildered look. + +"You play the violin?" + +"Yes." + +"And, of course, you have it in your rooms. Would you be so good as +to bring me the bow of your violin, and borrow for me anywhere a +tuning-fork of as high a note as possible?" + +The young man looked at Dr Lefevre in puzzled inquiry; but the doctor +was considering the electrical apparatus before him, and the young man +set off on his errands. When he returned with the fiddle-bow and the +tuning-fork, he saw Lefevre had placed the machine ready, with fresh +chemicals in the vessels. + +"Do you perceive my purpose?" asked Lefevre. He placed one handle of the +apparatus in the unconscious patient's right hand, while he himself took +hold of her left arm with his right hand, so that the inner side of his +wrist was in contact with the inner side of hers; and then, to complete +the circle of connection, he took in his left hand the other handle of +the apparatus. "You don't understand?" + +"I do not," answered the young man. + +"We want a very rapid vibration--much more rapid than usual," said the +doctor. "I can apply no more rapid vibration at present than that which +the note of that tuning-fork will produce. I want you to sound the +tuning-fork with the fiddle-bow, and then apply the fork to this wire." + +"Oh," said the young man, "I understand!" + +"Now," said Lefevre, "you'd better call the Sister to set the +electricity going." + +The Sister came and took her place as before described--with her hands, +that is, on the cylinder of the electrode, her fingers dipping over into +the vessels of chemicals. She opened her eyes and smiled at sight of the +fiddle-bow and tuning-fork. + +"I am trying a new thing, Sister," said Lefevre, with a touch of +severity. "I do not need you, I do not wish you, to exert yourself this +time; I only wish you to keep that position, and to be calm. Maintain +your composure, and attend.... Now!" said he, addressing the young man. + +The fiddle-bow was drawn across the tuning-fork, and the fork applied +with its thrilling note to the conducting wire which Lefevre held. The +wire hummed its vibration, and electricity tingled wildly through +Lefevre's nerves... There was an anxious, breathless pause for some +seconds, and fear of failure began to contract the doctor's heart. + +"Take your hands away, Sister," said he. Then, turning to his assistant, +"Apply that to the other wire," said he; and dropping his own wire, he +put his hand over the cylinder, with his fingers dipping into the vessel +from which the other wire sprang. When the wire hummed under the +tuning-fork and the vibration thrilled again, instantly he felt as if an +inert obstruction had been removed. The vibratory influence whirled +wildly through him, there was a pause of a second or two (which seemed +to him many minutes in duration), and then suddenly a kind of rigor +passed upon the form and features of his patient, as if each individual +nerve and muscle were being threaded with quick wire, a sharp rush of +breath filled her chest, and she opened her eyes and closed them again. + +"That will do," said Lefevre in a whisper, and, releasing his hands, he +sank back in a chair. "It's a success," said he, turning his eyes with a +thin smile on the house-physician, and then closing them in a deadly +exhaustion. + + + + +Chapter VI. + +At the Bedside of the Doctor. + + +For the first time since he had come into the world Dr Lefevre was that +night attended by another doctor. The resident assistant-physician took +him home to Savile Row in a cab, assisted him to bed, and sat with him a +while after he had administered a tonic and soporific. Then he left him +in charge of the silent man in black, whom he reassured by saying that +there was no danger; that his master had a magnificent constitution; +that he was only exhausted--though exhausted very much; and that all he +needed was rest, sleep, nourishment,--sleep above all. + +Lefevre slept the night through like a child, and awoke refreshed, +though still very weak. He was bewildered with his condition for a +moment or two, till he recalled the moving and exhausting experiences of +the day before, and then he was suffused with a glow of +elation,--elation which was not all satisfaction in the successful +performance of a new experiment, nor in a good deed well done. His +friend came to see him early, to anticipate the risk of his rising. He +insisted that he should keep his bed, for that day at least, if not for +a second and a third day. He reported that the patient was doing well; +that she had asked with particularity, and had been informed with equal +particularity, concerning the method of her recovery, upon which she was +much bemused, and asked to see her physician. + +"It is a pity she was told," said Lefevre; "it is not usual to tell a +patient such a thing, and I meant it to be kept secret, at least till it +was better established." But for all his protest he was again suffused +with that new sense of inward joy. + +Alone, and lying idle in bed, it was but natural--it was almost +inevitable--that the doctor's thoughts should begin to run upon the +strange events and suspicions of the past two days; and their current +setting strongly in one channel, made him long to be resolved whether or +no the Man of the Crowd, the author of yesterday's outrage, the "M. +Dolaro" of whom the detective had gone in search, and who, if captured, +would be certainly overwhelmed with contumely, if not with +punishment,--whether or not that strange creature was Julius's father, +or any relation at all of Julius. He was not clear how he could well put +the matter to Julius, since he so evidently shrank from discourse upon +it, yet he thought some kind of certainty might be arrived at from an +interview with him. On the chance of his having returned to his +chambers, he called for pen and paper and wrote a note, asking him to +look in, as he would be resting all day. "Try to come," he urged; "I +have something important to speak about." + +This he sent by the trusty hand of his man in black; and by mid-day +Julius was announced. He came in confident, and bright as sunshine +(Lefevre thought he had never seen him looking more serene); but +suddenly the sunshine was beclouded, and Julius ceased to be himself, +and became a restless, timorous kind of creature, like a bird put in a +cage under the eye of his captor. + +"What?" he cried when he entered, with an eloquent gesture. "Lazying in +bed on such a day as this? What does this mean?" But when he observed +the pallor and weakness of Lefevre's appearance, he paused abruptly, +refrained from the hand stretched out to greet him, and exclaimed in a +tone of something like terror, "Good heavens! Are you ill?" A paleness, +a shudder, and a dizziness passed upon him as if he sickened. "May I," +he said, "open the window?" + +"Certainly, Julius," said Lefevre, in surprise and alarm. "Do you feel +ill?" + +"No--no," said Julius from the window, where he stood letting the air +play upon his face, and speaking as if he had to put considerable +restraint upon himself. "I--I am unfortunately, miserably constituted: I +cannot help it. I cannot bear the sight of illness, or lowness of health +even. It appals me; it--it horrifies me with a quite instinctive horror; +it deadens me." + +Lefevre, whose abundant sympathy and vitality went out instinctively to +succour and bless the weak and the ill, was inexpressibly shocked and +offended by this confession of what to his sense appeared selfish +cowardice and inhumanity. He had again and again heard it said, and he +had with pleasure assented to the opinion, that Julius was a rare, +finely-strung being, with such pure and glowing health that he shrank +from contact with, or from the sight of, pain or ill-health, and even +from their discussion; but now that the singularity of Julius's +organization impinged upon his own experience, now that he saw Julius +shrink from himself, he was shocked and offended. Julius, on his part, +was pitiably moved. He kept away from the bed; he fidgeted to and fro, +looking at this thing and that, without a sparkle of interest in his +eye, yet all with his own peculiar grace. + +"You wanted to speak to me," he said. "Do you mind saying what you have +to say and letting me go?" + +"I reckoned upon your staying to lunch," said Lefevre. + +"I can't!--I can't!... Very sorry, my dear Lefevre, but I really can't! +Forgive what seems my rudeness. It distresses me that at such a time as +this my sensations are so acute. But I cannot help it!--I cannot!" + +"You have been in the country,--have you not?" said Lefevre, beginning +with a resolve to get at something. + +"I have just come back," said Julius. "My man told me you had called." + +"Yes. My mother wrote in a state of great anxiety about you, and asked +me to go and look at you. She said that she and my sister had seen a +good deal of you lately; that you began to look unwell, and then ceased +to appear, and she was afraid you might be ill." + +This was put forth as an invitation to Julius to expound not only his +own situation, but also his relations with Lady and Miss Lefevre, but +Julius took no heed of it. He merely said, "No; I was not ill. I only +wanted a little change to refresh me,"--and walked back to the window to +lave himself in the air. + +"Well," continued Lefevre, "since I called to see you, I have had an +adventure or two. You never look at a newspaper except for the weather, +and so it is probable you do not know that I had brought to me yesterday +afternoon another strange case like that of the young officer a month +ago,--a similar case, but worse." + +"Worse?" exclaimed Julius, dropping into the chair by the window, and +glancing, as a less preoccupied observer than the doctor would have +remarked, with a wistful desire at the door. + +"Much worse--though, I believe, from the same hand," said Lefevre. "A +lady this time,--titularly and really a lady,--Lady Mary Fane, the +daughter of Lord Rivercourt." + +"Oh, good heavens!" exclaimed Julius, and there were manifest so keen a +note of apprehension in his voice and so deep a shade of apprehension on +his face, that Lefevre could not but note them and confirm himself in +his suspicion of the intimate bond of connection between him and the +author of the outrage. He pitied Julius's distress, and hurried through +the rest of his revelation, careless of the result he had sought. + +"It may prove," said he, "a far more serious affair than the other. Lord +Rivercourt is not the man to sit quietly under an outrage like that." + +Julius astonished him by demanding, "What is the outrage? Has the lady +given an account of it? What does she accuse the man of?" + +"She has not spoken yet,--to me, at least," said Lefevre; "and I don't +know what the outrage can be called, but I am sure Lord Rivercourt--and +he is a man of immense influence--will move heaven and earth to give it +a legal name, and to get it punishment. There is a detective on the +man's track now." + +"Oh!" said Julius. "Well, it will be time enough to discuss the +punishment when the man is caught. Now, if that is all your news," he +added hurriedly, "I think--" He took up his hat, and was as if going +to the door. + +"It is not quite all," said the doctor, and Julius went back to the +window, with his hat in his hand. + +"I wonder," he broke out, "if we shall ever be simple enough and +intelligent enough to perceive that real wickedness--the breaking of any +of the laws of Nature, I mean (or, if you prefer to say so, the laws of +God)--is best punished by being left to itself? Outraged nature exacts a +severe retribution! But you were going to say--?" + +"The night before last," continued Lefevre, determined to be brief and +succinct, "I was walking in the Strand, and I could not help observing a +man who fulfilled completely the description given of the author of this +case and my former one." + +"Well?" + +"That is not all. When I caught sight of his face I was completely +amazed; for--I must tell you--it looked for all the world like you grown +old, or, as I said to myself at the time, like a death-mask of you." + +"You--you saw that?" exclaimed Julius, leaning against the window with a +sudden look of terror which Lefevre was ashamed to have seen: it was +like catching a glimpse of Julius's poor naked soul. "And you +thought--?" continued Julius. + +"You shall hear. Dr Rippon--you remember the old doctor?--had a sight of +a man in the Strand the night before, who, he believes, was his old +friend Courtney that he thought dead, and who, I believe, was the man I +saw." + +Lefevre stopped. There was a pause, in which Julius put his head out of +the window, as if he had a mind to be gone that way. Then he turned with +a marked control upon himself. + +"Really, Lefevre," said he, "this is the queerest stuff I've heard for a +long time! This is hallucination with a vengeance! I don't like to apply +such a tomfool word to anything, but observe how all this has come +about. An excellent old gentleman, who has been dining out or something, +has a glimpse at night, on a crowded pavement, of a man who looks like a +friend of his youth. Very well. The excellent old gentleman tells you of +that, and it impresses you. _You_ walk on the same pavement the next +evening--I won't emphasise the fact of its being after dinner, though I +daresay it was--" + +"It was." + +"--_You_ have a glimpse of a man who looks--well, something like me; +and you instantly conclude, 'Ah! the Courtney person--the friend of Dr +Rippon's youth!--and, surely, some relative of my friend Julius!' Next +day this hospital case turns up, and because the description of its +author, given by more or less unobservant persons, fits the person you +saw, _argal_, you jump to the conclusion that the three are one! Is your +conclusion clear upon the evidence? Is it inevitable? Is it necessary? +Is it not forced?" + +"Well," began Lefevre. + +"It is bad detective business," broke in Julius, "though it may be good +friendship. You have thought there was trouble in this for me, and you +wished to give me warning of it. But--_que diable vas-tu faire dans +cette galère?_ You are the best friend in the world, and whenever I am +in trouble--and who knows? who knows? 'Man is born unto trouble, as the +sparks fly upward'--I may ask of you both your friendship and your +skill. One thing I ask of you here: don't speak of me as you see me now, +thus miserably moved, to any one! Now I must go. Good-bye." And before +Lefevre could find another word, Julius had opened the door and was +gone. + +"If it moves him like that," said the doctor to himself, through his +bewilderment, "there must be something worse in it--God forgive me for +thinking so!--than I have ever imagined." + + + + +Chapter VII. + +Contains a Love Interlude. + + +Next day Lefevre learned that the police had been again baffled in their +part of the inquiry. The detective had contrived to trace his +man--though not till the morning after the event--to the St Pancras +Hotel, where he had dined in private, and gone to bed early, and whence +he had departed on foot before any one was astir, to catch, it was +surmised, the first train. But wherever he had gone, it was just as in +the former case: from the time the hotel door had closed on his cloaked +figure, all trace of him was lost. + +Nor could Lady Mary Fane add anything of moment to what Lefevre already +knew or guessed. Her account of her adventure (which she gave him in her +father's house, whither she had been removed on the third day) was as +follows: She was returning home from St Thomas's Hospital, dressed +according to her habit when she went there; she had crossed Westminster +Bridge, and was proceeding straight into St James's Park, when she +became aware of a man walking in the same direction as herself, and at +the same pace. She casually noted that he looked like a distinguished +foreigner, and that he had about him an indefinable suggestion of death +clinging with an eager, haggard hope to life,--a suggestion which melted +the heart of the beholder, as if it were the mute appeal of a drowning +sailor. She was stirred to pity; and when he suddenly appeared to reel +from weakness, she stepped out to him on an overwhelming impulse, laid a +steadying hand on his arm, and asked what ailed him. He turned on her a +pair of wonderful dark eyes, which were animal-like in their simple, +direct appeal, and their moist softness. He begged her to lead him aside +into a path by which few would pass: he disliked being stared at. +Thinking only of him as a creature in sickness and distress, she obeyed +without a thought for herself. She helped him to sit down upon a bench, +and sat down by him and felt his pulse. He looked at her with an open, +kindly eye, with a simple-seeming gratitude, which held her strangely +(though she only perceived that clearly on looking back). He said to her +suddenly,-- + +"There was a deep, mystical truth in the teaching of the Church to its +children--that they should prefer in their moments of human weakness to +pray to the Virgin-mother; for woman is always man's best friend." + +She looked in his face, wondering at him, still with her finger on his +pulse, when she felt an unconsciousness come over her, not unlike "the +thick, sweet mystery of chloroform;" and she knew no more till she +opened her eyes in the hospital bed. "Revived by you," she said to +Lefevre. + +He inquired further, as to her sensations before unconsciousness, and +she replied in these striking words: "I felt as if I were strung upon a +complicated system of threads, and as if they tingled and tingled, and +grew tighter to numbness." That answer, he saw, was kindred to the +description given by the young officer of his condition. It was clear +that in both cases the nerves had been seriously played upon; but for +what purpose? What was the secret of the stranger's endeavour? What did +he seek?--and what find? To these questions no satisfactory answer would +come for the asking, so that in his impatience he was tempted to break +through the severe self-restraint of science, and let unfettered fancy +find an answer. + +But, most of all, he longed to see close to him the man whom the police +sought for in and out, to judge for himself what might be the method and +the purpose of his strange outrages. He scarcely desired his capture, +for he thought of the possible results to Julius, and yet--Day after +day passed, and still the man was unfound, and very soon a change came +over Lefevre's life, which lifted it so far above the plane of his daily +professional experience, that all speculation about the mysterious "M. +Dolaro," and his probable relation to Julius, fell for a time into the +dim background. The doctor had been calling daily in Carlton Terrace to +see his patient, when, on a certain memorable day, he intimated to her +father that she was so completely recovered that there was no need of +his calling on her professionally again. The old lord, looking a little +flustered, asked him if he could spare a few minutes' conversation, and +led him into his study. + +"My dear Lefevre," said he, "I am at a loss how to make you any adequate +return for what you have done for my daughter. Money can't do it; no, +nor my friendship either, though you are so kind as to say so. But I +have an idea, which I think it best to set before you frankly. You are a +bachelor: it is not good to be a bachelor," he went on, laying his hand +affectionately on the doctor's arm, and flushing--old man of the world +though he was--flushing to the eyes. "What--what do you think of my +daughter? I mean, not as a doctor, but as a man?" + +Lefevre was not in his first youth, and he had had his admirations for +women in his time, as all healthy men must have, but yet he was made as +deliriously dizzy as if he were a boy by his guess at what Lord +Rivercourt meant. + +"Why," he stammered, "I think her the most beautiful, intelligent, +and--and attractive woman I know." + +"Yes," said her father, "I believe she is pretty well in all these ways. +But--and you see I frankly expose my whole position to you--what would +you think of her for a wife?" + +"Frankly, then," said Lefevre, "I find I have admired her from the +beginning of this, but I had no notion of letting my admiration go +farther, because I conceived that she was quite beyond my hopes." + +"My dear fellow," said Lord Rivercourt, "you have relieved me and +delighted me immensely. I know no man that I would like so well for a +son-in-law. And after all, it is only fitting that the life you have +saved with such risk to yourself--oh, I know all about it--should be +devoted to making yours happy. And--and I understand from her mother +that Mary is quite of the same opinion herself. Now, will you go and +speak to her at once, or will you wait till another day? You will have +to decide that," said he, with a smile, "not only as lover, but as +doctor." + +Lefevre hesitated for but an instant; for what true, manly lover would +have decided to withdraw till another day when the door to his mistress +was held open to him? + +"I'll see her now," he said. + +Lord Rivercourt led the doctor back to his daughter, and left him with +her. There were some moments of chilling doubt and cold uncertainty, and +then came a rush of warm feeling at the bidding of a shy glance from +Lady Mary. He bent over her and murmured he scarcely knew what, but he +heard clearly and with a divine ecstasy a softly-whispered "_Yes!_" +which thrilled in his heart for days and months afterwards, and then he +turned to him her face, her beautiful face illumined with love, and +kissed it: between two who had been drawn together as they had, what +words were needed, or what could poor words convey? + +About an hour later he walked to Savile Row to dress and return for +dinner. He walked, because he felt surcharged with life. He desired +peace and goodwill among men; he pitied with all his soul the weary and +the broken whom he met, and wondered with regret that men should get +irremediably involved in the toils of their own misdeeds; he was profuse +with coppers, and even small silver, to the wretched waifs of society +who swept the crossings he had to take on his triumphant way; he would +even have bestowed forgiveness on his greatest enemy if he had met him +then;--for the divine joy of love was singing in his heart and raising +him to the serene and glorious empyrean of heroes and gods. Oh matchless +magic of the human heart, which confounds all the hypotheses of science, +and flouts all its explanations! + +It was that evening when he and Lady Mary sat in sweet converse that she +said to him these words, which he hung for ever after about his heart-- + +"Surely, never before did a man win a wife as you have won me! You made +me well by putting your own life into me; so what could I do but give +you the life that was already your own!" + +Thus day followed day on golden wings: Lefevre in the morning occupied +with the patients that thronged his consulting-room; in the afternoon +dispensing healing, and, where healing was impossible, cheerfulness and +courage, in his hospital wards; and in the evening finding inspiration +and strength in the company of Lady Mary--for her love was to him better +than wine. All who went to him in those days found him changed, and in a +sense glorified. He had always been considerate and kind; but the +weakness, the folly, and the wickedness of poor human nature, which were +often laid bare to his searching scrutiny, had frequently plunged him +into a welter of despondency and shame, out of which he would cry, "Alas +for God's image! Alas for the temple of the Holy Ghost!" But in those +days it seemed as if disease and death appeared to him mere trivial +accidents of life, with the result that no "case," however bad, was sent +away empty of hope. + + + + +Chapter VIII. + +Strange Scenes in Curzon Street. + + +It happened, however, that just when all the bays and creeks of Dr +Lefevre's attention were occupied, as by a springtide, with the +excellent, the divine fortune that had come to him,--when he seemed thus +most completely divorced from anxious speculation about Julius Courtney +and "M. Dolaro," his attention was suddenly and in unexpected fashion +hurried again to the mystery. The doctor had not seen Julius since the +day he had received him in his bedroom--it must be admitted he had not +sought to see him--but he had heard now and then from his mother, in +casual notes and postscripts, that Courtney continued to call in Curzon +Street. + +On a certain evening Lady Lefevre gave a dinner and a reception, +designed to introduce Lady Mary to the Lefevre circle. Julius was not at +dinner (at which only members of the two families sat down), but he was +expected to appear later. It is probable, under the circumstances, that +Lefevre would not have remarked the absence of Julius from the +dinner-table, had it not been for Nora. He was painfully struck with her +appearance and demeanour. She seemed to have lost much of her beautiful +vigour and bloom of health, like a flower that has been for some time +cut from its stem; and she, who had been wont to be ready and gay of +speech, was now completely silent, yet without constraint, and as if +wrapt in a dream. + +"What has come over Nora?" asked Lefevre of his mother when they had +gone to the drawing-room. + +"Ah," said Lady Lefevre, "you have noticed something, have you? Do you +find her very changed, then?" + +"Very much changed." + +"It's this attachment of hers to Julius. I want to have a talk with you +about it presently. She seems scarcely to live when he is not with her. +She sits like that always when he is gone, and appears only to dream and +wait,--wait with her life as if suspended till he comes back." + +"Has it, indeed, got so far as that?" said her son with concern. "I had +better have a word or two with Julius about it." + +Just then Mr Courtney was announced, and there were introductions on +this side and on that. He turned to be introduced to Lady Mary, and for +the time Lefevre forgot his sister, so engrossed was he with the altered +aspect of his friend. He looked worn and weary, like a student when the +dawn finds him still at his books. Lady Lefevre expressed that in her +question-- + +"Why, Julius, have you taken to hard work? You're not looking well, and +we have not seen you for days." + +A flush rose to tinge his cheek, but it sank as soon as it appeared. + +"I have been out of sorts," said he; "that is all. And you have not seen +me because I have bought a yacht and have been trying it on the river." + +"A yacht!" exclaimed Lefevre. "I did not know you cared for the water." + +"_You_ know me," laughed Julius in his own manner, "and not know that I +care for everything!" So saying, he laid his hand on Lefevre's arm. The +act was not remarkable, but its result was, for Lefevre felt it as if it +were a blow, and stood astonished at it. + +During this interchange of words Lefevre (with Lady Mary) had been +moving with Julius, as he drew off across the room to greet Nora, and +the doctor could not help observing how the attention of all the company +was bent on his friend. Before his entrance all had been chatting or +laughing easily with their neighbours; now they seemed as constrained +and belittled as is a crowd of courtiers when a royal personage appears +in their midst. In truth, Julius at all times had a grace, an ease, and +a distinction of manner not unworthy of a prince; but on this occasion +he had an added something, an indefinable attraction which strangely +held the attention. Lefevre, therefore, was scarcely surprised (though, +perhaps, a trifle disappointed, considering that he was a lover) to note +that Lady Mary was regarding Julius with a silent, wide-eyed +fascination. They convoyed Julius to Nora, and then withdrew, leaving +them together. + +There were several fresh arrivals and new introductions to Lady Mary. +These, Lefevre observed, she went through half-absently, still turning +her eyes on Julius in the intervals with open and intense interest. + +"Well," said Lefevre at length, smiling in spite of a twinge of +jealousy, "what do you think, now you have seen him, of the fascinating +Julius?" + +She gave him no answering smile, but replied as if she painfully +withdrew herself from abstraction,--"I--I don't know. He is very +interesting and very strange. I--I can't make him out. I don't know." + +Then Lefevre turned his eyes on Julius, and became aware of something +strained in the relations of his sister and his friend. He could not +forbear to look, and as he continued looking he instinctively felt that +a passionate scene was being silently enacted between them. They sat +markedly apart. Nora's bosom heaved with suppressed emotion, and her +look, when raised to Julius, plied him with appeal or reproach--Lefevre +could not determine which. The doctor's interest almost drew him over to +them, when Lady Lefevre appeared and said to Julius-- + +"Do go to the piano, Julius, and wake us up." + +Nora put out her hand with a gesture which plainly meant, "Don't!... +Don't leave me!" + +But Julius rose, and as he turned (the doctor noted) he bent an +inscrutable look of pain on Nora. He sat down at the piano and struck a +wild, sad chord. Instantly it became as if the people in the room were +the instrument upon which he played,--as if the throbbing human hearts +around him were directly connected by invisible strings with the ivory +keys that pulsed beneath his fingers. What was the music he played no +one knew, no one cared, no one inquired: each individual person was held +and played upon, and was allowed no pause for reflection or criticism. +The music carried all away as on the flood of time, showing them, on one +hand, sunshine and beauty and joy, and all the pride of life; and on the +other, darkness and cruelty, despair, and defiance, and death. It might +have been, on the one hand, the music with which Orpheus tamed the +beasts; and on the other, that which Æschylus arranged to accompany the +last act of his tragedy of "Prometheus Bound." There was, however, no +clear distinction between the joyous airs and the sombre: all were +wrought and mingled into an exciting and bewildering atmosphere of +melody, which thrilled the heart and maddened the brain. But as the +music continued, its joyous strains died out; the instrument cried aloud +in horror and pain, as if the vulture of Prometheus were tearing at its +vitals; darkness seemed to descend upon the room--a darkness alive with +the sighs and groans, the disillusions and tears, of lost souls. The men +sat transfixed with agony and dread, the women were caught in the wild +clutches of hysteria, and Courtney himself was as if possessed with a +frenzy: his features were rigid, his eyes dilated, and his hair rose and +clung in wavy locks, so that he seemed a very Gorgon's head. The only +person apparently unmoved was old Dr Rippon, whose pale, gaunt form rose +in the background, sinister and calm as Death! + +The situation was at its height, when a black cat (a pet of Miss +Lefevre's) suddenly leaped on the top of the piano with a canary in its +mouth, and in the presence of them all, laid its captive before Julius +Courtney. The music ceased with a dissonant crash. With a cry Julius +rose and laid his hand on the cat's neck: to the general amazement the +cat lay down limp and senseless, and the little golden bird fluttered +away. Then the sobs of the women, hitherto controlled, broke out, and +the murmurs of the men. + +"O Julius! Julius! what have you done?" cried Nora, sweeping up to him +in an ecstasy of emotion. + +He caught her in his arms, when with a strange cry--a strained kind of +laugh with a hysterical catch in it--she sank fainting on his breast. +With a sharp exclamation of pain and fear he bore her swiftly from the +room (he was near the door) and into a little conservatory that opened +upon the staircase, casting his eyes upon Lefevre as he went, and +saying, "Come! come quick!" Lefevre then woke to the fact that he had +been fixedly regarding this last strange scene, while Lady Mary clung +trembling to his arm. He hurried out after Julius, followed by Lady Mary +and his mother. + +"Take her!" cried Julius, standing away from Nora, and looking white and +terror-stricken. "Restore her! Oh, I must not!--I dare not touch her!" + +With nimble accustomed fingers Lady Mary undid Nora's dress, while the +doctor applied the remedies usual in hysterical fainting. Nora opened +her eyes and fixed them upon Julius. + +"O Julius, Julius!" she cried. "Do not leave me! Come near me! Oh!... I +think I am going to die!" + +"My love! my life! my soul!" said Julius, stretching out his hands to +her, but approaching no nearer. "I cannot--I must not touch you! No, no! +I dare not!" + +"O Julius!" said she. "Are you afraid of me? How can I harm you?" + +"Nora, my life! I am afraid of myself! You would not harm me, but I +would harm you! Ah, I know it now only too well!" + +Then, as she closed her eyes again, she said, "I had better die!" + +"No, you must not die!" he exclaimed. "Your time is not yet! Yes, you will +live!--live! But I must be cut off--though not for ever--from the sweetest +and dearest, the noblest and purest of all God's creatures!" + +In the meantime Lefevre had been examining his sister with closer +scrutiny. He raised her eyelid and looked at her eye; he pricked her on +the arm and wrist; and then he turned to Julius. + +"Julius," said he, "what does this mean?" + +"It means," answered Julius, covering his face with his hands, "that I +am of all living things the most accurst!" Then with a cry of horror and +anguish he fled from the room and down the stairs. + +Lady Lefevre followed him in a flutter of fear. Presently she returned, +and said, in answer to a look from her son, "He snatched his hat and +coat, and was gone before I came up with him." + +Without a word Lefevre set himself to recover his sister, and in half an +hour she was well enough to walk with Lady Mary's assistance to bed. + +The guests, meanwhile, had departed, all but two or three intimates; and +in less than an hour Dr Lefevre was returning home in the Fane carriage. +Lord Rivercourt and he talked of the strange events of the evening, +while Lady Mary leaned back and half-absently listened. They were +proceeding thus along Piccadilly, when she suddenly caught the doctor's +arm and exclaimed-- + +"Oh! Look! The very man I met in the Park! I am sure of it! I can never +forget the face!" + +Lefevre, alert on the instant, looked to recognise Hernando Courtney, +the Man of the Crowd: he saw only the back of a person in a loose cape +and a slouch hat turning in at the gateway of the Albany courtyard. In +flashes of reflection these questions arose: Who could he be but +Hernando Courtney?--and where could he be going but to Julius's +chambers? Julius, therefore (whose own conduct had been that night so +extraordinary), must be familiar with his whole mysterious course, and +consequently with the peril he was in. Before Lefevre could out of his +perplexity snatch a resolution, Lord Rivercourt had pulled the cord to +stop the coachman. The coachman, however, having received orders to +drive home, was driving at a goodly pace, and it was only on a second +summons through the cord that he slackened speed, and obeyed his +master's direction to "draw up by the kerb." + +"I'll get out," said Lefevre, "and look after him. You'd better get Mary +home; she's not very strong yet, and she has been upset to-night." + +He put himself thus forward for another reason besides,--on the impulse +of his friendship for Julius, without considering whether in the event +of an arrest and an exposure, he could do anything to shield Julius from +shame and pain. + +He got out, saying his adieus, and the carriage drove on. He found +himself well past the Albany. He hurried back, nerved by the desire to +encounter Julius's visitor, and at the same time by the hope that he +would not. In his heart was a turmoil of feeling, to the surface of +which continued to rise pity for Julius. The events of the evening had +forced him to the conclusion that Julius possessed the same singular, +magnetic, baleful influence on men and women as his putative father +Hernando; but Julius's burst of agony, when Nora lay overcome, had +declared to him that till then he had scarcely been aware of the +destructive side of his power. All resentment, therefore, all sense of +offence and suspicion which had lately begun to arise in his mind, was +swallowed up in pity for his afflicted friend. His chief desire, now +that he seemed reduced to the level of suffering humanity, was to give +him help and counsel. + +Thus he entered the Albany, and passed the porter. The lamps in the +flagged passage were little better than luminous shadows in the +darkness, and the hollow silence re-echoed the sound of his hurried +steps. No one was to be seen or heard in front of him. He came to the +letter which marked Julius's abode. He looked into the gloomy doorway, +and resolved he would see and speak to Julius in any case. He passed +into the gloom and knocked at Julius's door. After a pause the door was +opened by Jenkins. Lefevre could not well make out the expression of the +serving-man's face, but he was satisfied that his voice was shaken as by +a recent shock. + +"I wish to see Mr Courtney," said Lefevre, in the half hope that Jenkins +would say, "Which Mr Courtney?" + +"Not at home, sir," said Jenkins in his flurried voice, and prepared to +shut the door. + +"Not at home, Jenkins? You don't mean that!" + +"Oh, it's you, Dr Lefevre, sir. Mr Courtney is not at home, but perhaps +he will see you, sir! I hope he will; for he don't seem to me at all +well." + +"But if he is engaged, Jenkins--?" + +"Oh, sir, you know what 'not-at-home' means," answered Jenkins. "It +means anything or nothing. Will you step into the drawing-room, sir, +while I inquire? Mr Courtney is in his study." + +"Thank you, Jenkins," said the doctor; "I'll wait where I am." + +Jenkins returned with deep concern on his face. "Mr Courtney's +compliments, sir," said he, "and he is very sorry he cannot see you +to-night. It is a pity, sir," he added, in a burst of confidence, "for +he don't seem well. He's a-settin' there with the lamp turned down, and +his face in his hands." + +"Is he alone, then?" asked the doctor. + +"Oh yes, sir," answered Jenkins, in manifest surprise. + +"Has nobody been to see him since he came in?" + +"No, sir, nobody," said Jenkins, in wider surprise than before. + +It appeared to Lefevre that his friend must be sitting alone with the +terrible discovery he had that night made of himself. His heart, +therefore, urged him to go in and take him by the hand, and give what +help and comfort he could. + +"I think," said he to Jenkins, "I'll try and have a word with him." + +"Yes, sir," said Jenkins, and led the way to the study. He tapped at the +door, and then turned the handle; but the door remained closed. + +"Who is there?" asked a weary voice within, which scarce sounded like +the voice of Julius. + +"I--Lefevre," said the doctor, putting Jenkins aside. "May not I come +in? I want a friendly word with you." + +"Forgive me, Lefevre," said the voice, "that I do not let you in. I am +very busy at present." + +"You are alone," said Lefevre, "are you not?" + +"Alone," said Julius; "yes, all alone!" There was a melting note of +sadness in the words which went to the doctor's heart. + +"My dear Julius," said he, "I think I know what's troubling you. Don't +you think a talk with me might help you?" + +"You are very good, Lefevre." (That was an unusual form of speech to +come from Julius.) "I shall come to your house in a few minutes, if you +will allow me." + +"Do," answered Lefevre, for the moment completely satisfied. "Do!" And +he turned away. + +But when Jenkins had closed the outer door upon him, doubts arose. Ought +he not to have insisted on seeing whether Julius was in truth alone in +the study? And why could they not have had their talk there as well as +in Savile Row? These doubts, however, he thrust down with the promise to +himself that, if Julius did not come to him within half an hour, he +would return to him. Yet he had not gone many steps before an unworthy +suspicion shot up and arrested him: Suppose Julius had got rid of him to +have the opportunity of sending a mysterious companion away unseen? But +Jenkins had said he had let no one in, and it was shameful to suspect +both master and man of lying. Yet Lady Mary Fane had distinctly +recognised the man who passed into the Albany courtyard: had he merely +passed through on his unceasing pursuit of something unknown? or were +father and son somehow aware of each other? Between this and that his +mind became a jumble of the wildest conjectures. He imagined many +things, but never conceived that which soon showed itself to be the +fact. + + + + +Chapter IX. + +An Apparition and a Confession. + + +He let himself in with his latch-key, went into his dining-room, and sat +down dressed as he was to wait. He listened through minute after minute +for the expected step. The window was open (for the midsummer night was +warm), and all the sounds of belated and revelling London floated +vaguely in the air. Twelve o'clock boomed softly from Westminster, and +made the heavy atmosphere drowsily vibrate with the volume of the +strokes. The reverberation of the last had scarcely died away when a +light, measured footfall made him sit up. It came nearer and nearer, and +then, after a moment's hesitation, sounded on his own doorstep. With +that there came the tap of a cane on the window. With thought and +expectation resolutely suspended, Lefevre swung out of the room and to +the hall-door. He opened it, and stood and gazed. The light of the +hall-lamp fell upon a figure, the sight of which sent the blood in a +gush to his heart, and pierced him with horror. He expected Julius, and +he looked on the man whom he had followed on the crowded pavements some +weeks before,--the man whom the police had long sought for +ineffectually! + +"Won't you let me in, Lefevre?" said the man. + +The doctor stood speechless, with his eyes fixed: the face and dress of +the person before him were those of Hernando Courtney, but the voice was +the voice of Julius, though it sounded strange and distant, and bore an +accent as of death. Lefevre was involved in a wild turmoil and horror of +surmise, too appalling to be exactly stated to himself; for he shrank +with all his energy from the conclusion to which he was being forced. He +turned, however, upon the request for admission, and led the way into +the dining-room, letting his visitor close the door and follow. + +"Lefevre," said the strange voice, "I have come to show myself to you, +because I know you are a true-hearted friend, and because I think you +have that exquisite charity that can forgive all things." + +"_Show myself!_" ... As Lefevre listened to the strange voice and looked +at the strange person, the suspicion came upon him--What if he were but +regarding an Illusion? He had read in some of his mystical and magical +writers, that men gifted with certain powers could project to a distance +eidola or phantasms of varying likeness to themselves: might not this be +such a mocking phantasm of Julius? He drew his hand across his eyes, and +looked again: the figure still sat there. He put out his hand to test +its substantiality, and the voice cried in a keen pitch of terror-- + +"Don't touch me!--for your own sake!... Why, Lefevre, do you look so +amazed and overcome? Is not my wretched secret written in my face?" + +"And you are really Julius Courtney?" asked Lefevre, at length finding +utterance, with measured emphasis, and in a voice which he hardly +recognised as his own. + +"I am Julius Courtney--" + +He paused, for Lefevre had put his head in his hands, shaken with a +silent paroxysm of grief. It wrung the doctor's heart, as if in the +person that sat opposite him, all that was noblest and most gracious in +humanity were disgraced and overthrown. + +"Yes," continued the voice, "I am Julius; there is no other Courtney +that I know of, and soon there will be none at all." The doctor +listened, but he could not endure to look again. "I am dying--I have +been dying for a dozen years, and for a dozen years I have resisted and +overcome death; now I surrender. I have come to my period. I shall never +enter your house again. I have only come now to confess myself, and to +ask a last favour of you--a last token of friendship." + +"I will freely do what I can for you, Julius," said the doctor, still +without looking at him, "though I am too overcome, too bewildered, yet +to say much to you." + +"Thank you. You will hear my story and understand. It contains a secret +which I, like a blind fool, have only used for myself, but which you +will apply for the wide benefit of mankind. The request I have to make +of you is small, but it may seem extraordinary,--be my companion for +twelve hours. I cannot talk to you here, enclosed and oppressed with +streets of houses. Come with me for a few hours on the water; I have a +fancy to see the sun rise for the last time over the sea. I have my +yacht ready near London Bridge, and a boat waiting at the steps by +Cleopatra's Needle; a cab will soon take us there. Will you come?" + +Lefevre did not look up. The voice of Julius sounded like an appeal from +the very abode of death. Then he glanced in spite of himself in his +face, and was moved and melted to unreserved compassion by the strained +weariness of his expression--the open, luminous wistfulness of his eyes. + +"Yes; I'll go," said he. "But can't I do something for you first? Let me +consider your case." + +"There's nothing now to be done for me, Lefevre," said Julius, shaking +his head. "You will perceive that when you have heard me out." + +The doctor went to find his man and tell him that he was going out for +the night to attend on an urgent case. When he returned he stood a +moment touched with misgiving. He thought of Lady Mary--he thought of +his mother and sister. Ought he not to leave some hint behind him of the +strange adventure upon which he was about to embark, and which might end +he knew not how or where? Julius was observing him, and seemed to divine +his doubt. + +"You need have no hesitation," said he. "I ask you only for twelve +hours. You can easily get back here by noon to-morrow. There is a +south-west wind blowing, with every prospect of settled weather. I am +quite certain about it." + +Fortified with that assurance, Lefevre put on a thicker overcoat and an +old soft hat, turned out the lights in the dining-room and in the hall, +closed the door with a slam, and stood with the new, the strange Julius +in the street, fairly embarked upon his adventure. It was only with an +effort that he could realise he was in the company of one who had been a +familiar friend. They walked towards Regent Street without speaking. At +the corner of Savile Row they came upon a policeman, and Lefevre had a +sudden thrill of fear lest his companion should, at length, be +recognised and arrested. Courtney himself, however, appeared in no wise +disturbed. In Regent Street he hailed a passing four-wheeler. + +"Wouldn't a hansom be quicker?" said Lefevre. + +"It is better on your account," said Julius, "that we should sit apart." + +When they entered the cab, Courtney ensconced himself in the remote +corner of the other seat from Lefevre; and thus without another word +they drove to the Embankment. At the foot of the steps by Cleopatra's +Needle, they found a waterman and a boat in waiting. They entered the +boat, Lefevre going forward while Julius sat down at the tiller. The +waterman pulled out. The tide was ebbing, and they slipped swiftly down +the dark river, with broken reflections of lamps and lanterns on either +bank streaming deep into the water like molten gold as they passed, and +with tall buildings and chimney-shafts showing black against the calm +night sky. Lefevre found it necessary at intervals to assure himself +that he was not drifting in a dream, or that the ghastly, burning-eyed +figure, wrapped in a dark cloak in the stern, was not a strange visitor +from the nether world. + +Soon after they had shot through London Bridge they were alongside a +yacht almost in mid-stream. It was clear that all had been prearranged +for Julius's arrival; for as soon as they were on board, the yacht +(loosed from her upper mooring by the waterman who had brought them down +the river) began to stand away. + +"We had better go forward," said Courtney. "Are you warm enough?" + +The doctor answered that he was. Courtney gave an order to one of the +men, who went below and returned with a fur-lined coat which his master +put on. That little incident gave a curious shock to Lefevre: it made +him think of the mysterious stranger who had sat down opposite the young +officer in the Brighton train, and it showed him that he had not been +completely satisfied that his friend Julius and the person he had been +wont to think of as Hernando Courtney were one and the same. + +They went forward to be free of the sail and its tackling. Courtney, +wrapped in his extra, his fur-lined coat, pointing to a low +folding-chair for Lefevre, threw himself on a heap of cordage. He looked +around and above him, at the rippling, flashing water and the black +hulls of ships, and at the serene, starlit heavens stretching over all. + +"How wonderful!--how beautiful it all is!" he exclaimed. "All, +all!--even the dullest and deadest-seeming things are vibrating, +palpitating with the very madness of life! He set the world in my heart, +and oh, how I loved!--how I loved the world!" + +"It is a wonderful world," said Lefevre, trying to speak cheerfully; +"and you will take delight in it again when this abnormal fit of +depression is over." + +"Never, Lefevre!--never, never!" said Courtney in strenuous tones. "I +regret it deeply, bitterly, madly,--but yet I know that I have about +done with it!" + +"Julius," said Lefevre, "I have been so amazed and bewildered, that I +have found little to say: I can scarcely believe that you are in very +deed the Julius I have known for years. But now let me remind you I am +your friend--" + +"Thank you, Lefevre." + +"--And I am ready to help you to the uttermost in this crisis, which I +but dimly understand. Tell me about yourself, and let me see what I can +do." + +"You can do nothing," said Julius, sadly shaking his head. "Understand +me; I am not going to state a case for diagnosis. Put that idea aside; I +merely wish to confess myself to my friend." + +"But surely," said Lefevre, "I may be your physician as well as your +friend. As long as you have life there is hope of life." + +"No, no, no, Lefevre! There is a depth of life--life on the lees--that +is worse than death! If I could retrace my steps to the beginning of +this, taking my knowledge with me, then--! But no, I must go my +appointed way, and face what is beyond.... But let me tell you my story. + +"You have heard something of my parentage from Dr Rippon, I believe. My +father was Spanish, and my mother was English. I think I was born +without that sense of responsibility to a traditional or conventional +standard which is called Conscience, and that sense of obligation to +consider others as important as myself, which, I believe, they call +Altruism. I do not know whether the lack of these senses had been +manifest in my mother's family, but I am sure it had been in my +father's. For generations it had been a law unto itself; none of its +members had known any duty but the fulfilment of his desires; and I +believe even that kind of outward conscience called Honour had scarcely +existed for some of them. I had from my earliest recollection the nature +of these ancestors: they, though dead, desired, acted, lived in +me,--with something of a difference, due to I know not what. Let me try +to state the fact as it appears to me looking back: I was for myself the +one consciousness, the one person in the world, all else--trees, beasts, +men and women, and what not--being the medium in which, and on which, I +lived. I conceived of nothing around me but as existing to please, to +amuse, to delight me, and if anything showed itself contrary to these +ends, I simply avoided it. What I wished to do I did; what I wished to +have I had;--and nothing else. I do not suppose that in these points I +was different from most other children of wealthy parents. Where I +differed, I believe, was in having a peculiarly sensitive, and at the +same time admirably healthy, constitution of body, which induced a +remarkable development of desire and gratification. I can hardly make +you understand, I am sure I cannot make you feel--I myself cannot feel, +I can only remember--what a bright natural creature I was when I was +young." + +"Don't I remember well," said Lefevre, "what you were like when I first +met you in Paris?" + +"Ah," said Julius, "the change had begun then,--the change that has +brought me to this. I contemplate myself as I was before that with +bitter envy and regret. I was as a being sprung fresh from the womb of +primitive Nature. I delighted in Nature as a child delights in its +mother, and I throve on my delight as a child thrives. I refused to go +to school--and indeed little pressure was put upon me--to be drilled in +the paces and hypocrisy of civilised mankind. I ran wild about the +country; I became proficient in all bodily exercises; I fenced and +wrestled and boxed; I leaped and swam; I rowed for days alone in a +skiff; I associated with simple peasants, and with all kinds of animals; +I delighted in air and water, and grass and trees: to me they were as +much alive as beasts are. Oh, what an exquisite, abounding, unclouded +pleasure life was! When I was hungry I ate; when I was thirsty I drank; +when I was tired I slept; and when I woke I stretched myself like a +giant refreshed. It was a pure joy to me in those days to close my +fingers into a fist and see the beauty and firmness of my muscles. When +solemn, civilised people spoke to me of duty and work, I listened like +an idiot. I had nothing in my consciousness to help me to understand +them. I knew no more of duty than Crusoe on his island; and as for work, +I had no ambition,--why, then, should I work? I read, of course; but I +read because I liked it, not because I had tasks set me. I read +everything that came in my way; and very soon all literature and +science--all good poetry and romance, and all genuine science--came to +mean for me a fine, orderly expression of nature and life. And religion, +too, I felt as the ecstasy of nature. So I fed and flourished on the +milk of life and the bread of life. + +"But a time came when I longed to live deeper, and to get at the pith +and marrow of life. I was over twenty when it was revealed to me in a +noonday splendour and warmth of light, that the human is unspeakably the +highest and most enthralling expression of life in all Nature. That +discovery happened to me when I was in Morocco with my father, who died +there--no matter how--among those whom he liked to believe were his own +people: my mother had died long before. I had considerable wealth at my +command, and I began to live at the height of all my faculties; I lived +in every nerve, and at every pore. + +"And then I began to perceive a reverse to the bounteous beauty and the +overflowing life of Nature,--a threatening quality, a devouring faculty +in her by which she fed the joyous abundance of her life. I saw that all +activity, all the pleasant palpitation and titillation in the life of +Nature and of Man, merely means that one living thing is feeding upon or +is feeding another. I began to perceive that all the interest of life +centres in this alter-devouring principle. I discovered, moreover, this +strange point,--that the joy of life is in direct proportion to the +rapidity with which we lose or surrender life." + +"Yes," said Lefevre, "the giving of pleasure is always more exquisite +and satisfactory than the getting it." + +"I lost life," continued Julius, without noting Lefevre's remark,--"I +lost life,--vital force, nervous ether, electricity, whatever you choose +to call it,--at an enormous rate, but I as quickly replenished my loss. +I had revelled for some time in this deeper life of give and take before +I discovered that this faculty of recuperation also was curiously and +wonderfully active in me. Whenever I fell into a state of weakness, +well-nigh empty of life, I withdrew myself from company, and dwelt for a +little while with the simplest forms of Nature." + +"But," asked Lefevre, "how did you get into such a low condition?" + +"How? _I lived!_" said he with fervour. "_Yes; I lived:_ that was how! I +had always delighted in animals, but then I began to find that when I +caressed them they were not merely tamed, as they had been wont, but +completely subdued; and I felt rapid and full accessions of life from +contact with them. If I lay upon a bank of rich grass or wild flowers, I +had to a slight extent the same revivifying sensation. The fable of +Antæus was fulfilled in me. The constant recurrence and vigour of this +recuperation not only filled me with pride, but also set me thinking. I +turned to medical science to find the secret of it. I entered myself as +a student in Paris: it was then I met you. I read deeply, too, in the +books of the mediæval alchemists and sages of Spain, which my father had +left me. It came upon me in a clear flood of evidence that Nature and +man are one and indivisible, being animated by one identical Energy or +Spirit of Life, however various may be the material forms; and that all +things, all creatures, according to the activity of their life, have the +power of communicating, of giving or taking, this invisible force of +life. It furthermore became clear to me that, though the force resides +in all parts of a body, floating in every corpuscle of blood, yet its +proper channels of circulation and communication are the nerves, so that +as soon as a nerve in any one shape of life touches a nerve in any +other, there is an instant tendency to establish in them a common level +of the Force of Life. If I or you touch a man or woman with a finger, or +clasp their hand, or embrace them more completely, the tendency is at +once set up, and the force seeks to flow, and, according to certain +conditions, does flow, from one to another, evermore seeking to find a +common level,--always, that is, in the direction of the greater need, or +the greater capacity. I saw then that not only had I a greater storage +capacity, so to say, than most men, but also, therefore, when exhaustion +came, I had a more insistent need for replenishment, and a more violent +shrinking at all times from any weak or unhealthy person who might even +by chance contact make a demand on my store of life." + +"And is that your secret?" asked Lefevre. "I have arrived in a different +way at something like the same discovery." + +"I know you have," said Julius. "But my peculiar secret is not that, +though it is connected with it. I am growing very tired," said he, +abruptly. "I must be quick, Lefevre," he continued in a hurried, weak +voice of appeal; "grant me one little last favour to enable me to +finish." + +"Anything I can do I will, Julius," said Lefevre, suddenly roused out of +the half-drowsiness which the soft night induced. He was held between +alarm and fascination by the look which Julius bent on him. + +"I am ashamed to ask, but you are full of life," said Julius: "I am at +the shallowest ebb. Just for one minute help me. Of your free-will +submit yourself to me for but a moment. Will you do me that service?" + +"Yes," said Lefevre, after an instant's hesitation; "certainly I will." + +Julius half rose from his reclining position; he turned on Lefevre his +wonderful eyes, which in the mysterious twilight that suffused the +midsummer night burned with a surprising brilliance. Lefevre felt +himself seized and held in their influence. + +"Give me your hand," said Julius. + +The doctor gave his hand, his eyes being still held by those of Julius, +and instantly, as it seemed to him, he plunged, as a man dives into the +sea, into a gulf of unconsciousness, from which he presently emerged +with something like a gasp and with a tremulous sensation about his +heart. What had happened to him he did not know; but he felt slacker of +fibre, as if virtue had gone out of him, while Julius, when he spoke, +seemed refreshed as by a draught of wine. + +"How are you?" asked Julius. "For heaven's sake don't let me think that +at the last I have troubled much the current of your life! Will you have +something to eat and drink? There's wine and food below." + +"Thank you; no," said Lefevre. "I am well enough, only a little drowsy." + +"I am stronger," said Julius, "but it will not last; so let me finish my +story." + +Then he continued. "Having explained to myself, in the way I have told +you, the ease of my unwitting replenishment of force whenever I was +brought low, I set myself to improve on my discovery. I saw before me a +prospect of enjoyment of all the delights of life, deeper and more +constant than most men ever know,--if I could only ensure to myself with +absolute certainty a still more complete and rapid reinvigoration as +often soever as I sank into exhaustion. I was quite sure that no energy +of life is finer or fuller than the human at its best." + +"Good God!" exclaimed Lefevre, turning away with an involuntary shudder. + +"For heaven's sake!" cried Julius, "don't shrink from me now, or you +will tempt me to be less frank than I have been. I wish to make full +confession. I know, I see now, I have been cruelly, brutally selfish--as +selfish as Nature herself!--none knows that better than I. But remember, +in extenuation, what I have told you of my origin and my growth. And I +had not the suspicion of a thought of injuring any one. Fool! fool! +egregious fool that I was! I who understood most things so clearly did +not guess that no creature, no being in the universe--god, or man, or +beast--can indulge in arrogant, full, magnificent enjoyment without +gathering and living in himself, squandering through himself, the lives +of others, to their eternal loss and his own final ruin! But, as I said, +I did not think, and it was not evident until recently, that I injured +any one. I had for a long time been aware that I had an unusual mesmeric +or magnetic influence--call it what you will--over others. I cultivated +that power in eye and hand, so that I was soon able to take any person +at unawares whom I considered fit for my purpose, and subdue him or her +completely to myself. Then after one or two failures I hit upon a +method, which I perfected at length into entire simplicity, by which I +was able to tap the nervous system and draw into myself as much as ever +I needed of the abounding force of life, without leaving any sign which +even the most skilful doctor could detect." + +"Julius, you sicken me!" exclaimed Lefevre. "I am a doctor, but you +sicken me!" + +"I explain myself so in detail," said Julius, "_because_ you are a +doctor. But let me finish. I lived that life of complete wedlock with +Nature for I dare not think how many years." + +"And you did not get weary of it?" asked Lefevre. + +"Weary of it? No! I returned to it always, after a pause of a few days +for the reinvigoration I needed,--I returned to it with all the +freshness of youth, with the advantage which, of course, mere youth can +never have,--an amazingly rich experience. I revelled in the full lap of +life. I passed through many lands, civilised and barbaric; but it was my +especial delight to strike down to that simple, passionate, essential +nature which lies beneath the thickest lacquer of refinements in our +civilised societies. Oh, what a life it was!--what a life! + +"But a change came: it must have been growing on me for some time +without my knowledge. I commonly removed from society when I felt +exhaustion coming on me; but on one occasion it chanced that I stayed on +in the pleasant company I was in (I was then in Vienna). I did not +exactly feel ill; I felt merely weary and languid, and thought that +presently I would go to bed. Gradually I began to observe that the looks +of my companions were bent strangely on me, and that the expression of +their countenances more and more developed surprise and alarm. 'What is +the matter with you all?' I demanded; when they instantly cried, 'What +is the matter with _you?_ Have you been poisoned?' I rose and went and +looked in a mirror; I saw, with ghastly horror, what I was like, and I +knew then that I was _doomed_. I fled from that company for ever. I saw +that, when the alien life on which I flourished was gone out of me, I +was a worn old man--that the Fire of Life which usually burned in my +body, making me look bright and young, was now none of it my own; a few +hot ashes only were mine, which Death sat cowering by! I could not but +sit and gaze at the reflection of the seared ghastliness of that face, +which was mine and yet not mine, and feel well-nigh sick unto death. +After a while, however, I plucked up heart. I considered that it was +impossible this change had come all at once; I must have looked like +that--or almost like that--once or twice or oftener before, and yet life +and reinvigoration had gone on as they had been wont. I wrapped myself +well up, and went out. I found a fit subject. I replenished my life as +theretofore; my youthful, fresh appearance returned, and my confidence +with it. I refused to look again upon my own, my worn face, from that +time until tonight. + +"But alarm again seized me about a year ago, when I chanced by +calculation to note that my periods of abounding life were gradually +getting shorter,--that I needed reinvigoration at more frequent +intervals;--not that I did not take as much from my subjects as +formerly--on the contrary, I seemed to take more--but that I lost more +rapidly what I took, as if my body were becoming little better than a +fine sieve. The last stage of all was this that you are familiar with, +when my subjects began to be so utterly exhausted as to attract public +notice. Yet that is not what has given me pause, and made me resolve to +bring the whole weary, selfish business to an end. Could I not have gone +elsewhere--anywhere, the wide world over--and lived my life? But I was +kept, I was tethered here, to this London by a feeling I had never known +before. Call it by the common fool's name of Love; call it what you +will. I was fascinated by your sister Nora, even as others had been +fascinated by me, even as I had been in my youth by the bountiful, +gracious beauty of Nature." + +"I have wanted to ask you," said Lefevre, "for an explanation of your +conduct towards Nora. Why did you--with your awful life--life which, as +you say, was not your own, and your extraordinary secret--why did you +remain near her, and entangle her with your fascinations? What did you +desire?--what did you hope for?" + +"I scarcely know for what I hoped. But let me speak of her; for she has +traversed and completely eclipsed my former vision of Nature. I have +told you what my point of view was,--alone in the midst of Nature. I was +for myself the only consciousness in the world, and all the world +besides was merely a variety of material and impression, to be observed +and known, to be interested in and delighted with. I was thus lonely, +lonely as a despot, when Nora, your sister, appeared to me, and +instantly I became aware there was another consciousness in the world as +great as, or greater than, my own,--another person than myself, a person +of supreme beauty and intelligence and faculty. She became to me all +that Nature had been, and more. She expressed for me all that I had +sought to find diffused through Nature, and at the same time she stood +forth to me as an equal of my own kind, with as great a capacity for +life. At first I had a vision of our living and reigning together, so to +say, though the word may seem to you absurd; but I soon discovered that +there was a gulf fixed between us,--the gulf of the life I had lived; +she stood pure where I had stood a dozen years ago. So, gradually, she +subverted my whole scheme of life; more and more, without knowing it, +she made me see and judge myself with her eyes, till I felt altogether +abased before her. But that which finally stripped the veil from me, and +showed me myself as the hateful incarnation of relentlessly devouring +Self, was my influence upon her, which culminated in the event of last +night. Can you conceive how I was smitten and pierced with horror by the +discovery that rose on me like a nightmare, that even on her sweet, +pure, sumptuous life, I had unwittingly begun to prey? For that +discovery flung wide the door of the future and showed me what I would +become. + +"Beautiful, calm, divine Nora! If I could but have continued near her +without touching her, to delight in the thought and the sight of her, as +one delights in the wind and the sunshine! But it could not be. I could +only appear fit company for her if I refreshed and strengthened myself +as I had been wont; but my new disgust of myself, and pity for my +victims, made me shudder at the thought. What then? Here I am, and the +time has come (as that old doctor said it would) when death appears more +beautiful and friendly and desirable than life. Forgive me, +Lefevre--forgive me on Nora's part,--and forgive me in the name of human +nature." + +Lefevre could not reply for the moment. He sat convulsed with +heartrending sobs. He put out his hand to Julius. + +"No, no!" exclaimed Julius, "I must not take your hand. You know I must +not." + +"Take my hand," cried Lefevre. "I know what it means. Take my life! +Leave me but enough to recover. I give it you freely, for I wish you to +live. You shall not die. By heaven! you shall not die. O Julius, Julius! +why did you not tell me this long ago? Science has resource enough to +deliver you from your mistake." + +"Lefevre," said Julius,--and his eyes sparkled with tears and his +weakening voice was choked,--"your friendship moves me deeply--to the +soul. But science can do nothing for me: science has not yet sufficient +knowledge of the principle on which I lived. Would you have me, then, +live on,--passing to and fro among mankind merely as a blight, taking +the energy of life, even from whomsoever I would not? No, I must die! +Death is best!" + +"I will not let you die," said Lefevre, rising to take a pace or two on +the deck. "You shall come home with me. I shall feed your life--there +are dozens besides myself who will be glad to assist--till you are +healed of the devouring demon you have raised within you." + +"No, no, no, my dear friend!" cried Julius. "I have steadily sinned +against the most vital law of life." + +"Julius," said Lefevre, standing over him, "my friendship, my love for +you may blind me to the enormity of your sin, but I can find it in me to +say, in the name of humanity, 'I forgive you all! Now, rise up and live +anew! Your intelligence, your soul is too rare and admirable to be +snuffed out like a guttering candle!'" + +"Lefevre," said Julius, "you are a perfect friend! But your knowledge of +this secret force of Nature, which we have both studied, is not so great +as mine. Let me tell you, then, that this mystical saying, which I once +scoffed at, is the profoundest truth:-- + + "'Who loveth life shall lose it all; + Who seeketh life shall surely fall!' + +"There is no remedy for me but death, which (who knows?) may be the +mother of new life!" + +"It would have been better for you," said Lefevre, sitting down again +with his head in his hands, "better--if you had never seen Nora." + +"Nay, nay," cried Julius, sitting up, animate with a fresh impulse of +life. "Better for her, dear, beautiful soul, but not for me! I have +truly lived only since I saw her, and I have the joy of feeling that I +have beheld and known Nature's sole and perfect chrysolite. But I must +be quick, my friend; the dawn will soon be upon us. There is but one +other thing for me to speak of--my method of taking to myself the force +of life. It is my secret; it is perfectly adapted for professional use, +and I wish to give it to you, because you are wise enough in mind, and +great enough of soul, to use it for the benefit of mankind." + +"I will not hear you, Julius!" exclaimed Lefevre. "I am neither wise nor +great. Your perfect secret would be too much for me. I might be tempted +to keep it for my own use. Come home with me, and apply it well +yourself." + +Julius was silent for a space, murmuring only, "I have no time for +argument." Then his face assumed the white sickness of death, and his +dark eyes seemed to grow larger and to burn with a concentrated fire. + +"Lefevre!" he panted in amazement, "do you know that you are refusing +such a medical and spiritual secret as the world has not known for +thousands of years? A secret that would enable you--_you_--to work cures +more wonderful than any that are told of the greatest Eastern +Thaumaturge?" + +"I have discovered a method," answered the doctor,--"an imperfect, +clumsy method--for myself, of transmitting nervous force or ether for +curative purposes. That, for the present, must be enough for me. I +cannot hear your secret, Julius." + +"Lefevre, I beg of you," pleaded Julius, "take it from me. I have +promised myself, as a last satisfaction, that the secret I have +guarded--it is not altogether mine: it is an old oriental secret--that +now I would hand it over to you for the good of mankind, that at the +last I might say to myself, 'I have, after all, opened my hand liberally +to my fellow-men!' For pity's sake, Lefevre, don't deny me that small +final satisfaction!" + +"Julius," said Lefevre, firmly, "if your method is so perfect--as I +believe it must be from what I have seen--I dare not lay on myself the +responsibility of possessing its secret." + +"Would not my example keep you from using it selfishly?" + +"Does the experience of another," demanded the doctor, "however untoward +it may be, ever keep a man from making his own? I dare not--I dare not +trust myself to hold your perfect secret." + +"Then share it with others," responded Julius, promptly; "and I daresay +it is not so perfect, but that it could be made more perfect still." + +"I'll have nothing to do with it, Julius; you must keep and use it +yourself." + +"Then," cried Julius, throwing himself on his bed of cordage, "then +there will be, indeed, an end of me!" + +There was no sound for a time, but the soft rush of the sea at the bows +of the yacht. They had left the Thames water some distance behind, and +were then in that part of the estuary where it is just possible in +mid-channel to descry either coast. The glorious rose of dawn was just +beginning to flame in the eastern sky. Lefevre looked about him, and +strove to shake off the sensation, which would cling to him, that he was +involved in a strange dream. There lay Julius or Hernando Courtney +before him; or at least the figure of a man with his face hid in his +hands. What more could be said or done? + +In the meantime light was swiftly rushing up the sky and waking all +things to life. A flock of seagulls came from the depth of the night and +wheeled about the yacht, their shrill screams strangely softened in the +morning air. At the sound of them Julius roused himself, and raised +himself on his elbow to watch their beautiful evolutions. As he watched, +one and another swooped gracefully to the water, and hanging there an +instant, rose with a fish and flew away. Julius flung himself again on +his face. + +"O God!" he cried. "Is it not horrible? Even on such a beautiful day as +this death wakes as early as life! Devouring death is ushered in by the +dawn, hand in hand with generous life! Awful, devilish Nature! that +makes all creatures full of beauty and delight, and then condemns them +to live upon each other! Nature is the sphinx: she appears soft and +gentle and more lovely than heart can bear, but if you look closer, you +see she is a creature with claws and teeth that rend and devour! I +thought, fool that I was! that I had found the secret to solve her +riddle! But it was an empty hope, a vain imagination.... Yet, I have +lived! Yes, I have lived!" + +He rose and stood erect, facing the dawn, with his back to Lefevre. He +stood thus for some time, with one foot on the low bulwark of the +vessel, till the sun leaped above the horizon and flamed with blinding +brilliance across the sea. + +"Ah!" he murmured. "The superb, the glorious sun! Unwearied lord of +Creation! Generous giver of all light and life! And yet, who knows what +worlds he may not have drawn into his flaming self, and consumed during +the æons of his existence? It is ever and everywhere the same: death in +company with life! And swift, strong death is better than slow, weak +life!... Almost the splendour and inspiration of his rising tempt me to +stay! Great nourisher and renewer of life's heat!" + +He put off his fur coat, and let it fall on the deck, and stood for a +while as if wrapt in ecstasy. Then, before Lefevre could conceive his +intention, his feet were together on the bulwark, and with a flash and a +plunge he was gone! + +Amazement held the doctor's energies congealed, though but for an +instant or two. Then he threw off hat and coat, and stood alert and +resolute to dive to Julius's rescue when he rose, while those who manned +the yacht prepared to cast a buoy and line. Not a ripple or flash of +water passed unheeded; the flood of sunshine rose fuller and fuller over +the world; moments grew to minutes, and minutes swelled to hopeless +hours under the doctor's weary eyes, till it seemed to them as if the +universe were only a swirling, greedy ocean;--but no sign appeared of +his night's companion: his life was quenched in the depths of the +restless waters, as a flaming meteor is quenched in night. At length +Lefevre ordered the yacht to stand away to the shore, his heart torn +with grief and self-upbraiding. He had called Courtney his friend, and +yet until that last he had never won his inner confidence; and now he +knew that his friend--he of the gentle heart, the peerless intelligence, +and the wildly erring life--was dead in the hour of self-redemption. + +When he had landed, however, given to the proper authorities such +information as was necessary, and set off by train on his return to +town, the agitation of his grief began to assuage; and when next day, +upon the publication in the papers of the news of Courtney's death by +drowning, a solicitor called in Savile Row with a will which he had +drawn up two days before, and by which all Julius Courtney's property +was left to Dr Lefevre, to dispose of as he thought best, "for +scientific and humane ends," the doctor admitted to his reason that a +death that could thus calmly be prepared was not lightly to be +questioned. + +"He must have known best," he said to himself, as he bowed over his +hands--"he must have known best when to put off the poisoned garment of +life he had woven for himself." + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13931 *** diff --git a/13931-h/13931-h.htm b/13931-h/13931-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..df9790b --- /dev/null +++ b/13931-h/13931-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,4057 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<html> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Master of His Fate, by J. Mclaren Cobban</title> +<style type='text/css'> +<!-- +* {max-width: 35em;} +p {text-align: justify;} +h2 {margin-top: 3em; text-align: center;} +.author, .argument {font-weight: bold;} +p.argument {margin-bottom: 2em; text-align: center;} +.toc {text-align: left;} +.toc td, .toc th {padding-right: 1em;} +.all-caps {text-transform: uppercase;} +.small-caps {font-variant: small-caps;} +div.line {text-indent: 4em;} + hr.full { width: 100%; + height: 5px; } + a:link {color:#0000ff; + text-decoration:none} + link {color:#0000ff; + text-decoration:none} + a:visited {color:#0000ff; + text-decoration:none} + a:hover {color:#ff0000} + pre {font-size: 8pt;} +--> +</style> +</head> +<body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13931 ***</div> +<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, Master of His Fate, by J. Mclaren Cobban</h1> +<hr class="full" noshade> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<a name='001.png' id='p001.png'></a><a name='002.png' id= +'p002.png'></a> + +<center> +<h1>Master of his Fate</h1> + +<h4>by</h4> + +<h3>J. Maclaren Cobban</h3> + +<h4>1890</h4> +</center> +<a name='003.png' id='p003.png'></a><a name='004.png' id= +'p004.png'></a> + +<h2>Contents.</h2> + +<center> +<table class='toc' cellpadding='2' cellspacing='0' border='0' +summary='[Table of contents]'> +<tr> +<th>Chap.</th> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><a href='#julius'>I. Julius Courtney</a>,</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><a href='#case'>II. A Mysterious Case</a>,</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><a href='#dolaro'>III. "M. Dolaro</a>,"</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><a href='#man'>IV. The Man of the Crowd</a>,</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><a href='#fane'>V. The Remarkable Case of Lady Mary +Fane</a>,</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><a href='#bedside'>VI. At The Bedside of the Doctor</a>,</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><a href='#interlude'>VII. Contains a Love Interlude</a>,</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><a href='#curzon'>VIII. Strange Scenes in Curzon +Street</a>,</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><a href='#apparition'>IX. An Apparition And a +Confession</a>,</td> +</tr> +</table> +</center> + +<a name='005.png' id='p005.png'></a> + +<blockquote style='font-style: italic; margin-top: 3em;'> +<p>To <span class='all-caps'>Z. Mennell</span>, Esq.</p> + +<p class='small-caps'>My dear Mennell,</p> + +<p><span class='small-caps'>It</span> has been my fortune to see +something of the practice of the art of healing under widely +different conditions, and I know none who better represents the +most humane and most exacting of all professions than yourself. The +good doctor of this story—the born surgeon and healer, the +ever young and alert, the self-forgetful, the faithful friend, +gifted with "that exquisite charity which can forgive all +things"—is studied from you.</p> + +<p>It is one of the greatest pleasures of my life to inscribe your +name on this dedicatory page, and to subscribe myself,</p> + +<p>Your sincere friend and grateful patient,</p> + +<p class='small-caps' style='text-align: right;'>J. Maclaren +Cobban.</p> + +<p><span class='small-caps'>London</span>, November 1889.</p> +</blockquote> + +<a name='006.png' id='p006.png'></a> + +<h2 id='julius'>Chapter I.</h2> + +<p class='argument'>Julius Courtney.</p> + +<p><span class='small-caps'>The</span> Hyacinth Club has the +reputation of selecting its members from among the freshest and +most active spirits in literature, science, and art. That is in a +sense true, but activity in one or another of those fields is not a +condition of membership; for, just as the listening Boswell was the +necessary complement of the talking Johnson, so in the Hyacinth +Club there is an indispensable contingent of <a name='007.png' id= +'p007.png'></a> passive members who find their liveliest +satisfaction in hearing and looking on, rather than in speaking and +doing. Something of the home principle of male and female is +necessary for the completeness even of a club.</p> + +<p>The Hyacinth Club-house looks upon Piccadilly and the Green +Park. The favourite place of concourse of its members is the +magnificent smoking-room on the first floor, the bow-windows of +which command a view up and down the fashionable thoroughfare, and +over the trees and the undulating sward of the Park to the gates of +Buckingham Palace. On a Monday afternoon in the beginning of May, +the bow-windows were open, and several men sat in leather lounges +(while one leaned against a window-sash), luxuriously smoking, and +noting the warm, palpitating life <a name='008.png' id='p008.png'> +</a> of the world without. A storm which had been silently and +doubtfully glooming and gathering the night before had burst and +poured in the morning, and it was such a spring afternoon as +thrills the heart with new life and suffuses the soul with +expectation—such an afternoon as makes all women appear +beautiful and all men handsome. The south-west wind blew soft and +balmy, and all nature rejoiced as the bride in the presence of the +bridegroom. The trees in the Park were full of sap, and their lusty +buds were eagerly opening to the air and the light. The robin sang +with a note almost as rich and sensuous as that of the thrush; and +the shrill and restless sparrows chirped and chattered about the +houses and among the horses' feet, and were as full of the joy of +life as the men and women who <a name='009.png' id='p009.png'></a> +thronged the pavements or reclined in their carriages in the +sumptuous ease of wealth and beauty.</p> + +<p>Of the men who languidly gazed upon the gay and splendid scene +from the windows of the Club, none seemed so interested as the man +who leaned against the window-frame. He appeared more than +interested—absorbed, indeed—in the world without, and +he looked bright and handsome enough, and charged enough with +buoyant health, to be the ideal bridegroom of Nature in her +springtide.</p> + +<p>He was a dark man, tall and well built, with clear brown eyes. +His black hair (which was not cropped short, as is the fashion) had +a lustrous softness, and at the same time an elastic bushiness, +which nothing but the finest-tempered health can give; and his +complexion, though tanned <a name='010.png' id='p010.png'></a> by +exposure, had yet much of the smoothness of youth, save where the +razor had passed upon his beard. Thus seen, a little way off, he +appeared a young man in his rosy twenties; on closer view and +acquaintance, however, that superficial impression was contradicted +by the set expression of his mouth and the calm observation and +understanding of his eye, which spoke of ripe experience rather +than of green hope. He bore a very good English +name—Courtney; and he was believed to be rich. There was no +member of whom the Hyacinth Club was prouder than of him: though he +had done nothing, it was commonly believed he could do anything he +chose. No other was listened to with such attention, and there was +nothing on which he could not throw a fresh and fascinating light. +He <a name='011.png' id='p011.png'></a> was a constant spring of +surprise and interest. While others were striving after income and +reputation, he calmly and modestly, without obtrusion or +upbraiding, held on his own way, with unsurpassable curiosity, to +the discovery of all which life might have to reveal. It was this, +perhaps, as much as the charm of his manner and conversation, that +made him so universal a favourite; for how could envy or malice +touch a man who competed at no point with his fellows?</p> + +<p>His immediate neighbours, as he thus stood by the window, were a +pair of journalists, several scientific men, and an artist.</p> + +<p>"Have you seen any of the picture-shows, Julius?" asked the +painter, Kew.</p> + +<p>Courtney slowly abstracted his gaze from without, and turned on +his shoulder with the lazy, languid grace of a cat.<a name= +'012.png' id='p012.png'></a></p> + +<p>"No," said he, in a half-absent tone; "I have just come up, and +I've not thought of looking into picture-galleries yet."</p> + +<p>"Been in the country?" asked Kew.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I've been in the country," said Courtney, still as if his +attention was elsewhere.</p> + +<p>"It must be looking lovely," said Kew.</p> + +<p>"It is—exquisite!" said Courtney, waking up at length to a +full glow of interest. "That's why I don't want to go and stare at +pictures. In the spring, to see the fresh, virginal, delicious +green of a bush against an old dry brick wall, gives a keener +pleasure than the best picture that ever was painted."</p> + +<p>"I thought," said Kew, "you had a taste for Art; I thought you +enjoyed it."</p> + +<p>"So I do, my dear fellow, but not now,—not <a name= +'013.png' id='p013.png'></a> at this particular present. When I +feel the warm sun on my back and breathe the soft air, I want no +more; they are more than Art can give—they are Nature, and, +of course, it goes without saying that Art can never compete with +Nature in creating human pleasure. I mean no disparagement of your +work, Kew, or any artist's work; but I can't endure Art except in +winter, when everything (almost) must be artificial to be +endurable. A winter may come in one's life—I wonder if it +will?—when one would rather look at the picture of a woman +than at the woman herself. Meantime I no more need pictures than I +need fires; I warm both hands and heart at the fire of life."</p> + +<p>"Ah!" said Kew, with a wistful lack of comprehension.</p> + +<p>"That's why I believe," said Courtney, <a name='014.png' id= +'p014.png'></a> with a sudden turn of reflection, "there is in warm +countries no Art of our small domestic kind."</p> + +<p>"Just so," said Kew; while Dingley Dell, the Art critic, made a +note of Courtney's words.</p> + +<p>"Look here!" exclaimed Dr. Embro, an old scientific man of +Scottish extraction, who, in impatience with such transcendental +talk, had taken up 'The St. James's Gazette.' "What do you make of +this queer case at the Hôtel-Dieu in Paris? I see it's taken +from 'The Daily Telegraph;'" and he began to read it.</p> + +<p>"Oh," said Kew, "we all read that this morning."</p> + +<p>"Dr. Embro," said Courtney, again looking idly out of window, +"is like a French journal: full of the news of the day before +yesterday."<a name='015.png' id='p015.png'></a></p> + +<p>"Have you read it yourself, Julius?" asked Embro, amid the +laughter of his neighbours.</p> + +<p>"No," said Julius carelessly; "and if it's a hospital case I +don't want to read it."</p> + +<p>"What!" said Embro, with heavy irony. "You say that? You, a +pupil of the great Dubois and the greater Charbon! But here comes a +greater than Charbon—the celebrated Dr. Lefevre himself. Come +now, Lefevre, you tell us what you think of this Paris hospital +case."</p> + +<p>"Presently, Embro," said Lefevre, who had just perceived his +friend Courtney. "Ha, Julius!" said he, crossing to him and taking +his hand; "you're looking uncommonly well."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Julius, "I am well."</p> + +<p>"And where have you been all this while?" asked the doctor.<a +name='016.png' id='p016.png'></a></p> + +<p>"Oh," said Julius, turning his gaze again out of window, "I have +been rambling everywhere, between Dan and Beersheba."</p> + +<p>"And all is vanity, eh?" said the doctor.</p> + +<p>"Well," said Julius, looking at him, "that depends—that +very much depends. But can there be any question of vanity or +vexation in this sweet, glorious sunshine?" and he stretched out +his hands as if he burgeoned forth to welcome it.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps not," said Lefevre. "Come and sit down and let us +talk."</p> + +<p>They were retiring from the window when Embro's voice again +sounded at Lefevre's elbow—"Come now, Lefevre; what's the +meaning of that Paris case?"</p> + +<p>"What Paris case?"<a name='017.png' id='p017.png'></a></p> + +<p>Embro answered by handing him the paper. He took it, and read as +follows:—</p> + +<blockquote> +<p>"About a month ago a strange case of complete mental collapse +was received into the Hôtel-Dieu. A fresh healthy girl, of +the working class, about twenty years of age, and comfortably +dressed, presented herself at a police-station near the +Odéon and asked for shelter. As she did not appear to be in +full possession of her mental faculties, she was sent to the +Hôtel-Dieu, where she remained in a semi-comatose condition. +Her memory did not go farther back than the hour of her application +at the police-station. She was entirely ignorant of her previous +history, and had even forgotten her name. The minds of the medical +staff of the Hôtel-Dieu were very much exercised with her +condition; but it was not till about a week ago that they succeeded +in restoring to any extent her mental consciousness and her memory. +She then remembered the events immediately preceding her +application to the police. It had come on to rain, she said, and +she was hurrying along to escape from it, when a gentleman in a +cloak came to her side and politely offered to give her the shelter +of his umbrella. She accepted; the gentleman seemed old and ill. He +asked her to take his arm. She did so, and very soon she felt as if +her strength had gone from her; a cold shiver <a name='018.png' id= +'p018.png'></a> crept over her; she trembled and tottered; but with +all that she did not find her sensations disagreeable exactly or +alarming; so little so, indeed, that she never thought of letting +go the gentleman's arm. Her head buzzed, and a kind of darkness +came over her. Then all seemed to clear, and she found herself +alone near the police-station, remembering nothing. Being asked to +further describe the gentleman, she said he was tall and dark, with +a pleasant voice and wonderful eyes, that made you feel you must do +whatever he wished. The police have made inquiries, but after such +a lapse of time it is not surprising that no trace of him can be +found."</p> +</blockquote> + +<p>"Well?" asked Embro, when Lefevre had raised his eyes from the +paper. "What do you think of it?"</p> + +<p>"Curious," said Lefevre. "I can't say more, since I know nothing +of it but this. Have you read it, Julius?"</p> + +<p>"No," said Julius; "I hate what people call news; and when I +take up a paper, it's only to look at the Weather Forecasts." +Lefevre handed him the paper, <a name='019.png' id='p019.png'></a> +which he took with an unconcealed look of repulsion. "If it's some +case of disease," said he, "it will make me ill."</p> + +<p>"Oh no," said Lefevre; "it's not painful, but it's curious;" and +so Julius set himself to read it.</p> + +<p>"But come," said Embro, posing the question with his forefinger; +"do you believe that story, Lefevre?"</p> + +<p>"Though it's French, and from the 'Telegraph,'" said Lefevre, "I +see no reason to disbelieve it."</p> + +<p>"Come," said Embro, "come—you're shirking the +question."</p> + +<p>"I confess," said Lefevre, "I've no desire to discuss it. You +think me prejudiced in favour of anything of the kind; perhaps I +think you prejudiced against it: where, then, is the good of +discussion?"<a name='020.png' id='p020.png'></a></p> + +<p>"Well, now," said the unabashed Embro, "I'll tell you what I +think. Here's a story"—Julius at that instant handed back the +paper to him—"of a healthy young woman mesmerised, +hypnotised, or somnambulised, or whatever you like to call it, in +the public street, by some man that casually comes up to her, and +her brain so affected that her memory goes! I say it's +inconceivable!—impossible!" And he slapped the paper down on +the table.</p> + +<p>The others looked on with grim satisfaction at the prospect of +an argument between the two representatives of rival schools; and +it was noteworthy that, as they looked, they turned a referring +glance on Courtney, as if it were a foregone conclusion that he +must be the final arbiter. He, however, sat abstracted, with <a +name='021.png' id='p021.png'></a> his eyes on the floor, and with +one hand propping his chin and the other drumming on the arm of his +chair.</p> + +<p>"I'm not a scientific man," said the journalist who was not an +Art critic, "and I am not prejudiced either way about this story; +but it seems to me, Embro, that you view the thing through a very +ordinary fallacy, and make a double mistake. You confound the +relatively inconceivable with the absolutely impossible: this story +is relatively inconceivable to you, and therefore you say it is +absolutely impossible."</p> + +<p>"Is there such a thing as an absolute impossibility?" murmured +Julius, who still sat with his chin in his hand, looking as if he +considered the "thing" from a long way off as one of a multitude of +other things.<a name='022.png' id='p022.png'></a></p> + +<p>"I do not believe there is," said the journalist; +"but——"</p> + +<p>"Don't let us lose ourselves in metaphysics," broke in Embro. +Then, turning to Courtney, whose direct intelligent gaze seemed to +disconcert him, he said, "Now, Julius, you've seen, I daresay, a +good many things we have not seen,—have you ever seen or +known a case like this we're talking about?"</p> + +<p>"I can't say I have," said Julius.</p> + +<p>"There you are!" quoth Embro, in triumph.</p> + +<p>"But," continued Julius, "I don't therefore nail that case down +as false."</p> + +<p>"Do you mean to say," exclaimed Embro, "that you have lived all +your years, and studied science at the +Salpétrière,—or what they call science +there,—and studied and seen God knows what <a name='023.png' +id='p023.png'></a> else besides, and you can't pronounce an opinion +from all you know on a case of this sort?"</p> + +<p>"Oh yes," said Julius, quietly, "I can pronounce an opinion; but +what's the use of that? I think that case is true, but I don't know +that it is; and therefore I can't argue about it, for argument +should come from knowledge, and I have none. I have a few opinions, +and I am always ready to receive impressions; but, besides some +schoolboy facts that are common property, the only thing I +know—I am certain of—is, as some man says, '<i>Life's a +dream worth dreaming</i>.'"</p> + +<p>"You're too high-falutin for me, Julius," said Embro, shaking +his head. "But my opinion, founded on my knowledge, is that this +story is a hallucination of the young woman's noddle!"<a name= +'024.png' id='p024.png'></a></p> + +<p>"And how much, Embro," laughed Julius, rising to leave the +circle, "is the argument advanced by your ticketing the case with +that long word?"</p> + +<p>"To say 'hallucination,'" quoth Lefevre, "is a convenient way of +giving inquiry the slip."</p> + +<p>"My dear Embro," said Julius,—and he spoke with an +emphasis, and looked down on Embro with a bright vivacity of eye, +which forewarned the circle of one of his eloquent flashes: a smile +of expectant enjoyment passed round,—"hallucination is the +dust-heap and limbo of the meanly-equipped man of science to-day, +just as witchcraft was a few hundred years ago. The poor creature +of science long ago, when he came upon any pathological or +psychological manifestation he did not understand, used to say, +'<i>Witchcraft</i>! <a name='025.png' id='p025.png'></a> Away with +it to the limbo!' To-day he says, '<i>Hallucination</i>! Away with +it to the dust-heap!' It is a pity," said he, with a laugh, "you +ever took to science, Embro."</p> + +<p>"And why, may I ask?" said Embro.</p> + +<p>"Oh, you'd have been great as an orthodox theologian of the +Kirk; the cocksureness of theology would have suited you like your +own coat. You are not at home in science, for you have no +imagination."</p> + +<p>It was characteristic of the peculiar regard in which Julius was +held that whatever he said or did appeared natural and +pleasant,—like the innocent actions and the simple, truthful +speech of a child. Not even Embro was offended with these last +words of his: the others laughed; Embro smiled, though with a +certain sourness.</p> + +<p>"Pooh, Julius!" said he; "what are you <a name='026.png' id= +'p026.png'></a> talking about? Science is the examination of facts, +and what has imagination to do with that? Reason, sir, is what you +want!"</p> + +<p>"My dear Embro," said Julius, "there are several kinds of facts. +There are, for instance, big facts and little facts,—clean +facts and dirty facts. Imagination raises you and gives you a high +and comprehensive view of them all; your mere reason keeps you +down in some noisome corner, like the man with the muck-rake."</p> + +<p>"Hear, hear!" cried the journalist and the artist heartily.</p> + +<p>"You're wrong, Julius," said Embro,—"quite wrong. Keep +your imagination for painting and poetry. In science it just leads +you the devil's own dance, and fills you with delusions."</p> + +<p>Julius paused, and bent on him his <a name='027.png' id= +'p027.png'></a> peculiar look, which made a man feel he was being +seen through and through.</p> + +<p>"I am surprised, Embro," said he, "that one can live all your +years and not find that the illusions of life are its best part. If +you leave me the illusions, I'll give you all the realities. But +how can we stay babbling and quibbling here all this delicious +afternoon? I must go out and see green things and beasts. Come with +me, Lefevre, to the Zoological Gardens; it will do you good."</p> + +<p>"I tell you what," said Lefevre, looking at the clock as they +moved away; "my mother and sister will call for me with the +carriage in less than half an hour: come with us for a drive."</p> + +<p>"Oh yes," said Julius; "that's a good idea."</p> + +<p>"And I," said Lefevre, "must have a <a name='028.png' id= +'p028.png'></a> cup of tea in the meantime. Come and sit down, and +tell me where you have been."</p> + +<p>But when they had sat down, Julius was little inclined to +divagate into an account of his travels. His glance swept round and +noted everything; he remarked on a soft effect of a shaft of +sunshine that lit up the small conservatory, and burnished the +green of a certain plant; he perceived a fine black Persian cat, +the latest pet of the Club, and exclaimed, "What a beautiful, +superb creature!" He called it, and it came, daintily sniffed at +his leg, and leaped on his lap, where he stroked and fondled it. +And all the while he continued to discuss illusion, while Lefevre +poured and drank tea (tea, which Julius would not share: tea, he +said, did not agree with him).</p> + +<p>"It bothers me," he said, "to imagine <a name='029.png' id= +'p029.png'></a> how a man like Embro gets any satisfaction out of +life, for ever mumbling the bare dry bones of science. Such a life +as his might as well be passed in the receiver of an air-pump."</p> + +<p>"Still the old Julius!" said the doctor, with a smile. "Still +dreaming and wandering, interested in everything, but having +nothing to do!"</p> + +<p>"Nothing to do, my dear fellow?" said Julius. "I've all the +world to enjoy!" and he buried his cheek in the soft fur of the +cat.</p> + +<p>"A purpose in life, however," said Lefevre, "gives an +extraordinary zest to all enjoyment."</p> + +<p>"To live," said Julius, "is surely the purpose of life. Any +smaller, any more obvious purpose, will spoil life, just as it +spoils Art."<a name='030.png' id='p030.png'></a></p> + +<p>"I believe, my boy, you are wrong in both," said Lefevre. "Art +without a purpose goes off into all sorts of madness and +extravagance, and so does life."</p> + +<p>"You really think so?" said Julius, his attention fixed for an +instant, and looking as if he had set up the point and regarded it +at a distance. "Yes; perhaps it does." But the next moment his +attention seemed given to the cat; he fondled it, and talked to it +soothingly.</p> + +<p>"I am sure of it," said Lefevre. "Just listen to me, Julius. You +have wonderful intelligence and penetration in everything. You are +fond of science; science needs men like you more than the dull +plodders that usually take to it. When you were in Charbon's class +you were his favourite and his best pupil,—don't I +remember?—and <a name='031.png' id='p031.png'></a> if you +liked you could be the greatest physician of the age."</p> + +<p>"It is treason to yourself to say such a thing."</p> + +<p>"Your fame would soon eclipse mine."</p> + +<p>"Fame! fame!" exclaimed Julius, for an instant showing +irritation. "I would not give a penny-piece for fame if all the +magicians of the East came crying it down the streets! Why should I +seek fame? What good would it do me if I had it?"</p> + +<p>"Well, well," said Lefevre; "let fame alone: you might be as +unknown as you like, and do a world of good in practice among the +poor."</p> + +<p>Julius looked at him, and set the cat down.</p> + +<p>"My dear Lefevre," said he, "I did not think you could urge such +common <a name='032.png' id='p032.png'></a> twaddle! You know well +enough,—nobody knows better,—first of all, that there +are already more men waiting to do that kind of thing than can find +occupation: why should I go down among them and try to take their +work? And you know, in the next place, that medical philanthropy, +like all other philanthropy, is so overdone that the race is fast +deteriorating; we strive with so much success to keep the sickly +and the diseased alive, that perfect health is scarcely known. Life +without health can be nothing but a weariness: why should it be +reckoned a praiseworthy thing to keep it going at any price? If +life became a burden to me, I should lay it down."</p> + +<p>"But," said Lefevre, earnestly, "your life surely is not your +own to do with it what you like!"<a name='033.png' id= +'p033.png'></a></p> + +<p>"In the name of truth, Lefevre," answered Julius, "if my life is +not my own, what is? I get its elements from others, but I fashion +it myself, just as much as the sculptor shapes his statue, or the +poet turns his poem. You don't deny to the sculptor the right to +smash his statue if it does not please him, nor to the poet the +right to burn his manuscript;—why should you deny me the +right to dispose of my life? I know—I know," said he, seeing +Lefevre open his mouth and raise his hand for another observation, +"that your opinion is the common one, but that is the only sanction +it has; it has the sanction neither of true morality nor of true +religion! But here is the waiter to tell you the carriage is come. +I'm glad. Let us get out into the air and the sunshine."<a name= +'034.png' id='p034.png'></a></p> + +<p>The carriage was the doctor's own; his mother, although the +widow of a Court physician, was too poor to maintain much equipage, +but she made what use she pleased of her son's possessions. When +Lady Lefevre saw Julius at the carriage-door, she broke into smiles +and cries of welcome.</p> + +<p>"Where have you been this long, long while, Julius?" said she. +"This is Julius Courtney, Nora. You remember Nora, Julius, when she +was a little girl in frocks?"</p> + +<p>"She now wears remarkable gowns," chimed in the doctor.</p> + +<p>"Which," said Julius, "I have no doubt are becoming."</p> + +<p>"My brother," said Nora, with a sunny smile, "is jealous; +because, being a doctor, he must wear only dowdy clothes of dingy +colours."<a name='035.png' id='p035.png'></a></p> + +<p>"We have finished at school and college, and been presented at +Court," laughed Lady Lefevre.</p> + +<p>"And," broke in the brother, "we have had cards engraved with +our full name, <i>Leonora</i>."</p> + +<p>"With all this," said Lady Lefevre, "I hope you won't be afraid +of us."</p> + +<p>"I see no reason," said Julius. "For, if I may say so, I like +everything in Nature, and it seems to me Nature has had more to do +with the finishing you speak of than the schoolmistress or the +college professor."</p> + +<p>"There he is already," laughed Lady Lefevre, "with his equivocal +compliments. I shouldn't wonder if he says that, my dear, because +you have not yet had more than a word to say for yourself."</p> + +<p>By that time Lefevre and Julius were <a name='036.png' id= +'p036.png'></a> seated, and the carriage was rolling along towards +the Park. Julius sat immediately opposite Lady Lefevre, but he +included both her and Nora in his talk and his bright glances. The +doctor sat agreeably suffused with delight and wonder. No one, as +has been seen, had a higher opinion of Courtney's rare powers, or +had had more various evidence of them, than Lefevre, but even he +had never known his friend so brilliant. He was instinct with life +and eloquence. His face shone as with an inner light, and his talk +was bright, searching, and ironical. The amazing thing, however, +was that Julius had as stimulating and intoxicating an influence on +Nora as, it was clear, Nora had on him. His sister had not appeared +to Lefevre hitherto more than a beautiful, healthy, shy girl of +tolerable intelligence; now she <a name='037.png' id='p037.png'> +</a> showed that she had brilliance and wit, and, moreover, that +she understood Julius as one native of a strange realm understands +another. When they entered the Park, they were the observed of all. +And, indeed, Leonora Lefevre was a vision to excite the worship of +those least inclined to idolatry of Nature. She was of the noblest +type of English beauty, and she seemed as calmly unconscious of its +excellence and rarity as one of the grand Greek women of the +Parthenon. She had, however, a sensuous fulness and bloom, a +queenly carriage of head and neck, a clearness of feature, and a +liquid kindness of eye that suggested a deep potentiality of +passion.</p> + +<p>They drove round the Row, and round again, and they talked and +laughed their fill of wisdom and frivolity and folly. To <a name= +'038.png' id='p038.png'></a> be foolish wisely and gracefully is a +rare attainment. When they had almost completed their third round, +Julius (who had finished a marvellous story of a fairy princess and +a cat) said, "I can see you are fond of beasts, Miss Lefevre. I +should like to take you to the Zoological Gardens and show you my +favourites there. May we go now, Lady Lefevre?"</p> + +<p>"By all means," said Lady Lefevre, "let us go. What do you say, +John?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, wherever you like, mother," answered her son.</p> + +<p>Arrived in the Gardens, Julius took possession of his +companions, and exerted all his arts to charm and fascinate. He led +the ladies from cage to cage, from enclosure to enclosure, showed +himself as familiar with the characters and habits of their wild +denizens as a farmer is with <a name='039.png' id='p039.png'></a> +those of his stock, and they responded to his strange calls, to his +gentleness and fearlessness, with an alert understanding and +confidence beautiful to see. His favourites were certain creatures +of the deer species, which crowded to their fences to sniff his +clothes, and to lick his hands, which he abandoned to their +caresses with manifest satisfaction. His example encouraged the +queenly Nora and her sprightly mother to feed the beautiful +creatures with bread and buns, and to feel the suffusion of +pleasure derived from the contact of their soft lips with the palm +of the hand. After that they were scarcely astonished when, without +bravado, but clearly with simple confidence and enjoyment, Julius +put his hand within the bars of the lion's cage and scratched the +ears of a lioness, murmuring the while in a strange tongue <a name= +'040.png' id='p040.png'></a> such fond sounds as only those use who +are on the best terms with animals. The great brute rose to his +touch, closing its eyes, and bearing up its head like a cat.</p> + +<p>Then came an incident that deeply impressed the Lefevres. Julius +went to a cage in which, he said, there was a recent +arrival—a leopard from the "Land of the Setting Sun," the +romantic land of the Moors. The creature crouched sulking in the +back of the cage. Julius tapped on the bars, and entreated her in +the language of her native land, "Ya, dudu! ya, lellatsi!" She +bounded to him with a "<i>wir-r-r</i>" of delight, leaned and +rubbed herself against the bars, and gave herself up to be stroked +and fondled. When he left her, she cried after him piteously, and +wistfully watched him out of sight.<a name='041.png' id= +'p041.png'></a></p> + +<p>"Do you know the beautiful creature?" asked Lady Lefevre.</p> + +<p>"Yes," answered Julius quietly; "I brought her over some months +ago."</p> + +<p>Lefevre had explained to his mother that Julius had always been +on friendly or fond terms with animals, but never till now had he +seen the remarkable understanding he clearly maintained with +them.</p> + +<p>"Look!" said Lady Lefevre to her son as they turned to leave the +Gardens. "He seems to have fascinated Nora as much as the +beasts."</p> + +<p>Nora stood a little aloof, regarding Julius in an ecstasy of +admiration. When she found her mother was looking at her, her eyes +sank, and as it were a veil of blushes fell over her. Mother and +son walked on first, and Julius followed with Nora.<a name= +'042.png' id='p042.png'></a></p> + +<p>"He is a most charming and extraordinary man," said the +mother.</p> + +<p>"He is," said the son, "and amazingly intelligent."</p> + +<p>"He seems to know everything, and to have been +everywhere,—to have been a kind of rolling stone. If anything +should come of this, I suppose he can afford to marry. You ought to +know about him."</p> + +<p>"I believe I know as much as any one."</p> + +<p>"He has no profession?" queried the lady.</p> + +<p>"He has no profession; but I suppose he could afford it," said +Lefevre musingly.</p> + +<p>"You don't like the idea," said his mother.</p> + +<p>"Not much. I scarce know why. But I somehow think of him as not +having enough sense of the responsibility of life."<a name= +'043.png' id='p043.png'></a></p> + +<p>"I suppose his people are of the right sort?"</p> + +<p>"I suppose they are; though I don't know if he has any people," +said he, with a laugh. "He is the kind of man who does not need +parents or relations."</p> + +<p>"Still, hadn't you better try to find out what he may have in +that line?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Lefevre; "perhaps I had."<a name='044.png' id= +'p044.png'></a></p> + +<h2 id='case'>Chapter II.</h2> + +<p class='argument'>A Mysterious Case.</p> + +<p><span class='small-caps'>The</span> two friends returned, as +they had arranged, to the Hyacinth Club for dinner. Courtney's +coruscating brilliancy sank into almost total darkness when they +parted from Lady and Miss Lefevre, and when they sat down to table +he was preoccupied and silent, yet in no proper sense downcast or +dull. Lefevre noted, while they ate, that there was clear +speculation in his eye, that he was not vaguely dreaming, but with +alert intelligence examining some question, or facing some +contingency; and <a name='045.png' id='p045.png'></a> it was +natural he should think that the question or contingency must +concern Nora as much as Julius. Yet he made no overture of +understanding, for he knew that Courtney seldom offered confidence +or desired sympathy; not that he was churlish or reserved, but +simply that he was usually sufficient unto himself, both for +counsel and for consolation. Lefevre was therefore surprised when +he was suddenly asked a question, which was without context in his +own thought.</p> + +<p>"Have you ever found something happen or appear," said Julius, +"that completely upsets your point of view, and tumbles down your +scheme of life, like a stick thrust between your legs when you are +running?"</p> + +<p>"I have known," said Lefevre, "a new fact arise and upset a +whole scientific <a name='046.png' id='p046.png'></a> theory. +That's often a good thing," he added, with a pointed glance; "for +it compels a reconstruction of the theory on a wider and sounder +basis."</p> + +<p>"Yes," murmured Julius; "that may be. But I should think it does +not often happen that the new fact swallows up all the details that +supported your theory,—as Aaron's rod, turned into a serpent, +swallowed up the serpent-rods of the magicians of Egypt,—so +that there is no longer any theory, but only one great, glorious +fact. I do admire," he exclaimed, swerving suddenly, "the +imagination of those old Greeks, with their beautiful, half-divine +personifications of the Spirits of Air and Earth and Sea! But their +imagination never conceived a goddess that embodied them all!"</p> + +<p>"I have often thought, Julius," said <a name='047.png' id= +'p047.png'></a> Lefevre, "that you must be some such embodiment +yourself; for you are not quite human, you know."</p> + +<p>The doctor said that with a clear recollection of his mother's +request. He hoped that his friend would take the cue, and tell him +something of his family. Julius, however, said nothing but +"Indeed." Lefevre then tried to tempt him into confession by +talking about his own father and mother, and by relating how the +French name "Lefevre" came to be domiciled in England; but Julius +ignored the temptation, and dismissed the question in an eloquent +flourish.</p> + +<p>"What does a man want with a family and a name? They only tie +him to the earth, as Gulliver was tied by the people of Lilliput. +We have life and health,—<i>if</i> we have them,—and it +is only veiled <a name='048.png' id='p048.png'></a> prurience to +inquire whence we got them. A man can't help having a father and a +mother, I suppose; but he need not be always reminding himself of +the fact: no other creature on earth does. For myself, I wish I +were like that extraordinary person, Melchizedek, without father +and without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of +days nor end of life."</p> + +<p>In a little while the friends parted. Lefevre said he had work +to do, but he did not anticipate such work as he had to turn to +that night. Though the doctor was a bachelor, he had a professional +residence apart from his mother and sister. They lived in a small +house in Curzon Street; he dwelt in Savile Row. Savile Row was a +place of consequence long before Regent Street was thought of, but +now they are few who know of <a name='049.png' id='p049.png'></a> +its existence. Fashion ignores it. It is tenanted by small clubs, +learned societies, and doctors. It slumbers in genteel decorum, +with its back to the garish modern thoroughfare. It is always +quiet, but by nine o'clock of a dark evening it is deserted. When +Dr Lefevre, therefore, stepped out of his hired hansom, and +prepared to put his latch-key in his own door, he was arrested by a +hoarse-voiced hawker of evening news bursting in upon the repose of +the Row with a continuous roar of +"Special—Mystery—Paper—Railway—Special—Brighton—Paper—Victoria—Special!" +It was with some effort, and only when the man was close at hand, +that he interpreted the sounds into these words.</p> + +<p>"Paper, sir," said the man; and he bought it and went in. He +entered his <a name='050.png' id='p050.png'></a> dining-room, and +read the following paragraph;—</p> + +<blockquote> +<p>"A Mysterious Case.</p> + +<p>"A report has reached us that a young man, about two or four and +twenty years of age, whose name is at present unknown, was found +yesterday (Sunday) to all appearance dead in a first-class carriage +of the 5 P.M. train from Brighton to Victoria. The discovery was +only made at Grosvenor Road Station, where tickets are taken before +entering Victoria. At Victoria the body was searched for purposes +of identification, and there was found upon him a card with the +following remarkable inscription:—'<i>I am not dead. Take me +to the St. James's Hospital.</i>' To St. James's Hospital +accordingly the young man was conveyed. It seems probable he is in +a condition of trance—not for the first time—since he +was provided with the card, and knew the hospital with which is +associated in all men's minds the name of Dr Lefevre, who is so +famous for his skill in the treatment of nervous disorders."</p> +</blockquote> + +<p>In matters of plain duty Dr Lefevre had got into the excellent +habit of acting first and thinking afterwards. He at once rang the +bell, and ordered the responsible <a name='051.png' id='p051.png'> +</a> serving-man who appeared to call a cab. The man went to the +door and sounded his shrill whistle, grateful to the ears of +several loitering cabbies. There was a mad race of growlers and +hansoms for the open door. Dr Lefevre got into the first hansom +that drew up, and drove off to the hospital. By that time he had +told himself that the young man must be a former patient of his +(though he did not remember any such), and that he ought to see him +at once, although it is not customary for the visiting physician of +a hospital to appear, except between fixed hours of certain days. +He made nothing of the mystery which the newspaper wished, after +the manner of its kind, to cast about the case, and thought of +other things, while he smoked cigarettes, till he reached the +hospital. The house-physician <a name='052.png' id='p052.png'></a> +was somewhat surprised by his appearance.</p> + +<p>"I have just read that paragraph," said Lefevre, handing him the +paper.</p> + +<p>"Oh yes, sir," said the house-physician. "The man was brought in +last night. Dr Dowling" [the resident assistant-physician] "saw +him, and thought it a case of ordinary trance, that could easily +wait till you came, as usual, to-morrow."</p> + +<p>"Ah, well," said Lefevre, "let me see him."</p> + +<p>Seen thus, the physician appeared a different person from the +cheerful, modest man of the Hyacinth Club. He had now put on the +responsibility of men's health and the enthusiasm of his +profession. He seemed to swell in proportions and dignity, though +his eye still beamed with a calm and kindly light.<a name='053.png' +id='p053.png'></a></p> + +<p>The young man led the way down the echoing flagged passage, and +up the flight of stone stairs. As they went they encountered many +silent female figures, clean and white, going up or down (it was +the time of changing nurses), so that a fanciful stranger might +well have thought of the stairway reaching from earth to heaven, on +which the angels of God were seen ascending and descending. A +stranger, too, would have noted the peculiar odours that hung about +the stairs and passages, as if the ghosts of medicines escaped from +the chemist's bottles were hovering in the air. Opening first an +outer and then an inner door, Lefevre and his companion entered a +large and lofty ward. The room was dark, save for the light of the +fire and of a shaded lamp, by which, within a screen, the +night-nurse <a name='054.png' id='p054.png'></a> sat conning her +list of night-duties. The evening was just beginning out of +doors,—shop-fronts were flaring, taverns were becoming noisy, +and brilliantly-lit theatres and music-halls were settling down to +business,—but here night and darkness had set in more than an +hour before. Indeed, in these beds of languishing, which stretched +away down either side of the ward, night was hardly to be +distinguished from day, save for the sunlight and the occasional +excitement of the doctor's visit; and many there were who cried to +themselves in the morning, "Would God it were evening!" and in the +evening, "Would God it were morning!" But there was yet this other +difference, that disease and doctor, fear and hope, gossip and +grumbling, newspaper and Bible and tract, were all forgotten in <a +name='055.png' id='p055.png'></a> the night, for some time at +least, and Nature's kind restorer, sleep, went softly round among +the beds and soothed the weary spirits into peace.</p> + +<p>Lefevre and the house-physician passed silently up the ward +between the rows of silent blue-quilted beds, while the nurse came +silently to meet them with her lamp. Lefevre turned aside a moment +to look at a man whose breathing was laboured and stertorous. The +shaded light was turned upon him: an opiate had been given him to +induce sleep; it had performed its function, but, as if resenting +its bondage, it was impishly twitching the man's muscles and +catching him by the throat, so that he choked and started. Dr +Lefevre raised the man's eyelid to look at his eye: the upturned +eye stared out upon him, but the man slept on. He put his hand on +the <a name='056.png' id='p056.png'></a> man's forehead (he had a +beautiful hand—the hand of a born surgeon and +healer—fine but firm, the expression of nervous force), and +with thumb and finger stroked first his temples and then his neck. +The spasmodic twitching ceased, and his breath came easy and +regular. The house-doctor and the nurse looked at each other in +admiration of this subtle skill, while Lefevre turned away and +passed on.</p> + +<p>"Where is the man?" said he.</p> + +<p>"Number Thirteen," answered the house-doctor, leading the +way.</p> + +<p>The lamp was set on the locker beside the bed of Thirteen, +screens were placed round to create a seclusion amid the living, +breathing silence of the ward, and Lefevre proceeded to examine the +unconscious patient who had so strangely put himself in his +hands.<a name='057.png' id='p057.png'></a></p> + +<p>He was young and well-favoured, and, it was evident from the +firmness of his flesh, well-fed. Lefevre considered his features a +moment, shook his head, and murmured, "No; I don't think I've seen +him before." He turned to the nurse and inquired concerning the +young man's clothes: they were evidently those of a gentleman, she +said,—of one, at least, who had plenty of money. He turned +again to the young man. He raised the left arm to feel the heart, +but, contrary to his experience in such cases, the arm did not +remain as he bent it, nor did the eyes open in obedience to the +summons of the disturbed nerves. The breathing was scarcely +perceptible, and the beating of the heart was faint.</p> + +<p>"A strange case," said Lefevre in a low voice to his young +comrade—"the <a name='058.png' id='p058.png'></a> strangest +I've seen. He does not look a subject for this kind of thing, and +yet he is in the extreme stage of hypnotism. You see." And the +doctor, by sundry tests and applications, showed the peculiar +exhausted and contractive condition of the muscles. "It is very +curious."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps," said the other, "he has been——" and he +hesitated.</p> + +<p>"Been what?" asked Lefevre, turning on him his keen look.</p> + +<p>"Enjoying himself."</p> + +<p>"Having a debauch, you mean? No; I think not. There would then +have probably been some reflex action of the nerves. This is not +that kind of exhaustion; and it is more than mere trance or +catalepsy; it seems the extremest suspensory condition,—and +that in a young man of such apparent health <a name='059.png' id= +'p059.png'></a> is very remarkable. It will take a long time for +him to recover in the ordinary way with food and sleep," he +continued, rather to himself than to his subordinates. "He needs +rousing,—a strong stimulant."</p> + +<p>"Shall I get some brandy, sir?" asked the nurse.</p> + +<p>"Brandy? No. That's not the stimulant he needs."</p> + +<p>He was silent for a little, moving the young man's limbs, and +touching certain muscles which his exact anatomical knowledge +taught him to lay his finger on with unerring accuracy. The effect +was startling and grotesque. As a galvanic current applied to the +proper nerves and muscles of a dead body will produce expressions +and actions resembling those of life, so the touch of Lefevre's +finger made the unconscious young man scowl or smile or <a name= +'060.png' id='p060.png'></a> clench his fist according to the +muscles impressed.</p> + +<p>"The brain," said Lefevre, "seems quite sound,—perfectly +passive, you see, but active in its passivity. You can leave us, +nurse," said he; then, turning to the house-physician, he +continued: "I am convinced this is such a peculiar case as I have +often imagined, but have never seen. This nervous-muscular +suspension is complicated with some exhaustive influence. I want +your assistance, and I ask for it like this, because it is +necessary for my purpose that you should give it freely, and +without reserve; I am going to try the electrode."</p> + +<p>This was a simple machine contrived by Lefevre, on the model of +the electric cylinder of Du Bois-Reymond, and worked on the theory +that the electricity stored in <a name='061.png' id='p061.png'></a> +the human body can be driven out by the human will along a prepared +channel into another human body.</p> + +<p>"I understand," said the assistant promptly. He apprehended his +chief's meaning more fully than the reader can; for he was deeply +interested and fairly skilled in that strange annex of modern +medical science which his chief called psycho-dynamics, and which +old-fashioned practitioners decline to recognise.</p> + +<p>"Get me the machine and the insulating sheet," said Lefevre.</p> + +<p>While his assistant was gone on his errand, Lefevre with his +right hand gently stroked along the main lines of nerve and muscle +in the upper part of his patient's body; and it was strange to note +how the features and limbs lost a certain constriction and rigidity +which it was manifest <a name='062.png' id='p062.png'></a> they had +had only by their disappearance. When the house-physician returned, +the sheet (a preparation of spun-glass invented by Lefevre) was +drawn under the patient, and the machine, with its vessels of +chemical mixture and its conducting wires, was placed close to the +bed. The handles attached to the wires were put into the patient's +hands.</p> + +<p>"Now," said Lefevre, "this is a trying experiment. Give me your +hand—your left; you know how to do; yes, the other hand on +the machine, with the fingers touching the chemicals. When you feel +strength—virtue, so to say—going out of you, don't be +alarmed: let it go; use no effort of the will to keep it back, or +we shall probably fail."</p> + +<p>"I understand," repeated the assistant.</p> + +<p>Then, holding his hand,—closely, but <a name='063.png' id= +'p063.png'></a> not so as to constrain the muscles,—Lefevre +put his own left on the machine according to the direction he had +given his assistant,—with his fingers, that is, dipping into +the chemicals from plates in the bottom of which the wires +conducted to the patient's hands. A shiver ran through the frame of +both Lefevre and his companion, a convulsive shudder passed upon +the unconscious body, and—a strange cry rang out upon the +silence of the ward, and Lefevre withdrew his hands. He and the +house-physician looked at each other pale and shaken. The nurse +came running at the cry. Lefevre looked out beyond the screen to +reassure her, and saw in the dim red reflection of the firelight a +sight which struck him gruesomely, used though he was to hospital +sights; all about the ward pale scared figures were <a name= +'064.png' id='p064.png'></a> sitting up in bed, like corpses +suddenly raised from the dead. He bent over his patient, who +presently opened his eyes and stared at him.</p> + +<p>"Get some brandy and milk," said Lefevre to his companion.</p> + +<p>"Who? Where am I?" murmured the patient in a faint voice.</p> + +<p>"I am Dr Lefevre, and this is St. James's Hospital."</p> + +<p>"Doctor?—hospital?—oh, I'm dreaming!" murmured the +patient.</p> + +<p>"We'll talk about that when you have taken some of this," said +Lefevre, as the house-physician reappeared with the nurse, bearing +the brandy and milk.</p> + +<p>Lefevre presently told him how he had been found in the train, +and taken for dead till the card—"this card," said he, taking +it from the top of the locker—was <a name='065.png' id= +'p065.png'></a> discovered on him. The young man listened in open +amazement, and looked at the card.</p> + +<p>"I know nothing of this!" said he. "I never saw the card before! +I never heard your name or the hospital's till a minute ago."</p> + +<p>"Your case was strange before," said Lefevre; "this makes it +stranger. Who journeyed with you?"</p> + +<p>"A man,—a nice, strange, oldish fellow in a fur coat." And +the young man wished to enter upon a narrative, when the doctor +interrupted him.</p> + +<p>"You're not well enough to talk much now. Tell me to-morrow all +about it."</p> + +<p>The doctor returned home, his imagination occupied with the +vision of a train rushing at express speed over the metals, and of +a compartment in the train in <a name='066.png' id='p066.png'></a> +which a young man reclined under the spell of an old man. The young +man's face he saw clearly, but the old man's evaded him like a +dream, and yet he felt he ought to know one who knew the peculiar +repute of the St. James's Hospital. Next day the young man told his +story, which was in effect as follows: He was a subaltern in a +dragoon regiment stationed in Brighton. On Sunday afternoon he had +set out for London on several days' leave. He had taken a seat in a +smoking-carriage, and was preparing to make himself comfortable +with a novel and a cigar, when an elderly gentleman, who looked +like a foreigner, came in as the train was about to move. He +particularly observed the man from the first, because, though it +was a pleasant spring day, he looked pinched and shrunken with cold +in his <a name='067.png' id='p067.png'></a> great fur overcoat, and +because he had remarked him standing on the platform and +scrutinizing the passengers hurrying into the train. The gentleman +sat down in the seat opposite the young officer, and drew his fur +wrap close about him. The young officer could not keep his eyes off +him, and he noted that his features seemed worn thin and arid, as +by passage through terrific peril,—as if he had been +travelling for many days without sleep and without food, straining +forward to a goal of safety, sick both in stomach and +heart,—as if he had been rushing, like the maniac of the +Gospel, through dry places, seeking rest and finding none. His +hair, which should have been black, looked lustreless and bleached, +and his skin seemed as if his blood had lost all colour and +generosity, as if nothing but serum flowed in his veins. <a name= +'068.png' id='p068.png'></a> His eyes alone did not look bloodless; +they were weary and extravasated, as from anxious watching. The +young officer's compassion went out to the stranger; for he thought +he must be a conspirator, fleeing probably from the infamous +tyranny of Russian rule. But presently he spoke in such good +English that the idea of his being a Russian faded away.</p> + +<p>"Excuse the liberty I take," said he, with a singularly winning +smile; "but let me advise you not to smoke that cigar. I have a +peculiarly sensitive nose for tobacco, and my nose informs me that +your cigar, though good as cigars go, is not fit for you to +smoke."</p> + +<p>The young officer was surprised that he was rather charmed than +offended by this impertinence.</p> + +<p>"Let me offer you one of these instead," <a name='069.png' id= +'p069.png'></a> said the strange gentleman; "we call them—I +won't trouble you with the Spanish name—but in English it +means 'Joys of Spain.'"</p> + +<p>The officer took and thanked him for a "Joy of Spain," and found +the flavour and aroma so excellent that, to use his own phrase, he +could have eaten it. He asked the stranger what in particular was +his objection to the other cigar.</p> + +<p>"This objection," said he, "which is common to all ill-prepared +tobaccos, that it lowers the vital force. You don't feel that yet, +because you are young and healthy, and gifted with a superabundance +of fine vitality; but you may by smoking one bad cigar bring the +time a day nearer when you must feel it. And even now it would take +a little off the keen edge of the appetite for pleasure. How +little," said <a name='070.png' id='p070.png'></a> he, "do we +understand how to keep ourselves in condition for the complete +enjoyment of life! You, I suppose, are about to take your pleasure +in town, and instead of judiciously tickling and stimulating your +nerves for the complete fulfilment of the pleasures you +contemplate, you begin—you were beginning, I mean, with your +own cigar—to dull and stupefy them. Don't you see how foolish +that is?"</p> + +<p>The young officer admitted that it was very foolish and very +true; and they talked on thus, the elder exercising a charm over +the younger such as he had never known before in the society of any +man. In a quarter of an hour the young man felt as if he had known +and trusted and loved his neighbour all his life; he felt, he +confessed, so strongly attracted that he could have hugged him. He +told him about his <a name='071.png' id='p071.png'></a> family, and +showed him the innermost secrets of his heart; and all the while he +smoked the delicious "Joy of Spain," and felt more and more +enthralled and fascinated by the stranger's eyes, which, as he +talked, lightened and glowed more and more as their glance played +caressingly about him. He was beginning to wonder at that, when +with some emphatic phrase the stranger laid his fingers on his +knee, upon which a thrill shot through him as if a woman had +touched him. He looked in the stranger's face, and the wonderful +eyes seemed to search to the root of his being, and to draw the +soul out of him. He had a flying thought—"Can it be a woman, +after all, in this strange shape?" and he knew no more ... till he +woke in the hospital bed.</p> + +<p>That was the patient's story.<a name='072.png' id= +'p072.png'></a></p> + +<p>"Just look over your property here," said the doctor. "Have you +lost anything?"</p> + +<p>The young man turned over his watch and the contents of his +purse, and answered that he had lost nothing.</p> + +<p>"Strange—strange!" said Lefevre—"very strange! And +the card—of course the stranger must have put it in your +pocket."</p> + +<p>"Which would seem to imply," said the young man, "that <i>he</i> +knows something of the hospital."</p> + +<p>"Well," said Lefevre, "we must see what can be done to clear the +mystery up."</p> + +<p>"Some of those newspaper-men have been here," said the +house-physician, when they had left the ward, "and they will be +sure to call again before the day is out. Shall I tell them +anything of this?"<a name='073.png' id='p073.png'></a></p> + +<p>"Certainly," said Lefevre. "Publicity may help us to discover +this amazing stranger."</p> + +<p>"Do you quite believe the story?" asked the house-physician.</p> + +<p>"I don't disbelieve it."</p> + +<p>"But what did the stranger do to put him in that condition, +which seems something more than hypnotism?"</p> + +<p>"Ah," said Lefevre, "I don't yet understand it; but there are +forces in Nature which few can comprehend, and which only one here +and there can control and use."<a name='074.png' id= +'p074.png'></a></p> + +<h2 id='dolaro'>Chapter III.</h2> + +<p class='argument'>"M. Dolaro."</p> + +<p><span class='small-caps'>Next</span> day men talked, newspaper +in hand, at the breakfast-table, in the early trains, omnibuses, +and tramcars, of the singular railway outrage. It was clear its +purpose was not robbery. What, then, did it mean? +Some—probably most—declared it was very plain what it +meant; while others,—the few,—after much argument, +confessed themselves quite mystified.</p> + +<p>The police, too, were not idle. They made inquiries and took +notes here and there. They discovered that the five <a name= +'075.png' id='p075.png'></a> o'clock train made but two pauses on +its journey to London—at Croydon and at Clapham Junction. At +neither of those places could a man in a fur coat be heard of as +having descended from the train; and yet it was manifest that he +did not arrive at Grosvenor Road, where tickets were taken. After +persistent and wider inquiries, however, at Clapham Junction (which +was the most likely point of departure), a cabman was found who +remembered having taken up a fare—a gentleman in a fur +coat—about the hour indicated. He particularly remarked the +gentleman, because he looked odd and foreign and half tipsy (that +was how he seemed to him), because he was wrapped up "enough for +Father Christmas," and because he asked to be driven such a long +way—to a well-known hotel near the <a name='076.png' id= +'p076.png'></a> Crystal Palace, where "foreign gents" were fond of +staying. Being asked what in particular had made him think the +gentleman a foreigner, cabby could not exactly say; he believed, +however, it was his coat and his eyes. Of his face he saw little or +nothing, it was so muffled up; yet his tongue was English +enough.</p> + +<p>Inquiry was then pushed on to the hotel named by the cabman. A +gentleman in a fur coat had certainly arrived there the evening +before, but no one had seen anything of him after his arrival. He +had taken dinner in his private sitting-room, and had then paid his +bill, because, he said, he must be gone early in the morning. About +half an hour after dinner, when a waiter cleared the things away, +he had gone to his room, and next morning he had left the hotel +soon after dawn. Boots, <a name='077.png' id='p077.png'></a> half +asleep, had seen him walk away, bag in hand, wrapped in his +greatcoat,—walk away, it would seem, and dissolve into the +mist of the morning, for from that point no further trace could be +got of him. No such figure as his had been seen on any of the roads +leading from the hotel, either by the early milkman, or by the +belated coffee-stall keeper, or night cabman. Being asked what name +the gentleman had given at the hotel, the book-keeper showed her +record, with the equivocal name of "M. Dolaro." The name might be +Italian or Spanish,—or English or American for that +matter,—and the initial "M" might be French or anything in +the world.</p> + +<p>In the meantime Dr Lefevre had been pondering the details of the +affair, and noting the aspects of his patient's condition; but the +more he noted and pondered, <a name='078.png' id='p078.png'></a> +the more contorted and inexplicable did the mystery become. His +understanding boggled at its very first notes. It was almost +unheard of that a young man of his patient's strong and healthy +constitution and temper should be hypnotised or mesmerised at all, +much less hypnotised to the verge of dissolution; and it was +unprecedented that even a weak, hysterical subject should, after +being unhypnotised, remain so long in prostrate exhaustion. Then, +suppose these circumstances of the case were ordinary, there arose +this question, which refused to be solved: Since it was ridiculous +to suppose that the hypnotisation was a wanton experiment, and +since it had not been for the sake of robbery, what had been its +object?</p> + +<p>The interest of the case was emphasised and enlarged by an +article in 'The Daily <a name='079.png' id='p079.png'></a> +Telegraph,' in which was called to mind the singular story in its +Paris correspondence a day or two before, of the young woman in the +Hôtel-Dieu, which Lefevre had forgotten. The writer remarked +on the points of similarity which the case in the Brighton train +bore to that of the Paris pavement; insisted on the probable +identity of the man in the fur coat with the man in the cloak; and +appealed to Dr Lefevre to explain the mystery, and to the police to +find the man "who has alarmed the civilised world by a new form of +outrage."</p> + +<p>Lefevre was piqued by that article, and he went to see his +patient day after day, in the constant hope of finding a solution +of the puzzle that perplexed him. The direction in which he looked +for light will be best suggested by remarking what were <a name= +'080.png' id='p080.png'></a> his peculiar theory and practice. +Lefevre was not a materialistic physician; indeed, in the opinion +of many of his brethren, he erred on the other side, and was too +much inclined to mysticism. It may at least be said that he had an +open mind, and a modest estimate of the discoveries of modern +medical science. He had perceived while still a young man (he was +now about forty) that all medical practice—as distinct from +surgical—is inexact and empirical, that, like English common +law, it is based merely on custom, and a narrow range of +experience; and he had therefore argued that a wider experience and +research, especially among decaying nations, might lead to the +discovery of a guiding principle in pathology. That conviction had +taken him as medical officer to Egypt and India, where, amid the +relics of civilisations <a name='081.png' id='p081.png'></a> half +as old as time, he found traditions of a great scientific practice; +and thence it had brought him back to study such foreign medical +writers as Du Bois-Reymond, Nobili, Matteucci, and Müller, and +to observe the method of the famous physicians of the +Salpétrière. Like the great Charbon, he made nervous +and hysterical disorders his specialty, in the treatment of which +he was much given to the use of electricity. He had very pronounced +"views," though he seldom troubled his brethren with them; for he +was not of those who can hold a belief firmly only if it is also +held by others.</p> + +<p>More than a week had passed without discovery or promise of +light, when one afternoon he went to the hospital resolved to +compass some explanation.</p> + +<p>He walked at once, on entering the <a name='082.png' id= +'p082.png'></a> ward, to the bedside of his puzzling patient, who +still lay limp as a dish-clout and drowsy as a sloth. He +tested—as he had done almost daily—his nervous and +respiratory powers with the exact instruments adapted for the +purpose, and then, still unenlightened, he questioned him closely +about his sensations. The young officer answered him with tolerable +intelligence.</p> + +<p>"I feel," he ended with saying, "as if all my energy had +evaporated,—and I used to have no end,—just as a spirit +evaporates if it is left open to the air."</p> + +<p>The saying struck Lefevre mightily. "Energy" stood then to +Lefevre as an almost convertible term for "electricity," and his +successful experiments with electricity had opened up to him a vast +field of conjecture, into which, on the smallest inflaming hint, he +was wont to make an <a name='083.png' id='p083.png'></a> excursion. +Such a hint was the saying of the young officer now, and, as he +walked away, he found himself, as it were, knocking at the door of +a great discovery. But the door did not open on that summons, and +he resolved straightway to discuss the subject with Julius +Courtney, who, though an amateur, had about as complete a knowledge +of it as himself, and who could bring to bear, he believed, a finer +intelligence.</p> + +<p>He first sought Julius at the Hyacinth Club, where he frequently +spent the afternoon. Failing to find him there, he inquired for him +at his chambers in the Albany. Hearing nothing of him there, and +the ardour of his quest having cooled a little, he stepped out +across the way to his own home in Savile Row.</p> + +<p>There he found a note from his mother, <a name='084.png' id= +'p084.png'></a> with a touch of mystery in its wording. She said +she wanted very much to have a serious conversation with him; she +had been expecting for days to see him, and she begged him to go +that evening to dinner if he could. "Julius," said she, "will be +here, and one or two others."</p> + +<p>The mention of Julius as a visitor at his mother's house +reminded him of his promise to that lady to find out how the young +man was connected: engrossed as he had been with his strange case, +he had almost forgotten the promise, and he had done nothing to +fulfil it but tap ineffectually for admission to his friend's +confidence. He therefore considered with some anxiety what he +should do, for Lady Lefevre could on occasion be exacting and +severe with her son. He concluded nothing could be <a name= +'085.png' id='p085.png'></a> done before dinner, but he went +prepared to be questioned and perhaps rated. He was pleased to find +that his mother seemed to have forgotten his promise as much as he +had, and to see her in the best of spirits with a tableful of +company.</p> + +<p>"Oh, you have come," said she, presenting her cheek to her son; +"I thought that after all you might be detained by that mysterious +case you have at the hospital. Here's Dr. Rippon—and Julius +too—dying to hear all about it;" but she gave no hint of the +serious conversation which she said in her note she desired.</p> + +<p>"Not I, Lady Lefevre," Julius protested. "I don't like medical +revelations; they make me feel as if I were sitting at the +confessional of mankind."</p> + +<p>Noting by the way that Julius and his sister seemed much taken +up with each <a name='086.png' id='p086.png'></a> other, and that +Julius, while as fascinating as ever, and as ready and apt and +intelligent of speech, seemed somewhat more chastened in manner and +less effervescent in health,—like a fire of coal that has +spent its gas and settled into a steady glow of heat,—he +turned to Dr Rippon, a tall, thin old gentleman of over seventy, +but who yet had a keen tongue, and a shrewd, critical eye. He had +been an intimate friend of the elder Lefevre, and the son greeted +him with respect and affection.</p> + +<p>"Who is the gentleman?" said Dr Rippon, aside, when their +greeting was over. "It does an old man's heart good to see and hear +him," and the old doctor straightened himself. "But he'll get old +too; that's the sad thing, from my point of view, that such beauty +of person and swift <a name='087.png' id='p087.png'></a> +intelligence of mind <i>must</i> grow old and withered, and slow +and dull. What did you say his name is, John?"</p> + +<p>"His name is Courtney—Julius Courtney," said Lefevre.</p> + +<p>"Courtney," mused the old man, stroking his eyebrow; "I once +knew a man of that name, or, rather, who took that name. I wonder +if this friend of yours is of the same family; he is not unlike the +man I knew."</p> + +<p>"Oh," said Lefevre, immediately interested, "he may be of the +same family, but I don't know anything of his relations. Who was +the man, may I ask, that you knew?"</p> + +<p>"Well," said the old gentleman, settling down to a story, which +Lefevre was sure would be full of interest and contemporary +allusion, for the old physician had in his <a name='088.png' id= +'p088.png'></a> time seen many men and many things—"it is a +romantic story in its way."</p> + +<p>He was on the point of beginning it when dinner was +announced.</p> + +<p>"I should like to hear the story when we return to the +drawing-room," said Lefevre.</p> + +<p>Over dinner, Lefevre was beset with inquiries about his +mysterious case:—Was the young man better? Had he been very +ill? Was he handsome? What had the foreign-looking stranger done to +him? and for what purpose had he done it? These questions were +mostly ignorant and thoughtless, and Lefevre either parried them or +answered them with great reserve. When the ladies retired from +table, however, more particular and curious queries were pressed +upon him as to the real character of the outrage upon the young <a +name='089.png' id='p089.png'></a> man. He replied that he had not +yet discovered, though he believed he was getting "warm."</p> + +<p>"Is it fair," said Julius, "to ask you in what direction you are +looking for an explanation or revelation?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, quite fair," said Lefevre, welcoming the question. "To put +it in a word, I look to <i>electricity</i>,—animal +electricity. I have been for some time working round, and I hope +gradually getting nearer, a scientific secret of enormous—of +transcendent value. Can you conceive, Julius, of a universal +principle in Nature being got so under control as to form a +universal basis of cure?"</p> + +<p>"Can I conceive?" said Julius. "And is that electricity +too?"</p> + +<p>"I hope to find it is."</p> + +<p>"Oh, how slow!" exclaimed Julius,—"oh, <a name='090.png' +id='p090.png'></a> how slow you professional scientific men become! +You begin to run on tram-lines, and you can't get off them! Why fix +yourself to call this principle you're seeking for 'electricity'? +It will probably restrict your inquiry, and hamper you in several +ways. I would declare to every scientific man, 'Unless you become +as a little child or a poet, you will discover no great truth!' +Setting aside your bias towards what you call 'electricity,' you +are really hoping to discover something that was discovered or +divined thousands of years ago! Some have called it 'od'—an +'imponderable fluid'—as you know; you and others wish to call +it 'electricity.' I prefer to call it 'the spirit of life,'—a +name simple, dignified, and expressive!"</p> + +<p>"It has the disadvantage of being poetic," said Dr Rippon, with +grave irony; <a name='091.png' id='p091.png'></a> "and doctors +don't like poetry mixed up with their science."</p> + +<p>"It <i>is</i> poetic," admitted Julius, regarding the old doctor +with interest, "and therefore it is intelligible. The spirit of +life is electric and elective, and it is 'imponderable:' it can +neither be weighed nor measured! It flows and thrills in the nerves +of men and women, animals and plants, throughout the whole of +Nature! It connects the whole round of the Cosmos by one glowing, +teasing, agonising principle of being, and makes us and beasts and +trees and flowers all kindred!"</p> + +<p>"That is all very beautiful and fresh," said Lefevre, +"but——"</p> + +<p>"But," interrupted Julius, "it is not a new truth: the poet +divined it ages ago! Buddha, thousands of years ago, perceived it, +and taught that 'all life is linked and <a name='092.png' id= +'p092.png'></a> kin;' so did the Egyptians and the Greeks, when +they worshipped the principle of life everywhere; and so did our +own barbaric ancestors, when the woods—the wonderful, mystic +woods!—were their temples. Life—the spirit of +life!—is always beautiful; always to be desired and +worshipped!"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said old Dr Rippon, who had listened to this astonishing +rhapsody with evident interest, with sympathetic and intelligent +eye; "but a time will come even to you, when death will appear more +beautiful and friendly and desirable than life."</p> + +<p>Courtney was silent, and looked for a second or two deadly sick. +He cast a searching eye on Dr Rippon.</p> + +<p>"That's the one thought," said he, "that makes me sometimes feel +as if I were <a name='093.png' id='p093.png'></a> already under the +horror of the shade. It's not that I am afraid of dying—of +merely ceasing to live; it is that life may cease to be delightful +and friendly, and become an intolerable, decaying burden."</p> + +<p>He filled a glass with Burgundy, and set himself attentively to +drink it, lingering on the bouquet and the flavour. Lefevre beheld +him with surprise, for he had never before seen Julius take wine: +he was wont to say that converse with good company was intoxicating +enough for him.</p> + +<p>"Why, Julius," said Lefevre, "that's a new experience you are +trying,—is it not?"</p> + +<p>Julius looked embarrassed an instant, and then replied, "I have +begun it very recently. I did not think it wise to postpone the +experience till it might become an absolute necessity."<a name= +'094.png' id='p094.png'></a></p> + +<p>Old Dr Rippon watched him empty the glass with a musing eye. "'I +sought in mine heart,'" said he, gravely quoting, "'to give myself +unto wine, yet acquainting mine heart with wisdom.'"</p> + +<p>"True," said Julius, considering him closely. "But, for +completeness' sake, you ought to quote also, 'Whatsoever mine eyes +desired I kept not from them; I withheld not my heart from any +joy.'"</p> + +<p>Lefevre looked from the one to the other in some darkness of +perplexity.</p> + +<p>"You appear, John," said the old doctor, with a smile, "not to +know one of the oldest and greatest of books: you will find it +included in your Bible. Mr Courtney clearly knows it. I should not +be surprised to hear he had adopted its philosophy of 'wisdom and +madness and folly.'"<a name='095.png' id='p095.png'></a></p> + +<p>"Surely you cannot say," remarked Julius, "that the writer of +that book had what is called a 'philosophy.' He was moved by an +irresistible impulse, of which he gives you the explanation when he +uses that magnificent sentence about having 'the world set in his +heart.'"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said the old doctor, in a subdued, backward voice, +regarding Julius with the contemplative eyes of memory. "You will, +I hope, forgive me when I say that you remind me very much of a +gentleman who took the name of Courtney. I knew him years ago: was +he a relation of yours, I wonder?"</p> + +<p>"Possibly," said Julius, seeming scarcely interested; "though +the name of Courtney, I believe, is not very uncommon." Then, +turning to Lefevre, he said, "I hope you don't think I wish to make +light of your <a name='096.png' id='p096.png'></a> grand idea. I +only mean that you must widen your view, if you would work it out +to success."</p> + +<p>With that Lefevre became more curious to hear Dr Rippon's story. +So when they went to the drawing-room he got the old gentleman into +a secluded corner, and reminded him of his promise.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said the doctor, "it is a romantic story. About forty +years ago,—yes, about forty: it was immediately after the +fall of Louis Philippe,—I went with my friend Lord Rokeby to +Madrid. He went as ambassador, and I as his physician. There was +then at the Spanish Court a very handsome hidalgo, Don +Hernando—I forget all his names, but his surname was De +Sandoval. He was of the bluest blood in Spain, and a marquis, but +poor as a church mouse. He had a great reputation <a name='097.png' +id='p097.png'></a> for gallant adventures and for mysterious +scientific studies. On the last ground I sought and cultivated his +acquaintance. But he was a proud, reserved person, and I could +never quite make out what his studies were, except that he read a +great deal, and believed firmly in the Arabic philosophers and +alchemists of the middle ages; and he would sometimes talk with the +same sort of rhapsodical mysticism as this young man delights you +with. We did not have much opportunity for developing an intimacy +in any case; for he fell in love with the daughter of our Chief +Secretary of Legation, a bright, lovely English girl, and that +ended disastrously for his position in Madrid. He made his +proposals to her father, and had them refused; chiefly, I believe, +on account of his loose reputation. The girl, too, was <a name= +'098.png' id='p098.png'></a> the heiress of an uncle's property on +this curious condition, it appeared,—that whoever should +marry her should take the uncle's name of <i>Courtney</i>. Don +Hernando and the young lady disappeared; they were married, and he +took the name of Courtney, and was forbidden to return to Madrid. +He and his wife settled in Paris, where I used to meet them +frequently; then they travelled, I believe, and I lost sight of +them. I returned to Paris on a visit some few years ago, and I +asked an old friend about the Courtneys; he believed they were both +dead, though he could give me no certain news about them."</p> + +<p>"Supposing," said Lefevre, "that this Julius were their son, do +you know of any reason why he should be reserved about his +parentage?"<a name='099.png' id='p099.png'></a></p> + +<p>"No," said the old man, "no;—unless it be that Hernando +was not episcopal in his affections; but I should think the young +man is scarcely Puritan enough to be ashamed of that."</p> + +<p>Lefevre and the old man both looked round for Julius. They +caught sight of him and Leonora Lefevre standing one on either side +of a window, with their eyes fixed upon each other.</p> + +<p>"The young lady," said the old doctor, "seems much taken up with +him."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Lefevre; "and she's my sister."</p> + +<p>"Ah," said the old doctor; "I fear my remark was rather +unreserved."</p> + +<p>"It is true," said Lefevre.</p> + +<p>He left Dr Rippon, to seek his mother. He found her excited and +warm, and without a word to spare for him.<a name='100.png' id= +'p100.png'></a></p> + +<p>"You wanted," said he, "some serious talk with me, mother?"</p> + +<p>"Oh yes," said she; "but I can't talk seriously now: I can +scarcely talk at all. But do you see how Nora and Julius are taken +up with each other? I never before saw such a pair of moonstruck +mortals! I believe I have heard of the moon having a magnetic +influence on people: do you think it has? But he is a charming +man!"—glancing towards Julius—"I'm more than half in +love with him myself. Now I must go. Come quietly one afternoon, +and then we can talk."</p> + +<p>Her son abstained from recounting, as he had proposed to +himself, what he had heard from Dr Rippon: he would reserve it for +the quiet afternoon. He took his leave almost immediately, bearing +with him a deep impression—like a strongly <a name='101.png' +id='p101.png'></a> bitten etching wrought on his memory—of +his last glimpse of the drawing-room: Nora and Julius set talking +across a small table, and the tall, pale, gaunt figure of Dr Rippon +approaching and stooping between them. It seemed a sinister +reminder of the words the old doctor had addressed to +Julius,—"<i>A time will come when death will appear more +beautiful and friendly and desirable than life!</i>"<a name= +'102.png' id='p102.png'></a></p> + +<h2 id='man'>Chapter IV.</h2> + +<p class='argument'>The Man of the Crowd.</p> + +<p><span class='small-caps'>In</span> a few days Dr Lefevre found a +quiet afternoon, and went and told his mother the story of the +Spanish marquis which he had got from Dr Rippon. She hailed the +story with delight. Courtney was a fascinating figure to her +before: it needed but that to clothe him with a complete romantic +heroism; for, of course, she did not doubt that he was the son of +the Spanish grandee. She wished to put it to him at once whether he +was not, but she was dissuaded by her son from mentioning the +matter yet to either Julius or her daughter.<a name='103.png' id= +'p103.png'></a></p> + +<p>"If he wishes," said Lefevre, "to keep it secret for some +reason, it would be an impertinence to speak about it. We shall, +however, have a perfect right to ask him about himself if his +attentions to Nora go on."</p> + +<p>Soon afterwards (it was really a fortnight; but in a busy life +day melts into day with amazing rapidity), Lefevre was surprised at +dinner, and somewhat irritated, by a letter from his mother. She +wrote that they had seen nothing of Julius Courtney for three or +four days,—which was singular, since for the past three or +four weeks he had been a daily visitor; latterly he had begun to +look fagged and ill, and it was possible he was confined to his +room,—though, after all, that was scarcely likely, for he had +not answered a note of inquiry which she had sent. She <a name= +'104.png' id='p104.png'></a> begged her son to call at his +chambers, the more so as Nora was pining in Julius's absence to a +degree which made her mother very anxious.</p> + +<p>With professional suspicion Lefevre told himself that if Julius, +with his magnificent health, was fallen ill, it must be for some +outrageous reason. But even if he was ill, he need not be +unmannerly: he might have let his friends who had been in the habit +of seeing him daily know what had come to him. Was it possible, the +doctor thought, that he was repenting of having given Nora and her +mother so much cause to take his assiduous attentions seriously? He +resolved to see Julius at once, if he were at his chambers.</p> + +<p>He left his wine unfinished (to the delight of his grave and +silent man in black), hastily took his hat from its peg in <a name= +'105.png' id='p105.png'></a> the hall, and passed out into the +street, while his man held the door open. In two minutes he had +passed the northern gateway of the Albany, which, as most people +know, is just at the southern end of Savile Row. Courtney's door +was speedily opened in response to his peremptory summons.</p> + +<p>"Is your master at home, Jenkins?" asked Lefevre of the +well-dressed serving-man, who looked distinguished enough to be +master himself.</p> + +<p>"No, doctor," answered Jenkins; "he is not."</p> + +<p>"Gone out," said Lefevre, "to the club or to dinner, I +suppose?"</p> + +<p>"No, doctor," repeated Jenkins; "he is not. He went away four +days ago."</p> + +<p>"Went away!" exclaimed Lefevre.</p> + +<p>"He do sometimes go away by himself, <a name='106.png' id= +'p106.png'></a> sir. He is so fond of the country, and he likes to +be by himself. It is the only thing that do him good."</p> + +<p>"Becomes solitary, does he?" said Lefevre. "Yes; intelligent, +impulsive persons like him, that live at high pressure, often have +black moods." That was not quite what he meant, but it was enough +for Jenkins.</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir," said Jenkins; "he do sometimes have 'em black. He +don't seem to take no pride in himself, as he do usual—don't +seem to care somehow if he look a gentleman or a common man."</p> + +<p>"But your master, Jenkins," said Lefevre, "can never look a +common man."</p> + +<p>"No, sir," said Jenkins; "he cannot, whatever he do."</p> + +<p>"He is gone into the country, then?" asked Lefevre.<a name= +'107.png' id='p107.png'></a></p> + +<p>"Yes, sir; I packed his small port-mantew for him four days +ago."</p> + +<p>"And where is he gone? He told you, I suppose?"</p> + +<p>"No, sir; he do not usual tell me when he is like that."</p> + +<p>It did not seem possible to learn anything from Jenkins, in +spite of the apparent intimacy of his conversation, so Lefevre left +him, and returned to his own house. He had sat but a little while +in his laboratory (where he had been occupying his small intervals +of leisure lately in electrical studies and experiments) when, as +chance would have it, the last post brought him a note from Dr +Rippon. Its purport was curious.</p> + +<p>"<i>I think</i>," the letter ran, "<i>you were sufficiently +interested in the story I told you some week or two ago about one +Hernando <a name='108.png' id='p108.png'></a> Courtney, not to be +bored by a note on the same subject. Last night I accompanied my +daughter and son-in-law to the Lyceum Theatre. On coming out we had +to walk down Wellington Street into the Strand to find our +carriage, and in the surging crowd about there I am almost sure I +saw the Hernando Courtney whom I believed to be dead</i>. Aut +Courtney aut Diabolus. <i>I have never heard satisfactory evidence +of his death, and I should very much like to know if he is really +still alive and in London. It has occurred to me that, considering +the intimacy of yourself and your family with the gentleman who was +made known to me at your mother's house by the name of Courtney, +you may have heard by now the rights of the case. If you have any +news, I shall be glad to share it with you."</i><a name='109.png' +id='p109.png'></a></p> + +<p>Considering this in association with the absence of Julius, +Lefevre found his wits becoming involved in a puzzle. He could not +settle to work, so he put on overcoat and hat, and sallied out +again. He had no fixed purpose: he only felt the necessity of +motion to resolve himself back into his normal calm. The air was +keen from the east. May, which had opened with such wanton warmth +and seductiveness, turned a cold shoulder on the world as she took +herself off. It was long since he had indulged in an evening walk +in the lamp-lit streets, so he stepped out eastward against the +shrewd wind. Insensibly his attention forsook the busy and anxious +present, and slipped back to the days of golden and romantic youth, +when the crowded nocturnal streets were full of the mystery of +life. He recalled the sensations of those <a name='110.png' id= +'p110.png'></a> days—the sharp doubts of self, the frequent +strong desires to drink deep of all that life had to offer, and the +painful recoils from temptation, which he felt would ruin, if +yielded to, his hope of himself, and his ambition of filling a +worthy place among men.</p> + +<p>Thus musing, he walked on, taking, without noting it, the most +frequented turnings, and soon he found himself in the Strand. It +was that middle time of evening, after the theatres and restaurants +have sucked in their crowds, when the frequenters of the streets +have some reserve in their vivacity, before reckless roisterers +have begun to taste the lees of pleasure, and to shout and jostle +on the pavements. He was walking on the side of the way next the +river, when, near the Adelphi, he became aware of a man before <a +name='111.png' id='p111.png'></a> him, wearing a slouch-hat and a +greatcoat—a man who appeared to choose the densest part of +the throng, to prefer to be rubbed against and hustled rather than +not. There was something about the man which held Lefevre's +attention and roused his curiosity—something in the swing of +his gait and the set of his shoulders. The man, too, seemed urged +on by a singular haste, which permitted him to be the slowest and +easiest of passengers in the thick of the crowd, but carried him +swiftly over the less frequented parts of the pavement. The doctor +began to wonder if he was a pickpocket, and to look about for the +watchful eye of a policeman. He kept close behind him past the door +of the Strand Theatre, when the throng became slacker, and the man +turned quickly about and returned the way he had come. Then <a +name='112.png' id='p112.png'></a> Lefevre had a glimpse of his +face,—the merest passing glimpse, but it made him pause and +ask himself where he had seen it before. A dark, foreign-looking +man, with a haggard appeal in his eye: he tried to find the place +of such a figure in his memory, but for the time he tried in +vain.</p> + +<p>Before the doctor recovered himself the man was well past, and +disappearing in the throng. He hurried after, determined to +overtake him, and to make a full and satisfying perusal of his face +and figure. He found that difficult, however, because of the man's +singular style of progression. To maintain an even pace for +himself, moreover, Lefevre had to walk very much in the roadway, +the dangers of which, from passing cabs and omnibuses, forbade his +fixing his attention on the man alone. Yet he was more and more +piqued to look <a name='113.png' id='p113.png'></a> him in the +face; for the longer he followed him the more he was struck with +the oddity of his conduct. He had already noted how he hurried over +the empty spaces of pavement and lingered sinuously in the thronged +parts; he now remarked further that those who came into immediate +contact with him (and they were mostly young people who were to be +met with at that season of the night) glanced sharply at him, as if +they had experienced some suspicious sensation, and seemed inclined +to remonstrate, till they looked in his face.</p> + +<p>Lefevre could not arrive at a clear front view till, by Charing +Cross Station, the man turned on the kerb to look after a handsome +youth who crossed before him, and passed over the road. Then the +doctor saw the face in the light of a street-lamp, and the sight +sent the blood <a name='114.png' id='p114.png'></a> in a gush from +his heart. It was a dark hairless face, terribly blanched and +emaciated, as if by years of darkness and prison, with the impress +of age and death, but yet with a wistful light in the eyes, and a +firm sensuousness about the mouth that betrayed a considerable +interest in life. He turned his eyes away an instant, to bring +memory and association to bear. When he looked again the man was +moving away. At once recognition rushed upon him like a wave of +light. The terribly worn, ghastly features resolved themselves into +a kind of death-mask of Julius! The wave recoiled and smote him +again. Who could the man be, therefore, who was so like Julius, and +yet was not Julius?—who could he be but Julius's +father,—that Hernando Courtney whom Dr Rippon believed he had +seen the evening before?<a name='115.png' id='p115.png'></a></p> + +<p>Here was a coil to unravel! Julius's father—the Spanish +marquis that was—supposed to be dead, but yet wandering in +singular fashion about the London streets, clearly not desiring, +much less courting, opportunities of being recognised; Julius not +caring to speak of his father, apparently ignoring his continued +existence, and yet apparently knowing enough of his movements to +avoid him when he came to London by suddenly removing "into the +country" without leaving his address. What was the meaning of so +much mystery? Crime? debt? political intrigue? or, what?</p> + +<p>The mysterious Hernando went on his way, by the southern sweep +of Trafalgar Square and Cockspur Street, to the Haymarket, and +Lefevre followed with attention and curiosity bent on him, but yet +<a name='116.png' id='p116.png'></a> with so little thought of +playing spy that, if Hernando had gone any other way or had +returned along the Strand, he would probably have let him go. And +as they went on, the doctor could not but note, as before, how the +object of his curiosity lingered wherever there was a press of +people, whether on the pavement or on a refuge at a crossing, and +hurried on wherever the pavement was sparsely peopled or whenever +the persons encountered were at all advanced in years. Indeed, the +farther he followed the more was his attention compelled to remark +that Hernando sharply avoided contact with the weakly, the old, and +the decrepit, and wonder why the young people of either sex whom he +brushed against should turn as if the touch of him waked suspicion +and a something hostile. Thus they traversed <a name='117.png' id= +'p117.png'></a> the Haymarket, the Criterion pavement, and, +flitting across to the Quadrant, the more popular side of Regent +Street, among pushing groups, weary stragglers, and steady +pedestrians. Lefevre had a mind to turn aside and go home when he +was opposite Vigo Street, but he was drawn on by the hope of +observing something that might give him a clue to the Courtney +mystery. When Oxford Circus was reached, however, Hernando jumped +into a cab and drove rapidly off, and Lefevre returned to his own +fireside.</p> + +<p>He sat for some time over a cigar and a grog, walking in +imagination round and round the mystery, which steadfastly refused +to dissolve or to be set aside. His own honour, and perhaps the +peace of his mother and sister, were involved in it. He was +resolved to ask Julius for an explanation <a name='118.png' id= +'p118.png'></a> as soon as he could come to speech with him; but +yet, in spite of that assurance which he gave himself, he returned +to the mystery again and again, and beset and bewildered himself +with questions: Why was Julius estranged from his father? What was +the secret of the old man's life which had left such an awful +impress on his face? And why was he nightly haunting the busiest +pavements of London, in the crowd, but not of it, urged on as by +some desire or agony?</p> + +<p>He went to bed, but not to sleep. In the quiet and the darkness +his imagination ranged without constraint over the whole field of +his questionings. He went back upon Dr Rippon's story of the +Spanish marquis, and fixed on the mention of his occult studies. He +saw him, in fancy, without wife or son, cut off from the position +<a name='119.png' id='p119.png'></a> and activities in his native +country which his proper rank would have given him, sequester +himself from society altogether, and give himself up to the study +of those Arabian sages and alchemists in whom he had delighted when +he was a young man. He saw him shun the daylight, and sleep its +hours away, and then by night abandon himself like another +Cagliostro to strange experiments with alembic and crucible, +breathing acrid and poisonous vapours, seeking to extort from +Nature her yet undiscovered secrets,—the Philosophers Stone, +and the Elixir of Life. He saw him turn for a little from his +strange and deadly experiments, and venture forth to show his +blanched and worn face among the throngs of men; but even there he +still pursued his anxious quest of life in the midst of death. He +<a name='120.png' id='p120.png'></a> saw him wander up and down, in +and out, among the evening crowd, delighting in contact with such +of his fellow-creatures as had health and youth, and seeking, +seeking—he knew not what. From this phantasmagoria he dozed +off into the dark plains of sleep; but even there the terribly +blanched and emaciated face was with him, bending wistful worn eyes +upon him and melting him to pity. And still again the vision of the +streets would arise about the face, and the sleeper would be aware +of the man to whom the face belonged walking quickly and sinuously, +seeking and enjoying contact with the throng, and strangely causing +many to resent his touch as if they had been pricked or stung, and +yet urged onward in some further quest,—an anxious quest it +sometimes resolved itself into for Julius, who ever evaded him.<a +name='121.png' id='p121.png'></a></p> + +<p>Thus his brain laboured through the dead hours of the night, +viewing and reviewing these scenes and figures, to extract a +meaning from them; but he was no nearer the heart of the mystery +when the morning broke and he was waked by the shrill chatter of +the sparrows. The day, however, brought an event which shed a lurid +light upon the Courtney difficulty, and revealed a vital connection +between facts which Lefevre had not guessed were related.<a name= +'122.png' id='p122.png'></a></p> + +<h2 id='fane'>Chapter V.</h2> + +<p class='argument'>The Remarkable Case of Lady Mary Fane.</p> + +<p><span class='small-caps'>It</span> was the kind of day that is +called seasonable. If the sun had been obscured, the air would have +been felt to be wintry; but the sunshine was full and warm, and so +the world rejoiced, and declared it was a perfectly lovely May +day,—just as a man who is charmed with the smiles and beauty +of a woman, thinks her complete though she may have a heart of ice. +Lefevre, as he went his hospital round that afternoon, found his +patients revelling in the sunlight like flies. He himself was in +excellent spirits, and he said a cheery or <a name='123.png' id= +'p123.png'></a> facetious word here and there as he passed, which +gave infinite delight to the thin and bloodless atomies under his +care; for a joke from so serious and awful a being as the doctor is +to a desponding patient better than all the drugs of the +pharmacopoeia: it is as exquisite and sustaining as a divine text +of promise to a religious enthusiast.</p> + +<p>Dr Lefevre was thus passing round his female ward, with a train +of attentive students at his heels, when the door was swung open +and two attendants entered, bearing a stretcher between them, and +accompanied by the house-physician and a policeman.</p> + +<p>"What is this?" asked Lefevre, with a touch of severity; for it +was irregular to intrude a fresh case into a ward while the +physician was going his round.<a name='124.png' id= +'p124.png'></a></p> + +<p>"I thought, sir," said the house-physician, "you would like to +see her at once: it seems to me a case similar to that of the man +found in the Brighton train."</p> + +<p>"Where was this lady found?" asked Lefevre of the policeman. He +used the word "lady" advisedly, for though the dress was that of a +hospital nurse or probationer, the unconscious face was that of an +educated gentlewoman. "Why, bless my soul!" he cried, upon more +particular scrutiny of her features—"it seems to me I know +her! Surely I do! Where did you say she was found?"</p> + +<p>The policeman explained that he was on his beat outside St +James's Park, when a park-keeper called him in and showed him, in +one of the shady walks, the lady set on a bench as if she had <a +name='125.png' id='p125.png'></a> fainted. The keeper said he had +taken particular notice of her, because he saw from her dress and +her veil she was a hospital lady. When he first set eyes on her, an +old gentleman was sitting talking to her—a strange, dark, +foreign-looking gentleman, in a soft hat and a big Inverness +cape.</p> + +<p>"Good heavens!" exclaimed the doctor. "The very man! That's the +meaning of it. And I did not guess!"</p> + +<p>His assistant and the policeman gazed at him in surprise; but he +recovered himself and asked, with a serious and determined knitting +of the brows, if the policeman had seen the old gentleman. The +policeman replied he had not; the gentleman was nowhere to be seen +when he was called in. The keeper saw him only once; when he +returned that way <a name='126.png' id='p126.png'></a> again, in +about a quarter of an hour, he found the lady alone and apparently +asleep. She had a very handsome umbrella by her side, and therefore +he kept within eye-shot of her on this side and on that, lest some +park-loafer should seize so good a chance of thieving. He thus +passed her two or three times. The last time, he remarked that she +had slipped a little to one side, and that her umbrella had fallen +to the ground. He went to pick it up, and it struck him as he bent +that she looked strangely quiet and pale. He spoke to her; she made +no reply. He touched her—he even in his fear ventured to +shake her—but she made no sign; and he ran to call the +policeman. They then brought her straight to the hospital, because +they could see she was a hospital lady of some sort.<a name= +'127.png' id='p127.png'></a></p> + +<p>"It must—it must be the same!" said Lefevre.</p> + +<p>"I thought, when I first heard of it below," said the +house-physician, "that it must be the same man as was the cause of +the other case, in the Brighton train."</p> + +<p>"No doubt it is the same. But I was thinking of it in +another—a far more serious sense!" Then turning to the +waiting policeman, he said, "Of course, you must report this to +your inspector?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir," said the policeman.</p> + +<p>"Give him my compliments, then, and say I shall see him +presently."</p> + +<p>Yet, he thought, how could he speak to the official, with all +that he suspected, all that he feared, in his heart? With his +attention on the <i>qui vive</i> with his experiences and +speculations of the night, he was seized, as we have seen, by the +<a name='128.png' id='p128.png'></a> conclusion that the "strange, +dark, foreign-looking gentleman" of the park-keeper's story was the +same whose steps he had followed the evening before, without +guessing that the man was perambulating the pavement and passing +among the crowd in search, doubtless, of a fresh victim for occult +experiment or outrage! That conclusion once determined, shock after +shock smote upon his sense. What if the mysterious person were +really proved to be Julius's father? What if he had entered upon a +course of experiment or outrage (he passed in rapid review the +mysteries of the Paris pavement and the Brighton train, and this of +the Park)—outrage yet unnamable because unknown, but which +would amaze and confound society, and bring signal punishment upon +the offender? And what—what if Julius <a name='129.png' id= +'p129.png'></a> knew all that, and therefore sought to keep his +parentage hidden?</p> + +<p>"She is ready, doctor," said the Sister of the ward at his +elbow, adding with a touch of excitement in her manner as he turned +to her, "do you know who she is? Look at this card; we noticed the +name first on her linen."</p> + +<p>Dr Lefevre looked at the card and read, "Lady Mary Fane, Carlton +Gardens, S.W."</p> + +<p>"I suspected as much," said he. "Lord Rivercourt's daughter. +It's a bad business. She has been learning at St Thomas's the +duties of nurse and dresser, which accounts for her being in that +uniform."</p> + +<p>He went to the bed on which his new patient had been laid, and +very soon satisfied himself that her case was similar to that of +the young officer, though graver <a name='130.png' id='p130.png'> +</a> much than it. He wrote a telegram to Lord Rivercourt, sent the +house-physician for his electrical apparatus, and returned to the +bedside. He looked at his patient. He had not remarked her hitherto +more than other women of his acquaintance, though he had sometimes +sat at her father's table; but now he was moved by a beauty which +was enhanced by helplessness—a beauty stamped with a calm +disregard of itself—the manifest expression of a noble and +loving soul, which had lived above the plane of doubt and fear and +gusty passion. Her wealth of lustrous black hair lay abroad upon +her pillow, and made an admirable setting for her finely-modelled +head and neck. As he looked at this excellent presentment, and +thought of the intelligence and activity which had been wont to +animate it, resentment rose in <a name='131.png' id='p131.png'></a> +him against the man who, for whatever end, had subdued the noble +woman to that condition, and a deep impatience penetrated him that +he had not discovered—had even scarcely guessed—the +purpose or the method of the subjugation!</p> + +<p>It was, however, not speculation but action that was needed +then. The apparatus described in the case of the young officer was +ready, and the house-physician was waiting to give his assistance. +The stimulation of Will and Electricity was applied to resuscitate +the patient—but with the smallest success: there was only a +faint flutter, a passing slight rigidity of the muscles, and all +seemed again as it had been. The exhausting nature of the operation +or experiment forbade its immediate repetition. Disappointment +pervaded <a name='132.png' id='p132.png'></a> the doctor's being, +though it did not appear in the doctor's manner.</p> + +<p>"We'll try again in half an hour," said he to his assistant, and +turned away to complete his round of the ward.</p> + +<p>At the end of the half-hour, Lefevre and the house-physician +were again by Lady Mary's bedside. Again, with fine but firm touch, +Lefevre stroked nerves and muscles to stimulate them into normal +action; again he and his assistant put out their electrical force +through the electrode; and again the result was nothing but a +passing galvanic quiver. The doctor, though he maintained his +professional calm, was smitten with alarm,—as a man is who, +walking through darkness and danger to the rescue of a friend, +finds himself stopped by an unscalable wall. While he sought fresh +means of help, his patient might pass <a name='133.png' id= +'p133.png'></a> beyond his reach. He did not think she +would—he hoped she would not; but her condition, so +obstinately resistant to his restoratives, was so peculiar, that he +could not in the least determine the issue. Imagination and +speculation were excited, and he asked himself whether, after all, +the explanation of his failure might not be of the simplest—a +difference of sex! The secrets of nature, so far as he had +discovered, were of such amazing simplicity, that it would not +surprise him now to find that the electrical force of a man varied +vitally from that of a woman. He explained this suspicion to his +assistant.</p> + +<p>"I think," said he, "we must make another attempt, for her +condition may become the more serious the longer it is left. We'll +set the Sister and the nurse to try this time, and we'll turn her +bed north <a name='134.png' id='p134.png'></a> and south, in the +line of the earth's magnetism." But just then the lady's father, +the old Lord Rivercourt, appeared in response to the doctor's +telegram, and the experiment with the women had to wait. The old +lord was naturally filled with wonder and anxiety when he saw his +apparently lifeless daughter. He was amazed that she should have +been overcome by such influence as, he understood, the old +gentleman must wield. She had always, he said, enjoyed the finest +health, and was as little inclined to hysteria as woman well could +be. Lefevre told the father that this was something other than +hystero-hypnotism, which, while it reassured him as to his +daughter's former health, made him the more anxious regarding her +present condition.</p> + +<p>"It is very extraordinary," said the old <a name='135.png' id= +'p135.png'></a> lord; "but whatever it is,—and you say it is +like the young man's case that we have all read +about,—whatever it is,"—and he laid his hand +emphatically on the doctor's arm,—"she could not be in more +capable hands than yours."</p> + +<p>That assurance, though soothing to the doctor's self-esteem, +added gravely to his sense of responsibility.</p> + +<p>While they were yet speaking, Lefevre was further troubled by +the announcement that a detective-inspector desired to speak with +him! Should he tell the inspector all that he had seen the night +before, and all that he suspected now, or should he hold his peace? +His duty as a citizen, as a doctor, and as, in a sense, the +protector of his patient, seemed to demand the one course, while +his consideration for Julius and for his own family suggested the +other. <a name='136.png' id='p136.png'></a> Surely, never was a +simple, upright doctor involved in a more bewildering <i> +imbroglio</i>!</p> + +<p>The detective-inspector entered, and opened an interview which +proved less embarrassing than Lefevre had anticipated. The +detective had already made up his mind about the case and his +course regarding it. He put no curious questions; he merely +inquired concerning the identity and the condition of the lady. +When he heard who she was, and when he caught the import of an +aside from Lord Rivercourt that it would be worth any one's while +to discover the mysterious offender, professional zeal sparkled in +his eye.</p> + +<p>"I think I know my man," said he; and the doctor looked the +lively interest he felt. "I am right, I believe, Dr Lefevre, in +setting this down to the author of that other case you +had,—that from the <a name='137.png' id='p137.png'></a> +Brighton train?" Lefevre thought he was right in that. "'M. +Dolaro:' that was the name. I had charge of the case, and was +baffled. I shan't miss him this time. I shall get on his tracks at +once; he can't have left the Park in broad daylight, a singular man +like him, without being noticed."</p> + +<p>"It rather puzzles me," said the doctor, "what crime you will +charge him with."</p> + +<p>"It is an outrage," said Lord Rivercourt; "and if it is not +criminal, it seems about time it were made so."</p> + +<p>"Oh, we'll class it, my lord," said the detective; "never +fear."</p> + +<p>The detective departed; but Lord Rivercourt seemed not inclined +to stir.</p> + +<p>"You will excuse me," said Lefevre; "but I must perform a very +delicate operation."</p> + +<p>"To be sure," said the old lord; "and <a name='138.png' id= +'p138.png'></a> you want me to go. How stupid of me! I kept waiting +for my daughter to wake up; but I see that, of course, you have to +rouse her. It did not occur to me what that machine meant. +Something magneto-electric—eh? Forgive one question, Lefevre. +I can see you look anxious: is Mary's condition very +serious?—most serious? I can bear to be told the complete +truth."</p> + +<p>The doctor was touched by the old gentleman's emotion. He took +his hand. "It is serious," said he—"most serious, for this +reason, that I cannot account for her obstinate lethargy; but I +think there is no immediate danger. If necessity arises, I shall +send for you again."</p> + +<p>"To the House," said Lord Rivercourt. "I shall be sitting out a +debate on our eternal Irish question."<a name='139.png' id= +'p139.png'></a></p> + +<p>Lefevre was left seriously discomposed, but at once he sent for +the house-physician, summoned the Sister and the nurse, and set +about his third attempt to revive his patient. He got the bed +turned north and south. He carefully explained to the two women +what was demanded of them, and applied them to their task; but, +whatever the cause, the failure was completer than before: there +was not even a tremor of muscle in the unconscious lady, and the +doctor was suffused with alarm and humiliation. +Failure!—failure!—failure! Such a concatenation had +never happened to him before!</p> + +<p>But failure only nerves the brave and capable man to a supreme +effort for success. Still self-contained, and apparently unmoved, +the doctor gave directions for some liquid nourishment to be +artificially administered <a name='140.png' id='p140.png'></a> to +his patient, said he would return after dinner, and went his way. +The society of friends or acquaintances was distasteful to him +then; the thought even of seeing his own familiar dining-room and +his familiar man in black, whose silent obsequiousness he felt +would be a reproach, was disagreeable. All his thought, all his +attention, all his faculties were drawn tight to this acute +point—he must succeed; he must accomplish the task he had set +himself: life at that hour was worth living only for that purpose. +But how was success to be compelled?</p> + +<p>He walked for a while about the streets, and then he went into a +restaurant and ordered a modest dinner. He broke and crumbled his +bread with both hands, his mind still intent on that one +engrossing, acute point. While thus he sat he heard <a name= +'141.png' id='p141.png'></a> a voice, as in a dream, say, "The very +doctor you read about. That's the second curious case he's got in a +month or so.... Oh yes—very clever; he treats them, I +understand, in the same sort of way as the famous Dr Charbon of +Paris would.... I should say so; quite as good, if not better than +Charbon. I'd rather have an English doctor any day than a +French.... His name's in the paper—<i>Lefevre</i>." Then the +doctor woke to the fact that he was being talked about. He +perceived his admirers were sitting at a table a little behind him, +and he judged from what had been said that his fresh case was +already being made "copy" of in the evening papers. The flattering +comparison of himself with Dr Charbon had an oddly stimulating +effect upon him, notwithstanding that it had been uttered by he +knew not whom,—a <a name='142.png' id='p142.png'></a> mere +<i>vox et præterea nihil</i>. He disclaimed to himself the +truth of the comparison, but all the same he was encouraged to bend +his attention with his utmost force to the solution of his +difficult problem—what to do to rouse his patient?</p> + +<p>He sat thus, amid the bustle and buzz of the restaurant, the +coming and going of waiters, completely abstracted, assailing his +difficulty with questions on this side and on that,—when +suddenly out of the mists that obscured it there rose upon his +mental vision an idea, which appealed to him as a solution of the +whole, and, more than that, as a secret that would revolutionise +all the treatment of nervous weakness and derangement. How came the +idea? How do ideas ever come? As inspirations, we say, or as +revelations; and truly they come upon us with such amazing and +inspiriting <a name='143.png' id='p143.png'></a> freshness, that +they may well be called either the one or the other. But no great +idea had ever yet an epiphany but from the ferment of more familiar +small ideas,—just as the glorious Aphrodite was born of the +ferment and pother of the waves of the sea. Lefevre's new idea +clothed itself in the form of a comparative question—<i>Why +should there not be Transfusion of Nervous Force, Ether, or +Electricity, just as there is Transfusion of Blood?</i></p> + +<p>He pushed his dinner away (he could scarcely have told what he +had been eating and drinking), called for his bill, and returned +with all speed to the hospital. He entered his female ward just as +evening prayers were finished, before the lights were turned out +and night began for the patients. He summoned his trusted +assistant, the house-physician, again.<a name='144.png' id= +'p144.png'></a></p> + +<p>"I am about to attempt," said he, "an altogether new operation: +the patient has remained just as I left her, I suppose?"</p> + +<p>"Just the same."</p> + +<p>"Nervous Force, whether it be Electricity or not, is manifestly +a fluid of some sort: why should it not be transfused as the other +vital fluid is?"</p> + +<p>"Indeed, sir, when you put it so," said the house-physician, +suddenly steeled and brightened into interest, "I should say, 'why +not?' The only reason against it is what can be assigned against +all new things—it has not, so far as I know, been done."</p> + +<p>"Exactly. I am going to try. I think, in case we need a current, +so to say, to draw it along, that we shall use the apparatus too; +we shall therefore need the women."<a name='145.png' id= +'p145.png'></a></p> + +<p>"You mean, of course," said the young man, "you will cut a main +nerve."</p> + +<p>"I shall use this nerve," said Lefevre, indicating the main +nerve in the wrist,—upon which the young man, in his ready +enthusiasm, began to bare his arm.</p> + +<p>"My dear fellow," said Lefevre, "do you consider what you are so +promptly offering? Do you know that my experiment, if successful, +might leave you a paralytic, or an imbecile, or even—a +corpse?"</p> + +<p>"I'll take the risk, sir," said the young man.</p> + +<p>"I can't permit it, my boy," said Lefevre, laying his hand on +his arm, and giving him a look of kindness. "Nobody must run this +risk but me. I don't mean, however, to cut the nerve."</p> + +<p>"What then, sir?"<a name='146.png' id='p146.png'></a></p> + +<p>"Well," said Lefevre, "this Nervous Force, or Nervous Ether, is +clearly a very volatile, and at the same time a very searching +fluid. It can easily pass through the skin from a nerve in one +person to a nerve in another. There is no difficulty about that; +the difficulty is to set up a rapid enough vibration to whirl the +current through!" He said that in meditative fashion: he was +clearly at the moment repeating the working out of the problem.</p> + +<p>"I see," said the young man, looking thoughtful.</p> + +<p>"Now, you are a musician, are you not?"</p> + +<p>"I play a little," said the young man, with a bewildered +look.</p> + +<p>"You play the violin?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."<a name='147.png' id='p147.png'></a></p> + +<p>"And, of course, you have it in your rooms. Would you be so good +as to bring me the bow of your violin, and borrow for me anywhere a +tuning-fork of as high a note as possible?"</p> + +<p>The young man looked at Dr Lefevre in puzzled inquiry; but the +doctor was considering the electrical apparatus before him, and the +young man set off on his errands. When he returned with the +fiddle-bow and the tuning-fork, he saw Lefevre had placed the +machine ready, with fresh chemicals in the vessels.</p> + +<p>"Do you perceive my purpose?" asked Lefevre. He placed one +handle of the apparatus in the unconscious patient's right hand, +while he himself took hold of her left arm with his right hand, so +that the inner side of his wrist was in contact with the inner side +of hers; and then, to <a name='148.png' id='p148.png'></a> complete +the circle of connection, he took in his left hand the other handle +of the apparatus. "You don't understand?"</p> + +<p>"I do not," answered the young man.</p> + +<p>"We want a very rapid vibration—much more rapid than +usual," said the doctor. "I can apply no more rapid vibration at +present than that which the note of that tuning-fork will produce. +I want you to sound the tuning-fork with the fiddle-bow, and then +apply the fork to this wire."</p> + +<p>"Oh," said the young man, "I understand!"</p> + +<p>"Now," said Lefevre, "you'd better call the Sister to set the +electricity going."</p> + +<p>The Sister came and took her place as before +described—with her hands, that is, on the cylinder of the +electrode, her fingers dipping over into the vessels of chemicals. +<a name='149.png' id='p149.png'></a> She opened her eyes and smiled +at sight of the fiddle-bow and tuning-fork.</p> + +<p>"I am trying a new thing, Sister," said Lefevre, with a touch of +severity. "I do not need you, I do not wish you, to exert yourself +this time; I only wish you to keep that position, and to be calm. +Maintain your composure, and attend.... Now!" said he, addressing +the young man.</p> + +<p>The fiddle-bow was drawn across the tuning-fork, and the fork +applied with its thrilling note to the conducting wire which +Lefevre held. The wire hummed its vibration, and electricity +tingled wildly through Lefevre's nerves....There was an anxious, +breathless pause for some seconds, and fear of failure began to +contract the doctor's heart.</p> + +<p>"Take your hands away, Sister," said <a name='150.png' id= +'p150.png'></a> he. Then, turning to his assistant, "Apply that to +the other wire," said he; and dropping his own wire, he put his +hand over the cylinder, with his fingers dipping into the vessel +from which the other wire sprang. When the wire hummed under the +tuning-fork and the vibration thrilled again, instantly he felt as +if an inert obstruction had been removed. The vibratory influence +whirled wildly through him, there was a pause of a second or two +(which seemed to him many minutes in duration), and then suddenly a +kind of rigor passed upon the form and features of his patient, as +if each individual nerve and muscle were being threaded with quick +wire, a sharp rush of breath filled her chest, and she opened her +eyes and closed them again.</p> + +<p>"That will do," said Lefevre in a <a name='151.png' id= +'p151.png'></a> whisper, and, releasing his hands, he sank back in +a chair. "It's a success," said he, turning his eyes with a thin +smile on the house-physician, and then closing them in a deadly +exhaustion.<a name='152.png' id='p152.png'></a></p> + +<h2 id='bedside'>Chapter VI.</h2> + +<p class='argument'>At the Bedside of the Doctor.</p> + +<p><span class='small-caps'>For</span> the first time since he had +come into the world Dr Lefevre was that night attended by another +doctor. The resident assistant-physician took him home to Savile +Row in a cab, assisted him to bed, and sat with him a while after +he had administered a tonic and soporific. Then he left him in +charge of the silent man in black, whom he reassured by saying that +there was no danger; that his master had a magnificent +constitution; that he was only exhausted—though exhausted +very much; and that <a name='153.png' id='p153.png'></a> all he +needed was rest, sleep, nourishment,—sleep above all.</p> + +<p>Lefevre slept the night through like a child, and awoke +refreshed, though still very weak. He was bewildered with his +condition for a moment or two, till he recalled the moving and +exhausting experiences of the day before, and then he was suffused +with a glow of elation,—elation which was not all +satisfaction in the successful performance of a new experiment, nor +in a good deed well done. His friend came to see him early, to +anticipate the risk of his rising. He insisted that he should keep +his bed, for that day at least, if not for a second and a third +day. He reported that the patient was doing well; that she had +asked with particularity, and had been informed with equal +particularity, concerning the method of <a name='154.png' id= +'p154.png'></a> her recovery, upon which she was much bemused, and +asked to see her physician.</p> + +<p>"It is a pity she was told," said Lefevre; "it is not usual to +tell a patient such a thing, and I meant it to be kept secret, at +least till it was better established." But for all his protest he +was again suffused with that new sense of inward joy.</p> + +<p>Alone, and lying idle in bed, it was but natural—it was +almost inevitable—that the doctor's thoughts should begin to +run upon the strange events and suspicions of the past two days; +and their current setting strongly in one channel, made him long to +be resolved whether or no the Man of the Crowd, the author of +yesterday's outrage, the "M. Dolaro" of whom the detective had gone +in search, and who, if captured, would be certainly overwhelmed +with contumely, if not with punishment,—whether <a name= +'155.png' id='p155.png'></a> or not that strange creature was +Julius's father, or any relation at all of Julius. He was not clear +how he could well put the matter to Julius, since he so evidently +shrank from discourse upon it, yet he thought some kind of +certainty might be arrived at from an interview with him. On the +chance of his having returned to his chambers, he called for pen +and paper and wrote a note, asking him to look in, as he would be +resting all day. "Try to come," he urged; "I have something +important to speak about."</p> + +<p>This he sent by the trusty hand of his man in black; and by +mid-day Julius was announced. He came in confident, and bright as +sunshine (Lefevre thought he had never seen him looking more +serene); but suddenly the sunshine was beclouded, and Julius ceased +to be himself, and became <a name='156.png' id='p156.png'></a> a +restless, timorous kind of creature, like a bird put in a cage +under the eye of his captor.</p> + +<p>"What?" he cried when he entered, with an eloquent gesture. +"Lazying in bed on such a day as this? What does this mean?" But +when he observed the pallor and weakness of Lefevre's appearance, +he paused abruptly, refrained from the hand stretched out to greet +him, and exclaimed in a tone of something like terror, "Good +heavens! Are you ill?" A paleness, a shudder, and a dizziness +passed upon him as if he sickened. "May I," he said, "open the +window?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly, Julius," said Lefevre, in surprise and alarm. "Do +you feel ill?"</p> + +<p>"No—no," said Julius from the window, where he stood +letting the air play upon his face, and speaking as if he had to +put <a name='157.png' id='p157.png'></a> considerable restraint +upon himself. "I—I am unfortunately, miserably constituted: I +cannot help it. I cannot bear the sight of illness, or lowness of +health even. It appals me; it—it horrifies me with a quite +instinctive horror; it deadens me."</p> + +<p>Lefevre, whose abundant sympathy and vitality went out +instinctively to succour and bless the weak and the ill, was +inexpressibly shocked and offended by this confession of what to +his sense appeared selfish cowardice and inhumanity. He had again +and again heard it said, and he had with pleasure assented to the +opinion, that Julius was a rare, finely-strung being, with such +pure and glowing health that he shrank from contact with, or from +the sight of, pain or ill-health, and even from their discussion; +but now that the singularity of Julius's organization impinged <a +name='158.png' id='p158.png'></a> upon his own experience, now that +he saw Julius shrink from himself, he was shocked and offended. +Julius, on his part, was pitiably moved. He kept away from the bed; +he fidgeted to and fro, looking at this thing and that, without a +sparkle of interest in his eye, yet all with his own peculiar +grace.</p> + +<p>"You wanted to speak to me," he said. "Do you mind saying what +you have to say and letting me go?"</p> + +<p>"I reckoned upon your staying to lunch," said Lefevre.</p> + +<p>"I can't!—I can't!... Very sorry, my dear Lefevre, but I +really can't! Forgive what seems my rudeness. It distresses me that +at such a time as this my sensations are so acute. But I cannot +help it!—I cannot!"</p> + +<p>"You have been in the country,—have <a name='159.png' id= +'p159.png'></a> you not?" said Lefevre, beginning with a resolve to +get at something.</p> + +<p>"I have just come back," said Julius. "My man told me you had +called."</p> + +<p>"Yes. My mother wrote in a state of great anxiety about you, and +asked me to go and look at you. She said that she and my sister had +seen a good deal of you lately; that you began to look unwell, and +then ceased to appear, and she was afraid you might be ill."</p> + +<p>This was put forth as an invitation to Julius to expound not +only his own situation, but also his relations with Lady and Miss +Lefevre, but Julius took no heed of it. He merely said, "No; I was +not ill. I only wanted a little change to refresh me,"—and +walked back to the window to lave himself in the air.</p> + +<p>"Well," continued Lefevre, "since I <a name='160.png' id= +'p160.png'></a> called to see you, I have had an adventure or two. +You never look at a newspaper except for the weather, and so it is +probable you do not know that I had brought to me yesterday +afternoon another strange case like that of the young officer a +month ago,—a similar case, but worse."</p> + +<p>"Worse?" exclaimed Julius, dropping into the chair by the +window, and glancing, as a less preoccupied observer than the +doctor would have remarked, with a wistful desire at the door.</p> + +<p>"Much worse—though, I believe, from the same hand," said +Lefevre. "A lady this time,—titularly and really a +lady,—Lady Mary Fane, the daughter of Lord Rivercourt."</p> + +<p>"Oh, good heavens!" exclaimed Julius, and there were manifest so +keen a note of apprehension in his voice and so deep a <a name= +'161.png' id='p161.png'></a> shade of apprehension on his face, +that Lefevre could not but note them and confirm himself in his +suspicion of the intimate bond of connection between him and the +author of the outrage. He pitied Julius's distress, and hurried +through the rest of his revelation, careless of the result he had +sought.</p> + +<p>"It may prove," said he, "a far more serious affair than the +other. Lord Rivercourt is not the man to sit quietly under an +outrage like that."</p> + +<p>Julius astonished him by demanding, "What is the outrage? Has +the lady given an account of it? What does she accuse the man +of?"</p> + +<p>"She has not spoken yet,—to me, at least," said Lefevre; +"and I don't know what the outrage can be called, but I am sure +Lord Rivercourt—and he is a man <a name='162.png' id= +'p162.png'></a> of immense influence—will move heaven and +earth to give it a legal name, and to get it punishment. There is a +detective on the man's track now."</p> + +<p>"Oh!" said Julius. "Well, it will be time enough to discuss the +punishment when the man is caught. Now, if that is all your news," +he added hurriedly, "I think——" He took up his hat, and +was as if going to the door.</p> + +<p>"It is not quite all," said the doctor, and Julius went back to +the window, with his hat in his hand.</p> + +<p>"I wonder," he broke out, "if we shall ever be simple enough and +intelligent enough to perceive that real wickedness—the +breaking of any of the laws of Nature, I mean (or, if you prefer to +say so, the laws of God)—is best punished by being left to +itself? Outraged nature exacts a <a name='163.png' id='p163.png'> +</a> severe retribution! But you were going to +say——?"</p> + +<p>"The night before last," continued Lefevre, determined to be +brief and succinct, "I was walking in the Strand, and I could not +help observing a man who fulfilled completely the description given +of the author of this case and my former one."</p> + +<p>"Well?"</p> + +<p>"That is not all. When I caught sight of his face I was +completely amazed; for—I must tell you—it looked for +all the world like you grown old, or, as I said to myself at the +time, like a death-mask of you."</p> + +<p>"You—you saw that?" exclaimed Julius, leaning against the +window with a sudden look of terror which Lefevre was ashamed to +have seen: it was like catching a glimpse of Julius's poor naked <a +name='164.png' id='p164.png'></a> soul. "And you thought—?" +continued Julius.</p> + +<p>"You shall hear. Dr Rippon—you remember the old +doctor?—had a sight of a man in the Strand the night before, +who, he believes, was his old friend Courtney that he thought dead, +and who, I believe, was the man I saw."</p> + +<p>Lefevre stopped. There was a pause, in which Julius put his head +out of the window, as if he had a mind to be gone that way. Then he +turned with a marked control upon himself.</p> + +<p>"Really, Lefevre," said he, "this is the queerest stuff I've +heard for a long time! This is hallucination with a vengeance! I +don't like to apply such a tomfool word to anything, but observe +how all this has come about. An excellent old gentleman, who has +been dining out or something, <a name='165.png' id='p165.png'></a> +has a glimpse at night, on a crowded pavement, of a man who looks +like a friend of his youth. Very well. The excellent old gentleman +tells you of that, and it impresses you. <i>You</i> walk on the +same pavement the next evening—I won't emphasise the fact of +its being after dinner, though I daresay it was——"</p> + +<p>"It was."</p> + +<p>"——<i>You</i> have a glimpse of a man who +looks—well, something like me; and you instantly conclude, +'Ah! the Courtney person—the friend of Dr Rippon's +youth!—and, surely, some relative of my friend Julius!' Next +day this hospital case turns up, and because the description of its +author, given by more or less unobservant persons, fits the person +you saw, <i>argal</i>, you jump to the conclusion that the three +are one! Is your conclusion clear upon the <a name='166.png' id= +'p166.png'></a> evidence? Is it inevitable? Is it necessary? Is it +not forced?"</p> + +<p>"Well," began Lefevre.</p> + +<p>"It is bad detective business," broke in Julius, "though it may +be good friendship. You have thought there was trouble in this for +me, and you wished to give me warning of it. But—<i>que +diable vas-tu faire dans cette galère?</i> You are the best +friend in the world, and whenever I am in trouble—and who +knows? who knows? 'Man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly +upward'—I may ask of you both your friendship and your skill. +One thing I ask of you here: don't speak of me as you see me now, +thus miserably moved, to any one! Now I must go. Good-bye." And +before Lefevre could find another word, Julius had opened the door +and was gone.<a name='167.png' id='p167.png'></a></p> + +<p>"If it moves him like that," said the doctor to himself, through +his bewilderment, "there must be something worse in it—God +forgive me for thinking so!—than I have ever imagined."<a +name='168.png' id='p168.png'></a></p> + +<h2 id='interlude'>Chapter VII.</h2> + +<p class='argument'>Contains a Love Interlude.</p> + +<p><span class='small-caps'>Next</span> day Lefevre learned that +the police had been again baffled in their part of the inquiry. The +detective had contrived to trace his man—though not till the +morning after the event—to the St Pancras Hotel, where he had +dined in private, and gone to bed early, and whence he had departed +on foot before any one was astir, to catch, it was surmised, the +first train. But wherever he had gone, it was just as in the former +case: from the time the hotel door had closed on his cloaked +figure, all trace of him was lost.<a name='169.png' id= +'p169.png'></a></p> + +<p>Nor could Lady Mary Fane add anything of moment to what Lefevre +already knew or guessed. Her account of her adventure (which she +gave him in her father's house, whither she had been removed on the +third day) was as follows: She was returning home from St Thomas's +Hospital, dressed according to her habit when she went there; she +had crossed Westminster Bridge, and was proceeding straight into St +James's Park, when she became aware of a man walking in the same +direction as herself, and at the same pace. She casually noted that +he looked like a distinguished foreigner, and that he had about him +an indefinable suggestion of death clinging with an eager, haggard +hope to life,—a suggestion which melted the heart of the +beholder, as if it were the mute appeal of a drowning sailor. She +<a name='170.png' id='p170.png'></a> was stirred to pity; and when +he suddenly appeared to reel from weakness, she stepped out to him +on an overwhelming impulse, laid a steadying hand on his arm, and +asked what ailed him. He turned on her a pair of wonderful dark +eyes, which were animal-like in their simple, direct appeal, and +their moist softness. He begged her to lead him aside into a path +by which few would pass: he disliked being stared at. Thinking only +of him as a creature in sickness and distress, she obeyed without a +thought for herself. She helped him to sit down upon a bench, and +sat down by him and felt his pulse. He looked at her with an open, +kindly eye, with a simple-seeming gratitude, which held her +strangely (though she only perceived that clearly on looking back). +He said to her suddenly,—<a name='171.png' id= +'p171.png'></a></p> + +<p>"There was a deep, mystical truth in the teaching of the Church +to its children—that they should prefer in their moments of +human weakness to pray to the Virgin-mother; for woman is always +man's best friend."</p> + +<p>She looked in his face, wondering at him, still with her finger +on his pulse, when she felt an unconsciousness come over her, not +unlike "the thick, sweet mystery of chloroform;" and she knew no +more till she opened her eyes in the hospital bed. "Revived by +you," she said to Lefevre.</p> + +<p>He inquired further, as to her sensations before +unconsciousness, and she replied in these striking words: "I felt +as if I were strung upon a complicated system of threads, and as if +they tingled and tingled, and grew tighter to numbness." That +answer, he saw, was kindred to the description <a name='172.png' +id='p172.png'></a> given by the young officer of his condition. It +was clear that in both cases the nerves had been seriously played +upon; but for what purpose? What was the secret of the stranger's +endeavour? What did he seek?—and what find? To these +questions no satisfactory answer would come for the asking, so that +in his impatience he was tempted to break through the severe +self-restraint of science, and let unfettered fancy find an +answer.</p> + +<p>But, most of all, he longed to see close to him the man whom the +police sought for in and out, to judge for himself what might be +the method and the purpose of his strange outrages. He scarcely +desired his capture, for he thought of the possible results to +Julius, and yet—— Day after day passed, and still the +man was unfound, and very soon a change came over <a name='173.png' +id='p173.png'></a> Lefevre's life, which lifted it so far above the +plane of his daily professional experience, that all speculation +about the mysterious "M. Dolaro," and his probable relation to +Julius, fell for a time into the dim background. The doctor had +been calling daily in Carlton Terrace to see his patient, when, on +a certain memorable day, he intimated to her father that she was so +completely recovered that there was no need of his calling on her +professionally again. The old lord, looking a little flustered, +asked him if he could spare a few minutes' conversation, and led +him into his study.</p> + +<p>"My dear Lefevre," said he, "I am at a loss how to make you any +adequate return for what you have done for my daughter. Money can't +do it; no, nor my friendship either, though you are so <a name= +'174.png' id='p174.png'></a> kind as to say so. But I have an idea, +which I think it best to set before you frankly. You are a +bachelor: it is not good to be a bachelor," he went on, laying his +hand affectionately on the doctor's arm, and flushing—old man +of the world though he was—flushing to the eyes. +"What—what do you think of my daughter? I mean, not as a +doctor, but as a man?"</p> + +<p>Lefevre was not in his first youth, and he had had his +admirations for women in his time, as all healthy men must have, +but yet he was made as deliriously dizzy as if he were a boy by his +guess at what Lord Rivercourt meant.</p> + +<p>"Why," he stammered, "I think her the most beautiful, +intelligent, and—and attractive woman I know."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said her father, "I believe she is pretty well in all +these ways. But—and <a name='175.png' id='p175.png'></a> you +see I frankly expose my whole position to you—what would you +think of her for a wife?"</p> + +<p>"Frankly, then," said Lefevre, "I find I have admired her from +the beginning of this, but I had no notion of letting my admiration +go farther, because I conceived that she was quite beyond my +hopes."</p> + +<p>"My dear fellow," said Lord Rivercourt, "you have relieved me +and delighted me immensely. I know no man that I would like so well +for a son-in-law. And after all, it is only fitting that the life +you have saved with such risk to yourself—oh, I know all +about it—should be devoted to making yours happy. +And—and I understand from her mother that Mary is quite of +the same opinion herself. Now, will you go and speak to her at +once, or will you wait till another day? <a name='176.png' id= +'p176.png'></a> You will have to decide that," said he, with a +smile, "not only as lover, but as doctor."</p> + +<p>Lefevre hesitated for but an instant; for what true, manly lover +would have decided to withdraw till another day when the door to +his mistress was held open to him?</p> + +<p>"I'll see her now," he said.</p> + +<p>Lord Rivercourt led the doctor back to his daughter, and left +him with her. There were some moments of chilling doubt and cold +uncertainty, and then came a rush of warm feeling at the bidding of +a shy glance from Lady Mary. He bent over her and murmured he +scarcely knew what, but he heard clearly and with a divine ecstasy +a softly-whispered "<i>Yes!</i>" which thrilled in his heart for +days and months afterwards, and <a name='177.png' id='p177.png'> +</a> then he turned to him her face, her beautiful face illumined +with love, and kissed it: between two who had been drawn together +as they had, what words were needed, or what could poor words +convey?</p> + +<p>About an hour later he walked to Savile Row to dress and return +for dinner. He walked, because he felt surcharged with life. He +desired peace and goodwill among men; he pitied with all his soul +the weary and the broken whom he met, and wondered with regret that +men should get irremediably involved in the toils of their own +misdeeds; he was profuse with coppers, and even small silver, to +the wretched waifs of society who swept the crossings he had to +take on his triumphant way; he would even have bestowed forgiveness +on his greatest enemy if he <a name='178.png' id='p178.png'></a> +had met him then;—for the divine joy of love was singing in +his heart and raising him to the serene and glorious empyrean of +heroes and gods. Oh matchless magic of the human heart, which +confounds all the hypotheses of science, and flouts all its +explanations!</p> + +<p>It was that evening when he and Lady Mary sat in sweet converse +that she said to him these words, which he hung for ever after +about his heart—</p> + +<p>"Surely, never before did a man win a wife as you have won me! +You made me well by putting your own life into me; so what could I +do but give you the life that was already your own!"</p> + +<p>Thus day followed day on golden wings: Lefevre in the morning +occupied with the patients that thronged his consulting-room; in +the afternoon dispensing <a name='179.png' id='p179.png'></a> +healing, and, where healing was impossible, cheerfulness and +courage, in his hospital wards; and in the evening finding +inspiration and strength in the company of Lady Mary—for her +love was to him better than wine. All who went to him in those days +found him changed, and in a sense glorified. He had always been +considerate and kind; but the weakness, the folly, and the +wickedness of poor human nature, which were often laid bare to his +searching scrutiny, had frequently plunged him into a welter of +despondency and shame, out of which he would cry, "Alas for God's +image! Alas for the temple of the Holy Ghost!" But in those days it +seemed as if disease and death appeared to him mere trivial +accidents of life, with the result that no "case," however bad, was +sent away empty of hope.<a name='180.png' id='p180.png'></a></p> + +<h2 id='curzon'>Chapter VIII.</h2> + +<p class='argument'>Strange Scenes in Curzon Street.</p> + +<p><span class='small-caps'>It</span> happened, however, that just +when all the bays and creeks of Dr Lefevre's attention were +occupied, as by a springtide, with the excellent, the divine +fortune that had come to him,—when he seemed thus most +completely divorced from anxious speculation about Julius Courtney +and "M. Dolaro," his attention was suddenly and in unexpected +fashion hurried again to the mystery. The doctor had not seen +Julius since the day he had received him in his bedroom—it +must be admitted he had not <a name='181.png' id='p181.png'></a> +sought to see him—but he had heard now and then from his +mother, in casual notes and postscripts, that Courtney continued to +call in Curzon Street.</p> + +<p>On a certain evening Lady Lefevre gave a dinner and a reception, +designed to introduce Lady Mary to the Lefevre circle. Julius was +not at dinner (at which only members of the two families sat down), +but he was expected to appear later. It is probable, under the +circumstances, that Lefevre would not have remarked the absence of +Julius from the dinner-table, had it not been for Nora. He was +painfully struck with her appearance and demeanour. She seemed to +have lost much of her beautiful vigour and bloom of health, like a +flower that has been for some time cut from its stem; and she, who +had been wont to be ready and gay of <a name='182.png' id= +'p182.png'></a> speech, was now completely silent, yet without +constraint, and as if wrapt in a dream.</p> + +<p>"What has come over Nora?" asked Lefevre of his mother when they +had gone to the drawing-room.</p> + +<p>"Ah," said Lady Lefevre, "you have noticed something, have you? +Do you find her very changed, then?"</p> + +<p>"Very much changed."</p> + +<p>"It's this attachment of hers to Julius. I want to have a talk +with you about it presently. She seems scarcely to live when he is +not with her. She sits like that always when he is gone, and +appears only to dream and wait,—wait with her life as if +suspended till he comes back."</p> + +<p>"Has it, indeed, got so far as that?" said her son with concern. +"I had better have a word or two with Julius about it."<a name= +'183.png' id='p183.png'></a></p> + +<p>Just then Mr Courtney was announced, and there were +introductions on this side and on that. He turned to be introduced +to Lady Mary, and for the time Lefevre forgot his sister, so +engrossed was he with the altered aspect of his friend. He looked +worn and weary, like a student when the dawn finds him still at his +books. Lady Lefevre expressed that in her question—</p> + +<p>"Why, Julius, have you taken to hard work? You're not looking +well, and we have not seen you for days."</p> + +<p>A flush rose to tinge his cheek, but it sank as soon as it +appeared.</p> + +<p>"I have been out of sorts," said he; "that is all. And you have +not seen me because I have bought a yacht and have been trying it +on the river."</p> + +<p>"A yacht!" exclaimed Lefevre. "I did not know you cared for the +water."<a name='184.png' id='p184.png'></a></p> + +<p>"<i>You</i> know me," laughed Julius in his own manner, "and not +know that I care for everything!" So saying, he laid his hand on +Lefevre's arm. The act was not remarkable, but its result was, for +Lefevre felt it as if it were a blow, and stood astonished at +it.</p> + +<p>During this interchange of words Lefevre (with Lady Mary) had +been moving with Julius, as he drew off across the room to greet +Nora, and the doctor could not help observing how the attention of +all the company was bent on his friend. Before his entrance all had +been chatting or laughing easily with their neighbours; now they +seemed as constrained and belittled as is a crowd of courtiers when +a royal personage appears in their midst. In truth, Julius at all +times had a grace, an ease, and a distinction of manner not +unworthy of a <a name='185.png' id='p185.png'></a> prince; but on +this occasion he had an added something, an indefinable attraction +which strangely held the attention. Lefevre, therefore, was +scarcely surprised (though, perhaps, a trifle disappointed, +considering that he was a lover) to note that Lady Mary was +regarding Julius with a silent, wide-eyed fascination. They +convoyed Julius to Nora, and then withdrew, leaving them +together.</p> + +<p>There were several fresh arrivals and new introductions to Lady +Mary. These, Lefevre observed, she went through half-absently, +still turning her eyes on Julius in the intervals with open and +intense interest.</p> + +<p>"Well," said Lefevre at length, smiling in spite of a twinge of +jealousy, "what do you think, now you have seen him, of the +fascinating Julius?"<a name='186.png' id='p186.png'></a></p> + +<p>She gave him no answering smile, but replied as if she painfully +withdrew herself from abstraction,—"I—I don't know. He +is very interesting and very strange. I—I can't make him out. +I don't know."</p> + +<p>Then Lefevre turned his eyes on Julius, and became aware of +something strained in the relations of his sister and his friend. +He could not forbear to look, and as he continued looking he +instinctively felt that a passionate scene was being silently +enacted between them. They sat markedly apart. Nora's bosom heaved +with suppressed emotion, and her look, when raised to Julius, plied +him with appeal or reproach—Lefevre could not determine +which. The doctor's interest almost drew him over to them, when +Lady Lefevre appeared and said to Julius—<a name='187.png' +id='p187.png'></a></p> + +<p>"Do go to the piano, Julius, and wake us up."</p> + +<p>Nora put out her hand with a gesture which plainly meant, +"Don't!... Don't leave me!"</p> + +<p>But Julius rose, and as he turned (the doctor noted) he bent an +inscrutable look of pain on Nora. He sat down at the piano and +struck a wild, sad chord. Instantly it became as if the people in +the room were the instrument upon which he played,—as if the +throbbing human hearts around him were directly connected by +invisible strings with the ivory keys that pulsed beneath his +fingers. What was the music he played no one knew, no one cared, no +one inquired: each individual person was held and played upon, and +was allowed no pause for reflection or criticism. The music carried +all away as on the flood <a name='188.png' id='p188.png'></a> of +time, showing them, on one hand, sunshine and beauty and joy, and +all the pride of life; and on the other, darkness and cruelty, +despair, and defiance, and death. It might have been, on the one +hand, the music with which Orpheus tamed the beasts; and on the +other, that which Æschylus arranged to accompany the last act +of his tragedy of "Prometheus Bound." There was, however, no clear +distinction between the joyous airs and the sombre: all were +wrought and mingled into an exciting and bewildering atmosphere of +melody, which thrilled the heart and maddened the brain. But as the +music continued, its joyous strains died out; the instrument cried +aloud in horror and pain, as if the vulture of Prometheus were +tearing at its vitals; darkness seemed to descend upon the +room—a darkness alive <a name='189.png' id='p189.png'></a> +with the sighs and groans, the disillusions and tears, of lost +souls. The men sat transfixed with agony and dread, the women were +caught in the wild clutches of hysteria, and Courtney himself was +as if possessed with a frenzy: his features were rigid, his eyes +dilated, and his hair rose and clung in wavy locks, so that he +seemed a very Gorgon's head. The only person apparently unmoved was +old Dr Rippon, whose pale, gaunt form rose in the background, +sinister and calm as Death!</p> + +<p>The situation was at its height, when a black cat (a pet of Miss +Lefevre's) suddenly leaped on the top of the piano with a canary in +its mouth, and in the presence of them all, laid its captive before +Julius Courtney. The music ceased with a dissonant crash. With a +cry Julius rose <a name='190.png' id='p190.png'></a> and laid his +hand on the cat's neck: to the general amazement the cat lay down +limp and senseless, and the little golden bird fluttered away. Then +the sobs of the women, hitherto controlled, broke out, and the +murmurs of the men.</p> + +<p>"O Julius! Julius! what have you done?" cried Nora, sweeping up +to him in an ecstasy of emotion.</p> + +<p>He caught her in his arms, when with a strange cry—a +strained kind of laugh with a hysterical catch in it—she sank +fainting on his breast. With a sharp exclamation of pain and fear +he bore her swiftly from the room (he was near the door) and into a +little conservatory that opened upon the staircase, casting his +eyes upon Lefevre as he went, and saying, "Come! come quick!" +Lefevre then woke to the fact that he had been fixedly regarding +this last strange <a name='191.png' id='p191.png'></a> scene, while +Lady Mary clung trembling to his arm. He hurried out after Julius, +followed by Lady Mary and his mother.</p> + +<p>"Take her!" cried Julius, standing away from Nora, and looking +white and terror-stricken. "Restore her! Oh, I must not!—I +dare not touch her!"</p> + +<p>With nimble accustomed fingers Lady Mary undid Nora's dress, +while the doctor applied the remedies usual in hysterical fainting. +Nora opened her eyes and fixed them upon Julius.</p> + +<p>"O Julius, Julius!" she cried. "Do not leave me! Come near me! +Oh!... I think I am going to die!"</p> + +<p>"My love! my life! my soul!" said Julius, stretching out his +hands to her, but approaching no nearer. "I cannot—I must not +touch you! No, no! I dare not!"<a name='192.png' id= +'p192.png'></a></p> + +<p>"O Julius!" said she. "Are you afraid of me? How can I harm +you?"</p> + +<p>"Nora, my life! I am afraid of myself! You would not harm me, +but I would harm you! Ah, I know it now only too well!"</p> + +<p>Then, as she closed her eyes again, she said, "I had better +die!"</p> + +<p>"No, you must not die!" he exclaimed. +"Your time is not yet! Yes, you will live!—live! But I +must be cut off—though not for ever—from the sweetest +and dearest, the noblest and purest of all God's creatures!"</p> + +<p>In the meantime Lefevre had been examining his sister with +closer scrutiny. He raised her eyelid and looked at her eye; he +pricked her on the arm and wrist; and then he turned to Julius.</p> + +<p>"Julius," said he, "what does this mean?"</p> + +<p>"It means," answered Julius, covering <a name='193.png' id= +'p193.png'></a> his face with his hands, "that I am of all living +things the most accurst!" Then with a cry of horror and anguish he +fled from the room and down the stairs.</p> + +<p>Lady Lefevre followed him in a flutter of fear. Presently she +returned, and said, in answer to a look from her son, "He snatched +his hat and coat, and was gone before I came up with him."</p> + +<p>Without a word Lefevre set himself to recover his sister, and in +half an hour she was well enough to walk with Lady Mary's +assistance to bed.</p> + +<p>The guests, meanwhile, had departed, all but two or three +intimates; and in less than an hour Dr Lefevre was returning home +in the Fane carriage. Lord Rivercourt and he talked of the strange +events of the evening, while Lady Mary leaned back and +half-absently listened. They <a name='194.png' id='p194.png'></a> +were proceeding thus along Piccadilly, when she suddenly caught the +doctor's arm and exclaimed—</p> + +<p>"Oh! Look! The very man I met in the Park! I am sure of it! I +can never forget the face!"</p> + +<p>Lefevre, alert on the instant, looked to recognise Hernando +Courtney, the Man of the Crowd: he saw only the back of a person in +a loose cape and a slouch hat turning in at the gateway of the +Albany courtyard. In flashes of reflection these questions arose: +Who could he be but Hernando Courtney?—and where could he be +going but to Julius's chambers? Julius, therefore (whose own +conduct had been that night so extraordinary), must be familiar +with his whole mysterious course, and consequently with the peril +he was in. Before Lefevre could out of his <a name='195.png' id= +'p195.png'></a> perplexity snatch a resolution, Lord Rivercourt had +pulled the cord to stop the coachman. The coachman, however, having +received orders to drive home, was driving at a goodly pace, and it +was only on a second summons through the cord that he slackened +speed, and obeyed his master's direction to "draw up by the +kerb."</p> + +<p>"I'll get out," said Lefevre, "and look after him. You'd better +get Mary home; she's not very strong yet, and she has been upset +to-night."</p> + +<p>He put himself thus forward for another reason besides,—on +the impulse of his friendship for Julius, without considering +whether in the event of an arrest and an exposure, he could do +anything to shield Julius from shame and pain.</p> + +<p>He got out, saying his adieus, and the <a name='196.png' id= +'p196.png'></a> carriage drove on. He found himself well past the +Albany. He hurried back, nerved by the desire to encounter Julius's +visitor, and at the same time by the hope that he would not. In his +heart was a turmoil of feeling, to the surface of which continued +to rise pity for Julius. The events of the evening had forced him +to the conclusion that Julius possessed the same singular, +magnetic, baleful influence on men and women as his putative father +Hernando; but Julius's burst of agony, when Nora lay overcome, had +declared to him that till then he had scarcely been aware of the +destructive side of his power. All resentment, therefore, all sense +of offence and suspicion which had lately begun to arise in his +mind, was swallowed up in pity for his afflicted friend. His chief +desire, now that he seemed reduced to the level of <a name= +'197.png' id='p197.png'></a> suffering humanity, was to give him +help and counsel.</p> + +<p>Thus he entered the Albany, and passed the porter. The lamps in +the flagged passage were little better than luminous shadows in the +darkness, and the hollow silence re-echoed the sound of his hurried +steps. No one was to be seen or heard in front of him. He came to +the letter which marked Julius's abode. He looked into the gloomy +doorway, and resolved he would see and speak to Julius in any case. +He passed into the gloom and knocked at Julius's door. After a +pause the door was opened by Jenkins. Lefevre could not well make +out the expression of the serving-man's face, but he was satisfied +that his voice was shaken as by a recent shock.</p> + +<p>"I wish to see Mr Courtney," said <a name='198.png' id= +'p198.png'></a> Lefevre, in the half hope that Jenkins would say, +"Which Mr Courtney?"</p> + +<p>"Not at home, sir," said Jenkins in his flurried voice, and +prepared to shut the door.</p> + +<p>"Not at home, Jenkins? You don't mean that!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, it's you, Dr Lefevre, sir. Mr Courtney is not at home, but +perhaps he will see you, sir! I hope he will; for he don't seem to +me at all well."</p> + +<p>"But if he is engaged, Jenkins—?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, sir, you know what 'not-at-home' means," answered Jenkins. +"It means anything or nothing. Will you step into the drawing-room, +sir, while I inquire? Mr Courtney is in his study."</p> + +<p>"Thank you, Jenkins," said the doctor; "I'll wait where I +am."</p> + +<p>Jenkins returned with deep concern on <a name='199.png' id= +'p199.png'></a> his face. "Mr Courtney's compliments, sir," said +he, "and he is very sorry he cannot see you to-night. It is a pity, +sir," he added, in a burst of confidence, "for he don't seem well. +He's a-settin' there with the lamp turned down, and his face in his +hands."</p> + +<p>"Is he alone, then?" asked the doctor.</p> + +<p>"Oh yes, sir," answered Jenkins, in manifest surprise.</p> + +<p>"Has nobody been to see him since he came in?"</p> + +<p>"No, sir, nobody," said Jenkins, in wider surprise than +before.</p> + +<p>It appeared to Lefevre that his friend must be sitting alone +with the terrible discovery he had that night made of himself. His +heart, therefore, urged him to go in and take him by the hand, and +give what help and comfort he could.<a name='200.png' id= +'p200.png'></a></p> + +<p>"I think," said he to Jenkins, "I'll try and have a word with +him."</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir," said Jenkins, and led the way to the study. He +tapped at the door, and then turned the handle; but the door +remained closed.</p> + +<p>"Who is there?" asked a weary voice within, which scarce sounded +like the voice of Julius.</p> + +<p>"I—Lefevre," said the doctor, putting Jenkins aside. "May +not I come in? I want a friendly word with you."</p> + +<p>"Forgive me, Lefevre," said the voice, "that I do not let you +in. I am very busy at present."</p> + +<p>"You are alone," said Lefevre, "are you not?"</p> + +<p>"Alone," said Julius; "yes, all alone!" There was a melting note +of sadness in the words which went to the doctor's heart.<a name= +'201.png' id='p201.png'></a></p> + +<p>"My dear Julius," said he, "I think I know what's troubling you. +Don't you think a talk with me might help you?"</p> + +<p>"You are very good, Lefevre." (That was an unusual form of +speech to come from Julius.) "I shall come to your house in a few +minutes, if you will allow me."</p> + +<p>"Do," answered Lefevre, for the moment completely satisfied. +"Do!" And he turned away.</p> + +<p>But when Jenkins had closed the outer door upon him, doubts +arose. Ought he not to have insisted on seeing whether Julius was +in truth alone in the study? And why could they not have had their +talk there as well as in Savile Row? These doubts, however, he +thrust down with the promise to himself that, if Julius did not +come to him within half an hour, <a name='202.png' id='p202.png'> +</a> he would return to him. Yet he had not gone many steps before +an unworthy suspicion shot up and arrested him: Suppose Julius had +got rid of him to have the opportunity of sending a mysterious +companion away unseen? But Jenkins had said he had let no one in, +and it was shameful to suspect both master and man of lying. Yet +Lady Mary Fane had distinctly recognised the man who passed into +the Albany courtyard: had he merely passed through on his unceasing +pursuit of something unknown? or were father and son somehow aware +of each other? Between this and that his mind became a jumble of +the wildest conjectures. He imagined many things, but never +conceived that which soon showed itself to be the fact.<a name= +'203.png' id='p203.png'></a></p> + +<h2 id='apparition'>Chapter IX.</h2> + +<p class='argument'>An Apparition and a Confession.</p> + +<p><span class='small-caps'>He</span> let himself in with his +latch-key, went into his dining-room, and sat down dressed as he +was to wait. He listened through minute after minute for the +expected step. The window was open (for the midsummer night was +warm), and all the sounds of belated and revelling London floated +vaguely in the air. Twelve o'clock boomed softly from Westminster, +and made the heavy atmosphere drowsily vibrate with the volume of +the strokes. The reverberation of the last had scarcely <a name= +'204.png' id='p204.png'></a> died away when a light, measured +footfall made him sit up. It came nearer and nearer, and then, +after a moment's hesitation, sounded on his own doorstep. With that +there came the tap of a cane on the window. With thought and +expectation resolutely suspended, Lefevre swung out of the room and +to the hall-door. He opened it, and stood and gazed. The light of +the hall-lamp fell upon a figure, the sight of which sent the blood +in a gush to his heart, and pierced him with horror. He expected +Julius, and he looked on the man whom he had followed on the +crowded pavements some weeks before,—the man whom the police +had long sought for ineffectually!</p> + +<p>"Won't you let me in, Lefevre?" said the man.</p> + +<p>The doctor stood speechless, with his <a name='205.png' id= +'p205.png'></a> eyes fixed: the face and dress of the person before +him were those of Hernando Courtney, but the voice was the voice of +Julius, though it sounded strange and distant, and bore an accent +as of death. Lefevre was involved in a wild turmoil and horror of +surmise, too appalling to be exactly stated to himself; for he +shrank with all his energy from the conclusion to which he was +being forced. He turned, however, upon the request for admission, +and led the way into the dining-room, letting his visitor close the +door and follow.</p> + +<p>"Lefevre," said the strange voice, "I have come to show myself +to you, because I know you are a true-hearted friend, and because I +think you have that exquisite charity that can forgive all +things."</p> + +<p>"<i>Show myself!</i>" ... As Lefevre <a name='206.png' id= +'p206.png'></a> listened to the strange voice and looked at the +strange person, the suspicion came upon him—What if he were +but regarding an Illusion? He had read in some of his mystical and +magical writers, that men gifted with certain powers could project +to a distance eidola or phantasms of varying likeness to +themselves: might not this be such a mocking phantasm of Julius? He +drew his hand across his eyes, and looked again: the figure still +sat there. He put out his hand to test its substantiality, and the +voice cried in a keen pitch of terror—</p> + +<p>"Don't touch me!—for your own sake!... Why, Lefevre, do +you look so amazed and overcome? Is not my wretched secret written +in my face?"</p> + +<p>"And you are really Julius Courtney?" asked Lefevre, at length +finding utterance, <a name='207.png' id='p207.png'></a> with +measured emphasis, and in a voice which he hardly recognised as his +own.</p> + +<p>"I am Julius Courtney—"</p> + +<p>He paused, for Lefevre had put his head in his hands, shaken +with a silent paroxysm of grief. It wrung the doctor's heart, as if +in the person that sat opposite him, all that was noblest and most +gracious in humanity were disgraced and overthrown.</p> + +<p>"Yes," continued the voice, "I am Julius; there is no other +Courtney that I know of, and soon there will be none at all." The +doctor listened, but he could not endure to look again. "I am +dying—I have been dying for a dozen years, and for a dozen +years I have resisted and overcome death; now I surrender. I have +come to my period. I shall never enter your house again. I have +only come now <a name='208.png' id='p208.png'></a> to confess +myself, and to ask a last favour of you—a last token of +friendship."</p> + +<p>"I will freely do what I can for you, Julius," said the doctor, +still without looking at him, "though I am too overcome, too +bewildered, yet to say much to you."</p> + +<p>"Thank you. You will hear my story and understand. It contains a +secret which I, like a blind fool, have only used for myself, but +which you will apply for the wide benefit of mankind. The request I +have to make of you is small, but it may seem +extraordinary,—be my companion for twelve hours. I cannot +talk to you here, enclosed and oppressed with streets of houses. +Come with me for a few hours on the water; I have a fancy to see +the sun rise for the last time over the sea. I have my yacht ready +near London Bridge, and a boat waiting at the steps by Cleopatra's +<a name='209.png' id='p209.png'></a> Needle; a cab will soon take +us there. Will you come?"</p> + +<p>Lefevre did not look up. The voice of Julius sounded like an +appeal from the very abode of death. Then he glanced in spite of +himself in his face, and was moved and melted to unreserved +compassion by the strained weariness of his expression—the +open, luminous wistfulness of his eyes.</p> + +<p>"Yes; I'll go," said he. "But can't I do something for you +first? Let me consider your case."</p> + +<p>"There's nothing now to be done for me, Lefevre," said Julius, +shaking his head. "You will perceive that when you have heard me +out."</p> + +<p>The doctor went to find his man and tell him that he was going +out for the night to attend on an urgent case. When he returned he +stood a moment touched with <a name='210.png' id='p210.png'></a> +misgiving. He thought of Lady Mary—he thought of his mother +and sister. Ought he not to leave some hint behind him of the +strange adventure upon which he was about to embark, and which +might end he knew not how or where? Julius was observing him, and +seemed to divine his doubt.</p> + +<p>"You need have no hesitation," said he. "I ask you only for +twelve hours. You can easily get back here by noon to-morrow. There +is a south-west wind blowing, with every prospect of settled +weather. I am quite certain about it."</p> + +<p>Fortified with that assurance, Lefevre put on a thicker overcoat +and an old soft hat, turned out the lights in the dining-room and +in the hall, closed the door with a slam, and stood with the new, +the strange Julius in the street, fairly embarked upon <a name= +'211.png' id='p211.png'></a> his adventure. It was only with an +effort that he could realise he was in the company of one who had +been a familiar friend. They walked towards Regent Street without +speaking. At the corner of Savile Row they came upon a policeman, +and Lefevre had a sudden thrill of fear lest his companion should, +at length, be recognised and arrested. Courtney himself, however, +appeared in no wise disturbed. In Regent Street he hailed a passing +four-wheeler.</p> + +<p>"Wouldn't a hansom be quicker?" said Lefevre.</p> + +<p>"It is better on your account," said Julius, "that we should sit +apart."</p> + +<p>When they entered the cab, Courtney ensconced himself in the +remote corner of the other seat from Lefevre; and thus without +another word they drove to the Embankment. At the foot of the steps +<a name='212.png' id='p212.png'></a> by Cleopatra's Needle, they +found a waterman and a boat in waiting. They entered the boat, +Lefevre going forward while Julius sat down at the tiller. The +waterman pulled out. The tide was ebbing, and they slipped swiftly +down the dark river, with broken reflections of lamps and lanterns +on either bank streaming deep into the water like molten gold as +they passed, and with tall buildings and chimney-shafts showing +black against the calm night sky. Lefevre found it necessary at +intervals to assure himself that he was not drifting in a dream, or +that the ghastly, burning-eyed figure, wrapped in a dark cloak in +the stern, was not a strange visitor from the nether world.</p> + +<p>Soon after they had shot through London Bridge they were +alongside a yacht almost in mid-stream. It was clear <a name= +'213.png' id='p213.png'></a> that all had been prearranged for +Julius's arrival; for as soon as they were on board, the yacht +(loosed from her upper mooring by the waterman who had brought them +down the river) began to stand away.</p> + +<p>"We had better go forward," said Courtney. "Are you warm +enough?"</p> + +<p>The doctor answered that he was. Courtney gave an order to one +of the men, who went below and returned with a fur-lined coat which +his master put on. That little incident gave a curious shock to +Lefevre: it made him think of the mysterious stranger who had sat +down opposite the young officer in the Brighton train, and it +showed him that he had not been completely satisfied that his +friend Julius and the person he had been wont to think of as +Hernando Courtney were one and the same.<a name='214.png' id= +'p214.png'></a></p> + +<p>They went forward to be free of the sail and its tackling. +Courtney, wrapped in his extra, his fur-lined coat, pointing to a +low folding-chair for Lefevre, threw himself on a heap of cordage. +He looked around and above him, at the rippling, flashing water and +the black hulls of ships, and at the serene, starlit heavens +stretching over all.</p> + +<p>"How wonderful!—how beautiful it all is!" he exclaimed. +"All, all!—even the dullest and deadest-seeming things are +vibrating, palpitating with the very madness of life! He set the +world in my heart, and oh, how I loved!—how I loved the +world!"</p> + +<p>"It is a wonderful world," said Lefevre, trying to speak +cheerfully; "and you will take delight in it again when this +abnormal fit of depression is over."<a name='215.png' id= +'p215.png'></a></p> + +<p>"Never, Lefevre!—never, never!" said Courtney in strenuous +tones. "I regret it deeply, bitterly, madly,—but yet I know +that I have about done with it!"</p> + +<p>"Julius," said Lefevre, "I have been so amazed and bewildered, +that I have found little to say: I can scarcely believe that you +are in very deed the Julius I have known for years. But now let me +remind you I am your friend——"</p> + +<p>"Thank you, Lefevre."</p> + +<p>"——And I am ready to help you to the uttermost in +this crisis, which I but dimly understand. Tell me about yourself, +and let me see what I can do."</p> + +<p>"You can do nothing," said Julius, sadly shaking his head. +"Understand me; I am not going to state a case for diagnosis. Put +that idea aside; I merely wish to confess myself to my friend."<a +name='216.png' id='p216.png'></a></p> + +<p>"But surely," said Lefevre, "I may be your physician as well as +your friend. As long as you have life there is hope of life."</p> + +<p>"No, no, no, Lefevre! There is a depth of life—life on the +lees—that is worse than death! If I could retrace my steps to +the beginning of this, taking my knowledge with me, +then——! But no, I must go my appointed way, and face +what is beyond.... But let me tell you my story.</p> + +<p>"You have heard something of my parentage from Dr Rippon, I +believe. My father was Spanish, and my mother was English. I think +I was born without that sense of responsibility to a traditional or +conventional standard which is called Conscience, and that sense of +obligation to consider others as important as myself, <a name= +'217.png' id='p217.png'></a> which, I believe, they call Altruism. +I do not know whether the lack of these senses had been manifest in +my mother's family, but I am sure it had been in my father's. For +generations it had been a law unto itself; none of its members had +known any duty but the fulfilment of his desires; and I believe +even that kind of outward conscience called Honour had scarcely +existed for some of them. I had from my earliest recollection the +nature of these ancestors: they, though dead, desired, acted, lived +in me,—with something of a difference, due to I know not +what. Let me try to state the fact as it appears to me looking +back: I was for myself the one consciousness, the one person in the +world, all else—trees, beasts, men and women, and what +not—being the medium in which, and on which, I lived. I +conceived of nothing <a name='218.png' id='p218.png'></a> around me +but as existing to please, to amuse, to delight me, and if anything +showed itself contrary to these ends, I simply avoided it. What I +wished to do I did; what I wished to have I had;—and nothing +else. I do not suppose that in these points I was different from +most other children of wealthy parents. Where I differed, I +believe, was in having a peculiarly sensitive, and at the same time +admirably healthy, constitution of body, which induced a remarkable +development of desire and gratification. I can hardly make you +understand, I am sure I cannot make you feel—I myself cannot +feel, I can only remember—what a bright natural creature I +was when I was young."</p> + +<p>"Don't I remember well," said Lefevre, "what you were like when +I first met you in Paris?"<a name='219.png' id='p219.png'></a></p> + +<p>"Ah," said Julius, "the change had begun then,—the change +that has brought me to this. I contemplate myself as I was before +that with bitter envy and regret. I was as a being sprung fresh +from the womb of primitive Nature. I delighted in Nature as a child +delights in its mother, and I throve on my delight as a child +thrives. I refused to go to school—and indeed little pressure +was put upon me—to be drilled in the paces and hypocrisy of +civilised mankind. I ran wild about the country; I became +proficient in all bodily exercises; I fenced and wrestled and +boxed; I leaped and swam; I rowed for days alone in a skiff; I +associated with simple peasants, and with all kinds of animals; I +delighted in air and water, and grass and trees: to me they were as +much alive as beasts are. Oh, what an exquisite, <a name='220.png' +id='p220.png'></a> abounding, unclouded pleasure life was! When I +was hungry I ate; when I was thirsty I drank; when I was tired I +slept; and when I woke I stretched myself like a giant refreshed. +It was a pure joy to me in those days to close my fingers into a +fist and see the beauty and firmness of my muscles. When solemn, +civilised people spoke to me of duty and work, I listened like an +idiot. I had nothing in my consciousness to help me to understand +them. I knew no more of duty than Crusoe on his island; and as for +work, I had no ambition,—why, then, should I work? I read, of +course; but I read because I liked it, not because I had tasks set +me. I read everything that came in my way; and very soon all +literature and science—all good poetry and romance, and all +genuine science—came to mean for me <a name='221.png' id= +'p221.png'></a> a fine, orderly expression of nature and life. And +religion, too, I felt as the ecstasy of nature. So I fed and +flourished on the milk of life and the bread of life.</p> + +<p>"But a time came when I longed to live deeper, and to get at the +pith and marrow of life. I was over twenty when it was revealed to +me in a noonday splendour and warmth of light, that the human is +unspeakably the highest and most enthralling expression of life in +all Nature. That discovery happened to me when I was in Morocco +with my father, who died there—no matter how—among +those whom he liked to believe were his own people: my mother had +died long before. I had considerable wealth at my command, and I +began to live at the height of all my faculties; I lived in every +nerve, and at every pore.<a name='222.png' id='p222.png'></a></p> + +<p>"And then I began to perceive a reverse to the bounteous beauty +and the overflowing life of Nature,—a threatening quality, a +devouring faculty in her by which she fed the joyous abundance of +her life. I saw that all activity, all the pleasant palpitation and +titillation in the life of Nature and of Man, merely means that one +living thing is feeding upon or is feeding another. I began to +perceive that all the interest of life centres in this +alter-devouring principle. I discovered, moreover, this strange +point,—that the joy of life is in direct proportion to the +rapidity with which we lose or surrender life."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Lefevre, "the giving of pleasure is always more +exquisite and satisfactory than the getting it."</p> + +<p>"I lost life," continued Julius, without noting Lefevre's +remark,—"I lost life,—vital <a name='223.png' id= +'p223.png'></a> force, nervous ether, electricity, whatever you +choose to call it,—at an enormous rate, but I as quickly +replenished my loss. I had revelled for some time in this deeper +life of give and take before I discovered that this faculty of +recuperation also was curiously and wonderfully active in me. +Whenever I fell into a state of weakness, well-nigh empty of life, +I withdrew myself from company, and dwelt for a little while with +the simplest forms of Nature."</p> + +<p>"But," asked Lefevre, "how did you get into such a low +condition?"</p> + +<p>"How? <i>I lived!</i>" said he with fervour. "<i>Yes; I +lived:</i> that was how! I had always delighted in animals, but +then I began to find that when I caressed them they were not merely +tamed, as they had been wont, but completely subdued; and I felt +rapid and full accessions of life from <a name='224.png' id= +'p224.png'></a> contact with them. If I lay upon a bank of rich +grass or wild flowers, I had to a slight extent the same +revivifying sensation. The fable of Antæus was fulfilled in +me. The constant recurrence and vigour of this recuperation not +only filled me with pride, but also set me thinking. I turned to +medical science to find the secret of it. I entered myself as a +student in Paris: it was then I met you. I read deeply, too, in the +books of the mediæval alchemists and sages of Spain, which my +father had left me. It came upon me in a clear flood of evidence +that Nature and man are one and indivisible, being animated by one +identical Energy or Spirit of Life, however various may be the +material forms; and that all things, all creatures, according to +the activity of their life, have the power of communicating, of +giving or <a name='225.png' id='p225.png'></a> taking, this +invisible force of life. It furthermore became clear to me that, +though the force resides in all parts of a body, floating in every +corpuscle of blood, yet its proper channels of circulation and +communication are the nerves, so that as soon as a nerve in any one +shape of life touches a nerve in any other, there is an instant +tendency to establish in them a common level of the Force of Life. +If I or you touch a man or woman with a finger, or clasp their +hand, or embrace them more completely, the tendency is at once set +up, and the force seeks to flow, and, according to certain +conditions, does flow, from one to another, evermore seeking to +find a common level,—always, that is, in the direction of the +greater need, or the greater capacity. I saw then that not only had +I a greater storage capacity, so to say, than <a name='226.png' id= +'p226.png'></a> most men, but also, therefore, when exhaustion +came, I had a more insistent need for replenishment, and a more +violent shrinking at all times from any weak or unhealthy person +who might even by chance contact make a demand on my store of +life."</p> + +<p>"And is that your secret?" asked Lefevre. "I have arrived in a +different way at something like the same discovery."</p> + +<p>"I know you have," said Julius. "But my peculiar secret is not +that, though it is connected with it. I am growing very tired," +said he, abruptly. "I must be quick, Lefevre," he continued in a +hurried, weak voice of appeal; "grant me one little last favour to +enable me to finish."</p> + +<p>"Anything I can do I will, Julius," said Lefevre, suddenly +roused out of the half-drowsiness which the soft night induced. <a +name='227.png' id='p227.png'></a> He was held between alarm and +fascination by the look which Julius bent on him.</p> + +<p>"I am ashamed to ask, but you are full of life," said Julius: "I +am at the shallowest ebb. Just for one minute help me. Of your +free-will submit yourself to me for but a moment. Will you do me +that service?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Lefevre, after an instant's hesitation; "certainly I +will."</p> + +<p>Julius half rose from his reclining position; he turned on +Lefevre his wonderful eyes, which in the mysterious twilight that +suffused the midsummer night burned with a surprising brilliance. +Lefevre felt himself seized and held in their influence.</p> + +<p>"Give me your hand," said Julius.</p> + +<p>The doctor gave his hand, his eyes being still held by those of +Julius, and <a name='228.png' id='p228.png'></a> instantly, as it +seemed to him, he plunged, as a man dives into the sea, into a gulf +of unconsciousness, from which he presently emerged with something +like a gasp and with a tremulous sensation about his heart. What +had happened to him he did not know; but he felt slacker of fibre, +as if virtue had gone out of him, while Julius, when he spoke, +seemed refreshed as by a draught of wine.</p> + +<p>"How are you?" asked Julius. "For heaven's sake don't let me +think that at the last I have troubled much the current of your +life! Will you have something to eat and drink? There's wine and +food below."</p> + +<p>"Thank you; no," said Lefevre. "I am well enough, only a little +drowsy."</p> + +<p>"I am stronger," said Julius, "but it will not last; so let me +finish my story."<a name='229.png' id='p229.png'></a></p> + +<p>Then he continued. "Having explained to myself, in the way I +have told you, the ease of my unwitting replenishment of force +whenever I was brought low, I set myself to improve on my +discovery. I saw before me a prospect of enjoyment of all the +delights of life, deeper and more constant than most men ever +know,—if I could only ensure to myself with absolute +certainty a still more complete and rapid reinvigoration as often +soever as I sank into exhaustion. I was quite sure that no energy +of life is finer or fuller than the human at its best."</p> + +<p>"Good God!" exclaimed Lefevre, turning away with an involuntary +shudder.</p> + +<p>"For heaven's sake!" cried Julius, "don't shrink from me now, or +you will tempt me to be less frank than I have been. I wish to make +full confession. I <a name='230.png' id='p230.png'></a> know, I see +now, I have been cruelly, brutally selfish—as selfish as +Nature herself!—none knows that better than I. But remember, +in extenuation, what I have told you of my origin and my growth. +And I had not the suspicion of a thought of injuring any one. Fool! +fool! egregious fool that I was! I who understood most things so +clearly did not guess that no creature, no being in the +universe—god, or man, or beast—can indulge in arrogant, +full, magnificent enjoyment without gathering and living in +himself, squandering through himself, the lives of others, to their +eternal loss and his own final ruin! But, as I said, I did not +think, and it was not evident until recently, that I injured any +one. I had for a long time been aware that I had an unusual +mesmeric or magnetic influence—call it <a name='231.png' id= +'p231.png'></a> what you will—over others. I cultivated that +power in eye and hand, so that I was soon able to take any person +at unawares whom I considered fit for my purpose, and subdue him or +her completely to myself. Then after one or two failures I hit upon +a method, which I perfected at length into entire simplicity, by +which I was able to tap the nervous system and draw into myself as +much as ever I needed of the abounding force of life, without +leaving any sign which even the most skilful doctor could +detect."</p> + +<p>"Julius, you sicken me!" exclaimed Lefevre. "I am a doctor, but +you sicken me!"</p> + +<p>"I explain myself so in detail," said Julius, "<i>because</i> +you are a doctor. But let me finish. I lived that life of complete +wedlock with Nature for I dare not think how many years."<a name= +'232.png' id='p232.png'></a></p> + +<p>"And you did not get weary of it?" asked Lefevre.</p> + +<p>"Weary of it? No! I returned to it always, after a pause of a +few days for the reinvigoration I needed,—I returned to it +with all the freshness of youth, with the advantage which, of +course, mere youth can never have,—an amazingly rich +experience. I revelled in the full lap of life. I passed through +many lands, civilised and barbaric; but it was my especial delight +to strike down to that simple, passionate, essential nature which +lies beneath the thickest lacquer of refinements in our civilised +societies. Oh, what a life it was!—what a life!</p> + +<p>"But a change came: it must have been growing on me for some +time without my knowledge. I commonly removed from society when I +felt exhaustion coming on <a name='233.png' id='p233.png'></a> me; +but on one occasion it chanced that I stayed on in the pleasant +company I was in (I was then in Vienna). I did not exactly feel +ill; I felt merely weary and languid, and thought that presently I +would go to bed. Gradually I began to observe that the looks of my +companions were bent strangely on me, and that the expression of +their countenances more and more developed surprise and alarm. +'What is the matter with you all?' I demanded; when they instantly +cried, 'What is the matter with <i>you?</i> Have you been +poisoned?' I rose and went and looked in a mirror; I saw, with +ghastly horror, what I was like, and I knew then that I was <i> +doomed</i>. I fled from that company for ever. I saw that, when the +alien life on which I flourished was gone out of me, I was a worn +old man—that <a name='234.png' id='p234.png'></a> the Fire of +Life which usually burned in my body, making me look bright and +young, was now none of it my own; a few hot ashes only were mine, +which Death sat cowering by! I could not but sit and gaze at the +reflection of the seared ghastliness of that face, which was mine +and yet not mine, and feel well-nigh sick unto death. After a +while, however, I plucked up heart. I considered that it was +impossible this change had come all at once; I must have looked +like that—or almost like that—once or twice or oftener +before, and yet life and reinvigoration had gone on as they had +been wont. I wrapped myself well up, and went out. I found a fit +subject. I replenished my life as theretofore; my youthful, fresh +appearance returned, and my confidence with it. I refused to look +again upon my own, <a name='235.png' id='p235.png'></a> my worn +face, from that time until tonight.</p> + +<p>"But alarm again seized me about a year ago, when I chanced by +calculation to note that my periods of abounding life were +gradually getting shorter,—that I needed reinvigoration at +more frequent intervals;—not that I did not take as much from +my subjects as formerly—on the contrary, I seemed to take +more—but that I lost more rapidly what I took, as if my body +were becoming little better than a fine sieve. The last stage of +all was this that you are familiar with, when my subjects began to +be so utterly exhausted as to attract public notice. Yet that is +not what has given me pause, and made me resolve to bring the whole +weary, selfish business to an end. Could I not have gone +elsewhere—anywhere, the wide world over—and <a name= +'236.png' id='p236.png'></a> lived my life? But I was kept, I was +tethered here, to this London by a feeling I had never known +before. Call it by the common fool's name of Love; call it what you +will. I was fascinated by your sister Nora, even as others had been +fascinated by me, even as I had been in my youth by the bountiful, +gracious beauty of Nature."</p> + +<p>"I have wanted to ask you," said Lefevre, "for an explanation of +your conduct towards Nora. Why did you—with your awful +life—life which, as you say, was not your own, and your +extraordinary secret—why did you remain near her, and +entangle her with your fascinations? What did you +desire?—what did you hope for?"</p> + +<p>"I scarcely know for what I hoped. But let me speak of her; for +she has traversed and completely eclipsed my <a name='237.png' id= +'p237.png'></a> former vision of Nature. I have told you what my +point of view was,—alone in the midst of Nature. I was for +myself the only consciousness in the world, and all the world +besides was merely a variety of material and impression, to be +observed and known, to be interested in and delighted with. I was +thus lonely, lonely as a despot, when Nora, your sister, appeared +to me, and instantly I became aware there was another consciousness +in the world as great as, or greater than, my own,—another +person than myself, a person of supreme beauty and intelligence and +faculty. She became to me all that Nature had been, and more. She +expressed for me all that I had sought to find diffused through +Nature, and at the same time she stood forth to me as an equal of +my own kind, with as great a <a name='238.png' id='p238.png'></a> +capacity for life. At first I had a vision of our living and +reigning together, so to say, though the word may seem to you +absurd; but I soon discovered that there was a gulf fixed between +us,—the gulf of the life I had lived; she stood pure where I +had stood a dozen years ago. So, gradually, she subverted my whole +scheme of life; more and more, without knowing it, she made me see +and judge myself with her eyes, till I felt altogether abased +before her. But that which finally stripped the veil from me, and +showed me myself as the hateful incarnation of relentlessly +devouring Self, was my influence upon her, which culminated in the +event of last night. Can you conceive how I was smitten and pierced +with horror by the discovery that rose on me like a nightmare, that +even on her sweet, pure, <a name='239.png' id='p239.png'></a> +sumptuous life, I had unwittingly begun to prey? For that discovery +flung wide the door of the future and showed me what I would +become.</p> + +<p>"Beautiful, calm, divine Nora! If I could but have continued +near her without touching her, to delight in the thought and the +sight of her, as one delights in the wind and the sunshine! But it +could not be. I could only appear fit company for her if I +refreshed and strengthened myself as I had been wont; but my new +disgust of myself, and pity for my victims, made me shudder at the +thought. What then? Here I am, and the time has come (as that old +doctor said it would) when death appears more beautiful and +friendly and desirable than life. Forgive me, Lefevre—forgive +me on Nora's part,—and forgive me in the name of human +nature."<a name='240.png' id='p240.png'></a></p> + +<p>Lefevre could not reply for the moment. He sat convulsed with +heartrending sobs. He put out his hand to Julius.</p> + +<p>"No, no!" exclaimed Julius, "I must not take your hand. You know +I must not."</p> + +<p>"Take my hand," cried Lefevre. "I know what it means. Take my +life! Leave me but enough to recover. I give it you freely, for I +wish you to live. You shall not die. By heaven! you shall not die. +O Julius, Julius! why did you not tell me this long ago? Science +has resource enough to deliver you from your mistake."</p> + +<p>"Lefevre," said Julius,—and his eyes sparkled with tears +and his weakening voice was choked,—"your friendship moves me +deeply—to the soul. But science can do nothing for me: +science <a name='241.png' id='p241.png'></a> has not yet sufficient +knowledge of the principle on which I lived. Would you have me, +then, live on,—passing to and fro among mankind merely as a +blight, taking the energy of life, even from whomsoever I would +not? No, I must die! Death is best!"</p> + +<p>"I will not let you die," said Lefevre, rising to take a pace or +two on the deck. "You shall come home with me. I shall feed your +life—there are dozens besides myself who will be glad to +assist—till you are healed of the devouring demon you have +raised within you."</p> + +<p>"No, no, no, my dear friend!" cried Julius. "I have steadily +sinned against the most vital law of life."</p> + +<p>"Julius," said Lefevre, standing over him, "my friendship, my +love for you may blind me to the enormity of your sin, but I <a +name='242.png' id='p242.png'></a> can find it in me to say, in the +name of humanity, 'I forgive you all! Now, rise up and live anew! +Your intelligence, your soul is too rare and admirable to be +snuffed out like a guttering candle!'"</p> + +<p>"Lefevre," said Julius, "you are a perfect friend! But your +knowledge of this secret force of Nature, which we have both +studied, is not so great as mine. Let me tell you, then, that this +mystical saying, which I once scoffed at, is the profoundest +truth:—</p> + +<div class='poem'> +<div class='line'>"'Who loveth life shall lose it all;</div> + +<div class='line'>Who seeketh life shall surely fall!'</div> +</div> + +<p>"There is no remedy for me but death, which (who knows?) may be +the mother of new life!"</p> + +<p>"It would have been better for you," said Lefevre, sitting down +again with his <a name='243.png' id='p243.png'></a> head in his +hands, "better—if you had never seen Nora."</p> + +<p>"Nay, nay," cried Julius, sitting up, animate with a fresh +impulse of life. "Better for her, dear, beautiful soul, but not for +me! I have truly lived only since I saw her, and I have the joy of +feeling that I have beheld and known Nature's sole and perfect +chrysolite. But I must be quick, my friend; the dawn will soon be +upon us. There is but one other thing for me to speak of—my +method of taking to myself the force of life. It is my secret; it +is perfectly adapted for professional use, and I wish to give it to +you, because you are wise enough in mind, and great enough of soul, +to use it for the benefit of mankind."</p> + +<p>"I will not hear you, Julius!" exclaimed Lefevre. "I am neither +wise nor great. <a name='244.png' id='p244.png'></a> Your perfect +secret would be too much for me. I might be tempted to keep it for +my own use. Come home with me, and apply it well yourself."</p> + +<p>Julius was silent for a space, murmuring only, "I have no time +for argument." Then his face assumed the white sickness of death, +and his dark eyes seemed to grow larger and to burn with a +concentrated fire.</p> + +<p>"Lefevre!" he panted in amazement, "do you know that you are +refusing such a medical and spiritual secret as the world has not +known for thousands of years? A secret that would enable +you—<i>you</i>—to work cures more wonderful than any +that are told of the greatest Eastern Thaumaturge?"</p> + +<p>"I have discovered a method," answered the doctor,—"an +imperfect, clumsy method—for <a name='245.png' id='p245.png'> +</a> myself, of transmitting nervous force or ether for curative +purposes. That, for the present, must be enough for me. I cannot +hear your secret, Julius."</p> + +<p>"Lefevre, I beg of you," pleaded Julius, "take it from me. I +have promised myself, as a last satisfaction, that the secret I +have guarded—it is not altogether mine: it is an old oriental +secret—that now I would hand it over to you for the good of +mankind, that at the last I might say to myself, 'I have, after +all, opened my hand liberally to my fellow-men!' For pity's sake, +Lefevre, don't deny me that small final satisfaction!"</p> + +<p>"Julius," said Lefevre, firmly, "if your method is so +perfect—as I believe it must be from what I have seen—I +dare not lay on myself the responsibility of possessing its +secret."<a name='246.png' id='p246.png'></a></p> + +<p>"Would not my example keep you from using it selfishly?"</p> + +<p>"Does the experience of another," demanded the doctor, "however +untoward it may be, ever keep a man from making his own? I dare +not—I dare not trust myself to hold your perfect secret."</p> + +<p>"Then share it with others," responded Julius, promptly; "and I +daresay it is not so perfect, but that it could be made more +perfect still."</p> + +<p>"I'll have nothing to do with it, Julius; you must keep and use +it yourself."</p> + +<p>"Then," cried Julius, throwing himself on his bed of cordage, +"then there will be, indeed, an end of me!"</p> + +<p>There was no sound for a time, but the soft rush of the sea at +the bows of the yacht. They had left the Thames water some distance +behind, and were then in <a name='247.png' id='p247.png'></a> that +part of the estuary where it is just possible in mid-channel to +descry either coast. The glorious rose of dawn was just beginning +to flame in the eastern sky. Lefevre looked about him, and strove +to shake off the sensation, which would cling to him, that he was +involved in a strange dream. There lay Julius or Hernando Courtney +before him; or at least the figure of a man with his face hid in +his hands. What more could be said or done?</p> + +<p>In the meantime light was swiftly rushing up the sky and waking +all things to life. A flock of seagulls came from the depth of the +night and wheeled about the yacht, their shrill screams strangely +softened in the morning air. At the sound of them Julius roused +himself, and raised himself on his elbow to watch their <a name= +'248.png' id='p248.png'></a> beautiful evolutions. As he watched, +one and another swooped gracefully to the water, and hanging there +an instant, rose with a fish and flew away. Julius flung himself +again on his face.</p> + +<p>"O God!" he cried. "Is it not horrible? Even on such a beautiful +day as this death wakes as early as life! Devouring death is +ushered in by the dawn, hand in hand with generous life! Awful, +devilish Nature! that makes all creatures full of beauty and +delight, and then condemns them to live upon each other! Nature is +the sphinx: she appears soft and gentle and more lovely than heart +can bear, but if you look closer, you see she is a creature with +claws and teeth that rend and devour! I thought, fool that I was! +that I had found the secret to solve her riddle! But it was an +empty hope, a vain <a name='249.png' id='p249.png'></a> +imagination.... Yet, I have lived! Yes, I have lived!"</p> + +<p>He rose and stood erect, facing the dawn, with his back to +Lefevre. He stood thus for some time, with one foot on the low +bulwark of the vessel, till the sun leaped above the horizon and +flamed with blinding brilliance across the sea.</p> + +<p>"Ah!" he murmured. "The superb, the glorious sun! Unwearied lord +of Creation! Generous giver of all light and life! And yet, who +knows what worlds he may not have drawn into his flaming self, and +consumed during the æons of his existence? It is ever and +everywhere the same: death in company with life! And swift, strong +death is better than slow, weak life!... Almost the splendour and +inspiration of his rising tempt me to stay! Great nourisher and +renewer of life's heat!"<a name='250.png' id='p250.png'></a></p> + +<p>He put off his fur coat, and let it fall on the deck, and stood +for a while as if wrapt in ecstasy. Then, before Lefevre could +conceive his intention, his feet were together on the bulwark, and +with a flash and a plunge he was gone!</p> + +<p>Amazement held the doctor's energies congealed, though but for +an instant or two. Then he threw off hat and coat, and stood alert +and resolute to dive to Julius's rescue when he rose, while those +who manned the yacht prepared to cast a buoy and line. Not a ripple +or flash of water passed unheeded; the flood of sunshine rose +fuller and fuller over the world; moments grew to minutes, and +minutes swelled to hopeless hours under the doctor's weary eyes, +till it seemed to them as if the universe were only a swirling, +greedy ocean;—but no sign appeared <a name='251.png' id= +'p251.png'></a> of his night's companion: his life was quenched in +the depths of the restless waters, as a flaming meteor is quenched +in night. At length Lefevre ordered the yacht to stand away to the +shore, his heart torn with grief and self-upbraiding. He had called +Courtney his friend, and yet until that last he had never won his +inner confidence; and now he knew that his friend—he of the gentle +heart, the peerless intelligence, and the wildly erring +life—was dead in the hour of self-redemption.</p> + +<p>When he had landed, however, given to the proper authorities +such information as was necessary, and set off by train on his +return to town, the agitation of his grief began to assuage; and +when next day, upon the publication in the papers of the news of +Courtney's death by drowning, a solicitor called in Savile Row with +a will <a name='252.png' id='p252.png'></a> which he had drawn up +two days before, and by which all Julius Courtney's property was +left to Dr Lefevre, to dispose of as he thought best, "for +scientific and humane ends," the doctor admitted to his reason that +a death that could thus calmly be prepared was not lightly to be +questioned.</p> + +<p>"He must have known best," he said to himself, as he bowed over +his hands—"he must have known best when to put off the +poisoned garment of life he had woven for himself."</p> + +<br> +<br> +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13931 ***</div> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3b8647c --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #13931 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13931) diff --git a/old/13931-8.txt b/old/13931-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..589ed20 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13931-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3948 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Master of His Fate, by J. Mclaren Cobban + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Master of His Fate + +Author: J. Mclaren Cobban + +Release Date: November 3, 2004 [eBook #13931] +[Date last updated: January 9, 2005] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MASTER OF HIS FATE*** + + +E-text prepared by Suzanne Shell, Branko Collin, and the Project Gutenberg +Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + +Master Of His Fate + +by + +J. MACLAREN COBBAN + +1890 + + + + + + + +Contents. + + +Chapter + + I. Julius Courtney + II. A Mysterious Case + III. "M. Dolaro" + IV. The Man of the Crowd + V. The Remarkable Case of Lady Mary Fane + VI. At The Bedside of the Doctor + VII. Contains a Love Interlude +VIII. Strange Scenes in Curzon Street + IX. An Apparition And a Confession + + + + + To Z. Mennell, Esq. + + My dear Mennell, + + It has been my fortune to see something of the practice of the art + of healing under widely different conditions, and I know none who + better represents the most humane and most exacting of all + professions than yourself. The good doctor of this story--the born + surgeon and healer, the ever young and alert, the self-forgetful, + the faithful friend, gifted with "that exquisite charity which can + forgive all things"--is studied from you. + + It is one of the greatest pleasures of my life to inscribe your + name on this dedicatory page, and to subscribe myself, + + Your sincere friend and grateful patient, + + J. Maclaren Cobban. + + London, November 1889. + + + + +Chapter I. + +Julius Courtney. + + +The Hyacinth Club has the reputation of selecting its members from among +the freshest and most active spirits in literature, science, and art. +That is in a sense true, but activity in one or another of those fields +is not a condition of membership; for, just as the listening Boswell was +the necessary complement of the talking Johnson, so in the Hyacinth Club +there is an indispensable contingent of passive members who find their +liveliest satisfaction in hearing and looking on, rather than in +speaking and doing. Something of the home principle of male and female +is necessary for the completeness even of a club. + +The Hyacinth Club-house looks upon Piccadilly and the Green Park. The +favourite place of concourse of its members is the magnificent +smoking-room on the first floor, the bow-windows of which command a view +up and down the fashionable thoroughfare, and over the trees and the +undulating sward of the Park to the gates of Buckingham Palace. On a +Monday afternoon in the beginning of May, the bow-windows were open, and +several men sat in leather lounges (while one leaned against a +window-sash), luxuriously smoking, and noting the warm, palpitating life +of the world without. A storm which had been silently and doubtfully +glooming and gathering the night before had burst and poured in the +morning, and it was such a spring afternoon as thrills the heart with +new life and suffuses the soul with expectation--such an afternoon as +makes all women appear beautiful and all men handsome. The south-west +wind blew soft and balmy, and all nature rejoiced as the bride in the +presence of the bridegroom. The trees in the Park were full of sap, and +their lusty buds were eagerly opening to the air and the light. The +robin sang with a note almost as rich and sensuous as that of the +thrush; and the shrill and restless sparrows chirped and chattered about +the houses and among the horses' feet, and were as full of the joy of +life as the men and women who thronged the pavements or reclined in +their carriages in the sumptuous ease of wealth and beauty. + +Of the men who languidly gazed upon the gay and splendid scene from the +windows of the Club, none seemed so interested as the man who leaned +against the window-frame. He appeared more than interested--absorbed, +indeed--in the world without, and he looked bright and handsome enough, +and charged enough with buoyant health, to be the ideal bridegroom of +Nature in her springtide. + +He was a dark man, tall and well built, with clear brown eyes. His black +hair (which was not cropped short, as is the fashion) had a lustrous +softness, and at the same time an elastic bushiness, which nothing but +the finest-tempered health can give; and his complexion, though tanned +by exposure, had yet much of the smoothness of youth, save where the +razor had passed upon his beard. Thus seen, a little way off, he +appeared a young man in his rosy twenties; on closer view and +acquaintance, however, that superficial impression was contradicted by +the set expression of his mouth and the calm observation and +understanding of his eye, which spoke of ripe experience rather than of +green hope. He bore a very good English name--Courtney; and he was +believed to be rich. There was no member of whom the Hyacinth Club was +prouder than of him: though he had done nothing, it was commonly +believed he could do anything he chose. No other was listened to with +such attention, and there was nothing on which he could not throw a +fresh and fascinating light. He was a constant spring of surprise and +interest. While others were striving after income and reputation, he +calmly and modestly, without obtrusion or upbraiding, held on his own +way, with unsurpassable curiosity, to the discovery of all which life +might have to reveal. It was this, perhaps, as much as the charm of his +manner and conversation, that made him so universal a favourite; for how +could envy or malice touch a man who competed at no point with his +fellows? + +His immediate neighbours, as he thus stood by the window, were a pair of +journalists, several scientific men, and an artist. + +"Have you seen any of the picture-shows, Julius?" asked the painter, +Kew. + +Courtney slowly abstracted his gaze from without, and turned on his +shoulder with the lazy, languid grace of a cat. + +"No," said he, in a half-absent tone; "I have just come up, and I've not +thought of looking into picture-galleries yet." + +"Been in the country?" asked Kew. + +"Yes, I've been in the country," said Courtney, still as if his +attention was elsewhere. + +"It must be looking lovely," said Kew. + +"It is--exquisite!" said Courtney, waking up at length to a full glow of +interest. "That's why I don't want to go and stare at pictures. In the +spring, to see the fresh, virginal, delicious green of a bush against an +old dry brick wall, gives a keener pleasure than the best picture that +ever was painted." + +"I thought," said Kew, "you had a taste for Art; I thought you enjoyed +it." + +"So I do, my dear fellow, but not now,--not at this particular present. +When I feel the warm sun on my back and breathe the soft air, I want no +more; they are more than Art can give--they are Nature, and, of course, +it goes without saying that Art can never compete with Nature in +creating human pleasure. I mean no disparagement of your work, Kew, or +any artist's work; but I can't endure Art except in winter, when +everything (almost) must be artificial to be endurable. A winter may +come in one's life--I wonder if it will?--when one would rather look at +the picture of a woman than at the woman herself. Meantime I no more +need pictures than I need fires; I warm both hands and heart at the fire +of life." + +"Ah!" said Kew, with a wistful lack of comprehension. + +"That's why I believe," said Courtney, with a sudden turn of reflection, +"there is in warm countries no Art of our small domestic kind." + +"Just so," said Kew; while Dingley Dell, the Art critic, made a note of +Courtney's words. + +"Look here!" exclaimed Dr. Embro, an old scientific man of Scottish +extraction, who, in impatience with such transcendental talk, had taken +up 'The St. James's Gazette.' "What do you make of this queer case at +the Hôtel-Dieu in Paris? I see it's taken from 'The Daily Telegraph;'" +and he began to read it. + +"Oh," said Kew, "we all read that this morning." + +"Dr. Embro," said Courtney, again looking idly out of window, "is like a +French journal: full of the news of the day before yesterday." + +"Have you read it yourself, Julius?" asked Embro, amid the laughter of +his neighbours. + +"No," said Julius carelessly; "and if it's a hospital case I don't want +to read it." + +"What!" said Embro, with heavy irony. "You say that? You, a pupil of the +great Dubois and the greater Charbon! But here comes a greater than +Charbon--the celebrated Dr. Lefevre himself. Come now, Lefevre, you tell +us what you think of this Paris hospital case." + +"Presently, Embro," said Lefevre, who had just perceived his friend +Courtney. "Ha, Julius!" said he, crossing to him and taking his hand; +"you're looking uncommonly well." + +"Yes," said Julius, "I am well." + +"And where have you been all this while?" asked the doctor. + +"Oh," said Julius, turning his gaze again out of window, "I have been +rambling everywhere, between Dan and Beersheba." + +"And all is vanity, eh?" said the doctor. + +"Well," said Julius, looking at him, "that depends--that very much +depends. But can there be any question of vanity or vexation in this +sweet, glorious sunshine?" and he stretched out his hands as if he +burgeoned forth to welcome it. + +"Perhaps not," said Lefevre. "Come and sit down and let us talk." + +They were retiring from the window when Embro's voice again sounded at +Lefevre's elbow--"Come now, Lefevre; what's the meaning of that Paris +case?" + +"What Paris case?" + +Embro answered by handing him the paper. He took it, and read as +follows:-- + + "About a month ago a strange case of complete mental collapse was + received into the Hôtel-Dieu. A fresh healthy girl, of the working + class, about twenty years of age, and comfortably dressed, + presented herself at a police-station near the Odéon and asked for + shelter. As she did not appear to be in full possession of her + mental faculties, she was sent to the Hôtel-Dieu, where she + remained in a semi-comatose condition. Her memory did not go + farther back than the hour of her application at the + police-station. She was entirely ignorant of her previous history, + and had even forgotten her name. The minds of the medical staff of + the Hôtel-Dieu were very much exercised with her condition; but it + was not till about a week ago that they succeeded in restoring to + any extent her mental consciousness and her memory. She then + remembered the events immediately preceding her application to the + police. It had come on to rain, she said, and she was hurrying + along to escape from it, when a gentleman in a cloak came to her + side and politely offered to give her the shelter of his umbrella. + She accepted; the gentleman seemed old and ill. He asked her to + take his arm. She did so, and very soon she felt as if her strength + had gone from her; a cold shiver crept over her; she trembled and + tottered; but with all that she did not find her sensations + disagreeable exactly or alarming; so little so, indeed, that she + never thought of letting go the gentleman's arm. Her head buzzed, + and a kind of darkness came over her. Then all seemed to clear, and + she found herself alone near the police-station, remembering + nothing. Being asked to further describe the gentleman, she said he + was tall and dark, with a pleasant voice and wonderful eyes, that + made you feel you must do whatever he wished. The police have made + inquiries, but after such a lapse of time it is not surprising that + no trace of him can be found." + +"Well?" asked Embro, when Lefevre had raised his eyes from the paper. +"What do you think of it?" + +"Curious," said Lefevre. "I can't say more, since I know nothing of it +but this. Have you read it, Julius?" + +"No," said Julius; "I hate what people call news; and when I take up a +paper, it's only to look at the Weather Forecasts." Lefevre handed him +the paper, which he took with an unconcealed look of repulsion. "If it's +some case of disease," said he, "it will make me ill." + +"Oh no," said Lefevre; "it's not painful, but it's curious;" and so +Julius set himself to read it. + +"But come," said Embro, posing the question with his forefinger; "do you +believe that story, Lefevre?" + +"Though it's French, and from the 'Telegraph,'" said Lefevre, "I see no +reason to disbelieve it." + +"Come," said Embro, "come--you're shirking the question." + +"I confess," said Lefevre, "I've no desire to discuss it. You think me +prejudiced in favour of anything of the kind; perhaps I think you +prejudiced against it: where, then, is the good of discussion?" + +"Well, now," said the unabashed Embro, "I'll tell you what I think. +Here's a story"--Julius at that instant handed back the paper to +him--"of a healthy young woman mesmerised, hypnotised, or somnambulised, +or whatever you like to call it, in the public street, by some man that +casually comes up to her, and her brain so affected that her memory +goes! I say it's inconceivable!--impossible!" And he slapped the paper +down on the table. + +The others looked on with grim satisfaction at the prospect of an +argument between the two representatives of rival schools; and it was +noteworthy that, as they looked, they turned a referring glance on +Courtney, as if it were a foregone conclusion that he must be the final +arbiter. He, however, sat abstracted, with his eyes on the floor, and +with one hand propping his chin and the other drumming on the arm of his +chair. + +"I'm not a scientific man," said the journalist who was not an Art +critic, "and I am not prejudiced either way about this story; but it +seems to me, Embro, that you view the thing through a very ordinary +fallacy, and make a double mistake. You confound the relatively +inconceivable with the absolutely impossible: this story is relatively +inconceivable to you, and therefore you say it is absolutely +impossible." + +"Is there such a thing as an absolute impossibility?" murmured Julius, +who still sat with his chin in his hand, looking as if he considered the +"thing" from a long way off as one of a multitude of other things. + +"I do not believe there is," said the journalist; "but--" + +"Don't let us lose ourselves in metaphysics," broke in Embro. Then, +turning to Courtney, whose direct intelligent gaze seemed to disconcert +him, he said, "Now, Julius, you've seen, I daresay, a good many things +we have not seen,--have you ever seen or known a case like this we're +talking about?" + +"I can't say I have," said Julius. + +"There you are!" quoth Embro, in triumph. + +"But," continued Julius, "I don't therefore nail that case down as +false." + +"Do you mean to say," exclaimed Embro, "that you have lived all your +years, and studied science at the Salpétrière,--or what they call +science there,--and studied and seen God knows what else besides, and +you can't pronounce an opinion from all you know on a case of this +sort?" + +"Oh yes," said Julius, quietly, "I can pronounce an opinion; but what's +the use of that? I think that case is true, but I don't know that it is; +and therefore I can't argue about it, for argument should come from +knowledge, and I have none. I have a few opinions, and I am always ready +to receive impressions; but, besides some schoolboy facts that are +common property, the only thing I know--I am certain of--is, as some man +says, '_Life's a dream worth dreaming_.'" + +"You're too high-falutin for me, Julius," said Embro, shaking his head. +"But my opinion, founded on my knowledge, is that this story is a +hallucination of the young woman's noddle!" + +"And how much, Embro," laughed Julius, rising to leave the circle, "is +the argument advanced by your ticketing the case with that long word?" + +"To say 'hallucination,'" quoth Lefevre, "is a convenient way of giving +inquiry the slip." + +"My dear Embro," said Julius,--and he spoke with an emphasis, and looked +down on Embro with a bright vivacity of eye, which forewarned the circle +of one of his eloquent flashes: a smile of expectant enjoyment passed +round,--"hallucination is the dust-heap and limbo of the meanly-equipped +man of science to-day, just as witchcraft was a few hundred years ago. +The poor creature of science long ago, when he came upon any +pathological or psychological manifestation he did not understand, used +to say, '_Witchcraft_! Away with it to the limbo!' To-day he says, +'_Hallucination_! Away with it to the dust-heap!' It is a pity," said +he, with a laugh, "you ever took to science, Embro." + +"And why, may I ask?" said Embro. + +"Oh, you'd have been great as an orthodox theologian of the Kirk; the +cocksureness of theology would have suited you like your own coat. You +are not at home in science, for you have no imagination." + +It was characteristic of the peculiar regard in which Julius was held +that whatever he said or did appeared natural and pleasant,--like the +innocent actions and the simple, truthful speech of a child. Not even +Embro was offended with these last words of his: the others laughed; +Embro smiled, though with a certain sourness. + +"Pooh, Julius!" said he; "what are you talking about? Science is the +examination of facts, and what has imagination to do with that? Reason, +sir, is what you want!" + +"My dear Embro," said Julius, "there are several kinds of facts. There +are, for instance, big facts and little facts,--clean facts and dirty +facts. Imagination raises you and gives you a high and comprehensive +view of them all; your mere reason keeps you down in some noisome +corner, like the man with the muck-rake." + +"Hear, hear!" cried the journalist and the artist heartily. + +"You're wrong, Julius," said Embro,--"quite wrong. Keep your imagination +for painting and poetry. In science it just leads you the devil's own +dance, and fills you with delusions." + +Julius paused, and bent on him his peculiar look, which made a man feel +he was being seen through and through. + +"I am surprised, Embro," said he, "that one can live all your years and +not find that the illusions of life are its best part. If you leave me +the illusions, I'll give you all the realities. But how can we stay +babbling and quibbling here all this delicious afternoon? I must go out +and see green things and beasts. Come with me, Lefevre, to the +Zoological Gardens; it will do you good." + +"I tell you what," said Lefevre, looking at the clock as they moved +away; "my mother and sister will call for me with the carriage in less +than half an hour: come with us for a drive." + +"Oh yes," said Julius; "that's a good idea." + +"And I," said Lefevre, "must have a cup of tea in the meantime. Come and +sit down, and tell me where you have been." + +But when they had sat down, Julius was little inclined to divagate into +an account of his travels. His glance swept round and noted everything; +he remarked on a soft effect of a shaft of sunshine that lit up the +small conservatory, and burnished the green of a certain plant; he +perceived a fine black Persian cat, the latest pet of the Club, and +exclaimed, "What a beautiful, superb creature!" He called it, and it +came, daintily sniffed at his leg, and leaped on his lap, where he +stroked and fondled it. And all the while he continued to discuss +illusion, while Lefevre poured and drank tea (tea, which Julius would +not share: tea, he said, did not agree with him). + +"It bothers me," he said, "to imagine how a man like Embro gets any +satisfaction out of life, for ever mumbling the bare dry bones of +science. Such a life as his might as well be passed in the receiver of +an air-pump." + +"Still the old Julius!" said the doctor, with a smile. "Still dreaming +and wandering, interested in everything, but having nothing to do!" + +"Nothing to do, my dear fellow?" said Julius. "I've all the world to +enjoy!" and he buried his cheek in the soft fur of the cat. + +"A purpose in life, however," said Lefevre, "gives an extraordinary zest +to all enjoyment." + +"To live," said Julius, "is surely the purpose of life. Any smaller, any +more obvious purpose, will spoil life, just as it spoils Art." + +"I believe, my boy, you are wrong in both," said Lefevre. "Art without a +purpose goes off into all sorts of madness and extravagance, and so does +life." + +"You really think so?" said Julius, his attention fixed for an instant, +and looking as if he had set up the point and regarded it at a distance. +"Yes; perhaps it does." But the next moment his attention seemed given +to the cat; he fondled it, and talked to it soothingly. + +"I am sure of it," said Lefevre. "Just listen to me, Julius. You have +wonderful intelligence and penetration in everything. You are fond of +science; science needs men like you more than the dull plodders that +usually take to it. When you were in Charbon's class you were his +favourite and his best pupil,--don't I remember?--and if you liked you +could be the greatest physician of the age." + +"It is treason to yourself to say such a thing." + +"Your fame would soon eclipse mine." + +"Fame! fame!" exclaimed Julius, for an instant showing irritation. "I +would not give a penny-piece for fame if all the magicians of the East +came crying it down the streets! Why should I seek fame? What good would +it do me if I had it?" + +"Well, well," said Lefevre; "let fame alone: you might be as unknown as +you like, and do a world of good in practice among the poor." + +Julius looked at him, and set the cat down. + +"My dear Lefevre," said he, "I did not think you could urge such common +twaddle! You know well enough,--nobody knows better,--first of all, that +there are already more men waiting to do that kind of thing than can +find occupation: why should I go down among them and try to take their +work? And you know, in the next place, that medical philanthropy, like +all other philanthropy, is so overdone that the race is fast +deteriorating; we strive with so much success to keep the sickly and the +diseased alive, that perfect health is scarcely known. Life without +health can be nothing but a weariness: why should it be reckoned a +praiseworthy thing to keep it going at any price? If life became a +burden to me, I should lay it down." + +"But," said Lefevre, earnestly, "your life surely is not your own to do +with it what you like!" + +"In the name of truth, Lefevre," answered Julius, "if my life is not my +own, what is? I get its elements from others, but I fashion it myself, +just as much as the sculptor shapes his statue, or the poet turns his +poem. You don't deny to the sculptor the right to smash his statue if it +does not please him, nor to the poet the right to burn his +manuscript;--why should you deny me the right to dispose of my life? I +know--I know," said he, seeing Lefevre open his mouth and raise his hand +for another observation, "that your opinion is the common one, but that +is the only sanction it has; it has the sanction neither of true +morality nor of true religion! But here is the waiter to tell you the +carriage is come. I'm glad. Let us get out into the air and the +sunshine." + +The carriage was the doctor's own; his mother, although the widow of a +Court physician, was too poor to maintain much equipage, but she made +what use she pleased of her son's possessions. When Lady Lefevre saw +Julius at the carriage-door, she broke into smiles and cries of welcome. + +"Where have you been this long, long while, Julius?" said she. "This is +Julius Courtney, Nora. You remember Nora, Julius, when she was a little +girl in frocks?" + +"She now wears remarkable gowns," chimed in the doctor. + +"Which," said Julius, "I have no doubt are becoming." + +"My brother," said Nora, with a sunny smile, "is jealous; because, being +a doctor, he must wear only dowdy clothes of dingy colours." + +"We have finished at school and college, and been presented at Court," +laughed Lady Lefevre. + +"And," broke in the brother, "we have had cards engraved with our full +name, _Leonora_." + +"With all this," said Lady Lefevre, "I hope you won't be afraid of us." + +"I see no reason," said Julius. "For, if I may say so, I like everything +in Nature, and it seems to me Nature has had more to do with the +finishing you speak of than the schoolmistress or the college +professor." + +"There he is already," laughed Lady Lefevre, "with his equivocal +compliments. I shouldn't wonder if he says that, my dear, because you +have not yet had more than a word to say for yourself." + +By that time Lefevre and Julius were seated, and the carriage was +rolling along towards the Park. Julius sat immediately opposite Lady +Lefevre, but he included both her and Nora in his talk and his bright +glances. The doctor sat agreeably suffused with delight and wonder. No +one, as has been seen, had a higher opinion of Courtney's rare powers, +or had had more various evidence of them, than Lefevre, but even he had +never known his friend so brilliant. He was instinct with life and +eloquence. His face shone as with an inner light, and his talk was +bright, searching, and ironical. The amazing thing, however, was that +Julius had as stimulating and intoxicating an influence on Nora as, it +was clear, Nora had on him. His sister had not appeared to Lefevre +hitherto more than a beautiful, healthy, shy girl of tolerable +intelligence; now she showed that she had brilliance and wit, and, +moreover, that she understood Julius as one native of a strange realm +understands another. When they entered the Park, they were the observed +of all. And, indeed, Leonora Lefevre was a vision to excite the worship +of those least inclined to idolatry of Nature. She was of the noblest +type of English beauty, and she seemed as calmly unconscious of its +excellence and rarity as one of the grand Greek women of the Parthenon. +She had, however, a sensuous fulness and bloom, a queenly carriage of +head and neck, a clearness of feature, and a liquid kindness of eye that +suggested a deep potentiality of passion. + +They drove round the Row, and round again, and they talked and laughed +their fill of wisdom and frivolity and folly. To be foolish wisely and +gracefully is a rare attainment. When they had almost completed their +third round, Julius (who had finished a marvellous story of a fairy +princess and a cat) said, "I can see you are fond of beasts, Miss +Lefevre. I should like to take you to the Zoological Gardens and show +you my favourites there. May we go now, Lady Lefevre?" + +"By all means," said Lady Lefevre, "let us go. What do you say, John?" + +"Oh, wherever you like, mother," answered her son. + +Arrived in the Gardens, Julius took possession of his companions, and +exerted all his arts to charm and fascinate. He led the ladies from cage +to cage, from enclosure to enclosure, showed himself as familiar with +the characters and habits of their wild denizens as a farmer is with +those of his stock, and they responded to his strange calls, to his +gentleness and fearlessness, with an alert understanding and confidence +beautiful to see. His favourites were certain creatures of the deer +species, which crowded to their fences to sniff his clothes, and to lick +his hands, which he abandoned to their caresses with manifest +satisfaction. His example encouraged the queenly Nora and her sprightly +mother to feed the beautiful creatures with bread and buns, and to feel +the suffusion of pleasure derived from the contact of their soft lips +with the palm of the hand. After that they were scarcely astonished +when, without bravado, but clearly with simple confidence and enjoyment, +Julius put his hand within the bars of the lion's cage and scratched the +ears of a lioness, murmuring the while in a strange tongue such fond +sounds as only those use who are on the best terms with animals. The +great brute rose to his touch, closing its eyes, and bearing up its head +like a cat. + +Then came an incident that deeply impressed the Lefevres. Julius went to +a cage in which, he said, there was a recent arrival--a leopard from the +"Land of the Setting Sun," the romantic land of the Moors. The creature +crouched sulking in the back of the cage. Julius tapped on the bars, and +entreated her in the language of her native land, "Ya, dudu! ya, +lellatsi!" She bounded to him with a "_wir-r-r_" of delight, leaned and +rubbed herself against the bars, and gave herself up to be stroked and +fondled. When he left her, she cried after him piteously, and wistfully +watched him out of sight. + +"Do you know the beautiful creature?" asked Lady Lefevre. + +"Yes," answered Julius quietly; "I brought her over some months ago." + +Lefevre had explained to his mother that Julius had always been on +friendly or fond terms with animals, but never till now had he seen the +remarkable understanding he clearly maintained with them. + +"Look!" said Lady Lefevre to her son as they turned to leave the +Gardens. "He seems to have fascinated Nora as much as the beasts." + +Nora stood a little aloof, regarding Julius in an ecstasy of admiration. +When she found her mother was looking at her, her eyes sank, and as it +were a veil of blushes fell over her. Mother and son walked on first, +and Julius followed with Nora. + +"He is a most charming and extraordinary man," said the mother. + +"He is," said the son, "and amazingly intelligent." + +"He seems to know everything, and to have been everywhere,--to have been +a kind of rolling stone. If anything should come of this, I suppose he +can afford to marry. You ought to know about him." + +"I believe I know as much as any one." + +"He has no profession?" queried the lady. + +"He has no profession; but I suppose he could afford it," said Lefevre +musingly. + +"You don't like the idea," said his mother. + +"Not much. I scarce know why. But I somehow think of him as not having +enough sense of the responsibility of life." + +"I suppose his people are of the right sort?" + +"I suppose they are; though I don't know if he has any people," said he, +with a laugh. "He is the kind of man who does not need parents or +relations." + +"Still, hadn't you better try to find out what he may have in that +line?" + +"Yes," said Lefevre; "perhaps I had." + + + + +Chapter II. + +A Mysterious Case. + + +The two friends returned, as they had arranged, to the Hyacinth Club for +dinner. Courtney's coruscating brilliancy sank into almost total +darkness when they parted from Lady and Miss Lefevre, and when they sat +down to table he was preoccupied and silent, yet in no proper sense +downcast or dull. Lefevre noted, while they ate, that there was clear +speculation in his eye, that he was not vaguely dreaming, but with alert +intelligence examining some question, or facing some contingency; and it +was natural he should think that the question or contingency must +concern Nora as much as Julius. Yet he made no overture of +understanding, for he knew that Courtney seldom offered confidence or +desired sympathy; not that he was churlish or reserved, but simply that +he was usually sufficient unto himself, both for counsel and for +consolation. Lefevre was therefore surprised when he was suddenly asked +a question, which was without context in his own thought. + +"Have you ever found something happen or appear," said Julius, "that +completely upsets your point of view, and tumbles down your scheme of +life, like a stick thrust between your legs when you are running?" + +"I have known," said Lefevre, "a new fact arise and upset a whole +scientific theory. That's often a good thing," he added, with a pointed +glance; "for it compels a reconstruction of the theory on a wider and +sounder basis." + +"Yes," murmured Julius; "that may be. But I should think it does not +often happen that the new fact swallows up all the details that +supported your theory,--as Aaron's rod, turned into a serpent, swallowed +up the serpent-rods of the magicians of Egypt,--so that there is no +longer any theory, but only one great, glorious fact. I do admire," he +exclaimed, swerving suddenly, "the imagination of those old Greeks, with +their beautiful, half-divine personifications of the Spirits of Air and +Earth and Sea! But their imagination never conceived a goddess that +embodied them all!" + +"I have often thought, Julius," said Lefevre, "that you must be some +such embodiment yourself; for you are not quite human, you know." + +The doctor said that with a clear recollection of his mother's request. +He hoped that his friend would take the cue, and tell him something of +his family. Julius, however, said nothing but "Indeed." Lefevre then +tried to tempt him into confession by talking about his own father and +mother, and by relating how the French name "Lefevre" came to be +domiciled in England; but Julius ignored the temptation, and dismissed +the question in an eloquent flourish. + +"What does a man want with a family and a name? They only tie him to the +earth, as Gulliver was tied by the people of Lilliput. We have life and +health,--_if_ we have them,--and it is only veiled prurience to inquire +whence we got them. A man can't help having a father and a mother, I +suppose; but he need not be always reminding himself of the fact: no +other creature on earth does. For myself, I wish I were like that +extraordinary person, Melchizedek, without father and without mother, +without descent, having neither beginning of days nor end of life." + +In a little while the friends parted. Lefevre said he had work to do, +but he did not anticipate such work as he had to turn to that night. +Though the doctor was a bachelor, he had a professional residence apart +from his mother and sister. They lived in a small house in Curzon +Street; he dwelt in Savile Row. Savile Row was a place of consequence +long before Regent Street was thought of, but now they are few who know +of its existence. Fashion ignores it. It is tenanted by small clubs, +learned societies, and doctors. It slumbers in genteel decorum, with its +back to the garish modern thoroughfare. It is always quiet, but by nine +o'clock of a dark evening it is deserted. When Dr Lefevre, therefore, +stepped out of his hired hansom, and prepared to put his latch-key in +his own door, he was arrested by a hoarse-voiced hawker of evening news +bursting in upon the repose of the Row with a continuous roar of +"Special--Mystery--Paper--Railway--Special--Brighton--Paper--Victoria +--Special!" It was with some effort, and only when the man was close +at hand, that he interpreted the sounds into these words. + +"Paper, sir," said the man; and he bought it and went in. He entered his +dining-room, and read the following paragraph;-- + + "A Mysterious Case. + + "A report has reached us that a young man, about two or four and + twenty years of age, whose name is at present unknown, was found + yesterday (Sunday) to all appearance dead in a first-class carriage + of the 5 P.M. train from Brighton to Victoria. The discovery was + only made at Grosvenor Road Station, where tickets are taken before + entering Victoria. At Victoria the body was searched for purposes + of identification, and there was found upon him a card with the + following remarkable inscription:--'_I am not dead. Take me to the + St. James's Hospital._' To St. James's Hospital accordingly the + young man was conveyed. It seems probable he is in a condition of + trance--not for the first time--since he was provided with the + card, and knew the hospital with which is associated in all men's + minds the name of Dr Lefevre, who is so famous for his skill in the + treatment of nervous disorders." + +In matters of plain duty Dr Lefevre had got into the excellent habit of +acting first and thinking afterwards. He at once rang the bell, and +ordered the responsible serving-man who appeared to call a cab. The man +went to the door and sounded his shrill whistle, grateful to the ears of +several loitering cabbies. There was a mad race of growlers and hansoms +for the open door. Dr Lefevre got into the first hansom that drew up, +and drove off to the hospital. By that time he had told himself that the +young man must be a former patient of his (though he did not remember +any such), and that he ought to see him at once, although it is not + for the visiting physician of a hospital to appear, except +between fixed hours of certain days. He made nothing of the mystery +which the newspaper wished, after the manner of its kind, to cast about +the case, and thought of other things, while he smoked cigarettes, till +he reached the hospital. The house-physician was somewhat surprised by +his appearance. + +"I have just read that paragraph," said Lefevre, handing him the paper. + +"Oh yes, sir," said the house-physician. "The man was brought in last +night. Dr Dowling" [the resident assistant-physician] "saw him, and +thought it a case of ordinary trance, that could easily wait till you +came, as usual, to-morrow." + +"Ah, well," said Lefevre, "let me see him." + +Seen thus, the physician appeared a different person from the cheerful, +modest man of the Hyacinth Club. He had now put on the responsibility of +men's health and the enthusiasm of his profession. He seemed to swell in +proportions and dignity, though his eye still beamed with a calm and +kindly light. + +The young man led the way down the echoing flagged passage, and up the +flight of stone stairs. As they went they encountered many silent female +figures, clean and white, going up or down (it was the time of changing +nurses), so that a fanciful stranger might well have thought of the +stairway reaching from earth to heaven, on which the angels of God were +seen ascending and descending. A stranger, too, would have noted the +peculiar odours that hung about the stairs and passages, as if the +ghosts of medicines escaped from the chemist's bottles were hovering in +the air. Opening first an outer and then an inner door, Lefevre and his +companion entered a large and lofty ward. The room was dark, save for +the light of the fire and of a shaded lamp, by which, within a screen, +the night-nurse sat conning her list of night-duties. The evening was +just beginning out of doors,--shop-fronts were flaring, taverns were +becoming noisy, and brilliantly-lit theatres and music-halls were +settling down to business,--but here night and darkness had set in more +than an hour before. Indeed, in these beds of languishing, which +stretched away down either side of the ward, night was hardly to be +distinguished from day, save for the sunlight and the occasional +excitement of the doctor's visit; and many there were who cried to +themselves in the morning, "Would God it were evening!" and in the +evening, "Would God it were morning!" But there was yet this other +difference, that disease and doctor, fear and hope, gossip and +grumbling, newspaper and Bible and tract, were all forgotten in the +night, for some time at least, and Nature's kind restorer, sleep, went +softly round among the beds and soothed the weary spirits into peace. + +Lefevre and the house-physician passed silently up the ward between the +rows of silent blue-quilted beds, while the nurse came silently to meet +them with her lamp. Lefevre turned aside a moment to look at a man whose +breathing was laboured and stertorous. The shaded light was turned upon +him: an opiate had been given him to induce sleep; it had performed its +function, but, as if resenting its bondage, it was impishly twitching +the man's muscles and catching him by the throat, so that he choked and +started. Dr Lefevre raised the man's eyelid to look at his eye: the +upturned eye stared out upon him, but the man slept on. He put his hand +on the man's forehead (he had a beautiful hand--the hand of a born +surgeon and healer--fine but firm, the expression of nervous force), and +with thumb and finger stroked first his temples and then his neck. The +spasmodic twitching ceased, and his breath came easy and regular. The +house-doctor and the nurse looked at each other in admiration of this +subtle skill, while Lefevre turned away and passed on. + +"Where is the man?" said he. + +"Number Thirteen," answered the house-doctor, leading the way. + +The lamp was set on the locker beside the bed of Thirteen, screens were +placed round to create a seclusion amid the living, breathing silence of +the ward, and Lefevre proceeded to examine the unconscious patient who +had so strangely put himself in his hands. + +He was young and well-favoured, and, it was evident from the firmness of +his flesh, well-fed. Lefevre considered his features a moment, shook his +head, and murmured, "No; I don't think I've seen him before." He turned +to the nurse and inquired concerning the young man's clothes: they were +evidently those of a gentleman, she said,--of one, at least, who had +plenty of money. He turned again to the young man. He raised the left +arm to feel the heart, but, contrary to his experience in such cases, +the arm did not remain as he bent it, nor did the eyes open in obedience +to the summons of the disturbed nerves. The breathing was scarcely +perceptible, and the beating of the heart was faint. + +"A strange case," said Lefevre in a low voice to his young comrade--"the +strangest I've seen. He does not look a subject for this kind of thing, +and yet he is in the extreme stage of hypnotism. You see." And the +doctor, by sundry tests and applications, showed the peculiar exhausted +and contractive condition of the muscles. "It is very curious." + +"Perhaps," said the other, "he has been--" and he hesitated. + +"Been what?" asked Lefevre, turning on him his keen look. + +"Enjoying himself." + +"Having a debauch, you mean? No; I think not. There would then have +probably been some reflex action of the nerves. This is not that kind of +exhaustion; and it is more than mere trance or catalepsy; it seems the +extremest suspensory condition,--and that in a young man of such +apparent health is very remarkable. It will take a long time for him to +recover in the ordinary way with food and sleep," he continued, rather +to himself than to his subordinates. "He needs rousing,--a strong +stimulant." + +"Shall I get some brandy, sir?" asked the nurse. + +"Brandy? No. That's not the stimulant he needs." + +He was silent for a little, moving the young man's limbs, and touching +certain muscles which his exact anatomical knowledge taught him to lay +his finger on with unerring accuracy. The effect was startling and +grotesque. As a galvanic current applied to the proper nerves and +muscles of a dead body will produce expressions and actions resembling +those of life, so the touch of Lefevre's finger made the unconscious +young man scowl or smile or clench his fist according to the muscles +impressed. + +"The brain," said Lefevre, "seems quite sound,--perfectly passive, you +see, but active in its passivity. You can leave us, nurse," said he; +then, turning to the house-physician, he continued: "I am convinced this +is such a peculiar case as I have often imagined, but have never seen. +This nervous-muscular suspension is complicated with some exhaustive +influence. I want your assistance, and I ask for it like this, because +it is necessary for my purpose that you should give it freely, and +without reserve; I am going to try the electrode." + +This was a simple machine contrived by Lefevre, on the model of the +electric cylinder of Du Bois-Reymond, and worked on the theory that the +electricity stored in the human body can be driven out by the human will +along a prepared channel into another human body. + +"I understand," said the assistant promptly. He apprehended his chief's +meaning more fully than the reader can; for he was deeply interested and +fairly skilled in that strange annex of modern medical science which his +chief called psycho-dynamics, and which old-fashioned practitioners +decline to recognise. + +"Get me the machine and the insulating sheet," said Lefevre. + +While his assistant was gone on his errand, Lefevre with his right hand +gently stroked along the main lines of nerve and muscle in the upper +part of his patient's body; and it was strange to note how the features +and limbs lost a certain constriction and rigidity which it was manifest +they had had only by their disappearance. When the house-physician +returned, the sheet (a preparation of spun-glass invented by Lefevre) +was drawn under the patient, and the machine, with its vessels of +chemical mixture and its conducting wires, was placed close to the bed. +The handles attached to the wires were put into the patient's hands. + +"Now," said Lefevre, "this is a trying experiment. Give me your +hand--your left; you know how to do; yes, the other hand on the machine, +with the fingers touching the chemicals. When you feel strength--virtue, +so to say--going out of you, don't be alarmed: let it go; use no effort +of the will to keep it back, or we shall probably fail." + +"I understand," repeated the assistant. + +Then, holding his hand,--closely, but not so as to constrain the +muscles,--Lefevre put his own left on the machine according to the +direction he had given his assistant,--with his fingers, that is, +dipping into the chemicals from plates in the bottom of which the wires +conducted to the patient's hands. A shiver ran through the frame of both +Lefevre and his companion, a convulsive shudder passed upon the +unconscious body, and--a strange cry rang out upon the silence of the +ward, and Lefevre withdrew his hands. He and the house-physician looked +at each other pale and shaken. The nurse came running at the cry. +Lefevre looked out beyond the screen to reassure her, and saw in the dim +red reflection of the firelight a sight which struck him gruesomely, +used though he was to hospital sights; all about the ward pale scared +figures were sitting up in bed, like corpses suddenly raised from the +dead. He bent over his patient, who presently opened his eyes and stared +at him. + +"Get some brandy and milk," said Lefevre to his companion. + +"Who? Where am I?" murmured the patient in a faint voice. + +"I am Dr Lefevre, and this is St. James's Hospital." + +"Doctor?--hospital?--oh, I'm dreaming!" murmured the patient. + +"We'll talk about that when you have taken some of this," said Lefevre, +as the house-physician reappeared with the nurse, bearing the brandy and +milk. + +Lefevre presently told him how he had been found in the train, and taken +for dead till the card--"this card," said he, taking it from the top of +the locker--was discovered on him. The young man listened in open +amazement, and looked at the card. + +"I know nothing of this!" said he. "I never saw the card before! I never +heard your name or the hospital's till a minute ago." + +"Your case was strange before," said Lefevre; "this makes it stranger. +Who journeyed with you?" + +"A man,--a nice, strange, oldish fellow in a fur coat." And the young +man wished to enter upon a narrative, when the doctor interrupted him. + +"You're not well enough to talk much now. Tell me to-morrow all about +it." + +The doctor returned home, his imagination occupied with the vision of a +train rushing at express speed over the metals, and of a compartment in +the train in which a young man reclined under the spell of an old man. +The young man's face he saw clearly, but the old man's evaded him like a +dream, and yet he felt he ought to know one who knew the peculiar repute +of the St. James's Hospital. Next day the young man told his story, +which was in effect as follows: He was a subaltern in a dragoon regiment +stationed in Brighton. On Sunday afternoon he had set out for London on +several days' leave. He had taken a seat in a smoking-carriage, and was +preparing to make himself comfortable with a novel and a cigar, when an +elderly gentleman, who looked like a foreigner, came in as the train was +about to move. He particularly observed the man from the first, because, +though it was a pleasant spring day, he looked pinched and shrunken with +cold in his great fur overcoat, and because he had remarked him standing +on the platform and scrutinizing the passengers hurrying into the train. +The gentleman sat down in the seat opposite the young officer, and drew +his fur wrap close about him. The young officer could not keep his eyes +off him, and he noted that his features seemed worn thin and arid, as by +passage through terrific peril,--as if he had been travelling for many +days without sleep and without food, straining forward to a goal of +safety, sick both in stomach and heart,--as if he had been rushing, like +the maniac of the Gospel, through dry places, seeking rest and finding +none. His hair, which should have been black, looked lustreless and +bleached, and his skin seemed as if his blood had lost all colour and +generosity, as if nothing but serum flowed in his veins. His eyes alone +did not look bloodless; they were weary and extravasated, as from +anxious watching. The young officer's compassion went out to the +stranger; for he thought he must be a conspirator, fleeing probably from +the infamous tyranny of Russian rule. But presently he spoke in such +good English that the idea of his being a Russian faded away. + +"Excuse the liberty I take," said he, with a singularly winning smile; +"but let me advise you not to smoke that cigar. I have a peculiarly +sensitive nose for tobacco, and my nose informs me that your cigar, +though good as cigars go, is not fit for you to smoke." + +The young officer was surprised that he was rather charmed than offended +by this impertinence. + +"Let me offer you one of these instead," said the strange gentleman; "we +call them--I won't trouble you with the Spanish name--but in English it +means 'Joys of Spain.'" + +The officer took and thanked him for a "Joy of Spain," and found the +flavour and aroma so excellent that, to use his own phrase, he could +have eaten it. He asked the stranger what in particular was his +objection to the other cigar. + +"This objection," said he, "which is common to all ill-prepared +tobaccos, that it lowers the vital force. You don't feel that yet, +because you are young and healthy, and gifted with a superabundance of +fine vitality; but you may by smoking one bad cigar bring the time a day +nearer when you must feel it. And even now it would take a little off +the keen edge of the appetite for pleasure. How little," said he, "do we +understand how to keep ourselves in condition for the complete enjoyment +of life! You, I suppose, are about to take your pleasure in town, and +instead of judiciously tickling and stimulating your nerves for the +complete fulfilment of the pleasures you contemplate, you begin--you +were beginning, I mean, with your own cigar--to dull and stupefy them. +Don't you see how foolish that is?" + +The young officer admitted that it was very foolish and very true; and +they talked on thus, the elder exercising a charm over the younger such +as he had never known before in the society of any man. In a quarter of +an hour the young man felt as if he had known and trusted and loved his +neighbour all his life; he felt, he confessed, so strongly attracted +that he could have hugged him. He told him about his family, and showed +him the innermost secrets of his heart; and all the while he smoked the +delicious "Joy of Spain," and felt more and more enthralled and +fascinated by the stranger's eyes, which, as he talked, lightened and +glowed more and more as their glance played caressingly about him. He +was beginning to wonder at that, when with some emphatic phrase the +stranger laid his fingers on his knee, upon which a thrill shot through +him as if a woman had touched him. He looked in the stranger's face, and +the wonderful eyes seemed to search to the root of his being, and to +draw the soul out of him. He had a flying thought--"Can it be a woman, +after all, in this strange shape?" and he knew no more ... till he woke +in the hospital bed. + +That was the patient's story. + +"Just look over your property here," said the doctor. "Have you lost +anything?" + +The young man turned over his watch and the contents of his purse, and +answered that he had lost nothing. + +"Strange--strange!" said Lefevre--"very strange! And the card--of course +the stranger must have put it in your pocket." + +"Which would seem to imply," said the young man, "that _he_ knows +something of the hospital." + +"Well," said Lefevre, "we must see what can be done to clear the mystery +up." + +"Some of those newspaper-men have been here," said the house-physician, +when they had left the ward, "and they will be sure to call again before +the day is out. Shall I tell them anything of this?" + +"Certainly," said Lefevre. "Publicity may help us to discover this +amazing stranger." + +"Do you quite believe the story?" asked the house-physician. + +"I don't disbelieve it." + +"But what did the stranger do to put him in that condition, which seems +something more than hypnotism?" + +"Ah," said Lefevre, "I don't yet understand it; but there are forces in +Nature which few can comprehend, and which only one here and there can +control and use." + + + + +Chapter III. + +"M. Dolaro." + + +Next day men talked, newspaper in hand, at the breakfast-table, in the +early trains, omnibuses, and tramcars, of the singular railway outrage. +It was clear its purpose was not robbery. What, then, did it mean? +Some--probably most--declared it was very plain what it meant; while +others,--the few,--after much argument, confessed themselves quite +mystified. + +The police, too, were not idle. They made inquiries and took notes here +and there. They discovered that the five o'clock train made but two +pauses on its journey to London--at Croydon and at Clapham Junction. At +neither of those places could a man in a fur coat be heard of as having +descended from the train; and yet it was manifest that he did not arrive +at Grosvenor Road, where tickets were taken. After persistent and wider +inquiries, however, at Clapham Junction (which was the most likely point +of departure), a cabman was found who remembered having taken up a +fare--a gentleman in a fur coat--about the hour indicated. He +particularly remarked the gentleman, because he looked odd and foreign +and half tipsy (that was how he seemed to him), because he was wrapped +up "enough for Father Christmas," and because he asked to be driven such +a long way--to a well-known hotel near the Crystal Palace, where +"foreign gents" were fond of staying. Being asked what in particular had +made him think the gentleman a foreigner, cabby could not exactly say; +he believed, however, it was his coat and his eyes. Of his face he saw +little or nothing, it was so muffled up; yet his tongue was English +enough. + +Inquiry was then pushed on to the hotel named by the cabman. A gentleman +in a fur coat had certainly arrived there the evening before, but no one +had seen anything of him after his arrival. He had taken dinner in his +private sitting-room, and had then paid his bill, because, he said, he +must be gone early in the morning. About half an hour after dinner, when +a waiter cleared the things away, he had gone to his room, and next +morning he had left the hotel soon after dawn. Boots, half asleep, had +seen him walk away, bag in hand, wrapped in his greatcoat,--walk away, +it would seem, and dissolve into the mist of the morning, for from that +point no further trace could be got of him. No such figure as his had +been seen on any of the roads leading from the hotel, either by the +early milkman, or by the belated coffee-stall keeper, or night cabman. +Being asked what name the gentleman had given at the hotel, the +book-keeper showed her record, with the equivocal name of "M. Dolaro." +The name might be Italian or Spanish,--or English or American for that +matter,--and the initial "M" might be French or anything in the world. + +In the meantime Dr Lefevre had been pondering the details of the affair, +and noting the aspects of his patient's condition; but the more he noted +and pondered, the more contorted and inexplicable did the mystery +become. His understanding boggled at its very first notes. It was almost +unheard of that a young man of his patient's strong and healthy +constitution and temper should be hypnotised or mesmerised at all, much +less hypnotised to the verge of dissolution; and it was unprecedented +that even a weak, hysterical subject should, after being unhypnotised, +remain so long in prostrate exhaustion. Then, suppose these +circumstances of the case were ordinary, there arose this question, +which refused to be solved: Since it was ridiculous to suppose that the +hypnotisation was a wanton experiment, and since it had not been for the +sake of robbery, what had been its object? + +The interest of the case was emphasised and enlarged by an article in +'The Daily Telegraph,' in which was called to mind the singular story in +its Paris correspondence a day or two before, of the young woman in the +Hôtel-Dieu, which Lefevre had forgotten. The writer remarked on the +points of similarity which the case in the Brighton train bore to that +of the Paris pavement; insisted on the probable identity of the man in +the fur coat with the man in the cloak; and appealed to Dr Lefevre to +explain the mystery, and to the police to find the man "who has alarmed +the civilised world by a new form of outrage." + +Lefevre was piqued by that article, and he went to see his patient day +after day, in the constant hope of finding a solution of the puzzle that +perplexed him. The direction in which he looked for light will be best +suggested by remarking what were his peculiar theory and practice. +Lefevre was not a materialistic physician; indeed, in the opinion of +many of his brethren, he erred on the other side, and was too much +inclined to mysticism. It may at least be said that he had an open mind, +and a modest estimate of the discoveries of modern medical science. He +had perceived while still a young man (he was now about forty) that all +medical practice--as distinct from surgical--is inexact and empirical, +that, like English common law, it is based merely on custom, and a +narrow range of experience; and he had therefore argued that a wider +experience and research, especially among decaying nations, might lead +to the discovery of a guiding principle in pathology. That conviction +had taken him as medical officer to Egypt and India, where, amid the +relics of civilisations half as old as time, he found traditions of a +great scientific practice; and thence it had brought him back to study +such foreign medical writers as Du Bois-Reymond, Nobili, Matteucci, and +Müller, and to observe the method of the famous physicians of the +Salpétrière. Like the great Charbon, he made nervous and hysterical +disorders his specialty, in the treatment of which he was much given to +the use of electricity. He had very pronounced "views," though he seldom +troubled his brethren with them; for he was not of those who can hold a +belief firmly only if it is also held by others. + +More than a week had passed without discovery or promise of light, when +one afternoon he went to the hospital resolved to compass some +explanation. + +He walked at once, on entering the ward, to the bedside of his puzzling +patient, who still lay limp as a dish-clout and drowsy as a sloth. He +tested--as he had done almost daily--his nervous and respiratory powers +with the exact instruments adapted for the purpose, and then, still +unenlightened, he questioned him closely about his sensations. The young +officer answered him with tolerable intelligence. + +"I feel," he ended with saying, "as if all my energy had +evaporated,--and I used to have no end,--just as a spirit evaporates if +it is left open to the air." + +The saying struck Lefevre mightily. "Energy" stood then to Lefevre as an +almost convertible term for "electricity," and his successful +experiments with electricity had opened up to him a vast field of +conjecture, into which, on the smallest inflaming hint, he was wont to +make an excursion. Such a hint was the saying of the young officer now, +and, as he walked away, he found himself, as it were, knocking at the +door of a great discovery. But the door did not open on that summons, +and he resolved straightway to discuss the subject with Julius Courtney, +who, though an amateur, had about as complete a knowledge of it as +himself, and who could bring to bear, he believed, a finer intelligence. + +He first sought Julius at the Hyacinth Club, where he frequently spent +the afternoon. Failing to find him there, he inquired for him at his +chambers in the Albany. Hearing nothing of him there, and the ardour of +his quest having cooled a little, he stepped out across the way to his +own home in Savile Row. + +There he found a note from his mother, with a touch of mystery in its +wording. She said she wanted very much to have a serious conversation +with him; she had been expecting for days to see him, and she begged him +to go that evening to dinner if he could. "Julius," said she, "will be +here, and one or two others." + +The mention of Julius as a visitor at his mother's house reminded him of +his promise to that lady to find out how the young man was connected: +engrossed as he had been with his strange case, he had almost forgotten +the promise, and he had done nothing to fulfil it but tap ineffectually +for admission to his friend's confidence. He therefore considered with +some anxiety what he should do, for Lady Lefevre could on occasion be +exacting and severe with her son. He concluded nothing could be done +before dinner, but he went prepared to be questioned and perhaps rated. +He was pleased to find that his mother seemed to have forgotten his +promise as much as he had, and to see her in the best of spirits with a +tableful of company. + +"Oh, you have come," said she, presenting her cheek to her son; "I +thought that after all you might be detained by that mysterious case you +have at the hospital. Here's Dr. Rippon--and Julius too--dying to hear +all about it;" but she gave no hint of the serious conversation which +she said in her note she desired. + +"Not I, Lady Lefevre," Julius protested. "I don't like medical +revelations; they make me feel as if I were sitting at the confessional +of mankind." + +Noting by the way that Julius and his sister seemed much taken up with +each other, and that Julius, while as fascinating as ever, and as ready +and apt and intelligent of speech, seemed somewhat more chastened in +manner and less effervescent in health,--like a fire of coal that has +spent its gas and settled into a steady glow of heat,--he turned to Dr +Rippon, a tall, thin old gentleman of over seventy, but who yet had a +keen tongue, and a shrewd, critical eye. He had been an intimate friend +of the elder Lefevre, and the son greeted him with respect and +affection. + +"Who is the gentleman?" said Dr Rippon, aside, when their greeting was +over. "It does an old man's heart good to see and hear him," and the old +doctor straightened himself. "But he'll get old too; that's the sad +thing, from my point of view, that such beauty of person and swift +intelligence of mind _must_ grow old and withered, and slow and dull. +What did you say his name is, John?" + +"His name is Courtney--Julius Courtney," said Lefevre. + +"Courtney," mused the old man, stroking his eyebrow; "I once knew a man +of that name, or, rather, who took that name. I wonder if this friend of +yours is of the same family; he is not unlike the man I knew." + +"Oh," said Lefevre, immediately interested, "he may be of the same +family, but I don't know anything of his relations. Who was the man, may +I ask, that you knew?" + +"Well," said the old gentleman, settling down to a story, which Lefevre +was sure would be full of interest and contemporary allusion, for the +old physician had in his time seen many men and many things--"it is a +romantic story in its way." + +He was on the point of beginning it when dinner was announced. + +"I should like to hear the story when we return to the drawing-room," +said Lefevre. + +Over dinner, Lefevre was beset with inquiries about his mysterious +case:--Was the young man better? Had he been very ill? Was he handsome? +What had the foreign-looking stranger done to him? and for what purpose +had he done it? These questions were mostly ignorant and thoughtless, +and Lefevre either parried them or answered them with great reserve. +When the ladies retired from table, however, more particular and curious +queries were pressed upon him as to the real character of the outrage +upon the young man. He replied that he had not yet discovered, though he +believed he was getting "warm." + +"Is it fair," said Julius, "to ask you in what direction you are looking +for an explanation or revelation?" + +"Oh, quite fair," said Lefevre, welcoming the question. "To put it in a +word, I look to _electricity_,--animal electricity. I have been for some +time working round, and I hope gradually getting nearer, a scientific +secret of enormous--of transcendent value. Can you conceive, Julius, of +a universal principle in Nature being got so under control as to form a +universal basis of cure?" + +"Can I conceive?" said Julius. "And is that electricity too?" + +"I hope to find it is." + +"Oh, how slow!" exclaimed Julius,--"oh, how slow you professional +scientific men become! You begin to run on tram-lines, and you can't get +off them! Why fix yourself to call this principle you're seeking for +'electricity'? It will probably restrict your inquiry, and hamper you in +several ways. I would declare to every scientific man, 'Unless you +become as a little child or a poet, you will discover no great truth!' +Setting aside your bias towards what you call 'electricity,' you are +really hoping to discover something that was discovered or divined +thousands of years ago! Some have called it 'od'--an 'imponderable +fluid'--as you know; you and others wish to call it 'electricity.' I +prefer to call it 'the spirit of life,'--a name simple, dignified, and +expressive!" + +"It has the disadvantage of being poetic," said Dr Rippon, with grave +irony; "and doctors don't like poetry mixed up with their science." + +"It _is_ poetic," admitted Julius, regarding the old doctor with +interest, "and therefore it is intelligible. The spirit of life is +electric and elective, and it is 'imponderable:' it can neither be +weighed nor measured! It flows and thrills in the nerves of men and +women, animals and plants, throughout the whole of Nature! It connects +the whole round of the Cosmos by one glowing, teasing, agonising +principle of being, and makes us and beasts and trees and flowers all +kindred!" + +"That is all very beautiful and fresh," said Lefevre, "but--" + +"But," interrupted Julius, "it is not a new truth: the poet divined it +ages ago! Buddha, thousands of years ago, perceived it, and taught that +'all life is linked and kin;' so did the Egyptians and the Greeks, when +they worshipped the principle of life everywhere; and so did our own +barbaric ancestors, when the woods--the wonderful, mystic woods!--were +their temples. Life--the spirit of life!--is always beautiful; always to +be desired and worshipped!" + +"Yes," said old Dr Rippon, who had listened to this astonishing rhapsody +with evident interest, with sympathetic and intelligent eye; "but a time +will come even to you, when death will appear more beautiful and +friendly and desirable than life." + +Courtney was silent, and looked for a second or two deadly sick. He cast +a searching eye on Dr Rippon. + +"That's the one thought," said he, "that makes me sometimes feel as if I +were already under the horror of the shade. It's not that I am afraid of +dying--of merely ceasing to live; it is that life may cease to be +delightful and friendly, and become an intolerable, decaying burden." + +He filled a glass with Burgundy, and set himself attentively to drink +it, lingering on the bouquet and the flavour. Lefevre beheld him with +surprise, for he had never before seen Julius take wine: he was wont to +say that converse with good company was intoxicating enough for him. + +"Why, Julius," said Lefevre, "that's a new experience you are +trying,--is it not?" + +Julius looked embarrassed an instant, and then replied, "I have begun it +very recently. I did not think it wise to postpone the experience till +it might become an absolute necessity." + +Old Dr Rippon watched him empty the glass with a musing eye. "'I sought +in mine heart,'" said he, gravely quoting, "'to give myself unto wine, +yet acquainting mine heart with wisdom.'" + +"True," said Julius, considering him closely. "But, for completeness' +sake, you ought to quote also, 'Whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not +from them; I withheld not my heart from any joy.'" + +Lefevre looked from the one to the other in some darkness of perplexity. + +"You appear, John," said the old doctor, with a smile, "not to know one +of the oldest and greatest of books: you will find it included in your +Bible. Mr Courtney clearly knows it. I should not be surprised to hear +he had adopted its philosophy of 'wisdom and madness and folly.'" + +"Surely you cannot say," remarked Julius, "that the writer of that book +had what is called a 'philosophy.' He was moved by an irresistible +impulse, of which he gives you the explanation when he uses that +magnificent sentence about having 'the world set in his heart.'" + +"Yes," said the old doctor, in a subdued, backward voice, regarding +Julius with the contemplative eyes of memory. "You will, I hope, forgive +me when I say that you remind me very much of a gentleman who took the +name of Courtney. I knew him years ago: was he a relation of yours, I +wonder?" + +"Possibly," said Julius, seeming scarcely interested; "though the name +of Courtney, I believe, is not very uncommon." Then, turning to Lefevre, +he said, "I hope you don't think I wish to make light of your grand +idea. I only mean that you must widen your view, if you would work it +out to success." + +With that Lefevre became more curious to hear Dr Rippon's story. So when +they went to the drawing-room he got the old gentleman into a secluded +corner, and reminded him of his promise. + +"Yes," said the doctor, "it is a romantic story. About forty years +ago,--yes, about forty: it was immediately after the fall of Louis +Philippe,--I went with my friend Lord Rokeby to Madrid. He went as +ambassador, and I as his physician. There was then at the Spanish Court +a very handsome hidalgo, Don Hernando--I forget all his names, but his +surname was De Sandoval. He was of the bluest blood in Spain, and a +marquis, but poor as a church mouse. He had a great reputation for +gallant adventures and for mysterious scientific studies. On the last +ground I sought and cultivated his acquaintance. But he was a proud, +reserved person, and I could never quite make out what his studies were, +except that he read a great deal, and believed firmly in the Arabic +philosophers and alchemists of the middle ages; and he would sometimes +talk with the same sort of rhapsodical mysticism as this young man +delights you with. We did not have much opportunity for developing an +intimacy in any case; for he fell in love with the daughter of our Chief +Secretary of Legation, a bright, lovely English girl, and that ended +disastrously for his position in Madrid. He made his proposals to her +father, and had them refused; chiefly, I believe, on account of his +loose reputation. The girl, too, was the heiress of an uncle's property +on this curious condition, it appeared,--that whoever should marry her +should take the uncle's name of _Courtney_. Don Hernando and the young +lady disappeared; they were married, and he took the name of Courtney, +and was forbidden to return to Madrid. He and his wife settled in Paris, +where I used to meet them frequently; then they travelled, I believe, +and I lost sight of them. I returned to Paris on a visit some few years +ago, and I asked an old friend about the Courtneys; he believed they +were both dead, though he could give me no certain news about them." + +"Supposing," said Lefevre, "that this Julius were their son, do you know +of any reason why he should be reserved about his parentage?" + +"No," said the old man, "no;--unless it be that Hernando was not +episcopal in his affections; but I should think the young man is +scarcely Puritan enough to be ashamed of that." + +Lefevre and the old man both looked round for Julius. They caught sight +of him and Leonora Lefevre standing one on either side of a window, with +their eyes fixed upon each other. + +"The young lady," said the old doctor, "seems much taken up with him." + +"Yes," said Lefevre; "and she's my sister." + +"Ah," said the old doctor; "I fear my remark was rather unreserved." + +"It is true," said Lefevre. + +He left Dr Rippon, to seek his mother. He found her excited and warm, +and without a word to spare for him. + +"You wanted," said he, "some serious talk with me, mother?" + +"Oh yes," said she; "but I can't talk seriously now: I can scarcely talk +at all. But do you see how Nora and Julius are taken up with each other? +I never before saw such a pair of moonstruck mortals! I believe I have +heard of the moon having a magnetic influence on people: do you think it +has? But he is a charming man!"--glancing towards Julius--"I'm more than +half in love with him myself. Now I must go. Come quietly one afternoon, +and then we can talk." + +Her son abstained from recounting, as he had proposed to himself, what +he had heard from Dr Rippon: he would reserve it for the quiet +afternoon. He took his leave almost immediately, bearing with him a deep +impression--like a strongly bitten etching wrought on his memory--of his +last glimpse of the drawing-room: Nora and Julius set talking across a +small table, and the tall, pale, gaunt figure of Dr Rippon approaching +and stooping between them. It seemed a sinister reminder of the words +the old doctor had addressed to Julius,--"_A time will come when death +will appear more beautiful and friendly and desirable than life!_" + + + + +Chapter IV. + +The Man of the Crowd. + + +In a few days Dr Lefevre found a quiet afternoon, and went and told his +mother the story of the Spanish marquis which he had got from Dr Rippon. +She hailed the story with delight. Courtney was a fascinating figure to +her before: it needed but that to clothe him with a complete romantic +heroism; for, of course, she did not doubt that he was the son of the +Spanish grandee. She wished to put it to him at once whether he was not, +but she was dissuaded by her son from mentioning the matter yet to +either Julius or her daughter. + +"If he wishes," said Lefevre, "to keep it secret for some reason, it +would be an impertinence to speak about it. We shall, however, have a +perfect right to ask him about himself if his attentions to Nora go on." + +Soon afterwards (it was really a fortnight; but in a busy life day melts +into day with amazing rapidity), Lefevre was surprised at dinner, and +somewhat irritated, by a letter from his mother. She wrote that they had +seen nothing of Julius Courtney for three or four days,--which was +singular, since for the past three or four weeks he had been a daily +visitor; latterly he had begun to look fagged and ill, and it was +possible he was confined to his room,--though, after all, that was +scarcely likely, for he had not answered a note of inquiry which she had +sent. She begged her son to call at his chambers, the more so as Nora +was pining in Julius's absence to a degree which made her mother very +anxious. + +With professional suspicion Lefevre told himself that if Julius, with +his magnificent health, was fallen ill, it must be for some outrageous +reason. But even if he was ill, he need not be unmannerly: he might have +let his friends who had been in the habit of seeing him daily know what +had come to him. Was it possible, the doctor thought, that he was +repenting of having given Nora and her mother so much cause to take his +assiduous attentions seriously? He resolved to see Julius at once, if he +were at his chambers. + +He left his wine unfinished (to the delight of his grave and silent man +in black), hastily took his hat from its peg in the hall, and passed out +into the street, while his man held the door open. In two minutes he had +passed the northern gateway of the Albany, which, as most people know, +is just at the southern end of Savile Row. Courtney's door was speedily +opened in response to his peremptory summons. + +"Is your master at home, Jenkins?" asked Lefevre of the well-dressed +serving-man, who looked distinguished enough to be master himself. + +"No, doctor," answered Jenkins; "he is not." + +"Gone out," said Lefevre, "to the club or to dinner, I suppose?" + +"No, doctor," repeated Jenkins; "he is not. He went away four days ago." + +"Went away!" exclaimed Lefevre. + +"He do sometimes go away by himself, sir. He is so fond of the country, +and he likes to be by himself. It is the only thing that do him good." + +"Becomes solitary, does he?" said Lefevre. "Yes; intelligent, impulsive +persons like him, that live at high pressure, often have black moods." +That was not quite what he meant, but it was enough for Jenkins. + +"Yes, sir," said Jenkins; "he do sometimes have 'em black. He don't seem +to take no pride in himself, as he do usual--don't seem to care somehow +if he look a gentleman or a common man." + +"But your master, Jenkins," said Lefevre, "can never look a common man." + +"No, sir," said Jenkins; "he cannot, whatever he do." + +"He is gone into the country, then?" asked Lefevre. + +"Yes, sir; I packed his small port-mantew for him four days ago." + +"And where is he gone? He told you, I suppose?" + +"No, sir; he do not usual tell me when he is like that." + +It did not seem possible to learn anything from Jenkins, in spite of the +apparent intimacy of his conversation, so Lefevre left him, and returned +to his own house. He had sat but a little while in his laboratory (where +he had been occupying his small intervals of leisure lately in +electrical studies and experiments) when, as chance would have it, the +last post brought him a note from Dr Rippon. Its purport was curious. + +"_I think_," the letter ran, "_you were sufficiently interested in the +story I told you some week or two ago about one Hernando Courtney, not +to be bored by a note on the same subject. Last night I accompanied my +daughter and son-in-law to the Lyceum Theatre. On coming out we had to +walk down Wellington Street into the Strand to find our carriage, and in +the surging crowd about there I am almost sure I saw the Hernando +Courtney whom I believed to be dead_. Aut Courtney aut Diabolus. _I have +never heard satisfactory evidence of his death, and I should very much +like to know if he is really still alive and in London. It has occurred +to me that, considering the intimacy of yourself and your family with +the gentleman who was made known to me at your mother's house by the +name of Courtney, you may have heard by now the rights of the case. If +you have any news, I shall be glad to share it with you."_ + +Considering this in association with the absence of Julius, Lefevre +found his wits becoming involved in a puzzle. He could not settle to +work, so he put on overcoat and hat, and sallied out again. He had no +fixed purpose: he only felt the necessity of motion to resolve himself +back into his normal calm. The air was keen from the east. May, which +had opened with such wanton warmth and seductiveness, turned a cold +shoulder on the world as she took herself off. It was long since he had +indulged in an evening walk in the lamp-lit streets, so he stepped out +eastward against the shrewd wind. Insensibly his attention forsook the +busy and anxious present, and slipped back to the days of golden and +romantic youth, when the crowded nocturnal streets were full of the +mystery of life. He recalled the sensations of those days--the sharp +doubts of self, the frequent strong desires to drink deep of all that +life had to offer, and the painful recoils from temptation, which he +felt would ruin, if yielded to, his hope of himself, and his ambition of +filling a worthy place among men. + +Thus musing, he walked on, taking, without noting it, the most +frequented turnings, and soon he found himself in the Strand. It was +that middle time of evening, after the theatres and restaurants have +sucked in their crowds, when the frequenters of the streets have some +reserve in their vivacity, before reckless roisterers have begun to +taste the lees of pleasure, and to shout and jostle on the pavements. He +was walking on the side of the way next the river, when, near the +Adelphi, he became aware of a man before him, wearing a slouch-hat and a +greatcoat--a man who appeared to choose the densest part of the throng, +to prefer to be rubbed against and hustled rather than not. There was +something about the man which held Lefevre's attention and roused his +curiosity--something in the swing of his gait and the set of his +shoulders. The man, too, seemed urged on by a singular haste, which +permitted him to be the slowest and easiest of passengers in the thick +of the crowd, but carried him swiftly over the less frequented parts of +the pavement. The doctor began to wonder if he was a pickpocket, and to +look about for the watchful eye of a policeman. He kept close behind him +past the door of the Strand Theatre, when the throng became slacker, and +the man turned quickly about and returned the way he had come. Then +Lefevre had a glimpse of his face,--the merest passing glimpse, but it +made him pause and ask himself where he had seen it before. A dark, +foreign-looking man, with a haggard appeal in his eye: he tried to find +the place of such a figure in his memory, but for the time he tried in +vain. + +Before the doctor recovered himself the man was well past, and +disappearing in the throng. He hurried after, determined to overtake +him, and to make a full and satisfying perusal of his face and figure. +He found that difficult, however, because of the man's singular style of +progression. To maintain an even pace for himself, moreover, Lefevre had +to walk very much in the roadway, the dangers of which, from passing +cabs and omnibuses, forbade his fixing his attention on the man alone. +Yet he was more and more piqued to look him in the face; for the longer +he followed him the more he was struck with the oddity of his conduct. +He had already noted how he hurried over the empty spaces of pavement +and lingered sinuously in the thronged parts; he now remarked further +that those who came into immediate contact with him (and they were +mostly young people who were to be met with at that season of the night) +glanced sharply at him, as if they had experienced some suspicious +sensation, and seemed inclined to remonstrate, till they looked in his +face. + +Lefevre could not arrive at a clear front view till, by Charing Cross +Station, the man turned on the kerb to look after a handsome youth who +crossed before him, and passed over the road. Then the doctor saw the +face in the light of a street-lamp, and the sight sent the blood in a +gush from his heart. It was a dark hairless face, terribly blanched and +emaciated, as if by years of darkness and prison, with the impress of +age and death, but yet with a wistful light in the eyes, and a firm +sensuousness about the mouth that betrayed a considerable interest in +life. He turned his eyes away an instant, to bring memory and +association to bear. When he looked again the man was moving away. At +once recognition rushed upon him like a wave of light. The terribly +worn, ghastly features resolved themselves into a kind of death-mask of +Julius! The wave recoiled and smote him again. Who could the man be, +therefore, who was so like Julius, and yet was not Julius?--who could he +be but Julius's father,--that Hernando Courtney whom Dr Rippon believed +he had seen the evening before? + +Here was a coil to unravel! Julius's father--the Spanish marquis that +was--supposed to be dead, but yet wandering in singular fashion about +the London streets, clearly not desiring, much less courting, +opportunities of being recognised; Julius not caring to speak of his +father, apparently ignoring his continued existence, and yet apparently +knowing enough of his movements to avoid him when he came to London by +suddenly removing "into the country" without leaving his address. What +was the meaning of so much mystery? Crime? debt? political intrigue? or, +what? + +The mysterious Hernando went on his way, by the southern sweep of +Trafalgar Square and Cockspur Street, to the Haymarket, and Lefevre +followed with attention and curiosity bent on him, but yet with so +little thought of playing spy that, if Hernando had gone any other way +or had returned along the Strand, he would probably have let him go. And +as they went on, the doctor could not but note, as before, how the +object of his curiosity lingered wherever there was a press of people, +whether on the pavement or on a refuge at a crossing, and hurried on +wherever the pavement was sparsely peopled or whenever the persons +encountered were at all advanced in years. Indeed, the farther he +followed the more was his attention compelled to remark that Hernando +sharply avoided contact with the weakly, the old, and the decrepit, and +wonder why the young people of either sex whom he brushed against should +turn as if the touch of him waked suspicion and a something hostile. +Thus they traversed the Haymarket, the Criterion pavement, and, flitting +across to the Quadrant, the more popular side of Regent Street, among +pushing groups, weary stragglers, and steady pedestrians. Lefevre had a +mind to turn aside and go home when he was opposite Vigo Street, but he +was drawn on by the hope of observing something that might give him a +clue to the Courtney mystery. When Oxford Circus was reached, however, +Hernando jumped into a cab and drove rapidly off, and Lefevre returned +to his own fireside. + +He sat for some time over a cigar and a grog, walking in imagination +round and round the mystery, which steadfastly refused to dissolve or to +be set aside. His own honour, and perhaps the peace of his mother and +sister, were involved in it. He was resolved to ask Julius for an +explanation as soon as he could come to speech with him; but yet, in +spite of that assurance which he gave himself, he returned to the +mystery again and again, and beset and bewildered himself with +questions: Why was Julius estranged from his father? What was the secret +of the old man's life which had left such an awful impress on his face? +And why was he nightly haunting the busiest pavements of London, in the +crowd, but not of it, urged on as by some desire or agony? + +He went to bed, but not to sleep. In the quiet and the darkness his +imagination ranged without constraint over the whole field of his +questionings. He went back upon Dr Rippon's story of the Spanish +marquis, and fixed on the mention of his occult studies. He saw him, in +fancy, without wife or son, cut off from the position and activities in +his native country which his proper rank would have given him, sequester +himself from society altogether, and give himself up to the study of +those Arabian sages and alchemists in whom he had delighted when he was +a young man. He saw him shun the daylight, and sleep its hours away, and +then by night abandon himself like another Cagliostro to strange +experiments with alembic and crucible, breathing acrid and poisonous +vapours, seeking to extort from Nature her yet undiscovered +secrets,--the Philosophers Stone, and the Elixir of Life. He saw him +turn for a little from his strange and deadly experiments, and venture +forth to show his blanched and worn face among the throngs of men; but +even there he still pursued his anxious quest of life in the midst of +death. He saw him wander up and down, in and out, among the evening +crowd, delighting in contact with such of his fellow-creatures as had +health and youth, and seeking, seeking--he knew not what. From this +phantasmagoria he dozed off into the dark plains of sleep; but even +there the terribly blanched and emaciated face was with him, bending +wistful worn eyes upon him and melting him to pity. And still again the +vision of the streets would arise about the face, and the sleeper would +be aware of the man to whom the face belonged walking quickly and +sinuously, seeking and enjoying contact with the throng, and strangely +causing many to resent his touch as if they had been pricked or stung, +and yet urged onward in some further quest,--an anxious quest it +sometimes resolved itself into for Julius, who ever evaded him. + +Thus his brain laboured through the dead hours of the night, viewing and +reviewing these scenes and figures, to extract a meaning from them; but +he was no nearer the heart of the mystery when the morning broke and he +was waked by the shrill chatter of the sparrows. The day, however, +brought an event which shed a lurid light upon the Courtney difficulty, +and revealed a vital connection between facts which Lefevre had not +guessed were related. + + + + +Chapter V. + +The Remarkable Case of Lady Mary Fane. + + +It was the kind of day that is called seasonable. If the sun had been +obscured, the air would have been felt to be wintry; but the sunshine +was full and warm, and so the world rejoiced, and declared it was a +perfectly lovely May day,--just as a man who is charmed with the smiles +and beauty of a woman, thinks her complete though she may have a heart +of ice. Lefevre, as he went his hospital round that afternoon, found his +patients revelling in the sunlight like flies. He himself was in +excellent spirits, and he said a cheery or facetious word here and there +as he passed, which gave infinite delight to the thin and bloodless +atomies under his care; for a joke from so serious and awful a being as +the doctor is to a desponding patient better than all the drugs of the +pharmacopoeia: it is as exquisite and sustaining as a divine text of +promise to a religious enthusiast. + +Dr Lefevre was thus passing round his female ward, with a train of +attentive students at his heels, when the door was swung open and two +attendants entered, bearing a stretcher between them, and accompanied by +the house-physician and a policeman. + +"What is this?" asked Lefevre, with a touch of severity; for it was +irregular to intrude a fresh case into a ward while the physician was +going his round. + +"I thought, sir," said the house-physician, "you would like to see her +at once: it seems to me a case similar to that of the man found in the +Brighton train." + +"Where was this lady found?" asked Lefevre of the policeman. He used the +word "lady" advisedly, for though the dress was that of a hospital nurse +or probationer, the unconscious face was that of an educated +gentlewoman. "Why, bless my soul!" he cried, upon more particular +scrutiny of her features--"it seems to me I know her! Surely I do! Where +did you say she was found?" + +The policeman explained that he was on his beat outside St James's Park, +when a park-keeper called him in and showed him, in one of the shady +walks, the lady set on a bench as if she had fainted. The keeper said he +had taken particular notice of her, because he saw from her dress and +her veil she was a hospital lady. When he first set eyes on her, an old +gentleman was sitting talking to her--a strange, dark, foreign-looking +gentleman, in a soft hat and a big Inverness cape. + +"Good heavens!" exclaimed the doctor. "The very man! That's the meaning +of it. And I did not guess!" + +His assistant and the policeman gazed at him in surprise; but he +recovered himself and asked, with a serious and determined knitting of +the brows, if the policeman had seen the old gentleman. The policeman +replied he had not; the gentleman was nowhere to be seen when he was +called in. The keeper saw him only once; when he returned that way +again, in about a quarter of an hour, he found the lady alone and +apparently asleep. She had a very handsome umbrella by her side, and +therefore he kept within eye-shot of her on this side and on that, lest +some park-loafer should seize so good a chance of thieving. He thus +passed her two or three times. The last time, he remarked that she had +slipped a little to one side, and that her umbrella had fallen to the +ground. He went to pick it up, and it struck him as he bent that she +looked strangely quiet and pale. He spoke to her; she made no reply. He +touched her--he even in his fear ventured to shake her--but she made no +sign; and he ran to call the policeman. They then brought her straight +to the hospital, because they could see she was a hospital lady of some +sort. + +"It must--it must be the same!" said Lefevre. + +"I thought, when I first heard of it below," said the house-physician, +"that it must be the same man as was the cause of the other case, in the +Brighton train." + +"No doubt it is the same. But I was thinking of it in another--a far +more serious sense!" Then turning to the waiting policeman, he said, "Of +course, you must report this to your inspector?" + +"Yes, sir," said the policeman. + +"Give him my compliments, then, and say I shall see him presently." + +Yet, he thought, how could he speak to the official, with all that he +suspected, all that he feared, in his heart? With his attention on the +_qui vive_ with his experiences and speculations of the night, he was +seized, as we have seen, by the conclusion that the "strange, dark, +foreign-looking gentleman" of the park-keeper's story was the same whose +steps he had followed the evening before, without guessing that the man +was perambulating the pavement and passing among the crowd in search, +doubtless, of a fresh victim for occult experiment or outrage! That +conclusion once determined, shock after shock smote upon his sense. What +if the mysterious person were really proved to be Julius's father? What +if he had entered upon a course of experiment or outrage (he passed in +rapid review the mysteries of the Paris pavement and the Brighton train, +and this of the Park)--outrage yet unnamable because unknown, but which +would amaze and confound society, and bring signal punishment upon the +offender? And what--what if Julius knew all that, and therefore sought +to keep his parentage hidden? + +"She is ready, doctor," said the Sister of the ward at his elbow, adding +with a touch of excitement in her manner as he turned to her, "do you +know who she is? Look at this card; we noticed the name first on her +linen." + +Dr Lefevre looked at the card and read, "Lady Mary Fane, Carlton +Gardens, S.W." + +"I suspected as much," said he. "Lord Rivercourt's daughter. It's a bad +business. She has been learning at St Thomas's the duties of nurse and +dresser, which accounts for her being in that uniform." + +He went to the bed on which his new patient had been laid, and very soon +satisfied himself that her case was similar to that of the young +officer, though graver much than it. He wrote a telegram to Lord +Rivercourt, sent the house-physician for his electrical apparatus, and +returned to the bedside. He looked at his patient. He had not remarked +her hitherto more than other women of his acquaintance, though he had +sometimes sat at her father's table; but now he was moved by a beauty +which was enhanced by helplessness--a beauty stamped with a calm +disregard of itself--the manifest expression of a noble and loving soul, +which had lived above the plane of doubt and fear and gusty passion. Her +wealth of lustrous black hair lay abroad upon her pillow, and made an +admirable setting for her finely-modelled head and neck. As he looked at +this excellent presentment, and thought of the intelligence and activity +which had been wont to animate it, resentment rose in him against the +man who, for whatever end, had subdued the noble woman to that +condition, and a deep impatience penetrated him that he had not +discovered--had even scarcely guessed--the purpose or the method of the +subjugation! + +It was, however, not speculation but action that was needed then. The +apparatus described in the case of the young officer was ready, and the +house-physician was waiting to give his assistance. The stimulation of +Will and Electricity was applied to resuscitate the patient--but with +the smallest success: there was only a faint flutter, a passing slight +rigidity of the muscles, and all seemed again as it had been. The +exhausting nature of the operation or experiment forbade its immediate +repetition. Disappointment pervaded the doctor's being, though it did +not appear in the doctor's manner. + +"We'll try again in half an hour," said he to his assistant, and turned +away to complete his round of the ward. + +At the end of the half-hour, Lefevre and the house-physician were again +by Lady Mary's bedside. Again, with fine but firm touch, Lefevre stroked +nerves and muscles to stimulate them into normal action; again he and +his assistant put out their electrical force through the electrode; and +again the result was nothing but a passing galvanic quiver. The doctor, +though he maintained his professional calm, was smitten with alarm,--as +a man is who, walking through darkness and danger to the rescue of a +friend, finds himself stopped by an unscalable wall. While he sought +fresh means of help, his patient might pass beyond his reach. He did not +think she would--he hoped she would not; but her condition, so +obstinately resistant to his restoratives, was so peculiar, that he +could not in the least determine the issue. Imagination and speculation +were excited, and he asked himself whether, after all, the explanation +of his failure might not be of the simplest--a difference of sex! The +secrets of nature, so far as he had discovered, were of such amazing +simplicity, that it would not surprise him now to find that the +electrical force of a man varied vitally from that of a woman. He +explained this suspicion to his assistant. + +"I think," said he, "we must make another attempt, for her condition may +become the more serious the longer it is left. We'll set the Sister and +the nurse to try this time, and we'll turn her bed north and south, in +the line of the earth's magnetism." But just then the lady's father, the +old Lord Rivercourt, appeared in response to the doctor's telegram, and +the experiment with the women had to wait. The old lord was naturally +filled with wonder and anxiety when he saw his apparently lifeless +daughter. He was amazed that she should have been overcome by such +influence as, he understood, the old gentleman must wield. She had +always, he said, enjoyed the finest health, and was as little inclined +to hysteria as woman well could be. Lefevre told the father that this +was something other than hystero-hypnotism, which, while it reassured +him as to his daughter's former health, made him the more anxious +regarding her present condition. + +"It is very extraordinary," said the old lord; "but whatever it is,--and +you say it is like the young man's case that we have all read +about,--whatever it is,"--and he laid his hand emphatically on the +doctor's arm,--"she could not be in more capable hands than yours." + +That assurance, though soothing to the doctor's self-esteem, added +gravely to his sense of responsibility. + +While they were yet speaking, Lefevre was further troubled by the +announcement that a detective-inspector desired to speak with him! +Should he tell the inspector all that he had seen the night before, and +all that he suspected now, or should he hold his peace? His duty as a +citizen, as a doctor, and as, in a sense, the protector of his patient, +seemed to demand the one course, while his consideration for Julius and +for his own family suggested the other. Surely, never was a simple, +upright doctor involved in a more bewildering _imbroglio_! + +The detective-inspector entered, and opened an interview which proved +less embarrassing than Lefevre had anticipated. The detective had +already made up his mind about the case and his course regarding it. He +put no curious questions; he merely inquired concerning the identity and +the condition of the lady. When he heard who she was, and when he caught +the import of an aside from Lord Rivercourt that it would be worth any +one's while to discover the mysterious offender, professional zeal +sparkled in his eye. + +"I think I know my man," said he; and the doctor looked the lively +interest he felt. "I am right, I believe, Dr Lefevre, in setting this +down to the author of that other case you had,--that from the Brighton +train?" Lefevre thought he was right in that. "'M. Dolaro:' that was the +name. I had charge of the case, and was baffled. I shan't miss him this +time. I shall get on his tracks at once; he can't have left the Park in +broad daylight, a singular man like him, without being noticed." + +"It rather puzzles me," said the doctor, "what crime you will charge him +with." + +"It is an outrage," said Lord Rivercourt; "and if it is not criminal, it +seems about time it were made so." + +"Oh, we'll class it, my lord," said the detective; "never fear." + +The detective departed; but Lord Rivercourt seemed not inclined to stir. + +"You will excuse me," said Lefevre; "but I must perform a very delicate +operation." + +"To be sure," said the old lord; "and you want me to go. How stupid of +me! I kept waiting for my daughter to wake up; but I see that, of +course, you have to rouse her. It did not occur to me what that machine +meant. Something magneto-electric--eh? Forgive one question, Lefevre. I +can see you look anxious: is Mary's condition very serious?--most +serious? I can bear to be told the complete truth." + +The doctor was touched by the old gentleman's emotion. He took his hand. +"It is serious," said he--"most serious, for this reason, that I cannot +account for her obstinate lethargy; but I think there is no immediate +danger. If necessity arises, I shall send for you again." + +"To the House," said Lord Rivercourt. "I shall be sitting out a debate +on our eternal Irish question." + +Lefevre was left seriously discomposed, but at once he sent for the +house-physician, summoned the Sister and the nurse, and set about his +third attempt to revive his patient. He got the bed turned north and +south. He carefully explained to the two women what was demanded of +them, and applied them to their task; but, whatever the cause, the +failure was completer than before: there was not even a tremor of muscle +in the unconscious lady, and the doctor was suffused with alarm and +humiliation. Failure!--failure!--failure! Such a concatenation had never +happened to him before! + +But failure only nerves the brave and capable man to a supreme effort +for success. Still self-contained, and apparently unmoved, the doctor +gave directions for some liquid nourishment to be artificially +administered to his patient, said he would return after dinner, and went +his way. The society of friends or acquaintances was distasteful to him +then; the thought even of seeing his own familiar dining-room and his +familiar man in black, whose silent obsequiousness he felt would be a +reproach, was disagreeable. All his thought, all his attention, all his +faculties were drawn tight to this acute point--he must succeed; he must +accomplish the task he had set himself: life at that hour was worth +living only for that purpose. But how was success to be compelled? + +He walked for a while about the streets, and then he went into a +restaurant and ordered a modest dinner. He broke and crumbled his bread +with both hands, his mind still intent on that one engrossing, acute +point. While thus he sat he heard a voice, as in a dream, say, "The very +doctor you read about. That's the second curious case he's got in a +month or so.... Oh yes--very clever; he treats them, I understand, in +the same sort of way as the famous Dr Charbon of Paris would.... I +should say so; quite as good, if not better than Charbon. I'd rather +have an English doctor any day than a French.... His name's in the +paper--_Lefevre_." Then the doctor woke to the fact that he was being +talked about. He perceived his admirers were sitting at a table a little +behind him, and he judged from what had been said that his fresh case +was already being made "copy" of in the evening papers. The flattering +comparison of himself with Dr Charbon had an oddly stimulating effect +upon him, notwithstanding that it had been uttered by he knew not +whom,--a mere _vox et præterea nihil_. He disclaimed to himself the +truth of the comparison, but all the same he was encouraged to bend his +attention with his utmost force to the solution of his difficult +problem--what to do to rouse his patient? + +He sat thus, amid the bustle and buzz of the restaurant, the coming and +going of waiters, completely abstracted, assailing his difficulty with +questions on this side and on that,--when suddenly out of the mists that +obscured it there rose upon his mental vision an idea, which appealed to +him as a solution of the whole, and, more than that, as a secret that +would revolutionise all the treatment of nervous weakness and +derangement. How came the idea? How do ideas ever come? As inspirations, +we say, or as revelations; and truly they come upon us with such amazing +and inspiriting freshness, that they may well be called either the one +or the other. But no great idea had ever yet an epiphany but from the +ferment of more familiar small ideas,--just as the glorious Aphrodite +was born of the ferment and pother of the waves of the sea. Lefevre's +new idea clothed itself in the form of a comparative question--_Why +should there not be Transfusion of Nervous Force, Ether, or Electricity, +just as there is Transfusion of Blood?_ + +He pushed his dinner away (he could scarcely have told what he had been +eating and drinking), called for his bill, and returned with all speed +to the hospital. He entered his female ward just as evening prayers were +finished, before the lights were turned out and night began for the +patients. He summoned his trusted assistant, the house-physician, again. + +"I am about to attempt," said he, "an altogether new operation: the +patient has remained just as I left her, I suppose?" + +"Just the same." + +"Nervous Force, whether it be Electricity or not, is manifestly a fluid +of some sort: why should it not be transfused as the other vital fluid +is?" + +"Indeed, sir, when you put it so," said the house-physician, suddenly +steeled and brightened into interest, "I should say, 'why not?' The only +reason against it is what can be assigned against all new things--it has +not, so far as I know, been done." + +"Exactly. I am going to try. I think, in case we need a current, so to +say, to draw it along, that we shall use the apparatus too; we shall +therefore need the women." + +"You mean, of course," said the young man, "you will cut a main nerve." + +"I shall use this nerve," said Lefevre, indicating the main nerve in the +wrist,--upon which the young man, in his ready enthusiasm, began to bare +his arm. + +"My dear fellow," said Lefevre, "do you consider what you are so +promptly offering? Do you know that my experiment, if successful, might +leave you a paralytic, or an imbecile, or even--a corpse?" + +"I'll take the risk, sir," said the young man. + +"I can't permit it, my boy," said Lefevre, laying his hand on his arm, +and giving him a look of kindness. "Nobody must run this risk but me. I +don't mean, however, to cut the nerve." + +"What then, sir?" + +"Well," said Lefevre, "this Nervous Force, or Nervous Ether, is clearly +a very volatile, and at the same time a very searching fluid. It can +easily pass through the skin from a nerve in one person to a nerve in +another. There is no difficulty about that; the difficulty is to set up +a rapid enough vibration to whirl the current through!" He said that in +meditative fashion: he was clearly at the moment repeating the working +out of the problem. + +"I see," said the young man, looking thoughtful. + +"Now, you are a musician, are you not?" + +"I play a little," said the young man, with a bewildered look. + +"You play the violin?" + +"Yes." + +"And, of course, you have it in your rooms. Would you be so good as +to bring me the bow of your violin, and borrow for me anywhere a +tuning-fork of as high a note as possible?" + +The young man looked at Dr Lefevre in puzzled inquiry; but the doctor +was considering the electrical apparatus before him, and the young man +set off on his errands. When he returned with the fiddle-bow and the +tuning-fork, he saw Lefevre had placed the machine ready, with fresh +chemicals in the vessels. + +"Do you perceive my purpose?" asked Lefevre. He placed one handle of the +apparatus in the unconscious patient's right hand, while he himself took +hold of her left arm with his right hand, so that the inner side of his +wrist was in contact with the inner side of hers; and then, to complete +the circle of connection, he took in his left hand the other handle of +the apparatus. "You don't understand?" + +"I do not," answered the young man. + +"We want a very rapid vibration--much more rapid than usual," said the +doctor. "I can apply no more rapid vibration at present than that which +the note of that tuning-fork will produce. I want you to sound the +tuning-fork with the fiddle-bow, and then apply the fork to this wire." + +"Oh," said the young man, "I understand!" + +"Now," said Lefevre, "you'd better call the Sister to set the +electricity going." + +The Sister came and took her place as before described--with her hands, +that is, on the cylinder of the electrode, her fingers dipping over into +the vessels of chemicals. She opened her eyes and smiled at sight of the +fiddle-bow and tuning-fork. + +"I am trying a new thing, Sister," said Lefevre, with a touch of +severity. "I do not need you, I do not wish you, to exert yourself this +time; I only wish you to keep that position, and to be calm. Maintain +your composure, and attend.... Now!" said he, addressing the young man. + +The fiddle-bow was drawn across the tuning-fork, and the fork applied +with its thrilling note to the conducting wire which Lefevre held. The +wire hummed its vibration, and electricity tingled wildly through +Lefevre's nerves... There was an anxious, breathless pause for some +seconds, and fear of failure began to contract the doctor's heart. + +"Take your hands away, Sister," said he. Then, turning to his assistant, +"Apply that to the other wire," said he; and dropping his own wire, he +put his hand over the cylinder, with his fingers dipping into the vessel +from which the other wire sprang. When the wire hummed under the +tuning-fork and the vibration thrilled again, instantly he felt as if an +inert obstruction had been removed. The vibratory influence whirled +wildly through him, there was a pause of a second or two (which seemed +to him many minutes in duration), and then suddenly a kind of rigor +passed upon the form and features of his patient, as if each individual +nerve and muscle were being threaded with quick wire, a sharp rush of +breath filled her chest, and she opened her eyes and closed them again. + +"That will do," said Lefevre in a whisper, and, releasing his hands, he +sank back in a chair. "It's a success," said he, turning his eyes with a +thin smile on the house-physician, and then closing them in a deadly +exhaustion. + + + + +Chapter VI. + +At the Bedside of the Doctor. + + +For the first time since he had come into the world Dr Lefevre was that +night attended by another doctor. The resident assistant-physician took +him home to Savile Row in a cab, assisted him to bed, and sat with him a +while after he had administered a tonic and soporific. Then he left him +in charge of the silent man in black, whom he reassured by saying that +there was no danger; that his master had a magnificent constitution; +that he was only exhausted--though exhausted very much; and that all he +needed was rest, sleep, nourishment,--sleep above all. + +Lefevre slept the night through like a child, and awoke refreshed, +though still very weak. He was bewildered with his condition for a +moment or two, till he recalled the moving and exhausting experiences of +the day before, and then he was suffused with a glow of +elation,--elation which was not all satisfaction in the successful +performance of a new experiment, nor in a good deed well done. His +friend came to see him early, to anticipate the risk of his rising. He +insisted that he should keep his bed, for that day at least, if not for +a second and a third day. He reported that the patient was doing well; +that she had asked with particularity, and had been informed with equal +particularity, concerning the method of her recovery, upon which she was +much bemused, and asked to see her physician. + +"It is a pity she was told," said Lefevre; "it is not usual to tell a +patient such a thing, and I meant it to be kept secret, at least till it +was better established." But for all his protest he was again suffused +with that new sense of inward joy. + +Alone, and lying idle in bed, it was but natural--it was almost +inevitable--that the doctor's thoughts should begin to run upon the +strange events and suspicions of the past two days; and their current +setting strongly in one channel, made him long to be resolved whether or +no the Man of the Crowd, the author of yesterday's outrage, the "M. +Dolaro" of whom the detective had gone in search, and who, if captured, +would be certainly overwhelmed with contumely, if not with +punishment,--whether or not that strange creature was Julius's father, +or any relation at all of Julius. He was not clear how he could well put +the matter to Julius, since he so evidently shrank from discourse upon +it, yet he thought some kind of certainty might be arrived at from an +interview with him. On the chance of his having returned to his +chambers, he called for pen and paper and wrote a note, asking him to +look in, as he would be resting all day. "Try to come," he urged; "I +have something important to speak about." + +This he sent by the trusty hand of his man in black; and by mid-day +Julius was announced. He came in confident, and bright as sunshine +(Lefevre thought he had never seen him looking more serene); but +suddenly the sunshine was beclouded, and Julius ceased to be himself, +and became a restless, timorous kind of creature, like a bird put in a +cage under the eye of his captor. + +"What?" he cried when he entered, with an eloquent gesture. "Lazying in +bed on such a day as this? What does this mean?" But when he observed +the pallor and weakness of Lefevre's appearance, he paused abruptly, +refrained from the hand stretched out to greet him, and exclaimed in a +tone of something like terror, "Good heavens! Are you ill?" A paleness, +a shudder, and a dizziness passed upon him as if he sickened. "May I," +he said, "open the window?" + +"Certainly, Julius," said Lefevre, in surprise and alarm. "Do you feel +ill?" + +"No--no," said Julius from the window, where he stood letting the air +play upon his face, and speaking as if he had to put considerable +restraint upon himself. "I--I am unfortunately, miserably constituted: I +cannot help it. I cannot bear the sight of illness, or lowness of health +even. It appals me; it--it horrifies me with a quite instinctive horror; +it deadens me." + +Lefevre, whose abundant sympathy and vitality went out instinctively to +succour and bless the weak and the ill, was inexpressibly shocked and +offended by this confession of what to his sense appeared selfish +cowardice and inhumanity. He had again and again heard it said, and he +had with pleasure assented to the opinion, that Julius was a rare, +finely-strung being, with such pure and glowing health that he shrank +from contact with, or from the sight of, pain or ill-health, and even +from their discussion; but now that the singularity of Julius's +organization impinged upon his own experience, now that he saw Julius +shrink from himself, he was shocked and offended. Julius, on his part, +was pitiably moved. He kept away from the bed; he fidgeted to and fro, +looking at this thing and that, without a sparkle of interest in his +eye, yet all with his own peculiar grace. + +"You wanted to speak to me," he said. "Do you mind saying what you have +to say and letting me go?" + +"I reckoned upon your staying to lunch," said Lefevre. + +"I can't!--I can't!... Very sorry, my dear Lefevre, but I really can't! +Forgive what seems my rudeness. It distresses me that at such a time as +this my sensations are so acute. But I cannot help it!--I cannot!" + +"You have been in the country,--have you not?" said Lefevre, beginning +with a resolve to get at something. + +"I have just come back," said Julius. "My man told me you had called." + +"Yes. My mother wrote in a state of great anxiety about you, and asked +me to go and look at you. She said that she and my sister had seen a +good deal of you lately; that you began to look unwell, and then ceased +to appear, and she was afraid you might be ill." + +This was put forth as an invitation to Julius to expound not only his +own situation, but also his relations with Lady and Miss Lefevre, but +Julius took no heed of it. He merely said, "No; I was not ill. I only +wanted a little change to refresh me,"--and walked back to the window to +lave himself in the air. + +"Well," continued Lefevre, "since I called to see you, I have had an +adventure or two. You never look at a newspaper except for the weather, +and so it is probable you do not know that I had brought to me yesterday +afternoon another strange case like that of the young officer a month +ago,--a similar case, but worse." + +"Worse?" exclaimed Julius, dropping into the chair by the window, and +glancing, as a less preoccupied observer than the doctor would have +remarked, with a wistful desire at the door. + +"Much worse--though, I believe, from the same hand," said Lefevre. "A +lady this time,--titularly and really a lady,--Lady Mary Fane, the +daughter of Lord Rivercourt." + +"Oh, good heavens!" exclaimed Julius, and there were manifest so keen a +note of apprehension in his voice and so deep a shade of apprehension on +his face, that Lefevre could not but note them and confirm himself in +his suspicion of the intimate bond of connection between him and the +author of the outrage. He pitied Julius's distress, and hurried through +the rest of his revelation, careless of the result he had sought. + +"It may prove," said he, "a far more serious affair than the other. Lord +Rivercourt is not the man to sit quietly under an outrage like that." + +Julius astonished him by demanding, "What is the outrage? Has the lady +given an account of it? What does she accuse the man of?" + +"She has not spoken yet,--to me, at least," said Lefevre; "and I don't +know what the outrage can be called, but I am sure Lord Rivercourt--and +he is a man of immense influence--will move heaven and earth to give it +a legal name, and to get it punishment. There is a detective on the +man's track now." + +"Oh!" said Julius. "Well, it will be time enough to discuss the +punishment when the man is caught. Now, if that is all your news," he +added hurriedly, "I think--" He took up his hat, and was as if going +to the door. + +"It is not quite all," said the doctor, and Julius went back to the +window, with his hat in his hand. + +"I wonder," he broke out, "if we shall ever be simple enough and +intelligent enough to perceive that real wickedness--the breaking of any +of the laws of Nature, I mean (or, if you prefer to say so, the laws of +God)--is best punished by being left to itself? Outraged nature exacts a +severe retribution! But you were going to say--?" + +"The night before last," continued Lefevre, determined to be brief and +succinct, "I was walking in the Strand, and I could not help observing a +man who fulfilled completely the description given of the author of this +case and my former one." + +"Well?" + +"That is not all. When I caught sight of his face I was completely +amazed; for--I must tell you--it looked for all the world like you grown +old, or, as I said to myself at the time, like a death-mask of you." + +"You--you saw that?" exclaimed Julius, leaning against the window with a +sudden look of terror which Lefevre was ashamed to have seen: it was +like catching a glimpse of Julius's poor naked soul. "And you +thought--?" continued Julius. + +"You shall hear. Dr Rippon--you remember the old doctor?--had a sight of +a man in the Strand the night before, who, he believes, was his old +friend Courtney that he thought dead, and who, I believe, was the man I +saw." + +Lefevre stopped. There was a pause, in which Julius put his head out of +the window, as if he had a mind to be gone that way. Then he turned with +a marked control upon himself. + +"Really, Lefevre," said he, "this is the queerest stuff I've heard for a +long time! This is hallucination with a vengeance! I don't like to apply +such a tomfool word to anything, but observe how all this has come +about. An excellent old gentleman, who has been dining out or something, +has a glimpse at night, on a crowded pavement, of a man who looks like a +friend of his youth. Very well. The excellent old gentleman tells you of +that, and it impresses you. _You_ walk on the same pavement the next +evening--I won't emphasise the fact of its being after dinner, though I +daresay it was--" + +"It was." + +"--_You_ have a glimpse of a man who looks--well, something like me; +and you instantly conclude, 'Ah! the Courtney person--the friend of Dr +Rippon's youth!--and, surely, some relative of my friend Julius!' Next +day this hospital case turns up, and because the description of its +author, given by more or less unobservant persons, fits the person you +saw, _argal_, you jump to the conclusion that the three are one! Is your +conclusion clear upon the evidence? Is it inevitable? Is it necessary? +Is it not forced?" + +"Well," began Lefevre. + +"It is bad detective business," broke in Julius, "though it may be good +friendship. You have thought there was trouble in this for me, and you +wished to give me warning of it. But--_que diable vas-tu faire dans +cette galère?_ You are the best friend in the world, and whenever I am +in trouble--and who knows? who knows? 'Man is born unto trouble, as the +sparks fly upward'--I may ask of you both your friendship and your +skill. One thing I ask of you here: don't speak of me as you see me now, +thus miserably moved, to any one! Now I must go. Good-bye." And before +Lefevre could find another word, Julius had opened the door and was +gone. + +"If it moves him like that," said the doctor to himself, through his +bewilderment, "there must be something worse in it--God forgive me for +thinking so!--than I have ever imagined." + + + + +Chapter VII. + +Contains a Love Interlude. + + +Next day Lefevre learned that the police had been again baffled in their +part of the inquiry. The detective had contrived to trace his +man--though not till the morning after the event--to the St Pancras +Hotel, where he had dined in private, and gone to bed early, and whence +he had departed on foot before any one was astir, to catch, it was +surmised, the first train. But wherever he had gone, it was just as in +the former case: from the time the hotel door had closed on his cloaked +figure, all trace of him was lost. + +Nor could Lady Mary Fane add anything of moment to what Lefevre already +knew or guessed. Her account of her adventure (which she gave him in her +father's house, whither she had been removed on the third day) was as +follows: She was returning home from St Thomas's Hospital, dressed +according to her habit when she went there; she had crossed Westminster +Bridge, and was proceeding straight into St James's Park, when she +became aware of a man walking in the same direction as herself, and at +the same pace. She casually noted that he looked like a distinguished +foreigner, and that he had about him an indefinable suggestion of death +clinging with an eager, haggard hope to life,--a suggestion which melted +the heart of the beholder, as if it were the mute appeal of a drowning +sailor. She was stirred to pity; and when he suddenly appeared to reel +from weakness, she stepped out to him on an overwhelming impulse, laid a +steadying hand on his arm, and asked what ailed him. He turned on her a +pair of wonderful dark eyes, which were animal-like in their simple, +direct appeal, and their moist softness. He begged her to lead him aside +into a path by which few would pass: he disliked being stared at. +Thinking only of him as a creature in sickness and distress, she obeyed +without a thought for herself. She helped him to sit down upon a bench, +and sat down by him and felt his pulse. He looked at her with an open, +kindly eye, with a simple-seeming gratitude, which held her strangely +(though she only perceived that clearly on looking back). He said to her +suddenly,-- + +"There was a deep, mystical truth in the teaching of the Church to its +children--that they should prefer in their moments of human weakness to +pray to the Virgin-mother; for woman is always man's best friend." + +She looked in his face, wondering at him, still with her finger on his +pulse, when she felt an unconsciousness come over her, not unlike "the +thick, sweet mystery of chloroform;" and she knew no more till she +opened her eyes in the hospital bed. "Revived by you," she said to +Lefevre. + +He inquired further, as to her sensations before unconsciousness, and +she replied in these striking words: "I felt as if I were strung upon a +complicated system of threads, and as if they tingled and tingled, and +grew tighter to numbness." That answer, he saw, was kindred to the +description given by the young officer of his condition. It was clear +that in both cases the nerves had been seriously played upon; but for +what purpose? What was the secret of the stranger's endeavour? What did +he seek?--and what find? To these questions no satisfactory answer would +come for the asking, so that in his impatience he was tempted to break +through the severe self-restraint of science, and let unfettered fancy +find an answer. + +But, most of all, he longed to see close to him the man whom the police +sought for in and out, to judge for himself what might be the method and +the purpose of his strange outrages. He scarcely desired his capture, +for he thought of the possible results to Julius, and yet--Day after +day passed, and still the man was unfound, and very soon a change came +over Lefevre's life, which lifted it so far above the plane of his daily +professional experience, that all speculation about the mysterious "M. +Dolaro," and his probable relation to Julius, fell for a time into the +dim background. The doctor had been calling daily in Carlton Terrace to +see his patient, when, on a certain memorable day, he intimated to her +father that she was so completely recovered that there was no need of +his calling on her professionally again. The old lord, looking a little +flustered, asked him if he could spare a few minutes' conversation, and +led him into his study. + +"My dear Lefevre," said he, "I am at a loss how to make you any adequate +return for what you have done for my daughter. Money can't do it; no, +nor my friendship either, though you are so kind as to say so. But I +have an idea, which I think it best to set before you frankly. You are a +bachelor: it is not good to be a bachelor," he went on, laying his hand +affectionately on the doctor's arm, and flushing--old man of the world +though he was--flushing to the eyes. "What--what do you think of my +daughter? I mean, not as a doctor, but as a man?" + +Lefevre was not in his first youth, and he had had his admirations for +women in his time, as all healthy men must have, but yet he was made as +deliriously dizzy as if he were a boy by his guess at what Lord +Rivercourt meant. + +"Why," he stammered, "I think her the most beautiful, intelligent, +and--and attractive woman I know." + +"Yes," said her father, "I believe she is pretty well in all these ways. +But--and you see I frankly expose my whole position to you--what would +you think of her for a wife?" + +"Frankly, then," said Lefevre, "I find I have admired her from the +beginning of this, but I had no notion of letting my admiration go +farther, because I conceived that she was quite beyond my hopes." + +"My dear fellow," said Lord Rivercourt, "you have relieved me and +delighted me immensely. I know no man that I would like so well for a +son-in-law. And after all, it is only fitting that the life you have +saved with such risk to yourself--oh, I know all about it--should be +devoted to making yours happy. And--and I understand from her mother +that Mary is quite of the same opinion herself. Now, will you go and +speak to her at once, or will you wait till another day? You will have +to decide that," said he, with a smile, "not only as lover, but as +doctor." + +Lefevre hesitated for but an instant; for what true, manly lover would +have decided to withdraw till another day when the door to his mistress +was held open to him? + +"I'll see her now," he said. + +Lord Rivercourt led the doctor back to his daughter, and left him with +her. There were some moments of chilling doubt and cold uncertainty, and +then came a rush of warm feeling at the bidding of a shy glance from +Lady Mary. He bent over her and murmured he scarcely knew what, but he +heard clearly and with a divine ecstasy a softly-whispered "_Yes!_" +which thrilled in his heart for days and months afterwards, and then he +turned to him her face, her beautiful face illumined with love, and +kissed it: between two who had been drawn together as they had, what +words were needed, or what could poor words convey? + +About an hour later he walked to Savile Row to dress and return for +dinner. He walked, because he felt surcharged with life. He desired +peace and goodwill among men; he pitied with all his soul the weary and +the broken whom he met, and wondered with regret that men should get +irremediably involved in the toils of their own misdeeds; he was profuse +with coppers, and even small silver, to the wretched waifs of society +who swept the crossings he had to take on his triumphant way; he would +even have bestowed forgiveness on his greatest enemy if he had met him +then;--for the divine joy of love was singing in his heart and raising +him to the serene and glorious empyrean of heroes and gods. Oh matchless +magic of the human heart, which confounds all the hypotheses of science, +and flouts all its explanations! + +It was that evening when he and Lady Mary sat in sweet converse that she +said to him these words, which he hung for ever after about his heart-- + +"Surely, never before did a man win a wife as you have won me! You made +me well by putting your own life into me; so what could I do but give +you the life that was already your own!" + +Thus day followed day on golden wings: Lefevre in the morning occupied +with the patients that thronged his consulting-room; in the afternoon +dispensing healing, and, where healing was impossible, cheerfulness and +courage, in his hospital wards; and in the evening finding inspiration +and strength in the company of Lady Mary--for her love was to him better +than wine. All who went to him in those days found him changed, and in a +sense glorified. He had always been considerate and kind; but the +weakness, the folly, and the wickedness of poor human nature, which were +often laid bare to his searching scrutiny, had frequently plunged him +into a welter of despondency and shame, out of which he would cry, "Alas +for God's image! Alas for the temple of the Holy Ghost!" But in those +days it seemed as if disease and death appeared to him mere trivial +accidents of life, with the result that no "case," however bad, was sent +away empty of hope. + + + + +Chapter VIII. + +Strange Scenes in Curzon Street. + + +It happened, however, that just when all the bays and creeks of Dr +Lefevre's attention were occupied, as by a springtide, with the +excellent, the divine fortune that had come to him,--when he seemed thus +most completely divorced from anxious speculation about Julius Courtney +and "M. Dolaro," his attention was suddenly and in unexpected fashion +hurried again to the mystery. The doctor had not seen Julius since the +day he had received him in his bedroom--it must be admitted he had not +sought to see him--but he had heard now and then from his mother, in +casual notes and postscripts, that Courtney continued to call in Curzon +Street. + +On a certain evening Lady Lefevre gave a dinner and a reception, +designed to introduce Lady Mary to the Lefevre circle. Julius was not at +dinner (at which only members of the two families sat down), but he was +expected to appear later. It is probable, under the circumstances, that +Lefevre would not have remarked the absence of Julius from the +dinner-table, had it not been for Nora. He was painfully struck with her +appearance and demeanour. She seemed to have lost much of her beautiful +vigour and bloom of health, like a flower that has been for some time +cut from its stem; and she, who had been wont to be ready and gay of +speech, was now completely silent, yet without constraint, and as if +wrapt in a dream. + +"What has come over Nora?" asked Lefevre of his mother when they had +gone to the drawing-room. + +"Ah," said Lady Lefevre, "you have noticed something, have you? Do you +find her very changed, then?" + +"Very much changed." + +"It's this attachment of hers to Julius. I want to have a talk with you +about it presently. She seems scarcely to live when he is not with her. +She sits like that always when he is gone, and appears only to dream and +wait,--wait with her life as if suspended till he comes back." + +"Has it, indeed, got so far as that?" said her son with concern. "I had +better have a word or two with Julius about it." + +Just then Mr Courtney was announced, and there were introductions on +this side and on that. He turned to be introduced to Lady Mary, and for +the time Lefevre forgot his sister, so engrossed was he with the altered +aspect of his friend. He looked worn and weary, like a student when the +dawn finds him still at his books. Lady Lefevre expressed that in her +question-- + +"Why, Julius, have you taken to hard work? You're not looking well, and +we have not seen you for days." + +A flush rose to tinge his cheek, but it sank as soon as it appeared. + +"I have been out of sorts," said he; "that is all. And you have not seen +me because I have bought a yacht and have been trying it on the river." + +"A yacht!" exclaimed Lefevre. "I did not know you cared for the water." + +"_You_ know me," laughed Julius in his own manner, "and not know that I +care for everything!" So saying, he laid his hand on Lefevre's arm. The +act was not remarkable, but its result was, for Lefevre felt it as if it +were a blow, and stood astonished at it. + +During this interchange of words Lefevre (with Lady Mary) had been +moving with Julius, as he drew off across the room to greet Nora, and +the doctor could not help observing how the attention of all the company +was bent on his friend. Before his entrance all had been chatting or +laughing easily with their neighbours; now they seemed as constrained +and belittled as is a crowd of courtiers when a royal personage appears +in their midst. In truth, Julius at all times had a grace, an ease, and +a distinction of manner not unworthy of a prince; but on this occasion +he had an added something, an indefinable attraction which strangely +held the attention. Lefevre, therefore, was scarcely surprised (though, +perhaps, a trifle disappointed, considering that he was a lover) to note +that Lady Mary was regarding Julius with a silent, wide-eyed +fascination. They convoyed Julius to Nora, and then withdrew, leaving +them together. + +There were several fresh arrivals and new introductions to Lady Mary. +These, Lefevre observed, she went through half-absently, still turning +her eyes on Julius in the intervals with open and intense interest. + +"Well," said Lefevre at length, smiling in spite of a twinge of +jealousy, "what do you think, now you have seen him, of the fascinating +Julius?" + +She gave him no answering smile, but replied as if she painfully +withdrew herself from abstraction,--"I--I don't know. He is very +interesting and very strange. I--I can't make him out. I don't know." + +Then Lefevre turned his eyes on Julius, and became aware of something +strained in the relations of his sister and his friend. He could not +forbear to look, and as he continued looking he instinctively felt that +a passionate scene was being silently enacted between them. They sat +markedly apart. Nora's bosom heaved with suppressed emotion, and her +look, when raised to Julius, plied him with appeal or reproach--Lefevre +could not determine which. The doctor's interest almost drew him over to +them, when Lady Lefevre appeared and said to Julius-- + +"Do go to the piano, Julius, and wake us up." + +Nora put out her hand with a gesture which plainly meant, "Don't!... +Don't leave me!" + +But Julius rose, and as he turned (the doctor noted) he bent an +inscrutable look of pain on Nora. He sat down at the piano and struck a +wild, sad chord. Instantly it became as if the people in the room were +the instrument upon which he played,--as if the throbbing human hearts +around him were directly connected by invisible strings with the ivory +keys that pulsed beneath his fingers. What was the music he played no +one knew, no one cared, no one inquired: each individual person was held +and played upon, and was allowed no pause for reflection or criticism. +The music carried all away as on the flood of time, showing them, on one +hand, sunshine and beauty and joy, and all the pride of life; and on the +other, darkness and cruelty, despair, and defiance, and death. It might +have been, on the one hand, the music with which Orpheus tamed the +beasts; and on the other, that which Æschylus arranged to accompany the +last act of his tragedy of "Prometheus Bound." There was, however, no +clear distinction between the joyous airs and the sombre: all were +wrought and mingled into an exciting and bewildering atmosphere of +melody, which thrilled the heart and maddened the brain. But as the +music continued, its joyous strains died out; the instrument cried aloud +in horror and pain, as if the vulture of Prometheus were tearing at its +vitals; darkness seemed to descend upon the room--a darkness alive with +the sighs and groans, the disillusions and tears, of lost souls. The men +sat transfixed with agony and dread, the women were caught in the wild +clutches of hysteria, and Courtney himself was as if possessed with a +frenzy: his features were rigid, his eyes dilated, and his hair rose and +clung in wavy locks, so that he seemed a very Gorgon's head. The only +person apparently unmoved was old Dr Rippon, whose pale, gaunt form rose +in the background, sinister and calm as Death! + +The situation was at its height, when a black cat (a pet of Miss +Lefevre's) suddenly leaped on the top of the piano with a canary in its +mouth, and in the presence of them all, laid its captive before Julius +Courtney. The music ceased with a dissonant crash. With a cry Julius +rose and laid his hand on the cat's neck: to the general amazement the +cat lay down limp and senseless, and the little golden bird fluttered +away. Then the sobs of the women, hitherto controlled, broke out, and +the murmurs of the men. + +"O Julius! Julius! what have you done?" cried Nora, sweeping up to him +in an ecstasy of emotion. + +He caught her in his arms, when with a strange cry--a strained kind of +laugh with a hysterical catch in it--she sank fainting on his breast. +With a sharp exclamation of pain and fear he bore her swiftly from the +room (he was near the door) and into a little conservatory that opened +upon the staircase, casting his eyes upon Lefevre as he went, and +saying, "Come! come quick!" Lefevre then woke to the fact that he had +been fixedly regarding this last strange scene, while Lady Mary clung +trembling to his arm. He hurried out after Julius, followed by Lady Mary +and his mother. + +"Take her!" cried Julius, standing away from Nora, and looking white and +terror-stricken. "Restore her! Oh, I must not!--I dare not touch her!" + +With nimble accustomed fingers Lady Mary undid Nora's dress, while the +doctor applied the remedies usual in hysterical fainting. Nora opened +her eyes and fixed them upon Julius. + +"O Julius, Julius!" she cried. "Do not leave me! Come near me! Oh!... I +think I am going to die!" + +"My love! my life! my soul!" said Julius, stretching out his hands to +her, but approaching no nearer. "I cannot--I must not touch you! No, no! +I dare not!" + +"O Julius!" said she. "Are you afraid of me? How can I harm you?" + +"Nora, my life! I am afraid of myself! You would not harm me, but I +would harm you! Ah, I know it now only too well!" + +Then, as she closed her eyes again, she said, "I had better die!" + +"No, you must not die!" he exclaimed. "Your time is not yet! Yes, you will +live!--live! But I must be cut off--though not for ever--from the sweetest +and dearest, the noblest and purest of all God's creatures!" + +In the meantime Lefevre had been examining his sister with closer +scrutiny. He raised her eyelid and looked at her eye; he pricked her on +the arm and wrist; and then he turned to Julius. + +"Julius," said he, "what does this mean?" + +"It means," answered Julius, covering his face with his hands, "that I +am of all living things the most accurst!" Then with a cry of horror and +anguish he fled from the room and down the stairs. + +Lady Lefevre followed him in a flutter of fear. Presently she returned, +and said, in answer to a look from her son, "He snatched his hat and +coat, and was gone before I came up with him." + +Without a word Lefevre set himself to recover his sister, and in half an +hour she was well enough to walk with Lady Mary's assistance to bed. + +The guests, meanwhile, had departed, all but two or three intimates; and +in less than an hour Dr Lefevre was returning home in the Fane carriage. +Lord Rivercourt and he talked of the strange events of the evening, +while Lady Mary leaned back and half-absently listened. They were +proceeding thus along Piccadilly, when she suddenly caught the doctor's +arm and exclaimed-- + +"Oh! Look! The very man I met in the Park! I am sure of it! I can never +forget the face!" + +Lefevre, alert on the instant, looked to recognise Hernando Courtney, +the Man of the Crowd: he saw only the back of a person in a loose cape +and a slouch hat turning in at the gateway of the Albany courtyard. In +flashes of reflection these questions arose: Who could he be but +Hernando Courtney?--and where could he be going but to Julius's +chambers? Julius, therefore (whose own conduct had been that night so +extraordinary), must be familiar with his whole mysterious course, and +consequently with the peril he was in. Before Lefevre could out of his +perplexity snatch a resolution, Lord Rivercourt had pulled the cord to +stop the coachman. The coachman, however, having received orders to +drive home, was driving at a goodly pace, and it was only on a second +summons through the cord that he slackened speed, and obeyed his +master's direction to "draw up by the kerb." + +"I'll get out," said Lefevre, "and look after him. You'd better get Mary +home; she's not very strong yet, and she has been upset to-night." + +He put himself thus forward for another reason besides,--on the impulse +of his friendship for Julius, without considering whether in the event +of an arrest and an exposure, he could do anything to shield Julius from +shame and pain. + +He got out, saying his adieus, and the carriage drove on. He found +himself well past the Albany. He hurried back, nerved by the desire to +encounter Julius's visitor, and at the same time by the hope that he +would not. In his heart was a turmoil of feeling, to the surface of +which continued to rise pity for Julius. The events of the evening had +forced him to the conclusion that Julius possessed the same singular, +magnetic, baleful influence on men and women as his putative father +Hernando; but Julius's burst of agony, when Nora lay overcome, had +declared to him that till then he had scarcely been aware of the +destructive side of his power. All resentment, therefore, all sense of +offence and suspicion which had lately begun to arise in his mind, was +swallowed up in pity for his afflicted friend. His chief desire, now +that he seemed reduced to the level of suffering humanity, was to give +him help and counsel. + +Thus he entered the Albany, and passed the porter. The lamps in the +flagged passage were little better than luminous shadows in the +darkness, and the hollow silence re-echoed the sound of his hurried +steps. No one was to be seen or heard in front of him. He came to the +letter which marked Julius's abode. He looked into the gloomy doorway, +and resolved he would see and speak to Julius in any case. He passed +into the gloom and knocked at Julius's door. After a pause the door was +opened by Jenkins. Lefevre could not well make out the expression of the +serving-man's face, but he was satisfied that his voice was shaken as by +a recent shock. + +"I wish to see Mr Courtney," said Lefevre, in the half hope that Jenkins +would say, "Which Mr Courtney?" + +"Not at home, sir," said Jenkins in his flurried voice, and prepared to +shut the door. + +"Not at home, Jenkins? You don't mean that!" + +"Oh, it's you, Dr Lefevre, sir. Mr Courtney is not at home, but perhaps +he will see you, sir! I hope he will; for he don't seem to me at all +well." + +"But if he is engaged, Jenkins--?" + +"Oh, sir, you know what 'not-at-home' means," answered Jenkins. "It +means anything or nothing. Will you step into the drawing-room, sir, +while I inquire? Mr Courtney is in his study." + +"Thank you, Jenkins," said the doctor; "I'll wait where I am." + +Jenkins returned with deep concern on his face. "Mr Courtney's +compliments, sir," said he, "and he is very sorry he cannot see you +to-night. It is a pity, sir," he added, in a burst of confidence, "for +he don't seem well. He's a-settin' there with the lamp turned down, and +his face in his hands." + +"Is he alone, then?" asked the doctor. + +"Oh yes, sir," answered Jenkins, in manifest surprise. + +"Has nobody been to see him since he came in?" + +"No, sir, nobody," said Jenkins, in wider surprise than before. + +It appeared to Lefevre that his friend must be sitting alone with the +terrible discovery he had that night made of himself. His heart, +therefore, urged him to go in and take him by the hand, and give what +help and comfort he could. + +"I think," said he to Jenkins, "I'll try and have a word with him." + +"Yes, sir," said Jenkins, and led the way to the study. He tapped at the +door, and then turned the handle; but the door remained closed. + +"Who is there?" asked a weary voice within, which scarce sounded like +the voice of Julius. + +"I--Lefevre," said the doctor, putting Jenkins aside. "May not I come +in? I want a friendly word with you." + +"Forgive me, Lefevre," said the voice, "that I do not let you in. I am +very busy at present." + +"You are alone," said Lefevre, "are you not?" + +"Alone," said Julius; "yes, all alone!" There was a melting note of +sadness in the words which went to the doctor's heart. + +"My dear Julius," said he, "I think I know what's troubling you. Don't +you think a talk with me might help you?" + +"You are very good, Lefevre." (That was an unusual form of speech to +come from Julius.) "I shall come to your house in a few minutes, if you +will allow me." + +"Do," answered Lefevre, for the moment completely satisfied. "Do!" And +he turned away. + +But when Jenkins had closed the outer door upon him, doubts arose. Ought +he not to have insisted on seeing whether Julius was in truth alone in +the study? And why could they not have had their talk there as well as +in Savile Row? These doubts, however, he thrust down with the promise to +himself that, if Julius did not come to him within half an hour, he +would return to him. Yet he had not gone many steps before an unworthy +suspicion shot up and arrested him: Suppose Julius had got rid of him to +have the opportunity of sending a mysterious companion away unseen? But +Jenkins had said he had let no one in, and it was shameful to suspect +both master and man of lying. Yet Lady Mary Fane had distinctly +recognised the man who passed into the Albany courtyard: had he merely +passed through on his unceasing pursuit of something unknown? or were +father and son somehow aware of each other? Between this and that his +mind became a jumble of the wildest conjectures. He imagined many +things, but never conceived that which soon showed itself to be the +fact. + + + + +Chapter IX. + +An Apparition and a Confession. + + +He let himself in with his latch-key, went into his dining-room, and sat +down dressed as he was to wait. He listened through minute after minute +for the expected step. The window was open (for the midsummer night was +warm), and all the sounds of belated and revelling London floated +vaguely in the air. Twelve o'clock boomed softly from Westminster, and +made the heavy atmosphere drowsily vibrate with the volume of the +strokes. The reverberation of the last had scarcely died away when a +light, measured footfall made him sit up. It came nearer and nearer, and +then, after a moment's hesitation, sounded on his own doorstep. With +that there came the tap of a cane on the window. With thought and +expectation resolutely suspended, Lefevre swung out of the room and to +the hall-door. He opened it, and stood and gazed. The light of the +hall-lamp fell upon a figure, the sight of which sent the blood in a +gush to his heart, and pierced him with horror. He expected Julius, and +he looked on the man whom he had followed on the crowded pavements some +weeks before,--the man whom the police had long sought for +ineffectually! + +"Won't you let me in, Lefevre?" said the man. + +The doctor stood speechless, with his eyes fixed: the face and dress of +the person before him were those of Hernando Courtney, but the voice was +the voice of Julius, though it sounded strange and distant, and bore an +accent as of death. Lefevre was involved in a wild turmoil and horror of +surmise, too appalling to be exactly stated to himself; for he shrank +with all his energy from the conclusion to which he was being forced. He +turned, however, upon the request for admission, and led the way into +the dining-room, letting his visitor close the door and follow. + +"Lefevre," said the strange voice, "I have come to show myself to you, +because I know you are a true-hearted friend, and because I think you +have that exquisite charity that can forgive all things." + +"_Show myself!_" ... As Lefevre listened to the strange voice and looked +at the strange person, the suspicion came upon him--What if he were but +regarding an Illusion? He had read in some of his mystical and magical +writers, that men gifted with certain powers could project to a distance +eidola or phantasms of varying likeness to themselves: might not this be +such a mocking phantasm of Julius? He drew his hand across his eyes, and +looked again: the figure still sat there. He put out his hand to test +its substantiality, and the voice cried in a keen pitch of terror-- + +"Don't touch me!--for your own sake!... Why, Lefevre, do you look so +amazed and overcome? Is not my wretched secret written in my face?" + +"And you are really Julius Courtney?" asked Lefevre, at length finding +utterance, with measured emphasis, and in a voice which he hardly +recognised as his own. + +"I am Julius Courtney--" + +He paused, for Lefevre had put his head in his hands, shaken with a +silent paroxysm of grief. It wrung the doctor's heart, as if in the +person that sat opposite him, all that was noblest and most gracious in +humanity were disgraced and overthrown. + +"Yes," continued the voice, "I am Julius; there is no other Courtney +that I know of, and soon there will be none at all." The doctor +listened, but he could not endure to look again. "I am dying--I have +been dying for a dozen years, and for a dozen years I have resisted and +overcome death; now I surrender. I have come to my period. I shall never +enter your house again. I have only come now to confess myself, and to +ask a last favour of you--a last token of friendship." + +"I will freely do what I can for you, Julius," said the doctor, still +without looking at him, "though I am too overcome, too bewildered, yet +to say much to you." + +"Thank you. You will hear my story and understand. It contains a secret +which I, like a blind fool, have only used for myself, but which you +will apply for the wide benefit of mankind. The request I have to make +of you is small, but it may seem extraordinary,--be my companion for +twelve hours. I cannot talk to you here, enclosed and oppressed with +streets of houses. Come with me for a few hours on the water; I have a +fancy to see the sun rise for the last time over the sea. I have my +yacht ready near London Bridge, and a boat waiting at the steps by +Cleopatra's Needle; a cab will soon take us there. Will you come?" + +Lefevre did not look up. The voice of Julius sounded like an appeal from +the very abode of death. Then he glanced in spite of himself in his +face, and was moved and melted to unreserved compassion by the strained +weariness of his expression--the open, luminous wistfulness of his eyes. + +"Yes; I'll go," said he. "But can't I do something for you first? Let me +consider your case." + +"There's nothing now to be done for me, Lefevre," said Julius, shaking +his head. "You will perceive that when you have heard me out." + +The doctor went to find his man and tell him that he was going out for +the night to attend on an urgent case. When he returned he stood a +moment touched with misgiving. He thought of Lady Mary--he thought of +his mother and sister. Ought he not to leave some hint behind him of the +strange adventure upon which he was about to embark, and which might end +he knew not how or where? Julius was observing him, and seemed to divine +his doubt. + +"You need have no hesitation," said he. "I ask you only for twelve +hours. You can easily get back here by noon to-morrow. There is a +south-west wind blowing, with every prospect of settled weather. I am +quite certain about it." + +Fortified with that assurance, Lefevre put on a thicker overcoat and an +old soft hat, turned out the lights in the dining-room and in the hall, +closed the door with a slam, and stood with the new, the strange Julius +in the street, fairly embarked upon his adventure. It was only with an +effort that he could realise he was in the company of one who had been a +familiar friend. They walked towards Regent Street without speaking. At +the corner of Savile Row they came upon a policeman, and Lefevre had a +sudden thrill of fear lest his companion should, at length, be +recognised and arrested. Courtney himself, however, appeared in no wise +disturbed. In Regent Street he hailed a passing four-wheeler. + +"Wouldn't a hansom be quicker?" said Lefevre. + +"It is better on your account," said Julius, "that we should sit apart." + +When they entered the cab, Courtney ensconced himself in the remote +corner of the other seat from Lefevre; and thus without another word +they drove to the Embankment. At the foot of the steps by Cleopatra's +Needle, they found a waterman and a boat in waiting. They entered the +boat, Lefevre going forward while Julius sat down at the tiller. The +waterman pulled out. The tide was ebbing, and they slipped swiftly down +the dark river, with broken reflections of lamps and lanterns on either +bank streaming deep into the water like molten gold as they passed, and +with tall buildings and chimney-shafts showing black against the calm +night sky. Lefevre found it necessary at intervals to assure himself +that he was not drifting in a dream, or that the ghastly, burning-eyed +figure, wrapped in a dark cloak in the stern, was not a strange visitor +from the nether world. + +Soon after they had shot through London Bridge they were alongside a +yacht almost in mid-stream. It was clear that all had been prearranged +for Julius's arrival; for as soon as they were on board, the yacht +(loosed from her upper mooring by the waterman who had brought them down +the river) began to stand away. + +"We had better go forward," said Courtney. "Are you warm enough?" + +The doctor answered that he was. Courtney gave an order to one of the +men, who went below and returned with a fur-lined coat which his master +put on. That little incident gave a curious shock to Lefevre: it made +him think of the mysterious stranger who had sat down opposite the young +officer in the Brighton train, and it showed him that he had not been +completely satisfied that his friend Julius and the person he had been +wont to think of as Hernando Courtney were one and the same. + +They went forward to be free of the sail and its tackling. Courtney, +wrapped in his extra, his fur-lined coat, pointing to a low +folding-chair for Lefevre, threw himself on a heap of cordage. He looked +around and above him, at the rippling, flashing water and the black +hulls of ships, and at the serene, starlit heavens stretching over all. + +"How wonderful!--how beautiful it all is!" he exclaimed. "All, +all!--even the dullest and deadest-seeming things are vibrating, +palpitating with the very madness of life! He set the world in my heart, +and oh, how I loved!--how I loved the world!" + +"It is a wonderful world," said Lefevre, trying to speak cheerfully; +"and you will take delight in it again when this abnormal fit of +depression is over." + +"Never, Lefevre!--never, never!" said Courtney in strenuous tones. "I +regret it deeply, bitterly, madly,--but yet I know that I have about +done with it!" + +"Julius," said Lefevre, "I have been so amazed and bewildered, that I +have found little to say: I can scarcely believe that you are in very +deed the Julius I have known for years. But now let me remind you I am +your friend--" + +"Thank you, Lefevre." + +"--And I am ready to help you to the uttermost in this crisis, which I +but dimly understand. Tell me about yourself, and let me see what I can +do." + +"You can do nothing," said Julius, sadly shaking his head. "Understand +me; I am not going to state a case for diagnosis. Put that idea aside; I +merely wish to confess myself to my friend." + +"But surely," said Lefevre, "I may be your physician as well as your +friend. As long as you have life there is hope of life." + +"No, no, no, Lefevre! There is a depth of life--life on the lees--that +is worse than death! If I could retrace my steps to the beginning of +this, taking my knowledge with me, then--! But no, I must go my +appointed way, and face what is beyond.... But let me tell you my story. + +"You have heard something of my parentage from Dr Rippon, I believe. My +father was Spanish, and my mother was English. I think I was born +without that sense of responsibility to a traditional or conventional +standard which is called Conscience, and that sense of obligation to +consider others as important as myself, which, I believe, they call +Altruism. I do not know whether the lack of these senses had been +manifest in my mother's family, but I am sure it had been in my +father's. For generations it had been a law unto itself; none of its +members had known any duty but the fulfilment of his desires; and I +believe even that kind of outward conscience called Honour had scarcely +existed for some of them. I had from my earliest recollection the nature +of these ancestors: they, though dead, desired, acted, lived in +me,--with something of a difference, due to I know not what. Let me try +to state the fact as it appears to me looking back: I was for myself the +one consciousness, the one person in the world, all else--trees, beasts, +men and women, and what not--being the medium in which, and on which, I +lived. I conceived of nothing around me but as existing to please, to +amuse, to delight me, and if anything showed itself contrary to these +ends, I simply avoided it. What I wished to do I did; what I wished to +have I had;--and nothing else. I do not suppose that in these points I +was different from most other children of wealthy parents. Where I +differed, I believe, was in having a peculiarly sensitive, and at the +same time admirably healthy, constitution of body, which induced a +remarkable development of desire and gratification. I can hardly make +you understand, I am sure I cannot make you feel--I myself cannot feel, +I can only remember--what a bright natural creature I was when I was +young." + +"Don't I remember well," said Lefevre, "what you were like when I first +met you in Paris?" + +"Ah," said Julius, "the change had begun then,--the change that has +brought me to this. I contemplate myself as I was before that with +bitter envy and regret. I was as a being sprung fresh from the womb of +primitive Nature. I delighted in Nature as a child delights in its +mother, and I throve on my delight as a child thrives. I refused to go +to school--and indeed little pressure was put upon me--to be drilled in +the paces and hypocrisy of civilised mankind. I ran wild about the +country; I became proficient in all bodily exercises; I fenced and +wrestled and boxed; I leaped and swam; I rowed for days alone in a +skiff; I associated with simple peasants, and with all kinds of animals; +I delighted in air and water, and grass and trees: to me they were as +much alive as beasts are. Oh, what an exquisite, abounding, unclouded +pleasure life was! When I was hungry I ate; when I was thirsty I drank; +when I was tired I slept; and when I woke I stretched myself like a +giant refreshed. It was a pure joy to me in those days to close my +fingers into a fist and see the beauty and firmness of my muscles. When +solemn, civilised people spoke to me of duty and work, I listened like +an idiot. I had nothing in my consciousness to help me to understand +them. I knew no more of duty than Crusoe on his island; and as for work, +I had no ambition,--why, then, should I work? I read, of course; but I +read because I liked it, not because I had tasks set me. I read +everything that came in my way; and very soon all literature and +science--all good poetry and romance, and all genuine science--came to +mean for me a fine, orderly expression of nature and life. And religion, +too, I felt as the ecstasy of nature. So I fed and flourished on the +milk of life and the bread of life. + +"But a time came when I longed to live deeper, and to get at the pith +and marrow of life. I was over twenty when it was revealed to me in a +noonday splendour and warmth of light, that the human is unspeakably the +highest and most enthralling expression of life in all Nature. That +discovery happened to me when I was in Morocco with my father, who died +there--no matter how--among those whom he liked to believe were his own +people: my mother had died long before. I had considerable wealth at my +command, and I began to live at the height of all my faculties; I lived +in every nerve, and at every pore. + +"And then I began to perceive a reverse to the bounteous beauty and the +overflowing life of Nature,--a threatening quality, a devouring faculty +in her by which she fed the joyous abundance of her life. I saw that all +activity, all the pleasant palpitation and titillation in the life of +Nature and of Man, merely means that one living thing is feeding upon or +is feeding another. I began to perceive that all the interest of life +centres in this alter-devouring principle. I discovered, moreover, this +strange point,--that the joy of life is in direct proportion to the +rapidity with which we lose or surrender life." + +"Yes," said Lefevre, "the giving of pleasure is always more exquisite +and satisfactory than the getting it." + +"I lost life," continued Julius, without noting Lefevre's remark,--"I +lost life,--vital force, nervous ether, electricity, whatever you choose +to call it,--at an enormous rate, but I as quickly replenished my loss. +I had revelled for some time in this deeper life of give and take before +I discovered that this faculty of recuperation also was curiously and +wonderfully active in me. Whenever I fell into a state of weakness, +well-nigh empty of life, I withdrew myself from company, and dwelt for a +little while with the simplest forms of Nature." + +"But," asked Lefevre, "how did you get into such a low condition?" + +"How? _I lived!_" said he with fervour. "_Yes; I lived:_ that was how! I +had always delighted in animals, but then I began to find that when I +caressed them they were not merely tamed, as they had been wont, but +completely subdued; and I felt rapid and full accessions of life from +contact with them. If I lay upon a bank of rich grass or wild flowers, I +had to a slight extent the same revivifying sensation. The fable of +Antæus was fulfilled in me. The constant recurrence and vigour of this +recuperation not only filled me with pride, but also set me thinking. I +turned to medical science to find the secret of it. I entered myself as +a student in Paris: it was then I met you. I read deeply, too, in the +books of the mediæval alchemists and sages of Spain, which my father had +left me. It came upon me in a clear flood of evidence that Nature and +man are one and indivisible, being animated by one identical Energy or +Spirit of Life, however various may be the material forms; and that all +things, all creatures, according to the activity of their life, have the +power of communicating, of giving or taking, this invisible force of +life. It furthermore became clear to me that, though the force resides +in all parts of a body, floating in every corpuscle of blood, yet its +proper channels of circulation and communication are the nerves, so that +as soon as a nerve in any one shape of life touches a nerve in any +other, there is an instant tendency to establish in them a common level +of the Force of Life. If I or you touch a man or woman with a finger, or +clasp their hand, or embrace them more completely, the tendency is at +once set up, and the force seeks to flow, and, according to certain +conditions, does flow, from one to another, evermore seeking to find a +common level,--always, that is, in the direction of the greater need, or +the greater capacity. I saw then that not only had I a greater storage +capacity, so to say, than most men, but also, therefore, when exhaustion +came, I had a more insistent need for replenishment, and a more violent +shrinking at all times from any weak or unhealthy person who might even +by chance contact make a demand on my store of life." + +"And is that your secret?" asked Lefevre. "I have arrived in a different +way at something like the same discovery." + +"I know you have," said Julius. "But my peculiar secret is not that, +though it is connected with it. I am growing very tired," said he, +abruptly. "I must be quick, Lefevre," he continued in a hurried, weak +voice of appeal; "grant me one little last favour to enable me to +finish." + +"Anything I can do I will, Julius," said Lefevre, suddenly roused out of +the half-drowsiness which the soft night induced. He was held between +alarm and fascination by the look which Julius bent on him. + +"I am ashamed to ask, but you are full of life," said Julius: "I am at +the shallowest ebb. Just for one minute help me. Of your free-will +submit yourself to me for but a moment. Will you do me that service?" + +"Yes," said Lefevre, after an instant's hesitation; "certainly I will." + +Julius half rose from his reclining position; he turned on Lefevre his +wonderful eyes, which in the mysterious twilight that suffused the +midsummer night burned with a surprising brilliance. Lefevre felt +himself seized and held in their influence. + +"Give me your hand," said Julius. + +The doctor gave his hand, his eyes being still held by those of Julius, +and instantly, as it seemed to him, he plunged, as a man dives into the +sea, into a gulf of unconsciousness, from which he presently emerged +with something like a gasp and with a tremulous sensation about his +heart. What had happened to him he did not know; but he felt slacker of +fibre, as if virtue had gone out of him, while Julius, when he spoke, +seemed refreshed as by a draught of wine. + +"How are you?" asked Julius. "For heaven's sake don't let me think that +at the last I have troubled much the current of your life! Will you have +something to eat and drink? There's wine and food below." + +"Thank you; no," said Lefevre. "I am well enough, only a little drowsy." + +"I am stronger," said Julius, "but it will not last; so let me finish my +story." + +Then he continued. "Having explained to myself, in the way I have told +you, the ease of my unwitting replenishment of force whenever I was +brought low, I set myself to improve on my discovery. I saw before me a +prospect of enjoyment of all the delights of life, deeper and more +constant than most men ever know,--if I could only ensure to myself with +absolute certainty a still more complete and rapid reinvigoration as +often soever as I sank into exhaustion. I was quite sure that no energy +of life is finer or fuller than the human at its best." + +"Good God!" exclaimed Lefevre, turning away with an involuntary shudder. + +"For heaven's sake!" cried Julius, "don't shrink from me now, or you +will tempt me to be less frank than I have been. I wish to make full +confession. I know, I see now, I have been cruelly, brutally selfish--as +selfish as Nature herself!--none knows that better than I. But remember, +in extenuation, what I have told you of my origin and my growth. And I +had not the suspicion of a thought of injuring any one. Fool! fool! +egregious fool that I was! I who understood most things so clearly did +not guess that no creature, no being in the universe--god, or man, or +beast--can indulge in arrogant, full, magnificent enjoyment without +gathering and living in himself, squandering through himself, the lives +of others, to their eternal loss and his own final ruin! But, as I said, +I did not think, and it was not evident until recently, that I injured +any one. I had for a long time been aware that I had an unusual mesmeric +or magnetic influence--call it what you will--over others. I cultivated +that power in eye and hand, so that I was soon able to take any person +at unawares whom I considered fit for my purpose, and subdue him or her +completely to myself. Then after one or two failures I hit upon a +method, which I perfected at length into entire simplicity, by which I +was able to tap the nervous system and draw into myself as much as ever +I needed of the abounding force of life, without leaving any sign which +even the most skilful doctor could detect." + +"Julius, you sicken me!" exclaimed Lefevre. "I am a doctor, but you +sicken me!" + +"I explain myself so in detail," said Julius, "_because_ you are a +doctor. But let me finish. I lived that life of complete wedlock with +Nature for I dare not think how many years." + +"And you did not get weary of it?" asked Lefevre. + +"Weary of it? No! I returned to it always, after a pause of a few days +for the reinvigoration I needed,--I returned to it with all the +freshness of youth, with the advantage which, of course, mere youth can +never have,--an amazingly rich experience. I revelled in the full lap of +life. I passed through many lands, civilised and barbaric; but it was my +especial delight to strike down to that simple, passionate, essential +nature which lies beneath the thickest lacquer of refinements in our +civilised societies. Oh, what a life it was!--what a life! + +"But a change came: it must have been growing on me for some time +without my knowledge. I commonly removed from society when I felt +exhaustion coming on me; but on one occasion it chanced that I stayed on +in the pleasant company I was in (I was then in Vienna). I did not +exactly feel ill; I felt merely weary and languid, and thought that +presently I would go to bed. Gradually I began to observe that the looks +of my companions were bent strangely on me, and that the expression of +their countenances more and more developed surprise and alarm. 'What is +the matter with you all?' I demanded; when they instantly cried, 'What +is the matter with _you?_ Have you been poisoned?' I rose and went and +looked in a mirror; I saw, with ghastly horror, what I was like, and I +knew then that I was _doomed_. I fled from that company for ever. I saw +that, when the alien life on which I flourished was gone out of me, I +was a worn old man--that the Fire of Life which usually burned in my +body, making me look bright and young, was now none of it my own; a few +hot ashes only were mine, which Death sat cowering by! I could not but +sit and gaze at the reflection of the seared ghastliness of that face, +which was mine and yet not mine, and feel well-nigh sick unto death. +After a while, however, I plucked up heart. I considered that it was +impossible this change had come all at once; I must have looked like +that--or almost like that--once or twice or oftener before, and yet life +and reinvigoration had gone on as they had been wont. I wrapped myself +well up, and went out. I found a fit subject. I replenished my life as +theretofore; my youthful, fresh appearance returned, and my confidence +with it. I refused to look again upon my own, my worn face, from that +time until tonight. + +"But alarm again seized me about a year ago, when I chanced by +calculation to note that my periods of abounding life were gradually +getting shorter,--that I needed reinvigoration at more frequent +intervals;--not that I did not take as much from my subjects as +formerly--on the contrary, I seemed to take more--but that I lost more +rapidly what I took, as if my body were becoming little better than a +fine sieve. The last stage of all was this that you are familiar with, +when my subjects began to be so utterly exhausted as to attract public +notice. Yet that is not what has given me pause, and made me resolve to +bring the whole weary, selfish business to an end. Could I not have gone +elsewhere--anywhere, the wide world over--and lived my life? But I was +kept, I was tethered here, to this London by a feeling I had never known +before. Call it by the common fool's name of Love; call it what you +will. I was fascinated by your sister Nora, even as others had been +fascinated by me, even as I had been in my youth by the bountiful, +gracious beauty of Nature." + +"I have wanted to ask you," said Lefevre, "for an explanation of your +conduct towards Nora. Why did you--with your awful life--life which, as +you say, was not your own, and your extraordinary secret--why did you +remain near her, and entangle her with your fascinations? What did you +desire?--what did you hope for?" + +"I scarcely know for what I hoped. But let me speak of her; for she has +traversed and completely eclipsed my former vision of Nature. I have +told you what my point of view was,--alone in the midst of Nature. I was +for myself the only consciousness in the world, and all the world +besides was merely a variety of material and impression, to be observed +and known, to be interested in and delighted with. I was thus lonely, +lonely as a despot, when Nora, your sister, appeared to me, and +instantly I became aware there was another consciousness in the world as +great as, or greater than, my own,--another person than myself, a person +of supreme beauty and intelligence and faculty. She became to me all +that Nature had been, and more. She expressed for me all that I had +sought to find diffused through Nature, and at the same time she stood +forth to me as an equal of my own kind, with as great a capacity for +life. At first I had a vision of our living and reigning together, so to +say, though the word may seem to you absurd; but I soon discovered that +there was a gulf fixed between us,--the gulf of the life I had lived; +she stood pure where I had stood a dozen years ago. So, gradually, she +subverted my whole scheme of life; more and more, without knowing it, +she made me see and judge myself with her eyes, till I felt altogether +abased before her. But that which finally stripped the veil from me, and +showed me myself as the hateful incarnation of relentlessly devouring +Self, was my influence upon her, which culminated in the event of last +night. Can you conceive how I was smitten and pierced with horror by the +discovery that rose on me like a nightmare, that even on her sweet, +pure, sumptuous life, I had unwittingly begun to prey? For that +discovery flung wide the door of the future and showed me what I would +become. + +"Beautiful, calm, divine Nora! If I could but have continued near her +without touching her, to delight in the thought and the sight of her, as +one delights in the wind and the sunshine! But it could not be. I could +only appear fit company for her if I refreshed and strengthened myself +as I had been wont; but my new disgust of myself, and pity for my +victims, made me shudder at the thought. What then? Here I am, and the +time has come (as that old doctor said it would) when death appears more +beautiful and friendly and desirable than life. Forgive me, +Lefevre--forgive me on Nora's part,--and forgive me in the name of human +nature." + +Lefevre could not reply for the moment. He sat convulsed with +heartrending sobs. He put out his hand to Julius. + +"No, no!" exclaimed Julius, "I must not take your hand. You know I must +not." + +"Take my hand," cried Lefevre. "I know what it means. Take my life! +Leave me but enough to recover. I give it you freely, for I wish you to +live. You shall not die. By heaven! you shall not die. O Julius, Julius! +why did you not tell me this long ago? Science has resource enough to +deliver you from your mistake." + +"Lefevre," said Julius,--and his eyes sparkled with tears and his +weakening voice was choked,--"your friendship moves me deeply--to the +soul. But science can do nothing for me: science has not yet sufficient +knowledge of the principle on which I lived. Would you have me, then, +live on,--passing to and fro among mankind merely as a blight, taking +the energy of life, even from whomsoever I would not? No, I must die! +Death is best!" + +"I will not let you die," said Lefevre, rising to take a pace or two on +the deck. "You shall come home with me. I shall feed your life--there +are dozens besides myself who will be glad to assist--till you are +healed of the devouring demon you have raised within you." + +"No, no, no, my dear friend!" cried Julius. "I have steadily sinned +against the most vital law of life." + +"Julius," said Lefevre, standing over him, "my friendship, my love for +you may blind me to the enormity of your sin, but I can find it in me to +say, in the name of humanity, 'I forgive you all! Now, rise up and live +anew! Your intelligence, your soul is too rare and admirable to be +snuffed out like a guttering candle!'" + +"Lefevre," said Julius, "you are a perfect friend! But your knowledge of +this secret force of Nature, which we have both studied, is not so great +as mine. Let me tell you, then, that this mystical saying, which I once +scoffed at, is the profoundest truth:-- + + "'Who loveth life shall lose it all; + Who seeketh life shall surely fall!' + +"There is no remedy for me but death, which (who knows?) may be the +mother of new life!" + +"It would have been better for you," said Lefevre, sitting down again +with his head in his hands, "better--if you had never seen Nora." + +"Nay, nay," cried Julius, sitting up, animate with a fresh impulse of +life. "Better for her, dear, beautiful soul, but not for me! I have +truly lived only since I saw her, and I have the joy of feeling that I +have beheld and known Nature's sole and perfect chrysolite. But I must +be quick, my friend; the dawn will soon be upon us. There is but one +other thing for me to speak of--my method of taking to myself the force +of life. It is my secret; it is perfectly adapted for professional use, +and I wish to give it to you, because you are wise enough in mind, and +great enough of soul, to use it for the benefit of mankind." + +"I will not hear you, Julius!" exclaimed Lefevre. "I am neither wise nor +great. Your perfect secret would be too much for me. I might be tempted +to keep it for my own use. Come home with me, and apply it well +yourself." + +Julius was silent for a space, murmuring only, "I have no time for +argument." Then his face assumed the white sickness of death, and his +dark eyes seemed to grow larger and to burn with a concentrated fire. + +"Lefevre!" he panted in amazement, "do you know that you are refusing +such a medical and spiritual secret as the world has not known for +thousands of years? A secret that would enable you--_you_--to work cures +more wonderful than any that are told of the greatest Eastern +Thaumaturge?" + +"I have discovered a method," answered the doctor,--"an imperfect, +clumsy method--for myself, of transmitting nervous force or ether for +curative purposes. That, for the present, must be enough for me. I +cannot hear your secret, Julius." + +"Lefevre, I beg of you," pleaded Julius, "take it from me. I have +promised myself, as a last satisfaction, that the secret I have +guarded--it is not altogether mine: it is an old oriental secret--that +now I would hand it over to you for the good of mankind, that at the +last I might say to myself, 'I have, after all, opened my hand liberally +to my fellow-men!' For pity's sake, Lefevre, don't deny me that small +final satisfaction!" + +"Julius," said Lefevre, firmly, "if your method is so perfect--as I +believe it must be from what I have seen--I dare not lay on myself the +responsibility of possessing its secret." + +"Would not my example keep you from using it selfishly?" + +"Does the experience of another," demanded the doctor, "however untoward +it may be, ever keep a man from making his own? I dare not--I dare not +trust myself to hold your perfect secret." + +"Then share it with others," responded Julius, promptly; "and I daresay +it is not so perfect, but that it could be made more perfect still." + +"I'll have nothing to do with it, Julius; you must keep and use it +yourself." + +"Then," cried Julius, throwing himself on his bed of cordage, "then +there will be, indeed, an end of me!" + +There was no sound for a time, but the soft rush of the sea at the bows +of the yacht. They had left the Thames water some distance behind, and +were then in that part of the estuary where it is just possible in +mid-channel to descry either coast. The glorious rose of dawn was just +beginning to flame in the eastern sky. Lefevre looked about him, and +strove to shake off the sensation, which would cling to him, that he was +involved in a strange dream. There lay Julius or Hernando Courtney +before him; or at least the figure of a man with his face hid in his +hands. What more could be said or done? + +In the meantime light was swiftly rushing up the sky and waking all +things to life. A flock of seagulls came from the depth of the night and +wheeled about the yacht, their shrill screams strangely softened in the +morning air. At the sound of them Julius roused himself, and raised +himself on his elbow to watch their beautiful evolutions. As he watched, +one and another swooped gracefully to the water, and hanging there an +instant, rose with a fish and flew away. Julius flung himself again on +his face. + +"O God!" he cried. "Is it not horrible? Even on such a beautiful day as +this death wakes as early as life! Devouring death is ushered in by the +dawn, hand in hand with generous life! Awful, devilish Nature! that +makes all creatures full of beauty and delight, and then condemns them +to live upon each other! Nature is the sphinx: she appears soft and +gentle and more lovely than heart can bear, but if you look closer, you +see she is a creature with claws and teeth that rend and devour! I +thought, fool that I was! that I had found the secret to solve her +riddle! But it was an empty hope, a vain imagination.... Yet, I have +lived! Yes, I have lived!" + +He rose and stood erect, facing the dawn, with his back to Lefevre. He +stood thus for some time, with one foot on the low bulwark of the +vessel, till the sun leaped above the horizon and flamed with blinding +brilliance across the sea. + +"Ah!" he murmured. "The superb, the glorious sun! Unwearied lord of +Creation! Generous giver of all light and life! And yet, who knows what +worlds he may not have drawn into his flaming self, and consumed during +the æons of his existence? It is ever and everywhere the same: death in +company with life! And swift, strong death is better than slow, weak +life!... Almost the splendour and inspiration of his rising tempt me to +stay! Great nourisher and renewer of life's heat!" + +He put off his fur coat, and let it fall on the deck, and stood for a +while as if wrapt in ecstasy. Then, before Lefevre could conceive his +intention, his feet were together on the bulwark, and with a flash and a +plunge he was gone! + +Amazement held the doctor's energies congealed, though but for an +instant or two. Then he threw off hat and coat, and stood alert and +resolute to dive to Julius's rescue when he rose, while those who manned +the yacht prepared to cast a buoy and line. Not a ripple or flash of +water passed unheeded; the flood of sunshine rose fuller and fuller over +the world; moments grew to minutes, and minutes swelled to hopeless +hours under the doctor's weary eyes, till it seemed to them as if the +universe were only a swirling, greedy ocean;--but no sign appeared of +his night's companion: his life was quenched in the depths of the +restless waters, as a flaming meteor is quenched in night. At length +Lefevre ordered the yacht to stand away to the shore, his heart torn +with grief and self-upbraiding. He had called Courtney his friend, and +yet until that last he had never won his inner confidence; and now he +knew that his friend--he of the gentle heart, the peerless intelligence, +and the wildly erring life--was dead in the hour of self-redemption. + +When he had landed, however, given to the proper authorities such +information as was necessary, and set off by train on his return to +town, the agitation of his grief began to assuage; and when next day, +upon the publication in the papers of the news of Courtney's death by +drowning, a solicitor called in Savile Row with a will which he had +drawn up two days before, and by which all Julius Courtney's property +was left to Dr Lefevre, to dispose of as he thought best, "for +scientific and humane ends," the doctor admitted to his reason that a +death that could thus calmly be prepared was not lightly to be +questioned. + +"He must have known best," he said to himself, as he bowed over his +hands--"he must have known best when to put off the poisoned garment of +life he had woven for himself." + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MASTER OF HIS FATE*** + + +******* This file should be named 13931-8.txt or 13931-8.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/3/9/3/13931 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Mclaren Cobban</title> +<style type='text/css'> +<!-- +* {max-width: 35em;} +p {text-align: justify;} +h2 {margin-top: 3em; text-align: center;} +.author, .argument {font-weight: bold;} +p.argument {margin-bottom: 2em; text-align: center;} +.toc {text-align: left;} +.toc td, .toc th {padding-right: 1em;} +.all-caps {text-transform: uppercase;} +.small-caps {font-variant: small-caps;} +div.line {text-indent: 4em;} + hr.full { width: 100%; + height: 5px; } + a:link {color:#0000ff; + text-decoration:none} + link {color:#0000ff; + text-decoration:none} + a:visited {color:#0000ff; + text-decoration:none} + a:hover {color:#ff0000} + pre {font-size: 8pt;} +--> +</style> +</head> +<body> +<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, Master of His Fate, by J. Mclaren Cobban</h1> +<pre> +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at <a href = "https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre> +<p>Title: Master of His Fate</p> +<p>Author: J. Mclaren Cobban</p> +<p>Release Date: November 3, 2004 [eBook #13931]</p> +<p>[Date last updated: January 9, 2005]</p> +<p>Language: English</p> +<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p> +<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MASTER OF HIS FATE***</p> +<br><br><center><h3>E-text prepared by Suzanne Shell, Branko Collin,<br> + and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team</h3></center><br><br> +<hr class="full" noshade> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<a name='001.png' id='p001.png'></a><a name='002.png' id= +'p002.png'></a> + +<center> +<h1>Master of his Fate</h1> + +<h4>by</h4> + +<h3>J. Maclaren Cobban</h3> + +<h4>1890</h4> +</center> +<a name='003.png' id='p003.png'></a><a name='004.png' id= +'p004.png'></a> + +<h2>Contents.</h2> + +<center> +<table class='toc' cellpadding='2' cellspacing='0' border='0' +summary='[Table of contents]'> +<tr> +<th>Chap.</th> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><a href='#julius'>I. Julius Courtney</a>,</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><a href='#case'>II. A Mysterious Case</a>,</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><a href='#dolaro'>III. "M. Dolaro</a>,"</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><a href='#man'>IV. The Man of the Crowd</a>,</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><a href='#fane'>V. The Remarkable Case of Lady Mary +Fane</a>,</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><a href='#bedside'>VI. At The Bedside of the Doctor</a>,</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><a href='#interlude'>VII. Contains a Love Interlude</a>,</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><a href='#curzon'>VIII. Strange Scenes in Curzon +Street</a>,</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><a href='#apparition'>IX. An Apparition And a +Confession</a>,</td> +</tr> +</table> +</center> + +<a name='005.png' id='p005.png'></a> + +<blockquote style='font-style: italic; margin-top: 3em;'> +<p>To <span class='all-caps'>Z. Mennell</span>, Esq.</p> + +<p class='small-caps'>My dear Mennell,</p> + +<p><span class='small-caps'>It</span> has been my fortune to see +something of the practice of the art of healing under widely +different conditions, and I know none who better represents the +most humane and most exacting of all professions than yourself. The +good doctor of this story—the born surgeon and healer, the +ever young and alert, the self-forgetful, the faithful friend, +gifted with "that exquisite charity which can forgive all +things"—is studied from you.</p> + +<p>It is one of the greatest pleasures of my life to inscribe your +name on this dedicatory page, and to subscribe myself,</p> + +<p>Your sincere friend and grateful patient,</p> + +<p class='small-caps' style='text-align: right;'>J. Maclaren +Cobban.</p> + +<p><span class='small-caps'>London</span>, November 1889.</p> +</blockquote> + +<a name='006.png' id='p006.png'></a> + +<h2 id='julius'>Chapter I.</h2> + +<p class='argument'>Julius Courtney.</p> + +<p><span class='small-caps'>The</span> Hyacinth Club has the +reputation of selecting its members from among the freshest and +most active spirits in literature, science, and art. That is in a +sense true, but activity in one or another of those fields is not a +condition of membership; for, just as the listening Boswell was the +necessary complement of the talking Johnson, so in the Hyacinth +Club there is an indispensable contingent of <a name='007.png' id= +'p007.png'></a> passive members who find their liveliest +satisfaction in hearing and looking on, rather than in speaking and +doing. Something of the home principle of male and female is +necessary for the completeness even of a club.</p> + +<p>The Hyacinth Club-house looks upon Piccadilly and the Green +Park. The favourite place of concourse of its members is the +magnificent smoking-room on the first floor, the bow-windows of +which command a view up and down the fashionable thoroughfare, and +over the trees and the undulating sward of the Park to the gates of +Buckingham Palace. On a Monday afternoon in the beginning of May, +the bow-windows were open, and several men sat in leather lounges +(while one leaned against a window-sash), luxuriously smoking, and +noting the warm, palpitating life <a name='008.png' id='p008.png'> +</a> of the world without. A storm which had been silently and +doubtfully glooming and gathering the night before had burst and +poured in the morning, and it was such a spring afternoon as +thrills the heart with new life and suffuses the soul with +expectation—such an afternoon as makes all women appear +beautiful and all men handsome. The south-west wind blew soft and +balmy, and all nature rejoiced as the bride in the presence of the +bridegroom. The trees in the Park were full of sap, and their lusty +buds were eagerly opening to the air and the light. The robin sang +with a note almost as rich and sensuous as that of the thrush; and +the shrill and restless sparrows chirped and chattered about the +houses and among the horses' feet, and were as full of the joy of +life as the men and women who <a name='009.png' id='p009.png'></a> +thronged the pavements or reclined in their carriages in the +sumptuous ease of wealth and beauty.</p> + +<p>Of the men who languidly gazed upon the gay and splendid scene +from the windows of the Club, none seemed so interested as the man +who leaned against the window-frame. He appeared more than +interested—absorbed, indeed—in the world without, and +he looked bright and handsome enough, and charged enough with +buoyant health, to be the ideal bridegroom of Nature in her +springtide.</p> + +<p>He was a dark man, tall and well built, with clear brown eyes. +His black hair (which was not cropped short, as is the fashion) had +a lustrous softness, and at the same time an elastic bushiness, +which nothing but the finest-tempered health can give; and his +complexion, though tanned <a name='010.png' id='p010.png'></a> by +exposure, had yet much of the smoothness of youth, save where the +razor had passed upon his beard. Thus seen, a little way off, he +appeared a young man in his rosy twenties; on closer view and +acquaintance, however, that superficial impression was contradicted +by the set expression of his mouth and the calm observation and +understanding of his eye, which spoke of ripe experience rather +than of green hope. He bore a very good English +name—Courtney; and he was believed to be rich. There was no +member of whom the Hyacinth Club was prouder than of him: though he +had done nothing, it was commonly believed he could do anything he +chose. No other was listened to with such attention, and there was +nothing on which he could not throw a fresh and fascinating light. +He <a name='011.png' id='p011.png'></a> was a constant spring of +surprise and interest. While others were striving after income and +reputation, he calmly and modestly, without obtrusion or +upbraiding, held on his own way, with unsurpassable curiosity, to +the discovery of all which life might have to reveal. It was this, +perhaps, as much as the charm of his manner and conversation, that +made him so universal a favourite; for how could envy or malice +touch a man who competed at no point with his fellows?</p> + +<p>His immediate neighbours, as he thus stood by the window, were a +pair of journalists, several scientific men, and an artist.</p> + +<p>"Have you seen any of the picture-shows, Julius?" asked the +painter, Kew.</p> + +<p>Courtney slowly abstracted his gaze from without, and turned on +his shoulder with the lazy, languid grace of a cat.<a name= +'012.png' id='p012.png'></a></p> + +<p>"No," said he, in a half-absent tone; "I have just come up, and +I've not thought of looking into picture-galleries yet."</p> + +<p>"Been in the country?" asked Kew.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I've been in the country," said Courtney, still as if his +attention was elsewhere.</p> + +<p>"It must be looking lovely," said Kew.</p> + +<p>"It is—exquisite!" said Courtney, waking up at length to a +full glow of interest. "That's why I don't want to go and stare at +pictures. In the spring, to see the fresh, virginal, delicious +green of a bush against an old dry brick wall, gives a keener +pleasure than the best picture that ever was painted."</p> + +<p>"I thought," said Kew, "you had a taste for Art; I thought you +enjoyed it."</p> + +<p>"So I do, my dear fellow, but not now,—not <a name= +'013.png' id='p013.png'></a> at this particular present. When I +feel the warm sun on my back and breathe the soft air, I want no +more; they are more than Art can give—they are Nature, and, +of course, it goes without saying that Art can never compete with +Nature in creating human pleasure. I mean no disparagement of your +work, Kew, or any artist's work; but I can't endure Art except in +winter, when everything (almost) must be artificial to be +endurable. A winter may come in one's life—I wonder if it +will?—when one would rather look at the picture of a woman +than at the woman herself. Meantime I no more need pictures than I +need fires; I warm both hands and heart at the fire of life."</p> + +<p>"Ah!" said Kew, with a wistful lack of comprehension.</p> + +<p>"That's why I believe," said Courtney, <a name='014.png' id= +'p014.png'></a> with a sudden turn of reflection, "there is in warm +countries no Art of our small domestic kind."</p> + +<p>"Just so," said Kew; while Dingley Dell, the Art critic, made a +note of Courtney's words.</p> + +<p>"Look here!" exclaimed Dr. Embro, an old scientific man of +Scottish extraction, who, in impatience with such transcendental +talk, had taken up 'The St. James's Gazette.' "What do you make of +this queer case at the Hôtel-Dieu in Paris? I see it's taken +from 'The Daily Telegraph;'" and he began to read it.</p> + +<p>"Oh," said Kew, "we all read that this morning."</p> + +<p>"Dr. Embro," said Courtney, again looking idly out of window, +"is like a French journal: full of the news of the day before +yesterday."<a name='015.png' id='p015.png'></a></p> + +<p>"Have you read it yourself, Julius?" asked Embro, amid the +laughter of his neighbours.</p> + +<p>"No," said Julius carelessly; "and if it's a hospital case I +don't want to read it."</p> + +<p>"What!" said Embro, with heavy irony. "You say that? You, a +pupil of the great Dubois and the greater Charbon! But here comes a +greater than Charbon—the celebrated Dr. Lefevre himself. Come +now, Lefevre, you tell us what you think of this Paris hospital +case."</p> + +<p>"Presently, Embro," said Lefevre, who had just perceived his +friend Courtney. "Ha, Julius!" said he, crossing to him and taking +his hand; "you're looking uncommonly well."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Julius, "I am well."</p> + +<p>"And where have you been all this while?" asked the doctor.<a +name='016.png' id='p016.png'></a></p> + +<p>"Oh," said Julius, turning his gaze again out of window, "I have +been rambling everywhere, between Dan and Beersheba."</p> + +<p>"And all is vanity, eh?" said the doctor.</p> + +<p>"Well," said Julius, looking at him, "that depends—that +very much depends. But can there be any question of vanity or +vexation in this sweet, glorious sunshine?" and he stretched out +his hands as if he burgeoned forth to welcome it.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps not," said Lefevre. "Come and sit down and let us +talk."</p> + +<p>They were retiring from the window when Embro's voice again +sounded at Lefevre's elbow—"Come now, Lefevre; what's the +meaning of that Paris case?"</p> + +<p>"What Paris case?"<a name='017.png' id='p017.png'></a></p> + +<p>Embro answered by handing him the paper. He took it, and read as +follows:—</p> + +<blockquote> +<p>"About a month ago a strange case of complete mental collapse +was received into the Hôtel-Dieu. A fresh healthy girl, of +the working class, about twenty years of age, and comfortably +dressed, presented herself at a police-station near the +Odéon and asked for shelter. As she did not appear to be in +full possession of her mental faculties, she was sent to the +Hôtel-Dieu, where she remained in a semi-comatose condition. +Her memory did not go farther back than the hour of her application +at the police-station. She was entirely ignorant of her previous +history, and had even forgotten her name. The minds of the medical +staff of the Hôtel-Dieu were very much exercised with her +condition; but it was not till about a week ago that they succeeded +in restoring to any extent her mental consciousness and her memory. +She then remembered the events immediately preceding her +application to the police. It had come on to rain, she said, and +she was hurrying along to escape from it, when a gentleman in a +cloak came to her side and politely offered to give her the shelter +of his umbrella. She accepted; the gentleman seemed old and ill. He +asked her to take his arm. She did so, and very soon she felt as if +her strength had gone from her; a cold shiver <a name='018.png' id= +'p018.png'></a> crept over her; she trembled and tottered; but with +all that she did not find her sensations disagreeable exactly or +alarming; so little so, indeed, that she never thought of letting +go the gentleman's arm. Her head buzzed, and a kind of darkness +came over her. Then all seemed to clear, and she found herself +alone near the police-station, remembering nothing. Being asked to +further describe the gentleman, she said he was tall and dark, with +a pleasant voice and wonderful eyes, that made you feel you must do +whatever he wished. The police have made inquiries, but after such +a lapse of time it is not surprising that no trace of him can be +found."</p> +</blockquote> + +<p>"Well?" asked Embro, when Lefevre had raised his eyes from the +paper. "What do you think of it?"</p> + +<p>"Curious," said Lefevre. "I can't say more, since I know nothing +of it but this. Have you read it, Julius?"</p> + +<p>"No," said Julius; "I hate what people call news; and when I +take up a paper, it's only to look at the Weather Forecasts." +Lefevre handed him the paper, <a name='019.png' id='p019.png'></a> +which he took with an unconcealed look of repulsion. "If it's some +case of disease," said he, "it will make me ill."</p> + +<p>"Oh no," said Lefevre; "it's not painful, but it's curious;" and +so Julius set himself to read it.</p> + +<p>"But come," said Embro, posing the question with his forefinger; +"do you believe that story, Lefevre?"</p> + +<p>"Though it's French, and from the 'Telegraph,'" said Lefevre, "I +see no reason to disbelieve it."</p> + +<p>"Come," said Embro, "come—you're shirking the +question."</p> + +<p>"I confess," said Lefevre, "I've no desire to discuss it. You +think me prejudiced in favour of anything of the kind; perhaps I +think you prejudiced against it: where, then, is the good of +discussion?"<a name='020.png' id='p020.png'></a></p> + +<p>"Well, now," said the unabashed Embro, "I'll tell you what I +think. Here's a story"—Julius at that instant handed back the +paper to him—"of a healthy young woman mesmerised, +hypnotised, or somnambulised, or whatever you like to call it, in +the public street, by some man that casually comes up to her, and +her brain so affected that her memory goes! I say it's +inconceivable!—impossible!" And he slapped the paper down on +the table.</p> + +<p>The others looked on with grim satisfaction at the prospect of +an argument between the two representatives of rival schools; and +it was noteworthy that, as they looked, they turned a referring +glance on Courtney, as if it were a foregone conclusion that he +must be the final arbiter. He, however, sat abstracted, with <a +name='021.png' id='p021.png'></a> his eyes on the floor, and with +one hand propping his chin and the other drumming on the arm of his +chair.</p> + +<p>"I'm not a scientific man," said the journalist who was not an +Art critic, "and I am not prejudiced either way about this story; +but it seems to me, Embro, that you view the thing through a very +ordinary fallacy, and make a double mistake. You confound the +relatively inconceivable with the absolutely impossible: this story +is relatively inconceivable to you, and therefore you say it is +absolutely impossible."</p> + +<p>"Is there such a thing as an absolute impossibility?" murmured +Julius, who still sat with his chin in his hand, looking as if he +considered the "thing" from a long way off as one of a multitude of +other things.<a name='022.png' id='p022.png'></a></p> + +<p>"I do not believe there is," said the journalist; +"but——"</p> + +<p>"Don't let us lose ourselves in metaphysics," broke in Embro. +Then, turning to Courtney, whose direct intelligent gaze seemed to +disconcert him, he said, "Now, Julius, you've seen, I daresay, a +good many things we have not seen,—have you ever seen or +known a case like this we're talking about?"</p> + +<p>"I can't say I have," said Julius.</p> + +<p>"There you are!" quoth Embro, in triumph.</p> + +<p>"But," continued Julius, "I don't therefore nail that case down +as false."</p> + +<p>"Do you mean to say," exclaimed Embro, "that you have lived all +your years, and studied science at the +Salpétrière,—or what they call science +there,—and studied and seen God knows what <a name='023.png' +id='p023.png'></a> else besides, and you can't pronounce an opinion +from all you know on a case of this sort?"</p> + +<p>"Oh yes," said Julius, quietly, "I can pronounce an opinion; but +what's the use of that? I think that case is true, but I don't know +that it is; and therefore I can't argue about it, for argument +should come from knowledge, and I have none. I have a few opinions, +and I am always ready to receive impressions; but, besides some +schoolboy facts that are common property, the only thing I +know—I am certain of—is, as some man says, '<i>Life's a +dream worth dreaming</i>.'"</p> + +<p>"You're too high-falutin for me, Julius," said Embro, shaking +his head. "But my opinion, founded on my knowledge, is that this +story is a hallucination of the young woman's noddle!"<a name= +'024.png' id='p024.png'></a></p> + +<p>"And how much, Embro," laughed Julius, rising to leave the +circle, "is the argument advanced by your ticketing the case with +that long word?"</p> + +<p>"To say 'hallucination,'" quoth Lefevre, "is a convenient way of +giving inquiry the slip."</p> + +<p>"My dear Embro," said Julius,—and he spoke with an +emphasis, and looked down on Embro with a bright vivacity of eye, +which forewarned the circle of one of his eloquent flashes: a smile +of expectant enjoyment passed round,—"hallucination is the +dust-heap and limbo of the meanly-equipped man of science to-day, +just as witchcraft was a few hundred years ago. The poor creature +of science long ago, when he came upon any pathological or +psychological manifestation he did not understand, used to say, +'<i>Witchcraft</i>! <a name='025.png' id='p025.png'></a> Away with +it to the limbo!' To-day he says, '<i>Hallucination</i>! Away with +it to the dust-heap!' It is a pity," said he, with a laugh, "you +ever took to science, Embro."</p> + +<p>"And why, may I ask?" said Embro.</p> + +<p>"Oh, you'd have been great as an orthodox theologian of the +Kirk; the cocksureness of theology would have suited you like your +own coat. You are not at home in science, for you have no +imagination."</p> + +<p>It was characteristic of the peculiar regard in which Julius was +held that whatever he said or did appeared natural and +pleasant,—like the innocent actions and the simple, truthful +speech of a child. Not even Embro was offended with these last +words of his: the others laughed; Embro smiled, though with a +certain sourness.</p> + +<p>"Pooh, Julius!" said he; "what are you <a name='026.png' id= +'p026.png'></a> talking about? Science is the examination of facts, +and what has imagination to do with that? Reason, sir, is what you +want!"</p> + +<p>"My dear Embro," said Julius, "there are several kinds of facts. +There are, for instance, big facts and little facts,—clean +facts and dirty facts. Imagination raises you and gives you a high +and comprehensive view of them all; your mere reason keeps you +down in some noisome corner, like the man with the muck-rake."</p> + +<p>"Hear, hear!" cried the journalist and the artist heartily.</p> + +<p>"You're wrong, Julius," said Embro,—"quite wrong. Keep +your imagination for painting and poetry. In science it just leads +you the devil's own dance, and fills you with delusions."</p> + +<p>Julius paused, and bent on him his <a name='027.png' id= +'p027.png'></a> peculiar look, which made a man feel he was being +seen through and through.</p> + +<p>"I am surprised, Embro," said he, "that one can live all your +years and not find that the illusions of life are its best part. If +you leave me the illusions, I'll give you all the realities. But +how can we stay babbling and quibbling here all this delicious +afternoon? I must go out and see green things and beasts. Come with +me, Lefevre, to the Zoological Gardens; it will do you good."</p> + +<p>"I tell you what," said Lefevre, looking at the clock as they +moved away; "my mother and sister will call for me with the +carriage in less than half an hour: come with us for a drive."</p> + +<p>"Oh yes," said Julius; "that's a good idea."</p> + +<p>"And I," said Lefevre, "must have a <a name='028.png' id= +'p028.png'></a> cup of tea in the meantime. Come and sit down, and +tell me where you have been."</p> + +<p>But when they had sat down, Julius was little inclined to +divagate into an account of his travels. His glance swept round and +noted everything; he remarked on a soft effect of a shaft of +sunshine that lit up the small conservatory, and burnished the +green of a certain plant; he perceived a fine black Persian cat, +the latest pet of the Club, and exclaimed, "What a beautiful, +superb creature!" He called it, and it came, daintily sniffed at +his leg, and leaped on his lap, where he stroked and fondled it. +And all the while he continued to discuss illusion, while Lefevre +poured and drank tea (tea, which Julius would not share: tea, he +said, did not agree with him).</p> + +<p>"It bothers me," he said, "to imagine <a name='029.png' id= +'p029.png'></a> how a man like Embro gets any satisfaction out of +life, for ever mumbling the bare dry bones of science. Such a life +as his might as well be passed in the receiver of an air-pump."</p> + +<p>"Still the old Julius!" said the doctor, with a smile. "Still +dreaming and wandering, interested in everything, but having +nothing to do!"</p> + +<p>"Nothing to do, my dear fellow?" said Julius. "I've all the +world to enjoy!" and he buried his cheek in the soft fur of the +cat.</p> + +<p>"A purpose in life, however," said Lefevre, "gives an +extraordinary zest to all enjoyment."</p> + +<p>"To live," said Julius, "is surely the purpose of life. Any +smaller, any more obvious purpose, will spoil life, just as it +spoils Art."<a name='030.png' id='p030.png'></a></p> + +<p>"I believe, my boy, you are wrong in both," said Lefevre. "Art +without a purpose goes off into all sorts of madness and +extravagance, and so does life."</p> + +<p>"You really think so?" said Julius, his attention fixed for an +instant, and looking as if he had set up the point and regarded it +at a distance. "Yes; perhaps it does." But the next moment his +attention seemed given to the cat; he fondled it, and talked to it +soothingly.</p> + +<p>"I am sure of it," said Lefevre. "Just listen to me, Julius. You +have wonderful intelligence and penetration in everything. You are +fond of science; science needs men like you more than the dull +plodders that usually take to it. When you were in Charbon's class +you were his favourite and his best pupil,—don't I +remember?—and <a name='031.png' id='p031.png'></a> if you +liked you could be the greatest physician of the age."</p> + +<p>"It is treason to yourself to say such a thing."</p> + +<p>"Your fame would soon eclipse mine."</p> + +<p>"Fame! fame!" exclaimed Julius, for an instant showing +irritation. "I would not give a penny-piece for fame if all the +magicians of the East came crying it down the streets! Why should I +seek fame? What good would it do me if I had it?"</p> + +<p>"Well, well," said Lefevre; "let fame alone: you might be as +unknown as you like, and do a world of good in practice among the +poor."</p> + +<p>Julius looked at him, and set the cat down.</p> + +<p>"My dear Lefevre," said he, "I did not think you could urge such +common <a name='032.png' id='p032.png'></a> twaddle! You know well +enough,—nobody knows better,—first of all, that there +are already more men waiting to do that kind of thing than can find +occupation: why should I go down among them and try to take their +work? And you know, in the next place, that medical philanthropy, +like all other philanthropy, is so overdone that the race is fast +deteriorating; we strive with so much success to keep the sickly +and the diseased alive, that perfect health is scarcely known. Life +without health can be nothing but a weariness: why should it be +reckoned a praiseworthy thing to keep it going at any price? If +life became a burden to me, I should lay it down."</p> + +<p>"But," said Lefevre, earnestly, "your life surely is not your +own to do with it what you like!"<a name='033.png' id= +'p033.png'></a></p> + +<p>"In the name of truth, Lefevre," answered Julius, "if my life is +not my own, what is? I get its elements from others, but I fashion +it myself, just as much as the sculptor shapes his statue, or the +poet turns his poem. You don't deny to the sculptor the right to +smash his statue if it does not please him, nor to the poet the +right to burn his manuscript;—why should you deny me the +right to dispose of my life? I know—I know," said he, seeing +Lefevre open his mouth and raise his hand for another observation, +"that your opinion is the common one, but that is the only sanction +it has; it has the sanction neither of true morality nor of true +religion! But here is the waiter to tell you the carriage is come. +I'm glad. Let us get out into the air and the sunshine."<a name= +'034.png' id='p034.png'></a></p> + +<p>The carriage was the doctor's own; his mother, although the +widow of a Court physician, was too poor to maintain much equipage, +but she made what use she pleased of her son's possessions. When +Lady Lefevre saw Julius at the carriage-door, she broke into smiles +and cries of welcome.</p> + +<p>"Where have you been this long, long while, Julius?" said she. +"This is Julius Courtney, Nora. You remember Nora, Julius, when she +was a little girl in frocks?"</p> + +<p>"She now wears remarkable gowns," chimed in the doctor.</p> + +<p>"Which," said Julius, "I have no doubt are becoming."</p> + +<p>"My brother," said Nora, with a sunny smile, "is jealous; +because, being a doctor, he must wear only dowdy clothes of dingy +colours."<a name='035.png' id='p035.png'></a></p> + +<p>"We have finished at school and college, and been presented at +Court," laughed Lady Lefevre.</p> + +<p>"And," broke in the brother, "we have had cards engraved with +our full name, <i>Leonora</i>."</p> + +<p>"With all this," said Lady Lefevre, "I hope you won't be afraid +of us."</p> + +<p>"I see no reason," said Julius. "For, if I may say so, I like +everything in Nature, and it seems to me Nature has had more to do +with the finishing you speak of than the schoolmistress or the +college professor."</p> + +<p>"There he is already," laughed Lady Lefevre, "with his equivocal +compliments. I shouldn't wonder if he says that, my dear, because +you have not yet had more than a word to say for yourself."</p> + +<p>By that time Lefevre and Julius were <a name='036.png' id= +'p036.png'></a> seated, and the carriage was rolling along towards +the Park. Julius sat immediately opposite Lady Lefevre, but he +included both her and Nora in his talk and his bright glances. The +doctor sat agreeably suffused with delight and wonder. No one, as +has been seen, had a higher opinion of Courtney's rare powers, or +had had more various evidence of them, than Lefevre, but even he +had never known his friend so brilliant. He was instinct with life +and eloquence. His face shone as with an inner light, and his talk +was bright, searching, and ironical. The amazing thing, however, +was that Julius had as stimulating and intoxicating an influence on +Nora as, it was clear, Nora had on him. His sister had not appeared +to Lefevre hitherto more than a beautiful, healthy, shy girl of +tolerable intelligence; now she <a name='037.png' id='p037.png'> +</a> showed that she had brilliance and wit, and, moreover, that +she understood Julius as one native of a strange realm understands +another. When they entered the Park, they were the observed of all. +And, indeed, Leonora Lefevre was a vision to excite the worship of +those least inclined to idolatry of Nature. She was of the noblest +type of English beauty, and she seemed as calmly unconscious of its +excellence and rarity as one of the grand Greek women of the +Parthenon. She had, however, a sensuous fulness and bloom, a +queenly carriage of head and neck, a clearness of feature, and a +liquid kindness of eye that suggested a deep potentiality of +passion.</p> + +<p>They drove round the Row, and round again, and they talked and +laughed their fill of wisdom and frivolity and folly. To <a name= +'038.png' id='p038.png'></a> be foolish wisely and gracefully is a +rare attainment. When they had almost completed their third round, +Julius (who had finished a marvellous story of a fairy princess and +a cat) said, "I can see you are fond of beasts, Miss Lefevre. I +should like to take you to the Zoological Gardens and show you my +favourites there. May we go now, Lady Lefevre?"</p> + +<p>"By all means," said Lady Lefevre, "let us go. What do you say, +John?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, wherever you like, mother," answered her son.</p> + +<p>Arrived in the Gardens, Julius took possession of his +companions, and exerted all his arts to charm and fascinate. He led +the ladies from cage to cage, from enclosure to enclosure, showed +himself as familiar with the characters and habits of their wild +denizens as a farmer is with <a name='039.png' id='p039.png'></a> +those of his stock, and they responded to his strange calls, to his +gentleness and fearlessness, with an alert understanding and +confidence beautiful to see. His favourites were certain creatures +of the deer species, which crowded to their fences to sniff his +clothes, and to lick his hands, which he abandoned to their +caresses with manifest satisfaction. His example encouraged the +queenly Nora and her sprightly mother to feed the beautiful +creatures with bread and buns, and to feel the suffusion of +pleasure derived from the contact of their soft lips with the palm +of the hand. After that they were scarcely astonished when, without +bravado, but clearly with simple confidence and enjoyment, Julius +put his hand within the bars of the lion's cage and scratched the +ears of a lioness, murmuring the while in a strange tongue <a name= +'040.png' id='p040.png'></a> such fond sounds as only those use who +are on the best terms with animals. The great brute rose to his +touch, closing its eyes, and bearing up its head like a cat.</p> + +<p>Then came an incident that deeply impressed the Lefevres. Julius +went to a cage in which, he said, there was a recent +arrival—a leopard from the "Land of the Setting Sun," the +romantic land of the Moors. The creature crouched sulking in the +back of the cage. Julius tapped on the bars, and entreated her in +the language of her native land, "Ya, dudu! ya, lellatsi!" She +bounded to him with a "<i>wir-r-r</i>" of delight, leaned and +rubbed herself against the bars, and gave herself up to be stroked +and fondled. When he left her, she cried after him piteously, and +wistfully watched him out of sight.<a name='041.png' id= +'p041.png'></a></p> + +<p>"Do you know the beautiful creature?" asked Lady Lefevre.</p> + +<p>"Yes," answered Julius quietly; "I brought her over some months +ago."</p> + +<p>Lefevre had explained to his mother that Julius had always been +on friendly or fond terms with animals, but never till now had he +seen the remarkable understanding he clearly maintained with +them.</p> + +<p>"Look!" said Lady Lefevre to her son as they turned to leave the +Gardens. "He seems to have fascinated Nora as much as the +beasts."</p> + +<p>Nora stood a little aloof, regarding Julius in an ecstasy of +admiration. When she found her mother was looking at her, her eyes +sank, and as it were a veil of blushes fell over her. Mother and +son walked on first, and Julius followed with Nora.<a name= +'042.png' id='p042.png'></a></p> + +<p>"He is a most charming and extraordinary man," said the +mother.</p> + +<p>"He is," said the son, "and amazingly intelligent."</p> + +<p>"He seems to know everything, and to have been +everywhere,—to have been a kind of rolling stone. If anything +should come of this, I suppose he can afford to marry. You ought to +know about him."</p> + +<p>"I believe I know as much as any one."</p> + +<p>"He has no profession?" queried the lady.</p> + +<p>"He has no profession; but I suppose he could afford it," said +Lefevre musingly.</p> + +<p>"You don't like the idea," said his mother.</p> + +<p>"Not much. I scarce know why. But I somehow think of him as not +having enough sense of the responsibility of life."<a name= +'043.png' id='p043.png'></a></p> + +<p>"I suppose his people are of the right sort?"</p> + +<p>"I suppose they are; though I don't know if he has any people," +said he, with a laugh. "He is the kind of man who does not need +parents or relations."</p> + +<p>"Still, hadn't you better try to find out what he may have in +that line?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Lefevre; "perhaps I had."<a name='044.png' id= +'p044.png'></a></p> + +<h2 id='case'>Chapter II.</h2> + +<p class='argument'>A Mysterious Case.</p> + +<p><span class='small-caps'>The</span> two friends returned, as +they had arranged, to the Hyacinth Club for dinner. Courtney's +coruscating brilliancy sank into almost total darkness when they +parted from Lady and Miss Lefevre, and when they sat down to table +he was preoccupied and silent, yet in no proper sense downcast or +dull. Lefevre noted, while they ate, that there was clear +speculation in his eye, that he was not vaguely dreaming, but with +alert intelligence examining some question, or facing some +contingency; and <a name='045.png' id='p045.png'></a> it was +natural he should think that the question or contingency must +concern Nora as much as Julius. Yet he made no overture of +understanding, for he knew that Courtney seldom offered confidence +or desired sympathy; not that he was churlish or reserved, but +simply that he was usually sufficient unto himself, both for +counsel and for consolation. Lefevre was therefore surprised when +he was suddenly asked a question, which was without context in his +own thought.</p> + +<p>"Have you ever found something happen or appear," said Julius, +"that completely upsets your point of view, and tumbles down your +scheme of life, like a stick thrust between your legs when you are +running?"</p> + +<p>"I have known," said Lefevre, "a new fact arise and upset a +whole scientific <a name='046.png' id='p046.png'></a> theory. +That's often a good thing," he added, with a pointed glance; "for +it compels a reconstruction of the theory on a wider and sounder +basis."</p> + +<p>"Yes," murmured Julius; "that may be. But I should think it does +not often happen that the new fact swallows up all the details that +supported your theory,—as Aaron's rod, turned into a serpent, +swallowed up the serpent-rods of the magicians of Egypt,—so +that there is no longer any theory, but only one great, glorious +fact. I do admire," he exclaimed, swerving suddenly, "the +imagination of those old Greeks, with their beautiful, half-divine +personifications of the Spirits of Air and Earth and Sea! But their +imagination never conceived a goddess that embodied them all!"</p> + +<p>"I have often thought, Julius," said <a name='047.png' id= +'p047.png'></a> Lefevre, "that you must be some such embodiment +yourself; for you are not quite human, you know."</p> + +<p>The doctor said that with a clear recollection of his mother's +request. He hoped that his friend would take the cue, and tell him +something of his family. Julius, however, said nothing but +"Indeed." Lefevre then tried to tempt him into confession by +talking about his own father and mother, and by relating how the +French name "Lefevre" came to be domiciled in England; but Julius +ignored the temptation, and dismissed the question in an eloquent +flourish.</p> + +<p>"What does a man want with a family and a name? They only tie +him to the earth, as Gulliver was tied by the people of Lilliput. +We have life and health,—<i>if</i> we have them,—and it +is only veiled <a name='048.png' id='p048.png'></a> prurience to +inquire whence we got them. A man can't help having a father and a +mother, I suppose; but he need not be always reminding himself of +the fact: no other creature on earth does. For myself, I wish I +were like that extraordinary person, Melchizedek, without father +and without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of +days nor end of life."</p> + +<p>In a little while the friends parted. Lefevre said he had work +to do, but he did not anticipate such work as he had to turn to +that night. Though the doctor was a bachelor, he had a professional +residence apart from his mother and sister. They lived in a small +house in Curzon Street; he dwelt in Savile Row. Savile Row was a +place of consequence long before Regent Street was thought of, but +now they are few who know of <a name='049.png' id='p049.png'></a> +its existence. Fashion ignores it. It is tenanted by small clubs, +learned societies, and doctors. It slumbers in genteel decorum, +with its back to the garish modern thoroughfare. It is always +quiet, but by nine o'clock of a dark evening it is deserted. When +Dr Lefevre, therefore, stepped out of his hired hansom, and +prepared to put his latch-key in his own door, he was arrested by a +hoarse-voiced hawker of evening news bursting in upon the repose of +the Row with a continuous roar of +"Special—Mystery—Paper—Railway—Special—Brighton—Paper—Victoria—Special!" +It was with some effort, and only when the man was close at hand, +that he interpreted the sounds into these words.</p> + +<p>"Paper, sir," said the man; and he bought it and went in. He +entered his <a name='050.png' id='p050.png'></a> dining-room, and +read the following paragraph;—</p> + +<blockquote> +<p>"A Mysterious Case.</p> + +<p>"A report has reached us that a young man, about two or four and +twenty years of age, whose name is at present unknown, was found +yesterday (Sunday) to all appearance dead in a first-class carriage +of the 5 P.M. train from Brighton to Victoria. The discovery was +only made at Grosvenor Road Station, where tickets are taken before +entering Victoria. At Victoria the body was searched for purposes +of identification, and there was found upon him a card with the +following remarkable inscription:—'<i>I am not dead. Take me +to the St. James's Hospital.</i>' To St. James's Hospital +accordingly the young man was conveyed. It seems probable he is in +a condition of trance—not for the first time—since he +was provided with the card, and knew the hospital with which is +associated in all men's minds the name of Dr Lefevre, who is so +famous for his skill in the treatment of nervous disorders."</p> +</blockquote> + +<p>In matters of plain duty Dr Lefevre had got into the excellent +habit of acting first and thinking afterwards. He at once rang the +bell, and ordered the responsible <a name='051.png' id='p051.png'> +</a> serving-man who appeared to call a cab. The man went to the +door and sounded his shrill whistle, grateful to the ears of +several loitering cabbies. There was a mad race of growlers and +hansoms for the open door. Dr Lefevre got into the first hansom +that drew up, and drove off to the hospital. By that time he had +told himself that the young man must be a former patient of his +(though he did not remember any such), and that he ought to see him +at once, although it is not customary for the visiting physician of +a hospital to appear, except between fixed hours of certain days. +He made nothing of the mystery which the newspaper wished, after +the manner of its kind, to cast about the case, and thought of +other things, while he smoked cigarettes, till he reached the +hospital. The house-physician <a name='052.png' id='p052.png'></a> +was somewhat surprised by his appearance.</p> + +<p>"I have just read that paragraph," said Lefevre, handing him the +paper.</p> + +<p>"Oh yes, sir," said the house-physician. "The man was brought in +last night. Dr Dowling" [the resident assistant-physician] "saw +him, and thought it a case of ordinary trance, that could easily +wait till you came, as usual, to-morrow."</p> + +<p>"Ah, well," said Lefevre, "let me see him."</p> + +<p>Seen thus, the physician appeared a different person from the +cheerful, modest man of the Hyacinth Club. He had now put on the +responsibility of men's health and the enthusiasm of his +profession. He seemed to swell in proportions and dignity, though +his eye still beamed with a calm and kindly light.<a name='053.png' +id='p053.png'></a></p> + +<p>The young man led the way down the echoing flagged passage, and +up the flight of stone stairs. As they went they encountered many +silent female figures, clean and white, going up or down (it was +the time of changing nurses), so that a fanciful stranger might +well have thought of the stairway reaching from earth to heaven, on +which the angels of God were seen ascending and descending. A +stranger, too, would have noted the peculiar odours that hung about +the stairs and passages, as if the ghosts of medicines escaped from +the chemist's bottles were hovering in the air. Opening first an +outer and then an inner door, Lefevre and his companion entered a +large and lofty ward. The room was dark, save for the light of the +fire and of a shaded lamp, by which, within a screen, the +night-nurse <a name='054.png' id='p054.png'></a> sat conning her +list of night-duties. The evening was just beginning out of +doors,—shop-fronts were flaring, taverns were becoming noisy, +and brilliantly-lit theatres and music-halls were settling down to +business,—but here night and darkness had set in more than an +hour before. Indeed, in these beds of languishing, which stretched +away down either side of the ward, night was hardly to be +distinguished from day, save for the sunlight and the occasional +excitement of the doctor's visit; and many there were who cried to +themselves in the morning, "Would God it were evening!" and in the +evening, "Would God it were morning!" But there was yet this other +difference, that disease and doctor, fear and hope, gossip and +grumbling, newspaper and Bible and tract, were all forgotten in <a +name='055.png' id='p055.png'></a> the night, for some time at +least, and Nature's kind restorer, sleep, went softly round among +the beds and soothed the weary spirits into peace.</p> + +<p>Lefevre and the house-physician passed silently up the ward +between the rows of silent blue-quilted beds, while the nurse came +silently to meet them with her lamp. Lefevre turned aside a moment +to look at a man whose breathing was laboured and stertorous. The +shaded light was turned upon him: an opiate had been given him to +induce sleep; it had performed its function, but, as if resenting +its bondage, it was impishly twitching the man's muscles and +catching him by the throat, so that he choked and started. Dr +Lefevre raised the man's eyelid to look at his eye: the upturned +eye stared out upon him, but the man slept on. He put his hand on +the <a name='056.png' id='p056.png'></a> man's forehead (he had a +beautiful hand—the hand of a born surgeon and +healer—fine but firm, the expression of nervous force), and +with thumb and finger stroked first his temples and then his neck. +The spasmodic twitching ceased, and his breath came easy and +regular. The house-doctor and the nurse looked at each other in +admiration of this subtle skill, while Lefevre turned away and +passed on.</p> + +<p>"Where is the man?" said he.</p> + +<p>"Number Thirteen," answered the house-doctor, leading the +way.</p> + +<p>The lamp was set on the locker beside the bed of Thirteen, +screens were placed round to create a seclusion amid the living, +breathing silence of the ward, and Lefevre proceeded to examine the +unconscious patient who had so strangely put himself in his +hands.<a name='057.png' id='p057.png'></a></p> + +<p>He was young and well-favoured, and, it was evident from the +firmness of his flesh, well-fed. Lefevre considered his features a +moment, shook his head, and murmured, "No; I don't think I've seen +him before." He turned to the nurse and inquired concerning the +young man's clothes: they were evidently those of a gentleman, she +said,—of one, at least, who had plenty of money. He turned +again to the young man. He raised the left arm to feel the heart, +but, contrary to his experience in such cases, the arm did not +remain as he bent it, nor did the eyes open in obedience to the +summons of the disturbed nerves. The breathing was scarcely +perceptible, and the beating of the heart was faint.</p> + +<p>"A strange case," said Lefevre in a low voice to his young +comrade—"the <a name='058.png' id='p058.png'></a> strangest +I've seen. He does not look a subject for this kind of thing, and +yet he is in the extreme stage of hypnotism. You see." And the +doctor, by sundry tests and applications, showed the peculiar +exhausted and contractive condition of the muscles. "It is very +curious."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps," said the other, "he has been——" and he +hesitated.</p> + +<p>"Been what?" asked Lefevre, turning on him his keen look.</p> + +<p>"Enjoying himself."</p> + +<p>"Having a debauch, you mean? No; I think not. There would then +have probably been some reflex action of the nerves. This is not +that kind of exhaustion; and it is more than mere trance or +catalepsy; it seems the extremest suspensory condition,—and +that in a young man of such apparent health <a name='059.png' id= +'p059.png'></a> is very remarkable. It will take a long time for +him to recover in the ordinary way with food and sleep," he +continued, rather to himself than to his subordinates. "He needs +rousing,—a strong stimulant."</p> + +<p>"Shall I get some brandy, sir?" asked the nurse.</p> + +<p>"Brandy? No. That's not the stimulant he needs."</p> + +<p>He was silent for a little, moving the young man's limbs, and +touching certain muscles which his exact anatomical knowledge +taught him to lay his finger on with unerring accuracy. The effect +was startling and grotesque. As a galvanic current applied to the +proper nerves and muscles of a dead body will produce expressions +and actions resembling those of life, so the touch of Lefevre's +finger made the unconscious young man scowl or smile or <a name= +'060.png' id='p060.png'></a> clench his fist according to the +muscles impressed.</p> + +<p>"The brain," said Lefevre, "seems quite sound,—perfectly +passive, you see, but active in its passivity. You can leave us, +nurse," said he; then, turning to the house-physician, he +continued: "I am convinced this is such a peculiar case as I have +often imagined, but have never seen. This nervous-muscular +suspension is complicated with some exhaustive influence. I want +your assistance, and I ask for it like this, because it is +necessary for my purpose that you should give it freely, and +without reserve; I am going to try the electrode."</p> + +<p>This was a simple machine contrived by Lefevre, on the model of +the electric cylinder of Du Bois-Reymond, and worked on the theory +that the electricity stored in <a name='061.png' id='p061.png'></a> +the human body can be driven out by the human will along a prepared +channel into another human body.</p> + +<p>"I understand," said the assistant promptly. He apprehended his +chief's meaning more fully than the reader can; for he was deeply +interested and fairly skilled in that strange annex of modern +medical science which his chief called psycho-dynamics, and which +old-fashioned practitioners decline to recognise.</p> + +<p>"Get me the machine and the insulating sheet," said Lefevre.</p> + +<p>While his assistant was gone on his errand, Lefevre with his +right hand gently stroked along the main lines of nerve and muscle +in the upper part of his patient's body; and it was strange to note +how the features and limbs lost a certain constriction and rigidity +which it was manifest <a name='062.png' id='p062.png'></a> they had +had only by their disappearance. When the house-physician returned, +the sheet (a preparation of spun-glass invented by Lefevre) was +drawn under the patient, and the machine, with its vessels of +chemical mixture and its conducting wires, was placed close to the +bed. The handles attached to the wires were put into the patient's +hands.</p> + +<p>"Now," said Lefevre, "this is a trying experiment. Give me your +hand—your left; you know how to do; yes, the other hand on +the machine, with the fingers touching the chemicals. When you feel +strength—virtue, so to say—going out of you, don't be +alarmed: let it go; use no effort of the will to keep it back, or +we shall probably fail."</p> + +<p>"I understand," repeated the assistant.</p> + +<p>Then, holding his hand,—closely, but <a name='063.png' id= +'p063.png'></a> not so as to constrain the muscles,—Lefevre +put his own left on the machine according to the direction he had +given his assistant,—with his fingers, that is, dipping into +the chemicals from plates in the bottom of which the wires +conducted to the patient's hands. A shiver ran through the frame of +both Lefevre and his companion, a convulsive shudder passed upon +the unconscious body, and—a strange cry rang out upon the +silence of the ward, and Lefevre withdrew his hands. He and the +house-physician looked at each other pale and shaken. The nurse +came running at the cry. Lefevre looked out beyond the screen to +reassure her, and saw in the dim red reflection of the firelight a +sight which struck him gruesomely, used though he was to hospital +sights; all about the ward pale scared figures were <a name= +'064.png' id='p064.png'></a> sitting up in bed, like corpses +suddenly raised from the dead. He bent over his patient, who +presently opened his eyes and stared at him.</p> + +<p>"Get some brandy and milk," said Lefevre to his companion.</p> + +<p>"Who? Where am I?" murmured the patient in a faint voice.</p> + +<p>"I am Dr Lefevre, and this is St. James's Hospital."</p> + +<p>"Doctor?—hospital?—oh, I'm dreaming!" murmured the +patient.</p> + +<p>"We'll talk about that when you have taken some of this," said +Lefevre, as the house-physician reappeared with the nurse, bearing +the brandy and milk.</p> + +<p>Lefevre presently told him how he had been found in the train, +and taken for dead till the card—"this card," said he, taking +it from the top of the locker—was <a name='065.png' id= +'p065.png'></a> discovered on him. The young man listened in open +amazement, and looked at the card.</p> + +<p>"I know nothing of this!" said he. "I never saw the card before! +I never heard your name or the hospital's till a minute ago."</p> + +<p>"Your case was strange before," said Lefevre; "this makes it +stranger. Who journeyed with you?"</p> + +<p>"A man,—a nice, strange, oldish fellow in a fur coat." And +the young man wished to enter upon a narrative, when the doctor +interrupted him.</p> + +<p>"You're not well enough to talk much now. Tell me to-morrow all +about it."</p> + +<p>The doctor returned home, his imagination occupied with the +vision of a train rushing at express speed over the metals, and of +a compartment in the train in <a name='066.png' id='p066.png'></a> +which a young man reclined under the spell of an old man. The young +man's face he saw clearly, but the old man's evaded him like a +dream, and yet he felt he ought to know one who knew the peculiar +repute of the St. James's Hospital. Next day the young man told his +story, which was in effect as follows: He was a subaltern in a +dragoon regiment stationed in Brighton. On Sunday afternoon he had +set out for London on several days' leave. He had taken a seat in a +smoking-carriage, and was preparing to make himself comfortable +with a novel and a cigar, when an elderly gentleman, who looked +like a foreigner, came in as the train was about to move. He +particularly observed the man from the first, because, though it +was a pleasant spring day, he looked pinched and shrunken with cold +in his <a name='067.png' id='p067.png'></a> great fur overcoat, and +because he had remarked him standing on the platform and +scrutinizing the passengers hurrying into the train. The gentleman +sat down in the seat opposite the young officer, and drew his fur +wrap close about him. The young officer could not keep his eyes off +him, and he noted that his features seemed worn thin and arid, as +by passage through terrific peril,—as if he had been +travelling for many days without sleep and without food, straining +forward to a goal of safety, sick both in stomach and +heart,—as if he had been rushing, like the maniac of the +Gospel, through dry places, seeking rest and finding none. His +hair, which should have been black, looked lustreless and bleached, +and his skin seemed as if his blood had lost all colour and +generosity, as if nothing but serum flowed in his veins. <a name= +'068.png' id='p068.png'></a> His eyes alone did not look bloodless; +they were weary and extravasated, as from anxious watching. The +young officer's compassion went out to the stranger; for he thought +he must be a conspirator, fleeing probably from the infamous +tyranny of Russian rule. But presently he spoke in such good +English that the idea of his being a Russian faded away.</p> + +<p>"Excuse the liberty I take," said he, with a singularly winning +smile; "but let me advise you not to smoke that cigar. I have a +peculiarly sensitive nose for tobacco, and my nose informs me that +your cigar, though good as cigars go, is not fit for you to +smoke."</p> + +<p>The young officer was surprised that he was rather charmed than +offended by this impertinence.</p> + +<p>"Let me offer you one of these instead," <a name='069.png' id= +'p069.png'></a> said the strange gentleman; "we call them—I +won't trouble you with the Spanish name—but in English it +means 'Joys of Spain.'"</p> + +<p>The officer took and thanked him for a "Joy of Spain," and found +the flavour and aroma so excellent that, to use his own phrase, he +could have eaten it. He asked the stranger what in particular was +his objection to the other cigar.</p> + +<p>"This objection," said he, "which is common to all ill-prepared +tobaccos, that it lowers the vital force. You don't feel that yet, +because you are young and healthy, and gifted with a superabundance +of fine vitality; but you may by smoking one bad cigar bring the +time a day nearer when you must feel it. And even now it would take +a little off the keen edge of the appetite for pleasure. How +little," said <a name='070.png' id='p070.png'></a> he, "do we +understand how to keep ourselves in condition for the complete +enjoyment of life! You, I suppose, are about to take your pleasure +in town, and instead of judiciously tickling and stimulating your +nerves for the complete fulfilment of the pleasures you +contemplate, you begin—you were beginning, I mean, with your +own cigar—to dull and stupefy them. Don't you see how foolish +that is?"</p> + +<p>The young officer admitted that it was very foolish and very +true; and they talked on thus, the elder exercising a charm over +the younger such as he had never known before in the society of any +man. In a quarter of an hour the young man felt as if he had known +and trusted and loved his neighbour all his life; he felt, he +confessed, so strongly attracted that he could have hugged him. He +told him about his <a name='071.png' id='p071.png'></a> family, and +showed him the innermost secrets of his heart; and all the while he +smoked the delicious "Joy of Spain," and felt more and more +enthralled and fascinated by the stranger's eyes, which, as he +talked, lightened and glowed more and more as their glance played +caressingly about him. He was beginning to wonder at that, when +with some emphatic phrase the stranger laid his fingers on his +knee, upon which a thrill shot through him as if a woman had +touched him. He looked in the stranger's face, and the wonderful +eyes seemed to search to the root of his being, and to draw the +soul out of him. He had a flying thought—"Can it be a woman, +after all, in this strange shape?" and he knew no more ... till he +woke in the hospital bed.</p> + +<p>That was the patient's story.<a name='072.png' id= +'p072.png'></a></p> + +<p>"Just look over your property here," said the doctor. "Have you +lost anything?"</p> + +<p>The young man turned over his watch and the contents of his +purse, and answered that he had lost nothing.</p> + +<p>"Strange—strange!" said Lefevre—"very strange! And +the card—of course the stranger must have put it in your +pocket."</p> + +<p>"Which would seem to imply," said the young man, "that <i>he</i> +knows something of the hospital."</p> + +<p>"Well," said Lefevre, "we must see what can be done to clear the +mystery up."</p> + +<p>"Some of those newspaper-men have been here," said the +house-physician, when they had left the ward, "and they will be +sure to call again before the day is out. Shall I tell them +anything of this?"<a name='073.png' id='p073.png'></a></p> + +<p>"Certainly," said Lefevre. "Publicity may help us to discover +this amazing stranger."</p> + +<p>"Do you quite believe the story?" asked the house-physician.</p> + +<p>"I don't disbelieve it."</p> + +<p>"But what did the stranger do to put him in that condition, +which seems something more than hypnotism?"</p> + +<p>"Ah," said Lefevre, "I don't yet understand it; but there are +forces in Nature which few can comprehend, and which only one here +and there can control and use."<a name='074.png' id= +'p074.png'></a></p> + +<h2 id='dolaro'>Chapter III.</h2> + +<p class='argument'>"M. Dolaro."</p> + +<p><span class='small-caps'>Next</span> day men talked, newspaper +in hand, at the breakfast-table, in the early trains, omnibuses, +and tramcars, of the singular railway outrage. It was clear its +purpose was not robbery. What, then, did it mean? +Some—probably most—declared it was very plain what it +meant; while others,—the few,—after much argument, +confessed themselves quite mystified.</p> + +<p>The police, too, were not idle. They made inquiries and took +notes here and there. They discovered that the five <a name= +'075.png' id='p075.png'></a> o'clock train made but two pauses on +its journey to London—at Croydon and at Clapham Junction. At +neither of those places could a man in a fur coat be heard of as +having descended from the train; and yet it was manifest that he +did not arrive at Grosvenor Road, where tickets were taken. After +persistent and wider inquiries, however, at Clapham Junction (which +was the most likely point of departure), a cabman was found who +remembered having taken up a fare—a gentleman in a fur +coat—about the hour indicated. He particularly remarked the +gentleman, because he looked odd and foreign and half tipsy (that +was how he seemed to him), because he was wrapped up "enough for +Father Christmas," and because he asked to be driven such a long +way—to a well-known hotel near the <a name='076.png' id= +'p076.png'></a> Crystal Palace, where "foreign gents" were fond of +staying. Being asked what in particular had made him think the +gentleman a foreigner, cabby could not exactly say; he believed, +however, it was his coat and his eyes. Of his face he saw little or +nothing, it was so muffled up; yet his tongue was English +enough.</p> + +<p>Inquiry was then pushed on to the hotel named by the cabman. A +gentleman in a fur coat had certainly arrived there the evening +before, but no one had seen anything of him after his arrival. He +had taken dinner in his private sitting-room, and had then paid his +bill, because, he said, he must be gone early in the morning. About +half an hour after dinner, when a waiter cleared the things away, +he had gone to his room, and next morning he had left the hotel +soon after dawn. Boots, <a name='077.png' id='p077.png'></a> half +asleep, had seen him walk away, bag in hand, wrapped in his +greatcoat,—walk away, it would seem, and dissolve into the +mist of the morning, for from that point no further trace could be +got of him. No such figure as his had been seen on any of the roads +leading from the hotel, either by the early milkman, or by the +belated coffee-stall keeper, or night cabman. Being asked what name +the gentleman had given at the hotel, the book-keeper showed her +record, with the equivocal name of "M. Dolaro." The name might be +Italian or Spanish,—or English or American for that +matter,—and the initial "M" might be French or anything in +the world.</p> + +<p>In the meantime Dr Lefevre had been pondering the details of the +affair, and noting the aspects of his patient's condition; but the +more he noted and pondered, <a name='078.png' id='p078.png'></a> +the more contorted and inexplicable did the mystery become. His +understanding boggled at its very first notes. It was almost +unheard of that a young man of his patient's strong and healthy +constitution and temper should be hypnotised or mesmerised at all, +much less hypnotised to the verge of dissolution; and it was +unprecedented that even a weak, hysterical subject should, after +being unhypnotised, remain so long in prostrate exhaustion. Then, +suppose these circumstances of the case were ordinary, there arose +this question, which refused to be solved: Since it was ridiculous +to suppose that the hypnotisation was a wanton experiment, and +since it had not been for the sake of robbery, what had been its +object?</p> + +<p>The interest of the case was emphasised and enlarged by an +article in 'The Daily <a name='079.png' id='p079.png'></a> +Telegraph,' in which was called to mind the singular story in its +Paris correspondence a day or two before, of the young woman in the +Hôtel-Dieu, which Lefevre had forgotten. The writer remarked +on the points of similarity which the case in the Brighton train +bore to that of the Paris pavement; insisted on the probable +identity of the man in the fur coat with the man in the cloak; and +appealed to Dr Lefevre to explain the mystery, and to the police to +find the man "who has alarmed the civilised world by a new form of +outrage."</p> + +<p>Lefevre was piqued by that article, and he went to see his +patient day after day, in the constant hope of finding a solution +of the puzzle that perplexed him. The direction in which he looked +for light will be best suggested by remarking what were <a name= +'080.png' id='p080.png'></a> his peculiar theory and practice. +Lefevre was not a materialistic physician; indeed, in the opinion +of many of his brethren, he erred on the other side, and was too +much inclined to mysticism. It may at least be said that he had an +open mind, and a modest estimate of the discoveries of modern +medical science. He had perceived while still a young man (he was +now about forty) that all medical practice—as distinct from +surgical—is inexact and empirical, that, like English common +law, it is based merely on custom, and a narrow range of +experience; and he had therefore argued that a wider experience and +research, especially among decaying nations, might lead to the +discovery of a guiding principle in pathology. That conviction had +taken him as medical officer to Egypt and India, where, amid the +relics of civilisations <a name='081.png' id='p081.png'></a> half +as old as time, he found traditions of a great scientific practice; +and thence it had brought him back to study such foreign medical +writers as Du Bois-Reymond, Nobili, Matteucci, and Müller, and +to observe the method of the famous physicians of the +Salpétrière. Like the great Charbon, he made nervous +and hysterical disorders his specialty, in the treatment of which +he was much given to the use of electricity. He had very pronounced +"views," though he seldom troubled his brethren with them; for he +was not of those who can hold a belief firmly only if it is also +held by others.</p> + +<p>More than a week had passed without discovery or promise of +light, when one afternoon he went to the hospital resolved to +compass some explanation.</p> + +<p>He walked at once, on entering the <a name='082.png' id= +'p082.png'></a> ward, to the bedside of his puzzling patient, who +still lay limp as a dish-clout and drowsy as a sloth. He +tested—as he had done almost daily—his nervous and +respiratory powers with the exact instruments adapted for the +purpose, and then, still unenlightened, he questioned him closely +about his sensations. The young officer answered him with tolerable +intelligence.</p> + +<p>"I feel," he ended with saying, "as if all my energy had +evaporated,—and I used to have no end,—just as a spirit +evaporates if it is left open to the air."</p> + +<p>The saying struck Lefevre mightily. "Energy" stood then to +Lefevre as an almost convertible term for "electricity," and his +successful experiments with electricity had opened up to him a vast +field of conjecture, into which, on the smallest inflaming hint, he +was wont to make an <a name='083.png' id='p083.png'></a> excursion. +Such a hint was the saying of the young officer now, and, as he +walked away, he found himself, as it were, knocking at the door of +a great discovery. But the door did not open on that summons, and +he resolved straightway to discuss the subject with Julius +Courtney, who, though an amateur, had about as complete a knowledge +of it as himself, and who could bring to bear, he believed, a finer +intelligence.</p> + +<p>He first sought Julius at the Hyacinth Club, where he frequently +spent the afternoon. Failing to find him there, he inquired for him +at his chambers in the Albany. Hearing nothing of him there, and +the ardour of his quest having cooled a little, he stepped out +across the way to his own home in Savile Row.</p> + +<p>There he found a note from his mother, <a name='084.png' id= +'p084.png'></a> with a touch of mystery in its wording. She said +she wanted very much to have a serious conversation with him; she +had been expecting for days to see him, and she begged him to go +that evening to dinner if he could. "Julius," said she, "will be +here, and one or two others."</p> + +<p>The mention of Julius as a visitor at his mother's house +reminded him of his promise to that lady to find out how the young +man was connected: engrossed as he had been with his strange case, +he had almost forgotten the promise, and he had done nothing to +fulfil it but tap ineffectually for admission to his friend's +confidence. He therefore considered with some anxiety what he +should do, for Lady Lefevre could on occasion be exacting and +severe with her son. He concluded nothing could be <a name= +'085.png' id='p085.png'></a> done before dinner, but he went +prepared to be questioned and perhaps rated. He was pleased to find +that his mother seemed to have forgotten his promise as much as he +had, and to see her in the best of spirits with a tableful of +company.</p> + +<p>"Oh, you have come," said she, presenting her cheek to her son; +"I thought that after all you might be detained by that mysterious +case you have at the hospital. Here's Dr. Rippon—and Julius +too—dying to hear all about it;" but she gave no hint of the +serious conversation which she said in her note she desired.</p> + +<p>"Not I, Lady Lefevre," Julius protested. "I don't like medical +revelations; they make me feel as if I were sitting at the +confessional of mankind."</p> + +<p>Noting by the way that Julius and his sister seemed much taken +up with each <a name='086.png' id='p086.png'></a> other, and that +Julius, while as fascinating as ever, and as ready and apt and +intelligent of speech, seemed somewhat more chastened in manner and +less effervescent in health,—like a fire of coal that has +spent its gas and settled into a steady glow of heat,—he +turned to Dr Rippon, a tall, thin old gentleman of over seventy, +but who yet had a keen tongue, and a shrewd, critical eye. He had +been an intimate friend of the elder Lefevre, and the son greeted +him with respect and affection.</p> + +<p>"Who is the gentleman?" said Dr Rippon, aside, when their +greeting was over. "It does an old man's heart good to see and hear +him," and the old doctor straightened himself. "But he'll get old +too; that's the sad thing, from my point of view, that such beauty +of person and swift <a name='087.png' id='p087.png'></a> +intelligence of mind <i>must</i> grow old and withered, and slow +and dull. What did you say his name is, John?"</p> + +<p>"His name is Courtney—Julius Courtney," said Lefevre.</p> + +<p>"Courtney," mused the old man, stroking his eyebrow; "I once +knew a man of that name, or, rather, who took that name. I wonder +if this friend of yours is of the same family; he is not unlike the +man I knew."</p> + +<p>"Oh," said Lefevre, immediately interested, "he may be of the +same family, but I don't know anything of his relations. Who was +the man, may I ask, that you knew?"</p> + +<p>"Well," said the old gentleman, settling down to a story, which +Lefevre was sure would be full of interest and contemporary +allusion, for the old physician had in his <a name='088.png' id= +'p088.png'></a> time seen many men and many things—"it is a +romantic story in its way."</p> + +<p>He was on the point of beginning it when dinner was +announced.</p> + +<p>"I should like to hear the story when we return to the +drawing-room," said Lefevre.</p> + +<p>Over dinner, Lefevre was beset with inquiries about his +mysterious case:—Was the young man better? Had he been very +ill? Was he handsome? What had the foreign-looking stranger done to +him? and for what purpose had he done it? These questions were +mostly ignorant and thoughtless, and Lefevre either parried them or +answered them with great reserve. When the ladies retired from +table, however, more particular and curious queries were pressed +upon him as to the real character of the outrage upon the young <a +name='089.png' id='p089.png'></a> man. He replied that he had not +yet discovered, though he believed he was getting "warm."</p> + +<p>"Is it fair," said Julius, "to ask you in what direction you are +looking for an explanation or revelation?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, quite fair," said Lefevre, welcoming the question. "To put +it in a word, I look to <i>electricity</i>,—animal +electricity. I have been for some time working round, and I hope +gradually getting nearer, a scientific secret of enormous—of +transcendent value. Can you conceive, Julius, of a universal +principle in Nature being got so under control as to form a +universal basis of cure?"</p> + +<p>"Can I conceive?" said Julius. "And is that electricity +too?"</p> + +<p>"I hope to find it is."</p> + +<p>"Oh, how slow!" exclaimed Julius,—"oh, <a name='090.png' +id='p090.png'></a> how slow you professional scientific men become! +You begin to run on tram-lines, and you can't get off them! Why fix +yourself to call this principle you're seeking for 'electricity'? +It will probably restrict your inquiry, and hamper you in several +ways. I would declare to every scientific man, 'Unless you become +as a little child or a poet, you will discover no great truth!' +Setting aside your bias towards what you call 'electricity,' you +are really hoping to discover something that was discovered or +divined thousands of years ago! Some have called it 'od'—an +'imponderable fluid'—as you know; you and others wish to call +it 'electricity.' I prefer to call it 'the spirit of life,'—a +name simple, dignified, and expressive!"</p> + +<p>"It has the disadvantage of being poetic," said Dr Rippon, with +grave irony; <a name='091.png' id='p091.png'></a> "and doctors +don't like poetry mixed up with their science."</p> + +<p>"It <i>is</i> poetic," admitted Julius, regarding the old doctor +with interest, "and therefore it is intelligible. The spirit of +life is electric and elective, and it is 'imponderable:' it can +neither be weighed nor measured! It flows and thrills in the nerves +of men and women, animals and plants, throughout the whole of +Nature! It connects the whole round of the Cosmos by one glowing, +teasing, agonising principle of being, and makes us and beasts and +trees and flowers all kindred!"</p> + +<p>"That is all very beautiful and fresh," said Lefevre, +"but——"</p> + +<p>"But," interrupted Julius, "it is not a new truth: the poet +divined it ages ago! Buddha, thousands of years ago, perceived it, +and taught that 'all life is linked and <a name='092.png' id= +'p092.png'></a> kin;' so did the Egyptians and the Greeks, when +they worshipped the principle of life everywhere; and so did our +own barbaric ancestors, when the woods—the wonderful, mystic +woods!—were their temples. Life—the spirit of +life!—is always beautiful; always to be desired and +worshipped!"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said old Dr Rippon, who had listened to this astonishing +rhapsody with evident interest, with sympathetic and intelligent +eye; "but a time will come even to you, when death will appear more +beautiful and friendly and desirable than life."</p> + +<p>Courtney was silent, and looked for a second or two deadly sick. +He cast a searching eye on Dr Rippon.</p> + +<p>"That's the one thought," said he, "that makes me sometimes feel +as if I were <a name='093.png' id='p093.png'></a> already under the +horror of the shade. It's not that I am afraid of dying—of +merely ceasing to live; it is that life may cease to be delightful +and friendly, and become an intolerable, decaying burden."</p> + +<p>He filled a glass with Burgundy, and set himself attentively to +drink it, lingering on the bouquet and the flavour. Lefevre beheld +him with surprise, for he had never before seen Julius take wine: +he was wont to say that converse with good company was intoxicating +enough for him.</p> + +<p>"Why, Julius," said Lefevre, "that's a new experience you are +trying,—is it not?"</p> + +<p>Julius looked embarrassed an instant, and then replied, "I have +begun it very recently. I did not think it wise to postpone the +experience till it might become an absolute necessity."<a name= +'094.png' id='p094.png'></a></p> + +<p>Old Dr Rippon watched him empty the glass with a musing eye. "'I +sought in mine heart,'" said he, gravely quoting, "'to give myself +unto wine, yet acquainting mine heart with wisdom.'"</p> + +<p>"True," said Julius, considering him closely. "But, for +completeness' sake, you ought to quote also, 'Whatsoever mine eyes +desired I kept not from them; I withheld not my heart from any +joy.'"</p> + +<p>Lefevre looked from the one to the other in some darkness of +perplexity.</p> + +<p>"You appear, John," said the old doctor, with a smile, "not to +know one of the oldest and greatest of books: you will find it +included in your Bible. Mr Courtney clearly knows it. I should not +be surprised to hear he had adopted its philosophy of 'wisdom and +madness and folly.'"<a name='095.png' id='p095.png'></a></p> + +<p>"Surely you cannot say," remarked Julius, "that the writer of +that book had what is called a 'philosophy.' He was moved by an +irresistible impulse, of which he gives you the explanation when he +uses that magnificent sentence about having 'the world set in his +heart.'"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said the old doctor, in a subdued, backward voice, +regarding Julius with the contemplative eyes of memory. "You will, +I hope, forgive me when I say that you remind me very much of a +gentleman who took the name of Courtney. I knew him years ago: was +he a relation of yours, I wonder?"</p> + +<p>"Possibly," said Julius, seeming scarcely interested; "though +the name of Courtney, I believe, is not very uncommon." Then, +turning to Lefevre, he said, "I hope you don't think I wish to make +light of your <a name='096.png' id='p096.png'></a> grand idea. I +only mean that you must widen your view, if you would work it out +to success."</p> + +<p>With that Lefevre became more curious to hear Dr Rippon's story. +So when they went to the drawing-room he got the old gentleman into +a secluded corner, and reminded him of his promise.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said the doctor, "it is a romantic story. About forty +years ago,—yes, about forty: it was immediately after the +fall of Louis Philippe,—I went with my friend Lord Rokeby to +Madrid. He went as ambassador, and I as his physician. There was +then at the Spanish Court a very handsome hidalgo, Don +Hernando—I forget all his names, but his surname was De +Sandoval. He was of the bluest blood in Spain, and a marquis, but +poor as a church mouse. He had a great reputation <a name='097.png' +id='p097.png'></a> for gallant adventures and for mysterious +scientific studies. On the last ground I sought and cultivated his +acquaintance. But he was a proud, reserved person, and I could +never quite make out what his studies were, except that he read a +great deal, and believed firmly in the Arabic philosophers and +alchemists of the middle ages; and he would sometimes talk with the +same sort of rhapsodical mysticism as this young man delights you +with. We did not have much opportunity for developing an intimacy +in any case; for he fell in love with the daughter of our Chief +Secretary of Legation, a bright, lovely English girl, and that +ended disastrously for his position in Madrid. He made his +proposals to her father, and had them refused; chiefly, I believe, +on account of his loose reputation. The girl, too, was <a name= +'098.png' id='p098.png'></a> the heiress of an uncle's property on +this curious condition, it appeared,—that whoever should +marry her should take the uncle's name of <i>Courtney</i>. Don +Hernando and the young lady disappeared; they were married, and he +took the name of Courtney, and was forbidden to return to Madrid. +He and his wife settled in Paris, where I used to meet them +frequently; then they travelled, I believe, and I lost sight of +them. I returned to Paris on a visit some few years ago, and I +asked an old friend about the Courtneys; he believed they were both +dead, though he could give me no certain news about them."</p> + +<p>"Supposing," said Lefevre, "that this Julius were their son, do +you know of any reason why he should be reserved about his +parentage?"<a name='099.png' id='p099.png'></a></p> + +<p>"No," said the old man, "no;—unless it be that Hernando +was not episcopal in his affections; but I should think the young +man is scarcely Puritan enough to be ashamed of that."</p> + +<p>Lefevre and the old man both looked round for Julius. They +caught sight of him and Leonora Lefevre standing one on either side +of a window, with their eyes fixed upon each other.</p> + +<p>"The young lady," said the old doctor, "seems much taken up with +him."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Lefevre; "and she's my sister."</p> + +<p>"Ah," said the old doctor; "I fear my remark was rather +unreserved."</p> + +<p>"It is true," said Lefevre.</p> + +<p>He left Dr Rippon, to seek his mother. He found her excited and +warm, and without a word to spare for him.<a name='100.png' id= +'p100.png'></a></p> + +<p>"You wanted," said he, "some serious talk with me, mother?"</p> + +<p>"Oh yes," said she; "but I can't talk seriously now: I can +scarcely talk at all. But do you see how Nora and Julius are taken +up with each other? I never before saw such a pair of moonstruck +mortals! I believe I have heard of the moon having a magnetic +influence on people: do you think it has? But he is a charming +man!"—glancing towards Julius—"I'm more than half in +love with him myself. Now I must go. Come quietly one afternoon, +and then we can talk."</p> + +<p>Her son abstained from recounting, as he had proposed to +himself, what he had heard from Dr Rippon: he would reserve it for +the quiet afternoon. He took his leave almost immediately, bearing +with him a deep impression—like a strongly <a name='101.png' +id='p101.png'></a> bitten etching wrought on his memory—of +his last glimpse of the drawing-room: Nora and Julius set talking +across a small table, and the tall, pale, gaunt figure of Dr Rippon +approaching and stooping between them. It seemed a sinister +reminder of the words the old doctor had addressed to +Julius,—"<i>A time will come when death will appear more +beautiful and friendly and desirable than life!</i>"<a name= +'102.png' id='p102.png'></a></p> + +<h2 id='man'>Chapter IV.</h2> + +<p class='argument'>The Man of the Crowd.</p> + +<p><span class='small-caps'>In</span> a few days Dr Lefevre found a +quiet afternoon, and went and told his mother the story of the +Spanish marquis which he had got from Dr Rippon. She hailed the +story with delight. Courtney was a fascinating figure to her +before: it needed but that to clothe him with a complete romantic +heroism; for, of course, she did not doubt that he was the son of +the Spanish grandee. She wished to put it to him at once whether he +was not, but she was dissuaded by her son from mentioning the +matter yet to either Julius or her daughter.<a name='103.png' id= +'p103.png'></a></p> + +<p>"If he wishes," said Lefevre, "to keep it secret for some +reason, it would be an impertinence to speak about it. We shall, +however, have a perfect right to ask him about himself if his +attentions to Nora go on."</p> + +<p>Soon afterwards (it was really a fortnight; but in a busy life +day melts into day with amazing rapidity), Lefevre was surprised at +dinner, and somewhat irritated, by a letter from his mother. She +wrote that they had seen nothing of Julius Courtney for three or +four days,—which was singular, since for the past three or +four weeks he had been a daily visitor; latterly he had begun to +look fagged and ill, and it was possible he was confined to his +room,—though, after all, that was scarcely likely, for he had +not answered a note of inquiry which she had sent. She <a name= +'104.png' id='p104.png'></a> begged her son to call at his +chambers, the more so as Nora was pining in Julius's absence to a +degree which made her mother very anxious.</p> + +<p>With professional suspicion Lefevre told himself that if Julius, +with his magnificent health, was fallen ill, it must be for some +outrageous reason. But even if he was ill, he need not be +unmannerly: he might have let his friends who had been in the habit +of seeing him daily know what had come to him. Was it possible, the +doctor thought, that he was repenting of having given Nora and her +mother so much cause to take his assiduous attentions seriously? He +resolved to see Julius at once, if he were at his chambers.</p> + +<p>He left his wine unfinished (to the delight of his grave and +silent man in black), hastily took his hat from its peg in <a name= +'105.png' id='p105.png'></a> the hall, and passed out into the +street, while his man held the door open. In two minutes he had +passed the northern gateway of the Albany, which, as most people +know, is just at the southern end of Savile Row. Courtney's door +was speedily opened in response to his peremptory summons.</p> + +<p>"Is your master at home, Jenkins?" asked Lefevre of the +well-dressed serving-man, who looked distinguished enough to be +master himself.</p> + +<p>"No, doctor," answered Jenkins; "he is not."</p> + +<p>"Gone out," said Lefevre, "to the club or to dinner, I +suppose?"</p> + +<p>"No, doctor," repeated Jenkins; "he is not. He went away four +days ago."</p> + +<p>"Went away!" exclaimed Lefevre.</p> + +<p>"He do sometimes go away by himself, <a name='106.png' id= +'p106.png'></a> sir. He is so fond of the country, and he likes to +be by himself. It is the only thing that do him good."</p> + +<p>"Becomes solitary, does he?" said Lefevre. "Yes; intelligent, +impulsive persons like him, that live at high pressure, often have +black moods." That was not quite what he meant, but it was enough +for Jenkins.</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir," said Jenkins; "he do sometimes have 'em black. He +don't seem to take no pride in himself, as he do usual—don't +seem to care somehow if he look a gentleman or a common man."</p> + +<p>"But your master, Jenkins," said Lefevre, "can never look a +common man."</p> + +<p>"No, sir," said Jenkins; "he cannot, whatever he do."</p> + +<p>"He is gone into the country, then?" asked Lefevre.<a name= +'107.png' id='p107.png'></a></p> + +<p>"Yes, sir; I packed his small port-mantew for him four days +ago."</p> + +<p>"And where is he gone? He told you, I suppose?"</p> + +<p>"No, sir; he do not usual tell me when he is like that."</p> + +<p>It did not seem possible to learn anything from Jenkins, in +spite of the apparent intimacy of his conversation, so Lefevre left +him, and returned to his own house. He had sat but a little while +in his laboratory (where he had been occupying his small intervals +of leisure lately in electrical studies and experiments) when, as +chance would have it, the last post brought him a note from Dr +Rippon. Its purport was curious.</p> + +<p>"<i>I think</i>," the letter ran, "<i>you were sufficiently +interested in the story I told you some week or two ago about one +Hernando <a name='108.png' id='p108.png'></a> Courtney, not to be +bored by a note on the same subject. Last night I accompanied my +daughter and son-in-law to the Lyceum Theatre. On coming out we had +to walk down Wellington Street into the Strand to find our +carriage, and in the surging crowd about there I am almost sure I +saw the Hernando Courtney whom I believed to be dead</i>. Aut +Courtney aut Diabolus. <i>I have never heard satisfactory evidence +of his death, and I should very much like to know if he is really +still alive and in London. It has occurred to me that, considering +the intimacy of yourself and your family with the gentleman who was +made known to me at your mother's house by the name of Courtney, +you may have heard by now the rights of the case. If you have any +news, I shall be glad to share it with you."</i><a name='109.png' +id='p109.png'></a></p> + +<p>Considering this in association with the absence of Julius, +Lefevre found his wits becoming involved in a puzzle. He could not +settle to work, so he put on overcoat and hat, and sallied out +again. He had no fixed purpose: he only felt the necessity of +motion to resolve himself back into his normal calm. The air was +keen from the east. May, which had opened with such wanton warmth +and seductiveness, turned a cold shoulder on the world as she took +herself off. It was long since he had indulged in an evening walk +in the lamp-lit streets, so he stepped out eastward against the +shrewd wind. Insensibly his attention forsook the busy and anxious +present, and slipped back to the days of golden and romantic youth, +when the crowded nocturnal streets were full of the mystery of +life. He recalled the sensations of those <a name='110.png' id= +'p110.png'></a> days—the sharp doubts of self, the frequent +strong desires to drink deep of all that life had to offer, and the +painful recoils from temptation, which he felt would ruin, if +yielded to, his hope of himself, and his ambition of filling a +worthy place among men.</p> + +<p>Thus musing, he walked on, taking, without noting it, the most +frequented turnings, and soon he found himself in the Strand. It +was that middle time of evening, after the theatres and restaurants +have sucked in their crowds, when the frequenters of the streets +have some reserve in their vivacity, before reckless roisterers +have begun to taste the lees of pleasure, and to shout and jostle +on the pavements. He was walking on the side of the way next the +river, when, near the Adelphi, he became aware of a man before <a +name='111.png' id='p111.png'></a> him, wearing a slouch-hat and a +greatcoat—a man who appeared to choose the densest part of +the throng, to prefer to be rubbed against and hustled rather than +not. There was something about the man which held Lefevre's +attention and roused his curiosity—something in the swing of +his gait and the set of his shoulders. The man, too, seemed urged +on by a singular haste, which permitted him to be the slowest and +easiest of passengers in the thick of the crowd, but carried him +swiftly over the less frequented parts of the pavement. The doctor +began to wonder if he was a pickpocket, and to look about for the +watchful eye of a policeman. He kept close behind him past the door +of the Strand Theatre, when the throng became slacker, and the man +turned quickly about and returned the way he had come. Then <a +name='112.png' id='p112.png'></a> Lefevre had a glimpse of his +face,—the merest passing glimpse, but it made him pause and +ask himself where he had seen it before. A dark, foreign-looking +man, with a haggard appeal in his eye: he tried to find the place +of such a figure in his memory, but for the time he tried in +vain.</p> + +<p>Before the doctor recovered himself the man was well past, and +disappearing in the throng. He hurried after, determined to +overtake him, and to make a full and satisfying perusal of his face +and figure. He found that difficult, however, because of the man's +singular style of progression. To maintain an even pace for +himself, moreover, Lefevre had to walk very much in the roadway, +the dangers of which, from passing cabs and omnibuses, forbade his +fixing his attention on the man alone. Yet he was more and more +piqued to look <a name='113.png' id='p113.png'></a> him in the +face; for the longer he followed him the more he was struck with +the oddity of his conduct. He had already noted how he hurried over +the empty spaces of pavement and lingered sinuously in the thronged +parts; he now remarked further that those who came into immediate +contact with him (and they were mostly young people who were to be +met with at that season of the night) glanced sharply at him, as if +they had experienced some suspicious sensation, and seemed inclined +to remonstrate, till they looked in his face.</p> + +<p>Lefevre could not arrive at a clear front view till, by Charing +Cross Station, the man turned on the kerb to look after a handsome +youth who crossed before him, and passed over the road. Then the +doctor saw the face in the light of a street-lamp, and the sight +sent the blood <a name='114.png' id='p114.png'></a> in a gush from +his heart. It was a dark hairless face, terribly blanched and +emaciated, as if by years of darkness and prison, with the impress +of age and death, but yet with a wistful light in the eyes, and a +firm sensuousness about the mouth that betrayed a considerable +interest in life. He turned his eyes away an instant, to bring +memory and association to bear. When he looked again the man was +moving away. At once recognition rushed upon him like a wave of +light. The terribly worn, ghastly features resolved themselves into +a kind of death-mask of Julius! The wave recoiled and smote him +again. Who could the man be, therefore, who was so like Julius, and +yet was not Julius?—who could he be but Julius's +father,—that Hernando Courtney whom Dr Rippon believed he had +seen the evening before?<a name='115.png' id='p115.png'></a></p> + +<p>Here was a coil to unravel! Julius's father—the Spanish +marquis that was—supposed to be dead, but yet wandering in +singular fashion about the London streets, clearly not desiring, +much less courting, opportunities of being recognised; Julius not +caring to speak of his father, apparently ignoring his continued +existence, and yet apparently knowing enough of his movements to +avoid him when he came to London by suddenly removing "into the +country" without leaving his address. What was the meaning of so +much mystery? Crime? debt? political intrigue? or, what?</p> + +<p>The mysterious Hernando went on his way, by the southern sweep +of Trafalgar Square and Cockspur Street, to the Haymarket, and +Lefevre followed with attention and curiosity bent on him, but yet +<a name='116.png' id='p116.png'></a> with so little thought of +playing spy that, if Hernando had gone any other way or had +returned along the Strand, he would probably have let him go. And +as they went on, the doctor could not but note, as before, how the +object of his curiosity lingered wherever there was a press of +people, whether on the pavement or on a refuge at a crossing, and +hurried on wherever the pavement was sparsely peopled or whenever +the persons encountered were at all advanced in years. Indeed, the +farther he followed the more was his attention compelled to remark +that Hernando sharply avoided contact with the weakly, the old, and +the decrepit, and wonder why the young people of either sex whom he +brushed against should turn as if the touch of him waked suspicion +and a something hostile. Thus they traversed <a name='117.png' id= +'p117.png'></a> the Haymarket, the Criterion pavement, and, +flitting across to the Quadrant, the more popular side of Regent +Street, among pushing groups, weary stragglers, and steady +pedestrians. Lefevre had a mind to turn aside and go home when he +was opposite Vigo Street, but he was drawn on by the hope of +observing something that might give him a clue to the Courtney +mystery. When Oxford Circus was reached, however, Hernando jumped +into a cab and drove rapidly off, and Lefevre returned to his own +fireside.</p> + +<p>He sat for some time over a cigar and a grog, walking in +imagination round and round the mystery, which steadfastly refused +to dissolve or to be set aside. His own honour, and perhaps the +peace of his mother and sister, were involved in it. He was +resolved to ask Julius for an explanation <a name='118.png' id= +'p118.png'></a> as soon as he could come to speech with him; but +yet, in spite of that assurance which he gave himself, he returned +to the mystery again and again, and beset and bewildered himself +with questions: Why was Julius estranged from his father? What was +the secret of the old man's life which had left such an awful +impress on his face? And why was he nightly haunting the busiest +pavements of London, in the crowd, but not of it, urged on as by +some desire or agony?</p> + +<p>He went to bed, but not to sleep. In the quiet and the darkness +his imagination ranged without constraint over the whole field of +his questionings. He went back upon Dr Rippon's story of the +Spanish marquis, and fixed on the mention of his occult studies. He +saw him, in fancy, without wife or son, cut off from the position +<a name='119.png' id='p119.png'></a> and activities in his native +country which his proper rank would have given him, sequester +himself from society altogether, and give himself up to the study +of those Arabian sages and alchemists in whom he had delighted when +he was a young man. He saw him shun the daylight, and sleep its +hours away, and then by night abandon himself like another +Cagliostro to strange experiments with alembic and crucible, +breathing acrid and poisonous vapours, seeking to extort from +Nature her yet undiscovered secrets,—the Philosophers Stone, +and the Elixir of Life. He saw him turn for a little from his +strange and deadly experiments, and venture forth to show his +blanched and worn face among the throngs of men; but even there he +still pursued his anxious quest of life in the midst of death. He +<a name='120.png' id='p120.png'></a> saw him wander up and down, in +and out, among the evening crowd, delighting in contact with such +of his fellow-creatures as had health and youth, and seeking, +seeking—he knew not what. From this phantasmagoria he dozed +off into the dark plains of sleep; but even there the terribly +blanched and emaciated face was with him, bending wistful worn eyes +upon him and melting him to pity. And still again the vision of the +streets would arise about the face, and the sleeper would be aware +of the man to whom the face belonged walking quickly and sinuously, +seeking and enjoying contact with the throng, and strangely causing +many to resent his touch as if they had been pricked or stung, and +yet urged onward in some further quest,—an anxious quest it +sometimes resolved itself into for Julius, who ever evaded him.<a +name='121.png' id='p121.png'></a></p> + +<p>Thus his brain laboured through the dead hours of the night, +viewing and reviewing these scenes and figures, to extract a +meaning from them; but he was no nearer the heart of the mystery +when the morning broke and he was waked by the shrill chatter of +the sparrows. The day, however, brought an event which shed a lurid +light upon the Courtney difficulty, and revealed a vital connection +between facts which Lefevre had not guessed were related.<a name= +'122.png' id='p122.png'></a></p> + +<h2 id='fane'>Chapter V.</h2> + +<p class='argument'>The Remarkable Case of Lady Mary Fane.</p> + +<p><span class='small-caps'>It</span> was the kind of day that is +called seasonable. If the sun had been obscured, the air would have +been felt to be wintry; but the sunshine was full and warm, and so +the world rejoiced, and declared it was a perfectly lovely May +day,—just as a man who is charmed with the smiles and beauty +of a woman, thinks her complete though she may have a heart of ice. +Lefevre, as he went his hospital round that afternoon, found his +patients revelling in the sunlight like flies. He himself was in +excellent spirits, and he said a cheery or <a name='123.png' id= +'p123.png'></a> facetious word here and there as he passed, which +gave infinite delight to the thin and bloodless atomies under his +care; for a joke from so serious and awful a being as the doctor is +to a desponding patient better than all the drugs of the +pharmacopoeia: it is as exquisite and sustaining as a divine text +of promise to a religious enthusiast.</p> + +<p>Dr Lefevre was thus passing round his female ward, with a train +of attentive students at his heels, when the door was swung open +and two attendants entered, bearing a stretcher between them, and +accompanied by the house-physician and a policeman.</p> + +<p>"What is this?" asked Lefevre, with a touch of severity; for it +was irregular to intrude a fresh case into a ward while the +physician was going his round.<a name='124.png' id= +'p124.png'></a></p> + +<p>"I thought, sir," said the house-physician, "you would like to +see her at once: it seems to me a case similar to that of the man +found in the Brighton train."</p> + +<p>"Where was this lady found?" asked Lefevre of the policeman. He +used the word "lady" advisedly, for though the dress was that of a +hospital nurse or probationer, the unconscious face was that of an +educated gentlewoman. "Why, bless my soul!" he cried, upon more +particular scrutiny of her features—"it seems to me I know +her! Surely I do! Where did you say she was found?"</p> + +<p>The policeman explained that he was on his beat outside St +James's Park, when a park-keeper called him in and showed him, in +one of the shady walks, the lady set on a bench as if she had <a +name='125.png' id='p125.png'></a> fainted. The keeper said he had +taken particular notice of her, because he saw from her dress and +her veil she was a hospital lady. When he first set eyes on her, an +old gentleman was sitting talking to her—a strange, dark, +foreign-looking gentleman, in a soft hat and a big Inverness +cape.</p> + +<p>"Good heavens!" exclaimed the doctor. "The very man! That's the +meaning of it. And I did not guess!"</p> + +<p>His assistant and the policeman gazed at him in surprise; but he +recovered himself and asked, with a serious and determined knitting +of the brows, if the policeman had seen the old gentleman. The +policeman replied he had not; the gentleman was nowhere to be seen +when he was called in. The keeper saw him only once; when he +returned that way <a name='126.png' id='p126.png'></a> again, in +about a quarter of an hour, he found the lady alone and apparently +asleep. She had a very handsome umbrella by her side, and therefore +he kept within eye-shot of her on this side and on that, lest some +park-loafer should seize so good a chance of thieving. He thus +passed her two or three times. The last time, he remarked that she +had slipped a little to one side, and that her umbrella had fallen +to the ground. He went to pick it up, and it struck him as he bent +that she looked strangely quiet and pale. He spoke to her; she made +no reply. He touched her—he even in his fear ventured to +shake her—but she made no sign; and he ran to call the +policeman. They then brought her straight to the hospital, because +they could see she was a hospital lady of some sort.<a name= +'127.png' id='p127.png'></a></p> + +<p>"It must—it must be the same!" said Lefevre.</p> + +<p>"I thought, when I first heard of it below," said the +house-physician, "that it must be the same man as was the cause of +the other case, in the Brighton train."</p> + +<p>"No doubt it is the same. But I was thinking of it in +another—a far more serious sense!" Then turning to the +waiting policeman, he said, "Of course, you must report this to +your inspector?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir," said the policeman.</p> + +<p>"Give him my compliments, then, and say I shall see him +presently."</p> + +<p>Yet, he thought, how could he speak to the official, with all +that he suspected, all that he feared, in his heart? With his +attention on the <i>qui vive</i> with his experiences and +speculations of the night, he was seized, as we have seen, by the +<a name='128.png' id='p128.png'></a> conclusion that the "strange, +dark, foreign-looking gentleman" of the park-keeper's story was the +same whose steps he had followed the evening before, without +guessing that the man was perambulating the pavement and passing +among the crowd in search, doubtless, of a fresh victim for occult +experiment or outrage! That conclusion once determined, shock after +shock smote upon his sense. What if the mysterious person were +really proved to be Julius's father? What if he had entered upon a +course of experiment or outrage (he passed in rapid review the +mysteries of the Paris pavement and the Brighton train, and this of +the Park)—outrage yet unnamable because unknown, but which +would amaze and confound society, and bring signal punishment upon +the offender? And what—what if Julius <a name='129.png' id= +'p129.png'></a> knew all that, and therefore sought to keep his +parentage hidden?</p> + +<p>"She is ready, doctor," said the Sister of the ward at his +elbow, adding with a touch of excitement in her manner as he turned +to her, "do you know who she is? Look at this card; we noticed the +name first on her linen."</p> + +<p>Dr Lefevre looked at the card and read, "Lady Mary Fane, Carlton +Gardens, S.W."</p> + +<p>"I suspected as much," said he. "Lord Rivercourt's daughter. +It's a bad business. She has been learning at St Thomas's the +duties of nurse and dresser, which accounts for her being in that +uniform."</p> + +<p>He went to the bed on which his new patient had been laid, and +very soon satisfied himself that her case was similar to that of +the young officer, though graver <a name='130.png' id='p130.png'> +</a> much than it. He wrote a telegram to Lord Rivercourt, sent the +house-physician for his electrical apparatus, and returned to the +bedside. He looked at his patient. He had not remarked her hitherto +more than other women of his acquaintance, though he had sometimes +sat at her father's table; but now he was moved by a beauty which +was enhanced by helplessness—a beauty stamped with a calm +disregard of itself—the manifest expression of a noble and +loving soul, which had lived above the plane of doubt and fear and +gusty passion. Her wealth of lustrous black hair lay abroad upon +her pillow, and made an admirable setting for her finely-modelled +head and neck. As he looked at this excellent presentment, and +thought of the intelligence and activity which had been wont to +animate it, resentment rose in <a name='131.png' id='p131.png'></a> +him against the man who, for whatever end, had subdued the noble +woman to that condition, and a deep impatience penetrated him that +he had not discovered—had even scarcely guessed—the +purpose or the method of the subjugation!</p> + +<p>It was, however, not speculation but action that was needed +then. The apparatus described in the case of the young officer was +ready, and the house-physician was waiting to give his assistance. +The stimulation of Will and Electricity was applied to resuscitate +the patient—but with the smallest success: there was only a +faint flutter, a passing slight rigidity of the muscles, and all +seemed again as it had been. The exhausting nature of the operation +or experiment forbade its immediate repetition. Disappointment +pervaded <a name='132.png' id='p132.png'></a> the doctor's being, +though it did not appear in the doctor's manner.</p> + +<p>"We'll try again in half an hour," said he to his assistant, and +turned away to complete his round of the ward.</p> + +<p>At the end of the half-hour, Lefevre and the house-physician +were again by Lady Mary's bedside. Again, with fine but firm touch, +Lefevre stroked nerves and muscles to stimulate them into normal +action; again he and his assistant put out their electrical force +through the electrode; and again the result was nothing but a +passing galvanic quiver. The doctor, though he maintained his +professional calm, was smitten with alarm,—as a man is who, +walking through darkness and danger to the rescue of a friend, +finds himself stopped by an unscalable wall. While he sought fresh +means of help, his patient might pass <a name='133.png' id= +'p133.png'></a> beyond his reach. He did not think she +would—he hoped she would not; but her condition, so +obstinately resistant to his restoratives, was so peculiar, that he +could not in the least determine the issue. Imagination and +speculation were excited, and he asked himself whether, after all, +the explanation of his failure might not be of the simplest—a +difference of sex! The secrets of nature, so far as he had +discovered, were of such amazing simplicity, that it would not +surprise him now to find that the electrical force of a man varied +vitally from that of a woman. He explained this suspicion to his +assistant.</p> + +<p>"I think," said he, "we must make another attempt, for her +condition may become the more serious the longer it is left. We'll +set the Sister and the nurse to try this time, and we'll turn her +bed north <a name='134.png' id='p134.png'></a> and south, in the +line of the earth's magnetism." But just then the lady's father, +the old Lord Rivercourt, appeared in response to the doctor's +telegram, and the experiment with the women had to wait. The old +lord was naturally filled with wonder and anxiety when he saw his +apparently lifeless daughter. He was amazed that she should have +been overcome by such influence as, he understood, the old +gentleman must wield. She had always, he said, enjoyed the finest +health, and was as little inclined to hysteria as woman well could +be. Lefevre told the father that this was something other than +hystero-hypnotism, which, while it reassured him as to his +daughter's former health, made him the more anxious regarding her +present condition.</p> + +<p>"It is very extraordinary," said the old <a name='135.png' id= +'p135.png'></a> lord; "but whatever it is,—and you say it is +like the young man's case that we have all read +about,—whatever it is,"—and he laid his hand +emphatically on the doctor's arm,—"she could not be in more +capable hands than yours."</p> + +<p>That assurance, though soothing to the doctor's self-esteem, +added gravely to his sense of responsibility.</p> + +<p>While they were yet speaking, Lefevre was further troubled by +the announcement that a detective-inspector desired to speak with +him! Should he tell the inspector all that he had seen the night +before, and all that he suspected now, or should he hold his peace? +His duty as a citizen, as a doctor, and as, in a sense, the +protector of his patient, seemed to demand the one course, while +his consideration for Julius and for his own family suggested the +other. <a name='136.png' id='p136.png'></a> Surely, never was a +simple, upright doctor involved in a more bewildering <i> +imbroglio</i>!</p> + +<p>The detective-inspector entered, and opened an interview which +proved less embarrassing than Lefevre had anticipated. The +detective had already made up his mind about the case and his +course regarding it. He put no curious questions; he merely +inquired concerning the identity and the condition of the lady. +When he heard who she was, and when he caught the import of an +aside from Lord Rivercourt that it would be worth any one's while +to discover the mysterious offender, professional zeal sparkled in +his eye.</p> + +<p>"I think I know my man," said he; and the doctor looked the +lively interest he felt. "I am right, I believe, Dr Lefevre, in +setting this down to the author of that other case you +had,—that from the <a name='137.png' id='p137.png'></a> +Brighton train?" Lefevre thought he was right in that. "'M. +Dolaro:' that was the name. I had charge of the case, and was +baffled. I shan't miss him this time. I shall get on his tracks at +once; he can't have left the Park in broad daylight, a singular man +like him, without being noticed."</p> + +<p>"It rather puzzles me," said the doctor, "what crime you will +charge him with."</p> + +<p>"It is an outrage," said Lord Rivercourt; "and if it is not +criminal, it seems about time it were made so."</p> + +<p>"Oh, we'll class it, my lord," said the detective; "never +fear."</p> + +<p>The detective departed; but Lord Rivercourt seemed not inclined +to stir.</p> + +<p>"You will excuse me," said Lefevre; "but I must perform a very +delicate operation."</p> + +<p>"To be sure," said the old lord; "and <a name='138.png' id= +'p138.png'></a> you want me to go. How stupid of me! I kept waiting +for my daughter to wake up; but I see that, of course, you have to +rouse her. It did not occur to me what that machine meant. +Something magneto-electric—eh? Forgive one question, Lefevre. +I can see you look anxious: is Mary's condition very +serious?—most serious? I can bear to be told the complete +truth."</p> + +<p>The doctor was touched by the old gentleman's emotion. He took +his hand. "It is serious," said he—"most serious, for this +reason, that I cannot account for her obstinate lethargy; but I +think there is no immediate danger. If necessity arises, I shall +send for you again."</p> + +<p>"To the House," said Lord Rivercourt. "I shall be sitting out a +debate on our eternal Irish question."<a name='139.png' id= +'p139.png'></a></p> + +<p>Lefevre was left seriously discomposed, but at once he sent for +the house-physician, summoned the Sister and the nurse, and set +about his third attempt to revive his patient. He got the bed +turned north and south. He carefully explained to the two women +what was demanded of them, and applied them to their task; but, +whatever the cause, the failure was completer than before: there +was not even a tremor of muscle in the unconscious lady, and the +doctor was suffused with alarm and humiliation. +Failure!—failure!—failure! Such a concatenation had +never happened to him before!</p> + +<p>But failure only nerves the brave and capable man to a supreme +effort for success. Still self-contained, and apparently unmoved, +the doctor gave directions for some liquid nourishment to be +artificially administered <a name='140.png' id='p140.png'></a> to +his patient, said he would return after dinner, and went his way. +The society of friends or acquaintances was distasteful to him +then; the thought even of seeing his own familiar dining-room and +his familiar man in black, whose silent obsequiousness he felt +would be a reproach, was disagreeable. All his thought, all his +attention, all his faculties were drawn tight to this acute +point—he must succeed; he must accomplish the task he had set +himself: life at that hour was worth living only for that purpose. +But how was success to be compelled?</p> + +<p>He walked for a while about the streets, and then he went into a +restaurant and ordered a modest dinner. He broke and crumbled his +bread with both hands, his mind still intent on that one +engrossing, acute point. While thus he sat he heard <a name= +'141.png' id='p141.png'></a> a voice, as in a dream, say, "The very +doctor you read about. That's the second curious case he's got in a +month or so.... Oh yes—very clever; he treats them, I +understand, in the same sort of way as the famous Dr Charbon of +Paris would.... I should say so; quite as good, if not better than +Charbon. I'd rather have an English doctor any day than a +French.... His name's in the paper—<i>Lefevre</i>." Then the +doctor woke to the fact that he was being talked about. He +perceived his admirers were sitting at a table a little behind him, +and he judged from what had been said that his fresh case was +already being made "copy" of in the evening papers. The flattering +comparison of himself with Dr Charbon had an oddly stimulating +effect upon him, notwithstanding that it had been uttered by he +knew not whom,—a <a name='142.png' id='p142.png'></a> mere +<i>vox et præterea nihil</i>. He disclaimed to himself the +truth of the comparison, but all the same he was encouraged to bend +his attention with his utmost force to the solution of his +difficult problem—what to do to rouse his patient?</p> + +<p>He sat thus, amid the bustle and buzz of the restaurant, the +coming and going of waiters, completely abstracted, assailing his +difficulty with questions on this side and on that,—when +suddenly out of the mists that obscured it there rose upon his +mental vision an idea, which appealed to him as a solution of the +whole, and, more than that, as a secret that would revolutionise +all the treatment of nervous weakness and derangement. How came the +idea? How do ideas ever come? As inspirations, we say, or as +revelations; and truly they come upon us with such amazing and +inspiriting <a name='143.png' id='p143.png'></a> freshness, that +they may well be called either the one or the other. But no great +idea had ever yet an epiphany but from the ferment of more familiar +small ideas,—just as the glorious Aphrodite was born of the +ferment and pother of the waves of the sea. Lefevre's new idea +clothed itself in the form of a comparative question—<i>Why +should there not be Transfusion of Nervous Force, Ether, or +Electricity, just as there is Transfusion of Blood?</i></p> + +<p>He pushed his dinner away (he could scarcely have told what he +had been eating and drinking), called for his bill, and returned +with all speed to the hospital. He entered his female ward just as +evening prayers were finished, before the lights were turned out +and night began for the patients. He summoned his trusted +assistant, the house-physician, again.<a name='144.png' id= +'p144.png'></a></p> + +<p>"I am about to attempt," said he, "an altogether new operation: +the patient has remained just as I left her, I suppose?"</p> + +<p>"Just the same."</p> + +<p>"Nervous Force, whether it be Electricity or not, is manifestly +a fluid of some sort: why should it not be transfused as the other +vital fluid is?"</p> + +<p>"Indeed, sir, when you put it so," said the house-physician, +suddenly steeled and brightened into interest, "I should say, 'why +not?' The only reason against it is what can be assigned against +all new things—it has not, so far as I know, been done."</p> + +<p>"Exactly. I am going to try. I think, in case we need a current, +so to say, to draw it along, that we shall use the apparatus too; +we shall therefore need the women."<a name='145.png' id= +'p145.png'></a></p> + +<p>"You mean, of course," said the young man, "you will cut a main +nerve."</p> + +<p>"I shall use this nerve," said Lefevre, indicating the main +nerve in the wrist,—upon which the young man, in his ready +enthusiasm, began to bare his arm.</p> + +<p>"My dear fellow," said Lefevre, "do you consider what you are so +promptly offering? Do you know that my experiment, if successful, +might leave you a paralytic, or an imbecile, or even—a +corpse?"</p> + +<p>"I'll take the risk, sir," said the young man.</p> + +<p>"I can't permit it, my boy," said Lefevre, laying his hand on +his arm, and giving him a look of kindness. "Nobody must run this +risk but me. I don't mean, however, to cut the nerve."</p> + +<p>"What then, sir?"<a name='146.png' id='p146.png'></a></p> + +<p>"Well," said Lefevre, "this Nervous Force, or Nervous Ether, is +clearly a very volatile, and at the same time a very searching +fluid. It can easily pass through the skin from a nerve in one +person to a nerve in another. There is no difficulty about that; +the difficulty is to set up a rapid enough vibration to whirl the +current through!" He said that in meditative fashion: he was +clearly at the moment repeating the working out of the problem.</p> + +<p>"I see," said the young man, looking thoughtful.</p> + +<p>"Now, you are a musician, are you not?"</p> + +<p>"I play a little," said the young man, with a bewildered +look.</p> + +<p>"You play the violin?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."<a name='147.png' id='p147.png'></a></p> + +<p>"And, of course, you have it in your rooms. Would you be so good +as to bring me the bow of your violin, and borrow for me anywhere a +tuning-fork of as high a note as possible?"</p> + +<p>The young man looked at Dr Lefevre in puzzled inquiry; but the +doctor was considering the electrical apparatus before him, and the +young man set off on his errands. When he returned with the +fiddle-bow and the tuning-fork, he saw Lefevre had placed the +machine ready, with fresh chemicals in the vessels.</p> + +<p>"Do you perceive my purpose?" asked Lefevre. He placed one +handle of the apparatus in the unconscious patient's right hand, +while he himself took hold of her left arm with his right hand, so +that the inner side of his wrist was in contact with the inner side +of hers; and then, to <a name='148.png' id='p148.png'></a> complete +the circle of connection, he took in his left hand the other handle +of the apparatus. "You don't understand?"</p> + +<p>"I do not," answered the young man.</p> + +<p>"We want a very rapid vibration—much more rapid than +usual," said the doctor. "I can apply no more rapid vibration at +present than that which the note of that tuning-fork will produce. +I want you to sound the tuning-fork with the fiddle-bow, and then +apply the fork to this wire."</p> + +<p>"Oh," said the young man, "I understand!"</p> + +<p>"Now," said Lefevre, "you'd better call the Sister to set the +electricity going."</p> + +<p>The Sister came and took her place as before +described—with her hands, that is, on the cylinder of the +electrode, her fingers dipping over into the vessels of chemicals. +<a name='149.png' id='p149.png'></a> She opened her eyes and smiled +at sight of the fiddle-bow and tuning-fork.</p> + +<p>"I am trying a new thing, Sister," said Lefevre, with a touch of +severity. "I do not need you, I do not wish you, to exert yourself +this time; I only wish you to keep that position, and to be calm. +Maintain your composure, and attend.... Now!" said he, addressing +the young man.</p> + +<p>The fiddle-bow was drawn across the tuning-fork, and the fork +applied with its thrilling note to the conducting wire which +Lefevre held. The wire hummed its vibration, and electricity +tingled wildly through Lefevre's nerves....There was an anxious, +breathless pause for some seconds, and fear of failure began to +contract the doctor's heart.</p> + +<p>"Take your hands away, Sister," said <a name='150.png' id= +'p150.png'></a> he. Then, turning to his assistant, "Apply that to +the other wire," said he; and dropping his own wire, he put his +hand over the cylinder, with his fingers dipping into the vessel +from which the other wire sprang. When the wire hummed under the +tuning-fork and the vibration thrilled again, instantly he felt as +if an inert obstruction had been removed. The vibratory influence +whirled wildly through him, there was a pause of a second or two +(which seemed to him many minutes in duration), and then suddenly a +kind of rigor passed upon the form and features of his patient, as +if each individual nerve and muscle were being threaded with quick +wire, a sharp rush of breath filled her chest, and she opened her +eyes and closed them again.</p> + +<p>"That will do," said Lefevre in a <a name='151.png' id= +'p151.png'></a> whisper, and, releasing his hands, he sank back in +a chair. "It's a success," said he, turning his eyes with a thin +smile on the house-physician, and then closing them in a deadly +exhaustion.<a name='152.png' id='p152.png'></a></p> + +<h2 id='bedside'>Chapter VI.</h2> + +<p class='argument'>At the Bedside of the Doctor.</p> + +<p><span class='small-caps'>For</span> the first time since he had +come into the world Dr Lefevre was that night attended by another +doctor. The resident assistant-physician took him home to Savile +Row in a cab, assisted him to bed, and sat with him a while after +he had administered a tonic and soporific. Then he left him in +charge of the silent man in black, whom he reassured by saying that +there was no danger; that his master had a magnificent +constitution; that he was only exhausted—though exhausted +very much; and that <a name='153.png' id='p153.png'></a> all he +needed was rest, sleep, nourishment,—sleep above all.</p> + +<p>Lefevre slept the night through like a child, and awoke +refreshed, though still very weak. He was bewildered with his +condition for a moment or two, till he recalled the moving and +exhausting experiences of the day before, and then he was suffused +with a glow of elation,—elation which was not all +satisfaction in the successful performance of a new experiment, nor +in a good deed well done. His friend came to see him early, to +anticipate the risk of his rising. He insisted that he should keep +his bed, for that day at least, if not for a second and a third +day. He reported that the patient was doing well; that she had +asked with particularity, and had been informed with equal +particularity, concerning the method of <a name='154.png' id= +'p154.png'></a> her recovery, upon which she was much bemused, and +asked to see her physician.</p> + +<p>"It is a pity she was told," said Lefevre; "it is not usual to +tell a patient such a thing, and I meant it to be kept secret, at +least till it was better established." But for all his protest he +was again suffused with that new sense of inward joy.</p> + +<p>Alone, and lying idle in bed, it was but natural—it was +almost inevitable—that the doctor's thoughts should begin to +run upon the strange events and suspicions of the past two days; +and their current setting strongly in one channel, made him long to +be resolved whether or no the Man of the Crowd, the author of +yesterday's outrage, the "M. Dolaro" of whom the detective had gone +in search, and who, if captured, would be certainly overwhelmed +with contumely, if not with punishment,—whether <a name= +'155.png' id='p155.png'></a> or not that strange creature was +Julius's father, or any relation at all of Julius. He was not clear +how he could well put the matter to Julius, since he so evidently +shrank from discourse upon it, yet he thought some kind of +certainty might be arrived at from an interview with him. On the +chance of his having returned to his chambers, he called for pen +and paper and wrote a note, asking him to look in, as he would be +resting all day. "Try to come," he urged; "I have something +important to speak about."</p> + +<p>This he sent by the trusty hand of his man in black; and by +mid-day Julius was announced. He came in confident, and bright as +sunshine (Lefevre thought he had never seen him looking more +serene); but suddenly the sunshine was beclouded, and Julius ceased +to be himself, and became <a name='156.png' id='p156.png'></a> a +restless, timorous kind of creature, like a bird put in a cage +under the eye of his captor.</p> + +<p>"What?" he cried when he entered, with an eloquent gesture. +"Lazying in bed on such a day as this? What does this mean?" But +when he observed the pallor and weakness of Lefevre's appearance, +he paused abruptly, refrained from the hand stretched out to greet +him, and exclaimed in a tone of something like terror, "Good +heavens! Are you ill?" A paleness, a shudder, and a dizziness +passed upon him as if he sickened. "May I," he said, "open the +window?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly, Julius," said Lefevre, in surprise and alarm. "Do +you feel ill?"</p> + +<p>"No—no," said Julius from the window, where he stood +letting the air play upon his face, and speaking as if he had to +put <a name='157.png' id='p157.png'></a> considerable restraint +upon himself. "I—I am unfortunately, miserably constituted: I +cannot help it. I cannot bear the sight of illness, or lowness of +health even. It appals me; it—it horrifies me with a quite +instinctive horror; it deadens me."</p> + +<p>Lefevre, whose abundant sympathy and vitality went out +instinctively to succour and bless the weak and the ill, was +inexpressibly shocked and offended by this confession of what to +his sense appeared selfish cowardice and inhumanity. He had again +and again heard it said, and he had with pleasure assented to the +opinion, that Julius was a rare, finely-strung being, with such +pure and glowing health that he shrank from contact with, or from +the sight of, pain or ill-health, and even from their discussion; +but now that the singularity of Julius's organization impinged <a +name='158.png' id='p158.png'></a> upon his own experience, now that +he saw Julius shrink from himself, he was shocked and offended. +Julius, on his part, was pitiably moved. He kept away from the bed; +he fidgeted to and fro, looking at this thing and that, without a +sparkle of interest in his eye, yet all with his own peculiar +grace.</p> + +<p>"You wanted to speak to me," he said. "Do you mind saying what +you have to say and letting me go?"</p> + +<p>"I reckoned upon your staying to lunch," said Lefevre.</p> + +<p>"I can't!—I can't!... Very sorry, my dear Lefevre, but I +really can't! Forgive what seems my rudeness. It distresses me that +at such a time as this my sensations are so acute. But I cannot +help it!—I cannot!"</p> + +<p>"You have been in the country,—have <a name='159.png' id= +'p159.png'></a> you not?" said Lefevre, beginning with a resolve to +get at something.</p> + +<p>"I have just come back," said Julius. "My man told me you had +called."</p> + +<p>"Yes. My mother wrote in a state of great anxiety about you, and +asked me to go and look at you. She said that she and my sister had +seen a good deal of you lately; that you began to look unwell, and +then ceased to appear, and she was afraid you might be ill."</p> + +<p>This was put forth as an invitation to Julius to expound not +only his own situation, but also his relations with Lady and Miss +Lefevre, but Julius took no heed of it. He merely said, "No; I was +not ill. I only wanted a little change to refresh me,"—and +walked back to the window to lave himself in the air.</p> + +<p>"Well," continued Lefevre, "since I <a name='160.png' id= +'p160.png'></a> called to see you, I have had an adventure or two. +You never look at a newspaper except for the weather, and so it is +probable you do not know that I had brought to me yesterday +afternoon another strange case like that of the young officer a +month ago,—a similar case, but worse."</p> + +<p>"Worse?" exclaimed Julius, dropping into the chair by the +window, and glancing, as a less preoccupied observer than the +doctor would have remarked, with a wistful desire at the door.</p> + +<p>"Much worse—though, I believe, from the same hand," said +Lefevre. "A lady this time,—titularly and really a +lady,—Lady Mary Fane, the daughter of Lord Rivercourt."</p> + +<p>"Oh, good heavens!" exclaimed Julius, and there were manifest so +keen a note of apprehension in his voice and so deep a <a name= +'161.png' id='p161.png'></a> shade of apprehension on his face, +that Lefevre could not but note them and confirm himself in his +suspicion of the intimate bond of connection between him and the +author of the outrage. He pitied Julius's distress, and hurried +through the rest of his revelation, careless of the result he had +sought.</p> + +<p>"It may prove," said he, "a far more serious affair than the +other. Lord Rivercourt is not the man to sit quietly under an +outrage like that."</p> + +<p>Julius astonished him by demanding, "What is the outrage? Has +the lady given an account of it? What does she accuse the man +of?"</p> + +<p>"She has not spoken yet,—to me, at least," said Lefevre; +"and I don't know what the outrage can be called, but I am sure +Lord Rivercourt—and he is a man <a name='162.png' id= +'p162.png'></a> of immense influence—will move heaven and +earth to give it a legal name, and to get it punishment. There is a +detective on the man's track now."</p> + +<p>"Oh!" said Julius. "Well, it will be time enough to discuss the +punishment when the man is caught. Now, if that is all your news," +he added hurriedly, "I think——" He took up his hat, and +was as if going to the door.</p> + +<p>"It is not quite all," said the doctor, and Julius went back to +the window, with his hat in his hand.</p> + +<p>"I wonder," he broke out, "if we shall ever be simple enough and +intelligent enough to perceive that real wickedness—the +breaking of any of the laws of Nature, I mean (or, if you prefer to +say so, the laws of God)—is best punished by being left to +itself? Outraged nature exacts a <a name='163.png' id='p163.png'> +</a> severe retribution! But you were going to +say——?"</p> + +<p>"The night before last," continued Lefevre, determined to be +brief and succinct, "I was walking in the Strand, and I could not +help observing a man who fulfilled completely the description given +of the author of this case and my former one."</p> + +<p>"Well?"</p> + +<p>"That is not all. When I caught sight of his face I was +completely amazed; for—I must tell you—it looked for +all the world like you grown old, or, as I said to myself at the +time, like a death-mask of you."</p> + +<p>"You—you saw that?" exclaimed Julius, leaning against the +window with a sudden look of terror which Lefevre was ashamed to +have seen: it was like catching a glimpse of Julius's poor naked <a +name='164.png' id='p164.png'></a> soul. "And you thought—?" +continued Julius.</p> + +<p>"You shall hear. Dr Rippon—you remember the old +doctor?—had a sight of a man in the Strand the night before, +who, he believes, was his old friend Courtney that he thought dead, +and who, I believe, was the man I saw."</p> + +<p>Lefevre stopped. There was a pause, in which Julius put his head +out of the window, as if he had a mind to be gone that way. Then he +turned with a marked control upon himself.</p> + +<p>"Really, Lefevre," said he, "this is the queerest stuff I've +heard for a long time! This is hallucination with a vengeance! I +don't like to apply such a tomfool word to anything, but observe +how all this has come about. An excellent old gentleman, who has +been dining out or something, <a name='165.png' id='p165.png'></a> +has a glimpse at night, on a crowded pavement, of a man who looks +like a friend of his youth. Very well. The excellent old gentleman +tells you of that, and it impresses you. <i>You</i> walk on the +same pavement the next evening—I won't emphasise the fact of +its being after dinner, though I daresay it was——"</p> + +<p>"It was."</p> + +<p>"——<i>You</i> have a glimpse of a man who +looks—well, something like me; and you instantly conclude, +'Ah! the Courtney person—the friend of Dr Rippon's +youth!—and, surely, some relative of my friend Julius!' Next +day this hospital case turns up, and because the description of its +author, given by more or less unobservant persons, fits the person +you saw, <i>argal</i>, you jump to the conclusion that the three +are one! Is your conclusion clear upon the <a name='166.png' id= +'p166.png'></a> evidence? Is it inevitable? Is it necessary? Is it +not forced?"</p> + +<p>"Well," began Lefevre.</p> + +<p>"It is bad detective business," broke in Julius, "though it may +be good friendship. You have thought there was trouble in this for +me, and you wished to give me warning of it. But—<i>que +diable vas-tu faire dans cette galère?</i> You are the best +friend in the world, and whenever I am in trouble—and who +knows? who knows? 'Man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly +upward'—I may ask of you both your friendship and your skill. +One thing I ask of you here: don't speak of me as you see me now, +thus miserably moved, to any one! Now I must go. Good-bye." And +before Lefevre could find another word, Julius had opened the door +and was gone.<a name='167.png' id='p167.png'></a></p> + +<p>"If it moves him like that," said the doctor to himself, through +his bewilderment, "there must be something worse in it—God +forgive me for thinking so!—than I have ever imagined."<a +name='168.png' id='p168.png'></a></p> + +<h2 id='interlude'>Chapter VII.</h2> + +<p class='argument'>Contains a Love Interlude.</p> + +<p><span class='small-caps'>Next</span> day Lefevre learned that +the police had been again baffled in their part of the inquiry. The +detective had contrived to trace his man—though not till the +morning after the event—to the St Pancras Hotel, where he had +dined in private, and gone to bed early, and whence he had departed +on foot before any one was astir, to catch, it was surmised, the +first train. But wherever he had gone, it was just as in the former +case: from the time the hotel door had closed on his cloaked +figure, all trace of him was lost.<a name='169.png' id= +'p169.png'></a></p> + +<p>Nor could Lady Mary Fane add anything of moment to what Lefevre +already knew or guessed. Her account of her adventure (which she +gave him in her father's house, whither she had been removed on the +third day) was as follows: She was returning home from St Thomas's +Hospital, dressed according to her habit when she went there; she +had crossed Westminster Bridge, and was proceeding straight into St +James's Park, when she became aware of a man walking in the same +direction as herself, and at the same pace. She casually noted that +he looked like a distinguished foreigner, and that he had about him +an indefinable suggestion of death clinging with an eager, haggard +hope to life,—a suggestion which melted the heart of the +beholder, as if it were the mute appeal of a drowning sailor. She +<a name='170.png' id='p170.png'></a> was stirred to pity; and when +he suddenly appeared to reel from weakness, she stepped out to him +on an overwhelming impulse, laid a steadying hand on his arm, and +asked what ailed him. He turned on her a pair of wonderful dark +eyes, which were animal-like in their simple, direct appeal, and +their moist softness. He begged her to lead him aside into a path +by which few would pass: he disliked being stared at. Thinking only +of him as a creature in sickness and distress, she obeyed without a +thought for herself. She helped him to sit down upon a bench, and +sat down by him and felt his pulse. He looked at her with an open, +kindly eye, with a simple-seeming gratitude, which held her +strangely (though she only perceived that clearly on looking back). +He said to her suddenly,—<a name='171.png' id= +'p171.png'></a></p> + +<p>"There was a deep, mystical truth in the teaching of the Church +to its children—that they should prefer in their moments of +human weakness to pray to the Virgin-mother; for woman is always +man's best friend."</p> + +<p>She looked in his face, wondering at him, still with her finger +on his pulse, when she felt an unconsciousness come over her, not +unlike "the thick, sweet mystery of chloroform;" and she knew no +more till she opened her eyes in the hospital bed. "Revived by +you," she said to Lefevre.</p> + +<p>He inquired further, as to her sensations before +unconsciousness, and she replied in these striking words: "I felt +as if I were strung upon a complicated system of threads, and as if +they tingled and tingled, and grew tighter to numbness." That +answer, he saw, was kindred to the description <a name='172.png' +id='p172.png'></a> given by the young officer of his condition. It +was clear that in both cases the nerves had been seriously played +upon; but for what purpose? What was the secret of the stranger's +endeavour? What did he seek?—and what find? To these +questions no satisfactory answer would come for the asking, so that +in his impatience he was tempted to break through the severe +self-restraint of science, and let unfettered fancy find an +answer.</p> + +<p>But, most of all, he longed to see close to him the man whom the +police sought for in and out, to judge for himself what might be +the method and the purpose of his strange outrages. He scarcely +desired his capture, for he thought of the possible results to +Julius, and yet—— Day after day passed, and still the +man was unfound, and very soon a change came over <a name='173.png' +id='p173.png'></a> Lefevre's life, which lifted it so far above the +plane of his daily professional experience, that all speculation +about the mysterious "M. Dolaro," and his probable relation to +Julius, fell for a time into the dim background. The doctor had +been calling daily in Carlton Terrace to see his patient, when, on +a certain memorable day, he intimated to her father that she was so +completely recovered that there was no need of his calling on her +professionally again. The old lord, looking a little flustered, +asked him if he could spare a few minutes' conversation, and led +him into his study.</p> + +<p>"My dear Lefevre," said he, "I am at a loss how to make you any +adequate return for what you have done for my daughter. Money can't +do it; no, nor my friendship either, though you are so <a name= +'174.png' id='p174.png'></a> kind as to say so. But I have an idea, +which I think it best to set before you frankly. You are a +bachelor: it is not good to be a bachelor," he went on, laying his +hand affectionately on the doctor's arm, and flushing—old man +of the world though he was—flushing to the eyes. +"What—what do you think of my daughter? I mean, not as a +doctor, but as a man?"</p> + +<p>Lefevre was not in his first youth, and he had had his +admirations for women in his time, as all healthy men must have, +but yet he was made as deliriously dizzy as if he were a boy by his +guess at what Lord Rivercourt meant.</p> + +<p>"Why," he stammered, "I think her the most beautiful, +intelligent, and—and attractive woman I know."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said her father, "I believe she is pretty well in all +these ways. But—and <a name='175.png' id='p175.png'></a> you +see I frankly expose my whole position to you—what would you +think of her for a wife?"</p> + +<p>"Frankly, then," said Lefevre, "I find I have admired her from +the beginning of this, but I had no notion of letting my admiration +go farther, because I conceived that she was quite beyond my +hopes."</p> + +<p>"My dear fellow," said Lord Rivercourt, "you have relieved me +and delighted me immensely. I know no man that I would like so well +for a son-in-law. And after all, it is only fitting that the life +you have saved with such risk to yourself—oh, I know all +about it—should be devoted to making yours happy. +And—and I understand from her mother that Mary is quite of +the same opinion herself. Now, will you go and speak to her at +once, or will you wait till another day? <a name='176.png' id= +'p176.png'></a> You will have to decide that," said he, with a +smile, "not only as lover, but as doctor."</p> + +<p>Lefevre hesitated for but an instant; for what true, manly lover +would have decided to withdraw till another day when the door to +his mistress was held open to him?</p> + +<p>"I'll see her now," he said.</p> + +<p>Lord Rivercourt led the doctor back to his daughter, and left +him with her. There were some moments of chilling doubt and cold +uncertainty, and then came a rush of warm feeling at the bidding of +a shy glance from Lady Mary. He bent over her and murmured he +scarcely knew what, but he heard clearly and with a divine ecstasy +a softly-whispered "<i>Yes!</i>" which thrilled in his heart for +days and months afterwards, and <a name='177.png' id='p177.png'> +</a> then he turned to him her face, her beautiful face illumined +with love, and kissed it: between two who had been drawn together +as they had, what words were needed, or what could poor words +convey?</p> + +<p>About an hour later he walked to Savile Row to dress and return +for dinner. He walked, because he felt surcharged with life. He +desired peace and goodwill among men; he pitied with all his soul +the weary and the broken whom he met, and wondered with regret that +men should get irremediably involved in the toils of their own +misdeeds; he was profuse with coppers, and even small silver, to +the wretched waifs of society who swept the crossings he had to +take on his triumphant way; he would even have bestowed forgiveness +on his greatest enemy if he <a name='178.png' id='p178.png'></a> +had met him then;—for the divine joy of love was singing in +his heart and raising him to the serene and glorious empyrean of +heroes and gods. Oh matchless magic of the human heart, which +confounds all the hypotheses of science, and flouts all its +explanations!</p> + +<p>It was that evening when he and Lady Mary sat in sweet converse +that she said to him these words, which he hung for ever after +about his heart—</p> + +<p>"Surely, never before did a man win a wife as you have won me! +You made me well by putting your own life into me; so what could I +do but give you the life that was already your own!"</p> + +<p>Thus day followed day on golden wings: Lefevre in the morning +occupied with the patients that thronged his consulting-room; in +the afternoon dispensing <a name='179.png' id='p179.png'></a> +healing, and, where healing was impossible, cheerfulness and +courage, in his hospital wards; and in the evening finding +inspiration and strength in the company of Lady Mary—for her +love was to him better than wine. All who went to him in those days +found him changed, and in a sense glorified. He had always been +considerate and kind; but the weakness, the folly, and the +wickedness of poor human nature, which were often laid bare to his +searching scrutiny, had frequently plunged him into a welter of +despondency and shame, out of which he would cry, "Alas for God's +image! Alas for the temple of the Holy Ghost!" But in those days it +seemed as if disease and death appeared to him mere trivial +accidents of life, with the result that no "case," however bad, was +sent away empty of hope.<a name='180.png' id='p180.png'></a></p> + +<h2 id='curzon'>Chapter VIII.</h2> + +<p class='argument'>Strange Scenes in Curzon Street.</p> + +<p><span class='small-caps'>It</span> happened, however, that just +when all the bays and creeks of Dr Lefevre's attention were +occupied, as by a springtide, with the excellent, the divine +fortune that had come to him,—when he seemed thus most +completely divorced from anxious speculation about Julius Courtney +and "M. Dolaro," his attention was suddenly and in unexpected +fashion hurried again to the mystery. The doctor had not seen +Julius since the day he had received him in his bedroom—it +must be admitted he had not <a name='181.png' id='p181.png'></a> +sought to see him—but he had heard now and then from his +mother, in casual notes and postscripts, that Courtney continued to +call in Curzon Street.</p> + +<p>On a certain evening Lady Lefevre gave a dinner and a reception, +designed to introduce Lady Mary to the Lefevre circle. Julius was +not at dinner (at which only members of the two families sat down), +but he was expected to appear later. It is probable, under the +circumstances, that Lefevre would not have remarked the absence of +Julius from the dinner-table, had it not been for Nora. He was +painfully struck with her appearance and demeanour. She seemed to +have lost much of her beautiful vigour and bloom of health, like a +flower that has been for some time cut from its stem; and she, who +had been wont to be ready and gay of <a name='182.png' id= +'p182.png'></a> speech, was now completely silent, yet without +constraint, and as if wrapt in a dream.</p> + +<p>"What has come over Nora?" asked Lefevre of his mother when they +had gone to the drawing-room.</p> + +<p>"Ah," said Lady Lefevre, "you have noticed something, have you? +Do you find her very changed, then?"</p> + +<p>"Very much changed."</p> + +<p>"It's this attachment of hers to Julius. I want to have a talk +with you about it presently. She seems scarcely to live when he is +not with her. She sits like that always when he is gone, and +appears only to dream and wait,—wait with her life as if +suspended till he comes back."</p> + +<p>"Has it, indeed, got so far as that?" said her son with concern. +"I had better have a word or two with Julius about it."<a name= +'183.png' id='p183.png'></a></p> + +<p>Just then Mr Courtney was announced, and there were +introductions on this side and on that. He turned to be introduced +to Lady Mary, and for the time Lefevre forgot his sister, so +engrossed was he with the altered aspect of his friend. He looked +worn and weary, like a student when the dawn finds him still at his +books. Lady Lefevre expressed that in her question—</p> + +<p>"Why, Julius, have you taken to hard work? You're not looking +well, and we have not seen you for days."</p> + +<p>A flush rose to tinge his cheek, but it sank as soon as it +appeared.</p> + +<p>"I have been out of sorts," said he; "that is all. And you have +not seen me because I have bought a yacht and have been trying it +on the river."</p> + +<p>"A yacht!" exclaimed Lefevre. "I did not know you cared for the +water."<a name='184.png' id='p184.png'></a></p> + +<p>"<i>You</i> know me," laughed Julius in his own manner, "and not +know that I care for everything!" So saying, he laid his hand on +Lefevre's arm. The act was not remarkable, but its result was, for +Lefevre felt it as if it were a blow, and stood astonished at +it.</p> + +<p>During this interchange of words Lefevre (with Lady Mary) had +been moving with Julius, as he drew off across the room to greet +Nora, and the doctor could not help observing how the attention of +all the company was bent on his friend. Before his entrance all had +been chatting or laughing easily with their neighbours; now they +seemed as constrained and belittled as is a crowd of courtiers when +a royal personage appears in their midst. In truth, Julius at all +times had a grace, an ease, and a distinction of manner not +unworthy of a <a name='185.png' id='p185.png'></a> prince; but on +this occasion he had an added something, an indefinable attraction +which strangely held the attention. Lefevre, therefore, was +scarcely surprised (though, perhaps, a trifle disappointed, +considering that he was a lover) to note that Lady Mary was +regarding Julius with a silent, wide-eyed fascination. They +convoyed Julius to Nora, and then withdrew, leaving them +together.</p> + +<p>There were several fresh arrivals and new introductions to Lady +Mary. These, Lefevre observed, she went through half-absently, +still turning her eyes on Julius in the intervals with open and +intense interest.</p> + +<p>"Well," said Lefevre at length, smiling in spite of a twinge of +jealousy, "what do you think, now you have seen him, of the +fascinating Julius?"<a name='186.png' id='p186.png'></a></p> + +<p>She gave him no answering smile, but replied as if she painfully +withdrew herself from abstraction,—"I—I don't know. He +is very interesting and very strange. I—I can't make him out. +I don't know."</p> + +<p>Then Lefevre turned his eyes on Julius, and became aware of +something strained in the relations of his sister and his friend. +He could not forbear to look, and as he continued looking he +instinctively felt that a passionate scene was being silently +enacted between them. They sat markedly apart. Nora's bosom heaved +with suppressed emotion, and her look, when raised to Julius, plied +him with appeal or reproach—Lefevre could not determine +which. The doctor's interest almost drew him over to them, when +Lady Lefevre appeared and said to Julius—<a name='187.png' +id='p187.png'></a></p> + +<p>"Do go to the piano, Julius, and wake us up."</p> + +<p>Nora put out her hand with a gesture which plainly meant, +"Don't!... Don't leave me!"</p> + +<p>But Julius rose, and as he turned (the doctor noted) he bent an +inscrutable look of pain on Nora. He sat down at the piano and +struck a wild, sad chord. Instantly it became as if the people in +the room were the instrument upon which he played,—as if the +throbbing human hearts around him were directly connected by +invisible strings with the ivory keys that pulsed beneath his +fingers. What was the music he played no one knew, no one cared, no +one inquired: each individual person was held and played upon, and +was allowed no pause for reflection or criticism. The music carried +all away as on the flood <a name='188.png' id='p188.png'></a> of +time, showing them, on one hand, sunshine and beauty and joy, and +all the pride of life; and on the other, darkness and cruelty, +despair, and defiance, and death. It might have been, on the one +hand, the music with which Orpheus tamed the beasts; and on the +other, that which Æschylus arranged to accompany the last act +of his tragedy of "Prometheus Bound." There was, however, no clear +distinction between the joyous airs and the sombre: all were +wrought and mingled into an exciting and bewildering atmosphere of +melody, which thrilled the heart and maddened the brain. But as the +music continued, its joyous strains died out; the instrument cried +aloud in horror and pain, as if the vulture of Prometheus were +tearing at its vitals; darkness seemed to descend upon the +room—a darkness alive <a name='189.png' id='p189.png'></a> +with the sighs and groans, the disillusions and tears, of lost +souls. The men sat transfixed with agony and dread, the women were +caught in the wild clutches of hysteria, and Courtney himself was +as if possessed with a frenzy: his features were rigid, his eyes +dilated, and his hair rose and clung in wavy locks, so that he +seemed a very Gorgon's head. The only person apparently unmoved was +old Dr Rippon, whose pale, gaunt form rose in the background, +sinister and calm as Death!</p> + +<p>The situation was at its height, when a black cat (a pet of Miss +Lefevre's) suddenly leaped on the top of the piano with a canary in +its mouth, and in the presence of them all, laid its captive before +Julius Courtney. The music ceased with a dissonant crash. With a +cry Julius rose <a name='190.png' id='p190.png'></a> and laid his +hand on the cat's neck: to the general amazement the cat lay down +limp and senseless, and the little golden bird fluttered away. Then +the sobs of the women, hitherto controlled, broke out, and the +murmurs of the men.</p> + +<p>"O Julius! Julius! what have you done?" cried Nora, sweeping up +to him in an ecstasy of emotion.</p> + +<p>He caught her in his arms, when with a strange cry—a +strained kind of laugh with a hysterical catch in it—she sank +fainting on his breast. With a sharp exclamation of pain and fear +he bore her swiftly from the room (he was near the door) and into a +little conservatory that opened upon the staircase, casting his +eyes upon Lefevre as he went, and saying, "Come! come quick!" +Lefevre then woke to the fact that he had been fixedly regarding +this last strange <a name='191.png' id='p191.png'></a> scene, while +Lady Mary clung trembling to his arm. He hurried out after Julius, +followed by Lady Mary and his mother.</p> + +<p>"Take her!" cried Julius, standing away from Nora, and looking +white and terror-stricken. "Restore her! Oh, I must not!—I +dare not touch her!"</p> + +<p>With nimble accustomed fingers Lady Mary undid Nora's dress, +while the doctor applied the remedies usual in hysterical fainting. +Nora opened her eyes and fixed them upon Julius.</p> + +<p>"O Julius, Julius!" she cried. "Do not leave me! Come near me! +Oh!... I think I am going to die!"</p> + +<p>"My love! my life! my soul!" said Julius, stretching out his +hands to her, but approaching no nearer. "I cannot—I must not +touch you! No, no! I dare not!"<a name='192.png' id= +'p192.png'></a></p> + +<p>"O Julius!" said she. "Are you afraid of me? How can I harm +you?"</p> + +<p>"Nora, my life! I am afraid of myself! You would not harm me, +but I would harm you! Ah, I know it now only too well!"</p> + +<p>Then, as she closed her eyes again, she said, "I had better +die!"</p> + +<p>"No, you must not die!" he exclaimed. +"Your time is not yet! Yes, you will live!—live! But I +must be cut off—though not for ever—from the sweetest +and dearest, the noblest and purest of all God's creatures!"</p> + +<p>In the meantime Lefevre had been examining his sister with +closer scrutiny. He raised her eyelid and looked at her eye; he +pricked her on the arm and wrist; and then he turned to Julius.</p> + +<p>"Julius," said he, "what does this mean?"</p> + +<p>"It means," answered Julius, covering <a name='193.png' id= +'p193.png'></a> his face with his hands, "that I am of all living +things the most accurst!" Then with a cry of horror and anguish he +fled from the room and down the stairs.</p> + +<p>Lady Lefevre followed him in a flutter of fear. Presently she +returned, and said, in answer to a look from her son, "He snatched +his hat and coat, and was gone before I came up with him."</p> + +<p>Without a word Lefevre set himself to recover his sister, and in +half an hour she was well enough to walk with Lady Mary's +assistance to bed.</p> + +<p>The guests, meanwhile, had departed, all but two or three +intimates; and in less than an hour Dr Lefevre was returning home +in the Fane carriage. Lord Rivercourt and he talked of the strange +events of the evening, while Lady Mary leaned back and +half-absently listened. They <a name='194.png' id='p194.png'></a> +were proceeding thus along Piccadilly, when she suddenly caught the +doctor's arm and exclaimed—</p> + +<p>"Oh! Look! The very man I met in the Park! I am sure of it! I +can never forget the face!"</p> + +<p>Lefevre, alert on the instant, looked to recognise Hernando +Courtney, the Man of the Crowd: he saw only the back of a person in +a loose cape and a slouch hat turning in at the gateway of the +Albany courtyard. In flashes of reflection these questions arose: +Who could he be but Hernando Courtney?—and where could he be +going but to Julius's chambers? Julius, therefore (whose own +conduct had been that night so extraordinary), must be familiar +with his whole mysterious course, and consequently with the peril +he was in. Before Lefevre could out of his <a name='195.png' id= +'p195.png'></a> perplexity snatch a resolution, Lord Rivercourt had +pulled the cord to stop the coachman. The coachman, however, having +received orders to drive home, was driving at a goodly pace, and it +was only on a second summons through the cord that he slackened +speed, and obeyed his master's direction to "draw up by the +kerb."</p> + +<p>"I'll get out," said Lefevre, "and look after him. You'd better +get Mary home; she's not very strong yet, and she has been upset +to-night."</p> + +<p>He put himself thus forward for another reason besides,—on +the impulse of his friendship for Julius, without considering +whether in the event of an arrest and an exposure, he could do +anything to shield Julius from shame and pain.</p> + +<p>He got out, saying his adieus, and the <a name='196.png' id= +'p196.png'></a> carriage drove on. He found himself well past the +Albany. He hurried back, nerved by the desire to encounter Julius's +visitor, and at the same time by the hope that he would not. In his +heart was a turmoil of feeling, to the surface of which continued +to rise pity for Julius. The events of the evening had forced him +to the conclusion that Julius possessed the same singular, +magnetic, baleful influence on men and women as his putative father +Hernando; but Julius's burst of agony, when Nora lay overcome, had +declared to him that till then he had scarcely been aware of the +destructive side of his power. All resentment, therefore, all sense +of offence and suspicion which had lately begun to arise in his +mind, was swallowed up in pity for his afflicted friend. His chief +desire, now that he seemed reduced to the level of <a name= +'197.png' id='p197.png'></a> suffering humanity, was to give him +help and counsel.</p> + +<p>Thus he entered the Albany, and passed the porter. The lamps in +the flagged passage were little better than luminous shadows in the +darkness, and the hollow silence re-echoed the sound of his hurried +steps. No one was to be seen or heard in front of him. He came to +the letter which marked Julius's abode. He looked into the gloomy +doorway, and resolved he would see and speak to Julius in any case. +He passed into the gloom and knocked at Julius's door. After a +pause the door was opened by Jenkins. Lefevre could not well make +out the expression of the serving-man's face, but he was satisfied +that his voice was shaken as by a recent shock.</p> + +<p>"I wish to see Mr Courtney," said <a name='198.png' id= +'p198.png'></a> Lefevre, in the half hope that Jenkins would say, +"Which Mr Courtney?"</p> + +<p>"Not at home, sir," said Jenkins in his flurried voice, and +prepared to shut the door.</p> + +<p>"Not at home, Jenkins? You don't mean that!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, it's you, Dr Lefevre, sir. Mr Courtney is not at home, but +perhaps he will see you, sir! I hope he will; for he don't seem to +me at all well."</p> + +<p>"But if he is engaged, Jenkins—?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, sir, you know what 'not-at-home' means," answered Jenkins. +"It means anything or nothing. Will you step into the drawing-room, +sir, while I inquire? Mr Courtney is in his study."</p> + +<p>"Thank you, Jenkins," said the doctor; "I'll wait where I +am."</p> + +<p>Jenkins returned with deep concern on <a name='199.png' id= +'p199.png'></a> his face. "Mr Courtney's compliments, sir," said +he, "and he is very sorry he cannot see you to-night. It is a pity, +sir," he added, in a burst of confidence, "for he don't seem well. +He's a-settin' there with the lamp turned down, and his face in his +hands."</p> + +<p>"Is he alone, then?" asked the doctor.</p> + +<p>"Oh yes, sir," answered Jenkins, in manifest surprise.</p> + +<p>"Has nobody been to see him since he came in?"</p> + +<p>"No, sir, nobody," said Jenkins, in wider surprise than +before.</p> + +<p>It appeared to Lefevre that his friend must be sitting alone +with the terrible discovery he had that night made of himself. His +heart, therefore, urged him to go in and take him by the hand, and +give what help and comfort he could.<a name='200.png' id= +'p200.png'></a></p> + +<p>"I think," said he to Jenkins, "I'll try and have a word with +him."</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir," said Jenkins, and led the way to the study. He +tapped at the door, and then turned the handle; but the door +remained closed.</p> + +<p>"Who is there?" asked a weary voice within, which scarce sounded +like the voice of Julius.</p> + +<p>"I—Lefevre," said the doctor, putting Jenkins aside. "May +not I come in? I want a friendly word with you."</p> + +<p>"Forgive me, Lefevre," said the voice, "that I do not let you +in. I am very busy at present."</p> + +<p>"You are alone," said Lefevre, "are you not?"</p> + +<p>"Alone," said Julius; "yes, all alone!" There was a melting note +of sadness in the words which went to the doctor's heart.<a name= +'201.png' id='p201.png'></a></p> + +<p>"My dear Julius," said he, "I think I know what's troubling you. +Don't you think a talk with me might help you?"</p> + +<p>"You are very good, Lefevre." (That was an unusual form of +speech to come from Julius.) "I shall come to your house in a few +minutes, if you will allow me."</p> + +<p>"Do," answered Lefevre, for the moment completely satisfied. +"Do!" And he turned away.</p> + +<p>But when Jenkins had closed the outer door upon him, doubts +arose. Ought he not to have insisted on seeing whether Julius was +in truth alone in the study? And why could they not have had their +talk there as well as in Savile Row? These doubts, however, he +thrust down with the promise to himself that, if Julius did not +come to him within half an hour, <a name='202.png' id='p202.png'> +</a> he would return to him. Yet he had not gone many steps before +an unworthy suspicion shot up and arrested him: Suppose Julius had +got rid of him to have the opportunity of sending a mysterious +companion away unseen? But Jenkins had said he had let no one in, +and it was shameful to suspect both master and man of lying. Yet +Lady Mary Fane had distinctly recognised the man who passed into +the Albany courtyard: had he merely passed through on his unceasing +pursuit of something unknown? or were father and son somehow aware +of each other? Between this and that his mind became a jumble of +the wildest conjectures. He imagined many things, but never +conceived that which soon showed itself to be the fact.<a name= +'203.png' id='p203.png'></a></p> + +<h2 id='apparition'>Chapter IX.</h2> + +<p class='argument'>An Apparition and a Confession.</p> + +<p><span class='small-caps'>He</span> let himself in with his +latch-key, went into his dining-room, and sat down dressed as he +was to wait. He listened through minute after minute for the +expected step. The window was open (for the midsummer night was +warm), and all the sounds of belated and revelling London floated +vaguely in the air. Twelve o'clock boomed softly from Westminster, +and made the heavy atmosphere drowsily vibrate with the volume of +the strokes. The reverberation of the last had scarcely <a name= +'204.png' id='p204.png'></a> died away when a light, measured +footfall made him sit up. It came nearer and nearer, and then, +after a moment's hesitation, sounded on his own doorstep. With that +there came the tap of a cane on the window. With thought and +expectation resolutely suspended, Lefevre swung out of the room and +to the hall-door. He opened it, and stood and gazed. The light of +the hall-lamp fell upon a figure, the sight of which sent the blood +in a gush to his heart, and pierced him with horror. He expected +Julius, and he looked on the man whom he had followed on the +crowded pavements some weeks before,—the man whom the police +had long sought for ineffectually!</p> + +<p>"Won't you let me in, Lefevre?" said the man.</p> + +<p>The doctor stood speechless, with his <a name='205.png' id= +'p205.png'></a> eyes fixed: the face and dress of the person before +him were those of Hernando Courtney, but the voice was the voice of +Julius, though it sounded strange and distant, and bore an accent +as of death. Lefevre was involved in a wild turmoil and horror of +surmise, too appalling to be exactly stated to himself; for he +shrank with all his energy from the conclusion to which he was +being forced. He turned, however, upon the request for admission, +and led the way into the dining-room, letting his visitor close the +door and follow.</p> + +<p>"Lefevre," said the strange voice, "I have come to show myself +to you, because I know you are a true-hearted friend, and because I +think you have that exquisite charity that can forgive all +things."</p> + +<p>"<i>Show myself!</i>" ... As Lefevre <a name='206.png' id= +'p206.png'></a> listened to the strange voice and looked at the +strange person, the suspicion came upon him—What if he were +but regarding an Illusion? He had read in some of his mystical and +magical writers, that men gifted with certain powers could project +to a distance eidola or phantasms of varying likeness to +themselves: might not this be such a mocking phantasm of Julius? He +drew his hand across his eyes, and looked again: the figure still +sat there. He put out his hand to test its substantiality, and the +voice cried in a keen pitch of terror—</p> + +<p>"Don't touch me!—for your own sake!... Why, Lefevre, do +you look so amazed and overcome? Is not my wretched secret written +in my face?"</p> + +<p>"And you are really Julius Courtney?" asked Lefevre, at length +finding utterance, <a name='207.png' id='p207.png'></a> with +measured emphasis, and in a voice which he hardly recognised as his +own.</p> + +<p>"I am Julius Courtney—"</p> + +<p>He paused, for Lefevre had put his head in his hands, shaken +with a silent paroxysm of grief. It wrung the doctor's heart, as if +in the person that sat opposite him, all that was noblest and most +gracious in humanity were disgraced and overthrown.</p> + +<p>"Yes," continued the voice, "I am Julius; there is no other +Courtney that I know of, and soon there will be none at all." The +doctor listened, but he could not endure to look again. "I am +dying—I have been dying for a dozen years, and for a dozen +years I have resisted and overcome death; now I surrender. I have +come to my period. I shall never enter your house again. I have +only come now <a name='208.png' id='p208.png'></a> to confess +myself, and to ask a last favour of you—a last token of +friendship."</p> + +<p>"I will freely do what I can for you, Julius," said the doctor, +still without looking at him, "though I am too overcome, too +bewildered, yet to say much to you."</p> + +<p>"Thank you. You will hear my story and understand. It contains a +secret which I, like a blind fool, have only used for myself, but +which you will apply for the wide benefit of mankind. The request I +have to make of you is small, but it may seem +extraordinary,—be my companion for twelve hours. I cannot +talk to you here, enclosed and oppressed with streets of houses. +Come with me for a few hours on the water; I have a fancy to see +the sun rise for the last time over the sea. I have my yacht ready +near London Bridge, and a boat waiting at the steps by Cleopatra's +<a name='209.png' id='p209.png'></a> Needle; a cab will soon take +us there. Will you come?"</p> + +<p>Lefevre did not look up. The voice of Julius sounded like an +appeal from the very abode of death. Then he glanced in spite of +himself in his face, and was moved and melted to unreserved +compassion by the strained weariness of his expression—the +open, luminous wistfulness of his eyes.</p> + +<p>"Yes; I'll go," said he. "But can't I do something for you +first? Let me consider your case."</p> + +<p>"There's nothing now to be done for me, Lefevre," said Julius, +shaking his head. "You will perceive that when you have heard me +out."</p> + +<p>The doctor went to find his man and tell him that he was going +out for the night to attend on an urgent case. When he returned he +stood a moment touched with <a name='210.png' id='p210.png'></a> +misgiving. He thought of Lady Mary—he thought of his mother +and sister. Ought he not to leave some hint behind him of the +strange adventure upon which he was about to embark, and which +might end he knew not how or where? Julius was observing him, and +seemed to divine his doubt.</p> + +<p>"You need have no hesitation," said he. "I ask you only for +twelve hours. You can easily get back here by noon to-morrow. There +is a south-west wind blowing, with every prospect of settled +weather. I am quite certain about it."</p> + +<p>Fortified with that assurance, Lefevre put on a thicker overcoat +and an old soft hat, turned out the lights in the dining-room and +in the hall, closed the door with a slam, and stood with the new, +the strange Julius in the street, fairly embarked upon <a name= +'211.png' id='p211.png'></a> his adventure. It was only with an +effort that he could realise he was in the company of one who had +been a familiar friend. They walked towards Regent Street without +speaking. At the corner of Savile Row they came upon a policeman, +and Lefevre had a sudden thrill of fear lest his companion should, +at length, be recognised and arrested. Courtney himself, however, +appeared in no wise disturbed. In Regent Street he hailed a passing +four-wheeler.</p> + +<p>"Wouldn't a hansom be quicker?" said Lefevre.</p> + +<p>"It is better on your account," said Julius, "that we should sit +apart."</p> + +<p>When they entered the cab, Courtney ensconced himself in the +remote corner of the other seat from Lefevre; and thus without +another word they drove to the Embankment. At the foot of the steps +<a name='212.png' id='p212.png'></a> by Cleopatra's Needle, they +found a waterman and a boat in waiting. They entered the boat, +Lefevre going forward while Julius sat down at the tiller. The +waterman pulled out. The tide was ebbing, and they slipped swiftly +down the dark river, with broken reflections of lamps and lanterns +on either bank streaming deep into the water like molten gold as +they passed, and with tall buildings and chimney-shafts showing +black against the calm night sky. Lefevre found it necessary at +intervals to assure himself that he was not drifting in a dream, or +that the ghastly, burning-eyed figure, wrapped in a dark cloak in +the stern, was not a strange visitor from the nether world.</p> + +<p>Soon after they had shot through London Bridge they were +alongside a yacht almost in mid-stream. It was clear <a name= +'213.png' id='p213.png'></a> that all had been prearranged for +Julius's arrival; for as soon as they were on board, the yacht +(loosed from her upper mooring by the waterman who had brought them +down the river) began to stand away.</p> + +<p>"We had better go forward," said Courtney. "Are you warm +enough?"</p> + +<p>The doctor answered that he was. Courtney gave an order to one +of the men, who went below and returned with a fur-lined coat which +his master put on. That little incident gave a curious shock to +Lefevre: it made him think of the mysterious stranger who had sat +down opposite the young officer in the Brighton train, and it +showed him that he had not been completely satisfied that his +friend Julius and the person he had been wont to think of as +Hernando Courtney were one and the same.<a name='214.png' id= +'p214.png'></a></p> + +<p>They went forward to be free of the sail and its tackling. +Courtney, wrapped in his extra, his fur-lined coat, pointing to a +low folding-chair for Lefevre, threw himself on a heap of cordage. +He looked around and above him, at the rippling, flashing water and +the black hulls of ships, and at the serene, starlit heavens +stretching over all.</p> + +<p>"How wonderful!—how beautiful it all is!" he exclaimed. +"All, all!—even the dullest and deadest-seeming things are +vibrating, palpitating with the very madness of life! He set the +world in my heart, and oh, how I loved!—how I loved the +world!"</p> + +<p>"It is a wonderful world," said Lefevre, trying to speak +cheerfully; "and you will take delight in it again when this +abnormal fit of depression is over."<a name='215.png' id= +'p215.png'></a></p> + +<p>"Never, Lefevre!—never, never!" said Courtney in strenuous +tones. "I regret it deeply, bitterly, madly,—but yet I know +that I have about done with it!"</p> + +<p>"Julius," said Lefevre, "I have been so amazed and bewildered, +that I have found little to say: I can scarcely believe that you +are in very deed the Julius I have known for years. But now let me +remind you I am your friend——"</p> + +<p>"Thank you, Lefevre."</p> + +<p>"——And I am ready to help you to the uttermost in +this crisis, which I but dimly understand. Tell me about yourself, +and let me see what I can do."</p> + +<p>"You can do nothing," said Julius, sadly shaking his head. +"Understand me; I am not going to state a case for diagnosis. Put +that idea aside; I merely wish to confess myself to my friend."<a +name='216.png' id='p216.png'></a></p> + +<p>"But surely," said Lefevre, "I may be your physician as well as +your friend. As long as you have life there is hope of life."</p> + +<p>"No, no, no, Lefevre! There is a depth of life—life on the +lees—that is worse than death! If I could retrace my steps to +the beginning of this, taking my knowledge with me, +then——! But no, I must go my appointed way, and face +what is beyond.... But let me tell you my story.</p> + +<p>"You have heard something of my parentage from Dr Rippon, I +believe. My father was Spanish, and my mother was English. I think +I was born without that sense of responsibility to a traditional or +conventional standard which is called Conscience, and that sense of +obligation to consider others as important as myself, <a name= +'217.png' id='p217.png'></a> which, I believe, they call Altruism. +I do not know whether the lack of these senses had been manifest in +my mother's family, but I am sure it had been in my father's. For +generations it had been a law unto itself; none of its members had +known any duty but the fulfilment of his desires; and I believe +even that kind of outward conscience called Honour had scarcely +existed for some of them. I had from my earliest recollection the +nature of these ancestors: they, though dead, desired, acted, lived +in me,—with something of a difference, due to I know not +what. Let me try to state the fact as it appears to me looking +back: I was for myself the one consciousness, the one person in the +world, all else—trees, beasts, men and women, and what +not—being the medium in which, and on which, I lived. I +conceived of nothing <a name='218.png' id='p218.png'></a> around me +but as existing to please, to amuse, to delight me, and if anything +showed itself contrary to these ends, I simply avoided it. What I +wished to do I did; what I wished to have I had;—and nothing +else. I do not suppose that in these points I was different from +most other children of wealthy parents. Where I differed, I +believe, was in having a peculiarly sensitive, and at the same time +admirably healthy, constitution of body, which induced a remarkable +development of desire and gratification. I can hardly make you +understand, I am sure I cannot make you feel—I myself cannot +feel, I can only remember—what a bright natural creature I +was when I was young."</p> + +<p>"Don't I remember well," said Lefevre, "what you were like when +I first met you in Paris?"<a name='219.png' id='p219.png'></a></p> + +<p>"Ah," said Julius, "the change had begun then,—the change +that has brought me to this. I contemplate myself as I was before +that with bitter envy and regret. I was as a being sprung fresh +from the womb of primitive Nature. I delighted in Nature as a child +delights in its mother, and I throve on my delight as a child +thrives. I refused to go to school—and indeed little pressure +was put upon me—to be drilled in the paces and hypocrisy of +civilised mankind. I ran wild about the country; I became +proficient in all bodily exercises; I fenced and wrestled and +boxed; I leaped and swam; I rowed for days alone in a skiff; I +associated with simple peasants, and with all kinds of animals; I +delighted in air and water, and grass and trees: to me they were as +much alive as beasts are. Oh, what an exquisite, <a name='220.png' +id='p220.png'></a> abounding, unclouded pleasure life was! When I +was hungry I ate; when I was thirsty I drank; when I was tired I +slept; and when I woke I stretched myself like a giant refreshed. +It was a pure joy to me in those days to close my fingers into a +fist and see the beauty and firmness of my muscles. When solemn, +civilised people spoke to me of duty and work, I listened like an +idiot. I had nothing in my consciousness to help me to understand +them. I knew no more of duty than Crusoe on his island; and as for +work, I had no ambition,—why, then, should I work? I read, of +course; but I read because I liked it, not because I had tasks set +me. I read everything that came in my way; and very soon all +literature and science—all good poetry and romance, and all +genuine science—came to mean for me <a name='221.png' id= +'p221.png'></a> a fine, orderly expression of nature and life. And +religion, too, I felt as the ecstasy of nature. So I fed and +flourished on the milk of life and the bread of life.</p> + +<p>"But a time came when I longed to live deeper, and to get at the +pith and marrow of life. I was over twenty when it was revealed to +me in a noonday splendour and warmth of light, that the human is +unspeakably the highest and most enthralling expression of life in +all Nature. That discovery happened to me when I was in Morocco +with my father, who died there—no matter how—among +those whom he liked to believe were his own people: my mother had +died long before. I had considerable wealth at my command, and I +began to live at the height of all my faculties; I lived in every +nerve, and at every pore.<a name='222.png' id='p222.png'></a></p> + +<p>"And then I began to perceive a reverse to the bounteous beauty +and the overflowing life of Nature,—a threatening quality, a +devouring faculty in her by which she fed the joyous abundance of +her life. I saw that all activity, all the pleasant palpitation and +titillation in the life of Nature and of Man, merely means that one +living thing is feeding upon or is feeding another. I began to +perceive that all the interest of life centres in this +alter-devouring principle. I discovered, moreover, this strange +point,—that the joy of life is in direct proportion to the +rapidity with which we lose or surrender life."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Lefevre, "the giving of pleasure is always more +exquisite and satisfactory than the getting it."</p> + +<p>"I lost life," continued Julius, without noting Lefevre's +remark,—"I lost life,—vital <a name='223.png' id= +'p223.png'></a> force, nervous ether, electricity, whatever you +choose to call it,—at an enormous rate, but I as quickly +replenished my loss. I had revelled for some time in this deeper +life of give and take before I discovered that this faculty of +recuperation also was curiously and wonderfully active in me. +Whenever I fell into a state of weakness, well-nigh empty of life, +I withdrew myself from company, and dwelt for a little while with +the simplest forms of Nature."</p> + +<p>"But," asked Lefevre, "how did you get into such a low +condition?"</p> + +<p>"How? <i>I lived!</i>" said he with fervour. "<i>Yes; I +lived:</i> that was how! I had always delighted in animals, but +then I began to find that when I caressed them they were not merely +tamed, as they had been wont, but completely subdued; and I felt +rapid and full accessions of life from <a name='224.png' id= +'p224.png'></a> contact with them. If I lay upon a bank of rich +grass or wild flowers, I had to a slight extent the same +revivifying sensation. The fable of Antæus was fulfilled in +me. The constant recurrence and vigour of this recuperation not +only filled me with pride, but also set me thinking. I turned to +medical science to find the secret of it. I entered myself as a +student in Paris: it was then I met you. I read deeply, too, in the +books of the mediæval alchemists and sages of Spain, which my +father had left me. It came upon me in a clear flood of evidence +that Nature and man are one and indivisible, being animated by one +identical Energy or Spirit of Life, however various may be the +material forms; and that all things, all creatures, according to +the activity of their life, have the power of communicating, of +giving or <a name='225.png' id='p225.png'></a> taking, this +invisible force of life. It furthermore became clear to me that, +though the force resides in all parts of a body, floating in every +corpuscle of blood, yet its proper channels of circulation and +communication are the nerves, so that as soon as a nerve in any one +shape of life touches a nerve in any other, there is an instant +tendency to establish in them a common level of the Force of Life. +If I or you touch a man or woman with a finger, or clasp their +hand, or embrace them more completely, the tendency is at once set +up, and the force seeks to flow, and, according to certain +conditions, does flow, from one to another, evermore seeking to +find a common level,—always, that is, in the direction of the +greater need, or the greater capacity. I saw then that not only had +I a greater storage capacity, so to say, than <a name='226.png' id= +'p226.png'></a> most men, but also, therefore, when exhaustion +came, I had a more insistent need for replenishment, and a more +violent shrinking at all times from any weak or unhealthy person +who might even by chance contact make a demand on my store of +life."</p> + +<p>"And is that your secret?" asked Lefevre. "I have arrived in a +different way at something like the same discovery."</p> + +<p>"I know you have," said Julius. "But my peculiar secret is not +that, though it is connected with it. I am growing very tired," +said he, abruptly. "I must be quick, Lefevre," he continued in a +hurried, weak voice of appeal; "grant me one little last favour to +enable me to finish."</p> + +<p>"Anything I can do I will, Julius," said Lefevre, suddenly +roused out of the half-drowsiness which the soft night induced. <a +name='227.png' id='p227.png'></a> He was held between alarm and +fascination by the look which Julius bent on him.</p> + +<p>"I am ashamed to ask, but you are full of life," said Julius: "I +am at the shallowest ebb. Just for one minute help me. Of your +free-will submit yourself to me for but a moment. Will you do me +that service?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Lefevre, after an instant's hesitation; "certainly I +will."</p> + +<p>Julius half rose from his reclining position; he turned on +Lefevre his wonderful eyes, which in the mysterious twilight that +suffused the midsummer night burned with a surprising brilliance. +Lefevre felt himself seized and held in their influence.</p> + +<p>"Give me your hand," said Julius.</p> + +<p>The doctor gave his hand, his eyes being still held by those of +Julius, and <a name='228.png' id='p228.png'></a> instantly, as it +seemed to him, he plunged, as a man dives into the sea, into a gulf +of unconsciousness, from which he presently emerged with something +like a gasp and with a tremulous sensation about his heart. What +had happened to him he did not know; but he felt slacker of fibre, +as if virtue had gone out of him, while Julius, when he spoke, +seemed refreshed as by a draught of wine.</p> + +<p>"How are you?" asked Julius. "For heaven's sake don't let me +think that at the last I have troubled much the current of your +life! Will you have something to eat and drink? There's wine and +food below."</p> + +<p>"Thank you; no," said Lefevre. "I am well enough, only a little +drowsy."</p> + +<p>"I am stronger," said Julius, "but it will not last; so let me +finish my story."<a name='229.png' id='p229.png'></a></p> + +<p>Then he continued. "Having explained to myself, in the way I +have told you, the ease of my unwitting replenishment of force +whenever I was brought low, I set myself to improve on my +discovery. I saw before me a prospect of enjoyment of all the +delights of life, deeper and more constant than most men ever +know,—if I could only ensure to myself with absolute +certainty a still more complete and rapid reinvigoration as often +soever as I sank into exhaustion. I was quite sure that no energy +of life is finer or fuller than the human at its best."</p> + +<p>"Good God!" exclaimed Lefevre, turning away with an involuntary +shudder.</p> + +<p>"For heaven's sake!" cried Julius, "don't shrink from me now, or +you will tempt me to be less frank than I have been. I wish to make +full confession. I <a name='230.png' id='p230.png'></a> know, I see +now, I have been cruelly, brutally selfish—as selfish as +Nature herself!—none knows that better than I. But remember, +in extenuation, what I have told you of my origin and my growth. +And I had not the suspicion of a thought of injuring any one. Fool! +fool! egregious fool that I was! I who understood most things so +clearly did not guess that no creature, no being in the +universe—god, or man, or beast—can indulge in arrogant, +full, magnificent enjoyment without gathering and living in +himself, squandering through himself, the lives of others, to their +eternal loss and his own final ruin! But, as I said, I did not +think, and it was not evident until recently, that I injured any +one. I had for a long time been aware that I had an unusual +mesmeric or magnetic influence—call it <a name='231.png' id= +'p231.png'></a> what you will—over others. I cultivated that +power in eye and hand, so that I was soon able to take any person +at unawares whom I considered fit for my purpose, and subdue him or +her completely to myself. Then after one or two failures I hit upon +a method, which I perfected at length into entire simplicity, by +which I was able to tap the nervous system and draw into myself as +much as ever I needed of the abounding force of life, without +leaving any sign which even the most skilful doctor could +detect."</p> + +<p>"Julius, you sicken me!" exclaimed Lefevre. "I am a doctor, but +you sicken me!"</p> + +<p>"I explain myself so in detail," said Julius, "<i>because</i> +you are a doctor. But let me finish. I lived that life of complete +wedlock with Nature for I dare not think how many years."<a name= +'232.png' id='p232.png'></a></p> + +<p>"And you did not get weary of it?" asked Lefevre.</p> + +<p>"Weary of it? No! I returned to it always, after a pause of a +few days for the reinvigoration I needed,—I returned to it +with all the freshness of youth, with the advantage which, of +course, mere youth can never have,—an amazingly rich +experience. I revelled in the full lap of life. I passed through +many lands, civilised and barbaric; but it was my especial delight +to strike down to that simple, passionate, essential nature which +lies beneath the thickest lacquer of refinements in our civilised +societies. Oh, what a life it was!—what a life!</p> + +<p>"But a change came: it must have been growing on me for some +time without my knowledge. I commonly removed from society when I +felt exhaustion coming on <a name='233.png' id='p233.png'></a> me; +but on one occasion it chanced that I stayed on in the pleasant +company I was in (I was then in Vienna). I did not exactly feel +ill; I felt merely weary and languid, and thought that presently I +would go to bed. Gradually I began to observe that the looks of my +companions were bent strangely on me, and that the expression of +their countenances more and more developed surprise and alarm. +'What is the matter with you all?' I demanded; when they instantly +cried, 'What is the matter with <i>you?</i> Have you been +poisoned?' I rose and went and looked in a mirror; I saw, with +ghastly horror, what I was like, and I knew then that I was <i> +doomed</i>. I fled from that company for ever. I saw that, when the +alien life on which I flourished was gone out of me, I was a worn +old man—that <a name='234.png' id='p234.png'></a> the Fire of +Life which usually burned in my body, making me look bright and +young, was now none of it my own; a few hot ashes only were mine, +which Death sat cowering by! I could not but sit and gaze at the +reflection of the seared ghastliness of that face, which was mine +and yet not mine, and feel well-nigh sick unto death. After a +while, however, I plucked up heart. I considered that it was +impossible this change had come all at once; I must have looked +like that—or almost like that—once or twice or oftener +before, and yet life and reinvigoration had gone on as they had +been wont. I wrapped myself well up, and went out. I found a fit +subject. I replenished my life as theretofore; my youthful, fresh +appearance returned, and my confidence with it. I refused to look +again upon my own, <a name='235.png' id='p235.png'></a> my worn +face, from that time until tonight.</p> + +<p>"But alarm again seized me about a year ago, when I chanced by +calculation to note that my periods of abounding life were +gradually getting shorter,—that I needed reinvigoration at +more frequent intervals;—not that I did not take as much from +my subjects as formerly—on the contrary, I seemed to take +more—but that I lost more rapidly what I took, as if my body +were becoming little better than a fine sieve. The last stage of +all was this that you are familiar with, when my subjects began to +be so utterly exhausted as to attract public notice. Yet that is +not what has given me pause, and made me resolve to bring the whole +weary, selfish business to an end. Could I not have gone +elsewhere—anywhere, the wide world over—and <a name= +'236.png' id='p236.png'></a> lived my life? But I was kept, I was +tethered here, to this London by a feeling I had never known +before. Call it by the common fool's name of Love; call it what you +will. I was fascinated by your sister Nora, even as others had been +fascinated by me, even as I had been in my youth by the bountiful, +gracious beauty of Nature."</p> + +<p>"I have wanted to ask you," said Lefevre, "for an explanation of +your conduct towards Nora. Why did you—with your awful +life—life which, as you say, was not your own, and your +extraordinary secret—why did you remain near her, and +entangle her with your fascinations? What did you +desire?—what did you hope for?"</p> + +<p>"I scarcely know for what I hoped. But let me speak of her; for +she has traversed and completely eclipsed my <a name='237.png' id= +'p237.png'></a> former vision of Nature. I have told you what my +point of view was,—alone in the midst of Nature. I was for +myself the only consciousness in the world, and all the world +besides was merely a variety of material and impression, to be +observed and known, to be interested in and delighted with. I was +thus lonely, lonely as a despot, when Nora, your sister, appeared +to me, and instantly I became aware there was another consciousness +in the world as great as, or greater than, my own,—another +person than myself, a person of supreme beauty and intelligence and +faculty. She became to me all that Nature had been, and more. She +expressed for me all that I had sought to find diffused through +Nature, and at the same time she stood forth to me as an equal of +my own kind, with as great a <a name='238.png' id='p238.png'></a> +capacity for life. At first I had a vision of our living and +reigning together, so to say, though the word may seem to you +absurd; but I soon discovered that there was a gulf fixed between +us,—the gulf of the life I had lived; she stood pure where I +had stood a dozen years ago. So, gradually, she subverted my whole +scheme of life; more and more, without knowing it, she made me see +and judge myself with her eyes, till I felt altogether abased +before her. But that which finally stripped the veil from me, and +showed me myself as the hateful incarnation of relentlessly +devouring Self, was my influence upon her, which culminated in the +event of last night. Can you conceive how I was smitten and pierced +with horror by the discovery that rose on me like a nightmare, that +even on her sweet, pure, <a name='239.png' id='p239.png'></a> +sumptuous life, I had unwittingly begun to prey? For that discovery +flung wide the door of the future and showed me what I would +become.</p> + +<p>"Beautiful, calm, divine Nora! If I could but have continued +near her without touching her, to delight in the thought and the +sight of her, as one delights in the wind and the sunshine! But it +could not be. I could only appear fit company for her if I +refreshed and strengthened myself as I had been wont; but my new +disgust of myself, and pity for my victims, made me shudder at the +thought. What then? Here I am, and the time has come (as that old +doctor said it would) when death appears more beautiful and +friendly and desirable than life. Forgive me, Lefevre—forgive +me on Nora's part,—and forgive me in the name of human +nature."<a name='240.png' id='p240.png'></a></p> + +<p>Lefevre could not reply for the moment. He sat convulsed with +heartrending sobs. He put out his hand to Julius.</p> + +<p>"No, no!" exclaimed Julius, "I must not take your hand. You know +I must not."</p> + +<p>"Take my hand," cried Lefevre. "I know what it means. Take my +life! Leave me but enough to recover. I give it you freely, for I +wish you to live. You shall not die. By heaven! you shall not die. +O Julius, Julius! why did you not tell me this long ago? Science +has resource enough to deliver you from your mistake."</p> + +<p>"Lefevre," said Julius,—and his eyes sparkled with tears +and his weakening voice was choked,—"your friendship moves me +deeply—to the soul. But science can do nothing for me: +science <a name='241.png' id='p241.png'></a> has not yet sufficient +knowledge of the principle on which I lived. Would you have me, +then, live on,—passing to and fro among mankind merely as a +blight, taking the energy of life, even from whomsoever I would +not? No, I must die! Death is best!"</p> + +<p>"I will not let you die," said Lefevre, rising to take a pace or +two on the deck. "You shall come home with me. I shall feed your +life—there are dozens besides myself who will be glad to +assist—till you are healed of the devouring demon you have +raised within you."</p> + +<p>"No, no, no, my dear friend!" cried Julius. "I have steadily +sinned against the most vital law of life."</p> + +<p>"Julius," said Lefevre, standing over him, "my friendship, my +love for you may blind me to the enormity of your sin, but I <a +name='242.png' id='p242.png'></a> can find it in me to say, in the +name of humanity, 'I forgive you all! Now, rise up and live anew! +Your intelligence, your soul is too rare and admirable to be +snuffed out like a guttering candle!'"</p> + +<p>"Lefevre," said Julius, "you are a perfect friend! But your +knowledge of this secret force of Nature, which we have both +studied, is not so great as mine. Let me tell you, then, that this +mystical saying, which I once scoffed at, is the profoundest +truth:—</p> + +<div class='poem'> +<div class='line'>"'Who loveth life shall lose it all;</div> + +<div class='line'>Who seeketh life shall surely fall!'</div> +</div> + +<p>"There is no remedy for me but death, which (who knows?) may be +the mother of new life!"</p> + +<p>"It would have been better for you," said Lefevre, sitting down +again with his <a name='243.png' id='p243.png'></a> head in his +hands, "better—if you had never seen Nora."</p> + +<p>"Nay, nay," cried Julius, sitting up, animate with a fresh +impulse of life. "Better for her, dear, beautiful soul, but not for +me! I have truly lived only since I saw her, and I have the joy of +feeling that I have beheld and known Nature's sole and perfect +chrysolite. But I must be quick, my friend; the dawn will soon be +upon us. There is but one other thing for me to speak of—my +method of taking to myself the force of life. It is my secret; it +is perfectly adapted for professional use, and I wish to give it to +you, because you are wise enough in mind, and great enough of soul, +to use it for the benefit of mankind."</p> + +<p>"I will not hear you, Julius!" exclaimed Lefevre. "I am neither +wise nor great. <a name='244.png' id='p244.png'></a> Your perfect +secret would be too much for me. I might be tempted to keep it for +my own use. Come home with me, and apply it well yourself."</p> + +<p>Julius was silent for a space, murmuring only, "I have no time +for argument." Then his face assumed the white sickness of death, +and his dark eyes seemed to grow larger and to burn with a +concentrated fire.</p> + +<p>"Lefevre!" he panted in amazement, "do you know that you are +refusing such a medical and spiritual secret as the world has not +known for thousands of years? A secret that would enable +you—<i>you</i>—to work cures more wonderful than any +that are told of the greatest Eastern Thaumaturge?"</p> + +<p>"I have discovered a method," answered the doctor,—"an +imperfect, clumsy method—for <a name='245.png' id='p245.png'> +</a> myself, of transmitting nervous force or ether for curative +purposes. That, for the present, must be enough for me. I cannot +hear your secret, Julius."</p> + +<p>"Lefevre, I beg of you," pleaded Julius, "take it from me. I +have promised myself, as a last satisfaction, that the secret I +have guarded—it is not altogether mine: it is an old oriental +secret—that now I would hand it over to you for the good of +mankind, that at the last I might say to myself, 'I have, after +all, opened my hand liberally to my fellow-men!' For pity's sake, +Lefevre, don't deny me that small final satisfaction!"</p> + +<p>"Julius," said Lefevre, firmly, "if your method is so +perfect—as I believe it must be from what I have seen—I +dare not lay on myself the responsibility of possessing its +secret."<a name='246.png' id='p246.png'></a></p> + +<p>"Would not my example keep you from using it selfishly?"</p> + +<p>"Does the experience of another," demanded the doctor, "however +untoward it may be, ever keep a man from making his own? I dare +not—I dare not trust myself to hold your perfect secret."</p> + +<p>"Then share it with others," responded Julius, promptly; "and I +daresay it is not so perfect, but that it could be made more +perfect still."</p> + +<p>"I'll have nothing to do with it, Julius; you must keep and use +it yourself."</p> + +<p>"Then," cried Julius, throwing himself on his bed of cordage, +"then there will be, indeed, an end of me!"</p> + +<p>There was no sound for a time, but the soft rush of the sea at +the bows of the yacht. They had left the Thames water some distance +behind, and were then in <a name='247.png' id='p247.png'></a> that +part of the estuary where it is just possible in mid-channel to +descry either coast. The glorious rose of dawn was just beginning +to flame in the eastern sky. Lefevre looked about him, and strove +to shake off the sensation, which would cling to him, that he was +involved in a strange dream. There lay Julius or Hernando Courtney +before him; or at least the figure of a man with his face hid in +his hands. What more could be said or done?</p> + +<p>In the meantime light was swiftly rushing up the sky and waking +all things to life. A flock of seagulls came from the depth of the +night and wheeled about the yacht, their shrill screams strangely +softened in the morning air. At the sound of them Julius roused +himself, and raised himself on his elbow to watch their <a name= +'248.png' id='p248.png'></a> beautiful evolutions. As he watched, +one and another swooped gracefully to the water, and hanging there +an instant, rose with a fish and flew away. Julius flung himself +again on his face.</p> + +<p>"O God!" he cried. "Is it not horrible? Even on such a beautiful +day as this death wakes as early as life! Devouring death is +ushered in by the dawn, hand in hand with generous life! Awful, +devilish Nature! that makes all creatures full of beauty and +delight, and then condemns them to live upon each other! Nature is +the sphinx: she appears soft and gentle and more lovely than heart +can bear, but if you look closer, you see she is a creature with +claws and teeth that rend and devour! I thought, fool that I was! +that I had found the secret to solve her riddle! But it was an +empty hope, a vain <a name='249.png' id='p249.png'></a> +imagination.... Yet, I have lived! Yes, I have lived!"</p> + +<p>He rose and stood erect, facing the dawn, with his back to +Lefevre. He stood thus for some time, with one foot on the low +bulwark of the vessel, till the sun leaped above the horizon and +flamed with blinding brilliance across the sea.</p> + +<p>"Ah!" he murmured. "The superb, the glorious sun! Unwearied lord +of Creation! Generous giver of all light and life! And yet, who +knows what worlds he may not have drawn into his flaming self, and +consumed during the æons of his existence? It is ever and +everywhere the same: death in company with life! And swift, strong +death is better than slow, weak life!... Almost the splendour and +inspiration of his rising tempt me to stay! Great nourisher and +renewer of life's heat!"<a name='250.png' id='p250.png'></a></p> + +<p>He put off his fur coat, and let it fall on the deck, and stood +for a while as if wrapt in ecstasy. Then, before Lefevre could +conceive his intention, his feet were together on the bulwark, and +with a flash and a plunge he was gone!</p> + +<p>Amazement held the doctor's energies congealed, though but for +an instant or two. Then he threw off hat and coat, and stood alert +and resolute to dive to Julius's rescue when he rose, while those +who manned the yacht prepared to cast a buoy and line. Not a ripple +or flash of water passed unheeded; the flood of sunshine rose +fuller and fuller over the world; moments grew to minutes, and +minutes swelled to hopeless hours under the doctor's weary eyes, +till it seemed to them as if the universe were only a swirling, +greedy ocean;—but no sign appeared <a name='251.png' id= +'p251.png'></a> of his night's companion: his life was quenched in +the depths of the restless waters, as a flaming meteor is quenched +in night. At length Lefevre ordered the yacht to stand away to the +shore, his heart torn with grief and self-upbraiding. He had called +Courtney his friend, and yet until that last he had never won his +inner confidence; and now he knew that his friend—he of the gentle +heart, the peerless intelligence, and the wildly erring +life—was dead in the hour of self-redemption.</p> + +<p>When he had landed, however, given to the proper authorities +such information as was necessary, and set off by train on his +return to town, the agitation of his grief began to assuage; and +when next day, upon the publication in the papers of the news of +Courtney's death by drowning, a solicitor called in Savile Row with +a will <a name='252.png' id='p252.png'></a> which he had drawn up +two days before, and by which all Julius Courtney's property was +left to Dr Lefevre, to dispose of as he thought best, "for +scientific and humane ends," the doctor admitted to his reason that +a death that could thus calmly be prepared was not lightly to be +questioned.</p> + +<p>"He must have known best," he said to himself, as he bowed over +his hands—"he must have known best when to put off the +poisoned garment of life he had woven for himself."</p> + +<br> +<br> +<hr class="full" noshade> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MASTER OF HIS FATE***</p> +<p>******* This file should be named 13931-h.txt or 13931-h.zip *******</p> +<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br /> +<a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/3/9/3/13931">https://www.gutenberg.org/1/3/9/3/13931</a></p> +<p>Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed.</p> + +<p>Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Mclaren Cobban + +Release Date: November 3, 2004 [eBook #13931] +[Date last updated: January 9, 2005] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MASTER OF HIS FATE*** + + +E-text prepared by Suzanne Shell, Branko Collin, and the Project Gutenberg +Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + +Master Of His Fate + +by + +J. MACLAREN COBBAN + +1890 + + + + + + + +Contents. + + +Chapter + + I. Julius Courtney + II. A Mysterious Case + III. "M. Dolaro" + IV. The Man of the Crowd + V. The Remarkable Case of Lady Mary Fane + VI. At The Bedside of the Doctor + VII. Contains a Love Interlude +VIII. Strange Scenes in Curzon Street + IX. An Apparition And a Confession + + + + + To Z. Mennell, Esq. + + My dear Mennell, + + It has been my fortune to see something of the practice of the art + of healing under widely different conditions, and I know none who + better represents the most humane and most exacting of all + professions than yourself. The good doctor of this story--the born + surgeon and healer, the ever young and alert, the self-forgetful, + the faithful friend, gifted with "that exquisite charity which can + forgive all things"--is studied from you. + + It is one of the greatest pleasures of my life to inscribe your + name on this dedicatory page, and to subscribe myself, + + Your sincere friend and grateful patient, + + J. Maclaren Cobban. + + London, November 1889. + + + + +Chapter I. + +Julius Courtney. + + +The Hyacinth Club has the reputation of selecting its members from among +the freshest and most active spirits in literature, science, and art. +That is in a sense true, but activity in one or another of those fields +is not a condition of membership; for, just as the listening Boswell was +the necessary complement of the talking Johnson, so in the Hyacinth Club +there is an indispensable contingent of passive members who find their +liveliest satisfaction in hearing and looking on, rather than in +speaking and doing. Something of the home principle of male and female +is necessary for the completeness even of a club. + +The Hyacinth Club-house looks upon Piccadilly and the Green Park. The +favourite place of concourse of its members is the magnificent +smoking-room on the first floor, the bow-windows of which command a view +up and down the fashionable thoroughfare, and over the trees and the +undulating sward of the Park to the gates of Buckingham Palace. On a +Monday afternoon in the beginning of May, the bow-windows were open, and +several men sat in leather lounges (while one leaned against a +window-sash), luxuriously smoking, and noting the warm, palpitating life +of the world without. A storm which had been silently and doubtfully +glooming and gathering the night before had burst and poured in the +morning, and it was such a spring afternoon as thrills the heart with +new life and suffuses the soul with expectation--such an afternoon as +makes all women appear beautiful and all men handsome. The south-west +wind blew soft and balmy, and all nature rejoiced as the bride in the +presence of the bridegroom. The trees in the Park were full of sap, and +their lusty buds were eagerly opening to the air and the light. The +robin sang with a note almost as rich and sensuous as that of the +thrush; and the shrill and restless sparrows chirped and chattered about +the houses and among the horses' feet, and were as full of the joy of +life as the men and women who thronged the pavements or reclined in +their carriages in the sumptuous ease of wealth and beauty. + +Of the men who languidly gazed upon the gay and splendid scene from the +windows of the Club, none seemed so interested as the man who leaned +against the window-frame. He appeared more than interested--absorbed, +indeed--in the world without, and he looked bright and handsome enough, +and charged enough with buoyant health, to be the ideal bridegroom of +Nature in her springtide. + +He was a dark man, tall and well built, with clear brown eyes. His black +hair (which was not cropped short, as is the fashion) had a lustrous +softness, and at the same time an elastic bushiness, which nothing but +the finest-tempered health can give; and his complexion, though tanned +by exposure, had yet much of the smoothness of youth, save where the +razor had passed upon his beard. Thus seen, a little way off, he +appeared a young man in his rosy twenties; on closer view and +acquaintance, however, that superficial impression was contradicted by +the set expression of his mouth and the calm observation and +understanding of his eye, which spoke of ripe experience rather than of +green hope. He bore a very good English name--Courtney; and he was +believed to be rich. There was no member of whom the Hyacinth Club was +prouder than of him: though he had done nothing, it was commonly +believed he could do anything he chose. No other was listened to with +such attention, and there was nothing on which he could not throw a +fresh and fascinating light. He was a constant spring of surprise and +interest. While others were striving after income and reputation, he +calmly and modestly, without obtrusion or upbraiding, held on his own +way, with unsurpassable curiosity, to the discovery of all which life +might have to reveal. It was this, perhaps, as much as the charm of his +manner and conversation, that made him so universal a favourite; for how +could envy or malice touch a man who competed at no point with his +fellows? + +His immediate neighbours, as he thus stood by the window, were a pair of +journalists, several scientific men, and an artist. + +"Have you seen any of the picture-shows, Julius?" asked the painter, +Kew. + +Courtney slowly abstracted his gaze from without, and turned on his +shoulder with the lazy, languid grace of a cat. + +"No," said he, in a half-absent tone; "I have just come up, and I've not +thought of looking into picture-galleries yet." + +"Been in the country?" asked Kew. + +"Yes, I've been in the country," said Courtney, still as if his +attention was elsewhere. + +"It must be looking lovely," said Kew. + +"It is--exquisite!" said Courtney, waking up at length to a full glow of +interest. "That's why I don't want to go and stare at pictures. In the +spring, to see the fresh, virginal, delicious green of a bush against an +old dry brick wall, gives a keener pleasure than the best picture that +ever was painted." + +"I thought," said Kew, "you had a taste for Art; I thought you enjoyed +it." + +"So I do, my dear fellow, but not now,--not at this particular present. +When I feel the warm sun on my back and breathe the soft air, I want no +more; they are more than Art can give--they are Nature, and, of course, +it goes without saying that Art can never compete with Nature in +creating human pleasure. I mean no disparagement of your work, Kew, or +any artist's work; but I can't endure Art except in winter, when +everything (almost) must be artificial to be endurable. A winter may +come in one's life--I wonder if it will?--when one would rather look at +the picture of a woman than at the woman herself. Meantime I no more +need pictures than I need fires; I warm both hands and heart at the fire +of life." + +"Ah!" said Kew, with a wistful lack of comprehension. + +"That's why I believe," said Courtney, with a sudden turn of reflection, +"there is in warm countries no Art of our small domestic kind." + +"Just so," said Kew; while Dingley Dell, the Art critic, made a note of +Courtney's words. + +"Look here!" exclaimed Dr. Embro, an old scientific man of Scottish +extraction, who, in impatience with such transcendental talk, had taken +up 'The St. James's Gazette.' "What do you make of this queer case at +the Hotel-Dieu in Paris? I see it's taken from 'The Daily Telegraph;'" +and he began to read it. + +"Oh," said Kew, "we all read that this morning." + +"Dr. Embro," said Courtney, again looking idly out of window, "is like a +French journal: full of the news of the day before yesterday." + +"Have you read it yourself, Julius?" asked Embro, amid the laughter of +his neighbours. + +"No," said Julius carelessly; "and if it's a hospital case I don't want +to read it." + +"What!" said Embro, with heavy irony. "You say that? You, a pupil of the +great Dubois and the greater Charbon! But here comes a greater than +Charbon--the celebrated Dr. Lefevre himself. Come now, Lefevre, you tell +us what you think of this Paris hospital case." + +"Presently, Embro," said Lefevre, who had just perceived his friend +Courtney. "Ha, Julius!" said he, crossing to him and taking his hand; +"you're looking uncommonly well." + +"Yes," said Julius, "I am well." + +"And where have you been all this while?" asked the doctor. + +"Oh," said Julius, turning his gaze again out of window, "I have been +rambling everywhere, between Dan and Beersheba." + +"And all is vanity, eh?" said the doctor. + +"Well," said Julius, looking at him, "that depends--that very much +depends. But can there be any question of vanity or vexation in this +sweet, glorious sunshine?" and he stretched out his hands as if he +burgeoned forth to welcome it. + +"Perhaps not," said Lefevre. "Come and sit down and let us talk." + +They were retiring from the window when Embro's voice again sounded at +Lefevre's elbow--"Come now, Lefevre; what's the meaning of that Paris +case?" + +"What Paris case?" + +Embro answered by handing him the paper. He took it, and read as +follows:-- + + "About a month ago a strange case of complete mental collapse was + received into the Hotel-Dieu. A fresh healthy girl, of the working + class, about twenty years of age, and comfortably dressed, + presented herself at a police-station near the Odeon and asked for + shelter. As she did not appear to be in full possession of her + mental faculties, she was sent to the Hotel-Dieu, where she + remained in a semi-comatose condition. Her memory did not go + farther back than the hour of her application at the + police-station. She was entirely ignorant of her previous history, + and had even forgotten her name. The minds of the medical staff of + the Hotel-Dieu were very much exercised with her condition; but it + was not till about a week ago that they succeeded in restoring to + any extent her mental consciousness and her memory. She then + remembered the events immediately preceding her application to the + police. It had come on to rain, she said, and she was hurrying + along to escape from it, when a gentleman in a cloak came to her + side and politely offered to give her the shelter of his umbrella. + She accepted; the gentleman seemed old and ill. He asked her to + take his arm. She did so, and very soon she felt as if her strength + had gone from her; a cold shiver crept over her; she trembled and + tottered; but with all that she did not find her sensations + disagreeable exactly or alarming; so little so, indeed, that she + never thought of letting go the gentleman's arm. Her head buzzed, + and a kind of darkness came over her. Then all seemed to clear, and + she found herself alone near the police-station, remembering + nothing. Being asked to further describe the gentleman, she said he + was tall and dark, with a pleasant voice and wonderful eyes, that + made you feel you must do whatever he wished. The police have made + inquiries, but after such a lapse of time it is not surprising that + no trace of him can be found." + +"Well?" asked Embro, when Lefevre had raised his eyes from the paper. +"What do you think of it?" + +"Curious," said Lefevre. "I can't say more, since I know nothing of it +but this. Have you read it, Julius?" + +"No," said Julius; "I hate what people call news; and when I take up a +paper, it's only to look at the Weather Forecasts." Lefevre handed him +the paper, which he took with an unconcealed look of repulsion. "If it's +some case of disease," said he, "it will make me ill." + +"Oh no," said Lefevre; "it's not painful, but it's curious;" and so +Julius set himself to read it. + +"But come," said Embro, posing the question with his forefinger; "do you +believe that story, Lefevre?" + +"Though it's French, and from the 'Telegraph,'" said Lefevre, "I see no +reason to disbelieve it." + +"Come," said Embro, "come--you're shirking the question." + +"I confess," said Lefevre, "I've no desire to discuss it. You think me +prejudiced in favour of anything of the kind; perhaps I think you +prejudiced against it: where, then, is the good of discussion?" + +"Well, now," said the unabashed Embro, "I'll tell you what I think. +Here's a story"--Julius at that instant handed back the paper to +him--"of a healthy young woman mesmerised, hypnotised, or somnambulised, +or whatever you like to call it, in the public street, by some man that +casually comes up to her, and her brain so affected that her memory +goes! I say it's inconceivable!--impossible!" And he slapped the paper +down on the table. + +The others looked on with grim satisfaction at the prospect of an +argument between the two representatives of rival schools; and it was +noteworthy that, as they looked, they turned a referring glance on +Courtney, as if it were a foregone conclusion that he must be the final +arbiter. He, however, sat abstracted, with his eyes on the floor, and +with one hand propping his chin and the other drumming on the arm of his +chair. + +"I'm not a scientific man," said the journalist who was not an Art +critic, "and I am not prejudiced either way about this story; but it +seems to me, Embro, that you view the thing through a very ordinary +fallacy, and make a double mistake. You confound the relatively +inconceivable with the absolutely impossible: this story is relatively +inconceivable to you, and therefore you say it is absolutely +impossible." + +"Is there such a thing as an absolute impossibility?" murmured Julius, +who still sat with his chin in his hand, looking as if he considered the +"thing" from a long way off as one of a multitude of other things. + +"I do not believe there is," said the journalist; "but--" + +"Don't let us lose ourselves in metaphysics," broke in Embro. Then, +turning to Courtney, whose direct intelligent gaze seemed to disconcert +him, he said, "Now, Julius, you've seen, I daresay, a good many things +we have not seen,--have you ever seen or known a case like this we're +talking about?" + +"I can't say I have," said Julius. + +"There you are!" quoth Embro, in triumph. + +"But," continued Julius, "I don't therefore nail that case down as +false." + +"Do you mean to say," exclaimed Embro, "that you have lived all your +years, and studied science at the Salpetriere,--or what they call +science there,--and studied and seen God knows what else besides, and +you can't pronounce an opinion from all you know on a case of this +sort?" + +"Oh yes," said Julius, quietly, "I can pronounce an opinion; but what's +the use of that? I think that case is true, but I don't know that it is; +and therefore I can't argue about it, for argument should come from +knowledge, and I have none. I have a few opinions, and I am always ready +to receive impressions; but, besides some schoolboy facts that are +common property, the only thing I know--I am certain of--is, as some man +says, '_Life's a dream worth dreaming_.'" + +"You're too high-falutin for me, Julius," said Embro, shaking his head. +"But my opinion, founded on my knowledge, is that this story is a +hallucination of the young woman's noddle!" + +"And how much, Embro," laughed Julius, rising to leave the circle, "is +the argument advanced by your ticketing the case with that long word?" + +"To say 'hallucination,'" quoth Lefevre, "is a convenient way of giving +inquiry the slip." + +"My dear Embro," said Julius,--and he spoke with an emphasis, and looked +down on Embro with a bright vivacity of eye, which forewarned the circle +of one of his eloquent flashes: a smile of expectant enjoyment passed +round,--"hallucination is the dust-heap and limbo of the meanly-equipped +man of science to-day, just as witchcraft was a few hundred years ago. +The poor creature of science long ago, when he came upon any +pathological or psychological manifestation he did not understand, used +to say, '_Witchcraft_! Away with it to the limbo!' To-day he says, +'_Hallucination_! Away with it to the dust-heap!' It is a pity," said +he, with a laugh, "you ever took to science, Embro." + +"And why, may I ask?" said Embro. + +"Oh, you'd have been great as an orthodox theologian of the Kirk; the +cocksureness of theology would have suited you like your own coat. You +are not at home in science, for you have no imagination." + +It was characteristic of the peculiar regard in which Julius was held +that whatever he said or did appeared natural and pleasant,--like the +innocent actions and the simple, truthful speech of a child. Not even +Embro was offended with these last words of his: the others laughed; +Embro smiled, though with a certain sourness. + +"Pooh, Julius!" said he; "what are you talking about? Science is the +examination of facts, and what has imagination to do with that? Reason, +sir, is what you want!" + +"My dear Embro," said Julius, "there are several kinds of facts. There +are, for instance, big facts and little facts,--clean facts and dirty +facts. Imagination raises you and gives you a high and comprehensive +view of them all; your mere reason keeps you down in some noisome +corner, like the man with the muck-rake." + +"Hear, hear!" cried the journalist and the artist heartily. + +"You're wrong, Julius," said Embro,--"quite wrong. Keep your imagination +for painting and poetry. In science it just leads you the devil's own +dance, and fills you with delusions." + +Julius paused, and bent on him his peculiar look, which made a man feel +he was being seen through and through. + +"I am surprised, Embro," said he, "that one can live all your years and +not find that the illusions of life are its best part. If you leave me +the illusions, I'll give you all the realities. But how can we stay +babbling and quibbling here all this delicious afternoon? I must go out +and see green things and beasts. Come with me, Lefevre, to the +Zoological Gardens; it will do you good." + +"I tell you what," said Lefevre, looking at the clock as they moved +away; "my mother and sister will call for me with the carriage in less +than half an hour: come with us for a drive." + +"Oh yes," said Julius; "that's a good idea." + +"And I," said Lefevre, "must have a cup of tea in the meantime. Come and +sit down, and tell me where you have been." + +But when they had sat down, Julius was little inclined to divagate into +an account of his travels. His glance swept round and noted everything; +he remarked on a soft effect of a shaft of sunshine that lit up the +small conservatory, and burnished the green of a certain plant; he +perceived a fine black Persian cat, the latest pet of the Club, and +exclaimed, "What a beautiful, superb creature!" He called it, and it +came, daintily sniffed at his leg, and leaped on his lap, where he +stroked and fondled it. And all the while he continued to discuss +illusion, while Lefevre poured and drank tea (tea, which Julius would +not share: tea, he said, did not agree with him). + +"It bothers me," he said, "to imagine how a man like Embro gets any +satisfaction out of life, for ever mumbling the bare dry bones of +science. Such a life as his might as well be passed in the receiver of +an air-pump." + +"Still the old Julius!" said the doctor, with a smile. "Still dreaming +and wandering, interested in everything, but having nothing to do!" + +"Nothing to do, my dear fellow?" said Julius. "I've all the world to +enjoy!" and he buried his cheek in the soft fur of the cat. + +"A purpose in life, however," said Lefevre, "gives an extraordinary zest +to all enjoyment." + +"To live," said Julius, "is surely the purpose of life. Any smaller, any +more obvious purpose, will spoil life, just as it spoils Art." + +"I believe, my boy, you are wrong in both," said Lefevre. "Art without a +purpose goes off into all sorts of madness and extravagance, and so does +life." + +"You really think so?" said Julius, his attention fixed for an instant, +and looking as if he had set up the point and regarded it at a distance. +"Yes; perhaps it does." But the next moment his attention seemed given +to the cat; he fondled it, and talked to it soothingly. + +"I am sure of it," said Lefevre. "Just listen to me, Julius. You have +wonderful intelligence and penetration in everything. You are fond of +science; science needs men like you more than the dull plodders that +usually take to it. When you were in Charbon's class you were his +favourite and his best pupil,--don't I remember?--and if you liked you +could be the greatest physician of the age." + +"It is treason to yourself to say such a thing." + +"Your fame would soon eclipse mine." + +"Fame! fame!" exclaimed Julius, for an instant showing irritation. "I +would not give a penny-piece for fame if all the magicians of the East +came crying it down the streets! Why should I seek fame? What good would +it do me if I had it?" + +"Well, well," said Lefevre; "let fame alone: you might be as unknown as +you like, and do a world of good in practice among the poor." + +Julius looked at him, and set the cat down. + +"My dear Lefevre," said he, "I did not think you could urge such common +twaddle! You know well enough,--nobody knows better,--first of all, that +there are already more men waiting to do that kind of thing than can +find occupation: why should I go down among them and try to take their +work? And you know, in the next place, that medical philanthropy, like +all other philanthropy, is so overdone that the race is fast +deteriorating; we strive with so much success to keep the sickly and the +diseased alive, that perfect health is scarcely known. Life without +health can be nothing but a weariness: why should it be reckoned a +praiseworthy thing to keep it going at any price? If life became a +burden to me, I should lay it down." + +"But," said Lefevre, earnestly, "your life surely is not your own to do +with it what you like!" + +"In the name of truth, Lefevre," answered Julius, "if my life is not my +own, what is? I get its elements from others, but I fashion it myself, +just as much as the sculptor shapes his statue, or the poet turns his +poem. You don't deny to the sculptor the right to smash his statue if it +does not please him, nor to the poet the right to burn his +manuscript;--why should you deny me the right to dispose of my life? I +know--I know," said he, seeing Lefevre open his mouth and raise his hand +for another observation, "that your opinion is the common one, but that +is the only sanction it has; it has the sanction neither of true +morality nor of true religion! But here is the waiter to tell you the +carriage is come. I'm glad. Let us get out into the air and the +sunshine." + +The carriage was the doctor's own; his mother, although the widow of a +Court physician, was too poor to maintain much equipage, but she made +what use she pleased of her son's possessions. When Lady Lefevre saw +Julius at the carriage-door, she broke into smiles and cries of welcome. + +"Where have you been this long, long while, Julius?" said she. "This is +Julius Courtney, Nora. You remember Nora, Julius, when she was a little +girl in frocks?" + +"She now wears remarkable gowns," chimed in the doctor. + +"Which," said Julius, "I have no doubt are becoming." + +"My brother," said Nora, with a sunny smile, "is jealous; because, being +a doctor, he must wear only dowdy clothes of dingy colours." + +"We have finished at school and college, and been presented at Court," +laughed Lady Lefevre. + +"And," broke in the brother, "we have had cards engraved with our full +name, _Leonora_." + +"With all this," said Lady Lefevre, "I hope you won't be afraid of us." + +"I see no reason," said Julius. "For, if I may say so, I like everything +in Nature, and it seems to me Nature has had more to do with the +finishing you speak of than the schoolmistress or the college +professor." + +"There he is already," laughed Lady Lefevre, "with his equivocal +compliments. I shouldn't wonder if he says that, my dear, because you +have not yet had more than a word to say for yourself." + +By that time Lefevre and Julius were seated, and the carriage was +rolling along towards the Park. Julius sat immediately opposite Lady +Lefevre, but he included both her and Nora in his talk and his bright +glances. The doctor sat agreeably suffused with delight and wonder. No +one, as has been seen, had a higher opinion of Courtney's rare powers, +or had had more various evidence of them, than Lefevre, but even he had +never known his friend so brilliant. He was instinct with life and +eloquence. His face shone as with an inner light, and his talk was +bright, searching, and ironical. The amazing thing, however, was that +Julius had as stimulating and intoxicating an influence on Nora as, it +was clear, Nora had on him. His sister had not appeared to Lefevre +hitherto more than a beautiful, healthy, shy girl of tolerable +intelligence; now she showed that she had brilliance and wit, and, +moreover, that she understood Julius as one native of a strange realm +understands another. When they entered the Park, they were the observed +of all. And, indeed, Leonora Lefevre was a vision to excite the worship +of those least inclined to idolatry of Nature. She was of the noblest +type of English beauty, and she seemed as calmly unconscious of its +excellence and rarity as one of the grand Greek women of the Parthenon. +She had, however, a sensuous fulness and bloom, a queenly carriage of +head and neck, a clearness of feature, and a liquid kindness of eye that +suggested a deep potentiality of passion. + +They drove round the Row, and round again, and they talked and laughed +their fill of wisdom and frivolity and folly. To be foolish wisely and +gracefully is a rare attainment. When they had almost completed their +third round, Julius (who had finished a marvellous story of a fairy +princess and a cat) said, "I can see you are fond of beasts, Miss +Lefevre. I should like to take you to the Zoological Gardens and show +you my favourites there. May we go now, Lady Lefevre?" + +"By all means," said Lady Lefevre, "let us go. What do you say, John?" + +"Oh, wherever you like, mother," answered her son. + +Arrived in the Gardens, Julius took possession of his companions, and +exerted all his arts to charm and fascinate. He led the ladies from cage +to cage, from enclosure to enclosure, showed himself as familiar with +the characters and habits of their wild denizens as a farmer is with +those of his stock, and they responded to his strange calls, to his +gentleness and fearlessness, with an alert understanding and confidence +beautiful to see. His favourites were certain creatures of the deer +species, which crowded to their fences to sniff his clothes, and to lick +his hands, which he abandoned to their caresses with manifest +satisfaction. His example encouraged the queenly Nora and her sprightly +mother to feed the beautiful creatures with bread and buns, and to feel +the suffusion of pleasure derived from the contact of their soft lips +with the palm of the hand. After that they were scarcely astonished +when, without bravado, but clearly with simple confidence and enjoyment, +Julius put his hand within the bars of the lion's cage and scratched the +ears of a lioness, murmuring the while in a strange tongue such fond +sounds as only those use who are on the best terms with animals. The +great brute rose to his touch, closing its eyes, and bearing up its head +like a cat. + +Then came an incident that deeply impressed the Lefevres. Julius went to +a cage in which, he said, there was a recent arrival--a leopard from the +"Land of the Setting Sun," the romantic land of the Moors. The creature +crouched sulking in the back of the cage. Julius tapped on the bars, and +entreated her in the language of her native land, "Ya, dudu! ya, +lellatsi!" She bounded to him with a "_wir-r-r_" of delight, leaned and +rubbed herself against the bars, and gave herself up to be stroked and +fondled. When he left her, she cried after him piteously, and wistfully +watched him out of sight. + +"Do you know the beautiful creature?" asked Lady Lefevre. + +"Yes," answered Julius quietly; "I brought her over some months ago." + +Lefevre had explained to his mother that Julius had always been on +friendly or fond terms with animals, but never till now had he seen the +remarkable understanding he clearly maintained with them. + +"Look!" said Lady Lefevre to her son as they turned to leave the +Gardens. "He seems to have fascinated Nora as much as the beasts." + +Nora stood a little aloof, regarding Julius in an ecstasy of admiration. +When she found her mother was looking at her, her eyes sank, and as it +were a veil of blushes fell over her. Mother and son walked on first, +and Julius followed with Nora. + +"He is a most charming and extraordinary man," said the mother. + +"He is," said the son, "and amazingly intelligent." + +"He seems to know everything, and to have been everywhere,--to have been +a kind of rolling stone. If anything should come of this, I suppose he +can afford to marry. You ought to know about him." + +"I believe I know as much as any one." + +"He has no profession?" queried the lady. + +"He has no profession; but I suppose he could afford it," said Lefevre +musingly. + +"You don't like the idea," said his mother. + +"Not much. I scarce know why. But I somehow think of him as not having +enough sense of the responsibility of life." + +"I suppose his people are of the right sort?" + +"I suppose they are; though I don't know if he has any people," said he, +with a laugh. "He is the kind of man who does not need parents or +relations." + +"Still, hadn't you better try to find out what he may have in that +line?" + +"Yes," said Lefevre; "perhaps I had." + + + + +Chapter II. + +A Mysterious Case. + + +The two friends returned, as they had arranged, to the Hyacinth Club for +dinner. Courtney's coruscating brilliancy sank into almost total +darkness when they parted from Lady and Miss Lefevre, and when they sat +down to table he was preoccupied and silent, yet in no proper sense +downcast or dull. Lefevre noted, while they ate, that there was clear +speculation in his eye, that he was not vaguely dreaming, but with alert +intelligence examining some question, or facing some contingency; and it +was natural he should think that the question or contingency must +concern Nora as much as Julius. Yet he made no overture of +understanding, for he knew that Courtney seldom offered confidence or +desired sympathy; not that he was churlish or reserved, but simply that +he was usually sufficient unto himself, both for counsel and for +consolation. Lefevre was therefore surprised when he was suddenly asked +a question, which was without context in his own thought. + +"Have you ever found something happen or appear," said Julius, "that +completely upsets your point of view, and tumbles down your scheme of +life, like a stick thrust between your legs when you are running?" + +"I have known," said Lefevre, "a new fact arise and upset a whole +scientific theory. That's often a good thing," he added, with a pointed +glance; "for it compels a reconstruction of the theory on a wider and +sounder basis." + +"Yes," murmured Julius; "that may be. But I should think it does not +often happen that the new fact swallows up all the details that +supported your theory,--as Aaron's rod, turned into a serpent, swallowed +up the serpent-rods of the magicians of Egypt,--so that there is no +longer any theory, but only one great, glorious fact. I do admire," he +exclaimed, swerving suddenly, "the imagination of those old Greeks, with +their beautiful, half-divine personifications of the Spirits of Air and +Earth and Sea! But their imagination never conceived a goddess that +embodied them all!" + +"I have often thought, Julius," said Lefevre, "that you must be some +such embodiment yourself; for you are not quite human, you know." + +The doctor said that with a clear recollection of his mother's request. +He hoped that his friend would take the cue, and tell him something of +his family. Julius, however, said nothing but "Indeed." Lefevre then +tried to tempt him into confession by talking about his own father and +mother, and by relating how the French name "Lefevre" came to be +domiciled in England; but Julius ignored the temptation, and dismissed +the question in an eloquent flourish. + +"What does a man want with a family and a name? They only tie him to the +earth, as Gulliver was tied by the people of Lilliput. We have life and +health,--_if_ we have them,--and it is only veiled prurience to inquire +whence we got them. A man can't help having a father and a mother, I +suppose; but he need not be always reminding himself of the fact: no +other creature on earth does. For myself, I wish I were like that +extraordinary person, Melchizedek, without father and without mother, +without descent, having neither beginning of days nor end of life." + +In a little while the friends parted. Lefevre said he had work to do, +but he did not anticipate such work as he had to turn to that night. +Though the doctor was a bachelor, he had a professional residence apart +from his mother and sister. They lived in a small house in Curzon +Street; he dwelt in Savile Row. Savile Row was a place of consequence +long before Regent Street was thought of, but now they are few who know +of its existence. Fashion ignores it. It is tenanted by small clubs, +learned societies, and doctors. It slumbers in genteel decorum, with its +back to the garish modern thoroughfare. It is always quiet, but by nine +o'clock of a dark evening it is deserted. When Dr Lefevre, therefore, +stepped out of his hired hansom, and prepared to put his latch-key in +his own door, he was arrested by a hoarse-voiced hawker of evening news +bursting in upon the repose of the Row with a continuous roar of +"Special--Mystery--Paper--Railway--Special--Brighton--Paper--Victoria +--Special!" It was with some effort, and only when the man was close +at hand, that he interpreted the sounds into these words. + +"Paper, sir," said the man; and he bought it and went in. He entered his +dining-room, and read the following paragraph;-- + + "A Mysterious Case. + + "A report has reached us that a young man, about two or four and + twenty years of age, whose name is at present unknown, was found + yesterday (Sunday) to all appearance dead in a first-class carriage + of the 5 P.M. train from Brighton to Victoria. The discovery was + only made at Grosvenor Road Station, where tickets are taken before + entering Victoria. At Victoria the body was searched for purposes + of identification, and there was found upon him a card with the + following remarkable inscription:--'_I am not dead. Take me to the + St. James's Hospital._' To St. James's Hospital accordingly the + young man was conveyed. It seems probable he is in a condition of + trance--not for the first time--since he was provided with the + card, and knew the hospital with which is associated in all men's + minds the name of Dr Lefevre, who is so famous for his skill in the + treatment of nervous disorders." + +In matters of plain duty Dr Lefevre had got into the excellent habit of +acting first and thinking afterwards. He at once rang the bell, and +ordered the responsible serving-man who appeared to call a cab. The man +went to the door and sounded his shrill whistle, grateful to the ears of +several loitering cabbies. There was a mad race of growlers and hansoms +for the open door. Dr Lefevre got into the first hansom that drew up, +and drove off to the hospital. By that time he had told himself that the +young man must be a former patient of his (though he did not remember +any such), and that he ought to see him at once, although it is not + for the visiting physician of a hospital to appear, except +between fixed hours of certain days. He made nothing of the mystery +which the newspaper wished, after the manner of its kind, to cast about +the case, and thought of other things, while he smoked cigarettes, till +he reached the hospital. The house-physician was somewhat surprised by +his appearance. + +"I have just read that paragraph," said Lefevre, handing him the paper. + +"Oh yes, sir," said the house-physician. "The man was brought in last +night. Dr Dowling" [the resident assistant-physician] "saw him, and +thought it a case of ordinary trance, that could easily wait till you +came, as usual, to-morrow." + +"Ah, well," said Lefevre, "let me see him." + +Seen thus, the physician appeared a different person from the cheerful, +modest man of the Hyacinth Club. He had now put on the responsibility of +men's health and the enthusiasm of his profession. He seemed to swell in +proportions and dignity, though his eye still beamed with a calm and +kindly light. + +The young man led the way down the echoing flagged passage, and up the +flight of stone stairs. As they went they encountered many silent female +figures, clean and white, going up or down (it was the time of changing +nurses), so that a fanciful stranger might well have thought of the +stairway reaching from earth to heaven, on which the angels of God were +seen ascending and descending. A stranger, too, would have noted the +peculiar odours that hung about the stairs and passages, as if the +ghosts of medicines escaped from the chemist's bottles were hovering in +the air. Opening first an outer and then an inner door, Lefevre and his +companion entered a large and lofty ward. The room was dark, save for +the light of the fire and of a shaded lamp, by which, within a screen, +the night-nurse sat conning her list of night-duties. The evening was +just beginning out of doors,--shop-fronts were flaring, taverns were +becoming noisy, and brilliantly-lit theatres and music-halls were +settling down to business,--but here night and darkness had set in more +than an hour before. Indeed, in these beds of languishing, which +stretched away down either side of the ward, night was hardly to be +distinguished from day, save for the sunlight and the occasional +excitement of the doctor's visit; and many there were who cried to +themselves in the morning, "Would God it were evening!" and in the +evening, "Would God it were morning!" But there was yet this other +difference, that disease and doctor, fear and hope, gossip and +grumbling, newspaper and Bible and tract, were all forgotten in the +night, for some time at least, and Nature's kind restorer, sleep, went +softly round among the beds and soothed the weary spirits into peace. + +Lefevre and the house-physician passed silently up the ward between the +rows of silent blue-quilted beds, while the nurse came silently to meet +them with her lamp. Lefevre turned aside a moment to look at a man whose +breathing was laboured and stertorous. The shaded light was turned upon +him: an opiate had been given him to induce sleep; it had performed its +function, but, as if resenting its bondage, it was impishly twitching +the man's muscles and catching him by the throat, so that he choked and +started. Dr Lefevre raised the man's eyelid to look at his eye: the +upturned eye stared out upon him, but the man slept on. He put his hand +on the man's forehead (he had a beautiful hand--the hand of a born +surgeon and healer--fine but firm, the expression of nervous force), and +with thumb and finger stroked first his temples and then his neck. The +spasmodic twitching ceased, and his breath came easy and regular. The +house-doctor and the nurse looked at each other in admiration of this +subtle skill, while Lefevre turned away and passed on. + +"Where is the man?" said he. + +"Number Thirteen," answered the house-doctor, leading the way. + +The lamp was set on the locker beside the bed of Thirteen, screens were +placed round to create a seclusion amid the living, breathing silence of +the ward, and Lefevre proceeded to examine the unconscious patient who +had so strangely put himself in his hands. + +He was young and well-favoured, and, it was evident from the firmness of +his flesh, well-fed. Lefevre considered his features a moment, shook his +head, and murmured, "No; I don't think I've seen him before." He turned +to the nurse and inquired concerning the young man's clothes: they were +evidently those of a gentleman, she said,--of one, at least, who had +plenty of money. He turned again to the young man. He raised the left +arm to feel the heart, but, contrary to his experience in such cases, +the arm did not remain as he bent it, nor did the eyes open in obedience +to the summons of the disturbed nerves. The breathing was scarcely +perceptible, and the beating of the heart was faint. + +"A strange case," said Lefevre in a low voice to his young comrade--"the +strangest I've seen. He does not look a subject for this kind of thing, +and yet he is in the extreme stage of hypnotism. You see." And the +doctor, by sundry tests and applications, showed the peculiar exhausted +and contractive condition of the muscles. "It is very curious." + +"Perhaps," said the other, "he has been--" and he hesitated. + +"Been what?" asked Lefevre, turning on him his keen look. + +"Enjoying himself." + +"Having a debauch, you mean? No; I think not. There would then have +probably been some reflex action of the nerves. This is not that kind of +exhaustion; and it is more than mere trance or catalepsy; it seems the +extremest suspensory condition,--and that in a young man of such +apparent health is very remarkable. It will take a long time for him to +recover in the ordinary way with food and sleep," he continued, rather +to himself than to his subordinates. "He needs rousing,--a strong +stimulant." + +"Shall I get some brandy, sir?" asked the nurse. + +"Brandy? No. That's not the stimulant he needs." + +He was silent for a little, moving the young man's limbs, and touching +certain muscles which his exact anatomical knowledge taught him to lay +his finger on with unerring accuracy. The effect was startling and +grotesque. As a galvanic current applied to the proper nerves and +muscles of a dead body will produce expressions and actions resembling +those of life, so the touch of Lefevre's finger made the unconscious +young man scowl or smile or clench his fist according to the muscles +impressed. + +"The brain," said Lefevre, "seems quite sound,--perfectly passive, you +see, but active in its passivity. You can leave us, nurse," said he; +then, turning to the house-physician, he continued: "I am convinced this +is such a peculiar case as I have often imagined, but have never seen. +This nervous-muscular suspension is complicated with some exhaustive +influence. I want your assistance, and I ask for it like this, because +it is necessary for my purpose that you should give it freely, and +without reserve; I am going to try the electrode." + +This was a simple machine contrived by Lefevre, on the model of the +electric cylinder of Du Bois-Reymond, and worked on the theory that the +electricity stored in the human body can be driven out by the human will +along a prepared channel into another human body. + +"I understand," said the assistant promptly. He apprehended his chief's +meaning more fully than the reader can; for he was deeply interested and +fairly skilled in that strange annex of modern medical science which his +chief called psycho-dynamics, and which old-fashioned practitioners +decline to recognise. + +"Get me the machine and the insulating sheet," said Lefevre. + +While his assistant was gone on his errand, Lefevre with his right hand +gently stroked along the main lines of nerve and muscle in the upper +part of his patient's body; and it was strange to note how the features +and limbs lost a certain constriction and rigidity which it was manifest +they had had only by their disappearance. When the house-physician +returned, the sheet (a preparation of spun-glass invented by Lefevre) +was drawn under the patient, and the machine, with its vessels of +chemical mixture and its conducting wires, was placed close to the bed. +The handles attached to the wires were put into the patient's hands. + +"Now," said Lefevre, "this is a trying experiment. Give me your +hand--your left; you know how to do; yes, the other hand on the machine, +with the fingers touching the chemicals. When you feel strength--virtue, +so to say--going out of you, don't be alarmed: let it go; use no effort +of the will to keep it back, or we shall probably fail." + +"I understand," repeated the assistant. + +Then, holding his hand,--closely, but not so as to constrain the +muscles,--Lefevre put his own left on the machine according to the +direction he had given his assistant,--with his fingers, that is, +dipping into the chemicals from plates in the bottom of which the wires +conducted to the patient's hands. A shiver ran through the frame of both +Lefevre and his companion, a convulsive shudder passed upon the +unconscious body, and--a strange cry rang out upon the silence of the +ward, and Lefevre withdrew his hands. He and the house-physician looked +at each other pale and shaken. The nurse came running at the cry. +Lefevre looked out beyond the screen to reassure her, and saw in the dim +red reflection of the firelight a sight which struck him gruesomely, +used though he was to hospital sights; all about the ward pale scared +figures were sitting up in bed, like corpses suddenly raised from the +dead. He bent over his patient, who presently opened his eyes and stared +at him. + +"Get some brandy and milk," said Lefevre to his companion. + +"Who? Where am I?" murmured the patient in a faint voice. + +"I am Dr Lefevre, and this is St. James's Hospital." + +"Doctor?--hospital?--oh, I'm dreaming!" murmured the patient. + +"We'll talk about that when you have taken some of this," said Lefevre, +as the house-physician reappeared with the nurse, bearing the brandy and +milk. + +Lefevre presently told him how he had been found in the train, and taken +for dead till the card--"this card," said he, taking it from the top of +the locker--was discovered on him. The young man listened in open +amazement, and looked at the card. + +"I know nothing of this!" said he. "I never saw the card before! I never +heard your name or the hospital's till a minute ago." + +"Your case was strange before," said Lefevre; "this makes it stranger. +Who journeyed with you?" + +"A man,--a nice, strange, oldish fellow in a fur coat." And the young +man wished to enter upon a narrative, when the doctor interrupted him. + +"You're not well enough to talk much now. Tell me to-morrow all about +it." + +The doctor returned home, his imagination occupied with the vision of a +train rushing at express speed over the metals, and of a compartment in +the train in which a young man reclined under the spell of an old man. +The young man's face he saw clearly, but the old man's evaded him like a +dream, and yet he felt he ought to know one who knew the peculiar repute +of the St. James's Hospital. Next day the young man told his story, +which was in effect as follows: He was a subaltern in a dragoon regiment +stationed in Brighton. On Sunday afternoon he had set out for London on +several days' leave. He had taken a seat in a smoking-carriage, and was +preparing to make himself comfortable with a novel and a cigar, when an +elderly gentleman, who looked like a foreigner, came in as the train was +about to move. He particularly observed the man from the first, because, +though it was a pleasant spring day, he looked pinched and shrunken with +cold in his great fur overcoat, and because he had remarked him standing +on the platform and scrutinizing the passengers hurrying into the train. +The gentleman sat down in the seat opposite the young officer, and drew +his fur wrap close about him. The young officer could not keep his eyes +off him, and he noted that his features seemed worn thin and arid, as by +passage through terrific peril,--as if he had been travelling for many +days without sleep and without food, straining forward to a goal of +safety, sick both in stomach and heart,--as if he had been rushing, like +the maniac of the Gospel, through dry places, seeking rest and finding +none. His hair, which should have been black, looked lustreless and +bleached, and his skin seemed as if his blood had lost all colour and +generosity, as if nothing but serum flowed in his veins. His eyes alone +did not look bloodless; they were weary and extravasated, as from +anxious watching. The young officer's compassion went out to the +stranger; for he thought he must be a conspirator, fleeing probably from +the infamous tyranny of Russian rule. But presently he spoke in such +good English that the idea of his being a Russian faded away. + +"Excuse the liberty I take," said he, with a singularly winning smile; +"but let me advise you not to smoke that cigar. I have a peculiarly +sensitive nose for tobacco, and my nose informs me that your cigar, +though good as cigars go, is not fit for you to smoke." + +The young officer was surprised that he was rather charmed than offended +by this impertinence. + +"Let me offer you one of these instead," said the strange gentleman; "we +call them--I won't trouble you with the Spanish name--but in English it +means 'Joys of Spain.'" + +The officer took and thanked him for a "Joy of Spain," and found the +flavour and aroma so excellent that, to use his own phrase, he could +have eaten it. He asked the stranger what in particular was his +objection to the other cigar. + +"This objection," said he, "which is common to all ill-prepared +tobaccos, that it lowers the vital force. You don't feel that yet, +because you are young and healthy, and gifted with a superabundance of +fine vitality; but you may by smoking one bad cigar bring the time a day +nearer when you must feel it. And even now it would take a little off +the keen edge of the appetite for pleasure. How little," said he, "do we +understand how to keep ourselves in condition for the complete enjoyment +of life! You, I suppose, are about to take your pleasure in town, and +instead of judiciously tickling and stimulating your nerves for the +complete fulfilment of the pleasures you contemplate, you begin--you +were beginning, I mean, with your own cigar--to dull and stupefy them. +Don't you see how foolish that is?" + +The young officer admitted that it was very foolish and very true; and +they talked on thus, the elder exercising a charm over the younger such +as he had never known before in the society of any man. In a quarter of +an hour the young man felt as if he had known and trusted and loved his +neighbour all his life; he felt, he confessed, so strongly attracted +that he could have hugged him. He told him about his family, and showed +him the innermost secrets of his heart; and all the while he smoked the +delicious "Joy of Spain," and felt more and more enthralled and +fascinated by the stranger's eyes, which, as he talked, lightened and +glowed more and more as their glance played caressingly about him. He +was beginning to wonder at that, when with some emphatic phrase the +stranger laid his fingers on his knee, upon which a thrill shot through +him as if a woman had touched him. He looked in the stranger's face, and +the wonderful eyes seemed to search to the root of his being, and to +draw the soul out of him. He had a flying thought--"Can it be a woman, +after all, in this strange shape?" and he knew no more ... till he woke +in the hospital bed. + +That was the patient's story. + +"Just look over your property here," said the doctor. "Have you lost +anything?" + +The young man turned over his watch and the contents of his purse, and +answered that he had lost nothing. + +"Strange--strange!" said Lefevre--"very strange! And the card--of course +the stranger must have put it in your pocket." + +"Which would seem to imply," said the young man, "that _he_ knows +something of the hospital." + +"Well," said Lefevre, "we must see what can be done to clear the mystery +up." + +"Some of those newspaper-men have been here," said the house-physician, +when they had left the ward, "and they will be sure to call again before +the day is out. Shall I tell them anything of this?" + +"Certainly," said Lefevre. "Publicity may help us to discover this +amazing stranger." + +"Do you quite believe the story?" asked the house-physician. + +"I don't disbelieve it." + +"But what did the stranger do to put him in that condition, which seems +something more than hypnotism?" + +"Ah," said Lefevre, "I don't yet understand it; but there are forces in +Nature which few can comprehend, and which only one here and there can +control and use." + + + + +Chapter III. + +"M. Dolaro." + + +Next day men talked, newspaper in hand, at the breakfast-table, in the +early trains, omnibuses, and tramcars, of the singular railway outrage. +It was clear its purpose was not robbery. What, then, did it mean? +Some--probably most--declared it was very plain what it meant; while +others,--the few,--after much argument, confessed themselves quite +mystified. + +The police, too, were not idle. They made inquiries and took notes here +and there. They discovered that the five o'clock train made but two +pauses on its journey to London--at Croydon and at Clapham Junction. At +neither of those places could a man in a fur coat be heard of as having +descended from the train; and yet it was manifest that he did not arrive +at Grosvenor Road, where tickets were taken. After persistent and wider +inquiries, however, at Clapham Junction (which was the most likely point +of departure), a cabman was found who remembered having taken up a +fare--a gentleman in a fur coat--about the hour indicated. He +particularly remarked the gentleman, because he looked odd and foreign +and half tipsy (that was how he seemed to him), because he was wrapped +up "enough for Father Christmas," and because he asked to be driven such +a long way--to a well-known hotel near the Crystal Palace, where +"foreign gents" were fond of staying. Being asked what in particular had +made him think the gentleman a foreigner, cabby could not exactly say; +he believed, however, it was his coat and his eyes. Of his face he saw +little or nothing, it was so muffled up; yet his tongue was English +enough. + +Inquiry was then pushed on to the hotel named by the cabman. A gentleman +in a fur coat had certainly arrived there the evening before, but no one +had seen anything of him after his arrival. He had taken dinner in his +private sitting-room, and had then paid his bill, because, he said, he +must be gone early in the morning. About half an hour after dinner, when +a waiter cleared the things away, he had gone to his room, and next +morning he had left the hotel soon after dawn. Boots, half asleep, had +seen him walk away, bag in hand, wrapped in his greatcoat,--walk away, +it would seem, and dissolve into the mist of the morning, for from that +point no further trace could be got of him. No such figure as his had +been seen on any of the roads leading from the hotel, either by the +early milkman, or by the belated coffee-stall keeper, or night cabman. +Being asked what name the gentleman had given at the hotel, the +book-keeper showed her record, with the equivocal name of "M. Dolaro." +The name might be Italian or Spanish,--or English or American for that +matter,--and the initial "M" might be French or anything in the world. + +In the meantime Dr Lefevre had been pondering the details of the affair, +and noting the aspects of his patient's condition; but the more he noted +and pondered, the more contorted and inexplicable did the mystery +become. His understanding boggled at its very first notes. It was almost +unheard of that a young man of his patient's strong and healthy +constitution and temper should be hypnotised or mesmerised at all, much +less hypnotised to the verge of dissolution; and it was unprecedented +that even a weak, hysterical subject should, after being unhypnotised, +remain so long in prostrate exhaustion. Then, suppose these +circumstances of the case were ordinary, there arose this question, +which refused to be solved: Since it was ridiculous to suppose that the +hypnotisation was a wanton experiment, and since it had not been for the +sake of robbery, what had been its object? + +The interest of the case was emphasised and enlarged by an article in +'The Daily Telegraph,' in which was called to mind the singular story in +its Paris correspondence a day or two before, of the young woman in the +Hotel-Dieu, which Lefevre had forgotten. The writer remarked on the +points of similarity which the case in the Brighton train bore to that +of the Paris pavement; insisted on the probable identity of the man in +the fur coat with the man in the cloak; and appealed to Dr Lefevre to +explain the mystery, and to the police to find the man "who has alarmed +the civilised world by a new form of outrage." + +Lefevre was piqued by that article, and he went to see his patient day +after day, in the constant hope of finding a solution of the puzzle that +perplexed him. The direction in which he looked for light will be best +suggested by remarking what were his peculiar theory and practice. +Lefevre was not a materialistic physician; indeed, in the opinion of +many of his brethren, he erred on the other side, and was too much +inclined to mysticism. It may at least be said that he had an open mind, +and a modest estimate of the discoveries of modern medical science. He +had perceived while still a young man (he was now about forty) that all +medical practice--as distinct from surgical--is inexact and empirical, +that, like English common law, it is based merely on custom, and a +narrow range of experience; and he had therefore argued that a wider +experience and research, especially among decaying nations, might lead +to the discovery of a guiding principle in pathology. That conviction +had taken him as medical officer to Egypt and India, where, amid the +relics of civilisations half as old as time, he found traditions of a +great scientific practice; and thence it had brought him back to study +such foreign medical writers as Du Bois-Reymond, Nobili, Matteucci, and +Mueller, and to observe the method of the famous physicians of the +Salpetriere. Like the great Charbon, he made nervous and hysterical +disorders his specialty, in the treatment of which he was much given to +the use of electricity. He had very pronounced "views," though he seldom +troubled his brethren with them; for he was not of those who can hold a +belief firmly only if it is also held by others. + +More than a week had passed without discovery or promise of light, when +one afternoon he went to the hospital resolved to compass some +explanation. + +He walked at once, on entering the ward, to the bedside of his puzzling +patient, who still lay limp as a dish-clout and drowsy as a sloth. He +tested--as he had done almost daily--his nervous and respiratory powers +with the exact instruments adapted for the purpose, and then, still +unenlightened, he questioned him closely about his sensations. The young +officer answered him with tolerable intelligence. + +"I feel," he ended with saying, "as if all my energy had +evaporated,--and I used to have no end,--just as a spirit evaporates if +it is left open to the air." + +The saying struck Lefevre mightily. "Energy" stood then to Lefevre as an +almost convertible term for "electricity," and his successful +experiments with electricity had opened up to him a vast field of +conjecture, into which, on the smallest inflaming hint, he was wont to +make an excursion. Such a hint was the saying of the young officer now, +and, as he walked away, he found himself, as it were, knocking at the +door of a great discovery. But the door did not open on that summons, +and he resolved straightway to discuss the subject with Julius Courtney, +who, though an amateur, had about as complete a knowledge of it as +himself, and who could bring to bear, he believed, a finer intelligence. + +He first sought Julius at the Hyacinth Club, where he frequently spent +the afternoon. Failing to find him there, he inquired for him at his +chambers in the Albany. Hearing nothing of him there, and the ardour of +his quest having cooled a little, he stepped out across the way to his +own home in Savile Row. + +There he found a note from his mother, with a touch of mystery in its +wording. She said she wanted very much to have a serious conversation +with him; she had been expecting for days to see him, and she begged him +to go that evening to dinner if he could. "Julius," said she, "will be +here, and one or two others." + +The mention of Julius as a visitor at his mother's house reminded him of +his promise to that lady to find out how the young man was connected: +engrossed as he had been with his strange case, he had almost forgotten +the promise, and he had done nothing to fulfil it but tap ineffectually +for admission to his friend's confidence. He therefore considered with +some anxiety what he should do, for Lady Lefevre could on occasion be +exacting and severe with her son. He concluded nothing could be done +before dinner, but he went prepared to be questioned and perhaps rated. +He was pleased to find that his mother seemed to have forgotten his +promise as much as he had, and to see her in the best of spirits with a +tableful of company. + +"Oh, you have come," said she, presenting her cheek to her son; "I +thought that after all you might be detained by that mysterious case you +have at the hospital. Here's Dr. Rippon--and Julius too--dying to hear +all about it;" but she gave no hint of the serious conversation which +she said in her note she desired. + +"Not I, Lady Lefevre," Julius protested. "I don't like medical +revelations; they make me feel as if I were sitting at the confessional +of mankind." + +Noting by the way that Julius and his sister seemed much taken up with +each other, and that Julius, while as fascinating as ever, and as ready +and apt and intelligent of speech, seemed somewhat more chastened in +manner and less effervescent in health,--like a fire of coal that has +spent its gas and settled into a steady glow of heat,--he turned to Dr +Rippon, a tall, thin old gentleman of over seventy, but who yet had a +keen tongue, and a shrewd, critical eye. He had been an intimate friend +of the elder Lefevre, and the son greeted him with respect and +affection. + +"Who is the gentleman?" said Dr Rippon, aside, when their greeting was +over. "It does an old man's heart good to see and hear him," and the old +doctor straightened himself. "But he'll get old too; that's the sad +thing, from my point of view, that such beauty of person and swift +intelligence of mind _must_ grow old and withered, and slow and dull. +What did you say his name is, John?" + +"His name is Courtney--Julius Courtney," said Lefevre. + +"Courtney," mused the old man, stroking his eyebrow; "I once knew a man +of that name, or, rather, who took that name. I wonder if this friend of +yours is of the same family; he is not unlike the man I knew." + +"Oh," said Lefevre, immediately interested, "he may be of the same +family, but I don't know anything of his relations. Who was the man, may +I ask, that you knew?" + +"Well," said the old gentleman, settling down to a story, which Lefevre +was sure would be full of interest and contemporary allusion, for the +old physician had in his time seen many men and many things--"it is a +romantic story in its way." + +He was on the point of beginning it when dinner was announced. + +"I should like to hear the story when we return to the drawing-room," +said Lefevre. + +Over dinner, Lefevre was beset with inquiries about his mysterious +case:--Was the young man better? Had he been very ill? Was he handsome? +What had the foreign-looking stranger done to him? and for what purpose +had he done it? These questions were mostly ignorant and thoughtless, +and Lefevre either parried them or answered them with great reserve. +When the ladies retired from table, however, more particular and curious +queries were pressed upon him as to the real character of the outrage +upon the young man. He replied that he had not yet discovered, though he +believed he was getting "warm." + +"Is it fair," said Julius, "to ask you in what direction you are looking +for an explanation or revelation?" + +"Oh, quite fair," said Lefevre, welcoming the question. "To put it in a +word, I look to _electricity_,--animal electricity. I have been for some +time working round, and I hope gradually getting nearer, a scientific +secret of enormous--of transcendent value. Can you conceive, Julius, of +a universal principle in Nature being got so under control as to form a +universal basis of cure?" + +"Can I conceive?" said Julius. "And is that electricity too?" + +"I hope to find it is." + +"Oh, how slow!" exclaimed Julius,--"oh, how slow you professional +scientific men become! You begin to run on tram-lines, and you can't get +off them! Why fix yourself to call this principle you're seeking for +'electricity'? It will probably restrict your inquiry, and hamper you in +several ways. I would declare to every scientific man, 'Unless you +become as a little child or a poet, you will discover no great truth!' +Setting aside your bias towards what you call 'electricity,' you are +really hoping to discover something that was discovered or divined +thousands of years ago! Some have called it 'od'--an 'imponderable +fluid'--as you know; you and others wish to call it 'electricity.' I +prefer to call it 'the spirit of life,'--a name simple, dignified, and +expressive!" + +"It has the disadvantage of being poetic," said Dr Rippon, with grave +irony; "and doctors don't like poetry mixed up with their science." + +"It _is_ poetic," admitted Julius, regarding the old doctor with +interest, "and therefore it is intelligible. The spirit of life is +electric and elective, and it is 'imponderable:' it can neither be +weighed nor measured! It flows and thrills in the nerves of men and +women, animals and plants, throughout the whole of Nature! It connects +the whole round of the Cosmos by one glowing, teasing, agonising +principle of being, and makes us and beasts and trees and flowers all +kindred!" + +"That is all very beautiful and fresh," said Lefevre, "but--" + +"But," interrupted Julius, "it is not a new truth: the poet divined it +ages ago! Buddha, thousands of years ago, perceived it, and taught that +'all life is linked and kin;' so did the Egyptians and the Greeks, when +they worshipped the principle of life everywhere; and so did our own +barbaric ancestors, when the woods--the wonderful, mystic woods!--were +their temples. Life--the spirit of life!--is always beautiful; always to +be desired and worshipped!" + +"Yes," said old Dr Rippon, who had listened to this astonishing rhapsody +with evident interest, with sympathetic and intelligent eye; "but a time +will come even to you, when death will appear more beautiful and +friendly and desirable than life." + +Courtney was silent, and looked for a second or two deadly sick. He cast +a searching eye on Dr Rippon. + +"That's the one thought," said he, "that makes me sometimes feel as if I +were already under the horror of the shade. It's not that I am afraid of +dying--of merely ceasing to live; it is that life may cease to be +delightful and friendly, and become an intolerable, decaying burden." + +He filled a glass with Burgundy, and set himself attentively to drink +it, lingering on the bouquet and the flavour. Lefevre beheld him with +surprise, for he had never before seen Julius take wine: he was wont to +say that converse with good company was intoxicating enough for him. + +"Why, Julius," said Lefevre, "that's a new experience you are +trying,--is it not?" + +Julius looked embarrassed an instant, and then replied, "I have begun it +very recently. I did not think it wise to postpone the experience till +it might become an absolute necessity." + +Old Dr Rippon watched him empty the glass with a musing eye. "'I sought +in mine heart,'" said he, gravely quoting, "'to give myself unto wine, +yet acquainting mine heart with wisdom.'" + +"True," said Julius, considering him closely. "But, for completeness' +sake, you ought to quote also, 'Whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not +from them; I withheld not my heart from any joy.'" + +Lefevre looked from the one to the other in some darkness of perplexity. + +"You appear, John," said the old doctor, with a smile, "not to know one +of the oldest and greatest of books: you will find it included in your +Bible. Mr Courtney clearly knows it. I should not be surprised to hear +he had adopted its philosophy of 'wisdom and madness and folly.'" + +"Surely you cannot say," remarked Julius, "that the writer of that book +had what is called a 'philosophy.' He was moved by an irresistible +impulse, of which he gives you the explanation when he uses that +magnificent sentence about having 'the world set in his heart.'" + +"Yes," said the old doctor, in a subdued, backward voice, regarding +Julius with the contemplative eyes of memory. "You will, I hope, forgive +me when I say that you remind me very much of a gentleman who took the +name of Courtney. I knew him years ago: was he a relation of yours, I +wonder?" + +"Possibly," said Julius, seeming scarcely interested; "though the name +of Courtney, I believe, is not very uncommon." Then, turning to Lefevre, +he said, "I hope you don't think I wish to make light of your grand +idea. I only mean that you must widen your view, if you would work it +out to success." + +With that Lefevre became more curious to hear Dr Rippon's story. So when +they went to the drawing-room he got the old gentleman into a secluded +corner, and reminded him of his promise. + +"Yes," said the doctor, "it is a romantic story. About forty years +ago,--yes, about forty: it was immediately after the fall of Louis +Philippe,--I went with my friend Lord Rokeby to Madrid. He went as +ambassador, and I as his physician. There was then at the Spanish Court +a very handsome hidalgo, Don Hernando--I forget all his names, but his +surname was De Sandoval. He was of the bluest blood in Spain, and a +marquis, but poor as a church mouse. He had a great reputation for +gallant adventures and for mysterious scientific studies. On the last +ground I sought and cultivated his acquaintance. But he was a proud, +reserved person, and I could never quite make out what his studies were, +except that he read a great deal, and believed firmly in the Arabic +philosophers and alchemists of the middle ages; and he would sometimes +talk with the same sort of rhapsodical mysticism as this young man +delights you with. We did not have much opportunity for developing an +intimacy in any case; for he fell in love with the daughter of our Chief +Secretary of Legation, a bright, lovely English girl, and that ended +disastrously for his position in Madrid. He made his proposals to her +father, and had them refused; chiefly, I believe, on account of his +loose reputation. The girl, too, was the heiress of an uncle's property +on this curious condition, it appeared,--that whoever should marry her +should take the uncle's name of _Courtney_. Don Hernando and the young +lady disappeared; they were married, and he took the name of Courtney, +and was forbidden to return to Madrid. He and his wife settled in Paris, +where I used to meet them frequently; then they travelled, I believe, +and I lost sight of them. I returned to Paris on a visit some few years +ago, and I asked an old friend about the Courtneys; he believed they +were both dead, though he could give me no certain news about them." + +"Supposing," said Lefevre, "that this Julius were their son, do you know +of any reason why he should be reserved about his parentage?" + +"No," said the old man, "no;--unless it be that Hernando was not +episcopal in his affections; but I should think the young man is +scarcely Puritan enough to be ashamed of that." + +Lefevre and the old man both looked round for Julius. They caught sight +of him and Leonora Lefevre standing one on either side of a window, with +their eyes fixed upon each other. + +"The young lady," said the old doctor, "seems much taken up with him." + +"Yes," said Lefevre; "and she's my sister." + +"Ah," said the old doctor; "I fear my remark was rather unreserved." + +"It is true," said Lefevre. + +He left Dr Rippon, to seek his mother. He found her excited and warm, +and without a word to spare for him. + +"You wanted," said he, "some serious talk with me, mother?" + +"Oh yes," said she; "but I can't talk seriously now: I can scarcely talk +at all. But do you see how Nora and Julius are taken up with each other? +I never before saw such a pair of moonstruck mortals! I believe I have +heard of the moon having a magnetic influence on people: do you think it +has? But he is a charming man!"--glancing towards Julius--"I'm more than +half in love with him myself. Now I must go. Come quietly one afternoon, +and then we can talk." + +Her son abstained from recounting, as he had proposed to himself, what +he had heard from Dr Rippon: he would reserve it for the quiet +afternoon. He took his leave almost immediately, bearing with him a deep +impression--like a strongly bitten etching wrought on his memory--of his +last glimpse of the drawing-room: Nora and Julius set talking across a +small table, and the tall, pale, gaunt figure of Dr Rippon approaching +and stooping between them. It seemed a sinister reminder of the words +the old doctor had addressed to Julius,--"_A time will come when death +will appear more beautiful and friendly and desirable than life!_" + + + + +Chapter IV. + +The Man of the Crowd. + + +In a few days Dr Lefevre found a quiet afternoon, and went and told his +mother the story of the Spanish marquis which he had got from Dr Rippon. +She hailed the story with delight. Courtney was a fascinating figure to +her before: it needed but that to clothe him with a complete romantic +heroism; for, of course, she did not doubt that he was the son of the +Spanish grandee. She wished to put it to him at once whether he was not, +but she was dissuaded by her son from mentioning the matter yet to +either Julius or her daughter. + +"If he wishes," said Lefevre, "to keep it secret for some reason, it +would be an impertinence to speak about it. We shall, however, have a +perfect right to ask him about himself if his attentions to Nora go on." + +Soon afterwards (it was really a fortnight; but in a busy life day melts +into day with amazing rapidity), Lefevre was surprised at dinner, and +somewhat irritated, by a letter from his mother. She wrote that they had +seen nothing of Julius Courtney for three or four days,--which was +singular, since for the past three or four weeks he had been a daily +visitor; latterly he had begun to look fagged and ill, and it was +possible he was confined to his room,--though, after all, that was +scarcely likely, for he had not answered a note of inquiry which she had +sent. She begged her son to call at his chambers, the more so as Nora +was pining in Julius's absence to a degree which made her mother very +anxious. + +With professional suspicion Lefevre told himself that if Julius, with +his magnificent health, was fallen ill, it must be for some outrageous +reason. But even if he was ill, he need not be unmannerly: he might have +let his friends who had been in the habit of seeing him daily know what +had come to him. Was it possible, the doctor thought, that he was +repenting of having given Nora and her mother so much cause to take his +assiduous attentions seriously? He resolved to see Julius at once, if he +were at his chambers. + +He left his wine unfinished (to the delight of his grave and silent man +in black), hastily took his hat from its peg in the hall, and passed out +into the street, while his man held the door open. In two minutes he had +passed the northern gateway of the Albany, which, as most people know, +is just at the southern end of Savile Row. Courtney's door was speedily +opened in response to his peremptory summons. + +"Is your master at home, Jenkins?" asked Lefevre of the well-dressed +serving-man, who looked distinguished enough to be master himself. + +"No, doctor," answered Jenkins; "he is not." + +"Gone out," said Lefevre, "to the club or to dinner, I suppose?" + +"No, doctor," repeated Jenkins; "he is not. He went away four days ago." + +"Went away!" exclaimed Lefevre. + +"He do sometimes go away by himself, sir. He is so fond of the country, +and he likes to be by himself. It is the only thing that do him good." + +"Becomes solitary, does he?" said Lefevre. "Yes; intelligent, impulsive +persons like him, that live at high pressure, often have black moods." +That was not quite what he meant, but it was enough for Jenkins. + +"Yes, sir," said Jenkins; "he do sometimes have 'em black. He don't seem +to take no pride in himself, as he do usual--don't seem to care somehow +if he look a gentleman or a common man." + +"But your master, Jenkins," said Lefevre, "can never look a common man." + +"No, sir," said Jenkins; "he cannot, whatever he do." + +"He is gone into the country, then?" asked Lefevre. + +"Yes, sir; I packed his small port-mantew for him four days ago." + +"And where is he gone? He told you, I suppose?" + +"No, sir; he do not usual tell me when he is like that." + +It did not seem possible to learn anything from Jenkins, in spite of the +apparent intimacy of his conversation, so Lefevre left him, and returned +to his own house. He had sat but a little while in his laboratory (where +he had been occupying his small intervals of leisure lately in +electrical studies and experiments) when, as chance would have it, the +last post brought him a note from Dr Rippon. Its purport was curious. + +"_I think_," the letter ran, "_you were sufficiently interested in the +story I told you some week or two ago about one Hernando Courtney, not +to be bored by a note on the same subject. Last night I accompanied my +daughter and son-in-law to the Lyceum Theatre. On coming out we had to +walk down Wellington Street into the Strand to find our carriage, and in +the surging crowd about there I am almost sure I saw the Hernando +Courtney whom I believed to be dead_. Aut Courtney aut Diabolus. _I have +never heard satisfactory evidence of his death, and I should very much +like to know if he is really still alive and in London. It has occurred +to me that, considering the intimacy of yourself and your family with +the gentleman who was made known to me at your mother's house by the +name of Courtney, you may have heard by now the rights of the case. If +you have any news, I shall be glad to share it with you."_ + +Considering this in association with the absence of Julius, Lefevre +found his wits becoming involved in a puzzle. He could not settle to +work, so he put on overcoat and hat, and sallied out again. He had no +fixed purpose: he only felt the necessity of motion to resolve himself +back into his normal calm. The air was keen from the east. May, which +had opened with such wanton warmth and seductiveness, turned a cold +shoulder on the world as she took herself off. It was long since he had +indulged in an evening walk in the lamp-lit streets, so he stepped out +eastward against the shrewd wind. Insensibly his attention forsook the +busy and anxious present, and slipped back to the days of golden and +romantic youth, when the crowded nocturnal streets were full of the +mystery of life. He recalled the sensations of those days--the sharp +doubts of self, the frequent strong desires to drink deep of all that +life had to offer, and the painful recoils from temptation, which he +felt would ruin, if yielded to, his hope of himself, and his ambition of +filling a worthy place among men. + +Thus musing, he walked on, taking, without noting it, the most +frequented turnings, and soon he found himself in the Strand. It was +that middle time of evening, after the theatres and restaurants have +sucked in their crowds, when the frequenters of the streets have some +reserve in their vivacity, before reckless roisterers have begun to +taste the lees of pleasure, and to shout and jostle on the pavements. He +was walking on the side of the way next the river, when, near the +Adelphi, he became aware of a man before him, wearing a slouch-hat and a +greatcoat--a man who appeared to choose the densest part of the throng, +to prefer to be rubbed against and hustled rather than not. There was +something about the man which held Lefevre's attention and roused his +curiosity--something in the swing of his gait and the set of his +shoulders. The man, too, seemed urged on by a singular haste, which +permitted him to be the slowest and easiest of passengers in the thick +of the crowd, but carried him swiftly over the less frequented parts of +the pavement. The doctor began to wonder if he was a pickpocket, and to +look about for the watchful eye of a policeman. He kept close behind him +past the door of the Strand Theatre, when the throng became slacker, and +the man turned quickly about and returned the way he had come. Then +Lefevre had a glimpse of his face,--the merest passing glimpse, but it +made him pause and ask himself where he had seen it before. A dark, +foreign-looking man, with a haggard appeal in his eye: he tried to find +the place of such a figure in his memory, but for the time he tried in +vain. + +Before the doctor recovered himself the man was well past, and +disappearing in the throng. He hurried after, determined to overtake +him, and to make a full and satisfying perusal of his face and figure. +He found that difficult, however, because of the man's singular style of +progression. To maintain an even pace for himself, moreover, Lefevre had +to walk very much in the roadway, the dangers of which, from passing +cabs and omnibuses, forbade his fixing his attention on the man alone. +Yet he was more and more piqued to look him in the face; for the longer +he followed him the more he was struck with the oddity of his conduct. +He had already noted how he hurried over the empty spaces of pavement +and lingered sinuously in the thronged parts; he now remarked further +that those who came into immediate contact with him (and they were +mostly young people who were to be met with at that season of the night) +glanced sharply at him, as if they had experienced some suspicious +sensation, and seemed inclined to remonstrate, till they looked in his +face. + +Lefevre could not arrive at a clear front view till, by Charing Cross +Station, the man turned on the kerb to look after a handsome youth who +crossed before him, and passed over the road. Then the doctor saw the +face in the light of a street-lamp, and the sight sent the blood in a +gush from his heart. It was a dark hairless face, terribly blanched and +emaciated, as if by years of darkness and prison, with the impress of +age and death, but yet with a wistful light in the eyes, and a firm +sensuousness about the mouth that betrayed a considerable interest in +life. He turned his eyes away an instant, to bring memory and +association to bear. When he looked again the man was moving away. At +once recognition rushed upon him like a wave of light. The terribly +worn, ghastly features resolved themselves into a kind of death-mask of +Julius! The wave recoiled and smote him again. Who could the man be, +therefore, who was so like Julius, and yet was not Julius?--who could he +be but Julius's father,--that Hernando Courtney whom Dr Rippon believed +he had seen the evening before? + +Here was a coil to unravel! Julius's father--the Spanish marquis that +was--supposed to be dead, but yet wandering in singular fashion about +the London streets, clearly not desiring, much less courting, +opportunities of being recognised; Julius not caring to speak of his +father, apparently ignoring his continued existence, and yet apparently +knowing enough of his movements to avoid him when he came to London by +suddenly removing "into the country" without leaving his address. What +was the meaning of so much mystery? Crime? debt? political intrigue? or, +what? + +The mysterious Hernando went on his way, by the southern sweep of +Trafalgar Square and Cockspur Street, to the Haymarket, and Lefevre +followed with attention and curiosity bent on him, but yet with so +little thought of playing spy that, if Hernando had gone any other way +or had returned along the Strand, he would probably have let him go. And +as they went on, the doctor could not but note, as before, how the +object of his curiosity lingered wherever there was a press of people, +whether on the pavement or on a refuge at a crossing, and hurried on +wherever the pavement was sparsely peopled or whenever the persons +encountered were at all advanced in years. Indeed, the farther he +followed the more was his attention compelled to remark that Hernando +sharply avoided contact with the weakly, the old, and the decrepit, and +wonder why the young people of either sex whom he brushed against should +turn as if the touch of him waked suspicion and a something hostile. +Thus they traversed the Haymarket, the Criterion pavement, and, flitting +across to the Quadrant, the more popular side of Regent Street, among +pushing groups, weary stragglers, and steady pedestrians. Lefevre had a +mind to turn aside and go home when he was opposite Vigo Street, but he +was drawn on by the hope of observing something that might give him a +clue to the Courtney mystery. When Oxford Circus was reached, however, +Hernando jumped into a cab and drove rapidly off, and Lefevre returned +to his own fireside. + +He sat for some time over a cigar and a grog, walking in imagination +round and round the mystery, which steadfastly refused to dissolve or to +be set aside. His own honour, and perhaps the peace of his mother and +sister, were involved in it. He was resolved to ask Julius for an +explanation as soon as he could come to speech with him; but yet, in +spite of that assurance which he gave himself, he returned to the +mystery again and again, and beset and bewildered himself with +questions: Why was Julius estranged from his father? What was the secret +of the old man's life which had left such an awful impress on his face? +And why was he nightly haunting the busiest pavements of London, in the +crowd, but not of it, urged on as by some desire or agony? + +He went to bed, but not to sleep. In the quiet and the darkness his +imagination ranged without constraint over the whole field of his +questionings. He went back upon Dr Rippon's story of the Spanish +marquis, and fixed on the mention of his occult studies. He saw him, in +fancy, without wife or son, cut off from the position and activities in +his native country which his proper rank would have given him, sequester +himself from society altogether, and give himself up to the study of +those Arabian sages and alchemists in whom he had delighted when he was +a young man. He saw him shun the daylight, and sleep its hours away, and +then by night abandon himself like another Cagliostro to strange +experiments with alembic and crucible, breathing acrid and poisonous +vapours, seeking to extort from Nature her yet undiscovered +secrets,--the Philosophers Stone, and the Elixir of Life. He saw him +turn for a little from his strange and deadly experiments, and venture +forth to show his blanched and worn face among the throngs of men; but +even there he still pursued his anxious quest of life in the midst of +death. He saw him wander up and down, in and out, among the evening +crowd, delighting in contact with such of his fellow-creatures as had +health and youth, and seeking, seeking--he knew not what. From this +phantasmagoria he dozed off into the dark plains of sleep; but even +there the terribly blanched and emaciated face was with him, bending +wistful worn eyes upon him and melting him to pity. And still again the +vision of the streets would arise about the face, and the sleeper would +be aware of the man to whom the face belonged walking quickly and +sinuously, seeking and enjoying contact with the throng, and strangely +causing many to resent his touch as if they had been pricked or stung, +and yet urged onward in some further quest,--an anxious quest it +sometimes resolved itself into for Julius, who ever evaded him. + +Thus his brain laboured through the dead hours of the night, viewing and +reviewing these scenes and figures, to extract a meaning from them; but +he was no nearer the heart of the mystery when the morning broke and he +was waked by the shrill chatter of the sparrows. The day, however, +brought an event which shed a lurid light upon the Courtney difficulty, +and revealed a vital connection between facts which Lefevre had not +guessed were related. + + + + +Chapter V. + +The Remarkable Case of Lady Mary Fane. + + +It was the kind of day that is called seasonable. If the sun had been +obscured, the air would have been felt to be wintry; but the sunshine +was full and warm, and so the world rejoiced, and declared it was a +perfectly lovely May day,--just as a man who is charmed with the smiles +and beauty of a woman, thinks her complete though she may have a heart +of ice. Lefevre, as he went his hospital round that afternoon, found his +patients revelling in the sunlight like flies. He himself was in +excellent spirits, and he said a cheery or facetious word here and there +as he passed, which gave infinite delight to the thin and bloodless +atomies under his care; for a joke from so serious and awful a being as +the doctor is to a desponding patient better than all the drugs of the +pharmacopoeia: it is as exquisite and sustaining as a divine text of +promise to a religious enthusiast. + +Dr Lefevre was thus passing round his female ward, with a train of +attentive students at his heels, when the door was swung open and two +attendants entered, bearing a stretcher between them, and accompanied by +the house-physician and a policeman. + +"What is this?" asked Lefevre, with a touch of severity; for it was +irregular to intrude a fresh case into a ward while the physician was +going his round. + +"I thought, sir," said the house-physician, "you would like to see her +at once: it seems to me a case similar to that of the man found in the +Brighton train." + +"Where was this lady found?" asked Lefevre of the policeman. He used the +word "lady" advisedly, for though the dress was that of a hospital nurse +or probationer, the unconscious face was that of an educated +gentlewoman. "Why, bless my soul!" he cried, upon more particular +scrutiny of her features--"it seems to me I know her! Surely I do! Where +did you say she was found?" + +The policeman explained that he was on his beat outside St James's Park, +when a park-keeper called him in and showed him, in one of the shady +walks, the lady set on a bench as if she had fainted. The keeper said he +had taken particular notice of her, because he saw from her dress and +her veil she was a hospital lady. When he first set eyes on her, an old +gentleman was sitting talking to her--a strange, dark, foreign-looking +gentleman, in a soft hat and a big Inverness cape. + +"Good heavens!" exclaimed the doctor. "The very man! That's the meaning +of it. And I did not guess!" + +His assistant and the policeman gazed at him in surprise; but he +recovered himself and asked, with a serious and determined knitting of +the brows, if the policeman had seen the old gentleman. The policeman +replied he had not; the gentleman was nowhere to be seen when he was +called in. The keeper saw him only once; when he returned that way +again, in about a quarter of an hour, he found the lady alone and +apparently asleep. She had a very handsome umbrella by her side, and +therefore he kept within eye-shot of her on this side and on that, lest +some park-loafer should seize so good a chance of thieving. He thus +passed her two or three times. The last time, he remarked that she had +slipped a little to one side, and that her umbrella had fallen to the +ground. He went to pick it up, and it struck him as he bent that she +looked strangely quiet and pale. He spoke to her; she made no reply. He +touched her--he even in his fear ventured to shake her--but she made no +sign; and he ran to call the policeman. They then brought her straight +to the hospital, because they could see she was a hospital lady of some +sort. + +"It must--it must be the same!" said Lefevre. + +"I thought, when I first heard of it below," said the house-physician, +"that it must be the same man as was the cause of the other case, in the +Brighton train." + +"No doubt it is the same. But I was thinking of it in another--a far +more serious sense!" Then turning to the waiting policeman, he said, "Of +course, you must report this to your inspector?" + +"Yes, sir," said the policeman. + +"Give him my compliments, then, and say I shall see him presently." + +Yet, he thought, how could he speak to the official, with all that he +suspected, all that he feared, in his heart? With his attention on the +_qui vive_ with his experiences and speculations of the night, he was +seized, as we have seen, by the conclusion that the "strange, dark, +foreign-looking gentleman" of the park-keeper's story was the same whose +steps he had followed the evening before, without guessing that the man +was perambulating the pavement and passing among the crowd in search, +doubtless, of a fresh victim for occult experiment or outrage! That +conclusion once determined, shock after shock smote upon his sense. What +if the mysterious person were really proved to be Julius's father? What +if he had entered upon a course of experiment or outrage (he passed in +rapid review the mysteries of the Paris pavement and the Brighton train, +and this of the Park)--outrage yet unnamable because unknown, but which +would amaze and confound society, and bring signal punishment upon the +offender? And what--what if Julius knew all that, and therefore sought +to keep his parentage hidden? + +"She is ready, doctor," said the Sister of the ward at his elbow, adding +with a touch of excitement in her manner as he turned to her, "do you +know who she is? Look at this card; we noticed the name first on her +linen." + +Dr Lefevre looked at the card and read, "Lady Mary Fane, Carlton +Gardens, S.W." + +"I suspected as much," said he. "Lord Rivercourt's daughter. It's a bad +business. She has been learning at St Thomas's the duties of nurse and +dresser, which accounts for her being in that uniform." + +He went to the bed on which his new patient had been laid, and very soon +satisfied himself that her case was similar to that of the young +officer, though graver much than it. He wrote a telegram to Lord +Rivercourt, sent the house-physician for his electrical apparatus, and +returned to the bedside. He looked at his patient. He had not remarked +her hitherto more than other women of his acquaintance, though he had +sometimes sat at her father's table; but now he was moved by a beauty +which was enhanced by helplessness--a beauty stamped with a calm +disregard of itself--the manifest expression of a noble and loving soul, +which had lived above the plane of doubt and fear and gusty passion. Her +wealth of lustrous black hair lay abroad upon her pillow, and made an +admirable setting for her finely-modelled head and neck. As he looked at +this excellent presentment, and thought of the intelligence and activity +which had been wont to animate it, resentment rose in him against the +man who, for whatever end, had subdued the noble woman to that +condition, and a deep impatience penetrated him that he had not +discovered--had even scarcely guessed--the purpose or the method of the +subjugation! + +It was, however, not speculation but action that was needed then. The +apparatus described in the case of the young officer was ready, and the +house-physician was waiting to give his assistance. The stimulation of +Will and Electricity was applied to resuscitate the patient--but with +the smallest success: there was only a faint flutter, a passing slight +rigidity of the muscles, and all seemed again as it had been. The +exhausting nature of the operation or experiment forbade its immediate +repetition. Disappointment pervaded the doctor's being, though it did +not appear in the doctor's manner. + +"We'll try again in half an hour," said he to his assistant, and turned +away to complete his round of the ward. + +At the end of the half-hour, Lefevre and the house-physician were again +by Lady Mary's bedside. Again, with fine but firm touch, Lefevre stroked +nerves and muscles to stimulate them into normal action; again he and +his assistant put out their electrical force through the electrode; and +again the result was nothing but a passing galvanic quiver. The doctor, +though he maintained his professional calm, was smitten with alarm,--as +a man is who, walking through darkness and danger to the rescue of a +friend, finds himself stopped by an unscalable wall. While he sought +fresh means of help, his patient might pass beyond his reach. He did not +think she would--he hoped she would not; but her condition, so +obstinately resistant to his restoratives, was so peculiar, that he +could not in the least determine the issue. Imagination and speculation +were excited, and he asked himself whether, after all, the explanation +of his failure might not be of the simplest--a difference of sex! The +secrets of nature, so far as he had discovered, were of such amazing +simplicity, that it would not surprise him now to find that the +electrical force of a man varied vitally from that of a woman. He +explained this suspicion to his assistant. + +"I think," said he, "we must make another attempt, for her condition may +become the more serious the longer it is left. We'll set the Sister and +the nurse to try this time, and we'll turn her bed north and south, in +the line of the earth's magnetism." But just then the lady's father, the +old Lord Rivercourt, appeared in response to the doctor's telegram, and +the experiment with the women had to wait. The old lord was naturally +filled with wonder and anxiety when he saw his apparently lifeless +daughter. He was amazed that she should have been overcome by such +influence as, he understood, the old gentleman must wield. She had +always, he said, enjoyed the finest health, and was as little inclined +to hysteria as woman well could be. Lefevre told the father that this +was something other than hystero-hypnotism, which, while it reassured +him as to his daughter's former health, made him the more anxious +regarding her present condition. + +"It is very extraordinary," said the old lord; "but whatever it is,--and +you say it is like the young man's case that we have all read +about,--whatever it is,"--and he laid his hand emphatically on the +doctor's arm,--"she could not be in more capable hands than yours." + +That assurance, though soothing to the doctor's self-esteem, added +gravely to his sense of responsibility. + +While they were yet speaking, Lefevre was further troubled by the +announcement that a detective-inspector desired to speak with him! +Should he tell the inspector all that he had seen the night before, and +all that he suspected now, or should he hold his peace? His duty as a +citizen, as a doctor, and as, in a sense, the protector of his patient, +seemed to demand the one course, while his consideration for Julius and +for his own family suggested the other. Surely, never was a simple, +upright doctor involved in a more bewildering _imbroglio_! + +The detective-inspector entered, and opened an interview which proved +less embarrassing than Lefevre had anticipated. The detective had +already made up his mind about the case and his course regarding it. He +put no curious questions; he merely inquired concerning the identity and +the condition of the lady. When he heard who she was, and when he caught +the import of an aside from Lord Rivercourt that it would be worth any +one's while to discover the mysterious offender, professional zeal +sparkled in his eye. + +"I think I know my man," said he; and the doctor looked the lively +interest he felt. "I am right, I believe, Dr Lefevre, in setting this +down to the author of that other case you had,--that from the Brighton +train?" Lefevre thought he was right in that. "'M. Dolaro:' that was the +name. I had charge of the case, and was baffled. I shan't miss him this +time. I shall get on his tracks at once; he can't have left the Park in +broad daylight, a singular man like him, without being noticed." + +"It rather puzzles me," said the doctor, "what crime you will charge him +with." + +"It is an outrage," said Lord Rivercourt; "and if it is not criminal, it +seems about time it were made so." + +"Oh, we'll class it, my lord," said the detective; "never fear." + +The detective departed; but Lord Rivercourt seemed not inclined to stir. + +"You will excuse me," said Lefevre; "but I must perform a very delicate +operation." + +"To be sure," said the old lord; "and you want me to go. How stupid of +me! I kept waiting for my daughter to wake up; but I see that, of +course, you have to rouse her. It did not occur to me what that machine +meant. Something magneto-electric--eh? Forgive one question, Lefevre. I +can see you look anxious: is Mary's condition very serious?--most +serious? I can bear to be told the complete truth." + +The doctor was touched by the old gentleman's emotion. He took his hand. +"It is serious," said he--"most serious, for this reason, that I cannot +account for her obstinate lethargy; but I think there is no immediate +danger. If necessity arises, I shall send for you again." + +"To the House," said Lord Rivercourt. "I shall be sitting out a debate +on our eternal Irish question." + +Lefevre was left seriously discomposed, but at once he sent for the +house-physician, summoned the Sister and the nurse, and set about his +third attempt to revive his patient. He got the bed turned north and +south. He carefully explained to the two women what was demanded of +them, and applied them to their task; but, whatever the cause, the +failure was completer than before: there was not even a tremor of muscle +in the unconscious lady, and the doctor was suffused with alarm and +humiliation. Failure!--failure!--failure! Such a concatenation had never +happened to him before! + +But failure only nerves the brave and capable man to a supreme effort +for success. Still self-contained, and apparently unmoved, the doctor +gave directions for some liquid nourishment to be artificially +administered to his patient, said he would return after dinner, and went +his way. The society of friends or acquaintances was distasteful to him +then; the thought even of seeing his own familiar dining-room and his +familiar man in black, whose silent obsequiousness he felt would be a +reproach, was disagreeable. All his thought, all his attention, all his +faculties were drawn tight to this acute point--he must succeed; he must +accomplish the task he had set himself: life at that hour was worth +living only for that purpose. But how was success to be compelled? + +He walked for a while about the streets, and then he went into a +restaurant and ordered a modest dinner. He broke and crumbled his bread +with both hands, his mind still intent on that one engrossing, acute +point. While thus he sat he heard a voice, as in a dream, say, "The very +doctor you read about. That's the second curious case he's got in a +month or so.... Oh yes--very clever; he treats them, I understand, in +the same sort of way as the famous Dr Charbon of Paris would.... I +should say so; quite as good, if not better than Charbon. I'd rather +have an English doctor any day than a French.... His name's in the +paper--_Lefevre_." Then the doctor woke to the fact that he was being +talked about. He perceived his admirers were sitting at a table a little +behind him, and he judged from what had been said that his fresh case +was already being made "copy" of in the evening papers. The flattering +comparison of himself with Dr Charbon had an oddly stimulating effect +upon him, notwithstanding that it had been uttered by he knew not +whom,--a mere _vox et praeterea nihil_. He disclaimed to himself the +truth of the comparison, but all the same he was encouraged to bend his +attention with his utmost force to the solution of his difficult +problem--what to do to rouse his patient? + +He sat thus, amid the bustle and buzz of the restaurant, the coming and +going of waiters, completely abstracted, assailing his difficulty with +questions on this side and on that,--when suddenly out of the mists that +obscured it there rose upon his mental vision an idea, which appealed to +him as a solution of the whole, and, more than that, as a secret that +would revolutionise all the treatment of nervous weakness and +derangement. How came the idea? How do ideas ever come? As inspirations, +we say, or as revelations; and truly they come upon us with such amazing +and inspiriting freshness, that they may well be called either the one +or the other. But no great idea had ever yet an epiphany but from the +ferment of more familiar small ideas,--just as the glorious Aphrodite +was born of the ferment and pother of the waves of the sea. Lefevre's +new idea clothed itself in the form of a comparative question--_Why +should there not be Transfusion of Nervous Force, Ether, or Electricity, +just as there is Transfusion of Blood?_ + +He pushed his dinner away (he could scarcely have told what he had been +eating and drinking), called for his bill, and returned with all speed +to the hospital. He entered his female ward just as evening prayers were +finished, before the lights were turned out and night began for the +patients. He summoned his trusted assistant, the house-physician, again. + +"I am about to attempt," said he, "an altogether new operation: the +patient has remained just as I left her, I suppose?" + +"Just the same." + +"Nervous Force, whether it be Electricity or not, is manifestly a fluid +of some sort: why should it not be transfused as the other vital fluid +is?" + +"Indeed, sir, when you put it so," said the house-physician, suddenly +steeled and brightened into interest, "I should say, 'why not?' The only +reason against it is what can be assigned against all new things--it has +not, so far as I know, been done." + +"Exactly. I am going to try. I think, in case we need a current, so to +say, to draw it along, that we shall use the apparatus too; we shall +therefore need the women." + +"You mean, of course," said the young man, "you will cut a main nerve." + +"I shall use this nerve," said Lefevre, indicating the main nerve in the +wrist,--upon which the young man, in his ready enthusiasm, began to bare +his arm. + +"My dear fellow," said Lefevre, "do you consider what you are so +promptly offering? Do you know that my experiment, if successful, might +leave you a paralytic, or an imbecile, or even--a corpse?" + +"I'll take the risk, sir," said the young man. + +"I can't permit it, my boy," said Lefevre, laying his hand on his arm, +and giving him a look of kindness. "Nobody must run this risk but me. I +don't mean, however, to cut the nerve." + +"What then, sir?" + +"Well," said Lefevre, "this Nervous Force, or Nervous Ether, is clearly +a very volatile, and at the same time a very searching fluid. It can +easily pass through the skin from a nerve in one person to a nerve in +another. There is no difficulty about that; the difficulty is to set up +a rapid enough vibration to whirl the current through!" He said that in +meditative fashion: he was clearly at the moment repeating the working +out of the problem. + +"I see," said the young man, looking thoughtful. + +"Now, you are a musician, are you not?" + +"I play a little," said the young man, with a bewildered look. + +"You play the violin?" + +"Yes." + +"And, of course, you have it in your rooms. Would you be so good as +to bring me the bow of your violin, and borrow for me anywhere a +tuning-fork of as high a note as possible?" + +The young man looked at Dr Lefevre in puzzled inquiry; but the doctor +was considering the electrical apparatus before him, and the young man +set off on his errands. When he returned with the fiddle-bow and the +tuning-fork, he saw Lefevre had placed the machine ready, with fresh +chemicals in the vessels. + +"Do you perceive my purpose?" asked Lefevre. He placed one handle of the +apparatus in the unconscious patient's right hand, while he himself took +hold of her left arm with his right hand, so that the inner side of his +wrist was in contact with the inner side of hers; and then, to complete +the circle of connection, he took in his left hand the other handle of +the apparatus. "You don't understand?" + +"I do not," answered the young man. + +"We want a very rapid vibration--much more rapid than usual," said the +doctor. "I can apply no more rapid vibration at present than that which +the note of that tuning-fork will produce. I want you to sound the +tuning-fork with the fiddle-bow, and then apply the fork to this wire." + +"Oh," said the young man, "I understand!" + +"Now," said Lefevre, "you'd better call the Sister to set the +electricity going." + +The Sister came and took her place as before described--with her hands, +that is, on the cylinder of the electrode, her fingers dipping over into +the vessels of chemicals. She opened her eyes and smiled at sight of the +fiddle-bow and tuning-fork. + +"I am trying a new thing, Sister," said Lefevre, with a touch of +severity. "I do not need you, I do not wish you, to exert yourself this +time; I only wish you to keep that position, and to be calm. Maintain +your composure, and attend.... Now!" said he, addressing the young man. + +The fiddle-bow was drawn across the tuning-fork, and the fork applied +with its thrilling note to the conducting wire which Lefevre held. The +wire hummed its vibration, and electricity tingled wildly through +Lefevre's nerves... There was an anxious, breathless pause for some +seconds, and fear of failure began to contract the doctor's heart. + +"Take your hands away, Sister," said he. Then, turning to his assistant, +"Apply that to the other wire," said he; and dropping his own wire, he +put his hand over the cylinder, with his fingers dipping into the vessel +from which the other wire sprang. When the wire hummed under the +tuning-fork and the vibration thrilled again, instantly he felt as if an +inert obstruction had been removed. The vibratory influence whirled +wildly through him, there was a pause of a second or two (which seemed +to him many minutes in duration), and then suddenly a kind of rigor +passed upon the form and features of his patient, as if each individual +nerve and muscle were being threaded with quick wire, a sharp rush of +breath filled her chest, and she opened her eyes and closed them again. + +"That will do," said Lefevre in a whisper, and, releasing his hands, he +sank back in a chair. "It's a success," said he, turning his eyes with a +thin smile on the house-physician, and then closing them in a deadly +exhaustion. + + + + +Chapter VI. + +At the Bedside of the Doctor. + + +For the first time since he had come into the world Dr Lefevre was that +night attended by another doctor. The resident assistant-physician took +him home to Savile Row in a cab, assisted him to bed, and sat with him a +while after he had administered a tonic and soporific. Then he left him +in charge of the silent man in black, whom he reassured by saying that +there was no danger; that his master had a magnificent constitution; +that he was only exhausted--though exhausted very much; and that all he +needed was rest, sleep, nourishment,--sleep above all. + +Lefevre slept the night through like a child, and awoke refreshed, +though still very weak. He was bewildered with his condition for a +moment or two, till he recalled the moving and exhausting experiences of +the day before, and then he was suffused with a glow of +elation,--elation which was not all satisfaction in the successful +performance of a new experiment, nor in a good deed well done. His +friend came to see him early, to anticipate the risk of his rising. He +insisted that he should keep his bed, for that day at least, if not for +a second and a third day. He reported that the patient was doing well; +that she had asked with particularity, and had been informed with equal +particularity, concerning the method of her recovery, upon which she was +much bemused, and asked to see her physician. + +"It is a pity she was told," said Lefevre; "it is not usual to tell a +patient such a thing, and I meant it to be kept secret, at least till it +was better established." But for all his protest he was again suffused +with that new sense of inward joy. + +Alone, and lying idle in bed, it was but natural--it was almost +inevitable--that the doctor's thoughts should begin to run upon the +strange events and suspicions of the past two days; and their current +setting strongly in one channel, made him long to be resolved whether or +no the Man of the Crowd, the author of yesterday's outrage, the "M. +Dolaro" of whom the detective had gone in search, and who, if captured, +would be certainly overwhelmed with contumely, if not with +punishment,--whether or not that strange creature was Julius's father, +or any relation at all of Julius. He was not clear how he could well put +the matter to Julius, since he so evidently shrank from discourse upon +it, yet he thought some kind of certainty might be arrived at from an +interview with him. On the chance of his having returned to his +chambers, he called for pen and paper and wrote a note, asking him to +look in, as he would be resting all day. "Try to come," he urged; "I +have something important to speak about." + +This he sent by the trusty hand of his man in black; and by mid-day +Julius was announced. He came in confident, and bright as sunshine +(Lefevre thought he had never seen him looking more serene); but +suddenly the sunshine was beclouded, and Julius ceased to be himself, +and became a restless, timorous kind of creature, like a bird put in a +cage under the eye of his captor. + +"What?" he cried when he entered, with an eloquent gesture. "Lazying in +bed on such a day as this? What does this mean?" But when he observed +the pallor and weakness of Lefevre's appearance, he paused abruptly, +refrained from the hand stretched out to greet him, and exclaimed in a +tone of something like terror, "Good heavens! Are you ill?" A paleness, +a shudder, and a dizziness passed upon him as if he sickened. "May I," +he said, "open the window?" + +"Certainly, Julius," said Lefevre, in surprise and alarm. "Do you feel +ill?" + +"No--no," said Julius from the window, where he stood letting the air +play upon his face, and speaking as if he had to put considerable +restraint upon himself. "I--I am unfortunately, miserably constituted: I +cannot help it. I cannot bear the sight of illness, or lowness of health +even. It appals me; it--it horrifies me with a quite instinctive horror; +it deadens me." + +Lefevre, whose abundant sympathy and vitality went out instinctively to +succour and bless the weak and the ill, was inexpressibly shocked and +offended by this confession of what to his sense appeared selfish +cowardice and inhumanity. He had again and again heard it said, and he +had with pleasure assented to the opinion, that Julius was a rare, +finely-strung being, with such pure and glowing health that he shrank +from contact with, or from the sight of, pain or ill-health, and even +from their discussion; but now that the singularity of Julius's +organization impinged upon his own experience, now that he saw Julius +shrink from himself, he was shocked and offended. Julius, on his part, +was pitiably moved. He kept away from the bed; he fidgeted to and fro, +looking at this thing and that, without a sparkle of interest in his +eye, yet all with his own peculiar grace. + +"You wanted to speak to me," he said. "Do you mind saying what you have +to say and letting me go?" + +"I reckoned upon your staying to lunch," said Lefevre. + +"I can't!--I can't!... Very sorry, my dear Lefevre, but I really can't! +Forgive what seems my rudeness. It distresses me that at such a time as +this my sensations are so acute. But I cannot help it!--I cannot!" + +"You have been in the country,--have you not?" said Lefevre, beginning +with a resolve to get at something. + +"I have just come back," said Julius. "My man told me you had called." + +"Yes. My mother wrote in a state of great anxiety about you, and asked +me to go and look at you. She said that she and my sister had seen a +good deal of you lately; that you began to look unwell, and then ceased +to appear, and she was afraid you might be ill." + +This was put forth as an invitation to Julius to expound not only his +own situation, but also his relations with Lady and Miss Lefevre, but +Julius took no heed of it. He merely said, "No; I was not ill. I only +wanted a little change to refresh me,"--and walked back to the window to +lave himself in the air. + +"Well," continued Lefevre, "since I called to see you, I have had an +adventure or two. You never look at a newspaper except for the weather, +and so it is probable you do not know that I had brought to me yesterday +afternoon another strange case like that of the young officer a month +ago,--a similar case, but worse." + +"Worse?" exclaimed Julius, dropping into the chair by the window, and +glancing, as a less preoccupied observer than the doctor would have +remarked, with a wistful desire at the door. + +"Much worse--though, I believe, from the same hand," said Lefevre. "A +lady this time,--titularly and really a lady,--Lady Mary Fane, the +daughter of Lord Rivercourt." + +"Oh, good heavens!" exclaimed Julius, and there were manifest so keen a +note of apprehension in his voice and so deep a shade of apprehension on +his face, that Lefevre could not but note them and confirm himself in +his suspicion of the intimate bond of connection between him and the +author of the outrage. He pitied Julius's distress, and hurried through +the rest of his revelation, careless of the result he had sought. + +"It may prove," said he, "a far more serious affair than the other. Lord +Rivercourt is not the man to sit quietly under an outrage like that." + +Julius astonished him by demanding, "What is the outrage? Has the lady +given an account of it? What does she accuse the man of?" + +"She has not spoken yet,--to me, at least," said Lefevre; "and I don't +know what the outrage can be called, but I am sure Lord Rivercourt--and +he is a man of immense influence--will move heaven and earth to give it +a legal name, and to get it punishment. There is a detective on the +man's track now." + +"Oh!" said Julius. "Well, it will be time enough to discuss the +punishment when the man is caught. Now, if that is all your news," he +added hurriedly, "I think--" He took up his hat, and was as if going +to the door. + +"It is not quite all," said the doctor, and Julius went back to the +window, with his hat in his hand. + +"I wonder," he broke out, "if we shall ever be simple enough and +intelligent enough to perceive that real wickedness--the breaking of any +of the laws of Nature, I mean (or, if you prefer to say so, the laws of +God)--is best punished by being left to itself? Outraged nature exacts a +severe retribution! But you were going to say--?" + +"The night before last," continued Lefevre, determined to be brief and +succinct, "I was walking in the Strand, and I could not help observing a +man who fulfilled completely the description given of the author of this +case and my former one." + +"Well?" + +"That is not all. When I caught sight of his face I was completely +amazed; for--I must tell you--it looked for all the world like you grown +old, or, as I said to myself at the time, like a death-mask of you." + +"You--you saw that?" exclaimed Julius, leaning against the window with a +sudden look of terror which Lefevre was ashamed to have seen: it was +like catching a glimpse of Julius's poor naked soul. "And you +thought--?" continued Julius. + +"You shall hear. Dr Rippon--you remember the old doctor?--had a sight of +a man in the Strand the night before, who, he believes, was his old +friend Courtney that he thought dead, and who, I believe, was the man I +saw." + +Lefevre stopped. There was a pause, in which Julius put his head out of +the window, as if he had a mind to be gone that way. Then he turned with +a marked control upon himself. + +"Really, Lefevre," said he, "this is the queerest stuff I've heard for a +long time! This is hallucination with a vengeance! I don't like to apply +such a tomfool word to anything, but observe how all this has come +about. An excellent old gentleman, who has been dining out or something, +has a glimpse at night, on a crowded pavement, of a man who looks like a +friend of his youth. Very well. The excellent old gentleman tells you of +that, and it impresses you. _You_ walk on the same pavement the next +evening--I won't emphasise the fact of its being after dinner, though I +daresay it was--" + +"It was." + +"--_You_ have a glimpse of a man who looks--well, something like me; +and you instantly conclude, 'Ah! the Courtney person--the friend of Dr +Rippon's youth!--and, surely, some relative of my friend Julius!' Next +day this hospital case turns up, and because the description of its +author, given by more or less unobservant persons, fits the person you +saw, _argal_, you jump to the conclusion that the three are one! Is your +conclusion clear upon the evidence? Is it inevitable? Is it necessary? +Is it not forced?" + +"Well," began Lefevre. + +"It is bad detective business," broke in Julius, "though it may be good +friendship. You have thought there was trouble in this for me, and you +wished to give me warning of it. But--_que diable vas-tu faire dans +cette galere?_ You are the best friend in the world, and whenever I am +in trouble--and who knows? who knows? 'Man is born unto trouble, as the +sparks fly upward'--I may ask of you both your friendship and your +skill. One thing I ask of you here: don't speak of me as you see me now, +thus miserably moved, to any one! Now I must go. Good-bye." And before +Lefevre could find another word, Julius had opened the door and was +gone. + +"If it moves him like that," said the doctor to himself, through his +bewilderment, "there must be something worse in it--God forgive me for +thinking so!--than I have ever imagined." + + + + +Chapter VII. + +Contains a Love Interlude. + + +Next day Lefevre learned that the police had been again baffled in their +part of the inquiry. The detective had contrived to trace his +man--though not till the morning after the event--to the St Pancras +Hotel, where he had dined in private, and gone to bed early, and whence +he had departed on foot before any one was astir, to catch, it was +surmised, the first train. But wherever he had gone, it was just as in +the former case: from the time the hotel door had closed on his cloaked +figure, all trace of him was lost. + +Nor could Lady Mary Fane add anything of moment to what Lefevre already +knew or guessed. Her account of her adventure (which she gave him in her +father's house, whither she had been removed on the third day) was as +follows: She was returning home from St Thomas's Hospital, dressed +according to her habit when she went there; she had crossed Westminster +Bridge, and was proceeding straight into St James's Park, when she +became aware of a man walking in the same direction as herself, and at +the same pace. She casually noted that he looked like a distinguished +foreigner, and that he had about him an indefinable suggestion of death +clinging with an eager, haggard hope to life,--a suggestion which melted +the heart of the beholder, as if it were the mute appeal of a drowning +sailor. She was stirred to pity; and when he suddenly appeared to reel +from weakness, she stepped out to him on an overwhelming impulse, laid a +steadying hand on his arm, and asked what ailed him. He turned on her a +pair of wonderful dark eyes, which were animal-like in their simple, +direct appeal, and their moist softness. He begged her to lead him aside +into a path by which few would pass: he disliked being stared at. +Thinking only of him as a creature in sickness and distress, she obeyed +without a thought for herself. She helped him to sit down upon a bench, +and sat down by him and felt his pulse. He looked at her with an open, +kindly eye, with a simple-seeming gratitude, which held her strangely +(though she only perceived that clearly on looking back). He said to her +suddenly,-- + +"There was a deep, mystical truth in the teaching of the Church to its +children--that they should prefer in their moments of human weakness to +pray to the Virgin-mother; for woman is always man's best friend." + +She looked in his face, wondering at him, still with her finger on his +pulse, when she felt an unconsciousness come over her, not unlike "the +thick, sweet mystery of chloroform;" and she knew no more till she +opened her eyes in the hospital bed. "Revived by you," she said to +Lefevre. + +He inquired further, as to her sensations before unconsciousness, and +she replied in these striking words: "I felt as if I were strung upon a +complicated system of threads, and as if they tingled and tingled, and +grew tighter to numbness." That answer, he saw, was kindred to the +description given by the young officer of his condition. It was clear +that in both cases the nerves had been seriously played upon; but for +what purpose? What was the secret of the stranger's endeavour? What did +he seek?--and what find? To these questions no satisfactory answer would +come for the asking, so that in his impatience he was tempted to break +through the severe self-restraint of science, and let unfettered fancy +find an answer. + +But, most of all, he longed to see close to him the man whom the police +sought for in and out, to judge for himself what might be the method and +the purpose of his strange outrages. He scarcely desired his capture, +for he thought of the possible results to Julius, and yet--Day after +day passed, and still the man was unfound, and very soon a change came +over Lefevre's life, which lifted it so far above the plane of his daily +professional experience, that all speculation about the mysterious "M. +Dolaro," and his probable relation to Julius, fell for a time into the +dim background. The doctor had been calling daily in Carlton Terrace to +see his patient, when, on a certain memorable day, he intimated to her +father that she was so completely recovered that there was no need of +his calling on her professionally again. The old lord, looking a little +flustered, asked him if he could spare a few minutes' conversation, and +led him into his study. + +"My dear Lefevre," said he, "I am at a loss how to make you any adequate +return for what you have done for my daughter. Money can't do it; no, +nor my friendship either, though you are so kind as to say so. But I +have an idea, which I think it best to set before you frankly. You are a +bachelor: it is not good to be a bachelor," he went on, laying his hand +affectionately on the doctor's arm, and flushing--old man of the world +though he was--flushing to the eyes. "What--what do you think of my +daughter? I mean, not as a doctor, but as a man?" + +Lefevre was not in his first youth, and he had had his admirations for +women in his time, as all healthy men must have, but yet he was made as +deliriously dizzy as if he were a boy by his guess at what Lord +Rivercourt meant. + +"Why," he stammered, "I think her the most beautiful, intelligent, +and--and attractive woman I know." + +"Yes," said her father, "I believe she is pretty well in all these ways. +But--and you see I frankly expose my whole position to you--what would +you think of her for a wife?" + +"Frankly, then," said Lefevre, "I find I have admired her from the +beginning of this, but I had no notion of letting my admiration go +farther, because I conceived that she was quite beyond my hopes." + +"My dear fellow," said Lord Rivercourt, "you have relieved me and +delighted me immensely. I know no man that I would like so well for a +son-in-law. And after all, it is only fitting that the life you have +saved with such risk to yourself--oh, I know all about it--should be +devoted to making yours happy. And--and I understand from her mother +that Mary is quite of the same opinion herself. Now, will you go and +speak to her at once, or will you wait till another day? You will have +to decide that," said he, with a smile, "not only as lover, but as +doctor." + +Lefevre hesitated for but an instant; for what true, manly lover would +have decided to withdraw till another day when the door to his mistress +was held open to him? + +"I'll see her now," he said. + +Lord Rivercourt led the doctor back to his daughter, and left him with +her. There were some moments of chilling doubt and cold uncertainty, and +then came a rush of warm feeling at the bidding of a shy glance from +Lady Mary. He bent over her and murmured he scarcely knew what, but he +heard clearly and with a divine ecstasy a softly-whispered "_Yes!_" +which thrilled in his heart for days and months afterwards, and then he +turned to him her face, her beautiful face illumined with love, and +kissed it: between two who had been drawn together as they had, what +words were needed, or what could poor words convey? + +About an hour later he walked to Savile Row to dress and return for +dinner. He walked, because he felt surcharged with life. He desired +peace and goodwill among men; he pitied with all his soul the weary and +the broken whom he met, and wondered with regret that men should get +irremediably involved in the toils of their own misdeeds; he was profuse +with coppers, and even small silver, to the wretched waifs of society +who swept the crossings he had to take on his triumphant way; he would +even have bestowed forgiveness on his greatest enemy if he had met him +then;--for the divine joy of love was singing in his heart and raising +him to the serene and glorious empyrean of heroes and gods. Oh matchless +magic of the human heart, which confounds all the hypotheses of science, +and flouts all its explanations! + +It was that evening when he and Lady Mary sat in sweet converse that she +said to him these words, which he hung for ever after about his heart-- + +"Surely, never before did a man win a wife as you have won me! You made +me well by putting your own life into me; so what could I do but give +you the life that was already your own!" + +Thus day followed day on golden wings: Lefevre in the morning occupied +with the patients that thronged his consulting-room; in the afternoon +dispensing healing, and, where healing was impossible, cheerfulness and +courage, in his hospital wards; and in the evening finding inspiration +and strength in the company of Lady Mary--for her love was to him better +than wine. All who went to him in those days found him changed, and in a +sense glorified. He had always been considerate and kind; but the +weakness, the folly, and the wickedness of poor human nature, which were +often laid bare to his searching scrutiny, had frequently plunged him +into a welter of despondency and shame, out of which he would cry, "Alas +for God's image! Alas for the temple of the Holy Ghost!" But in those +days it seemed as if disease and death appeared to him mere trivial +accidents of life, with the result that no "case," however bad, was sent +away empty of hope. + + + + +Chapter VIII. + +Strange Scenes in Curzon Street. + + +It happened, however, that just when all the bays and creeks of Dr +Lefevre's attention were occupied, as by a springtide, with the +excellent, the divine fortune that had come to him,--when he seemed thus +most completely divorced from anxious speculation about Julius Courtney +and "M. Dolaro," his attention was suddenly and in unexpected fashion +hurried again to the mystery. The doctor had not seen Julius since the +day he had received him in his bedroom--it must be admitted he had not +sought to see him--but he had heard now and then from his mother, in +casual notes and postscripts, that Courtney continued to call in Curzon +Street. + +On a certain evening Lady Lefevre gave a dinner and a reception, +designed to introduce Lady Mary to the Lefevre circle. Julius was not at +dinner (at which only members of the two families sat down), but he was +expected to appear later. It is probable, under the circumstances, that +Lefevre would not have remarked the absence of Julius from the +dinner-table, had it not been for Nora. He was painfully struck with her +appearance and demeanour. She seemed to have lost much of her beautiful +vigour and bloom of health, like a flower that has been for some time +cut from its stem; and she, who had been wont to be ready and gay of +speech, was now completely silent, yet without constraint, and as if +wrapt in a dream. + +"What has come over Nora?" asked Lefevre of his mother when they had +gone to the drawing-room. + +"Ah," said Lady Lefevre, "you have noticed something, have you? Do you +find her very changed, then?" + +"Very much changed." + +"It's this attachment of hers to Julius. I want to have a talk with you +about it presently. She seems scarcely to live when he is not with her. +She sits like that always when he is gone, and appears only to dream and +wait,--wait with her life as if suspended till he comes back." + +"Has it, indeed, got so far as that?" said her son with concern. "I had +better have a word or two with Julius about it." + +Just then Mr Courtney was announced, and there were introductions on +this side and on that. He turned to be introduced to Lady Mary, and for +the time Lefevre forgot his sister, so engrossed was he with the altered +aspect of his friend. He looked worn and weary, like a student when the +dawn finds him still at his books. Lady Lefevre expressed that in her +question-- + +"Why, Julius, have you taken to hard work? You're not looking well, and +we have not seen you for days." + +A flush rose to tinge his cheek, but it sank as soon as it appeared. + +"I have been out of sorts," said he; "that is all. And you have not seen +me because I have bought a yacht and have been trying it on the river." + +"A yacht!" exclaimed Lefevre. "I did not know you cared for the water." + +"_You_ know me," laughed Julius in his own manner, "and not know that I +care for everything!" So saying, he laid his hand on Lefevre's arm. The +act was not remarkable, but its result was, for Lefevre felt it as if it +were a blow, and stood astonished at it. + +During this interchange of words Lefevre (with Lady Mary) had been +moving with Julius, as he drew off across the room to greet Nora, and +the doctor could not help observing how the attention of all the company +was bent on his friend. Before his entrance all had been chatting or +laughing easily with their neighbours; now they seemed as constrained +and belittled as is a crowd of courtiers when a royal personage appears +in their midst. In truth, Julius at all times had a grace, an ease, and +a distinction of manner not unworthy of a prince; but on this occasion +he had an added something, an indefinable attraction which strangely +held the attention. Lefevre, therefore, was scarcely surprised (though, +perhaps, a trifle disappointed, considering that he was a lover) to note +that Lady Mary was regarding Julius with a silent, wide-eyed +fascination. They convoyed Julius to Nora, and then withdrew, leaving +them together. + +There were several fresh arrivals and new introductions to Lady Mary. +These, Lefevre observed, she went through half-absently, still turning +her eyes on Julius in the intervals with open and intense interest. + +"Well," said Lefevre at length, smiling in spite of a twinge of +jealousy, "what do you think, now you have seen him, of the fascinating +Julius?" + +She gave him no answering smile, but replied as if she painfully +withdrew herself from abstraction,--"I--I don't know. He is very +interesting and very strange. I--I can't make him out. I don't know." + +Then Lefevre turned his eyes on Julius, and became aware of something +strained in the relations of his sister and his friend. He could not +forbear to look, and as he continued looking he instinctively felt that +a passionate scene was being silently enacted between them. They sat +markedly apart. Nora's bosom heaved with suppressed emotion, and her +look, when raised to Julius, plied him with appeal or reproach--Lefevre +could not determine which. The doctor's interest almost drew him over to +them, when Lady Lefevre appeared and said to Julius-- + +"Do go to the piano, Julius, and wake us up." + +Nora put out her hand with a gesture which plainly meant, "Don't!... +Don't leave me!" + +But Julius rose, and as he turned (the doctor noted) he bent an +inscrutable look of pain on Nora. He sat down at the piano and struck a +wild, sad chord. Instantly it became as if the people in the room were +the instrument upon which he played,--as if the throbbing human hearts +around him were directly connected by invisible strings with the ivory +keys that pulsed beneath his fingers. What was the music he played no +one knew, no one cared, no one inquired: each individual person was held +and played upon, and was allowed no pause for reflection or criticism. +The music carried all away as on the flood of time, showing them, on one +hand, sunshine and beauty and joy, and all the pride of life; and on the +other, darkness and cruelty, despair, and defiance, and death. It might +have been, on the one hand, the music with which Orpheus tamed the +beasts; and on the other, that which AEschylus arranged to accompany the +last act of his tragedy of "Prometheus Bound." There was, however, no +clear distinction between the joyous airs and the sombre: all were +wrought and mingled into an exciting and bewildering atmosphere of +melody, which thrilled the heart and maddened the brain. But as the +music continued, its joyous strains died out; the instrument cried aloud +in horror and pain, as if the vulture of Prometheus were tearing at its +vitals; darkness seemed to descend upon the room--a darkness alive with +the sighs and groans, the disillusions and tears, of lost souls. The men +sat transfixed with agony and dread, the women were caught in the wild +clutches of hysteria, and Courtney himself was as if possessed with a +frenzy: his features were rigid, his eyes dilated, and his hair rose and +clung in wavy locks, so that he seemed a very Gorgon's head. The only +person apparently unmoved was old Dr Rippon, whose pale, gaunt form rose +in the background, sinister and calm as Death! + +The situation was at its height, when a black cat (a pet of Miss +Lefevre's) suddenly leaped on the top of the piano with a canary in its +mouth, and in the presence of them all, laid its captive before Julius +Courtney. The music ceased with a dissonant crash. With a cry Julius +rose and laid his hand on the cat's neck: to the general amazement the +cat lay down limp and senseless, and the little golden bird fluttered +away. Then the sobs of the women, hitherto controlled, broke out, and +the murmurs of the men. + +"O Julius! Julius! what have you done?" cried Nora, sweeping up to him +in an ecstasy of emotion. + +He caught her in his arms, when with a strange cry--a strained kind of +laugh with a hysterical catch in it--she sank fainting on his breast. +With a sharp exclamation of pain and fear he bore her swiftly from the +room (he was near the door) and into a little conservatory that opened +upon the staircase, casting his eyes upon Lefevre as he went, and +saying, "Come! come quick!" Lefevre then woke to the fact that he had +been fixedly regarding this last strange scene, while Lady Mary clung +trembling to his arm. He hurried out after Julius, followed by Lady Mary +and his mother. + +"Take her!" cried Julius, standing away from Nora, and looking white and +terror-stricken. "Restore her! Oh, I must not!--I dare not touch her!" + +With nimble accustomed fingers Lady Mary undid Nora's dress, while the +doctor applied the remedies usual in hysterical fainting. Nora opened +her eyes and fixed them upon Julius. + +"O Julius, Julius!" she cried. "Do not leave me! Come near me! Oh!... I +think I am going to die!" + +"My love! my life! my soul!" said Julius, stretching out his hands to +her, but approaching no nearer. "I cannot--I must not touch you! No, no! +I dare not!" + +"O Julius!" said she. "Are you afraid of me? How can I harm you?" + +"Nora, my life! I am afraid of myself! You would not harm me, but I +would harm you! Ah, I know it now only too well!" + +Then, as she closed her eyes again, she said, "I had better die!" + +"No, you must not die!" he exclaimed. "Your time is not yet! Yes, you will +live!--live! But I must be cut off--though not for ever--from the sweetest +and dearest, the noblest and purest of all God's creatures!" + +In the meantime Lefevre had been examining his sister with closer +scrutiny. He raised her eyelid and looked at her eye; he pricked her on +the arm and wrist; and then he turned to Julius. + +"Julius," said he, "what does this mean?" + +"It means," answered Julius, covering his face with his hands, "that I +am of all living things the most accurst!" Then with a cry of horror and +anguish he fled from the room and down the stairs. + +Lady Lefevre followed him in a flutter of fear. Presently she returned, +and said, in answer to a look from her son, "He snatched his hat and +coat, and was gone before I came up with him." + +Without a word Lefevre set himself to recover his sister, and in half an +hour she was well enough to walk with Lady Mary's assistance to bed. + +The guests, meanwhile, had departed, all but two or three intimates; and +in less than an hour Dr Lefevre was returning home in the Fane carriage. +Lord Rivercourt and he talked of the strange events of the evening, +while Lady Mary leaned back and half-absently listened. They were +proceeding thus along Piccadilly, when she suddenly caught the doctor's +arm and exclaimed-- + +"Oh! Look! The very man I met in the Park! I am sure of it! I can never +forget the face!" + +Lefevre, alert on the instant, looked to recognise Hernando Courtney, +the Man of the Crowd: he saw only the back of a person in a loose cape +and a slouch hat turning in at the gateway of the Albany courtyard. In +flashes of reflection these questions arose: Who could he be but +Hernando Courtney?--and where could he be going but to Julius's +chambers? Julius, therefore (whose own conduct had been that night so +extraordinary), must be familiar with his whole mysterious course, and +consequently with the peril he was in. Before Lefevre could out of his +perplexity snatch a resolution, Lord Rivercourt had pulled the cord to +stop the coachman. The coachman, however, having received orders to +drive home, was driving at a goodly pace, and it was only on a second +summons through the cord that he slackened speed, and obeyed his +master's direction to "draw up by the kerb." + +"I'll get out," said Lefevre, "and look after him. You'd better get Mary +home; she's not very strong yet, and she has been upset to-night." + +He put himself thus forward for another reason besides,--on the impulse +of his friendship for Julius, without considering whether in the event +of an arrest and an exposure, he could do anything to shield Julius from +shame and pain. + +He got out, saying his adieus, and the carriage drove on. He found +himself well past the Albany. He hurried back, nerved by the desire to +encounter Julius's visitor, and at the same time by the hope that he +would not. In his heart was a turmoil of feeling, to the surface of +which continued to rise pity for Julius. The events of the evening had +forced him to the conclusion that Julius possessed the same singular, +magnetic, baleful influence on men and women as his putative father +Hernando; but Julius's burst of agony, when Nora lay overcome, had +declared to him that till then he had scarcely been aware of the +destructive side of his power. All resentment, therefore, all sense of +offence and suspicion which had lately begun to arise in his mind, was +swallowed up in pity for his afflicted friend. His chief desire, now +that he seemed reduced to the level of suffering humanity, was to give +him help and counsel. + +Thus he entered the Albany, and passed the porter. The lamps in the +flagged passage were little better than luminous shadows in the +darkness, and the hollow silence re-echoed the sound of his hurried +steps. No one was to be seen or heard in front of him. He came to the +letter which marked Julius's abode. He looked into the gloomy doorway, +and resolved he would see and speak to Julius in any case. He passed +into the gloom and knocked at Julius's door. After a pause the door was +opened by Jenkins. Lefevre could not well make out the expression of the +serving-man's face, but he was satisfied that his voice was shaken as by +a recent shock. + +"I wish to see Mr Courtney," said Lefevre, in the half hope that Jenkins +would say, "Which Mr Courtney?" + +"Not at home, sir," said Jenkins in his flurried voice, and prepared to +shut the door. + +"Not at home, Jenkins? You don't mean that!" + +"Oh, it's you, Dr Lefevre, sir. Mr Courtney is not at home, but perhaps +he will see you, sir! I hope he will; for he don't seem to me at all +well." + +"But if he is engaged, Jenkins--?" + +"Oh, sir, you know what 'not-at-home' means," answered Jenkins. "It +means anything or nothing. Will you step into the drawing-room, sir, +while I inquire? Mr Courtney is in his study." + +"Thank you, Jenkins," said the doctor; "I'll wait where I am." + +Jenkins returned with deep concern on his face. "Mr Courtney's +compliments, sir," said he, "and he is very sorry he cannot see you +to-night. It is a pity, sir," he added, in a burst of confidence, "for +he don't seem well. He's a-settin' there with the lamp turned down, and +his face in his hands." + +"Is he alone, then?" asked the doctor. + +"Oh yes, sir," answered Jenkins, in manifest surprise. + +"Has nobody been to see him since he came in?" + +"No, sir, nobody," said Jenkins, in wider surprise than before. + +It appeared to Lefevre that his friend must be sitting alone with the +terrible discovery he had that night made of himself. His heart, +therefore, urged him to go in and take him by the hand, and give what +help and comfort he could. + +"I think," said he to Jenkins, "I'll try and have a word with him." + +"Yes, sir," said Jenkins, and led the way to the study. He tapped at the +door, and then turned the handle; but the door remained closed. + +"Who is there?" asked a weary voice within, which scarce sounded like +the voice of Julius. + +"I--Lefevre," said the doctor, putting Jenkins aside. "May not I come +in? I want a friendly word with you." + +"Forgive me, Lefevre," said the voice, "that I do not let you in. I am +very busy at present." + +"You are alone," said Lefevre, "are you not?" + +"Alone," said Julius; "yes, all alone!" There was a melting note of +sadness in the words which went to the doctor's heart. + +"My dear Julius," said he, "I think I know what's troubling you. Don't +you think a talk with me might help you?" + +"You are very good, Lefevre." (That was an unusual form of speech to +come from Julius.) "I shall come to your house in a few minutes, if you +will allow me." + +"Do," answered Lefevre, for the moment completely satisfied. "Do!" And +he turned away. + +But when Jenkins had closed the outer door upon him, doubts arose. Ought +he not to have insisted on seeing whether Julius was in truth alone in +the study? And why could they not have had their talk there as well as +in Savile Row? These doubts, however, he thrust down with the promise to +himself that, if Julius did not come to him within half an hour, he +would return to him. Yet he had not gone many steps before an unworthy +suspicion shot up and arrested him: Suppose Julius had got rid of him to +have the opportunity of sending a mysterious companion away unseen? But +Jenkins had said he had let no one in, and it was shameful to suspect +both master and man of lying. Yet Lady Mary Fane had distinctly +recognised the man who passed into the Albany courtyard: had he merely +passed through on his unceasing pursuit of something unknown? or were +father and son somehow aware of each other? Between this and that his +mind became a jumble of the wildest conjectures. He imagined many +things, but never conceived that which soon showed itself to be the +fact. + + + + +Chapter IX. + +An Apparition and a Confession. + + +He let himself in with his latch-key, went into his dining-room, and sat +down dressed as he was to wait. He listened through minute after minute +for the expected step. The window was open (for the midsummer night was +warm), and all the sounds of belated and revelling London floated +vaguely in the air. Twelve o'clock boomed softly from Westminster, and +made the heavy atmosphere drowsily vibrate with the volume of the +strokes. The reverberation of the last had scarcely died away when a +light, measured footfall made him sit up. It came nearer and nearer, and +then, after a moment's hesitation, sounded on his own doorstep. With +that there came the tap of a cane on the window. With thought and +expectation resolutely suspended, Lefevre swung out of the room and to +the hall-door. He opened it, and stood and gazed. The light of the +hall-lamp fell upon a figure, the sight of which sent the blood in a +gush to his heart, and pierced him with horror. He expected Julius, and +he looked on the man whom he had followed on the crowded pavements some +weeks before,--the man whom the police had long sought for +ineffectually! + +"Won't you let me in, Lefevre?" said the man. + +The doctor stood speechless, with his eyes fixed: the face and dress of +the person before him were those of Hernando Courtney, but the voice was +the voice of Julius, though it sounded strange and distant, and bore an +accent as of death. Lefevre was involved in a wild turmoil and horror of +surmise, too appalling to be exactly stated to himself; for he shrank +with all his energy from the conclusion to which he was being forced. He +turned, however, upon the request for admission, and led the way into +the dining-room, letting his visitor close the door and follow. + +"Lefevre," said the strange voice, "I have come to show myself to you, +because I know you are a true-hearted friend, and because I think you +have that exquisite charity that can forgive all things." + +"_Show myself!_" ... As Lefevre listened to the strange voice and looked +at the strange person, the suspicion came upon him--What if he were but +regarding an Illusion? He had read in some of his mystical and magical +writers, that men gifted with certain powers could project to a distance +eidola or phantasms of varying likeness to themselves: might not this be +such a mocking phantasm of Julius? He drew his hand across his eyes, and +looked again: the figure still sat there. He put out his hand to test +its substantiality, and the voice cried in a keen pitch of terror-- + +"Don't touch me!--for your own sake!... Why, Lefevre, do you look so +amazed and overcome? Is not my wretched secret written in my face?" + +"And you are really Julius Courtney?" asked Lefevre, at length finding +utterance, with measured emphasis, and in a voice which he hardly +recognised as his own. + +"I am Julius Courtney--" + +He paused, for Lefevre had put his head in his hands, shaken with a +silent paroxysm of grief. It wrung the doctor's heart, as if in the +person that sat opposite him, all that was noblest and most gracious in +humanity were disgraced and overthrown. + +"Yes," continued the voice, "I am Julius; there is no other Courtney +that I know of, and soon there will be none at all." The doctor +listened, but he could not endure to look again. "I am dying--I have +been dying for a dozen years, and for a dozen years I have resisted and +overcome death; now I surrender. I have come to my period. I shall never +enter your house again. I have only come now to confess myself, and to +ask a last favour of you--a last token of friendship." + +"I will freely do what I can for you, Julius," said the doctor, still +without looking at him, "though I am too overcome, too bewildered, yet +to say much to you." + +"Thank you. You will hear my story and understand. It contains a secret +which I, like a blind fool, have only used for myself, but which you +will apply for the wide benefit of mankind. The request I have to make +of you is small, but it may seem extraordinary,--be my companion for +twelve hours. I cannot talk to you here, enclosed and oppressed with +streets of houses. Come with me for a few hours on the water; I have a +fancy to see the sun rise for the last time over the sea. I have my +yacht ready near London Bridge, and a boat waiting at the steps by +Cleopatra's Needle; a cab will soon take us there. Will you come?" + +Lefevre did not look up. The voice of Julius sounded like an appeal from +the very abode of death. Then he glanced in spite of himself in his +face, and was moved and melted to unreserved compassion by the strained +weariness of his expression--the open, luminous wistfulness of his eyes. + +"Yes; I'll go," said he. "But can't I do something for you first? Let me +consider your case." + +"There's nothing now to be done for me, Lefevre," said Julius, shaking +his head. "You will perceive that when you have heard me out." + +The doctor went to find his man and tell him that he was going out for +the night to attend on an urgent case. When he returned he stood a +moment touched with misgiving. He thought of Lady Mary--he thought of +his mother and sister. Ought he not to leave some hint behind him of the +strange adventure upon which he was about to embark, and which might end +he knew not how or where? Julius was observing him, and seemed to divine +his doubt. + +"You need have no hesitation," said he. "I ask you only for twelve +hours. You can easily get back here by noon to-morrow. There is a +south-west wind blowing, with every prospect of settled weather. I am +quite certain about it." + +Fortified with that assurance, Lefevre put on a thicker overcoat and an +old soft hat, turned out the lights in the dining-room and in the hall, +closed the door with a slam, and stood with the new, the strange Julius +in the street, fairly embarked upon his adventure. It was only with an +effort that he could realise he was in the company of one who had been a +familiar friend. They walked towards Regent Street without speaking. At +the corner of Savile Row they came upon a policeman, and Lefevre had a +sudden thrill of fear lest his companion should, at length, be +recognised and arrested. Courtney himself, however, appeared in no wise +disturbed. In Regent Street he hailed a passing four-wheeler. + +"Wouldn't a hansom be quicker?" said Lefevre. + +"It is better on your account," said Julius, "that we should sit apart." + +When they entered the cab, Courtney ensconced himself in the remote +corner of the other seat from Lefevre; and thus without another word +they drove to the Embankment. At the foot of the steps by Cleopatra's +Needle, they found a waterman and a boat in waiting. They entered the +boat, Lefevre going forward while Julius sat down at the tiller. The +waterman pulled out. The tide was ebbing, and they slipped swiftly down +the dark river, with broken reflections of lamps and lanterns on either +bank streaming deep into the water like molten gold as they passed, and +with tall buildings and chimney-shafts showing black against the calm +night sky. Lefevre found it necessary at intervals to assure himself +that he was not drifting in a dream, or that the ghastly, burning-eyed +figure, wrapped in a dark cloak in the stern, was not a strange visitor +from the nether world. + +Soon after they had shot through London Bridge they were alongside a +yacht almost in mid-stream. It was clear that all had been prearranged +for Julius's arrival; for as soon as they were on board, the yacht +(loosed from her upper mooring by the waterman who had brought them down +the river) began to stand away. + +"We had better go forward," said Courtney. "Are you warm enough?" + +The doctor answered that he was. Courtney gave an order to one of the +men, who went below and returned with a fur-lined coat which his master +put on. That little incident gave a curious shock to Lefevre: it made +him think of the mysterious stranger who had sat down opposite the young +officer in the Brighton train, and it showed him that he had not been +completely satisfied that his friend Julius and the person he had been +wont to think of as Hernando Courtney were one and the same. + +They went forward to be free of the sail and its tackling. Courtney, +wrapped in his extra, his fur-lined coat, pointing to a low +folding-chair for Lefevre, threw himself on a heap of cordage. He looked +around and above him, at the rippling, flashing water and the black +hulls of ships, and at the serene, starlit heavens stretching over all. + +"How wonderful!--how beautiful it all is!" he exclaimed. "All, +all!--even the dullest and deadest-seeming things are vibrating, +palpitating with the very madness of life! He set the world in my heart, +and oh, how I loved!--how I loved the world!" + +"It is a wonderful world," said Lefevre, trying to speak cheerfully; +"and you will take delight in it again when this abnormal fit of +depression is over." + +"Never, Lefevre!--never, never!" said Courtney in strenuous tones. "I +regret it deeply, bitterly, madly,--but yet I know that I have about +done with it!" + +"Julius," said Lefevre, "I have been so amazed and bewildered, that I +have found little to say: I can scarcely believe that you are in very +deed the Julius I have known for years. But now let me remind you I am +your friend--" + +"Thank you, Lefevre." + +"--And I am ready to help you to the uttermost in this crisis, which I +but dimly understand. Tell me about yourself, and let me see what I can +do." + +"You can do nothing," said Julius, sadly shaking his head. "Understand +me; I am not going to state a case for diagnosis. Put that idea aside; I +merely wish to confess myself to my friend." + +"But surely," said Lefevre, "I may be your physician as well as your +friend. As long as you have life there is hope of life." + +"No, no, no, Lefevre! There is a depth of life--life on the lees--that +is worse than death! If I could retrace my steps to the beginning of +this, taking my knowledge with me, then--! But no, I must go my +appointed way, and face what is beyond.... But let me tell you my story. + +"You have heard something of my parentage from Dr Rippon, I believe. My +father was Spanish, and my mother was English. I think I was born +without that sense of responsibility to a traditional or conventional +standard which is called Conscience, and that sense of obligation to +consider others as important as myself, which, I believe, they call +Altruism. I do not know whether the lack of these senses had been +manifest in my mother's family, but I am sure it had been in my +father's. For generations it had been a law unto itself; none of its +members had known any duty but the fulfilment of his desires; and I +believe even that kind of outward conscience called Honour had scarcely +existed for some of them. I had from my earliest recollection the nature +of these ancestors: they, though dead, desired, acted, lived in +me,--with something of a difference, due to I know not what. Let me try +to state the fact as it appears to me looking back: I was for myself the +one consciousness, the one person in the world, all else--trees, beasts, +men and women, and what not--being the medium in which, and on which, I +lived. I conceived of nothing around me but as existing to please, to +amuse, to delight me, and if anything showed itself contrary to these +ends, I simply avoided it. What I wished to do I did; what I wished to +have I had;--and nothing else. I do not suppose that in these points I +was different from most other children of wealthy parents. Where I +differed, I believe, was in having a peculiarly sensitive, and at the +same time admirably healthy, constitution of body, which induced a +remarkable development of desire and gratification. I can hardly make +you understand, I am sure I cannot make you feel--I myself cannot feel, +I can only remember--what a bright natural creature I was when I was +young." + +"Don't I remember well," said Lefevre, "what you were like when I first +met you in Paris?" + +"Ah," said Julius, "the change had begun then,--the change that has +brought me to this. I contemplate myself as I was before that with +bitter envy and regret. I was as a being sprung fresh from the womb of +primitive Nature. I delighted in Nature as a child delights in its +mother, and I throve on my delight as a child thrives. I refused to go +to school--and indeed little pressure was put upon me--to be drilled in +the paces and hypocrisy of civilised mankind. I ran wild about the +country; I became proficient in all bodily exercises; I fenced and +wrestled and boxed; I leaped and swam; I rowed for days alone in a +skiff; I associated with simple peasants, and with all kinds of animals; +I delighted in air and water, and grass and trees: to me they were as +much alive as beasts are. Oh, what an exquisite, abounding, unclouded +pleasure life was! When I was hungry I ate; when I was thirsty I drank; +when I was tired I slept; and when I woke I stretched myself like a +giant refreshed. It was a pure joy to me in those days to close my +fingers into a fist and see the beauty and firmness of my muscles. When +solemn, civilised people spoke to me of duty and work, I listened like +an idiot. I had nothing in my consciousness to help me to understand +them. I knew no more of duty than Crusoe on his island; and as for work, +I had no ambition,--why, then, should I work? I read, of course; but I +read because I liked it, not because I had tasks set me. I read +everything that came in my way; and very soon all literature and +science--all good poetry and romance, and all genuine science--came to +mean for me a fine, orderly expression of nature and life. And religion, +too, I felt as the ecstasy of nature. So I fed and flourished on the +milk of life and the bread of life. + +"But a time came when I longed to live deeper, and to get at the pith +and marrow of life. I was over twenty when it was revealed to me in a +noonday splendour and warmth of light, that the human is unspeakably the +highest and most enthralling expression of life in all Nature. That +discovery happened to me when I was in Morocco with my father, who died +there--no matter how--among those whom he liked to believe were his own +people: my mother had died long before. I had considerable wealth at my +command, and I began to live at the height of all my faculties; I lived +in every nerve, and at every pore. + +"And then I began to perceive a reverse to the bounteous beauty and the +overflowing life of Nature,--a threatening quality, a devouring faculty +in her by which she fed the joyous abundance of her life. I saw that all +activity, all the pleasant palpitation and titillation in the life of +Nature and of Man, merely means that one living thing is feeding upon or +is feeding another. I began to perceive that all the interest of life +centres in this alter-devouring principle. I discovered, moreover, this +strange point,--that the joy of life is in direct proportion to the +rapidity with which we lose or surrender life." + +"Yes," said Lefevre, "the giving of pleasure is always more exquisite +and satisfactory than the getting it." + +"I lost life," continued Julius, without noting Lefevre's remark,--"I +lost life,--vital force, nervous ether, electricity, whatever you choose +to call it,--at an enormous rate, but I as quickly replenished my loss. +I had revelled for some time in this deeper life of give and take before +I discovered that this faculty of recuperation also was curiously and +wonderfully active in me. Whenever I fell into a state of weakness, +well-nigh empty of life, I withdrew myself from company, and dwelt for a +little while with the simplest forms of Nature." + +"But," asked Lefevre, "how did you get into such a low condition?" + +"How? _I lived!_" said he with fervour. "_Yes; I lived:_ that was how! I +had always delighted in animals, but then I began to find that when I +caressed them they were not merely tamed, as they had been wont, but +completely subdued; and I felt rapid and full accessions of life from +contact with them. If I lay upon a bank of rich grass or wild flowers, I +had to a slight extent the same revivifying sensation. The fable of +Antaeus was fulfilled in me. The constant recurrence and vigour of this +recuperation not only filled me with pride, but also set me thinking. I +turned to medical science to find the secret of it. I entered myself as +a student in Paris: it was then I met you. I read deeply, too, in the +books of the mediaeval alchemists and sages of Spain, which my father had +left me. It came upon me in a clear flood of evidence that Nature and +man are one and indivisible, being animated by one identical Energy or +Spirit of Life, however various may be the material forms; and that all +things, all creatures, according to the activity of their life, have the +power of communicating, of giving or taking, this invisible force of +life. It furthermore became clear to me that, though the force resides +in all parts of a body, floating in every corpuscle of blood, yet its +proper channels of circulation and communication are the nerves, so that +as soon as a nerve in any one shape of life touches a nerve in any +other, there is an instant tendency to establish in them a common level +of the Force of Life. If I or you touch a man or woman with a finger, or +clasp their hand, or embrace them more completely, the tendency is at +once set up, and the force seeks to flow, and, according to certain +conditions, does flow, from one to another, evermore seeking to find a +common level,--always, that is, in the direction of the greater need, or +the greater capacity. I saw then that not only had I a greater storage +capacity, so to say, than most men, but also, therefore, when exhaustion +came, I had a more insistent need for replenishment, and a more violent +shrinking at all times from any weak or unhealthy person who might even +by chance contact make a demand on my store of life." + +"And is that your secret?" asked Lefevre. "I have arrived in a different +way at something like the same discovery." + +"I know you have," said Julius. "But my peculiar secret is not that, +though it is connected with it. I am growing very tired," said he, +abruptly. "I must be quick, Lefevre," he continued in a hurried, weak +voice of appeal; "grant me one little last favour to enable me to +finish." + +"Anything I can do I will, Julius," said Lefevre, suddenly roused out of +the half-drowsiness which the soft night induced. He was held between +alarm and fascination by the look which Julius bent on him. + +"I am ashamed to ask, but you are full of life," said Julius: "I am at +the shallowest ebb. Just for one minute help me. Of your free-will +submit yourself to me for but a moment. Will you do me that service?" + +"Yes," said Lefevre, after an instant's hesitation; "certainly I will." + +Julius half rose from his reclining position; he turned on Lefevre his +wonderful eyes, which in the mysterious twilight that suffused the +midsummer night burned with a surprising brilliance. Lefevre felt +himself seized and held in their influence. + +"Give me your hand," said Julius. + +The doctor gave his hand, his eyes being still held by those of Julius, +and instantly, as it seemed to him, he plunged, as a man dives into the +sea, into a gulf of unconsciousness, from which he presently emerged +with something like a gasp and with a tremulous sensation about his +heart. What had happened to him he did not know; but he felt slacker of +fibre, as if virtue had gone out of him, while Julius, when he spoke, +seemed refreshed as by a draught of wine. + +"How are you?" asked Julius. "For heaven's sake don't let me think that +at the last I have troubled much the current of your life! Will you have +something to eat and drink? There's wine and food below." + +"Thank you; no," said Lefevre. "I am well enough, only a little drowsy." + +"I am stronger," said Julius, "but it will not last; so let me finish my +story." + +Then he continued. "Having explained to myself, in the way I have told +you, the ease of my unwitting replenishment of force whenever I was +brought low, I set myself to improve on my discovery. I saw before me a +prospect of enjoyment of all the delights of life, deeper and more +constant than most men ever know,--if I could only ensure to myself with +absolute certainty a still more complete and rapid reinvigoration as +often soever as I sank into exhaustion. I was quite sure that no energy +of life is finer or fuller than the human at its best." + +"Good God!" exclaimed Lefevre, turning away with an involuntary shudder. + +"For heaven's sake!" cried Julius, "don't shrink from me now, or you +will tempt me to be less frank than I have been. I wish to make full +confession. I know, I see now, I have been cruelly, brutally selfish--as +selfish as Nature herself!--none knows that better than I. But remember, +in extenuation, what I have told you of my origin and my growth. And I +had not the suspicion of a thought of injuring any one. Fool! fool! +egregious fool that I was! I who understood most things so clearly did +not guess that no creature, no being in the universe--god, or man, or +beast--can indulge in arrogant, full, magnificent enjoyment without +gathering and living in himself, squandering through himself, the lives +of others, to their eternal loss and his own final ruin! But, as I said, +I did not think, and it was not evident until recently, that I injured +any one. I had for a long time been aware that I had an unusual mesmeric +or magnetic influence--call it what you will--over others. I cultivated +that power in eye and hand, so that I was soon able to take any person +at unawares whom I considered fit for my purpose, and subdue him or her +completely to myself. Then after one or two failures I hit upon a +method, which I perfected at length into entire simplicity, by which I +was able to tap the nervous system and draw into myself as much as ever +I needed of the abounding force of life, without leaving any sign which +even the most skilful doctor could detect." + +"Julius, you sicken me!" exclaimed Lefevre. "I am a doctor, but you +sicken me!" + +"I explain myself so in detail," said Julius, "_because_ you are a +doctor. But let me finish. I lived that life of complete wedlock with +Nature for I dare not think how many years." + +"And you did not get weary of it?" asked Lefevre. + +"Weary of it? No! I returned to it always, after a pause of a few days +for the reinvigoration I needed,--I returned to it with all the +freshness of youth, with the advantage which, of course, mere youth can +never have,--an amazingly rich experience. I revelled in the full lap of +life. I passed through many lands, civilised and barbaric; but it was my +especial delight to strike down to that simple, passionate, essential +nature which lies beneath the thickest lacquer of refinements in our +civilised societies. Oh, what a life it was!--what a life! + +"But a change came: it must have been growing on me for some time +without my knowledge. I commonly removed from society when I felt +exhaustion coming on me; but on one occasion it chanced that I stayed on +in the pleasant company I was in (I was then in Vienna). I did not +exactly feel ill; I felt merely weary and languid, and thought that +presently I would go to bed. Gradually I began to observe that the looks +of my companions were bent strangely on me, and that the expression of +their countenances more and more developed surprise and alarm. 'What is +the matter with you all?' I demanded; when they instantly cried, 'What +is the matter with _you?_ Have you been poisoned?' I rose and went and +looked in a mirror; I saw, with ghastly horror, what I was like, and I +knew then that I was _doomed_. I fled from that company for ever. I saw +that, when the alien life on which I flourished was gone out of me, I +was a worn old man--that the Fire of Life which usually burned in my +body, making me look bright and young, was now none of it my own; a few +hot ashes only were mine, which Death sat cowering by! I could not but +sit and gaze at the reflection of the seared ghastliness of that face, +which was mine and yet not mine, and feel well-nigh sick unto death. +After a while, however, I plucked up heart. I considered that it was +impossible this change had come all at once; I must have looked like +that--or almost like that--once or twice or oftener before, and yet life +and reinvigoration had gone on as they had been wont. I wrapped myself +well up, and went out. I found a fit subject. I replenished my life as +theretofore; my youthful, fresh appearance returned, and my confidence +with it. I refused to look again upon my own, my worn face, from that +time until tonight. + +"But alarm again seized me about a year ago, when I chanced by +calculation to note that my periods of abounding life were gradually +getting shorter,--that I needed reinvigoration at more frequent +intervals;--not that I did not take as much from my subjects as +formerly--on the contrary, I seemed to take more--but that I lost more +rapidly what I took, as if my body were becoming little better than a +fine sieve. The last stage of all was this that you are familiar with, +when my subjects began to be so utterly exhausted as to attract public +notice. Yet that is not what has given me pause, and made me resolve to +bring the whole weary, selfish business to an end. Could I not have gone +elsewhere--anywhere, the wide world over--and lived my life? But I was +kept, I was tethered here, to this London by a feeling I had never known +before. Call it by the common fool's name of Love; call it what you +will. I was fascinated by your sister Nora, even as others had been +fascinated by me, even as I had been in my youth by the bountiful, +gracious beauty of Nature." + +"I have wanted to ask you," said Lefevre, "for an explanation of your +conduct towards Nora. Why did you--with your awful life--life which, as +you say, was not your own, and your extraordinary secret--why did you +remain near her, and entangle her with your fascinations? What did you +desire?--what did you hope for?" + +"I scarcely know for what I hoped. But let me speak of her; for she has +traversed and completely eclipsed my former vision of Nature. I have +told you what my point of view was,--alone in the midst of Nature. I was +for myself the only consciousness in the world, and all the world +besides was merely a variety of material and impression, to be observed +and known, to be interested in and delighted with. I was thus lonely, +lonely as a despot, when Nora, your sister, appeared to me, and +instantly I became aware there was another consciousness in the world as +great as, or greater than, my own,--another person than myself, a person +of supreme beauty and intelligence and faculty. She became to me all +that Nature had been, and more. She expressed for me all that I had +sought to find diffused through Nature, and at the same time she stood +forth to me as an equal of my own kind, with as great a capacity for +life. At first I had a vision of our living and reigning together, so to +say, though the word may seem to you absurd; but I soon discovered that +there was a gulf fixed between us,--the gulf of the life I had lived; +she stood pure where I had stood a dozen years ago. So, gradually, she +subverted my whole scheme of life; more and more, without knowing it, +she made me see and judge myself with her eyes, till I felt altogether +abased before her. But that which finally stripped the veil from me, and +showed me myself as the hateful incarnation of relentlessly devouring +Self, was my influence upon her, which culminated in the event of last +night. Can you conceive how I was smitten and pierced with horror by the +discovery that rose on me like a nightmare, that even on her sweet, +pure, sumptuous life, I had unwittingly begun to prey? For that +discovery flung wide the door of the future and showed me what I would +become. + +"Beautiful, calm, divine Nora! If I could but have continued near her +without touching her, to delight in the thought and the sight of her, as +one delights in the wind and the sunshine! But it could not be. I could +only appear fit company for her if I refreshed and strengthened myself +as I had been wont; but my new disgust of myself, and pity for my +victims, made me shudder at the thought. What then? Here I am, and the +time has come (as that old doctor said it would) when death appears more +beautiful and friendly and desirable than life. Forgive me, +Lefevre--forgive me on Nora's part,--and forgive me in the name of human +nature." + +Lefevre could not reply for the moment. He sat convulsed with +heartrending sobs. He put out his hand to Julius. + +"No, no!" exclaimed Julius, "I must not take your hand. You know I must +not." + +"Take my hand," cried Lefevre. "I know what it means. Take my life! +Leave me but enough to recover. I give it you freely, for I wish you to +live. You shall not die. By heaven! you shall not die. O Julius, Julius! +why did you not tell me this long ago? Science has resource enough to +deliver you from your mistake." + +"Lefevre," said Julius,--and his eyes sparkled with tears and his +weakening voice was choked,--"your friendship moves me deeply--to the +soul. But science can do nothing for me: science has not yet sufficient +knowledge of the principle on which I lived. Would you have me, then, +live on,--passing to and fro among mankind merely as a blight, taking +the energy of life, even from whomsoever I would not? No, I must die! +Death is best!" + +"I will not let you die," said Lefevre, rising to take a pace or two on +the deck. "You shall come home with me. I shall feed your life--there +are dozens besides myself who will be glad to assist--till you are +healed of the devouring demon you have raised within you." + +"No, no, no, my dear friend!" cried Julius. "I have steadily sinned +against the most vital law of life." + +"Julius," said Lefevre, standing over him, "my friendship, my love for +you may blind me to the enormity of your sin, but I can find it in me to +say, in the name of humanity, 'I forgive you all! Now, rise up and live +anew! Your intelligence, your soul is too rare and admirable to be +snuffed out like a guttering candle!'" + +"Lefevre," said Julius, "you are a perfect friend! But your knowledge of +this secret force of Nature, which we have both studied, is not so great +as mine. Let me tell you, then, that this mystical saying, which I once +scoffed at, is the profoundest truth:-- + + "'Who loveth life shall lose it all; + Who seeketh life shall surely fall!' + +"There is no remedy for me but death, which (who knows?) may be the +mother of new life!" + +"It would have been better for you," said Lefevre, sitting down again +with his head in his hands, "better--if you had never seen Nora." + +"Nay, nay," cried Julius, sitting up, animate with a fresh impulse of +life. "Better for her, dear, beautiful soul, but not for me! I have +truly lived only since I saw her, and I have the joy of feeling that I +have beheld and known Nature's sole and perfect chrysolite. But I must +be quick, my friend; the dawn will soon be upon us. There is but one +other thing for me to speak of--my method of taking to myself the force +of life. It is my secret; it is perfectly adapted for professional use, +and I wish to give it to you, because you are wise enough in mind, and +great enough of soul, to use it for the benefit of mankind." + +"I will not hear you, Julius!" exclaimed Lefevre. "I am neither wise nor +great. Your perfect secret would be too much for me. I might be tempted +to keep it for my own use. Come home with me, and apply it well +yourself." + +Julius was silent for a space, murmuring only, "I have no time for +argument." Then his face assumed the white sickness of death, and his +dark eyes seemed to grow larger and to burn with a concentrated fire. + +"Lefevre!" he panted in amazement, "do you know that you are refusing +such a medical and spiritual secret as the world has not known for +thousands of years? A secret that would enable you--_you_--to work cures +more wonderful than any that are told of the greatest Eastern +Thaumaturge?" + +"I have discovered a method," answered the doctor,--"an imperfect, +clumsy method--for myself, of transmitting nervous force or ether for +curative purposes. That, for the present, must be enough for me. I +cannot hear your secret, Julius." + +"Lefevre, I beg of you," pleaded Julius, "take it from me. I have +promised myself, as a last satisfaction, that the secret I have +guarded--it is not altogether mine: it is an old oriental secret--that +now I would hand it over to you for the good of mankind, that at the +last I might say to myself, 'I have, after all, opened my hand liberally +to my fellow-men!' For pity's sake, Lefevre, don't deny me that small +final satisfaction!" + +"Julius," said Lefevre, firmly, "if your method is so perfect--as I +believe it must be from what I have seen--I dare not lay on myself the +responsibility of possessing its secret." + +"Would not my example keep you from using it selfishly?" + +"Does the experience of another," demanded the doctor, "however untoward +it may be, ever keep a man from making his own? I dare not--I dare not +trust myself to hold your perfect secret." + +"Then share it with others," responded Julius, promptly; "and I daresay +it is not so perfect, but that it could be made more perfect still." + +"I'll have nothing to do with it, Julius; you must keep and use it +yourself." + +"Then," cried Julius, throwing himself on his bed of cordage, "then +there will be, indeed, an end of me!" + +There was no sound for a time, but the soft rush of the sea at the bows +of the yacht. They had left the Thames water some distance behind, and +were then in that part of the estuary where it is just possible in +mid-channel to descry either coast. The glorious rose of dawn was just +beginning to flame in the eastern sky. Lefevre looked about him, and +strove to shake off the sensation, which would cling to him, that he was +involved in a strange dream. There lay Julius or Hernando Courtney +before him; or at least the figure of a man with his face hid in his +hands. What more could be said or done? + +In the meantime light was swiftly rushing up the sky and waking all +things to life. A flock of seagulls came from the depth of the night and +wheeled about the yacht, their shrill screams strangely softened in the +morning air. At the sound of them Julius roused himself, and raised +himself on his elbow to watch their beautiful evolutions. As he watched, +one and another swooped gracefully to the water, and hanging there an +instant, rose with a fish and flew away. Julius flung himself again on +his face. + +"O God!" he cried. "Is it not horrible? Even on such a beautiful day as +this death wakes as early as life! Devouring death is ushered in by the +dawn, hand in hand with generous life! Awful, devilish Nature! that +makes all creatures full of beauty and delight, and then condemns them +to live upon each other! Nature is the sphinx: she appears soft and +gentle and more lovely than heart can bear, but if you look closer, you +see she is a creature with claws and teeth that rend and devour! I +thought, fool that I was! that I had found the secret to solve her +riddle! But it was an empty hope, a vain imagination.... Yet, I have +lived! Yes, I have lived!" + +He rose and stood erect, facing the dawn, with his back to Lefevre. He +stood thus for some time, with one foot on the low bulwark of the +vessel, till the sun leaped above the horizon and flamed with blinding +brilliance across the sea. + +"Ah!" he murmured. "The superb, the glorious sun! Unwearied lord of +Creation! Generous giver of all light and life! And yet, who knows what +worlds he may not have drawn into his flaming self, and consumed during +the aeons of his existence? It is ever and everywhere the same: death in +company with life! And swift, strong death is better than slow, weak +life!... Almost the splendour and inspiration of his rising tempt me to +stay! Great nourisher and renewer of life's heat!" + +He put off his fur coat, and let it fall on the deck, and stood for a +while as if wrapt in ecstasy. Then, before Lefevre could conceive his +intention, his feet were together on the bulwark, and with a flash and a +plunge he was gone! + +Amazement held the doctor's energies congealed, though but for an +instant or two. Then he threw off hat and coat, and stood alert and +resolute to dive to Julius's rescue when he rose, while those who manned +the yacht prepared to cast a buoy and line. Not a ripple or flash of +water passed unheeded; the flood of sunshine rose fuller and fuller over +the world; moments grew to minutes, and minutes swelled to hopeless +hours under the doctor's weary eyes, till it seemed to them as if the +universe were only a swirling, greedy ocean;--but no sign appeared of +his night's companion: his life was quenched in the depths of the +restless waters, as a flaming meteor is quenched in night. At length +Lefevre ordered the yacht to stand away to the shore, his heart torn +with grief and self-upbraiding. He had called Courtney his friend, and +yet until that last he had never won his inner confidence; and now he +knew that his friend--he of the gentle heart, the peerless intelligence, +and the wildly erring life--was dead in the hour of self-redemption. + +When he had landed, however, given to the proper authorities such +information as was necessary, and set off by train on his return to +town, the agitation of his grief began to assuage; and when next day, +upon the publication in the papers of the news of Courtney's death by +drowning, a solicitor called in Savile Row with a will which he had +drawn up two days before, and by which all Julius Courtney's property +was left to Dr Lefevre, to dispose of as he thought best, "for +scientific and humane ends," the doctor admitted to his reason that a +death that could thus calmly be prepared was not lightly to be +questioned. + +"He must have known best," he said to himself, as he bowed over his +hands--"he must have known best when to put off the poisoned garment of +life he had woven for himself." + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MASTER OF HIS FATE*** + + +******* This file should be named 13931.txt or 13931.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/3/9/3/13931 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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