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diff --git a/old/14036.txt b/old/14036.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..442469d --- /dev/null +++ b/old/14036.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8515 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature +and Science, Vol. XII. No. 30. September, 1873, by Various + +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: Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. XII. No. 30. September, 1873 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: November 13, 2004 [EBook #14036] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIPPINCOTT'S MAGAZINE *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Patricia Bennett and the PG Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + + +LIPPINCOTT'S MAGAZINE + +OF + +_POPULAR LITERATURE AND SCIENCE_. + +Vol XII, No. 30. + +SEPTEMBER, 1873. + + + + +TABLE OF CONTENTS + THE NEW HYPERION [Illustrated] by EDWARD STRAHAN. + III.--The Feast Of Saint Athanasius. + TWO MOODS by MARY STEWART DOUBLEDAY. + THE RIDE OF PRINCE GERAINT by MARTIN I. GRIFFIN. + SKETCHES OF EASTERN TRAVEL. [Illustrated] + I.--The Count De Beauvoir In China. + A PRINCESS OF THULE by WILLIAM BLACK. + Chapter XIV.--Deeper And Deeper. + Chapter XV.--A Friend In Need. + ENGLISH COURT FESTIVITIES + RAMBLES AMONG THE FRUITS AND FLOWERS OF THE TROPICS by FANNIE R. FEUDGE. + Concluding Paper + A LOTOS OF THE NILE by CHRISTIAN REID. + ECHO. by A.J. + OUR HOME IN THE TYROL [Illustrated] by MARGARET HOWITT. + Chapter IX. + Chapter X. + COLORADO AND THE SOUTH PARK by S.C. CLARKE. + THE PATRONS OF HUSBANDRY by MARIE ROWLAND. + ON THE CHURCH STEPS by SARAH C. HALLOWELL. + Chapter VI. + Chapter VII. + Chapter VIII. + Chapter IX. + HOW THEY "KEEP A HOTEL" IN TURKEY by EDWIN DE LEON. + OUR MONTHLY GOSSIP. + The Californian At Vienna by PRENTICE MULFORD. + Ghostly Warriors. + A Warning To Lovers. + NOTES. + LITERATURE OF THE DAY. + Books Received. + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + THE PAULISTS. + THE REWARD OF AN INVENTOR. + CARDINAL BALUE. + AN UNCIVIL ENGINEER. + LOCOMONIAC POSSESSION. + LE RAINCY: THE CHATEAU. + CATHEDRAL OF MEAUX. + BOURSAULT, THE RESIDENCE OF CLIQUOT. + CHURCH-DOOR, EPERNAY. + THE BEGGAR WHO DRANK CHAMPAGNE. + ADMIRATION. + MAC MEURTRIER. + THE BLACK DOMINO. + TAM O'SHANTER'S RIDE. + THE CROOKED MAN. + THE GRAVITY ROAD. + THE ANIMATED CELLS. + THE TRAVELER'S REST. + PALACE AT STRASBURG. + THE MANDARIN CHING'S CART. + HALT OF THE CARAVAN AT HO-CHI-WOU. + AVENUE OF ANIMALS LEADING TO THE TOMBS OF THE EMPERORS. + PORTICO TO THE TOMBS OF THE EMPERORS. + THE GREAT WALL: THE NANG-KAO PASS. + CHAPEL OF THE SUMMER PALACE. + VALLEY AND BEEHIVES. + COWS COMING DOWN THE HILLSIDE BY A MOUNTAIN STREAM. + A PROCESSION. + + + + +THE NEW HYPERION. + +FROM PARIS TO MARLY BY WAY OF THE RHINE. + +III.--THE FEAST OF SAINT ATHANASIUS. + + +[Illustration: THE PAULISTS.] + + +As I parted from my stout old friend Joliet, I saw him turn to empty +the last half of our bottle into the glasses of a couple of tired +soldiers who were sucking their pipes on a bench. And again the old +proverb of Aretino came into my head: "Truly all courtesy and good +manners come from taverns." I grasped my botany-box and pursued my +promenade toward Noisy. + +The village of Noisy has made (without a pun) some noise in history. +One of its ancient lords, Enguerrand de Marigny, was the inventor +of the famous gibbet of Montfaucon, and in the poetic justice which +should ever govern such cases he came to be hung on his own gallows. +He was convicted of manifold extortions, and launched by the common +executioner into that eternity whither he could carry none of his +ill-gotten gains with him. Here, at least, we succeed in meeting a +guillotine which catches its maker. By a singular coincidence another +lord of Noisy, Cardinal Balue, underwent a long detention in an +iron-barred cage--one of those famous cages, so much favored by Louis +XI., of which the cardinal, as we learn from the records of the time, +had the patent-right for invention, or at least improvement. Once +firmly engaged in his own torture--while his friend Haraucourt, bishop +of Verdun, experienced alike penalty in a similar box, and the foxy +old king paced his narrow oratory in the Bastile tower overhead--we +may be sure that Balue gave his inventive mind no more to the task of +fortifying his cages, but rather to that of opening them. + +[Illustration: THE REWARD OF AN INVENTOR.] + +These ugly reminiscences were not so much the cause of a prejudice I +took against Noisy, as caused by it. At Noisy I was in the full domain +of my ancient foe the railway, where two lines of the Eastern road +separate--the Ligne de Meaux and the Ligne de Mulhouse. The sight of +the unhappy second-class passengers powdered with dust, and of the +frantic nurses who had mistaken their line, and who madly endeavored +to leap across to the other train, stirred all my bile. It was on +this current of thought that the nobleman who had been hung and the +cardinal who had pined in a cage were borne upon my memory. "Small +choice," said I, "whether the bars are perpendicular or horizontal. +You lose your independence about equally by either monopoly." + +[Illustration: CARDINAL BALUE.] + +I crossed the Canal de l'Ourcq, and watched it stretching like a steel +tape to meet the Canal Saint--Denis and the Canal Saint-Martin in the +great basin at La Villette--a construction which, finished in 1809, +was the making of La Villette as a commercial and industrial entrepot. +I meant to walk to Bondy, and after a botanic stroll in its beautiful +forest to retrace my steps, gaining Marly next day by Baubigny, +Aubervilliers and Nanterre. "The Aladdins of our time," I said as I +leaned over the soft gray water, "are the engineers. They rub their +theodolites, and there springs up, not a palace, but a town." + +[Illustration: AN UNCIVIL ENGINEER.] + +"Who speaks of engineers?" said a strong baritone voice as a weighty +hand fell on my shoulder. "Are you here to take the train at Noisy?" + +"Let the train go to Jericho! I am trying, on the contrary, to get +away from it." + +"Do you mean, then, to go on foot to Epernay?" + +"What do you mean, Epernay?" + +"Why, have you forgotten the feast of Saint Athanasius?" + +"What do you mean, Athanasius?" + +The baritone belonged to one of my friends, an engineer from Boston. +He had an American commission to inspect the canals of Europe on the +part of a company formed to buy out the Sound line of steamers and +dig a ship-canal from Boston to Providence. The engineer had made +his inspection the excuse for a few years of not disagreeable travel, +during which time the company had exploded, its chief financier having +cut his throat when his peculations came out to the public. + +[Illustration: LOCOMONIAC POSSESSION.] + +"Are you trying, then, to escape from one of your greatest possible +duties and one of your greatest possible pleasures? You have the +remarkable fortune to possess a friend named Athanasius; you have in +addition, the strange fate to be his godfather by secondary baptism; +and you would, after these unparalleled chances, be the sole renegade +from the vow which you have extracted from the others." + +The words were uncivil and rude, the hand was on my shoulder like +a vise; but there floated into my head a recollection of one of the +pleasantest evenings I have ever enjoyed. + +We were dining with James Grandstone, one of my young friends. I have +some friends of whom I might be the father, and doubt not I could find +a support for my practice in Sir Thomas Browne or Jeremy Taylor if I +had time to look up the quotation. We dined in the little restaurant +Ober, near the Odeon, with a small party of medical students, to which +order Grandstone's friends mostly belonged. We were all young that +night; and truly I hold that the affectionate confusion of two or +three different generations adds a charm to friendship. + +[Illustration: LE RAINCY: THE CHATEAU.] + +At dessert the conversation happened to strike upon Christian names. +I attacked the cognomens in ordinary use, maintaining that their +historic significance was lost, their religious sentiment forgotten, +their euphony mostly questionable. Alfred, Henry and William no longer +carried the thoughts back to the English kings--Joseph and Reuben were +powerless to remind us of the mighty family of Israel. + +"I have no complaint to make of my own name," I protested, "which +has been praised by Dannecker the sculptor. That was at Wuertemberg, +gentlemen. 'You are from America,' the old man said to me, 'but you +have a German name: Paul Flemming was one of our old poets.' The +thought has been a pleasant one to me, though I have not the faintest +idea what my ancient godparent wrote. But in the matter of originality +my Christian name of Paul certainly leaves much to desire." + +[Illustration: CATHEDRAL OF MEAUX.] + +I was gay enough that evening, and in the vein for a paradox. I set +up the various Pauls of our acquaintance, and maintained that in any +company of fifty persons, if a feminine voice were to call out "Paul!" +through the doorway, six husbands at least would start and say, +"Coming, dear!" I computed the Pauls belonging to one of the grand +nations, and proved that an army recruited from them would be large +enough to carry on a war against a power of the second order. + +"If the Jameses were to reinforce the Pauls," I declared, looking +toward my young host, "Russia itself would tremble.--Are you to make +your start in life with no better name?" I asked him maliciously. +"Must you be for ever kept in mediocrity by an address that is not +the designation of an individual, but of a whole nation? Could you not +have been called by something rather less oecumenical?" + +"You may style me by what title you please, Mr. Flemming," said +Grandstone nonchalantly. "I am to enter a great New York wine-house +after a little examination of the grape-country here. Doubtless a +Grandstone will have, by any other name, a bouquet as sweet." + +The idea took. An almanac of saints' days, which is often printed in +combination with the _menu_ of a restaurant, was lying on the table. +Beginning at the letter A, the name of Ambrose was within an ace of +being chosen, but Grandstone protested against it as too short, +and Athanasius was the first of five syllables that presented. Our +engineering friend, who was present, had in his pocket a vial of +water from the Dardanelles, which fouls ships' bottoms; and with that +classic liquid the baptism was effected by myself, the bottle being +broken on poor Grandstone's crown as on the prow of a ship. + +"You are no longer James to us, but Athanasius," I said. "If you +remain moderately virtuous, we will canonize you. Meantime, let us +vow to meet on the next canonical day of Saint Athanasius and hold a +love-feast." + +We drank his health, and glorified him, and laughed, and the next day +I forgot whether Grandstone was called Athanasius or Epaminondas. And +my confusion on the subject had not clarified in the least up to the +rude reminder given by my engineer. + +"I had quite forgotten my engagement," I confessed. "Besides, +Grandstone is living now, as you remind me, at Epernay--that is to +say, at seventy or eighty miles' distance." + +"Say three hours," he retorted: "on a railway line we don't count by +miles. But are you really not here at Noisy to satisfy your promise +and report yourself for the feast of Saint Athanasius? If you are not +bound for Epernay, where _are_ you bound?" + +"I am off for Marly." + +"You are going in just the contrary direction, old fellow. You can be +at Epernay sooner." + +"And Hohenfels joins me at Marly to-morrow," I continued, rather +helplessly; "and Josephine my cook is there this afternoon boiling the +mutton-hams." + +"Fine arguments, truly! You shall sleep to-night in Paris, or even +at Marly, if you see fit. I have often heard you argue against +railroads--a fine argument for a geographer to uphold against an +engineer! Now is the instant to bury your prejudice. Do you see that +soft ringlet of smoke off yonder? It is the message of the locomotive, +offering to reconcile your engagements with Grandstone and Hohenfels. +Come, get your ticket!" + +[Illustration: BOURSAULT, THE RESIDENCE OF CLIQUOT.] + +And his hand ceased squeezing my shoulder like a pincer to beat it +like a mallet. A rapid sketch of the situation was mapped out in my +head. I could reach Epernay by five o'clock, returning at eight, and, +notwithstanding this little lasso flung over the champagne-country, I +could resume my promenade and modify in no respect my original plan; +and I could say to Hohenfels, "My boy, I have popped a few corks with +the widow Cliquot." + +Such was my vision. The gnomes of the railway, having once got me in +their grasp, disposed of me as they liked, and quite unexpectedly. + +From the car-window, as in a panorama of Banvard's, the landscape spun +out before my eyes. Le Raincy, which I had intended to visit at all +events on the same day, but afoot, offered me the roofs of its ancient +chateau, a pile built in the most pompous spirit of the Renaissance, +and whose alternately round and square pavilions, tipped with steep +mansards, I was fain to people with throngs of gay visitors in the +costume of the _grand siecle_. Then came the cathedral of Meaux, +before which I reverently took off my cap to salute the great +Bossuet--"Eagle of Meaux," as they justly called him, and on the +whole a noble bird, notwithstanding that he sang his Te Deum over some +exceedingly questionable battle-grounds. Then there presented itself +a monument at which my engineering friend clapped his hands. It was +a crown of buildings with extinguisher roofs encircling the brow of +a hill, and presenting the antique appearance of some chastel of the +Middle Ages. + +[Illustration: CHURCH-DOOR, EPERNAY.] + +"Do you see those round, pot-bellied towers, like tuns of wine stood +upon end?" he said--"those donjons at the corners, tapering at the +top, and presenting the very image of noble bottles? There needs +nothing but that palace to convince you that you have arrived in the +champagne region." + +"I do not know the building," I confessed. + +"Can you not guess? Ah, but you should see it in a summer storm, when +the rain foams and spirts down those huge bottles of mason-work, and +the thunder pops among the roofs like the corks of a whole basket of +champagne! That fine castle, Flemming, is the chateau of Boursault, +apparently built in the era of the Crusades, but really a marvel of +yesterday. It rose into being, not to the sound of a lyre, like the +towers of Troy, but at the bursting of innumerable bottles, causing to +resound all over the world the name of the widow Cliquot." + +At length we entered the station of Epernay. There I received my first +shock in learning that the only return-train stopping at Noisy was one +which left at midnight, and would land me in the extreme suburbs of +Paris at three o'clock in the morning. + +Our friend Grandstone, whom we found amazing the streets of Epernay +with a light American buggy drawn by a colossal Morman horse, received +us with still more surprise than delight. He had relapsed into plain +James, and had never dreamed that his second baptism would bear fruit. +Besides, he proved to us that we were in error as to the date. The +feast of Saint Athanasius, as he showed from a calendar shoved beneath +a quantity of vintners' cards on his study-table, fell on the second +of May, and could not be celebrated before the evening of the first. +It was now the thirtieth of April. He invited us, then, for the next +day at dinner, warning us at the same time that the evening of that +same morrow would see him on his way to the Falls of Schaffhausen. +This idea of dining with an absentee puzzled me. + +[Illustration: THE BEGGAR WHO DRANK CHAMPAGNE.] + +We both laughed heartily at the engineer's mistake of twenty-four +hours, and he for his part made me his excuses. + +Athanasius--whose name I obstinately keep, because it gives him, as +I maintain, a more distinct individuality,--Athanasius happened to +be driving out for the purpose of collecting some friends whom he was +about to accompany to Schaffhausen, and whom he had invited to dinner. +He contrived to stow away two in his buggy, and the rest assembled in +his chambers. We dined gayly and voraciously, and I hardly regretted +even that old hotel-dinner at Interlaken, when the landlord waited on +us in his green coat, and when Mary Ashburton was by my side, and +when I praised hotel-dinners because one can say so much there without +being overheard. + +Dinner over, we went out for a stroll through the town. The city of +Epernay offers little remarkable except its Rue du Commerce, flanked +with enormous buildings, and its church, conspicuous only for +a flourishing portal in the style of Louis XIV., in perfect +contradiction to the general architecture of the old sanctuary. The +environs were little note worthy at the season, for a vineyard-land +has this peculiarity--its veritable spring, its pride of May, arrives +in the autumn. + +[Illustration: ADMIRATION.] + +One very vinous trait we found, however, in the person of a beggar. He +was sitting on Grandstone's steps as we emerged. Aged hardly fourteen, +he had turned his young nose toward the rich fumes coming up from the +kitchen with a look of sensuality and indulgence that amused me. The +maid, on a hint of mine, gave him a biscuit and the remainders of +our bottles emptied into a bowl. A smile of extreme breadth and +intelligence spread over his face. Opening his bag, he laid by the +biscuit, and extracted a morsel of iced cake: at the same time he +produced an old-fashioned, long-waisted champagne-glass, nicked at the +rim and quite without a stand. Filling this from his bowl, he drank to +the health of the waitress with the easiest politeness it was ever my +lot to see. Ragged as a beggar of Murillo's, courteous as a hidalgo +by Velasquez, he added a grace and an epicurism completely French. +I thought him the best possible figure-head for that opulent spot, +cradle of the hilarity of the world. I gave him five francs. + +[Illustration: MAC MEURTRIER.] + +We proceeded to admire the town. The great curiosities of Epernay, +its glory and pomp, are not permitted to see the daylight. They +are subterranean and introverted. They are the cellars. Those rich +colonnades of Commerce street, all those porticoes surmounted with +Greek or Roman triangles in the nature of pediments, of what antique +religion are they the representations? They are cellar-doors. + +[Illustration: THE BLACK DOMINO.] + +It was impossible to quit the city without visiting its cellars, said +Grandstone, and we betook ourselves under his guidance to one of the +most renowned. + +I only thought of seeing a battle-field of bottles, but I found the +Eleusinian mysteries. + +[Illustration: TAM O'SHANTER'S RIDE.] + +In the temple-porch of Eleusis was fixed a large pale face, in the +middle parts of which a red nose was glowing like a fuse. Several +other personages, in company with this visage, received us on our +approach with a world of solemn and terrifying signals. + +Directly a man in a cloak and slouched hat, and holding in his hands +a wire fencing-mask, extinguished with it the red nose. The latter +met his fate with stolid fortitude. All were perfectly still, but the +twitching cheeks of most of the spectators betrayed a laugh retained +with difficulty. The cloak then advanced, like a less beautiful Norma, +to a bell in the portico, and struck three tragical strokes. A strong, +pealing bass voice came from the interior: "Who dares knock at this +door?" + +"A night-bird," said the man in the cloak, who took the part of +spokesman. "What has the night-bird to do with the eagle?" replied the +strong voice. "What can there be in common between the heathen in +his blindness and the Ancient of the Mountain throned in power and +splendor?" + +"Grand Master, it is in that splendor the new-comer wishes to plunge." +After this imitation of some Masonic mystery the red-nosed man was +quickly taken by the shoulders and hurtled in at the door, where a +flare of red theatrical fire illuminated his sudden plunge. + +"What nonsense is this?" I said to Athanasius. + +"The man in the iron mask," he explained, "is in that respect what we +shall all be in a minute. Without such a protector, in passing amongst +the first year's bottles we might receive a few hits in the face." + +"And do you know the new apprentice?" + +"No: some stranger, evidently." + +[Illustration: THE CROOKED MAN.] + +"It is not hard to guess his extraction," said one of our +dinner-party. "In the East there are sorcerers with two pupils in each +eye. For his part, he seems to be braced with two pans in each +knee. He is long in the stilts like a heron, square--headed and +square-shouldered: I give you my word he is a Scotchman. For certain," +he added, "I have seen his likeness somewhere--Ah yes, in an engraving +of Hogarth's!" + +The author of this charitable criticism was a little crooked +gentleman, at whose side I had dined--a man of sharpness and wit, for +which his hunch gave him the authority. As we penetrated finally into +the immense crypt, long like a street, provided with iron railways +for handling the stores, and threaded now and then by heavy wagons and +Normandy horses, my interest in the surrounding wonders was distracted +by apprehensions of the fate awaiting the unfortunate red nose. + +[Illustration: THE GRAVITY ROAD] + +The gallop of a steed was heard at length, then a dreadful exploding +noise. I should have thought that a hundred drummers were marching +through the catacombs. + +Relieved of his mask, fixed like a dry forked stick, wrong side +foremost, on a frightened steed which galloped down the avenue, and +pursued by the racket of empty bottles beaten against the wine-frames, +came the Scotchman, like an unwilling Tam O'Shanter. At a new outburst +of resonant noises, which we could not help offering to the general +confusion, the horse stopped, and assumed twice or thrice the attitude +of a gymnast who walks on his hands. The figure of the man, still +rigid, flew up into the air like a stick that pops out of the water. +The Terrible Brothers received him in their arms. + +Hardly restored to equilibrium, the patient was quickly replaced in +the saddle, but the saddle was this time girded upon a barrel, and the +barrel placed upon a truck, and the truck upon an inclined tramway. +His impassive countenance might be seen to kindle with indignation and +horror, as the hat which had been jammed over his eyes flew off, +and he found himself gliding over an iron road at a rate of speed +continually increasing. + +He was fated to other tests, but at this point a little discussion +arose among ourselves. Grandstone, his fluffy young whiskers +quite disheveled with laughter, said, "Fellows, we had better stop +somewhere. There will be more of this, and it will be tedious to see +in the role of uninvited spectators, and it is not certain we are +wanted. I always knew there was a Society of Pure Illumination at +Epernay. It is not a Masonic order, but it has its signs, its passes, +its grips, and in a word its secret. I have recognized among +these gentlemen some active members of the order--among others, +notwithstanding his disguise, a jolly good fellow we have here, +Fortnoye." + +"You cannot have seen Fortnoye," said one of the party: "he is at +Paris." + +"And who is your Fortnoye, pray?" I asked. + +"The best tenor voice in Epernay; but his presence here does not give +_me_ an invitation, you see. The Society of Pure Illumination has +its rites and mysteries more important than everybody supposes, +and probably complicated with board-of-trade secrets among the +wine-merchants. We have hit upon a bad time. Let us go and visit +another cellar." + +There was opposition to this measure: different opinions were +expressed, and I was chosen for moderator. + +"My dear boys," I said, "as the grayest among you I may be presumed to +be the wisest. But I do not feel myself to be myself. I have received +to-day a succession of unaccustomed influences. I have been dragged +about by an impertinent locomotive; I have been induced to dine +heavily; I have absorbed champagne, perhaps to the limit of my +measure. These are not my ordinary ways: I am naturally thoughtful, +studious and pensive. The Past, gentlemen, is for me an unfaded +morning-glory, whose closed cup I can coax open at pleasure, and read +within its tube legends written in dusted gold. But the Present to the +true philosopher is also--In fact, I never was so much amused in my +life. I am dying to see what they will do with that Scotchman." + +[Illustration: THE ANIMATED CELLS] + +Athanasius submitted. At the end of one of the cross galleries we +could already see a flickering glimmer of torches. There, evidently, +was held the council. We stole on tiptoe in that direction, and +ensconced ourselves behind a long file of empty bottle-shelves, worn +out after long service and leaning against a wall. + +Through the holes which had fixed the bottles in position we could see +everything without being discovered. The grand dignitaries, sitting +in a semicircle, were about to proceed from physical to moral tests. +Before them, his red nose hanging like a cameo from the white bandage +which covered his eyes, and relieved upon his face, still perfectly +white and calm, stood the Scot. The Grand Master arose--I should have +said the Reverend--his head nodding with senility, his beard white as +a waterfall: he appeared to be eighty years of age at least. He was +truly venerable to look at, and reminded me of Thor. He wore a sort of +dalmatica embroidered with gold. Calmness and goodness were so plainly +marked on the aspect of this worthy that I felt ashamed of playing +the spy, and felt inclined to return humbly to the good counsel of +Athanasius, when the latter, pushing my elbow behind the shelves, +said, referring to the Ancient of the Mountain, "That's Fortnoye: I +knew I couldn't be mistaken." + +I was greatly mystified at discovering the first tenor voice of +Epernay in an aged man; but the catechism now commencing, I thought +only of listening. + +"The barleycorns of your native North having been partially cleaned +out of your hair by contact with the two enchanted steeds--the steed +you bridled without a head, and the steed that ran away with you +without legs," said the Ancient--"we have brought you hither for +examination. We might have gone much farther with the physical tests: +we might have forced you, at the present session, to relieve yourself +of those envelopes considered indispensable by all Europeans beneath +your own latitude, and in our presence perform the sword-dance." + +"So be it," said the disciple, executing a galvanic figure with his +legs, his countenance still like marble. + +"If we demanded the head of your best friend, would you bring it in?" + +"I am the countryman of Lady Macbeth," replied the red nose. "Give me +the daggers." + +"We would fain dispense with that proof, necessarily painful to a man +of such evident sensibility as yours." The red nose bowed. "What is +your name?" + +He pronounced it--apparently MacMurtagh. + +"In future, among us, you are named Meurtrier." + +"MacMeurtrier," muttered the Scotchman in a tone of abstraction. + +"No! Meurtrier unadulterated. Your business?" + +"I am a homoeopathic doctor." + +"Are you a believer in homoeopathy? Be careful: remember that the +Ancient of the Mountain hears what you say." + +The Scot held up his hand: "I believe in the learned Hahnemann, and +in Mrs. Hahnemann, no less learned than himself; but," he added, +"homoeopathy is a science still in its baby-clothes. I have invented +a system perfectly novel. In mingling homoeopathy with vegetable +magnetism the most encouraging results are obtained, as may be +observed daily in the villa of Dr. Van Murtagh, near Edinburgh--" + +"Enough!" cried the Ancient: "circulars are not allowed here. Forget +nothing, Meurtrier! And how were you inspired with the pious ambition +of becoming our brother?" + +"At the hotel table: it was the young clerks from the wine-houses. +I mentioned that I wished to be a Free Mason, and the lodge of +Epernay--" + +"Silence! The words you use, _lodge_ and _Free Mason_, are most +improper in this temple, which is that of the Pure Illumination, and +nothing less. Will you remember, Meurtrier?" + +"MacMeurtrier," muttered the novice again. The last proofs were now +tried upon him, called the "five senses." For that of hearing he was +made to listen to a jewsharp, which he calmly proclaimed to be the +bagpipe; for that of touch, he was made to feel by turns a live fish, +a hot iron and a little stuffed hedgehog. The last he took for a pack +of toothpicks, and announced gravely, "It sticks me." The laughs broke +out from all sides, even from behind the bottle-shelves. + +Alas! on this occasion the laugh was not altogether on my side of that +fatal honeycomb! + +[Illustration: THE TRAVELER'S REST.] + +They had made him swallow, in a glass, some fearful mixture or other, +and he had imperturbably declared that it was in his opinion the +wine of Moet: after this evidence of taste the proof of sight was to +follow, and the semicircle of purple faces was quite blackening with +bottled laughter, when Grandstone touched me on the shoulder. My hour +for departure was come, and I had not a minute to spare. + +[Illustration: PALACE AT STRASBURG.] + +Apparently, the last test of the red nose resulted in a triumph: as +we were effecting our covert and hasty retreat we heard all the voices +exclaim in concert, "It is the Pure Illumination!" + +Gay as we were on entering the great wine-cellar, we were perfectly +Olympian when we came out. The crypts of these vast establishments, +where a soft inspiration perpetually floats upward from the wine in +store, often receive a visitor as a Diogenes and dismiss him as an +Anacreon. + +Our consumption of wine at dinner had been, like Mr. Poe's +conversation with his soul, "serious and sober." In the cellar no drop +had passed our mouths. I was alert as a lark when I entered: I came +out in a species of voluptuous dream. + +All the band conducted me to the railway-station, and I was very much +touched with the attention. It was who should carry my botany-box, who +should set my cap straight, who should give me the most precise and +statistical information about the train which returned to Paris, with +a stop at Noisy; the while, Ophelia-like, I chanted snatches of old +songs, and mingled together in a tender reverie my recollections +of Mary Ashburton, my coming Book and my theories of Progressive +Geography. + +"Take this shawl: the night will be chilly before you get to the +city." + +"Don't let them carry you beyond Noisy." + +"Come back to Epernay every May-day: never forget the feast of Saint +Athanasius." + +"Be sure you get into the right train: here is the car. Come, man, +bundle up! they are closing the barrier." + +I was perfectly melted by so much sympathy. "Adieu," I said, "my dear +champanions--" + +I turned into an excellent car, first class, and fell asleep directly. + +Next day I awoke--at Strasburg! The convivials of the evening before, +making for the Falls of Schaffhausen on the Rhine, had traveled beside +me in the adjoining car. + +My friends, uncertain how their practical joke would be received, +clustered around me. + +"Ah, boys," I said, "I have too many griefs imprisoned in this aching +bosom to be much put out by the ordinary 'Horrid Hoax.' But you have +compromised my reputation. I promised to meet Hohenfels at Marly: +children, bankruptcy stares me in the face." + +Grandstone had the grace to be a little embarrassed: "You wished to +dine with me at the Feast of Saint Athanasius, but you mistook the +day. Your engineer is the true culprit, for he voluntarily deceived +you. The fact is, my dear Flemming, we have concocted a little +conspiracy. You are a good fellow, a joyful spirit in fact, when you +are not in your _lubies_ about the Past and the Future. We wanted +you, we conspired; and, Catiline having stolen you at Noisy, Cethigus +tucked you into a car with the intention of making use of you at +Schaffhausen." + +"Never! I have the strongest vows that ever man uttered not to +revisit the Rhine. It is an affair of early youth, a solemn promise, a +consecration. You have got me at Strasburg, but you will not carry me +to Schaffhausen." + +He was so contrite that I had to console him. Letting him know that no +great harm was done, I saw him depart with his friends for Bale. For +my part, I remained with the engineer, whose professional duties, such +as they were, kept him for a short time in the capital of Alsace. In +his turn, however, the latter took leave of me: we were to meet each +other shortly. + +It was seven in the morning. This time, to be sure of my enemy the +railroad, I procured a printed Guide. But the Guide was a sorry +counselor for my impatience. The first train, an express, had left: +the next, an accommodation, would start at a quarter to one. I had +five hours and three-quarters to spare. + +One of the greatest pleasures in life, according to my poor opinion, +is to have a recreation forced on one. Some cherub, perhaps, cleared +the cobwebs away from my brain that morning; but, however it might be, +I was glad of everything. I was glad the "champanions" were departed, +glad I had a stolen morning in Strasburg, glad that Hohenfels and my +domestics would be uneasy for me at Marly. + +In such a mood I applied myself to extract the profit out of my +detention in the city. + +EDWARD STRAHAN. + +[TO BE CONTINUED.] + + + + +TWO MOODS. + + + All yesterday you were so near to me, + It seemed as if I hardly moved or spoke + But your heart moved with mine. I woke + To a new life that found you everywhere, + As if your love was as some wide-girt sea, + Or as the sunlit air; + And so encompassed me, + Whether I thought or not, it could not but be there. + + To-day your words approve me, and your heart + Is mine as ever, yet that heavenly sense + Of oneness that made every hour intense + With Love's full perfectness, is gone from thence; + And, though our hands are clasped, our souls are two, + And in my thoughts I say, "This is myself--this you!" + +MARY STEWART DOUBLEDAY. + + + + +THE RIDE OF PRINCE GERAINT. + +The Ride of Prince Geraint. + + + And Prince Geraint, now thinking that he heard + The noble hart at bay, now the far horn, + A little vext at losing of the hunt, + A little at the vile occasion, rode + By ups and downs through many a glassy glade + And valley, with fixt eye following the three. + + _Enid_. + + Through forest paths his charger strode, + His heron plume behind him flowed, + Blood-red the west with sunset glowed, + Far down the river golden flowed, + And in the woods the winds were still: + No helm had he, nor lance in rest; + His knightly beard flowed down his breast; + In silken costume gayly drest, + Out from the glory of the west + He flashed adown the purple hill. + + His sword hung tasseled at his side, + His purple scarf was floating wide, + And all his raiment many-dyed, + As if he came to seek a bride, + And not the combat that he sought; + Yet rode he like a prince, and one + Native to noble deeds alone, + Who many a valiant tilt had run, + And many a prize of tourney won + In Arthur's lists at Camelot. + + Cool grasses and green mosses made + Soft carpet for his charger's tread, + As 'neath the oak boughs dark o'erhead, + By belts of pasture scant of shade, + Into the Castle Town he rode: + He heard, as things are heard in dreams, + The sound of far-off falling streams, + The shriller bird-choir's evening hymns: + He saw but only helmet-gleams, + The smith that smote, the fire that glowed, + + The sheen of lances, and the cloud + From many a field-forge fire, the crowd + Of gay-clad squires, and, neighing loud, + The war-horse with rich trappings proud, + That arched his neck and pawed the ground; + Old armorers grave and stern in stall, + Where low-crowned morions, helmets tall, + Shone gilt and burnished on the wall; + And, shining brighter than them all, + The eyes of maidens sun-embrowned. + +MARTIN I. GRIFFIN. + + + + +SKETCHES OF EASTERN TRAVEL. + + +I.--THE COUNT DE BEAUVOIR IN CHINA. + + +Within the last twenty years the East has opened wide its gates, and +China, Japan and India are as anxious to become acquainted with +the later but more fully developed civilizations of Europe and this +country as we are to examine their social, political and industrial +systems. We have had accounts from English, American, German and +French travelers in the East, each tinged, in a measure, with the +national spirit of their respective countries. In the case of the +traveler, as of the astronomer, a certain allowance, known as the +personal equation, has to be made in receiving the accounts of his +observations. + +[Illustration: THE MANDARIN CHING'S CART.] + +The journey round the world made by the count de Beauvoir in company +with the duke de Penthievre, son of the prince de Joinville, is +entitled to especial notice, as the attentions shown to the travelers +by the Chinese and Japanese authorities enabled them to obtain the +best conditions for investigating various matters of interest. + +On landing at Shanghai their hearts were gladdened by seeing "on the +quay a French custom-house official, with his kepi over his ear, his +rattan in his hand, dressed in a dark-green tunic, and full of +the inquisitiveness of the customs inspector--as martial and as +authoritative as in his native land." The appearance of the population +here struck our travelers as different from that of the native Chinese +farther south. Those were yellow, copper-colored, lean, and slightly +clad in garments of cotton cloth; these were rosy as children and fat +as pigs: they were besides wrapped up in four or five pelisses, worn +one over the other, lined with sheepskins, so that a single man smelt +like a whole flock of sheep. Their style of dress was this: half a +dozen waistcoats without sleeves, covered with a single overcoat with +extremely long sleeves, falling down to their knees. These garments +made them resemble balls of wool rather than men. + +By accident, the party passed first through the quarter of the town +devoted to the restaurants. Here they were for every grade of fortune, +from the millionaire to the ragged poor. The street filled with these +latter was terrible: it swarmed with thousands of beggars, hardly +human in form and almost naked, though there was frozen snow upon the +ground. A group, seeming even joyous, attracted attention. The cause +of their happiness was a dead dog which they had found in one of the +gutters. Even, however, in this degradation the politeness of these +people struck our Frenchmen forcibly. The guests gathered about this +fortuitous repast treated each other with a ceremonious deference +strange enough in such surroundings. In a still lower stratum, +however, among even a more degraded class, whose feasts were +obtained from the live preserves carried upon their own persons, this +politeness, the last quality a Chinaman loses from the degradation of +poverty, was wanting. + +A few miles from Shanghai lies Zi-Ka-Wai, a colony founded by the +Jesuits, of which our traveler gives a most interesting account. The +road to Zi-Ka-Wai lay over a sandy plain intersected with canals. +On both sides of the road were hundreds of coffins resting upon the +surface of the ground. In the northern part of China there are no +grave-yards, and the coffins were arranged sometimes in piles in the +fields. It is said that they thus remain until a change takes place +in the reigning dynasty, when they are all destroyed. As the present +dynasty has reigned about three hundred years, the accumulation may be +imagined. This traditional respect for the inviolability of the dead +is one of the chief obstacles in the way of the introduction of the +telegraph and railroad in China. A commercial house in Shanghai had +built a telegraph to Wo-Soung to announce the arrival of the mail, but +in a few days the wire was cut in more than five hundred places--at +all the points where its shadow from the rising sun fell upon the +coffins lying on the ground. + +At Zi-Ka-Wai the Jesuits have an educational institution, and, dressed +in the Chinese costume, smoking the long native pipes, received their +visitors with great cordiality. Their pupils are divided into three +classes. The first consists of the children of the neighboring towns +who have been deserted by their parents and left to die of hunger. +The majority of them are lepers, and have been more or less perfectly +cured by the Fathers. When brought to the institution they are +thoroughly cleaned, being rubbed with pumice stone. They receive an +industrial as well as a literary education. In one building they +are taught to read and write, and in another are the schools for +shoemaking, carpentering, printing and other manual arts; so that, +being received at the age of five or six, at twenty to twenty-one they +are launched upon the world with an education and a trade. + +There are about four hundred children in this class, and the activity, +the order and organization of the workshops, and the exquisite +cleanliness of the surroundings, are delightful to see. Near at hand +is a school of a higher grade, to which the most promising pupils +are transferred for the study of Chinese literature. The system of +teaching here is peculiar: all the pupils are required to study aloud, +and the din is in consequence deafening and incessant. Then there is +the highest class, consisting of about two hundred and fifty youths, +the sons of rich mandarins, who pay heavily for their instruction. +These are destined to become rhetoricians, and, step by step, +bachelors, licentiates, doctors, then mandarins and members of the +governing class of the Middle Kingdom. The studies are Chinese, and +the Fathers have with wonderful patience learned not only the Chinese +language, as well as its written characters, but also the nice +critical points of its idioms, so as to be able to teach with +authority the poetry and legends and the commentaries upon the +writings of Confucius. This they have done for the purpose of having +an opportunity to convert the orphans they have adopted, and thus +by degrees introduce into the government an element which will be +essentially Christian. Thus far, the profession of Christianity is +not essentially incompatible with the office of mandarin, though it +is impossible to hold this position without performing some idolatrous +rites. + +[Illustration: HALT OF THE CARAVAN AT HO-CHI-WOU.] + +On the 13th of March the ice was sufficiently broken to open the +navigation of the Pei-Ho, and the party started upon the steamer +Sze-Chuen for Tien-Tsin and Pekin. They were joined by an English +commissioner of the Chinese custom-house, whose position as a high +functionary of the Celestial government, together with his knowledge +of Chinese, proved of great service. The trip to Pekin was brought to +a sudden temporary close by the Sze-Chuen running aground on the bar +of the Pei-Ho, where she remained nearly two days, but was finally got +off after the removal of a part of her cargo. + +The navigation of the Pei-Ho is difficult on account of the narrowness +of the stream and its exceedingly sinuous course. Frequently the +steamer had to be towed by a line passed on shore and fastened round +a tree. At Tien-Tsin the travelers landed, and witnessed a review of +some imperial cavalry regiments mounted upon Tartar ponies, with high +saddles and short stirrups. The warriors wore queues and were dressed +in long robes. Their moustaches gave them, however, a fierce martial +air, and they were armed with English sabres and American revolvers. + +Tien-Tsin ("Heaven's Ford") is a city of about four hundred thousand +inhabitants, and lies at the junction of the Imperial Canal with the +Pei-Ho. The country from here to Pekin, about three days' journey by +land, is sandy, and the trip is made a very disagreeable one by the +clouds of dust, which blind the traveler and effectually prevent any +examination of the country passed through. + +The cavalcade comprised seven of the native carts, each drawn by two +mules. Their construction may be thus described: A sort of barrow made +of blue cloth hangs like a box upon an axletree about a yard long, +furnished with two clumsy wheels. It is impossible to lie down in +them, because they are too short, nor can a bench to sit on be placed +in them, because they are too low. As a compensation, however, they +are so light that they can go anywhere. The driver sits on the left +shaft, where he is conveniently placed for leaping down to beat the +mules. These are harnessed, one in the shafts and the other in front, +with long traces tied upon the axletree near the left wheel. As they +are guided only by the voice, the course of the cart depends chiefly +upon the fancy they may take for following or neglecting the road; +while from the manner in which they are harnessed their draught is +always sideways, and they therefore trot obliquely. + +At Yang-Soun the party was joined by a mandarin with a crystal button, +sent by the governor of the province of Tien-Tsin, Tchoung-Hao, with +a profusion of passports and safe-conducts. During the rest of the +journey this mandarin, Ching, led the way in his cart drawn by a fine +black mule, and on arriving at the villages on the route displayed +his function, as a man of letters, by putting on an immense pair of +spectacles, the glasses of which were about three inches in diameter. +At Ho-Chi-Wou the procession halted during the middle of the day, +and was photographed by one of its members. The curious crowd of +spectators which gathered in every village to inspect the "foreign +devils" scattered when the camera was posed, and for a few moments our +travelers were freed from their intrusiveness. + +[Illustration: AVENUE OF ANIMALS LEADING TO THE TOMBS OF THE +EMPERORS.] + +Starting next morning at daylight, at three in the afternoon the party +entered Pekin. The relief was great to leave the sandy, dusty road for +one of the paved ways which radiate from the city. The first sight of +the city struck the travelers as the most grandiose spectacle of the +Celestial Empire. In front rose a high tower, with a five-storied roof +of green tiles, pierced with five rows of large portholes, from which +grinned the mouths of cannon; while to the right and left, as far as +could be seen, stretched the gigantic wall surrounding the city, built +partly of granite and partly of large gray bricks, with salients, +battlements and loopholes, wearing a decidedly martial air. This +impression was somewhat modified, however, by the discovery that the +grinning cannons were made of wood. The entrance was under a vaulted +archway, through which streamed a converging crowd of Chinese, +Mongols, Tartars, with their various costumes, together with blue +carts, files of mules and caravans of heavily-loaded camels. + +Pekin was built by Kublai-Khan about 1282, near the site of an +important city which dated from the Chow dynasty, or some centuries +before the Christian era. The city covers an enclosed space about +twenty miles in circumference. It is rectangular in form, and divided +into two parts, the Chinese and the Tartar cities. The walls of the +Tartar city are the largest and widest, being forty to fifty feet +high, and, tapering slightly from the base, about forty feet wide at +the top. They are constructed upon a solid foundation of stone masonry +resting upon concrete, while the walls themselves are built of a solid +core of earth, faced with massive brick: the top is paved with tiles, +and defended by a crenelated parapet. Bastions, some of which are +fifty feet square, are built upon the outside at distances of about +one hundred feet. There are sixteen gates, seven of which are in the +Chinese town, six in the Tartar town, and three in the partition wall +between these two. In the centre of the Tartar city is an enclosure, +also walled, called the Imperial City, and within this another, +called the Forbidden City, which contains the imperial palaces and +pleasure-grounds. Broad straight avenues, crossing each other at right +angles, run through the whole city, which in this respect is very +unlike other Chinese towns. A stream entering the Tartar city near its +north-west corner divides into two branches, which enter the Imperial +City and surround the Forbidden City, and then uniting again pass +through the Tartar and Chinese towns, to empty in the Tung-Chau Canal. + +The foreign legations are in the southern part of the Tartar city, +on the banks of this stream. The top of the walls forms the favorite +promenade of the foreign settlers, and from here a fine view of the +whole city is obtained. M. de Beauvoir, however, from his more minute +examination, comes to the following conclusions: "This immense city, +in which nothing is repaired, and in which it is forbidden under the +severest penalties to demolish anything, is slowly disintegrating, +and every day changing itself into dust. The sight of this slow +decomposition is sad, since it promises death more certainly than the +most violent convulsions. In a century Pekin will exist no longer; it +must then be abandoned: in two centuries it will be discovered, like a +second Pompeii, buried under its own dust." + +The gates of Virtuous Victory and of Great Purity, the temples to +the Heavens, to Agriculture, to the Spirit of the Winds and of +the Thunder, and to the Brilliant Mirror of the Mind, occupied the +attention of the party. They saw the gilded plough and the sacred +harrow with which the emperor yearly traces a furrow to obtain divine +favor for the crops, as well as the yellow straw hat he wears during +this ceremony; and also the vases made of iron wire in which he every +six months burns the sentences of those who have been condemned to +death in the empire. They visited also the magnificent observatory +built by Father Verbiest, a Jesuit, for the emperor You-Ching, in the +seventeenth century. The instruments are of bronze, and mounted upon +fantastic dragons, and are still in good condition, though they +have been exposed to the open air all this time. One of them was a +celestial sphere eight feet in diameter, containing all the stars +known in 1650 and visible in Pekin. + +[Illustration: PORTICO TO THE TOMBS OF THE EMPERORS.] + +Visits to the theatres, to the temple of the Moon, that of the Lamas, +that of Confucius, and to others made the days spent in Pekin pass +quickly. Among the wonders shown was the largest suspended bell in the +world--the great bell of Moscow has never been hung--twenty-five feet +high, weighing ninety thousand pounds, and richly sculptured. + +The private life of the Chinese it is almost impossible for a stranger +to take part in. To do so requires a knowledge of Chinese, which can +be gained only by years of assiduous study, and that the applicant +should, as far as possible in dress and general appearance, make +himself a Chinese. Even then, complete success is gained only by a +fortunate combination of circumstances. The streets devoted to +shops of all kinds afford, however, to the traveler a never-ending +succession of changing and interesting pictures. Yet the general +spirit of the Chinese leads them also to be sparing of all outward +decoration, reserving their forces for interior display. The +Forbidden City even, though marvelous stories are told of its +interior splendors, has outside a mean appearance. "A pagoda of the +thirty-sixth rank has more effect than the sacred dwelling of the Son +of Heaven." + +In the military quarters, and in those inhabited by the nobility, the +party in their wanderings were struck with an expression of disdain +on the countenances of those natives whom they met. Elsewhere the +curiosity to see the foreigners was even greater than the Chinese +themselves ever excited in the capitals of Europe; but at home the +higher classes passed the foreigners without even turning to look at +them, or else glanced at them indifferently or disdainfully. Some of +the noble class walked, but generally they rode in carts similar to +that of the mandarin Ching. The higher the rank of the owner, the +farther behind are the wheels placed. With a prince's cart they are so +far behind that the rider hangs between them and the mule. Palanquins, +carried upon the shoulders of the porters, offer another and the most +convenient means of locomotion used in China: this method is, however, +forbidden except for princes and ministers of state. + +In the busy streets of trade the scene is most animated. Thousands of +scarlet signs with gilded inscriptions hang from oblique poles raised +in front of the shops. Carts, palanquins, mules, camels, coolies, +soldiers and merchants throng the streets, while to add to the +confusion myriads of children play about your legs, and the old men +carrying their kites toward the walls add to the singularity of the +scene. The kites, representing dragons, eagles, etc., are managed +with a dexterity which comes only from a lifelong practice. They are +sometimes furnished with various aeolian attachments which imitate +the songs of birds or the voices of men. The pigeons also in Pekin are +frequently provided with a very light kind of aeolian harp, which is +secured tightly to the two central feathers of their tails, so that +in flying through the air the harps sound harmoniously. This curious, +indistinct note had excited the count's attention, and he learned its +cause from a pigeon which fell dead at his feet, having in its flight +struck itself against the cord of one of the kites. Their use was +explained by the natives as a protection against the hawks which are +very common in Pekin. + +Passing one day the place of execution, the travelers were shocked to +see that the heads of the executed were exposed to the public gaze, +labeled with the crimes for which they had suffered. Such sights as +this, with the terrible filth of all the Chinese cities, the squalid +suffering of the poor and the want of sympathy with indigence and +disease, suggested to the count, as they too frequently suggest to +European visitors, that the degradation of the Chinese is hopeless. +Yet such sights were common a few generations ago in every European +capital, and the same causes which have led to their cessation there +are at work to-day in China, and bid fair to produce the same results. + +The service of the custom-house, which has been put into the hands +of Europeans, and under the management of Mr. Robert Hart has been +thoroughly organized, is having a great influence in civilizing the +government, as well as in diffusing European ideas and methods among +the people. A fixed rate of charges, an honesty of administration +which is beyond question, prompt activity in the transaction of +business, have replaced the depredations and the old methods in +use under mandarin rule. It is the desire of the manager of the +custom-house to inaugurate in China the establishment of a system of +lighthouses, to organize the postal system, to introduce railroads and +telegraphs and to open the coal-mines of the empire. Success in +these reforms means bringing China into the circle of inter-dependent +civilized nations; and so far all the steps in this direction have +been sure and successful ones. + +[Illustration: THE GREAT WALL: THE NANG-KAO PASS.] + +On leaving Pekin, our party set out to visit the Great Wall of China, +which lies about three days' journey from that capital, on the route +to Siberia. Mongolian ponies served for the means of transportation on +this trip. These shaggy little animals were as full of tricks as they +were ugly. The cavalcade was followed by two carts for carrying the +money of the expedition. The whole of this capital amounted to about +one hundred and fifty dollars, in the form of hundreds of thousands of +the copper coins of the country, made with holes in their centres and +strung by the thousand upon osier twigs. This is the only money which +circulates in the agricultural portions of China, and a "barbarian" +has to give a pound weight of them for a couple of eggs. The country +soon began to become hilly, with the mountains of Mongolia visible in +the distance. Trains of camels were passed, or could be seen winding +in the plain below. + +The next day the party arrived at the Tombs of the Emperors. These are +the tombs of the Ming emperors, one of the most brilliant dynasties of +Chinese history. They lie in a circular valley which opens out from a +great plain, and is surrounded by limestone peaks and granite +domes, forming a barren and waste amphitheatre. The grandeur of its +dimensions and the awful barrenness of its desolation make it a fit +resting-place for the imperial dead of the last native dynasty. At +the foot of the surrounding heights thirteen gigantic tombs, encircled +with green trees, are arranged in a semicircle. Five majestic portals, +about eight hundred yards apart, form the entrance to the tombs. From +the portico giving entrance to the valley to the tomb of the first +emperor is more than a league, and the long avenue is marked first +by winged columns of white marble, and next by two rows of animals, +carved in gigantic proportions. Of these there are, on either side, +two lions standing, two lions sitting; one camel standing, one +kneeling; one elephant standing, one kneeling; one dragon standing, +one sitting; two horses standing; six warriors, courtiers, etc. The +lions are fifteen feet high, and the others equally colossal, while +each of the figures is carved from a single block of granite. + +At the end of the avenue are the tombs, with groups of trees about +them. Each tomb is really a temple in which white and pink marble, +porphyry and carved teak-wood are combined, not indeed with harmony +or taste, but, what is rare in China, with lines of great purity and +severity. One of the halls of these tombs is about a hundred feet long +by about eighty wide. The ceiling is from forty to sixty feet high, +and is supported by rows of pillars, each formed of a single stick of +teak timber eleven feet in circumference. These sticks were brought +for this purpose from the south of China. Though they have been in +position over nine hundred years, they appear as sound as when first +posed, nor has the austere splendor of the structure suffered in any +degree. + +The sombre obscurity well befits these sepulchral dwellings, and the +dull sound of the deadened gongs struck by the guardians makes the +vaults reverberate in a singular and impressive way. Behind the +memorial temple rises an artificial mound about fifty feet high, +access to the top of which is given by a rising arched passage +built of white marble. On the top of the mound is an imposing marble +structure consisting of a double arch, beneath which is the imperial +tablet, a large slab, upon which is carved a dragon standing on the +back of a gigantic tortoise. The remains of the emperor are buried +somewhere within this mound, though the exact spot is not known: this +precaution, it is said, was taken to preserve the remains from being +desecrated in a search for the treasures which were buried with him, +while the persons who performed this last office were killed upon the +spot, in order further to preserve the secret. + +[Illustration: CHAPEL OF THE SUMMER PALACE.] + +From this gigantic effort to preserve the memory of the dead our party +hastened to the Great Wall, an equally immense work to preserve the +living from the incursions of their neighboring enemies. Perhaps +nowhere in the world are to be found in such close proximity two such +striking evidences of the waste of human labor when undirected by +scientific knowledge. The wall is to-day, and was from the first, as +worthless for the purpose it was intended to serve as the temples are +for obtaining immortality for the bodies they enclose. + +Leaving the town of Nang-Kao, the party soon found themselves at the +entrance of the pass of the same name, and during the six leagues +which separated them from the wall the spectacle kept increasing in +grandeur. The gorge at first was savage and sombre, shut in closely +by the steep mountain-sides. Soon the first support of the Great Wall +appeared in a chain of walls, with battlements and towers, built +over the principal mountain-chain, and as far as the eye could reach +following all the peaks. The effect of this wall is most striking. +Like some enormous serpent it stretches away in the distance, climbing +rocks which appear impracticable, and which would be so without its +aid. The count was convinced that it would be as difficult to climb +it for the purpose of defending it as it would be to do so in order to +attack it. This first support of the wall is in itself a giant work. + +As the party advanced in the valley, in the far distance the +crenelated outlines of two other similar and parallel walls appeared, +situated also upon the crests. The Great Wall was built about 200 B.C. +as a barrier against the Tartar cavalry. It is said to have been built +in twenty-two years. It was everywhere constructed of the materials +at hand. On the plains it was built of a core of earth, pounded, and +faced with tiles, the top being also covered with tiles and furnished +with a parapet. On the mountains of stratified rock the facing was +made of masonry, and the core of earth and cobble-stones. Where the +rock is such as fractures irregularly, the wall is of solid masonry, +tapering to the top, which is sharp. Throughout its whole length it +is defended by towers occurring every few hundred feet. Every +mountain-pass and weak point was defended by a fortified tower. At +present the wall is in various conditions of preservation, according +to the materials used in its construction. In the valleys, which were +the points to defend, it has gradually crumbled to a mere heap of +rubbish, which the plough year by year still further scatters. + +The Great Wall is, however, a wonderful monument of the labor and +organization of the Chinese nation two thousand years ago. The +illustration is from a photograph taken on the spot by one of the +party. In order to take a view which should be most effective the +camera was placed upon the wall itself. + +On their return to Pekin the party visited the ruins of the famous +Summer Palace, Yuen-Ming-Yuen. The avenues were formerly adorned with +porticoes, monuments and kiosques, which are now masses of ruins. Only +two enormous bronze lions, the largest castings ever made in China, +remain, and these simply because the allies could not carry them +away. To have attempted it would have required the building of a dozen +bridges over the streams between here and Tien-Tsin. The chapel of +the Summer Palace escaped destruction only from the fact that it was +situated upon a rock so high that the flames did not reach it. Looking +at the confused ruins which are all that remain of this wonderful +collection of the most admirable products of fifteen ages of +civilization, of art and of industry, the count de Beauvoir says +truly that no honest man can help shuddering involuntarily. Though +his sentiment of national loyalty is very strong, yet he cannot avoid +exclaiming, "Let us leave this place: let us run from this spot, where +the soil burns us, the very view of which humbles us. We came to China +as the armed champions of civilization and of a religion of mercy, +but the Chinese are right, a thousand times right, in calling us +barbarians." + + + + +A PRINCESS OF THULE. + +BY WILLIAM BLACK, AUTHOR OF "THE STRANGE ADVENTURES OF A PHAETON." + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +DEEPER AND DEEPER. + + +Next morning Sheila was busy with her preparations for departure when +she heard a hansom drive up. She looked out and saw Mr. Ingram step +out; and before he had time to cross the pavement she had run round +and opened the door, and stood at the top of the steps to receive him. +How often had her husband cautioned her not to forget herself in this +monstrous fashion! + +"Did you think I had run away? Have you come to see me?" she said, +with a bright, roseate gladness on her face which reminded him of many +a pleasant morning in Borva. + +"I did not think you had run away, for you see I have brought you some +flowers," he said; but there was a sort of blush in the sallow face, +and perhaps the girl had some quick fancy or suspicion that he had +brought this bouquet to prove that he knew everything was right, +and that he expected to see her. It was only a part of his universal +kindness and thoughtfulness, she considered. + +"Frank is up stairs," she said, "getting ready some things to go +to Brighton. Will you come into the breakfast-room? Have you had +breakfast?" + +"Oh, you were going to Brighton?" + +"Yes," she said; and somehow something moved her to add quickly, "but +not for long, you know. Only a few days. It is many a time you +will have told me of Brighton long ago in the Lewis, but I cannot +understand a large town being beside the sea, and it will be a great +surprise to me, I am sure of that." + +"Ay, Sheila," he said, falling into the old habit quite naturally, +"you will find it different from Borvabost. You will have no +scampering about the rocks with your head bare and your hair flying +about. You will have to dress more correctly there than here even; +and, by the way, you must be busy getting ready, so I will go." + +"Oh no," she said with a quick look of disappointment, "you will not +go yet. If I had known you were coming--But it was very late when we +will get home this morning: two o'clock it was." + +"Another ball?" + +"Yes," said the girl, but not very joyfully. + +"Why, Sheila," he said with a grave smile on his face, "you are +becoming quite a woman of fashion now. And you know I can't keep up an +acquaintance with a fine lady who goes to all these grand places and +knows all sorts of swell people; so you'll have to cut me, Sheila." + +"I hope I shall be dead before that time ever comes," said the girl +with a sudden flash of indignation in her eyes. Then she softened: +"But it is not kind of you to laugh at me." + +"Of course I did not laugh at you," he said taking both her hands in +his, "although I used to sometimes when you were a little girl and +talked very wild English. Don't you remember how vexed you used to be, +and how pleased you were when your papa turned the laugh against me by +getting me to say that awful Gaelic sentence about 'A young calf ate a +raw egg'?" + +"Can you say it now?" said Sheila, with her face getting bright and +pleased again. "Try it after me. Now listen." + +She uttered some half dozen of the most extraordinary sounds that any +language ever contained, but Ingram would not attempt to follow her. +She reproached him with having forgotten all that he had learnt +in Lewis, and said she should no longer look on him as a possible +Highlander. + +"But what are _you_ now?" he asked. "You are no longer that wild girl +who used to run out to sea in the Maighdean-mhara whenever there was +the excitement of a storm coming on." + +"Many times," she said slowly and wistfully, "I will wish that I could +be that again for a little while." + +"Don't you enjoy, then, all those fine gatherings you go to?" + +"I try to like them." + +"And you don't succeed?" + +He was looking at her gravely and earnestly, and she turned away her +head and did not answer. At this moment Lavender came down stairs and +entered the room. + +"Hillo, Ingram, my boy! glad to see you! What pretty flowers! It's a +pity we can't take them to Brighton with us." + +"But I intend to take them," said Sheila firmly. + +"Oh, very well, if you don't mind the bother," said her husband. "I +should have thought your hands would have been full: you know you'll +have to take everything with you you would want in London. You will +find that Brighton isn't a dirty little fishing-village in which +you've only to tuck up your dress and run about anyhow." + +"I never saw a dirty little fishing-village," said Sheila quietly. + +Her husband laughed: "I meant no offence. I was not thinking of +Borvabost at all. Well, Ingram, can't you run down and see us while we +are at Brighton?" + +"Oh do, Mr. Ingram!" said Sheila with quite a new interest in her +face; and she came forward as though she would have gone down on her +knees and begged this great favor of him. "Do, Mr. Ingram! We should +try to amuse you some way, and the weather is sure to be fine. Shall +we keep a room for you? Can you come on Friday and stay till the +Monday? It is a great difference there will be in the place if you +come down." + +Ingram looked at Sheila, and was on the point of promising, when +Lavender added, "And we shall introduce you to that young American +lady whom you are so anxious to meet." + +"Oh, is she to be there?" he said, looking rather curiously at +Lavender. + +"Yes, she and her mother. We are going down together." + +"Then I'll see whether I can in a day or two," he said, but in a tone +which pretty nearly convinced Sheila that she should not have her +stay at Brighton made pleasant by the company of her old friend and +associate. + +However, the mere anticipation of seeing the sea was much; and when +they had got into a cab and were going down to Victoria Station, +Sheila's eyes were filled with a joyful anticipation. She had +discarded altogether the descriptions of Brighton that had been given +her. It is one thing to receive information, and another to reproduce +it in an imaginative picture; and in fact her imagination was busy +with its own work while she sat and listened to this person or the +other speaking of the seaside town she was going to. When they spoke +of promenades and drives and miles of hotels and lodging-houses, she +was thinking of the sea-beach and of the boats and of the sky-line +with its distant ships. When they told her of private theatricals and +concerts and fancy-dress balls, she was thinking of being out on the +open sea, with a light breeze filling the sails, and a curl of white +foam rising at the bow and sweeping and hissing down the sides of the +boat. She would go down among the fishermen when her husband and his +friends were not by, and talk to them, and get to know what they sold +their fish for down here in the South. She would find out what their +nets cost, and if there was anybody in authority to whom they could +apply for an advance of a few pounds in case of hard times. Had they +their cuttings of peat free from the nearest moss-land? and did they +dress their fields with the thatch that had got saturated with the +smoke? Perhaps some of them could tell her where the crews hailed from +that had repeatedly shot the sheep of the Flannen Isles. All these and +a hundred other things she would get to know; and she might procure +and send to her father some rare bird or curiosity of the sea, that +might be added to the little museum in which she used to sing in days +gone by, when he was busy with his pipe and his whisky. + +"You are not much tired, then, by your dissipation of last night?" +said Mrs. Kavanagh to her at the station, as the slender, fair-haired, +grave lady looked admiringly at the girl's fresh color and bright +gray-blue eyes. "It makes one envy you to see you looking so strong +and in such good spirits." + +"How happy you must be always!" said Mrs. Lorraine; and the younger +lady had the same sweet, low and kindly voice as her mother. + +"I am very well, thank you," said Sheila, blushing somewhat and +not lifting her eyes, while Lavender was impatient that she had +not answered with a laugh and some light retort, such as would have +occurred to almost any woman in the circumstances. + +On the journey down, Lavender and Mrs. Lorraine, seated opposite each +other in two corner seats, kept up a continual cross-fire of small +pleasantries, in which the young American lady had distinctly the best +of it, chiefly by reason of her perfect manner. The keenest thing she +said was said with a look of great innocence and candor in the large +gray eyes; and then directly afterward she would say something very +nice and pleasant in precisely the same voice, as if she could not +understand that there was any effort on the part of either to assume +an advantage. The mother sometimes turned and listened to this aimless +talk with an amused gravity, as of a cat watching the gambols of a +kitten, but generally she devoted herself to Sheila, who sat opposite +her. She did not talk much, and Sheila was glad of that, but the +girl felt that she was being observed with some little curiosity. She +wished that Mrs. Kavanagh would turn those observant gray eyes of hers +away in some other direction. Now and again Sheila would point out +what she considered strange or striking in the country outside, and +for a moment the elderly lady would look out. But directly afterward +the gray eyes would come back to Sheila, and the girl knew they were +upon her. At last she so persistently stared out of the window that +she fell to dreaming, and all the trees and the meadows and the +farm-houses and the distant heights and hollows went past her +as though they were in a sort of mist, while she replied to Mrs. +Kavanagh's chance remarks in a mechanical fashion, and could only hear +as a monotonous murmur the talk of the two people at the other side +of the carriage. How much of the journey did she remember? She was +greatly struck by the amount of open land in the neighborhood +of London--the commons between Wandsworth and Streatham, and so +forth--and she was pleased with the appearance of the country about +Red Hill. For the rest, a succession of fair green pictures passed +by her, all bathed in a calm, half-misty summer sunlight: then they +pierced the chalk-hills (which Sheila, at first sight, fancied were of +granite) and rumbled through the tunnels. Finally, with just a glimpse +of a great mass of gray houses filling a vast hollow and stretching up +the bare green downs beyond, they found themselves in Brighton. + +"Well, Sheila, what do you think of the place?" her husband said to +her with a laugh as they were driving down the Queen's road. + +She did not answer. + +"It is not like Borvabost, is it?" + +She was too bewildered to speak. She could only look about her with a +vague wonder and disappointment. But surely this great gray city +was not the place they had come to live in? Would it not disappear +somehow, and they would get away to the sea and the rocks and the +boats? + +They passed into the upper part of West street, and here was another +thoroughfare, down which Sheila glanced with no great interest. But +the next moment there was a quick catching of her breath, which almost +resembled a sob, and a strange glad light sprang into her eyes. Here +at last was the sea! Away beyond the narrow thoroughfare she could +catch a glimpse of a great green plain--yellow-green it was in the +sunlight--that the wind was whitening here and there with tumbling +waves. She had not noticed that there was any wind in-land--there +everything seemed asleep--but here there was a fresh breeze from the +south, and the sea had been rough the day before, and now it was of +this strange olive color, streaked with the white curls of foam that +shone in the sunlight. Was there not a cold scent of sea-weed, too, +blown up this narrow passage between the houses? And now the carriage +cut round the corner and whirled out into the glare of the Parade, +and before her the great sea stretched out its leagues of tumbling and +shining waves, and she heard the water roaring along the beach, and +far away at the horizon she saw a phantom ship. She did not even look +at the row of splendid hotels and houses, at the gayly-dressed +folks on the pavement, at the brilliant flags that were flapping and +fluttering on the New Pier and about the beach. It was the great +world of shining water beyond that fascinated her, and awoke in her a +strange yearning and longing, so that she did not know whether it was +grief or joy that burned in her heart and blinded her eyes with tears. +Mrs. Kavanagh took her arm as they were going up the steps of the +hotel, and said in a friendly way, "I suppose you have some sad +memories of the sea?" + +"No," said Sheila bravely, "it is always pleasant to me to think of +the sea; but it is a long time since--since--" + +"Sheila," said her husband abruptly, "do tell me if all your things +are here;" and then the girl turned, calm and self-collected, to look +after rugs and boxes. + +When they were finally established in the hotel Lavender went off +to negotiate for the hire of a carriage for Mrs. Kavanagh during her +stay, and Sheila was left with the two ladies. They had tea in their +sitting-room, and they had it at one of the windows, so that they +could look out on the stream of people and carriages now beginning to +flow by in the clear yellow light of the afternoon. But neither the +people nor the carriages had much interest for Sheila, who, indeed, +sat for the most part silent, intently watching the various boats that +were putting out or coming in, and busy with conjectures which she +knew there was no use placing before her two companions. + +"Brighton seems to surprise you very much," said Mrs. Lorraine. + +"Yes," said Sheila, "I have been told all about it, but you will +forget all that; and this is very different from the sea at home--at +my home." + +"Your home is in London now," said the elder lady with a smile. + +"Oh no!" said Sheila, most anxiously and earnestly. "London, that +is not our home at all. We live there for a time--that will be quite +necessary--but we shall go back to the Lewis some day soon--not to +stay altogether, but enough to make it as much our home as London." + +"How do you think Mr. Lavender will enjoy living in the Hebrides?" +said Mrs. Lorraine with a look of innocent and friendly inquiry in her +eyes. + +"It was many a time that he has said he never liked any place so +much," said Sheila with something of a blush; and then she added with +growing courage, "for you must not think he is always like what he +is here. Oh no! When he is in the Highlands there is no day that is +nearly long enough for what has to be done in it; and he is up very +early, and away to the hills or the loch with a gun or a salmon-rod. +He can catch the salmon very well--oh, very well for one that is +not accustomed--and he will shoot as well as any one that is in the +island, except my papa. It is a great deal to do there will be in the +island, and plenty of amusement; and there is not much chance--not +any whatever--of his being lonely or tired when we go to live in the +Lewis." + +Mrs. Kavanagh and her daughter were both amused and pleased by the +earnest and rapid fashion in which Sheila talked. They had generally +considered her to be a trifle shy and silent, not knowing how afraid +she was of using wrong idioms or pronunciations; but here was one +subject on which her heart was set, and she had no more thought as +to whether she said _like-a-ness_ or _likeness_, or whether she said +_gyarden_ or _garden_. Indeed, she forgot more than that. She was +somewhat excited by the presence of the sea and the well-remembered +sound of the waves; and she was pleased to talk about her life in the +North, and about her husband's stay there, and how they should +pass the time when she returned to Borva. She neglected altogether +Lavender's injunctions that she should not talk about fishing or +cooking or farming to his friends. She incidentally revealed to Mrs. +Kavanagh and her daughter a great deal more about the household +at Borva than he would have wished to be known. For how could they +understand about his wife having her own cousin to serve at table? +and what would they think of a young lady who was proud of making her +father's shirts? Whatever these two ladies may have thought, they were +very obviously interested, and if they were amused, it was in a far +from unfriendly fashion. Mrs. Lorraine professed herself quite charmed +with Sheila's descriptions of her island-life, and wished she could +go up to Lewis to see all these strange things. But when she spoke of +visiting the island when Sheila and her husband were staying there, +Sheila was not nearly so ready to offer her a welcome as the daughter +of a hospitable old Highlandman ought to have been. + +"And will you go out in a boat now?" said Sheila, looking down to the +beach. + +"In a boat! What sort of boat?" said Mrs. Kavanagh. + +"Any one of those little sailing boats: it is very good boats they +are, as far as I can see." + +"No, thank you," said the elder lady with a smile. "I am not fond of +small boats, and the company of the men who go with you might be a +little objectionable, I should fancy." + +"But you need not take any men," said Sheila: "the sailing of one of +those little boats, it is very simple." + +"Do you mean to say you could manage the boat by yourself?" + +"Oh yes! It is very simple. And my husband, he will help me." + +"And what would you do if you went out?" + +"We might try the fishing. I do not see where the rocks are, but we +would go off the rocks and put down the anchor and try the lines. You +would have some ferry good fish for breakfast in the morning." + +"My dear child," said Mrs. Kavanagh, "you don't know what you propose +to us. To go and roll about in an open boat in these waves--we should +be ill in five minutes. But I suppose you don't know what sea-sickness +is?" + +"No," said Sheila, "but I will hear my husband speak of it often. And +it is only in crossing the Channel that people will get sick." + +"Why, this is the Channel." + +Sheila stared. Then she endeavored to recall her geography. Of course +this must be a part of the Channel, but if the people in the South +became ill in this weather, they must be rather feeble creatures. +Her speculations on this point were cut short by the entrance of her +husband, who came to announce that he had not only secured a carriage +for a month, but that it would be round at the hotel door in half an +hour; whereupon the two American ladies said they would be ready, and +left the room. + +"Now go off and get dressed, Sheila," said Lavender. + +She stood for a moment irresolute. + +"If you wouldn't mind," she said after a moment's hesitation--"if you +would allow me to go by myself--if you would go to the driving, and +let me go down to the shore!" + +"Oh, nonsense!" he said. "You will have people fancying you are only +a school-girl. How can you go down to the beach by yourself among all +those loafing vagabonds, who would pick your pocket or throw stones at +you? You must behave like an ordinary Christian: now do, like a good +girl, get dressed and submit to the restraints of civilized life. It +won't hurt you much." + +So she left, to lay aside with some regret her rough blue dress, and +he went down stairs to see about ordering dinner. + +Had she come down to the sea, then, only to live the life that had +nearly broken her heart in London? It seemed so. They drove up +and down the Parade for about an hour and a half, and the roar of +carriages drowned the rush of the waves. Then they dined in the quiet +of this still summer evening, and she could only see the sea as a +distant and silent picture through the windows, while the talk of +her companions was either about the people whom they had seen while +driving, or about matters of which she knew nothing. Then the blinds +were drawn and candles lit, and still their conversation murmured +around her unheeding ears. After dinner her husband went down to the +smoking-room of the hotel to have a cigar, and she was left with Mrs. +Kavanagh and her daughter. She went to the window and looked through +a chink in the Venetian blinds. There was a beautiful clear twilight +abroad, the darkness was still of a soft gray, and up in the pale +yellow-green of the sky a large planet burned and throbbed. Soon the +sea and the sky would darken, the stars would come forth in thousands +and tens of thousands, and the moving water would be struck with a +million trembling spots of silver as the waves came onward to the +beach. + +"Mayn't we go out for a walk till Frank has finished his cigar?" said +Sheila. + +"You couldn't go out walking at this time of night," said Mrs. +Kavanagh in a kindly way: "you would meet the most unpleasant persons. +Besides, going out into the night air would be most dangerous." + +"It is a beautiful night," said Sheila with a sigh. She was still +standing at the window. + +"Come," said Mrs. Kavanagh, going over to her and putting her hand in +her arm, "we cannot have any moping, you know. You must be content to +be dull with us for one night; and after to-night we shall see what we +can do to amuse you." + +"Oh, but I don't want to be amused!" cried Sheila almost in terror, +for some vision flashed on her mind of a series of parties. "I would +much rather be left alone and allowed to go about by myself. But it +is very kind of you," she hastily added, fancying that her speech had +been somewhat ungracious--"it is very kind of you indeed." + +"Come, I promised to teach you cribbage, didn't I?" + +"Yes," said Sheila with much resignation; and she walked to the table +and sat down. + +Perhaps, after all, she could have spent the rest of the evening with +some little equanimity in patiently trying to learn this game, in +which she had no interest whatever, but her thoughts and fancies were +soon drawn away from cribbage. Her husband returned. Mrs. Lorraine had +been for some little time at the big piano at the other side of the +room, amusing herself by playing snatches of anything she happened +to remember, but when Mr. Lavender returned she seemed to wake up. He +went over to her and sat down by the piano. + +"Here," she said, "I have all the duets and songs you spoke of, and I +am quite delighted with those I have tried. I wish mamma would sing a +second to me: how can one learn without practicing? And there are some +of those duets I really should like to learn after what you said of +them." + +"Shall I become a substitute for your mamma?" he said. + +"And sing the second, so that I may practice? Your cigar must have +left you in a very amiable mood." + +"Well, suppose we try," he said; and he proceeded to open out the roll +of music which she had brought down. + +"Which shall we take first?" he asked. + +"It does not much matter," she answered indifferently, and indeed she +took up one of the duets by haphazard. + +What was it made Mrs. Kavanagh's companion suddenly lift her eyes +from the cribbage-board and look with surprise to the other end of the +room? She had recognized the little prelude to one of her own duets, +and it was being played by Mrs. Lorraine. And it was Mrs. Lorraine +who began to sing in a sweet, expressive and well-trained voice of no +great power-- + + Love in thine eyes for ever plays; + +and it was she to whom the answer was given-- + + He in thy snowy bosom strays; + +and then, Sheila, sitting stupefied and pained and confused, heard +them sing together-- + + He makes thy rosy lips his care, + And walks the mazes of thy hair. + +She had not heard the short conversation which had introduced this +music; and she could not tell but that her husband had been practicing +these duets--her duets--with some one else. For presently they sang +"When the rosy morn appearing," and "I would that my love could +silently," and others, all of them in Sheila's eyes, sacred to the +time when she and Lavender used to sit in the little room at Borva. +It was no consolation to her that Mrs. Lorraine had but an imperfect +acquaintance with them; that oftentimes she stumbled and went back +over a bit of the accompaniment; that her voice was far from being +striking. Lavender, at all events, seemed to heed none of these +things. It was not as a music-master that he sang with her. He put as +much expression of love into his voice as ever he had done in the old +days when he sang with his future bride. And it seemed so cruel that +this woman should have taken Sheila's own duets from her to sing +before her with her own husband. + +Sheila learnt little more cribbage that evening. Mrs. Kavanagh could +not understand how her pupil had become embarrassed, inattentive, and +even sad, and asked her if she was tired. Sheila said she was very +tired and would go. And when she got her candle, Mrs. Lorraine and +Lavender had just discovered another duet which they felt bound to try +together as the last. + +This was not the first time she had been more or less vaguely pained +by her husband's attentions to this young American lady; and yet she +would not admit to herself that he was any way in the wrong. She +would entertain no suspicion of him. She would have no jealousy in her +heart, for how could jealousy exist with a perfect faith? And so she +had repeatedly reasoned herself out of these tentative feelings, and +resolved that she would do neither her husband nor Mrs. Lorraine the +injustice of being vexed with them. So it was now. What more natural +than that Frank should recommend to any friend the duets of which he +was particularly fond? What more natural than that this young lady +should wish to show her appreciation of those songs by singing them? +and who was to sing with her but he? Sheila would have no suspicion +of either; and so she came down next morning determined to be very +friendly with Mrs. Lorraine. + +But that forenoon another thing occurred which nearly broke down all +her resolves. + +"Sheila," said her husband, I don't think I ever asked you whether you +rode." + +"I used to ride many times at home," she said. + +"But I suppose you'd rather not ride here," he said. "Mrs. Lorraine +and I propose to go out presently: you'll be able to amuse yourself +somehow till we come back." + +Mrs. Lorraine had, indeed, gone to put on her habit, and her mother +was with her. + +"I suppose I may go out," said Sheila. "It is so very dull in-doors, +and Mrs. Kavanagh is afraid of the east wind, and she is not going +out." + +"Well, there's no harm in your going out," answered Lavender, "but +I should have thought you'd have liked the comfort of watching the +people pass, from the window." + +She said nothing, but went off to her own room and dressed to go out. +Why she knew not, but she felt she would rather not see her husband +and Mrs. Lorraine start from the hotel door. She stole down stairs +without going into the sitting-room, and then, going through the great +hall and down the steps, found herself free and alone in Brighton. + +It was a beautiful, bright, clear day, though the wind was a trifle +chilly, and all around her there was a sense of space and light and +motion in the shining skies, the far clouds and the heaving and noisy +sea. Yet she had none of the gladness of heart with which she used +to rush out of the house at Borva to drink in the fresh, salt air +and feel the sunlight on her cheeks. She walked away, with her face +wistful and pensive, along the King's road, scarcely seeing any of +the people who passed her; and the noise of the crowd and of the waves +hummed in her ears in a distant fashion, even as she walked along +the wooden railing over the beach. She stopped and watched some men +putting off a heavy fishing-boat, and she still stood and looked long +after the boat was launched. She would not confess to herself that +she felt lonely and miserable: it was the sight of the sea that was +melancholy. It seemed so different from the sea off Borva, that had +always to her a familiar and friendly look, even when it was raging +and rushing before a south-west wind. Here this sea looked vast and +calm and sad, and the sound of it was not pleasant to her ears, as +was the sound of the waves on the rocks at Borva. She walked on, in a +blind and unthinking fashion, until she had got far up the Parade, +and could see the long line of monotonous white cliff meeting the dull +blue plain of the waves until both disappeared in the horizon. + +She returned to the King's road a trifle tired, and sat down on one of +the benches there. The passing of the people would amuse her; and now +the pavement was thronged with a crowd of gayly-dressed folks, and the +centre of the thoroughfare brisk with the constant going and coming of +riders. She saw strange old women, painted, powdered and bewigged in +hideous imitation of youth, pounding up and down the level street, and +she wondered what wild hallucinations possessed the brains of these +poor creatures. She saw troops of beautiful young girls, with flowing +hair, clear eyes and bright complexions, riding by, a goodly company, +under charge of a riding-mistress, and the world seemed to grow +sweeter when they came into view. But while she was vaguely gazing and +wondering and speculating her eyes were suddenly caught by two riders +whose appearance sent a throb to her heart. Frank Lavender rode well, +so did Mrs. Lorraine; and, though they were paying no particular +attention to the crowd of passers-by, they doubtless knew that they +could challenge criticism with an easy confidence. They were laughing +and talking to each other as they went rapidly by: neither of them saw +Sheila. The girl did not look after them. She rose and walked in the +other direction, with a greater pain at her heart than had been there +for many a day. + +What was this crowd? Some dozen or so of people were standing round +a small girl, who, accompanied by a man, was playing a violin, and +playing it very well, too. But it was not the music that attracted +Sheila to the child, but partly that there was a look about the timid, +pretty face and the modest and honest eyes that reminded her of little +Ailasa, and partly because, just at this moment, her heart seemed to +be strangely sensitive and sympathetic. She took no thought of the +people looking on. She went forward to the edge of the pavement, and +found that the small girl and her companion were about to go away. +Sheila stopped the man. + +"Will you let your little girl come with me into this shop?" + +It was a confectioner's shop. + +"We were going home to dinner," said the man, while the small girl +looked up with wondering eyes. + +"Will you let her have dinner with me, and you will come back in half +an hour?" + +The man looked at the little girl: he seemed to be really fond of her, +and saw that she was very willing to go. Sheila took her hand and led +her into the confectioner's shop, putting her violin on one of the +small marble tables while they sat down at another. She was probably +not aware that two or three idlers had followed them, and were staring +with might and main in at the door of the shop. + +What could this child have thought of the beautiful and yet sad-eyed +lady who was so kind to her, who got her all sorts of things with her +own hands, and asked her all manner of questions in a low, gentle and +sweet voice? There was not much in Sheila's appearance to provoke fear +or awe. The little girl, shy at first, got to be a little more frank, +and told her hostess when she rose in the morning, how she practiced, +the number of hours they were out during the day, and many of the +small incidents of her daily life. She had been photographed too, +and her photograph was sold in one of the shops. She was very well +content: she liked playing, the people were kind to her, and she did +not often get tired. + +"Then I shall see you often if I stay in Brighton?" said Sheila. + +"We go out every day when it does not rain very hard." + +Perhaps some wet day you will come and see me, and you will have some +tea with me: would you like that?" + +"Yes, very much," said the small musician, looking up frankly. + +Just at this moment, the half hour having fully expired, the man +appeared at the door. + +"Don't hurry," said Sheila to the little girl: "sit still and drink +out the lemonade; then I will give you some little parcels which you +must put in your pocket." + +She was about to rise to go to the counter when she suddenly met the +eyes of her husband, who was calmly staring at her. He had come out, +after their ride, with Mrs. Lorraine to have a stroll up and down the +pavements, and had, in looking in at the various shops, caught sight +of Sheila quietly having luncheon with this girl whom she had picked +up in the streets. + +"Did you ever see the like of that?" he said to Mrs. Lorraine. "In +open day, with people staring in, and she has not even taken the +trouble to put the violin out of sight!" + +"The poor child means no harm," said his companion. + +"Well, we must get her out of this somehow," he said; and so they +entered the shop. + +Sheila knew she was guilty the moment she met her husband's look, +though she had never dreamed of it before. She had, indeed, acted +quite thoughtlessly--perhaps chiefly moved by a desire to speak to +some one and to befriend some one in her own loneliness. + +"Hadn't you better let this little girl go?" said Lavender to Sheila +somewhat coldly as soon as he had ordered an ice for his companion. + +"When she has finished her lemonade she will go," said Sheila meekly. +"But I have to buy some things for her first." + +"You have got a whole lot of people round the door," he said. + +"It is very kind of the people to wait for her," answered Sheila with +the same composure. "We have been here half an hour. I suppose they +will like her music very much." + +The little violinist was now taken to the counter, and her pockets +stuffed with packages of sugared fruits and other deadly delicacies: +then she was permitted to go with half a crown in her hand. Mrs. +Lorraine patted her shoulder in passing, and said she was a pretty +little thing. + +They went home to luncheon. Nothing was said about the incident of +the forenoon, except that Lavender complained to Mrs. Kavanagh, in +a humorous way, that his wife had a most extraordinary fondness for +beggars, and that he never went home of an evening without expecting +to find her dining with the nearest scavenger and his family. +Lavender, indeed, was in an amiable frame of mind at this meal (during +the progress of which Sheila sat by the window, of course, for she had +already lunched in company with the tiny violinist), and was bent on +making himself as agreeable as possible to his two companions. Their +talk had drifted toward the wanderings of the two ladies on the +Continent; from that to the Niebelungen frescoes in Munich; from +that to the Niebelungen itself, and then, by easy transition, to the +ballads of Uhland and Heine. Lavender was in one of his most impulsive +and brilliant moods--gay and jocular, tender and sympathetic by turns, +and so obviously sincere in all that his listeners were delighted +with his speeches and assertions and stories, and believed them as +implicitly as he did himself. Sheila, sitting at a distance, saw and +heard, and could not help recalling many an evening in the far North +when Lavender used to fascinate every one around him by the infection +of his warm and poetic enthusiasm. How he talked, too--telling +the stones of these quaint and pathetic ballads in his own +rough--and--ready translations--while there was no self-consciousness +in his face, but a thorough warmth of earnestness; and sometimes, too, +she would notice a quiver of the under lip that she knew of old, +when some pathetic point or phrase had to be indicated rather than +described. He was drawing pictures for them as well as telling +stories--of the three students entering the room in which the +landlady's daughter lay dead--of Barbarossa in his cave--of the +child who used to look up at Heine as he passed her in the street, +awestricken by his pale and strange face--of the last of the band of +companions who sat in the solitary room in which they had sat, and +drank to their memory--of the king of Thule, and the deserter from +Strasburg, and a thousand others. + +"But is there any of them--is there anything in the world--more +pitiable than that pilgrimage to Kevlaar?" he said. "You know it, of +course. No? Oh, you must, surely. Don't you remember the mother who +stood by the bedside of her sick son, and asked him whether he would +not rise to see the great procession go by the window; and he tells +her that he cannot, he is so ill: his heart is breaking for thinking +of his dead Gretchen? _You_ know the story, Sheila. The mother begs +him to rise and come with her, and they will join the band of pilgrims +going to Kevlaar, to be healed there of their wounds by the Mother of +God. Then you find them at Kevlaar, and all the maimed and the lame +people have come to the shrine; and whichever limb is diseased, they +make a waxen image of that and lay it on the altar, and then they are +healed. Well, the mother of this poor lad takes wax and forms a heart +out of it, and says to her son, 'Take that to the Mother of God, and +she will heal your pain.' Sighing, he takes the wax heart in his hand, +and, sighing, he goes to the shrine; and there, with tears running +down his face, he says, 'O beautiful Queen of Heaven, I am come to +tell you my grief. I lived with my mother in Cologne: near us lived +Gretchen, who is dead now. Blessed Mary, I bring you this wax heart: +heal the wound in my heart.' And then--and then--" + +Sheila saw his lip tremble. But he frowned, and said impatiently, +"What a shame it is to destroy such a beautiful story! You can have no +idea of it--of its simplicity and tenderness--" + +"But pray let us hear the rest of it," said Mrs. Lorraine gently. + +"Well, the last scene, you know, is a small chamber, and the mother +and her sick son are asleep. The Blessed Mary glides into the chamber +and bends over the young man, and puts her hand lightly on his heart. +Then she smiles and disappears. The unhappy mother has seen all this +in a dream, and now she awakes, for the dogs are barking loudly. +The mother goes over to the bed of her son, and he is dead, and the +morning light touches his pale face. And then the mother folds her +hands, and says--" + +He rose hastily with a gesture of fretfulness, and walked over to the +window at which Sheila sat and looked out. She put her hand up to his: +he took it. + +"The next time I try to translate Heine," he said, making it appear +that he had broken off through vexation, "something strange will +happen." + +"It is a beautiful story," said Mrs. Lorraine, who had herself been +crying a little bit in a covert way: "I wonder I have not seen a +translation of it. Come, mamma, Lady Leveret said we were not to be +after four." + +So they rose and left, and Sheila was alone with her husband, and +still holding his hand. She looked up at him timidly, wondering, +perhaps, in her simple way, as to whether she should not now pour out +her heart to him, and tell him all her griefs and fears and yearnings. +He had obviously been deeply moved by the story he had told so +roughly: surely now was a good opportunity of appealing to him, and +begging for sympathy and compassion. + +"Frank," she said, and she rose and came close, and bent down her head +to hide the color in her face. + +"Well?" he answered a trifle coldly. + +"You won't be vexed with me," she said in a low voice, and with her +heart beginning to beat rapidly. + +"Vexed with you about what?" he said abruptly. + +Alas! all her hopes had fled. She shrank from the cold stare with +which she knew he was regarding her. She felt it to be impossible +that she should place before him those confidences with which she had +approached him; and so, with a great effort, she merely said, "Are we +to go to Lady Leveret's?" + +"Of course we are," he said, "unless you would rather go and see some +blind fiddler or beggar. It is really too bad of you, Sheila, to be so +forgetful: what if Lady Leveret, for example, had come into that shop? +It seems to me you are never satisfied with meeting the people +you ought to meet, but that you must go and associate with all the +wretched cripples and beggars you can find. You should remember you +are a woman, and not a child--that people will talk about what you +do if you go on in this mad way. Do you ever see Mrs. Kavanagh or her +daughter do any of these things?" + +Sheila had let go his hand: her eyes were still turned toward the +ground. She had fancied that a little of that emotion that had been +awakened in him by the story of the German mother and her son might +warm his heart toward herself, and render it possible for her to talk +to him frankly about all that she had been dimly thinking, and more +definitely suffering. She was mistaken: that was all. + +"I will try to do better, and please you," she said; and then she went +away. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +A FRIEND IN NEED. + + +Was it a delusion that had grown up in the girl's mind, and now held +full possession of it--that she was in a world with which she had no +sympathy, that she should never be able to find a home there, that +the influences of it were gradually and surely stealing from her her +husband's love and confidence? Or was this longing to get away +from the people and the circumstances that surrounded her but the +unconscious promptings of an incipient jealousy? She did not question +her own mind closely on these points. She only vaguely knew that she +was miserable, and that she could not tell her husband of the weight +that pressed on her heart. + +Here, too, as they drove along to have tea with a certain Lady +Leveret, who was one of Lavender's especial patrons, and to whom he +had introduced Mrs. Kavanagh and her daughter, Sheila felt that +she was a stranger, an interloper, a "third wheel to the cart." She +scarcely spoke a word. She looked at the sea, but she had almost +grown to regard that great plain of smooth water as a melancholy and +monotonous thing--not the bright and boisterous sea of her youth, with +its winding channels, its secret bays and rocks, its salt winds and +rushing waves. She was disappointed with the perpetual wall of white +cliff, where she had expected to see something of the black and rugged +shore of the North. She had as yet made no acquaintance with the +sea-life of the place: she did not know where the curers lived; +whether they gave the fishermen credit and cheated them; whether the +people about here made any use of the back of the dog-fish, or could, +in hard seasons, cook any of the wild-fowl; what the ling and the cod +and the skate fetched; where the wives and daughters sat and spun +and carded their wool; whether they knew how to make a good dish of +cockles boiled in milk. She smiled to herself when she thought of +asking Mrs. Lorraine about any such things; but she still cherished +some vague hope that before she left Brighton she would have some +little chance of getting near to the sea and learning a little of the +sea-life down in the South. + +And as they drove along the King's road on this afternoon she suddenly +called out, "Look, Frank!" + +On the steps of the Old Ship Hotel stood a small man with a brown +face, a brown beard and a beaver hat, who was calmly smoking a wooden +pipe, and looking at an old woman selling oranges in front of him. + +"It is Mr. Ingram," said Sheila. + +"Which is Mr. Ingram?" asked Mrs. Lorraine with considerable interest, +for she had often heard Lavender speak of his friend. "Not that little +man?" + +"Yes," said Lavender coldly: he could have wished that Ingram had had +some little more regard for appearances in so public a place as the +main thoroughfare of Brighton. + +"Won't you stop and speak to him?" said Sheila with great surprise. + +"We are late already," said her husband. "But if you would rather go +back and speak to him than go on with us, you may." + +Sheila said nothing more; and so they drove on to the end of the +Parade, where Lady Leveret held possession of a big white house with +pillars overlooking the broad street and the sea. + +But next morning she said to him, "I suppose you will be riding with +Mrs. Lorraine this morning?" + +"I suppose so." + +"I should like to go and see Mr. Ingram, if he is still there," she +said. + +"Ladies don't generally call at hotels and ask to see gentlemen; but +of course you don't care for that." + +"I shall not go if you do not wish me." + +"Oh, nonsense! You may as well go. What is the use of professing +to keep observances that you don't understand? And it will be some +amusement for you, for I dare say both of you will immediately go and +ask some old cab-driver to have luncheon with you, or buy a nosegay of +flowers for his horse." + +The permission was not very gracious, but Sheila accepted it, and +very shortly after breakfast she changed her dress and went out. How +pleasant it was to know that she was going to see her old friend +to whom she could talk freely! The morning seemed to know of her +gladness, and to share in it, for there was a brisk southerly breeze +blowing fresh in from the sea, and the waves were leaping white in the +sunlight. There was no more sluggishness in the air or the gray sky or +the leaden plain of the sea. Sheila knew that the blood was mantling +in her cheeks; that her heart was full of joy; that her whole frame +so tingled with life and spirit that, had she been in Borva, she would +have challenged her deer-hound to a race, and fled down the side of +the hill with him to the small bay of white sand below the house. She +did not pause for a minute when she reached the hotel. She went up the +steps, opened the door and entered the square hall. There was an odor +of tobacco in the place, and several gentlemen standing about rather +confused her, for she had to glance at them in looking for a waiter. +Another minute would probably have found her a trifle embarrassed, but +that, just at this crisis, she saw Ingram himself come out of a room +with a cigarette in his hand. He threw away the cigarette, and came +forward to her with amazement in his eyes. + +"Where is Mr. Lavender? Has he gone into the smoking-room for me?" he +asked. + +"He is not here," said Sheila. "I have come for you by myself." + +For a moment, too, Ingram felt the eyes of the men on him, but +directly he said with a fine air of carelessness, "Well, that is very +good of you. Shall we go out for a stroll until your husband comes?" + +So he opened the door and followed her outside into the fresh air and +the roar of the waves. + +"Well, Sheila," he said, "this is very good of you, really: where is +Mr. Lavender?" + +"He generally rides with Mrs. Lorraine in the morning." + +"And what do you do?" + +"I sit at the window." + +"Don't you go boating?" + +"No, I have not been in a boat. They do not care for it. And yesterday +it was a letter to papa I was writing, and I could tell him nothing +about the people here or the fishing." + +"But you could not in any case, Sheila. I suppose you would like to +know what they pay for their lines, and how they dye their wool, and +so on; but you would find the fishermen here don't live in that way at +all. They are all civilized, you know. They buy their clothing in the +shops. They never eat any sort of sea-weed, or dye with it, either. +However, I will tell you all about it by and by. At present I suppose +you are returning to your hotel." + +A quick look of pain and disappointment passed over her face as she +turned to him for a moment with something of entreaty in her eyes. + +"I came to see you," she said. "But perhaps you have an engagement. I +do not wish to take up any of your time: if you please I will go back +alone to--" + +"Now, Sheila," he said with a smile, and with the old friendly look +she knew so well, "you must not talk like that to me. I won't have it. +You know I came down to Brighton because you asked me to come; and my +time is altogether at your service." + +"And you have no engagement just now?" said Sheila with her face +brightening. + +"No." + +"And you will take me down to the shore to see the boats and the nets? +Or could we go out and run along the coast for a few miles? It is a +very good wind." + +"Oh, I should be very glad," said Ingram slowly. "I should be +delighted. But, you see, wouldn't your husband think it--wouldn't he, +you know--wouldn't it seem just a little odd to him if you were to go +away like that?" + +"He is to go riding with Mrs. Lorraine," said Sheila quite simply. "He +does not want me." + +"Of course you told him you were coming to see--you were going to call +at the Old Ship?" + +"Yes. And I am sure he would not be surprised if I did not return for +a long time." + +"Are you quite sure, Sheila?" + +"Yes, I am quite sure." + +"Very well. Now I shall tell you what I am going to do with you. I +shall first go and bribe some mercenary boatman to let us have one +of those small sailing boats committed to our own exclusive charge. +I shall constitute you skipper and pilot of the craft, and hold you +responsible for my safety. I shall smoke a pipe to prepare me for +whatever may befall." + +"Oh no," said Sheila. "You must work very hard, and I will see if you +remember all that I taught you in the Lewis. And if we can have some +long lines, we might get some fish. Will they pay more than thirty +shillings for their long lines in this country?" + +"I don't know," said Ingram. "I believe most of the fishermen here +live upon the shillings they get from passers-by after a little +conversation about the weather and their hard lot in life; so that one +doesn't talk to them more than one can help." + +"But why do they need the money? Are there no fish?" + +"I don't know that, either. I suppose there is some good fishing in +the winter, and sometimes in the summer they get some big shoals of +mackerel." + +"It was a letter I had last week from the sister of one of the men of +the Nighean-dubh, and she will tell me that they have been very lucky +all through the last season, and it was near six thousand ling they +got." + +"But I suppose they are hopelessly in debt to some curer or other up +about Habost?" + +"Oh no, not at all. It is their own boat: it is not hired to them. And +it is a very good boat whatever." + +That unlucky "whatever" had slipped out inadvertently: the moment she +had uttered it she blushed and looked timidly toward her companion, +fearing that he had noticed it. He had not. How could she have made +such a blunder? she asked herself. She had been most particular about +the avoidance of this word, even in the Lewis. The girl did not know +that from the moment she had left the steps of the Old Ship in company +with that good friend of hers she had unconsciously fallen into much +of her old pronunciation and her old habit of speech; while Ingram, +much more familiar with the Sheila of Borvabost and Loch Roag than +with the Sheila of Netting Hill and Kensington Gardens, did not +perceive the difference, but was mightily pleased to hear her talk in +any fashion whatsoever. + +By fair means or foul, Ingram managed to secure a pretty little +sailing vessel which lay at anchor out near the New Pier, and when the +pecuniary negotiations were over Sheila was invited to walk down +over the loose stones of the beach and take command of the craft. The +boatman was still very doubtful. When he had pulled them out to the +boat, however, and put them on board, he speedily perceived that this +handsome young lady not only knew everything that had to be done in +the way of getting the small vessel ready, but had a very smart and +business-like way of doing it. It was very obvious that her companion +did not know half as much about the matter as she did; but he was +obedient and watchful, and presently they were ready to start. The man +put off in his boat to shore again much relieved in mind, but not a +little puzzled to understand where the young lady had picked up not +merely her knowledge of boats, but the ready way in which she put her +delicate hands to hard work, and the prompt and effectual fashion in +which she accomplished it. + +"Shall I belay away the jib or reef the upper hatchways?" Ingram +called out to Sheila when they had fairly got under way. + +She did not answer for a moment: she was still watching with a +critical eye the manner in which the boat answered to her wishes; and +then, when everything promised well and she was quite satisfied, she +said, "If you will take my place for a moment and keep a good lookout, +I will put on my gloves." + +She surrendered the tiller and the mainsail sheets into his care, and, +with another glance ahead, pulled out her gloves. + +"You did not use to fear the salt water or the sun on your hands, +Sheila," said her companion. + +"I do not now," she said, "but Frank would be displeased to see my +hands brown. He has himself such pretty hands." + +What Ingram thought about Frank Lavender's delicate hands he was not +going to say to his wife; and indeed he was called upon at this moment +to let Sheila resume her post, which she did with an air of great +satisfaction and content. + +And so they ran lightly through the curling and dashing water on this +brilliant day, caring little indeed for the great town that lay away +to leeward, with its shining terraces surmounted by a faint cloud of +smoke. Here all the roar of carriages and people was unheard: the only +sound that accompanied their talk was the splashing of the waves at +the prow and the hissing and gurgling of the water along the boat. The +south wind blew fresh and sweet around them, filling the broad white +sails and fluttering the small pennon up there in the blue. It seemed +strange to Sheila that she should be so much alone with so great a +town close by--that under the boom she could catch a glimpse of the +noisy Parade without hearing any of its noise. And there, away to +windward, there was no more trace of city life--only the great +blue sea, with its waves flowing on toward them from out of the far +horizon, and with here and there a pale ship just appearing on the +line where the sky and ocean met. + +"Well, Sheila, how do you like being on the sea again?" said Ingram, +getting out his pipe. + +"Oh, very well. But you must not smoke, Mr. Ingram: you must attend to +the boat." + +"Don't you feel at home in her yet?" he asked. + +"I am not afraid of her," said Sheila, regarding the lines of the +small craft with the eye of a shipbuilder, "but she is very narrow in +the beam, and she carries too much sail for so small a thing I suppose +they have not any squalls on this coast, where you have no hills and +no narrows to go through." + +"It doesn't remind you of Lewis, does it?" he said, filling his pipe +all the same. + +"A little--out there it does," she said, turning to the broad plain of +the sea, "but it is not much that is in this country that is like the +Lewis: sometimes I think I shall be a stranger when I go back to the +Lewis, and the people will scarcely know me, and everything will be +changed." + +He looked at her for a second or two. Then he laid down his pipe, +which had not been lit, and said to her gravely, "I want you to tell +me, Sheila, why you have got into a habit lately of talking about many +things, and especially about your home in the North, in that sad way. +You did not do that when you came to London first; and yet it was then +that you might have been struck and shocked by the difference. You had +no home-sickness for a long time--But is it home-sickness, Sheila?" + +How was she to tell him? For an instant she was on the point of giving +him all her confidence; and then, somehow or other, it occurred to her +that she would be wronging her husband in seeking such sympathy from a +friend as she had been expecting, and expecting in vain, from him. + +"Perhaps it is home-sickness," she said in a low voice, while she +pretended to be busy tightening up the mainsail sheet. "I should like +to see Borva again." + +"But you don't want to live there all your life?" he said. "You know +that would be unreasonable, Sheila, even if your husband could manage +it; and I don't suppose he can. Surely your papa does not expect you +to go and live in Lewis always?" + +"Oh, no," she said eagerly. "You must not think my papa wishes +anything like that. It will be much less than that he was thinking of +when he used to speak to Mr. Lavender about it. And I do not wish +to live in the Lewis always: I have no dislike to London--none at +all--only that--that--" And here she paused. + +"Come, Sheila," he said in the old paternal way to which she had been +accustomed to yield up all her own wishes in the old days of their +friendship, "I want you to be frank with me, and tell me what is the +matter. I know there is something wrong: I have seen it for some time +back. Now, you know I took the responsibility of your marriage on +my shoulders, and I am responsible to you, and to your papa and to +myself, for your comfort and happiness. Do you understand?" + +She still hesitated, grateful in her in-most heart, but still doubtful +as to what she should do. + +"You look on me as an intermeddler," he said with a smile. + +"No, no," she said: "you have always been our best friend." + +"But I have intermeddled none the less. Don't you remember when I told +you I was prepared to accept the consequences?" + +It seemed so long a time since then! + +"And once having begun to intermeddle, I can't stop, don't you see? +Now, Sheila, you'll be a good little girl and do what I tell you. +You'll take the boat a long way out: we'll put her head round, take +down the sails, and let her tumble about and drift for a time, till +you tell me all about your troubles, and then we'll see what can be +done." + +She obeyed in silence, with her face grown grave enough in +anticipation of the coming disclosures. She knew that the first plunge +into them would be keenly painful to her, but there was a feeling at +her heart that, this penance over, a great relief would be at hand. +She trusted this man as she would have trusted her own father. She +knew that there was nothing on earth he would not attempt if he +fancied it would help her. And she knew, too, that having experienced +so much of his great unselfishness and kindness and thoughtfulness, +she was ready to obey him implicitly in anything that he could assure +her was right for her to do. + +How far away seemed the white cliffs now, and the faint green downs +above them! Brighton, lying farther to the west, had become dim +and yellow, and over it a cloud of smoke lay thick and brown in the +sunlight. A mere streak showed the line of the King's road and all its +carriages and people; the beach beneath could just be made out by the +white dots of the bathing-machines; the brown fishing-boats seemed to +be close in shore; the two piers were fore-shortened into small dusky +masses marking the beginning of the sea. And then from these distant +and faintly-defined objects out here to the side of the small +white-and-pink boat, that lay lightly in the lapping water, stretched +that great and moving network of waves, with here and there a sharp +gleam of white foam curling over amid the dark blue-green. + +Ingram took his seat by Sheila's side, so that he should not have +to look in her downcast face; and then, with some little preliminary +nervousness and hesitation, the girl told her story. She told it to +sympathetic ears, and yet Ingram, having partly guessed how matters +stood, and anxious, perhaps, to know whether much of her trouble +might not be merely the result of fancies which could be reasoned and +explained away, was careful to avoid anything like corroboration. He +let her talk in her own simple and artless way; and the girl spoke to +him, after a little while, with an earnestness which showed how deeply +she felt her position. At the very outset she told him that her love +for her husband had never altered for a moment--that all the prayer +and desire of her heart was that they two might be to each other +as she had at one time hoped they would be, when he got to know her +better. She went over all the story of her coming to London, of her +first experiences there, of the conviction that grew upon her that her +husband was somehow disappointed with her, and only anxious now that +she should conform to the ways and habits of the people with whom +he associated. She spoke of her efforts to obey his wishes, and how +heartsick she was with her failures, and of the dissatisfaction which +he showed. She spoke of the people to whom he devoted his life, of +the way in which he passed his time, and of the impossibility of her +showing him, so long as he thus remained apart from her, the love she +had in her heart for him, and the longing for sympathy which that love +involved. And then she came to the question of Mrs. Lorraine; and +here it seemed to Ingram she was trying at once to put her husband's +conduct in the most favorable light, and to blame herself for her +unreasonableness. Mrs. Lorraine was a pleasant companion to him, she +could talk cleverly and brightly, she was pretty, and she knew a large +number of his friends. Sheila was anxious to show that it was the most +natural thing in the world that her husband, finding her so out of +communion with his ordinary surroundings, should make an especial +friend of this graceful and fascinating woman. And if at times it +hurt her to be left alone--But here the girl broke down somewhat, and +Ingram pretended not to know that she was crying. + +These were strange things to be told to a man, and they were difficult +to answer. But out of these revelations--which rather took the form of +a cry than of any distinct statement--he formed a notion of Sheila's +position sufficiently exact; and the more he looked at it the more +alarmed and pained he grew, for he knew more of her than her husband +did. He knew the latent force of character that underlay all her +submissive gentleness. He knew the keen sense of pride her Highland +birth had given her; and he feared what might happen if this sensitive +and proud heart of hers were driven into rebellion by some--possibly +unintentional--wrong. And this high-spirited, fearless, honor-loving +girl--who was gentle and obedient, not through any timidity or +limpness of character, but because she considered it her duty to +be gentle and obedient--was to be cast aside and have her tenderest +feelings outraged and wounded for the sake of an unscrupulous, +shallow-brained woman of fashion, who was not fit to be Sheila's +waiting-maid. Ingram had never seen Mrs. Lorraine, but he had formed +his own opinion of her. The opinion, based upon nothing, was wholly +wrong, but it served to increase, if that were possible, his sympathy +with Sheila, and his resolve to interfere on her behalf at whatever +cost. + +"Sheila," he said, gravely putting his hand on her shoulder as if she +were still the little girl who used to run wild with him about the +Borva rocks, "you are a good woman." + +He added to himself that Lavender knew little of the value of the wife +he had got, but he dared not say that to Sheila, who would suffer no +imputation against her husband to be uttered in her presence, however +true it might be, or however much she had cause to know it to be true. + +"And, after all," he said in a lighter voice, "I think I can do +something to mend all this. I will say for Frank Lavender that he is a +thoroughly good fellow at heart, and that when you appeal to him, and +put things fairly before him, and show him what he ought to do, there +is not a more honorable and straightforward man in the world. He has +been forgetful, Sheila. He has been led away by these people, you +know, and has not been aware of what you were suffering. When I put +the matter before him, you will see it will be all right; and I hope +to persuade him to give up this constant idling and take to his work, +and have something to live for. I wish you and I together could get +him to go away from London altogether--get him to take to serious +landscape painting on some wild coast--the Galway coast, for example." + +"Why not the Lewis?" said Sheila, her heart turning to the North as +naturally as the needle. + +"Or the Lewis. And I should like you and him to live away from hotels +and luxuries, and all such things; and he would work all day, and you +would do the cooking in some small cottage you could rent, you know." + +"You make me so happy in thinking of that," she said, with her eyes +growing wet again. + +"And why should he not do so? There is nothing romantic or idyllic +about it, but a good, wholesome, plain sort of life, that is likely to +make an honest painter of him, and bring both of you some well-earned +money. And you might have a boat like this." + +"We are drifting too far in," said Sheila, suddenly rising. "Shall we +go back now?" + +"By all means," he said; and so the small boat was put under canvas +again, and was soon making way through the breezy water. + +"Well, all this seems simple enough, doesn't it?" said Ingram. + +"Yes," said the girl, with her face full of hope. + +"And then, of course, when you are quite comfortable together, and +making heaps of money, you can turn round and abuse me, and say I made +all the mischief to begin with." + +"Did we do so before when you were very kind to us?" she said in a low +voice. + +"Oh, but that was different. To interfere on behalf of two young folks +who are in love with each other is dangerous, but to interfere between +two people who are married--that is a certain quarrel. I wonder what +you will say when you are scolding me, Sheila, and bidding me get out +of the house? I have never heard you scold. Is it Gaelic or English +you prefer?" + +"I prefer whichever can say the nicest things to my very good friends, +and tell them how grateful I am for their kindness to me." + +"Ah, well, we'll see." + +When they got back to shore it was half-past one. + +"You will come and have some luncheon with us?" said Sheila when they +had gone up the steps and into the King's road. + +"Will that lady be there?" + +"Mrs. Lorraine? Yes." + +"Then I'll come some other time." + +"But why not now?" said Sheila. "It is not necessary that you will see +us only to speak about those things we have been talking over?" + +"Oh no, not at all. If you and Mr. Lavender were by yourselves, I +should come at once." + +"And are you afraid of Mrs. Lorraine?" said Sheila with a smile. "She +is a very nice lady, indeed: you have no cause to dislike her." + +"But I don't want to meet her, Sheila, that is all," he said; and +she knew well, by the precision of his manner, that there was no use +trying to persuade him further. + +He walked along to the hotel with her, meeting a considerable stream +of fashionably-dressed folks on the way; and neither he nor she seemed +to remember that his costume--a blue pilot-jacket, not a little worn +and soiled with the salt water, and a beaver hat that had seen a +good deal of rough weather in the Highlands--was a good deal more +comfortable than elegant. He said to her, as he left her at the hotel, +"Would you mind telling Lavender I shall drop in at half-past three, +and that I expect to see him in the coffee-room? I sha'n't keep him +five minutes." + +She looked at him for a moment, and he saw that she knew what this +appointment meant, for her eyes were full of gladness and gratitude. +He went away pleased at heart that she put so much trust in him. And +in this case he should be able to reward that confidence, for Lavender +was really a good sort of fellow, and would at once be sorry for the +wrong he had unintentionally done, and be only too anxious to set it +right. He ought to leave Brighton at once, and London too. He ought to +go away into the country or by the seaside, and begin working hard, +to earn money and self-respect at the same time; and then, in this +friendly solitude, he would get to know something about Sheila's +character, and begin to perceive how much more valuable were these +genuine qualities of heart and mind than any social graces such as +might lighten up a dull drawing-room. Had Lavender yet learnt to +know the worth of an honest woman's perfect love and unquestioning +devotion? Let these things be put before him, and he would go and do +the right thing, as he had many a time done before, in obedience to +the lecturing of his friend. + +Ingram called at half-past three, and went into the coffee-room. There +was no one in the long, large room, and he sat down at one of the +small tables by the windows, from which a bit of lawn, the King's road +and the sea beyond were visible. He had scarcely taken his seat when +Lavender came in. + +"Hallo, Ingram! how are you?" he said in his freest and friendliest +way. "Won't you come up stairs? Have you had lunch? Why did you go to +the Ship?" + +"I always go to the Ship," he said. "No, thank you, I won't go up +stairs." + +"You are a most unsociable sort of brute?" said Lavender frankly. +"Will you take a glass of sherry?" + +"No, thank you." + +"Will you have a game of billiards?" + +"No, thank you. You don't mean to say you would play billiards on such +a day as this?" + +"It _is_ a fine day, isn't it?" said Lavender, turning carelessly to +look at the sunlit road and the blue sea. "By the way, Sheila tells +me you and she were out sailing this morning. It must have been very +pleasant, especially for her, for she is mad about such things. What a +curious girl she is, to be sure! Don't you think so?" + +"I don't know what you mean by curious," said Ingram coldly. + +"Well, you know, strange--odd--unlike other people in her ways and her +fancies. Did I tell you about my aunt taking her to see some friends +of hers at Norwood? No? Well, Sheila had got out of the house somehow +(I suppose their talking did not interest her), and when they went in +search of her they found her in the cemetery crying like a child." + +"What about?" + +"Why," said Lavender with a smile, "merely because so many people had +died. She had never seen anything like that before: you know the small +church-yards up in Lewis, with their inscriptions in Norwegian and +Danish and German. I suppose the first sight of all the white stones +at Norwood was too much for her." + +"Well, I don't see much of a joke in that," said Ingram. + +"Who said there was any joke in it?" cried Lavender impatiently. +"I never knew such a cantankerous fellow as you are. You are always +fancying I am finding fault with Sheila; and I never do anything of +the kind. She is a very good girl indeed. I have every reason to be +satisfied with the way our marriage has turned out." + +"_Has she_?" + +The words were not important, but there was something in the tone in +which they were spoken that suddenly checked Frank Lavender's careless +flow of speech. He looked at Ingram for a moment with some surprise, +and then he said, "What do you mean?" + +"Well, I will tell you what I mean," said Ingram slowly. "It is an +awkward thing for a man to interfere between husband and wife, I +am aware--he gets something else than thanks for his pains +ordinarily--but sometimes it has to be done, thanks or kicks. Now, +you know, Lavender, I had a good deal to do with helping forward +your marriage in the North; and I don't remind you of that to claim +anything in the way of consideration, but to explain why I think I am +called on to speak to you now." + +Lavender was at once a little frightened and a little irritated. He +half guessed what might be coming from the slow and precise manner +in which Ingram talked. That form of speech had vexed him many a time +before, for he would rather have had any amount of wild contention +and bandying about of reproaches than the calm, unimpassioned and +sententious setting forth of his shortcomings to which this sallow +little man was perhaps too much addicted. + +"I suppose Sheila has been complaining to you, then?" said Lavender +hotly. + +"You may suppose what absurdities you like," said Ingram quietly; "but +it would be a good deal better if you would listen to me patiently, +and deal in a common-sense fashion with what I have got to say. It +is nothing very desperate. Nothing has happened that is not of easy +remedy, while the remedy would leave you and her in a much better +position, both as regards your own estimation of yourselves and the +opinion of your friends." + +"You are a little roundabout, Ingram," said Lavender, "and ornate. But +I suppose all lectures begin so. Go on." + +Ingram laughed: "If I am too formal, it is because I don't want to +make mischief by any exaggeration. Look here! A long time before you +were married I warned you that Sheila had very keen and sensitive +notions about the duties that people ought to perform, about the +dignity of labor, about the proper occupations of a man, and so forth. +These notions you may regard as romantic and absurd, if you like, but +you might as well try to change the color of her eyes as attempt to +alter any of her beliefs in that direction." + +"And she thinks that I am idle and indolent because I don't care what +a washerwoman pays for her candles?" said Lavender with impetuous +contempt. "Well, be it so. She is welcome to her opinion. But if she +is grieved at heart because I can't make hobnailed boots, it seems +to me that she might as well come and complain to myself, instead of +going and detailing her wrongs to a third person, and calling for his +sympathy in the character of an injured wife." + +For an instant the dark eyes of the man opposite him blazed with a +quick fire, for a sneer at Sheila was worse than an insult to himself; +but he kept quite calm, and said, "That, unfortunately, is not what is +troubling her." + +Lavender rose abruptly, took a turn up and down the empty room, and +said, "If there is anything the matter, I prefer to hear it from +herself. It is not respectful to me that she should call in a third +person to humor her whims and fancies." + +"Whims and fancies!" said Ingram, with that dark light returning to +his eyes. "Do you know what you are talking about? Do you know that, +while you are living on the charity of a woman you despise, and +dawdling about the skirts of a woman who laughs at you, you are +breaking the heart of a girl who has not her equal in England? Whims +and fancies! Good God, I wonder how she ever could have--" + +He stopped, but the mischief was done. These were not prudent words +to come from a man who wished to step in as a mediator between husband +and wife; but Ingram's blaze of wrath, kindled by what he considered +the insufferable insolence of Lavender in thus speaking of Sheila, had +swept all notions of prudence before it. Lavender, indeed, was much +cooler than he was, and said, with an affectation of carelessness, "I +am sorry you should vex yourself so much about Sheila. One would think +you had had the ambition yourself, at some time or other, to play the +part of husband to her; and doubtless then you would have made sure +that all her idle fancies were gratified. As it is, I was about to +relieve you from the trouble of further explanation by saying that I +am quite competent to manage my own affairs, and that if Sheila has +any complaint to make she must make it to me." + +Ingram rose, and was silent for a moment. + +"Lavender," he said, "it does not matter much whether you and I +quarrel--I was prepared for that, in any case--but I ask you to give +Sheila a chance of telling you what I had intended to tell you." + +"Indeed, I shall do nothing of the sort. I never invite confidences. +When she wishes to tell me anything she knows I am ready to listen. +But I am quite satisfied with the position of affairs as they are at +present." + +"God help you, then!" said his friend, and went away, scarcely daring +to confess to himself how dark the future looked. + +[TO BE CONTINUED.] + + + + +ENGLISH COURT FESTIVITIES + + +Americans have an impression that the English think it a considerable +distinction to be presented at court. But the ceremony of presentation +has entirely ceased to have any social significance in England. Any +young gentleman who imagines that the door of English society will +be thrown open to him on the publication of his appearance at a +drawing-room had better save the expense of a dress and carriage and +stay at home. If a lady be ambitious of a social success, the money +which a robe will cost might be expended to equal advantage anywhere +else in London. However, a lady's dress may be worn again, and men may +hire a court-suit for the day at a very small cost. Your tailor, if +you get a good deal of him, will patch you up something tolerable for +very little; so that sartorial expenses are comparatively light. One +can get for the afternoon a two-horse brougham, with a coachman and +footman, for a sum less than ten dollars. Still, going to court costs +something, and its only possible advantage is that the spectacle is a +fine and an interesting one. One has therefore to consider whether the +sight is worth the fee. + +A presentation at court is of quite as little advantage to an +Englishman as to a foreigner coming to England. Almost anybody can be +presented, and of those who are precluded from presentation, a great +many occupy higher positions than many of those who have the privilege +of going to court. Any graduate of a university, any clergyman, any +officer in the army, is entitled to go. A merchant, an attorney, even +a barrister, cannot; and yet in England a barrister, or, for +that matter, a successful merchant, is apt to be a person of more +consequence than a curate or a poor soldier. The court has scarcely +any social significance in England. I once asked a young barrister if +presentation would help him in the least in making his way in society. +He said, "Not a bit." + +In England the position of everybody is so well fixed that people +cannot well change it by wishing it to be changed. Thus, for a poor +East London curate to go to court would simply make him ridiculous. +The parsons in the West End do present themselves, but there is +no part of the British empire where clergymen are of such slight +consequence as in the West End of London. The clergymen, as they file +in along with the gayly-accoutred young guards-men, have a meek and +gentle air which makes one feel that they had better have stayed away. +They do not look half defiant enough. No person who is not already +in such a position as to need no pushing could becomingly make his +appearance at court. I remember in Shropshire to have heard a family +who went down to London to be presented made the target for the +ridicule of the whole neighborhood. + +On a visit to London some years ago the writer was presented in the +diplomatic circle, went to several of the drawing-rooms and levees at +Buckingham and St. James's Palaces, and was invited to the court balls +and concerts. Invitations to the court festivities are given only +to those persons presented in the diplomatic circle. It must be +understood that there is at every court in Europe a select and elegant +and exclusive entrance, by which the diplomatists come in. Along with +them enter also the ministers of state and the household officers of +the Crown. The general circle, as it is called, includes everybody +else. Another entrance and staircase are provided for it, and in that +way all of British society, from a duke to a half-pay captain, gains +admittance to the sovereign. When one is in the inside of Buckingham +or St. James's Palace the same distinction exists. The room in which +the members of the royal family receive the public is occupied during +the entire ceremony by the diplomatic circle. Other persons, after +bowing to the queen, pass into an antechamber. + +Though I say it is of but small social advantage to an Englishman to +be presented, yet undoubtedly the greatest people in the empire +attend court, and are to be seen at the ceremonials and festivities +at Buckingham and St. James's Palaces. At present the queen holds +drawing-rooms and levees at Buckingham Palace, and the prince of Wales +at St. James's Palace. The latter are attended only by gentlemen, +and, though not so grand as the queen's, are pleasanter. Trousers are +allowed, instead of the knee-breeches and stockings which must be worn +at all court ceremonials where there are ladies. At two o'clock--for +the prince is very punctual--the doors of the reception-room are +thrown open, and the diplomatists begin to file in. First come the +ambassadors. It must be remembered that there is a wide difference +between an ambassador and an envoy or minister plenipotentiary. The +original difference was that the ambassador was supposed, by a sort of +transubstantiation, to represent the person of his sovereign. He had +a right at any time to demand an audience with the king. An envoy must +see the foreign secretary. This, of course, has ceased to have any +practical significance in countries which have constitutions; and no +doubt a minister can at any time demand an interview of the sovereign. +It is still true, however, that an ambassador is accredited to +the king, while an envoy is accredited to the foreign secretary. +Practically, the difference is that an ambassador represents a bigger +country, has better pay, lives in a finer house, and gives more +parties and grander dinners. An ambassador has precedence of everybody +in the country in which he resides, except the royal family. + +There are five countries which send ambassadors to England--Russia, +France, Germany, Austria and Turkey. These ambassadors enter the +reception-room at the prince's levee in the order of seniority of +residence. The Turkish ambassador, Musurus, who had been twenty +years in London, came first on the occasions I speak of, the +others following, I forget in what order. They were all persons of +distinguished appearance. One, in particular, was singularly wise and +dignified-looking, with an aspect which was either bland or severe, +one could scarcely say which. Another resembled strikingly the +typical diplomatist of romance, having a manner suave and infinitely +deferential, but oh! so under-handed and insidious and diabolical! The +duc de Broglie was the French ambassador in London at the time of my +visit, and of all the corps his person and countenance possessed much +the most distinction. His was a distinction of spirit and intellect: +the distinction of the other continental "swells" was usually one of +stomach and whiskers. + +Behind each ambassador march the secretaries of the embassy. After the +ambassadors come the ministers. The whole diplomatic corps moves from +an anteroom into an apartment in which the prince of Wales awaits +them. The prince and several of his brothers, his cousins, the duke +of Cambridge and the prince of Teck, stand up in a row like an +old-fashioned spelling class. Next to the prince, on his right, stands +Viscount Sidney, the lord chamberlain, who calls off each detachment +as it approaches--"Austrian ambassador," "the Spanish minister," "the +United States minister," etc. The prince shakes hands with the head +of the embassy or mission, and bows to the secretaries. When the +diplomatists, cabinet ministers and household officers have all made +their bow, it is the turn of British society. The diplomatic +circle, and such as have the _entree_ to it, remain in the room: the +Englishmen pass out. The lord chamberlain in a loud voice calls off +the name of each person as he appears, so that each comer is, as it +were, labeled and ticketed. The observer learns quite as much as +if the lord chamberlain was the verger and was showing off his +collection. + +One may often guess the rank or importance of the courtier by the +manner of his reception. If he shakes hands with the prince, you may +know he is somebody--if he shakes hands with all five or six of the +princes, you may know he is a very great person. But if he gives the +princes a wide berth, bows hastily and glances furtively at them, and +runs by skittishly, then you may know that he is some half-pay colonel +or insignificant civil servant. Something, too, may be inferred from +the length of time the lord chamberlain takes to decipher the name +of the comer on the slip of paper which is handed him. If he scans +it long and hard, and holds it a good way from him and says "Major +Te--e--e--bosh--bow," then in a loud voice, "Major Tebow," you will +be safe in thinking that Major Tebow is not one of the greatest of +warriors or largest of landed proprietors. + +The ceremony lasts an hour and a half or two hours, and during the +whole of it the talk and hand-shaking among the diplomatists go on +very pleasantly. There is a great deal of _esprit de corps_ among +them, and perfect equality. Attaches, secretaries and ministers walk +about through the room and exchange greetings. The ambassadors are +rather statelier: these do not mix themselves with the crowd of +diplomatists, but stand up apart, all five in a row, leaning against +the wall, chatting easily, looking quite like another row of princes, +a sort of after-glow of the royalties. + +At all other court entertainments ladies are present. Of course +there are a great many very pretty ones, and their brilliant toilets +increase the magnificence of the spectacle. The queen's levees are +very much longer than those of the prince of Wales. Then, at all +ceremonials where there are ladies, men are compelled to wear, as +I have said, silk stockings and knee-breeches, slippers and +shoe-buckles. One can support this costume in tolerable comfort in a +warm room, but in getting from the carriage to the door it is often +like walking knee-deep in a tub of cold water. A cold hall or a +draught from an open door will give very unpleasant sensations. In +many of the large rooms of the palaces huge fireplaces, with great +logs of wood, roar behind tall brass fenders. Once in front of one of +these, the courtier who isn't a Scotchman feels as if he would never +care to go away. Fortunately, most of these ceremonials are in summer, +but the first of them come in February, and London is often cool well +up into June. + +The ceremony of a presentation to the queen is quite the same as that +at a prince of Wales's levee. The spelling-class of royal ladies stand +up in a rigid row. On the queen's right is the lord chamberlain, who +reads off the names. Next to the queen, on her left, is Alexandra, +then the queen's daughters and the Princess Mary of Cambridge. Next +to them stand the princes, and the whole is a phalanx which stretches +entirely across the room. Behind this line, drawn up in battle array, +stand three or four ranks of court ladies. + +The act of presentation is very easy and simple. Formerly--indeed, +until within a few years--it must have been a very perilous and +important feat. The courtier (the term is used inaccurately, but there +is no noun to describe a person who goes to court for a single time) +was compelled to walk up a long room, and to back, bowing, out of the +queen's presence. For ladies who had trails to manage the ordeal must +have been a trying one. Now it has been made quite easy. There is +but one point in which a presentation to the queen differs from that +already described at the prince of Wales's levee. You may turn your +back to the prince, but after bowing to the queen you step off into +the crowd, still facing her. There (if you have had the good luck to +be presented in the diplomatic circle) you may stand and watch a most +interesting pageant. To the young royalties, perhaps, it is not very +amusing, though they evidently have their little joke afterward over +anything unusual that occurs. It is natural enough that they should, +of course, and the fatigue which they sustain entitles them to all the +amusement they can get out of what must be to them a very monotonous +and familiar spectacle. There is plenty in it to occupy and interest +the man who sees it for the first or second time. You do not have to +ask "Who is this?" and "Who is that?" The lord chamberlain announces +each person as he or she appears. You hear the most heroic and +romantic names in English history as some insignificant boy or wizened +old woman appears to represent them. They are not all, by any means, +insignificant boys and wizened old women. Many of the ladies are +handsome enough to be well worth looking at, whether their names be +Percy or Stanhope or Brown or Smith. The young slips of girls who come +to be presented for the first time, frightened and pale or flushed, +one admires and feels a sense of instinctive loyalty to. + +The name of each is called out loudly by the lord chamberlain: "The +duchess of Fincastle," "The countess of Dorchester," "Lady Arabella +Darling on her marriage," etc. The ladies bow very low, and those to +whom the queen gives her hand to kiss nearly or quite touch their knee +to the carpet. No act of homage to the queen ever seems exaggerated, +her behavior being so modest and the sympathy with her so wide and +sincere; but ladies very nearly kneel in shaking hands with any member +of the royal family, not only at court, but elsewhere. It is not so +strange-looking, the kneeling to a royal lady, but to see a stately +mother or some soft maiden rendering such an act of homage to a chit +of a boy or a gross young gentleman impresses one unpleasantly. The +curtsy of a lady to a prince or princess is something between kneeling +and that queer genuflection one meets in the English agricultural +districts: the props of the boys and girls seem momentarily to be +knocked away, and they suddenly catch themselves in descending. It +astonished me, I remember, at a court party, to see one patrician +young woman--"divinely tall" I should describe her if her decided chin +and the evidently Roman turn of her nose and of her character had not +put divinity out of the question--shake hands with a not very imposing +young prince, and bend her regal knees into this curious and sudden +little cramp. I saw her, this adventurous maid, some days afterward in +a hansom cab (shade of her grandmother, think of it!), directing with +her imperious parasol the cabby to this and that shop. It struck me +she should have been a Roman damsel, and have driven a chariot with +three steeds abreast. + +The levees and the drawing-rooms may be called the court ceremonials. +There are besides the court festivities, the balls and concerts +at Buckingham Palace. There are four or five of these given in a +season--two balls and two concerts. The balls are the larger and less +select, but much the more amusing. The ball-room of the palace is a +large rectangular apartment. At one end is the orchestra--at the other +a raised dais on which the royalties sit. On each side, running the +length of the hall, are three tiers of benches, which are for ladies +and such gentlemen as can get a seat. The tiers on the left of the +dais are for diplomatists. English society has the tiers upon the +other side. By ten the ball-room is usually filled with people waiting +for the appearance of the royalties. The band strikes up, and the line +of princes and princesses advances down the long hall leading to the +ball-room. The queen and Prince Albert used formerly to preside at +these balls. The queen does not come now: the prince and princess of +Wales take her place. + +First enters a line of gentlemen bearing long sticks. Behind them come +the princesses, bowing on each hand. The princess of Wales advances +first, with a naive, faltering, hesitating step, a strange and quite +delicious blending of timidity and child-like confidence in her +manner. Then come, walking by twos, some daughters of the queen. Then +approaches the princess of Teck (Mary of Cambridge), a large and very +jolly-looking person, with vast good-nature and a profuse smile, which +she seems to throw all over everybody. A German duchess or two +follow her. The curtsies of these German princesses are indeed quite +wonderful. After entering the hall one of them will espy (such, I +suppose, is the fiction) some persons to whom she wishes to bow, and +she then proceeds to execute a performance of some minutes' duration. +Before curtsying, she stops and seems to "shy," and looks at the +ladies as a frightened horse examines intently the object which alarms +him: she then sinks slowly backward almost to the ground, and recovers +herself with the same slowness. It would seem that such a genuflection +must be, of necessity, ridiculous. But it is not so in the least: it +is quite successful, and rather pleasing. After the ladies come the +prince of Wales and his suite. The royalties then all go upon the +stage, and after music the ball begins. + +There are two sets of dancers. The princes and princesses open the +ball with the diplomatists and some of the highest nobility on the +space just in front of the dais. The rest of the hall is occupied by +the other dancers, who later in the evening find their way into the +diplomatic set. The dancing in the quadrilles and Lancers is of a +rather stately and ceremonious sort. In waltz or galop the English +always dance the same step, the _deux temps_, and the aim of the +dancing couple is to go as much like a spinning-top as possible. +They make occasional efforts to introduce puzzling novelties like the +_trois temps_, the Boston dip, etc., but, I am glad to say, without +any success. The result is, that once having learned to dance in +England, you are safe. + +The great hall during the waltz is a brilliant spectacle. There are +many beautiful women, the toilets are dazzling, and all the men are +"flaming in purple and gold." There is every variety of magnificent +dress. Officers of a Russian body-guard are gold from head to foot. +Hungarians wear purple and fur-trimmed robes of dark crimson of +the utmost splendor. The young men of the Guards' clubs in gold and +scarlet coats, and in spurred boots which reach above their knees, +clank through the halls. Scotch lords sit about, and exhibit legs of +which they are justly proud. Here, with swinging gait, wanders the +queen's piper, a sort of poet-laureate of the bagpipes, arrayed in +plaid and carrying upon his arm the soft, enchanting instrument to the +music of which, no doubt, the queen herself dances. The music of the +orchestra is perfect, and he must be a dull man who does not feel the +festivity, the buoyancy and the elation of the scene. + +Besides the ball-room, many handsome apartments are thrown open, +through which people promenade; and if you will but push aside the +curtains there are balconies where one can look down, by moonlight, on +the lakes and fountains of the gardens, "the watery ways of palaces." +I do not think the balconies are much occupied: they are a trifle too +romantic for British mammas. But there is plenty of flirting in +the halls and alcoves. One room I remember very pleasantly, the +refreshment-room, which was kept open during the evening till +supper-time. There one could get sandwiches, cold coffee, champagne, +sherry, etc., without having to hurry or be greedy in the least. I +can't say so much for the supper, though by waiting a little one could +always get something. The princes went first, then the diplomatists, +and then everybody else. The jostling was such that when young ladies +asked for a plate of soup you wished they had wanted ham and chicken. +A young American, I think, would very much dislike to go up to a table +and eat a solitary supper with ladies looking on, and young and pretty +ones, too. But I have seen a young guardsman, with an enormous helmet +and boots as big as himself, stand up at the table and "solitary and +alone" work his jaws with such effect as to shake and set trembling +the whole of his paraphernalia. Behind him pressed other hungry +courtiers, whom his gigantic helmet shut out from even the possibility +of supper, and who revenged themselves by sarcastic congratulations +aside upon the length and heartiness of his meal. + +"Concert" is an expression which to a hungry man has a strong +suggestion of tea and maccaroons. But a court concert gives you such a +supper as only a night's dancing is ordinarily supposed to entitle +you to. The concerts are given in the ball-room of the palace, and are +much more select than the balls. The royalties occupy very slight gilt +chairs placed just before the orchestra. There they sit with grace and +an appearance of comfort through the whole of it, while happier +and humbler mortals may walk about and whisper, or seek the +refreshment-room, or look at the pictures. They have very good music, +the best singers are provided, and some pretty familiar songs, like +"Home, sweet home," are sung. + +Before the royalties lead the way to supper they step forward to the +bar which divides the orchestra from the audience and say a few civil +things to each of the prominent artists, who in their turn bow and +look very much delighted. I wonder that singers who are almost queens +when they come to American cities, who have here any amount of praise +and attention entirely free from patronage, and who even in European +capitals may have excellent society, should be willing to put +themselves in such a position. While the social status of musical +artists has not been raised relatively in the last quarter of a +century, and while that of the theatrical profession has been indeed, +in London at least, relatively lowered, reason is gradually curing the +old societies of Europe of many of their savage and silly notions. +The cord stretched between the guests and the performers used to be a +feature of musical entertainments at private houses. Grisi went +once to sing at a concert given by the duke of Wellington at his +country-seat. The old man asked her when she would dine. "Oh, when +you do," she said. He saw her mistake and did not correct it; so it +happened that she dined at the same table with the guests, and the +incident, it is said, excited considerable horror among people of the +old sort. Think how barbarous, how savage, how utterly uncivilized, is +such an instinct! Women, of course, persecute each other, but it seems +inconceivable that a man and a gentleman could have entertained such a +sentiment. + +Of course, a supper at a concert is just the same as at a ball, only +there are fewer people and more leisure. The prince of Wales, and to +a less degree the other royalties, move among the throng and make +a point of speaking to any one to whom they wish to be civil. "The +Prince," as he is commonly called, takes advantage of the suppers +at balls and parties to make himself agreeable. The rule is, let +me remind the reader, to wait until the prince addresses you before +speaking, and to wait also for him, when in conversation, to turn +away: it would be considered very rude to terminate the interview +yourself. A subject in talking with the prince is always expected +to call him "Sir." The queen is addressed as "Ma'am." It is not +understood in this country that to call a man "sir" is a confession +of your inferiority to him. But it is so in England, and the fact +illustrates the strong hold these absurd and uncomfortable egotisms +have upon the British mind. No gentleman in England says "sir" +to another, unless it be a very young person to an old one. [1] A +subordinate in an office might "sir" a superior, but he would not +"sir" a man of the same rank as his superior with whom he had no +connection. "Sir" is the term applied by any Englishman of whatever +rank to a member of the royal family. Our committees, when princes +visit America, usually address them in notes as "Your Royal Highness." +But "Your Royal Highness" is not a vocative: it can be used only +in the third person. However, the princes are then in America, and +perhaps we are under no obligation to know everything of their ways at +home. Should the reader ever meet a prince in that prince's country, +I should advise him to do just as other people do there. He will +probably question, and not unreasonably, if he should accept the +implied inferiority; but the best of all principles for extempore +action is to do what seems the usual thing, unless we have previously +decided from mature consideration to do the unusual thing. It is not +the prince's fault that he is a prince: he means to be civil to you, +and you can do no good by making him and yourself uncomfortable. +Indeed, a truculent person does not succeed in asserting his equality. +The prince has been so long in that kind of life that he probably has +thought through the mistake under which the republican stranger is +laboring, and considers him a goose. Moreover, an American may reflect +that he will probably have very little in life to do with princes, and +that his interview with a prince has been an "experience." It would be +about as foolish to assert one's dignity with the Mammoth Cave or the +Matterhorn. + +Besides these balls and concerts there are yet the queen's and prince +of Wales's breakfasts or garden-parties, which come off about 3 +P.M. These are the most exclusive and unattainable of all the court +entertainments. There are two or three of these in a season, and out +of all London society only a couple of hundred are invited. There are +certain persons who are always invited, and others who are eligible +and are invited occasionally. A large part of the diplomatic corps +are always present. Each ambassador or minister, with one or two +secretaries of legation, is invariably among the guests; but a queen's +breakfast is the highest point which a secretary of legation can +touch. No secretary ever dines with the queen: the minister himself +only goes once a year, and he "not without shedding of blood." + +The dress worn by gentlemen at these breakfasts is a curious one, and +anything but pretty: it consists of a dress-coat and light trousers. +The dress which our diplomatic representatives are now compelled to +wear at the other court ceremonies and festivities needs a word of +mention. Our people in America are somewhat conceited, somewhat +prone to be confident, upon questions of which they know very little. +Congress, at a distance of many thousand miles from courts, thought +itself competent to decide what sort of court dress an American +diplomatist should wear. An able though crotchety man brought forward +a measure, and, once proposed, it was certain to go through, +because to oppose its passage would have been to be aristocratic +and un-American. Mr. Sumner's bill required Americans to go in the +"ordinary dress of an American citizen." There was no attempt to +indicate what that should be. Up to that time our diplomatists had +worn the uniform used by the non-military diplomatists of other +countries. This consists of a blue coat with more or less gold upon +it, white breeches, silk stockings, sword and chapeau. + +An attempt or two had been made before by the State Department to +interfere with the trappings of its servants abroad. Marcy issued +a circular requesting American diplomatists to go to court without +uniform. This afforded James Buchanan an opportunity of making one of +the best speeches attributed to him. The circular of Mr. Marcy threw +consternation into the breasts of certain ancient functionaries of +the European courts, for shortly after its appearance the lord high +fiddlestick in waiting called upon Mr. Buchanan, who was then the +United States minister in London, and said that a certain very +distinguished person had heard of the recent wish which the American +government had expressed with regard to the costume of its agents, +and that while she would be happy to see Mr. Buchanan in any dress in +which he might choose to present himself, she yet hoped he would so +far consult her wishes as to consent to carry a sword. "Tell that very +distinguished personage," said Mr. Buchanan, "that not only will I +wear a sword, as she requests, but, should occasion require it, will +hold myself ready to draw it in her defence." This strikes me as in +just that tone of respectful exaggeration and playful acquiescence +which a gentleman in this country may very becomingly take toward +the whole question. Neither Mr. Buchanan nor any one else, I believe, +heeded the request of the Department, and Mr. Marcy himself, it is +said, subsequently repudiated it. + +But what was only a request of the State Department in Mr. Marcy's +time is now a law. I had good opportunities to observe how very +uncomfortable our poor diplomatists were made by this piece +of legislation. Its object was, of course, to give them a very +unpretending and subdued appearance. The result is, that with the +exception of Bengalese nabobs, the son of the mikado of Japan, and the +khan of Khiva, the American legations are the most noticeable people +at any court ceremony or festivity in Europe. When everybody else +is flaming in purple and gold the ordinary diplomatic uniform is +exceedingly simple and modest; but the Yankee diplomats are the most +scrutinized and conspicuous persons to be seen. One of the secretaries +said to me: "I am afraid to wander off by myself among these ladies: +they inspect me as the maids of honor in the palace of Brobdingnag did +Gulliver. I feel toward Columbia as a cruel mother who won't dress +me like these other little boys." It would require more than ordinary +courage to attempt to dance in this rig. I should think that our +representatives would huddle together in the most unconspicuous +portion of a room, and never leave it. Said the secretary above +quoted: "I always feel here that I am of some use to my chief: I +am one more pair of legs with which to divide the gaze of British +society." + +The dress in which our diplomats attend court at present is a plain +dress-coat and vest, with knee-breeches, black silk stockings, +slippers, etc. It is difficult to see in what sense this is the +"ordinary dress of an American citizen." The dress is not so ugly as +it would seem to be; indeed, with the help of a white vest and +liberal watch-chain, it might be made quite becoming were it not so +excessively conspicuous. An English cabinet minister at a party given +in his own house usually wears it, and all persons invited to the +Empress Eugenie's private parties came got up in that manner. But +in London it was not till recently that American diplomatists were +allowed to go to court even thus attired. Everywhere else in Europe +the legations were admitted in evening dress, the concession of +knee-breeches not having been required. But at Buckingham Palace there +are two or three very old men who were courtiers when Queen Victoria +was a baby, and who still control the court etiquette. These aged +functionaries, who can very well remember Waterloo, and whose fathers +remembered the American Revolution, put down their foot, and would +admit no Americans without the proper garments. The consequence was, +that our legation was compelled to stay at home. This state of things +continued until Reverdy Johnson came out, who arranged what was called +"the Breeches Protocol." Owing to the unreasonable state of the public +mind during his term of office, this was the only measure which that +good and able man succeeded in accomplishing. The compromise which Mr. +Johnson's good-humor and the friendly impulse of the British public +toward us at that time wrung from these ancient chamberlains and +gold-sticks (for you may say what you will, public opinion is +irresistible), was to allow the minister and the two secretaries of +legation to appear in the breeches above described. Americans who are +presented at court, and who get invitations to the festivities, are +all required to wear a court dress. Of what good compelling the poor +diplomatists to make scarecrows of themselves may be I do not know. +Mr. Sumner's proposition was just one of those absurdities to which +men are liable who have considerable conscience and no sense of humor. +Senators and Congressmen fell in with it because they feared to be +un-American, and because it is not their wont to be very dignified or +(in matters of this sort) very scrupulous. + +[Footnote 1: The rule, more correctly stated, is, that "sir" is never +used except to indicate a difference of age or position so great as to +forbid familiarity or to be incompatible with social equality. It +may be employed by the elder in addressing the younger, and by the +superior in addressing the inferior, as well as _vice versa_. Hence +the saying, in English society, that only princes and servants are +spoken to as "sir."] + + + + +RAMBLES AMONG THE FRUITS AND FLOWERS OF THE TROPICS. + + +CONCLUDING PAPER. + + +An Arab vessel from Bombay, touching at Singapore on her way to +Bangkok, afforded us an opportunity we had been longing for to visit +the most splendid of Oriental cities. + +Dining at the house of the Malayan rajah, we chanced to meet the +_narcodah_ (supercargo), who was also the owner, of the Futtel Barrie. +He was a handsome, courtly, and intelligent Arab, glad always to +mingle with Europeans; and in response to our inquiry whether he +had room for passengers, he proffered us a free ticket to and from +Bangkok, with the use of his own cabin. We must be on board the next +day at noon, he said, and it was already verging toward sunset; so +we had small time for preparation. But with the migratory habits of +Oriental tourists it was easy to throw together a few indispensables; +and we were set down on the Barrie's quarterdeck, portmanteaus, +sketch-books, specimen-baskets and all, before the anchor was weighed. + +The monsoon was favorable, and seven days' sail brought us to the +river's mouth, and a pull thence of thirty miles in the narcodah's +boat to the "city of kings." + +Siam is verily the queen of the tropics in regard to the abundance, +variety and unequaled lusciousness of her fruits. Here are found those +of China, greatly enriched in tint and flavor by being transplanted to +this warmer climate; and those of Western Asia, in this fruitful soil +far more productive than in the sterile regions of Persia and Arabia; +while numberless varieties from the Malayan and Indian archipelagoes, +united with the host of those indigenous to the country, complete a +list of some two hundred or more species of edible fruits. In this +clime of perennial freshness trees bear nearly the year round, and so +productive is the soil that the annual produce is almost incredible. +The tax on orchards alone yields to the Crown a revenue of some five +millions of dollars per annum, as I was informed by the late "second +king" of Siam. It is not unusual to find on a single branch the bud +and blossom, together with fruit in several different stages. Thus, at +the merest trifle of expense a table may be supplied during the entire +year with forty or fifty specimens of fresh, ripe fruit. Among these +are many varieties of oranges and pineapples, pumeloes, shaddocks, +pawpaws, guavas, bananas, plantains, durians, jack-fruit, melons, +grapes, mangoes, cocoa-nuts, pomegranates, soursaps, linchies, +custard-apples, breadfruit, cassew-nuts, plums, tamarinds, +mangosteens, rambustans, and scores of others for which we have no +names in our language. Tropical fruits are generally juicy, sweet with +a slight admixture of acid, luscious, and peculiarly agreeable in a +warm climate; and when partaken of with temperance and due regard +to quality they are highly promotive of health. For this reason +Booddhists regard the destruction of a fruit tree as quite an act of +sacrilege, and their sacred books pronounce a heavy malediction on +those who wantonly commit so great a crime. One who has tasted the +fruits of the tropics only at a distance from the soil that produces +them can form no conception of the real flavor of plums and grapes +that never felt the frosty atmosphere of our northern clime; of +oranges plucked ripe from the fragrant stem and eaten fresh while the +morning dew still glitters on their golden-tinted cheeks; of the rare, +rosy pomegranate juice, luscious as nectar. + +After eating the fruits of all climes, I place the mangosteen at the +head of the list as absolutely perfect in flavor and fragrance. The +fruit is spherical in form, about the size of a small orange, of +a rich crimson-purple hue without, and filled with a succulent, +half-transparent pulp that melts in the mouth. There are three species +of the mangosteen tree, but of only one, the _Garania mangostina_, is +the fruit edible. The others are valuable for timber, and the bark +for the manufacture of a dye that resists the attacks of every sort of +insect. + +Next to the mangosteen I should name the custard-apple (_Anona +squamosa_), a rich and delicate fruit of the form and dimensions of a +medium-sized quince, but made up of lesser cones, each with its apex +directed toward the centre, and each containing a smooth black seed. +The pulp is pure white, about the consistency of a baked custard, and +in flavor very like strawberries and cream. + +The delicious soursap is very similar to the custard-apple, but of +larger size and slightly acid in taste. The bearded, rosy rambustan +(_Nephelium lappaceum_) looks like a mammoth strawberry, but when +the outer hairy covering has been removed a semi-transparent pulp is +revealed, in taste so similar to our best Malaga grapes that a blind +man would be unable to distinguish them. + +Pineapples are good and abundant all over South-eastern Asia, but are +in their perfection at Singapore and Malacca, weighing frequently +four pounds or more. Passing, one warm afternoon, along the Singapore +bazaar, I noticed a Chinese fruit-dealer who had among other +delicacies outspread before him the largest and finest pineapples I +had ever seen. As I inquired the price, the Celestial, after a long +harangue on the extraordinary excellence of his wares, and the trouble +he had taken to obtain them, expressed a hope that he should not +be considered extortionate in selling them so very high, the price +demanded for a whole four-pound pineapple, peeled, sliced, and +ready for eating, being the equivalent of half a cent! The ordinary, +medium-sized fruit could be purchased, he knew, at one-fifth of that +sum, and his conscience, no doubt, was chiding him for extortion. + +One of the most singular-looking fruits is the jack-fruit (_Artocarpus +integrifolia_), growing in all its immensity of thirty or forty pounds +weight directly out of the largest branches or on the stem of the huge +tree. Externally, it has a rough, pale-green coat: internally, it has +a luscious, golden-hued pulp, in which are embedded a dozen or more +smooth, oval seeds about the size of large chestnuts, which they +strikingly resemble in flavor. + +The mango (_Mangifera Indica_) is a drupe of the plum kind, four or +five inches long, and three at least in diameter. Greenish-colored +outside, and not very inviting, you are most agreeably surprised at +the rare, rich flavor of the bright yellow pulp that adheres like the +clinging peach to a large flat seed. + +The gamboge tree (_Stalagmitis Cambogioides_) grows luxuriantly in +Siam, and also in Ceylon. It has small narrow, pointed leaves, a +yellow flower, and an oblong, golden-colored fruit. Even the stem has +a yellow bark, like the gamboge it produces. The drug is obtained +by wounding the bark of the tree, and also from the leaves and young +shoots. The natives say that they have sold it to white foreigners +for hundreds of years past; and we know it was introduced into Europe +early in the seventeenth century. + +The plantain (_Musa paradisaica_) is one of the best gifts of +Providence to the teeming multitudes of tropical lands, living, as +many of them do, without stated homes, and gathering food and drink +as they find them on the roadside and in the jungle. Under a friendly +palm the simple peasants find needed shelter from the sun by day and +the dews by night, while a bunch of plantains or bananas plucked fresh +from the tree will furnish an abundant meal, and the water of a green +cocoa-nut all the drink they desire. The plantain tree grows to about +twenty feet in height, its round, soft stem being composed of the +elongated foot-stalks of the leaves, and its cone of a nodding +flower-spike or cluster of purple blossoms that are very graceful and +beautiful. Like the palms, this tree has no branches, but its smooth, +glossy leaves are from six to eight feet in length and two or more in +breadth. At the root of a leaf a double row of fruit comes out half +around the stalk; the stem then elongates a few inches, and another +leaf is deflected, revealing another double row; and so on, till there +come to be some thirty rows containing about two hundred plantains, +weighing in all sixty or seventy pounds. This mammoth bunch is the +sole product of the tree for the time: after the fruit is plucked the +stalk is cut down, and another shoots up from the same root; and it +is thus constantly renewed for many successive years. The incalculable +blessing of such a tree in regions where the intolerable heat renders +all labor oppressive may be conceived from the estimate of Humboldt, +who reckons the surface of ground needed to the production of four +thousand pounds of ripe plantains to suffice for the raising of only +thirty-three pounds of wheat or ninety-nine pounds of potatoes. What +would induce the indolent East Indian to make the exchange of crops? + +The cassew-nut (_Anacardium occidentale_) is remarkable as the only +known fruit of which the seed grows on the outside. A full-grown tree +is twenty feet high, with graceful form and widespread branches. The +leaves are oval, and the beautiful crimson flowers grow in clusters. +The fruit is pear-shaped, of a purplish color outside and bright +yellow within; and the seed, which is in the form of a crescent, looks +just as if it had been stuck on the bur end, instead of growing there. +When roasted the kernels are not unlike a very fine chestnut. + +The guava (_Psidium pomiferum_), of which the noted Indian jelly +is made, is about the size and shape of our sugar pears--pale, +yellowish-green externally, and revealing, when opened, a soft, +rose-colored pulp studded with tiny seeds. Both taste and odor are +very peculiar, and are seldom liked by foreigners till after long use. + +The tamarind tree (_Tamarindus Indicus_), a huge growth, with trunk a +hundred feet tall and fifteen or more in circumference, has branches +extending widely, and a dense foliage of bright green composite +leaves, very nearly resembling those of the sensitive plant. The +flowers, growing in clusters, are exquisite, of a rich golden tint +veined with red; while the fruit hangs pendent, like bean-pods strung +all over the branches of the mammoth tree. The diminutive leaves, +blossoms and fruit are so singularly opposed to the stately growth +as to appear almost ludicrous, yet the _tout ensemble_ is "a thing of +beauty" never to be forgotten. + +It remained for us, on our return to Singapore, to see the spice +plantations, with the beautiful clove and nutmeg trees, about which +every new-comer goes into ecstasies. Mr. Princeps' estate, one of +the largest and finest on the island, occupies two hundred and fifty +acres, including three picturesque hills--Mount Sophia, Mount Emily +and Mount Caroline, each surmounted by a pretty bungalow--and from +these avenues radiate, intersecting every portion of the plantation. +Here were planted some five thousand nutmeg trees, and perhaps a +thousand of the clove, besides coffee trees, palms, etc. The nutmeg +is an evergreen of great beauty, conical in shape, and from twenty +to twenty-five feet in height, the branches thickly decorated with +polished, deep-green foliage rising from the ground to the summit. +Almost hidden among these emerald leaves grows the pear-shaped +fruit. As it ripens the yellow external tegument opens, revealing the +dark-red mace, that is closely enwrapped about a thin black shell. +This, in turn, encloses a fragrant kernel, the nutmeg of commerce. +Both leaf and blossom are marked by the same aromatic perfume that +distinguishes the fruit. + +The clove tree, though somewhat smaller than the nutmeg, is quite +similar in appearance, and, if possible, even more graceful and +beautiful. The leaves are shaped like a lance, the blossoms pure white +and deliciously fragrant, and they cluster thickly on every branch and +twig almost to the summit of the tree. The cloves--"spice nails," as +they are often called--are not a fruit, but undeveloped buds, the stem +being the calyx, and the head the folded petals. Their dark color, as +we see them, is due to the smoking process through which they pass +in curing. The clove is a native of the Moluccas, and has been +transplanted to many parts of the East Indies; but nowhere, not even +in its picturesque Faderland, does it thrive better than in Singapore, +Pulo Penang and other islands of the Malayan Archipelago. + +One singular-looking fruit that I saw in China I must not forget to +mention--the flat peach, called by the Chinese _ping taou_, or "peach +cake." It has the appearance of having been flattened by pressure at +the head and stalk, being something less than three-fourths of an +inch through the centre from eye to stem, and consisting wholly of the +stone and skin; while the sides, which swell around the centre, are +only an eighth of an inch in thickness. Its transverse diameter is +about two and a half inches. + +The camphor tree (_Laurus camphora_) grows abundantly in China and +Japan, producing a very large proportion of the gum that supplies +the markets of Europe and our own country, as well as the trunks and +chests so universally esteemed as protectives against the ravages of +moths and the still more destructive white ant of the tropics. This +tree grows to the height of twenty feet, with a circumference of about +eighteen, and has luxuriant branches from seven to nine feet in girth. +In obtaining the gum, freshly-gathered branches are cut in small +pieces, and steeped in water for several days, after which they are +boiled, the liquid being constantly stirred until the gum, in the form +of a white jelly, begins to appear, when the whole is poured into +a glazed vessel, and becomes concreted in cooling. It is afterward +purified by means of sublimation, the gum attaching itself to a +conical cover placed over the boiling liquid while at its greatest +heat. There is another species of camphor tree (_Dryobalanops +camphora_) growing in Borneo; and a single tree is found on the island +of Sumatra, a very giant in dimensions, even amid the huge growth +of those dense forests. The gum yielded by this species is found +occupying portions of about a foot or a foot and a half in the heart +of the tree. The Malays and Bugis make a deep incision in the trunk +about fifteen inches from the ground with a _b'ling_ or Malayan axe, +in order to ascertain whether the gum is there; and when it is found +the tree is felled and the impregnated portion carefully extracted. +The same tree, while young, yields a liquid oily matter that has +nearly the same properties as the camphor, and is supposed to be the +first stage of its formation. Some eight China catties (eleven pounds) +of this oil may be obtained from a medium-sized tree, which, after +having been cut off for the purpose of abstracting the oil, will, if +left standing for a few years, produce abundantly an inferior article +of camphor. + +In British India we saw whole fields of the opium poppy, stately, +beautiful plants four or five feet high, the stem of a sea-green +color, round, erect and smooth, and the gay blooms of ripe crimson +hue. The plant is an annual, the seed being sown in autumn and the +crop gathered in August. After the flowers have fallen circular +incisions are made close around the capsules of the plant, and from +these wounds exudes a white, milky juice, that is afterward concreted +by the heat of the sun into dark-brown masses. These constitute the +opium of commerce in its crude state; but to prepare it for smoking +the Chinese take it through quite a complicated process, boiling, +purifying and condensing till it assumes the appearance of a thick +gelatinous paste of a purplish-black color. + +The habit of opium-smoking is unquestionably the direst curse under +which vast, populous China groans. One who has never visited an opium +shop can have no conception of the fatal fascination that holds its +victims fast bound--mind, heart, soul and conscience, all absolutely +dead to every impulse but the insatiable, ever-increasing thirst for +the damning poison. I entered one of these dens but once, but I +can never forget the terrible sights and sounds of that "place of +torment." The apartment was spacious, and might have been pleasant +but for its foul odors and still fouler scenes of unutterable woe--the +footprints of sin trodden deep in the furrows of those haggard faces +and emaciated forms. On all four sides of the room were couches +placed thickly against the walls, and others were scattered over +the apartment wherever there was room for them. On each of these lay +extended the wreck of what was once a man. Some few were old--all were +hollow-eyed, with sunken cheeks and cadaverous countenances; many were +clothed in rags, having probably smoked away their last dollar; +while others were offering to pawn their only decent garment for an +additional dose of the deadly drug. A decrepit old man raised +himself as we entered, drew a long sigh, and then with a half-uttered +imprecation on his own folly proceeded to refill his pipe. This he did +by scraping off, with a five-inch steel needle, some opium from the +lid of a tiny shell box, rolling the paste into a pill, and then, +after heating it in the blaze of a lamp, depositing it within the +small aperture of his pipe. Several short whiffs followed; then the +smoker would remove the pipe from his mouth and lie back motionless; +then replace the pipe, and with fast-glazing eyes blow the smoke +slowly through his pallid nostrils. As the narcotic effects of the +opium began to work he fell back on the couch in a state of silly +stupefaction that was alike pitiable and disgusting. Another smoker, +a mere youth, lay with face buried in his hands, and as he lifted his +head there was a look of despair such as I have seldom seen. Though so +young, he was a complete wreck, with hollow eyes, sunken chest and a +nervous twitching in every muscle. I spoke to him, and learned that +six months before he had lost his whole patrimony by gambling, and +came hither to quaff forgetfulness from these Lethean cups; hoping, he +said, to find death as well as oblivion. By far the larger proportion +of the smokers were so entirely under the influence of the stupefying +poison as to preclude any attempt at conversation, and we passed +out from this moral pest-house sick at heart as we thought of these +infatuated victims of self-indulgence and their starving families at +home. This baneful habit, once formed, is seldom given up, and +from three to five years' indulgence will utterly wreck the firmest +constitution, the frame becoming daily more emaciated, the eyes more +sunken and the countenance more cadaverous, till the brain ceases to +perform its functions, and death places its seal on the wasted life. + +On "Araby's plains" I saw for the first time the beautiful wild palm, +the "lighthouse of the desert," always an object of intense desire to +the weary traveler as he traverses those sterile regions, for as it +looms up in the distance, sometimes in groups, but more generally +standing in solitary grandeur near a tiny bubbling spring, its waving +plumes tell him not only of shelter and needed rest, but of water also +to bathe his tired limbs and quench the burning thirst that oppresses +him almost to death. Should the friendly tree prove a date-palm, he +will find food also--a dainty repast of ripe, golden fruit, wholesome +and nourishing--ready prepared to his hand. But, after all, to a +traveler over those sterile regions water is the grand desideratum, +and this he is sure to find in the vicinity of the wild palm. The +Bedouins, who consider it beneath their dignity to sow or reap, gather +the date where they can find it growing wild; but the Arabs of the +plains cultivate the tree with great care and skill, thus improving +the size and flavor of the fruit, and producing some twenty or more +varieties. In some they have succeeded in doing away with the +seed altogether; and the seedless dates, being very large and +delicately-flavored, bring always the highest price in the market. +Date-honey is made by expressing the juice of the fresh fruit, and +the luxury of fresh dates may be enjoyed through the entire year +by keeping them in tight vessels, covered over with this honey. +Date-flour, made by exposing the ripe fruit to the heat of the sun +until sufficiently dry to be ground into fine powder, furnishes the +ordinary sustenance of the Arabs in their frequent journeys across the +deserts. This is food in its most condensed form, easily carried and +needing no cooking. It is simply moistened with a little water, and so +eaten. But the value of the date tree is by no means confined to the +fruit. An agreeable beverage, known as palm wine, is drawn from the +trunk by tapping; the trunks of the old trees make excellent timber; +the leaves are used for hats and baskets; and the fibrous part, when +stripped out, makes twine and ropes. Even the stones are of use--the +fresh ones for planting, and the dried are turned to account--in Egypt +for cattle-feed, in China for the manufacture of Indian ink, and in +Spain for making the tooth-powder known as "ivory black." The date is +indigenous to both Asia and Africa: it was introduced into Spain by +the Moors, and some few trees are still found even in the south +of France. But the most extensive forests are those of the Barbary +states, where they are sometimes miles in length. When growing thus in +groves the palms are very beautiful, their towering crests waving in +unison as they seem to form an immense natural temple, about which +vines and creepers wreath their graceful tendrils, while birds of +varied plumage sing their matin and vesper songs, plucking meanwhile +the golden fruit that grows in clusters at the very summit of the +tree. The Arabs' mode of gathering this fruit is odd enough. The +trunk, sixty feet high, has not, it must be remembered, a single +branch to hold on by or furnish a foothold; and, besides, the whole +stem is rough with thick scales or horny protuberances, not very +pleasant to the touch of fingers or palms. So a strong rope is passed +across the climber's back and under his armpits, and then, after being +passed around the tree, the two ends are knotted firmly together. The +rope is next placed over one of the notches left by the footstalk of +an old leaf, while the man slips the portion that is under his armpits +toward the middle of his back, so as to allow the lower part of the +shoulder-blades to rest upon it. Then with hands and knees he firmly +grasps the trunk, and raises himself a few inches higher; when, still +holding fast by knees and feet and one hand, he with the other slips +the rope a little higher up the tree, letting it rest on another of +these horny protuberances, and so on till the summit is gained. When +the fruit is reached it is easily plucked with one hand, while the +gatherer maintains his position with the other, and the clusters are +thrown down into a large cloth held at the corners by four persons. + +The far-famed banian or Indian fig (_Ficus Indica_) is perhaps the +grandest of tropical trees--the most beautiful of Nature's products, +even in that fertile soil kissed ever by the sun's rays, where she +sports with such profusion and variety, clothing the earth in gorgeous +flowers, variegated mosses and feathery ferns, till it seems to +groan beneath the manifold treasures of beauty and fragrance lavished +thereon. This noble tree grows wild in many Eastern countries and +islands, and sometimes attains to a size and an extent that are +marvelous to contemplate. Shoots are everywhere thrown out toward the +ground from the horizontal branches, increasing in size as they tend +downward, till at last they strike into the ground and become stems. +From these shoot new branches, which in their turn extend and form +roots and new stems, till at length a solitary tree becomes the parent +of an extensive grove, appropriately characterized by the bard as +"a pillared shade high overarched." And as they are thus continually +increasing, seeming meanwhile almost exempt from the general law of +decay, a tiny sapling borne to the spot in an infant's hand may come +in time to cover thousands of feet of soil. Such a specimen is the +noted Cubber Burr, growing on a picturesque little island in the river +Nerbudda, near Baroach, in the province of Guzerat. This wonderful +tree, named after a venerated Hindoo saint, occupies a space that +exceeds two thousand feet in circumference. The principal stems number +three or four hundred, and the smaller ones more than three thousand, +though some have been destroyed by high floods, that have carried away +not only portions of the giant tree, but of the banks of the island +itself. The beauty and magnitude of the Cubber Burr are famous all +over the East. Indian armies have encamped beneath its sheltering +branches, and Hindoo festivals, to which thousands of votaries +repair, are often held under its leafy shadow. I was told that +_seven thousand_ people could find ample shelter under its widespread +branches; and we often knew of English gentlemen forming hunting or +shooting excursions to the island, and encamping for weeks together +beneath this delightful pavilion. Their only hosts were frolicsome +monkeys and whole colonies of doves, peacocks, wood-pigeons and +singing birds, that find a permanent abode among the thick foliage, +and plentiful sustenance from the small, scarlet-colored figs that +hang pendent from every branch. The banian tree may be regarded as a +natural temple in Oriental regions, and the Hindoos especially look +upon it with profound veneration. Tiny, fancifully-adorned temples +and pagodas are erected beneath its shadowy boughs, where are pleasant +walks and long vistas of umbrageous canopy, effectually shielded from +the fierce rays of the tropical sun. Many Brahmins spend their entire +lives within these quiet retreats, and all ranks and classes seek +them for rest and recreation. The banian is styled also "the tree +of councils," from the prevalent custom of assembling legislators, +magistrates and savants under its protecting canopy to deliberate on +civil affairs; while all around, ensconced in every niche, are the +tutelary gods and goddesses that make up the Hindoo mythology. It +is indeed a quaint, weird spot, full of the witchery of romance and +legendary lore; and though years have passed since I last sat under +the Cubber Burr's sheltering boughs with a merry party of picnicking +maidens, now grown to womanhood, imagination still loves to roam among +its shadows, and build fairy castles within the mazy windings of the +hoary banian of Nerbudda's isle. + +FANNIE R. FEUDGE. + + + + +A LOTOS OF THE NILE. + + +It was nine o'clock on a night of clear July starlight. The heat +of the day had been intense, and all the guests of The Willows were +assembled on the lawn, intent upon the effort of keeping cool, if such +a thing were at all possible. A hopeless effort it seemed, however, +for the heavy foliage of the trees hung quite motionless, and the +fans which were plied unceasingly made the only possible approach to +a breeze. Everything was so still that the voice of the river was +distinctly audible as it fretted and surged along its rocky bed, +distant at least a mile. The scene was full of the dim, mysterious +look which makes summer starlight so fascinating. White dresses, +shadowy faces, suggestive outlines of form and head, now and then the +glimmer of an ornament: after one had looked long enough it was even +possible to tell who was who, but at first the voices were the only +clue to recognition. Behind the group rose the house, with light +streaming from its lace-draped windows, the pictures and globe-like +lamps of the deserted drawing-room making a charming effect. + +Everybody had been silent for some time--that is, for half a +minute, which seems a long time under such circumstances--when Mrs. +Lancaster's voice broke the stillness. "Oh for a whiff of mountain-air +or a sea-breeze!" she said. "I came to spend two weeks with you, dear +Mrs. Brantley, and I have spent a month--who ever _did_ leave The +Willows when they meant to do so?--but I really must be thinking of +taking flight. Suppose we get up a party for the White Sulphur?--it +is always so tiresome to go away by one's self. Who will join it? +Eleanor, will you?" + +"I am not going to the White Sulphur this year," answered Eleanor +Milbourne. + +"Not going to the White Sulphur!" repeated Mrs. Lancaster in a tone of +surprise. Then she laughed. "How stupid I am!" she said. "Of course +I might have known that the temptation to break the pledge of total +abstinence from flirtation would be too great in that paradise of +flirtation. Besides, Mr. Brent's yacht is homeward bound, is it not?" + +"I am not aware that there is any connection between Mr. Brent's yacht +and my decision about the White Sulphur," answered Miss Milbourne +haughtily. Then she turned to the person next her, a recumbent figure +lying at full length on the grass. "I don't know anything of which +one grows so weary as of watering-place life when one has seen much of +it," she said. "Its pettiness, its routine, its vapidity, its gossip, +all oppress one like a hideous nightmare. I don't think I shall ever +go to a watering-place again." + +"Take care!" said the recumbent. "Don't make an abstinence pledge of +that kind: you will only be tempted to break it, for what will you do +with yourself in summer?" + +"I should like to travel. I am possessed with an intense desire to see +the world and the wonders thereof." + +"With a yacht such a desire would be easily gratified." + +"But I have no yacht," said she with a sharp chord in her voice. It +was an expressive voice at all times, and doubly expressive in this +dim, mysterious starlight. + +"Mr. Brent has, however, and I am sure he will be happy to place it at +your service." + +"You are very kind to answer for Mr. Brent." + +"I answer for him because I judge him by myself. If I had a fleet it +should be subject to your command." + +"You are very generous," said she; and now there was a little ripple +as of pleasure in her tone. + +Meanwhile, Mrs. Lancaster was calling over the roll of the company +like an orderly sergeant, intent upon beating up recruits for the +White Sulphur. "Major Clare!" she said at last: "where is Major +Clare?" Then, when the gentleman who had just offered Miss Milbourne +his airy fleet responded lazily, "Here!" she added, "_You_ will go, +will you not?" + +"I regret to say that it is impossible," he answered. "I have danced +my last _galop_ at the White Sulphur. This time next month I shall +probably be _en route_ for Egypt." + +"For Egypt!" she repeated; and a chorus of voices instantly echoed the +exclamation. "For Egypt! Nonsense! You are jesting." + +"No, I am not jesting," said Victor Clare, lifting himself on one +elbow: "I am in earnest. I received a letter from ----" (naming a +distinguished officer) "to-day, offering me a position if I would join +him in Cairo. I say nothing about what the position is, because my +mind is not yet made up to accept it; and even if it were, such things +should not be published on the house-tops. But if anybody here has a +fancy for joining the army of the khedive, I may be able to give him a +few important particulars." + +Nobody responded. The gentlemen seemed to prefer enlisting under Mrs. +Lancaster's banner for the White Sulphur. The ladies shrugged their +shoulders and said the idea was dreadful, Victor Clare sank back in +the grass and addressed himself to Miss Milbourne. + +"There is nothing else for me to do," he said in an argumentative +tone. "I only waste money on the impoverished acres of that old place +of mine. The house itself is falling down over my head. What remains, +then, but to go forth and tempt Fortune to do her best--or worst? At +least the profession of arms has been in all ages the calling of a +gentleman." + +For a minute Eleanor Milbourne did not speak. She sat in the starlight +a graceful, shadowy figure, furling and unfurling her fan with a +slightly nervous motion. Perhaps she was uncertain what to answer. +But at last she spoke in a very low tone: "Yet you said you had not +decided." + +"No, I have not decided. In truth, I have been rooted in idleness and +indifference so long that I scarcely feel as if I cared enough about +myself to take advantage of the offer. Then I cannot bring myself to +think of selling Claremont, though I know that a penniless man has no +right to the luxury of sentimental attachments. If I were in Egypt +it would not matter to me that some upstart speculator owned the old +place." + +"I think it would," said Miss Milbourne. + +"No, it would _not_" was the obstinate reply. "I should take care +to find a lotos as soon as I reached the Nile. Whoever eats of that +forgets his past life, you know. I have scant reason for wishing to +remember mine," he added a little bitterly. + +"Memory is certainly more often a sting than a pleasure," said Miss +Milbourne. "It is strange," she added, "that we should both have +thought of obtaining forgetfulness through the same means. When Mr. +Brent asked me what he should bring me from Egypt, I said a lotos of +the Nile. If he fulfills his promise I will share it with you." + +"I am not sure that I care to be indebted even for forgetfulness to +Mr. Brent," said Victor Clare ungratefully. + +He was sorry the moment after for having spoken so curtly, and would +have made amends by promising to accept a dozen lotoses if she desired +to bestow so many upon him; but Miss Milbourne had already turned to +her neighbor on the other side and plunged into conversation. "Is it +not strange that Egypt should be waking from her sleep of centuries?" +she said; and--while the gentleman whom she addressed took up the +theme readily--Mrs. Lancaster rose and sauntered round the group to +where Victor Clare was lying. + +"Come, Monsieur Indolence, and take a walk," she said. "I think the +policeman's motto is right--'Keep moving.' When one stops to think +about anything, even about the heat, it makes it worse." + +Now, however comfortable a man may be, if he is bidden to rise by a +pretty woman who stands imperiously over him, the chances are that he +obeys. So it was with Clare. He most assuredly did not want to go +with Mrs. Lancaster, and quite as assuredly he _did_ want to stay just +where he was, with the hem of Eleanor Milbourne's dress touching him +and a pervading sense of her presence near, even when she encouraged +stupid people to expose their ignorance on the Egyptian question. +Yet he found himself walking away with the pretty widow before five +minutes had passed. + +"I know you are not obliged to me," she said when they had gone some +distance. "But your divinity is talking commonplaces, or listening to +them, which amounts to the same thing; so I fancied you might spare me +ten minutes. I want to know if that was a mere assertion for effect a +minute ago, or if you are in earnest in thinking of going to Egypt?" + +"I never talk for effect," said Victor with a hauteur that was spoilt +by a slight touch of petulance. "I always mean what I say, and I +certainly am in earnest in thinking of going to Egypt." + +"May I ask why?" + +"I am surprised that you should need to ask. One's friends usually +know one's affairs at least as well as one's self--sometimes much +better. Everybody who knows me knows that I am a poor man." + +"Not so poor that you need go to Egypt in search of a fortune, +however," said she, stopping short and looking at him keenly. +"Confess," she added, "that you are about to expatriate yourself in +this absurd fashion because Eleanor Milbourne means to marry Marston +Brent." + +"Your acuteness has carried you too far," said he laughing, but not +quite naturally. "Miss Milbourne's matrimonial choice is nothing to +me. I have thought of this step for some time. General ----'s letter +is a reply to my application forwarded months ago. Yet now that the +answer has come," he went on, "I scarcely care to grasp the advantage +it offers. Indifference has infected me like a poison. I feel more +inclined to rust out on the old place than to sound 'Boots and saddle' +again." + +"But why rust out?" she asked impetuously. "Are there not careers +enough open to you?" Then, after a minute, "Are there not other women +in the world besides Eleanor Milbourne?" + +"Perhaps so," a little doggedly. "There are other stars in the heavens +besides Venus, but who sees them when she is above the horizon?" + +"How kind and complimentary you are!" said Mrs. Lancaster with a +slight tone of bitterness in her voice. + +"Forgive me," said he after a minute. "I am a fool on this subject, +and, like a fool, I always say more than I mean. No doubt there are +other women in the world even more beautiful and more charming than +Eleanor Milbourne, but they are nothing to me." + +"In other words, you are determined to believe that the grapes above +your reach, instead of being sour, are the sweetest in existence." + +"At least I harm only myself by such an hallucination, if it is an +hallucination." + +"But you may harm yourself more than you imagine," said she with a +nervous cadence, in her voice. "For the sake of a hopeless passion for +a woman who has no more heart than my fan you will sacrifice more than +you are aware of--more, perhaps, than you can ever regain." + +She laid her hand--a pretty, white hand, gleaming with jewels--on his +arm at the last words, and it was fortunate, perhaps, that she could +not tell with what an effort he restrained himself from shaking it +impatiently off. A quick feeling of repulsion came over him like an +electric shock. Hitherto he had been somewhat flattered, somewhat +amused, and only occasionally a little bored, by the favor which the +beautiful and wealthy young widow had so openly accorded him; but now +in a second he felt that thrill of disgust which always comes to a +sensitive man when he sees a woman step beyond the pale of delicate +womanhood. If he had been one shade less of a gentleman, he would have +said something which Mrs. Lancaster could never have forgotten. As it +was, he had sufficient command of himself to speak carelessly. "I was +never quick at reading riddles," he said. "I am unable to imagine what +sacrifice I should make by indulging the 'hopeless passion' for Miss +Milbourne with which you are kind enough to credit me." + +"With which I credit you?" she repeated eagerly. "Am I wrong, then? If +you can tell me _that_, Victor--" + +But he interrupted her quickly: "You ought to know, Mrs. Lancaster, +that this is a thing which a sensible man only tells to one woman; +but, since you seem to take an interest in the subject, there is +nothing which I need hesitate to acknowledge in the fact that, however +hopeless my passion for Eleanor Milbourne may be, it is the very +essence of my life, and can only end with my life." + +"We all think that when we are young and foolish, and very much in +love," said Mrs. Lancaster coolly--whatever stab his words gave the +kindly darkness hid--"but I think you are more than usually mad. If +she is not already engaged to Marston Brent, she will be as soon as he +returns. I know that her family confidently expect the match, and in +any case" (emphatically) "Eleanor Milbourne is the last woman in the +world whom a penniless man need hope to win." + +"I know that as well as you do," said Clare. "I have no hope of +winning her, and I am going to Egypt next month." + +He uttered the last words as if he meant them to end the subject, but +it is doubtful whether they would have done so if they had not at +that moment found themselves close upon the house, having paid little +attention to the path which they were following. As they emerged from +the shrubbery they were both a little surprised to see a carriage +standing in the full glow of the light from the open hall door. + +"Who can have arrived?" said Mrs. Lancaster, not sorry, perhaps, for a +diversion. "I did not know that Mrs. Brantley was expecting any one." + +"Who has come, Ellis?" Victor said carelessly to a young man who +emerged from the house as they approached. + +"Marston Brent," was the answer. "It seems the Clytie made a very +quick trip, and came into port yesterday; so of course her owner has +come at once to report his safe arrival at head-quarters." + +Mrs. Lancaster, whose hand was still on Clare's arm, felt the quick +start which he gave at this information, but she was a discreet woman, +and she said nothing until they were standing on the verandah steps +and he had bidden her good-night, saying that he must ride back to +Claremont. + +"I understand why you will not remain," she said; "but do not make any +rash resolution about Egypt--above all, do not _commit_ yourself to +anything." Then she bent forward and touched his hand lightly. "Tell +me when you come again that you will join my party for the White +Sulphur," she said softly. "It will be the wisest thing you can do." + +The result of this disinterested advice was, that as soon as he +reached home, after a lonely, starlit ride of six miles, Clare sat +down and wrote to General ----, accepting the position he had offered, +and promising to report in Cairo as soon as possible. + +After this it was several days before the future Egyptian soldier was +seen again at The Willows. What went on in that gay abode during this +interval he neither knew nor sought to know. He endeavored to banish +all memory of the place and the people whom it contained from his +mind. They were nothing to him, he told himself. It was impossible to +say whether he shrank most from the pain of meeting Eleanor Milbourne +with her accepted lover by her side, or from the thrill of disgust +with which the mere thought of Mrs. Lancaster inspired him. He buried +himself in listless idleness at Claremont for some time: then ordered +his horse one day, rode to a neighboring town and made arrangements +for the sale of his property with much the same feeling as if he had +ordered the execution of his mother. It was when he returned weary and +depressed from this excursion that he found a note from Mrs. Brantley +awaiting him. + +"DEAR MAJOR CLARE" (it ran), "why have you forsaken us? We have looked +for you, wished for you and talked of you for days, but you seem to +have determined that we shall learn the full meaning of the verb 'to +disappoint.' Will you not come over to dinner to-day? I think you have +played hermit quite long enough. + +"Truly yours, L.M.B." + +To say that Clare declined this invitation would be equivalent to +saying that a moth of its own accord kept at a safe distance from the +glowing flame which enticed it. As he read the note his heart gave a +leap. He began to wonder and ask himself why he had remained away so +long. Was it not the sheerest folly and absurdity? What was Eleanor +Milbourne to him that he should banish himself on her account from the +only pleasant house within a radius of twenty miles? A man should have +some self-respect, he thought. He should not let every inquisitive +fool see when and how and where a shaft has wounded him. Why should +he not go? A heartache or two additional would not matter in Egypt. +As for Mrs. Lancaster, he could certainly keep at a safe distance from +_her_, even if she had not gone to the White Sulphur, as he hoped to +heaven she had. + +This devout hope was destined to disappointment. The first person whom +he saw when he entered the well-filled drawing-room of The Willows was +the pretty widow, in radiant looks and radiant spirits, not to +mention a radiant toilette of the lightest possible and most becoming +mourning. Despite his previous resolutions, Clare found himself +gravitating to her side as soon as his respects had been paid to Mrs. +Brantley--a fact which may serve as a small proof of the weakness +of man's resolve, and his general inability to fight against fate, +especially when it is embodied in a woman's bright eyes. + +"What have you been doing with yourself?" she asked after the first +salutations were over. "Have you been taking counsel with solitude on +the Egyptian question? Or have you decided like a sensible man to go +to the White Sulphur? Whatever has been the cause of your absence, +you have at least been charitable in furnishing us with a topic of +conversation. I scarcely know what we should have done without the +'Victor Clare disappearance,' as Mr. Ellis has called it, during the +last week." + +"I am sure you ought to be obliged to me, then," Clare said, flushing +and laughing. "Assuredly I could not have furnished you with a topic +of conversation for a whole week if I had been present." + +"Opinion has been divided concerning the mystery of your fate," she +went on. "One party has maintained that, rushing away in desperation +when you heard of Mr. Brent's arrival, you started the next day for +Suez; the other, that you were hanging about the grounds, armed to the +teeth, and only waiting an opportunity to dare your rival to deadly +combat." + +"How kind one's friends are, to be sure, especially when they are +in the country, and have nothing in particular with which to amuse +themselves!" + +"But what _have_ you been doing? I should like to know, if you do not +object to telling me." + +"I have been very busy making my final arrangements for leaving the +country," answered he, stretching a point, it must be owned. + +"You are really going, then?" she asked after a minute's silence--a +minute during which she was horribly conscious that her changing +countenance might readily have betrayed to any looker-on how deeply +she felt this unexpected blow. + +"I wrote to General ---- on the night I saw you last, accepting his +offer," Clare answered. "Of course I am in duty bound, therefore, to +report in Cairo as soon as possible." + +"And you will sell Claremont?" + +"I have no alternative." + +She said nothing more, but he saw her hand--the same white jeweled +hand that had gleamed on his arm in the starlight--go to her throat +with a quick, convulsive movement. Instead of the thrill of repulsion +which he had felt before, a sudden sense of pity and regret came over +him now. He was not enough of a puppy to feel a certain keen enjoyment +and gratified vanity in the realization of this woman's folly. He +appreciated, on the contrary, how entirely she had been a spoiled +child of fortune all her life--a queen-regnant, to whom all things +must submit themselves--and he felt how bitter must be this first +sharp proof of her own impotence to secure the toy on which she had +set her heart. It was these thoughts which made his voice almost +gentle when he spoke again: "You must not think that I am ungrateful +for your kind interest in my behalf. You can imagine, perhaps, how +much I hate to part with Claremont, which has been the seat of my +family for generations; but when a thing must be done there is no use +in making a moan over it. I cannot sacrifice my life to a tradition +of the past; and that would be what I should do if I clung to the old +place, instead of cutting loose with one sharp stroke and swimming +boldly out to sea." + +"But you might stay if you would," said she with that tremulous accent +which the French call "tears in the voice." + +"No, I could _not_ stay," said Clare resolutely. "I have no money, nor +any means of making any in America." + +This ended the discussion. Even Mrs. Lancaster, fast and daring and +willful as she was, could not say, "_I_ have money--more than I know +what to do with: take it." Her eyes said as much, but Clare did not +look at her eyes. A minute longer passed in embarrassed silence. Then +somebody came up, and Victor was able to walk away. As he crossed the +room he saw Eleanor Milbourne for the first time since his arrival. +He had not even inquired if she was still at The Willows, and her +unexpected appearance, for he had begun to fear that she was gone, +filled him with a rush of feelings of which the first and most +prominent was delight. After all, did it matter whether or not she was +engaged to Marston Brent? Simply to look at her was enough to fill a +man's soul with pleasure, to steep him in that "dewlight of repose" +which only a few rare things on this earth of ours are capable of +inspiring. Did any sane person ever fly from the sight of Venus when +she held her court all alone in the lovely summer heaven, because he +could not possess her magic lustre for his own? The comparison was not +at all highflown to Clare, whatever it may seem to anybody else. He +had always entertained as much hope of winning the star as of winning +the woman; and as for an abstract question of beauty, he would have +held that Venus herself could not have surpassed Eleanor Milbourne. +She was an adorable goddess whom any man might be content to worship +from a distance, he thought; and he was preparing to go and sun +himself in the glance of her eyes, which seemed like bits of heaven in +their blueness and their fairness, when Mrs. Brantley touched his arm +and bade him take a newly-arrived piece of white muslin in to dinner. +Clare looked a little crestfallen, but against the decision of his +hostess on this important subject what civilized man was ever known +to revolt? He took the white muslin in to dinner, and had the +satisfaction of finding himself separated by the length of the table +from Miss Milbourne. + +After dinner Mrs. Brantley claimed his attention. It seemed that +there was a plan under discussion for showing the sole lion of the +neighborhood--a hill of considerable eminence known as Farley's +Mount--to the guests of The Willows. But it was distant twelve miles, +What did Major Clare think of their starting early, breaking the ride +by rest and luncheon at Claremont, then going on to the mountain, +making the ascent, and returning by moonlight? + +"It will not do at all," said Victor. "Twenty-four miles is too much +to be undertaken on a July day by a mere party of pleasure. You would +break yourselves down and see nothing. I propose an amendment: Take +two days instead of one, and spend a night on the mountain. If +you have never camped on a mountain, the novelty is well worth +experiencing, and these midsummer nights have scarcely any length, +you know. Then the sunrise is magnificent." + +"That is exactly what we will do," cried Mrs. Brantley, clapping her +hands with childish glee. And the proposal, being submitted to the +company, was unanimously carried. + +Meanwhile, Eleanor Milbourne was walking with Mr. Brent in the soft +summer twilight on the lawn. + +"You should not press me so hard," she said as they paced slowly to +and fro. "I fear I can never give you what you desire, but I cannot +tell yet. Grant me a little time." + +"A little time! But think how much time you have had!" the gentleman +urged, not without reason. "You said when I went abroad that you were +not sure enough of your heart to accept me then, but that you would +give me a final answer when I returned. You had all the months of my +absence to consider what this answer should be, and when I came for +it, spending not so much as an hour in tarrying on the road, I found +that it was not ready for me--that I had yet longer to wait. Eleanor, +is this kind? is it even just?" + +"It is neither," said Eleanor, turning to him with a strange +deprecation on her fair proud face. "I know that you have been +everything that is patient and generous, and I am sorry--oh I am more +than sorry--to have seemed to trifle with you; but what can I do? +Remember that when I decide, it is for my whole life. You cannot doubt +that I will hold fast to my promise when it is once given." + +"I do not doubt it, and therefore I desire that promise above all +things." + +"But you would not desire the letter without the spirit?" said she +eagerly. "I dare not bind myself--I _dare_ not--until I am certain of +myself." + +"But, good Heavens!" said Marston Brent, who, although usually the +most quiet and dignified of human beings, was now fairly driven to +vehemence, "when do you mean to be certain of yourself? Surely you +have had time enough. Can you not love me, Eleanor?" he asked a +little wistfully. "If that is it--if that is the doubt that holds you +back--say so, and let me go. Anything is better than suspense like +this." + +But Eleanor was plainly not ready to say that. She stood still for +a moment, then turned to him with a sudden light of resolve in her +eyes. "You are right," she said. "This must end. I may be weak and +foolish, but I have no right to make you suffer for my weakness and +my folly. I pledge myself to tell you to-morrow night whether or not I +can be your wife. You will give me till then, will you not? It is the +last delay I shall ask." + +"I wish you would understand that you could not ask anything which I +should not be glad to grant," said he, a little sadly. "For Heaven's +sake, do not think of me as your persecutor--do not force yourself to +answer me at any given time. I can wait." + +"You _have_ waited," said she gratefully--"waited too long already. +Do not encourage me in my weakness. Believe that I will tell you +to-morrow night my final decision." + +Later in the evening, Victor Clare was leaving the drawing-room as +Miss Milbourne entered it. They came face to face rather unexpectedly, +and while the gentleman fell back, the lady extended her hand. + +"Have you stayed away so long that you have forgotten your friends, +Major Clare?" she said with a smile which was bright but rather +tremulous, like a gleam of sunshine on rippling water. "You have not +even said good-evening to me, and yet you have an air as if you had +said good-night to the rest of the company." + +"So I have," answered Victor, smiling in turn, partly from the +pleasure of meeting her, partly from the sheer magnetism of her +glance, "but it is no fault of mine that I have not been able to speak +to you: I have found no opportunity." + +"But I thought you always said that; people made opportunities when +they desired to do so?" + +"Then the time has come for me to retract my assertion. As a general +rule, a man cannot make opportunities: he can only take advantage of +them when they come, as I hope to take advantage of the present," he +added smiling. + +"But I thought you were going home?" + +"I _was_ going home a minute ago, but so long as you will let me talk +to you I shall stay." + +"It is a very small favor to grant," said Eleanor, blushing a little. +"But why were you leaving so early?" + +"Partly because I had no hope of seeing you; partly because I am not +a 'young duke' to pencil a line to my steward and know that a princely +collation will be served at noon to-morrow for half a hundred, or even +for a dozen or two people." + +"What do you mean?" she asked, for though she caught the allusion to +Disraeli's rose-colored romance, the application puzzled her. + +"I see you have not heard of our gypsy plan," he answered, and at once +proceeded to detail it. + +She was not so much delighted as he expected, but a pretty, lucid +gleam came into her eyes at the mention of Claremont. + +"I shall be glad to see your home," she said quietly. "I have heard so +much of its beauty and its antiquity." + +"It is pretty, and it is old," said he, "but it will not be mine much +longer. I am negotiating its sale now." + +She started: "What! you were in earnest, then? You are really going to +Egypt?" + +"Yes, I am going to Egypt. Why should I stay? What has life to offer +me here save vegetation? There, at least, I can find action." + +She looked at him with a strange, wistful expression which struck and +startled him. He felt as if a prisoned soul suddenly sprang up and +gazed at him out of the clear blue depths of her eyes. "Oh what a good +thing it is to be a man!" she said. "How free you are! how able to do +what you please and go where you please--to seek action and to find +it! Oh, Major Clare, you ought to thank God night and day that He did +not make you a woman!" + +"I am glad, certainly, that I am a man," said Victor honestly. "But +you are the last woman in the world from whom I should have expected +to hear such rebellious sentiments." + +"I am not rebellious," said Eleanor more quietly. "What is the good of +it? All the rebellion in the world could not make me a man; and I have +no fancy to be an unsexed woman. But nobody was ever more weary of +conventional routine, nobody ever longed more for freedom and action +than I do." + +It was on the end of Victor's tongue to say, "Then come with me to +Egypt," but he caught himself in time. Was he mad to imagine that "the +beautiful Miss Milbourne"--a woman at whose feet the most desirable +matches of "society" had been laid--would end her brilliant career +by marrying a soldier of fortune, and expatriating herself from her +country and her kindred? He gave a grim sort of smile which Eleanor +did not quite understand, as he said: "Where is your lotos? It ought +to make you more content with the things that be." + +"I have it," Eleanor said with child-like simplicity. "Mr. Brent +remembered and brought it to me. I have not forgotten my promise to +share it with you." + +"Take it to the mountain to-morrow night, then," said he quickly. "Let +us eat it together there. I should like to link _you_ even with my +farewell to the past." + +And, since an interruption came just then, they parted with this +understanding. + +The next day Major Clare was standing on the terrace of Claremont--a +stately, solidly-built old house, bearing itself with an air of +conscious pride and disdain of modern frippery, despite certain +significant signs of decay--when his guests arrived in formidable +procession. There was something of the "old school" in his manner of +welcoming them--a grace and courtesy which struck more than one of +them as at once very perfect and very charming. + +"The man suits the house, does he not?" said Mrs. Brantley to Mrs. +Lancaster. "It is like a vintage of rare old wine in an old bottle. +We fancy that it has an aroma which it would lose in a new cut-glass +decanter." + +"I always thought Major Clare had delightful manners," said Mrs. +Lancaster, who could not trust herself to say anything more. She +felt with a pang how much she would have liked to bring wealth and +prosperity and elegant hospitality back again to the old house, if its +owner had not been so madly blind to his own interest, so absurdly +in love with Eleanor Milbourne's statue-like face, so insanely intent +upon periling life and limb in the service of the viceroy of Egypt. +The pretty widow gave a sigh as she arranged her hair before the +quaint, old-fashioned mirror in the chamber to which the ladies had +been conducted. If he had only been reasonable, how different things +might be! She walked to a window which overlooked the garden with its +formal walks and terraces, its borders of box and summer-houses of +cedar. "He will change his mind before the month is out," she thought. +"A man cannot surrender all the associations of his past and the home +of his fathers without a struggle." + +This consideration lost some of its consoling force, however, when, +a few minutes later, two people, walking slowly and evidently talking +earnestly, passed down the vista of one of the garden alleys, and +were lost to sight behind a tall, clipped hedge. Even at that distance +there was no mistaking the figure and bearing of Clare; neither was +there another woman who walked with that free, stately grace in a +riding-habit which Eleanor Milbourne possessed. "If she is engaged to +Marston Brent, he might certainly put an end to such open flirtation +as this," Mrs. Lancaster said between her teeth. "If he were not blind +or mad, he might see that she is so much in love with Victor that she +would go with him to Egypt to-morrow if he asked her to do so." + +An old and sensible proverb with which we are all acquainted says that +it is never well to judge others by ourselves; and if Mrs. Lancaster +had possessed the invisible cap of the prince in the fairy-tale, and +had followed the pair who had just passed out of sight, she would have +received an immediate proof of the truth of this aphorism. They had +paused in a square near the heart of the garden--a green, shaded +spot, in the centre of which an empty basin bore witness to a departed +fountain, though no pleasant murmur of water had broken the stillness +for many a long day. Round the margin of this still ran a seat on +which Eleanor sat down. Victor remained standing before her. A lime +tree near by cast a soft, flickering shadow over them, and the tall +hedges of evergreen which enclosed the square made a sombre but +effective background. + +"You see that ruin and decay are all that I have to offer you here," +Victor was saying with a cadence of bitterness in his voice. "But if +you had courage enough to end the life which you despise, to cut loose +from all the ties which bind you in America, and go with me to Egypt, +_there_ I might have a future and a career for you to share--_there_ +at least, you would find freedom and action and life." + +A flush came to Eleanor's cheek, and a light gleamed suddenly in her +eyes, as if the very wildness of this proposal lent it fascination; +but she shook her head, smiling a little sadly. "You are of my world," +she said: "you ought to know better than that. I am not so brave as +you think. I must do what is expected of me, and I am expected to +marry Marston Brent." + +"Forget the world and come with me." + +"That is impossible. If I had only myself to care for, I would; but +there are others of whom I must think." She was silent for a moment, +then looked up at him piteously. "They have sacrificed so much for me +at home," she said, "and they are so proud of me. They hope, desire, +count on this marriage: I cannot disappoint them. Mr. Brent himself +has been most kind and patient, and he does not expect very much. I am +a coward, perhaps, but what can I do?" + +Again he said, "You can come with me." + +Again she answered, "It is impossible. Do you not see that it is +impossible? Starting forth on a new career, it would be insane for you +to burden yourself with a wife. As for me, I am no more fit to marry a +poor man than to be a housemaid. Victor, it is hopeless. For Heaven's +sake, let us talk of it no longer! The only thing we can do is to +forget that we have ever talked of it at all." + +"Will that be easy for you? I confess that nothing on earth could be +harder for me." + +"No, it will not be easy, but I shall try with all my strength to do +it. God only knows," putting her hand suddenly to her face, "how I +shall live if I am _not_ able to do it." Then passionately, "Why did +you speak? Why did you make the misery greater by dragging it to the +light, so that we could face it, talk of it, discuss it? Oh why did +you do it?" + +"Because I wanted to see if you were not made of braver stuff than +other women," said he almost sternly. "In my maddest hours I never +dreamed of speaking, until--what you said last night. Thinking of that +after I came home, I resolved to give you one opportunity to break +through the artificial trammels of your life, and find the freedom you +professed to desire. It was better to do this, I thought, than to be +tormented all my life by a regret, a doubt, lest I had lost happiness +where one bold stroke might have gained it." + +"And now that you have found that I am _not_ brave, that I am like all +the other conventional women of my class, are you not sorry that you +have inflicted useless pain upon yourself?" + +"Of myself I do not think at all, and even when I think of you I +cannot regret having spoken. Let the misery be what it will, it is +something to have faced it together--it is everything to know that you +love me, though you refuse to share my life." + +"You must not say that," said she, starting and shrinking as if from +a blow. "How can I venture to acknowledge that I love you when I am +going to marry Marston Brent?" + +"_Are_ you going to marry him?" + +"Have I not told you so?" + +He turned from her and took one short, quick turn across the square. +Like every man in his position, he felt outraged and indignant, +without pausing to consider how infinitely more inexorable the laws +of society are with regard to women than to men. _He_ could put +Mrs. Lancaster's fortune aside and go his way--to Egypt or to the +dogs--without anybody crying out against his criminal folly, his +criminal disregard of the duties and traditions of his class. But +if Eleanor Milbourne put Marston Brent's princely fortune aside and +disappointed all her friends, what remained to her but the bitter +condemnation of those friends in particular and of society in general? + +When he came back she rose to meet him, making a picture worth +remembering as she stood in her graceful youth and picturesque habit +by the broken fountain, with the sombre cedar hedge behind and the +intense azure of the summer sky above. + +"Let us go," she said. "By prolonging this we only give ourselves +useless pain. All is said that can be said. Nothing remains now but to +forget; and that can best be done in silence. Victor, let us go." + +There was a tone of pathos, a tone as if she was not quite sure of +herself, in those last words, which made Clare refrain from answering +her. He turned silently, and they entered a green alley which led to +the foot of the terrace surrounding the house. As they walked along, +Marston Brent's figure appeared at the end of the vista, advancing +toward them, and it was this apparition which first made Clare speak: +"If you will not think me fanciful--I am sure you will not think me +presumptuous--promise me that before you give that man his answer +you will share the lotos with me of which you have spoken. I may be +superstitious, but I feel as if we shall gain new strength with which +to face the future after we have together renounced the past." + +She shook her head. "I am not superstitious enough to think that it +will enable us to forget one pang," she said. "But if you desire it, I +promise." + +When the afternoon shadows were lengthening the party from The Willows +set forth again, and reached the foot of the mountain a little before +sunset, making the ascent in time to see the day-god's last radiance +streaming over the fair, broad expanse of country beneath them. There +was a small cabin on the summit which was to be devoted to the +ladies, and round the camp-fire which was soon sparkling brightly the +gentlemen proposed to spend the night on the blankets with which they +were all plentifully provided. Meanwhile, the party, dividing into +groups and pairs, were soon scattered here and there, perched on the +highest points of rock, enjoying the cool, fresh air which came as a +message of love from the glowing west, and chattering like a chorus of +magpies. + +When the evening collation was over--a gypsy-like repast for which +every one seemed to have an excellent appetite--Mr. Brent asked +Eleanor if she would not accompany him to the eastern side of the +mountain to see the moon rise. While she hesitated, uncertain what to +say, Clare's voice spoke quietly at her side. "Miss Milbourne has an +engagement with _me_," he said. "I fear you must defer the pleasure of +admiring the moon in her society for a little while, Mr. Brent." Then +to Eleanor, "Shall we go now?" + +She assented, and they walked away. Mr. Brent, thus left behind, +naturally felt aggrieved, and turned to Mrs. Brantley with some slight +irritation stirring his usually courteous repose. + +"It strikes me that Major Clare's manners decidedly lack polish," he +said with an air of grave reprehension. "Is it true, as I am told, +that he is going to sell that fine old place where we spent the day, +and emigrate to Egypt?" + +"He is quite ready for a lunatic asylum," said Mrs. Lancaster, who +was standing near. "But, whatever his folly may be, I certainly do +not agree with you, Mr. Brent, in thinking that his manners need any +improvement." + +Meanwhile, Eleanor was saying, "You should not have spoken so curtly +to Mr. Brent." + +"If I can avoid it, I shall never speak to him again," Clare answered. +"Don't let us talk of him. I did not bring you away to discuss anybody +we have left behind, or anything of which we have talked before. We +are to be like immortals--to forget the past and live only in the +present." + +"Where are we going?" she asked. + +"Round to a point from whence we can overlook Claremont." + +She said nothing more, and he led her to the eastern side of the +mountain, where, near the verge of an almost precipitous descent, they +sat down together under the shadow of a great gray rock. From this +point the view was more extensive than any they had commanded before. +The rolling country, with the sunset glory fading from it, lay like +a panorama at their feet--shadowy woods melting into blue distance, +streams glancing here and there into sight, fields rich with +cultivation bounded by fences that looked like a spider's thread. +To the left Claremont, seated above its terraces, made an imposing +landmark. Behind it the moon was rising majestically in a cloudless +sky. After they had been silent for some time, Clare turned and looked +at his companion. "How beautiful you are!" he said abruptly. "I wish +I had a picture of you as you sit there now. It would be worth +everything else in the world to me. But perhaps, after all, the best +pictures are those which are taken on the heart." + +"You have forgotten," said Eleanor, trying to smile, "that we are +going to eat the lotos in order to efface all pictures." + +"Nay," said he. "I thought it was to enable us to forget everything +but the present, and this _is_ the present." + +"But it will be the past in a little while," said she, "and we must +forget it, like all the rest. Victor, we _must_ forget! They say that +all things are possible to resolution: let us resolve to do that." + +For some time longer they sat silent. Then Clare said, with something +like a groan, "Would to God I could die here and now, or else that +there _was_ some spell by which one could make memory a blank!" + +"Let us try the lotos," said Eleanor. "See, I brought it as you told +me." + +From her pocket she drew a paper which, being opened, proved to +contain the dried petals of a flower, evidently an aquatic plant. +Yellow and lifeless as it was, Eleanor looked at it with wistful +reverence. "It came from Egypt," she said: then she added, "where you +are going." + +"We will see if there is any magic in it," said Clare. + +So, together they took the dried petals and began to eat them, smiling +a little sadly at each other as they did so. + +"Herodotus says that when the Nile is full, 'and all the grounds round +it are a perfect sea, there grows a vast quantity of lilies which the +Egyptians call lotos, in the water,'" said Clare. "He adds that this +flower, especially the root of it, is very sweet. If this is the same, +it has certainly changed its flavor since that time." + +"It is not disagreeable," said Eleanor. "But I fear we shall not find +the effect for which we have hoped. It is of the lotos fruit that +Homer and Tennyson have written." + +"And the lotos flower of mythology is an East Indian, not an Egyptian, +aquatic; but since we desire to link _our_ fancy with the flower of +the Nile, we will ignore the poets and the Brahmins. After all, we +only desire it as a symbol of the renunciation of the past on which +we have agreed. Eleanor, what if we should indeed resolve to leave the +past behind us from this hour, and face our future together?" + +He looked at her imploringly and passionately, but instead of replying +she put her hand to her head. "How strangely dizzy I am!" she said. +"Can it--do you think it can be the lotos?" + +"Dizzy!" he repeated. "Then I must take you from the edge of this +precipice. Perhaps it is that which affects you. It could not have +been the lotos, or I should feel it too. Come, let me lead you round +the rock." + +But when he attempted to rise he found that to him, too, a sudden +strange dizziness came. A constriction seemed gathering about his +heart, a mist seemed rising before his eyes. Before he had half risen +he sank back against the rock. + +"Do you feel it too?" she asked quickly. + +"Yes," he said slowly, putting his hand also to his head. "What can +it mean? Could there have been anything wrong in that plant? The lotos +itself is harmless, either flower or fruit. Eleanor, my darling!" he +cried with sudden alarm. "Good Heavens! what is the matter? How pale +you look!" + +"I--I do not think it could have been the lotos. It must have been +some poisonous plant," said she faintly. "This giddiness and numbness +increase." Then she held out her hands tremulously. "Hold me," she +said. "The earth seems slipping away from me. Oh, Victor, what if it +should be fatal?" + +"Do not imagine such a thing," he said. "It is impossible! The plant +has probably some narcotic property which affects you temporarily. +Lean on me until it is over. My God! how mad I was to have suffered +you to eat it!" + +"Do not blame yourself," she said, clinging to him, her fair head +drooping heavily on his breast. "It was I who spoke of it--who sent +for it--" + +She stopped, gasping a little, and pressing her hand to her heart, +where an iron clutch seemed arresting the circulation. A glance at her +face filled Clare with a terror which he had not felt before. Partly +this, partly his own sensations, told him that the poison of the plant +which they had shared between them _was_ fatal--one of the swift and +terrible agents of death which abound in the East--and a sense too +horrible to be dwelt upon came to him, warning him that aid, to avail +at all, must be summoned quickly. + +But how? The summit of the mountain was large, the rest of the party +were far from them. He had purposely led his companion to this remote +spot, where, even if he had been able to raise his voice, there was +none to hear. As for leaving her, he doubted his own ability to walk +ten steps. He felt sure that if he succeeded in gaining his feet he +should reel and fall like a drunken man. + +Still, the attempt must be made, and that instantly. Every second +lessened the hope of its success--with every pulse-beat he felt the +awful, reeling numbness increase. How much longer he could retain +his consciousness he could not tell. He saw plainly that Eleanor was +losing hers. + +"My darling," he said, striving vainly to unclasp the arms that clung +to him, "I must go--I must call assistance: this may be more serious +than I thought. Try to rouse yourself, Eleanor: I must go!" + +Alas! it was easy to say--it was awfully impossible to do. Even when +Eleanor relaxed her already half-unconscious embrace, and he strove +to rise, he found that not even desperation could give the requisite +power. He literally could not gain his feet. Every effort failed: he +sank back hopelessly. + +Then he tried to raise his voice in a cry for help, but it refused +to obey his bidding. He was not able to speak above a broken whisper. +Finding this to be the case, he turned in an agony of despair to the +girl beside him--the girl whom, with a last effort, he drew to his +breast. + +"Eleanor," he said, "it is hopeless. If this _is_ poison we must die! +Oh, my darling, can you forgive me? O my God, send us help! Eleanor, +can you hear me? Eleanor, will you not speak to me?" + +For a minute all was silence. Then the fair head raised itself, and +the lids slowly and heavily lifted from the blue, flower-like eyes. +The moon, which had now risen high in the cloudless July heaven, shone +full on her face as she said, "Kiss me." + +For the first time their lips met: when they parted both were cold. + + * * * * * + +Still clinging together, they were found. At their feet lay a fragment +of the deadly-poisonous Egyptian river-plant which Marston Brent had +ignorantly plucked for a lotos. + + +CHRISTIAN REID. + + + + +ECHO. + +FROM THE RUSSIAN OF PUSCHKTN. + + + Roars there ever a beast in his forest den, + Hear we thunder in heaven, a horn among men, + On the hill sings a maiden now and then,-- + Sound what may, + Answer through space thou mak'st again + With small delay. + Aware of the thunder's rattling roll, + Of the winds and the waves when without control, + Of the cries where the village shepherds stroll, + Reply thou giv'st; + Yet thou thyself, without one answering soul, + A poet liv'st. + +A.J. + + + + +OUR HOME IN THE TYROL. + + +CHAPTER IX. + + +Sometimes it was our simple hosts who led the conversation, which +then, especially as they became at ease with us, always drifted more +or less into the supernatural. Nor was this surprising, as the tales, +legends, old manners and customs amongst the Tyrolese are thoroughly +interwoven with threads of heathen mythology and with the occult +belief of the Middle Ages. + +[Illustration: VALLEY AND BEEHIVES.] + +Franz had a wonderful credence in lucky and unlucky days. Tuesday and +Thursday were witches' days, and Wednesday was also evil, seeing Judas +hanged himself on a Wednesday; therefore never drive cattle to the +Olm on that day. Moreover, he believed that when two persons sneezed +together a soul was loosed from purgatory. As for witches and ghosts, +he knew enough about them too. Did not the witches still dance every +night at eight o'clock on their meeting-place by Bad Scharst? His +brother Joergel could have told us about that if he would. The paechter +Josef had likewise experiences which he might relate were he not so +shy. "Josef was returning through the Reinwald one Thursday night, and +had just crossed over the Giessbach when he met a black figure, whom +he greeted in God's name; but the figure moved on, making no answer as +a Christian would have done. He had not gone much farther up the wood +when he met a second black form. Crossing himself, Josef spoke out +boldly a 'God greet you!' but again silence. The figure had vanished. +Josef crossed himself and prayed. Nevertheless, he met a third, and, +waxing bold, not only greeted him, but turning round looked fixedly +at the black figure to see whether it were sorcerer, gypsy, ghost or +witch. And there, behold! it stood, grown as tall as a tree, grinning +at Josef until he thought it best to escape. Next day the black cow +went dry: otherwise you might say that Josef's hobgoblins were fir +trees." + +Whilst Jakob laughed at Josef's phantoms, he could not help telling +us in his turn a tale which he considered much more noteworthy: "There +was no denying that one winter's night a huntsman, losing himself in +the deep snow, took refuge in a forsaken senner-hut. Content to suffer +hunger if only thus sheltered for the night, he was shortly surprised +by the entrance of a black man, who not only welcomed him to the +hut, but proposed cooking him some supper; an offer most thankfully +accepted. Upon this, the black man lighted a fire, suddenly produced +a frying-pan, which had been invisible before, and began cooking +strauben and cream pancakes from equally hidden stores. When supper +was ready the huntsman begged the good-natured black cook to sit down +and eat with him; and a very hearty meal he seemed to make, although, +to the surprise of the huntsman, the food turned as black as a cinder +before it entered his mouth. Both men lay down to rest; and after a +comfortable sleep the hunter, rising up to go, thanked the black man +for his kind hospitality, adding, 'May God reward you!' 'Oh,' replied +the other, uttering a great sigh of relief, 'may God in His mercy +equally reward you for those words! When I walked on the earth I +laughed at religion: I was therefore sent back in the spirit to toil +until some mortal should thank me in God's name for what I had done +for him. This you have done, and now I am free;' and so saying he +vanished." + +"Yes," said Moidel, "these tales are as true as the gospel. You know +Nanni, the maid who sings so sweetly? Her father some years since went +on a pilgrimage with two other peasants to Maria Zell. Arriving +late one night at a solitary farm-house, they rapped at the door, +requesting a lodging. The bauer, however, excused himself: it was from +no evil intention, he said, but he could not take strangers in. The +three wanderers pleaded how ill would be their condition if left in +the fields all night. Still the bauer made no other reply, until, on +their pressing him, he finally declared, half in anger, that they must +themselves be responsible for their night's rest. He wished to treat +them well, but could offer them no better bed than the top of the oven +in the stube. This offer they willingly accepted, but hardly had +they lain down when a peasant-woman entered with a pail of water and +brushes. In spite of their entreaties, she scrubbed and scrubbed away +all night, and hardly had she finished when, the work not pleasing +her, she began scrubbing the floor and woodwork over again. Thus the +cleaning lasted the livelong night, until in the early morning the +maid-servant entered and the woman disappeared; the floor and walls +being, to their astonishment, as dry and dusty as the evening before. +Whereupon they spoke to the bauer of their troublesome visitor. +'Do not accuse me,' he replied 'of inhospitality: this is a strange +matter, from which I would fain have kept you. Intolerable as it has +been to you, it is still worse for me, knowing that the woman who thus +scrubs, and with so much din, is my poor dead wife. Her brain, when +she was alive, was quite turned about cleaning. She could not even go +to church with me and the neighbors, but must stay at home and clean. +So, being a bad manager, and not washing her soul white, she seems +unfit for heaven, and must needs come here every night to continue her +work. Even masses don't seem to help her.'" + +Such tales were either related by the hut-fire on airy mountain or in +the fir woods. Moidel might have told us ghost-stories in the barn at +night, but there, in the solitary darkness, they appeared to her too +horribly real, especially with sleepy auditors, who might any moment +drop into unconsciousness, leaving her in a dismal fright over her own +tale. + +One afternoon, accompanied by this faithful companion, we determined +to attack the summit of the mountain, which in a mantle of fir wood +rose immediately behind the huts. We were anxious to see what lay on +the other side, but after a hard though exhilarating climb we learned +that the mountain was but a huge overhanging shoulder, the rocky head +of the giant rising up in the midst of wide sweeping moors some six +miles distant. We changed, therefore, the object of our excursion, +determining to visit the highest Olm of the district, Ober Kofel. +Turning to the left, we pursued the moorland plateau until in half +an hour we had reached a solitary white cabin. The door was firmly +closed, but a pile of fire-wood and a rake, evidently flung recently +down, were sufficient signs of habitation. A more lonely scene could +not well be conceived. No trees nor flowers, only some yellow thistles +growing by the side of a murmuring brook, which had persistently gone +rushing on until it had worn the pebbles in its bed flat and thin. +Tawny, dun-colored mountains rose behind, but before the hut the +_traet_ or open space, covered with the greenest turf, extended to +a platform of rocks, where the glossy shrubs of the mountain +rhododendron grew, presenting a scene well worth the climb. The view +outward embraced the deep wooded gorge of the Giessbach, revealing far +beyond the black, sinuous lines of distant mountains, cutting across +the evening horizon. Black-brown crags some eight thousand feet high, +peaked with snow, rose to the right; but the great snow spectacle was +to the left. There the proud crests of the Hoch Gall, Wild Gall and +Schnebige Nock rose out of a vast white glittering amphitheatre, a +peculiar, bare, conical rock standing like an Alpine sphinx strangely +forth from this desert of snow. + +We sat on our verdant patch enjoying the wild, grand scenery, the wind +playing around us in concert with a little calf which had just been +promoted to a bell. At length the figure of a tall young man flitted +in front of a distant cross, and advancing toward us proved to be the +solitary senner of Ober Kofel. As he was the lord of the domain, and +moreover acquainted with Moidel, it was not many minutes ere he sat +on the grass before us. After giving us a welcome, he began talking +to Moidel about the military exercises which were to begin again this +week. + +"The Ausserkofers," he said, "went down for the drilling immediately +after their ascent of the Wild Gall: I am glad I was not drawn." + +Then Moidel communicated to him that Jakob must leave on the morrow +for drill, and that Tilemaker Martin, Carpenter Barthel's son, would +arrive in the morning to take his place as herdsman. + +The party now dropped into a dignified silence, which might have +lasted as long as we had remained had it not appeared pleasanter to +keep the senner intent on a story, rather than on each feature of our +several faces. + +Speaking proper German, also proving to be understood by him, one +of the group began: "Of course you have heard of the clever Tyrolese +peasant, still living, Hans Jakob Fetz?" + +Neither he nor Moidel had ever heard of him, and as they both pricked +up their ears, they learned the following: Fetz possesses a little +farm called the Pines. It has, however, the disadvantage of lying +on both sides of a wild rushing torrent, the Ache, a river given to +inundations in the spring, and over which there is no bridge in his +neighborhood. Thus, though Hans Jakob could sit at his door, and +almost count the ears of corn in his fields across the river, he must +make a circuit of five miles to reach them. Such an immense loss of +time and labor troubled him no little, and, as he had no desire to +sell his property, he determined by hook or by crook to remedy the +evil. Day and night he turned the perplexing problem over in his mind. +He might, to be sure, swim across, but then there were his tools to be +carried. At last it flashed upon him: Why not make an aerial car? He +bought for this purpose some very thick iron wire, stretched it in two +parallel lines across the river, fastening the four ends very firmly; +constructed a bench on iron rollers, which, sustained by the wire, ran +across the river in a trice, and his aerial car was a reality. Here, +indeed, was a triumph. It worked admirably, and the whole neighborhood +became excited and astonished about the air-railway, as they called +it. The news spreading, it brought finally some gentlemen from the +town of Dornbirn, who were wild to have a ride across the river. Hans +Jakob refused it: he doubted the strength being sufficient for more +than one passenger; but they persisting in their urgent demand, he at +last reluctantly consented. They would not, or else they could not, +go without him. So, the party being seated on the bench, he unfastened +the hook, when they should have been instantly whirled across. But, +alas! his fears proved true: the wire gave way, and down they +all went, plump into the wild rushing river. A great fright and +wetting--that was all, for the time being, until the gentlemen, +although they had promised not to say a word on the subject, having +whispered it to this friend and that, leaving no part uncolored, the +town of Dornbirn grew scandalized at a mad peasant's audacity. The +authorities took it in hand, and a solemn gendarme visited Hans Jakob +with strict orders from government to desist from such perilous, +hairbreadth inventions for the future. Poor Hans! he now regarded +himself not only as the laughing-stock of the whole country, but as +a ruined man. He had spent all his savings on his first venture; but +neither official reprimand nor loss of his money could keep his +busy, active brain from puzzling out an improved plan, which, having +perfected it in his mind, he boldly carried out. Instead of two simple +iron wires, he employed two double coils, with a single wire in the +centre and six feet higher. He stretched across two other strong +parallel wires. He then contrived a little car with two seats and a +cover against sun and rain. To the benches and the awning he fastened +rollers, so that the car was propelled across both above and below. +The weight which it would bear he proved to be fifteen hundredweight, +and unfastened from the iron hooks which kept it to the bank, the car +ran across in a few seconds with an easy, agreeable motion. Practice +and a close investigation proved it now a perfect success. All the +censures and ridicule were forgotten, and it proves at the present +time both convenient and amusing to the gentlemen, ladies and children +of the neighborhood. Hans Jakob willingly conveys them across the +river in his flying car. He will, however, receive no fixed payment. +He constructed it simply for his own use: were he to make a trade of +it, he must either take out a patent, or else make some concessions to +government, neither of which he has any inclination to do. + +The senner and Moidel listened in astonishment. They had understood +every word. Although they had never heard of Hans Jakob before, there +was a full account of him in the Brixen calendar, an almanac which the +senner owned to having had by him for the last eight months--another +noticeable instance how tales and good advice in print are lost upon +a people who, hitherto quietly slumbering, find for their hearts and +minds enough to do in carrying on their slow agriculture and pattering +their prayers. I believe that popular lecturers conversant with the +dialect would be of infinite service in the rural districts of the +Tyrol. + +The senner, after this entertainment, offered us the hospitality of +his hut. A lordly bowl of intensely rich cream was placed before us +in the sleeping-room, with the sole option of lapping like the men of +Gideon, seeing we were not sufficiently naturalized for each to carry +a horn spoon in her pocket, had not a little tin drinking mug been +fortunately remembered. + +The next day the young tilemaker Martin, carrying his bundle, arrived +at about nine. He had left the Hof at three that morning, making +the whole journey of twenty-four miles on foot without a stop. Franz +therefore seized hold of the frying-pan, and we dined an hour earlier +than the usual time of ten. After coffee, Jakob had to initiate his +successor into the various advantages of the several Alpine pastures, +to point out the cattle and goat paths, and to introduce Martin to +Kohli, Kraunsi, Blasi, Zottel, Nageli and all the other cows, as well +as to Tiger, Schweiz and their fellow-oxen. We set out to accompany +them, but the cattle were too far away on distant heights for us to +continue long in the scramble. We therefore sat on a breezy mountain +platform watching the athletic young men grow ever smaller, more +indistinct, whilst Jakob's voice was borne to us on the rarefied air +as he called lovingly, "Krudeli, Krudeli" to the calves, and "Koess, +Koess" to the cows. + +"It is a miracle," said Moidel, "how Martin, who was so weak and +consumed away by his accident, should thus have recovered." + +"What accident?" asked we. + +"Why, does not the Herrschaft know how last November, on his very +name-day, Martin was nearly killed? Young Niederberg--he who wears +the finest carnations on his hat, but who then, it being cold weather, +wore three cock's feathers gained in wrestling-matches--strutted +down the Edelsheim street, arm in arm with his great friend, the +fair-haired Hansel of Heinwiese, a rude young churl, praising each +other for their strength of limb and good looks. Martin at the time +was leaning against his father's door. 'The devil!' said Niederberg: +'why do you stay at your father's, when there is better wine and +company at the Blauen Bock?' Martin, however, replied that he was a +hard-working man, who could only spare time to see his old father and +sick sister on a festival. 'No,' said Heinwiese in anger, 'thou art +nothing but a miserable milk-sop, never at a wrestling-match, never +at a dance.' 'But,' put in Niederberg, 'we'll teach thee to dance +and sing;' and so saying, he suddenly plunged the blade of his big +pocket-knife below Martin's ribs. + +"Why he had become their prey none could tell, unless they were lost +in drink. Great was the clamor in the usually quiet village. A doctor +was sent for, who at first declared Martin's wound to be mortal. Then +his young wife and little children were fetched with many tears from +the tileyard, and the priest came with the Holy Death Sacrament. But +the prayers and viaticum saved Martin. Still, for many months he had +a frightful illness, and even in March he was so weak you could have +knocked him down with a feather. Niederberg was immediately taken into +custody, and was sentenced to sit in Bruneck Castle till St. John the +Baptist's Day, fully six months, to pay the doctor's bill, and two +hundred gulden to Martin; but the latter sum, being an evil-minded +youth, though rich, he has never paid. He will leave that to +Heinwiese, he says, who put him up to the deed: besides, why pay a man +who had recovered? He would have stood the funeral and settled with +the widow. However, father talks of dealing with Niederberg, for he +must not thus despoil patient Martin." + +Here, indeed, was a stabbing worthy of hot Italy, rather than cooler, +quieter Tyrol. It proved, too, that the serpent and old Adam still +moved in that garden of Eden, Edelsheim. + +Jakob and the hero of the tragedy now returned, bright and brisk, +bearing armfuls of edelweiss, long sprays of stag-horn's moss, and +showing us with genuine pleasure roots of the edelraute, which they +had gathered on the high ledges for us. This is a little insignificant +plant, but called by the Tyrolese the noble rue, and prized by them +far more than the edelweiss; perhaps one reason being that when dried +it is said to emit a delicious scent, for which reason the housewives +place it amongst linen. Jakob looked like a mountain dryad, his +broad-brimmed beaver being completely covered with purple Michaelmas +daisies, glowing amongst sheaves of silvery edelweiss, falling round +in a soft gray woolen fringe. Aided by Jakob and Martin, we had the +gratification of gathering edelweiss ourselves, always a notable feat. +Martin really had most miraculously recovered. After those twenty-four +miles of hard walking, followed by a climb of several thousand feet, +we left him felling a pine tree as we bade Jakob adieu, for he was to +leave very early in the morning. + +A comical scene ensued after our return to the barn. Visitors of +course we had none: Martin's arrival had been an immense event. Thus, +as we sat in the barn partaking of hot wine and cake, great masses +of shadow all around, with light breaking in only from the lantern, +forming altogether a perfect Rembrandt effect, we heard a cheerful +voice wishing us "Good-night and sweet repose" through the door. +Immediately, believing it to be the paechter's moidel, a young lady +usually engaged in cutting hay, one of the party rashly invited the +voice to enter--an invitation instantly accepted in the most perfect +good faith by either a mad woman or a tramp in a big, flapping straw +hat, who seated herself in the golden light of the lantern, adding +perhaps to the breadth and freedom of this Rembrandt picture, but +certainly not to its ease. Ravenously consuming some cake, she +attacked us with a continuous battery of God bless yous! Moidel, +however, was up to the occasion, and it was not long ere she managed +to get the unacceptable visitor outside the door, we begging her +to bolt and bar it well, for after this call we were afraid of more +lurking intruders. Moidel, however, bade us have no fears. The +woman was neither cracked nor a Welscher: she was only a very poor +_Bachernthalerin_, whose hut was generally under water. It was +accessible now, however, and the poor soul had been round begging milk +at the senner-huts. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + + +Life in the mountains was not half so ideal as we once foolishly +might have imagined. Still, the visit thither had surpassed our +expectations, and it was with no little regret that we bade farewell +to the familiar barn the following morning. We settled a bill with the +paechter at parting, including the dinner given to the knowing Ignaz. +It amounted to the sum of one gulden. Who would not stay up at an Olm? + +Again we gave the day to the ten-mile walk, now a steep but pleasant +descent, choosing the village of Rein as our first halting-place. It +was still early, a lovely autumn morning, the mountains rising in all +their impressive majesty, but for a time all our powers of admiration +and enjoyment were suddenly marred by the sight of meek sheep led to +the shambles at the very window. + +We would have hurried on, if we could, without stopping, but we had +rashly promised to write our names in the important visitors' book, +besides paying a small bill for wine. The landlord could not at all +perceive why, as meat had to be eaten, any one could object to a +preliminary exhibition, especially when the butcher could only make +his rounds at stated times, and it was so convenient by the kitchen +door. Indeed, so deadened in delicate perceptions were these people +that the landlord observing a rare plant in one of our hands, he +actually called the butcher in to tell us its name. The man, having +at that moment ended his first stroke of business, came in red-handed, +and proved a botanist. It was a _Woodsia hyperborea_--that was the +Latin name--and was rare in those parts, he said; but the Herrschaft +should come earlier for flowers. July was the month. Then there was +geum, and pale blue-fringed campanulas, and rich lilac asters, yellow +violets, the white scented wax-flower, arnica and yellow aconite, both +excellent medicines; there were thunder-flowers, and blood-drops, and +grass of Parnassus, and hundreds more, all cut down by the scythes. +There were four thousand plants and upward in the Tyrol; only, alas! +like the gentians, many species were being perfectly exterminated. + +His energy interested us, and his hands were under the table. Frau +Anna expressed great disappointment at the various beautiful gentians, +common in Switzerland, being rare in the Tyrol. + +"Ladies," replied the botanist with emphasis, "you know not the +reason? Why, there is hardly a species of gentian which is not torn +up by the roots for the making of schnapps. Schnapps is good when +rheumatism works in the bones: there is then no better lotion; and +a thimbleful of cheerfulness in the morning, and another of sleep at +night, are what I wish for our wirth, myself and every peasant daily; +but why need they pull up all the gentians, which were bits of heaven +scattered over the mountain-sides? I know that their roots are better +for schnapps distilling than those of other plants, or even than +bilberries or cranberries; but oh for a little moderation, cutting the +roots gently! for whilst a bit is left in the ground the plant springs +up again. 'Poor as a root-grubber' is the proverb. I'm glad it is. +For if they were not so wanton, they would not be so poor. They mostly +come from the Zillerthal. It's a special trade. The men climb the +mountains as soon as the snow melts. They build themselves rude huts, +and spend the summer searching for and digging up roots. Now, however, +as they have cut their own throats, so to speak, they must climb often +to high mountain-ledges, letting themselves down by ropes, to gather +fine roots, which they still sometimes find of the thickness of my +wrist. In the late autumn they collect their bundles of dried gentian +roots, which they carry to the distilling vats, where the _Enzian_, so +dear to the Tyroler, is made." + +[Illustration: COWS COMING DOWN THE HILLSIDE BY A MOUNTAIN STREAM.] + +And the butcher, who had grown quite pathetic over the gentians, rose +to return to his occupation. It was curious to observe the honorable +position which he held with landlord, landlady and Moidel. What a +surgeon or soldier would be in a higher class, that the butcher was +to them. In this case, too, we joined in respect--a feeling we might +entertain for many more of his trade, perhaps, had we the opportunity +of judging. But we must onward. + +Ere long a young woman wearing a pointed black felt hat, ornamented +with yellow everlastings, overtook us and joined company with Moidel, +giving us, however, equally the benefit of her conversation, whilst +she insisted upon carrying a bag. She lived in Rein, she told us, and +had now to consult the doctor in Taufers a second time about perpetual +stitching pains in her throat. The doctor said it was quinsy, and +arose from cold. Perhaps, she said, if she could bring herself to +smoke a meerschaum, like other women in Rein, she might keep the +mischief out; but it struck her as a disgrace to a female, and it made +a great hole in the pocket. Those who were born in such a village +as Rein were in an evil plight. The cottages were badly built, the +kitchens reeked with smoke, and were so bitterly cold in winter, +though the fowls had to roost there, that water froze in them. In +fact, no one could stay in the kitchen in winter. Then all the family +must crowd into the stube, living and sleeping there. When Nanni +Muckhaus had the typhus she and her children and grandchildren must +lie down together; and then all the neighbors had to visit her, unless +they chose to pass as brutes; and so that was how the typhus spread. +Fortunately, her husband and she were alone: they had no burdens. +Still, life was hard--a vale of tears or a vale of snow. If the gentry +could see the Reinthal in the winter, choked up with avalanches, they +would say so. Her man had, however, enough to keep them. He had a +license for the shooting of gemsen and other game, which he might use +from holy Jakobi's Day to Candlemas. He had this year killed only +five gemsen so far. The Post at Taufers was greedy for gemsen now, +and bought up every ounce of the flesh at nineteen kreuzers the +pound--bought snow-hens, too, at forty kreuzers each, and would never +let her husband's gun be idle. When Candlemas came, and he could no +longer shoot, then he worked in their fields; for we might not think +it, but he, being a thrifty soul, had saved fifty gulden and bought +some land. But oh the labors, the toils to which a Reinthaler was +subjected! If his land lay on the mountain-side, he and his woman must +slave and toil like beasts of burden, for what would be the help of +horse or cow for riding, driving or ploughing on such steep, upright +land? "The holy watch-angels help us!" she said. "Look up there and +you will see, ladies, the truth of what I tell you." + +Pointing with her finger, she drew our attention to the small figure +of a man working upon a dizzy height some three thousand feet above +us, his legs, like a pair of compasses, comically revealing a triangle +of blue sky between them, whilst we with difficulty made out the +figures of two women helping him. + +"That's Seppl Mahlgruben and his daughters cutting down their green +oats, too tardy to ripen. Some years since Moidel, the eldest girl, +working on that precise point, knelt one inch too far over the +precipice and was hurled into eternity, where a better fortune, I pray +God, awaited her than the cruel trials of Reinthal." + +Moidel told us afterward that she thought our informant took too +gloomy a view, probably occasioned by "her stitching pains." Still, +she owned to its being a toilsome, perilous life in every season of +the year save summer. + +In a broad sylvan meadow at the end of the narrow defile, within sound +of the chief waterfall, we had the joy of seeing again the rest of our +party, who had made an afternoon excursion thither to meet us. At a +quiet, rural little inn just below, with an outside gallery possessing +a view of the still, deep gorge in front and softer meadows beyond, +kind hearts had already ordered coffee and rolls for nine. All were +unanimous, however, that the ample supply was sufficient for ten, +and the good woman of Rein was pressed to enter and partake. This she +gratefully declined, adding, however, that it would be friendly and +helpful of us to allow her to drink a cup of coffee there at six in +morning on her return journey to Rein. Not that she had expected the +least attention to be offered her, and hoped that it was not intended +as a different mode of payment for her carrying a lady's handbag. +Although we had felt that one good turn deserved another, we made her +mind easy on that score, and she went tripping forward. + +For us there was still no hurry. The evening sky was brilliantly +clear, the mountain-summits and dark fir woods shone forth a burnished +gold, so that it seemed almost a sin to dive into the deep shadows of +the valley below. Besides, the inn possessed some beehive sheds, and +a view beyond which must not escape the pencil of the artists, who +busily sketched whilst the others rested, enjoying the great crimson +bars of sunset drawn across the dewy valley to the rippling sound of a +mad, merry little mill-brook. + +How much sympathy and respect has been afforded in all ages and climes +to those serviceable creatures, bees! + + The little citizens create, + And waxen cities build. + +Unlike Virgil, the good Tyrolese, however, would call them monks +and nuns dwelling in cells, rather than "citizens." Formerly they +delighted in erecting the most ornamental dwellings which they could +devise for them, helping them in their constant toil by planting balmy +thyme and other sweet honey-yielding flowers around the hives. These +were constructed of wood, gayly painted with holy monograms and +devices to add a blessing and security to the provident labors of the +little inmates. They were, in fact, _beatified bees_, who had to be +solemnly invited to attend the death mass when the owner died, else +they would fly away, refusing to stay. If a swarm of bees hung to a +house, it was simply as a warning that fire would break out there. + +The beehives at this little inn still stood fresh, compact, with +flowers blooming around them, the kindly woman evidently taking great +pride in her bees. This, however, is not always the case. The grand +beehives, like the grand old halls and castles of the Tyrol, are +falling into decay: in both instances the paintings on the walls are +peeling off or growing indistinct; the present generation has either +lost its love for honey or much of its reverence for the bees--a fact +difficult to define amongst a people with almost credulous veneration +and intense belief in old customs. Still, much of the freshness and +simplicity of the peasants is passing away with the discarding of +their picturesque costumes. + +As a certain endurable routine had been arrived at within the walls +of the Elephant, we agreed, before retiring to rest, to remain still +several days there, availing ourselves of the splendid weather to +explore more thoroughly the beautiful, varied neighborhood of Taufers. + +But, alas! the clear brilliant air and the deep rosy sunset had +deceived us. The next morning mists and clouds obstructed the +view, finally dissolving into a pitiless downfall, that detained us +prisoners in the house, which was silent as the grave but for the rain +steadily pattering against the casements. + +Weary of the wet and without occupation, our disengaged minds, +wandering out into the mist and rain, dreamily contemplated a slow +band of pilgrims defiling along the distant hillside. Had the day +been bright and clear, we should have seen them as sheaves of corn or +clover stuck to dry upon light stakes with branching arms, the upper +bundle being placed aslant to act as shelter to the rest. As it was, +however, in the plashing rain it required no effort to believe them +tired, defenceless pilgrims ever wandering on. Some despondingly beat +their arms upon their breasts, others, heavy and exhausted, fell upon +their knees; here a woman defended her infant from the biting blast, +there an old man with rugged hair looked mournfully backward; but +these were only a few amongst the endless figures of the tragic band, +on a long, unceasing march. + +Everywhere in the Tyrol, especially in the gloaming, whether in Alpine +meadow or arable land of the valley, such weird companies may be seen. +Bands of Indians, societies of cowled monks, ancient Italians fleeing +from a buried city, wandering Israelites,--such and many others are +the shapes which these drying sheaves of corn, hay or clover assume, +all combining to act as one vast funeral procession of the summer that +is no more. + +[Illustration: A PROCESSION.] + +In the afternoon a different company from these natural objects in the +distance came to occupy our minds for the time being. Gradually the up +stairs sitting-room, which we had foolishly perhaps imagined reserved +for our party of nine, became invaded by priests in long coats down +to their heels and muddy top-boots. We, the new-comers from the +mountains, now learnt that this was the daily occurrence, and really +the most unpleasant feature of the house, where the landlord and +landlady remained as sleepy and unimpressionable as ever. We were +soon, in fact, obliged to vacate the room, driven out not only by +the fumes of bad tobacco, but by the unsatisfactory stare which +was leveled at each intruder. The kellnerin, generally a slow, +incommunicative mortal, now passed, from cellar to sitting-room in a +flutter of excitement, her tongue, otherwise dormant, moving like a +mill-clapper in the enlivening society of her spiritual fathers. These +were the shepherds of the different adjoining parishes, whose custom +it was to derive mental and corporeal comfort in sipping their acid +wine and smoking their cheap tobacco in company. There might not have +been any great harm in it, but nevertheless it seemed an apparent +falling away from the singularly bright example which a good man, born +only ten minutes from the Elephant, in the village of Muehlen, had once +set them. + +The priest Michael Feichter, at his death in 1832 the head of the +clerical seminary at Brixen, became for a time, through his extreme +goodness and grace, the unseen regenerator of the Church in the Tyrol. +A simple, guileless man, with intense love and cheerfulness, he acted +as if God his friend were ever by his side. The entire Bible, which he +had chiefly studied on his knees, he knew literally by heart. Birds, +flowers and stones gave him subjects for stirring sermons, and his +evening conversations with his pupils were fraught with the most +beneficent consequences through his intense sympathy and the power he +unwittingly possessed of diving deep into the conscience. Sorrows were +met invariably by him with a cheerful "Dominus providebit" or "parcat +Deus." Cheating and deceit pained him greatly, and he therefore +rejoiced to become acquainted with honest Jews, conscientious +officials and religious soldiers. Thoughts of wealth and station never +troubled him. He walked like a child through the world. When unable to +wear his scholastic gown he moved about, his serene face beaming with +cheerful urbanity from under the shadow of a broad-brimmed cocked hat, +his pride and delight, as it spared him both sunshade and umbrella. +His old coat of an antique cut still bore on the under side of a flap +the dyer's mark. His waistcoat and stockings were of black knitted +wool. On festive occasions, however, he fastened to the back of +his coat collar a fluttering band denoting his doctorate. There was +something humorous in his appearance: he knew it and laughed at it, +and yet, says one of his pupils, "though we joined in the laugh, his +whole person and demeanor touched us deeply: we knew that he was not +of this world." + +Was it strange that we felt a great discrepancy between the memory of +this guileless man and some of the self-indulgent priests, once his +pupils, in the upper stube? + +The next day, the rain promising still to detain us prisoners, Moidel, +fearing that her important services must be missed at the Hof, bravely +defied wet and mud and tramped resolutely home. In the afternoon, +utterly tired out, we too determined to shift our quarters to +Edelsheim, and, engaging a large jolting vehicle, were borne through +mire, rain and mist from the Elephant to the Hof. + +Long before we reached the door we saw cheerful lights gleaming from +the long rows of windows. Anton, Moidel, the aunt, Uncle Johann were +at the door to receive us and our belongings. They felt sure, somehow, +that we should come. + +The floors of our rooms had been scrubbed white as snow in our +absence, but we must not hesitate to enter with our damp shoes. Were +not the rooms our own? Letters and newspapers were carefully laid +according to their various directions, and with flowers and dainty +dishes covered the supper-table. Moro, the good house-dog, stood by +our chairs or caressed the hand of his favorite, E----. We felt that +we had come home--to our home in the Tyrol. + +MARGARET HOWITT. + +[TO BE CONTINUED] + + + + +COLORADO AND THE SOUTH PARK. + + +On the 15th of August, 1871, two brothers and a sister--Sepia, an +artist, Levell, an engineer, and Scribe, who is the narrator--left +Chicago by the North-western Railroad, bound for Denver in Colorado, +about eleven hundred miles west. The first day we were climbing the +gradual ascent from the Lakes to the Mississippi, which we crossed +at 4.30 P.M., at Clinton. The thirty years which had elapsed since I +first traversed this region had changed it from wild, unbroken +prairie to a well-cultivated country, full of corn-fields, cattle and +flourishing towns. Then I traveled in a wagon four miles an hour, +and had to find my own meat in the shape of a deer from the grove, a +grouse from the prairie or a duck from the river. Now we rushed across +the State in six hours, stopping fifteen minutes for dinner in a fine +brick hotel, metropolitan in charges, if not in fare. In 1840, when +we arrived at the great river, we waited two or three hours for the +ferry-boat, and finally had to cross in a "dug-out," which seemed but +a frail vessel to stem the rapid currents and whirling eddies of the +Mississippi. Now we crossed upon a railroad bridge of iron, which cost +more money than all Iowa contained in 1840. Still, I fancy that the +first method of traveling was the more interesting. + +Through the still summer afternoon we rushed on over the rolling +prairies of Iowa, dotted with towns and villages and covered with +great corn- and wheat-farms. Here in 1840 was absolute wilderness: +we made our hunting-camp seventy-five miles west of the river, and +we were twenty miles away from any white settler. Wolves howled and +panthers screamed around our camp, we lived upon elk and deer meat, +and our only visitors in two weeks were some Sac and Fox Indians, who +disapproved of our intrusion upon their hunting-grounds. + +At 9 A.M. on the 16th we arrived at Council Bluffs, and crossed +the turbid and furious Missouri in a steam ferry-boat to Omaha in +Nebraska. For many years Council Bluffs was one of the remotest +military posts: to go there was to be banished from the world. Now +it is a town of ten thousand inhabitants, struggling to overtake its +rival on the other bank, Omaha, which has sixteen thousand. + +Here our baggage was rechecked for Denver, for at Omaha begins the +Union Pacific Railroad. A great road it is, and great are its charges. +On the North-western, as on most others, the charge is about four +cents per mile, but the Union Pacific, to which corporation Congress +gave the usual land-grant, and more than enough money to build the +road, cannot afford to carry you for less than ten. This may arise +from the custom which has prevailed of giving free passes to all +Congressmen, governors, editors and other privileged classes, so that, +half the passengers paying nothing, the others have to pay double. Not +only are the fares high, but you are charged for extra baggage. Like +the elephant, who can drag a cannon or pick up a pin, this great +corporation is able to give free passes to a whole legislature or to +charge me twenty-five cents for five pounds of extra baggage. + +From Nebraska into Wyoming, and we are nearly out of the United +States, though the old flag still flies over us. The people here +talk about going to the "States." All the region hereabouts, from the +middle of Nebraska, lies in what used to be called by the French _Les +Mauvaises Terres_, or "Bad Lands," and was eloquently described by +Irving in _Astoria_ as the Great American Desert. "This region," +he writes, "resembles one of the immeasurable steppes of Asia, and +spreads forth into undulating and treeless plains and desolate sandy +wastes, which are supposed by geologists to have formed the ancient +floor of the ocean countless ages ago, when its primeval waves beat +against the granite bases of the Rocky Mountains. It is a land where +no man permanently abides, for in certain seasons of the year there is +no food either for the hunter or his steed. The herbage is parched and +withered, the streams are dried up, the buffalo, the elk and the +deer have wandered to distant parts, leaving behind them a vast, +uninhabited solitude." + +But this "land where no man permanently abides" is rapidly being +settled, and is found to be rendered very fertile by the simple +process of irrigation, which costs less than the manuring of Eastern +farms. So the Great American Desert recedes before the immigrant, and, +like the noble savage, is found to be a myth. + +On the railroad midway between Cheyenne and Denver lies the new town +of Greeley. Although not on the maps in 1870, it now contains fifteen +hundred inhabitants, forty or fifty stores, six hotels, churches, +schools, and all the apparatus of civilization. This aspiring town, +4779 feet above the sea-level, is an example of those colony towns +so successful in the West, and on which we must depend for rebuilding +society in the South. Greeley is surrounded by fertile farms, +and every city lot looks fresh and green: all this is effected by +irrigation. Two canals have been dug from the head-waters of the +Platte--one twenty-six miles long, which will water fifty thousand +acres; the other ten miles long, to furnish water for the town and +five thousand acres. The prairie where it is not irrigated now, in +midsummer, looks burned up and covered with a parched herbage, which, +however unpromising to the eye, is really good sweet hay, dried and +preserved by the hand of Nature for the buffalo and antelope, and now +cropped by the flocks and herds of the white man. + +Denver, the capital of the Territory, contains about eight thousand +inhabitants. It is a true specimen of a Western town which fully +believes in itself, and blows a loud trumpet from its elevation of +five thousand feet. It was said of old "that the meek shall inherit +the earth," but it was not by _that_ quality that the Denverites +obtained their location. Here are plenty of hotels, three banks and +a mint: five railroads centre here, bringing in ten thousand tons of +freight per month. Denver has schools and churches in satisfactory +numbers, and her merchants sell ten millions of dollars' worth of +goods per annum. Considering that the place was only settled in 1858, +and has in these fifteen years been destroyed both by fire and water, +and almost starved by an Indian blockade, it must be admitted to be a +pretty smart specimen of a Western city. + +We ride in a 'bus, city fashion, to the Broadwell House, a +fatigued-looking structure of the earlier period, but probably no +worse than the others. Directly we begin to plan an excursion to the +South Park, seventy-five miles distant, and going out to look for +wagon and horses, we catch our first sight of the Rocky Mountains, a +line of dim, misty heights, with the more pronounced outline of the +foot-hills beneath. We engage a strong covered wagon, with a good pair +of horses and a driver, the latter only seventeen years old, but owner +of the team, and carrying himself man-fashion, with the precocity of +the Western youth. The wagon is brought to the hotel and loaded, so +as to be ready for an early start in the morning: we have a tent and +camp-equipage, with gun and fishing-rods for Levell and Scribe, and +the sketching-gear belonging to Sepia. + +So on the 18th, at 8 A.M., we drive over the bridge which crosses +Cherry Creek, and then cross six miles of uninhabited prairie, seamed +with gulches, and brown with withered herbage and cactus--no verdure +except along the canals, where several species of _Artemisia_ and a +prickly poppy with a large white flower grow profusely. We then begin +to mount the bare foot-hills, among which are curious masses of red +rock as large as city churches, and washed by the storms of ages into +various fantastic forms. We then enter a ravine or canon through which +flows Bear Creek, a tributary of the Platte. + +Along Bear Creek are ranches where good crops of wheat are raised, and +butter and milk made for the Denver market. The grass in this region +makes the most delicious butter; indeed, I may say that I never tasted +poor butter in Colorado. In the month of August it is as sweet and +fragrant as the very best of our June butter in the States. The time +will come when the butter of Colorado will be sent to the Atlantic +cities: at present there is no surplus made. + +We now began to ascend Bear Mountain by a road cut along its side: it +was smooth and easy of ascent, but only wide enough for one carriage, +with a precipice of several hundred feet on either side, so that +we shuddered to think of the consequences of our meeting a wagon. +Happily, we met with none, although we overtook one, and had to keep +behind it till we reached the summit. Then down the other side to a +strip of bottom-land on a creek, where we camped for the night, having +come twenty miles from Denver. + +_August_ 19. Rose at five and breakfasted on fried pork, corn bread +and coffee. Started at ten, and drove fourteen miles to Omaha Ranch; +then to St. Louis Ranch, six miles, Roland's Ranch, five miles, and +Bailey's, five miles, on the North Fork of the South Fork of the +Platte. The weather was fine, and the air beautifully clear and +bracing. The road wound among the mountains, up a rocky ravine, down a +wooded canon, then through little parks, surrounded by high hills and +set with magnificent sugar pines, and carpeted with fresh grass and +abundant flowers. In the ravines and on the mountain-sides the road +was narrow, but we were lucky and met nothing, although we frequently +overtook the immense wagons drawn by five or six yoke of oxen, and +driven by the most ferocious-looking teamsters whom I have ever seen, +brandishing enormous whips, which crack like rifle-shots in the woods. +We found, however, that, being civilly entreated, they would always +turn out of the road to let us pass. We were now at an elevation of +probably six thousand feet, having been constantly ascending since we +left Denver; and this evening we rose still higher, having climbed a +long mountain which overlooked the head-waters of the Platte. + +Our last descent of fifteen hundred feet in three miles brought us to +the neat log tavern kept by W.L. Bailey, where we found a supper of +trout just from the river, together with mountain-raspberries and +delicious cream, and clean, comfortable beds. When we looked out next +morning everything appeared so pleasant in this sheltered valley, and +the house was so comfortable, that we determined to stay here a day +and enjoy some sketching and fishing. Sepia took her pencils and +ascended the hill behind the house, and we others got out our rods and +followed the example set us by Simon Peter. + +The Platte, which ran through the meadow about a quarter of a mile +away, was a brown, shallow stream, twenty feet wide, fretting over a +rocky bed, with little pools and rapids which had a promising look; so +we looped on a red and a brown hackle and began to cast. Levell walked +down stream about a quarter of a mile before he began, so as to leave +a piece of water for the Scribe. The sun shone very bright and hot, +and only a few small trout answered my invitations. They were darker +and less brilliant in color than our _Salmo fontinalis_, and were, I +think, _Salmo Lewisii_, which inhabits these waters. The valley was +about half a mile wide, and shut in on each side by mountains of red +granite, crowned with pines. Bailey's people were making hay in the +valley, and I sat down on a fragrant haycock to await the return of +my companion. Presently I observed a horseman coming up the valley: +he was a hunter, followed by a couple of hounds, with the carcass of a +mountain-sheep, or bighorn (_Ovis montana_), on the saddle in front +of him. He told me he had killed it on the mountain behind us, and was +taking it to Bailey's for sale. It was an animal something in color +like a deer, and about as heavy, though shorter in the leg, with very +large curved horns, like those of a ram. He said they were numerous +in these mountains, and he had killed six of them in a day, but had to +lower them down the precipices with a lariat, which was hard work. +I asked if the story was true that these creatures would throw +themselves from high rocks, and, turning over in the air, pitch upon +their horns with safety. He said he had hunted them many years, but +never saw that performance. Being asked if he thought they could do +it, he replied that he reckoned they _could_, but would be smashed +if they did. Being interrogated on the subject of grizzly bears, he +replied that there _were_ grizzlies hereabouts, but that he never +hunted them: he had no use for grizzlies. + +In a couple of hours Levell returned, having fished the stream for a +mile or more: he had got about twenty small trout. We found that +Sepia had been more successful than ourselves, for she had made some +effective water-color sketches of the scenery. + +_Aug_. 21. We started this morning at seven, and drove up the Platte +Valley five miles to Slaight's, through a very picturesque region. +Passed some heavy wagons bound to the mines, and met the mail-stage +coming down the valley from Fairplay, with four horses at a gallop: we +were luckily able to draw off and let them pass, which they did in +a cloud of dust, through which could be dimly seen the long-bearded, +red-shirted miners. A saw-mill at Slaight's, with two houses and some +fields of oats. Then eight miles to Heffron's, at the forks of the +river, where there are a post-office and one house. Two miles beyond +we stopped to feed our horses in a lovely park-like bit of open forest +of sugar pines. This species resembles the yellow pine of the Southern +States, with the same rich purple trunk and widespreading branches. +Many of them had been girdled by the Indians to obtain the sweet inner +bark, which is a favorite luxury of the Utes. We see very few birds in +these mountains, which are too wild for the warblers and insect-eating +birds. We met with the mountain-grouse, a bird of about the size and +color of _Tetrao cupido_, and one or two hawks. We also saw in the +bushes at the roadside the mountain-rabbit (_Lepus artemisia_), which +from its large size we at first mistook for a fawn. From Heffron's we +continue to ascend for six miles, till just beyond a small lake we got +the first view of the Park: it lay before us like a vast basin, some +hundreds of feet below, surrounded with a rim of high mountains. + +The Park itself is 9842 feet above the sea-level, or half as high +again as Mount Washington. The surrounding rim is some two thousand +feet higher, while in the distance, north, south and west, may be seen +the snowy summits, fourteen thousand feet high, of Gray's Peak, Pike's +Peak, Mount Lincoln, and + + Other Titans, without muse or name. + +The South Park is sixty miles long and thirty wide, with a surface +like a rolling prairie, and contains hills, groves, lakes and streams +in beautiful variety. It formerly abounded with buffalo and other +game, and was a favorite winter hunting-ground of the Indians and the +white trappers, but since the great influx of miners the buffaloes +have mostly disappeared. Such, however, is the excellence of the +pasture that great herds of cattle are driven up here to feed during +the summer. Several towns and villages have sprung up around the mines +in this vicinity, such as Hamilton, Fairplay and Tarryall, to which a +stage-coach runs three times a week from Denver. + +In our old atlases, forty years ago, we used to see the Rocky +Mountains laid down as a great central chain or back-bone of the +continent; but they are rather a congeries of groups scattered over +an area of six hundred miles in width and a thousand miles long: among +them are hundreds of these parks, from a few acres in extent to the +size of the State of Massachusetts. These mountains differ so entirely +from those usually visited and described by travelers, the Alps, the +Scottish Highlands and the White Mountains, that one can scarcely +believe that this warm air and rich vegetation exist ten thousand feet +above the sea. In climate the Colorado mountains approach more nearly +to the Andes, where the snow-line varies from fourteen thousand to +seventeen thousand feet. Here snow begins at twelve thousand feet, +and increases in quantity to the extreme height of the tallest peaks, +about fourteen thousand two hundred and fifty feet, though even these +are often bare in August. In these parks the cattle live without +shelter in winter, and the timber is large and plentiful at eleven +thousand feet elevation. Glaciers are wanting, but instead we have the +rich vegetation, the wide range of mountains, the pure, dry and balmy +atmosphere, and a variety, a depth and a softness of color which can +hardly be equaled on earth. + +Having stopped an hour to enjoy the view from the brow of the mountain +which forms the rim of the Park, we were overtaken by one of the +sudden rains which occur here, and had to drive six miles along the +level bottom, till, crossing a brook, we found ourselves at sunset +near a large log cabin, where we were glad to be allowed to lie down +on the floor under shelter. + +It was occupied by some young people named McLaughlin, two sisters and +a brother, who had come up from the Plains, where their family lived, +with a herd of cattle, from the milk of which the girls made one +hundred pounds of butter per week, for which they got fifty cents a +pound in the mines. In the fall they returned home, leaving the cattle +for the winter in certain sheltered regions called "the range." They +were stout, healthy young women, who did not fear to stay here all +alone for days at a time while their brother was galloping about the +Park on his broncho after his cattle. They did not keep tavern, but +were often obliged to take in benighted travelers like ourselves, to +whom they gave the shelter of their roof and the privilege of cooking +at their stove. The house was about forty by twenty feet, all in one +room, though one end was parted off by blankets, behind which they +admitted the lady of our party. Sometimes they were visited by Utes, +who are not unfriendly, though, like most Indians, they are audacious +beggars. "They try to scare us sometimes," said Jane: "they tell us, +'Bimeby Utes get all this country--then you my squaw,' but we don't +scare worth a cent." Their nearest neighbor is a sister four miles +away, who is the wife of Squire Lechner, innkeeper and justice of the +peace. + +_Aug_. 23. Started this morning at eleven for Lechner's. Passed some +deserted mining-camps, where the surface had been seamed and scarred +by the diggers; then across a creek, where we saw ducks and a +red-tailed hawk. Squire Lechner has a large log tavern on the brow of +a hill: he was absent, but his wife took us in. Sepia went on the hill +to sketch, and we others drove off in search of a trout-brook of which +we heard flattering accounts. It was a very pretty stream, winding +through the prairie with the gentle murmur so loved by the angler and +poet, and lacked nothing but fish to make it perfect. It was rendered +somewhat turbid by the late rains, so that if the trout were there +they could not see our flies. We are told that trout are plenty on the +other side of the mountains. "Go to the Arkansas," they say, "and you +will find big ones." + + Man never is, but always to be, blest. + +We found Mrs. Lechner a friendly person, like her sisters. She told us +that before her marriage her father kept this tavern. In 1864, most of +the men being away in the Union army, they found the house one morning +surrounded by a band of mounted rebels, who had come up from +Texas through New Mexico to make a raid on the mines. They were a +savage-looking band, about fifty in number, and were led by a man who +had formerly worked for her father, and whom she recognized. They took +what money and gold-dust was in the house, and seized all the +best horses about the place; but when she saw them taking away her +saddle-pony, she cried out, "Oh, Tom Smith! I didn't think you was +that mean, to rob me of my pony! Wasn't you always well treated here?" +He seemed to relent at this appeal, and not only restored her horse, +but two of her father's also. The people collected and pursued the +robbers, most of whom were captured or killed, but the leader escaped. +Mrs. Lechner said she was glad he got away. "Tom must have had some +good in him or he wouldn't have given me back my pony." + +_Aug_. 24. Rose this morning at daybreak, and enjoyed the sight of +a sunrise among these snowy peaks. Nothing can surpass the delicate +tints of rose-color, silver gray, gold and purple which suffuse these +summits in early morning. I called Sepia to sketch them, but what +human colors can reproduce such glories? We left at seven, and drove +to Bailey's, thirty-five miles, before sunset, stopping an hour at +noon. On the top of a mountain, about 4 P.M., we were caught in a +furious squall, attended with rain, snow and hail, with terrific +thunder and lightning, which struck a tree close by. And here I must +pay my tribute to the admirable qualities of our horses--steady, +prompt and courageous; no mountain too steep for them to climb, no +precipice too abrupt to descend; and they stood the pelting of that +pitiless storm like four-legged philosophers. We found Bailey's house +apparently full, but they made room for us. A handsome buggy and pair +arrived soon after, from which descended a well-dressed gentleman +and lady, whom we found to be the superintendent of a silver-mine +at Hamilton and his wife. They told us that there was a very good +boarding-house at that place, with fine scenery all around, which we +ought to have seen. But in truth we had as much fine scenery as we +could contain: we were saturated with it, and a few mountains more +would have been wasted. + +_Aug_. 25. A fine clear morning, and we started early, hoping to drive +through to Denver, forty-five miles, but in about fifteen miles one of +the horses lost a shoe, which it was thought necessary to replace, +the road being rocky; so we went slowly to the junction, where was +a blacksmith. He proved to be a mixture of tavern-keeper, farmer and +blacksmith, and it was considered a favor to be shod by a man of such +various talents. Deliberately he searched for a shoe: that found, he +looked for the hammer. Who had seen the hammer? It was remembered that +little Johnny had been playing with it. Johnny was looked for, and +finally brought, but was unable or unwilling to find the tool so +essential to our progress. "Look for it, Johnny," said the blacksmith; +and he looked, but to no purpose. After waiting an hour for reason to +dawn upon the mind of this infant, the blacksmith put on the shoe with +the help of a hatchet, and we proceeded; but so much time had been +lost night overtook us twelve miles from Denver. We tried at two +taverns, which were full of teamsters, and we were obliged to diverge +three miles down Bear's Creek Canon to the house of Strauss. The +good woman, after a mild protest, admitted us and gave us a supper +of venison, with good beds. Strauss has a fine ranch along the creek, +where he raises forty bushels of wheat to the acre, and his wife milks +thirty-six cows and makes two hundred pounds of butter at a churning. +Besides this, she cultivates a flower-garden, with many varieties of +bloom, irrigated by a ditch from the creek. + +Arrived at Denver at noon of the 26th, and found the mercury at 90 deg., +and were glad to leave the crowded hotel next morning for Chicago. + +I have only described what we actually saw, which was but a small part +of the wonders and delights of Colorado. We were humble travelers, +unattached to any party of Congressmen or of railroad potentates: we +were not ushered into the Garden of the Gods, assisted up Gray's Park, +or introduced to the Petrified Forest; but we saw enough of the new +and beautiful to give us lasting recollections of Colorado and the +South Park. + +S.C. CLARKE. + + + + +THE PATRONS OF HUSBANDRY. + + +"Do you know anything about this 'grange' business?" asked a lady +from the city the other day; and she added, "I can hardly take up a +magazine or newspaper without falling on the words 'grange,' 'Patrons +of Husbandry,' 'farmers' movement,' and all that." + +"Why, I am a Patron myself," I replied. + +"What! you have a _grange_ here in this little New Jersey sandbank?" +she exclaimed incredulously, and plied me with a storm of questions. + +It was a quiet, rainy evening, and I devoted the whole of it to +answering her queries, reading documents from our head-quarters, +and quoting Mr. Adams's treatise on the _Railroad Systems_ and other +authorities to explain the present war between producers and carriers; +and, believing that there are many others who, like my friend, are +disposed to look into this "grange business," I will give them the +substance of our conversation. A great deal of that which has found +its way into the press touching our order is more characterized by +confidence than correctness of statement. In a late magazine article +it is stated that the organization known as the _Patrons of Husbandry_ +"was originally borrowed from an association which for many years +had maintained a feeble existence in a community of Scotch farmers in +North Carolina." This statement has no foundation in fact. The +order is not the out-growth directly, or even indirectly, of any +pre-existing organization. It is the result, so far as it is possible +to trace impulses to their source, of the suggestion of a lady, +communicated some years ago to Mr. O.H. Kelley, the present secretary +of the National Grange, and the person who has done more than any +other to establish the order as it exists to-day. The suggestion was +in substance this: Why cannot the farmers protect themselves by a +national organization, as do other trades and professions? Mr. Kelley +seized the idea with enthusiasm, worked out the plan of a secret +society, and traveled over the country seeking to arouse the +farmers to organize for their mutual advantage. He met with constant +disappointment at first, and his family and friends implored him to +abandon a project which threatened to absorb every cent he possessed, +as it did all his time and energy. But he persevered against every +discouragement, and to-day he may well be proud of the results of his +devotion. + +The first grange was organized in St. Paul, Minnesota, and called the +"North Star Grange," and it is one of the most efficient subordinate +granges in the country to this day. Another was organized in +Washington, one in Fredonia, New York, one in Ohio, another in +Illinois, and a few others during the same year in different places. +This was very nearly six years ago. Since that time they have been +constantly increasing--at first slowly, then with a rapidity unheard +of in the history of secret or any other organizations in this country +or the world. We can hardly count three years since the order fairly +began to grow, and now the granges are numbered by the thousand. Ten +States on the twenty-fifth of June last had over a hundred granges, +and seven of these between two and five hundred. Iowa to-day has +seventeen hundred and ten, and others in process of organization. +Thirty-one of the States and Territories had subordinate or both +subordinate and State granges, according to the June returns. There +were eight at that date in Canada, twenty-three in Vermont, five in +New York State, three in New Jersey, two in Pennsylvania, and one in +Massachusetts. Up to this time there has been little effort made to +extend the organization into the Eastern and Middle States, but at +present deputies from the National Grange are being sent to these +"benighted regions," and the leaven is working finely. To show how +rapidly the order is extending it will be only necessary to add that +seven hundred and one charters for new granges were issued during the +single month of May. + +The discussion of party politics is excluded from the order by common +consent, as well as by the terms of its constitution. How much this +one wise provision tends to preserve harmony among those of different +sects and political parties needs no comment. We know that on one +or both of these rocks most great popular organizations have been +wrecked. So far, the Patrons of Husbandry have worked together with +great harmony, and the slight discords have been nothing more than the +surface ripples on a great onward-setting current. Men and women +are received on terms of absolute equality throughout all the seven +degrees. Four are degrees conferred in subordinate granges, and the +higher in the State granges or in the National Grange--the seventh +in the latter only, constituting a national senate and court of +impeachment, and having charge also of the secret work of the order. +All officers are chosen by ballot--those of the National Grange +for three years, of State granges for two years, and of subordinate +granges for one year. The names of the first four degrees are +respectively, for men and women, Laborer and Maid, Cultivator and +Shepherdess, Harvester and Gleaner, Husbandman and Matron; and the +initiations are not only exceedingly impressive and beautiful, but +really instructive. It may also be added that they are never tedious, +which will be agreeable information to those who, in entering secret +societies, have been dragged through long, meaningless rigmaroles, +conscious of being made a spectacle of, and preserving their temper +only by the most strenuous efforts. + +Into the initiations of the order of the Patrons there enter as +machinery or symbols music and song, the expression of exalted +sentiments, ceremonies replete, without exception, with significance +and instruction, together with fruits and grains and flowers and +simple feasts. Two fundamental objects of the organization are social +and intellectual culture. The widespread realization of the importance +of these among the people is the first great step toward securing +them, and the first unmistakable sign that such step has already been +taken is the rebelling against pure drudgery. Said the Master of the +National Grange, Mr. Dudley W. Adams, in a late address: "It will +doubtless be a matter of surprise to them" (editors, lawyers, +politicians, etc.) "to learn that farmers may possibly entertain +some wish to enjoy life, and have some other object in living besides +everlasting hard work and accumulating a few paltry dollars by coining +them from their own life-blood and stamping them with the sighs of +weary children and worn wives. What we want in agriculture is a +new Declaration of Independence. We must do something to dispel old +prejudices and beat down old notions. That the farmer is a mere animal +to labor from morning till eve, and into the night, is an ancient but +abominable heresy."... "We have heard enough, ten times enough, about +the 'hardened hand of honest toil,' the supreme glory of 'the sweating +brow,' and how magnificent the suit of coarse homespun which covers +a form bent with overwork."... "I tell you, my brother-workers of the +soil, there is something worth living for besides hard work. We have +heard enough of this professional blarney. Toil in itself is not +necessarily glorious. To toil like slaves, raise fat steers, cultivate +broad acres, pile up treasures of bonds and lands and herds, and at +the same time bow and starve the god-like form, harden the hands, +dwarf the immortal mind and alienate the children from the homestead, +is a damning disgrace to any man, and should stamp him as worse than a +brute." + +Thus the farmers have joined the great strike of labor against +drudgery, and it will never end until it is fully recognized that, +while every unproductive life is a dishonorable life, drudgery is no +less degrading than pure idleness. To be sure, the sages in all times +have taught that there was a time to sing and dance as well as a time +to labor, but it is not fifty years since it was generally accepted +by the masses that a person might spend every day of his adult life +in monotonous manual labor, and yet, other things being favorable, +be just as intelligent, just as polished in manner, and graceful +in bearing as if his occupation was varied and the more laborious +portions of it never continued long at a time. To-day this fallacy is +beginning to be generally recognized. Go into any farming district, +and you will find that the farmer's sons who are regularly engaged in +one kind of labor all day, as ploughing, planting, mowing, are +great, awkward, heavy-mannered youths, while his daughters are, in +comparison, easy in their movements and agreeable in their address; +and simply because, though their labor has been as unremitting, it has +been far less monotonous. As a general rule, they go from one thing to +another, and through a great variety of muscular exercises from hour +to hour. + +It is no wonder, then, that the farmers' sons, to get rid of the +terrible monotony of farm-labor as now organized, find peddling +tin kettles an acceptable substitute, or turning somersets in a +third-class circus a fortunate escape. The reason why our country +youths are so impatient of farm-labor is not that they are less +virtuous than formerly, but that they are wiser; and the railroad has +opened a thousand fields for their ambitious daring undreamed of +as possibilities in the olden time. Not even the combination of +attractions afforded by the granges, with their libraries and +reading-rooms, their processions and picnics, the decoration of grange +halls in company with the ladies of the order, the working of degrees, +the music, social reunions, balls and concerts, can keep young men on +the farm unless something is done to render the labor less monotonous +and disagreeable. + +One of the Patrons during a late discussion of these questions +predicted, from the growing intelligence of the people, and their +better understanding of the possibilities of organization, that within +a few years we shall see magnificent social palaces, something like +the famous one at Guise, in many places in this country; and he went +on to show how social and industrial life might be organized so as +to secure the most complete liberty of the individual or family, +magnificent educational advantanges, remunerative occupation and +varied amusements for all, with perfect insurance against want for +orphans, for the sick and the aged. Each palace was to be the centre +of a great agricultural district exploited in the most scientific +manner, and through the varied economies resulting from combination +all the luxuries of industry and all the conditions for high culture +were to be secured to all who were willing to labor even one-half +the hours that the farmer now does. It was a glowing picture, and +certainly very entertaining, whether a possibility of this, or, as one +of the company suggested, of some happier planet than ours. + +But whatever dreams for the future may be entertained by some of the +Patrons, it is certain that they have work directly at hand, and that +they are grappling it with a will. The Iowa granges, through agents +appointed from among their members, now purchase their machinery and +farming implements direct from the manufacturer and by wholesale. +That State saved half a million during 1872 in this way, and Missouri, +through the executive committee of her State grange, has just +completed a contract in St. Louis for the same purpose. All members +of the granges are thus enabled to secure these articles at greatly +reduced prices; and as there are over three hundred and fifty granges, +with a larger membership than in many other States, this is a very +important item. + +Now, in regard to the railroads, with which it is generally supposed +the Patrons of Husbandry are in fierce conflict. Certainly, to the +outside observer, the agriculturists of the South and West seem +to have most grievous burdens to bear. It costs the price of three +bushels of corn to carry one to the grain-marts by rail, and the whole +world knows that they have been burning their three-year old crops as +fuel in nearly all the Western States. Meanwhile, it seems clear that +there is not too much corn raised, since a great famine has just swept +over Persia, and others are threatening in different parts of the +world. + +The present high rates of transportation were never anticipated by the +farmer. If in the beginning some great route charged high rates for +carrying, his dissatisfaction was soothed by the assurance that the +road had cost an enormous outlay of capital, and that as soon as +the company was partially reimbursed the rates would be lowered. The +sequel generally proved that the rates went up instead of down, and +the still angrier mood of the farmer was again quieted by a new hope: +a great competing railroad line was projected, and finally finished. +Competition would certainly bring down the prices. This was the +reasonable way to expect relief. Competition always had that effect. +Alas for the simple producer! He had borne his burdens long and +patiently only to learn the truth of George Stevenson's pithy +apothegm, that "where combination is possible competition is +impossible." The two great companies combined, became consolidated +into one, and, having their victim completely in their power, swindled +him without pity and divided the spoils between them. + +The characteristic of the day is the tendency to consolidation. But +nothing can prevent the people from fearing the results of great +monopolies and "rings," or from organizing to circumvent their +schemes. Those who make no calculation for the growing intelligence +of industry are walking blindly. Never were the people so conscious of +their power--never so fully aware that in this country the machinery +for correcting abuses lies in the degree of concentration with which +public opinion can be brought to bear in a given direction. Once let +the people become fully aroused to the existence of an evil or abuse, +and there is no interest nor combination of interests that can +long hold out against them. The trouble heretofore has been the +multiplicity of conflicting opinions everywhere disseminated, and the +consequent difficulty of agreeing upon measures, and uniting a great +number of people in their adoption for the accomplishment of certain +ends. If we may rely upon the promise of the order of the Patrons of +Husbandry, now slowly and surely sweeping toward the eastern shores of +the country, and yet still widening and extending in the West, where +it rose, we may hope that this is the great moving army of the people +so long waited for, which is to work out the vexed problems of labor +and capital by a sudden but peaceful revolution. + +The record of the vast work that the order of the Patrons has +accomplished for its members exists at present in a detached and +scattered form among the different granges, and in piles of yet unused +documents at the national head-quarters. The full history of the +movement is promised, and in good time will doubtless appear. + +Since the first part of this paper was written the Iowa granges have +increased to over one thousand seven hundred and fifty. Twenty-nine +new ones were organized during the week ending July 24. Over one-third +of all the grain-elevators of the State are owned or controlled by +the granges, which had, up to December last, shipped over five +million bushels of grain to Chicago, besides cattle and hogs in vast +quantities; and the reports received from these shipments show an +increased profit to the producers of from ten to forty per cent. +over that of the old "middlemen" system; and by the complete buying +arrangements which the Western granges have effected it is calculated +that the members save on an average one hundred dollars a year each. +Large families find their expenses reduced by three or four hundred +dollars annually, aside from amounts saved on sewing-machines, pianos, +organs, reapers, mowers, corn-shellers and a hundred other costly +articles; all of which any member of any grange can obtain to-day at +a saving of from twenty-five to forty per cent. They are ordered in +quantity from the manufacturers by the agents of the State granges of +the West, and a single order even from a member of a new-formed +grange in Vermont will be incorporated in the general State order. The +granges of the Eastern and Middle States are as yet mostly engaged +in the work of organizing, and have not yet realized the pecuniary +advantages accruing to older granges. By this vast co-operative and +entirely cash system all parties are well satisfied except certain +unfortunate middlemen, who find their "occupation gone," and +themselves obliged to become producers or to enter into the sale of +the numerous small and low-priced articles not yet affected by the +movement. + +MARIE ROWLAND. + + +[It is desirable that an organization which is assuming such +proportions and promising such results should be examined from every +point of view, and the foregoing article, written from that of +an enthusiastic member of the order, will, we may hope, assist in +throwing light upon the subject. If there is some degree of vagueness +in its statement of the aims and purposes with which the movement +has been set on foot, it is probable that this exactly represents the +state of mind of the great majority of those who are engaged in it. +The one tangible thing which it would seem to be accomplishing, a +combination of the farmers for the purchase of pianos and agricultural +implements at wholesale prices, is not of a very startling character; +and if this can be attained at no greater cost or trouble to the +individual "Patrons" than that of "decorating the granges" and taking +part in the singing and the symbolical rites, a considerable advantage +will no doubt have been gained. How the cost of transportation is +to be reduced, or why the railroads, by facilitating the exchange of +productions, should have become the _bete noire_ of the producers, are +points on which more definite information would seem to be required. +But "the people" being now "aroused," and the revolution in progress, +we have only to await events in that hopeful state of mind which such +announcements are calculated to inspire.--ED.] + + + + +ON THE CHURCH STEPS. + + +CHAPTER VI. + + +I had a busy week of it in New York--copying out instructions, taking +notes of marriages and intermarriages in 1690, and writing each day +a long, pleading letter to Bessie. There was a double strain upon me: +all the arrangements for my client's claims, and in an undercurrent +the arguments to overcome Bessie's decision, went on in my brain side +by side. + +I could not, I wrote to her, make the voyage without her. It would be +the shipwreck of all my new hopes. It was cruel in her to have +raised such hopes unless she was willing to fulfill them: it made the +separation all the harder. I could not and would not give up the plan. +"I have engaged our passage in the Wednesday's steamer: say yes, dear +child, and I will write to Dr. Wilder from here." + +I could not leave for Lenox before Saturday morning, and I hoped to be +married on the evening of that day. But to all my pleading came "No," +simply written across a sheet of note-paper in my darling's graceful +hand. + +Well, I would go up on the Saturday, nevertheless. She would surely +yield when she saw me faithful to my word. + +"I shall be a sorry-looking bride-groom," I thought as I surveyed +myself in the little mirror at the office. It was Friday night, and we +were shutting up. We had worked late by gaslight, all the clerks had +gone home long ago, and only the porter remained, half asleep on a +chair in the hall. + +It was striking nine as I gathered up my bundle of papers and thrust +them into a bag. I was rid of them for three days at least. "Bill, you +may lock up now," I said, tapping the sleepy porter on the shoulder. + +"Oh, Mr. Munro, shure here's a card for yees," handing me a lady's +card. + +"Who left it, Bill?" I hurriedly asked, taking it to the flaring +gaslight on the stairway. + +"Two ladies in a carriage--an old 'un and a pretty young lady, shure. +They charged me giv' it yees, and druv' off." + +"And why didn't you bring it in, you blockhead?" I shouted, for it +was Bessie Stewart's card. On it was written in pencil: "Westminster +Hotel. On our way through New York. Leave on the 8 train for the South +to-night. Come up to dinner." + +The eight-o'clock train, and it was now striking nine! + +"Shure, Mr. Charles, you had said you was not to be disturbed on no +account, and that I was to bring in no messages." + +"Did you tell those ladies that? What time were they here?" + +"About five o'clock--just after you had shut the dure, and the clerks +was gone. Indeed, and they didn't wait for no reply, but hearin' you +were in there, they druv' off the minute they give me the card. The +pretty young lady didn't like the looks of our office, I reckon." + +It was of no use to storm at Bill. He had simply obeyed orders like +a faithful machine. So, after a hot five minutes, I rushed up to the +Westminster. Perhaps they had not gone. Bessie would know there was a +mistake, and would wait for me. + +But they were gone. On the books of the hotel were registered in a +clear hand, Bessie's hand, "Mrs. M. Antoinette Sloman and maid; Miss +Bessie Stewart." They had arrived that afternoon, must have driven +directly from the train to the office, and had dined, after waiting a +little time for some one who did not come. + +"And where were they going?" I asked of the sympathetic clerk, who +seemed interested. + +"Going South--I don't know where. The elder lady seemed delicate, and +the young lady quite anxious that she should stay here to-night and go +on in the morning. But no, she would go on to-night." + +I took the midnight train for Philadelphia. They would surely not go +farther to-night if Mrs. Sloman seemed such an invalid. + +I scanned every hotel-book in vain. I walked the streets of the city, +and all the long Sunday I haunted one or two churches that my memory +suggested to me were among the probabilities for that day. They were +either not in the city or most securely hid. + +And all this time there was a letter in the New York post-office +waiting for me. I found it at my room when I went back to it on Monday +noon. + +It ran as follows: + + "WESTMINSTER HOTEL. + + "Very sorry not to see you--Aunt + Sloman especially sorry; but she has + set her heart on going to Philadelphia + to-night. We shall stay at a private + house, a quiet boarding-house; for aunt + goes to consult Dr. R---- there, and + wishes to be very retired. I shall not + give you our address: as you sail so + soon, it would not be worth while to + come over. I will write you on the + other side. + + B.S." + +Where's a Philadelphia directory? Where is this Dr. R----? I find him, +sure enough--such a number Walnut street. Time is precious--Monday +noon! + +"I'll transfer my berth to the Saturday steamer: that will do as well. +Can't help it if they do scold at the office." + +To drive to the Cunard company's office and make the transfer took +some little time, but was not this my wedding holiday? I sighed as I +again took my seat in the car at Jersey City. On this golden Monday +afternoon I should have been slowly coming down the Housatonic Valley, +with my dear little wife beside me. Instead, the unfamiliar train, and +the fat man at my side reading a campaign newspaper, and shaking his +huge sides over some broad burlesque. + +The celebrated surgeon, Dr. R----, was not at home in answer to my +ring on Monday evening. + +"How soon will he be in? I will wait." + +"He can see no patients to-night sir," said the man; "and he may not +be home until midnight." + +"But I am an _im_patient," I might have urged, when a carriage dashed +up to the door. A slight little man descended, and came slowly up the +steps. + +"Dr. R----?" I said inquiringly. + +"Yes, sir." + +"Just one minute, doctor, if you please. I only want to get an address +from you." + +He scanned me from head to foot: "Walk into my office, young man." + +I might have wondered at the brusqueness of his manner had I not +caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror over the mantelshelf. +Dusty and worn, and with a keen look of anxiety showing out of every +feature, I should scarcely have recognized myself. + +I explained as collectedly as possible that I wanted the address of +one of his patients, a dear old friend of mine, whom I had missed +as she passed through New York, and that, as I was about to sail for +Europe in a few days, I had rushed over to bid her good-bye. "Mrs. +Antoinette Sloman, it is, doctor." + +The doctor eyed me keenly: he put out his hand to the little silver +bell that stood on the table and tapped it sharply. The servant +appeared at the door: "Let the carriage wait, James." + +Again the watchful, keen expression. Did he think me an escaped +lunatic, or that I had an intent to rob the old lady? Apparently the +scrutiny was satisfactory, for he took out a little black book from +his pocket, and turning over the leaves, said, "Certainly, here it +is--No. 30 Elm street, West Philadelphia." + +Over the river, then, again: no wonder I had not seen them in the +Sunday's search. + +"I will take you over," said Dr. R----, replacing the book in his +pocket again. "Mrs. Sloman is on my list. Wait till I eat a biscuit, +and I'll drive you over in my carriage." + +Shrewd little man! thought I: if I am a convict or a lunatic with +designs on Mrs. Sloman, he is going to be there to see. + +"Till he ate a biscuit?" I should think so. To his invitation, most +courteously urged, that I should come and share his supper--"You've +just come from the train, and you won't get back to your hotel for two +hours, at least"--I yielded a ready acceptance, for I was really very +hungry: I forget whether I had eaten anything all day. + +But the biscuit proved to be an elegant little supper served in +glittering plate, and the doctor lounged over the tempting bivalves +until I could scarce conceal my impatience. + +"Do you chance to know," he said carelessly, as at last we rose from +the table and he flung his napkin down, "Mrs. Sloman's niece, Miss +Stewart?" + +"Excellently well," I said smiling: "in fact, I believe I am engaged +to be married to her." + +"My dear fellow," said the doctor, bursting out laughing, "I am +delighted to hear it! Take my carriage and go. I saw you were a +lawyer, and you looked anxious and hurried; and I made up my mind +that you had come over to badger the old lady into making her will. I +congratulate you with all my soul--and myself, too," he added, shaking +my hand. "Only think! Had it not been for your frankness, I should +have taken a five-mile ride to watch you and keep you from doing my +patient an injury." + +The good doctor quite hurried me into the carriage in the effusion of +his discovery; and I was soon rolling away in that luxurious vehicle +over the bridge, and toward Bessie at last. + +I cannot record that interview in words, nor can I now set down any +but the mere outline of our talk. My darling came down to meet me with +a quick flush of joy that she did not try to conceal. She was natural, +was herself, and only too glad, after the _contretemps_ in New York, +to see me again. She pitied me as though I had been a tired child +when I told her pathetically of my two journeys to Philadelphia, and +laughed outright at my interview with Dr. R----. + +I was so sure of my ground. When I came to speak of the journey--_our_ +journey--I knew I should prevail. It was a deep wound, and she shrank +from any talk about it. I had to be very gentle and tender before she +would listen to me at all. + +But there was something else at work against me--what was +it?--something that I could neither see nor divine. And it was not +altogether made up of Aunt Sloman, I was sure. + +"I cannot leave her now, Charlie. Dr. R---- wishes her to remain in +Philadelphia, so that he can watch her case. That settles it, Charlie: +I must stay with her." + +What was there to be said? "Is there no one else, no one to take your +place?" + +"Nobody; and I would not leave her even if there were." + +Still, I was unsatisfied. A feeling of uneasiness took possession of +me. I seemed to read in Bessie's eyes that there was a thought between +us hidden out of sight. There is no clairvoyant like a lover. I could +see the shadow clearly enough, but whence, in her outer life, had the +shadow come? _Between_ us, surely, it could not be. Even her anxiety +for her aunt could not explain it: it was something concealed. + +When at last I had to leave her, "So to-morrow is your last day?" she +said. + +"No, not the last. I have changed my passage to the Saturday steamer." + +The strange look came into her face again. Never before did blue eyes +wear such a look of scrutiny. + +"Well, what is it?" I asked laughingly as I looked straight into her +eyes. + +"The Saturday steamer," she said musingly--"the Algeria, isn't it? I +thought you were in a hurry?" + +"It was my only chance to have you," I explained, and apparently the +argument was satisfactory enough. + +With the saucy little upward toss with which she always dismissed a +subject, "Then it isn't good-bye to-night?" she said. + +"Yes, for two days. I shall run over again on Thursday." + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + +The two days passed, and the Thursday, and the Friday's parting, +harder for Bessie, as it seemed, than she had thought for. It was hard +to raise her dear little head from my shoulder when the last moment +came, and to rush down stairs to the cab, whose shivering horse and +implacable driver seemed no bad emblem of destiny on that raw October +morning. + +I was glad of the lowering sky as I stepped up the gangway to the +ship's deck. "What might have been" went down the cabin stairs with +me; and as I threw my wraps and knapsack into the double state-room I +had chosen I felt like a widower. + +It was wonderful to me then, as I sat down on the side of the berth +and looked around me, how the last two weeks had filled all the future +with dreams. "I must have a genius for castle-building," I laughed. +"Well, the reality is cold and empty enough. I'll go up on deck." + +On deck, among the piles of luggage, were various metal-covered trunks +marked M----. I remember now watching them as they were stowed away. + +But it was with a curious shock, an hour after we had left the dock, +that a turn in my solitary walk on deck brought me face to face with +Fanny Meyrick. + +"You here?" she said. "I thought you had sailed in the Russia! Bessie +told me you were to go then." + +"Did she know," I asked, "that _you_ were going by this steamer?" + +On my life, never was gallantry farther from my thoughts: my question +concerned Bessie alone, but Fanny apparently took it as a compliment, +and looked up gayly: "Oh yes: that was fixed months ago. I told her +about it at Lenox." + +"And did she tell you something else?" I asked sharply. + +"Oh yes. I was very glad to hear of your good prospect. Do be +congratulated, won't you?" + +Rather an odd way to put it, thought I, but it is Fanny Meyrick's way. +"Good prospect!" Heavens! was that the term to apply to my engagement +with Bessie? + +I should have insisted on a distincter utterance and a more flattering +expression of the situation had it been any other woman. But a +lingering suspicion that perhaps the subject was a distasteful one to +Fanny Meyrick made me pause, and a few moments after, as some one else +joined her, I left her and went to the smokestack for my cigar. + +It was impossible, in the daily monotony of ship-life, to avoid +altogether the young lady whom Fate had thrown in my way. She was a +most provokingly good sailor, too. Other women stayed below or were +carried in limp bundles to the deck at noon; but Fanny, perfectly +poised, with the steady glow in her cheek, was always ready to amuse +or be amused. + +I tried, at first, keeping out of her way, with the _Trois +Mousquetaires_ for company. But it seemed to me, as she knew of my +engagement, such avoidance was anything but complimentary to her. +Loyalty to her sex would forbid me to show that I had read her secret. +Why not meet her on the frank, breezy ground of friendship? + +Perhaps, after all, there was no secret. Perhaps her feeling was only +one of girlish gratitude, however needless, for pulling her out of the +Hudson River. I did not know. + +Nor was I particularly pleased with the companion to whom she +introduced me on our third day out--Father Shamrock, an Irish priest, +long resident in America, and bound now for Maynooth. How he had +obtained an introduction to her I do not know, except in the easy, +fatherly way he seemed to have with every one on board. + +"Pshaw!" thought I, "what a nuisance!" for I shared the common +antipathy to his country and his creed. Nor was his appearance +prepossessing--one of Froude's "tonsured peasants," as I looked +down at the square shoulders, the stout, short figure and the broad +beardlessness of the face of the padre. But his voice, rich and +mellow, attracted me in spite of myself. His eyes were sparkling with +kindly humor, and his laugh was irresistible. + +A perfect man of the world, with no priestly austerity about him, he +seemed a perpetual anxiety to the two young priests at his heels. +They were on their dignity always, and, though bound to hold him in +reverence as their superior in age and rank, his songs and his gay +jests were evidently as thorns in their new cassocks. + +Father Shamrock was soon the star of the ship's company. Perfectly +suave, his gayety had rather the French sparkle about it than the +distinguishing Italian trait, and his easy manner had a dash of +manliness which I had not thought to find. Accomplished in various +tongues, rattling off a gay little _chanson_ or an Irish song, it was +a sight to see the young priests looking in from time to time at +the cabin door in despair as the clock pointed to nine, and Father +Shamrock still sat the centre of a gay and laughing circle. + +He had rare tact, too, in talking to women. Of all the ladies on the +Algeria, I question if there were any but the staunchest Protestants. +Some few held themselves aloof at first and declined an introduction. +"Father Shamrock! An Irish priest! How _can_ Miss Meyrick walk with +him and present him as she does?" But the party of recalcitrants grew +less and less, and Fanny Meyrick was very frank in her admiration. +"Convert you?" she laughed over her shoulder to me. "He wouldn't take +the trouble to try." + +And I believe, indeed, he would not. His strong social nature was +evidently superior to any ambition of his cloth. He would have made a +famous diplomat but for the one quality of devotion that was lacking. +I use the word in its essential, not in its religious sense--devotion +to an idea, the faith in a high purpose. + +We had one anxious day of it, and only one. A gale had driven most +of the passengers to the seclusion of their state-rooms, and left +the dinner-table a desert. Alone in the cabin, Father Shamrock, Fanny +Meyrick, a young Russian and myself: I forget a vigilant duenna, the +only woman on board unreconciled to Father Shamrock. She lay prone +on one of the seats, her face rigid and hands clasped in an agony of +terror. She was afraid, she afterward confessed to me, to go to her +state-room: nearness and voices seemed a necessity to her. + +When I joined the party, Father Shamrock, as usual, was the narrator. +But he had dropped out of his voice all the gay humor, and was talking +very soberly. Some story he was telling, of which I gathered, as he +went on, that it was of a young lady, a rich and brilliant society +woman. "Shot right through the heart at Chancellorsville, and he +the only brother. They two, orphans, were all that were left of the +family. He was her darling, just two years younger than she. + +"I went to see her, and found her in an agony. She had not kissed him +when he left her: some little laughing tiff between them, and she +had expected to see him again before his regiment marched. She threw +herself on her knees and made confession; and then she took a holy +vow: if the saints would grant her once more to behold his body, she +would devote herself hereafter to God's holy Church. + +"She gathered all her jewels together in a heap and cast them at my +feet. 'Take them, Father, for the Church: if I find him I shall not +wear them again--or if I do not find him.' + +"I went with her to the front of battle, and we found him after a +time. It was a search, but we found his grave, and we brought him home +with us. Poor boy! beyond recognition, except for the ring he wore; +but she gave him the last kiss, and then she was ready to leave the +world. She took the vows as Sister Clara, the holy vows of poverty and +charity." + +"But, Father," said Fanny, with a new depth in her eyes, "did she not +die behind the bars? To be shut up in a convent with that grief at her +heart!" + +"Bars there were none," said the Father gently. "She left her vocation +to me, and I decided for her to become a Sister of Mercy. I +have little sympathy," with a shrug half argumentative, half +deprecatory--"but little sympathy with the conventual system for +spirits like hers. She would have wasted and worn away in the offices +of prayer. She needed _action_. And she had the full of it in her +calling. She went from bedside to bedside of the sick and dying--here +a child in a fever; there a widow-woman in the last stages of +consumption--night after night, and day after day, with no rest, no +thought of herself." + +"Oh, I have seen her," I could not help interposing, "in a city car. A +shrouded figure that was conspicuous even in her serge dress. She read +a book of _Hours_ all the time, but I caught one glimpse of her eyes: +they were very brilliant." + +"Yes," sighed the Father, "it was an unnatural brightness. I was +called away to Montreal, or I should never have permitted the +sacrifice. She went where-ever the worst cases were of contagion and +poverty, and she would have none to relieve her at her post. So, when +I returned after three months' absence, I was shocked at the change: +she was dying of their family disease. 'It is better, so,' she said, +'dear Father. It was only the bullet that saved Harry from it, and it +would have been sure to come to me at last, after some opera or +ball.' She died last winter--so patient and pure, and such a saintly +sufferer!" + +The Father wiped his eyes. Why should I think of Bessie? Why should +the Sister's veiled figure and pale ardent face rise before me as if +in warning? + +Of just such overwhelming sacrifice was my darling capable were her +life's purpose wrecked. Something there was in the portrait of the +sweet singleness, the noble scorn of self, the devotion unthinking, +uncalculating, which I knew lay hidden in her soul. + +The Father warmed into other themes, all in the same key of mother +Church. I listened dreamily, and to my own thoughts as well. + +He pictured the priest's life of poverty, renunciation, leaving the +world of men, the polish and refinement of scholars, to take the +confidences and bear the burdens of grimy poverty and ignorance. +Surely, I thought, we do wrong to shut such men out of our sympathies, +to label them "Dangerous." Why should we turn the cold shoulder? are +we so true to our ideals? But one glance at the young priests as they +sat crouching in the outer cabin, telling their beads and crossing +themselves with the vehemence of a frightened faith, was enough. +Father Shamrock was no type. Very possibly his own life would show but +coarse and poor against the chaste, heroic portraits he had drawn. He +had the dramatic faculty: for the moment he was what he related--that +was all. + +Our vigilant duenna had gradually risen to a sitting posture, and +drawn nearer and nearer, and as the narrator's voice sank into silence +she said with effusion, "Well, _you_ are a good man, I guess." + +But Fanny Meyrick sat as if entranced. The gale had died away, and, to +break the spell, I asked her if she wanted to take one peep on deck, +to see if there was a star in the heavens. + +There was no star, but a light rising and falling with the ship's +motion, which was pronounced by a sailor to be Queenstown light, shone +in the distance. + +The Father was to leave us there. "We shall not make it to-night," +said the sailor. "It is too rough. Early in the morning the passengers +will land." + +"I wish," said Fanny with a deep sigh, as if wakening from a dream, +"that the Church of Rome was at the bottom of the sea!" + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + +Arrived at our dock, I hurried off to catch the train for London. The +Meyricks lingered for a few weeks in Wales before coming to +settle down for the winter. I was glad of it, for I could make my +arrangements unhampered. So I carefully eliminated Clarges street from +my list of lodging-houses, and finally "ranged" myself with a neat +landlady in Sackville street. + +How anxiously I awaited the first letter from Bessie! As the banker's +clerk handed it over the counter to me, instead of the heavy envelope +I had hoped for, it was a thin slip of an affair that fluttered away +from my hand. It was so very slim and light that I feared to open it +there, lest it should be but a mocking envelope, nothing more. + +So I hastened back to my cab, and, ordering the man to drive to the +law-offices, tore it open as I jumped in. It enclosed simply a +printed slip, cut from some New York paper--a list of the Algeria's +passengers. + +"What joke is this?" I said as I scanned it more closely. + +By some spite of fortune my name was printed directly after the +Meyrick party. Was it for this, this paltry thing, that Bessie +has denied me a word? I turned over the envelope, turned it inside +out--not a penciled word even! + +The shadow that I had seen on that good-bye visit to Philadelphia was +clear to me now. I had said at Lenox, repeating the words after Bessie +with fatal emphasis, "I am glad, very glad, that Fanny Meyrick is to +sail in October. I would not have her stay on this side for worlds!" +Then the next day, twenty-four hours after, I told her that I too was +going abroad. Coward that I was, not to tell her at first! She might +have been sorry, vexed, but not _suspicious_. + +Yes, that was the ugly word I had to admit, and to admit that I had +given it room to grow. + +My first hesitancy about taking her with me, my transfer from the +Russia to the later steamer, and, to crown all, that leaf from Fanny's +pocket-book: "I shall love him for ever and ever"! + +And yet she _had_ faith in me. She had told Fanny Meyrick we were +engaged. _Had she not_? + +My work in London was more tedious and engrossing than I had expected. +Even a New York lawyer has much to learn of the law's delay in those +pompous old offices amid the fog. Had I been working for myself, I +should have thrown up the case in despair, but advices from our office +said "Stick to it," and I stayed. + +Eating out my own heart with anxiety whenever I thought of my home +affair, perhaps it was well for me that I had the monotonous, musty +work that required little thought, but only a persistent plodding and +a patient holding of my end of the clue. + +In all these weeks I had nothing from Bessie save that first cruel +envelope. Letter after letter went to her, but no response came. I +wrote to Mrs. Sloman too, but no answer. Then I bethought me of Judge +Hubbard, but received in reply a note from one of his sons, stating +that his father was in Florida--that he had communicated with him, +but regretted that he was unable to give me Miss Stewart's present +address. + +Why did I not seek Fanny Meyrick? She must have come to London long +since, and surely the girls were in correspondence. I was too proud. +She knew of our relations: Bessie had told her. I could not bring +myself to reveal to her how tangled and gloomy a mystery was between +us. I could explain nothing without letting her see that she was the +unconscious cause. + +At last, when one wretched week after another had gone by, and we were +in the new year, I could bear it no longer. "Come what will, I must +know if Bessie writes to her." + +I went to Clarges street. My card was carried into the Meyricks' +parlor, and I followed close upon it. Fanny was sitting alone, reading +by a table. She looked up in surprise as I stood in the doorway. A +little coldly, I thought, she came forward to meet me, but her manner +changed as she took my hand. + +"I was going to scold you, Charlie, for avoiding us, for staying away +so long, but that is accounted for now. Why didn't you send us word +that you were ill? Papa is a capital nurse." + +"But I have not been ill," I said, bewildered, "only very busy and +very anxious." + +"I should think so," still holding my hand, and looking into my face +with an expression of deep concern. "Poor fellow! You do look worn. +Come right here to this chair by the fire, and let me take care of +you. You need rest." + +And she rang the bell. I suffered myself to be installed in the soft +crimson chair by the fire. It was such a comfort to hear a friendly +voice after all those lonely weeks! When the servant entered with a +tray, I watched her movements over the tea-cups with a delicious sense +of the womanly presence and the home-feeling stealing over me. + +"I can't imagine what keeps papa," she said, chatting away with +woman's tact: "he always smokes after dinner, and comes up to me for +his cup of tea afterward." + +Then, as she handed me a tiny porcelain cup, steaming and fragrant, "I +should never have congratulated you, Charlie, on board the steamer if +I had known it was going to end in this way." + +_This way_! Then Bessie must have told her. + +"End?" I said stammering: "what--what end?" + +"In wearing you out. Bessie told me at Lenox, the day we took that +long walk, that you had this important case, and it was a great thing +for a young lawyer to have such responsibility." + +Poor little porcelain cup! It fell in fragments on the floor as I +jumped to my feet: "Was that _all_ she told you? Didn't she tell you +that we were engaged?" + +For a moment Fanny did not speak. The scarlet glow on her cheek, the +steady glow that was always there, died away suddenly and left her +pale as ashes. Mechanically she opened and shut the silver sugar-tongs +that lay on the table under her hand, and her eyes were fixed on me +with a wild, beseeching expression. + +"Did you not know," I said in softer tones, still standing by the +table and looking down on her, "that day at Lenox that we were +engaged? Was it not for _that_ you congratulated me on board the +steamer?" + +A deep-drawn sigh as she whispered, "Indeed, no! Oh dear! what have I +done?" + +"You?--nothing!" I said with a sickly smile; "but there is some +mistake, some mystery. I have never had one line from Bessie since I +reached London, and when I left her she was my own darling little wife +that was to be." + +Still Fanny sat pale as ashes, looking into the fire and muttering to +herself. "Heavens! To think--Oh, Charlie," with a sudden burst, "it's +all my doing! How can I ever tell you?" + +"You hear from Bessie, then? Is she--is she well? Where is she? What +is all this?" And I seated myself again and tried to speak calmly, for +I saw that something very painful was to be said--something that she +could hardly say; and I wanted to help her, though how I knew not. + +At this moment the door opened and "papa" came in. He evidently +saw that he had entered upon a scene as his quick eye took in the +situation, but whether I was accepted or rejected as the future +son-in-law even his penetration was at fault to discover. + +"Oh, papa," said Fanny, rising with evident relief, "just come and +talk to Mr. Munro while I get him a package he wants to take with +him." + +It took a long time to prepare that package. Mr. Meyrick, a cool, +shrewd man of the world, was taking a mental inventory of me, I felt +all the time. I was conscious that I talked incoherently and like a +school-boy of the treaty. Every American in London was bound to +have his special opinion thereupon, and Meyrick, I found, was of +the English party. Then we discussed the special business which had +brought me to England. + +"A very unpresentable son-in-law," I read in his eye, while he was +evidently astonished at his daughter's prolonged absence. + +Our talk flagged and the fire grew gray in its flaky ashes before +Fanny again appeared. + +"I know, papa, you think me very rude to keep Mr. Munro so long +waiting, but there were some special directions to go with the packet, +and it took me a long time to get them right. It is for Bessie, +papa--Bessie Stewart, Mr. Munro's dear little _fiancee_" + +Escaping as quickly as possible from Mr. Meyrick's neatly turned +felicitations--and that the satisfaction he expressed was genuine I +was prepared to believe--hurried home to Sackville street. + +My bedroom was always smothering in its effect on me--close draperies +to the windows, heavy curtains around the bed--and I closed the door +and lighted my candle with a sinking heart. + +The packet was simply a long letter, folded thickly in several +wrappers and tied with a string. The letter opened abruptly: + +"What I am going to do I am sure no woman on earth ever did before me, +nor would I save to undo the trouble I have most innocently made. What +must you have thought of me that day at Lenox, staying close all day +to two engaged people, who must have wished me away a thousand times? +But I did not dream you were engaged. + +"Remember, I had just come over from Saratoga, and knew nothing of +Lenox gossip, then or afterward. Something in your manner once or +twice made me look at you and think that perhaps you were _interested_ +in Bessie, but hers to you was so cold, so distant, that I thought it +was only a notion of my jealous self. + +"Was I foolish to lay so much stress on that anniversary time? Do you +know that the year before we had spent it together, too?--September +28th. True, that year it was at Bertie Cox's funeral, but we had +walked together, and I was happy in being near you. + +"For, you see, it was from something more than the Hudson River that +you had brought me out. You had rescued me from the stupid gayety of +my first winter--from the flats of fashionable life. You had given me +an ideal--something to live up to and grow worthy of. + +"Let that pass. For myself, it is nothing, but for the deeper harm I +have done, I fear, to Bessie and to you. + +"Again, on that day at Lenox, when Bessie and I drove together in the +afternoon, I tried to make her talk about you, to find out what you +were to her. But she was so distant, so repellant, that I fancied +there was nothing at all between you; or, rather, if you had cared for +her at all, that she had been indifferent to you. + +"Indeed, she quite forbade the subject by her manner; and when she +told me you were going abroad, I could not help being very happy, for +I thought then that I should have you all to myself. + +"When I saw you on shipboard, I fancied, somehow, that you had changed +your passage to be with us. It was very foolish; and I write it, +thankful that you are not here to see me. So I scribbled a little note +to Bessie, and sent it off by the pilot: I don't know where you were +when the pilot went. This is, as nearly as I remember it, what I +wrote: + +"'DEAR BESSIE: Charlie Munro is on board. He must have changed his +passage to be with us. I know from something that he has just told +_me_ that this is so, and that he consoles himself already for your +coldness. You remember what I told you when we talked about him. I +shall _try_ now. F.M.' + +"Bessie would know what that meant. Oh, must I tell you what a weak, +weak girl I was? When I found out at Lenox, as I thought, that Bessie +did not care for you, I said to her that once I thought you _had_ +cared for me, but that papa had offended you by his manner--you +weren't of an old Knickerbocker family, you know--and had given you to +understand that your visits were not acceptable. + +"I am sure now that it was because I wanted to think so that I put +that explanation upon your ceasing to visit me, and because papa +always looked so decidedly _queer_ whenever your name was mentioned. + +"I had always had everything in life that I wanted, and I believed +that in due time you would come back to me. + +"Bessie knew well enough what that pilot-letter meant, for here is her +answer." + +Pinned fast to the end of Fanny's letter, so that by no chance should +I read it first, were these words in my darling's hand: + +"Got your pilot-letter. Aunt is much better. We shall be traveling +about so much that you need not write me the progress of your romance, +but believe me I shall be most interested in its conclusion. BESSIE +S." + +It was all explained now. My darling, so sensitive and spirited, had +given her leave "to try." + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + + +But was that all? Was she wearing away the slow months in passionate +unbelief of me? I could not tell. But before I slept that night I had +taken my resolve. I would sail for home by the next steamer. The case +would suffer, perhaps, by the delay and the change of hands: D---- +must come out to attend to it himself, then, but I would suffer no +longer. + +No use to write to Bessie. I had exhausted every means to reach her +save that of the detectives. "I'll go to the office, file my papers +till the next man comes over, see Fanny Meyrick, and be off." + +But what to say to Fanny? Good, generous girl! She had indeed done +what few women in the world would have had the courage to do--shown +her whole heart to a man who loved another. It would be an +embarrassing interview; and I was not sorry when I started out that +morning that it was too early yet to call. + +To the office first, then, I directed my steps. But here Fate lay +_perdu_ and in wait for me. + +"A letter, Mr. Munro, from D---- & Co.," said the brisk young clerk. +They had treated me with great respect of late, for, indeed, our claim +was steadily growing in weight, and was sure to come right before +long. I opened and read: + +"The missing paper is found on this side of the Atlantic--what you +have been rummaging for all winter on the other. A trusty messenger +sails at once, and will report himself to you." + +"At once!" Well, there's only a few days' delay, at most. Perhaps it's +young Bunker. He can take the case and end it: anybody can end it now. + +And my heart was light. "A few days," I said to myself as I ran up the +steps in Clarges street. + +"Miss Fanny at home?" to the man, or rather to the member of +Parliament, who opened the door--"Miss Meyrick, I mean." + +"Yes, sir--in the drawing-room, sir;" and he announced me with a +flourish. + +Fanny sat in the window. She might have been looking out for me, for +on my entrance she parted the crimson curtains and came forward. + +Again the clear glow in her cheek, the self-possessed Fanny of old. + +"Charlie," she began impetuously, "I have been thinking over shipboard +and Father Shamrock, and all. You didn't think then--did you?--that I +cared so very much for you? I am so glad that the Father bewitched +me as he did, for I can remember no foolishness on my part to you, +sir--none at all. Can you?" + +Stammering, confused, I seemed to have lost my tongue and my head +together. I had expected tears, pale cheeks, a burst of self-reproach, +and that I should have to comfort and be very gentle and sympathetic. +I had dreaded the _role_; but here was a new turn of affairs; and, +I own it, my self-love was not a little wounded. The play was played +out, that was evident. The curtain had fallen, and here was I, a +late-arrived hero of romance, the chivalric elder brother, with all +my little stock of property-phrases--friendship of a life, esteem, +etc.--of no more account than a week-old playbill. + +For, I must confess it, I had rehearsed some little forgiveness scene, +in which I should magnanimously kiss her hand, and tell her that I +should honor her above all women for her courage and her truth; and +in which she would cry until her poor little heart was soothed and +calmed; and that I should have the sweet consciousness of being +beloved, however hopelessly, by such a brilliant, ardent soul. + +But Mistress Fanny had quietly turned the tables on me, and I believe +I was angry enough for the moment to wish it had not been so. + +But only for a moment. It began to dawn upon me soon, the rare tact +which had made easy the most embarrassing situation in, the world--the +_bravura_ style, if I may call it so, that had carried us over such a +difficult bar. + +It _was_ delicacy, this careless reminder of the fascinating Father, +and perhaps there was a modicum of truth in that acknowledgment too. + +I took my leave of Fanny Meyrick, and walked home a wiser man. + +But the trusty messenger, who arrived three days later, was not, as +I had hoped, young Bunker or young Anybody. It was simply Mrs. D----, +with a large traveling party. They came straight to London, and +summoned me at once to the Langham Hotel. + +I suppose I looked somewhat amazed at sight of the portly lady, whom +I had last seen driving round Central Park. But the twin Skye terriers +who tumbled in after her assured me of her identity soon enough. + +"Mr. D---- charged me, Mr. Munro," she began after our first +ceremonious greeting, "to give this into no hands but yours. I have +kept it securely with my diamonds, and those I always carry about me." + +From what well-stitched diamond receptacle she had extracted the paper +I did not suffer myself to conjecture, but the document was strongly +perfumed with violet powder. + +"You see, I was coming over," she proceeded to explain, "in any +event, and when Mr. D---- talked of sending Bunker--I think it was +Bunker--with us, I persuaded him to let me be messenger instead. +It wasn't worth while, you know, to have any more people leave the +office, you being away, and--Oh, Ada, my dear, here is Mr. Munro!" + +As Ada, a slim, willowy creature, with the _surprised_ look in her +eyes that has become the fashion of late, came gliding up to me, I +thought that the reason for young Bunker's omission from the party was +possibly before me. + +Bother on her matrimonial, or rather anti-matrimonial, devices! Her +maternal solicitude lest Ada should be charmed with the poor young +clerk on the passage over had cost me weeks of longer stay. For +at this stage a request for any further transfer would have been +ridiculous and wrong. As easy to settle it now as to arrange for any +one else; so the first of April found me still in London, but leaving +it on the morrow for home. + +"Bessie is in Lenox, I think," Fanny Meyrick had said to me as I bade +her good-bye. + +"What! You have heard from her?" + +"No, but I heard incidentally from one of my Boston friends this +morning that he had seen her there, standing on the church steps." + +I winced, and a deeper glow came into Fanny's cheek. + +"You will give her my letter? I would have written to her also, but it +was indeed only this morning that I heard. You will give her that?" + +"I have kept it for her," I said quietly; and the adieus were over. + +SARAH C. HALLOWELL. + +[TO BE CONTINUED.] + + + + +HOW THEY "KEEP A HOTEL" IN TURKEY. + + +The charity of Islam is an article of practice as well as of faith, +and manifests itself in ways astonishing to visitors from Christian +lands. Thus, the impunity--nay, the protection and sympathy--afforded +to the street-beggar, and the way in which the very poor divide their +crust with those still more poverty-stricken than themselves, surprise +the stranger who observes the scene in the open streets. Then, too, +the public fountains, which are charitable offerings from pious +persons, are more numerous in Constantinople than in any other city in +the world. Nor does the law of kindness restrict itself to man. Islam +has anticipated Mr. Bergh, and "The Society for the Prevention +of Cruelty to Animals" had as its founder in the Orient no less a +personage than Mohammed, whom "the faithful" revere as the Messenger +(Resoul) of God, and whom we improperly term Prophet. The Koran +specially inculcates kindness to the brute creation, and so thoroughly +does the Mussulman obey the mandate that the streets are filled with +homeless, masterless dogs, whose melancholy lives Moslem piety will +not abridge by water-cure, as in Western lands. This is the more +curious because the dog is an unclean animal, whose touch defiles the +true believer. Therefore no one keeps a dog, or harbors him, or does +more than throw him a bone or scraps of food. + +Should a camel fall sick in the desert, or break a limb, his master +does not mercifully put him out of his pain, but leaves him there to +die "when it pleases Allah." The same sentiment runs through the +whole of Eastern life, and it is notably manifested in religious +foundations, which also serve as schools, and in khans or +caravansaries, which are the Eastern substitutes for hotels. The +khans had their origin in charity in the good old times of primitive +Mohammedanism, before its simplicity was lost by contact with other +creeds. They were wayside buildings intended for the use of commercial +travelers or pilgrims, affording shelter from storms and protection +from wild beasts, but no further accommodation. The hospitable doors +were ever open, but the apparition of "mine host," ready to offer you +board and lodging for a reasonable compensation, was undreamt of in +the early Turkish philosophy. Every traveler literally "took up his +bed and walked "--or rode--away in the morning, leaving the room he +had tenanted as bare as he found it. Everybody had to bring his own +cooking utensils, provender and materials for making a fire. + +What in other countries is left for commercial enterprise to effect +for the sake of profit is accomplished here by pious people, who leave +legacies for the purpose, and never figure in newspapers, before or +after death, as the reward of their munificence or charity. Many a +wayworn traveler has blessed the memory of those truly religious men +or women on reaching the rugged walls of a khan after a long +day's ride under a Syrian sun or the pitiless down-pours of rain +characteristic of the same region. + +Some of these khans on the road to Damascus or other large Eastern +cities are spacious buildings, and the scene presented within them +when some caravan stops overnight, or several parties of travelers +meet there, is picturesque in the extreme. Everybody wears +bright-colored garments and everybody is armed, and the grunt of the +camel and bray of the donkey make night, if not musical, certainly +most melancholy to the untrained ear. + +But innovation has crept in, and the city khan is now a kind of +bastard hotel, with a rude host, who makes you pay for your own +lodging and the provender of your animal; and as part and parcel of +the establishment you also find a coffee-shop, coffee being the primal +necessity of Oriental well--being, taking precedence even of tobacco, +which, however, always accompanies it. There is always a bazaar close +by, at which you can purchase savory _kibabs_ of mutton and other +cooked food. Men are no more ashamed to eat in the street than they +are to pray there; so you may see multitudes taking their meals _al +fresco_ at the hours of morning, midday or sunset, after prayers. + +Neither does the Mussulman need elaborate bed and bedding for his +repose. He does not undress as we do, but only loosens his garments, +without taking them off, and stretches himself on top of his bed or +rug, as the case may be. When the weather is cold, he takes off his +shoes, but wraps his head and the upper part of his person tightly +in his blanket or shawl, at apparent risk of suffocation. Keeping +the feet warm and the head cool, which is our great sanitary law, +is reversed by the Turk, for he keeps his head covered and his feet +uncovered as much as he possibly can. In the morning he gets up, +shakes himself, tightens his garments, performs his matutinal +ablutions, and his toilet is made for the day. Under these +circumstances it will be seen that many things which we should regard +as essential necessaries in our hostelry, would be pure superfluities +to our Turkish or Arab brother. + +Of course, in these places you meet a great mixture of nationalities +and all classes and conditions, for the rich, in the absence of other +hotel accommodations, must use them as well as the poor; only, as +every man brings his own things with him, you find more luxury and +comfort in some of the arrangements than in others. You may see rich +merchants from Bagdad or Damascus sitting on piles of costly cushions, +attended by obsequious slaves, and smoking perfumed Shiraz out +of silver narghiles, whose long, snake-like tubes are tipped with +precious amber and encircled by rows of precious stones worth a +prince's ransom. Huddled together, in striking contrast to this +picture, you may see, crouched on their old rugs and smoking the +common clay chibouque, a bevy of street-beggars, also enjoying +themselves after their fashion. + +These khans serve also as shops or bazaars for the traveling merchant, +Persian or Turk, who is ever ready to show you his wares, without +seeming to care much whether you buy or not. + +The city khans are very simply built in a quadrangle, with small +rooms, like convent cells, running all round it. These are used both +as sleeping-rooms and shops. The stables for the animals and the +store-rooms are in a covered corridor beneath. As there are permanent +residents here, and valuable merchandise and other articles stored +away, there is a gate strongly bolted and barred, and often sheathed +in iron, and a gate-keeper, generally to be seen sleeping or smoking, +whose sole business is to prevent the entrance of improper or +suspicious persons. + +The evenings at the khan used to be, and sometimes still are, +enlivened by the presence of the almes or dancing-girls, whose +ancestors may have danced the same wild and wanton dances before +Cleopatra. The singing-girls, monotonously chanting the same dolorous +and drowsy tunes, with imitation guitar accompaniment on the _saab_ +were also wont to wound the drowsy ear of night for the diversion +of the guests. Drowsier and more sleep-compelling still were the +interminable tales spun out by the professional story-teller, giving +ragged versions of the _Arabian Nights' Entertainments_ for the +delectation of the tireless native listeners. + +In those old days, too, the khans used to be the resort of the +slave-merchants, who kept stowed safely away, for inspection and +purchase, Circassian, Georgian or more dingy beauties, to suit +all tastes. But civilization, in its encroachments on Turkey, has +compelled the cessation of open sales of either white or black slaves +in public places, though so long as the social and domestic system of +the East remains unchanged, the sale of women for the house or harem +will continue. It is conducted, however, with more privacy, and +Christians are not permitted the privilege of viewing the proceedings. +This restriction has taken away from the khans one of their former +great attractions. + +To European or American travelers accustomed to the ease, luxury and +profusion of our modern hotels, where the guests enjoy more comforts +than most of them get at home, this kind of entertainment for man and +beast certainly does not seem attractive. Yet there is enjoyment in it +when the khan is tolerably free from fleas and "such small deer," and +one is accustomed "to roughing it," and blessed with a good appetite +and digestion. + +Yet, truth to tell, it is more picturesque than pleasant at the +best--more gratifying to the eye than to the other senses, especially +to those of smell and hearing. For the odors arising from Turkish +or Arab cooking are not those of Araby the Blest; and the close +contiguity of the beasts of burden assails both the senses named more +pungently than pleasantly. Besides, the Oriental, generally making +it a rule to wrap up his head carefully in the covering, snores +stertorously throughout the night; so that silence, which we regard as +necessary for repose, does not rule over the khan; and when daybreak +comes, the startled traveler may imagine Babel has broken loose +again, since both men and animals rise with the dawn, and make most +diabolical noises to indicate that they have risen. + +Enterprising Europeans have set up many hotels in Eastern cities, +but they are almost exclusively resorted to by strangers or Europeans +resident in the country. Even the high Turks, lapped in luxury and +sybaritic in their habits of personal ease, prefer their own hotel +system to ours, carrying all their comforts along with them, and a +retinue of servants to take charge of them. You will very rarely see +a Turkish gentleman, even if educated in Europe, stopping at Messeir's +or any of the great Eastern hotels on the European plan. + +At Messeir's in Constantinople, or at Shepheard's hotel in +Cairo--places of historic interest almost, through the vivid +descriptions of travelers like the authors of _Eothen_ and _The +Crescent and the Cross_--a most motley medley of Western nationalities +may be encountered, the adventurers, tourists and wanderers of the +world congregated there during the winter months, and presenting a +panoramic view of all the peculiar phases and contrasts of European +civilization, more antagonistic there than elsewhere. There you see +the German savant with his round spectacles, round face and round +figure; the lean and restless Frenchman; the imperturbable Englishman, +drinking his bottled beer under the shadow of the Pyramids; and the +angular American, more curious, but more cosmopolite, than any of +them. The returning Englishman or Englishwoman who has spent twenty +years in India also presents an anomalous type, proving how climate +and mode of life may alter the original; for it is curious to contrast +the round, rosy faces of the fresh English girls outward bound with +the sharp, sallow faces and flashing, restless eyes which +characterize those who are returning. The babel of tongues at these +_tables-d'hote_, where conversations are being carried on in every +European language, is most perplexing at first, though French and +English predominate. Altogether, for the student of character there +is no better field than one of these European hotels in the East--none +where the lines of difference can be found more sharply defined; +for travel and contact with strangers appear only to bring out the +contrasts more clearly, and produce a more direct antagonism, instead +of softening down or assimilating them, as one might expect. + +Very few travelers see the city khans--fewer still ever venture to +pass a night within their walls. Even on the routes of desert-travel +the pilgrims for pleasure avoid them, substituting their own tents +for the stone walls, and confiding in the arrangements made by their +dragomen or guides, who contract to make the necessary provision for +all their wants for a stipulated sum--one-half usually in advance, +the balance payable at the expiration of the trip. To do these men +justice, as a rule they provide liberally and well in all respects, +their reputation and recommendations being their capital and stock in +trade for securing subsequent tourists. Yet it cannot be doubted that +this system has robbed the Eastern tour of some of its most salient +and striking peculiarities, and has deprived the traveler of much +opportunity for insight into the real life of the Oriental, only to be +seen while he is journeying from place to place, since his own house +is generally closed against the stranger, and it is only in the khan +that a glimpse of his mode of life can be obtained. + +The khan, like the harem, is one of the peculiar institutions of the +East, and will probably so continue, in spite of the advancing tide of +European civilization; which, however it may affect the outer aspects +of that life, has as yet made little impression on its more essential +features. The men may wear the Frank dress (all but the hat, which +they will not accept), may smoke cigars instead of chibouques, and +drink "gaseous lemonade" (champagne), in defiance of the Prophet's +prohibition; the women may send from the high harems for French +fashions, and "fearfully and wonderfully" array themselves therein; +but in other respects the people will stubbornly adhere to their own +social system and habits of life. + +It follows that the traveler who goes to the East to study the manners +and customs of its people will get only an imperfect and outside view +if he makes himself comfortable in one of the hybrid European hotels +we have described, instead of braving the picturesque discomforts of +the Oriental hotel or khan, which he will find endurable by taking a +few preliminary precautions easily suggested to him on the spot. + +EDWIN DE LEON. + + + + +OUR MONTHLY GOSSIP. + +THE CALIFORNIAN AT VIENNA. + + +I am in bonds and fetters through not understanding the German tongue. +It is a weary torture to be a stupid, uncomprehended foreigner. I am +lost in a linguistic swamp. It is necessary to employ one man to talk +to another. The _commisionnaire_ does not understand more than half I +say. What might he not be interpreting to the other fellow? The most +trivial want costs me a world of anxiety and trouble. I desired some +blotting-paper. I went to a little stationery shop. I said, "Paper! +paper! fuer die blot, you know. Ich bin Englisher--er: ink no dry; +what you call um? Vas? vas? Hang it!" They took down all sorts of +paper--letter-paper, wrapping-paper, foolscap, foreign post. I tried +to make my want known by signs. I made myself simply ridiculous. The +shopkeeper stared at me in perplexity, disgust and despair. Then he +discussed the matter with his wife. I fretted, perspiring vigorously. +I went away. I went to a commissionnaire at my hotel. It required five +minutes to explain the matter to him. He discussed the matter with +the _portier_. The portier is quite buried under gold lace and brass +buttons. The commissionnaire returns to me. He thinks he knows what +I require, but is not quite certain. All this trouble for a bit of +blotting-paper! It is so with everything. Every little matter of +every-day life, which at home to think of and do are almost identical, +here costs so much time, labor and anxiety! My strength is all gone +when I have purchased a paper of pins and a bottle of ink. Breakfast +and dinner task me to the utmost. The slightest deviation from +established custom seems to act on the people at the restaurant like +a wrong figure in a table of logarithms. It required three days to +convince a stunted boy in a long-tailed coat that I did not wish beer +for dinner. He would bring beer. I would say, "I don't want beer! +I want my--some dinner." He would depart and take counsel with the +head-waiter, and I would feel as if I had been doing something for +which I ought to be corrected. The latter functionary approaches +and exclaims with domineering voice, "Vat you vants?" I reply with +meekness, "Dinner, sir, if you please." He brings me an elegantly +bound book containing the bill of fare. But it is in German: I look at +it knowingly: Sanscrit would be quite as intelligible. I put my +finger on a word which I suppose means soup. I look up meekly at the +functionary. He glowers contemptuously upon me. He recommends me to an +underling, and bustles off to guests more important. There are in the +dining-hall French, German, Italian, English and Japanese. Tongues, +plates, knives and forks clatter inside--wheels roll, rumble and +clatter over the stony pavement outside. I wait for my soup. Hours +seem to lag by. I appeal in vain to other waiters. Life is too busy +and important a matter with them to pay any attention to me. + +The aristocratic German waiter is cool and indifferent. It is beneath +his dignity to approach you within half an hour after you sit down. He +knows you are hungry, and enjoys your pangs. He is sensible of every +signal, every expression of the eye with which you regard him. To +appear not to know is the chief business of his life. He will with +the minutest care arrange a napkin while a half dozen hungry men at +different tables are trying to arrest his attention. Before I met this +man my temper was mild and amiable: I believed in doing by my fellows +as I would be done by. Now I am changed. I never visit the Vienna +restaurant but I dwell in thought on battle, murder, pistols, +bowie-knives, blood, bullets and sudden death. After eating a meal it +requires another hour to pay for it. A nobleman, dressed _de rigueur_, +condescends to take my money after he has made me wait long enough. +There are two of these officials at the hotel. One in general manner +resembles a heavy dealer in bonds and government securities--the +other a modest, charming young clergyman of the Church of England. +One morning, when the atmosphere was very sultry, I ventured to open +a window. The dealer in government securities shut it immediately, and +gave me a look which humiliated me for the day. I said I wanted, if +possible, air enough to support life while eating my breakfast. He +said that was against the rules of the house: the windows must not be +opened. There was too much dust blowing in the street. What were a few +common lives compared to the advent of dust in that dining-room? + +You must live here by rule. Novelty is treason. It is the unalterable +rule of life that because things have been done in a certain manner, +so must they ever be done. It requires almost a revolution to have an +egg boiled hard in Vienna. I said at my first meal, "Ein caffee und +egg mit hard." It may be seen that I speak German with the English +accent. The eggs came soft-boiled. I suppose that the nobleman who +attended on my table went to the prince in disguise who governed the +culinary department, and informed him of this new demand in the matter +of eggs. It is presumable that the prince pronounced against me, for +next morning my eggs were still soft-boiled. Then I braced myself up +and said, "See here! I want mine zwei eggs, you know, hard, hard! You +understand?" The nobleman looked at me with contempt. The eggs came +about one-tenth of a degree harder than the previous morning. I +resolved to gain my point. I saw how necessary it was to put more +force, vigor, spirit and savagery into my culinary instructions to the +nobleman. This despotism should not prevail against me. When the +free, easy and enlightened American among the effete and crumbling +monarchies of Europe shrieks for hard-boiled eggs, they must be +produced, though the House of Hapsburg should reel, stumble and +totter. + +I said on the third morning, "Haben Sie ein hot Feuer in your +kitchen?" Ja. "And hot Wasser?" Ja. "And will you put this hot Feuer +under the said hot Wasser, and in that hot Wasser put the eggs and +keep them there zehn Minuten, zwanzig Minuten, or a day or a week--any +length of time, so that they are only boiled hard, just like stones, +brickbats, rocks, boulders or the gray granite crest of Yosemite? I +want mine eggs hard." Then I ground my teeth and looked wicked and +savage, and squirmed viciously in my chair. There was some improvement +in the eggs that morning, but they were not hard boiled. + +The Viennese spend most of their time in the open air, drinking beer +and coffee, reading light newspapers, eating and smoking. In the +English and American sense they have neither politics nor religion. +The government and the Church provide these articles, leaving the +people little to do save enjoy themselves, float lazily down life's +stream, and die when their souls become too spiritualized to remain +longer in their bodies. + +I am fast becoming German. I have my coffee at nine: it requires two +hours to drink it. Then I dream a little, smoke a cigar and drink a +glass of beer. At twelve comes dinner. This I eat at a cafe table on +the sidewalk, with more beer. At two I take a nap. At five I awake, +drink another glass of beer, and dream. From that time until nine is +occupied in getting hungry for supper. This occupies two hours. Then +more beer and tobacco. Some time in the night I retire. Sometimes I am +aware of the operation of disrobing, sometimes not. This is Viennese +life. One day merges into another in a vague, misty sort of way. Time +is not checked off into short, sharp divisions as in busy, bustling +America. From the windows opposite mine, on the other side of the +street, protrude Germans with long pipes. They sit there hour +after hour, those pipes hanging down a foot below the window-sill. +Occasionally they emit a puff of smoke. This is the only sign of life +about them. + +The window-sills are furnished with cushions to lean on when you gaze +forth. The one in mine is continually dropping down into the +street below, and a man in a brass-mounted cap, who calls himself a +"Dienstmann," does a good business in picking it up and bringing it +up stairs at ten kreutzers a trip. The kreutzer is a copper coin +equivalent to an English farthing. Every day here seems a sort of +holiday, and in this respect Sunday stands pre-eminent. + +The ladies, as a rule, are fine-looking, shapely, well-dressed and +particular as to the fit of their gaiters and hose--a most refreshing +sight to one for a year accustomed to the general dowdiness which in +this respect prevails in England. Most of the English girls seem to +have no idea that their feet should be dressed. The Viennese lady is +very tasteful. She is neither slipshod nor gaudy. I never beheld more +dainty toilettes. Everything about them, as a sailor would say, is cut +"by the lifts and braces." + +Vienna abounds in great bath-houses. I have tested one. I wandered +about the establishment asking every one I met for a warm bath. Some +pointed in one direction, some in another, and after blundering +back and forth for a while, I found myself before a woman. For fifty +kreutzers she gave me a ticket. Then she called for Marie. Marie, a +black-eyed, bright German girl, came. She went to a shelf and burdened +herself with a quantity of linen. Then she signed for me to follow. +I did so in an expectant, wondering and rather anxious frame of mind. +Marie showed me into a neatly-furnished bath-room. She spread a linen +sheet in the tub, and turned on the water. I waited for the tub to +fill and Marie to depart. Marie seemed in no hurry. I pondered over +the possibilities involved in a German "Warm-bad." Perhaps Marie will +attempt to scrub me! Never! At last she goes. I remove my collar. +Suddenly Marie returns: it is to bring another towel. There is no +lock on the door--nothing with which to defend one's self. I bathe +in peace, however. On emerging I examine the pile of linen Marie has +left. There is a small towel, and two large aprons without strings, +long enough to reach from the shoulders to the knees. I study over +their possible use. I conclude they are to dry the anatomy with. On +subsequent inquiry I ascertained that they were to be worn while I +rang the bell and Marie came in to substitute hot water for cold. + +The American commission to the exhibition occupies a bare, +disconsolate, shabby suite of rooms. They resemble much the editorial +offices of those ephemeral daily papers which, commencing with +very small capital, after a spasmodic career of a few months fall +despairingly into the arms of the sheriff. I had once occasion to +visit the commission on a little matter of business. What that was I +have forgotten: I recollect only the multiplicity of doors in those +apartments. When I turned to depart, I opened every door but the +proper one. I went into closets, private apartments and intricate +passages, and after making the entire round without discovering +egress, I made another tour of them, but still could not find where +I had entered. A solitary American was seated in the reading-room +looking weary and homesick, and I asked him if he could tell me the +right road out of the American commission. He said he hardly knew: +this was his first visit, but he'd try. So both of us went prospecting +around and opening all the doors we met, while a deaconish old +gentleman behind a desk looked on apparently interested, yet offering +nothing in the way of information or suggestion. I presume, however, +this is the only amusement the man has in this forlorn place. I +was beginning to think of descending by way of the windows when the +strange American at last found a door which led into the main entry, +and we both left at the same time, glad to escape. + +I will do one side of the American department in the exhibition stern +justice. It commences with a long picture placed there by the Pork +Packers' Association of Cincinnati, descriptive of the processes which +millions of American hogs are subjected to while being converted into +pork. There are hogs going in long procession to be killed, and +going, too, in a determined sort of way, as if they knew it was their +business to be killed. Then come hogs killed, hogs scalded, hogs +scraped, hogs cut up into shoulders, hams, sides, jowls; hogs salted, +hogs smoked. Underneath this sketch are a number of unpainted buggy +and carriage wheels; next, a pile of pick-handles; not far off, a +little mound of grindstones; after the grindstones, a platoon of +clothes-wringers; next, a solitary iron wheel-barrow communing with a +patent fire-extinguisher; following these a crowd of green iron pumps, +with sewing-machines in full force. Such is a bit of the American +department. + +It is the fashion here that every one should have a growl at the +general slimness and slovenliness of our department. Every one gives +our drooping eagle a kick. This is all wrong. We can't send our +greatest wonders and triumphs to Europe. There is neither room nor +opportunity in the building for showing off one of our political +torchlight processions, or a vigilance-committee hanging, or a Chicago +or Boston fire, or a steamboat blow-up, or a railway smash-up. Were +the present chief of the commission a man of originality and talent, +he might even now save the national reputation by bundling all the +pumps, churns, patent clothes-washers, wheel-barrows and pick-handles +out of doors, and converting one of the United States rooms into a +reservation for the Modocs, and the other into a corral for buffaloes +and grizzly bears. These, with a mustang poet or two from Oregon, a +few Hard-Shell Democrats, a live American daily paper, with a corps +of reporters trained to squeeze themselves through door-cracks +and key-holes, might retrieve the national honor, if shown up +realistically and artistically. + +PRENTICE MULFORD. + + + + +GHOSTLY WARRIORS. + + +So strong a resemblance exists between a battle-scene of a mediaeval +Spanish poet and the culminating incidents of Lord Macaulay's _Battle +of the Lake Regillus_, as to justify somewhat extended citations. Of +the Spanish writer, Professor Longfellow says, in his note upon the +extract from the _Vida de San Millan_ given in the _Poets and Poetry +of Europe_, "Gonzalo de Berceo, the oldest of the Castilian poets +whose name has reached us, was born in 1198. He was a monk in the +monastery of Saint Millan, in Calahorra, and wrote poems on sacred +subjects in Castilian Alexandrines." According to the poem, the +Spaniards, while combating the Moors, were overcome by "a terror +of their foes," since "these were a numerous army, a little handful +those." + + And whilst the Christian people stood in this uncertainty, + Upward toward heaven they turned their eyes and fixed their thoughts on high; + And there two persons they beheld, all beautiful and bright,-- + Even than the pure new-fallen snow their garments were more white. + + They rode upon two horses more white than crystal sheen, + And arms they bore such as before no mortal man had seen. + + * * * * * + + Their faces were angelical, celestial forms had they,-- + And downward through the fields of air they urged their rapid way; + They looked upon the Moorish host with fierce and angry look, + And in their hands, with dire portent, their naked sabres shook. + + The Christian host, beholding this, straightway take heart again; + They fall upon their bended knees, all resting on the plain, + And each one with his clenched fist to smite his breast begins, + And promises to God on high he will forsake his sins. + + And when the heavenly knights drew near unto the battle-ground, + They dashed among the Moors and dealt unerring blows around; + Such deadly havoc there they made the foremost ranks among, + A panic terror spread unto the hindmost of the throng. + + Together with these two good knights, the champions of the sky, + The Christians rallied and began to smite full sore and high. + + * * * * * + + Down went the misbelievers; fast sped the bloody fight; + Some ghastly and dismembered lay, and some half-dead with fright: + Full sorely they repented that to the field they came, + For they saw that from the battle they should retreat with shame. + + * * * * * + + Now he that bore the crosier, and the papal crown had on, + Was the glorified Apostle, the brother of Saint John; + And he that held the crucifix, and wore the monkish hood, + Was the holy San Millan of Cogolla's neighborhood. + +Turn now to the _Battle of the Lake Regillus_. In a series of +desperate hand-to-hand conflicts the Romans have on the whole been +worsted by the allied Thirty Cities, armed to reinstate the Tarquins +upon their lost throne. Their most vaunted champion, Herminius--"who +kept the bridge so well"--has been slain, and his war-horse, black +Auster, has barely been rescued by the dictator Aulus from the hands +of Titus, the youngest of the Tarquins. + + And Aulus the Dictator + Stroked Auster's raven mane; + With heed he looked unto the girths, + With heed unto the rein. + "Now bear me well, black Auster, + Into yon thick array; + And thou and I will have revenge + For thy good lord this day." + + So spake he; and was buckling + Tighter black Auster's band, + When he was aware of a princely pair + That rode at his right hand. + So like they were, no mortal + Might one from other know: + White as snow their armor was: + Their steeds were white as snow. + Never on earthly anvil + Did such rare armor gleam; + And never did such gallant steeds + Drink of an earthly stream. + + * * * * * + + So answered those strange horsemen, + And each couched low his spear; + And forthwith all the ranks of Rome + Were bold and of good cheer: + And on the thirty armies + Came wonder and affright, + And Ardea wavered on the left, + And Cora on the right. + "Rome to the charge!" cried Aulus; + "The foe begins to yield! + Charge for the hearth of Vesta! + Charge for the Golden Shield! + Let no man stop to plunder, + But slay, and slay, and slay; + The gods who live for ever + Are on our side to-day." + + Then the fierce trumpet-flourish + From earth to heaven arose; + The kites know well the long stern swell + That bids the Romans close. + + * * * * * + + And fliers and pursuers + Were mingled in a mass: + And far away the battle + Went roaring through the pass. + +The scene of the following stanza is at Rome, where the watchers at +the gates have learned from the Great Twin Brethren the issue of the +day: + + And all the people trembled, + And pale grew every cheek; + And Sergius, the High Pontiff, + Alone found voice to speak: + "The gods who live for ever + Have fought for Rome to-day! + These be the Great Twin Brethren + To whom the Dorians pray!" + +Of course, we are not to be understood as intimating that Macaulay was +consciously or otherwise guilty of a plagiarism. Indeed, he was at +the pains, in his preface to the poem in question, to point out how +certain of its features were designedly taken, and others might fairly +be conceived to have been taken, from ballads of an age long before +Livy, whom he cites in the matter of the Great Twin Brethren. He has +even detailed a circumstance, in reference to the legendary appearance +of the divine warriors, curiously relevant to the resemblance just +pointed out. "In modern times," he wrote, "a very similar story +actually found credence among a people much more civilized than the +Romans of the fifth century before Christ. A chaplain of Cortez, +writing about thirty years after the conquest of Mexico, ... had the +face to assert that, in an engagement against the Indians, Saint James +had appeared on a gray horse at the head of the Castilian adventurers. +Many of those adventurers were living when this lie was printed. One +of them, honest Bernal Diaz, wrote an account of the expedition.... +He says that he was in the battle, and that he saw a gray horse with +a man on his back, but that the man was, to his thinking, Francesco de +Morla, and not the ever-blessed apostle Saint James. 'Nevertheless,' +Bernal adds, 'it may be that the person on the gray horse was the +glorious apostle Saint James, and that I, sinner that I am, was +unworthy to see him.'" Other striking instances of identity between +classical, Castilian and Saxon legends are detailed by Lord Macaulay +in the learned and interesting general preface to his _Lays of Ancient +Rome_. But the reappearance of this particular story in such remote +times and places, and with such marked similarities and variations, +would entitle it to a place among the indestructible popular legends +collated by Mr. Baring-Gould in his _Curious Myths of the Middle +Ages_. + + + + +A WARNING TO LOVERS. + + +"Metildy, you are the most good-for-nothin', triflin', owdacious, +contrary piece that ever lived." + +"Oh, ma!" sobbed Matilda, "I couldn' help myself--'deed I couldn'." + +"Couldn' help yourself? That's a pretty way to talk! Ain't he a nice +young man?" + +"Yes'm." + +"Got money?" + +"Yes'm." + +"And good kinfolks?" + +"Yes'm." + +"And loves you to destrackshun?" + +"Yes'm." + +"Well, in the name o' common sense, what did you send him home for?" + +"Well, ma, if I must tell the truth, I must, I s'pose, though I'd +ruther die. You see, ma, when he fetcht his cheer clost to mine, and +ketcht holt of my hand, and squez it, and dropt on his knees, then +it was that his eyes rolled and he began breathin' hard, and _his +gallowses kept a creakin and a creakin'_, I till I thought in my soul +somethin' terrible was the matter with his in'ards, his vitals; and +that flustered and skeered me so that I bust out a-cryin'. Seein' me +do that, he creaked worse'n ever, and that made me cry harder; and the +harder I cried the harder he creaked, till all of a sudden it came +to me that it wasn't nothin' but his gallowses; and then I bust out a +laughin' fit to kill myself, right in his face. And then he jumpt +up and run out of the house mad as fire; and he ain't comin' back no +more. Boo-hoo, ahoo, boo-hoo!" + +"Metildy," said the old woman sternly, "stop sniv'lin'. You've made +an everlastin' fool of yourself, but your cake ain't all dough yet. It +all comes of them no 'count, fashionable sto' gallowses--' 'spenders' +I believe they calls 'em. Never mind, honey! I'll send for Johnny, +tell him how it happened, 'pologize to him, and knit him a real nice +pair of yarn gallowses, jest like your pa's; and they never do creak." + +"Yes, ma," said Matilda, brightening up; "but let _me_ knit 'em." + +"So you shall, honey: he'll vally them a heap more than if I knit 'em. +Cheer up, Tildy: it'll all be right--you mind if it won't." + +Sure enough, it proved to be all right. Tildy and Johnny were married, +and Johnny's gallowses never creaked any more. + + + + +NOTES. + + +Milton, in his famous description of the woman Delilah, sailing like a +stately ship of Tarsus "with all her bravery on, and tackle trim," is +particular to note "an amber scent of odorous perfume, her harbinger." +Perfume as an adjunct of feminine dress has been celebrated from the +days of the earliest poet, and probably will be to the latest; but +it was reserved for the modern toilet to project a regular theory of +harmony between odors and colors--a theory which might never have been +dreamed of in the studio of the painter, but is not unworthy of the +boudoir of the belle. It is the young Englishwomen at Vienna who, if +we may believe Eugene Chapus, have taken the initiative in this new +refinement of coquetry, which employs not only a greater variety and +quantity of perfume than in previous years, but employs it according +to a certain scientific system. At balls, perfumes are especially _de +rigueur_, and it is in her ball-dress that Araminta aims to establish +a species of relation between the nature of the perfume she carries +and the general character of the toilette she wears. That is to say, +gravely proceeds Monsieur Chapus, if pink predominates in the stuff +of her gown, the proper perfume will be essence of roses; if light +yellow, it will be Portugal water; if the color be reseda (which has +such a run at present for ladies' costumes), the chosen perfume +will be an essence of mignonette; and so on with the other flowers +corresponding to the shades commonly used in fresh ball-toilettes. +Undoubtedly to a Rimmel the relation between different odors and +different styles of personal beauty or personal traits would be +as obvious as is this newly-discovered harmony between perfume and +costume; but we fear that the new fashion is due to coquettish art +rather than aesthetic taste, and that, like many another whim of +the drawing-room, it will die out before the science is fairly +established. + + * * * * * + +The _enfant terrible_ plays an important role in literature as in +society during these modern days, and although a little of him goes a +good way, yet it must be owned that his sayings are sometimes spicy. + +A grandfather was holding Master Tom, a youth of five, on his knees, +when the youngster suddenly asked him why his hair was white. "Oh," +says grandpapa, "that's because I'm so old. Why, don't you know that I +was in the ark?" + +"In the ark?" cries Tommy: "why you aren't Noah, are you, grandpapa?" + +"Oh no, I'm not Noah." + +"Ah, then you're Shem." + +"No, not Shem, either." + +"Oh, then I suppose you're Japhet." + +"No, you haven't guessed right: I'm not Japhet." + +"Well, then, grandpapa," said the child, driven to the extremity of +his biblical knowledge, "you must be one of the beasts." + +Not less critical was the comment of a lad who was taken to church one +Sunday for the first time. + +"You see, Augustus," said his fond mamma, anxious to impress his +tender mind at such a moment with lasting remembrances, "how many +people come here to pray to God?" + +"Yes, but not so many as go to the circus," says the practical lad. + +Quite natural, also, was the reply of a little lady who was found +crying by her mother because one of her companions had given her a +slap. + +"Well, I hope you paid her back?" cried the angry mother, her +indignation getting the better of her judgment. + +"Oh yes, I paid her back _before-hand_!" + +Another little girl, after attending the funeral of one of her +schoolmates, which ceremony had been conducted at the school, was +giving an animated account of the exercises on her return home. + +"And I suppose you were all sobbing as if your hearts would break, +poor things!" says papa. + +"Oh no," replies the child: "only the front row cried." + + * * * * * + +It was one of the features of the shah-mania that British journalism +was overrun and surfeited with Persian topics, Persian allusions and +fragments of the Persian language and literature. Every pedant of +the press displayed an unexpected and astonishing acquaintance with +Persian history, Persian geography, Persian manners and customs. +Desperate cramming was done to get up Persian quotations for leading +articles, or at least a saying or two from Hafiz or Saadi of the sort +commonly found at the end of a lexicon or in some popular book of +maxims. Ludicrous disputes arose between morning papers as to the +comparative profundity of each other's researches into Persian lore; +but the climax was capped, we think, by one London journal, which +politely offered advice to Nasr-ed-Din about his conduct and his +reading. "Should Nasr-ed-Din be impressed by English flattery," said +this editor gravely, "with an exaggerated sense of his own importance, +His Majesty, as a corrective, may recall to mind the Persian fable of +'Ushter wa Diraz-kush,' from the 'Baharistan' of Jaumy." In ordinary +times an explanation might be vouchsafed of what the said fable +is, but none was given in the present instance, it being taken for +granted, during the shah's visit, that the Baharistan of Jaumy was as +familiar to the average Englishman as Mother Goose. Upon the whole, +our country has not been wholly unfortunate in not seeing the shah. +Horace's famous "Persicos odi, puer, apparatus," has a very close +application in the "Persian stuff" with which British journalism has +lately been flooded. + + How various his employments whom the world + Calls idle! + +says Cowper. To describe the holiday amusement provided for the shah +in England as having been a grand "variety entertainment" would feebly +represent the mixture actually furnished him. One day, for example +(a Monday), His Majesty began by reviewing the Fire Brigade; and then +Captain Shaw was presented to the shah--likewise Colonel Hogg; and +then, according to the _Morning Advertiser_, "Joe Goss, Ned Donelly, +Alex. Lawson, and young Horn had the honor of appearing and boxing +before the shah and a small company, at which His Majesty seemed +highly delighted;" and next came deputations successively from +the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, the Society for the +Promotion of Christian Knowledge, the Bible Society, the Church +Missionary Society, and the Evangelical Alliance; then a deputation +from the Mohammedans residing in London was presented, and Sir Moses +Montefiore had a private interview with His Majesty; and finally, to +wind up the day's programme, the shah, attended by many princes and +princesses, and an audience of 34,000 people, witnessed a performance +at the Crystal Palace expressly selected to suit his taste--namely, +gymnastic feats by Germans and Japanese, followed by "Signor Romah" +on the trapeze. All this was done before dinner; and the curious +combination of piety and pugilism, missionaries and acrobats, may be +supposed to have had the effect of duly "impressing" the illustrious +guest. + +A French writer some time since informed his countrymen that in +America wooden hams were a regular article of manufacture. This is a +fact not generally known; but at any rate, according to Pierre Veron, +we have not yet quite outdone the Old World in the arts of commercial +fraud. Worthy Johnny Crapaud used to flatter himself that he outwitted +the grocers in buying his coffee unground, but now rogues make +artificial coffee-kernels in a mould, and the Paris police court +(which does not appreciate ingenuity of that sort) lately gave +six months in prison to some makers of sham coffee-grains, thus +interfering with a business which was earning twenty thousand dollars +a year. Some of the Paris pastry-cooks make balls for _vol-au-vent_ +with a hash of rags allowed to soak in gravy; sham larks and +partridges for pates are constructed out of chopped-up meat, neatly +shaped to represent those birds; peddlers of sweet-meats sell +marshmallow paste made out of Spanish white; the fish-merchant inserts +the eyes of a fresh mackerel in a stale turbot, to trick his sharp +customers; and as to drinks, one dyer boldly puts over his door +"Burgundy Vintages!" They make marble of pasteboard and diamonds +of glass. Adulteration on adulteration, moans M. Veron, all is +adulteration! + + * * * * * + +The problem of aerial navigation seems at present to be agitating as +many pseudo-scientific minds as did that of perpetual motion not many +years ago, or the philosopher's stone at a more remote period. It +possesses perhaps a still stronger attraction in the danger connected +with the experiments--the source, we suppose, of the eagerness shown +by Professor Wise and his associates to _fly_ to evils that they +know not of. Perpetual motion received its quietus from the blasts of +ridicule. Air-voyaging has a worse foe to encounter. It may survive +the attacks of gayety, but it will succumb, we fancy, to the +resistless force of _gravity_. + + + + +LITERATURE OF THE DAY. + + +Scintillations from the Prose Works of Heinrich Heine. New York: Holt +& Williams. + +The task formerly undertaken by Mr. Charles Godfrey Leland, in +adapting to our language the songs of Heine, is now well supplemented +with some versions from among his prose works by another Philadelphian +translator, Mr. Simon Adler Stern. Heine's prose, delicate in its +pellucid brightness as any of his poetry, cannot be held too precious +by the interpreter. The latter must have all his wits about him, or he +will not find English at once simple enough and distinguished enough +to stand for the original. To get at Heine's prose exactly in another +language must be almost as hard as to get at his poetry. The principal +selection made by Mr. Stern is a long rambling rhapsody called +"Florentine Nights," in which the author professes to pour into the +ears of a dying mistress the history of some of his former amours and +exaltations, the natural jealousy of the listener going for a stimulus +in the recital. His first love, however, is an idealization--a Greek +statue which he visits by moonlight, as Sordello in Browning's poem +does the + + Shrinking Caryatides + Of just-tinged marble, like Eve's lilied flesh. + +This weird love-ballad in prose must have taxed the translator almost +as much as if it had been in rhyme; for although an interpreter of +poetry undeniably has the difficulties of form to struggle with, yet +there is, on the other hand, an inspiration and waft of feeling in the +metre which lends him wings and helps him on. If Mr. Stern does not +encumber his style with a betrayal of the difficulties he has got +over--if he does not give us pedantry and double-epithets, so common +in vulgar renderings from the German--he certainly shows no timidity +in turning the polished familiarity of Heine's prose into our +commonest vernacular. "What lots of pleasure I found on my arrival;" +"for the men, lots of patience:" trivialities of expression like these +are not rare in his version. If they are not quite what Heine would +have written if he had been writing in English, at least the fault +of familiarity is better than the fault of hardness; and these +translations are never at all hard or uncomfortable. When we add that +Mr. Stern gives us an index without showing what works the extracts +are taken from, and that he gives us an article on Heine without any +mention that we can discover of Heine's wife, we have vented about all +the objections we can make to this welcome publication; and they are +very few to find in a collection of hundreds of "scintillations." + +The pleasures that remain for the reader are manifold: so liberally +and judiciously are the extracts chosen that we get a complete exhibit +of Heine's mind on nearly all the topics he occupied himself about. We +have his views on French and German politicians; on French, German and +English authors; on art and poetry; on his own soul and character; on +religion; besides a great deal of that persiflage, the most exquisite +persiflage surely that ever was heard, which flutters clear away from +the regions of sense and information, yet which only a man of sense +and information could have uttered. + +Heine came to Paris in 1831, and saw all the sights and found +everything "charming." His wit is a little cheap, perhaps, when he +calls the Senate Chamber at the Luxembourg "the necropolis in which +the mummies of perjury are embalmed;" at least it becomes tiresome to +hear his constant disparagement of the politics which he chose to live +under, and which protected him so agreeably; but he is his own keen +self where he observes that the signs of the revolution of 1830, +what he calls the legend of _liberte, egalite, fraternite_ at the +street-corners, had "already been wiped away." Victor Hugo, for his +part, did not find it so: he says that the years 1831 and 1832 have, +in relation to the revolution of July, the aspect of two mountains, +where you can distinguish precipices, and that they embody "la +grandeur revolutionnaire." The cooler spectator from Hamburg inspects +at Paris "the giraffe, the three-legged goat, the kangaroos," without +much of the vertigo of precipices, and he sees "M. de La Fayette and +his white locks--at different places, however," for the latter were +in a locket and the hero was in his brown wig. Elsewhere he associates +"the virtuous La Fayette and James Watt the cotton-spinner." The age +of industry, commerce and the Citizen-King, in fact, was not quite +suited to the poet who celebrated Napoleon; yet was Heine's admiration +of Napoleon not such as an epic hero would be comfortable under: +"Cromwell never sank so low as to suffer a priest to anoint him +emperor," he says in allusion to the coronation. He respects Napoleon +as the last great aristocrat, and says the combined powers ought to +have supported instead of overturned him, for his defeat precipitated +the coming in of modern ideas. The prospect for the world after his +death was "at the best to be bored to death by the monotony of a +republic." Ardent patriots in this country need not go for sympathy to +the king-scorner Heine. For the theory of a commonwealth he had small +love: "That which oppresses me is the artist's and the scholar's +secret dread, lest our modern civilization, the laboriously achieved +result of so many centuries of effort, will be endangered I by the +triumph of Communism." We have drifted into the citation of these +sentiments because many conservatives think of Heine only as an +irreconcilable destroyer and revolutionist, and do not care to welcome +in him the basis of attachment to order which must underlie every +artist's or author's love of freedom. "Soldier in the liberation of +humanity" as he was, that liberation was to be the result of growth, +not of destruction. As for Communism, it talks but "hunger, _envy_ +and death." It has but one faith, happiness on this earth; and the +millennium it foresees is "a single shepherd and a single flock, all +shorn after the same pattern, and bleating alike." Such passages are +the true reflection of Heine's keen but not great mind, miserably +bandied between the hopes of a republican future, that was to be the +death of art and literature, and the rags of a feudal present, whose +conditions sustained him while they disgusted him. If Heine fought, +scratched and bit with all his might among the convulsions of the +politics he was helpless to rearrange, he was equally mordant when +he turned his attention to society, and perhaps more frightfully +impartial. He hated the English for "their idle curiosity, bedizened +awkwardness, impudent bashfulness, angular egotism, and vacant delight +in all melancholy objects." As for the French, they are "les comediens +ordinaires du bon Dieu;" yet "a blaspheming Frenchman is a spectacle +more pleasing to the Lord than a praying Englishman." And Germany: +"Germany alone possesses those colossal fools whose caps reach unto +the heavens, and delight the stars with the ringing of their bells." +Thus shooting forth his tongue on every side, Heine is shown "in +action" by this little cluster of "scintillations," and the whole +book is the shortest definition of him possible, for it makes the +saliencies of his character jut out within a close compass. It can be +read in a couple of hours, and no reading of the same length in any +of his complete writings would give such a notion of the most witty, +perverse, tender, savage, pitiable and inexcusable of men. + + * * * * * + +Monographs, Personal and Social. By Lord Houghton. New York: Holt & +Williams. + +Lord Houghton is one of those fortunate persons who seem to find +without trouble the exact niches in life which Nature has designed +them to fill. There probably never entered the world a man more +eminently made to appreciate the best kind of "high life" which London +has offered in the present century; and he has been able to avail +himself of it to his heart's content. The son of a Yorkshire squire in +affluent circumstances and of high character, Monckton Milnes was not +spoilt by finding, as he might have done had he been the heir to a +dukedom, the world at his feet; whilst at the same time all the good +things were within his reach by a little of that exertion which does +so much toward enhancing the enjoyment of them. From the period of his +entry upon London life he displayed that anxiety to know celebrities +which, though in a somewhat different way, was a marked feature of +his contemporary and acquaintance, Crabb Robinson; and the story +illustrative of this tendency which gained him the _sobriquet_ of "the +cool of the evening" will be always associated with the name he has +since merged in a less familiar title. + +Lord Houghton has now passed through some sixty London seasons, during +which he has been more or less acquainted with nearly every social and +literary celebrity in the English metropolis. Having regard to this +circumstance, and the fact of his possessing a polished and graceful +style of expressing himself, one would naturally expect a great deal +from this volume of reminiscences. Nor will such expectations be +entirely disappointed. The monographs are eight in number, and will be +read with varying degrees of interest, according to the taste of +the reader, as well as the subjects and quality of the papers. The +portrait which will perhaps be the newest to American readers is that +of Harriet, Lady Ashburton, wife of the second Baring who bore that +title. Lady Ashburton was daughter of the earl of Sandwich, and Lord +Houghton says of her: "She was an instance in which aristocracy gave +of its best and showed at its best, although she may have owed little +to the qualities she inherited from an irascible race and to an +unaffectionate education"--a sentence reminding us of a remark in +the London _Times_, that "with certain noble houses people are apt +to associate certain qualities--with the Berkeleys, for instance, a +series of disgraceful family quarrels." Lady Ashburton appears to us +from this account to have been a brilliant spoilt child of fortune, +who availed herself of her great social position to do and say what, +had she remained Lady Harriet Montagu with the pittance of a poor +nobleman's daughter, she would hardly have dared to do or say. It +is one of the weak points of society in England that a woman who has +rank, wealth, and ability, and contrives to surround herself with men +of wit to whom she renders her house delightful, can be as hard and +rude as she pleases to the world in general. Fortunately, in most +cases native kindness of heart usually hurries to heal the wound that +"wicked wit" may have made. This would scarcely seem to have been so +with Lady Ashburton, for Lord Houghton tells us that "many who would +not have cared for a quiet defeat shrank from the merriment of her +victory," one of them saying, "I do not mind being knocked down, but +I can't stand being danced upon afterward." Lord Houghton, +however, defines this "jumping" as "a joyous sincerity that no +conventionalities, high or low, could restrain--a festive nature +flowing through the artificial soil of elevated life." And it must be +owned that there was at least nothing petty or rancorous in a nature +which showed so rare an appreciation of genius, and an equal capacity +for warm and disinterested friendship. + +In contrast with this chapter is the one on the Berrys, which is +full of interesting details in regard to those remarkable women, and +reveals a pathetic history hardly to have been expected in connection +with the amusing gossip that has hitherto clustered around their +names. + +But by far the most interesting paper is that on Heinrich Heine. A +letter from an English lady whom Heine had known and petted in her +childhood, and who visited the poet in his last days, when he himself, +wasted by disease, "seemed no bigger than a child under the sheet that +covered him," gives what is perhaps the most lifelike picture we +have ever had of a nature that seems equally to court and to baffle +comprehension. Lord Houghton has little to add, on this subject, from +his personal recollections; but his comments upon it evince perhaps +as close a study and sagacious criticism, if not as much subtlety of +thought, as Matthew Arnold's famous essay. The following passage, for +example, sums up very felicitously the social aspect of Germany, and +its influence on Heine: "The poem of 'Deutschland' is the one of his +works where his humor runs over into the coarsest satire, and the +malice can only be excused by the remembrance that he too had been +exposed to some of the evil influences of a servile condition. Among +these may no doubt be reckoned the position of a man of commercial +origin and literary occupation in his relation to the upper order of +society in the northern parts of Germany. ...Here there remained, and +after all the events of the last year there still remains, sufficient +element of discontent to justify the recorded expression of a +philosophic German statesman, that 'in Prussia the war of classes had +still to be fought out.'" + +Of the other papers in the volume, those on Humboldt, Landor and +Sydney Smith, though readable, contain little to supplement the +biographies and correspondence that have long been before the world; +while the one on "Suleiman Pasha" (Colonel Selves) suggests a doubt +whether Lord Houghton has always taken pains to sift the information +he has so eagerly accumulated. When we find him stating that the siege +of Lyons occurred under the _Directory_--which it preceded by a year +or two; that his hero, then seven years old, "grew up," entered +the navy, was present at the battle of Trafalgar (1805), and, +_subsequently_ enlisted "in the Army of Italy, then flushed with +triumph, but glad to receive young and vigorous recruits"--language +indicating the campaign of 1796-97; that "soon after his enrollment in +the regiment it became necessary to instruct the cavalry soldiers +in infantry practice, and young Selves' knowledge of the exercise +[acquired apparently on shipboard] was of the greatest use and +_brought him into general notice_"--making him, we may infer, a +special favorite of Bonaparte;--we can easily believe that these +things were related, as he tells us they were, "with epic simplicity," +and may even conclude that some other qualities of the epic would to +more cautious ears have been equally perceptible in the narration. Of +a like character, we suspect, is the statement that Selves, being on +the staff of Grouchy on the day of Waterloo, "urgently represented +to that general the propriety of joining the main body of the army as +soon as the Prussians, whom he had been sent to intercept, were out of +sight." Lord Houghton has evidently not read the best and most recent +criticisms on the Waterloo campaign, but he should at least have known +that Grouchy was sent, not to intercept, but to follow the Prussians +in their retreat from Ligny, and that, if he lost sight of them, +it was because, instead of falling back on their own line of +communication, as Napoleon had expected them to do, they turned off to +effect a junction with the English army. + + + + +_Books Received_. + + +Key to North American Birds: containing a concise account of every +species of living and fossil bird at present known from the continent +north of the Mexican and United States boundary. Illustrated by six +steel plates and upward of two hundred and fifty wood-cuts. By Elliott +Coues, Assistant Surgeon United States Army. Salem: Naturalists' +Agency. + +Modern Diabolism, commonly called Modern Spiritualism, with New +Theories of Light, Heat, Electricity and Sound. By M.J. Williamson. +New York: James Miller. + +The True Method of Representation in Large Constituencies. By C.C.P. +Clarke of Oswego, N.Y. New York: Baker & Godwin. + +On the Eve: A Tale. By Ivan S. Turgenieff. Translated from the Russian +by C.E. Turner. New York: Holt & Williams. + +The Prophecies of Isaiah: A New and Critical Translation. By Franz +Delitzsch, D.D. Philadelphia: The Lutheran Bookstore. + +Harry Coverdale's Courtship and Marriage. By Frank E. Smedley. +Illustrated. Philadelphia: T.B. Peterson & Brothers. + +Afoot and Alone: A Walk from Sea to Sea by the Southern Route. +Illustrated. Hartford: Columbian Book Company. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Lippincott's Magazine of Popular +Literature and Science, Vol. XII. No. 30. September, 1873, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIPPINCOTT'S MAGAZINE *** + +***** This file should be named 14036.txt or 14036.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/4/0/3/14036/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Patricia Bennett and the PG Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. + + +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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