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| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:43:42 -0700 |
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| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:43:42 -0700 |
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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/14107-0.txt b/14107-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3f9436a --- /dev/null +++ b/14107-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4593 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14107 *** + +THE LOST STRADIVARIUS + +by + +J. MEADE FALKNER + +1895 + +Penguin Books +Harmondsworth Middlesex, England +245 Fifth Avenue, New York, U.S.A. + + + + + + + +THE AUTHOR + + +John Meade Falkner was a remarkable character, as he was not only a +scholar and a writer, but a captain of industry as well. Born in 1858, +the son of a clergyman in Wiltshire, he was educated at Marlborough and +Hertford College, Oxford. On leaving the university, he became tutor to +the sons of Sir Andrew Noble, then vice-chairman of the +Armstrong-Whitworth Company; and his ability so much impressed his +employer that in 1885 he was offered a post in the firm. Without +connections or influence in industrial circles, and solely by his +intellect, he rose to be a director in 1901, and finally, in 1915, +chairman of this enormous business. He was actually chairman during the +important years 1915-1920, and remained a director until 1926. + +His intellectual energy was so great that throughout his life he found +time for scholarship as well as business. He travelled for his firm in +Europe and South America; and in the intervals of negotiating with +foreign governments studied manuscripts wherever he found a library. His +researches in the Vatican Library were of special importance, and in +connection with them he received a gold medal from the Pope; he was also +decorated by the Italian, Turkish and Japanese governments. + +His scholastic interests included archæology, folklore, palæography, +mediæval history, architecture and church music; and he was a collector +of missals. Towards the end of his life he was made an Honorary Fellow +of Hertford College, Oxford, Honorary Reader in Palæography to Durham +University, and Honorary Librarian to the Chapter Library of Durham +Cathedral, which he left one of the best cathedral libraries in Europe. +He died at Durham in 1932. + +Apart from _The Lost Stradivarius_, Falkner was the author of two other +novels, _The Nebuly Coat_ (1903--also published in Penguin Books) and +_Moonfleet_ (1898). He also wrote a History of Oxfordshire, handbooks to +that county and to Berkshire, historical short stories, and some +mediævalist verse. + + + + + + +THE LOST STRADIVARIUS + + + + + + Letter from MISS SOPHIA MALTRAVERS + to her Nephew, SIR EDWARD MALTRAVERS, + then a Student at Christ Church, Oxford. + + 13 Pauncefort Buildings, Bath, + Oct. 21, 1867. + + MY DEAR EDWARD, + + It was your late father's dying request that certain events which + occurred in his last years should be communicated to you on your coming + of age. I have reduced them to writing, partly from my own recollection, + which is, alas! still too vivid, and partly with the aid of notes taken + at the time of my brother's death. As you are now of full age, I submit + the narrative to you. Much of it has necessarily been exceedingly + painful to me to write, but at the same time I feel it is better that + you should hear the truth from me than garbled stories from others who + did not love your father as I did. + + Your loving Aunt, + SOPHIA MALTRAVERS + + +To Sir Edward Maltravers, Bart. + + + + + "A tale out of season is as music in mourning." + --ECCLESIASTICUS xxii. 6. + + + + +MISS SOPHIA MALTRAVERS' STORY + +CHAPTER I + + +Your father, John Maltravers, was born in 1820 at Worth, and succeeded +his father and mine, who died when we were still young children. John +was sent to Eton in due course, and in 1839, when he was nineteen years +of age, it was determined that he should go to Oxford. It was intended +at first to enter him at Christ Church; but Dr. Sarsdell, who visited us +at Worth in the summer of 1839, persuaded Mr. Thoresby, our guardian, to +send him instead to Magdalen Hall. Dr. Sarsdell was himself Principal of +that institution, and represented that John, who then exhibited some +symptoms of delicacy, would meet with more personal attention under his +care than he could hope to do in so large a college as Christ Church. +Mr. Thoresby, ever solicitous for his ward's welfare, readily waived +other considerations in favour of an arrangement which he considered +conducive to John's health, and he was accordingly matriculated at +Magdalen Hall in the autumn of 1839. + +Dr. Sarsdell had not been unmindful of his promise to look after my +brother, and had secured him an excellent first-floor sitting-room, with +a bedroom adjoining, having an aspect towards New College Lane. + +I shall pass over the first two years of my brother's residence at +Oxford, because they have nothing to do with the present story. They +were spent, no doubt, in the ordinary routine of work and recreation +common in Oxford at that period. + +From his earliest boyhood he had been passionately devoted to music, +and had attained a considerable proficiency on the violin. In the autumn +term of 1841 he made the acquaintance of Mr. William Gaskell, a very +talented student at New College, and also a more than tolerable +musician. The practice of music was then very much less common at Oxford +than it has since become, and there were none of those societies +existing which now do so much to promote its study among undergraduates. +It was therefore a cause of much gratification to the two young men, and +it afterwards became a strong bond of friendship, to discover that one +was as devoted to the pianoforte as was the other to the violin. Mr. +Gaskell, though in easy circumstances, had not a pianoforte in his +rooms, and was pleased to use a fine instrument by D'Almaine that John +had that term received as a birthday present from his guardian. + +From that time the two students were thrown much together, and in the +autumn term of 1841 and Easter term of 1842 practised a variety of music +in John's rooms, he taking the violin part and Mr. Gaskell that for the +pianoforte. + +It was, I think, in March 1842 that John purchased for his rooms a piece +of furniture which was destined afterwards to play no unimportant part +in the story I am narrating. This was a very large and low wicker chair +of a form then coming into fashion in Oxford, and since, I am told, +become a familiar object of most college rooms. It was cushioned with a +gaudy pattern of chintz, and bought for new of an upholsterer at the +bottom of the High Street. + +Mr. Gaskell was taken by his uncle to spend Easter in Rome, and +obtaining special leave from his college to prolong his travels; did not +return to Oxford till three weeks of the summer term were passed and May +was well advanced. So impatient was he to see his friend that he would +not let even the first evening of his return pass without coming round +to John's rooms. The two young men sat without lights until the night +was late; and Mr. Gaskell had much to narrate of his travels, and spoke +specially of the beautiful music which he had heard at Easter in the +Roman churches. He had also had lessons on the piano from a celebrated +professor of the Italian style, but seemed to have been particularly +delighted with the music of the seventeenth-century composers, of whose +works he had brought back some specimens set for piano and violin. + +It was past eleven o'clock when Mr. Gaskell left to return to New +College; but the night was unusually warm, with a moon near the full, +and John sat for some time in a cushioned window-seat before the open +sash thinking over what he had heard about the music of Italy. Feeling +still disinclined for sleep, he lit a single candle and began to turn +over some of the musical works which Mr. Gaskell had left on the table. +His attention was especially attracted to an oblong book, bound in +soiled vellum, with a coat of arms stamped in gilt upon the side. It was +a manuscript copy of some early suites by Graziani for violin and +harpsichord, and was apparently written at Naples in the year 1744, many +years after the death of that composer. Though the ink was yellow and +faded, the transcript had been accurately made, and could be read with +tolerable comfort by an advanced musician in spite of the antiquated +notation. + +Perhaps by accident, or perhaps by some mysterious direction which our +minds are incapable of appreciating, his eye was arrested by a suite of +four movements with a _basso continuo_, or figured bass, for the +harpsichord. The other suites in the book were only distinguished by +numbers, but this one the composer had dignified with the name of +"l'Areopagita." Almost mechanically John put the book on his +music-stand, took his violin from its case, and after a moment's tuning +stood up and played the first movement, a lively _Coranto_. The light of +the single candle burning on the table was scarcely sufficient to +illumine the page; the shadows hung in the creases of the leaves, which +had grown into those wavy folds sometimes observable in books made of +thick paper and remaining long shut; and it was with difficulty that he +could read what he was playing. But he felt the strange impulse of the +old-world music urging him forward, and did not even pause to light the +candles which stood ready in their sconces on either side of the desk. +The _Coranto_ was followed by a _Sarabanda_, and the _Sarabanda_ by a +_Gagliarda_. My brother stood playing, with his face turned to the +window, with the room and the large wicker chair of which I have spoken +behind him. The _Gagliarda_ began with a bold and lively air, and as he +played the opening bars, he heard behind him a creaking of the wicker +chair. The sound was a perfectly familiar one--as of some person placing +a hand on either arm of the chair preparatory to lowering himself into +it, followed by another as of the same person being leisurely seated. +But for the tones of the violin, all was silent, and the creaking of the +chair was strangely distinct. The illusion was so complete that my +brother stopped playing suddenly, and turned round expecting that some +late friend of his had slipped in unawares, being attracted by the sound +of the violin, or that Mr. Gaskell himself had returned. With the +cessation of the music an absolute stillness fell upon all; the light of +the single candle scarcely reached the darker corners of the room, but +fell directly on the wicker chair and showed it to be perfectly empty. +Half amused, half vexed with himself at having without reason +interrupted his music, my brother returned to the _Gagliarda_; but some +impulse induced him to light the candles in the sconces, which gave an +illumination more adequate to the occasion. The _Gagliarda_ and the last +movement, a _Minuetto_, were finished, and John closed the book, +intending, as it was now late, to seek his bed. As he shut the pages a +creaking of the wicker chair again attracted his attention, and he heard +distinctly sounds such as would be made by a person raising himself from +a sitting posture. This time, being less surprised, he could more aptly +consider the probable causes of such a circumstance, and easily arrived +at the conclusion that there must be in the wicker chair osiers +responsive to certain notes of the violin, as panes of glass in church +windows are observed to vibrate in sympathy with certain tones of the +organ. But while this argument approved itself to his reason, his +imagination was but half convinced; and he could not but be impressed +with the fact that the second creaking of the chair had been coincident +with his shutting the music-book; and, unconsciously, pictured to +himself some strange visitor waiting until the termination of the music, +and then taking his departure. + +His conjectures did not, however, either rob him of sleep or even +disturb it with dreams, and he woke the next morning with a cooler mind +and one less inclined to fantastic imagination. If the strange episode +of the previous evening had not entirely vanished from his mind, it +seemed at least fully accounted for by the acoustic explanation to which +I have alluded above. Although he saw Mr. Gaskell in the course of the +morning, he did not think it necessary to mention to him so trivial a +circumstance, but made with him an appointment to sup together in his +own rooms that evening, and to amuse themselves afterwards by essaying +some of the Italian music. + +It was shortly after nine that night when, supper being finished, Mr. +Gaskell seated himself at the piano and John tuned his violin. The +evening was closing in; there had been heavy thunder-rain in the +afternoon, and the moist air hung now heavy and steaming, while across +it there throbbed the distant vibrations of the tenor bell at Christ +Church. It was tolling the customary 101 strokes, which are rung every +night in term-time as a signal for closing the college gates. The two +young men enjoyed themselves for some while, playing first a suite by +Cesti, and then two early sonatas by Buononcini. Both of them were +sufficiently expert musicians to make reading at sight a pleasure rather +than an effort; and Mr. Gaskell especially was well versed in the theory +of music, and in the correct rendering of the _basso continuo_. After +the Buononcini Mr. Gaskell took up the oblong copy of Graziani, and +turning over its leaves, proposed that they should play the same suite +which John had performed by himself the previous evening. His selection +was apparently perfectly fortuitous, as my brother had purposely +refrained from directing his attention in any way to that piece of +music. They played the _Coranto_ and the _Sarabanda_, and in the +singular fascination of the music John had entirely forgotten the +episode of the previous evening, when, as the bold air of the +_Gagliarda_ commenced, he suddenly became aware of the same strange +creaking of the wicker chair that he had noticed on the first occasion. +The sound was identical, and so exact was its resemblance to that of a +person sitting down that he stared at the chair, almost wondering that +it still appeared empty. Beyond turning his head sharply for a moment to +look round, Mr. Gaskell took no notice of the sound; and my brother, +ashamed to betray any foolish interest or excitement, continued the +_Gagliarda_, with its repeat. At its conclusion Mr. Gaskell stopped +before proceeding to the minuet, and turning the stool on which he was +sitting round towards the room, observed, "How very strange, +Johnnie,"--for these young men were on terms of sufficient intimacy to +address each other in a familiar style,--"How very strange! I thought I +heard some one sit down in that chair when we began the _Gagliarda_. I +looked round quite expecting to see some one had come in. Did you hear +nothing?" + +"It was only the chair creaking," my brother answered, feigning an +indifference which he scarcely felt. "Certain parts of the wicker-work +seem to be in accord with musical notes and respond to them; let us +continue with the _Minuetto_." + +Thus they finished the suite, Mr. Gaskell demanding a repetition of the +_Gagliarda_, with the air of which he was much pleased. As the clocks +had already struck eleven, they determined not to play more that night; +and Mr. Gaskell rose, blew out the sconces, shut the piano, and put the +music aside. My brother has often assured me that he was quite prepared +for what followed, and had been almost expecting it; for as the books +were put away, a creaking of the wicker chair was audible, exactly +similar to that which he had heard when he stopped playing on the +previous night. There was a moment's silence; the young men looked +involuntarily at one another, and then Mr. Gaskell said, "I cannot +understand the creaking of that chair; it has never done so before, with +all the music we have played. I am perhaps imaginative and excited with +the fine airs we have heard to-night, but I have an impression that I +cannot dispel that something has been sitting listening to us all this +time, and that now when the concert is ended it has got up and gone." +There was a spirit of raillery in his words, but his tone was not so +light as it would ordinarily have been, and he was evidently ill at +ease. + +"Let us try the _Gagliarda_ again," said my brother; "it is the +vibration of the opening notes which affects the wicker-work, and we +shall see if the noise is repeated." But Mr. Gaskell excused himself +from trying the experiment, and after some desultory conversation, to +which it was evident that neither was giving any serious attention, he +took his leave and returned to New College. + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +I shall not weary you, my dear Edward, by recounting similar experiences +which occurred on nearly every occasion that the young men met in the +evenings for music. The repetition of the phenomenon had accustomed them +to expect it. Both professed to be quite satisfied that it was to be +attributed to acoustical affinities of vibration between the wicker-work +and certain of the piano wires, and indeed this seemed the only +explanation possible. But, at the same time, the resemblance of the +noises to those caused by a person sitting down in or rising from a +chair was so marked, that even their frequent recurrence never failed to +make a strange impression on them. They felt a reluctance to mention the +matter to their friends, partly from a fear of being themselves laughed +at, and partly to spare from ridicule a circumstance to which each +perhaps, in spite of himself, attached some degree of importance. +Experience soon convinced them that the first noise as of one sitting +down never occurred unless the _Gagliarda_ of the "Areopagita" was +played, and that this noise being once heard, the second only followed +it when they ceased playing for the evening. They met every night, +sitting later with the lengthening summer evenings, and every night, +as by some tacit understanding, played the "Areopagita" suite before +parting. At the opening bars of the _Gagliarda_ the creaking of the +chair occurred spontaneously with the utmost regularity. They seldom +spoke even to one another of the subject; but one night, when John was +putting away his violin after a long evening's music without having +played the "Areopagita," Mr. Gaskell, who had risen from the pianoforte, +sat down again as by a sudden impulse and said-- + +"Johnnie, do not put away your violin yet. It is near twelve o'clock +and I shall get shut out, but I cannot stop to-night without playing the +_Gagliarda_. Suppose that all our theories of vibration and affinity are +wrong, suppose that there really comes here night by night some strange +visitant to hear us, some poor creature whose heart is bound up in that +tune; would it not be unkind to send him away without the hearing of +that piece which he seems most to relish? Let us not be ill-mannered, +but humour his whim; let us play the _Gagliarda_." + +They played it with more vigour and precision than usual, and the now +customary sound of one taking his seat at once ensued. It was that night +that my brother, looking steadfastly at the chair, saw, or thought he +saw, there some slight obscuration, some penumbra, mist, or subtle +vapour which, as he gazed, seemed to struggle to take human form. He +ceased playing for a moment and rubbed his eyes, but as he did so all +dimness vanished and he saw the chair perfectly empty. The pianist +stopped also at the cessation of the violin, and asked what ailed him. + +"It is only that my eyes were dim," he answered. + +"We have had enough for to-night," said Mr. Gaskell; "let us stop. +I shall be locked out." He shut the piano, and as he did so the clock +in New College tower struck twelve. He left the room running, but was +late enough at his college door to be reported, admonished with a fine +against such late hours, and confined for a week to college; for being +out after midnight was considered, at that time at least, a somewhat +serious offence. + +Thus for some days the musical practice was compulsorily intermitted, +but resumed on the first evening after Mr. Gaskell's term of confinement +was expired. After they had performed several suites of Graziani, and +finished as usual with the "Areopagita," Mr. Gaskell sat for a time +silent at the instrument, as though thinking with himself, and then +said-- + +"I cannot say how deeply this old-fashioned music affects me. Some would +try to persuade us that these suites, of which the airs bear the names +of different dances, were always written rather as a musical essay and +for purposes of performance than for persons to dance to, as their names +would more naturally imply. But I think these critics are wrong at least +in some instances. It is to me impossible to believe that such a melody, +for instance, as the _Giga_ of Corelli which we have played, was not +written for actual purposes of dancing. One can almost hear the beat +of feet upon the floor, and I imagine that in the time of Corelli the +practice of dancing, while not a whit inferior in grace, had more of the +tripudistic or beating character than is now esteemed consistent with a +correct ball-room performance. The _Gagliarda_ too, which we play now so +constantly, possesses a singular power of assisting the imagination to +picture or reproduce such scenes as those which it no doubt formerly +enlivened. I know not why, but it is constantly identified in my mind +with some revel which I have perhaps seen in a picture, where several +couples are dancing a licentious measure in a long room lit by a number +of silver sconces of the debased model common at the end of the +seventeenth century. It is probably a reminiscence of my late excursion +that gives to these dancers in my fancy the olive skin, dark hair, and +bright eyes of the Italian type; and they wear dresses of exceedingly +rich fabric and elaborate design. Imagination is whimsical enough to +paint for me the character of the room itself, as having an arcade of +arches running down one side alone, of the fantastic and paganised +Gothic of the Renaissance. At the end is a gallery or balcony for the +musicians, which on its coved front has a florid coat of arms of foreign +heraldry. The shield bears, on a field _or_, a cherub's head blowing on +three lilies--a blazon I have no doubt seen somewhere in my travels, +though I cannot recollect where. This scene, I say, is so nearly +connected in my brain with the _Gagliarda_, that scarcely are its first +notes sounded ere it presents itself to my eyes with a vividness which +increases every day. The couples advance, set, and recede, using free +and licentious gestures which my imagination should be ashamed to +recall. Amongst so many foreigners, fancy pictures, I know not in the +least why, the presence of a young man of an English type of face, whose +features, however, always elude my mind's attempt to fix them. I think +that the opening subject of this _Gagliarda_ is a superior composition +to the rest of it, for it is only during the first sixteen bars that the +vision of bygone revelry presents itself to me. With the last note of +the sixteenth bar a veil is drawn suddenly across the scene, and with a +sense almost of some catastrophe it vanishes. This I attribute to the +fact that the second subject must be inferior in conception to the +first, and by some sense of incongruity destroys the fabric which the +fascination of the preceding one built up." + +My brother, though he had listened with interest to what Mr. Gaskell had +said, did not reply, and the subject was allowed to drop. + + + + +CHAPTER III + + +It was in the same summer of 1842, and near the middle of June, that my +brother John wrote inviting me to come to Oxford for the Commemoration +festivities. I had been spending some weeks with Mrs. Temple, a distant +cousin of ours, at their house of Royston in Derbyshire, and John was +desirous that Mrs. Temple should come up to Oxford and chaperone +her daughter Constance and myself at the balls and various other +entertainments which take place at the close of the summer term. Owing +to Royston being some two hundred miles from Worth Maltravers, our +families had hitherto seen little of one another, but during my present +visit I had learned to love Mrs. Temple, a lady of singular sweetness of +disposition, and had contracted a devoted attachment to her daughter +Constance. Constance Temple was then eighteen years of age, and to great +beauty united such mental graces and excellent traits of character as +must ever appear to reasoning persons more enduringly valuable than even +the highest personal attractions. She was well read and witty, and had +been trained in those principles of true religion which she afterwards +followed with devoted consistency in the self-sacrifice and resigned +piety of her too short life. In person, I may remind you, my dear +Edward, since death removed her ere you were of years to appreciate +either her appearance or her qualities, she was tall, with a somewhat +long and oval face, with brown hair and eyes. + +Mrs. Temple readily accepted Sir John Maltravers' invitation. She had +never seen Oxford herself, and was pleased to afford us the pleasure of +so delightful an excursion. John had secured convenient rooms for us +above the shop of a well-known printseller in High Street, and we +arrived in Oxford on Friday evening, June 18, 1842. I shall not dilate +to you on the various Commemoration festivities, which have probably +altered little since those days, and with which you are familiar. +Suffice it to say that my brother had secured us admission to every +entertainment, and that we enjoyed our visit as only youth with its keen +sensibilities and uncloyed pleasures can. I could not help observing +that John was very much struck by the attractions of Miss Constance +Temple, and that she for her part, while exhibiting no unbecoming +forwardness, certainly betrayed no aversion to him. I was greatly +pleased both with my own powers of observation which had enabled me to +discover so important a fact, and also with the circumstance itself. +To a romantic girl of nineteen it appeared high time that a brother of +twenty-two should be at least preparing some matrimonial project; and my +friend was so good and beautiful that it seemed impossible that I should +ever obtain a more lovable sister or my brother a better wife. Mrs. +Temple could not refuse her sanction to such a scheme; for while their +mental qualities seemed eminently compatible, John was in his own right +master of Worth Maltravers, and her daughter sole heiress of the Royston +estates. + +The Commemoration festivities terminated on Wednesday night with a grand +ball at the Music-Room in Holywell Street. This was given by a Lodge of +University Freemasons, and John was there with Mr. Gaskell--whose +acquaintance we had made with much gratification--both wearing blue silk +scarves and small white aprons. They introduced us to many other of +their friends similarly adorned, and these important and mysterious +insignia sat not amiss with their youthful figures and boyish faces. +After a long and pleasurable programme, it was decided that we should +prolong our visit till the next evening, leaving Oxford at half-past +ten o'clock at night and driving to Didcot, there to join the mail for +the west. We rose late the next morning and spent the day rambling among +the old colleges and gardens of the most beautiful of English cities. +At seven o'clock we dined together for the last time at our lodgings +in High Street, and my brother proposed that before parting we should +enjoy the fine evening in the gardens of St. John's College. This was +at once agreed to, and we proceeded thither, John walking on in front +with Constance and Mrs. Temple, and I following with Mr. Gaskell. My +companion explained that these gardens were esteemed the most beautiful +in the University, but that under ordinary circumstances it was not +permitted to strangers to walk there of an evening. Here he quoted some +Latin about "aurum per medios ire satellites," which I smilingly made as +if I understood, and did indeed gather from it that John had bribed the +porter to admit us. It was a warm and very still night, without a moon, +but with enough of fading light to show the outlines of the garden +front. This long low line of buildings built in Charles I's reign looked +so exquisitely beautiful that I shall never forget it, though I have not +since seen its oriel windows and creeper-covered walls. There was a very +heavy dew on the broad lawn, and we walked at first only on the paths. +No one spoke, for we were oppressed by the very beauty of the scene, and +by the sadness which an imminent parting from friends and from so sweet +a place combined to cause. John had been silent and depressed the whole +day, nor did Mr. Gaskell himself seem inclined to conversation. +Constance and my brother fell a little way behind, and Mr. Gaskell asked +me to cross the lawn if I was not afraid of the dew, that I might see +the garden front to better advantage from the corner. Mrs. Temple waited +for us on the path, not wishing to wet her feet. Mr. Gaskell pointed out +the beauties of the perspective as seen from his vantage-point, and we +were fortunate in hearing the sweet descant of nightingales for which +this garden has ever been famous. As we stood silent and listening, a +candle was lit in a small oriel at the end, and the light showing the +tracery of the window added to the picturesqueness of the scene. + +Within an hour we were in a landau driving through the still warm lanes +to Didcot. I had seen that Constance's parting with my brother had been +tender, and I am not sure that she was not in tears during some part at +least of our drive; but I did not observe her closely, having my +thoughts elsewhere. + +Though we were thus being carried every moment further from the sleeping +city, where I believe that both our hearts were busy, I feel as if I had +been a personal witness of the incidents I am about to narrate, so often +have I heard them from my brother's lips. The two young men, after +parting with us in the High Street, returned to their respective +colleges. John reached his rooms shortly before eleven o'clock. He was +at once sad and happy--sad at our departure, but happy in a new-found +world of delight which his admiration for Constance Temple opened to +him. He was, in fact, deeply in love with her, and the full flood of a +hitherto unknown passion filled him with an emotion so overwhelming that +his ordinary life seemed transfigured. He moved, as it were, in an ether +superior to our mortal atmosphere, and a new region of high resolves and +noble possibilities spread itself before his eyes. He slammed his heavy +outside door (called an "oak") to prevent anyone entering and flung +himself into the window-seat. Here he sat for a long time, the sash +thrown up and his head outside, for he was excited and feverish. His +mental exaltation was so great and his thoughts of so absorbing an +interest that he took no notice of time, and only remembered afterwards +that the scent of a syringa-bush was borne up to him from a little +garden-patch opposite, and that a bat had circled slowly up and down the +lane, until he heard the clocks striking three. At the same time the +faint light of dawn made itself felt almost imperceptibly; the classic +statues on the roof of the schools began to stand out against the white +sky, and a faint glimmer to penetrate the darkened room. It glistened on +the varnished top of his violin-case lying on the table, and on a jug of +toast-and-water placed there by his college servant or scout every night +before he left. He drank a glass of this mixture, and was moving towards +his bedroom door when a sudden thought struck him. He turned back, took +the violin from its case, tuned it, and began to play the "Areopagita" +suite. He was conscious of that mental clearness and vigour which not +unfrequently comes with the dawn to those who have sat watching or +reading through the night: and his thoughts were exalted by the effect +which the first consciousness of a deep passion causes in imaginative +minds. He had never played the suite with more power; and the airs, +even without the piano part, seemed fraught with a meaning hitherto +unrealised. As he began the _Gagliarda_ he heard the wicker chair creak; +but he had his back towards it, and the sound was now too familiar to +him to cause him even to look round. It was not till he was playing +the repeat that he became aware of a new and overpowering sensation. +At first it was a vague feeling, so often experienced by us all, of +not being alone. He did not stop playing, and in a few seconds the +impression of a presence in the room other than his own became so strong +that he was actually afraid to look round. But in another moment he felt +that at all hazards he must see what or who this presence was. Without +stopping he partly turned and partly looked over his shoulder. The +silver light of early morning was filling the room, making the various +objects appear of less bright colour than usual, and giving to +everything a pearl-grey neutral tint. In this cold but clear light he +saw seated in the wicker chair the figure of a man. + +In the first violent shock of so terrifying a discovery, he could not +appreciate such details as those of features, dress, or appearance. He +was merely conscious that with him, in a locked room of which he knew +himself to be the only human inmate, there sat something which bore a +human form. He looked at it for a moment with a hope, which he felt +to be vain, that it might vanish and prove a phantom of his excited +imagination, but still it sat there. Then my brother put down his +violin, and he used to assure me that a horror overwhelmed him of an +intensity which he had previously believed impossible. Whether the image +which he saw was subjective or objective, I cannot pretend to say: you +will be in a position to judge for yourself when you have finished this +narrative. Our limited experience would lead us to believe that it was a +phantom conjured up by some unusual condition of his own brain; but we +are fain to confess that there certainly do exist in nature phenomena +such as baffle human reason; and it is possible that, for some hidden +purposes of Providence, permission may occasionally be granted to those +who have passed from this life to assume again for a time the form of +their earthly tabernacle. We must, I say, be content to suspend our +judgment on such matters; but in this instance the subsequent course of +events is very difficult to explain, except on the supposition that +there was then presented to my brother's view the actual bodily form of +one long deceased. The dread which took possession of him was due, he +has more than once told me when analysing his feelings long afterwards, +to two predominant causes. Firstly, he felt that mental dislocation +which accompanies the sudden subversion of preconceived theories, +the sudden alteration of long habit, or even the occurrence of any +circumstance beyond the walk of our daily experience. This I have +observed myself in the perturbing effect which a sudden death, a +grievous accident, or in recent years the declaration of war, has +exercised upon all except the most lethargic or the most determined +minds. Secondly, he experienced the profound self-abasement or mental +annihilation caused by the near conception of a being of a superior +order. In the presence of an existence wearing, indeed, the human form, +but of attributes widely different from and superior to his own, he felt +the combined reverence and revulsion which even the noblest wild animals +exhibit when brought for the first time face to face with man. The shock +was so great that I feel persuaded it exerted an effect on him from +which he never wholly recovered. + +After an interval which seemed to him interminable, though it was only +of a second's duration, he turned his eyes again to the occupant of the +wicker chair. His faculties had so far recovered from the first shock +as to enable him to see that the figure was that of a man perhaps +thirty-five years of age and still youthful in appearance. The face was +long and oval, the hair brown, and brushed straight off an exceptionally +high forehead. His complexion was very pale or bloodless. He was clean +shaven, and his finely cut mouth, with compressed lips, wore something +of a sneering smile. His general expression was unpleasing, and from the +first my brother felt as by intuition that there was present some malign +and wicked influence. His eyes were not visible, as he kept them cast +down, resting his head on his hand in the attitude of one listening. His +face and even his dress were impressed so vividly upon John's mind, that +he never had any difficulty in recalling them to his imagination; and he +and I had afterwards an opportunity of verifying them in a remarkable +manner. He wore a long cut-away coat of green cloth with an edge of gold +embroidery, and a white satin waistcoat figured with rose-sprigs, a +full cravat of rich lace, knee-breeches of buff silk, and stockings of +the same. His shoes were of polished black leather with heavy silver +buckles, and his costume in general recalled that worn a century ago. +As my brother gazed at him, he got up, putting his hands on the arms +of the chair to raise himself, and causing the creaking so often heard +before. The hands forced themselves on my brother's notice: they were +very white, with the long delicate fingers of a musician. He showed a +considerable height; and still keeping his eyes on the floor, walked +with an ordinary gait towards the end of the bookcase at the side of the +room farthest from the window. He reached the bookcase, and then John +suddenly lost sight of him. The figure did not fade gradually, but went +out, as it were, like the flame of a suddenly extinguished candle. + +The room was now filled with the clear light of the summer morning: the +whole vision had lasted but a few seconds, but my brother knew that +there was no possibility of his having been mistaken, that the mystery +of the creaking chair was solved, that he had seen the man who had come +evening by evening for a month past to listen to the rhythm of the +_Gagliarda_. Terribly disturbed, he sat for some time half dreading and +half expecting a return of the figure; but all remained unchanged: he +saw nothing, nor did he dare to challenge its reappearance by playing +again the _Gagliarda_, which seemed to have so strange an attraction for +it. At last, in the full sunlight of a late June morning at Oxford, he +heard the steps of early pedestrians on the pavement below his windows, +the cry of a milkman, and other sounds which showed the world was awake. +It was after six o'clock, and going to his bedroom he flung himself on +the outside of the bed for an hour's troubled slumber. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + +When his servant called him about eight o'clock my brother sent a note +to Mr. Gaskell at New College, begging him to come round to Magdalen +Hall as soon as might be in the course of the morning. His summons was +at once obeyed, and Mr. Gaskell was with him before he had finished +breakfast. My brother was still much agitated, and at once told him what +had happened the night before, detailing the various circumstances with +minuteness, and not even concealing from him the sentiments which he +entertained towards Miss Constance Temple. In narrating the appearance +which he had seen in the chair, his agitation was still so excessive +that he had difficulty in controlling his voice. + +Mr. Gaskell heard him with much attention, and did not at once reply +when John had finished his narration. At length he said, "I suppose many +friends would think it right to affect, even if they did not feel, an +incredulity as to what you have just told me. They might consider it +more prudent to attempt to allay your distress by persuading you that +what you have seen has no objective reality, but is merely the phantasm +of an excited imagination; that if you had not been in love, had not sat +up all night, and had not thus overtaxed your physical powers, you would +have seen no vision. I shall not argue thus, for I am as certainly +convinced as of the fact that we sit here, that on all the nights when +we have played this suite called the 'Areopagita,' there has been some +one listening to us, and that you have at length been fortunate or +unfortunate enough to see him." + +"Do not say fortunate," said my brother; "for I feel as though I shall +never recover from last night's shock." + +"That is likely enough," Mr. Gaskell answered, coolly; "for as in the +history of the race or individual, increased culture and a finer mental +susceptibility necessarily impair the brute courage and powers of +endurance which we note in savages, so any supernatural vision such +as you have seen must be purchased at the cost of physical reaction. +From the first evening that we played this music, and heard the noises +mimicking so closely the sitting down and rising up of some person, I +have felt convinced that causes other than those which we usually call +natural were at work, and that we were very near the manifestation of +some extraordinary phenomenon." + +"I do not quite apprehend your meaning." + +"I mean this," he continued, "that this man or spirit of a man has been +sitting here night after night, and that we have not been able to see +him, because our minds are dull and obtuse. Last night the elevating +force of a strong passion, such as that which you have confided to me, +combined with the power of fine music, so exalted your mind that you +became endowed, as it were, with a sixth sense, and suddenly were +enabled to see that which had previously been invisible. To this sixth +sense music gives, I believe, the key. We are at present only on the +threshold of such a knowledge of that art as will enable us to use it +eventually as the greatest of all humanising and educational agents. +Music will prove a ladder to the loftier regions of thought; indeed I +have long found for myself that I cannot attain to the highest range of +my intellectual power except when hearing good music. All poets, and +most writers of prose, will say that their thought is never so exalted, +their sense of beauty and proportion never so just, as when they are +listening either to the artificial music made by man, or to some of the +grander tones of nature, such as the roar of a western ocean, or the +sighing of wind in a clump of firs. Though I have often felt on such +occasions on the very verge of some high mental discovery, and though +a hand has been stretched forward as it were to rend the veil, yet it +has never been vouchsafed me to see behind it. This you no doubt were +allowed in a measure to do last night. You probably played the music +with a deeper intuition than usual, and this, combined with the +excitement under which you were already labouring, raised you for a +moment to the required pitch of mental exaltation." + +"It is true," John said, "that I never felt the melody so deeply as when +I played it last night." + +"Just so," answered his friend; "and there is probably some link between +this air and the history of the man whom you saw last night; some fatal +power in it which enables it to exert an attraction on him even after +death. For we must remember that the influence of music, though always +powerful, is not always for good. We can scarcely doubt that as certain +forms of music tend to raise us above the sensuality of the animal, or +the more degrading passion of material gain, and to transport us into +the ether of higher thought, so other forms are directly calculated to +awaken in us luxurious emotions, and to whet those sensual appetites +which it is the business of a philosopher not indeed to annihilate or to +be ashamed of, but to keep rigidly in check. This possibility of music +to effect evil as well as good I have seen recognised, and very aptly +expressed in some beautiful verses by Mr. Keble which I have just +read:-- + + "'Cease, stranger, cease those witching notes, + The art of syren choirs; + Hush the seductive voice that floats + Across the trembling wires. + + "'Music's ethereal power was given + Not to dissolve our clay, + But draw Promethean beams from heaven + To purge the dross away.'" + + +"They are fine lines," said my brother, "but I do not see how you apply +your argument to the present instance." + +"I mean," Mr. Gaskell answered, "that I have little doubt that the +melody of this _Gagliarda_ has been connected in some manner with the +life of the man you saw last night. It is not unlikely, either, that it +was a favourite air of his whilst in the flesh, or even that it was +played by himself or others at the moment of some crisis in his history. +It is possible that such connection may be due merely to the innocent +pleasure the melody gave him in life; but the nature of the music +itself, and a peculiar effect it has upon my own thoughts, induce me to +believe that it was associated with some occasion when he either fell +into great sin or when some evil fate, perhaps even death itself, +overtook him. You will remember I have told you that this air calls up +to my mind a certain scene of Italian revelry in which an Englishman +takes part. It is true that I have never been able to fix his features +in my mind, nor even to say exactly how he was dressed. Yet now some +instinct tells me that it is this very man whom you saw last night. It +is not for us to attempt to pierce the mystery which veils from our eyes +the secrets of an after-death existence; but I can scarcely suppose that +a spirit entirely at rest would feel so deeply the power of a certain +melody as to be called back by it to his old haunts like a dog by his +master's whistle. It is more probable that there is some evil history +connected with the matter, and this, I think, we ought to consider if it +be possible to unravel." + +My brother assenting, he continued, "When this man left you, Johnnie, +did he walk to the door?" + +"No; he made for the side wall, and when he reached the end of the +bookcase I lost sight of him." + +Mr. Gaskell went to the bookcase and looked for a moment at the titles +of the books, as though expecting to see something in them to assist +his inquiries; but finding apparently no clue, he said-- + +"This is the last time we shall meet for three months or more; let us +play the _Gagliarda_ and see if there be any response." + +My brother at first would not hear of this, showing a lively dread of +challenging any reappearance of the figure he had seen: indeed he felt +that such an event would probably fling him into a state of serious +physical disorder. Mr. Gaskell, however, continued to press him, +assuring him that the fact of his now being no longer alone should +largely allay any fear on his part, and urging that this would be the +last opportunity they would have of playing together for some months. + +At last, being overborne, my brother took his violin, and Mr. Gaskell +seated himself at the pianoforte. John was very agitated, and as he +commenced the _Gagliarda_ his hands trembled so that he could scarcely +play the air. Mr. Gaskell also exhibited some nervousness, not +performing with his customary correctness. But for the first time the +charm failed: no noise accompanied the music, nor did anything of an +unusual character occur. They repeated the whole suite, but with a +similar result. + +Both were surprised, but neither, had any explanation to offer. My +brother, who at first dreaded intensely a repetition of the vision, was +now almost disappointed that nothing had occurred; so quickly does the +mood of man change. + +After some further conversation the young men parted for the Long +Vacation--John returning to Worth Maltravers and Mr. Gaskell going to +London, where he was to pass a few days before he proceeded to his home +in Westmorland. + + + + +CHAPTER V + + +John spent nearly the whole of this summer vacation at Worth Maltravers. +He had been anxious to pay a visit to Royston; but the continued and +serious illness of Mrs. Temple's sister had called her and Constance to +Scotland, where they remained until the death of their relative allowed +them to return to Derbyshire in the late autumn. John and I had been +brought up together from childhood. When he was at Eton we had always +spent the holidays at Worth, and after my dear mother's death, when we +were left quite alone, the bonds of our love were naturally drawn still +closer. Even after my brother went to Oxford, at a time when most young +men are anxious to enjoy a new-found liberty, and to travel or to visit +friends in their vacation, John's ardent affection for me and for Worth +Maltravers kept him at home; and he was pleased on most occasions to +make me the partner of his thoughts and of his pleasures. This long +vacation of 1842 was, I think, the happiest of our lives. In my case I +know it was so, and I think it was happy also for him; for none could +guess that the small cloud seen in the distance like a man's hand was +afterwards to rise and darken all his later days. It was a summer of +brilliant and continued sunshine; many of the old people said that they +could never recollect so fine a season, and both fruit and crops were +alike abundant. John hired a small cutter-yacht, the _Palestine_, which +he kept in our little harbour of Encombe, and in which he and I made +many excursions, visiting Weymouth, Lyme Regis, and other places of +interest on the south coast. + +In this summer my brother confided to me two secrets,--his love +for Constance Temple, which indeed was after all no secret, and the +history of the apparition which he had seen. This last filled me with +inexpressible dread and distress. It seemed cruel and unnatural that any +influence so dark and mysterious should thus intrude on our bright life, +and from the first I had an impression which I could not entirely shake +off, that any such appearance or converse of a disembodied spirit must +portend misfortune, if not worse, to him who saw or heard it. It never +occurred to me to combat or to doubt the reality of the vision; he +believed that he had seen it, and his conviction was enough to convince +me. He had meant, he said, to tell no one, and had given a promise to +Mr. Gaskell to that effect; but I think that he could not bear to keep +such a matter in his own breast, and within the first week of his +return he made me his confidant. I remember, my dear Edward, the look +everything wore on that sad night when he first told me what afterwards +proved so terrible a secret. We had dined quite alone, and he had been +moody and depressed all the evening. It was a chilly night, with some +fret blowing up from the sea. The moon showed that blunted and deformed +appearance which she assumes a day or two past the full, and the +moisture in the air encircled her with a stormy-looking halo. We had +stepped out of the dining-room windows on to the little terrace looking +down towards Smedmore and Encombe. The glaucous shrubs that grow in +between the balusters were wet and dripping with the salt breath of the +sea, and we could hear the waves coming into the cove from the west. +After standing a minute I felt chill, and proposed that we should go +back to the billiard-room, where a fire was lit on all except the +warmest nights. "No," John said, "I want to tell you something, Sophy," +and then we walked on to the old boat summer-house. There he told me +everything. I cannot describe to you my feelings of anguish and horror +when he told me of the appearance of the man. The interest of the tale +was so absorbing to me that I took no note of time, nor of the cold +night air, and it was only when it was all finished that I felt how +deadly chill it had become. "Let us go in, John," I said; "I am cold and +feel benumbed." + +But youth is hopeful and strong, and in another week the impression had +faded from our minds, and we were enjoying the full glory of midsummer +weather, which I think only those know who have watched the blue sea +come rippling in at the foot of the white chalk cliffs of Dorset. + +I had felt a reluctance even so much as to hear the air of the +_Gagliarda_, and though he had spoken to me of the subject on more than +one occasion, my brother had never offered to play it to me. I knew that +he had the copy of Graziani's suites with him at Worth Maltravers, +because he had told me that he had brought it from Oxford; but I had +never seen the book, and fancied that he kept it intentionally locked +up. He did not, however, neglect the violin, and during the summer +mornings, as I sat reading or working on the terrace, I often heard him +playing to himself in the library. Though he had never even given me any +description of the melody of the _Gagliarda_, yet I felt certain that he +not infrequently played it. I cannot say how it was; but from the moment +that I heard him one morning in the library performing an air set in a +curiously low key, it forced itself upon my attention, and I knew, as it +were by instinct, that it must be the _Gagliarda_ of the "Areopagita." +He was using a _sordino_ and playing it very softly; but I was not +mistaken. One wet afternoon in October, only a week before the time of +his leaving us to return to Oxford for the autumn term, he walked into +the drawing-room where I was sitting, and proposed that we should play +some music together. To this I readily agreed. Though but a mediocre +performer, I have always taken much pleasure in the use of the +pianoforte, and esteemed it an honour whenever he asked me to play with +him, since my powers as a musician were so very much inferior to his. +After we had played several pieces, he took up an oblong music-book +bound in white vellum, placed it upon the desk of the pianoforte, and +proposed that we should play a suite by Graziani. I knew that he meant +the "Areopagita," and begged him at once not to ask me to play it. He +rallied me lightly on my fears, and said it would much please him to +play it, as he had not heard the pianoforte part since he had left +Oxford three months ago. I saw that he was eager to perform it, and +being loath to disoblige so kind a brother during the last week of his +stay at home, I at length overcame my scruples and set out to play it. +But I was so alarmed at the possibility of any evil consequences +ensuing, that when we commenced the _Gagliarda_ I could scarcely find +my notes. Nothing in any way unusual, however, occurred; and being +reassured by this, and feeling an irresistible charm in the music, I +finished the suite with more appearance of ease. My brother, however, +was, I fear, not satisfied with my performance, and compared it, very +possibly, with that of Mr. Gaskell, to which it was necessarily much +inferior, both through weakness of execution and from my insufficient +knowledge of the principles of the _basso continuo_. We stopped playing, +and John stood looking out of the window across the sea, where the sky +was clearing low down under the clouds. The sun went down behind +Portland in a fiery glow which cheered us after a long day's rain. I had +taken the copy of Graziani's suites off the desk, and was holding it on +my lap turning over the old foxed and yellow pages. As I closed it a +streak of evening sunlight fell across the room and lighted up a coat +of arms stamped in gilt on the cover. It was much faded and would +ordinarily have been hard to make out; but the ray of strong light +illumined it, and in an instant I recognised the same shield which Mr. +Gaskell had pictured to himself as hanging on the musicians' gallery of +his phantasmal dancing-room. My brother had often recounted to me this +effort of his friend's imagination, and here I saw before me the same +florid foreign blazon, a cherub's head blowing on three lilies on a gold +field. This discovery was not only of interest, but afforded me much +actual relief; for it accounted rationally for at least one item of the +strange story. Mr. Gaskell had no doubt noticed at some time this shield +stamped on the outside of the book, and bearing the impression of it +unconsciously in his mind, had reproduced it in his imagined revels. +I said as much to my brother, and he was greatly interested, and after +examining the shield agreed that this was certainly a probable solution +of that part of the mystery. On the 12th of October John returned to +Oxford. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +My brother told me afterwards that more than once during the summer +vacation he had seriously considered with himself the propriety of +changing his rooms at Magdalen Hall. He had thought that it might thus +be possible for him to get rid at once of the memory of the apparition, +and of the fear of any reappearance of it. He could either have moved +into another set of rooms in the Hall itself, or else gone into lodgings +in the town--a usual proceeding, I am told, for gentlemen near the end +of their course at Oxford. Would to God that he had indeed done so! but +with the supineness which has, I fear, my dear Edward, been too +frequently a characteristic of our family, he shrank from the trouble +such a course would involve, and the opening of the autumn term found +him still in his old rooms. You will forgive me for entering here on a +very brief description of your father's sitting-room. It is, I think, +necessary for the proper understanding of the incidents that follow. It +was not a large room, though probably the finest in the small buildings +of Magdalen Hall, and panelled from floor to ceiling with oak which +successive generations had obscured by numerous coats of paint. On one +side were two windows having an aspect on to New College Lane, and +fitted with deep cushioned seats in the recesses. Outside these windows +there were boxes of flowers, the brightness of which formed in the +summer term a pretty contrast to the grey and crumbling stone, and +afforded pleasure at once to the inmate and to passers-by. Along nearly +the whole length of the wall opposite to the windows, some tenant in +years long past had had mahogany book-shelves placed, reaching to a +height of perhaps five feet from the floor. They were handsomely made +in the style of the eighteenth century and pleased my brother's taste. +He had always exhibited a partiality for books, and the fine library at +Worth Maltravers had no doubt contributed to foster his tastes in that +direction. At the time of which I write he had formed a small collection +for himself at Oxford, paying particular attention to the bindings, and +acquiring many excellent specimens of that art, principally I think, +from Messrs. Payne & Foss, the celebrated London booksellers. + +Towards the end of the autumn term, having occasion one cold day to take +down a volume of Plato from its shelf, he found to his surprise that the +book was quite warm. A closer examination easily explained to him the +reason--namely, that the flue of a chimney, passing behind one end of +the bookcase, sensibly heated not only the wall itself, but also the +books in the shelves. Although he had been in his rooms now near three +years, he had never before observed this fact; partly, no doubt, because +the books in these shelves were seldom handled, being more for show as +specimens of bindings than for practical use. He was somewhat annoyed +at this discovery, fearing lest such a heat, which in moderation is +beneficial to books, might through its excess warp the leather or +otherwise injure the bindings. Mr. Gaskell was sitting with him at the +time of the discovery, and indeed it was for his use that my brother had +taken down the volume of Plato. He strongly advised that the bookcase +should be moved, and suggested that it would be better to place it +across that end of the room where the pianoforte then stood. They +examined it and found that it would easily admit of removal, being, in +fact, only the frame of a bookcase, and showing at the back the painted +panelling of the wall. Mr. Gaskell noted it as curious that all the +shelves were fixed and immovable except one at the end, which had been +fitted with the ordinary arrangement allowing its position to be altered +at will. My brother thought that the change would improve the appearance +of his rooms, besides being advantageous for the books, and gave +instructions to the college upholsterer to have the necessary work +carried out at once. + +The two young men had resumed their musical studies, and had often +played the "Areopagita" and other music of Graziani since their return +to Oxford in the Autumn. They remarked, however, that the chair no +longer creaked during the _Gagliarda_--and, in fact, that no unusual +occurrence whatever attended its performance. At times they were almost +tempted to doubt the accuracy of their own remembrances, and to consider +as entirely mythical the mystery which had so much disturbed them in the +summer term. My brother had also pointed out to Mr. Gaskell my discovery +that the coat of arms on the outside of the music-book was identical +with that which his fancy portrayed on the musicians' gallery. He +readily admitted that he must at some time have noticed and afterwards +forgotten the blazon on the book, and that an unconscious reminiscence +of it had no doubt inspired his imagination in this instance. He rebuked +my brother for having agitated me unnecessarily by telling me at all of +so idle a tale; and was pleased to write a few lines to me at Worth +Maltravers, felicitating me on my shrewdness of perception, but speaking +banteringly of the whole matter. + +On the evening of the 14th of November my brother and his friend were +sitting talking in the former's room. The position of the bookcase had +been changed on the morning of that day, and Mr. Gaskell had come round +to see how the books looked when placed at the end instead of at the +side of the room. He had applauded the new arrangement, and the young +men sat long over the fire, with a bottle of college port and a dish of +medlars which I had sent my brother from our famous tree in the Upper +Croft at Worth Maltravers. Later on they fell to music, and played a +variety of pieces, performing also the "Areopagita" suite. Mr. Gaskell +before he left complimented John on the improvement which the alteration +in the place of the bookcase had made in his room, saying, "Not only +do the books in their present place very much enhance the general +appearance of the room, but the change seems to me to have affected also +a marked acoustical improvement. The oak panelling now exposed on the +side of the room has given a resonant property to the wall which is +peculiarly responsive to the tones of your violin. While you were +playing the _Gagliarda_ to-night, I could almost have imagined that +someone in an adjacent room was playing the same air with a _sordino_, +so distinct was the echo." + +Shortly after this he left. + +My brother partly undressed himself in his bedroom, which adjoined, and +then returning to his sitting-room, pulled the large wicker chair in +front of the fire, and sat there looking at the glowing coals, and +thinking perhaps of Miss Constance Temple. The night promised to be very +cold, and the wind whistled down the chimney, increasing the comfortable +sensation of the clear fire. He sat watching the ruddy reflection of the +firelight dancing on the panelled wall, when he noticed that a picture +placed where the end of the bookcase formerly stood was not truly hung, +and needed adjustment. A picture hung askew was particularly offensive +to his eyes, and he got up at once to alter it. He remembered as he went +up to it that at this precise spot four months ago he had lost sight +of the man's figure which he saw rise from the wicker chair, and at +the memory felt an involuntary shudder. This reminiscence probably +influenced his fancy also in another direction; for it seemed to him +that very faintly, as though played far off, and with the _sordino_, +he could hear the air of the _Gagliarda_. He put one hand behind the +picture to steady it, and as he did so his finger struck a very slight +projection in the wall. He pulled the picture a little to one side, and +saw that what he had touched was the back of a small hinge sunk in the +wall, and almost obliterated with many coats of paint. His curiosity +was excited, and he took a candle from the table and examined the wall +carefully. Inspection soon showed him another hinge a little further up, +and by degrees he perceived that one of the panels had been made at some +time in the past to open, and serve probably as the door of a cupboard. +At this point he assured me that a feverish anxiety to re-open this +cupboard door took possession of him, and that the intense excitement +filled his mind which we experience on the eve of a discovery which +we fancy may produce important results. He loosened the paint in the +cracks with a penknife, and attempted to press open the door; but his +instrument was not adequate to such a purpose, and all his efforts +remained ineffective. His excitement had now reached an overmastering +pitch; for he anticipated, though he knew not why, some strange +discovery to be made in this sealed cupboard. He looked round the room +for some weapon with which to force the door, and at length with his +penknife cut away sufficient wood at the joint to enable him to insert +the end of the poker in the hole. The clock in the New College Tower +struck one at the exact moment when with a sharp effort he thus forced +open the door. It appeared never to have had a fastening, but merely to +have been stuck fast by the accumulation of paint. As he bent it slowly +back upon the rusted hinges his heart beat so fast that he could +scarcely catch his breath, though he was conscious all the while of a +ludicrous aspect of his position, knowing that it was most probable +that the cavity within would be found empty. The cupboard was small but +very deep, and in the obscure light seemed at first to contain nothing +except a small heap of dust and cobwebs. His sense of disappointment was +keen as he thrust his hand into it, but changed again in a moment to +breathless interest on feeling something solid in what he had imagined +to be only an accumulation of mould and dirt. He snatched up a candle, +and holding this in one hand, with the other pulled out an object from +the cupboard and put it on the table, covered as it was with the curious +drapery of black and clinging cobwebs which I have seen adhering to +bottles of old wine. It lay there between the dish of medlars and the +decanter, veiled indeed with thick dust as with a mantle, but revealing +beneath it the shape and contour of a violin. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +John was excited at his discovery, and felt his thoughts confused in a +manner that I have often experienced myself on the unexpected receipt of +news interesting me deeply, whether for pleasure or pain. Yet at the +same time he was half amused at his own excitement, feeling that it +was childish to be moved over an event so simple as the finding of a +violin in an old cupboard. He soon collected himself and took up the +instrument, using great care, as he feared lest age should have rendered +the wood brittle or rotten. With some vigorous puffs of breath and a +little dusting with a handkerchief he removed the heavy outer coating +of cobwebs, and began to see more clearly the delicate curves of the +body and of the scroll. A few minutes' more gentle handling left the +instrument sufficiently clean to enable him to appreciate its chief +points. Its seclusion from the outer world, which the heavy accumulation +of dust proved to have been for many years, did not seem to have damaged +it in the least; and the fact of a chimney-flue passing through the wall +at no great distance had no doubt conduced to maintain the air in the +cupboard at an equable temperature. So far as he was able to judge, the +wood was as sound as when it left the maker's hands; but the strings +were of course broken, and curled up in little tangled knots. The body +was of a light-red colour, with a varnish of peculiar lustre and +softness. The neck seemed rather longer than ordinary, and the scroll +was remarkably bold and free. + +The violin which my brother was in the habit of using was a fine +_Pressenda_, given to him on his fifteenth birthday by Mr. Thoresby, his +guardian. It was of that maker's later and best period, and a copy of +the Stradivarius model. John took this from its case and laid it side by +side with his new discovery, meaning to compare them for size and form. +He perceived at once that while the model of both was identical, the +superiority of the older violin in every detail was so marked as to +convince him that it was undoubtedly an instrument of exceptional value. +The extreme beauty of its varnish impressed him vividly, and though he +had never seen a genuine Stradivarius, he felt a conviction gradually +gaining on him that he stood in the presence of a masterpiece of that +great maker. On looking into the interior he found that surprisingly +little dust had penetrated into it, and by blowing through the +sound-holes he soon cleared it sufficiently to enable him to discern a +label. He put the candle close to him, and held the violin up so that +a little patch of light fell through the sound-hole on to the label. +His heart leapt with a violent pulsation as he read the characters, +"_Antonius Stradiuarius Cremonensis faciebat_, 1704." Under ordinary +circumstances it would naturally be concluded that such a label was +a forgery, but the conditions were entirely altered in the case of a +violin found in a forgotten cupboard, with proof so evident of its +having remained there for a very long period. + +He was not at that time as familiar with the history of the fiddles of +the great maker as he, and indeed I also, afterwards became. Thus he +was unable to decide how far the exact year of its manufacture would +determine its value as compared with other specimens of Stradivarius. +But although the Pressenda he had been used to play on was always +considered a very fine instrument both in make and varnish, his new +discovery so far excelled it in both points as to assure him that it +must be one of the Cremonese master's greatest productions. + +He examined the violin minutely, scrutinising each separate feature, +and finding each in turn to be of the utmost perfection, so far as his +knowledge of the instrument would enable him to judge. He lit more +candles that he might be able better to see it, and holding it on his +knees, sat still admiring it until the dying fire and increasing cold +warned him that the night was now far advanced. At last, carrying it to +his bedroom, he locked it carefully into a drawer and retired for the +night. + +He woke next morning with that pleasurable consciousness of there +being some reason for gladness, which we feel on waking in seasons of +happiness, even before our reason, locating it, reminds us what the +actual source of our joy may be. He was at first afraid lest his +excitement, working on the imagination, should have led him on the +previous night to overestimate the fineness of the instrument, and he +took it from the drawer half expecting to be disappointed with its +daylight appearance. But a glance sufficed to convince him of the +unfounded nature of his suspicions. The various beauties which he had +before observed were enhanced a hundredfold by the light of day, and he +realised more fully than ever that the instrument was one of altogether +exceptional value. + +And now, my dear Edward, I shall ask your forgiveness if in the history +I have to relate any observation of mine should seem to reflect on the +character of your late father, Sir John Maltravers. And I beg you to +consider that your father was also my dear and only brother, and that it +is inexpressibly painful to me to recount any actions of his which may +not seem becoming to a noble gentleman, as he surely was. I only now +proceed because, when very near his end, he most strictly enjoined me to +narrate these circumstances to you fully when you should come of age. +We must humbly remember that to God alone belongs judgment, and that +it is not for poor mortals to decide what is right or wrong in certain +instances for their fellows, but that each should strive most earnestly +to do his own duty. + +Your father entirely concealed from me the discovery he had made. It +was not till long afterwards that I had it narrated to me, and I only +obtained a knowledge of this and many other of the facts which I am now +telling you at a date much subsequent to their actual occurrence. + +He explained to his servant that he had discovered and opened an old +cupboard in the panelling, without mentioning the fact of his having +found anything in it, but merely asking him to give instructions for the +paint to be mended and the cupboard put into a usable state. Before he +had finished a very late breakfast Mr. Gaskell was with him, and it has +been a source of lasting regret to me that my brother concealed also +from his most intimate and trusted friend the discovery of the previous +night. He did, indeed, tell him that he had found and opened an old +cupboard in the panelling, but made no mention of there having been +anything within. I cannot say what prompted him to this action; for the +two young men had for long been on such intimate terms that the one +shared almost as a matter of course with the other any pleasure or pain +which might fall to his lot. Mr. Gaskell looked at the cupboard with +some interest, saying afterwards, "I know now, Johnnie, why the one +shelf of the bookcase which stood there was made movable when all the +others were fixed. Some former occupant used the cupboard, no doubt, +as a secret receptacle for his treasures, and masked it with the +book-shelves in front. Who knows what he kept in here, or who he was! I +should not be surprised if he were that very man who used to come here +so often to hear us play the 'Areopagita,' and whom you saw that night +last June. He had the one shelf made, you see, to move so as to give him +access to this cavity on occasion: then when he left Oxford, or perhaps +died, the mystery was forgotten, and with a few times of painting the +cracks closed up." + +Mr. Gaskell shortly afterwards took his leave as he had a lecture +to attend, and my brother was left alone to the contemplation of his +new-found treasure. After some consideration he determined that he would +take the instrument to London, and obtain the opinion of an expert as +to its authenticity and value. He was well acquainted with the late Mr. +George Smart, the celebrated London dealer, from whom his guardian, Mr. +Thoresby, had purchased the Pressenda violin which John commonly used. +Besides being a dealer in valuable instruments, Mr. Smart was a famous +collector of Stradivarius fiddles, esteemed one of the first authorities +in Europe in that domain of art, and author of a valuable work of +reference in connection with it. It was to him, therefore, that my +brother decided to submit the violin, and he wrote a letter to Mr. Smart +saying that he should give himself the pleasure of waiting on him the +next day on a matter of business. He then called on his tutor, and with +some excuse obtained leave to journey to London the next morning. He +spent the rest of the day in very carefully cleaning the violin, and +noon of the next saw him with it, securely packed, in Mr. Smart's +establishment in Bond Street. + +Mr. Smart received Sir John Maltravers with deference, demanded in what +way he could serve him; and on hearing that his opinion was required on +the authenticity of a violin, smiled somewhat dubiously and led the way +into a back parlour. + +"My dear Sir John," he said, "I hope you have not been led into buying +any instrument by a faith in its antiquity. So many good copies of +instruments by famous makers and bearing their labels are now afloat, +that the chances of obtaining a genuine fiddle from an unrecognised +source are quite remote; of hundreds of violins submitted to me for +opinion, I find that scarce one in fifty is actually that which it +represents itself to be. In fact the only safe rule," he added as a +professional commentary, "is never to buy a violin unless you obtain it +from a dealer with a reputation to lose, and are prepared to pay a +reasonable price for it." + +My brother had meanwhile unpacked the violin and laid it on the table. +As he took from it the last leaf of silver paper he saw Mr. Smart's +smile of condescension fade, and assuming a look of interest and +excitement, he stepped forward, took the violin in his hands, and +scrutinised it minutely. He turned it over in silence for some moments, +looking narrowly at each feature, and even applying the test of a +magnifying-glass. At last he said with an altered tone, "Sir John, I +have had in my hands nearly all the finest productions of Stradivarius, +and thought myself acquainted with every instrument of note that ever +left his workshop; but I confess myself mistaken, and apologise to you +for the doubt which I expressed as to the instrument you had brought me. +This violin is of the great master's golden period, is incontestably +genuine, and finer in some respects than any Stradivarius that I have +ever seen, not even excepting the famous _Dolphin_ itself. You need be +under no apprehension as to its authenticity: no connoisseur could hold +it in his hand for a second and entertain a doubt on the point." + +My brother was greatly pleased at so favourable a verdict, and Mr. Smart +continued-- + +"The varnish is of that rich red which Stradivarius used in his best +period after he had abandoned the yellow tint copied by him at first +from his master Amati. I have never seen a varnish thicker or more +lustrous, and it shows on the back that peculiar shading to imitate wear +which we term 'breaking up.' The purfling also is of an unsurpassable +excellence. Its execution is so fine that I should recommend you to use +a magnifying-glass for its examination." + +So he ran on, finding from moment to moment some new beauties to +admire. + +My brother was at first anxious lest Mr. Smart should ask him whence so +extraordinary an instrument came, but he saw that the expert had already +jumped to a conclusion in the matter. He knew that John had recently +come of age, and evidently supposed that he had found the violin among +the heirlooms of Worth Maltravers. John allowed Mr. Smart to continue in +this misconception, merely saying that he had discovered the instrument +in an old cupboard, where he had reason to think it had remained hidden +for many years. + +"Are there no records attached to so splendid an instrument?" asked Mr. +Smart. "I suppose it has been with your family a number of years. Do you +not know how it came into their possession?" + +I believe this was the first occasion on which it had occurred to John +to consider what right he had to the possession of the instrument. He +had been so excited by its discovery that the question of ownership had +never hitherto crossed his mind. The unwelcome suggestion that it was +not his after all, that the College might rightfully prefer a claim to +it, presented itself to him for a moment; but he set it instantly aside, +quieting his conscience with the reflection that this at least was not +the moment to make such a disclosure. + +He fenced with Mr. Smart's inquiry as best he could, saying that he was +ignorant of the history of the instrument, but not contradicting the +assumption that it had been a long time in his family's possession. + +"It is indeed singular," Mr. Smart continued, "that so magnificent +an instrument should have lain buried so long; that even those best +acquainted with such matters should be in perfect ignorance of its +existence. I shall have to revise the list of famous instruments in the +next edition of my 'History of the Violin,' and to write," he added +smiling, "a special paragraph on the 'Worth Maltravers Stradivarius.'" + +After much more, which I need not narrate, Mr. Smart suggested that +the violin should be left with him that he might examine it more at +leisure, and that my brother should return in a week's time, when he +would have the instrument opened, an operation which would be in any +case advisable. "The interior," he added, "appears to be in a strictly +original state, and this I shall be able to ascertain when opened. The +label is perfect, but if I am not mistaken I can see something higher up +on the back which appears like a second label. This excites my interest, +as I know of no instance of an instrument bearing two labels." + +To this proposal my brother readily assented, being anxious to enjoy +alone the pleasure of so gratifying a discovery as that of the undoubted +authenticity of the instrument. + +As he thought over the matter more at leisure, he grew anxious as to +what might be the import of the second label in the violin of which Mr. +Smart had spoken. I blush to say that he feared lest it might bear some +owner's name or other inscription proving that the instrument had not +been so long in the Maltravers family as he had allowed Mr. Smart to +suppose. So within so short a time it was possible that Sir John +Maltravers of Worth should dread being detected, if not in an absolute +falsehood, at least in having by his silence assented to one. + +During the ensuing week John remained in an excited and anxious +condition. He did little work, and neglected his friends, having his +thoughts continually occupied with the strange discovery he had made. +I know also that his sense of honour troubled him, and that he was not +satisfied with the course he was pursuing. The evening of his return +from London he went to Mr. Gaskell's rooms at New College, and spent an +hour conversing with him on indifferent subjects. In the course of their +talk he proposed to his friend as a moral problem the question of the +course of action to be taken were one to find some article of value +concealed in his room. Mr. Gaskell answered unhesitatingly that he +should feel bound to disclose it to the authorities. He saw that my +brother was ill at ease, and with a clearness of judgment which he +always exhibited, guessed that he had actually made some discovery of +this sort in the old cupboard in his rooms. He could not divine, of +course, the exact nature of the object found, and thought it might +probably relate to a hoard of gold; but insisted with much urgency on +the obligation to at once disclose anything of this kind. My brother, +however, misled, I fear, by that feeling of inalienable right which the +treasure-hunter experiences over the treasure, paid no more attention to +the advice of his friend than to the promptings of his own conscience, +and went his way. + +From that day, my dear Edward, he began to exhibit a spirit of +secretiveness and reserve entirely alien to his own open and honourable +disposition, and also saw less of Mr. Gaskell. His friend tried, indeed, +to win his confidence and affection in every way in his power; but in +spite of this the rift between them widened insensibly, and my brother +lost the fellowship and counsel of a true friend at a time when he could +ill afford to be without them. + +He returned to London the ensuing week, and met Mr. George Smart by +appointment in Bond Street. If the expert had been enthusiastic on a +former occasion, he was ten times more so on this. He spoke in terms +almost of rapture about the violin. He had compared it with two +magnificent instruments in the collection of the late Mr. James Loding, +then the finest in Europe; and it was admittedly superior to either, +both in the delicate markings of its wood and singularly fine varnish. +"Of its tone," he said, "we cannot, of course, yet pronounce with +certainty, but I am very sure that its voice will not belie its splendid +exterior. It has been carefully opened, and is in a strangely perfect +condition. Several persons eminently qualified to judge unite with me +in considering that it has been exceedingly little played upon, and +admit that never has so intact an interior been seen. The scroll is +exceptionally bold and original. Although undoubtedly from the hand of +the great master, this is of a pattern entirely different and distinct +from any that have ever come under my observation." + +He then pointed out to my brother that the side lines of the scroll were +unusually deeply cut, and that the front of it projected far more than +is common with such instruments. + +"The most remarkable feature," he concluded, "is that the instrument +bears a double label. Besides the label which you have already seen +bearing '_Antonius Stradiuarius Cremonensis faciebat_,' with the date of +his most splendid period, 1704, so clearly that the ink seems scarcely +dry, there is another smaller one higher up on the back which I will +show you." + +He took the violin apart and showed him a small label with characters +written in faded ink. "That is the writing of Antonio Stradivarius +himself, and is easily recognisable, though it is much firmer than +a specimen which I once saw, written in extreme old age, and giving +his name and the date 1736. He was then ninety-two, and died in the +following year. But this, as you will see, does not give his name, but +merely the two words '_Porphyrius philosophus_.' What this may refer +to I cannot say: it is beyond my experience. My friend Mr. Calvert has +suggested that Stradivarius may have dedicated this violin to the pagan +philosopher, or named it after him; but this seems improbable. I have, +indeed, heard of two famous violins being called 'Peter' and 'Paul,' +but the instances of such naming are very rare; and I believe it to be +altogether without precedent to find a name attached thus on a label. + +"In any case, I must leave this matter to your ingenuity to decipher. +Neither the sound-post nor the bass-bar have ever been moved, and you +see here a Stradivarius violin wearing exactly the same appearance as +it once wore in the great master's workshop, and in exactly the same +condition; yet I think the belly is sufficiently strong to stand modern +stringing. I should advise you to leave the instrument with me for some +little while, that I may give it due care and attention and ensure its +being properly strung." + +My brother thanked him and left the violin with him, saying that he +would instruct him later by letter to what address he wished it sent. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + +Within a few days after this the autumn term came to an end, and in +the second week of December John returned to Worth Maltravers for +the Christmas vacation. His advent was always a very great pleasure +to me, and on this occasion I had looked forward to his company with +anticipation keener than usual, as I had been disappointed of the visit +of a friend and had spent the last month alone. After the joy of our +first meeting had somewhat sobered, it was not long before I remarked a +change in his manner, which puzzled me. It was not that he was less kind +to me, for I think he was even more tenderly forbearing and gentle than +I had ever known him, but I had an uneasy feeling that some shadow had +crept in between us. It was the small cloud rising in the distance that +afterwards darkened his horizon and mine. I missed the old candour and +open-hearted frankness that he had always shown; and there seemed to be +always something in the background which he was trying to keep from me. +It was obvious that his thoughts were constantly elsewhere, so much so +that on more than one occasion he returned vague and incoherent answers +to my questions. At times I was content to believe that he was in love, +and that his thoughts were with Miss Constance Temple; but even so, +I could not persuade myself that his altered manner was to be thus +entirely accounted for. At other times a dazed air, entirely foreign to +his bright disposition, which I observed particularly in the morning, +raised in my mind the terrible suspicion that he was in the habit of +taking some secret narcotic or other deleterious drug. + +We had never spent a Christmas away from Worth Maltravers, and it had +always been a season of quiet joy for both of us. But under these +altered circumstances it was a great relief and cause of thankfulness +to me to receive a letter from Mrs. Temple inviting us both to spend +Christmas and New Year at Royston. This invitation had upon my brother +precisely the effect that I had hoped for. It roused him from his moody +condition, and he professed much pleasure in accepting it, especially as +he had never hitherto been in Derbyshire. + +There was a small but very agreeable party at Royston, and we passed a +most enjoyable fortnight. My brother seemed thoroughly to have shaken +off his indisposition; and I saw my fondest hopes realised in the warm +attachment which was evidently springing up between him and Miss +Constance Temple. + +Our visit drew near its close, and it was within a week of John's return +to Oxford. Mrs. Temple celebrated the termination of the Christmas +festivities by giving a ball on Twelfth-night, at which a large party +were present, including most of the county families. Royston was +admirably adapted for such entertainments, from the number and great +size of its reception-rooms. Though Elizabethan in date and external +appearance, succeeding generations had much modified and enlarged the +house; and an ancestor in the middle of the last century had built at +the back an enormous hall after the classic model, and covered it with a +dome or cupola. In this room the dancing went forward. Supper was served +in the older hall in the front, and it was while this was in progress +that a thunderstorm began. The rarity of such a phenomenon in the depth +of winter formed the subject of general remark; but though the lightning +was extremely brilliant, being seen distinctly through the curtained +windows, the storm appeared to be at some distance, and, except for one +peal, the thunder was not loud. After supper dancing was resumed, and +I was taking part in a polka (called, I remember, the "_King Pippin_"), +when my partner pointed out that one of the footmen wished to speak with +me. I begged him to lead me to one side, and the servant then informed +me that my brother was ill. Sir John, he said, had been seized with a +fainting fit, but had been got to bed, and was being attended by Dr. +Empson, a physician who chanced to be present among the visitors. + +I at once left the hall and hurried to my brother's room. On the way +I met Mrs. Temple and Constance, the latter much agitated and in tears. +Mrs. Temple assured me that Dr. Empson reported favourably of my +brother's condition, attributing his faintness to over-exertion in the +dancing-room. The medical man had got him to bed with the assistance of +Sir John's valet, had given him a quieting draught, and ordered that he +should not be disturbed for the present. It was better that I should not +enter the room; she begged that I would kindly comfort and reassure +Constance, who was much upset, while she herself returned to her guests. + +I led Constance to my bedroom, where there was a bright fire burning, +and calmed her as best I could. Her interest in my brother was evidently +very real and unaffected, and while not admitting her partiality for him +in words, she made no effort to conceal her sentiments from me. I kissed +her tenderly, and bade her narrate the circumstances of John's attack. + +It seemed that after supper they had gone upstairs into the music-room, +and he had himself proposed that they should walk thence into the +picture-gallery, where they would better he able to see the lightning, +which was then particularly vivid. The picture-gallery at Royston is a +very long, narrow, and rather low room, running the whole length of the +south wing, and terminating in a large Tudor oriel or flat bay window +looking east. In this oriel they had sat for some time watching the +flashes, and the wintry landscape revealed for an instant and then +plunged into outer blackness. The gallery itself was not illuminated, +and the effect of the lightning was very fine. + +There had been an unusually bright flash accompanied by that single +reverberating peal of thunder which I had previously noticed. Constance +had spoken to my brother, but he had not replied, and in a moment she +saw that he had swooned. She summoned aid without delay, but it was some +short time before consciousness had been restored to him. + +She had concluded this narrative, and sat holding my hand in hers. We +were speculating on the cause of my brother's illness, thinking it might +be due to over-exertion, or to sitting in a chilly atmosphere as the +picture-gallery was not warmed, when Mrs. Temple knocked at the door and +said that John was now more composed and desired earnestly to see me. + +On entering my brother's bedroom I found him sitting up in bed wearing a +dressing-gown. Parnham, his valet, who was arranging the fire, left the +room as I came in. A chair stood at the head of the bed and I sat down +by him. He took my hand in his and without a word burst into tears. +"Sophy," he said, "I am so unhappy, and I have sent for you to tell you +of my trouble, because I know you will be forbearing to me. An hour +ago all seemed so bright. I was sitting in the picture-gallery with +Constance, whom I love dearly. We had been watching the lightning, till +the thunder had grown fainter and the storm seemed past. I was just +about to ask her to become my wife when a brighter flash than all the +rest burst on us, and I saw--I saw, Sophy, standing in the gallery as +close to me as you are now--I saw--that man I told you about at Oxford; +and then this faintness came on me." + +"Whom do you mean?" I said, not understanding what he spoke of, and +thinking for a moment he referred to someone else. "Did you see Mr. +Gaskell?" + +"No, it was not he; but that dead man whom I saw rising from my wicker +chair the night you went away from Oxford." + +You will perhaps smile at my weakness, my dear Edward, and indeed I had +at that time no justification for it; but I assure you that I have not +yet forgotten, and never shall forget, the impression of overwhelming +horror which his words produced upon me. It seemed as though a fear +which had hitherto stood vague and shadowy in the background, began now +to advance towards me, gathering more distinctness as it approached. +There was to me something morbidly terrible about the apparition of this +man at such a momentous crisis in my brother's life, and I at once +recognised that unknown form as being the shadow which was gradually +stealing between John and myself. Though I feigned incredulity as best +I might, and employed those arguments or platitudes which will always be +used on such occasions, urging that such a phantom could only exist in a +mind disordered by physical weakness, my brother was not deceived by my +words, and perceived in a moment that I did not even believe in them +myself. + +"Dearest Sophy," he said, with a much calmer air, "let us put aside all +dissimulation. I _know_ that what I have to-night seen, and that what I +saw last summer at Oxford, are _not_ phantoms of my brain; and I believe +that you too in your inmost soul are convinced of this truth. Do not, +therefore, endeavour to persuade me to the contrary. If I am not to +believe the evidence of my senses, it were better at once to admit my +madness--and I know that I am not mad. Let us rather consider what such +an appearance can portend, and who the man is who is thus presented. +I cannot explain to you why this appearance inspires me with so great +a revulsion. I can only say that in its presence I seem to be brought +face to face with some abysmal and repellent wickedness. It is not that +the form he wears is hideous. Last night I saw him exactly as I saw him +at Oxford--his face waxen pale, with a sneering mouth, the same lofty +forehead, and hair brushed straight up so as almost to appear standing +on end. He wore the same long coat of green cloth and white waistcoat. +He seemed as if he had been standing listening to what we said, though +we had not seen him till this bright flash of lightning made him +manifest. You will remember that when I saw him at Oxford his eyes were +always cast down, so that I never knew their colour. This time they were +wide open; indeed he was looking full at us, and they were a light brown +and very brilliant." + +I saw that my brother was exciting himself, and was still weak from his +recent swoon. I knew, too, that any ordinary person of strong mind would +say at once that his brain wandered, and yet I had a dreadful conviction +all the while that what he told me was the truth. All I could do was to +beg him to calm himself, and to reflect how vain such fancies must be. +"We must trust, dear John," I said, "in God. I am sure that so long as +we are not living in conscious sin, we shall never be given over to any +evil power; and I know my brother too well to think that he is doing +anything he knows to be evil. If there be evil spirits, as we are taught +there are, we are taught also that there are good spirits stronger than +they, who will protect us." + +So I spoke with him a little while, until he grew calmer; and then we +talked of Constance and of his love for her. He was deeply pleased to +hear from me how she had shown such obvious, signs of interest in his +illness, and sincere affection for him. In any case, he made me promise +that I would never mention to her either what he had seen this night or +last summer at Oxford. + +It had grown late, and the undulating beat of the dances, which had +been distinctly sensible in his room--even though we could not hear +any definite noise--had now ceased. Mrs. Temple knocked at the door as +she went to bed and inquired how he did, giving him at the same time +a kind message of sympathy from Constance, which afforded him much +gratification. After she had left I prepared also to retire; but before +going he begged me to take a prayer-book lying on the table, and to read +aloud a collect which he pointed out. It was that for the second Sunday +in Lent, and evidently well known to him. As I read it the words seemed +to bear a new and deeper significance, and my heart repeated with +fervour the petition for protection from those "evil thoughts which may +assault and hurt the soul." I bade him good night and went away very +sorrowful. Parnham, at John's request, had arranged to sleep on a sofa +in his master's bedroom. + +I rose betimes the next morning and inquired at my brother's room how +he was. Parnham reported that he had passed a restless night, and on +entering a little later I found him in a high fever, slightly delirious, +and evidently not so well as when I saw him last. Mrs. Temple, with much +kindness and forethought, had begged Dr. Empson to remain at Royston for +the night, and he was soon in attendance on his patient. His verdict +was sufficiently grave: John was suffering from a sharp access of +brain-fever; his condition afforded cause for alarm; he could not answer +for any turn his sickness might take. You will easily imagine how much +this intelligence affected me; and Mrs. Temple and Constance shared my +anxiety and solicitude. Constance and I talked much with one another +that morning. Unaffected anxiety had largely removed her reserve, and +she spoke openly of her feelings towards my brother, not concealing her +partiality for him. I on my part let her understand how welcome to me +would be any union between her and John, and how sincerely I should +value her as a sister. + +It was a wild winter's morning, with some snow falling and a high wind. +The house was in the disordered condition which is generally observable +on the day following a ball or other important festivity. I roamed +restlessly about, and at last found my way to the picture-gallery, +which had formed the scene of John's adventure on the previous night. +I had never been in this part of the house before, as it contained no +facilities for heating, and so often remained shut in the winter months. +I found a listless pleasure in admiring the pictures which lined the +walls, most of them being portraits of former members of the family, +including the famous picture of Sir Ralph Temple and his family, +attributed to Holbein. I had reached the end of the gallery and sat +down in the oriel watching the snow-flakes falling sparsely, and the +evergreens below me waving wildly in the sudden rushes of the wind. My +thoughts were busy with the events of the previous evening,--with John's +illness, with the ball,--and I found myself humming the air of a waltz +that had caught my fancy. At last I turned away from the garden scene +towards the gallery, and as I did so my eyes fell on a remarkable +picture just opposite to me. + +It was a full-length portrait of a young man, life-size, and I had +barely time to appreciate even its main features when I knew that I had +before me the painted counterfeit of my brother's vision. The discovery +caused me a violent shock, and it was with an infinite repulsion that +I recognised at once the features and dress of the man whom John had +seen rising from the chair at Oxford. So accurately had my brother's +imagination described him to me, that it seemed as if I had myself seen +him often before. I noted each feature, comparing them with my brother's +description, and finding them all familiar and corresponding exactly. +He was a man still in the prime of life. His features were regular and +beautifully modelled; yet there was something in his face that inspired +me with a deep aversion, though his brown eyes were open and brilliant. +His mouth was sharply cut, with a slight sneer on the lips, and his +complexion of that extreme pallor which had impressed itself deeply on +my brother's imagination and my own. + +After the first intense surprise had somewhat subsided, I experienced +a feeling of great relief, for here was an extraordinary explanation +of my brother's vision of last night. It was certain that the flash +of lightning had lit up this ill-starred picture, and that to his +predisposed fancy the painted figure had stood forth as an actual +embodiment. That such an incident, however startling, should have been +able to fling John into a brain-fever, showed that he must already have +been in a very low and reduced state, on which excitement would act much +more powerfully than on a more robust condition of health. A similar +state of weakness, perturbed by the excitement of his passion for +Constance Temple, might surely also have conjured up the vision which +he thought he saw the night of our leaving Oxford in the summer. +These thoughts, my dear Edward, gave me great relief; for it seemed +a comparatively trivial matter that my brother should be ill, even +seriously ill, if only his physical indisposition could explain away the +supernatural dread which had haunted us for the past six months. The +clouds were breaking up. It was evident that John had been seriously +unwell for some months; his physical weakness had acted on his brain; +and I had lent colour to his wandering fancies by being alarmed by them, +instead of rejecting them at once or gently laughing them away as I +should have done. But these glad thoughts took me too far, and I was +suddenly brought up by a reflection that did not admit of so simple an +explanation. If the man's form my brother saw at Oxford were merely an +effort of disordered imagination, how was it that he had been able to +describe it exactly like that represented in this picture? He had never +in his life been to Royston, therefore he could have no image of the +picture impressed unconsciously on or hidden away in his mind. Yet his +description had never varied. It had been so close as to enable me to +produce in my fancy a vivid representation of the man he had seen; and +here I had before me the features and dress exactly reproduced. In the +presence of a coincidence so extraordinary reason stood confounded, and +I knew not what to think. I walked nearer to the picture and scrutinised +it closely. + +The dress corresponded in every detail with that which my brother had +described the figure as wearing at Oxford: a long cut-away coat of green +cloth with an edge of gold embroidery, a white satin waistcoat with +sprigs of embroidered roses, gold-lace at the pocket-holes, buff silk +knee-breeches, and low down on the finely modelled neck a full cravat +of rich lace. The figure was posed negligently against a fluted stone +pedestal or short column on which the left elbow leant, and the right +foot was crossed lightly over the left. His shoes were of polished +black leather with heavy silver buckles, and the whole costume was very +old-fashioned, and such as I had only seen worn at fancy dress balls. On +the foot of the pedestal was the painter's name, "BATTONI pinxit, Romæ, +1750." On the top of the pedestal, and under his left elbow, was a long +roll apparently of music, of which one end, unfolded, hung over the +edge. + +For some minutes I stood still gazing at this portrait which so much +astonished me, but turned on hearing footsteps in the gallery, and saw +Constance, who had come to seek for me. + +"Constance," I said, "whose portrait is this? It is a very striking +picture, is it not?" + +"Yes, it is a splendid painting, though of a very bad man. His name was +Adrian Temple, and he once owned Royston. I do not know much about him, +but I believe he was very wicked and very clever. My mother would be +able to tell you more. It is a picture we none of us like, although so +finely painted; and perhaps because he was always pointed out to me from +childhood as a bad man, I have myself an aversion to it. It is singular +that when the very bright flash of lightning came last night while your +brother John and I were sitting here, it lit this picture with a +dazzling glare that made the figure stand out so strangely as to seem +almost alive. It was just after that I found that John had fainted." + +The memory was not a pleasant one for either of us and we changed the +subject. "Come," I said, "let us leave the gallery, it is very cold +here." + +Though I said nothing more at the time, her words had made a great +impression on me. It was so strange that, even with the little she knew +of this Adrian Temple, she should speak at once of his notoriously evil +life, and of her personal dislike to the picture. Remembering what my +brother had said on the previous night, that in the presence of this man +he felt himself brought face to face with some indescribable wickedness, +I could not but be surprised at the coincidence. The whole story seemed +to me now to resemble one of those puzzle pictures or maps which I have +played with as a child, where each bit fits into some other until the +outline is complete. It was as if I were finding the pieces one by one +of a bygone history, and fitting them to one another until some terrible +whole should be gradually built up and stand out in its complete +deformity. + +Dr. Empson spoke gravely of John's illness, and entertained without +reluctance the proposal of Mrs. Temple, that Dr. Dobie, a celebrated +physician in Derby, should be summoned to a consultation. Dr. Dobie came +more than once, and was at last able to report an amendment in John's +condition, though both the doctors absolutely forbade anyone to visit +him, and said that under the most favourable circumstances a period of +some weeks must elapse before he could be moved. + +Mrs. Temple invited me to remain at Royston until my brother should be +sufficiently convalescent to be moved; and both she and Constance, while +regretting the cause, were good enough to express themselves pleased +that accident should detain me so long with them. + +As the reports of the doctors became gradually more favourable, and our +minds were in consequence more free to turn to other subjects, I spoke +to Mrs. Temple one day about the picture, saying that it interested me, +and asking for some particulars as to the life of Adrian Temple. + +"My dear child," she said, "I had rather that you should not exhibit +any curiosity as to this man, whom I wish that we had not to call an +ancestor. I know little of him myself, and indeed his life was of such +a nature as no woman, much less a young girl, would desire to be well +acquainted with. He was, I believe, a man of remarkable talent, and +spent most of his time between Oxford and Italy, though he visited +Royston occasionally, and built the large hall here, which we use as a +dancing-room. Before he was twenty wild stories were prevalent as to his +licentious life, and by thirty his name was a by-word among sober and +upright people. He had constantly with him at Oxford and on his travels +a boon companion called Jocelyn, who aided him in his wickednesses, +until on one of their Italian tours Jocelyn left him suddenly and became +a Trappist monk. It was currently reported that some wild deed of Adrian +Temple had shocked even him, and so outraged his surviving instincts of +common humanity that he was snatched as a brand from the burning and +enabled to turn back even in the full tide of his wickedness. However +that may be, Adrian went on in his evil course without him, and about +four years after disappeared. He was last heard of in Naples, and it is +believed that he succumbed during a violent outbreak of the plague which +took place in Italy in the autumn of 1752. That is all I shall tell you +of him, and indeed I know little more myself. The only good trait that +has been handed down concerning him is that he was a masterly musician, +performing admirably upon the violin, which he had studied under the +illustrious Tartini himself. Yet even his art of music, if tradition +speaks the truth, was put by him to the basest of uses." + +I apologised for my indiscretion in asking her about an unpleasant +subject, and at the same time thanked her for what she had seen fit to +tell me, professing myself much interested, as indeed I really was. + +"Was he a handsome man?" + +"That is a girl's question," she answered, smiling. "He is said to +have been very handsome; and indeed his picture, painted after his +first youth was past, would still lead one to suppose so. But his +complexion was spoiled, it is said, and turned to deadly white by +certain experiments, which it is neither possible nor seemly for us to +understand. His face is of that long oval shape of which all the Temples +are proud, and he had brown eyes: we sometimes tease Constance, saying +she is like Adrian." + +It was indeed true, as I remembered after Mrs. Temple had pointed it +out, that Constance had a peculiarly long and oval face. It gave her, I +think, an air of staid and placid beauty, which formed in my eyes, and +perhaps in John's also, one of her greatest attractions. + +"I do not like even his picture," Mrs. Temple continued, "and strange +tales have been narrated of it by idle servants which are not worth +repeating. I have sometimes thought of destroying it; but my late +husband, being a Temple, would never hear of this, or even of removing +it from its present place in the gallery; and I should be loath to do +anything now contrary to his wishes, once so strongly expressed. It is, +besides, very perfect from an artistic point of view, being painted by +Battoni, and in his happiest manner." + +I could never glean more from Mrs. Temple; but what she told me +interested me deeply. It seemed another link in the chain, though +I could scarcely tell why, that Adrian Temple should be so great a +musician and violinist. I had, I fancy, a dim idea of that malign and +outlawed spirit sitting alone in darkness for a hundred years, until he +was called back by the sweet tones of the Italian music, and the lilt of +the "Areopagita" that he had loved so long ago. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + + +John's recovery, though continuous and satisfactory, was but slow; +and it was not until Easter, which fell early, that his health was +pronounced to be entirely re-established. The last few weeks of his +convalescence had proved to all of us a time of thankful and tranquil +enjoyment. If I may judge from my own experience, there are few epochs +in our life more favourable to the growth of sentiments of affection +and piety, or more full of pleasurable content, than is the period of +gradual recovery from serious illness. The chastening effect of our +recent sickness has not yet passed away, and we are at once grateful to +our Creator for preserving us, and to our friends for the countless acts +of watchful kindness which it is the peculiar property of illness to +evoke. + +No mother ever nursed a son more tenderly than did Mrs. Temple nurse +my brother, and before his restoration to health was complete the +attachment between him and Constance had ripened into a formal +betrothal. Such an alliance was, as I have before explained, +particularly suitable, and its prospect afforded the most lively +pleasure to all those concerned. The month of March had been unusually +mild, and Royston being situated in a valley, as is the case with most +houses of that date, was well sheltered from cold winds. It had, +moreover, a south aspect, and as my brother gradually gathered strength, +Constance and he and I would often sit out of doors in the soft spring +mornings. We put an easy-chair with many cushions for him on the gravel +by the front door, where the warmth of the sun was reflected from the +red brick walls, and he would at times read aloud to us while we were +engaged with our crochet-work. Mr. Tennyson had just published +anonymously a first volume of poems, and the sober dignity of his verse +well suited our frame of mind at that time. The memory of those pleasant +spring mornings, my dear Edward, has not yet passed away, and I can +still smell the sweet moist scent of the violets, and see the bright +colours of the crocus-flowers in the parterres in front of us. + +John's mind seemed to be gathering strength with his body. He had +apparently flung off the cloud which had overshadowed him before his +illness, and avoided entirely any reference to those unpleasant events +which had been previously so constantly in his thoughts. I had, indeed, +taken an early opportunity of telling him of my discovery of the picture +of Adrian Temple, as I thought it would tend to show him that at least +the last appearance of this ghostly form admitted of a rational +explanation. He seemed glad to hear of this, but did not exhibit the +same interest in the matter that I had expected, and allowed it at once +to drop. Whether through lack of interest, or from a lingering dislike +to revisit the spot where he was seized with illness, he did not, I +believe, once enter the picture-gallery before he left Royston. + +I cannot say as much for myself. The picture of Adrian Temple exerted +a curious fascination over me, and I constantly took an opportunity of +studying it. It was, indeed, a beautiful work; and perhaps because +John's recovery gave a more cheerful tone to my thoughts, or perhaps +from the power of custom to dull even the keenest antipathies, I +gradually got to lose much of the feeling of aversion which it had at +first inspired. In time the unpleasant look grew less unpleasing, and +I noticed more the beautiful oval of the face, the brown eyes, and the +fine chiselling of the features. Sometimes, too, I felt a deep pity for +so clever a gentleman who had died young, and whose life, were it ever +so wicked, must often have been also lonely and bitter. More than once +I had been discovered by Mrs. Temple or Constance sitting looking at the +picture, and they had gently laughed at me, saying that I had fallen in +love with Adrian Temple. + +One morning in early April, when the sun was streaming brightly through +the oriel, and the picture received a fuller light than usual, it +occurred to me to examine closely the scroll of music painted as hanging +over the top of the pedestal on which the figure leant. I had hitherto +thought that the signs depicted on it were merely such as painters might +conventionally use to represent a piece of musical notation. This has +generally been the case, I think, in such pictures as I have ever seen +in which a piece of music has been introduced. I mean that while the +painting gives a general representation of the musical staves, no +attempt is ever made to paint any definite notes such as would enable an +actual piece to be identified. Though, as I write this, I do remember +that on the monument to Handel in Westminster Abbey there is represented +a musical scroll similar to that in Adrian Temple's picture, but +actually sculptured with the opening phrase of the majestic melody, +"I know that my Redeemer liveth." + +On this morning, then, at Royston I thought I perceived that there were +painted on the scroll actual musical staves, bars, and notes; and my +interest being excited, I stood upon a chair so as better to examine +them. Though time had somewhat obscured this portion of the picture as +with a veil or film, yet I made out that the painter had intended to +depict some definite piece of music. In another moment I saw that the +air represented consisted of the opening bars of the _Gagliarda_ in the +suite by Graziani with which my brother and I were so well acquainted. +Though I believe that I had not seen the volume of music in which that +piece was contained more than twice, yet the melody was very familiar +to me, and I had no difficulty whatever in making myself sure that I had +here before me the air of the _Gagliarda_ and none other. It was true +that it was only roughly painted, but to one who knew the tune there was +no room left for doubt. + +Here was a new cause, I will not say for surprise, but for reflection. +It might, of course, have been merely a coincidence that the artist +should have chosen to paint in this picture this particular piece of +music; but it seemed more probable that it had actually been a favourite +air of Adrian Temple, and that he had chosen deliberately to have it +represented with him. This discovery I kept entirely to myself, not +thinking it wise to communicate it to my brother, lest by doing so I +might reawaken his interest in a subject which I hoped he had finally +dismissed from his thoughts. + +In the second week of April the happy party at Royston was dispersed, +John returning to Oxford for the summer term, Mrs. Temple making a short +visit to Scotland, and Constance coming to Worth Maltravers to keep me +company for a time. + +It was John's last term at Oxford. He expected to take his degree in +June, and his marriage with Constance Temple had been provisionally +arranged for the September following. He returned to Magdalen Hall +in the best of spirits, and found his rooms looking cheerful with +well-filled flower-boxes in the windows. I shall not detain you with any +long narration of the events of the term, as they have no relation to +the present history. I will only say that I believe my brother applied +himself diligently to his studies, and took his amusement mostly on +horseback, riding two horses which he had had sent to him from Worth +Maltravers. + +About the second week after his return he received a letter from Mr. +George Smart to the effect that the Stradivarius violin was now in +complete order. Subsequent examination, Mr. Smart wrote, and the +unanimous verdict of connoisseurs whom he had consulted, had merely +confirmed the views he had at first expressed--namely, that the violin +was of the finest quality, and that my brother had in his possession a +unique and intact example of Stradivarius's best period. He had had it +properly strung; and as the bass-bar had never been moved, and was of +a stronger nature than that usual at the period of its manufacture, he +had considered it unnecessary to replace it. If any signs should become +visible of its being inadequate to support the tension of modern +stringing, another could be easily substituted for it at a later date. +He had allowed a young German _virtuoso_ to play on it, and though this +gentleman was one of the first living performers, and had had an +opportunity of handling many splendid instruments, he assured Mr. Smart +that he had never performed on one that could in any way compare with +this. My brother wrote in reply thanking him, and begging that the +violin might be sent to Magdalen Hall. + +The pleasant musical evenings, however, which John had formerly +been used to spend in the company of Mr. Gaskell were now entirely +pretermitted. For though there was no cause for any diminution of +friendship between them, and though on Mr. Gaskell's part there was an +ardent desire to maintain their former intimacy, yet the two young men +saw less and less of one another, until their intercourse was confined +to an accidental greeting in the street. I believe that during all this +time my brother played very frequently on the Stradivarius violin, +but always alone. Its very possession seemed to have engendered from +the first in his mind a secretive tendency which, as I have already +observed, was entirely alien to his real disposition. As he had +concealed its discovery from his sister, so he had also from his friend, +and Mr. Gaskell remained in complete ignorance of the existence of such +an instrument. + +On the evening of its arrival from London, John seems to have carefully +unpacked the violin and tried it with a new bow of Tourte's make which +he had purchased of Mr. Smart. He had shut the heavy outside door of his +room before beginning to play, so that no one might enter unawares; and +he told me afterwards that though he had naturally expected from the +instrument a very fine tone, yet its actual merits so far exceeded his +anticipations as entirely to overwhelm him. The sound issued from it +in a volume of such depth and purity as to give an impression of the +passages being chorded, or even of another violin being played at the +same time. He had had, of course, no opportunity of practising during +his illness, and so expected to find his skill with the bow somewhat +diminished; but he perceived, on the contrary, that his performance was +greatly improved, and that he was playing with a mastery and feeling +of which he had never before been conscious. While attributing this +improvement very largely to the beauty of the instrument on which he was +performing, yet he could not but believe that by his illness, or in some +other unexplained way, he had actually acquired a greater freedom of +wrist and fluency of expression, with which reflection he was not a +little elated. He had had a lock fixed on the cupboard in which he had +originally found the violin, and here he carefully deposited it on each +occasion after playing, before he opened the outer door of his room. + +So the summer term passed away. The examinations had come in their due +time, and were now over. Both the young men had submitted themselves +to the ordeal, and while neither would of course have admitted as +much to anyone else, both felt secretly that they had no reason to be +dissatisfied with their performance. The results would not be published +for some weeks to come. The last night of the term had arrived, the last +night too of John's Oxford career. It was near nine o'clock, but still +quite light, and the rich orange glow of sunset had not yet left the +sky. The air was warm and sultry, as on that eventful evening when just +a year ago he had for the first time seen the figure or the illusion +of the figure of Adrian Temple. Since that time he had played the +"Areopagita" many, many times; but there had never been any reappearance +of that form, nor even had the once familiar creaking of the wicker +chair ever made itself heard. As he sat alone in his room, thinking with +a natural melancholy that he had seen the sun set for the last time on +his student life, and reflecting on the possibilities of the future +and perhaps on opportunities wasted in the past, the memory of that +evening last June recurred strongly to his imagination, and he felt an +irresistible impulse to play once more the "Areopagita." He unlocked +the now familiar cupboard and took out the violin, and never had the +exquisite gradations of colour in its varnish appeared to greater +advantage than in the soft mellow light of the fading day. As he began +the _Gagliarda_ he looked at the wicker chair, half expecting to see a +form he well knew seated in it; but nothing of the kind ensued, and he +concluded the "Areopagita" without the occurrence of any unusual +phenomenon. + +It was just at its close that he heard some one knocking at the outer +door. He hurriedly locked away the violin and opened the "oak." It was +Mr. Gaskell. He came in rather awkwardly, as though not sure whether he +would be welcomed. + +"Johnnie," he began, and stopped. + +The force of ancient habit sometimes, dear nephew, leads us unwittingly +to accost those who were once our friends by a familiar or nick-name +long after the intimacy that formerly justified it has vanished. But +sometimes we intentionally revert to the use of such a name, not wishing +to proclaim openly, as it were, by a more formal address that we are no +longer the friends we once were. I think this latter was the case with +Mr. Gaskell as he repeated the familiar name. + +"Johnnie, I was passing down New College Lane, and heard the violin from +your open windows. You were playing the 'Areopagita,' and it all sounded +so familiar to me that I thought I must come up. I am not interrupting +you, am I?" + +"No, not at all," John answered. + +"It is the last night of our undergraduate life, the last night we shall +meet in Oxford as students. To-morrow we make our bow to youth and +become men. We have not seen much of each other this term at any rate, +and I daresay that is my fault. But at least let us part as friends. +Surely our friends are not so many that we can afford to fling them +lightly away." + +He held out his hand frankly, and his voice trembled a little as he +spoke--partly perhaps from real emotion, but more probably from the +feeling of reluctance which I have noticed men always exhibit to +discovering any sentiment deeper than those usually deemed conventional +in correct society. My brother was moved by his obvious wish to renew +their former friendship, and grasped the proffered hand. + +There was a minute's pause, and then the conversation was resumed, a +little stiffly at first, but more freely afterwards. They spoke on many +indifferent subjects, and Mr. Gaskell congratulated John on the prospect +of his marriage, of which he had heard. As he at length rose up to take +his departure, he said, "You must have practised the violin diligently +of late, for I never knew anyone make so rapid progress with it as you +have done. As I came along I was spellbound by your music. I never +before heard you bring from the instrument so exquisite a tone: the +chorded passages were so powerful that I believed there had been +another person playing with you. Your Pressenda is certainly a finer +instrument than I ever imagined." + +My brother was pleased with Mr. Gaskell's compliment, and the latter +continued, "Let me enjoy the pleasure of playing with you once more in +Oxford; let us play the 'Areopagita.'" + +And so saying he opened the pianoforte and sat down. + +John was turning to take out the Stradivarius when he remembered that he +had never even revealed its existence to Mr. Gaskell, and that if he now +produced it an explanation must follow. In a moment his mood changed, +and with less geniality he excused himself, somewhat awkwardly, from +complying with the request, saying that he was fatigued. + +Mr. Gaskell was evidently hurt at his friend's altered manner, and +without renewing his petition rose at once from the pianoforte, and +after a little forced conversation took his departure. On leaving he +shook my brother by the hand, wished him all prosperity in his marriage +and after-life, and said, "Do not entirely forget your old comrade, and +remember that if at any time you should stand in need of a true friend, +you know where to find him!" + +John heard his footsteps echoing down the passage and made a +half-involuntary motion towards the door as if to call him back, but did +not do so, though he thought over his last words then and on a +subsequent occasion. + + + + +CHAPTER X + + +The summer was spent by us in the company of Mrs. Temple and Constance, +partly at Royston and partly at Worth Maltravers. John had again +hired the cutter-yacht _Palestine_, and the whole party made several +expeditions in her. Constance was entirely devoted to her lover; her +life seemed wrapped up in his; she appeared to have no existence except +in his presence. + +I can scarcely enumerate the reasons which prompted such thoughts, but +during these months I sometimes found myself wondering if John still +returned her affection as ardently as I knew had once been the case. +I can certainly call to mind no single circumstance which could justify +me in such a suspicion. He performed punctiliously all those thousand +little acts of devotion which are expected of an accepted lover; he +seemed to take pleasure in perfecting any scheme of enjoyment to amuse +her; and yet the impression grew in my mind that he no longer felt the +same heart-whole love to her that she bore him, and that he had himself +shown six months earlier. I cannot say, my dear Edward, how lively was +the grief that even the suspicion of such a fact caused me, and I +continually rebuked myself for entertaining for a moment a thought so +unworthy, and dismissed it from my mind with reprobation. Alas! ere long +it was sure again to make itself felt. We had all seen the Stradivarius +violin; indeed it was impossible for my brother longer to conceal it +from us, as he now played continually on it. He did not recount to us +the story of its discovery, contenting himself with saying that he had +become possessed of it at Oxford. We imagined naturally that he had +purchased it; and for this I was sorry, as I feared Mr. Thoresby, his +guardian, who had given him some years previously an excellent violin by +Pressenda, might feel hurt at seeing his present so unceremoniously laid +aside. None of us were at all intimately acquainted with the fancies of +fiddle-collectors, and were consequently quite ignorant of the enormous +value that fashion attached to so splendid an instrument. Even had +we known, I do not think that we should have been surprised at John +purchasing it; for he had recently come of age, and was in possession of +so large a fortune as would amply justify him in such an indulgence had +he wished to gratify it. No one, however, could remain unaware of the +wonderful musical qualities of the instrument. Its rich and melodious +tones would commend themselves even to the most unmusical ear, and +formed a subject of constant remark. I noticed also that my brother's +knowledge of the violin had improved in a very perceptible manner, for +it was impossible to attribute the great beauty and power of his present +performance entirely to the excellence of the instrument he was using. +He appeared more than ever devoted to the art, and would shut himself +up in his room alone for two or more hours together for the purpose of +playing the violin--a habit which was a source of sorrow to Constance, +for he would never allow her to sit with him on such occasions, as she +naturally wished to do. + +So the summer fled. I should have mentioned that in July, after going up +to complete the _viva-voce_ part of their examination, both Mr. Gaskell +and John received information that they had obtained "first-classes." +The young men had, it appears, done excellently well, and both had +secured a place in that envied division of the first-class which was +called "above the line." John's success proved a source of much pleasure +to us all, and mutual congratulations were freely exchanged. We were +pleased also at Mr. Gaskell's high place, remembering the kindness which +he had shown us at Oxford in the previous year. I desired to send him +my compliments and felicitations when he should next be writing to him. +I did not doubt that my brother would return Mr. Gaskell's +congratulations, which he had already received: he said, however, that +his friend had given no address to which he could write, and so the +matter dropped. + +On the 1st of September John and Constance Temple were married. The +wedding took place at Royston, and by John's special desire (with which +Constance fully agreed) the ceremony was of a strictly private and +unpretentious nature. The newly married pair had determined to spend +their honeymoon in Italy, and left for the Continent in the forenoon. + +Mrs. Temple invited me to remain with her for the present at Royston, +which I was very glad to do, feeling deeply the loss of a favourite +brother, and looking forward with dismay to six weeks of loneliness +which must elapse before I should again see him and my dearest +Constance. + +We received news of our travellers about a fortnight afterwards, and +then heard from them at frequent intervals. Constance wrote in the best +of spirits, and with the keenest appreciation. She had never travelled +in Switzerland or Italy before and all was enchantingly novel to her. +They had journeyed through Basle to Lucerne, spending a few days in that +delightful spot, and thence proceeding by the Simplon Pass to Lugano and +the Italian lakes. Then we heard that they had gone further south than +had been at first contemplated; they had reached Rome, and were +intending to go on to Naples. + +After the first few weeks we neither of us received any more letters +from John. It was always Constance who wrote, and even her letters +grew very much less frequent than had at first been the case. This was +perhaps natural, as the business of travel no doubt engrossed their +thoughts. But ere long we both perceived that the letters of our dear +girl were more constrained and formal than before. It was as if she was +writing now rather to comply with a sense of duty than to give vent to +the light-hearted gaiety and naïve enjoyment which breathed in every +line of her earlier communications. So at least it seemed to us, and +again the old suspicion presented itself to my mind, and I feared that +all was not as it should be. + +Naples was to be the turning-point of their travels, and we expected +them to return to England by the end of October. November had arrived, +however, and we still had no intimation that their return journey had +commenced or was even decided on. From John there was no word, and +Constance wrote less often than ever. John, she said, was enraptured +with Naples and its surroundings; he devoted himself much to the violin, +and though she did not say so, this meant, I knew, that she was often +left alone. For her own part, she did not think that a continued +residence in Italy would suit her health; the sudden changes of +temperature tried her, and people said that the airs rising in the +evening from the bay were unwholesome. + +Then we received a letter from her which much alarmed us. It was written +from Naples and dated October 25. John, she said, had been ailing of +late with nervousness and insomnia. On Wednesday, two days before the +date of her letter, he had suffered all day from a strange restlessness, +which increased after they had retired for the evening. He could not +sleep and had dressed again, telling her he would walk a little in the +night air to compose himself. He had not returned till near six in the +morning, and then was so deadly pale and seemed so exhausted that she +insisted on his keeping to his bed till she could get medical advice. +The doctors feared that he had been attacked by some strange form of +malarial fever, and said he needed much care. Our anxiety was, however, +at least temporarily relieved by the receipt of later tidings which +spoke of John's recovery; but November drew to a close without any +definite mention of their return having reached us. + +That month is always, I think, a dreary one in the country. It has +neither the brilliant tints of October, nor the cosy jollity of +mid-winter with its Christmas joys to alleviate it. This year it was +more gloomy than usual. Incessant rain had marked its close, and the +Roy, a little brook which skirted the gardens not far from the house, +had swollen to unusual proportions. At last one wild night the flood +rose so high as to completely cover the garden terraces, working havoc +in the parterres, and covering the lawns with a thick coat of mud. +Perhaps this gloominess of nature's outer face impressed itself in a +sense of apprehension on our spirits, and it was with a feeling of more +than ordinary pleasure and relief that early in December we received a +letter dated from Laon, saying that our travellers were already well +advanced on their return journey, and expected to be in England a week +after the receipt by us of this advice. It was, as usual, Constance who +wrote. John begged, she said, that Christmas might be spent at Worth +Maltravers, and that we would at once proceed thither to see that all +was in order against their return. They reached Worth about the middle +of the month, and were, I need not say, received with the utmost +affection by Mrs. Temple and myself. + +In reply to our inquiries John professed that his health was completely +restored; but though we could indeed discern no other signs of any +special weakness, we were much shocked by his changed appearance. He had +completely lost his old healthy and sunburnt complexion, and his face, +though not thin or sunken, was strangely pale. Constance assured us +that though in other respects he had apparently recovered, he had never +regained his old colour from the night of his attack of fever at Naples. + +I soon perceived that her own spirits were not so bright as was +ordinarily the case with her; and she exhibited none of the eagerness to +narrate to others the incidents of travel which is generally observable +in those who have recently returned from a journey. The cause of this +depression was, alas! not difficult to discover, for John's former +abstraction and moodiness seemed to have returned with an increased +force. It was a source of infinite pain to Mrs. Temple, and perhaps +even more so to me, to observe this sad state of things. Constance +never complained, and her affection towards her husband seemed only to +increase in the face of difficulties. Yet the matter was one which could +not be hid from the anxious eyes of loving kinswomen, and I believe that +it was the consciousness that these altered circumstances could not +but force themselves upon our notice that added poignancy to my poor +sister's grief. While not markedly neglecting her, my brother had +evidently ceased to take that pleasure in her company which might +reasonably have been expected in any case under the circumstances of +a recent marriage, and a thousand times more so when his wife was so +loving and beautiful a creature as Constance Temple. He appeared little +except at meals, and not even always at lunch, shutting himself up for +the most part in his morning-room or study and playing continually on +the violin. It was in vain that we attempted even by means of his music +to win him back to a sweeter mood. Again and again I begged him to allow +me to accompany him on the pianoforte, but he would never do so, always +putting me off with some excuse. Even when he sat with us in the +evening, he spoke little, devoting himself for the most part to reading. +His books were almost always Greek or Latin, so that I am ignorant of +the subjects of his study; but he was content that either Constance or +I should play on the pianoforte, saying that the melody, so far from +distracting his attention, helped him rather to appreciate what he was +reading. Constance always begged me to allow her to take her place at +the instrument on these occasions, and would play to him sometimes for +hours without receiving a word of thanks, being eager even in this +unreciprocated manner to testify her love and devotion to him. + +Christmas Day, usually so happy a season, brought no alleviation of +our gloom. My brother's reserve continually increased, and even his +longest-established habits appeared changed. He had been always most +observant of his religious duties, attending divine service with the +utmost regularity whatever the weather might be, and saying that it was +a duty a landed proprietor owed as much to his tenantry as himself to +set a good example in such matters. Ever since our earliest years he +and I had gone morning and afternoon on Sundays to the little church of +Worth, and there sat together in the Maltravers chapel where so many of +our name had sat before us. Here their monuments and achievements stood +about us on every side, and it had always seemed to me that with their +name and property we had inherited also the obligation to continue those +acts of piety, in the practice of which so many of them had lived and +died. It was, therefore, a source of surprise and great grief to me +when on the Sunday after his return my brother omitted all religious +observances, and did not once attend the parish church. He was not +present with us at breakfast, ordering coffee and a roll to be taken to +his private sitting-room. At the hour at which we usually set out for +church I went to his room to tell him that we were all dressed and +waiting for him. I tapped at the door, but on trying to enter found it +locked. In reply to my message he did not open the door, but merely +begged us to go on to church, saying he would possibly follow us later. +We went alone, and I sat anxiously in our seat with my eyes fixed on the +door, hoping against hope that each late comer might be John, but he +never came. Perhaps this will appear to you, Edward, a comparatively +trivial circumstance (though I hope it may not), but I assure you that +it brought tears to my eyes. When I sat in the Maltravers chapel and +thought that for the first time my dear brother had preferred in an open +way his convenience or his whim to his duty, and had of set purpose +neglected to come to the house of God, I felt a bitter grief that seemed +to rise up in my throat and choke me. I could not think of the meaning +of the prayers nor join in the singing: and all the time that Mr. +Butler, our clergyman, was preaching, a verse of a little piece of +poetry which I learnt as a girl was running in my head:-- + + "How easy are the paths of ill; + How steep and hard the upward ways; + A child can roll the stone down hill + That breaks a giant's arm to raise." + + +It seemed to me that our loved one had set his foot upon the downward +slope, and that not all the efforts of those who would have given their +lives to save him could now hold him back. + +It was even worse on Christmas Day. Ever since we had been confirmed +John and I had always taken the Sacrament on that happy morning, and +after service he had distributed the Maltravers dole in our chapel. +There are given, as you know, on that day to each of twelve old men £5 +and a green coat, and a like sum of money with a blue cloth dress to as +many old women. These articles of dress are placed on the altar-tomb of +Sir Esmoun de Maltravers, and have been thence distributed from days +immemorial by the head of our house. Ever since he was twelve years old +it had been my pride to watch my handsome brother doing this deed of +noble charity, and to hear the kindly words he added with each gift. + +Alas! alas! it was all different this Christmas. Even on this holy day +my brother did not approach either the altar or the house of God. Till +then Christmas had always seemed to me to be a day given us from above, +that we might see even while on earth a faint glimpse of that serenity +and peaceful love which will hereafter gild all days in heaven. Then +covetous men lay aside their greed and enemies their rancour, then warm +hearts grow warmer, and Christians feel their common brotherhood. I can +scarcely imagine any man so lost or guilty as not to experience on that +day some desire to turn back to the good once more, as not to recognise +some far-off possibility of better things. It was thoughts free and +happy such as these that had previously come into my heart in the +service of Christmas Day, and been particularly associated with the +familiar words that we all love so much. But that morning the harmonies +were all jangled: it seemed as though some evil spirit was pouring +wicked thoughts into my ear; and even while children sang "Hark the +herald angels," I thought I could hear through it all a melody which +I had learnt to loathe, the _Gagliarda_ of the "Areopagita." + +Poor Constance! Though her veil was down, I could see her tears, and +knew her thoughts must be sadder even than mine: I drew her hand towards +me, and held it as I would a child's. After the service was over a new +trial awaited us. John had made no arrangement for the distribution of +the dole. The coats and dresses were all piled ready on Sir Esmoun's +tomb, and there lay the little leather pouches of money, but there was +no one to give them away. Mr. Butler looked puzzled, and approaching +us, said he feared Sir John was ill--had he made no provision for the +distribution? Pride kept back the tears which were rising fast, and +I said my brother was indeed unwell, that it would be better for Mr. +Butler to give away the dole, and that Sir John would himself visit the +recipients during the week. Then we hurried away, not daring to watch +the distribution of the dole, lest we should no longer be able to master +our feelings, and should openly betray our agitation. + +From one another we no longer attempted to conceal our grief. It seemed +as though we had all at once resolved to abandon the farce of pretending +not to notice John's estrangement from his wife, or of explaining away +his neglectful and unaccountable treatment of her. + +I do not think that three poor women were ever so sad on Christmas Day +before as were we on our return from church that morning. None of us had +seen my brother, but about five in the afternoon Constance went to his +room, and through the locked door begged piteously to see him. After a +few minutes he complied with her request and opened the door. The exact +circumstances of that interview she never revealed to me, but I knew +from her manner when she returned that something she had seen or heard +had both grieved and frightened her. She told me only that she had flung +herself in an agony of tears at his feet, and kneeling there, weary and +broken-hearted, had begged him to tell her if she had done aught amiss, +had prayed him to give her back his love. To all this he answered +little, but her entreaties had at least such an effect as to induce him +to take his dinner with us that evening. At that meal we tried to put +aside our gloom, and with feigned smiles and cheerful voices, from which +the tears were hardly banished, sustained a weary show of conversation +and tried to wile away his evil mood. But he spoke little; and when +Foster, my father's butler, put on the table the three-handled +Maltravers' loving-cup that he had brought up Christmas by Christmas for +thirty years, my brother merely passed it by without a taste. I saw by +Foster's face that the master's malady was no longer a secret even from +the servants. + +I shall not harass my own feelings nor yours, my dear Edward, by +entering into further details of your father's illness, for such it was +obvious his indisposition had become. It was the only consolation, and +that was a sorry one, that we could use with Constance, to persuade her +that John's estrangement from her was merely the result or manifestation +of some physical infirmity. He obviously grew worse from week to week, +and his treatment of his wife became colder and more callous. We had +used all efforts to persuade him to take a change of air--to go to +Royston for a month, and place himself under the care of Dr. Dobie. Mrs. +Temple had even gone so far as to write privately to this physician, +telling him as much of the case as was prudent, and asking his advice. +Not being aware of the darker sides of my brother's ailment, Dr. Dobie +replied in a less serious strain than seemed to us convenient, but +recommended in any case a complete change of air and scene. + +It was, therefore, with no ordinary pleasure and relief that we +heard my brother announce quite unexpectedly one morning in March that +he had made up his mind to seek change, and was going to leave almost +immediately for the Continent. He took his valet Parnham with him, and +quitted Worth one morning before lunch, bidding us an unceremonious +adieu, though he kissed Constance with some apparent tenderness. It was +the first time for three months, she confessed to me afterwards, that +he had shown her even so ordinary a mark of affection; and her wounded +heart treasured up what she hoped would prove a token of returning love. +He had not proposed to take her with him, and even had he done so, we +should have been reluctant to assent, as signs were not wanting that it +might have been imprudent for her to undertake foreign travel at that +period. + +For nearly a month we had no word of him. Then he wrote a short note to +Constance from Naples, giving no news, and indeed, scarce speaking of +himself at all, but mentioning as an address to which she might write if +she wished, the Villa de Angelis at Posilipo. Though his letter was cold +and empty, yet Constance was delighted to get it, and wrote henceforth +herself nearly every day, pouring out her heart to him, and retailing +such news as she thought would cheer him. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + + +A month later Mrs. Temple wrote to John warning him of the state in +which Constance now found herself, and begging him to return at least +for a few weeks in order that he might be present at the time of her +confinement. Though it would have been in the last degree unkind, or +even inhuman, that a request of this sort should have been refused, yet +I will confess to you that my brother's recent strangeness had prepared +me for behaviour on his part however wild; and it was with a feeling of +extreme relief that I heard from Mrs. Temple a little later that she had +received a short note from John to say that he was already on his return +journey. I believe Mrs. Temple herself felt as I did in the matter, +though she said nothing. + +When he returned we were all at Royston, whither Mrs. Temple had taken +Constance to be under Dr. Dobie's care. We found John's physical +appearance changed for the worse. His pallor was as remarkable as +before, but he was visibly thinner; and his strange mental abstraction +and moodiness seemed little if any abated. At first, indeed, he greeted +Constance kindly or even affectionately. She had been in a terrible +state of anxiety as to the attitude he would assume towards her, and +this mental strain affected prejudicially her very delicate bodily +condition. His kindness, of an ordinary enough nature indeed, seemed +to her yearning heart a miracle of condescending love, and she was +transported with the idea that his affection to her, once so sincere, +was indeed returning. But I grieve to say that his manner thawed only +for a very short time, and ere long he relapsed into an attitude of +complete indifference. It was as if his real, true, honest, and loving +character had made one more vigorous effort to assert itself,--as +though it had for a moment broken through the hard and selfish crust +that was forming around him; but the blighting influence which was at +work proved seemingly too strong for him to struggle against, and +riveted its chains again upon him with a weight heavier than before. +That there was some malefic influence, mental or physical, thus working +on him, no one who had known him before could for a moment doubt. But +while Mrs. Temple and I readily admitted this much, we were entirely +unable even to form a conjecture as to its nature. It is true that +Mrs. Temple's fancy suggested that Constance had some rival in his +affections; but we rejected such a theory almost before it was proposed, +feeling that it was inherently improbable, and that, had it been true, +we could not have remained entirely unaware of the circumstances which +had conduced to such a state of things. It was this inexplicable nature +of my brother's affliction that added immeasurably to our grief. If we +could only have ascertained its cause we might have combated it; but +as it was, we were fighting in the dark, as against some enemy who was +assaulting us from an obscurity so thick that we could not see his form. +Of any mental trouble we thus knew nothing, nor could we say that my +brother was suffering from any definite physical ailment, except that +he was certainly growing thinner. + +Your birth, my dear Edward, followed very shortly. Your poor mother +rallied in an unusually short time, and was filled with rapture at the +new treasure which was thus given as a solace to her afflictions. Your +father exhibited little interest at the event, though he sat nearly half +an hour with her one evening, and allowed her even to stroke his hair +and caress him as in time long past. Although it was now the height of +summer he seldom left the house, sitting much and sleeping in his own +room, where he had a field-bed provided for him, and continually +devoting himself to the violin. + +One evening near the end of July we were sitting after dinner in the +drawing-room at Royston, having the French windows looking on to the +lawn open, as the air was still oppressively warm. Though things were +proceeding as indifferently as before, we were perhaps less cast down +than usual, for John had taken his dinner with us that evening. This was +a circumstance now, alas! sufficiently uncommon, for he had nearly all +his meals served for him in his own rooms. Constance, who was once more +downstairs, sat playing at the pianoforte, performing chiefly melodies +by Scarlatti or Bach, of which old-fashioned music she knew her husband +to be most fond. A later fashion, as you know, has revived the +cultivation of these composers, but at the time of which I write their +works were much less commonly known. Though she was more than a passable +musician, he would not allow her to accompany him; indeed he never now +performed at all on the violin before us, reserving his practice +entirely for his own chamber. There was a pause in the music while +coffee was served. My brother had been sitting in an easy-chair apart +reading some classical work during his wife's performance, and taking +little notice of us. But after a while he put down his book and said, +"Constance, if you will accompany me, I will get my violin and play a +little while." I cannot say how much his words astonished us. It was +so simple a matter for him to say, and yet it filled us all with an +unspeakable joy. We concealed our emotion till he had left the room to +get his instrument, then Constance showed how deeply she was gratified +by kissing first her mother and then me, squeezing my hand but saying +nothing. In a minute he returned, bringing his violin and a music-book. +By the soiled vellum cover and the shape I perceived instantly that it +was the book containing the "Areopagita." I had not seen it for near +two years, and was not even aware that it was in the house, but I +knew at once that he intended to play that suite. I entertained an +unreasoning but profound aversion to its melodies, but at that moment +I would have welcomed warmly that or any other music, so that he would +only choose once more to show some thought for his neglected wife. He +put the book open at the "Areopagita" on the desk of the pianoforte, +and asked her to play it with him. She had never seen the music before, +though I believe she was not unacquainted with the melody, as she had +heard him playing it by himself, and once heard, it was not easily +forgotten. + +They began the "Areopagita" suite, and at first all went well. The +tone of the violin, and also, I may say with no undue partiality, +my brother's performance, were so marvellously fine that though our +thoughts were elsewhere when, the music commenced, in a few seconds they +were wholly engrossed in the melody, and we sat spellbound. It was as +if the violin had become suddenly endowed with life, and was singing +to us in a mystical language more deep and awful than any human words. +Constance was comparatively unused to the figuring of the _basso +continuo_, and found some trouble in reading it accurately, especially +in manuscript; but she was able to mask any difficulty she may have had +until she came to the _Gagliarda_. Here she confessed to me her thoughts +seemed against her will to wander, and her attention became too deeply +riveted on her husband's performance to allow her to watch her own. +She made first one slight fault, and then growing nervous, another, and +another. Suddenly John stopped and said brusquely, "Let Sophy play, +I cannot keep time with you." Poor Constance! The tears came swiftly +to my own eyes when I heard him speak so thoughtlessly to her, and I was +almost provoked to rebuke him openly. She was still weak from her recent +illness; her nerves were excited by the unusual pleasure she felt in +playing once more with her husband, and this sudden shattering of her +hopes of a renewed tenderness proved more than she could bear: she put +her head between her hands upon the keyboard and broke into a paroxysm +of tears. + +We both ran to her; but while we were attempting to assuage her grief, +John shut his violin into its case, took the music-book under his arm, +and left the room without saying a word to any of us, not even to the +weeping girl, whose sobs seemed as though they would break her heart. + +We got her put to bed at once, but it was some hours before her +convulsive sobbing ceased. Mrs. Temple had administered to her a +soothing draught of proved efficacy, and after sitting with her till +after one o'clock, I left her at last dozing off to sleep, and myself +sought repose. I was quite wearied out with the weight of my anxiety, +and with the crushing bitterness of seeing my dearest Constance's +feelings so wounded. Yet in spite, or rather perhaps on account of my +trouble, my head had scarcely touched my pillow ere I fell into a deep +sleep. + +A room in the south wing had been converted for the nonce into a +nursery, and for the convenience of being near her infant Constance now +slept in a room adjoining. As this portion of the house was somewhat +isolated, Mrs. Temple had suggested that I should keep her daughter +company, and occupy a room in the same passage, only removed a few +doors, and this I had accordingly done. I was aroused from my sleep that +night by some one knocking gently on the door of my bedroom; but it was +some seconds before my thoughts became sufficiently awake to allow me to +remember where I was. There was some moonlight, but I lighted a candle, +and looking at my watch saw that it was two o'clock. I concluded that +either Constance or her baby was unwell, and that the nurse needed my +assistance. So I left my bed, and moving to the door, asked softly who +was there. It was, to my surprise, the voice of Constance that replied, +"O Sophy, let me in." + +In a second I had opened the door, and found my poor sister wearing only +her night-dress, and standing in the moonlight before me. + +She looked frightened and unusually pale in her white dress and with the +cold gleam of the moon upon her. At first I thought she was walking in +her sleep, and perhaps rehearsing again in her dreams the troubles which +dogged her waking footsteps. I took her gently by the arm, saying, +"Dearest Constance, come back at once to bed; you will take cold." + +She was not asleep, however, but made a motion of silence, and said in +a terrified whisper, "Hush; do you hear nothing?" There was something +so vague and yet so mysterious in the question and in her evident +perturbation that I was infected too by her alarm. I felt myself shiver, +as I strained my ear to catch if possible the slightest sound. But a +complete silence pervaded everything: I could hear nothing. + +"Can you hear it?" she said again. All sorts of images of ill presented +themselves to my imagination: I thought the baby must be ill with croup, +and that she was listening for some stertorous breath of anguish; and +then the dread came over me that perhaps her sorrows had been too much +for her, and that reason had left her seat. At that thought the marrow +froze in my bones. + +"Hush," she said again; and just at that moment, as I strained my ears, +I thought I caught upon the sleeping air a distant and very faint +murmur. + +"Oh, what is it, Constance?" I said. "You will drive me mad;" and while +I spoke the murmur seemed to resolve itself into the vibration, felt +almost rather than heard, of some distant musical instrument. I stepped +past her into the passage. All was deadly still, but I could perceive +that music was being played somewhere far away; and almost at the same +minute my ears recognised faintly but unmistakably the _Gagliarda_ of +the "Areopagita." + +I have already mentioned that for some reason which I can scarcely +explain, this melody was very repugnant to me. It seemed associated in +some strange and intimate way with my brother's indisposition and moral +decline. Almost at the moment that I had heard it first two years ago, +peace seemed to have risen up and left our house, gathering her skirts +about her, as we read that the angels left the Temple at the siege of +Jerusalem. And now it was even more detestable to my ears, recalling as +it did too vividly the cruel events of the preceding evening. + +"John must be sitting up playing," I said. + +"Yes," she answered; "but why is he in this part of the house, and why +does he always play _that_ tune?" + +It was if some irresistible attraction drew us towards the music. +Constance took my hand in hers and we moved together slowly down the +passage. The wind had risen, and though there was a bright moon, her +beams were constantly eclipsed by driving clouds. Still there was light +enough to guide us, and I extinguished the candle. As we reached the end +of the passage the air of the _Gagliarda_ grew more and more distinct. + +Our passage opened on to a broad landing with a balustrade, and from one +side of it ran out the picture-gallery which you know. + +I looked at Constance significantly. It was evident that John was +playing in this gallery. We crossed the landing, treading carefully and +making no noise with our naked feet, for both of us had been too excited +even to think of putting on shoes. + +We could now see the whole length of the gallery. My poor brother sat in +the oriel window of which I have before spoken. He was sitting so as to +face the picture of Adrian Temple, and the great windows of the oriel +flung a strong light on him. At times a cloud hid the moon, and all was +plunged in darkness; but in a moment the cold light fell full on him, +and we could trace every feature as in a picture. He had evidently not +been to bed, for he was fully dressed, exactly as he had left us in the +drawing-room five hours earlier when Constance was weeping over his +thoughtless words. He was playing the violin, playing with a passion and +reckless energy which I had never seen, and hope never to see again. +Perhaps he remembered that this spot was far removed from the rest +of the house, or perhaps he was careless whether any were awake and +listening to him or not; but it seemed to me that he was playing with +a sonorous strength greater than I had thought possible for a single +violin. There came from his instrument such a volume and torrent of +melody as to fill the gallery so full, as it were, of sound that it +throbbed and vibrated again. He kept his eyes fixed on something at the +opposite side of the gallery; we could not indeed see on what, but I +have no doubt at all that it was the portrait of Adrian Temple. His gaze +was eager and expectant, as though he were waiting for something to +occur which did not. + +I knew that he had been growing thin of late, but this was the first +time I had realised how sunk were the hollows of his eyes and how +haggard his features had become. It may have been some effect of +moonlight which I do not well understand, but his fine-cut face, once so +handsome, looked on this night worn and thin like that of an old man. +He never for a moment ceased playing. It was always one same dreadful +melody, the _Gagliarda_ of the "Areopagita," and he repeated it time +after time with the perseverance and apparent aimlessness of an +automaton. + +He did not see us, and we made no sign, standing afar off in silent +horror at that nocturnal sight. Constance clutched me by the arm: she +was so pale that I perceived it even in the moonlight. "Sophy," she +said, "he is sitting in the same place as on the first night when he +told me how he loved me." I could answer nothing, my voice was frozen +in me. I could only stare at my brother's poor withered face, realising +then for the first time that he must be mad, and that it was the +haunting of the _Gagliarda_ that had made him so. + +We stood there I believe for half an hour without speech or motion, and +all the time that sad figure at the end of the gallery continued its +performance. Suddenly he stopped, and an expression of frantic despair +came over his face as he laid down the violin and buried his head in his +hands. I could bear it no longer. "Constance," I said, "come back to +bed. We can do nothing," So we turned and crept away silently as we had +come. Only as we crossed the landing Constance stopped, and looked back +for a minute with a heart-broken yearning at the man she loved. He had +taken his hands from his head, and she saw the profile of his face clear +cut and hard in the white moonlight. + +It was the last time her eyes ever looked upon it. + +She made for a moment as if she would turn back and go to him, but her +courage failed her, and we went on. Before we reached her room we heard +in the distance, faintly but distinctly, the burden of the _Gagliarda_. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + + +The next morning, my maid brought me a hurried note written in pencil by +my brother. It contained only a few lines, saying that he found that his +continued sojourn at Royston was not beneficial to his health, and had +determined to return to Italy. If we wished to write, letters would +reach him at the Villa de Angelis: his valet Parnham was to follow him +thither with his baggage as soon as it could be got together. This was +all; there was no word of adieu even to his wife. + +We found that he had never gone to bed that night. But in the early +morning he had himself saddled his horse _Sentinel_ and ridden in to +Derby, taking the early mail thence to London. His resolve to leave +Royston had apparently been arrived at very suddenly, for so far as we +could discover, he had carried no luggage of any kind. I could not help +looking somewhat carefully round his room to see if he had taken the +Stradivarius violin. No trace of it or even of its case was to be seen, +though it was difficult to imagine how he could have carried it with him +on horseback. There was, indeed, a locked travelling-trunk which Parnham +was to bring with him later, and the instrument might, of course, have +been in that; but I felt convinced that he had actually taken it with +him in some way or other, and this proved afterwards to have been the +case. + +I shall draw a veil, my dear Edward, over the events which immediately +followed your father's departure. Even at this distance of time the +memory is too inexpressibly bitter to allow me to do more than briefly +allude to them. + +A fortnight after John's departure, we left Royston and removed to +Worth, wishing to get some sea-air, and to enjoy the late summer of the +south coast. Your mother seemed entirely to have recovered from her +confinement, and to be enjoying as good health as could be reasonably +expected under the circumstances of her husband's indisposition. But +suddenly one of those insidious maladies which are incidental to women +in her condition seized upon her. We had hoped and believed that all +such period of danger was already happily past; but, alas! it was not +so, and within a few hours of her first seizure all realised how serious +was her case. Everything that human skill can do under such conditions +was done, but without avail. Symptoms of blood-poisoning showed +themselves, accompanied with high fever, and within a week she was in +her coffin. + +Though her delirium was terrible to watch, yet I thank God to this +day, that if she was to die, it pleased Him to take her while in an +unconscious condition. For two days before her death she recognised +no one, and was thus spared at least the sadness of passing from life +without one word of kindness or even of reconciliation from her unhappy +husband. + +The communication with a place so distant as Naples was not then to be +made under fifteen or twenty days, and all was over before we could hope +that the intelligence even of his wife's illness had reached John. Both +Mrs. Temple and I remained at Worth in a state of complete prostration, +awaiting his return. When more than a month had passed without his +arrival, or even a letter to say that he was on his way, our anxiety +took a new turn, as we feared that some accident had befallen him, or +that the news of his wife's death, which would then be in his hands, +had so seriously affected him as to render him incapable of taking any +action. To repeated subsequent communications we received no answer; +but at last, to a letter which I wrote to Parnham, the servant replied, +stating that his master was still at the Villa de Angelis, and in a +condition of health little differing from that in which he left Royston, +except that he was now slightly paler if possible and thinner. It was +not till the end of November that any word came from him, and then he +wrote only one page of a sheet of note-paper to me in pencil, making no +reference whatever to his wife's death, but saying that he should not +return for Christmas, and instructing me to draw on his bankers for any +moneys that I might require for household purposes at Worth. + +I need not tell you the effect that such conduct produced on Mrs. +Temple and myself; you can easily imagine what would have been your own +feelings in such a case. Nor will I relate any other circumstances which +occurred at this period, as they would have no direct bearing upon my +narrative. Though I still wrote to my brother at frequent intervals, as +not wishing to neglect a duty, no word from him ever came in reply. + +About the end of March, indeed, Parnham returned to Worth Maltravers, +saying that his master had paid him a half-year's wages in advance, +and then dispensed with his services. He had always been an excellent +servant, and attached to the family, and I was glad to be able to offer +him a suitable position with us at Worth until his master should return. +He brought disquieting reports of John's health, saying that he was +growing visibly weaker. Though I was sorely tempted to ask him many +questions as to his master's habits and way of life, my pride forbade me +to do so. But I heard incidentally from my maid that Parnham had told +her Sir John was spending money freely in alterations at the Villa de +Angelis, and had engaged Italians to attend him, with which his English +valet was naturally much dissatisfied. + +So the spring passed and the summer was well advanced. + +On the last morning of July I found waiting for me on the +breakfast-table an envelope addressed in my brother's hand. I opened +it hastily. It only contained a few words, which I have before me as I +write now. The ink is a little faded and yellow, but the impression it +made is yet vivid as on that summer morning. + + "MY DEAREST SOPHY," it began,--"Come to me here at once, if possible, + or it may be too late. I want to see you. They say that I am ill, and + too weak to travel to England. + + "Your loving brother, + + "JOHN." + + +There was a great change in the style, from the cold and conventional +notes that he had hitherto sent at such long intervals; from the stiff +"Dear Sophia" and "Sincerely yours" to which, I grieve to say, I had +grown accustomed. Even the writing itself was altered. It was more the +bold boyish hand he wrote when first he went to Oxford, than the smaller +cramped and classic character of his later years. Though it was a little +matter enough, God knows, in comparison with his grievous conduct, yet +it touched me much that he should use again the once familiar "Dearest +Sophy," and sign himself "my loving brother." I felt my heart go out +towards him; and so strong is woman's affection for her own kin, that I +had already forgotten any resentment and reprobation in my great pity +for the poor wanderer, lying sick perhaps unto death and alone in a +foreign land. + +I took his note at once to Mrs. Temple. She read it twice or thrice, +trying to take in the meaning of it. Then she drew me to her and, +kissing me, said, "Go to him at once, Sophy. Bring him back to Worth; +try to bring him back to the right way." + +I ordered my things to be packed, determining to drive to Southampton +and take train thence to London; and at the same time Mrs. Temple gave +instructions that all should be prepared for her own return to Royston +within a few days. I knew she did not dare to see John after her +daughter's death. + +I took my maid with me, and Parnham to act as courier. At London we +hired a carriage for the whole journey, and from Calais posted direct to +Naples. We took the short route by Marseilles and Genoa, and travelled +for seventeen days without intermission, as my brother's note made me +desirous of losing no time on the way. I had never been in Italy before; +but my anxiety was such that my mind was unable to appreciate either +the beauty of the scenery or the incidents of travel. I can, in fact, +remember nothing of our journey now, except the wearisome and +interminable jolting over bad roads and the insufferable heat. It was +the middle of August in an exceptionally warm summer, and after passing +Genoa the heat became almost tropical. There was no relief even at +night, for the warm air hung stagnant and suffocating, and the inside of +my travelling coach was often like a furnace. + +We were at last approaching the conclusion of our journey, and had left +Rome behind us. The day that we set out from Aversa was the hottest that +I have ever felt, the sun beating down with an astonishing power even +in the early hours, and the road being thick with a white and blinding +dust. It was soon after midnight that our carriage began rattling over +the great stone blocks with which the streets of Naples are paved. The +suburbs that we at first passed through were, I remember, in darkness +and perfect quiet; but after traversing the heart of the city and +reaching the western side, we suddenly found ourselves in the midst +of an enormous and very dense crowd. There were lanterns everywhere, +and interminable lanes of booths, whose proprietors were praising +their wares with loud shouts; and here acrobats, jugglers, minstrels, +black-vested priests, and blue-coated soldiers mingled with a vast crowd +whose numbers at once arrested the progress of the carriage. Though it +was so late of a Sunday night, all seemed here awake and busy as at +noonday. Oil-lamps with reeking fumes of black smoke flung a glare over +the scene, and the discordant cries and chattering conversation united +in so deafening a noise as to make me turn faint and giddy, wearied as I +already was with long travelling. Though I felt that intense eagerness +and expectation which the approaching termination of a tedious journey +inspires, and was desirous of pushing forward with all imaginable +despatch, yet here our course was sadly delayed. The horses could only +proceed at the slowest of foot-paces, and we were constantly brought +to a complete stop for some minutes before the post-boy could force +a passage through the unwilling crowd. This produced a feeling of +irritation, and despair of ever reaching my destination; and the mirth +and careless hilarity of the people round us chafed with bitter contrast +on my depressed spirits. I inquired from the post-boy what was the +origin of so great a commotion, and understood him to say in reply that +it was a religious festival held annually in honour of "Our Lady of +the Grotto." I cannot, however, conceive of any truly religious person +countenancing such a gathering, which seemed to me rather like the +unclean orgies of a heathen deity than an act of faith of Christian +people. This disturbance occasioned us so serious a delay, that as we +were climbing the steep slope leading up to Posilipo it was already +three in the morning and the dawn was at hand. + +After mounting steadily for a long time we began to rapidly descend, and +just as the sun came up over the sea we arrived at the Villa de Angelis. +I sprang from the carriage, and passing through a trellis of vines, +reached the house. A man-servant was in waiting, and held the door open +for me; but he was an Italian, and did not understand me when I asked +in English where Sir John Maltravers was. He had evidently, however, +received instructions to take me at once to my brother, and led the way +to an inner part of the house. As we proceeded I heard the sound of a +rich alto voice singing very sweetly to a mandoline some soothing or +religious melody. The servant pulled aside a heavy curtain and I found +myself in my brother's room. An Italian youth sat on a stool near the +door, and it was he who had been singing. At a few words from John, +addressed to him in his own language, he set down his mandoline and left +the room, pulling to the curtain and shutting a door behind it. + +The room looked directly on to the sea: the villa was, in fact, built +upon rocks at the foot of which the waves lapped. Through two folding +windows which opened on to a balcony the early light of the summer +morning streamed in with a rosy flush. My brother sat on a low couch +or sofa, propped up against a heap of pillows, with a rug of brilliant +colours flung across his feet and legs. He held out his arms to me, and +I ran to him; but even in so brief an interval I had perceived that he +was terribly weak and wasted. + +All my memories of his past faults had vanished and were dead in that +sad aspect of his worn features, and in the conviction which I felt, +even from the first moment, that he had but little time longer to remain +with us. I knelt by him on the floor, and with my arms round his neck, +embraced him tenderly, not finding any place for words, but only sobbing +in great anguish. Neither of us spoke, and my weariness from long travel +and the strangeness of the situation caused me to feel that paralysing +sensation of doubt as to the reality of the scene, and even of my own +existence, which all, I believe, have experienced at times of severe +mental tension. That I, a plain English girl, should be kneeling here +beside my brother in the Italian dawn; that I should read, as I +believed, on his young face the unmistakable image and superscription +of death; and reflect that within so few months he had married, had +wrecked his home, that my poor Constance was no more;--these things +seemed so unrealisable that for a minute I felt that it must all be a +nightmare, that I should immediately wake with the fresh salt air of +the Channel blowing through my bedroom window at Worth, and find I had +been dreaming. But it was not so; the light of day grew stronger and +brighter, and even in my sorrow the panorama of the most beautiful spot +on earth, the Bay of Naples, with Vesuvius lying on the far side, as +seen then from these windows, stamped itself for ever on my mind. It was +unreal as a scene in some brilliant dramatic spectacle, but, alas! no +unreality was here. The flames of the candles in their silver sconces +waxed paler and paler, the lines and shadows on my brother's face grew +darker, and the pallor of his wasted features showed more striking in +the bright rays of the morning sun. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + + +I had spent near a week at the Villa de Angelis. John's manner to me +was most tender and affectionate; but he showed no wish to refer to the +tragedy of his wife's death and the sad events which had preceded it, or +to attempt to explain in any way his own conduct in the past. Nor did +I ever lead the conversation to these topics; for I felt that even if +there were no other reason, his great weakness rendered it inadvisable +to introduce such subjects at present, or even to lead him to speak at +all more than was actually necessary. I was content to minister to him +in quiet, and infinitely happy in his restored affection. He seemed +desirous of banishing from his mind all thoughts of the last few months, +but spoke much of the years before he had gone to Oxford, and of happy +days which we had spent together in our childhood at Worth Maltravers. +His weakness was extreme, but he complained of no particular malady +except a short cough which troubled him at night. + +I had spoken to him of his health, for I could see that his state was +such as to inspire anxiety, and begged that he would allow me to see if +there was an English doctor at Naples who could visit him. This he would +not assent to, saying that he was quite content with the care of an +Italian doctor who visited him almost daily, and that he hoped to be +able, under my escort, to return within a very short time to England. + +"I shall never be much better, dear Sophy," he said one day. "The doctor +tells me that I am suffering from some sort of consumption, and that I +must not expect to live long. Yet I yearn to see Worth once more, and to +feel again the west winds blowing in the evening across from Portland, +and smell the thyme on the Dorset downs. In a few days I hope perhaps to +be a little stronger, and I then wish to show you a discovery which I +have made in Naples. After that you may order them to harness the +horses, and carry me back to Worth Maltravers." + +I endeavoured to ascertain from Signor Baravelli, the doctor, something +as to the actual state of his patient; but my knowledge of Italian was +so slight that I could neither make him understand what I would be at, +nor comprehend in turn what he replied, so that this attempt was +relinquished. From my brother himself I gathered that he had begun to +feel his health much impaired as far back as the early spring, but +though his strength had since then gradually failed him, he had not been +confined to the house until a month past. He spent the day and often +the night reclining on his sofa and speaking little. He had apparently +lost the taste for the violin which had once absorbed so much of his +attention; indeed I think the bodily strength necessary for its +performance had probably now failed him. The Stradivarius instrument +lay near his couch in its case; but I only saw the latter open on one +occasion, I think, and was deeply thankful that John no longer took +the same delight as heretofore in the practice of this art,--not only +because the mere sound of his violin was now fraught to me with such +bitter memories, but also because I felt sure that its performance had +in some way which I could not explain a deleterious effect upon himself. +He exhibited that absence of vitality which is so often noticeable in +those who have not long to live, and on some days lay in a state of +semi-lethargy from which it was difficult to rouse him. But at other +times he suffered from a distressing restlessness which forbade him to +sit still even for a few minutes, and which was more painful to watch +than his lethargic stupor. The Italian boy, of whom I have already +spoken, exhibited an untiring devotion to his master which won my heart. +His name was Raffaelle Carotenuto, and he often sang to us in the +evening, accompanying himself on the mandoline. At nights, too, when +John could not sleep, Raffaelle would read for hours till at last +his master dozed off. He was well educated, and though I could not +understand the subject he read, I often sat by and listened, being +charmed with his evident attachment to my brother and with the melodious +intonation of a sweet voice. + +My brother was nervous apparently in some respects, and would never be +left alone even for a few minutes; but in the intervals while Raffaelle +was with him I had ample opportunity to examine and appreciate the +beauties of the Villa de Angelis. It was built, as I have said, on some +rocks jutting into the sea, just before coming to the Capo di Posilipo +as you proceed from Naples. The earlier foundations were, I believe, +originally Roman, and upon them a modern villa had been constructed +in the eighteenth century, and to this again John had made important +additions in the past two years. Looking down upon the sea from the +windows of the villa, one could on calm days easily discern the remains +of Roman piers and moles lying below the surface of the transparent +water; and the tufa-rock on which the house was built was burrowed with +those unintelligible excavations of a classic date so common in the +neighbourhood. These subterraneous rooms and passages, while they +aroused my curiosity, seemed at the same time so gloomy and repellent +that I never explored them. But on one sunny morning, as I walked at +the foot of the rocks by the sea, I ventured into one of the larger of +these chambers, and saw that it had at the far end an opening leading +apparently to an inner room. I had walking with me an old Italian female +servant who took a motherly interest in my proceedings, and who, relying +principally upon a very slight knowledge of English, had constituted +herself my body-guard. Encouraged by her presence, I penetrated this +inner room and found that it again opened in turn into another, and so +on until we had passed through no less than four chambers. + +They were all lighted after a fashion through vent-holes which somewhere +or other reached the outer air, but the fourth room opened into a fifth +which was unlighted. My companion, who had been showing signs of alarm +and an evident reluctance to proceed further, now stopped abruptly and +begged me to return. It may have been that her fear communicated itself +to me also, for on attempting to cross the threshold and explore the +darkness of the fifth cell, I was seized by an unreasoning panic and by +the feeling of undefined horror experienced in a nightmare. I hesitated +for an instant, but my fear became suddenly more intense, and springing +back, I followed my companion, who had set out to run back to the outer +air. We never paused until we stood panting in the full sunlight by the +sea. As soon as the maid had found her breath, she begged me never to go +there again, explaining in broken English that the caves were known in +the neighbourhood as the "Cells of Isis," and were reputed to be haunted +by demons. This episode, trifling as it may appear, had so great an +effect upon me that I never again ventured on to the lower walk which +ran at the foot of the rocks by the sea. + +In the house above, my brother had built a large hall after the ancient +Roman style, and this, with a dining-room and many other chambers, were +decorated in the fashion of those discovered at Pompeii. They had been +furnished with the utmost luxury, and the beauty of the paintings, +furniture, carpets, and hangings was enhanced by statues in bronze and +marble. The villa, indeed, and its fittings were of a kind to which +I was little used, and at the same time of such beauty that I never +ceased to regard all as a creation of an enchanter's wand, or as the +drop-scene to some drama which might suddenly be raised and disappear +from my sight. The house, in short, together with its furniture, was, +I believe, intended to be a reproduction of an ancient Roman villa, +and had something about it repellent to my rustic and insular ideas. +In the contemplation of its perfection I experienced a curious mental +sensation, which I can only compare to the physical oppression produced +on some persons by the heavy and cloying perfume of a bouquet of +gardenias or other too highly scented exotics. + +In my brother's room was a medieval reproduction in mellow alabaster of +a classic group of a dolphin encircling a Cupid. It was, I think, the +fairest work of art I ever saw, but it jarred upon my sense of propriety +that close by it should hang an ivory crucifix. I would rather, I think, +have seen all things material and pagan entirely, with every view of +the future life shut out, than have found a medley of things sacred and +profane, where the emblems of our highest hopes and aspirations were +placed in insulting indifference side by side with the embodied forms of +sensuality. Here, in this scene of magical beauty, it seemed to me for +a moment that the years had rolled back, that Christianity had still to +fight with a _living_ Paganism, and that the battle was not yet won. It +was the same all through the house; and there were many other matters +which filled me with regret, mingled with vague and apprehensive +surmises which I shall not here repeat. + +At one end of the house was a small library, but it contained few works +except Latin and Greek classics. I had gone thither one day to look for +a book that John had asked for, when in turning out some drawers I found +a number of letters written from Worth by my lost Constance to her +husband. The shock of being brought suddenly face to face with a +handwriting that evoked memories at once so dear and sad was in itself +a sharp one; but its bitterness was immeasurably increased by the +discovery that not one of these envelopes had ever been opened. While +that dear heart, now at rest, was pouring forth her love and sorrow to +the ears that should have been above all others ready to receive them, +her letters, as they arrived, were flung uncared for, unread, even +unopened, into any haphazard receptacle. + +The days passed one by one at the Villa de Angelis with but little +incident, nor did my brother's health either visibly improve or decline. +Though the weather was still more than usually warm, a grateful breeze +came morning and evening from the sea and tempered the heat so much as +to render it always supportable. John would sometimes in the evening sit +propped up with cushions on the trellised balcony looking towards Baia, +and watch the fishermen setting their nets. We could hear the melody +of their deep-voiced songs carried up on the night air. "It was here, +Sophy," my brother said, as we sat one evening looking on a scene like +this,--"It was here that the great epicure Pollio built himself a famous +house, and called it by two Greek words meaning a 'truce to care,' from +which our name of Posilipo is derived. It was his _sans-souci_, and here +he cast aside his vexations; but they were lighter than mine. Posilipo +has brought no cessation of care to me. I do not think I shall find any +truce this side the grave; and beyond, who knows?" + +This was the first time John had spoken in this strain, and he seemed +stirred to an unusual activity, as though his own words had suddenly +reminded him how frail was his state. He called Raffaelle to him and +despatched him on an errand to Naples. The next morning he sent for me +earlier than usual, and begged that a carriage might be ready by six in +the evening, as he desired to drive into the city. I tried at first to +dissuade him from his project, urging him to consider his weak state of +health. He replied that he felt somewhat stronger, and had something +that he particularly wished me to see in Naples. This done, it would be +better to return at once to England: he could, he thought, bear the +journey if we travelled by very short stages. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + + +Shortly after six o'clock in the evening we left the Villa de Angelis. +The day had been as usual cloudlessly serene; but a gentle sea-breeze, +of which I have spoken, rose in the afternoon and brought with it a +refreshing coolness. We had arranged a sort of couch in the landau with +many cushions for my brother, and he mounted into the carriage with more +ease than I had expected. I sat beside him, with Raffaelle facing me +on the opposite seat. We drove down the hill of Posilipo through the +ilex-trees and tamarisk-bushes that then skirted the sea, and so into +the town. John spoke little except to remark that the carriage was an +easy one. As we were passing through one of the principal streets he +bent over to me and said, "You must not be alarmed if I show you to-day +a strange sight. Some women might perhaps be frightened at what we are +going to see; but my poor sister has known already so much of trouble +that a light thing like this will not affect her." In spite of his +encomiums upon my supposed courage, I felt alarmed and agitated by his +words. There was a vagueness in them which frightened me, and bred that +indefinite apprehension which is often infinitely more terrifying than +the actual object which inspires it. To my inquiries he would give no +further response than to say that he had whilst at Posilipo made some +investigations in Naples leading to a strange discovery, which he was +anxious to communicate to me. After traversing a considerable distance, +we had penetrated apparently into the heart of the town. The streets +grew narrower and more densely thronged; the houses were more dirty and +tumbledown, and the appearance of the people themselves suggested that +we had reached some of the lower quarters of the city. Here we passed +through a further network of small streets of the name of which I took +no note, and found ourselves at last in a very dark and narrow lane +called the _Via del Giardino_. Although my brother had, so far as I had +observed, given no orders to the coachman, the latter seemed to have +no difficulty in finding his way, driving rapidly in the Neapolitan +fashion, and proceeding direct as to a place with which he was already +familiar. + +In the Via del Giardino the houses were of great height, and overhung +the street so as nearly to touch one another. It seemed that this +quarter had been formerly inhabited, if not by the aristocracy, at least +by a class very much superior to that which now lived there; and many +of the houses were large and dignified, though long since parcelled +out into smaller tenements. It was before such a house that we at last +brought up. Here must have been at one time a house or palace of some +person of distinction, having a long and fine façade adorned with +delicate pilasters, and much florid ornamentation of the Renaissance +period. The ground-floor was divided into a series of small shops, and +its upper storeys were evidently peopled by sordid families of the +lowest class. Before one of these little shops, now closed and having +its windows carefully blocked with boards, our carriage stopped. +Raffaelle alighted, and taking a key from his pocket unlocked the door, +and assisted John to leave the carriage. I followed, and directly we had +crossed the threshold, the boy locked the door behind us, and I heard +the carriage drive away. + +We found ourselves in a narrow and dark passage, and as soon as my eyes +grew accustomed to the gloom I perceived there was at the end of it a +low staircase leading to some upper room, and on the right a door which +opened into the closed shop. My brother moved slowly along the passage, +and began to ascend the stairs. He leant with one hand on Raffaelle's +arm, taking hold of the balusters with the other. But I could see +that to mount the stairs cost him considerable effort, and he paused +frequently to cough and get his breath again. So we reached a landing +at the top, and found ourselves in a small chamber or magazine directly +over the shop. It was quite empty except for a few broken chairs, and +appeared to be a small loft formed by dividing what had once been a +high room into two storeys, of which the shop formed the lower. A long +window, which had no doubt once formed one of several in the walls of +this large room, was now divided across its width by the flooring, and +with its upper part served to light the loft, while its lower panes +opened into the shop. The ceiling was, in consequence of these +alterations, comparatively low, but though much mutilated, retained +evident traces of having been at one time richly decorated, with the +raised mouldings and pendants common in the sixteenth century. At one +end of the loft was a species of coved and elaborately carved dado, of +which the former use was not obvious; but the large original room had +without doubt been divided in length as well as in height, as the +lath-and-plaster walls at either end of the loft had evidently been no +part of the ancient structure. + +My brother sat down in one of the old chairs, and seemed to be +collecting his strength before speaking. My anxiety was momentarily +increasing, and it was a great relief when he began, talking in a low +voice as one that had much to say and wished to husband his strength. + +"I do not know whether you will recollect my having told you of +something Mr. Gaskell once said about the music of Graziani's +'Areopagita' suite. It had always, he used to say, a curious effect upon +his imagination, and the melody of the _Gagliarda_ especially called up +to his thoughts in some strange way a picture of a certain hall where +people were dancing. He even went so far as to describe the general +appearance of the room itself, and of the persons who were dancing +there." + +"Yes," I answered, "I remember your telling me of this;" and indeed my +memory had in times past so often rehearsed Mr. Gaskell's description +that, although I had not recently thought of it, its chief features +immediately returned to my mind. + +"He described it," my brother continued, "as a long hall with an arcade +of arches running down one side, of the fantastic Gothic of the +Renaissance. At the end was a gallery or balcony for the musicians, +which on its front carried a coat of arms." + +I remembered this perfectly and told John so, adding that the shield +bore a cherub's head fanning three lilies on a golden field. + +"It is strange," John went on, "that the description of a scene which +our friend thought a mere effort of his own imagination has impressed +itself so deeply on both our minds. But the picture which he drew was +more than a fancy, for we are at this minute in the very hall of his +dream." + +I could not gather what my brother meant, and thought his reason was +failing him; but he continued, "This miserable floor on which we stand +has of course been afterwards built in; but you see above you the old +ceiling, and here at the end was the musicians' gallery with the shield +upon its front." + +He pointed to the carved and whitewashed dado which had hitherto so +puzzled me. I stepped up to it, and although the lath-and-plaster +partition wall was now built around it, it was clear that its curved +outline might very easily, as John said, have formed part of the front +of a coved gallery. I looked closer at the relief-work which had adorned +it. Though the edges were all rubbed off, and the mouldings in some +cases entirely removed, I could trace without difficulty a shield +in the midst; and a more narrow inspection revealed underneath the +whitewash, which had partly peeled away, enough remnants of colour to +show that it had certainly been once painted gold and borne a cherub's +head with three lilies. + +"That is the shield of the old Neapolitan house of Doma-Cavalli," my +brother continued; "they bore a cherub's head fanning three lilies on a +shield or. It was in the balcony behind this shield, long since blocked +up as you see, that the musicians sat on that ball night of which +Gaskell dreamt. From it they looked down on the hall below where dancing +was going forward, and I will now take you downstairs that you may see +if the description tallies." + +So saying, he raised himself, and descending the stairs with much less +difficulty than he had shown in mounting them, flung open the door +which I had seen in the passage and ushered us into the shop on the +ground-floor. The evening light had now faded so much that we could +scarcely see even in the passage, and the shop having its windows +barricaded with shutters, was in complete darkness. Raffaelle, however, +struck a match and lit three half-burnt candles in a tarnished sconce +upon the wall. + +The shop had evidently been lately in the occupation of a wine-seller, +and there were still several empty wooden wine-butts, and some broken +flasks on shelves. In one corner I noticed that the earth which formed +the floor had been turned up with spades. There was a small heap of +mould, and a large flat stone was thus exposed below the surface. This +stone had an iron ring attached to it, and seemed to cover the aperture +of a well, or perhaps a vault. At the back of the shop, and furthest +from the street, were two lofty arches separated by a column in the +middle, from which the outside casing had been stripped. + +To these arches John pointed and said, "That is a part of the arcade +which once ran down the whole length of the hall. Only these two arches +are now left, and the fine marbles which doubtless coated the outside of +this dividing pillar have been stripped off. On a summer's night about +one hundred years ago dancing was going on in this hall. There were a +dozen couples dancing a wild step such as is never seen now. The tune +that the musicians were playing in the gallery above was taken from the +'Areopagita' suite of Graziani. Gaskell has often told me that when +he played it the music brought with it to his mind a sense of some +impending catastrophe, which culminated at the end of the first movement +of the _Gagliarda_. It was just at that moment, Sophy, that an +Englishman who was dancing here was stabbed in the back and foully +murdered." + +I had scarcely heard all that John had said, and had certainly not been +able to take in its import; but without waiting to hear if I should say +anything, he moved across to the uncovered stone with the ring in it. +Exerting a strength which I should have believed entirely impossible in +his weak condition, he applied to the stone a lever which lay ready at +hand. Raffaelle at the same time seized the ring, and so they were able +between them to move the covering to one side sufficiently to allow +access to a small staircase which thus appeared to view. The stair +was a winding one, and once led no doubt to some vaults below the +ground-floor. Raffaelle descended first, taking in his hand the sconce +of three candles, which he held above his head so as to fling a light +down the steps. John went next, and then I followed, trying to support +my brother if possible with my hand. The stairs were very dry, and +on the walls there was none of the damp or mould which fancy usually +associates with a subterraneous vault. I do not know what it was I +expected to see, but I had an uneasy feeling that I was on the brink of +some evil and distressing discovery. After we had descended about twenty +steps we could see the entry to some vault or underground room, and it +was just at the foot of the stairs that I saw something lying, as the +light from the candles fell on it from above. At first I thought it was +a heap of dust or refuse, but on looking closer it seemed rather a +bundle of rags. As my eyes penetrated the gloom, I saw there was about +it some tattered cloth of a faded green tint, and almost at the same +minute I seemed to trace under the clothes the lines or dimensions of a +human figure. For a moment I imagined it was some poor man lying face +downwards and bent up against the wall. The idea of a man or of a dead +body being there shocked me violently, and I cried to my brother, "Tell +me, what is it?" At that instant the light from. Raffaelle's candles +fell in a somewhat different direction. It lighted up the white bowl +of a human skull, and I saw that what I had taken for a man's form was +instead that of a clothed skeleton. I turned faint and sick for an +instant, and should have fallen had it not been for John, who put his +arm about me and sustained me with an unexpected strength. + +"God help us!" I exclaimed, "let us go. I cannot bear this; there are +foul vapours here; let us get back to the outer air." + +He took me by the arm, and pointing at the huddled heap, said, "Do you +know whose bones those are? That is Adrian Temple. After it was all +over, they flung his body down the steps, dressed in the clothes he +wore." + +At that name, uttered in so ill-omened a place, I felt a fresh access of +terror. It seemed as though the soul of that wicked man must be still +hovering over his unburied remains, and boding evil to us all. A chill +crept over me, the light, the walls, my brother, and Raffaelle all swam +round, and I sank swooning on the stairs. + +When I returned fully to my senses we were in the landau again making +our way back to the Villa de Angelis. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + + +The next morning my health and strength were entirely restored to me, +but my brother, on the contrary, seemed weak and exhausted from his +efforts of the previous night. Our return journey to the Villa de +Angelis had passed in complete silence. I had been too much perturbed +to question him on the many points relating to the strange events as to +which I was still completely in the dark, and he on his side had shown +no desire to afford me any further information. When I saw him the next +morning he exhibited signs of great weakness, and in response to an +effort on my part to obtain some explanation of the discovery of Adrian +Temple's body, avoided an immediate reply, promising to tell me all he +knew after our return to Worth Maltravers. + +I pondered over the last terrifying episode very frequently in my own +mind, and as I thought more deeply of it all, it seemed to me that the +outlines of some evil history were piece by piece developing themselves, +that I had almost within my grasp the clue that would make all plain, +and that had eluded me so long. In that dim story Adrian Temple, the +music of the _Gagliarda_, my brother's fatal passion for the violin, +all seemed to have some mysterious connection, and to have conspired in +working John's mental and physical ruin. Even the Stradivarius violin +bore a part in the tragedy, becoming, as it were, an actively malignant +spirit, though I could not explain how, and was yet entirely unaware of +the manner in which it had come into my brother's possession. + +I found that John was still resolved on an immediate return to England. +His weakness, it is true, led me to entertain doubts as to how he would +support so long a journey; but at the same time I did not feel justified +in using any strong efforts to dissuade him from his purpose. I +reflected that the more wholesome air and associations of England would +certainly re-invigorate both body and mind, and that any extra strain +brought about by the journey would soon be repaired by the comforts and +watchful care with which we could surround him at Worth Maltravers. + +So the first week in October saw us once more with our faces set towards +England. A very comfortable swinging-bed or hammock had been arranged +for John in the travelling carriage, and we determined to avoid fatigue +as much as possible by dividing our journey into very short stages. My +brother seemed to have no intention of giving up the Villa de Angelis. +It was left complete with its luxurious furniture, and with all his +servants, under the care of an Italian _maggior-duomo_. I felt that as +John's state of health forbade his entertaining any hope of an immediate +return thither, it would have been much better to close entirely his +Italian house. But his great weakness made it impossible for him to +undertake the effort such a course would involve, and even if my own +ignorance of the Italian tongue had not stood in the way, I was far too +eager to get my invalid back to Worth to feel inclined to import any +further delay, while I should myself adjust matters which were after all +comparatively trifling. As Parnham was now ready to discharge his usual +duties of valet, and as my brother seemed quite content that he should +do so, Raffaelle was of course to be left behind. The boy had quite won +my heart by his sweet manners, combined with his evident affection to +his master, and in making him understand that he was now to leave us, +I offered him a present of a few pounds as a token of my esteem. He +refused, however, to touch this money, and shed tears when he learnt +that he was to be left in Italy, and begged with many protestations of +devotion that he might be allowed to accompany us to England. My heart +was not proof against his entreaties, supported by so many signs of +attachment, and it was agreed, therefore, that he should at least attend +us as far as Worth Maltravers. John showed no surprise at the boy being +with us; indeed I never thought it necessary to explain that I had +originally purposed to leave him behind. + +Our journey, though necessarily prolonged by the shortness of its +stages, was safely accomplished. John bore it as well as I could have +hoped, and though his body showed no signs of increased vigour, his +mind, I think, improved in tone, at any rate for a time. From the +evening on which he had shown me the terrible discovery in the Via +del Giardino he seemed to have laid aside something of his care and +depression. He now exhibited little trace of the moroseness and +selfishness which had of late so marred his character; and though he +naturally felt severely at times the fatigue of travel, yet we had no +longer to dread any relapse into that state of lethargy or stupor which +had so often baffled every effort to counteract it at Posilipo. Some +feeling of superstitious aversion had prompted me to give orders that +the Stradivarius violin should be left behind at Posilipo. But before +parting my brother asked for it, and insisted that it should be brought +with him, though I had never heard him play a note on it for many weeks. +He took an interest in all the petty episodes of travel, and certainly +appeared to derive more entertainment from the journey than was to have +been anticipated in his feeble state of health. + +To the incidents of the evening spent in the Via del Giardino he made no +allusion of any kind, nor did I for my part wish to renew memories of +so unpleasant a nature. His only reference occurred one Sunday evening +as we were passing a small graveyard near Genoa. The scene apparently +turned his thoughts to that subject, and he told me that he had taken +measures before leaving Naples to ensure that the remains of Adrian +Temple should be decently interred in the cemetery of Santa Bibiana. +His words set me thinking again, and unsatisfied curiosity prompted +me strongly to inquire of him how he had convinced himself that the +skeleton at the foot of the stairs was indeed that of Adrian Temple. But +I restrained myself, partly from a reliance on his promise that he would +one day explain the whole story to me, and partly being very reluctant +to mar the enjoyment of the peaceful scenes through which we were +passing, by the introduction of any subjects so jarring and painful as +those to which I have alluded. + +We reached London at last, and here we stopped a few days to make some +necessary arrangements before going down to Worth Maltravers. I had +urged upon John during the journey that immediately on his arrival in +London he should obtain the best English medical advice as to his own +health. Though he at first demurred, saying that nothing more was to be +done, and that he was perfectly satisfied with the medicine given him by +Dr. Baravelli, which he continued to take, yet by constant entreaty I +prevailed upon him to accede to so reasonable a request. Dr. Frobisher, +considered at that time the first living authority on diseases of the +brain and nerves, saw him on the morning after our arrival. He was good +enough to speak with me at some length after seeing my brother, and to +give me many hints and recipes whereby I might be better enabled to +nurse the invalid. + +Sir John's condition, he said, was such as to excite serious anxiety. +There was, indeed, no brain mischief of any kind to be discovered, but +his lungs were in a state of advanced disease, and there were signs of +grave heart affection. Yet he did not bid me to despair, but said that +with careful nursing life might certainly be prolonged, and even some +measure of health in time restored. He asked me more than once if I knew +of any trouble or worry that preyed upon Sir John's mind. Were there +financial difficulties; had he been subjected to any mental shock; had +he received any severe fright? To all this I could only reply in the +negative. At the same time I told Dr. Frobisher as much of John's +history as I considered pertinent to the question. He shook his head +gravely, and recommended that Sir John should remain for the present in +London, under his own constant supervision. To this course my brother +would by no means consent. He was eager to proceed at once to his own +house, saying that if necessary we could return again to London for +Christmas. It was therefore agreed that we should go down to Worth +Maltravers at the end of the week. + +Parnham had already left us for Worth in order that he might have +everything ready against his master's return, and when we arrived we +found all in perfect order for our reception. A small morning-room next +to the library, with a pleasant south aspect and opening on to the +terrace, had been prepared for my brother's use, so that he might avoid +the fatigue of mounting stairs, which Dr. Frobisher considered very +prejudicial in his present condition. We had also purchased in London a +chair fitted with wheels, which enabled him to be moved, or, if he were +feeling equal to the exertion, to move himself, without difficulty, from +room to room. + +His health, I think, improved; very gradually, it is true, but still +sufficiently to inspire me with hope that he might yet be spared to us. +Of the state of his mind or thoughts I knew little, but I could see that +he was at times a prey to nervous anxiety. This showed itself in the +harassed look which his pale face often wore, and in his marked dislike +to being left alone. He derived, I think, a certain pleasure from the +quietude and monotony of his life at Worth, and perhaps also from the +consciousness that he had about him loving and devoted hearts. I say +hearts, for every servant at Worth was attached to him, remembering the +great consideration and courtesy of his earlier years, and grieving to +see his youthful and once vigorous frame reduced to so sad a strait. +Books he never read himself, and even the charm of Raffaelle's reading +seemed to have lost its power; though he never tired of hearing the boy +sing, and liked to have him sit by his chair even when his eyes were +shut and he was apparently asleep. His general health seemed to me to +change but little either for better or worse. Dr. Frobisher had led me +to expect some such a sequel. I had not concealed from him that I had +at times entertained suspicions as to my brother's sanity; but he had +assured me that they were totally unfounded, that Sir John's brain was +as clear as his own. At the same time he confessed that he could not +account for the exhausted vitality of his patient,--a condition which he +would under ordinary circumstances have attributed to excessive study or +severe trouble. He had urged upon me the pressing necessity for complete +rest, and for much sleep. My brother never even incidentally referred to +his wife, his child, or to Mrs. Temple, who constantly wrote to me from +Royston, sending kind messages to John, and asking how he did. These +messages I never dared to give him, fearing to agitate him, or retard +his recovery by diverting his thoughts into channels which must +necessarily be of a painful character. That he should never even mention +her name, or that of Lady Maltravers, led me to wonder sometimes if one +of those curious freaks of memory which occasionally accompany a severe +illness had not entirely blotted out from his mind the recollection of +his marriage and of his wife's death. He was unable to consider any +affairs of business, and the management of the estate remained as it +had done for the last two years in the hands of our excellent agent, +Mr. Baker. + +But one evening in the early part of December he sent Raffaelle about +nine o'clock, saying he wished to speak to me. I went to his room, and +without any warning he began at once, "You never show me my boy now, +Sophy; he must be grown a big child, and I should like to see him." +Much startled by so unexpected a remark, I replied that the child was +at Royston under the care of Mrs. Temple, but that I knew that if it +pleased him to see Edward she would be glad to bring him down to Worth. +He seemed gratified with this idea, and begged me to ask her to do so, +desiring that his respects should be at the same time conveyed to her. I +almost ventured at that moment to recall his lost wife to his thoughts, +by saying that his child resembled her strongly; for your likeness at +that time, and even now, my dear Edward, to your poor mother was very +marked. But my courage failed me, and his talk soon reverted to an +earlier period, comparing the mildness of the month to that of the first +winter which he spent at Eton. His thoughts, however, must, I fancy, +have returned for a moment to the days when he first met your mother, +for he suddenly asked, "Where is Gaskell? Why does he never come to see +me?" This brought quite a new idea to my mind. I fancied it might do my +brother much good to have by him so sensible and true a friend as I knew +Mr. Gaskell to be. The latter's address had fortunately not slipped from +my memory, and I put all scruples aside and wrote by the next mail to +him, setting forth my brother's sad condition, saying that I had heard +John mention his name, and begging him on my own account to be so good +as to help us if possible and come to us in this hour of trial. Though +he was so far off as Westmorland, Mr. Gaskell's generosity brought +him at once to our aid, and within a week he was installed at Worth +Maltravers, sleeping, in the library, where we had arranged a bed at +his own desire, so that he might be near his sick friend. + +His presence was of the utmost assistance to us all. He treated John +at once with the tenderness of a woman and the firmness of a clever +and strong man. They sat constantly together in the mornings, and Mr. +Gaskell told me John had not shown with him the same reluctance to talk +freely of his married life as he had discovered with me. The tenor of +his communications I cannot guess, nor did I ever ask; but I knew that +Mr. Gaskell was much affected by them. + +John even amused himself now at times by having Mr. Baker into his rooms +of a morning, that the management of the estate might be discussed with +his friend; and he also expressed his wish to see the family solicitor, +as he desired to draw his will. Thinking that any diversion of this +nature could not but be beneficial to him, we sent to Dorchester for our +solicitor, Mr. Jeffreys, who together with his clerk spent three nights +at Worth, and drew up a testament for my brother. + +So time went on, and the year was drawing to a close. + +It was Christmas Eve, and I had gone to bed shortly after twelve +o'clock, having an hour earlier bid good night to John and Mr. Gaskell. +The long habit of watching with, or being in charge of an invalid at +night, had made my ears extraordinarily quick to apprehend even the +slightest murmur. It must have been, I think, near three in the morning +when I found myself awake and conscious of some unusual sound. It was +low and far off, but I knew instantly what it was, and felt a choking +sensation of fear and horror, as if an icy hand had gripped my throat, +on recognising the air of the _Gagliarda_. It was being played on the +violin, and a long way off, but I knew that tune too well to permit of +my having any doubt on the subject. + +Any trouble or fear becomes, as you will some day learn, my dear nephew, +immensely intensified and exaggerated at night. It is so, I suppose, +because our nerves are in an excited condition, and our brain not +sufficiently awake to give a due account of our foolish imaginations. I +have myself many times lain awake wrestling in thought with difficulties +which in the hours of darkness seemed insurmountable, but with the dawn +resolved themselves into merely trivial inconveniences. So on this +night, as I sat up in bed looking into the dark, with the sound of that +melody in my ears, it seemed as if something too terrible for words had +happened; as though the evil spirit, which we had hoped was exorcised, +had returned with others sevenfold more wicked than himself, and taken +up his abode again with my lost brother. The memory of another night +rushed to my mind when Constance had called me from my bed at Royston, +and we had stolen together down the moonlit passages with the lilt of +that wicked music vibrating on the still summer air. Poor Constance! She +was in her grave now; yet _her_ troubles at least were over, but here, +as by some bitter irony, instead of carol or sweet symphony, it was the +_Gagliarda_ that woke me from my sleep on Christmas morning. + +I flung my dressing-gown about me, and hurried through the corridor and +down the stairs which led to the lower storey and my brother's room. +As I opened my bedroom door the violin ceased suddenly in the middle +of a bar. Its last sound was not a musical note, but rather a horrible +scream, such as I pray I may never hear again. It was a sound such as a +wounded beast might utter. There is a picture I have seen of Blake's, +showing the soul of a strong wicked man leaving his body at death. The +spirit is flying out through the window with awful staring eyes, aghast +at the desolation into which it is going. If in the agony of dissolution +such a lost soul could utter a cry, it would, I think, sound like the +wail which I heard from the violin that night. + +Instantly all was in absolute stillness. The passages were silent and +ghostly in the faint light of my candle; but as I reached the bottom +of the stairs I heard the sound of other footsteps, and Mr. Gaskell met +me. He was fully dressed, and had evidently not been to bed. He took me +kindly by the hand and said, "I feared you might be alarmed by the sound +of music. John has been walking in his sleep; he had taken out his +violin and was playing on it in a trance. Just as I reached him +something in it gave way, and the discord caused by the slackened +strings roused him at once. He is awake now and has returned to bed. +Control your alarm for his sake and your own. It is better that he +should not know you have been awakened." + +He pressed my hand and spoke a few more reassuring words, and I went +back to my room still much agitated, and yet feeling half ashamed for +having shown so much anxiety with so little reason. + +That Christmas morning was one of the most beautiful that I ever +remember. It seemed as though summer was so loath to leave our sunny +Dorset coast that she came back on this day to bid us adieu before her +final departure. I had risen early and had partaken of the Sacrament +at our little church. Dr. Butler had recently introduced this early +service, and though any alteration of time-honoured customs in such +matters might not otherwise have met with my approval, I was glad to +avail myself of the privilege on this occasion, as I wished in any case +to spend the later morning with my brother. The singular beauty of the +early hours, and the tranquillising effect of the solemn service brought +back serenity to my mind, and effectually banished from it all memories +of the preceding night. Mr. Gaskell met me in the hall on my return, and +after greeting me kindly with the established compliments of the day, +inquired after my health, and hoped that the disturbance of my slumber +on the previous night had not affected me injuriously. He had good news +for me: John seemed decidedly better, was already dressed, and desired, +as it was Christmas morning, that we would take our breakfast with him +in his room. + +To this, as you may imagine, I readily assented. Our breakfast party +passed off with much content, and even with some quiet humour, John +sitting in his easy-chair at the head of the table and wishing us the +compliments of the season. I found laid in my place a letter from Mrs. +Temple greeting us all (for she knew Mr. Gaskell was at Worth), and +saying that she hoped to bring little Edward to us at the New Year. +My brother seemed much pleased at the prospect of seeing his son, and +though perhaps it was only imagination, I fancied he was particularly +gratified that Mrs. Temple herself was to pay us a visit. She had not +been to Worth since the death of Lady Maltravers. + +Before we had finished breakfast the sun beat on the panes with an +unusual strength and brightness. His rays cheered us all, and it was so +warm that John first opened the windows, and then wheeled his chair on +to the walk outside. Mr. Gaskell brought him a hat and mufflers, and we +sat with him on the terrace basking in the sun. The sea was still and +glassy as a mirror, and the Channel lay stretched before us like a floor +of moving gold. A rose or two still hung against the house, and the +sun's rays reflected from the red sandstone gave us a December morning +more mild and genial than many June days that I have known in the north. +We sat for some minutes without speaking, immersed in our own +reflections and in the exquisite beauty of the scene. + +The stillness was broken by the bells of the parish church ringing for +the morning service. There were two of them, and their sound, familiar +to us from childhood, seemed like the voices of old friends. John looked +at me and said with a sigh, "I should like to go to church. It is long +since I was there. You and I have always been on Christmas mornings, +Sophy, and Constance would have wished it had she been with us." + +His words, so unexpected and tender, filled my eyes with tears; not +tears of grief, but of deep thankfulness to see my loved one turning +once more to the old ways. It was the first time I had heard him speak +of Constance, and that sweet name, with the infinite pathos of her +death, and of the spectacle of my brother's weakness, so overcame me +that I could not speak. I only pressed his hand and nodded. Mr. Gaskell, +who had turned away for a minute, said he thought John would take no +harm in attending the morning service provided the church were warm. +On this point I could reassure him, having found it properly heated +even in the early morning. + +Mr. Gaskell was to push John's chair, and I ran off to put on my cloak, +with my heart full of profound thankfulness for the signs of returning +grace so mercifully vouchsafed to our dear sufferer on this happy day. +I was ready dressed and had just entered the library when Mr. Gaskell +stepped hurriedly through the window from the terrace. "John has +fainted!" he said. "Run for some smelling salts and call Parnham!" + +There was a scene of hurried alarm, giving place ere long to terrified +despair. Parnham mounted a horse and set off at a wild gallop to Swanage +to fetch Dr. Bruton; but an hour before he returned we knew the worst. +My brother was beyond the aid of the physician: his wrecked life had +reached a sudden term! + + * * * * * + +I have now, dear Edward, completed the brief narrative of some of the +facts attending the latter years of your father's life. The motive which +has induced me to commit them to writing has been a double one. I am +anxious to give effect as far as may be to the desire expressed most +strongly to Mr. Gaskell by your father, that you should be put in +possession of these facts on your coming of age. And for my own part I +think it better that you should thus hear the plain truth from me, lest +you should be at the mercy of haphazard reports, which might at any time +reach you from ignorant or interested sources. Some of the circumstances +were so remarkable that it is scarcely possible to suppose that they +were not known, and most probably frequently discussed, in so large an +establishment as that of Worth Maltravers. I even have reason to believe +that exaggerated and absurd stories were current at the time of Sir +John's death, and I should be grieved to think that such foolish tales +might by any chance reach your ear without your having any sure means of +discovering where the truth lay. God knows how grievous it has been to +me to set down on paper some of the facts that I have here narrated. You +as a dutiful son will reverence the name even of a father whom you never +knew; but you must remember that his sister did more; she loved him with +a single-hearted devotion, and it still grieves her to the quick to +write anything which may seem to detract from his memory. Only, above +all things, let us speak the truth. Much of what I have told you needs, +I feel, further explanation, but this I cannot give, for I do not +understand the circumstances. Mr. Gaskell, your guardian, will, I +believe, add to this account a few notes of his own, which may tend to +elucidate some points, as he is in possession of certain facts of which +I am still ignorant. + + + + +MR. GASKELL'S NOTE + + +I have read what Miss Maltravers has written, and have but little to add +to it. I can give no explanation that will tally with all the facts or +meet all the difficulties involved in her narrative. The most obvious +solution of some points would be, of course, to suppose that Sir John +Maltravers was insane. But to anyone who knew him as intimately as I +did, such an hypothesis is untenable; nor, if admitted, would it explain +some of the strangest incidents. Moreover, it was strongly negatived by +Dr. Frobisher, from whose verdict in such matters there was at the time +no appeal, by Dr. Dobie, and by Dr. Bruton, who had known Sir John from +his infancy. It is possible that towards the close of his life he +suffered occasionally from hallucination, though I could not positively +affirm even so much; but this was only when his health had been +completely undermined by causes which are very difficult to analyse. + +When I first knew him at Oxford he was a strong man physically as +well as mentally; open-hearted, and of a merry and genial temperament. +At the same time he was, like most cultured persons--and especially +musicians,--highly strung and excitable. But at a certain point in his +career his very nature seemed to change; he became reserved, secretive, +and saturnine. On this moral metamorphosis followed an equally startling +physical change. His robust health began to fail him, and although there +was no definite malady which doctors could combat, he went gradually +from bad to worse until the end came. + +The commencement of this extraordinary change coincided, I believe, +almost exactly with his discovery of the Stradivarius violin; and +whether this was, after all, a mere coincidence or something more it is +not easy to say. Until a very short time before his death neither Miss +Maltravers nor I had any idea how that instrument had come into his +possession, or I think something might perhaps have been done to save +him. + +Though towards the end of his life he spoke freely to his sister of the +finding of the violin, he only told her half the story, for he concealed +from her entirely that there was anything else in the hidden cupboard at +Oxford. But as a matter of fact, he had found there also two manuscript +books containing an elaborate diary of some years of a man's life. That +man was Adrian Temple, and I believe that in the perusal of this diary +must be sought the origin of John Maltravers's ruin. The manuscript was +beautifully written in a clear but cramped eighteenth century hand, +and gave the idea of a man writing with deliberation, and wishing to +transcribe his impressions with accuracy for further reference. The +style was excellent, and the minute details given were often of high +antiquarian interest; but the record throughout was marred by gross +licence. Adrian Temple's life had undoubtedly so definite an influence +on Sir John's that a brief outline of it, as gathered from his diaries, +is necessary for the understanding of what followed. + +Temple went up to Oxford in 1737. He was seventeen years old, without +parents, brothers, or sisters; and he possessed the Royston estates +in Derbyshire, which were then, as now, a most valuable property. +With the year 1738 his diaries begin, and though then little more than +a boy, he had tasted every illicit pleasure that Oxford had to offer. +His temptations were no doubt great; for besides being wealthy he was +handsome, and had probably never known any proper control, as both his +parents had died when he was still very young. But in spite of other +failings, he was a brilliant scholar, and on taking his degree, was +made at once a fellow of St. John's. He took up his abode in that +College in a fine set of rooms looking on to the gardens, and from this +period seems to have used Royston but little, living always either at +Oxford or on the Continent. He formed at this time the acquaintance of +one Jocelyn, whom he engaged as companion and amanuensis. Jocelyn was a +man of talent, but of irregular life, and was no doubt an accomplice in +many of Temple's excesses. In 1743 they both undertook the so-called +"grand tour," and though it was not his first visit, it was then +probably that Temple first felt the fascination of pagan Italy,--a +fascination which increased with every year of his after-life. + +On his return from foreign travel he found himself among the stirring +events of 1745. He was an ardent supporter of the Pretender, and made no +attempt to conceal his views. Jacobite tendencies were indeed generally +prevalent in the College at the time, and had this been the sum of his +offending, it is probable that little notice would have been taken by +the College authorities. But his notoriously wild life told against the +young man, and certain dark suspicions were not easily passed over. +After the _fiasco_ of the Rebellion Dr. Holmes, then President of the +College, seems to have made a scapegoat of Temple. He was deprived of +his fellowship, and though not formally expelled, such pressure was put +upon him as resulted in his leaving St. John's and removing to Magdalen +Hall. There his great wealth evidently secured him consideration, and he +was given the best rooms in the Hall, that very set looking on to New +College Lane which Sir John Maltravers afterwards occupied. + +In the first half of the eighteenth century the romance of the middle +ages, though dying, was not dead, and the occult sciences still found +followers among the Oxford towers. From his early years Temple's mind +seems to have been set strongly towards mysticism of all kinds, and he +and Jocelyn were versed in the jargon of the alchemist and astrologer, +and practised according to the ancient rules. It was his reputation as +a necromancer, and the stories current of illicit rites performed in +the garden-rooms at St. John's, that contributed largely to his being +dismissed from that College. He had also become acquainted with Francis +Dashwood, the notorious Lord le Despencer, and many a winter's night +saw him riding through the misty Thames meadows to the door of the sham +Franciscan abbey. In his diaries were more notices than one of the +"Franciscans" and the nameless orgies of Medmenham. + +He was devoted to music. It was a rare enough accomplishment then, and a +rarer thing still to find a wealthy landowner performing on the violin. +Yet so he did, though he kept his passion very much to himself, as +fiddling was thought lightly of in those days. His musical skill +was altogether exceptional, and he was the first possessor of the +Stradivarius violin which afterwards fell so unfortunately into Sir +John's hands. This violin Temple bought in the autumn of 1738, on the +occasion of a first visit to Italy. In that year died the nonagenarian +Antonius Stradivarius, the greatest violin-maker the world has ever +seen. After Stradivarius's death the stock of fiddles in his shop was +sold by auction. Temple happened to be travelling in Cremona at the time +with a tutor, and at the auction he bought that very instrument which we +afterwards had cause to know so well. A note in his diary gave its cost +at four louis, and said that a curious history attached to it. Though +it was of his golden period, and probably the finest instrument he ever +made, Stradivarius would never sell it, and it had hung for more than +thirty years in his shop. It was said that from some whim as he lay +dying he had given orders that it should be burnt; but if that were so, +the instructions were neglected, and after his death it came under the +hammer. Adrian Temple from the first recognised the great value of the +instrument. His notes show that he only used it on certain special +occasions, and it was no doubt for its better protection that he devised +the hidden cupboard where Sir John eventually found it. + +The later years of Temple's life were spent for the most part in Italy. +On the Scoglio di Venere, near Naples, he built the Villa de Angelis, +and there henceforth passed all except the hottest months of the year. +Shortly after the completion of the villa Jocelyn left him suddenly, and +became a Carthusian monk. A caustic note in his diary hinted that even +this foul parasite was shocked into the austerest form of religion by +something he had seen going forward. At Naples Temple's dark life became +still darker. He dallied, it is true, with Neo-Platonism, and boasts +that he, like Plotinus, had twice passed the circle of the _nous_ and +enjoyed the fruition of the deity; but the ideals of even that easy +doctrine grew in his evil life still more miserably debased. More than +once in the manuscript he made mention by name of the _Gagliarda_ +of Graziani as having been played at pagan mysteries which these +enthusiasts revived at Naples, and the air had evidently impressed +itself deeply on his memory. The last entry in his diary is made on +the 16th of December, 1752. He was then in Oxford for a few days, but +shortly afterwards returned to Naples. The accident of his having just +completed a second volume, induced him, no doubt, to leave it behind him +in the secret cupboard. It is probable that he commenced a third, but if +so it was never found. + +In reading the manuscript I was struck with the author's clear and easy +style, and found the interest of the narrative increase rather than +diminish. At the same time its study was inexpressibly painful to me. +Nothing could have supported me in my determination to thoroughly +master it but the conviction that if I was to be of any real assistance +to my poor friend Maltravers, I must know as far as possible every +circumstance connected with his malady. As it was, I felt myself +breathing an atmosphere of moral contagion during the perusal of the +manuscript, and certain passages have since returned at times to haunt +me in spite of all efforts to dislodge them from my memory. When I came +to Worth at Miss Maltravers's urgent invitation, I found my friend Sir +John terribly altered. It was not only that he was ill and physically +weak, but he had entirely lost the manner of youth, which, though +indefinable, is yet so appreciable, and draws so sharp a distinction +between the first period of life and middle age. But the most striking +feature of his illness was the extraordinary pallor of his complexion, +which made his face resemble a subtle counterfeit of white wax rather +than that of a living man. He welcomed me undemonstratively, but with +evident sincerity; and there was an entire absence of the constraint +which often accompanies the meeting again of friends whose cordial +relations have suffered interruption. From the time of my arrival at +Worth until his death we were constantly together; indeed I was much +struck by the almost childish dislike which he showed to be left alone +even for a few moments. As night approached this feeling became +intensified. Parnham slept always in his master's room; but if anything +called the servant away even for a minute, he would send for Carotenuto +or myself to be with him until his return. His nerves were weak; he +started violently at any unexpected noise, and above all, he dreaded +being in the dark. When night fell he had additional lamps brought into +his room, and even when he composed himself to sleep, insisted on a +strong light being kept by his bedside. + +I had often read in books of people wearing a "hunted" expression, and +had laughed at the phrase as conventional and unmeaning. But when I +came to Worth I knew its truth; for if any face ever wore a hunted--I +had almost written a haunted--look, it was the white face of Sir John +Maltravers. His air seemed that of a man who was constantly expecting +the arrival of some evil tidings, and at times reminded me painfully of +the guilty expectation of a felon who knows that a warrant is issued for +his arrest. + +During my visit he spoke to me frequently about his past life, and +instead of showing any reluctance to discuss the subject, seemed glad of +the opportunity of disburdening his mind. I gathered from him that the +reading of Adrian Temple's memoirs had made a deep impression on his +mind, which was no doubt intensified by the vision which he thought he +saw in his rooms at Oxford, and by the discovery of the portrait at +Royston. Of those singular phenomena I have no explanation to offer. + +The romantic element in his disposition rendered him peculiarly +susceptible to the fascination of that mysticism which breathed through +Temple's narrative. He told me that almost from the first time he read +it he was filled with a longing to visit the places and to revive the +strange life of which it spoke. This inclination he kept at first in +check, but by degrees it gathered strength enough to master him. + +There is no doubt in my mind that the music of the _Gagliarda_ of +Graziani helped materially in this process of mental degradation. It is +curious that Michael Prætorius in the "Syntagma musicum" should speak of +the Galliard generally as an "invention of the devil, full of shameful +and licentious gestures and immodest movements," and the singular melody +of the _Gagliarda_ in the "Areopagita" suite certainly exercised from +the first a strange influence over me. I shall not do more than touch +on the question here, because I see Miss Maltravers has spoken of it +at length, and will only say, that though since the day of Sir John's +death I have never heard a note of it, the air is still fresh in my +mind, and has at times presented itself to me unexpectedly, and always +with an unwholesome effect. This I have found happen generally in times +of physical depression, and the same air no doubt exerted a similar +influence on Sir John, which his impressionable nature rendered from the +first more deleterious to him. + +I say this advisedly, because I am sure that if some music is good for +man and elevates him, other melodies are equally bad and enervating. An +experience far wider than any we yet possess is necessary to enable us +to say how far this influence is capable of extension. How far, that +is, the mind may be directed on the one hand to ascetic abnegation by +the systematic use of certain music, or on the other to illicit and +dangerous pleasures by melodies of an opposite tendency. But this much +is, I think, certain, that after a comparatively advanced standard of +culture has once been attained, music is the readiest if not the only +key which admits to the yet narrower circle of the highest imaginative +thought. + +On the occasion for travel afforded him by his honeymoon, an impulse +which he could not at the time explain, but which after-events have +convinced me was the haunting suggestion of the _Gagliarda_, drove him +to visit the scenes mentioned so often in Temple's diary. He had always +been an excellent scholar, and a classic of more than ordinary ability. +Rome and Southern Italy filled him with a strange delight. His education +enabled him to appreciate to the full what he saw; he peopled the stage +with the figures of the original actors, and tried to assimilate his +thought to theirs. He began reading classical literature widely, no +longer from the scholarly but the literary standpoint. In Rome he +spent much time in the librarians' shops, and there met with copies +of the numerous authors of the later empire and of those Alexandrine +philosophers which are rarely seen in England. In these he found a new +delight and fresh food for his mysticism. + +Such study, if carried to any extent, is probably dangerous to the +English character, and certainly was to a man of Maltravers's romantic +sympathies. This reading produced in time so real an effect upon his +mind that if he did not definitely abandon Christianity, as I fear he +did, he at least adulterated it with other doctrines till it became to +him Neo-Platonism. That most seductive of philosophies, which has +enthralled so many minds from Proclus and Julian to Augustine and the +Renaissancists, found an easy convert in John Maltravers. Its passionate +longing for the vague and undefined good, its tolerance of æsthetic +impressions, the pleasant superstitions of its dynamic pantheism, all +touched responsive chords in his nature. His mind, he told me, became +filled with a measureless yearning for the old culture of pagan +philosophy, and as the past became clearer and more real, so the present +grew dimmer, and his thoughts were gradually weaned entirely from all +the natural objects of affection and interest which should otherwise +have occupied them. To what a terrible extent this process went on, Miss +Maltravers's narrative shows. Soon after reaching Naples he visited the +Villa de Angelis, which Temple had built on the ruins of a sea-house of +Pomponius. The later building had in its turn become dismantled and +ruinous, and Sir John found no difficulty in buying the site outright. +He afterwards rebuilt it on an elaborate scale, endeavouring to +reproduce in its equipment the luxury of the later empire. I had +occasion to visit the house more than once in my capacity of executor, +and found it full of priceless works of art, which, though neither so +difficult to procure at that time nor so costly as they would be now, +were yet sufficiently valuable to have necessitated an unjustifiable +outlay. + +The situation of the building fostered his infatuation for the past. It +lay between the Bay of Naples and the Bay of Baia, and from its windows +commanded the same exquisite view which had charmed Cicero and Lucullus, +Severus and the Antonines. Hard by stood Baia, the princely seaside +resort of the empire. That most luxurious and wanton of all cities of +antiquity survived the cataclysms of ages, and only lost its civic +continuity and became the ruined village of to-day in the sack of the +fifteenth century. But a continuity of wickedness is not so easily +broken, and those who know the spot best say that it is still instinct +with memories of a shameful past. + +For miles along that haunted coast the foot cannot be put down except on +the ruins of some splendid villa, and over all there broods a spirit of +corruption and debasement actually sensible and oppressive. Of the dawns +and sunsets, of the noonday sun tempered by the sea-breeze and the shade +of scented groves, those who have been there know the charm, and to +those who have not no words can describe it. But there are malefic +vapours rising from the corpse of a past not altogether buried, and most +cultivated Englishmen who tarry there long feel their influence as did +John Maltravers. Like so many _decepti deceptores_ of the Neo-Platonic +school, he did not practise the abnegation enjoined by the very cult he +professed to follow. Though his nature was far too refined, I believe, +ever to sink into the sensualism revealed in Temple's diaries, yet it +was through the gratification of corporeal tastes that he endeavoured +to achieve the divine _extasis_; and there were constantly lavish and +sumptuous entertainments at the villa, at which strange guests were +present. + +In such a nightmare of a life it was not to be expected that any mind +would find repose, and Maltravers certainly found none. All those cares +which usually occupy men's minds, all thoughts of wife, child, and home +were, it is true, abandoned; but a wild unrest had hold of him, and +never suffered him to be at ease. Though he never told me as much, yet +I believe he was under the impression that the form which he had seen +at Oxford and Royston had reappeared to him on more than one subsequent +occasion. It must have been, I fancy, with a vague hope of "laying" this +spectre that he now set himself with eagerness to discover where or +how Temple had died. He remembered that Royston tradition said he had +succumbed at Naples in the plague of 1752, but an idea seized him that +this was not the case; indeed I half suspect his fancy unconsciously +pictured that evil man as still alive. The methods by which he +eventually discovered the skeleton, or learnt the episodes which +preceded Temple's death, I do not know. He promised to tell me some +day at length, but a sudden death prevented his ever doing so. The +facts as he narrated them, and as I have little doubt they actually +occurred, were these: Adrian Temple, after Jocelyn's departure, had +made a confidant of one Palamede Domacavalli, a scion of a splendid +Parthenopean family of that name. Palamede had a palace in the heart of +Naples, and was Temple's equal in age and also in his great wealth. The +two men became boon companions, associated in all kinds of wickedness +and excess. At length Palamede married a beautiful girl named Olimpia +Aldobrandini, who was also of the noblest lineage; but the intimacy +between him and Temple was not interrupted. About a year subsequent to +this marriage dancing was going on after a splendid banquet in the great +hall of the Palazzo Domacavalli. Adrian, who was a favoured guest, +called to the musicians in the gallery to play the "Areopagita" suite, +and danced it with Olimpia, the wife of his host. The _Gagliarda_ was +reached but never finished, for near the end of the second movement +Palamede from behind drove a stiletto into his friend's heart. He had +found out that day that Adrian had not spared even Olimpia's honour. + +I have endeavoured to condense into a connected story the facts learnt +piecemeal from Sir John in conversation. To a certain extent they +supplied, if not an explanation, at least an account of the change +that had come over my friend. But only to a certain extent; there the +explanation broke down and I was left baffled. I could imagine that a +life of unwholesome surroundings and disordered studies might in time +produce such a loss of mental tone as would lead in turn to moral +_acolasia_, sensual excess, and physical ruin. But in Sir John's case +the cause was not adequate; he had, so far as I know, never wholly given +the reins to sensuality, and the change was too abrupt and the breakdown +of body and mind too complete to be accounted for by such events as +those of which he had spoken. + +I had, too, an uneasy feeling, which grew upon me the more I saw of him, +that while he spoke freely enough on certain topics, and obviously meant +to give a complete history of his past life, there was in reality +something in the background which he always kept from my view. He was, +it seemed, like a young man asked by an indulgent father to disclose +his debts in order that they may be discharged, who, although he knows +his parent's leniency, and that any debt not now disclosed will be +afterwards but a weight upon his own neck, yet hesitates for very shame +to tell the full amount, and keeps some items back. So poor Sir John +kept something back from me his friend, whose only aim was to afford him +consolation and relief, and whose compassion would have made me listen +without rebuke to the narration of the blackest crimes. I cannot say how +much this conviction grieved me. I would most willingly have given my +all, my very life, to save my friend and Miss Maltravers's brother; but +my efforts were paralysed by the feeling that I did not know what I had +to combat, that some evil influence was at work on him which continually +evaded my grasp. Once or twice it seemed as though he were within an +ace of telling me all; once or twice, I believe, he had definitely made +up his mind to do so; but then the mood changed, or more probably his +courage failed him. + +It was on one of these occasions that he asked me, somewhat suddenly, +whether I thought that a man could by any conscious act committed in the +flesh take away from himself all possibility of repentance and ultimate +salvation. Though, I trust, a sincere Christian, I am nothing of a +theologian, and the question touching on a topic which had not occurred +to my mind since childhood, and which seemed to savour rather of +medieval romance than of practical religion, took me for a moment aback. +I hesitated for an instant, and then replied that the means of salvation +offered man were undoubtedly so sufficient as to remove from one truly +penitent the guilt of any crime however dark. My hesitation had been but +momentary; but Sir John seemed to have noticed it, and sealed his lips +to any confession, if he had indeed intended to make any, by changing +the subject abruptly. This question naturally gave me food for serious +reflection and anxiety. It was the first occasion on which he appeared +to me to be undoubtedly suffering from definite hallucination, and I was +aware that any illusions connected with religion are generally most +difficult to remove. At the same time, anything of this sort was the +more remarkable in Sir John's case, as he had, so far as I knew, for a +considerable time entirely abandoned the Christian belief. + +Unable to elicit any further information from him, and being thus thrown +entirely upon my own resources, I determined that I would read through +again the whole of Temple's diaries. The task was a very distasteful +one, as I have already explained, but I hoped that a second reading +might perhaps throw some light on the dark misgiving that was troubling +Sir John. I read the manuscript again with the closest attention. +Nothing, however, of any importance seemed to have escaped me on the +former occasions, and I had reached nearly the end of the second volume +when a comparatively slight matter arrested my attention. I have said +that the pages were all carefully numbered, and the events of each day +recorded separately; even where Temple had found nothing of moment to +notice on a given day, he had still inserted the date with the word +_nil_ written against it. But as I sat one evening in the library at +Worth after Sir John had gone to bed, and was finally glancing through +the days of the months in Temple's diary to make sure that all were +complete, I found one day was missing. It was towards the end of the +second volume, and the day was the 23d of October in the year 1752. A +glance at the numbering of the pages revealed the fact that three leaves +had been entirely removed, and that the pages numbered 349 to 354 were +not to be found. Again I ran through the diaries to see whether there +were any leaves removed in other places, but found no other single page +missing. All was complete except at this one place, the manuscript +beautifully written, with scarcely an error or erasure throughout. A +closer examination showed that these leaves had been cut out close to +the back, and the cut edges of the paper appeared too fresh to admit of +this being done a century ago. A very short reflection convinced me, in +fact, that the excision was not likely to have been Temple's, and that +it must have been made by Sir John. + +My first intention was to ask him at once what the lost pages had +contained, and why they had been cut out. The matter might be a mere +triviality which he could explain in a moment. But on softly opening his +bedroom door I found him sleeping, and Parnham (whom the strong light +always burnt in the room rendered more wakeful) informed me that his +master had been in a deep sleep for more than an hour. I knew how +sorely his wasted energies needed such repose, and stepped back to the +library without awaking him. A few minutes before, I had been feeling +sleepy at the conclusion of my task, but now all wish for sleep was +suddenly banished and a painful wakefulness took its place. I was under +a species of mental excitement which reminded me of my feelings some +years before at Oxford on the first occasion of our ever playing the +_Gagliarda_ together, and an idea struck me with the force of intuition +that in these three lost leaves lay the secret of my friend's ruin. + +I turned to the context to see whether there was anything in the entries +preceding or following the lacuna that would afford a clue to the +missing passage. The record of the few days immediately preceding the +23d of October was short and contained nothing of any moment whatever. +Adrian and Jocelyn were alone together at the Villa de Angelis. The +entry on the 22d was very unimportant and apparently quite complete, +ending at the bottom of page 348. Of the 23d there was, as I have said, +no record at all, and the entry for the 24th began at the top of page +355. This last memorandum was also brief, and written when the author +was annoyed by Jocelyn leaving him. + +The defection of his companion had been apparently entirely unexpected. +There was at least no previous hint of any such intention. Temple wrote +that Jocelyn had left the Villa de Angelis that day and taken up his +abode with the Carthusians of San Martino. No reason for such an +extraordinary change was given; but there was a hint that Jocelyn had +professed himself shocked at something that had happened. The entry +concluded with a few bitter remarks: _"So farewell to my holy anchoret; +and if I cannot speed him with a leprosie as one Elisha did his servant, +yet at least he went out from my presence with a face as white as +snow."_ + +I had read this sentence more than once before without its attracting +other than a passing attention. The curious expression, that Jocelyn had +gone out from his presence with a face as white as snow, had hitherto +seemed to me to mean nothing more than that the two men had parted in +violent anger, and that Temple had abused or bullied his companion. But +as I sat alone that night in the library the words seemed to assume an +entirely new force, and a strange suspicion began to creep over me. + +I have said that one of the most remarkable features of Sir John's +illness was his deadly pallor. Though I had now spent some time at +Worth, and had been daily struck by this lack of colour, I had never +before remembered in this connection that a strange paleness had also +been an attribute of Adrian Temple, and was indeed very clearly marked +in the picture painted of him by Battoni. In Sir John's account, +moreover, of the vision which he thought he had seen in his rooms at +Oxford, he had always spoken of the white and waxen face of his spectral +visitant. The family tradition of Royston said that Temple had lost his +colour in some deadly magical experiment, and a conviction now flashed +upon me that Jocelyn's face "as white as snow" could refer only to this +same unnatural pallor, and that he too had been smitten with it as with +the mark of the beast. + +In a drawer of my despatch-box, I kept by me all the letters which the +late Lady Maltravers had written home during her ill-fated honeymoon. +Miss Maltravers had placed them in my hands in order that I might be +acquainted with every fact that could at all elucidate the progress of +Sir John's malady. I remembered that in one of these letters mention was +made of a sharp attack of fever in Naples, and of her noticing in him +for the first time this singular pallor. I found the letter again +without difficulty and read it with a new light. Every line breathed of +surprise and alarm. Lady Maltravers feared that her husband was very +seriously ill. On the Wednesday, two days before she wrote, he had +suffered all day from a strange restlessness, which had increased after +they had retired in the evening. He could not sleep and had dressed +again, saying he would walk a little in the night air to compose +himself. He had not returned till near six in the morning, and then +seemed so exhausted that he had since been confined to his bed. He was +terribly pale, and the doctors feared he had been attacked by some +strange fever. + +The date of the letter was the 25th of October, fixing the night of the +23d as the time of Sir John's first attack. The coincidence of the date +with that of the day missing in Temple's diary was significant, but it +was not needed now to convince me that Sir John's ruin was due to +something that occurred on that fatal night at Naples. + +The question that Dr. Frobisher had asked Miss Maltravers when he was +first called to see her brother in London returned to my memory with an +overwhelming force. "Had Sir John been subjected to any mental shock; +had he received any severe fright?" I knew now that the question should +have been answered in the affirmative, for I felt as certain as if +Sir John had told me himself that he _had_ received a violent shock, +probably some terrible fright, on the night of the 23d of October. What +the nature of that shock could have been my imagination was powerless to +conceive, only I knew that whatever Sir John had done or seen, Adrian +Temple and Jocelyn had done or seen also a century before and at the +same place. That horror which had blanched the face of all three men +for life had fallen perhaps with a less overwhelming force on Temple's +seasoned wickedness, but had driven the worthless Jocelyn to the +cloister, and was driving Sir John to the grave. + +These thoughts as they passed through my mind filled me with a vague +alarm. The lateness of the hour, the stillness and the subdued light, +made the library in which I sat seem so vast and lonely that I began to +feel the same dread of being alone that I had observed so often in my +friend. Though only a door separated me from his bedroom, and I could +hear his deep and regular breathing, I felt as though I must go in +and waken him or Parnham to keep me company and save me from my own +reflections. By a strong effort I restrained myself, and sat down to +think the matter over and endeavour to frame some hypothesis that might +explain the mystery. But it was all to no purpose. I merely wearied +myself without being able to arrive at even a plausible conjecture, +except that it seemed as though the strange coincidence of date might +point to some ghastly charm or incantation which could only be carried +out on one certain night of the year. + +It must have been near morning when, quite exhausted, I fell into an +uneasy slumber in the arm-chair where I sat. My sleep, however brief, +was peopled with a succession of fantastic visions, in which I +continually saw Sir John, not ill and wasted as now, but vigorous and +handsome as I had known him at Oxford, standing beside a glowing brazier +and reciting words I could not understand, while another man with a +sneering white face sat in a corner playing the air of the _Gagliarda_ +on a violin. Parnham woke me in my chair at seven o'clock; his master, +he said, was still sleeping easily. + +I had made up my mind that as soon as he awoke I would inquire of Sir +John as to the pages missing from the diary; but though my expectation +and excitement were at a high pitch, I was forced to restrain my +curiosity, for Sir John's slumber continued late into the day. Dr. +Bruton called in the morning, and said that this sleep was what the +patient's condition most required, and was a distinctly favourable +symptom; he was on no account to be disturbed. Sir John did not leave +his bed, but continued dozing all day till the evening. When at last he +shook off his drowsiness, the hour was already so late that, in spite of +my anxiety, I hesitated to talk with him about the diaries, lest I +should unduly excite him before the night. + +As the evening advanced he became very uneasy, and rose more than once +from his bed. This restlessness, following on the repose of the day, +ought perhaps to have made me anxious, for I have since observed that +when death is very near an apprehensive unrest often sets in both with +men and animals. It seems as if they dreaded to resign themselves to +sleep, lest as they slumber the last enemy should seize them unawares. +They try to fling off the bedclothes, they sometimes must leave their +beds and walk. So it was with poor John Maltravers on his last Christmas +Eve. I had sat with him grieving for his disquiet until he seemed to +grow more tranquil, and at length fell asleep. I was sleeping that night +in his room instead of Parnham, and tired with sitting up through the +previous night, I flung myself, dressed as I was, upon the bed. I had +scarcely dozed off, I think, before the sound of his violin awoke me. +I found he had risen from his bed, had taken his favourite instrument, +and was playing in his sleep. The air was the _Gagliarda_ of the +"Areopagita" suite, which I had not heard since we had played it last +together at Oxford, and it brought back with it a crowd of far-off +memories and infinite regrets. I cursed the sleepiness which had +overcome me at my watchman's post, and allowed Sir John to play once +more that melody which had always been fraught with such evil for him; +and I was about to wake him gently when he was startled from sleep by a +strange accident. As I walked towards him the violin seemed entirely to +collapse in his hands, and, as a matter of fact, the belly then gave way +and broke under the strain of the strings. As the strings slackened, the +last note became an unearthly discord. If I were superstitious I should +say that some evil spirit then went out of the violin, and broke in his +parting throes the wooden tabernacle which had so long sheltered him. It +was the last time the instrument was ever used, and that hideous chord +was the last that Maltravers ever played. + +I had feared that the shock of waking thus suddenly from sleep would +have a very prejudicial effect upon the sleep-walker, but this seemed +not to be the case. I persuaded him to go back at once to bed, and in a +few minutes he fell asleep again. In the morning he seemed for the first +time distinctly better; there was indeed something of his old self in +his manner. It seemed as though the breaking of the violin had been an +actual relief to him; and I believe that on that Christmas morning his +better instincts woke, and that his old religious training and the +associations of his boyhood then made their last appeal. I was pleased +at such a change, however temporary it might prove. He wished to go to +church, and I determined that again I would subdue my curiosity and +defer the questions I was burning to put till after our return from +the morning service. Miss Maltravers had gone indoors to make some +preparation, Sir John was in his wheel-chair on the terrace, and I was +sitting by him in the sun. For a few moments he appeared immersed in +silent thought, and then bent over towards me till his head was close +to mine, and said, "Dear William, there is something I must tell you. +I feel I cannot even go to church till I have told you all." His manner +shocked me beyond expression. I knew that he was going to tell me the +secret of the lost pages, but instead of wishing any longer to have my +curiosity satisfied, I felt a horrible dread of what he might say next. +He took my hand in his and held it tightly, as a man who was about to +undergo severe physical pain and sought the consolation of a friend's +support. Then he went on--"You will be shocked at what I am going to +tell you; but listen, and do not give me up: You must stand by me and +comfort me and help me to turn again." He paused for a moment and +continued--"It was one night in October, when Constance and I were at +Naples. I took that violin and went by myself to the ruined villa on +the Scoglio di Venere." He had been speaking with difficulty. His hand +clutched mine convulsively, but still I felt it trembling, and I could +see the moisture standing thick on his forehead. At this point the +effort seemed too much for him and he broke off. "I cannot go on, I +cannot tell you, but you can read it for yourself. In that diary which +I gave you there are some pages missing." The suspense was becoming +intolerable to me, and I broke in, "Yes, yes, I know; you cut them out. +Tell me where they are," He went on--"Yes, I cut them out lest they +should possibly fall into anyone's hands unaware. But before you read +them you must swear, as you hope for salvation, that you will never try +to do what is written in them. Swear this to me now, or I never can +let you see them." My eagerness was too great to stop now to discuss +trifles, and to humour him I swore as desired. He had been speaking with +a continual increasing effort; he cast a hurried and fearful glance +round as though he expected to see someone listening, and it was almost +in a whisper that he went on, "You will find them in--" His agitation +had become most painful to watch, and as he spoke the last words a +convulsion passed over his face, and speech failing him, he sank back on +his pillow. A strange fear took hold of me. For a moment I thought there +were others on the terrace beside myself, and turned round expecting to +see Miss Maltravers returned; but we were still alone. I even fancied +that just as Sir John spoke his last words I felt something brush +swiftly by me. He put up his hands, beating the air with a most painful +gesture, as though he were trying to keep off an antagonist who had +gripped him by the throat, and made a final struggle to speak. But the +spasm was too strong for him; a dreadful stillness followed, and he was +gone. + +There is little more to add; for Sir John's guilty secret, perished with +him. Though I was sure from his manner that the missing leaves were +concealed somewhere at Worth, and though as executor I caused the most +diligent search to be made, no trace of them was afterwards found; nor +did any circumstance ever transpire to fling further light upon the +matter. I must confess that I should have felt the discovery of these +pages as a relief; for though I dreaded what I might have had to read, +yet I was more anxious lest, being found at a later period and falling +into other hands, they should cause a recrudescence of that plague which +had blighted Sir John's life. + +Of the nature of the events which took place on that night at Naples +I can form no conjecture. But as certain physical sights have ere now +proved so revolting as to unhinge the intellect, so I can imagine that +the mind may in a state of extreme tension conjure up to itself some +form of moral evil so hideous as metaphysically to sear it: and this, +I believe, happened in the case both of Adrian Temple and of Sir John +Maltravers. + +It is difficult to imagine the accessories used to produce the mental +excitation in which alone such a presentment of evil could become +imaginable. Fancy and legend, which have combined to represent as +possible appearances of the supernatural, agree also in considering them +as more likely to occur at certain times and places than at others; and +it is possible that the missing pages of the diary contained an account +of the time, place, and other conditions chosen by Temple for some +deadly experiment. Sir John most probably re-enacted the scene under +precisely similar conditions, and the effect on his overwrought +imagination was so vivid as to upset the balance of his mind. The time +chosen was no doubt the night of the 23d of October, and I cannot help +thinking that the place was one of those evil-looking and ruinous +sea-rooms which had so terrifying an effect on Miss Maltravers. Temple +may have used on that night one of the medieval incantations, or +possibly the more ancient invocation of the Isiac rite with which a +man of his knowledge and proclivities would certainly be familiar. The +accessories of either are sufficiently hideous to weaken the mind by +terror, and so prepare it for a belief in some frightful apparition. But +whatever was done, I feel sure that the music of the _Gagliarda_ formed +part of the ceremonial. + +Medieval philosophers and theologians held that evil is in its essence +so horrible that the human mind, if it could realise it, must perish at +its contemplation. Such realisation was by mercy ordinarily withheld, +but its possibility was hinted in the legend of the _Visio malefica_. +The _Visio Beatifica_ was, as is well known, that vision of the Deity +or realisation of the perfect Good which was to form the happiness of +heaven, and the reward of the sanctified in the next world. Tradition +says that this vision was accorded also to some specially elect spirits +even in this life, as to Enoch, Elijah, Stephen, and Jerome. But there +was a converse to the Beatific Vision in the _Visio malefica_, or +presentation of absolute Evil, which was to be the chief torture of the +damned, and which, like the Beatific Vision, had been made visible in +life to certain desperate men. It visited Esau, as was said, when he +found no place for repentance, and Judas, whom it drove to suicide. +Cain saw it when he murdered his brother, and legend relates that in his +case, and in that of others, it left a physical brand to be borne by +the body to the grave. It was supposed that the Malefic Vision, besides +being thus spontaneously presented to typically abandoned men, had +actually been purposely called up by some few great adepts, and used by +them to blast their enemies. But to do so was considered equivalent to a +conscious surrender to the powers of evil, as the vision once seen took +away all hope of final salvation. + +Adrian Temple would undoubtedly be cognisant of this legend, and the +lost experiment may have been an attempt to call up the Malefic Vision. +It is but a vague conjecture at the best, for the tree of the knowledge +of Evil bears many sorts of poisonous fruit, and no one can give full +account of the extravagances of a wayward fancy. + +Conjointly with Miss Sophia, Sir John appointed me his executor and +guardian of his only son. Two months later we had lit a great fire +in the library at Worth. In it, after the servants were gone to bed, +we burnt the book containing the "Areopagita" of Graziani, and the +Stradivarius fiddle. The diaries of Temple I had already destroyed, and +wish that I could as easily blot out their foul and debasing memories +from my mind. I shall probably be blamed by those who would exalt +art at the expense of everything else, for burning a unique violin. +This reproach I am content to bear. Though I am not unreasonably +superstitious, and have no sympathy for that potential pantheism to +which Sir John Maltravers surrendered his intellect, yet I felt so great +an aversion to this violin that I would neither suffer it to remain at +Worth, nor pass into other hands. Miss Sophia was entirely at one with +me on this point. It was the same feeling which restrains any except +fools or braggarts from wishing to sleep in "haunted" rooms, or to live +in houses polluted with the memory of a revolting crime. No sane mind +believes in foolish apparitions, but fancy may at times bewitch the best +of us. So the Stradivarius was burnt. It was, after all, perhaps not so +serious a matter, for, as I have said, the bass-bar had given way. There +had always been a question whether it was strong enough to resist the +strain of modern stringing. Experience showed at last that it was not. +With the failure of the bass-bar the belly collapsed, and the wood broke +across the grain in so extraordinary a manner as to put the fiddle +beyond repair, except as a curiosity. Its loss, therefore, is not to be +so much regretted. Sir Edward has been brought up to think more of a +cricket-bat than of a violin-bow; but if he wishes at any time to buy a +Stradivarius, the fortunes of Worth and Royston, nursed through two long +minorities, will certainly justify his doing so. + +Miss Sophia and I stood by and watched the holocaust. My heart misgave +me for a moment when I saw the mellow red varnish blistering off the +back, but I put my regret resolutely aside. As the bright flames jumped +up and lapped it round, they flung a red glow on the scroll. It was +wonderfully wrought, and differed, as I think Miss Maltravers has +already said, from any known example of Stradivarius. As we watched it, +the scroll took form, and we saw what we had never seen before, that it +was cut so that the deep lines in a certain light showed as the profile +of a man. It was a wizened little paganish face, with sharp-cut features +and a bald head. As I looked at it I knew at once (and a cameo has since +confirmed the fact) that it was a head of Porphyry. Thus the second +label found in the violin was explained and Sir John's view confirmed, +that Stradivarius had made the instrument for some Neo-Platonist +enthusiast who had dedicated it to his master Porphyrius. + + * * * * * + +A year after Sir John's death I went with Miss Maltravers to Worth +church to see a plain slab of slate which we had placed over her +brother's grave. We stood in bright sunlight in the Maltravers chapel, +with the monuments of that splendid family about us. Among them were the +altar-tomb of Sir Esmoun, and the effigies of more than one Crusader. +As I looked on their knightly forms, with their heads resting on their +tilting helms, their faces set firm, and their hands joined in prayer, +I could not help envying them that full and unwavering faith for which +they had fought and died. It seemed to stand out in such sharp contrast +with our latter-day sciolism and half-believed creeds, and to be flung +into higher relief by the dark shadow of John Maltravers's ruined life. +At our feet was the great brass of one Sir Roger de Maltravers. I +pointed out the end of the inscription to my companion--"CVIVS ANIMÆ, +ATQVE ANIMABVS OMNIVM FIDELIVM DEFVNCTORVM, ATQVE NOSTRIS ANIMABVS QVVM +EX HAC LVCE TRANSIVERIMVS, PROPITIETVR DEVS." Though no Catholic, I +could not refuse to add a sincere Amen. Miss Sophia, who is not ignorant +of Latin, read the inscription after me. "Ex hac luce," she said, as +though speaking to herself, "out of this light; alas! alas! for some the +light is darkness." + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14107 *** diff --git a/14107-h/14107-h.htm b/14107-h/14107-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2429b90 --- /dev/null +++ b/14107-h/14107-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,5063 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> +<html> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" /> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Lost Stradivarius, by John Meade Falkner</title> +<style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[*/ + <!-- + body { margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 5%; } + p { text-indent: 1em; + margin-top: .75em; + font-size: 100%; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { text-align: center; } + hr { width: 50%; } + hr.full { width: 100%; } + .foot { margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 85%; } + .poem { margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; margin-bottom: 1em; text-align: left; } + .poem .stanza { margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em; } + .poem p { margin: 0; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em; } + .poem p.i2 { margin-left: 2em; } + .poem p.i4 { margin-left: 3em; } + .poem p.i6 { margin-left: 4em; } + .quote { margin-left: 6%; margin-right: 6%; text-indent: 0em; font-size: 90%; } + .toc { margin-left: 15%; font-size: 80%; margin-bottom: 0em;} + center { padding: 0.8em;} + a:link {color:blue; + text-decoration:none} + link {color:blue; + text-decoration:none} + a:visited {color:blue; + text-decoration:none} + a:hover {color:red} + pre {font-size: 8pt; + margin-left: 3%; + margin-right: 3%; } +/*]]>*/ + // --> +</style> +</head> +<body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14107 ***</div> +<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Lost Stradivarius, by John Meade Falkner</h1> +<hr class="full" /> +<div style="height: 6em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h1> + THE LOST STRADIVARIUS +</h1> +<h3> + BY J. MEADE FALKNER +</h3> +<center> +1895 +</center> + +<p> </p> + +<h6> +PENGUIN BOOKS +<br /> +HARMONDSWORTH MIDDLESEX ENGLAND +<br /> +245 FIFTH AVENUE NEW YORK U.S.A. +</h6> + +<div style="height: 2em;"><br /><br /></div> +<hr /> +<div style="height: 2em;"><br /><br /></div> + +<h3> +THE AUTHOR +</h3> +<p> +<i>John Meade Falkner</i> was a remarkable character, as he was not only a +scholar and a writer, but a captain of industry as well. Born in 1858, +the son of a clergyman in Wiltshire, he was educated at Marlborough and +Hertford College, Oxford. On leaving the university, he became tutor to +the sons of Sir Andrew Noble, then vice-chairman of the +Armstrong-Whitworth Company; and his ability so much impressed his +employer that in 1885 he was offered a post in the firm. Without +connections or influence in industrial circles, and solely by his +intellect, he rose to be a director in 1901, and finally, in 1915, +chairman of this enormous business. He was actually chairman during the +important years 1915-1920, and remained a director until 1926. +</p> +<p> +His intellectual energy was so great that throughout his life he found +time for scholarship as well as business. He travelled for his firm in +Europe and South America; and in the intervals of negotiating with +foreign governments studied manuscripts wherever he found a library. His +researches in the Vatican Library were of special importance, and in +connection with them he received a gold medal from the Pope; he was also +decorated by the Italian, Turkish and Japanese governments. +</p> +<p> +His scholastic interests included archæology, folklore, palæography, +mediæval history, architecture and church music; and he was a collector +of missals. Towards the end of his life he was made an Honorary Fellow +of Hertford College, Oxford, Honorary Reader in Palæography to Durham +University, and Honorary Librarian to the Chapter Library of Durham +Cathedral, which he left one of the best cathedral libraries in Europe. +He died at Durham in 1932. +</p> +<p> +Apart from <i>The Lost Stradivarius</i>, Falkner was the author of two other +novels, <i>The Nebuly Coat</i> (1903—also published in Penguin Books) and +<i>Moonfleet</i> (1898). He also wrote a History of Oxfordshire, handbooks to +that county and to Berkshire, historical short stories, and some +mediævalist verse. +</p> + +<div style="height: 2em;"><br /><br /></div> +<hr /> +<div style="height: 2em;"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>Contents</h2> +<p class="toc"><a href="#h2HCH0001"> +CHAPTER I +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#h2HCH0002"> +CHAPTER II +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#h2HCH0003"> +CHAPTER III +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#h2HCH0004"> +CHAPTER IV +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#h2HCH0005"> +CHAPTER V +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#h2HCH0006"> +CHAPTER VI +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#h2HCH0007"> +CHAPTER VII +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#h2HCH0008"> +CHAPTER VIII +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#h2HCH0009"> +CHAPTER IX +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#h2HCH0010"> +CHAPTER X +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#h2HCH0011"> +CHAPTER XI +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#h2HCH0012"> +CHAPTER XII +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#h2HCH0013"> +CHAPTER XIII +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#h2HCH0014"> +CHAPTER XIV +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#h2HCH0015"> +CHAPTER XV +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#h2H_4_0020"> +MR. GASKELL'S NOTE +</a></p> +<div style="height: 2em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> +<hr /> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<p class="quote"> + Letter from MISS SOPHIA MALTRAVERS + to her Nephew, SIR EDWARD MALTRAVERS, + then a Student at Christ Church, Oxford. +</p> +<p class="quote"> + <i>13 Pauncefort Buildings, Bath, + Oct. 21, 1867.</i> +</p> +<p class="quote"> + <i>MY DEAR EDWARD,</i> +</p> +<p class="quote"> + <i>It was your late father's dying request that certain events which + occurred in his last years should be communicated to you on your coming + of age. I have reduced them to writing, partly from my own recollection, + which is, alas! still too vivid, and partly with the aid of notes taken + at the time of my brother's death. As you are now of full age, I submit + the narrative to you. Much of it has necessarily been exceedingly + painful to me to write, but at the same time I feel it is better that + you should hear the truth from me than garbled stories from others who + did not love your father as I did.</i> +</p> +<p class="quote"> + <i>Your loving Aunt,<br /> + SOPHIA MALTRAVERS</i> +</p> +<p> +<i>To Sir Edward Maltravers, Bart.</i> +</p> +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p> </p><p> </p> + +<hr /> + +<p style="text-align: center;"> + "A tale out of season is as music in mourning." +</p> +<p style="text-align: right;"> + —ECCLESIASTICUS xxii. 6. +</p> +<hr /> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + MISS SOPHIA MALTRAVERS' STORY +</h2> +<a name="h2HCH0001" id="h2HCH0001"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER I +</h2> +<p> +Your father, John Maltravers, was born in 1820 at Worth, and succeeded +his father and mine, who died when we were still young children. John +was sent to Eton in due course, and in 1839, when he was nineteen years +of age, it was determined that he should go to Oxford. It was intended +at first to enter him at Christ Church; but Dr. Sarsdell, who visited us +at Worth in the summer of 1839, persuaded Mr. Thoresby, our guardian, to +send him instead to Magdalen Hall. Dr. Sarsdell was himself Principal of +that institution, and represented that John, who then exhibited some +symptoms of delicacy, would meet with more personal attention under his +care than he could hope to do in so large a college as Christ Church. +Mr. Thoresby, ever solicitous for his ward's welfare, readily waived +other considerations in favour of an arrangement which he considered +conducive to John's health, and he was accordingly matriculated at +Magdalen Hall in the autumn of 1839. +</p> +<p> +Dr. Sarsdell had not been unmindful of his promise to look after my +brother, and had secured him an excellent first-floor sitting-room, with +a bedroom adjoining, having an aspect towards New College Lane. +</p> +<p> +I shall pass over the first two years of my brother's residence at +Oxford, because they have nothing to do with the present story. They +were spent, no doubt, in the ordinary routine of work and recreation +common in Oxford at that period. +</p> +<p> +From his earliest boyhood he had been passionately devoted to music, +and had attained a considerable proficiency on the violin. In the autumn +term of 1841 he made the acquaintance of Mr. William Gaskell, a very +talented student at New College, and also a more than tolerable +musician. The practice of music was then very much less common at Oxford +than it has since become, and there were none of those societies +existing which now do so much to promote its study among undergraduates. +It was therefore a cause of much gratification to the two young men, and +it afterwards became a strong bond of friendship, to discover that one +was as devoted to the pianoforte as was the other to the violin. Mr. +Gaskell, though in easy circumstances, had not a pianoforte in his +rooms, and was pleased to use a fine instrument by D'Almaine that John +had that term received as a birthday present from his guardian. +</p> +<p> +From that time the two students were thrown much together, and in the +autumn term of 1841 and Easter term of 1842 practised a variety of music +in John's rooms, he taking the violin part and Mr. Gaskell that for the +pianoforte. +</p> +<p> +It was, I think, in March 1842 that John purchased for his rooms a piece +of furniture which was destined afterwards to play no unimportant part +in the story I am narrating. This was a very large and low wicker chair +of a form then coming into fashion in Oxford, and since, I am told, +become a familiar object of most college rooms. It was cushioned with a +gaudy pattern of chintz, and bought for new of an upholsterer at the +bottom of the High Street. +</p> +<p> +Mr. Gaskell was taken by his uncle to spend Easter in Rome, and +obtaining special leave from his college to prolong his travels; did not +return to Oxford till three weeks of the summer term were passed and May +was well advanced. So impatient was he to see his friend that he would +not let even the first evening of his return pass without coming round +to John's rooms. The two young men sat without lights until the night +was late; and Mr. Gaskell had much to narrate of his travels, and spoke +specially of the beautiful music which he had heard at Easter in the +Roman churches. He had also had lessons on the piano from a celebrated +professor of the Italian style, but seemed to have been particularly +delighted with the music of the seventeenth-century composers, of whose +works he had brought back some specimens set for piano and violin. +</p> +<p> +It was past eleven o'clock when Mr. Gaskell left to return to New +College; but the night was unusually warm, with a moon near the full, +and John sat for some time in a cushioned window-seat before the open +sash thinking over what he had heard about the music of Italy. Feeling +still disinclined for sleep, he lit a single candle and began to turn +over some of the musical works which Mr. Gaskell had left on the table. +His attention was especially attracted to an oblong book, bound in +soiled vellum, with a coat of arms stamped in gilt upon the side. It was +a manuscript copy of some early suites by Graziani for violin and +harpsichord, and was apparently written at Naples in the year 1744, many +years after the death of that composer. Though the ink was yellow and +faded, the transcript had been accurately made, and could be read with +tolerable comfort by an advanced musician in spite of the antiquated +notation. +</p> +<p> +Perhaps by accident, or perhaps by some mysterious direction which our +minds are incapable of appreciating, his eye was arrested by a suite of +four movements with a <i>basso continuo</i>, or figured bass, for the +harpsichord. The other suites in the book were only distinguished by +numbers, but this one the composer had dignified with the name of +"l'Areopagita." Almost mechanically John put the book on his +music-stand, took his violin from its case, and after a moment's tuning +stood up and played the first movement, a lively <i>Coranto</i>. The light of +the single candle burning on the table was scarcely sufficient to +illumine the page; the shadows hung in the creases of the leaves, which +had grown into those wavy folds sometimes observable in books made of +thick paper and remaining long shut; and it was with difficulty that he +could read what he was playing. But he felt the strange impulse of the +old-world music urging him forward, and did not even pause to light the +candles which stood ready in their sconces on either side of the desk. +The <i>Coranto</i> was followed by a <i>Sarabanda</i>, and the <i>Sarabanda</i> by a +<i>Gagliarda</i>. My brother stood playing, with his face turned to the +window, with the room and the large wicker chair of which I have spoken +behind him. The <i>Gagliarda</i> began with a bold and lively air, and as he +played the opening bars, he heard behind him a creaking of the wicker +chair. The sound was a perfectly familiar one—as of some person placing +a hand on either arm of the chair preparatory to lowering himself into +it, followed by another as of the same person being leisurely seated. +But for the tones of the violin, all was silent, and the creaking of the +chair was strangely distinct. The illusion was so complete that my +brother stopped playing suddenly, and turned round expecting that some +late friend of his had slipped in unawares, being attracted by the sound +of the violin, or that Mr. Gaskell himself had returned. With the +cessation of the music an absolute stillness fell upon all; the light of +the single candle scarcely reached the darker corners of the room, but +fell directly on the wicker chair and showed it to be perfectly empty. +Half amused, half vexed with himself at having without reason +interrupted his music, my brother returned to the <i>Gagliarda</i>; but some +impulse induced him to light the candles in the sconces, which gave an +illumination more adequate to the occasion. The <i>Gagliarda</i> and the last +movement, a <i>Minuetto</i>, were finished, and John closed the book, +intending, as it was now late, to seek his bed. As he shut the pages a +creaking of the wicker chair again attracted his attention, and he heard +distinctly sounds such as would be made by a person raising himself from +a sitting posture. This time, being less surprised, he could more aptly +consider the probable causes of such a circumstance, and easily arrived +at the conclusion that there must be in the wicker chair osiers +responsive to certain notes of the violin, as panes of glass in church +windows are observed to vibrate in sympathy with certain tones of the +organ. But while this argument approved itself to his reason, his +imagination was but half convinced; and he could not but be impressed +with the fact that the second creaking of the chair had been coincident +with his shutting the music-book; and, unconsciously, pictured to +himself some strange visitor waiting until the termination of the music, +and then taking his departure. +</p> +<p> +His conjectures did not, however, either rob him of sleep or even +disturb it with dreams, and he woke the next morning with a cooler mind +and one less inclined to fantastic imagination. If the strange episode +of the previous evening had not entirely vanished from his mind, it +seemed at least fully accounted for by the acoustic explanation to which +I have alluded above. Although he saw Mr. Gaskell in the course of the +morning, he did not think it necessary to mention to him so trivial a +circumstance, but made with him an appointment to sup together in his +own rooms that evening, and to amuse themselves afterwards by essaying +some of the Italian music. +</p> +<p> +It was shortly after nine that night when, supper being finished, Mr. +Gaskell seated himself at the piano and John tuned his violin. The +evening was closing in; there had been heavy thunder-rain in the +afternoon, and the moist air hung now heavy and steaming, while across +it there throbbed the distant vibrations of the tenor bell at Christ +Church. It was tolling the customary 101 strokes, which are rung every +night in term-time as a signal for closing the college gates. The two +young men enjoyed themselves for some while, playing first a suite by +Cesti, and then two early sonatas by Buononcini. Both of them were +sufficiently expert musicians to make reading at sight a pleasure rather +than an effort; and Mr. Gaskell especially was well versed in the theory +of music, and in the correct rendering of the <i>basso continuo</i>. After +the Buononcini Mr. Gaskell took up the oblong copy of Graziani, and +turning over its leaves, proposed that they should play the same suite +which John had performed by himself the previous evening. His selection +was apparently perfectly fortuitous, as my brother had purposely +refrained from directing his attention in any way to that piece of +music. They played the <i>Coranto</i> and the <i>Sarabanda</i>, and in the +singular fascination of the music John had entirely forgotten the +episode of the previous evening, when, as the bold air of the +<i>Gagliarda</i> commenced, he suddenly became aware of the same strange +creaking of the wicker chair that he had noticed on the first occasion. +The sound was identical, and so exact was its resemblance to that of a +person sitting down that he stared at the chair, almost wondering that +it still appeared empty. Beyond turning his head sharply for a moment to +look round, Mr. Gaskell took no notice of the sound; and my brother, +ashamed to betray any foolish interest or excitement, continued the +<i>Gagliarda</i>, with its repeat. At its conclusion Mr. Gaskell stopped +before proceeding to the minuet, and turning the stool on which he was +sitting round towards the room, observed, "How very strange, +Johnnie,"—for these young men were on terms of sufficient intimacy to +address each other in a familiar style,—"How very strange! I thought I +heard some one sit down in that chair when we began the <i>Gagliarda</i>. I +looked round quite expecting to see some one had come in. Did you hear +nothing?" +</p> +<p> +"It was only the chair creaking," my brother answered, feigning an +indifference which he scarcely felt. "Certain parts of the wicker-work +seem to be in accord with musical notes and respond to them; let us +continue with the <i>Minuetto</i>." +</p> +<p> +Thus they finished the suite, Mr. Gaskell demanding a repetition of the +<i>Gagliarda</i>, with the air of which he was much pleased. As the clocks +had already struck eleven, they determined not to play more that night; +and Mr. Gaskell rose, blew out the sconces, shut the piano, and put the +music aside. My brother has often assured me that he was quite prepared +for what followed, and had been almost expecting it; for as the books +were put away, a creaking of the wicker chair was audible, exactly +similar to that which he had heard when he stopped playing on the +previous night. There was a moment's silence; the young men looked +involuntarily at one another, and then Mr. Gaskell said, "I cannot +understand the creaking of that chair; it has never done so before, with +all the music we have played. I am perhaps imaginative and excited with +the fine airs we have heard to-night, but I have an impression that I +cannot dispel that something has been sitting listening to us all this +time, and that now when the concert is ended it has got up and gone." +There was a spirit of raillery in his words, but his tone was not so +light as it would ordinarily have been, and he was evidently ill at +ease. +</p> +<p> +"Let us try the <i>Gagliarda</i> again," said my brother; "it is the +vibration of the opening notes which affects the wicker-work, and we +shall see if the noise is repeated." But Mr. Gaskell excused himself +from trying the experiment, and after some desultory conversation, to +which it was evident that neither was giving any serious attention, he +took his leave and returned to New College. +</p> +<a name="h2HCH0002" id="h2HCH0002"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER II +</h2> +<p> +I shall not weary you, my dear Edward, by recounting similar experiences +which occurred on nearly every occasion that the young men met in the +evenings for music. The repetition of the phenomenon had accustomed them +to expect it. Both professed to be quite satisfied that it was to be +attributed to acoustical affinities of vibration between the wicker-work +and certain of the piano wires, and indeed this seemed the only +explanation possible. But, at the same time, the resemblance of the +noises to those caused by a person sitting down in or rising from a +chair was so marked, that even their frequent recurrence never failed to +make a strange impression on them. They felt a reluctance to mention the +matter to their friends, partly from a fear of being themselves laughed +at, and partly to spare from ridicule a circumstance to which each +perhaps, in spite of himself, attached some degree of importance. +Experience soon convinced them that the first noise as of one sitting +down never occurred unless the <i>Gagliarda</i> of the "Areopagita" was +played, and that this noise being once heard, the second only followed +it when they ceased playing for the evening. They met every night, +sitting later with the lengthening summer evenings, and every night, +as by some tacit understanding, played the "Areopagita" suite before +parting. At the opening bars of the <i>Gagliarda</i> the creaking of the +chair occurred spontaneously with the utmost regularity. They seldom +spoke even to one another of the subject; but one night, when John was +putting away his violin after a long evening's music without having +played the "Areopagita," Mr. Gaskell, who had risen from the pianoforte, +sat down again as by a sudden impulse and said— +</p> +<p> +"Johnnie, do not put away your violin yet. It is near twelve o'clock +and I shall get shut out, but I cannot stop to-night without playing the +<i>Gagliarda</i>. Suppose that all our theories of vibration and affinity are +wrong, suppose that there really comes here night by night some strange +visitant to hear us, some poor creature whose heart is bound up in that +tune; would it not be unkind to send him away without the hearing of +that piece which he seems most to relish? Let us not be ill-mannered, +but humour his whim; let us play the <i>Gagliarda</i>." +</p> +<p> +They played it with more vigour and precision than usual, and the now +customary sound of one taking his seat at once ensued. It was that night +that my brother, looking steadfastly at the chair, saw, or thought he +saw, there some slight obscuration, some penumbra, mist, or subtle +vapour which, as he gazed, seemed to struggle to take human form. He +ceased playing for a moment and rubbed his eyes, but as he did so all +dimness vanished and he saw the chair perfectly empty. The pianist +stopped also at the cessation of the violin, and asked what ailed him. +</p> +<p> +"It is only that my eyes were dim," he answered. +</p> +<p> +"We have had enough for to-night," said Mr. Gaskell; "let us stop. +I shall be locked out." He shut the piano, and as he did so the clock +in New College tower struck twelve. He left the room running, but was +late enough at his college door to be reported, admonished with a fine +against such late hours, and confined for a week to college; for being +out after midnight was considered, at that time at least, a somewhat +serious offence. +</p> +<p> +Thus for some days the musical practice was compulsorily intermitted, +but resumed on the first evening after Mr. Gaskell's term of confinement +was expired. After they had performed several suites of Graziani, and +finished as usual with the "Areopagita," Mr. Gaskell sat for a time +silent at the instrument, as though thinking with himself, and then +said— +</p> +<p> +"I cannot say how deeply this old-fashioned music affects me. Some would +try to persuade us that these suites, of which the airs bear the names +of different dances, were always written rather as a musical essay and +for purposes of performance than for persons to dance to, as their names +would more naturally imply. But I think these critics are wrong at least +in some instances. It is to me impossible to believe that such a melody, +for instance, as the <i>Giga</i> of Corelli which we have played, was not +written for actual purposes of dancing. One can almost hear the beat +of feet upon the floor, and I imagine that in the time of Corelli the +practice of dancing, while not a whit inferior in grace, had more of the +tripudistic or beating character than is now esteemed consistent with a +correct ball-room performance. The <i>Gagliarda</i> too, which we play now so +constantly, possesses a singular power of assisting the imagination to +picture or reproduce such scenes as those which it no doubt formerly +enlivened. I know not why, but it is constantly identified in my mind +with some revel which I have perhaps seen in a picture, where several +couples are dancing a licentious measure in a long room lit by a number +of silver sconces of the debased model common at the end of the +seventeenth century. It is probably a reminiscence of my late excursion +that gives to these dancers in my fancy the olive skin, dark hair, and +bright eyes of the Italian type; and they wear dresses of exceedingly +rich fabric and elaborate design. Imagination is whimsical enough to +paint for me the character of the room itself, as having an arcade of +arches running down one side alone, of the fantastic and paganised +Gothic of the Renaissance. At the end is a gallery or balcony for the +musicians, which on its coved front has a florid coat of arms of foreign +heraldry. The shield bears, on a field <i>or</i>, a cherub's head blowing on +three lilies—a blazon I have no doubt seen somewhere in my travels, +though I cannot recollect where. This scene, I say, is so nearly +connected in my brain with the <i>Gagliarda</i>, that scarcely are its first +notes sounded ere it presents itself to my eyes with a vividness which +increases every day. The couples advance, set, and recede, using free +and licentious gestures which my imagination should be ashamed to +recall. Amongst so many foreigners, fancy pictures, I know not in the +least why, the presence of a young man of an English type of face, whose +features, however, always elude my mind's attempt to fix them. I think +that the opening subject of this <i>Gagliarda</i> is a superior composition +to the rest of it, for it is only during the first sixteen bars that the +vision of bygone revelry presents itself to me. With the last note of +the sixteenth bar a veil is drawn suddenly across the scene, and with a +sense almost of some catastrophe it vanishes. This I attribute to the +fact that the second subject must be inferior in conception to the +first, and by some sense of incongruity destroys the fabric which the +fascination of the preceding one built up." +</p> +<p> +My brother, though he had listened with interest to what Mr. Gaskell had +said, did not reply, and the subject was allowed to drop. +</p> +<a name="h2HCH0003" id="h2HCH0003"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER III +</h2> +<p> +It was in the same summer of 1842, and near the middle of June, that my +brother John wrote inviting me to come to Oxford for the Commemoration +festivities. I had been spending some weeks with Mrs. Temple, a distant +cousin of ours, at their house of Royston in Derbyshire, and John was +desirous that Mrs. Temple should come up to Oxford and chaperone +her daughter Constance and myself at the balls and various other +entertainments which take place at the close of the summer term. Owing +to Royston being some two hundred miles from Worth Maltravers, our +families had hitherto seen little of one another, but during my present +visit I had learned to love Mrs. Temple, a lady of singular sweetness of +disposition, and had contracted a devoted attachment to her daughter +Constance. Constance Temple was then eighteen years of age, and to great +beauty united such mental graces and excellent traits of character as +must ever appear to reasoning persons more enduringly valuable than even +the highest personal attractions. She was well read and witty, and had +been trained in those principles of true religion which she afterwards +followed with devoted consistency in the self-sacrifice and resigned +piety of her too short life. In person, I may remind you, my dear +Edward, since death removed her ere you were of years to appreciate +either her appearance or her qualities, she was tall, with a somewhat +long and oval face, with brown hair and eyes. +</p> +<p> +Mrs. Temple readily accepted Sir John Maltravers' invitation. She had +never seen Oxford herself, and was pleased to afford us the pleasure of +so delightful an excursion. John had secured convenient rooms for us +above the shop of a well-known printseller in High Street, and we +arrived in Oxford on Friday evening, June 18, 1842. I shall not dilate +to you on the various Commemoration festivities, which have probably +altered little since those days, and with which you are familiar. +Suffice it to say that my brother had secured us admission to every +entertainment, and that we enjoyed our visit as only youth with its keen +sensibilities and uncloyed pleasures can. I could not help observing +that John was very much struck by the attractions of Miss Constance +Temple, and that she for her part, while exhibiting no unbecoming +forwardness, certainly betrayed no aversion to him. I was greatly +pleased both with my own powers of observation which had enabled me to +discover so important a fact, and also with the circumstance itself. +To a romantic girl of nineteen it appeared high time that a brother of +twenty-two should be at least preparing some matrimonial project; and my +friend was so good and beautiful that it seemed impossible that I should +ever obtain a more lovable sister or my brother a better wife. Mrs. +Temple could not refuse her sanction to such a scheme; for while their +mental qualities seemed eminently compatible, John was in his own right +master of Worth Maltravers, and her daughter sole heiress of the Royston +estates. +</p> +<p> +The Commemoration festivities terminated on Wednesday night with a grand +ball at the Music-Room in Holywell Street. This was given by a Lodge of +University Freemasons, and John was there with Mr. Gaskell—whose +acquaintance we had made with much gratification—both wearing blue silk +scarves and small white aprons. They introduced us to many other of +their friends similarly adorned, and these important and mysterious +insignia sat not amiss with their youthful figures and boyish faces. +After a long and pleasurable programme, it was decided that we should +prolong our visit till the next evening, leaving Oxford at half-past +ten o'clock at night and driving to Didcot, there to join the mail for +the west. We rose late the next morning and spent the day rambling among +the old colleges and gardens of the most beautiful of English cities. +At seven o'clock we dined together for the last time at our lodgings +in High Street, and my brother proposed that before parting we should +enjoy the fine evening in the gardens of St. John's College. This was +at once agreed to, and we proceeded thither, John walking on in front +with Constance and Mrs. Temple, and I following with Mr. Gaskell. My +companion explained that these gardens were esteemed the most beautiful +in the University, but that under ordinary circumstances it was not +permitted to strangers to walk there of an evening. Here he quoted some +Latin about "aurum per medios ire satellites," which I smilingly made as +if I understood, and did indeed gather from it that John had bribed the +porter to admit us. It was a warm and very still night, without a moon, +but with enough of fading light to show the outlines of the garden +front. This long low line of buildings built in Charles I's reign looked +so exquisitely beautiful that I shall never forget it, though I have not +since seen its oriel windows and creeper-covered walls. There was a very +heavy dew on the broad lawn, and we walked at first only on the paths. +No one spoke, for we were oppressed by the very beauty of the scene, and +by the sadness which an imminent parting from friends and from so sweet +a place combined to cause. John had been silent and depressed the whole +day, nor did Mr. Gaskell himself seem inclined to conversation. +Constance and my brother fell a little way behind, and Mr. Gaskell asked +me to cross the lawn if I was not afraid of the dew, that I might see +the garden front to better advantage from the corner. Mrs. Temple waited +for us on the path, not wishing to wet her feet. Mr. Gaskell pointed out +the beauties of the perspective as seen from his vantage-point, and we +were fortunate in hearing the sweet descant of nightingales for which +this garden has ever been famous. As we stood silent and listening, a +candle was lit in a small oriel at the end, and the light showing the +tracery of the window added to the picturesqueness of the scene. +</p> +<p> +Within an hour we were in a landau driving through the still warm lanes +to Didcot. I had seen that Constance's parting with my brother had been +tender, and I am not sure that she was not in tears during some part at +least of our drive; but I did not observe her closely, having my +thoughts elsewhere. +</p> +<p> +Though we were thus being carried every moment further from the sleeping +city, where I believe that both our hearts were busy, I feel as if I had +been a personal witness of the incidents I am about to narrate, so often +have I heard them from my brother's lips. The two young men, after +parting with us in the High Street, returned to their respective +colleges. John reached his rooms shortly before eleven o'clock. He was +at once sad and happy—sad at our departure, but happy in a new-found +world of delight which his admiration for Constance Temple opened to +him. He was, in fact, deeply in love with her, and the full flood of a +hitherto unknown passion filled him with an emotion so overwhelming that +his ordinary life seemed transfigured. He moved, as it were, in an ether +superior to our mortal atmosphere, and a new region of high resolves and +noble possibilities spread itself before his eyes. He slammed his heavy +outside door (called an "oak") to prevent anyone entering and flung +himself into the window-seat. Here he sat for a long time, the sash +thrown up and his head outside, for he was excited and feverish. His +mental exaltation was so great and his thoughts of so absorbing an +interest that he took no notice of time, and only remembered afterwards +that the scent of a syringa-bush was borne up to him from a little +garden-patch opposite, and that a bat had circled slowly up and down the +lane, until he heard the clocks striking three. At the same time the +faint light of dawn made itself felt almost imperceptibly; the classic +statues on the roof of the schools began to stand out against the white +sky, and a faint glimmer to penetrate the darkened room. It glistened on +the varnished top of his violin-case lying on the table, and on a jug of +toast-and-water placed there by his college servant or scout every night +before he left. He drank a glass of this mixture, and was moving towards +his bedroom door when a sudden thought struck him. He turned back, took +the violin from its case, tuned it, and began to play the "Areopagita" +suite. He was conscious of that mental clearness and vigour which not +unfrequently comes with the dawn to those who have sat watching or +reading through the night: and his thoughts were exalted by the effect +which the first consciousness of a deep passion causes in imaginative +minds. He had never played the suite with more power; and the airs, +even without the piano part, seemed fraught with a meaning hitherto +unrealised. As he began the <i>Gagliarda</i> he heard the wicker chair creak; +but he had his back towards it, and the sound was now too familiar to +him to cause him even to look round. It was not till he was playing +the repeat that he became aware of a new and overpowering sensation. +At first it was a vague feeling, so often experienced by us all, of +not being alone. He did not stop playing, and in a few seconds the +impression of a presence in the room other than his own became so strong +that he was actually afraid to look round. But in another moment he felt +that at all hazards he must see what or who this presence was. Without +stopping he partly turned and partly looked over his shoulder. The +silver light of early morning was filling the room, making the various +objects appear of less bright colour than usual, and giving to +everything a pearl-grey neutral tint. In this cold but clear light he +saw seated in the wicker chair the figure of a man. +</p> +<p> +In the first violent shock of so terrifying a discovery, he could not +appreciate such details as those of features, dress, or appearance. He +was merely conscious that with him, in a locked room of which he knew +himself to be the only human inmate, there sat something which bore a +human form. He looked at it for a moment with a hope, which he felt +to be vain, that it might vanish and prove a phantom of his excited +imagination, but still it sat there. Then my brother put down his +violin, and he used to assure me that a horror overwhelmed him of an +intensity which he had previously believed impossible. Whether the image +which he saw was subjective or objective, I cannot pretend to say: you +will be in a position to judge for yourself when you have finished this +narrative. Our limited experience would lead us to believe that it was a +phantom conjured up by some unusual condition of his own brain; but we +are fain to confess that there certainly do exist in nature phenomena +such as baffle human reason; and it is possible that, for some hidden +purposes of Providence, permission may occasionally be granted to those +who have passed from this life to assume again for a time the form of +their earthly tabernacle. We must, I say, be content to suspend our +judgment on such matters; but in this instance the subsequent course of +events is very difficult to explain, except on the supposition that +there was then presented to my brother's view the actual bodily form of +one long deceased. The dread which took possession of him was due, he +has more than once told me when analysing his feelings long afterwards, +to two predominant causes. Firstly, he felt that mental dislocation +which accompanies the sudden subversion of preconceived theories, +the sudden alteration of long habit, or even the occurrence of any +circumstance beyond the walk of our daily experience. This I have +observed myself in the perturbing effect which a sudden death, a +grievous accident, or in recent years the declaration of war, has +exercised upon all except the most lethargic or the most determined +minds. Secondly, he experienced the profound self-abasement or mental +annihilation caused by the near conception of a being of a superior +order. In the presence of an existence wearing, indeed, the human form, +but of attributes widely different from and superior to his own, he felt +the combined reverence and revulsion which even the noblest wild animals +exhibit when brought for the first time face to face with man. The shock +was so great that I feel persuaded it exerted an effect on him from +which he never wholly recovered. +</p> +<p> +After an interval which seemed to him interminable, though it was only +of a second's duration, he turned his eyes again to the occupant of the +wicker chair. His faculties had so far recovered from the first shock +as to enable him to see that the figure was that of a man perhaps +thirty-five years of age and still youthful in appearance. The face was +long and oval, the hair brown, and brushed straight off an exceptionally +high forehead. His complexion was very pale or bloodless. He was clean +shaven, and his finely cut mouth, with compressed lips, wore something +of a sneering smile. His general expression was unpleasing, and from the +first my brother felt as by intuition that there was present some malign +and wicked influence. His eyes were not visible, as he kept them cast +down, resting his head on his hand in the attitude of one listening. His +face and even his dress were impressed so vividly upon John's mind, that +he never had any difficulty in recalling them to his imagination; and he +and I had afterwards an opportunity of verifying them in a remarkable +manner. He wore a long cut-away coat of green cloth with an edge of gold +embroidery, and a white satin waistcoat figured with rose-sprigs, a +full cravat of rich lace, knee-breeches of buff silk, and stockings of +the same. His shoes were of polished black leather with heavy silver +buckles, and his costume in general recalled that worn a century ago. +As my brother gazed at him, he got up, putting his hands on the arms +of the chair to raise himself, and causing the creaking so often heard +before. The hands forced themselves on my brother's notice: they were +very white, with the long delicate fingers of a musician. He showed a +considerable height; and still keeping his eyes on the floor, walked +with an ordinary gait towards the end of the bookcase at the side of the +room farthest from the window. He reached the bookcase, and then John +suddenly lost sight of him. The figure did not fade gradually, but went +out, as it were, like the flame of a suddenly extinguished candle. +</p> +<p> +The room was now filled with the clear light of the summer morning: the +whole vision had lasted but a few seconds, but my brother knew that +there was no possibility of his having been mistaken, that the mystery +of the creaking chair was solved, that he had seen the man who had come +evening by evening for a month past to listen to the rhythm of the +<i>Gagliarda</i>. Terribly disturbed, he sat for some time half dreading and +half expecting a return of the figure; but all remained unchanged: he +saw nothing, nor did he dare to challenge its reappearance by playing +again the <i>Gagliarda</i>, which seemed to have so strange an attraction for +it. At last, in the full sunlight of a late June morning at Oxford, he +heard the steps of early pedestrians on the pavement below his windows, +the cry of a milkman, and other sounds which showed the world was awake. +It was after six o'clock, and going to his bedroom he flung himself on +the outside of the bed for an hour's troubled slumber. +</p> +<a name="h2HCH0004" id="h2HCH0004"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER IV +</h2> +<p> +When his servant called him about eight o'clock my brother sent a note +to Mr. Gaskell at New College, begging him to come round to Magdalen +Hall as soon as might be in the course of the morning. His summons was +at once obeyed, and Mr. Gaskell was with him before he had finished +breakfast. My brother was still much agitated, and at once told him what +had happened the night before, detailing the various circumstances with +minuteness, and not even concealing from him the sentiments which he +entertained towards Miss Constance Temple. In narrating the appearance +which he had seen in the chair, his agitation was still so excessive +that he had difficulty in controlling his voice. +</p> +<p> +Mr. Gaskell heard him with much attention, and did not at once reply +when John had finished his narration. At length he said, "I suppose many +friends would think it right to affect, even if they did not feel, an +incredulity as to what you have just told me. They might consider it +more prudent to attempt to allay your distress by persuading you that +what you have seen has no objective reality, but is merely the phantasm +of an excited imagination; that if you had not been in love, had not sat +up all night, and had not thus overtaxed your physical powers, you would +have seen no vision. I shall not argue thus, for I am as certainly +convinced as of the fact that we sit here, that on all the nights when +we have played this suite called the 'Areopagita,' there has been some +one listening to us, and that you have at length been fortunate or +unfortunate enough to see him." +</p> +<p> +"Do not say fortunate," said my brother; "for I feel as though I shall +never recover from last night's shock." +</p> +<p> +"That is likely enough," Mr. Gaskell answered, coolly; "for as in the +history of the race or individual, increased culture and a finer mental +susceptibility necessarily impair the brute courage and powers of +endurance which we note in savages, so any supernatural vision such +as you have seen must be purchased at the cost of physical reaction. +From the first evening that we played this music, and heard the noises +mimicking so closely the sitting down and rising up of some person, I +have felt convinced that causes other than those which we usually call +natural were at work, and that we were very near the manifestation of +some extraordinary phenomenon." +</p> +<p> +"I do not quite apprehend your meaning." +</p> +<p> +"I mean this," he continued, "that this man or spirit of a man has been +sitting here night after night, and that we have not been able to see +him, because our minds are dull and obtuse. Last night the elevating +force of a strong passion, such as that which you have confided to me, +combined with the power of fine music, so exalted your mind that you +became endowed, as it were, with a sixth sense, and suddenly were +enabled to see that which had previously been invisible. To this sixth +sense music gives, I believe, the key. We are at present only on the +threshold of such a knowledge of that art as will enable us to use it +eventually as the greatest of all humanising and educational agents. +Music will prove a ladder to the loftier regions of thought; indeed I +have long found for myself that I cannot attain to the highest range of +my intellectual power except when hearing good music. All poets, and +most writers of prose, will say that their thought is never so exalted, +their sense of beauty and proportion never so just, as when they are +listening either to the artificial music made by man, or to some of the +grander tones of nature, such as the roar of a western ocean, or the +sighing of wind in a clump of firs. Though I have often felt on such +occasions on the very verge of some high mental discovery, and though +a hand has been stretched forward as it were to rend the veil, yet it +has never been vouchsafed me to see behind it. This you no doubt were +allowed in a measure to do last night. You probably played the music +with a deeper intuition than usual, and this, combined with the +excitement under which you were already labouring, raised you for a +moment to the required pitch of mental exaltation." +</p> +<p> +"It is true," John said, "that I never felt the melody so deeply as when +I played it last night." +</p> +<p> +"Just so," answered his friend; "and there is probably some link between +this air and the history of the man whom you saw last night; some fatal +power in it which enables it to exert an attraction on him even after +death. For we must remember that the influence of music, though always +powerful, is not always for good. We can scarcely doubt that as certain +forms of music tend to raise us above the sensuality of the animal, or +the more degrading passion of material gain, and to transport us into +the ether of higher thought, so other forms are directly calculated to +awaken in us luxurious emotions, and to whet those sensual appetites +which it is the business of a philosopher not indeed to annihilate or to +be ashamed of, but to keep rigidly in check. This possibility of music +to effect evil as well as good I have seen recognised, and very aptly +expressed in some beautiful verses by Mr. Keble which I have just +read:— +</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i4"> "'Cease, stranger, cease those witching notes,</p> +<p class="i6"> The art of syren choirs;</p> +<p class="i4"> Hush the seductive voice that floats</p> +<p class="i6"> Across the trembling wires.</p> +</div> +</div> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i4"> "'Music's ethereal power was given</p> +<p class="i6"> Not to dissolve our clay,</p> +<p class="i4"> But draw Promethean beams from heaven</p> +<p class="i6"> To purge the dross away.'"</p> +</div> +</div> + +<p> +"They are fine lines," said my brother, "but I do not see how you apply +your argument to the present instance." +</p> +<p> +"I mean," Mr. Gaskell answered, "that I have little doubt that the +melody of this <i>Gagliarda</i> has been connected in some manner with the +life of the man you saw last night. It is not unlikely, either, that it +was a favourite air of his whilst in the flesh, or even that it was +played by himself or others at the moment of some crisis in his history. +It is possible that such connection may be due merely to the innocent +pleasure the melody gave him in life; but the nature of the music +itself, and a peculiar effect it has upon my own thoughts, induce me to +believe that it was associated with some occasion when he either fell +into great sin or when some evil fate, perhaps even death itself, +overtook him. You will remember I have told you that this air calls up +to my mind a certain scene of Italian revelry in which an Englishman +takes part. It is true that I have never been able to fix his features +in my mind, nor even to say exactly how he was dressed. Yet now some +instinct tells me that it is this very man whom you saw last night. It +is not for us to attempt to pierce the mystery which veils from our eyes +the secrets of an after-death existence; but I can scarcely suppose that +a spirit entirely at rest would feel so deeply the power of a certain +melody as to be called back by it to his old haunts like a dog by his +master's whistle. It is more probable that there is some evil history +connected with the matter, and this, I think, we ought to consider if it +be possible to unravel." +</p> +<p> +My brother assenting, he continued, "When this man left you, Johnnie, +did he walk to the door?" +</p> +<p> +"No; he made for the side wall, and when he reached the end of the +bookcase I lost sight of him." +</p> +<p> +Mr. Gaskell went to the bookcase and looked for a moment at the titles +of the books, as though expecting to see something in them to assist +his inquiries; but finding apparently no clue, he said— +</p> +<p> +"This is the last time we shall meet for three months or more; let us +play the <i>Gagliarda</i> and see if there be any response." +</p> +<p> +My brother at first would not hear of this, showing a lively dread of +challenging any reappearance of the figure he had seen: indeed he felt +that such an event would probably fling him into a state of serious +physical disorder. Mr. Gaskell, however, continued to press him, +assuring him that the fact of his now being no longer alone should +largely allay any fear on his part, and urging that this would be the +last opportunity they would have of playing together for some months. +</p> +<p> +At last, being overborne, my brother took his violin, and Mr. Gaskell +seated himself at the pianoforte. John was very agitated, and as he +commenced the <i>Gagliarda</i> his hands trembled so that he could scarcely +play the air. Mr. Gaskell also exhibited some nervousness, not +performing with his customary correctness. But for the first time the +charm failed: no noise accompanied the music, nor did anything of an +unusual character occur. They repeated the whole suite, but with a +similar result. +</p> +<p> +Both were surprised, but neither, had any explanation to offer. My +brother, who at first dreaded intensely a repetition of the vision, was +now almost disappointed that nothing had occurred; so quickly does the +mood of man change. +</p> +<p> +After some further conversation the young men parted for the Long +Vacation—John returning to Worth Maltravers and Mr. Gaskell going to +London, where he was to pass a few days before he proceeded to his home +in Westmorland. +</p> +<a name="h2HCH0005" id="h2HCH0005"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER V +</h2> +<p> +John spent nearly the whole of this summer vacation at Worth Maltravers. +He had been anxious to pay a visit to Royston; but the continued and +serious illness of Mrs. Temple's sister had called her and Constance to +Scotland, where they remained until the death of their relative allowed +them to return to Derbyshire in the late autumn. John and I had been +brought up together from childhood. When he was at Eton we had always +spent the holidays at Worth, and after my dear mother's death, when we +were left quite alone, the bonds of our love were naturally drawn still +closer. Even after my brother went to Oxford, at a time when most young +men are anxious to enjoy a new-found liberty, and to travel or to visit +friends in their vacation, John's ardent affection for me and for Worth +Maltravers kept him at home; and he was pleased on most occasions to +make me the partner of his thoughts and of his pleasures. This long +vacation of 1842 was, I think, the happiest of our lives. In my case I +know it was so, and I think it was happy also for him; for none could +guess that the small cloud seen in the distance like a man's hand was +afterwards to rise and darken all his later days. It was a summer of +brilliant and continued sunshine; many of the old people said that they +could never recollect so fine a season, and both fruit and crops were +alike abundant. John hired a small cutter-yacht, the <i>Palestine</i>, which +he kept in our little harbour of Encombe, and in which he and I made +many excursions, visiting Weymouth, Lyme Regis, and other places of +interest on the south coast. +</p> +<p> +In this summer my brother confided to me two secrets,—his love +for Constance Temple, which indeed was after all no secret, and the +history of the apparition which he had seen. This last filled me with +inexpressible dread and distress. It seemed cruel and unnatural that any +influence so dark and mysterious should thus intrude on our bright life, +and from the first I had an impression which I could not entirely shake +off, that any such appearance or converse of a disembodied spirit must +portend misfortune, if not worse, to him who saw or heard it. It never +occurred to me to combat or to doubt the reality of the vision; he +believed that he had seen it, and his conviction was enough to convince +me. He had meant, he said, to tell no one, and had given a promise to +Mr. Gaskell to that effect; but I think that he could not bear to keep +such a matter in his own breast, and within the first week of his +return he made me his confidant. I remember, my dear Edward, the look +everything wore on that sad night when he first told me what afterwards +proved so terrible a secret. We had dined quite alone, and he had been +moody and depressed all the evening. It was a chilly night, with some +fret blowing up from the sea. The moon showed that blunted and deformed +appearance which she assumes a day or two past the full, and the +moisture in the air encircled her with a stormy-looking halo. We had +stepped out of the dining-room windows on to the little terrace looking +down towards Smedmore and Encombe. The glaucous shrubs that grow in +between the balusters were wet and dripping with the salt breath of the +sea, and we could hear the waves coming into the cove from the west. +After standing a minute I felt chill, and proposed that we should go +back to the billiard-room, where a fire was lit on all except the +warmest nights. "No," John said, "I want to tell you something, Sophy," +and then we walked on to the old boat summer-house. There he told me +everything. I cannot describe to you my feelings of anguish and horror +when he told me of the appearance of the man. The interest of the tale +was so absorbing to me that I took no note of time, nor of the cold +night air, and it was only when it was all finished that I felt how +deadly chill it had become. "Let us go in, John," I said; "I am cold and +feel benumbed." +</p> +<p> +But youth is hopeful and strong, and in another week the impression had +faded from our minds, and we were enjoying the full glory of midsummer +weather, which I think only those know who have watched the blue sea +come rippling in at the foot of the white chalk cliffs of Dorset. +</p> +<p> +I had felt a reluctance even so much as to hear the air of the +<i>Gagliarda</i>, and though he had spoken to me of the subject on more than +one occasion, my brother had never offered to play it to me. I knew that +he had the copy of Graziani's suites with him at Worth Maltravers, +because he had told me that he had brought it from Oxford; but I had +never seen the book, and fancied that he kept it intentionally locked +up. He did not, however, neglect the violin, and during the summer +mornings, as I sat reading or working on the terrace, I often heard him +playing to himself in the library. Though he had never even given me any +description of the melody of the <i>Gagliarda</i>, yet I felt certain that he +not infrequently played it. I cannot say how it was; but from the moment +that I heard him one morning in the library performing an air set in a +curiously low key, it forced itself upon my attention, and I knew, as it +were by instinct, that it must be the <i>Gagliarda</i> of the "Areopagita." +He was using a <i>sordino</i> and playing it very softly; but I was not +mistaken. One wet afternoon in October, only a week before the time of +his leaving us to return to Oxford for the autumn term, he walked into +the drawing-room where I was sitting, and proposed that we should play +some music together. To this I readily agreed. Though but a mediocre +performer, I have always taken much pleasure in the use of the +pianoforte, and esteemed it an honour whenever he asked me to play with +him, since my powers as a musician were so very much inferior to his. +After we had played several pieces, he took up an oblong music-book +bound in white vellum, placed it upon the desk of the pianoforte, and +proposed that we should play a suite by Graziani. I knew that he meant +the "Areopagita," and begged him at once not to ask me to play it. He +rallied me lightly on my fears, and said it would much please him to +play it, as he had not heard the pianoforte part since he had left +Oxford three months ago. I saw that he was eager to perform it, and +being loath to disoblige so kind a brother during the last week of his +stay at home, I at length overcame my scruples and set out to play it. +But I was so alarmed at the possibility of any evil consequences +ensuing, that when we commenced the <i>Gagliarda</i> I could scarcely find +my notes. Nothing in any way unusual, however, occurred; and being +reassured by this, and feeling an irresistible charm in the music, I +finished the suite with more appearance of ease. My brother, however, +was, I fear, not satisfied with my performance, and compared it, very +possibly, with that of Mr. Gaskell, to which it was necessarily much +inferior, both through weakness of execution and from my insufficient +knowledge of the principles of the <i>basso continuo</i>. We stopped playing, +and John stood looking out of the window across the sea, where the sky +was clearing low down under the clouds. The sun went down behind +Portland in a fiery glow which cheered us after a long day's rain. I had +taken the copy of Graziani's suites off the desk, and was holding it on +my lap turning over the old foxed and yellow pages. As I closed it a +streak of evening sunlight fell across the room and lighted up a coat +of arms stamped in gilt on the cover. It was much faded and would +ordinarily have been hard to make out; but the ray of strong light +illumined it, and in an instant I recognised the same shield which Mr. +Gaskell had pictured to himself as hanging on the musicians' gallery of +his phantasmal dancing-room. My brother had often recounted to me this +effort of his friend's imagination, and here I saw before me the same +florid foreign blazon, a cherub's head blowing on three lilies on a gold +field. This discovery was not only of interest, but afforded me much +actual relief; for it accounted rationally for at least one item of the +strange story. Mr. Gaskell had no doubt noticed at some time this shield +stamped on the outside of the book, and bearing the impression of it +unconsciously in his mind, had reproduced it in his imagined revels. +I said as much to my brother, and he was greatly interested, and after +examining the shield agreed that this was certainly a probable solution +of that part of the mystery. On the 12th of October John returned to +Oxford. +</p> +<a name="h2HCH0006" id="h2HCH0006"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER VI +</h2> +<p> +My brother told me afterwards that more than once during the summer +vacation he had seriously considered with himself the propriety of +changing his rooms at Magdalen Hall. He had thought that it might thus +be possible for him to get rid at once of the memory of the apparition, +and of the fear of any reappearance of it. He could either have moved +into another set of rooms in the Hall itself, or else gone into lodgings +in the town—a usual proceeding, I am told, for gentlemen near the end +of their course at Oxford. Would to God that he had indeed done so! but +with the supineness which has, I fear, my dear Edward, been too +frequently a characteristic of our family, he shrank from the trouble +such a course would involve, and the opening of the autumn term found +him still in his old rooms. You will forgive me for entering here on a +very brief description of your father's sitting-room. It is, I think, +necessary for the proper understanding of the incidents that follow. It +was not a large room, though probably the finest in the small buildings +of Magdalen Hall, and panelled from floor to ceiling with oak which +successive generations had obscured by numerous coats of paint. On one +side were two windows having an aspect on to New College Lane, and +fitted with deep cushioned seats in the recesses. Outside these windows +there were boxes of flowers, the brightness of which formed in the +summer term a pretty contrast to the grey and crumbling stone, and +afforded pleasure at once to the inmate and to passers-by. Along nearly +the whole length of the wall opposite to the windows, some tenant in +years long past had had mahogany book-shelves placed, reaching to a +height of perhaps five feet from the floor. They were handsomely made +in the style of the eighteenth century and pleased my brother's taste. +He had always exhibited a partiality for books, and the fine library at +Worth Maltravers had no doubt contributed to foster his tastes in that +direction. At the time of which I write he had formed a small collection +for himself at Oxford, paying particular attention to the bindings, and +acquiring many excellent specimens of that art, principally I think, +from Messrs. Payne & Foss, the celebrated London booksellers. +</p> +<p> +Towards the end of the autumn term, having occasion one cold day to take +down a volume of Plato from its shelf, he found to his surprise that the +book was quite warm. A closer examination easily explained to him the +reason—namely, that the flue of a chimney, passing behind one end of +the bookcase, sensibly heated not only the wall itself, but also the +books in the shelves. Although he had been in his rooms now near three +years, he had never before observed this fact; partly, no doubt, because +the books in these shelves were seldom handled, being more for show as +specimens of bindings than for practical use. He was somewhat annoyed +at this discovery, fearing lest such a heat, which in moderation is +beneficial to books, might through its excess warp the leather or +otherwise injure the bindings. Mr. Gaskell was sitting with him at the +time of the discovery, and indeed it was for his use that my brother had +taken down the volume of Plato. He strongly advised that the bookcase +should be moved, and suggested that it would be better to place it +across that end of the room where the pianoforte then stood. They +examined it and found that it would easily admit of removal, being, in +fact, only the frame of a bookcase, and showing at the back the painted +panelling of the wall. Mr. Gaskell noted it as curious that all the +shelves were fixed and immovable except one at the end, which had been +fitted with the ordinary arrangement allowing its position to be altered +at will. My brother thought that the change would improve the appearance +of his rooms, besides being advantageous for the books, and gave +instructions to the college upholsterer to have the necessary work +carried out at once. +</p> +<p> +The two young men had resumed their musical studies, and had often +played the "Areopagita" and other music of Graziani since their return +to Oxford in the Autumn. They remarked, however, that the chair no +longer creaked during the <i>Gagliarda</i>—and, in fact, that no unusual +occurrence whatever attended its performance. At times they were almost +tempted to doubt the accuracy of their own remembrances, and to consider +as entirely mythical the mystery which had so much disturbed them in the +summer term. My brother had also pointed out to Mr. Gaskell my discovery +that the coat of arms on the outside of the music-book was identical +with that which his fancy portrayed on the musicians' gallery. He +readily admitted that he must at some time have noticed and afterwards +forgotten the blazon on the book, and that an unconscious reminiscence +of it had no doubt inspired his imagination in this instance. He rebuked +my brother for having agitated me unnecessarily by telling me at all of +so idle a tale; and was pleased to write a few lines to me at Worth +Maltravers, felicitating me on my shrewdness of perception, but speaking +banteringly of the whole matter. +</p> +<p> +On the evening of the 14th of November my brother and his friend were +sitting talking in the former's room. The position of the bookcase had +been changed on the morning of that day, and Mr. Gaskell had come round +to see how the books looked when placed at the end instead of at the +side of the room. He had applauded the new arrangement, and the young +men sat long over the fire, with a bottle of college port and a dish of +medlars which I had sent my brother from our famous tree in the Upper +Croft at Worth Maltravers. Later on they fell to music, and played a +variety of pieces, performing also the "Areopagita" suite. Mr. Gaskell +before he left complimented John on the improvement which the alteration +in the place of the bookcase had made in his room, saying, "Not only +do the books in their present place very much enhance the general +appearance of the room, but the change seems to me to have affected also +a marked acoustical improvement. The oak panelling now exposed on the +side of the room has given a resonant property to the wall which is +peculiarly responsive to the tones of your violin. While you were +playing the <i>Gagliarda</i> to-night, I could almost have imagined that +someone in an adjacent room was playing the same air with a <i>sordino</i>, +so distinct was the echo." +</p> +<p> +Shortly after this he left. +</p> +<p> +My brother partly undressed himself in his bedroom, which adjoined, and +then returning to his sitting-room, pulled the large wicker chair in +front of the fire, and sat there looking at the glowing coals, and +thinking perhaps of Miss Constance Temple. The night promised to be very +cold, and the wind whistled down the chimney, increasing the comfortable +sensation of the clear fire. He sat watching the ruddy reflection of the +firelight dancing on the panelled wall, when he noticed that a picture +placed where the end of the bookcase formerly stood was not truly hung, +and needed adjustment. A picture hung askew was particularly offensive +to his eyes, and he got up at once to alter it. He remembered as he went +up to it that at this precise spot four months ago he had lost sight +of the man's figure which he saw rise from the wicker chair, and at +the memory felt an involuntary shudder. This reminiscence probably +influenced his fancy also in another direction; for it seemed to him +that very faintly, as though played far off, and with the <i>sordino</i>, +he could hear the air of the <i>Gagliarda</i>. He put one hand behind the +picture to steady it, and as he did so his finger struck a very slight +projection in the wall. He pulled the picture a little to one side, and +saw that what he had touched was the back of a small hinge sunk in the +wall, and almost obliterated with many coats of paint. His curiosity +was excited, and he took a candle from the table and examined the wall +carefully. Inspection soon showed him another hinge a little further up, +and by degrees he perceived that one of the panels had been made at some +time in the past to open, and serve probably as the door of a cupboard. +At this point he assured me that a feverish anxiety to re-open this +cupboard door took possession of him, and that the intense excitement +filled his mind which we experience on the eve of a discovery which +we fancy may produce important results. He loosened the paint in the +cracks with a penknife, and attempted to press open the door; but his +instrument was not adequate to such a purpose, and all his efforts +remained ineffective. His excitement had now reached an overmastering +pitch; for he anticipated, though he knew not why, some strange +discovery to be made in this sealed cupboard. He looked round the room +for some weapon with which to force the door, and at length with his +penknife cut away sufficient wood at the joint to enable him to insert +the end of the poker in the hole. The clock in the New College Tower +struck one at the exact moment when with a sharp effort he thus forced +open the door. It appeared never to have had a fastening, but merely to +have been stuck fast by the accumulation of paint. As he bent it slowly +back upon the rusted hinges his heart beat so fast that he could +scarcely catch his breath, though he was conscious all the while of a +ludicrous aspect of his position, knowing that it was most probable +that the cavity within would be found empty. The cupboard was small but +very deep, and in the obscure light seemed at first to contain nothing +except a small heap of dust and cobwebs. His sense of disappointment was +keen as he thrust his hand into it, but changed again in a moment to +breathless interest on feeling something solid in what he had imagined +to be only an accumulation of mould and dirt. He snatched up a candle, +and holding this in one hand, with the other pulled out an object from +the cupboard and put it on the table, covered as it was with the curious +drapery of black and clinging cobwebs which I have seen adhering to +bottles of old wine. It lay there between the dish of medlars and the +decanter, veiled indeed with thick dust as with a mantle, but revealing +beneath it the shape and contour of a violin. +</p> +<a name="h2HCH0007" id="h2HCH0007"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER VII +</h2> +<p> +John was excited at his discovery, and felt his thoughts confused in a +manner that I have often experienced myself on the unexpected receipt of +news interesting me deeply, whether for pleasure or pain. Yet at the +same time he was half amused at his own excitement, feeling that it +was childish to be moved over an event so simple as the finding of a +violin in an old cupboard. He soon collected himself and took up the +instrument, using great care, as he feared lest age should have rendered +the wood brittle or rotten. With some vigorous puffs of breath and a +little dusting with a handkerchief he removed the heavy outer coating +of cobwebs, and began to see more clearly the delicate curves of the +body and of the scroll. A few minutes' more gentle handling left the +instrument sufficiently clean to enable him to appreciate its chief +points. Its seclusion from the outer world, which the heavy accumulation +of dust proved to have been for many years, did not seem to have damaged +it in the least; and the fact of a chimney-flue passing through the wall +at no great distance had no doubt conduced to maintain the air in the +cupboard at an equable temperature. So far as he was able to judge, the +wood was as sound as when it left the maker's hands; but the strings +were of course broken, and curled up in little tangled knots. The body +was of a light-red colour, with a varnish of peculiar lustre and +softness. The neck seemed rather longer than ordinary, and the scroll +was remarkably bold and free. +</p> +<p> +The violin which my brother was in the habit of using was a fine +<i>Pressenda</i>, given to him on his fifteenth birthday by Mr. Thoresby, his +guardian. It was of that maker's later and best period, and a copy of +the Stradivarius model. John took this from its case and laid it side by +side with his new discovery, meaning to compare them for size and form. +He perceived at once that while the model of both was identical, the +superiority of the older violin in every detail was so marked as to +convince him that it was undoubtedly an instrument of exceptional value. +The extreme beauty of its varnish impressed him vividly, and though he +had never seen a genuine Stradivarius, he felt a conviction gradually +gaining on him that he stood in the presence of a masterpiece of that +great maker. On looking into the interior he found that surprisingly +little dust had penetrated into it, and by blowing through the +sound-holes he soon cleared it sufficiently to enable him to discern a +label. He put the candle close to him, and held the violin up so that +a little patch of light fell through the sound-hole on to the label. +His heart leapt with a violent pulsation as he read the characters, +"<i>Antonius Stradiuarius Cremonensis faciebat</i>, 1704." Under ordinary +circumstances it would naturally be concluded that such a label was +a forgery, but the conditions were entirely altered in the case of a +violin found in a forgotten cupboard, with proof so evident of its +having remained there for a very long period. +</p> +<p> +He was not at that time as familiar with the history of the fiddles of +the great maker as he, and indeed I also, afterwards became. Thus he +was unable to decide how far the exact year of its manufacture would +determine its value as compared with other specimens of Stradivarius. +But although the Pressenda he had been used to play on was always +considered a very fine instrument both in make and varnish, his new +discovery so far excelled it in both points as to assure him that it +must be one of the Cremonese master's greatest productions. +</p> +<p> +He examined the violin minutely, scrutinising each separate feature, +and finding each in turn to be of the utmost perfection, so far as his +knowledge of the instrument would enable him to judge. He lit more +candles that he might be able better to see it, and holding it on his +knees, sat still admiring it until the dying fire and increasing cold +warned him that the night was now far advanced. At last, carrying it to +his bedroom, he locked it carefully into a drawer and retired for the +night. +</p> +<p> +He woke next morning with that pleasurable consciousness of there +being some reason for gladness, which we feel on waking in seasons of +happiness, even before our reason, locating it, reminds us what the +actual source of our joy may be. He was at first afraid lest his +excitement, working on the imagination, should have led him on the +previous night to overestimate the fineness of the instrument, and he +took it from the drawer half expecting to be disappointed with its +daylight appearance. But a glance sufficed to convince him of the +unfounded nature of his suspicions. The various beauties which he had +before observed were enhanced a hundredfold by the light of day, and he +realised more fully than ever that the instrument was one of altogether +exceptional value. +</p> +<p> +And now, my dear Edward, I shall ask your forgiveness if in the history +I have to relate any observation of mine should seem to reflect on the +character of your late father, Sir John Maltravers. And I beg you to +consider that your father was also my dear and only brother, and that it +is inexpressibly painful to me to recount any actions of his which may +not seem becoming to a noble gentleman, as he surely was. I only now +proceed because, when very near his end, he most strictly enjoined me to +narrate these circumstances to you fully when you should come of age. +We must humbly remember that to God alone belongs judgment, and that +it is not for poor mortals to decide what is right or wrong in certain +instances for their fellows, but that each should strive most earnestly +to do his own duty. +</p> +<p> +Your father entirely concealed from me the discovery he had made. It +was not till long afterwards that I had it narrated to me, and I only +obtained a knowledge of this and many other of the facts which I am now +telling you at a date much subsequent to their actual occurrence. +</p> +<p> +He explained to his servant that he had discovered and opened an old +cupboard in the panelling, without mentioning the fact of his having +found anything in it, but merely asking him to give instructions for the +paint to be mended and the cupboard put into a usable state. Before he +had finished a very late breakfast Mr. Gaskell was with him, and it has +been a source of lasting regret to me that my brother concealed also +from his most intimate and trusted friend the discovery of the previous +night. He did, indeed, tell him that he had found and opened an old +cupboard in the panelling, but made no mention of there having been +anything within. I cannot say what prompted him to this action; for the +two young men had for long been on such intimate terms that the one +shared almost as a matter of course with the other any pleasure or pain +which might fall to his lot. Mr. Gaskell looked at the cupboard with +some interest, saying afterwards, "I know now, Johnnie, why the one +shelf of the bookcase which stood there was made movable when all the +others were fixed. Some former occupant used the cupboard, no doubt, +as a secret receptacle for his treasures, and masked it with the +book-shelves in front. Who knows what he kept in here, or who he was! I +should not be surprised if he were that very man who used to come here +so often to hear us play the 'Areopagita,' and whom you saw that night +last June. He had the one shelf made, you see, to move so as to give him +access to this cavity on occasion: then when he left Oxford, or perhaps +died, the mystery was forgotten, and with a few times of painting the +cracks closed up." +</p> +<p> +Mr. Gaskell shortly afterwards took his leave as he had a lecture +to attend, and my brother was left alone to the contemplation of his +new-found treasure. After some consideration he determined that he would +take the instrument to London, and obtain the opinion of an expert as +to its authenticity and value. He was well acquainted with the late Mr. +George Smart, the celebrated London dealer, from whom his guardian, Mr. +Thoresby, had purchased the Pressenda violin which John commonly used. +Besides being a dealer in valuable instruments, Mr. Smart was a famous +collector of Stradivarius fiddles, esteemed one of the first authorities +in Europe in that domain of art, and author of a valuable work of +reference in connection with it. It was to him, therefore, that my +brother decided to submit the violin, and he wrote a letter to Mr. Smart +saying that he should give himself the pleasure of waiting on him the +next day on a matter of business. He then called on his tutor, and with +some excuse obtained leave to journey to London the next morning. He +spent the rest of the day in very carefully cleaning the violin, and +noon of the next saw him with it, securely packed, in Mr. Smart's +establishment in Bond Street. +</p> +<p> +Mr. Smart received Sir John Maltravers with deference, demanded in what +way he could serve him; and on hearing that his opinion was required on +the authenticity of a violin, smiled somewhat dubiously and led the way +into a back parlour. +</p> +<p> +"My dear Sir John," he said, "I hope you have not been led into buying +any instrument by a faith in its antiquity. So many good copies of +instruments by famous makers and bearing their labels are now afloat, +that the chances of obtaining a genuine fiddle from an unrecognised +source are quite remote; of hundreds of violins submitted to me for +opinion, I find that scarce one in fifty is actually that which it +represents itself to be. In fact the only safe rule," he added as a +professional commentary, "is never to buy a violin unless you obtain it +from a dealer with a reputation to lose, and are prepared to pay a +reasonable price for it." +</p> +<p> +My brother had meanwhile unpacked the violin and laid it on the table. +As he took from it the last leaf of silver paper he saw Mr. Smart's +smile of condescension fade, and assuming a look of interest and +excitement, he stepped forward, took the violin in his hands, and +scrutinised it minutely. He turned it over in silence for some moments, +looking narrowly at each feature, and even applying the test of a +magnifying-glass. At last he said with an altered tone, "Sir John, I +have had in my hands nearly all the finest productions of Stradivarius, +and thought myself acquainted with every instrument of note that ever +left his workshop; but I confess myself mistaken, and apologise to you +for the doubt which I expressed as to the instrument you had brought me. +This violin is of the great master's golden period, is incontestably +genuine, and finer in some respects than any Stradivarius that I have +ever seen, not even excepting the famous <i>Dolphin</i> itself. You need be +under no apprehension as to its authenticity: no connoisseur could hold +it in his hand for a second and entertain a doubt on the point." +</p> +<p> +My brother was greatly pleased at so favourable a verdict, and Mr. Smart +continued— +</p> +<p> +"The varnish is of that rich red which Stradivarius used in his best +period after he had abandoned the yellow tint copied by him at first +from his master Amati. I have never seen a varnish thicker or more +lustrous, and it shows on the back that peculiar shading to imitate wear +which we term 'breaking up.' The purfling also is of an unsurpassable +excellence. Its execution is so fine that I should recommend you to use +a magnifying-glass for its examination." +</p> +<p> +So he ran on, finding from moment to moment some new beauties to +admire. +</p> +<p> +My brother was at first anxious lest Mr. Smart should ask him whence so +extraordinary an instrument came, but he saw that the expert had already +jumped to a conclusion in the matter. He knew that John had recently +come of age, and evidently supposed that he had found the violin among +the heirlooms of Worth Maltravers. John allowed Mr. Smart to continue in +this misconception, merely saying that he had discovered the instrument +in an old cupboard, where he had reason to think it had remained hidden +for many years. +</p> +<p> +"Are there no records attached to so splendid an instrument?" asked Mr. +Smart. "I suppose it has been with your family a number of years. Do you +not know how it came into their possession?" +</p> +<p> +I believe this was the first occasion on which it had occurred to John +to consider what right he had to the possession of the instrument. He +had been so excited by its discovery that the question of ownership had +never hitherto crossed his mind. The unwelcome suggestion that it was +not his after all, that the College might rightfully prefer a claim to +it, presented itself to him for a moment; but he set it instantly aside, +quieting his conscience with the reflection that this at least was not +the moment to make such a disclosure. +</p> +<p> +He fenced with Mr. Smart's inquiry as best he could, saying that he was +ignorant of the history of the instrument, but not contradicting the +assumption that it had been a long time in his family's possession. +</p> +<p> +"It is indeed singular," Mr. Smart continued, "that so magnificent +an instrument should have lain buried so long; that even those best +acquainted with such matters should be in perfect ignorance of its +existence. I shall have to revise the list of famous instruments in the +next edition of my 'History of the Violin,' and to write," he added +smiling, "a special paragraph on the 'Worth Maltravers Stradivarius.'" +</p> +<p> +After much more, which I need not narrate, Mr. Smart suggested that +the violin should be left with him that he might examine it more at +leisure, and that my brother should return in a week's time, when he +would have the instrument opened, an operation which would be in any +case advisable. "The interior," he added, "appears to be in a strictly +original state, and this I shall be able to ascertain when opened. The +label is perfect, but if I am not mistaken I can see something higher up +on the back which appears like a second label. This excites my interest, +as I know of no instance of an instrument bearing two labels." +</p> +<p> +To this proposal my brother readily assented, being anxious to enjoy +alone the pleasure of so gratifying a discovery as that of the undoubted +authenticity of the instrument. +</p> +<p> +As he thought over the matter more at leisure, he grew anxious as to +what might be the import of the second label in the violin of which Mr. +Smart had spoken. I blush to say that he feared lest it might bear some +owner's name or other inscription proving that the instrument had not +been so long in the Maltravers family as he had allowed Mr. Smart to +suppose. So within so short a time it was possible that Sir John +Maltravers of Worth should dread being detected, if not in an absolute +falsehood, at least in having by his silence assented to one. +</p> +<p> +During the ensuing week John remained in an excited and anxious +condition. He did little work, and neglected his friends, having his +thoughts continually occupied with the strange discovery he had made. +I know also that his sense of honour troubled him, and that he was not +satisfied with the course he was pursuing. The evening of his return +from London he went to Mr. Gaskell's rooms at New College, and spent an +hour conversing with him on indifferent subjects. In the course of their +talk he proposed to his friend as a moral problem the question of the +course of action to be taken were one to find some article of value +concealed in his room. Mr. Gaskell answered unhesitatingly that he +should feel bound to disclose it to the authorities. He saw that my +brother was ill at ease, and with a clearness of judgment which he +always exhibited, guessed that he had actually made some discovery of +this sort in the old cupboard in his rooms. He could not divine, of +course, the exact nature of the object found, and thought it might +probably relate to a hoard of gold; but insisted with much urgency on +the obligation to at once disclose anything of this kind. My brother, +however, misled, I fear, by that feeling of inalienable right which the +treasure-hunter experiences over the treasure, paid no more attention to +the advice of his friend than to the promptings of his own conscience, +and went his way. +</p> +<p> +From that day, my dear Edward, he began to exhibit a spirit of +secretiveness and reserve entirely alien to his own open and honourable +disposition, and also saw less of Mr. Gaskell. His friend tried, indeed, +to win his confidence and affection in every way in his power; but in +spite of this the rift between them widened insensibly, and my brother +lost the fellowship and counsel of a true friend at a time when he could +ill afford to be without them. +</p> +<p> +He returned to London the ensuing week, and met Mr. George Smart by +appointment in Bond Street. If the expert had been enthusiastic on a +former occasion, he was ten times more so on this. He spoke in terms +almost of rapture about the violin. He had compared it with two +magnificent instruments in the collection of the late Mr. James Loding, +then the finest in Europe; and it was admittedly superior to either, +both in the delicate markings of its wood and singularly fine varnish. +"Of its tone," he said, "we cannot, of course, yet pronounce with +certainty, but I am very sure that its voice will not belie its splendid +exterior. It has been carefully opened, and is in a strangely perfect +condition. Several persons eminently qualified to judge unite with me +in considering that it has been exceedingly little played upon, and +admit that never has so intact an interior been seen. The scroll is +exceptionally bold and original. Although undoubtedly from the hand of +the great master, this is of a pattern entirely different and distinct +from any that have ever come under my observation." +</p> +<p> +He then pointed out to my brother that the side lines of the scroll were +unusually deeply cut, and that the front of it projected far more than +is common with such instruments. +</p> +<p> +"The most remarkable feature," he concluded, "is that the instrument +bears a double label. Besides the label which you have already seen +bearing '<i>Antonius Stradiuarius Cremonensis faciebat</i>,' with the date of +his most splendid period, 1704, so clearly that the ink seems scarcely +dry, there is another smaller one higher up on the back which I will +show you." +</p> +<p> +He took the violin apart and showed him a small label with characters +written in faded ink. "That is the writing of Antonio Stradivarius +himself, and is easily recognisable, though it is much firmer than +a specimen which I once saw, written in extreme old age, and giving +his name and the date 1736. He was then ninety-two, and died in the +following year. But this, as you will see, does not give his name, but +merely the two words '<i>Porphyrius philosophus</i>.' What this may refer +to I cannot say: it is beyond my experience. My friend Mr. Calvert has +suggested that Stradivarius may have dedicated this violin to the pagan +philosopher, or named it after him; but this seems improbable. I have, +indeed, heard of two famous violins being called 'Peter' and 'Paul,' +but the instances of such naming are very rare; and I believe it to be +altogether without precedent to find a name attached thus on a label. +</p> +<p> +"In any case, I must leave this matter to your ingenuity to decipher. +Neither the sound-post nor the bass-bar have ever been moved, and you +see here a Stradivarius violin wearing exactly the same appearance as +it once wore in the great master's workshop, and in exactly the same +condition; yet I think the belly is sufficiently strong to stand modern +stringing. I should advise you to leave the instrument with me for some +little while, that I may give it due care and attention and ensure its +being properly strung." +</p> +<p> +My brother thanked him and left the violin with him, saying that he +would instruct him later by letter to what address he wished it sent. +</p> +<a name="h2HCH0008" id="h2HCH0008"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER VIII +</h2> +<p> +Within a few days after this the autumn term came to an end, and in +the second week of December John returned to Worth Maltravers for +the Christmas vacation. His advent was always a very great pleasure +to me, and on this occasion I had looked forward to his company with +anticipation keener than usual, as I had been disappointed of the visit +of a friend and had spent the last month alone. After the joy of our +first meeting had somewhat sobered, it was not long before I remarked a +change in his manner, which puzzled me. It was not that he was less kind +to me, for I think he was even more tenderly forbearing and gentle than +I had ever known him, but I had an uneasy feeling that some shadow had +crept in between us. It was the small cloud rising in the distance that +afterwards darkened his horizon and mine. I missed the old candour and +open-hearted frankness that he had always shown; and there seemed to be +always something in the background which he was trying to keep from me. +It was obvious that his thoughts were constantly elsewhere, so much so +that on more than one occasion he returned vague and incoherent answers +to my questions. At times I was content to believe that he was in love, +and that his thoughts were with Miss Constance Temple; but even so, +I could not persuade myself that his altered manner was to be thus +entirely accounted for. At other times a dazed air, entirely foreign to +his bright disposition, which I observed particularly in the morning, +raised in my mind the terrible suspicion that he was in the habit of +taking some secret narcotic or other deleterious drug. +</p> +<p> +We had never spent a Christmas away from Worth Maltravers, and it had +always been a season of quiet joy for both of us. But under these +altered circumstances it was a great relief and cause of thankfulness +to me to receive a letter from Mrs. Temple inviting us both to spend +Christmas and New Year at Royston. This invitation had upon my brother +precisely the effect that I had hoped for. It roused him from his moody +condition, and he professed much pleasure in accepting it, especially as +he had never hitherto been in Derbyshire. +</p> +<p> +There was a small but very agreeable party at Royston, and we passed a +most enjoyable fortnight. My brother seemed thoroughly to have shaken +off his indisposition; and I saw my fondest hopes realised in the warm +attachment which was evidently springing up between him and Miss +Constance Temple. +</p> +<p> +Our visit drew near its close, and it was within a week of John's return +to Oxford. Mrs. Temple celebrated the termination of the Christmas +festivities by giving a ball on Twelfth-night, at which a large party +were present, including most of the county families. Royston was +admirably adapted for such entertainments, from the number and great +size of its reception-rooms. Though Elizabethan in date and external +appearance, succeeding generations had much modified and enlarged the +house; and an ancestor in the middle of the last century had built at +the back an enormous hall after the classic model, and covered it with a +dome or cupola. In this room the dancing went forward. Supper was served +in the older hall in the front, and it was while this was in progress +that a thunderstorm began. The rarity of such a phenomenon in the depth +of winter formed the subject of general remark; but though the lightning +was extremely brilliant, being seen distinctly through the curtained +windows, the storm appeared to be at some distance, and, except for one +peal, the thunder was not loud. After supper dancing was resumed, and +I was taking part in a polka (called, I remember, the "<i>King Pippin</i>"), +when my partner pointed out that one of the footmen wished to speak with +me. I begged him to lead me to one side, and the servant then informed +me that my brother was ill. Sir John, he said, had been seized with a +fainting fit, but had been got to bed, and was being attended by Dr. +Empson, a physician who chanced to be present among the visitors. +</p> +<p> +I at once left the hall and hurried to my brother's room. On the way +I met Mrs. Temple and Constance, the latter much agitated and in tears. +Mrs. Temple assured me that Dr. Empson reported favourably of my +brother's condition, attributing his faintness to over-exertion in the +dancing-room. The medical man had got him to bed with the assistance of +Sir John's valet, had given him a quieting draught, and ordered that he +should not be disturbed for the present. It was better that I should not +enter the room; she begged that I would kindly comfort and reassure +Constance, who was much upset, while she herself returned to her guests. +</p> +<p> +I led Constance to my bedroom, where there was a bright fire burning, +and calmed her as best I could. Her interest in my brother was evidently +very real and unaffected, and while not admitting her partiality for him +in words, she made no effort to conceal her sentiments from me. I kissed +her tenderly, and bade her narrate the circumstances of John's attack. +</p> +<p> +It seemed that after supper they had gone upstairs into the music-room, +and he had himself proposed that they should walk thence into the +picture-gallery, where they would better he able to see the lightning, +which was then particularly vivid. The picture-gallery at Royston is a +very long, narrow, and rather low room, running the whole length of the +south wing, and terminating in a large Tudor oriel or flat bay window +looking east. In this oriel they had sat for some time watching the +flashes, and the wintry landscape revealed for an instant and then +plunged into outer blackness. The gallery itself was not illuminated, +and the effect of the lightning was very fine. +</p> +<p> +There had been an unusually bright flash accompanied by that single +reverberating peal of thunder which I had previously noticed. Constance +had spoken to my brother, but he had not replied, and in a moment she +saw that he had swooned. She summoned aid without delay, but it was some +short time before consciousness had been restored to him. +</p> +<p> +She had concluded this narrative, and sat holding my hand in hers. We +were speculating on the cause of my brother's illness, thinking it might +be due to over-exertion, or to sitting in a chilly atmosphere as the +picture-gallery was not warmed, when Mrs. Temple knocked at the door and +said that John was now more composed and desired earnestly to see me. +</p> +<p> +On entering my brother's bedroom I found him sitting up in bed wearing a +dressing-gown. Parnham, his valet, who was arranging the fire, left the +room as I came in. A chair stood at the head of the bed and I sat down +by him. He took my hand in his and without a word burst into tears. +"Sophy," he said, "I am so unhappy, and I have sent for you to tell you +of my trouble, because I know you will be forbearing to me. An hour +ago all seemed so bright. I was sitting in the picture-gallery with +Constance, whom I love dearly. We had been watching the lightning, till +the thunder had grown fainter and the storm seemed past. I was just +about to ask her to become my wife when a brighter flash than all the +rest burst on us, and I saw—I saw, Sophy, standing in the gallery as +close to me as you are now—I saw—that man I told you about at Oxford; +and then this faintness came on me." +</p> +<p> +"Whom do you mean?" I said, not understanding what he spoke of, and +thinking for a moment he referred to someone else. "Did you see Mr. +Gaskell?" +</p> +<p> +"No, it was not he; but that dead man whom I saw rising from my wicker +chair the night you went away from Oxford." +</p> +<p> +You will perhaps smile at my weakness, my dear Edward, and indeed I had +at that time no justification for it; but I assure you that I have not +yet forgotten, and never shall forget, the impression of overwhelming +horror which his words produced upon me. It seemed as though a fear +which had hitherto stood vague and shadowy in the background, began now +to advance towards me, gathering more distinctness as it approached. +There was to me something morbidly terrible about the apparition of this +man at such a momentous crisis in my brother's life, and I at once +recognised that unknown form as being the shadow which was gradually +stealing between John and myself. Though I feigned incredulity as best +I might, and employed those arguments or platitudes which will always be +used on such occasions, urging that such a phantom could only exist in a +mind disordered by physical weakness, my brother was not deceived by my +words, and perceived in a moment that I did not even believe in them +myself. +</p> +<p> +"Dearest Sophy," he said, with a much calmer air, "let us put aside all +dissimulation. I <i>know</i> that what I have to-night seen, and that what I +saw last summer at Oxford, are <i>not</i> phantoms of my brain; and I believe +that you too in your inmost soul are convinced of this truth. Do not, +therefore, endeavour to persuade me to the contrary. If I am not to +believe the evidence of my senses, it were better at once to admit my +madness—and I know that I am not mad. Let us rather consider what such +an appearance can portend, and who the man is who is thus presented. +I cannot explain to you why this appearance inspires me with so great +a revulsion. I can only say that in its presence I seem to be brought +face to face with some abysmal and repellent wickedness. It is not that +the form he wears is hideous. Last night I saw him exactly as I saw him +at Oxford—his face waxen pale, with a sneering mouth, the same lofty +forehead, and hair brushed straight up so as almost to appear standing +on end. He wore the same long coat of green cloth and white waistcoat. +He seemed as if he had been standing listening to what we said, though +we had not seen him till this bright flash of lightning made him +manifest. You will remember that when I saw him at Oxford his eyes were +always cast down, so that I never knew their colour. This time they were +wide open; indeed he was looking full at us, and they were a light brown +and very brilliant." +</p> +<p> +I saw that my brother was exciting himself, and was still weak from his +recent swoon. I knew, too, that any ordinary person of strong mind would +say at once that his brain wandered, and yet I had a dreadful conviction +all the while that what he told me was the truth. All I could do was to +beg him to calm himself, and to reflect how vain such fancies must be. +"We must trust, dear John," I said, "in God. I am sure that so long as +we are not living in conscious sin, we shall never be given over to any +evil power; and I know my brother too well to think that he is doing +anything he knows to be evil. If there be evil spirits, as we are taught +there are, we are taught also that there are good spirits stronger than +they, who will protect us." +</p> +<p> +So I spoke with him a little while, until he grew calmer; and then we +talked of Constance and of his love for her. He was deeply pleased to +hear from me how she had shown such obvious, signs of interest in his +illness, and sincere affection for him. In any case, he made me promise +that I would never mention to her either what he had seen this night or +last summer at Oxford. +</p> +<p> +It had grown late, and the undulating beat of the dances, which had +been distinctly sensible in his room—even though we could not hear +any definite noise—had now ceased. Mrs. Temple knocked at the door as +she went to bed and inquired how he did, giving him at the same time +a kind message of sympathy from Constance, which afforded him much +gratification. After she had left I prepared also to retire; but before +going he begged me to take a prayer-book lying on the table, and to read +aloud a collect which he pointed out. It was that for the second Sunday +in Lent, and evidently well known to him. As I read it the words seemed +to bear a new and deeper significance, and my heart repeated with +fervour the petition for protection from those "evil thoughts which may +assault and hurt the soul." I bade him good night and went away very +sorrowful. Parnham, at John's request, had arranged to sleep on a sofa +in his master's bedroom. +</p> +<p> +I rose betimes the next morning and inquired at my brother's room how +he was. Parnham reported that he had passed a restless night, and on +entering a little later I found him in a high fever, slightly delirious, +and evidently not so well as when I saw him last. Mrs. Temple, with much +kindness and forethought, had begged Dr. Empson to remain at Royston for +the night, and he was soon in attendance on his patient. His verdict +was sufficiently grave: John was suffering from a sharp access of +brain-fever; his condition afforded cause for alarm; he could not answer +for any turn his sickness might take. You will easily imagine how much +this intelligence affected me; and Mrs. Temple and Constance shared my +anxiety and solicitude. Constance and I talked much with one another +that morning. Unaffected anxiety had largely removed her reserve, and +she spoke openly of her feelings towards my brother, not concealing her +partiality for him. I on my part let her understand how welcome to me +would be any union between her and John, and how sincerely I should +value her as a sister. +</p> +<p> +It was a wild winter's morning, with some snow falling and a high wind. +The house was in the disordered condition which is generally observable +on the day following a ball or other important festivity. I roamed +restlessly about, and at last found my way to the picture-gallery, +which had formed the scene of John's adventure on the previous night. +I had never been in this part of the house before, as it contained no +facilities for heating, and so often remained shut in the winter months. +I found a listless pleasure in admiring the pictures which lined the +walls, most of them being portraits of former members of the family, +including the famous picture of Sir Ralph Temple and his family, +attributed to Holbein. I had reached the end of the gallery and sat +down in the oriel watching the snow-flakes falling sparsely, and the +evergreens below me waving wildly in the sudden rushes of the wind. My +thoughts were busy with the events of the previous evening,—with John's +illness, with the ball,—and I found myself humming the air of a waltz +that had caught my fancy. At last I turned away from the garden scene +towards the gallery, and as I did so my eyes fell on a remarkable +picture just opposite to me. +</p> +<p> +It was a full-length portrait of a young man, life-size, and I had +barely time to appreciate even its main features when I knew that I had +before me the painted counterfeit of my brother's vision. The discovery +caused me a violent shock, and it was with an infinite repulsion that +I recognised at once the features and dress of the man whom John had +seen rising from the chair at Oxford. So accurately had my brother's +imagination described him to me, that it seemed as if I had myself seen +him often before. I noted each feature, comparing them with my brother's +description, and finding them all familiar and corresponding exactly. +He was a man still in the prime of life. His features were regular and +beautifully modelled; yet there was something in his face that inspired +me with a deep aversion, though his brown eyes were open and brilliant. +His mouth was sharply cut, with a slight sneer on the lips, and his +complexion of that extreme pallor which had impressed itself deeply on +my brother's imagination and my own. +</p> +<p> +After the first intense surprise had somewhat subsided, I experienced +a feeling of great relief, for here was an extraordinary explanation +of my brother's vision of last night. It was certain that the flash +of lightning had lit up this ill-starred picture, and that to his +predisposed fancy the painted figure had stood forth as an actual +embodiment. That such an incident, however startling, should have been +able to fling John into a brain-fever, showed that he must already have +been in a very low and reduced state, on which excitement would act much +more powerfully than on a more robust condition of health. A similar +state of weakness, perturbed by the excitement of his passion for +Constance Temple, might surely also have conjured up the vision which +he thought he saw the night of our leaving Oxford in the summer. +These thoughts, my dear Edward, gave me great relief; for it seemed +a comparatively trivial matter that my brother should be ill, even +seriously ill, if only his physical indisposition could explain away the +supernatural dread which had haunted us for the past six months. The +clouds were breaking up. It was evident that John had been seriously +unwell for some months; his physical weakness had acted on his brain; +and I had lent colour to his wandering fancies by being alarmed by them, +instead of rejecting them at once or gently laughing them away as I +should have done. But these glad thoughts took me too far, and I was +suddenly brought up by a reflection that did not admit of so simple an +explanation. If the man's form my brother saw at Oxford were merely an +effort of disordered imagination, how was it that he had been able to +describe it exactly like that represented in this picture? He had never +in his life been to Royston, therefore he could have no image of the +picture impressed unconsciously on or hidden away in his mind. Yet his +description had never varied. It had been so close as to enable me to +produce in my fancy a vivid representation of the man he had seen; and +here I had before me the features and dress exactly reproduced. In the +presence of a coincidence so extraordinary reason stood confounded, and +I knew not what to think. I walked nearer to the picture and scrutinised +it closely. +</p> +<p> +The dress corresponded in every detail with that which my brother had +described the figure as wearing at Oxford: a long cut-away coat of green +cloth with an edge of gold embroidery, a white satin waistcoat with +sprigs of embroidered roses, gold-lace at the pocket-holes, buff silk +knee-breeches, and low down on the finely modelled neck a full cravat +of rich lace. The figure was posed negligently against a fluted stone +pedestal or short column on which the left elbow leant, and the right +foot was crossed lightly over the left. His shoes were of polished +black leather with heavy silver buckles, and the whole costume was very +old-fashioned, and such as I had only seen worn at fancy dress balls. On +the foot of the pedestal was the painter's name, "BATTONI pinxit, Romæ, +1750." On the top of the pedestal, and under his left elbow, was a long +roll apparently of music, of which one end, unfolded, hung over the +edge. +</p> +<p> +For some minutes I stood still gazing at this portrait which so much +astonished me, but turned on hearing footsteps in the gallery, and saw +Constance, who had come to seek for me. +</p> +<p> +"Constance," I said, "whose portrait is this? It is a very striking +picture, is it not?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, it is a splendid painting, though of a very bad man. His name was +Adrian Temple, and he once owned Royston. I do not know much about him, +but I believe he was very wicked and very clever. My mother would be +able to tell you more. It is a picture we none of us like, although so +finely painted; and perhaps because he was always pointed out to me from +childhood as a bad man, I have myself an aversion to it. It is singular +that when the very bright flash of lightning came last night while your +brother John and I were sitting here, it lit this picture with a +dazzling glare that made the figure stand out so strangely as to seem +almost alive. It was just after that I found that John had fainted." +</p> +<p> +The memory was not a pleasant one for either of us and we changed the +subject. "Come," I said, "let us leave the gallery, it is very cold +here." +</p> +<p> +Though I said nothing more at the time, her words had made a great +impression on me. It was so strange that, even with the little she knew +of this Adrian Temple, she should speak at once of his notoriously evil +life, and of her personal dislike to the picture. Remembering what my +brother had said on the previous night, that in the presence of this man +he felt himself brought face to face with some indescribable wickedness, +I could not but be surprised at the coincidence. The whole story seemed +to me now to resemble one of those puzzle pictures or maps which I have +played with as a child, where each bit fits into some other until the +outline is complete. It was as if I were finding the pieces one by one +of a bygone history, and fitting them to one another until some terrible +whole should be gradually built up and stand out in its complete +deformity. +</p> +<p> +Dr. Empson spoke gravely of John's illness, and entertained without +reluctance the proposal of Mrs. Temple, that Dr. Dobie, a celebrated +physician in Derby, should be summoned to a consultation. Dr. Dobie came +more than once, and was at last able to report an amendment in John's +condition, though both the doctors absolutely forbade anyone to visit +him, and said that under the most favourable circumstances a period of +some weeks must elapse before he could be moved. +</p> +<p> +Mrs. Temple invited me to remain at Royston until my brother should be +sufficiently convalescent to be moved; and both she and Constance, while +regretting the cause, were good enough to express themselves pleased +that accident should detain me so long with them. +</p> +<p> +As the reports of the doctors became gradually more favourable, and our +minds were in consequence more free to turn to other subjects, I spoke +to Mrs. Temple one day about the picture, saying that it interested me, +and asking for some particulars as to the life of Adrian Temple. +</p> +<p> +"My dear child," she said, "I had rather that you should not exhibit +any curiosity as to this man, whom I wish that we had not to call an +ancestor. I know little of him myself, and indeed his life was of such +a nature as no woman, much less a young girl, would desire to be well +acquainted with. He was, I believe, a man of remarkable talent, and +spent most of his time between Oxford and Italy, though he visited +Royston occasionally, and built the large hall here, which we use as a +dancing-room. Before he was twenty wild stories were prevalent as to his +licentious life, and by thirty his name was a by-word among sober and +upright people. He had constantly with him at Oxford and on his travels +a boon companion called Jocelyn, who aided him in his wickednesses, +until on one of their Italian tours Jocelyn left him suddenly and became +a Trappist monk. It was currently reported that some wild deed of Adrian +Temple had shocked even him, and so outraged his surviving instincts of +common humanity that he was snatched as a brand from the burning and +enabled to turn back even in the full tide of his wickedness. However +that may be, Adrian went on in his evil course without him, and about +four years after disappeared. He was last heard of in Naples, and it is +believed that he succumbed during a violent outbreak of the plague which +took place in Italy in the autumn of 1752. That is all I shall tell you +of him, and indeed I know little more myself. The only good trait that +has been handed down concerning him is that he was a masterly musician, +performing admirably upon the violin, which he had studied under the +illustrious Tartini himself. Yet even his art of music, if tradition +speaks the truth, was put by him to the basest of uses." +</p> +<p> +I apologised for my indiscretion in asking her about an unpleasant +subject, and at the same time thanked her for what she had seen fit to +tell me, professing myself much interested, as indeed I really was. +</p> +<p> +"Was he a handsome man?" +</p> +<p> +"That is a girl's question," she answered, smiling. "He is said to +have been very handsome; and indeed his picture, painted after his +first youth was past, would still lead one to suppose so. But his +complexion was spoiled, it is said, and turned to deadly white by +certain experiments, which it is neither possible nor seemly for us to +understand. His face is of that long oval shape of which all the Temples +are proud, and he had brown eyes: we sometimes tease Constance, saying +she is like Adrian." +</p> +<p> +It was indeed true, as I remembered after Mrs. Temple had pointed it +out, that Constance had a peculiarly long and oval face. It gave her, I +think, an air of staid and placid beauty, which formed in my eyes, and +perhaps in John's also, one of her greatest attractions. +</p> +<p> +"I do not like even his picture," Mrs. Temple continued, "and strange +tales have been narrated of it by idle servants which are not worth +repeating. I have sometimes thought of destroying it; but my late +husband, being a Temple, would never hear of this, or even of removing +it from its present place in the gallery; and I should be loath to do +anything now contrary to his wishes, once so strongly expressed. It is, +besides, very perfect from an artistic point of view, being painted by +Battoni, and in his happiest manner." +</p> +<p> +I could never glean more from Mrs. Temple; but what she told me +interested me deeply. It seemed another link in the chain, though +I could scarcely tell why, that Adrian Temple should be so great a +musician and violinist. I had, I fancy, a dim idea of that malign and +outlawed spirit sitting alone in darkness for a hundred years, until he +was called back by the sweet tones of the Italian music, and the lilt of +the "Areopagita" that he had loved so long ago. +</p> +<a name="h2HCH0009" id="h2HCH0009"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER IX +</h2> +<p> +John's recovery, though continuous and satisfactory, was but slow; +and it was not until Easter, which fell early, that his health was +pronounced to be entirely re-established. The last few weeks of his +convalescence had proved to all of us a time of thankful and tranquil +enjoyment. If I may judge from my own experience, there are few epochs +in our life more favourable to the growth of sentiments of affection +and piety, or more full of pleasurable content, than is the period of +gradual recovery from serious illness. The chastening effect of our +recent sickness has not yet passed away, and we are at once grateful to +our Creator for preserving us, and to our friends for the countless acts +of watchful kindness which it is the peculiar property of illness to +evoke. +</p> +<p> +No mother ever nursed a son more tenderly than did Mrs. Temple nurse +my brother, and before his restoration to health was complete the +attachment between him and Constance had ripened into a formal +betrothal. Such an alliance was, as I have before explained, +particularly suitable, and its prospect afforded the most lively +pleasure to all those concerned. The month of March had been unusually +mild, and Royston being situated in a valley, as is the case with most +houses of that date, was well sheltered from cold winds. It had, +moreover, a south aspect, and as my brother gradually gathered strength, +Constance and he and I would often sit out of doors in the soft spring +mornings. We put an easy-chair with many cushions for him on the gravel +by the front door, where the warmth of the sun was reflected from the +red brick walls, and he would at times read aloud to us while we were +engaged with our crochet-work. Mr. Tennyson had just published +anonymously a first volume of poems, and the sober dignity of his verse +well suited our frame of mind at that time. The memory of those pleasant +spring mornings, my dear Edward, has not yet passed away, and I can +still smell the sweet moist scent of the violets, and see the bright +colours of the crocus-flowers in the parterres in front of us. +</p> +<p> +John's mind seemed to be gathering strength with his body. He had +apparently flung off the cloud which had overshadowed him before his +illness, and avoided entirely any reference to those unpleasant events +which had been previously so constantly in his thoughts. I had, indeed, +taken an early opportunity of telling him of my discovery of the picture +of Adrian Temple, as I thought it would tend to show him that at least +the last appearance of this ghostly form admitted of a rational +explanation. He seemed glad to hear of this, but did not exhibit the +same interest in the matter that I had expected, and allowed it at once +to drop. Whether through lack of interest, or from a lingering dislike +to revisit the spot where he was seized with illness, he did not, I +believe, once enter the picture-gallery before he left Royston. +</p> +<p> +I cannot say as much for myself. The picture of Adrian Temple exerted +a curious fascination over me, and I constantly took an opportunity of +studying it. It was, indeed, a beautiful work; and perhaps because +John's recovery gave a more cheerful tone to my thoughts, or perhaps +from the power of custom to dull even the keenest antipathies, I +gradually got to lose much of the feeling of aversion which it had at +first inspired. In time the unpleasant look grew less unpleasing, and +I noticed more the beautiful oval of the face, the brown eyes, and the +fine chiselling of the features. Sometimes, too, I felt a deep pity for +so clever a gentleman who had died young, and whose life, were it ever +so wicked, must often have been also lonely and bitter. More than once +I had been discovered by Mrs. Temple or Constance sitting looking at the +picture, and they had gently laughed at me, saying that I had fallen in +love with Adrian Temple. +</p> +<p> +One morning in early April, when the sun was streaming brightly through +the oriel, and the picture received a fuller light than usual, it +occurred to me to examine closely the scroll of music painted as hanging +over the top of the pedestal on which the figure leant. I had hitherto +thought that the signs depicted on it were merely such as painters might +conventionally use to represent a piece of musical notation. This has +generally been the case, I think, in such pictures as I have ever seen +in which a piece of music has been introduced. I mean that while the +painting gives a general representation of the musical staves, no +attempt is ever made to paint any definite notes such as would enable an +actual piece to be identified. Though, as I write this, I do remember +that on the monument to Handel in Westminster Abbey there is represented +a musical scroll similar to that in Adrian Temple's picture, but +actually sculptured with the opening phrase of the majestic melody, +"I know that my Redeemer liveth." +</p> +<p> +On this morning, then, at Royston I thought I perceived that there were +painted on the scroll actual musical staves, bars, and notes; and my +interest being excited, I stood upon a chair so as better to examine +them. Though time had somewhat obscured this portion of the picture as +with a veil or film, yet I made out that the painter had intended to +depict some definite piece of music. In another moment I saw that the +air represented consisted of the opening bars of the <i>Gagliarda</i> in the +suite by Graziani with which my brother and I were so well acquainted. +Though I believe that I had not seen the volume of music in which that +piece was contained more than twice, yet the melody was very familiar +to me, and I had no difficulty whatever in making myself sure that I had +here before me the air of the <i>Gagliarda</i> and none other. It was true +that it was only roughly painted, but to one who knew the tune there was +no room left for doubt. +</p> +<p> +Here was a new cause, I will not say for surprise, but for reflection. +It might, of course, have been merely a coincidence that the artist +should have chosen to paint in this picture this particular piece of +music; but it seemed more probable that it had actually been a favourite +air of Adrian Temple, and that he had chosen deliberately to have it +represented with him. This discovery I kept entirely to myself, not +thinking it wise to communicate it to my brother, lest by doing so I +might reawaken his interest in a subject which I hoped he had finally +dismissed from his thoughts. +</p> +<p> +In the second week of April the happy party at Royston was dispersed, +John returning to Oxford for the summer term, Mrs. Temple making a short +visit to Scotland, and Constance coming to Worth Maltravers to keep me +company for a time. +</p> +<p> +It was John's last term at Oxford. He expected to take his degree in +June, and his marriage with Constance Temple had been provisionally +arranged for the September following. He returned to Magdalen Hall +in the best of spirits, and found his rooms looking cheerful with +well-filled flower-boxes in the windows. I shall not detain you with any +long narration of the events of the term, as they have no relation to +the present history. I will only say that I believe my brother applied +himself diligently to his studies, and took his amusement mostly on +horseback, riding two horses which he had had sent to him from Worth +Maltravers. +</p> +<p> +About the second week after his return he received a letter from Mr. +George Smart to the effect that the Stradivarius violin was now in +complete order. Subsequent examination, Mr. Smart wrote, and the +unanimous verdict of connoisseurs whom he had consulted, had merely +confirmed the views he had at first expressed—namely, that the violin +was of the finest quality, and that my brother had in his possession a +unique and intact example of Stradivarius's best period. He had had it +properly strung; and as the bass-bar had never been moved, and was of +a stronger nature than that usual at the period of its manufacture, he +had considered it unnecessary to replace it. If any signs should become +visible of its being inadequate to support the tension of modern +stringing, another could be easily substituted for it at a later date. +He had allowed a young German <i>virtuoso</i> to play on it, and though this +gentleman was one of the first living performers, and had had an +opportunity of handling many splendid instruments, he assured Mr. Smart +that he had never performed on one that could in any way compare with +this. My brother wrote in reply thanking him, and begging that the +violin might be sent to Magdalen Hall. +</p> +<p> +The pleasant musical evenings, however, which John had formerly +been used to spend in the company of Mr. Gaskell were now entirely +pretermitted. For though there was no cause for any diminution of +friendship between them, and though on Mr. Gaskell's part there was an +ardent desire to maintain their former intimacy, yet the two young men +saw less and less of one another, until their intercourse was confined +to an accidental greeting in the street. I believe that during all this +time my brother played very frequently on the Stradivarius violin, +but always alone. Its very possession seemed to have engendered from +the first in his mind a secretive tendency which, as I have already +observed, was entirely alien to his real disposition. As he had +concealed its discovery from his sister, so he had also from his friend, +and Mr. Gaskell remained in complete ignorance of the existence of such +an instrument. +</p> +<p> +On the evening of its arrival from London, John seems to have carefully +unpacked the violin and tried it with a new bow of Tourte's make which +he had purchased of Mr. Smart. He had shut the heavy outside door of his +room before beginning to play, so that no one might enter unawares; and +he told me afterwards that though he had naturally expected from the +instrument a very fine tone, yet its actual merits so far exceeded his +anticipations as entirely to overwhelm him. The sound issued from it +in a volume of such depth and purity as to give an impression of the +passages being chorded, or even of another violin being played at the +same time. He had had, of course, no opportunity of practising during +his illness, and so expected to find his skill with the bow somewhat +diminished; but he perceived, on the contrary, that his performance was +greatly improved, and that he was playing with a mastery and feeling +of which he had never before been conscious. While attributing this +improvement very largely to the beauty of the instrument on which he was +performing, yet he could not but believe that by his illness, or in some +other unexplained way, he had actually acquired a greater freedom of +wrist and fluency of expression, with which reflection he was not a +little elated. He had had a lock fixed on the cupboard in which he had +originally found the violin, and here he carefully deposited it on each +occasion after playing, before he opened the outer door of his room. +</p> +<p> +So the summer term passed away. The examinations had come in their due +time, and were now over. Both the young men had submitted themselves +to the ordeal, and while neither would of course have admitted as +much to anyone else, both felt secretly that they had no reason to be +dissatisfied with their performance. The results would not be published +for some weeks to come. The last night of the term had arrived, the last +night too of John's Oxford career. It was near nine o'clock, but still +quite light, and the rich orange glow of sunset had not yet left the +sky. The air was warm and sultry, as on that eventful evening when just +a year ago he had for the first time seen the figure or the illusion +of the figure of Adrian Temple. Since that time he had played the +"Areopagita" many, many times; but there had never been any reappearance +of that form, nor even had the once familiar creaking of the wicker +chair ever made itself heard. As he sat alone in his room, thinking with +a natural melancholy that he had seen the sun set for the last time on +his student life, and reflecting on the possibilities of the future +and perhaps on opportunities wasted in the past, the memory of that +evening last June recurred strongly to his imagination, and he felt an +irresistible impulse to play once more the "Areopagita." He unlocked +the now familiar cupboard and took out the violin, and never had the +exquisite gradations of colour in its varnish appeared to greater +advantage than in the soft mellow light of the fading day. As he began +the <i>Gagliarda</i> he looked at the wicker chair, half expecting to see a +form he well knew seated in it; but nothing of the kind ensued, and he +concluded the "Areopagita" without the occurrence of any unusual +phenomenon. +</p> +<p> +It was just at its close that he heard some one knocking at the outer +door. He hurriedly locked away the violin and opened the "oak." It was +Mr. Gaskell. He came in rather awkwardly, as though not sure whether he +would be welcomed. +</p> +<p> +"Johnnie," he began, and stopped. +</p> +<p> +The force of ancient habit sometimes, dear nephew, leads us unwittingly +to accost those who were once our friends by a familiar or nick-name +long after the intimacy that formerly justified it has vanished. But +sometimes we intentionally revert to the use of such a name, not wishing +to proclaim openly, as it were, by a more formal address that we are no +longer the friends we once were. I think this latter was the case with +Mr. Gaskell as he repeated the familiar name. +</p> +<p> +"Johnnie, I was passing down New College Lane, and heard the violin from +your open windows. You were playing the 'Areopagita,' and it all sounded +so familiar to me that I thought I must come up. I am not interrupting +you, am I?" +</p> +<p> +"No, not at all," John answered. +</p> +<p> +"It is the last night of our undergraduate life, the last night we shall +meet in Oxford as students. To-morrow we make our bow to youth and +become men. We have not seen much of each other this term at any rate, +and I daresay that is my fault. But at least let us part as friends. +Surely our friends are not so many that we can afford to fling them +lightly away." +</p> +<p> +He held out his hand frankly, and his voice trembled a little as he +spoke—partly perhaps from real emotion, but more probably from the +feeling of reluctance which I have noticed men always exhibit to +discovering any sentiment deeper than those usually deemed conventional +in correct society. My brother was moved by his obvious wish to renew +their former friendship, and grasped the proffered hand. +</p> +<p> +There was a minute's pause, and then the conversation was resumed, a +little stiffly at first, but more freely afterwards. They spoke on many +indifferent subjects, and Mr. Gaskell congratulated John on the prospect +of his marriage, of which he had heard. As he at length rose up to take +his departure, he said, "You must have practised the violin diligently +of late, for I never knew anyone make so rapid progress with it as you +have done. As I came along I was spellbound by your music. I never +before heard you bring from the instrument so exquisite a tone: the +chorded passages were so powerful that I believed there had been +another person playing with you. Your Pressenda is certainly a finer +instrument than I ever imagined." +</p> +<p> +My brother was pleased with Mr. Gaskell's compliment, and the latter +continued, "Let me enjoy the pleasure of playing with you once more in +Oxford; let us play the 'Areopagita.'" +</p> +<p> +And so saying he opened the pianoforte and sat down. +</p> +<p> +John was turning to take out the Stradivarius when he remembered that he +had never even revealed its existence to Mr. Gaskell, and that if he now +produced it an explanation must follow. In a moment his mood changed, +and with less geniality he excused himself, somewhat awkwardly, from +complying with the request, saying that he was fatigued. +</p> +<p> +Mr. Gaskell was evidently hurt at his friend's altered manner, and +without renewing his petition rose at once from the pianoforte, and +after a little forced conversation took his departure. On leaving he +shook my brother by the hand, wished him all prosperity in his marriage +and after-life, and said, "Do not entirely forget your old comrade, and +remember that if at any time you should stand in need of a true friend, +you know where to find him!" +</p> +<p> +John heard his footsteps echoing down the passage and made a +half-involuntary motion towards the door as if to call him back, but did +not do so, though he thought over his last words then and on a +subsequent occasion. +</p> +<a name="h2HCH0010" id="h2HCH0010"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER X +</h2> +<p> +The summer was spent by us in the company of Mrs. Temple and Constance, +partly at Royston and partly at Worth Maltravers. John had again +hired the cutter-yacht <i>Palestine</i>, and the whole party made several +expeditions in her. Constance was entirely devoted to her lover; her +life seemed wrapped up in his; she appeared to have no existence except +in his presence. +</p> +<p> +I can scarcely enumerate the reasons which prompted such thoughts, but +during these months I sometimes found myself wondering if John still +returned her affection as ardently as I knew had once been the case. +I can certainly call to mind no single circumstance which could justify +me in such a suspicion. He performed punctiliously all those thousand +little acts of devotion which are expected of an accepted lover; he +seemed to take pleasure in perfecting any scheme of enjoyment to amuse +her; and yet the impression grew in my mind that he no longer felt the +same heart-whole love to her that she bore him, and that he had himself +shown six months earlier. I cannot say, my dear Edward, how lively was +the grief that even the suspicion of such a fact caused me, and I +continually rebuked myself for entertaining for a moment a thought so +unworthy, and dismissed it from my mind with reprobation. Alas! ere long +it was sure again to make itself felt. We had all seen the Stradivarius +violin; indeed it was impossible for my brother longer to conceal it +from us, as he now played continually on it. He did not recount to us +the story of its discovery, contenting himself with saying that he had +become possessed of it at Oxford. We imagined naturally that he had +purchased it; and for this I was sorry, as I feared Mr. Thoresby, his +guardian, who had given him some years previously an excellent violin by +Pressenda, might feel hurt at seeing his present so unceremoniously laid +aside. None of us were at all intimately acquainted with the fancies of +fiddle-collectors, and were consequently quite ignorant of the enormous +value that fashion attached to so splendid an instrument. Even had +we known, I do not think that we should have been surprised at John +purchasing it; for he had recently come of age, and was in possession of +so large a fortune as would amply justify him in such an indulgence had +he wished to gratify it. No one, however, could remain unaware of the +wonderful musical qualities of the instrument. Its rich and melodious +tones would commend themselves even to the most unmusical ear, and +formed a subject of constant remark. I noticed also that my brother's +knowledge of the violin had improved in a very perceptible manner, for +it was impossible to attribute the great beauty and power of his present +performance entirely to the excellence of the instrument he was using. +He appeared more than ever devoted to the art, and would shut himself +up in his room alone for two or more hours together for the purpose of +playing the violin—a habit which was a source of sorrow to Constance, +for he would never allow her to sit with him on such occasions, as she +naturally wished to do. +</p> +<p> +So the summer fled. I should have mentioned that in July, after going up +to complete the <i>viva-voce</i> part of their examination, both Mr. Gaskell +and John received information that they had obtained "first-classes." +The young men had, it appears, done excellently well, and both had +secured a place in that envied division of the first-class which was +called "above the line." John's success proved a source of much pleasure +to us all, and mutual congratulations were freely exchanged. We were +pleased also at Mr. Gaskell's high place, remembering the kindness which +he had shown us at Oxford in the previous year. I desired to send him +my compliments and felicitations when he should next be writing to him. +I did not doubt that my brother would return Mr. Gaskell's +congratulations, which he had already received: he said, however, that +his friend had given no address to which he could write, and so the +matter dropped. +</p> +<p> +On the 1st of September John and Constance Temple were married. The +wedding took place at Royston, and by John's special desire (with which +Constance fully agreed) the ceremony was of a strictly private and +unpretentious nature. The newly married pair had determined to spend +their honeymoon in Italy, and left for the Continent in the forenoon. +</p> +<p> +Mrs. Temple invited me to remain with her for the present at Royston, +which I was very glad to do, feeling deeply the loss of a favourite +brother, and looking forward with dismay to six weeks of loneliness +which must elapse before I should again see him and my dearest +Constance. +</p> +<p> +We received news of our travellers about a fortnight afterwards, and +then heard from them at frequent intervals. Constance wrote in the best +of spirits, and with the keenest appreciation. She had never travelled +in Switzerland or Italy before and all was enchantingly novel to her. +They had journeyed through Basle to Lucerne, spending a few days in that +delightful spot, and thence proceeding by the Simplon Pass to Lugano and +the Italian lakes. Then we heard that they had gone further south than +had been at first contemplated; they had reached Rome, and were +intending to go on to Naples. +</p> +<p> +After the first few weeks we neither of us received any more letters +from John. It was always Constance who wrote, and even her letters +grew very much less frequent than had at first been the case. This was +perhaps natural, as the business of travel no doubt engrossed their +thoughts. But ere long we both perceived that the letters of our dear +girl were more constrained and formal than before. It was as if she was +writing now rather to comply with a sense of duty than to give vent to +the light-hearted gaiety and naïve enjoyment which breathed in every +line of her earlier communications. So at least it seemed to us, and +again the old suspicion presented itself to my mind, and I feared that +all was not as it should be. +</p> +<p> +Naples was to be the turning-point of their travels, and we expected +them to return to England by the end of October. November had arrived, +however, and we still had no intimation that their return journey had +commenced or was even decided on. From John there was no word, and +Constance wrote less often than ever. John, she said, was enraptured +with Naples and its surroundings; he devoted himself much to the violin, +and though she did not say so, this meant, I knew, that she was often +left alone. For her own part, she did not think that a continued +residence in Italy would suit her health; the sudden changes of +temperature tried her, and people said that the airs rising in the +evening from the bay were unwholesome. +</p> +<p> +Then we received a letter from her which much alarmed us. It was written +from Naples and dated October 25. John, she said, had been ailing of +late with nervousness and insomnia. On Wednesday, two days before the +date of her letter, he had suffered all day from a strange restlessness, +which increased after they had retired for the evening. He could not +sleep and had dressed again, telling her he would walk a little in the +night air to compose himself. He had not returned till near six in the +morning, and then was so deadly pale and seemed so exhausted that she +insisted on his keeping to his bed till she could get medical advice. +The doctors feared that he had been attacked by some strange form of +malarial fever, and said he needed much care. Our anxiety was, however, +at least temporarily relieved by the receipt of later tidings which +spoke of John's recovery; but November drew to a close without any +definite mention of their return having reached us. +</p> +<p> +That month is always, I think, a dreary one in the country. It has +neither the brilliant tints of October, nor the cosy jollity of +mid-winter with its Christmas joys to alleviate it. This year it was +more gloomy than usual. Incessant rain had marked its close, and the +Roy, a little brook which skirted the gardens not far from the house, +had swollen to unusual proportions. At last one wild night the flood +rose so high as to completely cover the garden terraces, working havoc +in the parterres, and covering the lawns with a thick coat of mud. +Perhaps this gloominess of nature's outer face impressed itself in a +sense of apprehension on our spirits, and it was with a feeling of more +than ordinary pleasure and relief that early in December we received a +letter dated from Laon, saying that our travellers were already well +advanced on their return journey, and expected to be in England a week +after the receipt by us of this advice. It was, as usual, Constance who +wrote. John begged, she said, that Christmas might be spent at Worth +Maltravers, and that we would at once proceed thither to see that all +was in order against their return. They reached Worth about the middle +of the month, and were, I need not say, received with the utmost +affection by Mrs. Temple and myself. +</p> +<p> +In reply to our inquiries John professed that his health was completely +restored; but though we could indeed discern no other signs of any +special weakness, we were much shocked by his changed appearance. He had +completely lost his old healthy and sunburnt complexion, and his face, +though not thin or sunken, was strangely pale. Constance assured us +that though in other respects he had apparently recovered, he had never +regained his old colour from the night of his attack of fever at Naples. +</p> +<p> +I soon perceived that her own spirits were not so bright as was +ordinarily the case with her; and she exhibited none of the eagerness to +narrate to others the incidents of travel which is generally observable +in those who have recently returned from a journey. The cause of this +depression was, alas! not difficult to discover, for John's former +abstraction and moodiness seemed to have returned with an increased +force. It was a source of infinite pain to Mrs. Temple, and perhaps +even more so to me, to observe this sad state of things. Constance +never complained, and her affection towards her husband seemed only to +increase in the face of difficulties. Yet the matter was one which could +not be hid from the anxious eyes of loving kinswomen, and I believe that +it was the consciousness that these altered circumstances could not +but force themselves upon our notice that added poignancy to my poor +sister's grief. While not markedly neglecting her, my brother had +evidently ceased to take that pleasure in her company which might +reasonably have been expected in any case under the circumstances of +a recent marriage, and a thousand times more so when his wife was so +loving and beautiful a creature as Constance Temple. He appeared little +except at meals, and not even always at lunch, shutting himself up for +the most part in his morning-room or study and playing continually on +the violin. It was in vain that we attempted even by means of his music +to win him back to a sweeter mood. Again and again I begged him to allow +me to accompany him on the pianoforte, but he would never do so, always +putting me off with some excuse. Even when he sat with us in the +evening, he spoke little, devoting himself for the most part to reading. +His books were almost always Greek or Latin, so that I am ignorant of +the subjects of his study; but he was content that either Constance or +I should play on the pianoforte, saying that the melody, so far from +distracting his attention, helped him rather to appreciate what he was +reading. Constance always begged me to allow her to take her place at +the instrument on these occasions, and would play to him sometimes for +hours without receiving a word of thanks, being eager even in this +unreciprocated manner to testify her love and devotion to him. +</p> +<p> +Christmas Day, usually so happy a season, brought no alleviation of +our gloom. My brother's reserve continually increased, and even his +longest-established habits appeared changed. He had been always most +observant of his religious duties, attending divine service with the +utmost regularity whatever the weather might be, and saying that it was +a duty a landed proprietor owed as much to his tenantry as himself to +set a good example in such matters. Ever since our earliest years he +and I had gone morning and afternoon on Sundays to the little church of +Worth, and there sat together in the Maltravers chapel where so many of +our name had sat before us. Here their monuments and achievements stood +about us on every side, and it had always seemed to me that with their +name and property we had inherited also the obligation to continue those +acts of piety, in the practice of which so many of them had lived and +died. It was, therefore, a source of surprise and great grief to me +when on the Sunday after his return my brother omitted all religious +observances, and did not once attend the parish church. He was not +present with us at breakfast, ordering coffee and a roll to be taken to +his private sitting-room. At the hour at which we usually set out for +church I went to his room to tell him that we were all dressed and +waiting for him. I tapped at the door, but on trying to enter found it +locked. In reply to my message he did not open the door, but merely +begged us to go on to church, saying he would possibly follow us later. +We went alone, and I sat anxiously in our seat with my eyes fixed on the +door, hoping against hope that each late comer might be John, but he +never came. Perhaps this will appear to you, Edward, a comparatively +trivial circumstance (though I hope it may not), but I assure you that +it brought tears to my eyes. When I sat in the Maltravers chapel and +thought that for the first time my dear brother had preferred in an open +way his convenience or his whim to his duty, and had of set purpose +neglected to come to the house of God, I felt a bitter grief that seemed +to rise up in my throat and choke me. I could not think of the meaning +of the prayers nor join in the singing: and all the time that Mr. +Butler, our clergyman, was preaching, a verse of a little piece of +poetry which I learnt as a girl was running in my head:— +</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"> "How easy are the paths of ill;</p> +<p class="i4"> How steep and hard the upward ways;</p> +<p class="i2"> A child can roll the stone down hill</p> +<p class="i4"> That breaks a giant's arm to raise."</p> +</div> +</div> + +<p> +It seemed to me that our loved one had set his foot upon the downward +slope, and that not all the efforts of those who would have given their +lives to save him could now hold him back. +</p> +<p> +It was even worse on Christmas Day. Ever since we had been confirmed +John and I had always taken the Sacrament on that happy morning, and +after service he had distributed the Maltravers dole in our chapel. +There are given, as you know, on that day to each of twelve old men £5 +and a green coat, and a like sum of money with a blue cloth dress to as +many old women. These articles of dress are placed on the altar-tomb of +Sir Esmoun de Maltravers, and have been thence distributed from days +immemorial by the head of our house. Ever since he was twelve years old +it had been my pride to watch my handsome brother doing this deed of +noble charity, and to hear the kindly words he added with each gift. +</p> +<p> +Alas! alas! it was all different this Christmas. Even on this holy day +my brother did not approach either the altar or the house of God. Till +then Christmas had always seemed to me to be a day given us from above, +that we might see even while on earth a faint glimpse of that serenity +and peaceful love which will hereafter gild all days in heaven. Then +covetous men lay aside their greed and enemies their rancour, then warm +hearts grow warmer, and Christians feel their common brotherhood. I can +scarcely imagine any man so lost or guilty as not to experience on that +day some desire to turn back to the good once more, as not to recognise +some far-off possibility of better things. It was thoughts free and +happy such as these that had previously come into my heart in the +service of Christmas Day, and been particularly associated with the +familiar words that we all love so much. But that morning the harmonies +were all jangled: it seemed as though some evil spirit was pouring +wicked thoughts into my ear; and even while children sang "Hark the +herald angels," I thought I could hear through it all a melody which +I had learnt to loathe, the <i>Gagliarda</i> of the "Areopagita." +</p> +<p> +Poor Constance! Though her veil was down, I could see her tears, and +knew her thoughts must be sadder even than mine: I drew her hand towards +me, and held it as I would a child's. After the service was over a new +trial awaited us. John had made no arrangement for the distribution of +the dole. The coats and dresses were all piled ready on Sir Esmoun's +tomb, and there lay the little leather pouches of money, but there was +no one to give them away. Mr. Butler looked puzzled, and approaching +us, said he feared Sir John was ill—had he made no provision for the +distribution? Pride kept back the tears which were rising fast, and +I said my brother was indeed unwell, that it would be better for Mr. +Butler to give away the dole, and that Sir John would himself visit the +recipients during the week. Then we hurried away, not daring to watch +the distribution of the dole, lest we should no longer be able to master +our feelings, and should openly betray our agitation. +</p> +<p> +From one another we no longer attempted to conceal our grief. It seemed +as though we had all at once resolved to abandon the farce of pretending +not to notice John's estrangement from his wife, or of explaining away +his neglectful and unaccountable treatment of her. +</p> +<p> +I do not think that three poor women were ever so sad on Christmas Day +before as were we on our return from church that morning. None of us had +seen my brother, but about five in the afternoon Constance went to his +room, and through the locked door begged piteously to see him. After a +few minutes he complied with her request and opened the door. The exact +circumstances of that interview she never revealed to me, but I knew +from her manner when she returned that something she had seen or heard +had both grieved and frightened her. She told me only that she had flung +herself in an agony of tears at his feet, and kneeling there, weary and +broken-hearted, had begged him to tell her if she had done aught amiss, +had prayed him to give her back his love. To all this he answered +little, but her entreaties had at least such an effect as to induce him +to take his dinner with us that evening. At that meal we tried to put +aside our gloom, and with feigned smiles and cheerful voices, from which +the tears were hardly banished, sustained a weary show of conversation +and tried to wile away his evil mood. But he spoke little; and when +Foster, my father's butler, put on the table the three-handled +Maltravers' loving-cup that he had brought up Christmas by Christmas for +thirty years, my brother merely passed it by without a taste. I saw by +Foster's face that the master's malady was no longer a secret even from +the servants. +</p> +<p> +I shall not harass my own feelings nor yours, my dear Edward, by +entering into further details of your father's illness, for such it was +obvious his indisposition had become. It was the only consolation, and +that was a sorry one, that we could use with Constance, to persuade her +that John's estrangement from her was merely the result or manifestation +of some physical infirmity. He obviously grew worse from week to week, +and his treatment of his wife became colder and more callous. We had +used all efforts to persuade him to take a change of air—to go to +Royston for a month, and place himself under the care of Dr. Dobie. Mrs. +Temple had even gone so far as to write privately to this physician, +telling him as much of the case as was prudent, and asking his advice. +Not being aware of the darker sides of my brother's ailment, Dr. Dobie +replied in a less serious strain than seemed to us convenient, but +recommended in any case a complete change of air and scene. +</p> +<p> +It was, therefore, with no ordinary pleasure and relief that we +heard my brother announce quite unexpectedly one morning in March that +he had made up his mind to seek change, and was going to leave almost +immediately for the Continent. He took his valet Parnham with him, and +quitted Worth one morning before lunch, bidding us an unceremonious +adieu, though he kissed Constance with some apparent tenderness. It was +the first time for three months, she confessed to me afterwards, that +he had shown her even so ordinary a mark of affection; and her wounded +heart treasured up what she hoped would prove a token of returning love. +He had not proposed to take her with him, and even had he done so, we +should have been reluctant to assent, as signs were not wanting that it +might have been imprudent for her to undertake foreign travel at that +period. +</p> +<p> +For nearly a month we had no word of him. Then he wrote a short note to +Constance from Naples, giving no news, and indeed, scarce speaking of +himself at all, but mentioning as an address to which she might write if +she wished, the Villa de Angelis at Posilipo. Though his letter was cold +and empty, yet Constance was delighted to get it, and wrote henceforth +herself nearly every day, pouring out her heart to him, and retailing +such news as she thought would cheer him. +</p> +<a name="h2HCH0011" id="h2HCH0011"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XI +</h2> +<p> +A month later Mrs. Temple wrote to John warning him of the state in +which Constance now found herself, and begging him to return at least +for a few weeks in order that he might be present at the time of her +confinement. Though it would have been in the last degree unkind, or +even inhuman, that a request of this sort should have been refused, yet +I will confess to you that my brother's recent strangeness had prepared +me for behaviour on his part however wild; and it was with a feeling of +extreme relief that I heard from Mrs. Temple a little later that she had +received a short note from John to say that he was already on his return +journey. I believe Mrs. Temple herself felt as I did in the matter, +though she said nothing. +</p> +<p> +When he returned we were all at Royston, whither Mrs. Temple had taken +Constance to be under Dr. Dobie's care. We found John's physical +appearance changed for the worse. His pallor was as remarkable as +before, but he was visibly thinner; and his strange mental abstraction +and moodiness seemed little if any abated. At first, indeed, he greeted +Constance kindly or even affectionately. She had been in a terrible +state of anxiety as to the attitude he would assume towards her, and +this mental strain affected prejudicially her very delicate bodily +condition. His kindness, of an ordinary enough nature indeed, seemed +to her yearning heart a miracle of condescending love, and she was +transported with the idea that his affection to her, once so sincere, +was indeed returning. But I grieve to say that his manner thawed only +for a very short time, and ere long he relapsed into an attitude of +complete indifference. It was as if his real, true, honest, and loving +character had made one more vigorous effort to assert itself,—as +though it had for a moment broken through the hard and selfish crust +that was forming around him; but the blighting influence which was at +work proved seemingly too strong for him to struggle against, and +riveted its chains again upon him with a weight heavier than before. +That there was some malefic influence, mental or physical, thus working +on him, no one who had known him before could for a moment doubt. But +while Mrs. Temple and I readily admitted this much, we were entirely +unable even to form a conjecture as to its nature. It is true that +Mrs. Temple's fancy suggested that Constance had some rival in his +affections; but we rejected such a theory almost before it was proposed, +feeling that it was inherently improbable, and that, had it been true, +we could not have remained entirely unaware of the circumstances which +had conduced to such a state of things. It was this inexplicable nature +of my brother's affliction that added immeasurably to our grief. If we +could only have ascertained its cause we might have combated it; but +as it was, we were fighting in the dark, as against some enemy who was +assaulting us from an obscurity so thick that we could not see his form. +Of any mental trouble we thus knew nothing, nor could we say that my +brother was suffering from any definite physical ailment, except that +he was certainly growing thinner. +</p> +<p> +Your birth, my dear Edward, followed very shortly. Your poor mother +rallied in an unusually short time, and was filled with rapture at the +new treasure which was thus given as a solace to her afflictions. Your +father exhibited little interest at the event, though he sat nearly half +an hour with her one evening, and allowed her even to stroke his hair +and caress him as in time long past. Although it was now the height of +summer he seldom left the house, sitting much and sleeping in his own +room, where he had a field-bed provided for him, and continually +devoting himself to the violin. +</p> +<p> +One evening near the end of July we were sitting after dinner in the +drawing-room at Royston, having the French windows looking on to the +lawn open, as the air was still oppressively warm. Though things were +proceeding as indifferently as before, we were perhaps less cast down +than usual, for John had taken his dinner with us that evening. This was +a circumstance now, alas! sufficiently uncommon, for he had nearly all +his meals served for him in his own rooms. Constance, who was once more +downstairs, sat playing at the pianoforte, performing chiefly melodies +by Scarlatti or Bach, of which old-fashioned music she knew her husband +to be most fond. A later fashion, as you know, has revived the +cultivation of these composers, but at the time of which I write their +works were much less commonly known. Though she was more than a passable +musician, he would not allow her to accompany him; indeed he never now +performed at all on the violin before us, reserving his practice +entirely for his own chamber. There was a pause in the music while +coffee was served. My brother had been sitting in an easy-chair apart +reading some classical work during his wife's performance, and taking +little notice of us. But after a while he put down his book and said, +"Constance, if you will accompany me, I will get my violin and play a +little while." I cannot say how much his words astonished us. It was +so simple a matter for him to say, and yet it filled us all with an +unspeakable joy. We concealed our emotion till he had left the room to +get his instrument, then Constance showed how deeply she was gratified +by kissing first her mother and then me, squeezing my hand but saying +nothing. In a minute he returned, bringing his violin and a music-book. +By the soiled vellum cover and the shape I perceived instantly that it +was the book containing the "Areopagita." I had not seen it for near +two years, and was not even aware that it was in the house, but I +knew at once that he intended to play that suite. I entertained an +unreasoning but profound aversion to its melodies, but at that moment +I would have welcomed warmly that or any other music, so that he would +only choose once more to show some thought for his neglected wife. He +put the book open at the "Areopagita" on the desk of the pianoforte, +and asked her to play it with him. She had never seen the music before, +though I believe she was not unacquainted with the melody, as she had +heard him playing it by himself, and once heard, it was not easily +forgotten. +</p> +<p> +They began the "Areopagita" suite, and at first all went well. The +tone of the violin, and also, I may say with no undue partiality, +my brother's performance, were so marvellously fine that though our +thoughts were elsewhere when, the music commenced, in a few seconds they +were wholly engrossed in the melody, and we sat spellbound. It was as +if the violin had become suddenly endowed with life, and was singing +to us in a mystical language more deep and awful than any human words. +Constance was comparatively unused to the figuring of the <i>basso +continuo</i>, and found some trouble in reading it accurately, especially +in manuscript; but she was able to mask any difficulty she may have had +until she came to the <i>Gagliarda</i>. Here she confessed to me her thoughts +seemed against her will to wander, and her attention became too deeply +riveted on her husband's performance to allow her to watch her own. +She made first one slight fault, and then growing nervous, another, and +another. Suddenly John stopped and said brusquely, "Let Sophy play, +I cannot keep time with you." Poor Constance! The tears came swiftly +to my own eyes when I heard him speak so thoughtlessly to her, and I was +almost provoked to rebuke him openly. She was still weak from her recent +illness; her nerves were excited by the unusual pleasure she felt in +playing once more with her husband, and this sudden shattering of her +hopes of a renewed tenderness proved more than she could bear: she put +her head between her hands upon the keyboard and broke into a paroxysm +of tears. +</p> +<p> +We both ran to her; but while we were attempting to assuage her grief, +John shut his violin into its case, took the music-book under his arm, +and left the room without saying a word to any of us, not even to the +weeping girl, whose sobs seemed as though they would break her heart. +</p> +<p> +We got her put to bed at once, but it was some hours before her +convulsive sobbing ceased. Mrs. Temple had administered to her a +soothing draught of proved efficacy, and after sitting with her till +after one o'clock, I left her at last dozing off to sleep, and myself +sought repose. I was quite wearied out with the weight of my anxiety, +and with the crushing bitterness of seeing my dearest Constance's +feelings so wounded. Yet in spite, or rather perhaps on account of my +trouble, my head had scarcely touched my pillow ere I fell into a deep +sleep. +</p> +<p> +A room in the south wing had been converted for the nonce into a +nursery, and for the convenience of being near her infant Constance now +slept in a room adjoining. As this portion of the house was somewhat +isolated, Mrs. Temple had suggested that I should keep her daughter +company, and occupy a room in the same passage, only removed a few +doors, and this I had accordingly done. I was aroused from my sleep that +night by some one knocking gently on the door of my bedroom; but it was +some seconds before my thoughts became sufficiently awake to allow me to +remember where I was. There was some moonlight, but I lighted a candle, +and looking at my watch saw that it was two o'clock. I concluded that +either Constance or her baby was unwell, and that the nurse needed my +assistance. So I left my bed, and moving to the door, asked softly who +was there. It was, to my surprise, the voice of Constance that replied, +"O Sophy, let me in." +</p> +<p> +In a second I had opened the door, and found my poor sister wearing only +her night-dress, and standing in the moonlight before me. +</p> +<p> +She looked frightened and unusually pale in her white dress and with the +cold gleam of the moon upon her. At first I thought she was walking in +her sleep, and perhaps rehearsing again in her dreams the troubles which +dogged her waking footsteps. I took her gently by the arm, saying, +"Dearest Constance, come back at once to bed; you will take cold." +</p> +<p> +She was not asleep, however, but made a motion of silence, and said in +a terrified whisper, "Hush; do you hear nothing?" There was something +so vague and yet so mysterious in the question and in her evident +perturbation that I was infected too by her alarm. I felt myself shiver, +as I strained my ear to catch if possible the slightest sound. But a +complete silence pervaded everything: I could hear nothing. +</p> +<p> +"Can you hear it?" she said again. All sorts of images of ill presented +themselves to my imagination: I thought the baby must be ill with croup, +and that she was listening for some stertorous breath of anguish; and +then the dread came over me that perhaps her sorrows had been too much +for her, and that reason had left her seat. At that thought the marrow +froze in my bones. +</p> +<p> +"Hush," she said again; and just at that moment, as I strained my ears, +I thought I caught upon the sleeping air a distant and very faint +murmur. +</p> +<p> +"Oh, what is it, Constance?" I said. "You will drive me mad;" and while +I spoke the murmur seemed to resolve itself into the vibration, felt +almost rather than heard, of some distant musical instrument. I stepped +past her into the passage. All was deadly still, but I could perceive +that music was being played somewhere far away; and almost at the same +minute my ears recognised faintly but unmistakably the <i>Gagliarda</i> of +the "Areopagita." +</p> +<p> +I have already mentioned that for some reason which I can scarcely +explain, this melody was very repugnant to me. It seemed associated in +some strange and intimate way with my brother's indisposition and moral +decline. Almost at the moment that I had heard it first two years ago, +peace seemed to have risen up and left our house, gathering her skirts +about her, as we read that the angels left the Temple at the siege of +Jerusalem. And now it was even more detestable to my ears, recalling as +it did too vividly the cruel events of the preceding evening. +</p> +<p> +"John must be sitting up playing," I said. +</p> +<p> +"Yes," she answered; "but why is he in this part of the house, and why +does he always play <i>that</i> tune?" +</p> +<p> +It was if some irresistible attraction drew us towards the music. +Constance took my hand in hers and we moved together slowly down the +passage. The wind had risen, and though there was a bright moon, her +beams were constantly eclipsed by driving clouds. Still there was light +enough to guide us, and I extinguished the candle. As we reached the end +of the passage the air of the <i>Gagliarda</i> grew more and more distinct. +</p> +<p> +Our passage opened on to a broad landing with a balustrade, and from one +side of it ran out the picture-gallery which you know. +</p> +<p> +I looked at Constance significantly. It was evident that John was +playing in this gallery. We crossed the landing, treading carefully and +making no noise with our naked feet, for both of us had been too excited +even to think of putting on shoes. +</p> +<p> +We could now see the whole length of the gallery. My poor brother sat in +the oriel window of which I have before spoken. He was sitting so as to +face the picture of Adrian Temple, and the great windows of the oriel +flung a strong light on him. At times a cloud hid the moon, and all was +plunged in darkness; but in a moment the cold light fell full on him, +and we could trace every feature as in a picture. He had evidently not +been to bed, for he was fully dressed, exactly as he had left us in the +drawing-room five hours earlier when Constance was weeping over his +thoughtless words. He was playing the violin, playing with a passion and +reckless energy which I had never seen, and hope never to see again. +Perhaps he remembered that this spot was far removed from the rest +of the house, or perhaps he was careless whether any were awake and +listening to him or not; but it seemed to me that he was playing with +a sonorous strength greater than I had thought possible for a single +violin. There came from his instrument such a volume and torrent of +melody as to fill the gallery so full, as it were, of sound that it +throbbed and vibrated again. He kept his eyes fixed on something at the +opposite side of the gallery; we could not indeed see on what, but I +have no doubt at all that it was the portrait of Adrian Temple. His gaze +was eager and expectant, as though he were waiting for something to +occur which did not. +</p> +<p> +I knew that he had been growing thin of late, but this was the first +time I had realised how sunk were the hollows of his eyes and how +haggard his features had become. It may have been some effect of +moonlight which I do not well understand, but his fine-cut face, once so +handsome, looked on this night worn and thin like that of an old man. +He never for a moment ceased playing. It was always one same dreadful +melody, the <i>Gagliarda</i> of the "Areopagita," and he repeated it time +after time with the perseverance and apparent aimlessness of an +automaton. +</p> +<p> +He did not see us, and we made no sign, standing afar off in silent +horror at that nocturnal sight. Constance clutched me by the arm: she +was so pale that I perceived it even in the moonlight. "Sophy," she +said, "he is sitting in the same place as on the first night when he +told me how he loved me." I could answer nothing, my voice was frozen +in me. I could only stare at my brother's poor withered face, realising +then for the first time that he must be mad, and that it was the +haunting of the <i>Gagliarda</i> that had made him so. +</p> +<p> +We stood there I believe for half an hour without speech or motion, and +all the time that sad figure at the end of the gallery continued its +performance. Suddenly he stopped, and an expression of frantic despair +came over his face as he laid down the violin and buried his head in his +hands. I could bear it no longer. "Constance," I said, "come back to +bed. We can do nothing," So we turned and crept away silently as we had +come. Only as we crossed the landing Constance stopped, and looked back +for a minute with a heart-broken yearning at the man she loved. He had +taken his hands from his head, and she saw the profile of his face clear +cut and hard in the white moonlight. +</p> +<p> +It was the last time her eyes ever looked upon it. +</p> +<p> +She made for a moment as if she would turn back and go to him, but her +courage failed her, and we went on. Before we reached her room we heard +in the distance, faintly but distinctly, the burden of the <i>Gagliarda</i>. +</p> +<a name="h2HCH0012" id="h2HCH0012"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XII +</h2> +<p> +The next morning, my maid brought me a hurried note written in pencil by +my brother. It contained only a few lines, saying that he found that his +continued sojourn at Royston was not beneficial to his health, and had +determined to return to Italy. If we wished to write, letters would +reach him at the Villa de Angelis: his valet Parnham was to follow him +thither with his baggage as soon as it could be got together. This was +all; there was no word of adieu even to his wife. +</p> +<p> +We found that he had never gone to bed that night. But in the early +morning he had himself saddled his horse <i>Sentinel</i> and ridden in to +Derby, taking the early mail thence to London. His resolve to leave +Royston had apparently been arrived at very suddenly, for so far as we +could discover, he had carried no luggage of any kind. I could not help +looking somewhat carefully round his room to see if he had taken the +Stradivarius violin. No trace of it or even of its case was to be seen, +though it was difficult to imagine how he could have carried it with him +on horseback. There was, indeed, a locked travelling-trunk which Parnham +was to bring with him later, and the instrument might, of course, have +been in that; but I felt convinced that he had actually taken it with +him in some way or other, and this proved afterwards to have been the +case. +</p> +<p> +I shall draw a veil, my dear Edward, over the events which immediately +followed your father's departure. Even at this distance of time the +memory is too inexpressibly bitter to allow me to do more than briefly +allude to them. +</p> +<p> +A fortnight after John's departure, we left Royston and removed to +Worth, wishing to get some sea-air, and to enjoy the late summer of the +south coast. Your mother seemed entirely to have recovered from her +confinement, and to be enjoying as good health as could be reasonably +expected under the circumstances of her husband's indisposition. But +suddenly one of those insidious maladies which are incidental to women +in her condition seized upon her. We had hoped and believed that all +such period of danger was already happily past; but, alas! it was not +so, and within a few hours of her first seizure all realised how serious +was her case. Everything that human skill can do under such conditions +was done, but without avail. Symptoms of blood-poisoning showed +themselves, accompanied with high fever, and within a week she was in +her coffin. +</p> +<p> +Though her delirium was terrible to watch, yet I thank God to this +day, that if she was to die, it pleased Him to take her while in an +unconscious condition. For two days before her death she recognised +no one, and was thus spared at least the sadness of passing from life +without one word of kindness or even of reconciliation from her unhappy +husband. +</p> +<p> +The communication with a place so distant as Naples was not then to be +made under fifteen or twenty days, and all was over before we could hope +that the intelligence even of his wife's illness had reached John. Both +Mrs. Temple and I remained at Worth in a state of complete prostration, +awaiting his return. When more than a month had passed without his +arrival, or even a letter to say that he was on his way, our anxiety +took a new turn, as we feared that some accident had befallen him, or +that the news of his wife's death, which would then be in his hands, +had so seriously affected him as to render him incapable of taking any +action. To repeated subsequent communications we received no answer; +but at last, to a letter which I wrote to Parnham, the servant replied, +stating that his master was still at the Villa de Angelis, and in a +condition of health little differing from that in which he left Royston, +except that he was now slightly paler if possible and thinner. It was +not till the end of November that any word came from him, and then he +wrote only one page of a sheet of note-paper to me in pencil, making no +reference whatever to his wife's death, but saying that he should not +return for Christmas, and instructing me to draw on his bankers for any +moneys that I might require for household purposes at Worth. +</p> +<p> +I need not tell you the effect that such conduct produced on Mrs. +Temple and myself; you can easily imagine what would have been your own +feelings in such a case. Nor will I relate any other circumstances which +occurred at this period, as they would have no direct bearing upon my +narrative. Though I still wrote to my brother at frequent intervals, as +not wishing to neglect a duty, no word from him ever came in reply. +</p> +<p> +About the end of March, indeed, Parnham returned to Worth Maltravers, +saying that his master had paid him a half-year's wages in advance, +and then dispensed with his services. He had always been an excellent +servant, and attached to the family, and I was glad to be able to offer +him a suitable position with us at Worth until his master should return. +He brought disquieting reports of John's health, saying that he was +growing visibly weaker. Though I was sorely tempted to ask him many +questions as to his master's habits and way of life, my pride forbade me +to do so. But I heard incidentally from my maid that Parnham had told +her Sir John was spending money freely in alterations at the Villa de +Angelis, and had engaged Italians to attend him, with which his English +valet was naturally much dissatisfied. +</p> +<p> +So the spring passed and the summer was well advanced. +</p> +<p> +On the last morning of July I found waiting for me on the +breakfast-table an envelope addressed in my brother's hand. I opened +it hastily. It only contained a few words, which I have before me as I +write now. The ink is a little faded and yellow, but the impression it +made is yet vivid as on that summer morning. +</p> +<p class="quote"> + "MY DEAREST SOPHY," it began,—"Come to me here at once, if possible, + or it may be too late. I want to see you. They say that I am ill, and + too weak to travel to England. +</p> +<p class="quote"> + "Your loving brother,</p> +<p class="quote"> + "JOHN." +</p> +<p> +There was a great change in the style, from the cold and conventional +notes that he had hitherto sent at such long intervals; from the stiff +"Dear Sophia" and "Sincerely yours" to which, I grieve to say, I had +grown accustomed. Even the writing itself was altered. It was more the +bold boyish hand he wrote when first he went to Oxford, than the smaller +cramped and classic character of his later years. Though it was a little +matter enough, God knows, in comparison with his grievous conduct, yet +it touched me much that he should use again the once familiar "Dearest +Sophy," and sign himself "my loving brother." I felt my heart go out +towards him; and so strong is woman's affection for her own kin, that I +had already forgotten any resentment and reprobation in my great pity +for the poor wanderer, lying sick perhaps unto death and alone in a +foreign land. +</p> +<p> +I took his note at once to Mrs. Temple. She read it twice or thrice, +trying to take in the meaning of it. Then she drew me to her and, +kissing me, said, "Go to him at once, Sophy. Bring him back to Worth; +try to bring him back to the right way." +</p> +<p> +I ordered my things to be packed, determining to drive to Southampton +and take train thence to London; and at the same time Mrs. Temple gave +instructions that all should be prepared for her own return to Royston +within a few days. I knew she did not dare to see John after her +daughter's death. +</p> +<p> +I took my maid with me, and Parnham to act as courier. At London we +hired a carriage for the whole journey, and from Calais posted direct to +Naples. We took the short route by Marseilles and Genoa, and travelled +for seventeen days without intermission, as my brother's note made me +desirous of losing no time on the way. I had never been in Italy before; +but my anxiety was such that my mind was unable to appreciate either +the beauty of the scenery or the incidents of travel. I can, in fact, +remember nothing of our journey now, except the wearisome and +interminable jolting over bad roads and the insufferable heat. It was +the middle of August in an exceptionally warm summer, and after passing +Genoa the heat became almost tropical. There was no relief even at +night, for the warm air hung stagnant and suffocating, and the inside of +my travelling coach was often like a furnace. +</p> +<p> +We were at last approaching the conclusion of our journey, and had left +Rome behind us. The day that we set out from Aversa was the hottest that +I have ever felt, the sun beating down with an astonishing power even +in the early hours, and the road being thick with a white and blinding +dust. It was soon after midnight that our carriage began rattling over +the great stone blocks with which the streets of Naples are paved. The +suburbs that we at first passed through were, I remember, in darkness +and perfect quiet; but after traversing the heart of the city and +reaching the western side, we suddenly found ourselves in the midst +of an enormous and very dense crowd. There were lanterns everywhere, +and interminable lanes of booths, whose proprietors were praising +their wares with loud shouts; and here acrobats, jugglers, minstrels, +black-vested priests, and blue-coated soldiers mingled with a vast crowd +whose numbers at once arrested the progress of the carriage. Though it +was so late of a Sunday night, all seemed here awake and busy as at +noonday. Oil-lamps with reeking fumes of black smoke flung a glare over +the scene, and the discordant cries and chattering conversation united +in so deafening a noise as to make me turn faint and giddy, wearied as I +already was with long travelling. Though I felt that intense eagerness +and expectation which the approaching termination of a tedious journey +inspires, and was desirous of pushing forward with all imaginable +despatch, yet here our course was sadly delayed. The horses could only +proceed at the slowest of foot-paces, and we were constantly brought +to a complete stop for some minutes before the post-boy could force +a passage through the unwilling crowd. This produced a feeling of +irritation, and despair of ever reaching my destination; and the mirth +and careless hilarity of the people round us chafed with bitter contrast +on my depressed spirits. I inquired from the post-boy what was the +origin of so great a commotion, and understood him to say in reply that +it was a religious festival held annually in honour of "Our Lady of +the Grotto." I cannot, however, conceive of any truly religious person +countenancing such a gathering, which seemed to me rather like the +unclean orgies of a heathen deity than an act of faith of Christian +people. This disturbance occasioned us so serious a delay, that as we +were climbing the steep slope leading up to Posilipo it was already +three in the morning and the dawn was at hand. +</p> +<p> +After mounting steadily for a long time we began to rapidly descend, and +just as the sun came up over the sea we arrived at the Villa de Angelis. +I sprang from the carriage, and passing through a trellis of vines, +reached the house. A man-servant was in waiting, and held the door open +for me; but he was an Italian, and did not understand me when I asked +in English where Sir John Maltravers was. He had evidently, however, +received instructions to take me at once to my brother, and led the way +to an inner part of the house. As we proceeded I heard the sound of a +rich alto voice singing very sweetly to a mandoline some soothing or +religious melody. The servant pulled aside a heavy curtain and I found +myself in my brother's room. An Italian youth sat on a stool near the +door, and it was he who had been singing. At a few words from John, +addressed to him in his own language, he set down his mandoline and left +the room, pulling to the curtain and shutting a door behind it. +</p> +<p> +The room looked directly on to the sea: the villa was, in fact, built +upon rocks at the foot of which the waves lapped. Through two folding +windows which opened on to a balcony the early light of the summer +morning streamed in with a rosy flush. My brother sat on a low couch +or sofa, propped up against a heap of pillows, with a rug of brilliant +colours flung across his feet and legs. He held out his arms to me, and +I ran to him; but even in so brief an interval I had perceived that he +was terribly weak and wasted. +</p> +<p> +All my memories of his past faults had vanished and were dead in that +sad aspect of his worn features, and in the conviction which I felt, +even from the first moment, that he had but little time longer to remain +with us. I knelt by him on the floor, and with my arms round his neck, +embraced him tenderly, not finding any place for words, but only sobbing +in great anguish. Neither of us spoke, and my weariness from long travel +and the strangeness of the situation caused me to feel that paralysing +sensation of doubt as to the reality of the scene, and even of my own +existence, which all, I believe, have experienced at times of severe +mental tension. That I, a plain English girl, should be kneeling here +beside my brother in the Italian dawn; that I should read, as I +believed, on his young face the unmistakable image and superscription +of death; and reflect that within so few months he had married, had +wrecked his home, that my poor Constance was no more;—these things +seemed so unrealisable that for a minute I felt that it must all be a +nightmare, that I should immediately wake with the fresh salt air of +the Channel blowing through my bedroom window at Worth, and find I had +been dreaming. But it was not so; the light of day grew stronger and +brighter, and even in my sorrow the panorama of the most beautiful spot +on earth, the Bay of Naples, with Vesuvius lying on the far side, as +seen then from these windows, stamped itself for ever on my mind. It was +unreal as a scene in some brilliant dramatic spectacle, but, alas! no +unreality was here. The flames of the candles in their silver sconces +waxed paler and paler, the lines and shadows on my brother's face grew +darker, and the pallor of his wasted features showed more striking in +the bright rays of the morning sun. +</p> +<a name="h2HCH0013" id="h2HCH0013"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XIII +</h2> +<p> +I had spent near a week at the Villa de Angelis. John's manner to me +was most tender and affectionate; but he showed no wish to refer to the +tragedy of his wife's death and the sad events which had preceded it, or +to attempt to explain in any way his own conduct in the past. Nor did +I ever lead the conversation to these topics; for I felt that even if +there were no other reason, his great weakness rendered it inadvisable +to introduce such subjects at present, or even to lead him to speak at +all more than was actually necessary. I was content to minister to him +in quiet, and infinitely happy in his restored affection. He seemed +desirous of banishing from his mind all thoughts of the last few months, +but spoke much of the years before he had gone to Oxford, and of happy +days which we had spent together in our childhood at Worth Maltravers. +His weakness was extreme, but he complained of no particular malady +except a short cough which troubled him at night. +</p> +<p> +I had spoken to him of his health, for I could see that his state was +such as to inspire anxiety, and begged that he would allow me to see if +there was an English doctor at Naples who could visit him. This he would +not assent to, saying that he was quite content with the care of an +Italian doctor who visited him almost daily, and that he hoped to be +able, under my escort, to return within a very short time to England. +</p> +<p> +"I shall never be much better, dear Sophy," he said one day. "The doctor +tells me that I am suffering from some sort of consumption, and that I +must not expect to live long. Yet I yearn to see Worth once more, and to +feel again the west winds blowing in the evening across from Portland, +and smell the thyme on the Dorset downs. In a few days I hope perhaps to +be a little stronger, and I then wish to show you a discovery which I +have made in Naples. After that you may order them to harness the +horses, and carry me back to Worth Maltravers." +</p> +<p> +I endeavoured to ascertain from Signor Baravelli, the doctor, something +as to the actual state of his patient; but my knowledge of Italian was +so slight that I could neither make him understand what I would be at, +nor comprehend in turn what he replied, so that this attempt was +relinquished. From my brother himself I gathered that he had begun to +feel his health much impaired as far back as the early spring, but +though his strength had since then gradually failed him, he had not been +confined to the house until a month past. He spent the day and often +the night reclining on his sofa and speaking little. He had apparently +lost the taste for the violin which had once absorbed so much of his +attention; indeed I think the bodily strength necessary for its +performance had probably now failed him. The Stradivarius instrument +lay near his couch in its case; but I only saw the latter open on one +occasion, I think, and was deeply thankful that John no longer took +the same delight as heretofore in the practice of this art,—not only +because the mere sound of his violin was now fraught to me with such +bitter memories, but also because I felt sure that its performance had +in some way which I could not explain a deleterious effect upon himself. +He exhibited that absence of vitality which is so often noticeable in +those who have not long to live, and on some days lay in a state of +semi-lethargy from which it was difficult to rouse him. But at other +times he suffered from a distressing restlessness which forbade him to +sit still even for a few minutes, and which was more painful to watch +than his lethargic stupor. The Italian boy, of whom I have already +spoken, exhibited an untiring devotion to his master which won my heart. +His name was Raffaelle Carotenuto, and he often sang to us in the +evening, accompanying himself on the mandoline. At nights, too, when +John could not sleep, Raffaelle would read for hours till at last +his master dozed off. He was well educated, and though I could not +understand the subject he read, I often sat by and listened, being +charmed with his evident attachment to my brother and with the melodious +intonation of a sweet voice. +</p> +<p> +My brother was nervous apparently in some respects, and would never be +left alone even for a few minutes; but in the intervals while Raffaelle +was with him I had ample opportunity to examine and appreciate the +beauties of the Villa de Angelis. It was built, as I have said, on some +rocks jutting into the sea, just before coming to the Capo di Posilipo +as you proceed from Naples. The earlier foundations were, I believe, +originally Roman, and upon them a modern villa had been constructed +in the eighteenth century, and to this again John had made important +additions in the past two years. Looking down upon the sea from the +windows of the villa, one could on calm days easily discern the remains +of Roman piers and moles lying below the surface of the transparent +water; and the tufa-rock on which the house was built was burrowed with +those unintelligible excavations of a classic date so common in the +neighbourhood. These subterraneous rooms and passages, while they +aroused my curiosity, seemed at the same time so gloomy and repellent +that I never explored them. But on one sunny morning, as I walked at +the foot of the rocks by the sea, I ventured into one of the larger of +these chambers, and saw that it had at the far end an opening leading +apparently to an inner room. I had walking with me an old Italian female +servant who took a motherly interest in my proceedings, and who, relying +principally upon a very slight knowledge of English, had constituted +herself my body-guard. Encouraged by her presence, I penetrated this +inner room and found that it again opened in turn into another, and so +on until we had passed through no less than four chambers. +</p> +<p> +They were all lighted after a fashion through vent-holes which somewhere +or other reached the outer air, but the fourth room opened into a fifth +which was unlighted. My companion, who had been showing signs of alarm +and an evident reluctance to proceed further, now stopped abruptly and +begged me to return. It may have been that her fear communicated itself +to me also, for on attempting to cross the threshold and explore the +darkness of the fifth cell, I was seized by an unreasoning panic and by +the feeling of undefined horror experienced in a nightmare. I hesitated +for an instant, but my fear became suddenly more intense, and springing +back, I followed my companion, who had set out to run back to the outer +air. We never paused until we stood panting in the full sunlight by the +sea. As soon as the maid had found her breath, she begged me never to go +there again, explaining in broken English that the caves were known in +the neighbourhood as the "Cells of Isis," and were reputed to be haunted +by demons. This episode, trifling as it may appear, had so great an +effect upon me that I never again ventured on to the lower walk which +ran at the foot of the rocks by the sea. +</p> +<p> +In the house above, my brother had built a large hall after the ancient +Roman style, and this, with a dining-room and many other chambers, were +decorated in the fashion of those discovered at Pompeii. They had been +furnished with the utmost luxury, and the beauty of the paintings, +furniture, carpets, and hangings was enhanced by statues in bronze and +marble. The villa, indeed, and its fittings were of a kind to which +I was little used, and at the same time of such beauty that I never +ceased to regard all as a creation of an enchanter's wand, or as the +drop-scene to some drama which might suddenly be raised and disappear +from my sight. The house, in short, together with its furniture, was, +I believe, intended to be a reproduction of an ancient Roman villa, +and had something about it repellent to my rustic and insular ideas. +In the contemplation of its perfection I experienced a curious mental +sensation, which I can only compare to the physical oppression produced +on some persons by the heavy and cloying perfume of a bouquet of +gardenias or other too highly scented exotics. +</p> +<p> +In my brother's room was a medieval reproduction in mellow alabaster of +a classic group of a dolphin encircling a Cupid. It was, I think, the +fairest work of art I ever saw, but it jarred upon my sense of propriety +that close by it should hang an ivory crucifix. I would rather, I think, +have seen all things material and pagan entirely, with every view of +the future life shut out, than have found a medley of things sacred and +profane, where the emblems of our highest hopes and aspirations were +placed in insulting indifference side by side with the embodied forms of +sensuality. Here, in this scene of magical beauty, it seemed to me for +a moment that the years had rolled back, that Christianity had still to +fight with a <i>living</i> Paganism, and that the battle was not yet won. It +was the same all through the house; and there were many other matters +which filled me with regret, mingled with vague and apprehensive +surmises which I shall not here repeat. +</p> +<p> +At one end of the house was a small library, but it contained few works +except Latin and Greek classics. I had gone thither one day to look for +a book that John had asked for, when in turning out some drawers I found +a number of letters written from Worth by my lost Constance to her +husband. The shock of being brought suddenly face to face with a +handwriting that evoked memories at once so dear and sad was in itself +a sharp one; but its bitterness was immeasurably increased by the +discovery that not one of these envelopes had ever been opened. While +that dear heart, now at rest, was pouring forth her love and sorrow to +the ears that should have been above all others ready to receive them, +her letters, as they arrived, were flung uncared for, unread, even +unopened, into any haphazard receptacle. +</p> +<p> +The days passed one by one at the Villa de Angelis with but little +incident, nor did my brother's health either visibly improve or decline. +Though the weather was still more than usually warm, a grateful breeze +came morning and evening from the sea and tempered the heat so much as +to render it always supportable. John would sometimes in the evening sit +propped up with cushions on the trellised balcony looking towards Baia, +and watch the fishermen setting their nets. We could hear the melody +of their deep-voiced songs carried up on the night air. "It was here, +Sophy," my brother said, as we sat one evening looking on a scene like +this,—"It was here that the great epicure Pollio built himself a famous +house, and called it by two Greek words meaning a 'truce to care,' from +which our name of Posilipo is derived. It was his <i>sans-souci</i>, and here +he cast aside his vexations; but they were lighter than mine. Posilipo +has brought no cessation of care to me. I do not think I shall find any +truce this side the grave; and beyond, who knows?" +</p> +<p> +This was the first time John had spoken in this strain, and he seemed +stirred to an unusual activity, as though his own words had suddenly +reminded him how frail was his state. He called Raffaelle to him and +despatched him on an errand to Naples. The next morning he sent for me +earlier than usual, and begged that a carriage might be ready by six in +the evening, as he desired to drive into the city. I tried at first to +dissuade him from his project, urging him to consider his weak state of +health. He replied that he felt somewhat stronger, and had something +that he particularly wished me to see in Naples. This done, it would be +better to return at once to England: he could, he thought, bear the +journey if we travelled by very short stages. +</p> +<a name="h2HCH0014" id="h2HCH0014"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XIV +</h2> +<p> +Shortly after six o'clock in the evening we left the Villa de Angelis. +The day had been as usual cloudlessly serene; but a gentle sea-breeze, +of which I have spoken, rose in the afternoon and brought with it a +refreshing coolness. We had arranged a sort of couch in the landau with +many cushions for my brother, and he mounted into the carriage with more +ease than I had expected. I sat beside him, with Raffaelle facing me +on the opposite seat. We drove down the hill of Posilipo through the +ilex-trees and tamarisk-bushes that then skirted the sea, and so into +the town. John spoke little except to remark that the carriage was an +easy one. As we were passing through one of the principal streets he +bent over to me and said, "You must not be alarmed if I show you to-day +a strange sight. Some women might perhaps be frightened at what we are +going to see; but my poor sister has known already so much of trouble +that a light thing like this will not affect her." In spite of his +encomiums upon my supposed courage, I felt alarmed and agitated by his +words. There was a vagueness in them which frightened me, and bred that +indefinite apprehension which is often infinitely more terrifying than +the actual object which inspires it. To my inquiries he would give no +further response than to say that he had whilst at Posilipo made some +investigations in Naples leading to a strange discovery, which he was +anxious to communicate to me. After traversing a considerable distance, +we had penetrated apparently into the heart of the town. The streets +grew narrower and more densely thronged; the houses were more dirty and +tumbledown, and the appearance of the people themselves suggested that +we had reached some of the lower quarters of the city. Here we passed +through a further network of small streets of the name of which I took +no note, and found ourselves at last in a very dark and narrow lane +called the <i>Via del Giardino</i>. Although my brother had, so far as I had +observed, given no orders to the coachman, the latter seemed to have +no difficulty in finding his way, driving rapidly in the Neapolitan +fashion, and proceeding direct as to a place with which he was already +familiar. +</p> +<p> +In the Via del Giardino the houses were of great height, and overhung +the street so as nearly to touch one another. It seemed that this +quarter had been formerly inhabited, if not by the aristocracy, at least +by a class very much superior to that which now lived there; and many +of the houses were large and dignified, though long since parcelled +out into smaller tenements. It was before such a house that we at last +brought up. Here must have been at one time a house or palace of some +person of distinction, having a long and fine façade adorned with +delicate pilasters, and much florid ornamentation of the Renaissance +period. The ground-floor was divided into a series of small shops, and +its upper storeys were evidently peopled by sordid families of the +lowest class. Before one of these little shops, now closed and having +its windows carefully blocked with boards, our carriage stopped. +Raffaelle alighted, and taking a key from his pocket unlocked the door, +and assisted John to leave the carriage. I followed, and directly we had +crossed the threshold, the boy locked the door behind us, and I heard +the carriage drive away. +</p> +<p> +We found ourselves in a narrow and dark passage, and as soon as my eyes +grew accustomed to the gloom I perceived there was at the end of it a +low staircase leading to some upper room, and on the right a door which +opened into the closed shop. My brother moved slowly along the passage, +and began to ascend the stairs. He leant with one hand on Raffaelle's +arm, taking hold of the balusters with the other. But I could see +that to mount the stairs cost him considerable effort, and he paused +frequently to cough and get his breath again. So we reached a landing +at the top, and found ourselves in a small chamber or magazine directly +over the shop. It was quite empty except for a few broken chairs, and +appeared to be a small loft formed by dividing what had once been a +high room into two storeys, of which the shop formed the lower. A long +window, which had no doubt once formed one of several in the walls of +this large room, was now divided across its width by the flooring, and +with its upper part served to light the loft, while its lower panes +opened into the shop. The ceiling was, in consequence of these +alterations, comparatively low, but though much mutilated, retained +evident traces of having been at one time richly decorated, with the +raised mouldings and pendants common in the sixteenth century. At one +end of the loft was a species of coved and elaborately carved dado, of +which the former use was not obvious; but the large original room had +without doubt been divided in length as well as in height, as the +lath-and-plaster walls at either end of the loft had evidently been no +part of the ancient structure. +</p> +<p> +My brother sat down in one of the old chairs, and seemed to be +collecting his strength before speaking. My anxiety was momentarily +increasing, and it was a great relief when he began, talking in a low +voice as one that had much to say and wished to husband his strength. +</p> +<p> +"I do not know whether you will recollect my having told you of +something Mr. Gaskell once said about the music of Graziani's +'Areopagita' suite. It had always, he used to say, a curious effect upon +his imagination, and the melody of the <i>Gagliarda</i> especially called up +to his thoughts in some strange way a picture of a certain hall where +people were dancing. He even went so far as to describe the general +appearance of the room itself, and of the persons who were dancing +there." +</p> +<p> +"Yes," I answered, "I remember your telling me of this;" and indeed my +memory had in times past so often rehearsed Mr. Gaskell's description +that, although I had not recently thought of it, its chief features +immediately returned to my mind. +</p> +<p> +"He described it," my brother continued, "as a long hall with an arcade +of arches running down one side, of the fantastic Gothic of the +Renaissance. At the end was a gallery or balcony for the musicians, +which on its front carried a coat of arms." +</p> +<p> +I remembered this perfectly and told John so, adding that the shield +bore a cherub's head fanning three lilies on a golden field. +</p> +<p> +"It is strange," John went on, "that the description of a scene which +our friend thought a mere effort of his own imagination has impressed +itself so deeply on both our minds. But the picture which he drew was +more than a fancy, for we are at this minute in the very hall of his +dream." +</p> +<p> +I could not gather what my brother meant, and thought his reason was +failing him; but he continued, "This miserable floor on which we stand +has of course been afterwards built in; but you see above you the old +ceiling, and here at the end was the musicians' gallery with the shield +upon its front." +</p> +<p> +He pointed to the carved and whitewashed dado which had hitherto so +puzzled me. I stepped up to it, and although the lath-and-plaster +partition wall was now built around it, it was clear that its curved +outline might very easily, as John said, have formed part of the front +of a coved gallery. I looked closer at the relief-work which had adorned +it. Though the edges were all rubbed off, and the mouldings in some +cases entirely removed, I could trace without difficulty a shield +in the midst; and a more narrow inspection revealed underneath the +whitewash, which had partly peeled away, enough remnants of colour to +show that it had certainly been once painted gold and borne a cherub's +head with three lilies. +</p> +<p> +"That is the shield of the old Neapolitan house of Doma-Cavalli," my +brother continued; "they bore a cherub's head fanning three lilies on a +shield or. It was in the balcony behind this shield, long since blocked +up as you see, that the musicians sat on that ball night of which +Gaskell dreamt. From it they looked down on the hall below where dancing +was going forward, and I will now take you downstairs that you may see +if the description tallies." +</p> +<p> +So saying, he raised himself, and descending the stairs with much less +difficulty than he had shown in mounting them, flung open the door +which I had seen in the passage and ushered us into the shop on the +ground-floor. The evening light had now faded so much that we could +scarcely see even in the passage, and the shop having its windows +barricaded with shutters, was in complete darkness. Raffaelle, however, +struck a match and lit three half-burnt candles in a tarnished sconce +upon the wall. +</p> +<p> +The shop had evidently been lately in the occupation of a wine-seller, +and there were still several empty wooden wine-butts, and some broken +flasks on shelves. In one corner I noticed that the earth which formed +the floor had been turned up with spades. There was a small heap of +mould, and a large flat stone was thus exposed below the surface. This +stone had an iron ring attached to it, and seemed to cover the aperture +of a well, or perhaps a vault. At the back of the shop, and furthest +from the street, were two lofty arches separated by a column in the +middle, from which the outside casing had been stripped. +</p> +<p> +To these arches John pointed and said, "That is a part of the arcade +which once ran down the whole length of the hall. Only these two arches +are now left, and the fine marbles which doubtless coated the outside of +this dividing pillar have been stripped off. On a summer's night about +one hundred years ago dancing was going on in this hall. There were a +dozen couples dancing a wild step such as is never seen now. The tune +that the musicians were playing in the gallery above was taken from the +'Areopagita' suite of Graziani. Gaskell has often told me that when +he played it the music brought with it to his mind a sense of some +impending catastrophe, which culminated at the end of the first movement +of the <i>Gagliarda</i>. It was just at that moment, Sophy, that an +Englishman who was dancing here was stabbed in the back and foully +murdered." +</p> +<p> +I had scarcely heard all that John had said, and had certainly not been +able to take in its import; but without waiting to hear if I should say +anything, he moved across to the uncovered stone with the ring in it. +Exerting a strength which I should have believed entirely impossible in +his weak condition, he applied to the stone a lever which lay ready at +hand. Raffaelle at the same time seized the ring, and so they were able +between them to move the covering to one side sufficiently to allow +access to a small staircase which thus appeared to view. The stair +was a winding one, and once led no doubt to some vaults below the +ground-floor. Raffaelle descended first, taking in his hand the sconce +of three candles, which he held above his head so as to fling a light +down the steps. John went next, and then I followed, trying to support +my brother if possible with my hand. The stairs were very dry, and +on the walls there was none of the damp or mould which fancy usually +associates with a subterraneous vault. I do not know what it was I +expected to see, but I had an uneasy feeling that I was on the brink of +some evil and distressing discovery. After we had descended about twenty +steps we could see the entry to some vault or underground room, and it +was just at the foot of the stairs that I saw something lying, as the +light from the candles fell on it from above. At first I thought it was +a heap of dust or refuse, but on looking closer it seemed rather a +bundle of rags. As my eyes penetrated the gloom, I saw there was about +it some tattered cloth of a faded green tint, and almost at the same +minute I seemed to trace under the clothes the lines or dimensions of a +human figure. For a moment I imagined it was some poor man lying face +downwards and bent up against the wall. The idea of a man or of a dead +body being there shocked me violently, and I cried to my brother, "Tell +me, what is it?" At that instant the light from. Raffaelle's candles +fell in a somewhat different direction. It lighted up the white bowl +of a human skull, and I saw that what I had taken for a man's form was +instead that of a clothed skeleton. I turned faint and sick for an +instant, and should have fallen had it not been for John, who put his +arm about me and sustained me with an unexpected strength. +</p> +<p> +"God help us!" I exclaimed, "let us go. I cannot bear this; there are +foul vapours here; let us get back to the outer air." +</p> +<p> +He took me by the arm, and pointing at the huddled heap, said, "Do you +know whose bones those are? That is Adrian Temple. After it was all +over, they flung his body down the steps, dressed in the clothes he +wore." +</p> +<p> +At that name, uttered in so ill-omened a place, I felt a fresh access of +terror. It seemed as though the soul of that wicked man must be still +hovering over his unburied remains, and boding evil to us all. A chill +crept over me, the light, the walls, my brother, and Raffaelle all swam +round, and I sank swooning on the stairs. +</p> +<p> +When I returned fully to my senses we were in the landau again making +our way back to the Villa de Angelis. +</p> +<a name="h2HCH0015" id="h2HCH0015"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XV +</h2> +<p> +The next morning my health and strength were entirely restored to me, +but my brother, on the contrary, seemed weak and exhausted from his +efforts of the previous night. Our return journey to the Villa de +Angelis had passed in complete silence. I had been too much perturbed +to question him on the many points relating to the strange events as to +which I was still completely in the dark, and he on his side had shown +no desire to afford me any further information. When I saw him the next +morning he exhibited signs of great weakness, and in response to an +effort on my part to obtain some explanation of the discovery of Adrian +Temple's body, avoided an immediate reply, promising to tell me all he +knew after our return to Worth Maltravers. +</p> +<p> +I pondered over the last terrifying episode very frequently in my own +mind, and as I thought more deeply of it all, it seemed to me that the +outlines of some evil history were piece by piece developing themselves, +that I had almost within my grasp the clue that would make all plain, +and that had eluded me so long. In that dim story Adrian Temple, the +music of the <i>Gagliarda</i>, my brother's fatal passion for the violin, +all seemed to have some mysterious connection, and to have conspired in +working John's mental and physical ruin. Even the Stradivarius violin +bore a part in the tragedy, becoming, as it were, an actively malignant +spirit, though I could not explain how, and was yet entirely unaware of +the manner in which it had come into my brother's possession. +</p> +<p> +I found that John was still resolved on an immediate return to England. +His weakness, it is true, led me to entertain doubts as to how he would +support so long a journey; but at the same time I did not feel justified +in using any strong efforts to dissuade him from his purpose. I +reflected that the more wholesome air and associations of England would +certainly re-invigorate both body and mind, and that any extra strain +brought about by the journey would soon be repaired by the comforts and +watchful care with which we could surround him at Worth Maltravers. +</p> +<p> +So the first week in October saw us once more with our faces set towards +England. A very comfortable swinging-bed or hammock had been arranged +for John in the travelling carriage, and we determined to avoid fatigue +as much as possible by dividing our journey into very short stages. My +brother seemed to have no intention of giving up the Villa de Angelis. +It was left complete with its luxurious furniture, and with all his +servants, under the care of an Italian <i>maggior-duomo</i>. I felt that as +John's state of health forbade his entertaining any hope of an immediate +return thither, it would have been much better to close entirely his +Italian house. But his great weakness made it impossible for him to +undertake the effort such a course would involve, and even if my own +ignorance of the Italian tongue had not stood in the way, I was far too +eager to get my invalid back to Worth to feel inclined to import any +further delay, while I should myself adjust matters which were after all +comparatively trifling. As Parnham was now ready to discharge his usual +duties of valet, and as my brother seemed quite content that he should +do so, Raffaelle was of course to be left behind. The boy had quite won +my heart by his sweet manners, combined with his evident affection to +his master, and in making him understand that he was now to leave us, +I offered him a present of a few pounds as a token of my esteem. He +refused, however, to touch this money, and shed tears when he learnt +that he was to be left in Italy, and begged with many protestations of +devotion that he might be allowed to accompany us to England. My heart +was not proof against his entreaties, supported by so many signs of +attachment, and it was agreed, therefore, that he should at least attend +us as far as Worth Maltravers. John showed no surprise at the boy being +with us; indeed I never thought it necessary to explain that I had +originally purposed to leave him behind. +</p> +<p> +Our journey, though necessarily prolonged by the shortness of its +stages, was safely accomplished. John bore it as well as I could have +hoped, and though his body showed no signs of increased vigour, his +mind, I think, improved in tone, at any rate for a time. From the +evening on which he had shown me the terrible discovery in the Via +del Giardino he seemed to have laid aside something of his care and +depression. He now exhibited little trace of the moroseness and +selfishness which had of late so marred his character; and though he +naturally felt severely at times the fatigue of travel, yet we had no +longer to dread any relapse into that state of lethargy or stupor which +had so often baffled every effort to counteract it at Posilipo. Some +feeling of superstitious aversion had prompted me to give orders that +the Stradivarius violin should be left behind at Posilipo. But before +parting my brother asked for it, and insisted that it should be brought +with him, though I had never heard him play a note on it for many weeks. +He took an interest in all the petty episodes of travel, and certainly +appeared to derive more entertainment from the journey than was to have +been anticipated in his feeble state of health. +</p> +<p> +To the incidents of the evening spent in the Via del Giardino he made no +allusion of any kind, nor did I for my part wish to renew memories of +so unpleasant a nature. His only reference occurred one Sunday evening +as we were passing a small graveyard near Genoa. The scene apparently +turned his thoughts to that subject, and he told me that he had taken +measures before leaving Naples to ensure that the remains of Adrian +Temple should be decently interred in the cemetery of Santa Bibiana. +His words set me thinking again, and unsatisfied curiosity prompted +me strongly to inquire of him how he had convinced himself that the +skeleton at the foot of the stairs was indeed that of Adrian Temple. But +I restrained myself, partly from a reliance on his promise that he would +one day explain the whole story to me, and partly being very reluctant +to mar the enjoyment of the peaceful scenes through which we were +passing, by the introduction of any subjects so jarring and painful as +those to which I have alluded. +</p> +<p> +We reached London at last, and here we stopped a few days to make some +necessary arrangements before going down to Worth Maltravers. I had +urged upon John during the journey that immediately on his arrival in +London he should obtain the best English medical advice as to his own +health. Though he at first demurred, saying that nothing more was to be +done, and that he was perfectly satisfied with the medicine given him by +Dr. Baravelli, which he continued to take, yet by constant entreaty I +prevailed upon him to accede to so reasonable a request. Dr. Frobisher, +considered at that time the first living authority on diseases of the +brain and nerves, saw him on the morning after our arrival. He was good +enough to speak with me at some length after seeing my brother, and to +give me many hints and recipes whereby I might be better enabled to +nurse the invalid. +</p> +<p> +Sir John's condition, he said, was such as to excite serious anxiety. +There was, indeed, no brain mischief of any kind to be discovered, but +his lungs were in a state of advanced disease, and there were signs of +grave heart affection. Yet he did not bid me to despair, but said that +with careful nursing life might certainly be prolonged, and even some +measure of health in time restored. He asked me more than once if I knew +of any trouble or worry that preyed upon Sir John's mind. Were there +financial difficulties; had he been subjected to any mental shock; had +he received any severe fright? To all this I could only reply in the +negative. At the same time I told Dr. Frobisher as much of John's +history as I considered pertinent to the question. He shook his head +gravely, and recommended that Sir John should remain for the present in +London, under his own constant supervision. To this course my brother +would by no means consent. He was eager to proceed at once to his own +house, saying that if necessary we could return again to London for +Christmas. It was therefore agreed that we should go down to Worth +Maltravers at the end of the week. +</p> +<p> +Parnham had already left us for Worth in order that he might have +everything ready against his master's return, and when we arrived we +found all in perfect order for our reception. A small morning-room next +to the library, with a pleasant south aspect and opening on to the +terrace, had been prepared for my brother's use, so that he might avoid +the fatigue of mounting stairs, which Dr. Frobisher considered very +prejudicial in his present condition. We had also purchased in London a +chair fitted with wheels, which enabled him to be moved, or, if he were +feeling equal to the exertion, to move himself, without difficulty, from +room to room. +</p> +<p> +His health, I think, improved; very gradually, it is true, but still +sufficiently to inspire me with hope that he might yet be spared to us. +Of the state of his mind or thoughts I knew little, but I could see that +he was at times a prey to nervous anxiety. This showed itself in the +harassed look which his pale face often wore, and in his marked dislike +to being left alone. He derived, I think, a certain pleasure from the +quietude and monotony of his life at Worth, and perhaps also from the +consciousness that he had about him loving and devoted hearts. I say +hearts, for every servant at Worth was attached to him, remembering the +great consideration and courtesy of his earlier years, and grieving to +see his youthful and once vigorous frame reduced to so sad a strait. +Books he never read himself, and even the charm of Raffaelle's reading +seemed to have lost its power; though he never tired of hearing the boy +sing, and liked to have him sit by his chair even when his eyes were +shut and he was apparently asleep. His general health seemed to me to +change but little either for better or worse. Dr. Frobisher had led me +to expect some such a sequel. I had not concealed from him that I had +at times entertained suspicions as to my brother's sanity; but he had +assured me that they were totally unfounded, that Sir John's brain was +as clear as his own. At the same time he confessed that he could not +account for the exhausted vitality of his patient,—a condition which he +would under ordinary circumstances have attributed to excessive study or +severe trouble. He had urged upon me the pressing necessity for complete +rest, and for much sleep. My brother never even incidentally referred to +his wife, his child, or to Mrs. Temple, who constantly wrote to me from +Royston, sending kind messages to John, and asking how he did. These +messages I never dared to give him, fearing to agitate him, or retard +his recovery by diverting his thoughts into channels which must +necessarily be of a painful character. That he should never even mention +her name, or that of Lady Maltravers, led me to wonder sometimes if one +of those curious freaks of memory which occasionally accompany a severe +illness had not entirely blotted out from his mind the recollection of +his marriage and of his wife's death. He was unable to consider any +affairs of business, and the management of the estate remained as it +had done for the last two years in the hands of our excellent agent, +Mr. Baker. +</p> +<p> +But one evening in the early part of December he sent Raffaelle about +nine o'clock, saying he wished to speak to me. I went to his room, and +without any warning he began at once, "You never show me my boy now, +Sophy; he must be grown a big child, and I should like to see him." +Much startled by so unexpected a remark, I replied that the child was +at Royston under the care of Mrs. Temple, but that I knew that if it +pleased him to see Edward she would be glad to bring him down to Worth. +He seemed gratified with this idea, and begged me to ask her to do so, +desiring that his respects should be at the same time conveyed to her. I +almost ventured at that moment to recall his lost wife to his thoughts, +by saying that his child resembled her strongly; for your likeness at +that time, and even now, my dear Edward, to your poor mother was very +marked. But my courage failed me, and his talk soon reverted to an +earlier period, comparing the mildness of the month to that of the first +winter which he spent at Eton. His thoughts, however, must, I fancy, +have returned for a moment to the days when he first met your mother, +for he suddenly asked, "Where is Gaskell? Why does he never come to see +me?" This brought quite a new idea to my mind. I fancied it might do my +brother much good to have by him so sensible and true a friend as I knew +Mr. Gaskell to be. The latter's address had fortunately not slipped from +my memory, and I put all scruples aside and wrote by the next mail to +him, setting forth my brother's sad condition, saying that I had heard +John mention his name, and begging him on my own account to be so good +as to help us if possible and come to us in this hour of trial. Though +he was so far off as Westmorland, Mr. Gaskell's generosity brought +him at once to our aid, and within a week he was installed at Worth +Maltravers, sleeping, in the library, where we had arranged a bed at +his own desire, so that he might be near his sick friend. +</p> +<p> +His presence was of the utmost assistance to us all. He treated John +at once with the tenderness of a woman and the firmness of a clever +and strong man. They sat constantly together in the mornings, and Mr. +Gaskell told me John had not shown with him the same reluctance to talk +freely of his married life as he had discovered with me. The tenor of +his communications I cannot guess, nor did I ever ask; but I knew that +Mr. Gaskell was much affected by them. +</p> +<p> +John even amused himself now at times by having Mr. Baker into his rooms +of a morning, that the management of the estate might be discussed with +his friend; and he also expressed his wish to see the family solicitor, +as he desired to draw his will. Thinking that any diversion of this +nature could not but be beneficial to him, we sent to Dorchester for our +solicitor, Mr. Jeffreys, who together with his clerk spent three nights +at Worth, and drew up a testament for my brother. +</p> +<p> +So time went on, and the year was drawing to a close. +</p> +<p> +It was Christmas Eve, and I had gone to bed shortly after twelve +o'clock, having an hour earlier bid good night to John and Mr. Gaskell. +The long habit of watching with, or being in charge of an invalid at +night, had made my ears extraordinarily quick to apprehend even the +slightest murmur. It must have been, I think, near three in the morning +when I found myself awake and conscious of some unusual sound. It was +low and far off, but I knew instantly what it was, and felt a choking +sensation of fear and horror, as if an icy hand had gripped my throat, +on recognising the air of the <i>Gagliarda</i>. It was being played on the +violin, and a long way off, but I knew that tune too well to permit of +my having any doubt on the subject. +</p> +<p> +Any trouble or fear becomes, as you will some day learn, my dear nephew, +immensely intensified and exaggerated at night. It is so, I suppose, +because our nerves are in an excited condition, and our brain not +sufficiently awake to give a due account of our foolish imaginations. I +have myself many times lain awake wrestling in thought with difficulties +which in the hours of darkness seemed insurmountable, but with the dawn +resolved themselves into merely trivial inconveniences. So on this +night, as I sat up in bed looking into the dark, with the sound of that +melody in my ears, it seemed as if something too terrible for words had +happened; as though the evil spirit, which we had hoped was exorcised, +had returned with others sevenfold more wicked than himself, and taken +up his abode again with my lost brother. The memory of another night +rushed to my mind when Constance had called me from my bed at Royston, +and we had stolen together down the moonlit passages with the lilt of +that wicked music vibrating on the still summer air. Poor Constance! She +was in her grave now; yet <i>her</i> troubles at least were over, but here, +as by some bitter irony, instead of carol or sweet symphony, it was the +<i>Gagliarda</i> that woke me from my sleep on Christmas morning. +</p> +<p> +I flung my dressing-gown about me, and hurried through the corridor and +down the stairs which led to the lower storey and my brother's room. +As I opened my bedroom door the violin ceased suddenly in the middle +of a bar. Its last sound was not a musical note, but rather a horrible +scream, such as I pray I may never hear again. It was a sound such as a +wounded beast might utter. There is a picture I have seen of Blake's, +showing the soul of a strong wicked man leaving his body at death. The +spirit is flying out through the window with awful staring eyes, aghast +at the desolation into which it is going. If in the agony of dissolution +such a lost soul could utter a cry, it would, I think, sound like the +wail which I heard from the violin that night. +</p> +<p> +Instantly all was in absolute stillness. The passages were silent and +ghostly in the faint light of my candle; but as I reached the bottom +of the stairs I heard the sound of other footsteps, and Mr. Gaskell met +me. He was fully dressed, and had evidently not been to bed. He took me +kindly by the hand and said, "I feared you might be alarmed by the sound +of music. John has been walking in his sleep; he had taken out his +violin and was playing on it in a trance. Just as I reached him +something in it gave way, and the discord caused by the slackened +strings roused him at once. He is awake now and has returned to bed. +Control your alarm for his sake and your own. It is better that he +should not know you have been awakened." +</p> +<p> +He pressed my hand and spoke a few more reassuring words, and I went +back to my room still much agitated, and yet feeling half ashamed for +having shown so much anxiety with so little reason. +</p> +<p> +That Christmas morning was one of the most beautiful that I ever +remember. It seemed as though summer was so loath to leave our sunny +Dorset coast that she came back on this day to bid us adieu before her +final departure. I had risen early and had partaken of the Sacrament +at our little church. Dr. Butler had recently introduced this early +service, and though any alteration of time-honoured customs in such +matters might not otherwise have met with my approval, I was glad to +avail myself of the privilege on this occasion, as I wished in any case +to spend the later morning with my brother. The singular beauty of the +early hours, and the tranquillising effect of the solemn service brought +back serenity to my mind, and effectually banished from it all memories +of the preceding night. Mr. Gaskell met me in the hall on my return, and +after greeting me kindly with the established compliments of the day, +inquired after my health, and hoped that the disturbance of my slumber +on the previous night had not affected me injuriously. He had good news +for me: John seemed decidedly better, was already dressed, and desired, +as it was Christmas morning, that we would take our breakfast with him +in his room. +</p> +<p> +To this, as you may imagine, I readily assented. Our breakfast party +passed off with much content, and even with some quiet humour, John +sitting in his easy-chair at the head of the table and wishing us the +compliments of the season. I found laid in my place a letter from Mrs. +Temple greeting us all (for she knew Mr. Gaskell was at Worth), and +saying that she hoped to bring little Edward to us at the New Year. +My brother seemed much pleased at the prospect of seeing his son, and +though perhaps it was only imagination, I fancied he was particularly +gratified that Mrs. Temple herself was to pay us a visit. She had not +been to Worth since the death of Lady Maltravers. +</p> +<p> +Before we had finished breakfast the sun beat on the panes with an +unusual strength and brightness. His rays cheered us all, and it was so +warm that John first opened the windows, and then wheeled his chair on +to the walk outside. Mr. Gaskell brought him a hat and mufflers, and we +sat with him on the terrace basking in the sun. The sea was still and +glassy as a mirror, and the Channel lay stretched before us like a floor +of moving gold. A rose or two still hung against the house, and the +sun's rays reflected from the red sandstone gave us a December morning +more mild and genial than many June days that I have known in the north. +We sat for some minutes without speaking, immersed in our own +reflections and in the exquisite beauty of the scene. +</p> +<p> +The stillness was broken by the bells of the parish church ringing for +the morning service. There were two of them, and their sound, familiar +to us from childhood, seemed like the voices of old friends. John looked +at me and said with a sigh, "I should like to go to church. It is long +since I was there. You and I have always been on Christmas mornings, +Sophy, and Constance would have wished it had she been with us." +</p> +<p> +His words, so unexpected and tender, filled my eyes with tears; not +tears of grief, but of deep thankfulness to see my loved one turning +once more to the old ways. It was the first time I had heard him speak +of Constance, and that sweet name, with the infinite pathos of her +death, and of the spectacle of my brother's weakness, so overcame me +that I could not speak. I only pressed his hand and nodded. Mr. Gaskell, +who had turned away for a minute, said he thought John would take no +harm in attending the morning service provided the church were warm. +On this point I could reassure him, having found it properly heated +even in the early morning. +</p> +<p> +Mr. Gaskell was to push John's chair, and I ran off to put on my cloak, +with my heart full of profound thankfulness for the signs of returning +grace so mercifully vouchsafed to our dear sufferer on this happy day. +I was ready dressed and had just entered the library when Mr. Gaskell +stepped hurriedly through the window from the terrace. "John has +fainted!" he said. "Run for some smelling salts and call Parnham!" +</p> +<p> +There was a scene of hurried alarm, giving place ere long to terrified +despair. Parnham mounted a horse and set off at a wild gallop to Swanage +to fetch Dr. Bruton; but an hour before he returned we knew the worst. +My brother was beyond the aid of the physician: his wrecked life had +reached a sudden term! +</p> +<hr /> +<p> +I have now, dear Edward, completed the brief narrative of some of the +facts attending the latter years of your father's life. The motive which +has induced me to commit them to writing has been a double one. I am +anxious to give effect as far as may be to the desire expressed most +strongly to Mr. Gaskell by your father, that you should be put in +possession of these facts on your coming of age. And for my own part I +think it better that you should thus hear the plain truth from me, lest +you should be at the mercy of haphazard reports, which might at any time +reach you from ignorant or interested sources. Some of the circumstances +were so remarkable that it is scarcely possible to suppose that they +were not known, and most probably frequently discussed, in so large an +establishment as that of Worth Maltravers. I even have reason to believe +that exaggerated and absurd stories were current at the time of Sir +John's death, and I should be grieved to think that such foolish tales +might by any chance reach your ear without your having any sure means of +discovering where the truth lay. God knows how grievous it has been to +me to set down on paper some of the facts that I have here narrated. You +as a dutiful son will reverence the name even of a father whom you never +knew; but you must remember that his sister did more; she loved him with +a single-hearted devotion, and it still grieves her to the quick to +write anything which may seem to detract from his memory. Only, above +all things, let us speak the truth. Much of what I have told you needs, +I feel, further explanation, but this I cannot give, for I do not +understand the circumstances. Mr. Gaskell, your guardian, will, I +believe, add to this account a few notes of his own, which may tend to +elucidate some points, as he is in possession of certain facts of which +I am still ignorant. +</p> +<a name="h2H_4_0020" id="h2H_4_0020"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + MR. GASKELL'S NOTE +</h2> +<p> +I have read what Miss Maltravers has written, and have but little to add +to it. I can give no explanation that will tally with all the facts or +meet all the difficulties involved in her narrative. The most obvious +solution of some points would be, of course, to suppose that Sir John +Maltravers was insane. But to anyone who knew him as intimately as I +did, such an hypothesis is untenable; nor, if admitted, would it explain +some of the strangest incidents. Moreover, it was strongly negatived by +Dr. Frobisher, from whose verdict in such matters there was at the time +no appeal, by Dr. Dobie, and by Dr. Bruton, who had known Sir John from +his infancy. It is possible that towards the close of his life he +suffered occasionally from hallucination, though I could not positively +affirm even so much; but this was only when his health had been +completely undermined by causes which are very difficult to analyse. +</p> +<p> +When I first knew him at Oxford he was a strong man physically as +well as mentally; open-hearted, and of a merry and genial temperament. +At the same time he was, like most cultured persons—and especially +musicians,—highly strung and excitable. But at a certain point in his +career his very nature seemed to change; he became reserved, secretive, +and saturnine. On this moral metamorphosis followed an equally startling +physical change. His robust health began to fail him, and although there +was no definite malady which doctors could combat, he went gradually +from bad to worse until the end came. +</p> +<p> +The commencement of this extraordinary change coincided, I believe, +almost exactly with his discovery of the Stradivarius violin; and +whether this was, after all, a mere coincidence or something more it is +not easy to say. Until a very short time before his death neither Miss +Maltravers nor I had any idea how that instrument had come into his +possession, or I think something might perhaps have been done to save +him. +</p> +<p> +Though towards the end of his life he spoke freely to his sister of the +finding of the violin, he only told her half the story, for he concealed +from her entirely that there was anything else in the hidden cupboard at +Oxford. But as a matter of fact, he had found there also two manuscript +books containing an elaborate diary of some years of a man's life. That +man was Adrian Temple, and I believe that in the perusal of this diary +must be sought the origin of John Maltravers's ruin. The manuscript was +beautifully written in a clear but cramped eighteenth century hand, +and gave the idea of a man writing with deliberation, and wishing to +transcribe his impressions with accuracy for further reference. The +style was excellent, and the minute details given were often of high +antiquarian interest; but the record throughout was marred by gross +licence. Adrian Temple's life had undoubtedly so definite an influence +on Sir John's that a brief outline of it, as gathered from his diaries, +is necessary for the understanding of what followed. +</p> +<p> +Temple went up to Oxford in 1737. He was seventeen years old, without +parents, brothers, or sisters; and he possessed the Royston estates +in Derbyshire, which were then, as now, a most valuable property. +With the year 1738 his diaries begin, and though then little more than +a boy, he had tasted every illicit pleasure that Oxford had to offer. +His temptations were no doubt great; for besides being wealthy he was +handsome, and had probably never known any proper control, as both his +parents had died when he was still very young. But in spite of other +failings, he was a brilliant scholar, and on taking his degree, was +made at once a fellow of St. John's. He took up his abode in that +College in a fine set of rooms looking on to the gardens, and from this +period seems to have used Royston but little, living always either at +Oxford or on the Continent. He formed at this time the acquaintance of +one Jocelyn, whom he engaged as companion and amanuensis. Jocelyn was a +man of talent, but of irregular life, and was no doubt an accomplice in +many of Temple's excesses. In 1743 they both undertook the so-called +"grand tour," and though it was not his first visit, it was then +probably that Temple first felt the fascination of pagan Italy,—a +fascination which increased with every year of his after-life. +</p> +<p> +On his return from foreign travel he found himself among the stirring +events of 1745. He was an ardent supporter of the Pretender, and made no +attempt to conceal his views. Jacobite tendencies were indeed generally +prevalent in the College at the time, and had this been the sum of his +offending, it is probable that little notice would have been taken by +the College authorities. But his notoriously wild life told against the +young man, and certain dark suspicions were not easily passed over. +After the <i>fiasco</i> of the Rebellion Dr. Holmes, then President of the +College, seems to have made a scapegoat of Temple. He was deprived of +his fellowship, and though not formally expelled, such pressure was put +upon him as resulted in his leaving St. John's and removing to Magdalen +Hall. There his great wealth evidently secured him consideration, and he +was given the best rooms in the Hall, that very set looking on to New +College Lane which Sir John Maltravers afterwards occupied. +</p> +<p> +In the first half of the eighteenth century the romance of the middle +ages, though dying, was not dead, and the occult sciences still found +followers among the Oxford towers. From his early years Temple's mind +seems to have been set strongly towards mysticism of all kinds, and he +and Jocelyn were versed in the jargon of the alchemist and astrologer, +and practised according to the ancient rules. It was his reputation as +a necromancer, and the stories current of illicit rites performed in +the garden-rooms at St. John's, that contributed largely to his being +dismissed from that College. He had also become acquainted with Francis +Dashwood, the notorious Lord le Despencer, and many a winter's night +saw him riding through the misty Thames meadows to the door of the sham +Franciscan abbey. In his diaries were more notices than one of the +"Franciscans" and the nameless orgies of Medmenham. +</p> +<p> +He was devoted to music. It was a rare enough accomplishment then, and a +rarer thing still to find a wealthy landowner performing on the violin. +Yet so he did, though he kept his passion very much to himself, as +fiddling was thought lightly of in those days. His musical skill +was altogether exceptional, and he was the first possessor of the +Stradivarius violin which afterwards fell so unfortunately into Sir +John's hands. This violin Temple bought in the autumn of 1738, on the +occasion of a first visit to Italy. In that year died the nonagenarian +Antonius Stradivarius, the greatest violin-maker the world has ever +seen. After Stradivarius's death the stock of fiddles in his shop was +sold by auction. Temple happened to be travelling in Cremona at the time +with a tutor, and at the auction he bought that very instrument which we +afterwards had cause to know so well. A note in his diary gave its cost +at four louis, and said that a curious history attached to it. Though +it was of his golden period, and probably the finest instrument he ever +made, Stradivarius would never sell it, and it had hung for more than +thirty years in his shop. It was said that from some whim as he lay +dying he had given orders that it should be burnt; but if that were so, +the instructions were neglected, and after his death it came under the +hammer. Adrian Temple from the first recognised the great value of the +instrument. His notes show that he only used it on certain special +occasions, and it was no doubt for its better protection that he devised +the hidden cupboard where Sir John eventually found it. +</p> +<p> +The later years of Temple's life were spent for the most part in Italy. +On the Scoglio di Venere, near Naples, he built the Villa de Angelis, +and there henceforth passed all except the hottest months of the year. +Shortly after the completion of the villa Jocelyn left him suddenly, and +became a Carthusian monk. A caustic note in his diary hinted that even +this foul parasite was shocked into the austerest form of religion by +something he had seen going forward. At Naples Temple's dark life became +still darker. He dallied, it is true, with Neo-Platonism, and boasts +that he, like Plotinus, had twice passed the circle of the <i>nous</i> and +enjoyed the fruition of the deity; but the ideals of even that easy +doctrine grew in his evil life still more miserably debased. More than +once in the manuscript he made mention by name of the <i>Gagliarda</i> +of Graziani as having been played at pagan mysteries which these +enthusiasts revived at Naples, and the air had evidently impressed +itself deeply on his memory. The last entry in his diary is made on +the 16th of December, 1752. He was then in Oxford for a few days, but +shortly afterwards returned to Naples. The accident of his having just +completed a second volume, induced him, no doubt, to leave it behind him +in the secret cupboard. It is probable that he commenced a third, but if +so it was never found. +</p> +<p> +In reading the manuscript I was struck with the author's clear and easy +style, and found the interest of the narrative increase rather than +diminish. At the same time its study was inexpressibly painful to me. +Nothing could have supported me in my determination to thoroughly +master it but the conviction that if I was to be of any real assistance +to my poor friend Maltravers, I must know as far as possible every +circumstance connected with his malady. As it was, I felt myself +breathing an atmosphere of moral contagion during the perusal of the +manuscript, and certain passages have since returned at times to haunt +me in spite of all efforts to dislodge them from my memory. When I came +to Worth at Miss Maltravers's urgent invitation, I found my friend Sir +John terribly altered. It was not only that he was ill and physically +weak, but he had entirely lost the manner of youth, which, though +indefinable, is yet so appreciable, and draws so sharp a distinction +between the first period of life and middle age. But the most striking +feature of his illness was the extraordinary pallor of his complexion, +which made his face resemble a subtle counterfeit of white wax rather +than that of a living man. He welcomed me undemonstratively, but with +evident sincerity; and there was an entire absence of the constraint +which often accompanies the meeting again of friends whose cordial +relations have suffered interruption. From the time of my arrival at +Worth until his death we were constantly together; indeed I was much +struck by the almost childish dislike which he showed to be left alone +even for a few moments. As night approached this feeling became +intensified. Parnham slept always in his master's room; but if anything +called the servant away even for a minute, he would send for Carotenuto +or myself to be with him until his return. His nerves were weak; he +started violently at any unexpected noise, and above all, he dreaded +being in the dark. When night fell he had additional lamps brought into +his room, and even when he composed himself to sleep, insisted on a +strong light being kept by his bedside. +</p> +<p> +I had often read in books of people wearing a "hunted" expression, and +had laughed at the phrase as conventional and unmeaning. But when I +came to Worth I knew its truth; for if any face ever wore a hunted—I +had almost written a haunted—look, it was the white face of Sir John +Maltravers. His air seemed that of a man who was constantly expecting +the arrival of some evil tidings, and at times reminded me painfully of +the guilty expectation of a felon who knows that a warrant is issued for +his arrest. +</p> +<p> +During my visit he spoke to me frequently about his past life, and +instead of showing any reluctance to discuss the subject, seemed glad of +the opportunity of disburdening his mind. I gathered from him that the +reading of Adrian Temple's memoirs had made a deep impression on his +mind, which was no doubt intensified by the vision which he thought he +saw in his rooms at Oxford, and by the discovery of the portrait at +Royston. Of those singular phenomena I have no explanation to offer. +</p> +<p> +The romantic element in his disposition rendered him peculiarly +susceptible to the fascination of that mysticism which breathed through +Temple's narrative. He told me that almost from the first time he read +it he was filled with a longing to visit the places and to revive the +strange life of which it spoke. This inclination he kept at first in +check, but by degrees it gathered strength enough to master him. +</p> +<p> +There is no doubt in my mind that the music of the <i>Gagliarda</i> of +Graziani helped materially in this process of mental degradation. It is +curious that Michael Prætorius in the "Syntagma musicum" should speak of +the Galliard generally as an "invention of the devil, full of shameful +and licentious gestures and immodest movements," and the singular melody +of the <i>Gagliarda</i> in the "Areopagita" suite certainly exercised from +the first a strange influence over me. I shall not do more than touch +on the question here, because I see Miss Maltravers has spoken of it +at length, and will only say, that though since the day of Sir John's +death I have never heard a note of it, the air is still fresh in my +mind, and has at times presented itself to me unexpectedly, and always +with an unwholesome effect. This I have found happen generally in times +of physical depression, and the same air no doubt exerted a similar +influence on Sir John, which his impressionable nature rendered from the +first more deleterious to him. +</p> +<p> +I say this advisedly, because I am sure that if some music is good for +man and elevates him, other melodies are equally bad and enervating. An +experience far wider than any we yet possess is necessary to enable us +to say how far this influence is capable of extension. How far, that +is, the mind may be directed on the one hand to ascetic abnegation by +the systematic use of certain music, or on the other to illicit and +dangerous pleasures by melodies of an opposite tendency. But this much +is, I think, certain, that after a comparatively advanced standard of +culture has once been attained, music is the readiest if not the only +key which admits to the yet narrower circle of the highest imaginative +thought. +</p> +<p> +On the occasion for travel afforded him by his honeymoon, an impulse +which he could not at the time explain, but which after-events have +convinced me was the haunting suggestion of the <i>Gagliarda</i>, drove him +to visit the scenes mentioned so often in Temple's diary. He had always +been an excellent scholar, and a classic of more than ordinary ability. +Rome and Southern Italy filled him with a strange delight. His education +enabled him to appreciate to the full what he saw; he peopled the stage +with the figures of the original actors, and tried to assimilate his +thought to theirs. He began reading classical literature widely, no +longer from the scholarly but the literary standpoint. In Rome he +spent much time in the librarians' shops, and there met with copies +of the numerous authors of the later empire and of those Alexandrine +philosophers which are rarely seen in England. In these he found a new +delight and fresh food for his mysticism. +</p> +<p> +Such study, if carried to any extent, is probably dangerous to the +English character, and certainly was to a man of Maltravers's romantic +sympathies. This reading produced in time so real an effect upon his +mind that if he did not definitely abandon Christianity, as I fear he +did, he at least adulterated it with other doctrines till it became to +him Neo-Platonism. That most seductive of philosophies, which has +enthralled so many minds from Proclus and Julian to Augustine and the +Renaissancists, found an easy convert in John Maltravers. Its passionate +longing for the vague and undefined good, its tolerance of æsthetic +impressions, the pleasant superstitions of its dynamic pantheism, all +touched responsive chords in his nature. His mind, he told me, became +filled with a measureless yearning for the old culture of pagan +philosophy, and as the past became clearer and more real, so the present +grew dimmer, and his thoughts were gradually weaned entirely from all +the natural objects of affection and interest which should otherwise +have occupied them. To what a terrible extent this process went on, Miss +Maltravers's narrative shows. Soon after reaching Naples he visited the +Villa de Angelis, which Temple had built on the ruins of a sea-house of +Pomponius. The later building had in its turn become dismantled and +ruinous, and Sir John found no difficulty in buying the site outright. +He afterwards rebuilt it on an elaborate scale, endeavouring to +reproduce in its equipment the luxury of the later empire. I had +occasion to visit the house more than once in my capacity of executor, +and found it full of priceless works of art, which, though neither so +difficult to procure at that time nor so costly as they would be now, +were yet sufficiently valuable to have necessitated an unjustifiable +outlay. +</p> +<p> +The situation of the building fostered his infatuation for the past. It +lay between the Bay of Naples and the Bay of Baia, and from its windows +commanded the same exquisite view which had charmed Cicero and Lucullus, +Severus and the Antonines. Hard by stood Baia, the princely seaside +resort of the empire. That most luxurious and wanton of all cities of +antiquity survived the cataclysms of ages, and only lost its civic +continuity and became the ruined village of to-day in the sack of the +fifteenth century. But a continuity of wickedness is not so easily +broken, and those who know the spot best say that it is still instinct +with memories of a shameful past. +</p> +<p> +For miles along that haunted coast the foot cannot be put down except on +the ruins of some splendid villa, and over all there broods a spirit of +corruption and debasement actually sensible and oppressive. Of the dawns +and sunsets, of the noonday sun tempered by the sea-breeze and the shade +of scented groves, those who have been there know the charm, and to +those who have not no words can describe it. But there are malefic +vapours rising from the corpse of a past not altogether buried, and most +cultivated Englishmen who tarry there long feel their influence as did +John Maltravers. Like so many <i>decepti deceptores</i> of the Neo-Platonic +school, he did not practise the abnegation enjoined by the very cult he +professed to follow. Though his nature was far too refined, I believe, +ever to sink into the sensualism revealed in Temple's diaries, yet it +was through the gratification of corporeal tastes that he endeavoured +to achieve the divine <i>extasis</i>; and there were constantly lavish and +sumptuous entertainments at the villa, at which strange guests were +present. +</p> +<p> +In such a nightmare of a life it was not to be expected that any mind +would find repose, and Maltravers certainly found none. All those cares +which usually occupy men's minds, all thoughts of wife, child, and home +were, it is true, abandoned; but a wild unrest had hold of him, and +never suffered him to be at ease. Though he never told me as much, yet +I believe he was under the impression that the form which he had seen +at Oxford and Royston had reappeared to him on more than one subsequent +occasion. It must have been, I fancy, with a vague hope of "laying" this +spectre that he now set himself with eagerness to discover where or +how Temple had died. He remembered that Royston tradition said he had +succumbed at Naples in the plague of 1752, but an idea seized him that +this was not the case; indeed I half suspect his fancy unconsciously +pictured that evil man as still alive. The methods by which he +eventually discovered the skeleton, or learnt the episodes which +preceded Temple's death, I do not know. He promised to tell me some +day at length, but a sudden death prevented his ever doing so. The +facts as he narrated them, and as I have little doubt they actually +occurred, were these: Adrian Temple, after Jocelyn's departure, had +made a confidant of one Palamede Domacavalli, a scion of a splendid +Parthenopean family of that name. Palamede had a palace in the heart of +Naples, and was Temple's equal in age and also in his great wealth. The +two men became boon companions, associated in all kinds of wickedness +and excess. At length Palamede married a beautiful girl named Olimpia +Aldobrandini, who was also of the noblest lineage; but the intimacy +between him and Temple was not interrupted. About a year subsequent to +this marriage dancing was going on after a splendid banquet in the great +hall of the Palazzo Domacavalli. Adrian, who was a favoured guest, +called to the musicians in the gallery to play the "Areopagita" suite, +and danced it with Olimpia, the wife of his host. The <i>Gagliarda</i> was +reached but never finished, for near the end of the second movement +Palamede from behind drove a stiletto into his friend's heart. He had +found out that day that Adrian had not spared even Olimpia's honour. +</p> +<p> +I have endeavoured to condense into a connected story the facts learnt +piecemeal from Sir John in conversation. To a certain extent they +supplied, if not an explanation, at least an account of the change +that had come over my friend. But only to a certain extent; there the +explanation broke down and I was left baffled. I could imagine that a +life of unwholesome surroundings and disordered studies might in time +produce such a loss of mental tone as would lead in turn to moral +<i>acolasia</i>, sensual excess, and physical ruin. But in Sir John's case +the cause was not adequate; he had, so far as I know, never wholly given +the reins to sensuality, and the change was too abrupt and the breakdown +of body and mind too complete to be accounted for by such events as +those of which he had spoken. +</p> +<p> +I had, too, an uneasy feeling, which grew upon me the more I saw of him, +that while he spoke freely enough on certain topics, and obviously meant +to give a complete history of his past life, there was in reality +something in the background which he always kept from my view. He was, +it seemed, like a young man asked by an indulgent father to disclose +his debts in order that they may be discharged, who, although he knows +his parent's leniency, and that any debt not now disclosed will be +afterwards but a weight upon his own neck, yet hesitates for very shame +to tell the full amount, and keeps some items back. So poor Sir John +kept something back from me his friend, whose only aim was to afford him +consolation and relief, and whose compassion would have made me listen +without rebuke to the narration of the blackest crimes. I cannot say how +much this conviction grieved me. I would most willingly have given my +all, my very life, to save my friend and Miss Maltravers's brother; but +my efforts were paralysed by the feeling that I did not know what I had +to combat, that some evil influence was at work on him which continually +evaded my grasp. Once or twice it seemed as though he were within an +ace of telling me all; once or twice, I believe, he had definitely made +up his mind to do so; but then the mood changed, or more probably his +courage failed him. +</p> +<p> +It was on one of these occasions that he asked me, somewhat suddenly, +whether I thought that a man could by any conscious act committed in the +flesh take away from himself all possibility of repentance and ultimate +salvation. Though, I trust, a sincere Christian, I am nothing of a +theologian, and the question touching on a topic which had not occurred +to my mind since childhood, and which seemed to savour rather of +medieval romance than of practical religion, took me for a moment aback. +I hesitated for an instant, and then replied that the means of salvation +offered man were undoubtedly so sufficient as to remove from one truly +penitent the guilt of any crime however dark. My hesitation had been but +momentary; but Sir John seemed to have noticed it, and sealed his lips +to any confession, if he had indeed intended to make any, by changing +the subject abruptly. This question naturally gave me food for serious +reflection and anxiety. It was the first occasion on which he appeared +to me to be undoubtedly suffering from definite hallucination, and I was +aware that any illusions connected with religion are generally most +difficult to remove. At the same time, anything of this sort was the +more remarkable in Sir John's case, as he had, so far as I knew, for a +considerable time entirely abandoned the Christian belief. +</p> +<p> +Unable to elicit any further information from him, and being thus thrown +entirely upon my own resources, I determined that I would read through +again the whole of Temple's diaries. The task was a very distasteful +one, as I have already explained, but I hoped that a second reading +might perhaps throw some light on the dark misgiving that was troubling +Sir John. I read the manuscript again with the closest attention. +Nothing, however, of any importance seemed to have escaped me on the +former occasions, and I had reached nearly the end of the second volume +when a comparatively slight matter arrested my attention. I have said +that the pages were all carefully numbered, and the events of each day +recorded separately; even where Temple had found nothing of moment to +notice on a given day, he had still inserted the date with the word +<i>nil</i> written against it. But as I sat one evening in the library at +Worth after Sir John had gone to bed, and was finally glancing through +the days of the months in Temple's diary to make sure that all were +complete, I found one day was missing. It was towards the end of the +second volume, and the day was the 23d of October in the year 1752. A +glance at the numbering of the pages revealed the fact that three leaves +had been entirely removed, and that the pages numbered 349 to 354 were +not to be found. Again I ran through the diaries to see whether there +were any leaves removed in other places, but found no other single page +missing. All was complete except at this one place, the manuscript +beautifully written, with scarcely an error or erasure throughout. A +closer examination showed that these leaves had been cut out close to +the back, and the cut edges of the paper appeared too fresh to admit of +this being done a century ago. A very short reflection convinced me, in +fact, that the excision was not likely to have been Temple's, and that +it must have been made by Sir John. +</p> +<p> +My first intention was to ask him at once what the lost pages had +contained, and why they had been cut out. The matter might be a mere +triviality which he could explain in a moment. But on softly opening his +bedroom door I found him sleeping, and Parnham (whom the strong light +always burnt in the room rendered more wakeful) informed me that his +master had been in a deep sleep for more than an hour. I knew how +sorely his wasted energies needed such repose, and stepped back to the +library without awaking him. A few minutes before, I had been feeling +sleepy at the conclusion of my task, but now all wish for sleep was +suddenly banished and a painful wakefulness took its place. I was under +a species of mental excitement which reminded me of my feelings some +years before at Oxford on the first occasion of our ever playing the +<i>Gagliarda</i> together, and an idea struck me with the force of intuition +that in these three lost leaves lay the secret of my friend's ruin. +</p> +<p> +I turned to the context to see whether there was anything in the entries +preceding or following the lacuna that would afford a clue to the +missing passage. The record of the few days immediately preceding the +23d of October was short and contained nothing of any moment whatever. +Adrian and Jocelyn were alone together at the Villa de Angelis. The +entry on the 22d was very unimportant and apparently quite complete, +ending at the bottom of page 348. Of the 23d there was, as I have said, +no record at all, and the entry for the 24th began at the top of page +355. This last memorandum was also brief, and written when the author +was annoyed by Jocelyn leaving him. +</p> +<p> +The defection of his companion had been apparently entirely unexpected. +There was at least no previous hint of any such intention. Temple wrote +that Jocelyn had left the Villa de Angelis that day and taken up his +abode with the Carthusians of San Martino. No reason for such an +extraordinary change was given; but there was a hint that Jocelyn had +professed himself shocked at something that had happened. The entry +concluded with a few bitter remarks: <i>"So farewell to my holy anchoret; +and if I cannot speed him with a leprosie as one Elisha did his servant, +yet at least he went out from my presence with a face as white as +snow."</i> +</p> +<p> +I had read this sentence more than once before without its attracting +other than a passing attention. The curious expression, that Jocelyn had +gone out from his presence with a face as white as snow, had hitherto +seemed to me to mean nothing more than that the two men had parted in +violent anger, and that Temple had abused or bullied his companion. But +as I sat alone that night in the library the words seemed to assume an +entirely new force, and a strange suspicion began to creep over me. +</p> +<p> +I have said that one of the most remarkable features of Sir John's +illness was his deadly pallor. Though I had now spent some time at +Worth, and had been daily struck by this lack of colour, I had never +before remembered in this connection that a strange paleness had also +been an attribute of Adrian Temple, and was indeed very clearly marked +in the picture painted of him by Battoni. In Sir John's account, +moreover, of the vision which he thought he had seen in his rooms at +Oxford, he had always spoken of the white and waxen face of his spectral +visitant. The family tradition of Royston said that Temple had lost his +colour in some deadly magical experiment, and a conviction now flashed +upon me that Jocelyn's face "as white as snow" could refer only to this +same unnatural pallor, and that he too had been smitten with it as with +the mark of the beast. +</p> +<p> +In a drawer of my despatch-box, I kept by me all the letters which the +late Lady Maltravers had written home during her ill-fated honeymoon. +Miss Maltravers had placed them in my hands in order that I might be +acquainted with every fact that could at all elucidate the progress of +Sir John's malady. I remembered that in one of these letters mention was +made of a sharp attack of fever in Naples, and of her noticing in him +for the first time this singular pallor. I found the letter again +without difficulty and read it with a new light. Every line breathed of +surprise and alarm. Lady Maltravers feared that her husband was very +seriously ill. On the Wednesday, two days before she wrote, he had +suffered all day from a strange restlessness, which had increased after +they had retired in the evening. He could not sleep and had dressed +again, saying he would walk a little in the night air to compose +himself. He had not returned till near six in the morning, and then +seemed so exhausted that he had since been confined to his bed. He was +terribly pale, and the doctors feared he had been attacked by some +strange fever. +</p> +<p> +The date of the letter was the 25th of October, fixing the night of the +23d as the time of Sir John's first attack. The coincidence of the date +with that of the day missing in Temple's diary was significant, but it +was not needed now to convince me that Sir John's ruin was due to +something that occurred on that fatal night at Naples. +</p> +<p> +The question that Dr. Frobisher had asked Miss Maltravers when he was +first called to see her brother in London returned to my memory with an +overwhelming force. "Had Sir John been subjected to any mental shock; +had he received any severe fright?" I knew now that the question should +have been answered in the affirmative, for I felt as certain as if +Sir John had told me himself that he <i>had</i> received a violent shock, +probably some terrible fright, on the night of the 23d of October. What +the nature of that shock could have been my imagination was powerless to +conceive, only I knew that whatever Sir John had done or seen, Adrian +Temple and Jocelyn had done or seen also a century before and at the +same place. That horror which had blanched the face of all three men +for life had fallen perhaps with a less overwhelming force on Temple's +seasoned wickedness, but had driven the worthless Jocelyn to the +cloister, and was driving Sir John to the grave. +</p> +<p> +These thoughts as they passed through my mind filled me with a vague +alarm. The lateness of the hour, the stillness and the subdued light, +made the library in which I sat seem so vast and lonely that I began to +feel the same dread of being alone that I had observed so often in my +friend. Though only a door separated me from his bedroom, and I could +hear his deep and regular breathing, I felt as though I must go in +and waken him or Parnham to keep me company and save me from my own +reflections. By a strong effort I restrained myself, and sat down to +think the matter over and endeavour to frame some hypothesis that might +explain the mystery. But it was all to no purpose. I merely wearied +myself without being able to arrive at even a plausible conjecture, +except that it seemed as though the strange coincidence of date might +point to some ghastly charm or incantation which could only be carried +out on one certain night of the year. +</p> +<p> +It must have been near morning when, quite exhausted, I fell into an +uneasy slumber in the arm-chair where I sat. My sleep, however brief, +was peopled with a succession of fantastic visions, in which I +continually saw Sir John, not ill and wasted as now, but vigorous and +handsome as I had known him at Oxford, standing beside a glowing brazier +and reciting words I could not understand, while another man with a +sneering white face sat in a corner playing the air of the <i>Gagliarda</i> +on a violin. Parnham woke me in my chair at seven o'clock; his master, +he said, was still sleeping easily. +</p> +<p> +I had made up my mind that as soon as he awoke I would inquire of Sir +John as to the pages missing from the diary; but though my expectation +and excitement were at a high pitch, I was forced to restrain my +curiosity, for Sir John's slumber continued late into the day. Dr. +Bruton called in the morning, and said that this sleep was what the +patient's condition most required, and was a distinctly favourable +symptom; he was on no account to be disturbed. Sir John did not leave +his bed, but continued dozing all day till the evening. When at last he +shook off his drowsiness, the hour was already so late that, in spite of +my anxiety, I hesitated to talk with him about the diaries, lest I +should unduly excite him before the night. +</p> +<p> +As the evening advanced he became very uneasy, and rose more than once +from his bed. This restlessness, following on the repose of the day, +ought perhaps to have made me anxious, for I have since observed that +when death is very near an apprehensive unrest often sets in both with +men and animals. It seems as if they dreaded to resign themselves to +sleep, lest as they slumber the last enemy should seize them unawares. +They try to fling off the bedclothes, they sometimes must leave their +beds and walk. So it was with poor John Maltravers on his last Christmas +Eve. I had sat with him grieving for his disquiet until he seemed to +grow more tranquil, and at length fell asleep. I was sleeping that night +in his room instead of Parnham, and tired with sitting up through the +previous night, I flung myself, dressed as I was, upon the bed. I had +scarcely dozed off, I think, before the sound of his violin awoke me. +I found he had risen from his bed, had taken his favourite instrument, +and was playing in his sleep. The air was the <i>Gagliarda</i> of the +"Areopagita" suite, which I had not heard since we had played it last +together at Oxford, and it brought back with it a crowd of far-off +memories and infinite regrets. I cursed the sleepiness which had +overcome me at my watchman's post, and allowed Sir John to play once +more that melody which had always been fraught with such evil for him; +and I was about to wake him gently when he was startled from sleep by a +strange accident. As I walked towards him the violin seemed entirely to +collapse in his hands, and, as a matter of fact, the belly then gave way +and broke under the strain of the strings. As the strings slackened, the +last note became an unearthly discord. If I were superstitious I should +say that some evil spirit then went out of the violin, and broke in his +parting throes the wooden tabernacle which had so long sheltered him. It +was the last time the instrument was ever used, and that hideous chord +was the last that Maltravers ever played. +</p> +<p> +I had feared that the shock of waking thus suddenly from sleep would +have a very prejudicial effect upon the sleep-walker, but this seemed +not to be the case. I persuaded him to go back at once to bed, and in a +few minutes he fell asleep again. In the morning he seemed for the first +time distinctly better; there was indeed something of his old self in +his manner. It seemed as though the breaking of the violin had been an +actual relief to him; and I believe that on that Christmas morning his +better instincts woke, and that his old religious training and the +associations of his boyhood then made their last appeal. I was pleased +at such a change, however temporary it might prove. He wished to go to +church, and I determined that again I would subdue my curiosity and +defer the questions I was burning to put till after our return from +the morning service. Miss Maltravers had gone indoors to make some +preparation, Sir John was in his wheel-chair on the terrace, and I was +sitting by him in the sun. For a few moments he appeared immersed in +silent thought, and then bent over towards me till his head was close +to mine, and said, "Dear William, there is something I must tell you. +I feel I cannot even go to church till I have told you all." His manner +shocked me beyond expression. I knew that he was going to tell me the +secret of the lost pages, but instead of wishing any longer to have my +curiosity satisfied, I felt a horrible dread of what he might say next. +He took my hand in his and held it tightly, as a man who was about to +undergo severe physical pain and sought the consolation of a friend's +support. Then he went on—"You will be shocked at what I am going to +tell you; but listen, and do not give me up: You must stand by me and +comfort me and help me to turn again." He paused for a moment and +continued—"It was one night in October, when Constance and I were at +Naples. I took that violin and went by myself to the ruined villa on +the Scoglio di Venere." He had been speaking with difficulty. His hand +clutched mine convulsively, but still I felt it trembling, and I could +see the moisture standing thick on his forehead. At this point the +effort seemed too much for him and he broke off. "I cannot go on, I +cannot tell you, but you can read it for yourself. In that diary which +I gave you there are some pages missing." The suspense was becoming +intolerable to me, and I broke in, "Yes, yes, I know; you cut them out. +Tell me where they are," He went on—"Yes, I cut them out lest they +should possibly fall into anyone's hands unaware. But before you read +them you must swear, as you hope for salvation, that you will never try +to do what is written in them. Swear this to me now, or I never can +let you see them." My eagerness was too great to stop now to discuss +trifles, and to humour him I swore as desired. He had been speaking with +a continual increasing effort; he cast a hurried and fearful glance +round as though he expected to see someone listening, and it was almost +in a whisper that he went on, "You will find them in—" His agitation +had become most painful to watch, and as he spoke the last words a +convulsion passed over his face, and speech failing him, he sank back on +his pillow. A strange fear took hold of me. For a moment I thought there +were others on the terrace beside myself, and turned round expecting to +see Miss Maltravers returned; but we were still alone. I even fancied +that just as Sir John spoke his last words I felt something brush +swiftly by me. He put up his hands, beating the air with a most painful +gesture, as though he were trying to keep off an antagonist who had +gripped him by the throat, and made a final struggle to speak. But the +spasm was too strong for him; a dreadful stillness followed, and he was +gone. +</p> +<p> +There is little more to add; for Sir John's guilty secret, perished with +him. Though I was sure from his manner that the missing leaves were +concealed somewhere at Worth, and though as executor I caused the most +diligent search to be made, no trace of them was afterwards found; nor +did any circumstance ever transpire to fling further light upon the +matter. I must confess that I should have felt the discovery of these +pages as a relief; for though I dreaded what I might have had to read, +yet I was more anxious lest, being found at a later period and falling +into other hands, they should cause a recrudescence of that plague which +had blighted Sir John's life. +</p> +<p> +Of the nature of the events which took place on that night at Naples +I can form no conjecture. But as certain physical sights have ere now +proved so revolting as to unhinge the intellect, so I can imagine that +the mind may in a state of extreme tension conjure up to itself some +form of moral evil so hideous as metaphysically to sear it: and this, +I believe, happened in the case both of Adrian Temple and of Sir John +Maltravers. +</p> +<p> +It is difficult to imagine the accessories used to produce the mental +excitation in which alone such a presentment of evil could become +imaginable. Fancy and legend, which have combined to represent as +possible appearances of the supernatural, agree also in considering them +as more likely to occur at certain times and places than at others; and +it is possible that the missing pages of the diary contained an account +of the time, place, and other conditions chosen by Temple for some +deadly experiment. Sir John most probably re-enacted the scene under +precisely similar conditions, and the effect on his overwrought +imagination was so vivid as to upset the balance of his mind. The time +chosen was no doubt the night of the 23d of October, and I cannot help +thinking that the place was one of those evil-looking and ruinous +sea-rooms which had so terrifying an effect on Miss Maltravers. Temple +may have used on that night one of the medieval incantations, or +possibly the more ancient invocation of the Isiac rite with which a +man of his knowledge and proclivities would certainly be familiar. The +accessories of either are sufficiently hideous to weaken the mind by +terror, and so prepare it for a belief in some frightful apparition. But +whatever was done, I feel sure that the music of the <i>Gagliarda</i> formed +part of the ceremonial. +</p> +<p> +Medieval philosophers and theologians held that evil is in its essence +so horrible that the human mind, if it could realise it, must perish at +its contemplation. Such realisation was by mercy ordinarily withheld, +but its possibility was hinted in the legend of the <i>Visio malefica</i>. +The <i>Visio Beatifica</i> was, as is well known, that vision of the Deity +or realisation of the perfect Good which was to form the happiness of +heaven, and the reward of the sanctified in the next world. Tradition +says that this vision was accorded also to some specially elect spirits +even in this life, as to Enoch, Elijah, Stephen, and Jerome. But there +was a converse to the Beatific Vision in the <i>Visio malefica</i>, or +presentation of absolute Evil, which was to be the chief torture of the +damned, and which, like the Beatific Vision, had been made visible in +life to certain desperate men. It visited Esau, as was said, when he +found no place for repentance, and Judas, whom it drove to suicide. +Cain saw it when he murdered his brother, and legend relates that in his +case, and in that of others, it left a physical brand to be borne by +the body to the grave. It was supposed that the Malefic Vision, besides +being thus spontaneously presented to typically abandoned men, had +actually been purposely called up by some few great adepts, and used by +them to blast their enemies. But to do so was considered equivalent to a +conscious surrender to the powers of evil, as the vision once seen took +away all hope of final salvation. +</p> +<p> +Adrian Temple would undoubtedly be cognisant of this legend, and the +lost experiment may have been an attempt to call up the Malefic Vision. +It is but a vague conjecture at the best, for the tree of the knowledge +of Evil bears many sorts of poisonous fruit, and no one can give full +account of the extravagances of a wayward fancy. +</p> +<p> +Conjointly with Miss Sophia, Sir John appointed me his executor and +guardian of his only son. Two months later we had lit a great fire +in the library at Worth. In it, after the servants were gone to bed, +we burnt the book containing the "Areopagita" of Graziani, and the +Stradivarius fiddle. The diaries of Temple I had already destroyed, and +wish that I could as easily blot out their foul and debasing memories +from my mind. I shall probably be blamed by those who would exalt +art at the expense of everything else, for burning a unique violin. +This reproach I am content to bear. Though I am not unreasonably +superstitious, and have no sympathy for that potential pantheism to +which Sir John Maltravers surrendered his intellect, yet I felt so great +an aversion to this violin that I would neither suffer it to remain at +Worth, nor pass into other hands. Miss Sophia was entirely at one with +me on this point. It was the same feeling which restrains any except +fools or braggarts from wishing to sleep in "haunted" rooms, or to live +in houses polluted with the memory of a revolting crime. No sane mind +believes in foolish apparitions, but fancy may at times bewitch the best +of us. So the Stradivarius was burnt. It was, after all, perhaps not so +serious a matter, for, as I have said, the bass-bar had given way. There +had always been a question whether it was strong enough to resist the +strain of modern stringing. Experience showed at last that it was not. +With the failure of the bass-bar the belly collapsed, and the wood broke +across the grain in so extraordinary a manner as to put the fiddle +beyond repair, except as a curiosity. Its loss, therefore, is not to be +so much regretted. Sir Edward has been brought up to think more of a +cricket-bat than of a violin-bow; but if he wishes at any time to buy a +Stradivarius, the fortunes of Worth and Royston, nursed through two long +minorities, will certainly justify his doing so. +</p> +<p> +Miss Sophia and I stood by and watched the holocaust. My heart misgave +me for a moment when I saw the mellow red varnish blistering off the +back, but I put my regret resolutely aside. As the bright flames jumped +up and lapped it round, they flung a red glow on the scroll. It was +wonderfully wrought, and differed, as I think Miss Maltravers has +already said, from any known example of Stradivarius. As we watched it, +the scroll took form, and we saw what we had never seen before, that it +was cut so that the deep lines in a certain light showed as the profile +of a man. It was a wizened little paganish face, with sharp-cut features +and a bald head. As I looked at it I knew at once (and a cameo has since +confirmed the fact) that it was a head of Porphyry. Thus the second +label found in the violin was explained and Sir John's view confirmed, +that Stradivarius had made the instrument for some Neo-Platonist +enthusiast who had dedicated it to his master Porphyrius. +</p> +<hr /> +<p> +A year after Sir John's death I went with Miss Maltravers to Worth +church to see a plain slab of slate which we had placed over her +brother's grave. We stood in bright sunlight in the Maltravers chapel, +with the monuments of that splendid family about us. Among them were the +altar-tomb of Sir Esmoun, and the effigies of more than one Crusader. +As I looked on their knightly forms, with their heads resting on their +tilting helms, their faces set firm, and their hands joined in prayer, +I could not help envying them that full and unwavering faith for which +they had fought and died. It seemed to stand out in such sharp contrast +with our latter-day sciolism and half-believed creeds, and to be flung +into higher relief by the dark shadow of John Maltravers's ruined life. +At our feet was the great brass of one Sir Roger de Maltravers. I +pointed out the end of the inscription to my companion—"CVIVS ANIMÆ, +ATQVE ANIMABVS OMNIVM FIDELIVM DEFVNCTORVM, ATQVE NOSTRIS ANIMABVS QVVM +EX HAC LVCE TRANSIVERIMVS, PROPITIETVR DEVS." Though no Catholic, I +could not refuse to add a sincere Amen. Miss Sophia, who is not ignorant +of Latin, read the inscription after me. "Ex hac luce," she said, as +though speaking to herself, "out of this light; alas! alas! for some the +light is darkness." +</p> +<br /><br /><br /> + +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14107 ***</div> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..406a121 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #14107 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14107) diff --git a/old/14107-8.txt b/old/14107-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2748425 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/14107-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4983 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Lost Stradivarius, by John Meade Falkner + + +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: The Lost Stradivarius + +Author: John Meade Falkner + +Release Date: November 21, 2004 [eBook #14107] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LOST STRADIVARIUS*** + + +E-text prepared by Suzanne Shell, Melissa Er-Raqabi, and the Project +Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + +THE LOST STRADIVARIUS + +by + +J. MEADE FALKNER + +1895 + +Penguin Books +Harmondsworth Middlesex, England +245 Fifth Avenue, New York, U.S.A. + + + + + + + +THE AUTHOR + + +John Meade Falkner was a remarkable character, as he was not only a +scholar and a writer, but a captain of industry as well. Born in 1858, +the son of a clergyman in Wiltshire, he was educated at Marlborough and +Hertford College, Oxford. On leaving the university, he became tutor to +the sons of Sir Andrew Noble, then vice-chairman of the +Armstrong-Whitworth Company; and his ability so much impressed his +employer that in 1885 he was offered a post in the firm. Without +connections or influence in industrial circles, and solely by his +intellect, he rose to be a director in 1901, and finally, in 1915, +chairman of this enormous business. He was actually chairman during the +important years 1915-1920, and remained a director until 1926. + +His intellectual energy was so great that throughout his life he found +time for scholarship as well as business. He travelled for his firm in +Europe and South America; and in the intervals of negotiating with +foreign governments studied manuscripts wherever he found a library. His +researches in the Vatican Library were of special importance, and in +connection with them he received a gold medal from the Pope; he was also +decorated by the Italian, Turkish and Japanese governments. + +His scholastic interests included archæology, folklore, palæography, +mediæval history, architecture and church music; and he was a collector +of missals. Towards the end of his life he was made an Honorary Fellow +of Hertford College, Oxford, Honorary Reader in Palæography to Durham +University, and Honorary Librarian to the Chapter Library of Durham +Cathedral, which he left one of the best cathedral libraries in Europe. +He died at Durham in 1932. + +Apart from _The Lost Stradivarius_, Falkner was the author of two other +novels, _The Nebuly Coat_ (1903--also published in Penguin Books) and +_Moonfleet_ (1898). He also wrote a History of Oxfordshire, handbooks to +that county and to Berkshire, historical short stories, and some +mediævalist verse. + + + + + + +THE LOST STRADIVARIUS + + + + + + Letter from MISS SOPHIA MALTRAVERS + to her Nephew, SIR EDWARD MALTRAVERS, + then a Student at Christ Church, Oxford. + + 13 Pauncefort Buildings, Bath, + Oct. 21, 1867. + + MY DEAR EDWARD, + + It was your late father's dying request that certain events which + occurred in his last years should be communicated to you on your coming + of age. I have reduced them to writing, partly from my own recollection, + which is, alas! still too vivid, and partly with the aid of notes taken + at the time of my brother's death. As you are now of full age, I submit + the narrative to you. Much of it has necessarily been exceedingly + painful to me to write, but at the same time I feel it is better that + you should hear the truth from me than garbled stories from others who + did not love your father as I did. + + Your loving Aunt, + SOPHIA MALTRAVERS + + +To Sir Edward Maltravers, Bart. + + + + + "A tale out of season is as music in mourning." + --ECCLESIASTICUS xxii. 6. + + + + +MISS SOPHIA MALTRAVERS' STORY + +CHAPTER I + + +Your father, John Maltravers, was born in 1820 at Worth, and succeeded +his father and mine, who died when we were still young children. John +was sent to Eton in due course, and in 1839, when he was nineteen years +of age, it was determined that he should go to Oxford. It was intended +at first to enter him at Christ Church; but Dr. Sarsdell, who visited us +at Worth in the summer of 1839, persuaded Mr. Thoresby, our guardian, to +send him instead to Magdalen Hall. Dr. Sarsdell was himself Principal of +that institution, and represented that John, who then exhibited some +symptoms of delicacy, would meet with more personal attention under his +care than he could hope to do in so large a college as Christ Church. +Mr. Thoresby, ever solicitous for his ward's welfare, readily waived +other considerations in favour of an arrangement which he considered +conducive to John's health, and he was accordingly matriculated at +Magdalen Hall in the autumn of 1839. + +Dr. Sarsdell had not been unmindful of his promise to look after my +brother, and had secured him an excellent first-floor sitting-room, with +a bedroom adjoining, having an aspect towards New College Lane. + +I shall pass over the first two years of my brother's residence at +Oxford, because they have nothing to do with the present story. They +were spent, no doubt, in the ordinary routine of work and recreation +common in Oxford at that period. + +From his earliest boyhood he had been passionately devoted to music, +and had attained a considerable proficiency on the violin. In the autumn +term of 1841 he made the acquaintance of Mr. William Gaskell, a very +talented student at New College, and also a more than tolerable +musician. The practice of music was then very much less common at Oxford +than it has since become, and there were none of those societies +existing which now do so much to promote its study among undergraduates. +It was therefore a cause of much gratification to the two young men, and +it afterwards became a strong bond of friendship, to discover that one +was as devoted to the pianoforte as was the other to the violin. Mr. +Gaskell, though in easy circumstances, had not a pianoforte in his +rooms, and was pleased to use a fine instrument by D'Almaine that John +had that term received as a birthday present from his guardian. + +From that time the two students were thrown much together, and in the +autumn term of 1841 and Easter term of 1842 practised a variety of music +in John's rooms, he taking the violin part and Mr. Gaskell that for the +pianoforte. + +It was, I think, in March 1842 that John purchased for his rooms a piece +of furniture which was destined afterwards to play no unimportant part +in the story I am narrating. This was a very large and low wicker chair +of a form then coming into fashion in Oxford, and since, I am told, +become a familiar object of most college rooms. It was cushioned with a +gaudy pattern of chintz, and bought for new of an upholsterer at the +bottom of the High Street. + +Mr. Gaskell was taken by his uncle to spend Easter in Rome, and +obtaining special leave from his college to prolong his travels; did not +return to Oxford till three weeks of the summer term were passed and May +was well advanced. So impatient was he to see his friend that he would +not let even the first evening of his return pass without coming round +to John's rooms. The two young men sat without lights until the night +was late; and Mr. Gaskell had much to narrate of his travels, and spoke +specially of the beautiful music which he had heard at Easter in the +Roman churches. He had also had lessons on the piano from a celebrated +professor of the Italian style, but seemed to have been particularly +delighted with the music of the seventeenth-century composers, of whose +works he had brought back some specimens set for piano and violin. + +It was past eleven o'clock when Mr. Gaskell left to return to New +College; but the night was unusually warm, with a moon near the full, +and John sat for some time in a cushioned window-seat before the open +sash thinking over what he had heard about the music of Italy. Feeling +still disinclined for sleep, he lit a single candle and began to turn +over some of the musical works which Mr. Gaskell had left on the table. +His attention was especially attracted to an oblong book, bound in +soiled vellum, with a coat of arms stamped in gilt upon the side. It was +a manuscript copy of some early suites by Graziani for violin and +harpsichord, and was apparently written at Naples in the year 1744, many +years after the death of that composer. Though the ink was yellow and +faded, the transcript had been accurately made, and could be read with +tolerable comfort by an advanced musician in spite of the antiquated +notation. + +Perhaps by accident, or perhaps by some mysterious direction which our +minds are incapable of appreciating, his eye was arrested by a suite of +four movements with a _basso continuo_, or figured bass, for the +harpsichord. The other suites in the book were only distinguished by +numbers, but this one the composer had dignified with the name of +"l'Areopagita." Almost mechanically John put the book on his +music-stand, took his violin from its case, and after a moment's tuning +stood up and played the first movement, a lively _Coranto_. The light of +the single candle burning on the table was scarcely sufficient to +illumine the page; the shadows hung in the creases of the leaves, which +had grown into those wavy folds sometimes observable in books made of +thick paper and remaining long shut; and it was with difficulty that he +could read what he was playing. But he felt the strange impulse of the +old-world music urging him forward, and did not even pause to light the +candles which stood ready in their sconces on either side of the desk. +The _Coranto_ was followed by a _Sarabanda_, and the _Sarabanda_ by a +_Gagliarda_. My brother stood playing, with his face turned to the +window, with the room and the large wicker chair of which I have spoken +behind him. The _Gagliarda_ began with a bold and lively air, and as he +played the opening bars, he heard behind him a creaking of the wicker +chair. The sound was a perfectly familiar one--as of some person placing +a hand on either arm of the chair preparatory to lowering himself into +it, followed by another as of the same person being leisurely seated. +But for the tones of the violin, all was silent, and the creaking of the +chair was strangely distinct. The illusion was so complete that my +brother stopped playing suddenly, and turned round expecting that some +late friend of his had slipped in unawares, being attracted by the sound +of the violin, or that Mr. Gaskell himself had returned. With the +cessation of the music an absolute stillness fell upon all; the light of +the single candle scarcely reached the darker corners of the room, but +fell directly on the wicker chair and showed it to be perfectly empty. +Half amused, half vexed with himself at having without reason +interrupted his music, my brother returned to the _Gagliarda_; but some +impulse induced him to light the candles in the sconces, which gave an +illumination more adequate to the occasion. The _Gagliarda_ and the last +movement, a _Minuetto_, were finished, and John closed the book, +intending, as it was now late, to seek his bed. As he shut the pages a +creaking of the wicker chair again attracted his attention, and he heard +distinctly sounds such as would be made by a person raising himself from +a sitting posture. This time, being less surprised, he could more aptly +consider the probable causes of such a circumstance, and easily arrived +at the conclusion that there must be in the wicker chair osiers +responsive to certain notes of the violin, as panes of glass in church +windows are observed to vibrate in sympathy with certain tones of the +organ. But while this argument approved itself to his reason, his +imagination was but half convinced; and he could not but be impressed +with the fact that the second creaking of the chair had been coincident +with his shutting the music-book; and, unconsciously, pictured to +himself some strange visitor waiting until the termination of the music, +and then taking his departure. + +His conjectures did not, however, either rob him of sleep or even +disturb it with dreams, and he woke the next morning with a cooler mind +and one less inclined to fantastic imagination. If the strange episode +of the previous evening had not entirely vanished from his mind, it +seemed at least fully accounted for by the acoustic explanation to which +I have alluded above. Although he saw Mr. Gaskell in the course of the +morning, he did not think it necessary to mention to him so trivial a +circumstance, but made with him an appointment to sup together in his +own rooms that evening, and to amuse themselves afterwards by essaying +some of the Italian music. + +It was shortly after nine that night when, supper being finished, Mr. +Gaskell seated himself at the piano and John tuned his violin. The +evening was closing in; there had been heavy thunder-rain in the +afternoon, and the moist air hung now heavy and steaming, while across +it there throbbed the distant vibrations of the tenor bell at Christ +Church. It was tolling the customary 101 strokes, which are rung every +night in term-time as a signal for closing the college gates. The two +young men enjoyed themselves for some while, playing first a suite by +Cesti, and then two early sonatas by Buononcini. Both of them were +sufficiently expert musicians to make reading at sight a pleasure rather +than an effort; and Mr. Gaskell especially was well versed in the theory +of music, and in the correct rendering of the _basso continuo_. After +the Buononcini Mr. Gaskell took up the oblong copy of Graziani, and +turning over its leaves, proposed that they should play the same suite +which John had performed by himself the previous evening. His selection +was apparently perfectly fortuitous, as my brother had purposely +refrained from directing his attention in any way to that piece of +music. They played the _Coranto_ and the _Sarabanda_, and in the +singular fascination of the music John had entirely forgotten the +episode of the previous evening, when, as the bold air of the +_Gagliarda_ commenced, he suddenly became aware of the same strange +creaking of the wicker chair that he had noticed on the first occasion. +The sound was identical, and so exact was its resemblance to that of a +person sitting down that he stared at the chair, almost wondering that +it still appeared empty. Beyond turning his head sharply for a moment to +look round, Mr. Gaskell took no notice of the sound; and my brother, +ashamed to betray any foolish interest or excitement, continued the +_Gagliarda_, with its repeat. At its conclusion Mr. Gaskell stopped +before proceeding to the minuet, and turning the stool on which he was +sitting round towards the room, observed, "How very strange, +Johnnie,"--for these young men were on terms of sufficient intimacy to +address each other in a familiar style,--"How very strange! I thought I +heard some one sit down in that chair when we began the _Gagliarda_. I +looked round quite expecting to see some one had come in. Did you hear +nothing?" + +"It was only the chair creaking," my brother answered, feigning an +indifference which he scarcely felt. "Certain parts of the wicker-work +seem to be in accord with musical notes and respond to them; let us +continue with the _Minuetto_." + +Thus they finished the suite, Mr. Gaskell demanding a repetition of the +_Gagliarda_, with the air of which he was much pleased. As the clocks +had already struck eleven, they determined not to play more that night; +and Mr. Gaskell rose, blew out the sconces, shut the piano, and put the +music aside. My brother has often assured me that he was quite prepared +for what followed, and had been almost expecting it; for as the books +were put away, a creaking of the wicker chair was audible, exactly +similar to that which he had heard when he stopped playing on the +previous night. There was a moment's silence; the young men looked +involuntarily at one another, and then Mr. Gaskell said, "I cannot +understand the creaking of that chair; it has never done so before, with +all the music we have played. I am perhaps imaginative and excited with +the fine airs we have heard to-night, but I have an impression that I +cannot dispel that something has been sitting listening to us all this +time, and that now when the concert is ended it has got up and gone." +There was a spirit of raillery in his words, but his tone was not so +light as it would ordinarily have been, and he was evidently ill at +ease. + +"Let us try the _Gagliarda_ again," said my brother; "it is the +vibration of the opening notes which affects the wicker-work, and we +shall see if the noise is repeated." But Mr. Gaskell excused himself +from trying the experiment, and after some desultory conversation, to +which it was evident that neither was giving any serious attention, he +took his leave and returned to New College. + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +I shall not weary you, my dear Edward, by recounting similar experiences +which occurred on nearly every occasion that the young men met in the +evenings for music. The repetition of the phenomenon had accustomed them +to expect it. Both professed to be quite satisfied that it was to be +attributed to acoustical affinities of vibration between the wicker-work +and certain of the piano wires, and indeed this seemed the only +explanation possible. But, at the same time, the resemblance of the +noises to those caused by a person sitting down in or rising from a +chair was so marked, that even their frequent recurrence never failed to +make a strange impression on them. They felt a reluctance to mention the +matter to their friends, partly from a fear of being themselves laughed +at, and partly to spare from ridicule a circumstance to which each +perhaps, in spite of himself, attached some degree of importance. +Experience soon convinced them that the first noise as of one sitting +down never occurred unless the _Gagliarda_ of the "Areopagita" was +played, and that this noise being once heard, the second only followed +it when they ceased playing for the evening. They met every night, +sitting later with the lengthening summer evenings, and every night, +as by some tacit understanding, played the "Areopagita" suite before +parting. At the opening bars of the _Gagliarda_ the creaking of the +chair occurred spontaneously with the utmost regularity. They seldom +spoke even to one another of the subject; but one night, when John was +putting away his violin after a long evening's music without having +played the "Areopagita," Mr. Gaskell, who had risen from the pianoforte, +sat down again as by a sudden impulse and said-- + +"Johnnie, do not put away your violin yet. It is near twelve o'clock +and I shall get shut out, but I cannot stop to-night without playing the +_Gagliarda_. Suppose that all our theories of vibration and affinity are +wrong, suppose that there really comes here night by night some strange +visitant to hear us, some poor creature whose heart is bound up in that +tune; would it not be unkind to send him away without the hearing of +that piece which he seems most to relish? Let us not be ill-mannered, +but humour his whim; let us play the _Gagliarda_." + +They played it with more vigour and precision than usual, and the now +customary sound of one taking his seat at once ensued. It was that night +that my brother, looking steadfastly at the chair, saw, or thought he +saw, there some slight obscuration, some penumbra, mist, or subtle +vapour which, as he gazed, seemed to struggle to take human form. He +ceased playing for a moment and rubbed his eyes, but as he did so all +dimness vanished and he saw the chair perfectly empty. The pianist +stopped also at the cessation of the violin, and asked what ailed him. + +"It is only that my eyes were dim," he answered. + +"We have had enough for to-night," said Mr. Gaskell; "let us stop. +I shall be locked out." He shut the piano, and as he did so the clock +in New College tower struck twelve. He left the room running, but was +late enough at his college door to be reported, admonished with a fine +against such late hours, and confined for a week to college; for being +out after midnight was considered, at that time at least, a somewhat +serious offence. + +Thus for some days the musical practice was compulsorily intermitted, +but resumed on the first evening after Mr. Gaskell's term of confinement +was expired. After they had performed several suites of Graziani, and +finished as usual with the "Areopagita," Mr. Gaskell sat for a time +silent at the instrument, as though thinking with himself, and then +said-- + +"I cannot say how deeply this old-fashioned music affects me. Some would +try to persuade us that these suites, of which the airs bear the names +of different dances, were always written rather as a musical essay and +for purposes of performance than for persons to dance to, as their names +would more naturally imply. But I think these critics are wrong at least +in some instances. It is to me impossible to believe that such a melody, +for instance, as the _Giga_ of Corelli which we have played, was not +written for actual purposes of dancing. One can almost hear the beat +of feet upon the floor, and I imagine that in the time of Corelli the +practice of dancing, while not a whit inferior in grace, had more of the +tripudistic or beating character than is now esteemed consistent with a +correct ball-room performance. The _Gagliarda_ too, which we play now so +constantly, possesses a singular power of assisting the imagination to +picture or reproduce such scenes as those which it no doubt formerly +enlivened. I know not why, but it is constantly identified in my mind +with some revel which I have perhaps seen in a picture, where several +couples are dancing a licentious measure in a long room lit by a number +of silver sconces of the debased model common at the end of the +seventeenth century. It is probably a reminiscence of my late excursion +that gives to these dancers in my fancy the olive skin, dark hair, and +bright eyes of the Italian type; and they wear dresses of exceedingly +rich fabric and elaborate design. Imagination is whimsical enough to +paint for me the character of the room itself, as having an arcade of +arches running down one side alone, of the fantastic and paganised +Gothic of the Renaissance. At the end is a gallery or balcony for the +musicians, which on its coved front has a florid coat of arms of foreign +heraldry. The shield bears, on a field _or_, a cherub's head blowing on +three lilies--a blazon I have no doubt seen somewhere in my travels, +though I cannot recollect where. This scene, I say, is so nearly +connected in my brain with the _Gagliarda_, that scarcely are its first +notes sounded ere it presents itself to my eyes with a vividness which +increases every day. The couples advance, set, and recede, using free +and licentious gestures which my imagination should be ashamed to +recall. Amongst so many foreigners, fancy pictures, I know not in the +least why, the presence of a young man of an English type of face, whose +features, however, always elude my mind's attempt to fix them. I think +that the opening subject of this _Gagliarda_ is a superior composition +to the rest of it, for it is only during the first sixteen bars that the +vision of bygone revelry presents itself to me. With the last note of +the sixteenth bar a veil is drawn suddenly across the scene, and with a +sense almost of some catastrophe it vanishes. This I attribute to the +fact that the second subject must be inferior in conception to the +first, and by some sense of incongruity destroys the fabric which the +fascination of the preceding one built up." + +My brother, though he had listened with interest to what Mr. Gaskell had +said, did not reply, and the subject was allowed to drop. + + + + +CHAPTER III + + +It was in the same summer of 1842, and near the middle of June, that my +brother John wrote inviting me to come to Oxford for the Commemoration +festivities. I had been spending some weeks with Mrs. Temple, a distant +cousin of ours, at their house of Royston in Derbyshire, and John was +desirous that Mrs. Temple should come up to Oxford and chaperone +her daughter Constance and myself at the balls and various other +entertainments which take place at the close of the summer term. Owing +to Royston being some two hundred miles from Worth Maltravers, our +families had hitherto seen little of one another, but during my present +visit I had learned to love Mrs. Temple, a lady of singular sweetness of +disposition, and had contracted a devoted attachment to her daughter +Constance. Constance Temple was then eighteen years of age, and to great +beauty united such mental graces and excellent traits of character as +must ever appear to reasoning persons more enduringly valuable than even +the highest personal attractions. She was well read and witty, and had +been trained in those principles of true religion which she afterwards +followed with devoted consistency in the self-sacrifice and resigned +piety of her too short life. In person, I may remind you, my dear +Edward, since death removed her ere you were of years to appreciate +either her appearance or her qualities, she was tall, with a somewhat +long and oval face, with brown hair and eyes. + +Mrs. Temple readily accepted Sir John Maltravers' invitation. She had +never seen Oxford herself, and was pleased to afford us the pleasure of +so delightful an excursion. John had secured convenient rooms for us +above the shop of a well-known printseller in High Street, and we +arrived in Oxford on Friday evening, June 18, 1842. I shall not dilate +to you on the various Commemoration festivities, which have probably +altered little since those days, and with which you are familiar. +Suffice it to say that my brother had secured us admission to every +entertainment, and that we enjoyed our visit as only youth with its keen +sensibilities and uncloyed pleasures can. I could not help observing +that John was very much struck by the attractions of Miss Constance +Temple, and that she for her part, while exhibiting no unbecoming +forwardness, certainly betrayed no aversion to him. I was greatly +pleased both with my own powers of observation which had enabled me to +discover so important a fact, and also with the circumstance itself. +To a romantic girl of nineteen it appeared high time that a brother of +twenty-two should be at least preparing some matrimonial project; and my +friend was so good and beautiful that it seemed impossible that I should +ever obtain a more lovable sister or my brother a better wife. Mrs. +Temple could not refuse her sanction to such a scheme; for while their +mental qualities seemed eminently compatible, John was in his own right +master of Worth Maltravers, and her daughter sole heiress of the Royston +estates. + +The Commemoration festivities terminated on Wednesday night with a grand +ball at the Music-Room in Holywell Street. This was given by a Lodge of +University Freemasons, and John was there with Mr. Gaskell--whose +acquaintance we had made with much gratification--both wearing blue silk +scarves and small white aprons. They introduced us to many other of +their friends similarly adorned, and these important and mysterious +insignia sat not amiss with their youthful figures and boyish faces. +After a long and pleasurable programme, it was decided that we should +prolong our visit till the next evening, leaving Oxford at half-past +ten o'clock at night and driving to Didcot, there to join the mail for +the west. We rose late the next morning and spent the day rambling among +the old colleges and gardens of the most beautiful of English cities. +At seven o'clock we dined together for the last time at our lodgings +in High Street, and my brother proposed that before parting we should +enjoy the fine evening in the gardens of St. John's College. This was +at once agreed to, and we proceeded thither, John walking on in front +with Constance and Mrs. Temple, and I following with Mr. Gaskell. My +companion explained that these gardens were esteemed the most beautiful +in the University, but that under ordinary circumstances it was not +permitted to strangers to walk there of an evening. Here he quoted some +Latin about "aurum per medios ire satellites," which I smilingly made as +if I understood, and did indeed gather from it that John had bribed the +porter to admit us. It was a warm and very still night, without a moon, +but with enough of fading light to show the outlines of the garden +front. This long low line of buildings built in Charles I's reign looked +so exquisitely beautiful that I shall never forget it, though I have not +since seen its oriel windows and creeper-covered walls. There was a very +heavy dew on the broad lawn, and we walked at first only on the paths. +No one spoke, for we were oppressed by the very beauty of the scene, and +by the sadness which an imminent parting from friends and from so sweet +a place combined to cause. John had been silent and depressed the whole +day, nor did Mr. Gaskell himself seem inclined to conversation. +Constance and my brother fell a little way behind, and Mr. Gaskell asked +me to cross the lawn if I was not afraid of the dew, that I might see +the garden front to better advantage from the corner. Mrs. Temple waited +for us on the path, not wishing to wet her feet. Mr. Gaskell pointed out +the beauties of the perspective as seen from his vantage-point, and we +were fortunate in hearing the sweet descant of nightingales for which +this garden has ever been famous. As we stood silent and listening, a +candle was lit in a small oriel at the end, and the light showing the +tracery of the window added to the picturesqueness of the scene. + +Within an hour we were in a landau driving through the still warm lanes +to Didcot. I had seen that Constance's parting with my brother had been +tender, and I am not sure that she was not in tears during some part at +least of our drive; but I did not observe her closely, having my +thoughts elsewhere. + +Though we were thus being carried every moment further from the sleeping +city, where I believe that both our hearts were busy, I feel as if I had +been a personal witness of the incidents I am about to narrate, so often +have I heard them from my brother's lips. The two young men, after +parting with us in the High Street, returned to their respective +colleges. John reached his rooms shortly before eleven o'clock. He was +at once sad and happy--sad at our departure, but happy in a new-found +world of delight which his admiration for Constance Temple opened to +him. He was, in fact, deeply in love with her, and the full flood of a +hitherto unknown passion filled him with an emotion so overwhelming that +his ordinary life seemed transfigured. He moved, as it were, in an ether +superior to our mortal atmosphere, and a new region of high resolves and +noble possibilities spread itself before his eyes. He slammed his heavy +outside door (called an "oak") to prevent anyone entering and flung +himself into the window-seat. Here he sat for a long time, the sash +thrown up and his head outside, for he was excited and feverish. His +mental exaltation was so great and his thoughts of so absorbing an +interest that he took no notice of time, and only remembered afterwards +that the scent of a syringa-bush was borne up to him from a little +garden-patch opposite, and that a bat had circled slowly up and down the +lane, until he heard the clocks striking three. At the same time the +faint light of dawn made itself felt almost imperceptibly; the classic +statues on the roof of the schools began to stand out against the white +sky, and a faint glimmer to penetrate the darkened room. It glistened on +the varnished top of his violin-case lying on the table, and on a jug of +toast-and-water placed there by his college servant or scout every night +before he left. He drank a glass of this mixture, and was moving towards +his bedroom door when a sudden thought struck him. He turned back, took +the violin from its case, tuned it, and began to play the "Areopagita" +suite. He was conscious of that mental clearness and vigour which not +unfrequently comes with the dawn to those who have sat watching or +reading through the night: and his thoughts were exalted by the effect +which the first consciousness of a deep passion causes in imaginative +minds. He had never played the suite with more power; and the airs, +even without the piano part, seemed fraught with a meaning hitherto +unrealised. As he began the _Gagliarda_ he heard the wicker chair creak; +but he had his back towards it, and the sound was now too familiar to +him to cause him even to look round. It was not till he was playing +the repeat that he became aware of a new and overpowering sensation. +At first it was a vague feeling, so often experienced by us all, of +not being alone. He did not stop playing, and in a few seconds the +impression of a presence in the room other than his own became so strong +that he was actually afraid to look round. But in another moment he felt +that at all hazards he must see what or who this presence was. Without +stopping he partly turned and partly looked over his shoulder. The +silver light of early morning was filling the room, making the various +objects appear of less bright colour than usual, and giving to +everything a pearl-grey neutral tint. In this cold but clear light he +saw seated in the wicker chair the figure of a man. + +In the first violent shock of so terrifying a discovery, he could not +appreciate such details as those of features, dress, or appearance. He +was merely conscious that with him, in a locked room of which he knew +himself to be the only human inmate, there sat something which bore a +human form. He looked at it for a moment with a hope, which he felt +to be vain, that it might vanish and prove a phantom of his excited +imagination, but still it sat there. Then my brother put down his +violin, and he used to assure me that a horror overwhelmed him of an +intensity which he had previously believed impossible. Whether the image +which he saw was subjective or objective, I cannot pretend to say: you +will be in a position to judge for yourself when you have finished this +narrative. Our limited experience would lead us to believe that it was a +phantom conjured up by some unusual condition of his own brain; but we +are fain to confess that there certainly do exist in nature phenomena +such as baffle human reason; and it is possible that, for some hidden +purposes of Providence, permission may occasionally be granted to those +who have passed from this life to assume again for a time the form of +their earthly tabernacle. We must, I say, be content to suspend our +judgment on such matters; but in this instance the subsequent course of +events is very difficult to explain, except on the supposition that +there was then presented to my brother's view the actual bodily form of +one long deceased. The dread which took possession of him was due, he +has more than once told me when analysing his feelings long afterwards, +to two predominant causes. Firstly, he felt that mental dislocation +which accompanies the sudden subversion of preconceived theories, +the sudden alteration of long habit, or even the occurrence of any +circumstance beyond the walk of our daily experience. This I have +observed myself in the perturbing effect which a sudden death, a +grievous accident, or in recent years the declaration of war, has +exercised upon all except the most lethargic or the most determined +minds. Secondly, he experienced the profound self-abasement or mental +annihilation caused by the near conception of a being of a superior +order. In the presence of an existence wearing, indeed, the human form, +but of attributes widely different from and superior to his own, he felt +the combined reverence and revulsion which even the noblest wild animals +exhibit when brought for the first time face to face with man. The shock +was so great that I feel persuaded it exerted an effect on him from +which he never wholly recovered. + +After an interval which seemed to him interminable, though it was only +of a second's duration, he turned his eyes again to the occupant of the +wicker chair. His faculties had so far recovered from the first shock +as to enable him to see that the figure was that of a man perhaps +thirty-five years of age and still youthful in appearance. The face was +long and oval, the hair brown, and brushed straight off an exceptionally +high forehead. His complexion was very pale or bloodless. He was clean +shaven, and his finely cut mouth, with compressed lips, wore something +of a sneering smile. His general expression was unpleasing, and from the +first my brother felt as by intuition that there was present some malign +and wicked influence. His eyes were not visible, as he kept them cast +down, resting his head on his hand in the attitude of one listening. His +face and even his dress were impressed so vividly upon John's mind, that +he never had any difficulty in recalling them to his imagination; and he +and I had afterwards an opportunity of verifying them in a remarkable +manner. He wore a long cut-away coat of green cloth with an edge of gold +embroidery, and a white satin waistcoat figured with rose-sprigs, a +full cravat of rich lace, knee-breeches of buff silk, and stockings of +the same. His shoes were of polished black leather with heavy silver +buckles, and his costume in general recalled that worn a century ago. +As my brother gazed at him, he got up, putting his hands on the arms +of the chair to raise himself, and causing the creaking so often heard +before. The hands forced themselves on my brother's notice: they were +very white, with the long delicate fingers of a musician. He showed a +considerable height; and still keeping his eyes on the floor, walked +with an ordinary gait towards the end of the bookcase at the side of the +room farthest from the window. He reached the bookcase, and then John +suddenly lost sight of him. The figure did not fade gradually, but went +out, as it were, like the flame of a suddenly extinguished candle. + +The room was now filled with the clear light of the summer morning: the +whole vision had lasted but a few seconds, but my brother knew that +there was no possibility of his having been mistaken, that the mystery +of the creaking chair was solved, that he had seen the man who had come +evening by evening for a month past to listen to the rhythm of the +_Gagliarda_. Terribly disturbed, he sat for some time half dreading and +half expecting a return of the figure; but all remained unchanged: he +saw nothing, nor did he dare to challenge its reappearance by playing +again the _Gagliarda_, which seemed to have so strange an attraction for +it. At last, in the full sunlight of a late June morning at Oxford, he +heard the steps of early pedestrians on the pavement below his windows, +the cry of a milkman, and other sounds which showed the world was awake. +It was after six o'clock, and going to his bedroom he flung himself on +the outside of the bed for an hour's troubled slumber. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + +When his servant called him about eight o'clock my brother sent a note +to Mr. Gaskell at New College, begging him to come round to Magdalen +Hall as soon as might be in the course of the morning. His summons was +at once obeyed, and Mr. Gaskell was with him before he had finished +breakfast. My brother was still much agitated, and at once told him what +had happened the night before, detailing the various circumstances with +minuteness, and not even concealing from him the sentiments which he +entertained towards Miss Constance Temple. In narrating the appearance +which he had seen in the chair, his agitation was still so excessive +that he had difficulty in controlling his voice. + +Mr. Gaskell heard him with much attention, and did not at once reply +when John had finished his narration. At length he said, "I suppose many +friends would think it right to affect, even if they did not feel, an +incredulity as to what you have just told me. They might consider it +more prudent to attempt to allay your distress by persuading you that +what you have seen has no objective reality, but is merely the phantasm +of an excited imagination; that if you had not been in love, had not sat +up all night, and had not thus overtaxed your physical powers, you would +have seen no vision. I shall not argue thus, for I am as certainly +convinced as of the fact that we sit here, that on all the nights when +we have played this suite called the 'Areopagita,' there has been some +one listening to us, and that you have at length been fortunate or +unfortunate enough to see him." + +"Do not say fortunate," said my brother; "for I feel as though I shall +never recover from last night's shock." + +"That is likely enough," Mr. Gaskell answered, coolly; "for as in the +history of the race or individual, increased culture and a finer mental +susceptibility necessarily impair the brute courage and powers of +endurance which we note in savages, so any supernatural vision such +as you have seen must be purchased at the cost of physical reaction. +From the first evening that we played this music, and heard the noises +mimicking so closely the sitting down and rising up of some person, I +have felt convinced that causes other than those which we usually call +natural were at work, and that we were very near the manifestation of +some extraordinary phenomenon." + +"I do not quite apprehend your meaning." + +"I mean this," he continued, "that this man or spirit of a man has been +sitting here night after night, and that we have not been able to see +him, because our minds are dull and obtuse. Last night the elevating +force of a strong passion, such as that which you have confided to me, +combined with the power of fine music, so exalted your mind that you +became endowed, as it were, with a sixth sense, and suddenly were +enabled to see that which had previously been invisible. To this sixth +sense music gives, I believe, the key. We are at present only on the +threshold of such a knowledge of that art as will enable us to use it +eventually as the greatest of all humanising and educational agents. +Music will prove a ladder to the loftier regions of thought; indeed I +have long found for myself that I cannot attain to the highest range of +my intellectual power except when hearing good music. All poets, and +most writers of prose, will say that their thought is never so exalted, +their sense of beauty and proportion never so just, as when they are +listening either to the artificial music made by man, or to some of the +grander tones of nature, such as the roar of a western ocean, or the +sighing of wind in a clump of firs. Though I have often felt on such +occasions on the very verge of some high mental discovery, and though +a hand has been stretched forward as it were to rend the veil, yet it +has never been vouchsafed me to see behind it. This you no doubt were +allowed in a measure to do last night. You probably played the music +with a deeper intuition than usual, and this, combined with the +excitement under which you were already labouring, raised you for a +moment to the required pitch of mental exaltation." + +"It is true," John said, "that I never felt the melody so deeply as when +I played it last night." + +"Just so," answered his friend; "and there is probably some link between +this air and the history of the man whom you saw last night; some fatal +power in it which enables it to exert an attraction on him even after +death. For we must remember that the influence of music, though always +powerful, is not always for good. We can scarcely doubt that as certain +forms of music tend to raise us above the sensuality of the animal, or +the more degrading passion of material gain, and to transport us into +the ether of higher thought, so other forms are directly calculated to +awaken in us luxurious emotions, and to whet those sensual appetites +which it is the business of a philosopher not indeed to annihilate or to +be ashamed of, but to keep rigidly in check. This possibility of music +to effect evil as well as good I have seen recognised, and very aptly +expressed in some beautiful verses by Mr. Keble which I have just +read:-- + + "'Cease, stranger, cease those witching notes, + The art of syren choirs; + Hush the seductive voice that floats + Across the trembling wires. + + "'Music's ethereal power was given + Not to dissolve our clay, + But draw Promethean beams from heaven + To purge the dross away.'" + + +"They are fine lines," said my brother, "but I do not see how you apply +your argument to the present instance." + +"I mean," Mr. Gaskell answered, "that I have little doubt that the +melody of this _Gagliarda_ has been connected in some manner with the +life of the man you saw last night. It is not unlikely, either, that it +was a favourite air of his whilst in the flesh, or even that it was +played by himself or others at the moment of some crisis in his history. +It is possible that such connection may be due merely to the innocent +pleasure the melody gave him in life; but the nature of the music +itself, and a peculiar effect it has upon my own thoughts, induce me to +believe that it was associated with some occasion when he either fell +into great sin or when some evil fate, perhaps even death itself, +overtook him. You will remember I have told you that this air calls up +to my mind a certain scene of Italian revelry in which an Englishman +takes part. It is true that I have never been able to fix his features +in my mind, nor even to say exactly how he was dressed. Yet now some +instinct tells me that it is this very man whom you saw last night. It +is not for us to attempt to pierce the mystery which veils from our eyes +the secrets of an after-death existence; but I can scarcely suppose that +a spirit entirely at rest would feel so deeply the power of a certain +melody as to be called back by it to his old haunts like a dog by his +master's whistle. It is more probable that there is some evil history +connected with the matter, and this, I think, we ought to consider if it +be possible to unravel." + +My brother assenting, he continued, "When this man left you, Johnnie, +did he walk to the door?" + +"No; he made for the side wall, and when he reached the end of the +bookcase I lost sight of him." + +Mr. Gaskell went to the bookcase and looked for a moment at the titles +of the books, as though expecting to see something in them to assist +his inquiries; but finding apparently no clue, he said-- + +"This is the last time we shall meet for three months or more; let us +play the _Gagliarda_ and see if there be any response." + +My brother at first would not hear of this, showing a lively dread of +challenging any reappearance of the figure he had seen: indeed he felt +that such an event would probably fling him into a state of serious +physical disorder. Mr. Gaskell, however, continued to press him, +assuring him that the fact of his now being no longer alone should +largely allay any fear on his part, and urging that this would be the +last opportunity they would have of playing together for some months. + +At last, being overborne, my brother took his violin, and Mr. Gaskell +seated himself at the pianoforte. John was very agitated, and as he +commenced the _Gagliarda_ his hands trembled so that he could scarcely +play the air. Mr. Gaskell also exhibited some nervousness, not +performing with his customary correctness. But for the first time the +charm failed: no noise accompanied the music, nor did anything of an +unusual character occur. They repeated the whole suite, but with a +similar result. + +Both were surprised, but neither, had any explanation to offer. My +brother, who at first dreaded intensely a repetition of the vision, was +now almost disappointed that nothing had occurred; so quickly does the +mood of man change. + +After some further conversation the young men parted for the Long +Vacation--John returning to Worth Maltravers and Mr. Gaskell going to +London, where he was to pass a few days before he proceeded to his home +in Westmorland. + + + + +CHAPTER V + + +John spent nearly the whole of this summer vacation at Worth Maltravers. +He had been anxious to pay a visit to Royston; but the continued and +serious illness of Mrs. Temple's sister had called her and Constance to +Scotland, where they remained until the death of their relative allowed +them to return to Derbyshire in the late autumn. John and I had been +brought up together from childhood. When he was at Eton we had always +spent the holidays at Worth, and after my dear mother's death, when we +were left quite alone, the bonds of our love were naturally drawn still +closer. Even after my brother went to Oxford, at a time when most young +men are anxious to enjoy a new-found liberty, and to travel or to visit +friends in their vacation, John's ardent affection for me and for Worth +Maltravers kept him at home; and he was pleased on most occasions to +make me the partner of his thoughts and of his pleasures. This long +vacation of 1842 was, I think, the happiest of our lives. In my case I +know it was so, and I think it was happy also for him; for none could +guess that the small cloud seen in the distance like a man's hand was +afterwards to rise and darken all his later days. It was a summer of +brilliant and continued sunshine; many of the old people said that they +could never recollect so fine a season, and both fruit and crops were +alike abundant. John hired a small cutter-yacht, the _Palestine_, which +he kept in our little harbour of Encombe, and in which he and I made +many excursions, visiting Weymouth, Lyme Regis, and other places of +interest on the south coast. + +In this summer my brother confided to me two secrets,--his love +for Constance Temple, which indeed was after all no secret, and the +history of the apparition which he had seen. This last filled me with +inexpressible dread and distress. It seemed cruel and unnatural that any +influence so dark and mysterious should thus intrude on our bright life, +and from the first I had an impression which I could not entirely shake +off, that any such appearance or converse of a disembodied spirit must +portend misfortune, if not worse, to him who saw or heard it. It never +occurred to me to combat or to doubt the reality of the vision; he +believed that he had seen it, and his conviction was enough to convince +me. He had meant, he said, to tell no one, and had given a promise to +Mr. Gaskell to that effect; but I think that he could not bear to keep +such a matter in his own breast, and within the first week of his +return he made me his confidant. I remember, my dear Edward, the look +everything wore on that sad night when he first told me what afterwards +proved so terrible a secret. We had dined quite alone, and he had been +moody and depressed all the evening. It was a chilly night, with some +fret blowing up from the sea. The moon showed that blunted and deformed +appearance which she assumes a day or two past the full, and the +moisture in the air encircled her with a stormy-looking halo. We had +stepped out of the dining-room windows on to the little terrace looking +down towards Smedmore and Encombe. The glaucous shrubs that grow in +between the balusters were wet and dripping with the salt breath of the +sea, and we could hear the waves coming into the cove from the west. +After standing a minute I felt chill, and proposed that we should go +back to the billiard-room, where a fire was lit on all except the +warmest nights. "No," John said, "I want to tell you something, Sophy," +and then we walked on to the old boat summer-house. There he told me +everything. I cannot describe to you my feelings of anguish and horror +when he told me of the appearance of the man. The interest of the tale +was so absorbing to me that I took no note of time, nor of the cold +night air, and it was only when it was all finished that I felt how +deadly chill it had become. "Let us go in, John," I said; "I am cold and +feel benumbed." + +But youth is hopeful and strong, and in another week the impression had +faded from our minds, and we were enjoying the full glory of midsummer +weather, which I think only those know who have watched the blue sea +come rippling in at the foot of the white chalk cliffs of Dorset. + +I had felt a reluctance even so much as to hear the air of the +_Gagliarda_, and though he had spoken to me of the subject on more than +one occasion, my brother had never offered to play it to me. I knew that +he had the copy of Graziani's suites with him at Worth Maltravers, +because he had told me that he had brought it from Oxford; but I had +never seen the book, and fancied that he kept it intentionally locked +up. He did not, however, neglect the violin, and during the summer +mornings, as I sat reading or working on the terrace, I often heard him +playing to himself in the library. Though he had never even given me any +description of the melody of the _Gagliarda_, yet I felt certain that he +not infrequently played it. I cannot say how it was; but from the moment +that I heard him one morning in the library performing an air set in a +curiously low key, it forced itself upon my attention, and I knew, as it +were by instinct, that it must be the _Gagliarda_ of the "Areopagita." +He was using a _sordino_ and playing it very softly; but I was not +mistaken. One wet afternoon in October, only a week before the time of +his leaving us to return to Oxford for the autumn term, he walked into +the drawing-room where I was sitting, and proposed that we should play +some music together. To this I readily agreed. Though but a mediocre +performer, I have always taken much pleasure in the use of the +pianoforte, and esteemed it an honour whenever he asked me to play with +him, since my powers as a musician were so very much inferior to his. +After we had played several pieces, he took up an oblong music-book +bound in white vellum, placed it upon the desk of the pianoforte, and +proposed that we should play a suite by Graziani. I knew that he meant +the "Areopagita," and begged him at once not to ask me to play it. He +rallied me lightly on my fears, and said it would much please him to +play it, as he had not heard the pianoforte part since he had left +Oxford three months ago. I saw that he was eager to perform it, and +being loath to disoblige so kind a brother during the last week of his +stay at home, I at length overcame my scruples and set out to play it. +But I was so alarmed at the possibility of any evil consequences +ensuing, that when we commenced the _Gagliarda_ I could scarcely find +my notes. Nothing in any way unusual, however, occurred; and being +reassured by this, and feeling an irresistible charm in the music, I +finished the suite with more appearance of ease. My brother, however, +was, I fear, not satisfied with my performance, and compared it, very +possibly, with that of Mr. Gaskell, to which it was necessarily much +inferior, both through weakness of execution and from my insufficient +knowledge of the principles of the _basso continuo_. We stopped playing, +and John stood looking out of the window across the sea, where the sky +was clearing low down under the clouds. The sun went down behind +Portland in a fiery glow which cheered us after a long day's rain. I had +taken the copy of Graziani's suites off the desk, and was holding it on +my lap turning over the old foxed and yellow pages. As I closed it a +streak of evening sunlight fell across the room and lighted up a coat +of arms stamped in gilt on the cover. It was much faded and would +ordinarily have been hard to make out; but the ray of strong light +illumined it, and in an instant I recognised the same shield which Mr. +Gaskell had pictured to himself as hanging on the musicians' gallery of +his phantasmal dancing-room. My brother had often recounted to me this +effort of his friend's imagination, and here I saw before me the same +florid foreign blazon, a cherub's head blowing on three lilies on a gold +field. This discovery was not only of interest, but afforded me much +actual relief; for it accounted rationally for at least one item of the +strange story. Mr. Gaskell had no doubt noticed at some time this shield +stamped on the outside of the book, and bearing the impression of it +unconsciously in his mind, had reproduced it in his imagined revels. +I said as much to my brother, and he was greatly interested, and after +examining the shield agreed that this was certainly a probable solution +of that part of the mystery. On the 12th of October John returned to +Oxford. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +My brother told me afterwards that more than once during the summer +vacation he had seriously considered with himself the propriety of +changing his rooms at Magdalen Hall. He had thought that it might thus +be possible for him to get rid at once of the memory of the apparition, +and of the fear of any reappearance of it. He could either have moved +into another set of rooms in the Hall itself, or else gone into lodgings +in the town--a usual proceeding, I am told, for gentlemen near the end +of their course at Oxford. Would to God that he had indeed done so! but +with the supineness which has, I fear, my dear Edward, been too +frequently a characteristic of our family, he shrank from the trouble +such a course would involve, and the opening of the autumn term found +him still in his old rooms. You will forgive me for entering here on a +very brief description of your father's sitting-room. It is, I think, +necessary for the proper understanding of the incidents that follow. It +was not a large room, though probably the finest in the small buildings +of Magdalen Hall, and panelled from floor to ceiling with oak which +successive generations had obscured by numerous coats of paint. On one +side were two windows having an aspect on to New College Lane, and +fitted with deep cushioned seats in the recesses. Outside these windows +there were boxes of flowers, the brightness of which formed in the +summer term a pretty contrast to the grey and crumbling stone, and +afforded pleasure at once to the inmate and to passers-by. Along nearly +the whole length of the wall opposite to the windows, some tenant in +years long past had had mahogany book-shelves placed, reaching to a +height of perhaps five feet from the floor. They were handsomely made +in the style of the eighteenth century and pleased my brother's taste. +He had always exhibited a partiality for books, and the fine library at +Worth Maltravers had no doubt contributed to foster his tastes in that +direction. At the time of which I write he had formed a small collection +for himself at Oxford, paying particular attention to the bindings, and +acquiring many excellent specimens of that art, principally I think, +from Messrs. Payne & Foss, the celebrated London booksellers. + +Towards the end of the autumn term, having occasion one cold day to take +down a volume of Plato from its shelf, he found to his surprise that the +book was quite warm. A closer examination easily explained to him the +reason--namely, that the flue of a chimney, passing behind one end of +the bookcase, sensibly heated not only the wall itself, but also the +books in the shelves. Although he had been in his rooms now near three +years, he had never before observed this fact; partly, no doubt, because +the books in these shelves were seldom handled, being more for show as +specimens of bindings than for practical use. He was somewhat annoyed +at this discovery, fearing lest such a heat, which in moderation is +beneficial to books, might through its excess warp the leather or +otherwise injure the bindings. Mr. Gaskell was sitting with him at the +time of the discovery, and indeed it was for his use that my brother had +taken down the volume of Plato. He strongly advised that the bookcase +should be moved, and suggested that it would be better to place it +across that end of the room where the pianoforte then stood. They +examined it and found that it would easily admit of removal, being, in +fact, only the frame of a bookcase, and showing at the back the painted +panelling of the wall. Mr. Gaskell noted it as curious that all the +shelves were fixed and immovable except one at the end, which had been +fitted with the ordinary arrangement allowing its position to be altered +at will. My brother thought that the change would improve the appearance +of his rooms, besides being advantageous for the books, and gave +instructions to the college upholsterer to have the necessary work +carried out at once. + +The two young men had resumed their musical studies, and had often +played the "Areopagita" and other music of Graziani since their return +to Oxford in the Autumn. They remarked, however, that the chair no +longer creaked during the _Gagliarda_--and, in fact, that no unusual +occurrence whatever attended its performance. At times they were almost +tempted to doubt the accuracy of their own remembrances, and to consider +as entirely mythical the mystery which had so much disturbed them in the +summer term. My brother had also pointed out to Mr. Gaskell my discovery +that the coat of arms on the outside of the music-book was identical +with that which his fancy portrayed on the musicians' gallery. He +readily admitted that he must at some time have noticed and afterwards +forgotten the blazon on the book, and that an unconscious reminiscence +of it had no doubt inspired his imagination in this instance. He rebuked +my brother for having agitated me unnecessarily by telling me at all of +so idle a tale; and was pleased to write a few lines to me at Worth +Maltravers, felicitating me on my shrewdness of perception, but speaking +banteringly of the whole matter. + +On the evening of the 14th of November my brother and his friend were +sitting talking in the former's room. The position of the bookcase had +been changed on the morning of that day, and Mr. Gaskell had come round +to see how the books looked when placed at the end instead of at the +side of the room. He had applauded the new arrangement, and the young +men sat long over the fire, with a bottle of college port and a dish of +medlars which I had sent my brother from our famous tree in the Upper +Croft at Worth Maltravers. Later on they fell to music, and played a +variety of pieces, performing also the "Areopagita" suite. Mr. Gaskell +before he left complimented John on the improvement which the alteration +in the place of the bookcase had made in his room, saying, "Not only +do the books in their present place very much enhance the general +appearance of the room, but the change seems to me to have affected also +a marked acoustical improvement. The oak panelling now exposed on the +side of the room has given a resonant property to the wall which is +peculiarly responsive to the tones of your violin. While you were +playing the _Gagliarda_ to-night, I could almost have imagined that +someone in an adjacent room was playing the same air with a _sordino_, +so distinct was the echo." + +Shortly after this he left. + +My brother partly undressed himself in his bedroom, which adjoined, and +then returning to his sitting-room, pulled the large wicker chair in +front of the fire, and sat there looking at the glowing coals, and +thinking perhaps of Miss Constance Temple. The night promised to be very +cold, and the wind whistled down the chimney, increasing the comfortable +sensation of the clear fire. He sat watching the ruddy reflection of the +firelight dancing on the panelled wall, when he noticed that a picture +placed where the end of the bookcase formerly stood was not truly hung, +and needed adjustment. A picture hung askew was particularly offensive +to his eyes, and he got up at once to alter it. He remembered as he went +up to it that at this precise spot four months ago he had lost sight +of the man's figure which he saw rise from the wicker chair, and at +the memory felt an involuntary shudder. This reminiscence probably +influenced his fancy also in another direction; for it seemed to him +that very faintly, as though played far off, and with the _sordino_, +he could hear the air of the _Gagliarda_. He put one hand behind the +picture to steady it, and as he did so his finger struck a very slight +projection in the wall. He pulled the picture a little to one side, and +saw that what he had touched was the back of a small hinge sunk in the +wall, and almost obliterated with many coats of paint. His curiosity +was excited, and he took a candle from the table and examined the wall +carefully. Inspection soon showed him another hinge a little further up, +and by degrees he perceived that one of the panels had been made at some +time in the past to open, and serve probably as the door of a cupboard. +At this point he assured me that a feverish anxiety to re-open this +cupboard door took possession of him, and that the intense excitement +filled his mind which we experience on the eve of a discovery which +we fancy may produce important results. He loosened the paint in the +cracks with a penknife, and attempted to press open the door; but his +instrument was not adequate to such a purpose, and all his efforts +remained ineffective. His excitement had now reached an overmastering +pitch; for he anticipated, though he knew not why, some strange +discovery to be made in this sealed cupboard. He looked round the room +for some weapon with which to force the door, and at length with his +penknife cut away sufficient wood at the joint to enable him to insert +the end of the poker in the hole. The clock in the New College Tower +struck one at the exact moment when with a sharp effort he thus forced +open the door. It appeared never to have had a fastening, but merely to +have been stuck fast by the accumulation of paint. As he bent it slowly +back upon the rusted hinges his heart beat so fast that he could +scarcely catch his breath, though he was conscious all the while of a +ludicrous aspect of his position, knowing that it was most probable +that the cavity within would be found empty. The cupboard was small but +very deep, and in the obscure light seemed at first to contain nothing +except a small heap of dust and cobwebs. His sense of disappointment was +keen as he thrust his hand into it, but changed again in a moment to +breathless interest on feeling something solid in what he had imagined +to be only an accumulation of mould and dirt. He snatched up a candle, +and holding this in one hand, with the other pulled out an object from +the cupboard and put it on the table, covered as it was with the curious +drapery of black and clinging cobwebs which I have seen adhering to +bottles of old wine. It lay there between the dish of medlars and the +decanter, veiled indeed with thick dust as with a mantle, but revealing +beneath it the shape and contour of a violin. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +John was excited at his discovery, and felt his thoughts confused in a +manner that I have often experienced myself on the unexpected receipt of +news interesting me deeply, whether for pleasure or pain. Yet at the +same time he was half amused at his own excitement, feeling that it +was childish to be moved over an event so simple as the finding of a +violin in an old cupboard. He soon collected himself and took up the +instrument, using great care, as he feared lest age should have rendered +the wood brittle or rotten. With some vigorous puffs of breath and a +little dusting with a handkerchief he removed the heavy outer coating +of cobwebs, and began to see more clearly the delicate curves of the +body and of the scroll. A few minutes' more gentle handling left the +instrument sufficiently clean to enable him to appreciate its chief +points. Its seclusion from the outer world, which the heavy accumulation +of dust proved to have been for many years, did not seem to have damaged +it in the least; and the fact of a chimney-flue passing through the wall +at no great distance had no doubt conduced to maintain the air in the +cupboard at an equable temperature. So far as he was able to judge, the +wood was as sound as when it left the maker's hands; but the strings +were of course broken, and curled up in little tangled knots. The body +was of a light-red colour, with a varnish of peculiar lustre and +softness. The neck seemed rather longer than ordinary, and the scroll +was remarkably bold and free. + +The violin which my brother was in the habit of using was a fine +_Pressenda_, given to him on his fifteenth birthday by Mr. Thoresby, his +guardian. It was of that maker's later and best period, and a copy of +the Stradivarius model. John took this from its case and laid it side by +side with his new discovery, meaning to compare them for size and form. +He perceived at once that while the model of both was identical, the +superiority of the older violin in every detail was so marked as to +convince him that it was undoubtedly an instrument of exceptional value. +The extreme beauty of its varnish impressed him vividly, and though he +had never seen a genuine Stradivarius, he felt a conviction gradually +gaining on him that he stood in the presence of a masterpiece of that +great maker. On looking into the interior he found that surprisingly +little dust had penetrated into it, and by blowing through the +sound-holes he soon cleared it sufficiently to enable him to discern a +label. He put the candle close to him, and held the violin up so that +a little patch of light fell through the sound-hole on to the label. +His heart leapt with a violent pulsation as he read the characters, +"_Antonius Stradiuarius Cremonensis faciebat_, 1704." Under ordinary +circumstances it would naturally be concluded that such a label was +a forgery, but the conditions were entirely altered in the case of a +violin found in a forgotten cupboard, with proof so evident of its +having remained there for a very long period. + +He was not at that time as familiar with the history of the fiddles of +the great maker as he, and indeed I also, afterwards became. Thus he +was unable to decide how far the exact year of its manufacture would +determine its value as compared with other specimens of Stradivarius. +But although the Pressenda he had been used to play on was always +considered a very fine instrument both in make and varnish, his new +discovery so far excelled it in both points as to assure him that it +must be one of the Cremonese master's greatest productions. + +He examined the violin minutely, scrutinising each separate feature, +and finding each in turn to be of the utmost perfection, so far as his +knowledge of the instrument would enable him to judge. He lit more +candles that he might be able better to see it, and holding it on his +knees, sat still admiring it until the dying fire and increasing cold +warned him that the night was now far advanced. At last, carrying it to +his bedroom, he locked it carefully into a drawer and retired for the +night. + +He woke next morning with that pleasurable consciousness of there +being some reason for gladness, which we feel on waking in seasons of +happiness, even before our reason, locating it, reminds us what the +actual source of our joy may be. He was at first afraid lest his +excitement, working on the imagination, should have led him on the +previous night to overestimate the fineness of the instrument, and he +took it from the drawer half expecting to be disappointed with its +daylight appearance. But a glance sufficed to convince him of the +unfounded nature of his suspicions. The various beauties which he had +before observed were enhanced a hundredfold by the light of day, and he +realised more fully than ever that the instrument was one of altogether +exceptional value. + +And now, my dear Edward, I shall ask your forgiveness if in the history +I have to relate any observation of mine should seem to reflect on the +character of your late father, Sir John Maltravers. And I beg you to +consider that your father was also my dear and only brother, and that it +is inexpressibly painful to me to recount any actions of his which may +not seem becoming to a noble gentleman, as he surely was. I only now +proceed because, when very near his end, he most strictly enjoined me to +narrate these circumstances to you fully when you should come of age. +We must humbly remember that to God alone belongs judgment, and that +it is not for poor mortals to decide what is right or wrong in certain +instances for their fellows, but that each should strive most earnestly +to do his own duty. + +Your father entirely concealed from me the discovery he had made. It +was not till long afterwards that I had it narrated to me, and I only +obtained a knowledge of this and many other of the facts which I am now +telling you at a date much subsequent to their actual occurrence. + +He explained to his servant that he had discovered and opened an old +cupboard in the panelling, without mentioning the fact of his having +found anything in it, but merely asking him to give instructions for the +paint to be mended and the cupboard put into a usable state. Before he +had finished a very late breakfast Mr. Gaskell was with him, and it has +been a source of lasting regret to me that my brother concealed also +from his most intimate and trusted friend the discovery of the previous +night. He did, indeed, tell him that he had found and opened an old +cupboard in the panelling, but made no mention of there having been +anything within. I cannot say what prompted him to this action; for the +two young men had for long been on such intimate terms that the one +shared almost as a matter of course with the other any pleasure or pain +which might fall to his lot. Mr. Gaskell looked at the cupboard with +some interest, saying afterwards, "I know now, Johnnie, why the one +shelf of the bookcase which stood there was made movable when all the +others were fixed. Some former occupant used the cupboard, no doubt, +as a secret receptacle for his treasures, and masked it with the +book-shelves in front. Who knows what he kept in here, or who he was! I +should not be surprised if he were that very man who used to come here +so often to hear us play the 'Areopagita,' and whom you saw that night +last June. He had the one shelf made, you see, to move so as to give him +access to this cavity on occasion: then when he left Oxford, or perhaps +died, the mystery was forgotten, and with a few times of painting the +cracks closed up." + +Mr. Gaskell shortly afterwards took his leave as he had a lecture +to attend, and my brother was left alone to the contemplation of his +new-found treasure. After some consideration he determined that he would +take the instrument to London, and obtain the opinion of an expert as +to its authenticity and value. He was well acquainted with the late Mr. +George Smart, the celebrated London dealer, from whom his guardian, Mr. +Thoresby, had purchased the Pressenda violin which John commonly used. +Besides being a dealer in valuable instruments, Mr. Smart was a famous +collector of Stradivarius fiddles, esteemed one of the first authorities +in Europe in that domain of art, and author of a valuable work of +reference in connection with it. It was to him, therefore, that my +brother decided to submit the violin, and he wrote a letter to Mr. Smart +saying that he should give himself the pleasure of waiting on him the +next day on a matter of business. He then called on his tutor, and with +some excuse obtained leave to journey to London the next morning. He +spent the rest of the day in very carefully cleaning the violin, and +noon of the next saw him with it, securely packed, in Mr. Smart's +establishment in Bond Street. + +Mr. Smart received Sir John Maltravers with deference, demanded in what +way he could serve him; and on hearing that his opinion was required on +the authenticity of a violin, smiled somewhat dubiously and led the way +into a back parlour. + +"My dear Sir John," he said, "I hope you have not been led into buying +any instrument by a faith in its antiquity. So many good copies of +instruments by famous makers and bearing their labels are now afloat, +that the chances of obtaining a genuine fiddle from an unrecognised +source are quite remote; of hundreds of violins submitted to me for +opinion, I find that scarce one in fifty is actually that which it +represents itself to be. In fact the only safe rule," he added as a +professional commentary, "is never to buy a violin unless you obtain it +from a dealer with a reputation to lose, and are prepared to pay a +reasonable price for it." + +My brother had meanwhile unpacked the violin and laid it on the table. +As he took from it the last leaf of silver paper he saw Mr. Smart's +smile of condescension fade, and assuming a look of interest and +excitement, he stepped forward, took the violin in his hands, and +scrutinised it minutely. He turned it over in silence for some moments, +looking narrowly at each feature, and even applying the test of a +magnifying-glass. At last he said with an altered tone, "Sir John, I +have had in my hands nearly all the finest productions of Stradivarius, +and thought myself acquainted with every instrument of note that ever +left his workshop; but I confess myself mistaken, and apologise to you +for the doubt which I expressed as to the instrument you had brought me. +This violin is of the great master's golden period, is incontestably +genuine, and finer in some respects than any Stradivarius that I have +ever seen, not even excepting the famous _Dolphin_ itself. You need be +under no apprehension as to its authenticity: no connoisseur could hold +it in his hand for a second and entertain a doubt on the point." + +My brother was greatly pleased at so favourable a verdict, and Mr. Smart +continued-- + +"The varnish is of that rich red which Stradivarius used in his best +period after he had abandoned the yellow tint copied by him at first +from his master Amati. I have never seen a varnish thicker or more +lustrous, and it shows on the back that peculiar shading to imitate wear +which we term 'breaking up.' The purfling also is of an unsurpassable +excellence. Its execution is so fine that I should recommend you to use +a magnifying-glass for its examination." + +So he ran on, finding from moment to moment some new beauties to +admire. + +My brother was at first anxious lest Mr. Smart should ask him whence so +extraordinary an instrument came, but he saw that the expert had already +jumped to a conclusion in the matter. He knew that John had recently +come of age, and evidently supposed that he had found the violin among +the heirlooms of Worth Maltravers. John allowed Mr. Smart to continue in +this misconception, merely saying that he had discovered the instrument +in an old cupboard, where he had reason to think it had remained hidden +for many years. + +"Are there no records attached to so splendid an instrument?" asked Mr. +Smart. "I suppose it has been with your family a number of years. Do you +not know how it came into their possession?" + +I believe this was the first occasion on which it had occurred to John +to consider what right he had to the possession of the instrument. He +had been so excited by its discovery that the question of ownership had +never hitherto crossed his mind. The unwelcome suggestion that it was +not his after all, that the College might rightfully prefer a claim to +it, presented itself to him for a moment; but he set it instantly aside, +quieting his conscience with the reflection that this at least was not +the moment to make such a disclosure. + +He fenced with Mr. Smart's inquiry as best he could, saying that he was +ignorant of the history of the instrument, but not contradicting the +assumption that it had been a long time in his family's possession. + +"It is indeed singular," Mr. Smart continued, "that so magnificent +an instrument should have lain buried so long; that even those best +acquainted with such matters should be in perfect ignorance of its +existence. I shall have to revise the list of famous instruments in the +next edition of my 'History of the Violin,' and to write," he added +smiling, "a special paragraph on the 'Worth Maltravers Stradivarius.'" + +After much more, which I need not narrate, Mr. Smart suggested that +the violin should be left with him that he might examine it more at +leisure, and that my brother should return in a week's time, when he +would have the instrument opened, an operation which would be in any +case advisable. "The interior," he added, "appears to be in a strictly +original state, and this I shall be able to ascertain when opened. The +label is perfect, but if I am not mistaken I can see something higher up +on the back which appears like a second label. This excites my interest, +as I know of no instance of an instrument bearing two labels." + +To this proposal my brother readily assented, being anxious to enjoy +alone the pleasure of so gratifying a discovery as that of the undoubted +authenticity of the instrument. + +As he thought over the matter more at leisure, he grew anxious as to +what might be the import of the second label in the violin of which Mr. +Smart had spoken. I blush to say that he feared lest it might bear some +owner's name or other inscription proving that the instrument had not +been so long in the Maltravers family as he had allowed Mr. Smart to +suppose. So within so short a time it was possible that Sir John +Maltravers of Worth should dread being detected, if not in an absolute +falsehood, at least in having by his silence assented to one. + +During the ensuing week John remained in an excited and anxious +condition. He did little work, and neglected his friends, having his +thoughts continually occupied with the strange discovery he had made. +I know also that his sense of honour troubled him, and that he was not +satisfied with the course he was pursuing. The evening of his return +from London he went to Mr. Gaskell's rooms at New College, and spent an +hour conversing with him on indifferent subjects. In the course of their +talk he proposed to his friend as a moral problem the question of the +course of action to be taken were one to find some article of value +concealed in his room. Mr. Gaskell answered unhesitatingly that he +should feel bound to disclose it to the authorities. He saw that my +brother was ill at ease, and with a clearness of judgment which he +always exhibited, guessed that he had actually made some discovery of +this sort in the old cupboard in his rooms. He could not divine, of +course, the exact nature of the object found, and thought it might +probably relate to a hoard of gold; but insisted with much urgency on +the obligation to at once disclose anything of this kind. My brother, +however, misled, I fear, by that feeling of inalienable right which the +treasure-hunter experiences over the treasure, paid no more attention to +the advice of his friend than to the promptings of his own conscience, +and went his way. + +From that day, my dear Edward, he began to exhibit a spirit of +secretiveness and reserve entirely alien to his own open and honourable +disposition, and also saw less of Mr. Gaskell. His friend tried, indeed, +to win his confidence and affection in every way in his power; but in +spite of this the rift between them widened insensibly, and my brother +lost the fellowship and counsel of a true friend at a time when he could +ill afford to be without them. + +He returned to London the ensuing week, and met Mr. George Smart by +appointment in Bond Street. If the expert had been enthusiastic on a +former occasion, he was ten times more so on this. He spoke in terms +almost of rapture about the violin. He had compared it with two +magnificent instruments in the collection of the late Mr. James Loding, +then the finest in Europe; and it was admittedly superior to either, +both in the delicate markings of its wood and singularly fine varnish. +"Of its tone," he said, "we cannot, of course, yet pronounce with +certainty, but I am very sure that its voice will not belie its splendid +exterior. It has been carefully opened, and is in a strangely perfect +condition. Several persons eminently qualified to judge unite with me +in considering that it has been exceedingly little played upon, and +admit that never has so intact an interior been seen. The scroll is +exceptionally bold and original. Although undoubtedly from the hand of +the great master, this is of a pattern entirely different and distinct +from any that have ever come under my observation." + +He then pointed out to my brother that the side lines of the scroll were +unusually deeply cut, and that the front of it projected far more than +is common with such instruments. + +"The most remarkable feature," he concluded, "is that the instrument +bears a double label. Besides the label which you have already seen +bearing '_Antonius Stradiuarius Cremonensis faciebat_,' with the date of +his most splendid period, 1704, so clearly that the ink seems scarcely +dry, there is another smaller one higher up on the back which I will +show you." + +He took the violin apart and showed him a small label with characters +written in faded ink. "That is the writing of Antonio Stradivarius +himself, and is easily recognisable, though it is much firmer than +a specimen which I once saw, written in extreme old age, and giving +his name and the date 1736. He was then ninety-two, and died in the +following year. But this, as you will see, does not give his name, but +merely the two words '_Porphyrius philosophus_.' What this may refer +to I cannot say: it is beyond my experience. My friend Mr. Calvert has +suggested that Stradivarius may have dedicated this violin to the pagan +philosopher, or named it after him; but this seems improbable. I have, +indeed, heard of two famous violins being called 'Peter' and 'Paul,' +but the instances of such naming are very rare; and I believe it to be +altogether without precedent to find a name attached thus on a label. + +"In any case, I must leave this matter to your ingenuity to decipher. +Neither the sound-post nor the bass-bar have ever been moved, and you +see here a Stradivarius violin wearing exactly the same appearance as +it once wore in the great master's workshop, and in exactly the same +condition; yet I think the belly is sufficiently strong to stand modern +stringing. I should advise you to leave the instrument with me for some +little while, that I may give it due care and attention and ensure its +being properly strung." + +My brother thanked him and left the violin with him, saying that he +would instruct him later by letter to what address he wished it sent. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + +Within a few days after this the autumn term came to an end, and in +the second week of December John returned to Worth Maltravers for +the Christmas vacation. His advent was always a very great pleasure +to me, and on this occasion I had looked forward to his company with +anticipation keener than usual, as I had been disappointed of the visit +of a friend and had spent the last month alone. After the joy of our +first meeting had somewhat sobered, it was not long before I remarked a +change in his manner, which puzzled me. It was not that he was less kind +to me, for I think he was even more tenderly forbearing and gentle than +I had ever known him, but I had an uneasy feeling that some shadow had +crept in between us. It was the small cloud rising in the distance that +afterwards darkened his horizon and mine. I missed the old candour and +open-hearted frankness that he had always shown; and there seemed to be +always something in the background which he was trying to keep from me. +It was obvious that his thoughts were constantly elsewhere, so much so +that on more than one occasion he returned vague and incoherent answers +to my questions. At times I was content to believe that he was in love, +and that his thoughts were with Miss Constance Temple; but even so, +I could not persuade myself that his altered manner was to be thus +entirely accounted for. At other times a dazed air, entirely foreign to +his bright disposition, which I observed particularly in the morning, +raised in my mind the terrible suspicion that he was in the habit of +taking some secret narcotic or other deleterious drug. + +We had never spent a Christmas away from Worth Maltravers, and it had +always been a season of quiet joy for both of us. But under these +altered circumstances it was a great relief and cause of thankfulness +to me to receive a letter from Mrs. Temple inviting us both to spend +Christmas and New Year at Royston. This invitation had upon my brother +precisely the effect that I had hoped for. It roused him from his moody +condition, and he professed much pleasure in accepting it, especially as +he had never hitherto been in Derbyshire. + +There was a small but very agreeable party at Royston, and we passed a +most enjoyable fortnight. My brother seemed thoroughly to have shaken +off his indisposition; and I saw my fondest hopes realised in the warm +attachment which was evidently springing up between him and Miss +Constance Temple. + +Our visit drew near its close, and it was within a week of John's return +to Oxford. Mrs. Temple celebrated the termination of the Christmas +festivities by giving a ball on Twelfth-night, at which a large party +were present, including most of the county families. Royston was +admirably adapted for such entertainments, from the number and great +size of its reception-rooms. Though Elizabethan in date and external +appearance, succeeding generations had much modified and enlarged the +house; and an ancestor in the middle of the last century had built at +the back an enormous hall after the classic model, and covered it with a +dome or cupola. In this room the dancing went forward. Supper was served +in the older hall in the front, and it was while this was in progress +that a thunderstorm began. The rarity of such a phenomenon in the depth +of winter formed the subject of general remark; but though the lightning +was extremely brilliant, being seen distinctly through the curtained +windows, the storm appeared to be at some distance, and, except for one +peal, the thunder was not loud. After supper dancing was resumed, and +I was taking part in a polka (called, I remember, the "_King Pippin_"), +when my partner pointed out that one of the footmen wished to speak with +me. I begged him to lead me to one side, and the servant then informed +me that my brother was ill. Sir John, he said, had been seized with a +fainting fit, but had been got to bed, and was being attended by Dr. +Empson, a physician who chanced to be present among the visitors. + +I at once left the hall and hurried to my brother's room. On the way +I met Mrs. Temple and Constance, the latter much agitated and in tears. +Mrs. Temple assured me that Dr. Empson reported favourably of my +brother's condition, attributing his faintness to over-exertion in the +dancing-room. The medical man had got him to bed with the assistance of +Sir John's valet, had given him a quieting draught, and ordered that he +should not be disturbed for the present. It was better that I should not +enter the room; she begged that I would kindly comfort and reassure +Constance, who was much upset, while she herself returned to her guests. + +I led Constance to my bedroom, where there was a bright fire burning, +and calmed her as best I could. Her interest in my brother was evidently +very real and unaffected, and while not admitting her partiality for him +in words, she made no effort to conceal her sentiments from me. I kissed +her tenderly, and bade her narrate the circumstances of John's attack. + +It seemed that after supper they had gone upstairs into the music-room, +and he had himself proposed that they should walk thence into the +picture-gallery, where they would better he able to see the lightning, +which was then particularly vivid. The picture-gallery at Royston is a +very long, narrow, and rather low room, running the whole length of the +south wing, and terminating in a large Tudor oriel or flat bay window +looking east. In this oriel they had sat for some time watching the +flashes, and the wintry landscape revealed for an instant and then +plunged into outer blackness. The gallery itself was not illuminated, +and the effect of the lightning was very fine. + +There had been an unusually bright flash accompanied by that single +reverberating peal of thunder which I had previously noticed. Constance +had spoken to my brother, but he had not replied, and in a moment she +saw that he had swooned. She summoned aid without delay, but it was some +short time before consciousness had been restored to him. + +She had concluded this narrative, and sat holding my hand in hers. We +were speculating on the cause of my brother's illness, thinking it might +be due to over-exertion, or to sitting in a chilly atmosphere as the +picture-gallery was not warmed, when Mrs. Temple knocked at the door and +said that John was now more composed and desired earnestly to see me. + +On entering my brother's bedroom I found him sitting up in bed wearing a +dressing-gown. Parnham, his valet, who was arranging the fire, left the +room as I came in. A chair stood at the head of the bed and I sat down +by him. He took my hand in his and without a word burst into tears. +"Sophy," he said, "I am so unhappy, and I have sent for you to tell you +of my trouble, because I know you will be forbearing to me. An hour +ago all seemed so bright. I was sitting in the picture-gallery with +Constance, whom I love dearly. We had been watching the lightning, till +the thunder had grown fainter and the storm seemed past. I was just +about to ask her to become my wife when a brighter flash than all the +rest burst on us, and I saw--I saw, Sophy, standing in the gallery as +close to me as you are now--I saw--that man I told you about at Oxford; +and then this faintness came on me." + +"Whom do you mean?" I said, not understanding what he spoke of, and +thinking for a moment he referred to someone else. "Did you see Mr. +Gaskell?" + +"No, it was not he; but that dead man whom I saw rising from my wicker +chair the night you went away from Oxford." + +You will perhaps smile at my weakness, my dear Edward, and indeed I had +at that time no justification for it; but I assure you that I have not +yet forgotten, and never shall forget, the impression of overwhelming +horror which his words produced upon me. It seemed as though a fear +which had hitherto stood vague and shadowy in the background, began now +to advance towards me, gathering more distinctness as it approached. +There was to me something morbidly terrible about the apparition of this +man at such a momentous crisis in my brother's life, and I at once +recognised that unknown form as being the shadow which was gradually +stealing between John and myself. Though I feigned incredulity as best +I might, and employed those arguments or platitudes which will always be +used on such occasions, urging that such a phantom could only exist in a +mind disordered by physical weakness, my brother was not deceived by my +words, and perceived in a moment that I did not even believe in them +myself. + +"Dearest Sophy," he said, with a much calmer air, "let us put aside all +dissimulation. I _know_ that what I have to-night seen, and that what I +saw last summer at Oxford, are _not_ phantoms of my brain; and I believe +that you too in your inmost soul are convinced of this truth. Do not, +therefore, endeavour to persuade me to the contrary. If I am not to +believe the evidence of my senses, it were better at once to admit my +madness--and I know that I am not mad. Let us rather consider what such +an appearance can portend, and who the man is who is thus presented. +I cannot explain to you why this appearance inspires me with so great +a revulsion. I can only say that in its presence I seem to be brought +face to face with some abysmal and repellent wickedness. It is not that +the form he wears is hideous. Last night I saw him exactly as I saw him +at Oxford--his face waxen pale, with a sneering mouth, the same lofty +forehead, and hair brushed straight up so as almost to appear standing +on end. He wore the same long coat of green cloth and white waistcoat. +He seemed as if he had been standing listening to what we said, though +we had not seen him till this bright flash of lightning made him +manifest. You will remember that when I saw him at Oxford his eyes were +always cast down, so that I never knew their colour. This time they were +wide open; indeed he was looking full at us, and they were a light brown +and very brilliant." + +I saw that my brother was exciting himself, and was still weak from his +recent swoon. I knew, too, that any ordinary person of strong mind would +say at once that his brain wandered, and yet I had a dreadful conviction +all the while that what he told me was the truth. All I could do was to +beg him to calm himself, and to reflect how vain such fancies must be. +"We must trust, dear John," I said, "in God. I am sure that so long as +we are not living in conscious sin, we shall never be given over to any +evil power; and I know my brother too well to think that he is doing +anything he knows to be evil. If there be evil spirits, as we are taught +there are, we are taught also that there are good spirits stronger than +they, who will protect us." + +So I spoke with him a little while, until he grew calmer; and then we +talked of Constance and of his love for her. He was deeply pleased to +hear from me how she had shown such obvious, signs of interest in his +illness, and sincere affection for him. In any case, he made me promise +that I would never mention to her either what he had seen this night or +last summer at Oxford. + +It had grown late, and the undulating beat of the dances, which had +been distinctly sensible in his room--even though we could not hear +any definite noise--had now ceased. Mrs. Temple knocked at the door as +she went to bed and inquired how he did, giving him at the same time +a kind message of sympathy from Constance, which afforded him much +gratification. After she had left I prepared also to retire; but before +going he begged me to take a prayer-book lying on the table, and to read +aloud a collect which he pointed out. It was that for the second Sunday +in Lent, and evidently well known to him. As I read it the words seemed +to bear a new and deeper significance, and my heart repeated with +fervour the petition for protection from those "evil thoughts which may +assault and hurt the soul." I bade him good night and went away very +sorrowful. Parnham, at John's request, had arranged to sleep on a sofa +in his master's bedroom. + +I rose betimes the next morning and inquired at my brother's room how +he was. Parnham reported that he had passed a restless night, and on +entering a little later I found him in a high fever, slightly delirious, +and evidently not so well as when I saw him last. Mrs. Temple, with much +kindness and forethought, had begged Dr. Empson to remain at Royston for +the night, and he was soon in attendance on his patient. His verdict +was sufficiently grave: John was suffering from a sharp access of +brain-fever; his condition afforded cause for alarm; he could not answer +for any turn his sickness might take. You will easily imagine how much +this intelligence affected me; and Mrs. Temple and Constance shared my +anxiety and solicitude. Constance and I talked much with one another +that morning. Unaffected anxiety had largely removed her reserve, and +she spoke openly of her feelings towards my brother, not concealing her +partiality for him. I on my part let her understand how welcome to me +would be any union between her and John, and how sincerely I should +value her as a sister. + +It was a wild winter's morning, with some snow falling and a high wind. +The house was in the disordered condition which is generally observable +on the day following a ball or other important festivity. I roamed +restlessly about, and at last found my way to the picture-gallery, +which had formed the scene of John's adventure on the previous night. +I had never been in this part of the house before, as it contained no +facilities for heating, and so often remained shut in the winter months. +I found a listless pleasure in admiring the pictures which lined the +walls, most of them being portraits of former members of the family, +including the famous picture of Sir Ralph Temple and his family, +attributed to Holbein. I had reached the end of the gallery and sat +down in the oriel watching the snow-flakes falling sparsely, and the +evergreens below me waving wildly in the sudden rushes of the wind. My +thoughts were busy with the events of the previous evening,--with John's +illness, with the ball,--and I found myself humming the air of a waltz +that had caught my fancy. At last I turned away from the garden scene +towards the gallery, and as I did so my eyes fell on a remarkable +picture just opposite to me. + +It was a full-length portrait of a young man, life-size, and I had +barely time to appreciate even its main features when I knew that I had +before me the painted counterfeit of my brother's vision. The discovery +caused me a violent shock, and it was with an infinite repulsion that +I recognised at once the features and dress of the man whom John had +seen rising from the chair at Oxford. So accurately had my brother's +imagination described him to me, that it seemed as if I had myself seen +him often before. I noted each feature, comparing them with my brother's +description, and finding them all familiar and corresponding exactly. +He was a man still in the prime of life. His features were regular and +beautifully modelled; yet there was something in his face that inspired +me with a deep aversion, though his brown eyes were open and brilliant. +His mouth was sharply cut, with a slight sneer on the lips, and his +complexion of that extreme pallor which had impressed itself deeply on +my brother's imagination and my own. + +After the first intense surprise had somewhat subsided, I experienced +a feeling of great relief, for here was an extraordinary explanation +of my brother's vision of last night. It was certain that the flash +of lightning had lit up this ill-starred picture, and that to his +predisposed fancy the painted figure had stood forth as an actual +embodiment. That such an incident, however startling, should have been +able to fling John into a brain-fever, showed that he must already have +been in a very low and reduced state, on which excitement would act much +more powerfully than on a more robust condition of health. A similar +state of weakness, perturbed by the excitement of his passion for +Constance Temple, might surely also have conjured up the vision which +he thought he saw the night of our leaving Oxford in the summer. +These thoughts, my dear Edward, gave me great relief; for it seemed +a comparatively trivial matter that my brother should be ill, even +seriously ill, if only his physical indisposition could explain away the +supernatural dread which had haunted us for the past six months. The +clouds were breaking up. It was evident that John had been seriously +unwell for some months; his physical weakness had acted on his brain; +and I had lent colour to his wandering fancies by being alarmed by them, +instead of rejecting them at once or gently laughing them away as I +should have done. But these glad thoughts took me too far, and I was +suddenly brought up by a reflection that did not admit of so simple an +explanation. If the man's form my brother saw at Oxford were merely an +effort of disordered imagination, how was it that he had been able to +describe it exactly like that represented in this picture? He had never +in his life been to Royston, therefore he could have no image of the +picture impressed unconsciously on or hidden away in his mind. Yet his +description had never varied. It had been so close as to enable me to +produce in my fancy a vivid representation of the man he had seen; and +here I had before me the features and dress exactly reproduced. In the +presence of a coincidence so extraordinary reason stood confounded, and +I knew not what to think. I walked nearer to the picture and scrutinised +it closely. + +The dress corresponded in every detail with that which my brother had +described the figure as wearing at Oxford: a long cut-away coat of green +cloth with an edge of gold embroidery, a white satin waistcoat with +sprigs of embroidered roses, gold-lace at the pocket-holes, buff silk +knee-breeches, and low down on the finely modelled neck a full cravat +of rich lace. The figure was posed negligently against a fluted stone +pedestal or short column on which the left elbow leant, and the right +foot was crossed lightly over the left. His shoes were of polished +black leather with heavy silver buckles, and the whole costume was very +old-fashioned, and such as I had only seen worn at fancy dress balls. On +the foot of the pedestal was the painter's name, "BATTONI pinxit, Romæ, +1750." On the top of the pedestal, and under his left elbow, was a long +roll apparently of music, of which one end, unfolded, hung over the +edge. + +For some minutes I stood still gazing at this portrait which so much +astonished me, but turned on hearing footsteps in the gallery, and saw +Constance, who had come to seek for me. + +"Constance," I said, "whose portrait is this? It is a very striking +picture, is it not?" + +"Yes, it is a splendid painting, though of a very bad man. His name was +Adrian Temple, and he once owned Royston. I do not know much about him, +but I believe he was very wicked and very clever. My mother would be +able to tell you more. It is a picture we none of us like, although so +finely painted; and perhaps because he was always pointed out to me from +childhood as a bad man, I have myself an aversion to it. It is singular +that when the very bright flash of lightning came last night while your +brother John and I were sitting here, it lit this picture with a +dazzling glare that made the figure stand out so strangely as to seem +almost alive. It was just after that I found that John had fainted." + +The memory was not a pleasant one for either of us and we changed the +subject. "Come," I said, "let us leave the gallery, it is very cold +here." + +Though I said nothing more at the time, her words had made a great +impression on me. It was so strange that, even with the little she knew +of this Adrian Temple, she should speak at once of his notoriously evil +life, and of her personal dislike to the picture. Remembering what my +brother had said on the previous night, that in the presence of this man +he felt himself brought face to face with some indescribable wickedness, +I could not but be surprised at the coincidence. The whole story seemed +to me now to resemble one of those puzzle pictures or maps which I have +played with as a child, where each bit fits into some other until the +outline is complete. It was as if I were finding the pieces one by one +of a bygone history, and fitting them to one another until some terrible +whole should be gradually built up and stand out in its complete +deformity. + +Dr. Empson spoke gravely of John's illness, and entertained without +reluctance the proposal of Mrs. Temple, that Dr. Dobie, a celebrated +physician in Derby, should be summoned to a consultation. Dr. Dobie came +more than once, and was at last able to report an amendment in John's +condition, though both the doctors absolutely forbade anyone to visit +him, and said that under the most favourable circumstances a period of +some weeks must elapse before he could be moved. + +Mrs. Temple invited me to remain at Royston until my brother should be +sufficiently convalescent to be moved; and both she and Constance, while +regretting the cause, were good enough to express themselves pleased +that accident should detain me so long with them. + +As the reports of the doctors became gradually more favourable, and our +minds were in consequence more free to turn to other subjects, I spoke +to Mrs. Temple one day about the picture, saying that it interested me, +and asking for some particulars as to the life of Adrian Temple. + +"My dear child," she said, "I had rather that you should not exhibit +any curiosity as to this man, whom I wish that we had not to call an +ancestor. I know little of him myself, and indeed his life was of such +a nature as no woman, much less a young girl, would desire to be well +acquainted with. He was, I believe, a man of remarkable talent, and +spent most of his time between Oxford and Italy, though he visited +Royston occasionally, and built the large hall here, which we use as a +dancing-room. Before he was twenty wild stories were prevalent as to his +licentious life, and by thirty his name was a by-word among sober and +upright people. He had constantly with him at Oxford and on his travels +a boon companion called Jocelyn, who aided him in his wickednesses, +until on one of their Italian tours Jocelyn left him suddenly and became +a Trappist monk. It was currently reported that some wild deed of Adrian +Temple had shocked even him, and so outraged his surviving instincts of +common humanity that he was snatched as a brand from the burning and +enabled to turn back even in the full tide of his wickedness. However +that may be, Adrian went on in his evil course without him, and about +four years after disappeared. He was last heard of in Naples, and it is +believed that he succumbed during a violent outbreak of the plague which +took place in Italy in the autumn of 1752. That is all I shall tell you +of him, and indeed I know little more myself. The only good trait that +has been handed down concerning him is that he was a masterly musician, +performing admirably upon the violin, which he had studied under the +illustrious Tartini himself. Yet even his art of music, if tradition +speaks the truth, was put by him to the basest of uses." + +I apologised for my indiscretion in asking her about an unpleasant +subject, and at the same time thanked her for what she had seen fit to +tell me, professing myself much interested, as indeed I really was. + +"Was he a handsome man?" + +"That is a girl's question," she answered, smiling. "He is said to +have been very handsome; and indeed his picture, painted after his +first youth was past, would still lead one to suppose so. But his +complexion was spoiled, it is said, and turned to deadly white by +certain experiments, which it is neither possible nor seemly for us to +understand. His face is of that long oval shape of which all the Temples +are proud, and he had brown eyes: we sometimes tease Constance, saying +she is like Adrian." + +It was indeed true, as I remembered after Mrs. Temple had pointed it +out, that Constance had a peculiarly long and oval face. It gave her, I +think, an air of staid and placid beauty, which formed in my eyes, and +perhaps in John's also, one of her greatest attractions. + +"I do not like even his picture," Mrs. Temple continued, "and strange +tales have been narrated of it by idle servants which are not worth +repeating. I have sometimes thought of destroying it; but my late +husband, being a Temple, would never hear of this, or even of removing +it from its present place in the gallery; and I should be loath to do +anything now contrary to his wishes, once so strongly expressed. It is, +besides, very perfect from an artistic point of view, being painted by +Battoni, and in his happiest manner." + +I could never glean more from Mrs. Temple; but what she told me +interested me deeply. It seemed another link in the chain, though +I could scarcely tell why, that Adrian Temple should be so great a +musician and violinist. I had, I fancy, a dim idea of that malign and +outlawed spirit sitting alone in darkness for a hundred years, until he +was called back by the sweet tones of the Italian music, and the lilt of +the "Areopagita" that he had loved so long ago. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + + +John's recovery, though continuous and satisfactory, was but slow; +and it was not until Easter, which fell early, that his health was +pronounced to be entirely re-established. The last few weeks of his +convalescence had proved to all of us a time of thankful and tranquil +enjoyment. If I may judge from my own experience, there are few epochs +in our life more favourable to the growth of sentiments of affection +and piety, or more full of pleasurable content, than is the period of +gradual recovery from serious illness. The chastening effect of our +recent sickness has not yet passed away, and we are at once grateful to +our Creator for preserving us, and to our friends for the countless acts +of watchful kindness which it is the peculiar property of illness to +evoke. + +No mother ever nursed a son more tenderly than did Mrs. Temple nurse +my brother, and before his restoration to health was complete the +attachment between him and Constance had ripened into a formal +betrothal. Such an alliance was, as I have before explained, +particularly suitable, and its prospect afforded the most lively +pleasure to all those concerned. The month of March had been unusually +mild, and Royston being situated in a valley, as is the case with most +houses of that date, was well sheltered from cold winds. It had, +moreover, a south aspect, and as my brother gradually gathered strength, +Constance and he and I would often sit out of doors in the soft spring +mornings. We put an easy-chair with many cushions for him on the gravel +by the front door, where the warmth of the sun was reflected from the +red brick walls, and he would at times read aloud to us while we were +engaged with our crochet-work. Mr. Tennyson had just published +anonymously a first volume of poems, and the sober dignity of his verse +well suited our frame of mind at that time. The memory of those pleasant +spring mornings, my dear Edward, has not yet passed away, and I can +still smell the sweet moist scent of the violets, and see the bright +colours of the crocus-flowers in the parterres in front of us. + +John's mind seemed to be gathering strength with his body. He had +apparently flung off the cloud which had overshadowed him before his +illness, and avoided entirely any reference to those unpleasant events +which had been previously so constantly in his thoughts. I had, indeed, +taken an early opportunity of telling him of my discovery of the picture +of Adrian Temple, as I thought it would tend to show him that at least +the last appearance of this ghostly form admitted of a rational +explanation. He seemed glad to hear of this, but did not exhibit the +same interest in the matter that I had expected, and allowed it at once +to drop. Whether through lack of interest, or from a lingering dislike +to revisit the spot where he was seized with illness, he did not, I +believe, once enter the picture-gallery before he left Royston. + +I cannot say as much for myself. The picture of Adrian Temple exerted +a curious fascination over me, and I constantly took an opportunity of +studying it. It was, indeed, a beautiful work; and perhaps because +John's recovery gave a more cheerful tone to my thoughts, or perhaps +from the power of custom to dull even the keenest antipathies, I +gradually got to lose much of the feeling of aversion which it had at +first inspired. In time the unpleasant look grew less unpleasing, and +I noticed more the beautiful oval of the face, the brown eyes, and the +fine chiselling of the features. Sometimes, too, I felt a deep pity for +so clever a gentleman who had died young, and whose life, were it ever +so wicked, must often have been also lonely and bitter. More than once +I had been discovered by Mrs. Temple or Constance sitting looking at the +picture, and they had gently laughed at me, saying that I had fallen in +love with Adrian Temple. + +One morning in early April, when the sun was streaming brightly through +the oriel, and the picture received a fuller light than usual, it +occurred to me to examine closely the scroll of music painted as hanging +over the top of the pedestal on which the figure leant. I had hitherto +thought that the signs depicted on it were merely such as painters might +conventionally use to represent a piece of musical notation. This has +generally been the case, I think, in such pictures as I have ever seen +in which a piece of music has been introduced. I mean that while the +painting gives a general representation of the musical staves, no +attempt is ever made to paint any definite notes such as would enable an +actual piece to be identified. Though, as I write this, I do remember +that on the monument to Handel in Westminster Abbey there is represented +a musical scroll similar to that in Adrian Temple's picture, but +actually sculptured with the opening phrase of the majestic melody, +"I know that my Redeemer liveth." + +On this morning, then, at Royston I thought I perceived that there were +painted on the scroll actual musical staves, bars, and notes; and my +interest being excited, I stood upon a chair so as better to examine +them. Though time had somewhat obscured this portion of the picture as +with a veil or film, yet I made out that the painter had intended to +depict some definite piece of music. In another moment I saw that the +air represented consisted of the opening bars of the _Gagliarda_ in the +suite by Graziani with which my brother and I were so well acquainted. +Though I believe that I had not seen the volume of music in which that +piece was contained more than twice, yet the melody was very familiar +to me, and I had no difficulty whatever in making myself sure that I had +here before me the air of the _Gagliarda_ and none other. It was true +that it was only roughly painted, but to one who knew the tune there was +no room left for doubt. + +Here was a new cause, I will not say for surprise, but for reflection. +It might, of course, have been merely a coincidence that the artist +should have chosen to paint in this picture this particular piece of +music; but it seemed more probable that it had actually been a favourite +air of Adrian Temple, and that he had chosen deliberately to have it +represented with him. This discovery I kept entirely to myself, not +thinking it wise to communicate it to my brother, lest by doing so I +might reawaken his interest in a subject which I hoped he had finally +dismissed from his thoughts. + +In the second week of April the happy party at Royston was dispersed, +John returning to Oxford for the summer term, Mrs. Temple making a short +visit to Scotland, and Constance coming to Worth Maltravers to keep me +company for a time. + +It was John's last term at Oxford. He expected to take his degree in +June, and his marriage with Constance Temple had been provisionally +arranged for the September following. He returned to Magdalen Hall +in the best of spirits, and found his rooms looking cheerful with +well-filled flower-boxes in the windows. I shall not detain you with any +long narration of the events of the term, as they have no relation to +the present history. I will only say that I believe my brother applied +himself diligently to his studies, and took his amusement mostly on +horseback, riding two horses which he had had sent to him from Worth +Maltravers. + +About the second week after his return he received a letter from Mr. +George Smart to the effect that the Stradivarius violin was now in +complete order. Subsequent examination, Mr. Smart wrote, and the +unanimous verdict of connoisseurs whom he had consulted, had merely +confirmed the views he had at first expressed--namely, that the violin +was of the finest quality, and that my brother had in his possession a +unique and intact example of Stradivarius's best period. He had had it +properly strung; and as the bass-bar had never been moved, and was of +a stronger nature than that usual at the period of its manufacture, he +had considered it unnecessary to replace it. If any signs should become +visible of its being inadequate to support the tension of modern +stringing, another could be easily substituted for it at a later date. +He had allowed a young German _virtuoso_ to play on it, and though this +gentleman was one of the first living performers, and had had an +opportunity of handling many splendid instruments, he assured Mr. Smart +that he had never performed on one that could in any way compare with +this. My brother wrote in reply thanking him, and begging that the +violin might be sent to Magdalen Hall. + +The pleasant musical evenings, however, which John had formerly +been used to spend in the company of Mr. Gaskell were now entirely +pretermitted. For though there was no cause for any diminution of +friendship between them, and though on Mr. Gaskell's part there was an +ardent desire to maintain their former intimacy, yet the two young men +saw less and less of one another, until their intercourse was confined +to an accidental greeting in the street. I believe that during all this +time my brother played very frequently on the Stradivarius violin, +but always alone. Its very possession seemed to have engendered from +the first in his mind a secretive tendency which, as I have already +observed, was entirely alien to his real disposition. As he had +concealed its discovery from his sister, so he had also from his friend, +and Mr. Gaskell remained in complete ignorance of the existence of such +an instrument. + +On the evening of its arrival from London, John seems to have carefully +unpacked the violin and tried it with a new bow of Tourte's make which +he had purchased of Mr. Smart. He had shut the heavy outside door of his +room before beginning to play, so that no one might enter unawares; and +he told me afterwards that though he had naturally expected from the +instrument a very fine tone, yet its actual merits so far exceeded his +anticipations as entirely to overwhelm him. The sound issued from it +in a volume of such depth and purity as to give an impression of the +passages being chorded, or even of another violin being played at the +same time. He had had, of course, no opportunity of practising during +his illness, and so expected to find his skill with the bow somewhat +diminished; but he perceived, on the contrary, that his performance was +greatly improved, and that he was playing with a mastery and feeling +of which he had never before been conscious. While attributing this +improvement very largely to the beauty of the instrument on which he was +performing, yet he could not but believe that by his illness, or in some +other unexplained way, he had actually acquired a greater freedom of +wrist and fluency of expression, with which reflection he was not a +little elated. He had had a lock fixed on the cupboard in which he had +originally found the violin, and here he carefully deposited it on each +occasion after playing, before he opened the outer door of his room. + +So the summer term passed away. The examinations had come in their due +time, and were now over. Both the young men had submitted themselves +to the ordeal, and while neither would of course have admitted as +much to anyone else, both felt secretly that they had no reason to be +dissatisfied with their performance. The results would not be published +for some weeks to come. The last night of the term had arrived, the last +night too of John's Oxford career. It was near nine o'clock, but still +quite light, and the rich orange glow of sunset had not yet left the +sky. The air was warm and sultry, as on that eventful evening when just +a year ago he had for the first time seen the figure or the illusion +of the figure of Adrian Temple. Since that time he had played the +"Areopagita" many, many times; but there had never been any reappearance +of that form, nor even had the once familiar creaking of the wicker +chair ever made itself heard. As he sat alone in his room, thinking with +a natural melancholy that he had seen the sun set for the last time on +his student life, and reflecting on the possibilities of the future +and perhaps on opportunities wasted in the past, the memory of that +evening last June recurred strongly to his imagination, and he felt an +irresistible impulse to play once more the "Areopagita." He unlocked +the now familiar cupboard and took out the violin, and never had the +exquisite gradations of colour in its varnish appeared to greater +advantage than in the soft mellow light of the fading day. As he began +the _Gagliarda_ he looked at the wicker chair, half expecting to see a +form he well knew seated in it; but nothing of the kind ensued, and he +concluded the "Areopagita" without the occurrence of any unusual +phenomenon. + +It was just at its close that he heard some one knocking at the outer +door. He hurriedly locked away the violin and opened the "oak." It was +Mr. Gaskell. He came in rather awkwardly, as though not sure whether he +would be welcomed. + +"Johnnie," he began, and stopped. + +The force of ancient habit sometimes, dear nephew, leads us unwittingly +to accost those who were once our friends by a familiar or nick-name +long after the intimacy that formerly justified it has vanished. But +sometimes we intentionally revert to the use of such a name, not wishing +to proclaim openly, as it were, by a more formal address that we are no +longer the friends we once were. I think this latter was the case with +Mr. Gaskell as he repeated the familiar name. + +"Johnnie, I was passing down New College Lane, and heard the violin from +your open windows. You were playing the 'Areopagita,' and it all sounded +so familiar to me that I thought I must come up. I am not interrupting +you, am I?" + +"No, not at all," John answered. + +"It is the last night of our undergraduate life, the last night we shall +meet in Oxford as students. To-morrow we make our bow to youth and +become men. We have not seen much of each other this term at any rate, +and I daresay that is my fault. But at least let us part as friends. +Surely our friends are not so many that we can afford to fling them +lightly away." + +He held out his hand frankly, and his voice trembled a little as he +spoke--partly perhaps from real emotion, but more probably from the +feeling of reluctance which I have noticed men always exhibit to +discovering any sentiment deeper than those usually deemed conventional +in correct society. My brother was moved by his obvious wish to renew +their former friendship, and grasped the proffered hand. + +There was a minute's pause, and then the conversation was resumed, a +little stiffly at first, but more freely afterwards. They spoke on many +indifferent subjects, and Mr. Gaskell congratulated John on the prospect +of his marriage, of which he had heard. As he at length rose up to take +his departure, he said, "You must have practised the violin diligently +of late, for I never knew anyone make so rapid progress with it as you +have done. As I came along I was spellbound by your music. I never +before heard you bring from the instrument so exquisite a tone: the +chorded passages were so powerful that I believed there had been +another person playing with you. Your Pressenda is certainly a finer +instrument than I ever imagined." + +My brother was pleased with Mr. Gaskell's compliment, and the latter +continued, "Let me enjoy the pleasure of playing with you once more in +Oxford; let us play the 'Areopagita.'" + +And so saying he opened the pianoforte and sat down. + +John was turning to take out the Stradivarius when he remembered that he +had never even revealed its existence to Mr. Gaskell, and that if he now +produced it an explanation must follow. In a moment his mood changed, +and with less geniality he excused himself, somewhat awkwardly, from +complying with the request, saying that he was fatigued. + +Mr. Gaskell was evidently hurt at his friend's altered manner, and +without renewing his petition rose at once from the pianoforte, and +after a little forced conversation took his departure. On leaving he +shook my brother by the hand, wished him all prosperity in his marriage +and after-life, and said, "Do not entirely forget your old comrade, and +remember that if at any time you should stand in need of a true friend, +you know where to find him!" + +John heard his footsteps echoing down the passage and made a +half-involuntary motion towards the door as if to call him back, but did +not do so, though he thought over his last words then and on a +subsequent occasion. + + + + +CHAPTER X + + +The summer was spent by us in the company of Mrs. Temple and Constance, +partly at Royston and partly at Worth Maltravers. John had again +hired the cutter-yacht _Palestine_, and the whole party made several +expeditions in her. Constance was entirely devoted to her lover; her +life seemed wrapped up in his; she appeared to have no existence except +in his presence. + +I can scarcely enumerate the reasons which prompted such thoughts, but +during these months I sometimes found myself wondering if John still +returned her affection as ardently as I knew had once been the case. +I can certainly call to mind no single circumstance which could justify +me in such a suspicion. He performed punctiliously all those thousand +little acts of devotion which are expected of an accepted lover; he +seemed to take pleasure in perfecting any scheme of enjoyment to amuse +her; and yet the impression grew in my mind that he no longer felt the +same heart-whole love to her that she bore him, and that he had himself +shown six months earlier. I cannot say, my dear Edward, how lively was +the grief that even the suspicion of such a fact caused me, and I +continually rebuked myself for entertaining for a moment a thought so +unworthy, and dismissed it from my mind with reprobation. Alas! ere long +it was sure again to make itself felt. We had all seen the Stradivarius +violin; indeed it was impossible for my brother longer to conceal it +from us, as he now played continually on it. He did not recount to us +the story of its discovery, contenting himself with saying that he had +become possessed of it at Oxford. We imagined naturally that he had +purchased it; and for this I was sorry, as I feared Mr. Thoresby, his +guardian, who had given him some years previously an excellent violin by +Pressenda, might feel hurt at seeing his present so unceremoniously laid +aside. None of us were at all intimately acquainted with the fancies of +fiddle-collectors, and were consequently quite ignorant of the enormous +value that fashion attached to so splendid an instrument. Even had +we known, I do not think that we should have been surprised at John +purchasing it; for he had recently come of age, and was in possession of +so large a fortune as would amply justify him in such an indulgence had +he wished to gratify it. No one, however, could remain unaware of the +wonderful musical qualities of the instrument. Its rich and melodious +tones would commend themselves even to the most unmusical ear, and +formed a subject of constant remark. I noticed also that my brother's +knowledge of the violin had improved in a very perceptible manner, for +it was impossible to attribute the great beauty and power of his present +performance entirely to the excellence of the instrument he was using. +He appeared more than ever devoted to the art, and would shut himself +up in his room alone for two or more hours together for the purpose of +playing the violin--a habit which was a source of sorrow to Constance, +for he would never allow her to sit with him on such occasions, as she +naturally wished to do. + +So the summer fled. I should have mentioned that in July, after going up +to complete the _viva-voce_ part of their examination, both Mr. Gaskell +and John received information that they had obtained "first-classes." +The young men had, it appears, done excellently well, and both had +secured a place in that envied division of the first-class which was +called "above the line." John's success proved a source of much pleasure +to us all, and mutual congratulations were freely exchanged. We were +pleased also at Mr. Gaskell's high place, remembering the kindness which +he had shown us at Oxford in the previous year. I desired to send him +my compliments and felicitations when he should next be writing to him. +I did not doubt that my brother would return Mr. Gaskell's +congratulations, which he had already received: he said, however, that +his friend had given no address to which he could write, and so the +matter dropped. + +On the 1st of September John and Constance Temple were married. The +wedding took place at Royston, and by John's special desire (with which +Constance fully agreed) the ceremony was of a strictly private and +unpretentious nature. The newly married pair had determined to spend +their honeymoon in Italy, and left for the Continent in the forenoon. + +Mrs. Temple invited me to remain with her for the present at Royston, +which I was very glad to do, feeling deeply the loss of a favourite +brother, and looking forward with dismay to six weeks of loneliness +which must elapse before I should again see him and my dearest +Constance. + +We received news of our travellers about a fortnight afterwards, and +then heard from them at frequent intervals. Constance wrote in the best +of spirits, and with the keenest appreciation. She had never travelled +in Switzerland or Italy before and all was enchantingly novel to her. +They had journeyed through Basle to Lucerne, spending a few days in that +delightful spot, and thence proceeding by the Simplon Pass to Lugano and +the Italian lakes. Then we heard that they had gone further south than +had been at first contemplated; they had reached Rome, and were +intending to go on to Naples. + +After the first few weeks we neither of us received any more letters +from John. It was always Constance who wrote, and even her letters +grew very much less frequent than had at first been the case. This was +perhaps natural, as the business of travel no doubt engrossed their +thoughts. But ere long we both perceived that the letters of our dear +girl were more constrained and formal than before. It was as if she was +writing now rather to comply with a sense of duty than to give vent to +the light-hearted gaiety and naïve enjoyment which breathed in every +line of her earlier communications. So at least it seemed to us, and +again the old suspicion presented itself to my mind, and I feared that +all was not as it should be. + +Naples was to be the turning-point of their travels, and we expected +them to return to England by the end of October. November had arrived, +however, and we still had no intimation that their return journey had +commenced or was even decided on. From John there was no word, and +Constance wrote less often than ever. John, she said, was enraptured +with Naples and its surroundings; he devoted himself much to the violin, +and though she did not say so, this meant, I knew, that she was often +left alone. For her own part, she did not think that a continued +residence in Italy would suit her health; the sudden changes of +temperature tried her, and people said that the airs rising in the +evening from the bay were unwholesome. + +Then we received a letter from her which much alarmed us. It was written +from Naples and dated October 25. John, she said, had been ailing of +late with nervousness and insomnia. On Wednesday, two days before the +date of her letter, he had suffered all day from a strange restlessness, +which increased after they had retired for the evening. He could not +sleep and had dressed again, telling her he would walk a little in the +night air to compose himself. He had not returned till near six in the +morning, and then was so deadly pale and seemed so exhausted that she +insisted on his keeping to his bed till she could get medical advice. +The doctors feared that he had been attacked by some strange form of +malarial fever, and said he needed much care. Our anxiety was, however, +at least temporarily relieved by the receipt of later tidings which +spoke of John's recovery; but November drew to a close without any +definite mention of their return having reached us. + +That month is always, I think, a dreary one in the country. It has +neither the brilliant tints of October, nor the cosy jollity of +mid-winter with its Christmas joys to alleviate it. This year it was +more gloomy than usual. Incessant rain had marked its close, and the +Roy, a little brook which skirted the gardens not far from the house, +had swollen to unusual proportions. At last one wild night the flood +rose so high as to completely cover the garden terraces, working havoc +in the parterres, and covering the lawns with a thick coat of mud. +Perhaps this gloominess of nature's outer face impressed itself in a +sense of apprehension on our spirits, and it was with a feeling of more +than ordinary pleasure and relief that early in December we received a +letter dated from Laon, saying that our travellers were already well +advanced on their return journey, and expected to be in England a week +after the receipt by us of this advice. It was, as usual, Constance who +wrote. John begged, she said, that Christmas might be spent at Worth +Maltravers, and that we would at once proceed thither to see that all +was in order against their return. They reached Worth about the middle +of the month, and were, I need not say, received with the utmost +affection by Mrs. Temple and myself. + +In reply to our inquiries John professed that his health was completely +restored; but though we could indeed discern no other signs of any +special weakness, we were much shocked by his changed appearance. He had +completely lost his old healthy and sunburnt complexion, and his face, +though not thin or sunken, was strangely pale. Constance assured us +that though in other respects he had apparently recovered, he had never +regained his old colour from the night of his attack of fever at Naples. + +I soon perceived that her own spirits were not so bright as was +ordinarily the case with her; and she exhibited none of the eagerness to +narrate to others the incidents of travel which is generally observable +in those who have recently returned from a journey. The cause of this +depression was, alas! not difficult to discover, for John's former +abstraction and moodiness seemed to have returned with an increased +force. It was a source of infinite pain to Mrs. Temple, and perhaps +even more so to me, to observe this sad state of things. Constance +never complained, and her affection towards her husband seemed only to +increase in the face of difficulties. Yet the matter was one which could +not be hid from the anxious eyes of loving kinswomen, and I believe that +it was the consciousness that these altered circumstances could not +but force themselves upon our notice that added poignancy to my poor +sister's grief. While not markedly neglecting her, my brother had +evidently ceased to take that pleasure in her company which might +reasonably have been expected in any case under the circumstances of +a recent marriage, and a thousand times more so when his wife was so +loving and beautiful a creature as Constance Temple. He appeared little +except at meals, and not even always at lunch, shutting himself up for +the most part in his morning-room or study and playing continually on +the violin. It was in vain that we attempted even by means of his music +to win him back to a sweeter mood. Again and again I begged him to allow +me to accompany him on the pianoforte, but he would never do so, always +putting me off with some excuse. Even when he sat with us in the +evening, he spoke little, devoting himself for the most part to reading. +His books were almost always Greek or Latin, so that I am ignorant of +the subjects of his study; but he was content that either Constance or +I should play on the pianoforte, saying that the melody, so far from +distracting his attention, helped him rather to appreciate what he was +reading. Constance always begged me to allow her to take her place at +the instrument on these occasions, and would play to him sometimes for +hours without receiving a word of thanks, being eager even in this +unreciprocated manner to testify her love and devotion to him. + +Christmas Day, usually so happy a season, brought no alleviation of +our gloom. My brother's reserve continually increased, and even his +longest-established habits appeared changed. He had been always most +observant of his religious duties, attending divine service with the +utmost regularity whatever the weather might be, and saying that it was +a duty a landed proprietor owed as much to his tenantry as himself to +set a good example in such matters. Ever since our earliest years he +and I had gone morning and afternoon on Sundays to the little church of +Worth, and there sat together in the Maltravers chapel where so many of +our name had sat before us. Here their monuments and achievements stood +about us on every side, and it had always seemed to me that with their +name and property we had inherited also the obligation to continue those +acts of piety, in the practice of which so many of them had lived and +died. It was, therefore, a source of surprise and great grief to me +when on the Sunday after his return my brother omitted all religious +observances, and did not once attend the parish church. He was not +present with us at breakfast, ordering coffee and a roll to be taken to +his private sitting-room. At the hour at which we usually set out for +church I went to his room to tell him that we were all dressed and +waiting for him. I tapped at the door, but on trying to enter found it +locked. In reply to my message he did not open the door, but merely +begged us to go on to church, saying he would possibly follow us later. +We went alone, and I sat anxiously in our seat with my eyes fixed on the +door, hoping against hope that each late comer might be John, but he +never came. Perhaps this will appear to you, Edward, a comparatively +trivial circumstance (though I hope it may not), but I assure you that +it brought tears to my eyes. When I sat in the Maltravers chapel and +thought that for the first time my dear brother had preferred in an open +way his convenience or his whim to his duty, and had of set purpose +neglected to come to the house of God, I felt a bitter grief that seemed +to rise up in my throat and choke me. I could not think of the meaning +of the prayers nor join in the singing: and all the time that Mr. +Butler, our clergyman, was preaching, a verse of a little piece of +poetry which I learnt as a girl was running in my head:-- + + "How easy are the paths of ill; + How steep and hard the upward ways; + A child can roll the stone down hill + That breaks a giant's arm to raise." + + +It seemed to me that our loved one had set his foot upon the downward +slope, and that not all the efforts of those who would have given their +lives to save him could now hold him back. + +It was even worse on Christmas Day. Ever since we had been confirmed +John and I had always taken the Sacrament on that happy morning, and +after service he had distributed the Maltravers dole in our chapel. +There are given, as you know, on that day to each of twelve old men £5 +and a green coat, and a like sum of money with a blue cloth dress to as +many old women. These articles of dress are placed on the altar-tomb of +Sir Esmoun de Maltravers, and have been thence distributed from days +immemorial by the head of our house. Ever since he was twelve years old +it had been my pride to watch my handsome brother doing this deed of +noble charity, and to hear the kindly words he added with each gift. + +Alas! alas! it was all different this Christmas. Even on this holy day +my brother did not approach either the altar or the house of God. Till +then Christmas had always seemed to me to be a day given us from above, +that we might see even while on earth a faint glimpse of that serenity +and peaceful love which will hereafter gild all days in heaven. Then +covetous men lay aside their greed and enemies their rancour, then warm +hearts grow warmer, and Christians feel their common brotherhood. I can +scarcely imagine any man so lost or guilty as not to experience on that +day some desire to turn back to the good once more, as not to recognise +some far-off possibility of better things. It was thoughts free and +happy such as these that had previously come into my heart in the +service of Christmas Day, and been particularly associated with the +familiar words that we all love so much. But that morning the harmonies +were all jangled: it seemed as though some evil spirit was pouring +wicked thoughts into my ear; and even while children sang "Hark the +herald angels," I thought I could hear through it all a melody which +I had learnt to loathe, the _Gagliarda_ of the "Areopagita." + +Poor Constance! Though her veil was down, I could see her tears, and +knew her thoughts must be sadder even than mine: I drew her hand towards +me, and held it as I would a child's. After the service was over a new +trial awaited us. John had made no arrangement for the distribution of +the dole. The coats and dresses were all piled ready on Sir Esmoun's +tomb, and there lay the little leather pouches of money, but there was +no one to give them away. Mr. Butler looked puzzled, and approaching +us, said he feared Sir John was ill--had he made no provision for the +distribution? Pride kept back the tears which were rising fast, and +I said my brother was indeed unwell, that it would be better for Mr. +Butler to give away the dole, and that Sir John would himself visit the +recipients during the week. Then we hurried away, not daring to watch +the distribution of the dole, lest we should no longer be able to master +our feelings, and should openly betray our agitation. + +From one another we no longer attempted to conceal our grief. It seemed +as though we had all at once resolved to abandon the farce of pretending +not to notice John's estrangement from his wife, or of explaining away +his neglectful and unaccountable treatment of her. + +I do not think that three poor women were ever so sad on Christmas Day +before as were we on our return from church that morning. None of us had +seen my brother, but about five in the afternoon Constance went to his +room, and through the locked door begged piteously to see him. After a +few minutes he complied with her request and opened the door. The exact +circumstances of that interview she never revealed to me, but I knew +from her manner when she returned that something she had seen or heard +had both grieved and frightened her. She told me only that she had flung +herself in an agony of tears at his feet, and kneeling there, weary and +broken-hearted, had begged him to tell her if she had done aught amiss, +had prayed him to give her back his love. To all this he answered +little, but her entreaties had at least such an effect as to induce him +to take his dinner with us that evening. At that meal we tried to put +aside our gloom, and with feigned smiles and cheerful voices, from which +the tears were hardly banished, sustained a weary show of conversation +and tried to wile away his evil mood. But he spoke little; and when +Foster, my father's butler, put on the table the three-handled +Maltravers' loving-cup that he had brought up Christmas by Christmas for +thirty years, my brother merely passed it by without a taste. I saw by +Foster's face that the master's malady was no longer a secret even from +the servants. + +I shall not harass my own feelings nor yours, my dear Edward, by +entering into further details of your father's illness, for such it was +obvious his indisposition had become. It was the only consolation, and +that was a sorry one, that we could use with Constance, to persuade her +that John's estrangement from her was merely the result or manifestation +of some physical infirmity. He obviously grew worse from week to week, +and his treatment of his wife became colder and more callous. We had +used all efforts to persuade him to take a change of air--to go to +Royston for a month, and place himself under the care of Dr. Dobie. Mrs. +Temple had even gone so far as to write privately to this physician, +telling him as much of the case as was prudent, and asking his advice. +Not being aware of the darker sides of my brother's ailment, Dr. Dobie +replied in a less serious strain than seemed to us convenient, but +recommended in any case a complete change of air and scene. + +It was, therefore, with no ordinary pleasure and relief that we +heard my brother announce quite unexpectedly one morning in March that +he had made up his mind to seek change, and was going to leave almost +immediately for the Continent. He took his valet Parnham with him, and +quitted Worth one morning before lunch, bidding us an unceremonious +adieu, though he kissed Constance with some apparent tenderness. It was +the first time for three months, she confessed to me afterwards, that +he had shown her even so ordinary a mark of affection; and her wounded +heart treasured up what she hoped would prove a token of returning love. +He had not proposed to take her with him, and even had he done so, we +should have been reluctant to assent, as signs were not wanting that it +might have been imprudent for her to undertake foreign travel at that +period. + +For nearly a month we had no word of him. Then he wrote a short note to +Constance from Naples, giving no news, and indeed, scarce speaking of +himself at all, but mentioning as an address to which she might write if +she wished, the Villa de Angelis at Posilipo. Though his letter was cold +and empty, yet Constance was delighted to get it, and wrote henceforth +herself nearly every day, pouring out her heart to him, and retailing +such news as she thought would cheer him. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + + +A month later Mrs. Temple wrote to John warning him of the state in +which Constance now found herself, and begging him to return at least +for a few weeks in order that he might be present at the time of her +confinement. Though it would have been in the last degree unkind, or +even inhuman, that a request of this sort should have been refused, yet +I will confess to you that my brother's recent strangeness had prepared +me for behaviour on his part however wild; and it was with a feeling of +extreme relief that I heard from Mrs. Temple a little later that she had +received a short note from John to say that he was already on his return +journey. I believe Mrs. Temple herself felt as I did in the matter, +though she said nothing. + +When he returned we were all at Royston, whither Mrs. Temple had taken +Constance to be under Dr. Dobie's care. We found John's physical +appearance changed for the worse. His pallor was as remarkable as +before, but he was visibly thinner; and his strange mental abstraction +and moodiness seemed little if any abated. At first, indeed, he greeted +Constance kindly or even affectionately. She had been in a terrible +state of anxiety as to the attitude he would assume towards her, and +this mental strain affected prejudicially her very delicate bodily +condition. His kindness, of an ordinary enough nature indeed, seemed +to her yearning heart a miracle of condescending love, and she was +transported with the idea that his affection to her, once so sincere, +was indeed returning. But I grieve to say that his manner thawed only +for a very short time, and ere long he relapsed into an attitude of +complete indifference. It was as if his real, true, honest, and loving +character had made one more vigorous effort to assert itself,--as +though it had for a moment broken through the hard and selfish crust +that was forming around him; but the blighting influence which was at +work proved seemingly too strong for him to struggle against, and +riveted its chains again upon him with a weight heavier than before. +That there was some malefic influence, mental or physical, thus working +on him, no one who had known him before could for a moment doubt. But +while Mrs. Temple and I readily admitted this much, we were entirely +unable even to form a conjecture as to its nature. It is true that +Mrs. Temple's fancy suggested that Constance had some rival in his +affections; but we rejected such a theory almost before it was proposed, +feeling that it was inherently improbable, and that, had it been true, +we could not have remained entirely unaware of the circumstances which +had conduced to such a state of things. It was this inexplicable nature +of my brother's affliction that added immeasurably to our grief. If we +could only have ascertained its cause we might have combated it; but +as it was, we were fighting in the dark, as against some enemy who was +assaulting us from an obscurity so thick that we could not see his form. +Of any mental trouble we thus knew nothing, nor could we say that my +brother was suffering from any definite physical ailment, except that +he was certainly growing thinner. + +Your birth, my dear Edward, followed very shortly. Your poor mother +rallied in an unusually short time, and was filled with rapture at the +new treasure which was thus given as a solace to her afflictions. Your +father exhibited little interest at the event, though he sat nearly half +an hour with her one evening, and allowed her even to stroke his hair +and caress him as in time long past. Although it was now the height of +summer he seldom left the house, sitting much and sleeping in his own +room, where he had a field-bed provided for him, and continually +devoting himself to the violin. + +One evening near the end of July we were sitting after dinner in the +drawing-room at Royston, having the French windows looking on to the +lawn open, as the air was still oppressively warm. Though things were +proceeding as indifferently as before, we were perhaps less cast down +than usual, for John had taken his dinner with us that evening. This was +a circumstance now, alas! sufficiently uncommon, for he had nearly all +his meals served for him in his own rooms. Constance, who was once more +downstairs, sat playing at the pianoforte, performing chiefly melodies +by Scarlatti or Bach, of which old-fashioned music she knew her husband +to be most fond. A later fashion, as you know, has revived the +cultivation of these composers, but at the time of which I write their +works were much less commonly known. Though she was more than a passable +musician, he would not allow her to accompany him; indeed he never now +performed at all on the violin before us, reserving his practice +entirely for his own chamber. There was a pause in the music while +coffee was served. My brother had been sitting in an easy-chair apart +reading some classical work during his wife's performance, and taking +little notice of us. But after a while he put down his book and said, +"Constance, if you will accompany me, I will get my violin and play a +little while." I cannot say how much his words astonished us. It was +so simple a matter for him to say, and yet it filled us all with an +unspeakable joy. We concealed our emotion till he had left the room to +get his instrument, then Constance showed how deeply she was gratified +by kissing first her mother and then me, squeezing my hand but saying +nothing. In a minute he returned, bringing his violin and a music-book. +By the soiled vellum cover and the shape I perceived instantly that it +was the book containing the "Areopagita." I had not seen it for near +two years, and was not even aware that it was in the house, but I +knew at once that he intended to play that suite. I entertained an +unreasoning but profound aversion to its melodies, but at that moment +I would have welcomed warmly that or any other music, so that he would +only choose once more to show some thought for his neglected wife. He +put the book open at the "Areopagita" on the desk of the pianoforte, +and asked her to play it with him. She had never seen the music before, +though I believe she was not unacquainted with the melody, as she had +heard him playing it by himself, and once heard, it was not easily +forgotten. + +They began the "Areopagita" suite, and at first all went well. The +tone of the violin, and also, I may say with no undue partiality, +my brother's performance, were so marvellously fine that though our +thoughts were elsewhere when, the music commenced, in a few seconds they +were wholly engrossed in the melody, and we sat spellbound. It was as +if the violin had become suddenly endowed with life, and was singing +to us in a mystical language more deep and awful than any human words. +Constance was comparatively unused to the figuring of the _basso +continuo_, and found some trouble in reading it accurately, especially +in manuscript; but she was able to mask any difficulty she may have had +until she came to the _Gagliarda_. Here she confessed to me her thoughts +seemed against her will to wander, and her attention became too deeply +riveted on her husband's performance to allow her to watch her own. +She made first one slight fault, and then growing nervous, another, and +another. Suddenly John stopped and said brusquely, "Let Sophy play, +I cannot keep time with you." Poor Constance! The tears came swiftly +to my own eyes when I heard him speak so thoughtlessly to her, and I was +almost provoked to rebuke him openly. She was still weak from her recent +illness; her nerves were excited by the unusual pleasure she felt in +playing once more with her husband, and this sudden shattering of her +hopes of a renewed tenderness proved more than she could bear: she put +her head between her hands upon the keyboard and broke into a paroxysm +of tears. + +We both ran to her; but while we were attempting to assuage her grief, +John shut his violin into its case, took the music-book under his arm, +and left the room without saying a word to any of us, not even to the +weeping girl, whose sobs seemed as though they would break her heart. + +We got her put to bed at once, but it was some hours before her +convulsive sobbing ceased. Mrs. Temple had administered to her a +soothing draught of proved efficacy, and after sitting with her till +after one o'clock, I left her at last dozing off to sleep, and myself +sought repose. I was quite wearied out with the weight of my anxiety, +and with the crushing bitterness of seeing my dearest Constance's +feelings so wounded. Yet in spite, or rather perhaps on account of my +trouble, my head had scarcely touched my pillow ere I fell into a deep +sleep. + +A room in the south wing had been converted for the nonce into a +nursery, and for the convenience of being near her infant Constance now +slept in a room adjoining. As this portion of the house was somewhat +isolated, Mrs. Temple had suggested that I should keep her daughter +company, and occupy a room in the same passage, only removed a few +doors, and this I had accordingly done. I was aroused from my sleep that +night by some one knocking gently on the door of my bedroom; but it was +some seconds before my thoughts became sufficiently awake to allow me to +remember where I was. There was some moonlight, but I lighted a candle, +and looking at my watch saw that it was two o'clock. I concluded that +either Constance or her baby was unwell, and that the nurse needed my +assistance. So I left my bed, and moving to the door, asked softly who +was there. It was, to my surprise, the voice of Constance that replied, +"O Sophy, let me in." + +In a second I had opened the door, and found my poor sister wearing only +her night-dress, and standing in the moonlight before me. + +She looked frightened and unusually pale in her white dress and with the +cold gleam of the moon upon her. At first I thought she was walking in +her sleep, and perhaps rehearsing again in her dreams the troubles which +dogged her waking footsteps. I took her gently by the arm, saying, +"Dearest Constance, come back at once to bed; you will take cold." + +She was not asleep, however, but made a motion of silence, and said in +a terrified whisper, "Hush; do you hear nothing?" There was something +so vague and yet so mysterious in the question and in her evident +perturbation that I was infected too by her alarm. I felt myself shiver, +as I strained my ear to catch if possible the slightest sound. But a +complete silence pervaded everything: I could hear nothing. + +"Can you hear it?" she said again. All sorts of images of ill presented +themselves to my imagination: I thought the baby must be ill with croup, +and that she was listening for some stertorous breath of anguish; and +then the dread came over me that perhaps her sorrows had been too much +for her, and that reason had left her seat. At that thought the marrow +froze in my bones. + +"Hush," she said again; and just at that moment, as I strained my ears, +I thought I caught upon the sleeping air a distant and very faint +murmur. + +"Oh, what is it, Constance?" I said. "You will drive me mad;" and while +I spoke the murmur seemed to resolve itself into the vibration, felt +almost rather than heard, of some distant musical instrument. I stepped +past her into the passage. All was deadly still, but I could perceive +that music was being played somewhere far away; and almost at the same +minute my ears recognised faintly but unmistakably the _Gagliarda_ of +the "Areopagita." + +I have already mentioned that for some reason which I can scarcely +explain, this melody was very repugnant to me. It seemed associated in +some strange and intimate way with my brother's indisposition and moral +decline. Almost at the moment that I had heard it first two years ago, +peace seemed to have risen up and left our house, gathering her skirts +about her, as we read that the angels left the Temple at the siege of +Jerusalem. And now it was even more detestable to my ears, recalling as +it did too vividly the cruel events of the preceding evening. + +"John must be sitting up playing," I said. + +"Yes," she answered; "but why is he in this part of the house, and why +does he always play _that_ tune?" + +It was if some irresistible attraction drew us towards the music. +Constance took my hand in hers and we moved together slowly down the +passage. The wind had risen, and though there was a bright moon, her +beams were constantly eclipsed by driving clouds. Still there was light +enough to guide us, and I extinguished the candle. As we reached the end +of the passage the air of the _Gagliarda_ grew more and more distinct. + +Our passage opened on to a broad landing with a balustrade, and from one +side of it ran out the picture-gallery which you know. + +I looked at Constance significantly. It was evident that John was +playing in this gallery. We crossed the landing, treading carefully and +making no noise with our naked feet, for both of us had been too excited +even to think of putting on shoes. + +We could now see the whole length of the gallery. My poor brother sat in +the oriel window of which I have before spoken. He was sitting so as to +face the picture of Adrian Temple, and the great windows of the oriel +flung a strong light on him. At times a cloud hid the moon, and all was +plunged in darkness; but in a moment the cold light fell full on him, +and we could trace every feature as in a picture. He had evidently not +been to bed, for he was fully dressed, exactly as he had left us in the +drawing-room five hours earlier when Constance was weeping over his +thoughtless words. He was playing the violin, playing with a passion and +reckless energy which I had never seen, and hope never to see again. +Perhaps he remembered that this spot was far removed from the rest +of the house, or perhaps he was careless whether any were awake and +listening to him or not; but it seemed to me that he was playing with +a sonorous strength greater than I had thought possible for a single +violin. There came from his instrument such a volume and torrent of +melody as to fill the gallery so full, as it were, of sound that it +throbbed and vibrated again. He kept his eyes fixed on something at the +opposite side of the gallery; we could not indeed see on what, but I +have no doubt at all that it was the portrait of Adrian Temple. His gaze +was eager and expectant, as though he were waiting for something to +occur which did not. + +I knew that he had been growing thin of late, but this was the first +time I had realised how sunk were the hollows of his eyes and how +haggard his features had become. It may have been some effect of +moonlight which I do not well understand, but his fine-cut face, once so +handsome, looked on this night worn and thin like that of an old man. +He never for a moment ceased playing. It was always one same dreadful +melody, the _Gagliarda_ of the "Areopagita," and he repeated it time +after time with the perseverance and apparent aimlessness of an +automaton. + +He did not see us, and we made no sign, standing afar off in silent +horror at that nocturnal sight. Constance clutched me by the arm: she +was so pale that I perceived it even in the moonlight. "Sophy," she +said, "he is sitting in the same place as on the first night when he +told me how he loved me." I could answer nothing, my voice was frozen +in me. I could only stare at my brother's poor withered face, realising +then for the first time that he must be mad, and that it was the +haunting of the _Gagliarda_ that had made him so. + +We stood there I believe for half an hour without speech or motion, and +all the time that sad figure at the end of the gallery continued its +performance. Suddenly he stopped, and an expression of frantic despair +came over his face as he laid down the violin and buried his head in his +hands. I could bear it no longer. "Constance," I said, "come back to +bed. We can do nothing," So we turned and crept away silently as we had +come. Only as we crossed the landing Constance stopped, and looked back +for a minute with a heart-broken yearning at the man she loved. He had +taken his hands from his head, and she saw the profile of his face clear +cut and hard in the white moonlight. + +It was the last time her eyes ever looked upon it. + +She made for a moment as if she would turn back and go to him, but her +courage failed her, and we went on. Before we reached her room we heard +in the distance, faintly but distinctly, the burden of the _Gagliarda_. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + + +The next morning, my maid brought me a hurried note written in pencil by +my brother. It contained only a few lines, saying that he found that his +continued sojourn at Royston was not beneficial to his health, and had +determined to return to Italy. If we wished to write, letters would +reach him at the Villa de Angelis: his valet Parnham was to follow him +thither with his baggage as soon as it could be got together. This was +all; there was no word of adieu even to his wife. + +We found that he had never gone to bed that night. But in the early +morning he had himself saddled his horse _Sentinel_ and ridden in to +Derby, taking the early mail thence to London. His resolve to leave +Royston had apparently been arrived at very suddenly, for so far as we +could discover, he had carried no luggage of any kind. I could not help +looking somewhat carefully round his room to see if he had taken the +Stradivarius violin. No trace of it or even of its case was to be seen, +though it was difficult to imagine how he could have carried it with him +on horseback. There was, indeed, a locked travelling-trunk which Parnham +was to bring with him later, and the instrument might, of course, have +been in that; but I felt convinced that he had actually taken it with +him in some way or other, and this proved afterwards to have been the +case. + +I shall draw a veil, my dear Edward, over the events which immediately +followed your father's departure. Even at this distance of time the +memory is too inexpressibly bitter to allow me to do more than briefly +allude to them. + +A fortnight after John's departure, we left Royston and removed to +Worth, wishing to get some sea-air, and to enjoy the late summer of the +south coast. Your mother seemed entirely to have recovered from her +confinement, and to be enjoying as good health as could be reasonably +expected under the circumstances of her husband's indisposition. But +suddenly one of those insidious maladies which are incidental to women +in her condition seized upon her. We had hoped and believed that all +such period of danger was already happily past; but, alas! it was not +so, and within a few hours of her first seizure all realised how serious +was her case. Everything that human skill can do under such conditions +was done, but without avail. Symptoms of blood-poisoning showed +themselves, accompanied with high fever, and within a week she was in +her coffin. + +Though her delirium was terrible to watch, yet I thank God to this +day, that if she was to die, it pleased Him to take her while in an +unconscious condition. For two days before her death she recognised +no one, and was thus spared at least the sadness of passing from life +without one word of kindness or even of reconciliation from her unhappy +husband. + +The communication with a place so distant as Naples was not then to be +made under fifteen or twenty days, and all was over before we could hope +that the intelligence even of his wife's illness had reached John. Both +Mrs. Temple and I remained at Worth in a state of complete prostration, +awaiting his return. When more than a month had passed without his +arrival, or even a letter to say that he was on his way, our anxiety +took a new turn, as we feared that some accident had befallen him, or +that the news of his wife's death, which would then be in his hands, +had so seriously affected him as to render him incapable of taking any +action. To repeated subsequent communications we received no answer; +but at last, to a letter which I wrote to Parnham, the servant replied, +stating that his master was still at the Villa de Angelis, and in a +condition of health little differing from that in which he left Royston, +except that he was now slightly paler if possible and thinner. It was +not till the end of November that any word came from him, and then he +wrote only one page of a sheet of note-paper to me in pencil, making no +reference whatever to his wife's death, but saying that he should not +return for Christmas, and instructing me to draw on his bankers for any +moneys that I might require for household purposes at Worth. + +I need not tell you the effect that such conduct produced on Mrs. +Temple and myself; you can easily imagine what would have been your own +feelings in such a case. Nor will I relate any other circumstances which +occurred at this period, as they would have no direct bearing upon my +narrative. Though I still wrote to my brother at frequent intervals, as +not wishing to neglect a duty, no word from him ever came in reply. + +About the end of March, indeed, Parnham returned to Worth Maltravers, +saying that his master had paid him a half-year's wages in advance, +and then dispensed with his services. He had always been an excellent +servant, and attached to the family, and I was glad to be able to offer +him a suitable position with us at Worth until his master should return. +He brought disquieting reports of John's health, saying that he was +growing visibly weaker. Though I was sorely tempted to ask him many +questions as to his master's habits and way of life, my pride forbade me +to do so. But I heard incidentally from my maid that Parnham had told +her Sir John was spending money freely in alterations at the Villa de +Angelis, and had engaged Italians to attend him, with which his English +valet was naturally much dissatisfied. + +So the spring passed and the summer was well advanced. + +On the last morning of July I found waiting for me on the +breakfast-table an envelope addressed in my brother's hand. I opened +it hastily. It only contained a few words, which I have before me as I +write now. The ink is a little faded and yellow, but the impression it +made is yet vivid as on that summer morning. + + "MY DEAREST SOPHY," it began,--"Come to me here at once, if possible, + or it may be too late. I want to see you. They say that I am ill, and + too weak to travel to England. + + "Your loving brother, + + "JOHN." + + +There was a great change in the style, from the cold and conventional +notes that he had hitherto sent at such long intervals; from the stiff +"Dear Sophia" and "Sincerely yours" to which, I grieve to say, I had +grown accustomed. Even the writing itself was altered. It was more the +bold boyish hand he wrote when first he went to Oxford, than the smaller +cramped and classic character of his later years. Though it was a little +matter enough, God knows, in comparison with his grievous conduct, yet +it touched me much that he should use again the once familiar "Dearest +Sophy," and sign himself "my loving brother." I felt my heart go out +towards him; and so strong is woman's affection for her own kin, that I +had already forgotten any resentment and reprobation in my great pity +for the poor wanderer, lying sick perhaps unto death and alone in a +foreign land. + +I took his note at once to Mrs. Temple. She read it twice or thrice, +trying to take in the meaning of it. Then she drew me to her and, +kissing me, said, "Go to him at once, Sophy. Bring him back to Worth; +try to bring him back to the right way." + +I ordered my things to be packed, determining to drive to Southampton +and take train thence to London; and at the same time Mrs. Temple gave +instructions that all should be prepared for her own return to Royston +within a few days. I knew she did not dare to see John after her +daughter's death. + +I took my maid with me, and Parnham to act as courier. At London we +hired a carriage for the whole journey, and from Calais posted direct to +Naples. We took the short route by Marseilles and Genoa, and travelled +for seventeen days without intermission, as my brother's note made me +desirous of losing no time on the way. I had never been in Italy before; +but my anxiety was such that my mind was unable to appreciate either +the beauty of the scenery or the incidents of travel. I can, in fact, +remember nothing of our journey now, except the wearisome and +interminable jolting over bad roads and the insufferable heat. It was +the middle of August in an exceptionally warm summer, and after passing +Genoa the heat became almost tropical. There was no relief even at +night, for the warm air hung stagnant and suffocating, and the inside of +my travelling coach was often like a furnace. + +We were at last approaching the conclusion of our journey, and had left +Rome behind us. The day that we set out from Aversa was the hottest that +I have ever felt, the sun beating down with an astonishing power even +in the early hours, and the road being thick with a white and blinding +dust. It was soon after midnight that our carriage began rattling over +the great stone blocks with which the streets of Naples are paved. The +suburbs that we at first passed through were, I remember, in darkness +and perfect quiet; but after traversing the heart of the city and +reaching the western side, we suddenly found ourselves in the midst +of an enormous and very dense crowd. There were lanterns everywhere, +and interminable lanes of booths, whose proprietors were praising +their wares with loud shouts; and here acrobats, jugglers, minstrels, +black-vested priests, and blue-coated soldiers mingled with a vast crowd +whose numbers at once arrested the progress of the carriage. Though it +was so late of a Sunday night, all seemed here awake and busy as at +noonday. Oil-lamps with reeking fumes of black smoke flung a glare over +the scene, and the discordant cries and chattering conversation united +in so deafening a noise as to make me turn faint and giddy, wearied as I +already was with long travelling. Though I felt that intense eagerness +and expectation which the approaching termination of a tedious journey +inspires, and was desirous of pushing forward with all imaginable +despatch, yet here our course was sadly delayed. The horses could only +proceed at the slowest of foot-paces, and we were constantly brought +to a complete stop for some minutes before the post-boy could force +a passage through the unwilling crowd. This produced a feeling of +irritation, and despair of ever reaching my destination; and the mirth +and careless hilarity of the people round us chafed with bitter contrast +on my depressed spirits. I inquired from the post-boy what was the +origin of so great a commotion, and understood him to say in reply that +it was a religious festival held annually in honour of "Our Lady of +the Grotto." I cannot, however, conceive of any truly religious person +countenancing such a gathering, which seemed to me rather like the +unclean orgies of a heathen deity than an act of faith of Christian +people. This disturbance occasioned us so serious a delay, that as we +were climbing the steep slope leading up to Posilipo it was already +three in the morning and the dawn was at hand. + +After mounting steadily for a long time we began to rapidly descend, and +just as the sun came up over the sea we arrived at the Villa de Angelis. +I sprang from the carriage, and passing through a trellis of vines, +reached the house. A man-servant was in waiting, and held the door open +for me; but he was an Italian, and did not understand me when I asked +in English where Sir John Maltravers was. He had evidently, however, +received instructions to take me at once to my brother, and led the way +to an inner part of the house. As we proceeded I heard the sound of a +rich alto voice singing very sweetly to a mandoline some soothing or +religious melody. The servant pulled aside a heavy curtain and I found +myself in my brother's room. An Italian youth sat on a stool near the +door, and it was he who had been singing. At a few words from John, +addressed to him in his own language, he set down his mandoline and left +the room, pulling to the curtain and shutting a door behind it. + +The room looked directly on to the sea: the villa was, in fact, built +upon rocks at the foot of which the waves lapped. Through two folding +windows which opened on to a balcony the early light of the summer +morning streamed in with a rosy flush. My brother sat on a low couch +or sofa, propped up against a heap of pillows, with a rug of brilliant +colours flung across his feet and legs. He held out his arms to me, and +I ran to him; but even in so brief an interval I had perceived that he +was terribly weak and wasted. + +All my memories of his past faults had vanished and were dead in that +sad aspect of his worn features, and in the conviction which I felt, +even from the first moment, that he had but little time longer to remain +with us. I knelt by him on the floor, and with my arms round his neck, +embraced him tenderly, not finding any place for words, but only sobbing +in great anguish. Neither of us spoke, and my weariness from long travel +and the strangeness of the situation caused me to feel that paralysing +sensation of doubt as to the reality of the scene, and even of my own +existence, which all, I believe, have experienced at times of severe +mental tension. That I, a plain English girl, should be kneeling here +beside my brother in the Italian dawn; that I should read, as I +believed, on his young face the unmistakable image and superscription +of death; and reflect that within so few months he had married, had +wrecked his home, that my poor Constance was no more;--these things +seemed so unrealisable that for a minute I felt that it must all be a +nightmare, that I should immediately wake with the fresh salt air of +the Channel blowing through my bedroom window at Worth, and find I had +been dreaming. But it was not so; the light of day grew stronger and +brighter, and even in my sorrow the panorama of the most beautiful spot +on earth, the Bay of Naples, with Vesuvius lying on the far side, as +seen then from these windows, stamped itself for ever on my mind. It was +unreal as a scene in some brilliant dramatic spectacle, but, alas! no +unreality was here. The flames of the candles in their silver sconces +waxed paler and paler, the lines and shadows on my brother's face grew +darker, and the pallor of his wasted features showed more striking in +the bright rays of the morning sun. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + + +I had spent near a week at the Villa de Angelis. John's manner to me +was most tender and affectionate; but he showed no wish to refer to the +tragedy of his wife's death and the sad events which had preceded it, or +to attempt to explain in any way his own conduct in the past. Nor did +I ever lead the conversation to these topics; for I felt that even if +there were no other reason, his great weakness rendered it inadvisable +to introduce such subjects at present, or even to lead him to speak at +all more than was actually necessary. I was content to minister to him +in quiet, and infinitely happy in his restored affection. He seemed +desirous of banishing from his mind all thoughts of the last few months, +but spoke much of the years before he had gone to Oxford, and of happy +days which we had spent together in our childhood at Worth Maltravers. +His weakness was extreme, but he complained of no particular malady +except a short cough which troubled him at night. + +I had spoken to him of his health, for I could see that his state was +such as to inspire anxiety, and begged that he would allow me to see if +there was an English doctor at Naples who could visit him. This he would +not assent to, saying that he was quite content with the care of an +Italian doctor who visited him almost daily, and that he hoped to be +able, under my escort, to return within a very short time to England. + +"I shall never be much better, dear Sophy," he said one day. "The doctor +tells me that I am suffering from some sort of consumption, and that I +must not expect to live long. Yet I yearn to see Worth once more, and to +feel again the west winds blowing in the evening across from Portland, +and smell the thyme on the Dorset downs. In a few days I hope perhaps to +be a little stronger, and I then wish to show you a discovery which I +have made in Naples. After that you may order them to harness the +horses, and carry me back to Worth Maltravers." + +I endeavoured to ascertain from Signor Baravelli, the doctor, something +as to the actual state of his patient; but my knowledge of Italian was +so slight that I could neither make him understand what I would be at, +nor comprehend in turn what he replied, so that this attempt was +relinquished. From my brother himself I gathered that he had begun to +feel his health much impaired as far back as the early spring, but +though his strength had since then gradually failed him, he had not been +confined to the house until a month past. He spent the day and often +the night reclining on his sofa and speaking little. He had apparently +lost the taste for the violin which had once absorbed so much of his +attention; indeed I think the bodily strength necessary for its +performance had probably now failed him. The Stradivarius instrument +lay near his couch in its case; but I only saw the latter open on one +occasion, I think, and was deeply thankful that John no longer took +the same delight as heretofore in the practice of this art,--not only +because the mere sound of his violin was now fraught to me with such +bitter memories, but also because I felt sure that its performance had +in some way which I could not explain a deleterious effect upon himself. +He exhibited that absence of vitality which is so often noticeable in +those who have not long to live, and on some days lay in a state of +semi-lethargy from which it was difficult to rouse him. But at other +times he suffered from a distressing restlessness which forbade him to +sit still even for a few minutes, and which was more painful to watch +than his lethargic stupor. The Italian boy, of whom I have already +spoken, exhibited an untiring devotion to his master which won my heart. +His name was Raffaelle Carotenuto, and he often sang to us in the +evening, accompanying himself on the mandoline. At nights, too, when +John could not sleep, Raffaelle would read for hours till at last +his master dozed off. He was well educated, and though I could not +understand the subject he read, I often sat by and listened, being +charmed with his evident attachment to my brother and with the melodious +intonation of a sweet voice. + +My brother was nervous apparently in some respects, and would never be +left alone even for a few minutes; but in the intervals while Raffaelle +was with him I had ample opportunity to examine and appreciate the +beauties of the Villa de Angelis. It was built, as I have said, on some +rocks jutting into the sea, just before coming to the Capo di Posilipo +as you proceed from Naples. The earlier foundations were, I believe, +originally Roman, and upon them a modern villa had been constructed +in the eighteenth century, and to this again John had made important +additions in the past two years. Looking down upon the sea from the +windows of the villa, one could on calm days easily discern the remains +of Roman piers and moles lying below the surface of the transparent +water; and the tufa-rock on which the house was built was burrowed with +those unintelligible excavations of a classic date so common in the +neighbourhood. These subterraneous rooms and passages, while they +aroused my curiosity, seemed at the same time so gloomy and repellent +that I never explored them. But on one sunny morning, as I walked at +the foot of the rocks by the sea, I ventured into one of the larger of +these chambers, and saw that it had at the far end an opening leading +apparently to an inner room. I had walking with me an old Italian female +servant who took a motherly interest in my proceedings, and who, relying +principally upon a very slight knowledge of English, had constituted +herself my body-guard. Encouraged by her presence, I penetrated this +inner room and found that it again opened in turn into another, and so +on until we had passed through no less than four chambers. + +They were all lighted after a fashion through vent-holes which somewhere +or other reached the outer air, but the fourth room opened into a fifth +which was unlighted. My companion, who had been showing signs of alarm +and an evident reluctance to proceed further, now stopped abruptly and +begged me to return. It may have been that her fear communicated itself +to me also, for on attempting to cross the threshold and explore the +darkness of the fifth cell, I was seized by an unreasoning panic and by +the feeling of undefined horror experienced in a nightmare. I hesitated +for an instant, but my fear became suddenly more intense, and springing +back, I followed my companion, who had set out to run back to the outer +air. We never paused until we stood panting in the full sunlight by the +sea. As soon as the maid had found her breath, she begged me never to go +there again, explaining in broken English that the caves were known in +the neighbourhood as the "Cells of Isis," and were reputed to be haunted +by demons. This episode, trifling as it may appear, had so great an +effect upon me that I never again ventured on to the lower walk which +ran at the foot of the rocks by the sea. + +In the house above, my brother had built a large hall after the ancient +Roman style, and this, with a dining-room and many other chambers, were +decorated in the fashion of those discovered at Pompeii. They had been +furnished with the utmost luxury, and the beauty of the paintings, +furniture, carpets, and hangings was enhanced by statues in bronze and +marble. The villa, indeed, and its fittings were of a kind to which +I was little used, and at the same time of such beauty that I never +ceased to regard all as a creation of an enchanter's wand, or as the +drop-scene to some drama which might suddenly be raised and disappear +from my sight. The house, in short, together with its furniture, was, +I believe, intended to be a reproduction of an ancient Roman villa, +and had something about it repellent to my rustic and insular ideas. +In the contemplation of its perfection I experienced a curious mental +sensation, which I can only compare to the physical oppression produced +on some persons by the heavy and cloying perfume of a bouquet of +gardenias or other too highly scented exotics. + +In my brother's room was a medieval reproduction in mellow alabaster of +a classic group of a dolphin encircling a Cupid. It was, I think, the +fairest work of art I ever saw, but it jarred upon my sense of propriety +that close by it should hang an ivory crucifix. I would rather, I think, +have seen all things material and pagan entirely, with every view of +the future life shut out, than have found a medley of things sacred and +profane, where the emblems of our highest hopes and aspirations were +placed in insulting indifference side by side with the embodied forms of +sensuality. Here, in this scene of magical beauty, it seemed to me for +a moment that the years had rolled back, that Christianity had still to +fight with a _living_ Paganism, and that the battle was not yet won. It +was the same all through the house; and there were many other matters +which filled me with regret, mingled with vague and apprehensive +surmises which I shall not here repeat. + +At one end of the house was a small library, but it contained few works +except Latin and Greek classics. I had gone thither one day to look for +a book that John had asked for, when in turning out some drawers I found +a number of letters written from Worth by my lost Constance to her +husband. The shock of being brought suddenly face to face with a +handwriting that evoked memories at once so dear and sad was in itself +a sharp one; but its bitterness was immeasurably increased by the +discovery that not one of these envelopes had ever been opened. While +that dear heart, now at rest, was pouring forth her love and sorrow to +the ears that should have been above all others ready to receive them, +her letters, as they arrived, were flung uncared for, unread, even +unopened, into any haphazard receptacle. + +The days passed one by one at the Villa de Angelis with but little +incident, nor did my brother's health either visibly improve or decline. +Though the weather was still more than usually warm, a grateful breeze +came morning and evening from the sea and tempered the heat so much as +to render it always supportable. John would sometimes in the evening sit +propped up with cushions on the trellised balcony looking towards Baia, +and watch the fishermen setting their nets. We could hear the melody +of their deep-voiced songs carried up on the night air. "It was here, +Sophy," my brother said, as we sat one evening looking on a scene like +this,--"It was here that the great epicure Pollio built himself a famous +house, and called it by two Greek words meaning a 'truce to care,' from +which our name of Posilipo is derived. It was his _sans-souci_, and here +he cast aside his vexations; but they were lighter than mine. Posilipo +has brought no cessation of care to me. I do not think I shall find any +truce this side the grave; and beyond, who knows?" + +This was the first time John had spoken in this strain, and he seemed +stirred to an unusual activity, as though his own words had suddenly +reminded him how frail was his state. He called Raffaelle to him and +despatched him on an errand to Naples. The next morning he sent for me +earlier than usual, and begged that a carriage might be ready by six in +the evening, as he desired to drive into the city. I tried at first to +dissuade him from his project, urging him to consider his weak state of +health. He replied that he felt somewhat stronger, and had something +that he particularly wished me to see in Naples. This done, it would be +better to return at once to England: he could, he thought, bear the +journey if we travelled by very short stages. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + + +Shortly after six o'clock in the evening we left the Villa de Angelis. +The day had been as usual cloudlessly serene; but a gentle sea-breeze, +of which I have spoken, rose in the afternoon and brought with it a +refreshing coolness. We had arranged a sort of couch in the landau with +many cushions for my brother, and he mounted into the carriage with more +ease than I had expected. I sat beside him, with Raffaelle facing me +on the opposite seat. We drove down the hill of Posilipo through the +ilex-trees and tamarisk-bushes that then skirted the sea, and so into +the town. John spoke little except to remark that the carriage was an +easy one. As we were passing through one of the principal streets he +bent over to me and said, "You must not be alarmed if I show you to-day +a strange sight. Some women might perhaps be frightened at what we are +going to see; but my poor sister has known already so much of trouble +that a light thing like this will not affect her." In spite of his +encomiums upon my supposed courage, I felt alarmed and agitated by his +words. There was a vagueness in them which frightened me, and bred that +indefinite apprehension which is often infinitely more terrifying than +the actual object which inspires it. To my inquiries he would give no +further response than to say that he had whilst at Posilipo made some +investigations in Naples leading to a strange discovery, which he was +anxious to communicate to me. After traversing a considerable distance, +we had penetrated apparently into the heart of the town. The streets +grew narrower and more densely thronged; the houses were more dirty and +tumbledown, and the appearance of the people themselves suggested that +we had reached some of the lower quarters of the city. Here we passed +through a further network of small streets of the name of which I took +no note, and found ourselves at last in a very dark and narrow lane +called the _Via del Giardino_. Although my brother had, so far as I had +observed, given no orders to the coachman, the latter seemed to have +no difficulty in finding his way, driving rapidly in the Neapolitan +fashion, and proceeding direct as to a place with which he was already +familiar. + +In the Via del Giardino the houses were of great height, and overhung +the street so as nearly to touch one another. It seemed that this +quarter had been formerly inhabited, if not by the aristocracy, at least +by a class very much superior to that which now lived there; and many +of the houses were large and dignified, though long since parcelled +out into smaller tenements. It was before such a house that we at last +brought up. Here must have been at one time a house or palace of some +person of distinction, having a long and fine façade adorned with +delicate pilasters, and much florid ornamentation of the Renaissance +period. The ground-floor was divided into a series of small shops, and +its upper storeys were evidently peopled by sordid families of the +lowest class. Before one of these little shops, now closed and having +its windows carefully blocked with boards, our carriage stopped. +Raffaelle alighted, and taking a key from his pocket unlocked the door, +and assisted John to leave the carriage. I followed, and directly we had +crossed the threshold, the boy locked the door behind us, and I heard +the carriage drive away. + +We found ourselves in a narrow and dark passage, and as soon as my eyes +grew accustomed to the gloom I perceived there was at the end of it a +low staircase leading to some upper room, and on the right a door which +opened into the closed shop. My brother moved slowly along the passage, +and began to ascend the stairs. He leant with one hand on Raffaelle's +arm, taking hold of the balusters with the other. But I could see +that to mount the stairs cost him considerable effort, and he paused +frequently to cough and get his breath again. So we reached a landing +at the top, and found ourselves in a small chamber or magazine directly +over the shop. It was quite empty except for a few broken chairs, and +appeared to be a small loft formed by dividing what had once been a +high room into two storeys, of which the shop formed the lower. A long +window, which had no doubt once formed one of several in the walls of +this large room, was now divided across its width by the flooring, and +with its upper part served to light the loft, while its lower panes +opened into the shop. The ceiling was, in consequence of these +alterations, comparatively low, but though much mutilated, retained +evident traces of having been at one time richly decorated, with the +raised mouldings and pendants common in the sixteenth century. At one +end of the loft was a species of coved and elaborately carved dado, of +which the former use was not obvious; but the large original room had +without doubt been divided in length as well as in height, as the +lath-and-plaster walls at either end of the loft had evidently been no +part of the ancient structure. + +My brother sat down in one of the old chairs, and seemed to be +collecting his strength before speaking. My anxiety was momentarily +increasing, and it was a great relief when he began, talking in a low +voice as one that had much to say and wished to husband his strength. + +"I do not know whether you will recollect my having told you of +something Mr. Gaskell once said about the music of Graziani's +'Areopagita' suite. It had always, he used to say, a curious effect upon +his imagination, and the melody of the _Gagliarda_ especially called up +to his thoughts in some strange way a picture of a certain hall where +people were dancing. He even went so far as to describe the general +appearance of the room itself, and of the persons who were dancing +there." + +"Yes," I answered, "I remember your telling me of this;" and indeed my +memory had in times past so often rehearsed Mr. Gaskell's description +that, although I had not recently thought of it, its chief features +immediately returned to my mind. + +"He described it," my brother continued, "as a long hall with an arcade +of arches running down one side, of the fantastic Gothic of the +Renaissance. At the end was a gallery or balcony for the musicians, +which on its front carried a coat of arms." + +I remembered this perfectly and told John so, adding that the shield +bore a cherub's head fanning three lilies on a golden field. + +"It is strange," John went on, "that the description of a scene which +our friend thought a mere effort of his own imagination has impressed +itself so deeply on both our minds. But the picture which he drew was +more than a fancy, for we are at this minute in the very hall of his +dream." + +I could not gather what my brother meant, and thought his reason was +failing him; but he continued, "This miserable floor on which we stand +has of course been afterwards built in; but you see above you the old +ceiling, and here at the end was the musicians' gallery with the shield +upon its front." + +He pointed to the carved and whitewashed dado which had hitherto so +puzzled me. I stepped up to it, and although the lath-and-plaster +partition wall was now built around it, it was clear that its curved +outline might very easily, as John said, have formed part of the front +of a coved gallery. I looked closer at the relief-work which had adorned +it. Though the edges were all rubbed off, and the mouldings in some +cases entirely removed, I could trace without difficulty a shield +in the midst; and a more narrow inspection revealed underneath the +whitewash, which had partly peeled away, enough remnants of colour to +show that it had certainly been once painted gold and borne a cherub's +head with three lilies. + +"That is the shield of the old Neapolitan house of Doma-Cavalli," my +brother continued; "they bore a cherub's head fanning three lilies on a +shield or. It was in the balcony behind this shield, long since blocked +up as you see, that the musicians sat on that ball night of which +Gaskell dreamt. From it they looked down on the hall below where dancing +was going forward, and I will now take you downstairs that you may see +if the description tallies." + +So saying, he raised himself, and descending the stairs with much less +difficulty than he had shown in mounting them, flung open the door +which I had seen in the passage and ushered us into the shop on the +ground-floor. The evening light had now faded so much that we could +scarcely see even in the passage, and the shop having its windows +barricaded with shutters, was in complete darkness. Raffaelle, however, +struck a match and lit three half-burnt candles in a tarnished sconce +upon the wall. + +The shop had evidently been lately in the occupation of a wine-seller, +and there were still several empty wooden wine-butts, and some broken +flasks on shelves. In one corner I noticed that the earth which formed +the floor had been turned up with spades. There was a small heap of +mould, and a large flat stone was thus exposed below the surface. This +stone had an iron ring attached to it, and seemed to cover the aperture +of a well, or perhaps a vault. At the back of the shop, and furthest +from the street, were two lofty arches separated by a column in the +middle, from which the outside casing had been stripped. + +To these arches John pointed and said, "That is a part of the arcade +which once ran down the whole length of the hall. Only these two arches +are now left, and the fine marbles which doubtless coated the outside of +this dividing pillar have been stripped off. On a summer's night about +one hundred years ago dancing was going on in this hall. There were a +dozen couples dancing a wild step such as is never seen now. The tune +that the musicians were playing in the gallery above was taken from the +'Areopagita' suite of Graziani. Gaskell has often told me that when +he played it the music brought with it to his mind a sense of some +impending catastrophe, which culminated at the end of the first movement +of the _Gagliarda_. It was just at that moment, Sophy, that an +Englishman who was dancing here was stabbed in the back and foully +murdered." + +I had scarcely heard all that John had said, and had certainly not been +able to take in its import; but without waiting to hear if I should say +anything, he moved across to the uncovered stone with the ring in it. +Exerting a strength which I should have believed entirely impossible in +his weak condition, he applied to the stone a lever which lay ready at +hand. Raffaelle at the same time seized the ring, and so they were able +between them to move the covering to one side sufficiently to allow +access to a small staircase which thus appeared to view. The stair +was a winding one, and once led no doubt to some vaults below the +ground-floor. Raffaelle descended first, taking in his hand the sconce +of three candles, which he held above his head so as to fling a light +down the steps. John went next, and then I followed, trying to support +my brother if possible with my hand. The stairs were very dry, and +on the walls there was none of the damp or mould which fancy usually +associates with a subterraneous vault. I do not know what it was I +expected to see, but I had an uneasy feeling that I was on the brink of +some evil and distressing discovery. After we had descended about twenty +steps we could see the entry to some vault or underground room, and it +was just at the foot of the stairs that I saw something lying, as the +light from the candles fell on it from above. At first I thought it was +a heap of dust or refuse, but on looking closer it seemed rather a +bundle of rags. As my eyes penetrated the gloom, I saw there was about +it some tattered cloth of a faded green tint, and almost at the same +minute I seemed to trace under the clothes the lines or dimensions of a +human figure. For a moment I imagined it was some poor man lying face +downwards and bent up against the wall. The idea of a man or of a dead +body being there shocked me violently, and I cried to my brother, "Tell +me, what is it?" At that instant the light from. Raffaelle's candles +fell in a somewhat different direction. It lighted up the white bowl +of a human skull, and I saw that what I had taken for a man's form was +instead that of a clothed skeleton. I turned faint and sick for an +instant, and should have fallen had it not been for John, who put his +arm about me and sustained me with an unexpected strength. + +"God help us!" I exclaimed, "let us go. I cannot bear this; there are +foul vapours here; let us get back to the outer air." + +He took me by the arm, and pointing at the huddled heap, said, "Do you +know whose bones those are? That is Adrian Temple. After it was all +over, they flung his body down the steps, dressed in the clothes he +wore." + +At that name, uttered in so ill-omened a place, I felt a fresh access of +terror. It seemed as though the soul of that wicked man must be still +hovering over his unburied remains, and boding evil to us all. A chill +crept over me, the light, the walls, my brother, and Raffaelle all swam +round, and I sank swooning on the stairs. + +When I returned fully to my senses we were in the landau again making +our way back to the Villa de Angelis. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + + +The next morning my health and strength were entirely restored to me, +but my brother, on the contrary, seemed weak and exhausted from his +efforts of the previous night. Our return journey to the Villa de +Angelis had passed in complete silence. I had been too much perturbed +to question him on the many points relating to the strange events as to +which I was still completely in the dark, and he on his side had shown +no desire to afford me any further information. When I saw him the next +morning he exhibited signs of great weakness, and in response to an +effort on my part to obtain some explanation of the discovery of Adrian +Temple's body, avoided an immediate reply, promising to tell me all he +knew after our return to Worth Maltravers. + +I pondered over the last terrifying episode very frequently in my own +mind, and as I thought more deeply of it all, it seemed to me that the +outlines of some evil history were piece by piece developing themselves, +that I had almost within my grasp the clue that would make all plain, +and that had eluded me so long. In that dim story Adrian Temple, the +music of the _Gagliarda_, my brother's fatal passion for the violin, +all seemed to have some mysterious connection, and to have conspired in +working John's mental and physical ruin. Even the Stradivarius violin +bore a part in the tragedy, becoming, as it were, an actively malignant +spirit, though I could not explain how, and was yet entirely unaware of +the manner in which it had come into my brother's possession. + +I found that John was still resolved on an immediate return to England. +His weakness, it is true, led me to entertain doubts as to how he would +support so long a journey; but at the same time I did not feel justified +in using any strong efforts to dissuade him from his purpose. I +reflected that the more wholesome air and associations of England would +certainly re-invigorate both body and mind, and that any extra strain +brought about by the journey would soon be repaired by the comforts and +watchful care with which we could surround him at Worth Maltravers. + +So the first week in October saw us once more with our faces set towards +England. A very comfortable swinging-bed or hammock had been arranged +for John in the travelling carriage, and we determined to avoid fatigue +as much as possible by dividing our journey into very short stages. My +brother seemed to have no intention of giving up the Villa de Angelis. +It was left complete with its luxurious furniture, and with all his +servants, under the care of an Italian _maggior-duomo_. I felt that as +John's state of health forbade his entertaining any hope of an immediate +return thither, it would have been much better to close entirely his +Italian house. But his great weakness made it impossible for him to +undertake the effort such a course would involve, and even if my own +ignorance of the Italian tongue had not stood in the way, I was far too +eager to get my invalid back to Worth to feel inclined to import any +further delay, while I should myself adjust matters which were after all +comparatively trifling. As Parnham was now ready to discharge his usual +duties of valet, and as my brother seemed quite content that he should +do so, Raffaelle was of course to be left behind. The boy had quite won +my heart by his sweet manners, combined with his evident affection to +his master, and in making him understand that he was now to leave us, +I offered him a present of a few pounds as a token of my esteem. He +refused, however, to touch this money, and shed tears when he learnt +that he was to be left in Italy, and begged with many protestations of +devotion that he might be allowed to accompany us to England. My heart +was not proof against his entreaties, supported by so many signs of +attachment, and it was agreed, therefore, that he should at least attend +us as far as Worth Maltravers. John showed no surprise at the boy being +with us; indeed I never thought it necessary to explain that I had +originally purposed to leave him behind. + +Our journey, though necessarily prolonged by the shortness of its +stages, was safely accomplished. John bore it as well as I could have +hoped, and though his body showed no signs of increased vigour, his +mind, I think, improved in tone, at any rate for a time. From the +evening on which he had shown me the terrible discovery in the Via +del Giardino he seemed to have laid aside something of his care and +depression. He now exhibited little trace of the moroseness and +selfishness which had of late so marred his character; and though he +naturally felt severely at times the fatigue of travel, yet we had no +longer to dread any relapse into that state of lethargy or stupor which +had so often baffled every effort to counteract it at Posilipo. Some +feeling of superstitious aversion had prompted me to give orders that +the Stradivarius violin should be left behind at Posilipo. But before +parting my brother asked for it, and insisted that it should be brought +with him, though I had never heard him play a note on it for many weeks. +He took an interest in all the petty episodes of travel, and certainly +appeared to derive more entertainment from the journey than was to have +been anticipated in his feeble state of health. + +To the incidents of the evening spent in the Via del Giardino he made no +allusion of any kind, nor did I for my part wish to renew memories of +so unpleasant a nature. His only reference occurred one Sunday evening +as we were passing a small graveyard near Genoa. The scene apparently +turned his thoughts to that subject, and he told me that he had taken +measures before leaving Naples to ensure that the remains of Adrian +Temple should be decently interred in the cemetery of Santa Bibiana. +His words set me thinking again, and unsatisfied curiosity prompted +me strongly to inquire of him how he had convinced himself that the +skeleton at the foot of the stairs was indeed that of Adrian Temple. But +I restrained myself, partly from a reliance on his promise that he would +one day explain the whole story to me, and partly being very reluctant +to mar the enjoyment of the peaceful scenes through which we were +passing, by the introduction of any subjects so jarring and painful as +those to which I have alluded. + +We reached London at last, and here we stopped a few days to make some +necessary arrangements before going down to Worth Maltravers. I had +urged upon John during the journey that immediately on his arrival in +London he should obtain the best English medical advice as to his own +health. Though he at first demurred, saying that nothing more was to be +done, and that he was perfectly satisfied with the medicine given him by +Dr. Baravelli, which he continued to take, yet by constant entreaty I +prevailed upon him to accede to so reasonable a request. Dr. Frobisher, +considered at that time the first living authority on diseases of the +brain and nerves, saw him on the morning after our arrival. He was good +enough to speak with me at some length after seeing my brother, and to +give me many hints and recipes whereby I might be better enabled to +nurse the invalid. + +Sir John's condition, he said, was such as to excite serious anxiety. +There was, indeed, no brain mischief of any kind to be discovered, but +his lungs were in a state of advanced disease, and there were signs of +grave heart affection. Yet he did not bid me to despair, but said that +with careful nursing life might certainly be prolonged, and even some +measure of health in time restored. He asked me more than once if I knew +of any trouble or worry that preyed upon Sir John's mind. Were there +financial difficulties; had he been subjected to any mental shock; had +he received any severe fright? To all this I could only reply in the +negative. At the same time I told Dr. Frobisher as much of John's +history as I considered pertinent to the question. He shook his head +gravely, and recommended that Sir John should remain for the present in +London, under his own constant supervision. To this course my brother +would by no means consent. He was eager to proceed at once to his own +house, saying that if necessary we could return again to London for +Christmas. It was therefore agreed that we should go down to Worth +Maltravers at the end of the week. + +Parnham had already left us for Worth in order that he might have +everything ready against his master's return, and when we arrived we +found all in perfect order for our reception. A small morning-room next +to the library, with a pleasant south aspect and opening on to the +terrace, had been prepared for my brother's use, so that he might avoid +the fatigue of mounting stairs, which Dr. Frobisher considered very +prejudicial in his present condition. We had also purchased in London a +chair fitted with wheels, which enabled him to be moved, or, if he were +feeling equal to the exertion, to move himself, without difficulty, from +room to room. + +His health, I think, improved; very gradually, it is true, but still +sufficiently to inspire me with hope that he might yet be spared to us. +Of the state of his mind or thoughts I knew little, but I could see that +he was at times a prey to nervous anxiety. This showed itself in the +harassed look which his pale face often wore, and in his marked dislike +to being left alone. He derived, I think, a certain pleasure from the +quietude and monotony of his life at Worth, and perhaps also from the +consciousness that he had about him loving and devoted hearts. I say +hearts, for every servant at Worth was attached to him, remembering the +great consideration and courtesy of his earlier years, and grieving to +see his youthful and once vigorous frame reduced to so sad a strait. +Books he never read himself, and even the charm of Raffaelle's reading +seemed to have lost its power; though he never tired of hearing the boy +sing, and liked to have him sit by his chair even when his eyes were +shut and he was apparently asleep. His general health seemed to me to +change but little either for better or worse. Dr. Frobisher had led me +to expect some such a sequel. I had not concealed from him that I had +at times entertained suspicions as to my brother's sanity; but he had +assured me that they were totally unfounded, that Sir John's brain was +as clear as his own. At the same time he confessed that he could not +account for the exhausted vitality of his patient,--a condition which he +would under ordinary circumstances have attributed to excessive study or +severe trouble. He had urged upon me the pressing necessity for complete +rest, and for much sleep. My brother never even incidentally referred to +his wife, his child, or to Mrs. Temple, who constantly wrote to me from +Royston, sending kind messages to John, and asking how he did. These +messages I never dared to give him, fearing to agitate him, or retard +his recovery by diverting his thoughts into channels which must +necessarily be of a painful character. That he should never even mention +her name, or that of Lady Maltravers, led me to wonder sometimes if one +of those curious freaks of memory which occasionally accompany a severe +illness had not entirely blotted out from his mind the recollection of +his marriage and of his wife's death. He was unable to consider any +affairs of business, and the management of the estate remained as it +had done for the last two years in the hands of our excellent agent, +Mr. Baker. + +But one evening in the early part of December he sent Raffaelle about +nine o'clock, saying he wished to speak to me. I went to his room, and +without any warning he began at once, "You never show me my boy now, +Sophy; he must be grown a big child, and I should like to see him." +Much startled by so unexpected a remark, I replied that the child was +at Royston under the care of Mrs. Temple, but that I knew that if it +pleased him to see Edward she would be glad to bring him down to Worth. +He seemed gratified with this idea, and begged me to ask her to do so, +desiring that his respects should be at the same time conveyed to her. I +almost ventured at that moment to recall his lost wife to his thoughts, +by saying that his child resembled her strongly; for your likeness at +that time, and even now, my dear Edward, to your poor mother was very +marked. But my courage failed me, and his talk soon reverted to an +earlier period, comparing the mildness of the month to that of the first +winter which he spent at Eton. His thoughts, however, must, I fancy, +have returned for a moment to the days when he first met your mother, +for he suddenly asked, "Where is Gaskell? Why does he never come to see +me?" This brought quite a new idea to my mind. I fancied it might do my +brother much good to have by him so sensible and true a friend as I knew +Mr. Gaskell to be. The latter's address had fortunately not slipped from +my memory, and I put all scruples aside and wrote by the next mail to +him, setting forth my brother's sad condition, saying that I had heard +John mention his name, and begging him on my own account to be so good +as to help us if possible and come to us in this hour of trial. Though +he was so far off as Westmorland, Mr. Gaskell's generosity brought +him at once to our aid, and within a week he was installed at Worth +Maltravers, sleeping, in the library, where we had arranged a bed at +his own desire, so that he might be near his sick friend. + +His presence was of the utmost assistance to us all. He treated John +at once with the tenderness of a woman and the firmness of a clever +and strong man. They sat constantly together in the mornings, and Mr. +Gaskell told me John had not shown with him the same reluctance to talk +freely of his married life as he had discovered with me. The tenor of +his communications I cannot guess, nor did I ever ask; but I knew that +Mr. Gaskell was much affected by them. + +John even amused himself now at times by having Mr. Baker into his rooms +of a morning, that the management of the estate might be discussed with +his friend; and he also expressed his wish to see the family solicitor, +as he desired to draw his will. Thinking that any diversion of this +nature could not but be beneficial to him, we sent to Dorchester for our +solicitor, Mr. Jeffreys, who together with his clerk spent three nights +at Worth, and drew up a testament for my brother. + +So time went on, and the year was drawing to a close. + +It was Christmas Eve, and I had gone to bed shortly after twelve +o'clock, having an hour earlier bid good night to John and Mr. Gaskell. +The long habit of watching with, or being in charge of an invalid at +night, had made my ears extraordinarily quick to apprehend even the +slightest murmur. It must have been, I think, near three in the morning +when I found myself awake and conscious of some unusual sound. It was +low and far off, but I knew instantly what it was, and felt a choking +sensation of fear and horror, as if an icy hand had gripped my throat, +on recognising the air of the _Gagliarda_. It was being played on the +violin, and a long way off, but I knew that tune too well to permit of +my having any doubt on the subject. + +Any trouble or fear becomes, as you will some day learn, my dear nephew, +immensely intensified and exaggerated at night. It is so, I suppose, +because our nerves are in an excited condition, and our brain not +sufficiently awake to give a due account of our foolish imaginations. I +have myself many times lain awake wrestling in thought with difficulties +which in the hours of darkness seemed insurmountable, but with the dawn +resolved themselves into merely trivial inconveniences. So on this +night, as I sat up in bed looking into the dark, with the sound of that +melody in my ears, it seemed as if something too terrible for words had +happened; as though the evil spirit, which we had hoped was exorcised, +had returned with others sevenfold more wicked than himself, and taken +up his abode again with my lost brother. The memory of another night +rushed to my mind when Constance had called me from my bed at Royston, +and we had stolen together down the moonlit passages with the lilt of +that wicked music vibrating on the still summer air. Poor Constance! She +was in her grave now; yet _her_ troubles at least were over, but here, +as by some bitter irony, instead of carol or sweet symphony, it was the +_Gagliarda_ that woke me from my sleep on Christmas morning. + +I flung my dressing-gown about me, and hurried through the corridor and +down the stairs which led to the lower storey and my brother's room. +As I opened my bedroom door the violin ceased suddenly in the middle +of a bar. Its last sound was not a musical note, but rather a horrible +scream, such as I pray I may never hear again. It was a sound such as a +wounded beast might utter. There is a picture I have seen of Blake's, +showing the soul of a strong wicked man leaving his body at death. The +spirit is flying out through the window with awful staring eyes, aghast +at the desolation into which it is going. If in the agony of dissolution +such a lost soul could utter a cry, it would, I think, sound like the +wail which I heard from the violin that night. + +Instantly all was in absolute stillness. The passages were silent and +ghostly in the faint light of my candle; but as I reached the bottom +of the stairs I heard the sound of other footsteps, and Mr. Gaskell met +me. He was fully dressed, and had evidently not been to bed. He took me +kindly by the hand and said, "I feared you might be alarmed by the sound +of music. John has been walking in his sleep; he had taken out his +violin and was playing on it in a trance. Just as I reached him +something in it gave way, and the discord caused by the slackened +strings roused him at once. He is awake now and has returned to bed. +Control your alarm for his sake and your own. It is better that he +should not know you have been awakened." + +He pressed my hand and spoke a few more reassuring words, and I went +back to my room still much agitated, and yet feeling half ashamed for +having shown so much anxiety with so little reason. + +That Christmas morning was one of the most beautiful that I ever +remember. It seemed as though summer was so loath to leave our sunny +Dorset coast that she came back on this day to bid us adieu before her +final departure. I had risen early and had partaken of the Sacrament +at our little church. Dr. Butler had recently introduced this early +service, and though any alteration of time-honoured customs in such +matters might not otherwise have met with my approval, I was glad to +avail myself of the privilege on this occasion, as I wished in any case +to spend the later morning with my brother. The singular beauty of the +early hours, and the tranquillising effect of the solemn service brought +back serenity to my mind, and effectually banished from it all memories +of the preceding night. Mr. Gaskell met me in the hall on my return, and +after greeting me kindly with the established compliments of the day, +inquired after my health, and hoped that the disturbance of my slumber +on the previous night had not affected me injuriously. He had good news +for me: John seemed decidedly better, was already dressed, and desired, +as it was Christmas morning, that we would take our breakfast with him +in his room. + +To this, as you may imagine, I readily assented. Our breakfast party +passed off with much content, and even with some quiet humour, John +sitting in his easy-chair at the head of the table and wishing us the +compliments of the season. I found laid in my place a letter from Mrs. +Temple greeting us all (for she knew Mr. Gaskell was at Worth), and +saying that she hoped to bring little Edward to us at the New Year. +My brother seemed much pleased at the prospect of seeing his son, and +though perhaps it was only imagination, I fancied he was particularly +gratified that Mrs. Temple herself was to pay us a visit. She had not +been to Worth since the death of Lady Maltravers. + +Before we had finished breakfast the sun beat on the panes with an +unusual strength and brightness. His rays cheered us all, and it was so +warm that John first opened the windows, and then wheeled his chair on +to the walk outside. Mr. Gaskell brought him a hat and mufflers, and we +sat with him on the terrace basking in the sun. The sea was still and +glassy as a mirror, and the Channel lay stretched before us like a floor +of moving gold. A rose or two still hung against the house, and the +sun's rays reflected from the red sandstone gave us a December morning +more mild and genial than many June days that I have known in the north. +We sat for some minutes without speaking, immersed in our own +reflections and in the exquisite beauty of the scene. + +The stillness was broken by the bells of the parish church ringing for +the morning service. There were two of them, and their sound, familiar +to us from childhood, seemed like the voices of old friends. John looked +at me and said with a sigh, "I should like to go to church. It is long +since I was there. You and I have always been on Christmas mornings, +Sophy, and Constance would have wished it had she been with us." + +His words, so unexpected and tender, filled my eyes with tears; not +tears of grief, but of deep thankfulness to see my loved one turning +once more to the old ways. It was the first time I had heard him speak +of Constance, and that sweet name, with the infinite pathos of her +death, and of the spectacle of my brother's weakness, so overcame me +that I could not speak. I only pressed his hand and nodded. Mr. Gaskell, +who had turned away for a minute, said he thought John would take no +harm in attending the morning service provided the church were warm. +On this point I could reassure him, having found it properly heated +even in the early morning. + +Mr. Gaskell was to push John's chair, and I ran off to put on my cloak, +with my heart full of profound thankfulness for the signs of returning +grace so mercifully vouchsafed to our dear sufferer on this happy day. +I was ready dressed and had just entered the library when Mr. Gaskell +stepped hurriedly through the window from the terrace. "John has +fainted!" he said. "Run for some smelling salts and call Parnham!" + +There was a scene of hurried alarm, giving place ere long to terrified +despair. Parnham mounted a horse and set off at a wild gallop to Swanage +to fetch Dr. Bruton; but an hour before he returned we knew the worst. +My brother was beyond the aid of the physician: his wrecked life had +reached a sudden term! + + * * * * * + +I have now, dear Edward, completed the brief narrative of some of the +facts attending the latter years of your father's life. The motive which +has induced me to commit them to writing has been a double one. I am +anxious to give effect as far as may be to the desire expressed most +strongly to Mr. Gaskell by your father, that you should be put in +possession of these facts on your coming of age. And for my own part I +think it better that you should thus hear the plain truth from me, lest +you should be at the mercy of haphazard reports, which might at any time +reach you from ignorant or interested sources. Some of the circumstances +were so remarkable that it is scarcely possible to suppose that they +were not known, and most probably frequently discussed, in so large an +establishment as that of Worth Maltravers. I even have reason to believe +that exaggerated and absurd stories were current at the time of Sir +John's death, and I should be grieved to think that such foolish tales +might by any chance reach your ear without your having any sure means of +discovering where the truth lay. God knows how grievous it has been to +me to set down on paper some of the facts that I have here narrated. You +as a dutiful son will reverence the name even of a father whom you never +knew; but you must remember that his sister did more; she loved him with +a single-hearted devotion, and it still grieves her to the quick to +write anything which may seem to detract from his memory. Only, above +all things, let us speak the truth. Much of what I have told you needs, +I feel, further explanation, but this I cannot give, for I do not +understand the circumstances. Mr. Gaskell, your guardian, will, I +believe, add to this account a few notes of his own, which may tend to +elucidate some points, as he is in possession of certain facts of which +I am still ignorant. + + + + +MR. GASKELL'S NOTE + + +I have read what Miss Maltravers has written, and have but little to add +to it. I can give no explanation that will tally with all the facts or +meet all the difficulties involved in her narrative. The most obvious +solution of some points would be, of course, to suppose that Sir John +Maltravers was insane. But to anyone who knew him as intimately as I +did, such an hypothesis is untenable; nor, if admitted, would it explain +some of the strangest incidents. Moreover, it was strongly negatived by +Dr. Frobisher, from whose verdict in such matters there was at the time +no appeal, by Dr. Dobie, and by Dr. Bruton, who had known Sir John from +his infancy. It is possible that towards the close of his life he +suffered occasionally from hallucination, though I could not positively +affirm even so much; but this was only when his health had been +completely undermined by causes which are very difficult to analyse. + +When I first knew him at Oxford he was a strong man physically as +well as mentally; open-hearted, and of a merry and genial temperament. +At the same time he was, like most cultured persons--and especially +musicians,--highly strung and excitable. But at a certain point in his +career his very nature seemed to change; he became reserved, secretive, +and saturnine. On this moral metamorphosis followed an equally startling +physical change. His robust health began to fail him, and although there +was no definite malady which doctors could combat, he went gradually +from bad to worse until the end came. + +The commencement of this extraordinary change coincided, I believe, +almost exactly with his discovery of the Stradivarius violin; and +whether this was, after all, a mere coincidence or something more it is +not easy to say. Until a very short time before his death neither Miss +Maltravers nor I had any idea how that instrument had come into his +possession, or I think something might perhaps have been done to save +him. + +Though towards the end of his life he spoke freely to his sister of the +finding of the violin, he only told her half the story, for he concealed +from her entirely that there was anything else in the hidden cupboard at +Oxford. But as a matter of fact, he had found there also two manuscript +books containing an elaborate diary of some years of a man's life. That +man was Adrian Temple, and I believe that in the perusal of this diary +must be sought the origin of John Maltravers's ruin. The manuscript was +beautifully written in a clear but cramped eighteenth century hand, +and gave the idea of a man writing with deliberation, and wishing to +transcribe his impressions with accuracy for further reference. The +style was excellent, and the minute details given were often of high +antiquarian interest; but the record throughout was marred by gross +licence. Adrian Temple's life had undoubtedly so definite an influence +on Sir John's that a brief outline of it, as gathered from his diaries, +is necessary for the understanding of what followed. + +Temple went up to Oxford in 1737. He was seventeen years old, without +parents, brothers, or sisters; and he possessed the Royston estates +in Derbyshire, which were then, as now, a most valuable property. +With the year 1738 his diaries begin, and though then little more than +a boy, he had tasted every illicit pleasure that Oxford had to offer. +His temptations were no doubt great; for besides being wealthy he was +handsome, and had probably never known any proper control, as both his +parents had died when he was still very young. But in spite of other +failings, he was a brilliant scholar, and on taking his degree, was +made at once a fellow of St. John's. He took up his abode in that +College in a fine set of rooms looking on to the gardens, and from this +period seems to have used Royston but little, living always either at +Oxford or on the Continent. He formed at this time the acquaintance of +one Jocelyn, whom he engaged as companion and amanuensis. Jocelyn was a +man of talent, but of irregular life, and was no doubt an accomplice in +many of Temple's excesses. In 1743 they both undertook the so-called +"grand tour," and though it was not his first visit, it was then +probably that Temple first felt the fascination of pagan Italy,--a +fascination which increased with every year of his after-life. + +On his return from foreign travel he found himself among the stirring +events of 1745. He was an ardent supporter of the Pretender, and made no +attempt to conceal his views. Jacobite tendencies were indeed generally +prevalent in the College at the time, and had this been the sum of his +offending, it is probable that little notice would have been taken by +the College authorities. But his notoriously wild life told against the +young man, and certain dark suspicions were not easily passed over. +After the _fiasco_ of the Rebellion Dr. Holmes, then President of the +College, seems to have made a scapegoat of Temple. He was deprived of +his fellowship, and though not formally expelled, such pressure was put +upon him as resulted in his leaving St. John's and removing to Magdalen +Hall. There his great wealth evidently secured him consideration, and he +was given the best rooms in the Hall, that very set looking on to New +College Lane which Sir John Maltravers afterwards occupied. + +In the first half of the eighteenth century the romance of the middle +ages, though dying, was not dead, and the occult sciences still found +followers among the Oxford towers. From his early years Temple's mind +seems to have been set strongly towards mysticism of all kinds, and he +and Jocelyn were versed in the jargon of the alchemist and astrologer, +and practised according to the ancient rules. It was his reputation as +a necromancer, and the stories current of illicit rites performed in +the garden-rooms at St. John's, that contributed largely to his being +dismissed from that College. He had also become acquainted with Francis +Dashwood, the notorious Lord le Despencer, and many a winter's night +saw him riding through the misty Thames meadows to the door of the sham +Franciscan abbey. In his diaries were more notices than one of the +"Franciscans" and the nameless orgies of Medmenham. + +He was devoted to music. It was a rare enough accomplishment then, and a +rarer thing still to find a wealthy landowner performing on the violin. +Yet so he did, though he kept his passion very much to himself, as +fiddling was thought lightly of in those days. His musical skill +was altogether exceptional, and he was the first possessor of the +Stradivarius violin which afterwards fell so unfortunately into Sir +John's hands. This violin Temple bought in the autumn of 1738, on the +occasion of a first visit to Italy. In that year died the nonagenarian +Antonius Stradivarius, the greatest violin-maker the world has ever +seen. After Stradivarius's death the stock of fiddles in his shop was +sold by auction. Temple happened to be travelling in Cremona at the time +with a tutor, and at the auction he bought that very instrument which we +afterwards had cause to know so well. A note in his diary gave its cost +at four louis, and said that a curious history attached to it. Though +it was of his golden period, and probably the finest instrument he ever +made, Stradivarius would never sell it, and it had hung for more than +thirty years in his shop. It was said that from some whim as he lay +dying he had given orders that it should be burnt; but if that were so, +the instructions were neglected, and after his death it came under the +hammer. Adrian Temple from the first recognised the great value of the +instrument. His notes show that he only used it on certain special +occasions, and it was no doubt for its better protection that he devised +the hidden cupboard where Sir John eventually found it. + +The later years of Temple's life were spent for the most part in Italy. +On the Scoglio di Venere, near Naples, he built the Villa de Angelis, +and there henceforth passed all except the hottest months of the year. +Shortly after the completion of the villa Jocelyn left him suddenly, and +became a Carthusian monk. A caustic note in his diary hinted that even +this foul parasite was shocked into the austerest form of religion by +something he had seen going forward. At Naples Temple's dark life became +still darker. He dallied, it is true, with Neo-Platonism, and boasts +that he, like Plotinus, had twice passed the circle of the _nous_ and +enjoyed the fruition of the deity; but the ideals of even that easy +doctrine grew in his evil life still more miserably debased. More than +once in the manuscript he made mention by name of the _Gagliarda_ +of Graziani as having been played at pagan mysteries which these +enthusiasts revived at Naples, and the air had evidently impressed +itself deeply on his memory. The last entry in his diary is made on +the 16th of December, 1752. He was then in Oxford for a few days, but +shortly afterwards returned to Naples. The accident of his having just +completed a second volume, induced him, no doubt, to leave it behind him +in the secret cupboard. It is probable that he commenced a third, but if +so it was never found. + +In reading the manuscript I was struck with the author's clear and easy +style, and found the interest of the narrative increase rather than +diminish. At the same time its study was inexpressibly painful to me. +Nothing could have supported me in my determination to thoroughly +master it but the conviction that if I was to be of any real assistance +to my poor friend Maltravers, I must know as far as possible every +circumstance connected with his malady. As it was, I felt myself +breathing an atmosphere of moral contagion during the perusal of the +manuscript, and certain passages have since returned at times to haunt +me in spite of all efforts to dislodge them from my memory. When I came +to Worth at Miss Maltravers's urgent invitation, I found my friend Sir +John terribly altered. It was not only that he was ill and physically +weak, but he had entirely lost the manner of youth, which, though +indefinable, is yet so appreciable, and draws so sharp a distinction +between the first period of life and middle age. But the most striking +feature of his illness was the extraordinary pallor of his complexion, +which made his face resemble a subtle counterfeit of white wax rather +than that of a living man. He welcomed me undemonstratively, but with +evident sincerity; and there was an entire absence of the constraint +which often accompanies the meeting again of friends whose cordial +relations have suffered interruption. From the time of my arrival at +Worth until his death we were constantly together; indeed I was much +struck by the almost childish dislike which he showed to be left alone +even for a few moments. As night approached this feeling became +intensified. Parnham slept always in his master's room; but if anything +called the servant away even for a minute, he would send for Carotenuto +or myself to be with him until his return. His nerves were weak; he +started violently at any unexpected noise, and above all, he dreaded +being in the dark. When night fell he had additional lamps brought into +his room, and even when he composed himself to sleep, insisted on a +strong light being kept by his bedside. + +I had often read in books of people wearing a "hunted" expression, and +had laughed at the phrase as conventional and unmeaning. But when I +came to Worth I knew its truth; for if any face ever wore a hunted--I +had almost written a haunted--look, it was the white face of Sir John +Maltravers. His air seemed that of a man who was constantly expecting +the arrival of some evil tidings, and at times reminded me painfully of +the guilty expectation of a felon who knows that a warrant is issued for +his arrest. + +During my visit he spoke to me frequently about his past life, and +instead of showing any reluctance to discuss the subject, seemed glad of +the opportunity of disburdening his mind. I gathered from him that the +reading of Adrian Temple's memoirs had made a deep impression on his +mind, which was no doubt intensified by the vision which he thought he +saw in his rooms at Oxford, and by the discovery of the portrait at +Royston. Of those singular phenomena I have no explanation to offer. + +The romantic element in his disposition rendered him peculiarly +susceptible to the fascination of that mysticism which breathed through +Temple's narrative. He told me that almost from the first time he read +it he was filled with a longing to visit the places and to revive the +strange life of which it spoke. This inclination he kept at first in +check, but by degrees it gathered strength enough to master him. + +There is no doubt in my mind that the music of the _Gagliarda_ of +Graziani helped materially in this process of mental degradation. It is +curious that Michael Prætorius in the "Syntagma musicum" should speak of +the Galliard generally as an "invention of the devil, full of shameful +and licentious gestures and immodest movements," and the singular melody +of the _Gagliarda_ in the "Areopagita" suite certainly exercised from +the first a strange influence over me. I shall not do more than touch +on the question here, because I see Miss Maltravers has spoken of it +at length, and will only say, that though since the day of Sir John's +death I have never heard a note of it, the air is still fresh in my +mind, and has at times presented itself to me unexpectedly, and always +with an unwholesome effect. This I have found happen generally in times +of physical depression, and the same air no doubt exerted a similar +influence on Sir John, which his impressionable nature rendered from the +first more deleterious to him. + +I say this advisedly, because I am sure that if some music is good for +man and elevates him, other melodies are equally bad and enervating. An +experience far wider than any we yet possess is necessary to enable us +to say how far this influence is capable of extension. How far, that +is, the mind may be directed on the one hand to ascetic abnegation by +the systematic use of certain music, or on the other to illicit and +dangerous pleasures by melodies of an opposite tendency. But this much +is, I think, certain, that after a comparatively advanced standard of +culture has once been attained, music is the readiest if not the only +key which admits to the yet narrower circle of the highest imaginative +thought. + +On the occasion for travel afforded him by his honeymoon, an impulse +which he could not at the time explain, but which after-events have +convinced me was the haunting suggestion of the _Gagliarda_, drove him +to visit the scenes mentioned so often in Temple's diary. He had always +been an excellent scholar, and a classic of more than ordinary ability. +Rome and Southern Italy filled him with a strange delight. His education +enabled him to appreciate to the full what he saw; he peopled the stage +with the figures of the original actors, and tried to assimilate his +thought to theirs. He began reading classical literature widely, no +longer from the scholarly but the literary standpoint. In Rome he +spent much time in the librarians' shops, and there met with copies +of the numerous authors of the later empire and of those Alexandrine +philosophers which are rarely seen in England. In these he found a new +delight and fresh food for his mysticism. + +Such study, if carried to any extent, is probably dangerous to the +English character, and certainly was to a man of Maltravers's romantic +sympathies. This reading produced in time so real an effect upon his +mind that if he did not definitely abandon Christianity, as I fear he +did, he at least adulterated it with other doctrines till it became to +him Neo-Platonism. That most seductive of philosophies, which has +enthralled so many minds from Proclus and Julian to Augustine and the +Renaissancists, found an easy convert in John Maltravers. Its passionate +longing for the vague and undefined good, its tolerance of æsthetic +impressions, the pleasant superstitions of its dynamic pantheism, all +touched responsive chords in his nature. His mind, he told me, became +filled with a measureless yearning for the old culture of pagan +philosophy, and as the past became clearer and more real, so the present +grew dimmer, and his thoughts were gradually weaned entirely from all +the natural objects of affection and interest which should otherwise +have occupied them. To what a terrible extent this process went on, Miss +Maltravers's narrative shows. Soon after reaching Naples he visited the +Villa de Angelis, which Temple had built on the ruins of a sea-house of +Pomponius. The later building had in its turn become dismantled and +ruinous, and Sir John found no difficulty in buying the site outright. +He afterwards rebuilt it on an elaborate scale, endeavouring to +reproduce in its equipment the luxury of the later empire. I had +occasion to visit the house more than once in my capacity of executor, +and found it full of priceless works of art, which, though neither so +difficult to procure at that time nor so costly as they would be now, +were yet sufficiently valuable to have necessitated an unjustifiable +outlay. + +The situation of the building fostered his infatuation for the past. It +lay between the Bay of Naples and the Bay of Baia, and from its windows +commanded the same exquisite view which had charmed Cicero and Lucullus, +Severus and the Antonines. Hard by stood Baia, the princely seaside +resort of the empire. That most luxurious and wanton of all cities of +antiquity survived the cataclysms of ages, and only lost its civic +continuity and became the ruined village of to-day in the sack of the +fifteenth century. But a continuity of wickedness is not so easily +broken, and those who know the spot best say that it is still instinct +with memories of a shameful past. + +For miles along that haunted coast the foot cannot be put down except on +the ruins of some splendid villa, and over all there broods a spirit of +corruption and debasement actually sensible and oppressive. Of the dawns +and sunsets, of the noonday sun tempered by the sea-breeze and the shade +of scented groves, those who have been there know the charm, and to +those who have not no words can describe it. But there are malefic +vapours rising from the corpse of a past not altogether buried, and most +cultivated Englishmen who tarry there long feel their influence as did +John Maltravers. Like so many _decepti deceptores_ of the Neo-Platonic +school, he did not practise the abnegation enjoined by the very cult he +professed to follow. Though his nature was far too refined, I believe, +ever to sink into the sensualism revealed in Temple's diaries, yet it +was through the gratification of corporeal tastes that he endeavoured +to achieve the divine _extasis_; and there were constantly lavish and +sumptuous entertainments at the villa, at which strange guests were +present. + +In such a nightmare of a life it was not to be expected that any mind +would find repose, and Maltravers certainly found none. All those cares +which usually occupy men's minds, all thoughts of wife, child, and home +were, it is true, abandoned; but a wild unrest had hold of him, and +never suffered him to be at ease. Though he never told me as much, yet +I believe he was under the impression that the form which he had seen +at Oxford and Royston had reappeared to him on more than one subsequent +occasion. It must have been, I fancy, with a vague hope of "laying" this +spectre that he now set himself with eagerness to discover where or +how Temple had died. He remembered that Royston tradition said he had +succumbed at Naples in the plague of 1752, but an idea seized him that +this was not the case; indeed I half suspect his fancy unconsciously +pictured that evil man as still alive. The methods by which he +eventually discovered the skeleton, or learnt the episodes which +preceded Temple's death, I do not know. He promised to tell me some +day at length, but a sudden death prevented his ever doing so. The +facts as he narrated them, and as I have little doubt they actually +occurred, were these: Adrian Temple, after Jocelyn's departure, had +made a confidant of one Palamede Domacavalli, a scion of a splendid +Parthenopean family of that name. Palamede had a palace in the heart of +Naples, and was Temple's equal in age and also in his great wealth. The +two men became boon companions, associated in all kinds of wickedness +and excess. At length Palamede married a beautiful girl named Olimpia +Aldobrandini, who was also of the noblest lineage; but the intimacy +between him and Temple was not interrupted. About a year subsequent to +this marriage dancing was going on after a splendid banquet in the great +hall of the Palazzo Domacavalli. Adrian, who was a favoured guest, +called to the musicians in the gallery to play the "Areopagita" suite, +and danced it with Olimpia, the wife of his host. The _Gagliarda_ was +reached but never finished, for near the end of the second movement +Palamede from behind drove a stiletto into his friend's heart. He had +found out that day that Adrian had not spared even Olimpia's honour. + +I have endeavoured to condense into a connected story the facts learnt +piecemeal from Sir John in conversation. To a certain extent they +supplied, if not an explanation, at least an account of the change +that had come over my friend. But only to a certain extent; there the +explanation broke down and I was left baffled. I could imagine that a +life of unwholesome surroundings and disordered studies might in time +produce such a loss of mental tone as would lead in turn to moral +_acolasia_, sensual excess, and physical ruin. But in Sir John's case +the cause was not adequate; he had, so far as I know, never wholly given +the reins to sensuality, and the change was too abrupt and the breakdown +of body and mind too complete to be accounted for by such events as +those of which he had spoken. + +I had, too, an uneasy feeling, which grew upon me the more I saw of him, +that while he spoke freely enough on certain topics, and obviously meant +to give a complete history of his past life, there was in reality +something in the background which he always kept from my view. He was, +it seemed, like a young man asked by an indulgent father to disclose +his debts in order that they may be discharged, who, although he knows +his parent's leniency, and that any debt not now disclosed will be +afterwards but a weight upon his own neck, yet hesitates for very shame +to tell the full amount, and keeps some items back. So poor Sir John +kept something back from me his friend, whose only aim was to afford him +consolation and relief, and whose compassion would have made me listen +without rebuke to the narration of the blackest crimes. I cannot say how +much this conviction grieved me. I would most willingly have given my +all, my very life, to save my friend and Miss Maltravers's brother; but +my efforts were paralysed by the feeling that I did not know what I had +to combat, that some evil influence was at work on him which continually +evaded my grasp. Once or twice it seemed as though he were within an +ace of telling me all; once or twice, I believe, he had definitely made +up his mind to do so; but then the mood changed, or more probably his +courage failed him. + +It was on one of these occasions that he asked me, somewhat suddenly, +whether I thought that a man could by any conscious act committed in the +flesh take away from himself all possibility of repentance and ultimate +salvation. Though, I trust, a sincere Christian, I am nothing of a +theologian, and the question touching on a topic which had not occurred +to my mind since childhood, and which seemed to savour rather of +medieval romance than of practical religion, took me for a moment aback. +I hesitated for an instant, and then replied that the means of salvation +offered man were undoubtedly so sufficient as to remove from one truly +penitent the guilt of any crime however dark. My hesitation had been but +momentary; but Sir John seemed to have noticed it, and sealed his lips +to any confession, if he had indeed intended to make any, by changing +the subject abruptly. This question naturally gave me food for serious +reflection and anxiety. It was the first occasion on which he appeared +to me to be undoubtedly suffering from definite hallucination, and I was +aware that any illusions connected with religion are generally most +difficult to remove. At the same time, anything of this sort was the +more remarkable in Sir John's case, as he had, so far as I knew, for a +considerable time entirely abandoned the Christian belief. + +Unable to elicit any further information from him, and being thus thrown +entirely upon my own resources, I determined that I would read through +again the whole of Temple's diaries. The task was a very distasteful +one, as I have already explained, but I hoped that a second reading +might perhaps throw some light on the dark misgiving that was troubling +Sir John. I read the manuscript again with the closest attention. +Nothing, however, of any importance seemed to have escaped me on the +former occasions, and I had reached nearly the end of the second volume +when a comparatively slight matter arrested my attention. I have said +that the pages were all carefully numbered, and the events of each day +recorded separately; even where Temple had found nothing of moment to +notice on a given day, he had still inserted the date with the word +_nil_ written against it. But as I sat one evening in the library at +Worth after Sir John had gone to bed, and was finally glancing through +the days of the months in Temple's diary to make sure that all were +complete, I found one day was missing. It was towards the end of the +second volume, and the day was the 23d of October in the year 1752. A +glance at the numbering of the pages revealed the fact that three leaves +had been entirely removed, and that the pages numbered 349 to 354 were +not to be found. Again I ran through the diaries to see whether there +were any leaves removed in other places, but found no other single page +missing. All was complete except at this one place, the manuscript +beautifully written, with scarcely an error or erasure throughout. A +closer examination showed that these leaves had been cut out close to +the back, and the cut edges of the paper appeared too fresh to admit of +this being done a century ago. A very short reflection convinced me, in +fact, that the excision was not likely to have been Temple's, and that +it must have been made by Sir John. + +My first intention was to ask him at once what the lost pages had +contained, and why they had been cut out. The matter might be a mere +triviality which he could explain in a moment. But on softly opening his +bedroom door I found him sleeping, and Parnham (whom the strong light +always burnt in the room rendered more wakeful) informed me that his +master had been in a deep sleep for more than an hour. I knew how +sorely his wasted energies needed such repose, and stepped back to the +library without awaking him. A few minutes before, I had been feeling +sleepy at the conclusion of my task, but now all wish for sleep was +suddenly banished and a painful wakefulness took its place. I was under +a species of mental excitement which reminded me of my feelings some +years before at Oxford on the first occasion of our ever playing the +_Gagliarda_ together, and an idea struck me with the force of intuition +that in these three lost leaves lay the secret of my friend's ruin. + +I turned to the context to see whether there was anything in the entries +preceding or following the lacuna that would afford a clue to the +missing passage. The record of the few days immediately preceding the +23d of October was short and contained nothing of any moment whatever. +Adrian and Jocelyn were alone together at the Villa de Angelis. The +entry on the 22d was very unimportant and apparently quite complete, +ending at the bottom of page 348. Of the 23d there was, as I have said, +no record at all, and the entry for the 24th began at the top of page +355. This last memorandum was also brief, and written when the author +was annoyed by Jocelyn leaving him. + +The defection of his companion had been apparently entirely unexpected. +There was at least no previous hint of any such intention. Temple wrote +that Jocelyn had left the Villa de Angelis that day and taken up his +abode with the Carthusians of San Martino. No reason for such an +extraordinary change was given; but there was a hint that Jocelyn had +professed himself shocked at something that had happened. The entry +concluded with a few bitter remarks: _"So farewell to my holy anchoret; +and if I cannot speed him with a leprosie as one Elisha did his servant, +yet at least he went out from my presence with a face as white as +snow."_ + +I had read this sentence more than once before without its attracting +other than a passing attention. The curious expression, that Jocelyn had +gone out from his presence with a face as white as snow, had hitherto +seemed to me to mean nothing more than that the two men had parted in +violent anger, and that Temple had abused or bullied his companion. But +as I sat alone that night in the library the words seemed to assume an +entirely new force, and a strange suspicion began to creep over me. + +I have said that one of the most remarkable features of Sir John's +illness was his deadly pallor. Though I had now spent some time at +Worth, and had been daily struck by this lack of colour, I had never +before remembered in this connection that a strange paleness had also +been an attribute of Adrian Temple, and was indeed very clearly marked +in the picture painted of him by Battoni. In Sir John's account, +moreover, of the vision which he thought he had seen in his rooms at +Oxford, he had always spoken of the white and waxen face of his spectral +visitant. The family tradition of Royston said that Temple had lost his +colour in some deadly magical experiment, and a conviction now flashed +upon me that Jocelyn's face "as white as snow" could refer only to this +same unnatural pallor, and that he too had been smitten with it as with +the mark of the beast. + +In a drawer of my despatch-box, I kept by me all the letters which the +late Lady Maltravers had written home during her ill-fated honeymoon. +Miss Maltravers had placed them in my hands in order that I might be +acquainted with every fact that could at all elucidate the progress of +Sir John's malady. I remembered that in one of these letters mention was +made of a sharp attack of fever in Naples, and of her noticing in him +for the first time this singular pallor. I found the letter again +without difficulty and read it with a new light. Every line breathed of +surprise and alarm. Lady Maltravers feared that her husband was very +seriously ill. On the Wednesday, two days before she wrote, he had +suffered all day from a strange restlessness, which had increased after +they had retired in the evening. He could not sleep and had dressed +again, saying he would walk a little in the night air to compose +himself. He had not returned till near six in the morning, and then +seemed so exhausted that he had since been confined to his bed. He was +terribly pale, and the doctors feared he had been attacked by some +strange fever. + +The date of the letter was the 25th of October, fixing the night of the +23d as the time of Sir John's first attack. The coincidence of the date +with that of the day missing in Temple's diary was significant, but it +was not needed now to convince me that Sir John's ruin was due to +something that occurred on that fatal night at Naples. + +The question that Dr. Frobisher had asked Miss Maltravers when he was +first called to see her brother in London returned to my memory with an +overwhelming force. "Had Sir John been subjected to any mental shock; +had he received any severe fright?" I knew now that the question should +have been answered in the affirmative, for I felt as certain as if +Sir John had told me himself that he _had_ received a violent shock, +probably some terrible fright, on the night of the 23d of October. What +the nature of that shock could have been my imagination was powerless to +conceive, only I knew that whatever Sir John had done or seen, Adrian +Temple and Jocelyn had done or seen also a century before and at the +same place. That horror which had blanched the face of all three men +for life had fallen perhaps with a less overwhelming force on Temple's +seasoned wickedness, but had driven the worthless Jocelyn to the +cloister, and was driving Sir John to the grave. + +These thoughts as they passed through my mind filled me with a vague +alarm. The lateness of the hour, the stillness and the subdued light, +made the library in which I sat seem so vast and lonely that I began to +feel the same dread of being alone that I had observed so often in my +friend. Though only a door separated me from his bedroom, and I could +hear his deep and regular breathing, I felt as though I must go in +and waken him or Parnham to keep me company and save me from my own +reflections. By a strong effort I restrained myself, and sat down to +think the matter over and endeavour to frame some hypothesis that might +explain the mystery. But it was all to no purpose. I merely wearied +myself without being able to arrive at even a plausible conjecture, +except that it seemed as though the strange coincidence of date might +point to some ghastly charm or incantation which could only be carried +out on one certain night of the year. + +It must have been near morning when, quite exhausted, I fell into an +uneasy slumber in the arm-chair where I sat. My sleep, however brief, +was peopled with a succession of fantastic visions, in which I +continually saw Sir John, not ill and wasted as now, but vigorous and +handsome as I had known him at Oxford, standing beside a glowing brazier +and reciting words I could not understand, while another man with a +sneering white face sat in a corner playing the air of the _Gagliarda_ +on a violin. Parnham woke me in my chair at seven o'clock; his master, +he said, was still sleeping easily. + +I had made up my mind that as soon as he awoke I would inquire of Sir +John as to the pages missing from the diary; but though my expectation +and excitement were at a high pitch, I was forced to restrain my +curiosity, for Sir John's slumber continued late into the day. Dr. +Bruton called in the morning, and said that this sleep was what the +patient's condition most required, and was a distinctly favourable +symptom; he was on no account to be disturbed. Sir John did not leave +his bed, but continued dozing all day till the evening. When at last he +shook off his drowsiness, the hour was already so late that, in spite of +my anxiety, I hesitated to talk with him about the diaries, lest I +should unduly excite him before the night. + +As the evening advanced he became very uneasy, and rose more than once +from his bed. This restlessness, following on the repose of the day, +ought perhaps to have made me anxious, for I have since observed that +when death is very near an apprehensive unrest often sets in both with +men and animals. It seems as if they dreaded to resign themselves to +sleep, lest as they slumber the last enemy should seize them unawares. +They try to fling off the bedclothes, they sometimes must leave their +beds and walk. So it was with poor John Maltravers on his last Christmas +Eve. I had sat with him grieving for his disquiet until he seemed to +grow more tranquil, and at length fell asleep. I was sleeping that night +in his room instead of Parnham, and tired with sitting up through the +previous night, I flung myself, dressed as I was, upon the bed. I had +scarcely dozed off, I think, before the sound of his violin awoke me. +I found he had risen from his bed, had taken his favourite instrument, +and was playing in his sleep. The air was the _Gagliarda_ of the +"Areopagita" suite, which I had not heard since we had played it last +together at Oxford, and it brought back with it a crowd of far-off +memories and infinite regrets. I cursed the sleepiness which had +overcome me at my watchman's post, and allowed Sir John to play once +more that melody which had always been fraught with such evil for him; +and I was about to wake him gently when he was startled from sleep by a +strange accident. As I walked towards him the violin seemed entirely to +collapse in his hands, and, as a matter of fact, the belly then gave way +and broke under the strain of the strings. As the strings slackened, the +last note became an unearthly discord. If I were superstitious I should +say that some evil spirit then went out of the violin, and broke in his +parting throes the wooden tabernacle which had so long sheltered him. It +was the last time the instrument was ever used, and that hideous chord +was the last that Maltravers ever played. + +I had feared that the shock of waking thus suddenly from sleep would +have a very prejudicial effect upon the sleep-walker, but this seemed +not to be the case. I persuaded him to go back at once to bed, and in a +few minutes he fell asleep again. In the morning he seemed for the first +time distinctly better; there was indeed something of his old self in +his manner. It seemed as though the breaking of the violin had been an +actual relief to him; and I believe that on that Christmas morning his +better instincts woke, and that his old religious training and the +associations of his boyhood then made their last appeal. I was pleased +at such a change, however temporary it might prove. He wished to go to +church, and I determined that again I would subdue my curiosity and +defer the questions I was burning to put till after our return from +the morning service. Miss Maltravers had gone indoors to make some +preparation, Sir John was in his wheel-chair on the terrace, and I was +sitting by him in the sun. For a few moments he appeared immersed in +silent thought, and then bent over towards me till his head was close +to mine, and said, "Dear William, there is something I must tell you. +I feel I cannot even go to church till I have told you all." His manner +shocked me beyond expression. I knew that he was going to tell me the +secret of the lost pages, but instead of wishing any longer to have my +curiosity satisfied, I felt a horrible dread of what he might say next. +He took my hand in his and held it tightly, as a man who was about to +undergo severe physical pain and sought the consolation of a friend's +support. Then he went on--"You will be shocked at what I am going to +tell you; but listen, and do not give me up: You must stand by me and +comfort me and help me to turn again." He paused for a moment and +continued--"It was one night in October, when Constance and I were at +Naples. I took that violin and went by myself to the ruined villa on +the Scoglio di Venere." He had been speaking with difficulty. His hand +clutched mine convulsively, but still I felt it trembling, and I could +see the moisture standing thick on his forehead. At this point the +effort seemed too much for him and he broke off. "I cannot go on, I +cannot tell you, but you can read it for yourself. In that diary which +I gave you there are some pages missing." The suspense was becoming +intolerable to me, and I broke in, "Yes, yes, I know; you cut them out. +Tell me where they are," He went on--"Yes, I cut them out lest they +should possibly fall into anyone's hands unaware. But before you read +them you must swear, as you hope for salvation, that you will never try +to do what is written in them. Swear this to me now, or I never can +let you see them." My eagerness was too great to stop now to discuss +trifles, and to humour him I swore as desired. He had been speaking with +a continual increasing effort; he cast a hurried and fearful glance +round as though he expected to see someone listening, and it was almost +in a whisper that he went on, "You will find them in--" His agitation +had become most painful to watch, and as he spoke the last words a +convulsion passed over his face, and speech failing him, he sank back on +his pillow. A strange fear took hold of me. For a moment I thought there +were others on the terrace beside myself, and turned round expecting to +see Miss Maltravers returned; but we were still alone. I even fancied +that just as Sir John spoke his last words I felt something brush +swiftly by me. He put up his hands, beating the air with a most painful +gesture, as though he were trying to keep off an antagonist who had +gripped him by the throat, and made a final struggle to speak. But the +spasm was too strong for him; a dreadful stillness followed, and he was +gone. + +There is little more to add; for Sir John's guilty secret, perished with +him. Though I was sure from his manner that the missing leaves were +concealed somewhere at Worth, and though as executor I caused the most +diligent search to be made, no trace of them was afterwards found; nor +did any circumstance ever transpire to fling further light upon the +matter. I must confess that I should have felt the discovery of these +pages as a relief; for though I dreaded what I might have had to read, +yet I was more anxious lest, being found at a later period and falling +into other hands, they should cause a recrudescence of that plague which +had blighted Sir John's life. + +Of the nature of the events which took place on that night at Naples +I can form no conjecture. But as certain physical sights have ere now +proved so revolting as to unhinge the intellect, so I can imagine that +the mind may in a state of extreme tension conjure up to itself some +form of moral evil so hideous as metaphysically to sear it: and this, +I believe, happened in the case both of Adrian Temple and of Sir John +Maltravers. + +It is difficult to imagine the accessories used to produce the mental +excitation in which alone such a presentment of evil could become +imaginable. Fancy and legend, which have combined to represent as +possible appearances of the supernatural, agree also in considering them +as more likely to occur at certain times and places than at others; and +it is possible that the missing pages of the diary contained an account +of the time, place, and other conditions chosen by Temple for some +deadly experiment. Sir John most probably re-enacted the scene under +precisely similar conditions, and the effect on his overwrought +imagination was so vivid as to upset the balance of his mind. The time +chosen was no doubt the night of the 23d of October, and I cannot help +thinking that the place was one of those evil-looking and ruinous +sea-rooms which had so terrifying an effect on Miss Maltravers. Temple +may have used on that night one of the medieval incantations, or +possibly the more ancient invocation of the Isiac rite with which a +man of his knowledge and proclivities would certainly be familiar. The +accessories of either are sufficiently hideous to weaken the mind by +terror, and so prepare it for a belief in some frightful apparition. But +whatever was done, I feel sure that the music of the _Gagliarda_ formed +part of the ceremonial. + +Medieval philosophers and theologians held that evil is in its essence +so horrible that the human mind, if it could realise it, must perish at +its contemplation. Such realisation was by mercy ordinarily withheld, +but its possibility was hinted in the legend of the _Visio malefica_. +The _Visio Beatifica_ was, as is well known, that vision of the Deity +or realisation of the perfect Good which was to form the happiness of +heaven, and the reward of the sanctified in the next world. Tradition +says that this vision was accorded also to some specially elect spirits +even in this life, as to Enoch, Elijah, Stephen, and Jerome. But there +was a converse to the Beatific Vision in the _Visio malefica_, or +presentation of absolute Evil, which was to be the chief torture of the +damned, and which, like the Beatific Vision, had been made visible in +life to certain desperate men. It visited Esau, as was said, when he +found no place for repentance, and Judas, whom it drove to suicide. +Cain saw it when he murdered his brother, and legend relates that in his +case, and in that of others, it left a physical brand to be borne by +the body to the grave. It was supposed that the Malefic Vision, besides +being thus spontaneously presented to typically abandoned men, had +actually been purposely called up by some few great adepts, and used by +them to blast their enemies. But to do so was considered equivalent to a +conscious surrender to the powers of evil, as the vision once seen took +away all hope of final salvation. + +Adrian Temple would undoubtedly be cognisant of this legend, and the +lost experiment may have been an attempt to call up the Malefic Vision. +It is but a vague conjecture at the best, for the tree of the knowledge +of Evil bears many sorts of poisonous fruit, and no one can give full +account of the extravagances of a wayward fancy. + +Conjointly with Miss Sophia, Sir John appointed me his executor and +guardian of his only son. Two months later we had lit a great fire +in the library at Worth. In it, after the servants were gone to bed, +we burnt the book containing the "Areopagita" of Graziani, and the +Stradivarius fiddle. The diaries of Temple I had already destroyed, and +wish that I could as easily blot out their foul and debasing memories +from my mind. I shall probably be blamed by those who would exalt +art at the expense of everything else, for burning a unique violin. +This reproach I am content to bear. Though I am not unreasonably +superstitious, and have no sympathy for that potential pantheism to +which Sir John Maltravers surrendered his intellect, yet I felt so great +an aversion to this violin that I would neither suffer it to remain at +Worth, nor pass into other hands. Miss Sophia was entirely at one with +me on this point. It was the same feeling which restrains any except +fools or braggarts from wishing to sleep in "haunted" rooms, or to live +in houses polluted with the memory of a revolting crime. No sane mind +believes in foolish apparitions, but fancy may at times bewitch the best +of us. So the Stradivarius was burnt. It was, after all, perhaps not so +serious a matter, for, as I have said, the bass-bar had given way. There +had always been a question whether it was strong enough to resist the +strain of modern stringing. Experience showed at last that it was not. +With the failure of the bass-bar the belly collapsed, and the wood broke +across the grain in so extraordinary a manner as to put the fiddle +beyond repair, except as a curiosity. Its loss, therefore, is not to be +so much regretted. Sir Edward has been brought up to think more of a +cricket-bat than of a violin-bow; but if he wishes at any time to buy a +Stradivarius, the fortunes of Worth and Royston, nursed through two long +minorities, will certainly justify his doing so. + +Miss Sophia and I stood by and watched the holocaust. My heart misgave +me for a moment when I saw the mellow red varnish blistering off the +back, but I put my regret resolutely aside. As the bright flames jumped +up and lapped it round, they flung a red glow on the scroll. It was +wonderfully wrought, and differed, as I think Miss Maltravers has +already said, from any known example of Stradivarius. As we watched it, +the scroll took form, and we saw what we had never seen before, that it +was cut so that the deep lines in a certain light showed as the profile +of a man. It was a wizened little paganish face, with sharp-cut features +and a bald head. As I looked at it I knew at once (and a cameo has since +confirmed the fact) that it was a head of Porphyry. Thus the second +label found in the violin was explained and Sir John's view confirmed, +that Stradivarius had made the instrument for some Neo-Platonist +enthusiast who had dedicated it to his master Porphyrius. + + * * * * * + +A year after Sir John's death I went with Miss Maltravers to Worth +church to see a plain slab of slate which we had placed over her +brother's grave. We stood in bright sunlight in the Maltravers chapel, +with the monuments of that splendid family about us. Among them were the +altar-tomb of Sir Esmoun, and the effigies of more than one Crusader. +As I looked on their knightly forms, with their heads resting on their +tilting helms, their faces set firm, and their hands joined in prayer, +I could not help envying them that full and unwavering faith for which +they had fought and died. It seemed to stand out in such sharp contrast +with our latter-day sciolism and half-believed creeds, and to be flung +into higher relief by the dark shadow of John Maltravers's ruined life. +At our feet was the great brass of one Sir Roger de Maltravers. I +pointed out the end of the inscription to my companion--"CVIVS ANIMÆ, +ATQVE ANIMABVS OMNIVM FIDELIVM DEFVNCTORVM, ATQVE NOSTRIS ANIMABVS QVVM +EX HAC LVCE TRANSIVERIMVS, PROPITIETVR DEVS." Though no Catholic, I +could not refuse to add a sincere Amen. Miss Sophia, who is not ignorant +of Latin, read the inscription after me. "Ex hac luce," she said, as +though speaking to herself, "out of this light; alas! alas! for some the +light is darkness." + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LOST STRADIVARIUS*** + + +******* This file should be named 14107-8.txt or 14107-8.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/1/0/14107 + + + +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. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at <a href = "https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre> +<p>Title: The Lost Stradivarius</p> +<p>Author: John Meade Falkner</p> +<p>Release Date: November 21, 2004 [eBook #14107]</p> +<p>Language: English</p> +<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p> +<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LOST STRADIVARIUS***</p> +<br /><br /><h3>E-text prepared by Suzanne Shell, Melissa Er-Raqabi,<br /> + and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team</h3><br /><br /> +<hr class="full" /> +<div style="height: 6em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h1> + THE LOST STRADIVARIUS +</h1> +<h3> + BY J. MEADE FALKNER +</h3> +<center> +1895 +</center> + +<p> </p> + +<h6> +PENGUIN BOOKS +<br /> +HARMONDSWORTH MIDDLESEX ENGLAND +<br /> +245 FIFTH AVENUE NEW YORK U.S.A. +</h6> + +<div style="height: 2em;"><br /><br /></div> +<hr /> +<div style="height: 2em;"><br /><br /></div> + +<h3> +THE AUTHOR +</h3> +<p> +<i>John Meade Falkner</i> was a remarkable character, as he was not only a +scholar and a writer, but a captain of industry as well. Born in 1858, +the son of a clergyman in Wiltshire, he was educated at Marlborough and +Hertford College, Oxford. On leaving the university, he became tutor to +the sons of Sir Andrew Noble, then vice-chairman of the +Armstrong-Whitworth Company; and his ability so much impressed his +employer that in 1885 he was offered a post in the firm. Without +connections or influence in industrial circles, and solely by his +intellect, he rose to be a director in 1901, and finally, in 1915, +chairman of this enormous business. He was actually chairman during the +important years 1915-1920, and remained a director until 1926. +</p> +<p> +His intellectual energy was so great that throughout his life he found +time for scholarship as well as business. He travelled for his firm in +Europe and South America; and in the intervals of negotiating with +foreign governments studied manuscripts wherever he found a library. His +researches in the Vatican Library were of special importance, and in +connection with them he received a gold medal from the Pope; he was also +decorated by the Italian, Turkish and Japanese governments. +</p> +<p> +His scholastic interests included archæology, folklore, palæography, +mediæval history, architecture and church music; and he was a collector +of missals. Towards the end of his life he was made an Honorary Fellow +of Hertford College, Oxford, Honorary Reader in Palæography to Durham +University, and Honorary Librarian to the Chapter Library of Durham +Cathedral, which he left one of the best cathedral libraries in Europe. +He died at Durham in 1932. +</p> +<p> +Apart from <i>The Lost Stradivarius</i>, Falkner was the author of two other +novels, <i>The Nebuly Coat</i> (1903—also published in Penguin Books) and +<i>Moonfleet</i> (1898). He also wrote a History of Oxfordshire, handbooks to +that county and to Berkshire, historical short stories, and some +mediævalist verse. +</p> + +<div style="height: 2em;"><br /><br /></div> +<hr /> +<div style="height: 2em;"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>Contents</h2> +<p class="toc"><a href="#h2HCH0001"> +CHAPTER I +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#h2HCH0002"> +CHAPTER II +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#h2HCH0003"> +CHAPTER III +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#h2HCH0004"> +CHAPTER IV +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#h2HCH0005"> +CHAPTER V +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#h2HCH0006"> +CHAPTER VI +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#h2HCH0007"> +CHAPTER VII +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#h2HCH0008"> +CHAPTER VIII +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#h2HCH0009"> +CHAPTER IX +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#h2HCH0010"> +CHAPTER X +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#h2HCH0011"> +CHAPTER XI +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#h2HCH0012"> +CHAPTER XII +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#h2HCH0013"> +CHAPTER XIII +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#h2HCH0014"> +CHAPTER XIV +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#h2HCH0015"> +CHAPTER XV +</a></p> +<p class="toc"><a href="#h2H_4_0020"> +MR. GASKELL'S NOTE +</a></p> +<div style="height: 2em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> +<hr /> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<p class="quote"> + Letter from MISS SOPHIA MALTRAVERS + to her Nephew, SIR EDWARD MALTRAVERS, + then a Student at Christ Church, Oxford. +</p> +<p class="quote"> + <i>13 Pauncefort Buildings, Bath, + Oct. 21, 1867.</i> +</p> +<p class="quote"> + <i>MY DEAR EDWARD,</i> +</p> +<p class="quote"> + <i>It was your late father's dying request that certain events which + occurred in his last years should be communicated to you on your coming + of age. I have reduced them to writing, partly from my own recollection, + which is, alas! still too vivid, and partly with the aid of notes taken + at the time of my brother's death. As you are now of full age, I submit + the narrative to you. Much of it has necessarily been exceedingly + painful to me to write, but at the same time I feel it is better that + you should hear the truth from me than garbled stories from others who + did not love your father as I did.</i> +</p> +<p class="quote"> + <i>Your loving Aunt,<br /> + SOPHIA MALTRAVERS</i> +</p> +<p> +<i>To Sir Edward Maltravers, Bart.</i> +</p> +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p> </p><p> </p> + +<hr /> + +<p style="text-align: center;"> + "A tale out of season is as music in mourning." +</p> +<p style="text-align: right;"> + —ECCLESIASTICUS xxii. 6. +</p> +<hr /> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + MISS SOPHIA MALTRAVERS' STORY +</h2> +<a name="h2HCH0001" id="h2HCH0001"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER I +</h2> +<p> +Your father, John Maltravers, was born in 1820 at Worth, and succeeded +his father and mine, who died when we were still young children. John +was sent to Eton in due course, and in 1839, when he was nineteen years +of age, it was determined that he should go to Oxford. It was intended +at first to enter him at Christ Church; but Dr. Sarsdell, who visited us +at Worth in the summer of 1839, persuaded Mr. Thoresby, our guardian, to +send him instead to Magdalen Hall. Dr. Sarsdell was himself Principal of +that institution, and represented that John, who then exhibited some +symptoms of delicacy, would meet with more personal attention under his +care than he could hope to do in so large a college as Christ Church. +Mr. Thoresby, ever solicitous for his ward's welfare, readily waived +other considerations in favour of an arrangement which he considered +conducive to John's health, and he was accordingly matriculated at +Magdalen Hall in the autumn of 1839. +</p> +<p> +Dr. Sarsdell had not been unmindful of his promise to look after my +brother, and had secured him an excellent first-floor sitting-room, with +a bedroom adjoining, having an aspect towards New College Lane. +</p> +<p> +I shall pass over the first two years of my brother's residence at +Oxford, because they have nothing to do with the present story. They +were spent, no doubt, in the ordinary routine of work and recreation +common in Oxford at that period. +</p> +<p> +From his earliest boyhood he had been passionately devoted to music, +and had attained a considerable proficiency on the violin. In the autumn +term of 1841 he made the acquaintance of Mr. William Gaskell, a very +talented student at New College, and also a more than tolerable +musician. The practice of music was then very much less common at Oxford +than it has since become, and there were none of those societies +existing which now do so much to promote its study among undergraduates. +It was therefore a cause of much gratification to the two young men, and +it afterwards became a strong bond of friendship, to discover that one +was as devoted to the pianoforte as was the other to the violin. Mr. +Gaskell, though in easy circumstances, had not a pianoforte in his +rooms, and was pleased to use a fine instrument by D'Almaine that John +had that term received as a birthday present from his guardian. +</p> +<p> +From that time the two students were thrown much together, and in the +autumn term of 1841 and Easter term of 1842 practised a variety of music +in John's rooms, he taking the violin part and Mr. Gaskell that for the +pianoforte. +</p> +<p> +It was, I think, in March 1842 that John purchased for his rooms a piece +of furniture which was destined afterwards to play no unimportant part +in the story I am narrating. This was a very large and low wicker chair +of a form then coming into fashion in Oxford, and since, I am told, +become a familiar object of most college rooms. It was cushioned with a +gaudy pattern of chintz, and bought for new of an upholsterer at the +bottom of the High Street. +</p> +<p> +Mr. Gaskell was taken by his uncle to spend Easter in Rome, and +obtaining special leave from his college to prolong his travels; did not +return to Oxford till three weeks of the summer term were passed and May +was well advanced. So impatient was he to see his friend that he would +not let even the first evening of his return pass without coming round +to John's rooms. The two young men sat without lights until the night +was late; and Mr. Gaskell had much to narrate of his travels, and spoke +specially of the beautiful music which he had heard at Easter in the +Roman churches. He had also had lessons on the piano from a celebrated +professor of the Italian style, but seemed to have been particularly +delighted with the music of the seventeenth-century composers, of whose +works he had brought back some specimens set for piano and violin. +</p> +<p> +It was past eleven o'clock when Mr. Gaskell left to return to New +College; but the night was unusually warm, with a moon near the full, +and John sat for some time in a cushioned window-seat before the open +sash thinking over what he had heard about the music of Italy. Feeling +still disinclined for sleep, he lit a single candle and began to turn +over some of the musical works which Mr. Gaskell had left on the table. +His attention was especially attracted to an oblong book, bound in +soiled vellum, with a coat of arms stamped in gilt upon the side. It was +a manuscript copy of some early suites by Graziani for violin and +harpsichord, and was apparently written at Naples in the year 1744, many +years after the death of that composer. Though the ink was yellow and +faded, the transcript had been accurately made, and could be read with +tolerable comfort by an advanced musician in spite of the antiquated +notation. +</p> +<p> +Perhaps by accident, or perhaps by some mysterious direction which our +minds are incapable of appreciating, his eye was arrested by a suite of +four movements with a <i>basso continuo</i>, or figured bass, for the +harpsichord. The other suites in the book were only distinguished by +numbers, but this one the composer had dignified with the name of +"l'Areopagita." Almost mechanically John put the book on his +music-stand, took his violin from its case, and after a moment's tuning +stood up and played the first movement, a lively <i>Coranto</i>. The light of +the single candle burning on the table was scarcely sufficient to +illumine the page; the shadows hung in the creases of the leaves, which +had grown into those wavy folds sometimes observable in books made of +thick paper and remaining long shut; and it was with difficulty that he +could read what he was playing. But he felt the strange impulse of the +old-world music urging him forward, and did not even pause to light the +candles which stood ready in their sconces on either side of the desk. +The <i>Coranto</i> was followed by a <i>Sarabanda</i>, and the <i>Sarabanda</i> by a +<i>Gagliarda</i>. My brother stood playing, with his face turned to the +window, with the room and the large wicker chair of which I have spoken +behind him. The <i>Gagliarda</i> began with a bold and lively air, and as he +played the opening bars, he heard behind him a creaking of the wicker +chair. The sound was a perfectly familiar one—as of some person placing +a hand on either arm of the chair preparatory to lowering himself into +it, followed by another as of the same person being leisurely seated. +But for the tones of the violin, all was silent, and the creaking of the +chair was strangely distinct. The illusion was so complete that my +brother stopped playing suddenly, and turned round expecting that some +late friend of his had slipped in unawares, being attracted by the sound +of the violin, or that Mr. Gaskell himself had returned. With the +cessation of the music an absolute stillness fell upon all; the light of +the single candle scarcely reached the darker corners of the room, but +fell directly on the wicker chair and showed it to be perfectly empty. +Half amused, half vexed with himself at having without reason +interrupted his music, my brother returned to the <i>Gagliarda</i>; but some +impulse induced him to light the candles in the sconces, which gave an +illumination more adequate to the occasion. The <i>Gagliarda</i> and the last +movement, a <i>Minuetto</i>, were finished, and John closed the book, +intending, as it was now late, to seek his bed. As he shut the pages a +creaking of the wicker chair again attracted his attention, and he heard +distinctly sounds such as would be made by a person raising himself from +a sitting posture. This time, being less surprised, he could more aptly +consider the probable causes of such a circumstance, and easily arrived +at the conclusion that there must be in the wicker chair osiers +responsive to certain notes of the violin, as panes of glass in church +windows are observed to vibrate in sympathy with certain tones of the +organ. But while this argument approved itself to his reason, his +imagination was but half convinced; and he could not but be impressed +with the fact that the second creaking of the chair had been coincident +with his shutting the music-book; and, unconsciously, pictured to +himself some strange visitor waiting until the termination of the music, +and then taking his departure. +</p> +<p> +His conjectures did not, however, either rob him of sleep or even +disturb it with dreams, and he woke the next morning with a cooler mind +and one less inclined to fantastic imagination. If the strange episode +of the previous evening had not entirely vanished from his mind, it +seemed at least fully accounted for by the acoustic explanation to which +I have alluded above. Although he saw Mr. Gaskell in the course of the +morning, he did not think it necessary to mention to him so trivial a +circumstance, but made with him an appointment to sup together in his +own rooms that evening, and to amuse themselves afterwards by essaying +some of the Italian music. +</p> +<p> +It was shortly after nine that night when, supper being finished, Mr. +Gaskell seated himself at the piano and John tuned his violin. The +evening was closing in; there had been heavy thunder-rain in the +afternoon, and the moist air hung now heavy and steaming, while across +it there throbbed the distant vibrations of the tenor bell at Christ +Church. It was tolling the customary 101 strokes, which are rung every +night in term-time as a signal for closing the college gates. The two +young men enjoyed themselves for some while, playing first a suite by +Cesti, and then two early sonatas by Buononcini. Both of them were +sufficiently expert musicians to make reading at sight a pleasure rather +than an effort; and Mr. Gaskell especially was well versed in the theory +of music, and in the correct rendering of the <i>basso continuo</i>. After +the Buononcini Mr. Gaskell took up the oblong copy of Graziani, and +turning over its leaves, proposed that they should play the same suite +which John had performed by himself the previous evening. His selection +was apparently perfectly fortuitous, as my brother had purposely +refrained from directing his attention in any way to that piece of +music. They played the <i>Coranto</i> and the <i>Sarabanda</i>, and in the +singular fascination of the music John had entirely forgotten the +episode of the previous evening, when, as the bold air of the +<i>Gagliarda</i> commenced, he suddenly became aware of the same strange +creaking of the wicker chair that he had noticed on the first occasion. +The sound was identical, and so exact was its resemblance to that of a +person sitting down that he stared at the chair, almost wondering that +it still appeared empty. Beyond turning his head sharply for a moment to +look round, Mr. Gaskell took no notice of the sound; and my brother, +ashamed to betray any foolish interest or excitement, continued the +<i>Gagliarda</i>, with its repeat. At its conclusion Mr. Gaskell stopped +before proceeding to the minuet, and turning the stool on which he was +sitting round towards the room, observed, "How very strange, +Johnnie,"—for these young men were on terms of sufficient intimacy to +address each other in a familiar style,—"How very strange! I thought I +heard some one sit down in that chair when we began the <i>Gagliarda</i>. I +looked round quite expecting to see some one had come in. Did you hear +nothing?" +</p> +<p> +"It was only the chair creaking," my brother answered, feigning an +indifference which he scarcely felt. "Certain parts of the wicker-work +seem to be in accord with musical notes and respond to them; let us +continue with the <i>Minuetto</i>." +</p> +<p> +Thus they finished the suite, Mr. Gaskell demanding a repetition of the +<i>Gagliarda</i>, with the air of which he was much pleased. As the clocks +had already struck eleven, they determined not to play more that night; +and Mr. Gaskell rose, blew out the sconces, shut the piano, and put the +music aside. My brother has often assured me that he was quite prepared +for what followed, and had been almost expecting it; for as the books +were put away, a creaking of the wicker chair was audible, exactly +similar to that which he had heard when he stopped playing on the +previous night. There was a moment's silence; the young men looked +involuntarily at one another, and then Mr. Gaskell said, "I cannot +understand the creaking of that chair; it has never done so before, with +all the music we have played. I am perhaps imaginative and excited with +the fine airs we have heard to-night, but I have an impression that I +cannot dispel that something has been sitting listening to us all this +time, and that now when the concert is ended it has got up and gone." +There was a spirit of raillery in his words, but his tone was not so +light as it would ordinarily have been, and he was evidently ill at +ease. +</p> +<p> +"Let us try the <i>Gagliarda</i> again," said my brother; "it is the +vibration of the opening notes which affects the wicker-work, and we +shall see if the noise is repeated." But Mr. Gaskell excused himself +from trying the experiment, and after some desultory conversation, to +which it was evident that neither was giving any serious attention, he +took his leave and returned to New College. +</p> +<a name="h2HCH0002" id="h2HCH0002"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER II +</h2> +<p> +I shall not weary you, my dear Edward, by recounting similar experiences +which occurred on nearly every occasion that the young men met in the +evenings for music. The repetition of the phenomenon had accustomed them +to expect it. Both professed to be quite satisfied that it was to be +attributed to acoustical affinities of vibration between the wicker-work +and certain of the piano wires, and indeed this seemed the only +explanation possible. But, at the same time, the resemblance of the +noises to those caused by a person sitting down in or rising from a +chair was so marked, that even their frequent recurrence never failed to +make a strange impression on them. They felt a reluctance to mention the +matter to their friends, partly from a fear of being themselves laughed +at, and partly to spare from ridicule a circumstance to which each +perhaps, in spite of himself, attached some degree of importance. +Experience soon convinced them that the first noise as of one sitting +down never occurred unless the <i>Gagliarda</i> of the "Areopagita" was +played, and that this noise being once heard, the second only followed +it when they ceased playing for the evening. They met every night, +sitting later with the lengthening summer evenings, and every night, +as by some tacit understanding, played the "Areopagita" suite before +parting. At the opening bars of the <i>Gagliarda</i> the creaking of the +chair occurred spontaneously with the utmost regularity. They seldom +spoke even to one another of the subject; but one night, when John was +putting away his violin after a long evening's music without having +played the "Areopagita," Mr. Gaskell, who had risen from the pianoforte, +sat down again as by a sudden impulse and said— +</p> +<p> +"Johnnie, do not put away your violin yet. It is near twelve o'clock +and I shall get shut out, but I cannot stop to-night without playing the +<i>Gagliarda</i>. Suppose that all our theories of vibration and affinity are +wrong, suppose that there really comes here night by night some strange +visitant to hear us, some poor creature whose heart is bound up in that +tune; would it not be unkind to send him away without the hearing of +that piece which he seems most to relish? Let us not be ill-mannered, +but humour his whim; let us play the <i>Gagliarda</i>." +</p> +<p> +They played it with more vigour and precision than usual, and the now +customary sound of one taking his seat at once ensued. It was that night +that my brother, looking steadfastly at the chair, saw, or thought he +saw, there some slight obscuration, some penumbra, mist, or subtle +vapour which, as he gazed, seemed to struggle to take human form. He +ceased playing for a moment and rubbed his eyes, but as he did so all +dimness vanished and he saw the chair perfectly empty. The pianist +stopped also at the cessation of the violin, and asked what ailed him. +</p> +<p> +"It is only that my eyes were dim," he answered. +</p> +<p> +"We have had enough for to-night," said Mr. Gaskell; "let us stop. +I shall be locked out." He shut the piano, and as he did so the clock +in New College tower struck twelve. He left the room running, but was +late enough at his college door to be reported, admonished with a fine +against such late hours, and confined for a week to college; for being +out after midnight was considered, at that time at least, a somewhat +serious offence. +</p> +<p> +Thus for some days the musical practice was compulsorily intermitted, +but resumed on the first evening after Mr. Gaskell's term of confinement +was expired. After they had performed several suites of Graziani, and +finished as usual with the "Areopagita," Mr. Gaskell sat for a time +silent at the instrument, as though thinking with himself, and then +said— +</p> +<p> +"I cannot say how deeply this old-fashioned music affects me. Some would +try to persuade us that these suites, of which the airs bear the names +of different dances, were always written rather as a musical essay and +for purposes of performance than for persons to dance to, as their names +would more naturally imply. But I think these critics are wrong at least +in some instances. It is to me impossible to believe that such a melody, +for instance, as the <i>Giga</i> of Corelli which we have played, was not +written for actual purposes of dancing. One can almost hear the beat +of feet upon the floor, and I imagine that in the time of Corelli the +practice of dancing, while not a whit inferior in grace, had more of the +tripudistic or beating character than is now esteemed consistent with a +correct ball-room performance. The <i>Gagliarda</i> too, which we play now so +constantly, possesses a singular power of assisting the imagination to +picture or reproduce such scenes as those which it no doubt formerly +enlivened. I know not why, but it is constantly identified in my mind +with some revel which I have perhaps seen in a picture, where several +couples are dancing a licentious measure in a long room lit by a number +of silver sconces of the debased model common at the end of the +seventeenth century. It is probably a reminiscence of my late excursion +that gives to these dancers in my fancy the olive skin, dark hair, and +bright eyes of the Italian type; and they wear dresses of exceedingly +rich fabric and elaborate design. Imagination is whimsical enough to +paint for me the character of the room itself, as having an arcade of +arches running down one side alone, of the fantastic and paganised +Gothic of the Renaissance. At the end is a gallery or balcony for the +musicians, which on its coved front has a florid coat of arms of foreign +heraldry. The shield bears, on a field <i>or</i>, a cherub's head blowing on +three lilies—a blazon I have no doubt seen somewhere in my travels, +though I cannot recollect where. This scene, I say, is so nearly +connected in my brain with the <i>Gagliarda</i>, that scarcely are its first +notes sounded ere it presents itself to my eyes with a vividness which +increases every day. The couples advance, set, and recede, using free +and licentious gestures which my imagination should be ashamed to +recall. Amongst so many foreigners, fancy pictures, I know not in the +least why, the presence of a young man of an English type of face, whose +features, however, always elude my mind's attempt to fix them. I think +that the opening subject of this <i>Gagliarda</i> is a superior composition +to the rest of it, for it is only during the first sixteen bars that the +vision of bygone revelry presents itself to me. With the last note of +the sixteenth bar a veil is drawn suddenly across the scene, and with a +sense almost of some catastrophe it vanishes. This I attribute to the +fact that the second subject must be inferior in conception to the +first, and by some sense of incongruity destroys the fabric which the +fascination of the preceding one built up." +</p> +<p> +My brother, though he had listened with interest to what Mr. Gaskell had +said, did not reply, and the subject was allowed to drop. +</p> +<a name="h2HCH0003" id="h2HCH0003"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER III +</h2> +<p> +It was in the same summer of 1842, and near the middle of June, that my +brother John wrote inviting me to come to Oxford for the Commemoration +festivities. I had been spending some weeks with Mrs. Temple, a distant +cousin of ours, at their house of Royston in Derbyshire, and John was +desirous that Mrs. Temple should come up to Oxford and chaperone +her daughter Constance and myself at the balls and various other +entertainments which take place at the close of the summer term. Owing +to Royston being some two hundred miles from Worth Maltravers, our +families had hitherto seen little of one another, but during my present +visit I had learned to love Mrs. Temple, a lady of singular sweetness of +disposition, and had contracted a devoted attachment to her daughter +Constance. Constance Temple was then eighteen years of age, and to great +beauty united such mental graces and excellent traits of character as +must ever appear to reasoning persons more enduringly valuable than even +the highest personal attractions. She was well read and witty, and had +been trained in those principles of true religion which she afterwards +followed with devoted consistency in the self-sacrifice and resigned +piety of her too short life. In person, I may remind you, my dear +Edward, since death removed her ere you were of years to appreciate +either her appearance or her qualities, she was tall, with a somewhat +long and oval face, with brown hair and eyes. +</p> +<p> +Mrs. Temple readily accepted Sir John Maltravers' invitation. She had +never seen Oxford herself, and was pleased to afford us the pleasure of +so delightful an excursion. John had secured convenient rooms for us +above the shop of a well-known printseller in High Street, and we +arrived in Oxford on Friday evening, June 18, 1842. I shall not dilate +to you on the various Commemoration festivities, which have probably +altered little since those days, and with which you are familiar. +Suffice it to say that my brother had secured us admission to every +entertainment, and that we enjoyed our visit as only youth with its keen +sensibilities and uncloyed pleasures can. I could not help observing +that John was very much struck by the attractions of Miss Constance +Temple, and that she for her part, while exhibiting no unbecoming +forwardness, certainly betrayed no aversion to him. I was greatly +pleased both with my own powers of observation which had enabled me to +discover so important a fact, and also with the circumstance itself. +To a romantic girl of nineteen it appeared high time that a brother of +twenty-two should be at least preparing some matrimonial project; and my +friend was so good and beautiful that it seemed impossible that I should +ever obtain a more lovable sister or my brother a better wife. Mrs. +Temple could not refuse her sanction to such a scheme; for while their +mental qualities seemed eminently compatible, John was in his own right +master of Worth Maltravers, and her daughter sole heiress of the Royston +estates. +</p> +<p> +The Commemoration festivities terminated on Wednesday night with a grand +ball at the Music-Room in Holywell Street. This was given by a Lodge of +University Freemasons, and John was there with Mr. Gaskell—whose +acquaintance we had made with much gratification—both wearing blue silk +scarves and small white aprons. They introduced us to many other of +their friends similarly adorned, and these important and mysterious +insignia sat not amiss with their youthful figures and boyish faces. +After a long and pleasurable programme, it was decided that we should +prolong our visit till the next evening, leaving Oxford at half-past +ten o'clock at night and driving to Didcot, there to join the mail for +the west. We rose late the next morning and spent the day rambling among +the old colleges and gardens of the most beautiful of English cities. +At seven o'clock we dined together for the last time at our lodgings +in High Street, and my brother proposed that before parting we should +enjoy the fine evening in the gardens of St. John's College. This was +at once agreed to, and we proceeded thither, John walking on in front +with Constance and Mrs. Temple, and I following with Mr. Gaskell. My +companion explained that these gardens were esteemed the most beautiful +in the University, but that under ordinary circumstances it was not +permitted to strangers to walk there of an evening. Here he quoted some +Latin about "aurum per medios ire satellites," which I smilingly made as +if I understood, and did indeed gather from it that John had bribed the +porter to admit us. It was a warm and very still night, without a moon, +but with enough of fading light to show the outlines of the garden +front. This long low line of buildings built in Charles I's reign looked +so exquisitely beautiful that I shall never forget it, though I have not +since seen its oriel windows and creeper-covered walls. There was a very +heavy dew on the broad lawn, and we walked at first only on the paths. +No one spoke, for we were oppressed by the very beauty of the scene, and +by the sadness which an imminent parting from friends and from so sweet +a place combined to cause. John had been silent and depressed the whole +day, nor did Mr. Gaskell himself seem inclined to conversation. +Constance and my brother fell a little way behind, and Mr. Gaskell asked +me to cross the lawn if I was not afraid of the dew, that I might see +the garden front to better advantage from the corner. Mrs. Temple waited +for us on the path, not wishing to wet her feet. Mr. Gaskell pointed out +the beauties of the perspective as seen from his vantage-point, and we +were fortunate in hearing the sweet descant of nightingales for which +this garden has ever been famous. As we stood silent and listening, a +candle was lit in a small oriel at the end, and the light showing the +tracery of the window added to the picturesqueness of the scene. +</p> +<p> +Within an hour we were in a landau driving through the still warm lanes +to Didcot. I had seen that Constance's parting with my brother had been +tender, and I am not sure that she was not in tears during some part at +least of our drive; but I did not observe her closely, having my +thoughts elsewhere. +</p> +<p> +Though we were thus being carried every moment further from the sleeping +city, where I believe that both our hearts were busy, I feel as if I had +been a personal witness of the incidents I am about to narrate, so often +have I heard them from my brother's lips. The two young men, after +parting with us in the High Street, returned to their respective +colleges. John reached his rooms shortly before eleven o'clock. He was +at once sad and happy—sad at our departure, but happy in a new-found +world of delight which his admiration for Constance Temple opened to +him. He was, in fact, deeply in love with her, and the full flood of a +hitherto unknown passion filled him with an emotion so overwhelming that +his ordinary life seemed transfigured. He moved, as it were, in an ether +superior to our mortal atmosphere, and a new region of high resolves and +noble possibilities spread itself before his eyes. He slammed his heavy +outside door (called an "oak") to prevent anyone entering and flung +himself into the window-seat. Here he sat for a long time, the sash +thrown up and his head outside, for he was excited and feverish. His +mental exaltation was so great and his thoughts of so absorbing an +interest that he took no notice of time, and only remembered afterwards +that the scent of a syringa-bush was borne up to him from a little +garden-patch opposite, and that a bat had circled slowly up and down the +lane, until he heard the clocks striking three. At the same time the +faint light of dawn made itself felt almost imperceptibly; the classic +statues on the roof of the schools began to stand out against the white +sky, and a faint glimmer to penetrate the darkened room. It glistened on +the varnished top of his violin-case lying on the table, and on a jug of +toast-and-water placed there by his college servant or scout every night +before he left. He drank a glass of this mixture, and was moving towards +his bedroom door when a sudden thought struck him. He turned back, took +the violin from its case, tuned it, and began to play the "Areopagita" +suite. He was conscious of that mental clearness and vigour which not +unfrequently comes with the dawn to those who have sat watching or +reading through the night: and his thoughts were exalted by the effect +which the first consciousness of a deep passion causes in imaginative +minds. He had never played the suite with more power; and the airs, +even without the piano part, seemed fraught with a meaning hitherto +unrealised. As he began the <i>Gagliarda</i> he heard the wicker chair creak; +but he had his back towards it, and the sound was now too familiar to +him to cause him even to look round. It was not till he was playing +the repeat that he became aware of a new and overpowering sensation. +At first it was a vague feeling, so often experienced by us all, of +not being alone. He did not stop playing, and in a few seconds the +impression of a presence in the room other than his own became so strong +that he was actually afraid to look round. But in another moment he felt +that at all hazards he must see what or who this presence was. Without +stopping he partly turned and partly looked over his shoulder. The +silver light of early morning was filling the room, making the various +objects appear of less bright colour than usual, and giving to +everything a pearl-grey neutral tint. In this cold but clear light he +saw seated in the wicker chair the figure of a man. +</p> +<p> +In the first violent shock of so terrifying a discovery, he could not +appreciate such details as those of features, dress, or appearance. He +was merely conscious that with him, in a locked room of which he knew +himself to be the only human inmate, there sat something which bore a +human form. He looked at it for a moment with a hope, which he felt +to be vain, that it might vanish and prove a phantom of his excited +imagination, but still it sat there. Then my brother put down his +violin, and he used to assure me that a horror overwhelmed him of an +intensity which he had previously believed impossible. Whether the image +which he saw was subjective or objective, I cannot pretend to say: you +will be in a position to judge for yourself when you have finished this +narrative. Our limited experience would lead us to believe that it was a +phantom conjured up by some unusual condition of his own brain; but we +are fain to confess that there certainly do exist in nature phenomena +such as baffle human reason; and it is possible that, for some hidden +purposes of Providence, permission may occasionally be granted to those +who have passed from this life to assume again for a time the form of +their earthly tabernacle. We must, I say, be content to suspend our +judgment on such matters; but in this instance the subsequent course of +events is very difficult to explain, except on the supposition that +there was then presented to my brother's view the actual bodily form of +one long deceased. The dread which took possession of him was due, he +has more than once told me when analysing his feelings long afterwards, +to two predominant causes. Firstly, he felt that mental dislocation +which accompanies the sudden subversion of preconceived theories, +the sudden alteration of long habit, or even the occurrence of any +circumstance beyond the walk of our daily experience. This I have +observed myself in the perturbing effect which a sudden death, a +grievous accident, or in recent years the declaration of war, has +exercised upon all except the most lethargic or the most determined +minds. Secondly, he experienced the profound self-abasement or mental +annihilation caused by the near conception of a being of a superior +order. In the presence of an existence wearing, indeed, the human form, +but of attributes widely different from and superior to his own, he felt +the combined reverence and revulsion which even the noblest wild animals +exhibit when brought for the first time face to face with man. The shock +was so great that I feel persuaded it exerted an effect on him from +which he never wholly recovered. +</p> +<p> +After an interval which seemed to him interminable, though it was only +of a second's duration, he turned his eyes again to the occupant of the +wicker chair. His faculties had so far recovered from the first shock +as to enable him to see that the figure was that of a man perhaps +thirty-five years of age and still youthful in appearance. The face was +long and oval, the hair brown, and brushed straight off an exceptionally +high forehead. His complexion was very pale or bloodless. He was clean +shaven, and his finely cut mouth, with compressed lips, wore something +of a sneering smile. His general expression was unpleasing, and from the +first my brother felt as by intuition that there was present some malign +and wicked influence. His eyes were not visible, as he kept them cast +down, resting his head on his hand in the attitude of one listening. His +face and even his dress were impressed so vividly upon John's mind, that +he never had any difficulty in recalling them to his imagination; and he +and I had afterwards an opportunity of verifying them in a remarkable +manner. He wore a long cut-away coat of green cloth with an edge of gold +embroidery, and a white satin waistcoat figured with rose-sprigs, a +full cravat of rich lace, knee-breeches of buff silk, and stockings of +the same. His shoes were of polished black leather with heavy silver +buckles, and his costume in general recalled that worn a century ago. +As my brother gazed at him, he got up, putting his hands on the arms +of the chair to raise himself, and causing the creaking so often heard +before. The hands forced themselves on my brother's notice: they were +very white, with the long delicate fingers of a musician. He showed a +considerable height; and still keeping his eyes on the floor, walked +with an ordinary gait towards the end of the bookcase at the side of the +room farthest from the window. He reached the bookcase, and then John +suddenly lost sight of him. The figure did not fade gradually, but went +out, as it were, like the flame of a suddenly extinguished candle. +</p> +<p> +The room was now filled with the clear light of the summer morning: the +whole vision had lasted but a few seconds, but my brother knew that +there was no possibility of his having been mistaken, that the mystery +of the creaking chair was solved, that he had seen the man who had come +evening by evening for a month past to listen to the rhythm of the +<i>Gagliarda</i>. Terribly disturbed, he sat for some time half dreading and +half expecting a return of the figure; but all remained unchanged: he +saw nothing, nor did he dare to challenge its reappearance by playing +again the <i>Gagliarda</i>, which seemed to have so strange an attraction for +it. At last, in the full sunlight of a late June morning at Oxford, he +heard the steps of early pedestrians on the pavement below his windows, +the cry of a milkman, and other sounds which showed the world was awake. +It was after six o'clock, and going to his bedroom he flung himself on +the outside of the bed for an hour's troubled slumber. +</p> +<a name="h2HCH0004" id="h2HCH0004"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER IV +</h2> +<p> +When his servant called him about eight o'clock my brother sent a note +to Mr. Gaskell at New College, begging him to come round to Magdalen +Hall as soon as might be in the course of the morning. His summons was +at once obeyed, and Mr. Gaskell was with him before he had finished +breakfast. My brother was still much agitated, and at once told him what +had happened the night before, detailing the various circumstances with +minuteness, and not even concealing from him the sentiments which he +entertained towards Miss Constance Temple. In narrating the appearance +which he had seen in the chair, his agitation was still so excessive +that he had difficulty in controlling his voice. +</p> +<p> +Mr. Gaskell heard him with much attention, and did not at once reply +when John had finished his narration. At length he said, "I suppose many +friends would think it right to affect, even if they did not feel, an +incredulity as to what you have just told me. They might consider it +more prudent to attempt to allay your distress by persuading you that +what you have seen has no objective reality, but is merely the phantasm +of an excited imagination; that if you had not been in love, had not sat +up all night, and had not thus overtaxed your physical powers, you would +have seen no vision. I shall not argue thus, for I am as certainly +convinced as of the fact that we sit here, that on all the nights when +we have played this suite called the 'Areopagita,' there has been some +one listening to us, and that you have at length been fortunate or +unfortunate enough to see him." +</p> +<p> +"Do not say fortunate," said my brother; "for I feel as though I shall +never recover from last night's shock." +</p> +<p> +"That is likely enough," Mr. Gaskell answered, coolly; "for as in the +history of the race or individual, increased culture and a finer mental +susceptibility necessarily impair the brute courage and powers of +endurance which we note in savages, so any supernatural vision such +as you have seen must be purchased at the cost of physical reaction. +From the first evening that we played this music, and heard the noises +mimicking so closely the sitting down and rising up of some person, I +have felt convinced that causes other than those which we usually call +natural were at work, and that we were very near the manifestation of +some extraordinary phenomenon." +</p> +<p> +"I do not quite apprehend your meaning." +</p> +<p> +"I mean this," he continued, "that this man or spirit of a man has been +sitting here night after night, and that we have not been able to see +him, because our minds are dull and obtuse. Last night the elevating +force of a strong passion, such as that which you have confided to me, +combined with the power of fine music, so exalted your mind that you +became endowed, as it were, with a sixth sense, and suddenly were +enabled to see that which had previously been invisible. To this sixth +sense music gives, I believe, the key. We are at present only on the +threshold of such a knowledge of that art as will enable us to use it +eventually as the greatest of all humanising and educational agents. +Music will prove a ladder to the loftier regions of thought; indeed I +have long found for myself that I cannot attain to the highest range of +my intellectual power except when hearing good music. All poets, and +most writers of prose, will say that their thought is never so exalted, +their sense of beauty and proportion never so just, as when they are +listening either to the artificial music made by man, or to some of the +grander tones of nature, such as the roar of a western ocean, or the +sighing of wind in a clump of firs. Though I have often felt on such +occasions on the very verge of some high mental discovery, and though +a hand has been stretched forward as it were to rend the veil, yet it +has never been vouchsafed me to see behind it. This you no doubt were +allowed in a measure to do last night. You probably played the music +with a deeper intuition than usual, and this, combined with the +excitement under which you were already labouring, raised you for a +moment to the required pitch of mental exaltation." +</p> +<p> +"It is true," John said, "that I never felt the melody so deeply as when +I played it last night." +</p> +<p> +"Just so," answered his friend; "and there is probably some link between +this air and the history of the man whom you saw last night; some fatal +power in it which enables it to exert an attraction on him even after +death. For we must remember that the influence of music, though always +powerful, is not always for good. We can scarcely doubt that as certain +forms of music tend to raise us above the sensuality of the animal, or +the more degrading passion of material gain, and to transport us into +the ether of higher thought, so other forms are directly calculated to +awaken in us luxurious emotions, and to whet those sensual appetites +which it is the business of a philosopher not indeed to annihilate or to +be ashamed of, but to keep rigidly in check. This possibility of music +to effect evil as well as good I have seen recognised, and very aptly +expressed in some beautiful verses by Mr. Keble which I have just +read:— +</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i4"> "'Cease, stranger, cease those witching notes,</p> +<p class="i6"> The art of syren choirs;</p> +<p class="i4"> Hush the seductive voice that floats</p> +<p class="i6"> Across the trembling wires.</p> +</div> +</div> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i4"> "'Music's ethereal power was given</p> +<p class="i6"> Not to dissolve our clay,</p> +<p class="i4"> But draw Promethean beams from heaven</p> +<p class="i6"> To purge the dross away.'"</p> +</div> +</div> + +<p> +"They are fine lines," said my brother, "but I do not see how you apply +your argument to the present instance." +</p> +<p> +"I mean," Mr. Gaskell answered, "that I have little doubt that the +melody of this <i>Gagliarda</i> has been connected in some manner with the +life of the man you saw last night. It is not unlikely, either, that it +was a favourite air of his whilst in the flesh, or even that it was +played by himself or others at the moment of some crisis in his history. +It is possible that such connection may be due merely to the innocent +pleasure the melody gave him in life; but the nature of the music +itself, and a peculiar effect it has upon my own thoughts, induce me to +believe that it was associated with some occasion when he either fell +into great sin or when some evil fate, perhaps even death itself, +overtook him. You will remember I have told you that this air calls up +to my mind a certain scene of Italian revelry in which an Englishman +takes part. It is true that I have never been able to fix his features +in my mind, nor even to say exactly how he was dressed. Yet now some +instinct tells me that it is this very man whom you saw last night. It +is not for us to attempt to pierce the mystery which veils from our eyes +the secrets of an after-death existence; but I can scarcely suppose that +a spirit entirely at rest would feel so deeply the power of a certain +melody as to be called back by it to his old haunts like a dog by his +master's whistle. It is more probable that there is some evil history +connected with the matter, and this, I think, we ought to consider if it +be possible to unravel." +</p> +<p> +My brother assenting, he continued, "When this man left you, Johnnie, +did he walk to the door?" +</p> +<p> +"No; he made for the side wall, and when he reached the end of the +bookcase I lost sight of him." +</p> +<p> +Mr. Gaskell went to the bookcase and looked for a moment at the titles +of the books, as though expecting to see something in them to assist +his inquiries; but finding apparently no clue, he said— +</p> +<p> +"This is the last time we shall meet for three months or more; let us +play the <i>Gagliarda</i> and see if there be any response." +</p> +<p> +My brother at first would not hear of this, showing a lively dread of +challenging any reappearance of the figure he had seen: indeed he felt +that such an event would probably fling him into a state of serious +physical disorder. Mr. Gaskell, however, continued to press him, +assuring him that the fact of his now being no longer alone should +largely allay any fear on his part, and urging that this would be the +last opportunity they would have of playing together for some months. +</p> +<p> +At last, being overborne, my brother took his violin, and Mr. Gaskell +seated himself at the pianoforte. John was very agitated, and as he +commenced the <i>Gagliarda</i> his hands trembled so that he could scarcely +play the air. Mr. Gaskell also exhibited some nervousness, not +performing with his customary correctness. But for the first time the +charm failed: no noise accompanied the music, nor did anything of an +unusual character occur. They repeated the whole suite, but with a +similar result. +</p> +<p> +Both were surprised, but neither, had any explanation to offer. My +brother, who at first dreaded intensely a repetition of the vision, was +now almost disappointed that nothing had occurred; so quickly does the +mood of man change. +</p> +<p> +After some further conversation the young men parted for the Long +Vacation—John returning to Worth Maltravers and Mr. Gaskell going to +London, where he was to pass a few days before he proceeded to his home +in Westmorland. +</p> +<a name="h2HCH0005" id="h2HCH0005"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER V +</h2> +<p> +John spent nearly the whole of this summer vacation at Worth Maltravers. +He had been anxious to pay a visit to Royston; but the continued and +serious illness of Mrs. Temple's sister had called her and Constance to +Scotland, where they remained until the death of their relative allowed +them to return to Derbyshire in the late autumn. John and I had been +brought up together from childhood. When he was at Eton we had always +spent the holidays at Worth, and after my dear mother's death, when we +were left quite alone, the bonds of our love were naturally drawn still +closer. Even after my brother went to Oxford, at a time when most young +men are anxious to enjoy a new-found liberty, and to travel or to visit +friends in their vacation, John's ardent affection for me and for Worth +Maltravers kept him at home; and he was pleased on most occasions to +make me the partner of his thoughts and of his pleasures. This long +vacation of 1842 was, I think, the happiest of our lives. In my case I +know it was so, and I think it was happy also for him; for none could +guess that the small cloud seen in the distance like a man's hand was +afterwards to rise and darken all his later days. It was a summer of +brilliant and continued sunshine; many of the old people said that they +could never recollect so fine a season, and both fruit and crops were +alike abundant. John hired a small cutter-yacht, the <i>Palestine</i>, which +he kept in our little harbour of Encombe, and in which he and I made +many excursions, visiting Weymouth, Lyme Regis, and other places of +interest on the south coast. +</p> +<p> +In this summer my brother confided to me two secrets,—his love +for Constance Temple, which indeed was after all no secret, and the +history of the apparition which he had seen. This last filled me with +inexpressible dread and distress. It seemed cruel and unnatural that any +influence so dark and mysterious should thus intrude on our bright life, +and from the first I had an impression which I could not entirely shake +off, that any such appearance or converse of a disembodied spirit must +portend misfortune, if not worse, to him who saw or heard it. It never +occurred to me to combat or to doubt the reality of the vision; he +believed that he had seen it, and his conviction was enough to convince +me. He had meant, he said, to tell no one, and had given a promise to +Mr. Gaskell to that effect; but I think that he could not bear to keep +such a matter in his own breast, and within the first week of his +return he made me his confidant. I remember, my dear Edward, the look +everything wore on that sad night when he first told me what afterwards +proved so terrible a secret. We had dined quite alone, and he had been +moody and depressed all the evening. It was a chilly night, with some +fret blowing up from the sea. The moon showed that blunted and deformed +appearance which she assumes a day or two past the full, and the +moisture in the air encircled her with a stormy-looking halo. We had +stepped out of the dining-room windows on to the little terrace looking +down towards Smedmore and Encombe. The glaucous shrubs that grow in +between the balusters were wet and dripping with the salt breath of the +sea, and we could hear the waves coming into the cove from the west. +After standing a minute I felt chill, and proposed that we should go +back to the billiard-room, where a fire was lit on all except the +warmest nights. "No," John said, "I want to tell you something, Sophy," +and then we walked on to the old boat summer-house. There he told me +everything. I cannot describe to you my feelings of anguish and horror +when he told me of the appearance of the man. The interest of the tale +was so absorbing to me that I took no note of time, nor of the cold +night air, and it was only when it was all finished that I felt how +deadly chill it had become. "Let us go in, John," I said; "I am cold and +feel benumbed." +</p> +<p> +But youth is hopeful and strong, and in another week the impression had +faded from our minds, and we were enjoying the full glory of midsummer +weather, which I think only those know who have watched the blue sea +come rippling in at the foot of the white chalk cliffs of Dorset. +</p> +<p> +I had felt a reluctance even so much as to hear the air of the +<i>Gagliarda</i>, and though he had spoken to me of the subject on more than +one occasion, my brother had never offered to play it to me. I knew that +he had the copy of Graziani's suites with him at Worth Maltravers, +because he had told me that he had brought it from Oxford; but I had +never seen the book, and fancied that he kept it intentionally locked +up. He did not, however, neglect the violin, and during the summer +mornings, as I sat reading or working on the terrace, I often heard him +playing to himself in the library. Though he had never even given me any +description of the melody of the <i>Gagliarda</i>, yet I felt certain that he +not infrequently played it. I cannot say how it was; but from the moment +that I heard him one morning in the library performing an air set in a +curiously low key, it forced itself upon my attention, and I knew, as it +were by instinct, that it must be the <i>Gagliarda</i> of the "Areopagita." +He was using a <i>sordino</i> and playing it very softly; but I was not +mistaken. One wet afternoon in October, only a week before the time of +his leaving us to return to Oxford for the autumn term, he walked into +the drawing-room where I was sitting, and proposed that we should play +some music together. To this I readily agreed. Though but a mediocre +performer, I have always taken much pleasure in the use of the +pianoforte, and esteemed it an honour whenever he asked me to play with +him, since my powers as a musician were so very much inferior to his. +After we had played several pieces, he took up an oblong music-book +bound in white vellum, placed it upon the desk of the pianoforte, and +proposed that we should play a suite by Graziani. I knew that he meant +the "Areopagita," and begged him at once not to ask me to play it. He +rallied me lightly on my fears, and said it would much please him to +play it, as he had not heard the pianoforte part since he had left +Oxford three months ago. I saw that he was eager to perform it, and +being loath to disoblige so kind a brother during the last week of his +stay at home, I at length overcame my scruples and set out to play it. +But I was so alarmed at the possibility of any evil consequences +ensuing, that when we commenced the <i>Gagliarda</i> I could scarcely find +my notes. Nothing in any way unusual, however, occurred; and being +reassured by this, and feeling an irresistible charm in the music, I +finished the suite with more appearance of ease. My brother, however, +was, I fear, not satisfied with my performance, and compared it, very +possibly, with that of Mr. Gaskell, to which it was necessarily much +inferior, both through weakness of execution and from my insufficient +knowledge of the principles of the <i>basso continuo</i>. We stopped playing, +and John stood looking out of the window across the sea, where the sky +was clearing low down under the clouds. The sun went down behind +Portland in a fiery glow which cheered us after a long day's rain. I had +taken the copy of Graziani's suites off the desk, and was holding it on +my lap turning over the old foxed and yellow pages. As I closed it a +streak of evening sunlight fell across the room and lighted up a coat +of arms stamped in gilt on the cover. It was much faded and would +ordinarily have been hard to make out; but the ray of strong light +illumined it, and in an instant I recognised the same shield which Mr. +Gaskell had pictured to himself as hanging on the musicians' gallery of +his phantasmal dancing-room. My brother had often recounted to me this +effort of his friend's imagination, and here I saw before me the same +florid foreign blazon, a cherub's head blowing on three lilies on a gold +field. This discovery was not only of interest, but afforded me much +actual relief; for it accounted rationally for at least one item of the +strange story. Mr. Gaskell had no doubt noticed at some time this shield +stamped on the outside of the book, and bearing the impression of it +unconsciously in his mind, had reproduced it in his imagined revels. +I said as much to my brother, and he was greatly interested, and after +examining the shield agreed that this was certainly a probable solution +of that part of the mystery. On the 12th of October John returned to +Oxford. +</p> +<a name="h2HCH0006" id="h2HCH0006"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER VI +</h2> +<p> +My brother told me afterwards that more than once during the summer +vacation he had seriously considered with himself the propriety of +changing his rooms at Magdalen Hall. He had thought that it might thus +be possible for him to get rid at once of the memory of the apparition, +and of the fear of any reappearance of it. He could either have moved +into another set of rooms in the Hall itself, or else gone into lodgings +in the town—a usual proceeding, I am told, for gentlemen near the end +of their course at Oxford. Would to God that he had indeed done so! but +with the supineness which has, I fear, my dear Edward, been too +frequently a characteristic of our family, he shrank from the trouble +such a course would involve, and the opening of the autumn term found +him still in his old rooms. You will forgive me for entering here on a +very brief description of your father's sitting-room. It is, I think, +necessary for the proper understanding of the incidents that follow. It +was not a large room, though probably the finest in the small buildings +of Magdalen Hall, and panelled from floor to ceiling with oak which +successive generations had obscured by numerous coats of paint. On one +side were two windows having an aspect on to New College Lane, and +fitted with deep cushioned seats in the recesses. Outside these windows +there were boxes of flowers, the brightness of which formed in the +summer term a pretty contrast to the grey and crumbling stone, and +afforded pleasure at once to the inmate and to passers-by. Along nearly +the whole length of the wall opposite to the windows, some tenant in +years long past had had mahogany book-shelves placed, reaching to a +height of perhaps five feet from the floor. They were handsomely made +in the style of the eighteenth century and pleased my brother's taste. +He had always exhibited a partiality for books, and the fine library at +Worth Maltravers had no doubt contributed to foster his tastes in that +direction. At the time of which I write he had formed a small collection +for himself at Oxford, paying particular attention to the bindings, and +acquiring many excellent specimens of that art, principally I think, +from Messrs. Payne & Foss, the celebrated London booksellers. +</p> +<p> +Towards the end of the autumn term, having occasion one cold day to take +down a volume of Plato from its shelf, he found to his surprise that the +book was quite warm. A closer examination easily explained to him the +reason—namely, that the flue of a chimney, passing behind one end of +the bookcase, sensibly heated not only the wall itself, but also the +books in the shelves. Although he had been in his rooms now near three +years, he had never before observed this fact; partly, no doubt, because +the books in these shelves were seldom handled, being more for show as +specimens of bindings than for practical use. He was somewhat annoyed +at this discovery, fearing lest such a heat, which in moderation is +beneficial to books, might through its excess warp the leather or +otherwise injure the bindings. Mr. Gaskell was sitting with him at the +time of the discovery, and indeed it was for his use that my brother had +taken down the volume of Plato. He strongly advised that the bookcase +should be moved, and suggested that it would be better to place it +across that end of the room where the pianoforte then stood. They +examined it and found that it would easily admit of removal, being, in +fact, only the frame of a bookcase, and showing at the back the painted +panelling of the wall. Mr. Gaskell noted it as curious that all the +shelves were fixed and immovable except one at the end, which had been +fitted with the ordinary arrangement allowing its position to be altered +at will. My brother thought that the change would improve the appearance +of his rooms, besides being advantageous for the books, and gave +instructions to the college upholsterer to have the necessary work +carried out at once. +</p> +<p> +The two young men had resumed their musical studies, and had often +played the "Areopagita" and other music of Graziani since their return +to Oxford in the Autumn. They remarked, however, that the chair no +longer creaked during the <i>Gagliarda</i>—and, in fact, that no unusual +occurrence whatever attended its performance. At times they were almost +tempted to doubt the accuracy of their own remembrances, and to consider +as entirely mythical the mystery which had so much disturbed them in the +summer term. My brother had also pointed out to Mr. Gaskell my discovery +that the coat of arms on the outside of the music-book was identical +with that which his fancy portrayed on the musicians' gallery. He +readily admitted that he must at some time have noticed and afterwards +forgotten the blazon on the book, and that an unconscious reminiscence +of it had no doubt inspired his imagination in this instance. He rebuked +my brother for having agitated me unnecessarily by telling me at all of +so idle a tale; and was pleased to write a few lines to me at Worth +Maltravers, felicitating me on my shrewdness of perception, but speaking +banteringly of the whole matter. +</p> +<p> +On the evening of the 14th of November my brother and his friend were +sitting talking in the former's room. The position of the bookcase had +been changed on the morning of that day, and Mr. Gaskell had come round +to see how the books looked when placed at the end instead of at the +side of the room. He had applauded the new arrangement, and the young +men sat long over the fire, with a bottle of college port and a dish of +medlars which I had sent my brother from our famous tree in the Upper +Croft at Worth Maltravers. Later on they fell to music, and played a +variety of pieces, performing also the "Areopagita" suite. Mr. Gaskell +before he left complimented John on the improvement which the alteration +in the place of the bookcase had made in his room, saying, "Not only +do the books in their present place very much enhance the general +appearance of the room, but the change seems to me to have affected also +a marked acoustical improvement. The oak panelling now exposed on the +side of the room has given a resonant property to the wall which is +peculiarly responsive to the tones of your violin. While you were +playing the <i>Gagliarda</i> to-night, I could almost have imagined that +someone in an adjacent room was playing the same air with a <i>sordino</i>, +so distinct was the echo." +</p> +<p> +Shortly after this he left. +</p> +<p> +My brother partly undressed himself in his bedroom, which adjoined, and +then returning to his sitting-room, pulled the large wicker chair in +front of the fire, and sat there looking at the glowing coals, and +thinking perhaps of Miss Constance Temple. The night promised to be very +cold, and the wind whistled down the chimney, increasing the comfortable +sensation of the clear fire. He sat watching the ruddy reflection of the +firelight dancing on the panelled wall, when he noticed that a picture +placed where the end of the bookcase formerly stood was not truly hung, +and needed adjustment. A picture hung askew was particularly offensive +to his eyes, and he got up at once to alter it. He remembered as he went +up to it that at this precise spot four months ago he had lost sight +of the man's figure which he saw rise from the wicker chair, and at +the memory felt an involuntary shudder. This reminiscence probably +influenced his fancy also in another direction; for it seemed to him +that very faintly, as though played far off, and with the <i>sordino</i>, +he could hear the air of the <i>Gagliarda</i>. He put one hand behind the +picture to steady it, and as he did so his finger struck a very slight +projection in the wall. He pulled the picture a little to one side, and +saw that what he had touched was the back of a small hinge sunk in the +wall, and almost obliterated with many coats of paint. His curiosity +was excited, and he took a candle from the table and examined the wall +carefully. Inspection soon showed him another hinge a little further up, +and by degrees he perceived that one of the panels had been made at some +time in the past to open, and serve probably as the door of a cupboard. +At this point he assured me that a feverish anxiety to re-open this +cupboard door took possession of him, and that the intense excitement +filled his mind which we experience on the eve of a discovery which +we fancy may produce important results. He loosened the paint in the +cracks with a penknife, and attempted to press open the door; but his +instrument was not adequate to such a purpose, and all his efforts +remained ineffective. His excitement had now reached an overmastering +pitch; for he anticipated, though he knew not why, some strange +discovery to be made in this sealed cupboard. He looked round the room +for some weapon with which to force the door, and at length with his +penknife cut away sufficient wood at the joint to enable him to insert +the end of the poker in the hole. The clock in the New College Tower +struck one at the exact moment when with a sharp effort he thus forced +open the door. It appeared never to have had a fastening, but merely to +have been stuck fast by the accumulation of paint. As he bent it slowly +back upon the rusted hinges his heart beat so fast that he could +scarcely catch his breath, though he was conscious all the while of a +ludicrous aspect of his position, knowing that it was most probable +that the cavity within would be found empty. The cupboard was small but +very deep, and in the obscure light seemed at first to contain nothing +except a small heap of dust and cobwebs. His sense of disappointment was +keen as he thrust his hand into it, but changed again in a moment to +breathless interest on feeling something solid in what he had imagined +to be only an accumulation of mould and dirt. He snatched up a candle, +and holding this in one hand, with the other pulled out an object from +the cupboard and put it on the table, covered as it was with the curious +drapery of black and clinging cobwebs which I have seen adhering to +bottles of old wine. It lay there between the dish of medlars and the +decanter, veiled indeed with thick dust as with a mantle, but revealing +beneath it the shape and contour of a violin. +</p> +<a name="h2HCH0007" id="h2HCH0007"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER VII +</h2> +<p> +John was excited at his discovery, and felt his thoughts confused in a +manner that I have often experienced myself on the unexpected receipt of +news interesting me deeply, whether for pleasure or pain. Yet at the +same time he was half amused at his own excitement, feeling that it +was childish to be moved over an event so simple as the finding of a +violin in an old cupboard. He soon collected himself and took up the +instrument, using great care, as he feared lest age should have rendered +the wood brittle or rotten. With some vigorous puffs of breath and a +little dusting with a handkerchief he removed the heavy outer coating +of cobwebs, and began to see more clearly the delicate curves of the +body and of the scroll. A few minutes' more gentle handling left the +instrument sufficiently clean to enable him to appreciate its chief +points. Its seclusion from the outer world, which the heavy accumulation +of dust proved to have been for many years, did not seem to have damaged +it in the least; and the fact of a chimney-flue passing through the wall +at no great distance had no doubt conduced to maintain the air in the +cupboard at an equable temperature. So far as he was able to judge, the +wood was as sound as when it left the maker's hands; but the strings +were of course broken, and curled up in little tangled knots. The body +was of a light-red colour, with a varnish of peculiar lustre and +softness. The neck seemed rather longer than ordinary, and the scroll +was remarkably bold and free. +</p> +<p> +The violin which my brother was in the habit of using was a fine +<i>Pressenda</i>, given to him on his fifteenth birthday by Mr. Thoresby, his +guardian. It was of that maker's later and best period, and a copy of +the Stradivarius model. John took this from its case and laid it side by +side with his new discovery, meaning to compare them for size and form. +He perceived at once that while the model of both was identical, the +superiority of the older violin in every detail was so marked as to +convince him that it was undoubtedly an instrument of exceptional value. +The extreme beauty of its varnish impressed him vividly, and though he +had never seen a genuine Stradivarius, he felt a conviction gradually +gaining on him that he stood in the presence of a masterpiece of that +great maker. On looking into the interior he found that surprisingly +little dust had penetrated into it, and by blowing through the +sound-holes he soon cleared it sufficiently to enable him to discern a +label. He put the candle close to him, and held the violin up so that +a little patch of light fell through the sound-hole on to the label. +His heart leapt with a violent pulsation as he read the characters, +"<i>Antonius Stradiuarius Cremonensis faciebat</i>, 1704." Under ordinary +circumstances it would naturally be concluded that such a label was +a forgery, but the conditions were entirely altered in the case of a +violin found in a forgotten cupboard, with proof so evident of its +having remained there for a very long period. +</p> +<p> +He was not at that time as familiar with the history of the fiddles of +the great maker as he, and indeed I also, afterwards became. Thus he +was unable to decide how far the exact year of its manufacture would +determine its value as compared with other specimens of Stradivarius. +But although the Pressenda he had been used to play on was always +considered a very fine instrument both in make and varnish, his new +discovery so far excelled it in both points as to assure him that it +must be one of the Cremonese master's greatest productions. +</p> +<p> +He examined the violin minutely, scrutinising each separate feature, +and finding each in turn to be of the utmost perfection, so far as his +knowledge of the instrument would enable him to judge. He lit more +candles that he might be able better to see it, and holding it on his +knees, sat still admiring it until the dying fire and increasing cold +warned him that the night was now far advanced. At last, carrying it to +his bedroom, he locked it carefully into a drawer and retired for the +night. +</p> +<p> +He woke next morning with that pleasurable consciousness of there +being some reason for gladness, which we feel on waking in seasons of +happiness, even before our reason, locating it, reminds us what the +actual source of our joy may be. He was at first afraid lest his +excitement, working on the imagination, should have led him on the +previous night to overestimate the fineness of the instrument, and he +took it from the drawer half expecting to be disappointed with its +daylight appearance. But a glance sufficed to convince him of the +unfounded nature of his suspicions. The various beauties which he had +before observed were enhanced a hundredfold by the light of day, and he +realised more fully than ever that the instrument was one of altogether +exceptional value. +</p> +<p> +And now, my dear Edward, I shall ask your forgiveness if in the history +I have to relate any observation of mine should seem to reflect on the +character of your late father, Sir John Maltravers. And I beg you to +consider that your father was also my dear and only brother, and that it +is inexpressibly painful to me to recount any actions of his which may +not seem becoming to a noble gentleman, as he surely was. I only now +proceed because, when very near his end, he most strictly enjoined me to +narrate these circumstances to you fully when you should come of age. +We must humbly remember that to God alone belongs judgment, and that +it is not for poor mortals to decide what is right or wrong in certain +instances for their fellows, but that each should strive most earnestly +to do his own duty. +</p> +<p> +Your father entirely concealed from me the discovery he had made. It +was not till long afterwards that I had it narrated to me, and I only +obtained a knowledge of this and many other of the facts which I am now +telling you at a date much subsequent to their actual occurrence. +</p> +<p> +He explained to his servant that he had discovered and opened an old +cupboard in the panelling, without mentioning the fact of his having +found anything in it, but merely asking him to give instructions for the +paint to be mended and the cupboard put into a usable state. Before he +had finished a very late breakfast Mr. Gaskell was with him, and it has +been a source of lasting regret to me that my brother concealed also +from his most intimate and trusted friend the discovery of the previous +night. He did, indeed, tell him that he had found and opened an old +cupboard in the panelling, but made no mention of there having been +anything within. I cannot say what prompted him to this action; for the +two young men had for long been on such intimate terms that the one +shared almost as a matter of course with the other any pleasure or pain +which might fall to his lot. Mr. Gaskell looked at the cupboard with +some interest, saying afterwards, "I know now, Johnnie, why the one +shelf of the bookcase which stood there was made movable when all the +others were fixed. Some former occupant used the cupboard, no doubt, +as a secret receptacle for his treasures, and masked it with the +book-shelves in front. Who knows what he kept in here, or who he was! I +should not be surprised if he were that very man who used to come here +so often to hear us play the 'Areopagita,' and whom you saw that night +last June. He had the one shelf made, you see, to move so as to give him +access to this cavity on occasion: then when he left Oxford, or perhaps +died, the mystery was forgotten, and with a few times of painting the +cracks closed up." +</p> +<p> +Mr. Gaskell shortly afterwards took his leave as he had a lecture +to attend, and my brother was left alone to the contemplation of his +new-found treasure. After some consideration he determined that he would +take the instrument to London, and obtain the opinion of an expert as +to its authenticity and value. He was well acquainted with the late Mr. +George Smart, the celebrated London dealer, from whom his guardian, Mr. +Thoresby, had purchased the Pressenda violin which John commonly used. +Besides being a dealer in valuable instruments, Mr. Smart was a famous +collector of Stradivarius fiddles, esteemed one of the first authorities +in Europe in that domain of art, and author of a valuable work of +reference in connection with it. It was to him, therefore, that my +brother decided to submit the violin, and he wrote a letter to Mr. Smart +saying that he should give himself the pleasure of waiting on him the +next day on a matter of business. He then called on his tutor, and with +some excuse obtained leave to journey to London the next morning. He +spent the rest of the day in very carefully cleaning the violin, and +noon of the next saw him with it, securely packed, in Mr. Smart's +establishment in Bond Street. +</p> +<p> +Mr. Smart received Sir John Maltravers with deference, demanded in what +way he could serve him; and on hearing that his opinion was required on +the authenticity of a violin, smiled somewhat dubiously and led the way +into a back parlour. +</p> +<p> +"My dear Sir John," he said, "I hope you have not been led into buying +any instrument by a faith in its antiquity. So many good copies of +instruments by famous makers and bearing their labels are now afloat, +that the chances of obtaining a genuine fiddle from an unrecognised +source are quite remote; of hundreds of violins submitted to me for +opinion, I find that scarce one in fifty is actually that which it +represents itself to be. In fact the only safe rule," he added as a +professional commentary, "is never to buy a violin unless you obtain it +from a dealer with a reputation to lose, and are prepared to pay a +reasonable price for it." +</p> +<p> +My brother had meanwhile unpacked the violin and laid it on the table. +As he took from it the last leaf of silver paper he saw Mr. Smart's +smile of condescension fade, and assuming a look of interest and +excitement, he stepped forward, took the violin in his hands, and +scrutinised it minutely. He turned it over in silence for some moments, +looking narrowly at each feature, and even applying the test of a +magnifying-glass. At last he said with an altered tone, "Sir John, I +have had in my hands nearly all the finest productions of Stradivarius, +and thought myself acquainted with every instrument of note that ever +left his workshop; but I confess myself mistaken, and apologise to you +for the doubt which I expressed as to the instrument you had brought me. +This violin is of the great master's golden period, is incontestably +genuine, and finer in some respects than any Stradivarius that I have +ever seen, not even excepting the famous <i>Dolphin</i> itself. You need be +under no apprehension as to its authenticity: no connoisseur could hold +it in his hand for a second and entertain a doubt on the point." +</p> +<p> +My brother was greatly pleased at so favourable a verdict, and Mr. Smart +continued— +</p> +<p> +"The varnish is of that rich red which Stradivarius used in his best +period after he had abandoned the yellow tint copied by him at first +from his master Amati. I have never seen a varnish thicker or more +lustrous, and it shows on the back that peculiar shading to imitate wear +which we term 'breaking up.' The purfling also is of an unsurpassable +excellence. Its execution is so fine that I should recommend you to use +a magnifying-glass for its examination." +</p> +<p> +So he ran on, finding from moment to moment some new beauties to +admire. +</p> +<p> +My brother was at first anxious lest Mr. Smart should ask him whence so +extraordinary an instrument came, but he saw that the expert had already +jumped to a conclusion in the matter. He knew that John had recently +come of age, and evidently supposed that he had found the violin among +the heirlooms of Worth Maltravers. John allowed Mr. Smart to continue in +this misconception, merely saying that he had discovered the instrument +in an old cupboard, where he had reason to think it had remained hidden +for many years. +</p> +<p> +"Are there no records attached to so splendid an instrument?" asked Mr. +Smart. "I suppose it has been with your family a number of years. Do you +not know how it came into their possession?" +</p> +<p> +I believe this was the first occasion on which it had occurred to John +to consider what right he had to the possession of the instrument. He +had been so excited by its discovery that the question of ownership had +never hitherto crossed his mind. The unwelcome suggestion that it was +not his after all, that the College might rightfully prefer a claim to +it, presented itself to him for a moment; but he set it instantly aside, +quieting his conscience with the reflection that this at least was not +the moment to make such a disclosure. +</p> +<p> +He fenced with Mr. Smart's inquiry as best he could, saying that he was +ignorant of the history of the instrument, but not contradicting the +assumption that it had been a long time in his family's possession. +</p> +<p> +"It is indeed singular," Mr. Smart continued, "that so magnificent +an instrument should have lain buried so long; that even those best +acquainted with such matters should be in perfect ignorance of its +existence. I shall have to revise the list of famous instruments in the +next edition of my 'History of the Violin,' and to write," he added +smiling, "a special paragraph on the 'Worth Maltravers Stradivarius.'" +</p> +<p> +After much more, which I need not narrate, Mr. Smart suggested that +the violin should be left with him that he might examine it more at +leisure, and that my brother should return in a week's time, when he +would have the instrument opened, an operation which would be in any +case advisable. "The interior," he added, "appears to be in a strictly +original state, and this I shall be able to ascertain when opened. The +label is perfect, but if I am not mistaken I can see something higher up +on the back which appears like a second label. This excites my interest, +as I know of no instance of an instrument bearing two labels." +</p> +<p> +To this proposal my brother readily assented, being anxious to enjoy +alone the pleasure of so gratifying a discovery as that of the undoubted +authenticity of the instrument. +</p> +<p> +As he thought over the matter more at leisure, he grew anxious as to +what might be the import of the second label in the violin of which Mr. +Smart had spoken. I blush to say that he feared lest it might bear some +owner's name or other inscription proving that the instrument had not +been so long in the Maltravers family as he had allowed Mr. Smart to +suppose. So within so short a time it was possible that Sir John +Maltravers of Worth should dread being detected, if not in an absolute +falsehood, at least in having by his silence assented to one. +</p> +<p> +During the ensuing week John remained in an excited and anxious +condition. He did little work, and neglected his friends, having his +thoughts continually occupied with the strange discovery he had made. +I know also that his sense of honour troubled him, and that he was not +satisfied with the course he was pursuing. The evening of his return +from London he went to Mr. Gaskell's rooms at New College, and spent an +hour conversing with him on indifferent subjects. In the course of their +talk he proposed to his friend as a moral problem the question of the +course of action to be taken were one to find some article of value +concealed in his room. Mr. Gaskell answered unhesitatingly that he +should feel bound to disclose it to the authorities. He saw that my +brother was ill at ease, and with a clearness of judgment which he +always exhibited, guessed that he had actually made some discovery of +this sort in the old cupboard in his rooms. He could not divine, of +course, the exact nature of the object found, and thought it might +probably relate to a hoard of gold; but insisted with much urgency on +the obligation to at once disclose anything of this kind. My brother, +however, misled, I fear, by that feeling of inalienable right which the +treasure-hunter experiences over the treasure, paid no more attention to +the advice of his friend than to the promptings of his own conscience, +and went his way. +</p> +<p> +From that day, my dear Edward, he began to exhibit a spirit of +secretiveness and reserve entirely alien to his own open and honourable +disposition, and also saw less of Mr. Gaskell. His friend tried, indeed, +to win his confidence and affection in every way in his power; but in +spite of this the rift between them widened insensibly, and my brother +lost the fellowship and counsel of a true friend at a time when he could +ill afford to be without them. +</p> +<p> +He returned to London the ensuing week, and met Mr. George Smart by +appointment in Bond Street. If the expert had been enthusiastic on a +former occasion, he was ten times more so on this. He spoke in terms +almost of rapture about the violin. He had compared it with two +magnificent instruments in the collection of the late Mr. James Loding, +then the finest in Europe; and it was admittedly superior to either, +both in the delicate markings of its wood and singularly fine varnish. +"Of its tone," he said, "we cannot, of course, yet pronounce with +certainty, but I am very sure that its voice will not belie its splendid +exterior. It has been carefully opened, and is in a strangely perfect +condition. Several persons eminently qualified to judge unite with me +in considering that it has been exceedingly little played upon, and +admit that never has so intact an interior been seen. The scroll is +exceptionally bold and original. Although undoubtedly from the hand of +the great master, this is of a pattern entirely different and distinct +from any that have ever come under my observation." +</p> +<p> +He then pointed out to my brother that the side lines of the scroll were +unusually deeply cut, and that the front of it projected far more than +is common with such instruments. +</p> +<p> +"The most remarkable feature," he concluded, "is that the instrument +bears a double label. Besides the label which you have already seen +bearing '<i>Antonius Stradiuarius Cremonensis faciebat</i>,' with the date of +his most splendid period, 1704, so clearly that the ink seems scarcely +dry, there is another smaller one higher up on the back which I will +show you." +</p> +<p> +He took the violin apart and showed him a small label with characters +written in faded ink. "That is the writing of Antonio Stradivarius +himself, and is easily recognisable, though it is much firmer than +a specimen which I once saw, written in extreme old age, and giving +his name and the date 1736. He was then ninety-two, and died in the +following year. But this, as you will see, does not give his name, but +merely the two words '<i>Porphyrius philosophus</i>.' What this may refer +to I cannot say: it is beyond my experience. My friend Mr. Calvert has +suggested that Stradivarius may have dedicated this violin to the pagan +philosopher, or named it after him; but this seems improbable. I have, +indeed, heard of two famous violins being called 'Peter' and 'Paul,' +but the instances of such naming are very rare; and I believe it to be +altogether without precedent to find a name attached thus on a label. +</p> +<p> +"In any case, I must leave this matter to your ingenuity to decipher. +Neither the sound-post nor the bass-bar have ever been moved, and you +see here a Stradivarius violin wearing exactly the same appearance as +it once wore in the great master's workshop, and in exactly the same +condition; yet I think the belly is sufficiently strong to stand modern +stringing. I should advise you to leave the instrument with me for some +little while, that I may give it due care and attention and ensure its +being properly strung." +</p> +<p> +My brother thanked him and left the violin with him, saying that he +would instruct him later by letter to what address he wished it sent. +</p> +<a name="h2HCH0008" id="h2HCH0008"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER VIII +</h2> +<p> +Within a few days after this the autumn term came to an end, and in +the second week of December John returned to Worth Maltravers for +the Christmas vacation. His advent was always a very great pleasure +to me, and on this occasion I had looked forward to his company with +anticipation keener than usual, as I had been disappointed of the visit +of a friend and had spent the last month alone. After the joy of our +first meeting had somewhat sobered, it was not long before I remarked a +change in his manner, which puzzled me. It was not that he was less kind +to me, for I think he was even more tenderly forbearing and gentle than +I had ever known him, but I had an uneasy feeling that some shadow had +crept in between us. It was the small cloud rising in the distance that +afterwards darkened his horizon and mine. I missed the old candour and +open-hearted frankness that he had always shown; and there seemed to be +always something in the background which he was trying to keep from me. +It was obvious that his thoughts were constantly elsewhere, so much so +that on more than one occasion he returned vague and incoherent answers +to my questions. At times I was content to believe that he was in love, +and that his thoughts were with Miss Constance Temple; but even so, +I could not persuade myself that his altered manner was to be thus +entirely accounted for. At other times a dazed air, entirely foreign to +his bright disposition, which I observed particularly in the morning, +raised in my mind the terrible suspicion that he was in the habit of +taking some secret narcotic or other deleterious drug. +</p> +<p> +We had never spent a Christmas away from Worth Maltravers, and it had +always been a season of quiet joy for both of us. But under these +altered circumstances it was a great relief and cause of thankfulness +to me to receive a letter from Mrs. Temple inviting us both to spend +Christmas and New Year at Royston. This invitation had upon my brother +precisely the effect that I had hoped for. It roused him from his moody +condition, and he professed much pleasure in accepting it, especially as +he had never hitherto been in Derbyshire. +</p> +<p> +There was a small but very agreeable party at Royston, and we passed a +most enjoyable fortnight. My brother seemed thoroughly to have shaken +off his indisposition; and I saw my fondest hopes realised in the warm +attachment which was evidently springing up between him and Miss +Constance Temple. +</p> +<p> +Our visit drew near its close, and it was within a week of John's return +to Oxford. Mrs. Temple celebrated the termination of the Christmas +festivities by giving a ball on Twelfth-night, at which a large party +were present, including most of the county families. Royston was +admirably adapted for such entertainments, from the number and great +size of its reception-rooms. Though Elizabethan in date and external +appearance, succeeding generations had much modified and enlarged the +house; and an ancestor in the middle of the last century had built at +the back an enormous hall after the classic model, and covered it with a +dome or cupola. In this room the dancing went forward. Supper was served +in the older hall in the front, and it was while this was in progress +that a thunderstorm began. The rarity of such a phenomenon in the depth +of winter formed the subject of general remark; but though the lightning +was extremely brilliant, being seen distinctly through the curtained +windows, the storm appeared to be at some distance, and, except for one +peal, the thunder was not loud. After supper dancing was resumed, and +I was taking part in a polka (called, I remember, the "<i>King Pippin</i>"), +when my partner pointed out that one of the footmen wished to speak with +me. I begged him to lead me to one side, and the servant then informed +me that my brother was ill. Sir John, he said, had been seized with a +fainting fit, but had been got to bed, and was being attended by Dr. +Empson, a physician who chanced to be present among the visitors. +</p> +<p> +I at once left the hall and hurried to my brother's room. On the way +I met Mrs. Temple and Constance, the latter much agitated and in tears. +Mrs. Temple assured me that Dr. Empson reported favourably of my +brother's condition, attributing his faintness to over-exertion in the +dancing-room. The medical man had got him to bed with the assistance of +Sir John's valet, had given him a quieting draught, and ordered that he +should not be disturbed for the present. It was better that I should not +enter the room; she begged that I would kindly comfort and reassure +Constance, who was much upset, while she herself returned to her guests. +</p> +<p> +I led Constance to my bedroom, where there was a bright fire burning, +and calmed her as best I could. Her interest in my brother was evidently +very real and unaffected, and while not admitting her partiality for him +in words, she made no effort to conceal her sentiments from me. I kissed +her tenderly, and bade her narrate the circumstances of John's attack. +</p> +<p> +It seemed that after supper they had gone upstairs into the music-room, +and he had himself proposed that they should walk thence into the +picture-gallery, where they would better he able to see the lightning, +which was then particularly vivid. The picture-gallery at Royston is a +very long, narrow, and rather low room, running the whole length of the +south wing, and terminating in a large Tudor oriel or flat bay window +looking east. In this oriel they had sat for some time watching the +flashes, and the wintry landscape revealed for an instant and then +plunged into outer blackness. The gallery itself was not illuminated, +and the effect of the lightning was very fine. +</p> +<p> +There had been an unusually bright flash accompanied by that single +reverberating peal of thunder which I had previously noticed. Constance +had spoken to my brother, but he had not replied, and in a moment she +saw that he had swooned. She summoned aid without delay, but it was some +short time before consciousness had been restored to him. +</p> +<p> +She had concluded this narrative, and sat holding my hand in hers. We +were speculating on the cause of my brother's illness, thinking it might +be due to over-exertion, or to sitting in a chilly atmosphere as the +picture-gallery was not warmed, when Mrs. Temple knocked at the door and +said that John was now more composed and desired earnestly to see me. +</p> +<p> +On entering my brother's bedroom I found him sitting up in bed wearing a +dressing-gown. Parnham, his valet, who was arranging the fire, left the +room as I came in. A chair stood at the head of the bed and I sat down +by him. He took my hand in his and without a word burst into tears. +"Sophy," he said, "I am so unhappy, and I have sent for you to tell you +of my trouble, because I know you will be forbearing to me. An hour +ago all seemed so bright. I was sitting in the picture-gallery with +Constance, whom I love dearly. We had been watching the lightning, till +the thunder had grown fainter and the storm seemed past. I was just +about to ask her to become my wife when a brighter flash than all the +rest burst on us, and I saw—I saw, Sophy, standing in the gallery as +close to me as you are now—I saw—that man I told you about at Oxford; +and then this faintness came on me." +</p> +<p> +"Whom do you mean?" I said, not understanding what he spoke of, and +thinking for a moment he referred to someone else. "Did you see Mr. +Gaskell?" +</p> +<p> +"No, it was not he; but that dead man whom I saw rising from my wicker +chair the night you went away from Oxford." +</p> +<p> +You will perhaps smile at my weakness, my dear Edward, and indeed I had +at that time no justification for it; but I assure you that I have not +yet forgotten, and never shall forget, the impression of overwhelming +horror which his words produced upon me. It seemed as though a fear +which had hitherto stood vague and shadowy in the background, began now +to advance towards me, gathering more distinctness as it approached. +There was to me something morbidly terrible about the apparition of this +man at such a momentous crisis in my brother's life, and I at once +recognised that unknown form as being the shadow which was gradually +stealing between John and myself. Though I feigned incredulity as best +I might, and employed those arguments or platitudes which will always be +used on such occasions, urging that such a phantom could only exist in a +mind disordered by physical weakness, my brother was not deceived by my +words, and perceived in a moment that I did not even believe in them +myself. +</p> +<p> +"Dearest Sophy," he said, with a much calmer air, "let us put aside all +dissimulation. I <i>know</i> that what I have to-night seen, and that what I +saw last summer at Oxford, are <i>not</i> phantoms of my brain; and I believe +that you too in your inmost soul are convinced of this truth. Do not, +therefore, endeavour to persuade me to the contrary. If I am not to +believe the evidence of my senses, it were better at once to admit my +madness—and I know that I am not mad. Let us rather consider what such +an appearance can portend, and who the man is who is thus presented. +I cannot explain to you why this appearance inspires me with so great +a revulsion. I can only say that in its presence I seem to be brought +face to face with some abysmal and repellent wickedness. It is not that +the form he wears is hideous. Last night I saw him exactly as I saw him +at Oxford—his face waxen pale, with a sneering mouth, the same lofty +forehead, and hair brushed straight up so as almost to appear standing +on end. He wore the same long coat of green cloth and white waistcoat. +He seemed as if he had been standing listening to what we said, though +we had not seen him till this bright flash of lightning made him +manifest. You will remember that when I saw him at Oxford his eyes were +always cast down, so that I never knew their colour. This time they were +wide open; indeed he was looking full at us, and they were a light brown +and very brilliant." +</p> +<p> +I saw that my brother was exciting himself, and was still weak from his +recent swoon. I knew, too, that any ordinary person of strong mind would +say at once that his brain wandered, and yet I had a dreadful conviction +all the while that what he told me was the truth. All I could do was to +beg him to calm himself, and to reflect how vain such fancies must be. +"We must trust, dear John," I said, "in God. I am sure that so long as +we are not living in conscious sin, we shall never be given over to any +evil power; and I know my brother too well to think that he is doing +anything he knows to be evil. If there be evil spirits, as we are taught +there are, we are taught also that there are good spirits stronger than +they, who will protect us." +</p> +<p> +So I spoke with him a little while, until he grew calmer; and then we +talked of Constance and of his love for her. He was deeply pleased to +hear from me how she had shown such obvious, signs of interest in his +illness, and sincere affection for him. In any case, he made me promise +that I would never mention to her either what he had seen this night or +last summer at Oxford. +</p> +<p> +It had grown late, and the undulating beat of the dances, which had +been distinctly sensible in his room—even though we could not hear +any definite noise—had now ceased. Mrs. Temple knocked at the door as +she went to bed and inquired how he did, giving him at the same time +a kind message of sympathy from Constance, which afforded him much +gratification. After she had left I prepared also to retire; but before +going he begged me to take a prayer-book lying on the table, and to read +aloud a collect which he pointed out. It was that for the second Sunday +in Lent, and evidently well known to him. As I read it the words seemed +to bear a new and deeper significance, and my heart repeated with +fervour the petition for protection from those "evil thoughts which may +assault and hurt the soul." I bade him good night and went away very +sorrowful. Parnham, at John's request, had arranged to sleep on a sofa +in his master's bedroom. +</p> +<p> +I rose betimes the next morning and inquired at my brother's room how +he was. Parnham reported that he had passed a restless night, and on +entering a little later I found him in a high fever, slightly delirious, +and evidently not so well as when I saw him last. Mrs. Temple, with much +kindness and forethought, had begged Dr. Empson to remain at Royston for +the night, and he was soon in attendance on his patient. His verdict +was sufficiently grave: John was suffering from a sharp access of +brain-fever; his condition afforded cause for alarm; he could not answer +for any turn his sickness might take. You will easily imagine how much +this intelligence affected me; and Mrs. Temple and Constance shared my +anxiety and solicitude. Constance and I talked much with one another +that morning. Unaffected anxiety had largely removed her reserve, and +she spoke openly of her feelings towards my brother, not concealing her +partiality for him. I on my part let her understand how welcome to me +would be any union between her and John, and how sincerely I should +value her as a sister. +</p> +<p> +It was a wild winter's morning, with some snow falling and a high wind. +The house was in the disordered condition which is generally observable +on the day following a ball or other important festivity. I roamed +restlessly about, and at last found my way to the picture-gallery, +which had formed the scene of John's adventure on the previous night. +I had never been in this part of the house before, as it contained no +facilities for heating, and so often remained shut in the winter months. +I found a listless pleasure in admiring the pictures which lined the +walls, most of them being portraits of former members of the family, +including the famous picture of Sir Ralph Temple and his family, +attributed to Holbein. I had reached the end of the gallery and sat +down in the oriel watching the snow-flakes falling sparsely, and the +evergreens below me waving wildly in the sudden rushes of the wind. My +thoughts were busy with the events of the previous evening,—with John's +illness, with the ball,—and I found myself humming the air of a waltz +that had caught my fancy. At last I turned away from the garden scene +towards the gallery, and as I did so my eyes fell on a remarkable +picture just opposite to me. +</p> +<p> +It was a full-length portrait of a young man, life-size, and I had +barely time to appreciate even its main features when I knew that I had +before me the painted counterfeit of my brother's vision. The discovery +caused me a violent shock, and it was with an infinite repulsion that +I recognised at once the features and dress of the man whom John had +seen rising from the chair at Oxford. So accurately had my brother's +imagination described him to me, that it seemed as if I had myself seen +him often before. I noted each feature, comparing them with my brother's +description, and finding them all familiar and corresponding exactly. +He was a man still in the prime of life. His features were regular and +beautifully modelled; yet there was something in his face that inspired +me with a deep aversion, though his brown eyes were open and brilliant. +His mouth was sharply cut, with a slight sneer on the lips, and his +complexion of that extreme pallor which had impressed itself deeply on +my brother's imagination and my own. +</p> +<p> +After the first intense surprise had somewhat subsided, I experienced +a feeling of great relief, for here was an extraordinary explanation +of my brother's vision of last night. It was certain that the flash +of lightning had lit up this ill-starred picture, and that to his +predisposed fancy the painted figure had stood forth as an actual +embodiment. That such an incident, however startling, should have been +able to fling John into a brain-fever, showed that he must already have +been in a very low and reduced state, on which excitement would act much +more powerfully than on a more robust condition of health. A similar +state of weakness, perturbed by the excitement of his passion for +Constance Temple, might surely also have conjured up the vision which +he thought he saw the night of our leaving Oxford in the summer. +These thoughts, my dear Edward, gave me great relief; for it seemed +a comparatively trivial matter that my brother should be ill, even +seriously ill, if only his physical indisposition could explain away the +supernatural dread which had haunted us for the past six months. The +clouds were breaking up. It was evident that John had been seriously +unwell for some months; his physical weakness had acted on his brain; +and I had lent colour to his wandering fancies by being alarmed by them, +instead of rejecting them at once or gently laughing them away as I +should have done. But these glad thoughts took me too far, and I was +suddenly brought up by a reflection that did not admit of so simple an +explanation. If the man's form my brother saw at Oxford were merely an +effort of disordered imagination, how was it that he had been able to +describe it exactly like that represented in this picture? He had never +in his life been to Royston, therefore he could have no image of the +picture impressed unconsciously on or hidden away in his mind. Yet his +description had never varied. It had been so close as to enable me to +produce in my fancy a vivid representation of the man he had seen; and +here I had before me the features and dress exactly reproduced. In the +presence of a coincidence so extraordinary reason stood confounded, and +I knew not what to think. I walked nearer to the picture and scrutinised +it closely. +</p> +<p> +The dress corresponded in every detail with that which my brother had +described the figure as wearing at Oxford: a long cut-away coat of green +cloth with an edge of gold embroidery, a white satin waistcoat with +sprigs of embroidered roses, gold-lace at the pocket-holes, buff silk +knee-breeches, and low down on the finely modelled neck a full cravat +of rich lace. The figure was posed negligently against a fluted stone +pedestal or short column on which the left elbow leant, and the right +foot was crossed lightly over the left. His shoes were of polished +black leather with heavy silver buckles, and the whole costume was very +old-fashioned, and such as I had only seen worn at fancy dress balls. On +the foot of the pedestal was the painter's name, "BATTONI pinxit, Romæ, +1750." On the top of the pedestal, and under his left elbow, was a long +roll apparently of music, of which one end, unfolded, hung over the +edge. +</p> +<p> +For some minutes I stood still gazing at this portrait which so much +astonished me, but turned on hearing footsteps in the gallery, and saw +Constance, who had come to seek for me. +</p> +<p> +"Constance," I said, "whose portrait is this? It is a very striking +picture, is it not?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, it is a splendid painting, though of a very bad man. His name was +Adrian Temple, and he once owned Royston. I do not know much about him, +but I believe he was very wicked and very clever. My mother would be +able to tell you more. It is a picture we none of us like, although so +finely painted; and perhaps because he was always pointed out to me from +childhood as a bad man, I have myself an aversion to it. It is singular +that when the very bright flash of lightning came last night while your +brother John and I were sitting here, it lit this picture with a +dazzling glare that made the figure stand out so strangely as to seem +almost alive. It was just after that I found that John had fainted." +</p> +<p> +The memory was not a pleasant one for either of us and we changed the +subject. "Come," I said, "let us leave the gallery, it is very cold +here." +</p> +<p> +Though I said nothing more at the time, her words had made a great +impression on me. It was so strange that, even with the little she knew +of this Adrian Temple, she should speak at once of his notoriously evil +life, and of her personal dislike to the picture. Remembering what my +brother had said on the previous night, that in the presence of this man +he felt himself brought face to face with some indescribable wickedness, +I could not but be surprised at the coincidence. The whole story seemed +to me now to resemble one of those puzzle pictures or maps which I have +played with as a child, where each bit fits into some other until the +outline is complete. It was as if I were finding the pieces one by one +of a bygone history, and fitting them to one another until some terrible +whole should be gradually built up and stand out in its complete +deformity. +</p> +<p> +Dr. Empson spoke gravely of John's illness, and entertained without +reluctance the proposal of Mrs. Temple, that Dr. Dobie, a celebrated +physician in Derby, should be summoned to a consultation. Dr. Dobie came +more than once, and was at last able to report an amendment in John's +condition, though both the doctors absolutely forbade anyone to visit +him, and said that under the most favourable circumstances a period of +some weeks must elapse before he could be moved. +</p> +<p> +Mrs. Temple invited me to remain at Royston until my brother should be +sufficiently convalescent to be moved; and both she and Constance, while +regretting the cause, were good enough to express themselves pleased +that accident should detain me so long with them. +</p> +<p> +As the reports of the doctors became gradually more favourable, and our +minds were in consequence more free to turn to other subjects, I spoke +to Mrs. Temple one day about the picture, saying that it interested me, +and asking for some particulars as to the life of Adrian Temple. +</p> +<p> +"My dear child," she said, "I had rather that you should not exhibit +any curiosity as to this man, whom I wish that we had not to call an +ancestor. I know little of him myself, and indeed his life was of such +a nature as no woman, much less a young girl, would desire to be well +acquainted with. He was, I believe, a man of remarkable talent, and +spent most of his time between Oxford and Italy, though he visited +Royston occasionally, and built the large hall here, which we use as a +dancing-room. Before he was twenty wild stories were prevalent as to his +licentious life, and by thirty his name was a by-word among sober and +upright people. He had constantly with him at Oxford and on his travels +a boon companion called Jocelyn, who aided him in his wickednesses, +until on one of their Italian tours Jocelyn left him suddenly and became +a Trappist monk. It was currently reported that some wild deed of Adrian +Temple had shocked even him, and so outraged his surviving instincts of +common humanity that he was snatched as a brand from the burning and +enabled to turn back even in the full tide of his wickedness. However +that may be, Adrian went on in his evil course without him, and about +four years after disappeared. He was last heard of in Naples, and it is +believed that he succumbed during a violent outbreak of the plague which +took place in Italy in the autumn of 1752. That is all I shall tell you +of him, and indeed I know little more myself. The only good trait that +has been handed down concerning him is that he was a masterly musician, +performing admirably upon the violin, which he had studied under the +illustrious Tartini himself. Yet even his art of music, if tradition +speaks the truth, was put by him to the basest of uses." +</p> +<p> +I apologised for my indiscretion in asking her about an unpleasant +subject, and at the same time thanked her for what she had seen fit to +tell me, professing myself much interested, as indeed I really was. +</p> +<p> +"Was he a handsome man?" +</p> +<p> +"That is a girl's question," she answered, smiling. "He is said to +have been very handsome; and indeed his picture, painted after his +first youth was past, would still lead one to suppose so. But his +complexion was spoiled, it is said, and turned to deadly white by +certain experiments, which it is neither possible nor seemly for us to +understand. His face is of that long oval shape of which all the Temples +are proud, and he had brown eyes: we sometimes tease Constance, saying +she is like Adrian." +</p> +<p> +It was indeed true, as I remembered after Mrs. Temple had pointed it +out, that Constance had a peculiarly long and oval face. It gave her, I +think, an air of staid and placid beauty, which formed in my eyes, and +perhaps in John's also, one of her greatest attractions. +</p> +<p> +"I do not like even his picture," Mrs. Temple continued, "and strange +tales have been narrated of it by idle servants which are not worth +repeating. I have sometimes thought of destroying it; but my late +husband, being a Temple, would never hear of this, or even of removing +it from its present place in the gallery; and I should be loath to do +anything now contrary to his wishes, once so strongly expressed. It is, +besides, very perfect from an artistic point of view, being painted by +Battoni, and in his happiest manner." +</p> +<p> +I could never glean more from Mrs. Temple; but what she told me +interested me deeply. It seemed another link in the chain, though +I could scarcely tell why, that Adrian Temple should be so great a +musician and violinist. I had, I fancy, a dim idea of that malign and +outlawed spirit sitting alone in darkness for a hundred years, until he +was called back by the sweet tones of the Italian music, and the lilt of +the "Areopagita" that he had loved so long ago. +</p> +<a name="h2HCH0009" id="h2HCH0009"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER IX +</h2> +<p> +John's recovery, though continuous and satisfactory, was but slow; +and it was not until Easter, which fell early, that his health was +pronounced to be entirely re-established. The last few weeks of his +convalescence had proved to all of us a time of thankful and tranquil +enjoyment. If I may judge from my own experience, there are few epochs +in our life more favourable to the growth of sentiments of affection +and piety, or more full of pleasurable content, than is the period of +gradual recovery from serious illness. The chastening effect of our +recent sickness has not yet passed away, and we are at once grateful to +our Creator for preserving us, and to our friends for the countless acts +of watchful kindness which it is the peculiar property of illness to +evoke. +</p> +<p> +No mother ever nursed a son more tenderly than did Mrs. Temple nurse +my brother, and before his restoration to health was complete the +attachment between him and Constance had ripened into a formal +betrothal. Such an alliance was, as I have before explained, +particularly suitable, and its prospect afforded the most lively +pleasure to all those concerned. The month of March had been unusually +mild, and Royston being situated in a valley, as is the case with most +houses of that date, was well sheltered from cold winds. It had, +moreover, a south aspect, and as my brother gradually gathered strength, +Constance and he and I would often sit out of doors in the soft spring +mornings. We put an easy-chair with many cushions for him on the gravel +by the front door, where the warmth of the sun was reflected from the +red brick walls, and he would at times read aloud to us while we were +engaged with our crochet-work. Mr. Tennyson had just published +anonymously a first volume of poems, and the sober dignity of his verse +well suited our frame of mind at that time. The memory of those pleasant +spring mornings, my dear Edward, has not yet passed away, and I can +still smell the sweet moist scent of the violets, and see the bright +colours of the crocus-flowers in the parterres in front of us. +</p> +<p> +John's mind seemed to be gathering strength with his body. He had +apparently flung off the cloud which had overshadowed him before his +illness, and avoided entirely any reference to those unpleasant events +which had been previously so constantly in his thoughts. I had, indeed, +taken an early opportunity of telling him of my discovery of the picture +of Adrian Temple, as I thought it would tend to show him that at least +the last appearance of this ghostly form admitted of a rational +explanation. He seemed glad to hear of this, but did not exhibit the +same interest in the matter that I had expected, and allowed it at once +to drop. Whether through lack of interest, or from a lingering dislike +to revisit the spot where he was seized with illness, he did not, I +believe, once enter the picture-gallery before he left Royston. +</p> +<p> +I cannot say as much for myself. The picture of Adrian Temple exerted +a curious fascination over me, and I constantly took an opportunity of +studying it. It was, indeed, a beautiful work; and perhaps because +John's recovery gave a more cheerful tone to my thoughts, or perhaps +from the power of custom to dull even the keenest antipathies, I +gradually got to lose much of the feeling of aversion which it had at +first inspired. In time the unpleasant look grew less unpleasing, and +I noticed more the beautiful oval of the face, the brown eyes, and the +fine chiselling of the features. Sometimes, too, I felt a deep pity for +so clever a gentleman who had died young, and whose life, were it ever +so wicked, must often have been also lonely and bitter. More than once +I had been discovered by Mrs. Temple or Constance sitting looking at the +picture, and they had gently laughed at me, saying that I had fallen in +love with Adrian Temple. +</p> +<p> +One morning in early April, when the sun was streaming brightly through +the oriel, and the picture received a fuller light than usual, it +occurred to me to examine closely the scroll of music painted as hanging +over the top of the pedestal on which the figure leant. I had hitherto +thought that the signs depicted on it were merely such as painters might +conventionally use to represent a piece of musical notation. This has +generally been the case, I think, in such pictures as I have ever seen +in which a piece of music has been introduced. I mean that while the +painting gives a general representation of the musical staves, no +attempt is ever made to paint any definite notes such as would enable an +actual piece to be identified. Though, as I write this, I do remember +that on the monument to Handel in Westminster Abbey there is represented +a musical scroll similar to that in Adrian Temple's picture, but +actually sculptured with the opening phrase of the majestic melody, +"I know that my Redeemer liveth." +</p> +<p> +On this morning, then, at Royston I thought I perceived that there were +painted on the scroll actual musical staves, bars, and notes; and my +interest being excited, I stood upon a chair so as better to examine +them. Though time had somewhat obscured this portion of the picture as +with a veil or film, yet I made out that the painter had intended to +depict some definite piece of music. In another moment I saw that the +air represented consisted of the opening bars of the <i>Gagliarda</i> in the +suite by Graziani with which my brother and I were so well acquainted. +Though I believe that I had not seen the volume of music in which that +piece was contained more than twice, yet the melody was very familiar +to me, and I had no difficulty whatever in making myself sure that I had +here before me the air of the <i>Gagliarda</i> and none other. It was true +that it was only roughly painted, but to one who knew the tune there was +no room left for doubt. +</p> +<p> +Here was a new cause, I will not say for surprise, but for reflection. +It might, of course, have been merely a coincidence that the artist +should have chosen to paint in this picture this particular piece of +music; but it seemed more probable that it had actually been a favourite +air of Adrian Temple, and that he had chosen deliberately to have it +represented with him. This discovery I kept entirely to myself, not +thinking it wise to communicate it to my brother, lest by doing so I +might reawaken his interest in a subject which I hoped he had finally +dismissed from his thoughts. +</p> +<p> +In the second week of April the happy party at Royston was dispersed, +John returning to Oxford for the summer term, Mrs. Temple making a short +visit to Scotland, and Constance coming to Worth Maltravers to keep me +company for a time. +</p> +<p> +It was John's last term at Oxford. He expected to take his degree in +June, and his marriage with Constance Temple had been provisionally +arranged for the September following. He returned to Magdalen Hall +in the best of spirits, and found his rooms looking cheerful with +well-filled flower-boxes in the windows. I shall not detain you with any +long narration of the events of the term, as they have no relation to +the present history. I will only say that I believe my brother applied +himself diligently to his studies, and took his amusement mostly on +horseback, riding two horses which he had had sent to him from Worth +Maltravers. +</p> +<p> +About the second week after his return he received a letter from Mr. +George Smart to the effect that the Stradivarius violin was now in +complete order. Subsequent examination, Mr. Smart wrote, and the +unanimous verdict of connoisseurs whom he had consulted, had merely +confirmed the views he had at first expressed—namely, that the violin +was of the finest quality, and that my brother had in his possession a +unique and intact example of Stradivarius's best period. He had had it +properly strung; and as the bass-bar had never been moved, and was of +a stronger nature than that usual at the period of its manufacture, he +had considered it unnecessary to replace it. If any signs should become +visible of its being inadequate to support the tension of modern +stringing, another could be easily substituted for it at a later date. +He had allowed a young German <i>virtuoso</i> to play on it, and though this +gentleman was one of the first living performers, and had had an +opportunity of handling many splendid instruments, he assured Mr. Smart +that he had never performed on one that could in any way compare with +this. My brother wrote in reply thanking him, and begging that the +violin might be sent to Magdalen Hall. +</p> +<p> +The pleasant musical evenings, however, which John had formerly +been used to spend in the company of Mr. Gaskell were now entirely +pretermitted. For though there was no cause for any diminution of +friendship between them, and though on Mr. Gaskell's part there was an +ardent desire to maintain their former intimacy, yet the two young men +saw less and less of one another, until their intercourse was confined +to an accidental greeting in the street. I believe that during all this +time my brother played very frequently on the Stradivarius violin, +but always alone. Its very possession seemed to have engendered from +the first in his mind a secretive tendency which, as I have already +observed, was entirely alien to his real disposition. As he had +concealed its discovery from his sister, so he had also from his friend, +and Mr. Gaskell remained in complete ignorance of the existence of such +an instrument. +</p> +<p> +On the evening of its arrival from London, John seems to have carefully +unpacked the violin and tried it with a new bow of Tourte's make which +he had purchased of Mr. Smart. He had shut the heavy outside door of his +room before beginning to play, so that no one might enter unawares; and +he told me afterwards that though he had naturally expected from the +instrument a very fine tone, yet its actual merits so far exceeded his +anticipations as entirely to overwhelm him. The sound issued from it +in a volume of such depth and purity as to give an impression of the +passages being chorded, or even of another violin being played at the +same time. He had had, of course, no opportunity of practising during +his illness, and so expected to find his skill with the bow somewhat +diminished; but he perceived, on the contrary, that his performance was +greatly improved, and that he was playing with a mastery and feeling +of which he had never before been conscious. While attributing this +improvement very largely to the beauty of the instrument on which he was +performing, yet he could not but believe that by his illness, or in some +other unexplained way, he had actually acquired a greater freedom of +wrist and fluency of expression, with which reflection he was not a +little elated. He had had a lock fixed on the cupboard in which he had +originally found the violin, and here he carefully deposited it on each +occasion after playing, before he opened the outer door of his room. +</p> +<p> +So the summer term passed away. The examinations had come in their due +time, and were now over. Both the young men had submitted themselves +to the ordeal, and while neither would of course have admitted as +much to anyone else, both felt secretly that they had no reason to be +dissatisfied with their performance. The results would not be published +for some weeks to come. The last night of the term had arrived, the last +night too of John's Oxford career. It was near nine o'clock, but still +quite light, and the rich orange glow of sunset had not yet left the +sky. The air was warm and sultry, as on that eventful evening when just +a year ago he had for the first time seen the figure or the illusion +of the figure of Adrian Temple. Since that time he had played the +"Areopagita" many, many times; but there had never been any reappearance +of that form, nor even had the once familiar creaking of the wicker +chair ever made itself heard. As he sat alone in his room, thinking with +a natural melancholy that he had seen the sun set for the last time on +his student life, and reflecting on the possibilities of the future +and perhaps on opportunities wasted in the past, the memory of that +evening last June recurred strongly to his imagination, and he felt an +irresistible impulse to play once more the "Areopagita." He unlocked +the now familiar cupboard and took out the violin, and never had the +exquisite gradations of colour in its varnish appeared to greater +advantage than in the soft mellow light of the fading day. As he began +the <i>Gagliarda</i> he looked at the wicker chair, half expecting to see a +form he well knew seated in it; but nothing of the kind ensued, and he +concluded the "Areopagita" without the occurrence of any unusual +phenomenon. +</p> +<p> +It was just at its close that he heard some one knocking at the outer +door. He hurriedly locked away the violin and opened the "oak." It was +Mr. Gaskell. He came in rather awkwardly, as though not sure whether he +would be welcomed. +</p> +<p> +"Johnnie," he began, and stopped. +</p> +<p> +The force of ancient habit sometimes, dear nephew, leads us unwittingly +to accost those who were once our friends by a familiar or nick-name +long after the intimacy that formerly justified it has vanished. But +sometimes we intentionally revert to the use of such a name, not wishing +to proclaim openly, as it were, by a more formal address that we are no +longer the friends we once were. I think this latter was the case with +Mr. Gaskell as he repeated the familiar name. +</p> +<p> +"Johnnie, I was passing down New College Lane, and heard the violin from +your open windows. You were playing the 'Areopagita,' and it all sounded +so familiar to me that I thought I must come up. I am not interrupting +you, am I?" +</p> +<p> +"No, not at all," John answered. +</p> +<p> +"It is the last night of our undergraduate life, the last night we shall +meet in Oxford as students. To-morrow we make our bow to youth and +become men. We have not seen much of each other this term at any rate, +and I daresay that is my fault. But at least let us part as friends. +Surely our friends are not so many that we can afford to fling them +lightly away." +</p> +<p> +He held out his hand frankly, and his voice trembled a little as he +spoke—partly perhaps from real emotion, but more probably from the +feeling of reluctance which I have noticed men always exhibit to +discovering any sentiment deeper than those usually deemed conventional +in correct society. My brother was moved by his obvious wish to renew +their former friendship, and grasped the proffered hand. +</p> +<p> +There was a minute's pause, and then the conversation was resumed, a +little stiffly at first, but more freely afterwards. They spoke on many +indifferent subjects, and Mr. Gaskell congratulated John on the prospect +of his marriage, of which he had heard. As he at length rose up to take +his departure, he said, "You must have practised the violin diligently +of late, for I never knew anyone make so rapid progress with it as you +have done. As I came along I was spellbound by your music. I never +before heard you bring from the instrument so exquisite a tone: the +chorded passages were so powerful that I believed there had been +another person playing with you. Your Pressenda is certainly a finer +instrument than I ever imagined." +</p> +<p> +My brother was pleased with Mr. Gaskell's compliment, and the latter +continued, "Let me enjoy the pleasure of playing with you once more in +Oxford; let us play the 'Areopagita.'" +</p> +<p> +And so saying he opened the pianoforte and sat down. +</p> +<p> +John was turning to take out the Stradivarius when he remembered that he +had never even revealed its existence to Mr. Gaskell, and that if he now +produced it an explanation must follow. In a moment his mood changed, +and with less geniality he excused himself, somewhat awkwardly, from +complying with the request, saying that he was fatigued. +</p> +<p> +Mr. Gaskell was evidently hurt at his friend's altered manner, and +without renewing his petition rose at once from the pianoforte, and +after a little forced conversation took his departure. On leaving he +shook my brother by the hand, wished him all prosperity in his marriage +and after-life, and said, "Do not entirely forget your old comrade, and +remember that if at any time you should stand in need of a true friend, +you know where to find him!" +</p> +<p> +John heard his footsteps echoing down the passage and made a +half-involuntary motion towards the door as if to call him back, but did +not do so, though he thought over his last words then and on a +subsequent occasion. +</p> +<a name="h2HCH0010" id="h2HCH0010"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER X +</h2> +<p> +The summer was spent by us in the company of Mrs. Temple and Constance, +partly at Royston and partly at Worth Maltravers. John had again +hired the cutter-yacht <i>Palestine</i>, and the whole party made several +expeditions in her. Constance was entirely devoted to her lover; her +life seemed wrapped up in his; she appeared to have no existence except +in his presence. +</p> +<p> +I can scarcely enumerate the reasons which prompted such thoughts, but +during these months I sometimes found myself wondering if John still +returned her affection as ardently as I knew had once been the case. +I can certainly call to mind no single circumstance which could justify +me in such a suspicion. He performed punctiliously all those thousand +little acts of devotion which are expected of an accepted lover; he +seemed to take pleasure in perfecting any scheme of enjoyment to amuse +her; and yet the impression grew in my mind that he no longer felt the +same heart-whole love to her that she bore him, and that he had himself +shown six months earlier. I cannot say, my dear Edward, how lively was +the grief that even the suspicion of such a fact caused me, and I +continually rebuked myself for entertaining for a moment a thought so +unworthy, and dismissed it from my mind with reprobation. Alas! ere long +it was sure again to make itself felt. We had all seen the Stradivarius +violin; indeed it was impossible for my brother longer to conceal it +from us, as he now played continually on it. He did not recount to us +the story of its discovery, contenting himself with saying that he had +become possessed of it at Oxford. We imagined naturally that he had +purchased it; and for this I was sorry, as I feared Mr. Thoresby, his +guardian, who had given him some years previously an excellent violin by +Pressenda, might feel hurt at seeing his present so unceremoniously laid +aside. None of us were at all intimately acquainted with the fancies of +fiddle-collectors, and were consequently quite ignorant of the enormous +value that fashion attached to so splendid an instrument. Even had +we known, I do not think that we should have been surprised at John +purchasing it; for he had recently come of age, and was in possession of +so large a fortune as would amply justify him in such an indulgence had +he wished to gratify it. No one, however, could remain unaware of the +wonderful musical qualities of the instrument. Its rich and melodious +tones would commend themselves even to the most unmusical ear, and +formed a subject of constant remark. I noticed also that my brother's +knowledge of the violin had improved in a very perceptible manner, for +it was impossible to attribute the great beauty and power of his present +performance entirely to the excellence of the instrument he was using. +He appeared more than ever devoted to the art, and would shut himself +up in his room alone for two or more hours together for the purpose of +playing the violin—a habit which was a source of sorrow to Constance, +for he would never allow her to sit with him on such occasions, as she +naturally wished to do. +</p> +<p> +So the summer fled. I should have mentioned that in July, after going up +to complete the <i>viva-voce</i> part of their examination, both Mr. Gaskell +and John received information that they had obtained "first-classes." +The young men had, it appears, done excellently well, and both had +secured a place in that envied division of the first-class which was +called "above the line." John's success proved a source of much pleasure +to us all, and mutual congratulations were freely exchanged. We were +pleased also at Mr. Gaskell's high place, remembering the kindness which +he had shown us at Oxford in the previous year. I desired to send him +my compliments and felicitations when he should next be writing to him. +I did not doubt that my brother would return Mr. Gaskell's +congratulations, which he had already received: he said, however, that +his friend had given no address to which he could write, and so the +matter dropped. +</p> +<p> +On the 1st of September John and Constance Temple were married. The +wedding took place at Royston, and by John's special desire (with which +Constance fully agreed) the ceremony was of a strictly private and +unpretentious nature. The newly married pair had determined to spend +their honeymoon in Italy, and left for the Continent in the forenoon. +</p> +<p> +Mrs. Temple invited me to remain with her for the present at Royston, +which I was very glad to do, feeling deeply the loss of a favourite +brother, and looking forward with dismay to six weeks of loneliness +which must elapse before I should again see him and my dearest +Constance. +</p> +<p> +We received news of our travellers about a fortnight afterwards, and +then heard from them at frequent intervals. Constance wrote in the best +of spirits, and with the keenest appreciation. She had never travelled +in Switzerland or Italy before and all was enchantingly novel to her. +They had journeyed through Basle to Lucerne, spending a few days in that +delightful spot, and thence proceeding by the Simplon Pass to Lugano and +the Italian lakes. Then we heard that they had gone further south than +had been at first contemplated; they had reached Rome, and were +intending to go on to Naples. +</p> +<p> +After the first few weeks we neither of us received any more letters +from John. It was always Constance who wrote, and even her letters +grew very much less frequent than had at first been the case. This was +perhaps natural, as the business of travel no doubt engrossed their +thoughts. But ere long we both perceived that the letters of our dear +girl were more constrained and formal than before. It was as if she was +writing now rather to comply with a sense of duty than to give vent to +the light-hearted gaiety and naïve enjoyment which breathed in every +line of her earlier communications. So at least it seemed to us, and +again the old suspicion presented itself to my mind, and I feared that +all was not as it should be. +</p> +<p> +Naples was to be the turning-point of their travels, and we expected +them to return to England by the end of October. November had arrived, +however, and we still had no intimation that their return journey had +commenced or was even decided on. From John there was no word, and +Constance wrote less often than ever. John, she said, was enraptured +with Naples and its surroundings; he devoted himself much to the violin, +and though she did not say so, this meant, I knew, that she was often +left alone. For her own part, she did not think that a continued +residence in Italy would suit her health; the sudden changes of +temperature tried her, and people said that the airs rising in the +evening from the bay were unwholesome. +</p> +<p> +Then we received a letter from her which much alarmed us. It was written +from Naples and dated October 25. John, she said, had been ailing of +late with nervousness and insomnia. On Wednesday, two days before the +date of her letter, he had suffered all day from a strange restlessness, +which increased after they had retired for the evening. He could not +sleep and had dressed again, telling her he would walk a little in the +night air to compose himself. He had not returned till near six in the +morning, and then was so deadly pale and seemed so exhausted that she +insisted on his keeping to his bed till she could get medical advice. +The doctors feared that he had been attacked by some strange form of +malarial fever, and said he needed much care. Our anxiety was, however, +at least temporarily relieved by the receipt of later tidings which +spoke of John's recovery; but November drew to a close without any +definite mention of their return having reached us. +</p> +<p> +That month is always, I think, a dreary one in the country. It has +neither the brilliant tints of October, nor the cosy jollity of +mid-winter with its Christmas joys to alleviate it. This year it was +more gloomy than usual. Incessant rain had marked its close, and the +Roy, a little brook which skirted the gardens not far from the house, +had swollen to unusual proportions. At last one wild night the flood +rose so high as to completely cover the garden terraces, working havoc +in the parterres, and covering the lawns with a thick coat of mud. +Perhaps this gloominess of nature's outer face impressed itself in a +sense of apprehension on our spirits, and it was with a feeling of more +than ordinary pleasure and relief that early in December we received a +letter dated from Laon, saying that our travellers were already well +advanced on their return journey, and expected to be in England a week +after the receipt by us of this advice. It was, as usual, Constance who +wrote. John begged, she said, that Christmas might be spent at Worth +Maltravers, and that we would at once proceed thither to see that all +was in order against their return. They reached Worth about the middle +of the month, and were, I need not say, received with the utmost +affection by Mrs. Temple and myself. +</p> +<p> +In reply to our inquiries John professed that his health was completely +restored; but though we could indeed discern no other signs of any +special weakness, we were much shocked by his changed appearance. He had +completely lost his old healthy and sunburnt complexion, and his face, +though not thin or sunken, was strangely pale. Constance assured us +that though in other respects he had apparently recovered, he had never +regained his old colour from the night of his attack of fever at Naples. +</p> +<p> +I soon perceived that her own spirits were not so bright as was +ordinarily the case with her; and she exhibited none of the eagerness to +narrate to others the incidents of travel which is generally observable +in those who have recently returned from a journey. The cause of this +depression was, alas! not difficult to discover, for John's former +abstraction and moodiness seemed to have returned with an increased +force. It was a source of infinite pain to Mrs. Temple, and perhaps +even more so to me, to observe this sad state of things. Constance +never complained, and her affection towards her husband seemed only to +increase in the face of difficulties. Yet the matter was one which could +not be hid from the anxious eyes of loving kinswomen, and I believe that +it was the consciousness that these altered circumstances could not +but force themselves upon our notice that added poignancy to my poor +sister's grief. While not markedly neglecting her, my brother had +evidently ceased to take that pleasure in her company which might +reasonably have been expected in any case under the circumstances of +a recent marriage, and a thousand times more so when his wife was so +loving and beautiful a creature as Constance Temple. He appeared little +except at meals, and not even always at lunch, shutting himself up for +the most part in his morning-room or study and playing continually on +the violin. It was in vain that we attempted even by means of his music +to win him back to a sweeter mood. Again and again I begged him to allow +me to accompany him on the pianoforte, but he would never do so, always +putting me off with some excuse. Even when he sat with us in the +evening, he spoke little, devoting himself for the most part to reading. +His books were almost always Greek or Latin, so that I am ignorant of +the subjects of his study; but he was content that either Constance or +I should play on the pianoforte, saying that the melody, so far from +distracting his attention, helped him rather to appreciate what he was +reading. Constance always begged me to allow her to take her place at +the instrument on these occasions, and would play to him sometimes for +hours without receiving a word of thanks, being eager even in this +unreciprocated manner to testify her love and devotion to him. +</p> +<p> +Christmas Day, usually so happy a season, brought no alleviation of +our gloom. My brother's reserve continually increased, and even his +longest-established habits appeared changed. He had been always most +observant of his religious duties, attending divine service with the +utmost regularity whatever the weather might be, and saying that it was +a duty a landed proprietor owed as much to his tenantry as himself to +set a good example in such matters. Ever since our earliest years he +and I had gone morning and afternoon on Sundays to the little church of +Worth, and there sat together in the Maltravers chapel where so many of +our name had sat before us. Here their monuments and achievements stood +about us on every side, and it had always seemed to me that with their +name and property we had inherited also the obligation to continue those +acts of piety, in the practice of which so many of them had lived and +died. It was, therefore, a source of surprise and great grief to me +when on the Sunday after his return my brother omitted all religious +observances, and did not once attend the parish church. He was not +present with us at breakfast, ordering coffee and a roll to be taken to +his private sitting-room. At the hour at which we usually set out for +church I went to his room to tell him that we were all dressed and +waiting for him. I tapped at the door, but on trying to enter found it +locked. In reply to my message he did not open the door, but merely +begged us to go on to church, saying he would possibly follow us later. +We went alone, and I sat anxiously in our seat with my eyes fixed on the +door, hoping against hope that each late comer might be John, but he +never came. Perhaps this will appear to you, Edward, a comparatively +trivial circumstance (though I hope it may not), but I assure you that +it brought tears to my eyes. When I sat in the Maltravers chapel and +thought that for the first time my dear brother had preferred in an open +way his convenience or his whim to his duty, and had of set purpose +neglected to come to the house of God, I felt a bitter grief that seemed +to rise up in my throat and choke me. I could not think of the meaning +of the prayers nor join in the singing: and all the time that Mr. +Butler, our clergyman, was preaching, a verse of a little piece of +poetry which I learnt as a girl was running in my head:— +</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"> "How easy are the paths of ill;</p> +<p class="i4"> How steep and hard the upward ways;</p> +<p class="i2"> A child can roll the stone down hill</p> +<p class="i4"> That breaks a giant's arm to raise."</p> +</div> +</div> + +<p> +It seemed to me that our loved one had set his foot upon the downward +slope, and that not all the efforts of those who would have given their +lives to save him could now hold him back. +</p> +<p> +It was even worse on Christmas Day. Ever since we had been confirmed +John and I had always taken the Sacrament on that happy morning, and +after service he had distributed the Maltravers dole in our chapel. +There are given, as you know, on that day to each of twelve old men £5 +and a green coat, and a like sum of money with a blue cloth dress to as +many old women. These articles of dress are placed on the altar-tomb of +Sir Esmoun de Maltravers, and have been thence distributed from days +immemorial by the head of our house. Ever since he was twelve years old +it had been my pride to watch my handsome brother doing this deed of +noble charity, and to hear the kindly words he added with each gift. +</p> +<p> +Alas! alas! it was all different this Christmas. Even on this holy day +my brother did not approach either the altar or the house of God. Till +then Christmas had always seemed to me to be a day given us from above, +that we might see even while on earth a faint glimpse of that serenity +and peaceful love which will hereafter gild all days in heaven. Then +covetous men lay aside their greed and enemies their rancour, then warm +hearts grow warmer, and Christians feel their common brotherhood. I can +scarcely imagine any man so lost or guilty as not to experience on that +day some desire to turn back to the good once more, as not to recognise +some far-off possibility of better things. It was thoughts free and +happy such as these that had previously come into my heart in the +service of Christmas Day, and been particularly associated with the +familiar words that we all love so much. But that morning the harmonies +were all jangled: it seemed as though some evil spirit was pouring +wicked thoughts into my ear; and even while children sang "Hark the +herald angels," I thought I could hear through it all a melody which +I had learnt to loathe, the <i>Gagliarda</i> of the "Areopagita." +</p> +<p> +Poor Constance! Though her veil was down, I could see her tears, and +knew her thoughts must be sadder even than mine: I drew her hand towards +me, and held it as I would a child's. After the service was over a new +trial awaited us. John had made no arrangement for the distribution of +the dole. The coats and dresses were all piled ready on Sir Esmoun's +tomb, and there lay the little leather pouches of money, but there was +no one to give them away. Mr. Butler looked puzzled, and approaching +us, said he feared Sir John was ill—had he made no provision for the +distribution? Pride kept back the tears which were rising fast, and +I said my brother was indeed unwell, that it would be better for Mr. +Butler to give away the dole, and that Sir John would himself visit the +recipients during the week. Then we hurried away, not daring to watch +the distribution of the dole, lest we should no longer be able to master +our feelings, and should openly betray our agitation. +</p> +<p> +From one another we no longer attempted to conceal our grief. It seemed +as though we had all at once resolved to abandon the farce of pretending +not to notice John's estrangement from his wife, or of explaining away +his neglectful and unaccountable treatment of her. +</p> +<p> +I do not think that three poor women were ever so sad on Christmas Day +before as were we on our return from church that morning. None of us had +seen my brother, but about five in the afternoon Constance went to his +room, and through the locked door begged piteously to see him. After a +few minutes he complied with her request and opened the door. The exact +circumstances of that interview she never revealed to me, but I knew +from her manner when she returned that something she had seen or heard +had both grieved and frightened her. She told me only that she had flung +herself in an agony of tears at his feet, and kneeling there, weary and +broken-hearted, had begged him to tell her if she had done aught amiss, +had prayed him to give her back his love. To all this he answered +little, but her entreaties had at least such an effect as to induce him +to take his dinner with us that evening. At that meal we tried to put +aside our gloom, and with feigned smiles and cheerful voices, from which +the tears were hardly banished, sustained a weary show of conversation +and tried to wile away his evil mood. But he spoke little; and when +Foster, my father's butler, put on the table the three-handled +Maltravers' loving-cup that he had brought up Christmas by Christmas for +thirty years, my brother merely passed it by without a taste. I saw by +Foster's face that the master's malady was no longer a secret even from +the servants. +</p> +<p> +I shall not harass my own feelings nor yours, my dear Edward, by +entering into further details of your father's illness, for such it was +obvious his indisposition had become. It was the only consolation, and +that was a sorry one, that we could use with Constance, to persuade her +that John's estrangement from her was merely the result or manifestation +of some physical infirmity. He obviously grew worse from week to week, +and his treatment of his wife became colder and more callous. We had +used all efforts to persuade him to take a change of air—to go to +Royston for a month, and place himself under the care of Dr. Dobie. Mrs. +Temple had even gone so far as to write privately to this physician, +telling him as much of the case as was prudent, and asking his advice. +Not being aware of the darker sides of my brother's ailment, Dr. Dobie +replied in a less serious strain than seemed to us convenient, but +recommended in any case a complete change of air and scene. +</p> +<p> +It was, therefore, with no ordinary pleasure and relief that we +heard my brother announce quite unexpectedly one morning in March that +he had made up his mind to seek change, and was going to leave almost +immediately for the Continent. He took his valet Parnham with him, and +quitted Worth one morning before lunch, bidding us an unceremonious +adieu, though he kissed Constance with some apparent tenderness. It was +the first time for three months, she confessed to me afterwards, that +he had shown her even so ordinary a mark of affection; and her wounded +heart treasured up what she hoped would prove a token of returning love. +He had not proposed to take her with him, and even had he done so, we +should have been reluctant to assent, as signs were not wanting that it +might have been imprudent for her to undertake foreign travel at that +period. +</p> +<p> +For nearly a month we had no word of him. Then he wrote a short note to +Constance from Naples, giving no news, and indeed, scarce speaking of +himself at all, but mentioning as an address to which she might write if +she wished, the Villa de Angelis at Posilipo. Though his letter was cold +and empty, yet Constance was delighted to get it, and wrote henceforth +herself nearly every day, pouring out her heart to him, and retailing +such news as she thought would cheer him. +</p> +<a name="h2HCH0011" id="h2HCH0011"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XI +</h2> +<p> +A month later Mrs. Temple wrote to John warning him of the state in +which Constance now found herself, and begging him to return at least +for a few weeks in order that he might be present at the time of her +confinement. Though it would have been in the last degree unkind, or +even inhuman, that a request of this sort should have been refused, yet +I will confess to you that my brother's recent strangeness had prepared +me for behaviour on his part however wild; and it was with a feeling of +extreme relief that I heard from Mrs. Temple a little later that she had +received a short note from John to say that he was already on his return +journey. I believe Mrs. Temple herself felt as I did in the matter, +though she said nothing. +</p> +<p> +When he returned we were all at Royston, whither Mrs. Temple had taken +Constance to be under Dr. Dobie's care. We found John's physical +appearance changed for the worse. His pallor was as remarkable as +before, but he was visibly thinner; and his strange mental abstraction +and moodiness seemed little if any abated. At first, indeed, he greeted +Constance kindly or even affectionately. She had been in a terrible +state of anxiety as to the attitude he would assume towards her, and +this mental strain affected prejudicially her very delicate bodily +condition. His kindness, of an ordinary enough nature indeed, seemed +to her yearning heart a miracle of condescending love, and she was +transported with the idea that his affection to her, once so sincere, +was indeed returning. But I grieve to say that his manner thawed only +for a very short time, and ere long he relapsed into an attitude of +complete indifference. It was as if his real, true, honest, and loving +character had made one more vigorous effort to assert itself,—as +though it had for a moment broken through the hard and selfish crust +that was forming around him; but the blighting influence which was at +work proved seemingly too strong for him to struggle against, and +riveted its chains again upon him with a weight heavier than before. +That there was some malefic influence, mental or physical, thus working +on him, no one who had known him before could for a moment doubt. But +while Mrs. Temple and I readily admitted this much, we were entirely +unable even to form a conjecture as to its nature. It is true that +Mrs. Temple's fancy suggested that Constance had some rival in his +affections; but we rejected such a theory almost before it was proposed, +feeling that it was inherently improbable, and that, had it been true, +we could not have remained entirely unaware of the circumstances which +had conduced to such a state of things. It was this inexplicable nature +of my brother's affliction that added immeasurably to our grief. If we +could only have ascertained its cause we might have combated it; but +as it was, we were fighting in the dark, as against some enemy who was +assaulting us from an obscurity so thick that we could not see his form. +Of any mental trouble we thus knew nothing, nor could we say that my +brother was suffering from any definite physical ailment, except that +he was certainly growing thinner. +</p> +<p> +Your birth, my dear Edward, followed very shortly. Your poor mother +rallied in an unusually short time, and was filled with rapture at the +new treasure which was thus given as a solace to her afflictions. Your +father exhibited little interest at the event, though he sat nearly half +an hour with her one evening, and allowed her even to stroke his hair +and caress him as in time long past. Although it was now the height of +summer he seldom left the house, sitting much and sleeping in his own +room, where he had a field-bed provided for him, and continually +devoting himself to the violin. +</p> +<p> +One evening near the end of July we were sitting after dinner in the +drawing-room at Royston, having the French windows looking on to the +lawn open, as the air was still oppressively warm. Though things were +proceeding as indifferently as before, we were perhaps less cast down +than usual, for John had taken his dinner with us that evening. This was +a circumstance now, alas! sufficiently uncommon, for he had nearly all +his meals served for him in his own rooms. Constance, who was once more +downstairs, sat playing at the pianoforte, performing chiefly melodies +by Scarlatti or Bach, of which old-fashioned music she knew her husband +to be most fond. A later fashion, as you know, has revived the +cultivation of these composers, but at the time of which I write their +works were much less commonly known. Though she was more than a passable +musician, he would not allow her to accompany him; indeed he never now +performed at all on the violin before us, reserving his practice +entirely for his own chamber. There was a pause in the music while +coffee was served. My brother had been sitting in an easy-chair apart +reading some classical work during his wife's performance, and taking +little notice of us. But after a while he put down his book and said, +"Constance, if you will accompany me, I will get my violin and play a +little while." I cannot say how much his words astonished us. It was +so simple a matter for him to say, and yet it filled us all with an +unspeakable joy. We concealed our emotion till he had left the room to +get his instrument, then Constance showed how deeply she was gratified +by kissing first her mother and then me, squeezing my hand but saying +nothing. In a minute he returned, bringing his violin and a music-book. +By the soiled vellum cover and the shape I perceived instantly that it +was the book containing the "Areopagita." I had not seen it for near +two years, and was not even aware that it was in the house, but I +knew at once that he intended to play that suite. I entertained an +unreasoning but profound aversion to its melodies, but at that moment +I would have welcomed warmly that or any other music, so that he would +only choose once more to show some thought for his neglected wife. He +put the book open at the "Areopagita" on the desk of the pianoforte, +and asked her to play it with him. She had never seen the music before, +though I believe she was not unacquainted with the melody, as she had +heard him playing it by himself, and once heard, it was not easily +forgotten. +</p> +<p> +They began the "Areopagita" suite, and at first all went well. The +tone of the violin, and also, I may say with no undue partiality, +my brother's performance, were so marvellously fine that though our +thoughts were elsewhere when, the music commenced, in a few seconds they +were wholly engrossed in the melody, and we sat spellbound. It was as +if the violin had become suddenly endowed with life, and was singing +to us in a mystical language more deep and awful than any human words. +Constance was comparatively unused to the figuring of the <i>basso +continuo</i>, and found some trouble in reading it accurately, especially +in manuscript; but she was able to mask any difficulty she may have had +until she came to the <i>Gagliarda</i>. Here she confessed to me her thoughts +seemed against her will to wander, and her attention became too deeply +riveted on her husband's performance to allow her to watch her own. +She made first one slight fault, and then growing nervous, another, and +another. Suddenly John stopped and said brusquely, "Let Sophy play, +I cannot keep time with you." Poor Constance! The tears came swiftly +to my own eyes when I heard him speak so thoughtlessly to her, and I was +almost provoked to rebuke him openly. She was still weak from her recent +illness; her nerves were excited by the unusual pleasure she felt in +playing once more with her husband, and this sudden shattering of her +hopes of a renewed tenderness proved more than she could bear: she put +her head between her hands upon the keyboard and broke into a paroxysm +of tears. +</p> +<p> +We both ran to her; but while we were attempting to assuage her grief, +John shut his violin into its case, took the music-book under his arm, +and left the room without saying a word to any of us, not even to the +weeping girl, whose sobs seemed as though they would break her heart. +</p> +<p> +We got her put to bed at once, but it was some hours before her +convulsive sobbing ceased. Mrs. Temple had administered to her a +soothing draught of proved efficacy, and after sitting with her till +after one o'clock, I left her at last dozing off to sleep, and myself +sought repose. I was quite wearied out with the weight of my anxiety, +and with the crushing bitterness of seeing my dearest Constance's +feelings so wounded. Yet in spite, or rather perhaps on account of my +trouble, my head had scarcely touched my pillow ere I fell into a deep +sleep. +</p> +<p> +A room in the south wing had been converted for the nonce into a +nursery, and for the convenience of being near her infant Constance now +slept in a room adjoining. As this portion of the house was somewhat +isolated, Mrs. Temple had suggested that I should keep her daughter +company, and occupy a room in the same passage, only removed a few +doors, and this I had accordingly done. I was aroused from my sleep that +night by some one knocking gently on the door of my bedroom; but it was +some seconds before my thoughts became sufficiently awake to allow me to +remember where I was. There was some moonlight, but I lighted a candle, +and looking at my watch saw that it was two o'clock. I concluded that +either Constance or her baby was unwell, and that the nurse needed my +assistance. So I left my bed, and moving to the door, asked softly who +was there. It was, to my surprise, the voice of Constance that replied, +"O Sophy, let me in." +</p> +<p> +In a second I had opened the door, and found my poor sister wearing only +her night-dress, and standing in the moonlight before me. +</p> +<p> +She looked frightened and unusually pale in her white dress and with the +cold gleam of the moon upon her. At first I thought she was walking in +her sleep, and perhaps rehearsing again in her dreams the troubles which +dogged her waking footsteps. I took her gently by the arm, saying, +"Dearest Constance, come back at once to bed; you will take cold." +</p> +<p> +She was not asleep, however, but made a motion of silence, and said in +a terrified whisper, "Hush; do you hear nothing?" There was something +so vague and yet so mysterious in the question and in her evident +perturbation that I was infected too by her alarm. I felt myself shiver, +as I strained my ear to catch if possible the slightest sound. But a +complete silence pervaded everything: I could hear nothing. +</p> +<p> +"Can you hear it?" she said again. All sorts of images of ill presented +themselves to my imagination: I thought the baby must be ill with croup, +and that she was listening for some stertorous breath of anguish; and +then the dread came over me that perhaps her sorrows had been too much +for her, and that reason had left her seat. At that thought the marrow +froze in my bones. +</p> +<p> +"Hush," she said again; and just at that moment, as I strained my ears, +I thought I caught upon the sleeping air a distant and very faint +murmur. +</p> +<p> +"Oh, what is it, Constance?" I said. "You will drive me mad;" and while +I spoke the murmur seemed to resolve itself into the vibration, felt +almost rather than heard, of some distant musical instrument. I stepped +past her into the passage. All was deadly still, but I could perceive +that music was being played somewhere far away; and almost at the same +minute my ears recognised faintly but unmistakably the <i>Gagliarda</i> of +the "Areopagita." +</p> +<p> +I have already mentioned that for some reason which I can scarcely +explain, this melody was very repugnant to me. It seemed associated in +some strange and intimate way with my brother's indisposition and moral +decline. Almost at the moment that I had heard it first two years ago, +peace seemed to have risen up and left our house, gathering her skirts +about her, as we read that the angels left the Temple at the siege of +Jerusalem. And now it was even more detestable to my ears, recalling as +it did too vividly the cruel events of the preceding evening. +</p> +<p> +"John must be sitting up playing," I said. +</p> +<p> +"Yes," she answered; "but why is he in this part of the house, and why +does he always play <i>that</i> tune?" +</p> +<p> +It was if some irresistible attraction drew us towards the music. +Constance took my hand in hers and we moved together slowly down the +passage. The wind had risen, and though there was a bright moon, her +beams were constantly eclipsed by driving clouds. Still there was light +enough to guide us, and I extinguished the candle. As we reached the end +of the passage the air of the <i>Gagliarda</i> grew more and more distinct. +</p> +<p> +Our passage opened on to a broad landing with a balustrade, and from one +side of it ran out the picture-gallery which you know. +</p> +<p> +I looked at Constance significantly. It was evident that John was +playing in this gallery. We crossed the landing, treading carefully and +making no noise with our naked feet, for both of us had been too excited +even to think of putting on shoes. +</p> +<p> +We could now see the whole length of the gallery. My poor brother sat in +the oriel window of which I have before spoken. He was sitting so as to +face the picture of Adrian Temple, and the great windows of the oriel +flung a strong light on him. At times a cloud hid the moon, and all was +plunged in darkness; but in a moment the cold light fell full on him, +and we could trace every feature as in a picture. He had evidently not +been to bed, for he was fully dressed, exactly as he had left us in the +drawing-room five hours earlier when Constance was weeping over his +thoughtless words. He was playing the violin, playing with a passion and +reckless energy which I had never seen, and hope never to see again. +Perhaps he remembered that this spot was far removed from the rest +of the house, or perhaps he was careless whether any were awake and +listening to him or not; but it seemed to me that he was playing with +a sonorous strength greater than I had thought possible for a single +violin. There came from his instrument such a volume and torrent of +melody as to fill the gallery so full, as it were, of sound that it +throbbed and vibrated again. He kept his eyes fixed on something at the +opposite side of the gallery; we could not indeed see on what, but I +have no doubt at all that it was the portrait of Adrian Temple. His gaze +was eager and expectant, as though he were waiting for something to +occur which did not. +</p> +<p> +I knew that he had been growing thin of late, but this was the first +time I had realised how sunk were the hollows of his eyes and how +haggard his features had become. It may have been some effect of +moonlight which I do not well understand, but his fine-cut face, once so +handsome, looked on this night worn and thin like that of an old man. +He never for a moment ceased playing. It was always one same dreadful +melody, the <i>Gagliarda</i> of the "Areopagita," and he repeated it time +after time with the perseverance and apparent aimlessness of an +automaton. +</p> +<p> +He did not see us, and we made no sign, standing afar off in silent +horror at that nocturnal sight. Constance clutched me by the arm: she +was so pale that I perceived it even in the moonlight. "Sophy," she +said, "he is sitting in the same place as on the first night when he +told me how he loved me." I could answer nothing, my voice was frozen +in me. I could only stare at my brother's poor withered face, realising +then for the first time that he must be mad, and that it was the +haunting of the <i>Gagliarda</i> that had made him so. +</p> +<p> +We stood there I believe for half an hour without speech or motion, and +all the time that sad figure at the end of the gallery continued its +performance. Suddenly he stopped, and an expression of frantic despair +came over his face as he laid down the violin and buried his head in his +hands. I could bear it no longer. "Constance," I said, "come back to +bed. We can do nothing," So we turned and crept away silently as we had +come. Only as we crossed the landing Constance stopped, and looked back +for a minute with a heart-broken yearning at the man she loved. He had +taken his hands from his head, and she saw the profile of his face clear +cut and hard in the white moonlight. +</p> +<p> +It was the last time her eyes ever looked upon it. +</p> +<p> +She made for a moment as if she would turn back and go to him, but her +courage failed her, and we went on. Before we reached her room we heard +in the distance, faintly but distinctly, the burden of the <i>Gagliarda</i>. +</p> +<a name="h2HCH0012" id="h2HCH0012"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XII +</h2> +<p> +The next morning, my maid brought me a hurried note written in pencil by +my brother. It contained only a few lines, saying that he found that his +continued sojourn at Royston was not beneficial to his health, and had +determined to return to Italy. If we wished to write, letters would +reach him at the Villa de Angelis: his valet Parnham was to follow him +thither with his baggage as soon as it could be got together. This was +all; there was no word of adieu even to his wife. +</p> +<p> +We found that he had never gone to bed that night. But in the early +morning he had himself saddled his horse <i>Sentinel</i> and ridden in to +Derby, taking the early mail thence to London. His resolve to leave +Royston had apparently been arrived at very suddenly, for so far as we +could discover, he had carried no luggage of any kind. I could not help +looking somewhat carefully round his room to see if he had taken the +Stradivarius violin. No trace of it or even of its case was to be seen, +though it was difficult to imagine how he could have carried it with him +on horseback. There was, indeed, a locked travelling-trunk which Parnham +was to bring with him later, and the instrument might, of course, have +been in that; but I felt convinced that he had actually taken it with +him in some way or other, and this proved afterwards to have been the +case. +</p> +<p> +I shall draw a veil, my dear Edward, over the events which immediately +followed your father's departure. Even at this distance of time the +memory is too inexpressibly bitter to allow me to do more than briefly +allude to them. +</p> +<p> +A fortnight after John's departure, we left Royston and removed to +Worth, wishing to get some sea-air, and to enjoy the late summer of the +south coast. Your mother seemed entirely to have recovered from her +confinement, and to be enjoying as good health as could be reasonably +expected under the circumstances of her husband's indisposition. But +suddenly one of those insidious maladies which are incidental to women +in her condition seized upon her. We had hoped and believed that all +such period of danger was already happily past; but, alas! it was not +so, and within a few hours of her first seizure all realised how serious +was her case. Everything that human skill can do under such conditions +was done, but without avail. Symptoms of blood-poisoning showed +themselves, accompanied with high fever, and within a week she was in +her coffin. +</p> +<p> +Though her delirium was terrible to watch, yet I thank God to this +day, that if she was to die, it pleased Him to take her while in an +unconscious condition. For two days before her death she recognised +no one, and was thus spared at least the sadness of passing from life +without one word of kindness or even of reconciliation from her unhappy +husband. +</p> +<p> +The communication with a place so distant as Naples was not then to be +made under fifteen or twenty days, and all was over before we could hope +that the intelligence even of his wife's illness had reached John. Both +Mrs. Temple and I remained at Worth in a state of complete prostration, +awaiting his return. When more than a month had passed without his +arrival, or even a letter to say that he was on his way, our anxiety +took a new turn, as we feared that some accident had befallen him, or +that the news of his wife's death, which would then be in his hands, +had so seriously affected him as to render him incapable of taking any +action. To repeated subsequent communications we received no answer; +but at last, to a letter which I wrote to Parnham, the servant replied, +stating that his master was still at the Villa de Angelis, and in a +condition of health little differing from that in which he left Royston, +except that he was now slightly paler if possible and thinner. It was +not till the end of November that any word came from him, and then he +wrote only one page of a sheet of note-paper to me in pencil, making no +reference whatever to his wife's death, but saying that he should not +return for Christmas, and instructing me to draw on his bankers for any +moneys that I might require for household purposes at Worth. +</p> +<p> +I need not tell you the effect that such conduct produced on Mrs. +Temple and myself; you can easily imagine what would have been your own +feelings in such a case. Nor will I relate any other circumstances which +occurred at this period, as they would have no direct bearing upon my +narrative. Though I still wrote to my brother at frequent intervals, as +not wishing to neglect a duty, no word from him ever came in reply. +</p> +<p> +About the end of March, indeed, Parnham returned to Worth Maltravers, +saying that his master had paid him a half-year's wages in advance, +and then dispensed with his services. He had always been an excellent +servant, and attached to the family, and I was glad to be able to offer +him a suitable position with us at Worth until his master should return. +He brought disquieting reports of John's health, saying that he was +growing visibly weaker. Though I was sorely tempted to ask him many +questions as to his master's habits and way of life, my pride forbade me +to do so. But I heard incidentally from my maid that Parnham had told +her Sir John was spending money freely in alterations at the Villa de +Angelis, and had engaged Italians to attend him, with which his English +valet was naturally much dissatisfied. +</p> +<p> +So the spring passed and the summer was well advanced. +</p> +<p> +On the last morning of July I found waiting for me on the +breakfast-table an envelope addressed in my brother's hand. I opened +it hastily. It only contained a few words, which I have before me as I +write now. The ink is a little faded and yellow, but the impression it +made is yet vivid as on that summer morning. +</p> +<p class="quote"> + "MY DEAREST SOPHY," it began,—"Come to me here at once, if possible, + or it may be too late. I want to see you. They say that I am ill, and + too weak to travel to England. +</p> +<p class="quote"> + "Your loving brother,</p> +<p class="quote"> + "JOHN." +</p> +<p> +There was a great change in the style, from the cold and conventional +notes that he had hitherto sent at such long intervals; from the stiff +"Dear Sophia" and "Sincerely yours" to which, I grieve to say, I had +grown accustomed. Even the writing itself was altered. It was more the +bold boyish hand he wrote when first he went to Oxford, than the smaller +cramped and classic character of his later years. Though it was a little +matter enough, God knows, in comparison with his grievous conduct, yet +it touched me much that he should use again the once familiar "Dearest +Sophy," and sign himself "my loving brother." I felt my heart go out +towards him; and so strong is woman's affection for her own kin, that I +had already forgotten any resentment and reprobation in my great pity +for the poor wanderer, lying sick perhaps unto death and alone in a +foreign land. +</p> +<p> +I took his note at once to Mrs. Temple. She read it twice or thrice, +trying to take in the meaning of it. Then she drew me to her and, +kissing me, said, "Go to him at once, Sophy. Bring him back to Worth; +try to bring him back to the right way." +</p> +<p> +I ordered my things to be packed, determining to drive to Southampton +and take train thence to London; and at the same time Mrs. Temple gave +instructions that all should be prepared for her own return to Royston +within a few days. I knew she did not dare to see John after her +daughter's death. +</p> +<p> +I took my maid with me, and Parnham to act as courier. At London we +hired a carriage for the whole journey, and from Calais posted direct to +Naples. We took the short route by Marseilles and Genoa, and travelled +for seventeen days without intermission, as my brother's note made me +desirous of losing no time on the way. I had never been in Italy before; +but my anxiety was such that my mind was unable to appreciate either +the beauty of the scenery or the incidents of travel. I can, in fact, +remember nothing of our journey now, except the wearisome and +interminable jolting over bad roads and the insufferable heat. It was +the middle of August in an exceptionally warm summer, and after passing +Genoa the heat became almost tropical. There was no relief even at +night, for the warm air hung stagnant and suffocating, and the inside of +my travelling coach was often like a furnace. +</p> +<p> +We were at last approaching the conclusion of our journey, and had left +Rome behind us. The day that we set out from Aversa was the hottest that +I have ever felt, the sun beating down with an astonishing power even +in the early hours, and the road being thick with a white and blinding +dust. It was soon after midnight that our carriage began rattling over +the great stone blocks with which the streets of Naples are paved. The +suburbs that we at first passed through were, I remember, in darkness +and perfect quiet; but after traversing the heart of the city and +reaching the western side, we suddenly found ourselves in the midst +of an enormous and very dense crowd. There were lanterns everywhere, +and interminable lanes of booths, whose proprietors were praising +their wares with loud shouts; and here acrobats, jugglers, minstrels, +black-vested priests, and blue-coated soldiers mingled with a vast crowd +whose numbers at once arrested the progress of the carriage. Though it +was so late of a Sunday night, all seemed here awake and busy as at +noonday. Oil-lamps with reeking fumes of black smoke flung a glare over +the scene, and the discordant cries and chattering conversation united +in so deafening a noise as to make me turn faint and giddy, wearied as I +already was with long travelling. Though I felt that intense eagerness +and expectation which the approaching termination of a tedious journey +inspires, and was desirous of pushing forward with all imaginable +despatch, yet here our course was sadly delayed. The horses could only +proceed at the slowest of foot-paces, and we were constantly brought +to a complete stop for some minutes before the post-boy could force +a passage through the unwilling crowd. This produced a feeling of +irritation, and despair of ever reaching my destination; and the mirth +and careless hilarity of the people round us chafed with bitter contrast +on my depressed spirits. I inquired from the post-boy what was the +origin of so great a commotion, and understood him to say in reply that +it was a religious festival held annually in honour of "Our Lady of +the Grotto." I cannot, however, conceive of any truly religious person +countenancing such a gathering, which seemed to me rather like the +unclean orgies of a heathen deity than an act of faith of Christian +people. This disturbance occasioned us so serious a delay, that as we +were climbing the steep slope leading up to Posilipo it was already +three in the morning and the dawn was at hand. +</p> +<p> +After mounting steadily for a long time we began to rapidly descend, and +just as the sun came up over the sea we arrived at the Villa de Angelis. +I sprang from the carriage, and passing through a trellis of vines, +reached the house. A man-servant was in waiting, and held the door open +for me; but he was an Italian, and did not understand me when I asked +in English where Sir John Maltravers was. He had evidently, however, +received instructions to take me at once to my brother, and led the way +to an inner part of the house. As we proceeded I heard the sound of a +rich alto voice singing very sweetly to a mandoline some soothing or +religious melody. The servant pulled aside a heavy curtain and I found +myself in my brother's room. An Italian youth sat on a stool near the +door, and it was he who had been singing. At a few words from John, +addressed to him in his own language, he set down his mandoline and left +the room, pulling to the curtain and shutting a door behind it. +</p> +<p> +The room looked directly on to the sea: the villa was, in fact, built +upon rocks at the foot of which the waves lapped. Through two folding +windows which opened on to a balcony the early light of the summer +morning streamed in with a rosy flush. My brother sat on a low couch +or sofa, propped up against a heap of pillows, with a rug of brilliant +colours flung across his feet and legs. He held out his arms to me, and +I ran to him; but even in so brief an interval I had perceived that he +was terribly weak and wasted. +</p> +<p> +All my memories of his past faults had vanished and were dead in that +sad aspect of his worn features, and in the conviction which I felt, +even from the first moment, that he had but little time longer to remain +with us. I knelt by him on the floor, and with my arms round his neck, +embraced him tenderly, not finding any place for words, but only sobbing +in great anguish. Neither of us spoke, and my weariness from long travel +and the strangeness of the situation caused me to feel that paralysing +sensation of doubt as to the reality of the scene, and even of my own +existence, which all, I believe, have experienced at times of severe +mental tension. That I, a plain English girl, should be kneeling here +beside my brother in the Italian dawn; that I should read, as I +believed, on his young face the unmistakable image and superscription +of death; and reflect that within so few months he had married, had +wrecked his home, that my poor Constance was no more;—these things +seemed so unrealisable that for a minute I felt that it must all be a +nightmare, that I should immediately wake with the fresh salt air of +the Channel blowing through my bedroom window at Worth, and find I had +been dreaming. But it was not so; the light of day grew stronger and +brighter, and even in my sorrow the panorama of the most beautiful spot +on earth, the Bay of Naples, with Vesuvius lying on the far side, as +seen then from these windows, stamped itself for ever on my mind. It was +unreal as a scene in some brilliant dramatic spectacle, but, alas! no +unreality was here. The flames of the candles in their silver sconces +waxed paler and paler, the lines and shadows on my brother's face grew +darker, and the pallor of his wasted features showed more striking in +the bright rays of the morning sun. +</p> +<a name="h2HCH0013" id="h2HCH0013"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XIII +</h2> +<p> +I had spent near a week at the Villa de Angelis. John's manner to me +was most tender and affectionate; but he showed no wish to refer to the +tragedy of his wife's death and the sad events which had preceded it, or +to attempt to explain in any way his own conduct in the past. Nor did +I ever lead the conversation to these topics; for I felt that even if +there were no other reason, his great weakness rendered it inadvisable +to introduce such subjects at present, or even to lead him to speak at +all more than was actually necessary. I was content to minister to him +in quiet, and infinitely happy in his restored affection. He seemed +desirous of banishing from his mind all thoughts of the last few months, +but spoke much of the years before he had gone to Oxford, and of happy +days which we had spent together in our childhood at Worth Maltravers. +His weakness was extreme, but he complained of no particular malady +except a short cough which troubled him at night. +</p> +<p> +I had spoken to him of his health, for I could see that his state was +such as to inspire anxiety, and begged that he would allow me to see if +there was an English doctor at Naples who could visit him. This he would +not assent to, saying that he was quite content with the care of an +Italian doctor who visited him almost daily, and that he hoped to be +able, under my escort, to return within a very short time to England. +</p> +<p> +"I shall never be much better, dear Sophy," he said one day. "The doctor +tells me that I am suffering from some sort of consumption, and that I +must not expect to live long. Yet I yearn to see Worth once more, and to +feel again the west winds blowing in the evening across from Portland, +and smell the thyme on the Dorset downs. In a few days I hope perhaps to +be a little stronger, and I then wish to show you a discovery which I +have made in Naples. After that you may order them to harness the +horses, and carry me back to Worth Maltravers." +</p> +<p> +I endeavoured to ascertain from Signor Baravelli, the doctor, something +as to the actual state of his patient; but my knowledge of Italian was +so slight that I could neither make him understand what I would be at, +nor comprehend in turn what he replied, so that this attempt was +relinquished. From my brother himself I gathered that he had begun to +feel his health much impaired as far back as the early spring, but +though his strength had since then gradually failed him, he had not been +confined to the house until a month past. He spent the day and often +the night reclining on his sofa and speaking little. He had apparently +lost the taste for the violin which had once absorbed so much of his +attention; indeed I think the bodily strength necessary for its +performance had probably now failed him. The Stradivarius instrument +lay near his couch in its case; but I only saw the latter open on one +occasion, I think, and was deeply thankful that John no longer took +the same delight as heretofore in the practice of this art,—not only +because the mere sound of his violin was now fraught to me with such +bitter memories, but also because I felt sure that its performance had +in some way which I could not explain a deleterious effect upon himself. +He exhibited that absence of vitality which is so often noticeable in +those who have not long to live, and on some days lay in a state of +semi-lethargy from which it was difficult to rouse him. But at other +times he suffered from a distressing restlessness which forbade him to +sit still even for a few minutes, and which was more painful to watch +than his lethargic stupor. The Italian boy, of whom I have already +spoken, exhibited an untiring devotion to his master which won my heart. +His name was Raffaelle Carotenuto, and he often sang to us in the +evening, accompanying himself on the mandoline. At nights, too, when +John could not sleep, Raffaelle would read for hours till at last +his master dozed off. He was well educated, and though I could not +understand the subject he read, I often sat by and listened, being +charmed with his evident attachment to my brother and with the melodious +intonation of a sweet voice. +</p> +<p> +My brother was nervous apparently in some respects, and would never be +left alone even for a few minutes; but in the intervals while Raffaelle +was with him I had ample opportunity to examine and appreciate the +beauties of the Villa de Angelis. It was built, as I have said, on some +rocks jutting into the sea, just before coming to the Capo di Posilipo +as you proceed from Naples. The earlier foundations were, I believe, +originally Roman, and upon them a modern villa had been constructed +in the eighteenth century, and to this again John had made important +additions in the past two years. Looking down upon the sea from the +windows of the villa, one could on calm days easily discern the remains +of Roman piers and moles lying below the surface of the transparent +water; and the tufa-rock on which the house was built was burrowed with +those unintelligible excavations of a classic date so common in the +neighbourhood. These subterraneous rooms and passages, while they +aroused my curiosity, seemed at the same time so gloomy and repellent +that I never explored them. But on one sunny morning, as I walked at +the foot of the rocks by the sea, I ventured into one of the larger of +these chambers, and saw that it had at the far end an opening leading +apparently to an inner room. I had walking with me an old Italian female +servant who took a motherly interest in my proceedings, and who, relying +principally upon a very slight knowledge of English, had constituted +herself my body-guard. Encouraged by her presence, I penetrated this +inner room and found that it again opened in turn into another, and so +on until we had passed through no less than four chambers. +</p> +<p> +They were all lighted after a fashion through vent-holes which somewhere +or other reached the outer air, but the fourth room opened into a fifth +which was unlighted. My companion, who had been showing signs of alarm +and an evident reluctance to proceed further, now stopped abruptly and +begged me to return. It may have been that her fear communicated itself +to me also, for on attempting to cross the threshold and explore the +darkness of the fifth cell, I was seized by an unreasoning panic and by +the feeling of undefined horror experienced in a nightmare. I hesitated +for an instant, but my fear became suddenly more intense, and springing +back, I followed my companion, who had set out to run back to the outer +air. We never paused until we stood panting in the full sunlight by the +sea. As soon as the maid had found her breath, she begged me never to go +there again, explaining in broken English that the caves were known in +the neighbourhood as the "Cells of Isis," and were reputed to be haunted +by demons. This episode, trifling as it may appear, had so great an +effect upon me that I never again ventured on to the lower walk which +ran at the foot of the rocks by the sea. +</p> +<p> +In the house above, my brother had built a large hall after the ancient +Roman style, and this, with a dining-room and many other chambers, were +decorated in the fashion of those discovered at Pompeii. They had been +furnished with the utmost luxury, and the beauty of the paintings, +furniture, carpets, and hangings was enhanced by statues in bronze and +marble. The villa, indeed, and its fittings were of a kind to which +I was little used, and at the same time of such beauty that I never +ceased to regard all as a creation of an enchanter's wand, or as the +drop-scene to some drama which might suddenly be raised and disappear +from my sight. The house, in short, together with its furniture, was, +I believe, intended to be a reproduction of an ancient Roman villa, +and had something about it repellent to my rustic and insular ideas. +In the contemplation of its perfection I experienced a curious mental +sensation, which I can only compare to the physical oppression produced +on some persons by the heavy and cloying perfume of a bouquet of +gardenias or other too highly scented exotics. +</p> +<p> +In my brother's room was a medieval reproduction in mellow alabaster of +a classic group of a dolphin encircling a Cupid. It was, I think, the +fairest work of art I ever saw, but it jarred upon my sense of propriety +that close by it should hang an ivory crucifix. I would rather, I think, +have seen all things material and pagan entirely, with every view of +the future life shut out, than have found a medley of things sacred and +profane, where the emblems of our highest hopes and aspirations were +placed in insulting indifference side by side with the embodied forms of +sensuality. Here, in this scene of magical beauty, it seemed to me for +a moment that the years had rolled back, that Christianity had still to +fight with a <i>living</i> Paganism, and that the battle was not yet won. It +was the same all through the house; and there were many other matters +which filled me with regret, mingled with vague and apprehensive +surmises which I shall not here repeat. +</p> +<p> +At one end of the house was a small library, but it contained few works +except Latin and Greek classics. I had gone thither one day to look for +a book that John had asked for, when in turning out some drawers I found +a number of letters written from Worth by my lost Constance to her +husband. The shock of being brought suddenly face to face with a +handwriting that evoked memories at once so dear and sad was in itself +a sharp one; but its bitterness was immeasurably increased by the +discovery that not one of these envelopes had ever been opened. While +that dear heart, now at rest, was pouring forth her love and sorrow to +the ears that should have been above all others ready to receive them, +her letters, as they arrived, were flung uncared for, unread, even +unopened, into any haphazard receptacle. +</p> +<p> +The days passed one by one at the Villa de Angelis with but little +incident, nor did my brother's health either visibly improve or decline. +Though the weather was still more than usually warm, a grateful breeze +came morning and evening from the sea and tempered the heat so much as +to render it always supportable. John would sometimes in the evening sit +propped up with cushions on the trellised balcony looking towards Baia, +and watch the fishermen setting their nets. We could hear the melody +of their deep-voiced songs carried up on the night air. "It was here, +Sophy," my brother said, as we sat one evening looking on a scene like +this,—"It was here that the great epicure Pollio built himself a famous +house, and called it by two Greek words meaning a 'truce to care,' from +which our name of Posilipo is derived. It was his <i>sans-souci</i>, and here +he cast aside his vexations; but they were lighter than mine. Posilipo +has brought no cessation of care to me. I do not think I shall find any +truce this side the grave; and beyond, who knows?" +</p> +<p> +This was the first time John had spoken in this strain, and he seemed +stirred to an unusual activity, as though his own words had suddenly +reminded him how frail was his state. He called Raffaelle to him and +despatched him on an errand to Naples. The next morning he sent for me +earlier than usual, and begged that a carriage might be ready by six in +the evening, as he desired to drive into the city. I tried at first to +dissuade him from his project, urging him to consider his weak state of +health. He replied that he felt somewhat stronger, and had something +that he particularly wished me to see in Naples. This done, it would be +better to return at once to England: he could, he thought, bear the +journey if we travelled by very short stages. +</p> +<a name="h2HCH0014" id="h2HCH0014"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XIV +</h2> +<p> +Shortly after six o'clock in the evening we left the Villa de Angelis. +The day had been as usual cloudlessly serene; but a gentle sea-breeze, +of which I have spoken, rose in the afternoon and brought with it a +refreshing coolness. We had arranged a sort of couch in the landau with +many cushions for my brother, and he mounted into the carriage with more +ease than I had expected. I sat beside him, with Raffaelle facing me +on the opposite seat. We drove down the hill of Posilipo through the +ilex-trees and tamarisk-bushes that then skirted the sea, and so into +the town. John spoke little except to remark that the carriage was an +easy one. As we were passing through one of the principal streets he +bent over to me and said, "You must not be alarmed if I show you to-day +a strange sight. Some women might perhaps be frightened at what we are +going to see; but my poor sister has known already so much of trouble +that a light thing like this will not affect her." In spite of his +encomiums upon my supposed courage, I felt alarmed and agitated by his +words. There was a vagueness in them which frightened me, and bred that +indefinite apprehension which is often infinitely more terrifying than +the actual object which inspires it. To my inquiries he would give no +further response than to say that he had whilst at Posilipo made some +investigations in Naples leading to a strange discovery, which he was +anxious to communicate to me. After traversing a considerable distance, +we had penetrated apparently into the heart of the town. The streets +grew narrower and more densely thronged; the houses were more dirty and +tumbledown, and the appearance of the people themselves suggested that +we had reached some of the lower quarters of the city. Here we passed +through a further network of small streets of the name of which I took +no note, and found ourselves at last in a very dark and narrow lane +called the <i>Via del Giardino</i>. Although my brother had, so far as I had +observed, given no orders to the coachman, the latter seemed to have +no difficulty in finding his way, driving rapidly in the Neapolitan +fashion, and proceeding direct as to a place with which he was already +familiar. +</p> +<p> +In the Via del Giardino the houses were of great height, and overhung +the street so as nearly to touch one another. It seemed that this +quarter had been formerly inhabited, if not by the aristocracy, at least +by a class very much superior to that which now lived there; and many +of the houses were large and dignified, though long since parcelled +out into smaller tenements. It was before such a house that we at last +brought up. Here must have been at one time a house or palace of some +person of distinction, having a long and fine façade adorned with +delicate pilasters, and much florid ornamentation of the Renaissance +period. The ground-floor was divided into a series of small shops, and +its upper storeys were evidently peopled by sordid families of the +lowest class. Before one of these little shops, now closed and having +its windows carefully blocked with boards, our carriage stopped. +Raffaelle alighted, and taking a key from his pocket unlocked the door, +and assisted John to leave the carriage. I followed, and directly we had +crossed the threshold, the boy locked the door behind us, and I heard +the carriage drive away. +</p> +<p> +We found ourselves in a narrow and dark passage, and as soon as my eyes +grew accustomed to the gloom I perceived there was at the end of it a +low staircase leading to some upper room, and on the right a door which +opened into the closed shop. My brother moved slowly along the passage, +and began to ascend the stairs. He leant with one hand on Raffaelle's +arm, taking hold of the balusters with the other. But I could see +that to mount the stairs cost him considerable effort, and he paused +frequently to cough and get his breath again. So we reached a landing +at the top, and found ourselves in a small chamber or magazine directly +over the shop. It was quite empty except for a few broken chairs, and +appeared to be a small loft formed by dividing what had once been a +high room into two storeys, of which the shop formed the lower. A long +window, which had no doubt once formed one of several in the walls of +this large room, was now divided across its width by the flooring, and +with its upper part served to light the loft, while its lower panes +opened into the shop. The ceiling was, in consequence of these +alterations, comparatively low, but though much mutilated, retained +evident traces of having been at one time richly decorated, with the +raised mouldings and pendants common in the sixteenth century. At one +end of the loft was a species of coved and elaborately carved dado, of +which the former use was not obvious; but the large original room had +without doubt been divided in length as well as in height, as the +lath-and-plaster walls at either end of the loft had evidently been no +part of the ancient structure. +</p> +<p> +My brother sat down in one of the old chairs, and seemed to be +collecting his strength before speaking. My anxiety was momentarily +increasing, and it was a great relief when he began, talking in a low +voice as one that had much to say and wished to husband his strength. +</p> +<p> +"I do not know whether you will recollect my having told you of +something Mr. Gaskell once said about the music of Graziani's +'Areopagita' suite. It had always, he used to say, a curious effect upon +his imagination, and the melody of the <i>Gagliarda</i> especially called up +to his thoughts in some strange way a picture of a certain hall where +people were dancing. He even went so far as to describe the general +appearance of the room itself, and of the persons who were dancing +there." +</p> +<p> +"Yes," I answered, "I remember your telling me of this;" and indeed my +memory had in times past so often rehearsed Mr. Gaskell's description +that, although I had not recently thought of it, its chief features +immediately returned to my mind. +</p> +<p> +"He described it," my brother continued, "as a long hall with an arcade +of arches running down one side, of the fantastic Gothic of the +Renaissance. At the end was a gallery or balcony for the musicians, +which on its front carried a coat of arms." +</p> +<p> +I remembered this perfectly and told John so, adding that the shield +bore a cherub's head fanning three lilies on a golden field. +</p> +<p> +"It is strange," John went on, "that the description of a scene which +our friend thought a mere effort of his own imagination has impressed +itself so deeply on both our minds. But the picture which he drew was +more than a fancy, for we are at this minute in the very hall of his +dream." +</p> +<p> +I could not gather what my brother meant, and thought his reason was +failing him; but he continued, "This miserable floor on which we stand +has of course been afterwards built in; but you see above you the old +ceiling, and here at the end was the musicians' gallery with the shield +upon its front." +</p> +<p> +He pointed to the carved and whitewashed dado which had hitherto so +puzzled me. I stepped up to it, and although the lath-and-plaster +partition wall was now built around it, it was clear that its curved +outline might very easily, as John said, have formed part of the front +of a coved gallery. I looked closer at the relief-work which had adorned +it. Though the edges were all rubbed off, and the mouldings in some +cases entirely removed, I could trace without difficulty a shield +in the midst; and a more narrow inspection revealed underneath the +whitewash, which had partly peeled away, enough remnants of colour to +show that it had certainly been once painted gold and borne a cherub's +head with three lilies. +</p> +<p> +"That is the shield of the old Neapolitan house of Doma-Cavalli," my +brother continued; "they bore a cherub's head fanning three lilies on a +shield or. It was in the balcony behind this shield, long since blocked +up as you see, that the musicians sat on that ball night of which +Gaskell dreamt. From it they looked down on the hall below where dancing +was going forward, and I will now take you downstairs that you may see +if the description tallies." +</p> +<p> +So saying, he raised himself, and descending the stairs with much less +difficulty than he had shown in mounting them, flung open the door +which I had seen in the passage and ushered us into the shop on the +ground-floor. The evening light had now faded so much that we could +scarcely see even in the passage, and the shop having its windows +barricaded with shutters, was in complete darkness. Raffaelle, however, +struck a match and lit three half-burnt candles in a tarnished sconce +upon the wall. +</p> +<p> +The shop had evidently been lately in the occupation of a wine-seller, +and there were still several empty wooden wine-butts, and some broken +flasks on shelves. In one corner I noticed that the earth which formed +the floor had been turned up with spades. There was a small heap of +mould, and a large flat stone was thus exposed below the surface. This +stone had an iron ring attached to it, and seemed to cover the aperture +of a well, or perhaps a vault. At the back of the shop, and furthest +from the street, were two lofty arches separated by a column in the +middle, from which the outside casing had been stripped. +</p> +<p> +To these arches John pointed and said, "That is a part of the arcade +which once ran down the whole length of the hall. Only these two arches +are now left, and the fine marbles which doubtless coated the outside of +this dividing pillar have been stripped off. On a summer's night about +one hundred years ago dancing was going on in this hall. There were a +dozen couples dancing a wild step such as is never seen now. The tune +that the musicians were playing in the gallery above was taken from the +'Areopagita' suite of Graziani. Gaskell has often told me that when +he played it the music brought with it to his mind a sense of some +impending catastrophe, which culminated at the end of the first movement +of the <i>Gagliarda</i>. It was just at that moment, Sophy, that an +Englishman who was dancing here was stabbed in the back and foully +murdered." +</p> +<p> +I had scarcely heard all that John had said, and had certainly not been +able to take in its import; but without waiting to hear if I should say +anything, he moved across to the uncovered stone with the ring in it. +Exerting a strength which I should have believed entirely impossible in +his weak condition, he applied to the stone a lever which lay ready at +hand. Raffaelle at the same time seized the ring, and so they were able +between them to move the covering to one side sufficiently to allow +access to a small staircase which thus appeared to view. The stair +was a winding one, and once led no doubt to some vaults below the +ground-floor. Raffaelle descended first, taking in his hand the sconce +of three candles, which he held above his head so as to fling a light +down the steps. John went next, and then I followed, trying to support +my brother if possible with my hand. The stairs were very dry, and +on the walls there was none of the damp or mould which fancy usually +associates with a subterraneous vault. I do not know what it was I +expected to see, but I had an uneasy feeling that I was on the brink of +some evil and distressing discovery. After we had descended about twenty +steps we could see the entry to some vault or underground room, and it +was just at the foot of the stairs that I saw something lying, as the +light from the candles fell on it from above. At first I thought it was +a heap of dust or refuse, but on looking closer it seemed rather a +bundle of rags. As my eyes penetrated the gloom, I saw there was about +it some tattered cloth of a faded green tint, and almost at the same +minute I seemed to trace under the clothes the lines or dimensions of a +human figure. For a moment I imagined it was some poor man lying face +downwards and bent up against the wall. The idea of a man or of a dead +body being there shocked me violently, and I cried to my brother, "Tell +me, what is it?" At that instant the light from. Raffaelle's candles +fell in a somewhat different direction. It lighted up the white bowl +of a human skull, and I saw that what I had taken for a man's form was +instead that of a clothed skeleton. I turned faint and sick for an +instant, and should have fallen had it not been for John, who put his +arm about me and sustained me with an unexpected strength. +</p> +<p> +"God help us!" I exclaimed, "let us go. I cannot bear this; there are +foul vapours here; let us get back to the outer air." +</p> +<p> +He took me by the arm, and pointing at the huddled heap, said, "Do you +know whose bones those are? That is Adrian Temple. After it was all +over, they flung his body down the steps, dressed in the clothes he +wore." +</p> +<p> +At that name, uttered in so ill-omened a place, I felt a fresh access of +terror. It seemed as though the soul of that wicked man must be still +hovering over his unburied remains, and boding evil to us all. A chill +crept over me, the light, the walls, my brother, and Raffaelle all swam +round, and I sank swooning on the stairs. +</p> +<p> +When I returned fully to my senses we were in the landau again making +our way back to the Villa de Angelis. +</p> +<a name="h2HCH0015" id="h2HCH0015"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + CHAPTER XV +</h2> +<p> +The next morning my health and strength were entirely restored to me, +but my brother, on the contrary, seemed weak and exhausted from his +efforts of the previous night. Our return journey to the Villa de +Angelis had passed in complete silence. I had been too much perturbed +to question him on the many points relating to the strange events as to +which I was still completely in the dark, and he on his side had shown +no desire to afford me any further information. When I saw him the next +morning he exhibited signs of great weakness, and in response to an +effort on my part to obtain some explanation of the discovery of Adrian +Temple's body, avoided an immediate reply, promising to tell me all he +knew after our return to Worth Maltravers. +</p> +<p> +I pondered over the last terrifying episode very frequently in my own +mind, and as I thought more deeply of it all, it seemed to me that the +outlines of some evil history were piece by piece developing themselves, +that I had almost within my grasp the clue that would make all plain, +and that had eluded me so long. In that dim story Adrian Temple, the +music of the <i>Gagliarda</i>, my brother's fatal passion for the violin, +all seemed to have some mysterious connection, and to have conspired in +working John's mental and physical ruin. Even the Stradivarius violin +bore a part in the tragedy, becoming, as it were, an actively malignant +spirit, though I could not explain how, and was yet entirely unaware of +the manner in which it had come into my brother's possession. +</p> +<p> +I found that John was still resolved on an immediate return to England. +His weakness, it is true, led me to entertain doubts as to how he would +support so long a journey; but at the same time I did not feel justified +in using any strong efforts to dissuade him from his purpose. I +reflected that the more wholesome air and associations of England would +certainly re-invigorate both body and mind, and that any extra strain +brought about by the journey would soon be repaired by the comforts and +watchful care with which we could surround him at Worth Maltravers. +</p> +<p> +So the first week in October saw us once more with our faces set towards +England. A very comfortable swinging-bed or hammock had been arranged +for John in the travelling carriage, and we determined to avoid fatigue +as much as possible by dividing our journey into very short stages. My +brother seemed to have no intention of giving up the Villa de Angelis. +It was left complete with its luxurious furniture, and with all his +servants, under the care of an Italian <i>maggior-duomo</i>. I felt that as +John's state of health forbade his entertaining any hope of an immediate +return thither, it would have been much better to close entirely his +Italian house. But his great weakness made it impossible for him to +undertake the effort such a course would involve, and even if my own +ignorance of the Italian tongue had not stood in the way, I was far too +eager to get my invalid back to Worth to feel inclined to import any +further delay, while I should myself adjust matters which were after all +comparatively trifling. As Parnham was now ready to discharge his usual +duties of valet, and as my brother seemed quite content that he should +do so, Raffaelle was of course to be left behind. The boy had quite won +my heart by his sweet manners, combined with his evident affection to +his master, and in making him understand that he was now to leave us, +I offered him a present of a few pounds as a token of my esteem. He +refused, however, to touch this money, and shed tears when he learnt +that he was to be left in Italy, and begged with many protestations of +devotion that he might be allowed to accompany us to England. My heart +was not proof against his entreaties, supported by so many signs of +attachment, and it was agreed, therefore, that he should at least attend +us as far as Worth Maltravers. John showed no surprise at the boy being +with us; indeed I never thought it necessary to explain that I had +originally purposed to leave him behind. +</p> +<p> +Our journey, though necessarily prolonged by the shortness of its +stages, was safely accomplished. John bore it as well as I could have +hoped, and though his body showed no signs of increased vigour, his +mind, I think, improved in tone, at any rate for a time. From the +evening on which he had shown me the terrible discovery in the Via +del Giardino he seemed to have laid aside something of his care and +depression. He now exhibited little trace of the moroseness and +selfishness which had of late so marred his character; and though he +naturally felt severely at times the fatigue of travel, yet we had no +longer to dread any relapse into that state of lethargy or stupor which +had so often baffled every effort to counteract it at Posilipo. Some +feeling of superstitious aversion had prompted me to give orders that +the Stradivarius violin should be left behind at Posilipo. But before +parting my brother asked for it, and insisted that it should be brought +with him, though I had never heard him play a note on it for many weeks. +He took an interest in all the petty episodes of travel, and certainly +appeared to derive more entertainment from the journey than was to have +been anticipated in his feeble state of health. +</p> +<p> +To the incidents of the evening spent in the Via del Giardino he made no +allusion of any kind, nor did I for my part wish to renew memories of +so unpleasant a nature. His only reference occurred one Sunday evening +as we were passing a small graveyard near Genoa. The scene apparently +turned his thoughts to that subject, and he told me that he had taken +measures before leaving Naples to ensure that the remains of Adrian +Temple should be decently interred in the cemetery of Santa Bibiana. +His words set me thinking again, and unsatisfied curiosity prompted +me strongly to inquire of him how he had convinced himself that the +skeleton at the foot of the stairs was indeed that of Adrian Temple. But +I restrained myself, partly from a reliance on his promise that he would +one day explain the whole story to me, and partly being very reluctant +to mar the enjoyment of the peaceful scenes through which we were +passing, by the introduction of any subjects so jarring and painful as +those to which I have alluded. +</p> +<p> +We reached London at last, and here we stopped a few days to make some +necessary arrangements before going down to Worth Maltravers. I had +urged upon John during the journey that immediately on his arrival in +London he should obtain the best English medical advice as to his own +health. Though he at first demurred, saying that nothing more was to be +done, and that he was perfectly satisfied with the medicine given him by +Dr. Baravelli, which he continued to take, yet by constant entreaty I +prevailed upon him to accede to so reasonable a request. Dr. Frobisher, +considered at that time the first living authority on diseases of the +brain and nerves, saw him on the morning after our arrival. He was good +enough to speak with me at some length after seeing my brother, and to +give me many hints and recipes whereby I might be better enabled to +nurse the invalid. +</p> +<p> +Sir John's condition, he said, was such as to excite serious anxiety. +There was, indeed, no brain mischief of any kind to be discovered, but +his lungs were in a state of advanced disease, and there were signs of +grave heart affection. Yet he did not bid me to despair, but said that +with careful nursing life might certainly be prolonged, and even some +measure of health in time restored. He asked me more than once if I knew +of any trouble or worry that preyed upon Sir John's mind. Were there +financial difficulties; had he been subjected to any mental shock; had +he received any severe fright? To all this I could only reply in the +negative. At the same time I told Dr. Frobisher as much of John's +history as I considered pertinent to the question. He shook his head +gravely, and recommended that Sir John should remain for the present in +London, under his own constant supervision. To this course my brother +would by no means consent. He was eager to proceed at once to his own +house, saying that if necessary we could return again to London for +Christmas. It was therefore agreed that we should go down to Worth +Maltravers at the end of the week. +</p> +<p> +Parnham had already left us for Worth in order that he might have +everything ready against his master's return, and when we arrived we +found all in perfect order for our reception. A small morning-room next +to the library, with a pleasant south aspect and opening on to the +terrace, had been prepared for my brother's use, so that he might avoid +the fatigue of mounting stairs, which Dr. Frobisher considered very +prejudicial in his present condition. We had also purchased in London a +chair fitted with wheels, which enabled him to be moved, or, if he were +feeling equal to the exertion, to move himself, without difficulty, from +room to room. +</p> +<p> +His health, I think, improved; very gradually, it is true, but still +sufficiently to inspire me with hope that he might yet be spared to us. +Of the state of his mind or thoughts I knew little, but I could see that +he was at times a prey to nervous anxiety. This showed itself in the +harassed look which his pale face often wore, and in his marked dislike +to being left alone. He derived, I think, a certain pleasure from the +quietude and monotony of his life at Worth, and perhaps also from the +consciousness that he had about him loving and devoted hearts. I say +hearts, for every servant at Worth was attached to him, remembering the +great consideration and courtesy of his earlier years, and grieving to +see his youthful and once vigorous frame reduced to so sad a strait. +Books he never read himself, and even the charm of Raffaelle's reading +seemed to have lost its power; though he never tired of hearing the boy +sing, and liked to have him sit by his chair even when his eyes were +shut and he was apparently asleep. His general health seemed to me to +change but little either for better or worse. Dr. Frobisher had led me +to expect some such a sequel. I had not concealed from him that I had +at times entertained suspicions as to my brother's sanity; but he had +assured me that they were totally unfounded, that Sir John's brain was +as clear as his own. At the same time he confessed that he could not +account for the exhausted vitality of his patient,—a condition which he +would under ordinary circumstances have attributed to excessive study or +severe trouble. He had urged upon me the pressing necessity for complete +rest, and for much sleep. My brother never even incidentally referred to +his wife, his child, or to Mrs. Temple, who constantly wrote to me from +Royston, sending kind messages to John, and asking how he did. These +messages I never dared to give him, fearing to agitate him, or retard +his recovery by diverting his thoughts into channels which must +necessarily be of a painful character. That he should never even mention +her name, or that of Lady Maltravers, led me to wonder sometimes if one +of those curious freaks of memory which occasionally accompany a severe +illness had not entirely blotted out from his mind the recollection of +his marriage and of his wife's death. He was unable to consider any +affairs of business, and the management of the estate remained as it +had done for the last two years in the hands of our excellent agent, +Mr. Baker. +</p> +<p> +But one evening in the early part of December he sent Raffaelle about +nine o'clock, saying he wished to speak to me. I went to his room, and +without any warning he began at once, "You never show me my boy now, +Sophy; he must be grown a big child, and I should like to see him." +Much startled by so unexpected a remark, I replied that the child was +at Royston under the care of Mrs. Temple, but that I knew that if it +pleased him to see Edward she would be glad to bring him down to Worth. +He seemed gratified with this idea, and begged me to ask her to do so, +desiring that his respects should be at the same time conveyed to her. I +almost ventured at that moment to recall his lost wife to his thoughts, +by saying that his child resembled her strongly; for your likeness at +that time, and even now, my dear Edward, to your poor mother was very +marked. But my courage failed me, and his talk soon reverted to an +earlier period, comparing the mildness of the month to that of the first +winter which he spent at Eton. His thoughts, however, must, I fancy, +have returned for a moment to the days when he first met your mother, +for he suddenly asked, "Where is Gaskell? Why does he never come to see +me?" This brought quite a new idea to my mind. I fancied it might do my +brother much good to have by him so sensible and true a friend as I knew +Mr. Gaskell to be. The latter's address had fortunately not slipped from +my memory, and I put all scruples aside and wrote by the next mail to +him, setting forth my brother's sad condition, saying that I had heard +John mention his name, and begging him on my own account to be so good +as to help us if possible and come to us in this hour of trial. Though +he was so far off as Westmorland, Mr. Gaskell's generosity brought +him at once to our aid, and within a week he was installed at Worth +Maltravers, sleeping, in the library, where we had arranged a bed at +his own desire, so that he might be near his sick friend. +</p> +<p> +His presence was of the utmost assistance to us all. He treated John +at once with the tenderness of a woman and the firmness of a clever +and strong man. They sat constantly together in the mornings, and Mr. +Gaskell told me John had not shown with him the same reluctance to talk +freely of his married life as he had discovered with me. The tenor of +his communications I cannot guess, nor did I ever ask; but I knew that +Mr. Gaskell was much affected by them. +</p> +<p> +John even amused himself now at times by having Mr. Baker into his rooms +of a morning, that the management of the estate might be discussed with +his friend; and he also expressed his wish to see the family solicitor, +as he desired to draw his will. Thinking that any diversion of this +nature could not but be beneficial to him, we sent to Dorchester for our +solicitor, Mr. Jeffreys, who together with his clerk spent three nights +at Worth, and drew up a testament for my brother. +</p> +<p> +So time went on, and the year was drawing to a close. +</p> +<p> +It was Christmas Eve, and I had gone to bed shortly after twelve +o'clock, having an hour earlier bid good night to John and Mr. Gaskell. +The long habit of watching with, or being in charge of an invalid at +night, had made my ears extraordinarily quick to apprehend even the +slightest murmur. It must have been, I think, near three in the morning +when I found myself awake and conscious of some unusual sound. It was +low and far off, but I knew instantly what it was, and felt a choking +sensation of fear and horror, as if an icy hand had gripped my throat, +on recognising the air of the <i>Gagliarda</i>. It was being played on the +violin, and a long way off, but I knew that tune too well to permit of +my having any doubt on the subject. +</p> +<p> +Any trouble or fear becomes, as you will some day learn, my dear nephew, +immensely intensified and exaggerated at night. It is so, I suppose, +because our nerves are in an excited condition, and our brain not +sufficiently awake to give a due account of our foolish imaginations. I +have myself many times lain awake wrestling in thought with difficulties +which in the hours of darkness seemed insurmountable, but with the dawn +resolved themselves into merely trivial inconveniences. So on this +night, as I sat up in bed looking into the dark, with the sound of that +melody in my ears, it seemed as if something too terrible for words had +happened; as though the evil spirit, which we had hoped was exorcised, +had returned with others sevenfold more wicked than himself, and taken +up his abode again with my lost brother. The memory of another night +rushed to my mind when Constance had called me from my bed at Royston, +and we had stolen together down the moonlit passages with the lilt of +that wicked music vibrating on the still summer air. Poor Constance! She +was in her grave now; yet <i>her</i> troubles at least were over, but here, +as by some bitter irony, instead of carol or sweet symphony, it was the +<i>Gagliarda</i> that woke me from my sleep on Christmas morning. +</p> +<p> +I flung my dressing-gown about me, and hurried through the corridor and +down the stairs which led to the lower storey and my brother's room. +As I opened my bedroom door the violin ceased suddenly in the middle +of a bar. Its last sound was not a musical note, but rather a horrible +scream, such as I pray I may never hear again. It was a sound such as a +wounded beast might utter. There is a picture I have seen of Blake's, +showing the soul of a strong wicked man leaving his body at death. The +spirit is flying out through the window with awful staring eyes, aghast +at the desolation into which it is going. If in the agony of dissolution +such a lost soul could utter a cry, it would, I think, sound like the +wail which I heard from the violin that night. +</p> +<p> +Instantly all was in absolute stillness. The passages were silent and +ghostly in the faint light of my candle; but as I reached the bottom +of the stairs I heard the sound of other footsteps, and Mr. Gaskell met +me. He was fully dressed, and had evidently not been to bed. He took me +kindly by the hand and said, "I feared you might be alarmed by the sound +of music. John has been walking in his sleep; he had taken out his +violin and was playing on it in a trance. Just as I reached him +something in it gave way, and the discord caused by the slackened +strings roused him at once. He is awake now and has returned to bed. +Control your alarm for his sake and your own. It is better that he +should not know you have been awakened." +</p> +<p> +He pressed my hand and spoke a few more reassuring words, and I went +back to my room still much agitated, and yet feeling half ashamed for +having shown so much anxiety with so little reason. +</p> +<p> +That Christmas morning was one of the most beautiful that I ever +remember. It seemed as though summer was so loath to leave our sunny +Dorset coast that she came back on this day to bid us adieu before her +final departure. I had risen early and had partaken of the Sacrament +at our little church. Dr. Butler had recently introduced this early +service, and though any alteration of time-honoured customs in such +matters might not otherwise have met with my approval, I was glad to +avail myself of the privilege on this occasion, as I wished in any case +to spend the later morning with my brother. The singular beauty of the +early hours, and the tranquillising effect of the solemn service brought +back serenity to my mind, and effectually banished from it all memories +of the preceding night. Mr. Gaskell met me in the hall on my return, and +after greeting me kindly with the established compliments of the day, +inquired after my health, and hoped that the disturbance of my slumber +on the previous night had not affected me injuriously. He had good news +for me: John seemed decidedly better, was already dressed, and desired, +as it was Christmas morning, that we would take our breakfast with him +in his room. +</p> +<p> +To this, as you may imagine, I readily assented. Our breakfast party +passed off with much content, and even with some quiet humour, John +sitting in his easy-chair at the head of the table and wishing us the +compliments of the season. I found laid in my place a letter from Mrs. +Temple greeting us all (for she knew Mr. Gaskell was at Worth), and +saying that she hoped to bring little Edward to us at the New Year. +My brother seemed much pleased at the prospect of seeing his son, and +though perhaps it was only imagination, I fancied he was particularly +gratified that Mrs. Temple herself was to pay us a visit. She had not +been to Worth since the death of Lady Maltravers. +</p> +<p> +Before we had finished breakfast the sun beat on the panes with an +unusual strength and brightness. His rays cheered us all, and it was so +warm that John first opened the windows, and then wheeled his chair on +to the walk outside. Mr. Gaskell brought him a hat and mufflers, and we +sat with him on the terrace basking in the sun. The sea was still and +glassy as a mirror, and the Channel lay stretched before us like a floor +of moving gold. A rose or two still hung against the house, and the +sun's rays reflected from the red sandstone gave us a December morning +more mild and genial than many June days that I have known in the north. +We sat for some minutes without speaking, immersed in our own +reflections and in the exquisite beauty of the scene. +</p> +<p> +The stillness was broken by the bells of the parish church ringing for +the morning service. There were two of them, and their sound, familiar +to us from childhood, seemed like the voices of old friends. John looked +at me and said with a sigh, "I should like to go to church. It is long +since I was there. You and I have always been on Christmas mornings, +Sophy, and Constance would have wished it had she been with us." +</p> +<p> +His words, so unexpected and tender, filled my eyes with tears; not +tears of grief, but of deep thankfulness to see my loved one turning +once more to the old ways. It was the first time I had heard him speak +of Constance, and that sweet name, with the infinite pathos of her +death, and of the spectacle of my brother's weakness, so overcame me +that I could not speak. I only pressed his hand and nodded. Mr. Gaskell, +who had turned away for a minute, said he thought John would take no +harm in attending the morning service provided the church were warm. +On this point I could reassure him, having found it properly heated +even in the early morning. +</p> +<p> +Mr. Gaskell was to push John's chair, and I ran off to put on my cloak, +with my heart full of profound thankfulness for the signs of returning +grace so mercifully vouchsafed to our dear sufferer on this happy day. +I was ready dressed and had just entered the library when Mr. Gaskell +stepped hurriedly through the window from the terrace. "John has +fainted!" he said. "Run for some smelling salts and call Parnham!" +</p> +<p> +There was a scene of hurried alarm, giving place ere long to terrified +despair. Parnham mounted a horse and set off at a wild gallop to Swanage +to fetch Dr. Bruton; but an hour before he returned we knew the worst. +My brother was beyond the aid of the physician: his wrecked life had +reached a sudden term! +</p> +<hr /> +<p> +I have now, dear Edward, completed the brief narrative of some of the +facts attending the latter years of your father's life. The motive which +has induced me to commit them to writing has been a double one. I am +anxious to give effect as far as may be to the desire expressed most +strongly to Mr. Gaskell by your father, that you should be put in +possession of these facts on your coming of age. And for my own part I +think it better that you should thus hear the plain truth from me, lest +you should be at the mercy of haphazard reports, which might at any time +reach you from ignorant or interested sources. Some of the circumstances +were so remarkable that it is scarcely possible to suppose that they +were not known, and most probably frequently discussed, in so large an +establishment as that of Worth Maltravers. I even have reason to believe +that exaggerated and absurd stories were current at the time of Sir +John's death, and I should be grieved to think that such foolish tales +might by any chance reach your ear without your having any sure means of +discovering where the truth lay. God knows how grievous it has been to +me to set down on paper some of the facts that I have here narrated. You +as a dutiful son will reverence the name even of a father whom you never +knew; but you must remember that his sister did more; she loved him with +a single-hearted devotion, and it still grieves her to the quick to +write anything which may seem to detract from his memory. Only, above +all things, let us speak the truth. Much of what I have told you needs, +I feel, further explanation, but this I cannot give, for I do not +understand the circumstances. Mr. Gaskell, your guardian, will, I +believe, add to this account a few notes of his own, which may tend to +elucidate some points, as he is in possession of certain facts of which +I am still ignorant. +</p> +<a name="h2H_4_0020" id="h2H_4_0020"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + MR. GASKELL'S NOTE +</h2> +<p> +I have read what Miss Maltravers has written, and have but little to add +to it. I can give no explanation that will tally with all the facts or +meet all the difficulties involved in her narrative. The most obvious +solution of some points would be, of course, to suppose that Sir John +Maltravers was insane. But to anyone who knew him as intimately as I +did, such an hypothesis is untenable; nor, if admitted, would it explain +some of the strangest incidents. Moreover, it was strongly negatived by +Dr. Frobisher, from whose verdict in such matters there was at the time +no appeal, by Dr. Dobie, and by Dr. Bruton, who had known Sir John from +his infancy. It is possible that towards the close of his life he +suffered occasionally from hallucination, though I could not positively +affirm even so much; but this was only when his health had been +completely undermined by causes which are very difficult to analyse. +</p> +<p> +When I first knew him at Oxford he was a strong man physically as +well as mentally; open-hearted, and of a merry and genial temperament. +At the same time he was, like most cultured persons—and especially +musicians,—highly strung and excitable. But at a certain point in his +career his very nature seemed to change; he became reserved, secretive, +and saturnine. On this moral metamorphosis followed an equally startling +physical change. His robust health began to fail him, and although there +was no definite malady which doctors could combat, he went gradually +from bad to worse until the end came. +</p> +<p> +The commencement of this extraordinary change coincided, I believe, +almost exactly with his discovery of the Stradivarius violin; and +whether this was, after all, a mere coincidence or something more it is +not easy to say. Until a very short time before his death neither Miss +Maltravers nor I had any idea how that instrument had come into his +possession, or I think something might perhaps have been done to save +him. +</p> +<p> +Though towards the end of his life he spoke freely to his sister of the +finding of the violin, he only told her half the story, for he concealed +from her entirely that there was anything else in the hidden cupboard at +Oxford. But as a matter of fact, he had found there also two manuscript +books containing an elaborate diary of some years of a man's life. That +man was Adrian Temple, and I believe that in the perusal of this diary +must be sought the origin of John Maltravers's ruin. The manuscript was +beautifully written in a clear but cramped eighteenth century hand, +and gave the idea of a man writing with deliberation, and wishing to +transcribe his impressions with accuracy for further reference. The +style was excellent, and the minute details given were often of high +antiquarian interest; but the record throughout was marred by gross +licence. Adrian Temple's life had undoubtedly so definite an influence +on Sir John's that a brief outline of it, as gathered from his diaries, +is necessary for the understanding of what followed. +</p> +<p> +Temple went up to Oxford in 1737. He was seventeen years old, without +parents, brothers, or sisters; and he possessed the Royston estates +in Derbyshire, which were then, as now, a most valuable property. +With the year 1738 his diaries begin, and though then little more than +a boy, he had tasted every illicit pleasure that Oxford had to offer. +His temptations were no doubt great; for besides being wealthy he was +handsome, and had probably never known any proper control, as both his +parents had died when he was still very young. But in spite of other +failings, he was a brilliant scholar, and on taking his degree, was +made at once a fellow of St. John's. He took up his abode in that +College in a fine set of rooms looking on to the gardens, and from this +period seems to have used Royston but little, living always either at +Oxford or on the Continent. He formed at this time the acquaintance of +one Jocelyn, whom he engaged as companion and amanuensis. Jocelyn was a +man of talent, but of irregular life, and was no doubt an accomplice in +many of Temple's excesses. In 1743 they both undertook the so-called +"grand tour," and though it was not his first visit, it was then +probably that Temple first felt the fascination of pagan Italy,—a +fascination which increased with every year of his after-life. +</p> +<p> +On his return from foreign travel he found himself among the stirring +events of 1745. He was an ardent supporter of the Pretender, and made no +attempt to conceal his views. Jacobite tendencies were indeed generally +prevalent in the College at the time, and had this been the sum of his +offending, it is probable that little notice would have been taken by +the College authorities. But his notoriously wild life told against the +young man, and certain dark suspicions were not easily passed over. +After the <i>fiasco</i> of the Rebellion Dr. Holmes, then President of the +College, seems to have made a scapegoat of Temple. He was deprived of +his fellowship, and though not formally expelled, such pressure was put +upon him as resulted in his leaving St. John's and removing to Magdalen +Hall. There his great wealth evidently secured him consideration, and he +was given the best rooms in the Hall, that very set looking on to New +College Lane which Sir John Maltravers afterwards occupied. +</p> +<p> +In the first half of the eighteenth century the romance of the middle +ages, though dying, was not dead, and the occult sciences still found +followers among the Oxford towers. From his early years Temple's mind +seems to have been set strongly towards mysticism of all kinds, and he +and Jocelyn were versed in the jargon of the alchemist and astrologer, +and practised according to the ancient rules. It was his reputation as +a necromancer, and the stories current of illicit rites performed in +the garden-rooms at St. John's, that contributed largely to his being +dismissed from that College. He had also become acquainted with Francis +Dashwood, the notorious Lord le Despencer, and many a winter's night +saw him riding through the misty Thames meadows to the door of the sham +Franciscan abbey. In his diaries were more notices than one of the +"Franciscans" and the nameless orgies of Medmenham. +</p> +<p> +He was devoted to music. It was a rare enough accomplishment then, and a +rarer thing still to find a wealthy landowner performing on the violin. +Yet so he did, though he kept his passion very much to himself, as +fiddling was thought lightly of in those days. His musical skill +was altogether exceptional, and he was the first possessor of the +Stradivarius violin which afterwards fell so unfortunately into Sir +John's hands. This violin Temple bought in the autumn of 1738, on the +occasion of a first visit to Italy. In that year died the nonagenarian +Antonius Stradivarius, the greatest violin-maker the world has ever +seen. After Stradivarius's death the stock of fiddles in his shop was +sold by auction. Temple happened to be travelling in Cremona at the time +with a tutor, and at the auction he bought that very instrument which we +afterwards had cause to know so well. A note in his diary gave its cost +at four louis, and said that a curious history attached to it. Though +it was of his golden period, and probably the finest instrument he ever +made, Stradivarius would never sell it, and it had hung for more than +thirty years in his shop. It was said that from some whim as he lay +dying he had given orders that it should be burnt; but if that were so, +the instructions were neglected, and after his death it came under the +hammer. Adrian Temple from the first recognised the great value of the +instrument. His notes show that he only used it on certain special +occasions, and it was no doubt for its better protection that he devised +the hidden cupboard where Sir John eventually found it. +</p> +<p> +The later years of Temple's life were spent for the most part in Italy. +On the Scoglio di Venere, near Naples, he built the Villa de Angelis, +and there henceforth passed all except the hottest months of the year. +Shortly after the completion of the villa Jocelyn left him suddenly, and +became a Carthusian monk. A caustic note in his diary hinted that even +this foul parasite was shocked into the austerest form of religion by +something he had seen going forward. At Naples Temple's dark life became +still darker. He dallied, it is true, with Neo-Platonism, and boasts +that he, like Plotinus, had twice passed the circle of the <i>nous</i> and +enjoyed the fruition of the deity; but the ideals of even that easy +doctrine grew in his evil life still more miserably debased. More than +once in the manuscript he made mention by name of the <i>Gagliarda</i> +of Graziani as having been played at pagan mysteries which these +enthusiasts revived at Naples, and the air had evidently impressed +itself deeply on his memory. The last entry in his diary is made on +the 16th of December, 1752. He was then in Oxford for a few days, but +shortly afterwards returned to Naples. The accident of his having just +completed a second volume, induced him, no doubt, to leave it behind him +in the secret cupboard. It is probable that he commenced a third, but if +so it was never found. +</p> +<p> +In reading the manuscript I was struck with the author's clear and easy +style, and found the interest of the narrative increase rather than +diminish. At the same time its study was inexpressibly painful to me. +Nothing could have supported me in my determination to thoroughly +master it but the conviction that if I was to be of any real assistance +to my poor friend Maltravers, I must know as far as possible every +circumstance connected with his malady. As it was, I felt myself +breathing an atmosphere of moral contagion during the perusal of the +manuscript, and certain passages have since returned at times to haunt +me in spite of all efforts to dislodge them from my memory. When I came +to Worth at Miss Maltravers's urgent invitation, I found my friend Sir +John terribly altered. It was not only that he was ill and physically +weak, but he had entirely lost the manner of youth, which, though +indefinable, is yet so appreciable, and draws so sharp a distinction +between the first period of life and middle age. But the most striking +feature of his illness was the extraordinary pallor of his complexion, +which made his face resemble a subtle counterfeit of white wax rather +than that of a living man. He welcomed me undemonstratively, but with +evident sincerity; and there was an entire absence of the constraint +which often accompanies the meeting again of friends whose cordial +relations have suffered interruption. From the time of my arrival at +Worth until his death we were constantly together; indeed I was much +struck by the almost childish dislike which he showed to be left alone +even for a few moments. As night approached this feeling became +intensified. Parnham slept always in his master's room; but if anything +called the servant away even for a minute, he would send for Carotenuto +or myself to be with him until his return. His nerves were weak; he +started violently at any unexpected noise, and above all, he dreaded +being in the dark. When night fell he had additional lamps brought into +his room, and even when he composed himself to sleep, insisted on a +strong light being kept by his bedside. +</p> +<p> +I had often read in books of people wearing a "hunted" expression, and +had laughed at the phrase as conventional and unmeaning. But when I +came to Worth I knew its truth; for if any face ever wore a hunted—I +had almost written a haunted—look, it was the white face of Sir John +Maltravers. His air seemed that of a man who was constantly expecting +the arrival of some evil tidings, and at times reminded me painfully of +the guilty expectation of a felon who knows that a warrant is issued for +his arrest. +</p> +<p> +During my visit he spoke to me frequently about his past life, and +instead of showing any reluctance to discuss the subject, seemed glad of +the opportunity of disburdening his mind. I gathered from him that the +reading of Adrian Temple's memoirs had made a deep impression on his +mind, which was no doubt intensified by the vision which he thought he +saw in his rooms at Oxford, and by the discovery of the portrait at +Royston. Of those singular phenomena I have no explanation to offer. +</p> +<p> +The romantic element in his disposition rendered him peculiarly +susceptible to the fascination of that mysticism which breathed through +Temple's narrative. He told me that almost from the first time he read +it he was filled with a longing to visit the places and to revive the +strange life of which it spoke. This inclination he kept at first in +check, but by degrees it gathered strength enough to master him. +</p> +<p> +There is no doubt in my mind that the music of the <i>Gagliarda</i> of +Graziani helped materially in this process of mental degradation. It is +curious that Michael Prætorius in the "Syntagma musicum" should speak of +the Galliard generally as an "invention of the devil, full of shameful +and licentious gestures and immodest movements," and the singular melody +of the <i>Gagliarda</i> in the "Areopagita" suite certainly exercised from +the first a strange influence over me. I shall not do more than touch +on the question here, because I see Miss Maltravers has spoken of it +at length, and will only say, that though since the day of Sir John's +death I have never heard a note of it, the air is still fresh in my +mind, and has at times presented itself to me unexpectedly, and always +with an unwholesome effect. This I have found happen generally in times +of physical depression, and the same air no doubt exerted a similar +influence on Sir John, which his impressionable nature rendered from the +first more deleterious to him. +</p> +<p> +I say this advisedly, because I am sure that if some music is good for +man and elevates him, other melodies are equally bad and enervating. An +experience far wider than any we yet possess is necessary to enable us +to say how far this influence is capable of extension. How far, that +is, the mind may be directed on the one hand to ascetic abnegation by +the systematic use of certain music, or on the other to illicit and +dangerous pleasures by melodies of an opposite tendency. But this much +is, I think, certain, that after a comparatively advanced standard of +culture has once been attained, music is the readiest if not the only +key which admits to the yet narrower circle of the highest imaginative +thought. +</p> +<p> +On the occasion for travel afforded him by his honeymoon, an impulse +which he could not at the time explain, but which after-events have +convinced me was the haunting suggestion of the <i>Gagliarda</i>, drove him +to visit the scenes mentioned so often in Temple's diary. He had always +been an excellent scholar, and a classic of more than ordinary ability. +Rome and Southern Italy filled him with a strange delight. His education +enabled him to appreciate to the full what he saw; he peopled the stage +with the figures of the original actors, and tried to assimilate his +thought to theirs. He began reading classical literature widely, no +longer from the scholarly but the literary standpoint. In Rome he +spent much time in the librarians' shops, and there met with copies +of the numerous authors of the later empire and of those Alexandrine +philosophers which are rarely seen in England. In these he found a new +delight and fresh food for his mysticism. +</p> +<p> +Such study, if carried to any extent, is probably dangerous to the +English character, and certainly was to a man of Maltravers's romantic +sympathies. This reading produced in time so real an effect upon his +mind that if he did not definitely abandon Christianity, as I fear he +did, he at least adulterated it with other doctrines till it became to +him Neo-Platonism. That most seductive of philosophies, which has +enthralled so many minds from Proclus and Julian to Augustine and the +Renaissancists, found an easy convert in John Maltravers. Its passionate +longing for the vague and undefined good, its tolerance of æsthetic +impressions, the pleasant superstitions of its dynamic pantheism, all +touched responsive chords in his nature. His mind, he told me, became +filled with a measureless yearning for the old culture of pagan +philosophy, and as the past became clearer and more real, so the present +grew dimmer, and his thoughts were gradually weaned entirely from all +the natural objects of affection and interest which should otherwise +have occupied them. To what a terrible extent this process went on, Miss +Maltravers's narrative shows. Soon after reaching Naples he visited the +Villa de Angelis, which Temple had built on the ruins of a sea-house of +Pomponius. The later building had in its turn become dismantled and +ruinous, and Sir John found no difficulty in buying the site outright. +He afterwards rebuilt it on an elaborate scale, endeavouring to +reproduce in its equipment the luxury of the later empire. I had +occasion to visit the house more than once in my capacity of executor, +and found it full of priceless works of art, which, though neither so +difficult to procure at that time nor so costly as they would be now, +were yet sufficiently valuable to have necessitated an unjustifiable +outlay. +</p> +<p> +The situation of the building fostered his infatuation for the past. It +lay between the Bay of Naples and the Bay of Baia, and from its windows +commanded the same exquisite view which had charmed Cicero and Lucullus, +Severus and the Antonines. Hard by stood Baia, the princely seaside +resort of the empire. That most luxurious and wanton of all cities of +antiquity survived the cataclysms of ages, and only lost its civic +continuity and became the ruined village of to-day in the sack of the +fifteenth century. But a continuity of wickedness is not so easily +broken, and those who know the spot best say that it is still instinct +with memories of a shameful past. +</p> +<p> +For miles along that haunted coast the foot cannot be put down except on +the ruins of some splendid villa, and over all there broods a spirit of +corruption and debasement actually sensible and oppressive. Of the dawns +and sunsets, of the noonday sun tempered by the sea-breeze and the shade +of scented groves, those who have been there know the charm, and to +those who have not no words can describe it. But there are malefic +vapours rising from the corpse of a past not altogether buried, and most +cultivated Englishmen who tarry there long feel their influence as did +John Maltravers. Like so many <i>decepti deceptores</i> of the Neo-Platonic +school, he did not practise the abnegation enjoined by the very cult he +professed to follow. Though his nature was far too refined, I believe, +ever to sink into the sensualism revealed in Temple's diaries, yet it +was through the gratification of corporeal tastes that he endeavoured +to achieve the divine <i>extasis</i>; and there were constantly lavish and +sumptuous entertainments at the villa, at which strange guests were +present. +</p> +<p> +In such a nightmare of a life it was not to be expected that any mind +would find repose, and Maltravers certainly found none. All those cares +which usually occupy men's minds, all thoughts of wife, child, and home +were, it is true, abandoned; but a wild unrest had hold of him, and +never suffered him to be at ease. Though he never told me as much, yet +I believe he was under the impression that the form which he had seen +at Oxford and Royston had reappeared to him on more than one subsequent +occasion. It must have been, I fancy, with a vague hope of "laying" this +spectre that he now set himself with eagerness to discover where or +how Temple had died. He remembered that Royston tradition said he had +succumbed at Naples in the plague of 1752, but an idea seized him that +this was not the case; indeed I half suspect his fancy unconsciously +pictured that evil man as still alive. The methods by which he +eventually discovered the skeleton, or learnt the episodes which +preceded Temple's death, I do not know. He promised to tell me some +day at length, but a sudden death prevented his ever doing so. The +facts as he narrated them, and as I have little doubt they actually +occurred, were these: Adrian Temple, after Jocelyn's departure, had +made a confidant of one Palamede Domacavalli, a scion of a splendid +Parthenopean family of that name. Palamede had a palace in the heart of +Naples, and was Temple's equal in age and also in his great wealth. The +two men became boon companions, associated in all kinds of wickedness +and excess. At length Palamede married a beautiful girl named Olimpia +Aldobrandini, who was also of the noblest lineage; but the intimacy +between him and Temple was not interrupted. About a year subsequent to +this marriage dancing was going on after a splendid banquet in the great +hall of the Palazzo Domacavalli. Adrian, who was a favoured guest, +called to the musicians in the gallery to play the "Areopagita" suite, +and danced it with Olimpia, the wife of his host. The <i>Gagliarda</i> was +reached but never finished, for near the end of the second movement +Palamede from behind drove a stiletto into his friend's heart. He had +found out that day that Adrian had not spared even Olimpia's honour. +</p> +<p> +I have endeavoured to condense into a connected story the facts learnt +piecemeal from Sir John in conversation. To a certain extent they +supplied, if not an explanation, at least an account of the change +that had come over my friend. But only to a certain extent; there the +explanation broke down and I was left baffled. I could imagine that a +life of unwholesome surroundings and disordered studies might in time +produce such a loss of mental tone as would lead in turn to moral +<i>acolasia</i>, sensual excess, and physical ruin. But in Sir John's case +the cause was not adequate; he had, so far as I know, never wholly given +the reins to sensuality, and the change was too abrupt and the breakdown +of body and mind too complete to be accounted for by such events as +those of which he had spoken. +</p> +<p> +I had, too, an uneasy feeling, which grew upon me the more I saw of him, +that while he spoke freely enough on certain topics, and obviously meant +to give a complete history of his past life, there was in reality +something in the background which he always kept from my view. He was, +it seemed, like a young man asked by an indulgent father to disclose +his debts in order that they may be discharged, who, although he knows +his parent's leniency, and that any debt not now disclosed will be +afterwards but a weight upon his own neck, yet hesitates for very shame +to tell the full amount, and keeps some items back. So poor Sir John +kept something back from me his friend, whose only aim was to afford him +consolation and relief, and whose compassion would have made me listen +without rebuke to the narration of the blackest crimes. I cannot say how +much this conviction grieved me. I would most willingly have given my +all, my very life, to save my friend and Miss Maltravers's brother; but +my efforts were paralysed by the feeling that I did not know what I had +to combat, that some evil influence was at work on him which continually +evaded my grasp. Once or twice it seemed as though he were within an +ace of telling me all; once or twice, I believe, he had definitely made +up his mind to do so; but then the mood changed, or more probably his +courage failed him. +</p> +<p> +It was on one of these occasions that he asked me, somewhat suddenly, +whether I thought that a man could by any conscious act committed in the +flesh take away from himself all possibility of repentance and ultimate +salvation. Though, I trust, a sincere Christian, I am nothing of a +theologian, and the question touching on a topic which had not occurred +to my mind since childhood, and which seemed to savour rather of +medieval romance than of practical religion, took me for a moment aback. +I hesitated for an instant, and then replied that the means of salvation +offered man were undoubtedly so sufficient as to remove from one truly +penitent the guilt of any crime however dark. My hesitation had been but +momentary; but Sir John seemed to have noticed it, and sealed his lips +to any confession, if he had indeed intended to make any, by changing +the subject abruptly. This question naturally gave me food for serious +reflection and anxiety. It was the first occasion on which he appeared +to me to be undoubtedly suffering from definite hallucination, and I was +aware that any illusions connected with religion are generally most +difficult to remove. At the same time, anything of this sort was the +more remarkable in Sir John's case, as he had, so far as I knew, for a +considerable time entirely abandoned the Christian belief. +</p> +<p> +Unable to elicit any further information from him, and being thus thrown +entirely upon my own resources, I determined that I would read through +again the whole of Temple's diaries. The task was a very distasteful +one, as I have already explained, but I hoped that a second reading +might perhaps throw some light on the dark misgiving that was troubling +Sir John. I read the manuscript again with the closest attention. +Nothing, however, of any importance seemed to have escaped me on the +former occasions, and I had reached nearly the end of the second volume +when a comparatively slight matter arrested my attention. I have said +that the pages were all carefully numbered, and the events of each day +recorded separately; even where Temple had found nothing of moment to +notice on a given day, he had still inserted the date with the word +<i>nil</i> written against it. But as I sat one evening in the library at +Worth after Sir John had gone to bed, and was finally glancing through +the days of the months in Temple's diary to make sure that all were +complete, I found one day was missing. It was towards the end of the +second volume, and the day was the 23d of October in the year 1752. A +glance at the numbering of the pages revealed the fact that three leaves +had been entirely removed, and that the pages numbered 349 to 354 were +not to be found. Again I ran through the diaries to see whether there +were any leaves removed in other places, but found no other single page +missing. All was complete except at this one place, the manuscript +beautifully written, with scarcely an error or erasure throughout. A +closer examination showed that these leaves had been cut out close to +the back, and the cut edges of the paper appeared too fresh to admit of +this being done a century ago. A very short reflection convinced me, in +fact, that the excision was not likely to have been Temple's, and that +it must have been made by Sir John. +</p> +<p> +My first intention was to ask him at once what the lost pages had +contained, and why they had been cut out. The matter might be a mere +triviality which he could explain in a moment. But on softly opening his +bedroom door I found him sleeping, and Parnham (whom the strong light +always burnt in the room rendered more wakeful) informed me that his +master had been in a deep sleep for more than an hour. I knew how +sorely his wasted energies needed such repose, and stepped back to the +library without awaking him. A few minutes before, I had been feeling +sleepy at the conclusion of my task, but now all wish for sleep was +suddenly banished and a painful wakefulness took its place. I was under +a species of mental excitement which reminded me of my feelings some +years before at Oxford on the first occasion of our ever playing the +<i>Gagliarda</i> together, and an idea struck me with the force of intuition +that in these three lost leaves lay the secret of my friend's ruin. +</p> +<p> +I turned to the context to see whether there was anything in the entries +preceding or following the lacuna that would afford a clue to the +missing passage. The record of the few days immediately preceding the +23d of October was short and contained nothing of any moment whatever. +Adrian and Jocelyn were alone together at the Villa de Angelis. The +entry on the 22d was very unimportant and apparently quite complete, +ending at the bottom of page 348. Of the 23d there was, as I have said, +no record at all, and the entry for the 24th began at the top of page +355. This last memorandum was also brief, and written when the author +was annoyed by Jocelyn leaving him. +</p> +<p> +The defection of his companion had been apparently entirely unexpected. +There was at least no previous hint of any such intention. Temple wrote +that Jocelyn had left the Villa de Angelis that day and taken up his +abode with the Carthusians of San Martino. No reason for such an +extraordinary change was given; but there was a hint that Jocelyn had +professed himself shocked at something that had happened. The entry +concluded with a few bitter remarks: <i>"So farewell to my holy anchoret; +and if I cannot speed him with a leprosie as one Elisha did his servant, +yet at least he went out from my presence with a face as white as +snow."</i> +</p> +<p> +I had read this sentence more than once before without its attracting +other than a passing attention. The curious expression, that Jocelyn had +gone out from his presence with a face as white as snow, had hitherto +seemed to me to mean nothing more than that the two men had parted in +violent anger, and that Temple had abused or bullied his companion. But +as I sat alone that night in the library the words seemed to assume an +entirely new force, and a strange suspicion began to creep over me. +</p> +<p> +I have said that one of the most remarkable features of Sir John's +illness was his deadly pallor. Though I had now spent some time at +Worth, and had been daily struck by this lack of colour, I had never +before remembered in this connection that a strange paleness had also +been an attribute of Adrian Temple, and was indeed very clearly marked +in the picture painted of him by Battoni. In Sir John's account, +moreover, of the vision which he thought he had seen in his rooms at +Oxford, he had always spoken of the white and waxen face of his spectral +visitant. The family tradition of Royston said that Temple had lost his +colour in some deadly magical experiment, and a conviction now flashed +upon me that Jocelyn's face "as white as snow" could refer only to this +same unnatural pallor, and that he too had been smitten with it as with +the mark of the beast. +</p> +<p> +In a drawer of my despatch-box, I kept by me all the letters which the +late Lady Maltravers had written home during her ill-fated honeymoon. +Miss Maltravers had placed them in my hands in order that I might be +acquainted with every fact that could at all elucidate the progress of +Sir John's malady. I remembered that in one of these letters mention was +made of a sharp attack of fever in Naples, and of her noticing in him +for the first time this singular pallor. I found the letter again +without difficulty and read it with a new light. Every line breathed of +surprise and alarm. Lady Maltravers feared that her husband was very +seriously ill. On the Wednesday, two days before she wrote, he had +suffered all day from a strange restlessness, which had increased after +they had retired in the evening. He could not sleep and had dressed +again, saying he would walk a little in the night air to compose +himself. He had not returned till near six in the morning, and then +seemed so exhausted that he had since been confined to his bed. He was +terribly pale, and the doctors feared he had been attacked by some +strange fever. +</p> +<p> +The date of the letter was the 25th of October, fixing the night of the +23d as the time of Sir John's first attack. The coincidence of the date +with that of the day missing in Temple's diary was significant, but it +was not needed now to convince me that Sir John's ruin was due to +something that occurred on that fatal night at Naples. +</p> +<p> +The question that Dr. Frobisher had asked Miss Maltravers when he was +first called to see her brother in London returned to my memory with an +overwhelming force. "Had Sir John been subjected to any mental shock; +had he received any severe fright?" I knew now that the question should +have been answered in the affirmative, for I felt as certain as if +Sir John had told me himself that he <i>had</i> received a violent shock, +probably some terrible fright, on the night of the 23d of October. What +the nature of that shock could have been my imagination was powerless to +conceive, only I knew that whatever Sir John had done or seen, Adrian +Temple and Jocelyn had done or seen also a century before and at the +same place. That horror which had blanched the face of all three men +for life had fallen perhaps with a less overwhelming force on Temple's +seasoned wickedness, but had driven the worthless Jocelyn to the +cloister, and was driving Sir John to the grave. +</p> +<p> +These thoughts as they passed through my mind filled me with a vague +alarm. The lateness of the hour, the stillness and the subdued light, +made the library in which I sat seem so vast and lonely that I began to +feel the same dread of being alone that I had observed so often in my +friend. Though only a door separated me from his bedroom, and I could +hear his deep and regular breathing, I felt as though I must go in +and waken him or Parnham to keep me company and save me from my own +reflections. By a strong effort I restrained myself, and sat down to +think the matter over and endeavour to frame some hypothesis that might +explain the mystery. But it was all to no purpose. I merely wearied +myself without being able to arrive at even a plausible conjecture, +except that it seemed as though the strange coincidence of date might +point to some ghastly charm or incantation which could only be carried +out on one certain night of the year. +</p> +<p> +It must have been near morning when, quite exhausted, I fell into an +uneasy slumber in the arm-chair where I sat. My sleep, however brief, +was peopled with a succession of fantastic visions, in which I +continually saw Sir John, not ill and wasted as now, but vigorous and +handsome as I had known him at Oxford, standing beside a glowing brazier +and reciting words I could not understand, while another man with a +sneering white face sat in a corner playing the air of the <i>Gagliarda</i> +on a violin. Parnham woke me in my chair at seven o'clock; his master, +he said, was still sleeping easily. +</p> +<p> +I had made up my mind that as soon as he awoke I would inquire of Sir +John as to the pages missing from the diary; but though my expectation +and excitement were at a high pitch, I was forced to restrain my +curiosity, for Sir John's slumber continued late into the day. Dr. +Bruton called in the morning, and said that this sleep was what the +patient's condition most required, and was a distinctly favourable +symptom; he was on no account to be disturbed. Sir John did not leave +his bed, but continued dozing all day till the evening. When at last he +shook off his drowsiness, the hour was already so late that, in spite of +my anxiety, I hesitated to talk with him about the diaries, lest I +should unduly excite him before the night. +</p> +<p> +As the evening advanced he became very uneasy, and rose more than once +from his bed. This restlessness, following on the repose of the day, +ought perhaps to have made me anxious, for I have since observed that +when death is very near an apprehensive unrest often sets in both with +men and animals. It seems as if they dreaded to resign themselves to +sleep, lest as they slumber the last enemy should seize them unawares. +They try to fling off the bedclothes, they sometimes must leave their +beds and walk. So it was with poor John Maltravers on his last Christmas +Eve. I had sat with him grieving for his disquiet until he seemed to +grow more tranquil, and at length fell asleep. I was sleeping that night +in his room instead of Parnham, and tired with sitting up through the +previous night, I flung myself, dressed as I was, upon the bed. I had +scarcely dozed off, I think, before the sound of his violin awoke me. +I found he had risen from his bed, had taken his favourite instrument, +and was playing in his sleep. The air was the <i>Gagliarda</i> of the +"Areopagita" suite, which I had not heard since we had played it last +together at Oxford, and it brought back with it a crowd of far-off +memories and infinite regrets. I cursed the sleepiness which had +overcome me at my watchman's post, and allowed Sir John to play once +more that melody which had always been fraught with such evil for him; +and I was about to wake him gently when he was startled from sleep by a +strange accident. As I walked towards him the violin seemed entirely to +collapse in his hands, and, as a matter of fact, the belly then gave way +and broke under the strain of the strings. As the strings slackened, the +last note became an unearthly discord. If I were superstitious I should +say that some evil spirit then went out of the violin, and broke in his +parting throes the wooden tabernacle which had so long sheltered him. It +was the last time the instrument was ever used, and that hideous chord +was the last that Maltravers ever played. +</p> +<p> +I had feared that the shock of waking thus suddenly from sleep would +have a very prejudicial effect upon the sleep-walker, but this seemed +not to be the case. I persuaded him to go back at once to bed, and in a +few minutes he fell asleep again. In the morning he seemed for the first +time distinctly better; there was indeed something of his old self in +his manner. It seemed as though the breaking of the violin had been an +actual relief to him; and I believe that on that Christmas morning his +better instincts woke, and that his old religious training and the +associations of his boyhood then made their last appeal. I was pleased +at such a change, however temporary it might prove. He wished to go to +church, and I determined that again I would subdue my curiosity and +defer the questions I was burning to put till after our return from +the morning service. Miss Maltravers had gone indoors to make some +preparation, Sir John was in his wheel-chair on the terrace, and I was +sitting by him in the sun. For a few moments he appeared immersed in +silent thought, and then bent over towards me till his head was close +to mine, and said, "Dear William, there is something I must tell you. +I feel I cannot even go to church till I have told you all." His manner +shocked me beyond expression. I knew that he was going to tell me the +secret of the lost pages, but instead of wishing any longer to have my +curiosity satisfied, I felt a horrible dread of what he might say next. +He took my hand in his and held it tightly, as a man who was about to +undergo severe physical pain and sought the consolation of a friend's +support. Then he went on—"You will be shocked at what I am going to +tell you; but listen, and do not give me up: You must stand by me and +comfort me and help me to turn again." He paused for a moment and +continued—"It was one night in October, when Constance and I were at +Naples. I took that violin and went by myself to the ruined villa on +the Scoglio di Venere." He had been speaking with difficulty. His hand +clutched mine convulsively, but still I felt it trembling, and I could +see the moisture standing thick on his forehead. At this point the +effort seemed too much for him and he broke off. "I cannot go on, I +cannot tell you, but you can read it for yourself. In that diary which +I gave you there are some pages missing." The suspense was becoming +intolerable to me, and I broke in, "Yes, yes, I know; you cut them out. +Tell me where they are," He went on—"Yes, I cut them out lest they +should possibly fall into anyone's hands unaware. But before you read +them you must swear, as you hope for salvation, that you will never try +to do what is written in them. Swear this to me now, or I never can +let you see them." My eagerness was too great to stop now to discuss +trifles, and to humour him I swore as desired. He had been speaking with +a continual increasing effort; he cast a hurried and fearful glance +round as though he expected to see someone listening, and it was almost +in a whisper that he went on, "You will find them in—" His agitation +had become most painful to watch, and as he spoke the last words a +convulsion passed over his face, and speech failing him, he sank back on +his pillow. A strange fear took hold of me. For a moment I thought there +were others on the terrace beside myself, and turned round expecting to +see Miss Maltravers returned; but we were still alone. I even fancied +that just as Sir John spoke his last words I felt something brush +swiftly by me. He put up his hands, beating the air with a most painful +gesture, as though he were trying to keep off an antagonist who had +gripped him by the throat, and made a final struggle to speak. But the +spasm was too strong for him; a dreadful stillness followed, and he was +gone. +</p> +<p> +There is little more to add; for Sir John's guilty secret, perished with +him. Though I was sure from his manner that the missing leaves were +concealed somewhere at Worth, and though as executor I caused the most +diligent search to be made, no trace of them was afterwards found; nor +did any circumstance ever transpire to fling further light upon the +matter. I must confess that I should have felt the discovery of these +pages as a relief; for though I dreaded what I might have had to read, +yet I was more anxious lest, being found at a later period and falling +into other hands, they should cause a recrudescence of that plague which +had blighted Sir John's life. +</p> +<p> +Of the nature of the events which took place on that night at Naples +I can form no conjecture. But as certain physical sights have ere now +proved so revolting as to unhinge the intellect, so I can imagine that +the mind may in a state of extreme tension conjure up to itself some +form of moral evil so hideous as metaphysically to sear it: and this, +I believe, happened in the case both of Adrian Temple and of Sir John +Maltravers. +</p> +<p> +It is difficult to imagine the accessories used to produce the mental +excitation in which alone such a presentment of evil could become +imaginable. Fancy and legend, which have combined to represent as +possible appearances of the supernatural, agree also in considering them +as more likely to occur at certain times and places than at others; and +it is possible that the missing pages of the diary contained an account +of the time, place, and other conditions chosen by Temple for some +deadly experiment. Sir John most probably re-enacted the scene under +precisely similar conditions, and the effect on his overwrought +imagination was so vivid as to upset the balance of his mind. The time +chosen was no doubt the night of the 23d of October, and I cannot help +thinking that the place was one of those evil-looking and ruinous +sea-rooms which had so terrifying an effect on Miss Maltravers. Temple +may have used on that night one of the medieval incantations, or +possibly the more ancient invocation of the Isiac rite with which a +man of his knowledge and proclivities would certainly be familiar. The +accessories of either are sufficiently hideous to weaken the mind by +terror, and so prepare it for a belief in some frightful apparition. But +whatever was done, I feel sure that the music of the <i>Gagliarda</i> formed +part of the ceremonial. +</p> +<p> +Medieval philosophers and theologians held that evil is in its essence +so horrible that the human mind, if it could realise it, must perish at +its contemplation. Such realisation was by mercy ordinarily withheld, +but its possibility was hinted in the legend of the <i>Visio malefica</i>. +The <i>Visio Beatifica</i> was, as is well known, that vision of the Deity +or realisation of the perfect Good which was to form the happiness of +heaven, and the reward of the sanctified in the next world. Tradition +says that this vision was accorded also to some specially elect spirits +even in this life, as to Enoch, Elijah, Stephen, and Jerome. But there +was a converse to the Beatific Vision in the <i>Visio malefica</i>, or +presentation of absolute Evil, which was to be the chief torture of the +damned, and which, like the Beatific Vision, had been made visible in +life to certain desperate men. It visited Esau, as was said, when he +found no place for repentance, and Judas, whom it drove to suicide. +Cain saw it when he murdered his brother, and legend relates that in his +case, and in that of others, it left a physical brand to be borne by +the body to the grave. It was supposed that the Malefic Vision, besides +being thus spontaneously presented to typically abandoned men, had +actually been purposely called up by some few great adepts, and used by +them to blast their enemies. But to do so was considered equivalent to a +conscious surrender to the powers of evil, as the vision once seen took +away all hope of final salvation. +</p> +<p> +Adrian Temple would undoubtedly be cognisant of this legend, and the +lost experiment may have been an attempt to call up the Malefic Vision. +It is but a vague conjecture at the best, for the tree of the knowledge +of Evil bears many sorts of poisonous fruit, and no one can give full +account of the extravagances of a wayward fancy. +</p> +<p> +Conjointly with Miss Sophia, Sir John appointed me his executor and +guardian of his only son. Two months later we had lit a great fire +in the library at Worth. In it, after the servants were gone to bed, +we burnt the book containing the "Areopagita" of Graziani, and the +Stradivarius fiddle. The diaries of Temple I had already destroyed, and +wish that I could as easily blot out their foul and debasing memories +from my mind. I shall probably be blamed by those who would exalt +art at the expense of everything else, for burning a unique violin. +This reproach I am content to bear. Though I am not unreasonably +superstitious, and have no sympathy for that potential pantheism to +which Sir John Maltravers surrendered his intellect, yet I felt so great +an aversion to this violin that I would neither suffer it to remain at +Worth, nor pass into other hands. Miss Sophia was entirely at one with +me on this point. It was the same feeling which restrains any except +fools or braggarts from wishing to sleep in "haunted" rooms, or to live +in houses polluted with the memory of a revolting crime. No sane mind +believes in foolish apparitions, but fancy may at times bewitch the best +of us. So the Stradivarius was burnt. It was, after all, perhaps not so +serious a matter, for, as I have said, the bass-bar had given way. There +had always been a question whether it was strong enough to resist the +strain of modern stringing. Experience showed at last that it was not. +With the failure of the bass-bar the belly collapsed, and the wood broke +across the grain in so extraordinary a manner as to put the fiddle +beyond repair, except as a curiosity. Its loss, therefore, is not to be +so much regretted. Sir Edward has been brought up to think more of a +cricket-bat than of a violin-bow; but if he wishes at any time to buy a +Stradivarius, the fortunes of Worth and Royston, nursed through two long +minorities, will certainly justify his doing so. +</p> +<p> +Miss Sophia and I stood by and watched the holocaust. My heart misgave +me for a moment when I saw the mellow red varnish blistering off the +back, but I put my regret resolutely aside. As the bright flames jumped +up and lapped it round, they flung a red glow on the scroll. It was +wonderfully wrought, and differed, as I think Miss Maltravers has +already said, from any known example of Stradivarius. As we watched it, +the scroll took form, and we saw what we had never seen before, that it +was cut so that the deep lines in a certain light showed as the profile +of a man. It was a wizened little paganish face, with sharp-cut features +and a bald head. As I looked at it I knew at once (and a cameo has since +confirmed the fact) that it was a head of Porphyry. Thus the second +label found in the violin was explained and Sir John's view confirmed, +that Stradivarius had made the instrument for some Neo-Platonist +enthusiast who had dedicated it to his master Porphyrius. +</p> +<hr /> +<p> +A year after Sir John's death I went with Miss Maltravers to Worth +church to see a plain slab of slate which we had placed over her +brother's grave. We stood in bright sunlight in the Maltravers chapel, +with the monuments of that splendid family about us. Among them were the +altar-tomb of Sir Esmoun, and the effigies of more than one Crusader. +As I looked on their knightly forms, with their heads resting on their +tilting helms, their faces set firm, and their hands joined in prayer, +I could not help envying them that full and unwavering faith for which +they had fought and died. It seemed to stand out in such sharp contrast +with our latter-day sciolism and half-believed creeds, and to be flung +into higher relief by the dark shadow of John Maltravers's ruined life. +At our feet was the great brass of one Sir Roger de Maltravers. I +pointed out the end of the inscription to my companion—"CVIVS ANIMÆ, +ATQVE ANIMABVS OMNIVM FIDELIVM DEFVNCTORVM, ATQVE NOSTRIS ANIMABVS QVVM +EX HAC LVCE TRANSIVERIMVS, PROPITIETVR DEVS." Though no Catholic, I +could not refuse to add a sincere Amen. Miss Sophia, who is not ignorant +of Latin, read the inscription after me. "Ex hac luce," she said, as +though speaking to herself, "out of this light; alas! alas! for some the +light is darkness." +</p> +<br /><br /><br /> + +<hr class="full" /> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LOST STRADIVARIUS***</p> +<p>******* This file should be named 14107-h.txt or 14107-h.zip *******</p> +<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br /> +<a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/1/0/14107">https://www.gutenberg.org/1/4/1/0/14107</a></p> +<p>Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed.</p> + +<p>Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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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: The Lost Stradivarius + +Author: John Meade Falkner + +Release Date: November 21, 2004 [eBook #14107] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LOST STRADIVARIUS*** + + +E-text prepared by Suzanne Shell, Melissa Er-Raqabi, and the Project +Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + +THE LOST STRADIVARIUS + +by + +J. MEADE FALKNER + +1895 + +Penguin Books +Harmondsworth Middlesex, England +245 Fifth Avenue, New York, U.S.A. + + + + + + + +THE AUTHOR + + +John Meade Falkner was a remarkable character, as he was not only a +scholar and a writer, but a captain of industry as well. Born in 1858, +the son of a clergyman in Wiltshire, he was educated at Marlborough and +Hertford College, Oxford. On leaving the university, he became tutor to +the sons of Sir Andrew Noble, then vice-chairman of the +Armstrong-Whitworth Company; and his ability so much impressed his +employer that in 1885 he was offered a post in the firm. Without +connections or influence in industrial circles, and solely by his +intellect, he rose to be a director in 1901, and finally, in 1915, +chairman of this enormous business. He was actually chairman during the +important years 1915-1920, and remained a director until 1926. + +His intellectual energy was so great that throughout his life he found +time for scholarship as well as business. He travelled for his firm in +Europe and South America; and in the intervals of negotiating with +foreign governments studied manuscripts wherever he found a library. His +researches in the Vatican Library were of special importance, and in +connection with them he received a gold medal from the Pope; he was also +decorated by the Italian, Turkish and Japanese governments. + +His scholastic interests included archaeology, folklore, palaeography, +mediaeval history, architecture and church music; and he was a collector +of missals. Towards the end of his life he was made an Honorary Fellow +of Hertford College, Oxford, Honorary Reader in Palaeography to Durham +University, and Honorary Librarian to the Chapter Library of Durham +Cathedral, which he left one of the best cathedral libraries in Europe. +He died at Durham in 1932. + +Apart from _The Lost Stradivarius_, Falkner was the author of two other +novels, _The Nebuly Coat_ (1903--also published in Penguin Books) and +_Moonfleet_ (1898). He also wrote a History of Oxfordshire, handbooks to +that county and to Berkshire, historical short stories, and some +mediaevalist verse. + + + + + + +THE LOST STRADIVARIUS + + + + + + Letter from MISS SOPHIA MALTRAVERS + to her Nephew, SIR EDWARD MALTRAVERS, + then a Student at Christ Church, Oxford. + + 13 Pauncefort Buildings, Bath, + Oct. 21, 1867. + + MY DEAR EDWARD, + + It was your late father's dying request that certain events which + occurred in his last years should be communicated to you on your coming + of age. I have reduced them to writing, partly from my own recollection, + which is, alas! still too vivid, and partly with the aid of notes taken + at the time of my brother's death. As you are now of full age, I submit + the narrative to you. Much of it has necessarily been exceedingly + painful to me to write, but at the same time I feel it is better that + you should hear the truth from me than garbled stories from others who + did not love your father as I did. + + Your loving Aunt, + SOPHIA MALTRAVERS + + +To Sir Edward Maltravers, Bart. + + + + + "A tale out of season is as music in mourning." + --ECCLESIASTICUS xxii. 6. + + + + +MISS SOPHIA MALTRAVERS' STORY + +CHAPTER I + + +Your father, John Maltravers, was born in 1820 at Worth, and succeeded +his father and mine, who died when we were still young children. John +was sent to Eton in due course, and in 1839, when he was nineteen years +of age, it was determined that he should go to Oxford. It was intended +at first to enter him at Christ Church; but Dr. Sarsdell, who visited us +at Worth in the summer of 1839, persuaded Mr. Thoresby, our guardian, to +send him instead to Magdalen Hall. Dr. Sarsdell was himself Principal of +that institution, and represented that John, who then exhibited some +symptoms of delicacy, would meet with more personal attention under his +care than he could hope to do in so large a college as Christ Church. +Mr. Thoresby, ever solicitous for his ward's welfare, readily waived +other considerations in favour of an arrangement which he considered +conducive to John's health, and he was accordingly matriculated at +Magdalen Hall in the autumn of 1839. + +Dr. Sarsdell had not been unmindful of his promise to look after my +brother, and had secured him an excellent first-floor sitting-room, with +a bedroom adjoining, having an aspect towards New College Lane. + +I shall pass over the first two years of my brother's residence at +Oxford, because they have nothing to do with the present story. They +were spent, no doubt, in the ordinary routine of work and recreation +common in Oxford at that period. + +From his earliest boyhood he had been passionately devoted to music, +and had attained a considerable proficiency on the violin. In the autumn +term of 1841 he made the acquaintance of Mr. William Gaskell, a very +talented student at New College, and also a more than tolerable +musician. The practice of music was then very much less common at Oxford +than it has since become, and there were none of those societies +existing which now do so much to promote its study among undergraduates. +It was therefore a cause of much gratification to the two young men, and +it afterwards became a strong bond of friendship, to discover that one +was as devoted to the pianoforte as was the other to the violin. Mr. +Gaskell, though in easy circumstances, had not a pianoforte in his +rooms, and was pleased to use a fine instrument by D'Almaine that John +had that term received as a birthday present from his guardian. + +From that time the two students were thrown much together, and in the +autumn term of 1841 and Easter term of 1842 practised a variety of music +in John's rooms, he taking the violin part and Mr. Gaskell that for the +pianoforte. + +It was, I think, in March 1842 that John purchased for his rooms a piece +of furniture which was destined afterwards to play no unimportant part +in the story I am narrating. This was a very large and low wicker chair +of a form then coming into fashion in Oxford, and since, I am told, +become a familiar object of most college rooms. It was cushioned with a +gaudy pattern of chintz, and bought for new of an upholsterer at the +bottom of the High Street. + +Mr. Gaskell was taken by his uncle to spend Easter in Rome, and +obtaining special leave from his college to prolong his travels; did not +return to Oxford till three weeks of the summer term were passed and May +was well advanced. So impatient was he to see his friend that he would +not let even the first evening of his return pass without coming round +to John's rooms. The two young men sat without lights until the night +was late; and Mr. Gaskell had much to narrate of his travels, and spoke +specially of the beautiful music which he had heard at Easter in the +Roman churches. He had also had lessons on the piano from a celebrated +professor of the Italian style, but seemed to have been particularly +delighted with the music of the seventeenth-century composers, of whose +works he had brought back some specimens set for piano and violin. + +It was past eleven o'clock when Mr. Gaskell left to return to New +College; but the night was unusually warm, with a moon near the full, +and John sat for some time in a cushioned window-seat before the open +sash thinking over what he had heard about the music of Italy. Feeling +still disinclined for sleep, he lit a single candle and began to turn +over some of the musical works which Mr. Gaskell had left on the table. +His attention was especially attracted to an oblong book, bound in +soiled vellum, with a coat of arms stamped in gilt upon the side. It was +a manuscript copy of some early suites by Graziani for violin and +harpsichord, and was apparently written at Naples in the year 1744, many +years after the death of that composer. Though the ink was yellow and +faded, the transcript had been accurately made, and could be read with +tolerable comfort by an advanced musician in spite of the antiquated +notation. + +Perhaps by accident, or perhaps by some mysterious direction which our +minds are incapable of appreciating, his eye was arrested by a suite of +four movements with a _basso continuo_, or figured bass, for the +harpsichord. The other suites in the book were only distinguished by +numbers, but this one the composer had dignified with the name of +"l'Areopagita." Almost mechanically John put the book on his +music-stand, took his violin from its case, and after a moment's tuning +stood up and played the first movement, a lively _Coranto_. The light of +the single candle burning on the table was scarcely sufficient to +illumine the page; the shadows hung in the creases of the leaves, which +had grown into those wavy folds sometimes observable in books made of +thick paper and remaining long shut; and it was with difficulty that he +could read what he was playing. But he felt the strange impulse of the +old-world music urging him forward, and did not even pause to light the +candles which stood ready in their sconces on either side of the desk. +The _Coranto_ was followed by a _Sarabanda_, and the _Sarabanda_ by a +_Gagliarda_. My brother stood playing, with his face turned to the +window, with the room and the large wicker chair of which I have spoken +behind him. The _Gagliarda_ began with a bold and lively air, and as he +played the opening bars, he heard behind him a creaking of the wicker +chair. The sound was a perfectly familiar one--as of some person placing +a hand on either arm of the chair preparatory to lowering himself into +it, followed by another as of the same person being leisurely seated. +But for the tones of the violin, all was silent, and the creaking of the +chair was strangely distinct. The illusion was so complete that my +brother stopped playing suddenly, and turned round expecting that some +late friend of his had slipped in unawares, being attracted by the sound +of the violin, or that Mr. Gaskell himself had returned. With the +cessation of the music an absolute stillness fell upon all; the light of +the single candle scarcely reached the darker corners of the room, but +fell directly on the wicker chair and showed it to be perfectly empty. +Half amused, half vexed with himself at having without reason +interrupted his music, my brother returned to the _Gagliarda_; but some +impulse induced him to light the candles in the sconces, which gave an +illumination more adequate to the occasion. The _Gagliarda_ and the last +movement, a _Minuetto_, were finished, and John closed the book, +intending, as it was now late, to seek his bed. As he shut the pages a +creaking of the wicker chair again attracted his attention, and he heard +distinctly sounds such as would be made by a person raising himself from +a sitting posture. This time, being less surprised, he could more aptly +consider the probable causes of such a circumstance, and easily arrived +at the conclusion that there must be in the wicker chair osiers +responsive to certain notes of the violin, as panes of glass in church +windows are observed to vibrate in sympathy with certain tones of the +organ. But while this argument approved itself to his reason, his +imagination was but half convinced; and he could not but be impressed +with the fact that the second creaking of the chair had been coincident +with his shutting the music-book; and, unconsciously, pictured to +himself some strange visitor waiting until the termination of the music, +and then taking his departure. + +His conjectures did not, however, either rob him of sleep or even +disturb it with dreams, and he woke the next morning with a cooler mind +and one less inclined to fantastic imagination. If the strange episode +of the previous evening had not entirely vanished from his mind, it +seemed at least fully accounted for by the acoustic explanation to which +I have alluded above. Although he saw Mr. Gaskell in the course of the +morning, he did not think it necessary to mention to him so trivial a +circumstance, but made with him an appointment to sup together in his +own rooms that evening, and to amuse themselves afterwards by essaying +some of the Italian music. + +It was shortly after nine that night when, supper being finished, Mr. +Gaskell seated himself at the piano and John tuned his violin. The +evening was closing in; there had been heavy thunder-rain in the +afternoon, and the moist air hung now heavy and steaming, while across +it there throbbed the distant vibrations of the tenor bell at Christ +Church. It was tolling the customary 101 strokes, which are rung every +night in term-time as a signal for closing the college gates. The two +young men enjoyed themselves for some while, playing first a suite by +Cesti, and then two early sonatas by Buononcini. Both of them were +sufficiently expert musicians to make reading at sight a pleasure rather +than an effort; and Mr. Gaskell especially was well versed in the theory +of music, and in the correct rendering of the _basso continuo_. After +the Buononcini Mr. Gaskell took up the oblong copy of Graziani, and +turning over its leaves, proposed that they should play the same suite +which John had performed by himself the previous evening. His selection +was apparently perfectly fortuitous, as my brother had purposely +refrained from directing his attention in any way to that piece of +music. They played the _Coranto_ and the _Sarabanda_, and in the +singular fascination of the music John had entirely forgotten the +episode of the previous evening, when, as the bold air of the +_Gagliarda_ commenced, he suddenly became aware of the same strange +creaking of the wicker chair that he had noticed on the first occasion. +The sound was identical, and so exact was its resemblance to that of a +person sitting down that he stared at the chair, almost wondering that +it still appeared empty. Beyond turning his head sharply for a moment to +look round, Mr. Gaskell took no notice of the sound; and my brother, +ashamed to betray any foolish interest or excitement, continued the +_Gagliarda_, with its repeat. At its conclusion Mr. Gaskell stopped +before proceeding to the minuet, and turning the stool on which he was +sitting round towards the room, observed, "How very strange, +Johnnie,"--for these young men were on terms of sufficient intimacy to +address each other in a familiar style,--"How very strange! I thought I +heard some one sit down in that chair when we began the _Gagliarda_. I +looked round quite expecting to see some one had come in. Did you hear +nothing?" + +"It was only the chair creaking," my brother answered, feigning an +indifference which he scarcely felt. "Certain parts of the wicker-work +seem to be in accord with musical notes and respond to them; let us +continue with the _Minuetto_." + +Thus they finished the suite, Mr. Gaskell demanding a repetition of the +_Gagliarda_, with the air of which he was much pleased. As the clocks +had already struck eleven, they determined not to play more that night; +and Mr. Gaskell rose, blew out the sconces, shut the piano, and put the +music aside. My brother has often assured me that he was quite prepared +for what followed, and had been almost expecting it; for as the books +were put away, a creaking of the wicker chair was audible, exactly +similar to that which he had heard when he stopped playing on the +previous night. There was a moment's silence; the young men looked +involuntarily at one another, and then Mr. Gaskell said, "I cannot +understand the creaking of that chair; it has never done so before, with +all the music we have played. I am perhaps imaginative and excited with +the fine airs we have heard to-night, but I have an impression that I +cannot dispel that something has been sitting listening to us all this +time, and that now when the concert is ended it has got up and gone." +There was a spirit of raillery in his words, but his tone was not so +light as it would ordinarily have been, and he was evidently ill at +ease. + +"Let us try the _Gagliarda_ again," said my brother; "it is the +vibration of the opening notes which affects the wicker-work, and we +shall see if the noise is repeated." But Mr. Gaskell excused himself +from trying the experiment, and after some desultory conversation, to +which it was evident that neither was giving any serious attention, he +took his leave and returned to New College. + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +I shall not weary you, my dear Edward, by recounting similar experiences +which occurred on nearly every occasion that the young men met in the +evenings for music. The repetition of the phenomenon had accustomed them +to expect it. Both professed to be quite satisfied that it was to be +attributed to acoustical affinities of vibration between the wicker-work +and certain of the piano wires, and indeed this seemed the only +explanation possible. But, at the same time, the resemblance of the +noises to those caused by a person sitting down in or rising from a +chair was so marked, that even their frequent recurrence never failed to +make a strange impression on them. They felt a reluctance to mention the +matter to their friends, partly from a fear of being themselves laughed +at, and partly to spare from ridicule a circumstance to which each +perhaps, in spite of himself, attached some degree of importance. +Experience soon convinced them that the first noise as of one sitting +down never occurred unless the _Gagliarda_ of the "Areopagita" was +played, and that this noise being once heard, the second only followed +it when they ceased playing for the evening. They met every night, +sitting later with the lengthening summer evenings, and every night, +as by some tacit understanding, played the "Areopagita" suite before +parting. At the opening bars of the _Gagliarda_ the creaking of the +chair occurred spontaneously with the utmost regularity. They seldom +spoke even to one another of the subject; but one night, when John was +putting away his violin after a long evening's music without having +played the "Areopagita," Mr. Gaskell, who had risen from the pianoforte, +sat down again as by a sudden impulse and said-- + +"Johnnie, do not put away your violin yet. It is near twelve o'clock +and I shall get shut out, but I cannot stop to-night without playing the +_Gagliarda_. Suppose that all our theories of vibration and affinity are +wrong, suppose that there really comes here night by night some strange +visitant to hear us, some poor creature whose heart is bound up in that +tune; would it not be unkind to send him away without the hearing of +that piece which he seems most to relish? Let us not be ill-mannered, +but humour his whim; let us play the _Gagliarda_." + +They played it with more vigour and precision than usual, and the now +customary sound of one taking his seat at once ensued. It was that night +that my brother, looking steadfastly at the chair, saw, or thought he +saw, there some slight obscuration, some penumbra, mist, or subtle +vapour which, as he gazed, seemed to struggle to take human form. He +ceased playing for a moment and rubbed his eyes, but as he did so all +dimness vanished and he saw the chair perfectly empty. The pianist +stopped also at the cessation of the violin, and asked what ailed him. + +"It is only that my eyes were dim," he answered. + +"We have had enough for to-night," said Mr. Gaskell; "let us stop. +I shall be locked out." He shut the piano, and as he did so the clock +in New College tower struck twelve. He left the room running, but was +late enough at his college door to be reported, admonished with a fine +against such late hours, and confined for a week to college; for being +out after midnight was considered, at that time at least, a somewhat +serious offence. + +Thus for some days the musical practice was compulsorily intermitted, +but resumed on the first evening after Mr. Gaskell's term of confinement +was expired. After they had performed several suites of Graziani, and +finished as usual with the "Areopagita," Mr. Gaskell sat for a time +silent at the instrument, as though thinking with himself, and then +said-- + +"I cannot say how deeply this old-fashioned music affects me. Some would +try to persuade us that these suites, of which the airs bear the names +of different dances, were always written rather as a musical essay and +for purposes of performance than for persons to dance to, as their names +would more naturally imply. But I think these critics are wrong at least +in some instances. It is to me impossible to believe that such a melody, +for instance, as the _Giga_ of Corelli which we have played, was not +written for actual purposes of dancing. One can almost hear the beat +of feet upon the floor, and I imagine that in the time of Corelli the +practice of dancing, while not a whit inferior in grace, had more of the +tripudistic or beating character than is now esteemed consistent with a +correct ball-room performance. The _Gagliarda_ too, which we play now so +constantly, possesses a singular power of assisting the imagination to +picture or reproduce such scenes as those which it no doubt formerly +enlivened. I know not why, but it is constantly identified in my mind +with some revel which I have perhaps seen in a picture, where several +couples are dancing a licentious measure in a long room lit by a number +of silver sconces of the debased model common at the end of the +seventeenth century. It is probably a reminiscence of my late excursion +that gives to these dancers in my fancy the olive skin, dark hair, and +bright eyes of the Italian type; and they wear dresses of exceedingly +rich fabric and elaborate design. Imagination is whimsical enough to +paint for me the character of the room itself, as having an arcade of +arches running down one side alone, of the fantastic and paganised +Gothic of the Renaissance. At the end is a gallery or balcony for the +musicians, which on its coved front has a florid coat of arms of foreign +heraldry. The shield bears, on a field _or_, a cherub's head blowing on +three lilies--a blazon I have no doubt seen somewhere in my travels, +though I cannot recollect where. This scene, I say, is so nearly +connected in my brain with the _Gagliarda_, that scarcely are its first +notes sounded ere it presents itself to my eyes with a vividness which +increases every day. The couples advance, set, and recede, using free +and licentious gestures which my imagination should be ashamed to +recall. Amongst so many foreigners, fancy pictures, I know not in the +least why, the presence of a young man of an English type of face, whose +features, however, always elude my mind's attempt to fix them. I think +that the opening subject of this _Gagliarda_ is a superior composition +to the rest of it, for it is only during the first sixteen bars that the +vision of bygone revelry presents itself to me. With the last note of +the sixteenth bar a veil is drawn suddenly across the scene, and with a +sense almost of some catastrophe it vanishes. This I attribute to the +fact that the second subject must be inferior in conception to the +first, and by some sense of incongruity destroys the fabric which the +fascination of the preceding one built up." + +My brother, though he had listened with interest to what Mr. Gaskell had +said, did not reply, and the subject was allowed to drop. + + + + +CHAPTER III + + +It was in the same summer of 1842, and near the middle of June, that my +brother John wrote inviting me to come to Oxford for the Commemoration +festivities. I had been spending some weeks with Mrs. Temple, a distant +cousin of ours, at their house of Royston in Derbyshire, and John was +desirous that Mrs. Temple should come up to Oxford and chaperone +her daughter Constance and myself at the balls and various other +entertainments which take place at the close of the summer term. Owing +to Royston being some two hundred miles from Worth Maltravers, our +families had hitherto seen little of one another, but during my present +visit I had learned to love Mrs. Temple, a lady of singular sweetness of +disposition, and had contracted a devoted attachment to her daughter +Constance. Constance Temple was then eighteen years of age, and to great +beauty united such mental graces and excellent traits of character as +must ever appear to reasoning persons more enduringly valuable than even +the highest personal attractions. She was well read and witty, and had +been trained in those principles of true religion which she afterwards +followed with devoted consistency in the self-sacrifice and resigned +piety of her too short life. In person, I may remind you, my dear +Edward, since death removed her ere you were of years to appreciate +either her appearance or her qualities, she was tall, with a somewhat +long and oval face, with brown hair and eyes. + +Mrs. Temple readily accepted Sir John Maltravers' invitation. She had +never seen Oxford herself, and was pleased to afford us the pleasure of +so delightful an excursion. John had secured convenient rooms for us +above the shop of a well-known printseller in High Street, and we +arrived in Oxford on Friday evening, June 18, 1842. I shall not dilate +to you on the various Commemoration festivities, which have probably +altered little since those days, and with which you are familiar. +Suffice it to say that my brother had secured us admission to every +entertainment, and that we enjoyed our visit as only youth with its keen +sensibilities and uncloyed pleasures can. I could not help observing +that John was very much struck by the attractions of Miss Constance +Temple, and that she for her part, while exhibiting no unbecoming +forwardness, certainly betrayed no aversion to him. I was greatly +pleased both with my own powers of observation which had enabled me to +discover so important a fact, and also with the circumstance itself. +To a romantic girl of nineteen it appeared high time that a brother of +twenty-two should be at least preparing some matrimonial project; and my +friend was so good and beautiful that it seemed impossible that I should +ever obtain a more lovable sister or my brother a better wife. Mrs. +Temple could not refuse her sanction to such a scheme; for while their +mental qualities seemed eminently compatible, John was in his own right +master of Worth Maltravers, and her daughter sole heiress of the Royston +estates. + +The Commemoration festivities terminated on Wednesday night with a grand +ball at the Music-Room in Holywell Street. This was given by a Lodge of +University Freemasons, and John was there with Mr. Gaskell--whose +acquaintance we had made with much gratification--both wearing blue silk +scarves and small white aprons. They introduced us to many other of +their friends similarly adorned, and these important and mysterious +insignia sat not amiss with their youthful figures and boyish faces. +After a long and pleasurable programme, it was decided that we should +prolong our visit till the next evening, leaving Oxford at half-past +ten o'clock at night and driving to Didcot, there to join the mail for +the west. We rose late the next morning and spent the day rambling among +the old colleges and gardens of the most beautiful of English cities. +At seven o'clock we dined together for the last time at our lodgings +in High Street, and my brother proposed that before parting we should +enjoy the fine evening in the gardens of St. John's College. This was +at once agreed to, and we proceeded thither, John walking on in front +with Constance and Mrs. Temple, and I following with Mr. Gaskell. My +companion explained that these gardens were esteemed the most beautiful +in the University, but that under ordinary circumstances it was not +permitted to strangers to walk there of an evening. Here he quoted some +Latin about "aurum per medios ire satellites," which I smilingly made as +if I understood, and did indeed gather from it that John had bribed the +porter to admit us. It was a warm and very still night, without a moon, +but with enough of fading light to show the outlines of the garden +front. This long low line of buildings built in Charles I's reign looked +so exquisitely beautiful that I shall never forget it, though I have not +since seen its oriel windows and creeper-covered walls. There was a very +heavy dew on the broad lawn, and we walked at first only on the paths. +No one spoke, for we were oppressed by the very beauty of the scene, and +by the sadness which an imminent parting from friends and from so sweet +a place combined to cause. John had been silent and depressed the whole +day, nor did Mr. Gaskell himself seem inclined to conversation. +Constance and my brother fell a little way behind, and Mr. Gaskell asked +me to cross the lawn if I was not afraid of the dew, that I might see +the garden front to better advantage from the corner. Mrs. Temple waited +for us on the path, not wishing to wet her feet. Mr. Gaskell pointed out +the beauties of the perspective as seen from his vantage-point, and we +were fortunate in hearing the sweet descant of nightingales for which +this garden has ever been famous. As we stood silent and listening, a +candle was lit in a small oriel at the end, and the light showing the +tracery of the window added to the picturesqueness of the scene. + +Within an hour we were in a landau driving through the still warm lanes +to Didcot. I had seen that Constance's parting with my brother had been +tender, and I am not sure that she was not in tears during some part at +least of our drive; but I did not observe her closely, having my +thoughts elsewhere. + +Though we were thus being carried every moment further from the sleeping +city, where I believe that both our hearts were busy, I feel as if I had +been a personal witness of the incidents I am about to narrate, so often +have I heard them from my brother's lips. The two young men, after +parting with us in the High Street, returned to their respective +colleges. John reached his rooms shortly before eleven o'clock. He was +at once sad and happy--sad at our departure, but happy in a new-found +world of delight which his admiration for Constance Temple opened to +him. He was, in fact, deeply in love with her, and the full flood of a +hitherto unknown passion filled him with an emotion so overwhelming that +his ordinary life seemed transfigured. He moved, as it were, in an ether +superior to our mortal atmosphere, and a new region of high resolves and +noble possibilities spread itself before his eyes. He slammed his heavy +outside door (called an "oak") to prevent anyone entering and flung +himself into the window-seat. Here he sat for a long time, the sash +thrown up and his head outside, for he was excited and feverish. His +mental exaltation was so great and his thoughts of so absorbing an +interest that he took no notice of time, and only remembered afterwards +that the scent of a syringa-bush was borne up to him from a little +garden-patch opposite, and that a bat had circled slowly up and down the +lane, until he heard the clocks striking three. At the same time the +faint light of dawn made itself felt almost imperceptibly; the classic +statues on the roof of the schools began to stand out against the white +sky, and a faint glimmer to penetrate the darkened room. It glistened on +the varnished top of his violin-case lying on the table, and on a jug of +toast-and-water placed there by his college servant or scout every night +before he left. He drank a glass of this mixture, and was moving towards +his bedroom door when a sudden thought struck him. He turned back, took +the violin from its case, tuned it, and began to play the "Areopagita" +suite. He was conscious of that mental clearness and vigour which not +unfrequently comes with the dawn to those who have sat watching or +reading through the night: and his thoughts were exalted by the effect +which the first consciousness of a deep passion causes in imaginative +minds. He had never played the suite with more power; and the airs, +even without the piano part, seemed fraught with a meaning hitherto +unrealised. As he began the _Gagliarda_ he heard the wicker chair creak; +but he had his back towards it, and the sound was now too familiar to +him to cause him even to look round. It was not till he was playing +the repeat that he became aware of a new and overpowering sensation. +At first it was a vague feeling, so often experienced by us all, of +not being alone. He did not stop playing, and in a few seconds the +impression of a presence in the room other than his own became so strong +that he was actually afraid to look round. But in another moment he felt +that at all hazards he must see what or who this presence was. Without +stopping he partly turned and partly looked over his shoulder. The +silver light of early morning was filling the room, making the various +objects appear of less bright colour than usual, and giving to +everything a pearl-grey neutral tint. In this cold but clear light he +saw seated in the wicker chair the figure of a man. + +In the first violent shock of so terrifying a discovery, he could not +appreciate such details as those of features, dress, or appearance. He +was merely conscious that with him, in a locked room of which he knew +himself to be the only human inmate, there sat something which bore a +human form. He looked at it for a moment with a hope, which he felt +to be vain, that it might vanish and prove a phantom of his excited +imagination, but still it sat there. Then my brother put down his +violin, and he used to assure me that a horror overwhelmed him of an +intensity which he had previously believed impossible. Whether the image +which he saw was subjective or objective, I cannot pretend to say: you +will be in a position to judge for yourself when you have finished this +narrative. Our limited experience would lead us to believe that it was a +phantom conjured up by some unusual condition of his own brain; but we +are fain to confess that there certainly do exist in nature phenomena +such as baffle human reason; and it is possible that, for some hidden +purposes of Providence, permission may occasionally be granted to those +who have passed from this life to assume again for a time the form of +their earthly tabernacle. We must, I say, be content to suspend our +judgment on such matters; but in this instance the subsequent course of +events is very difficult to explain, except on the supposition that +there was then presented to my brother's view the actual bodily form of +one long deceased. The dread which took possession of him was due, he +has more than once told me when analysing his feelings long afterwards, +to two predominant causes. Firstly, he felt that mental dislocation +which accompanies the sudden subversion of preconceived theories, +the sudden alteration of long habit, or even the occurrence of any +circumstance beyond the walk of our daily experience. This I have +observed myself in the perturbing effect which a sudden death, a +grievous accident, or in recent years the declaration of war, has +exercised upon all except the most lethargic or the most determined +minds. Secondly, he experienced the profound self-abasement or mental +annihilation caused by the near conception of a being of a superior +order. In the presence of an existence wearing, indeed, the human form, +but of attributes widely different from and superior to his own, he felt +the combined reverence and revulsion which even the noblest wild animals +exhibit when brought for the first time face to face with man. The shock +was so great that I feel persuaded it exerted an effect on him from +which he never wholly recovered. + +After an interval which seemed to him interminable, though it was only +of a second's duration, he turned his eyes again to the occupant of the +wicker chair. His faculties had so far recovered from the first shock +as to enable him to see that the figure was that of a man perhaps +thirty-five years of age and still youthful in appearance. The face was +long and oval, the hair brown, and brushed straight off an exceptionally +high forehead. His complexion was very pale or bloodless. He was clean +shaven, and his finely cut mouth, with compressed lips, wore something +of a sneering smile. His general expression was unpleasing, and from the +first my brother felt as by intuition that there was present some malign +and wicked influence. His eyes were not visible, as he kept them cast +down, resting his head on his hand in the attitude of one listening. His +face and even his dress were impressed so vividly upon John's mind, that +he never had any difficulty in recalling them to his imagination; and he +and I had afterwards an opportunity of verifying them in a remarkable +manner. He wore a long cut-away coat of green cloth with an edge of gold +embroidery, and a white satin waistcoat figured with rose-sprigs, a +full cravat of rich lace, knee-breeches of buff silk, and stockings of +the same. His shoes were of polished black leather with heavy silver +buckles, and his costume in general recalled that worn a century ago. +As my brother gazed at him, he got up, putting his hands on the arms +of the chair to raise himself, and causing the creaking so often heard +before. The hands forced themselves on my brother's notice: they were +very white, with the long delicate fingers of a musician. He showed a +considerable height; and still keeping his eyes on the floor, walked +with an ordinary gait towards the end of the bookcase at the side of the +room farthest from the window. He reached the bookcase, and then John +suddenly lost sight of him. The figure did not fade gradually, but went +out, as it were, like the flame of a suddenly extinguished candle. + +The room was now filled with the clear light of the summer morning: the +whole vision had lasted but a few seconds, but my brother knew that +there was no possibility of his having been mistaken, that the mystery +of the creaking chair was solved, that he had seen the man who had come +evening by evening for a month past to listen to the rhythm of the +_Gagliarda_. Terribly disturbed, he sat for some time half dreading and +half expecting a return of the figure; but all remained unchanged: he +saw nothing, nor did he dare to challenge its reappearance by playing +again the _Gagliarda_, which seemed to have so strange an attraction for +it. At last, in the full sunlight of a late June morning at Oxford, he +heard the steps of early pedestrians on the pavement below his windows, +the cry of a milkman, and other sounds which showed the world was awake. +It was after six o'clock, and going to his bedroom he flung himself on +the outside of the bed for an hour's troubled slumber. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + +When his servant called him about eight o'clock my brother sent a note +to Mr. Gaskell at New College, begging him to come round to Magdalen +Hall as soon as might be in the course of the morning. His summons was +at once obeyed, and Mr. Gaskell was with him before he had finished +breakfast. My brother was still much agitated, and at once told him what +had happened the night before, detailing the various circumstances with +minuteness, and not even concealing from him the sentiments which he +entertained towards Miss Constance Temple. In narrating the appearance +which he had seen in the chair, his agitation was still so excessive +that he had difficulty in controlling his voice. + +Mr. Gaskell heard him with much attention, and did not at once reply +when John had finished his narration. At length he said, "I suppose many +friends would think it right to affect, even if they did not feel, an +incredulity as to what you have just told me. They might consider it +more prudent to attempt to allay your distress by persuading you that +what you have seen has no objective reality, but is merely the phantasm +of an excited imagination; that if you had not been in love, had not sat +up all night, and had not thus overtaxed your physical powers, you would +have seen no vision. I shall not argue thus, for I am as certainly +convinced as of the fact that we sit here, that on all the nights when +we have played this suite called the 'Areopagita,' there has been some +one listening to us, and that you have at length been fortunate or +unfortunate enough to see him." + +"Do not say fortunate," said my brother; "for I feel as though I shall +never recover from last night's shock." + +"That is likely enough," Mr. Gaskell answered, coolly; "for as in the +history of the race or individual, increased culture and a finer mental +susceptibility necessarily impair the brute courage and powers of +endurance which we note in savages, so any supernatural vision such +as you have seen must be purchased at the cost of physical reaction. +From the first evening that we played this music, and heard the noises +mimicking so closely the sitting down and rising up of some person, I +have felt convinced that causes other than those which we usually call +natural were at work, and that we were very near the manifestation of +some extraordinary phenomenon." + +"I do not quite apprehend your meaning." + +"I mean this," he continued, "that this man or spirit of a man has been +sitting here night after night, and that we have not been able to see +him, because our minds are dull and obtuse. Last night the elevating +force of a strong passion, such as that which you have confided to me, +combined with the power of fine music, so exalted your mind that you +became endowed, as it were, with a sixth sense, and suddenly were +enabled to see that which had previously been invisible. To this sixth +sense music gives, I believe, the key. We are at present only on the +threshold of such a knowledge of that art as will enable us to use it +eventually as the greatest of all humanising and educational agents. +Music will prove a ladder to the loftier regions of thought; indeed I +have long found for myself that I cannot attain to the highest range of +my intellectual power except when hearing good music. All poets, and +most writers of prose, will say that their thought is never so exalted, +their sense of beauty and proportion never so just, as when they are +listening either to the artificial music made by man, or to some of the +grander tones of nature, such as the roar of a western ocean, or the +sighing of wind in a clump of firs. Though I have often felt on such +occasions on the very verge of some high mental discovery, and though +a hand has been stretched forward as it were to rend the veil, yet it +has never been vouchsafed me to see behind it. This you no doubt were +allowed in a measure to do last night. You probably played the music +with a deeper intuition than usual, and this, combined with the +excitement under which you were already labouring, raised you for a +moment to the required pitch of mental exaltation." + +"It is true," John said, "that I never felt the melody so deeply as when +I played it last night." + +"Just so," answered his friend; "and there is probably some link between +this air and the history of the man whom you saw last night; some fatal +power in it which enables it to exert an attraction on him even after +death. For we must remember that the influence of music, though always +powerful, is not always for good. We can scarcely doubt that as certain +forms of music tend to raise us above the sensuality of the animal, or +the more degrading passion of material gain, and to transport us into +the ether of higher thought, so other forms are directly calculated to +awaken in us luxurious emotions, and to whet those sensual appetites +which it is the business of a philosopher not indeed to annihilate or to +be ashamed of, but to keep rigidly in check. This possibility of music +to effect evil as well as good I have seen recognised, and very aptly +expressed in some beautiful verses by Mr. Keble which I have just +read:-- + + "'Cease, stranger, cease those witching notes, + The art of syren choirs; + Hush the seductive voice that floats + Across the trembling wires. + + "'Music's ethereal power was given + Not to dissolve our clay, + But draw Promethean beams from heaven + To purge the dross away.'" + + +"They are fine lines," said my brother, "but I do not see how you apply +your argument to the present instance." + +"I mean," Mr. Gaskell answered, "that I have little doubt that the +melody of this _Gagliarda_ has been connected in some manner with the +life of the man you saw last night. It is not unlikely, either, that it +was a favourite air of his whilst in the flesh, or even that it was +played by himself or others at the moment of some crisis in his history. +It is possible that such connection may be due merely to the innocent +pleasure the melody gave him in life; but the nature of the music +itself, and a peculiar effect it has upon my own thoughts, induce me to +believe that it was associated with some occasion when he either fell +into great sin or when some evil fate, perhaps even death itself, +overtook him. You will remember I have told you that this air calls up +to my mind a certain scene of Italian revelry in which an Englishman +takes part. It is true that I have never been able to fix his features +in my mind, nor even to say exactly how he was dressed. Yet now some +instinct tells me that it is this very man whom you saw last night. It +is not for us to attempt to pierce the mystery which veils from our eyes +the secrets of an after-death existence; but I can scarcely suppose that +a spirit entirely at rest would feel so deeply the power of a certain +melody as to be called back by it to his old haunts like a dog by his +master's whistle. It is more probable that there is some evil history +connected with the matter, and this, I think, we ought to consider if it +be possible to unravel." + +My brother assenting, he continued, "When this man left you, Johnnie, +did he walk to the door?" + +"No; he made for the side wall, and when he reached the end of the +bookcase I lost sight of him." + +Mr. Gaskell went to the bookcase and looked for a moment at the titles +of the books, as though expecting to see something in them to assist +his inquiries; but finding apparently no clue, he said-- + +"This is the last time we shall meet for three months or more; let us +play the _Gagliarda_ and see if there be any response." + +My brother at first would not hear of this, showing a lively dread of +challenging any reappearance of the figure he had seen: indeed he felt +that such an event would probably fling him into a state of serious +physical disorder. Mr. Gaskell, however, continued to press him, +assuring him that the fact of his now being no longer alone should +largely allay any fear on his part, and urging that this would be the +last opportunity they would have of playing together for some months. + +At last, being overborne, my brother took his violin, and Mr. Gaskell +seated himself at the pianoforte. John was very agitated, and as he +commenced the _Gagliarda_ his hands trembled so that he could scarcely +play the air. Mr. Gaskell also exhibited some nervousness, not +performing with his customary correctness. But for the first time the +charm failed: no noise accompanied the music, nor did anything of an +unusual character occur. They repeated the whole suite, but with a +similar result. + +Both were surprised, but neither, had any explanation to offer. My +brother, who at first dreaded intensely a repetition of the vision, was +now almost disappointed that nothing had occurred; so quickly does the +mood of man change. + +After some further conversation the young men parted for the Long +Vacation--John returning to Worth Maltravers and Mr. Gaskell going to +London, where he was to pass a few days before he proceeded to his home +in Westmorland. + + + + +CHAPTER V + + +John spent nearly the whole of this summer vacation at Worth Maltravers. +He had been anxious to pay a visit to Royston; but the continued and +serious illness of Mrs. Temple's sister had called her and Constance to +Scotland, where they remained until the death of their relative allowed +them to return to Derbyshire in the late autumn. John and I had been +brought up together from childhood. When he was at Eton we had always +spent the holidays at Worth, and after my dear mother's death, when we +were left quite alone, the bonds of our love were naturally drawn still +closer. Even after my brother went to Oxford, at a time when most young +men are anxious to enjoy a new-found liberty, and to travel or to visit +friends in their vacation, John's ardent affection for me and for Worth +Maltravers kept him at home; and he was pleased on most occasions to +make me the partner of his thoughts and of his pleasures. This long +vacation of 1842 was, I think, the happiest of our lives. In my case I +know it was so, and I think it was happy also for him; for none could +guess that the small cloud seen in the distance like a man's hand was +afterwards to rise and darken all his later days. It was a summer of +brilliant and continued sunshine; many of the old people said that they +could never recollect so fine a season, and both fruit and crops were +alike abundant. John hired a small cutter-yacht, the _Palestine_, which +he kept in our little harbour of Encombe, and in which he and I made +many excursions, visiting Weymouth, Lyme Regis, and other places of +interest on the south coast. + +In this summer my brother confided to me two secrets,--his love +for Constance Temple, which indeed was after all no secret, and the +history of the apparition which he had seen. This last filled me with +inexpressible dread and distress. It seemed cruel and unnatural that any +influence so dark and mysterious should thus intrude on our bright life, +and from the first I had an impression which I could not entirely shake +off, that any such appearance or converse of a disembodied spirit must +portend misfortune, if not worse, to him who saw or heard it. It never +occurred to me to combat or to doubt the reality of the vision; he +believed that he had seen it, and his conviction was enough to convince +me. He had meant, he said, to tell no one, and had given a promise to +Mr. Gaskell to that effect; but I think that he could not bear to keep +such a matter in his own breast, and within the first week of his +return he made me his confidant. I remember, my dear Edward, the look +everything wore on that sad night when he first told me what afterwards +proved so terrible a secret. We had dined quite alone, and he had been +moody and depressed all the evening. It was a chilly night, with some +fret blowing up from the sea. The moon showed that blunted and deformed +appearance which she assumes a day or two past the full, and the +moisture in the air encircled her with a stormy-looking halo. We had +stepped out of the dining-room windows on to the little terrace looking +down towards Smedmore and Encombe. The glaucous shrubs that grow in +between the balusters were wet and dripping with the salt breath of the +sea, and we could hear the waves coming into the cove from the west. +After standing a minute I felt chill, and proposed that we should go +back to the billiard-room, where a fire was lit on all except the +warmest nights. "No," John said, "I want to tell you something, Sophy," +and then we walked on to the old boat summer-house. There he told me +everything. I cannot describe to you my feelings of anguish and horror +when he told me of the appearance of the man. The interest of the tale +was so absorbing to me that I took no note of time, nor of the cold +night air, and it was only when it was all finished that I felt how +deadly chill it had become. "Let us go in, John," I said; "I am cold and +feel benumbed." + +But youth is hopeful and strong, and in another week the impression had +faded from our minds, and we were enjoying the full glory of midsummer +weather, which I think only those know who have watched the blue sea +come rippling in at the foot of the white chalk cliffs of Dorset. + +I had felt a reluctance even so much as to hear the air of the +_Gagliarda_, and though he had spoken to me of the subject on more than +one occasion, my brother had never offered to play it to me. I knew that +he had the copy of Graziani's suites with him at Worth Maltravers, +because he had told me that he had brought it from Oxford; but I had +never seen the book, and fancied that he kept it intentionally locked +up. He did not, however, neglect the violin, and during the summer +mornings, as I sat reading or working on the terrace, I often heard him +playing to himself in the library. Though he had never even given me any +description of the melody of the _Gagliarda_, yet I felt certain that he +not infrequently played it. I cannot say how it was; but from the moment +that I heard him one morning in the library performing an air set in a +curiously low key, it forced itself upon my attention, and I knew, as it +were by instinct, that it must be the _Gagliarda_ of the "Areopagita." +He was using a _sordino_ and playing it very softly; but I was not +mistaken. One wet afternoon in October, only a week before the time of +his leaving us to return to Oxford for the autumn term, he walked into +the drawing-room where I was sitting, and proposed that we should play +some music together. To this I readily agreed. Though but a mediocre +performer, I have always taken much pleasure in the use of the +pianoforte, and esteemed it an honour whenever he asked me to play with +him, since my powers as a musician were so very much inferior to his. +After we had played several pieces, he took up an oblong music-book +bound in white vellum, placed it upon the desk of the pianoforte, and +proposed that we should play a suite by Graziani. I knew that he meant +the "Areopagita," and begged him at once not to ask me to play it. He +rallied me lightly on my fears, and said it would much please him to +play it, as he had not heard the pianoforte part since he had left +Oxford three months ago. I saw that he was eager to perform it, and +being loath to disoblige so kind a brother during the last week of his +stay at home, I at length overcame my scruples and set out to play it. +But I was so alarmed at the possibility of any evil consequences +ensuing, that when we commenced the _Gagliarda_ I could scarcely find +my notes. Nothing in any way unusual, however, occurred; and being +reassured by this, and feeling an irresistible charm in the music, I +finished the suite with more appearance of ease. My brother, however, +was, I fear, not satisfied with my performance, and compared it, very +possibly, with that of Mr. Gaskell, to which it was necessarily much +inferior, both through weakness of execution and from my insufficient +knowledge of the principles of the _basso continuo_. We stopped playing, +and John stood looking out of the window across the sea, where the sky +was clearing low down under the clouds. The sun went down behind +Portland in a fiery glow which cheered us after a long day's rain. I had +taken the copy of Graziani's suites off the desk, and was holding it on +my lap turning over the old foxed and yellow pages. As I closed it a +streak of evening sunlight fell across the room and lighted up a coat +of arms stamped in gilt on the cover. It was much faded and would +ordinarily have been hard to make out; but the ray of strong light +illumined it, and in an instant I recognised the same shield which Mr. +Gaskell had pictured to himself as hanging on the musicians' gallery of +his phantasmal dancing-room. My brother had often recounted to me this +effort of his friend's imagination, and here I saw before me the same +florid foreign blazon, a cherub's head blowing on three lilies on a gold +field. This discovery was not only of interest, but afforded me much +actual relief; for it accounted rationally for at least one item of the +strange story. Mr. Gaskell had no doubt noticed at some time this shield +stamped on the outside of the book, and bearing the impression of it +unconsciously in his mind, had reproduced it in his imagined revels. +I said as much to my brother, and he was greatly interested, and after +examining the shield agreed that this was certainly a probable solution +of that part of the mystery. On the 12th of October John returned to +Oxford. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +My brother told me afterwards that more than once during the summer +vacation he had seriously considered with himself the propriety of +changing his rooms at Magdalen Hall. He had thought that it might thus +be possible for him to get rid at once of the memory of the apparition, +and of the fear of any reappearance of it. He could either have moved +into another set of rooms in the Hall itself, or else gone into lodgings +in the town--a usual proceeding, I am told, for gentlemen near the end +of their course at Oxford. Would to God that he had indeed done so! but +with the supineness which has, I fear, my dear Edward, been too +frequently a characteristic of our family, he shrank from the trouble +such a course would involve, and the opening of the autumn term found +him still in his old rooms. You will forgive me for entering here on a +very brief description of your father's sitting-room. It is, I think, +necessary for the proper understanding of the incidents that follow. It +was not a large room, though probably the finest in the small buildings +of Magdalen Hall, and panelled from floor to ceiling with oak which +successive generations had obscured by numerous coats of paint. On one +side were two windows having an aspect on to New College Lane, and +fitted with deep cushioned seats in the recesses. Outside these windows +there were boxes of flowers, the brightness of which formed in the +summer term a pretty contrast to the grey and crumbling stone, and +afforded pleasure at once to the inmate and to passers-by. Along nearly +the whole length of the wall opposite to the windows, some tenant in +years long past had had mahogany book-shelves placed, reaching to a +height of perhaps five feet from the floor. They were handsomely made +in the style of the eighteenth century and pleased my brother's taste. +He had always exhibited a partiality for books, and the fine library at +Worth Maltravers had no doubt contributed to foster his tastes in that +direction. At the time of which I write he had formed a small collection +for himself at Oxford, paying particular attention to the bindings, and +acquiring many excellent specimens of that art, principally I think, +from Messrs. Payne & Foss, the celebrated London booksellers. + +Towards the end of the autumn term, having occasion one cold day to take +down a volume of Plato from its shelf, he found to his surprise that the +book was quite warm. A closer examination easily explained to him the +reason--namely, that the flue of a chimney, passing behind one end of +the bookcase, sensibly heated not only the wall itself, but also the +books in the shelves. Although he had been in his rooms now near three +years, he had never before observed this fact; partly, no doubt, because +the books in these shelves were seldom handled, being more for show as +specimens of bindings than for practical use. He was somewhat annoyed +at this discovery, fearing lest such a heat, which in moderation is +beneficial to books, might through its excess warp the leather or +otherwise injure the bindings. Mr. Gaskell was sitting with him at the +time of the discovery, and indeed it was for his use that my brother had +taken down the volume of Plato. He strongly advised that the bookcase +should be moved, and suggested that it would be better to place it +across that end of the room where the pianoforte then stood. They +examined it and found that it would easily admit of removal, being, in +fact, only the frame of a bookcase, and showing at the back the painted +panelling of the wall. Mr. Gaskell noted it as curious that all the +shelves were fixed and immovable except one at the end, which had been +fitted with the ordinary arrangement allowing its position to be altered +at will. My brother thought that the change would improve the appearance +of his rooms, besides being advantageous for the books, and gave +instructions to the college upholsterer to have the necessary work +carried out at once. + +The two young men had resumed their musical studies, and had often +played the "Areopagita" and other music of Graziani since their return +to Oxford in the Autumn. They remarked, however, that the chair no +longer creaked during the _Gagliarda_--and, in fact, that no unusual +occurrence whatever attended its performance. At times they were almost +tempted to doubt the accuracy of their own remembrances, and to consider +as entirely mythical the mystery which had so much disturbed them in the +summer term. My brother had also pointed out to Mr. Gaskell my discovery +that the coat of arms on the outside of the music-book was identical +with that which his fancy portrayed on the musicians' gallery. He +readily admitted that he must at some time have noticed and afterwards +forgotten the blazon on the book, and that an unconscious reminiscence +of it had no doubt inspired his imagination in this instance. He rebuked +my brother for having agitated me unnecessarily by telling me at all of +so idle a tale; and was pleased to write a few lines to me at Worth +Maltravers, felicitating me on my shrewdness of perception, but speaking +banteringly of the whole matter. + +On the evening of the 14th of November my brother and his friend were +sitting talking in the former's room. The position of the bookcase had +been changed on the morning of that day, and Mr. Gaskell had come round +to see how the books looked when placed at the end instead of at the +side of the room. He had applauded the new arrangement, and the young +men sat long over the fire, with a bottle of college port and a dish of +medlars which I had sent my brother from our famous tree in the Upper +Croft at Worth Maltravers. Later on they fell to music, and played a +variety of pieces, performing also the "Areopagita" suite. Mr. Gaskell +before he left complimented John on the improvement which the alteration +in the place of the bookcase had made in his room, saying, "Not only +do the books in their present place very much enhance the general +appearance of the room, but the change seems to me to have affected also +a marked acoustical improvement. The oak panelling now exposed on the +side of the room has given a resonant property to the wall which is +peculiarly responsive to the tones of your violin. While you were +playing the _Gagliarda_ to-night, I could almost have imagined that +someone in an adjacent room was playing the same air with a _sordino_, +so distinct was the echo." + +Shortly after this he left. + +My brother partly undressed himself in his bedroom, which adjoined, and +then returning to his sitting-room, pulled the large wicker chair in +front of the fire, and sat there looking at the glowing coals, and +thinking perhaps of Miss Constance Temple. The night promised to be very +cold, and the wind whistled down the chimney, increasing the comfortable +sensation of the clear fire. He sat watching the ruddy reflection of the +firelight dancing on the panelled wall, when he noticed that a picture +placed where the end of the bookcase formerly stood was not truly hung, +and needed adjustment. A picture hung askew was particularly offensive +to his eyes, and he got up at once to alter it. He remembered as he went +up to it that at this precise spot four months ago he had lost sight +of the man's figure which he saw rise from the wicker chair, and at +the memory felt an involuntary shudder. This reminiscence probably +influenced his fancy also in another direction; for it seemed to him +that very faintly, as though played far off, and with the _sordino_, +he could hear the air of the _Gagliarda_. He put one hand behind the +picture to steady it, and as he did so his finger struck a very slight +projection in the wall. He pulled the picture a little to one side, and +saw that what he had touched was the back of a small hinge sunk in the +wall, and almost obliterated with many coats of paint. His curiosity +was excited, and he took a candle from the table and examined the wall +carefully. Inspection soon showed him another hinge a little further up, +and by degrees he perceived that one of the panels had been made at some +time in the past to open, and serve probably as the door of a cupboard. +At this point he assured me that a feverish anxiety to re-open this +cupboard door took possession of him, and that the intense excitement +filled his mind which we experience on the eve of a discovery which +we fancy may produce important results. He loosened the paint in the +cracks with a penknife, and attempted to press open the door; but his +instrument was not adequate to such a purpose, and all his efforts +remained ineffective. His excitement had now reached an overmastering +pitch; for he anticipated, though he knew not why, some strange +discovery to be made in this sealed cupboard. He looked round the room +for some weapon with which to force the door, and at length with his +penknife cut away sufficient wood at the joint to enable him to insert +the end of the poker in the hole. The clock in the New College Tower +struck one at the exact moment when with a sharp effort he thus forced +open the door. It appeared never to have had a fastening, but merely to +have been stuck fast by the accumulation of paint. As he bent it slowly +back upon the rusted hinges his heart beat so fast that he could +scarcely catch his breath, though he was conscious all the while of a +ludicrous aspect of his position, knowing that it was most probable +that the cavity within would be found empty. The cupboard was small but +very deep, and in the obscure light seemed at first to contain nothing +except a small heap of dust and cobwebs. His sense of disappointment was +keen as he thrust his hand into it, but changed again in a moment to +breathless interest on feeling something solid in what he had imagined +to be only an accumulation of mould and dirt. He snatched up a candle, +and holding this in one hand, with the other pulled out an object from +the cupboard and put it on the table, covered as it was with the curious +drapery of black and clinging cobwebs which I have seen adhering to +bottles of old wine. It lay there between the dish of medlars and the +decanter, veiled indeed with thick dust as with a mantle, but revealing +beneath it the shape and contour of a violin. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +John was excited at his discovery, and felt his thoughts confused in a +manner that I have often experienced myself on the unexpected receipt of +news interesting me deeply, whether for pleasure or pain. Yet at the +same time he was half amused at his own excitement, feeling that it +was childish to be moved over an event so simple as the finding of a +violin in an old cupboard. He soon collected himself and took up the +instrument, using great care, as he feared lest age should have rendered +the wood brittle or rotten. With some vigorous puffs of breath and a +little dusting with a handkerchief he removed the heavy outer coating +of cobwebs, and began to see more clearly the delicate curves of the +body and of the scroll. A few minutes' more gentle handling left the +instrument sufficiently clean to enable him to appreciate its chief +points. Its seclusion from the outer world, which the heavy accumulation +of dust proved to have been for many years, did not seem to have damaged +it in the least; and the fact of a chimney-flue passing through the wall +at no great distance had no doubt conduced to maintain the air in the +cupboard at an equable temperature. So far as he was able to judge, the +wood was as sound as when it left the maker's hands; but the strings +were of course broken, and curled up in little tangled knots. The body +was of a light-red colour, with a varnish of peculiar lustre and +softness. The neck seemed rather longer than ordinary, and the scroll +was remarkably bold and free. + +The violin which my brother was in the habit of using was a fine +_Pressenda_, given to him on his fifteenth birthday by Mr. Thoresby, his +guardian. It was of that maker's later and best period, and a copy of +the Stradivarius model. John took this from its case and laid it side by +side with his new discovery, meaning to compare them for size and form. +He perceived at once that while the model of both was identical, the +superiority of the older violin in every detail was so marked as to +convince him that it was undoubtedly an instrument of exceptional value. +The extreme beauty of its varnish impressed him vividly, and though he +had never seen a genuine Stradivarius, he felt a conviction gradually +gaining on him that he stood in the presence of a masterpiece of that +great maker. On looking into the interior he found that surprisingly +little dust had penetrated into it, and by blowing through the +sound-holes he soon cleared it sufficiently to enable him to discern a +label. He put the candle close to him, and held the violin up so that +a little patch of light fell through the sound-hole on to the label. +His heart leapt with a violent pulsation as he read the characters, +"_Antonius Stradiuarius Cremonensis faciebat_, 1704." Under ordinary +circumstances it would naturally be concluded that such a label was +a forgery, but the conditions were entirely altered in the case of a +violin found in a forgotten cupboard, with proof so evident of its +having remained there for a very long period. + +He was not at that time as familiar with the history of the fiddles of +the great maker as he, and indeed I also, afterwards became. Thus he +was unable to decide how far the exact year of its manufacture would +determine its value as compared with other specimens of Stradivarius. +But although the Pressenda he had been used to play on was always +considered a very fine instrument both in make and varnish, his new +discovery so far excelled it in both points as to assure him that it +must be one of the Cremonese master's greatest productions. + +He examined the violin minutely, scrutinising each separate feature, +and finding each in turn to be of the utmost perfection, so far as his +knowledge of the instrument would enable him to judge. He lit more +candles that he might be able better to see it, and holding it on his +knees, sat still admiring it until the dying fire and increasing cold +warned him that the night was now far advanced. At last, carrying it to +his bedroom, he locked it carefully into a drawer and retired for the +night. + +He woke next morning with that pleasurable consciousness of there +being some reason for gladness, which we feel on waking in seasons of +happiness, even before our reason, locating it, reminds us what the +actual source of our joy may be. He was at first afraid lest his +excitement, working on the imagination, should have led him on the +previous night to overestimate the fineness of the instrument, and he +took it from the drawer half expecting to be disappointed with its +daylight appearance. But a glance sufficed to convince him of the +unfounded nature of his suspicions. The various beauties which he had +before observed were enhanced a hundredfold by the light of day, and he +realised more fully than ever that the instrument was one of altogether +exceptional value. + +And now, my dear Edward, I shall ask your forgiveness if in the history +I have to relate any observation of mine should seem to reflect on the +character of your late father, Sir John Maltravers. And I beg you to +consider that your father was also my dear and only brother, and that it +is inexpressibly painful to me to recount any actions of his which may +not seem becoming to a noble gentleman, as he surely was. I only now +proceed because, when very near his end, he most strictly enjoined me to +narrate these circumstances to you fully when you should come of age. +We must humbly remember that to God alone belongs judgment, and that +it is not for poor mortals to decide what is right or wrong in certain +instances for their fellows, but that each should strive most earnestly +to do his own duty. + +Your father entirely concealed from me the discovery he had made. It +was not till long afterwards that I had it narrated to me, and I only +obtained a knowledge of this and many other of the facts which I am now +telling you at a date much subsequent to their actual occurrence. + +He explained to his servant that he had discovered and opened an old +cupboard in the panelling, without mentioning the fact of his having +found anything in it, but merely asking him to give instructions for the +paint to be mended and the cupboard put into a usable state. Before he +had finished a very late breakfast Mr. Gaskell was with him, and it has +been a source of lasting regret to me that my brother concealed also +from his most intimate and trusted friend the discovery of the previous +night. He did, indeed, tell him that he had found and opened an old +cupboard in the panelling, but made no mention of there having been +anything within. I cannot say what prompted him to this action; for the +two young men had for long been on such intimate terms that the one +shared almost as a matter of course with the other any pleasure or pain +which might fall to his lot. Mr. Gaskell looked at the cupboard with +some interest, saying afterwards, "I know now, Johnnie, why the one +shelf of the bookcase which stood there was made movable when all the +others were fixed. Some former occupant used the cupboard, no doubt, +as a secret receptacle for his treasures, and masked it with the +book-shelves in front. Who knows what he kept in here, or who he was! I +should not be surprised if he were that very man who used to come here +so often to hear us play the 'Areopagita,' and whom you saw that night +last June. He had the one shelf made, you see, to move so as to give him +access to this cavity on occasion: then when he left Oxford, or perhaps +died, the mystery was forgotten, and with a few times of painting the +cracks closed up." + +Mr. Gaskell shortly afterwards took his leave as he had a lecture +to attend, and my brother was left alone to the contemplation of his +new-found treasure. After some consideration he determined that he would +take the instrument to London, and obtain the opinion of an expert as +to its authenticity and value. He was well acquainted with the late Mr. +George Smart, the celebrated London dealer, from whom his guardian, Mr. +Thoresby, had purchased the Pressenda violin which John commonly used. +Besides being a dealer in valuable instruments, Mr. Smart was a famous +collector of Stradivarius fiddles, esteemed one of the first authorities +in Europe in that domain of art, and author of a valuable work of +reference in connection with it. It was to him, therefore, that my +brother decided to submit the violin, and he wrote a letter to Mr. Smart +saying that he should give himself the pleasure of waiting on him the +next day on a matter of business. He then called on his tutor, and with +some excuse obtained leave to journey to London the next morning. He +spent the rest of the day in very carefully cleaning the violin, and +noon of the next saw him with it, securely packed, in Mr. Smart's +establishment in Bond Street. + +Mr. Smart received Sir John Maltravers with deference, demanded in what +way he could serve him; and on hearing that his opinion was required on +the authenticity of a violin, smiled somewhat dubiously and led the way +into a back parlour. + +"My dear Sir John," he said, "I hope you have not been led into buying +any instrument by a faith in its antiquity. So many good copies of +instruments by famous makers and bearing their labels are now afloat, +that the chances of obtaining a genuine fiddle from an unrecognised +source are quite remote; of hundreds of violins submitted to me for +opinion, I find that scarce one in fifty is actually that which it +represents itself to be. In fact the only safe rule," he added as a +professional commentary, "is never to buy a violin unless you obtain it +from a dealer with a reputation to lose, and are prepared to pay a +reasonable price for it." + +My brother had meanwhile unpacked the violin and laid it on the table. +As he took from it the last leaf of silver paper he saw Mr. Smart's +smile of condescension fade, and assuming a look of interest and +excitement, he stepped forward, took the violin in his hands, and +scrutinised it minutely. He turned it over in silence for some moments, +looking narrowly at each feature, and even applying the test of a +magnifying-glass. At last he said with an altered tone, "Sir John, I +have had in my hands nearly all the finest productions of Stradivarius, +and thought myself acquainted with every instrument of note that ever +left his workshop; but I confess myself mistaken, and apologise to you +for the doubt which I expressed as to the instrument you had brought me. +This violin is of the great master's golden period, is incontestably +genuine, and finer in some respects than any Stradivarius that I have +ever seen, not even excepting the famous _Dolphin_ itself. You need be +under no apprehension as to its authenticity: no connoisseur could hold +it in his hand for a second and entertain a doubt on the point." + +My brother was greatly pleased at so favourable a verdict, and Mr. Smart +continued-- + +"The varnish is of that rich red which Stradivarius used in his best +period after he had abandoned the yellow tint copied by him at first +from his master Amati. I have never seen a varnish thicker or more +lustrous, and it shows on the back that peculiar shading to imitate wear +which we term 'breaking up.' The purfling also is of an unsurpassable +excellence. Its execution is so fine that I should recommend you to use +a magnifying-glass for its examination." + +So he ran on, finding from moment to moment some new beauties to +admire. + +My brother was at first anxious lest Mr. Smart should ask him whence so +extraordinary an instrument came, but he saw that the expert had already +jumped to a conclusion in the matter. He knew that John had recently +come of age, and evidently supposed that he had found the violin among +the heirlooms of Worth Maltravers. John allowed Mr. Smart to continue in +this misconception, merely saying that he had discovered the instrument +in an old cupboard, where he had reason to think it had remained hidden +for many years. + +"Are there no records attached to so splendid an instrument?" asked Mr. +Smart. "I suppose it has been with your family a number of years. Do you +not know how it came into their possession?" + +I believe this was the first occasion on which it had occurred to John +to consider what right he had to the possession of the instrument. He +had been so excited by its discovery that the question of ownership had +never hitherto crossed his mind. The unwelcome suggestion that it was +not his after all, that the College might rightfully prefer a claim to +it, presented itself to him for a moment; but he set it instantly aside, +quieting his conscience with the reflection that this at least was not +the moment to make such a disclosure. + +He fenced with Mr. Smart's inquiry as best he could, saying that he was +ignorant of the history of the instrument, but not contradicting the +assumption that it had been a long time in his family's possession. + +"It is indeed singular," Mr. Smart continued, "that so magnificent +an instrument should have lain buried so long; that even those best +acquainted with such matters should be in perfect ignorance of its +existence. I shall have to revise the list of famous instruments in the +next edition of my 'History of the Violin,' and to write," he added +smiling, "a special paragraph on the 'Worth Maltravers Stradivarius.'" + +After much more, which I need not narrate, Mr. Smart suggested that +the violin should be left with him that he might examine it more at +leisure, and that my brother should return in a week's time, when he +would have the instrument opened, an operation which would be in any +case advisable. "The interior," he added, "appears to be in a strictly +original state, and this I shall be able to ascertain when opened. The +label is perfect, but if I am not mistaken I can see something higher up +on the back which appears like a second label. This excites my interest, +as I know of no instance of an instrument bearing two labels." + +To this proposal my brother readily assented, being anxious to enjoy +alone the pleasure of so gratifying a discovery as that of the undoubted +authenticity of the instrument. + +As he thought over the matter more at leisure, he grew anxious as to +what might be the import of the second label in the violin of which Mr. +Smart had spoken. I blush to say that he feared lest it might bear some +owner's name or other inscription proving that the instrument had not +been so long in the Maltravers family as he had allowed Mr. Smart to +suppose. So within so short a time it was possible that Sir John +Maltravers of Worth should dread being detected, if not in an absolute +falsehood, at least in having by his silence assented to one. + +During the ensuing week John remained in an excited and anxious +condition. He did little work, and neglected his friends, having his +thoughts continually occupied with the strange discovery he had made. +I know also that his sense of honour troubled him, and that he was not +satisfied with the course he was pursuing. The evening of his return +from London he went to Mr. Gaskell's rooms at New College, and spent an +hour conversing with him on indifferent subjects. In the course of their +talk he proposed to his friend as a moral problem the question of the +course of action to be taken were one to find some article of value +concealed in his room. Mr. Gaskell answered unhesitatingly that he +should feel bound to disclose it to the authorities. He saw that my +brother was ill at ease, and with a clearness of judgment which he +always exhibited, guessed that he had actually made some discovery of +this sort in the old cupboard in his rooms. He could not divine, of +course, the exact nature of the object found, and thought it might +probably relate to a hoard of gold; but insisted with much urgency on +the obligation to at once disclose anything of this kind. My brother, +however, misled, I fear, by that feeling of inalienable right which the +treasure-hunter experiences over the treasure, paid no more attention to +the advice of his friend than to the promptings of his own conscience, +and went his way. + +From that day, my dear Edward, he began to exhibit a spirit of +secretiveness and reserve entirely alien to his own open and honourable +disposition, and also saw less of Mr. Gaskell. His friend tried, indeed, +to win his confidence and affection in every way in his power; but in +spite of this the rift between them widened insensibly, and my brother +lost the fellowship and counsel of a true friend at a time when he could +ill afford to be without them. + +He returned to London the ensuing week, and met Mr. George Smart by +appointment in Bond Street. If the expert had been enthusiastic on a +former occasion, he was ten times more so on this. He spoke in terms +almost of rapture about the violin. He had compared it with two +magnificent instruments in the collection of the late Mr. James Loding, +then the finest in Europe; and it was admittedly superior to either, +both in the delicate markings of its wood and singularly fine varnish. +"Of its tone," he said, "we cannot, of course, yet pronounce with +certainty, but I am very sure that its voice will not belie its splendid +exterior. It has been carefully opened, and is in a strangely perfect +condition. Several persons eminently qualified to judge unite with me +in considering that it has been exceedingly little played upon, and +admit that never has so intact an interior been seen. The scroll is +exceptionally bold and original. Although undoubtedly from the hand of +the great master, this is of a pattern entirely different and distinct +from any that have ever come under my observation." + +He then pointed out to my brother that the side lines of the scroll were +unusually deeply cut, and that the front of it projected far more than +is common with such instruments. + +"The most remarkable feature," he concluded, "is that the instrument +bears a double label. Besides the label which you have already seen +bearing '_Antonius Stradiuarius Cremonensis faciebat_,' with the date of +his most splendid period, 1704, so clearly that the ink seems scarcely +dry, there is another smaller one higher up on the back which I will +show you." + +He took the violin apart and showed him a small label with characters +written in faded ink. "That is the writing of Antonio Stradivarius +himself, and is easily recognisable, though it is much firmer than +a specimen which I once saw, written in extreme old age, and giving +his name and the date 1736. He was then ninety-two, and died in the +following year. But this, as you will see, does not give his name, but +merely the two words '_Porphyrius philosophus_.' What this may refer +to I cannot say: it is beyond my experience. My friend Mr. Calvert has +suggested that Stradivarius may have dedicated this violin to the pagan +philosopher, or named it after him; but this seems improbable. I have, +indeed, heard of two famous violins being called 'Peter' and 'Paul,' +but the instances of such naming are very rare; and I believe it to be +altogether without precedent to find a name attached thus on a label. + +"In any case, I must leave this matter to your ingenuity to decipher. +Neither the sound-post nor the bass-bar have ever been moved, and you +see here a Stradivarius violin wearing exactly the same appearance as +it once wore in the great master's workshop, and in exactly the same +condition; yet I think the belly is sufficiently strong to stand modern +stringing. I should advise you to leave the instrument with me for some +little while, that I may give it due care and attention and ensure its +being properly strung." + +My brother thanked him and left the violin with him, saying that he +would instruct him later by letter to what address he wished it sent. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + +Within a few days after this the autumn term came to an end, and in +the second week of December John returned to Worth Maltravers for +the Christmas vacation. His advent was always a very great pleasure +to me, and on this occasion I had looked forward to his company with +anticipation keener than usual, as I had been disappointed of the visit +of a friend and had spent the last month alone. After the joy of our +first meeting had somewhat sobered, it was not long before I remarked a +change in his manner, which puzzled me. It was not that he was less kind +to me, for I think he was even more tenderly forbearing and gentle than +I had ever known him, but I had an uneasy feeling that some shadow had +crept in between us. It was the small cloud rising in the distance that +afterwards darkened his horizon and mine. I missed the old candour and +open-hearted frankness that he had always shown; and there seemed to be +always something in the background which he was trying to keep from me. +It was obvious that his thoughts were constantly elsewhere, so much so +that on more than one occasion he returned vague and incoherent answers +to my questions. At times I was content to believe that he was in love, +and that his thoughts were with Miss Constance Temple; but even so, +I could not persuade myself that his altered manner was to be thus +entirely accounted for. At other times a dazed air, entirely foreign to +his bright disposition, which I observed particularly in the morning, +raised in my mind the terrible suspicion that he was in the habit of +taking some secret narcotic or other deleterious drug. + +We had never spent a Christmas away from Worth Maltravers, and it had +always been a season of quiet joy for both of us. But under these +altered circumstances it was a great relief and cause of thankfulness +to me to receive a letter from Mrs. Temple inviting us both to spend +Christmas and New Year at Royston. This invitation had upon my brother +precisely the effect that I had hoped for. It roused him from his moody +condition, and he professed much pleasure in accepting it, especially as +he had never hitherto been in Derbyshire. + +There was a small but very agreeable party at Royston, and we passed a +most enjoyable fortnight. My brother seemed thoroughly to have shaken +off his indisposition; and I saw my fondest hopes realised in the warm +attachment which was evidently springing up between him and Miss +Constance Temple. + +Our visit drew near its close, and it was within a week of John's return +to Oxford. Mrs. Temple celebrated the termination of the Christmas +festivities by giving a ball on Twelfth-night, at which a large party +were present, including most of the county families. Royston was +admirably adapted for such entertainments, from the number and great +size of its reception-rooms. Though Elizabethan in date and external +appearance, succeeding generations had much modified and enlarged the +house; and an ancestor in the middle of the last century had built at +the back an enormous hall after the classic model, and covered it with a +dome or cupola. In this room the dancing went forward. Supper was served +in the older hall in the front, and it was while this was in progress +that a thunderstorm began. The rarity of such a phenomenon in the depth +of winter formed the subject of general remark; but though the lightning +was extremely brilliant, being seen distinctly through the curtained +windows, the storm appeared to be at some distance, and, except for one +peal, the thunder was not loud. After supper dancing was resumed, and +I was taking part in a polka (called, I remember, the "_King Pippin_"), +when my partner pointed out that one of the footmen wished to speak with +me. I begged him to lead me to one side, and the servant then informed +me that my brother was ill. Sir John, he said, had been seized with a +fainting fit, but had been got to bed, and was being attended by Dr. +Empson, a physician who chanced to be present among the visitors. + +I at once left the hall and hurried to my brother's room. On the way +I met Mrs. Temple and Constance, the latter much agitated and in tears. +Mrs. Temple assured me that Dr. Empson reported favourably of my +brother's condition, attributing his faintness to over-exertion in the +dancing-room. The medical man had got him to bed with the assistance of +Sir John's valet, had given him a quieting draught, and ordered that he +should not be disturbed for the present. It was better that I should not +enter the room; she begged that I would kindly comfort and reassure +Constance, who was much upset, while she herself returned to her guests. + +I led Constance to my bedroom, where there was a bright fire burning, +and calmed her as best I could. Her interest in my brother was evidently +very real and unaffected, and while not admitting her partiality for him +in words, she made no effort to conceal her sentiments from me. I kissed +her tenderly, and bade her narrate the circumstances of John's attack. + +It seemed that after supper they had gone upstairs into the music-room, +and he had himself proposed that they should walk thence into the +picture-gallery, where they would better he able to see the lightning, +which was then particularly vivid. The picture-gallery at Royston is a +very long, narrow, and rather low room, running the whole length of the +south wing, and terminating in a large Tudor oriel or flat bay window +looking east. In this oriel they had sat for some time watching the +flashes, and the wintry landscape revealed for an instant and then +plunged into outer blackness. The gallery itself was not illuminated, +and the effect of the lightning was very fine. + +There had been an unusually bright flash accompanied by that single +reverberating peal of thunder which I had previously noticed. Constance +had spoken to my brother, but he had not replied, and in a moment she +saw that he had swooned. She summoned aid without delay, but it was some +short time before consciousness had been restored to him. + +She had concluded this narrative, and sat holding my hand in hers. We +were speculating on the cause of my brother's illness, thinking it might +be due to over-exertion, or to sitting in a chilly atmosphere as the +picture-gallery was not warmed, when Mrs. Temple knocked at the door and +said that John was now more composed and desired earnestly to see me. + +On entering my brother's bedroom I found him sitting up in bed wearing a +dressing-gown. Parnham, his valet, who was arranging the fire, left the +room as I came in. A chair stood at the head of the bed and I sat down +by him. He took my hand in his and without a word burst into tears. +"Sophy," he said, "I am so unhappy, and I have sent for you to tell you +of my trouble, because I know you will be forbearing to me. An hour +ago all seemed so bright. I was sitting in the picture-gallery with +Constance, whom I love dearly. We had been watching the lightning, till +the thunder had grown fainter and the storm seemed past. I was just +about to ask her to become my wife when a brighter flash than all the +rest burst on us, and I saw--I saw, Sophy, standing in the gallery as +close to me as you are now--I saw--that man I told you about at Oxford; +and then this faintness came on me." + +"Whom do you mean?" I said, not understanding what he spoke of, and +thinking for a moment he referred to someone else. "Did you see Mr. +Gaskell?" + +"No, it was not he; but that dead man whom I saw rising from my wicker +chair the night you went away from Oxford." + +You will perhaps smile at my weakness, my dear Edward, and indeed I had +at that time no justification for it; but I assure you that I have not +yet forgotten, and never shall forget, the impression of overwhelming +horror which his words produced upon me. It seemed as though a fear +which had hitherto stood vague and shadowy in the background, began now +to advance towards me, gathering more distinctness as it approached. +There was to me something morbidly terrible about the apparition of this +man at such a momentous crisis in my brother's life, and I at once +recognised that unknown form as being the shadow which was gradually +stealing between John and myself. Though I feigned incredulity as best +I might, and employed those arguments or platitudes which will always be +used on such occasions, urging that such a phantom could only exist in a +mind disordered by physical weakness, my brother was not deceived by my +words, and perceived in a moment that I did not even believe in them +myself. + +"Dearest Sophy," he said, with a much calmer air, "let us put aside all +dissimulation. I _know_ that what I have to-night seen, and that what I +saw last summer at Oxford, are _not_ phantoms of my brain; and I believe +that you too in your inmost soul are convinced of this truth. Do not, +therefore, endeavour to persuade me to the contrary. If I am not to +believe the evidence of my senses, it were better at once to admit my +madness--and I know that I am not mad. Let us rather consider what such +an appearance can portend, and who the man is who is thus presented. +I cannot explain to you why this appearance inspires me with so great +a revulsion. I can only say that in its presence I seem to be brought +face to face with some abysmal and repellent wickedness. It is not that +the form he wears is hideous. Last night I saw him exactly as I saw him +at Oxford--his face waxen pale, with a sneering mouth, the same lofty +forehead, and hair brushed straight up so as almost to appear standing +on end. He wore the same long coat of green cloth and white waistcoat. +He seemed as if he had been standing listening to what we said, though +we had not seen him till this bright flash of lightning made him +manifest. You will remember that when I saw him at Oxford his eyes were +always cast down, so that I never knew their colour. This time they were +wide open; indeed he was looking full at us, and they were a light brown +and very brilliant." + +I saw that my brother was exciting himself, and was still weak from his +recent swoon. I knew, too, that any ordinary person of strong mind would +say at once that his brain wandered, and yet I had a dreadful conviction +all the while that what he told me was the truth. All I could do was to +beg him to calm himself, and to reflect how vain such fancies must be. +"We must trust, dear John," I said, "in God. I am sure that so long as +we are not living in conscious sin, we shall never be given over to any +evil power; and I know my brother too well to think that he is doing +anything he knows to be evil. If there be evil spirits, as we are taught +there are, we are taught also that there are good spirits stronger than +they, who will protect us." + +So I spoke with him a little while, until he grew calmer; and then we +talked of Constance and of his love for her. He was deeply pleased to +hear from me how she had shown such obvious, signs of interest in his +illness, and sincere affection for him. In any case, he made me promise +that I would never mention to her either what he had seen this night or +last summer at Oxford. + +It had grown late, and the undulating beat of the dances, which had +been distinctly sensible in his room--even though we could not hear +any definite noise--had now ceased. Mrs. Temple knocked at the door as +she went to bed and inquired how he did, giving him at the same time +a kind message of sympathy from Constance, which afforded him much +gratification. After she had left I prepared also to retire; but before +going he begged me to take a prayer-book lying on the table, and to read +aloud a collect which he pointed out. It was that for the second Sunday +in Lent, and evidently well known to him. As I read it the words seemed +to bear a new and deeper significance, and my heart repeated with +fervour the petition for protection from those "evil thoughts which may +assault and hurt the soul." I bade him good night and went away very +sorrowful. Parnham, at John's request, had arranged to sleep on a sofa +in his master's bedroom. + +I rose betimes the next morning and inquired at my brother's room how +he was. Parnham reported that he had passed a restless night, and on +entering a little later I found him in a high fever, slightly delirious, +and evidently not so well as when I saw him last. Mrs. Temple, with much +kindness and forethought, had begged Dr. Empson to remain at Royston for +the night, and he was soon in attendance on his patient. His verdict +was sufficiently grave: John was suffering from a sharp access of +brain-fever; his condition afforded cause for alarm; he could not answer +for any turn his sickness might take. You will easily imagine how much +this intelligence affected me; and Mrs. Temple and Constance shared my +anxiety and solicitude. Constance and I talked much with one another +that morning. Unaffected anxiety had largely removed her reserve, and +she spoke openly of her feelings towards my brother, not concealing her +partiality for him. I on my part let her understand how welcome to me +would be any union between her and John, and how sincerely I should +value her as a sister. + +It was a wild winter's morning, with some snow falling and a high wind. +The house was in the disordered condition which is generally observable +on the day following a ball or other important festivity. I roamed +restlessly about, and at last found my way to the picture-gallery, +which had formed the scene of John's adventure on the previous night. +I had never been in this part of the house before, as it contained no +facilities for heating, and so often remained shut in the winter months. +I found a listless pleasure in admiring the pictures which lined the +walls, most of them being portraits of former members of the family, +including the famous picture of Sir Ralph Temple and his family, +attributed to Holbein. I had reached the end of the gallery and sat +down in the oriel watching the snow-flakes falling sparsely, and the +evergreens below me waving wildly in the sudden rushes of the wind. My +thoughts were busy with the events of the previous evening,--with John's +illness, with the ball,--and I found myself humming the air of a waltz +that had caught my fancy. At last I turned away from the garden scene +towards the gallery, and as I did so my eyes fell on a remarkable +picture just opposite to me. + +It was a full-length portrait of a young man, life-size, and I had +barely time to appreciate even its main features when I knew that I had +before me the painted counterfeit of my brother's vision. The discovery +caused me a violent shock, and it was with an infinite repulsion that +I recognised at once the features and dress of the man whom John had +seen rising from the chair at Oxford. So accurately had my brother's +imagination described him to me, that it seemed as if I had myself seen +him often before. I noted each feature, comparing them with my brother's +description, and finding them all familiar and corresponding exactly. +He was a man still in the prime of life. His features were regular and +beautifully modelled; yet there was something in his face that inspired +me with a deep aversion, though his brown eyes were open and brilliant. +His mouth was sharply cut, with a slight sneer on the lips, and his +complexion of that extreme pallor which had impressed itself deeply on +my brother's imagination and my own. + +After the first intense surprise had somewhat subsided, I experienced +a feeling of great relief, for here was an extraordinary explanation +of my brother's vision of last night. It was certain that the flash +of lightning had lit up this ill-starred picture, and that to his +predisposed fancy the painted figure had stood forth as an actual +embodiment. That such an incident, however startling, should have been +able to fling John into a brain-fever, showed that he must already have +been in a very low and reduced state, on which excitement would act much +more powerfully than on a more robust condition of health. A similar +state of weakness, perturbed by the excitement of his passion for +Constance Temple, might surely also have conjured up the vision which +he thought he saw the night of our leaving Oxford in the summer. +These thoughts, my dear Edward, gave me great relief; for it seemed +a comparatively trivial matter that my brother should be ill, even +seriously ill, if only his physical indisposition could explain away the +supernatural dread which had haunted us for the past six months. The +clouds were breaking up. It was evident that John had been seriously +unwell for some months; his physical weakness had acted on his brain; +and I had lent colour to his wandering fancies by being alarmed by them, +instead of rejecting them at once or gently laughing them away as I +should have done. But these glad thoughts took me too far, and I was +suddenly brought up by a reflection that did not admit of so simple an +explanation. If the man's form my brother saw at Oxford were merely an +effort of disordered imagination, how was it that he had been able to +describe it exactly like that represented in this picture? He had never +in his life been to Royston, therefore he could have no image of the +picture impressed unconsciously on or hidden away in his mind. Yet his +description had never varied. It had been so close as to enable me to +produce in my fancy a vivid representation of the man he had seen; and +here I had before me the features and dress exactly reproduced. In the +presence of a coincidence so extraordinary reason stood confounded, and +I knew not what to think. I walked nearer to the picture and scrutinised +it closely. + +The dress corresponded in every detail with that which my brother had +described the figure as wearing at Oxford: a long cut-away coat of green +cloth with an edge of gold embroidery, a white satin waistcoat with +sprigs of embroidered roses, gold-lace at the pocket-holes, buff silk +knee-breeches, and low down on the finely modelled neck a full cravat +of rich lace. The figure was posed negligently against a fluted stone +pedestal or short column on which the left elbow leant, and the right +foot was crossed lightly over the left. His shoes were of polished +black leather with heavy silver buckles, and the whole costume was very +old-fashioned, and such as I had only seen worn at fancy dress balls. On +the foot of the pedestal was the painter's name, "BATTONI pinxit, Romae, +1750." On the top of the pedestal, and under his left elbow, was a long +roll apparently of music, of which one end, unfolded, hung over the +edge. + +For some minutes I stood still gazing at this portrait which so much +astonished me, but turned on hearing footsteps in the gallery, and saw +Constance, who had come to seek for me. + +"Constance," I said, "whose portrait is this? It is a very striking +picture, is it not?" + +"Yes, it is a splendid painting, though of a very bad man. His name was +Adrian Temple, and he once owned Royston. I do not know much about him, +but I believe he was very wicked and very clever. My mother would be +able to tell you more. It is a picture we none of us like, although so +finely painted; and perhaps because he was always pointed out to me from +childhood as a bad man, I have myself an aversion to it. It is singular +that when the very bright flash of lightning came last night while your +brother John and I were sitting here, it lit this picture with a +dazzling glare that made the figure stand out so strangely as to seem +almost alive. It was just after that I found that John had fainted." + +The memory was not a pleasant one for either of us and we changed the +subject. "Come," I said, "let us leave the gallery, it is very cold +here." + +Though I said nothing more at the time, her words had made a great +impression on me. It was so strange that, even with the little she knew +of this Adrian Temple, she should speak at once of his notoriously evil +life, and of her personal dislike to the picture. Remembering what my +brother had said on the previous night, that in the presence of this man +he felt himself brought face to face with some indescribable wickedness, +I could not but be surprised at the coincidence. The whole story seemed +to me now to resemble one of those puzzle pictures or maps which I have +played with as a child, where each bit fits into some other until the +outline is complete. It was as if I were finding the pieces one by one +of a bygone history, and fitting them to one another until some terrible +whole should be gradually built up and stand out in its complete +deformity. + +Dr. Empson spoke gravely of John's illness, and entertained without +reluctance the proposal of Mrs. Temple, that Dr. Dobie, a celebrated +physician in Derby, should be summoned to a consultation. Dr. Dobie came +more than once, and was at last able to report an amendment in John's +condition, though both the doctors absolutely forbade anyone to visit +him, and said that under the most favourable circumstances a period of +some weeks must elapse before he could be moved. + +Mrs. Temple invited me to remain at Royston until my brother should be +sufficiently convalescent to be moved; and both she and Constance, while +regretting the cause, were good enough to express themselves pleased +that accident should detain me so long with them. + +As the reports of the doctors became gradually more favourable, and our +minds were in consequence more free to turn to other subjects, I spoke +to Mrs. Temple one day about the picture, saying that it interested me, +and asking for some particulars as to the life of Adrian Temple. + +"My dear child," she said, "I had rather that you should not exhibit +any curiosity as to this man, whom I wish that we had not to call an +ancestor. I know little of him myself, and indeed his life was of such +a nature as no woman, much less a young girl, would desire to be well +acquainted with. He was, I believe, a man of remarkable talent, and +spent most of his time between Oxford and Italy, though he visited +Royston occasionally, and built the large hall here, which we use as a +dancing-room. Before he was twenty wild stories were prevalent as to his +licentious life, and by thirty his name was a by-word among sober and +upright people. He had constantly with him at Oxford and on his travels +a boon companion called Jocelyn, who aided him in his wickednesses, +until on one of their Italian tours Jocelyn left him suddenly and became +a Trappist monk. It was currently reported that some wild deed of Adrian +Temple had shocked even him, and so outraged his surviving instincts of +common humanity that he was snatched as a brand from the burning and +enabled to turn back even in the full tide of his wickedness. However +that may be, Adrian went on in his evil course without him, and about +four years after disappeared. He was last heard of in Naples, and it is +believed that he succumbed during a violent outbreak of the plague which +took place in Italy in the autumn of 1752. That is all I shall tell you +of him, and indeed I know little more myself. The only good trait that +has been handed down concerning him is that he was a masterly musician, +performing admirably upon the violin, which he had studied under the +illustrious Tartini himself. Yet even his art of music, if tradition +speaks the truth, was put by him to the basest of uses." + +I apologised for my indiscretion in asking her about an unpleasant +subject, and at the same time thanked her for what she had seen fit to +tell me, professing myself much interested, as indeed I really was. + +"Was he a handsome man?" + +"That is a girl's question," she answered, smiling. "He is said to +have been very handsome; and indeed his picture, painted after his +first youth was past, would still lead one to suppose so. But his +complexion was spoiled, it is said, and turned to deadly white by +certain experiments, which it is neither possible nor seemly for us to +understand. His face is of that long oval shape of which all the Temples +are proud, and he had brown eyes: we sometimes tease Constance, saying +she is like Adrian." + +It was indeed true, as I remembered after Mrs. Temple had pointed it +out, that Constance had a peculiarly long and oval face. It gave her, I +think, an air of staid and placid beauty, which formed in my eyes, and +perhaps in John's also, one of her greatest attractions. + +"I do not like even his picture," Mrs. Temple continued, "and strange +tales have been narrated of it by idle servants which are not worth +repeating. I have sometimes thought of destroying it; but my late +husband, being a Temple, would never hear of this, or even of removing +it from its present place in the gallery; and I should be loath to do +anything now contrary to his wishes, once so strongly expressed. It is, +besides, very perfect from an artistic point of view, being painted by +Battoni, and in his happiest manner." + +I could never glean more from Mrs. Temple; but what she told me +interested me deeply. It seemed another link in the chain, though +I could scarcely tell why, that Adrian Temple should be so great a +musician and violinist. I had, I fancy, a dim idea of that malign and +outlawed spirit sitting alone in darkness for a hundred years, until he +was called back by the sweet tones of the Italian music, and the lilt of +the "Areopagita" that he had loved so long ago. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + + +John's recovery, though continuous and satisfactory, was but slow; +and it was not until Easter, which fell early, that his health was +pronounced to be entirely re-established. The last few weeks of his +convalescence had proved to all of us a time of thankful and tranquil +enjoyment. If I may judge from my own experience, there are few epochs +in our life more favourable to the growth of sentiments of affection +and piety, or more full of pleasurable content, than is the period of +gradual recovery from serious illness. The chastening effect of our +recent sickness has not yet passed away, and we are at once grateful to +our Creator for preserving us, and to our friends for the countless acts +of watchful kindness which it is the peculiar property of illness to +evoke. + +No mother ever nursed a son more tenderly than did Mrs. Temple nurse +my brother, and before his restoration to health was complete the +attachment between him and Constance had ripened into a formal +betrothal. Such an alliance was, as I have before explained, +particularly suitable, and its prospect afforded the most lively +pleasure to all those concerned. The month of March had been unusually +mild, and Royston being situated in a valley, as is the case with most +houses of that date, was well sheltered from cold winds. It had, +moreover, a south aspect, and as my brother gradually gathered strength, +Constance and he and I would often sit out of doors in the soft spring +mornings. We put an easy-chair with many cushions for him on the gravel +by the front door, where the warmth of the sun was reflected from the +red brick walls, and he would at times read aloud to us while we were +engaged with our crochet-work. Mr. Tennyson had just published +anonymously a first volume of poems, and the sober dignity of his verse +well suited our frame of mind at that time. The memory of those pleasant +spring mornings, my dear Edward, has not yet passed away, and I can +still smell the sweet moist scent of the violets, and see the bright +colours of the crocus-flowers in the parterres in front of us. + +John's mind seemed to be gathering strength with his body. He had +apparently flung off the cloud which had overshadowed him before his +illness, and avoided entirely any reference to those unpleasant events +which had been previously so constantly in his thoughts. I had, indeed, +taken an early opportunity of telling him of my discovery of the picture +of Adrian Temple, as I thought it would tend to show him that at least +the last appearance of this ghostly form admitted of a rational +explanation. He seemed glad to hear of this, but did not exhibit the +same interest in the matter that I had expected, and allowed it at once +to drop. Whether through lack of interest, or from a lingering dislike +to revisit the spot where he was seized with illness, he did not, I +believe, once enter the picture-gallery before he left Royston. + +I cannot say as much for myself. The picture of Adrian Temple exerted +a curious fascination over me, and I constantly took an opportunity of +studying it. It was, indeed, a beautiful work; and perhaps because +John's recovery gave a more cheerful tone to my thoughts, or perhaps +from the power of custom to dull even the keenest antipathies, I +gradually got to lose much of the feeling of aversion which it had at +first inspired. In time the unpleasant look grew less unpleasing, and +I noticed more the beautiful oval of the face, the brown eyes, and the +fine chiselling of the features. Sometimes, too, I felt a deep pity for +so clever a gentleman who had died young, and whose life, were it ever +so wicked, must often have been also lonely and bitter. More than once +I had been discovered by Mrs. Temple or Constance sitting looking at the +picture, and they had gently laughed at me, saying that I had fallen in +love with Adrian Temple. + +One morning in early April, when the sun was streaming brightly through +the oriel, and the picture received a fuller light than usual, it +occurred to me to examine closely the scroll of music painted as hanging +over the top of the pedestal on which the figure leant. I had hitherto +thought that the signs depicted on it were merely such as painters might +conventionally use to represent a piece of musical notation. This has +generally been the case, I think, in such pictures as I have ever seen +in which a piece of music has been introduced. I mean that while the +painting gives a general representation of the musical staves, no +attempt is ever made to paint any definite notes such as would enable an +actual piece to be identified. Though, as I write this, I do remember +that on the monument to Handel in Westminster Abbey there is represented +a musical scroll similar to that in Adrian Temple's picture, but +actually sculptured with the opening phrase of the majestic melody, +"I know that my Redeemer liveth." + +On this morning, then, at Royston I thought I perceived that there were +painted on the scroll actual musical staves, bars, and notes; and my +interest being excited, I stood upon a chair so as better to examine +them. Though time had somewhat obscured this portion of the picture as +with a veil or film, yet I made out that the painter had intended to +depict some definite piece of music. In another moment I saw that the +air represented consisted of the opening bars of the _Gagliarda_ in the +suite by Graziani with which my brother and I were so well acquainted. +Though I believe that I had not seen the volume of music in which that +piece was contained more than twice, yet the melody was very familiar +to me, and I had no difficulty whatever in making myself sure that I had +here before me the air of the _Gagliarda_ and none other. It was true +that it was only roughly painted, but to one who knew the tune there was +no room left for doubt. + +Here was a new cause, I will not say for surprise, but for reflection. +It might, of course, have been merely a coincidence that the artist +should have chosen to paint in this picture this particular piece of +music; but it seemed more probable that it had actually been a favourite +air of Adrian Temple, and that he had chosen deliberately to have it +represented with him. This discovery I kept entirely to myself, not +thinking it wise to communicate it to my brother, lest by doing so I +might reawaken his interest in a subject which I hoped he had finally +dismissed from his thoughts. + +In the second week of April the happy party at Royston was dispersed, +John returning to Oxford for the summer term, Mrs. Temple making a short +visit to Scotland, and Constance coming to Worth Maltravers to keep me +company for a time. + +It was John's last term at Oxford. He expected to take his degree in +June, and his marriage with Constance Temple had been provisionally +arranged for the September following. He returned to Magdalen Hall +in the best of spirits, and found his rooms looking cheerful with +well-filled flower-boxes in the windows. I shall not detain you with any +long narration of the events of the term, as they have no relation to +the present history. I will only say that I believe my brother applied +himself diligently to his studies, and took his amusement mostly on +horseback, riding two horses which he had had sent to him from Worth +Maltravers. + +About the second week after his return he received a letter from Mr. +George Smart to the effect that the Stradivarius violin was now in +complete order. Subsequent examination, Mr. Smart wrote, and the +unanimous verdict of connoisseurs whom he had consulted, had merely +confirmed the views he had at first expressed--namely, that the violin +was of the finest quality, and that my brother had in his possession a +unique and intact example of Stradivarius's best period. He had had it +properly strung; and as the bass-bar had never been moved, and was of +a stronger nature than that usual at the period of its manufacture, he +had considered it unnecessary to replace it. If any signs should become +visible of its being inadequate to support the tension of modern +stringing, another could be easily substituted for it at a later date. +He had allowed a young German _virtuoso_ to play on it, and though this +gentleman was one of the first living performers, and had had an +opportunity of handling many splendid instruments, he assured Mr. Smart +that he had never performed on one that could in any way compare with +this. My brother wrote in reply thanking him, and begging that the +violin might be sent to Magdalen Hall. + +The pleasant musical evenings, however, which John had formerly +been used to spend in the company of Mr. Gaskell were now entirely +pretermitted. For though there was no cause for any diminution of +friendship between them, and though on Mr. Gaskell's part there was an +ardent desire to maintain their former intimacy, yet the two young men +saw less and less of one another, until their intercourse was confined +to an accidental greeting in the street. I believe that during all this +time my brother played very frequently on the Stradivarius violin, +but always alone. Its very possession seemed to have engendered from +the first in his mind a secretive tendency which, as I have already +observed, was entirely alien to his real disposition. As he had +concealed its discovery from his sister, so he had also from his friend, +and Mr. Gaskell remained in complete ignorance of the existence of such +an instrument. + +On the evening of its arrival from London, John seems to have carefully +unpacked the violin and tried it with a new bow of Tourte's make which +he had purchased of Mr. Smart. He had shut the heavy outside door of his +room before beginning to play, so that no one might enter unawares; and +he told me afterwards that though he had naturally expected from the +instrument a very fine tone, yet its actual merits so far exceeded his +anticipations as entirely to overwhelm him. The sound issued from it +in a volume of such depth and purity as to give an impression of the +passages being chorded, or even of another violin being played at the +same time. He had had, of course, no opportunity of practising during +his illness, and so expected to find his skill with the bow somewhat +diminished; but he perceived, on the contrary, that his performance was +greatly improved, and that he was playing with a mastery and feeling +of which he had never before been conscious. While attributing this +improvement very largely to the beauty of the instrument on which he was +performing, yet he could not but believe that by his illness, or in some +other unexplained way, he had actually acquired a greater freedom of +wrist and fluency of expression, with which reflection he was not a +little elated. He had had a lock fixed on the cupboard in which he had +originally found the violin, and here he carefully deposited it on each +occasion after playing, before he opened the outer door of his room. + +So the summer term passed away. The examinations had come in their due +time, and were now over. Both the young men had submitted themselves +to the ordeal, and while neither would of course have admitted as +much to anyone else, both felt secretly that they had no reason to be +dissatisfied with their performance. The results would not be published +for some weeks to come. The last night of the term had arrived, the last +night too of John's Oxford career. It was near nine o'clock, but still +quite light, and the rich orange glow of sunset had not yet left the +sky. The air was warm and sultry, as on that eventful evening when just +a year ago he had for the first time seen the figure or the illusion +of the figure of Adrian Temple. Since that time he had played the +"Areopagita" many, many times; but there had never been any reappearance +of that form, nor even had the once familiar creaking of the wicker +chair ever made itself heard. As he sat alone in his room, thinking with +a natural melancholy that he had seen the sun set for the last time on +his student life, and reflecting on the possibilities of the future +and perhaps on opportunities wasted in the past, the memory of that +evening last June recurred strongly to his imagination, and he felt an +irresistible impulse to play once more the "Areopagita." He unlocked +the now familiar cupboard and took out the violin, and never had the +exquisite gradations of colour in its varnish appeared to greater +advantage than in the soft mellow light of the fading day. As he began +the _Gagliarda_ he looked at the wicker chair, half expecting to see a +form he well knew seated in it; but nothing of the kind ensued, and he +concluded the "Areopagita" without the occurrence of any unusual +phenomenon. + +It was just at its close that he heard some one knocking at the outer +door. He hurriedly locked away the violin and opened the "oak." It was +Mr. Gaskell. He came in rather awkwardly, as though not sure whether he +would be welcomed. + +"Johnnie," he began, and stopped. + +The force of ancient habit sometimes, dear nephew, leads us unwittingly +to accost those who were once our friends by a familiar or nick-name +long after the intimacy that formerly justified it has vanished. But +sometimes we intentionally revert to the use of such a name, not wishing +to proclaim openly, as it were, by a more formal address that we are no +longer the friends we once were. I think this latter was the case with +Mr. Gaskell as he repeated the familiar name. + +"Johnnie, I was passing down New College Lane, and heard the violin from +your open windows. You were playing the 'Areopagita,' and it all sounded +so familiar to me that I thought I must come up. I am not interrupting +you, am I?" + +"No, not at all," John answered. + +"It is the last night of our undergraduate life, the last night we shall +meet in Oxford as students. To-morrow we make our bow to youth and +become men. We have not seen much of each other this term at any rate, +and I daresay that is my fault. But at least let us part as friends. +Surely our friends are not so many that we can afford to fling them +lightly away." + +He held out his hand frankly, and his voice trembled a little as he +spoke--partly perhaps from real emotion, but more probably from the +feeling of reluctance which I have noticed men always exhibit to +discovering any sentiment deeper than those usually deemed conventional +in correct society. My brother was moved by his obvious wish to renew +their former friendship, and grasped the proffered hand. + +There was a minute's pause, and then the conversation was resumed, a +little stiffly at first, but more freely afterwards. They spoke on many +indifferent subjects, and Mr. Gaskell congratulated John on the prospect +of his marriage, of which he had heard. As he at length rose up to take +his departure, he said, "You must have practised the violin diligently +of late, for I never knew anyone make so rapid progress with it as you +have done. As I came along I was spellbound by your music. I never +before heard you bring from the instrument so exquisite a tone: the +chorded passages were so powerful that I believed there had been +another person playing with you. Your Pressenda is certainly a finer +instrument than I ever imagined." + +My brother was pleased with Mr. Gaskell's compliment, and the latter +continued, "Let me enjoy the pleasure of playing with you once more in +Oxford; let us play the 'Areopagita.'" + +And so saying he opened the pianoforte and sat down. + +John was turning to take out the Stradivarius when he remembered that he +had never even revealed its existence to Mr. Gaskell, and that if he now +produced it an explanation must follow. In a moment his mood changed, +and with less geniality he excused himself, somewhat awkwardly, from +complying with the request, saying that he was fatigued. + +Mr. Gaskell was evidently hurt at his friend's altered manner, and +without renewing his petition rose at once from the pianoforte, and +after a little forced conversation took his departure. On leaving he +shook my brother by the hand, wished him all prosperity in his marriage +and after-life, and said, "Do not entirely forget your old comrade, and +remember that if at any time you should stand in need of a true friend, +you know where to find him!" + +John heard his footsteps echoing down the passage and made a +half-involuntary motion towards the door as if to call him back, but did +not do so, though he thought over his last words then and on a +subsequent occasion. + + + + +CHAPTER X + + +The summer was spent by us in the company of Mrs. Temple and Constance, +partly at Royston and partly at Worth Maltravers. John had again +hired the cutter-yacht _Palestine_, and the whole party made several +expeditions in her. Constance was entirely devoted to her lover; her +life seemed wrapped up in his; she appeared to have no existence except +in his presence. + +I can scarcely enumerate the reasons which prompted such thoughts, but +during these months I sometimes found myself wondering if John still +returned her affection as ardently as I knew had once been the case. +I can certainly call to mind no single circumstance which could justify +me in such a suspicion. He performed punctiliously all those thousand +little acts of devotion which are expected of an accepted lover; he +seemed to take pleasure in perfecting any scheme of enjoyment to amuse +her; and yet the impression grew in my mind that he no longer felt the +same heart-whole love to her that she bore him, and that he had himself +shown six months earlier. I cannot say, my dear Edward, how lively was +the grief that even the suspicion of such a fact caused me, and I +continually rebuked myself for entertaining for a moment a thought so +unworthy, and dismissed it from my mind with reprobation. Alas! ere long +it was sure again to make itself felt. We had all seen the Stradivarius +violin; indeed it was impossible for my brother longer to conceal it +from us, as he now played continually on it. He did not recount to us +the story of its discovery, contenting himself with saying that he had +become possessed of it at Oxford. We imagined naturally that he had +purchased it; and for this I was sorry, as I feared Mr. Thoresby, his +guardian, who had given him some years previously an excellent violin by +Pressenda, might feel hurt at seeing his present so unceremoniously laid +aside. None of us were at all intimately acquainted with the fancies of +fiddle-collectors, and were consequently quite ignorant of the enormous +value that fashion attached to so splendid an instrument. Even had +we known, I do not think that we should have been surprised at John +purchasing it; for he had recently come of age, and was in possession of +so large a fortune as would amply justify him in such an indulgence had +he wished to gratify it. No one, however, could remain unaware of the +wonderful musical qualities of the instrument. Its rich and melodious +tones would commend themselves even to the most unmusical ear, and +formed a subject of constant remark. I noticed also that my brother's +knowledge of the violin had improved in a very perceptible manner, for +it was impossible to attribute the great beauty and power of his present +performance entirely to the excellence of the instrument he was using. +He appeared more than ever devoted to the art, and would shut himself +up in his room alone for two or more hours together for the purpose of +playing the violin--a habit which was a source of sorrow to Constance, +for he would never allow her to sit with him on such occasions, as she +naturally wished to do. + +So the summer fled. I should have mentioned that in July, after going up +to complete the _viva-voce_ part of their examination, both Mr. Gaskell +and John received information that they had obtained "first-classes." +The young men had, it appears, done excellently well, and both had +secured a place in that envied division of the first-class which was +called "above the line." John's success proved a source of much pleasure +to us all, and mutual congratulations were freely exchanged. We were +pleased also at Mr. Gaskell's high place, remembering the kindness which +he had shown us at Oxford in the previous year. I desired to send him +my compliments and felicitations when he should next be writing to him. +I did not doubt that my brother would return Mr. Gaskell's +congratulations, which he had already received: he said, however, that +his friend had given no address to which he could write, and so the +matter dropped. + +On the 1st of September John and Constance Temple were married. The +wedding took place at Royston, and by John's special desire (with which +Constance fully agreed) the ceremony was of a strictly private and +unpretentious nature. The newly married pair had determined to spend +their honeymoon in Italy, and left for the Continent in the forenoon. + +Mrs. Temple invited me to remain with her for the present at Royston, +which I was very glad to do, feeling deeply the loss of a favourite +brother, and looking forward with dismay to six weeks of loneliness +which must elapse before I should again see him and my dearest +Constance. + +We received news of our travellers about a fortnight afterwards, and +then heard from them at frequent intervals. Constance wrote in the best +of spirits, and with the keenest appreciation. She had never travelled +in Switzerland or Italy before and all was enchantingly novel to her. +They had journeyed through Basle to Lucerne, spending a few days in that +delightful spot, and thence proceeding by the Simplon Pass to Lugano and +the Italian lakes. Then we heard that they had gone further south than +had been at first contemplated; they had reached Rome, and were +intending to go on to Naples. + +After the first few weeks we neither of us received any more letters +from John. It was always Constance who wrote, and even her letters +grew very much less frequent than had at first been the case. This was +perhaps natural, as the business of travel no doubt engrossed their +thoughts. But ere long we both perceived that the letters of our dear +girl were more constrained and formal than before. It was as if she was +writing now rather to comply with a sense of duty than to give vent to +the light-hearted gaiety and naive enjoyment which breathed in every +line of her earlier communications. So at least it seemed to us, and +again the old suspicion presented itself to my mind, and I feared that +all was not as it should be. + +Naples was to be the turning-point of their travels, and we expected +them to return to England by the end of October. November had arrived, +however, and we still had no intimation that their return journey had +commenced or was even decided on. From John there was no word, and +Constance wrote less often than ever. John, she said, was enraptured +with Naples and its surroundings; he devoted himself much to the violin, +and though she did not say so, this meant, I knew, that she was often +left alone. For her own part, she did not think that a continued +residence in Italy would suit her health; the sudden changes of +temperature tried her, and people said that the airs rising in the +evening from the bay were unwholesome. + +Then we received a letter from her which much alarmed us. It was written +from Naples and dated October 25. John, she said, had been ailing of +late with nervousness and insomnia. On Wednesday, two days before the +date of her letter, he had suffered all day from a strange restlessness, +which increased after they had retired for the evening. He could not +sleep and had dressed again, telling her he would walk a little in the +night air to compose himself. He had not returned till near six in the +morning, and then was so deadly pale and seemed so exhausted that she +insisted on his keeping to his bed till she could get medical advice. +The doctors feared that he had been attacked by some strange form of +malarial fever, and said he needed much care. Our anxiety was, however, +at least temporarily relieved by the receipt of later tidings which +spoke of John's recovery; but November drew to a close without any +definite mention of their return having reached us. + +That month is always, I think, a dreary one in the country. It has +neither the brilliant tints of October, nor the cosy jollity of +mid-winter with its Christmas joys to alleviate it. This year it was +more gloomy than usual. Incessant rain had marked its close, and the +Roy, a little brook which skirted the gardens not far from the house, +had swollen to unusual proportions. At last one wild night the flood +rose so high as to completely cover the garden terraces, working havoc +in the parterres, and covering the lawns with a thick coat of mud. +Perhaps this gloominess of nature's outer face impressed itself in a +sense of apprehension on our spirits, and it was with a feeling of more +than ordinary pleasure and relief that early in December we received a +letter dated from Laon, saying that our travellers were already well +advanced on their return journey, and expected to be in England a week +after the receipt by us of this advice. It was, as usual, Constance who +wrote. John begged, she said, that Christmas might be spent at Worth +Maltravers, and that we would at once proceed thither to see that all +was in order against their return. They reached Worth about the middle +of the month, and were, I need not say, received with the utmost +affection by Mrs. Temple and myself. + +In reply to our inquiries John professed that his health was completely +restored; but though we could indeed discern no other signs of any +special weakness, we were much shocked by his changed appearance. He had +completely lost his old healthy and sunburnt complexion, and his face, +though not thin or sunken, was strangely pale. Constance assured us +that though in other respects he had apparently recovered, he had never +regained his old colour from the night of his attack of fever at Naples. + +I soon perceived that her own spirits were not so bright as was +ordinarily the case with her; and she exhibited none of the eagerness to +narrate to others the incidents of travel which is generally observable +in those who have recently returned from a journey. The cause of this +depression was, alas! not difficult to discover, for John's former +abstraction and moodiness seemed to have returned with an increased +force. It was a source of infinite pain to Mrs. Temple, and perhaps +even more so to me, to observe this sad state of things. Constance +never complained, and her affection towards her husband seemed only to +increase in the face of difficulties. Yet the matter was one which could +not be hid from the anxious eyes of loving kinswomen, and I believe that +it was the consciousness that these altered circumstances could not +but force themselves upon our notice that added poignancy to my poor +sister's grief. While not markedly neglecting her, my brother had +evidently ceased to take that pleasure in her company which might +reasonably have been expected in any case under the circumstances of +a recent marriage, and a thousand times more so when his wife was so +loving and beautiful a creature as Constance Temple. He appeared little +except at meals, and not even always at lunch, shutting himself up for +the most part in his morning-room or study and playing continually on +the violin. It was in vain that we attempted even by means of his music +to win him back to a sweeter mood. Again and again I begged him to allow +me to accompany him on the pianoforte, but he would never do so, always +putting me off with some excuse. Even when he sat with us in the +evening, he spoke little, devoting himself for the most part to reading. +His books were almost always Greek or Latin, so that I am ignorant of +the subjects of his study; but he was content that either Constance or +I should play on the pianoforte, saying that the melody, so far from +distracting his attention, helped him rather to appreciate what he was +reading. Constance always begged me to allow her to take her place at +the instrument on these occasions, and would play to him sometimes for +hours without receiving a word of thanks, being eager even in this +unreciprocated manner to testify her love and devotion to him. + +Christmas Day, usually so happy a season, brought no alleviation of +our gloom. My brother's reserve continually increased, and even his +longest-established habits appeared changed. He had been always most +observant of his religious duties, attending divine service with the +utmost regularity whatever the weather might be, and saying that it was +a duty a landed proprietor owed as much to his tenantry as himself to +set a good example in such matters. Ever since our earliest years he +and I had gone morning and afternoon on Sundays to the little church of +Worth, and there sat together in the Maltravers chapel where so many of +our name had sat before us. Here their monuments and achievements stood +about us on every side, and it had always seemed to me that with their +name and property we had inherited also the obligation to continue those +acts of piety, in the practice of which so many of them had lived and +died. It was, therefore, a source of surprise and great grief to me +when on the Sunday after his return my brother omitted all religious +observances, and did not once attend the parish church. He was not +present with us at breakfast, ordering coffee and a roll to be taken to +his private sitting-room. At the hour at which we usually set out for +church I went to his room to tell him that we were all dressed and +waiting for him. I tapped at the door, but on trying to enter found it +locked. In reply to my message he did not open the door, but merely +begged us to go on to church, saying he would possibly follow us later. +We went alone, and I sat anxiously in our seat with my eyes fixed on the +door, hoping against hope that each late comer might be John, but he +never came. Perhaps this will appear to you, Edward, a comparatively +trivial circumstance (though I hope it may not), but I assure you that +it brought tears to my eyes. When I sat in the Maltravers chapel and +thought that for the first time my dear brother had preferred in an open +way his convenience or his whim to his duty, and had of set purpose +neglected to come to the house of God, I felt a bitter grief that seemed +to rise up in my throat and choke me. I could not think of the meaning +of the prayers nor join in the singing: and all the time that Mr. +Butler, our clergyman, was preaching, a verse of a little piece of +poetry which I learnt as a girl was running in my head:-- + + "How easy are the paths of ill; + How steep and hard the upward ways; + A child can roll the stone down hill + That breaks a giant's arm to raise." + + +It seemed to me that our loved one had set his foot upon the downward +slope, and that not all the efforts of those who would have given their +lives to save him could now hold him back. + +It was even worse on Christmas Day. Ever since we had been confirmed +John and I had always taken the Sacrament on that happy morning, and +after service he had distributed the Maltravers dole in our chapel. +There are given, as you know, on that day to each of twelve old men L5 +and a green coat, and a like sum of money with a blue cloth dress to as +many old women. These articles of dress are placed on the altar-tomb of +Sir Esmoun de Maltravers, and have been thence distributed from days +immemorial by the head of our house. Ever since he was twelve years old +it had been my pride to watch my handsome brother doing this deed of +noble charity, and to hear the kindly words he added with each gift. + +Alas! alas! it was all different this Christmas. Even on this holy day +my brother did not approach either the altar or the house of God. Till +then Christmas had always seemed to me to be a day given us from above, +that we might see even while on earth a faint glimpse of that serenity +and peaceful love which will hereafter gild all days in heaven. Then +covetous men lay aside their greed and enemies their rancour, then warm +hearts grow warmer, and Christians feel their common brotherhood. I can +scarcely imagine any man so lost or guilty as not to experience on that +day some desire to turn back to the good once more, as not to recognise +some far-off possibility of better things. It was thoughts free and +happy such as these that had previously come into my heart in the +service of Christmas Day, and been particularly associated with the +familiar words that we all love so much. But that morning the harmonies +were all jangled: it seemed as though some evil spirit was pouring +wicked thoughts into my ear; and even while children sang "Hark the +herald angels," I thought I could hear through it all a melody which +I had learnt to loathe, the _Gagliarda_ of the "Areopagita." + +Poor Constance! Though her veil was down, I could see her tears, and +knew her thoughts must be sadder even than mine: I drew her hand towards +me, and held it as I would a child's. After the service was over a new +trial awaited us. John had made no arrangement for the distribution of +the dole. The coats and dresses were all piled ready on Sir Esmoun's +tomb, and there lay the little leather pouches of money, but there was +no one to give them away. Mr. Butler looked puzzled, and approaching +us, said he feared Sir John was ill--had he made no provision for the +distribution? Pride kept back the tears which were rising fast, and +I said my brother was indeed unwell, that it would be better for Mr. +Butler to give away the dole, and that Sir John would himself visit the +recipients during the week. Then we hurried away, not daring to watch +the distribution of the dole, lest we should no longer be able to master +our feelings, and should openly betray our agitation. + +From one another we no longer attempted to conceal our grief. It seemed +as though we had all at once resolved to abandon the farce of pretending +not to notice John's estrangement from his wife, or of explaining away +his neglectful and unaccountable treatment of her. + +I do not think that three poor women were ever so sad on Christmas Day +before as were we on our return from church that morning. None of us had +seen my brother, but about five in the afternoon Constance went to his +room, and through the locked door begged piteously to see him. After a +few minutes he complied with her request and opened the door. The exact +circumstances of that interview she never revealed to me, but I knew +from her manner when she returned that something she had seen or heard +had both grieved and frightened her. She told me only that she had flung +herself in an agony of tears at his feet, and kneeling there, weary and +broken-hearted, had begged him to tell her if she had done aught amiss, +had prayed him to give her back his love. To all this he answered +little, but her entreaties had at least such an effect as to induce him +to take his dinner with us that evening. At that meal we tried to put +aside our gloom, and with feigned smiles and cheerful voices, from which +the tears were hardly banished, sustained a weary show of conversation +and tried to wile away his evil mood. But he spoke little; and when +Foster, my father's butler, put on the table the three-handled +Maltravers' loving-cup that he had brought up Christmas by Christmas for +thirty years, my brother merely passed it by without a taste. I saw by +Foster's face that the master's malady was no longer a secret even from +the servants. + +I shall not harass my own feelings nor yours, my dear Edward, by +entering into further details of your father's illness, for such it was +obvious his indisposition had become. It was the only consolation, and +that was a sorry one, that we could use with Constance, to persuade her +that John's estrangement from her was merely the result or manifestation +of some physical infirmity. He obviously grew worse from week to week, +and his treatment of his wife became colder and more callous. We had +used all efforts to persuade him to take a change of air--to go to +Royston for a month, and place himself under the care of Dr. Dobie. Mrs. +Temple had even gone so far as to write privately to this physician, +telling him as much of the case as was prudent, and asking his advice. +Not being aware of the darker sides of my brother's ailment, Dr. Dobie +replied in a less serious strain than seemed to us convenient, but +recommended in any case a complete change of air and scene. + +It was, therefore, with no ordinary pleasure and relief that we +heard my brother announce quite unexpectedly one morning in March that +he had made up his mind to seek change, and was going to leave almost +immediately for the Continent. He took his valet Parnham with him, and +quitted Worth one morning before lunch, bidding us an unceremonious +adieu, though he kissed Constance with some apparent tenderness. It was +the first time for three months, she confessed to me afterwards, that +he had shown her even so ordinary a mark of affection; and her wounded +heart treasured up what she hoped would prove a token of returning love. +He had not proposed to take her with him, and even had he done so, we +should have been reluctant to assent, as signs were not wanting that it +might have been imprudent for her to undertake foreign travel at that +period. + +For nearly a month we had no word of him. Then he wrote a short note to +Constance from Naples, giving no news, and indeed, scarce speaking of +himself at all, but mentioning as an address to which she might write if +she wished, the Villa de Angelis at Posilipo. Though his letter was cold +and empty, yet Constance was delighted to get it, and wrote henceforth +herself nearly every day, pouring out her heart to him, and retailing +such news as she thought would cheer him. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + + +A month later Mrs. Temple wrote to John warning him of the state in +which Constance now found herself, and begging him to return at least +for a few weeks in order that he might be present at the time of her +confinement. Though it would have been in the last degree unkind, or +even inhuman, that a request of this sort should have been refused, yet +I will confess to you that my brother's recent strangeness had prepared +me for behaviour on his part however wild; and it was with a feeling of +extreme relief that I heard from Mrs. Temple a little later that she had +received a short note from John to say that he was already on his return +journey. I believe Mrs. Temple herself felt as I did in the matter, +though she said nothing. + +When he returned we were all at Royston, whither Mrs. Temple had taken +Constance to be under Dr. Dobie's care. We found John's physical +appearance changed for the worse. His pallor was as remarkable as +before, but he was visibly thinner; and his strange mental abstraction +and moodiness seemed little if any abated. At first, indeed, he greeted +Constance kindly or even affectionately. She had been in a terrible +state of anxiety as to the attitude he would assume towards her, and +this mental strain affected prejudicially her very delicate bodily +condition. His kindness, of an ordinary enough nature indeed, seemed +to her yearning heart a miracle of condescending love, and she was +transported with the idea that his affection to her, once so sincere, +was indeed returning. But I grieve to say that his manner thawed only +for a very short time, and ere long he relapsed into an attitude of +complete indifference. It was as if his real, true, honest, and loving +character had made one more vigorous effort to assert itself,--as +though it had for a moment broken through the hard and selfish crust +that was forming around him; but the blighting influence which was at +work proved seemingly too strong for him to struggle against, and +riveted its chains again upon him with a weight heavier than before. +That there was some malefic influence, mental or physical, thus working +on him, no one who had known him before could for a moment doubt. But +while Mrs. Temple and I readily admitted this much, we were entirely +unable even to form a conjecture as to its nature. It is true that +Mrs. Temple's fancy suggested that Constance had some rival in his +affections; but we rejected such a theory almost before it was proposed, +feeling that it was inherently improbable, and that, had it been true, +we could not have remained entirely unaware of the circumstances which +had conduced to such a state of things. It was this inexplicable nature +of my brother's affliction that added immeasurably to our grief. If we +could only have ascertained its cause we might have combated it; but +as it was, we were fighting in the dark, as against some enemy who was +assaulting us from an obscurity so thick that we could not see his form. +Of any mental trouble we thus knew nothing, nor could we say that my +brother was suffering from any definite physical ailment, except that +he was certainly growing thinner. + +Your birth, my dear Edward, followed very shortly. Your poor mother +rallied in an unusually short time, and was filled with rapture at the +new treasure which was thus given as a solace to her afflictions. Your +father exhibited little interest at the event, though he sat nearly half +an hour with her one evening, and allowed her even to stroke his hair +and caress him as in time long past. Although it was now the height of +summer he seldom left the house, sitting much and sleeping in his own +room, where he had a field-bed provided for him, and continually +devoting himself to the violin. + +One evening near the end of July we were sitting after dinner in the +drawing-room at Royston, having the French windows looking on to the +lawn open, as the air was still oppressively warm. Though things were +proceeding as indifferently as before, we were perhaps less cast down +than usual, for John had taken his dinner with us that evening. This was +a circumstance now, alas! sufficiently uncommon, for he had nearly all +his meals served for him in his own rooms. Constance, who was once more +downstairs, sat playing at the pianoforte, performing chiefly melodies +by Scarlatti or Bach, of which old-fashioned music she knew her husband +to be most fond. A later fashion, as you know, has revived the +cultivation of these composers, but at the time of which I write their +works were much less commonly known. Though she was more than a passable +musician, he would not allow her to accompany him; indeed he never now +performed at all on the violin before us, reserving his practice +entirely for his own chamber. There was a pause in the music while +coffee was served. My brother had been sitting in an easy-chair apart +reading some classical work during his wife's performance, and taking +little notice of us. But after a while he put down his book and said, +"Constance, if you will accompany me, I will get my violin and play a +little while." I cannot say how much his words astonished us. It was +so simple a matter for him to say, and yet it filled us all with an +unspeakable joy. We concealed our emotion till he had left the room to +get his instrument, then Constance showed how deeply she was gratified +by kissing first her mother and then me, squeezing my hand but saying +nothing. In a minute he returned, bringing his violin and a music-book. +By the soiled vellum cover and the shape I perceived instantly that it +was the book containing the "Areopagita." I had not seen it for near +two years, and was not even aware that it was in the house, but I +knew at once that he intended to play that suite. I entertained an +unreasoning but profound aversion to its melodies, but at that moment +I would have welcomed warmly that or any other music, so that he would +only choose once more to show some thought for his neglected wife. He +put the book open at the "Areopagita" on the desk of the pianoforte, +and asked her to play it with him. She had never seen the music before, +though I believe she was not unacquainted with the melody, as she had +heard him playing it by himself, and once heard, it was not easily +forgotten. + +They began the "Areopagita" suite, and at first all went well. The +tone of the violin, and also, I may say with no undue partiality, +my brother's performance, were so marvellously fine that though our +thoughts were elsewhere when, the music commenced, in a few seconds they +were wholly engrossed in the melody, and we sat spellbound. It was as +if the violin had become suddenly endowed with life, and was singing +to us in a mystical language more deep and awful than any human words. +Constance was comparatively unused to the figuring of the _basso +continuo_, and found some trouble in reading it accurately, especially +in manuscript; but she was able to mask any difficulty she may have had +until she came to the _Gagliarda_. Here she confessed to me her thoughts +seemed against her will to wander, and her attention became too deeply +riveted on her husband's performance to allow her to watch her own. +She made first one slight fault, and then growing nervous, another, and +another. Suddenly John stopped and said brusquely, "Let Sophy play, +I cannot keep time with you." Poor Constance! The tears came swiftly +to my own eyes when I heard him speak so thoughtlessly to her, and I was +almost provoked to rebuke him openly. She was still weak from her recent +illness; her nerves were excited by the unusual pleasure she felt in +playing once more with her husband, and this sudden shattering of her +hopes of a renewed tenderness proved more than she could bear: she put +her head between her hands upon the keyboard and broke into a paroxysm +of tears. + +We both ran to her; but while we were attempting to assuage her grief, +John shut his violin into its case, took the music-book under his arm, +and left the room without saying a word to any of us, not even to the +weeping girl, whose sobs seemed as though they would break her heart. + +We got her put to bed at once, but it was some hours before her +convulsive sobbing ceased. Mrs. Temple had administered to her a +soothing draught of proved efficacy, and after sitting with her till +after one o'clock, I left her at last dozing off to sleep, and myself +sought repose. I was quite wearied out with the weight of my anxiety, +and with the crushing bitterness of seeing my dearest Constance's +feelings so wounded. Yet in spite, or rather perhaps on account of my +trouble, my head had scarcely touched my pillow ere I fell into a deep +sleep. + +A room in the south wing had been converted for the nonce into a +nursery, and for the convenience of being near her infant Constance now +slept in a room adjoining. As this portion of the house was somewhat +isolated, Mrs. Temple had suggested that I should keep her daughter +company, and occupy a room in the same passage, only removed a few +doors, and this I had accordingly done. I was aroused from my sleep that +night by some one knocking gently on the door of my bedroom; but it was +some seconds before my thoughts became sufficiently awake to allow me to +remember where I was. There was some moonlight, but I lighted a candle, +and looking at my watch saw that it was two o'clock. I concluded that +either Constance or her baby was unwell, and that the nurse needed my +assistance. So I left my bed, and moving to the door, asked softly who +was there. It was, to my surprise, the voice of Constance that replied, +"O Sophy, let me in." + +In a second I had opened the door, and found my poor sister wearing only +her night-dress, and standing in the moonlight before me. + +She looked frightened and unusually pale in her white dress and with the +cold gleam of the moon upon her. At first I thought she was walking in +her sleep, and perhaps rehearsing again in her dreams the troubles which +dogged her waking footsteps. I took her gently by the arm, saying, +"Dearest Constance, come back at once to bed; you will take cold." + +She was not asleep, however, but made a motion of silence, and said in +a terrified whisper, "Hush; do you hear nothing?" There was something +so vague and yet so mysterious in the question and in her evident +perturbation that I was infected too by her alarm. I felt myself shiver, +as I strained my ear to catch if possible the slightest sound. But a +complete silence pervaded everything: I could hear nothing. + +"Can you hear it?" she said again. All sorts of images of ill presented +themselves to my imagination: I thought the baby must be ill with croup, +and that she was listening for some stertorous breath of anguish; and +then the dread came over me that perhaps her sorrows had been too much +for her, and that reason had left her seat. At that thought the marrow +froze in my bones. + +"Hush," she said again; and just at that moment, as I strained my ears, +I thought I caught upon the sleeping air a distant and very faint +murmur. + +"Oh, what is it, Constance?" I said. "You will drive me mad;" and while +I spoke the murmur seemed to resolve itself into the vibration, felt +almost rather than heard, of some distant musical instrument. I stepped +past her into the passage. All was deadly still, but I could perceive +that music was being played somewhere far away; and almost at the same +minute my ears recognised faintly but unmistakably the _Gagliarda_ of +the "Areopagita." + +I have already mentioned that for some reason which I can scarcely +explain, this melody was very repugnant to me. It seemed associated in +some strange and intimate way with my brother's indisposition and moral +decline. Almost at the moment that I had heard it first two years ago, +peace seemed to have risen up and left our house, gathering her skirts +about her, as we read that the angels left the Temple at the siege of +Jerusalem. And now it was even more detestable to my ears, recalling as +it did too vividly the cruel events of the preceding evening. + +"John must be sitting up playing," I said. + +"Yes," she answered; "but why is he in this part of the house, and why +does he always play _that_ tune?" + +It was if some irresistible attraction drew us towards the music. +Constance took my hand in hers and we moved together slowly down the +passage. The wind had risen, and though there was a bright moon, her +beams were constantly eclipsed by driving clouds. Still there was light +enough to guide us, and I extinguished the candle. As we reached the end +of the passage the air of the _Gagliarda_ grew more and more distinct. + +Our passage opened on to a broad landing with a balustrade, and from one +side of it ran out the picture-gallery which you know. + +I looked at Constance significantly. It was evident that John was +playing in this gallery. We crossed the landing, treading carefully and +making no noise with our naked feet, for both of us had been too excited +even to think of putting on shoes. + +We could now see the whole length of the gallery. My poor brother sat in +the oriel window of which I have before spoken. He was sitting so as to +face the picture of Adrian Temple, and the great windows of the oriel +flung a strong light on him. At times a cloud hid the moon, and all was +plunged in darkness; but in a moment the cold light fell full on him, +and we could trace every feature as in a picture. He had evidently not +been to bed, for he was fully dressed, exactly as he had left us in the +drawing-room five hours earlier when Constance was weeping over his +thoughtless words. He was playing the violin, playing with a passion and +reckless energy which I had never seen, and hope never to see again. +Perhaps he remembered that this spot was far removed from the rest +of the house, or perhaps he was careless whether any were awake and +listening to him or not; but it seemed to me that he was playing with +a sonorous strength greater than I had thought possible for a single +violin. There came from his instrument such a volume and torrent of +melody as to fill the gallery so full, as it were, of sound that it +throbbed and vibrated again. He kept his eyes fixed on something at the +opposite side of the gallery; we could not indeed see on what, but I +have no doubt at all that it was the portrait of Adrian Temple. His gaze +was eager and expectant, as though he were waiting for something to +occur which did not. + +I knew that he had been growing thin of late, but this was the first +time I had realised how sunk were the hollows of his eyes and how +haggard his features had become. It may have been some effect of +moonlight which I do not well understand, but his fine-cut face, once so +handsome, looked on this night worn and thin like that of an old man. +He never for a moment ceased playing. It was always one same dreadful +melody, the _Gagliarda_ of the "Areopagita," and he repeated it time +after time with the perseverance and apparent aimlessness of an +automaton. + +He did not see us, and we made no sign, standing afar off in silent +horror at that nocturnal sight. Constance clutched me by the arm: she +was so pale that I perceived it even in the moonlight. "Sophy," she +said, "he is sitting in the same place as on the first night when he +told me how he loved me." I could answer nothing, my voice was frozen +in me. I could only stare at my brother's poor withered face, realising +then for the first time that he must be mad, and that it was the +haunting of the _Gagliarda_ that had made him so. + +We stood there I believe for half an hour without speech or motion, and +all the time that sad figure at the end of the gallery continued its +performance. Suddenly he stopped, and an expression of frantic despair +came over his face as he laid down the violin and buried his head in his +hands. I could bear it no longer. "Constance," I said, "come back to +bed. We can do nothing," So we turned and crept away silently as we had +come. Only as we crossed the landing Constance stopped, and looked back +for a minute with a heart-broken yearning at the man she loved. He had +taken his hands from his head, and she saw the profile of his face clear +cut and hard in the white moonlight. + +It was the last time her eyes ever looked upon it. + +She made for a moment as if she would turn back and go to him, but her +courage failed her, and we went on. Before we reached her room we heard +in the distance, faintly but distinctly, the burden of the _Gagliarda_. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + + +The next morning, my maid brought me a hurried note written in pencil by +my brother. It contained only a few lines, saying that he found that his +continued sojourn at Royston was not beneficial to his health, and had +determined to return to Italy. If we wished to write, letters would +reach him at the Villa de Angelis: his valet Parnham was to follow him +thither with his baggage as soon as it could be got together. This was +all; there was no word of adieu even to his wife. + +We found that he had never gone to bed that night. But in the early +morning he had himself saddled his horse _Sentinel_ and ridden in to +Derby, taking the early mail thence to London. His resolve to leave +Royston had apparently been arrived at very suddenly, for so far as we +could discover, he had carried no luggage of any kind. I could not help +looking somewhat carefully round his room to see if he had taken the +Stradivarius violin. No trace of it or even of its case was to be seen, +though it was difficult to imagine how he could have carried it with him +on horseback. There was, indeed, a locked travelling-trunk which Parnham +was to bring with him later, and the instrument might, of course, have +been in that; but I felt convinced that he had actually taken it with +him in some way or other, and this proved afterwards to have been the +case. + +I shall draw a veil, my dear Edward, over the events which immediately +followed your father's departure. Even at this distance of time the +memory is too inexpressibly bitter to allow me to do more than briefly +allude to them. + +A fortnight after John's departure, we left Royston and removed to +Worth, wishing to get some sea-air, and to enjoy the late summer of the +south coast. Your mother seemed entirely to have recovered from her +confinement, and to be enjoying as good health as could be reasonably +expected under the circumstances of her husband's indisposition. But +suddenly one of those insidious maladies which are incidental to women +in her condition seized upon her. We had hoped and believed that all +such period of danger was already happily past; but, alas! it was not +so, and within a few hours of her first seizure all realised how serious +was her case. Everything that human skill can do under such conditions +was done, but without avail. Symptoms of blood-poisoning showed +themselves, accompanied with high fever, and within a week she was in +her coffin. + +Though her delirium was terrible to watch, yet I thank God to this +day, that if she was to die, it pleased Him to take her while in an +unconscious condition. For two days before her death she recognised +no one, and was thus spared at least the sadness of passing from life +without one word of kindness or even of reconciliation from her unhappy +husband. + +The communication with a place so distant as Naples was not then to be +made under fifteen or twenty days, and all was over before we could hope +that the intelligence even of his wife's illness had reached John. Both +Mrs. Temple and I remained at Worth in a state of complete prostration, +awaiting his return. When more than a month had passed without his +arrival, or even a letter to say that he was on his way, our anxiety +took a new turn, as we feared that some accident had befallen him, or +that the news of his wife's death, which would then be in his hands, +had so seriously affected him as to render him incapable of taking any +action. To repeated subsequent communications we received no answer; +but at last, to a letter which I wrote to Parnham, the servant replied, +stating that his master was still at the Villa de Angelis, and in a +condition of health little differing from that in which he left Royston, +except that he was now slightly paler if possible and thinner. It was +not till the end of November that any word came from him, and then he +wrote only one page of a sheet of note-paper to me in pencil, making no +reference whatever to his wife's death, but saying that he should not +return for Christmas, and instructing me to draw on his bankers for any +moneys that I might require for household purposes at Worth. + +I need not tell you the effect that such conduct produced on Mrs. +Temple and myself; you can easily imagine what would have been your own +feelings in such a case. Nor will I relate any other circumstances which +occurred at this period, as they would have no direct bearing upon my +narrative. Though I still wrote to my brother at frequent intervals, as +not wishing to neglect a duty, no word from him ever came in reply. + +About the end of March, indeed, Parnham returned to Worth Maltravers, +saying that his master had paid him a half-year's wages in advance, +and then dispensed with his services. He had always been an excellent +servant, and attached to the family, and I was glad to be able to offer +him a suitable position with us at Worth until his master should return. +He brought disquieting reports of John's health, saying that he was +growing visibly weaker. Though I was sorely tempted to ask him many +questions as to his master's habits and way of life, my pride forbade me +to do so. But I heard incidentally from my maid that Parnham had told +her Sir John was spending money freely in alterations at the Villa de +Angelis, and had engaged Italians to attend him, with which his English +valet was naturally much dissatisfied. + +So the spring passed and the summer was well advanced. + +On the last morning of July I found waiting for me on the +breakfast-table an envelope addressed in my brother's hand. I opened +it hastily. It only contained a few words, which I have before me as I +write now. The ink is a little faded and yellow, but the impression it +made is yet vivid as on that summer morning. + + "MY DEAREST SOPHY," it began,--"Come to me here at once, if possible, + or it may be too late. I want to see you. They say that I am ill, and + too weak to travel to England. + + "Your loving brother, + + "JOHN." + + +There was a great change in the style, from the cold and conventional +notes that he had hitherto sent at such long intervals; from the stiff +"Dear Sophia" and "Sincerely yours" to which, I grieve to say, I had +grown accustomed. Even the writing itself was altered. It was more the +bold boyish hand he wrote when first he went to Oxford, than the smaller +cramped and classic character of his later years. Though it was a little +matter enough, God knows, in comparison with his grievous conduct, yet +it touched me much that he should use again the once familiar "Dearest +Sophy," and sign himself "my loving brother." I felt my heart go out +towards him; and so strong is woman's affection for her own kin, that I +had already forgotten any resentment and reprobation in my great pity +for the poor wanderer, lying sick perhaps unto death and alone in a +foreign land. + +I took his note at once to Mrs. Temple. She read it twice or thrice, +trying to take in the meaning of it. Then she drew me to her and, +kissing me, said, "Go to him at once, Sophy. Bring him back to Worth; +try to bring him back to the right way." + +I ordered my things to be packed, determining to drive to Southampton +and take train thence to London; and at the same time Mrs. Temple gave +instructions that all should be prepared for her own return to Royston +within a few days. I knew she did not dare to see John after her +daughter's death. + +I took my maid with me, and Parnham to act as courier. At London we +hired a carriage for the whole journey, and from Calais posted direct to +Naples. We took the short route by Marseilles and Genoa, and travelled +for seventeen days without intermission, as my brother's note made me +desirous of losing no time on the way. I had never been in Italy before; +but my anxiety was such that my mind was unable to appreciate either +the beauty of the scenery or the incidents of travel. I can, in fact, +remember nothing of our journey now, except the wearisome and +interminable jolting over bad roads and the insufferable heat. It was +the middle of August in an exceptionally warm summer, and after passing +Genoa the heat became almost tropical. There was no relief even at +night, for the warm air hung stagnant and suffocating, and the inside of +my travelling coach was often like a furnace. + +We were at last approaching the conclusion of our journey, and had left +Rome behind us. The day that we set out from Aversa was the hottest that +I have ever felt, the sun beating down with an astonishing power even +in the early hours, and the road being thick with a white and blinding +dust. It was soon after midnight that our carriage began rattling over +the great stone blocks with which the streets of Naples are paved. The +suburbs that we at first passed through were, I remember, in darkness +and perfect quiet; but after traversing the heart of the city and +reaching the western side, we suddenly found ourselves in the midst +of an enormous and very dense crowd. There were lanterns everywhere, +and interminable lanes of booths, whose proprietors were praising +their wares with loud shouts; and here acrobats, jugglers, minstrels, +black-vested priests, and blue-coated soldiers mingled with a vast crowd +whose numbers at once arrested the progress of the carriage. Though it +was so late of a Sunday night, all seemed here awake and busy as at +noonday. Oil-lamps with reeking fumes of black smoke flung a glare over +the scene, and the discordant cries and chattering conversation united +in so deafening a noise as to make me turn faint and giddy, wearied as I +already was with long travelling. Though I felt that intense eagerness +and expectation which the approaching termination of a tedious journey +inspires, and was desirous of pushing forward with all imaginable +despatch, yet here our course was sadly delayed. The horses could only +proceed at the slowest of foot-paces, and we were constantly brought +to a complete stop for some minutes before the post-boy could force +a passage through the unwilling crowd. This produced a feeling of +irritation, and despair of ever reaching my destination; and the mirth +and careless hilarity of the people round us chafed with bitter contrast +on my depressed spirits. I inquired from the post-boy what was the +origin of so great a commotion, and understood him to say in reply that +it was a religious festival held annually in honour of "Our Lady of +the Grotto." I cannot, however, conceive of any truly religious person +countenancing such a gathering, which seemed to me rather like the +unclean orgies of a heathen deity than an act of faith of Christian +people. This disturbance occasioned us so serious a delay, that as we +were climbing the steep slope leading up to Posilipo it was already +three in the morning and the dawn was at hand. + +After mounting steadily for a long time we began to rapidly descend, and +just as the sun came up over the sea we arrived at the Villa de Angelis. +I sprang from the carriage, and passing through a trellis of vines, +reached the house. A man-servant was in waiting, and held the door open +for me; but he was an Italian, and did not understand me when I asked +in English where Sir John Maltravers was. He had evidently, however, +received instructions to take me at once to my brother, and led the way +to an inner part of the house. As we proceeded I heard the sound of a +rich alto voice singing very sweetly to a mandoline some soothing or +religious melody. The servant pulled aside a heavy curtain and I found +myself in my brother's room. An Italian youth sat on a stool near the +door, and it was he who had been singing. At a few words from John, +addressed to him in his own language, he set down his mandoline and left +the room, pulling to the curtain and shutting a door behind it. + +The room looked directly on to the sea: the villa was, in fact, built +upon rocks at the foot of which the waves lapped. Through two folding +windows which opened on to a balcony the early light of the summer +morning streamed in with a rosy flush. My brother sat on a low couch +or sofa, propped up against a heap of pillows, with a rug of brilliant +colours flung across his feet and legs. He held out his arms to me, and +I ran to him; but even in so brief an interval I had perceived that he +was terribly weak and wasted. + +All my memories of his past faults had vanished and were dead in that +sad aspect of his worn features, and in the conviction which I felt, +even from the first moment, that he had but little time longer to remain +with us. I knelt by him on the floor, and with my arms round his neck, +embraced him tenderly, not finding any place for words, but only sobbing +in great anguish. Neither of us spoke, and my weariness from long travel +and the strangeness of the situation caused me to feel that paralysing +sensation of doubt as to the reality of the scene, and even of my own +existence, which all, I believe, have experienced at times of severe +mental tension. That I, a plain English girl, should be kneeling here +beside my brother in the Italian dawn; that I should read, as I +believed, on his young face the unmistakable image and superscription +of death; and reflect that within so few months he had married, had +wrecked his home, that my poor Constance was no more;--these things +seemed so unrealisable that for a minute I felt that it must all be a +nightmare, that I should immediately wake with the fresh salt air of +the Channel blowing through my bedroom window at Worth, and find I had +been dreaming. But it was not so; the light of day grew stronger and +brighter, and even in my sorrow the panorama of the most beautiful spot +on earth, the Bay of Naples, with Vesuvius lying on the far side, as +seen then from these windows, stamped itself for ever on my mind. It was +unreal as a scene in some brilliant dramatic spectacle, but, alas! no +unreality was here. The flames of the candles in their silver sconces +waxed paler and paler, the lines and shadows on my brother's face grew +darker, and the pallor of his wasted features showed more striking in +the bright rays of the morning sun. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + + +I had spent near a week at the Villa de Angelis. John's manner to me +was most tender and affectionate; but he showed no wish to refer to the +tragedy of his wife's death and the sad events which had preceded it, or +to attempt to explain in any way his own conduct in the past. Nor did +I ever lead the conversation to these topics; for I felt that even if +there were no other reason, his great weakness rendered it inadvisable +to introduce such subjects at present, or even to lead him to speak at +all more than was actually necessary. I was content to minister to him +in quiet, and infinitely happy in his restored affection. He seemed +desirous of banishing from his mind all thoughts of the last few months, +but spoke much of the years before he had gone to Oxford, and of happy +days which we had spent together in our childhood at Worth Maltravers. +His weakness was extreme, but he complained of no particular malady +except a short cough which troubled him at night. + +I had spoken to him of his health, for I could see that his state was +such as to inspire anxiety, and begged that he would allow me to see if +there was an English doctor at Naples who could visit him. This he would +not assent to, saying that he was quite content with the care of an +Italian doctor who visited him almost daily, and that he hoped to be +able, under my escort, to return within a very short time to England. + +"I shall never be much better, dear Sophy," he said one day. "The doctor +tells me that I am suffering from some sort of consumption, and that I +must not expect to live long. Yet I yearn to see Worth once more, and to +feel again the west winds blowing in the evening across from Portland, +and smell the thyme on the Dorset downs. In a few days I hope perhaps to +be a little stronger, and I then wish to show you a discovery which I +have made in Naples. After that you may order them to harness the +horses, and carry me back to Worth Maltravers." + +I endeavoured to ascertain from Signor Baravelli, the doctor, something +as to the actual state of his patient; but my knowledge of Italian was +so slight that I could neither make him understand what I would be at, +nor comprehend in turn what he replied, so that this attempt was +relinquished. From my brother himself I gathered that he had begun to +feel his health much impaired as far back as the early spring, but +though his strength had since then gradually failed him, he had not been +confined to the house until a month past. He spent the day and often +the night reclining on his sofa and speaking little. He had apparently +lost the taste for the violin which had once absorbed so much of his +attention; indeed I think the bodily strength necessary for its +performance had probably now failed him. The Stradivarius instrument +lay near his couch in its case; but I only saw the latter open on one +occasion, I think, and was deeply thankful that John no longer took +the same delight as heretofore in the practice of this art,--not only +because the mere sound of his violin was now fraught to me with such +bitter memories, but also because I felt sure that its performance had +in some way which I could not explain a deleterious effect upon himself. +He exhibited that absence of vitality which is so often noticeable in +those who have not long to live, and on some days lay in a state of +semi-lethargy from which it was difficult to rouse him. But at other +times he suffered from a distressing restlessness which forbade him to +sit still even for a few minutes, and which was more painful to watch +than his lethargic stupor. The Italian boy, of whom I have already +spoken, exhibited an untiring devotion to his master which won my heart. +His name was Raffaelle Carotenuto, and he often sang to us in the +evening, accompanying himself on the mandoline. At nights, too, when +John could not sleep, Raffaelle would read for hours till at last +his master dozed off. He was well educated, and though I could not +understand the subject he read, I often sat by and listened, being +charmed with his evident attachment to my brother and with the melodious +intonation of a sweet voice. + +My brother was nervous apparently in some respects, and would never be +left alone even for a few minutes; but in the intervals while Raffaelle +was with him I had ample opportunity to examine and appreciate the +beauties of the Villa de Angelis. It was built, as I have said, on some +rocks jutting into the sea, just before coming to the Capo di Posilipo +as you proceed from Naples. The earlier foundations were, I believe, +originally Roman, and upon them a modern villa had been constructed +in the eighteenth century, and to this again John had made important +additions in the past two years. Looking down upon the sea from the +windows of the villa, one could on calm days easily discern the remains +of Roman piers and moles lying below the surface of the transparent +water; and the tufa-rock on which the house was built was burrowed with +those unintelligible excavations of a classic date so common in the +neighbourhood. These subterraneous rooms and passages, while they +aroused my curiosity, seemed at the same time so gloomy and repellent +that I never explored them. But on one sunny morning, as I walked at +the foot of the rocks by the sea, I ventured into one of the larger of +these chambers, and saw that it had at the far end an opening leading +apparently to an inner room. I had walking with me an old Italian female +servant who took a motherly interest in my proceedings, and who, relying +principally upon a very slight knowledge of English, had constituted +herself my body-guard. Encouraged by her presence, I penetrated this +inner room and found that it again opened in turn into another, and so +on until we had passed through no less than four chambers. + +They were all lighted after a fashion through vent-holes which somewhere +or other reached the outer air, but the fourth room opened into a fifth +which was unlighted. My companion, who had been showing signs of alarm +and an evident reluctance to proceed further, now stopped abruptly and +begged me to return. It may have been that her fear communicated itself +to me also, for on attempting to cross the threshold and explore the +darkness of the fifth cell, I was seized by an unreasoning panic and by +the feeling of undefined horror experienced in a nightmare. I hesitated +for an instant, but my fear became suddenly more intense, and springing +back, I followed my companion, who had set out to run back to the outer +air. We never paused until we stood panting in the full sunlight by the +sea. As soon as the maid had found her breath, she begged me never to go +there again, explaining in broken English that the caves were known in +the neighbourhood as the "Cells of Isis," and were reputed to be haunted +by demons. This episode, trifling as it may appear, had so great an +effect upon me that I never again ventured on to the lower walk which +ran at the foot of the rocks by the sea. + +In the house above, my brother had built a large hall after the ancient +Roman style, and this, with a dining-room and many other chambers, were +decorated in the fashion of those discovered at Pompeii. They had been +furnished with the utmost luxury, and the beauty of the paintings, +furniture, carpets, and hangings was enhanced by statues in bronze and +marble. The villa, indeed, and its fittings were of a kind to which +I was little used, and at the same time of such beauty that I never +ceased to regard all as a creation of an enchanter's wand, or as the +drop-scene to some drama which might suddenly be raised and disappear +from my sight. The house, in short, together with its furniture, was, +I believe, intended to be a reproduction of an ancient Roman villa, +and had something about it repellent to my rustic and insular ideas. +In the contemplation of its perfection I experienced a curious mental +sensation, which I can only compare to the physical oppression produced +on some persons by the heavy and cloying perfume of a bouquet of +gardenias or other too highly scented exotics. + +In my brother's room was a medieval reproduction in mellow alabaster of +a classic group of a dolphin encircling a Cupid. It was, I think, the +fairest work of art I ever saw, but it jarred upon my sense of propriety +that close by it should hang an ivory crucifix. I would rather, I think, +have seen all things material and pagan entirely, with every view of +the future life shut out, than have found a medley of things sacred and +profane, where the emblems of our highest hopes and aspirations were +placed in insulting indifference side by side with the embodied forms of +sensuality. Here, in this scene of magical beauty, it seemed to me for +a moment that the years had rolled back, that Christianity had still to +fight with a _living_ Paganism, and that the battle was not yet won. It +was the same all through the house; and there were many other matters +which filled me with regret, mingled with vague and apprehensive +surmises which I shall not here repeat. + +At one end of the house was a small library, but it contained few works +except Latin and Greek classics. I had gone thither one day to look for +a book that John had asked for, when in turning out some drawers I found +a number of letters written from Worth by my lost Constance to her +husband. The shock of being brought suddenly face to face with a +handwriting that evoked memories at once so dear and sad was in itself +a sharp one; but its bitterness was immeasurably increased by the +discovery that not one of these envelopes had ever been opened. While +that dear heart, now at rest, was pouring forth her love and sorrow to +the ears that should have been above all others ready to receive them, +her letters, as they arrived, were flung uncared for, unread, even +unopened, into any haphazard receptacle. + +The days passed one by one at the Villa de Angelis with but little +incident, nor did my brother's health either visibly improve or decline. +Though the weather was still more than usually warm, a grateful breeze +came morning and evening from the sea and tempered the heat so much as +to render it always supportable. John would sometimes in the evening sit +propped up with cushions on the trellised balcony looking towards Baia, +and watch the fishermen setting their nets. We could hear the melody +of their deep-voiced songs carried up on the night air. "It was here, +Sophy," my brother said, as we sat one evening looking on a scene like +this,--"It was here that the great epicure Pollio built himself a famous +house, and called it by two Greek words meaning a 'truce to care,' from +which our name of Posilipo is derived. It was his _sans-souci_, and here +he cast aside his vexations; but they were lighter than mine. Posilipo +has brought no cessation of care to me. I do not think I shall find any +truce this side the grave; and beyond, who knows?" + +This was the first time John had spoken in this strain, and he seemed +stirred to an unusual activity, as though his own words had suddenly +reminded him how frail was his state. He called Raffaelle to him and +despatched him on an errand to Naples. The next morning he sent for me +earlier than usual, and begged that a carriage might be ready by six in +the evening, as he desired to drive into the city. I tried at first to +dissuade him from his project, urging him to consider his weak state of +health. He replied that he felt somewhat stronger, and had something +that he particularly wished me to see in Naples. This done, it would be +better to return at once to England: he could, he thought, bear the +journey if we travelled by very short stages. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + + +Shortly after six o'clock in the evening we left the Villa de Angelis. +The day had been as usual cloudlessly serene; but a gentle sea-breeze, +of which I have spoken, rose in the afternoon and brought with it a +refreshing coolness. We had arranged a sort of couch in the landau with +many cushions for my brother, and he mounted into the carriage with more +ease than I had expected. I sat beside him, with Raffaelle facing me +on the opposite seat. We drove down the hill of Posilipo through the +ilex-trees and tamarisk-bushes that then skirted the sea, and so into +the town. John spoke little except to remark that the carriage was an +easy one. As we were passing through one of the principal streets he +bent over to me and said, "You must not be alarmed if I show you to-day +a strange sight. Some women might perhaps be frightened at what we are +going to see; but my poor sister has known already so much of trouble +that a light thing like this will not affect her." In spite of his +encomiums upon my supposed courage, I felt alarmed and agitated by his +words. There was a vagueness in them which frightened me, and bred that +indefinite apprehension which is often infinitely more terrifying than +the actual object which inspires it. To my inquiries he would give no +further response than to say that he had whilst at Posilipo made some +investigations in Naples leading to a strange discovery, which he was +anxious to communicate to me. After traversing a considerable distance, +we had penetrated apparently into the heart of the town. The streets +grew narrower and more densely thronged; the houses were more dirty and +tumbledown, and the appearance of the people themselves suggested that +we had reached some of the lower quarters of the city. Here we passed +through a further network of small streets of the name of which I took +no note, and found ourselves at last in a very dark and narrow lane +called the _Via del Giardino_. Although my brother had, so far as I had +observed, given no orders to the coachman, the latter seemed to have +no difficulty in finding his way, driving rapidly in the Neapolitan +fashion, and proceeding direct as to a place with which he was already +familiar. + +In the Via del Giardino the houses were of great height, and overhung +the street so as nearly to touch one another. It seemed that this +quarter had been formerly inhabited, if not by the aristocracy, at least +by a class very much superior to that which now lived there; and many +of the houses were large and dignified, though long since parcelled +out into smaller tenements. It was before such a house that we at last +brought up. Here must have been at one time a house or palace of some +person of distinction, having a long and fine facade adorned with +delicate pilasters, and much florid ornamentation of the Renaissance +period. The ground-floor was divided into a series of small shops, and +its upper storeys were evidently peopled by sordid families of the +lowest class. Before one of these little shops, now closed and having +its windows carefully blocked with boards, our carriage stopped. +Raffaelle alighted, and taking a key from his pocket unlocked the door, +and assisted John to leave the carriage. I followed, and directly we had +crossed the threshold, the boy locked the door behind us, and I heard +the carriage drive away. + +We found ourselves in a narrow and dark passage, and as soon as my eyes +grew accustomed to the gloom I perceived there was at the end of it a +low staircase leading to some upper room, and on the right a door which +opened into the closed shop. My brother moved slowly along the passage, +and began to ascend the stairs. He leant with one hand on Raffaelle's +arm, taking hold of the balusters with the other. But I could see +that to mount the stairs cost him considerable effort, and he paused +frequently to cough and get his breath again. So we reached a landing +at the top, and found ourselves in a small chamber or magazine directly +over the shop. It was quite empty except for a few broken chairs, and +appeared to be a small loft formed by dividing what had once been a +high room into two storeys, of which the shop formed the lower. A long +window, which had no doubt once formed one of several in the walls of +this large room, was now divided across its width by the flooring, and +with its upper part served to light the loft, while its lower panes +opened into the shop. The ceiling was, in consequence of these +alterations, comparatively low, but though much mutilated, retained +evident traces of having been at one time richly decorated, with the +raised mouldings and pendants common in the sixteenth century. At one +end of the loft was a species of coved and elaborately carved dado, of +which the former use was not obvious; but the large original room had +without doubt been divided in length as Well as in height, as the +lath-and-plaster walls at either end of the loft had evidently been no +part of the ancient structure. + +My brother sat down in one of the old chairs, and seemed to be +collecting his strength before speaking. My anxiety was momentarily +increasing, and it was a great relief when he began, talking in a low +voice as one that had much to say and wished to husband his strength. + +"I do not know whether you will recollect my having told you of +something Mr. Gaskell once said about the music of Graziani's +'Areopagita' suite. It had always, he used to say, a curious effect upon +his imagination, and the melody of the _Gagliarda_ especially called up +to his thoughts in some strange way a picture of a certain hall where +people were dancing. He even went so far as to describe the general +appearance of the room itself, and of the persons who were dancing +there." + +"Yes," I answered, "I remember your telling me of this;" and indeed my +memory had in times past so often rehearsed Mr. Gaskell's description +that, although I had not recently thought of it, its chief features +immediately returned to my mind. + +"He described it," my brother continued, "as a long hall with an arcade +of arches running down one side, of the fantastic Gothic of the +Renaissance. At the end was a gallery or balcony for the musicians, +which on its front carried a coat of arms." + +I remembered this perfectly and told John so, adding that the shield +bore a cherub's head fanning three lilies on a golden field. + +"It is strange," John went on, "that the description of a scene which +our friend thought a mere effort of his own imagination has impressed +itself so deeply on both our minds. But the picture which he drew was +more than a fancy, for we are at this minute in the very hall of his +dream." + +I could not gather what my brother meant, and thought his reason was +failing him; but he continued, "This miserable floor on which we stand +has of course been afterwards built in; but you see above you the old +ceiling, and here at the end was the musicians' gallery with the shield +upon its front." + +He pointed to the carved and whitewashed dado which had hitherto so +puzzled me. I stepped up to it, and although the lath-and-plaster +partition wall was now built around it, it was clear that its curved +outline might very easily, as John said, have formed part of the front +of a coved gallery. I looked closer at the relief-work which had adorned +it. Though the edges were all rubbed off, and the mouldings in some +cases entirely removed, I could trace without difficulty a shield +in the midst; and a more narrow inspection revealed underneath the +whitewash, which had partly peeled away, enough remnants of colour to +show that it had certainly been once painted gold and borne a cherub's +head with three lilies. + +"That is the shield of the old Neapolitan house of Doma-Cavalli," my +brother continued; "they bore a cherub's head fanning three lilies on a +shield or. It was in the balcony behind this shield, long since blocked +up as you see, that the musicians sat on that ball night of which +Gaskell dreamt. From it they looked down on the hall below where dancing +was going forward, and I will now take you downstairs that you may see +if the description tallies." + +So saying, he raised himself, and descending the stairs with much less +difficulty than he had shown in mounting them, flung open the door +which I had seen in the passage and ushered us into the shop on the +ground-floor. The evening light had now faded so much that we could +scarcely see even in the passage, and the shop having its windows +barricaded with shutters, was in complete darkness. Raffaelle, however, +struck a match and lit three half-burnt candles in a tarnished sconce +upon the wall. + +The shop had evidently been lately in the occupation of a wine-seller, +and there were still several empty wooden wine-butts, and some broken +flasks on shelves. In one corner I noticed that the earth which formed +the floor had been turned up with spades. There was a small heap of +mould, and a large flat stone was thus exposed below the surface. This +stone had an iron ring attached to it, and seemed to cover the aperture +of a well, or perhaps a vault. At the back of the shop, and furthest +from the street, were two lofty arches separated by a column in the +middle, from which the outside casing had been stripped. + +To these arches John pointed and said, "That is a part of the arcade +which once ran down the whole length of the hall. Only these two arches +are now left, and the fine marbles which doubtless coated the outside of +this dividing pillar have been stripped off. On a summer's night about +one hundred years ago dancing was going on in this hall. There were a +dozen couples dancing a wild step such as is never seen now. The tune +that the musicians were playing in the gallery above was taken from the +'Areopagita' suite of Graziani. Gaskell has often told me that when +he played it the music brought with it to his mind a sense of some +impending catastrophe, which culminated at the end of the first movement +of the _Gagliarda_. It was just at that moment, Sophy, that an +Englishman who was dancing here was stabbed in the back and foully +murdered." + +I had scarcely heard all that John had said, and had certainly not been +able to take in its import; but without waiting to hear if I should say +anything, he moved across to the uncovered stone with the ring in it. +Exerting a strength which I should have believed entirely impossible in +his weak condition, he applied to the stone a lever which lay ready at +hand. Raffaelle at the same time seized the ring, and so they were able +between them to move the covering to one side sufficiently to allow +access to a small staircase which thus appeared to view. The stair +was a winding one, and once led no doubt to some vaults below the +ground-floor. Raffaelle descended first, taking in his hand the sconce +of three candles, which he held above his head so as to fling a light +down the steps. John went next, and then I followed, trying to support +my brother if possible with my hand. The stairs were very dry, and +on the walls there was none of the damp or mould which fancy usually +associates with a subterraneous vault. I do not know what it was I +expected to see, but I had an uneasy feeling that I was on the brink of +some evil and distressing discovery. After we had descended about twenty +steps we could see the entry to some vault or underground room, and it +was just at the foot of the stairs that I saw something lying, as the +light from the candles fell on it from above. At first I thought it was +a heap of dust or refuse, but on looking closer it seemed rather a +bundle of rags. As my eyes penetrated the gloom, I saw there was about +it some tattered cloth of a faded green tint, and almost at the same +minute I seemed to trace under the clothes the lines or dimensions of a +human figure. For a moment I imagined it was some poor man lying face +downwards and bent up against the wall. The idea of a man or of a dead +body being there shocked me violently, and I cried to my brother, "Tell +me, what is it?" At that instant the light from. Raffaelle's candles +fell in a somewhat different direction. It lighted up the white bowl +of a human skull, and I saw that what I had taken for a man's form was +instead that of a clothed skeleton. I turned faint and sick for an +instant, and should have fallen had it not been for John, who put his +arm about me and sustained me with an unexpected strength. + +"God help us!" I exclaimed, "let us go. I cannot bear this; there are +foul vapours here; let us get back to the outer air." + +He took me by the arm, and pointing at the huddled heap, said, "Do you +know whose bones those are? That is Adrian Temple. After it was all +over, they flung his body down the steps, dressed in the clothes he +wore." + +At that name, uttered in so ill-omened a place, I felt a fresh access of +terror. It seemed as though the soul of that wicked man must be still +hovering over his unburied remains, and boding evil to us all. A chill +crept over me, the light, the walls, my brother, and Raffaelle all swam +round, and I sank swooning on the stairs. + +When I returned fully to my senses we were in the landau again making +our way back to the Villa de Angelis. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + + +The next morning my health and strength were entirely restored to me, +but my brother, on the contrary, seemed weak and exhausted from his +efforts of the previous night. Our return journey to the Villa de +Angelis had passed in complete silence. I had been too much perturbed +to question him on the many points relating to the strange events as to +which I was still completely in the dark, and he on his side had shown +no desire to afford me any further information. When I saw him the next +morning he exhibited signs of great weakness, and in response to an +effort on my part to obtain some explanation of the discovery of Adrian +Temple's body, avoided an immediate reply, promising to tell me all he +knew after our return to Worth Maltravers. + +I pondered over the last terrifying episode very frequently in my own +mind, and as I thought more deeply of it all, it seemed to me that the +outlines of some evil history were piece by piece developing themselves, +that I had almost within my grasp the clue that would make all plain, +and that had eluded me so long. In that dim story Adrian Temple, the +music of the _Gagliarda_, my brother's fatal passion for the violin, +all seemed to have some mysterious connection, and to have conspired in +working John's mental and physical ruin. Even the Stradivarius violin +bore a part in the tragedy, becoming, as it were, an actively malignant +spirit, though I could not explain how, and was yet entirely unaware of +the manner in which it had come into my brother's possession. + +I found that John was still resolved on an immediate return to England. +His weakness, it is true, led me to entertain doubts as to how he would +support so long a journey; but at the same time I did not feel justified +in using any strong efforts to dissuade him from his purpose. I +reflected that the more wholesome air and associations of England would +certainly re-invigorate both body and mind, and that any extra strain +brought about by the journey would soon be repaired by the comforts and +watchful care with which we could surround him at Worth Maltravers. + +So the first week in October saw us once more with our faces set towards +England. A very comfortable swinging-bed or hammock had been arranged +for John in the travelling carriage, and we determined to avoid fatigue +as much as possible by dividing our journey into very short stages. My +brother seemed to have no intention of giving up the Villa de Angelis. +It was left complete with its luxurious furniture, and with all his +servants, under the care of an Italian _maggior-duomo_. I felt that as +John's state of health forbade his entertaining any hope of an immediate +return thither, it would have been much better to close entirely his +Italian house. But his great weakness made it impossible for him to +undertake the effort such a course would involve, and even if my own +ignorance of the Italian tongue had not stood in the way, I was far too +eager to get my invalid back to Worth to feel inclined to import any +further delay, while I should myself adjust matters which were after all +comparatively trifling. As Parnham was now ready to discharge his usual +duties of valet, and as my brother seemed quite content that he should +do so, Raffaelle was of course to be left behind. The boy had quite won +my heart by his sweet manners, combined with his evident affection to +his master, and in making him understand that he was now to leave us, +I offered him a present of a few pounds as a token of my esteem. He +refused, however, to touch this money, and shed tears when he learnt +that he was to be left in Italy, and begged with many protestations of +devotion that he might be allowed to accompany us to England. My heart +was not proof against his entreaties, supported by so many signs of +attachment, and it was agreed, therefore, that he should at least attend +us as far as Worth Maltravers. John showed no surprise at the boy being +with us; indeed I never thought it necessary to explain that I had +originally purposed to leave him behind. + +Our journey, though necessarily prolonged by the shortness of its +stages, was safely accomplished. John bore it as well as I could have +hoped, and though his body showed no signs of increased vigour, his +mind, I think, improved in tone, at any rate for a time. From the +evening on which he had shown me the terrible discovery in the Via +del Giardino he seemed to have laid aside something of his care and +depression. He now exhibited little trace of the moroseness and +selfishness which had of late so marred his character; and though he +naturally felt severely at times the fatigue of travel, yet we had no +longer to dread any relapse into that state of lethargy or stupor which +had so often baffled every effort to counteract it at Posilipo. Some +feeling of superstitious aversion had prompted me to give orders that +the Stradivarius violin should be left behind at Posilipo. But before +parting my brother asked for it, and insisted that it should be brought +with him, though I had never heard him play a note on it for many weeks. +He took an interest in all the petty episodes of travel, and certainly +appeared to derive more entertainment from the journey than was to have +been anticipated in his feeble state of health. + +To the incidents of the evening spent in the Via del Giardino he made no +allusion of any kind, nor did I for my part wish to renew memories of +so unpleasant a nature. His only reference occurred one Sunday evening +as we were passing a small graveyard near Genoa. The scene apparently +turned his thoughts to that subject, and he told me that he had taken +measures before leaving Naples to ensure that the remains of Adrian +Temple should be decently interred in the cemetery of Santa Bibiana. +His words set me thinking again, and unsatisfied curiosity prompted +me strongly to inquire of him how he had convinced himself that the +skeleton at the foot of the stairs was indeed that of Adrian Temple. But +I restrained myself, partly from a reliance on his promise that he would +one day explain the whole story to me, and partly being very reluctant +to mar the enjoyment of the peaceful scenes through which we were +passing, by the introduction of any subjects so jarring and painful as +those to which I have alluded. + +We reached London at last, and here we stopped a few days to make some +necessary arrangements before going down to Worth Maltravers. I had +urged upon John during the journey that immediately on his arrival in +London he should obtain the best English medical advice as to his own +health. Though he at first demurred, saying that nothing more was to be +done, and that he was perfectly satisfied with the medicine given him by +Dr. Baravelli, which he continued to take, yet by constant entreaty I +prevailed upon him to accede to so reasonable a request. Dr. Frobisher, +considered at that time the first living authority on diseases of the +brain and nerves, saw him on the morning after our arrival. He was good +enough to speak with me at some length after seeing my brother, and to +give me many hints and recipes whereby I might be better enabled to +nurse the invalid. + +Sir John's condition, he said, was such as to excite serious anxiety. +There was, indeed, no brain mischief of any kind to be discovered, but +his lungs were in a state of advanced disease, and there were signs of +grave heart affection. Yet he did not bid me to despair, but said that +with careful nursing life might certainly be prolonged, and even some +measure of health in time restored. He asked me more than once if I knew +of any trouble or worry that preyed upon Sir John's mind. Were there +financial difficulties; had he been subjected to any mental shock; had +he received any severe fright? To all this I could only reply in the +negative. At the same time I told Dr. Frobisher as much of John's +history as I considered pertinent to the question. He shook his head +gravely, and recommended that Sir John should remain for the present in +London, under his own constant supervision. To this course my brother +would by no means consent. He was eager to proceed at once to his own +house, saying that if necessary we could return again to London for +Christmas. It was therefore agreed that we should go down to Worth +Maltravers at the end of the week. + +Parnham had already left us for Worth in order that he might have +everything ready against his master's return, and when we arrived we +found all in perfect order for our reception. A small morning-room next +to the library, with a pleasant south aspect and opening on to the +terrace, had been prepared for my brother's use, so that he might avoid +the fatigue of mounting stairs, which Dr. Frobisher considered very +prejudicial in his present condition. We had also purchased in London a +chair fitted with wheels, which enabled him to be moved, or, if he were +feeling equal to the exertion, to move himself, without difficulty, from +room to room. + +His health, I think, improved; very gradually, it is true, but still +sufficiently to inspire me with hope that he might yet be spared to us. +Of the state of his mind or thoughts I knew little, but I could see that +he was at times a prey to nervous anxiety. This showed itself in the +harassed look which his pale face often wore, and in his marked dislike +to being left alone. He derived, I think, a certain pleasure from the +quietude and monotony of his life at Worth, and perhaps also from the +consciousness that he had about him loving and devoted hearts. I say +hearts, for every servant at Worth was attached to him, remembering the +great consideration and courtesy of his earlier years, and grieving to +see his youthful and once vigorous frame reduced to so sad a strait. +Books he never read himself, and even the charm of Raffaelle's reading +seemed to have lost its power; though he never tired of hearing the boy +sing, and liked to have him sit by his chair even when his eyes were +shut and he was apparently asleep. His general health seemed to me to +change but little either for better or worse. Dr. Frobisher had led me +to expect some such a sequel. I had not concealed from him that I had +at times entertained suspicions as to my brother's sanity; but he had +assured me that they were totally unfounded, that Sir John's brain was +as clear as his own. At the same time he confessed that he could not +account for the exhausted vitality of his patient,--a condition which he +would under ordinary circumstances have attributed to excessive study or +severe trouble. He had urged upon me the pressing necessity for complete +rest, and for much sleep. My brother never even incidentally referred to +his wife, his child, or to Mrs. Temple, who constantly wrote to me from +Royston, sending kind messages to John, and asking how he did. These +messages I never dared to give him, fearing to agitate him, or retard +his recovery by diverting his thoughts into channels which must +necessarily be of a painful character. That he should never even mention +her name, or that of Lady Maltravers, led me to wonder sometimes if one +of those curious freaks of memory which occasionally accompany a severe +illness had not entirely blotted out from his mind the recollection of +his marriage and of his wife's death. He was unable to consider any +affairs of business, and the management of the estate remained as it +had done for the last two years in the hands of our excellent agent, +Mr. Baker. + +But one evening in the early part of December he sent Raffaelle about +nine o'clock, saying he wished to speak to me. I went to his room, and +without any warning he began at once, "You never show me my boy now, +Sophy; he must be grown a big child, and I should like to see him." +Much startled by so unexpected a remark, I replied that the child was +at Royston under the care of Mrs. Temple, but that I knew that if it +pleased him to see Edward she would be glad to bring him down to Worth. +He seemed gratified with this idea, and begged me to ask her to do so, +desiring that his respects should be at the same time conveyed to her. I +almost ventured at that moment to recall his lost wife to his thoughts, +by saying that his child resembled her strongly; for your likeness at +that time, and even now, my dear Edward, to your poor mother was very +marked. But my courage failed me, and his talk soon reverted to an +earlier period, comparing the mildness of the month to that of the first +winter which he spent at Eton. His thoughts, however, must, I fancy, +have returned for a moment to the days when he first met your mother, +for he suddenly asked, "Where is Gaskell? Why does he never come to see +me?" This brought quite a new idea to my mind. I fancied it might do my +brother much good to have by him so sensible and true a friend as I knew +Mr. Gaskell to be. The latter's address had fortunately not slipped from +my memory, and I put all scruples aside and wrote by the next mail to +him, setting forth my brother's sad condition, saying that I had heard +John mention his name, and begging him on my own account to be so good +as to help us if possible and come to us in this hour of trial. Though +he was so far off as Westmorland, Mr. Gaskell's generosity brought +him at once to our aid, and within a week he was installed at Worth +Maltravers, sleeping, in the library, where we had arranged a bed at +his own desire, so that he might be near his sick friend. + +His presence was of the utmost assistance to us all. He treated John +at once with the tenderness of a woman and the firmness of a clever +and strong man. They sat constantly together in the mornings, and Mr. +Gaskell told me John had not shown with him the same reluctance to talk +freely of his married life as he had discovered with me. The tenor of +his communications I cannot guess, nor did I ever ask; but I knew that +Mr. Gaskell was much affected by them. + +John even amused himself now at times by having Mr. Baker into his rooms +of a morning, that the management of the estate might be discussed with +his friend; and he also expressed his wish to see the family solicitor, +as he desired to draw his will. Thinking that any diversion of this +nature could not but be beneficial to him, we sent to Dorchester for our +solicitor, Mr. Jeffreys, who together with his clerk spent three nights +at Worth, and drew up a testament for my brother. + +So time went on, and the year was drawing to a close. + +It was Christmas Eve, and I had gone to bed shortly after twelve +o'clock, having an hour earlier bid good night to John and Mr. Gaskell. +The long habit of watching with, or being in charge of an invalid at +night, had made my ears extraordinarily quick to apprehend even the +slightest murmur. It must have been, I think, near three in the morning +when I found myself awake and conscious of some unusual sound. It was +low and far off, but I knew instantly what it was, and felt a choking +sensation of fear and horror, as if an icy hand had gripped my throat, +on recognising the air of the _Gagliarda_. It was being played on the +violin, and a long way off, but I knew that tune too well to permit of +my having any doubt on the subject. + +Any trouble or fear becomes, as you will some day learn, my dear nephew, +immensely intensified and exaggerated at night. It is so, I suppose, +because our nerves are in an excited condition, and our brain not +sufficiently awake to give a due account of our foolish imaginations. I +have myself many times lain awake wrestling in thought with difficulties +which in the hours of darkness seemed insurmountable, but with the dawn +resolved themselves into merely trivial inconveniences. So on this +night, as I sat up in bed looking into the dark, with the sound of that +melody in my ears, it seemed as if something too terrible for words had +happened; as though the evil spirit, which we had hoped was exorcised, +had returned with others sevenfold more wicked than himself, and taken +up his abode again with my lost brother. The memory of another night +rushed to my mind when Constance had called me from my bed at Royston, +and we had stolen together down the moonlit passages with the lilt of +that wicked music vibrating on the still summer air. Poor Constance! She +was in her grave now; yet _her_ troubles at least were over, but here, +as by some bitter irony, instead of carol or sweet symphony, it was the +_Gagliarda_ that woke me from my sleep on Christmas morning. + +I flung my dressing-gown about me, and hurried through the corridor and +down the stairs which led to the lower storey and my brother's room. +As I opened my bedroom door the violin ceased suddenly in the middle +of a bar. Its last sound was not a musical note, but rather a horrible +scream, such as I pray I may never hear again. It was a sound such as a +wounded beast might utter. There is a picture I have seen of Blake's, +showing the soul of a strong wicked man leaving his body at death. The +spirit is flying out through the window with awful staring eyes, aghast +at the desolation into which it is going. If in the agony of dissolution +such a lost soul could utter a cry, it would, I think, sound like the +wail which I heard from the violin that night. + +Instantly all was in absolute stillness. The passages were silent and +ghostly in the faint light of my candle; but as I reached the bottom +of the stairs I heard the sound of other footsteps, and Mr. Gaskell met +me. He was fully dressed, and had evidently not been to bed. He took me +kindly by the hand and said, "I feared you might be alarmed by the sound +of music. John has been walking in his sleep; he had taken out his +violin and was playing on it in a trance. Just as I reached him +something in it gave way, and the discord caused by the slackened +strings roused him at once. He is awake now and has returned to bed. +Control your alarm for his sake and your own. It is better that he +should not know you have been awakened." + +He pressed my hand and spoke a few more reassuring words, and I went +back to my room still much agitated, and yet feeling half ashamed for +having shown so much anxiety with so little reason. + +That Christmas morning was one of the most beautiful that I ever +remember. It seemed as though summer was so loath to leave our sunny +Dorset coast that she came back on this day to bid us adieu before her +final departure. I had risen early and had partaken of the Sacrament +at our little church. Dr. Butler had recently introduced this early +service, and though any alteration of time-honoured customs in such +matters might not otherwise have met with my approval, I was glad to +avail myself of the privilege on this occasion, as I wished in any case +to spend the later morning with my brother. The singular beauty of the +early hours, and the tranquillising effect of the solemn service brought +back serenity to my mind, and effectually banished from it all memories +of the preceding night. Mr. Gaskell met me in the hall on my return, and +after greeting me kindly with the established compliments of the day, +inquired after my health, and hoped that the disturbance of my slumber +on the previous night had not affected me injuriously. He had good news +for me: John seemed decidedly better, was already dressed, and desired, +as it was Christmas morning, that we would take our breakfast with him +in his room. + +To this, as you may imagine, I readily assented. Our breakfast party +passed off with much content, and even with some quiet humour, John +sitting in his easy-chair at the head of the table and wishing us the +compliments of the season. I found laid in my place a letter from Mrs. +Temple greeting us all (for she knew Mr. Gaskell was at Worth), and +saying that she hoped to bring little Edward to us at the New Year. +My brother seemed much pleased at the prospect of seeing his son, and +though perhaps it was only imagination, I fancied he was particularly +gratified that Mrs. Temple herself was to pay us a visit. She had not +been to Worth since the death of Lady Maltravers. + +Before we had finished breakfast the sun beat on the panes with an +unusual strength and brightness. His rays cheered us all, and it was so +warm that John first opened the windows, and then wheeled his chair on +to the walk outside. Mr. Gaskell brought him a hat and mufflers, and we +sat with him on the terrace basking in the sun. The sea was still and +glassy as a mirror, and the Channel lay stretched before us like a floor +of moving gold. A rose or two still hung against the house, and the +sun's rays reflected from the red sandstone gave us a December morning +more mild and genial than many June days that I have known in the north. +We sat for some minutes without speaking, immersed in our own +reflections and in the exquisite beauty of the scene. + +The stillness was broken by the bells of the parish church ringing for +the morning service. There were two of them, and their sound, familiar +to us from childhood, seemed like the voices of old friends. John looked +at me and said with a sigh, "I should like to go to church. It is long +since I was there. You and I have always been on Christmas mornings, +Sophy, and Constance would have wished it had she been with us." + +His words, so unexpected and tender, filled my eyes with tears; not +tears of grief, but of deep thankfulness to see my loved one turning +once more to the old ways. It was the first time I had heard him speak +of Constance, and that sweet name, with the infinite pathos of her +death, and of the spectacle of my brother's weakness, so overcame me +that I could not speak. I only pressed his hand and nodded. Mr. Gaskell, +who had turned away for a minute, said he thought John would take no +harm in attending the morning service provided the church were warm. +On this point I could reassure him, having found it properly heated +even in the early morning. + +Mr. Gaskell was to push John's chair, and I ran off to put on my cloak, +with my heart full of profound thankfulness for the signs of returning +grace so mercifully vouchsafed to our dear sufferer on this happy day. +I was ready dressed and had just entered the library when Mr. Gaskell +stepped hurriedly through the window from the terrace. "John has +fainted!" he said. "Run for some smelling salts and call Parnham!" + +There was a scene of hurried alarm, giving place ere long to terrified +despair. Parnham mounted a horse and set off at a wild gallop to Swanage +to fetch Dr. Bruton; but an hour before he returned we knew the worst. +My brother was beyond the aid of the physician: his wrecked life had +reached a sudden term! + + * * * * * + +I have now, dear Edward, completed the brief narrative of some of the +facts attending the latter years of your father's life. The motive which +has induced me to commit them to writing has been a double one. I am +anxious to give effect as far as may be to the desire expressed most +strongly to Mr. Gaskell by your father, that you should be put in +possession of these facts on your coming of age. And for my own part I +think it better that you should thus hear the plain truth from me, lest +you should be at the mercy of haphazard reports, which might at any time +reach you from ignorant or interested sources. Some of the circumstances +were so remarkable that it is scarcely possible to suppose that they +were not known, and most probably frequently discussed, in so large an +establishment as that of Worth Maltravers. I even have reason to believe +that exaggerated and absurd stories were current at the time of Sir +John's death, and I should be grieved to think that such foolish tales +might by any chance reach your ear without your having any sure means of +discovering where the truth lay. God knows how grievous it has been to +me to set down on paper some of the facts that I have here narrated. You +as a dutiful son will reverence the name even of a father whom you never +knew; but you must remember that his sister did more; she loved him with +a single-hearted devotion, and it still grieves her to the quick to +write anything which may seem to detract from his memory. Only, above +all things, let us speak the truth. Much of what I have told you needs, +I feel, further explanation, but this I cannot give, for I do not +understand the circumstances. Mr. Gaskell, your guardian, will, I +believe, add to this account a few notes of his own, which may tend to +elucidate some points, as he is in possession of certain facts of which +I am still ignorant. + + + + +MR. GASKELL'S NOTE + + +I have read what Miss Maltravers has written, and have but little to add +to it. I can give no explanation that will tally with all the facts or +meet all the difficulties involved in her narrative. The most obvious +solution of some points would be, of course, to suppose that Sir John +Maltravers was insane. But to anyone who knew him as intimately as I +did, such an hypothesis is untenable; nor, if admitted, would it explain +some of the strangest incidents. Moreover, it was strongly negatived by +Dr. Frobisher, from whose verdict in such matters there was at the time +no appeal, by Dr. Dobie, and by Dr. Bruton, who had known Sir John from +his infancy. It is possible that towards the close of his life he +suffered occasionally from hallucination, though I could not positively +affirm even so much; but this was only when his health had been +completely undermined by causes which are very difficult to analyse. + +When I first knew him at Oxford he was a strong man physically as +well as mentally; open-hearted, and of a merry and genial temperament. +At the same time he was, like most cultured persons--and especially +musicians,--highly strung and excitable. But at a certain point in his +career his very nature seemed to change; he became reserved, secretive, +and saturnine. On this moral metamorphosis followed an equally startling +physical change. His robust health began to fail him, and although there +was no definite malady which doctors could combat, he went gradually +from bad to worse until the end came. + +The commencement of this extraordinary change coincided, I believe, +almost exactly with his discovery of the Stradivarius violin; and +whether this was, after all, a mere coincidence or something more it is +not easy to say. Until a very short time before his death neither Miss +Maltravers nor I had any idea how that instrument had come into his +possession, or I think something might perhaps have been done to save +him. + +Though towards the end of his life he spoke freely to his sister of the +finding of the violin, he only told her half the story, for he concealed +from her entirely that there was anything else in the hidden cupboard at +Oxford. But as a matter of fact, he had found there also two manuscript +books containing an elaborate diary of some years of a man's life. That +man was Adrian Temple, and I believe that in the perusal of this diary +must be sought the origin of John Maltravers's ruin. The manuscript was +beautifully written in a clear but cramped eighteenth century hand, +and gave the idea of a man writing with deliberation, and wishing to +transcribe his impressions with accuracy for further reference. The +style was excellent, and the minute details given were often of high +antiquarian interest; but the record throughout was marred by gross +licence. Adrian Temple's life had undoubtedly so definite an influence +on Sir John's that a brief outline of it, as gathered from his diaries, +is necessary for the understanding of what followed. + +Temple went up to Oxford in 1737. He was seventeen years old, without +parents, brothers, or sisters; and he possessed the Royston estates +in Derbyshire, which were then, as now, a most valuable property. +With the year 1738 his diaries begin, and though then little more than +a boy, he had tasted every illicit pleasure that Oxford had to offer. +His temptations were no doubt great; for besides being wealthy he was +handsome, and had probably never known any proper control, as both his +parents had died when he was still very young. But in spite of other +failings, he was a brilliant scholar, and on taking his degree, was +made at once a fellow of St. John's. He took up his abode in that +College in a fine set of rooms looking on to the gardens, and from this +period seems to have used Royston but little, living always either at +Oxford or on the Continent. He formed at this time the acquaintance of +one Jocelyn, whom he engaged as companion and amanuensis. Jocelyn was a +man of talent, but of irregular life, and was no doubt an accomplice in +many of Temple's excesses. In 1743 they both undertook the so-called +"grand tour," and though it was not his first visit, it was then +probably that Temple first felt the fascination of pagan Italy,--a +fascination which increased with every year of his after-life. + +On his return from foreign travel he found himself among the stirring +events of 1745. He was an ardent supporter of the Pretender, and made no +attempt to conceal his views. Jacobite tendencies were indeed generally +prevalent in the College at the time, and had this been the sum of his +offending, it is probable that little notice would have been taken by +the College authorities. But his notoriously wild life told against the +young man, and certain dark suspicions were not easily passed over. +After the _fiasco_ of the Rebellion Dr. Holmes, then President of the +College, seems to have made a scapegoat of Temple. He was deprived of +his fellowship, and though not formally expelled, such pressure was put +upon him as resulted in his leaving St. John's and removing to Magdalen +Hall. There his great wealth evidently secured him consideration, and he +was given the best rooms in the Hall, that very set looking on to New +College Lane which Sir John Maltravers afterwards occupied. + +In the first half of the eighteenth century the romance of the middle +ages, though dying, was not dead, and the occult sciences still found +followers among the Oxford towers. From his early years Temple's mind +seems to have been set strongly towards mysticism of all kinds, and he +and Jocelyn were versed in the jargon of the alchemist and astrologer, +and practised according to the ancient rules. It was his reputation as +a necromancer, and the stories current of illicit rites performed in +the garden-rooms at St. John's, that contributed largely to his being +dismissed from that College. He had also become acquainted with Francis +Dashwood, the notorious Lord le Despencer, and many a winter's night +saw him riding through the misty Thames meadows to the door of the sham +Franciscan abbey. In his diaries were more notices than one of the +"Franciscans" and the nameless orgies of Medmenham. + +He was devoted to music. It was a rare enough accomplishment then, and a +rarer thing still to find a wealthy landowner performing on the violin. +Yet so he did, though he kept his passion very much to himself, as +fiddling was thought lightly of in those days. His musical skill +was altogether exceptional, and he was the first possessor of the +Stradivarius violin which afterwards fell so unfortunately into Sir +John's hands. This violin Temple bought in the autumn of 1738, on the +occasion of a first visit to Italy. In that year died the nonagenarian +Antonius Stradivarius, the greatest violin-maker the world has ever +seen. After Stradivarius's death the stock of fiddles in his shop was +sold by auction. Temple happened to be travelling in Cremona at the time +with a tutor, and at the auction he bought that very instrument which we +afterwards had cause to know so well. A note in his diary gave its cost +at four louis, and said that a curious history attached to it. Though +it was of his golden period, and probably the finest instrument he ever +made, Stradivarius would never sell it, and it had hung for more than +thirty years in his shop. It was said that from some whim as he lay +dying he had given orders that it should be burnt; but if that were so, +the instructions were neglected, and after his death it came under the +hammer. Adrian Temple from the first recognised the great value of the +instrument. His notes show that he only used it on certain special +occasions, and it was no doubt for its better protection that he devised +the hidden cupboard where Sir John eventually found it. + +The later years of Temple's life were spent for the most part in Italy. +On the Scoglio di Venere, near Naples, he built the Villa de Angelis, +and there henceforth passed all except the hottest months of the year. +Shortly after the completion of the villa Jocelyn left him suddenly, and +became a Carthusian monk. A caustic note in his diary hinted that even +this foul parasite was shocked into the austerest form of religion by +something he had seen going forward. At Naples Temple's dark life became +still darker. He dallied, it is true, with Neo-Platonism, and boasts +that he, like Plotinus, had twice passed the circle of the _nous_ and +enjoyed the fruition of the deity; but the ideals of even that easy +doctrine grew in his evil life still more miserably debased. More than +once in the manuscript he made mention by name of the _Gagliarda_ +of Graziani as having been played at pagan mysteries which these +enthusiasts revived at Naples, and the air had evidently impressed +itself deeply on his memory. The last entry in his diary is made on +the 16th of December, 1752. He was then in Oxford for a few days, but +shortly afterwards returned to Naples. The accident of his having just +completed a second volume, induced him, no doubt, to leave it behind him +in the secret cupboard. It is probable that he commenced a third, but if +so it was never found. + +In reading the manuscript I was struck with the author's clear and easy +style, and found the interest of the narrative increase rather than +diminish. At the same time its study was inexpressibly painful to me. +Nothing could have supported me in my determination to thoroughly +master it but the conviction that if I was to be of any real assistance +to my poor friend Maltravers, I must know as far as possible every +circumstance connected with his malady. As it was, I felt myself +breathing an atmosphere of moral contagion during the perusal of the +manuscript, and certain passages have since returned at times to haunt +me in spite of all efforts to dislodge them from my memory. When I came +to Worth at Miss Maltravers's urgent invitation, I found my friend Sir +John terribly altered. It was not only that he was ill and physically +weak, but he had entirely lost the manner of youth, which, though +indefinable, is yet so appreciable, and draws so sharp a distinction +between the first period of life and middle age. But the most striking +feature of his illness was the extraordinary pallor of his complexion, +which made his face resemble a subtle counterfeit of white wax rather +than that of a living man. He welcomed me undemonstratively, but with +evident sincerity; and there was an entire absence of the constraint +which often accompanies the meeting again of friends whose cordial +relations have suffered interruption. From the time of my arrival at +Worth until his death we were constantly together; indeed I was much +struck by the almost childish dislike which he showed to be left alone +even for a few moments. As night approached this feeling became +intensified. Parnham slept always in his master's room; but if anything +called the servant away even for a minute, he would send for Carotenuto +or myself to be with him until his return. His nerves were weak; he +started violently at any unexpected noise, and above all, he dreaded +being in the dark. When night fell he had additional lamps brought into +his room, and even when he composed himself to sleep, insisted on a +strong light being kept by his bedside. + +I had often read in books of people wearing a "hunted" expression, and +had laughed at the phrase as conventional and unmeaning. But when I +came to Worth I knew its truth; for if any face ever wore a hunted--I +had almost written a haunted--look, it was the white face of Sir John +Maltravers. His air seemed that of a man who was constantly expecting +the arrival of some evil tidings, and at times reminded me painfully of +the guilty expectation of a felon who knows that a warrant is issued for +his arrest. + +During my visit he spoke to me frequently about his past life, and +instead of showing any reluctance to discuss the subject, seemed glad of +the opportunity of disburdening his mind. I gathered from him that the +reading of Adrian Temple's memoirs had made a deep impression on his +mind, which was no doubt intensified by the vision which he thought he +saw in his rooms at Oxford, and by the discovery of the portrait at +Royston. Of those singular phenomena I have no explanation to offer. + +The romantic element in his disposition rendered him peculiarly +susceptible to the fascination of that mysticism which breathed through +Temple's narrative. He told me that almost from the first time he read +it he was filled with a longing to visit the places and to revive the +strange life of which it spoke. This inclination he kept at first in +check, but by degrees it gathered strength enough to master him. + +There is no doubt in my mind that the music of the _Gagliarda_ of +Graziani helped materially in this process of mental degradation. It is +curious that Michael Praetorius in the "Syntagma musicum" should speak of +the Galliard generally as an "invention of the devil, full of shameful +and licentious gestures and immodest movements," and the singular melody +of the _Gagliarda_ in the "Areopagita" suite certainly exercised from +the first a strange influence over me. I shall not do more than touch +on the question here, because I see Miss Maltravers has spoken of it +at length, and will only say, that though since the day of Sir John's +death I have never heard a note of it, the air is still fresh in my +mind, and has at times presented itself to me unexpectedly, and always +with an unwholesome effect. This I have found happen generally in times +of physical depression, and the same air no doubt exerted a similar +influence on Sir John, which his impressionable nature rendered from the +first more deleterious to him. + +I say this advisedly, because I am sure that if some music is good for +man and elevates him, other melodies are equally bad and enervating. An +experience far wider than any we yet possess is necessary to enable us +to say how far this influence is capable of extension. How far, that +is, the mind may be directed on the one hand to ascetic abnegation by +the systematic use of certain music, or on the other to illicit and +dangerous pleasures by melodies of an opposite tendency. But this much +is, I think, certain, that after a comparatively advanced standard of +culture has once been attained, music is the readiest if not the only +key which admits to the yet narrower circle of the highest imaginative +thought. + +On the occasion for travel afforded him by his honeymoon, an impulse +which he could not at the time explain, but which after-events have +convinced me was the haunting suggestion of the _Gagliarda_, drove him +to visit the scenes mentioned so often in Temple's diary. He had always +been an excellent scholar, and a classic of more than ordinary ability. +Rome and Southern Italy filled him with a strange delight. His education +enabled him to appreciate to the full what he saw; he peopled the stage +with the figures of the original actors, and tried to assimilate his +thought to theirs. He began reading classical literature widely, no +longer from the scholarly but the literary standpoint. In Rome he +spent much time in the librarians' shops, and there met with copies +of the numerous authors of the later empire and of those Alexandrine +philosophers which are rarely seen in England. In these he found a new +delight and fresh food for his mysticism. + +Such study, if carried to any extent, is probably dangerous to the +English character, and certainly was to a man of Maltravers's romantic +sympathies. This reading produced in time so real an effect upon his +mind that if he did not definitely abandon Christianity, as I fear he +did, he at least adulterated it with other doctrines till it became to +him Neo-Platonism. That most seductive of philosophies, which has +enthralled so many minds from Proclus and Julian to Augustine and the +Renaissancists, found an easy convert in John Maltravers. Its passionate +longing for the vague and undefined good, its tolerance of aesthetic +impressions, the pleasant superstitions of its dynamic pantheism, all +touched responsive chords in his nature. His mind, he told me, became +filled with a measureless yearning for the old culture of pagan +philosophy, and as the past became clearer and more real, so the present +grew dimmer, and his thoughts were gradually weaned entirely from all +the natural objects of affection and interest which should otherwise +have occupied them. To what a terrible extent this process went on, Miss +Maltravers's narrative shows. Soon after reaching Naples he visited the +Villa de Angelis, which Temple had built on the ruins of a sea-house of +Pomponius. The later building had in its turn become dismantled and +ruinous, and Sir John found no difficulty in buying the site outright. +He afterwards rebuilt it on an elaborate scale, endeavouring to +reproduce in its equipment the luxury of the later empire. I had +occasion to visit the house more than once in my capacity of executor, +and found it full of priceless works of art, which, though neither so +difficult to procure at that time nor so costly as they would be now, +were yet sufficiently valuable to have necessitated an unjustifiable +outlay. + +The situation of the building fostered his infatuation for the past. It +lay between the Bay of Naples and the Bay of Baia, and from its windows +commanded the same exquisite view which had charmed Cicero and Lucullus, +Severus and the Antonines. Hard by stood Baia, the princely seaside +resort of the empire. That most luxurious and wanton of all cities of +antiquity survived the cataclysms of ages, and only lost its civic +continuity and became the ruined village of to-day in the sack of the +fifteenth century. But a continuity of wickedness is not so easily +broken, and those who know the spot best say that it is still instinct +with memories of a shameful past. + +For miles along that haunted coast the foot cannot be put down except on +the ruins of some splendid villa, and over all there broods a spirit of +corruption and debasement actually sensible and oppressive. Of the dawns +and sunsets, of the noonday sun tempered by the sea-breeze and the shade +of scented groves, those who have been there know the charm, and to +those who have not no words can describe it. But there are malefic +vapours rising from the corpse of a past not altogether buried, and most +cultivated Englishmen who tarry there long feel their influence as did +John Maltravers. Like so many _decepti deceptores_ of the Neo-Platonic +school, he did not practise the abnegation enjoined by the very cult he +professed to follow. Though his nature was far too refined, I believe, +ever to sink into the sensualism revealed in Temple's diaries, yet it +was through the gratification of corporeal tastes that he endeavoured +to achieve the divine _extasis_; and there were constantly lavish and +sumptuous entertainments at the villa, at which strange guests were +present. + +In such a nightmare of a life it was not to be expected that any mind +would find repose, and Maltravers certainly found none. All those cares +which usually occupy men's minds, all thoughts of wife, child, and home +were, it is true, abandoned; but a wild unrest had hold of him, and +never suffered him to be at ease. Though he never told me as much, yet +I believe he was under the impression that the form which he had seen +at Oxford and Royston had reappeared to him on more than one subsequent +occasion. It must have been, I fancy, with a vague hope of "laying" this +spectre that he now set himself with eagerness to discover where or +how Temple had died. He remembered that Royston tradition said he had +succumbed at Naples in the plague of 1752, but an idea seized him that +this was not the case; indeed I half suspect his fancy unconsciously +pictured that evil man as still alive. The methods by which he +eventually discovered the skeleton, or learnt the episodes which +preceded Temple's death, I do not know. He promised to tell me some +day at length, but a sudden death prevented his ever doing so. The +facts as he narrated them, and as I have little doubt they actually +occurred, were these: Adrian Temple, after Jocelyn's departure, had +made a confidant of one Palamede Domacavalli, a scion of a splendid +Parthenopean family of that name. Palamede had a palace in the heart of +Naples, and was Temple's equal in age and also in his great wealth. The +two men became boon companions, associated in all kinds of wickedness +and excess. At length Palamede married a beautiful girl named Olimpia +Aldobrandini, who was also of the noblest lineage; but the intimacy +between him and Temple was not interrupted. About a year subsequent to +this marriage dancing was going on after a splendid banquet in the great +hall of the Palazzo Domacavalli. Adrian, who was a favoured guest, +called to the musicians in the gallery to play the "Areopagita" suite, +and danced it with Olimpia, the wife of his host. The _Gagliarda_ was +reached but never finished, for near the end of the second movement +Palamede from behind drove a stiletto into his friend's heart. He had +found out that day that Adrian had not spared even Olimpia's honour. + +I have endeavoured to condense into a connected story the facts learnt +piecemeal from Sir John in conversation. To a certain extent they +supplied, if not an explanation, at least an account of the change +that had come over my friend. But only to a certain extent; there the +explanation broke down and I was left baffled. I could imagine that a +life of unwholesome surroundings and disordered studies might in time +produce such a loss of mental tone as would lead in turn to moral +_acolasia_, sensual excess, and physical ruin. But in Sir John's case +the cause was not adequate; he had, so far as I know, never wholly given +the reins to sensuality, and the change was too abrupt and the breakdown +of body and mind too complete to be accounted for by such events as +those of which he had spoken. + +I had, too, an uneasy feeling, which grew upon me the more I saw of him, +that while he spoke freely enough on certain topics, and obviously meant +to give a complete history of his past life, there was in reality +something in the background which he always kept from my view. He was, +it seemed, like a young man asked by an indulgent father to disclose +his debts in order that they may be discharged, who, although he knows +his parent's leniency, and that any debt not now disclosed will be +afterwards but a weight upon his own neck, yet hesitates for very shame +to tell the full amount, and keeps some items back. So poor Sir John +kept something back from me his friend, whose only aim was to afford him +consolation and relief, and whose compassion would have made me listen +without rebuke to the narration of the blackest crimes. I cannot say how +much this conviction grieved me. I would most willingly have given my +all, my very life, to save my friend and Miss Maltravers's brother; but +my efforts were paralysed by the feeling that I did not know what I had +to combat, that some evil influence was at work on him which continually +evaded my grasp. Once or twice it seemed as though he were within an +ace of telling me all; once or twice, I believe, he had definitely made +up his mind to do so; but then the mood changed, or more probably his +courage failed him. + +It was on one of these occasions that he asked me, somewhat suddenly, +whether I thought that a man could by any conscious act committed in the +flesh take away from himself all possibility of repentance and ultimate +salvation. Though, I trust, a sincere Christian, I am nothing of a +theologian, and the question touching on a topic which had not occurred +to my mind since childhood, and which seemed to savour rather of +medieval romance than of practical religion, took me for a moment aback. +I hesitated for an instant, and then replied that the means of salvation +offered man were undoubtedly so sufficient as to remove from one truly +penitent the guilt of any crime however dark. My hesitation had been but +momentary; but Sir John seemed to have noticed it, and sealed his lips +to any confession, if he had indeed intended to make any, by changing +the subject abruptly. This question naturally gave me food for serious +reflection and anxiety. It was the first occasion on which he appeared +to me to be undoubtedly suffering from definite hallucination, and I was +aware that any illusions connected with religion are generally most +difficult to remove. At the same time, anything of this sort was the +more remarkable in Sir John's case, as he had, so far as I knew, for a +considerable time entirely abandoned the Christian belief. + +Unable to elicit any further information from him, and being thus thrown +entirely upon my own resources, I determined that I would read through +again the whole of Temple's diaries. The task was a very distasteful +one, as I have already explained, but I hoped that a second reading +might perhaps throw some light on the dark misgiving that was troubling +Sir John. I read the manuscript again with the closest attention. +Nothing, however, of any importance seemed to have escaped me on the +former occasions, and I had reached nearly the end of the second volume +when a comparatively slight matter arrested my attention. I have said +that the pages were all carefully numbered, and the events of each day +recorded separately; even where Temple had found nothing of moment to +notice on a given day, he had still inserted the date with the word +_nil_ written against it. But as I sat one evening in the library at +Worth after Sir John had gone to bed, and was finally glancing through +the days of the months in Temple's diary to make sure that all were +complete, I found one day was missing. It was towards the end of the +second volume, and the day was the 23d of October in the year 1752. A +glance at the numbering of the pages revealed the fact that three leaves +had been entirely removed, and that the pages numbered 349 to 354 were +not to be found. Again I ran through the diaries to see whether there +were any leaves removed in other places, but found no other single page +missing. All was complete except at this one place, the manuscript +beautifully written, with scarcely an error or erasure throughout. A +closer examination showed that these leaves had been cut out close to +the back, and the cut edges of the paper appeared too fresh to admit of +this being done a century ago. A very short reflection convinced me, in +fact, that the excision was not likely to have been Temple's, and that +it must have been made by Sir John. + +My first intention was to ask him at once what the lost pages had +contained, and why they had been cut out. The matter might be a mere +triviality which he could explain in a moment. But on softly opening his +bedroom door I found him sleeping, and Parnham (whom the strong light +always burnt in the room rendered more wakeful) informed me that his +master had been in a deep sleep for more than an hour. I knew how +sorely his wasted energies needed such repose, and stepped back to the +library without awaking him. A few minutes before, I had been feeling +sleepy at the conclusion of my task, but now all wish for sleep was +suddenly banished and a painful wakefulness took its place. I was under +a species of mental excitement which reminded me of my feelings some +years before at Oxford on the first occasion of our ever playing the +_Gagliarda_ together, and an idea struck me with the force of intuition +that in these three lost leaves lay the secret of my friend's ruin. + +I turned to the context to see whether there was anything in the entries +preceding or following the lacuna that would afford a clue to the +missing passage. The record of the few days immediately preceding the +23d of October was short and contained nothing of any moment whatever. +Adrian and Jocelyn were alone together at the Villa de Angelis. The +entry on the 22d was very unimportant and apparently quite complete, +ending at the bottom of page 348. Of the 23d there was, as I have said, +no record at all, and the entry for the 24th began at the top of page +355. This last memorandum was also brief, and written when the author +was annoyed by Jocelyn leaving him. + +The defection of his companion had been apparently entirely unexpected. +There was at least no previous hint of any such intention. Temple wrote +that Jocelyn had left the Villa de Angelis that day and taken up his +abode with the Carthusians of San Martino. No reason for such an +extraordinary change was given; but there was a hint that Jocelyn had +professed himself shocked at something that had happened. The entry +concluded with a few bitter remarks: _"So farewell to my holy anchoret; +and if I cannot speed him with a leprosie as one Elisha did his servant, +yet at least he went out from my presence with a face as white as +snow."_ + +I had read this sentence more than once before without its attracting +other than a passing attention. The curious expression, that Jocelyn had +gone out from his presence with a face as white as snow, had hitherto +seemed to me to mean nothing more than that the two men had parted in +violent anger, and that Temple had abused or bullied his companion. But +as I sat alone that night in the library the words seemed to assume an +entirely new force, and a strange suspicion began to creep over me. + +I have said that one of the most remarkable features of Sir John's +illness was his deadly pallor. Though I had now spent some time at +Worth, and had been daily struck by this lack of colour, I had never +before remembered in this connection that a strange paleness had also +been an attribute of Adrian Temple, and was indeed very clearly marked +in the picture painted of him by Battoni. In Sir John's account, +moreover, of the vision which he thought he had seen in his rooms at +Oxford, he had always spoken of the white and waxen face of his spectral +visitant. The family tradition of Royston said that Temple had lost his +colour in some deadly magical experiment, and a conviction now flashed +upon me that Jocelyn's face "as white as snow" could refer only to this +same unnatural pallor, and that he too had been smitten with it as with +the mark of the beast. + +In a drawer of my despatch-box, I kept by me all the letters which the +late Lady Maltravers had written home during her ill-fated honeymoon. +Miss Maltravers had placed them in my hands in order that I might be +acquainted with every fact that could at all elucidate the progress of +Sir John's malady. I remembered that in one of these letters mention was +made of a sharp attack of fever in Naples, and of her noticing in him +for the first time this singular pallor. I found the letter again +without difficulty and read it with a new light. Every line breathed of +surprise and alarm. Lady Maltravers feared that her husband was very +seriously ill. On the Wednesday, two days before she wrote, he had +suffered all day from a strange restlessness, which had increased after +they had retired in the evening. He could not sleep and had dressed +again, saying he would walk a little in the night air to compose +himself. He had not returned till near six in the morning, and then +seemed so exhausted that he had since been confined to his bed. He was +terribly pale, and the doctors feared he had been attacked by some +strange fever. + +The date of the letter was the 25th of October, fixing the night of the +23d as the time of Sir John's first attack. The coincidence of the date +with that of the day missing in Temple's diary was significant, but it +was not needed now to convince me that Sir John's ruin was due to +something that occurred on that fatal night at Naples. + +The question that Dr. Frobisher had asked Miss Maltravers when he was +first called to see her brother in London returned to my memory with an +overwhelming force. "Had Sir John been subjected to any mental shock; +had he received any severe fright?" I knew now that the question should +have been answered in the affirmative, for I felt as certain as if +Sir John had told me himself that he _had_ received a violent shock, +probably some terrible fright, on the night of the 23d of October. What +the nature of that shock could have been my imagination was powerless to +conceive, only I knew that whatever Sir John had done or seen, Adrian +Temple and Jocelyn had done or seen also a century before and at the +same place. That horror which had blanched the face of all three men +for life had fallen perhaps with a less overwhelming force on Temple's +seasoned wickedness, but had driven the worthless Jocelyn to the +cloister, and was driving Sir John to the grave. + +These thoughts as they passed through my mind filled me with a vague +alarm. The lateness of the hour, the stillness and the subdued light, +made the library in which I sat seem so vast and lonely that I began to +feel the same dread of being alone that I had observed so often in my +friend. Though only a door separated me from his bedroom, and I could +hear his deep and regular breathing, I felt as though I must go in +and waken him or Parnham to keep me company and save me from my own +reflections. By a strong effort I restrained myself, and sat down to +think the matter over and endeavour to frame some hypothesis that might +explain the mystery. But it was all to no purpose. I merely wearied +myself without being able to arrive at even a plausible conjecture, +except that it seemed as though the strange coincidence of date might +point to some ghastly charm or incantation which could only be carried +out on one certain night of the year. + +It must have been near morning when, quite exhausted, I fell into an +uneasy slumber in the arm-chair where I sat. My sleep, however brief, +was peopled with a succession of fantastic visions, in which I +continually saw Sir John, not ill and wasted as now, but vigorous and +handsome as I had known him at Oxford, standing beside a glowing brazier +and reciting words I could not understand, while another man with a +sneering white face sat in a corner playing the air of the _Gagliarda_ +on a violin. Parnham woke me in my chair at seven o'clock; his master, +he said, was still sleeping easily. + +I had made up my mind that as soon as he awoke I would inquire of Sir +John as to the pages missing from the diary; but though my expectation +and excitement were at a high pitch, I was forced to restrain my +curiosity, for Sir John's slumber continued late into the day. Dr. +Bruton called in the morning, and said that this sleep was what the +patient's condition most required, and was a distinctly favourable +symptom; he was on no account to be disturbed. Sir John did not leave +his bed, but continued dozing all day till the evening. When at last he +shook off his drowsiness, the hour was already so late that, in spite of +my anxiety, I hesitated to talk with him about the diaries, lest I +should unduly excite him before the night. + +As the evening advanced he became very uneasy, and rose more than once +from his bed. This restlessness, following on the repose of the day, +ought perhaps to have made me anxious, for I have since observed that +when death is very near an apprehensive unrest often sets in both with +men and animals. It seems as if they dreaded to resign themselves to +sleep, lest as they slumber the last enemy should seize them unawares. +They try to fling off the bedclothes, they sometimes must leave their +beds and walk. So it was with poor John Maltravers on his last Christmas +Eve. I had sat with him grieving for his disquiet until he seemed to +grow more tranquil, and at length fell asleep. I was sleeping that night +in his room instead of Parnham, and tired with sitting up through the +previous night, I flung myself, dressed as I was, upon the bed. I had +scarcely dozed off, I think, before the sound of his violin awoke me. +I found he had risen from his bed, had taken his favourite instrument, +and was playing in his sleep. The air was the _Gagliarda_ of the +"Areopagita" suite, which I had not heard since we had played it last +together at Oxford, and it brought back with it a crowd of far-off +memories and infinite regrets. I cursed the sleepiness which had +overcome me at my watchman's post, and allowed Sir John to play once +more that melody which had always been fraught with such evil for him; +and I was about to wake him gently when he was startled from sleep by a +strange accident. As I walked towards him the violin seemed entirely to +collapse in his hands, and, as a matter of fact, the belly then gave way +and broke under the strain of the strings. As the strings slackened, the +last note became an unearthly discord. If I were superstitious I should +say that some evil spirit then went out of the violin, and broke in his +parting throes the wooden tabernacle which had so long sheltered him. It +was the last time the instrument was ever used, and that hideous chord +was the last that Maltravers ever played. + +I had feared that the shock of waking thus suddenly from sleep would +have a very prejudicial effect upon the sleep-walker, but this seemed +not to be the case. I persuaded him to go back at once to bed, and in a +few minutes he fell asleep again. In the morning he seemed for the first +time distinctly better; there was indeed something of his old self in +his manner. It seemed as though the breaking of the violin had been an +actual relief to him; and I believe that on that Christmas morning his +better instincts woke, and that his old religious training and the +associations of his boyhood then made their last appeal. I was pleased +at such a change, however temporary it might prove. He wished to go to +church, and I determined that again I would subdue my curiosity and +defer the questions I was burning to put till after our return from +the morning service. Miss Maltravers had gone indoors to make some +preparation, Sir John was in his wheel-chair on the terrace, and I was +sitting by him in the sun. For a few moments he appeared immersed in +silent thought, and then bent over towards me till his head was close +to mine, and said, "Dear William, there is something I must tell you. +I feel I cannot even go to church till I have told you all." His manner +shocked me beyond expression. I knew that he was going to tell me the +secret of the lost pages, but instead of wishing any longer to have my +curiosity satisfied, I felt a horrible dread of what he might say next. +He took my hand in his and held it tightly, as a man who was about to +undergo severe physical pain and sought the consolation of a friend's +support. Then he went on--"You will be shocked at what I am going to +tell you; but listen, and do not give me up: You must stand by me and +comfort me and help me to turn again." He paused for a moment and +continued--"It was one night in October, when Constance and I were at +Naples. I took that violin and went by myself to the ruined villa on +the Scoglio di Venere." He had been speaking with difficulty. His hand +clutched mine convulsively, but still I felt it trembling, and I could +see the moisture standing thick on his forehead. At this point the +effort seemed too much for him and he broke off. "I cannot go on, I +cannot tell you, but you can read it for yourself. In that diary which +I gave you there are some pages missing." The suspense was becoming +intolerable to me, and I broke in, "Yes, yes, I know; you cut them out. +Tell me where they are," He went on--"Yes, I cut them out lest they +should possibly fall into anyone's hands unaware. But before you read +them you must swear, as you hope for salvation, that you will never try +to do what is written in them. Swear this to me now, or I never can +let you see them." My eagerness was too great to stop now to discuss +trifles, and to humour him I swore as desired. He had been speaking with +a continual increasing effort; he cast a hurried and fearful glance +round as though he expected to see someone listening, and it was almost +in a whisper that he went on, "You will find them in--" His agitation +had become most painful to watch, and as he spoke the last words a +convulsion passed over his face, and speech failing him, he sank back on +his pillow. A strange fear took hold of me. For a moment I thought there +were others on the terrace beside myself, and turned round expecting to +see Miss Maltravers returned; but we were still alone. I even fancied +that just as Sir John spoke his last words I felt something brush +swiftly by me. He put up his hands, beating the air with a most painful +gesture, as though he were trying to keep off an antagonist who had +gripped him by the throat, and made a final struggle to speak. But the +spasm was too strong for him; a dreadful stillness followed, and he was +gone. + +There is little more to add; for Sir John's guilty secret, perished with +him. Though I was sure from his manner that the missing leaves were +concealed somewhere at Worth, and though as executor I caused the most +diligent search to be made, no trace of them was afterwards found; nor +did any circumstance ever transpire to fling further light upon the +matter. I must confess that I should have felt the discovery of these +pages as a relief; for though I dreaded what I might have had to read, +yet I was more anxious lest, being found at a later period and falling +into other hands, they should cause a recrudescence of that plague which +had blighted Sir John's life. + +Of the nature of the events which took place on that night at Naples +I can form no conjecture. But as certain physical sights have ere now +proved so revolting as to unhinge the intellect, so I can imagine that +the mind may in a state of extreme tension conjure up to itself some +form of moral evil so hideous as metaphysically to sear it: and this, +I believe, happened in the case both of Adrian Temple and of Sir John +Maltravers. + +It is difficult to imagine the accessories used to produce the mental +excitation in which alone such a presentment of evil could become +imaginable. Fancy and legend, which have combined to represent as +possible appearances of the supernatural, agree also in considering them +as more likely to occur at certain times and places than at others; and +it is possible that the missing pages of the diary contained an account +of the time, place, and other conditions chosen by Temple for some +deadly experiment. Sir John most probably re-enacted the scene under +precisely similar conditions, and the effect on his overwrought +imagination was so vivid as to upset the balance of his mind. The time +chosen was no doubt the night of the 23d of October, and I cannot help +thinking that the place was one of those evil-looking and ruinous +sea-rooms which had so terrifying an effect on Miss Maltravers. Temple +may have used on that night one of the medieval incantations, or +possibly the more ancient invocation of the Isiac rite with which a +man of his knowledge and proclivities would certainly be familiar. The +accessories of either are sufficiently hideous to weaken the mind by +terror, and so prepare it for a belief in some frightful apparition. But +whatever was done, I feel sure that the music of the _Gagliarda_ formed +part of the ceremonial. + +Medieval philosophers and theologians held that evil is in its essence +so horrible that the human mind, if it could realise it, must perish at +its contemplation. Such realisation was by mercy ordinarily withheld, +but its possibility was hinted in the legend of the _Visio malefica_. +The _Visio Beatifica_ was, as is well known, that vision of the Deity +or realisation of the perfect Good which was to form the happiness of +heaven, and the reward of the sanctified in the next world. Tradition +says that this vision was accorded also to some specially elect spirits +even in this life, as to Enoch, Elijah, Stephen, and Jerome. But there +was a converse to the Beatific Vision in the _Visio malefica_, or +presentation of absolute Evil, which was to be the chief torture of the +damned, and which, like the Beatific Vision, had been made visible in +life to certain desperate men. It visited Esau, as was said, when he +found no place for repentance, and Judas, whom it drove to suicide. +Cain saw it when he murdered his brother, and legend relates that in his +case, and in that of others, it left a physical brand to be borne by +the body to the grave. It was supposed that the Malefic Vision, besides +being thus spontaneously presented to typically abandoned men, had +actually been purposely called up by some few great adepts, and used by +them to blast their enemies. But to do so was considered equivalent to a +conscious surrender to the powers of evil, as the vision once seen took +away all hope of final salvation. + +Adrian Temple would undoubtedly be cognisant of this legend, and the +lost experiment may have been an attempt to call up the Malefic Vision. +It is but a vague conjecture at the best, for the tree of the knowledge +of Evil bears many sorts of poisonous fruit, and no one can give full +account of the extravagances of a wayward fancy. + +Conjointly with Miss Sophia, Sir John appointed me his executor and +guardian of his only son. Two months later we had lit a great fire +in the library at Worth. In it, after the servants were gone to bed, +we burnt the book containing the "Areopagita" of Graziani, and the +Stradivarius fiddle. The diaries of Temple I had already destroyed, and +wish that I could as easily blot out their foul and debasing memories +from my mind. I shall probably be blamed by those who would exalt +art at the expense of everything else, for burning a unique violin. +This reproach I am content to bear. Though I am not unreasonably +superstitious, and have no sympathy for that potential pantheism to +which Sir John Maltravers surrendered his intellect, yet I felt so great +an aversion to this violin that I would neither suffer it to remain at +Worth, nor pass into other hands. Miss Sophia was entirely at one with +me on this point. It was the same feeling which restrains any except +fools or braggarts from wishing to sleep in "haunted" rooms, or to live +in houses polluted with the memory of a revolting crime. No sane mind +believes in foolish apparitions, but fancy may at times bewitch the best +of us. So the Stradivarius was burnt. It was, after all, perhaps not so +serious a matter, for, as I have said, the bass-bar had given way. There +had always been a question whether it was strong enough to resist the +strain of modern stringing. Experience showed at last that it was not. +With the failure of the bass-bar the belly collapsed, and the wood broke +across the grain in so extraordinary a manner as to put the fiddle +beyond repair, except as a curiosity. Its loss, therefore, is not to be +so much regretted. Sir Edward has been brought up to think more of a +cricket-bat than of a violin-bow; but if he wishes at any time to buy a +Stradivarius, the fortunes of Worth and Royston, nursed through two long +minorities, will certainly justify his doing so. + +Miss Sophia and I stood by and watched the holocaust. My heart misgave +me for a moment when I saw the mellow red varnish blistering off the +back, but I put my regret resolutely aside. As the bright flames jumped +up and lapped it round, they flung a red glow on the scroll. It was +wonderfully wrought, and differed, as I think Miss Maltravers has +already said, from any known example of Stradivarius. As we watched it, +the scroll took form, and we saw what we had never seen before, that it +was cut so that the deep lines in a certain light showed as the profile +of a man. It was a wizened little paganish face, with sharp-cut features +and a bald head. As I looked at it I knew at once (and a cameo has since +confirmed the fact) that it was a head of Porphyry. Thus the second +label found in the violin was explained and Sir John's view confirmed, +that Stradivarius had made the instrument for some Neo-Platonist +enthusiast who had dedicated it to his master Porphyrius. + + * * * * * + +A year after Sir John's death I went with Miss Maltravers to Worth +church to see a plain slab of slate which we had placed over her +brother's grave. We stood in bright sunlight in the Maltravers chapel, +with the monuments of that splendid family about us. Among them were the +altar-tomb of Sir Esmoun, and the effigies of more than one Crusader. +As I looked on their knightly forms, with their heads resting on their +tilting helms, their faces set firm, and their hands joined in prayer, +I could not help envying them that full and unwavering faith for which +they had fought and died. It seemed to stand out in such sharp contrast +with our latter-day sciolism and half-believed creeds, and to be flung +into higher relief by the dark shadow of John Maltravers's ruined life. +At our feet was the great brass of one Sir Roger de Maltravers. I +pointed out the end of the inscription to my companion--"CVIVS ANIMAE, +ATQVE ANIMABVS OMNIVM FIDELIVM DEFVNCTORVM, ATQVE NOSTRIS ANIMABVS QVVM +EX HAC LVCE TRANSIVERIMVS, PROPITIETVR DEVS." Though no Catholic, I +could not refuse to add a sincere Amen. Miss Sophia, who is not ignorant +of Latin, read the inscription after me. "Ex hac luce," she said, as +though speaking to herself, "out of this light; alas! alas! for some the +light is darkness." + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LOST STRADIVARIUS*** + + +******* This file should be named 14107.txt or 14107.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/1/0/14107 + + + +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. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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