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diff --git a/16361.txt b/16361.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..de71da9 --- /dev/null +++ b/16361.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8409 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Lippincott's Magazine of Popular +Literature and Science, October, 1877, Vol. XX. No. 118, by Various + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, October, 1877, Vol. XX. No. 118 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: July 27, 2005 [EBook #16361] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIPPINCOTT'S MAGAZINE *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Christine D and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +Transcriber's note: Punctuation normalized, original spelling retained. + + +[Illustration: "He stepped forward with a smile." For Percival. Page 420.] + + + +LIPPINCOTT'S MAGAZINE +OF +_POPULAR LITERATURE AND SCIENCE_. + +OCTOBER, 1877. +Vol XX--No. 118 + +Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1877, by J.B. LIPPINCOTT +& CO., in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. + + + + + + +CHESTER AND THE DEE. + +TWO PAPERS.--I. + + +[Illustration: THE DEE ABOVE BALA.] + +The history of Chester is that of a key. It was the last city that gave up +Harold's unlucky cause and surrendered to William the Conqueror, and the +last that fell in the no less unlucky cause of the Stuart king against the +Parliamentarians. In much earlier times it was held by the famous Twentieth +Legion, the _Valens Victrix_, as the key of the Roman dominion in the +north-west of Britain, and at present it has peculiarities of position, as +well as of architecture, which make it unique in England and a lodestone to +Americans. Curiously planted on the border of the newest and most bustling +manufacturing district in England, close to the coalfields of North Wales, +the mines of Lancashire, the quays of its sea-rival Liverpool and the mills +of grimy, wealthy Manchester, it still exercises, besides its artistic and +historic supremacy, a _bona fide_ ecclesiastical sway over most of these +new places. It is the first ancient city accessible to American travellers, +many of whom have given practical tokens of their affectionate remembrance +of it by largely subscribing to the fund for the restoration of the +cathedral, a work that has already cost some eighty thousand pounds. + +[Illustration: CAER-GAI.] + +The neighborhood of Chester is as suggestive of antiquity and foreigners as +the city itself. Volumes might be written about the quaint, Dutch-like +scenery of the low rich land reclaimed from the sea; the broad, sandy +estuary of the Dee, with the square-headed peninsula, the Wirrall, which +divides this quiet river from the noisy Mersey; the Hoylake, Parkgate and +Neston fisher-folk on the sandy shores, with their queer lives, monotonous +scratching-up of mussels and cockles, a never-failing trade, their terms of +praise--"the biggest scrat," for instance, "in all the island," being the +form of commendation for the woman who can with her rake at the end of a +long pole scratch up most shellfish in a given time; the low, fertile green +pastures, the creamy cheese and the eight yearly cheese-fairs. The city +itself is the most foreign-looking in all England, and the inhabitants have +the good taste to be proud of this. The river Dee--Milton's "wizard +stream"--celebrated both by English and Welsh bards, is not seen to as much +advantage under the walls of the Roman "camp" (_castra_=Chester) as +elsewhere, but its bridges serve to supply the want of fine scenery, +especially the Old Bridge, which crosses the river just at its bend, and +whose massive pointed arches took the place, when they were first built, of +a ferry by which the city was entered at the "Ship Gate," whence now you +look over "the Cop" or high bank on the right side of the stream, and view, +as from a dike in Holland, the reclaimed land stretching eight miles beyond +Chester, though the resemblance ceases at Saltney, where behind the +iron-works tower the Welsh hills--Moel-Famman conspicuous above the +rest--that bound the Vale of Clwyd. + +The Dee is more a Welsh than an English river. It rises in the bleak +mountain-region of Merionethshire, the most intensely Welsh of all +counties, above Bala Lake, which is commonly but incorrectly called its +source. Thence it flows through the Vale of Llangollen, famous in poetry, +and waters the meadows of Wynnestay, the splendid home of one of Wales's +most national representatives, Sir Watkin Williams Wynn, and only beyond +that does it become English by flowing round and into Cheshire. On a very +tiny scale the Dee follows something of the course of the Rhine: three +streamlets combine to form it; these unite at the village of Llanwchllyn, +and the river flows on, a mere mountain-torrent, past an old farmhouse, +Caer-gai, lying on a desolate moor at the head of Bala Lake, and through +the lake itself, after which its scenery alternates, like the Rhine's below +Constance, between rocky gorges and flat moist meadows dotted with hamlets, +churches and towns. Bala--otherwise Lin-Jegid and Pimblemere ("Lake of the +Five Parishes")--has some traditional connection with the great British +epic, or rather with its accessories--the _Morte d'Arthur_--of which +Tennyson has availed himself in _Enid_, mentioning that Enid's gentle +ministrations soothed the wounded Geraint + + As the south-west that blowing Bala Lake, + Fills all the sacred Dee. + +Arthur's own home, according to Spenser, was at the source of the Dee: +Vortigern's castle was near by on the head-waters of the Conway; and "under +the foot of Rauran's mossy base" was the dwelling of old Timon, where +Merlin came and gave to his care the wonderful infant who was to become the +Christian Hercules of Britain. "Rauran" is the mountain which in Welsh is +Arran-Pon-Llin, and which with its rocky shelves overlooks the yews of +Bala's churches and the unaccustomed shade trees which the little town +boasts in its principal streets. The lake, quiet and hardly visited as it +is now, has great resources which are likely to be called upon in the +future, and a survey was made ten years ago with a view of supplying +Liverpool, Manchester, Blackburn, Birkenhead, etc. with water whenever a +fresh demand for it should arise. This would imply the building of a +breakwater at the narrow outlet of the lake, the damming up of a few +mountain passes, and the "impounding" of a tributary of the Dee below the +lake--the Tryweryn, which has an extensive drainage-area; but these works +are still only projected. + +[Illustration: BALA.] + +There is scarcely an English brook that has not some historical +associations, some poetical reminiscences, some attractions beyond those of +scenery. Wherever water, forest and meadow were combined, an abbey was +generally planted. Bala Lake, with its fishing-rights, once belonged to the +Cistercian abbey of Basingwerk, while the Dee just above Llangollen was the +property of the abbey of Valle Crucis, whose beautiful ruins still stand on +its banks. Before we reach them we pass by the country of the Welsh hero, +Owen Glendower, from whom are descended many of the families of this +neighborhood and others--the Vaughans, for instance; by Glendower's prison +at Corwen, and the Parliament House at Dolgelly, where he signed a treaty +with France, and where the beautiful oak carving of the roof would alone +repay a visitor for his trouble in getting there. The Dee is for the most +part wanting in striking natural features, but here and there steep rocks +enclose its foaming waters; deep banks covered with trees break the rugged +shore-line; a village, such as Llanderfel with a tumbledown bridge, lies +nestled in the valley; and coracles shoot here and there over the stream. +These primitive boats, basketwork covered with hides, or, as used now, +canvas coated with tar, are propelled by a paddle, and are much used for +netting salmon. Near Bangor the fishermen are so skilful that they +generally win in the coracle-races got up periodically by enthusiastic +revivalists of old national sports. + +[Illustration: REMAINS OF VALLE CRUCIS ABBEY.] + +Llangollen Vale has a beauty of its own, the family likeness of which to +that of all valleys in the hearts of mountains makes it none the less +welcome. The picturesqueness of thatched houses and a dilapidation of +masonry which only age makes beautiful marks the difference between this +valley and the Alpine ones with their trim, clean toy houses, or the +Transatlantic ones with their square, solid, black log huts and huge +well-sweeps; otherwise the fresh greenery, the purple mountain-shadows, the +subdued sounds, no one knows whence, the sense of peace and solitude, are +akin to every other beautiful valley-scene of mingled wildness and +cultivation. A traveller can hardly help making comparisons, yet much +escapes him of the peculiar charm that hangs round every place, and is too +subtle to disclose itself to the eye of a mere passer. You must live at +least six months in one place before its true character unfolds: the broad +beauties you see at once, but it needs the microscope of habit to find out +the rarest charms. Therefore it is much easier to descant on the tangible, +striking beauty of Valle Crucis Abbey than on the aggregate loveliness of +Llangollen Vale; and perhaps it is this lack of familiarity that leads +novelists, poets and others to dwell so much more and with such detail on +buildings than on natural scenery. It may not be given them to understand +upon how much higher a plane of beauty stands a bed of ferns on a rocky +ledge, a clump of trees even on a flat meadow, and especially a tangled +forest-scene or a view of distant mountains in a sunset glow, or the +surface of water undotted by a sail, than the highest effect of man-made +beauty, be it even York Minster or the Parthenon. What man does has value +by reason of the meaning in it, and of course man cannot but fall short of +the perfection of his own meaning; whereas Nature is of herself perfection, +and perfection in which there is no effort. Valle Crucis is hardly a rival +of Fountains or Rivaulx. The Cistercians in the beginning of their +foundation were reformers, ascetic, and essentially agriculturists. Their +great leader, Bernard of Clairvaux, the advocate of silence and work, once +said, "Believe me, I have learnt more from trees than ever I learnt from +men." But decay came even into this community of farmer-monks, and the +praise and panegyric of the abbey, as handed down to us by a Welsh poet, +betray unconsciously things hardly to the credit of a monastic house, for +the abbot, "the pope of the glen," he tells us, gave entertainments "like +the leaves in summer," with "vocal and instrumental music," wine, ale and +curious dishes of fish and fowl, "like a carnival feast," and "a thousand +apples for dessert." + +[Illustration: OWEN GLENDOWER'S PRISON.] + +[Illustration: THE PARLIAMENT HOUSE, DOLGELLY.] + +The river-scenery changes below Llangollen, and gives us first a glimpse of +a wooded, narrow valley, then of the unsightly accessories of the great +North Wales coalfield, after which it enters upon a typically English +phase--low undulating hills and moist, rich meadows divided by luxuriant +hedges and dotted with single spreading trees. The hedgerow timber of +Cheshire is beautiful, and to a great extent makes up for the want of +tracts of wooded land. This country is not, like the Midland counties and +the great Fen district, violently or exclusively agricultural, and these +hedges and trees, which are gratefully kept up for the sake of the shade +they afford to the cattle, show a very different temper among the farmers +from that utilitarianism which marks the men of Leicester shire, Lincoln, +Nottingham, Norfolk, or Rutland. There even great land-owners are often +obliged to humor their tenants, and keep the unwelcome hedges trimmed so as +not to interpose two feet of shade between them and the wheat-crop; and as +often as possible hedges are replaced by ugly stone walls or wooden fences. +It is only in their own grounds that landlords can afford to court +picturesqueness, and in this part of the country the American who is said +to have objected to hedges because they were unfit for seats whence to +admire the landscape, might safely sit down anywhere; only, as matters are +seldom perfectly arranged, there is very little to admire but a flat +expanse of wheat, barley and grass. This part of Cheshire has hardly more +diversity in its river-scenery, but the mere presence of trees and green +arbors makes it a pleasant picture, while here and there, as at Overton +(this is Welsh, however, and belongs to Flintshire), a church-tower comes +in to complete the scene. Here the Dee winds about a good deal, and +receives its beautiful, dashing tributary, the Alyn, which runs through the +Vale of Gresford and waters the park of Trevallyn Old Hall, one of the +loveliest of old English homes. Its pointed gables and great clustering +stacks of chimneys, its mullioned and diamond-paned windows, its +finely-wooded park, all realize the stranger's ideal of the antique +manor-house. This neighborhood is studded with country-houses in all styles +of architecture, from the characteristic national to the uncomfortable and +cold foreign type. Houses that were meant to stand in ilex-groves under a +purple sky and a sun of bronze look forlorn and uninviting under the gray +sky of England and amid its trees leafless for so many months in the year: +home associations seem impossible in a porticoed house suggestive of +outdoor living and the relegation of chambers to the use of a mere refuge +from the weather. For many of these places are no more than villas +enlarged, and might be set down with advantage to themselves in the +Regent's Park in London, the very acme of the commonplace. On the other +hand, all the traditional associations that go with an English hall +presuppose a national style of architecture. Even florid Tudor, even sturdy +"Queen Anne," can stand juxtaposition with groups of horses, dogs and +huntsmen; Christmas cheer and Christmas weather set them off all the +better; leafless trees are no drawback; the house looks warmer, coseyer, +more home-like, the worse the blast and rush without. A roaring fire is +natural to the huge hall fireplace, while in a mosaic-paved "ante-room" or +a frescoed "saloon" it looks foreign and out of place. Many an odd Welsh +and English house has unfortunately disappeared to make room for a cold, +unsuccessful monstrosity that reminds one of a mammoth railway-station or a +new hotel; and when Welsh names are tacked on to these absurd dwellings the +contrast is as painful as it is forcible. Such, for instance, is +Bryn-y-Pys, on the Dee--a house you might guess to belong to a Liverpool +merchant who had trusted to a common builder for a comfortable home. +Overton Cottage, on the other side, fills in with its walks and plantations +an abrupt bend of the river, and the view from the up-going road at its +back is very lovely, though the scene is purely pastoral. Overton +Churchyard is one of the "seven wonders" of North Wales: it has a very trim +and stately appearance, not that ragged, free if melancholy, +outspreadedness which distinguishes many country cemeteries, that +unpremeditated luxuriance of creepers and flowers, blossoming bushes and +grasses, that make up at least half of one's pleasant reminiscences of such +places. How much more interesting to find an old tomb or quaint "brass" +under the temple of a wild rosebush or in the firm clasp of an ivy-root +than to walk up to it and read the inscription newly scraped and cleaned by +the voluble attendant who volunteers to show you the place! The great elms +by Overton Church and the half-timbered and thatched houses crowding up to +its gates somewhat make up for the splendor of the coped wall and new +monuments in the churchyard. A scene wholly old is the Erbistock Ferry, +which one might mistake for a rope-ferry on the Mosel. The cottage looks +like the dilapidated lodge of an old monastery, and here, at least, is no +trimness. Two walls with a flight of steps in each enclose a grass terrace +between them, and trees and bushes straggle to the edge of the river, +hardly keeping clear of the swinging rope. Coracles are sometimes used for +ferrying--also punts. Bangor is a familiar name to students of church +history, and to those who are not, the startling tale of the massacre of +twelve hundred British monks by the Saxon and heathen king of Northumbria, +who conquered Chester and invaded Wales in the seventh century, is repeated +by the local guides. At present, Bangor is interesting to anglers and to +lovers of curiosities--to the former as a good salmon-ground, and to the +latter for the quaint verses, which, though trivial in themselves, borrow a +value from the date of their inscription and the "laws" to which they +refer. They are on the wall of the lower story of the bell-tower: + +[Illustration: IN THE VALE OF LLANGOLLEN.] + + If that to ring you would come here, + You must ring well with hand and ear; + But if you ring in spur or hat, + Fourpence always is due for that; + But if a bell you overthrow, + Sixpence is due before you go; + But if you either swear or curse, + Twelvepence is due; pull out your purse. + Our laws are old, they are not new; + Therefore the clerk must have his due. + If to our laws you do consent, + Then take a bell: we are content. + +[Illustration: LLANGOLLEN.] + +Farndon Bridge and Wrexham Church (the latter looks like a small cathedral +to the unpractised eye) are the last Welsh points of attraction before the +Dee becomes quite an English river. Malpas (_mauvais pas_ = "bad step"), on +the English bank, is significantly so-called from its situation as a border +town: the rector, too, might consider it not ill named, as regards the odd +partition of the church tithes, which has been in force from time +immemorial, and has given rise to an explanatory legend concerning a +travelling king whom the resident curate wisely entertained in the absence +of the rector, receiving for his guerdon a promise of an equal share in the +income, not only for himself, but for all future curates. In the upper +rectory (the lower is the curate's house) was born Bishop Heber in 1783, +and in the early years of this century, before missionary meetings were as +common as they are now, the young clergyman wrote on the spur of the +moment, with only one word corrected, the well-known hymn, "From +Greenland's Icy Mountains." A missionary sermon was announced for Sunday at +Wrexham, the vicarage of Heber's father-in-law, Shirley, and the want of a +suitable hymn was felt. He was asked on Saturday to write one, and did so, +seated at a window of the old vicarage-house. It was printed that evening, +and sung the next day in Wrexham Church. The original manuscript is in a +collection at Liverpool, and the printer who set up the type when a boy was +still living at Wrexham within the last twenty years. + +[Illustration: CHESTER, FROM THE ALDFORD ROAD.] + +The river now makes a turn, sweeping along into English ground and making +almost a natural moat round Chester, the great Roman camp whose form and +intersecting streets still bear the stamp of Roman regularity, and whose +history long bore traces of the influence of Roman inflexibility mingled +with British dash. The view of the city is fine from the Aldford road (or +Old Ford, where a Roman pavement is sometimes visible in the bed of the +stream), with the cathedral and St. John's towering over the peaks and +gables that shoot up above the walls. The mention of the ford brings to +mind a famous crossing of the river during the civil wars. It was just +before the battle of Rowton Moor, which Charles I. watched from the tower +that now bears his name; and Sir Marmaduke Langdale, one of his leal +soldiers, wishing to send the king notice of his having crossed the Dee at +Farndon Bridge and pressing on the Parliamentarians, bade Colonel Shakerley +convey the message as speedily as possible. The latter, to avoid the long +circuit by the bridge, galloped to the Dee, took a wooden tub used for +slaughtering swine, employed "a batting-staff, used for batting of coarse +linen," as an oar, put his servant in the tub, his horse swimming by him, +and once across left the tub in charge of the man while he rode to the +king, delivered his message and returned to cross over the same way. + +[Illustration: CORACLES.] + +Eaton and Wynnestay are the grandest of the Dee country-seats, though not +the most interesting as to architecture. The former, like many Italian +houses, has its park open to the public, and is an exception to the +jealously-guarded places in most parts of England, but its avenues, rather +formal though very magnificent, are approached by lodges. The Wrexham +avenue leads to a farmhouse called Belgrave, and here is the +christening-point of the new, fashionable London of society, of novelists +and of contractors. Another like avenue leads to Pulford, where there is +another lodge: a third leads from Grosvenor Bridge to the deer-park, and a +fourth to the village of Aldford. The hall is an immense pile, strikingly +like, at first glance, the Houses of Parliament, with the Victoria Tower +(this in the hall is one hundred and seventy feet high, and built above the +chapel), and the style is sixteenth-century French, florid and costly. The +plan is perhaps unique in England, and comfort has been attained, though +one would hardly believe it, such size seeming to swamp everything except +show. The description of the house, as given by a visitor there, reads like +that of a palace: "The hall is an octagonal room in the centre of the house +about seventy-five feet in length and from thirty to forty broad: on each +side, at the end farthest from the entrance, are two doors leading into +anterooms--one the ante-drawing-room, and the other the ante-dining-room; +each is lighted by three large windows, and is thirty-three feet in length: +they are fine rooms in themselves, and well-proportioned. From these lead +the drawing-room and the dining-room respectively, both exceedingly grand +rooms, ingenious in design and shape, each with two oriel windows and +lighted by three others and a large bay window: this suite completes the +east side. The south is occupied by the end of the drawing-room and a vast +library--all _en suite_. The library is lighted by four bay windows, three +flat ones and a fine alcove, and the rest of the main building to the west +is made up of billiard- and smoking-rooms, waiting-hall, groom-of-chambers' +sitting- and bed-rooms, and a carpet-room, besides the necessary +staircases. This completes the main building, and a corridor leads to the +kitchen and cook's offices: this corridor, which passes over the upper +part of the kitchen, branches off into two parts--one leading to an +excellently-planned mansion for the family and the private secretary, and +another leading to the stables, which are arranged with great skill. The +pony stable, the carriage-horse stable, the riding horses, occupy different +sides, and through these are arranged, just in the right places, the rooms +for livery and saddle grooms and coachmen. The laundry, wash-house, +gun-room and game-larder occupy another building, which, however, is easily +approached, and the whole building, though it extends seven hundred feet in +length, is a perfect model of compactness. Great facilities are given to +any one who desires to see it." The mention of a "mansion for the family" +shows how the associations of a home are lost in this wilderness of +magnificence: indeed, I remember a remark of a person whose husband had +three or four country-houses in England and Scotland and a house in London, +that "she never felt at home anywhere." + +[Illustration: CHESTER CATHEDRAL AND CITY WALL.] + +The farms in this neighborhood are mostly small, the average being seventy +acres, and some are still smaller, though when one gets down to ten, one is +tempted to call them gardens. Grazing and dairy-work are the chief +industries. Farther inland, beyond the manufacturing town of Stockport, is +a house of the Leghs, an immense building, more imposing than lovely in its +exterior, but one of the most individual and pleasant houses in its +interior as well as in its human associations. It has been altered at +various times, and bears traces, like a corrected map, of each new phase of +architecture for several hundred years. The four sides form a huge +quadrangle, entered by foreign-looking gateways, and the rooms all open +into a wide passage that runs round three sides of the building, and is a +museum in itself. Old and new are just enough blended to produce comfort, +and the stately, old-English look of the drawing-room, with its dark +panelling and tapestry, is a reproach to the pink-and-white, +plaster-of-Paris style of too many remodelled houses. Outside there is a +garden distinguished by a heavy old wall overrun with creepers, dividing +two levels and making a striking object in the landscape; and beyond that, +where the country grows bleak and begins to remind one of moors, there are +the last survivors of a unique breed of wild cattle, which, like the +mastiffs at the house, bear the name of the place. The name of another +Cheshire house, formerly belonging to the Stanleys, and now to Mr. +Gladstone, is probably familiar to American readers--Hawarden Castle. The +present house must trust entirely to associations for its interest, having +been built in 1809, before much taste was applied to restore old places, +but the old castle in the park dates from the middle of the thirteenth +century. The park is not unlike that of Arundel, but the views from the +ruin are finer and more varied. The counties of Caernarvon, Denbigh, Flint, +Cheshire and Lancashire are spread out around it, and the ruin itself is +beautiful and extensive. + +The road from Hawarden to Boughton is exceedingly grand: we come upon one +of the widest panoramas of the Dee and one of the most typical of English +country scenes. A vast sweep of country unsurpassed in richness spreads +along the river on the Cheshire side: sixty square miles of fields and +pastures are in sight, with elms, sycamores and formal rows of Lombardy +poplars. Wherever the trees cluster in a grove they usually mark the site +of a country-house or a cherished ruin, like this one of old Hawarden, +where one enormous oak tree sweeps its branches on the ground on every +side, and forms a canopy whence you can peer out, as through the delicate +tracery of a Gothic window, at the landscape beyond. The mouth of the Dee +is visible from this road, whence at low water it seems reduced to a huge +sandbank, through which the tired river trickles like a brook. The dun sky +and yellow sands and gray sea, with the island of Hilbree, a counterpart of +Lindisfarne both in its legend of a recluse and its continual alternation +twice a day between the state of an island and a peninsula, make a picture +pleasant to look back upon. Hence too come the shoals of cockles and +mussels that go to delight Londoners. Then the open-sea fishing, the lithe +boats that seem all sail, the wide waste of waters, with the point of Air +and the Great Orme's Head walling it in on the receding Welsh coasts, the +remembrance of the shipwreck a little beyond the mouth of the Dee which led +to Milton's poem of _Lycidas_ (containing the phrase "wizard stream" which +has become peculiar to the Dee),--all claim our notice, and it seems +impossible that we are so few miles from Manchester and so far from the +historic, romantic times of old. + +LADY BLANCHE MURPHY. + +[Illustration: OVERTON CHURCH.] + + + + +FOR ANOTHER. + + Sweet--sweet? My child, some sweeter word than sweet, + Some lovelier word than love, I want for you. + Who says the world is bitter, while your feet + Are left among the lilies and the dew? + + Ah? So some other has, this night, to fold + Such hands as his, and drop some precious head + From off her breast as full of baby-gold? + I, for her grief, will not be comforted. + +S.M.B. PIATT. + + + + +AMONG THE KABYLES. + +CONCLUDING PAPER. + +[Illustration: ROMAN SEPULCHRE AT TAKSEBT.] + + +Few countries twenty-five leagues long by ten wide have such an assortment +of climates as Grand Kabylia. From the Mediterranean on the north to the +Djurjura range on the south, a distance of two hours' ride by rail if there +were a railway, the ascent is equal to that from New York Bay to the summit +of Mount Washington. The palm is at home on the shore, while snow is +preserved through the summer in the hollows of the peaks. This epitome of +the zones is more condensed than that so often remarked upon on the eastern +slope of Mexico, although it does not embrace such extremes of temperature +as those presented by Vera Cruz and the uppermost third of Orizaba. The +country being more broken, the lower and higher levels are brought at many +points more closely together than on the Mexican ascent. It happens thus +that semi-tropical and semi-arctic plants come not simply into one and the +same landscape, but into actual contact. Each hill is a miniature Orizaba, +so far as it rises, and hundreds of abrupt hills collected in a space +comparatively so limited so dovetail the floras of different levels as in a +degree to cause them to coalesce and effect a certain mutual adaptation of +habits. Good neighborhood has established itself rather more completely +among the vegetable than with the human part of the inhabitants. + +What more amiable example of give-and-take than the intertwining of birch +and orange, the thin ghostly sprays of the hyperborean caressing the +fragrant leaf and golden globes of the sub-tropical? This, and other +conjunctions less eloquent of contrast, may be seen on the headland of +Zeffoun or Cape Corbelin. They stand out from a prevailing background of +the familiar forest trees of temperate Europe and America--the ash, elm, +beech, oak, fir and walnut. The orchards, above those of oranges and +lemons, are of figs and olives. The cork-oak covers considerable tracts, +but is less attended to than in Spain. A non-European aspect is imparted by +the tufts of cactus and aloes which abound in the most arid localities. + +[Illustration: THE DJURJURA RANGE.] + +Wherever intelligent farming is met with in Northern Africa it is a safe +assertion that the Kabyles are either on the spot or not far off. Like +other farmers, they are conservative and adhere to old rules or fancies, +which in some cases verge upon superstition. The practice of fertilizing +fig trees by hanging them with fruits of the wild fig is one of those which +it is difficult to class--whether with the visionary or the practical. Be +that as it may, people who know nothing about figs except to eat them have +no right to a say in the matter. Tradition and experience are in favor of +the Kabyle. He does what has been done since Aristotle, Theophrastus and +Pliny, all of whom insist on "caprification" as essential to a large crop +of figs adapted to drying. He will go or send many miles to procure the +wild fruit if it does not grow in his neighborhood, and the traffic in it +reaches a value of some thousands of dollars annually, trains of thirty, +fifty and sixty mule-loads passing from one tribe to another. As with other +valuable things, this inedible fruit is food for quarrelling. The tribe +which is rich in the _dokhar_, or wild fig, is fortunate, and especially so +if its neighbors have none or if their crop of it fails. It is then able to +"bull the market," and proceeds to do so with a promptness and vim that +would turn a Wall street operator blue with envy. But it is compelled to +take account of troubles in its path unknown at the Board. The party who is +"short" on dokhar may be "long" on matchlocks. If so, the speculation is +apt to come to an unhappy end. A sudden raid will capture the stock and at +once equalize the market. To many communities figs are at once meat and +pocket-money. To lose the harvest is not to be thought of. The aspect of +the means of preventing such a disaster is altogether a secondary +consideration. Dokhar at all hazards is the cry of men, women and children. +The comparative cessation of fig-wars is one of the blessings due to French +rule. + +[Illustration: ROAD ACROSS THE DJURJURA AT MOUNT TIROURDA.] + +What we deem the fruit of the fig is, it will be remembered, only the husk, +the apparent seeds being the true fruit and--before ripening--the blossom. +A small fly establishes itself in the interior of the wild fig, escaping in +great numbers when the fruit is ripe. This happens before the ripening of +the improved fig, and the fly is supposed to carry the wild pollen to the +flowers of the latter. A single insect, say the Kabyles, will perfect +ninety-nine figs, the hundredth becoming its tomb. Some varieties of figs +do not need caprification, but they are said to be unsuitable for drying or +shipment. + +The Italian practice of touching the eye of each fig, while yet on the +tree, with a drop of olive oil seems opposed to the African plan; since the +oil would certainly exclude the insect. And there are no better figs in the +world than those of the Southern States of the Union, which are not +treated in either way, and receive the least possible cultivation of any +kind. Those States, if it be true that the difference in the yield of a +"caprified" and non-caprified tree is that between two hundred and eighty +and twenty-five pounds, cannot do better than borrow a leaf from the Kabyle +book, should it only be a fig-leaf to aid in clothing the nakedness of bare +sands and galled hillsides. The United States Department of Agriculture +should by all means introduce the dokhar. Some of our agricultural +machinery would be an exchange in the highest degree beneficial to the +other side. + +[Illustration: THE PEAK OF TIROURDA.] + +Long before the French occupation the Kabyles had maintained a regulation +which is, we believe, peculiar in Europe to France--the _ban_, or +legally-established day for the beginning of the vintage and the harvest of +other fruits. The cultivator may repose under his own vine and fig tree, +but he shall not until the word is given by the proper authority put forth +his hand to pluck its luscious boon, though perfectly mature or past +maturity. Exceptions are made in case of invalids and distinguished guests, +and doubtless the hale schoolboy decrees an occasional dispensation in his +own favor. The birds share his defiance of the law, and both are abetted by +a third group of transgressors, the monkeys. + +Africans of this last-named race are in some localities extremely numerous, +and they do not restrict their foraging parties to succulent food. Grain +is very acceptable to them, and has the advantage of keeping better than +fruit, the art of drying which they have not yet mastered any more than the +Bushmen or the Pi-Utes. They establish granaries in the crevices of the +rocks; and these reserves of provision are sometimes of such magnitude as +to make exploring expeditions on the part of the plundered Kabyles quite +remunerative. + +[Illustration: DJEMA-SAHRIDJ.] + +These most ancient of all the devastators which have successively descended +upon Barbary are baboons of small size. They have no tails, that ancestral +organ having dwindled to a wart the size of a pea. This approach to the +form of man is aided by another point of personal resemblance--long +whiskers. That the tail should have been worn off against the rocks, or in +climbing the fences to get at orchards and melon-patches, is easily +conceivable. How the evolutionists account for the retention of the beard +does not yet appear. The females carry their young as adroitly and +carefully as do the Kabyle women, and ascend the rocks with them with much +greater activity. A young monkey has a less neglected look than a young +Kabyle. His ablutions cannot be less frequent. Tourists complain that all +Kabylia does not boast a single bath-house--a privation the more striking +to one who has to pick his way often for miles among the ruins of Roman +aqueducts, tanks and baths, the great basin in cut stone at Djema-Sahridj, +which gives name to the place, being a noted example of these works. + +[Illustration: A DISH-FACTORY.] + +As the vultures, dogs, negroes, Jews and jackals keep exact memoranda of +the market-days, so the baboons are always on hand at harvest. Ranged in +long ranks on an amphitheatre of cliffs, stroking gravely their long white +beards like so many reverend _episcopi_ or "on-lookers" confident of their +tithes, they calmly contemplate the toilers in the vale below. Swift was +not more certain of his "tithe-pig and mortuary guinea." Sunset comes +sooner below than above. The reapers are early home, and the peaks are +still purple when the marauders pour down upon the fields, and their share +of the work is done with a neatness unsurpassable by reiver, ritter or +kateran. The monkey-tax thus collected is quite a calculable percentage of +the crop, and few taxes are more regularly paid. As it goes to +non-producers, its reduction is an object constantly kept in view. The +wretched guns of the natives are, however, but a feeble instrument of +reform. The chassepot may succeed after having finished the rest of its +task, and dispose of the baboons after the settlement of the men. The +former, though not incomparably smaller than the French conscript after a +protracted war, will never be made to bear arms. He is therefore useless to +modern statesmen, and needs to be got rid of. + +While the barn is defrauded by these little vegetarians, the barnyard is +laid under tribute by a family of equally unauthorized flesh-eaters--the +panthers. If this large spotted cat, known in other parts of the world as +ounce, jaguar, leopard and chetah, has any choice of diet, it is for veal. +But his appreciation of kid is none the less lively. Lamb, in season, comes +well to him also. As there are many panthers, each of them of "unbounded +stomach," and they can find little to eat in the way of wild quadrupeds, +the destruction they must cause among domestic animals is seen to be +serious. In the Mokuea neighborhood each village has its panther-killer, an +enterprising man set apart for a profession which sometimes becomes +hereditary. One of these boasts of having killed thirty-six panthers. His +father before him had bagged seventy-five, and he hoped before pulling his +final trigger to have done as well. This expectation was a just one, as at +twenty-eight he had already nearly halved the paternal count. The method of +hunting is very simple. The sportsman fixes a bleating little victim from +the herd at the foot of a tree, and climbs with his flint gun into the +branches. Had the North African beast the arboreal habits of the South +African tree-leopard or the American jaguar, this proceeding would be less +effectual with him. But he can neither climb nor reflect like his +countryman the monkey, and is picked off like a beef. One finds it +difficult to get up sympathy for an animal so little able to take care of +himself, or to suppose that panthers could have furnished a particularly +high-spiced ingredient to the enjoyments of the Roman arena. An English +bull-dog, if less picturesque, would have been far more fruitful of +fighting. + +Products edible neither to the wild beast nor the tooth of time are the +Kabyle vases in clay. The amphorae in common use by the women for carrying +water are generally of graceful forms, comparing well in design with many +of the archaic vases of Greece and the Levant. The patterns vary somewhat +with the locality, but there is a resemblance which speaks of a common +origin and taste. Those of the Beni-Raten all come to a blunt point at the +bottom, and will not stand unsupported. The jar is made to rest upon the +girdle of the bearer, while she supports it upon her back by one or both of +the handles. Among the tribes nearer the Djurjura the jar has a broader and +hollowed bottom, fitted to rest upon the head of the woman. It must +therefore be less elongated and more rotund to admit of her reaching the +handles for the purpose of balancing it. These jars weigh, filled with +water, sixty pounds. In carrying one of them a Kabyle woman, it may easily +be supposed, is not in a condition to study lightness of step or grace of +carriage. Yet this heavy task, to which she begins to accustom herself at +the age of twelve, does not appear to injure her figure or health. Such a +result is more often due to violent and exceptional strains than to +habitual exertion even greater in extent. The muscles are not less +susceptible of education than the mind. Whatever brings out the full power +of either without suddenly overtasking is healthy and beneficial. + +It has been remarked that the most usual size of the Kabyle water-jar is as +nearly as possible identical with the amphora kept for a standard measure +in the Capitol at Rome. This coincidence may well be due rather to a +correspondence in the average strength of the carriers than to a common +system of authorized measures. In decoration the Kabyle vases approach the +Arabic more than the Roman style. But the feeling, both in form and +coloring, is decidedly more artistic than in the similar ware of Northern +Europe. + +Very ancient influences are manifest, too, in the work of the Kabyle +silversmiths. Their diadems, ear-drops, bracelets and anklets remind one +of the forms unearthed at Hissarlik and in Cyprus. In outline and chasing +the rectangular, mathematical and monumental rules at the expense of the +flowing and floriated. A certain pre-Phidian stiffness of handling seems to +hamper the workman, as though twenty-three hundred years had been lost for +him. + +[Illustration: THE BOUDOIR AND KITCHEN.] + +That there should be so much of hopeful force left in the Kabyle, artisan, +agriculturist or adventurer, is creditable to him, and suggests "an +original glory not yet lost." He obstinately refuses to accept the sheer +professional vagabondism of the Arab, confident, as it were, that the world +has in reserve better use for him than that. "Day-dawn in Africa" will +probably gild his hills sooner than the tufted swamps of Guinea or the +slimy huts of the Nile. A class of missionaries quite different from the +Livingstones and the Moffatts have devoted themselves to his improvement. +They approach him in a different way, and begin on his commercial and +industrial side, not on the spiritual. The latter does not appear to be by +any means so accessible. Unlike the Ashantees, the Kafirs and the M'pongwe, +he was a Christian once, and may become one again. But he is not going to +be evangelized on the hurrah system; and that fact his new rulers, with all +their alleged defects as reformers and colonizers, have sense enough to +recognize. The new faith must push its way in the rear of works. Peace, +good government, good roads, better implements and methods of labor will +promote the enlightenment necessary to its success. + +Bougie, the port of Eastern Kabylia, lying under Cape Carbon, has one +Catholic church, standing in the midst of new streets, squares and public +constructions indicative of prosperity wrought by the French regime. It is +still in need of easy communication with the interior, having but one +road--one more than in the time of the Turks. Wax is the chief commodity +traversing that line of traffic. That circumstance has, however, nothing to +do with the name of the town. The name was there when the French came, as +was the wax, and very little else but ruins. If the present state of +improvement has been effected with so little aid from good roads, what +would not a number of them accomplish? A railway running to the other end +of the province longitudinally through its centre would have but one ridge +to overcome, and would find a very fair business ready for it. The railway +and vandalism, in the proverbial sense of the word, could not coexist. +When the Vandals buy railway-tickets and ship fat oxen on fast stock-trains +the African world will move. Nobody ever heard of chronic war between two +adjacent railroad-stations, or of a gang of raiders dressed only in shirts +and armed with spears and matchlocks going out on the morning mail for a +day's shooting among their fellow-countrymen in the next county. + +Let us quote a sketch of the region lying a few leagues west and north-west +of Bougie: + +"Near Tarourt we found thermal springs. An open park-like country, +beautiful with trees and turf, is defaced only by charred spots where the +cork-woods have been burned by the natives to effect clearings much less in +extent than the space thus denuded. Ten acres of cork trees will be +thoughtlessly burned to make one of fig-orchard. And this evil rather +increases than lessens, prevention being difficult by reason of the want of +good roads for reaching the delinquents.... In six hours' march we reached +Toudja, at the foot of Mount Arbalon, in the most delicious oasis +imaginable. The soil, threaded by clear and cool rivulets which spring in +abundance from the rocks forming the base of the mountain, is wonderfully +fertile. We are surrounded by more than a square league of tufted verdure, +composed in great part of orange and lemon groves, mingled with some palms +and immense carob trees. The houses are well built, and even show fancy in +their designs. Vines bending with enormous clusters of grapes festoon +themselves from tree to tree, tasselling the topmost branches with fruit +and tendrils. It is not uncommon to see four or five large trees taken +possession of by a single vine, its trunk as large as the body of a man. +The grapes are mostly of a light-red color, large and sweet." + +[Illustration: REPOSE.] + +All this indicates that France did not deceive herself as to the +capabilities of Algeria, and that her conquest of it was inspired by +considerations more solid than the glory she has been accused of +recognizing as an all-sufficient motive. She has made the country much +more valuable to the commerce of the world than any other part of Barbary. +Had she done nothing more with it than hold it prostrate and put an end to +its existence as a den of pirates, she would by that alone have earned the +gratitude of the nations. She has done a great deal more. European +civilization has discovered a penetrable spot in the dense armor of +African barbarism. It has effected a lodgment in the darkest and most +hopeless of the continents. Should the movement fail, like so many before +it, to extend itself, and become localized after a period of promise, the +cause must be sought mainly in natural obstacles almost impossible to be +overcome. + +To have lifted the dead, brutal weight of Ottoman tyranny from any corner +of the broad territory it blasts is to deserve well of humanity. Still +stronger is the case when the rescued territory is fertile, beautiful, and +inhabited by a race worthy of a better fate than the bondage against which +it had never ceased to struggle. + +France has not been guiltless of acts of severity, always attendant, in a +greater or less degree, on violent political changes. It is not doubtful, +nevertheless, that by repressing the endless turbulence of the tribes and +driving out a foreign rule that knew no law but force, she has saved many +more lives than she has taken. A genius for organization was never denied +her. Organization was the first thing wanted in Algeria. + +EDWARD C. BRUCE. + + + + +"FOR PERCIVAL." + +CHAPTER I. + +THORNS AND ROSES. + + +It was a long, narrow and rather low room, with four windows looking out on +a terrace. Jasmine and roses clustered round them, and flowers lifted their +heads to the broad sills. Within, the lighted candles showed furniture that +was perhaps a little faded and dim, though it had a slender, old-fashioned +grace which more than made amends for any beauty it had lost. There was +much old china, and on the walls were a few family portraits, of which +their owner was justly proud; and in the air there lingered a faint +fragrance of dried rose-leaves, delicate yet unconquerable. Even the full +tide of midsummer sweetness which flowed through the open windows could not +altogether overcome that subtle memory of summers long gone by. + +The master of the house, with a face like a wrinkled waxen mask, sat in his +easy-chair reading the _Saturday Review_, and a lady very like him, only +with a little more color and fulness, was knitting close by. The light +shone on the old man's pale face and white hair, on the old lady's +silver-gray dress and flashing rings: the knitting-pins clicked, working up +the crimson wool, and the pages of the paper rustled with a pleasant +crispness as they were turned. By the window, where the candlelight faded +into the soft shadows, stood a young man apparently lost in thought. His +face, which was turned a little toward the garden, was a noteworthy one +with its straight forehead and clearly marked, level brows. His features +were good, and his clear olive complexion gave him something of a foreign +air. He had no beard, and his moustache was only a dark shadow on his upper +lip, so that his mouth stood revealed as one which indicated reserve, +though it was neither stern nor thin-lipped. Altogether, it was a pleasant +face. + +A light step sauntering along the terrace, a low voice softly singing +"Drink to Me only with Thine Eyes," roused him from his reverie. He did not +move, but his mouth and eyes relaxed into a smile as a white figure came +out of the dusk exactly opposite his window, and singer and song stopped +together. "Oh, Percival! I didn't know you had come out of the +dining-room." + +"Twenty minutes ago. What have you been doing?" + +"Wandering about the garden. What could I do on such a perfect night but +what I have been doing all this perfect day?" + +She stood looking up at him as she spoke. She had an arch, beautiful +face--the sort of face which would look well with patches and powder. Only +it would have been a sin to powder the hair, which, though deep brown, had +rich touches of gold, as if a happy sunbeam were imprisoned in its waves. +Her eyes were dark, her lips were softly red: everything about Sissy +Langton's face was delicate and fine. She lifted her hand to reach a spray +of jasmine just above her head, and the lace sleeve above fell back from +her pretty, slender wrist: "Give it to me. Percival! do you hear? Oh, what +a tease you are!" For he drew it back when she would have gathered it. Mrs. +Middleton was heard making a remark inside. + +"You don't deserve it," said Percival. "Here is my aunt saying that the hot +weather makes you scandalously idle." + +"Scandalously idle! Aunt Harriet!" Sissy repeated it in incredulous +amusement, and the old lady's indignant disclaimer was heard: "Percival! +Most unusually idle, I said." + +"Oh! most unusually idle? I beg your pardon. But doesn't that imply a +considerable amount of idleness to be got through by one person?" + +"Yes, but you helped me," said Sissy.--"Aunt Harriet, listen. He stood on +my thimble ever so long while he was talking this afternoon. How can I work +without a thimble?" + +"Impossible!" said Percival. "And I don't think I can get you another +to-morrow: I am going out. On Thursday I shall come back and bring you one +that won't fit. Friday you must go with me to change it. Yes, we shall +manage three days' holiday very nicely." + +"Nonsense! But it _is_ your fault if I am idle." + +"Why, yes. Having no thimble, you are naturally unable to finish your book, +for instance." + +"Oh, I sha'n't finish that: I don't like it. The heroine is so dreadfully +strong-minded I don't believe in her. She never does anything wrong; and +though she suffers tortures--absolute agony, you know--she always rises to +the occasion--nasty thing!" + +"A wonderful woman," said Percival, idly picking sprays of jasmine as he +spoke. + +Sissy's voice sank lower: "Do you think there are really any women like +that?" + +"Oh yes, I suppose so." + +She took the flowers which he held out, and looked doubtfully into his +face: "But--do you _like_ them, Percival?" + +"Make the question a little clearer," he said. "I don't like your ranting, +pushing, unwomanly women who can talk of nothing but their rights. They are +very terrible. But heroic women--" He stopped short. The pause was more +eloquent than speech. + +"Ah!" said Sissy, "Well--a woman like Jael? or Judith?" + +He repeated the name "Judith." "Or Charlotte Corday?" he suggested after a +moment. + +It was Sissy's turn to hesitate, and she compressed her pretty lips +doubtfully. Being in the Old Testament, Jael must of course come out all +right, even if one finds it difficult to like her. Judith's position, is +less clear. Still, it is a great thing to be in the Apocrypha, and then +living so long ago and so far away makes a difference. But Charlotte +Corday--a young Frenchwoman, not a century dead, who murdered a man, and +was guillotined in those horrible revolutionary times,--would Percival say +_that_ was the type of woman he liked? + +"Well--Charlotte Corday, then?" + +"Yes, I admire her," he said slowly. "Though I would rather the heroism did +not show itself in bloodshed. Still, she was noble: I honor her. I dare say +the others were too, but I don't know so much about them." + +"What a poor little thing you must think me!" said Sissy. "I could never do +anything heroic." + +"Why not?" + +"I should be frightened. I can't bear people to be angry with me. I should +run away, or do something silly." + +"Then I hope you won't be tried," said Percival. + +She shook her pretty head: "People always talk about casting gold into the +furnace, and it's coming out only the brighter and better. Things are not +good for much if you would rather they were not tried." + +Her hand was on the window-frame as she spoke, and the young man touched a +ring she wore: "Gold is tried in the furnace--yes, but not your pearls. +Besides, I'm not so sure that you would fail if you were put to the test." + +She smiled, well pleased, yet unconvinced. + +"You think," he went on, "that people who did great deeds did them without +an effort--were always ready, like a bow always strung? No, no, Sissy: they +felt very weak sometimes. Isn't there anything in the world you think you +could die for? Even if you say 'No' now, there may be something one of +these days." + +The twilight hid the soft glow which overspread her face. "Anything in the +world you could die for?" Anything? Anybody? Her blood flowed in a strong, +courageous current as her heart made answer, "Yes--for one." + +But she did not speak, and after a moment her companion changed the +subject. "That's a pretty ring," he said. + +Sissy started from her reverie: "Horace gave it me. Adieu, Mr. Percival +Thorne: I'm going to look at my roses." + +"Thank you. Yes, I shall be delighted to come." And Percival jumped out. +"Don't look at me as if I'd said something foolish. Isn't that the right +way to answer your kind invitation?" + +"Invitation! What next?" demanded Sissy with pretty scorn. And the pair +went off together along the terrace and into the fragrant dusk. + +A minute later it occurred to Mrs. Middleton to fear that Sissy might take +cold, and she went to the window to look after her. But, as no one was to +be seen, she turned away and encountered her brother, who had been watching +them too. "Do they care for each other?" he asked abruptly. + +"How can I tell?" Mrs. Middleton replied. "Of course she is fond of him in +a way, but I can't help fancying sometimes that Horace--" + +"Horace!" Mr. Thorne's smile was singularly bland. "Oh, indeed! Horace--a +charming arrangement! Pray how many more times is Mr. Horace to supplant +that poor boy?" His soft voice changed suddenly, as one might draw a sword +from its sheath. "Horace had better not cross Percival's path, or he will +have to deal with me. Is he not content? What next must he have?" + +Mrs. Middleton paused. She could have answered him. There was an obvious +reply, but it was too crushing to be used, and Mr. Thorne braved it +accordingly. + +"Better leave your grandsons alone, Godfrey," she said at last, "if you'll +take my advice; which I don't think you ever did yet. You'll only make +mischief. And there is Sissy to be considered. Let the child choose for +herself." + +"And you think she can choose--_Horace?_" + +"Why not?" + +"Choose Horace rather than Percival?" + +"I should," said the old lady with smiling audacity. "And I would rather +she did. Horace's position is better." + +Mr. Thorne uttered something akin to a grunt, which might by courtesy be +taken for a groan: "Oh, how mercenary you women are! Well, if you marry a +man for his money, Horace has the best of it--if he behaves himself. Yes, I +admit that--_if he behaves himself_"' + +"And Horace is handsomer," said Mrs. Middleton with a smile. + +"Pink-and-white prettiness!" scoffed Mr. Thorne. + +"Nonsense!" The color mounted to the old lady's forehead, and she spoke +sharply: "We didn't hear anything about that when he was a lad, and we were +afraid of something amiss with his lungs: it would have been high treason +to say a syllable against him then. And now, though I suppose he will +always be a little delicate (you'd be sorry if you lost him, Godfrey), it's +a shame to talk as if the boys were not to be compared. They are just of a +height, not half an inch difference, and the one as brave and manly as the +other. Horace is fair, and Percival is dark; and you know, as well as I do, +that Horace is the handsomer." + +Mr. Thorne shifted his ground: "If I were Sissy I would choose my husband +for qualities that are rather more than skin-deep." + +"By all means. And still I would choose Horace." + +"What is amiss with Percival?" + +"He is not so frank and open. I don't want to say anything against him--I +like Percival--but I wish he were not quite so reserved." + +"What next?" said Mr. Thorne with a short laugh. "Why, only this morning +you said he talked more than Horace." + +"Talked? Oh yes, Percival can talk, and about himself too," said Mrs. +Middleton with a smile. "But he can keep his secrets all the time. I don't +want to say anything against him: I like him very much--" + +"No doubt," said Mr. Thorne. + +"But I don't feel quite sure that I know him. He isn't like Horace. You +know Horace's friends--" + +"Trust me for that." + +"But what do you know of Percival's? I heard him tell Sissy he would be out +to-morrow. Will you ever know where he went?" + +"I sha'n't ask him." + +"No," she retorted, "you dare not! Isn't it a rule that no one is ever to +question Percival?" + +"And while I'm master here it shall be obeyed. It's the least I can do. The +boy shall come and go, speak or hold his tongue, as he pleases. No one +shall cross him--Horace least of all--while I'm master here, Harriet; but +that won't be very long." + +"I don't want you to think any harm of Percival's silence," she answered +gently. "I don't for one moment suppose he has any secrets to be ashamed +of. I myself like people to be open, that is all." + +"If I wanted to know anything Percival would tell me," said Mr. Thorne. + +Mrs. Middleton's charity was great. She hid the smile she could not +repress. "Well," she said, "perhaps I am not fair to Percival, but, +Godfrey, you are not quite just to Horace." + +He turned upon her: "Unjust to Horace? _I?_" + +She knew what he meant. He had shown Horace signal favor, far above his +cousin, yet what she had said was true. Perhaps some of the injustice had +been in this very favor. "Here are our truants!" she exclaimed. She and her +brother had not talked so confidentially for years, but the moment her eyes +fell on Sissy her thoughts went back to the point at which Mr. Thorne had +disturbed them: "My dearest Sissy, I am so afraid you will catch cold." + +"It can't be done to-night," said Percival. "Won't you come and try?" But +the old lady shook her head. + +"All right, auntie! we won't stop out," said Sissy; and a moment later she +made her appearance in the drawing-room with her hands full of roses, which +she tossed carelessly on the table. Mr. Thorne had picked up his paper, and +stood turning the pages and pretending to read, but she pushed it aside to +put a rosebud in his coat. + +"Roses are more fit for you young people than for an old fellow like me," +he said, "Why don't you give one to Percival?" + +She looked over her shoulder at young Thorne. "Do you want one?" she said. + +He smiled, with a slight movement of his head and his dark eyes fixed on +hers. + +"Then, why didn't you pick one when we were out? Now, weren't you foolish? +Well, never mind. What color?" + +"Choose for him," said Mr. Thorne. + +Sissy hesitated, looking from Percival's face to a bud of deepest crimson. +Then, throwing it down, "No, you shall have yellow," she exclaimed: "Laura +Falconer's complexion is something like yours, and she always wears yellow. +As soon as one yellow dress is worn out she gets another." + +"She is a most remarkable young woman if she waits till the first one is +worn out," said Percival. + +"Am I to put your rose in or not?" Sissy demanded. + +He stepped forward with a smile, and looked darkly handsome as he stood +there with Sissy putting the yellow rose in his coat and glancing archly up +at him. + +Mr. Thorne from behind his _Saturday Review_ watched the girl who might, +perhaps, hold his favorite's future in her hands. "Does he care for her?" +he wondered. If he did, the old man felt that he would gladly have knelt to +entreat her, "Be good to my poor Percival." But did Percival want her to be +good to him? Godfrey Thorne was altogether in the dark about his grandson's +wishes in the matter. He tried hard not to think that he was in the dark +about every wish or hope of Percival's, and he looked up eagerly when the +latter said something about going out the next day. He remembered which +horse Percival liked, he assented to everything, but he watched him all the +time with a wistful curiosity. He did not really care where Percival went, +but he would have given much for such a word about his plans as would have +proved to Harriet, and to himself too, that his boy _did_ confide in him +sometimes. It was not to be, however. Young Thorne had taken up the local +paper and the subject dropped. Mr. Thorne may have guessed later, but he +never knew where his roan horse went the next day. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +"THOSE EYES OF YOURS." + + +Not five miles away that same evening a conversation was going on which +would have interested Mrs. Middleton. + +The scene was an up-stairs room in a pleasant house near the county town. +Mrs. Blake, a woman of seven or eight and forty, handsome and well +preserved, but of a high-colored type, leant back in an easy-chair lazily +unfastening her bracelets, by way of signifying that she had begun to +prepare for the night. Her two daughters were with her. Addie, the elder, +was at the looking-glass brushing her hair and half enveloped in its silky +blackness. She was a tall, graceful girl, a refined likeness of her mother. +On the rug lay Lottie, three years younger, hardly more than a growing +girl, long-limbed, slight, a little abrupt and angular by her sister's +side, her features not quite so regular, her face paler in its cloud of +dark hair. Yet there was a look of determination and power which was +wanting in Addie; and at times, when Lottie was roused, her eyes had a dark +splendor which made her sister's beauty seem comparatively commonplace and +tame. + +Stretched at full length, she propped her chin on her hands and looked up +at her mother. "I don't suppose you care," she said, in a clear, almost +boyish voice. + +"Not much," Mrs. Blake replied with, a smile. "Especially as I rather doubt +it." + +Addie paused, brush in hand: "I really think you've made a mistake, +Lottie." + +"Do you really? I haven't, though," said that young lady decidedly. + +"It can't be--surely," Addie hesitated, with a little shadow on her face. + +"Of course no. Is it likely?" said Mrs. Blake, as if the discussion were +closed. + +"I tell you," said Lottie stubbornly, "Godfrey Hammond told me that +Percival's father was the eldest son." + +"But it is Horace who has always lived at Brackenhill. Percival only goes +on a visit now and then. Every one knows," said Addie, in almost an injured +tone, "that Horace is the heir." + +Lottie raised her head a little and eyed her sister intently, with +amusement, wonder, and a little scorn in her glance. Addie, blissfully +unconscious, went on brushing her hair, still with that look of anxious +perplexity. + +"This is how it was," Lottie exclaimed suddenly. "Percival was just gone, +and you were talking to Horace. Up comes Godfrey Hammond, sits down by me, +and says some rubbish about consoling me. I think I laughed. Then he looked +at me out of his little, light eyes, and said that you and I seemed to get +on well with his young friends. So I said, 'Oh yes--middling.'" + +"Upon my word," smiled Mrs. Blake, "you appear to have distinguished +yourself in the conversation." + +"Didn't I?" said Lottie, untroubled and unabashed: "I know it struck me so +at the time. Then he said something--I forget how he put it--about our +being just the right number and pairing off charmingly. So I said, 'Oh, of +course the elder ones went together: that was only right.'" + +"And what did he say?" + +"Oh, he pinched his lips together and smiled, and said, 'Don't you know +that Percival is the elder?'" + +"But, Lottie, that proves nothing as to his father." + +"Who supposed it did? I said 'Fiddlededee! I didn't mean that: I supposed +they were much about the same age, or if Percy were a month or two older it +made no difference. I meant that Horace was the eldest son's son, so of +course he was A 1.'" + +"Well?" said Addie. + +"Well, then he looked twice as pleased with himself as he did before, and +said, 'I don't think Horace told you that. It so happens that Percival is +not only the elder by a month or two, as you say, but he is the son of the +eldest son.' Then I said 'Oh!' and mamma called me for something, and I +went." + +Mrs. Blake and Addie exchanged glances. + +"Now, could I have made a mistake?" demanded Lottie. + +"It seems plain enough, certainly," her mother allowed. + +"Then, could Godfrey Hammond have made a mistake? Hasn't he known the +Thornes all their lives? and didn't he say once that he was named Godfrey +after their old grandfather?" + +Mrs. Blake assented. + +"Then," said the girl, relapsing into her recumbent position, "perhaps +you'll believe me another time." + +"Perhaps," said Mrs. Blake: "we'll see when the other time comes. If it is +as you say, it is curious." She rose as she spoke and went to the farther +end of the room. As she stood by an open drawer putting away the ornaments +which she had taken off, the candlelight revealed a shadow of perplexity +on her face which increased the likeness between herself and Addie. +Apparently, Lottie was right as to her facts. The estate was not entailed, +then, and despotic power seemed to be rather capriciously exercised by the +head of the house. If Horace should displease his grandfather--if, for +instance, he chose a wife of whom old Mr. Thorne did not approve--would his +position be very secure? Mrs. Blake was uneasy, and felt that it was very +wrong of people to play tricks with the succession to an estate like +Brackenhill. + +Meanwhile, Lottie watched her sister, who was thoughtfully drawing her +fingers through her long hair. "Addie," she said, after a pause, "what will +you do if Horace isn't the heir after all?" + +"What a silly question! I shan't do anything: there's nothing for me to +do." + +"But shall you mind very much? You are very fond of Horace, aren't you?" + +"Fond of him!" Addie repeated. "He is very pleasant to talk to, if you mean +that." + +"Oh, you can't deceive me so! I believe that you are in love with him," +said Lottie solemnly. + +The color rushed to Addie's face when her vaguely tender sentiments, +indefinite as Horace's attentions, were described in this startling +fashion. "Indeed, I'm nothing of the kind," she said hurriedly. "Pray don't +talk such utter nonsense, Lottie. If you have nothing more sensible to say, +you had better hold your tongue." + +"But why are you ashamed of it?" Lottie persisted: "I wouldn't be." She had +an unsuspected secret herself, but she would have owned it proudly enough +had she been challenged. + +"I'm not ashamed," said Addie; "and you know nothing about being in love, +so you had better not talk about it." + +"Oh yes, I do!" was the reply, uttered with Lottie's calm simplicity of +manner: "I know how to tell whether you are in love or not, Addie. What +would you do if a girl were to win Horace Thorne away from you?" + +Pride and a sense of propriety dictated Addie's answer and gave sharpness +to her voice: "I should say she was perfectly welcome to him." + +Lottie considered for a moment: "Yes, I suppose one might _say_ so to her, +but what would you do? Wouldn't you want to kill her? And wouldn't you die +of a broken heart?" + +Addie was horrified: "I don't want to kill anybody, and I'm not going to +die for Mr. Horace Thorne. Please don't say such things, Lottie: people +never do. You forget he is only an acquaintance." + +"No; I don't think you are in love with him, certainly." Lottie pronounced +this decision with the air of one who has solved a difficult problem. + +"What are you talking about?" Mrs. Blake inquired, coming back, and +glancing from Addie's flushed and troubled face to Lottie's thoughtful +eyes. + +"I was asking Addie if she didn't want Horace to be the heir. I know you +do, mamma--oh, just for his own sake, because you think he's the nicest, +don't you? I heard you tell him one day "--here Lottie looked up with a +candid gaze and audaciously imitated Mrs. Blake's manner--"that though we +knew his cousin _first_, he--Horace, you know--seemed to drop _so_ +naturally into _all_ our ways that it was quite _delightful_ to feel that +we needn't stand on _any_ ceremony with him." + +"Good gracious, Lottie! what do you mean by listening to every word I say?" + +"I didn't listen--I heard," said Lottie. "I always do hear when you say +your words as if they had little dashes under them." + +"Well, Horace Thorne _is_ easier to get on with than his cousin," said Mrs. +Blake, taking no notice of Lottie's mimicry. + +"There, I said so: mamma would like it to be Horace. Nobody asks what I +should like--nobody thinks about me and Percival." + +"Oh, indeed! I wasn't aware," said Mrs. Blake. "When is that to come off? I +dare say you will look very well in orange-blossoms and a pinafore!" + +"Oh, you think I'm too young, do you? But a little while ago you were +always saying that I was grown up, and oughtn't to want any more childish +games. What was I to do?" + +"Upon my word!" exclaimed Mrs. Blake. "I'll buy you a doll for a birthday +present, to keep you out of mischief." + +"Too late," said Lottie from the rug. She burst into sudden laughter, loud +but not unmelodious. "What rubbish we are talking! Seventeen to-morrow, and +Addie is nearly twenty; and sometimes I think I must be a hundred!" + +"Well, you are talking nonsense now," Mrs. Blake exclaimed. "Why, you baby! +only last November you would go into that wet meadow by the rectory to play +trap-and-ball with Robin and Jack. And such a fuss as there was if one +wanted to make you the least tidy and respectable!" + +"Was that last November?" Lottie stared thoughtfully into space. "Queer +that last November should be so many years ago, isn't it? Poor little Cock +Robin! I met him in the lane the day before he went away. They will keep +him in jackets, and he hates them so! I laughed at him, and told him to be +a good little boy and mind his book. He didn't seem to like it, somehow." + +"I dare say he didn't," said Addie, who had been silently recovering +herself: "there's no mistake about it when you laugh at any one." + +"There shall be no mistake about anything I do," Lottie asserted. "I'm +going to bed now." She sprang to her feet and stood looking at her sister: +"What jolly hair you've got, Addie!" + +"Yours is just as thick, or thicker," said Addie. + +"Each individual hair is a good deal thicker, if you mean that. +'Blue-black, lustrous, thick like horse-hairs!' That's what Percy quoted to +me one day when I was grumbling, and I said I wasn't sure he wasn't rude. +Addie, are Horace and Percival fond of each other?" + +"How can I tell? I suppose so." + +"I have my doubts," said Lottie sagely. "Why should they be? There must be +something queer, you know, or why doesn't that stupid old man at +Brackenhill treat Percival as the eldest? Well, good-night." And Lottie +went off, half saying, half singing, "Who killed Cock Robin? I, said the +Sparrow--with my bow and arrow." And with a triumphant outburst of "_I_ +killed Cock Robin!" she banged the door after her. + +There was a pause. Then Addie said, "Seventeen to-morrow! Mamma, Lottie +really is grown-up now." + +"Is she?" Mrs. Blake replied doubtfully. "Time she should be, I'm sure." + +Lottie had been a sore trial to her mother. Addie was pretty as a child, +tolerably presentable even at her most awkward age, glided gradually into +girlhood and beauty, and finally "came out" completely to Mrs. Blake's +satisfaction. But Lottie at fifteen or sixteen was her despair--"Exactly +like a great unruly boy," she lamented. She dashed through her lessons +fairly well, but the moment she was released she was unendurable. She +whistled, she sang at the top of her voice, and plunged about the house in +her thick boots, till she could be off to join the two boys at the rectory, +her dear friends and comrades. Robin Wingfield, the elder, was her junior +by rather more than a year; and this advantage, especially as she was tall +and strong for her age, enabled her fully to hold her own with them. Nor +could Mrs. Blake hinder this friendship, as she would gladly have done, for +her husband was on Lottie's side. + +"Let the girl alone," he said. "Too big for this sort of thing? Rubbish! +The milliner's bills will come in quite soon enough. And what's amiss with +Robin and Jack? Good boys as boys go, and she's another; and if they like +to scramble over hedges and ditches together, let them. For Heaven's sake, +Caroline, don't attempt to keep her at home: she'll certainly drive me +crazy if you do. No one ever banged doors as Lottie does: she ought to +patent the process. Slams them with a crash which jars the whole house, and +yet manages not to latch them, and the moment she is gone they are swinging +backward and forward till I'm almost out of my senses. Here she comes down +stairs, like a thunderbolt.--Lottie, my dear girl, I'm sure it's going to +be fine: better run out and look up those Wingfield boys, I think." + +So the trio spent long half-holidays rambling in the fields; and on these +occasions Lottie might be met, an immense distance from home, in the +shabbiest clothes and wearing a red cap of Robin's tossed carelessly on her +dark hair. Percival once encountered them on one of these expeditions. +Lottie's beauty was still pale and unripe, like those sheathed buds which +will come suddenly to their glory of blossom, not like rosebuds which have +a loveliness of their own; but the young man was struck by the boyish +mixture of shyness and bluntness with which she greeted him, and attracted +by the great eyes which gazed at him from under Robin's shabby cap. When he +and Horace went to the Blakes' he amused himself idly enough with the +school-girl, while his cousin flirted with Addie. He laughed one day when +Mrs. Blake was unusually troubled about Lottie's apparel, and said +something about "a sweet neglect." But the soul of Lottie's mamma was not +to be comforted with scraps of poetry. How could it be, when she had just +arraigned her daughter on the charge of having her pockets bulging +hideously, and had discovered that those receptacles overflowed with a +miscellaneous assortment of odds and ends, the accumulations of weeks, +tending to show that Lottie and Cock Robin, as she called him, had all +things in common? How could it be, when Lottie was always outgrowing her +garments in the most ungainly manner, so that her sleeves seemed to retreat +in horror from her wrists and from her long hands, tanned by sun and wind, +seamed with bramble-scratches and smeared with school-room ink? Once Lottie +came home with an unmistakable black eye, for which Robin's cricket-ball +was accountable. Then, indeed, Mrs. Blake felt that her cup of bitterness +was full to overflowing, though Lottie did assure her, "You should have +seen Jack's eye last April: his was much more swollen, and all sorts of +colors, than mine." It was impossible to avoid the conclusion that Jack +must have been, to say the least of it, unpleasant to look at. Percival +happened to come to the house just then, and was tranquilly amused at the +good lady's despair. It was before the Blakes knew much of Horace, and she +had not yet discovered that Percival's cousin was so much more friendly +than Percival himself; so she made the latter her confidant. He recommended +a raw beefsteak with a gravity worthy of a Spanish grandee. He was not +allowed to see Lottie, who was kept in seclusion as being half culprit, +half invalid, and wholly unpresentable; but as he was going away the +servant gave him a little note in Lottie's boyish scrawl: + + "DEAR PERCIVAL: Mamma was cross with Robin and sent him away + do tell him I'm all right, and he is not to mind he will be + sure to be about somewhere It is very stupid being shut up + here Addie says she can't go running about giving messages + to boys and Papa said if he saw him he should certainly + punch his head so please tell him he is not to bother + himself about me I shall soon be all right." + +Percival went away, smiling a little at his letter and at Lottie herself. +Just as he reached the first of the fields which were the short cut from +the house, he spied Robin lurking on the other side of the hedge, with Jack +at his heels. He halted, and called "Robin! Robin Wingfield! I want to +speak to you." + +The boy hesitated: "There's a gate farther on." + +Coming to the gate, Percival rested his arms on it and looked at Robin. The +boy was not big for his age, but there was a good deal of cleverness in his +upturned freckled face. "I've a message for you," said the young man. + +"From her?" Robin indicated the Blakes' house with a jerk of his head. + +"Yes. She asked me to tell you that she is all right, though, of course, +she can't come out at present. She made sure I should find you somewhere +about." + +Robin nodded: "I did try to hear how she was, but that old dragon--" + +"Meaning my friend Mrs. Blake?" said young Thorne. "Ah! Hardly civil +perhaps, but forcible." + +"Well--Mrs. Blake, then--caught me in the shrubbery and pitched into me. +Said I ought to be ashamed of myself. Supposed I should be satisfied when +I'd broken Lottie's neck. Told me I'd better not show my face there again." + +"Well," said Percival, "you couldn't expect Mrs. Blake to be particularly +delighted with your afternoon's work. And, Wingfield, though I was +especially to tell you that you were not to vex yourself about it, you +really ought to be more careful. Knocking a young lady's eye half out--" + +"Young lady!" in a tone of intense scorn. "Lottie isn't a _young lady_." + +"Oh! isn't she?" said Percival. + +"I should think not, indeed!" And Robin eyed the big young man who was +laughing at him as if he meditated wiping out the insult to Lottie then and +there. But even with Jack, his sturdy satellite, to help, it was not to be +thought of. "She's a brick!" said Cock Robin, half to himself. + +"No doubt," said Percival. "But, as I was saying, it isn't exactly the way +to treat her.--At least--I don't know: upon my word, I don't know," he +soliloquized. "Judging by most women's novels, from _Jane Eyre_ downward, +the taste for muscular bullies prevails. Robin may be the coming hero--who +knows?--and courtship commencing with a black eye the future +fashion.--Well, Robin, any answer?" + +"Tell her I hope she'll soon be all right. Shall you see her?" + +"I can see that she gets any message you want to send." + +Robin groped among his treasures: "Look here: I brought away her knife that +afternoon. She lent it me. She'd better have it--it's got four blades--she +may want it, perhaps." + +Percival dropped the formidable instrument carelessly into his pocket: "She +shall have it. And, Robin, you'd better not be hanging about here: Lottie +says so. You'll only vex Mrs. Blake." + +"All right!" said the boy, and went off, with Jack after him. + +Percival, who was staying in the neighborhood, went straight home, tied up +a parcel of books he thought might amuse Lottie in her imprisonment, and +wrote a note to go with them. He was whistling softly to himself as he +wrote, and, if the truth be told, had a fair vision floating before his +eyes--a girl of whom Lottie had reminded him by sheer force of contrast. +Still, he liked Lottie in her way. He was young enough to enjoy the easy +sense of patronage and superiority which made the words flow so pleasantly +from his pen. Never had Lottie seemed to him so utterly a child as +immediately after his talk with her boy-friend. + +"Here are some books," said the hurrying pen, "which I think you will like +if your eye is not so bad as to prevent your reading. Robin was keeping his +disconsolate watch close by, as you foretold, and asked anxiously after +you, so I gave him your message and dismissed him. He especially charged me +to send you the enclosed--knife I believe he called it: it looks to me like +a whole armory of deadly weapons--which he seemed to think would be a +comfort to you in your affliction. I sincerely hope it may prove so. I was +very civil to him, remembering that I was your ambassador; but if he isn't +a little less rough with you in future, I shall be tempted to adopt Mr. +Blake's plan if I happen to meet your friend again. You really mustn't let +him damage those eyes of yours in this reckless fashion. Mrs. Blake was +nearly heartbroken this morning." + +He sent his parcel off, and speedily ceased to think of it. And Lottie +herself might have done the same, not caring much for his books, but for +four little words--"those eyes of yours." Had Percival written "your eyes," +it would have meant nothing, but "those eyes of yours" implied notice--nay, +admiration. Again and again she looked at the thick paper, with the crest +at the top and the vigorous lines of writing below; and again and again the +four words, "those eyes of yours," seemed to spring into ever-clearer +prominence. She hid the letter away with a sudden comprehension of the +roughness of her pencil scrawl which it answered, and began to take pride +in her looks when they least deserved it. Only a day or two before she had +envied Robin the possession of sight a little keener than her own, but now +she smiled to think that Percival Thorne would never have regretted injury +to "those eyes of yours" had she owned Robin's light-gray orbs. + +Her transformation had begun. The knife was still a treasure, but she was +ashamed of her delight in it. She breathed on the shining blades and rubbed +them to brightness again, but she did it stealthily, with a glance over her +shoulder first. She went rambling with Robin and Jack, but not when she +knew that Percival Thorne was in the neighborhood. She was very sure of his +absence on the November day to which her mother had alluded, when she had +insisted on playing trap-and-ball in the rectory meadows. Mrs. Blake did +not realize it, but it was almost the last day of Lottie's old life. At +Christmas-time they were asked to stay for a few days at a friend's house. +There was to be a dance, and the hostess, being Lottie's godmother, +pointedly included her in the invitation; so Mrs. Blake and Addie did what +they could to improve their black sheep's appearance. + +Lottie, dressed for the eventful evening, was left alone for a moment +before the three went down. She felt shy, dispirited and sullen. Her +ball-dress encumbered and constrained her. "I hate it all," she said to +herself, beating impatiently with her foot upon the ground. Something +moving caught her eye: it was her reflection in a mirror. She paused and +gazed in wonder. Was this slender girl, arrayed in a cloud of +semi-transparent white, really herself--the Lottie who only a few days +before had raced Robin Wingfield home across the fields, had been the first +over the gap and through the ditch into the rectory meadow, and had rushed +away with the November rain-drops driving in her face? She gazed on: the +transformation had its charms, after all. But the shadow came back: "It's +no use. Addie's prettier than I ever shall be: I must be second all my +life. Second! If I can't be A 1, I'd as soon be Z 1000! I won't go about +to be a foil to her. I'd ten times rather race with Robin; and I will too! +They sha'n't coop me up and make a young lady of me!" + +She caught the flash of her indignant glance in the glass and paused. + +"_Those eyes of yours!_" + +_Must_ she be second all her life? Had she not a power and witchery of her +own? Might she not even distance Addie in the race? "I've more brains than +she has," mused Lottie. + +Her heart was beating fast as they came down stairs. They had only arrived +by a late train, which gave them just time to dress; and Mrs. Blake had +rather exceeded the allowance, so that most of the guests had arrived and +the first quadrille was nearly ended as they came in. Lottie followed her +mother and Addie as they glided through the crowd, and when they paused she +stood shy and fierce, casting lowering glances around. + +She heard their hostess say to some one, "Do let me find you a partner." + +A well-known voice replied, "Not this time, thank you: I'm going to try to +find one for myself;" and Percival stood before her, looking, to her +girlish fancy, more of a hero than ever in the evening-dress which became +him well. The perfectly-fitting gloves, the flower in his coat, a dozen +little things which she could not define, made her feel uncouth and +anxious, fascinated and frightened, all at once. Had he greeted her in the +patronizing way in which he had talked to her of old, she would have been +deeply wounded, but he asked her for the next dance more ceremoniously, she +knew, than Horace would have asked Addie. Still, she trembled as they moved +off. They had scarcely met since her note to him. Suppose he alluded to it, +asked after her black eye, and inquired whether she had derived any benefit +from the beefsteak? Nothing more natural, and yet if he did Lottie felt +that she should _hate_ him. "I know I should do something dreadful," she +thought--"scratch his face, and then burst out crying, most likely. Oh, +what would become of me? I should be ruined for life! I should have to +shut myself up, never see any one again, and emigrate with Robin directly +he was old enough." + +Percival did not know his danger, but he escaped it. The fatal thoughts +were in his mind while Lottie was planning her disgrace and exile, but he +merely remarked that he liked the first waltz, and should they start at +once or wait a moment till a couple or two dropped out? + +"I don't know whether I _can_ waltz," said Lottie doubtfully. + +"Weren't you over tortured with dancing-lessons?" + +"Oh yes. But I've never tried at a party. Suppose we go bumping up against +everybody, like that fat man and the little lady in pink--the two who are +just stopping?" + +"I assure you," said Percival gravely, "that I do not dance at all like +that fat man. And if you dance like the lady in pink, I shall be more +surprised than I have words to say. Now?" + +They were off. Percival knew that he waltzed well, and had an idea that +Lottie would prove a good partner. Nor was he mistaken. She had been fairly +taught, much against her will, had a good ear for time, and, thanks to many +a race with Robin Wingfield, her energy was almost terrible. They spun +swiftly and silently round, unwearied while other couples dropped out of +the ranks to rest and talk. Percival was well pleased. It is true that he +had memories of waltzes with Sissy Langton of more utter harmony, of +sweeter grace, of delight more perfect, though far more fleeting. But +Lottie, with her steady swiftness and her strong young life, had a charm of +her own which he was not slow to recognize. She would hardly have thanked +him for accurately classifying it, for as she danced she felt that she had +discovered a new joy. Her old life slipped from her like a husk. Friendship +with Cock Robin was an evident absurdity. It is true she was angry with +herself that, after fighting so passionately for freedom, she should +voluntarily bend her proud neck beneath the yoke. She foresaw that her +mother and Addie would triumph; she felt that her bondage to Mrs. Grundy +would often be irksome; but here was the first instalment of her wages in +this long waltz with Percival. She fancied that the secret of her pleasure +lay in the two words--"with Percival." In her ignorance she thought that +she was tasting the honeyed fire of love, when in truth it was the +sweetness of conscious success. Before the last notes of that enchanted +music died away she had cast her girlish devotion, "half in a rapture and +half in a rage," at her partner's feet, while he stood beside her calm and +self-possessed. He would have been astounded, and perhaps almost disgusted, +had he known what was passing through her mind. + +Love at sixteen is generally only a desire to be in love, and seeks not so +much a fit as a possible object. Probably Lottie's passion offered as many +assurances of domestic bliss as could be desired at her age. + +Percival was dark, foreign-looking and handsome: he had an interesting air +of reserve, and no apparent need to practise small economies. His clothes +fitted him extremely well, and at times he had a way of standing proudly +aloof which was worthy of any hero of romance. No settled occupation would +interfere with picnics and balls; and, to crown all, had he not said to +her, "Those eyes of yours"? Were not these ample foundations for the +happiness of thirty or forty years of marriage? + +Percival, meanwhile, wanted to be kind to the childish, half-tamed Lottie, +who had attracted his notice in the fields and trusted him with her +generous message to Robin Wingfield. The girl fancied herself immensely +improved by her white dress, but had Thorne been a painter he would have +sketched her as a pale vision of Liberty, with loosely-knotted hair and +dark eyes glowing under Robin's red cap. He was able coolly to determine +the precise nature of his pleasure in her society, but he knew that it was +a pleasure. And Lottie, when she fell asleep that night, clasped a card +which was rendered priceless by the frequent recurrence of his initials. + +Her passion transformed her. Her vehement spirit remained, but everything +else was changed. Her old dreams and longings were cast out by the new. She +laughed with Mrs. Blake and Addie, but under the laughter she hid her love, +and cherished it in fierce and solitary silence. Yet even to herself the +transformation seemed so wonderful that she could hardly believe in it, and +acted the rough girl now and then with the idea that otherwise they _must_ +think her a consummate actress morning, noon and night. For some months no +great event marked the record of her unsuspected passion. It might, +perhaps, have run its course, and died out harmlessly in due time, but for +an unlucky afternoon, about a week before her birthday, when Percival +uttered some thoughtless words which woke a tempest of doubt and fear in +Lottie's heart. She did not question his love, but she caught a glimpse of +his pride, and felt as if a gulf had opened between her and her dream of +happiness. + +Percival was calling at the house on the eventful day which was destined to +influence Lottie's fate and his own. He was in a happy mood, well pleased +with things in general, and, after his own fashion, inclined to be +talkative. When visitors arrived and Addie exclaimed, "Mrs. Pickering and +that boy of hers--oh bother!" she spoke the feelings of the whole party; +and Percival from his place by the window looked across at Lottie and +shrugged his shoulders expressively. Had there been time he would have +tried to escape into the garden with his girl friend; but as that was +impossible, he resigned himself to his fate and listened while Mrs. +Pickering poured forth her rapture concerning her son's prospects to Mrs. +Blake. An uncle who was the head of a great London firm had offered the +young man a situation, with an implied promise of a share in the business +later. "Such a subject for congratulation!" the good lady exclaimed, +beaming on her son, who sat silently turning his hat in his hands and +looking very pink. "Such an opening for William! Better than having a +fortune left him, I call it, for it is such a thing to have an occupation. +Every young man should be brought up to something, in my opinion." + +Mrs. Blake, with a half glance at Addie and a thought of Horace, suggested +that heirs to landed estates-- + +"Well, yes." Mrs. Pickering agreed with her. Country gentlemen often found +so much to do in looking after their tenants and making improvements that +she would not say anything about them. But young men with small incomes and +no profession--she should be sorry if a son of hers-- + +"Like me, for instance," said Percival, looking up. "I've a small income +and no profession." + +Mrs. Pickering, somewhat confused, hastened to explain that she meant +nothing personal. + +"Of course not," he said: "I know that. I only mentioned it because I think +an illustration stamps a thing on people's memories." + +"But, Percival," Mrs. Blake interposed, "I must say that in this I agree +with Mrs. Pickering. I do think it would be better if you had something to +do--I do indeed." She looked at him with an air of affectionate severity. +"I speak as your friend, you know." (Percival bowed his gratitude.) "I +really think young people are happier when they have a settled occupation." + +"I dare say that is true, as a rule," he said. + +"But you don't think you would be?" questioned Lottie. + +He turned to her with a smile: "Well, I doubt it. Of course I don't know +how happy I might be if I had been brought up to a profession." He glanced +through the open window at the warm loveliness of June. "At this moment, +for instance, I might have been writing a sermon or cutting off a man's +leg. But, somehow, I am very well satisfied as I am." + +"Oh, if you mean to make fun of it--" Mrs. Blake began. + +"But I don't," Percival said quickly. "I may laugh, but I'm in earnest too. +I have plenty to eat and drink; I can pay my tailor and still have a little +money in my pocket; I am my own master. Sometimes I ride--another man's +horse: if not I walk, and am just as well content. I don't smoke--I don't +bet--I have no expensive tastes. What could money do for me that I should +spend the best years of my life in slaving for it?" + +"That may be all very well for the present," said Mrs. Blake. + +"Why not for the future too? Oh, I have my dream for the future too." + +"And, pray, may one ask what it is?" said Mrs. Pickering, looking down on +him from the height of William's prosperity. + +"Certainly," he said. "Some day I shall leave England and travel leisurely +about the Continent. I shall have a sky over my head compared with which +this blue is misty and pale. I shall gain new ideas. I shall get grapes and +figs and melons very cheap. There will be a little too much garlic in my +daily life--even such a destiny as mine must have its drawbacks--but think +of the wonderful scenery I shall see and the queer, beautiful +out-of-the-way holes and corners I shall discover! And in years to come I +shall rejoice, without envy, to hear that Mr. Blake has bought a large +estate and gains prizes for fat cattle, while my friend here has been +knighted on the occasion of some city demonstration." + +Young Pickering, who had been listening open-mouthed to the other's fluent +and tranquil speech, reddened at the allusion to himself and dropped his +hat. + +"At that rate you must never marry," said Mrs. Blake. + +Percival thoughtfully stroked his lip: "You think I should not find a wife +to share my enjoyment of a small income?" + +"Marry a girl with lots of money, Mr. Thorne," said the future Sir William, +feeling it incumbent on him to take part in the conversation. + +"Not I." Percival's glance made the lad's hot face yet hotter. "That's the +last thing I will do. If a man means to work, he may marry whom he will. +But if he has made up his mind to be idle, he is a contemptible cur if he +will let his wife keep him in his idleness." He spoke very quietly in his +soft voice, and leaned back in his chair. + +"Well, then, you must never fall in love with an heiress," said Mrs. +Blake. + +"Or you must work and win her," Lottie suggested almost in a whisper. + +He smiled, but slightly shook his head with a look which she fancied meant +"Too late." Mrs. Pickering began to tell the latest Fordborough scandal, +and the talk drifted into another channel. + +Lottie had listened as she always listened when Percival spoke, but she had +not attached any peculiar meaning to his words. But an hour or so later, +when he was gone and she was loitering in the garden just outside the +window, Addie, who was within, made some remark in a laughing tone. Lottie +did not catch the words, but Mrs. Blake's reply was distinct and not to be +mistaken: "William Pickering, indeed! No: with your looks and your +expectations you girls ought to marry really well." Lottie stood aghast. +They would have money, then? She had never thought about money. She would +be an heiress? And Percival would never marry an heiress--he could not: had +he not said so? How gladly would she have given him every farthing she +possessed! And was her fortune to be a barrier between them for ever? Every +syllable that he had spoken was made clear by this revelation, and rose up +before her eyes as a terrible word of doom. But she was not one to be +easily dismayed, and her first cry was, "What shall I do?" Lottie's +thoughts turned always to action, not to endurance, and she was resolved to +break down the barrier, let the cost be what it might. Her talk with +Godfrey Hammond gave a new interest to her romance and new strength to her +determination. Since her hero was disinherited and poor, and she, though +rich, would be poor in all she cared to have if she were parted from him, +might she not tell him so when she saw him on her birthday? She thought it +would be easier to speak on the one day when in girlish fashion she would +be queen. She would not think of her own pride, because his pride was dear +to her. She could not tell what she would say or do: she only knew that her +birthday should decide her fate. And her heart was beating fast in hope +and fear the night before when she banged the door after her and went off +to bed, sublimely ready to renounce the world for Percival. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES--ALFRED THORNE'S IS TOLD BY THE WRITER. + + +Mr. Thorne of Brackenhill was a miserable man, who went through the world +with a morbidly sensitive spot in his nature. A touch on it was torture, +and unfortunately the circumstances of his daily life continually chafed +it. + +It was only a common form of selfishness carried to excess. "I don't want +much," he would have said--truly enough, for Godfrey Thorne had never been +grasping--"but let it be my own." He could not enjoy anything unless he +knew that he might waste it if he liked. The highest good, fettered by any +condition, was in his eyes no good at all. Brackenhill was dear to him +because he could leave it to whom he would. He was seventy-six, and had +spent his life in improving his estate, but he prized nothing about it so +much as his right to give the result of his life's work to the first beggar +he might chance to meet. It would have made him still happier if he could +have had the power of destroying Brackenhill utterly, of wiping it off the +face of the earth, in case he could not find an heir who pleased him, for +it troubled him to think that some man _must_ have the land after him, +whether he wished it or not. + +Godfrey Hammond had declared that no one could conceive the exquisite +torments Mr. Thorne would endure if he owned an estate with a magnificent +ruin on it, some unique and priceless relic of bygone days. "He should be +able to see it from his window," said Hammond, "and it should be his, as +far as law could make it, while he should be continually conscious that in +the eyes of all cultivated men he was merely its guardian. People should +write to the newspapers asserting boldly that the public had a right of +free access to it, and old gentlemen with antiquarian tastes should find a +little gap in a fence, and pen indignant appeals to the editor demanding to +be immediately informed whether a monument of national, nay, of world-wide +interest, ought not, for the sake of the public, to be more carefully +protected from injury. Local archaeological societies should come and read +papers in it. Clergymen, wishing to combine a little instruction with the +pleasures of a school-feast, should arrive with van-loads of cheering boys +and girls, a troop of ardent teachers, many calico flags and a brass band. +Artists, keen-eyed and picturesque, each with his good-humored air of +possessing the place so much more truly than any mere country gentleman +ever could, should come to gaze and sketch. Meanwhile, Thorne should remark +about twice a week that of course he could pull the whole thing down if he +liked; to which every one should smile assent, recognizing an evident but +utterly unimportant fact. And then," said Hammond solemnly, "when all the +archaeologists were eating and drinking, enjoying their own theories and +picking holes in their neighbors' discoveries, the bolt should fall in the +shape of an announcement that Mr. Thorne had sold the stones as building +materials, and that the workmen had already removed the most ancient and +interesting part. After which he would go slowly to his grave, dying of his +triumph and a broken heart." + +It was all quite true, though Godfrey Hammond might have added that all the +execrations of the antiquarians would hardly have added to the burden of +shame and remorse of which Mr. Thorne would have felt the weight before the +last cart carried away its load from the trampled sward; that he would have +regretted his decision every hour of his life; and if by a miracle he could +have found himself once more with the fatal deed undone, he would have +rejoiced for a moment, suffered his old torment for a little while, and +then proceeded to do it again. + +For a great part of Mr. Thorne's life the boast of his power over +Brackenhill had been on his lips more frequently than the twice a week of +which Hammond talked. Of late years it had not been so. He had used his +power to assure himself that he possessed it, and gradually awoke to the +consciousness that he had lost it by thus using it. + +He had had three sons--Maurice, a fine, high-spirited young fellow; Alfred, +good-looking and good-tempered, but indolent; James, a slim, sickly lad, +who inherited from his mother a fatal tendency to decline. She died while +he was a baby, and he was petted from that time forward. Godfrey Thorne was +well satisfied with Maurice, but was always at war with his second son, who +would not take orders and hold the family living. They argued the matter +till it was too late for Alfred to go into the army, the only career for +which he had expressed any desire; and then Mr. Thorne found himself face +to face with a gentle and lazy resistance which threatened to be a match +for his own hard obstinacy. Alfred didn't mind being a farmer. But his +father was troubled about the necessary capital, and doubted his son's +success: "You will go on after a fashion for a few years, and then all the +money will have slipped through your fingers. You know nothing of +farming."--"That's true," said Alfred.--"And you are much too lazy to +learn."--"That's very likely," said the young man. So Mr. Thorne looked +about him for some more eligible opening for his troublesome son; and +Alfred meanwhile, with his handsome face and honest smile, was busy making +love to Sarah Percival, the rector's daughter. + +The little idyl was the talk of the villagers before it came to the +squire's ears. When he questioned Alfred the young man confessed it readily +enough. He loved Miss Percival, and she didn't mind waiting. Mr. Thorne was +not altogether displeased, for, though his intercourse with the rector was +rather stormy and uncertain, they happened to be on tolerable terms just +then. Sarah was an only child, and would have a little money at Mr. +Percival's death, and Alfred was much more submissive and anxious to please +his father under these altered circumstances. The young people were not to +consider themselves engaged, Miss Percival being only eighteen and Alfred +one-and-twenty. But if they were of the same mind later, when the latter +should be in a position to marry, it was understood that neither his father +nor Mr. Percival would oppose it. + +Unluckily, a parochial question arose near Christmas-time, and the squire +and the clergyman took different views of it. Mr. Thorne went about the +house with brows like a thunder-cloud, and never opened his lips to Alfred +except to abuse the rector. "You'll have to choose between old Percival and +me one of these days," he said more than once. "You'd better be making up +your mind: it will save time." Alfred was silent. When the strife was at +its height Maurice was drowned while skating. + +The poor fellow was hardly in his grave before the storm burst on Alfred's +head. If Mr. Thorne had barely tolerated the idea of his son's marriage +before, he found it utterly intolerable now; and the decree went forth that +this boyish folly about Miss Percival must be forgotten. "I can do as I +like with Brackenhill," said Mr. Thorne: "remember that." Alfred did +remember it. He had heard it often enough, and his father's angry eyes gave +it an added emphasis. "I can make an eldest son of James if I like, and I +will if you defy me." But nothing could shake Alfred. He had given his word +to Miss Percival, and they loved each other, and he meant to keep to it. +"You don't believe me," his father thundered: "you think I may talk, but +that I sha'n't do it. Take care!" There was no trace of any conflict on +Alfred's face: he looked a little dull and heavy under the bitter storm, +but that was all. "I can't help it, sir," he said, tracing the pattern of +the carpet with the toe of his boot as he stood: "you will do as you +please, I suppose."--"I suppose I shall," said Mr. Thorne. + +So Alfred was disinherited. "As well for this as anything else," he said: +"we couldn't have got on long." He had an allowance from his father, who +declined to take any further interest in his plans. He went abroad for a +couple of years--a test which Mr. Percival imposed upon him that nothing +might be done in haste--and came back, faithful as he went, to ask for the +consent which could no longer be denied. Mr. Percival had been presented to +a living at some distance from Brackenhill, and, as there was a good deal +of glebe-land attached to it, Alfred was able to try his hand at farming. +He did so, with a little loss if no gain, and they made one household at +the rectory. + +He never seemed to regret Brackenhill. Sarah--dark, ardent, intense, a +strange contrast to his own fair, handsome face and placid +indolence--absorbed all his love. Her eager nature could not rouse him to +battle with the world, but it woke a passionate devotion in his heart: they +were everything to each other, and were content. When their boy was born +the rector would have named him Godfrey: at any rate, he urged them to call +him by one of the old family names which had been borne by bygone +generations of Thornes. But the young husband was resolved that the child +should be Percival, and Percival only. "Why prejudice his grandfather +against him for a mere name?" the rector persisted. But Alfred shook his +head. "Percival means all the happiness of my life," he said. So the child +received his name, and the fact was announced to Mr. Thorne in a letter +brief and to the point like a challenge. + +Communications with Brackenhill were few and far between. From the local +papers Alfred heard of the rejoicings when James came of age, quickly +followed by the announcement that he had gone abroad for the winter. Then +he was at home again, and going to marry Miss Harriet Benham; whereat +Alfred smiled a little. "The governor must have put his pride in his +pocket: old Benham made his money out of composite candles, then retired, +and has gas all over the house for fear they should be mentioned. Harry, as +we used to call her, is the youngest of them--she must be eight or nine and +twenty; fine girl, hunts--tried it on with poor Maurice ages ago. I should +think she was about half as big again as Jim. Well, yes, perhaps I am +exaggerating a little. How charmed my father must be!--only, of course, +anything to please Jim, and it's a fine thing to have him married and +settled." + +Alfred read his father's feelings correctly enough, but Mr. Thorne was +almost repaid for all he had endured when, in his turn, he was able to +write and announce the birth of a boy for whom the bells had been set +ringing as the heir of Brackenhill. Jim, with his sick fancies and +querulous conceit, Mrs. James Thorne, with her coarsely-colored splendor +and imperious ways, faded into the background now that Horace's little star +had risen. + +The rest may be briefly told. Horace had a little sister who died, and he +himself could hardly remember his father. His time was divided between his +mother's house at Brighton and Brackenhill. He grew slim and tall and +handsome--a Thorne, and not a Benham, as his grandfather did not fail to +note. He was delicate. "But he will outgrow that," said Mrs. Middleton, and +loved him the better for the care she had to take of him. It was +principally for his sake that she was there. She was a widow and had no +children of her own, but when, at her brother's request, she came to +Brackenhill to make more of a home for the school-boy, she brought with her +a tiny girl, little Sissy Langton, a great-niece of her husband's. + +Meanwhile, the other boy grew up in his quiet home, but death came there as +well as to Brackenhill, and seemed to take the mainspring of the household +in taking Sarah Thorne. Her father pined for her, and had no pleasure in +life except in her child. Even when the old man was growing feeble, and it +was manifest to all but the boy that he would not long be parted from his +daughter, it was a sombre but not an unhappy home for the child. Something +in the shadow which overhung it, in his grandfather's weakness and his +father's silence, made him grave and reserved, but he always felt that he +was loved. No playful home-name was ever bestowed on the little lad, but +it did not matter, for when spoken by Alfred Thorne no name could be so +tender as Percival. + +The rector's death when the boy was fifteen broke up the only real home he +was destined to know, for Alfred was unable to settle down in any place for +any length of time. While his wife and her father were alive their +influence over him was supreme: he was like the needle drawn aside by a +powerful attraction. But now that they were gone his thoughts oscillated a +while, and then reverted to Brackenhill. For himself he was content--he had +made his choice long ago--but little by little the idea grew up in his mind +that Percival was wronged, for he, at least, was guiltless. He secretly +regretted the defiant fashion in which his boy had been christened, and +made a feeble attempt to prove that, after all, Percy was an old family +name. He succeeded in establishing that a "P. Thorne" had once existed, who +of course might have been Percy, as he might have been Peter or Paul; and +he tried to call his son Percy in memory of this doubtful namesake. But the +three syllables were as dear to the boy as the white flag to a Bourbon. +They identified him with the mother he dimly remembered, and proclaimed to +all the world (that is, to his grandfather) that for her sake he counted +Brackenhill well lost. He triumphed, and his father was proud to be +defeated. To this day he invariably writes himself "Percival Thorne." + +Alfred, however, had his way on a more important point, and educated his +son for no profession, because the head of the house needed none. Percival +acquiesced willingly enough, without a thought of the implied protest. He +was indolent, and had little or no ambition. Since daily bread--and, +luckily, rather more than daily bread, for he was no ascetic--was secured +to him, since books were many and the world was wide, he asked nothing +better than to study them. He grew up grave, dreamy and somewhat solitary +in his ways. He seemed to have inherited something of the rector's +self-possessed and rather formal courtesy, and at twenty he looked older +than his age, though his face was as smooth as a girl's. + +He was not twenty-one, when his father died suddenly of fever. When the +news reached Brackenhill the old squire was singularly affected by it. He +had been accustomed to contrast Alfred's vigorous prime with his own +advanced age, Percival's unbroken health with Horace's ailing boyhood, and +to think mournfully of the probability that the old manor-house must go to +a stranger unless he could humble himself to the son who had defied him. +But, old as he was, he had outlived his son, and he was dismayed at his +isolation. A whole generation was dead and gone, and the two lads, who were +all that remained of the Thornes of Brackenhill, stood far away, as though +he stretched his trembling hands to them across their fathers' graves. He +expressly requested that Percival should come and see him, and the young +man presented himself in his deep mourning. Sissy, just sixteen, looked +upon him as a sombre hero of romance, and within two days of his coming +Mrs. Middleton announced that her brother was "perfectly infatuated about +that boy." + +The evening of his arrival he stood with his grandfather on the terrace +looking at the wide prospect which lay at their feet--ample fields and +meadows, and the silvery flash of water through the willows. Then he +turned, folded his arms and coolly surveyed Brackenhill itself from end to +end. Mr. Thorne watched him, expecting some word, but when none came, and +Percival's eyes wandered upward to the soft evening sky, where a glimmering +star hung like a lamp above the old gray manor-house, he said, with some +amusement, "Well, and what is your opinion?" + +Percival came down to earth with the greatest promptitude: "It's a +beautiful place. I'm glad to see it. I like looking over old houses." + +"Like looking over old houses? As if it were merely a show! Isn't +Brackenhill more to you than any other old house?" demanded Mr. Thorne. + +"Oh, well, perhaps," Percival allowed: "I have heard my father talk of it +of course." + +"Come, come! You are not such an outsider as all that," said his +grandfather. + +The young man smiled a little, but did not speak. + +"You don't forget you are a Thorne, I hope?" the other went on. "There are +none too many of us." + +"No," said Percival. "I like the old house, and I can assure you, sir, that +I am proud of both my names." + +"Well, well! very good names. But shouldn't you call a man a lucky fellow +if he owned a place like this?" + +"My opinion wouldn't be half as well worth having as yours," was the reply. +"What do you call yourself, sir?" + +"Do you think I own this place?" Mr. Thorne inquired. + +"Why, yes--I always supposed so. Don't you?" + +"No, I don't!" The answer was almost a snarl. "I'm bailiff, overlooker, +anything you like to call it. My master is at Oxford, at Christ Church. He +won't read, and he can't row, so he is devoting his time to learning how to +get rid of the money I am to save up for him. _I_ own Brackenhill?" He +faced abruptly round. "All that timber is mine, they say; and if I cut down +a stick your aunt Middleton is at me: 'Think of Horace.' The place was +mortgaged when I came into it. I pinched and saved--I freed it--for Horace. +Why shouldn't I mortgage it again if I please--raise money and live royally +till my time comes, eh? They'd all be at me, dinning 'Horace! Horace!' and +my duty to those who come after me, into my ears. Look at the drawing-room +furniture!" + +"The prettiest old room I ever saw," said Percival. + +"Ah! you're right there. But my sister doesn't think so. It's shabby, she +would tell you. But does she ask me to furnish it for her? No, no, it isn't +worth while: mine is such a short lease. When Horace marries and comes into +his inheritance, of course it must be done up. It would be a pity to waste +money about it now, especially as there's a bit of land lies between two +farms of mine, and if I don't go spending a lot in follies, I can buy it. +Think of that! I can buy it--_for Horace!_" + +Percival was guarded in his replies to this and similar outbursts; and Mrs. +Middleton, seeing that he showed no disposition to toady his grandfather or +to depreciate Horace, told Godfrey Hammond that, though her brother was so +absurd about him, she thought he seemed a good sort of young man, after +all. "Time will show," was the answer. Now, this was depressing, for +Godfrey had established a reputation for great sagacity. + +[TO BE CONTINUED.] + + + + +ABBEYS AND CASTLES. + + +It is a frequent reflection with the stranger in England that the beauty +and interest of the country are private property, and that to get access to +them a key is always needed. The key may be large or it may be small, but +it must be something that will turn a lock. Of the things that charm an +American observer in the land of parks and castles, I can think of very few +that do not come under this definition of private property. When I have +mentioned the hedgerows and the churches I have almost exhausted the list. +You can enjoy a hedgerow from the public road, and I suppose that even if +you are a Dissenter you may enjoy a Norman abbey from the street. If, +therefore, one talks of anything beautiful in England, the presumption will +be that it is private; and indeed such is my admiration of this delightful +country that I feel inclined to say that if one talks of anything private, +the presumption will be that it is beautiful. Here is something of a +dilemma. If the observer permits himself to commemorate charming +impressions, he is in danger of giving to the world the fruits of +friendship and hospitality. If, on the other hand, he withholds his +impression, he lets something admirable slip away without having marked its +passage, without having done it proper honor. He ends by mingling +discretion with enthusiasm, and he says to himself that it is not treating +a country ill to talk of its treasures when the mention of each connotes, +as the metaphysicians say, an act of private courtesy. + +The impressions I have in mind in writing these lines were gathered in a +part of England of which I had not before had even a traveller's glimpse; +but as to which, after a day or two, I found myself quite ready to agree +with a friend who lived there, and who knew and loved it well, when he said +very frankly, "I _do_ believe it is the loveliest corner of the world!" +This was not a dictum to quarrel about, and while I was in the neighborhood +I was quite of his mind. I felt that it would not take a great deal to make +me care for it very much as he cared for it: I had a glimpse of the +peculiar tenderness with which such a country may be loved. It is a capital +example of the great characteristic of English scenery--of what I should +call density of feature. There are no waste details; everything in the +landscape is something particular--has a history, has played a part, has a +value to the imagination. It is a country of hills and blue undulations, +and, though none of the hills are high, all of them are +interesting--interesting as such things are interesting in an old, small +country, by a kind of exquisite modulation, something suggesting that +outline and coloring have been retouched and refined, as it were, by the +hand of Time. Independently of its castles and abbeys, the definite relics +of the ages, such a landscape seems historic. It has human relations, and +it is intimately conscious of them. That little speech about the +loveliness of his county, or of his own part of his county, was made to me +by my companion as we walked up the grassy slope of a hill, or "edge," as +it is called there, from the crests of which we seemed in an instant to +look away over half of England. Certainly I should have grown fond of such +a view as that. The "edge" plunged down suddenly, as if the corresponding +slope on the other side had been excavated, and one might follow the long +ridge for the space of an afternoon's walk with this vast, charming +prospect before one's eyes. Looking across an English county into the next +but one is a very pretty entertainment, the county seeming by no means so +small as might be supposed. How can a county seem small in which, from such +a vantage-point as the one I speak of, you see, as a darker patch across +the lighter green, the twelve thousand acres of Lord So-and-So's woods? +Beyond these are blue undulations of varying tone, and then another +bosky-looking spot, which you learn to be about the same amount of manorial +umbrage belonging to Lord Some-One-Else. And to right and left of these, in +shaded stretches, lie other estates of equal consequence. It was therefore +not the smallness but the vastness of the country that struck me, and I was +not at all in the mood of a certain American who once, in my hearing, burst +out laughing at an English answer to my inquiry as to whether my +interlocutor often saw Mr. B----. "Oh no," the answer had been, "we never +see him: he lives away off in the West." It was the western part of his +county our friend meant, and my American humorist found matter for infinite +jest in his meaning. "I should as soon think," he declared, "of saying my +western hand and my eastern." + +I do not think, even, that my disposition to form a sentimental attachment +for this delightful region--for its hillside prospect of old red farmhouses +lighting up the dark-green bottoms, of gables and chimney-tops of great +houses peeping above miles of woodland, and, in the vague places of the +horizon, of far-away towns and sites that one had always heard of--was +conditioned upon having "property" in the neighborhood, so that the little +girls in the town should suddenly drop courtesies to me in the street; +though that too would certainly have been pleasant. At the same time, +having a little property would without doubt have made the sentiment +stronger. People who wander about the world without money have their +dreams--dreams of what they would buy if their pockets were lined. These +dreams are very apt to have relation to a good estate in any neighborhood +in which the wanderer happens to find himself. For myself, I have never +been in a country so unattractive that it did not seem a peculiar felicity +to be able to purchase the most considerable house it contained. In New +England and other portions of the United States I have coveted the large +mansion with Greek columns and a pediment of white-painted timber: in Italy +I should have made proposals for the yellow-walled villa with statues on +the roof. In England I have rarely gone so far as to fancy myself in treaty +for the best house, but, short of this, I have never failed to feel that +ideal comfort for the time would be to call one's self owner of what is +denominated here a "good" place. Is it that English country life seems to +possess such irresistible charms? I have not always thought so: I have +sometimes suspected that it is dull; I have remembered that there is a +whole literature devoted to exposing it (that of the English novel "of +manners"), and that its recorded occupations and conversations occasionally +strike one as lacking a certain desirable salt. But, for all that, when, in +the region to which I allude, my companion spoke of this and that place +being likely sooner or later to come to the hammer, it seemed as if nothing +could be more delightful than to see the hammer fall upon an offer made by +one's self. And this in spite of the fact that the owners of the places in +question would part with them because they could no longer afford to keep +them up. I found it interesting to learn, in so far as was possible, what +sort of income was implied by the possession of country-seats such as are +not in America a concomitant of even the largest fortunes; and if in these +interrogations I sometimes heard of a very long rent-roll, on the other +hand I was frequently surprised at the slenderness of the resources +attributed to people living in the depths of an oak-studded park. Then, +certainly, English country life seemed to me the most advantageous thing in +the world: on these terms one would gladly put up with a little dulness. +When I reflected that there were thousands of people dwelling in brownstone +houses in numbered streets in New York who were at as great a cost to make +a reputable appearance in those harsh conditions as some of the occupants +of the grassy estates of which I had a glimpse, the privileges of the +latter class appeared delightfully cheap. + +There was one place in particular of which I said to myself that if I had +the money to buy it, I would simply walk up to the owner and pour the sum +in sovereigns into his hat. I saw this place, unfortunately, to small +advantage: I saw it in the rain. But I am rather glad that fine weather did +not meddle with the affair, for I think that in this case the irritation of +envy would have been really too acute. It was a rainy Sunday, and the rain +was serious. I had been in the house all day, for the weather can best be +described by my saying that it had been deemed an exoneration from +church-going. But in the afternoon, the prospective interval between lunch +and tea assuming formidable proportions, my host took me out to walk, and +in the course of our walk he led me into a park which he described as "the +paradise of a small English country gentleman." Well it might be: I have +never seen such a collection of oaks. They were of high antiquity and +magnificent girth and stature: they were strewn over the grassy levels in +extraordinary profusion, and scattered upon and down the slopes in a +fashion than which I have seen nothing more charming since I last looked at +the chestnut trees on the banks of the Lake of Como. It appears that the +place was not very vast, but I was unable to perceive its limits. Shortly +before we turned into the park the rain had renewed itself, so that we were +awkwardly wet and muddy; but, being near the house, my companion proposed +to leave his card in a neighborly way. The house was most agreeable: it +stood on a kind of terrace in the midst of a lawn and garden, and the +terrace looked down on one of the handsomest rivers in England, and across +to those blue undulations of which I have already spoken. On the terrace +also was a piece of ornamental water, and there was a small iron paling to +divide the lawn from the park. All this I beheld in the rain. My companion +gave his card to the butler, with the observation that we were too much +bespattered to come in; and we turned away to complete our circuit. As we +turned away I became acutely conscious of what I should have been tempted +to call the cruelty of this proceeding. My imagination gauged the whole +position. It was a Sunday afternoon, and it was raining. The house was +charming, the terrace delightful, the oaks magnificent, the view most +interesting. But the whole thing was--not to repeat the epithet "dull," of +which just now I made too gross a use--the whole thing was quiet. In the +house was a drawing-room, and in the drawing-room was--by which I meant +_must be_--a lady, a charming English lady. There was, it seemed to me, no +fatuity in believing that on this rainy Sunday afternoon it would not +please her to be told that two gentlemen had walked across the country to +her door only to go through the ceremony of leaving a card. Therefore, +when, before we had gone many yards, I heard the butler hurrying after us, +I felt how just my sentiment of the situation had been. Of course we went +back, and I carried my muddy shoes into the drawing-room--just the +drawing-room I had imagined--where I found--I will not say just the lady I +had imagined, but--a lady even more charming. Indeed, there were two +ladies, one of whom was staying in the house. In whatever company you find +yourself in England, you may always be sure that some one present is +"staying." I seldom hear this participle now-a-days without remembering an +observation made to me in France by a lady who had seen much of English +manners: "Ah, that dreadful word _staying!_ I think we are so happy in +France not to be able to translate it--not to have any word that answers to +it." The large windows of the drawing-room I speak of looked away over the +river to the blurred and blotted hills, where the rain was drizzling and +drifting. It was very quiet: there was an air of leisure. If one wanted to +do something here, there was evidently plenty of time--and indeed of every +other appliance--to do it. The two ladies talked about "town:" that is what +people talk about in the country. If I were disposed I might represent them +as talking about it with a certain air of yearning. At all events, I asked +myself how it was possible that one should live in this charming place and +trouble one's head about what was going on in London in July. Then we had +excellent tea. + +I have narrated this trifling incident because there seemed to be some +connection between it and what I was going to say about the stranger's +sense of country life being the normal, natural, typical life of the +English. In America, however comfortably people may live in the country, +there is always, relatively speaking, an air of picnicking about their +establishments. Their habitations, their arrangements, their appointments, +are more or less provisional. They dine at different hours from their city +hours; they wear different clothing; they spend all their time out of +doors. The English, on the other hand, live according to the same system in +Devonshire and in Mayfair--with the difference, perhaps, that in +Devonshire, where they have people "staying" with them, the system is +rather more rigidly applied. The picnicking, if picnicking there is to be, +is done in town. They keep their best things in the country--their best +books, their best furniture, their best pictures--and their footing in +London is as provisional as ours is at our "summer retreats." The English +smile a good deal--or rather would smile a good deal if they had more +observation of it--at the fashion in which we American burghers stow +ourselves away for July and August in white wooden boarding-houses beside +dusty, ill-made roads. But it is fair to say that these improvised homes +are not immeasurably more barbaric than the human _entassement_ that takes +place in London "apartments" during the months of May and June. Whoever has +had unhappy occasion to look for lodgings at this period, and to explore +the mysteries of the little black houses in the West End which have a +neatly-printed card suspended in the door-light, will admit that from the +obligation to rough it our more luxurious kinsmen are not altogether +exempt. We rough it, certainly, more than they do, but we rough it in the +country, where Nature herself is rough, and they rough it in the heart of +the largest and most splendid of cities. In England, in the country, Nature +as well as civilization is smooth, and it seems perfectly consistent, even +at midsummer, to dress for dinner; albeit that when so costumed you cannot +conveniently lie on the grass. But in England you do not particularly +expect to lie on the grass, especially in the evening. The aspect of the +usual English country-houses sufficiently indicates the absence of that +informal culture of the open air into which the American _villeggiatura_ +generally resolves itself; and one reason why I mentioned just now the +excellent dwelling which I visited in the rain was that, as I approached +it, it struck me as so good an example of all that, for American rural +purposes, a house should not be. It was indeed built of stone, or of brick +stuccoed over; which, as they say in England, is a "great pull." But except +that it was detached and gabled, it belonged quite to the class of city +houses. Its walls were straight and bare, and its windows, though wide, +were short. It might have been deposited in Belgravia without in the least +seeming out of place: it conformed to the rigid London model. It had no +external galleries, no breezy piazzas, no long windows opening upon them, +no doors disposed for propagating draughts. But, indeed, I have never seen +an English house furnished with what we call a piazza; and I must add that +I have rarely known an English summer day on which it would have been +convenient to sit in a propagated draught. + +It seems, however, grossly unthankful to say that English country-houses +lack anything when one has received delightful impressions of what they +possess. What is a draughty doorway to an old Norman portal, massively +arched and quaintly sculptured, across whose hollow threshold the eye of +fancy may see the ghosts of monks and the shadows of abbots pass +noiselessly to and fro? What is a paltry piazza to a beautiful ambulatory +of the thirteenth century--a long stone gallery or cloister repeated in two +stories, with the interstices of its carven lattice now glazed, but with +its long, low, narrow, charming vista still perfect and picturesque--with +its flags worn away by monkish sandals, and with huge round-arched doorways +opening from its inner side into great rooms roofed like cathedrals? What +are the longest French windows, with the most patented latches, to narrow +casements of almost defensive aspect set in embrasures three feet deep and +ornamented with little grotesque mediaeval faces? To see one of these small +monkish masks grinning at you while you dress and undress, or while you +look up in the intervals of inspiration from your letter-writing, is a +simple detail in the entertainment of living in an ancient priory. This +entertainment is inexhaustible, for every step you take in such a house +confronts you in one way or another with the remote past. You feast upon +picturesqueness, you inhale history. Adjoining the house is a beautiful +ruin, part of the walls and windows and bases of the piers of the +magnificent church administered by your predecessor the abbot. These relics +are very desultory, but they are still abundant, and they testify to the +great scale and the stately beauty of the abbey. You may lie upon the grass +at the base of an ivied fragment, measure the girth of the great stumps of +the central columns, half smothered in soft creepers, and think how strange +it is that in this quiet hollow, in the midst of lonely hills, so exquisite +and elaborate a work of art should have arisen. It is but an hour's walk to +another great ruin, which has held together more completely. There the +central tower stands erect to half its altitude, and the round arches and +massive pillars of the nave make a perfect vista on the unencumbered turf. +You get an impression that when Catholic England was in her prime great +abbeys were as thick as milestones. By native amateurs, even now, the +region is called "wild," though to American eyes it seems thoroughly +suburban in its smoothness and finish. There is a noiseless little railway +running through the valley, and there is an ancient little town at the +abbey gates--a town, indeed, with no great din of vehicles, but with goodly +brick houses, with a dozen "publics," with tidy, whitewashed cottages, and +with little girls, as I have said, bobbing courtesies in the street. But +even now, if one had wound one's way into the valley by the railroad, it +would be rather a surprise to find a small ornamental cathedral in a spot +on the whole so natural and pastoral. How impressive then must the +beautiful church have been in the days of its prosperity, when the pilgrim +came down to it from the grassy hillside and its bells made the stillness +sensible! The abbey was in those days a great affair: as my companion said, +it sprawled all over the place. As you walk away from it you think you have +got to the end of its traces, but you encounter them still in the shape of +a rugged outhouse grand with an Early-English arch, or an ancient well +hidden in a kind of sculptured cavern. It is noticeable that even if you +are a traveller from a land where there are no Early-English--and indeed +few Late-English--arches, and where the well-covers are, at their hoariest, +of fresh-looking shingles, you grow used with little delay to all this +antiquity. Anything very old seems extremely natural: there is nothing we +accept so implicitly as the past. It is not too much to say that after +spending twenty-four hours in a house that is six hundred years old, you +seem yourself to have lived in it for six hundred years. You seem yourself +to have hollowed the flags with your tread and to have polished the oak +with your touch. You walk along the little stone gallery where the monks +used to pace, looking out of the Gothic window-places at their beautiful +church, and you pause at the big round, rugged doorway that admits you to +what is now the drawing-room. The massive step by which you ascend to the +threshold is a trifle crooked, as it should be: the lintels are cracked and +worn by the myriad-fingered years. This strikes your casual glance. You +look up and down the miniature cloister before you pass in: it seems +wonderfully old and queer. Then you turn into the drawing-room, where you +find modern conversation and late publications and the prospect of dinner. +The new life and the old have melted together: there is no dividing-line. +In the drawing-room wall is a queer funnel-shaped hole, with the broad end +inward, like a small casemate. You ask a lady what it is, but she doesn't +know. It is something of the monks: it is a mere detail. After dinner you +are told that there is of course a ghost--a gray friar who is seen in the +dusky hours at the end of passages. Sometimes the servants see him, and +afterward go surreptitiously to sleep in the town. Then, when you take your +chamber-candle and go wandering bedward by a short cut through empty rooms, +you are conscious of a peculiar sensation which you hardly know whether to +interpret as a desire to see the gray friar or as an apprehension that you +will see him. + +A friend of mine, an American, who knew this country, had told me not to +fail, while I was in the neighborhood, to go to S----. "Edward I. and +Elizabeth," he said, "are still hanging about there." Thus admonished, I +made a point of going to S----, and I saw quite what my friend meant. +Edward I. and Elizabeth, indeed, are still to be met almost anywhere in the +county: as regards domestic architecture, few parts of England are still +more vividly Old English. I have rarely had, for a couple of hours, the +sensation of dropping back personally into the past in a higher degree than +while I lay on the grass beside the well in the little sunny court of this +small castle, and idly appreciated the still definite details of mediaeval +life. The place is a capital example of what the French call a small +_gentilhommiere_ of the thirteenth century. It has a good deep moat, now +filled with wild verdure, and a curious gatehouse of a much later +period--the period when the defensive attitude had been wellnigh abandoned. +This gatehouse, which is not in the least in the style of the habitation, +but gabled and heavily timbered, with quaint cross-beams protruding from +surfaces of coarse white stucco, is a very picturesque anomaly in regard to +the little gray fortress on the other side of the court. I call this a +fortress, but it is a fortress which might easily have been taken, and it +must have assumed its present shape at a time when people had ceased to +peer through narrow slits at possible besiegers. There are slits in the +outer walls for such peering, but they are noticeably broad and not +particularly oblique, and might easily have been applied to the uses of a +peaceful parley. This is part of the charm of the place: human life there +must have lost an earlier grimness: it was lived in by people who were +beginning to feel comfortable. They must have lived very much together: +that is one of the most obvious reflections in the court of a mediaeval +dwelling. The court was not always grassy and empty, as it is now, with +only a couple of gentlemen in search of impressions lying at their length, +one of whom has taken a wine-flask out of his pocket and has colored the +clear water drawn for them out of the well in a couple of tumblers by a +decent, rosy, smiling, talking old woman, who has come bustling out of the +gatehouse, and who has a large, dropsical, innocent husband standing about +on crutches in the sun and making no sign when you ask after his health. +This poor man has reached that ultimate depth of human simplicity at which +even a chance to talk about one's ailments is not appreciated. But the +civil old woman talks for every one, even for an artist who has come out of +one of the rooms, where I see him afterward reproducing its mouldering +quaintness. The rooms are all unoccupied and in a state of extreme decay, +though the castle is, as yet, far from being a ruin. From one of the +windows I see a young lady sitting under a tree across a meadow, with her +knees up, dipping something into her mouth. It is a camel's hair +paint-brush: the young lady is sketching. These are the only besiegers to +which the place is exposed now, and they can do no great harm, as I doubt +whether the young lady's aim is very good. We wandered about the empty +interior, thinking it a pity things should be falling so to pieces. There +is a beautiful great hall--great, that is, for a small castle (it would be +extremely handsome in a modern house)--with tall, ecclesiastical-looking +windows, and a long staircase at one end climbing against the wall into a +spacious bedroom. You may still apprehend very well the main lines of that +simpler life; and it must be said that, simpler though it was, it was +apparently by no means destitute of many of our own conveniences. The +chamber at the top of the staircase ascending from the hall is charming +still, with its irregular shape, its low-browed ceiling, its cupboards in +the walls, and its deep bay window formed of a series of small lattices. +You can fancy people stepping out from it upon the platform of the +staircase, whose rugged wooden logs, by way of steps, and solid, +deeply-guttered hand-rail, still remain. They looked down into the hall, +where, I take it, there was always a certain congregation of retainers, +much lounging and waiting and passing to and fro, with a door open into the +court. The court, as I said just now, was not the grassy, aesthetic spot +which you may find it at present of a summer's day: there were beasts +tethered in it, and hustling men-at-arms, and the earth was trampled into +puddles. But my lord or my lady, looking down from the chamber-door, could +pick out the man wanted and bawl down an order, with a threat to fling +something at his head if it were not instantly performed. The sight of the +groups on the floor beneath, the calling up and down, the oaken tables +spread, and the brazier in the middle,--all this seemed present again; and +it was not difficult to pursue the historic vision through the rest of the +building--through the portion which connected the great hall with the tower +(here the confederate of the sketching young lady without had set up the +peaceful three-legged engine of his craft); through the dusky, roughly +circular rooms of the tower itself, and up the corkscrew staircase of the +same to that most charming part of every old castle, where visions must +leap away off the battlements to elude you--the sunny, breezy platform at +the tower-top, the place where the castle-standard hung and the vigilant +inmates surveyed the approaches. Here, always, you really overtake the +impression of the place--here, in the sunny stillness, it seems to pause, +panting a little, and give itself up. + +It was not only at Stokesay--I have written the name at last, and I will +not efface it--that I lingered a while on the quiet platform of the keep to +enjoy the complete impression so overtaken. I spent such another half hour +at Ludlow, which is a much grander and more famous monument. Ludlow, +however, is a ruin--the most impressive and magnificent of ruins. The +charming old town and the admirable castle form a capital object of +pilgrimage. Ludlow is an excellent example of a small English provincial +town that has not been soiled and disfigured by industry: I remember there +no tall chimneys and smoke-streamers, with their attendant purlieus and +slums. The little city is perched upon a hill near which the goodly Severn +wanders, and it has a noticeable air of civic dignity. Its streets are wide +and clean, empty and a little grass-grown, and bordered with spacious, +soberly-ornamental brick houses, which look as if there had been more going +on in them in the first decade of the century than there is in the present, +but which can still, nevertheless, hold up their heads and keep their +window-panes clear, their knockers brilliant and their doorsteps whitened. +The place looks as if seventy years ago it had been the centre of a large +provincial society, and as if that society had been very "good of its +kind." It must have transported itself to Ludlow for the season--in +rumbling coaches and heavyish curricles--and there entertained itself in +decent emulation of that metropolis which a choice of railway-lines had not +as yet placed within its immediate reach. It had balls at the +assembly-rooms; it had Mrs. Siddons to play; it had Catalani to sing. Miss +Austin's and Miss Edgeworth's heroines might perfectly well have had their +first love-affair there: a journey to Ludlow would certainly have been a +great event to Fanny Price or Anne Eliot, to Helen or Belinda. It is a +place on which a provincial "gentry" has left a sensible stamp. I have +seldom seen so good a collection of houses of the period between the elder +picturesqueness and the modern baldness. Such places, such houses, such +relics and intimations, always carry me back to the near antiquity of that +pre-Victorian England which it is still easy for a stranger to picture with +a certain vividness, thanks to the partial survival of many of its +characteristics. It is still easy for a stranger who has stayed a while in +England to form an idea of the tone, the habits, the aspect of English +social life before its classic insularity had begun to wane, as all +observers agree that it did, about thirty years ago. It is true that the +mental operation in this matter reduces itself to fancying some of the +things which form what Mr. Matthew Arnold would call the peculiar "notes" +of England infinitely exaggerated--the rigidly aristocratic constitution of +society, for instance; the unaesthetic temper of the people; the private +character of most kinds of comfort and entertainment. Let an old gentleman +of conservative tastes, who can remember the century's youth, talk to you +at a club _temporis acti_--tell you wherein it is that from his own point +of view London, as a residence for a gentleman, has done nothing but fall +off for the last forty years. You will listen, of course, with an air of +decent sympathy, but privately you will be saying to yourself how +difficult a place of sojourn London must have been in those days for a +stranger--how little cosmopolitan, how bound, in a thousand ways, with +narrowness of custom. What is true of the metropolis at that time is of +course doubly true of the provinces; and a genteel little city like the one +I am speaking of must have been a kind of focus of insular propriety. Even +then, however, the irritated alien would have had the magnificent ruins of +the castle to dream himself back into good-humor in. They would effectually +have transported him beyond all waning or waxing Philistinisms. + +Ludlow Castle is an example of a great feudal fortress, as the little +castellated manor I spoke of a while since is an example of a small one. +The great courtyard at Ludlow is as large as the central square of a city, +but now it is all vacant and grassy, and the day I was there a lonely old +horse was tethered and browsing in the middle of it. The place is in +extreme dilapidation, but here and there some of its more striking features +have held well together, and you may get a very sufficient notion of the +immense scale upon which things were ordered in the day of its strength. It +must have been garrisoned with a small army, and the vast _enceinte_ must +have enclosed a stalwart little world. Such an impression of thickness and +duskiness as one still gets from fragments of partition and chamber--such a +sense of being well behind something, well out of the daylight and its +dangers--of the comfort of the time having been security, and security +incarceration! There are prisons within the prison--horrible unlighted +caverns of dismal depth, with holes in the roof through which Heaven knows +what odious refreshment was tossed down to the poor groping _detenu_. There +is nothing, surely, that paints one side of the Middle Ages more vividly +than this fact that fine people lived in the same house with their +prisoners, and kept the key in their pocket. Fancy the young ladies of the +family working tapestry in their "bower" with the knowledge that at the +bottom of the corkscrew staircase one of their papa's enemies was sitting +month after month in mouldy midnight! But Ludlow Castle has brighter +associations than these, the chief of which I should have mentioned at the +outset. It was for a long period the official residence of the +governors--the "lords presidents" they were called--of the Marches of +Wales, and it was in the days of its presidential splendor that Milton's +_Comus_ was acted in the great hall. Wandering about in shady corners of +the ruin, it is the echo of that enchanting verse that we should try to +catch, and not the faint groans of some encaverned malefactor. Other verse +was also produced at Ludlow--verse, however, of a less sonorous quality. A +portion of Samuel Butler's _Hudibras_ was composed there. Let me add that +the traveller who spends a morning at Ludlow will naturally have come +thither from Shrewsbury, of which place I have left myself no space to +speak, though it is worth, and well worth, an allusion. Shrewsbury is a +museum of beautiful old gabled, cross-timbered house-fronts. + +H. JAMES, JR. + + + + +LITTLE LIZAY. + + +Alston was a Virginia slave--a tall, well-built half-breed, in whom the +white blood dominated the black. When about thirty-seven years of age he +was sold to a Mississippi plantation, in the north-western part of the +State and on the river. The farm was managed by an overseer, the +master--Horton by name--being a practising physician in Memphis, Tenn. +Alston had been on the plantation a few weeks when, toward the last of +September, the cotton-picking season opened. The year had been, for the +river-plantations, exceptionally favorable for cotton-growing. On the +Horton place especially "the stand" had been pronounced perfect, there +being scarcely a gap, scarcely a stalk missing from the mile-long rows of +the broad fields. Then, the rainfall had not been so profuse as to develop +foliage at the bolls' expense, as was too frequently the case on the river. +Yet it had been plenteous enough to keep off the "rust," from which the +dryer upland plantations were now suffering. Neither the "boll-worm" nor +the dreaded "army-worm" had molested the river-fields; so the tall +pyramidal plants were thickly set with "squares" and green egg-shaped +bolls, smooth and shining as with varnish. On a single stalk might be seen +all stages of development--from the ripe, brown boll, parted starlike, with +the long white fleece depending, to the bean-sized embryo from which the +crimson flower had but just fallen. Indeed, among the wide-open bolls there +was an occasional flower, cream-hued or crimson according to its age, for +the cotton-bloom at opening resembles in color the magnolia-blossom, but +this changes quickly to a deep crimson. + +There was, then, the promise, almost the certainty, of a heavy crop on the +Horton place. It was in view of this that the owner completed an +arrangement, for months under consideration, in which he increased his +working plantation-force by thirteen hands, of whom one was Alston. It was, +too, in view of this promised heavy crop that the overseer, Mr. Buck, +harangued the slaves at the opening of the picking-season. The burden of +his harangue was, that no flagging would be tolerated in cotton-gathering +during the season. The figures of the past year were on record, showing +what each hand did each day. There was to be no falling behind these +figures: indeed, they must be beaten, for the heavier bolling made the +picking easier. Any one falling behind was to be cowhided. As for the new +hands, they ought to lead the field, for they were all young, stout +fellows. + +As has been said, Alston was tall, strong, well-made. Working in tobacco, +to whose culture he had been used, he could hold his hand with the best: +how would it be in this new business of cotton-picking? He had a strong +element of cheerful fidelity in his nature. The first day he worked +steadily and as rapidly as he was able at the unfamiliar employment. When +night came he reckoned he had done well. With a complacent feeling he stood +waiting his turn as the great baskets, one after another, were swung on the +steelyard and the weights announced. He found himself pitying some of the +pickers as light weights were called, wondering if they had fallen behind +last year's figures. When his basket was brought forward, it was by Big +Sam, who with one hand swung it lightly to the scales; yet Alston's thought +was, "How strong Big Sam is!" and never, "How light the basket!" + +The weight was announced: Alston was almost stunned. He had strained every +nerve, yet here he was behind the children-pickers, behind the gray old +women stiff with rheumatism and broken with childbearing and with doing +men's work. + +"Sixty-three pounds!" the overseer said with a threatening tone. "Min' yer +git a heap higher'n that ter-morrer, yer yaller raskel! Ef yer can't pick +cotton, yer'll be sol' down in Louzany to a sugar-plantation, whar' niggers +don't git nothin' ter eat 'cept cotton-seeds an' a few dreggy lasses." + +Next to being sent to "the bad place" itself, the most terrible fate, to +the negro's imagination, was to be sold to a sugar-planter. + +"Here's Big Sam," the overseer continued, "nigh unto three hunderd; an' +Little Lizay two hunderd an' fawty-seven.--That's the bigges' figger yer's +ever struck yit, Lizay: shows what yer kin do. Min' yer come up ter it +ter-morrer an' ev'ry other day." + +"Days gits shawter 'bout Chrismus-time," Little Lizay ventured to suggest, +"an' it gits col', an' my fingers ain't limber." + +"Don't give me none yer jaw. Reckon I knows 'nuff ter make 'lowances fer +col' an' shawt days an' scatterin' bolls an' sich like." + +The next day, Alston, humiliated by his failure and by the brutal reprimand +he had received, went to the cotton-field before any of the other +hands--indeed, before it was fairly light. There he worked if ever a man +did work. When the other negroes came on the field there were laughing, +talking, singing, nodding and occasional napping in the shade of the +cotton-stalks. But Alston took no part in any of these. He had no interest +for anything apart from his work. At this all his faculties were engaged. +His lithe body was seen swaying from side to side about the widespreading +branches; he stood on tiptoe to reach the topmost bolls; he got on his +knees to work the base-limbs, pressing down and away the long grass with +his broad feet, tearing and holding back even with his teeth hindering +tendrils of the passion-flower and morning-glory and other creepers which +had escaped the devastating hoe when the crop was "laid by," and had made +good their hold on occasional stalks. Persistently he worked in this intent +way all through the hot day, every muscle in action. He lingered at the +work till after the last of the other pickers had with great baskets poised +on head joined the long, weird procession, showing white in the dusk, that +went winding through field and lane to the ginhouse. On he worked till the +crescent moon came up and he could hardly discern fleece from leaf. At +last, fearing that the basket-weighing might be ended before he could reach +the ginhouse, a half mile distant, he emptied his pick-sack, belted at his +waist, into the tall barrel-like basket, tramped the cotton with a few +movements of his bare feet, and then kneeling got the basket to his +shoulder: he was not used to the balancing on head which seemed natural as +breathing to the old hands. With long strides he hurried to the ginhouse. +He was not a minute too early. Almost the last basket had been weighed, +emptied and stacked when he climbed the ladder-like steps to the scaffold +where the cotton was sunned preparatory to its ginning. When he had pushed +his way through the crowd of negroes hanging about the door of the +ginhouse-loft he heard the overseer call, "Whar's that yaller whelp, +Als'on?" + +"Here, sah," Alston answered, hurrying forward to put his basket on the +steelyard. + +"Give me any mo' yer jaw an' I'll lay yer out with the butt-en' er this +whip," said Mr. Buck. Alston was wondering what he had said that was +disrespectful, when the man added, "Won't have none yer sahrin' uv me. I's +yer moster, an' that's what yer's got ter call me, I let yer know." + +Alston's blood was up, but the slaves were used to self-repression. All +that was endurable in their lives depended on patience and submission. + +"Beg poddon, moster," Alston said with well-assumed meekness. "In Ol' +Virginny we use ter say moster to jist our sho'-'nuff owners; but," he +added quickly, by way of mollifying the overseer, who could not fail to be +stung by the covert jeer, "it's a heap better ter say moster ter all the +white folks, white trash an' all: then yer's sho' ter be right." + +At this speech there was in Mr. Buck's rear much grinning and eye-rolling. + +But Mr. Buck was engaged with Alston's basket, which was now on the scales. +"Sixty-seven poun's," the overseer called. + +The slave's heart sank: only four pounds' gain after all his toil early and +late! He was bitterly disappointed. He believed the overseer lied. Then his +heart burned. Couldn't he leave his basket unemptied, and weigh it himself +when the others were gone? No: the order of routine was peremptory. The +baskets must be emptied and stacked on the scaffold outside the +cotton-loft, so that there would be no chance the next morning for the +negroes to take away cotton in their baskets to the fields. And what if he +could reweigh his cotton, and prove Mr. Buck a liar? He would not dare +breathe the discovery. + +So Alston emptied out the cotton he had worked so hard to gather, listening +moodily to the overseer's harsh threats: "Yer reckon I's goin' to stan' +sich figgers? Sixty-seven poun's! fou' poun's 'head uv yistiddy. Yer ought +ter be fawty ahead. I won't look at nothin' under a hunderd. Ef yer don't +get it ter-morrer I'll tie yer up, sho's yer bawn, yer great merlatto dog! +Yer's 'hin' the poo'es' gal in the fiel'." + +"I never pick no cotton 'fo' yistiddy, an' its tolerbul unhandy. Rickon I +kin do better when I gits my han' in. I use ter could wuck fus'-rate in +tobaccy." + +"Tobaccy won't save yer. We hain't got no use for niggers ef they can't +come up ter the scratch on cotton. I's made a big crop, an' I ain't goin' +ter let it rot in the fiel'. Yer ought ter pick three hunderd ev'ry day. I +know'd a nigger onct, a heap littler than Little Lizay, that picked five +hunderd ev'ry lick; an' I hearn tell uv a feller that went up ter seven +hunderd. I ain't goin' ter take no mo' sixties from yer: a good hunderd or +the cowhide. That's the talk!" + +"I'll pick all I kin," said Alston: "I wuckt haud's I could ter-day." + +"Ef yer don't hush yer lyin' mouth I'll cut yer heart out." + +Alston went from the gin-loft, his blood tingling. On the sunning-scaffold +he encountered Little Lizay. She had been listening--had heard all that had +passed between the two men. She went down the scaffold-steps, and Alston +came soon after. She waited for him, and they walked to the "quarter" +together. "It's mighty haud, ain't it?" she said. + +"I believe he tol' a lie 'bout my baskit. Anyhow, I wuckt haud's I could +ter-day. I can't pick no hunderd poun's uv the flimpsy stuff. He'll have +ter cowhide me: I don't kere." + +But Alston did care keenly--not so much for the pain; he could bear worse +misery than the brutal arm could inflict, though the rawhide cut like a +dull knife; but it was the shame, the disgrace, of the thing. He was a +stranger on the place--only a few weeks there--and to be tied up and +flogged in the midst of strange, unsympathizing negroes! it was such +degradation to his manhood. Since he was a child he had not been struck. He +had been rather a favorite with his master in Virginia, but this master had +died in debt, leaving numerous heirs, and in the changes incident to a +partition of the estate Alston was sold. + +Perceiving that he had Little Lizay's sympathy, Alston went on talking, +telling her that he could stand a lashing coming from his own master, but +that an overseer was only white trash, who never did "own a nigger," and +never would be able to. If he had to be flogged, he wanted it to be by a +gentleman. + +"Never min'," said Little Lizay. "Maybe yer'll git mo' ter-morrer. When +yer's pickin' yer mus' quit stoppin' ter pick out the leaves an' trash. I +lets ev'rything go in that happens, green bolls an' all: they weighs +heavy." + +The following day, Alston, as before, went to the cotton-field early, but +he found that Little Lizay had the start of him. She had already emptied +her sack into her pick-basket. "The cotton we get now'll weigh heavy," she +said: "it's got dew on it." + +"That's so," Alston assented, "but yer mus'n't talk ter me, Lizay. I's got +ter put all my min' ter my wuck: I can't foad ter talk." + +"I can't nuther," said Lizay. "Wish I didn't pick so much cotton the fus' +day: I's got ter keep on trottin' ter two hunderd an' fawty-seven." + +She selected two rows beside Alston's. She wore a coarse dress of uncolored +homespun cotton, of the plainest and scantiest make, low in the neck, short +in the sleeves and skirt. Her feet and head were bare. A sack of like +material with her dress was tied about the waist, apron-like. This was to +receive immediately the pickings from the hand. When filled it was emptied +in a pick-basket, holding with a little packing fifty or sixty pounds. This +small basket was kept in the picker's vicinity, being moved forward +whenever the sack was taken back for emptying. Besides this go-between +pick-basket, there was at that end of the row nearest the ginhouse an +immense basket, nearly as tall as a barrel, and of greater circumference, +with a capacity for three hundred pounds. + +Alston's pick-basket stood beside Little Lizay's, and between his row and +hers. She was carrying two rows to his one, and he perceived, without +looking and with a vague envy, that Lizay emptied three sacks at least to +his one. Yet she did not seem to be working half as hard as he was. With +light, graceful movements, now right, now left, she plucked the white tufts +and the candelabra-like pendants stretched by the wind and the expanding +lint till the dark seed could be discerned in clusters. + +It was near nine o'clock when Alston emptied his first sack, some fifteen +pounds, in the pick-basket, which Little Lizay had brought forward with her +own. Soon after she went back to empty her sack. The baskets stood +hazardously near Alston for Lizay's game, but with her back turned to him +and the luxuriant cotton-stalks between she reckoned she might venture. +One-third of her sack she threw into Alston's basket--about five pounds. +And thus the poor soul did during the day, giving a third of her gatherings +to Alston. She would have given him more--the half, the whole, everything +she owned--for she regarded him with a feeling that would have been called +love in a fairer woman. + +Alston had been in Virginia something of a house-servant, doing occasional +duty as coachman when the regular official was ill or was wanted elsewhere. +He was also a good table-waiter, and had served in the dining-room when +there were guests. So it came that though properly a field-hand, yet in +manner and speech he showed to advantage beside the slaves who were +exclusively field-hands. Little Lizay too occupied a halfway place between +these and the better-spoken, gentler-mannered house-servants. In the +winters, after Christmas, which usually terminated the picking-season, +Lizay was called to the place of head assistant of the plantation +seamstress. Indeed, she did little field-service except in times of special +pressure and during the quarter of cotton-picking. She was so +nimble-fingered and swift that she could not be spared from the field in +picking-season, especially if, as was the case this year, there was a heavy +crop. And occasionally in the winter, when there was unusual company at the +Hortons' in the city, Little Lizay was sent for and had the advantage of a +season in town. She felt her superiority to the average plantation-negro, +and had not married, though not unsolicited. When, therefore, Alston came +she at once recognized in him a companion, and she was not long in making +over her favor to the distinguished-looking stranger. He was, as she, a +half-breed, and Lizay liked her own color. Had Alston courted her favor, +she might have yielded it less readily, but he did not take easily to his +new companions. Some called him proud: others reckoned he had left a +sweetheart, a wife perhaps, in Virginia. Little Lizay's evident preference +laid her open to the rude jokes and sneers of the other negroes--in +particular Big Sam, who was her suitor, and Edny Ann, who was fond of +Alston. But Edny Ann did not care for Alston as Little Lizay did--could +not, indeed. She was incapable of the devotion that Lizay felt. She would +not have left her sleep and gone to the dew-wet field before daybreak for +the sake of helping Alston: she would not have taken the risk of falling +behind in her picking, and thus incurring a flogging, by dividing her +gatherings with him. And if she had helped him at all, it would not have +been delicately, as Lizay's help had been given. Edny Ann would have wanted +Alston to know that she had helped him: Little Lizay wished to hide it from +him, both because she feared he would decline her help, and because she +wanted to spare him the humiliation. + +When night came not only Alston lingered, picking by moonlight, but Little +Lizay; and this gave rise to much laughing among the other pickers, and to +many coarse jokes. But to one who knew her secret it would have seemed +piteous--the girl's anxious face as the weighing proceeded, drawing on and +on to Alston's basket and hers at the very end of the line. Would he have +a hundred? would she fall behind? Would he be saved the flogging? would she +have to suffer in his stead? She dreaded a flogging at the hands of that +brutal overseer, and all her womanliness shrunk from the degradation of +being stripped and flogged in Alston's presence, or even of having him know +that she was to be cowhided. She bethought her of making an appeal to the +overseer. She knew she had some power with him, for he had been enamored, +in his brutish way, of her physical charms--her neat figure, her glossy, +waving hair, and the small, shapely hand and foot. + +Just before the weighing had reached Alston's basket and hers she stepped +beside the overseer. "Please, Mos' Buck," she said in a low tone, "ef I +falls 'hin' myse'f, an' don't git up to them fus' figgers, an' has to git +cowhided--please, sah, don't let the black folks an' Als'on know 'bout it." + +Mr. Buck took a hint from this request. He perceived that Lizay was +interested in Alston, as he had already guessed from the jokes of the +negroes, and that she was specially desirous to conceal her shame from the +man to whom she had given her favor. Mr. Buck resented it that Lizay should +rebuff him and encourage Alston; so he hoped that for this once, at any +rate, she would fall behind: he had thought of a capital plan of revenging +himself on her. + +The next moment after her whispered appeal Lizay saw with intense interest +Alston's basket brought forward for weighing. She glanced at him. His eyes +were wide open, staring with eagerness, his head advanced, his whole +attitude one of absorbed anxiety. By the position of the weight or pea on +the steelyard she knew that it was put somewhere near the sixty notch. Up +flew the end of the yard, and up flew Lizay's heart with it: out went the +pea some ten teeth, yet up again went the impatient steel. Click! click! +click! rattled the weight. Out and out another ten notches, then another +and another--one hundred, one hundred and one, one hundred and two, one +hundred and three--yet the yard still protested, still called for more. +Out one tooth farther, and the steel lay along the horizon. Everybody +listened. + +"One hunderd an' fou'," Mr. Buck announced. "Thar' now, yer lazy dog! I +know'd yer wasn't half wuckin'. Now see ter it yer come ter taw arter this: +hunderd an' fou's yer notch." + +It was a moment of supreme relief to Alston. He drew a long breath, and +returned some smiles of congratulation from the negroes. Then he sighed: he +felt hopeless of repeating the weight day after day. He had hardly stopped +to breathe from day-dawn till moon-rise: he would not always have the +friendly moonlight to help him. But now Little Lizay's basket was swinging. +He listened to hear its weight with interest, but how unlike this was to +the absorbed anxiety which she had felt for him! + +"Two hunderd an' 'leven--thutty-six poun's behin'!" said Mr. Buck, smacking +his lips as over some good thing. Now he should have vent for his spite +against the girl. "Thutty-six lashes on yer bar' back by yer sweet'art." +Mr. Buck said this with a dreadful snicker in Little Lizay's face. + +The word ran like wildfire from mouth to mouth that Little Lizay, the +famous picker, had fallen behind, and was to be flogged--by the overseer, +some said--by Big Sam, others declared. But Edny Ann reckoned the cowhiding +was to be done by Alston. + +"An' her dersarves it, kase her's a big fool," said Edny Ann, "hangin' +roun' him, an' patchin' his cloze like her wus morred ter 'im--an' washin' +his shut an' britches ev'ry Saddy night." + +All the hands were required to stop after the weighing and witness the +floggings, as a warning to themselves and an enhancement of punishment to +the convicts. There was but little shrinking from the sight. Human nature +is everywhere much the same: cruel spectacles brutalize, whether in Spain +or on a negro-plantation. But to-night there was a new sensation: the +slaves were on the _qui vive_ to see Little Lizay flogged, and to find out +whose hand was to wield the whip. + +"Now hurry up yere, yer lazy raskels! an' git yer floggin'," Mr. Buck said +when the weighing was over. + +From right and left and front and rear negroes came forward and stood, a +motley group, before the one white man. It was a weird spectacle that did +not seem to belong to our earth. Black faces, heads above heads, crowded at +the doorway--some solemn and sympathetic, others grinning in anticipation +of the show. Negroes were perched on the gin and in the corners of the loft +where the cotton was heaped. Others lay at full length close to the field +of action. In every direction the dusky figures dotted the cotton lying on +every hand about the little cleared space where the flogging and weighing +were done. In a close bunch stood the shrinking, cowering convicts, some +with heads white as the cotton all about them. Mr. Buck, the most +picturesque figure of the whole, was laying off his coat and baring his +arm, standing under the solitary lamp depending from the rafters, whose +faint light served to give to all the scene an indefinite supernatural +aspect. + +"Now, come out yere," said Mr. Buck, moving from under the grease-lamp and +calling for volunteers. + +One by one the negroes came forward and bared themselves to the +waist--children, strong men and old women. And then there was shrieking and +wailing, begging and praying: it was like a leaf out of hell. + +Little Lizay was among the first of the condemned to present herself, for +she felt an intolerable suspense as to what awaited her. The vague terror +in her face was discerned by the dim light. + +As she stepped forward Mr. Buck called out, "Als'on!" + +"Yes, moster," Alston answered. + +"What yer sneakin' in that thar' corner fer? Come up yere, you--" but his +vile sentence shall not be finished here. + +Alston came forward with a statuesque face. + +"Take this rawhide," was the order he received. + +He put out his hand, and then, suddenly realizing the requisition that was +to be made on him, realizing that he was to flog Little Lizay, his +confidante and sympathizing friend, his hand dropped cold and limp. + +"Yerdar' ter dis'bey me?" Mr. Buck bellowed. "I'll brain yer: I'll--" + +"I didn't go ter do it, moster," Alston said, reaching for the whip. "I'll +whip her tell yer tells me ter stop." + +"He didn't go ter do it, Mos' Buck," pleaded Little Lizay, frightened for +Alston. "He'll whip me ef yer'll give 'im the whip.--I's ready, Als'on." + +She crossed her arms over her bare bosom and shook her long hair forward: +then dropped her face low and stood with her back partly turned to Alston, +who now had the whip. + +"Fire away!" said the overseer. + +Alston was not a refined gentleman, whose youth had been hedged from the +coarse and degrading, whose good instincts had been cherished, whose +faculties had been harmoniously trained. He was not a hero: he was not +prepared to espouse to the death Little Lizay's cause--to risk everything +for the shrinking, helpless woman and for his own manhood--to die rather +than strike her. He was only a slave, used from his cradle to the low and +cruel and brutalizing. But he had the making of a man in him: his nature +was one that could never become utterly base. But there was no help, no +hope, for either of them in anything he could do. He might knock Mr. Buck +senseless, sure of the sympathy of every slave on the plantation. There +would be a brief triumph, but he and Little Lizay would have to pay for it: +bloodhounds, scourgings, chains, cruelty that never slept and could never +be placated, were sure as fate. Resistance was inevitable disaster. + +Alston did not need to stand there undetermined while he went over this: it +was familiar ground. Over and over again he had settled it: it was madness +for the slave to oppose himself to the dominant white man. + +So, after his first unreasoning recoil, his mind was decided to adminster +the flogging. Would it not be a mercy to Little Lizay for him to do this +rather than that other hand, energized by hate, revenge and cruelty? + +He raised his arm, with his heart beating hot and his manhood shrinking: he +struck Little Lizay's bare shoulders. She had nerved herself, but the blow, +after all, surprised her and made her start; and she had not quite +recovered herself when the second blow fell, so that she winced again; but +after that she stood like a statue. + +"Harder!" cried Mr. Buck after the first few lashes. "None yer tomfool'ry +'bout me. She ain't no baby. Harder! I tell yer. Yer ain't draw'd no blood +nary time. Ef yer don't min' me I'll knock yer down. Yer whips like yer wus +'feard yer'd hurt 'er. Yer ac' like yer never whipped no nigger sence yer +wus bawn. Yer's got ter tiptoe ter it, an' fling yer arm back at a better +lick 'an that. Look yere: ef yer don't lick her harder I'll make Big Sam +lick yer till yer see sights." + +At length the wretched work was ended, and the negroes made their way along +the moonlighted lanes to their cabins. These were single rooms, built of +unhewn logs, chinked and daubed with yellow mud. They had puncheon floors +and chimneys built of sticks and clay. Of clay also were the all-important +jambs, which served as depositories of perhaps every household article +pertaining to the cabin except the bedding and the stools. There might have +been found the household knife and spoon, the two or three family tin cups, +the skillet, the pothooks, sundry gourd vessels, the wooden tray in which +the "cawn" bread was mixed--pipe, tobacco and banjo. + +On the Horton place the negroes cooked their own suppers after the day's +work was over. So for an hour every evening "the quarter" had an animated +aspect, for the cabins, standing five yards apart, faced each other in two +long lines. In each was a glowing fire, on which logs and pine-knots and +cypress-splints were laid with unsparing hand, for there was no limit to +the fuel. These fires furnished the lights: candles and lamps were unknown +at "the quarter." + +Of course the windowless cabins, with these roaring fires, were stifling +in September; so the negroes sat in the doorways chatting and singing while +the bacon was frying and the corn dough roasting in the ashes or the +hoecake baking on the griddle. An occasional woman patched or washed some +garment by the firelight, while others brought water in piggins from the +spring at the foot of the hill on whose brow "the quarter" was located. + +As Alston sat outside his door on a block, eating his supper by the light +of the high-mounting flames of his cabin-fire, Little Lizay came out and +sat on her doorsill. Her cabin stood opposite his. He recognized her, and +when he had finished his supper he went over to her. + +"I didn't want ter strike yer, Lizay," he said. "Do you feel haud agin me +fer it?" + +"No," Lizay answered: "he made yer do it. Yer couldn't he'p it. I reckon +yer'll have ter whip me agin ter-morrer night. I mos' knows my baskit won't +weigh no two hunderd an' fawty-seven poun's. 'Tain't fa'r ter 'spec' that +much from me: it's a heap more'n tother gals gits, an' mos' all uv um is +heap bigger'n me. I's small pertatoes." She laughed a little at her jest. + +"Yer's some punkins," said Alston, returning the joke. "I'd give a heap ef +I could pick cotton like yer." + +"Yer's improved a heap," said Little Lizay. "Ef yer keeps on improvin', +mayby yer'll git so yer kin he'p me arter 'while." + +"Mayby so," Alston answered. + +"But yer wouldn't he'p me, I reckon. Reckon yer'd he'p Edny Ann: yer likes +her better'n me." + +"No, I don't." + +"Reckon yer likes somebody in Virginny more'n yer likes anybody on this +plantation." + +"I's better 'quainted back thar'," said Alston apologetically. + +"But thar' ain't no use hankerin' arter them yer's lef 'hin' yer: reckon +yer won't never see um no mo'. Heap better git sati'fied yere. It's a long +way back thar', ain't it?" + +"A mighty long way," said Alston; and then he was silent, his thoughts +going back and back over the long way. + +Lizay recalled him: "Was yer sorry yer had ter whip me?" + +"I was mighty sorry, Little Lizay," he replied with a strong tone of +tenderness that made her heart beat faster. "I would er knocked that white +nigger down, but it wouldn't er he'ped nothin'. Things would er jus' been +wusser." + +"Yes," Lizay assented, "nothin' won't he'p us: ain't no use in nothin'." + +"Reckon I'll go in an' go ter sleep," said Alston: "got ter git up early in +the mawnin'." + +He _was_ up early the next morning, he and Little Lizay being again in the +cotton-field before dawn. All through the day there was, as before, +persistent devotion to the picking; then the holding on after dusk for one +more pound; the same result at night--the man up to the required figure, +the woman behind, this time forty-one pounds behind. Again she received a +cowhiding at Alston's hands. + +"What yer mean by this yere foolin'?" Mr. Buck demanded in a rage of Little +Lizay. "Yer reckon I's gwine ter stan' this yere? Two hunderd an' +fawty-seven 'gin two hunderd an' six! It's all laziness an' mulishness. +I'll git yer outen that thar' notch, else I'll kill yer. Look yere: +ter-morrer, ef yer don't come ter taw, I'll give yer twict es many licks es +the poun's yer falls behin'." + +Did this threat frighten Little Lizay out of her devotion? + +"Two hunderd is 'nuff fer a little gal like yer," Alston said the next +morning. "Save my life, I can't pick no more'n a hunderd an' a few poun's +mo'. I wouldn't stan' ter be flogged ef I'd done my shar'." + +"Got ter stan' it--can't he'p myse'f." + +"I'd go ter town an' tell Mos' Hawton. I's tolerbul sho' he wouldn't 'low +yer ter git twict es many licks, nohow. Mos' Hawton's tolerbul good ter his +black folks, ain't he?" + +"Yes, tolerbul--to the house-sarvants he's got in town; but he jist goes +'long mindin' his business thar', an' don't pay no 'tention sca'cely ter +his plantation. He don't want us ter come 'plainin' ter him. He's mighty +busy--gits a heap er practice, makes a heap er money. He went down the +river onct, more'n a hunderd miles, ter cut somethin' off a man--I fawgits +what 'twas--an' the man paid him hunderds an' hunderds an' hunderds--I +fawgits how much 'twas." + +Here Little Lizay found that Alston was no longer listening, but was +absorbed with the cotton-picking. + +That day, to save the pickers' time, their bacon and corn pones were +brought out to the field by wagon in wooden trays and buckets. There were +three cotton-baskets filled with corn dodgers. Alston and Little Lizay sat +not far apart while eating their dinners. + +"I reckon I's gittin' 'long tolerbul well ter-day," he said. "Dun know for +sar-tin, but looks like the pickin' wus heap handier than at fus'. Look +yere, Lizay: ef I know'd I'd git more'n a hunderd I'd he'p yer 'long: I'd +give yer the balance. Couldn't stave off all the floggin', but I might save +yer some licks." + +"Take kere yer ownse'f, Als'on. I don't min' the las' few licks: they don't +never hut bad es the fus' ones." This was Little Lizay's answer, given with +glowing cheek and eyes looking down. To her own heart she said, "I likes +him better'n he likes me. Reckon he can't git over mou'nin' fer somebody in +Virginny." She wondered if he had left a wife back there: she would test +him. "Reckon yer'll hear from yer wife any mo', Als'on?" she said. + +"Yes, reckon I will. She said she'd write me a letter. She didn't b'long +ter my ol' moster: she b'longed ter Squire Minor. I tuck a wife off'en our +plantation. She's goin' ter ax her moster ter sell her an' the childun to +Mos' Hawton, and I's waitin' ter fin' out ef he'll sell 'um. I ain't goin' +ter cou't no other gal tell I fin's out." + +"Yer hopes he'll sell her, don't yer?" Little Lizay asked with an anxious +heart. + +"She wus a mighty good wife," said Alston, without committing himself by a +categorical answer. "Would seem like Ol' Virginny ter have her an' the +childun, but they's better off thar'. They couldn't pick cotton, I reckon. +Her moster an' mistiss thinks a heap uv her: she's one the cooks. I don't +reckon they kin spaw her." + +"Don't yer, sho' 'nuff?" + +"No, I don't reckon they kin, 'cause one Mis' Minor's cooks is gittin' ol' +an' can't see good--Aunt Juno. She wucks up flies an' sich into the cawn +bread. They wants ter put my wife into her place, but they can't git shet +with Aunt Juno: she's jis' boun' she'll do the white folks' cookin'. She +says thar' ain't no use in bein' free ef she can't do what she pleases: +they set her free Chrismus 'fo' las'. But law, Lizay! we mus' hurry up an' +get ter pickin'." + +That night Lizay had gained on her basket of the preceding day by five and +a half pounds, and Alston had fallen behind his by four. But as he was +still over a hundred he escaped a flogging. Mr. Buck, being unable to +reckon exactly the number of lashes to which Little Lizay was entitled, +gave the rawhide the benefit of any doubt and ordered Alston to administer +seventy-five lashes. + +The next day nothing noticeable occurred in the lives of these two slaves, +except that Alston's basket fell yet behind: Mr. Buck acknowledged it was a +"hunderd, but a mighty tight squeeze," while Little Lizay's had gained +three pounds on the last weight. + +"Yer saved six lashes ter-day, Little Lizay," Alston said. He was evidently +glad for her, and her hungry heart was glad that he cared. + +"An' yer didn't haudly git clear," she replied, adding to herself that +to-morrow she must be more generous with her help to Alston. + +But on the morrow something occurred which dismayed the girl. She had +shaken her sack over Alston's basket, designing to empty a third of its +contents there, and then the remainder in her "pick." But the cotton was +closely packed in the sack, and almost the whole of it tumbled in a compact +mass into Alston's basket. He would not need so much help as this to ensure +him, so she proceeded to transfer a portion of the heap to her basket. +Suddenly she started as though shot. Some one was calling to her and making +a terrible accusation. The some one was Edny Ann: "Yer's stealin' thar': I +see'd yer do it--see'd yer takin' cotton outen Als'on's baskit. Ain't yer +shame, yer yaller good-fer-nuffin'? I's gwine ter tell." This was the +terrible accusation. + +"Yer dun know nothin' 'tall 'bout it," said Little Lizay. "It's my cotton. +I emptied it in Als'on's baskit when I didn't go ter do it. I ain't tuck a +sol'tary lock er Als'on's cotton; an' I wouldn't, nuther, ter save my +life." + +"Reckon yer kin fool me?" demanded the triumphant Edny Ann. Then she called +Alston with the _O_ which Southerners inevitably prefix: "O Als'on! O +Als'on! come yere! quick!" + +"Don't, please don't, tell him," Little Lizay pleaded. "I'll give yer my +new cal'ker dress ef yer won't tell nobody." + +But Edny Ann went on calling: "O Als'on! O Als'on! come yere!" + +Little Lizay pleaded in a frantic way for silence as she saw Alston coming +with long strides up between the cotton-rows toward them. + +"I wants yer ter ten' ter Lizay," said Edny Ann. "Her's been stealin' yer +cotton: see'd 'er do it--see'd 'er take a heap er cotton outen yer baskit +an' ram it into hern. Did so!" + +Then you should have seen the man's face. Had it been white you could not +have discerned any plainer the surprise, the disappointment, the grief. +Lizay saw with an indefinable thrill the sadness in his eyes, heard the +grief in his voice. + +"I didn't reckon yer'd do sich a thing, Lizay," he said. "I know it's +mighty haud on yer, gittin' cowhided ev'ry night, but stealin' ain't goin' +ter he'p it, Lizay." + +"I never stole yer cotton, Als'on," Little Lizay said with a certain +dignity, but with an unsteady voice. + +"I see'd yer do it," Edny Ann interrupted. + +"I emptied my sack in yer baskit when I didn't go ter do it," Little Lizay +continued. "It wus my own cotton I wus takin' out yer baskit." + +"Ef yer deny it, Lizay, yer'll make it wusser." Then Alston went up close +to her, so that Edny Ann might not hear, and said something in a low tone. + +Lizay gave him a swift look of surprise: then her lip began to quiver; the +quick tears came to her eyes; she put both hands to her face and cried +hard, so that she could not have found voice if she had wished to tell +Alston her story. He went back to his row, and left her there crying beside +the pick-baskets. He returned almost immediately, shouldered his basket, +and went away from her to another part of the field, leaving his row +unfinished. He wondered how much cotton Lizay had taken from his basket--if +its weight would be brought down below a hundred; and meditated what he +should do in case he was called up to be flogged by the brutal overseer. +Should he stand and take the lashing, trusting to Heaven to make it up to +him some day? or should he knock the overseer senseless and make a strike +for freedom? Where was freedom? Which was the way to the free North? In +Virginia he would have known in what direction to set his face for Ohio, +but here everything was new and strange. + +However, he had no occasion for a desperate movement that night. His basket +weighed one hundred and seven, while Little Lizay's had fallen lower than +ever before. Alston thought it was because she had missed her chance of +transferring the usual quantity of cotton from his basket. + +The striking of Lizay had never seemed so abhorrent to him as on this +night, now that there was estrangement between them. She was already +humiliated in his sight, and to raise his hand against her was like +striking a fallen foe. She would think that he was no longer sorry--that he +was glad to repay the wrong she had done him. + +In the mean time, Edny Ann had told the story of the theft to one and +another, and Lizay found at night the "quarter" humming with it. Taunts and +jeers met her on every hand. Stealing from white folks the negroes regarded +as a very trifling matter, since they, the slaves, had earned everything +there was: but to steal from "a po' nigger" was the meanest thing in their +decalogue. + +"Stealin' from her beau!" sneered one negro, commenting on Little Lizay's +offence. + +"An' her sweet'art!" said another. + +"An' her 'tendin' like her lubbed 'im!" + +"An' Als'on can't pick cotton fas', nohow, kase he ain't use ter +cotton--neber see'd none till he come yere--an' her know'd he'd git a +cowhidin'. It's meaner'n boneset tea," said Edny Ann. + +"A heap meaner," assented Cat. "Sich puffawmance's wusser'n stealin' acawns +frum a blin' hog." + +Over and over Little Lizay said, "I never stole Als'on's cotton;" and then +she would make her explanation, as she had made it to Edny Ann and Alston. +Often she was tempted to tell the whole story of how she had been all along +helping Alston at her own cost, but many motives restrained her. She +dreaded the jeers and jests to which the story would subject her, and +everything was to be feared from Mr. Buck's retaliation should he learn +that he had been tricked. Besides, she wished, if possible, to go on +helping Alston. She doubted, too, if he would receive it well that she had +been helping him. Might he not gravely resent it that through her action +such a pitiable part in the drama had been forced on him? Then there was +something sweet to Little Lizay in suffering all alone for Alston--in +having this secret unshared: she respected herself more that she did not +risk everything to vindicate herself, for this she could do: the steelyard +to-morrow would demonstrate the truth of her story. + +But the morrow came, and she went out to the field, her story untold, a +marked woman. Yet she was not comfortless. The something that Alston had +told her the previous day was making her heart sing. This is what he told +her: "While yer wus stealin' from me, Lizay, I wus he'pin' yer. I put a +ha'f er sack in yer baskit ter-day, an' a ha'f er sack yistiddy--kase I +liked yer, Lizay." + +She took her rows beside Alston's as usual, determined to watch for a +chance to help him. But when he moved away from her and took another row, +Lizay knew that the time had come. She couldn't stand it to have him strain +and tug and bend to his work as no other hand in the field did, only to be +disappointed at night. She could never bear it that he should be flogged +after all she had done to save him from the shame. She could never live +through it--the cowhiding of her hero by the detested overseer. Yes, the +time had come: she must tell Alston. + +She went over to where he had begun a new row. "Yer don't b'lieve the tale +I tole yistiddy, Als'on: yer's feared I'll steal yer cotton ter-day," she +said. + +"I don't wish no talk 'bout it, Lizay," Alston said. His tone was half sad, +half peremptory. + +"Yer mustn't feel haud agin me ef I tells you somethin', Als'on. Yer's been +puttin' cotton in my baskit unbeknownst ter save me some lashes, an' yer +throw'd it up ter me yistiddy. Now, look yere, Als'on: I's been he'pin' yer +all this week, ever since Mr. Buck said yer got ter git a hunderd. Ev'ry +day I's he'ped yer git up ter a hunderd." + +Alston had stopped picking, both his hands full of cotton, and stood +staring in a bewildered way at the girl. "Lizay, is this a fac'?" he said +at length. + +"'Tis so, Als'on; an' ef yer don't lemme he'p yer now yer'll fall 'hin' an' +have ter git flogged." + +"An' ef yer he'p me, yer'll fall shawt an' have ter git flogged. Oh, Lizay, +thar' never was nobody afo' would er done this yer fer me," Alston said, +feeling that he would like to kiss the poor shoulders that had been +scourged for him. Great tears gathered in his eyes, and he thought without +speaking the thought, "My wife in Virginny wouldn't er done it." + +"So yer mus' lemme he'p yer ter-day," said Little Lizay. + +"I'll die fus'," he said in a savage tone. + +"Oh, yer'll git a whippin', Als'on, sho's yer bawn." + +"No: I won't take a floggin' from that brute." + +"Oh, Als'on, yer jis' got ter: yer can't he'p the miserbulness. No use +runnin' 'way: they'd ketch yer an' bring yer back. Thar's nigger-hunters +an' blood-houn's all roun' this yer naberhood. Yer couldn't git 'way ter +save yer life." + +"Look yere, Lizay," Alston said with sudden inspiration: "le's go tell +Mos' Hawton all 'bout it. Ef he's a genulman he'll 'ten' ter us. They won't +miss us till night, an' 'fo' that time we'll be in Memphis. Yer knows the +way, don't yer?" + +"Yes," Lizay said; "an' I reckon that's the bes' thing we kin do--go tell +moster an' mistis. But, law! I ought er go pull off this yere ole homespun +dress an' put on my new cal'ker." + +"I reckon we ain't got no time ter dress up," said Alston. "We mus' start +quick: come 'long. Le's hide our baskits fus' whar' the cotton-stalks is +thick." + +This they did, and then started off at a brisk pace, their flight concealed +by the tall cotton-plants. They reached Memphis about eleven o'clock, and +found Dr. Horton at home, having just finished his lunch. They were +admitted at once to the dining-room, where the doctor sat picking his +teeth. He had never seen Alston, as the new negroes had been bought by an +agent. + +"Sarvant, moster!" Alston said humbly, but with dignity. + +"Howdy, moster?" was Little Lizay's more familiar salutation. + +"I's Als'on, one yer new boys from Ol' Virginny." + +"You're a likely-lookin' fellow," said the doctor, who was given to +dropping final consonants in his speech. "I reckon I'll hear a good report +of you from Mr. Buck. You look like you could stan' up to work like a +soldier. But what's brought you and Little Lizay to the city? Anything gone +wrong?" + +"Yes, moster," said Alston--"mighty wrong. Look yere, Mos' Hawton: when I +come on yer plantation I made up my min' ter sarve yer faithful--ter wuck +fer yer haud's I could--ter strike ev'ry lick I could fer yer. When I hoed +cawn an' pulled fodder I went 'head er all the han's on yer plantation. But +when I went ter pick cotton I wusn't use ter it. I wuckt haud's I could, +'fo' day an' arter dark. Mos' Hawton, I couldn't pick a poun' more'n I pick +ter save my life. But I wus 'hin' all t'other han's. Then Mos' Buck wus +goin' ter flog me ef I didn't git a hunderd: then Little Lizay, her he'ped +me unbeknownst: ev'ry day she puts cotton in my baskit ter fetch it ter a +hunderd, an' that made her fall 'hin' las' year's pickin'; then ev'ry night +she was stripped an' cowhided; but she kep' on he'pin' me, an' kep' on +gettin' whipped. I dun know what she dun it fer: 'min's me uv the Laud on +the cross." + +Dr. Horton knew what she did it for. His knightliness was touched to the +quick. The story made him wish as never before to be a better master than +he had ever been to his poor people. He asked many questions, and drew +forth all the facts, Lizay telling how Alston was helping her while she was +helping him. Dr. Horton saw that here was a romance in slave-life--that the +man and woman were in love with each other. + +"Well, if you can't pick cotton," he said to Alston, "what can you do?" + +"Mos' anything else, moster. I kin do ev'rything 'bout cawn; I kin split +rails; I kin plough; I kin drive carriage." + +"Could you run a cotton-gin?" + +"Reckon so, moster: the black folks says it's tolerbul easy." + +"Well, now, look here: you and Lizay get some dinner, an' then do you take +a back-trot for the plantation. I'll sen' Buck a note: no, he can't more'n +half read writin'. Well, do you tell him, Alston, to put you to ginnin' +cotton: Little Sam mus' work with you a few days till you get the hang of +the thing; an' then I want you to show that plantation what 'tis to serve +master faithfully. You see, I believe in you, my man." + +"Thanky, moster. I'll wuck fer yer haud's I kin. Please God, I'll sarve yer +faithful." + +"Of cou'se, Lizay, you'll go back to pickin' cotton, an' don't let me hear +any mo' of you' nonsense--helpin' a strappin' fellow twice you' size. An' +tell Buck I won't have him whippin' any my negroes ev'ry night in the week. +Confound it! a mule couldn't stan' it. If I've got a negro that needs +floggin' ev'ry night, I'll sell him or give 'im away, or turn 'im out to +grass to shif' for himself. I'll be out there soon, an' 'ten' to things. If +anybody needs a floggin', tell Buck to send 'im to me. Tell the folks to +work like clever Christians, an' they shall have a fus'-rate Christmas--a +heap of Christmas-gifts." + +"Yes, moster." + +"Do you an' Lizay want to get married right away, or wait till Christmas?" + +Alston and Little Lizay looked at each other, smiling in an embarrassed +way. + +"But, moster," said Alston, "I's got a wife an' fou' childun in Ol' +Virginny, an' I promused I'd wait an' wouldn't git morred ag'in tell she'd +write ter me ef her moster'd sell her; an' I was goin' ter ax yer ter buy +'er." + +"You needn't pester yourself about that. I got a letter for you the other +day from her," the doctor said, fumbling in his pockets. + +"Yer did, sah?" Alston said with interest. + +"Yes: here it is. Can you read? or shall I read it to you?" + +"Ef yer please, moster." + +Then Dr. Horton read: + +"MY DEAR B'LOVED HUSBUN': Miss Marthy Jane takes my pen in han' ter let yer +know I's well, an' our childun's well, an' all the black folks is tolerbul +well 'cept Juno: her's got the polsy tolerbul bad. All the white folks +'bout yere is will 'cept mistis: her's got the dumps. All the childun say, +Howdy? the black folks all says, Howdy? an' Pete says, Howdy? an' Andy +says, Howdy? an' Viny says, Howdy? an' Cinthy says, Howdy? an' Tony Tucker +says, Howdy? and Brudder Thomas Jeff'son Hollan' says, Howdy? Last time I +see'd Benj'man Franklins Bedfud, he says, ''Member, an' don't fawgit, the +fus' time yer writes, ter tell Als'on, Howdy?' + +"Yer 'fectionate wife, CHLOE." + +"P.S. Mistis says her can't spaw me, so 'tain't no use waitin' no longer +fer me. 'Sides, I got 'gaged ter git morred: I wus morred Sundy 'fo' las' +at quat'ly meetin'. Brudder Mad'son Mason puffawmed the solemn cer'mony, +an' preached a beautiful discou'se. Me an' my secon' husbun' gits 'long +fus'-rate. I fawgot ter tell yer who I got morred to. I got morred to +Thomas Jeff'son Hollan'." + +"So you're a free man," said Dr. Horton, folding the letter and handing it +to Alston. "You an' Little Lizay can get married to-day, right now, if you +wish to. Uncle Moses can marry you: he's a member of the Church in good an' +regular standin': I don't know but he's an exhorter, or class-leader, or +somethin'. What do you say? Shall I call him in an' have him tie you +together?" + +"Thanky, moster, ef Little Lizay's willin'.--Is yer, Lizay?" + +"I reckon so," said Lizay, her heart beating in gladness. But she +nevertheless glanced down at her coarse field-dress and thought with +longing of the new calico in her cabin. + +So Uncle Moses was called in, and Mrs. Horton and all the children and +servants. + +"Uncle Moses," said Dr. Horton, "did you ever marry anybody?" + +"To be sho', Mos' Hawton. I's morred--Lemme see how many wives has I morred +sence I fus' commenced?" + +"Oh, I don't mean that;" and Dr. Horton proceeded to explain what he did +mean. + +"No," said Moses. "I never done any that business, but reckon I could: I's +done things a heap hauder." + +"Well, let me see you try your han' on this couple." + +"Well," said Uncle Moses, "git me a book: got ter have a Bible, or +hymn-book, or cat'chism, or somethin'." + +The doctor gravely handed over a pocket edition of _Don Quixote_, which +happened to lie in his reach. + +Uncle Moses took it for a copy of the _Methodist Discipline_, and made +pretence of seeking for the marriage ceremony. At length he appeared +satisfied that he had the right page, and stood up facing the couple. + +"Jine boff yer right han's," he solemnly commanded. Then, with his eyes on +the book, he repeated the marriage service, with some remarkable +emendations. "An' ef yer solemnly promus," he said in conclusion, "ter lub +an' 'bey one 'nuther tell death pawts yer, please de Laud yer lib so long, +I pernounces boff yer all man an' wife." + +Then the mistress looked about and got together a basket of household +articles for the new couple. Bearing this between them, Alston and Little +Lizay went back to the plantation and to their unfinished rows of cotton, +happy, poor souls! pathetic as it seems. + +SARAH WINTER KELLOGG. + + + + +THE BASS OF THE POTOMAC. + + +Some twenty-five years ago Mr. William Shriver, a primitive pisciculturist, +took from the Youghiogheny River eleven black bass, and conveyed them in +the tank of the tender of a locomotive to Cumberland, in the coal-region of +Western Maryland. There he deposited them in the Potomac, with the +injunction which forms the heraldic motto of the State of +Maryland--_Crescite et multiplicamini_. The first part of this excellent +precept they obeyed by proceeding to devour all the aboriginal fish in the +river, and waxing extremely hearty upon the liberal diet. The second they +performed with a diligence so commendable that the name of them in the +river became as legion, and the original possessors of the waters were +steadily extirpated or took despairingly to small rivulets, and led ever +after a life of undeserved ignominy and obscurity. There were bass in the +river from the Falls of the Potomac, near Georgetown, to a point as near +its source as any self-respecting fish could approach without detriment to +the buttons on his vest by reason of the shallowness of the water. They +were in all its tributaries, and in fact monopolized its waters completely. +Had the supply of small fish for food held out, it is impossible to say to +what extent they would have increased. They might in their numerical +enormity have rivalled the condition of that famous river, the Wabash, +which in a certain season of excessive dryness became so low that a local +journal of established veracity described the fish as having to stand upon +their heads to breathe, and while in that constrained attitude being pulled +by the inhabitants like radishes in a garden. + +It has been contended by some ichthyologists that the black bass does not +eat its own kind, but the spectacle which I recently beheld of a +four-pounder, defunct and floating on the water, with the tail and half the +body of a ten-ounce bass sticking out of his distended mouth, affords but +inadequate confirmation of their views. I sat upon the bass in question, +and rendered a verdict of "choked to death, and served him right." He had +swallowed the younger fish, who, for aught he knew to the contrary, or +cared, might have been his own son; and his confidence in his capacity +being ably supported by his appetite, he undertook a contract to which he +was unequal in the matter of expansion. He couldn't disgorge, being in the +predicament of the boa-constrictor who swallows a hen head first, and finds +her go against the grain when he would fain reconsider the subject. The +head of the inside fish was partially digested, but that process had +imparted no gratification to either party, and both were defunct, mutually +immolated upon the altar of gluttony. It is not an uncommon thing to find +them dead in that condition, for their appetites are ravenous, and lead +them into indiscretions more or less serious in their consequences. + +There can be no doubt of their having regarded as a delicate attention the +action some few years since of the Maryland Fish Commissioner in placing +several thousand young California salmon in the river. Those salmon have +never been seen or heard of since; but, although the bass for some time had +a guilty look about them, it is hardly fair to let them remain under so +grievous an imputation as is implied in the whole responsibility for the +fate of the California emigrants. The fact is, that at Georgetown the +Potomac River makes a very abrupt change in its grade, and the Great Falls, +as they are called, are both picturesque and arduous of passage. The +salmon, being of luxurious habit, betakes him each year to the seaside, and +at the end of the season returns in a connubial frame of mind to the spot +endeared to him by his early associations. It is quite possible that these +particular salmon when on their way to the purlieus of marine fashion were +somewhat discouraged at the jar and shock incident to their transit over +the Falls. They may have concluded that the locality was unpropitious for +the return trip, and then, consulting with salmon whose lines had been cast +in more pleasant places, they may have ascended rivers of more conspicuous +natural attractions and more agreeable to fish of cultivated habits. + +The habits of the black bass may be described as generally bad. It is a +fish devoid of any of the cardinal virtues. It is ever engaged in +internecine war, and will any day forego a square meal for the sake of a +fight. It gorges itself like a python, and when hooked is as game as a +salmon, and quite as vigorous in proportion to size. In the Potomac it has +been known to weigh as much as six pounds, but bass of that weight are very +rare, from three to four pounds being the average of what are known as good +fish. These afford excellent sport, and are taken with a variety of bait. +The habitues of the river commonly employ live minnow, chub, catfish, +suckers, sunfish--in fact, any fish under six inches in length. The bass +has also a well-marked predilection for small frogs, or indeed for frogs of +any dimensions. It sometimes rises well at a gaudy, substantial fly or a +deft simulation of a healthy Kansas grasshopper; but fishermen have noticed +that the largest fish despise flies, much as a person of a full roast-beef +habit may be supposed to turn up his nose at a small mutton-chop. In other +rivers they take the fly quite freely, but in the Potomac they have had +that branch of their education greatly neglected. In the matter of +vitality they are simply extraordinary: they cling to life with a tenacity +that very few fish exhibit. In the spring or fall, when the water and the +air are at a comparatively low temperature, a bass will live for eight or +ten hours without water. The writer has brought fifty fish, weighing on an +average two and three-quarter pounds, from Point of Rocks to Baltimore, a +distance of seventy-two miles, and after they had been in the air six hours +has placed them in a tub of water and found two-thirds of the number +immediately "kick" and plunge with an amount of energy and ability that +threw the water in all directions. These fish had been caught at various +times during the day, and as each was taken from the hook a stout leather +strap was forced through the floor of its mouth beneath its tongue, and the +bunch of fish so secured allowed to trail overboard in the stream. They +were thus dragged all day against a powerful current, but never showed any +symptoms of "drowning." In the evening they were strung upon a stout piece +of clothes-line, and after lying for some time on the railway platform were +transferred to the floor of the baggage-car, and so transported to the +city. It is quite evident that we do not live in the fear of Mr. Bergh. But +what is one to do? The fish is not to be discouraged except by the +exhibition of great and brutal violence. In fact, bass will not be induced +to decently decease by any civilized process short of a powerful shock from +a voltaic pile administered in the region of their _medulla oblongata_. Of +course, one cannot be expected to carry about a voltaic pile and go hunting +for the medullary recesses of a savage and turbulent fish. On the other +hand, one may batter the protoplasm out of a refractory subject by the aid +of a small rock, but it won't improve the fish's looks or cooking +qualities. It may seem like high treason to mention, moreover, at a safe +distance from Mr. Bergh, that euthanasia in animals designed for the table +does not always improve their quality, and in fact that the linked misery +long drawn out of a protracted dissolution imparts a certain tenderness and +flavor to the flesh that it would not otherwise possess. Should that +excellent and most estimable gentleman regard this statement with a +sceptical eye, let it be here stated that the bass should be recently +killed, split, crimped and broiled to a delicate brown, with a little good +butter and a sprinkling of pepper, salt and chopped parsley. Should he +pursue the subject upon this basis, he will not be the first gentleman who +has surrendered his convictions and compounded a culinary felony upon +favorable terms. + +Below Harper's Ferry there is one of the most picturesque reaches of the +Potomac River. From the rugged heights that frown upon that historic and +lovely spot, where the Shenandoah strikes away through the pass that leads +to the broad and beautiful Valley of Virginia, and where John Brown's +memory struggles through battered ruins and the invading smoke of the +unhallowed locomotive, the river chafes from side to side of the stern +defile that hems it in and curbs its restless waters. Great walls of dark +rocks, crested by serried ranks of solemn pines, stand guard above its +fitful, surging flood, and against the dark blue calm and misty depth of +its gorge the pale smoke rises in a quiet column above the mills and houses +that nestle by the river's bed. Huge boulders stem the current, and the +rocks stand out in shelves and rugged ridges, around which the stream +whirls swiftly and sweeps off into broad dark pools in whose green, +mysterious depths there should be noble fish. Below, the river widens and +has long placid reaches, but for the most part its banks are precipitous, +and the deep water runs along the trunks and bares the roots of great trees +whose branches stretch far out over its surface. Occasionally, the +mountains recede and form a vast amphitheatre, clad in primeval forest, and +there are islands on which vegetation runs riot in its unbridled luxury, +and weaves festoons of gay creepers to conceal the gaunt skeletons of the +endless piles of dead drift-wood. All is in the most glorious green--a very +extravagance of fresh and brilliant color--relieved with the bright +purples and tender leafing of the flowering shrubs and vines that +intertwine among its heavy jungle. Upon the broad, flat rocks one may see +dozens of stolid "sliders," or mud-turtles, some of great size, basking in +the sun like so many boarders at a country hotel. They crowd upon the rocks +as thickly as they can, and blink there all day long unless disturbed by +the approach of a boat, when they dive clumsily but quickly. Occasionally, +one sees an otter, with seal-like head above the surface of the water, +swimming swiftly from haunt to haunt in pursuit of the bass; and small +coteries of summer ducks fly swiftly from sedge to sedge. + +The acoustic properties of the river would make an architect die with envy. +The light breeze bears one's conversation audibly for half a mile; one +hears the splash of a fish that jumps a thousand yards away; and the grim +cliffs at the foot of which the canal winds in and out take up the +profanity of the towpath and hurl it back and forth across the river as if +it was great fun and all propriety. The stalwart exhortations and clean-cut +phraseology of the mule-drivers and the notes of the bugles go ringing over +to Virginia's shore, and fill the air with cadences so sweet and musical +that they sound like the pleasant laughter of good-humored Nature, instead +of the well-punctuated and diligent ribaldry of the most profane class of +humanity in existence. It is perfectly startling and frightful to hear an +objurgation of the most utterly purposeless and ingeniously vile +description transmitted half a mile with painful distinctness, and then +seized by a virtuous and reproachful echo and indignantly repelled in +disjointed fragments. + +"Y'ill take care, sorr, an' sit fair in the middle of the shkiff," said Mr. +McGrath as I got into his frail craft at five o'clock in the morning on the +bank of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal near Point of Rocks. "It's +onconvanient to be outside of the boat whin we're going through them locks. +There were a gintleman done that last year, an' he come near lavin' a lot +of orphans behind him." + +"How was that, McGrath?" said I. + +"Begorra! the divil a child had he," he replied. + +"But do you mean that he was drowned?" I asked. + +"Faith, an' he was that, sorr--complately." + +I promised Mr. McGrath that I would observe his instructions carefully, and +that gentleman, after placing the rods, live-bait bucket, luncheon-basket +and other articles on board, took his seat in the bow, and we proceeded. We +had two boats for my companion and myself, and an experienced man in each. +Mr. McGrath had fallen to my lot, and my companion had a darkey named Pete. +We were to go up the canal some four miles, and then, launching the boats +into the river, were to fish slowly down with the current. We had a horse +and tow-rope, and a small boy, mounted on the animal, started off at a +smart trot. It was quite exhilarating, and the boats dashed along merrily +at a capital rate. A gray mist hung low on the river, and thin wraiths of +it rose off the water of the canal and crept up the mountain-side, +shrouding the black pines and hiding the summit from view. Beyond, the tops +of the hills on the Virginia shore were beginning to blush as they caught +the first rays of sunrise, and the fish-hawk's puny scream echoed from the +islands in the stream. It was a lovely morning, and promised a day, as Mr. +McGrath observed, on which some elegant fish should die. After a few delays +at locks, in which canal-boats took precedence of us, we reached our point +of transshipment, hauled the boats out on the bank, and our horse drew them +sleigh-fashion across field and down to and out into the water. + +I had a light split bamboo rod, a good silk line and a fair assortment of +flies. Mr. McGrath had a common bamboo cane, a battered old reel, and the +value of his outfit might be generously estimated at half a dollar. In his +live-bait bucket were about a hundred fish, varying in length from two to +six inches. He did not prepare to fish himself, but was watching me with +the deepest attention. He held the boat across the stream toward the +opposite shore, and by the time we dropped down on a large flat rock I was +ready. I got out, and there being a pleasant air stirring, I made my casts +with a great deal of ease and comfort. There was a deep hole below the +rocks, bordered on both sides by a swift ripple--as pretty a spot as ever a +fly was thrown over. I sped them over it in all directions, casting fifty +and sixty feet of line, and admiring the soft flutter with which they +dropped on the edge of the ripple or the open water. Mr. McGrath was +surveying the operation critically, nodding his head in approval from side +to side, and uttering short ejaculations of the most flattering nature. I +kept whipping the stream assiduously, so satisfied with my work and the +style of it as to feel confident that no well-regulated fish could resist +it. But there was no appearance of a rise: not a sign appeared on the water +to show even the approach of a speculative fish. I was about to note the +fact to Mr. McGrath when that gentleman remarked, "Begorra! but it's +illigant sport it'd be if the bass 'ud only bite at them things!" + +"Bite at them?" said I, turning round: "of course they'll bite at them." + +"Sorra bit will they, sorr. It's just wondherin' they are if them things up +above is good to ate, but they're too lazy to step up an' inquire. Augh, be +me sowl! but it's the thruth I tell you. Now, if it was a dacent throut +that were there, he'd be afther acceptin' yer invite in a minit; but them +bass--begorra! they're not amaynable to the fly at all." + +Now, if there is anything that I have been brought up to despise, it is +fishing with "bait." Fly-fishing I have learned to regard as the only +legitimate method of taking any fish that any sportsman ought to fish for, +and fishing with a worm and a cork I always looked upon as equal to +shooting a partridge on the ground in May. I did not believe Mr. McGrath, +and I told him, as I resumed my graceful occupation, that I didn't think +there were any fish there to catch. The idea of their rejecting flies +served up as mine were was too preposterous. + +"Well," said he, "ye may be right, sorr: there may be none there at all; +but I'll thry them wid a bait, anyhow." + +In another minute Mr. McGrath was slashing about right and left a bait +which to my disordered vision looked as big as a Yarmouth bloater. He threw +it in every direction with great vigor and precision, and, as I could not +help noticing, with very little splashing. I turned away with emotion, and +continued my fly-fishing. Presently I heard an exclamation from Mr. +McGrath, quickly succeeded by an ominous whirring of his reel. + +"Luk at the vagabone, sorr! luk at him now! Run, ye divil ye! run!" he +cried as he facilitated the departure of the line, which was going out at a +famous rate. "Bedad! he's a fine mikroptheros! Whisht! he's stopped.--Take +that, ye spalpeen ye!" + +As he said this he gave his rod a strong jerk, that brought the line up +with a "zip" out of the water in a long ridge, and the old bamboo cane bent +until it cracked. At the same moment, about a hundred and fifty feet away, +a splendid fish leaped high and clear out of the water with the line +dangling from his mouth. Mr. McGrath had struck him fairly, and away he +went across stream as hard as he could tear. + +"Take the rod, sorr, while I get the landing-net. Kape a tight line on him, +sorr: niver let him deludher ye. It's an illigant mikroptheros he is, +sure!" + +He returned from the boat in a moment with the landing-net, but absolutely +refused to take back his rod: "Sorra bit, sorr: bring him in. It's great +fun ye'll have wid the vagabone in that current! No, sorr: bring him in +yerself, sorr: ye'll niver lay it at my door that the first fish hooked +wasn't brought in." + +I didn't need any instructions, and as the fish ran for a rock some +distance off, I brought him up sharply, and he jumped again as wickedly as +he could full three feet out of the water, and came straight toward us with +a rush. It was no use trying, I couldn't reel up quick enough, and he was +under the eddy at our feet before I had one-third of the line in. +Fortunately, he was securely hooked, and there was no drop out from the +slacking of the line. He was in about twelve feet of water, and as I +brought the line taut on him again he went off down stream as fast as ever. +I had the current full against him this time, and I brought him steadily up +through it, and held him well in hand. I swept him around in front of Mr. +McGrath's landing-net, but he shied off so quickly that I thought he would +break the line. Away down he went as stiffly and stubbornly as possible, +and there he lodged, rubbing his nose against a rock and trying to get rid +of the hook. Half a dozen times I dislodged him and brought him up, but he +was so wild and strong I did not dare to force him in. At last he made a +dash for the ripple, and I gave him a quick turn, and as he struck out of +it Mr. McGrath had his landing-net under him in a twinkling, and he was out +kicking on the rock. He weighed four pounds six ounces, and furnished +conclusive evidence that a bass of that weight can give a great deal of +very agreeable trouble before he will consent to leave his element. + +"What was it," said I, "that you called him when you struck him just now?" + +"What did I call him, sorr? A mikroptheros, sorr." + +"And for Goodness' sake, McGrath, what is a mikroptheros?" + +"Begorra! that's what it is," said Mr. McGrath, throwing the bass overboard +to swim at the end of its leathern thong. + +"Well!" said I in amazement. "I never heard such a name as that for a fish +in all my life!--a mikroptheros!" + +"Divil a more or less!" said Mr. McGrath decidedly. "The Fish Commissioner +wor up here last week, an' sez he to me, sez he, 'It's a mikroptheros, so +it is.'--'What's that?' sez I.--'That!' sez he; and he slaps him into an +illigant glass bottle of sperrits, as I thought he was goin' to say to me, +'McGrath, have ye a mouth on ye?' an' I as dhry as if I'd et red herrin's +for a week. 'Yis,' sez he to me, 'that's the right name of him;' and wid +that he writes it on a tag, and he sends it off, this side up wid care, to +the musayum. Sure I copied it: be me sowl, an' if ye doubt me word, here +it is." + +Mr. McGrath handed me a piece of paper torn off the margin of a newspaper, +on which he had written legibly enough, "_Micropteros Floridanus_" I read +it as gravely as I could, smiled feebly at my own ignorance, and returned +it to him, saying, "Upon my word, McGrath, you are perfectly right. What a +blessing it is to have had a classical education!" + +"Sorra lie in it," said he proudly as he replaced the slip in the crown of +his hat; "an' it's meself that's glad of it." + +I can but throw myself upon the mercy of every respectable disciple of the +art before whom this confession may come when I say that during this +conversation I was employed in taking off my flies and in substituting +therefor a strong bass-hook and a cork, after the effective fashion of Mr. +McGrath. When this never-to-be-sufficiently-despised device was ready I +took from the bucket a small and unhappy sunfish, immolated him upon my +hook by passing it through his upper and lower lips, and cast him out upon +the stream. The red top of the cork spun merrily down the current and out +among the oily ripples of the deep water below, but Mr. McGrath could beat +me completely in handling his. I noticed that I threw my fish so that it +struck hard upon the water, "knocking the sowl out of it," as he said, +while he threw his hither and thither with the greatest ease, always taking +care to do it with the least possible amount of violence, and keeping it +alive as long as possible. However, it was not long before my cork +disappeared with a peculiar style of departure abundantly indicative of the +cause, to which I replied by a vigorous "strike." My cork came up promptly, +and with it my hook, bare. The sunfish had found a grave within the natural +enemy of his species, and I had missed my fish. + +"Divvle a wondher!" said Mr. McGrath in reply to a remark to that +effect--"being, sorr, that ye're not familiar wid their ways. Ye see, sorr, +he comes up an' he nips that fish be the tail, an' away wid him to a +convanient spot for to turn him an' swallow him head first, by rason of his +sthickles an' fins all p'intin' the other way. Whin he takes it, sorr, jist +let him run away wid it as far as he likes, but the minit he turns to +swallow it, an' says to himself, 'What an illigant breakfast this is, to be +sure!' that minit slap the hook into his jaw, an' hould on to him for dear +life." + +These excellent instructions I obeyed with no little difficulty. My cork +came up in the back water under the rock on which I stood, and there, +almost at my very feet, it disappeared. I could not believe that a bass had +taken it, but all doubt on the subject was dispelled by the shrill whir of +my reel as the fine silk line spun out at a tremendous rate. The fish had +darted across the current, and only stopped after he had taken out over two +hundred feet of line. + +"Now, sorr, jist make a remark to him," whispered Mr. McGrath; and I struck +as hard as I could. "Illigant, begorra!" said he as the fish, maddened and +frightened, leaped out of the water. "Look at him looking for a dentist, +bedad!" + +It was peculiarly delightful to feel that fish pull--to get a firm hand on +him, and have him charge off with an impetuosity that involved more line or +broken tackle--to feel that vigorous, oscillating pull of his, and to note +the ease and strength with which he swam against the powerful current or +dashed across the boiling eddy below. + +It did not last long, however: he soon spent himself, and Mr. McGrath +received him with a graceful swoop of his landing-net and secured him. Four +more soon followed, all large fish--two to the credit of Mr. McGrath and +two to myself. When caught they are of a dark olive-green on the back and +sides, the fins quite black at the ends, and the under side white. They +change color rapidly, and as their vitality decreases become paler and +paler, turning when dead to a very light olive-green. The mouth in general +form resembles that of the salmon family, but the size is much larger in +proportion to the weight of the fish, and the arrangement of the teeth is +different. With its great strength and its "game" qualities it is not +surprising that it should afford a good deal of what is known as "sport." + +An attribute of man which is equivalent to a strong natural instinct is his +disposition to "do murder." This may account for his love of "sport," or it +may only be an hereditary trait derived from the period when he had not yet +concerned himself with agriculture, but slew wild beasts and used his +implements of stone to crack their bones and get the marrow out. The +instinct to slay birds, beasts and fishes is certainly strong within us, +whatever be its remote origin, and it is very little affected by what we +are pleased to call our civilization. Indeed, it is hardly to be believed +that one of the primitive lords of creation, stalking about in the +condition of gorgeous irresponsibility incident to the Stone Period, would +have lowered himself to the level of the kid-gloved example of the present +stage of evolution who fishes in Maine. It cannot be supposed that the +pre-historic gentleman would have disgraced himself by catching fish he +could not use. He never caught ten times as many of the _Salmo fontinalis_ +as he and all his friends could eat, and then threw the rest away to rot. +This kind of thing has prevailed to a great extent, but natural causes have +nearly brought it to an end. The wholesale slaughter of the fish has +reduced their numbers, and a surfeit of indecent sport can no longer be +indulged in. Such fishermen should be confined by law to a large aquarium, +in which the fish they most affected could be taught to undergo catching +and re-catching until the gentlemen had had enough. The fish might grow to +like it eventually, and submit as a purely business matter to being caught +regularly for a daily consideration in chopped liver and real flies. But +how our ancestor, just alluded to, would despise the sport of this +progressive age! With his primitive but natural acceptation of Nature's law +of supply and demand, what would he think of the gentlemen who killed fish +to rot in the sun or drove a few thousand buffaloes over a precipice--all +for sport? It is probably the propensity to "do murder" which accounts for +these things, for "sport," within decent and proper limits, is a good +thing, and has been favored by the best of men in all ages--fishing +particularly, because it predisposes to pleasant contemplation, to equity +of criticism in the consideration of most matters of life, and to no little +self-benignancy. No one knew this better (although Shakespeare himself was +a poacher) than Christopher North, and where more fitly could the brightest +pages of the _Noctes Ambrosianae_ have been conceived or inspired than when +their author was, rod in hand, on the banks of a brawling Highland +trout-stream? + +The fish had ceased to bite where we were, and at Mr. McGrath's suggestion +we dropped down the stream to where my friend and his darkey were. His +experience with the flies had been similar to mine, but he had too much +regard for his fine fly-rod, he said, to use it for "slinging round a bait +as big as a herring." He had taken it to pieces and put it away. He was +sitting with his elbows on his knees and a brier-root pipe in his mouth, +content in every feature, a perfect picture of Placidity on a Boulder. + +"Given up fishing?" I asked. + +"Not much," he replied: "I've caught nine beauties. Pete does all the work, +and I catch the fish." + +Sure enough, he had Pete, who was one of the best fishermen on the river, +fishing away as hard as he could. Whenever Pete hooked a fish my friend +would lay down his pipe and play the fish into the landing-net. "It's +beastly sport," he said: "if I wasn't so confoundedly lazy I couldn't stand +it at all.--Hello, Pete! got him?" + +"Yes, sah--got him shuah;" and Pete handed him the rod as the line spun +out. We watched the short struggle, and started down stream, leaving him to +his laziness just as he was settling back in the boat for a nap and telling +Pete not to wake him up unless the next was a big one. + +By noon we had thirty-two fish--a very fair and satisfactory experience. We +were about to change our position when we were detained by a tremendous +shouting from the other boat, about half a mile above us. + +"What's the matter with them, McGrath?" said I. + +"Bedad, sorr! I think it must be that bucket there in the bow," he replied, +pointing to the article, which contained our luncheon. + +I was quite satisfied that it was, and there being a cool spring about +forty feet above us on the bank on the Virginia side, we disembarked. In +the excitement of fishing I had not thought of luncheon, but now I found I +had a startling appetite. So had my friend and his assiduous darkey when +they came in and reported twenty fish. + +"Yes," he said, "I know we ought to have a good many more, but Pete is so +lazy. It was all I could possibly do to catch those myself." + +With a flat rock for a table, the grass to sit upon, and the bubbling music +of the little stream that flowed from the spring as an accompaniment, the +ham and bread and butter, the pickles and the hard-boiled eggs, and even +the pie with its mysterious leather crust and its doubtful inside of dried +peaches, tasted wonderfully well. We did not venture out upon the river +again until three o'clock, our worthy guides agreeing that the fish do not +bite well between noon and that hour, and both of us being disposed to rest +a little. My friend stretched himself on the thick grass, and when his pipe +was exhausted went fast asleep, and snored with great precision and power +to a mild sternutatory accompaniment by Mr. McGrath and Pete. I employed +myself in bringing up my largest bass from the boat to sit for his picture +in a little basin in the rock under the spring. After he had floundered +himself into a comparatively rational and quiet condition, much after the +fashion of a gentleman reluctant to have his portrait taken under the +auspices of the police, I succeeded in committing him to paper. He was a +handsome fish, and eminently deserving of the distinction thus conferred +upon him. + +Sleeping in the grass on a summer afternoon is a bucolic luxury I never +fully appreciated. When I stirred up my friend he was red, perspirational +and full of lively entomological suspicions. He slapped the legs of his +pantaloons vigorously in spots, moved his arms uneasily, took off his +shirt-collar and implored me to look down his back. + +"There's nothing there," I reported. "I know how it is myself: a fellow +always feels that way when he goes to sleep in the grass." + +"Any woodticks here?" he asked. + +"Begorra! plenty," said Mr. McGrath, sitting up. "They et a child," he +added with perfect seriousness of manner, "down here below last summer." +McGrath's eyes twinkled when my friend began to talk of peeling off and +jumping into the river after a general search. He was finally reassured, +and we started out. We had even better sport than in the morning, and +accumulated a splendid string of fish each. On the way down we passed two +boats in which were some gentlemen, evidently foreigners, engaged in +throwing flies with apparently the same results that we had attained in the +morning. + +"Do you know who those people are?" I asked McGrath. + +"I dunno, sorr," said he, "but I think they are from one of the legations +at Washington. They come up for a day's fishin' all along of the illigant +fishin' a party from the same place had one day last week I suppose;" and +he smiled. + +"How was that, McGrath?" + +"It wor last week, sorr; and I wor up the river be meself, an' I had thirty +illigant fish thrailin' undher the boat comin' down. It wor just where they +are I seen two boats full of gintlemen, an' I dhropped alongside. They wor +swells, sure. They had patint rods, an' patint reels, an' patint flies, an' +patint boots, an' patint coats, an' patint hats, an' the divil knows what. +Bedad! they wor so fine that sez I to meself, sez I, 'Bedad! if I wor a +bass I'd say, "Gintlemen, don't go to no throuble on my account: I'll git +into the boat this minit."'--'Been fishin', me man?' sez one of them to me. +'Sorra much, yer honor,' sez I.--'It's very strange, you know,' sez he, +'that they don't bite at all to-day. You haven't caught any, have +you?'--'Well, sorr,' sez I, 'I did dhrop on a few little ones as I come +down.'--'Oh, did you, really?' sez another one, puttin' a glass in his eye +and standin' up excited like. 'Why, my good man,' sez he, 'be good enough +to 'old them up, you know. We'd like so much to see them!'--Wid that, sorr, +I up wid the sthring as high as I could lift it, an' it weighin' nigh onto +a hundred pound. Well, they were that wild they didn't know what to make of +it. One of them sez, sez he, 'The beggar's been a hauling of a net, he +has.'--'Divvle a bit more than yerself,' sez I. 'There's me impliments, +an', what's more, if ye wor to stay here till next week the sorra fish can +ye ketch, because, bedad! ye dunno how.' Wid that they put their heads +together, and swore it ud disgrace them to go home to Washington without a +fish, you know; an' how much would I take for the lot? Sez I, 'I have +twenty-five more down here in a creel in the river: that's fifty-five,' sez +I. 'Ye can have the lot for twinty dollars.'--'It's a go,' sez he; an' ever +since that there's letters comin' up from Washington askin' if the wather +is in good ordher, and what is the accommodations? Bedad! I'm wondherin' if +them as we passed wouldn't be likin' a dozen or two on the same terms?" + +Nothing finishes up a day's bass-fishing better than a good hot supper of +broiled bass, country sausage, fried ham and eggs, and coffee. The cooking +can generally be managed, and the appetite is guaranteed. _Experto crede_. + +W. MACKAY LAFFAN. + + + + +THE CHRYSALIS OF A BOOKWORM. + + I read, O friend, no pages of old lore, + Which I loved well, and yet the winged days, + That softly passed as wind through green spring ways + And left a perfume, swift fly as of yore, + Though in clear Plato's stream I look no more, + Neither with Moschus sing Sicilian lays. + Nor with bold Dante wander in amaze, + Nor see our Will the Golden Age restore. + I read a book to which old books are new, + And new books old. A living book is mine-- + In age, two years: in it I read no lies-- + In it to myriad truths I find the clew-- + A tender, little child; but I divine + Thoughts high as Dante's in its clear blue eyes. + +MAURICE F. EGAN. + + + + +A LAW UNTO HERSELF. + +CHAPTER X. + + +Miss Fleming arrived that evening while Jane was on the water. She was in +the habit of coming out to the Hemlock Farm for a day's holiday, and went +directly to her own room as though she were at home. When she stepped +presently out on the porch, where the gentlemen had gone to smoke, a soft +black silk showing every line of her supple figure, glimpses of the rounded +arms revealed with every movement of the loose sleeves, one or two thick +green leaves in her light hair--ugly, quiet, friendly--they all felt more +at home than they had done before. There was a pitcher of punch by the +captain's elbow: she tasted it, threw in a dash of liquor, poured him out a +glass and sat down beside him, and he felt that a gap was comfortably +filled. + +"You have turned your back on Philadelphia, they tell me, Miss Fleming," +complained Judge Rhodes. "New York sucks in all the young blood of the +country--the talent and energy." + +"Oh, I came simply to sell my wares. New York is my market, but +Philadelphia will always be home to me," in her peculiar pathetic voice. "I +left good friends there," with one of her bewildering glances straight into +the judge's beady eyes, at which his flabby face was suffused with heat. + +"You do not forget your friends, that's certain," he said, lowering his +voice. "That was a delicate compliment, sending my portrait back to the +Exhibition. I felt it very much, I assure you." + +Cornelia bowed silently. Neither she nor the judge said anything about the +round-numbered cheque which he had sent her for it. In the moonlight they +preferred to let the affair stand on a sentimental basis. + +Mr. Van Ness meanwhile eyed Miss Fleming's pose and rounded figure with a +watery gleam of complacency. + +"An exceptional woman," was his verdict. He turned the conversation to art, +and asked innumerable questions with a profound humility. Cornelia replied +eagerly, until the fact crept out from the judge that there was not an +aesthetic dogma nor a gallery in the world with which he was not familiar. +Then to pottery, in which field his modesty was as profound, until the +judge pushed him, as it were, to a corner, when he acknowledged himself the +possessor of a few "nice bits." + +"I have some old Etruscan pieces which I should like you to see, Miss +Fleming," with his mild, deprecating cough, "and a bit of Capo di Monte, +and the only real specimen of Henri Deux in the country." + +"I must see them," emphatically. "Where are your cabinets?" + +"Oh, nowhere," with a shrug. "My poor little specimens have never been +unpacked since I returned to this country. They are boxed up in a friend's +cellar." + +"God bless me, Cornelia!" cried the captain in a muffled tone, "how could +Mr. Van Ness spend his time koo-tooing to cracked pots? He has, as I may +say, the future of Pennsylvania in his hand. When I think what he is doing +for the friendless children--thousands of'em--" The punch had heated the +captain's zeal to the point where words failed him. + +After that the friendless children swept lighter subjects out of sight. Mr. +Van Ness, whose humility in this light rose to saintly heights, had all the +statistics of the Bureaux of Charity at his tongue's end. He had studied +the Dangerous Classes in every obscure corner of the world. He could give +you the _status quo_ of any given tribe in India just as easily as the +time-table on the new railway in Egypt. No wonder that he could tell you in +a breath the percentage of orphans, deserted minors, children of vicious +parents, in his own State, and the amount _per capita_ required to civilize +and Christianize them. As he talked of this matter his eyes became +suffused with tears. The great Home for these helpless wards of the State +he described at length, from its situation on a high table-land of the +Alleghanies and the dimensions of the immense buildings down to the +employments of the children and the capacity of the laundry--a perfect +Arcadia with all the modern improvements, where Crime was to be transformed +wholesale into Virtue. + +"Where is this institution?" asked Miss Fleming. "It is strange I never +heard of it." + +"Oh, it is not built as yet: we have not raised the funds," Mr. Van Ness +replied with a smothered sigh. + +The judge patted one foot and looked at him compassionately. It was a +devilishly queer ambition to be the savior of those dirty little wretches +in the back alleys. But if a man had given himself up, body and soul, to +such a pursuit, it was hard measure that he must be thwarted in it. + +Miss Fleming also bent soft sympathetic eyes on her new friend. The Home +was not built, eh? Not a brick laid? She wondered whether that box with the +priceless treasures existed in his friend's cellar or in his brain: she +wondered whether he had not seen those pictures of the old masters in +photographs, or whether he had travelled in Japan and the obscure corners +of the earth in the flesh or in books. There was more than the wonted +necessity upon her to establish sympathetic relations with this new man: +she had never seen a finer presence: the beard and brow quite lifted his +masculinity into aesthetic regions; she caught glimpses, too, of an +unfamiliar mongrel species of intellect with which she would relish +Platonic relations. Yet with this glow upon her she regarded the reformer's +noble face and benignant blond beard doubtfully, thinking how she used to +stick pins in brilliant bubbles when she was a child, and nothing would be +left but a patch of dirty water. + +"Jane is out on the river, as usual?" she asked presently. + +"Yes," said her father: "Mr. Neckart is with her. Neither of them will ever +stay under a roof if they can help it. They ought to have a dash of Indian +blood in their veins to account for such vagabondizing." + +"Is Bruce Neckart here?" with a change in her tone which made the captain +look up at her involuntarily. + +"Yes." + +"I thought he was in Washington: I did not expect to meet him." + +The judge puffed uneasily at his cigar. He was a family man, with a stout +wife and married son. He did not meet Miss Fleming once a year, but he felt +a vague jealousy of Neckart. + +"By the way, you must be old acquaintances?" he said abruptly. "Both from +Delaware? Kent county?" + +"Oh yes," with a shrill womanish laugh, very different from her usual sweet +boyish ha! ha! "Many's the day we rowed on the bay or dredged for oysters +together, dirty and ragged and happy. There is not very much difference in +our ages," seeing his look of surprise. "I look younger than I am, and +Bruce has grown old fast. At least, so I hear. I have not seen him for +years." + +She was silent after that, and preoccupied as her admirers had never seen +her, and presently, hearing Jane's and Neckart's steps on the path, she +rose hastily and bade them good-night. They each shook hands with her, that +being one of the sacred rites in the Platonic friendships so much in vogue +now-a-days among clever men and women. Mr. Van Ness offered his hand last, +and Cornelia smiled cordially as she took it. But it was clammy and soft. +She rubbed her fingers with a shudder of disgust as she hurried up to her +own room. There she walked straight to her glass and turned up the lamp +beside it, looking long and fixedly at her face. She knew with exactness +the extent of its ugliness and its power. + +"It is too late now even if it ever could have been," she said quietly, and +put out the light. Then she went to the window. Mr. Neckart had left Jane +inside, and, not joining the other men, turned back to the garden. She saw +the bulky dark figure as it passed under her window. + +She stretched out her hands as if for a caress, with the palms pressed +close. "Oh, Bruce!" she said under her breath. "Bruce!" + +After he had passed out of sight she stood thinking over all the men who +had made a comrade of her since she saw him last--how they had handled her +fingers and looked into her eyes; how her every thought and fancy had grown +common and unclean through much usage; how she had dragged out whatever +maidenly feeling she had in the old times, and made capital of it to bring +these companions to her who were neither lovers nor friends. + +"When I could not have the food which I wanted. I took the husks which the +swine did eat," she said, leaving the window, with a short laugh. "Well, I +could not die of starvation." + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + + +When Jane woke the next morning a bluebird was singing outside of the +window: she tried to mimic him before she was out of bed, and sang scraps +of songs to herself as she dressed. The captain heard her in his room +below, but pretended to be asleep when she came down as usual to lay out +his clothes, for, although she insisted that her father should have Dave as +a valet, she left him but little to do. + +Watching her from under the covers, the captain saw that she had left off +the black snood and tied her hair with a band of rose-colored ribbon. Her +lips were ruddy and her eyes alight: once or twice she laughed to herself. + +"What high day or holiday is it, Jane?" + +"Oh, every day is a high day now!" running to kiss him. "I was just +thinking how comfortable money is, and how glad I am that we have it," +glancing about delighted at his luxurious toilet appointments before the +low wood-fire. Then she spread out his dressing-gown and velvet +smoking-cap, and eyed with her head on one side the fine shirt and its +costly studs. + +"Do you remember the rag-carpet in your room which we thought such a +triumph? and the old tin shaving-cup? Now, my lord, look out upon your +estate!" opening the window. "Your musicians have come to waken you, and +your servitors stand without," as Buff tapped at the door with hot water. + +"He is as comfortable as a baby wrapped in lamb's wool," she thought as she +ran down the stairs. "And this air is so pure and the sun so bright! Oh, he +must grow strong here! Anybody would be cured here--anybody!" + +The captain followed her to the barnyard. It was one of her inexorable +prescriptions for him that he should drink a glass of warm milk-punch +before breakfast, and smell the cow's breath during the operation. She was +milking the white cow herself, while the pseudo sempstress, Nichols, waited +with the goblet, and the bandy-legged shoemaker, Twiss, stood on guard, +eyeing Brindle's horns suspiciously. + +"Now the glass! These are the strippings. Oh you'll soon learn, Betty! +You'll make butter as well as you used to make dresses badly." + +The little widow and Twiss laughed, as they always did at Jane's weak +jokes, and took the punch to the captain. She was the finest wit of her day +in their eyes. The hostler's boy ran down from the stable to speak to her. +She thought he had as innocent a face as she had ever seen. No doubt he +would have gone to perdition if Neckart had not rescued him. She stopped to +talk to him with beaming eyes, and meeting Betty's toddling baby took it up +and tossed it in the air, and then walked on, carrying the soft little +thing in her arms. The farm was like the Happy Valley this morning! God was +so good to her! She could warm and comfort all these people. Then she +turned into the woods and sat down on a fallen log. It was the place where +they had stopped to rest yesterday, Neckart lying at her feet. There was +the imprint still in the dead moss where his arm had lain. She looked +guiltily about, and then laid her hand in the broken moss with a quick +passionate touch. The baby caught her chin in its fingers. She hugged it to +her breast, and kissed it again and again. From the hemlock overhead a +tanager suddenly flashed up into the air with a shrill peal of song. Jane +looked up, her face and throat dyed crimson. Did he know? She glanced down +at the grass, at the friendly trees all alive with rustling and chirping. +The sky overhead was so deep and warm a blue to-day. It seemed as if they +all knew that he loved her. + +The captain found Mr. Neckart standing on the stoop listening to some sound +that came up from the woods. + +"It is Jane singing," he said. "You would not hear her once in a year. +Hereditary gift! In the old Swedish annals we read of the remarkable voices +of the Svens." + +"I never heard her sing before." Yet he had known at once that it was she. +It was the most joyous of songs, but there was a foreboding pathos in the +voice which moved him as no other sound had ever done. + +"You are not going before breakfast?" cried the captain. + +"Yes, and I shall not be able to come again for a long time. Say to Miss +Swendon--But no. I will go and bid her good-bye." + +He met her as she was crossing the plank thrown across the brook, and they +stopped by the little hand-rail, not looking directly at each other: "I +came to bid you good-morning." + +"Do you take the early train, then?" + +"Yes." He did not mean to tell her that he would not come again. The more +ordinary their parting the sooner she would forget it and him. He had +thought the matter out during the night, and being a man who was apt to +under-rate himself, was convinced that the feeling which she had betrayed +was but that transient flush of preference which any very young and +innocent girl is apt to give to the first man of whom she makes a +companion. + +"There is nothing in me likely to win enduring love from her. A more +intellectual woman, indeed--" He had gone over the argument again and +again. When he was out of sight her fancy would soon turn to this new +lover, so much better suited to her in every respect. For himself--But he +had no right, to think of himself. He struck that thought down fiercely +again as they stood together on the bridge. No more right than he would +have, were he dead, to drag down this young creature into his grave. + +He patted the child on the head as it clung to her dress, and talked of the +chance of more rain with perfect correctness and civility; and when Jane +managed to raise her eyes to his face she found it grave and preoccupied, +as it usually was over the morning papers. He saw Van Ness coming smiling +to meet her. + +"It is time for me to go," he said, his eyes passing slowly over her: then +with a hasty bow, not touching her hand, he struck through the woods to the +station, thinking as he went how she was standing then on the bridge in the +sunshine, with the man whom she would marry beside her. She looked after +him, her eyes full of still, deep content. He loved her. She had forgotten +everything else. + +"A perfect morning, Miss Swendon," said Mr. Van Ness, stroking his +magnificent golden beard. "You see just this deep azure sky above the +Sandwich Islands. Now, I remember watching such a dawn on Mauna Loa. Ah-h, +_you_ would have appreciated that. Our friend has gone, eh? Most active, +energetic man! I heard him tell your father he should not return soon +again." + +"Not return?" stopping in her slow walk. + +"No. It really must be impossible for an editor to spare time often for +visits to even such an Arcadia as this. No stock market or political news +in Arcadia, eh?" with a benevolent gurgle of a laugh. "Business! business! +Miss Swendon. Ah, how it engrosses the majority of men!" shaking his head +ponderously. + +She said nothing. It was as if she had been suddenly wakened out of a dream +in the crowd of a dusty market-place. He had gone back to the world, to his +real business and his real trouble. She, with her love and her intended +cure for him, was a silly fool wandering in a fantastic Arcadia. + +Miss Fleming was walking up and down on the porch as they came up, more +carefully dressed than usual. The captain had just told her that Neckart +had gone. + +"Ah? I'm very sorry," carelessly. "I should have been glad to see him +again. Though no doubt he has forgotten me." + +She went forward to meet Jane with a smile, but a withered gray look under +her eyes. "I have been making a tour of your principality," she said as +they went in to breakfast. "I see you have brought out a colony of +Philadelphia paupers. Twiss, and Betty, and the rest." + +"They were not paupers," said Jane, taking her place behind the urn. "Did +you see into what a great boy Top has grown? And Peter?" It gave her a warm +glow at heart to remember these people just now. At least, there her care +had not been fantastic or thrown away. + +"I hardly expected you to take up the role of guardian angel. It requires +study, after all, to play it successfully," pursued Cornelia with an +amiable smile, cutting her butter viciously.--"Very young girls are apt to +be impetuous in their charities, and damage more than they help," turning +to the judge. "These poor people, for instance. Betty had her kinsfolk +about her in Philadelphia, her church and her gossips. She complained +bitterly to me this morning that she 'had no company here but the cows: +Miss Swendon might as well have whisked her off into a haythen desart.'" + +"She complained to you!" cried the captain. "Why, the trouble and money +which Jane has given to that woman and her family! They were starving, I +assure you!" + +Jane listened at first with her usual quiet good-humor. Miss Fleming's +waspish temper generally amused her, as it would have done a man (if he was +not her husband). But she began to grow anxious. + +"You really think Betty is not contented here?" her hand a little unsteady +as she poured the cream into the cups. + +"Contented? She seems miserable enough. Home is home, you know, if it is +only a cellar and starvation. But perhaps"--with a shrug--"that class of +Irish are never happy without a grievance. Now, Twiss, it appears to me, +has just ground for complaint.--A shoemaker," turning to the judge a face +beaming with fun, "whom this young lady has transported and set down in +charge of gardens and hot-houses. He does not know a hoe from a mower, and +he is too old to learn. He had a good trade: now he has nothing." + +"But he could not live by his trade," cried Jane. + +"Well, cobbling is looking up now. In any case, you have pauperized him." + +"That's bad--bad! Now, in Virginia we used to feed everybody who came +along!" said the judge, shaking his head. "But I've learned wisdom in the +cities. Every bit of bread given to a beggar degrades human nature and rots +society to the core." + +"But suppose he is starving?" urged the captain. "The Good Samaritan wasn't +afraid of pauperizing that poor devil on the road." + +"Let him starve. He will have preserved his self-respect. The Good +Samaritan knew nothing of political economy, sir." + +Jane left her breakfast untasted. She understood nothing about political +economy, but she saw that she had done irreparable injury to these people +whom she had tried to serve--God knew with what anxiety and tenderness of +heart. In one case, at least, there had been no mistake. + +"Did you see Phil?" she said, turning with brightening countenance to Miss +Fleming. "We intend to have Phil educated. He is such a keen-witted little +fellow." + +Miss Fleming laughed outright now: "Mr. Neckart's protege? Yes, I saw him. +He has been stealing tobacco and money from Dave, it appears, ever since he +came, and was found out this morning. There was a horrible row in the +stable as I passed." + +"Of course he stole!" said the judge triumphantly. "I tell you, the more +efforts you make to reform the dangerous classes the more hardened you will +grow. It's hopeless--hopeless!" + +Her other listeners each promptly presented their theory. Like all +intelligent Americans, they were provided with theories on every social +problem, and were ready to hang it on an individual stable-boy or any other +nail of a fact which might offer. Jane alone sat silent. She did not hear +when her father spoke to her once or twice. + +"You are disappointed," Mr. Van Ness's soft soothing voice murmured in her +ear. "I know how these baffled efforts chill the heart. I will explain to +you the machinery which I propose to bring to bear on these classes." + +"I don't know anything about machinery or classes. Twiss and Betty were +friends of mine, and I tried to help them, and have failed." + +Miss Fleming, who was watching her furtively, saw her dull eyes raised +presently and rest on the captain, who with a red face and bursts of +laughter was telling one of his interminable stories. + +"This girl," Cornelia said to herself, "has everything which I have +not--beauty, wealth, Bruce Neckart's love. Yet she looks at that weak old +man as if he were all that was left her in the world." She had put Jane +before on the general basis of antipathy which she had to everything in the +world that was not masculine, but the feeling had kindled since last night +into active dislike. + +When breakfast was over and their guests had gone to their rooms to make +ready to meet the train, Jane decoyed the captain away to Bruno's kennel, +where he was tied during Mr. Van Ness's stay. Once out of sight she retied +his cravat, arranged his white hair to her liking, stroked his sunken +cheeks. Here was something actual and real. She knew now that she had never +had anything that was truly her own but the kind foolish face looking down +on her. She never would have anything more. Only an hour ago life had +opened for her wide and fair as the dawn: now it had narrowed to this old +hand in hers, to his breath, that came and went--O God, how feebly! + +"You are looking stronger to-day, father. You are gaining every day. Oh +that is quite certain! Very soon we shall have you as well and strong as +you were at forty." + +What if she had not had money this last year? He never could have lived +through it. God had been kind to her--kind! She pressed his hand to her +breast with a quick glance out to the bright sky. The Captain saw her chin +quivering. His own thoughts ran partly in the same line as hers. + +"Oh, I'm gaining, no doubt of it. Though I never could have pulled through +this year if we had had to live in the old way. God bless Will Laidley for +leaving the money as he did!" + +"It was not his to leave otherwise!" she cried indignantly. + +"Tut, tut, Jane! Of course it was his. By every law. He could have flung it +away where he chose; and he had a perfect right to do it." + +It was not God who had been kind to her, then: it was only that she had +stolen the money? + +"Come, Jenny: we must go back to the house." + +"In a moment, father. Go on: I will follow you." + +She walked up and down the tan-bark path for a while. She was sure of +nothing. Wherever she had done what seemed to her right and natural, she +was barred and checked by the world's laws and experience. She had brought +these starving wretches out of a hell upon earth into this paradise, and +even they laughed at her want of wisdom: the very money which was her own +in the sight of God, and which had lengthened her father's life, ought to +be given back to-day to the poor, its rightful owners. If there was any +other cause for her to fight blindly against the narrow matter-of-fact +routine which ruled her life, she did not name it even to herself. + +Looking toward the house, she saw her father escorting their guests to the +gate, where the carriage waited, David resplendent on the box. The captain +walked with a feeble kind of swagger: his voice came back to her in weak +gusts of laughter. She laid her hand on a tree, glancing about her with a +firm sense of possession. "The property is mine," she said, "and I'll keep +it as long as he lives, if all the paupers in the United States were +starving at the gates!" + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + + +Mr. Van Ness returned to the Hemlock Farm at stated periods during the +summer. He had, to be plain, sat down before Jane's heart to besiege it +with the same ponderous benign calm with which he ate an egg or talked of +death. There was a bronze image of Buddha in the hall at the Farm, the gaze +of the god fixed with ineffable content, as it had been for ages, on his +own stomach. + +Jane went up to it one day after an hour's talk with Mr. Van Ness. "This +creature maddens me," she said. "I always want to break it into pieces to +see it alter." + +Little Mr. Waring, who had come with Van Ness, hurried up as a connoisseur +in bronzes, adjusting his eye-glasses. "Why, it is faultless, Miss +Swendon!" he cried. + +"That is precisely what makes it intolerable." + +Much of Jane's large, easy good-humor was gone by this time. She had grown +thin, was eager, restless, uncertain of what she ought or ought not to do, +even in trifles. + +Mr. Waring and Judge Rhodes were both at the Farm now. They ran over to New +York every week or two. Phil Waring was not a marrying man, but it was part +of his duty as a leader in society to be intimate with every important +heiress or beauty in the two cities. Out of sincere compassion to Jane's +stupendous ignorance he would sit for hours stroking his moustache, his +elbows on his knees, his feet on a rung of the chair, dribbling information +as to the nice effects in the Water-Color Exhibition, or miraculous "finds" +of Spode or Wedgwood in old junk-shops, or the most authentic information +as to why the Palfreys had no cards to Mrs. Livingstone's kettledrums, +while Jane listened with a quizzical gleam in her eyes, as she did to the +little bantam hen outside cackling and strutting over its new egg. + +"We must have you in society this winter," he urged. "It is a duty you owe +in your position. You have no choice about it." + +"You are right, Mr. Waring," called the captain from the corner where he +sat with Judge Rhodes. "The child must have friends in her own class." He +dropped his voice again: "The truth is, Rhodes, she has no ties like other +girls. Her dog and two or three old women and some children--that is all +she knows of life. It's enough while she has me. But I shall not be here +long, now. Not many months." + +The eyes of the two men met. + +"Does she know?" asked the judge after a while. + +"No." The captain's gaunt features worked: he trotted his foot to some +tune, looking down from the window and whistling under his breath. "It was +for this I sent for you," he added presently. "If I could only see her +settled, married, before I go! She is no more fit to be left alone in the +world than Bruno." + +The judge shook his head in gloomy assent. His own opinion was that Jane +would follow her own instincts in a dog-like fashion if her father was out +of the way, and God only knew where they would lead her! He had brought his +own girls, Rose and Netty, with him to visit her, in order that she might +have a domestic feminine influence upon her. They found, accidentally, that +she did not know a word of any catechism, and, terrified, loaned her +religious novels to convert her: she took them graciously, but never cut +the leaves. There were to them even more heathenish indications in her +hoopless straight skirts: the good little creatures zealously cut and +trimmed a dress for her from the very last patterns. She put it on, and +straightway went through bog and brake with Bruno for mushrooms, coming +back with it in tatters. They chattered in their thin falsetto voices the +last Culpepper gossip into her patient ear--the story of Rosey's balls at +Old Point, and Netty's lovers, all of whom were "splendid matches until +impohverished by the war." She listened to their chirping with amused eyes, +tapping them, when they were through, approvingly on the head as though +they were clever canaries. The girls told their father that they "feared +her principles leaned toward infidelity, and that it was never safe to be +intimate with these original women," and had gone home the next day, not +waiting for the judge. They washed their hands of her, and gloved them +again, but he still felt responsible for her. After he left the captain he +went to her, fatherly interest radiant in every feature: "Mr. Waring is +right, Jane. It is high time that you were taking your part in society. +Your father wishes it." + +"I will do whatever he wishes," quietly.--"You did not know us when we +lived in the old house in Southwark, Mr. Waring. We invented our patents +then. Sometimes we could afford to go to the gallery at the theatre when +the play was good. Father and the newsboys would lead the clapping. And we +went once a year in our patched shoes a-fishing for a holiday. Those were +good times." + +"Perfect child of Nature!" telegraphed Mr. Waring uneasily to the judge. +"How Mrs. Wilde will rejoice in you, Miss Swendon! Nature is her specialty. +She is coming to call this morning.--Miss Swendon," turning anxiously to +the judge, "can have no better sponsor in society than Mrs. Wilde. She only +can give the accolade to all aspirants. No amount of money will force an +entrance at her doors. There must be blood--blood. 'Swendon?' she said when +I spoke to her about this call. 'The Swedish Svens? I remember. Queen +Christina's gallant lieutenant was her great-grandfather. Good stock. None +better. The girl must belong to our circle.' So, now it is all settled!" +rubbing his hands and smiling. + +"Jane is careless," said the captain eagerly. "People of the best fashion +have called, and she has not even left cards. Her dress too--Now a Paris +gown, fringes and--" + +The three men looked at her at that with a sudden imbecile despair, at +which she laughed and went out. + +The captain found her presently down by the boat in which she had heard +Neckart's story. She bailed it out and cleaned it carefully every day, but +she had never gone on the river in it since that night. + +"Father," stepping ashore, "what have I done that I must be turned into +another woman?" + +"Now, Jenny, making models and crabbing were well enough for you as a +child. But, as Waring justly observes, the society to which you belong is +inexorable in its rules for a woman." + +She flung out her arms impatiently, and then clasped them above her head. +It seemed as if a thousand fine clammy webs were being spun about her. + +"If you had any especial talent, as Waring says--if you were artistic or +musical, or concerned in some asylum-work--you could take your own path, +independent of society. But--" looking down at her anxiously. + +"I understand. I don't know what I was made for." + +It was the first time in her life that she had been driven in to consider +herself. She stood grave and intent, saying nothing for some time. Every +other woman had some definite aim. The whole world was marching by, keeping +step to a neat, orderly little tune. They made calls, they gave alms, they +dressed, all of the same fashion. + +"Why not be like other people?" her father was saying, making a burden to +her thought. + +"I don't know why," drearily. + +"What would you have, Jenny?" taking her hand in his. + +"Father, I never loved but one or two people in the world. You and Bruno +and--not many others. I can do nothing outside of them." + +"Nonsense! You cannot be a law to yourself, child. God knows I want to see +you happy!" his voice breaking. "But," straightening his eye-glasses, +"Waring says, very justly, you are out of the groove which all other girls +are in." He stopped inquiringly, but she did not answer. She was a +strongly-built woman in mind and body, and just then she felt her strength. +The blood rushed in a swift current through her veins. Why should she be +hampered with these thousand meaningless, sham duties? She was fit for but +one purpose--to serve two men whom she loved. Her father was ill, and he +pushed her from him into Society; and Bruce Neckart was alone, and with a +worse fate than death creeping on him, and he-- + +"Why does not Mr. Neckart come to us?" she asked abruptly. "It is months +since I have seen him." + +"His health is failing. There is some trouble of the brain threatened. I +hear that he is going to give up the paper, and is settling up his business +to go to Europe." Her question startled him: he watched her with a new keen +suspicion. + +"If this must come on him, why should he not come here to bear it? I can +nurse you both. Surely, that is as good work as returning calls or learning +to dress in Parisian style," with a short laugh. + +The captain's face gathered intelligence as he listened. He knew her secret +now. For a moment he felt a wrench of pity for her. But love, with the +captain, had been a sentimental fever ending in a cold ague: he had +experienced light heats and chills of it many a time since. This wild fancy +of the girl's would speedily burn itself out if judiciously damped. He +would at once take the matter in hand. + +"Neckart," he said deliberately, eying her to gauge the effect of his +words, "is a man of sense and knowledge of the world. He knows his +condition, and in the little time left to him he attends to his business +and important political affairs, instead of nursing a romantic friendship +which cannot serve him, and would only compromise you." + +"Compromise me? I don't understand you, father." + +"A woman could not render such service as you offer except to her betrothed +lover or husband." + +"Why, he would understand." + +"But Society, child--" + +"Oh, Society!" with a laugh. "But you do not remember!" clasping her hands +on his shoulder. "If this thing comes upon him--he has looked forward to it +all his life--he has nobody. He is quite alone." + +"At least," impatiently, "you will not be involved. I did not understand +before why Bruce had deserted us lately. I see now that he has acted very +properly. It was not his fault nor yours--this flirtation--preference--or +whatever you may choose to call it. But Bruce knows the world, and knows +just how long-lived such fancies are, and he intends that it shall be no +hinderance to your marriage--making an excellent match." + +"I marry? Make an excellent match?" + +"Yes. Certainly. What else should you do? Don't look in that way, my +darling. It frightens me. I'm not strong. It is not death that is coming to +you, but a good husband. You need not turn so white." + +"And Mr. Neckart planned this for _me?_" + +"N-no. I can't say 'planned,' to be accurate. But he agreed in our plan. +Why, Bruce has common sense. He knows it is the way of the world that a +woman should marry, and he will be much happier to know that you are the +wife of a good man--good and good-looking too. Much more presentable than +Bruce, poor fellow!" + +The captain watched her closely as he gave this home-thrust. How a woman +could turn from that magnificent, devout reformer to any lean, irascible +politician! Her foot was on the edge of the little skiff. She pushed it +into the water. While he sat in the boat there that night, with the +moonlight white about them, while he told her that he loved her, he had +been planning this good match for her! There was no such thing as love, +then, in the world? Or truth? But there was Society and common sense and +the inexorable rules of propriety. Bruce Neckart represented to her +Strength itself, and he submitted to these rules cheerfully. He was happy +to think of her as the wife of a good, presentable man! + +When she had thought of him as going alone with his terrible burden away +from her into the wilderness, true to her until the last breath of reason +was gone, there had been a thrill of delight in the intolerable pain. But +planning, like finical little Waring, that she should fall snugly into a +fashionable set, Parisian gowns, a suitable marriage! + +Jane had not the womanish faculty of thinning every fact or thought that +came to her into tears or talk. Neckart had gone out of her life. She +accepted the fact at once, without argument. What the loss imported to her +would assuredly be known only to her own narrow, one-sided mind, and the +God who had given it to her. + +"Shall we go to the house, father? Can't you laugh again, and look like +yourself? Why, I will give myself up, body and soul, to Society or +Philanthropy--anything you choose--rather than see you so shaken." She hung +on his arm as they went up the path, talking incessantly, and laughing +more, as even the captain felt, than the jokes would warrant. The moment +was favorable for introducing the subject he had at heart. + +"The last train brought out a dozen men to consult Mr. Van Ness," he +began--"deputations from church and charitable organizations. 'Pon my soul, +I don't know what Christianity in this country would do without that man!" + +"It would wear a very different face," absently. + +"I went with Rhodes to a great revival-meeting in town one night lately, +and Van Ness, of course, was called up on the platform. Rhodes thought he +looked like one of the apostles in modern dress; and all the ladies near me +said that his face beamed with heavenly light. It would have made anybody +devout to look at him. Are you listening?" glancing at her abstracted face. +"You certainly think him remarkably handsome? As to his nose, now?" + +"I don't suppose anybody could find fault with his nose," smiling. + +"Nor with his manner?" + +"Nor with his manner." + +"And yet you are not friends, eh?" holding his breath for her answer. + +"No," carelessly. "Mr. Van Ness and I could not be friends." + +"Why? why?" + +"How could I tell?" with a shrug, and looking at Bruno, who was fighting a +cat just then without cause. + +The captain looked and sighed. It was of no use, he thought, to try to +account for the prejudices or likings of any of the lower animals. + +Mr. Waring met them at the moment in an anxious flutter: "Mrs. Wilde is +here. She is coming down the path." + +Mrs. Wilde was a small, plump old lady with a sober, tranquil face framed +in soft puffs of white hair; her dress never rustled or brought itself into +any notice; her language never fell uneasily out of its quiet gait; when +she spoke to you, you felt that something genuine and happy dominated you +for the moment. + +"I followed Mr. Waring here," holding out her hand. "One makes acquaintance +so much more quickly out of doors. I must begin ours by asking for your +arm, Miss Swendon. I am fat and scant o' breath, and apt to forget it." + +Jane drew the puffy hand eagerly through her arm. She would have liked to +say outright how welcome the motherly presence and the honest voice were to +her just then. + +Mrs. Wilde dismissed the captain and Mr. Waring, and the two women sat down +in the arbor, and at once were at ease and at home with each other. Bruno +came up, eyed and smelled the new-comer, and snuggled down on her skirts to +go to sleep. + +"He vouches for me," she said nodding. "You must take me at his valuation." + +"He makes no mistakes." + +"Nor do you, I suspect. That reminds me, Miss Swendon. I brought a friend +with me, and now that I have seen you I mean to bespeak your good-will for +her. She needs just such healthy influence as yours would be." + +"Is she ill?" + +"Only in mind. One of those morbid women who must make a drama out of their +lives, and prefer to make it a tragedy. A Madame Trebizoff, an +English-woman who married a Russian prince. She is a widow now, with large +means--came to New York a few months ago, and has had much court paid to +her. But her nature makes her always a very lonely woman." She spoke +hastily as the trailing of heavy skirts approached on the grass. "Here she +is, poor thing! Be good to her," she whispered before presenting her in +form. Madame Trebizoff was draped in black, with a good deal of lace about +her head and an artificial yellow rose at her throat. Jane went up to her +with outstretched hand, but when the sallow face turned full on her she +stopped short, looked at it a moment, and then bowed without a word. + +"It is the materialized spirit!" But she did not speak, for in a moment she +remembered that she had once taken the bread from the wretched woman's +mouth. She would not do it again. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + + +Mr. Van Ness came beaming down through the lilacs to the arbor, and was +received with much reverence by Mrs. Wilde. She was a devout woman, and +Pliny Van Ness's name was in all the churches. They all sauntered back to +luncheon presently, Mrs. Wilde and Jane going before, while Mr. Van Ness +and the Russian princess walked more slowly through the woods, the +foreigner talking with animation and many gestures of American trees, while +the reformer listened benignly, ineffable calm in his smiling eyes. + +"You followed me here purposely, Charlotte?" he said gently as she dilated +eloquently on our autumnal foliage. + +"No. I did not know that you were in New York. But I meant to call upon you +soon. I have had no money from you since last August." + +"Somebody, apparently, has filled my place as your banker," his placid eye +sweeping over the costly dress and be-diamonded fingers. + +"What is that to you?" with a sudden shrill passion. "Once you would have +cared, Pliny. But that was years ago." + +"Yes. Many years ago," buttoning his glove carefully. "A Russian princess, +eh?" after a short pause. "You are playing higher than ordinary, Charlotte. +You'll find it dangerous. I should advise you to keep to begging letters or +the role of medium or literary tramp." + +"One class is as ready to be humbugged as the other. Who knows that better +than you?" + +"In the religious and charitable work to which I have given up my life," +deliberately measuring his words, "there are few impostors to be met. We +usually detect fraud, with God's help, and do not suffer from it, +therefore." + +She stopped short, looking at him with blank amazement. Then walked on with +a shrug: "Absolutely! He expects me to believe in him! He believes in +himself! Can imposture go further than that?" + +Mrs. Wilde, in the distance, caught sight of the two figures as they passed +through a belt of sunlight, and smiled contentedly. + +"I am so glad to bring poor madame under direct religious influence! Mr. +Van Ness is speaking to her with great earnestness, I perceive." + +The Princess Trebizoff scanned the great reformer as they walked, +appraising him, from the measured solemn step to his calm humility of eye. +She would have relished a passionate scene with him. After terrapin and +champagne, there was nothing she relished so much as emotion and tears. But +they had played up to each other so often! The tragedy in their relation +had grown terribly stale! You could not, she felt, make Hamlet's inky cloak +out of dyed cotton. But he would serve as audience. + +"I'm growing very tired of good society," talking rapidly as usual. "Now, +you always enjoyed a dead level, Pliny." + +"Yes. There's no Bohemian blood in my veins. I was designed for +respectability." + +"So? I mean Ted shall be respectable," with sudden earnestness. "He is in a +Presbyterian college. I should be glad if he'd go into the ministry. Yes, I +should. Provided he had a call from God. I'll have no sham professions +from Ted," her black eyes sparkling. "You did not ask for the boy. In your +weighty affairs doubtless you forgot there was such a human being." + +"No, indeed. In what institution have you placed Thaddeus?" + +"No matter. He's out of your influence, thank God! He never heard your +name. But as for me, I think I'll drop this princess business soon," +meditatively. "I began down town," with a fresh burst of vivacity. "On the +boarding-house keepers. Last December." + +"You are Madame Varens! Is it possible?" turning to look at her. "The +papers were filled with your exploits last winter." + +"Precisely!" She had a joyous girlish laugh, infectious enough to draw a +smile from Van Ness. + +"You are really very clever, Charlotte," admiringly. + +"I made a tour in the West just before that," excitedly, patting her hands +together. "Agent for Orphans' Homes in the Gulf States. I wrote a letter of +introduction from one or two bishops to the clergymen in their dioceses: +that started me, and the clergy and press passed me through. What a mill of +tea-drinkings and church-gossip I went through! But it was better fun than +this." + +Looking up, she happened to catch the cold, furtive glance with which he +had listened, and kept her eye fixed on him curiously. + +"Do you hate me so much as _that?_" she said with a long breath. "Well," +frankly, "it must be intolerable to carry such a millstone about your neck +as I am to you. You know I could pull you down any minute I chose," tossing +her head and laughing maliciously. "No matter how high you had climbed. I +often wonder, Pliny, why you do not rid yourself of me. It could be easily +done." + +The usually suave tone was harsh and hoarse as he began to speak. He +coughed, and carefully modulated his voice before he said politely, "Yes. +But it would involve exposure unless carefully managed. That is certain +damnation. There is a chance of safety for the present in trusting to you. +You were always good-natured, Charlotte. And," turning his watery eye full +on her, "you loved me once." + +"Possibly," coolly. "But last year's loves are as tedious reading as last +year's newspapers. Better trust my good-nature. You show your shrewdness in +that. I don't interfere with people. The world uses me very well. It's a +hogshead that gives the best of wine--if you know how to tap it." + +"You've tapped it with a will. You go through life perpetually drunk," he +thought as she ran lightly before him up the steps. He habitually made such +complacent moral reflections upon his companions to himself, and took +spiritual comfort in them. + +The hall was wide and sunny, made homelike by low seats and growing plants: +it was occupied by half a dozen committee-men, who were waiting impatiently +to see Mr. Van Ness. The princess seated herself, attentive, her head on +one side like some bright-eyed tropical bird. + +Van Ness, without even a glance toward her, took up his business of +Christian financier. "Do not go, I beg," as the captain opened the inner +door for Rhodes and the ladies to retire. "Our affairs are conducted in the +eyes of the public. Sound integrity has no secrets to keep. That is our +pride.--Ah, gentlemen?" + +The captain was glad to stay. Surely, Jane would be impressed with the vast +influence of this good man. Van Ness did not look at her once. But he saw +nobody but her, and spoke directly to her ear. + +Asylums, workingmen's homes, hospitals, in all of which he was a director, +were brought up and dismissed with a few hopeful, earnest words. The vast +system of organized charities through which the kindly wealthy class touch +the poor beneath them was opened. Mrs. Wilde, a manager in many of them, +joined in the discussion. + +"What a useless creature I am!" thought Jane. "But the money," doggedly, +"is mine, and I choose to give it to father if the whole world go hungry." +She turned, however, from one representative of these asylums to the other +with a baited look. Was it this one or that whom she had robbed? + +"Now, as to Temperance City--_our_ city?" demanded a puffy little man +importantly. "You are the fountain-head of information there. We look to +you, Mr. Van Ness." + +"You shall have the annual report next week.--Temperance City," turning to +Rhodes, his balmy gaze aimed straight over her head, "is a scheme to +protect people of small means in the churches, especially women, from +wrecking their little all in unwise investments. It is a town on the line +of the Pacific Railroad. Lots are only sold to colonists who are +tee-totallers and members of some church. The stock is owned largely by the +same class." + +"Oh, almost altogether!" cried the little man enthusiastically. "Mr. Van +Ness's name, as you will understand, gives it authority among all religious +people. We distribute prospectuses at camp-meetings and at all sectarian +seaside resorts. Shares go off this summer like hot cakes. There's nothing +like religion, sir, to back up business enterprise. There's Stokes, for +instance. His shoes are sold from New Jersey to Oregon on the strength of +the hymns he has written." + +"Yes," said the judge solemnly. "We used to keep religion too much in the +chimney-corner--spoke of it with bated breath. But it's in trade now, sir. +We hear every day of our Christian shoe-makers and railway kings and +statesmen. The world moves!" + +"Moves? Oh there's no lever like religion!" gasped the little man. "No +advertisement to equal it. And a good man ought to succeed! Are the +swindlers to take all the fat of the land? Does not the good Book say, 'To +the laborers belong the spoils'?" + +"But this is so charming to me!" cried the princess. "We foreigners have so +few opportunities of looking into the workings of your politics and trade!" + +Van Ness bowed respectfully. + +"And the State Home for destitute children?" asked a raw-boned +Scotch-Irishman. "We're interested in that here in New York. We've +subscribed largely, as you're aware, Mr. Van Ness. May I ask when you wull +begin the buildin'?" + +"In the spring, I trust. If enough funds are collected." + +"And hoo air the funds invested in the mean while?" + +"Oh, in corner-lots in Temperance City." + +The committee-men had hurried away to catch the next train: lunch was over, +and Mr. Van Ness stood apart on the lawn under the drooping branches of a +willow, when the princess tripped lightly out to him. + +"You have an object in coming here? You had an object in bringing those men +to-day and opening out your affairs. What is it?" + +He regarded her composedly for a moment without answering: "You always +erred, Charlotte, in ascribing your own skill in intrigue to me. It was a +flattering mistake. What I am to others I am to myself." + +She laughed, a merry, hearty laugh: "Yes, Pliny, because you are not +satisfied with cheating the world and the God that made you into the belief +that you are a Christian, but you parade in your godliness before yourself. +There is not a spot within you sound enough for your real soul to lodge in. +It is all like that," setting her foot viciously on a fallen apple. "Rotten +to the core!" + +A shadow of disgust passed over his handsome face. Van Ness had a +fastidious taste. Her melodramatic poses had been familiar to him for +years: they always had annoyed and bored him. + +"What is it that brings you here? A woman?" + +He hesitated a moment: "Yes." + +"This yellow-haired girl? You mean to marry her?" + +"I may marry her," cautiously. + +Their eyes met. "I did not think you would push me so far," she said +thoughtfully. + +"It is to your interest not to interfere. You are mad, Charlotte. But you +never lose sight of the dirty dollar in your madness." + +"That is for Ted's sake," quietly. "I dislike that girl. She's so damnably +clean! She's of the sort that would walk straight on and trample me under +foot like a slug if she knew what I was. I owe her an old grudge, too. But +that's nothing," laughing good-humoredly. "It was the most ridiculous +scene! But it lost me a year's income. She nearly recognized me to-day. On +the whole, I'll not interfere. Marry her. She deserves just such a +punishment. By the way, there is my card. You can send the back payments +that are due, to-morrow." + +Van Ness received the card and command with a smile and bow, meant for the +bystanders: "Of course, Charlotte, you understand that these payments must +soon stop. I shall rid myself of any legal claims you have upon me before +marrying another woman." + +"Oh, I've no doubt you'll walk strictly according to law! You will not run +the risk of a lawsuit, much less prosecution, even for Miss Swendon. You +will have no trouble in gaining your freedom from me," shrilly. + +"None whatever," stripping the leaves from a willow wand. She left him +without a word, going to the house. + +Mrs. Wilde had just summoned her carriage. "Where is the princess?" looking +lazily around. + +"Is Madame Trebizoff a guest in your house?" asked Jane suddenly. + +"Yes." + +"I will call her. I have something to say to her." + +She went to meet her with the grave motherly firmness with which she would +have gone to give a scolding to black Buff or a lazy chambermaid. The +princess, crossing the grass, slender, dark, sparkling, had no doubt of her +own smouldering passionate hate against her. It was the proper thing for +Hagar to hate Sarah. Life was thin and insipid without great remorses, +revenges, loves. The poor little creature was always aiming at them, and +falling short. She was wondering now why Jane wore no jewelry. "Not an +earring! Not a hoop on her finger! If I had her money!" glancing down at +the blaze of rubies on her breast. + +They met under a clump of lilacs. + +"Stop one moment," said Jane, looking down at her not unkindly. "You must +not let this go too far, you know." + +"What do you mean?" The princess fixed her eye upon her, with a somewhat +snaky light in it. Indeed, when she assumed that attitude toward Van Ness +or any other man she could frighten and hold him at bay as if she had been +a cobra about to strike. But the lithe dark body, the vivid color, the +beady eye only reminded Jane oddly of a darting little lizard, and tempted +her to laugh. + +"No. You really must keep within bounds. Because I have my eye upon you. I +can't let you cheat that good soul, who brought you here, to her damage." + +The princess gasped and whitened as though a cold calm hand was laid on her +miserable sham of a body. + +"Do you know who I am?" stiffening herself into her idea of regal bearing. + +"Not exactly. It does not matter in the least, either. I took your means of +earning a living from you once, you told me, and I don't wish to do it +again. I will not interfere as long as you hurt nobody." + +The princess stared at her and burst into an hysteric laugh: "I believe, in +my soul, you mean just what you say! You are the shrewdest or stupidest +woman I ever saw! Do you sympathize with me? Do you feel for me?" +tragically, "or are you trying to worm my secret from me?" + +"Neither one nor the other," coolly. "I know your secret. You are no spirit +and no princess. I shall pity you perhaps when you go to some honest work. +Why," with sudden interest, "I can find steady work for you at once. A +staymaker in the village told me the other day--" + +"_I_ make stays!" + +They both laughed. Jane's chief thought probably was how bony and sickly +this poor woman was: her own solid white limbs seemed selfish to her for +the instant. She took the twitching, ringed fingers in her hand. + +"Play out your own play," she said good-humoredly. "You will not hurt +anybody very seriously, I fancy." + +They walked in silence to the house. + +The princess bent forward in the carriage-window as they drove away to look +back at her. "I wish my son knew such women as that!" she cried. + +"Son?" said the startled Mrs. Wilde. "You have not spoken before to me of +your son, madame." + +"I have always kept him under tutors--at Leipsic." + +She leaned back as they drove through the sunshine, her filmy handkerchief +to her painted eyes, seeing nothing but an ugly, honest-faced boy hard at +work in a bare Presbyterian chapel. He would never know nor guess the life +of shame which his mother led! Her tears were real now. + +She even had wild, visionary thoughts of a confession, of staymaking, of so +many dollars a week regularly. But she remembered the time when some fussy, +good women had put her in charge of a fashionable Kindergarten. There was a +fat salary! The house was luxurious: the teachers did the work. But one +night she had broken the finical apparatus to pieces, left a heap of +bonbons for the children, scrawled a verse of good-bye with chalk on the +blackboard, and taken to the road again without a penny. + +REBECCA HARDING DAVIS. + +[TO BE CONTINUED.] + + + + +ALFRED DE MUSSET. + + +It is twenty years since the death of Alfred de Musset, a poet whose +popularity and influence, both in his own country and out of it, can be +compared only to Byron's. Not that the Frenchman is known in England as the +Englishman is known in France, but the latter country may be called the +open side of the Channel, and in establishing a comparison between the +relative fame and familiarity of foreign names and ideas there and on the +isolated side, it is proportion rather than quantity which must be kept in +view. While Byron is out of fashion in his own country, the rage for +Musset, which for a long time made him appear not so much the favorite +modern poet of France as the only one, has subsided into a steady +admiration and affection, a permanent preference. New editions of his +works, both cheaper and more costly, are being constantly issued, portraits +of him are multiplied, his pieces are regularly performed at the Theatre +Francais, his verses are on every one's lips, his tomb is heaped with +flowers on All Souls' Day. Until after his death it would have been easy to +count those who knew even his name in this country and England: as usual in +such matters, we preceded the English in our acquaintance with him. The +freedom with which Owen Meredith and Mr. Swinburne helped themselves from +his poems proves how unfamiliar the general public was with him ten years +ago, but his distinction is now so well recognized in that island, so +remote from external impressions, that some knowledge of his life and +writings formed part of the French course last year in the higher local +examinations of Cambridge University. + +Alfred de Musset belongs to the class of poets whose inner history excites +most curiosity, because his readers feel that there lies the spring of his +power, the secret of his charm, as well as the key to the riddles and +inconsistencies which his writings present: they are so imbued with the +essence of a common humanity that the heart that beats, the tears which +start, the blood which courses through them, keep time with our own. The +desire to penetrate still further into the intimacy to which they admit us +is quite distinct from the vulgar inquisitiveness which pursues celebrity, +or merely notoriety, into privacy. His biography has lately been published +by one who recognizes the true nature of this curiosity: Paul de Musset has +reserved the right of telling his brother's story, regarding it, he says, +"not only as a duty I owe to the man I loved best, and whose most intimate +and confidential friend I was, but as a necessary complement to the perfect +understanding of his works, for his work was himself." + +The way in which this task has been performed is not entirely satisfactory, +and many passionate admirers of the poet, the order of readers to whom it +is dedicated, will feel disappointment and a regretful sense of its failing +to fulfil what it undertook, increased by the conviction that, having been +undertaken by the hand best fitted for it by natural propriety, it cannot +be done again. The book bears the relation to what one desired and expected +that a bare diary does to the journal, or memoranda to the lecture. It is a +collection of notes on the life of Alfred de Musset, rather than a full +memoir. This inadequacy arises principally from the biographer himself. +Paul de Musset, the poet's elder and only brother, is a man of taste and +cultivation, a judge of art, literature, music and the drama, a person of +charming manners and conversation, dignified, kindly, courteous, easy: he +was until middle age a busy, working man, whose leisure moments were +occupied with writings that have found little favor, except the _Femmes de +la Regence_ and the pretty child's story of _M. le Vent et Mme. la Pluie_, +which latter has been translated. He was the devoted, unselfish friend and +mentor of Alfred, to whose juniority and genius he extended an indulgence +of which he needed no share for himself: in fact, he was the elder brother +of the Prodigal in everything but want of generosity. A more amiable +portrait cannot be imagined than the one to be drawn of him from the +history of his intercourse with his brother and from Alfred's own letters +and verses to him. This, however, was not the person to give us such an +account and analysis of the life and character of Alfred de Musset as the +subject called for: he has neither the necessary impartiality nor ability. +He is now seventy years old, and although, like his brother, he has the +gift of appearing a decade less than his age, he is forced to remember that +the time must come when he will no longer be here to defend his brother's +memory, which has suffered more than one cruel attack. Having once had to +silence calumny under cover of fiction, he naturally wished to put his name +beyond the reach of being further traduced. Whatever the shortcomings of +the performance, it could not fail to be interesting. It is written in an +easy, well-bred style, like the author's way of talking--not without a +sense of humor, with touching pride in his brother's endowments, and +tenderness toward faults which he does not deny. In place of comprehensive +views and sound judgment of Alfred de Musset's genius and career, we have +the knowledge of absolute intimacy and sympathy, candor, a hoard of +reminiscences and details which could be gained from no other source, and, +more than all, that certainty as to events and motives which can exist only +where there has been a lifelong daily association without disguise or +distrust. + +The family of Musset is old and gentle, and was adorned in early centuries +by soldiers of mark and statesmen of good counsel--the sort of lineage +which should bequeath high and honorable ideas, an inheritance of which +neither Paul nor Alfred de Musset nor their immediate forbears were +unworthy. A disposition to letters and poetry appears among their ancestry +on both sides, beginning in the twelfth century with Colin de Musset, a +sort of troubadour, a friend of Thibaut, count of Champagne, while the +poet's paternal grandmother bore the name of Du Bellay, so illustrious in +the annals of French literature. Alfred de Musset's parents were remarkable +for goodness of heart and high principle: both possessed an ideality which +showed itself with them in elevation of moral sentiments, and which passed +into the imaginative qualities of their sons. From remoter relatives on +both sides came a legacy of wit, promptness and point in retort, gayety +and good spirits. Alfred de Musset was born on the 11th of December, 1810, +in the old quarter of Paris, on the left bank of the Seine. The stories of +his childhood--which are pretty, like all true stories about children--show +a sensitive, affectionate, vivacious, impetuous, perverse nature, +precocious observation and intelligence. He was one of those beautiful, +captivating children whom nobody can forbear to spoil, and who, with the +innocent cunning of their age, reckon on the effect of their own charms. He +was not four years old when he first fell in love, as such mere babies, +both girls and boys, occasionally do: these infantine passions exhibit most +of the phenomena of maturer ones, and show how intense and absorbing a +passion may be which belongs exclusively to the region of sentiment and +imagination. Alfred de Musset's first love was his cousin, a young girl +nearly grown up when he first saw her: he left his playthings to listen to +her account of a journey she had made from Belgium, then the seat of war, +and from that day, whenever she came to the house, insisted on her telling +him stories, which she did with the patience and invention of Scheherazade. +At last he asked her to marry him, and, as she did not refuse, considered +her his betrothed wife. After some time she returned to her home in Liege: +there were tears on both sides--on his genuine and excessive grief. "Do not +forget me," said Clelia.--"Forget you! Don't you know that your name is cut +upon my heart with a pen-knife?" He set himself to learn to read and write +with incredible application, that he might be able to correspond with his +beloved. His attachment did not abate with absence, so that when Clelia +really married, the whole family thought it necessary to keep it a secret +from her little lover, and he remained in ignorance of it for years, +although he betrayed extraordinary suspicion and misgiving on the subject. +He was a schoolboy of eight or nine before he learned the truth, and was at +first extremely agitated: he asked tremblingly if Clelia had been making +fun of him, and being assured that she had not, but that they had not +allowed her to wait for him, and that she loved him like an elder sister, +he grew calm and said, "I will be satisfied with that." The cousins seldom +met in after-life, but preserved a tender affection for each other, which +served to avert a lawsuit and rupture that threatened to grow out of a +business disagreement between the two branches of the family. In 1852, +Clelia came to Paris to be present at Alfred's reception by the French +Academy. He had great confidence in her taste and judgment, and the last +time they met he said to her, "If there should ever be a handsome edition +of my works, I will have a copy bound for you in white vellum with a gold +band, as an emblem of our friendship." + +His first literary passion was the _Arabian Nights_, which filled the +imagination of both brothers with magical lamps, wishing-carpets and secret +caverns for nearly a twelvemonth, during which they were incessantly trying +to carry out their fancies by constructing enchanted towers and palaces +with the furniture of their apartment. The Eastern stories were superseded +by tales of chivalry: Paul lit upon the _Four Sons of Aymon_ in his +grandfather's library, and a new world opened before him in which he +hastened to lose himself, taking his younger brother by the hand. The +children devoured _Jerusalem Delivered_, _Orlando Furioso_, _Amadis de +Gaule_, and all the poems, tales and traditions of knighthood on which they +could lay hands. Their games now were of nothing but tilts and jousts, +single combats, adventures and deeds of arms: the paladins were their +imaginary playfellows. A little comrade, who charged with an extraordinary +rush in the excitement of the tournament, generally represented Roland: +Alfred, being the youngest and smallest of the three, was allowed to bear +the enchanted lance, the first touch of which unseated the boldest rider +and bravest champion--a pretty device of the elder brother's, in which one +hardly knows whether to be most charmed with the poetic fancy or the +protecting affection which it displayed. The delightful infatuation lasted +for several years, undergoing some gradual modifications. Until he was +nine, Alfred had been chiefly taught at home by a tutor, but at that age he +was sent to school, where the first term dispelled his belief in the +marvellous. His brother was by this time at boarding-school, and they met +only on Sunday, when they renewed their knightly sports, but with +diminished ardor. One day Alfred asked Paul seriously what he thought of +magic, and Paul confessed his scepticism. The loss of this dear delusion +was a painful shock to Alfred, as it is to many children. Who cannot +remember the change which came over the world when he first learned that +Krisskinkle _alias_ Santa Claus did not fill the Christmas stocking--that +the fairies had not made the greener ring in the grass, where he had firmly +believed he might have seen them dancing in the moonlight if he could only +have sat up late enough? The Musset children fell back upon the mysterious +machinery of old romance--trap-doors, secret staircases, etc.--and began +tapping and sounding the walls for private passages and hidden doorways; +but in vain. It was at this stage of the fever that _Don Quixote_ was given +to them; and it is a singular illustration both of the genius of the book +and the intelligence of the little readers that it put their giants, dwarfs +and knights to flight. During the following summer they passed a few weeks +at the manor-house of Cogners with an uncle, the marquis de Musset, the +head of the family: to their great joy, the room assigned them had +underneath the great canopied bedstead a trap leading into a small chamber +built in the thickness of the floor between the two stories of the old +feudal building. Alfred could not sleep for excitement, and wakened his +brother at daybreak to help him explore: they found the secret chamber full +of dust and cobwebs, and returned to their own room with the sense that +their dreams had been realized a little too late. On looking about them +they saw that the tapestry on their walls represented scenes from _Don +Quixote:_ they burst out laughing, and the days of chivalry were over. + +Alfred de Musset was nine years old, as we have said, when he began to +attend the College Henri IV. (now Corneille), on entering which he took his +place in the sixth form, among boys for the most part of twelve or upward. +He was sent to school on the first day with a deep scalloped collar and his +long light curls falling upon his shoulders, and being greeted with jeers +and yells by his schoolmates, went home in tears, and the curls were cut +off forthwith. He was an ambitious rather than an assiduous scholar, and +kept his place on the bench of honor by his facility in learning more than +by his industry; but it was a source of keen mortification to him if he +fell behindhand. His talents soon attracted the attention of the masters +and the envy of the pupils, the latter of whom were irritated and +humiliated by seeing the little curly-pate, the youngest of them all, +always at the head of the class. The laziest and dullest formed a league +against him: every day, when school broke up, he was assaulted with a +brutality equal to that of an English public school, but which certainly +would not have been roused against him there by the same cause. He had to +run amuck through the courtyard to the gate, where a servant was waiting +for him, often reaching it with torn clothes and a bloody face. This +persecution was stopped by his old playfellow, Orlando Furioso, who was two +years his senior: he threw himself into the crowd one day and dealt his +redoubtable blows with so much energy that he scattered the bullies once +for all. Among their schoolmates was the promising duke of Orleans, who was +then duc de Chartres, his father, afterward King Louis Philippe, bearing at +that time the former title. He took a strong fancy to Alfred de Musset, +which he showed by writing him a profusion of notes during recitation, most +of them invitations to dinner at Neuilly, where he occasionally went with +other school-fellows of the young prince. For a time after leaving school +De Chartres--as he was called by his young friends--kept up a lively +correspondence with Alfred, and when their boyish intimacy naturally +expired the recollection of it remained fresh and lively in the prince's +mind, as was afterward proved. + +De Musset left college at the age of sixteen, having taken a prize in +philosophy for a Latin metaphysical essay. His disposition to inquire and +speculate had already manifested itself by uneasy questions in the classes +of logic and moral philosophy; and although few will agree with his brother +that his writings show unusual aptitude and profound knowledge in these +sciences, or that, as he says, "the thinker was always on a level with the +poet," nobody can deny the constant questioning of the Sphinx, the eager, +restless pursuit of truth, which pervades his pages. He pushed his search +through a long course of reading,--Descartes, Spinoza, Cabanis, Maine de +Biran--only to fall back upon an innate faith in God which never forsook +him, although it was strangely disconnected with his mode of life. + +I have lingered over the early years of Alfred de Musset because the +childhood of a poet is the mirror wherein the image of his future is seen, +and because there is something peculiarly touching in this season of +innocence and unconsciousness of self in the history of men whose after +lives have been torn to pieces by the storms of vicissitude and passion. So +far, he had not begun to rhyme--an unusual case, as boys who can make two +lines jingle, whether they be poets or not, generally scribble plentifully +before leaving school. At the age of fourteen he wrote some verses to his +mother on her birthday, but it is fair to suppose that they gave no hint of +talent, as they have not been preserved: it was only from his temperament +that his destiny might be guessed. The impressions of his infancy were +singularly vivid and deep, and acted directly upon his imagination: they +are reflected in his works in pictures and descriptions full of grace or +power. The ardent Bonapartism of his family, particularly of his mother, +whom he loved and revered, took form from his recollections in the +magnificent opening of the _Confession d'un Enfant du Siecle,_ which has +the double character of a prose poem and a kindling oration, while by the +volume and sonorous beauty of the phrase it reminds one of a grand musical +composition. When he was between seven and eight years old his family +passed the summer at an old country-place to which belonged a farm, and he +and his brother found inexhaustible amusement among the tenants and their +occupations. He never saw it again, but it is reproduced with perfect +fidelity in the tale of _Margot_. The chivalric mania left, as Paul de +Musset observes, a love of the romantic and fantastic, a tendency to look +upon life as a novel, an enjoyment of what was unexpected and unlikely, a +disposition to trust to chance and the course of events. The motto of the +Mussets was a condensed expression of the gallant love-making, Launcelot +side of knightly existence--_Courtoisie, Bonne Aventure aux Preux_ +("Courtesy, Good Luck to the Paladin;" or, to translate the latter clause +more freely, yet more faithfully to the spirit of the original, "None but +the Brave Deserve the Fair"). It came from two estates--_Courtoisie_, which +passed out of the family in the last century, and _Bonne Aventure_, a +property on the Loire, which was not part of Alfred's patrimony. The +fairies who endowed him at his christening with so many gifts and graces +must have meant to complete his outfit when they presented him with such a +device, which might have been invented for him at nineteen. On leaving +college he continued his education by studying languages, drawing, and +music to please himself, and attempting several professions to satisfy the +reasonable expectations of his father. He found law dry, medicine +disgusting, and, discouraged by these failures, he fell into low spirits, +to which he was always prone even at the height of his youthful +joyousness--declared to his brother that he was and ever should be good for +nothing, that he never should be able to practise a profession, and never +could resign himself to being _any particular kind of man._ His talent for +drawing led him to work in a painter's studio and in the galleries of the +Louvre with some success, and for a time he was in high spirits at the +idea of having found his calling, and pursued it while attending lectures +and classes on other subjects. This uncertainty lasted a couple of years, +during which he began to venture a little into society, of which, like most +lively, versatile young people, he was extravagantly fond. His Muse was +still dormant, but his love for poetry was strongly developed; a volume of +Andre Chenier was always in his pocket, and he delighted to read it under +the trees in the avenues of the Bois on his daily walk out of Paris to the +suburb of Auteuil, where his family lived at that time. Under this +influence he wrote a poem, which he afterward destroyed, excepting a few +good descriptive lines which he introduced into one of later date. +Meanwhile, he had been presented to the once famous Cenacle, the nucleus of +the romantic school, then in the pride and flush of youth and rapidly +increasing popularity; its head-quarters were at the house of Victor Hugo +_facile princeps ordinis_ even among its chiefs. There he met Alfred de +Vigny, Merimee, Sainte-Beuve and others, whose talents differed essentially +in kind and degree, but who were temporarily drawn together by similarity +of literary principles and tastes. Their meetings were entirely taken up +with intellectual discussions, or the reading of a new production, or in +walks which have been commemorated by Merimee and Sainte-Beuve, when they +carried their romanticism to the towers of Notre Dame to see the sun set or +the moon rise over Paris. + +Stimulated by this companionship, Alfred de Musset began to compose. His +first attempt at publication was anonymous, a ballad called "A Dream," +which, through the good offices of a friend, was accepted by _Le +Provincial,_ a tri-weekly newspaper of Dijon: it did not pass unnoticed, +but excited a controversy in print between the two editors, to the extreme +delight of the young poet, who always fondly cherished the number of the +paper in which it appeared. At length, one morning he woke up Sainte-Beuve +with the laughing declaration that he too was a poet, and in support of +his assertion recited some of his verses to that keenly attentive and +appreciative ear. Sainte-Beuve at once announced that there was "a boy full +of genius among them," and as long as he lived, whatever Paul de Musset's +fraternal sensitiveness may find to complain of, he never retracted or +qualified that first judgment. The _Contes d'Italie et d'Espagne_ followed +fast, and were recited to an enthusiastic audience, who were the more +lenient to the exaggerations and affectations of which, as in most youthful +poetry, there were plenty, since these bore the stamp of their own mint. + +Alfred de Musset's first steps in life were made at the same time with his +first essays in poetry. He was so handsome, high-spirited and gay that +women did not wait to hear that he was a genius to smile upon him. His +brother, who is tall, calls him of medium height, five feet four inches +(about five feet nine, English measure), slender, well-made and of good +carriage: his eyes were blue and full of fire; his nose was aquiline, like +the portraits of Vandyke; his profile was slightly equine in type: the +chief beauty of his face was his forehead, round which clustered the +many-shaded masses of his fair hair, which never turned gray: the +countenance was mobile, animated and sensitive; the predominating +expression was pride. Paul relates without reserve how one married woman +encouraged his brother and trifled with him, using his devotion to screen a +real intrigue which she was carrying on, and that another, who was lying in +wait for him, undertook his consolation. One morning Alfred made his +appearance in spurs, with his hat very much on one side and a huge bunch of +hair on the other, by which signs his brother understood that his vanity +was satisfied. He was just eighteen. That a man of respectable life and +notions like Paul de Musset should take these adventures as a matter of +course makes it difficult for an American to find the point of view whence +to judge a society so abominably corrupt. Thus at the age of a college-boy +in this country he was started on the career which was destined to lead to +so much unhappiness, and in the end to his destruction. Dissipation of +every sort followed, debts, from which he was never free, and the habit of +drinking, which proved fatal at last. To the advice and warnings of his +brother he only replied that he wished to know everything by experience, +not by hearsay--that he felt within him two men, one an actor, the other a +spectator, and if the former did a foolish thing the latter profited by it. +On this pernicious reasoning he pursued for three years a dissolute mode of +life, which, thanks to the remarkable strength and elasticity of his +constitution, did not prevent his carrying on his studies and going with +great zest into society, where he became more and more welcome, besides +writing occasionally. He translated De Quincey's _Confessions of an English +Opium-Eater_, introducing some reveries of his own, but the work attracted +no attention. During this period his father, naturally anxious about his +son's unprofitable courses, one morning informed him that he had obtained a +clerkship for him in an office connected with the military commissariat. +Alfred did not venture to demur, but the confinement and routine of an +office were intolerable, and he resolved to conquer his liberty by every +effort of which he was capable. He offered his manuscripts for publication +to M. Canel, the devoted editor of the romantic party: they fell short by +five hundred lines of the number of pages requisite for a volume of the +usual octavo bulk. He obtained a holiday, which he spent with a favorite +uncle who lived in the provinces, and came back in three weeks with the +poem of "Mardoche." He persuaded his father to give a literary party, to +which his friends of the Cenacle were invited, and repeated his latest +compositions to them, including "Mardoche." Here we have another example of +manners startling to our notions: the keynote of these verses was rank +libertinism, yet in his mother's drawing-room and apparently in the +presence of his father, a dignified, reputable man, venerated by his +children, this young rake declaimed stanzas more licentious than any in +Byron's _Don Juan_. But it caused no scandal: the friends were rapturous, +and predicted the infallible success of the poems, in which they were +justified by the event. "Rarely," says Paul de Musset, "has so small a +quantity of paper made so much noise." There was an uproar among the +newspapers, some applauding with all their might, others denouncing the +exaggeration of the romantic tendency: the romanticists themselves were +disconcerted to find the "Ballade a la Lune," which they had taken as a +good joke, turned into a joke against themselves. At all events, the young +man was launched, and his vocation was thenceforth decided. In reading +these first productions of Alfred de Musset's without the prejudice or +partiality of faction, it cannot be denied that if not sufficient in +themselves to ensure his immortality, they contain lines of finished beauty +as perfect as the author ever produced--ample guarantee of what might be +expected from the development of his genius. + +He now began to be tired of sowing wild oats, and became less irregular in +his mode of life. A lively, pretty little comedy called _Une Nuit +Venitienne_, which he wrote at the request of the director of the Odeon, +for some inexplicable cause fell flat, which, besides turning him aside +from writing for the stage during a number of years, discouraged him +altogether for some time. Before he entirely recovered from the check he +lost his father, who died suddenly of cholera in 1832. The shock left him +sobered and calm, anxious to fulfil his duties toward his mother and young +sister, whose means, it was feared, would be greatly diminished by the loss +of M. de Musset's salary. Alfred resolved to publish another volume of +poetry, and, if this did not succeed to a degree to warrant his considering +literature a means of support, to get a commission in the army. He set +himself industriously to work, and inspiration soon rewarded the effort: in +six months his second volume appeared, comprising "Le Saule," "Voeux +Steriles," "La Coupe et les Levres," "A quoi revent les jeunes filles," +"Namouna," and several shorter pieces. Among those enumerated there are +splendid passages, second in beauty and force to but a few of his later +poems, the sublime "Nuits," "Souvenir," and the incomparable opening of +"Rolla." Again he convoked the friends who three years before had greeted +the _Contes d'Espagne_ with acclamation, but, to the unutterable surprise +and disappointment of both brothers, there was not a word of sympathy or +applause: Merimee alone expressed his approbation, and assured the young +poet that he had made immense progress. Perhaps the others took in bad part +their former disciple's recantation of romanticism, which he makes in the +dedication of "La Coupe et les Levres" after the following formula: + + For my part, I hate those snivellers in boats, + Those lovers of waterfalls, moonshine and lakes, + That breed without name, which with journals and notes, + Tears and verses, floods every step that it takes: + Nature no doubt but gives back what you lend her; + After all, it may be that they do comprehend her, + But them I do certainly not comprehend. + +The chill of this introduction was not carried off by the public reception +of the _Spectacle dans un Fauteuil_ (as the new collection was entitled), +which remained almost unnoticed for some weeks, until Sainte-Beuve in the +_Revue des Deux Mondes_ of January 15, 1833, published a review of this and +the earlier poems, indicating their beauty and originality, the promise of +the one and progress of the other, with his infallible discernment and +discrimination. A few critics followed his lead, others differed, and +discussions began again which could not but spread the young man's fame. +The _Revue des Deux Mondes_ was now open to him, and henceforth, with a few +exceptions, whatever he wrote appeared in that periodical. He made his +entry with the drama of _Andrea del Sarto_, which is rife with tense and +tragic situations and deeply-moving scenes. The affairs of the family +turned out much better than had been expected, but Alfred de Musset +continued to work with application and ardor. His fine critical faculty +kept his vagaries within bounds: he knew better than anybody "how much good +sense it requires to do without common sense"--a dictum of his own. Like +every true artist, he took his subjects wherever he found them: the +dripping raindrops and tolling of the convent-bell suggested one of +Chopin's most enchanting _Preludes;_ the accidental attitudes of women and +children in the street have given painters and sculptors their finest +groups; so a bunch of fresh roses which De Musset's mother put upon his +table one morning during his days of extravagant dissipation, saying, "All +this for fourpence," gave him a happy idea for unravelling the perplexity +of Valentin in _Les Deux Maitresses;_ and his unconscious exclamation, "Si +je vous le disais pourtant que je vous aime," which caused a passer-by in +the street to laugh at him, furnished the opening of the _Stances a Ninon_, +like Dante's + + Donne ch'avete intelletto d'amore. + +These fortunate dispositions were interrupted by a meeting which affected +his character and genius more than any other event in his life. It is +curious that Madame Sand and De Musset originally avoided making each +other's acquaintance. She fancied that she should not like him, and he, +although greatly struck by the genius of her first novel, _Indiana_, +disliked her overloaded style of writing, and struck out in pencil a +quantity of superfluous adjectives and other parts of speech in a copy +which unluckily fell into her hands. Their first encounter was followed by +a sudden, almost instantaneous, mutual passion--on his part the first and +strongest if not the only one, of his life. The first season of this +intimacy was like a long summer holiday. "It seemed," writes the +biographer, "as if a partnership in which existence was so gay, to which +each brought such contributions of talent, wit, grace, youth, and +good-humor, could never be dissolved. It seemed as if such happy people +should find nothing better to do than remain in a home which they had made +so attractive for themselves and their friends.... I never saw such a happy +company, nor one which cared so little about the rest of the world. +Conversation never flagged: they passed their time in talking, drawing, and +making music. A childish glee reigned supreme. They invented all sorts of +amusements, not because they were bored, but because they were overflowing +with spirits." But Paris became too narrow for them, and they fled--first +to Fontainebleau, then to Italy. Musset's mother was deeply opposed to the +latter project, foreseeing misfortune with the prescience of affection, and +he promised not to go without her consent, although his heart was set upon +it. The most incredible story in the biography is that Madame Sand actually +surprised Madame de Musset into an interview, and, by appeals, eloquence, +persuasion and vows, obtained her sorrowful acquiescence. + +The lamentable story of that Italian journey has been told too often and by +too many people to need repetition here. No doubt Paul de Musset has told +it as fairly as could be expected from his brother's side: probably the +circumstances occurred much as he sets them down. But he could not make due +allowance for the effect which Alfred's dissolute habits had produced upon +his character: he was but twenty-three, and had run the round of vice; he +had already depicted the moral result of such courses in his terrible +allegory of "La Coupe et les Levres:" the idea recurs throughout his works, +conspicuously in the _Confession d'un Enfant du Siecle_, which is Madame +Sand's best apology. But if his excesses had destroyed his ingenuousness, +she destroyed his faith in human nature, and on her will ever rest the +brand he set in the burning words of the "Nuit d'Octobre." + +He returned to Paris shattered in mind and body, and shut himself up in his +room for months, unable to endure contact with the outer world, or even +that of the loving home circle which environed him with anxious tenderness. +He could not read or write: a favorite piece of music from his young +sister's piano, a game of chess with his mother in the evening, were his +only recreations--his only excitement the letters which still came from +Venice, for which he looked with a sick longing, at which one cannot wonder +on reading them and remembering what a companionship it was that he had +lost. Urged by his brother and his friend M. Buloz, the director of the +_Revue des Deux Mondes_, to try the efficacy of work, he completed his play +of _On ne badine pas avec l'Amour_, already sketched, in which, of all his +dramatic writings, the cry of the heart is most thrilling. Aided by this +effort, he made a journey to Baden in September, five months after his +miserable return to Paris. The change of air and scene restored him, and +his votive offering for the success of his pilgrimage was the charming poem +called "Une Bonne Fortune." Although he had determined not to see Madame +Sand again, their connection was renewed, in spite of himself, when she +came back from Italy: it lasted for a short period, full of angry and +melancholy scenes, quarrels and reconciliations. Then he broke loose for +ever, and went back to the world and his work. + +This episode, of which I have briefly given the outline, was the principal +event of Alfred de Musset's life, the one which marked and colored it most +deeply, which brought his genius to perfection by a cruel and fiery +torture, and left a lasting imprint upon his writings. Although he never +produced anything finer than certain passages of "Rolla," which was +published in 1833, yet previous to that--or more accurately to 1835, when +he began to write again--he had composed no long poem of equal merit +throughout, none in which the flight was sustained from first to last. The +magnificent series of the "Nights" of May, December, August and October, +the "Letter to Lamartine," "Stanzas on the Death of Malibran," "Hope in +God," and a number of others of not less melody and vigor, but less exalted +and serious in tone; several plays, among them _Lorenzaccio_, which missed +only by a very little being a fine tragedy; the greater part of his prose +tales and criticisms, including _Le Fils de Titien_, the most charming of +his stories, and the _Confession d'un Enfant du Siecle_, which shows as +much genius as any of his poems,--belong to the period from 1835 to 1840, +his apogee. Of the last work, notwithstanding its unmistakable personal +revelations--which, if they do not tell the author's story, at least +reflect his state of mind--Paul de Musset says, what everybody who has read +his brother's writings carefully will feel to be true, that neither in the +hero nor any other single personage must we look for Alfred's entire +individuality. In the complexity of his character and emotions, and the +contradictions which they united, are to be found the eidolon of every +young man in his collection, even "the two heroes of _Les Caprices de +Marianne_, Octave and Coelio," says Paul, "although they are the antipodes +of one another." Neither is it as easy as it would seem on the surface to +trace the thread of any one incident of his life through his writings. +Although containing some irreconcilable passages, the four "Nights" +appeared to have been born of the same impulse and to exact the same +dedication: it is undeniably a shock to have their inconsistencies +explained by hearing that while the "Nuits de Mai," "d'Aout" and +"d'Octobre" refer to his passion for Madame Sand, the "Nuit de Decembre" +and "Lettre a Lamartine," which naturally belong to this series, were +dictated by another attachment and another disappointment. I will not stop +to moralize upon this: the story of De Musset's life is really only the +story of his loves. His brother says that he was always in love with +somebody: it was a necessity of his nature and his genius. Before he was +twenty-seven, six different love-affairs are enumerated, without taking +into account numerous affairs of gallantry; nor was the sixth the last. The +"Nuit d'Octobre" was written two years and a half after his return from +Italy, and its terrible malediction is the outbreak of the rankling memory +of his wrong and suffering. It was psychologically in order that while his +love (which does not die in an hour, like trust and respect) survived, it +should surround its object with lingering tenderness, but that as it slowly +expired indignation, scorn and the sense of injury should increase: this is +their final utterance, followed by pardon, a vow of forgetfulness and +farewell, but not a final farewell. That was spoken years afterward, in +1841, when, once again seeing by chance the forest of Fontainebleau, and +about the same time casually encountering Madame Sand, he poured forth his +"Souvenir," a poem of matchless sweetness and beauty, vibrating with +feeling and most musical in expression--an exquisite combination of lyric +and elegy. In this he calls her + + Ma seule amie a jamais la plus chere. + +Ten years after this, in one of the last strains of his unstrung harp, a +fragment called "Souvenir des Alpes," the sad chord is touched once more: +up to the end it answered faintly to certain notes. Long after their +rupture and separation he said that he would have given ten years of his +life to marry her had she been free; and it is deplorable that the most +fervent and lasting affection of which he was capable should have been +thrown back upon him in such sort. + +Of marriage there were several schemes at different times: they fell +through because he was averse to them himself, except one to which he much +inclined, the young lady being pretty, intelligent, charming and the +daughter of an old friend; but on the first advances it turned out that she +was engaged to another man. His biographer regrets this deeply, convinced +that such an alliance would have been his brother's salvation; but even if +he could have been more constant to his wife than to his mistresses, the +habit of intemperance was too confirmed to admit much hope of domestic +happiness. The same may be opined in regard to the vague hopes which were +destroyed by the death of the young duke of Orleans. When Louis Philippe +came to the throne, De Musset made no attempt to approach the royal family +on the pretext of the old school-friendship: it was the duke himself who +renewed it in 1836 on accidentally seeing some unpublished verses of the +poet's on the king's escape from an attempt at assassination. Louis +Philippe himself did not like the sonnet, considering the use of the poetic +_thou_ too familiar a form of address: he did not know who was the author; +and when Alfred was presented to him at a court-ball took him for a cousin +who was inspector of the royal forests at Joinville, and continued to greet +him, under this mistake, with a few gracious words two or three times a +year during the rest of his reign, while the poet's name was on the lips +and in the heart of every one else. The duke's favor and friendliness ended +only with his sad and sudden death. + +Paul de Musset tells us that the years 1837 and 1838 were the happiest in +his brother's life. The love-trouble which had wrung from him the "Nuit de +Decembre" was a disappointment, but not a deception, and the parting had +caused equal sorrow on both sides, but no bitterness. After no long +interval appeared "a very young and very pretty person whom he met +frequently in society, of an enthusiastic, passionate nature, independent +in her position, and who bought the poet's books." An acquaintance, a +friendship, a correspondence, a serious passion followed, and became a +relation which lasted two years "without quarrel, storm, coolness or +subject of umbrage or jealousy--two years of love without a cloud, of true +happiness." Why did it not last for ever? The biographer does not give the +answer. It is hinted in a letter to Alfred's friend, the duchesse de +Castries, dated September, 1840, in his _OEuvres posthumes_: "I have told +you how about a year ago an absurd passion, totally useless and somewhat +ridiculous, made me break with all my habits. I forsook all my +surroundings, my friends of both sexes, the current in which I was living, +and one of the prettiest women in Paris. I did not succeed in my foolish +dream, you must understand; and now I find myself cured, it is true, but +high and dry like a fish in a grain-field." This is probably the clue, and +the foolish dream was for a woman to whom his brother refers as having +repelled Alfred's homage with harshness, and having called forth from him +some short and extremely bitter verses beginning "Oui, femme," and another +called "Adieu!" in which there prevails a tone of quiet but deep feeling. +This is a sad story: he apparently united the volatility and vagrancy of +fancy, the inconstancy of light shallow natures, with the ardor and +intensity of passion and the capacity for suffering which belong to strong +and steadfast ones. There was a childlike quality in his disposition, which +showed itself in a sort of simplicity and spontaneousness in the midst of a +corrupt existence, and still more in the uncontrollable, absorbing violence +of his emotions: they swept over him, momentarily devastating his present +and blotting out the horizon, but unlike the tempests of childhood their +ravages did not disappear when the clouds dispersed and the torrents +subsided. The life of debauchery which had preceded his journey to Italy +was replaced, for some years, by a less excessive degree of dissipation, +during which he lived with a fast set, who, however, were men of talent and +accomplishments, the foremost among them being Prince Belgiojoso. The +influence of the two fortunate years, 1837-38, not only the happiest but +the most fertile of his short career, seems to have weakened these +associations and led him into calmer paths. He had formed several +friendships with women of a sort which both parties may regard with pride, +in particular with the Princess Belgiojoso, one of the most striking and +original figures of our monotonous time, and Madame Maxime Jaubert, a +clever, attractive young woman with a delightful house, whom he called his +_Marraine_ because she had given him a nickname. These women, and +others--but these two above the rest--were sincerely and loyally attached +to him with a disinterested regard which did not spare advice, nor even +rebuke, or relax under his loss of health and brilliancy or neglect of +their kindness, which nevertheless he felt and valued. His purest source of +pleasure was in the talent of others, which gave him a generous and +sympathetic enjoyment. The appearance of Pauline Garcia--now Madame +Viardot--and Rachel, who came out almost simultaneously at the age of +seventeen, added delight to the two happy years. He has left notices of the +first performances of these artistes, the former in opera, the latter on +the stage (for he was musical himself and a _connoisseur_) which are +excellent criticisms, and have even more interest than when they appeared, +now that the career of one has long been closed and that of the other long +completed. His relations with Rachel lasted for many years, interrupted by +the gusts and blasts which the contact of two such natures inevitably +begets. She constantly urged him to write a play for her, and in the year +after her _debut_ he wrote a fragment of a drama on the story of +Fredegonde, which she learned by heart and occasionally recited in private; +but there were endless delays and difficulties on both sides, and the rest +was not written. After various episodes and passages between them, De +Musset was dining with her one evening when she had become a great lady and +queen of the theatre, and her other guests were all rich men of fashion. +One of them admired an extremely beautiful and costly ring which she wore. +It was first passed round the table from hand to hand, and then she said +they might bid for it. One immediately offered five hundred francs, another +fifteen, and the ring went up at once to three thousand: "And you, my poet, +why do not you bid? What will you give?" "I will give you my heart," he +replied. "The ring is yours," cried Rachel, taking it off and throwing it +into his plate. After dinner De Musset tried to restore it to her, but she +refused to take it back: he urged and insisted, when she, suddenly falling +on her knee with that sovereign charm of seduction for which she was as +renowned as for her tragic power, entreated him to keep it as a pledge for +the piece he was to write for her. The poet took the ring, and went home +excited and wrought up to the resolve that nothing should interfere with +the completion of his task. But it was the old story again--whims and +postponements on Rachel's part, possibly temper and pique on his--until six +months afterward, at the end of an angry conversation, he silently replaced +the ring on her hand, and she did not resist. Four years later the compact +was renewed, and although by this time De Musset had to all intents and +purposes ceased to write, he struck off the first act of a play called +_Faustina_, the scene of which was laid in Venice in the fourteenth +century; but he put off finishing it, and finally let it drop altogether. + +In December, 1840, Alfred de Musset was thirty years old, and on his +birthday he had one of those reckonings with himself, which the most +deliberately careless and volatile men cannot escape. At twenty-one he had +held a similar settlement: he was then uncertain of his genius, +dissatisfied with his way of life and with the use he made of his time: the +result was his adoption of a more serious line of study and conduct, which +had led him, in spite of interruptions and aberrations, to the brilliant +display of his beautiful and splendid talents, the full exercise of his +wonderful powers. Now another review of his past and survey of his future +left him in a mood of discontent and depression. He felt that he could not +always go on being a boy. The year behind him had been almost sterile, and +marked by the loss of many of what he called his illusions. He had been +implored and urged to write by his friends and editors, had made and broken +promises without number to the latter, and had become involved in money +difficulties to a degree which kept him in constant anxiety and torment. +Yet he steadily rejected all his brother's affectionate advice and +importunities to shake off the deepening lethargy. He would not write +poetry because the Muse did not come of her free will, and he would never +do her violence. He had forsworn prose, because he said everybody wrote +that, and many so ill that he would not swell the number of magazine +story-writers, who, he foresaw, were to lower the standard of fiction and +style. In short, he always had an excuse for doing nothing, and although he +hated above all things to leave Paris, and seldom accepted the invitations +of his friends in the country, he now repeatedly rushed out of town to +escape the visits of editors, who had become no better than duns in his +eyes. When at home he shut himself in his room for days together in so +gloomy a frame of mind that even his brother did not venture to break in +upon him: he even made a furtive attempt at suicide one night when his +despondency reached its lowest depth; it was foiled by the accident of +Paul's having unloaded the pistols and locked up the powder and balls some +time before. He grew morbidly irritable, and resented Paul's remonstrances, +which, we may be sure, were made with all the tact and consideration of +natural delicacy and unselfish affection, generally by laughing at the poor +poet, which was the most effectual way of restoring his courage and +good-humor. One morning he emerged from his seclusion, and with vindictive +desperation threw before his brother a quantity of manuscripts, saying, +"You _would_ have prose: there it is for you." It was the introduction to a +sort of romance called _Le Poete dechu_, a wretched story of a young man of +many gifts who finds himself under the necessity of writing for the support +of his orphan sisters, and it described with harrowing eloquence the vain +efforts of his exhausted brain. The extracts in the biography are painfully +affecting and powerful, but the work was never finished or published. Such +a state of things could not go on indefinitely, and De Musset fell +dangerously ill of congestion of the lungs, brought on by reckless +imprudence when already far from well: the attack was accompanied by so +much fever and delirium that it was at first mistaken for brain fever. This +illness redoubled the tenderness and devotion of his family and friends: +his Marraine and Princess Belgiojoso took turns by his bedside, magnetizing +the unruly patient into quiescence; but the person who exercised the +greatest influence over him was a poor Sister of Charity, Soeur Marcelline, +who was engaged to assist in nursing him. The untiring care, +self-abnegation, angelic sweetness and serenity of this humble woman gained +the attachment of the whole family, and established an ascendency over +Alfred's impressionable imagination. She did not confine her office to her +patient's physical welfare, but strove earnestly to minister to him +spiritually. His long convalescence "was like a second birth. He did not +seem more than seventeen: he had the joyousness of a child, the fancies of +a page, like Cherubino in the _Marriage of Figaro_. All the difficulties +and subjects of despair which preceded his malady had vanished in a +rose-colored distance. He passed his days in reading interminable +books--_Clarissa Harlowe_, which he already knew, the _Memorial of St. +Helena_, and all the memoirs relating to the Empire. In the evening we all +gathered about his writing-table to draw and chat, while Soeur Marcelline +sat by knitting in bright worsteds. Auguste Barre, our neighbor, came to +work at an album of caricatures in the style of Toeppfer's, and we all +amused ourselves with the comic illustrations: Alfred and Barre had the +pencil, the rest of us composed a text as absurd as the drawings. Who will +give us back those delicious evenings of laughter, jest and chat, when +without stirring from home or depending on anything from without our whole +household was so happy?" Alas! they were not of long duration. By and by +Sister Marcelline went away, leaving her patient a pen on which she had +embroidered, "Remember your promises." He was afflicted by her departure, +and wrote some lines to her, who, as he said, did not know what poetry +meant, but he could never be induced to show them, although he repeated +them to Paul and their friend Alfred Tattet, who between them contrived to +note down the four following verses: + + Poor girl! thou art no longer fair. + By watching Death with patient care + Thou pale as he art grown: + By tending upon human pain + Thy hand is worn as coarse in grain + As horny Labor's own. + + But weariness and courage meek + Illuminate thy pallid cheek + Beside the dying bed: + To the poor suffering mortal's clutch + Thy hard hand hath a gentle touch, + With tears and warm blood fed. + + * * * * * + + Tread to the end thy lonely road, + All for thy task and toward thy God, + Thy footsteps day by day. + That evil must exist, we prate, + And wisely leave it to its fate, + And pass another way; + + But thy pure conscience owns it not, + Though ceaseless warfare is thy lot + Against disease and woe; + No ills for thee have power to sting, + Nor to thy lip a murmur bring, + Save those that others know. + +De Musset held in peculiar sacredness and reverence whatever was connected +with this good woman and his feeling for her: seventeen years after this +illness the embroidered pen and a piece of her knitting were buried with +him by almost his last request. + +Seventeen years! a large bit of any one's life--more than a third of Alfred +de Musset's own term--yet there is hardly anything to say about it. The +"Souvenir," which was written about six months after his recovery, is the +last poem in which all his strength, beauty and pathos find expression: he +never wrote again in this vein: it was the last echo of his youth. He +composed less and less frequently, and though what he wrote was redolent of +sentiment, wit, grace and elegance, and some of the short occasional verses +have a consummate charm of finish, the soul seems gone out of his poetry. +His brother mentions a number of compositions begun, but thrown aside; +there were projects of travel never carried out; he gradually gave up the +society of even his oldest friends: everything indicated a rapid decline of +the active faculties. Unhappily, that of suffering seemed only to +increase--no longer the sharp anguish of unspent force which had wrung from +him the passionate cries and plaintive murmurs of former years, but the +dull numbness of hopelessness. His existence was monotonous, and the few +occurrences which varied it were of a sad or unpleasant nature. His sister +married and left Paris, and his mother subsequently went to live with her +in the country, thus breaking up their family circle; Paul de Musset was +absent from France for considerable spaces of time, so that for the first +time Alfred de Musset was compelled to live alone. Friends scattered, some +died: the Orleans family, for whom he had a real affection, was driven from +France; he fancied that his genius was unappreciated--a notion which, +strangely enough, his brother shared--and although he was the last man to +rage or mope over misapprehension, the idea certainly added to his gloom. +Through the good graces of the duke of Orleans he had been appointed +librarian of the Home Office, a post of which he was instantly deprived on +the change of government; but a few years later he was unexpectedly given a +similar one in the Department of Public Education. In 1852 he was elected +to the French Academy, that honor so limited by the small number of +members, so ridiculed by unsuccessful aspirants, yet without which no +French author feels his career to be complete. His plays were being +performed with great favor, his poems and tales were becoming more and more +popular, his verses were set to music, his stories were illustrated: but +all this brought no cheer or consolation to the sick spirit. He lived more +and more alone: the Theatre Francais, a silent game of chess at his cafe, +the deadly absinthe, were his only sources of excitement. It is a comfort +to learn that the last ray of pleasure which penetrated his moral dungeon, +reviving for an instant the generous glow of enthusiasm, was the appearance +of Ristori: inspired by her, he began a poetical address which he never +finished, nor even wrote down, but a fragment of it was preserved orally by +one or two who heard it: + + For Pauline and Rachel I sang of hope, + And over Malibran a tear I shed; + But, thanks to thee, I see the mighty scope + Of strength and genius wed. + + Ah keep them long! The heart which breathes the prayer + When genius calls has ever made reply, + Bear smiling home to Italy the fair, + A flower from our sky. + + * * * * * + + They tell me that in spite of grief and wrong, + And pride bent earthward by a tyrant's heel, + A noble race, though crushed and conquered long, + Has not yet learned to kneel. + + Rome's godlike dwellers of a bygone age, + The marble, porphyry, alabaster forms, + Still live: at night, to speech upon the stage, + An ancient statue warms. + + + * * * * * + +What was the cause of De Musset's unhappiness and impotence? His brother +tries to account for them by an enumeration of the distresses and +annoyances mentioned above, and others of the same order; but when one +remembers how the poet's great sorrows, his father's death and the betrayal +of his affection by the first woman he really loved, had given him his +finest conceptions in verse and prose, it is impossible to accept so +insufficient an explanation. Nor can we allow that De Musset sank into a +condition of puerile impatience and senile querulousness. Judged by our +standard, all the Latin races lack manhood, as we may possibly do by +theirs: De Musset was only as much more sensitive than the rest of his +countrymen as those of the poetic temperament are usually found to be in +all countries. Nor had he seen his talent slowly expire: the spring did not +run dry by degrees: it suddenly sank into the ground. He had made a fearful +mistake at the outset, which he discovered too late if at all. Considering +what life is sure to bring to every one in the way of trial and sorrow, it +is not worth while to go in search of emotions and experience which are +certain to find us out; nor is it in the slums of life that its meaning is +to be sought. He had foretold his own end in the prophetic warning of his +Muse: + + Quand les dieux irrites m'oteront ton genie, + Si je tombe des cieux que me repondras-tu? + +His light was not lost in a storm-cloud nor eclipse, but in the awful +Radnorok, the Goetterdaemmerung, when sun and stars fall from a blank heaven. +His health and habits constantly grew worse--he had organic disease of the +heart--but his existence dragged on until May 1st, 1857, when an acute +attack carried him off after a few days' illness. He died in his brother's +arms, and his last words were, "Sleep! at last I shall sleep." He had +killed himself physically and intellectually as surely as the wages of sin +are death. + +But let not this be the last word on one so beloved as a poet and a man. +Mental qualities alone never endear their possessor to every being that +comes into contact with him, and Alfred de Musset was idolized by people +who could not even read. There was not a generous or amiable quality in +which he was wanting: he had an inextinguishable ardor for genius and +greatness in every form; he was tender-hearted to excess, could not endure +the sight of suffering, and delighted in giving pleasure; his sympathy was +ready and entire, his loyalty of the truest metal. "He never abused +anybody," says his brother, "nor sacrificed an absent person for the sake +of a good story." He loved animals and children, and they loved him in +return. + +He can never cease to be the poet of the many, for he has melody, +sentiment, passion, all that charms the popular ear and heart--a +personality which is the expression of human nature in a language which, as +he himself says, few speak, but all understand. He can never cease to be +the poet of the few, because, while his poems are a very concentration and +elixir of the most intense and profound feelings of which we are all +capable, they give words to the more exquisite and intimate emotions +peculiar to those of a keener and more refined susceptibility, of a more +exalted and aerial range. Sainte-Beuve says somewhere, though not in his +final verdict on De Musset, that his chief merit is having restored to +French literature the wit which had been driven out of it by the +sentimentalists. His wit is indeed delightful and irresistible, but it is +not his magic key to souls. In other countries every generation has its own +poet: younger ears are deaf to the music which so long charmed ours; but De +Musset will be the poet of each new generation for a certain season--the +sweetest of all, because, as has been well said, he is the poet of youth. +And if doubt breathes through some of his grandest strophes, Faith finds +her first and last profession in the lines-- + + Une immense esperance a traverse la terre; + Malgre nous vers le ciel il faut lever les yeux. + +SARAH B. WISTER. + + + + +THE BEE. + + + What time I paced, at pleasant morn, + A deep and dewy wood, + I heard a mellow hunting-horn + Make dim report of Dian's lustihood + Far down a heavenly hollow. + Mine ear, though fain, had pain to follow: + _Tara!_ it twang'd, _tara-tara!_ it blew, + Yet wavered oft, and flew + Most ficklewise about, or here, or there, + A music now from earth and now from air. + But on a sudden, lo! + I marked a blossom shiver to and fro + With dainty inward storm; and there within + A down-drawn trump of yellow jessamine + A bee + Thrust up its sad-gold body lustily, + All in a honey madness hotly bound + On blissful burglary. + A cunning sound + In that wing-music held me: down I lay + In amber shades of many a golden spray, + Where looping low with languid arms the Vine + In wreaths of ravishment did overtwine + Her kneeling Live-Oak, thousand-fold to plight + Herself unto her own true stalwart knight. + + As some dim blur of distant music nears + The long-desiring sense, and slowly clears + To forms of time and apprehensive tune, + So, as I lay, full soon + Interpretation throve: the bee's fanfare, + Through sequent films of discourse vague as air, + Passed to plain words, while, fanning faint perfume, + The bee o'erhung a rich unrifled bloom: + "O Earth, fair lordly Blossom, soft a-shine + Upon the star-pranked universal vine, + Hast naught for me? + To thee + Come I, a poet, hereward haply blown, + From out another worldflower lately flown. + Wilt ask, _What profit e'er a poet brings?_ + He beareth starry stuff about his wings + To pollen thee and sting thee fertile: nay, + If still thou narrow thy contracted way, + --Worldflower, if thou refuse me-- + --Worldflower, if thou abuse me, + And hoist thy stamen's spear-point high + To wound my wing and mar mine eye-- + Natheless I'll drive me to thy deepest sweet, + Yea, richlier shall that pain the pollen beat + From me to thee, for oft these pollens be + Fine dust from wars that poets wage for thee. + But, O beloved Earthbloom soft a-shine + Upon the universal jessamine, + Prithee abuse me not, + Prithee refuse me not; + Yield, yield the heartsome honey love to me + Hid in thy nectary!" + And as I sank into a suaver dream + The pleading bee-song's burthen sole did seem, + "Hast ne'er a honey-drop of love for me + In thy huge nectary?" + +SIDNEY LANIER. + + + + +"OUR JOOK." + + +"Koenigin," said I, as I poked the fire, "what do you think of the people in +the house?" + +On second thoughts it was not "Koenigin" that I said, for it was only that +night that she received the title. It is of no consequence what I did call +her, however, for from that time she was never anything but Koenigin to me. + +We began to "talk things over," as we had a way of doing; and very good fun +it was and quite harmless, provided the ventilator was not open. That had +happened once or twice, and got us into quite serious scrapes. People have +such an utterly irrational objection to your amusing yourself in the most +innocent way at what they consider their expense. + +Koenigin and I had come to the boarding-house that very day. We were by +ourselves, for our male protectors were off "a-hunting the wild deer and +following the roe"--or its Florida equivalent, whatever that may be--and we +did not fancy staying at a hotel under the circumstances. Now, we had taken +our observations, and were prepared to pronounce our opinions on our +fellow-boarders. One after another was canvassed and dismissed. Mr. A. had +eccentric table-manners; Miss B. wriggled and squirmed when she talked; +Mrs. C. was much too lavish of inappropriate epithets; Mr. X.'s +conversation, on the contrary, was quite bald and bare from the utter lack +of those parts of speech; Miss Y. had a nice face, and Mrs. Z. a pretty +hand. + +Just here Koenigin suddenly burst out laughing. "Really," she said, "we go +about the world criticising people as if we were King Solomon and the queen +of Sheba." + +"'Die Koenigin von Seba,'" said I. "That, I suppose, is you and our motto +should be, 'Wir sind das Volk und die Weisheit stirbt mit uns.'" + +I was not at all sure of the accuracy of my translation, but its +appropriateness was unquestionable. + +"What do you think of the Englishman, Koenigin?" I asked, giving the fire +another poke, not from shamefacedness, but because it really needed it, for +the evening was damp and chilly. + +"I like him," said Koenigin decidedly. + +Koenigin and I were always prepared with decided opinions, whether we knew +anything about the subject in hand or not. + +"He has a fine head," Koenigin went on, "quite a ducal contour, according to +our republican ideas of what a duke ought to be. I like the steady intense +light of his eyes under those straight dark brows, and that little frown +only increases the effect. Then his laugh is so frank and boyish. Yes, I +like him very much." + +"He has a nice gentlemanly voice," I suggested--"rather on the +'gobble-gobble' order, but that is the fault of his English birth." + +This is enough of that conversation, for, after all, neither of us is the +heroine of this tale. It is well that this should be distinctly understood +at the start. Somehow, "the Jook" (as we generally called him, in memory of +Jeames Yellowplush) and I became very intimate after that, but it was never +anything more than a sort of _camaraderie_. Koenigin knew all about it, and +she pronounced it the most remarkable instance of a purely intellectual +flirtation which she had ever seen; which was all quite correct, except for +the term "flirtation," of which it never had a spice. + +One of the Jook's most striking peculiarities, though by no means an +uncommon one among his countrymen, was a profound distrust of new +acquaintances and an utter incapacity of falling into the free and easy +ways which prevail more strongly perhaps in Florida than in any other part +of America. There really was some excuse for him, though, for, not to put +it too strongly, society is a little mixed in Florida, and it is hard for a +foreigner to discriminate closely enough to avoid being drawn into +unpleasant complications if he relaxes in the slightest degree his rules of +reserve. Besides which, the Jook was a man of the most morbid and ultra +refinement. "Refinement" was the word he preferred, but I should have +called it an absurd squeamishness. He could make no allowance for personal +or local peculiarities, and eccentricities in our neighbors which delighted +Koenigin and me and sent us into fits of laughter excited in his mind only +the most profound disgust. Therefore, partly in the fear of having his +sensibilities unpleasantly jarred upon, partly from the fear of making +objectionable acquaintances whom he might afterward be unable to shake +off, and partly from an inherent and ineradicable shyness, he went about +clad in a mantle of gloomy reserve, speaking to no one, looking at no +one--"grand, gloomy and peculiar." It was currently reported that previous +to our arrival he had never spoken to a creature in the boarding-house, +though he had been an inmate of it for six weeks. For the rest, he was +clever and intelligent, with frank, honest, boyish ways, which I liked, +even though they were sometimes rather exasperating. + +It was not quite pleasant, for instance, to hear him speak of Americans in +the frank and unconstrained manner which he adopted when talking to us. We +could hardly wonder at it when we looked at the promiscuous crowd which +formed his idea of American society. Refined and well-bred people there +certainly were, but these were precisely the ones who never forced +themselves upon his notice, leaving him to be struck and stunned by fast +and hoydenish young ladies, ungrammatical and ill-bred old ones, and men of +all shades of boorishness and swagger, such as make themselves conspicuous +in every crowd. Unluckily, both Koenigin and I have English blood in our +veins, and the Jook could not be convinced that we did not eagerly snatch +at the chance thus presented of claiming the title of British subjects. It +is quite hopeless to attempt to convince Englishmen that any American would +not be British if he could. Pride in American citizenship is an idea +utterly monstrous and inconceivable to them, and they can look on the +profession of it in no other light than that of a laudable attempt at +making the best of a bad case. Therefore, the Jook persisted in ignoring +our protestations of patriotic ardor, and in paying us the delicate +compliment of considering us English and expressing his views on America +with a beautiful frankness which kept us in a frame of mind verging on +delirium. + +What was to be done with such a man? Clearly, but one thing, and I sighed +for one of our American belles who should come and see and conquer this +impracticable Englishman. At present, things seemed quite hopeless. There +was no one within reach who would have the slightest chance of success in +such an undertaking. Though outsiders gave me the credit of his +subjugation, I knew quite well that there not only was not, but never could +be, the necessary tinge of sentimentality in our intercourse. We were much +too free and easy for that, and we laughed and talked, rambled and boated +together, "like two babes in the woods," as Koenigin was fond of remarking. + +It was in Florida that all this took place--in shabby, fascinating +Jacksonville, where one meets everybody and does nothing in particular +except lounge about and be happy. So the Jook and I lounged and were happy +with a placid, unexciting sort of happiness, until the day when Kitty Grey +descended upon us with the suddenness of a meteor, and very like one in her +bewildering brightness. + +Kitty was by no means pretty, but, though women recognized this fact, the +man who could be convinced of it remains yet to be discovered. You might +force them to confess that Kitty's nose was flat, her eyes not well shaped, +her teeth crooked, her mouth slightly awry, but it always came back to the +same point: "Curious that with all these defects she should still be so +exquisitely pretty!" + +Really, I did not so much wonder at it myself sometimes when I saw Kitty's +pale cheeks flush with that delicious pink, her wide hazel eyes deepen and +glow, her little face light up with elfish mirth, and her round, childish +figure poise itself in some coquettish attitude. Then she had such absurd +little hands, with short fingers and babyish dimples, such tiny feet, and +such a wealth of crinkled dark-brown hair--such bewitching little helpless +ways, too, a fashion of throwing herself appealingly on your compassion +which no man on earth could resist! At bottom she was a self-reliant, +independent little soul, but no mortal man ever found that out: Kitty was +far too wise. + +Of course, as soon as I saw Kitty I thought of the Jook. Would he or +wouldn't he? On the whole, I was rather afraid he wouldn't, for Kitty's +laugh sometimes rang out a little too loud, and Kitty's spirits sometimes +got the better of her and set her frisking like a kitten, and I was afraid +the modest sense of propriety which was one of the Jook's strong points +would not survive it. However, I concluded to risk it, but just here a +sudden and unforeseen obstacle checked my triumphant course. + +"Mr. Warriner," I said sweetly (I was always horribly afraid I should call +him Mr. Jook, but I never did), "I want to introduce you to my friend, Miss +Grey." + +The Jook looked at me with his most placid smile, and replied blandly, +"Thank you very much, but _I'd rather not_." + +Did any one ever hear of such a man? I understood his reasons well enough, +though he did not take the trouble to explain them: it was only +exclusiveness gone mad. And he prided himself upon his race and breeding, +and considered our American men boors! + +After that I nearly gave up his case as hopeless, and devoted myself to +Kitty, whom I really believe the Jook did not know by sight after having +been for nearly a week in the same house with her. + +Kitty once or twice mildly insinuated her desire to know him. "He has such +a nice face," she said plaintively, "and such lovely little curly brown +whiskers! He is the only man in the house worth looking at, but if I happen +to come up when he is talking to you, he instantly disappears. He must +think me _very_ ugly." + +It was really very embarrassing to me, for of course I could not tell her +that the Jook had declined the honor of an introduction. I knew, as well as +if she had told me so, that Kitty in her secret heart accused me of a mean +and selfish desire to keep him all to myself, but I was obliged meekly to +endure the obloquy, undeserved as it was. Koenigin used to go into fits of +laughter at my dilemma, and just at this period my admiration of the Jook +went down to the lowest ebb. "He is a selfish, conceited creature!" I +exclaimed in my wrath. "I really believe he thinks that bewitching little +Kitty would fall in love with him forthwith if he submitted to an +introduction. Oh, I _do_ wish he knew what we thought of him! _Why_ doesn't +he listen outside of ventilators?" + +"My dear," said Koenigin, still laughing, though sympathetic, "it strikes me +that we began by making rather a demi-god of the man, and are ending by +stripping him of even the good qualities which he probably does possess." + +Well! things went on in this exasperating way for a week or so longer. Of +course I washed my hands of the Jook, for I was too much exasperated to be +even civil to him. Kitty was as bright and good-natured as ever, ready to +enjoy all the little pleasures that came in her way, though now and then I +fancied that I detected a stealthy, wistful look at the Jook's impassive +face. + +It was lovely that day, but fearfully hot. The sun showered down its +burning rays upon the white Florida sands, the sky was one arch of +cloudless blue, and the water-oaks swung their moss-wreaths languidly over +the deserted streets. We had been dreaming and drowsing away the morning, +Koenigin, Kitty and I, in the jelly-fish-like state into which one naturally +falls in Florida. + +Suddenly Kitty sprang to her feet. "I can't stand this any longer," she +said: "I shall turn into an oyster if I vegetate here. Please, do you see +any shells sprouting on my back yet?" + +"What do you want to do?" I asked drowsily. "You can't walk in this heat, +and if you go on the river the sun will take the skin off your face, and +where are you then, Miss Kitty?" + +"I can't help that," retorted Kitty in a tone of desperation. "I don't +exactly know where I shall go, but I think in pursuit of some yellow +jessamine." + +I sat straight up and gazed at her: "Are you mad, Kitty? Has the heat +addled your brain already? You would have to walk at least a mile before +you could find any; and what's the good of it, after all? It would all be +withered before you could get home." + +"Can't help that," repeated Kitty: "I shall have had it, at all events. +Any way, I'm going, and you two can finish your dreams in peace." + +It was useless to argue with Kitty when she was in that mood, so I +contented myself with giving her directions for reaching the nearest copse +where she would be likely to find the fragrant beauty. + +Two hours later Koenigin sat at the window gazing down the long sandy +street. Suddenly her face changed, an expression of interest and surprise +came into her dreamy eyes: she put up her glass, and then broke into a +laugh. "Come and look at this," she exclaimed; and I came. + +What I saw was only Kitty and the Jook, but Kitty and the Jook walking side +by side in the most amicable manner--Kitty sparkling, bewitching, helpless, +appealing by turns or altogether as only she could be; the Jook watching +her with an expression of amusement and delight on his handsome face. And +both were laden with great wreaths and trails of yellow jessamine, golden +chalices of fragrance, drooping sprays of green glistening leaves, until +they looked like walking bowers. + +"How on earth--" I exclaimed, and could get no further: my feelings choked +me. + +Kitty came in radiant and smiling as the morning, bearing her treasures. Of +course we both pounced upon her: "Kitty, where did you meet the Jook? How +did it happen? What did you do?" + +"Cows!" said Kitty solemnly, with grave lips and twinkling eyes. + +"Cows? Cows in Florida? Kitty, _what_ do you mean?" + +"A cow ran at me, and I was frightened and ran at Mr. Warriner. He drove +the cow off. That's all. Then he walked home with me. Any harm in that?" + +"Now, Kitty, the idea! A Florida cow run at you? If you had said a pig, +there might be some sense in it, for the pigs here do have some life about +them; but a cow! Why, the creatures have not strength enough to stand up: +they are all starving by inches." + +"Can't help that," said Kitty. "Must have thought I was good to eat, then, +I suppose. I thought she was going to toss me, but I don't think it would +be much more agreeable to be eaten. Mr. Warriner is my preserver, anyhow, +and I shall treat him _'as sich_.'" + +Kitty looked so mischievous and so mutinous that there was evidently no use +in trying to get anything more out of her, and after standing there a few +minutes fingering her blossoms and smiling to herself, she danced off to +dress for tea. + +"Selfish little thing, not to offer us one of those lovely sprays!" I +exclaimed, but Koenigin laughed: "My dear, they are hallowed. Our touch +would profane them." + +Koenigin always saw further than I did, and I gasped: "Koenigin! you don't +think--" + +"Oh no, dear, not yet. Kitty is piqued, and wants to fascinate the Jook a +little--just a little as yet, but she may burn her fingers before she gets +through. Looks are contagious, and--did you see her face?" + +Such a brilliant little figure as slipped softly into the dining-room that +evening, all wreathed and twisted and garlanded about with the shining +green vines, gemmed with their golden stars. Head and throat and waist and +round white arms were all twined with them, and blossoming sprays and knots +of the delicately carved blossoms drooped or clung here and there amid her +floating hair and gauzy black drapery. How did the child ever make them +stick? How had she managed to decorate herself so elaborately in the short +time that had elapsed since her return? But Kitty had ways of doing things +unknown to duller mortals. + +Not a word had Kitty for me that evening, but for her father such clinging, +coaxing, wheedling ways, and for the Jook such coy, sparkling, +artfully-accidental glances, such shy turns of the little head, such dainty +capricious airs, that it was delicious to watch her. Koenigin and I sat in a +dark corner for the express purpose of admiring her delicate little +manoeuvres. As for her father, good stolid man! he was well used to Kitty's +freaks, and went on reading his newspaper in such a matter-of-fact way that +she might as well have wheedled the Pyramid of Cheops. The Jook, however, +was all that could be desired. The shyest of men--shy and proud as only an +Englishman can be--he could not make up his mind to walk directly up to +Kitty, as an American would do, as all the young Americans in the room +would have done if Kitty had let them. But Kitty, flighty little butterfly +as she seemed, had stores of tact and finesse in that little brain of hers, +and the power of developing a fine reserve which had already wilted more +than one of the young men of the house. For Kitty was none of your arrant +and promiscuous flirts who count "all fish that come to their net." She was +choice and dainty in her flirtations, but, possibly, none the less +dangerous for that. + +The Jook hovered about the room from chair to sofa, from sofa to +window-seat, finding himself at each remove one degree nearer to Kitty. + +"He is like a tame canary-bird," whispered Koenigin. "Let it alone and it +will come up to you after a while, but speak to it and you frighten it off +at once." + +And when at length he reached Kitty's side, how beautiful was the look of +slight surprise, not _too_ strongly marked, and the half-shy pleasure in +the eyes which she raised to him; and then the coy little gesture with +which she swept aside her draperies and made room for him. Half the power +of Kitty's witcheries lay in her frank, childish manner, just dashed with +womanly reserve. + +Well! the Jook was thoroughly in the vortex now: there was no doubt about +that. Kitty might laugh as loud as she pleased, and he only looked charmed. +Kitty might frisk like a will-o'-the wisp, and he only admired her innocent +vivacity. Even the bits of slang and the Americanisms which occasionally +slipped from her only struck him as original and piquant. How would it all +end? That neither Koenigin nor I could divine, for Kitty was not one to wear +her heart upon her sleeve. It was very little that we saw of Kitty in +these days, for she was always wandering off somewhere, boating on the +broad placid river or lounging about "Greenleaf's" or driving--always with +the Jook for cavalier, and, if the excursions were long, with her father to +play propriety. When she did come into our room, she was not our own Kitty, +with her childish airs and merry laughter. This was a brilliant and +volatile little woman of the world, who rattled on in the most amusing +manner about everything--except the Jook. About him her lips never opened, +and the most distant allusion to him on our part was sufficient to send her +fluttering off on some pressing and suddenly remembered errand. Yet this +reserve hardly seemed like the shyness of conscious but unacknowledged +love. On the contrary, we both fancied--Koenigin and I--that Kitty began to +look worried, and somehow, in watching her and the Jook, we began to be +conscious that a sort of constraint had crept into her manner toward him. +It could be no doubt of his feelings that caused it, for no woman could +desire a bolder or more ardent lover than he had developed into, infected, +no doubt, by the American atmosphere. Sometimes, too, we caught shy, +wistful glances at the Jook from Kitty's eyes, hastily averted with an +almost guilty look if he turned toward her. + +"What can it mean, Koenigin?" I said. "She looks as if she wanted to confess +some sin, and was afraid to." + +"Some childish peccadillo," said Koenigin. "In spite of all her +woman-of-the-world-ishness the child has a morbidly sensitive conscience, +and is troubled about some nonsense that nobody else would think of twice." + +"Can it be that she has only been flirting, and is frightened to find how +desperately in earnest he is?" + +"Possibly," replied Koenigin. "But I fancy that she is too well used to that +phase of affairs to let it worry her. Wait a while and we shall see." + +We couldn't make anything of it, but even the Jook became worried at last +by Kitty's queer behavior, and I suppose he thought he had better settle +the matter. For one evening, when I was keeping my room with a headache, I +was awakened from a light sleep by a sound of voices on the piazza outside +of my window. It was some time before I was sufficiently wide awake to +realize that the speakers were Kitty and the Jook, and when I did I was in +a dilemma. To let them know that I was there would be to overwhelm them +both with confusion and interrupt their conversation at a most interesting +point, for the Jook had evidently just made his declaration. It was +impossible for me to leave the room, for I was by no means in a costume to +make my appearance in the public halls. On the whole, I concluded that the +best thing I could do would be to keep still and never, by word or look, to +let either of them know of my most involuntary eavesdropping. + +Kitty was speaking when I heard them first, talking in a broken, hesitating +voice, which was very queer from our bright, fluent little Kitty: "Mr. +Warriner, you don't know what a humbug you make me feel when you talk of +'my innocence' and 'unconsciousness' and 'lack of vanity,' and all the rest +of it. I have been feeling more and more what a vain, deceitful, +hypocritical little wretch I am ever since I knew you. I have been +expecting you to find me out every day, and I almost hoped you would." + +"What _do_ you mean, Miss Grey?" asked the Jook in tones of utter +amazement, as well he might. + +"Oh dear! how shall I tell you?" sighed poor Kitty; and I could _feel_ her +blushes burning through her words. Then, with a sudden rush: "Can't you +see? I feel as if I had _stolen_ your love, for it was all gained under +false pretences. You never would have cared for me if you had known what a +miserable hypocrite I really was. Why, that very first day I wasn't afraid +of the cow--she didn't even look at me--but I saw you coming, +and--and--Helen wouldn't introduce you to me--and it just struck me it +would be a good chance, and so I rushed up to you and--Oh! what will you +think of me?" + +"Think?" said the Jook: "why, I think that while ninety-nine women out of +a hundred are hypocrites, not one in a thousand has the courage to atone +for it by an avowal like yours. Not that it was exactly hypocrisy, either." + +The poor blundering Jook! Always saying the most maddening things under the +firm conviction that it was the most delicate compliment. + +Kitty was too much in earnest to mind it now, though. "Do you know," she +went on, "that from the very first day I came into the house I was +determined to captivate you?--that every word and every look was directed +to that end? I have been nothing but an actress all through. I have done it +before, hundreds and hundreds of times, but I never felt the shame of it +until now--because--because--" + +"Because you never loved any one before? Is that it, Kitty?" said the Jook +tenderly. + +"Oh, I don't know," said Kitty desperately. "How can I tell? But it's all +Helen's fault. If she had introduced you to me in a rational way, I should +never have gone on so. But she wouldn't, and I was piqued--" + +"I must exonerate Miss Helen," interrupted the Jook. "She wanted to +introduce me, and I declined. I am sure I don't know why--English reserve, +I suppose. I had not seen you then, you know, and some of the people here +are such a queer lot that I rather dreaded new acquaintances." + +"Not Helen's fault?" wailed Kitty. "Oh, this is stolen--oh, poor Helen!" + +Naturally, the Jook was utterly bewildered, but as for me I sprang up into +a sitting posture, for the meaning of Kitty's behavior had just flashed +upon me. Absolutely, the poor little goose thought that in accepting the +Jook, as she was evidently dying to do, she would be robbing me of my +lover. And she never guessed at my own little romance, tucked away safely +in the most secret corner of my heart, which put any man save one quite out +of the question for me. If I had stopped to think, I suppose I should not +have done what I did, but in my surprise the words came out before I +thought: "Good gracious, Kitty my dear! do take the Jook if you want him! +_I_ don't." + +I could not help laughing when I realized what I had done. A little shriek +from Kitty and a _very_ British exclamation from the Jook, a slight scuffle +of chairs and a sense, rather than sound, of confusion, announced the +effect of my words. + +I waited for their reply, but dead silence prevailed, so I was obliged to +speak again. "You needn't be alarmed," I said, peering cautiously through +the chinks in the blinds, for I had approached the window by this time. "I +didn't mean to listen, but I couldn't get out of the way, and I never +intended to let you or any one else know that I had heard your +conversation. I'm awfully sorry that I have disturbed you, but, as I am in +for it now, I might as well go on." + +There I stopped, for I didn't exactly know what to say, and I hoped that +one of them would "give me a lead." I could just catch a glimpse of their +faces in the moonlight. The Jook was staring straight at the window-shutter +behind which I lurked, and the wrath and disgust expressed in his handsome +features set me off into a silent chuckle. I was sorry for Kitty, though. +Her face drooped as if it were weighed down by its own blushes, and the +long lashes quivered upon the hot cheeks. + +"Ah, really, Miss Helen," spoke the Jook at last, "this is a most +unexpected pleasure. Ah, really, you know, I mean--" + +It was not very lucid, but it was all I needed, and I replied suavely, "Oh +yes, I understand. You never asked me, and never had the faintest idea of +doing so. Otherwise, we should not have been such good friends. All I want +is to enforce the fact on Kitty's mind.--And now, Kitty, my dear, if you +are quite satisfied on this point, I will dress and go down stairs.--Don't +disturb yourselves, pray!" for both of them showed signs of moving. "You +can finish your conversation to much better advantage where you are, and +this little excitement has quite cured my headache." + +I wonder how in the world they ever took up the dropped stitches in that +conversation? They did it somehow, though, for when they reappeared Kitty +was the prettiest possible picture of shy, blushing, shamefaced happiness, +while the Jook was fairly beaming with pride and delight. It was a case of +true love at last: there was no doubt about that--such love as few would +have believed that a flighty little creature like Kitty was capable of +feeling. It was wonderful to see how quickly all her little wiles and +coquetries fell off under its influence, just as the rosy, fluttering +leaves of the spring fall off when the fruit pushes its way. I don't +believe it had ever struck her before that there was anything degrading in +this playing fast and loose with men's hearts which had been her favorite +pastime, or in beguiling them by feigning a passion of which she had never +felt one thrill. It was not until Love the magician had touched her heart +that the honest and loyal little Kitty that lay at the bottom of all her +whims and follies was developed. The very sense of unworthiness which she +felt in view of the Jook's straightforward and manly ardor was the surest +guarantee for the perfection of her cure. + +A truce to moralizing. Kitty does not need it, nor the Jook either. If he +is not proud of the bright little American bride he is to take back with +him to the "tight little isle" of our forefathers, why, appearances are +"deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked." + +HENRIETTA H. HOLDICH. + + + + +COMMUNISM IN THE UNITED STATES. + + +Nowhere in the history of the world have we any example of successful +communism. The ancient Cretan and Lacedemonian experiments, the efforts of +the Essenes and early Christians, the modified communities of St. Anthony +and several orders of monks, the schemes of the Anabaptists of the +sixteenth century, together with all the experiments of modern times, have +proved essential failures. Setting out with ideas of perfection in the +social state, and undertaking nothing less than the entire abolition of the +miseries of the world, the communists of all times have lived in a +condition the least ideal that can be imagined. The usual course of +socialistic communities has been to start out with a great flourish, to +quarrel and divide after a few months, and then to decrease and degenerate +until a final dispersion by general consent ended the attempt. During the +short existence of nearly all such communities the members have lived in +want of the ordinary comforts of life, in dispute about their respective +rights and duties, at law with retiring members, and battling with the +wilds and malarias of the countries in which alone anything like practical +communism has been usually possible. The most successful (so far as any of +these attempts can be called successful) have been those communities which +have been founded on a religion and which have consisted entirely of +members of one faith. But all political communism has utterly failed, and +the name is little more than a synonym for the most egregious blunders, +excesses and crimes of which visionary and unpractical people can be +guilty. + +The United States seem ill suited for the spread of communistic ideas, +notwithstanding they contain almost the only socialistic communities to be +found anywhere. Though the people are free to live in common if they +desire, and although land and every facility are offered on easy terms for +the realization of communism--which is not the case in Europe (and which +is, therefore, the reason why the New World is chosen for communistic +experiments)--yet there is felt no need of communism here. There are +neither the political nor the social inducements for it which exist in +Europe, and all efforts to excite an enthusiasm on the subject have +invariably failed. Almost the only agitators are foreigners, and nearly all +the existing communities are composed of foreigners. Of these, two only are +political, the Icarian and the Cedar Vale, while the rest are religious. + +The Icarian Community in Adams county, Iowa, about two miles from Corning, +a station on the Burlington and Missouri River Railroad, is the result of +an effort to realize the communistic theory of M. Cabet, a French writer +and politician of some note. It is perhaps the most just and practical of +all communistic systems; for the reader will remember that social systems +are as numerous in France as religious systems are in this country, and +take much the same place in the passions and bigotries of the people of +France, where there is but one religion, as our various sects do here, +where there are so many. The system of M. Cabet differs from the others in +much the same manner as our religious sects differ from one another; which +is not of much importance to the outside world, as they all contain the one +principle of a community of goods. M. Cabet first promulgated his system in +the shape of a romance entitled _A Voyage to Icaria_, in which he +represented the community at work under the most favorable circumstances +and in a high degree of prosperity. According to his system, all goods are +to be held in common, and all the people are to have an equal voice in the +disposal of them. Each is to contribute of labor and capital all that he +can for the common good, and to get all that he needs from the common fund. +"From each according to his ability--to each according to his wants," is +the formula of principles. The practical working of the community will +further illustrate the system. + +In 1848, M. Cabet, with some three thousand of his followers, sailed from +France for New Orleans, intending to take up land in Texas or Arkansas on +which to establish a community, having the promise that he would soon be +followed by ten thousand more of his disciples. After spending several +months in reconnoitring, during which half of his followers got +discontented and left him, he settled with about fifteen hundred at Nauvoo, +Illinois, where they bought out the property of the Mormons, who had +recently been driven from that place. There they commenced operations, +establishing a saw- and grist-mill, and carrying on farming and several +branches of domestic manufacturing. In a little while they sent out a +branch colony to Icaria, in Adams county, Iowa, where they purchased, or +entered under the Homestead Act, four thousand acres of land. In this place +likewise they built a mill and went to farming and carrying on the more +simple trades. In a little while, however, a quarrel arose in the principal +community at Nauvoo in regard to the use and abuse of power, when, after a +rage of passion not unlike that which they had exhibited in the Revolution +of 1848 in France, M. Cabet, with a large minority, seceded and went to St. +Louis, where they expected to form another and more perfect community. They +never formed this community, however, and were soon dispersed. The +community at Nauvoo, being now harassed with debts and with lawsuits +growing out of the withdrawal of M. Cabet and his party, repaired to their +branch colony at Icaria, where they have been ever since. Here they had +likewise frequent disputes and withdrawals, often giving rise to lawsuits +and a loss of property, until in 1866, when the writer first visited them, +they were reduced to thirty-five members. Since that time they have picked +up a few members, mostly old companions who had left them for individual +life, until now they have about sixty in all. They own at present about two +thousand acres of land, of which three hundred and fifty are under +cultivation. They have good stock, consisting of about one hundred and +twenty head of cattle, five hundred sheep, two hundred and fifty hogs and +thirty horses. They still have their saw- and grist-mill, now run by steam, +but give most of their time to farming. They preserve the family relation, +and observe the strictest rules of chastity. Each family lives in a +separate house, but they all eat at a common table. By an economic division +of labor one man cooks for all these persons, another bakes, another +attends to the dairy, another makes the shoes, another the clothes; and in +general one man manages some special work for the whole. No one has any +money or need of any. All purchases are made from the common purse, and +each gets what he needs. The government is a pure democracy. The officers +are chosen once a year by universal (male) suffrage, and consist of a +president, secretary (and treasurer), director of agriculture and director +of industry. They have no religion, but, like most of the European +communists, are free-thinkers. They are highly moral, however, and much +esteemed by their neighbors. Some of them are quite learned, and all of +them may be pronounced decidedly heroic for the terrible privations they +have undergone in order to realize their political principles, to which +they are as strongly and sincerely devoted as any Christian to his +religion. + +Such is a sketch of the most perfect system and most successful experiment +of political communism in the United States--not very encouraging, it will +be confessed. The other example of political communism is the Cedar Vale +Community in Howard county, Kansas, which needs only to be mentioned here, +as it has as yet no history. It was commenced in 1871, and is composed of +Russian materialists and American spiritualists. They have a community of +goods like the Icarians, and in general their principles are the same. They +had only about a dozen members at last accounts. Another and similar +community was established in 1874 in Chesterfield county, Virginia, called +the "Social Freedom Community," its principles being enunciated as a "unity +of interest and political, religious and social freedom;" but we cannot +discover whether it is yet in existence, as at last accounts it had only +two full members and eight probationers. It will be seen from these +examples that the prospects of political communism are far from promising. +Its principal power has always been as a sentiment, and it can be dreaded +only as an appeal to the destitute and lawless to rise in acts of violence. +It has been powerful in France in revolutions, riots and mobs, and in this +country in aiding the late strikers in their work of destruction. + +The other existing communities are founded on some religious basis, being +efforts on the part of their founders to secure their religious rights or +to live with those of the same faith in closer relations. And although +their measures have been similar in many respects to those of the political +communists, they have resorted to them not on account of any political +principles, but because they believed them to be commanded by Scripture or +to grow out of some peculiarity of religious faith or duty. Most of them +have been formed after the model of the society of the apostles, who had +their goods in common, and because of their example. None, so far as we +know, have ever proposed to establish communities by force or to have the +whole people embraced in them. Held together by their peculiar religious +principles, they have been far more successful (especially when under some +shrewd leader whom they believed to have a spiritual authority) than when +actuated purely by reason. + +Perhaps the most successful of these religious communities is that of the +"True Inspirationists," known as the Amana Community, in Iowa, +seventy-eight miles west of Iowa City, on the Chicago, Rock Island and +Pacific Railroad. These are all Germans, who came to this country in 1842, +and settled at first near Buffalo, New York, on a tract of land called +Ebenezer, from which they are sometimes known as "Ebenezers." This tract +comprised five thousand acres of land, including what is now a part of the +city of Buffalo. In 1855 they moved to their present locality in Iowa. They +pretend to be under direct inspiration, receiving from God the model and +general orders for the direction of their community. The present head, +both spiritual and temporal, is a woman, a sort of sibyl who negotiates the +inspirations. Their business affairs are managed by thirteen trustees, +chosen annually by the male members, who also choose the president. They +are very religious, though having but little outward form. There are +fourteen hundred and fifty members, who live in seven different towns or +villages, which are all known by the name of Amana--East Amana, West Amana, +etc. They have their property for the most part in common. Each family has +a house, to which food is daily distributed. The work is done by a prudent +division of labor, as in the Icarian community. But instead of providing +clothing and incidentals, the community makes to each person an allowance +for this purpose--to the men of from forty to one hundred dollars a year, +to the women from twenty-five to thirty dollars, and to the children from +five to ten dollars. There are public stores in the community at which the +members can get all they need besides food, and at which also strangers can +deal. They dress very plainly, use simple food, and are quite industrious. +They aim to keep the men and women apart as much as possible. They sit +apart at the tables and in church, and when divine service is dismissed the +men remain in their ranks until the women get out of church and nearly +home. In their games and amusements they keep apart, as well as in all +combinations whether for business or pleasure. The boys play with boys and +the girls with girls. They marry at twenty-four. They own at present +twenty-five thousand acres of land, a considerable part of which is under +cultivation. They have, in round numbers, three thousand sheep, fifteen +hundred head of cattle, two hundred horses and twenty-five hundred hogs. +Besides farming, they carry on two woollen-mills, four saw-mills, two +grist-mills and a tannery. They are almost entirely self-supporting in the +arts, working up their own products and living off the result. In medicine +they are homoeopathists. + +The "Rappists" or Harmony Society at Economy, Pennsylvania, is composed of +about one hundred members, being all that remain of a colony of six hundred +who came from Germany in 1803. They were called Separatists or +"Come-outers" in their own country, and much persecuted on account of their +nonconformity with the established Church. They landed in Baltimore, and +some of them who never found their way into the community, or who +subsequently withdrew, settled in Maryland and Pennsylvania, where they are +still known as a religious sect. Those who remained together purchased five +thousand acres of land north of Pittsburg, in the valley of the +Conoquenessing. In 1814 they moved to Posey county, Indiana, in the Wabash +Valley, where they purchased thirty thousand acres of land, and in 1824 +they moved back again to their present locality in Pennsylvania. In 1831 a +dissension arose among them, and a division was effected by one Bernard +Mueller--or "Count Maximilian" as he called himself--who went off with +one-third of the members and a large share of the property, and founded a +new community at Phillips, ten miles off, on eight hundred acres of land, +which, however, soon disbanded on account of internal quarrels. + +The peculiarity of this community is that there is no intercourse between +the sexes of any kind. In 1807 they gave up marriage. The husbands parted +from their wives, and have henceforth lived with them only as sisters. They +claim to have authority for this in the words of the apostle: "This I say, +brethren, the time is short; it remaineth that both they that have wives be +as though they had none," etc. They teach that Adam in his perfect state +was bi-sexual and had no need of a female, being in this respect like God; +that subsequently, when he fell, the female part (rib, etc.) was separated +from him and made into another person, and that when they become perfect +through their religion the bi-sexual nature of the soul is restored. +Christ, they claim, was also of this dual nature, and therefore never +married. They believe that the world will soon come to an end, and that it +is their duty to help it along by having no children, and so putting an end +to the race as well as the planet. + +Their property is all held in common and managed by a council of seven, +from whom the trustees are chosen. From four to eight live in each house, +men and women together, who regard each other as of the same sex, and are +never watched. Each household cooks for itself, although there is a general +bakery, from which bread is taken around to the houses as they have need. +The members are fond of music and flowers, but they discard dancing. Though +Germans, they have ceased to use tobacco; which loss, it is said, the men +feel more heavily than that of the wives. They make considerable wine and +beer, which they drink in moderation. They are said to be worth from two +millions to three millions of dollars, and speculate in mines, oil-wells, +saw-mills, etc., doing very little hard work, and hiring laborers from +without to take their places in all drudgery. They are engaged principally +in farming and the common trades, and supply nearly everything for +themselves. They are nearly all aged, none of them being under forty except +some adopted children. All are Germans and use the German language. + +The Shakers are the oldest society of communists in the United States. The +parent society at Mount Lebanon, New York, was established in 1792, being +the outgrowth of a religious revival in which there were violent hysterical +manifestations or "shakes," from which they took their name. In this +revival one Ann Lee, known among them as "Mother Ann," was prominent. This +woman, of English birth, emigrated to Niskayuna, New York, about seven +miles north-west of Albany, where she pretended to speak from inspiration +and work miracles, so that the people soon came to regard her as being +another revelation of Christ and as having his authority. Being persecuted +by the outside world, her followers, after her death, formed a community in +which to live and enjoy their religion alone and: undisturbed. Their +principles may be summed up as special revelation, spiritualism, celibacy, +oral confession, community, non-resistance, peace, the gift of healing, +miracles, physical health and separation from the world. Like the Rappists, +they neither marry nor have any substitute for marriage, receiving all +their children by adoption. They live in large families or communes, +consisting of eighty or ninety members, in one big house, men and women +together. Each brother is assigned to a sister, who mends his clothes, +looks after his washing, tells him when he needs a new garment, reproves +him when not orderly, and has a spiritual oversight over him generally. +Though living in the same house, the sexes eat, labor and work apart. They +keep apart and in separate ranks in their worship. They do not shake hands +with the opposite sex, and there is rarely any scandal or gossip among +them, so far as the outside world can learn. There are two orders, known as +the Novitiate and the Church order, the latter having intercourse only with +their own members in a sort of monkish seclusion, while the others treat +with the outside world. The head of a Shaker society is a "ministry," +consisting of from three to four persons, male and female. The society is +divided into families, as stated above, each family having two elders, one +male and one female. In their worship they are drawn up in ranks and go +through various gyrations, consisting of processions and dances, during +which they continually hold out their hands as if to receive something. The +Shakers are industrious, hard-working, economical and cleanly. They dress +uniformly. Their houses are all alike. They say "yea" and "nay," although +not "thee" and "thou," and call persons by their first names. They confine +themselves chiefly to the useful, and use no ornaments. There are at +present eighteen societies of Shakers in the United States, scattered +throughout seven States. They number in all two thousand four hundred and +fifteen persons, and own one hundred thousand acres of land. Their +industries are similar to those of the Rappists and True Inspirationists, +and are somewhat famed for the excellence of their products. The Shakers +are nearly all Americans, like the Oneidans, next mentioned, and unlike all +other communistic societies in the United States. + +The Perfectionists of Oneida and Wallingford are perhaps the most singular +of all communists. They were founded by John Humphrey Noyes, who organized +a community at Putney, Vermont, in 1846. In 1848 this was consolidated with +others at Oneida in Madison county, New York. In 1849 a branch community +was started at Brooklyn, New York, and in 1850 one at Wallingford, +Connecticut, all of which have since broken up or been merged in the two +communities of Oneida and Wallingford. Their principles are perfectionism, +communism and free love. By "perfection" they mean freedom from sin, which +they all claim to have, or to seek as practically attainable. They claim, +in explaining their sense of this term, that as a man who does not drink is +free from intemperance, and one who does not swear is free from profanity, +so one who does not sin at all is free from sin, or morally perfect. Their +communism is like that of the Icarians, so far as property is concerned, +this being owned equally by all for the benefit of all as they severally +have need; which state they claim is the state of man after the +resurrection. But they have a community not only of goods, but also of +wives; or, rather, they have no wives at all, but all women belong to all +men, and all men to all women; which they assert to be the state of Nature, +and therefore the most perfect state. They call it complex marriage instead +of simple, and it is both polygamy and polyandry at the same time. They are +enemies of all exclusiveness or selfishness, and hold that there should be +no exclusiveness in money or in women or children. Their idea is to be in +the most literal sense no respecters of persons. All women and children are +the same to all men, and _vice versa_. A man never knows his own children, +and the mothers, instead of raising their children themselves, give them +over to a common nursery, somewhat after the suggestion of Plato in his +_Republic_. If any two persons are suspected of forming special +attachments, and so of violating the principle of equal and universal love, +or of using their sexual freedom too liberally, they are put under +discipline. They are very religious, their religion, however, consisting +only in keeping free from sin. They have no sermons, ceremonies, sacraments +or religious manifestations whatever. There are no public prayers, and no +loud prayers at all. Their method of discipline is called "criticism," and +consists in bringing the offender into the presence of a committee of men +and women, who each pass their criticisms on him and allow him to confess +or criticise himself. The least sign of worldliness or evidence of +impropriety is enough to subject one to this ordeal. They are very careful +about whom they admit to their community, as there are numerous rakes and +idlers who make application on the supposition that it is a harem or +Turkish paradise. None are admitted who are not imbued with their doctrine +of perfection, and who do not show evidences of it in their lives. In a +business point of view, they are comparatively successful, the original +members having contributed over one hundred thousand dollars' worth of +property, which has not depreciated. They engage in farming, wine-raising +and various industries, and are known in the general markets for their +products. + +The Separatists at Zoar, Ohio, about halfway between Cleveland and +Pittsburg, are a body of Germans who fled from Wuertemberg in 1817 to escape +religious persecution. They are mystics, followers of Jacob Boehm, Gerhard, +Terstegen, Jung Stilling and others of that class, and considerably above +the average of communists in intellect and culture. They were aided to +emigrate to this country by some English Quakers, with whom there is a +resemblance in some of their tenets. They purchased fifty-six hundred acres +of land in Ohio, but did not at first intend to form a community, having +been driven to that resort subsequently in order to the better realization +of their religious principles. They now own over seven thousand acres of +land in Ohio, besides some in Iowa. They have a woollen-factory, two +flour-mills, a saw-mill, a planing-mill, a machine-shop, a tannery and a +dye-house; also a hotel and store for the accommodation of their neighbors. +They are industrious, simple in their dress and food, and very economical. +They use neither tobacco nor pork, and are homoeopathists in medicine. In +religion they are orthodox, with the usual latitude of mystics. They have +no ceremonies, say "thou" and "thee," take off their hats and bow to nobody +except God, refuse to fight or go to law, and settle their disputes by +arbitration. At first they prohibited marriage and had their women in +common, like the Perfectionists. In 1828, however, they commenced to break +their rules and take wives. Now they observe the marriage state. Their +officers are elected by the whole society, the women voting as well as the +men. + +The Bethel and Aurora communities--the former in Shelby county, Missouri, +forty-eight miles from Hannibal, and the latter in Oregon, twenty-nine +miles south of Portland, on the Oregon and California Railroad--were +founded in 1848 by Dr. Kiel, a Prussian mystic, who practised medicine a +while in New York and Pittsburg, and subsequently formed a religious sect +of which these communists are members. He was subsequently joined by some +of "Count Maximilian's" people, who had left Rapp's colony at Economy, +which this closely resembles except as to celibacy. He first founded the +colony in Missouri, where he took up two thousand five hundred and sixty +acres of land, and established the usual trades needed by farmers. In 1847 +there were the inevitable quarrel and division. In 1855 he set out to +establish a similar community on the Pacific coast. The first settlement +was made at Shoalwater Bay, Washington Territory, which was, however, +subsequently abandoned for the present one at Aurora. There are now about +four hundred members at Aurora, who own eighteen thousand acres of land, +and have the usual shops and occupations of communists mentioned above, +carrying on a considerable trade with their neighbors. The members of both +communities are all either Germans or Pennsylvania Dutch, and thrive by the +industry and economy peculiar to those people. Their government is +parental, intended to be like God's. Kiel is the temporal and spiritual +head. Their religion consists in practical benevolence, the forms of +worship being Lutheran. They are thought to be exceedingly wealthy, but if +their property were divided among them there would be less than three +thousand dollars to each family, which, though more than the property of +most other communities would average, is but small savings for twenty +years. They preserve the usual family relations. + +The Bishop Hill Community, in Henry county, Illinois, was formed by a party +of Swedes who came to this country in 1846 under Eric Janson, who had been +their religious leader in the Old World, where they were greatly persecuted +on account of their peculiar religious views. They suffered great hardships +in effecting a first settlement, some of them going off, in the interest of +the community, to dig gold in California, and others taking to +stock-raising and speculating. In this they were quite successful, so that +jobs and speculations became the peculiar work of this community. They took +various public and private contracts; among others, one to grade a large +portion of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad and to build some of +its bridges. In 1859 they owned ten thousand acres of good land, and had +the finest cattle in the State. In 1859, however, the young people became +discontented and wished to dissolve the community. They divided the +property in 1860, when one faction continued the community with its share. +In 1861 this party also broke up, separating into three divisions. In 1862 +these again divided the property after numerous lawsuits. A small fraction, +I believe, still continues a community on the ruins. In this community the +families lived separately, but ate all together. They had no president or +single head, the business being transacted by a board of trustees. Their +religion was their principal concern. + +Such are the strictly communistic societies in the United States. It will +be seen that they are each of such very peculiar views that they are +specially fitted by their very oddity for a life in common, and specially +disqualified from the same cause to extend or embrace others; for while +their community of oddity makes them, by a necessarily strong sympathy, fit +associates to be together, it separates them by an impassable gulf from the +appreciation and sympathy of the rest of mankind, who are interested only +in the ordinary common-sense concerns of life. + +Besides these, there are several other colonies which, though not +communistic, have grown out of an attempt to solve some of the questions +raised by socialism. They are for the most part co-operative. The following +are the principal: The Anaheim colony in California, thirty-six miles from +Los Angelos, which was formed by a large number of Germans in 1857, who +banded together and purchased a large tract of land, on which they +successfully cultivate the vine in large quantities. The property is held +and worked all together, but the interests are separate, and will be +divided in due time. Vineland, New Jersey, on the railroad between +Philadelphia and Cape May, is another. It was purchased and laid out by +Charles K. Landis in 1861 as a private speculation, and to draw the +overcrowded population of Philadelphia into the country, where the people +could all have comfortable homes and support themselves by their own labor. +Some fifty thousand acres of land were purchased, and sold at a low rate +and on long time to actual settlers and improvers. As a result, some twelve +thousand people have been drawn thither, who cultivate all this tract and +work numerous industries besides. No liquors are allowed to be sold in the +place, so that the population is exceptionally moral as well as +industrious, and offers a model example of low rates and good government. A +successful colony exists also at Prairie Home in Franklin county, Kansas, +which was founded by a Frenchman, Monsieur E.V. Boissiere. It is designed +to be an association and co-operation based on attractive industry; a large +number of persons contributing their capital and labor under stringent +laws, the proceeds to be divided among them whenever a majority shall so +desire. I might mention other associations of this kind, which are, in +fact, however, only a variety of partnership or corporation. + +It strikes me, however, that this is the only practical remedy for the +evils which are aimed at by the communists, as far as they are remedial by +social means. If a number of working people, with the capital which their +small savings will amount to (which is always large enough for any ordinary +business if there be any considerable number of them), can be induced to +organize themselves under competent leaders, and work for a few years +together as faithfully as they ordinarily do for employers, they might +realize considerable results, and get the advantage of their own work +instead of enriching capitalists. But the difficulty is, that this class +have not, as a rule, learned either to manage great enterprises or to +submit to those who are wisest among them, but break up in disorder and +divisions when their individual preferences are crossed. The first lesson +that a man must learn who proposes to do anything in common with others +(and the more so if there be many of them) is to submit and forbear. With a +little schooling our people ought, to a greater extent than at present, to +be able to co-operate in large numbers in firms and corporations where the +members and stockholders shall themselves do all the work and receive all +the profits, and so avoid the two extremes of making profits for +capitalists and paying their earnings to officers and directors. + +AUSTIN BIERBOWER. + + + + +OUR MONTHLY GOSSIP. + + +NOTES FROM MOSCOW. + +JUNE 1 (May 20, Russian style), 1877. + +This diversity in the matter of dates is unpleasantly perplexing at times. +With every sensation of interest and pleasure I set myself about the task +of describing, I must at once begin to reckon. Twelve days' difference! +Yes, I have already grasped that fact, but then in which direction must the +deduction begin?--backward or forward? Such is the question that instantly +arises, and if we are at the fag end of one month and the beginning of +another, the amount of reckoning involved seems somewhat inadequate to the +occasion. The Russian clergy, it is said--those, at any rate, of the lowest +class, designated as "white priests," many of them peasants by birth and +marvellously illiterate--have ever been averse to any change being made in +the calendar, in order that their seasons of fasting and feasting may not +be disturbed. + +_Apropos_ of priests and priesthood. Whilst quietly at work yesterday +morning my attention was suddenly called off, first by a hurried +exclamation, and then the inharmonious--ah, how utterly +discordant!--ding-donging of church-bells. "Listen!" fell upon my ear: "one +of the secular priests belonging to St. Gregory's church died two days ago, +and is to be buried this morning. They are still saying masses over his +body, the church is packed, and it is a sight such as you may possibly not +have an opportunity of again witnessing." In half an hour we were within +the church-walls. The place was already thronged, and the air close almost +to suffocation. Never can one forget that peculiar heat, the sort of +indescribable vapor, that arose, and the perspiration that streamed down +the faces of all present, each of whom, from the oldest to the youngest, +carried a lighted candle. After many vigorous efforts, and occasional +collisions with the flaring tapers, the wax or tallow dropping at intervals +upon our cloaks, we found ourselves at last in the centre of the edifice, +immediately behind a dozen or more officiating priests clad in magnificent +robes, before whom lay their late confrere reposing in his coffin, and +dressed, according to custom, in his ecclesiastical robes. Tall lighted +candles draped with crape surrounded him, and the solemn chant had been +going on around him ever since life had become extinct. The dead in Russia +are never left alone or in the dark. Relays of singing priests take the +places of those who are weary, and friends keep watch in an adjoining room. +The Russian temperament inclines to the strongest manifestation of the +inmost feelings, and the method here of mourning for the dead is +exceptionally demonstrative. The corpse of the old priest lay surrounded by +what was of bright colors or purest white, the coffin being of the +last-mentioned hue. Black was utterly proscribed. The face and hands were +half buried in a lacy texture, whilst on the brow was placed a label, +"fillet-fashion," on which was written "The Thrice Holy," or +_Trisagion_--"O Holy God! O Holy Mighty! O Holy Immortal! have mercy upon +us!" + +Chant after chant ascended for the repose of his soul. The deacon's deep +bass voice rose ever and anon in leading fashion, the other voices +following suit. There was of course no instrumental music. This Russian +singing is curiously unique--of a character wholly different from any heard +elsewhere. It is weird in the extreme, and, if the expression be +permissible, gypsy-like. The deacons' voices are of wonderful capability, +the popular belief being that they are specially chosen on account of this +peculiar power. At last there came a pause. Not only the priests' and +deacons' voices, but those of the chanting men and boys--alike unsurpliced +and uncassocked, lacking, therefore, much of the attraction offered by a +service in the Western Catholic Church--had all at once ceased to be +heard. All were now pressing forward to kiss the dead priest--his +fellow-priests first, and then, duly in order, all his relations and +friends. "The last kiss" it is termed--a practice, it would seem, derived +from the heathen custom, of which we find such frequent mention. None, if +possible, omit the performance of this duty, all seeking to obtain the +blessing or benefit, supposed to be thereby conferred. Some, however, are +obliged to content themselves with merely kissing the corners of the +coffin. + +Many of the numerous _stichera_, as they are termed--poetically-worded +prose effusions--made use of in the course of the service are curiously +quaint. I quote two or three, of which I have since procured a translation: +"Come, my brethren, let us give our last kiss, our last farewell, to our +deceased brother. He hath now forsaken his kindred and approacheth the +grave, no longer mindful of vanity or the cares of the world. Where are now +his kindred and friends? Behold, we are now separated! Approach! embrace +him who lately was one of yourselves."--"Where now is the graceful form? +Where is youth? Where is the brightness of the eye? where the beauty of the +complexion? Closed are the eyes, the feet bound, the hands at rest: extinct +is the sense of hearing, and the tongue locked up in silence." + +The words succeeding these are supposed to emanate from the lips of the +dead, lying mute before the eyes of all present: "Brethren, friends, +kinsmen and acquaintance, view me here lying speechless, breathless, and +lament. But yesterday we conversed together. Come near, all who are bound +to me by affection, and with a last embrace pronounce the last farewell. No +longer shall I sojourn among you, no longer bear part in your discourse. +Pray earnestly that I be received into the Light of life." + +The absolution having been pronounced by the priest, a paper is placed in +the dead man's hand--"The Prayer, Hope and Confession of a faithful +Christian soul." This is accompanied by another prayer containing the +written words of absolution. This custom has given rise to the belief in +the minds of many foreigners that such missives are presented in the light +of passports to a better world; but the idea seems to be as erroneous as it +is absurd. Moreover, I believe that, strictly speaking, the custom is one +of national origin, and that the Church has had nothing to do with its +adoption. + +All the lighted tapers having been taken away by one of the attendants, the +coffin with its gilded ornaments was removed slowly from its resting-place, +and placed upon an enormous open bier or hearse, extensively mounted and +heavily ornamented with white watered silk, purple and gilt draperies, a +gilt crown surmounting all. The base of the ponderous vehicle was alone +permitted to boast a fringe of deep black cloth--as if, however, for the +sole purpose of hiding the wheels. The six horses, three abreast, were also +enveloped in black cloth drapery touching the ground on either side. Right +and left of the coffin itself, and mounted therefore considerably aloft, +stood two yellow _stoicharioned_ (or robed) deacons, wearing the +_epimanikia_ and _orarion_--the former being a portion of the priestly +dress used for covering the arms, and signifying the thongs with which the +hands of Christ were bound; the latter a stole worn over the left shoulder. +The head of each deacon was adorned with long waving hair, and each carried +a censer in his hand. They faced each other, keeping watch together over +the dead. A procession of priests, duly robed, began to move, preceded by +censer-bearers and singing men and boys. + +The point whence the procession started--Mala Greuzin, situated at the +extreme east end of Moscow--lay several miles away from the cemetery for +which they were all _en route;_ and this veritably ancient Asiatic city had +to be traversed at an angle in this solemn fashion, seventy or eighty +carriages following. From the beginning to the end of the prescribed route +Muscovites lined the road on either side, and it is fair to add that I +never beheld more respect shown even to royalty itself. All was quietness, +the general expression of sympathy and respect being permitted to find vent +only in excessive gesticulation and genuflection. Not a head remained +covered, not a single person by whom the procession passed permitted it to +do so without crossing himself several times from forehead to chest and +from shoulder to shoulder. + +At the first church which the procession reached, the bells of which had +begun to toll--clash rather--long before it came in sight, the entire party +halted. A bell was rung by one of those in advance, and then all waited. +The priests and their various acolytes clustered reverently by the hearse, +the followers and spectators standing at a respectful distance, but +nevertheless taking part in the service. After first incensing the hearse, +themselves and all around, further prayers were said and chanted: then a +signal was given and all moved on again, only, however, to again pause on +the route, for at every church we passed--and we must have encountered at +least thirty or forty, if not more, seeing that such sacred edifices rise +upon one's view in Moscow at wellnigh every three or four minutes' +space--the ceremony was repeated. No sooner had one set of bells ceased to +sound in our ears than another took its place, and again all halted, and +then again all marched onward. Every window as the cortege passed along was +thrown open, and figures bent forward ever and anon, enacting their wonted +part in the pageant. And the pageant, be it remembered, was, after all, +only one of frequent occurrence. + +Only the week before I had had the privilege of watching this identical old +priest baptize the child of one of the most ancient nobles here, the +ceremony being performed not in a church, but at the nobleman's house. One +godfather and one godmother are all that are required, the latter of whom +holds the infant. On the godmother also a large share of duty devolves, +there being certain gifts which she is bound by national custom to offer +for acceptance on the occasion. Often, therefore, the duty of selecting a +female sponsor becomes a somewhat invidious one. A handsome dress to the +mother, no matter in what rank of life; a delicate lace cap to the main +object of the occasion; a lace chemise for the same highly-honored small +individual; and an elaborate silk pocket handkerchief to the officiating +priest,--these, when of the best quality, and they are invariably so, mount +up somewhat as regards price, seeing that everything is marvellously dear +here in the matter of dress. The godfather, standing immediately in front +of the large font brought specially for the purpose from the adjacent +church, and at the right hand of his fellow-sponsor, simply presents a +small golden cross, to be worn, it is supposed, ever afterward. Immediately +behind the font, and facing the entire audience--for a large circle of +friends had been invited to witness the ceremony--was placed the "holy +picture" of the household, without which in Russia no homestead, whether +belonging to rich or poor, is considered complete, and before which a +lighted oil lamp ever stands burning--a "picture of God," as the Russian +children are taught from their earliest years to call it. Before this the +priests bowed on entering. + +The mode of baptism was immersion, after several exorcisms had been read +and the priest had thrice blown in the infant's face, signing him, also +thrice, on the forehead and breast. Three tall lighted candles were affixed +to the font, and others were held by the god-parents, except when they +marched round the font in procession three times during "the chrism," when +the candles were laid down. The chrism consists in anointing the infant's +forehead, breast, shoulders and middle of the back with holy oil, after +which comes the service, when the forehead, eyes, nostrils, mouth, ears, +breast, hands and feet are again anointed, but this time with the holy +unction prepared once a year, on Monday in Holy Week, within the walls of +the Kremlin, and consecrated by the metropolitan in the cathedral of the +Annunciation on Holy Thursday. Then comes the concluding act, when the +priest cuts off a small portion of the child's hair in four different +places on the crown of the head, encloses it in a morsel of wax and throws +it into the font, as a sort of first-fruits of that which has been +consecrated. + +S.E. + + +A DAY AT THE PARIS CONSERVATOIRE. + +It was ten o'clock in the morning when we drove up to the door of the +world-famous institution, but, early as it was, an animated throng already +filled the wide marble-paved entrance-hall--former pupils in elegant +attire; girl aspirants for future honors, accompanied by the inevitable +mamma with the invariable little hand-bag; young men and old; celebrated +dramatists and well-known actors, visitors, critics, etc.--all passing to +and fro or engaged in conversation while awaiting the hour for taking their +seats. Passing through these, we ascend a narrow staircase that gives one +good hopes of a martyr's death should the theatre chance to catch fire, and +we instal ourselves in a narrow and by no means comfortable box in the +dress-circle. The theatre of the Conservatoire, though not very large, is +very elegantly and artistically decorated in the Pompeian style, the stage +being set with a single "box scene," as it is technically called, which is +never changed, as plays are never acted there. Here take place the +far-famed concerts du Conservatoire, for which tickets are as hard to +obtain as are invitations to the entertainments of a duchess, all the seats +being owned by private individuals. But what we are now here to witness is +the competition in dramatic declamation, tragic and comic. The jury occupy +a box in the centre of the dress-circle and opposite to the stage. This +terrifying tribunal is enough to try the nerves of the stoutest aspirant +for dramatic honors, comprising as it does among its members such powers in +the land as Legouve, Camilla-Doucet, Alexandre Dumas, the directors of the +Comedie Francaise and the Odeon, and the great actors Got and Delaunay. An +elderly gentleman comes forward on the stage and reads from a printed paper +the name of each competitor and those of his or her assistants, and that of +the play from which the scene that is to be represented is chosen. Each +pupil selects a scene, and the persons who in French technical parlance are +to "give the reply" (_i.e._ to take the other characters in the scene) are +chosen from among the ranks of the pupil's fellow-competitors. Lots are +drawn to decide the place that each one is to occupy on the programme, the +first place and the last being considered the least desirable. Printed +bills are distributed among the audience giving a list of the competitors, +with the names of the plays from which they have chosen scenes, and +(horrible innovation for the lady pupils!) the age of each one as well. + +The competition is opened by M. Levanz, a young man of thirty, who took a +second prize last year, and who has chosen the closet-scene from _Hamlet_ +(the translation of the elder Dumas) as his _cheval de bataille_. He has a +marked Germanic countenance, decidedly the reverse of handsome, yet mobile +and expressive: his voice is good, his figure tall and manly. He has +evidently seen Rossi in Hamlet, and models his conception of the character +on that grand impersonation. Next comes M. Bregaint in a scene from +_Andromaque:_ he is so bad, so _very_ bad, that the audience are moved to +sudden outbursts of hilarity by his grand tragic points. He is succeeded by +a boy of sixteen, tall and graceful, with a fine tragic face of the heroic +Kemble mould, and great blue-gray eyes that dilate or contract beneath the +impulses of the moment--a born actor from head to foot. He fairly thrills +the audience in the great scene of the duke de Nemours from _Louis XI_. +This youth, M. Guitry, is undoubtedly, if his life be spared, the coming +tragedian of the French stage. Then we have the first one of the lady +competitors, Mademoiselle Edet, a tall, awkward girl of eighteen, with a +flat face and Chinese-like features, dressed up in a gown of cream-yellow +foulard trimmed with wide fringe and made with a loose jacket, whereon the +fringes wave wildly in the air as she flings her arms around in the tragic +love-making of Phedre. Two or three others of moderate merit succeed, and +then comes Mademoiselle Jullien, who gives the great scene of Roxane in +_Bajazet_ with so much intelligence of intonation and grace of gesture that +the audience are moved to sudden applause. She is rather too short and of +too delicate a physique for tragedy, but her face is expressive, her eyes +fine, and there are intellect and talent in every tone and movement. She is +nearly twenty-nine years of age, so has not much time to waste if she is to +make her mark in her profession. Last on the list of tragic aspirants comes +a gentleman of thirty-one, M. Aubert, who goes through a scene from +_Hamlet_ in a very tolerable manner. He was in the army, was doing well and +was rising in grade when, seized by the theatrical mania, he relinquished +his profession and turned his attention to the stage. Thus far, he has +proved, practically speaking, a failure: he has won no prizes, and no +manager will engage him. This is his last chance, as his age will prevent +him, by the rules of the Conservatoire, from taking part in any future +competition. + +The tragedy concours ended, a recess of an hour is proclaimed, and there is +a rush to the refreshment-tables and a great consumption of sandwiches and +cakes, of coffee and water (known as "mazagran") and of _vin ordinaire_. +Under that vestibule pass and repass the literary luminaries of modern +France. Here is Henri de Bornier, the author of _La Fille de Roland_, a +quiet, earnest-looking gentleman, with clear luminous eyes and the smallest +hands imaginable. Here comes Francisque Sarcey, the greatest dramatic +critic of France and one of the most noted of her Republican journalists, +broad-shouldered, black-eyed and stalwart-looking. Yonder stand a group of +Academicians--Legouve, Doucet, Dumas--in earnest conversation with Edouard +Thierry, the librarian of the Arsenal. The handsome, delicate, +aristocratic-looking gentleman who joins the group is M. Perrin, the +director of the Comedie Francaise, the most accomplished and intelligent +theatrical manager in France. There is an elderly, reserved-looking +gentleman beside him who looks like a solemn _savant_ out on a holiday. It +takes more than one glance for us to recognize in him the most accomplished +light comedian of our day, that embodiment of grace, vivacity, sparkling +wit and unfading youth, who is known to the boards of the Comedie Francaise +by the name of Delaunay. There are other minor luminaries, too numerous to +mention. + +We go up stairs and resume our seats, and the competition of comedy is +begun. Scene succeeds to scene and competitor to competitor: the day wears +on, and flitting clouds from time to time obscure the dome, bringing out +the glare of the footlights that have been burning all day in a singularly +effective manner. Of the nineteen competitors, the deepest impression is +made by M. Barral, who plays a scene from _L'Avare_ magnificently; by +Mademoiselle Carriere, who reveals herself as a sparkling and intelligent +soubrette; and by Mademoiselle Sisos, a genuine _comedienne_, only sixteen +years of age and as pretty as a peach. It is six o'clock when the last +competitor has said his say, and then the jury retire to deliberate +respecting the awards. What a flutter there must be among the young things +whose future destiny is now swaying in the balance, for success means +fortune, and failure a disheartening postponement, and to the elder ones +downright and disastrous ruin of all their hopes! Half an hour passes, and +then, after what seems a weary period of suspense, the box-door is thrown +open and the jury resume their seats. Ambroise Thomas, the president of the +Conservatoire, strikes his bell and a dead silence ensues. In a full +sonorous voice he begins: "Concours of tragedy, men's class. No +prizes.--Usher, summon M. Guitry." The gifted boy comes forward to the +footlights. "M. Guitry, the jury have awarded to you a _premier accessit_." +He bows and retires amid the hearty applause of the audience. "Women's +class.--Usher, call Mademoiselle Jullien." She comes out pale and agitated, +the slight form quivering like a wind-swept flower in her robes of creamy +cashmere. Is it the Odeon that awaits her--the second prize? for in her +modesty she had only hoped for a _premier accessit._ "Mademoiselle Jullien, +the jury have awarded to you the first prize." The first prize! Those words +mean to her an assured career, a brilliant future, the doors of the Comedie +Francaise flung wide open to receive her. She falters, trembles, bows +profoundly, and goes off in a very passion of hysterical weeping. Then come +the comedy awards. M. Barral gets a first prize, as is his just due, as +does also Mademoiselle Carriere. "Usher, call Mademoiselle Sisos." She +comes forward, her great brown eyes dilated with excitement, her cheeks +burning like two red roses, a mass of faded white roses clinging amid the +rumpled gold of her hair--a very bewitching picture of childish grace and +beauty. "Mademoiselle Sisos, the jury have awarded to you a second prize." +She laughs and blushes, and brings her hands together with a childlike +gesture of delight. "Oh, merci!" she cries, and drops a courtesy, and then +away she goes--happy little creature, thus consecrated artiste at sixteen! +The other awards are given, the jury leave their box, and the audience +disperse. The friends of the competitors crowd around the stage-door, and +each of the successful ones is seized by the hand and congratulated and +embraced, the youthful Guitry being especially surrounded. Two or three +more years of study will land this gifted boy on the boards of the Comedie +Francaise. The queen of the day, Mademoiselle Jullien, has stolen away +overcome by excess of emotion, which, though joyful, is still exhausting to +her delicate frame. Finally, everybody retires, the doors are closed, and +the long, exciting _seance_ has come to an end at last. + +L.H.H. + + +BRIGHAM YOUNG AND MORMONISM. + +Brigham Young's career is a valuable commentary on that of Mohammed, and +will hereafter be a standard citation with explorers of the natural history +of religions. It might be more proper to go back of Young, and adhere to +Joe Smith as the figure-head of the Mormon dispensation. How Smith would +have turned out had he lived, and whether he would have made as much of +Utah as the man upon whose shoulders his mantle fell, is not easy to say; +but his was a less robust character, the enthusiast in him too far +obscuring the organizer and commander. The Church is the thing to look at, +rather than its leaders, when we consider duration--the soil rather than +the plough. Why has Mohammed's creation lasted longer and spread wider than +that of Charlemagne or Tamerlane? And is Smith's to have the like fortune, +or to die out like those of Muenster and Joanna Southcote? + +The Mormon "revelation" has been before the world more than forty years. In +twenty-two years from his first vision Mohammed had reduced all Arabia +under his religious and political sway. Young's dominions have not expanded +territorially. His faith cannot be said to exist outside of Utah. His +converts are compelled to go thither for the exercise of their religion. +Salt Lake City is not a Mecca, the goal of a passing pilgrimage, but the +one and only possible abiding-place of those who profess its creed. A +system thus localized is in danger of being stifled. Especially is this the +case when its seat is exposed to invasion by a swelling current of +non-sympathizers or open enemies. These may be repelled or prevented from +improving their foothold by the firmness, unity and numerical predominance +of the invaded. So it has happened at Salt Lake. The Mormons hold all the +serviceable soil, and it is difficult for the "Gentiles" to effect a +lodgment. Until they do, they must occupy, even in their own eyes, somewhat +the position of adventurers. They cannot hope to secure the respect of the +industrious sectaries who own and till the soil, and who are taught to +count them aliens and persecutors. Irrigation is here the only means of +successful agriculture. It involves great outlay of capital and labor, and +creates great fixedness of tenure. Newcomers are thus additionally +discouraged. + +Thus entrenched in a well-provisioned citadel, welcoming all the new levies +it can win, and amply able to provide for them, Mormonism bids fair to +make a prolonged stand. To emerge from a defensive position and strike for +unlimited sway is what it cannot, to judge by all precedents, expect. It +will be compelled, in fact, to lighten itself of some dead weights in order +to maintain its actual situation. Polygamy must go, and the absolute power +of the priesthood be modified. With some such adaptations it may continue a +reality for generations to come. And time is a great sanctifier. A creed +that lives for one or two centuries is by so much the more likely to live +longer. Youth is the critical period with religions, as with animals and +plants and nations. Through that period Mormonism is passing with +flattering success. That such a lusty juvenile will, by favor of the +mellowing effect imposed on all creeds by early years of toil, trouble and +experience, reach a middle age of presentable decency, is not a more +unlikely supposition than the worthy Vermont clergyman would have +pronounced, half a century ago, the idea that his _jeu d'esprit_ would +become the Bible of sixty thousand industrious, well-ordered +English-speaking people in the heart of the American continent. + +E.C.B. + + +THE EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN INDIA. + +According to a report sent to our Commissioner of Education at Washington +four years ago, there were then in India one thousand girls' schools +supported by the government and some five hundred missionary schools +devoted to female education. Besides these, there has sprung up during the +last few years a new field for the women-educators in that country. This is +the teaching of women in their homes. It is called _zenana-work._ The +_zenana_ is the women's apartment in the house--the _harem_ of the Turks. +Women have been sent from England and from America for this special object, +and their labors are meeting with encouraging success. They are constantly +gaining admission to new families, which from caste or other causes are +opposed to sending their young women to the regular schools. Some of the +zenana-teachers are regularly-educated physicians. + +For the government schools each province has a director of public +instruction, with inspectors of divisions and subdivisions. These directors +are "gentlemen of high qualification and well paid." It is a notable fact +that in one of the provinces the office of director is filled by a +Christian woman--a foreigner no doubt, though the report does not say. + +At Dehra, at the foot of the Himalaya Mountains, there is a high school for +girls organized on the plan of the Mount Holyoke Seminary. Here English is +spoken, and the pupils are carried through a course of training that may +justly be termed _high_. One of the pupils of this school has lately been +appointed by the government to go to England and qualify herself as a +physician, under a contract to return and serve the government by taking +charge of a hospital and college for training young women as midwives and +nurses. + +Of course, in a country containing a population of over one hundred and +fifty-one millions, one thousand public schools for girls, supplemented as +these are by missionary schools of many denominations, are inadequate to +meet the needs of the people. There is an increasing demand in all the +provinces for schools and colleges; and the native young men especially are +eagerly seeking the educational advantages of the colleges and +universities, because they know that these are a sure road to preferment. +"The government takes care to give employment to those who wish it." + +The difficulties in the way of female education in India are well expressed +in a late letter from one of the most distinguished native reformers, Baboo +Keshub Chunder Sen of Calcutta. "No words of mine," he says, "would convey +to you an adequate idea of the great obstacles which the social and +religious condition of the Hindoo community presents in the way of female +education and advancement. In a country where superstition and caste +prejudices prevail to an alarming extent, where widows are cruelly +persecuted and prevented from remarrying, where high-caste Hindoos are +allowed to marry as many wives as they like without undertaking the +responsibility of protecting them, and where little girls marry at a most +tender age and sacrifice all prospects of healthy physical and mental +development, it will take centuries before any solid and extensive reform +is achieved." + +Until recently, scarcely one woman in ten thousand learned to read or +acquired any of the accomplishments common to women of Christian countries. +Occasionally, women of vicious lives in cities, having leisure, became +quite learned, and this made learning a shame for women of irreproachable +reputation. Moreover, Hindoo husbands declared, and believed, that if you +taught a woman to read she would be sure in time to have illicit relations +with some one. Ignorance was innocence, the safeguard of both rank and +chastity. + +The missionaries, who were the first to attempt the amelioration of the +people, had to commence with the lowest castes or classes, those having +nothing to lose; and even then the teachers had to pay the girls a small +copper coin daily for attending school. Even the government schools in some +places pay the girls for attending, but they are much more popular than the +missionary schools, because, according to the Rev. Joseph Warren in the +report mentioned, the parents are not afraid that their girls will become +Christians by attending them; and he adds that the government teachers and +books are "all positively heathen or quite destitute of all religion." In +some parts of the country the government schools secure the attendance of +high-caste girls by allowing them to be placed behind a curtain, and thus +screened from the eyes of the male teacher or inspector, as all the women +of such classes are screened from male visitors. Even the physician sees +only a hand protruded from under a curtain, and by the touch of this, with +a few unsatisfactory answers to his questions, he is supposed to be able to +know what the malady is, and how to prescribe for it. + +M.H. + + + + +LITERATURE OF THE DAY. + + +Birds and Poets: with other Papers. By John Burroughs. New York: Hurd & +Houghton. + +A duodecimo that discourses on equal terms of Emerson and the chickadee, +and unites Carlyle and the author's cow with a cement or filling-in +indescribable in variety and in the comminution of materials, need not be +held to strict account in the matter of neatness or accuracy of title. The +closing article, headed "The Flight of the Eagle," is the most remarkable +of the collection. Who would suspect, under such a heading, an elaborate +eulogy of Walt Whitman? The writer is obviously more at home among the +song-birds than among the Raptores, unless he be the discoverer of some new +species of eagle characterized by traits very unlike those of other members +of the genus. It were to be wished that he had left out the disquisition on +Whitman, for it is a jarring chord in his little orchestra of lyric and +ornithologic song. He might have kept it by him till the longer growing of +his critical beard, and then, if still a devotee at that singular shrine, +have expanded it into a volume or two explanatory of the imagination, +animus and metre of his favorite bard. + +The feathered warblers have always been popular with the featherless, who +are indebted to them for no end of similes and suggestions. What would +poetry be without the skylark, the nightingale, the dove and the eagle? It +is far yet from having exhausted them. It cannot be said to have approached +them in the right way--on the most eloquent and interesting side. It +forgets that each species of bird stands by itself, and has its special +life and history as truly as man. We counted thirty-nine kinds in a grove +the centre whereof was our delightful abode for two-thirds of the past +summer, each endowed with its separate outfit of language, ways and means +of living, tastes and political and social notions. In each, moreover, +individualism showed itself--if not to our apprehension as articulately, +yet as indubitably, as among the race which considers them to have been all +created for its amusement and advantage. It does not take long, superficial +as is our acquaintance with their vernacular and the workings of their +little brains, to single out particular specimens, and perceive that no two +"birds of a feather" are exactly alike. A particular robin will rule the +roost, and assert successfully for his mate the choice of resting-places +above competing redbreasts. It is a particular catbird, identified, it may +be, by a missing feather in his tail, that heads the foray on our +strawberries and cherries. We recognize afar off either of the pair of +"flickers," or yellow-shafted woodpeckers, which have set up their penates +in the heart of the left-hand garden gatepost. The wren whose modest +tabernacle occupies the top of the porch pilaster we have little difficulty +in "spotting" when we meet her in a joint stroll along the lawn-fence. Her +ways are not as the ways of other wrens. She has a somewhat different style +of diving into the ivy and exploring the syringa. A new generation of doves +has grown up since the lilacs were in bloom, and nothing is easier than to +distinguish the old and young of the two or three separate families till +all leave the grass and the gravel together and hie to the stubble-fields +beyond our ken. Of the one mocking bird who made night hideous by his +masterly imitations of the screaking of a wheel-barrow (regreased at an +early period in self-defence) and the wheezy bark of Beppo, the +superannuated St. Bernard, there could of course be no doubt. There was +none of his kind to compare him with--not even a mate, for "sexual +selection" could not possibly operate in face of so inharmonious a +love-song. His isolation had its parallel in the one white guinea-fowl that +haunted the shrubbery like a ghost, much more silent and placid than it +would have been in society, and its antitype in the hennery, where +individuality of course ran riot among the Brahmas, Dominicas and +Hamburgs--hens that would and would not lay, that would and would not set, +that would and would not scratch up seeds, and presented generally as great +a variety of vagaries as of feathers. So, when we turned our back at last +on lovely Boscobel, itself shut out, as the common phrase goes, "from the +world" by serried ramparts of maple, elm, acacia and catalpa, we knew well +that that enceinte of leafage enclosed many little worlds of its +own--winged microcosms, epicycles of the grand cycle of dateless life which +man in his humility assumes to be merely a subsidiary appendage of his own +orbit. + +Birds should be studied seriously. The naturalists will tell us more about +them, and interest us more, than the poets. Mr. Bryant makes fun of the +bobolink, and turns into an aimless whistle the solemn oration on domestic +matters uttered by that small but energetic American to his mate. The +waterfowl he treats more gravely and respectfully, but he still makes it +only a part of the landscape and the theme, without ascribing any +intelligent purpose to its flight. The bird, proceeding steadily and calmly +to its business, may well have confounded its versifier with his fellow the +fowler, and looked upon him, too, as regretting only that it was out of +gunshot. Audubon or Wilson would have noted more sensibly the floating +figure, far above "falling dew," and the earth-bound mortal who was +evidently afraid of rheumatics and calculating whether he could walk home +before dark. The bird, they would have been perfectly aware, was neither +"wandering" nor "lost," and no more in need of the special interposition of +a protecting Providence than they or Mr. Bryant. They would infer its +motives, its point of departure and its destination, the character of the +friends it left behind or sought--whether it was carrying out a plan of +the day or bound on an expedition covering half the year. Its species would +have been plain to them at half a glance, and its scientific name would +have replaced the vague designation of "waterfowl." Its life, habits and +habitat winter and summer, would have unrolled before them, and the +dogs-eared and rain-stained note-book sprung open for a new entry. The +poet, on the other hand, got happily home without injury to his health (for +he is still hale half a century after the fact), lit the gas, nibbed the +quill pen of the day, and sent down to us what must be confessed a +pleasanter memorandum than we should have had from the forest-students. +These, brave and ardent fellows! have long been asleep beneath the birds. + +Mr. Burroughs is half poet, half naturalist in his way of looking at +Nature, and steers clear of the poetic vagueness in regard to species. A +passing description of the brown thrush as "skulking" among the bushes hits +that bird to the life. Some remarks on page 119 would seem to be applied by +a slip of the pen to the crow blackbird, instead of the cowbird, which has +always enjoyed the distinction of being the only American species that +disposes of its offspring after the fashion of the cuckoo and Jean Jacques +Rousseau. The chapter on Emerson contains some acute remarks, but the +warmest tribute to Emerson is the book itself, in which that writer's +influence is everywhere patent both in style and thought. Mr. Burroughs has +a happy facility of expression, and could well afford by this time to +discard the Emersonian props and stand on his own merits. + + +The Life of Edgar Allan Poe. By W.F. Gill. Illustrated. New York: +Dillingham. + +Griswold's memoir of Poe has been actually beneficial to the reputation of +its subject, contrary to its obvious design. It has caused a thorough +sifting of all accessible records of the poet's short and dreary life, and +elicited many reminiscences from men of mark who were in one way or another +personally associated with him. We know now, more certainly than we might +have done but for Griswold's effort to prove the opposite, that Poe was not +expelled in disgrace from the University of Virginia, but bore himself well +there as a student and a man; that he deliberately went to work and +procured his being dropped from the rolls of West Point by building up with +venial faults the requisite sum of "demerits," after having repeatedly and +in vain sought permission to withdraw from the control of a system of +discipline so unsuited to his temperament; that, so far from being +intemperate, a single glass of wine sufficed to bring on something like +insanity; that, instead of neglecting his family, he devoted himself to +them with a very rare exclusiveness, and wore down his health by watching +at the bedside of his sick wife; that he was as faithful to his business as +to his domestic obligations; and that, wholly disqualified for battling +with the world, he managed to keep his necessarily troubled life at least +unstained. We know, moreover, that he did not appoint Griswold his +literary executor, and that the document used by the latter as a means of +deriving from that assumed office an opportunity of vindictive defamation +was drawn up after the poet's death by Griswold himself. To the controversy +thus excited we are indebted for the illumination of one or two poems +relinquished by the critics as hopelessly, if not intentionally, obscure. +_Ulalume_, for example, held by some to be a mere experiment on the +jingling capacity of words and the taste of readers for grappling with +insoluble puzzles, is pronounced by one familiar with his most intimate +feelings at the time of its composition a sublimated but distinct reflex of +them and of the circumstances which gave them color. + +Could Poe's pen have cleared itself from the morbid influences which fixed +it in a peculiar path, we might have missed some of his finest and most +subtle poems and some prose efforts which we could better spare. But his +wonderful powers of analysis would have been serviceable upon a broader and +more practical field. He had an insight into the laws of language and of +rhythm equalled by no one else in our day. What is most mysterious in the +forms and relations of matter had a special charm for him. None could trace +it more acutely; and his powers, matured by more and healthier years and +applied in their favorite direction, were quite equal to results like those +attained by his predecessor Goethe, the savant of poets. He died a few +years older than Burns and Byron, but more of a boy than either. The man +Poe we never saw. The best of him was to come, and it never came. Poe had, +however, what he is not always credited with--the sincerity and earnestness +of maturity. He was anything but a mere propounder of riddles. Had he lived +to our day, his office would have been to aid science, so wonderfully +advanced in the intervening third of a century, in solving some of its own. +And in addition to that possible work we should have been none the poorer +in the treasures of poetry he actually gave us. + + +Olivia Raleigh. By W.W. Follett Synge. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott & Co. + +In the few choice words of introduction to the American reprint Mrs. Annis +Lee Wister admirably characterizes this charming novel. It is indeed like a +"clear, pure breath of English air:" from the first page to the last it is +redolent of the health of an "incense-breathing morn." There are no dark +scenes here, leaving on the reader a feeling of degradation that such +things can be--no impossible villain weaving a web of intricate or +purposeless villainy--but all is fresh and genuine, and we close the volume +with a sense of gratitude that such a story is possible. + +Even if this be not in itself a recommendation sufficient to enlist the +interest of novel-readers, _Olivia Raleigh_ is something more: it is a work +of art: there is in it nothing crude or hasty or ill-digested. Around the +four or five prominent characters all the interest centres, and the +attention is not distracted by any wearisome episodes that have nothing to +do with the main story. The characters are admirably thought out, and +reveal themselves more by their actions than by any microscopical analysis +of motives. They pass before us like veritable human beings, and what they +are we learn from what they do. The transformation of one of the characters +from a gay, debonnair bachelor past middle age into a penurious miser of +the Blueberry-Jones type is bold, and in less skilful hands would be a +blemish, but Mr. Synge has amply justified it, and admirably uses it to +cement the structure of his plot. There is no weakness in any chapter, and +as we read so secure do we feel in the author's strength that, had he +chosen to end the story in sorrow and not in joy, we should submit as +though to an inflexible decree of Fate. + + +Les Koumiassine. Par Henry Greville. Paris: Plon. + +It is always interesting to watch the course of French fiction, because +while the novel is in all countries at the present time the favorite form +of expression of those writers who eschew scientific work on the one side +and stand aloof from poetry on the other, in France, which is noticeably +the country where theories are put into practice as well as invented, all +sorts of literary methods have their clever defenders, who furnish examples +of what they preach. Since Balzac and George Sand died, the post of leading +novelist has been vacant, although there has been no lack of writers of the +second or third, and especially of still lower, rank. Octave Feuillet still +produces occasionally a clever piece of workmanship; Cherbuliez at +intervals writes a novel which proves how lamentable a thing is the +possession of brilliancy alone apart from the seriousness of character, or +of some sides of character, which must exist alongside of even high +intellectual qualities in order that the man may make a lasting impression +on his time. Great gifts frittered away on meaningless trifles are as +disappointing as possible, and are the more disappointing in proportion to +the greatness of the gifts; so that the decadence of Cherbuliez--or, if +this is too severe, his lack of improvement after his brilliant +beginning--is a very melancholy thing. Zola is among the younger men, the +head of a number of enthusiasts who revel in the exact study of social +ordure, and who threaten to destroy fiction by ridding it of what makes its +life--imagination, that is--and substituting for it scientific fact. +Theuriet is an amiable but by no means a powerful writer, who so far has +contented himself with following different models without striking out any +special path of his own. + +Henry Greville is a new author, who has reached by no means the highest, +yet a very respectable, place--such as would be a source of gratification +to most people. The name signed to her novels is the _nom-de-plume_ of a +lady who, as is also apparent from her work, has lived long enough in +Russia to become familiar with the people and their ways. _Les Koumiassine_ +is a story of Russian life, treating of a rich family whose name gives the +title to the novel. The family is one of great wealth, and consists of the +Count Koumiassine and his wife, their two children--one a boy of nine or +ten, the other a girl half a dozen years older--and a niece of about +seventeen. The plot concerns itself with the efforts of the countess to +give her niece, whom she values much less than her daughter, a suitable +husband. The poor girl is bullied and badgered after the most approved +methods of domestic tyranny, and her high-spirited struggle against adverse +circumstances makes the book as readable as one could wish. After all, the +family is a microcosm, and furnishes frequent opportunity for the practice +of good or bad qualities; and the cleverest novel-writers have chosen just +this subject which seems so bald to the romantic writer. The contest in +this case is a long one, and is hotly contested, and the imperiousness of +the countess and the graceful courage of the girl are excellently well +described. The other characters too are clearly put before the reader, so +that those who exercise care in their choice of French novels may take up +this one with the certainty that they will be entertained, and, what is +rarer, innocently entertained. For in a large pile of French novels it +would be hard to find so pretty a story so well told as is the intimacy +between the two young girls, the cousins, who in their different ways +circumvent Fate in the person of the countess. Their amiability and jollity +and loyalty to each other give the book an air of attractive truthfulness +and refinement which well replaces the priggishness generally to be found +in innocuous French fiction. More than this, the plot is intelligently +handled, and no person is introduced who is not carefully studied. In this +respect of careful execution the author resembles Tourgueneff, whose friend +and disciple she is. Like him, and like those who have been affected by his +influence, she gives attention to the minor characters and comparatively +insignificant incidents, so that the book makes a really lifelike +impression. This is not a story of great passion, but it deals very +cleverly with the less open waters of domestic strife. While what it shows +of human nature in general is the most important thing, what is shown of +Russian life is of great interest. The position of the countess, and the +habit of her mind with its over-bearing self-will and ingenious +self-approval, are studies possible, of course, anywhere, but pretty sure +to be found especially in a land like Russia, where the habit of command +was until recently so strongly fostered by the existence of serfdom. The +condition of those who are exposed to this aggressive imperiousness is +clearly illustrated in the numerous dependants who make their appearance in +this story. But it is the countess who is the best drawn and most +impressive personage. She is really lifelike, and yet not a commonplace +figure. + + + + +_Books Received_. + +Disease of the Mind: Notes on the Early Management, European and American +Progress, Modern Methods, etc., in the Treatment of Insanity, with especial +reference to the needs of Massachusetts and the United States. By Charles +F. Folsom, M.D. Boston: A. Williams & Co. + +Cicero's Tusculan Disputations; also Treatises on The Nature of the Gods, +and on The Commonwealth. Literally translated by C.D. Yonge. New York: +Harper & Brothers. + +Shakespeare: The Man and the Book. Being a collection of Occasional Papers +on the Bard and his Writings. Part I. By C.M. Ingleby, M.A. London: Truebner +& Co. + +Shakespeare's Comedy of a Midsummer Night's Dream. Edited with Notes by +William J. Rolfe, A.M. New York: Harper & Brothers. + +Four Irrepressibles; or, The Tribe of Benjamin: Their Summer with Aunt +Agnes, what they Did, and what they Undid. Boston: Loring. + +The Magnetism of Iron Vessels, with a Short Treatise on Terrestrial +Magnetism. By Fairman Rogers. New York: D. Van Nostrand. + +Virgin Soil. By Ivan Tourgueneff. From the French by T.S. Perry. +(Leisure-Hour Series.) New York: Henry Holt & Co. + +Personal Appearance and the Culture of Beauty. By T.S. Sozinsky, M.D., +Ph.D. Philadelphia: Allen, Lane & Scott. + +An English Commentary on the Tragedies of Euripides. By Charles Anthon, +LL.D. New York: Harper & Brothers. + +Strength of Men and Stability of Nations. By P.A. Chadbourne, D.D., LL.D. +New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons. + +Eighth Annual Report of the State Board of Health of Massachusetts. Boston: +Albert J. Wright. State Printer. + +The Antelope and Deer of America. By John Dean Caton, LL.D. New York: Hurd +& Houghton. + +G.T.T.; or, The Wonderful Adventures of a Pullman. By Edward E. Hale. +Boston: Roberts Brothers. + +Until the Day Break. By Mrs. J.M.D. Bartlett ("Birch Arnold"). +Philadelphia: Porter & Coates. + +Other People's Children. By the author of "Helen's Babies." New York: G.P. +Putnam's Sons. + +Poet and Merchant. By B. Auerbach. (Leisure-Hour Series.) New York: Henry +Holt & Co. + +Mental Education. By J. Edward Cranage, M.A., Ph.D. London: Bemrose & Sons. + +Beautiful Edith, the Child-Woman. (Loring's Tales of the Day.) Boston: +Loring. + +Aliunde; or, Love Ventures of Tom, Dick and Harry. New York: Charles P. +Somerby. + +Ideals made Real: A Romance. By George L. Raymond. New York: Hurd & +Houghton. + +Lola. By A. Griffiths. (Leisure-Hour Series.) New York: Henry Holt & Co. + +Kilmeny: A Novel. By William Black. New York: Harper & Brothers. + +Winstowe: A Novel. By Mrs. Leith-Adams. New York: Harper & Brothers. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Lippincott's Magazine of Popular +Literature and Science, October, 1877, Vol. XX. No. 118, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIPPINCOTT'S MAGAZINE *** + +***** This file should be named 16361.txt or 16361.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/3/6/16361/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Christine D and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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