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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/16405-8.txt b/16405-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b8fe7ca --- /dev/null +++ b/16405-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7177 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Little Classics, Volume 8 (of 18), by +Various, Edited by Rossiter Johnson + + +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: Little Classics, Volume 8 (of 18) + Mystery + + +Author: Various + +Editor: Rossiter Johnson + +Release Date: August 1, 2005 [EBook #16405] +Most recently updated: November 16, 2007 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LITTLE CLASSICS, VOLUME 8 (OF +18)*** + + +E-text prepared by Ron Swanson and revised by Robert J. Hall + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original artistic decorations + and two phrases in Greek. + See 16405-h.htm or 16405-h.zip: + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/6/4/0/16405/16405-h/16405-h.htm) + or + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/6/4/0/16405/16405-h.zip) + + + + + + +-------------------------------------------------+ + | Little Classics. | + | | + | Edited by ROSSITER JOHNSON. Each in one volume, | + | 16mo, $1.00. The set, in box, $18.00. | + | | + | 1. EXILE. 10. CHILDHOOD. | + | 2. INTELLECT. 11. HEROISM. | + | 3. TRAGEDY. 12. FORTUNE. | + | 4. LIFE. 13. NARRATIVE POEMS. | + | 5. LAUGHTER. 14. LYRICAL POEMS. | + | 6. LOVE. 15. MINOR POEMS. | + | 7. ROMANCE. 16. NATURE. | + | 8. MYSTERY. 17. HUMANITY. | + | 9. COMEDY. 18. AUTHORS. | + | | + | HOUGHTON MIFFLIN CO. | + | BOSTON AND NEW YORK. | + +-------------------------------------------------+ + + + + +Eighth Volume + +LITTLE CLASSICS + +Edited by + +ROSSITER JOHNSON + +Mystery + + + + + + + +Boston and New York +Houghton Mifflin Company +The Riverside Press Cambridge +1914 + +Copyright, 1875, by James R. Osgood & Co. +All Rights Reserved + + + + +CONTENTS. + + THE GHOST. _William D. O'Connor_ + + THE FOUR-FIFTEEN EXPRESS _Amelia B. Edwards_ + + THE SIGNAL-MAN _Charles Dickens_ + + THE HAUNTED SHIPS _Allan Cunningham_ + + A RAFT THAT NO MAN MADE _Robert T. S. Lowell_ + + THE INVISIBLE PRINCESS _Francis O' Connor_ + + THE ADVOCATE'S WEDDING-DAY _Catherine Crowe_ + + THE BIRTHMARK _Nathaniel Hawthorne_ + + + + +THE GHOST. + +BY WILLIAM D. O'CONNOR. + + +At the West End of Boston is a quarter of some fifty streets, more +or less, commonly known as Beacon Hill. + +It is a rich and respectable quarter, sacred to the abodes of Our +First Citizens. The very houses have become sentient of its prevailing +character of riches and respectability; and, when the twilight +deepens on the place, or at high noon, if your vision is gifted, you +may see them as long rows of Our First Giants, with very corpulent +or very broad fronts, with solid-set feet of sidewalk ending in +square-toed curbstone, with an air about them as if they had thrust +their hard hands into their wealthy pockets forever, with a character +of arctic reserve, and portly dignity, and a well-dressed, full-fed, +self-satisfied, opulent, stony, repellent aspect to each, which +says plainly, "I belong to a rich family, of the very highest +respectability." + +History, having much to say of Beacon Hill generally, has, on the +present occasion, something to say particularly of a certain street +which bends over the eminence, sloping steeply down to its base. +It is an old street,--quaint, quiet, and somewhat picturesque. It +was young once, though,--having been born before the Revolution, +and was then given to the city by its father, Mr. Middlecott, who +died without heirs, and did this much for posterity. Posterity +has not been grateful to Mr. Middlecott. The street bore his name +till he was dust, and then got the more aristocratic epithet of +Bowdoin. Posterity has paid him by effacing what would have been +his noblest epitaph. We may expect, after this, to see Faneuil +Hall robbed of its name, and called Smith Hall! Republics are +proverbially ungrateful. What safer claim to public remembrance +has the old Huguenot, Peter Faneuil, than the old Englishman, Mr. +Middlecott? Ghosts, it is said, have risen from the grave to reveal +wrongs done them by the living; but it needs no ghost from the +grave to prove the proverb about republics. + +Bowdoin Street only differs from its kindred, in a certain shady, grave, +old-fogy, fossil aspect, just touched with a pensive solemnity, as if +it thought to itself, "I'm getting old, but I'm highly respectable; +that's a comfort." It has, moreover, a dejected, injured air, as +if it brooded solemnly on the wrong done to it by taking away its +original name and calling it Bowdoin; but as if, being a very +conservative street, it was resolved to keep a cautious silence on +the subject, lest the Union should go to pieces. Sometimes it wears +a profound and mysterious look, as if it could tell something if it +had a mind to, but thought it best not. Something of the ghost of +its father--it was the only child he ever had!--walking there all +the night, pausing at the corners to look up at the signs, which +bear a strange name, and wringing his ghostly hands in lamentation +at the wrong done his memory! Rumor told it in a whisper, many years +ago. Perhaps it was believed by a few of the oldest inhabitants +of the city; but the highly respectable quarter never heard of +it, and, if it had, would not have been bribed to believe it, by +any sum. Some one had said that some very old person had seen a +phantom there. Nobody knew who some one was. Nobody knew who the +very old person was. Nobody knew who had seen it, nor when, nor +how. The very rumor was spectral. + +All this was many years ago. Since then it has been reported that +a ghost was seen there one bitter Christmas eve, two or three years +back. The twilight was already in the street; but the evening lamps +were not yet lighted in the windows, and the roofs and chimney-tops +were still distinct in the last clear light of the dropping day. +It was light enough, however, for one to read easily, from the +opposite sidewalk, "Dr. C. Renton," in black letters, on the silver +plate of a door, not far from the Gothic portal of the Swedenborgian +church. Near this door stood a misty figure, whose sad, spectral +eyes floated on vacancy, and whose long, shadowy white hair lifted +like an airy weft in the streaming wind. That was the ghost! It +stood near the door a long time, without any other than a shuddering +motion, as though it felt the searching blast, which swept furiously +from the north up the declivity of the street, rattling the shutters +in its headlong passage. Once or twice, when a passer-by, muffled +warmly from the bitter air, hurried past, the phantom shrank closer +to the wall, till he was gone. Its vague, mournful face seemed +to watch for some one. The twilight darkened gradually, but it +did not flit away. Patiently it kept its piteous look fixed in +one direction,--watching,--watching; and, while the howling wind +swept frantically through the chill air, it still seemed to shudder +in the piercing cold. + +A light suddenly kindled in an opposite window. As if touched by a +gleam from the lamp, or as if by some subtle interior illumination, +the spectre became faintly luminous, and a thin smile seemed to +quiver over its features. At the same moment, a strong, energetic +figure--Dr. Renton himself--came in sight, striding down the slope +of the pavement to his own door, his overcoat thrown back, as if +the icy air were a tropical warmth to him, his hat set on the back +of his head, and the loose ends of a 'kerchief about his throat, +streaming in the nor'wester. The wind set up a howl the moment he +came in sight, and swept upon him; and a curious agitation began +on the part of the phantom. It glided rapidly to and fro, and moved +in circles, and then, with the same swift, silent motion, sailed +toward him, as if blown thither by the gale. Its long, thin arms, +with something like a pale flame spiring from the tips of the slender +fingers, were stretched out, as in greeting, while the wan smile +played over its face; and when he rushed by, unheedingly, it made +a futile effort to grasp the swinging arms with which he appeared +to buffet back the buffeting gale. Then it glided on by his side, +looking earnestly into his countenance, and moving its pallid lips +with agonized rapidity, as if it said, "Look at me--speak to me--speak +to me--see me!" But he kept his course with unconscious eyes, and +a vexed frown on his forehead betokening an irritated mind. The +light that had shone in the figure of the phantom darkened slowly, +till the form was only a pale shadow. The wind had suddenly lulled, +and no longer lifted its white hair. It still glided on with him, +its head drooping on its breast, and its long arms hanging by its +side; but when he reached the door, it suddenly sprang before him, +gazing fixedly into his eyes, while a convulsive motion flashed +over its grief-worn features, as if it had shrieked out a word. +He had his foot on the step at the moment. With a start, he put +his gloved hand to his forehead, while the vexed look went out +quickly on his face. The ghost watched him breathlessly. But the +irritated expression came back to his countenance more resolutely +than before, and he began to fumble in his pocket for a latch-key, +muttering petulantly, "What the devil is the matter with me now?" +It seemed to him that a voice had cried clearly, yet as from afar, +"Charles Renton!"--his own name. He had heard it in his startled +mind; but then, he knew he was in a highly wrought state of nervous +excitement, and his medical science, with that knowledge for a basis, +could have reared a formidable fortress of explanation against any +phenomenon, were it even more wonderful than this. + +He entered the house; kicked the door to; pulled off his overcoat; +wrenched off his outer 'kerchief; slammed them on a branch of the +clothes-tree; banged his hat on top of them; wheeled about; pushed +in the door of his library; strode in, and, leaving the door ajar, +threw himself into an easy-chair, and sat there in the fire-reddened +dusk, with his white brows knit, and his arms tightly locked on his +breast. The ghost had followed him, sadly, and now stood motionless +in a corner of the room, its spectral hands crossed on its bosom, +and its white locks drooping down! + +It was evident Dr. Renton was in a bad humor. The very library caught +contagion from him, and became grouty and sombre. The furniture +was grim and sullen and sulky; it made ugly shadows on the carpet +and on the wall, in allopathic quantity; it took the red gleams +from the fire on its polished surfaces in homoeopathic globules, +and got no good from them. The fire itself peered out sulkily from +the black bars of the grate, and seemed resolved not to burn the +fresh deposit of black coals at the top, but to take this as a good +time to remember that those coals had been bought in the summer at +five dollars a ton,--under price, mind you,--when poor people, who +cannot buy at advantage, but must get their firing in the winter, +would then have given nine or ten dollars for them. And so (glowered +the fire), I am determined to think of that outrage, and not to +light them, but to go out myself, directly! And the fire got into +such a spasm of glowing indignation over the injury, that it lit +a whole tier of black coals with a series of little explosions, +before it could cool down, and sent a crimson gleam over the moody +figure of its owner in the easy-chair, and over the solemn furniture, +and into the shadowy corner filled by the ghost. + +The spectre did not move when Dr. Renton arose and lit the chandelier. +It stood there, still and gray, in the flood of mellow light. The +curtains were drawn, and the twilight without had deepened into +darkness. The fire was now burning in despite of itself, fanned +by the wintry gusts, which found their way down the chimney. Dr. +Renton stood with his back to it, his hands behind him, his bold +white forehead shaded by a careless lock of black hair, and knit +sternly; and the same frown in his handsome, open, searching dark +eyes. Tall and strong, with an erect port, and broad, firm shoulders, +high, resolute features, a commanding figure garbed in aristocratic +black, and not yet verging into the proportions of obesity,--take +him for all in all, a very fine and favorable specimen of the solid +men of Boston. And seen in contrast (oh! could he but have known +it!) with the attenuated figure of the poor, dim ghost! + +Hark! a very light foot on the stairs,--a rich rustle of silks. +Everything still again,--Dr. Renton looking fixedly, with great +sternness, at the half-open door, whence a faint, delicious perfume +floats into the library. Somebody there, for certain. Somebody +peeping in with very bright, arch eyes. Dr. Renton knew it, and +prepared to maintain his ill-humor against the invader. His face +became triply armed with severity for the encounter. That's Netty, +I know, he thought. His daughter. So it was. In she bounded. Bright +little Netty! Gay little Netty! A dear and sweet little creature, +to be sure, with a delicate and pleasant beauty of face and figure, +it needed no costly silks to grace or heighten. There she stood. +Not a word from her merry lips, but a smile which stole over all +the solitary grimness of the library, and made everything better, +and brighter, and fairer, in a minute. It floated down into the +cavernous humor of Dr. Renton, and the gloom began to lighten +directly,--though he would not own it, nor relax a single feature. +But the wan ghost in the corner lifted its head to look at her, +and slowly brightened as to something worthy a spirit's love, and +a dim phantom's smiles. Now then, Dr. Renton! the lines are drawn, +and the foe is coming. Be martial, sir, as when you stand in the +ranks of the Cadets on training-days! Steady, and stand the charge! +So he did. He kept an inflexible front as she glided toward him, +softly, slowly, with her bright eyes smiling into his, and doing +dreadful execution. Then she put her white arms around his neck, +laid her dear, fair head on his breast, and peered up archly into +his stern visage. Spite of himself, he could not keep the fixed +lines on his face from breaking confusedly into a faint smile. +Somehow or other, his hands came from behind him, and rested on +her head. There! That's all. Dr. Renton surrendered at discretion! +One of the solid men of Boston was taken after a desperate +struggle,--internal, of course,--for he kissed her, and said, "Dear +little Netty!" and so she was. + +The phantom watched her with a smile, and wavered and brightened +as if about to glide to her; but it grew still, and remained. + +"Pa in the sulks to-night?" she asked, in the most winning, playful, +silvery voice. + +"Pa's a fool," he answered in his deep chest-tones, with a vexed +good-humor; "and you know it." + +"What's the matter with pa? What makes him be a great bear? Papa-sy, +dear," she continued, stroking his face with her little hands, +and patting him, very much as Beauty might have patted the Beast +after she fell in love with him; or as if he were a great baby. +In fact, he began to look then as if he were. + +"Matter? Oh! everything's the matter, little Netty. The world goes +round too fast. My boots pinch. Somebody stole my umbrella last +year. And I've got a headache." He concluded this fanciful abstract +of his grievances by putting his arms around her, and kissing her +again. Then he sat down in the easy-chair, and took her fondly +on his knee. + +"Pa's got a headache! It is t-o-o bad, so it is," she continued +in the same soothing, winning way, caressing his brow with her +tiny hands. "It's a horrid shame, so it is! P-o-o-r pa. Where does +it ache, papa-sy, dear? In the forehead? Cerebrum or cerebellum, +papa-sy? Occiput or sinciput, deary?" + +"Bah! you little quiz," he replied, laughing and pinching her cheek, +"none of your nonsense! And what are you dressed up in this way +for, to-night? Silks, and laces, and essences, and what not! Where +are you going, fairy?" + +"Going out with mother for the evening, Dr. Renton," she replied +briskly; "Mrs. Larrabee's party, papa-sy. Christmas eve, you know. +And what are you going to give me for a present, to-morrow, pa-sy?" + +"To-morrow will tell, little Netty." + +"Good! And what are you going to give me, so that I can make _my_ +presents, Beary?" + +"Ugh!" But he growled it in fun, and had a pocket-book out from his +breast-pocket directly after. Fives--tens--twenties--fifties--all +crisp, and nice, and new bank-notes. + +"Will that be enough, Netty?" He held up a twenty. The smiling face +nodded assent, and the bright eyes twinkled. + +"No, it won't. But _that_ will," he continued, giving her a fifty. + +"Fifty dollars, Globe Bank, Boston!" exclaimed Netty, making great +eyes at him. "But we must take all we can get, pa-sy; mustn't we? +It's too much, though. Thank you all the same, pa-sy, nevertheless." +And she kissed him, and put the bill in a little bit of a portemonnaie +with a gay laugh. + +"Well done, I declare!" he said, smilingly. "But you're going to +the party?" + +"Pretty soon, pa." + +He made no answer; but sat smiling at her. The phantom watched them, +silently. + +"What made pa so cross and grim, to-night? Tell Netty--do," she +pleaded. + +"Oh! because;--everything went wrong with me, to-day. There." And +he looked as sulky, at that moment, as he ever did in his life. + +"No, no, pa-sy; that won't do. I want the particulars," continued +Netty, shaking her head, smilingly. + +"Particulars! Well, then, Miss Nathalie Renton," he began, with +mock gravity, "your professional father is losing some of his oldest +patients. Everybody is in ruinous good health; and the grass is +growing in the graveyards." + +"In the winter time, papa?--smart grass!" + +"Not that I want practice," he went on, getting into soliloquy; +"or patients, either. A rich man who took to the profession simply +for the love of it, can't complain on that score. But to have an +interloping she-doctor take a family I've attended ten years, out +of my hands, and to hear the hodge-podge gabble about physiological +laws, and woman's rights, and no taxation without representation, +they learn from her,--well, it's too bad!" + +"Is that all, pa-sy? Seems to me _I_'d like to vote, too," was Netty's +piquant rejoinder. + +"Hoh! I'll warrant," growled her father. "Hope you'll vote the Whig +ticket, Netty, when you get your rights." + +"Will the Union be dissolved, then, pa-sy,--when the Whigs are beaten?" + +"Bah! you little plague," he growled, with a laugh. "But, then, +you women don't know anything about politics. So, there. As I was +saying, everything went wrong with me to-day. I've been speculating +in railroad stock, and singed my fingers. Then, old Tom Hollis +outbid me to-day, at Leonard's, on a rare medical work I had set +my eyes upon having. Confound him! Then, again, two of my houses +are tenantless, and there are folks in two others that won't pay +their rent, and I can't get them out. Out they'll go, though, or +I'll know why. And, to crown all--um-m. And I wish the Devil had +him! as he will." + +"Had who, Beary-papa?" + +"Him. I'll tell you. The street-floor of one of my houses in Hanover +Street lets for an oyster-room. They keep a bar there, and sell +liquor. Last night they had a grand row,--a drunken fight, and +one man was stabbed, it's thought fatally." + +"O father!" Netty's bright eyes dilated with horror. + +"Yes. I hope he won't die. At any rate, there's likely to be a +stir about the matter, and my name will be called into question, +then, as I'm the landlord. And folks will make a handle of it, +and there'll be the deuce to pay, generally." + +He got back the stern, vexed frown, to his face, with the anticipation, +and beat the carpet with his foot. The ghost still watched from +the angle of the room, and seemed to darken, while its features +looked troubled. + +"But, father," said Netty, a little tremulously, "I wouldn't let +my houses to such people. It's not right; is it? Why, it's horrid +to think of men getting drunk, and killing each other!" + +Dr. Renton rubbed his hair into disorder, with vexation, and then +subsided into solemnity. + +"I know it's not exactly right, Netty; but I can't help it. As I +said before, I wish the Devil had that barkeeper. I ought to have +ordered him out long ago, and then this wouldn't have happened. +I've increased his rent twice, hoping to get rid of him so; but +he pays without a murmur; and what am I to do? You see, he was +an occupant when the building came into my hands, and I let him +stay. He pays me a good, round rent; and, apart from his cursed +traffic, he's a good tenant. What can I do? It's a good thing for +him, and it's a good thing for me, pecuniarily. Confound him! Here's +a nice rumpus brewing!" + +"Dear pa, I'm afraid it's not a good thing for you," said Netty, +caressing him and smoothing his tumbled hair. "Nor for him either. +I wouldn't mind the rent he pays you. I'd order him out. It's +bad money. There's blood on it." + +She had grown pale, and her voice quivered. The phantom glided +over to them, and laid its spectral hand upon her forehead. The +shadowy eyes looked from under the misty hair into the doctor's +face, and the pale lips moved as if speaking the words heard only +in the silence of his heart,--"Hear her, hear her!" + +"I must think of it," resumed Dr. Renton, coldly. "I'm resolved, +at all events, to warn him that if anything of this kind occurs +again, he must quit at once. I dislike to lose a profitable tenant; +for no other business would bring me the sum his does. Hang it, +everybody does the best he can with his property,--why shouldn't +I?" + +The ghost, standing near them, drooped its head again on its breast, +and crossed its arms. Netty was silent. Dr. Renton continued, +petulantly,-- + +"A precious set of people I manage to get into my premises. There's +a woman hires a couple of rooms for a dwelling, overhead, in that +same building, and for three months I haven't got a cent from her. +I know these people's tricks. Her month's notice expires to-morrow, +and out she goes." + +"Poor creature!" sighed Netty. + +He knit his brow, and beat the carpet with his foot, in vexation. + +"Perhaps she can't pay you, pa," trembled the sweet, silvery voice. +"You wouldn't turn her out in this cold winter, when she can't +pay you,--would you, pa?" + +"Why don't she get another house, and swindle some one else?" he +replied, testily; "there's plenty of rooms to let." + +"Perhaps she can't find one, pa," answered Netty. + +"Humbug!" retorted her father; "I know better." + +"Pa, dear, if I were you, I'd turn out that rumseller, and let the +poor woman stay a little longer; just a little, pa." + +"Sha'n't do it. Hah! that would be scattering money out of both +pockets. Sha'n't do it. Out she shall go; and as for him,--well, +he'd better turn over a new leaf. There, let us leave the subject, +darling. It vexes me. How did we contrive to get into this train? +Bah!" + +He drew her closer to him, and kissed her forehead. She sat quietly, +with her head on his shoulder, thinking very gravely. + +"I feel queerly to-day, little Netty," he began, after a short +pause. "My nerves are all high-strung with the turn matters have +taken." + +"How is it, papa? The headache?" she answered. + +"Y-e-s--n-o--not exactly; I don't know," he said dubiously; then, +in an absent way, "it was that letter set me to think of him all +day, I suppose." + +"Why, pa, I declare," cried Netty, starting up, "if I didn't forget +all about it, and I came down expressly to give it to you! Where +is it? Oh! here it is." + +She drew from her pocket an old letter, faded to a pale yellow, +and gave it to him. The ghost started suddenly. + +"Why, bless my soul! it's the very letter! Where did you get that, +Nathalie?" asked Dr. Renton. + +"I found it on the stairs after dinner, pa." + +"Yes, I do remember taking it up with me; I must have dropped it," +he answered, musingly, gazing at the superscription. The ghost +was gazing at it, too, with startled interest. + +"What beautiful writing it is, pa," murmured the young girl. "Who +wrote it to you? It looks yellow enough to have been written a +long time since." + +"Fifteen years ago, Netty. When you were a baby. And the hand that +wrote it has been cold for all that time." + +He spoke with a solemn sadness, as if memory lingered with the +heart of fifteen years ago, on an old grave. The dim figure by his +side had bowed its head, and all was still. + +"It is strange," he resumed, speaking vacantly and slowly, "I have +not thought of him for so long a time, and to-day--especially this +evening--I have felt as if he were constantly near me. It is a +singular feeling." + +He put his left hand to his forehead, and mused,--his right clasped +his daughter's shoulder. The phantom slowly raised its head, and +gazed at him with a look of unutterable tenderness. + +"Who was he, father?" she asked with a hushed voice. + +"A young man, an author, a poet. He had been my dearest friend, +when we were boys; and, though I lost sight of him for years,--he +led an erratic life,--we were friends when he died. Poor, poor +fellow! Well, he is at peace." + +The stern voice had saddened, and was almost tremulous. The spectral +form was still. + +"How did he die, father?" + +"A long story, darling," he replied, gravely, "and a sad one. He +was very poor and proud. He was a genius,--that is, a person without +an atom of practical talent. His parents died, the last, his mother, +when he was near manhood. I was in college then. Thrown upon the +world, he picked up a scanty subsistence with his pen, for a time. +I could have got him a place in the counting-house, but he would +not take it; in fact, he wasn't fit for it. You can't harness +Pegasus to the cart, you know. Besides, he despised mercantile +life, without reason, of course; but he was always notional. His +love of literature was one of the rocks he foundered on. He was +n't successful; his best compositions were too delicate, fanciful, +to please the popular taste; and then he was full of the radical +and fanatical notions which infected so many people at that time +in New England, and infect them now, for that matter; and his +sublimated, impracticable ideas and principles, which he kept till +his dying day, and which, I confess, alienated me from him, always +staved off his chances of success. Consequently, he never rose +above the drudgery of some employment on newspapers. Then he was +terribly passionate, not without cause, I allow; but it wasn't +wise. What I mean is this: if he saw, or if he fancied he saw, +any wrong or injury done to any one, it was enough to throw him +into a frenzy; he would get black in the face and absolutely shriek +out his denunciations of the wrong-doer. I do believe he would +have visited his own brother with the most unsparing invective, +if that brother had laid a harming finger on a street-beggar, or +a colored man, or a poor person of any kind. I don't blame the +feeling; though with a man like him it was very apt to be a false +or mistaken one; but, at any rate, its exhibition wasn't sensible. +Well, as I was saying, he buffeted about in this world a long time, +poorly paid, fed, and clad; taking more care of other people than +he did of himself. Then mental suffering, physical exposure, and +want killed him." + +The stern voice had grown softer than a child's. The same look of +unutterable tenderness brooded on the mournful face of the phantom +by his side; but its thin, shining hand was laid upon his head, +and its countenance had undergone a change. The form was still +undefined; but the features had become distinct. They were those +of a young man, beautiful and wan, and marked with great suffering. + +A pause had fallen on the conversation, in which the father and +daughter heard the solemn sighing of the wintry wind around the +dwelling. The silence seemed scarcely broken by the voice of the +young girl. + +"Dear father, this was very sad. Did you say he died of want?" + +"Of want, my child, of hunger and cold. I don't doubt it. He had +wandered about, as I gather, houseless for a couple of days and +nights. It was in December, too. Some one found him, on a rainy +night, lying in the street, drenched and burning with fever, and had +him taken to the hospital. It appears that he had always cherished +a strange affection for me, though I had grown away from him; and +in his wild ravings he constantly mentioned my name, and they sent +for me. That was our first meeting after two years. I found him +in the hospital--dying. Heaven can witness that I felt all my old +love for him return then, but he was delirious, and never recognized +me. And, Nathalie, his hair,--it had been coal-black, and he wore +it very long,--he wouldn't let them cut it either; and as they +knew no skill could save him, they let him have his way,--his hair +was then as white as snow! God alone knows what that brain must +have suffered to blanch hair which had been as black as the wing +of a raven!" + +He covered his eyes with his hand, and sat silently. The fingers +of the phantom still shone dimly on his head, and its white locks +drooped above him, like a weft of light. + +"What was his name, father?" asked the pitying girl. + +"George Feval. The very name sounds like fever. He died on Christmas +eve, fifteen years ago this night. It was on his death-bed, while +his mind was tossing on a sea of delirious fancies, that he wrote me +this long letter,--for to the last, I was uppermost in his thoughts. +It is a wild, incoherent thing, of course,--a strange mixture of +sense and madness. But I have kept it as a memorial of him. I have +not looked at it for years; but this morning I found it among my +papers, and somehow it has been in my mind all day." + +He slowly unfolded the faded sheets, and sadly gazed at the writing. +His daughter had risen from her half-recumbent posture, and now +bent her graceful head over the leaves. The phantom covered its +face with its hands. + +"What a beautiful manuscript it is, father!" she exclaimed. "The +writing is faultless." + +"It is, indeed," he replied. "Would he had written his life as fairly!" + +"Read it, father," said Nathalie. + +"No, but I'll read you a detached passage here and there," he answered, +after a pause. "The rest you may read yourself some time, if you +wish. It is painful to me. Here's the beginning:-- + +"'_My Dear Charles Renton:--Adieu, and adieu. It is Christmas eve, +and I am going home. I am soon to exhale from my flesh, like the +spirit of a broken flower. Exultemus forever!_' + + * * * * * + +"It is very wild. His mind was in a fever-craze. Here is a passage +that seems to refer to his own experience of life:-- + +"'_Your friendship was dear to me. I give you true love. Stocks +and returns. You are rich, but I did not wish to be your bounty's +pauper. Could I beg? I had my work to do for the world, but oh! +the world has no place for souls that can only love and suffer. +How many miles to Babylon? Threescore and ten. Not so far--not +near so far! Ask starvelings--they know._ + + * * * * * + +_I wanted to do the world good, and the world has killed me, Charles._'" + + * * * * * + +"It frightens me," said Nathalie, as he paused. + +"We will read no more," he replied sombrely. "It belongs to the +psychology of madness. To me, who knew him, there are gleams of +sense in it, and passages where the delirium of the language is +only a transparent veil on the meaning. All the remainder is devoted +to what he thought important advice to me. But it's all wild and +vague. Poor--poor George!" + +The phantom still hid its face in its hands, as the doctor slowly +turned over the pages of the letter. Nathalie, bending over the +leaves, laid her finger on the last, and asked, "What are those +closing sentences, father? Read them." + +"Oh! that is what he called his 'last counsel' to me. It's as wild +as the rest,--tinctured with the prevailing ideas of his career. +First he says, '_Farewell--farewell_'; then he bids me take his +'_counsel into memory on Christmas day_'; then after enumerating +all the wretched classes he can think of in the country, he says: +'_These are your sisters and your brothers,--love them all._' Here +he says, '_O friend, strong in wealth for so much good, take my +last counsel. In the name of the Saviour, I charge you be true +and tender to mankind._' He goes on to bid me '_live and labor +for the fallen, the neglected, the suffering, and the poor_'; and +finally ends by advising me to help upset any, or all, institutions, +laws, and so forth, that bear hardly on the fag-ends of society; +and tells me that what he calls 'a service to humanity' is worth +more to the doer than a service to anything else, or than anything +we can gain from the world. Ah, well! poor George." + +"But isn't all that true, father?" said Netty; "it seems so." + +"H'm," he murmured through his closed lips. Then, with a vague +smile, folding up the letter, meanwhile, he said, "Wild words, +Netty, wild words. I've no objection to charity, judiciously given; +but poor George's notions are not mine. Every man for himself, is a +good general rule. Every man for humanity, as George has it, and in +his acceptation of the principle, would send us all to the almshouse +pretty soon. The greatest good of the greatest number,--that's my +rule of action. There are plenty of good institutions for the +distressed, and I'm willing to help support 'em, and do. But as for +making a martyr of one's self, or tilting against the necessary evils +of society, or turning philanthropist at large, or any quixotism of +that sort, I don't believe in it. We didn't make the world, and +we can't mend it. Poor George. Well--he's at rest. The world was +n't the place for him." + +They grew silent. The spectre glided slowly to the wall, and stood +as if it were thinking what, with Dr. Renton's rule of action, was +to become of the greatest good of the smallest number. Nathalie +sat on her father's knee, thinking only of George Feval, and of +his having been starved and grieved to death. + +"Father," said Nathalie, softly, "I felt, while you were reading +the letter, as if he were near us. Didn't you? The room was so +light and still, and the wind sighed so." + +"Netty, dear, I've felt that all day, I believe," he replied. "Hark! +there is the door-bell. Off goes the spirit-world, and here comes +the actual. Confound it! Some one to see me, I'll warrant, and +I'm not in the mood." + +He got into a fret at once. Netty was not the Netty of an hour +ago, or she would have coaxed him out of it. But she did not notice +it now in her abstraction. She had risen at the tinkle of the bell, +and seated herself in a chair. Presently a nose, with a great pimple +on the end of it, appeared at the edge of the door, and a weak, +piping voice said, reckless of the proper tense, "There was a woman +wanted to see you, sir." + +"Who is it, James?--no matter, show her in." + +He got up with the vexed scowl on his face, and walked the room. +In a minute the library door opened again, and a pale, thin, rigid, +frozen-looking little woman, scantily clad, the weather being +considered, entered, and dropped a curt, awkward bow to Dr. Renton. + +"O, Mrs. Miller! Good evening, ma'am. Sit down," he said, with a +cold, constrained civility. + +The little woman faintly said, "Good evening, Dr. Renton," and +sat down stiffly, with her hands crossed before her, in the chair +nearest the wall. This was the obdurate tenant, who had paid no +rent for three months, and had a notice to quit, expiring to-morrow. + +"Cold evening, ma'am," remarked Dr. Renton, in his hard way. + +"Yes, sir, it is," was the cowed, awkward answer. + +"Won't you sit near the fire, ma'am?" said Netty, gently; "you look +cold." + +"No, miss, thank you. I'm not cold," was the faint reply. She was +cold, though, as well she might be with her poor, thin shawl, and +open bonnet, in such a bitter night as it was outside. And there +was a rigid, sharp, suffering look in her pinched features that +betokened she might have been hungry, too. "Poor people don't mind +the cold weather, miss," she said, with a weak smile, her voice +getting a little stronger. "They have to bear it, and they get +used to it." + +She had not evidently borne it long enough to effect the point of +indifference. Netty looked at her with a tender pity. Dr. Renton +thought to himself, Hoh!--blazoning her poverty,--manufacturing +sympathy already,--the old trick; and steeled himself against any +attacks of that kind, looking jealously, meanwhile, at Netty. + +"Well, Mrs. Miller," he said, "what is it this evening? I suppose +you've brought me my rent." + +The little woman grew paler, and her voice seemed to fail on her +quivering lips. Netty cast a quick, beseeching look at her father. + +"Nathalie, please to leave the room." We'll have no nonsense carried +on here, he thought, triumphantly, as Netty rose, and obeyed the +stern, decisive order, leaving the door ajar behind her. + +He seated himself in his chair, and resolutely put his right leg +up to rest on his left knee. He did not look at his tenant's face, +determined that her piteous expressions (got up for the occasion, +of course) should be wasted on him. + +"Well, Mrs. Miller," he said again. + +"Dr. Renton," she began, faintly gathering her voice as she proceeded, +"I have come to see you about the rent. I am very sorry, sir, to +have made you wait, but we have been unfortunate." + +"Sorry, ma'am," he replied, knowing what was coming; "but your +misfortunes are not my affair. We all have misfortunes, ma'am. But +we must pay our debts, you know." + +"I expected to have got money from my husband before this, sir," +she resumed, "and I wrote to him. I got a letter from him to-day, +sir, and it said that he sent me fifty dollars a month ago, in a +letter; and it appears that the post-office is to blame, or somebody, +for I never got it. It was nearly three months' wages, sir, and it +is very hard to lose it. If it had n't been for that your rent +would have been paid long ago, sir." + +"Don't believe a word of _that_ story," thought Dr. Renton, +sententiously. + +"I thought, sir," she continued, emboldened by his silence, "that +if you would be willing to wait a little longer, we would manage +to pay you soon, and not let it occur again. It has been a hard +winter with us, sir; firing is high, and provisions, and everything; +and we're only poor people, you know, and it's difficult to get +along." + +The doctor made no reply. + +"My husband was unfortunate, sir, in not being able to get employment +here," she resumed; "his being out of work in the autumn, threw us +all back, and we've got nothing to depend on but his earnings. The +family that he's in now, sir, don't give him very good pay,--only +twenty dollars a month, and his board,--but it was the best chance +he could get, and it was either go to Baltimore with them, or stay +at home and starve, and so he went, sir. It's been a hard time +with us, and one of the children is sick, now, with a fever, and +we don't hardly know how to make out a living. And so, sir, I have +come here this evening, leaving the children alone, to ask you if +you wouldn't be kind enough to wait a little longer, and we'll +hope to make it right with you in the end." + +"Mrs. Miller," said Dr. Renton, with stern composure, "I have no +wish to question the truth of any statement you may make; but I +must tell you plainly, that I can't afford to let my houses for +nothing. I told you a month ago, that if you couldn't pay me my +rent, you must vacate the premises. You know very well that there +are plenty of tenants who are able and willing to pay when the +money comes due. You _know_ that." + +He paused as he said this, and, glancing at her, saw her pale lips +falter. It shook the cruelty of his purpose a little, and he had a +vague feeling that he was doing wrong. Not without a proud struggle, +during which no word was spoken, could he beat it down. Meanwhile, +the phantom had advanced a pace toward the centre of the room. + +"That is the state of the matter, ma'am," he resumed, coldly. "People +who will not pay me my rent must not live in my tenements. You +must move out. I have no more to say." + +"Dr. Renton," she said, faintly, "I have a sick child,--how can +I move now? O, sir, it's Christmas eve,--don't be hard with us!" + +Instead of touching him, this speech irritated him beyond measure. +Passing all considerations of her difficult position involved in +her piteous statement, his anger flashed at once on her implication +that he was unjust and unkind. So violent was his excitement that +it whirled away the words that rushed to his lips, and only fanned +the fury that sparkled from the whiteness of his face in his eyes. + +"Be patient with us, sir," she continued; "we are poor, but we mean +to pay you; and we can't move now in this cold weather; please, +don't be hard with us, sir." + +The fury now burst out on his face in a red and angry glow, and +the words came. + +"Now, attend to me!" He rose to his feet. "I will not hear any +more from you. I know nothing of your poverty, nor of the condition +of your family. All I know is that you owe me three months' rent, +and that you can't or won't pay me. I say, therefore, leave the +premises to people who can and will. You have had your legal notice; +quit my house to-morrow; if you don't, your furniture shall be +put in the street. Mark me,--to-morrow!" + +The phantom had rushed into the centre of the room. Standing face +to face with him,--dilating,--blackening,--its whole form shuddering +with a fury to which his own was tame,--the semblance of a shriek upon +its flashing lips, and on its writhing features, and an unearthly +anger streaming from its bright and terrible eyes,--it seemed to +throw down, with its tossing arms, mountains of hate and malediction +on the head of him whose words had smitten poverty and suffering, +and whose heavy hand was breaking up the barriers of a home. + +Dr. Renton sank again into his chair. His tenant,--not a woman!--not +a sister in humanity!--but only his tenant; she sat crushed and +frightened by the wall. He knew it vaguely. Conscience was battling +in his heart with the stubborn devils that had entered there. The +phantom stood before him, like a dark cloud in the image of a man. +But its darkness was lightening slowly, and its ghostly anger had +passed away. + +The poor woman, paler than before, had sat mute and trembling, with +all her hopes ruined. Yet her desperation forbade her to abandon +the chances of his mercy, and she now said,-- + +"Dr. Renton, you surely don't mean what you have told me. Won't +you bear with me a little longer, and we will yet make it all right +with you?" + +"I have given you my answer," he returned, coldly; "I have no more +to add. I never take back anything I say--never!" + +It was true. He never did--never! She half rose from her seat as if +to go; but weak and sickened with the bitter result of her visit, +she sunk down again with her head bowed. There was a pause. Then, +solemnly gliding across the lighted room, the phantom stole to her +side with a glory of compassion on its wasted features. Tenderly, +as a son to a mother, it bent over her; its spectral hands of light +rested upon her in caressing and benediction; its shadowy fall of +hair, once blanched by the anguish of living and loving, floated +on her throbbing brow; and resignation and comfort not of this +world sank upon her spirit, and consciousness grew dim within her, +and care and sorrow seemed to die. + +He who had been so cruel and so hard, sat silent in black gloom. +The stern and sullen mood, from which had dropped but one fierce +flash of anger, still hung above the heat of his mind, like a dark +rack of thundercloud. It would have burst anew into a fury of rebuke, +had he but known his daughter was listening at the door, while the +colloquy went on. It might have flamed violently, had his tenant +made any further attempt to change his purpose. She had not. She +had left the room meekly, with the same curt, awkward bow that +marked her entrance. He recalled her manner very indistinctly; +for a feeling like a mist began to gather in his mind, and make +the occurrences of moments before uncertain. + +Alone, now, he was yet oppressed with a sensation that something +was near him. Was it a spiritual instinct? for the phantom stood +by his side. It stood silent, with one hand raised above his head, +from which a pale flame seemed to flow downward to his brain; its +other hand pointed movelessly to the open letter on the table beside +him. + +He took the sheets from the table, thinking, at the moment, only +of George Feval; but the first line on which his eye rested was, +"In the name of the Saviour, I charge you, be true and tender to +mankind!" And the words touched him like a low voice from the grave. +Their penetrant reproach pierced the hardness of his heart. He +tossed the letter back on the table. The very manner of the act +accused him of an insult to the dead. In a moment he took up the +faded sheets more reverently, but only to lay them down again. + +He had not been well that day, and he now felt worse than before. +The pain in his head had given place to a strange sense of dilation, +and there was a silent, confused riot in his fevered brain, which +seemed to him like the incipience of insanity. Striving to divert +his mind from what had passed, by reflection on other themes, he +could not hold his thoughts; they came teeming but dim, and slipped +and fell away; and only the one circumstance of his recent cruelty, +mixed with remembrance of George Feval, recurred and clung with +vivid persistence. This tortured him. Sitting there, with arms +tightly interlocked, he resolved to wrench his mind down by sheer +will upon other things; and a savage pleasure at what at once seemed +success, took possession of him. In this mood, he heard soft footsteps +and the rustle of festal garments on the stairs, and had a fierce +complacency in being able to apprehend clearly that it was his +wife and daughter going out to the party. In a moment he heard the +controlled and even voice of Mrs. Renton,--a serene and polished +lady with whom he had lived for years in cold and civil alienation, +both seeing as little of each other as possible. With a scowl of +will upon his brow, he received her image distinctly into his mind, +even to the minutia of the dress and ornaments he knew she wore, +and felt an absolutely savage exultation in his ability to retain +it. Then came the sound of the closing of the hall door and the +rattle of receding wheels, and somehow it was Nathalie and not +his wife that he was holding so grimly in his thought, and with +her, salient and vivid as before, the tormenting remembrance of +his tenant, connected with the memory of George Feval. Springing +to his feet, he walked the room. + +He had thrown himself on a sofa, still striving to be rid of his +remorseful visitations, when the library door opened, and the inside +man appeared, with his hand held bashfully over his nose. It flashed +on him at once that his tenant's husband was the servant of a family +like this fellow; and, irritated that the whole matter should be +thus broadly forced upon him in another way, he harshly asked him +what he wanted. The man only came in to say that Mrs. Renton and +the young lady had gone out for the evening, but that tea was laid +for him in the dining-room. He did not want any tea, and if anybody +called, he was not at home. With this charge, the man left the +room, closing the door behind him. + +If he could but sleep a little! Rising from the sofa, he turned +the lights of the chandelier low, and screened the fire. The room +was still. The ghost stood, faintly radiant, in a remote corner. Dr. +Renton lay down again, but not to repose. Things he had forgotten +of his dead friend, now started up again in remembrance, fresh from +the grave of many years; and not one of them but linked itself +by some mysterious bond to something connected with his tenant, +and became an accusation. + +He had lain thus for more than an hour, feeling more and more unmanned +by illness, and his mental excitement fast becoming intolerable, +when he heard a low strain of music, from the Swedenborgian chapel, +hard by. Its first impression was one of solemnity and rest, and its +first sense, in his mind, was of relief. Perhaps it was the music +of an evening meeting; or it might be that the organist and choir +had met for practice. Whatever its purpose, it breathed through his +heated fancy like a cool and fragrant wind. It was vague and sweet +and wandering at first, straying on into a strain more mysterious and +melancholy, but very shadowy and subdued, and evoking the innocent +and tender moods of early youth before worldliness had hardened +around his heart. Gradually, as he listened to it, the fires in +his brain were allayed, and all yielded to a sense of coolness +and repose. He seemed to sink from trance to trance of utter rest, +and yet was dimly aware that either something in his own condition, +or some supernatural accession of tone, was changing the music from +its proper quality to a harmony more infinite and awful. It was +still low and indeterminate and sweet, but had unaccountably and +strangely swelled into a gentle and sombre dirge, incommunicably +mournful, and filled with a dark significance that touched him in +his depth of rest with a secret tremor and awe. As he listened, +rapt and vaguely wondering, the sense of his tranced sinking seemed +to come to an end, and with the feeling of one who had been descending +for many hours, and at length lay motionless at the bottom of a +deep, dark chasm, he heard the music fail and cease. + +A pause, and then it rose again, blended with the solemn voices +of the choir, sublimed and dilated now, reaching him as though +from weird night gulfs of the upper air, and charged with an +overmastering pathos as of the lamentations of angels. In the dimness +and silence, in the aroused and exalted condition of his being, the +strains seemed unearthly in their immense and desolate grandeur +of sorrow, and their mournful and dark significance was now for +him. Working within him the impression of vast, innumerable fleeing +shadows, thick-crowding memories of all the ways and deeds of an +existence fallen from its early dreams and aims, poured across +the midnight of his soul, and under the streaming melancholy of +the dirge, his life showed like some monstrous treason. It did not +terrify or madden him; he listened to it rapt utterly as in some +deadening ether of dream; yet feeling to his inmost core all its +powerful grief and accusation, and quietly aghast at the sinister +consciousness it gave him. Still it swelled, gathering and sounding +on into yet mightier pathos, till all at once it darkened and spread +wide in wild despair, and aspiring again into a pealing agony of +supplication, quivered and died away in a low and funereal sigh. + +The tears streamed suddenly upon his face; his soul lightened and +turned dark within him; and, as one faints away, so consciousness +swooned, and he fell suddenly down a precipice of sleep. The music +rose again, a pensive and holy chant, and sounded on to its close, +unaffected by the action of his brain, for he slept and heard it no +more. He lay tranquilly, hardly seeming to breathe, in motionless +repose. The room was dim and silent, and the furniture took uncouth +shapes around him. The red glow upon the ceiling, from the screened +fire, showed the misty figure of the phantom kneeling by his side. +All light had gone from the spectral form. It knelt beside him, +mutely, as in prayer. Once it gazed at his quiet face with a mournful +tenderness, and its shadowy hands caressed his forehead. Then it +resumed its former attitude, and the slow hours crept by. + +At last it rose and glided to the table, on which lay the open +letter. It seemed to try to lift the sheets with its misty hands, +but vainly. Next it essayed the lifting of a pen which lay there, +but failed. It was a piteous sight, to see its idle efforts on +these shapes of grosser matter, which appeared now to have to it +but the existence of illusions. Wandering about the shadowy room, +it wrung its phantom hands as in despair. + +Presently it grew still. Then it passed quickly to his side, and +stood before him. He slept calmly. It placed one ghostly hand above +his forehead, and with the other pointed to the open letter. In +this attitude its shape grew momentarily more distinct. It began +to kindle into brightness. The pale flame again flowed from its +hand, streaming downward to his brain. A look of trouble darkened +the sleeping face. Stronger,--stronger; brighter,--brighter; until, +at last, it stood before him, a glorious shape of light, with an +awful look of commanding love in its shining features: and the +sleeper sprang to his feet with a cry! + +The phantom had vanished. He saw nothing. His first impression +was, not that he had dreamed, but that, awaking in the familiar +room, he had seen the spirit of his dead friend, bright and awful by +his side, and that it had gone! In the flash of that quick change, +from sleeping to waking, he had detected, he thought, the unearthly +being that, he now felt, watched him from behind the air, and it +had vanished! The library was the same as in the moment of that +supernatural revealing; the open letter lay upon the table still; +only _that_ was gone which had made these common aspects terrible. +Then all the hard, strong scepticism of his nature, which had been +driven backward by the shock of his first conviction, recoiled, +and rushed within him, violently struggling for its former +vantage-ground; till, at length, it achieved the foothold for a +doubt. Could he have dreamed? The ghost, invisible, still watched +him. Yes, a dream,--only a dream; but, how vivid, how strange! +With a slow thrill creeping through his veins, the blood curdling +at his heart, a cold sweat starting on his forehead, he stared +through the dimness of the room. All was vacancy. + +With a strong shudder, he strode forward, and turned up the flames +of the chandelier. A flood of garish light filled the apartment. +In a moment, remembering the letter to which the phantom of his +dream had pointed, he turned and took it from the table. The last +page lay upward, and every word of the solemn counsel at the end +seemed to dilate on the paper, and all its mighty meaning rushed +upon his soul. Trembling in his own despite, he laid it down and +moved away. A physician, he remembered that he was in a state of +violent nervous excitement, and thought that when he grew calmer +its effects would pass from him. But the hand that had touched +him had gone down deeper than the physician, and reached what God +had made. + +He strove in vain. The very room, in its light and silence, and the +lurking sentiment of something watching him, became terrible. He +could not endure it. The devils in his heart, grown pusillanimous, +cowered beneath the flashing strokes of his aroused and terrible +conscience. He could not endure it. He must go out. He will walk +the streets. It is not late,--it is but ten o'clock. He will go. + +The air of his dream still hung heavily about him. He was in the +street,--he hardly remembered how he had got there, or when; but +there he was, wrapped up from the searching cold, thinking, with a +quiet horror in his mind, of the darkened room he had left behind, +and haunted by the sense that something was groping about there +in the darkness, searching for him. The night was still and cold. +The full moon was in the zenith. Its icy splendor lay on the bare +streets, and on the walls of the dwellings. The lighted oblong +squares of curtained windows, here and there, seemed dim and waxen +in the frigid glory. The familiar aspect of the quarter had passed +away, leaving behind only a corpse-like neighborhood, whose huge, +dead features, staring rigidly through the thin, white shroud of +moonlight that covered all, left no breath upon the stainless skies. +Through the vast silence of the night he passed along; the very +sound of his footfalls was remote to his muffled sense. + +Gradually, as he reached the first corner, he had an uneasy feeling +that a thing--a formless, unimaginable thing--was dogging him. +He had thought of going down to his club-room; but he now shrank +from entering, with this thing near him, the lighted rooms where +his set were busy with cards and billiards, over their liquors +and cigars, and where the heated air was full of their idle faces +and careless chatter, lest some one should bawl out that he was +pale, and ask him what was the matter, and he should answer, +tremblingly, that something was following him, and was near him +then! He must get rid of it first; he must walk quickly, and baffle +its pursuit by turning sharp corners, and plunging into devious +streets and crooked lanes, and so lose it! + +It was difficult to reach through memory to the crazy chaos of +his mind on that night, and recall the route he took while haunted +by this feeling; but he afterward remembered that, without any +other purpose than to baffle his imaginary pursuer, he traversed +at a rapid pace a large portion of the moonlit city; always (he +knew not why) avoiding the more populous thoroughfares, and choosing +unfrequented and tortuous byways, but never ridding himself of +that horrible confusion of mind in which the faces of his dead +friend and the pale woman were strangely blended, nor of the fancy +that he was followed. Once, as he passed the hospital where Feval +died, a faint hint seemed to flash and vanish from the clouds of +his lunacy, and almost identify the dogging goblin with the figure +of his dream; but the conception instantly mixed with a disconnected +remembrance that this was Christmas eve, and then slipped from +him, and was lost. He did not pause there, but strode on. But just +there, what had been frightful became hideous. For at once he was +possessed with the conviction that the thing that lurked at a distance +behind him was quickening its movement, and coming up to seize +him. The dreadful fancy stung him like a goad, and, with a start, +he accelerated his flight, horribly conscious that what he feared +was slinking along in the shadow, close to the dark bulks of the +houses, resolutely pursuing, and bent on overtaking him. Faster! +His footfalls rang hollowly and loud on the moonlit pavement, and in +contrast with their rapid thuds he felt it as something peculiarly +terrible that the furtive thing behind slunk after him with soundless +feet. Faster, faster! Traversing only the most unfrequented streets, +and at that late hour of a cold winter night he met no one, and +with a terrifying consciousness that his pursuer was gaining on +him, he desperately strode on. He did not dare to look behind, +dreading less what he might see than the momentary loss of speed +the action might occasion. Faster, faster, faster! And all at once +he knew that the dogging thing had dropped its stealthy pace and +was racing up to him. With a bound he broke into a run, seeing, +hearing, heeding nothing, aware only that the other was silently +louping on his track two steps to his one; and with that frantic +apprehension upon him, he gained the next street, flung himself +around the corner with his back to the wall, and his arms convulsively +drawn up for a grapple; and felt something rush whirring past his +flank, striking him on the shoulder as it went by, with a buffet +that made a shock break through his frame. That shock restored +him to his senses. His delusion was suddenly shattered. The goblin +was gone. He was free. + +He stood panting, like one just roused from some terrible dream, +wiping the reeking perspiration from his forehead, and thinking +confusedly and wearily what a fool he had been. He felt he had +wandered a long distance from his house, but had no distinct perception +of his whereabouts. He only knew he was in some thinly peopled +street, whose familiar aspect seemed lost to him in the magical +disguise the superb moonlight had thrown over all. Suddenly a film +seemed to drop from his eyes, as they became riveted on a lighted +window, on the opposite side of the way. He started, and a secret +terror crept over him, vaguely mixed with the memory of the shock +he had felt as he turned the last corner, and his distinct, awful +feeling that something invisible had passed him. At the same instant +he felt, and thrilled to feel, a touch, as of a light finger, on +his cheek. He was in Hanover Street. Before him was the house,--the +oyster-room staring at him through the lighted transparencies of +its two windows, like two square eyes, below; and his tenant's +light in a chamber above! The added shock which this discovery +gave to the heaving of his heart made him gasp for breath. Could +it be? Did he still dream? While he stood panting and staring at +the building the city clocks began to strike. Eleven o'clock; it +was ten when he came away; how he must have driven! His thoughts +caught up the word. Driven,--by what? Driven from his house in +horror, through street and lane, over half the city,--driven,--hunted +in terror, and smitten by a shock here! Driven,--driven! He could +not rid his mind of the word, nor of the meaning it suggested. +The pavements about him began to ring and echo with the tramp of +many feet, and the cold, brittle air was shivered with the noisy +voices that had roared and bawled applause and laughter at the +National Theatre all the evening, and were now singing and howling +homeward. Groups of rude men, and ruder boys, their breaths steaming +in the icy air, began to tramp by, jostling him as they passed, +till he was forced to draw back to the wall, and give them the +sidewalk. Dazed and giddy, in cold fear, and with the returning +sense of something near him, he stood and watched the groups that +pushed and tumbled in through the entrance of the oyster-room, +whistling and chattering as they went, and banging the door behind +them. He noticed that some came out presently, banging the door +harder, and went, smoking and shouting, down the street. Still +they poured in and out, while the street was startled with their +stimulated riot, and the bar-room within echoed their trampling +feet and hoarse voices. Then, as his glance wandered upward to +his tenant's window, he thought of the sick child, mixing this +hideous discord in the dreams of fever. The word brought up the name +and the thought of his dead friend. "In the name of the Saviour, +I charge you be true and tender to mankind!" The memory of these +words seemed to ring clearly, as if a voice had spoken them, above +the roar that suddenly rose in his mind. In that moment he felt +himself a wretched and most guilty man. He felt that his cruel +words had entered that humble home, to make desperate poverty more +desperate, to sicken sickness, and to sadden sorrow. Before him +was the dram-shop, let and licensed to nourish the worst and most +brutal appetites and instincts of human natures, at the sacrifice +of all their highest and holiest tendencies. The throng of tipplers +and drunkards was swarming through its hopeless door, to gulp the +fiery liquor whose fumes give all shames, vices, miseries, and +crimes a lawless strength and life, and change the man into the +pig or tiger. Murder was done, or nearly done, within those walls +last night. Within those walls no good was ever done; but daily, +unmitigated evil, whose results were reaching on to torture unborn +generations. He had consented to it all! He could not falter, or +equivocate, or evade, or excuse. His dead friend's words rang in his +conscience like the trump of the judgment angel. He was conquered. + +Slowly, the resolve instantly to go in uprose within him, and with +it a change came upon his spirit, and the natural world, sadder than +before, but sweeter, seemed to come back to him. A great feeling +of relief flowed upon his mind. Pale and trembling still, he crossed +the street with a quick, unsteady step, entered a yard at the side +of the house, and, brushing by a host of white, rattling spectres of +frozen clothes, which dangled from lines in the enclosure, mounted +some wooden steps, and rang the bell. In a minute he heard footsteps +within, and saw the gleam of a lamp. His heart palpitated violently +as he heard the lock turning, lest the answerer of his summons +might be his tenant. The door opened, and, to his relief, he stood +before a rather decent-looking Irishman, bending forward in his +stocking-feet, with one boot and a lamp in his hand. The man stared +at him from a wild head of tumbled red hair, with a half-smile round +his loose open mouth, and said, "Begorra!" This was a second-floor +tenant. + +Dr. Renton was relieved at the sight of him; but he rather failed +in an attempt at his rent-day suavity of manner, when he said,-- + +"Good evening, Mr. Flanagan. Do you think I can see Mrs. Miller +to-night?" + +"She's up _there_, docther, anyway." Mr. Flanagan made a sudden +start for the stairs, with the boot and lamp at arm's length before +him, and stopped as suddenly. "Yull go up? or wud she come down to +ye?" There was as much anxious indecision in Mr. Flanagan's general +aspect, pending the reply, as if he had to answer the question +himself. + +"I'll go up, Mr. Flanagan," returned Dr. Renton, stepping in, after +a pause, and shutting the door. "But I'm afraid she's in bed." + +"Naw--she's not, sur." Mr. Flanagan made another feint with the boot +and lamp at the stairs, but stopped again in curious bewilderment, +and rubbed his head. Then, with another inspiration, and speaking +with such velocity that his words ran into each other, pell-mell, +he continued: "Th' small girl's sick, sur. Begorra, I wor just +pullin' on th' boots tuh gaw for the docther, in th' nixt streth, +an' summons him to her relehf, fur it's bad she is. A'id betther be +goan." Another start, and a movement to put on the boot instantly, +baffled by his getting the lamp into the leg of it, and involving +himself in difficulties in trying to get it out again without dropping +either, and stopped finally by Dr. Renton. + +"You needn't go, Mr. Flanagan. I'll see to the child. Don't go." + +He stepped slowly up the stairs, followed by the bewildered Flanagan. +All this time Dr. Renton was listening to the racket from the bar-room. +Clinking of glasses, rattling of dishes, trampling of feet, oaths +and laughter, and a confused din of coarse voices, mingling with +boisterous calls for oysters and drink, came, hardly deadened by +the partition walls, from the haunt below, and echoed through the +corridors. Loud enough within,--louder in the street without, where +the oysters and drink were reeling and roaring off to brutal dreams. +People trying to sleep here; a sick child up stairs. Listen! "_Two_ +stew! _One_ roast! _Four_ ale! Hurry 'em up! _Three_ stew! _In_ number +six! _One_ fancy--_two_ roast! _One_ sling! Three brandy--_hot! +Two_ stew! _One_ whisk' _skin!_ Hurry 'em up! _What_ yeh _'bout!_ +_Three_ brand' punch--_hot! Four_ stew! _What_-ye-e-h 'BOUT! _Two_ +gin-cock-t'il! _One_ stew! Hu-r-r-y 'em up!" Clashing, rattling, +cursing, swearing, laughing, shouting, trampling, stumbling, driving, +slamming of doors. "Hu-r-ry 'em UP." + +"Flanagan," said Dr. Renton, stopping at the first landing, "do +you have this noise every night?" + +"Naise? Hoo! Divil a night, docther, but I'm wehked out ov me bed +wid 'em, Sundays an' all. Sure didn't they murdher wan of 'em, +out an' out, last night!" + +"Is the man dead?" + +"Dead? Troth he is. An' cowld." + +"H'm"--through his compressed lips. "Flanagan, you needn't come +up. I know the door. Just hold the light for me here. There, that'll +do. Thank you." He whispered the last words from the top of the +second flight. + +"Are ye there, docther?" Flanagan anxious to the last, and trying +to peer up at him with the lamplight in his eyes. + +"Yes. That'll do. Thank you!" in the same whisper. Before he could +tap at the door, then darkening in the receding light, it opened +suddenly, and a big Irishwoman bounced out, and then whisked in +again, calling to some one in an inner room, "Here he is, Mrs. +Mill'r"; and then bounced out again, with a, "Walk royt in, if _you_ +plaze; here's the choild"; and whisked in again, with a "Sure an' +Jehms was quick"; never once looking at him, and utterly unconscious +of the presence of her landlord. He had hardly stepped into the +room and taken off his hat, when Mrs. Miller came from the inner +chamber with a lamp in her hand. How she started! With her pale +face grown suddenly paler, and her hand on her bosom, she could +only exclaim, "Why, it's Dr. Renton!" and stand, still and dumb, +gazing with a frightened look at his face, whiter than her own. +Whereupon Mrs. Flanagan came bolting out again, with wild eyes and +a sort of stupefied horror in her good, coarse, Irish features; +and then, with some uncouth ejaculation, ran back, and was heard +to tumble over something within, and tumble something else over in +her fall, and gather herself up with a subdued howl, and subside. + +"Mrs. Miller," began Dr. Renton, in a low, husky voice, glancing +at her frightened face, "I hope you'll be composed. I spoke to you +very harshly and rudely to-night; but I really was not myself--I +was in anger--and I ask your pardon. Please to overlook it all, +and--but I will speak of this presently; now--I am a physician; +will you let me look now at your sick child?" + +He spoke hurriedly, but with evident sincerity. For a moment her +lips faltered; then a slow flush came up, with a quick change of +expression on her thin, worn face, and, reddening to painful scarlet, +died away in a deeper pallor. + +"Dr. Renton," she said, hastily, "I have no ill-feeling for you, +sir, and I know you were hurt and vexed; and I know you have tried +to make it up to me again, sir, secretly. I know who it was, now; +but I can't take it, sir. You must take it back. You know it was +you sent it, sir?" + +"Mrs. Miller," he replied, puzzled beyond measure, "I don't understand +you. What do you mean?" + +"Don't deny it, sir. Please not to," she said imploringly, the +tears starting to her eyes. "I am very grateful,--indeed I am. But +I can't accept it. Do take it again." + +"Mrs. Miller," he replied, in a hasty voice, "what do you mean? I +have sent you nothing,--nothing at all. I have, therefore, nothing +to receive again." + +She looked at him fixedly, evidently impressed by the fervor of +his denial. + +"You sent me nothing to-night, sir?" she asked, doubtfully. + +"Nothing at any time, nothing," he answered, firmly. + +It would have been folly to have disbelieved the truthful look of +his wondering face, and she turned away in amazement and confusion. +There was a long pause. + +"I hope, Mrs. Miller, you will not refuse any assistance I can render +to your child," he said, at length. + +She started, and replied, tremblingly and confusedly, "No, sir; we +shall be grateful to you, if you can save her"; and went quickly, +with a strange abstraction on her white face, into the inner room. +He followed her at once, and, hardly glancing at Mrs. Flanagan, +who sat there in stupefaction, with her apron over her head and +face, he laid his hat on a table, went to the bedside of the little +girl, and felt her head and pulse. He soon satisfied himself that +the little sufferer was in no danger, under proper remedies, and +now dashed down a prescription on a leaf from his pocket-book. +Mrs. Flanagan, who had come out from the retirement of her apron, +to stare stupidly at him during the examination, suddenly bobbed +up on her legs, with enlightened alacrity, when he asked if there +was any one that could go out to the apothecary's, and said, "Sure +I wull!" He had a little trouble to make her understand that the +prescription, which she took by the corner, holding it away from +her, as if it were going to explode presently, and staring at it +upside down, was to be left--"_left_, mind you, Mrs. Flanagan--with +the apothecary--Mr. Flint--at the nearest corner--and he will give +you some things, which you are to bring here." But she had shuffled +off at last with a confident, "Yis, sur--aw, I knoo," her head +nodding satisfied assent, and her big thumb covering the note on +the margin, "Charge to Dr. C. Renton, Bowdoin Street," (which, +_I_ know, could not keep it from the eyes of the angels!) and he +sat down to await her return. + +"Mrs. Miller," he said, kindly, "don't be alarmed about your child. +She is doing well; and, after you have given her the medicine Mrs. +Flanagan will bring, you'll find her much better, to-morrow. She +must be kept cool and quiet, you know, and she'll be all right +soon." + +"O Dr. Renton, I am very grateful," was the tremulous reply; "and +we will follow all directions, sir. It is hard to keep her quiet, +sir; we keep as still as we can, and the other children are very +still; but the street is very noisy all the daytime and evening, +sir, and--" + +"I know it, Mrs. Miller. And I'm afraid those people down stairs +disturb you somewhat." + +"They make some stir in the evening, sir; and it's rather loud +in the street sometimes, at night. The folks on the lower floors +are troubled a good deal, they say." + +Well they may be. Listen to the bawling outside, now, cold as it +is. Hark! A hoarse group on the opposite sidewalk beginning a +song,--"Ro-o-l on, sil-ver mo-o-n--" The silver moon ceases to +roll in a sudden explosion of yells and laughter, sending up broken +fragments of curses, ribald jeers, whoopings, and cat-calls, high +into the night air. "Ga-l-a-ng! Hi-hi! What ye-e-h _'bout!_" + +"This is outrageous, Mrs. Miller. Where's the watchman?" + +She smiled faintly. "He takes one of them off occasionally, sir; +but he's afraid; they beat him sometimes." A long pause. + +"Isn't your room rather cold, Mrs. Miller?" He glanced at the black +stove, dimly seen in the outer room. "It is necessary to keep the +rooms cool just now, but this air seems to me cold." + +Receiving no answer, he looked at her, and saw the sad truth in +her averted face. + +"I beg your pardon," he said quickly, flushing to the roots of his +hair. "I might have known, after what you said to me this evening." + +"We had a little fire here to-day, sir," she said, struggling with +the pride and shame of poverty; "but we have been out of firing +for two or three days, and we owe the wharfman something now. The +two boys picked up a few chips; but the poor children find it hard +to get them, sir. Times are very hard with us, sir; indeed they +are. We'd have got along better, if my husband's money had come, +and your rent would have been paid--" + +"Never mind the rent!--don't speak of that!" he broke in, with his +face all aglow. "Mrs. Miller, I haven't done right by you,--I know +it. Be frank with me. Are you in want of--have you--need of--food?" + +No need of answer to that faintly stammered question. The thin, +rigid face was covered from his sight by the worn, wan hands, and +all the pride and shame of poverty, and all the frigid truth of +cold, hunger, anxiety, and sickened sorrow they had concealed, had +given way at last in a rush of tears. He could not speak. With a +smitten heart, he knew it all now. Ah! Dr. Renton, you know these +people's tricks? you know their lying blazon of poverty, to gather +sympathy? + +"Mrs. Miller,"--she had ceased weeping, and as he spoke, she looked +at him, with the tear-stains still on her agitated face, half ashamed +that he had seen her,--"Mrs. Miller, I am sorry. This shall be +remedied. Don't tell me it sha'n't! Don't! I say it shall! Mrs. +Miller, I'm--I'm ashamed of myself. I am indeed." + +"I am very grateful, sir, I'm sure," said she; "but we don't like +to take charity, though we need help; but we can get along now, +sir; for I suppose I must keep it, as you say you didn't send +it, and use it for the children's sake, and thank God for his good +mercy,--since I don't know, and never shall, where it came from, +now." + +"Mrs. Miller," he said quickly, "you spoke in this way before; +and I don't know what you refer to. What do you mean by--_it?_" + +"Oh! I forgot, sir: it puzzles me so. You see, sir, I was sitting +here after I got home from your house, thinking what I should do, +when Mrs. Flanagan came up stairs with a letter for me, that she said +a strange man left at the door for Mrs. Miller; and Mrs. Flanagan +couldn't describe him well, or understandingly; and it had no +direction at all, only the man inquired who was the landlord, and +if Mrs. Miller had a sick child, and then said the letter was for +me; and there was no writing inside the letter, but there was fifty +dollars. That's all, sir. It gave me a great shock, sir; and I +couldn't think who sent it, only when you came to-night, I thought +it was you; but you said it wasn't, and I never shall know who +it was, now. It seems as if the hand of God was in it, sir, for +it came when everything was darkest, and I was in despair." + +"Why, Mrs. Miller," he slowly answered, "this is very mysterious. +The man inquired if I was the owner of the house--oh! no--he only +inquired who was--but then he knew I was the--oh! bother! I'm getting +nowhere. Let's see. Why, it must be some one you know, or that +knows your circumstances." + +"But there's no one knows them but yourself; and I told you," she +replied; "no one else but the people in the house. It must have +been some rich person, for the letter was a gilt-edge sheet, and +there was perfume in it, sir." + +"Strange," he murmured. "Well, I give it up. All is, I advise you to +keep it, and I'm very glad some one did his duty by you in your hour +of need, though I'm sorry it was not myself. Here's Mrs. Flanagan." + +There was a good deal done, and a great burden lifted off an humble +heart--nay, two!--before Dr. Renton thought of going home. There +was a patient gained, likely to do Dr. Renton more good than any +patient he had lost. There was a kettle singing on the stove, and +blowing off a happier steam than any engine ever blew on that railroad +whose unmarketable stock had singed Dr. Renton's fingers. There +was a yellow gleam flickering from the blazing fire on the sober +binding of a good old Book upon a shelf with others, a rarer medical +work than ever slipped at auction from Dr. Renton's hands, since +it kept the sacred lore of Him who healed the sick, and fed the +hungry, and comforted the poor, and who was also the Physician +of souls. + +And there were other offices performed, of lesser range than these, +before he rose to go. There were cooling mixtures blended for the +sick child; medicines arranged; directions given; and all the items +of her tendance orderly foreseen, and put in pigeon-holes of When +and How, for service. + +At last he rose to go. "And now, Mrs. Miller," he said, "I'll come +here at ten in the morning, and see to our patient. She'll be nicely +by that time. And (listen to those brutes in the street!--twelve +o'clock, too--ah! there's the bell), as I was saying, my offence +to you being occasioned by your debt to me, I feel my receipt for +your debt should commence my reparation to you; and I'll bring it +to-morrow. Mrs. Miller, you don't quite come at me--what I mean +is--you owe me, under a notice to quit, three months' rent. Consider +that paid in full. I never will take a cent of it from you,--not +a copper. And I take back the notice. Stay in my house as long as +you like; the longer the better. But, up to this date, your rent's +paid. There. I hope you'll have as happy a Christmas as circumstances +will allow, and I mean you shall." + +A flush of astonishment, of indefinable emotion, overspread her +face. + +"Dr. Renton, stop, sir!" He was moving to the door. "Please, sir, +_do_ hear me! You are very good--but I can't allow you to--Dr. +Renton, we are able to pay you the rent, and we _will_, and we +_must_--here--now. O, sir, my gratefulness will never fail to +you--but here--here--be fair with me, sir, and _do_ take it." + +She had hurried to a chest of drawers, and came back with the letter +which she had rustled apart with eager, trembling hands, and now, +unfolding the single banknote it had contained, she thrust it into +his fingers as they closed. + +"Here, Mrs. Miller,"--she had drawn back with her arms locked on +her bosom, and he stepped forward,--"no, no. This sha'n't be. +Come, come, you must take it back. Good heavens!" He spoke low, +but his eyes blazed in the red glow which broke out on his face, +and the crisp note in his extended hand shook violently at her. +"Sooner than take this money from you, I would perish in the street! +What! Do you think I will rob you of the gift sent you by some +one who had a human heart for the distresses I was aggravating? +Sooner than-- Here, take it! O my God! what's this?" + +The red glow on his face went out, with this exclamation, in a +pallor like marble, and he jerked back the note to his starting +eyes. Globe Bank--Boston--Fifty Dollars. For a minute he gazed at the +motionless bill in his hand. Then, with his hueless lips compressed, +he seized the blank letter from his astonished tenant, and looked at +it, turning it over and over. Grained letter-paper--gilt-edged--with +a favorite perfume in it. Where's Mrs. Flanagan? Outside the door, +sitting on the top of the stairs, with her apron over her head, +crying. Mrs. Flanagan! Here! In she tumbled, her big feet kicking +her skirts before her, and her eyes and face as red as a beet. + +"Mrs. Flanagan, what kind of a looking man gave you this letter +at the door to-night?" + +"A-w, Docther Rinton, dawn't ax me!--Bother, an' all, an' sure +an' I cudn't see him wud his fur-r hat, an' he a-ll boondled oop +wud his co-at oop on his e-ars, an' his big han'kershuf smotherin' +thuh mouth uv him, an' sorra a bit uv him tuh be looked at, sehvin' +thuh poomple on thuh ind uv his naws." + +"The _what_ on the end of his nose?" + +"Thuh poomple, sur." + +"What does she mean, Mrs. Miller?" said the puzzled questioner, +turning to his tenant. + +"I don't know, sir, indeed," was the reply. "She said that to me, +and I couldn't understand her." + +"It's thuh poomple, docther. Dawn't ye knoo? Thuh big, flehmin +poomple oop there." She indicated the locality, by flattening the +rude tip of her own nose with her broad forefinger. + +"Oh! the pimple! I have it." So he had. Netty, Netty! + +He said nothing, but sat down in a chair, with his bold, white brow +knitted, and the warm tears in his dark eyes. + +"You know who sent it, sir, don't you?" asked his wondering tenant, +catching the meaning of all this. + +"Mrs. Miller, I do. But I cannot tell you. Take it, now, and use +it. It is doubly yours. There. Thank you." + +She had taken it with an emotion in her face that gave a quicker +motion to his throbbing heart. He rose to his feet, hat in hand, +and turned away. The noise of a passing group of roysterers in +the street without came strangely loud into the silence of that +room. + +"Good night, Mrs. Miller. I'll be here in the morning. Good night." + +"Good night, sir. God bless you, sir!" + +He turned around quickly. The warm tears in his dark eyes had flowed +on his face, which was pale; and his firm lip quivered. + +"I hope He will, Mrs. Miller,--I hope He will. It should have been +said oftener." + +He was on the outer threshold. Mrs. Flanagan had, somehow, got +there before him, with a lamp, and he followed her down through +the dancing shadows, with blurred eyes. On the lower landing he +stopped to hear the jar of some noisy wrangle, thick with oaths, +from the bar-room. He listened for a moment, and then turned to +the staring stupor of Mrs. Flanagan's rugged visage. + +"Sure, they're at ut, docther, wud a wull," she said, smiling. + +"Yes. Mrs. Flanagan, you'll stay up with Mrs. Miller to-night, won't +you?" + +"Dade an' I wull, sur." + +"That's right. Do. And make her try and sleep, for she must be +tired. Keep up a fire,--not too warm, you understand. There'll be +wood and coal coming to-morrow, and she'll pay you back." + +"A-w, docther, dawn't noo!" + +"Well, well. And--look here; have you got anything to eat in the +house? Yes; well, take it up stairs. Wake up those two boys, and +give them something to eat. Don't let Mrs. Miller stop you. Make +her eat something. Tell her I said she must. And, first of all, get +your bonnet, and go to that apothecary's,--Flint's,--for a bottle +of port wine, for Mrs. Miller. Hold on. There's the order." (He had +a leaf out of his pocket-book in a minute, and wrote it down.) "Go +with this the first thing. Ring Flint's bell, and he'll wake up. +And here's something for your own Christmas dinner, to-morrow." Out +of the roll of bills he drew one of the tens--Globe Bank--Boston--and +gave it to Mrs. Flanagan. + +"A-w, dawn't noo, docther." + +"Bother! It's for yourself, mind. Take it. There. And now unlock +the door. That's it. Good night, Mrs. Flanagan." + +"An' meh thuh Hawly Vurgin hape bless'n's on ye, Docther Rinton, +wud a-ll thuh compliments uv thuh sehzin, for yur thuh--" + +He lost the end of Mrs. Flanagan's parting benedictions in the +moonlit street. He did not pause till he was at the door of the +oyster-room. He paused then, to make way for a tipsy company of +four, who reeled out,--the gaslight from the bar-room on the edges +of their sodden, distorted faces,--giving three shouts and a yell, +as they slammed the door behind them. + +He pushed after a party that was just entering. They went at once +for a drink to the upper end of the room, where a rowdy crew, with +cigars in their mouths, and liquor in their hands, stood before +the bar, in a knotty wrangle concerning some one who was killed. +Where is the keeper? O, there he is, mixing hot brandy punch for +two! Here, you, sir, go up quietly, and tell Mr. Rollins Dr. Renton +wants to see him. The waiter came back presently to say Mr. Rollins +would be right along. Twenty-five minutes past twelve. Oyster trade +nearly over. Gaudy-curtained booths on the left all empty but two. +Oyster-openers and waiters--three of them in all--nearly done for +the night, and two of them sparring and scuffling behind a pile of +oysters on the trough, with the colored print of the great prize +fight between Tom Hyer and Yankee Sullivan, in a veneered frame +above them on the wall. Blower up from the fire opposite the bar, +and stewpans and griddles empty and idle on the bench beside it, +among the unwashed bowls and dishes. Oyster trade nearly over. +Bar still busy. + +Here comes Rollins in his shirt-sleeves, with an apron on. Thick-set, +muscular man,--frizzled head, low forehead, sharp, black eyes, +flabby face, with a false, greasy smile on it now, oiling over +a curious, stealthy expression of mingled surprise and inquiry, +as he sees his landlord here at this unusual hour. + +"Come in here, Mr. Rollins; I want to speak to you." + +"Yes, sir. Jim" (to the waiter), "go and tend bar." They sat down +in one of the booths, and lowered the curtain. Dr. Renton, at one +side of the table within, looking at Rollins, sitting leaning on +his folded arms, at the other side. + +"Mr. Rollins, I am told the man who was stabbed here last night +is dead. Is that so?" + +"Well, he is, Dr. Renton. Died this afternoon." + +"Mr. Rollins, this is a serious matter; what are you going to do +about it?" + +"Can't help it, sir. Who's a-goin' to touch _me?_ Called in a watchman. +Whole mess of 'em had cut. Who knows 'em? Nobody knows 'em. Man that +was stuck never see the fellers as stuck him in all his life till +then. Didn't know which one of 'em did it. Didn't know nothing. +Don't now, an' never will, 'nless he meets 'em in hell. That's +all. Feller's dead, an' who's a-goin' to touch _me?_ Can't do it. +Ca-n-'t do it." + +"Mr. Rollins," said Dr. Renton, thoroughly disgusted with this man's +brutal indifference, "your lease expires in three days." + +"Well, it does. Hope to make a renewal with you, Dr. Renton. Trade's +good here. Shouldn't mind more rent on, if you insist,--hope you +won't,--if it's anything in reason. Promise sollum, I sha'n't have +no more fightin' in here. Couldn't help this. Accidents _will_ +happen, yo' know." + +"Mr. Rollins, the case is this: if you didn't sell liquor here, +you'd have no murder done in your place,--murder, sir. That man +was murdered. It's your fault, and it's mine, too. I ought not to +have let you the place for your business. It _is_ a cursed traffic, +and you and I ought to have found it out long ago. _I_ have. I hope +_you_ will. Now, I advise you, as a friend, to give up selling rum +for the future; you see what it comes to,--don't you? At any rate, +I will not be responsible for the outrages that are perpetrated in +my building any more,--I will not have liquor sold here. I refuse +to renew your lease. In three days you must move." + +"Dr. Renton, you hurt my feelin's. Now, how would you--" + +"Mr. Rollins, I have spoken to you as a friend, and you have no +cause for pain. You must quit these premises when your lease expires. +I'm sorry I can't make you go before that. Make no appeals to me, +if you please. I am fixed. Now, sir, good night." + +The curtain was pulled up, and Rollins rolled over to his beloved +bar, soothing his lacerated feelings by swearing like a pirate, +while Dr. Renton strode to the door, and went into the street, +homeward. + +He walked fast through the magical moonlight, with a strange feeling +of sternness, and tenderness, and weariness, in his mind. In this +mood, the sensation of spiritual and physical fatigue gaining on +him, but a quiet moonlight in all his reveries, he reached his +house. He was just putting his latch-key in the door, when it was +opened by James, who stared at him for a second, and then dropped +his eyes, and put his hand before his nose. Dr. Renton compressed +his lips on an involuntary smile. + +"Ah! James, you're up late. It's near one." + +"I sat up for Mrs. Renton and the young lady, sir. They're just +come, and gone up stairs." + +"All right, James. Take your lamp and come in here. I've got something +to say to you." The man followed him into the library at once, with +some wonder on his sleepy face. + +"First, put some coal on that fire, and light the chandelier. I +shall not go up stairs to-night." The man obeyed. "Now, James, +sit down in that chair." He did so, beginning to look frightened +at Dr. Renton's grave manner. + +"James,"--a long pause,--"I want you to tell me the truth. Where +did you go to-night? Come, I have found you out. Speak." + +The man turned as white as a sheet, and looked wretched with the +whites of his bulging eyes, and the great pimple on his nose awfully +distinct in the livid hue of his features. He was a rather slavish +fellow, and thought he was going to lose his situation. Please +not to blame him, for he, too, was one of the poor. + +"O Dr. Renton, excuse me, sir; I didn't mean doing any harm." + +"James, my daughter gave you an undirected letter this evening; you +carried it to one of my houses in Hanover Street. Is that true?" + +"Ye-yes, sir. I couldn't help it. I only did what she told me, +sir." + +"James, if my daughter told you to set fire to this house, what +would you do?" + +"I wouldn't do it, sir," he stammered, after some hesitation. + +"You wouldn't? James, if my daughter ever tells you to set fire +to this house, do it, sir! Do it. At once. Do whatever she tells +you. Promptly. And I'll back you." + +The man stared wildly at him, as he received this astonishing command. +Dr. Renton was perfectly grave, and had spoken slowly and seriously. +The man was at his wits' end. + +"You'll do it, James,--will you?" + +"Ye-yes, sir, certainly." + +"That's right. James, you're a good fellow. James, you've got a +wife and children, hav'n't you?" + +"Yes, sir, I have; living in the country, sir. In Chelsea, over +the ferry. For cheapness, sir." + +"For cheapness, eh? Hard times, James? How is it?" + +"Pretty hard, sir. Close, but toler'ble comfortable. Rub and go, +sir." + +"Rub and go. Ve-r-y well. Rub and go. James, I'm going to raise +your wages--to-morrow. Generally, because you're a good servant. +Principally, because you carried that letter to-night, when my +daughter asked you. I sha'n't forget it. To-morrow, mind. And +if I can do anything for you, James, at any time, just tell me. +That's all. Now, you'd better go to bed. And a happy Christmas +to you!" + +"Much obliged to you, sir. Same to you and many of 'em. Good night, +sir." And with Dr. Renton's "good-night" he stole up to bed, thoroughly +happy, and determined to obey Miss Renton's future instructions to +the letter. The shower of golden light which had been raining for +the last two hours had fallen even on him. It would fall all day +to-morrow in many places, and the day after, and for long years +to come. Would that it could broaden and increase to a general +deluge, and submerge the world! + +Now the whole house was still, and its master was weary. He sat +there, quietly musing, feeling the sweet and tranquil presence +near him. Now the fire was screened, the lights were out, save +one dim glimmer, and he had lain down on the couch with the letter +in his hand, and slept the dreamless sleep of a child. + +He slept until the gray dawn of Christmas day stole into the room, +and showed him the figure of his friend, a shape of glorious light, +standing by his side, and gazing at him with large and tender eyes! +He had no fear. All was deep, serene, and happy with the happiness of +heaven. Looking up into that beautiful, wan face,--so tranquil,--so +radiant; watching, with a childlike awe, the star-fire in those shadowy +eyes; smiling faintly, with a great, unutterable love thrilling +slowly through his frame, in answer to the smile of light that shone +upon the phantom countenance; so he passed a space of time which +seemed a calm eternity, till, at last, the communion of spirit +with spirit--of mortal love with love immortal--was perfected, +and the shining hands were laid on his forehead, as with a touch +of air. Then the phantom smiled, and, as its shining hands were +withdrawn, the thought of his daughter mingled in the vision. She +was bending over him! The dawn, the room, were the same. But the +ghost of Feval had gone out from earth, away to its own land! + +"Father, dear father! Your eyes were open, and they did not look at +me. There is a light on your face, and your features are changed! +What is it,--what have you seen?" + +"Hush, darling: here--kneel by me, for a little while, and be still. +I have seen the dead." + +She knelt by him, burying her awe-struck face in his bosom, and +clung to him with all the fervor of her soul. He clasped her to +his breast, and for minutes all was still. + +"Dear child, good and dear child!" + +The voice was tremulous and low. She lifted her fair, bright +countenance, now convulsed with a secret trouble, and dimmed with +streaming tears, to his, and gazed on him. His eyes were shining; +but his pallid cheeks, like hers, were wet with tears. How still +the room was! How like a thought of solemn tenderness the pale +gray dawn! The world was far away, and his soul still wandered +in the peaceful awe of his dream. The world was coming back to +him,--but oh! how changed!--in the trouble of his daughter's face. + +"Darling, what is it? Why are you here? Why are you weeping? Dear +child, the friend of my better days,--of the boyhood when I had +noble aims, and life was beautiful before me,--he has been here! I +have seen him. He has been with me--oh! for a good I cannot tell!" + +"Father, dear father!"--he had risen, and sat upon the couch, but she +still knelt before him, weeping, and clasped his hands in hers,--"I +thought of you and of this letter, all the time. All last night +till I slept, and then I dreamed you were tearing it to pieces, +and trampling on it. I awoke, and lay thinking of you, and of ----. +And I thought I heard you come down stairs, and I came here to +find you. But you were lying here so quietly, with your eyes open, +and so strange a light on your face. And I knew,--I knew you were +dreaming of him, and that you saw him, for the letter lay beside +you. O father! forgive me, but do hear me! In the name of this +day,--it's Christmas day, father,--in the name of the time when +we must both die,--in the name of that time, father, hear me! That +poor woman last night,--O father! forgive me, but don't tear that +letter in pieces and trample it under foot! You know what I mean--you +know--you know. Don't tear it, and tread it under foot." + +She clung to him, sobbing violently, her face buried in his hands. + +"Hush, hush! It's all well,--it's all well. Here, sit by me. So. +I have--" His voice failed him, and he paused. But sitting by +him,--clinging to him,--her face hidden in his bosom,--she heard +the strong beating of his disenchanted heart. + +"My child, I know your meaning. I will not tear the letter to pieces +and trample it under foot. God forgive me my life's slight to those +words. But I learned their value last night, in the house where +your blank letter had entered before me." + +She started, and looked into his face steadfastly, while a bright +scarlet shot into her own. + +"I know all, Netty,--all. Your secret was well kept, but it is +yours and mine now. It was well done, darling, well done. O, I +have been through strange mysteries of thought and life since that +starving woman sat here! Well--thank God!" + +"Father, what have you done?" The flush had failed, but a glad +color still brightened her face, while the tears stood trembling +in her eyes. + +"All that you wished yesterday," he answered. "And all that you +ever could have wished, henceforth I will do." + +"O father!" She stopped. The bright scarlet shot again into her +face, but with an April shower of tears, and the rainbow of a smile. + +"Listen to me, Netty, and I will tell you, and only you, what I +have done." Then, while she mutely listened, sitting by his side, +and the dawn of Christmas broadened into Christmas day, he told +her all. + +And when he had told all, and emotion was stilled, they sat together +in silence for a time, she with her innocent head drooped upon his +shoulder, and her eyes closed, lost in tender and mystic reveries; +and he musing with a contrite heart. Till at last, the stir of +daily life began to waken in the quiet dwelling, and without, from +steeples in the frosty air, there was a sound of bells. + +They rose silently, and stood, clinging to each other, side by side. + +"Love, we must part," he said, gravely and tenderly. "Read me, +before we go, the closing lines of George Feval's letter. In the +spirit of this let me strive to live. Let it be for me the lesson +of the day. Let it also be the lesson of my life." + +Her face was pale and lit with exaltation as she took the letter +from his hand. There was a pause, and then upon the thrilling and +tender silver of her voice, the words arose like solemn music:-- + +"_Farewell--farewell! But, oh! take my counsel into memory on Christmas +Day, and forever. Once again, the ancient prophecy of peace and +good-will shines on a world of wars and wrongs and woes. Its soft +ray shines into the darkness of a land wherein swarm slaves, poor +laborers, social pariahs, weeping women, homeless exiles, hunted +fugitives, despised aliens, drunkards, convicts, wicked children, +and Magdalens unredeemed. These are but the ghastliest figures +in that sad army of humanity which advances, by a dreadful road, +to the Golden Age of the poets' dream. These are your sisters and +your brothers. Love them all. Beware of wronging one of them by +word or deed. O friend! strong in wealth for so much good,--take +my last counsel. In the name of the Saviour, I charge you, be true +and tender to mankind. Come out from Babylon into manhood, and +live and labor for the fallen, the neglected, the suffering, and +the poor. Lover of arts, customs, laws, institutions, and forms of +society, love these things only as they help mankind! With stern +love, overturn them, or help to overturn them, when they become cruel +to a single--the humblest--human being. In the world's scale, social +position, influence, public power, the applause of majorities, heaps +of funded gold, services rendered to creeds, codes, sects, parties, +or federations--they weigh weight; but in God's scale--remember!--on +the day if hope, remember!--your least service to Humanity outweighs +them all._" + + + + +THE FOUR-FIFTEEN EXPRESS. + +BY AMELIA B. EDWARDS. + + +I. + +The events which I am about to relate took place between nine and +ten years ago. Sebastopol had fallen in the early spring; the peace +of Paris had been concluded since March; our commercial relations with +the Russian Empire were but recently renewed; and I, returning home +after my first northward journey since the war, was well pleased with +the prospect of spending the month of December under the hospitable +and thoroughly English roof of my excellent friend Jonathan Jelf, +Esquire, of Dumbleton Manor, Clayborough, East Anglia. Travelling +in the interests of the well-known firm in which it is my lot to +be a junior partner, I had been called upon to visit not only the +capitals of Russia and Poland, but had found it also necessary +to pass some weeks among the trading-ports of the Baltic; whence +it came that the year was already far spent before I again set +foot on English soil, and that, instead of shooting pheasants with +him, as I had hoped, in October, I came to be my friend's guest +during the more genial Christmastide. + +My voyage over, and a few days given up to business in Liverpool +and London, I hastened down to Clayborough with all the delight of +a school-boy whose holidays are at hand. My way lay by the Great +East Anglian line as far as Clayborough station, where I was to +be met by one of the Dumbleton carriages and conveyed across the +remaining nine miles of country. It was a foggy afternoon, singularly +warm for the 4th of December, and I had arranged to leave London by +the 4.15 express. The early darkness of winter had already closed +in; the lamps were lighted in the carriages; a clinging damp dimmed +the windows, adhered to the door-handles, and pervaded all the +atmosphere; while the gas-jets at the neighboring bookstand diffused +a luminous haze that only served to make the gloom of the terminus +more visible. Having arrived some seven minutes before the starting of +the train, and, by the connivance of the guard, taken sole possession +of an empty compartment, I lighted my travelling-lamp, made myself +particularly snug, and settled down to the undisturbed enjoyment of +a book and a cigar. Great, therefore, was my disappointment when, +at the last moment, a gentleman came hurrying along the platform, +glanced into my carriage, opened the locked door with a private +key, and stepped in. + +It struck me at the first glance that I had seen him before,--a +tall, spare man, thin-lipped, light-eyed, with an ungraceful stoop +in the shoulders, and scant gray hair worn somewhat long upon the +collar. He carried a light water-proof coat, an umbrella, and a +large brown japanned deed-box, which last he placed under the seat. +This done, he felt carefully in his breast-pocket, as if to make +certain of the safety of his purse or pocket-book; laid his umbrella +in the netting overhead; spread the water-proof across his knees; +and exchanged his hat for a travelling-cap of some Scotch material. +By this time the train was moving out of the station, and into +the faint gray of the wintry twilight beyond. + +I now recognized my companion. I recognized him from the moment when +he removed his hat and uncovered the lofty, furrowed, and somewhat +narrow brow beneath. I had met him, as I distinctly remembered, +some three years before, at the very house for which, in all +probability, he was now bound, like myself. His name was Dwerrihouse; +he was a lawyer by profession; and, if I was not greatly mistaken, +was first-cousin to the wife of my host. I knew also that he was +a man eminently "well to do," both as regarded his professional +and private means. The Jelfs entertained him with that sort of +observant courtesy which falls to the lot of the rich relation; +the children made much of him; and the old butler, albeit somewhat +surly "to the general," treated him with deference. I thought, +observing him by the vague mixture of lamplight and twilight, that +Mrs. Jelf's cousin looked all the worse for the three years' wear +and tear which had gone over his head since our last meeting. He +was very pale, and had a restless light in his eye that I did not +remember to have observed before. The anxious lines, too, about +his mouth were deepened, and there was a cavernous, hollow look +about his cheeks and temples which seemed to speak of sickness or +sorrow. He had glanced at me as he came in, but without any gleam +of recognition in his face. Now he glanced again, as I fancied, +somewhat doubtfully. When he did so for the third or fourth time, +I ventured to address him. + +"Mr. John Dwerrihouse, I think?" + +"That is my name," he replied. + +"I had the pleasure of meeting you at Dumbleton about three years +ago." + +Mr. Dwerrihouse bowed. + +"I thought I knew your face," he said. "But your name, I regret +to say--" + +"Langford,--William Langford. I have known Jonathan Jelf since +we were boys together at Merchant Taylor's, and I generally spend +a few weeks at Dumbleton in the shooting-season. I suppose we are +bound for the same destination?" + +"Not if you are on your way to the Manor," he replied. "I am travelling +upon business,--rather troublesome business, too,--whilst you, +doubtless, have only pleasure in view." + +"Just so. I am in the habit of looking forward to this visit as +to the brightest three weeks in all the year." + +"It is a pleasant house," said Mr. Dwerrihouse. + +"The pleasantest I know." + +"And Jelf is thoroughly hospitable." + +"The best and kindest fellow in the world!" + +"They have invited me to spend Christmas week with them," pursued +Mr. Dwerrihouse, after a moment's pause. + +"And you are coming?" + +"I cannot tell. It must depend on the issue of this business which I +have in hand. You have heard, perhaps, that we are about to construct +a branch line from Blackwater to Stockbridge." + +I explained that I had been for some months away from England, +and had therefore heard nothing of the contemplated improvement. + +Mr. Dwerrihouse smiled complacently. + +"It _will_ be an improvement," he said; "a great improvement. +Stockbridge is a flourishing town, and needs but a more direct +railway communication with the metropolis to become an important +centre of commerce. This branch was my own idea. I brought the +project before the board, and have myself superintended the execution +of it up to the present time." + +"You are an East Anglian director, I presume?" + +"My interest in the company," replied Mr. Dwerrihouse, "is threefold. +I am a director; I am a considerable shareholder; and, as head of +the firm of Dwerrihouse, Dwerrihouse, and Craik, I am the company's +principal solicitor." + +Loquacious, self-important, full of his pet project, and apparently +unable to talk on any other subject, Mr. Dwerrihouse then went on +to tell of the opposition he had encountered and the obstacles he +had overcome in the cause of the Stockbridge branch. I was entertained +with a multitude of local details and local grievances. The rapacity +of one squire; the impracticability of another; the indignation of +the rector whose glebe was threatened; the culpable indifference +of the Stockbridge townspeople, who could _not_ be brought to see +that their most vital interests hinged upon a junction with the +Great East Anglian line; the spite of the local newspaper; and the +unheard-of difficulties attending the Common question,--were each +and all laid before me with a circumstantiality that possessed +the deepest interest for my excellent fellow-traveller, but none +whatever for myself. From these, to my despair, he went on to more +intricate matters: to the approximate expenses of construction +per mile; to the estimates sent in by different contractors; to +the probable traffic returns of the new line; to the provisional +clauses of the new Act as enumerated in Schedule D of the company's +last half-yearly report; and so on, and on, and on, till my head +ached, and my attention flagged, and my eyes kept closing in spite +of every effort that I made to keep them open. At length I was +roused by these words:-- + +"Seventy-five thousand pounds, cash down." + +"Seventy-five thousand pounds, cash down," I repeated, in the liveliest +tone I could assume. "That is a heavy sum." + +"A heavy sum to carry here," replied Mr. Dwerrihouse, pointing +significantly to his breast-pocket; "but a mere fraction of what +we shall ultimately have to pay." + +"You do not mean to say that you have seventy-five thousand pounds +at this moment upon your person?" I exclaimed. + +"My good sir, have I not been telling you so for the last half-hour?" +said Mr. Dwerrihouse, testily. + +"That money has to be paid over at half past eight o'clock this +evening, at the office of Sir Thomas's solicitors, on completion +of the deed of sale." + +"But how will you get across by night from Blackwater to Stockbridge +with seventy-five thousand pounds in your pocket?" + +"To Stockbridge!" echoed the lawyer. "I find I have made myself +very imperfectly understood. I thought I had explained how this +sum only carries us as far as Mallingford,--the first stage, as +it were, of our journey,--and how our route from Blackwater to +Mallingford lies entirely through Sir Thomas Liddell's property." + +"I beg your pardon," I stammered. "I fear my thoughts were wandering. +So you only go as far as Mallingford to-night?" + +"Precisely. I shall get a conveyance from the 'Blackwater Arms.' +And you?" + +"O, Jelf sends a trap to meet me at Clayborough! Can I be the bearer +of any message from you?" + +"You may say, if you please, Mr. Langford, that I wished I could +have been your companion all the way, and that I will come over, +if possible, before Christmas." + +"Nothing more?" + +Mr. Dwerrihouse smiled grimly. "Well," he said, "you may tell my +cousin that she need not burn the hall down in my honor _this_ +time, and that I shall be obliged if she will order the blue-room +chimney to be swept before I arrive." + +"That sounds tragic. Had you a conflagration on the occasion of +your last visit to Dumbleton?" + +"Something like it. There had been no fire lighted in my bedroom +since the spring, the flue was foul, and the rooks had built in +it; so when I went up to dress for dinner, I found the room full +of smoke, and the chimney on fire. Are we already at Blackwater?" + +The train had gradually come to a pause while Mr. Dwerrihouse was +speaking, and, on putting my head out of the window, I could see +the station some few hundred yards ahead. There was another train +before us blocking the way, and the guard was making use of the +delay to collect the Blackwater tickets. I had scarcely ascertained +our position, when the ruddy-faced official appeared at our +carriage-door. + +"Tickets, sir!" said he. + +"I am for Clayborough," I replied, holding out the tiny pink card. + +He took it; glanced at it by the light of his little lantern; gave it +back; looked, as I fancied, somewhat sharply at my fellow-traveller, +and disappeared. + +"He did not ask for yours," I said with some surprise. + +"They never do," replied Mr. Dwerrihouse. "They all know me; and, +of course, I travel free." + +"Blackwater! Blackwater!" cried the porter, running along the platform +beside us, as we glided into the station. + +Mr. Dwerrihouse pulled out his deed-box, put his travelling-cap in +his pocket, resumed his hat, took down his umbrella, and prepared +to be gone. + +"Many thanks, Mr. Langford, for your society," he said, with +old-fashioned courtesy. "I wish you a good evening." + +"Good evening," I replied, putting out my hand. + +But he either did not see it, or did not choose to see it, and, +slightly lifting his hat, stepped out upon the platform. Having +done this, he moved slowly away, and mingled with the departing +crowd. + +Leaning forward to watch him out of sight, I trod upon something +which proved to be a cigar-case. It had fallen, no doubt, from +the pocket of his water-proof coat, and was made of dark morocco +leather, with a silver monogram upon the side. I sprang out of +the carriage just as the guard came up to lock me in. + +"Is there one minute to spare?" I asked eagerly. "The gentleman +who travelled down with me from town has dropped his cigar-case; +he is not yet out of the station!" + +"Just a minute and a half, sir," replied the guard. "You must be +quick." + +I dashed along the platform as fast as my feet could carry me. +It was a large station, and Mr. Dwerrihouse had by this time got +more than half-way to the farther end. + +I, however, saw him distinctly, moving slowly with the stream. +Then, as I drew nearer, I saw that he had met some friend,--that +they were talking as they walked,--that they presently fell back +somewhat from the crowd, and stood aside in earnest conversation. +I made straight for the spot where they were waiting. There was a +vivid gas-jet just above their heads, and the light fell full upon +their faces. I saw both distinctly,--the face of Mr. Dwerrihouse +and the face of his companion. Running, breathless, eager as I +was, getting in the way of porters and passengers, and fearful +every instant lest I should see the train going on without me, +I yet observed that the new-comer was considerably younger and +shorter than the director, that he was sandy-haired, mustachioed, +small-featured, and dressed in a close-cut suit of Scotch tweed. +I was now within a few yards of them. I ran against a stout +gentleman,--I was nearly knocked down by a luggage-truck,--I stumbled +over a carpet-bag,--I gained the spot just as the driver's whistle +warned me to return. + +To my utter stupefaction they were no longer there. I had seen +them but two seconds before,--and they were gone! I stood still. I +looked to right and left. I saw no sign of them in any direction. +It was as if the platform had gaped and swallowed them. + +"There were two gentlemen standing here a moment ago," I said to +a porter at my elbow; "which way can they have gone?" + +"I saw no gentlemen, sir," replied the man. + +The whistle shrilled out again. The guard, far up the platform, +held up his arm, and shouted to me to "Come on!" + +"If you're going on by this train, sir," said the porter, "you must +run for it." + +I did run for it, just gained the carriage as the train began to +move, was shoved in by the guard, and left breathless and bewildered, +with Mr. Dwerrihouse's cigar-case still in my hand. + +It was the strangest disappearance in the world. It was like a +transformation trick in a pantomime. They were there one +moment,--palpably there, talking, with the gaslight full upon their +faces; and the next moment they were gone. There was no door near,--no +window,--no staircase. It was a mere slip of barren platform, tapestried +with big advertisements. Could anything be more mysterious? + +It was not worth thinking about; and yet, for my life, I could +not help pondering upon it,--pondering, wondering, conjecturing, +turning it over and over in my mind, and beating my brains for a +solution of the enigma. I thought of it all the way from Blackwater +to Clayborough. I thought of it all the way from Clayborough to +Dumbleton, as I rattled along the smooth highway in a trim dog-cart +drawn by a splendid black mare, and driven by the silentest and +dapperest of East Anglian grooms. + +We did the nine miles in something less than an hour, and pulled +up before the lodge-gates just as the church-clock was striking +half past seven. A couple of minutes more, and the warm glow of +the lighted hall was flooding out upon the gravel, a hearty grasp +was on my hand, and a clear jovial voice was bidding me "Welcome +to Dumbleton." + +"And now, my dear fellow," said my host, when the first greeting +was over, "you have no time to spare. We dine at eight, and there +are people coming to meet you; so you must just get the dressing +business over as quickly as may be. By the way, you will meet some +acquaintances. The Biddulphs are coming, and Prendergast (Prendergast, +of the Skirmishers) is staying in the house. Adieu! Mrs. Jelf will +be expecting you in the drawing-room." + +I was ushered to my room,--not the blue room, of which Mr. Dwerrihouse +had made disagreeable experience, but a pretty little bachelor's +chamber, hung with a delicate chintz, and made cheerful by a blazing +fire. I unlocked my portmanteau. I tried to be expeditious; but +the memory of my railway adventure haunted me. I could not get +free of it. I could not shake it off. It impeded me,--it worried +me,--it tripped me up,--it caused me to mislay my studs,--to mistie +my cravat,--to wrench the buttons off my gloves. Worst of all, it +made me so late that the party had all assembled before I reached +the drawing-room. I had scarcely paid my respects to Mrs. Jelf +when dinner was announced, and we paired off, some eight or ten +couples strong, into the dining-room. + +I am not going to describe either the guests or the dinner. All +provincial parties bear the strictest family resemblance, and I +am not aware that an East Anglian banquet offers any exception +to the rule. There was the usual country baronet and his wife; +there were the usual country parsons and their wives; there was +the sempiternal turkey and haunch of venison. _Vanitas vanitatum._ +There is nothing new under the sun. + +I was placed about midway down the table. I had taken one rector's +wife down to dinner, and I had another at my left hand. They talked +across me, and their talk was about babies. It was dreadfully dull. +At length there came a pause. The entrées had just been removed, +and the turkey had come upon the scene. The conversation had all +along been of the languidest, but at this moment it happened to +have stagnated altogether. Jelf was carving the turkey. Mrs. Jelf +looked as if she was trying to think of something to say. Everybody +else was silent. Moved by an unlucky impulse, I thought I would +relate my adventure. + +"By the way, Jelf," I began, "I came down part of the way to-day +with a friend of yours." + +"Indeed!" said the master of the feast, slicing scientifically into +the breast of the turkey. "With whom, pray?" + +"With one who bade me tell you that he should, if possible, pay +you a visit before Christmas." + +"I cannot think who that could be," said my friend, smiling. + +"It must be Major Thorp," suggested Mrs. Jelf. + +I shook my head. + +"It was not Major Thorp," I replied. "It was a near relation of +your own, Mrs. Jelf." + +"Then I am more puzzled than ever," replied my hostess. "Pray tell +me who it was." + +"It was no less a person than your cousin, Mr. John Dwerrihouse." + +Jonathan Jelf laid down his knife and fork. Mrs. Jelf looked at +me in a strange, startled way, and said never a word. + +"And he desired me to tell you, my dear madam, that you need not +take the trouble to burn the hall down in his honor this time; but +only to have the chimney of the blue room swept before his arrival." + +Before I had reached the end of my sentence, I became aware of +something ominous in the faces of the guests. I felt I had said +something which I had better have left unsaid, and that for some +unexplained reason my words had evoked a general consternation. I +sat confounded, not daring to utter another syllable, and for at +least two whole minutes there was dead silence round the table. +Then Captain Prendergast came to the rescue. + +"You have been abroad for some months, have you not, Mr. Langford?" +he said, with the desperation of one who flings himself into the +breach. "I heard you had been to Russia. Surely you have something +to tell us of the state and temper of the country after the war?" + +I was heartily grateful to the gallant Skirmisher for this diversion +in my favor. I answered him, I fear, somewhat lamely; but he kept +the conversation up, and presently one or two others joined in, +and so the difficulty, whatever it might have been, was bridged +over. Bridged over, but not repaired. A something, an awkwardness, +a visible constraint, remained. The guests hitherto had been simply +dull; but now they were evidently uncomfortable and embarrassed. + +The dessert had scarcely been placed upon the table when the ladies +left the room. I seized the opportunity to select a vacant chair +next Captain Prendergast. + +"In Heaven's name," I whispered, "what was the matter just now? +What had I said?" + +"You mentioned the name of John Dwerrihouse." + +"What of that? I had seen him not two hours before." + +"It is a most astounding circumstance that you should have seen +him," said Captain Prendergast. "Are you sure it was he?" + +"As sure as of my own identity. We were talking all the way between +London and Blackwater. But why does that surprise you?" + +"_Because_," replied Captain Prendergast, dropping his voice to +the lowest whisper,--"_because John Dwerrihouse absconded three +months ago, with seventy-five thousand pounds of the company's +money, and has never been heard of since._" + +II. + +John Dwerrihouse had absconded three months ago,--and I had seen him +only a few hours back. John Dwerrihouse had embezzled seventy-five +thousand pounds of the company's money, yet told me that he carried +that sum upon his person. Were ever facts so strangely incongruous, +so difficult to reconcile? How should he have ventured again into +the light of day? How dared he show himself along the line? Above +all, what had he been doing throughout those mysterious three months +of disappearance? + +Perplexing questions these. Questions which at once suggested themselves +to the minds of all concerned, but which admitted of no easy solution. +I could find no reply to them. Captain Prendergast had not even a +suggestion to offer. Jonathan Jelf, who seized the first opportunity +of drawing me aside and learning all that I had to tell, was more +amazed and bewildered than either of us. He came to my room that +night, when all the guests were gone, and we talked the thing over +from every point of view; without, it must be confessed, arriving +at any kind of conclusion. + +"I do not ask you," he said, "whether you can have mistaken your +man. That is impossible." + +"As impossible as that I should mistake some stranger for yourself." + +"It is not a question of looks or voice, but of facts. That he +should have alluded to the fire in the blue room is proof enough +of John Dwerrihouse's identity. How did he look?" + +"Older, I thought. Considerably older, paler, and more anxious." + +"He has had enough to make him look anxious, anyhow," said my friend, +gloomily; "be he innocent or guilty." + +"I am inclined to believe that he is innocent," I replied. "He +showed no embarrassment when I addressed him, and no uneasiness +when the guard came round. His conversation was open to a fault. +I might almost say that he talked too freely of the business which +he had in hand." + +"That again is strange; for I know no one more reticent on such +subjects. He actually told you that he had the seventy-five thousand +pounds in his pocket?" + +"He did." + +"Humph! My wife has an idea about it, and she may be right--" + +"What idea?" + +"Well, she fancies,--women are so clever, you know, at putting +themselves inside people's motives,--she fancies that he was tempted; +that he did actually take the money; and that he has been concealing +himself these three months in some wild part of the country,--struggling +possibly with his conscience all the time, and daring neither to +abscond with his booty nor to come back and restore it." + +"But now that he has come back?" + +"That is the point. She conceives that he has probably thrown himself +upon the company's mercy; made restitution of the money; and, being +forgiven, is permitted to carry the business through as if nothing +whatever had happened." + +"The last," I replied, "is an impossible case. Mrs. Jelf thinks +like a generous and delicate-minded woman, but not in the least like +a board of railway directors. They would never carry forgiveness +so far." + +"I fear not; and yet it is the only conjecture that bears a semblance +of likelihood. However, we can run over to Clayborough to-morrow, +and see if anything is to be learned. By the way, Prendergast tells +me you picked up his cigar-case." + +"I did so, and here it is." + +Jelf took the cigar-case, examined it by the light of the lamp, and +said at once that it was beyond doubt Mr. Dwerrihouse's property, +and that he remembered to have seen him use it. + +"Here, too, is his monogram on the side," he added. "A big J transfixing +a capital D. He used to carry the same on his note-paper." + +"It offers, at all events, a proof that I was not dreaming." + +"Ay; but it is time you were asleep and dreaming now. I am ashamed +to have kept you up so long. Good night." + +"Good night, and remember that I am more than ready to go with +you to Clayborough, or Blackwater, or London, or anywhere, if I +can be of the least service." + +"Thanks! I know you mean it, old friend, and it may be that I shall +put you to the test. Once more, good night." + +So we parted for that night, and met again in the breakfast-room at +half past eight next morning. It was a hurried, silent, uncomfortable +meal. None of us had slept well, and all were thinking of the same +subject. Mrs. Jelf had evidently been crying; Jelf was impatient +to be off; and both Captain Prendergast and myself felt ourselves +to be in the painful position of outsiders, who are involuntarily +brought into a domestic trouble. Within twenty minutes after we +had left the breakfast-table the dog-cart was brought round, and +my friend and I were on the road to Clayborough. + +"Tell you what it is, Langford," he said, as we sped along between +the wintry hedges, "I do not much fancy to bring up Dwerrihouse's +name at Clayborough. All the officials know that he is my wife's +relation, and the subject just now is hardly a pleasant one. If +you don't much mind, we will take the 11.10 to Blackwater. It's +an important station, and we shall stand a far better chance of +picking up information there than at Clayborough." + +So we took the 11.10, which happened to be an express, and, arriving +at Blackwater about a quarter before twelve, proceeded at once to +prosecute our inquiry. + +We began by asking for the station-master,--a big, blunt, business-like +person, who at once averred that he knew Mr. John Dwerrihouse perfectly +well, and that there was no director on the line whom he had seen +and spoken to so frequently. + +"He used to be down here two or three times a week, about three +months ago," said he, "when the new line was first set afoot; but +since then, you know, gentlemen--" + +He paused, significantly. + +Jelf flushed scarlet. + +"Yes, yes," he said hurriedly, "we know all about that. The point +now to be ascertained is whether anything has been seen or heard +of him lately." + +"Not to my knowledge," replied the station-master. + +"He is not known to have been down the line any time yesterday, +for instance?" + +The station-master shook his head. + +"The East Anglian, sir," said he, "is about the last place where +he would dare to show himself. Why, there isn't a station-master, +there isn't a guard, there isn't a porter, who doesn't know +Mr. Dwerrihouse by sight as well as he knows his own face in the +looking-glass; or who wouldn't telegraph for the police as soon +as he had set eyes on him at any point along the line. Bless you, +sir! there's been a standing order out against him ever since the +twenty-fifth of September last." + +"And yet," pursued my friend, "a gentleman who travelled down yesterday +from London to Clayborough by the afternoon express testifies that he +saw Mr. Dwerrihouse in the train, and that Mr. Dwerrihouse alighted +at Blackwater station." + +"Quite impossible, sir," replied the station-master, promptly. + +"Why impossible?" + +"Because there is no station along the line where he is so well +known, or where he would run so great a risk. It would be just +running his head into the lion's mouth. He would have been mad to +come nigh Blackwater station; and if he had come, he would have +been arrested before he left the platform." + +"Can you tell me who took the Blackwater tickets of that train?" + +"I can, sir. It was the guard,--Benjamin Somers." + +"And where can I find him?" + +"You can find him, sir, by staying here, if you please, till one +o'clock. He will be coming through with the up express from Crampton, +which stays at Blackwater for ten minutes." + +We waited for the up express, beguiling the time as best we could +by strolling along the Blackwater road till we came almost to the +outskirts of the town, from which the station was distant nearly a +couple of miles. By one o'clock we were back again upon the platform, +and waiting for the train. It came punctually, and I at once recognized +the ruddy-faced guard who had gone down with my train the evening +before. + +"The gentlemen want to ask you something about Mr. Dwerrihouse, +Somers," said the station-master, by way of introduction. + +The guard flashed a keen glance from my face to Jelf's, and back +again to mine. + +"Mr. John Dwerrihouse, the late director?" said he, interrogatively. + +"The same," replied my friend. "Should you know him if you saw him?" + +"Anywhere, sir." + +"Do you know if he was in the 4.15 express yesterday afternoon?" + +"He was not, sir." + +"How can you answer so positively?" + +"Because I looked into every carriage, and saw every face in that +train, and I could take my oath that Mr. Dwerrihouse was not in +it. This gentleman was," he added, turning sharply upon me. "I +don't know that I ever saw him before in my life, but I remember +_his_ face perfectly. You nearly missed taking your seat in time +at this station, sir, and you got out at Clayborough." + +"Quite true, guard," I replied; "but do you not also remember the +face of the gentleman who travelled down in the same carriage with +me as far as here?" + +"It was my impression, sir, that you travelled down alone," said +Somers, with a look of some surprise. + +"By no means. I had a fellow-traveller as far as Blackwater, and +it was in trying to restore him the cigar-case which he had dropped +in the carriage that I so nearly let you go on without me." + +"I remember your saying something about a cigar-case, certainly," +replied the guard, "but--" + +"You asked for my ticket just before we entered the station." + +"I did, sir." + +"Then you must have seen him. He sat in the corner next the very +door to which you came." + +"No, indeed. I saw no one." + +I looked at Jelf. I began to think the guard was in the ex-director's +confidence, and paid for his silence. + +"If I had seen another traveller I should have asked for his ticket," +added Somers. "Did you see me ask for his ticket, sir?" + +"I observed that you did not ask for it, but he explained that +by saying--" I hesitated. I feared I might be telling too much, +and so broke off abruptly. + +The guard and the station-master exchanged glances. The former looked +impatiently at his watch. + +"I am obliged to go on in four minutes more, sir," he said. + +"One last question, then," interposed Jelf, with a sort of desperation. +"If this gentleman's fellow-traveller had been Mr. John Dwerrihouse, +and he had been sitting in the corner next the door by which you +took the tickets, could you have failed to see and recognize him?" + +"No, sir; it would have been quite impossible." + +"And you are certain you did _not_ see him?" + +"As I said before, sir, I could take my oath I did not see him. +And if it wasn't that I don't like to contradict a gentleman, I +would say I could also take my oath that this gentleman was quite +alone in the carriage the whole way from London to Clayborough. +Why, sir," he added, dropping his voice so as to be inaudible to +the station-master, who had been called away to speak to some person +close by, "you expressly asked me to give you a compartment to +yourself, and I did so. I locked you in, and you were so good as +to give me something for myself." + +"Yes; but Mr. Dwerrihouse had a key of his own." + +"I never saw him, sir; I saw no one in that compartment but yourself. +Beg pardon, sir, my time's up." + +And with this the ruddy guard touched his cap and was gone. In +another minute the heavy panting of the engine began afresh, and +the train glided slowly out of the station. + +We looked at each other for some moments in silence. I was the first +to speak. + +"Mr. Benjamin Somers knows more than he chooses to tell," I said. + +"Humph! do you think so?" + +"It must be. He could not have come to the door without seeing him. +It's impossible." + +"There is one thing not impossible, my dear fellow." + +"What is that?" + +"That you may have fallen asleep, and dreamt the whole thing." + +"Could I dream of a branch line that I had never heard of? Could +I dream of a hundred and one business details that had no kind of +interest for me? Could I dream of the seventy-five thousand pounds?" + +"Perhaps you might have seen or heard some vague account of the +affair while you were abroad. It might have made no impression +upon you at the time, and might have come back to you in your +dreams,--recalled, perhaps, by the mere names of the stations on +the line." + +"What about the fire in the chimney of the blue room,--should I +have heard of that during my journey?" + +"Well, no; I admit there is a difficulty about that point." + +"And what about the cigar-case?" + +"Ay, by Jove! there is the cigar-case. That _is_ a stubborn fact. +Well, it's a mysterious affair, and it will need a better detective +than myself, I fancy, to clear it up. I suppose we may as well go +home." + +III. + +A week had not gone by when I received a letter from the Secretary +of the East Anglian Railway Company, requesting the favor of my +attendance at a special board meeting, not then many days distant. +No reasons were alleged, and no apologies offered, for this demand +upon my time; but they had heard, it was clear, of my inquiries +anent the missing director, and had a mind to put me through some +sort of official examination upon the subject. Being still a guest +at Dumbleton Hall, I had to go up to London for the purpose, and +Jonathan Jelf accompanied me. I found the direction of the Great +East Anglian line represented by a party of some twelve or fourteen +gentlemen seated in solemn conclave round a huge green-baize table, +in a gloomy board-room, adjoining the London terminus. + +Being courteously received by the chairman (who at once began by +saying that certain statements of mine respecting Mr. John Dwerrihouse +had come to the knowledge of the direction, and that they in consequence +desired to confer with me on those points), we were placed at the +table, and the inquiry proceeded in due form. + +I was first asked if I knew Mr. John Dwerrihouse, how long I had +been acquainted with him, and whether I could identify him at sight. +I was then asked when I had seen him last. To which I replied, +"On the fourth of this present month, December, eighteen hundred +and fifty-six." Then came the inquiry of where I had seen him on +that fourth day of December; to which I replied that I met him in +a first-class compartment of the 4.15 down express; that he got +in just as the train was leaving the London terminus, and that he +alighted at Blackwater station. The chairman then inquired whether +I had held any communication with my fellow-traveller; whereupon +I related, as nearly as I could remember it, the whole bulk and +substance of Mr. John Dwerrihouse's diffuse information respecting +the new branch line. + +To all this the board listened with profound attention, while the +chairman presided and the secretary took notes. I then produced +the cigar-case. It was passed from hand to hand, and recognized by +all. There was not a man present who did not remember that plain +cigar-case with its silver monogram, or to whom it seemed anything +less than entirely corroborative of my evidence. When at length I +had told all that I had to tell, the chairman whispered something +to the secretary; the secretary touched a silver hand-bell; and +the guard, Benjamin Somers, was ushered into the room. He was then +examined as carefully as myself. He declared that he knew Mr. John +Dwerrihouse perfectly well; that he could not be mistaken in him; +that he remembered going down with the 4.15 express on the afternoon +in question; that he remembered me; and that, there being one or +two empty first-class compartments on that especial afternoon, he +had, in compliance with my request, placed me in a carriage by +myself. He was positive that I remained alone in that compartment +all the way from London to Clayborough. He was ready to take his +oath that Mr. Dwerrihouse was neither in that carriage with me, +nor in any compartment of that train. He remembered distinctly to +have examined my ticket at Blackwater; was certain that there was +no one else at that time in the carriage; could not have failed +to observe a second person, if there had been one; had that second +person been Mr. John Dwerrihouse, should have quietly double-locked +the door of the carriage, and have at once given information to the +Blackwater station-master. So clear, so decisive, so ready, was +Somers with this testimony, that the board looked fairly puzzled. + +"You hear this person's statement, Mr. Langford," said the chairman. +"It contradicts yours in every particular. What have you to say +in reply?" + +"I can only repeat what I said before. I am quite as positive of +the truth of my own assertions as Mr. Somers can be of the truth +of his." + +"You say that Mr. Dwerrihouse alighted at Blackwater, and that +he was in possession of a private key. Are you sure that he had +not alighted by means of that key before the guard came round for +the tickets?" + +"I am quite positive that he did not leave the carriage till the +train had fairly entered the station, and the other Blackwater +passengers alighted. I even saw that he was met there by a friend." + +"Indeed! Did you see that person distinctly?" + +"Quite distinctly." + +"Can you describe his appearance?" + +"I think so. He was short and very slight, sandy-haired, with a +bushy mustache and beard, and he wore a closely fitting suit of gray +tweed. His age I should take to be about thirty-eight or forty." + +"Did Mr. Dwerrihouse leave the station in this person's company?" + +"I cannot tell. I saw them walking together down the platform, and +then I saw them standing aside under a gas-jet, talking earnestly. +After that I lost sight of them quite suddenly; and just then my +train went on, and I with it" + +The chairman and secretary conferred together in an undertone. The +directors whispered to each other. One or two looked suspiciously +at the guard. I could see that my evidence remained unshaken, and +that, like myself, they suspected some complicity between the guard +and the defaulter. + +"How far did you conduct that 4.15 express on the day in question, +Somers?" asked the chairman. + +"All through, sir," replied the guard; "from London to Crampton." + +"How was it that you were not relieved at Clayborough? I thought +there was always a change of guards at Clayborough." + +"There used to be, sir, till the new regulations came in force +last midsummer; since when, the guards in charge of express trains +go the whole way through." + +The chairman turned to the secretary. + +"I think it would be as well," he said, "if we had the day-book +to refer to upon this point." + +Again the secretary touched the silver hand-bell, and desired the +porter in attendance to summon Mr. Raikes. From a word or two dropped +by another of the directors, I gathered that Mr. Raikes was one +of the under-secretaries. + +He came,--a small, slight, sandy-haired, keen-eyed man, with an +eager, nervous manner, and a forest of light beard and mustache. +He just showed himself at the door of the board-room, and, being +requested to bring a certain day-book from a certain shelf in a +certain room, bowed and vanished. + +He was there such a moment, and the surprise of seeing him was so +great and sudden, that it was not till the door had closed upon +him that I found voice to speak. He was no sooner gone, however, +than I sprang to my feet. + +"That person," I said, "is the same who met Mr. Dwerrihouse upon +the platform at Blackwater!" + +There was a general movement of surprise. The chairman looked grave, +and somewhat agitated. + +"Take care, Mr. Langford," he said, "take care what you say!" + +"I am as positive of his identity as of my own." + +"Do you consider the consequences of your words? Do you consider +that you are bringing a charge of the gravest character against +one of the company's servants?" + +"I am willing to be put upon my oath, if necessary. The man who +came to that door a minute since is the same whom I saw talking +with Mr. Dwerrihouse on the Blackwater platform. Were he twenty +times the company's servant, I could say neither more nor less." + +The chairman turned again to the guard. + +"Did you see Mr. Raikes in the train, or on the platform?" he asked. + +Somers shook his head. + +"I am confident Mr. Raikes was not in the train," he said; "and +I certainly did not see him on the platform." + +The chairman turned next to the secretary. + +"Mr. Raikes is in your office, Mr. Hunter," he said. "Can you remember +if he was absent on the fourth instant?" + +"I do not think he was," replied the secretary; "but I am not prepared +to speak positively. I have been away most afternoons myself lately, +and Mr. Raikes might easily have absented himself if he had been +disposed." + +At this moment the under-secretary returned with the day-book under +his arm. + +"Be pleased to refer, Mr. Raikes," said the chairman, "to the entries +of the fourth instant, and see what Benjamin Somers's duties were +on that day." + +Mr. Raikes threw open the cumbrous volume, and ran a practised eye +and finger down some three or four successive columns of entries. +Stopping suddenly at the foot of a page, he then read aloud that +Benjamin Somers had on that day conducted the 4.15 express from +London to Crampton. + +The chairman leaned forward in his seat, looked the under-secretary +full in the face, and said, quite sharply and suddenly,-- + +"Where were _you_, Mr. Raikes, on the same afternoon?" + +"_I_, sir?" + +"You, Mr. Raikes. Where were you on the afternoon and evening of +the fourth of the present month?" + +"Here, sir,--in Mr. Hunter's office. Where else should I be?" + +There was a dash of trepidation in the under-secretary's voice as +he said this; but his look of surprise was natural enough. + +"We have some reason for believing, Mr. Raikes, that you were absent +that afternoon without leave. Was this the case?" + +"Certainly not, sir. I have not had a day's holiday since September. +Mr. Hunter will bear me out in this." + +Mr. Hunter repeated what he had previously said on the subject, +but added that the clerks in the adjoining office would be certain +to know. Whereupon the senior clerk, a grave, middle-aged person, +in green glasses, was summoned and interrogated. + +His testimony cleared the under-secretary at once. He declared +that Mr. Raikes had in no instance, to his knowledge, been absent +during office hours since his return from his annual holiday in +September. + +I was confounded. The chairman turned to me with a smile, in which +a shade of covert annoyance was scarcely apparent. + +"You hear, Mr. Langford?" he said. + +"I hear, sir; but my conviction remains unshaken." + +"I fear, Mr. Langford, that your convictions are very insufficiently +based," replied the chairman, with a doubtful cough. "I fear that +you 'dream dreams,' and mistake them for actual occurrences. It is +a dangerous habit of mind, and might lead to dangerous results. +Mr. Raikes here would have found himself in an unpleasant position, +had he not proved so satisfactory an _alibi_." + +I was about to reply, but he gave me no time. + +"I think, gentlemen," he went on to say, addressing the board, +"that we should be wasting time to push this inquiry further. Mr. +Langford's evidence would seem to be of an equal value throughout. +The testimony of Benjamin Somers disproves his first statement, and +the testimony of the last witness disproves his second. I think +we may conclude that Mr. Langford fell asleep in the train on the +occasion of his journey to Clayborough, and dreamt an unusually +vivid and circumstantial dream,--of which, however, we have now +heard quite enough." + +There are few things more annoying than to find one's positive +convictions met with incredulity. I could not help feeling impatience +at the turn that affairs had taken. I was not proof against the +civil sarcasm of the chairman's manner. Most intolerable of all, +however, was the quiet smile lurking about the corners of Benjamin +Somers's mouth, and the half-triumphant, half-malicious gleam in +the eyes of the under-secretary. The man was evidently puzzled, +and somewhat alarmed. His looks seemed furtively to interrogate +me. Who was I? What did I want? Why had I come there to do him +an ill turn with his employers? What was it to me whether or no +he was absent without leave? + +Seeing all this, and perhaps more irritated by it than the thing +deserved, I begged leave to detain the attention of the board for +a moment longer. Jelf plucked me impatiently by the sleeve. + +"Better let the thing drop," he whispered. "The chairman's right +enough. You dreamt it; and the less said now the better." + +I was not to be silenced, however, in this fashion. I had yet something +to say, and I would say it. It was to this effect: that dreams were +not usually productive of tangible results, and that I requested +to know in what way the chairman conceived I had evolved from my +dream so substantial and well-made a delusion as the cigar-case +which I had had the honor to place before him at the commencement +of our interview. + +"The cigar-case, I admit, Mr. Langford," the chairman replied, +"is a very strong point in your evidence. It is your _only_ strong +point, however, and there is just a possibility that we may all +be misled by a mere accidental resemblance. Will you permit me +to see the case again?" + +"It is unlikely," I said, as I handed it to him, "that any other +should bear precisely this monogram, and yet be in all other particulars +exactly similar." + +The chairman examined it for a moment in silence, and then passed +it to Mr. Hunter. Mr. Hunter turned it over and over, and shook +his head. + +"This is no mere resemblance," he said. "It is John Dwerrihouse's +cigar-case to a certainty. I remember it perfectly. I have seen +it a hundred times." + +"I believe I may say the same," added the chairman. "Yet how account +for the way in which Mr. Langford asserts that it came into his +possession?" + +"I can only repeat," I replied, "that I found it on the floor of +the carriage after Mr. Dwerrihouse had alighted. It was in leaning +out to look after him that I trod upon it; and it was in running +after him for the purpose of restoring it that I saw--or believed +I saw--Mr. Raikes standing aside with him in earnest conversation." + +Again I felt Jonathan Jelf plucking at my sleeve. + +"Look at Raikes," he whispered,--"look at Raikes!" + +I turned to where the under-secretary had been standing a moment +before, and saw him, white as death with lips trembling and livid, +stealing towards the door. + +To conceive a sudden, strange, and indefinite suspicion; to fling +myself in his way; to take him by the shoulders as if he were a +child, and turn his craven face, perforce, towards the board, were +with me the work of an instant. + +"Look at him!" I exclaimed. "Look at his face! I ask no better witness +to the truth of my words." + +The chairman's brow darkened. + +"Mr. Raikes," he said, sternly, "if you know anything, you had better +speak." + +Vainly trying to wrench himself from my grasp, the under-secretary +stammered out an incoherent denial. + +"Let me go," he said. "I know nothing,--you have no right to detain +me,--let me go!" + +"Did you, or did you not, meet Mr. John Dwerrihouse at Blackwater +station? The charge brought against you is either true or false. +If true, you will do well to throw yourself upon the mercy of the +board, and make full confession of all that you know." + +The under-secretary wrung his hands in an agony of helpless terror. + +"I was away," he cried. "I was two hundred miles away at the time! +I know nothing about it--I have nothing to confess--I am innocent--I +call God to witness I am innocent!" + +"Two hundred miles away!" echoed the chairman. "What do you mean?" + +"I was in Devonshire. I had three weeks' leave of absence--I appeal +to Mr. Hunter--Mr. Hunter knows I had three weeks' leave of absence! +I was in Devonshire all the time--I can prove I was in Devonshire!" + +Seeing him so abject, so incoherent, so wild with apprehension, +the directors began to whisper gravely among themselves; while +one got quietly up, and called the porter to guard the door. + +"What has your being in Devonshire to do with the matter?" said +the chairman. "When were you in Devonshire?" + +"Mr. Raikes took his leave in September," said the secretary; "about +the time when Mr. Dwerrihouse disappeared." + +"I never even heard that he had disappeared till I came back!" + +"That must remain to be proved," said the chairman. "I shall at +once put this matter in the hands of the police. In the mean while, +Mr. Raikes, being myself a magistrate, and used to deal with these +cases, I advise you to offer no resistance, but to confess while +confession may yet do you service. As for your accomplice--" + +The frightened wretch fell upon his knees. + +"I had no accomplice!" he cried. "Only have mercy upon me,--only +spare my life, and I will confess all! I didn't mean to harm him! +I didn't mean to hurt a hair of his head. Only have mercy upon +me, and let me go!" + +The chairman rose in his place, pale and agitated. "Good heavens!" +he exclaimed, "what horrible mystery is this? What does it mean?" + +"As sure as there is a God in heaven," said Jonathan Jelf, "it means +that murder has been done." + +"No--no--no!" shrieked Raikes, still upon his knees, and cowering +like a beaten hound. "Not murder! No jury that ever sat could bring +it in murder. I thought I had only stunned him--I never meant to +do more than stun him! Manslaughter--manslaughter--not murder!" + +Overcome by the horror of this unexpected revelation, the chairman +covered his face with his hand, and for a moment or two remained +silent. + +"Miserable man," he said at length, "you have betrayed yourself." + +"You bade me confess! You urged me to throw myself upon the mercy +of the board!" + +"You have confessed to a crime which no one suspected you of having +committed," replied the chairman, "and which this board has no +power either to punish or forgive. All that I can do for you is to +advise you to submit to the law, to plead guilty, and to conceal +nothing. When did you do this deed?" + +The guilty man rose to his feet, and leaned heavily against the +table. His answer came reluctantly, like the speech of one dreaming. + +"On the twenty-second of September!" + +On the twenty-second of September! I looked in Jonathan Jelf's +face, and he in mine. I felt my own paling with a strange sense +of wonder and dread. I saw his blanch suddenly, even to the lips. + +"Merciful heaven!" he whispered, "_what was it, then, that you saw +in the train?_" + + +What was it that I saw in the train? That question remains unanswered +to this day. I have never been able to reply to it. I only know that +it bore the living likeness of the murdered man, whose body had +then been lying some ten weeks under a rough pile of branches, and +brambles, and rotting leaves, at the bottom of a deserted chalk-pit +about half-way between Blackwater and Mallingford. I know that it +spoke, and moved, and looked as that man spoke, and moved, and +looked in life; that I heard, or seemed to hear, things related +which I could never otherwise have learned; that I was guided, as +it were, by that vision on the platform to the identification of +the murderer; and that, a passive instrument myself, I was destined, +by means of these mysterious teachings, to bring about the ends of +justice. For these things I have never been able to account. + +As for that matter of the cigar-case, it proved on inquiry, that +the carriage in which I travelled down that afternoon to Clayborough +had not been in use for several weeks, and was in point of fact +the same in which poor John Dwerrihouse had performed his last +journey. The case had, doubtless, been dropped by him, and had lain +unnoticed till I found it. + +Upon the details of the murder I have no need to dwell. Those who +desire more ample particulars may find them, and the written confession +of Augustus Raikes, in the files of the Times for 1856. Enough +that the under-secretary, knowing the history of the new line, +and following the negotiation step by step through all its stages, +determined to waylay Mr. Dwerrihouse, rob him of the seventy-five +thousand pounds, and escape to America with his booty. + +In order to effect these ends he obtained leave of absence a few +days before the time appointed for the payment of the money; secured +his passage across the Atlantic in a steamer advertised to start +on the twenty-third; provided himself with a heavily loaded +"life-preserver," and went down to Blackwater to await the arrival +of his victim. How he met him on the platform with a pretended +message from the board; how he offered to conduct him by a short +cut across the fields to Mallingford; how, having brought him to +a lonely place, he struck him down with the life-preserver, and +so killed him; and how, finding what he had done, he dragged the +body to the verge of an out-of-the-way chalk-pit, and there flung +it in, and piled it over with branches and brambles,--are facts +still fresh in the memories of those who, like the connoisseurs in +De Quincey's famous essay, regard murder as a fine art. Strangely +enough, the murderer, having done his work, was afraid to leave the +country. He declared that he had not intended to take the director's +life, but only to stun and rob him; and that, finding the blow +had killed, he dared not fly for fear of drawing down suspicion +upon his own head. As a mere robber he would have been safe in the +States, but as a murderer he would inevitably have been pursued, +and given up to justice. So he forfeited his passage, returned to +the office as usual at the end of his leave, and locked up his +ill-gotten thousands till a more convenient opportunity. In the +mean while he had the satisfaction of finding that Mr. Dwerrihouse +was universally believed to have absconded with the money, no one +knew how or whither. + +Whether he meant murder or not, however, Mr. Augustus Raikes paid +the full penalty of his crime, and was hanged at the Old Bailey +in the second week in January, 1857. Those who desire to make his +further acquaintance may see him any day (admirably done in wax) +in the Chamber of Horrors at Madame Tussaud's exhibition, in Baker +Street. He is there to be found in the midst of a select society of +ladies and gentlemen of atrocious memory, dressed in the close-cut +tweed suit which he wore on the evening of the murder, and holding +in his hand the identical life-preserver with which he committed +it. + + + + +THE SIGNAL-MAN. + +BY CHARLES DICKENS. + + +"Halloa! Below there!" + +When he heard a voice thus calling to him, he was standing at the +door of his box, with a flag in his hand, furled round its short +pole. One would have thought, considering the nature of the ground, +that he could not have doubted from what quarter the voice came; +but, instead of looking up to where I stood on the top of the steep +cutting nearly over his head, he turned himself about and looked +down the Line. There was something remarkable in his manner of +doing so, though I could not have said, for my life, what. But I +know it was remarkable enough to attract my notice, even though +his figure was foreshortened and shadowed, down in the deep trench, +and mine was high above him, and so steeped in the glow of an angry +sunset that I had shaded my eyes with my hand before I saw him at +all. + +"Halloa! Below!" + +From looking down the Line, he turned himself about again, and, +raising his eyes, saw my figure high above him. + +"Is there any path by which I can come down and speak to you?" + +He looked up at me without replying, and I looked down at him without +pressing him too soon with a repetition of my idle question. Just +then there came a vague vibration in the earth and air, quickly +changing into a violent pulsation, and an oncoming rush that caused +me to start back, as though it had force to draw me down. When +such vapor as rose to my height from this rapid train had passed +me and was skimming away over the landscape, I looked down again, +and saw him refurling the flag he had shown while the train went +by. + +I repeated my inquiry. After a pause, during which he seemed to +regard me with fixed attention, he motioned with his rolled-up +flag towards a point on my level, some two or three hundred yards +distant. I called down to him, "All right!" and made for that point. +There, by dint of looking closely about me, I found a rough zigzag +descending path notched out; which I followed. + +The cutting was extremely deep, and unusually precipitate. It was +made through a clammy stone that became oozier and wetter as I +went down. For these reasons, I found the way long enough to give +me time to recall a singular air of reluctance or compulsion with +which he had pointed out the path. + +When I came down low enough upon the zigzag descent to see him +again, I saw that he was standing between the rails on the way by +which the train had lately passed, in an attitude as if he were +waiting for me to appear. He had his left hand at his chin, and +that left elbow rested on his right hand crossed over his breast. +His attitude was one of such expectation and watchfulness, that +I stopped a moment, wondering at it. + +I resumed my downward way, and, stepping out upon the level of +the railroad and drawing nearer to him, saw that he was a dark, +sallow man, with a dark beard and rather heavy eyebrows. His post +was in as solitary and dismal a place as ever I saw. On either side, +a dripping-wet wall of jagged stone, excluding all view but a strip +of sky: the perspective one way, only a crooked prolongation of +this great dungeon; the shorter perspective in the other direction, +terminating in a gloomy red light, and the gloomier entrance to a +black tunnel, in whose massive architecture there was a barbarous, +depressing, and forbidding air. So little sunlight ever found its +way to this spot, and it had an earthy deadly smell; and so much +cold wind rushed through it, that it struck chill to me, as if +I had left the natural world. + +Before he stirred, I was near enough to him to have touched him. +Not even then removing his eyes from mine, he stepped back one +step, and lifted his hand. + +This was a lonesome post to occupy (I said), and it had riveted +my attention when I looked down from up yonder. A visitor was a +rarity, I should suppose; not an unwelcome rarity, I hoped? In +me, he merely saw a man who had been shut up within narrow limits +all his life, and who, being at last set free, had a newly awakened +interest in these great works. To such purpose I spoke to him; +but I am far from sure of the terms I used, for, besides that I +am not happy in opening any conversation, there was something in +the man that daunted me. + +He directed a most curious look towards the red light near the +tunnel's mouth, and looked all about it, as if something were missing +from it, and then looked at me. + +That light was part of his charge? Was it not? + +He answered in a low voice, "Don't you know it is?" + +The monstrous thought came into my mind, as I perused the fixed +eyes and the saturnine face, that this was a spirit, not a man. +I have speculated since whether there may have been infection in +his mind. + +In my turn, I stepped back. But in making the action, I detected +in his eyes some latent fear of me. This put the monstrous thought +to flight. + +"You look at me," I said, forcing a smile, "as if you had a dread +of me." + +"I was doubtful," he returned, "whether I had seen you before." + +"Where?" + +He pointed to the red light he had looked at. + +"There?" I said. + +Intently watchful of me, he replied (but without sound), "Yes." + +"My good fellow, what should I do there? However, be that as it +may, I never was there, you may swear." + +"I think I may," he rejoined. "Yes, I am sure I may." + +His manner cleared, like my own. He replied to my remarks with +readiness, and in well-chosen words. Had he much to do there? Yes; +that was to say, he had enough responsibility to bear; but exactness +and watchfulness were what was required of him, and of actual +work--manual labor--he had next to none. To change that signal, +to trim those lights, and to turn this iron handle now and then, +was all he had to do under that head. Regarding those many long +and lonely hours of which I seemed to make so much, he could only +say that the routine of his life had shaped itself into that form, +and he had grown used to it. He had taught himself a language down +here,--if only to know it by sight, and to have formed his own +crude ideas of its pronunciation, could be called learning it. +He had also worked at fractions and decimals, and tried a little +algebra; but he was, and had been as a boy, a poor hand at figures. +Was it necessary for him, when on duty, always to remain in that +channel of damp air, and could he never rise into the sunshine from +between those high stone walls? Why, that depended upon times and +circumstances. Under some conditions there would be less upon the +Line than under others, and the same held good as to certain hours +of the day and night. In bright weather, he did choose occasions +for getting a little above these lower shadows; but, being at all +times liable to be called by his electric bell, and at such times +listening for it with redoubled anxiety, the relief was less than +I would suppose. + +He took me into his box, where there was a fire, a desk for an +official book in which he had to make certain entries, a telegraphic +instrument with its dial face and needles, and the little bell +of which he had spoken. On my trusting that he would excuse the +remark that he had been well educated, and (I hoped I might say +without offence) perhaps educated above that station, he observed +that instances of slight incongruity in such-wise would rarely be +found wanting among large bodies of men; that he had heard it was +so in workhouses, in the police force, even in that last desperate +resource, the army; and that he knew it was so, more or less, in any +great railway staff. He had been, when young (if I could believe +it, sitting in that hut; he scarcely could), a student of natural +philosophy, and had attended lectures; but he had run wild, misused +his opportunities, gone down, and never risen again. He had no +complaint to offer about that. He had made his bed, and he lay upon +it. It was far too late to make another. + +All that I have here condensed he said in a quiet manner, with his +grave dark regards divided between me and the fire. He threw in +the word "Sir" from time to time, and especially when he referred +to his youth, as though to request me to understand that he claimed +to be nothing but what I found him. He was several times interrupted +by the little bell, and had to read off messages, and send replies. +Once he had to stand without the door and display a flag as a train +passed, and make some verbal communication to the driver. In the +discharge of his duties I observed him to be remarkably exact and +vigilant, breaking off his discourse at a syllable, and remaining +silent until what he had to do was done. + +In a word, I should have set this man down as one of the safest +of men to be employed in that capacity, but for the circumstance +that while he was speaking to me he twice broke off with a fallen +color, turned his face towards the little bell when it did NOT +ring, opened the door of the hut (which was kept shut to exclude +the unhealthy damp), and looked out towards the red light near the +mouth of the tunnel. On both of those occasions he came back to +the fire with the inexplicable air upon him which I had remarked, +without being able to define, when we were so far asunder. + +Said I, when I rose to leave him, "You almost make me think that +I have met with a contented man." + +(I am afraid I must acknowledge that I said it to lead him on.) + +"I believe I used to be so," he rejoined, in the low voice in which +he had first spoken; "but I am troubled, sir, I am troubled." + +He would have recalled the words if he could. He had said them, +however, and I took them up quickly. + +"With what? What is your trouble?" + +"It is very difficult to impart, sir. It is very, very difficult +to speak of. If ever you make me another visit, I will try to tell +you." + +"But I expressly intend to make you another visit. Say, when shall +it be?" + +"I go off early in the morning, and I shall be on again at ten to-morrow +night, sir." + +"I will come at eleven." + +He thanked me, and went out at the door with me. "I'll show my +white light, sir," he said, in his peculiar low voice, "till you +have found the way up. When you have found it, don't call out! +And when you are at the top, don't call out!" + +His manner seemed to make the place strike colder to me, but I said +no more than, "Very well." + +"And when you come down to-morrow night, don't call out! Let me ask +you a parting question. What made you cry, 'Halloa! Below there!' +to-night?" + +"Heaven knows," said I. "I cried something to that effect--" + +"Not to that effect, sir. Those were the very words. I know them +well." + +"Admit those were the very words. I said them, no doubt, because +I saw you below." + +"For no other reason?" + +"What other reason could I possibly have?" + +"You had no feeling that they were conveyed to you in any supernatural +way?" + +"No." + +He wished me good night, and held up his light. I walked by the +side of the down Line of rails (with a very disagreeable sensation +of a train coming behind me), until I found the path. It was easier +to mount than to descend, and I got back to my inn without any +adventure. + +Punctual to my appointment, I placed my foot on the first notch of +the zigzag next night, as the distant clocks were striking eleven. +He was waiting for me at the bottom, with his white light on. + +"I have not called out," I said, when we came close together; "may +I speak now?" + +"By all means, sir." + +"Good night, then, and here's my hand." + +"Good night, sir, and here's mine." + +With that, we walked side by side to his box, entered it, closed +the door, and sat down by the fire. + +"I have made up my mind, sir," he began, bending forward as soon +as we were seated, and speaking in a tone but a little above a +whisper, "that you shall not have to ask me twice what troubles +me. I took you for some one else yesterday evening. That troubles +me." + +"That mistake?" + +"No. That some one else." + +"Who is it?" + +"I don't know." + +"Like me?" + +"I don't know. I never saw the face. The left arm is across the +face, and the right arm is waved. Violently waved. This way." + +I followed his action with my eyes, and it was the action of an +arm gesticulating with the utmost passion and vehemence: "For God's +sake clear the way!" + +"One moonlight night," said the man, "I was sitting here, when +I heard a voice cry, 'Halloa! Below there!' I started up, looked +from that door, and saw this Some one else standing by the red +light near the tunnel, waving as I just now showed you. The voice +seemed hoarse with shouting, and it cried, 'Look out! Look out!' +And then again, 'Halloa! Below there! Look out!' I caught up my +lamp, turned it on red, and ran towards the figure, calling, 'What's +wrong? What has happened? Where?' It stood just outside the blackness +of the tunnel. I advanced so close upon it that I wondered at its +keeping the sleeve across its eyes. I ran right up at it, and had +my hand stretched out to pull the sleeve away, when it was gone." + +"Into the tunnel?" said I. + +"No. I ran on into the tunnel, five hundred yards. I stopped and +held my lamp above my head, and saw the figures of the measured +distance, and saw the wet stains stealing down the walls and trickling +through the arch. I ran out again, faster than I had run in (for I +had a mortal abhorrence of the place upon me), and I looked all +round the red light with my own red light, and I went up the iron +ladder to the gallery atop of it, and I came down again, and ran +back here. I telegraphed both ways, 'An alarm has been given. Is +anything wrong?' The answer came back, both ways, 'All well.'" + +Resisting the slow touch of a frozen finger tracing out my spine, I +showed him how that this figure must be a deception of his sense of +sight, and how that figures, originating in disease of the delicate +nerves that minister to the functions of the eye, were known to have +often troubled patients, some of whom had become conscious of the +nature of their affliction, and had even proved it by experiments +upon themselves. "As to an imaginary cry," said I, "do but listen +for a moment to the wind in this unnatural valley while we speak +so low, and to the wild harp it makes of the telegraph wires!" + +That was all very well, he returned, after we had sat listening +for a while, and he ought to know something of the wind and the +wires, he who so often passed long winter nights there, alone and +watching. But he would beg to remark that he had not finished. + +I asked his pardon, and he slowly added these words, touching my +arm:-- + +"Within six hours after the Appearance, the memorable accident on +this Line happened, and within ten hours the dead and wounded were +brought along through the tunnel over the spot where the figure +had stood." + +A disagreeable shudder crept over me, but I did my best against +it. It was not to be denied, I rejoined, that this was a remarkable +coincidence, calculated deeply to impress the mind. But it was +unquestionable that remarkable coincidences did continually occur, +and they must be taken into account in dealing with such a subject. +Though to be sure I must admit, I added (for I thought I saw that +he was going to bring the objection to bear upon me), men of +common-sense did not allow much for coincidences in making the ordinary +calculations of life. + +He again begged to remark that he had not finished. + +I again begged his pardon for being betrayed into interruptions. + +"This," he said, again laying his hand upon my arm, and glancing +over his shoulder with hollow eyes, "was just a year ago. Six or +seven months passed, and I had recovered from the surprise and +shock, when one morning, as the day was breaking, I, standing at +that door, looked towards the red light, and saw the spectre again." +He stopped, with a fixed look at me. + +"Did it cry out?" + +"No. It was silent." + +"Did it wave its arm?" + +"No. It leaned against the shaft of the light, with both hands before +the face. Like this." + +Once more, I followed his action with my eyes. It was an action of +mourning. I have seen such an attitude in stone figures on tombs. + +"Did you go up to it?" + +"I came in and sat down, partly to collect my thoughts, partly +because it had turned me faint. When I went to the door again, daylight +was above me, and the ghost was gone." + +"But nothing followed? Nothing came of this?" + +He touched me on the arm with his forefinger twice or thrice, giving +a ghastly nod each time. + +"That very day, as a train came out of the tunnel, I noticed, at a +carriage window on my side, what looked like a confusion of hands +and heads, and something waved. I saw it just in time to signal +the driver, Stop! He shut off, and put his brake on, but the train +drifted past here a hundred and fifty yards or more. I ran after it, +and as I went along heard terrible screams and cries. A beautiful +young lady had died instantaneously in one of the compartments, and +was brought in here, and laid down on this floor between us." + +Involuntarily I pushed my chair back, as I looked from the boards +at which he pointed, to himself. + +"True, sir. True. Precisely as it happened, so I tell it you." + +I could think of nothing to say, to any purpose, and my mouth was +very dry. The wind and the wires took up the story with a long +lamenting wail. + +He resumed. "Now, sir, mark this, and judge how my mind is troubled. +The spectre came back, a week ago. Ever since, it has been there, +now and again, by fits and starts." + +"At the light?" + +"At the Danger-light." + +"What does it seem to do?" + +He repeated, if possible with increased passion and vehemence, that +former gesticulation of "For God's sake clear the way!" + +Then he went on. "I have no peace or rest for it. It calls to me, +for many minutes together, in an agonized manner, 'Below there! +Look out! Look out!' It stands waving to me. It rings my little +bell--" + +I caught at that. "Did it ring your bell yesterday evening when +I was here, and you went to the door?" + +"Twice." + +"Why, see," said I, "how your imagination misleads you. My eyes +were on the bell, and my ears were open to the bell, and, if I am +a living man, it did NOT ring at those times. No, nor at any other +time, except when it was rung in the natural course of physical +things by the station communicating with you." + +He shook his head. "I have never made a mistake as to that, yet, +sir. I have never confused the spectre's ring with the man's. The +ghost's ring is a strange vibration in the bell that it derives +from nothing else, and I have not asserted that the bell stirs to +the eye. I don't wonder that you failed to hear it. But _I_ heard +it." + +"And did the spectre seem to be there, when you looked out?" + +"It WAS there." + +"Both times?" + +He repeated firmly: "Both times." + +"Will you come to the door with me, and look for it now?" + +He bit his under-lip as though he were somewhat unwilling, but +arose. I opened the door, and stood on the step, while he stood +in the doorway. There was the Danger-light. There was the dismal +mouth of the tunnel. There were the high wet stone walls of the +cutting. There were the stars above them. + +"Do you see it?" I asked him, taking particular note of his face. +His eyes were prominent and strained; but not very much more so, +perhaps, than my own had been when I had directed them earnestly +towards the same point. + +"No," he answered. "It is not there." + +"Agreed," said I. + +We went in again, shut the door, and resumed our seats. I was thinking +how best to improve this advantage, if it might be called one, when +he took up the conversation in such a matter-of-course way, so +assuming that there could be no serious question of fact between +us, that I felt myself placed in the weakest of positions. + +"By this time you will fully understand, sir," he said, "that what +troubles me so dreadfully is the question, What does the spectre +mean?" + +I was not sure, I told him, that I did fully understand. + +"What is its warning against?" he said, ruminating, with his eyes +on the fire, and only by times turning them on me. "What is the +danger? Where is the danger? There is danger overhanging, somewhere +on the Line. Some dreadful calamity will happen. It is not to be +doubted this third time, after what has gone before. But surely +this is a cruel haunting of _me_. What can _I_ do?" + +He pulled out his handkerchief, and wiped the drops from his heated +forehead. + +"If I telegraph Danger on either side of me, or on both, I can +give no reason for it," he went on, wiping the palms of his hands. +"I should get into trouble, and do no good. They would think I +was mad. This is the way it would work:--Message: 'Danger! Take +care!' Answer: 'What Danger? Where?' Message: 'Don't know. But +for God's sake take care!' They would displace me. What else could +they do?" + +His pain of mind was most pitiable to see. It was the mental torture +of a conscientious man, oppressed beyond endurance by an unintelligible +responsibility involving life. + +"When it first stood under the Danger-light," he went on, putting +his dark hair back from his head, and drawing his hands outward +across and across his temples in an extremity of feverish distress, +"why not tell me where that accident was to happen,--if it must +happen? Why not tell me how it could be averted,--if it could have +been averted? When on its second coming it hid its face, why not +tell me instead: 'She is going to die. Let them keep her at home'? +If it came, on those two occasions, only to show me that its warnings +were true, and so to prepare me for the third, why not warn me +plainly now? And I, Lord help me! A mere poor signal-man on this +solitary station! Why not go to somebody with credit to be believed, +and power to act?" + +When I saw him in this state, I saw that for the poor man's sake, +as well as for the public safety, what I had to do for the time +was to compose his mind. Therefore, setting aside all question of +reality or unreality between us, I represented to him that whoever +thoroughly discharged his duty must do well, and that at least it +was his comfort that he understood his duty, though he did not +understand these confounding Appearances. In this effort I succeeded +far better than in the attempt to reason him out of his conviction. +He became calm; the occupations incidental to his post, as the +night advanced, began to make larger demands on his attention; and +I left him at two in the morning. I had offered to stay through +the night, but he would not hear of it. + +That I more than once looked back at the red light as I ascended +the pathway, that I did not like the red light, and that I should +have slept but poorly if my bed had been under it, I see no reason +to conceal. Nor did I like the two sequences of the accident and +the dead girl. I see no reason to conceal that, either. + +But what ran most in my thoughts was the consideration, how ought +I to act, having become the recipient of this disclosure? I had +proved the man to be intelligent, vigilant, painstaking, and exact; +but how long might he remain so, in his state of mind? Though in +a subordinate position, still he held a most important trust, and +would I (for instance) like to stake my own life on the chances +of his continuing to execute it with precision? + +Unable to overcome a feeling that there would be something treacherous +in my communicating what he had told me to his superiors in the +Company, without first being plain with himself and proposing a +middle course to him, I ultimately resolved to offer to accompany +him (otherwise keeping his secret for the present) to the wisest +medical practitioner we could hear of in those parts, and to take +his opinion. A change in his time of duty would come round next +night, he had apprised me, and he would be off an hour or two after +sunrise, and on again soon after sunset. I had appointed to return +accordingly. + +Next evening was a lovely evening, and I walked out early to enjoy +it. The sun was not yet quite down when I traversed the field-path +near the top of the deep cutting. I would extend my walk for an +hour, I said to myself, half an hour on and half an hour back, +and it would then be time to go to my signal-man's box. + +Before pursuing my stroll I stepped to the brink, and mechanically +looked down, from the point from which I had first seen him. I +cannot describe the thrill that seized upon me, when, close at +the mouth of the tunnel, I saw the appearance of a man, with his +left sleeve across his eyes, passionately waving his right arm. + +The nameless horror that oppressed me passed in a moment, for in +a moment I saw that this appearance of a man was a man indeed, +and that there was a little group of other men standing at a short +distance, to whom he seemed to be rehearsing the gesture he made. +The Danger-light was not yet lighted. Against its shaft, a little +low hut, entirely new to me, had been made of some wooden supports +and tarpaulin. It looked no bigger than a bed. + +With an irresistible sense that something was wrong, with a flashing +self-reproachful fear that fatal mischief had come of my leaving +the man there, and causing no one to be sent to overlook or correct +what he did,--I descended the notched path with all the speed I +could make. + +"What is the matter?" I asked the men. + +"Signal-man killed this morning, sir." + +"Not the man belonging to that box?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"Not the man I know?" + +"You will recognize him, sir, if you knew him," said the man who +spoke for the others, solemnly uncovering his own head and raising +an end of the tarpaulin, "for his face is quite composed." + +"O, how did this happen, how did this happen?" I asked, turning +from one to another as the hut closed in again. + +"He was cut down by an engine, sir. No man in England knew his +work better. But somehow he was not clear of the outer rail. It +was just at broad day. He had struck the light, and had the lamp +in his hand. As the engine came out of the tunnel, his back was +towards her, and she cut him down. That man drove her, and was +showing how it happened. Show the gentleman, Tom." + +The man, who wore a rough, dark dress, stepped back to his former +place at the mouth of the tunnel. + +"Coming round the curve in the tunnel, sir," he said, "I saw him +at the end, like as if I saw him down a perspective-glass. There +was no time to check speed, and I knew him to be very careful. As +he didn't seem to take heed of the whistle, I shut it off when +we were running down upon him, and called to him as loud as I could +call." + +"What did you say?" + +"I said, Below there! Look out! Look out! For God's sake, clear +the way!" + +I started. + +"Ah! it was a dreadful time, sir. I never left off calling to him. +I put this arm before my eyes, not to see, and I waved this arm +to the last; but it was no use." + + +Without prolonging the narrative to dwell on any one of its curious +circumstances more than on any other, I may, in closing it, point +out the coincidence that the warning of the Engine-Driver included, +not only the words which the unfortunate signal-man had repeated to +me as haunting him, but also the words which I myself--not he--had +attached, and that only in my own mind, to the gesticulation he +had imitated. + + + + +THE HAUNTED SHIPS. + +BY ALLAN CUNNINGHAM. + + +Along the sea of Solway, romantic on the Scottish side, with its +woodlands, its bays, its cliffs, and headlands,--and interesting on +the English side, with its many beautiful towns with their shadows +on the water, rich pastures, safe harbors, and numerous ships,--there +still linger many traditional stories of a maritime nature, most of +them connected with superstitions singularly wild and unusual. To +the curious these tales afford a rich fund of entertainment, from +the many diversities of the same story; some dry and barren, and +stripped of all the embellishments of poetry; others dressed out in +all the riches of a superstitious belief and haunted imagination. In +this they resemble the inland traditions of the peasants; but many +of the oral treasures of the Galwegian or the Cumbrian coast have +the stamp of the Dane and the Norseman upon them, and claim but a +remote or faint affinity with the legitimate legends of Caledonia. +Something like a rude prosaic outline of several of the most noted +of the Northern ballads, the adventures and depredations of the +old ocean kings, still lends life to the evening tale; and among +others, the story of the Haunted Ships is still popular among the +maritime peasantry. + +One fine harvest evening I went on board the shallop of Richard +Faulder, of Allanbay; and, committing ourselves to the waters, +we allowed a gentle wind from the east to waft us at its pleasure +toward the Scottish coast. We passed the sharp promontory of Siddick; +and skirting the land within a stone-cast, glided along the shore +till we came within sight of the ruined Abbey of Sweetheart. The +green mountain of Criffell ascended beside us; and the bleat of the +flocks from its summit, together with the winding of the evening +horn of the reapers, came softened into something like music over +land and sea. We pushed our shallop into a deep and wooded bay, +and sat silently looking on the serene beauty of the place. The +moon glimmered in her rising through the tall shafts of the pines +of Caerlaverock; and the sky, with scarce a cloud, showered down +on wood, and headland, and bay, the twinkling beams of a thousand +stars, rendering every object visible. The tide, too, was coming +with that swift and silent swell observable when the wind is gentle; +the woody curves along the land were filling with the flood, till +it touched the green branches of the drooping trees; while in the +centre current the roll and the plunge of a thousand pellocks told +to the experienced fisherman that salmon were abundant. + +As we looked, we saw an old man emerging from a path that winded to +the shore through a grove of doddered hazel; he carried a halve-net +on his back, while behind him came a girl, bearing a small harpoon with +which the fishers are remarkably dexterous in striking their prey. +The senior seated himself on a large gray stone, which overlooked the +bay, laid aside his bonnet, and submitted his bosom and neck to the +refreshing sea-breeze; and taking his harpoon from his attendant, +sat with the gravity and composure of a spirit of the flood, with +his ministering nymph behind him. We pushed our shallop to the +shore, and soon stood at their side. + +"This is old Mark Macmoran, the mariner, with his grand-daughter +Barbara," said Richard Faulder, in a whisper that had something +of fear in it; "he knows every creek and cavern and quicksand in +Solway,--has seen the Spectre Hound that haunts the Isle of Man; +has heard him bark, and at every bark has seen a ship sink; and he +has seen, too, the Haunted Ships in full sail; and, if all tales +be true, he has sailed in them himself: he's an awful person." + +Though I perceived in the communication of my friend something +of the superstition of the sailor, I could not help thinking that +common rumor had made a happy choice in singling out old Mark to +maintain her intercourse with the invisible world. His hair, which +seemed to have refused all intercourse with the comb, hung matted +upon his shoulders; a kind of mantle, or rather blanket, pinned +with a wooden skewer round his neck, fell mid-leg down, concealing +all his nether garments as far as a pair of hose, darned with yarn +of all conceivable colors, and a pair of shoes, patched and repaired +till nothing of the original structure remained, and clasped on +his feet with two massy silver buckles. If the dress of the old +man was rude and sordid, that of his grand-daughter was gay, and +even rich. She wore a bodice of fine wool, wrought round the bosom +with alternate leaf and lily, and a kirtle of the same fabric, +which, almost touching her white and delicate ankle, showed her +snowy feet, so fairy-light and round that they scarcely seemed +to touch the grass where she stood. Her hair, a natural ornament +which woman seeks much to improve, was of bright glossy brown, +and encumbered rather than adorned with a snood, set thick with +marine productions, among which the small clear pearl found in +the Solway was conspicuous. Nature had not trusted to a handsome +shape, and a sylph-like air, for young Barbara's influence over +the heart of man; but had bestowed a pair of large bright blue +eyes, swimming in liquid light, so full of love and gentleness +and joy, that all the sailors from Annanwater to far Saint Bees +acknowledged their power, and sung songs about the bonnie lass +of Mark Macmoran. She stood holding a small gaff-hook of polished +steel in her hand, and seemed not dissatisfied with the glances +I bestowed on her from time to time, and which I held more than +requited by a single glance of those eyes which retained so many +capricious hearts in subjection. + +The tide, though rapidly augmenting, had not yet filled the bay at +our feet. The moon now streamed fairly over the tops of Caerlaverock +pines, and showed the expanse of ocean dimpling and swelling, on +which sloops and shallops came dancing, and displaying at every +turn their extent of white sail against the beam of the moon. I +looked on old Mark the Mariner, who, seated motionless on his gray +stone, kept his eye fixed on the increasing waters with a look of +seriousness and sorrow in which I saw little of the calculating +spirit of a mere fisherman. Though he looked on the coming tide, +his eyes seemed to dwell particularly on the black and decayed +hulls of two vessels, which, half immersed in the quicksand, still +addressed to every heart a tale of shipwreck and desolation. The +tide wheeled and foamed around them; and creeping inch by inch +up the side, at last fairly threw its waters over the top, and a +long and hollow eddy showed the resistance which the liquid element +received. + +The moment they were fairly buried in the water, the old man clasped +his hands together, and said, "Blessed be the tide that will break +over and bury ye forever! Sad to mariners, and sorrowful to maids +and mothers, has the time been you have choked up this deep and +bonnie bay. For evil were you sent, and for evil have you continued. +Every season finds from you its song of sorrow and wail, its funeral +processions, and its shrouded corses. Woe to the land where the +wood grew that made ye! Cursed be the axe that hewed ye on the +mountains, the hands that joined ye together, the bay that ye first +swam in, and the wind that wafted ye here! Seven times have ye put +my life in peril, three fair sons have you swept from my side, +and two bonnie grand-bairns; and now, even now, your waters foam +and flash for my destruction, did I venture my infirm limbs in +quest of food in your deadly bay. I see by that ripple and that +foam, and hear by the sound and singing of your surge, that ye +yearn for another victim; but it shall not be me nor mine." + +Even as the old mariner addressed himself to the wrecked ships, a +young man appeared at the southern extremity of the bay, holding +his halve-net in his hand, and hastening into the current. Mark +rose, and shouted, and waved him back from a place which, to a person +unacquainted with the dangers of the bay, real and superstitious, +seemed sufficiently perilous: his grand-daughter, too, added her +voice to his, and waved her white hands; but the more they strove, +the faster advanced the peasant, till he stood to his middle in the +water, while the tide increased every moment in depth and strength. +"Andrew, Andrew," cried the young woman, in a voice quavering with +emotion, "turn, turn, I tell you: O the ships, the Haunted Ships!" +But the appearance of a fine run of fish had more influence with +the peasant than the voice of bonnie Barbara, and forward he dashed, +net in hand. In a moment he was borne off his feet, and mingled +like foam with the water, and hurried toward the fatal eddies which +whirled and roared round the sunken ships. But he was a powerful +young man, and an expert swimmer: he seized on one of the projecting +ribs of the nearest hulk, and clinging to it with the grasp of +despair, uttered yell after yell, sustaining himself against the +prodigious rush of the current. + +From a shealing of turf and straw, within the pitch of a bar from +the spot where we stood, came out an old woman bent with age, and +leaning on a crutch. "I heard the voice of that lad Andrew Lammie; +can the chield be drowning, that he skirls sae uncannilie?" said +the old woman, seating herself on the ground, and looking earnestly +at the water. "Ou aye," she continued, "he's doomed, he's doomed; +heart and hand can never save him; boats, ropes, and man's strength, +and wit, all vain! vain! he's doomed, he's doomed!" + +By this time I had thrown myself into the shallop, followed reluctantly +by Richard Faulder, over whose courage and kindness of heart +superstition had great power; and with one push from the shore, +and some exertion in sculling, we came within a quoitcast of the +unfortunate fisherman. He stayed not to profit by our aid; for +when he perceived us near, he uttered a piercing shriek of joy, +and bounded toward us through the agitated element the full length +of an oar. I saw him for a second on the surface of the water; +but the eddying current sucked him down; and all I ever beheld +of him again was his hand held above the flood, and clutching in +agony at some imaginary aid. I sat gazing in horror on the vacant +sea before us: but a breathing time before, a human being, full +of youth and strength and hope, was there: his cries were still +ringing in my ears and echoing in the woods; and now nothing was +seen or heard save the turbulent expanse of water, and the sound of +its chafing on the shores. We pushed back our shallop, and resumed +our station on the cliff beside the old mariner and his descendant. + +"Wherefore sought ye to peril your own lives fruitlessly," said +Mark, "in attempting to save the doomed? Whoso touches those infernal +ships, never survives to tell the tale. Woe to the man who is found +nigh them at midnight when the tide has subsided, and they arise +in their former beauty, with forecastle, and deck, and sail, and +pennon, and shroud! Then is seen the streaming of lights along +the water from their cabin windows, and then is heard the sound +of mirth and the clamor of tongues, and the infernal whoop and +halloo, and song, ringing far and wide. Woe to the man who comes +nigh them!" + +To all this my Allanbay companion listened with a breathless attention. +I felt something touched with a superstition to which I partly +believed I had seen one victim offered up; and I inquired of the +old mariner, "How and when came these haunted ships there? To me +they seem but the melancholy relics of some unhappy voyagers, and +much more likely to warn people to shun destruction, than entice +and delude them to it." + +"And so," said the old man with a smile, which had more of sorrow +in it than of mirth,--"and so, young man, these black and shattered +hulks seem to the eye of the multitude. But things are not what +they seem: that water, a kind and convenient servant to the wants +of man, which seems so smooth, and so dimpling, and so gentle, +has swallowed up a human soul even now; and the place which it +covers, so fair and so level, is a faithless quicksand, out of +which none escape. Things are otherwise than they seem. Had you +lived as long as I have had the sorrow to live; had you seen the +storms, and braved the perils, and endured the distresses which +have befallen me; had you sat gazing out on the dreary ocean at +midnight on a haunted coast; had you seen comrade after comrade, +brother after brother, and son after son, swept away by the merciless +ocean from your very side; had you seen the shapes of friends, +doomed to the wave and the quicksand, appearing to you in the dreams +and visions of the night,--then would your mind have been prepared +for crediting the maritime legends of mariners; and the two haunted +Danish ships would have had their terrors for you, as they have +for all who sojourn on this coast. + +"Of the time and the cause of their destruction," continued the +old man, "I know nothing certain: they have stood as you have seen +them for uncounted time; and while all other ships wrecked on this +unhappy coast have gone to pieces, and rotted, and sunk away in a few +years, these two haunted hulks have neither sunk in the quicksand, +nor has a single spar or board been displaced. Maritime legend says, +that two ships of Denmark having had permission, for a time, to work +deeds of darkness and dolor on the deep, were at last condemned to +the whirlpool and the sunken rock, and were wrecked in this bonnie +bay, as a sign to seamen to be gentle and devout. The night when they +were lost was a harvest evening of uncommon mildness and beauty: +the sun had newly set; the moon came brighter and brighter out; +and the reapers, laying their sickles at the root of the standing +corn, stood on rock and bank, looking at the increasing magnitude +of the waters, for sea and land were visible from Saint Bees to +Barnhourie. The sails of two vessels were soon seen bent for the +Scottish coast; and with a speed outrunning the swiftest ship, they +approached the dangerous quicksands and headland of Borranpoint. +On the deck of the foremost ship not a living soul was seen, or +shape, unless something in darkness and form resembling a human +shadow could be called a shape, which flitted from extremity to +extremity of the ship, with the appearance of trimming the sails, +and directing the vessel's course. But the decks of its companion +were crowded with human shapes: the captain, and mate, and sailor, +and cabin-boy, all seemed there; and from them the sound of mirth +and minstrelsy echoed over land and water. The coast which they +skirted along was one of extreme danger; and the reapers shouted +to warn them to beware of sandbank and rock; but of this friendly +counsel no notice was taken, except that a large and famished dog, +which sat on the prow, answered every shout with a long, loud, and +melancholy howl. The deep sandbank of Carsethorn was expected to +arrest the career of these desperate navigators; but they passed, +with the celerity of waterfowl, over an obstruction which had wrecked +many pretty ships. + +"Old men shook their heads and departed, saying, 'We have seen +the fiend sailing in a bottomless ship; let us go home and pray': +but one young and wilful man said, 'Fiend! I'll warrant it's nae +fiend, but douce Janet Withershins, the witch, holding a carouse +with some of her Cumberland cummers, and mickle red wine will be +spilt atween them. Dod I would gladly have a toothfu'! I'll warrant +it's nane o' your cauld, sour slae-water, like a bottle of Bailie +Skrinkie's port, but right drap-o'-my-heart's-blood stuff, that +would waken a body out of their last linen. I wonder where the +cummers will anchor their craft?'--'And I'll vow,' said another +rustic, 'the wine they quaff is none of your visionary drink, such +as a drouthie body has dished out to his lips in a dream; nor is +it shadowy and unsubstantial, like the vessels they sail in, which +are made out of a cockleshell or a cast-off slipper, or the paring +of a seaman's right thumb-nail. I once got a hansel out of a witch's +quaigh myself,--auld Marion Mathers, of Dustiefoot, whom they tried +to bury in the old kirkyard of Dunscore, but the cummer raise as +fast as they laid her down, and naewhere else would she lie but +in the bonnie green kirkyard of Kier, among douce and sponsible +fowk. So I'll vow that the wine of a witch's cup is as fell liquor +as ever did a kindly turn to a poor man's heart; and be they fiends, +or be they witches, if they have red wine asteer, I'll risk a drouket +sark for ae glorious tout on't.'--'Silence, ye sinners,' said the +minister's son of a neighboring parish, who united in his own person +his father's lack of devotion with his mother's love of liquor. +'Whisht!--speak as if ye had the fear of something holy before +ye. Let the vessels run their own way to destruction: who can stay +the eastern wind, and the current of the Solway sea? I can find +ye Scripture warrant for that: so let them try their strength on +Blawhooly rocks, and their might on the broad quicksand. There's a +surf running there would knock the ribs together of a galley built +by the imps of the pit, and commanded by the Prince of Darkness. +Bonnilie and bravely they sail away there; but before the blast +blows by they'll be wrecked: and red wine and strong brandy will +be as rife as dyke-water, and we'll drink the health of bonnie +Bell Blackness out of her left-foot slipper.' + +"The speech of the young profligate was applauded by several of +his companions, and away they flew to the bay of Blawhooly, from +whence they never returned. The two vessels were observed all at +once to stop in the bosom of the bay on the spot where their hulls +now appear: the mirth and the minstrelsy waxed louder than ever; +and the forms of maidens, with instruments of music, and wine-cups +in their hands, thronged the decks. A boat was lowered; and the +same shadowy pilot who conducted the ships made it start toward +the shore with the rapidity of lightning, and its head knocked +against the bank where the four young men stood, who longed for +the unblest drink. They leaped in with a laugh, and with a laugh +were they welcomed on deck; wine-cups were given to each, and as +they raised them to their lips the vessels melted away beneath +their feet; and one loud shriek, mingled with laughter still louder, +was heard over land and water for many miles. Nothing more was heard +or seen till the morning, when the crowd who came to the beach saw +with fear and wonder the two Haunted Ships, such as they now seem, +masts and tackle gone; nor mark, nor sign, by which their name, +country, or destination could be known, was left remaining. Such is +the tradition of the mariners; and its truth has been attested by +many families whose sons and whose fathers have been drowned in +the haunted bay of Blawhooly." + +"And trow ye," said the old woman, who, attracted from her hut by +the drowning cries of the young fisherman, had remained an auditor +of the mariner's legend,--"and trow ye, Mark Macmoran, that the +tale of the Haunted Ships is done? I can say no to that. Mickle +have mine ears heard; but more mine eyes have witnessed since I +came to dwell in this humble home by the side of the deep sea. +I mind the night weel: it was on Hallowmass eve: the nuts were +cracked, and the apples were eaten, and spell and charm were tried +at my fireside; till, wearied with diving into the dark waves of +futurity, the lads and lasses fairly took to the more visible blessings +of kind words, tender clasps, and gentle courtship. Soft words +in a maiden's ear, and a kindly kiss o' her lip, were old-world +matters to me, Mark Macmoran; though I mean not to say that I have +been free of the folly of daunering and daffin with a youth in +my day, and keeping tryste with him in dark and lonely places. +However, as I say, these times of enjoyment were passed and gone +with me; the mair's the pity that pleasure should fly sae fast +away,--and as I could nae make sport I thought I should not mar +any; so out I sauntered into the fresh cold air, and sat down behind +that old oak, and looked abroad on the wide sea. I had my ain sad +thoughts, ye may think, at the time: it was in that very bay my +blythe goodman perished, with seven more in his company, and on +that very bank where ye see the waves leaping and foaming, I saw +seven stately corses streeked, but the dearest was the eighth. +It was a woful sight to me, a widow, with four bonnie boys, with +nought to support them but these twa hands, and God's blessing, +and a cow's grass. I have never liked to live out of sight of this +bay since that time; and mony's the moonlight night I sit looking +on these watery mountains, and these waste shores; it does my heart +good, whatever it may do to my head. So ye see it was Hallowmass +night; and looking on sea and land sat I; and my heart wandering +to other thoughts soon made me forget my youthful company at hame. +It might be near the howe hour of the night; the tide was making, +and its singing brought strange old-world stories with it; and I +thought on the dangers that sailors endure, the fates they meet +with, and the fearful forms they see. My own blythe goodman had +seen sights that made him grave enough at times, though he aye +tried to laugh them away. + +"Aweel, atween that very rock aneath us and the coming tide, I +saw, or thought I saw, for the tale is so dream-like, that the +whole might pass for a vision of the night, I saw the form of a +man: his plaid was gray; his face was gray; and his hair, which +hung low down till it nearly came to the middle of his back, was +as white as the white sea-foam. He began to howk and dig under the +bank; an' God be near me, thought I, this maun be the unblessed +spirit of Auld Adam Gowdgowpin, the miser, who is doomed to dig +for shipwrecked treasure, and count how many millions are hidden +forever from man's enjoyment. The Form found something which in +shape and hue seemed a left-foot slipper of brass; so down to the +tide he marched, and placing it on the water, whirled it thrice +round; and the infernal slipper dilated at every turn, till it +became a bonnie barge with its sails bent, and on board leaped +the form, and scudded swiftly away. He came to one of the Haunted +Ships; and striking it with his oar, a fair ship, with mast, and +canvas, and mariners, started up: he touched the other Haunted +Ship, and produced the like transformation; and away the three +spectre ships bounded, leaving a track of fire behind them on the +billows which was long unextinguished. Now was nae that a bonnie +and a fearful sight to see beneath the light of the Hallowmass +moon? But the tale is far frae finished; for mariners say that +once a year, on a certain night, if ye stand on the Borranpoint, ye +will see the infernal shallops coming snoring through the Solway; +ye will hear the same laugh, and song, and mirth, and minstrelsy, +which our ancestors heard; see them bound over the sandbanks and +sunken rocks like sea-gulls, cast their anchor in Blawhooly Bay, +while the shadowy figure lowers down the boat, and augments their +numbers with the four unhappy mortals, to whose memory a stone +stands in the kirkyard, with a sinking ship and a shoreless sea +cut upon it. Then the spectre ships vanish, and the drowning shriek +of mortals and the rejoicing laugh of fiends are heard, and the old +hulls are left as a memorial that the old spiritual kingdom has +not departed from the earth. But I maun away, and trim my little +cottage fire, and make it burn and blaze up bonnie, to warm the +crickets, and my cold and crazy bones, that maun soon be laid aneath +the green sod in the eerie kirkyard." And away the old dame tottered +to her cottage, secured the door on the inside, and soon the +hearth-flame was seen to glimmer and gleam through the key-hole +and window. + +"I'll tell ye what," said the old mariner, in a subdued tone, and +with a shrewd and suspicious glance of his eye after the old sibyl, +"it's a word that may not very well be uttered, but there are many +mistakes made in evening stories if old Moll Moray there, where +she lives, knows not mickle more than she is willing to tell of +the Haunted Ships and their unhallowed mariners. She lives cannilie +and quietly; no one knows how she is fed or supported; but her +dress is aye whole, her cottage ever smokes, and her table lacks +neither of wine, white and red, nor of fowl and fish, and white +bread and brown. It was a dear scoff to Jock Matheson, when he +called old Moll the uncannie carline of Blawhooly: his boat ran +round and round in the centre of the Solway,--everybody said it +was enchanted,--and down it went head foremost: and had nae Jock +been a swimmer equal to a sheldrake, he would have fed the fish; +but I'll warrant it sobered the lad's speech; and he never reckoned +himself safe till he made auld Moll the present of a new kirtle +and a stone of cheese." + +"O father," said his grand-daughter Barbara, "ye surely wrong poor +old Mary Moray; what use could it be to an old woman like her, who +has no wrongs to redress, no malice to work out against mankind, +and nothing to seek of enjoyment save a cannie hour and a quiet +grave,--what use could the fellowship of fiends, and the communion +of evil spirits, be to her? I know Jenny Primrose puts rowan-tree +above the door-head when she sees old Mary coming; I know the good +wife of Kittlenaket wears rowan-berry leaves in the headband of +her blue kirtle, and all for the sake of averting the unsonsie +glance of Mary's right ee; and I know that the auld laird of +Burntroutwater drives his seven cows to their pasture with a wand +of witch-tree, to keep Mary from milking them. But what has all +that to do with haunted shallops, visionary mariners, and bottomless +boats? I have heard myself as pleasant a tale about the Haunted +Ships and their unworldly crews, as any one would wish to hear +in a winter evening. It was told me by young Benjie Macharg, one +summer night, sitting on Arbiglandbank: the lad intended a sort +of love meeting; but all that he could talk of was about smearing +sheep and shearing sheep, and of the wife which the Norway elves +of the Haunted Ships made for his uncle Sandie Macharg. And I shall +tell ye the tale as the honest lad told it to me. + +"Alexander Macharg, besides being the laird of three acres of peatmoss, +two kale gardens, and the owner of seven good milch cows, a pair of +horses, and six pet sheep, was the husband of one of the handsomest +women in seven parishes. Many a lad sighed the day he was brided; +and a Nithsdale laird and two Annandale moorland farmers drank +themselves to their last linen, as well as their last shilling, +through sorrow for her loss. But married was the dame; and home +she was carried, to bear rule over her home and her husband, as +an honest woman should. Now ye maun ken that though the flesh and +blood lovers of Alexander's bonnie wife all ceased to love and to +sue her after she became another's, there were certain admirers +who did not consider their claim at all abated, or their hopes +lessened, by the kirk's famous obstacle of matrimony. Ye have heard +how the devout minister of Tinwald had a fair son carried away, +and bedded against his liking to an unchristened bride, whom the +elves and the fairies provided; ye have heard how the bonnie bride +of the drunken laird of Soukitup was stolen by the fairies out at +the back-window of the bridal chamber, the time the bridegroom +was groping his way to the chamber-door; and ye have heard-- But +why need I multiply cases? such things in the ancient days were +as common as candle-light. So ye'll no hinder certain water-elves +and sea-fairies, who sometimes keep festival and summer mirth in +these old haunted hulks, from falling in love with the weel-faured +wife of Laird Macharg; and to their plots and contrivances they went +how they might accomplish to sunder man and wife; and sundering +such a man and such a wife was like sundering the green leaf from +the summer, or the fragrance from the flower. + +"So it fell on a time that Laird Macharg took his halve-net on his +back, and his steel spear in his hand, and down to Blawhooly Bay +gaed he, and into the water he went right between the two haunted +hulks, and placing his net awaited the coming of the tide. The +night, ye maun ken, was mirk, and the wind lowne, and the singing +of the increasing waters among the shells and the pebbles was heard +for sundry miles. All at once lights began to glance and twinkle on +board the two Haunted Ships from every hole and seam, and presently +the sound as of a hatchet employed in squaring timber echoed far +and wide. But if the toil of these unearthly workmen amazed the +Laird, how much more was his amazement increased when a sharp shrill +voice called out, 'Ho! brother, what are you doing now?' A voice +still shriller responded from the other haunted ship, 'I'm making +a wife to Sandie Macharg!' and a loud quavering laugh running from +ship to ship, and from bank to bank, told the joy they expected +from their labor. + +"Now the Laird, besides being a devout and a God-fearing man, was +shrewd and bold; and in plot, and contrivance, and skill in conducting +his designs, was fairly an overmatch for any dozen land-elves; but +the water-elves are far more subtle; besides, their haunts and +their dwellings being in the great deep, pursuit and detection is +hopeless if they succeed in carrying their prey to the waves. But +ye shall hear. Home flew the Laird, collected his family around +the hearth, spoke of the signs and the sins of the times, and talked +of mortification and prayer for averting calamity; and finally, +taking his father's Bible, brass clasps, black print, and covered +with calf-skin, from the shelf, he proceeded without let or stint +to perform domestic worship. I should have told ye that he bolted +and locked the door, shut up all inlet to the house, threw salt +into the fire, and proceeded in every way like a man skilful in +guarding against the plots of fairies and fiends. His wife looked +on all this with wonder; but she saw something in her husband's +looks that hindered her from intruding either question or advice, +and a wise woman was she. + +"Near the mid-hour of the night the rush of a horse's feet was +heard, and the sound of a rider leaping from its back, and a heavy +knock came to the door, accompanied by a voice saying, 'The cummer +drink's hot, and the knave bairn is expected at Laird Laurie's +to-night; sae mount, goodwife, and come.' + +"'Preserve me!' said the wife of Sandie Macharg; 'that's news indeed! +who could have thought it? the Laird has been heirless for seventeen +years! Now, Sandie, my man, fetch me my skirt and hood.' + +"But he laid his arm round his wife's neck, and said, 'If all the +lairds in Galloway go heirless, over this door threshold shall you +not stir to-night; and I have said, and I have sworn it: seek not +to know why or wherefore; but, Lord, send us thy blessed mornlight.' +The wife looked for a moment in her husband's eyes, and desisted +from further entreaty. + +"'But let us send a civil message to the gossips, Sandie; and hadnae +ye better say I am sair laid with a sudden sickness? though it's +sinful-like to send the poor messenger a mile agate with a lie +in his mouth without a glass of brandy.' + +"'To such a messenger, and to those who sent him, no apology is +needed,' said the austere Laird, 'so let him depart.' And the clatter +of a horse's hoofs was heard, and the muttered imprecations of its +rider on the churlish treatment he had experienced. + +"'Now, Sandie, my lad,' said his wife, laying an arm particularly +white and round about his neck as she spoke, 'are you not a queer +man and a stern? I have been your wedded wife now these three years; +and, beside my dower, have brought you three as bonnie bairns as +ever smiled aneath a summer sun. O man, you a douce man, and fitter +to be an elder than even Willie Greer himself, I have the minister's +ain word for't, to put on these hard-hearted looks, and gang waving +your arms that way, as if ye said, "I winna take the counsel of +sic a hempie as you"; I'm your ain leal wife, and will and maun +have an explanation.' + +"To all this Sandie Macharg replied, 'It is written, "Wives, obey +your husbands"; but we have been stayed in our devotion, so let +us pray.' And down he knelt: his wife knelt also, for she was as +devout as bonnie; and beside them knelt their household, and all +lights were extinguished. + +"'Now this beats a',' muttered his wife to herself; 'however, I +shall be obedient for a time; but if I dinna ken what all this +is for before the morn by sunket-time, my tongue is nae langer a +tongue, nor my hands worth wearing.' + +"The voice of her husband in prayer interrupted this mental soliloquy; +and ardently did he beseech to be preserved from the wiles of the +fiends, and the snares of Satan; 'from witches, ghosts, goblins, +elves, fairies, spunkies, and water-kelpies; from the spectre shallop +of Solway; from spirits visible and invisible; from the Haunted Ships +and their unearthly tenants; from maritime spirits that plotted +against godly men, and fell in love with their wives--' + +"'Nay, but His presence be near us!' said his wife in a low tone of +dismay. 'God guide my gudeman's wits: I never heard such a prayer +from human lips before. But, Sandie, my man, Lord's sake, rise: +what fearful light is this?--barn and byre and stable maun be in a +blaze; and Hawkie and Hurley,--Doddie, and Cherrie, and Damson-plum, +will be smoored with reek and scorched with flame.' + +"And a flood of light, but not so gross as a common fire, which +ascended to heaven and filled all the court before the house, amply +justified the good wife's suspicions. But to the terrors of fire, +Sandie was as immovable as he was to the imaginary groans of the +barren wife of Laird Laurie; and he held his wife, and threatened +the weight of his right hand--and it was a heavy one--to all who +ventured abroad, or even unbolted the door. The neighing and prancing +of horses, and the bellowing of cows, augmented the horrors of the +night; and to any one who only heard the din, it seemed that the +whole onstead was in a blaze, and horses and cattle perishing in +the flame. All wiles, common or extraordinary, were put in practice +to entice or force the honest farmer and his wife to open the door; +and when the like success attended every new stratagem, silence +for a little while ensued, and a long, loud, and shrilling laugh +wound up the dramatic efforts of the night. In the morning, when +Laird Macharg went to the door, he found standing against one of +the pilasters a piece of black ship oak, rudely fashioned into +something like human form, and which skilful people declared would +have been clothed with seeming flesh and blood, and palmed upon him +by elfin adroitness for his wife, had he admitted his visitants. +A synod of wise men and women sat upon the woman of timber, and +she was finally ordered to be devoured by fire, and that in the +open air. A fire was soon made, and into it the elfin sculpture +was tossed from the prongs of two pairs of pitchforks. The blaze +that arose was awful to behold; and hissings, and burstings, and +loud cracklings, and strange noises, were heard in the midst of +the flame; and when the whole sank into ashes, a drinking-cup of +some precious metal was found; and this cup, fashioned no doubt +by elfin skill, but rendered harmless by the purification with +fire, the sons and daughters of Sandie Macharg and his wife drink +out of to this very day. Bless all bold men, say I, and obedient +wives!" + + + + +A RAFT THAT NO MAN MADE. + +BY ROBERT T. S. LOWELL. + + +I am a soldier: but my tale, this time, is not of war. + +The man of whom the Muse talked to the blind bard of old had grown +wise in wayfaring. He had seen such men and cities as the sun shines +on, and the great wonders of land and sea; and he had visited the +farther countries, whose indwellers, having been once at home in +the green fields and under the sky and roofs of the cheery earth, +were now gone forth and forward into a dim and shadowed land, from +which they found no backward path to these old haunts, and their +old loves:-- + + Eeri kai nephele kekalummenoi oude pot autous + Eelios phaethon kataderketai aktinessin. + + _Od_. XI. + +At the Charter-House I learned the story of the King of Ithaca, +and read it for something better than a task; and since, though +I have never seen so many cities as the much-wandering man, nor +grown so wise, yet have heard and seen and remembered, for myself, +words and things from crowded streets and fairs and shows and +wave-washed quays and murmurous market-places, in many lands; and +for his Kimmerion andron demos,--his people wrapt in cloud and +vapor, whom "no glad sun finds with his beams,"--have been borne +along a perilous path through thick mists, among the crashing ice +of the Upper Atlantic, as well as sweltered upon a Southern sea, +and have learned something of men and something of God. + +I was in Newfoundland, a lieutenant of Royal Engineers, in Major +Gore's time, and went about a good deal among the people, in surveying +for Government. One of my old friends there was Skipper Benjie +Westham, of Brigus, a shortish, stout, bald man, with a cheerful, +honest face and a kind voice; and he, mending a caplin-seine one +day, told me this story, which I will try to tell after him. + +We were upon the high ground, beyond where the church stands now, +and Prudence, the fisherman's daughter, and Ralph Barrows, her +husband, were with Skipper Benjie when he began; and I had an hour +by the watch to spend. The neighborhood, all about, was still; the +only men who were in sight were so far off that we heard nothing +from them; no wind was stirring near us, and a slow sail could be +seen outside. Everything was right for listening and telling. + +"I can tell 'ee what I sid[1] myself, Sir," said Skipper Benjie. +"It is n' like a story that's put down in books: it's on'y like +what we planters[2] tells of a winter's night or sech: but it's +_feelun_, mubbe, an' 'ee won't expect much off a man as could n' +never read,--not so much as Bible or Prayer-Book, even." + +[Footnote 1: Saw.] + +[Footnote 2: Fishermen.] + +Skipper Benjie looked just like what he was thought: a true-hearted, +healthy man, a good fisherman and a good seaman. There was no need +of any one's saying it. So I only waited till he went on speaking. + +"'T was one time I goed to th' Ice, Sir. I never goed but once, an' +'t was a'most the first v'yage ever was, ef 't was n' the _very_ +first; an' 't was the last for me, an' worse agen for the rest-part +o' that crew, that never goed no more! 'T was tarrible sad douns +wi' they!" + +This preface was accompanied by some preliminary handling of the +caplin-seine, also, to find out the broken places and get them +about him. Ralph and Prudence deftly helped him. Then, making his +story wait, after this opening, he took one hole to begin at in +mending, chose his seat, and drew the seine up to his knee. At the +same time I got nearer to the fellowship of the family by persuading +the planter (who yielded with a pleasant smile) to let me try my +hand at the netting. Prudence quietly took to herself a share of +the work, and Ralph alone was unbusied. + +"They calls th' Ice a wicked place,--Sundays an' weekin days all +alike; an' to my seemun it's a cruel, bloody place, jes' so well,--but +not all thinks alike, surely.--Rafe, lad, mubbe 'ee 'd ruther go +down coveways, an' overhaul the punt a bit." + +Ralph, who perhaps had stood waiting for the very dismissal that he +now got, assented and left us three. Prudence, to be sure, looked +after him as if she would a good deal rather go with him than stay; +but she stayed, nevertheless, and worked at the seine. I interpreted +to myself Skipper Benjie's sending away of one of his hearers by +supposing that his son-in-law had often heard his tales; but the +planter explained himself:-- + +"'Ee sees, Sir, I knocked off goun to th' Ice becase 't was sech +a tarrible cruel place, to my seemun. They swiles[3] be so knowun +like,--as knowun as a dog, in a manner, an' lovun to their own, +like Christens, a'most, more than bastes; an' they'm got red blood, +for all they lives most-partly in water; an' then I found 'em so +friendly, when I was wantun friends badly. But I s'pose the +swile-fishery's needful; an' I knows, in course, that even Christens' +blood's got to be taken sometimes, when it's bad blood, an' I would +n' be childish about they things: on'y--ef it's me--when I can +live by fishun, I don' want to go an' club an' shoot an' cut an' +slash among poor harmless things that 'ould never harm man or 'oman, +an' 'ould cry great tears down for pity-sake, an' got a sound like +a Christen: I 'ould n' like to go a-swilun for gain,--not after +beun among 'em, way I was, anyways." + +[Footnote 3: Seals.] + +This apology made it plain that Skipper Benjie was large-hearted +enough, or indulgent enough, not to seek to strain others, even his +own family, up to his own way in everything; and it might easily +be thought that the young fisherman had different feelings about +sealing from those that the planter's story was meant to bring +out. All being ready, he began his tale again:-- + +"I shipped wi' Skipper Isra'l Gooden, from Carbonear; the schooner +was the Baccaloue, wi' forty men, all told. 'T was of a Sunday +morn'n 'e 'ould sail, twel'th day o' March, wi' another schooner +in company,--the Sparrow. There was a many of us was n' too good, +but we thowt wrong of 'e's takun the Lord's Day to 'e'sself. Wull, +Sir, afore I comed 'ome, I was in a great desert country, an' floated +on sea wi' a monstrous great raft that no man never made, creakun +an' crashun an' groanun an' tumblun an' wastun an' goun to pieces, +an' no man on her but me, an' full o' livun things,--dreadful! + +"About a five hours out, 't was, we first sid the blink,[4] an' +comed up wi' th' Ice about off Cape Bonavis'. We fell in wi' it +south, an' worked up nothe along: but we did n' see swiles for two +or three days yet; on'y we was workun along; pokun the cakes of +ice away, an' haulun through wi' main strength sometimes, holdun +on wi' bights o' ropes out o' the bow; an' more times, agen, in +clear water: sometimes mist all round us, 'ee could n' see the +ship's len'th, sca'ce; an' more times snow, jes' so thick; an' +then a gale o' wind, mubbe, would a'most blow all the spars out +of her, seemunly. + +[Footnote 4: A dull glare on the horizon, from the immense masses +of ice.] + +"We kep' sight o' th' other schooner, most-partly; an' when we +did n' keep it, we'd get it agen. So one night 't was a beautiful +moonlight night: I think I never sid a moon so bright as that moon +was; an' such lovely sights a body 'ould n' think could be! Little +islands, an' bigger, agen, there was, on every hand, shinun so +bright, wi' great, awful-lookun shadows! an' then the sea all black, +between! They did look so beautiful as ef a body could go an' bide +on 'em, in' a manner; an' the sky was jes' so blue, an' the stars +all shinun out, an' the moon all so bright! I never looked upon +the like. An' so I stood in the bows; an' I don' know ef I thowt +o' God first, but I was thinkun o' my girl that I was troth-plight +wi' then, an' a many things, when all of a sudden we comed upon +the hardest ice we'd a-had; an' into it; an' then, wi' pokun an' +haulun, workun along. An' there was a cry goed up,--like the cry +of a babby, 't was, an' I thowt mubbe 't was a somethun had got +upon one o' they islands; but I said, agen, 'How could it?' an' one +John Harris said 'e thowt 't was a bird. Then another man (Moffis +'e's name was) started off wi' what they calls a gaff ('t is somethun +like a short boat-hook), over the bows, an' run; an' we sid un +strike, an' strike, an' we hard it go wump! wump! an' the cry goun +up so tarrible feelun, seemed as ef 'e was murderun some poor wild +Inden child 'e 'd a-found (on'y mubbe 'e would n' do so bad as +that: but there 've a-been tarrible bloody, cruel work wi' Indens +in my time), an' then 'e comed back wi' a white-coat[5] over 'e's +shoulder; an' the poor thing was n' dead, but cried an' soughed +like any poor little babby." + +[Footnote 5: A young seal.] + +The young wife was very restless at this point, and, though she +did not look up, I saw her tears. The stout fisherman smoothed out +the net a little upon his knee, and drew it in closer, and heaved +a great sigh: he did not look at his hearers. + +"When 'e throwed it down, it walloped, an' cried, an' soughed,--an' +its poor eyes blinded wi' blood! ('Ee sees, Sir," said the planter, +by way of excusing his tenderness, "they swiles were friends to +I, after.) Dear, O dear! I could n' stand it; for 'e _might_ ha' +killed un; an' so 'e goes for a quart o' rum, for fetchun first +swile, an' I went an' put the poor thing out o' pain. I did n' +want to look at they beautiful islands no more, somehow. Bumby it +comed on thick, an' then snow. + +"Nex' day swiles bawlun[6] every way, poor things! (I knowed their +voice, now,) but 't was blowun a gale o' wind, an' we under bare +poles, an' snow comun agen, so fast as ever it could come: but out +the men 'ould go, all mad like, an' my watch goed, an' so I mus' +go. (I did n' think what I was goun to!) The skipper never said +no; but to keep near the schooner, an' fetch in first we could, +close by; an' keep near the schooner. + +[Footnote 6: Technical word for the crying of the seals.] + +"So we got abroad, an' the men that was wi' me jes' began to knock +right an' left: 't was heartless to see an' hear it. They laved +two old uns an' a young whelp to me, as they runned by. The mother +did cry like a Christen, in a manner, an' the big tears 'ould run +down, an' they 'ould both be so brave for the poor whelp that 'ould +cuddle up an' cry; an' the mother looked this way an' that way, +wi' big, pooty, black eyes, to see what was the manun of it, when +they'd never doned any harm in God's world that 'E made, an' would +n', even ef you killed 'em: on'y the poor mother baste ketched +my gaff, that I was goun to strike wi', betwixt her teeth, an' I +could n' get it away. 'T was n' like fishun! (I was weak-hearted +like: I s'pose 't was wi' what was comun that I did n' know.) Then +comed a hail, all of a sudden, from the schooner (we had n' been +gone more 'n a five minutes, ef 't was so much,--no, not more 'n +a three); but I was glad to hear it come then, however: an' so +every man ran, one afore t' other. There the schooner was, tearun +through all, an' we runnun for dear life. I falled among the slob,[7] +and got out agen. 'T was another man pushun agen me doned it. I +could n' 'elp myself from goun in, an' when I got out I was astarn +of all, an' there was the schooner carryun on, right through to +clear water! So, hold of a bight o' line, or anything! an' they +swung up in over bows an' sides! an' swash! she struck the water, +an' was out o' sight in a minute, an' the snow drivun as ef 't +would bury her, an' a man laved behind on a pan of ice, an' the +great black say two fathom ahead, an' the storm-wind blowun 'im +into it!" + +[Footnote 7: Broken ice, between large cakes, or against the shore.] + +The planter stopped speaking. We had all gone along so with the +story, that the stout seafarer, as he wrought the whole scene up +about us, seemed instinctively to lean back and brace his feet +against the ground, and clutch his net. The young woman looked +up, this time; and the cold snow-blast seemed to howl through that +still summer's noon, and the terrific ice-fields and hills to be +crashing against the solid earth that we sat upon, and all things +round changed to the far-off stormy ocean and boundless frozen +wastes. + +The planter began to speak again:-- + +"So I falled right down upon th' ice, sayun, 'Lard, help me! Lard, +help me!' an' crawlun away, wi' the snow in my face (I was afeard, +a'most, to stand), 'Lard, help me! Lard, help me!' + +"'T was n' all hard ice, but many places lolly;[8] an' once I goed +right down wi' my hand-wristès an' my armès in cold water, part-ways +to the bottom o' th' ocean; and a'most head-first into un, as I'd +a-been in wi' my legs afore: but, thanks be to God! 'E helped me +out of un, but colder an' wetter agen. + +[Footnote 8: Snow in water, not yet frozen, but looking like the +white ice.] + +"In course I wanted to folly the schooner; so I runned up along, +a little ways from the edge, an' then I runned down along: but 't +was all great black ocean outside, an' she gone miles an' miles +away; an' by two hours' time, even ef she'd come to, itself, an' +all clear weather, I could n' never see her; an' ef she could come +back, she could n' never find me, more 'n I could find any one o' +they flakes o' snow. The schooner was gone, an' I was laved out +o' the world! + +"Bumby, when I got on the big field agen, I stood up on my feet, +an' I sid that was my ship! She had n' e'er a sail, an' she had +n' e'er a spar, an' she had n' e'er a compass, an' she had n' e'er +a helm, an' she had n' no hold, an' she had n' no cabin. I could +n' sail her, nor I could n' steer her, nor I could n' anchor her, +nor bring her to, but she would go, wind or calm, an' she'd never +come to port, but out in th' ocean she'd go to pieces! I sid 't +was so, an' I must take it, an' do my best wi' it. 'T was jest a +great, white, frozen raft, driftun bodily away, wi' storm blowun +over, an' current runnun under, an' snow comun down so thick, an' +a poor Christen laved all alone wi' it. 'T would drift as long +as anything was of it, an' 't was n' likely there'd be any life +in the poor man by time th' ice goed to nawthun; an' the swiles +'ould swim back agen up to the Nothe! + +"I was th' only one, seemunly, to be cast out alive, an' wi' the +dearest maid in the world (so I thought) waitun for me. I s'pose +'ee might ha' knowed somethun better, Sir; but I was n' larned, +an' I ran so fast as ever I could up the way I thowt home was, +an' I groaned, an' groaned, an' shook my handès, an' then I thowt, +'Mubbe I may be goun wrong way.' So I groaned to the Lard to stop +the snow. Then I on'y ran this way an' that way, an' groaned for +snow to knock off.[9] I knowed we was driftun mubbe a twenty leagues +a day, and anyways I wanted to be doun what I could, keepun up over +th' Ice so well as I could, Noofundland-ways, an' I might come +to somethun,--to a schooner or somethun; anyways I'd get up so +near as I could. So I looked for a lee. I s'pose 'ee 'd ha' knowed +better what to do, Sir," said the planter, here again appealing to +me, and showing by his question that he understood me, in spite +of my pea-jacket. + +[Footnote 9: To stop.] + +I had been so carried along with his story that I had felt as if +I were the man on the Ice, myself, and assured him, that, though I +could get along pretty well on land, _and could even do something +at netting_, I should have been very awkward in his place. + +"Wull, Sir, I looked for a lee. ('T would n' ha' been so cold, to +say cold, ef it had n' a-blowed so tarrible hard.) First step, I +stumbled upon somethun in the snow, seemed soft, like a body! Then +I comed all together, hopun an' fearun an' all together. Down I goed +upon my knees to un, an' I smoothed away the snow, all tremblun, +an' there was a moan, as ef 't was a-livun. + +"'O Lard!' I said, 'who's this? Be this one of our men?' + +"But how could it? So I scraped the snow away, but 't was easy to +see 't was smaller than a man. There was n' no man on that dreadful +place but me! Wull, Sir, 't was a poor swile, wi' blood runnun +all under; an' I got my cuffs[10] an' sleeves all red wi' it. It +looked like a fellow-creatur's blood, a'most, an' I was a lost man, +left to die away out there in th' Ice, an' I said, 'Poor thing! +poor thing!' an' I did n' mind about the wind, or th' ice, or the +schooner goun away from me afore a gale (I _would_ n' mind about +'em), an' a poor lost Christen may show a good turn to a hurt thing, +ef 't was on'y a baste. So I smoothed away the snow wi' my cuffs, +an' I sid 't was a poor thing wi' her whelp close by her, an' her +tongue out, as ef she'd a-died fondlun an' lickun it; an' a great +puddle o' blood,--it looked tarrible heartless, when I was so nigh +to death, an' was n' hungry. An' then I feeled a stick, an' I thowt, +'It may be a help to me,' an' so I pulled un, an' it would n' come, +an' I found she was lyun on it; so I hauled agen, an' when it comed, +'t was my gaff the poor baste had got away from me, an' got it +under her, an' she was a-lyun on it. Some o' the men, when they +was runnun for dear life, must ha' struck 'em, out o' madness like, +an' laved 'em to die where they was. 'T was the whelp was n' quite +dead. 'Ee'll think 't was foolish, Sir, but it seemed as though +they was somethun to me, an' I'd a-lost the last friendly thing +there was. + +[Footnote 10: Mittens.] + +"I found a big hummock an' sheltered under it, standun on my feet, +wi' nawthun to do but think, an' think, an' pray to God; an' so +I doned. I could n' help feelun to God then, surely. Nawthun to +do, an' no place to go, tull snow cleared away; but jes' drift +wi' the great Ice down from the Nothe, away down over the say, +a sixty mile a day, mubbe. I was n' a good Christen, an' I could +n' help a-thinkun o' home an' she I was troth-plight wi', an' I +doubled over myself an' groaned,--I could n' help it; but bumby +it comed into me to say my prayers, an' it seemed as thof she was +askun me to pray (an' she _was_ good, Sir, al'ays), an' I seemed +all opened, somehow, an' I knowed how to pray." + +While the words were coming tenderly from the weather-beaten fisherman, +I could not help being moved, and glanced over toward the daughter's +seat; but she was gone, and, turning round, I saw her going quietly, +almost stealthily, and very quickly, _toward the cove_. + +The father gave no heed to her leaving, but went on with his tale:-- + +"Then the wind began to fall down, an' the snow knocked off altogether, +an' the sun comed out; an' I sid th' Ice, field-ice an' icebargs, +an' every one of 'em flashun up as ef they'd kendled up a bonfire, +but no sign of a schooner! no sign of a schooner! nor no sign o' +man's douns, but on'y ice, every way, high an' low, an' some places +black water, in-among; an' on'y the poor swiles bawlun all over, +an' I standun amongst 'em. + +"While I was lookun out, I sid a great icebarg (they calls 'em) +a quarter of a mile away, or thereabouts, standun up,--one end +a twenty fathom out o' water, an' about a forty fathom across, +wi' hills like, an' houses,--an' then, jest as ef 'e was alive +an' had tooked a notion in 'e'sself, seemunly, all of a sudden +'e rared up, an' turned over an' over, wi' a tarrible thunderun +noise, an' comed right on, breakun everything an' throwun up great +seas; 't was frightsome for a lone body away out among 'em! I stood +an' looked at un, but then agen I thowt I may jes' so well be goun +to thick ice an' over Noofundland-ways a piece, so well as I could. +So I said my bit of a prayer, an' told Un I could n' help myself; +an' I made my confession how bad I'd been, an' I was sorry, an ef +'E 'd be so pitiful an' forgive me; an' ef I mus' loss my life, +ef 'E 'd be so good as make me a good Christen first,--an' make +_they_ happy, in course. + +"So then I started; an' first I goed to where my gaff was, by the +mother-swile an' her whelp. There was swiles every two or three +yards a'most, old uns an' young uns, all round everywhere; an' +I feeled shamed in a manner: but I got my gaff, an' cleaned un, +an' then, in God's name, I took the big swile, that was dead by +its dead whelp, an' hauled it away, where the t' other poor things +could n' si' me, an' I sculped[11] it, an' took the pelt;--for I +thowt I'd wear un, now the poor dead thing did n' want to make +oose of un no more,--an' partly becase 't was sech a lovun thing. +An' so I set out, walkun this way for a spurt, an' then t' other +way, keepun up mostly a Nor-norwest, so well as I could: sometimes +away round th' open, an' more times round a lump of ice, an' more +times, agen, off from one an' on to another, every minute. I did +n' feel hungry, for I drinked fresh water off th' ice. No schooner! +no schooner! + +[Footnote 11: Skinned.] + +"Bumby the sun was goun down: 't was slow work feelun my way along, +an' I did n' want to look about; but then agen I thowt God 'ad +made it to be sid; an' so I come to, an' turned all round, an' +looked; an' surely it seemed like another world, someway, 't was +so beautiful,--yellow, an' different sorts o' red, like the sky +itself in a manner, an' flashun like glass. So then it comed night; +an' I thowt I should n' go to bed, an' I may forget my prayers, an' +so I'd, mubbe, best say 'em right away; an' so I doned: 'Lighten +our darkness,' and others we was oosed to say; an' it comed into +my mind, the Lard said to Saint Peter, 'Why did n' 'ee have faith?' +when there was nawthun on the water for un to go on; an' I had ice +under foot,--'t was but frozen water, but 't was frozen,--an' I +thanked Un. + +"I could n' help thinkun o' Brigus an' them I'd laved in it, an' +then I prayed for 'em; an' I could n' help cryun a'most; but then +I give over agen, an' would n' think, ef I could help it; on'y +tryun to say an odd psalm, all through singun-psalms an' other, for +I knowed a many of 'em by singun wi' Patience, on'y now I cared +more about 'em: I said that one,-- + + 'Sech as in ships an' brickle barks + Into the seas descend, + Their merchantun, through fearful floods, + To compass an' to end: + They men are force-put to behold + The Lard's works, what they be; + An' in the dreadful deep the same + Most marvellous they see.' + +An' I said a many more (I can't be accountable how many I said), an' +same uns many times, over: for I would keep on; an' 'ould sometimes +sing 'em very loud in my poor way. + +"A poor baste (a silver fox 'e was) comed an' looked at me; an' +when I turned round, he walked away a piece, an' then 'e comed +back, an' looked. + +"So I found a high piece, wi' a wall of ice atop for shelter, ef +it comed on to blow; an' so I stood, an' said, an' sung. I knowed +well I was on'y driftun away. + +"It was tarrible lonely in the night, when night comed; it's no +use! 'T was tarrible lonely: but I 'ould n' think, ef I could help +it; an' I prayed a bit, an' kep' up my psalms, an' varses out o' +the Bible, I'd a-larned. I had n' a-prayed for sleep, but for wakun +all night, an' there I was, standun. + +"The moon was out agen, so bright; an' all the hills of ice shinun +up to her; an' stars twinklun, so busy, all over; an' No'ther' +Lights goun up wi' a faint, blaze, seemunly, from th' ice, an' +meetun up aloft; an' sometimes a great groanun, an' more times +tarrible loud shriekun! There was great white fields, an' great +white hills, like countries, comun down to be destroyed; an' some +great bargs a-goun faster, an' tearun through, breakun others to +pieces; an' the groanun an' screechun,--ef all the dead that ever +was, wi' their white clothès--But no!" said the stout fisherman, +recalling himself from gazing, as he seemed to be, on the far-off +ghastly scene, in memory. + +"No!--an' thank 'E's marcy, I'm sittun by my own room. 'E tooked +me off; but 't was a dreadful sight,--it's no use,--ef a body'd +let 'e'sself think! I sid a great black bear, an' hard un growl; +an' 't was feelun, like, to hear un so bold an' so stout, among +all they dreadful things, an' bumby the time 'ould come when 'e +could n' save 'e'sself, do what 'e woul'. + +"An' more times 't was all still: on'y swiles bawlun, all over. +Ef it had n' a-been for they poor swiles, how could I stan' it? +Many's the one I'd a-ketched, daytime, an' talked to un, an' patted +un on the head, as ef they'd a-been dogs by the door, like; an' +they'd oose to shut their eyes, an' draw their poor foolish faces +together. It seemed neighbor-like to have some live thing. + +"So I kep' awake, sayun an' singun, an' it was n' very cold; an' +so,--first thing I knowed, I started, an' there I was lyun in a +heap; an' I must have been asleep, an' did n' know how 't was, +nor how long I'd a-been so: an' some sort o' baste started away, +an' 'e must have waked me up; I could n' rightly see what 't was, +wi' sleepiness: an' then I hard a sound, sounded like breakers; +an' that waked me fairly. 'T was like a lee-shore; an' 't was a +comfort to think o' land, ef 't was on'y to be wrecked on itself: +but I did n' go, an' I stood an' listened to un; an' now an' agen +I'd walk a piece, back an' forth, an' back an' forth; an' so I +passed a many, many longsome hours, seemunly, tull night goed +down tarrible slowly, an' it comed up day o' t' other side: an' +there was n' no land; nawthun but great mountains meltun an' breakun +up, an' fields wastun away. I sid 't was a rollun barg made the +noise like breakers; throwun up great seas o' both sides of un; +no sight nor sign o' shore, nor ship, but dazun white,--enough +to blind a body,--an' I knowed 't was all floatun away, over the +say. Then I said my prayers, an' tooked a drink o' water, an' set +out agen for Nor-norwest: 't was all I could do. Sometimes snow, +an' more times fair agen; but no sign o' man's things, an' no sign +o' land, on'y white ice an' black water; an' ef a schooner was n' +into un a'ready, 't was n' likely they woul', for we was gettun +furder an' furder away. Tired I was wi' goun, though I had n' walked +more n' a twenty or thirty mile, mubbe, an' it all comun down so +fast as I could go up, an' faster, an' never stoppun! 'T was a +tarrible long journey up over the driftun ice, at sea! So, then +I went on a high bit to wait tull all was done; I thowt 't would +be last to melt, an' mubbe, I thowt 'e may capsize wi' me, when +I did n' know (for I don' say I was stouthearted); an' I prayed +Un to take care o' them I loved; an' the tears comed. Then I felt +somethun tryun to turn me round like, an' it seemed as ef _she_ +was doun it, somehow, an' she seemed to be very nigh, somehow, +an' I did n' look. + +"After a bit, I got up to look out where most swiles was, for company, +while I was livun: an' the first look struck me a'most like a bullet! +There I sid a sail! _'T was_ a sail, an' 't was like heaven openun, +an' God settun her down there. About three mile away she was, to +nothe'ard, in th' Ice. + +"I could ha' sid, at first look, what schooner 't was; but I did +n' want to look hard at her. I kep' my peace, a spurt, an' then +I runned an' bawled out, 'Glory be to God!' an' then I stopped, +an' made proper thanks to Un. An' there she was, same as ef I'd +a-walked off from her an hour ago! It felt so long as ef I'd been +livun years, an' they would n' know me, sca'ce. Somehow, I did +n' think I could come up wi' her. + +"I started, in the name o' God, wi' all my might, an' went, an' +went,--'t was a five mile, wi' goun round,--an' got her, thank +God! 'T was n' the Baccaloue (I sid that long before), 't was t' +other schooner, the Sparrow, repairun damages they'd got day before. +So that kep' 'em there, an' I'd a-been took from one an' brought +to t' other. + +"I could n' do a hand's turn tull we got into the Bay agen,--I +was so clear beat out. The Sparrow kep' her men, an' fotch home +about thirty-eight hundred swiles, an' a poor man off th' Ice: +but they, poor fellows, that I went out wi', never comed no more: +an' I never went agen. + +"I kep' the skin o' the poor baste, Sir: that's 'e on my cap." + +When the planter had fairly finished his tale, it was a little +while before I could teach my eyes to see the things about me in +their places. The slow-going sail, outside, I at first saw as the +schooner that brought away the lost man from the Ice; the green +of the earth would not, at first, show itself through the white +with which the fancy covered it; and at first I could not quite +feel that the ground was fast under my feet. I even mistook one +of my own men (the sight of whom was to warn me that I was wanted +elsewhere) for one of the crew of the schooner Sparrow of a generation +ago. + +I got the tale and its scene gathered away, presently, inside my +mind, and shook myself into a present association with surrounding +things, and took my leave. I went away the more gratified that I +had a chance of lifting my cap to a matron, dark-haired and comely +(who, I was sure, at a glance, had once been the maiden of Benjie +Westham's "troth-plight"), and receiving a handsome courtesy in +return. + + + + +THE INVISIBLE PRINCESS. + +BY FRANCIS O'CONNOR. + + +I could be "as tedious as a king," in analyzing those chivalrous +instincts of masculine youth that lured me from college at nineteen, +and away over the watery deserts of the sea; and, like Dogberry, +"I could find in my heart to bestow it all of your worships." But +since, like the auditor of that worthy, you do not want it, I will +pass over the embarkation, which was tedious, over the sea-sickness, +which was more tedious, over the home-sickness, over the monotonous +duties assigned me, and the unvarying prospect of sea and sky, all so +tedious that I grew as morose after a time as a travelling Englishman. +Neither was coasting, with restricted liberty and much toil, amongst +people whose language I could not speak, quite all that my fancy +painted it,--although Genoa, Venice, the Bay of Naples,--crimsoned by +Vesuvius, and canopied by an Italian sky,--and the storied scenes +of Greece, all rich in beauties and historic associations, repaid +many discomforts at the time and remain to me forever as treasures +of memory the more precious for being dearly bought. But these, +with the pleasures and displeasures of Constantinople,--the limit +of our voyage,--I will pass over, to the midsummer eve when, with +all the arrangements for our return voyage completed, we swung +slowly out of the northern eddy of the Golden Horn into the clear +blue Bosphorus. + +Already the lengthening shadows of a thousand domes and minarets +stretched across its waters, and glimpses of sunlight lay between +them, like golden clasps linking continent to continent. Around us +were ships and sailors from all parts of the habitable globe; while +through shine and shadow flitted boats and caiques innumerable, and +except where these, or the rising of a porpoise, or the dipping +of a gull, broke the surface of the water, it lay as smooth as a +mirror, reflecting its palace-guarded shores. + +The men were lounging about the deck or leaning over the bulwarks, +listening to a neighboring crew chanting their vespers, while we +awaited the coming on board of our captain. Meanwhile the shadows +crept up the Asian hills, till the last sombre answering smile to +the sun's good-night faded from the cypress-trees above the graves +of Scutari. + +Beside me, long in silent admiration of the scene, stood my messmates, +Fred Smith and Mike O'Hanlon,--two genuine specimens of Young New +York, the first of whom disappointed love had driven to sea, whither +also friendship and a reckless spirit of adventure had impelled +the second. Behind us was one, a just impression of whom--if I +could but convey it--would make what followed appear as possible +to you as it did to us who were long his companions. I never knew +to what country he belonged; for he spoke any language occasion +called for, with the same apparent ease and fluency. He was far +beyond the ordinary stature, yet it was only when you saw him in +comparison with other men that you observed anything gigantic in +his form. His hair was black, and hung in a smooth, heavy, even +wave down to his massive jaw, which was always clean shaved, if +indeed beard ever grew upon it. Neither could I guess his age; +for though he was apparently in manhood's prime, it often appeared +to me that the spirit I saw looking through his eyes must have +been looking from them for a thousand years. + +And how I used to exult in watching him deal with matter! He never +took anything by the wrong end, nor failed to grasp a swinging +rope or a flapping sail, nor miscalculated the effort necessary +to the performance of whatever he undertook. He was silent, but +not morose. Yet there was something in his measured tones and the +gaze of his large gray eyes which Mike compared in their mingled +effects to the charms of sight and sound that the victims of the +rattlesnake's fascination are said to undergo. Whatever sensations +they occasioned, men shrank from renewing them, and the frankest and +boldest of the crew shunned occasions for addressing him. Stranger +still, this feeling, instead of wearing off by the close companionship +of our little bark, seemed to deepen and strengthen, until at length, +except myself, no one spoke to him who could avoid it. Even the +captain, when circumstances allowed him a choice, always directed +his orders to another, though this man's duties were performed +with the quiet promptness of a machine. If he was conscious of +anything peculiar in the behavior of his companions toward him, +he betrayed no indication of it. Such he was who stood listening, +with an appearance of interest unusual in him, to our otherwise +inconsequent chat. + +"You are bidding a very silent adieu to the Genius of the East," +I said. + +"Yes," Fred answered, "it's her first actual revelation to me, but +it's a glorious one." + +"Let those who love to decipher illegible inscriptions, to contemplate +a throttled centaur on a dilapidated frieze, or a carved acanthus +on a fallen capital, grope over the Acropolis and invoke Athenian +Pallas," said Mike; "but for me these painted seraglios and terraced, +bower-canopied gardens, vocal with nightingales and seeming to +impregnate the very air with the pleasures of desire, justify the +decision of Paris. Hurrah for Asiatic Venus!" + +"You are no true Christian knight," I said. "Your Rinaldos and +Sir Guyons always waste your gardens of voluptuous delight, and +wipe out their abominations." + +"Yes," he retorted, "all but the abomination of desolation." + +"But do you consider," said Fred, "how many sweet birds may be +looking out through the bars of those bright lattice cages even +now, who can follow neither their hearts' desires nor their souls' +aspirations, but whom fate has degraded to be the slaves of some +miserable old Blue Beard?" + +"Why don't you sail in and rescue some of them?" said Mike mockingly. +"Tell the old tyrant to his cerulean beard that he has too many +strings to his bow, and he will undoubtedly spare a bow-string to +twine around your manly neck. But I guess you had better, after +all, leave the Fatimas to their fate. The barriers that fence them +in from their hearts' desires and souls' aspirations here are not +more real, if more palpable, than those that guard them in our +land of boasted freedom; neither are they altogether secure from +sale and barter there; and as for us outside barbarians, I'd as +lief be shut out by palace walls from a beauty I can only imagine, +as by custom still more insurmountable from beauty set visibly +before me and enhanced with intellectual and social graces." + +I cited the lady in the song, who says:-- + + A tarry sailor I'll ne'er disdain, + But always I will treat the same, + +as proof that such exclusiveness was far from being the universal +rule at home, and encouraged him to rival the "swabber, the boatswain +and mate" for "Moll, Mag, Marion, and Margery." + +"Or," said he, "like the jolly tar you quote, dismiss both your +songs as 'scurvy tunes,' and, swigging at a black jack, say: Here's +my comfort." + +"I am not sure," said Fred bitterly, thinking of his own rejected +suit, "that Stephano's philosophy is not the best for wretches +like us." + +"Yes," said Mike, "until after the Millennium. Then the march of +civilization will be ended, and the ranks may be broken. Then soft +hands and hard hands may clasp each other. Then rays from the purest +and most refined souls may shine through bright eyes without being +especially chilled for those whom a cold destiny makes especially +needful of their heart-warming influences. Then you, poor as you +are, may aspire to wed the daughter of a banker, and Joe or I may +seek to satisfy the heart's desires of the Sultan's daughter, without +Aladdin's lamp or Oberon's whistle." + +Here our strange auditor came forward with a small tin whistle in +his hand, and gravely presenting it to Fred, he advised him to try +its note on the hard-hearted parent who opposed his happiness. In +the deepening twilight, Fred and Mike, putting their heads together, +read the following legend graven upon it:-- + + O whistle, and I'll come to you, my lad! + +We all laughed outright, except the donor. + +"This is not Oberon's whistle, at any rate," I said. + +"No," he answered, "the inspiration of this is from Mammon, whose +gates I understood shut Mr. Smith out from his true love. A single +blast on it will, I dare say, open them wide enough to let him +in." + +"Then it's as good as money to you, Fred," said Mike. + +"That's what our old boss used to tell us," answered Fred ruefully, +"when he gave us orders on a neighboring grocery, in lieu of cash +for our wages. But I must confess I have now, as I had then, a +prejudice in favor of the circulating medium." + +"If so, whistle for it at once," said the other. + +Fred looked at him, and then at Mike and me, with a puzzled expression +which seemed to ask: Is this a crazy freak, or an absurd, insulting +joke? + +"Now," said the object of this scrutiny, turning to me, "I have a +talisman for you also, wherewith to entice the Sultan's daughter. +It is a ruby of rare size and color, and therefore valuable. But +the power of the spell it is said to possess remains to be tested. +I give it to you because in you, at this moment, are fulfilled +the conditions necessary to exercise this spell; which you do by +simply taking the jewel in your hand thus, and saying,-- + + Come, O royal maiden, come to me this hour." + +"And she'll come, of course," said Mike, bantering me in his turn. +"Now hoist your signal and hail the daughter of the Grand Turk, +and let Fred pipe for his princess at the same auspicious moment." + +"Amen!" I said, holding up the gem till the moonbeams blushed red +in it, and calling out with a strange, impulsive sense of power,-- + + "Come, O royal maiden, come to me this hour." + +But no responsive tooting of the whistle echoed from the lips of +Fred. I looked toward him for an explanation of the silence, and +beheld him spitting out the fragments of the instrument, which +had gone to pieces in his mouth. + +"What's all this?" he exclaimed, unrolling a little scroll of paper +that had been compressed within it, and holding it up to the light. +"See here, Joe, what do you make of this?" + +"A draft for ten thousand pounds sterling, on the Bank of England, +duly signed and indorsed," I answered after scrutinizing it carefully. + +We turned simultaneously for an explanation, but there was no one +to give it. + +"I always suspected who _he_ was," said Mike, "but he's got no +hold on me,--no claim to a bond signed with _my_ blood. See, there +he goes!" + +I looked, and saw a boat shooting across the stream with a swiftness +that argued some optical delusion. That unmistakable figure stood in +the stern, urging it with a single scull, and as it disappeared in +the confusion of boats and the darkness, a superstitious suspicion +crept over me that he might be the person Mike suggested. Soon the +captain came on board, and on learning the absence of the boat +and its occupant, he expressed considerable anxiety and impatience. +A breeze sprang up and began to curl the surface of the water, +and clouds obscured the moon. Then the wind freshened to a storm, +and lifted the waves on the channel, and roared in the cypress +forests above Pera and Scutari. Under the light sails already set, +the ship tugged hard at her cable. Yet the boat did not return. +The captain walked the deck nervously, and finally gave orders +to weigh anchor, when just as our bark, freed to the wind and the +current, sprang forward on her long voyage, the boat for which we +were looking shot suddenly under the prow, and in an instant our +mysterious comrade stepped in upon the deck from the bow-chains. +As he did so, the light of the mate's lantern fell full upon him, +and the scene it revealed will certainly never be forgotten by +anyone who witnessed it. + +There he stood, looming out from the tempestuous darkness more +gigantic and terrible than ever, with the form of a beautiful girl, +gorgeously clad and flashing with jewels, held easily and firmly +by one encircling arm. His disengaged right hand was stained as +if with blood, and spots of the same sanguinary hue were on his +brow and his garments. The expression of his face was unmoved as +usual. + +For a moment he permitted the slippered feet of the trembling girl +to rest upon the deck, though his arm still encompassed her shrinking +form, and, while her great dark eyes, dilated with horror, like +those of a captured bird, threw wild, eager glances to left and +right, as if in search of any desperate refuge from the terrors that +possessed her, he said in his usual quiet tones to the captain,-- + +"This is the passenger for whom I engaged the cabin. She will, +by your leave, take possession of it at once." So saying, he led +her gently forward and disappeared at the companion-way, conducted +by the captain. + +Every face on deck had grown pale, and every heart throbbed with +the conviction that we had just beheld the consummation of a most +desperate and bloody deed. It was evident the girl had been snatched +suddenly from the harem of some palace, probably from the royal +seraglio itself, off which we had been lying. And the horror depicted +on her face, as well as the stains of blood on her abductor, told +with what ruthless violence. Here then, I thought, in all human +probability, was the royal maiden I had summoned; here was the +wildest vagary of my imagination realized. But how different from +the bright fancy was the woful reality! + +Soon the captain returned on deck, pale and excited like the rest +of us, and ordered a rash amount of sail to be set. The mate, a +bluff, powerful man, swore an oath that we should first understand +the meaning of what had just transpired. + +"I know no more about it than you do," avowed the captain, "except +that it's a piece of business very likely to bring all our heads +to the block unless we show a clean pair of heels for it. So now +avast jawing, and obey orders!" + +"Never! boys," I said, "till we are assured of that girl's safety. +What's done cannot be helped; but if she suffers further wrong +in our midst, we ought all to be hanged as cowardly accessories +to it." + +"Dismiss your uneasiness in that regard," said a voice behind us, +at whose sound there was a general start. "To keep her safe and +inviolate is more my right and interest than yours, and it must +therefore be my especial duty to do so; but if I fail in it, I +care not though you make my life the forfeit, nor by what mode you +exact it." + +So saying, he took his place at the helm, a press of sail was set, +and the ship fairly rent her way through the sea of Marmora before +the tempest. But the ship, like all around, seemed to acknowledge +his controlling power; and when I turned in with my watch, my sleep +was undisturbed by any fear of wind or water, though it was full +of troubled dreams. Now a lovely form in royal vesture beckoned +to me from a lattice; anon the gleam of a lantern flickered across +the terribly familiar face of a gnome, bearing out of a dark cavern +an armful of the most precious jewels, which had a wild appealing in +their light that puzzled me; while the roaring of the sea pervaded +it all with a kind of dream harmony. + +After a time, the fury of the tempest abated; but the ship still +fled onward before strong gales, through those famous seas we had +cruised so often in youthful fancy with the Greek and the Trojan, +and the fear of pursuit ceased to haunt us. + +Meanwhile we saw no more of our lovely passenger. Her strange guardian +kept a watch beside her cabin door as vigilant as that of a sentinel +at his post, or a saint before his shrine. His eye never swept the +horizon behind us with an anxious gaze, as ours did, while we looked +for the smoke of a pursuing steamer. Neither did it kindle at sight +of the famous landmarks that measured our rapid course, each of which +we hailed with delight as another harbinger of safety. He had ceased +to perform the duties of a seaman, and devoted himself entirely to +the care of the INVISIBLE PRINCESS, as we grew to call her. But +though invisible to our eyes, hers was the pervading presence of +our thoughts. Not a wave rocked the ship, not a cloud overshadowed +it, not a morning breeze came fresh from the sea, or an evening +breeze brought fragrance from the shore, but was thought of in +some relation with her. There was none like her, we said, in the +broad continents to right of us, to left of us, or before us; and +we doubted if there was her like in the lands of enchantment we +had left behind. Her wondrous beauty, the flashing of the jewels +that encrusted her belt, and that seemed to gleam and sparkle all +over her picturesque attire, the haunting look of those great, +lustrous eyes, all the reminiscence of that eventful night,--how +fondly we recurred to them again and again in the forecastle or +the night-watch, and with what pleasure we recognized the first +indications that her trance of terror had passed, and that she +had resumed a living interest in the strange world around her. + +First the open window of the cabin gave evidence that the balmy +air and the pleasant shores we skirted were no longer indifferent +to her; then came flitting glimpses of bright garments and brighter +eyes quickly withdrawn from observation into the depths of the +fairy grotto she inhabited; and finally, one beautiful moonlight +evening, while most of the crew were on deck watching the lurid +peak of Etna and the pavement of golden waves stretching toward +it, and listening not to premonitions of Scylla or Charybdis, but +to the song of the nightingales from the dim shore, or to tales +of Enceladus and the Cyclops from Fred, and whimsical comments +from Mike, she came hesitatingly forth, arousing an excitement and +curiosity among us as intense as if she were a ghost arising from +the tomb. Her dress was the same in which she had been brought among +us, without addition of yashmak or veil of any kind,--excepting +the mistiness of the moonlight,--to conceal her face, though there +was a shy drawing down of the tasselled cap or turban she wore, +that shadowed it somewhat. + +I need hardly say how soon the glories of earth, sea, and sky, +which we had been contemplating, shrank into mere accessories around +that one central figure, as she stood gazing upon them through the +shrouds and spars from our deck. But, notwithstanding the beauty of +the scene and the hour, she did not hold her position long to enjoy +them. She had, in appearing thus before strange men, evidently by a +great effort, done that which she shrank from doing; but whether +in obedience to her own will or to that of another, we could not +guess. The ice thus broken, however, she was the INVISIBLE PRINCESS +no longer. Emboldened by two or three subsequent moonlight and +twilight ventures, she at length came out in the sunset, and I +doubt if the setting sun ever revealed a lovelier sight than greeted +our eyes on that evening. A glance in the clear light satisfied us +that the superhuman beauty we almost worshipped, and the splendor +that seemed too lavish to be real, were no mere glamor of lamplight +or moonlight, but surpassed in the reality all that our stunted, +sceptical, Western imaginations, even stimulated as they were, +had dared to anticipate. + +I might attempt to describe her. I might tell you that her every +limb and every feature seemed perfect in its form and its harmony +with the others; that her complexion was a fresh, delicate bloom, +without spot or blemish; that the innumerable braids of her long, +black hair were ravishingly glossy and soft; that her great, dark +eyes were bewilderingly bright and wise, and expressive of everything +enchanting and good that eyes can express; that her smile,--but +no! her smile was an expression of her individuality too subtle +for words to catch; and without any power of revealing this +individuality, this all that distinguished her from merely mortal +woman and made her angelic, where is the use of attempting to describe +her? Of her garments, by a recurrence to Lady Mary Wortley Montagu +for the names of them, I could give you a description, from the +golden-flowered, diamond-studded kerchief wreathed in her hair, +to the yellow Cinderella slippers that covered her fairy feet. +But the gauzy fabric that enfolded though it scarcely concealed +her bosom, the vest of white damask stuff inwoven and fringed with +gold and silver, the caftan, and the trousers of crimson embossed +and embroidered with flowers of the same gorgeous materials, all +were buttoned and guarded and overstrewn with jewels, while the +broad belt that confined them was literally encrusted with diamonds +and clasped by a magnificent bouquet of flowers wrought by the +lapidary from diamonds, rubies, emeralds, sapphires, and pearls, +so exquisitely that the artist showed a skill in them almost worthy +of his materials. + +From our ardent gaze the beautiful vision was soon withdrawn,--often +to reappear, however, in the bright, calm weather that followed, +each time with less of blushing and confusion in the beautiful +face; and at length, some of us began to flatter ourselves, with +a shy glance of interest and recognition for us in the luminous +eyes. + +On her strange companion, also, her presence shed a beam that lightened +the darkness of our thoughts toward him. We marked the long, dark +lashes of her eyes rising and falling, now trustingly, now fearingly, +before that inscrutable countenance, as if her spirit wavered between +a dream of terror and a contentful awaking. And many imagined that, +as those dark eyes began to turn more lovingly and more longingly +toward him, the strange brilliance of his own became imbued with +their softness, while a faint auroral tinge seemed just ready to +change his countenance from marble to flesh and blood. + +Thus day after day we crept along the European coast, enjoying a +dream of romance in which we could have gone on sailing contentedly +forever, our only cause of uneasiness being that, at some of the +numerous ports we touched, the magic presence on which the spell +depended might go from us, as it came to us, without ceremony or +warning, and leave us to cross the great ocean in the world of +intolerable loneliness that would settle on the ship when she was +gone. There was something like a patriotic aspiration in our desire +to transplant this brightest of Eastern blossoms to diffuse its +supreme beauty and sweetness in the West. And though we feared for +her the stormy autumn passage of the Atlantic, a load was taken +from every spirit when we left the Pillars of Hercules behind us +and pointed our prow straight out across the cloud-bound ocean. + +Just as we lost sight of land, we were attacked by a most violent +storm, that buffeted us for many a day, during which we saw nothing +of our fair passenger, and we learned that she was seriously ill. +But never had invalid such a nurse as she. No one knew if he slept +or ate, and no one was allowed to share his office, and no one +obtruded on him the sorrow or sympathy which all felt in spite +of our engrossing battle for life against the tempest. For though +there was no change in his appearance or demeanor, all were conscious +that a deep feeling stirred his heart. Even when we doubted if +all our energies could preserve the vessel from being dashed back +upon the coast we had just left, he gave us neither help nor heed, +till in the final moment when we had given up all for lost, he +seized the helm and shot us into shelter and safety behind the reef +whereon we expected to go to pieces, through a channel which, in +the calm that followed the storm, we found it difficult to retrace +to the deep water, towing the ship with boats. + +Again we got well out to sea, and were becalmed. For nearly a week, +not a breeze had broken the surface of the ocean. Then another +of those enchanting scenes we had feared to behold no more was +presented to us. The beautiful invalid, assisted by her now inseparable +companion, came upon the deck to watch the sunset. From her cheek +the bloom of health was gone; but the look of wild dread with which +hitherto she had never quite ceased to regard him who supported her +was gone also, and in its place the large, dark eyes were filled +by a glance of such indescribable gratitude and trust as only her +eyes could express. He, for the first time, looked neither more +nor less than a man. Her shrinking from our presence, too, had +disappeared, and her look of recognition now was unmistakable and +cordial. She had resumed her original garb, long disused as if +to avoid remark at the ports we visited, and its glowing colors +seemed to heighten the contrast between the pallid cheek and the +long, dark lashes that drooped languidly over them, as, wearied at +length by the unusual exertion, she sank heavily on her companion, +and was rather borne than assisted back to the cabin. + +During another week of breezeless autumn calm, this strange drama +was re-enacted many times before us, with each time a deepening +of the tragic shades that were gathering above it. But even after +it became evident that the sweet evening air had no balm for the +drooping girl, she loved to look out on the glories of the sunset, +as if conscious that soon she should behold them no more forever. +And when her strength no longer enabled her to walk, her nurse +carried her out like a child in his arms. + +But this also ceased after a time, and the hope that our transplanted +blossom would ever flourish on a new soil had already faded from the +bosom of the most sanguine among us, when one evening the guardian +genius of the cabin beckoned to me from its portal. My entrance +seemed to arouse the fair invalid, who was reclined upon a couch. +The enchanting halo of her perfect beauty was unabated by disease; +and she was surrounded by articles so rare, so costly, and in such +profusion, as to force themselves upon my attention even in that +first glance. A faint smile, and a recognition from those now too +bright eyes, were my welcome. But they did not rest upon me long; +for, as if by some fascination, those eyes seemed always turned +toward him, or, if by chance he was beyond their reach, to the +spot where they could first behold his return. + +So this nursling of a palace, evidently dying out on the wide sea, +with only rough men about her, had neither a word nor a look of +reproach for the one who had dragged her forth to so wretched a +fate. Even in her mind's wanderings, she seldom went back to former +pomps or pleasures, and her tongue preferred rather to stumble +through the rough and unfamiliar language in which of late she +had been so terribly schooled, than to speak that of her youth. +Once, when after a short absence her attendant returned to her +side, she said,-- + +"My heart was trying to cross the waves that were between us, and +oh! how it was tossed upon them--and it ached, and--and--" Then, +giving a sigh of relief, she sank back, closed her eyes, and slumbered +restfully. + +He disposed of the lamp he had just lighted, and then, with an +expression as inscrutable as ever, he stood looking down upon her. + +While this scene was being enacted, I marked through the open portal +of the cabin--in one of those strange distractions that occur to +us amidst the most intense feelings of our lives--the stars above +us growing brighter and brighter as the shades of the twilight +deepened. Suddenly turning from the couch, he also, at a stride, +stood in full view of those bright revelations of the darkness; but +his eye sought them with no such abstracted regard as mine. Fixedly +and sternly he seemed to be watching among them some portentous +index of fate. Soon a change came over his countenance, and he +resumed his place beside the scarcely breathing form. Then the +fountains of the great deep within him were broken up, and the +rushing torrent of its emotions shook his whole frame and convulsed +his features. Stooping, he kissed the insensible girl passionately, +again and again, and he would, I believe, have clasped her to his +bosom if I, fearing for her the effects of his stormy transports, +had not caught his arm. He needed no explanation of my interruption, +neither was he startled or incensed by it, and he seemed more like +one reluctantly obeying some sudden restraining impulse of his +own than yielding to that of another. + +"No," he said, "I must not cut short a single flicker of that bright +spirit; the wondrously beautiful vessel that it glorifies will be +cold clay soon enough! ashes from which no future Phoenix shall +arise. O," he exclaimed, "this sacrifice is too great, too great! +and for nothing! Even had she perished on the destined altar, an +accepted sacrifice, it were too great! But I tore her from home +and friends, and life itself, for this,--for nothing! O Destiny, +thou art a subtle adversary, and infinite are thy devices for our +overthrow! But I never reckoned on such an impediment as this +heart-weakness." + +Then approaching me, he laid a hand upon my shoulder, and said: +"As the representative of the young, hopeful, living world she +is about to leave, I called you here that you and she might look +your last upon each other. Go now, and though your present emotion +accords duly with the part I have assigned you, see that you do +not play false to it hereafter by letting this woful event impress +you with too deep or too lasting a sorrow." + +Then to my Ideal, so strangely found and lost, I looked and murmured +an adieu, and returned among my companions, reverenced as one who +had been in a hallowed place. + +It was the third evening after this, to me, memorable visit. Streaks +of sable, with golden edges, barred the face of the setting sun, +and promised to our hopes a change of weather. But this indication, +important as it was after the long calm, was evidently not that which +the whole ship's crew, officers and men, were now discussing,--as the +converged attention of the scattered groups on the closed entrance +of that silent, mysterious cabin testified. + +"I know," said O'Hanlon, answering to an objection from some one +in the group where he stood, "it would be like invading a sanctuary +to intrude there; but the conviction sometimes comes over me that +we have, all hands of us, from the captain down, acted in regard +to this matter with the incapacity of men in a nightmare. Fear is +a condition under which a true man should not breathe a moment +without contest; and yet I know we have been all, more or less +consciously, under its influence since this man came on board. +Out upon us! I will, for myself at least, break through this dream +of terror at once, by a tap at yonder door." + +"It's the captain's place, not ours," said Smith, "to investigate +this affair. Don't be too impulsive; you will get yourself into +serious trouble." + +"This is no matter of ordinary discipline," said the other; "the +captain has a more substantial awe of this man than you or I,--and +for more substantial reasons. He was aware of his wealth and power +when we were not. How, without his knowledge, could the treasures +worth a king's ransom, that adorn yonder coop, have been smuggled +in or arranged there? But I am resolved, right or wrong, to do +as I said." + +I was questioning within myself whether to second him, when the +door toward which he was advancing slowly opened, and once more +the object of our discussion issued from it, and again in his arms +was the beautiful form to which they had proved such a fatal +resting-place. But none of the emotions of terror, trustfulness, +or affection, which had alternately thrilled it in that position, +did it now exhibit. The bright eyes were closed, the beautiful +features settled in lasting repose. The glossy hair was daintily +braided. The spotless garments were gracefully disposed. The jewels +glittered conspicuously, as if relieved from the outvying lustre of +her eyes. All, as in life, was pure and perfect; and as in life, +so in death, she was still a revelation of transcendent beauty. +A snowy winding-sheet, fringed with heavy coins, alternately of +gold and of silver, and looped with silken cords on which bunches +of the same precious metals hung as tassels, was so disposed that +he could enfold her in it without laying her from his arms. + +Stepping to the side of the vessel, he stood holding her thus in +our view for a few moments; then, deftly and deliberately as usual, +he wrapped the preciously weighted linen around her, stepped easily +upon the bulwark, and with that perfect and deliberate poise so +peculiar to him, and with his burden clasped firmly to his breast, +he flung himself far clear of the ship, into the ocean, and was +seen no more. + +Thus vanished like a dream the romance of my life. Indeed, but for +the lurid gleam of this strange jewel, a true type and testimony of +it, I might yet grow to persuade myself it was a dream, so wondrous +it becomes to me in memory. + + + + +THE ADVOCATE'S WEDDING-DAY. + +BY CATHERINE CROWE. + + +Antoine de Chaulieu was the son of a poor gentleman of Normandy, +with a long genealogy, a short rent-roll, and a large family. Jacques +Rollet was the son of a brewer, who did not know who his grandfather +was; but he had a long purse, and only two children. As these youths +flourished in the early days of liberty, equality, and fraternity, +and were near neighbors, they naturally hated each other. Their enmity +commenced at school, where the delicate and refined De Chaulieu, +being the only _gentilhomme_ amongst the scholars, was the favorite +of the master (who was a bit of an aristocrat in his heart), although +he was about the worst dressed boy in the establishment, and never +had a sou to spend; whilst Jacques Rollet, sturdy and rough, with +smart clothes and plenty of money, got flogged six days in the week, +ostensibly for being stupid and not learning his lessons,--which +he did not,--but in reality for constantly quarrelling with and +insulting De Chaulieu, who had not strength to cope with him. + +When they left the academy, the feud continued in all its vigor, +and was fostered by a thousand little circumstances, arising out +of the state of the times, till a separation ensued, in consequence +of an aunt of Antoine de Chaulieu's undertaking the expense of +sending him to Paris to study the law, and of maintaining him there +during the necessary period. + +With the progress of events came some degree of reaction in favor +of birth and nobility; and then Antoine, who had passed for the +bar, began to hold up his head, and endeavor to push his fortunes; +but fate seemed against him. He felt certain that if he possessed +any gift in the world, it was that of eloquence, but he could get +no cause to plead; and his aunt dying inopportunely, first his +resources failed, and then his health. He had no sooner returned +to his home than, to complicate his difficulties completely, he +fell in love with Miss Natalie de Bellefonds, who had just returned +from Paris, where she had been completing her education. To expatiate +on the perfections of Mademoiselle Natalie would be a waste of +ink and paper; it is sufficient to say that she really was a very +charming girl, with a fortune which, though not large, would have +been a most desirable addition to De Chaulieu, who had nothing. +Neither was the fair Natalie indisposed to listen to his addresses; +but her father could not be expected to countenance the suit of +a gentleman, however well-born, who had not a ten-sous piece in +the world, and whose prospects were a blank. + +Whilst the ambitious and love-sick barrister was thus pining in +unwelcome obscurity, his old acquaintance, Jacques Rollet, had +been acquiring an undesirable notoriety. There was nothing really +bad in Jacques; but having been bred up a democrat, with a hatred +of the nobility, he could not easily accommodate his rough humor +to treat them with civility when it was no longer safe to insult +them. The liberties he allowed himself whenever circumstances brought +him into contact with the higher classes of society, had led him +into many scrapes, out of which his father's money had in one way +or another released him; but that source of safety had now failed. +Old Rollet, having been too busy with the affairs of the nation to +attend to his business, had died insolvent, leaving his son with +nothing but his own wits to help him out of future difficulties; +and it was not long before their exercise was called for. + +Claudine Rollet, his sister, who was a very pretty girl, had attracted +the attention of Mademoiselle de Bellefonds's brother, Alphonse; +and as he paid her more attention than from such a quarter was +agreeable to Jacques, the young men had had more than one quarrel +on the subject, on which occasion they had each, characteristically, +given vent to their enmity, the one in contemptuous monosyllables, +and the other in a volley of insulting words. But Claudine had +another lover, more nearly of her own condition of life; this was +Claperon, the deputy-governor of the Rouen jail, with whom she +had made acquaintance during one or two compulsory visits paid +by her brother to that functionary. Claudine, who was a bit of a +coquette, though she did not altogether reject his suit, gave him +little encouragement, so that, betwixt hopes and fears and doubts +and jealousies, poor Claperon led a very uneasy kind of life. + +Affairs had been for some time in this position, when, one fine +morning, Alphonse de Bellefonds was not to be found in his chamber +when his servant went to call him; neither had his bed been slept +in. He had been observed to go out rather late on the previous +evening, but whether he had returned nobody could tell. He had not +appeared at supper, but that was too ordinary an event to awaken +suspicion; and little alarm was excited till several hours had +elapsed, when inquiries were instituted and a search commenced, +which terminated in the discovery of his body, a good deal mangled, +lying at the bottom of a pond which had belonged to the old brewery. + +Before any investigation had been made, every person had jumped +to the conclusion that the young man had been murdered, and that +Jacques Rollet was the assassin. There was a strong presumption +in favor of that opinion, which further perquisitions tended to +confirm. Only the day before, Jacques had been heard to threaten +Monsieur de Bellefonds with speedy vengeance. On the fatal evening, +Alphonse and Claudine had been seen together in the neighborhood +of the now dismantled brewery; and as Jacques, betwixt poverty and +democracy, was in bad odor with the respectable part of society, +it was not easy for him to bring witnesses to character or to prove +an unexceptionable _alibi_. As for the Bellefonds and De Chaulieus, +and the aristocracy in general, they entertained no doubt of his +guilt; and finally, the magistrates coming to the same opinion, +Jacques Rollet was committed for trial at the next assizes, and +as a testimony of good-will, Antoine de Chaulieu was selected by +the injured family to conduct the prosecution. + +Here, at last, was the opportunity he had sighed for. So interesting +a case, too, furnishing such ample occasion for passion, pathos, +indignation! And how eminently fortunate that the speech which +he set himself with ardor to prepare would be delivered in the +presence of the father and brother of his mistress, and perhaps +of the lady herself. The evidence against Jacques, it is true, +was altogether presumptive; there was no proof whatever that he +had committed the crime; and for his own part, he stoutly denied +it. But Antoine de Chaulieu entertained no doubt of his guilt, +and the speech he composed was certainly well calculated to carry +that conviction into the bosom of others. It was of the highest +importance to his own reputation that he should procure a verdict, +and he confidently assured the afflicted and enraged family of +the victim that their vengeance should be satisfied. + +Under these circumstances, could anything be more unwelcome than +a piece of intelligence that was privately conveyed to him late on +the evening before the trial was to come on, which tended strongly +to exculpate the prisoner, without indicating any other person +as the criminal. Here was an opportunity lost. The first step of +the ladder on which he was to rise to fame, fortune, and a wife +was slipping from under his feet. + +Of course so interesting a trial was anticipated with great eagerness +by the public; the court was crowded with all the beauty and fashion +of Rouen, and amongst the rest, doubly interesting in her mourning, +sat the fair Natalie, accompanied by her family. + +The young advocate's heart beat high; he felt himself inspired by +the occasion; and although Jacques Rollet persisted in asserting +his innocence, founding his defence chiefly on circumstances which +were strongly corroborated by the information that had reached De +Chaulieu the preceding evening, he was nevertheless convicted. + +In spite of the very strong doubts he privately entertained respecting +the justice of the verdict, even De Chaulieu himself, in the first +flush of success, amidst a crowd of congratulating friends and +the approving smiles of his mistress, felt gratified and happy; +his speech had, for the time being, not only convinced others but +himself; warmed with his own eloquence, he believed what he said. +But when the glow was over, and he found himself alone, he did not +feel so comfortable. A latent doubt of Rollet's guilt now pressed +strongly on his mind, and he felt that the blood of the innocent +would be on his head. It was true there was yet time to save the +life of the prisoner; but to admit Jacques innocent, was to take +the glory out of his own speech, and turn the sting of his argument +against himself. Besides, if he produced the witness who had secretly +given him the information, he should be self-condemned, for he could +not conceal that he had been aware of the circumstance before the +trial. + +Matters having gone so far, therefore, it was necessary that Jacques +Rollet should die; and so the affair took its course; and early +one morning the guillotine was erected in the court-yard of the +gaol, three criminals ascended the scaffold, and three heads fell +into the basket, which were presently afterward, with the trunks +that had been attached to them, buried in a corner of the cemetery. + +Antoine de Chaulieu was now fairly started in his career, and his +success was as rapid as the first step toward it had been tardy. He +took a pretty apartment in the Hôtel Marboeuf, Rue Grange Batelière, +and in a short time was looked upon as one of the most rising young +advocates in Paris. His success in one line brought him success +in another; he was soon a favorite in society, and an object of +interest to speculating mothers; but his affections still adhered +to his old love, Natalie de Bellefonds, whose family now gave their +assent to the match,--at least prospectively,--a circumstance which +furnished such additional incentive to his exertions, that in about +two years from his first brilliant speech he was in a sufficiently +flourishing condition to offer the young lady a suitable home. + +In anticipation of the happy event, he engaged and furnished a +suite of apartments in the Rue de Helder; and as it was necessary +that the bride should come to Paris to provide her trousseau, it +was agreed that the wedding should take place there, instead of at +Bellefonds, as had been first projected,--an arrangement the more +desirable, that a press of business rendered Monsieur de Chaulieu's +absence from Paris inconvenient. + +Brides and bridegrooms in France, except of the very high classes, +are not much in the habit of making those honeymoon excursions so +universal in this country. A day spent in visiting Versailles, or +St. Cloud, or even the public places of the city, is generally all +that precedes the settling down into the habits of daily life. In +the present instance, St. Denis was selected, from the circumstance +of Natalie's having a younger sister at school there, and also +because she had a particular desire to see the Abbey. + +The wedding was to take place on a Thursday; and on the Wednesday +evening, having spent some hours most agreeably with Natalie, Antoine +de Chaulieu returned to spend his last night in his bachelor apartments. +His wardrobe and other small possessions had already been packed +up, and sent to his future home; and there was nothing left in +his room now but his new wedding suit, which he inspected with +considerable satisfaction before he undressed and lay down to sleep. + +Sleep, however, was somewhat slow to visit him, and the clock had +struck one before he closed his eyes. When he opened them again, +it was broad daylight, and his first thought was, had he overslept +himself? He sat up in bed to look at the clock, which was exactly +opposite; and as he did so, in the large mirror over the fireplace, +he perceived a figure standing behind him. As the dilated eyes +met his own, he saw it was the face of Jacques Rollet. Overcome +with horror, he sank back on his pillow, and it was some minutes +before he ventured to look again in that direction; when he did +so, the figure had disappeared. + +The sudden revulsion of feeling which such a vision was calculated +to occasion in a man elate with joy may be conceived. For some +time after the death of his former foe, he had been visited by +not infrequent twinges of conscience; but of late, borne along by +success and the hurry of Parisian life, these unpleasant remembrances +had grown rarer, till at length they had faded away altogether. +Nothing had been further from his thoughts than Jacques Rollet +when he closed his eyes on the preceding night, or when he opened +them to that sun which was to shine on what he expected to be the +happiest day of his life. Where were the high-strung nerves now, +the elastic frame, the bounding heart? + +Heavily and slowly he arose from his bed, for it was time to do +so; and with a trembling hand and quivering knees he went through +the processes of the toilet, gashing his cheek with the razor, +and spilling the water over his well-polished boots. When he was +dressed, scarcely venturing to cast a glance in the mirror as he +passed it, he quitted the room and descended the stairs, taking +the key of the door with him, for the purpose of leaving it with +the porter; the man, however, being absent, he laid it on the table +in his lodge, and with a relaxed hand and languid step he proceeded +to the carriage which quickly conveyed him to the church, where +he was met by Natalie and her friends. + +How difficult it was now to look happy, with that pallid face and +extinguished eye! + +"How pale you are! Has anything happened? You are surely ill?" were +the exclamations that assailed him on all sides. + +He tried to carry the thing off as well as he could, but he felt +that the movements he would have wished to appear alert were only +convulsive, and that the smiles with which he attempted to relax +his features were but distorted grimaces. However, the church was +not the place for further inquiries; and whilst Natalie gently +pressed his hand in token of sympathy, they advanced to the altar, +and the ceremony was performed; after which they stepped into the +carriages waiting at the door, and drove to the apartments of Madame +de Bellefonds, where an elegant _déjeuner_ was prepared. + +"What ails you, my dear husband?" inquired Natalie, as soon as they +were alone. + +"Nothing, love," he replied; "nothing, I assure you, but a restless +night and a little overwork, in order that I might have to-day +free to enjoy my happiness." + +"Are you quite sure? Is there nothing else?" + +"Nothing, indeed, and pray don't take notice of it; it only makes +me worse." + +Natalie was not deceived, but she saw that what he said was +true,--notice made him worse; so she contented herself with observing +him quietly and saying nothing; but as he felt she was observing +him, she might almost better have spoken; words are often less +embarrassing things than too curious eyes. + +When they reached Madame de Bellefonds' he had the same sort of +scrutiny to undergo, till he grew quite impatient under it, and +betrayed a degree of temper altogether unusual with him. Then everybody +looked astonished; some whispered their remarks, and others expressed +them by their wondering eyes, till his brow knit, and his pallid +cheeks became flushed with anger. + +Neither could he divert attention by eating; his parched mouth +would not allow him to swallow anything but liquids, of which he +indulged in copious libations; and it was an exceeding relief to +him when the carriage which was to convey them to St. Denis, being +announced, furnished an excuse for hastily leaving the table. + +Looking at his watch, he declared it was late; and Natalie, who saw +how eager he was to be gone, threw her shawl over her shoulders, +and bidding her friends good morning they hurried away. + +It was a fine sunny day in June; and as they drove along the crowded +boulevards and through the Porte St. Denis, the young bride and +bridegroom, to avoid each other's eyes, affected to be gazing out +of the windows; but when they reached that part of the road where +there was nothing but trees on each side, they felt it necessary +to draw in their heads, and make an attempt at conversation. + +De Chaulieu put his arm round his wife's waist, and tried to rouse +himself from his depression; but it had by this time so reacted +upon her, that she could not respond to his efforts; and thus the +conversation languished, till both felt glad when they reached their +destination, which would, at all events, furnish them something +to talk about. + +Having quitted the carriage and ordered a dinner at the Hôtel de +l'Abbaye, the young couple proceeded to visit Mademoiselle de +Bellefonds, who was overjoyed to see her sister and new brother-in-law, +and doubly so when she found that they had obtained permission to +take her out to spend the afternoon with them. + +As there is little to be seen at St. Denis but the Abbey, on quitting +that part of it devoted to education, they proceeded to visit the +church with its various objects of interest; and as De Chaulieu's +thoughts were now forced into another direction, his cheerfulness +began insensibly to return. Natalie looked so beautiful, too, and the +affection betwixt the two young sisters was so pleasant to behold! +And they spent a couple of hours wandering about with Hortense, who +was almost as well informed as the Suisse, till the brazen doors +were open which admitted them to the royal vault. + +Satisfied at length with what they had seen, they began to think +of returning to the inn, the more especially as De Chaulieu, who +had not eaten a morsel of food since the previous evening, confessed +to being hungry; so they directed their steps to the door, lingering +here and there as they went to inspect a monument or a painting, when +happening to turn his head aside to see if his wife, who had stopped +to take a last look at the tomb of King Dagobert, was following, +he beheld with horror the face of Jacques Rollet appearing from +behind a column. At the same instant his wife joined him and took +his arm, inquiring if he was not very much delighted with what +he had seen. He attempted to say yes, but the word died upon his +lips; and staggering out of the door, he alleged that a sudden +faintness had overcome him. + +They conducted him to the hotel, but Natalie now became seriously +alarmed; and well she might. His complexion looked ghastly, his +limbs shook, and his features bore an expression of indescribable +horror and anguish. What could be the meaning of so extraordinary +a change in the gay, witty, prosperous De Chaulieu, who, till that +morning, seemed not to have a care in the world? For, plead illness +as he might, she felt certain, from the expression of his features, +that his sufferings were not of the body, but of the mind; and +unable to imagine any reason for such extraordinary manifestations, +of which she had never before seen a symptom, but a sudden aversion +to herself, and regret for the step he had taken, her pride took the +alarm, and, concealing the distress she really felt, she began to +assume a haughty and reserved manner toward him, which he naturally +interpreted into an evidence of anger and contempt. + +The dinner was placed upon the table, but De Chaulieu's appetite, of +which he had lately boasted, was quite gone; nor was his wife better +able to eat. The young sister alone did justice to the repast; but +although the bridegroom could not eat, he could swallow champagne +in such copious draughts that erelong the terror and remorse which +the apparition of Jacques Rollet had awakened in his breast were +drowned in intoxication. + +Amazed and indignant, poor Natalie sat silently observing this elect +of her heart, till, overcome with disappointment and grief, she +quitted the room with her sister, and retired to another apartment, +where she gave free vent to her feelings in tears. + +After passing a couple of hours in confidences and lamentations, +they recollected that the hours of liberty, granted as an especial +favor to Mademoiselle Hortense, had expired; but ashamed to exhibit +her husband in his present condition to the eyes of strangers, +Natalie prepared to reconduct her to the Maison Royal herself. +Looking into the dining-room as they passed, they saw De Chaulieu +lying on a sofa, fast asleep, in which state he continued when +his wife returned. At length the driver of their carriage begged +to know if monsieur and madame were ready to return to Paris, and +it became necessary to arouse him. + +The transitory effects of the champagne had now subsided; but when +De Chaulieu recollected what had happened, nothing could exceed +his shame and mortification. So engrossing, indeed, were these +sensations, that they quite overpowered his previous ones, and, +in his present vexation, he for the moment forgot his fears. He +knelt at his wife's feet, begged her pardon a thousand times, swore +that he adored her, and declared that the illness and the effect of +the wine had been purely the consequences of fasting and overwork. + +It was not the easiest thing in the world to reassure a woman whose +pride, affection, and taste had been so severely wounded; but Natalie +tried to believe, or to appear to do so, and a sort of reconciliation +ensued, not quite sincere on the part of the wife, and very humbling +on the part of the husband. Under these circumstances it was impossible +that he should recover his spirits or facility of manner; his gayety +was forced, his tenderness constrained; his heart was heavy within +him; and ever and anon the source whence all this disappointment +and woe had sprung would recur to his perplexed and tortured mind. + +Thus mutually pained and distrustful, they returned to Paris, which +they reached about nine o'clock. In spite of her depression, Natalie, +who had not seen her new apartments, felt some curiosity about them, +whilst De Chaulieu anticipated a triumph in exhibiting the elegant +home he had prepared for her. With some alacrity, therefore, they +stepped out of the carriage, the gates of the hotel were thrown +open, the _concierge_ rang the bell which announced to the servants +that their master and mistress had arrived; and whilst these domestics +appeared above, holding lights over the balusters, Natalie, followed +by her husband, ascended the stairs. + +But when they reached the landing-place of the first flight, they +saw the figure of a man standing in a corner, as if to make way for +them. The flash from above fell upon his face, and again Antoine +de Chaulieu recognized the features of Jacques Rollet. + +From the circumstance of his wife preceding him, the figure was +not observed by De Chaulieu till he was lifting his foot to place +it on the top stair: the sudden shock caused him to miss the step, +and without uttering a sound, he fell back, and never stopped until +he reached the stones at the bottom. + +The screams of Natalie brought the _concierge_ from below and the +maids from above, and an attempt was made to raise the unfortunate +man from the ground; but with cries of anguish he besought them +to desist. + +"Let me," he said, "die here. O God! what a dreadful vengeance +is thine! Natalie, Natalie," he exclaimed to his wife, who was +kneeling beside him, "to win fame, and fortune, and yourself, I +committed a dreadful crime. With lying words I argued away the +life of a fellow-creature, whom, whilst I uttered them, I half +believed to be innocent; and now, when I have attained all I desired +and reached the summit of my hopes, the Almighty has sent him back +upon the earth to blast me with the sight. Three times this day--three +times this day! Again! Again! Again!" And as he spoke, his wild +and dilated eyes fixed themselves on one of the individuals that +surrounded him. + +"He is delirious," said they. + +"No," said the stranger, "what he says is true enough, at least in +part." And, bending over the expiring man, he added, "May Heaven +forgive you, Antoine de Chaulieu! I am no apparition, but the veritable +Jacques Rollet, who was saved by one who well knew my innocence. I +may name him, for he is beyond the reach of the law now: it was +Claperon, the jailer, who, in a fit of jealousy, had himself killed +Alphonse de Bellefonds." + +"But--but there were three," gasped Antoine. + +"Yes, a miserable idiot, who had been so long in confinement for +a murder that he was forgotten by the authorities, was substituted +for me. At length I obtained, through the assistance of my sister, +the position of _concierge_ in the Hôtel Marboeuf, in the Rue Grange +Bateliere. I entered on my new place yesterday evening, and was +desired to awaken the gentleman on the third floor at seven o'clock. +When I entered the room to do so, you were asleep; but before I +had time to speak, you awoke, and I recognized your features in +the glass. Knowing that I could not vindicate my innocence if you +chose to seize me, I fled, and seeing an omnibus starting for St. +Denis, I got on it with a vague idea of getting on to Calais and +crossing the Channel to England. But having only a franc or two in +my pocket, or indeed in the world, I did not know how to procure +the means of going forward; and whilst I was lounging about the +place, forming first one plan and then another, I saw you in the +church, and, concluding that you were in pursuit of me, I thought +the best way of eluding your vigilance was to make my way back to +Paris as fast as I could; so I set off instantly, and walked all +the way; but having no money to pay my night's lodging, I came +here to borrow a couple of livres of my sister Claudine, who is +a _brodeuse_ and resides _au cinquième_." + +"Thank Heaven!" exclaimed the dying man, "that sin is off my soul. +Natalie, dear wife, farewell! Forgive--forgive all." + +These were the last words he uttered; the priest, who had been +summoned in haste, held up the cross before his failing sight; a +few strong convulsions shook the poor bruised and mangled frame; +and then all was still. + + + + +THE BIRTHMARK. + +BY NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE. + + +In the latter part of the last century there lived a man of science, +an eminent proficient in every branch of natural philosophy, who +not long before our story opens had made experience of a spiritual +affinity more attractive than any chemical one. He had left his +laboratory to the care of an assistant, cleared his fine countenance +from the furnace-smoke, washed the stain of acids from his fingers, +and persuaded a beautiful woman to become his wife. In those days, +when the comparatively recent discovery of electricity and other +kindred mysteries of Nature seemed to open paths into the region +of miracle, it was not unusual for the love of science to rival +the love of woman in its depth and absorbing energy. The higher +intellect, the imagination, the spirit, and even the heart might +all find their congenial aliment in pursuits which, as some of their +ardent votaries believed, would ascend from one step of powerful +intelligence to another, until the philosopher should lay his hand +on the secret of creative force and perhaps make new worlds for +himself. We know not whether Aylmer possessed this degree of faith +in man's ultimate control over nature. He had devoted himself, +however, too unreservedly to scientific studies ever to be weaned +from them by any second passion. His love for his young wife might +prove the stronger of the two; but it could only be by intertwining +itself with his love of science and uniting the strength of the +latter to its own. + +Such a union accordingly took place, and was attended with truly +remarkable consequences and a deeply impressive moral. One day, +very soon after their marriage, Aylmer sat gazing at his wife with +a trouble in his countenance that grew stronger until he spoke. + +"Georgiana," said he, "has it never occurred to you that the mark +upon your cheek might be removed?" + +"No, indeed," said she, smiling; but, perceiving the seriousness +of his manner, she blushed deeply. "To tell you the truth, it has +been so often called a charm, that I was simple enough to imagine +it might be so." + +"Ah, upon another face perhaps it might," replied her husband; +"but never on yours. No, dearest Georgiana, you came so nearly +perfect from the hand of Nature that this slightest possible defect, +which we hesitate whether to term a defect or a beauty, shocks +me, as being the visible mark of earthly imperfection." + +"Shocks you, my husband!" cried Georgiana, deeply hurt; at first +reddening with momentary anger, but then bursting into tears. "Then +why did you take me from my mother's side? You cannot love what +shocks you!" + +To explain this conversation, it must be mentioned that in the +centre of Georgiana's left cheek there was a singular mark, deeply +interwoven, as it were, with the texture and substance of her face. +In the usual state of her complexion,--a healthy though delicate +bloom,--the mark wore a tint of deeper crimson, which imperfectly +defined its shape amid the surrounding rosiness. When she blushed +it gradually became more indistinct, and finally vanished amid +the triumphant rush of blood that bathed the whole cheek with its +brilliant glow. But if any shifting emotion caused her to turn +pale there was the mark again, a crimson stain upon the snow, in +what Aylmer sometimes deemed an almost fearful distinctness. Its +shape bore not a little similarity to the human hand, though of the +smallest pygmy size. Georgiana's lovers were wont to say that some +fairy at her birth hour had laid her tiny hand upon the infant's +cheek, and left this impress there in token of the magic endowments +that were to give her such sway over all hearts. Many a desperate +swain would have risked life for the privilege of pressing his lips +to the mysterious hand. It must not be concealed, however, that +the impression wrought by this fairy sign-manual varied exceedingly +according to the difference of temperament in the beholders. Some +fastidious persons--but they were exclusively of her own sex--affirmed +that the bloody hand, as they chose to call it, quite destroyed the +effect of Georgiana's beauty and rendered her countenance even +hideous. But it would be as reasonable to say that one of those +small blue stains which sometimes occur in the purest statuary +marble would convert the Eve of Powers to a monster. Masculine +observers, if the birthmark did not heighten their admiration, +contented themselves with wishing it away, that the world might +possess one living specimen of ideal loveliness without the semblance +of a flaw. After his marriage--for he thought little or nothing +of the matter before--Aylmer discovered that this was the case +with himself. + +Had she been less beautiful,--if Envy's self could have found aught +else to sneer at,--he might have felt his affection heightened +by the prettiness of this mimic hand, now vaguely portrayed, now +lost, now stealing forth again and glimmering to and fro with every +pulse of emotion that throbbed within her heart; but, seeing her +otherwise so perfect, he found this one defect grow more and more +intolerable with every moment of their united lives. It was the +fatal flaw of humanity which Nature, in one shape or another, stamps +ineffaceably on all her productions, either to imply that they are +temporary and finite, or that their perfection must be wrought by +toil and pain. The crimson hand expressed the ineludible gripe in +which mortality clutches the highest and purest of earthly mould, +degrading them into kindred with the lowest, and even with the +very brutes, like whom their visible frames return to dust. In +this manner, selecting it as the symbol of his wife's liability +to sin, sorrow, decay, and death, Aylmer's sombre imagination was +not long in rendering the birthmark a frightful object, causing +him more trouble and horror than ever Georgiana's beauty, whether +of soul or sense, had given him delight. + +At all the seasons which should have been their happiest he invariably, +and without intending it, nay, in spite of a purpose to the contrary, +reverted to this one disastrous topic. Trifling as it at first +appeared, it so connected itself with innumerable trains of thought +and modes of feeling that it became the central point of all. With +the morning twilight Aylmer opened his eyes upon his wife's face and +recognized the symbol of imperfection; and when they sat together +at the evening hearth his eyes wandered stealthily to her cheek, and +beheld, flickering with the blaze of the wood fire, the spectral +hand that wrote mortality where he would fain have worshipped. +Georgiana soon learned to shudder at his gaze. It needed but a +glance with the peculiar expression that his face often wore to +change the roses of her cheek into a deathlike paleness, amid which +the crimson hand was brought strongly out, like a bas-relief of +ruby on the whitest marble. + +Late one night, when the lights were growing dim so as hardly to +betray the stain on the poor wife's cheek, she herself, for the +first time, voluntarily took up the subject. + +"Do you remember, my dear Aylmer," said she, with a feeble attempt +at a smile, "have you any recollection, of a dream last night about +this odious hand?" + +"None! none whatever!" replied Aylmer, starting; but then he added, +in a dry, cold tone, affected for the sake of concealing the real +depth of his emotion, "I might well dream of it; for, before I +fell asleep, it had taken a pretty firm hold of my fancy." + +"And you did dream of it?" continued Georgiana, hastily; for she +dreaded lest a gush of tears should interrupt what she had to say. +"A terrible dream! I wonder that you can forget it. Is it possible +to forget this one expression?--'It is in her heart now; we must +have it out!' Reflect, my husband; for by all means I would have +you recall that dream." + +The mind is in a sad state when Sleep, the all-involving, cannot +confine her spectres within the dim region of her sway, but suffers +them to break forth affrighting this actual life with secrets that +perchance belong to a deeper one. Aylmer now remembered his dream. +He had fancied himself with his servant Aminadab attempting an +operation for the removal of the birthmark; but the deeper went +the knife, the deeper sank the hand, until at length its tiny grasp +appeared to have caught hold of Georgiana's heart; whence, however, +her husband was inexorably resolved to cut or wrench it away. + +When the dream had shaped itself perfectly in his memory, Aylmer +sat in his wife's presence with a guilty feeling. Truth often finds +its way to the mind close muffled in robes of sleep, and then speaks +with uncompromising directness of matters in regard to which we +practise an unconscious self-deception during our waking moments. +Until now he had not been aware of the tyrannizing influence acquired +by one idea over his mind, and of the lengths which he might find +in his heart to go for the sake of giving himself peace. + +"Aylmer," resumed Georgiana, solemnly, "I know not what may be +the cost to both of us to rid me of this fatal birthmark. Perhaps +its removal may cause cureless deformity; or it may be the stain +goes as deep as life itself. Again: do we know that there is a +possibility, on any terms, of unclasping the firm gripe of this +little hand which was laid upon me before I came into the world?" + +"Dearest Georgiana, I have spent much thought upon the subject," +hastily interrupted Aylmer. "I am convinced of the perfect +practicability of its removal." + +"If there be the remotest possibility of it," continued Georgiana, +"let the attempt be made, at whatever risk. Danger is nothing to +me; for life, while this hateful mark makes me the object of your +horror and disgust,--life is a burden which I would fling down +with joy. Either remove this dreadful hand, or take my wretched +life! You have deep science. All the world bears witness of it. +You have achieved great wonders. Cannot you remove this little, +little mark, which I cover with the tips of two small fingers? +Is this beyond your power, for the sake of your own peace, and to +save your poor wife from madness?" + +"Noblest, dearest, tenderest wife," cried Aylmer, rapturously, +"doubt not my power. I have already given this matter the deepest +thought,--thought which might almost have enlightened me to create +a being less perfect than yourself. Georgiana, you have led me +deeper than ever into the heart of science. I feel myself fully +competent to render this dear cheek as faultless as its fellow; +and then, most beloved, what will be my triumph when I shall have +corrected what Nature left imperfect in her fairest work! Even +Pygmalion, when his sculptured woman assumed life, felt not greater +ecstasy than mine will be." + +"It is resolved, then," said Georgiana, faintly smiling. "And, +Aylmer, spare me not, though you should find the birthmark take +refuge in my heart at last." + +Her husband tenderly kissed her cheek,--her right cheek,--not that +which bore the impress of the crimson hand. + +The next day Aylmer apprised his wife of a plan that he had formed +whereby he might have opportunity for the intense thought and constant +watchfulness which the proposed operation would require; while +Georgiana, likewise, would enjoy the perfect repose essential to its +success. They were to seclude themselves in the extensive apartments +occupied by Aylmer as a laboratory, and where, during his toilsome +youth, he had made discoveries in the elemental powers of Nature +that had roused the admiration of all the learned societies in +Europe. Seated calmly in this laboratory, the pale philosopher +had investigated the secrets of the highest cloud region and of +the profoundest mines; he had satisfied himself of the causes that +kindled and kept alive the fires of the volcano; and had explained +the mystery of fountains, and how it is that they gush forth, some +so bright and pure, and others with such rich medicinal virtues, +from the dark bosom of the earth. Here, too, at an earlier period, +he had studied the wonders of the human frame, and attempted to +fathom the very process by which Nature assimilates all her precious +influences from earth and air, and from the spiritual world, to +create and foster man, her masterpiece. The latter pursuit, however, +Aylmer had long laid aside in unwilling recognition of the +truth--against which all seekers sooner or later stumble--that +our great creative Mother, while she amuses us with apparently +working in the broadest sunshine, is yet severely careful to keep +her own secrets, and, in spite of her pretended openness, shows us +nothing but results. She permits us, indeed, to mar, but seldom +to mend, and, like a jealous patentee, on no account to make. Now, +however, Aylmer resumed these half-forgotten investigations; not, +of course, with such hopes or wishes as first suggested them; but +because they involved much physiological truth and lay in the path +of his proposed scheme for the treatment of Georgiana. + +As he led her over the threshold of the laboratory, Georgiana was +cold and tremulous. Aylmer looked cheerfully into her face, with +intent to reassure her, but was so startled with the intense glow +of the birthmark upon the whiteness of her cheek that he could +not restrain a strong convulsive shudder. His wife fainted. + +"Aminadab! Aminadab!" shouted Aylmer, stamping violently on the +floor. + +Forthwith there issued from an inner apartment a man of low stature, +but bulky frame, with shaggy hair hanging about his visage, which +was grimed with the vapors of the furnace. This personage had been +Aylmer's under-worker during his whole scientific career, and was +admirably fitted for that office by his great mechanical readiness, +and the skill with which, while incapable of comprehending a single +principle, he executed all the details of his master's experiments. +With his vast strength, his shaggy hair, his smoky aspect, and the +indescribable earthiness that incrusted him, he seemed to represent +man's physical nature; while Aylmer's slender figure and pale, +intellectual face were no less apt a type of the spiritual element. + +"Throw open the door of the boudoir, Aminadab," said Aylmer, "and +burn a pastil." + +"Yes, master," answered Aminadab, looking intently at the lifeless +form of Georgiana; and then he muttered to himself, "If she were +my wife, I'd never part with that birthmark." + +When Georgiana recovered consciousness she found herself breathing +an atmosphere of penetrating fragrance, the gentle potency of which +had recalled her from her deathlike faintness. The scene around +her looked like enchantment. Aylmer had converted those smoky, +dingy, sombre rooms, where he had spent his brightest years in +recondite pursuits, into a series of beautiful apartments not unfit +to be the secluded abode of a lovely woman. The walls were hung +with gorgeous curtains, which imparted the combination of grandeur +and grace that no other species of adornment can achieve; and, as +they fell from the ceiling to the floor, their rich and ponderous +folds, concealing all angles and straight lines, appeared to shut +in the scene from infinite space. For aught Georgiana knew, it +might be a pavilion among the clouds. And Aylmer, excluding the +sunshine, which would have interfered with his chemical processes, +had supplied its place with perfumed lamps, emitting flames of +various hue, but all uniting in a soft, impurpled radiance. He +now knelt by his wife's side, watching her earnestly, but without +alarm; for he was confident in his science, and felt that he could +draw a magic circle round her within which no evil might intrude. + +"Where am I? Ah, I remember," said Georgiana, faintly; and she +placed her hand over her cheek to hide the terrible mark from her +husband's eyes. + +"Fear not, dearest!" exclaimed he. "Do not shrink from me! Believe +me, Georgiana, I even rejoice in this single imperfection, since +it will be such a rapture to remove it." + +"O, spare me!" sadly replied his wife. "Pray do not look at it again. +I never can forget that convulsive shudder." + +In order to soothe Georgiana, and, as it were, to release her mind +from the burden of actual things, Aylmer now put in practice some +of the light and playful secrets which science had taught him among +its profounder lore. Airy figures, absolutely bodiless ideas, and +forms of unsubstantial beauty came and danced before her, imprinting +their momentary footsteps on beams of light. Though she had some +indistinct idea of the method of these optical phenomena, still the +illusion was almost perfect enough to warrant the belief that her +husband possessed sway over the spiritual world. Then again, when +she felt a wish to look forth from her seclusion, immediately, as +if her thoughts were answered, the procession of external existence +flitted across a screen. The scenery and the figures of actual +life were perfectly represented, but with that bewitching yet +indescribable difference which always makes a picture, an image, +or a shadow so much more attractive than the original. When wearied +of this, Aylmer bade her cast her eyes upon a vessel containing a +quantity of earth. She did so, with little interest at first; but +was soon startled to perceive the germ of a plant shooting upward +from the soil. Then came the slender stalk; the leaves gradually +unfolded themselves; and amid them was a perfect and lovely flower. + +"It is magical!" cried Georgiana. "I dare not touch it." + +"Nay, pluck it," answered Aylmer,--"pluck it, and inhale its brief +perfume while you may. The flower will wither in a few moments +and leave nothing save its brown seed-vessels; but thence may be +perpetuated a race as ephemeral as itself." + +But Georgiana had no sooner touched the flower than the whole plant +suffered a blight, its leaves turning coal-black as if by the agency +of fire. + +"There was too powerful a stimulus," said Aylmer, thoughtfully. + +To make up for this abortive experiment, he proposed to take her +portrait by a scientific process of his own invention. It was to be +effected by rays of light striking upon a polished plate of metal. +Georgiana assented; but, on looking at the result, was affrighted to +find the features of the portrait blurred and indefinable; while +the minute figure of a hand appeared where the cheek should have +been. Aylmer snatched the metallic plate and threw it into a jar +of corrosive acid. + +Soon, however, he forgot these mortifying failures. In the intervals +of study and chemical experiment he came to her flushed and exhausted, +but seemed invigorated by her presence, and spoke in glowing language +of the resources of his art. He gave a history of the long dynasty +of the alchemists, who spent so many ages in quest of the universal +solvent by which the golden principle might be elicited from all +things vile and base. Aylmer appeared to believe that, by the plainest +scientific logic, it was altogether within the limits of possibility +to discover this long-sought medium. "But," he added, "a philosopher +who should go deep enough to acquire the power would attain too lofty +a wisdom to stoop to the exercise of it." Not less singular were +his opinions in regard to the elixir vitæ. He more than intimated +that it was at his option to concoct a liquid that should prolong +life for years, perhaps interminably; but that it would produce +a discord in Nature which all the world, and chiefly the quaffer +of the immortal nostrum, would find cause to curse. + +"Aylmer, are you in earnest?" asked Georgiana, looking at him with +amazement and fear. "It is terrible to possess such power, or even +to dream of possessing it." + +"O, do not tremble, my love!" said her husband. "I would not wrong +either you or myself by working such inharmonious effects upon our +lives; but I would have you consider how trifling, in comparison, +is the skill requisite to remove this little hand." + +At the mention of the birthmark, Georgiana, as usual, shrank as +if a red-hot iron had touched her cheek. + +Again Aylmer applied himself to his labors. She could hear his +voice in the distant furnace-room giving directions to Aminadab, +whose harsh, uncouth, misshapen tones were audible in response, +more like the grunt or growl of a brute than human speech. After +hours of absence, Aylmer reappeared and proposed that she should +now examine his cabinet of chemical products and natural treasures +of the earth. Among the former he showed her a small vial, in which, +he remarked, was contained a gentle yet most powerful fragrance, +capable of impregnating all the breezes that blow across a kingdom. +They were of inestimable value, the contents of that little vial; +and, as he said so, he threw some of the perfume into the air and +filled the room with piercing and invigorating delight. + +"And what is this?" asked Georgiana, pointing to a small crystal +globe containing a gold-colored liquid. "It is so beautiful to +the eye that I could imagine it the elixir of life." + +"In one sense it is," replied Aylmer; "or rather, the elixir of +immortality. It is the most precious poison that ever was concocted +in this world. By its aid I could apportion the lifetime of any +mortal at whom you might point your finger. The strength of the +dose would determine whether he were to linger out years, or drop +dead in the midst of a breath. No king on his guarded throne could +keep his life if I, in my private station, should deem that the +welfare of millions justified me in depriving him of it." + +"Why do you keep such a terrific drug?" inquired Georgiana in horror. + +"Do not mistrust me, dearest," said her husband, smiling; "its +virtuous potency is yet greater than its harmful one. But see! +here is a powerful cosmetic. With a few drops of this in a vase +of water, freckles may be washed away as easily as the hands are +cleansed. A stronger infusion would take the blood out of the cheek, +and leave the rosiest beauty a pale ghost." + +"Is it with this lotion that you intend to bathe my cheek?" asked +Georgiana, anxiously. + +"O, no," hastily replied her husband; "this is merely superficial. +Your case demands a remedy that shall go deeper." + +In his interviews with Georgiana, Aylmer generally made minute +inquiries as to her sensations, and whether the confinement of +the rooms and the temperature of the atmosphere agreed with her. +These questions had such a particular drift that Georgiana began +to conjecture that she was already subjected to certain physical +influences, either breathed in with the fragrant air or taken with +her food. She fancied likewise, but it might be altogether fancy, +that there was a stirring up of her system,--a strange, indefinite +sensation creeping through her veins, and tingling, half painfully, +half pleasurably, at her heart. Still, whenever she dared to look +into the mirror, there she beheld herself pale as a white rose +and with the crimson birthmark stamped upon her cheek. Not even +Aylmer now hated it so much as she. + +To dispel the tedium of the hours which her husband found it necessary +to devote to the processes of combination and analysis, Georgiana +turned over the volumes of his scientific library. In many dark +old tomes she met with chapters full of romance and poetry. They +were the works of the philosophers of the Middle Ages, such as +Albertus Magnus, Cornelius Agrippa, Paracelsus, and the famous +friar who created the prophetic Brazen Head. All these antique +naturalists stood in advance of their centuries, yet were imbued +with some of their credulity, and therefore were believed, and +perhaps imagined themselves to have acquired from the investigation +of nature a power above nature, and from physics a sway over the +spiritual world. Hardly less curious and imaginative were the early +volumes of the Transactions of the Royal Society, in which the +members, knowing little of the limits of natural possibility, were +continually recording wonders or proposing methods whereby wonders +might be wrought. + +But, to Georgiana, the most engrossing volume was a large folio from +her husband's own hand, in which he had recorded every experiment +of his scientific career, its original aim, the methods adopted +for its development, and its final success or failure, with the +circumstances to which either event was attributable. The book, in +truth, was both the history and emblem of his ardent, ambitious, +imaginative, yet practical and laborious life. He handled physical +details as if there were nothing beyond them; yet spiritualized +them all, and redeemed himself from materialism by his strong and +eager aspiration toward the infinite. In his grasp the veriest +clod of earth assumed a soul. Georgiana, as she read, reverenced +Aylmer and loved him more profoundly than ever, but with a less +entire dependence on his judgment than heretofore. Much as he had +accomplished, she could not but observe that his most splendid +successes were almost invariably failures, if compared with the +ideal at which he aimed. His brightest diamonds were the merest +pebbles, and felt to be so by himself, in comparison with the +inestimable gems which lay hidden beyond his reach. The volume, +rich with achievements that had won renown for its author, was yet +as melancholy a record as ever mortal hand had penned. It was the +sad confession and continual exemplification of the shortcomings +of the composite man, the spirit burdened with clay and working +in matter, and of the despair that assails the higher nature at +finding itself so miserably thwarted by the earthly part. Perhaps +every man of genius, in whatever sphere, might recognize the image +of his own experience in Aylmer's journal. + +So deeply did these reflections affect Georgiana, that she laid her +face upon the open volume and burst into tears. In this situation +she was found by her husband. + +"It is dangerous to read in a sorcerer's books," said he with a +smile, though his countenance was uneasy and displeased. "Georgiana, +there are pages in that volume which I can scarcely glance over and +keep my senses. Take heed lest it prove as detrimental to you." + +"It has made me worship you more than ever," said she. + +"Ah, wait for this one success," rejoined he, "then worship me if +you will. I shall deem myself hardly unworthy of it. But come, I +have sought you for the luxury of your voice. Sing to me, dearest." + +So she poured out the liquid music of her voice to quench the thirst +of his spirit. He then took his leave with a boyish exuberance of +gayety, assuring her that her seclusion would endure but a little +longer, and that the result was already certain. Scarcely had he +departed when Georgiana felt irresistibly impelled to follow him. She +had forgotten to inform Aylmer of a symptom which for two or three +hours past had begun to excite her attention. It was a sensation in +the fatal birthmark, not painful, but which induced a restlessness +throughout her system. Hastening after her husband, she intruded +for the first time into the laboratory. + +The first thing that struck her eye was the furnace, that hot and +feverish worker, with the intense glow of its fire, which by the +quantities of soot clustered above it seemed to have been burning +for ages. There was a distilling apparatus in full operation. Around +the room were retorts, tubes, cylinders, crucibles, and other apparatus +of chemical research. An electrical machine stood ready for immediate +use. The atmosphere felt oppressively close, and was tainted with +gaseous odors which had been tormented forth by the processes of +science. The severe and homely simplicity of the apartment, with +its naked walls and brick pavement, looked strange, accustomed as +Georgiana had become to the fantastic elegance of her boudoir. +But what chiefly, indeed almost solely, drew her attention, was +the aspect of Aylmer himself. + +He was pale as death, anxious and absorbed, and hung over the furnace +as if it depended upon his utmost watchfulness whether the liquid +which it was distilling should be the draught of immortal happiness +or misery. How different from the sanguine and joyous mien that +he had assumed for Georgiana's encouragement! + +"Carefully now, Aminadab; carefully, thou human machine; carefully, +thou man of clay," muttered Aylmer, more to himself than his assistant. +"Now, if there be a thought too much or too little, it is all over." + +"Ho! ho!" mumbled Aminadab. "Look, master! look!" + +Aylmer raised his eyes hastily, and at first reddened, then grew +paler than ever, on beholding Georgiana. He rushed towards her +and seized her arm with a gripe that left the print of his fingers +upon it. + +"Why do you come hither? Have you no trust in your husband?" cried +he, impetuously. "Would you throw the blight of that fatal birthmark +over my labors? It is not well done. Go, prying woman! go!" + +"Nay, Aylmer," said Georgiana with the firmness of which she possessed +no stinted endowment, "it is not you that have a right to complain. +You mistrust your wife; you have concealed the anxiety with which +you watch the development of this experiment. Think not so unworthily +of me, my husband. Tell me all the risk we run, and fear not that +I shall shrink; for my share in it is far less than your own." + +"No, no, Georgiana!" said Aylmer, impatiently; "it must not be." + +"I submit," replied she, calmly. "And, Aylmer, I shall quaff whatever +draught you bring me; but it will be on the same principle that +would induce me to take a dose of poison if offered by your hand." + +"My noble wife," said Aylmer, deeply moved, "I knew not the height +and depth of your nature until now. Nothing shall be concealed. +Know, then, that this crimson hand, superficial as it seems, has +clutched its grasp into your being with a strength of which I had +no previous conception. I have already administered agents powerful +enough to do aught except to change your entire physical system. +Only one thing remains to be tried. If that fail us we are ruined." + +"Why did you hesitate to tell me this?" asked she. + +"Because, Georgiana," said Aylmer, in a low voice, "there is danger." + +"Danger? There is but one danger,--that this horrible stigma shall +be left upon my cheek!" cried Georgiana. "Remove it, remove it, +whatever be the cost, or we shall both go mad!" + +"Heaven knows your words are too true," said Aylmer, sadly. "And +now, dearest, return to your boudoir. In a little while all will +be tested." + +He conducted her back and took leave of her with a solemn tenderness +which spoke far more than his words how much was now at stake. After +his departure Georgiana became rapt in musings. She considered the +character of Aylmer, and did it completer justice than at any previous +moment. Her heart exulted, while it trembled, at his honorable +love,--so pure and lofty that it would accept nothing less than +perfection nor miserably make itself contented with an earthlier +nature than he had dreamed of. She felt how much more precious was +such a sentiment than that meaner kind which would have borne with +the imperfection for her sake, and have been guilty of treason to +holy love by degrading its perfect idea to the level of the actual; +and with her whole spirit she prayed that, for a single moment, she +might satisfy his highest and deepest conception. Longer than one +moment she well knew it could not be; for his spirit was ever on +the march, ever ascending, and each instant required something +that was beyond the scope of the instant before. + +The sound of her husband's footsteps aroused her. He bore a crystal +goblet containing a liquor colorless as water, but bright enough +to be the draught of immortality. Aylmer was pale; but it seemed +rather the consequence of a highly wrought state of mind and tension +of spirit than of fear or doubt. + +"The concoction of the draught has been perfect," said he, in answer +to Georgiana's look. "Unless all my science have deceived me, it +cannot fail." + +"Save on your account, my dearest Aylmer," observed his wife, "I +might wish to put off this birthmark of mortality by relinquishing +mortality itself in preference to any other mode. Life is but a +sad possession to those who have attained precisely the degree of +moral advancement at which I stand. Were I weaker and blinder, it +might be happiness. Were I stronger, it might be endured hopefully. +But, being what I find myself, methinks I am of all mortals the +most fit to die." + +"You are fit for heaven without tasting death!" replied her husband. +"But why do we speak of dying? The draught cannot fail. Behold +its effect upon this plant." + +On the window-seat there stood a geranium diseased with yellow +blotches which had overspread all its leaves. Aylmer poured a small +quantity of the liquid upon the soil in which it grew. In a little +time, when the roots of the plant had taken up the moisture, the +unsightly blotches began to be extinguished in a living verdure. + +"There needed no proof," said Georgiana, quietly. "Give me the +goblet. I joyfully stake all upon your word." + +"Drink, then, thou lofty creature!" exclaimed Aylmer, with fervid +admiration. "There is no taint of imperfection on thy spirit. Thy +sensible frame, too, shall soon be all perfect." + +She quaffed the liquid and returned the goblet to his hand. + +"It is grateful," said she, with a placid smile. "Methinks it is +like water from a heavenly fountain; for it contains I know not what +of unobtrusive fragrance and deliciousness. It allays a feverish +thirst that had parched me for many days. Now, dearest, let me +sleep. My earthly senses are closing over my spirit like the leaves +around the heart of a rose at sunset." + +She spoke the last words with a gentle reluctance, as if it required +almost more energy than she could command to pronounce the faint and +lingering syllables. Scarcely had they loitered through her lips +ere she was lost in slumber. Aylmer sat by her side, watching her +aspect with the emotions proper to a man the whole value of whose +existence was involved in the process now to be tested. Mingled with +this mood, however, was the philosophic investigation characteristic +of the man of science. Not the minutest symptom escaped him. A +heightened flush of the cheek, a slight irregularity of breath, +a quiver of the eyelid, a hardly perceptible tremor through the +frame,--such were the details which, as the moments passed, he +wrote down in his folio volume. Intense thought had set its stamp +upon every previous page of that volume; but the thoughts of years +were all concentrated upon the last. + +While thus employed, he failed not to gaze often at the fatal hand, +and not without a shudder. Yet once, by a strange and unaccountable +impulse, he pressed it with his lips. His spirit recoiled, however, +in the very act; and Georgiana, out of the midst of her deep sleep, +moved uneasily and murmured as if in remonstrance. Again Aylmer +resumed his watch. Nor was it without avail. The crimson hand, +which at first had been strongly visible upon the marble paleness +of Georgiana's cheek, now grew more faintly outlined. She remained +not less pale than ever; but the birthmark, with every breath that +came and went, lost somewhat of its former distinctness. Its presence +had been awful; its departure was more awful still. Watch the stain +of the rainbow fading out of the sky, and you will know how that +mysterious symbol passed away. + +"By Heaven! it is well-nigh gone!" said Aylmer to himself, in almost +irrepressible ecstasy. "I can scarcely trace it now. Success! success! +And now it is like the faintest rose color. The lightest flush of +blood across her cheek would overcome it. But she is so pale!" + +He drew aside the window curtain and suffered the light of natural +day to fall into the room and rest upon her cheek. At the same +time he heard a gross, hoarse chuckle, which he had long known as +his servant Aminadab's expression of delight. + +"Ah, clod! ah, earthly mass!" cried Aylmer, laughing in a sort +of frenzy, "you have served me well! Matter and spirit--earth and +heaven--have both done their part in this! Laugh, thing of the +senses! You have earned the right to laugh." + +These exclamations broke Georgiana's sleep. She slowly unclosed +her eyes and gazed into the mirror which her husband had arranged +for that purpose. A faint smile flitted over her lips when she +recognized how barely perceptible was now that crimson hand which +had once blazed forth with such disastrous brilliancy as to scare +away all their happiness. But then her eyes sought Aylmer's face +with a trouble and anxiety that he could by no means account for. + +"My poor Aylmer!" murmured she. + +"Poor? Nay, richest, happiest, most favored!" exclaimed he. "My +peerless bride, it is successful! You are perfect!" + +"My poor Aylmer," she repeated, with a more than human tenderness, +"you have aimed loftily; you have done nobly. Do not repent that, +with so high and pure a feeling, you have rejected the best the +earth could offer. Aylmer, dearest Aylmer, I am dying!" + +Alas! it was too true! The fatal hand had grappled with the mystery +of life, and was the bond by which an angelic spirit kept itself +in union with a mortal frame. As the last crimson tint of the +birthmark--that sole token of human imperfection--faded from her +cheek, the parting breath of the now perfect woman passed into +the atmosphere, and her soul, lingering a moment near her husband, +took its heavenward flight. Then a hoarse, chuckling laugh was +heard again! Thus ever does the gross fatality of earth exult in +its invariable triumph over the immortal essence which, in this dim +sphere of half development, demands the completeness of a higher +state. Yet, had Aylmer reached a profounder wisdom, he need not thus +have flung away the happiness which would have woven his mortal +life of the self-same texture with the celestial. The momentary +circumstance was too strong for him; he failed to look beyond the +shadowy scope of time, and, living once for all in eternity, to +find the perfect future in the present. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LITTLE CLASSICS, VOLUME 8 (OF 18)*** + + +******* This file should be named 16405-8.txt or 16405-8.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/6/4/0/16405 + + + +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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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre> +<p>Title: Little Classics, Volume 8 (of 18)</p> +<p> Mystery</p> +<p>Author: Various</p> +<p>Editor: Rossiter Johnson</p> +<p>Release Date: August 1, 2005 [EBook #16405]<br> +Most recently updated: November 16, 2007</p> +<p>Language: English</p> +<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p> +<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LITTLE CLASSICS, VOLUME 8 (OF 18)***</p> +<p> </p> +<h3>E-text prepared by Ron Swanson and revised by Robert J. Hall<br> +<br> +HTML version prepared by Robert J. Hall</h3> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full"> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + +<table class="boxtext"> + <tr><th colspan="2">Little Classics.</th></tr> + <tr><td colspan="2" class="center"> + Edited by <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">Rossiter + Johnson</span>. Each in one volume, 16mo, $1.00. The set, in + box, $18.00.</td></tr> + <tr><td colspan="2"> </td></tr> + + <tr><td style="width: 50%;">1. EXILE.</td> + <td style="width: 50%;">10. CHILDHOOD.</td></tr> + <tr><td>2. INTELLECT.</td><td>11. HEROISM.</td></tr> + <tr><td>3. TRAGEDY.</td><td>12. FORTUNE.</td></tr> + <tr><td>4. LIFE.</td><td>13. NARRATIVE POEMS.</td></tr> + <tr><td>5. LAUGHTER.</td><td>14. LYRICAL POEMS.</td></tr> + <tr><td>6. LOVE.</td><td>15. MINOR POEMS.</td></tr> + <tr><td>7. ROMANCE.</td><td>16. NATURE.</td></tr> + <tr><td>8. MYSTERY.</td><td>17. HUMANITY.</td></tr> + <tr><td>9. COMEDY.</td><td>18. AUTHORS.</td></tr> + + <tr><td colspan="2"> </td></tr> + <tr><td colspan="2" class="center">HOUGHTON MIFFLIN CO.</td></tr> + <tr><td colspan="2" class="center">BOSTON AND NEW YORK.</td></tr> +</table> + +<p style="text-align: center; margin-top: 4em;"> +Eighth Volume +</p> + +<hr> + +<h1>LITTLE CLASSICS</h1> + +<p class="center">EDITED BY</p> + +<p class="author">ROSSITER JOHNSON</p> + +<hr> + +<p class="subtitle">Mystery</p> + +<hr> + +<div class="img_ctr" style="width: 110px;"> + <img src="images/fig001.gif" width="110" height="158" + alt="Tout bien or rien"> +</div> + +<hr> + +<p class="center"> +BOSTON AND NEW YORK<br> +<span style="font-size: larger;">HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY</span><br> +THE RIVERSIDE PRESS CAMBRIDGE +</p> + +<div class="img_ctr" style="width: 373px;"> + <img src="images/fig002.gif" width="373" height="66" alt="Fig. 2"> +</div> + +<h2>CONTENTS.</h2> + +<table style="width: 100%;"> + <tr><td><a href="#page_7"><span style="font-variant: small-caps;"> + The Ghost</span></a></td> + <td><i>William D. O'Connor</i></td></tr> + <tr><td><a href="#page_71"><span style="font-variant: small-caps;"> + The Four-Fifteen Express</span></a></td> + <td><i>Amelia B. Edwards</i></td></tr> + <tr><td><a href="#page_109"><span style="font-variant: small-caps;"> + The Signal-Man</span></a></td> + <td><i>Charles Dickens</i></td></tr> + <tr><td><a href="#page_128"><span style="font-variant: small-caps;"> + The Haunted Ships</span></a></td> + <td><i>Allan Cunningham</i></td></tr> + <tr><td><a href="#page_150"><span style="font-variant: small-caps;"> + A Raft that No Man Made</span></a></td> + <td><i>Robert T. S. Lowell</i></td></tr> + <tr><td><a href="#page_169"><span style="font-variant: small-caps;"> + The Invisible Princess</span></a></td> + <td><i>Francis O' Connor</i></td></tr> + <tr><td><a href="#page_190"><span style="font-variant: small-caps;"> + The Advocate's Wedding-Day</span></a></td> + <td><i>Catherine Crowe</i></td></tr> + <tr><td><a href="#page_207"><span style="font-variant: small-caps;"> + The Birthmark</span></a></td> + <td><i>Nathaniel Hawthorne</i></td></tr> +</table> + +<div class="img_ctr" style="width: 143px;"> + <img src="images/fig003.gif" width="143" height="44" alt="Fig. 3"> +</div> + +<div class="img_ctr" style="width: 559px;"><a name="page_7"> + <img src="images/fig004.gif" width="559" height="145" alt="Fig. 4"> +</a></div> + +<h2>THE GHOST.</h2> + +<p class="subtitle"> +BY WILLIAM D. O'CONNOR. +</p> + +<p class="justify"> +<img src="images/fig005.gif" width="84" height="84" +style="float: left;" alt="A">t +the West End of Boston is a quarter of some fifty streets, more +or less, commonly known as Beacon Hill. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +It is a rich and respectable quarter, sacred to the abodes of Our +First Citizens. The very houses have become sentient of its prevailing +character of riches and respectability; and, when the twilight +deepens on the place, or at high noon, if your vision is gifted, you +may see them as long rows of Our First Giants, with very corpulent +or very broad fronts, with solid-set feet of sidewalk ending in +square-toed curbstone, with an air about them as if they had thrust +their hard hands into their wealthy pockets forever, with a character +of arctic reserve, and portly dignity, and a well-dressed, full-fed, +self-satisfied, opulent, stony, repellent aspect to each, which +says plainly, "I belong to a rich family, of the very highest +respectability." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +History, having much to say of Beacon Hill generally, has, on the +present occasion, something to say particularly of a certain street +which bends over the eminence, sloping steeply down to its base. It +is an old street,—quaint, quiet, and somewhat picturesque. It +was young once, though,—having been born before the Revolution, +and was then given to the city by its father, Mr. Middlecott, who +died without heirs, and did this much for posterity. Posterity +has not been grateful to Mr. Middlecott. The street bore his name +till he was dust, and then got the more aristocratic epithet of +Bowdoin. Posterity has paid him by effacing what would have been +his noblest epitaph. We may expect, after this, to see Faneuil +Hall robbed of its name, and called Smith Hall! Republics are +proverbially ungrateful. What safer claim to public remembrance +has the old Huguenot, Peter Faneuil, than the old Englishman, Mr. +Middlecott? Ghosts, it is said, have risen from the grave to reveal +wrongs done them by the living; but it needs no ghost from the +grave to prove the proverb about republics. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Bowdoin Street only differs from its kindred, in a certain shady, grave, +old-fogy, fossil aspect, just touched with a pensive solemnity, as if +it thought to itself, "I'm getting old, but I'm highly respectable; +that's a comfort." It has, moreover, a dejected, injured air, as +if it brooded solemnly on the wrong done to it by taking away its +original name and calling it Bowdoin; but as if, being a very +conservative street, it was resolved to keep a cautious silence on +the subject, lest the Union should go to pieces. Sometimes it wears +a profound and mysterious look, as if it could tell something if it +had a mind to, but thought it best not. Something of the ghost of its +father—it was the only child he ever had!—walking there +all the night, pausing at the corners to look up at the signs, which +bear a strange name, and wringing his ghostly hands in lamentation +at the wrong done his memory! Rumor told it in a whisper, many years +ago. Perhaps it was believed by a few of the oldest inhabitants +of the city; but the highly respectable quarter never heard of it, +and, if it had, would not have been bribed to believe it, by any +sum. Some one had said that some very old person had seen a phantom +there. Nobody knew who some one was. Nobody knew who the very old +person was. Nobody knew who had seen it, nor when, nor how. The +very rumor was spectral. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +All this was many years ago. Since then it has been reported that +a ghost was seen there one bitter Christmas eve, two or three years +back. The twilight was already in the street; but the evening lamps +were not yet lighted in the windows, and the roofs and chimney-tops +were still distinct in the last clear light of the dropping day. +It was light enough, however, for one to read easily, from the +opposite sidewalk, "Dr. C. Renton," in black letters, on the silver +plate of a door, not far from the Gothic portal of the Swedenborgian +church. Near this door stood a misty figure, whose sad, spectral +eyes floated on vacancy, and whose long, shadowy white hair lifted +like an airy weft in the streaming wind. That was the ghost! It +stood near the door a long time, without any other than a shuddering +motion, as though it felt the searching blast, which swept furiously +from the north up the declivity of the street, rattling the shutters +in its headlong passage. Once or twice, when a passer-by, muffled +warmly from the bitter air, hurried past, the phantom shrank closer +to the wall, till he was gone. Its vague, mournful face seemed to +watch for some one. The twilight darkened gradually, but it did +not flit away. Patiently it kept its piteous look fixed in one +direction,—watching,—watching; and, while the howling +wind swept frantically through the chill air, it still seemed to +shudder in the piercing cold. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +A light suddenly kindled in an opposite window. As if touched by a +gleam from the lamp, or as if by some subtle interior illumination, +the spectre became faintly luminous, and a thin smile seemed to +quiver over its features. At the same moment, a strong, energetic +figure—Dr. Renton himself—came in sight, striding down +the slope of the pavement to his own door, his overcoat thrown +back, as if the icy air were a tropical warmth to him, his hat +set on the back of his head, and the loose ends of a 'kerchief +about his throat, streaming in the nor'wester. The wind set up a +howl the moment he came in sight, and swept upon him; and a curious +agitation began on the part of the phantom. It glided rapidly to and +fro, and moved in circles, and then, with the same swift, silent +motion, sailed toward him, as if blown thither by the gale. Its +long, thin arms, with something like a pale flame spiring from the +tips of the slender fingers, were stretched out, as in greeting, +while the wan smile played over its face; and when he rushed by, +unheedingly, it made a futile effort to grasp the swinging arms +with which he appeared to buffet back the buffeting gale. Then +it glided on by his side, looking earnestly into his countenance, +and moving its pallid lips with agonized rapidity, as if it said, +"Look at me—speak to me—speak to me—see me!" +But he kept his course with unconscious eyes, and a vexed frown +on his forehead betokening an irritated mind. The light that had +shone in the figure of the phantom darkened slowly, till the form +was only a pale shadow. The wind had suddenly lulled, and no longer +lifted its white hair. It still glided on with him, its head drooping +on its breast, and its long arms hanging by its side; but when he +reached the door, it suddenly sprang before him, gazing fixedly +into his eyes, while a convulsive motion flashed over its grief-worn +features, as if it had shrieked out a word. He had his foot on the +step at the moment. With a start, he put his gloved hand to his +forehead, while the vexed look went out quickly on his face. The +ghost watched him breathlessly. But the irritated expression came +back to his countenance more resolutely than before, and he began to +fumble in his pocket for a latch-key, muttering petulantly, "What +the devil is the matter with me now?" It seemed to him that a voice +had cried clearly, yet as from afar, "Charles Renton!"—his +own name. He had heard it in his startled mind; but then, he knew +he was in a highly wrought state of nervous excitement, and his +medical science, with that knowledge for a basis, could have reared +a formidable fortress of explanation against any phenomenon, were +it even more wonderful than this. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +He entered the house; kicked the door to; pulled off his overcoat; +wrenched off his outer 'kerchief; slammed them on a branch of the +clothes-tree; banged his hat on top of them; wheeled about; pushed +in the door of his library; strode in, and, leaving the door ajar, +threw himself into an easy-chair, and sat there in the fire-reddened +dusk, with his white brows knit, and his arms tightly locked on his +breast. The ghost had followed him, sadly, and now stood motionless +in a corner of the room, its spectral hands crossed on its bosom, +and its white locks drooping down! +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +It was evident Dr. Renton was in a bad humor. The very library caught +contagion from him, and became grouty and sombre. The furniture +was grim and sullen and sulky; it made ugly shadows on the carpet +and on the wall, in allopathic quantity; it took the red gleams +from the fire on its polished surfaces in homœopathic globules, +and got no good from them. The fire itself peered out sulkily from +the black bars of the grate, and seemed resolved not to burn the +fresh deposit of black coals at the top, but to take this as a good +time to remember that those coals had been bought in the summer +at five dollars a ton,—under price, mind you,—when poor +people, who cannot buy at advantage, but must get their firing in +the winter, would then have given nine or ten dollars for them. And +so (glowered the fire), I am determined to think of that outrage, +and not to light them, but to go out myself, directly! And the +fire got into such a spasm of glowing indignation over the injury, +that it lit a whole tier of black coals with a series of little +explosions, before it could cool down, and sent a crimson gleam +over the moody figure of its owner in the easy-chair, and over +the solemn furniture, and into the shadowy corner filled by the +ghost. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +The spectre did not move when Dr. Renton arose and lit the chandelier. +It stood there, still and gray, in the flood of mellow light. The +curtains were drawn, and the twilight without had deepened into +darkness. The fire was now burning in despite of itself, fanned +by the wintry gusts, which found their way down the chimney. Dr. +Renton stood with his back to it, his hands behind him, his bold +white forehead shaded by a careless lock of black hair, and knit +sternly; and the same frown in his handsome, open, searching dark +eyes. Tall and strong, with an erect port, and broad, firm shoulders, +high, resolute features, a commanding figure garbed in aristocratic +black, and not yet verging into the proportions of obesity,—take +him for all in all, a very fine and favorable specimen of the solid +men of Boston. And seen in contrast (oh! could he but have known +it!) with the attenuated figure of the poor, dim ghost! +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Hark! a very light foot on the stairs,—a rich rustle of silks. +Everything still again,—Dr. Renton looking fixedly, with great +sternness, at the half-open door, whence a faint, delicious perfume +floats into the library. Somebody there, for certain. Somebody +peeping in with very bright, arch eyes. Dr. Renton knew it, and +prepared to maintain his ill-humor against the invader. His face +became triply armed with severity for the encounter. That's Netty, +I know, he thought. His daughter. So it was. In she bounded. Bright +little Netty! Gay little Netty! A dear and sweet little creature, +to be sure, with a delicate and pleasant beauty of face and figure, +it needed no costly silks to grace or heighten. There she stood. +Not a word from her merry lips, but a smile which stole over all +the solitary grimness of the library, and made everything better, +and brighter, and fairer, in a minute. It floated down into the +cavernous humor of Dr. Renton, and the gloom began to lighten +directly,—though he would not own it, nor relax a single +feature. But the wan ghost in the corner lifted its head to look +at her, and slowly brightened as to something worthy a spirit's +love, and a dim phantom's smiles. Now then, Dr. Renton! the lines +are drawn, and the foe is coming. Be martial, sir, as when you +stand in the ranks of the Cadets on training-days! Steady, and +stand the charge! So he did. He kept an inflexible front as she +glided toward him, softly, slowly, with her bright eyes smiling +into his, and doing dreadful execution. Then she put her white +arms around his neck, laid her dear, fair head on his breast, and +peered up archly into his stern visage. Spite of himself, he could +not keep the fixed lines on his face from breaking confusedly into +a faint smile. Somehow or other, his hands came from behind him, +and rested on her head. There! That's all. Dr. Renton surrendered +at discretion! One of the solid men of Boston was taken after a +desperate struggle,—internal, of course,—for he kissed +her, and said, "Dear little Netty!" and so she was. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +The phantom watched her with a smile, and wavered and brightened +as if about to glide to her; but it grew still, and remained. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Pa in the sulks to-night?" she asked, in the most winning, playful, +silvery voice. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Pa's a fool," he answered in his deep chest-tones, with a vexed +good-humor; "and you know it." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"What's the matter with pa? What makes him be a great bear? Papa-sy, +dear," she continued, stroking his face with her little hands, +and patting him, very much as Beauty might have patted the Beast +after she fell in love with him; or as if he were a great baby. +In fact, he began to look then as if he were. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Matter? Oh! everything's the matter, little Netty. The world goes +round too fast. My boots pinch. Somebody stole my umbrella last +year. And I've got a headache." He concluded this fanciful abstract +of his grievances by putting his arms around her, and kissing her +again. Then he sat down in the easy-chair, and took her fondly +on his knee. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Pa's got a headache! It is t-o-o bad, so it is," she continued +in the same soothing, winning way, caressing his brow with her +tiny hands. "It's a horrid shame, so it is! P-o-o-r pa. Where does +it ache, papa-sy, dear? In the forehead? Cerebrum or cerebellum, +papa-sy? Occiput or sinciput, deary?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Bah! you little quiz," he replied, laughing and pinching her cheek, +"none of your nonsense! And what are you dressed up in this way +for, to-night? Silks, and laces, and essences, and what not! Where +are you going, fairy?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Going out with mother for the evening, Dr. Renton," she replied +briskly; "Mrs. Larrabee's party, papa-sy. Christmas eve, you know. +And what are you going to give me for a present, to-morrow, pa-sy?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"To-morrow will tell, little Netty." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Good! And what are you going to give me, so that I can make <i>my</i> +presents, Beary?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Ugh!" But he growled it in fun, and had a pocket-book out from +his breast-pocket directly after. +Fives—tens—twenties—fifties—all crisp, and +nice, and new bank-notes. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Will that be enough, Netty?" He held up a twenty. The smiling face +nodded assent, and the bright eyes twinkled. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"No, it won't. But <i>that</i> will," he continued, giving her a +fifty. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Fifty dollars, Globe Bank, Boston!" exclaimed Netty, making great +eyes at him. "But we must take all we can get, pa-sy; mustn't we? +It's too much, though. Thank you all the same, pa-sy, nevertheless." +And she kissed him, and put the bill in a little bit of a portemonnaie +with a gay laugh. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Well done, I declare!" he said, smilingly. "But you're going to +the party?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Pretty soon, pa." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +He made no answer; but sat smiling at her. The phantom watched them, +silently. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"What made pa so cross and grim, to-night? Tell Netty—do," +she pleaded. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Oh! because;—everything went wrong with me, to-day. There." +And he looked as sulky, at that moment, as he ever did in his life. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"No, no, pa-sy; that won't do. I want the particulars," continued +Netty, shaking her head, smilingly. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Particulars! Well, then, Miss Nathalie Renton," he began, with +mock gravity, "your professional father is losing some of his oldest +patients. Everybody is in ruinous good health; and the grass is +growing in the graveyards." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"In the winter time, papa?—smart grass!" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Not that I want practice," he went on, getting into soliloquy; +"or patients, either. A rich man who took to the profession simply +for the love of it, can't complain on that score. But to have an +interloping she-doctor take a family I've attended ten years, out +of my hands, and to hear the hodge-podge gabble about physiological +laws, and woman's rights, and no taxation without representation, +they learn from her,—well, it's too bad!" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Is that all, pa-sy? Seems to me <i>I</i>'d like to vote, too," +was Netty's piquant rejoinder. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Hoh! I'll warrant," growled her father. "Hope you'll vote the Whig +ticket, Netty, when you get your rights." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Will the Union be dissolved, then, pa-sy,—when the Whigs +are beaten?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Bah! you little plague," he growled, with a laugh. "But, then, +you women don't know anything about politics. So, there. As I was +saying, everything went wrong with me to-day. I've been speculating +in railroad stock, and singed my fingers. Then, old Tom Hollis +outbid me to-day, at Leonard's, on a rare medical work I had set +my eyes upon having. Confound him! Then, again, two of my houses +are tenantless, and there are folks in two others that won't pay +their rent, and I can't get them out. Out they'll go, though, or +I'll know why. And, to crown all—um-m. And I wish the Devil +had him! as he will." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Had who, Beary-papa?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Him. I'll tell you. The street-floor of one of my houses in Hanover +Street lets for an oyster-room. They keep a bar there, and sell +liquor. Last night they had a grand row,—a drunken fight, +and one man was stabbed, it's thought fatally." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"O father!" Netty's bright eyes dilated with horror. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Yes. I hope he won't die. At any rate, there's likely to be a +stir about the matter, and my name will be called into question, +then, as I'm the landlord. And folks will make a handle of it, +and there'll be the deuce to pay, generally." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +He got back the stern, vexed frown, to his face, with the anticipation, +and beat the carpet with his foot. The ghost still watched from +the angle of the room, and seemed to darken, while its features +looked troubled. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"But, father," said Netty, a little tremulously, "I wouldn't let +my houses to such people. It's not right; is it? Why, it's horrid +to think of men getting drunk, and killing each other!" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Dr. Renton rubbed his hair into disorder, with vexation, and then +subsided into solemnity. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"I know it's not exactly right, Netty; but I can't help it. As I +said before, I wish the Devil had that barkeeper. I ought to have +ordered him out long ago, and then this wouldn't have happened. +I've increased his rent twice, hoping to get rid of him so; but +he pays without a murmur; and what am I to do? You see, he was +an occupant when the building came into my hands, and I let him +stay. He pays me a good, round rent; and, apart from his cursed +traffic, he's a good tenant. What can I do? It's a good thing for +him, and it's a good thing for me, pecuniarily. Confound him! Here's +a nice rumpus brewing!" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Dear pa, I'm afraid it's not a good thing for you," said Netty, +caressing him and smoothing his tumbled hair. "Nor for him either. +I wouldn't mind the rent he pays you. I'd order him out. It's +bad money. There's blood on it." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +She had grown pale, and her voice quivered. The phantom glided +over to them, and laid its spectral hand upon her forehead. The +shadowy eyes looked from under the misty hair into the doctor's +face, and the pale lips moved as if speaking the words heard only +in the silence of his heart,—"Hear her, hear her!" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"I must think of it," resumed Dr. Renton, coldly. "I'm resolved, +at all events, to warn him that if anything of this kind occurs +again, he must quit at once. I dislike to lose a profitable tenant; +for no other business would bring me the sum his does. Hang it, +everybody does the best he can with his property,—why +shouldn't I?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +The ghost, standing near them, drooped its head again on its breast, +and crossed its arms. Netty was silent. Dr. Renton continued, +petulantly,— +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"A precious set of people I manage to get into my premises. There's +a woman hires a couple of rooms for a dwelling, overhead, in that +same building, and for three months I haven't got a cent from her. +I know these people's tricks. Her month's notice expires to-morrow, +and out she goes." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Poor creature!" sighed Netty. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +He knit his brow, and beat the carpet with his foot, in vexation. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Perhaps she can't pay you, pa," trembled the sweet, silvery voice. +"You wouldn't turn her out in this cold winter, when she can't +pay you,—would you, pa?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Why don't she get another house, and swindle some one else?" he +replied, testily; "there's plenty of rooms to let." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Perhaps she can't find one, pa," answered Netty. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Humbug!" retorted her father; "I know better." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Pa, dear, if I were you, I'd turn out that rumseller, and let the +poor woman stay a little longer; just a little, pa." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Sha'n't do it. Hah! that would be scattering money out of both +pockets. Sha'n't do it. Out she shall go; and as for him,—well, +he'd better turn over a new leaf. There, let us leave the subject, +darling. It vexes me. How did we contrive to get into this train? +Bah!" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +He drew her closer to him, and kissed her forehead. She sat quietly, +with her head on his shoulder, thinking very gravely. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"I feel queerly to-day, little Netty," he began, after a short +pause. "My nerves are all high-strung with the turn matters have +taken." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"How is it, papa? The headache?" she answered. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Y-e-s—n-o—not exactly; I don't know," he said dubiously; +then, in an absent way, "it was that letter set me to think of him +all day, I suppose." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Why, pa, I declare," cried Netty, starting up, "if I didn't forget +all about it, and I came down expressly to give it to you! Where +is it? Oh! here it is." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +She drew from her pocket an old letter, faded to a pale yellow, +and gave it to him. The ghost started suddenly. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Why, bless my soul! it's the very letter! Where did you get that, +Nathalie?" asked Dr. Renton. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"I found it on the stairs after dinner, pa." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Yes, I do remember taking it up with me; I must have dropped it," +he answered, musingly, gazing at the superscription. The ghost +was gazing at it, too, with startled interest. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"What beautiful writing it is, pa," murmured the young girl. "Who +wrote it to you? It looks yellow enough to have been written a +long time since." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Fifteen years ago, Netty. When you were a baby. And the hand that +wrote it has been cold for all that time." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +He spoke with a solemn sadness, as if memory lingered with the +heart of fifteen years ago, on an old grave. The dim figure by his +side had bowed its head, and all was still. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"It is strange," he resumed, speaking vacantly and slowly, "I have +not thought of him for so long a time, and to-day—especially +this evening—I have felt as if he were constantly near me. +It is a singular feeling." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +He put his left hand to his forehead, and mused,—his right +clasped his daughter's shoulder. The phantom slowly raised its +head, and gazed at him with a look of unutterable tenderness. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Who was he, father?" she asked with a hushed voice. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"A young man, an author, a poet. He had been my dearest friend, when +we were boys; and, though I lost sight of him for years,—he +led an erratic life,—we were friends when he died. Poor, poor +fellow! Well, he is at peace." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +The stern voice had saddened, and was almost tremulous. The spectral +form was still. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"How did he die, father?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"A long story, darling," he replied, gravely, "and a sad one. He +was very poor and proud. He was a genius,—that is, a person +without an atom of practical talent. His parents died, the last, +his mother, when he was near manhood. I was in college then. Thrown +upon the world, he picked up a scanty subsistence with his pen, +for a time. I could have got him a place in the counting-house, +but he would not take it; in fact, he wasn't fit for it. You can't +harness Pegasus to the cart, you know. Besides, he despised mercantile +life, without reason, of course; but he was always notional. His +love of literature was one of the rocks he foundered on. He was +n't successful; his best compositions were too delicate, fanciful, +to please the popular taste; and then he was full of the radical +and fanatical notions which infected so many people at that time +in New England, and infect them now, for that matter; and his +sublimated, impracticable ideas and principles, which he kept till +his dying day, and which, I confess, alienated me from him, always +staved off his chances of success. Consequently, he never rose +above the drudgery of some employment on newspapers. Then he was +terribly passionate, not without cause, I allow; but it wasn't +wise. What I mean is this: if he saw, or if he fancied he saw, +any wrong or injury done to any one, it was enough to throw him +into a frenzy; he would get black in the face and absolutely shriek +out his denunciations of the wrong-doer. I do believe he would +have visited his own brother with the most unsparing invective, +if that brother had laid a harming finger on a street-beggar, or +a colored man, or a poor person of any kind. I don't blame the +feeling; though with a man like him it was very apt to be a false +or mistaken one; but, at any rate, its exhibition wasn't sensible. +Well, as I was saying, he buffeted about in this world a long time, +poorly paid, fed, and clad; taking more care of other people than +he did of himself. Then mental suffering, physical exposure, and +want killed him." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +The stern voice had grown softer than a child's. The same look of +unutterable tenderness brooded on the mournful face of the phantom +by his side; but its thin, shining hand was laid upon his head, +and its countenance had undergone a change. The form was still +undefined; but the features had become distinct. They were those +of a young man, beautiful and wan, and marked with great suffering. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +A pause had fallen on the conversation, in which the father and +daughter heard the solemn sighing of the wintry wind around the +dwelling. The silence seemed scarcely broken by the voice of the +young girl. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Dear father, this was very sad. Did you say he died of want?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Of want, my child, of hunger and cold. I don't doubt it. He had +wandered about, as I gather, houseless for a couple of days and +nights. It was in December, too. Some one found him, on a rainy +night, lying in the street, drenched and burning with fever, and had +him taken to the hospital. It appears that he had always cherished +a strange affection for me, though I had grown away from him; and +in his wild ravings he constantly mentioned my name, and they sent +for me. That was our first meeting after two years. I found him +in the hospital—dying. Heaven can witness that I felt all +my old love for him return then, but he was delirious, and never +recognized me. And, Nathalie, his hair,—it had been coal-black, +and he wore it very long,—he wouldn't let them cut it either; +and as they knew no skill could save him, they let him have his +way,—his hair was then as white as snow! God alone knows +what that brain must have suffered to blanch hair which had been +as black as the wing of a raven!" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +He covered his eyes with his hand, and sat silently. The fingers +of the phantom still shone dimly on his head, and its white locks +drooped above him, like a weft of light. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"What was his name, father?" asked the pitying girl. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"George Feval. The very name sounds like fever. He died on Christmas +eve, fifteen years ago this night. It was on his death-bed, while +his mind was tossing on a sea of delirious fancies, that he wrote +me this long letter,—for to the last, I was uppermost in his +thoughts. It is a wild, incoherent thing, of course,—a strange +mixture of sense and madness. But I have kept it as a memorial of +him. I have not looked at it for years; but this morning I found +it among my papers, and somehow it has been in my mind all day." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +He slowly unfolded the faded sheets, and sadly gazed at the writing. +His daughter had risen from her half-recumbent posture, and now +bent her graceful head over the leaves. The phantom covered its +face with its hands. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"What a beautiful manuscript it is, father!" she exclaimed. "The +writing is faultless." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"It is, indeed," he replied. "Would he had written his life as fairly!" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Read it, father," said Nathalie. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"No, but I'll read you a detached passage here and there," he answered, +after a pause. "The rest you may read yourself some time, if you +wish. It is painful to me. Here's the beginning:— +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"'<i>My Dear Charles Renton:—Adieu, and adieu. It is Christmas +eve, and I am going home. I am soon to exhale from my flesh, like +the spirit of a broken flower. Exultemus forever!</i>' +</p> + +<table style="width: 100%;"> +<tr><td class="center">·</td> + <td class="center">·</td> + <td class="center">·</td> + <td class="center">·</td> + <td class="center">·</td></tr> +</table> + +<p class="indent"> +"It is very wild. His mind was in a fever-craze. Here is a passage +that seems to refer to his own experience of life:— +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"'<i>Your friendship was dear to me. I give you true love. Stocks +and returns. You are rich, but I did not wish to be your bounty's +pauper. Could I beg? I had my work to do for the world, but oh! +the world has no place for souls that can only love and suffer. +How many miles to Babylon? Threescore and ten. Not so far—not +near so far! Ask starvelings—they know.</i> +</p> + +<table style="width: 100%;"> +<tr><td class="center">·</td> + <td class="center">·</td> + <td class="center">·</td> + <td class="center">·</td> + <td class="center">·</td></tr> +</table> + +<p class="indent"> +<i>I wanted to do the world good, and the world has killed me, +Charles.</i>'" +</p> + +<table style="width: 100%;"> +<tr><td class="center">·</td> + <td class="center">·</td> + <td class="center">·</td> + <td class="center">·</td> + <td class="center">·</td></tr> +</table> + +<p class="indent"> +"It frightens me," said Nathalie, as he paused. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"We will read no more," he replied sombrely. "It belongs to the +psychology of madness. To me, who knew him, there are gleams of +sense in it, and passages where the delirium of the language is +only a transparent veil on the meaning. All the remainder is devoted +to what he thought important advice to me. But it's all wild and +vague. Poor—poor George!" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +The phantom still hid its face in its hands, as the doctor slowly +turned over the pages of the letter. Nathalie, bending over the +leaves, laid her finger on the last, and asked, "What are those +closing sentences, father? Read them." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Oh! that is what he called his 'last counsel' to me. It's as wild +as the rest,—tinctured with the prevailing ideas of his career. +First he says, '<i>Farewell—farewell</i>'; then he bids me +take his '<i>counsel into memory on Christmas day</i>'; then after +enumerating all the wretched classes he can think of in the country, +he says: '<i>These are your sisters and your brothers,—love +them all.</i>' Here he says, '<i>O friend, strong in wealth for +so much good, take my last counsel. In the name of the Saviour, I +charge you be true and tender to mankind.</i>' He goes on to bid +me '<i>live and labor for the fallen, the neglected, the suffering, +and the poor</i>'; and finally ends by advising me to help upset +any, or all, institutions, laws, and so forth, that bear hardly +on the fag-ends of society; and tells me that what he calls 'a +service to humanity' is worth more to the doer than a service to +anything else, or than anything we can gain from the world. Ah, +well! poor George." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"But isn't all that true, father?" said Netty; "it seems so." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"H'm," he murmured through his closed lips. Then, with a vague +smile, folding up the letter, meanwhile, he said, "Wild words, +Netty, wild words. I've no objection to charity, judiciously given; +but poor George's notions are not mine. Every man for himself, is a +good general rule. Every man for humanity, as George has it, and in +his acceptation of the principle, would send us all to the almshouse +pretty soon. The greatest good of the greatest number,—that's +my rule of action. There are plenty of good institutions for the +distressed, and I'm willing to help support 'em, and do. But as for +making a martyr of one's self, or tilting against the necessary evils +of society, or turning philanthropist at large, or any quixotism +of that sort, I don't believe in it. We didn't make the world, +and we can't mend it. Poor George. Well—he's at rest. The +world wasn't the place for him." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +They grew silent. The spectre glided slowly to the wall, and stood +as if it were thinking what, with Dr. Renton's rule of action, was +to become of the greatest good of the smallest number. Nathalie +sat on her father's knee, thinking only of George Feval, and of +his having been starved and grieved to death. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Father," said Nathalie, softly, "I felt, while you were reading +the letter, as if he were near us. Didn't you? The room was so +light and still, and the wind sighed so." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Netty, dear, I've felt that all day, I believe," he replied. "Hark! +there is the door-bell. Off goes the spirit-world, and here comes +the actual. Confound it! Some one to see me, I'll warrant, and +I'm not in the mood." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +He got into a fret at once. Netty was not the Netty of an hour +ago, or she would have coaxed him out of it. But she did not notice +it now in her abstraction. She had risen at the tinkle of the bell, +and seated herself in a chair. Presently a nose, with a great pimple +on the end of it, appeared at the edge of the door, and a weak, +piping voice said, reckless of the proper tense, "There was a woman +wanted to see you, sir." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Who is it, James?—no matter, show her in." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +He got up with the vexed scowl on his face, and walked the room. +In a minute the library door opened again, and a pale, thin, rigid, +frozen-looking little woman, scantily clad, the weather being +considered, entered, and dropped a curt, awkward bow to Dr. Renton. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"O, Mrs. Miller! Good evening, ma'am. Sit down," he said, with a +cold, constrained civility. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +The little woman faintly said, "Good evening, Dr. Renton," and +sat down stiffly, with her hands crossed before her, in the chair +nearest the wall. This was the obdurate tenant, who had paid no +rent for three months, and had a notice to quit, expiring to-morrow. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Cold evening, ma'am," remarked Dr. Renton, in his hard way. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Yes, sir, it is," was the cowed, awkward answer. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Won't you sit near the fire, ma'am?" said Netty, gently; "you look +cold." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"No, miss, thank you. I'm not cold," was the faint reply. She was +cold, though, as well she might be with her poor, thin shawl, and +open bonnet, in such a bitter night as it was outside. And there +was a rigid, sharp, suffering look in her pinched features that +betokened she might have been hungry, too. "Poor people don't mind +the cold weather, miss," she said, with a weak smile, her voice +getting a little stronger. "They have to bear it, and they get +used to it." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +She had not evidently borne it long enough to effect the point of +indifference. Netty looked at her with a tender pity. Dr. Renton thought +to himself, Hoh!—blazoning her poverty,—manufacturing +sympathy already,—the old trick; and steeled himself against +any attacks of that kind, looking jealously, meanwhile, at Netty. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Well, Mrs. Miller," he said, "what is it this evening? I suppose +you've brought me my rent." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +The little woman grew paler, and her voice seemed to fail on her +quivering lips. Netty cast a quick, beseeching look at her father. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Nathalie, please to leave the room." We'll have no nonsense carried +on here, he thought, triumphantly, as Netty rose, and obeyed the +stern, decisive order, leaving the door ajar behind her. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +He seated himself in his chair, and resolutely put his right leg +up to rest on his left knee. He did not look at his tenant's face, +determined that her piteous expressions (got up for the occasion, +of course) should be wasted on him. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Well, Mrs. Miller," he said again. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Dr. Renton," she began, faintly gathering her voice as she proceeded, +"I have come to see you about the rent. I am very sorry, sir, to +have made you wait, but we have been unfortunate." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Sorry, ma'am," he replied, knowing what was coming; "but your +misfortunes are not my affair. We all have misfortunes, ma'am. But +we must pay our debts, you know." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"I expected to have got money from my husband before this, sir," +she resumed, "and I wrote to him. I got a letter from him to-day, +sir, and it said that he sent me fifty dollars a month ago, in a +letter; and it appears that the post-office is to blame, or somebody, +for I never got it. It was nearly three months' wages, sir, and it +is very hard to lose it. If it had n't been for that your rent +would have been paid long ago, sir." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Don't believe a word of <i>that</i> story," thought Dr. Renton, +sententiously. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"I thought, sir," she continued, emboldened by his silence, "that +if you would be willing to wait a little longer, we would manage +to pay you soon, and not let it occur again. It has been a hard +winter with us, sir; firing is high, and provisions, and everything; +and we're only poor people, you know, and it's difficult to get +along." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +The doctor made no reply. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"My husband was unfortunate, sir, in not being able to get employment +here," she resumed; "his being out of work in the autumn, threw us +all back, and we've got nothing to depend on but his earnings. +The family that he's in now, sir, don't give him very good +pay,—only twenty dollars a month, and his board,—but it +was the best chance he could get, and it was either go to Baltimore +with them, or stay at home and starve, and so he went, sir. It's +been a hard time with us, and one of the children is sick, now, +with a fever, and we don't hardly know how to make out a living. +And so, sir, I have come here this evening, leaving the children +alone, to ask you if you wouldn't be kind enough to wait a little +longer, and we'll hope to make it right with you in the end." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Mrs. Miller," said Dr. Renton, with stern composure, "I have no +wish to question the truth of any statement you may make; but I +must tell you plainly, that I can't afford to let my houses for +nothing. I told you a month ago, that if you couldn't pay me my +rent, you must vacate the premises. You know very well that there +are plenty of tenants who are able and willing to pay when the +money comes due. You <i>know</i> that." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +He paused as he said this, and, glancing at her, saw her pale lips +falter. It shook the cruelty of his purpose a little, and he had a +vague feeling that he was doing wrong. Not without a proud struggle, +during which no word was spoken, could he beat it down. Meanwhile, +the phantom had advanced a pace toward the centre of the room. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"That is the state of the matter, ma'am," he resumed, coldly. "People +who will not pay me my rent must not live in my tenements. You +must move out. I have no more to say." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Dr. Renton," she said, faintly, "I have a sick child,—how +can I move now? O, sir, it's Christmas eve,—don't be hard +with us!" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Instead of touching him, this speech irritated him beyond measure. +Passing all considerations of her difficult position involved in +her piteous statement, his anger flashed at once on her implication +that he was unjust and unkind. So violent was his excitement that +it whirled away the words that rushed to his lips, and only fanned +the fury that sparkled from the whiteness of his face in his eyes. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Be patient with us, sir," she continued; "we are poor, but we mean +to pay you; and we can't move now in this cold weather; please, +don't be hard with us, sir." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +The fury now burst out on his face in a red and angry glow, and +the words came. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Now, attend to me!" He rose to his feet. "I will not hear any +more from you. I know nothing of your poverty, nor of the condition +of your family. All I know is that you owe me three months' rent, +and that you can't or won't pay me. I say, therefore, leave the +premises to people who can and will. You have had your legal notice; +quit my house to-morrow; if you don't, your furniture shall be +put in the street. Mark me,—to-morrow!" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +The phantom had rushed into the centre of the room. Standing face +to face with him,—dilating,—blackening,—its whole +form shuddering with a fury to which his own was tame,—the +semblance of a shriek upon its flashing lips, and on its writhing +features, and an unearthly anger streaming from its bright and +terrible eyes,—it seemed to throw down, with its tossing +arms, mountains of hate and malediction on the head of him whose +words had smitten poverty and suffering, and whose heavy hand was +breaking up the barriers of a home. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Dr. Renton sank again into his chair. His tenant,—not a +woman!—not a sister in humanity!—but only his tenant; +she sat crushed and frightened by the wall. He knew it vaguely. +Conscience was battling in his heart with the stubborn devils that +had entered there. The phantom stood before him, like a dark cloud +in the image of a man. But its darkness was lightening slowly, +and its ghostly anger had passed away. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +The poor woman, paler than before, had sat mute and trembling, with +all her hopes ruined. Yet her desperation forbade her to abandon +the chances of his mercy, and she now said,— +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Dr. Renton, you surely don't mean what you have told me. Won't +you bear with me a little longer, and we will yet make it all right +with you?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"I have given you my answer," he returned, coldly; "I have no more +to add. I never take back anything I say—never!" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +It was true. He never did—never! She half rose from her seat +as if to go; but weak and sickened with the bitter result of her +visit, she sunk down again with her head bowed. There was a pause. +Then, solemnly gliding across the lighted room, the phantom stole +to her side with a glory of compassion on its wasted features. +Tenderly, as a son to a mother, it bent over her; its spectral +hands of light rested upon her in caressing and benediction; its +shadowy fall of hair, once blanched by the anguish of living and +loving, floated on her throbbing brow; and resignation and comfort +not of this world sank upon her spirit, and consciousness grew +dim within her, and care and sorrow seemed to die. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +He who had been so cruel and so hard, sat silent in black gloom. +The stern and sullen mood, from which had dropped but one fierce +flash of anger, still hung above the heat of his mind, like a dark +rack of thundercloud. It would have burst anew into a fury of rebuke, +had he but known his daughter was listening at the door, while the +colloquy went on. It might have flamed violently, had his tenant +made any further attempt to change his purpose. She had not. She +had left the room meekly, with the same curt, awkward bow that +marked her entrance. He recalled her manner very indistinctly; +for a feeling like a mist began to gather in his mind, and make +the occurrences of moments before uncertain. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Alone, now, he was yet oppressed with a sensation that something +was near him. Was it a spiritual instinct? for the phantom stood +by his side. It stood silent, with one hand raised above his head, +from which a pale flame seemed to flow downward to his brain; its +other hand pointed movelessly to the open letter on the table beside +him. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +He took the sheets from the table, thinking, at the moment, only +of George Feval; but the first line on which his eye rested was, +"In the name of the Saviour, I charge you, be true and tender to +mankind!" And the words touched him like a low voice from the grave. +Their penetrant reproach pierced the hardness of his heart. He +tossed the letter back on the table. The very manner of the act +accused him of an insult to the dead. In a moment he took up the +faded sheets more reverently, but only to lay them down again. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +He had not been well that day, and he now felt worse than before. +The pain in his head had given place to a strange sense of dilation, +and there was a silent, confused riot in his fevered brain, which +seemed to him like the incipience of insanity. Striving to divert +his mind from what had passed, by reflection on other themes, he +could not hold his thoughts; they came teeming but dim, and slipped +and fell away; and only the one circumstance of his recent cruelty, +mixed with remembrance of George Feval, recurred and clung with +vivid persistence. This tortured him. Sitting there, with arms +tightly interlocked, he resolved to wrench his mind down by sheer +will upon other things; and a savage pleasure at what at once seemed +success, took possession of him. In this mood, he heard soft footsteps +and the rustle of festal garments on the stairs, and had a fierce +complacency in being able to apprehend clearly that it was his +wife and daughter going out to the party. In a moment he heard +the controlled and even voice of Mrs. Renton,—a serene and +polished lady with whom he had lived for years in cold and civil +alienation, both seeing as little of each other as possible. With +a scowl of will upon his brow, he received her image distinctly +into his mind, even to the minutia of the dress and ornaments he +knew she wore, and felt an absolutely savage exultation in his +ability to retain it. Then came the sound of the closing of the +hall door and the rattle of receding wheels, and somehow it was +Nathalie and not his wife that he was holding so grimly in his +thought, and with her, salient and vivid as before, the tormenting +remembrance of his tenant, connected with the memory of George +Feval. Springing to his feet, he walked the room. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +He had thrown himself on a sofa, still striving to be rid of his +remorseful visitations, when the library door opened, and the inside +man appeared, with his hand held bashfully over his nose. It flashed +on him at once that his tenant's husband was the servant of a family +like this fellow; and, irritated that the whole matter should be +thus broadly forced upon him in another way, he harshly asked him +what he wanted. The man only came in to say that Mrs. Renton and +the young lady had gone out for the evening, but that tea was laid +for him in the dining-room. He did not want any tea, and if anybody +called, he was not at home. With this charge, the man left the +room, closing the door behind him. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +If he could but sleep a little! Rising from the sofa, he turned +the lights of the chandelier low, and screened the fire. The room +was still. The ghost stood, faintly radiant, in a remote corner. Dr. +Renton lay down again, but not to repose. Things he had forgotten +of his dead friend, now started up again in remembrance, fresh from +the grave of many years; and not one of them but linked itself +by some mysterious bond to something connected with his tenant, +and became an accusation. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +He had lain thus for more than an hour, feeling more and more unmanned +by illness, and his mental excitement fast becoming intolerable, +when he heard a low strain of music, from the Swedenborgian chapel, +hard by. Its first impression was one of solemnity and rest, and its +first sense, in his mind, was of relief. Perhaps it was the music +of an evening meeting; or it might be that the organist and choir +had met for practice. Whatever its purpose, it breathed through his +heated fancy like a cool and fragrant wind. It was vague and sweet +and wandering at first, straying on into a strain more mysterious and +melancholy, but very shadowy and subdued, and evoking the innocent +and tender moods of early youth before worldliness had hardened +around his heart. Gradually, as he listened to it, the fires in +his brain were allayed, and all yielded to a sense of coolness +and repose. He seemed to sink from trance to trance of utter rest, +and yet was dimly aware that either something in his own condition, +or some supernatural accession of tone, was changing the music from +its proper quality to a harmony more infinite and awful. It was +still low and indeterminate and sweet, but had unaccountably and +strangely swelled into a gentle and sombre dirge, incommunicably +mournful, and filled with a dark significance that touched him in +his depth of rest with a secret tremor and awe. As he listened, +rapt and vaguely wondering, the sense of his tranced sinking seemed +to come to an end, and with the feeling of one who had been descending +for many hours, and at length lay motionless at the bottom of a +deep, dark chasm, he heard the music fail and cease. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +A pause, and then it rose again, blended with the solemn voices +of the choir, sublimed and dilated now, reaching him as though +from weird night gulfs of the upper air, and charged with an +overmastering pathos as of the lamentations of angels. In the dimness +and silence, in the aroused and exalted condition of his being, the +strains seemed unearthly in their immense and desolate grandeur +of sorrow, and their mournful and dark significance was now for +him. Working within him the impression of vast, innumerable fleeing +shadows, thick-crowding memories of all the ways and deeds of an +existence fallen from its early dreams and aims, poured across +the midnight of his soul, and under the streaming melancholy of +the dirge, his life showed like some monstrous treason. It did not +terrify or madden him; he listened to it rapt utterly as in some +deadening ether of dream; yet feeling to his inmost core all its +powerful grief and accusation, and quietly aghast at the sinister +consciousness it gave him. Still it swelled, gathering and sounding +on into yet mightier pathos, till all at once it darkened and spread +wide in wild despair, and aspiring again into a pealing agony of +supplication, quivered and died away in a low and funereal sigh. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +The tears streamed suddenly upon his face; his soul lightened and +turned dark within him; and, as one faints away, so consciousness +swooned, and he fell suddenly down a precipice of sleep. The music +rose again, a pensive and holy chant, and sounded on to its close, +unaffected by the action of his brain, for he slept and heard it no +more. He lay tranquilly, hardly seeming to breathe, in motionless +repose. The room was dim and silent, and the furniture took uncouth +shapes around him. The red glow upon the ceiling, from the screened +fire, showed the misty figure of the phantom kneeling by his side. +All light had gone from the spectral form. It knelt beside him, +mutely, as in prayer. Once it gazed at his quiet face with a mournful +tenderness, and its shadowy hands caressed his forehead. Then it +resumed its former attitude, and the slow hours crept by. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +At last it rose and glided to the table, on which lay the open +letter. It seemed to try to lift the sheets with its misty hands, +but vainly. Next it essayed the lifting of a pen which lay there, +but failed. It was a piteous sight, to see its idle efforts on +these shapes of grosser matter, which appeared now to have to it +but the existence of illusions. Wandering about the shadowy room, +it wrung its phantom hands as in despair. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Presently it grew still. Then it passed quickly to his side, and +stood before him. He slept calmly. It placed one ghostly hand above +his forehead, and with the other pointed to the open letter. In +this attitude its shape grew momentarily more distinct. It began to +kindle into brightness. The pale flame again flowed from its hand, +streaming downward to his brain. A look of trouble darkened the +sleeping face. Stronger,—stronger; brighter,—brighter; +until, at last, it stood before him, a glorious shape of light, +with an awful look of commanding love in its shining features: +and the sleeper sprang to his feet with a cry! +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +The phantom had vanished. He saw nothing. His first impression +was, not that he had dreamed, but that, awaking in the familiar +room, he had seen the spirit of his dead friend, bright and awful by +his side, and that it had gone! In the flash of that quick change, +from sleeping to waking, he had detected, he thought, the unearthly +being that, he now felt, watched him from behind the air, and it +had vanished! The library was the same as in the moment of that +supernatural revealing; the open letter lay upon the table still; +only <i>that</i> was gone which had made these common aspects terrible. +Then all the hard, strong scepticism of his nature, which had been +driven backward by the shock of his first conviction, recoiled, +and rushed within him, violently struggling for its former +vantage-ground; till, at length, it achieved the foothold for a +doubt. Could he have dreamed? The ghost, invisible, still watched +him. Yes, a dream,—only a dream; but, how vivid, how strange! +With a slow thrill creeping through his veins, the blood curdling +at his heart, a cold sweat starting on his forehead, he stared +through the dimness of the room. All was vacancy. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +With a strong shudder, he strode forward, and turned up the flames +of the chandelier. A flood of garish light filled the apartment. +In a moment, remembering the letter to which the phantom of his +dream had pointed, he turned and took it from the table. The last +page lay upward, and every word of the solemn counsel at the end +seemed to dilate on the paper, and all its mighty meaning rushed +upon his soul. Trembling in his own despite, he laid it down and +moved away. A physician, he remembered that he was in a state of +violent nervous excitement, and thought that when he grew calmer +its effects would pass from him. But the hand that had touched +him had gone down deeper than the physician, and reached what God +had made. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +He strove in vain. The very room, in its light and silence, and the +lurking sentiment of something watching him, became terrible. He +could not endure it. The devils in his heart, grown pusillanimous, +cowered beneath the flashing strokes of his aroused and terrible +conscience. He could not endure it. He must go out. He will walk +the streets. It is not late,—it is but ten o'clock. He will +go. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +The air of his dream still hung heavily about him. He was in the +street,—he hardly remembered how he had got there, or when; +but there he was, wrapped up from the searching cold, thinking, +with a quiet horror in his mind, of the darkened room he had left +behind, and haunted by the sense that something was groping about +there in the darkness, searching for him. The night was still and +cold. The full moon was in the zenith. Its icy splendor lay on +the bare streets, and on the walls of the dwellings. The lighted +oblong squares of curtained windows, here and there, seemed dim and +waxen in the frigid glory. The familiar aspect of the quarter had +passed away, leaving behind only a corpse-like neighborhood, whose +huge, dead features, staring rigidly through the thin, white shroud +of moonlight that covered all, left no breath upon the stainless +skies. Through the vast silence of the night he passed along; the +very sound of his footfalls was remote to his muffled sense. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Gradually, as he reached the first corner, he had an uneasy feeling +that a thing—a formless, unimaginable thing—was dogging +him. He had thought of going down to his club-room; but he now +shrank from entering, with this thing near him, the lighted rooms +where his set were busy with cards and billiards, over their liquors +and cigars, and where the heated air was full of their idle faces +and careless chatter, lest some one should bawl out that he was +pale, and ask him what was the matter, and he should answer, +tremblingly, that something was following him, and was near him +then! He must get rid of it first; he must walk quickly, and baffle +its pursuit by turning sharp corners, and plunging into devious +streets and crooked lanes, and so lose it! +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +It was difficult to reach through memory to the crazy chaos of +his mind on that night, and recall the route he took while haunted +by this feeling; but he afterward remembered that, without any +other purpose than to baffle his imaginary pursuer, he traversed +at a rapid pace a large portion of the moonlit city; always (he +knew not why) avoiding the more populous thoroughfares, and choosing +unfrequented and tortuous byways, but never ridding himself of +that horrible confusion of mind in which the faces of his dead +friend and the pale woman were strangely blended, nor of the fancy +that he was followed. Once, as he passed the hospital where Feval +died, a faint hint seemed to flash and vanish from the clouds of +his lunacy, and almost identify the dogging goblin with the figure +of his dream; but the conception instantly mixed with a disconnected +remembrance that this was Christmas eve, and then slipped from +him, and was lost. He did not pause there, but strode on. But just +there, what had been frightful became hideous. For at once he was +possessed with the conviction that the thing that lurked at a distance +behind him was quickening its movement, and coming up to seize +him. The dreadful fancy stung him like a goad, and, with a start, +he accelerated his flight, horribly conscious that what he feared +was slinking along in the shadow, close to the dark bulks of the +houses, resolutely pursuing, and bent on overtaking him. Faster! +His footfalls rang hollowly and loud on the moonlit pavement, and in +contrast with their rapid thuds he felt it as something peculiarly +terrible that the furtive thing behind slunk after him with soundless +feet. Faster, faster! Traversing only the most unfrequented streets, +and at that late hour of a cold winter night he met no one, and +with a terrifying consciousness that his pursuer was gaining on +him, he desperately strode on. He did not dare to look behind, +dreading less what he might see than the momentary loss of speed +the action might occasion. Faster, faster, faster! And all at once +he knew that the dogging thing had dropped its stealthy pace and +was racing up to him. With a bound he broke into a run, seeing, +hearing, heeding nothing, aware only that the other was silently +louping on his track two steps to his one; and with that frantic +apprehension upon him, he gained the next street, flung himself +around the corner with his back to the wall, and his arms convulsively +drawn up for a grapple; and felt something rush whirring past his +flank, striking him on the shoulder as it went by, with a buffet +that made a shock break through his frame. That shock restored +him to his senses. His delusion was suddenly shattered. The goblin +was gone. He was free. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +He stood panting, like one just roused from some terrible dream, +wiping the reeking perspiration from his forehead, and thinking +confusedly and wearily what a fool he had been. He felt he had wandered +a long distance from his house, but had no distinct perception of +his whereabouts. He only knew he was in some thinly peopled street, +whose familiar aspect seemed lost to him in the magical disguise the +superb moonlight had thrown over all. Suddenly a film seemed to +drop from his eyes, as they became riveted on a lighted window, on +the opposite side of the way. He started, and a secret terror crept +over him, vaguely mixed with the memory of the shock he had felt as +he turned the last corner, and his distinct, awful feeling that +something invisible had passed him. At the same instant he felt, and +thrilled to feel, a touch, as of a light finger, on his cheek. He was +in Hanover Street. Before him was the house,—the oyster-room +staring at him through the lighted transparencies of its two windows, +like two square eyes, below; and his tenant's light in a chamber +above! The added shock which this discovery gave to the heaving of +his heart made him gasp for breath. Could it be? Did he still dream? +While he stood panting and staring at the building the city clocks +began to strike. Eleven o'clock; it was ten when he came away; how he +must have driven! His thoughts caught up the word. Driven,—by +what? Driven from his house in horror, through street and lane, over +half the city,—driven,—hunted in terror, and smitten +by a shock here! Driven,—driven! He could not rid his mind of +the word, nor of the meaning it suggested. The pavements about him +began to ring and echo with the tramp of many feet, and the cold, +brittle air was shivered with the noisy voices that had roared and +bawled applause and laughter at the National Theatre all the evening, +and were now singing and howling homeward. Groups of rude men, +and ruder boys, their breaths steaming in the icy air, began to +tramp by, jostling him as they passed, till he was forced to draw +back to the wall, and give them the sidewalk. Dazed and giddy, in +cold fear, and with the returning sense of something near him, +he stood and watched the groups that pushed and tumbled in through +the entrance of the oyster-room, whistling and chattering as they +went, and banging the door behind them. He noticed that some came out +presently, banging the door harder, and went, smoking and shouting, +down the street. Still they poured in and out, while the street +was startled with their stimulated riot, and the bar-room within +echoed their trampling feet and hoarse voices. Then, as his glance +wandered upward to his tenant's window, he thought of the sick +child, mixing this hideous discord in the dreams of fever. The word +brought up the name and the thought of his dead friend. "In the +name of the Saviour, I charge you be true and tender to mankind!" +The memory of these words seemed to ring clearly, as if a voice +had spoken them, above the roar that suddenly rose in his mind. +In that moment he felt himself a wretched and most guilty man. He +felt that his cruel words had entered that humble home, to make +desperate poverty more desperate, to sicken sickness, and to sadden +sorrow. Before him was the dram-shop, let and licensed to nourish +the worst and most brutal appetites and instincts of human natures, +at the sacrifice of all their highest and holiest tendencies. The +throng of tipplers and drunkards was swarming through its hopeless +door, to gulp the fiery liquor whose fumes give all shames, vices, +miseries, and crimes a lawless strength and life, and change the +man into the pig or tiger. Murder was done, or nearly done, within +those walls last night. Within those walls no good was ever done; +but daily, unmitigated evil, whose results were reaching on to +torture unborn generations. He had consented to it all! He could +not falter, or equivocate, or evade, or excuse. His dead friend's +words rang in his conscience like the trump of the judgment angel. +He was conquered. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Slowly, the resolve instantly to go in uprose within him, and with +it a change came upon his spirit, and the natural world, sadder than +before, but sweeter, seemed to come back to him. A great feeling +of relief flowed upon his mind. Pale and trembling still, he crossed +the street with a quick, unsteady step, entered a yard at the side +of the house, and, brushing by a host of white, rattling spectres of +frozen clothes, which dangled from lines in the enclosure, mounted +some wooden steps, and rang the bell. In a minute he heard footsteps +within, and saw the gleam of a lamp. His heart palpitated violently +as he heard the lock turning, lest the answerer of his summons +might be his tenant. The door opened, and, to his relief, he stood +before a rather decent-looking Irishman, bending forward in his +stocking-feet, with one boot and a lamp in his hand. The man stared +at him from a wild head of tumbled red hair, with a half-smile round +his loose open mouth, and said, "Begorra!" This was a second-floor +tenant. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Dr. Renton was relieved at the sight of him; but he rather failed +in an attempt at his rent-day suavity of manner, when he said,— +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Good evening, Mr. Flanagan. Do you think I can see Mrs. Miller +to-night?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"She's up <i>there</i>, docther, anyway." Mr. Flanagan made a sudden +start for the stairs, with the boot and lamp at arm's length before +him, and stopped as suddenly. "Yull go up? or wud she come down to +ye?" There was as much anxious indecision in Mr. Flanagan's general +aspect, pending the reply, as if he had to answer the question +himself. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"I'll go up, Mr. Flanagan," returned Dr. Renton, stepping in, after +a pause, and shutting the door. "But I'm afraid she's in bed." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Naw—she's not, sur." Mr. Flanagan made another feint with +the boot and lamp at the stairs, but stopped again in curious +bewilderment, and rubbed his head. Then, with another inspiration, +and speaking with such velocity that his words ran into each other, +pell-mell, he continued: "Th' small girl's sick, sur. Begorra, I +wor just pullin' on th' boots tuh gaw for the docther, in th' +nixt streth, an' summons him to her relehf, fur it's bad she is. +A'id betther be goan." Another start, and a movement to put on the +boot instantly, baffled by his getting the lamp into the leg of +it, and involving himself in difficulties in trying to get it out +again without dropping either, and stopped finally by Dr. Renton. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"You needn't go, Mr. Flanagan. I'll see to the child. Don't go." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +He stepped slowly up the stairs, followed by the bewildered Flanagan. +All this time Dr. Renton was listening to the racket from the bar-room. +Clinking of glasses, rattling of dishes, trampling of feet, oaths and +laughter, and a confused din of coarse voices, mingling with boisterous +calls for oysters and drink, came, hardly deadened by the partition +walls, from the haunt below, and echoed through the corridors. Loud +enough within,—louder in the street without, where the oysters and +drink were reeling and roaring off to brutal dreams. People trying to +sleep here; a sick child up stairs. Listen! "<i>Two</i> stew! <i>One</i> +roast! <i>Four</i> ale! Hurry 'em up! <i>Three</i> stew! <i>In</i> +number six! <i>One</i> fancy—<i>two</i> roast! <i>One</i> +sling! Three brandy—<i>hot! Two</i> stew! <i>One</i> whisk' +<i>skin!</i> Hurry 'em up! <i>What</i> yeh <i>'bout!</i> <i>Three</i> +brand' punch—<i>hot! Four</i> stew! <i>What</i>-ye-e-h 'BOUT! +<i>Two</i> gin-cock-t'il! <i>One</i> stew! Hu-r-r-y 'em up!" Clashing, +rattling, cursing, swearing, laughing, shouting, trampling, stumbling, +driving, slamming of doors. "Hu-r-ry 'em +<span style="font-variant: small-caps;">up</span>." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Flanagan," said Dr. Renton, stopping at the first landing, "do +you have this noise every night?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Naise? Hoo! Divil a night, docther, but I'm wehked out ov me bed +wid 'em, Sundays an' all. Sure didn't they murdher wan of 'em, +out an' out, last night!" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Is the man dead?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Dead? Troth he is. An' cowld." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"H'm"—through his compressed lips. "Flanagan, you needn't +come up. I know the door. Just hold the light for me here. There, +that'll do. Thank you." He whispered the last words from the top +of the second flight. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Are ye there, docther?" Flanagan anxious to the last, and trying +to peer up at him with the lamplight in his eyes. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Yes. That'll do. Thank you!" in the same whisper. Before he could +tap at the door, then darkening in the receding light, it opened +suddenly, and a big Irish-woman bounced out, and then whisked in +again, calling to some one in an inner room, "Here he is, Mrs. +Mill'r"; and then bounced out again, with a, "Walk royt in, if +<i>you</i> plaze; here's the choild"; and whisked in again, with a +"Sure an' Jehms was quick"; never once looking at him, and utterly +unconscious of the presence of her landlord. He had hardly stepped +into the room and taken off his hat, when Mrs. Miller came from +the inner chamber with a lamp in her hand. How she started! With +her pale face grown suddenly paler, and her hand on her bosom, +she could only exclaim, "Why, it's Dr. Renton!" and stand, still +and dumb, gazing with a frightened look at his face, whiter than +her own. Whereupon Mrs. Flanagan came bolting out again, with wild +eyes and a sort of stupefied horror in her good, coarse, Irish +features; and then, with some uncouth ejaculation, ran back, and +was heard to tumble over something within, and tumble something +else over in her fall, and gather herself up with a subdued howl, +and subside. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Mrs. Miller," began Dr. Renton, in a low, husky voice, glancing +at her frightened face, "I hope you'll be composed. I spoke to you +very harshly and rudely to-night; but I really was not myself—I +was in anger—and I ask your pardon. Please to overlook it +all, and—but I will speak of this presently; now—I +am a physician; will you let me look now at your sick child?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +He spoke hurriedly, but with evident sincerity. For a moment her +lips faltered; then a slow flush came up, with a quick change of +expression on her thin, worn face, and, reddening to painful scarlet, +died away in a deeper pallor. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Dr. Renton," she said, hastily, "I have no ill-feeling for you, +sir, and I know you were hurt and vexed; and I know you have tried +to make it up to me again, sir, secretly. I know who it was, now; +but I can't take it, sir. You must take it back. You know it was +you sent it, sir?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Mrs. Miller," he replied, puzzled beyond measure, "I don't understand +you. What do you mean?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Don't deny it, sir. Please not to," she said imploringly, the +tears starting to her eyes. "I am very grateful,—indeed I +am. But I can't accept it. Do take it again." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Mrs. Miller," he replied, in a hasty voice, "what do you mean? +I have sent you nothing,—nothing at all. I have, therefore, +nothing to receive again." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +She looked at him fixedly, evidently impressed by the fervor of +his denial. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"You sent me nothing to-night, sir?" she asked, doubtfully. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Nothing at any time, nothing," he answered, firmly. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +It would have been folly to have disbelieved the truthful look of +his wondering face, and she turned away in amazement and confusion. +There was a long pause. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"I hope, Mrs. Miller, you will not refuse any assistance I can render +to your child," he said, at length. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +She started, and replied, tremblingly and confusedly, "No, sir; we +shall be grateful to you, if you can save her"; and went quickly, +with a strange abstraction on her white face, into the inner room. +He followed her at once, and, hardly glancing at Mrs. Flanagan, +who sat there in stupefaction, with her apron over her head and +face, he laid his hat on a table, went to the bedside of the little +girl, and felt her head and pulse. He soon satisfied himself that +the little sufferer was in no danger, under proper remedies, and +now dashed down a prescription on a leaf from his pocket-book. +Mrs. Flanagan, who had come out from the retirement of her apron, +to stare stupidly at him during the examination, suddenly bobbed +up on her legs, with enlightened alacrity, when he asked if there +was any one that could go out to the apothecary's, and said, "Sure +I wull!" He had a little trouble to make her understand that the +prescription, which she took by the corner, holding it away from +her, as if it were going to explode presently, and staring at it +upside down, was to be left—"<i>left</i>, mind you, Mrs. +Flanagan—with the apothecary—Mr. Flint—at the +nearest corner—and he will give you some things, which you are +to bring here." But she had shuffled off at last with a confident, +"Yis, sur—aw, I knoo," her head nodding satisfied assent, and +her big thumb covering the note on the margin, "Charge to Dr. C. +Renton, Bowdoin Street," (which, <i>I</i> know, could not keep it +from the eyes of the angels!) and he sat down to await her return. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Mrs. Miller," he said, kindly, "don't be alarmed about your child. +She is doing well; and, after you have given her the medicine Mrs. +Flanagan will bring, you'll find her much better, to-morrow. She +must be kept cool and quiet, you know, and she'll be all right +soon." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"O Dr. Renton, I am very grateful," was the tremulous reply; "and +we will follow all directions, sir. It is hard to keep her quiet, +sir; we keep as still as we can, and the other children are very +still; but the street is very noisy all the daytime and evening, +sir, and—" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"I know it, Mrs. Miller. And I'm afraid those people down stairs +disturb you somewhat." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"They make some stir in the evening, sir; and it's rather loud +in the street sometimes, at night. The folks on the lower floors +are troubled a good deal, they say." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Well they may be. Listen to the bawling outside, now, cold as it +is. Hark! A hoarse group on the opposite sidewalk beginning a +song,—"Ro-o-l on, sil-ver mo-o-n—" The silver moon +ceases to roll in a sudden explosion of yells and laughter, sending +up broken fragments of curses, ribald jeers, whoopings, and cat-calls, +high into the night air. "Ga-l-a-ng! Hi-hi! What ye-e-h <i>'bout!</i>" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"This is outrageous, Mrs. Miller. Where's the watchman?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +She smiled faintly. "He takes one of them off occasionally, sir; +but he's afraid; they beat him sometimes." A long pause. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Isn't your room rather cold, Mrs. Miller?" He glanced at the black +stove, dimly seen in the outer room. "It is necessary to keep the +rooms cool just now, but this air seems to me cold." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Receiving no answer, he looked at her, and saw the sad truth in +her averted face. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"I beg your pardon," he said quickly, flushing to the roots of his +hair. "I might have known, after what you said to me this evening." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"We had a little fire here to-day, sir," she said, struggling with +the pride and shame of poverty; "but we have been out of firing +for two or three days, and we owe the wharfman something now. The +two boys picked up a few chips; but the poor children find it hard +to get them, sir. Times are very hard with us, sir; indeed they +are. We'd have got along better, if my husband's money had come, +and your rent would have been paid—" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Never mind the rent!—don't speak of that!" he broke in, +with his face all aglow. "Mrs. Miller, I haven't done right by +you,—I know it. Be frank with me. Are you in want of—have +you—need of—food?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +No need of answer to that faintly stammered question. The thin, +rigid face was covered from his sight by the worn, wan hands, and +all the pride and shame of poverty, and all the frigid truth of +cold, hunger, anxiety, and sickened sorrow they had concealed, had +given way at last in a rush of tears. He could not speak. With a +smitten heart, he knew it all now. Ah! Dr. Renton, you know these +people's tricks? you know their lying blazon of poverty, to gather +sympathy? +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Mrs. Miller,"—she had ceased weeping, and as he spoke, she +looked at him, with the tear-stains still on her agitated face, +half ashamed that he had seen her,—"Mrs. Miller, I am sorry. +This shall be remedied. Don't tell me it sha'n't! Don't! I say it +shall! Mrs. Miller, I'm—I'm ashamed of myself. I am indeed." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"I am very grateful, sir, I'm sure," said she; "but we don't like +to take charity, though we need help; but we can get along now, +sir; for I suppose I must keep it, as you say you didn't send +it, and use it for the children's sake, and thank God for his good +mercy,—since I don't know, and never shall, where it came +from, now." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Mrs. Miller," he said quickly, "you spoke in this way before; and +I don't know what you refer to. What do you mean by—<i>it?</i>" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Oh! I forgot, sir: it puzzles me so. You see, sir, I was sitting +here after I got home from your house, thinking what I should do, +when Mrs. Flanagan came up stairs with a letter for me, that she said +a strange man left at the door for Mrs. Miller; and Mrs. Flanagan +couldn't describe him well, or understandingly; and it had no +direction at all, only the man inquired who was the landlord, and +if Mrs. Miller had a sick child, and then said the letter was for +me; and there was no writing inside the letter, but there was fifty +dollars. That's all, sir. It gave me a great shock, sir; and I +couldn't think who sent it, only when you came to-night, I thought +it was you; but you said it wasn't, and I never shall know who +it was, now. It seems as if the hand of God was in it, sir, for +it came when everything was darkest, and I was in despair." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Why, Mrs. Miller," he slowly answered, "this is very mysterious. +The man inquired if I was the owner of the house—oh! no—he +only inquired who was—but then he knew I was the—oh! +bother! I'm getting nowhere. Let's see. Why, it must be some one +you know, or that knows your circumstances." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"But there's no one knows them but yourself; and I told you," she +replied; "no one else but the people in the house. It must have +been some rich person, for the letter was a gilt-edge sheet, and +there was perfume in it, sir." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Strange," he murmured. "Well, I give it up. All is, I advise you to +keep it, and I'm very glad some one did his duty by you in your hour +of need, though I'm sorry it was not myself. Here's Mrs. Flanagan." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +There was a good deal done, and a great burden lifted off an humble +heart—nay, two!—before Dr. Renton thought of going +home. There was a patient gained, likely to do Dr. Renton more +good than any patient he had lost. There was a kettle singing on +the stove, and blowing off a happier steam than any engine ever blew +on that railroad whose unmarketable stock had singed Dr. Renton's +fingers. There was a yellow gleam flickering from the blazing fire +on the sober binding of a good old Book upon a shelf with others, +a rarer medical work than ever slipped at auction from Dr. Renton's +hands, since it kept the sacred lore of Him who healed the sick, +and fed the hungry, and comforted the poor, and who was also the +Physician of souls. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +And there were other offices performed, of lesser range than these, +before he rose to go. There were cooling mixtures blended for the +sick child; medicines arranged; directions given; and all the items +of her tendance orderly foreseen, and put in pigeon-holes of When +and How, for service. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +At last he rose to go. "And now, Mrs. Miller," he said, "I'll come +here at ten in the morning, and see to our patient. She'll be nicely +by that time. And (listen to those brutes in the street!—twelve +o'clock, too—ah! there's the bell), as I was saying, my offence +to you being occasioned by your debt to me, I feel my receipt for +your debt should commence my reparation to you; and I'll bring it +to-morrow. Mrs. Miller, you don't quite come at me—what I +mean is—you owe me, under a notice to quit, three months' +rent. Consider that paid in full. I never will take a cent of it +from you,—not a copper. And I take back the notice. Stay in +my house as long as you like; the longer the better. But, up to +this date, your rent's paid. There. I hope you'll have as happy a +Christmas as circumstances will allow, and I mean you shall." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +A flush of astonishment, of indefinable emotion, overspread her +face. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Dr. Renton, stop, sir!" He was moving to the door. "Please, sir, +<i>do</i> hear me! You are very good—but I can't allow you +to—Dr. Renton, we are able to pay you the rent, and we +<i>will</i>, and we <i>must</i>—here—now. O, sir, my gratefulness +will never fail to you—but here—here—be fair with +me, sir, and <i>do</i> take it." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +She had hurried to a chest of drawers, and came back with the letter +which she had rustled apart with eager, trembling hands, and now, +unfolding the single banknote it had contained, she thrust it into +his fingers as they closed. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Here, Mrs. Miller,"—she had drawn back with her arms locked +on her bosom, and he stepped forward,—"no, no. This sha'n't +be. Come, come, you must take it back. Good heavens!" He spoke +low, but his eyes blazed in the red glow which broke out on his +face, and the crisp note in his extended hand shook violently at +her. "Sooner than take this money from you, I would perish in the +street! What! Do you think I will rob you of the gift sent you by +some one who had a human heart for the distresses I was aggravating? +Sooner than— Here, take it! O my God! what's this?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +The red glow on his face went out, with this exclamation, in a +pallor like marble, and he jerked back the note to his starting +eyes. Globe Bank—Boston—Fifty Dollars. For a minute he +gazed at the motionless bill in his hand. Then, with his hueless +lips compressed, he seized the blank letter from his astonished +tenant, and looked at it, turning it over and over. Grained +letter-paper—gilt-edged—with a favorite perfume in +it. Where's Mrs. Flanagan? Outside the door, sitting on the top of +the stairs, with her apron over her head, crying. Mrs. Flanagan! +Here! In she tumbled, her big feet kicking her skirts before her, +and her eyes and face as red as a beet. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Mrs. Flanagan, what kind of a looking man gave you this letter +at the door to-night?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"A-w, Docther Rinton, dawn't ax me!—Bother, an' all, an' sure +an' I cudn't see him wud his fur-r hat, an' he a-ll boondled oop +wud his co-at oop on his e-ars, an' his big han'kershuf smotherin' +thuh mouth uv him, an' sorra a bit uv him tuh be looked at, sehvin' +thuh poomple on thuh ind uv his naws." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"The <i>what</i> on the end of his nose?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Thuh poomple, sur." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"What does she mean, Mrs. Miller?" said the puzzled questioner, +turning to his tenant. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"I don't know, sir, indeed," was the reply. "She said that to me, +and I couldn't understand her." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"It's thuh poomple, docther. Dawn't ye knoo? Thuh big, flehmin +poomple oop there." She indicated the locality, by flattening the +rude tip of her own nose with her broad forefinger. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Oh! the pimple! I have it." So he had. Netty, Netty! +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +He said nothing, but sat down in a chair, with his bold, white brow +knitted, and the warm tears in his dark eyes. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"You know who sent it, sir, don't you?" asked his wondering tenant, +catching the meaning of all this. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Mrs. Miller, I do. But I cannot tell you. Take it, now, and use +it. It is doubly yours. There. Thank you." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +She had taken it with an emotion in her face that gave a quicker +motion to his throbbing heart. He rose to his feet, hat in hand, +and turned away. The noise of a passing group of roysterers in +the street without came strangely loud into the silence of that +room. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Good night, Mrs. Miller. I'll be here in the morning. Good night." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Good night, sir. God bless you, sir!" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +He turned around quickly. The warm tears in his dark eyes had flowed +on his face, which was pale; and his firm lip quivered. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"I hope He will, Mrs. Miller,—I hope He will. It should have +been said oftener." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +He was on the outer threshold. Mrs. Flanagan had, somehow, got +there before him, with a lamp, and he followed her down through +the dancing shadows, with blurred eyes. On the lower landing he +stopped to hear the jar of some noisy wrangle, thick with oaths, +from the bar-room. He listened for a moment, and then turned to +the staring stupor of Mrs. Flanagan's rugged visage. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Sure, they're at ut, docther, wud a wull," she said, smiling. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Yes. Mrs. Flanagan, you'll stay up with Mrs. Miller to-night, won't +you?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Dade an' I wull, sur." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"That's right. Do. And make her try and sleep, for she must be +tired. Keep up a fire,—not too warm, you understand. There'll +be wood and coal coming to-morrow, and she'll pay you back." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"A-w, docther, dawn't noo!" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Well, well. And—look here; have you got anything to eat in +the house? Yes; well, take it up stairs. Wake up those two boys, +and give them something to eat. Don't let Mrs. Miller stop you. Make +her eat something. Tell her I said she must. And, first of all, get +your bonnet, and go to that apothecary's,—Flint's,—for +a bottle of port wine, for Mrs. Miller. Hold on. There's the order." +(He had a leaf out of his pocket-book in a minute, and wrote it down.) +"Go with this the first thing. Ring Flint's bell, and he'll wake +up. And here's something for your own Christmas dinner, to-morrow." +Out of the roll of bills he drew one of the tens—Globe +Bank—Boston—and gave it to Mrs. Flanagan. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"A-w, dawn't noo, docther." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Bother! It's for yourself, mind. Take it. There. And now unlock +the door. That's it. Good night, Mrs. Flanagan." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"An' meh thuh Hawly Vurgin hape bless'n's on ye, Docther Rinton, +wud a-ll thuh compliments uv thuh sehzin, for yur thuh—" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +He lost the end of Mrs. Flanagan's parting benedictions in the +moonlit street. He did not pause till he was at the door of the +oyster-room. He paused then, to make way for a tipsy company of +four, who reeled out,—the gaslight from the bar-room on the +edges of their sodden, distorted faces,—giving three shouts +and a yell, as they slammed the door behind them. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +He pushed after a party that was just entering. They went at once +for a drink to the upper end of the room, where a rowdy crew, with +cigars in their mouths, and liquor in their hands, stood before +the bar, in a knotty wrangle concerning some one who was killed. +Where is the keeper? O, there he is, mixing hot brandy punch for +two! Here, you, sir, go up quietly, and tell Mr. Rollins Dr. Renton +wants to see him. The waiter came back presently to say Mr. Rollins +would be right along. Twenty-five minutes past twelve. Oyster trade +nearly over. Gaudy-curtained booths on the left all empty but two. +Oyster-openers and waiters—three of them in all—nearly +done for the night, and two of them sparring and scuffling behind a +pile of oysters on the trough, with the colored print of the great +prize fight between Tom Hyer and Yankee Sullivan, in a veneered +frame above them on the wall. Blower up from the fire opposite the +bar, and stewpans and griddles empty and idle on the bench beside +it, among the unwashed bowls and dishes. Oyster trade nearly over. +Bar still busy. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Here comes Rollins in his shirt-sleeves, with an apron on. Thick-set, +muscular man,—frizzled head, low forehead, sharp, black eyes, +flabby face, with a false, greasy smile on it now, oiling over a +curious, stealthy expression of mingled surprise and inquiry, as +he sees his landlord here at this unusual hour. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Come in here, Mr. Rollins; I want to speak to you." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Yes, sir. Jim" (to the waiter), "go and tend bar." They sat down +in one of the booths, and lowered the curtain. Dr. Renton, at one +side of the table within, looking at Rollins, sitting leaning on +his folded arms, at the other side. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Mr. Rollins, I am told the man who was stabbed here last night +is dead. Is that so?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Well, he is, Dr. Renton. Died this afternoon." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Mr. Rollins, this is a serious matter; what are you going to do +about it?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Can't help it, sir. Who's a-goin' to touch <i>me?</i> Called in +a watchman. Whole mess of 'em had cut. Who knows 'em? Nobody knows +'em. Man that was stuck never see the fellers as stuck him in all +his life till then. Didn't know which one of 'em did it. Didn't +know nothing. Don't now, an' never will, 'nless he meets 'em in hell. +That's all. Feller's dead, an' who's a-goin' to touch <i>me?</i> +Can't do it. Ca-n-'t do it." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Mr. Rollins," said Dr. Renton, thoroughly disgusted with this man's +brutal indifference, "your lease expires in three days." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Well, it does. Hope to make a renewal with you, Dr. Renton. Trade's +good here. Shouldn't mind more rent on, if you insist,—hope +you won't,—if it's anything in reason. Promise sollum, I sha' +n't have no more fightin' in here. Couldn't help this. Accidents +<i>will</i> happen, yo' know." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Mr. Rollins, the case is this: if you didn't sell liquor here, +you'd have no murder done in your place,—murder, sir. That +man was murdered. It's your fault, and it's mine, too. I ought +not to have let you the place for your business. It <i>is</i> a +cursed traffic, and you and I ought to have found it out long ago. +<i>I</i> have. I hope <i>you</i> will. Now, I advise you, as a +friend, to give up selling rum for the future; you see what it comes +to,—don't you? At any rate, I will not be responsible for +the outrages that are perpetrated in my building any more,—I +will not have liquor sold here. I refuse to renew your lease. In +three days you must move." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Dr. Renton, you hurt my feelin's. Now, how would you—" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Mr. Rollins, I have spoken to you as a friend, and you have no +cause for pain. You must quit these premises when your lease expires. +I'm sorry I can't make you go before that. Make no appeals to me, +if you please. I am fixed. Now, sir, good night." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +The curtain was pulled up, and Rollins rolled over to his beloved +bar, soothing his lacerated feelings by swearing like a pirate, +while Dr. Renton strode to the door, and went into the street, +homeward. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +He walked fast through the magical moonlight, with a strange feeling +of sternness, and tenderness, and weariness, in his mind. In this +mood, the sensation of spiritual and physical fatigue gaining on +him, but a quiet moonlight in all his reveries, he reached his +house. He was just putting his latch-key in the door, when it was +opened by James, who stared at him for a second, and then dropped +his eyes, and put his hand before his nose. Dr. Renton compressed +his lips on an involuntary smile. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Ah! James, you're up late. It's near one." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"I sat up for Mrs. Renton and the young lady, sir. They're just +come, and gone up stairs." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"All right, James. Take your lamp and come in here. I've got something +to say to you." The man followed him into the library at once, with +some wonder on his sleepy face. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"First, put some coal on that fire, and light the chandelier. I +shall not go up stairs to-night." The man obeyed. "Now, James, +sit down in that chair." He did so, beginning to look frightened +at Dr. Renton's grave manner. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"James,"—a long pause,—"I want you to tell me the truth. +Where did you go to-night? Come, I have found you out. Speak." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +The man turned as white as a sheet, and looked wretched with the +whites of his bulging eyes, and the great pimple on his nose awfully +distinct in the livid hue of his features. He was a rather slavish +fellow, and thought he was going to lose his situation. Please +not to blame him, for he, too, was one of the poor. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"O Dr. Renton, excuse me, sir; I didn't mean doing any harm." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"James, my daughter gave you an undirected letter this evening; you +carried it to one of my houses in Hanover Street. Is that true?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Ye-yes, sir. I couldn't help it. I only did what she told me, +sir." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"James, if my daughter told you to set fire to this house, what +would you do?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"I wouldn't do it, sir," he stammered, after some hesitation. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"You wouldn't? James, if my daughter ever tells you to set fire +to this house, do it, sir! Do it. At once. Do whatever she tells +you. Promptly. And I'll back you." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +The man stared wildly at him, as he received this astonishing command. +Dr. Renton was perfectly grave, and had spoken slowly and seriously. +The man was at his wits' end. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"You'll do it, James,—will you?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Ye-yes, sir, certainly." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"That's right. James, you're a good fellow. James, you've got a +wife and children, hav'n't you?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Yes, sir, I have; living in the country, sir. In Chelsea, over +the ferry. For cheapness, sir." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"For cheapness, eh? Hard times, James? How is it?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Pretty hard, sir. Close, but toler'ble comfortable. Rub and go, +sir." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Rub and go. Ve-r-y well. Rub and go. James, I'm going to raise your +wages—to-morrow. Generally, because you're a good servant. +Principally, because you carried that letter to-night, when my +daughter asked you. I sha'n't forget it. To-morrow, mind. And +if I can do anything for you, James, at any time, just tell me. +That's all. Now, you'd better go to bed. And a happy Christmas +to you!" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Much obliged to you, sir. Same to you and many of 'em. Good night, +sir." And with Dr. Renton's "good-night" he stole up to bed, thoroughly +happy, and determined to obey Miss Renton's future instructions to +the letter. The shower of golden light which had been raining for +the last two hours had fallen even on him. It would fall all day +to-morrow in many places, and the day after, and for long years +to come. Would that it could broaden and increase to a general +deluge, and submerge the world! +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Now the whole house was still, and its master was weary. He sat +there, quietly musing, feeling the sweet and tranquil presence +near him. Now the fire was screened, the lights were out, save +one dim glimmer, and he had lain down on the couch with the letter +in his hand, and slept the dreamless sleep of a child. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +He slept until the gray dawn of Christmas day stole into the room, +and showed him the figure of his friend, a shape of glorious light, +standing by his side, and gazing at him with large and tender eyes! +He had no fear. All was deep, serene, and happy with the happiness +of heaven. Looking up into that beautiful, wan face,—so +tranquil,—so radiant; watching, with a childlike awe, the +star-fire in those shadowy eyes; smiling faintly, with a great, +unutterable love thrilling slowly through his frame, in answer +to the smile of light that shone upon the phantom countenance; +so he passed a space of time which seemed a calm eternity, till, +at last, the communion of spirit with spirit—of mortal love +with love immortal—was perfected, and the shining hands were +laid on his forehead, as with a touch of air. Then the phantom +smiled, and, as its shining hands were withdrawn, the thought of +his daughter mingled in the vision. She was bending over him! The +dawn, the room, were the same. But the ghost of Feval had gone +out from earth, away to its own land! +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Father, dear father! Your eyes were open, and they did not look at +me. There is a light on your face, and your features are changed! +What is it,—what have you seen?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Hush, darling: here—kneel by me, for a little while, and +be still. I have seen the dead." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +She knelt by him, burying her awe-struck face in his bosom, and +clung to him with all the fervor of her soul. He clasped her to +his breast, and for minutes all was still. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Dear child, good and dear child!" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +The voice was tremulous and low. She lifted her fair, bright +countenance, now convulsed with a secret trouble, and dimmed with +streaming tears, to his, and gazed on him. His eyes were shining; +but his pallid cheeks, like hers, were wet with tears. How still +the room was! How like a thought of solemn tenderness the pale +gray dawn! The world was far away, and his soul still wandered +in the peaceful awe of his dream. The world was coming back to +him,—but oh! how changed!—in the trouble of his daughter's +face. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Darling, what is it? Why are you here? Why are you weeping? Dear +child, the friend of my better days,—of the boyhood when I +had noble aims, and life was beautiful before me,—he has +been here! I have seen him. He has been with me—oh! for a +good I cannot tell!" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Father, dear father!"—he had risen, and sat upon the couch, +but she still knelt before him, weeping, and clasped his hands in +hers,—"I thought of you and of this letter, all the time. +All last night till I slept, and then I dreamed you were tearing +it to pieces, and trampling on it. I awoke, and lay thinking of +you, and of ——. And I thought I heard you come down +stairs, and I came here to find you. But you were lying here so +quietly, with your eyes open, and so strange a light on your face. +And I knew,—I knew you were dreaming of him, and that you +saw him, for the letter lay beside you. O father! forgive me, but +do hear me! In the name of this day,—it's Christmas day, +father,—in the name of the time when we must both die,—in +the name of that time, father, hear me! That poor woman last +night,—O father! forgive me, but don't tear that letter in +pieces and trample it under foot! You know what I mean—you +know—you know. Don't tear it, and tread it under foot." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +She clung to him, sobbing violently, her face buried in his hands. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Hush, hush! It's all well,—it's all well. Here, sit by me. +So. I have—" His voice failed him, and he paused. But sitting +by him,—clinging to him,—her face hidden in his +bosom,—she heard the strong beating of his disenchanted heart. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"My child, I know your meaning. I will not tear the letter to pieces +and trample it under foot. God forgive me my life's slight to those +words. But I learned their value last night, in the house where +your blank letter had entered before me." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +She started, and looked into his face steadfastly, while a bright +scarlet shot into her own. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"I know all, Netty,—all. Your secret was well kept, but it +is yours and mine now. It was well done, darling, well done. O, +I have been through strange mysteries of thought and life since +that starving woman sat here! Well—thank God!" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Father, what have you done?" The flush had failed, but a glad +color still brightened her face, while the tears stood trembling +in her eyes. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"All that you wished yesterday," he answered. "And all that you +ever could have wished, henceforth I will do." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"O father!" She stopped. The bright scarlet shot again into her +face, but with an April shower of tears, and the rainbow of a smile. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Listen to me, Netty, and I will tell you, and only you, what I +have done." Then, while she mutely listened, sitting by his side, +and the dawn of Christmas broadened into Christmas day, he told +her all. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +And when he had told all, and emotion was stilled, they sat together +in silence for a time, she with her innocent head drooped upon his +shoulder, and her eyes closed, lost in tender and mystic reveries; +and he musing with a contrite heart. Till at last, the stir of +daily life began to waken in the quiet dwelling, and without, from +steeples in the frosty air, there was a sound of bells. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +They rose silently, and stood, clinging to each other, side by side. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Love, we must part," he said, gravely and tenderly. "Read me, +before we go, the closing lines of George Feval's letter. In the +spirit of this let me strive to live. Let it be for me the lesson +of the day. Let it also be the lesson of my life." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Her face was pale and lit with exaltation as she took the letter +from his hand. There was a pause, and then upon the thrilling and +tender silver of her voice, the words arose like solemn music:— +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"<i>Farewell—farewell! But, oh! take my counsel into memory +on Christmas Day, and forever. Once again, the ancient prophecy of +peace and good-will shines on a world of wars and wrongs and woes. +Its soft ray shines into the darkness of a land wherein swarm slaves, +poor laborers, social pariahs, weeping women, homeless exiles, hunted +fugitives, despised aliens, drunkards, convicts, wicked children, +and Magdalens unredeemed. These are but the ghastliest figures in +that sad army of humanity which advances, by a dreadful road, to +the Golden Age of the poets' dream. These are your sisters and your +brothers. Love them all. Beware of wronging one of them by word or +deed. O friend! strong in wealth for so much good,—take my +last counsel. In the name of the Saviour, I charge you, be true +and tender to mankind. Come out from Babylon into manhood, and +live and labor for the fallen, the neglected, the suffering, and +the poor. Lover of arts, customs, laws, institutions, and forms of +society, love these things only as they help mankind! With stern +love, overturn them, or help to overturn them, when they become cruel +to a single—the humblest—human being. In the world's +scale, social position, influence, public power, the applause of +majorities, heaps of funded gold, services rendered to creeds, codes, +sects, parties, or federations—they weigh weight; but in God's +scale—remember!—on the day if hope, remember!—your +least service to Humanity outweighs them all.</i>" +</p> + +<div class="img_ctr" style="width: 293px;"> + <img src="images/fig006.gif" width="293" height="157" alt="Fig. 6"> +</div> + +<div class="img_ctr" style="width: 533px;"><a name="page_71"> + <img src="images/fig007.gif" width="533" height="126" alt="Fig. 7"> +</a></div> + +<h2>THE FOUR-FIFTEEN EXPRESS.</h2> + +<p class="subtitle"> +BY AMELIA B. EDWARDS. +</p> + +<p class="center">I.</p> + +<p class="justify"> +<img src="images/fig008.gif" width="84" height="85" +style="float: left;" alt="T"> +he events which I am about to relate took place between nine and +ten years ago. Sebastopol had fallen in the early spring; the peace +of Paris had been concluded since March; our commercial relations with +the Russian Empire were but recently renewed; and I, returning home +after my first northward journey since the war, was well pleased with +the prospect of spending the month of December under the hospitable +and thoroughly English roof of my excellent friend Jonathan Jelf, +Esquire, of Dumbleton Manor, Clayborough, East Anglia. Travelling +in the interests of the well-known firm in which it is my lot to +be a junior partner, I had been called upon to visit not only the +capitals of Russia and Poland, but had found it also necessary +to pass some weeks among the trading-ports of the Baltic; whence +it came that the year was already far spent before I again set +foot on English soil, and that, instead of shooting pheasants with +him, as I had hoped, in October, I came to be my friend's guest +during the more genial Christmastide. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +My voyage over, and a few days given up to business in Liverpool +and London, I hastened down to Clayborough with all the delight of +a school-boy whose holidays are at hand. My way lay by the Great +East Anglian line as far as Clayborough station, where I was to +be met by one of the Dumbleton carriages and conveyed across the +remaining nine miles of country. It was a foggy afternoon, singularly +warm for the 4th of December, and I had arranged to leave London by +the 4.15 express. The early darkness of winter had already closed +in; the lamps were lighted in the carriages; a clinging damp dimmed +the windows, adhered to the door-handles, and pervaded all the +atmosphere; while the gas-jets at the neighboring bookstand diffused +a luminous haze that only served to make the gloom of the terminus +more visible. Having arrived some seven minutes before the starting of +the train, and, by the connivance of the guard, taken sole possession +of an empty compartment, I lighted my travelling-lamp, made myself +particularly snug, and settled down to the undisturbed enjoyment of +a book and a cigar. Great, therefore, was my disappointment when, +at the last moment, a gentleman came hurrying along the platform, +glanced into my carriage, opened the locked door with a private +key, and stepped in. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +It struck me at the first glance that I had seen him before,—a +tall, spare man, thin-lipped, light-eyed, with an ungraceful stoop +in the shoulders, and scant gray hair worn somewhat long upon the +collar. He carried a light water-proof coat, an umbrella, and a +large brown japanned deed-box, which last he placed under the seat. +This done, he felt carefully in his breast-pocket, as if to make +certain of the safety of his purse or pocket-book; laid his umbrella +in the netting overhead; spread the water-proof across his knees; +and exchanged his hat for a travelling-cap of some Scotch material. +By this time the train was moving out of the station, and into +the faint gray of the wintry twilight beyond. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +I now recognized my companion. I recognized him from the moment when +he removed his hat and uncovered the lofty, furrowed, and somewhat +narrow brow beneath. I had met him, as I distinctly remembered, +some three years before, at the very house for which, in all +probability, he was now bound, like myself. His name was Dwerrihouse; +he was a lawyer by profession; and, if I was not greatly mistaken, +was first-cousin to the wife of my host. I knew also that he was +a man eminently "well to do," both as regarded his professional +and private means. The Jelfs entertained him with that sort of +observant courtesy which falls to the lot of the rich relation; +the children made much of him; and the old butler, albeit somewhat +surly "to the general," treated him with deference. I thought, +observing him by the vague mixture of lamplight and twilight, that +Mrs. Jelf's cousin looked all the worse for the three years' wear +and tear which had gone over his head since our last meeting. He +was very pale, and had a restless light in his eye that I did not +remember to have observed before. The anxious lines, too, about +his mouth were deepened, and there was a cavernous, hollow look +about his cheeks and temples which seemed to speak of sickness or +sorrow. He had glanced at me as he came in, but without any gleam +of recognition in his face. Now he glanced again, as I fancied, +somewhat doubtfully. When he did so for the third or fourth time, +I ventured to address him. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Mr. John Dwerrihouse, I think?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"That is my name," he replied. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"I had the pleasure of meeting you at Dumbleton about three years +ago." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Mr. Dwerrihouse bowed. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"I thought I knew your face," he said. "But your name, I regret +to say—" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Langford,—William Langford. I have known Jonathan Jelf since +we were boys together at Merchant Taylor's, and I generally spend +a few weeks at Dumbleton in the shooting-season. I suppose we are +bound for the same destination?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Not if you are on your way to the Manor," he replied. "I am travelling +upon business,—rather troublesome business, too,—whilst +you, doubtless, have only pleasure in view." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Just so. I am in the habit of looking forward to this visit as +to the brightest three weeks in all the year." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"It is a pleasant house," said Mr. Dwerrihouse. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"The pleasantest I know." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"And Jelf is thoroughly hospitable." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"The best and kindest fellow in the world!" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"They have invited me to spend Christmas week with them," pursued +Mr. Dwerrihouse, after a moment's pause. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"And you are coming?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"I cannot tell. It must depend on the issue of this business which I +have in hand. You have heard, perhaps, that we are about to construct +a branch line from Blackwater to Stockbridge." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +I explained that I had been for some months away from England, +and had therefore heard nothing of the contemplated improvement. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Mr. Dwerrihouse smiled complacently. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"It <i>will</i> be an improvement," he said; "a great improvement. +Stockbridge is a flourishing town, and needs but a more direct +railway communication with the metropolis to become an important +centre of commerce. This branch was my own idea. I brought the +project before the board, and have myself superintended the execution +of it up to the present time." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"You are an East Anglian director, I presume?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"My interest in the company," replied Mr. Dwerrihouse, "is threefold. +I am a director; I am a considerable shareholder; and, as head of +the firm of Dwerrihouse, Dwerrihouse, and Craik, I am the company's +principal solicitor." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Loquacious, self-important, full of his pet project, and apparently +unable to talk on any other subject, Mr. Dwerrihouse then went on +to tell of the opposition he had encountered and the obstacles he +had overcome in the cause of the Stockbridge branch. I was entertained +with a multitude of local details and local grievances. The rapacity +of one squire; the impracticability of another; the indignation of +the rector whose glebe was threatened; the culpable indifference +of the Stockbridge townspeople, who could <i>not</i> be brought to +see that their most vital interests hinged upon a junction with the +Great East Anglian line; the spite of the local newspaper; and the +unheard-of difficulties attending the Common question,—were +each and all laid before me with a circumstantiality that possessed +the deepest interest for my excellent fellow-traveller, but none +whatever for myself. From these, to my despair, he went on to more +intricate matters: to the approximate expenses of construction +per mile; to the estimates sent in by different contractors; to +the probable traffic returns of the new line; to the provisional +clauses of the new Act as enumerated in Schedule D of the company's +last half-yearly report; and so on, and on, and on, till my head +ached, and my attention flagged, and my eyes kept closing in spite +of every effort that I made to keep them open. At length I was +roused by these words:— +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Seventy-five thousand pounds, cash down." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Seventy-five thousand pounds, cash down," I repeated, in the liveliest +tone I could assume. "That is a heavy sum." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"A heavy sum to carry here," replied Mr. Dwerrihouse, pointing +significantly to his breast-pocket; "but a mere fraction of what +we shall ultimately have to pay." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"You do not mean to say that you have seventy-five thousand pounds +at this moment upon your person?" I exclaimed. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"My good sir, have I not been telling you so for the last half-hour?" +said Mr. Dwerrihouse, testily. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"That money has to be paid over at half past eight o'clock this +evening, at the office of Sir Thomas's solicitors, on completion +of the deed of sale." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"But how will you get across by night from Blackwater to Stockbridge +with seventy-five thousand pounds in your pocket?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"To Stockbridge!" echoed the lawyer. "I find I have made myself +very imperfectly understood. I thought I had explained how this +sum only carries us as far as Mallingford,—the first stage, +as it were, of our journey,—and how our route from Blackwater +to Mallingford lies entirely through Sir Thomas Liddell's property." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"I beg your pardon," I stammered. "I fear my thoughts were wandering. +So you only go as far as Mallingford to-night?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Precisely. I shall get a conveyance from the 'Blackwater Arms.' +And you?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"O, Jelf sends a trap to meet me at Clayborough! Can I be the bearer +of any message from you?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"You may say, if you please, Mr. Langford, that I wished I could +have been your companion all the way, and that I will come over, +if possible, before Christmas." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Nothing more?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Mr. Dwerrihouse smiled grimly. "Well," he said, "you may tell my +cousin that she need not burn the hall down in my honor <i>this</i> +time, and that I shall be obliged if she will order the blue-room +chimney to be swept before I arrive." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"That sounds tragic. Had you a conflagration on the occasion of +your last visit to Dumbleton?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Something like it. There had been no fire lighted in my bedroom +since the spring, the flue was foul, and the rooks had built in +it; so when I went up to dress for dinner, I found the room full +of smoke, and the chimney on fire. Are we already at Blackwater?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +The train had gradually come to a pause while Mr. Dwerrihouse was +speaking, and, on putting my head out of the window, I could see +the station some few hundred yards ahead. There was another train +before us blocking the way, and the guard was making use of the +delay to collect the Blackwater tickets. I had scarcely ascertained +our position, when the ruddy-faced official appeared at our +carriage-door. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Tickets, sir!" said he. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"I am for Clayborough," I replied, holding out the tiny pink card. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +He took it; glanced at it by the light of his little lantern; gave it +back; looked, as I fancied, somewhat sharply at my fellow-traveller, +and disappeared. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"He did not ask for yours," I said with some surprise. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"They never do," replied Mr. Dwerrihouse. "They all know me; and, +of course, I travel free." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Blackwater! Blackwater!" cried the porter, running along the platform +beside us, as we glided into the station. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Mr. Dwerrihouse pulled out his deed-box, put his travelling-cap in +his pocket, resumed his hat, took down his umbrella, and prepared +to be gone. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Many thanks, Mr. Langford, for your society," he said, with +old-fashioned courtesy. "I wish you a good evening." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Good evening," I replied, putting out my hand. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +But he either did not see it, or did not choose to see it, and, +slightly lifting his hat, stepped out upon the platform. Having +done this, he moved slowly away, and mingled with the departing +crowd. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Leaning forward to watch him out of sight, I trod upon something +which proved to be a cigar-case. It had fallen, no doubt, from +the pocket of his water-proof coat, and was made of dark morocco +leather, with a silver monogram upon the side. I sprang out of +the carriage just as the guard came up to lock me in. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Is there one minute to spare?" I asked eagerly. "The gentleman +who travelled down with me from town has dropped his cigar-case; +he is not yet out of the station!" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Just a minute and a half, sir," replied the guard. "You must be +quick." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +I dashed along the platform as fast as my feet could carry me. +It was a large station, and Mr. Dwerrihouse had by this time got +more than half-way to the farther end. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +I, however, saw him distinctly, moving slowly with the stream. Then, +as I drew nearer, I saw that he had met some friend,—that they +were talking as they walked,—that they presently fell back +somewhat from the crowd, and stood aside in earnest conversation. +I made straight for the spot where they were waiting. There was a +vivid gas-jet just above their heads, and the light fell full upon +their faces. I saw both distinctly,—the face of Mr. Dwerrihouse +and the face of his companion. Running, breathless, eager as I +was, getting in the way of porters and passengers, and fearful +every instant lest I should see the train going on without me, I yet +observed that the new-comer was considerably younger and shorter than +the director, that he was sandy-haired, mustachioed, small-featured, +and dressed in a close-cut suit of Scotch tweed. I was now within +a few yards of them. I ran against a stout gentleman,—I was +nearly knocked down by a luggage-truck,—I stumbled over a +carpet-bag,—I gained the spot just as the driver's whistle +warned me to return. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +To my utter stupefaction they were no longer there. I had seen +them but two seconds before,—and they were gone! I stood +still. I looked to right and left. I saw no sign of them in any +direction. It was as if the platform had gaped and swallowed them. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"There were two gentlemen standing here a moment ago," I said to +a porter at my elbow; "which way can they have gone?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"I saw no gentlemen, sir," replied the man. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +The whistle shrilled out again. The guard, far up the platform, +held up his arm, and shouted to me to "Come on!" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"If you're going on by this train, sir," said the porter, "you must +run for it." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +I did run for it, just gained the carriage as the train began to +move, was shoved in by the guard, and left breathless and bewildered, +with Mr. Dwerrihouse's cigar-case still in my hand. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +It was the strangest disappearance in the world. It was like a +transformation trick in a pantomime. They were there one +moment,—palpably there, talking, with the gaslight full upon +their faces; and the next moment they were gone. There was no door +near,—no window,—no staircase. It was a mere slip of +barren platform, tapestried with big advertisements. Could anything +be more mysterious? +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +It was not worth thinking about; and yet, for my life, I could not +help pondering upon it,—pondering, wondering, conjecturing, +turning it over and over in my mind, and beating my brains for a +solution of the enigma. I thought of it all the way from Blackwater +to Clayborough. I thought of it all the way from Clayborough to +Dumbleton, as I rattled along the smooth highway in a trim dog-cart +drawn by a splendid black mare, and driven by the silentest and +dapperest of East Anglian grooms. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +We did the nine miles in something less than an hour, and pulled +up before the lodge-gates just as the church-clock was striking +half past seven. A couple of minutes more, and the warm glow of +the lighted hall was flooding out upon the gravel, a hearty grasp +was on my hand, and a clear jovial voice was bidding me "Welcome +to Dumbleton." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"And now, my dear fellow," said my host, when the first greeting +was over, "you have no time to spare. We dine at eight, and there +are people coming to meet you; so you must just get the dressing +business over as quickly as may be. By the way, you will meet some +acquaintances. The Biddulphs are coming, and Prendergast (Prendergast, +of the Skirmishers) is staying in the house. Adieu! Mrs. Jelf will +be expecting you in the drawing-room." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +I was ushered to my room,—not the blue room, of which Mr. +Dwerrihouse had made disagreeable experience, but a pretty little +bachelor's chamber, hung with a delicate chintz, and made cheerful by +a blazing fire. I unlocked my portmanteau. I tried to be expeditious; +but the memory of my railway adventure haunted me. I could not +get free of it. I could not shake it off. It impeded me,—it +worried me,—it tripped me up,—it caused me to mislay +my studs,—to mistie my cravat,—to wrench the buttons +off my gloves. Worst of all, it made me so late that the party had +all assembled before I reached the drawing-room. I had scarcely +paid my respects to Mrs. Jelf when dinner was announced, and we +paired off, some eight or ten couples strong, into the dining-room. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +I am not going to describe either the guests or the dinner. All +provincial parties bear the strictest family resemblance, and I +am not aware that an East Anglian banquet offers any exception +to the rule. There was the usual country baronet and his wife; +there were the usual country parsons and their wives; there was the +sempiternal turkey and haunch of venison. <i>Vanitas vanitatum.</i> +There is nothing new under the sun. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +I was placed about midway down the table. I had taken one rector's +wife down to dinner, and I had another at my left hand. They talked +across me, and their talk was about babies. It was dreadfully dull. +At length there came a pause. The entrées had just been +removed, and the turkey had come upon the scene. The conversation +had all along been of the languidest, but at this moment it happened +to have stagnated altogether. Jelf was carving the turkey. Mrs. +Jelf looked as if she was trying to think of something to say. +Everybody else was silent. Moved by an unlucky impulse, I thought +I would relate my adventure. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"By the way, Jelf," I began, "I came down part of the way to-day +with a friend of yours." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Indeed!" said the master of the feast, slicing scientifically into +the breast of the turkey. "With whom, pray?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"With one who bade me tell you that he should, if possible, pay +you a visit before Christmas." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"I cannot think who that could be," said my friend, smiling. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"It must be Major Thorp," suggested Mrs. Jelf. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +I shook my head. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"It was not Major Thorp," I replied. "It was a near relation of +your own, Mrs. Jelf." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Then I am more puzzled than ever," replied my hostess. "Pray tell +me who it was." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"It was no less a person than your cousin, Mr. John Dwerrihouse." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Jonathan Jelf laid down his knife and fork. Mrs. Jelf looked at +me in a strange, startled way, and said never a word. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"And he desired me to tell you, my dear madam, that you need not +take the trouble to burn the hall down in his honor this time; but +only to have the chimney of the blue room swept before his arrival." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Before I had reached the end of my sentence, I became aware of +something ominous in the faces of the guests. I felt I had said +something which I had better have left unsaid, and that for some +unexplained reason my words had evoked a general consternation. I +sat confounded, not daring to utter another syllable, and for at +least two whole minutes there was dead silence round the table. +Then Captain Prendergast came to the rescue. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"You have been abroad for some months, have you not, Mr. Langford?" +he said, with the desperation of one who flings himself into the +breach. "I heard you had been to Russia. Surely you have something +to tell us of the state and temper of the country after the war?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +I was heartily grateful to the gallant Skirmisher for this diversion +in my favor. I answered him, I fear, somewhat lamely; but he kept +the conversation up, and presently one or two others joined in, +and so the difficulty, whatever it might have been, was bridged +over. Bridged over, but not repaired. A something, an awkwardness, +a visible constraint, remained. The guests hitherto had been simply +dull; but now they were evidently uncomfortable and embarrassed. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +The dessert had scarcely been placed upon the table when the ladies +left the room. I seized the opportunity to select a vacant chair +next Captain Prendergast. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"In Heaven's name," I whispered, "what was the matter just now? +What had I said?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"You mentioned the name of John Dwerrihouse." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"What of that? I had seen him not two hours before." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"It is a most astounding circumstance that you should have seen +him," said Captain Prendergast. "Are you sure it was he?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"As sure as of my own identity. We were talking all the way between +London and Blackwater. But why does that surprise you?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"<i>Because</i>," replied Captain Prendergast, dropping his voice +to the lowest whisper,—"<i>because John Dwerrihouse absconded +three months ago, with seventy-five thousand pounds of the company's +money, and has never been heard of since.</i>" +</p> + +<p class="center">II.</p> + +<p class="indent"> +John Dwerrihouse had absconded three months ago,—and I had +seen him only a few hours back. John Dwerrihouse had embezzled +seventy-five thousand pounds of the company's money, yet told me +that he carried that sum upon his person. Were ever facts so strangely +incongruous, so difficult to reconcile? How should he have ventured +again into the light of day? How dared he show himself along the +line? Above all, what had he been doing throughout those mysterious +three months of disappearance? +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Perplexing questions these. Questions which at once suggested themselves +to the minds of all concerned, but which admitted of no easy solution. +I could find no reply to them. Captain Prendergast had not even a +suggestion to offer. Jonathan Jelf, who seized the first opportunity +of drawing me aside and learning all that I had to tell, was more +amazed and bewildered than either of us. He came to my room that +night, when all the guests were gone, and we talked the thing over +from every point of view; without, it must be confessed, arriving +at any kind of conclusion. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"I do not ask you," he said, "whether you can have mistaken your +man. That is impossible." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"As impossible as that I should mistake some stranger for yourself." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"It is not a question of looks or voice, but of facts. That he +should have alluded to the fire in the blue room is proof enough +of John Dwerrihouse's identity. How did he look?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Older, I thought. Considerably older, paler, and more anxious." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"He has had enough to make him look anxious, anyhow," said my friend, +gloomily; "be he innocent or guilty." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"I am inclined to believe that he is innocent," I replied. "He +showed no embarrassment when I addressed him, and no uneasiness +when the guard came round. His conversation was open to a fault. +I might almost say that he talked too freely of the business which +he had in hand." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"That again is strange; for I know no one more reticent on such +subjects. He actually told you that he had the seventy-five thousand +pounds in his pocket?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"He did." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Humph! My wife has an idea about it, and she may be right—" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"What idea?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Well, she fancies,—women are so clever, you know, at putting +themselves inside people's motives,—she fancies that he was +tempted; that he did actually take the money; and that he has been +concealing himself these three months in some wild part of the +country,—struggling possibly with his conscience all the +time, and daring neither to abscond with his booty nor to come back +and restore it." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"But now that he has come back?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"That is the point. She conceives that he has probably thrown himself +upon the company's mercy; made restitution of the money; and, being +forgiven, is permitted to carry the business through as if nothing +whatever had happened." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"The last," I replied, "is an impossible case. Mrs. Jelf thinks +like a generous and delicate-minded woman, but not in the least like +a board of railway directors. They would never carry forgiveness +so far." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"I fear not; and yet it is the only conjecture that bears a semblance +of likelihood. However, we can run over to Clayborough to-morrow, +and see if anything is to be learned. By the way, Prendergast tells +me you picked up his cigar-case." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"I did so, and here it is." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Jelf took the cigar-case, examined it by the light of the lamp, and +said at once that it was beyond doubt Mr. Dwerrihouse's property, +and that he remembered to have seen him use it. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Here, too, is his monogram on the side," he added. "A big J transfixing +a capital D. He used to carry the same on his note-paper." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"It offers, at all events, a proof that I was not dreaming." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Ay; but it is time you were asleep and dreaming now. I am ashamed +to have kept you up so long. Good night." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Good night, and remember that I am more than ready to go with +you to Clayborough, or Blackwater, or London, or anywhere, if I +can be of the least service." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Thanks! I know you mean it, old friend, and it may be that I shall +put you to the test. Once more, good night." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +So we parted for that night, and met again in the breakfast-room at +half past eight next morning. It was a hurried, silent, uncomfortable +meal. None of us had slept well, and all were thinking of the same +subject. Mrs. Jelf had evidently been crying; Jelf was impatient +to be off; and both Captain Prendergast and myself felt ourselves +to be in the painful position of outsiders, who are involuntarily +brought into a domestic trouble. Within twenty minutes after we +had left the breakfast-table the dog-cart was brought round, and +my friend and I were on the road to Clayborough. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Tell you what it is, Langford," he said, as we sped along between +the wintry hedges, "I do not much fancy to bring up Dwerrihouse's +name at Clayborough. All the officials know that he is my wife's +relation, and the subject just now is hardly a pleasant one. If +you don't much mind, we will take the 11.10 to Blackwater. It's +an important station, and we shall stand a far better chance of +picking up information there than at Clayborough." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +So we took the 11.10, which happened to be an express, and, arriving +at Blackwater about a quarter before twelve, proceeded at once to +prosecute our inquiry. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +We began by asking for the station-master,—a big, blunt, +business-like person, who at once averred that he knew Mr. John +Dwerrihouse perfectly well, and that there was no director on the +line whom he had seen and spoken to so frequently. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"He used to be down here two or three times a week, about three +months ago," said he, "when the new line was first set afoot; but +since then, you know, gentlemen—" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +He paused, significantly. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Jelf flushed scarlet. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Yes, yes," he said hurriedly, "we know all about that. The point +now to be ascertained is whether anything has been seen or heard +of him lately." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Not to my knowledge," replied the station-master. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"He is not known to have been down the line any time yesterday, +for instance?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +The station-master shook his head. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"The East Anglian, sir," said he, "is about the last place where +he would dare to show himself. Why, there isn't a station-master, +there isn't a guard, there isn't a porter, who doesn't know +Mr. Dwerrihouse by sight as well as he knows his own face in the +looking-glass; or who wouldn't telegraph for the police as soon +as he had set eyes on him at any point along the line. Bless you, +sir! there's been a standing order out against him ever since the +twenty-fifth of September last." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"And yet," pursued my friend, "a gentleman who travelled down yesterday +from London to Clayborough by the afternoon express testifies that he +saw Mr. Dwerrihouse in the train, and that Mr. Dwerrihouse alighted +at Blackwater station." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Quite impossible, sir," replied the station-master, promptly. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Why impossible?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Because there is no station along the line where he is so well +known, or where he would run so great a risk. It would be just +running his head into the lion's mouth. He would have been mad to +come nigh Blackwater station; and if he had come, he would have +been arrested before he left the platform." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Can you tell me who took the Blackwater tickets of that train?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"I can, sir. It was the guard,—Benjamin Somers." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"And where can I find him?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"You can find him, sir, by staying here, if you please, till one +o'clock. He will be coming through with the up express from Crampton, +which stays at Blackwater for ten minutes." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +We waited for the up express, beguiling the time as best we could +by strolling along the Blackwater road till we came almost to the +outskirts of the town, from which the station was distant nearly a +couple of miles. By one o'clock we were back again upon the platform, +and waiting for the train. It came punctually, and I at once recognized +the ruddy-faced guard who had gone down with my train the evening +before. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"The gentlemen want to ask you something about Mr. Dwerrihouse, +Somers," said the station-master, by way of introduction. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +The guard flashed a keen glance from my face to Jelf's, and back +again to mine. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Mr. John Dwerrihouse, the late director?" said he, interrogatively. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"The same," replied my friend. "Should you know him if you saw him?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Anywhere, sir." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Do you know if he was in the 4.15 express yesterday afternoon?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"He was not, sir." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"How can you answer so positively?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Because I looked into every carriage, and saw every face in that +train, and I could take my oath that Mr. Dwerrihouse was not in +it. This gentleman was," he added, turning sharply upon me. "I +don't know that I ever saw him before in my life, but I remember +<i>his</i> face perfectly. You nearly missed taking your seat in +time at this station, sir, and you got out at Clayborough." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Quite true, guard," I replied; "but do you not also remember the +face of the gentleman who travelled down in the same carriage with +me as far as here?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"It was my impression, sir, that you travelled down alone," said +Somers, with a look of some surprise. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"By no means. I had a fellow-traveller as far as Blackwater, and +it was in trying to restore him the cigar-case which he had dropped +in the carriage that I so nearly let you go on without me." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"I remember your saying something about a cigar-case, certainly," +replied the guard, "but—" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"You asked for my ticket just before we entered the station." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"I did, sir." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Then you must have seen him. He sat in the corner next the very +door to which you came." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"No, indeed. I saw no one." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +I looked at Jelf. I began to think the guard was in the ex-director's +confidence, and paid for his silence. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"If I had seen another traveller I should have asked for his ticket," +added Somers. "Did you see me ask for his ticket, sir?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"I observed that you did not ask for it, but he explained that by +saying—" I hesitated. I feared I might be telling too much, +and so broke off abruptly. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +The guard and the station-master exchanged glances. The former looked +impatiently at his watch. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"I am obliged to go on in four minutes more, sir," he said. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"One last question, then," interposed Jelf, with a sort of desperation. +"If this gentleman's fellow-traveller had been Mr. John Dwerrihouse, +and he had been sitting in the corner next the door by which you +took the tickets, could you have failed to see and recognize him?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"No, sir; it would have been quite impossible." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"And you are certain you did <i>not</i> see him?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"As I said before, sir, I could take my oath I did not see him. +And if it wasn't that I don't like to contradict a gentleman, I +would say I could also take my oath that this gentleman was quite +alone in the carriage the whole way from London to Clayborough. +Why, sir," he added, dropping his voice so as to be inaudible to +the station-master, who had been called away to speak to some person +close by, "you expressly asked me to give you a compartment to +yourself, and I did so. I locked you in, and you were so good as +to give me something for myself." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Yes; but Mr. Dwerrihouse had a key of his own." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"I never saw him, sir; I saw no one in that compartment but yourself. +Beg pardon, sir, my time's up." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +And with this the ruddy guard touched his cap and was gone. In +another minute the heavy panting of the engine began afresh, and +the train glided slowly out of the station. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +We looked at each other for some moments in silence. I was the first +to speak. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Mr. Benjamin Somers knows more than he chooses to tell," I said. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Humph! do you think so?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"It must be. He could not have come to the door without seeing him. +It's impossible." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"There is one thing not impossible, my dear fellow." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"What is that?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"That you may have fallen asleep, and dreamt the whole thing." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Could I dream of a branch line that I had never heard of? Could +I dream of a hundred and one business details that had no kind of +interest for me? Could I dream of the seventy-five thousand pounds?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Perhaps you might have seen or heard some vague account of the +affair while you were abroad. It might have made no impression +upon you at the time, and might have come back to you in your +dreams,—recalled, perhaps, by the mere names of the stations +on the line." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"What about the fire in the chimney of the blue room,—should +I have heard of that during my journey?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Well, no; I admit there is a difficulty about that point." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"And what about the cigar-case?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Ay, by Jove! there is the cigar-case. That <i>is</i> a stubborn +fact. Well, it's a mysterious affair, and it will need a better +detective than myself, I fancy, to clear it up. I suppose we may +as well go home." +</p> + +<p class="center">III.</p> + +<p class="indent"> +A week had not gone by when I received a letter from the Secretary +of the East Anglian Railway Company, requesting the favor of my +attendance at a special board meeting, not then many days distant. +No reasons were alleged, and no apologies offered, for this demand +upon my time; but they had heard, it was clear, of my inquiries +anent the missing director, and had a mind to put me through some +sort of official examination upon the subject. Being still a guest +at Dumbleton Hall, I had to go up to London for the purpose, and +Jonathan Jelf accompanied me. I found the direction of the Great +East Anglian line represented by a party of some twelve or fourteen +gentlemen seated in solemn conclave round a huge green-baize table, +in a gloomy board-room, adjoining the London terminus. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Being courteously received by the chairman (who at once began by +saying that certain statements of mine respecting Mr. John Dwerrihouse +had come to the knowledge of the direction, and that they in consequence +desired to confer with me on those points), we were placed at the +table, and the inquiry proceeded in due form. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +I was first asked if I knew Mr. John Dwerrihouse, how long I had +been acquainted with him, and whether I could identify him at sight. +I was then asked when I had seen him last. To which I replied, +"On the fourth of this present month, December, eighteen hundred +and fifty-six." Then came the inquiry of where I had seen him on +that fourth day of December; to which I replied that I met him in +a first-class compartment of the 4.15 down express; that he got +in just as the train was leaving the London terminus, and that he +alighted at Blackwater station. The chairman then inquired whether +I had held any communication with my fellow-traveller; whereupon +I related, as nearly as I could remember it, the whole bulk and +substance of Mr. John Dwerrihouse's diffuse information respecting +the new branch line. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +To all this the board listened with profound attention, while the +chairman presided and the secretary took notes. I then produced +the cigar-case. It was passed from hand to hand, and recognized by +all. There was not a man present who did not remember that plain +cigar-case with its silver monogram, or to whom it seemed anything +less than entirely corroborative of my evidence. When at length I +had told all that I had to tell, the chairman whispered something +to the secretary; the secretary touched a silver hand-bell; and +the guard, Benjamin Somers, was ushered into the room. He was then +examined as carefully as myself. He declared that he knew Mr. John +Dwerrihouse perfectly well; that he could not be mistaken in him; +that he remembered going down with the 4.15 express on the afternoon +in question; that he remembered me; and that, there being one or +two empty first-class compartments on that especial afternoon, he +had, in compliance with my request, placed me in a carriage by +myself. He was positive that I remained alone in that compartment +all the way from London to Clayborough. He was ready to take his +oath that Mr. Dwerrihouse was neither in that carriage with me, +nor in any compartment of that train. He remembered distinctly to +have examined my ticket at Blackwater; was certain that there was +no one else at that time in the carriage; could not have failed +to observe a second person, if there had been one; had that second +person been Mr. John Dwerrihouse, should have quietly double-locked +the door of the carriage, and have at once given information to the +Blackwater station-master. So clear, so decisive, so ready, was +Somers with this testimony, that the board looked fairly puzzled. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"You hear this person's statement, Mr. Langford," said the chairman. +"It contradicts yours in every particular. What have you to say +in reply?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"I can only repeat what I said before. I am quite as positive of +the truth of my own assertions as Mr. Somers can be of the truth +of his." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"You say that Mr. Dwerrihouse alighted at Blackwater, and that +he was in possession of a private key. Are you sure that he had +not alighted by means of that key before the guard came round for +the tickets?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"I am quite positive that he did not leave the carriage till the +train had fairly entered the station, and the other Blackwater +passengers alighted. I even saw that he was met there by a friend." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Indeed! Did you see that person distinctly?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Quite distinctly." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Can you describe his appearance?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"I think so. He was short and very slight, sandy-haired, with a +bushy mustache and beard, and he wore a closely fitting suit of gray +tweed. His age I should take to be about thirty-eight or forty." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Did Mr. Dwerrihouse leave the station in this person's company?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"I cannot tell. I saw them walking together down the platform, and +then I saw them standing aside under a gas-jet, talking earnestly. +After that I lost sight of them quite suddenly; and just then my +train went on, and I with it" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +The chairman and secretary conferred together in an undertone. The +directors whispered to each other. One or two looked suspiciously +at the guard. I could see that my evidence remained unshaken, and +that, like myself, they suspected some complicity between the guard +and the defaulter. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"How far did you conduct that 4.15 express on the day in question, +Somers?" asked the chairman. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"All through, sir," replied the guard; "from London to Crampton." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"How was it that you were not relieved at Clayborough? I thought +there was always a change of guards at Clayborough." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"There used to be, sir, till the new regulations came in force +last midsummer; since when, the guards in charge of express trains +go the whole way through." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +The chairman turned to the secretary. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"I think it would be as well," he said, "if we had the day-book +to refer to upon this point." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Again the secretary touched the silver hand-bell, and desired the +porter in attendance to summon Mr. Raikes. From a word or two dropped +by another of the directors, I gathered that Mr. Raikes was one +of the under-secretaries. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +He came,—a small, slight, sandy-haired, keen-eyed man, with +an eager, nervous manner, and a forest of light beard and mustache. +He just showed himself at the door of the board-room, and, being +requested to bring a certain day-book from a certain shelf in a +certain room, bowed and vanished. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +He was there such a moment, and the surprise of seeing him was so +great and sudden, that it was not till the door had closed upon +him that I found voice to speak. He was no sooner gone, however, +than I sprang to my feet. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"That person," I said, "is the same who met Mr. Dwerrihouse upon +the platform at Blackwater!" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +There was a general movement of surprise. The chairman looked grave, +and somewhat agitated. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Take care, Mr. Langford," he said, "take care what you say!" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"I am as positive of his identity as of my own." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Do you consider the consequences of your words? Do you consider +that you are bringing a charge of the gravest character against +one of the company's servants?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"I am willing to be put upon my oath, if necessary. The man who +came to that door a minute since is the same whom I saw talking +with Mr. Dwerrihouse on the Blackwater platform. Were he twenty +times the company's servant, I could say neither more nor less." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +The chairman turned again to the guard. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Did you see Mr. Raikes in the train, or on the platform?" he asked. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Somers shook his head. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"I am confident Mr. Raikes was not in the train," he said; "and +I certainly did not see him on the platform." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +The chairman turned next to the secretary. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Mr. Raikes is in your office, Mr. Hunter," he said. "Can you remember +if he was absent on the fourth instant?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"I do not think he was," replied the secretary; "but I am not prepared +to speak positively. I have been away most afternoons myself lately, +and Mr. Raikes might easily have absented himself if he had been +disposed." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +At this moment the under-secretary returned with the day-book under +his arm. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Be pleased to refer, Mr. Raikes," said the chairman, "to the entries +of the fourth instant, and see what Benjamin Somers's duties were +on that day." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Mr. Raikes threw open the cumbrous volume, and ran a practised eye +and finger down some three or four successive columns of entries. +Stopping suddenly at the foot of a page, he then read aloud that +Benjamin Somers had on that day conducted the 4.15 express from +London to Crampton. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +The chairman leaned forward in his seat, looked the under-secretary +full in the face, and said, quite sharply and suddenly,— +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Where were <i>you</i>, Mr. Raikes, on the same afternoon?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"<i>I</i>, sir?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"You, Mr. Raikes. Where were you on the afternoon and evening of +the fourth of the present month?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Here, sir,—in Mr. Hunter's office. Where else should I be?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +There was a dash of trepidation in the under-secretary's voice as +he said this; but his look of surprise was natural enough. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"We have some reason for believing, Mr. Raikes, that you were absent +that afternoon without leave. Was this the case?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Certainly not, sir. I have not had a day's holiday since September. +Mr. Hunter will bear me out in this." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Mr. Hunter repeated what he had previously said on the subject, +but added that the clerks in the adjoining office would be certain +to know. Whereupon the senior clerk, a grave, middle-aged person, +in green glasses, was summoned and interrogated. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +His testimony cleared the under-secretary at once. He declared +that Mr. Raikes had in no instance, to his knowledge, been absent +during office hours since his return from his annual holiday in +September. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +I was confounded. The chairman turned to me with a smile, in which +a shade of covert annoyance was scarcely apparent. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"You hear, Mr. Langford?" he said. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"I hear, sir; but my conviction remains unshaken." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"I fear, Mr. Langford, that your convictions are very insufficiently +based," replied the chairman, with a doubtful cough. "I fear that +you 'dream dreams,' and mistake them for actual occurrences. It is +a dangerous habit of mind, and might lead to dangerous results. +Mr. Raikes here would have found himself in an unpleasant position, +had he not proved so satisfactory an <i>alibi</i>." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +I was about to reply, but he gave me no time. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"I think, gentlemen," he went on to say, addressing the board, +"that we should be wasting time to push this inquiry further. Mr. +Langford's evidence would seem to be of an equal value throughout. +The testimony of Benjamin Somers disproves his first statement, and +the testimony of the last witness disproves his second. I think +we may conclude that Mr. Langford fell asleep in the train on the +occasion of his journey to Clayborough, and dreamt an unusually +vivid and circumstantial dream,—of which, however, we have +now heard quite enough." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +There are few things more annoying than to find one's positive +convictions met with incredulity. I could not help feeling impatience +at the turn that affairs had taken. I was not proof against the +civil sarcasm of the chairman's manner. Most intolerable of all, +however, was the quiet smile lurking about the corners of Benjamin +Somers's mouth, and the half-triumphant, half-malicious gleam in +the eyes of the under-secretary. The man was evidently puzzled, +and somewhat alarmed. His looks seemed furtively to interrogate +me. Who was I? What did I want? Why had I come there to do him +an ill turn with his employers? What was it to me whether or no +he was absent without leave? +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Seeing all this, and perhaps more irritated by it than the thing +deserved, I begged leave to detain the attention of the board for +a moment longer. Jelf plucked me impatiently by the sleeve. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Better let the thing drop," he whispered. "The chairman's right +enough. You dreamt it; and the less said now the better." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +I was not to be silenced, however, in this fashion. I had yet something +to say, and I would say it. It was to this effect: that dreams were +not usually productive of tangible results, and that I requested +to know in what way the chairman conceived I had evolved from my +dream so substantial and well-made a delusion as the cigar-case +which I had had the honor to place before him at the commencement +of our interview. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"The cigar-case, I admit, Mr. Langford," the chairman replied, +"is a very strong point in your evidence. It is your <i>only</i> +strong point, however, and there is just a possibility that we may +all be misled by a mere accidental resemblance. Will you permit +me to see the case again?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"It is unlikely," I said, as I handed it to him, "that any other +should bear precisely this monogram, and yet be in all other particulars +exactly similar." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +The chairman examined it for a moment in silence, and then passed +it to Mr. Hunter. Mr. Hunter turned it over and over, and shook +his head. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"This is no mere resemblance," he said. "It is John Dwerrihouse's +cigar-case to a certainty. I remember it perfectly. I have seen +it a hundred times." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"I believe I may say the same," added the chairman. "Yet how account +for the way in which Mr. Langford asserts that it came into his +possession?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"I can only repeat," I replied, "that I found it on the floor of +the carriage after Mr. Dwerrihouse had alighted. It was in leaning +out to look after him that I trod upon it; and it was in running after +him for the purpose of restoring it that I saw—or believed I +saw—Mr. Raikes standing aside with him in earnest conversation." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Again I felt Jonathan Jelf plucking at my sleeve. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Look at Raikes," he whispered,—"look at Raikes!" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +I turned to where the under-secretary had been standing a moment +before, and saw him, white as death with lips trembling and livid, +stealing towards the door. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +To conceive a sudden, strange, and indefinite suspicion; to fling +myself in his way; to take him by the shoulders as if he were a +child, and turn his craven face, perforce, towards the board, were +with me the work of an instant. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Look at him!" I exclaimed. "Look at his face! I ask no better witness +to the truth of my words." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +The chairman's brow darkened. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Mr. Raikes," he said, sternly, "if you know anything, you had better +speak." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Vainly trying to wrench himself from my grasp, the under-secretary +stammered out an incoherent denial. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Let me go," he said. "I know nothing,—you have no right to +detain me,—let me go!" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Did you, or did you not, meet Mr. John Dwerrihouse at Blackwater +station? The charge brought against you is either true or false. +If true, you will do well to throw yourself upon the mercy of the +board, and make full confession of all that you know." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +The under-secretary wrung his hands in an agony of helpless terror. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"I was away," he cried. "I was two hundred miles away at the time! +I know nothing about it—I have nothing to confess—I +am innocent—I call God to witness I am innocent!" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Two hundred miles away!" echoed the chairman. "What do you mean?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"I was in Devonshire. I had three weeks' leave of absence—I +appeal to Mr. Hunter—Mr. Hunter knows I had three weeks' leave +of absence! I was in Devonshire all the time—I can prove I +was in Devonshire!" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Seeing him so abject, so incoherent, so wild with apprehension, +the directors began to whisper gravely among themselves; while +one got quietly up, and called the porter to guard the door. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"What has your being in Devonshire to do with the matter?" said +the chairman. "When were you in Devonshire?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Mr. Raikes took his leave in September," said the secretary; "about +the time when Mr. Dwerrihouse disappeared." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"I never even heard that he had disappeared till I came back!" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"That must remain to be proved," said the chairman. "I shall at +once put this matter in the hands of the police. In the mean while, +Mr. Raikes, being myself a magistrate, and used to deal with these +cases, I advise you to offer no resistance, but to confess while +confession may yet do you service. As for your accomplice—" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +The frightened wretch fell upon his knees. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"I had no accomplice!" he cried. "Only have mercy upon me,—only +spare my life, and I will confess all! I didn't mean to harm him! +I didn't mean to hurt a hair of his head. Only have mercy upon +me, and let me go!" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +The chairman rose in his place, pale and agitated. "Good heavens!" +he exclaimed, "what horrible mystery is this? What does it mean?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"As sure as there is a God in heaven," said Jonathan Jelf, "it means +that murder has been done." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"No—no—no!" shrieked Raikes, still upon his knees, and +cowering like a beaten hound. "Not murder! No jury that ever sat could +bring it in murder. I thought I had only stunned him—I never meant +to do more than stun him! Manslaughter—manslaughter—not +murder!" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Overcome by the horror of this unexpected revelation, the chairman +covered his face with his hand, and for a moment or two remained +silent. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Miserable man," he said at length, "you have betrayed yourself." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"You bade me confess! You urged me to throw myself upon the mercy +of the board!" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"You have confessed to a crime which no one suspected you of having +committed," replied the chairman, "and which this board has no +power either to punish or forgive. All that I can do for you is to +advise you to submit to the law, to plead guilty, and to conceal +nothing. When did you do this deed?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +The guilty man rose to his feet, and leaned heavily against the +table. His answer came reluctantly, like the speech of one dreaming. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"On the twenty-second of September!" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +On the twenty-second of September! I looked in Jonathan Jelf's +face, and he in mine. I felt my own paling with a strange sense +of wonder and dread. I saw his blanch suddenly, even to the lips. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Merciful heaven!" he whispered, "<i>what was it, then, that you +saw in the train?</i>" +</p> + +<p class="indent" style="margin-top: 2em;"> +What was it that I saw in the train? That question remains unanswered +to this day. I have never been able to reply to it. I only know that +it bore the living likeness of the murdered man, whose body had +then been lying some ten weeks under a rough pile of branches, and +brambles, and rotting leaves, at the bottom of a deserted chalk-pit +about half-way between Blackwater and Mallingford. I know that it +spoke, and moved, and looked as that man spoke, and moved, and +looked in life; that I heard, or seemed to hear, things related +which I could never otherwise have learned; that I was guided, as +it were, by that vision on the platform to the identification of +the murderer; and that, a passive instrument myself, I was destined, +by means of these mysterious teachings, to bring about the ends of +justice. For these things I have never been able to account. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +As for that matter of the cigar-case, it proved on inquiry, that +the carriage in which I travelled down that afternoon to Clayborough +had not been in use for several weeks, and was in point of fact +the same in which poor John Dwerrihouse had performed his last +journey. The case had, doubtless, been dropped by him, and had lain +unnoticed till I found it. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Upon the details of the murder I have no need to dwell. Those who +desire more ample particulars may find them, and the written confession +of Augustus Raikes, in the files of the Times for 1856. Enough +that the under-secretary, knowing the history of the new line, +and following the negotiation step by step through all its stages, +determined to waylay Mr. Dwerrihouse, rob him of the seventy-five +thousand pounds, and escape to America with his booty. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +In order to effect these ends he obtained leave of absence a few +days before the time appointed for the payment of the money; secured +his passage across the Atlantic in a steamer advertised to start +on the twenty-third; provided himself with a heavily loaded +"life-preserver," and went down to Blackwater to await the arrival +of his victim. How he met him on the platform with a pretended +message from the board; how he offered to conduct him by a short +cut across the fields to Mallingford; how, having brought him to +a lonely place, he struck him down with the life-preserver, and +so killed him; and how, finding what he had done, he dragged the +body to the verge of an out-of-the-way chalk-pit, and there flung +it in, and piled it over with branches and brambles,—are facts +still fresh in the memories of those who, like the connoisseurs +in De Quincey's famous essay, regard murder as a fine art. Strangely +enough, the murderer, having done his work, was afraid to leave the +country. He declared that he had not intended to take the director's +life, but only to stun and rob him; and that, finding the blow +had killed, he dared not fly for fear of drawing down suspicion +upon his own head. As a mere robber he would have been safe in the +States, but as a murderer he would inevitably have been pursued, +and given up to justice. So he forfeited his passage, returned to +the office as usual at the end of his leave, and locked up his +ill-gotten thousands till a more convenient opportunity. In the +mean while he had the satisfaction of finding that Mr. Dwerrihouse +was universally believed to have absconded with the money, no one +knew how or whither. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Whether he meant murder or not, however, Mr. Augustus Raikes paid +the full penalty of his crime, and was hanged at the Old Bailey +in the second week in January, 1857. Those who desire to make his +further acquaintance may see him any day (admirably done in wax) +in the Chamber of Horrors at Madame Tussaud's exhibition, in Baker +Street. He is there to be found in the midst of a select society of +ladies and gentlemen of atrocious memory, dressed in the close-cut +tweed suit which he wore on the evening of the murder, and holding +in his hand the identical life-preserver with which he committed it. +</p> + +<div class="img_ctr" style="width: 102px;"> + <img src="images/fig009.gif" width="102" height="76" alt="Fig. 9"> +</div> + +<div class="img_ctr" style="width: 557px;"><a name="page_109"> + <img src="images/fig010.gif" width="557" height="124" alt="Fig. 10"> +</a></div> + +<h2>THE SIGNAL-MAN.</h2> + +<p class="subtitle">BY CHARLES DICKENS.</p> + +<p class="justify"> +<img src="images/fig011.gif" width="82" height="82" alt="H" + style="float: left;">alloa! Below there!" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +When he heard a voice thus calling to him, he was standing at the +door of his box, with a flag in his hand, furled round its short +pole. One would have thought, considering the nature of the ground, +that he could not have doubted from what quarter the voice came; +but, instead of looking up to where I stood on the top of the steep +cutting nearly over his head, he turned himself about and looked +down the Line. There was something remarkable in his manner of +doing so, though I could not have said, for my life, what. But I +know it was remarkable enough to attract my notice, even though +his figure was foreshortened and shadowed, down in the deep trench, +and mine was high above him, and so steeped in the glow of an angry +sunset that I had shaded my eyes with my hand before I saw him at +all. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Halloa! Below!" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +From looking down the Line, he turned himself about again, and, +raising his eyes, saw my figure high above him. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Is there any path by which I can come down and speak to you?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +He looked up at me without replying, and I looked down at him without +pressing him too soon with a repetition of my idle question. Just +then there came a vague vibration in the earth and air, quickly +changing into a violent pulsation, and an oncoming rush that caused +me to start back, as though it had force to draw me down. When +such vapor as rose to my height from this rapid train had passed +me and was skimming away over the landscape, I looked down again, +and saw him refurling the flag he had shown while the train went +by. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +I repeated my inquiry. After a pause, during which he seemed to +regard me with fixed attention, he motioned with his rolled-up +flag towards a point on my level, some two or three hundred yards +distant. I called down to him, "All right!" and made for that point. +There, by dint of looking closely about me, I found a rough zigzag +descending path notched out; which I followed. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +The cutting was extremely deep, and unusually precipitate. It was +made through a clammy stone that became oozier and wetter as I +went down. For these reasons, I found the way long enough to give +me time to recall a singular air of reluctance or compulsion with +which he had pointed out the path. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +When I came down low enough upon the zigzag descent to see him +again, I saw that he was standing between the rails on the way by +which the train had lately passed, in an attitude as if he were +waiting for me to appear. He had his left hand at his chin, and +that left elbow rested on his right hand crossed over his breast. +His attitude was one of such expectation and watchfulness, that +I stopped a moment, wondering at it. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +I resumed my downward way, and, stepping out upon the level of +the railroad and drawing nearer to him, saw that he was a dark, +sallow man, with a dark beard and rather heavy eyebrows. His post +was in as solitary and dismal a place as ever I saw. On either side, +a dripping-wet wall of jagged stone, excluding all view but a strip +of sky: the perspective one way, only a crooked prolongation of +this great dungeon; the shorter perspective in the other direction, +terminating in a gloomy red light, and the gloomier entrance to a +black tunnel, in whose massive architecture there was a barbarous, +depressing, and forbidding air. So little sunlight ever found its +way to this spot, and it had an earthy deadly smell; and so much +cold wind rushed through it, that it struck chill to me, as if +I had left the natural world. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Before he stirred, I was near enough to him to have touched him. +Not even then removing his eyes from mine, he stepped back one +step, and lifted his hand. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +This was a lonesome post to occupy (I said), and it had riveted +my attention when I looked down from up yonder. A visitor was a +rarity, I should suppose; not an unwelcome rarity, I hoped? In +me, he merely saw a man who had been shut up within narrow limits +all his life, and who, being at last set free, had a newly awakened +interest in these great works. To such purpose I spoke to him; +but I am far from sure of the terms I used, for, besides that I +am not happy in opening any conversation, there was something in +the man that daunted me. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +He directed a most curious look towards the red light near the +tunnel's mouth, and looked all about it, as if something were missing +from it, and then looked at me. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +That light was part of his charge? Was it not? +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +He answered in a low voice, "Don't you know it is?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +The monstrous thought came into my mind, as I perused the fixed +eyes and the saturnine face, that this was a spirit, not a man. +I have speculated since whether there may have been infection in +his mind. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +In my turn, I stepped back. But in making the action, I detected +in his eyes some latent fear of me. This put the monstrous thought +to flight. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"You look at me," I said, forcing a smile, "as if you had a dread +of me." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"I was doubtful," he returned, "whether I had seen you before." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Where?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +He pointed to the red light he had looked at. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"There?" I said. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Intently watchful of me, he replied (but without sound), "Yes." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"My good fellow, what should I do there? However, be that as it +may, I never was there, you may swear." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"I think I may," he rejoined. "Yes, I am sure I may." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +His manner cleared, like my own. He replied to my remarks with +readiness, and in well-chosen words. Had he much to do there? Yes; +that was to say, he had enough responsibility to bear; but exactness +and watchfulness were what was required of him, and of actual +work—manual labor—he had next to none. To change that +signal, to trim those lights, and to turn this iron handle now +and then, was all he had to do under that head. Regarding those +many long and lonely hours of which I seemed to make so much, he +could only say that the routine of his life had shaped itself into +that form, and he had grown used to it. He had taught himself a +language down here,—if only to know it by sight, and to have +formed his own crude ideas of its pronunciation, could be called +learning it. He had also worked at fractions and decimals, and +tried a little algebra; but he was, and had been as a boy, a poor +hand at figures. Was it necessary for him, when on duty, always +to remain in that channel of damp air, and could he never rise +into the sunshine from between those high stone walls? Why, that +depended upon times and circumstances. Under some conditions there +would be less upon the Line than under others, and the same held +good as to certain hours of the day and night. In bright weather, +he did choose occasions for getting a little above these lower +shadows; but, being at all times liable to be called by his electric +bell, and at such times listening for it with redoubled anxiety, +the relief was less than I would suppose. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +He took me into his box, where there was a fire, a desk for an +official book in which he had to make certain entries, a telegraphic +instrument with its dial face and needles, and the little bell +of which he had spoken. On my trusting that he would excuse the +remark that he had been well educated, and (I hoped I might say +without offence) perhaps educated above that station, he observed +that instances of slight incongruity in such-wise would rarely be +found wanting among large bodies of men; that he had heard it was +so in workhouses, in the police force, even in that last desperate +resource, the army; and that he knew it was so, more or less, in any +great railway staff. He had been, when young (if I could believe +it, sitting in that hut; he scarcely could), a student of natural +philosophy, and had attended lectures; but he had run wild, misused +his opportunities, gone down, and never risen again. He had no +complaint to offer about that. He had made his bed, and he lay upon +it. It was far too late to make another. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +All that I have here condensed he said in a quiet manner, with his +grave dark regards divided between me and the fire. He threw in +the word "Sir" from time to time, and especially when he referred +to his youth, as though to request me to understand that he claimed +to be nothing but what I found him. He was several times interrupted +by the little bell, and had to read off messages, and send replies. +Once he had to stand without the door and display a flag as a train +passed, and make some verbal communication to the driver. In the +discharge of his duties I observed him to be remarkably exact and +vigilant, breaking off his discourse at a syllable, and remaining +silent until what he had to do was done. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +In a word, I should have set this man down as one of the safest +of men to be employed in that capacity, but for the circumstance +that while he was speaking to me he twice broke off with a fallen +color, turned his face towards the little bell when it did NOT +ring, opened the door of the hut (which was kept shut to exclude +the unhealthy damp), and looked out towards the red light near the +mouth of the tunnel. On both of those occasions he came back to +the fire with the inexplicable air upon him which I had remarked, +without being able to define, when we were so far asunder. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Said I, when I rose to leave him, "You almost make me think that +I have met with a contented man." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +(I am afraid I must acknowledge that I said it to lead him on.) +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"I believe I used to be so," he rejoined, in the low voice in which +he had first spoken; "but I am troubled, sir, I am troubled." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +He would have recalled the words if he could. He had said them, +however, and I took them up quickly. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"With what? What is your trouble?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"It is very difficult to impart, sir. It is very, very difficult +to speak of. If ever you make me another visit, I will try to tell +you." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"But I expressly intend to make you another visit. Say, when shall +it be?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"I go off early in the morning, and I shall be on again at ten to-morrow +night, sir." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"I will come at eleven." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +He thanked me, and went out at the door with me. "I'll show my +white light, sir," he said, in his peculiar low voice, "till you +have found the way up. When you have found it, don't call out! +And when you are at the top, don't call out!" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +His manner seemed to make the place strike colder to me, but I said +no more than, "Very well." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"And when you come down to-morrow night, don't call out! Let me ask +you a parting question. What made you cry, 'Halloa! Below there!' +to-night?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Heaven knows," said I. "I cried something to that effect—" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Not to that effect, sir. Those were the very words. I know them +well." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Admit those were the very words. I said them, no doubt, because +I saw you below." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"For no other reason?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"What other reason could I possibly have?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"You had no feeling that they were conveyed to you in any supernatural +way?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"No." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +He wished me good night, and held up his light. I walked by the +side of the down Line of rails (with a very disagreeable sensation +of a train coming behind me), until I found the path. It was easier +to mount than to descend, and I got back to my inn without any +adventure. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Punctual to my appointment, I placed my foot on the first notch of +the zigzag next night, as the distant clocks were striking eleven. +He was waiting for me at the bottom, with his white light on. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"I have not called out," I said, when we came close together; "may +I speak now?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"By all means, sir." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Good night, then, and here's my hand." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Good night, sir, and here's mine." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +With that, we walked side by side to his box, entered it, closed +the door, and sat down by the fire. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"I have made up my mind, sir," he began, bending forward as soon +as we were seated, and speaking in a tone but a little above a +whisper, "that you shall not have to ask me twice what troubles +me. I took you for some one else yesterday evening. That troubles +me." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"That mistake?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"No. That some one else." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Who is it?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"I don't know." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Like me?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"I don't know. I never saw the face. The left arm is across the +face, and the right arm is waved. Violently waved. This way." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +I followed his action with my eyes, and it was the action of an +arm gesticulating with the utmost passion and vehemence: "For God's +sake clear the way!" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"One moonlight night," said the man, "I was sitting here, when +I heard a voice cry, 'Halloa! Below there!' I started up, looked +from that door, and saw this Some one else standing by the red +light near the tunnel, waving as I just now showed you. The voice +seemed hoarse with shouting, and it cried, 'Look out! Look out!' +And then again, 'Halloa! Below there! Look out!' I caught up my +lamp, turned it on red, and ran towards the figure, calling, 'What's +wrong? What has happened? Where?' It stood just outside the blackness +of the tunnel. I advanced so close upon it that I wondered at its +keeping the sleeve across its eyes. I ran right up at it, and had +my hand stretched out to pull the sleeve away, when it was gone." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Into the tunnel?" said I. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"No. I ran on into the tunnel, five hundred yards. I stopped and +held my lamp above my head, and saw the figures of the measured +distance, and saw the wet stains stealing down the walls and trickling +through the arch. I ran out again, faster than I had run in (for I +had a mortal abhorrence of the place upon me), and I looked all +round the red light with my own red light, and I went up the iron +ladder to the gallery atop of it, and I came down again, and ran +back here. I telegraphed both ways, 'An alarm has been given. Is +anything wrong?' The answer came back, both ways, 'All well.'" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Resisting the slow touch of a frozen finger tracing out my spine, I +showed him how that this figure must be a deception of his sense of +sight, and how that figures, originating in disease of the delicate +nerves that minister to the functions of the eye, were known to have +often troubled patients, some of whom had become conscious of the +nature of their affliction, and had even proved it by experiments +upon themselves. "As to an imaginary cry," said I, "do but listen +for a moment to the wind in this unnatural valley while we speak +so low, and to the wild harp it makes of the telegraph wires!" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +That was all very well, he returned, after we had sat listening +for a while, and he ought to know something of the wind and the +wires, he who so often passed long winter nights there, alone and +watching. But he would beg to remark that he had not finished. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +I asked his pardon, and he slowly added these words, touching my +arm:— +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Within six hours after the Appearance, the memorable accident on +this Line happened, and within ten hours the dead and wounded were +brought along through the tunnel over the spot where the figure +had stood." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +A disagreeable shudder crept over me, but I did my best against +it. It was not to be denied, I rejoined, that this was a remarkable +coincidence, calculated deeply to impress the mind. But it was +unquestionable that remarkable coincidences did continually occur, +and they must be taken into account in dealing with such a subject. +Though to be sure I must admit, I added (for I thought I saw that +he was going to bring the objection to bear upon me), men of +common-sense did not allow much for coincidences in making the ordinary +calculations of life. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +He again begged to remark that he had not finished. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +I again begged his pardon for being betrayed into interruptions. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"This," he said, again laying his hand upon my arm, and glancing +over his shoulder with hollow eyes, "was just a year ago. Six or +seven months passed, and I had recovered from the surprise and +shock, when one morning, as the day was breaking, I, standing at +that door, looked towards the red light, and saw the spectre again." +He stopped, with a fixed look at me. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Did it cry out?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"No. It was silent." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Did it wave its arm?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"No. It leaned against the shaft of the light, with both hands before +the face. Like this." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Once more, I followed his action with my eyes. It was an action of +mourning. I have seen such an attitude in stone figures on tombs. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Did you go up to it?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"I came in and sat down, partly to collect my thoughts, partly +because it had turned me faint. When I went to the door again, daylight +was above me, and the ghost was gone." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"But nothing followed? Nothing came of this?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +He touched me on the arm with his forefinger twice or thrice, giving +a ghastly nod each time. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"That very day, as a train came out of the tunnel, I noticed, at a +carriage window on my side, what looked like a confusion of hands +and heads, and something waved. I saw it just in time to signal +the driver, Stop! He shut off, and put his brake on, but the train +drifted past here a hundred and fifty yards or more. I ran after it, +and as I went along heard terrible screams and cries. A beautiful +young lady had died instantaneously in one of the compartments, and +was brought in here, and laid down on this floor between us." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Involuntarily I pushed my chair back, as I looked from the boards +at which he pointed, to himself. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"True, sir. True. Precisely as it happened, so I tell it you." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +I could think of nothing to say, to any purpose, and my mouth was +very dry. The wind and the wires took up the story with a long +lamenting wail. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +He resumed. "Now, sir, mark this, and judge how my mind is troubled. +The spectre came back, a week ago. Ever since, it has been there, +now and again, by fits and starts." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"At the light?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"At the Danger-light." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"What does it seem to do?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +He repeated, if possible with increased passion and vehemence, that +former gesticulation of "For God's sake clear the way!" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Then he went on. "I have no peace or rest for it. It calls to me, +for many minutes together, in an agonized manner, 'Below there! +Look out! Look out!' It stands waving to me. It rings my little +bell—" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +I caught at that. "Did it ring your bell yesterday evening when +I was here, and you went to the door?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Twice." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Why, see," said I, "how your imagination misleads you. My eyes +were on the bell, and my ears were open to the bell, and, if I am +a living man, it did NOT ring at those times. No, nor at any other +time, except when it was rung in the natural course of physical +things by the station communicating with you." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +He shook his head. "I have never made a mistake as to that, yet, +sir. I have never confused the spectre's ring with the man's. The +ghost's ring is a strange vibration in the bell that it derives +from nothing else, and I have not asserted that the bell stirs to +the eye. I don't wonder that you failed to hear it. But <i>I</i> +heard it." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"And did the spectre seem to be there, when you looked out?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"It WAS there." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Both times?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +He repeated firmly: "Both times." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Will you come to the door with me, and look for it now?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +He bit his under-lip as though he were somewhat unwilling, but +arose. I opened the door, and stood on the step, while he stood +in the doorway. There was the Danger-light. There was the dismal +mouth of the tunnel. There were the high wet stone walls of the +cutting. There were the stars above them. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Do you see it?" I asked him, taking particular note of his face. +His eyes were prominent and strained; but not very much more so, +perhaps, than my own had been when I had directed them earnestly +towards the same point. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"No," he answered. "It is not there." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Agreed," said I. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +We went in again, shut the door, and resumed our seats. I was thinking +how best to improve this advantage, if it might be called one, when +he took up the conversation in such a matter-of-course way, so +assuming that there could be no serious question of fact between +us, that I felt myself placed in the weakest of positions. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"By this time you will fully understand, sir," he said, "that what +troubles me so dreadfully is the question, What does the spectre +mean?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +I was not sure, I told him, that I did fully understand. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"What is its warning against?" he said, ruminating, with his eyes +on the fire, and only by times turning them on me. "What is the +danger? Where is the danger? There is danger overhanging, somewhere +on the Line. Some dreadful calamity will happen. It is not to be +doubted this third time, after what has gone before. But surely +this is a cruel haunting of <i>me</i>. What can <i>I</i> do?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +He pulled out his handkerchief, and wiped the drops from his heated +forehead. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"If I telegraph Danger on either side of me, or on both, I can +give no reason for it," he went on, wiping the palms of his hands. +"I should get into trouble, and do no good. They would think I +was mad. This is the way it would work:—Message: 'Danger! +Take care!' Answer: 'What Danger? Where?' Message: 'Don't know. +But for God's sake take care!' They would displace me. What else +could they do?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +His pain of mind was most pitiable to see. It was the mental torture +of a conscientious man, oppressed beyond endurance by an unintelligible +responsibility involving life. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"When it first stood under the Danger-light," he went on, putting +his dark hair back from his head, and drawing his hands outward +across and across his temples in an extremity of feverish distress, +"why not tell me where that accident was to happen,—if it +must happen? Why not tell me how it could be averted,—if +it could have been averted? When on its second coming it hid its +face, why not tell me instead: 'She is going to die. Let them keep +her at home'? If it came, on those two occasions, only to show me +that its warnings were true, and so to prepare me for the third, why +not warn me plainly now? And I, Lord help me! A mere poor signal-man +on this solitary station! Why not go to somebody with credit to be +believed, and power to act?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +When I saw him in this state, I saw that for the poor man's sake, +as well as for the public safety, what I had to do for the time +was to compose his mind. Therefore, setting aside all question of +reality or unreality between us, I represented to him that whoever +thoroughly discharged his duty must do well, and that at least it +was his comfort that he understood his duty, though he did not +understand these confounding Appearances. In this effort I succeeded +far better than in the attempt to reason him out of his conviction. +He became calm; the occupations incidental to his post, as the +night advanced, began to make larger demands on his attention; and +I left him at two in the morning. I had offered to stay through +the night, but he would not hear of it. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +That I more than once looked back at the red light as I ascended +the pathway, that I did not like the red light, and that I should +have slept but poorly if my bed had been under it, I see no reason +to conceal. Nor did I like the two sequences of the accident and +the dead girl. I see no reason to conceal that, either. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +But what ran most in my thoughts was the consideration, how ought +I to act, having become the recipient of this disclosure? I had +proved the man to be intelligent, vigilant, painstaking, and exact; +but how long might he remain so, in his state of mind? Though in +a subordinate position, still he held a most important trust, and +would I (for instance) like to stake my own life on the chances +of his continuing to execute it with precision? +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Unable to overcome a feeling that there would be something treacherous +in my communicating what he had told me to his superiors in the +Company, without first being plain with himself and proposing a +middle course to him, I ultimately resolved to offer to accompany +him (otherwise keeping his secret for the present) to the wisest +medical practitioner we could hear of in those parts, and to take +his opinion. A change in his time of duty would come round next +night, he had apprised me, and he would be off an hour or two after +sunrise, and on again soon after sunset. I had appointed to return +accordingly. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Next evening was a lovely evening, and I walked out early to enjoy +it. The sun was not yet quite down when I traversed the field-path +near the top of the deep cutting. I would extend my walk for an +hour, I said to myself, half an hour on and half an hour back, +and it would then be time to go to my signal-man's box. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Before pursuing my stroll I stepped to the brink, and mechanically +looked down, from the point from which I had first seen him. I +cannot describe the thrill that seized upon me, when, close at +the mouth of the tunnel, I saw the appearance of a man, with his +left sleeve across his eyes, passionately waving his right arm. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +The nameless horror that oppressed me passed in a moment, for in +a moment I saw that this appearance of a man was a man indeed, +and that there was a little group of other men standing at a short +distance, to whom he seemed to be rehearsing the gesture he made. +The Danger-light was not yet lighted. Against its shaft, a little +low hut, entirely new to me, had been made of some wooden supports +and tarpaulin. It looked no bigger than a bed. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +With an irresistible sense that something was wrong, with a flashing +self-reproachful fear that fatal mischief had come of my leaving +the man there, and causing no one to be sent to overlook or correct +what he did,—I descended the notched path with all the speed +I could make. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"What is the matter?" I asked the men. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Signal-man killed this morning, sir." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Not the man belonging to that box?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Yes, sir." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Not the man I know?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"You will recognize him, sir, if you knew him," said the man who +spoke for the others, solemnly uncovering his own head and raising +an end of the tarpaulin, "for his face is quite composed." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"O, how did this happen, how did this happen?" I asked, turning +from one to another as the hut closed in again. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"He was cut down by an engine, sir. No man in England knew his +work better. But somehow he was not clear of the outer rail. It +was just at broad day. He had struck the light, and had the lamp +in his hand. As the engine came out of the tunnel, his back was +towards her, and she cut him down. That man drove her, and was +showing how it happened. Show the gentleman, Tom." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +The man, who wore a rough, dark dress, stepped back to his former +place at the mouth of the tunnel. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Coming round the curve in the tunnel, sir," he said, "I saw him +at the end, like as if I saw him down a perspective-glass. There +was no time to check speed, and I knew him to be very careful. As +he didn't seem to take heed of the whistle, I shut it off when +we were running down upon him, and called to him as loud as I could +call." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"What did you say?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"I said, Below there! Look out! Look out! For God's sake, clear +the way!" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +I started. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Ah! it was a dreadful time, sir. I never left off calling to him. +I put this arm before my eyes, not to see, and I waved this arm +to the last; but it was no use." +</p> + +<p class="indent" style="margin-top: 2em;"> +Without prolonging the narrative to dwell on any one of its curious +circumstances more than on any other, I may, in closing it, point +out the coincidence that the warning of the Engine-Driver included, +not only the words which the unfortunate signal-man had repeated +to me as haunting him, but also the words which I myself—not +he—had attached, and that only in my own mind, to the +gesticulation he had imitated. +</p> + +<div class="img_ctr" style="width: 248px;"> + <img src="images/fig012.gif" width="248" height="142" alt="Fig. 12"> +</div> + +<div class="img_ctr" style="width: 549px;"><a name="page_128"> + <img src="images/fig013.gif" width="549" height="132" alt="Fig. 13"> +</a></div> + +<h2>THE HAUNTED SHIPS.</h2> + +<p class="subtitle">BY ALLAN CUNNINGHAM.</p> + +<p class="justify"> +<img src="images/fig014.gif" width="82" height="82" alt="A" + style="float: left;">long the sea of Solway, romantic on the Scottish +side, with its woodlands, its bays, its cliffs, and headlands,—and +interesting on the English side, with its many beautiful towns with their +shadows on the water, rich pastures, safe harbors, and numerous +ships,—there still linger many traditional stories of a maritime +nature, most of them connected with superstitions singularly wild and +unusual. To the curious these tales afford a rich fund of entertainment, +from the many diversities of the same story; some dry and barren, and +stripped of all the embellishments of poetry; others dressed out in +all the riches of a superstitious belief and haunted imagination. In +this they resemble the inland traditions of the peasants; but many +of the oral treasures of the Galwegian or the Cumbrian coast have +the stamp of the Dane and the Norseman upon them, and claim but a +remote or faint affinity with the legitimate legends of Caledonia. +Something like a rude prosaic outline of several of the most noted +of the Northern ballads, the adventures and depredations of the +old ocean kings, still lends life to the evening tale; and among +others, the story of the Haunted Ships is still popular among the +maritime peasantry. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +One fine harvest evening I went on board the shallop of Richard +Faulder, of Allanbay; and, committing ourselves to the waters, +we allowed a gentle wind from the east to waft us at its pleasure +toward the Scottish coast. We passed the sharp promontory of Siddick; +and skirting the land within a stone-cast, glided along the shore +till we came within sight of the ruined Abbey of Sweetheart. The +green mountain of Criffell ascended beside us; and the bleat of the +flocks from its summit, together with the winding of the evening +horn of the reapers, came softened into something like music over +land and sea. We pushed our shallop into a deep and wooded bay, +and sat silently looking on the serene beauty of the place. The +moon glimmered in her rising through the tall shafts of the pines +of Caerlaverock; and the sky, with scarce a cloud, showered down +on wood, and headland, and bay, the twinkling beams of a thousand +stars, rendering every object visible. The tide, too, was coming +with that swift and silent swell observable when the wind is gentle; +the woody curves along the land were filling with the flood, till +it touched the green branches of the drooping trees; while in the +centre current the roll and the plunge of a thousand pellocks told +to the experienced fisherman that salmon were abundant. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +As we looked, we saw an old man emerging from a path that winded to +the shore through a grove of doddered hazel; he carried a halve-net +on his back, while behind him came a girl, bearing a small harpoon with +which the fishers are remarkably dexterous in striking their prey. +The senior seated himself on a large gray stone, which overlooked the +bay, laid aside his bonnet, and submitted his bosom and neck to the +refreshing sea-breeze; and taking his harpoon from his attendant, +sat with the gravity and composure of a spirit of the flood, with +his ministering nymph behind him. We pushed our shallop to the +shore, and soon stood at their side. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"This is old Mark Macmoran, the mariner, with his grand-daughter +Barbara," said Richard Faulder, in a whisper that had something +of fear in it; "he knows every creek and cavern and quicksand in +Solway,—has seen the Spectre Hound that haunts the Isle of +Man; has heard him bark, and at every bark has seen a ship sink; +and he has seen, too, the Haunted Ships in full sail; and, if all +tales be true, he has sailed in them himself: he's an awful person." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Though I perceived in the communication of my friend something +of the superstition of the sailor, I could not help thinking that +common rumor had made a happy choice in singling out old Mark to +maintain her intercourse with the invisible world. His hair, which +seemed to have refused all intercourse with the comb, hung matted +upon his shoulders; a kind of mantle, or rather blanket, pinned +with a wooden skewer round his neck, fell mid-leg down, concealing +all his nether garments as far as a pair of hose, darned with yarn +of all conceivable colors, and a pair of shoes, patched and repaired +till nothing of the original structure remained, and clasped on +his feet with two massy silver buckles. If the dress of the old +man was rude and sordid, that of his grand-daughter was gay, and +even rich. She wore a bodice of fine wool, wrought round the bosom +with alternate leaf and lily, and a kirtle of the same fabric, +which, almost touching her white and delicate ankle, showed her +snowy feet, so fairy-light and round that they scarcely seemed +to touch the grass where she stood. Her hair, a natural ornament +which woman seeks much to improve, was of bright glossy brown, +and encumbered rather than adorned with a snood, set thick with +marine productions, among which the small clear pearl found in +the Solway was conspicuous. Nature had not trusted to a handsome +shape, and a sylph-like air, for young Barbara's influence over +the heart of man; but had bestowed a pair of large bright blue +eyes, swimming in liquid light, so full of love and gentleness +and joy, that all the sailors from Annanwater to far Saint Bees +acknowledged their power, and sung songs about the bonnie lass +of Mark Macmoran. She stood holding a small gaff-hook of polished +steel in her hand, and seemed not dissatisfied with the glances +I bestowed on her from time to time, and which I held more than +requited by a single glance of those eyes which retained so many +capricious hearts in subjection. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +The tide, though rapidly augmenting, had not yet filled the bay at +our feet. The moon now streamed fairly over the tops of Caerlaverock +pines, and showed the expanse of ocean dimpling and swelling, on +which sloops and shallops came dancing, and displaying at every +turn their extent of white sail against the beam of the moon. I +looked on old Mark the Mariner, who, seated motionless on his gray +stone, kept his eye fixed on the increasing waters with a look of +seriousness and sorrow in which I saw little of the calculating +spirit of a mere fisherman. Though he looked on the coming tide, +his eyes seemed to dwell particularly on the black and decayed +hulls of two vessels, which, half immersed in the quicksand, still +addressed to every heart a tale of shipwreck and desolation. The +tide wheeled and foamed around them; and creeping inch by inch +up the side, at last fairly threw its waters over the top, and a +long and hollow eddy showed the resistance which the liquid element +received. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +The moment they were fairly buried in the water, the old man clasped +his hands together, and said, "Blessed be the tide that will break +over and bury ye forever! Sad to mariners, and sorrowful to maids +and mothers, has the time been you have choked up this deep and +bonnie bay. For evil were you sent, and for evil have you continued. +Every season finds from you its song of sorrow and wail, its funeral +processions, and its shrouded corses. Woe to the land where the +wood grew that made ye! Cursed be the axe that hewed ye on the +mountains, the hands that joined ye together, the bay that ye first +swam in, and the wind that wafted ye here! Seven times have ye put +my life in peril, three fair sons have you swept from my side, +and two bonnie grand-bairns; and now, even now, your waters foam +and flash for my destruction, did I venture my infirm limbs in +quest of food in your deadly bay. I see by that ripple and that +foam, and hear by the sound and singing of your surge, that ye +yearn for another victim; but it shall not be me nor mine." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Even as the old mariner addressed himself to the wrecked ships, a +young man appeared at the southern extremity of the bay, holding +his halve-net in his hand, and hastening into the current. Mark +rose, and shouted, and waved him back from a place which, to a person +unacquainted with the dangers of the bay, real and superstitious, +seemed sufficiently perilous: his grand-daughter, too, added her +voice to his, and waved her white hands; but the more they strove, +the faster advanced the peasant, till he stood to his middle in the +water, while the tide increased every moment in depth and strength. +"Andrew, Andrew," cried the young woman, in a voice quavering with +emotion, "turn, turn, I tell you: O the ships, the Haunted Ships!" +But the appearance of a fine run of fish had more influence with +the peasant than the voice of bonnie Barbara, and forward he dashed, +net in hand. In a moment he was borne off his feet, and mingled +like foam with the water, and hurried toward the fatal eddies which +whirled and roared round the sunken ships. But he was a powerful +young man, and an expert swimmer: he seized on one of the projecting +ribs of the nearest hulk, and clinging to it with the grasp of +despair, uttered yell after yell, sustaining himself against the +prodigious rush of the current. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +From a shealing of turf and straw, within the pitch of a bar from +the spot where we stood, came out an old woman bent with age, and +leaning on a crutch. "I heard the voice of that lad Andrew Lammie; +can the chield be drowning, that he skirls sae uncannilie?" said +the old woman, seating herself on the ground, and looking earnestly +at the water. "Ou aye," she continued, "he's doomed, he's doomed; +heart and hand can never save him; boats, ropes, and man's strength, +and wit, all vain! vain! he's doomed, he's doomed!" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +By this time I had thrown myself into the shallop, followed reluctantly +by Richard Faulder, over whose courage and kindness of heart +superstition had great power; and with one push from the shore, +and some exertion in sculling, we came within a quoitcast of the +unfortunate fisherman. He stayed not to profit by our aid; for +when he perceived us near, he uttered a piercing shriek of joy, +and bounded toward us through the agitated element the full length +of an oar. I saw him for a second on the surface of the water; +but the eddying current sucked him down; and all I ever beheld +of him again was his hand held above the flood, and clutching in +agony at some imaginary aid. I sat gazing in horror on the vacant +sea before us: but a breathing time before, a human being, full +of youth and strength and hope, was there: his cries were still +ringing in my ears and echoing in the woods; and now nothing was +seen or heard save the turbulent expanse of water, and the sound of +its chafing on the shores. We pushed back our shallop, and resumed +our station on the cliff beside the old mariner and his descendant. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Wherefore sought ye to peril your own lives fruitlessly," said +Mark, "in attempting to save the doomed? Whoso touches those infernal +ships, never survives to tell the tale. Woe to the man who is found +nigh them at midnight when the tide has subsided, and they arise +in their former beauty, with forecastle, and deck, and sail, and +pennon, and shroud! Then is seen the streaming of lights along +the water from their cabin windows, and then is heard the sound +of mirth and the clamor of tongues, and the infernal whoop and +halloo, and song, ringing far and wide. Woe to the man who comes +nigh them!" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +To all this my Allanbay companion listened with a breathless attention. +I felt something touched with a superstition to which I partly +believed I had seen one victim offered up; and I inquired of the +old mariner, "How and when came these haunted ships there? To me +they seem but the melancholy relics of some unhappy voyagers, and +much more likely to warn people to shun destruction, than entice +and delude them to it." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"And so," said the old man with a smile, which had more of sorrow +in it than of mirth,—"and so, young man, these black and +shattered hulks seem to the eye of the multitude. But things are +not what they seem: that water, a kind and convenient servant to +the wants of man, which seems so smooth, and so dimpling, and so +gentle, has swallowed up a human soul even now; and the place which +it covers, so fair and so level, is a faithless quicksand, out of +which none escape. Things are otherwise than they seem. Had you +lived as long as I have had the sorrow to live; had you seen the +storms, and braved the perils, and endured the distresses which +have befallen me; had you sat gazing out on the dreary ocean at +midnight on a haunted coast; had you seen comrade after comrade, +brother after brother, and son after son, swept away by the merciless +ocean from your very side; had you seen the shapes of friends, +doomed to the wave and the quicksand, appearing to you in the dreams +and visions of the night,—then would your mind have been +prepared for crediting the maritime legends of mariners; and the +two haunted Danish ships would have had their terrors for you, +as they have for all who sojourn on this coast. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Of the time and the cause of their destruction," continued the +old man, "I know nothing certain: they have stood as you have seen +them for uncounted time; and while all other ships wrecked on this +unhappy coast have gone to pieces, and rotted, and sunk away in a few +years, these two haunted hulks have neither sunk in the quicksand, +nor has a single spar or board been displaced. Maritime legend says, +that two ships of Denmark having had permission, for a time, to work +deeds of darkness and dolor on the deep, were at last condemned to +the whirlpool and the sunken rock, and were wrecked in this bonnie +bay, as a sign to seamen to be gentle and devout. The night when they +were lost was a harvest evening of uncommon mildness and beauty: +the sun had newly set; the moon came brighter and brighter out; +and the reapers, laying their sickles at the root of the standing +corn, stood on rock and bank, looking at the increasing magnitude +of the waters, for sea and land were visible from Saint Bees to +Barnhourie. The sails of two vessels were soon seen bent for the +Scottish coast; and with a speed outrunning the swiftest ship, they +approached the dangerous quicksands and headland of Borranpoint. +On the deck of the foremost ship not a living soul was seen, or +shape, unless something in darkness and form resembling a human +shadow could be called a shape, which flitted from extremity to +extremity of the ship, with the appearance of trimming the sails, +and directing the vessel's course. But the decks of its companion +were crowded with human shapes: the captain, and mate, and sailor, +and cabin-boy, all seemed there; and from them the sound of mirth +and minstrelsy echoed over land and water. The coast which they +skirted along was one of extreme danger; and the reapers shouted +to warn them to beware of sandbank and rock; but of this friendly +counsel no notice was taken, except that a large and famished dog, +which sat on the prow, answered every shout with a long, loud, and +melancholy howl. The deep sandbank of Carsethorn was expected to +arrest the career of these desperate navigators; but they passed, +with the celerity of waterfowl, over an obstruction which had wrecked +many pretty ships. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Old men shook their heads and departed, saying, 'We have seen +the fiend sailing in a bottomless ship; let us go home and pray': +but one young and wilful man said, 'Fiend! I'll warrant it's nae +fiend, but douce Janet Withershins, the witch, holding a carouse +with some of her Cumberland cummers, and mickle red wine will be +spilt atween them. Dod I would gladly have a toothfu'! I'll warrant +it's nane o' your cauld, sour slae-water, like a bottle of Bailie +Skrinkie's port, but right drap-o'-my-heart's-blood stuff, that +would waken a body out of their last linen. I wonder where the +cummers will anchor their craft?'—'And I'll vow,' said another +rustic, 'the wine they quaff is none of your visionary drink, such +as a drouthie body has dished out to his lips in a dream; nor is +it shadowy and unsubstantial, like the vessels they sail in, which +are made out of a cockleshell or a cast-off slipper, or the paring +of a seaman's right thumb-nail. I once got a hansel out of a witch's +quaigh myself,—auld Marion Mathers, of Dustiefoot, whom they +tried to bury in the old kirkyard of Dunscore, but the cummer raise +as fast as they laid her down, and naewhere else would she lie but +in the bonnie green kirkyard of Kier, among douce and sponsible +fowk. So I'll vow that the wine of a witch's cup is as fell liquor +as ever did a kindly turn to a poor man's heart; and be they fiends, +or be they witches, if they have red wine asteer, I'll risk a drouket +sark for ae glorious tout on't.'—'Silence, ye sinners,' said +the minister's son of a neighboring parish, who united in his own +person his father's lack of devotion with his mother's love of +liquor. 'Whisht!—speak as if ye had the fear of something +holy before ye. Let the vessels run their own way to destruction: +who can stay the eastern wind, and the current of the Solway sea? +I can find ye Scripture warrant for that: so let them try their +strength on Blawhooly rocks, and their might on the broad quicksand. +There's a surf running there would knock the ribs together of a +galley built by the imps of the pit, and commanded by the Prince +of Darkness. Bonnilie and bravely they sail away there; but before +the blast blows by they'll be wrecked: and red wine and strong +brandy will be as rife as dyke-water, and we'll drink the health +of bonnie Bell Blackness out of her left-foot slipper.' +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"The speech of the young profligate was applauded by several of +his companions, and away they flew to the bay of Blawhooly, from +whence they never returned. The two vessels were observed all at +once to stop in the bosom of the bay on the spot where their hulls +now appear: the mirth and the minstrelsy waxed louder than ever; +and the forms of maidens, with instruments of music, and wine-cups +in their hands, thronged the decks. A boat was lowered; and the +same shadowy pilot who conducted the ships made it start toward +the shore with the rapidity of lightning, and its head knocked +against the bank where the four young men stood, who longed for +the unblest drink. They leaped in with a laugh, and with a laugh +were they welcomed on deck; wine-cups were given to each, and as +they raised them to their lips the vessels melted away beneath +their feet; and one loud shriek, mingled with laughter still louder, +was heard over land and water for many miles. Nothing more was heard +or seen till the morning, when the crowd who came to the beach saw +with fear and wonder the two Haunted Ships, such as they now seem, +masts and tackle gone; nor mark, nor sign, by which their name, +country, or destination could be known, was left remaining. Such is +the tradition of the mariners; and its truth has been attested by +many families whose sons and whose fathers have been drowned in +the haunted bay of Blawhooly." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"And trow ye," said the old woman, who, attracted from her hut by +the drowning cries of the young fisherman, had remained an auditor +of the mariner's legend,—"and trow ye, Mark Macmoran, that +the tale of the Haunted Ships is done? I can say no to that. Mickle +have mine ears heard; but more mine eyes have witnessed since I +came to dwell in this humble home by the side of the deep sea. +I mind the night weel: it was on Hallowmass eve: the nuts were +cracked, and the apples were eaten, and spell and charm were tried +at my fireside; till, wearied with diving into the dark waves of +futurity, the lads and lasses fairly took to the more visible blessings +of kind words, tender clasps, and gentle courtship. Soft words +in a maiden's ear, and a kindly kiss o' her lip, were old-world +matters to me, Mark Macmoran; though I mean not to say that I have +been free of the folly of daunering and daffin with a youth in +my day, and keeping tryste with him in dark and lonely places. +However, as I say, these times of enjoyment were passed and gone +with me; the mair's the pity that pleasure should fly sae fast +away,—and as I could nae make sport I thought I should not +mar any; so out I sauntered into the fresh cold air, and sat down +behind that old oak, and looked abroad on the wide sea. I had my +ain sad thoughts, ye may think, at the time: it was in that very +bay my blythe goodman perished, with seven more in his company, +and on that very bank where ye see the waves leaping and foaming, I +saw seven stately corses streeked, but the dearest was the eighth. +It was a woful sight to me, a widow, with four bonnie boys, with +nought to support them but these twa hands, and God's blessing, +and a cow's grass. I have never liked to live out of sight of this +bay since that time; and mony's the moonlight night I sit looking +on these watery mountains, and these waste shores; it does my heart +good, whatever it may do to my head. So ye see it was Hallowmass +night; and looking on sea and land sat I; and my heart wandering +to other thoughts soon made me forget my youthful company at hame. +It might be near the howe hour of the night; the tide was making, +and its singing brought strange old-world stories with it; and I +thought on the dangers that sailors endure, the fates they meet +with, and the fearful forms they see. My own blythe goodman had +seen sights that made him grave enough at times, though he aye +tried to laugh them away. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Aweel, atween that very rock aneath us and the coming tide, I +saw, or thought I saw, for the tale is so dream-like, that the +whole might pass for a vision of the night, I saw the form of a +man: his plaid was gray; his face was gray; and his hair, which +hung low down till it nearly came to the middle of his back, was +as white as the white sea-foam. He began to howk and dig under the +bank; an' God be near me, thought I, this maun be the unblessed +spirit of Auld Adam Gowdgowpin, the miser, who is doomed to dig +for shipwrecked treasure, and count how many millions are hidden +forever from man's enjoyment. The Form found something which in +shape and hue seemed a left-foot slipper of brass; so down to the +tide he marched, and placing it on the water, whirled it thrice +round; and the infernal slipper dilated at every turn, till it +became a bonnie barge with its sails bent, and on board leaped +the form, and scudded swiftly away. He came to one of the Haunted +Ships; and striking it with his oar, a fair ship, with mast, and +canvas, and mariners, started up: he touched the other Haunted +Ship, and produced the like transformation; and away the three +spectre ships bounded, leaving a track of fire behind them on the +billows which was long unextinguished. Now was nae that a bonnie +and a fearful sight to see beneath the light of the Hallowmass +moon? But the tale is far frae finished; for mariners say that +once a year, on a certain night, if ye stand on the Borranpoint, ye +will see the infernal shallops coming snoring through the Solway; +ye will hear the same laugh, and song, and mirth, and minstrelsy, +which our ancestors heard; see them bound over the sandbanks and +sunken rocks like sea-gulls, cast their anchor in Blawhooly Bay, +while the shadowy figure lowers down the boat, and augments their +numbers with the four unhappy mortals, to whose memory a stone +stands in the kirkyard, with a sinking ship and a shoreless sea +cut upon it. Then the spectre ships vanish, and the drowning shriek +of mortals and the rejoicing laugh of fiends are heard, and the old +hulls are left as a memorial that the old spiritual kingdom has +not departed from the earth. But I maun away, and trim my little +cottage fire, and make it burn and blaze up bonnie, to warm the +crickets, and my cold and crazy bones, that maun soon be laid aneath +the green sod in the eerie kirkyard." And away the old dame tottered +to her cottage, secured the door on the inside, and soon the +hearth-flame was seen to glimmer and gleam through the key-hole +and window. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"I'll tell ye what," said the old mariner, in a subdued tone, and +with a shrewd and suspicious glance of his eye after the old sibyl, +"it's a word that may not very well be uttered, but there are many +mistakes made in evening stories if old Moll Moray there, where +she lives, knows not mickle more than she is willing to tell of +the Haunted Ships and their unhallowed mariners. She lives cannilie +and quietly; no one knows how she is fed or supported; but her +dress is aye whole, her cottage ever smokes, and her table lacks +neither of wine, white and red, nor of fowl and fish, and white +bread and brown. It was a dear scoff to Jock Matheson, when he +called old Moll the uncannie carline of Blawhooly: his boat ran +round and round in the centre of the Solway,—everybody said +it was enchanted,—and down it went head foremost: and had +nae Jock been a swimmer equal to a sheldrake, he would have fed +the fish; but I'll warrant it sobered the lad's speech; and he +never reckoned himself safe till he made auld Moll the present of +a new kirtle and a stone of cheese." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"O father," said his grand-daughter Barbara, "ye surely wrong poor +old Mary Moray; what use could it be to an old woman like her, who +has no wrongs to redress, no malice to work out against mankind, +and nothing to seek of enjoyment save a cannie hour and a quiet +grave,—what use could the fellowship of fiends, and the communion +of evil spirits, be to her? I know Jenny Primrose puts rowan-tree +above the door-head when she sees old Mary coming; I know the good +wife of Kittlenaket wears rowan-berry leaves in the headband of +her blue kirtle, and all for the sake of averting the unsonsie +glance of Mary's right ee; and I know that the auld laird of +Burntroutwater drives his seven cows to their pasture with a wand +of witch-tree, to keep Mary from milking them. But what has all +that to do with haunted shallops, visionary mariners, and bottomless +boats? I have heard myself as pleasant a tale about the Haunted +Ships and their unworldly crews, as any one would wish to hear +in a winter evening. It was told me by young Benjie Macharg, one +summer night, sitting on Arbiglandbank: the lad intended a sort +of love meeting; but all that he could talk of was about smearing +sheep and shearing sheep, and of the wife which the Norway elves +of the Haunted Ships made for his uncle Sandie Macharg. And I shall +tell ye the tale as the honest lad told it to me. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Alexander Macharg, besides being the laird of three acres of peatmoss, +two kale gardens, and the owner of seven good milch cows, a pair of +horses, and six pet sheep, was the husband of one of the handsomest +women in seven parishes. Many a lad sighed the day he was brided; +and a Nithsdale laird and two Annandale moorland farmers drank +themselves to their last linen, as well as their last shilling, +through sorrow for her loss. But married was the dame; and home +she was carried, to bear rule over her home and her husband, as +an honest woman should. Now ye maun ken that though the flesh and +blood lovers of Alexander's bonnie wife all ceased to love and to +sue her after she became another's, there were certain admirers +who did not consider their claim at all abated, or their hopes +lessened, by the kirk's famous obstacle of matrimony. Ye have heard +how the devout minister of Tinwald had a fair son carried away, +and bedded against his liking to an unchristened bride, whom the +elves and the fairies provided; ye have heard how the bonnie bride +of the drunken laird of Soukitup was stolen by the fairies out at +the back-window of the bridal chamber, the time the bridegroom +was groping his way to the chamber-door; and ye have heard— +But why need I multiply cases? such things in the ancient days were +as common as candle-light. So ye'll no hinder certain water-elves +and sea-fairies, who sometimes keep festival and summer mirth in +these old haunted hulks, from falling in love with the weel-faured +wife of Laird Macharg; and to their plots and contrivances they went +how they might accomplish to sunder man and wife; and sundering +such a man and such a wife was like sundering the green leaf from +the summer, or the fragrance from the flower. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"So it fell on a time that Laird Macharg took his halve-net on his +back, and his steel spear in his hand, and down to Blawhooly Bay +gaed he, and into the water he went right between the two haunted +hulks, and placing his net awaited the coming of the tide. The +night, ye maun ken, was mirk, and the wind lowne, and the singing +of the increasing waters among the shells and the pebbles was heard +for sundry miles. All at once lights began to glance and twinkle on +board the two Haunted Ships from every hole and seam, and presently +the sound as of a hatchet employed in squaring timber echoed far +and wide. But if the toil of these unearthly workmen amazed the +Laird, how much more was his amazement increased when a sharp shrill +voice called out, 'Ho! brother, what are you doing now?' A voice +still shriller responded from the other haunted ship, 'I'm making +a wife to Sandie Macharg!' and a loud quavering laugh running from +ship to ship, and from bank to bank, told the joy they expected +from their labor. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Now the Laird, besides being a devout and a God-fearing man, was +shrewd and bold; and in plot, and contrivance, and skill in conducting +his designs, was fairly an overmatch for any dozen land-elves; but +the water-elves are far more subtle; besides, their haunts and +their dwellings being in the great deep, pursuit and detection is +hopeless if they succeed in carrying their prey to the waves. But +ye shall hear. Home flew the Laird, collected his family around +the hearth, spoke of the signs and the sins of the times, and talked +of mortification and prayer for averting calamity; and finally, +taking his father's Bible, brass clasps, black print, and covered +with calf-skin, from the shelf, he proceeded without let or stint +to perform domestic worship. I should have told ye that he bolted +and locked the door, shut up all inlet to the house, threw salt +into the fire, and proceeded in every way like a man skilful in +guarding against the plots of fairies and fiends. His wife looked +on all this with wonder; but she saw something in her husband's +looks that hindered her from intruding either question or advice, +and a wise woman was she. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Near the mid-hour of the night the rush of a horse's feet was +heard, and the sound of a rider leaping from its back, and a heavy +knock came to the door, accompanied by a voice saying, 'The cummer +drink's hot, and the knave bairn is expected at Laird Laurie's +to-night; sae mount, goodwife, and come.' +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"'Preserve me!' said the wife of Sandie Macharg; 'that's news indeed! +who could have thought it? the Laird has been heirless for seventeen +years! Now, Sandie, my man, fetch me my skirt and hood.' +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"But he laid his arm round his wife's neck, and said, 'If all the +lairds in Galloway go heirless, over this door threshold shall you +not stir to-night; and I have said, and I have sworn it: seek not +to know why or wherefore; but, Lord, send us thy blessed mornlight.' +The wife looked for a moment in her husband's eyes, and desisted +from further entreaty. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"'But let us send a civil message to the gossips, Sandie; and hadnae +ye better say I am sair laid with a sudden sickness? though it's +sinful-like to send the poor messenger a mile agate with a lie +in his mouth without a glass of brandy.' +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"'To such a messenger, and to those who sent him, no apology is +needed,' said the austere Laird, 'so let him depart.' And the clatter +of a horse's hoofs was heard, and the muttered imprecations of its +rider on the churlish treatment he had experienced. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"'Now, Sandie, my lad,' said his wife, laying an arm particularly +white and round about his neck as she spoke, 'are you not a queer +man and a stern? I have been your wedded wife now these three years; +and, beside my dower, have brought you three as bonnie bairns as +ever smiled aneath a summer sun. O man, you a douce man, and fitter +to be an elder than even Willie Greer himself, I have the minister's +ain word for't, to put on these hard-hearted looks, and gang waving +your arms that way, as if ye said, "I winna take the counsel of +sic a hempie as you"; I'm your ain leal wife, and will and maun +have an explanation.' +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"To all this Sandie Macharg replied, 'It is written, "Wives, obey +your husbands"; but we have been stayed in our devotion, so let +us pray.' And down he knelt: his wife knelt also, for she was as +devout as bonnie; and beside them knelt their household, and all +lights were extinguished. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"'Now this beats a',' muttered his wife to herself; 'however, I +shall be obedient for a time; but if I dinna ken what all this +is for before the morn by sunket-time, my tongue is nae langer a +tongue, nor my hands worth wearing.' +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"The voice of her husband in prayer interrupted this mental soliloquy; +and ardently did he beseech to be preserved from the wiles of the +fiends, and the snares of Satan; 'from witches, ghosts, goblins, +elves, fairies, spunkies, and water-kelpies; from the spectre shallop +of Solway; from spirits visible and invisible; from the Haunted Ships +and their unearthly tenants; from maritime spirits that plotted +against godly men, and fell in love with their wives—' +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"'Nay, but His presence be near us!' said his wife in a low tone of +dismay. 'God guide my gudeman's wits: I never heard such a prayer +from human lips before. But, Sandie, my man, Lord's sake, rise: +what fearful light is this?—barn and byre and stable maun be +in a blaze; and Hawkie and Hurley,—Doddie, and Cherrie, and +Damson-plum, will be smoored with reek and scorched with flame.' +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"And a flood of light, but not so gross as a common fire, which +ascended to heaven and filled all the court before the house, amply +justified the good wife's suspicions. But to the terrors of fire, +Sandie was as immovable as he was to the imaginary groans of the +barren wife of Laird Laurie; and he held his wife, and threatened +the weight of his right hand—and it was a heavy one—to +all who ventured abroad, or even unbolted the door. The neighing +and prancing of horses, and the bellowing of cows, augmented the +horrors of the night; and to any one who only heard the din, it +seemed that the whole onstead was in a blaze, and horses and cattle +perishing in the flame. All wiles, common or extraordinary, were +put in practice to entice or force the honest farmer and his wife +to open the door; and when the like success attended every new +stratagem, silence for a little while ensued, and a long, loud, +and shrilling laugh wound up the dramatic efforts of the night. In +the morning, when Laird Macharg went to the door, he found standing +against one of the pilasters a piece of black ship oak, rudely +fashioned into something like human form, and which skilful people +declared would have been clothed with seeming flesh and blood, and +palmed upon him by elfin adroitness for his wife, had he admitted +his visitants. A synod of wise men and women sat upon the woman of +timber, and she was finally ordered to be devoured by fire, and +that in the open air. A fire was soon made, and into it the elfin +sculpture was tossed from the prongs of two pairs of pitchforks. The +blaze that arose was awful to behold; and hissings, and burstings, +and loud cracklings, and strange noises, were heard in the midst +of the flame; and when the whole sank into ashes, a drinking-cup +of some precious metal was found; and this cup, fashioned no doubt +by elfin skill, but rendered harmless by the purification with +fire, the sons and daughters of Sandie Macharg and his wife drink +out of to this very day. Bless all bold men, say I, and obedient +wives!" +</p> + +<div class="img_ctr" style="width: 530px;"><a name="page_150"> + <img src="images/fig015.gif" width="530" height="120" alt="Fig. 15"> +</a></div> + +<h2>A RAFT THAT NO MAN MADE.</h2> + +<p class="subtitle"> +BY ROBERT T. S. LOWELL. +</p> + +<p class="justify"> +<img src="images/fig016.gif" width="85" height="83" alt="I" +style="float: left;"> am a soldier: but my tale, this time, is not +of war. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +The man of whom the Muse talked to the blind bard of old had grown +wise in wayfaring. He had seen such men and cities as the sun shines +on, and the great wonders of land and sea; and he had visited the +farther countries, whose indwellers, having been once at home in +the green fields and under the sky and roofs of the cheery earth, +were now gone forth and forward into a dim and shadowed land, from +which they found no backward path to these old haunts, and their +old loves:— +</p> + +<table style="margin-left: 4em;"> + <tr><td> + <img src="images/text01.gif" width="320" height="39" + alt="Quote"></td></tr> + <tr><td style="text-align: right;"><i>Od.</i> XI.</td></tr> +</table> + +<p class="indent"> +At the Charter-House I learned the story of the King of Ithaca, +and read it for something better than a task; and since, though +I have never seen so many cities as the much-wandering man, nor +grown so wise, yet have heard and seen and remembered, for myself, +words and things from crowded streets and fairs and shows and +wave-washed quays and murmurous market-places, in many lands; and +for his <img src="images/text02.gif" width="161" height="20" + alt="Quote">,—his people wrapt in cloud and vapor, whom +"no glad sun finds with his beams,"—have been borne along +a perilous path through thick mists, among the crashing ice of the +Upper Atlantic, as well as sweltered upon a Southern sea, and have +learned something of men and something of God. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +I was in Newfoundland, a lieutenant of Royal Engineers, in Major +Gore's time, and went about a good deal among the people, in surveying +for Government. One of my old friends there was Skipper Benjie +Westham, of Brigus, a shortish, stout, bald man, with a cheerful, +honest face and a kind voice; and he, mending a caplin-seine one +day, told me this story, which I will try to tell after him. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +We were upon the high ground, beyond where the church stands now, +and Prudence, the fisherman's daughter, and Ralph Barrows, her +husband, were with Skipper Benjie when he began; and I had an hour +by the watch to spend. The neighborhood, all about, was still; the +only men who were in sight were so far off that we heard nothing +from them; no wind was stirring near us, and a slow sail could be +seen outside. Everything was right for listening and telling. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"I can tell 'ee what I sid[1] myself, Sir," said Skipper Benjie. +"It is n' like a story that's put down in books: it's on'y like +what we planters[2] tells of a winter's night or sech: but it's +<i>feelun</i>, mubbe, an' 'ee won't expect much off a man as could +n' never read,—not so much as Bible or Prayer-Book, even." +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[Footnote 1: Saw.] +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[Footnote 2: Fishermen.] +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Skipper Benjie looked just like what he was thought: a true-hearted, +healthy man, a good fisherman and a good seaman. There was no need +of any one's saying it. So I only waited till he went on speaking. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"'T was one time I goed to th' Ice, Sir. I never goed but once, +an' 't was a'most the first v'yage ever was, ef 't was n' the +<i>very</i> first; an' 't was the last for me, an' worse agen for +the rest-part o' that crew, that never goed no more! 'T was tarrible +sad douns wi' they!" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +This preface was accompanied by some preliminary handling of the +caplin-seine, also, to find out the broken places and get them +about him. Ralph and Prudence deftly helped him. Then, making his +story wait, after this opening, he took one hole to begin at in +mending, chose his seat, and drew the seine up to his knee. At the +same time I got nearer to the fellowship of the family by persuading +the planter (who yielded with a pleasant smile) to let me try my +hand at the netting. Prudence quietly took to herself a share of +the work, and Ralph alone was unbusied. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"They calls th' Ice a wicked place,—Sundays an' weekin days +all alike; an' to my seemun it's a cruel, bloody place, jes' so +well,—but not all thinks alike, surely.—Rafe, lad, +mubbe 'ee 'd ruther go down coveways, an' overhaul the punt a bit." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Ralph, who perhaps had stood waiting for the very dismissal that he +now got, assented and left us three. Prudence, to be sure, looked +after him as if she would a good deal rather go with him than stay; +but she stayed, nevertheless, and worked at the seine. I interpreted +to myself Skipper Benjie's sending away of one of his hearers by +supposing that his son-in-law had often heard his tales; but the +planter explained himself:— +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"'Ee sees, Sir, I knocked off goun to th' Ice becase 't was sech +a tarrible cruel place, to my seemun. They swiles[3] be so knowun +like,—as knowun as a dog, in a manner, an' lovun to their +own, like Christens, a'most, more than bastes; an' they'm got red +blood, for all they lives most-partly in water; an' then I found +'em so friendly, when I was wantun friends badly. But I s'pose +the swile-fishery's needful; an' I knows, in course, that even +Christens' blood's got to be taken sometimes, when it's bad blood, +an' I would n' be childish about they things: on'y—ef it's +me—when I can live by fishun, I don' want to go an' club an' +shoot an' cut an' slash among poor harmless things that 'ould never +harm man or 'oman, an' 'ould cry great tears down for pity-sake, an' +got a sound like a Christen: I 'ould n' like to go a-swilun for +gain,—not after beun among 'em, way I was, anyways." +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[Footnote 3: Seals.] +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +This apology made it plain that Skipper Benjie was large-hearted +enough, or indulgent enough, not to seek to strain others, even his +own family, up to his own way in everything; and it might easily +be thought that the young fisherman had different feelings about +sealing from those that the planter's story was meant to bring +out. All being ready, he began his tale again:— +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"I shipped wi' Skipper Isra'l Gooden, from Carbonear; the schooner +was the Baccaloue, wi' forty men, all told. 'T was of a Sunday +morn'n 'e 'ould sail, twel'th day o' March, wi' another schooner +in company,—the Sparrow. There was a many of us was n' too +good, but we thowt wrong of 'e's takun the Lord's Day to 'e'sself. +Wull, Sir, afore I comed 'ome, I was in a great desert country, +an' floated on sea wi' a monstrous great raft that no man never +made, creakun an' crashun an' groanun an' tumblun an' wastun an' +goun to pieces, an' no man on her but me, an' full o' livun +things,—dreadful! +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"About a five hours out, 't was, we first sid the blink,[4] an' +comed up wi' th' Ice about off Cape Bonavis'. We fell in wi' it +south, an' worked up nothe along: but we did n' see swiles for two +or three days yet; on'y we was workun along; pokun the cakes of +ice away, an' haulun through wi' main strength sometimes, holdun +on wi' bights o' ropes out o' the bow; an' more times, agen, in +clear water: sometimes mist all round us, 'ee could n' see the +ship's len'th, sca'ce; an' more times snow, jes' so thick; an' +then a gale o' wind, mubbe, would a'most blow all the spars out +of her, seemunly. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[Footnote 4: A dull glare on the horizon, from the immense masses +of ice.] +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"We kep' sight o' th' other schooner, most-partly; an' when we +did n' keep it, we'd get it agen. So one night 't was a beautiful +moonlight night: I think I never sid a moon so bright as that moon +was; an' such lovely sights a body 'ould n' think could be! Little +islands, an' bigger, agen, there was, on every hand, shinun so +bright, wi' great, awful-lookun shadows! an' then the sea all black, +between! They did look so beautiful as ef a body could go an' bide +on 'em, in' a manner; an' the sky was jes' so blue, an' the stars +all shinun out, an' the moon all so bright! I never looked upon +the like. An' so I stood in the bows; an' I don' know ef I thowt +o' God first, but I was thinkun o' my girl that I was troth-plight +wi' then, an' a many things, when all of a sudden we comed upon +the hardest ice we'd a-had; an' into it; an' then, wi' pokun an' +haulun, workun along. An' there was a cry goed up,—like the +cry of a babby, 't was, an' I thowt mubbe 't was a somethun had +got upon one o' they islands; but I said, agen, 'How could it?' +an' one John Harris said 'e thowt 't was a bird. Then another man +(Moffis 'e's name was) started off wi' what they calls a gaff ('t +is somethun like a short boat-hook), over the bows, an' run; an' +we sid un strike, an' strike, an' we hard it go wump! wump! an' +the cry goun up so tarrible feelun, seemed as ef 'e was murderun +some poor wild Inden child 'e 'd a-found (on'y mubbe 'e would n' +do so bad as that: but there 've a-been tarrible bloody, cruel work +wi' Indens in my time), an' then 'e comed back wi' a white-coat[5] +over 'e's shoulder; an' the poor thing was n' dead, but cried an' +soughed like any poor little babby." +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[Footnote 5: A young seal.] +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +The young wife was very restless at this point, and, though she +did not look up, I saw her tears. The stout fisherman smoothed out +the net a little upon his knee, and drew it in closer, and heaved +a great sigh: he did not look at his hearers. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"When 'e throwed it down, it walloped, an' cried, an' soughed,—an' +its poor eyes blinded wi' blood! ('Ee sees, Sir," said the planter, +by way of excusing his tenderness, "they swiles were friends to +I, after.) Dear, O dear! I could n' stand it; for 'e <i>might</i> +ha' killed un; an' so 'e goes for a quart o' rum, for fetchun first +swile, an' I went an' put the poor thing out o' pain. I did n' +want to look at they beautiful islands no more, somehow. Bumby it +comed on thick, an' then snow. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Nex' day swiles bawlun[6] every way, poor things! (I knowed their +voice, now,) but 't was blowun a gale o' wind, an' we under bare +poles, an' snow comun agen, so fast as ever it could come: but out +the men 'ould go, all mad like, an' my watch goed, an' so I mus' +go. (I did n' think what I was goun to!) The skipper never said +no; but to keep near the schooner, an' fetch in first we could, +close by; an' keep near the schooner. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[Footnote 6: Technical word for the crying of the seals.] +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"So we got abroad, an' the men that was wi' me jes' began to knock +right an' left: 't was heartless to see an' hear it. They laved +two old uns an' a young whelp to me, as they runned by. The mother +did cry like a Christen, in a manner, an' the big tears 'ould run +down, an' they 'ould both be so brave for the poor whelp that 'ould +cuddle up an' cry; an' the mother looked this way an' that way, +wi' big, pooty, black eyes, to see what was the manun of it, when +they'd never doned any harm in God's world that 'E made, an' would +n', even ef you killed 'em: on'y the poor mother baste ketched +my gaff, that I was goun to strike wi', betwixt her teeth, an' I +could n' get it away. 'T was n' like fishun! (I was weak-hearted +like: I s'pose 't was wi' what was comun that I did n' know.) Then +comed a hail, all of a sudden, from the schooner (we had n' been +gone more 'n a five minutes, ef 't was so much,—no, not more +'n a three); but I was glad to hear it come then, however: an' so +every man ran, one afore t' other. There the schooner was, tearun +through all, an' we runnun for dear life. I falled among the slob,[7] +and got out agen. 'T was another man pushun agen me doned it. I +could n' 'elp myself from goun in, an' when I got out I was astarn +of all, an' there was the schooner carryun on, right through to +clear water! So, hold of a bight o' line, or anything! an' they +swung up in over bows an' sides! an' swash! she struck the water, +an' was out o' sight in a minute, an' the snow drivun as ef 't +would bury her, an' a man laved behind on a pan of ice, an' the +great black say two fathom ahead, an' the storm-wind blowun 'im +into it!" +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[Footnote 7: Broken ice, between large cakes, or against the shore.] +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +The planter stopped speaking. We had all gone along so with the +story, that the stout seafarer, as he wrought the whole scene up +about us, seemed instinctively to lean back and brace his feet +against the ground, and clutch his net. The young woman looked +up, this time; and the cold snow-blast seemed to howl through that +still summer's noon, and the terrific ice-fields and hills to be +crashing against the solid earth that we sat upon, and all things +round changed to the far-off stormy ocean and boundless frozen +wastes. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +The planter began to speak again:— +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"So I falled right down upon th' ice, sayun, 'Lard, help me! Lard, +help me!' an' crawlun away, wi' the snow in my face (I was afeard, +a'most, to stand), 'Lard, help me! Lard, help me!' +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"'T was n' all hard ice, but many places lolly;[8] an' once I goed +right down wi' my hand-wristès an' my armès in cold +water, part-ways to the bottom o' th' ocean; and a'most head-first +into un, as I'd a-been in wi' my legs afore: but, thanks be to +God! 'E helped me out of un, but colder an' wetter agen. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[Footnote 8: Snow in water, not yet frozen, but looking like the +white ice.] +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"In course I wanted to folly the schooner; so I runned up along, +a little ways from the edge, an' then I runned down along: but 't +was all great black ocean outside, an' she gone miles an' miles +away; an' by two hours' time, even ef she'd come to, itself, an' +all clear weather, I could n' never see her; an' ef she could come +back, she could n' never find me, more 'n I could find any one o' +they flakes o' snow. The schooner was gone, an' I was laved out +o' the world! +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Bumby, when I got on the big field agen, I stood up on my feet, +an' I sid that was my ship! She had n' e'er a sail, an' she had +n' e'er a spar, an' she had n' e'er a compass, an' she had n' e'er +a helm, an' she had n' no hold, an' she had n' no cabin. I could +n' sail her, nor I could n' steer her, nor I could n' anchor her, +nor bring her to, but she would go, wind or calm, an' she'd never +come to port, but out in th' ocean she'd go to pieces! I sid 't +was so, an' I must take it, an' do my best wi' it. 'T was jest a +great, white, frozen raft, driftun bodily away, wi' storm blowun +over, an' current runnun under, an' snow comun down so thick, an' +a poor Christen laved all alone wi' it. 'T would drift as long +as anything was of it, an' 't was n' likely there'd be any life +in the poor man by time th' ice goed to nawthun; an' the swiles +'ould swim back agen up to the Nothe! +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"I was th' only one, seemunly, to be cast out alive, an' wi' the +dearest maid in the world (so I thought) waitun for me. I s'pose +'ee might ha' knowed somethun better, Sir; but I was n' larned, +an' I ran so fast as ever I could up the way I thowt home was, +an' I groaned, an' groaned, an' shook my handès, an' then +I thowt, 'Mubbe I may be goun wrong way.' So I groaned to the Lard +to stop the snow. Then I on'y ran this way an' that way, an' groaned +for snow to knock off.[9] I knowed we was driftun mubbe a twenty +leagues a day, and anyways I wanted to be doun what I could, keepun +up over th' Ice so well as I could, Noofundland-ways, an' I might +come to somethun,—to a schooner or somethun; anyways I'd +get up so near as I could. So I looked for a lee. I s'pose 'ee 'd +ha' knowed better what to do, Sir," said the planter, here again +appealing to me, and showing by his question that he understood +me, in spite of my pea-jacket. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[Footnote 9: To stop.] +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +I had been so carried along with his story that I had felt as if +I were the man on the Ice, myself, and assured him, that, though I +could get along pretty well on land, <i>and could even do something +at netting</i>, I should have been very awkward in his place. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Wull, Sir, I looked for a lee. ('T would n' ha' been so cold, to +say cold, ef it had n' a-blowed so tarrible hard.) First step, I +stumbled upon somethun in the snow, seemed soft, like a body! Then +I comed all together, hopun an' fearun an' all together. Down I goed +upon my knees to un, an' I smoothed away the snow, all tremblun, +an' there was a moan, as ef 't was a-livun. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"'O Lard!' I said, 'who's this? Be this one of our men?' +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"But how could it? So I scraped the snow away, but 't was easy to +see 't was smaller than a man. There was n' no man on that dreadful +place but me! Wull, Sir, 't was a poor swile, wi' blood runnun +all under; an' I got my cuffs[10] an' sleeves all red wi' it. It +looked like a fellow-creatur's blood, a'most, an' I was a lost man, +left to die away out there in th' Ice, an' I said, 'Poor thing! +poor thing!' an' I did n' mind about the wind, or th' ice, or the +schooner goun away from me afore a gale (I <i>would</i> n' mind +about 'em), an' a poor lost Christen may show a good turn to a +hurt thing, ef 't was on'y a baste. So I smoothed away the snow +wi' my cuffs, an' I sid 't was a poor thing wi' her whelp close +by her, an' her tongue out, as ef she'd a-died fondlun an' lickun +it; an' a great puddle o' blood,—it looked tarrible heartless, +when I was so nigh to death, an' was n' hungry. An' then I feeled +a stick, an' I thowt, 'It may be a help to me,' an' so I pulled +un, an' it would n' come, an' I found she was lyun on it; so I +hauled agen, an' when it comed, 't was my gaff the poor baste had +got away from me, an' got it under her, an' she was a-lyun on it. +Some o' the men, when they was runnun for dear life, must ha' struck +'em, out o' madness like, an' laved 'em to die where they was. 'T +was the whelp was n' quite dead. 'Ee'll think 't was foolish, Sir, +but it seemed as though they was somethun to me, an' I'd a-lost +the last friendly thing there was. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[Footnote 10: Mittens.] +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"I found a big hummock an' sheltered under it, standun on my feet, +wi' nawthun to do but think, an' think, an' pray to God; an' so +I doned. I could n' help feelun to God then, surely. Nawthun to +do, an' no place to go, tull snow cleared away; but jes' drift +wi' the great Ice down from the Nothe, away down over the say, +a sixty mile a day, mubbe. I was n' a good Christen, an' I could +n' help a-thinkun o' home an' she I was troth-plight wi', an' I +doubled over myself an' groaned,—I could n' help it; but +bumby it comed into me to say my prayers, an' it seemed as thof +she was askun me to pray (an' she <i>was</i> good, Sir, al'ays), +an' I seemed all opened, somehow, an' I knowed how to pray." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +While the words were coming tenderly from the weather-beaten fisherman, +I could not help being moved, and glanced over toward the daughter's +seat; but she was gone, and, turning round, I saw her going quietly, +almost stealthily, and very quickly, <i>toward the cove</i>. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +The father gave no heed to her leaving, but went on with his +tale:— +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Then the wind began to fall down, an' the snow knocked off altogether, +an' the sun comed out; an' I sid th' Ice, field-ice an' icebargs, +an' every one of 'em flashun up as ef they'd kendled up a bonfire, +but no sign of a schooner! no sign of a schooner! nor no sign o' +man's douns, but on'y ice, every way, high an' low, an' some places +black water, in-among; an' on'y the poor swiles bawlun all over, +an' I standun amongst 'em. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"While I was lookun out, I sid a great icebarg (they calls 'em) +a quarter of a mile away, or thereabouts, standun up,—one +end a twenty fathom out o' water, an' about a forty fathom across, +wi' hills like, an' houses,—an' then, jest as ef 'e was alive +an' had tooked a notion in 'e'sself, seemunly, all of a sudden +'e rared up, an' turned over an' over, wi' a tarrible thunderun +noise, an' comed right on, breakun everything an' throwun up great +seas; 't was frightsome for a lone body away out among 'em! I stood +an' looked at un, but then agen I thowt I may jes' so well be goun +to thick ice an' over Noofundland-ways a piece, so well as I could. +So I said my bit of a prayer, an' told Un I could n' help myself; +an' I made my confession how bad I'd been, an' I was sorry, an ef +'E 'd be so pitiful an' forgive me; an' ef I mus' loss my life, +ef 'E 'd be so good as make me a good Christen first,—an' +make <i>they</i> happy, in course. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"So then I started; an' first I goed to where my gaff was, by the +mother-swile an' her whelp. There was swiles every two or three +yards a'most, old uns an' young uns, all round everywhere; an' +I feeled shamed in a manner: but I got my gaff, an' cleaned un, +an' then, in God's name, I took the big swile, that was dead by +its dead whelp, an' hauled it away, where the t' other poor things +could n' si' me, an' I sculped[11] it, an' took the pelt;—for +I thowt I'd wear un, now the poor dead thing did n' want to make +oose of un no more,—an' partly becase 't was sech a lovun +thing. An' so I set out, walkun this way for a spurt, an' then +t' other way, keepun up mostly a Nor-norwest, so well as I could: +sometimes away round th' open, an' more times round a lump of ice, +an' more times, agen, off from one an' on to another, every minute. +I did n' feel hungry, for I drinked fresh water off th' ice. No +schooner! no schooner! +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +[Footnote 11: Skinned.] +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Bumby the sun was goun down: 't was slow work feelun my way along, +an' I did n' want to look about; but then agen I thowt God 'ad +made it to be sid; an' so I come to, an' turned all round, an' +looked; an' surely it seemed like another world, someway, 't was so +beautiful,—yellow, an' different sorts o' red, like the sky +itself in a manner, an' flashun like glass. So then it comed night; +an' I thowt I should n' go to bed, an' I may forget my prayers, an' +so I'd, mubbe, best say 'em right away; an' so I doned: 'Lighten +our darkness,' and others we was oosed to say; an' it comed into +my mind, the Lard said to Saint Peter, 'Why did n' 'ee have +faith?' when there was nawthun on the water for un to go on; an' +I had ice under foot,—'t was but frozen water, but 't was +frozen,—an' I thanked Un. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"I could n' help thinkun o' Brigus an' them I'd laved in it, an' +then I prayed for 'em; an' I could n' help cryun a'most; but then +I give over agen, an' would n' think, ef I could help it; on'y +tryun to say an odd psalm, all through singun-psalms an' other, for +I knowed a many of 'em by singun wi' Patience, on'y now I cared +more about 'em: I said that one,— +</p> + +<p class="bquote"> +'Sech as in ships an' brickle barks<br> + Into the seas descend,<br> + Their merchantun, through fearful floods,<br> + To compass an' to end:<br> + They men are force-put to behold<br> + The Lard's works, what they be;<br> + An' in the dreadful deep the same<br> + Most marvellous they see.' +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +An' I said a many more (I can't be accountable how many I said), an' +same uns many times, over: for I would keep on; an' 'ould sometimes +sing 'em very loud in my poor way. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"A poor baste (a silver fox 'e was) comed an' looked at me; an' +when I turned round, he walked away a piece, an' then 'e comed +back, an' looked. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"So I found a high piece, wi' a wall of ice atop for shelter, ef +it comed on to blow; an' so I stood, an' said, an' sung. I knowed +well I was on'y driftun away. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"It was tarrible lonely in the night, when night comed; it's no +use! 'T was tarrible lonely: but I 'ould n' think, ef I could help +it; an' I prayed a bit, an' kep' up my psalms, an' varses out o' +the Bible, I'd a-larned. I had n' a-prayed for sleep, but for wakun +all night, an' there I was, standun. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"The moon was out agen, so bright; an' all the hills of ice shinun +up to her; an' stars twinklun, so busy, all over; an' No'ther' +Lights goun up wi' a faint, blaze, seemunly, from th' ice, an' +meetun up aloft; an' sometimes a great groanun, an' more times +tarrible loud shriekun! There was great white fields, an' great +white hills, like countries, comun down to be destroyed; an' some +great bargs a-goun faster, an' tearun through, breakun others to +pieces; an' the groanun an' screechun,—ef all the dead that +ever was, wi' their white clothès—But no!" said the +stout fisherman, recalling himself from gazing, as he seemed to +be, on the far-off ghastly scene, in memory. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"No!—an' thank 'E's marcy, I'm sittun by my own room. 'E tooked +me off; but 't was a dreadful sight,—it's no use,—ef a +body'd let 'e'sself think! I sid a great black bear, an' hard un +growl; an' 't was feelun, like, to hear un so bold an' so stout, +among all they dreadful things, an' bumby the time 'ould come when +'e could n' save 'e'sself, do what 'e woul'. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"An' more times 't was all still: on'y swiles bawlun, all over. +Ef it had n' a-been for they poor swiles, how could I stan' it? +Many's the one I'd a-ketched, daytime, an' talked to un, an' patted +un on the head, as ef they'd a-been dogs by the door, like; an' +they'd oose to shut their eyes, an' draw their poor foolish faces +together. It seemed neighbor-like to have some live thing. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"So I kep' awake, sayun an' singun, an' it was n' very cold; an' +so,—first thing I knowed, I started, an' there I was lyun +in a heap; an' I must have been asleep, an' did n' know how 't +was, nor how long I'd a-been so: an' some sort o' baste started +away, an' 'e must have waked me up; I could n' rightly see what 't +was, wi' sleepiness: an' then I hard a sound, sounded like breakers; +an' that waked me fairly. 'T was like a lee-shore; an' 't was a +comfort to think o' land, ef 't was on'y to be wrecked on itself: +but I did n' go, an' I stood an' listened to un; an' now an' agen +I'd walk a piece, back an' forth, an' back an' forth; an' so I +passed a many, many longsome hours, seemunly, tull night goed +down tarrible slowly, an' it comed up day o' t' other side: an' +there was n' no land; nawthun but great mountains meltun an' breakun +up, an' fields wastun away. I sid 't was a rollun barg made the +noise like breakers; throwun up great seas o' both sides of un; no +sight nor sign o' shore, nor ship, but dazun white,—enough +to blind a body,—an' I knowed 't was all floatun away, over +the say. Then I said my prayers, an' tooked a drink o' water, an' +set out agen for Nor-norwest: 't was all I could do. Sometimes +snow, an' more times fair agen; but no sign o' man's things, an' +no sign o' land, on'y white ice an' black water; an' ef a schooner +was n' into un a'ready, 't was n' likely they woul', for we was +gettun furder an' furder away. Tired I was wi' goun, though I had +n' walked more n' a twenty or thirty mile, mubbe, an' it all comun +down so fast as I could go up, an' faster, an' never stoppun! 'T +was a tarrible long journey up over the driftun ice, at sea! So, +then I went on a high bit to wait tull all was done; I thowt 't +would be last to melt, an' mubbe, I thowt 'e may capsize wi' me, +when I did n' know (for I don' say I was stouthearted); an' I +prayed Un to take care o' them I loved; an' the tears comed. Then +I felt somethun tryun to turn me round like, an' it seemed as ef +<i>she</i> was doun it, somehow, an' she seemed to be very nigh, +somehow, an' I did n' look. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"After a bit, I got up to look out where most swiles was, for company, +while I was livun: an' the first look struck me a'most like a bullet! +There I sid a sail! <i>'T was</i> a sail, an' 't was like heaven +openun, an' God settun her down there. About three mile away she +was, to nothe'ard, in th' Ice. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"I could ha' sid, at first look, what schooner 't was; but I did +n' want to look hard at her. I kep' my peace, a spurt, an' then +I runned an' bawled out, 'Glory be to God!' an' then I stopped, +an' made proper thanks to Un. An' there she was, same as ef I'd +a-walked off from her an hour ago! It felt so long as ef I'd been +livun years, an' they would n' know me, sca'ce. Somehow, I did +n' think I could come up wi' her. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"I started, in the name o' God, wi' all my might, an' went, an' +went,—'t was a five mile, wi' goun round,—an' got her, +thank God! 'T was n' the Baccaloue (I sid that long before), 't +was t' other schooner, the Sparrow, repairun damages they'd got +day before. So that kep' 'em there, an' I'd a-been took from one +an' brought to t' other. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"I could n' do a hand's turn tull we got into the Bay agen,—I +was so clear beat out. The Sparrow kep' her men, an' fotch home +about thirty-eight hundred swiles, an' a poor man off th' Ice: +but they, poor fellows, that I went out wi', never comed no more: +an' I never went agen. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"I kep' the skin o' the poor baste, Sir: that's 'e on my cap." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +When the planter had fairly finished his tale, it was a little +while before I could teach my eyes to see the things about me in +their places. The slow-going sail, outside, I at first saw as the +schooner that brought away the lost man from the Ice; the green +of the earth would not, at first, show itself through the white +with which the fancy covered it; and at first I could not quite +feel that the ground was fast under my feet. I even mistook one +of my own men (the sight of whom was to warn me that I was wanted +elsewhere) for one of the crew of the schooner Sparrow of a generation +ago. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +I got the tale and its scene gathered away, presently, inside my +mind, and shook myself into a present association with surrounding +things, and took my leave. I went away the more gratified that I +had a chance of lifting my cap to a matron, dark-haired and comely +(who, I was sure, at a glance, had once been the maiden of Benjie +Westham's "troth-plight"), and receiving a handsome courtesy in +return. +</p> + +<div class="img_ctr" style="width: 296px;"> + <img src="images/fig017.gif" width="296" height="160" alt="Fig. 17"> +</div> + +<div class="img_ctr" style="width: 551px;"><a name="page_169"> + <img src="images/fig018.gif" width="551" height="125" alt="Fig. 18"> +</a></div> + +<h2>THE INVISIBLE PRINCESS.</h2> + +<p class="subtitle">BY FRANCIS O'CONNOR.</p> + +<p class="justify"> +<img src="images/fig019.gif" width="84" height="83" alt="I" + style="float: left;"> + could be "as tedious as a king," in analyzing those chivalrous +instincts of masculine youth that lured me from college at nineteen, +and away over the watery deserts of the sea; and, like Dogberry, +"I could find in my heart to bestow it all of your worships." But +since, like the auditor of that worthy, you do not want it, I will +pass over the embarkation, which was tedious, over the sea-sickness, +which was more tedious, over the home-sickness, over the monotonous +duties assigned me, and the unvarying prospect of sea and sky, +all so tedious that I grew as morose after a time as a travelling +Englishman. Neither was coasting, with restricted liberty and much +toil, amongst people whose language I could not speak, quite all +that my fancy painted it,—although Genoa, Venice, the Bay +of Naples,—crimsoned by Vesuvius, and canopied by an Italian +sky,—and the storied scenes of Greece, all rich in beauties +and historic associations, repaid many discomforts at the time and +remain to me forever as treasures of memory the more precious for +being dearly bought. But these, with the pleasures and displeasures +of Constantinople,—the limit of our voyage,—I will pass +over, to the midsummer eve when, with all the arrangements for +our return voyage completed, we swung slowly out of the northern +eddy of the Golden Horn into the clear blue Bosphorus. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Already the lengthening shadows of a thousand domes and minarets +stretched across its waters, and glimpses of sunlight lay between +them, like golden clasps linking continent to continent. Around us +were ships and sailors from all parts of the habitable globe; while +through shine and shadow flitted boats and caiques innumerable, and +except where these, or the rising of a porpoise, or the dipping +of a gull, broke the surface of the water, it lay as smooth as a +mirror, reflecting its palace-guarded shores. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +The men were lounging about the deck or leaning over the bulwarks, +listening to a neighboring crew chanting their vespers, while we +awaited the coming on board of our captain. Meanwhile the shadows +crept up the Asian hills, till the last sombre answering smile to +the sun's good-night faded from the cypress-trees above the graves +of Scutari. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Beside me, long in silent admiration of the scene, stood my messmates, +Fred Smith and Mike O'Hanlon,—two genuine specimens of Young +New York, the first of whom disappointed love had driven to sea, +whither also friendship and a reckless spirit of adventure had impelled +the second. Behind us was one, a just impression of whom—if +I could but convey it—would make what followed appear as +possible to you as it did to us who were long his companions. I +never knew to what country he belonged; for he spoke any language +occasion called for, with the same apparent ease and fluency. He +was far beyond the ordinary stature, yet it was only when you saw +him in comparison with other men that you observed anything gigantic +in his form. His hair was black, and hung in a smooth, heavy, even +wave down to his massive jaw, which was always clean shaved, if +indeed beard ever grew upon it. Neither could I guess his age; +for though he was apparently in manhood's prime, it often appeared +to me that the spirit I saw looking through his eyes must have +been looking from them for a thousand years. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +And how I used to exult in watching him deal with matter! He never +took anything by the wrong end, nor failed to grasp a swinging +rope or a flapping sail, nor miscalculated the effort necessary +to the performance of whatever he undertook. He was silent, but +not morose. Yet there was something in his measured tones and the +gaze of his large gray eyes which Mike compared in their mingled +effects to the charms of sight and sound that the victims of the +rattlesnake's fascination are said to undergo. Whatever sensations +they occasioned, men shrank from renewing them, and the frankest and +boldest of the crew shunned occasions for addressing him. Stranger +still, this feeling, instead of wearing off by the close companionship +of our little bark, seemed to deepen and strengthen, until at length, +except myself, no one spoke to him who could avoid it. Even the +captain, when circumstances allowed him a choice, always directed +his orders to another, though this man's duties were performed +with the quiet promptness of a machine. If he was conscious of +anything peculiar in the behavior of his companions toward him, +he betrayed no indication of it. Such he was who stood listening, +with an appearance of interest unusual in him, to our otherwise +inconsequent chat. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"You are bidding a very silent adieu to the Genius of the East," +I said. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Yes," Fred answered, "it's her first actual revelation to me, but +it's a glorious one." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Let those who love to decipher illegible inscriptions, to contemplate +a throttled centaur on a dilapidated frieze, or a carved acanthus +on a fallen capital, grope over the Acropolis and invoke Athenian +Pallas," said Mike; "but for me these painted seraglios and terraced, +bower-canopied gardens, vocal with nightingales and seeming to +impregnate the very air with the pleasures of desire, justify the +decision of Paris. Hurrah for Asiatic Venus!" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"You are no true Christian knight," I said. "Your Rinaldos and +Sir Guyons always waste your gardens of voluptuous delight, and +wipe out their abominations." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Yes," he retorted, "all but the abomination of desolation." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"But do you consider," said Fred, "how many sweet birds may be +looking out through the bars of those bright lattice cages even +now, who can follow neither their hearts' desires nor their souls' +aspirations, but whom fate has degraded to be the slaves of some +miserable old Blue Beard?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Why don't you sail in and rescue some of them?" said Mike mockingly. +"Tell the old tyrant to his cerulean beard that he has too many +strings to his bow, and he will undoubtedly spare a bow-string to +twine around your manly neck. But I guess you had better, after +all, leave the Fatimas to their fate. The barriers that fence them +in from their hearts' desires and souls' aspirations here are not +more real, if more palpable, than those that guard them in our +land of boasted freedom; neither are they altogether secure from +sale and barter there; and as for us outside barbarians, I'd as +lief be shut out by palace walls from a beauty I can only imagine, +as by custom still more insurmountable from beauty set visibly +before me and enhanced with intellectual and social graces." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +I cited the lady in the song, who says:— +</p> + +<p class="bquote"> +A tarry sailor I'll ne'er disdain,<br> +But always I will treat the same, +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +as proof that such exclusiveness was far from being the universal +rule at home, and encouraged him to rival the "swabber, the boatswain +and mate" for "Moll, Mag, Marion, and Margery." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Or," said he, "like the jolly tar you quote, dismiss both your +songs as 'scurvy tunes,' and, swigging at a black jack, say: Here's +my comfort." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"I am not sure," said Fred bitterly, thinking of his own rejected +suit, "that Stephano's philosophy is not the best for wretches +like us." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Yes," said Mike, "until after the Millennium. Then the march of +civilization will be ended, and the ranks may be broken. Then soft +hands and hard hands may clasp each other. Then rays from the purest +and most refined souls may shine through bright eyes without being +especially chilled for those whom a cold destiny makes especially +needful of their heart-warming influences. Then you, poor as you +are, may aspire to wed the daughter of a banker, and Joe or I may +seek to satisfy the heart's desires of the Sultan's daughter, without +Aladdin's lamp or Oberon's whistle." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Here our strange auditor came forward with a small tin whistle in +his hand, and gravely presenting it to Fred, he advised him to try +its note on the hard-hearted parent who opposed his happiness. In +the deepening twilight, Fred and Mike, putting their heads together, +read the following legend graven upon it:— +</p> + +<p class="bquote"> +O whistle, and I'll come to you, my lad! +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +We all laughed outright, except the donor. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"This is not Oberon's whistle, at any rate," I said. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"No," he answered, "the inspiration of this is from Mammon, whose +gates I understood shut Mr. Smith out from his true love. A single +blast on it will, I dare say, open them wide enough to let him +in." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Then it's as good as money to you, Fred," said Mike. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"That's what our old boss used to tell us," answered Fred ruefully, +"when he gave us orders on a neighboring grocery, in lieu of cash +for our wages. But I must confess I have now, as I had then, a +prejudice in favor of the circulating medium." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"If so, whistle for it at once," said the other. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Fred looked at him, and then at Mike and me, with a puzzled expression +which seemed to ask: Is this a crazy freak, or an absurd, insulting +joke? +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Now," said the object of this scrutiny, turning to me, "I have a +talisman for you also, wherewith to entice the Sultan's daughter. +It is a ruby of rare size and color, and therefore valuable. But +the power of the spell it is said to possess remains to be tested. +I give it to you because in you, at this moment, are fulfilled +the conditions necessary to exercise this spell; which you do by +simply taking the jewel in your hand thus, and saying,— +</p> + +<p class="bquote"> +Come, O royal maiden, come to me this hour." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"And she'll come, of course," said Mike, bantering me in his turn. +"Now hoist your signal and hail the daughter of the Grand Turk, +and let Fred pipe for his princess at the same auspicious moment." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Amen!" I said, holding up the gem till the moonbeams blushed red in +it, and calling out with a strange, impulsive sense of power,— +</p> + +<p class="bquote"> +"Come, O royal maiden, come to me this hour." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +But no responsive tooting of the whistle echoed from the lips of +Fred. I looked toward him for an explanation of the silence, and +beheld him spitting out the fragments of the instrument, which +had gone to pieces in his mouth. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"What's all this?" he exclaimed, unrolling a little scroll of paper +that had been compressed within it, and holding it up to the light. +"See here, Joe, what do you make of this?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"A draft for ten thousand pounds sterling, on the Bank of England, +duly signed and indorsed," I answered after scrutinizing it carefully. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +We turned simultaneously for an explanation, but there was no one +to give it. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"I always suspected who <i>he</i> was," said Mike, "but he's got no +hold on me,—no claim to a bond signed with <i>my</i> blood. +See, there he goes!" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +I looked, and saw a boat shooting across the stream with a swiftness +that argued some optical delusion. That unmistakable figure stood in +the stern, urging it with a single scull, and as it disappeared in +the confusion of boats and the darkness, a superstitious suspicion +crept over me that he might be the person Mike suggested. Soon the +captain came on board, and on learning the absence of the boat +and its occupant, he expressed considerable anxiety and impatience. +A breeze sprang up and began to curl the surface of the water, +and clouds obscured the moon. Then the wind freshened to a storm, +and lifted the waves on the channel, and roared in the cypress +forests above Pera and Scutari. Under the light sails already set, +the ship tugged hard at her cable. Yet the boat did not return. +The captain walked the deck nervously, and finally gave orders +to weigh anchor, when just as our bark, freed to the wind and the +current, sprang forward on her long voyage, the boat for which we +were looking shot suddenly under the prow, and in an instant our +mysterious comrade stepped in upon the deck from the bow-chains. +As he did so, the light of the mate's lantern fell full upon him, +and the scene it revealed will certainly never be forgotten by +anyone who witnessed it. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +There he stood, looming out from the tempestuous darkness more +gigantic and terrible than ever, with the form of a beautiful girl, +gorgeously clad and flashing with jewels, held easily and firmly +by one encircling arm. His disengaged right hand was stained as +if with blood, and spots of the same sanguinary hue were on his +brow and his garments. The expression of his face was unmoved as +usual. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +For a moment he permitted the slippered feet of the trembling girl +to rest upon the deck, though his arm still encompassed her shrinking +form, and, while her great dark eyes, dilated with horror, like +those of a captured bird, threw wild, eager glances to left and +right, as if in search of any desperate refuge from the terrors +that possessed her, he said in his usual quiet tones to the +captain,— +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"This is the passenger for whom I engaged the cabin. She will, +by your leave, take possession of it at once." So saying, he led +her gently forward and disappeared at the companion-way, conducted +by the captain. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Every face on deck had grown pale, and every heart throbbed with +the conviction that we had just beheld the consummation of a most +desperate and bloody deed. It was evident the girl had been snatched +suddenly from the harem of some palace, probably from the royal +seraglio itself, off which we had been lying. And the horror depicted +on her face, as well as the stains of blood on her abductor, told +with what ruthless violence. Here then, I thought, in all human +probability, was the royal maiden I had summoned; here was the +wildest vagary of my imagination realized. But how different from +the bright fancy was the woful reality! +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Soon the captain returned on deck, pale and excited like the rest +of us, and ordered a rash amount of sail to be set. The mate, a +bluff, powerful man, swore an oath that we should first understand +the meaning of what had just transpired. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"I know no more about it than you do," avowed the captain, "except +that it's a piece of business very likely to bring all our heads +to the block unless we show a clean pair of heels for it. So now +avast jawing, and obey orders!" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Never! boys," I said, "till we are assured of that girl's safety. +What's done cannot be helped; but if she suffers further wrong +in our midst, we ought all to be hanged as cowardly accessories +to it." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Dismiss your uneasiness in that regard," said a voice behind us, +at whose sound there was a general start. "To keep her safe and +inviolate is more my right and interest than yours, and it must +therefore be my especial duty to do so; but if I fail in it, I +care not though you make my life the forfeit, nor by what mode you +exact it." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +So saying, he took his place at the helm, a press of sail was set, +and the ship fairly rent her way through the sea of Marmora before +the tempest. But the ship, like all around, seemed to acknowledge +his controlling power; and when I turned in with my watch, my sleep +was undisturbed by any fear of wind or water, though it was full +of troubled dreams. Now a lovely form in royal vesture beckoned +to me from a lattice; anon the gleam of a lantern flickered across +the terribly familiar face of a gnome, bearing out of a dark cavern +an armful of the most precious jewels, which had a wild appealing in +their light that puzzled me; while the roaring of the sea pervaded +it all with a kind of dream harmony. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +After a time, the fury of the tempest abated; but the ship still +fled onward before strong gales, through those famous seas we had +cruised so often in youthful fancy with the Greek and the Trojan, +and the fear of pursuit ceased to haunt us. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Meanwhile we saw no more of our lovely passenger. Her strange guardian +kept a watch beside her cabin door as vigilant as that of a sentinel +at his post, or a saint before his shrine. His eye never swept the +horizon behind us with an anxious gaze, as ours did, while we looked +for the smoke of a pursuing steamer. Neither did it kindle at sight +of the famous landmarks that measured our rapid course, each of which +we hailed with delight as another harbinger of safety. He had ceased +to perform the duties of a seaman, and devoted himself entirely to +the care of the <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">Invisible +Princess</span>, as we grew to call her. But though invisible to our +eyes, hers was the pervading presence of our thoughts. Not a wave +rocked the ship, not a cloud overshadowed it, not a morning breeze +came fresh from the sea, or an evening breeze brought fragrance from +the shore, but was thought of in some relation with her. There was +none like her, we said, in the broad continents to right of us, to +left of us, or before us; and we doubted if there was her like in the +lands of enchantment we had left behind. Her wondrous beauty, the +flashing of the jewels that encrusted her belt, and that seemed to +gleam and sparkle all over her picturesque attire, the haunting look +of those great, lustrous eyes, all the reminiscence of that eventful +night,—how fondly we recurred to them again and again in the +forecastle or the night-watch, and with what pleasure we recognized +the first indications that her trance of terror had passed, and that +she had resumed a living interest in the strange world around her. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +First the open window of the cabin gave evidence that the balmy +air and the pleasant shores we skirted were no longer indifferent +to her; then came flitting glimpses of bright garments and brighter +eyes quickly withdrawn from observation into the depths of the +fairy grotto she inhabited; and finally, one beautiful moonlight +evening, while most of the crew were on deck watching the lurid +peak of Etna and the pavement of golden waves stretching toward +it, and listening not to premonitions of Scylla or Charybdis, but +to the song of the nightingales from the dim shore, or to tales +of Enceladus and the Cyclops from Fred, and whimsical comments +from Mike, she came hesitatingly forth, arousing an excitement and +curiosity among us as intense as if she were a ghost arising from +the tomb. Her dress was the same in which she had been brought among +us, without addition of yashmak or veil of any kind,—excepting +the mistiness of the moonlight,—to conceal her face, though +there was a shy drawing down of the tasselled cap or turban she +wore, that shadowed it somewhat. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +I need hardly say how soon the glories of earth, sea, and sky, +which we had been contemplating, shrank into mere accessories around +that one central figure, as she stood gazing upon them through the +shrouds and spars from our deck. But, notwithstanding the beauty of +the scene and the hour, she did not hold her position long to enjoy +them. She had, in appearing thus before strange men, evidently by a +great effort, done that which she shrank from doing; but whether +in obedience to her own will or to that of another, we could not +guess. The ice thus broken, however, she was the +<span style="font-variant: small-caps;">Invisible Princess</span> +no longer. Emboldened by two or three subsequent moonlight and +twilight ventures, she at length came out in the sunset, and I +doubt if the setting sun ever revealed a lovelier sight than greeted +our eyes on that evening. A glance in the clear light satisfied us +that the superhuman beauty we almost worshipped, and the splendor +that seemed too lavish to be real, were no mere glamor of lamplight +or moonlight, but surpassed in the reality all that our stunted, +sceptical, Western imaginations, even stimulated as they were, +had dared to anticipate. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +I might attempt to describe her. I might tell you that her every +limb and every feature seemed perfect in its form and its harmony +with the others; that her complexion was a fresh, delicate bloom, +without spot or blemish; that the innumerable braids of her long, +black hair were ravishingly glossy and soft; that her great, dark +eyes were bewilderingly bright and wise, and expressive of everything +enchanting and good that eyes can express; that her smile,—but +no! her smile was an expression of her individuality too subtle +for words to catch; and without any power of revealing this +individuality, this all that distinguished her from merely mortal +woman and made her angelic, where is the use of attempting to describe +her? Of her garments, by a recurrence to Lady Mary Wortley Montagu +for the names of them, I could give you a description, from the +golden-flowered, diamond-studded kerchief wreathed in her hair, +to the yellow Cinderella slippers that covered her fairy feet. +But the gauzy fabric that enfolded though it scarcely concealed +her bosom, the vest of white damask stuff inwoven and fringed with +gold and silver, the caftan, and the trousers of crimson embossed +and embroidered with flowers of the same gorgeous materials, all +were buttoned and guarded and overstrewn with jewels, while the +broad belt that confined them was literally encrusted with diamonds +and clasped by a magnificent bouquet of flowers wrought by the +lapidary from diamonds, rubies, emeralds, sapphires, and pearls, +so exquisitely that the artist showed a skill in them almost worthy +of his materials. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +From our ardent gaze the beautiful vision was soon +withdrawn,—often to reappear, however, in the bright, calm +weather that followed, each time with less of blushing and confusion +in the beautiful face; and at length, some of us began to flatter +ourselves, with a shy glance of interest and recognition for us +in the luminous eyes. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +On her strange companion, also, her presence shed a beam that lightened +the darkness of our thoughts toward him. We marked the long, dark +lashes of her eyes rising and falling, now trustingly, now fearingly, +before that inscrutable countenance, as if her spirit wavered between +a dream of terror and a contentful awaking. And many imagined that, +as those dark eyes began to turn more lovingly and more longingly +toward him, the strange brilliance of his own became imbued with +their softness, while a faint auroral tinge seemed just ready to +change his countenance from marble to flesh and blood. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Thus day after day we crept along the European coast, enjoying a +dream of romance in which we could have gone on sailing contentedly +forever, our only cause of uneasiness being that, at some of the +numerous ports we touched, the magic presence on which the spell +depended might go from us, as it came to us, without ceremony or +warning, and leave us to cross the great ocean in the world of +intolerable loneliness that would settle on the ship when she was +gone. There was something like a patriotic aspiration in our desire +to transplant this brightest of Eastern blossoms to diffuse its +supreme beauty and sweetness in the West. And though we feared for +her the stormy autumn passage of the Atlantic, a load was taken +from every spirit when we left the Pillars of Hercules behind us +and pointed our prow straight out across the cloud-bound ocean. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Just as we lost sight of land, we were attacked by a most violent +storm, that buffeted us for many a day, during which we saw nothing +of our fair passenger, and we learned that she was seriously ill. +But never had invalid such a nurse as she. No one knew if he slept +or ate, and no one was allowed to share his office, and no one +obtruded on him the sorrow or sympathy which all felt in spite +of our engrossing battle for life against the tempest. For though +there was no change in his appearance or demeanor, all were conscious +that a deep feeling stirred his heart. Even when we doubted if +all our energies could preserve the vessel from being dashed back +upon the coast we had just left, he gave us neither help nor heed, +till in the final moment when we had given up all for lost, he +seized the helm and shot us into shelter and safety behind the reef +whereon we expected to go to pieces, through a channel which, in +the calm that followed the storm, we found it difficult to retrace +to the deep water, towing the ship with boats. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Again we got well out to sea, and were becalmed. For nearly a week, +not a breeze had broken the surface of the ocean. Then another +of those enchanting scenes we had feared to behold no more was +presented to us. The beautiful invalid, assisted by her now inseparable +companion, came upon the deck to watch the sunset. From her cheek +the bloom of health was gone; but the look of wild dread with which +hitherto she had never quite ceased to regard him who supported her +was gone also, and in its place the large, dark eyes were filled +by a glance of such indescribable gratitude and trust as only her +eyes could express. He, for the first time, looked neither more +nor less than a man. Her shrinking from our presence, too, had +disappeared, and her look of recognition now was unmistakable and +cordial. She had resumed her original garb, long disused as if +to avoid remark at the ports we visited, and its glowing colors +seemed to heighten the contrast between the pallid cheek and the +long, dark lashes that drooped languidly over them, as, wearied at +length by the unusual exertion, she sank heavily on her companion, +and was rather borne than assisted back to the cabin. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +During another week of breezeless autumn calm, this strange drama +was re-enacted many times before us, with each time a deepening +of the tragic shades that were gathering above it. But even after +it became evident that the sweet evening air had no balm for the +drooping girl, she loved to look out on the glories of the sunset, +as if conscious that soon she should behold them no more forever. +And when her strength no longer enabled her to walk, her nurse +carried her out like a child in his arms. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +But this also ceased after a time, and the hope that our transplanted +blossom would ever flourish on a new soil had already faded from the +bosom of the most sanguine among us, when one evening the guardian +genius of the cabin beckoned to me from its portal. My entrance +seemed to arouse the fair invalid, who was reclined upon a couch. +The enchanting halo of her perfect beauty was unabated by disease; +and she was surrounded by articles so rare, so costly, and in such +profusion, as to force themselves upon my attention even in that +first glance. A faint smile, and a recognition from those now too +bright eyes, were my welcome. But they did not rest upon me long; +for, as if by some fascination, those eyes seemed always turned +toward him, or, if by chance he was beyond their reach, to the +spot where they could first behold his return. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +So this nursling of a palace, evidently dying out on the wide sea, +with only rough men about her, had neither a word nor a look of +reproach for the one who had dragged her forth to so wretched a +fate. Even in her mind's wanderings, she seldom went back to former +pomps or pleasures, and her tongue preferred rather to stumble +through the rough and unfamiliar language in which of late she +had been so terribly schooled, than to speak that of her youth. +Once, when after a short absence her attendant returned to her +side, she said,— +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"My heart was trying to cross the waves that were between us, and oh! +how it was tossed upon them—and it ached, and—and—" +Then, giving a sigh of relief, she sank back, closed her eyes, and +slumbered restfully. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +He disposed of the lamp he had just lighted, and then, with an +expression as inscrutable as ever, he stood looking down upon her. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +While this scene was being enacted, I marked through the open portal +of the cabin—in one of those strange distractions that occur +to us amidst the most intense feelings of our lives—the stars +above us growing brighter and brighter as the shades of the twilight +deepened. Suddenly turning from the couch, he also, at a stride, +stood in full view of those bright revelations of the darkness; but +his eye sought them with no such abstracted regard as mine. Fixedly +and sternly he seemed to be watching among them some portentous +index of fate. Soon a change came over his countenance, and he +resumed his place beside the scarcely breathing form. Then the +fountains of the great deep within him were broken up, and the +rushing torrent of its emotions shook his whole frame and convulsed +his features. Stooping, he kissed the insensible girl passionately, +again and again, and he would, I believe, have clasped her to his +bosom if I, fearing for her the effects of his stormy transports, +had not caught his arm. He needed no explanation of my interruption, +neither was he startled or incensed by it, and he seemed more like +one reluctantly obeying some sudden restraining impulse of his +own than yielding to that of another. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"No," he said, "I must not cut short a single flicker of that bright +spirit; the wondrously beautiful vessel that it glorifies will be +cold clay soon enough! ashes from which no future Phœnix shall +arise. O," he exclaimed, "this sacrifice is too great, too great! +and for nothing! Even had she perished on the destined altar, an +accepted sacrifice, it were too great! But I tore her from home and +friends, and life itself, for this,—for nothing! O Destiny, +thou art a subtle adversary, and infinite are thy devices for our +overthrow! But I never reckoned on such an impediment as this +heart-weakness." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Then approaching me, he laid a hand upon my shoulder, and said: +"As the representative of the young, hopeful, living world she +is about to leave, I called you here that you and she might look +your last upon each other. Go now, and though your present emotion +accords duly with the part I have assigned you, see that you do +not play false to it hereafter by letting this woful event impress +you with too deep or too lasting a sorrow." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Then to my Ideal, so strangely found and lost, I looked and murmured +an adieu, and returned among my companions, reverenced as one who +had been in a hallowed place. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +It was the third evening after this, to me, memorable visit. Streaks +of sable, with golden edges, barred the face of the setting sun, +and promised to our hopes a change of weather. But this indication, +important as it was after the long calm, was evidently not that which +the whole ship's crew, officers and men, were now discussing,—as +the converged attention of the scattered groups on the closed entrance +of that silent, mysterious cabin testified. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"I know," said O'Hanlon, answering to an objection from some one +in the group where he stood, "it would be like invading a sanctuary +to intrude there; but the conviction sometimes comes over me that +we have, all hands of us, from the captain down, acted in regard +to this matter with the incapacity of men in a nightmare. Fear is +a condition under which a true man should not breathe a moment +without contest; and yet I know we have been all, more or less +consciously, under its influence since this man came on board. +Out upon us! I will, for myself at least, break through this dream +of terror at once, by a tap at yonder door." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"It's the captain's place, not ours," said Smith, "to investigate +this affair. Don't be too impulsive; you will get yourself into +serious trouble." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"This is no matter of ordinary discipline," said the other; "the +captain has a more substantial awe of this man than you or I,—and +for more substantial reasons. He was aware of his wealth and power +when we were not. How, without his knowledge, could the treasures +worth a king's ransom, that adorn yonder coop, have been smuggled +in or arranged there? But I am resolved, right or wrong, to do +as I said." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +I was questioning within myself whether to second him, when the +door toward which he was advancing slowly opened, and once more +the object of our discussion issued from it, and again in his arms +was the beautiful form to which they had proved such a fatal +resting-place. But none of the emotions of terror, trustfulness, +or affection, which had alternately thrilled it in that position, +did it now exhibit. The bright eyes were closed, the beautiful +features settled in lasting repose. The glossy hair was daintily +braided. The spotless garments were gracefully disposed. The jewels +glittered conspicuously, as if relieved from the outvying lustre of +her eyes. All, as in life, was pure and perfect; and as in life, +so in death, she was still a revelation of transcendent beauty. +A snowy winding-sheet, fringed with heavy coins, alternately of +gold and of silver, and looped with silken cords on which bunches +of the same precious metals hung as tassels, was so disposed that +he could enfold her in it without laying her from his arms. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Stepping to the side of the vessel, he stood holding her thus in +our view for a few moments; then, deftly and deliberately as usual, +he wrapped the preciously weighted linen around her, stepped easily +upon the bulwark, and with that perfect and deliberate poise so +peculiar to him, and with his burden clasped firmly to his breast, +he flung himself far clear of the ship, into the ocean, and was +seen no more. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Thus vanished like a dream the romance of my life. Indeed, but for +the lurid gleam of this strange jewel, a true type and testimony of +it, I might yet grow to persuade myself it was a dream, so wondrous +it becomes to me in memory. +</p> + +<div class="img_ctr" style="width: 552px;"><a name="page_190"> + <img src="images/fig020.gif" width="552" height="139" alt="Fig. 20"> +</a></div> + +<h2>THE ADVOCATE'S WEDDING-DAY.</h2> + +<p class="subtitle">BY CATHERINE CROWE.</p> + +<p class="justify"> +<img src="images/fig021.gif" width="83" height="84" alt="A" + style="float: left;">ntoine de Chaulieu was the son of a poor +gentleman of Normandy, with a long genealogy, a short rent-roll, and a +large family. Jacques Rollet was the son of a brewer, who did not know +who his grandfather was; but he had a long purse, and only two children. +As these youths flourished in the early days of liberty, equality, and +fraternity, and were near neighbors, they naturally hated each other. +Their enmity commenced at school, where the delicate and refined De +Chaulieu, being the only <i>gentilhomme</i> amongst the scholars, was +the favorite of the master (who was a bit of an aristocrat in his +heart), although he was about the worst dressed boy in the establishment, +and never had a sou to spend; whilst Jacques Rollet, sturdy and +rough, with smart clothes and plenty of money, got flogged six +days in the week, ostensibly for being stupid and not learning his +lessons,—which he did not,—but in reality for constantly +quarrelling with and insulting De Chaulieu, who had not strength +to cope with him. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +When they left the academy, the feud continued in all its vigor, +and was fostered by a thousand little circumstances, arising out +of the state of the times, till a separation ensued, in consequence +of an aunt of Antoine de Chaulieu's undertaking the expense of +sending him to Paris to study the law, and of maintaining him there +during the necessary period. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +With the progress of events came some degree of reaction in favor +of birth and nobility; and then Antoine, who had passed for the +bar, began to hold up his head, and endeavor to push his fortunes; +but fate seemed against him. He felt certain that if he possessed +any gift in the world, it was that of eloquence, but he could get +no cause to plead; and his aunt dying inopportunely, first his +resources failed, and then his health. He had no sooner returned +to his home than, to complicate his difficulties completely, he +fell in love with Miss Natalie de Bellefonds, who had just returned +from Paris, where she had been completing her education. To expatiate +on the perfections of Mademoiselle Natalie would be a waste of +ink and paper; it is sufficient to say that she really was a very +charming girl, with a fortune which, though not large, would have +been a most desirable addition to De Chaulieu, who had nothing. +Neither was the fair Natalie indisposed to listen to his addresses; +but her father could not be expected to countenance the suit of +a gentleman, however well-born, who had not a ten-sous piece in +the world, and whose prospects were a blank. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Whilst the ambitious and love-sick barrister was thus pining in +unwelcome obscurity, his old acquaintance, Jacques Rollet, had +been acquiring an undesirable notoriety. There was nothing really +bad in Jacques; but having been bred up a democrat, with a hatred +of the nobility, he could not easily accommodate his rough humor +to treat them with civility when it was no longer safe to insult +them. The liberties he allowed himself whenever circumstances brought +him into contact with the higher classes of society, had led him +into many scrapes, out of which his father's money had in one way +or another released him; but that source of safety had now failed. +Old Rollet, having been too busy with the affairs of the nation to +attend to his business, had died insolvent, leaving his son with +nothing but his own wits to help him out of future difficulties; +and it was not long before their exercise was called for. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Claudine Rollet, his sister, who was a very pretty girl, had attracted +the attention of Mademoiselle de Bellefonds's brother, Alphonse; +and as he paid her more attention than from such a quarter was +agreeable to Jacques, the young men had had more than one quarrel +on the subject, on which occasion they had each, characteristically, +given vent to their enmity, the one in contemptuous monosyllables, +and the other in a volley of insulting words. But Claudine had +another lover, more nearly of her own condition of life; this was +Claperon, the deputy-governor of the Rouen jail, with whom she +had made acquaintance during one or two compulsory visits paid +by her brother to that functionary. Claudine, who was a bit of a +coquette, though she did not altogether reject his suit, gave him +little encouragement, so that, betwixt hopes and fears and doubts +and jealousies, poor Claperon led a very uneasy kind of life. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Affairs had been for some time in this position, when, one fine +morning, Alphonse de Bellefonds was not to be found in his chamber +when his servant went to call him; neither had his bed been slept +in. He had been observed to go out rather late on the previous +evening, but whether he had returned nobody could tell. He had not +appeared at supper, but that was too ordinary an event to awaken +suspicion; and little alarm was excited till several hours had +elapsed, when inquiries were instituted and a search commenced, +which terminated in the discovery of his body, a good deal mangled, +lying at the bottom of a pond which had belonged to the old brewery. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Before any investigation had been made, every person had jumped +to the conclusion that the young man had been murdered, and that +Jacques Rollet was the assassin. There was a strong presumption +in favor of that opinion, which further perquisitions tended to +confirm. Only the day before, Jacques had been heard to threaten +Monsieur de Bellefonds with speedy vengeance. On the fatal evening, +Alphonse and Claudine had been seen together in the neighborhood +of the now dismantled brewery; and as Jacques, betwixt poverty and +democracy, was in bad odor with the respectable part of society, it +was not easy for him to bring witnesses to character or to prove an +unexceptionable <i>alibi</i>. As for the Bellefonds and De Chaulieus, +and the aristocracy in general, they entertained no doubt of his +guilt; and finally, the magistrates coming to the same opinion, +Jacques Rollet was committed for trial at the next assizes, and +as a testimony of good-will, Antoine de Chaulieu was selected by +the injured family to conduct the prosecution. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Here, at last, was the opportunity he had sighed for. So interesting +a case, too, furnishing such ample occasion for passion, pathos, +indignation! And how eminently fortunate that the speech which +he set himself with ardor to prepare would be delivered in the +presence of the father and brother of his mistress, and perhaps +of the lady herself. The evidence against Jacques, it is true, +was altogether presumptive; there was no proof whatever that he +had committed the crime; and for his own part, he stoutly denied +it. But Antoine de Chaulieu entertained no doubt of his guilt, +and the speech he composed was certainly well calculated to carry +that conviction into the bosom of others. It was of the highest +importance to his own reputation that he should procure a verdict, +and he confidently assured the afflicted and enraged family of +the victim that their vengeance should be satisfied. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Under these circumstances, could anything be more unwelcome than +a piece of intelligence that was privately conveyed to him late on +the evening before the trial was to come on, which tended strongly +to exculpate the prisoner, without indicating any other person +as the criminal. Here was an opportunity lost. The first step of +the ladder on which he was to rise to fame, fortune, and a wife +was slipping from under his feet. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Of course so interesting a trial was anticipated with great eagerness +by the public; the court was crowded with all the beauty and fashion +of Rouen, and amongst the rest, doubly interesting in her mourning, +sat the fair Natalie, accompanied by her family. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +The young advocate's heart beat high; he felt himself inspired by +the occasion; and although Jacques Rollet persisted in asserting +his innocence, founding his defence chiefly on circumstances which +were strongly corroborated by the information that had reached De +Chaulieu the preceding evening, he was nevertheless convicted. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +In spite of the very strong doubts he privately entertained respecting +the justice of the verdict, even De Chaulieu himself, in the first +flush of success, amidst a crowd of congratulating friends and +the approving smiles of his mistress, felt gratified and happy; +his speech had, for the time being, not only convinced others but +himself; warmed with his own eloquence, he believed what he said. +But when the glow was over, and he found himself alone, he did not +feel so comfortable. A latent doubt of Rollet's guilt now pressed +strongly on his mind, and he felt that the blood of the innocent +would be on his head. It was true there was yet time to save the +life of the prisoner; but to admit Jacques innocent, was to take +the glory out of his own speech, and turn the sting of his argument +against himself. Besides, if he produced the witness who had secretly +given him the information, he should be self-condemned, for he could +not conceal that he had been aware of the circumstance before the +trial. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Matters having gone so far, therefore, it was necessary that Jacques +Rollet should die; and so the affair took its course; and early +one morning the guillotine was erected in the court-yard of the +gaol, three criminals ascended the scaffold, and three heads fell +into the basket, which were presently afterward, with the trunks +that had been attached to them, buried in a corner of the cemetery. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Antoine de Chaulieu was now fairly started in his career, and his +success was as rapid as the first step toward it had been tardy. +He took a pretty apartment in the Hôtel Marbœuf, Rue Grange +Batelière, and in a short time was looked upon as one of +the most rising young advocates in Paris. His success in one line +brought him success in another; he was soon a favorite in society, +and an object of interest to speculating mothers; but his affections +still adhered to his old love, Natalie de Bellefonds, whose family now +gave their assent to the match,—at least prospectively,—a +circumstance which furnished such additional incentive to his exertions, +that in about two years from his first brilliant speech he was in +a sufficiently flourishing condition to offer the young lady a +suitable home. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +In anticipation of the happy event, he engaged and furnished a +suite of apartments in the Rue de Helder; and as it was necessary +that the bride should come to Paris to provide her trousseau, it +was agreed that the wedding should take place there, instead of +at Bellefonds, as had been first projected,—an arrangement +the more desirable, that a press of business rendered Monsieur +de Chaulieu's absence from Paris inconvenient. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Brides and bridegrooms in France, except of the very high classes, +are not much in the habit of making those honeymoon excursions so +universal in this country. A day spent in visiting Versailles, or +St. Cloud, or even the public places of the city, is generally all +that precedes the settling down into the habits of daily life. In +the present instance, St. Denis was selected, from the circumstance +of Natalie's having a younger sister at school there, and also +because she had a particular desire to see the Abbey. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +The wedding was to take place on a Thursday; and on the Wednesday +evening, having spent some hours most agreeably with Natalie, Antoine +de Chaulieu returned to spend his last night in his bachelor apartments. +His wardrobe and other small possessions had already been packed +up, and sent to his future home; and there was nothing left in +his room now but his new wedding suit, which he inspected with +considerable satisfaction before he undressed and lay down to sleep. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Sleep, however, was somewhat slow to visit him, and the clock had +struck one before he closed his eyes. When he opened them again, +it was broad daylight, and his first thought was, had he overslept +himself? He sat up in bed to look at the clock, which was exactly +opposite; and as he did so, in the large mirror over the fireplace, +he perceived a figure standing behind him. As the dilated eyes +met his own, he saw it was the face of Jacques Rollet. Overcome +with horror, he sank back on his pillow, and it was some minutes +before he ventured to look again in that direction; when he did +so, the figure had disappeared. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +The sudden revulsion of feeling which such a vision was calculated +to occasion in a man elate with joy may be conceived. For some +time after the death of his former foe, he had been visited by +not infrequent twinges of conscience; but of late, borne along by +success and the hurry of Parisian life, these unpleasant remembrances +had grown rarer, till at length they had faded away altogether. +Nothing had been further from his thoughts than Jacques Rollet +when he closed his eyes on the preceding night, or when he opened +them to that sun which was to shine on what he expected to be the +happiest day of his life. Where were the high-strung nerves now, +the elastic frame, the bounding heart? +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Heavily and slowly he arose from his bed, for it was time to do +so; and with a trembling hand and quivering knees he went through +the processes of the toilet, gashing his cheek with the razor, +and spilling the water over his well-polished boots. When he was +dressed, scarcely venturing to cast a glance in the mirror as he +passed it, he quitted the room and descended the stairs, taking +the key of the door with him, for the purpose of leaving it with +the porter; the man, however, being absent, he laid it on the table +in his lodge, and with a relaxed hand and languid step he proceeded +to the carriage which quickly conveyed him to the church, where +he was met by Natalie and her friends. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +How difficult it was now to look happy, with that pallid face and +extinguished eye! +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"How pale you are! Has anything happened? You are surely ill?" were +the exclamations that assailed him on all sides. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +He tried to carry the thing off as well as he could, but he felt +that the movements he would have wished to appear alert were only +convulsive, and that the smiles with which he attempted to relax +his features were but distorted grimaces. However, the church was +not the place for further inquiries; and whilst Natalie gently +pressed his hand in token of sympathy, they advanced to the altar, +and the ceremony was performed; after which they stepped into the +carriages waiting at the door, and drove to the apartments of Madame +de Bellefonds, where an elegant <i>déjeuner</i> was prepared. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"What ails you, my dear husband?" inquired Natalie, as soon as they +were alone. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Nothing, love," he replied; "nothing, I assure you, but a restless +night and a little overwork, in order that I might have to-day +free to enjoy my happiness." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Are you quite sure? Is there nothing else?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Nothing, indeed, and pray don't take notice of it; it only makes +me worse." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Natalie was not deceived, but she saw that what he said was +true,—notice made him worse; so she contented herself with +observing him quietly and saying nothing; but as he felt she was +observing him, she might almost better have spoken; words are often +less embarrassing things than too curious eyes. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +When they reached Madame de Bellefonds' he had the same sort of +scrutiny to undergo, till he grew quite impatient under it, and +betrayed a degree of temper altogether unusual with him. Then everybody +looked astonished; some whispered their remarks, and others expressed +them by their wondering eyes, till his brow knit, and his pallid +cheeks became flushed with anger. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Neither could he divert attention by eating; his parched mouth +would not allow him to swallow anything but liquids, of which he +indulged in copious libations; and it was an exceeding relief to +him when the carriage which was to convey them to St. Denis, being +announced, furnished an excuse for hastily leaving the table. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Looking at his watch, he declared it was late; and Natalie, who saw +how eager he was to be gone, threw her shawl over her shoulders, +and bidding her friends good morning they hurried away. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +It was a fine sunny day in June; and as they drove along the crowded +boulevards and through the Porte St. Denis, the young bride and +bridegroom, to avoid each other's eyes, affected to be gazing out +of the windows; but when they reached that part of the road where +there was nothing but trees on each side, they felt it necessary +to draw in their heads, and make an attempt at conversation. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +De Chaulieu put his arm round his wife's waist, and tried to rouse +himself from his depression; but it had by this time so reacted +upon her, that she could not respond to his efforts; and thus the +conversation languished, till both felt glad when they reached their +destination, which would, at all events, furnish them something +to talk about. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Having quitted the carriage and ordered a dinner at the Hôtel +de l'Abbaye, the young couple proceeded to visit Mademoiselle de +Bellefonds, who was overjoyed to see her sister and new brother-in-law, +and doubly so when she found that they had obtained permission to +take her out to spend the afternoon with them. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +As there is little to be seen at St. Denis but the Abbey, on quitting +that part of it devoted to education, they proceeded to visit the +church with its various objects of interest; and as De Chaulieu's +thoughts were now forced into another direction, his cheerfulness +began insensibly to return. Natalie looked so beautiful, too, and the +affection betwixt the two young sisters was so pleasant to behold! +And they spent a couple of hours wandering about with Hortense, who +was almost as well informed as the Suisse, till the brazen doors +were open which admitted them to the royal vault. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Satisfied at length with what they had seen, they began to think +of returning to the inn, the more especially as De Chaulieu, who +had not eaten a morsel of food since the previous evening, confessed +to being hungry; so they directed their steps to the door, lingering +here and there as they went to inspect a monument or a painting, when +happening to turn his head aside to see if his wife, who had stopped +to take a last look at the tomb of King Dagobert, was following, +he beheld with horror the face of Jacques Rollet appearing from +behind a column. At the same instant his wife joined him and took +his arm, inquiring if he was not very much delighted with what +he had seen. He attempted to say yes, but the word died upon his +lips; and staggering out of the door, he alleged that a sudden +faintness had overcome him. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +They conducted him to the hotel, but Natalie now became seriously +alarmed; and well she might. His complexion looked ghastly, his +limbs shook, and his features bore an expression of indescribable +horror and anguish. What could be the meaning of so extraordinary +a change in the gay, witty, prosperous De Chaulieu, who, till that +morning, seemed not to have a care in the world? For, plead illness +as he might, she felt certain, from the expression of his features, +that his sufferings were not of the body, but of the mind; and +unable to imagine any reason for such extraordinary manifestations, +of which she had never before seen a symptom, but a sudden aversion +to herself, and regret for the step he had taken, her pride took the +alarm, and, concealing the distress she really felt, she began to +assume a haughty and reserved manner toward him, which he naturally +interpreted into an evidence of anger and contempt. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +The dinner was placed upon the table, but De Chaulieu's appetite, of +which he had lately boasted, was quite gone; nor was his wife better +able to eat. The young sister alone did justice to the repast; but +although the bridegroom could not eat, he could swallow champagne +in such copious draughts that erelong the terror and remorse which +the apparition of Jacques Rollet had awakened in his breast were +drowned in intoxication. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Amazed and indignant, poor Natalie sat silently observing this elect +of her heart, till, overcome with disappointment and grief, she +quitted the room with her sister, and retired to another apartment, +where she gave free vent to her feelings in tears. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +After passing a couple of hours in confidences and lamentations, +they recollected that the hours of liberty, granted as an especial +favor to Mademoiselle Hortense, had expired; but ashamed to exhibit +her husband in his present condition to the eyes of strangers, +Natalie prepared to reconduct her to the Maison Royal herself. +Looking into the dining-room as they passed, they saw De Chaulieu +lying on a sofa, fast asleep, in which state he continued when +his wife returned. At length the driver of their carriage begged +to know if monsieur and madame were ready to return to Paris, and +it became necessary to arouse him. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +The transitory effects of the champagne had now subsided; but when +De Chaulieu recollected what had happened, nothing could exceed +his shame and mortification. So engrossing, indeed, were these +sensations, that they quite overpowered his previous ones, and, +in his present vexation, he for the moment forgot his fears. He +knelt at his wife's feet, begged her pardon a thousand times, swore +that he adored her, and declared that the illness and the effect of +the wine had been purely the consequences of fasting and overwork. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +It was not the easiest thing in the world to reassure a woman whose +pride, affection, and taste had been so severely wounded; but Natalie +tried to believe, or to appear to do so, and a sort of reconciliation +ensued, not quite sincere on the part of the wife, and very humbling +on the part of the husband. Under these circumstances it was impossible +that he should recover his spirits or facility of manner; his gayety +was forced, his tenderness constrained; his heart was heavy within +him; and ever and anon the source whence all this disappointment +and woe had sprung would recur to his perplexed and tortured mind. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Thus mutually pained and distrustful, they returned to Paris, which +they reached about nine o'clock. In spite of her depression, Natalie, +who had not seen her new apartments, felt some curiosity about them, +whilst De Chaulieu anticipated a triumph in exhibiting the elegant +home he had prepared for her. With some alacrity, therefore, they +stepped out of the carriage, the gates of the hotel were thrown +open, the <i>concierge</i> rang the bell which announced to the +servants that their master and mistress had arrived; and whilst +these domestics appeared above, holding lights over the balusters, +Natalie, followed by her husband, ascended the stairs. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +But when they reached the landing-place of the first flight, they +saw the figure of a man standing in a corner, as if to make way for +them. The flash from above fell upon his face, and again Antoine +de Chaulieu recognized the features of Jacques Rollet. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +From the circumstance of his wife preceding him, the figure was +not observed by De Chaulieu till he was lifting his foot to place +it on the top stair: the sudden shock caused him to miss the step, +and without uttering a sound, he fell back, and never stopped until +he reached the stones at the bottom. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +The screams of Natalie brought the <i>concierge</i> from below +and the maids from above, and an attempt was made to raise the +unfortunate man from the ground; but with cries of anguish he besought +them to desist. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Let me," he said, "die here. O God! what a dreadful vengeance +is thine! Natalie, Natalie," he exclaimed to his wife, who was +kneeling beside him, "to win fame, and fortune, and yourself, I +committed a dreadful crime. With lying words I argued away the +life of a fellow-creature, whom, whilst I uttered them, I half +believed to be innocent; and now, when I have attained all I desired +and reached the summit of my hopes, the Almighty has sent him back +upon the earth to blast me with the sight. Three times this +day—three times this day! Again! Again! Again!" And as he +spoke, his wild and dilated eyes fixed themselves on one of the +individuals that surrounded him. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"He is delirious," said they. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"No," said the stranger, "what he says is true enough, at least in +part." And, bending over the expiring man, he added, "May Heaven +forgive you, Antoine de Chaulieu! I am no apparition, but the veritable +Jacques Rollet, who was saved by one who well knew my innocence. I +may name him, for he is beyond the reach of the law now: it was +Claperon, the jailer, who, in a fit of jealousy, had himself killed +Alphonse de Bellefonds." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"But—but there were three," gasped Antoine. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Yes, a miserable idiot, who had been so long in confinement for +a murder that he was forgotten by the authorities, was substituted +for me. At length I obtained, through the assistance of my sister, the +position of <i>concierge</i> in the Hôtel Marbœuf, in the +Rue Grange Bateliere. I entered on my new place yesterday evening, +and was desired to awaken the gentleman on the third floor at seven +o'clock. When I entered the room to do so, you were asleep; but +before I had time to speak, you awoke, and I recognized your features +in the glass. Knowing that I could not vindicate my innocence if +you chose to seize me, I fled, and seeing an omnibus starting for +St. Denis, I got on it with a vague idea of getting on to Calais +and crossing the Channel to England. But having only a franc or +two in my pocket, or indeed in the world, I did not know how to +procure the means of going forward; and whilst I was lounging about +the place, forming first one plan and then another, I saw you in the +church, and, concluding that you were in pursuit of me, I thought +the best way of eluding your vigilance was to make my way back to +Paris as fast as I could; so I set off instantly, and walked all +the way; but having no money to pay my night's lodging, I came +here to borrow a couple of livres of my sister Claudine, who is +a <i>brodeuse</i> and resides <i>au cinquième</i>." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Thank Heaven!" exclaimed the dying man, "that sin is off my soul. +Natalie, dear wife, farewell! Forgive—forgive all." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +These were the last words he uttered; the priest, who had been +summoned in haste, held up the cross before his failing sight; a +few strong convulsions shook the poor bruised and mangled frame; +and then all was still. +</p> + +<div class="img_ctr" style="width: 247px;"> + <img src="images/fig022.gif" width="247" height="146" alt="Fig. 22"> +</div> + +<div class="img_ctr" style="width: 530px;"><a name="page_207"> + <img src="images/fig023.gif" width="530" height="120" alt="Fig. 23"> +</a></div> + +<h2>THE BIRTHMARK.</h2> + +<p class="subtitle">BY NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE.</p> + +<p class="justify"> +<img src="images/fig024.gif" width="86" height="82" alt="I" + style="float: left;">n the latter part of the last century there +lived a man of science, an eminent proficient in every branch of +natural philosophy, who not long before our story opens had made +experience of a spiritual affinity more attractive than any chemical +one. He had left his laboratory to the care of an assistant, cleared +his fine countenance from the furnace-smoke, washed the stain of +acids from his fingers, and persuaded a beautiful woman to become +his wife. In those days, when the comparatively recent discovery of +electricity and other kindred mysteries of Nature seemed to open +paths into the region of miracle, it was not unusual for the love of +science to rival the love of woman in its depth and absorbing energy. +The higher intellect, the imagination, the spirit, and even the heart +might all find their congenial aliment in pursuits which, as some of +their ardent votaries believed, would ascend from one step of powerful +intelligence to another, until the philosopher should lay his hand +on the secret of creative force and perhaps make new worlds for +himself. We know not whether Aylmer possessed this degree of faith +in man's ultimate control over nature. He had devoted himself, +however, too unreservedly to scientific studies ever to be weaned +from them by any second passion. His love for his young wife might +prove the stronger of the two; but it could only be by intertwining +itself with his love of science and uniting the strength of the +latter to its own. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Such a union accordingly took place, and was attended with truly +remarkable consequences and a deeply impressive moral. One day, +very soon after their marriage, Aylmer sat gazing at his wife with +a trouble in his countenance that grew stronger until he spoke. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Georgiana," said he, "has it never occurred to you that the mark +upon your cheek might be removed?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"No, indeed," said she, smiling; but, perceiving the seriousness +of his manner, she blushed deeply. "To tell you the truth, it has +been so often called a charm, that I was simple enough to imagine +it might be so." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Ah, upon another face perhaps it might," replied her husband; +"but never on yours. No, dearest Georgiana, you came so nearly +perfect from the hand of Nature that this slightest possible defect, +which we hesitate whether to term a defect or a beauty, shocks +me, as being the visible mark of earthly imperfection." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Shocks you, my husband!" cried Georgiana, deeply hurt; at first +reddening with momentary anger, but then bursting into tears. "Then +why did you take me from my mother's side? You cannot love what +shocks you!" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +To explain this conversation, it must be mentioned that in the +centre of Georgiana's left cheek there was a singular mark, deeply +interwoven, as it were, with the texture and substance of her face. +In the usual state of her complexion,—a healthy though delicate +bloom,—the mark wore a tint of deeper crimson, which imperfectly +defined its shape amid the surrounding rosiness. When she blushed +it gradually became more indistinct, and finally vanished amid +the triumphant rush of blood that bathed the whole cheek with its +brilliant glow. But if any shifting emotion caused her to turn +pale there was the mark again, a crimson stain upon the snow, in +what Aylmer sometimes deemed an almost fearful distinctness. Its +shape bore not a little similarity to the human hand, though of the +smallest pygmy size. Georgiana's lovers were wont to say that some +fairy at her birth hour had laid her tiny hand upon the infant's +cheek, and left this impress there in token of the magic endowments +that were to give her such sway over all hearts. Many a desperate +swain would have risked life for the privilege of pressing his lips +to the mysterious hand. It must not be concealed, however, that +the impression wrought by this fairy sign-manual varied exceedingly +according to the difference of temperament in the beholders. Some +fastidious persons—but they were exclusively of her own +sex—affirmed that the bloody hand, as they chose to call +it, quite destroyed the effect of Georgiana's beauty and rendered +her countenance even hideous. But it would be as reasonable to +say that one of those small blue stains which sometimes occur in +the purest statuary marble would convert the Eve of Powers to a +monster. Masculine observers, if the birthmark did not heighten +their admiration, contented themselves with wishing it away, that +the world might possess one living specimen of ideal loveliness +without the semblance of a flaw. After his marriage—for he +thought little or nothing of the matter before—Aylmer discovered +that this was the case with himself. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Had she been less beautiful,—if Envy's self could have found +aught else to sneer at,—he might have felt his affection +heightened by the prettiness of this mimic hand, now vaguely portrayed, +now lost, now stealing forth again and glimmering to and fro with +every pulse of emotion that throbbed within her heart; but, seeing +her otherwise so perfect, he found this one defect grow more and +more intolerable with every moment of their united lives. It was +the fatal flaw of humanity which Nature, in one shape or another, +stamps ineffaceably on all her productions, either to imply that +they are temporary and finite, or that their perfection must be +wrought by toil and pain. The crimson hand expressed the ineludible +gripe in which mortality clutches the highest and purest of earthly +mould, degrading them into kindred with the lowest, and even with +the very brutes, like whom their visible frames return to dust. In +this manner, selecting it as the symbol of his wife's liability +to sin, sorrow, decay, and death, Aylmer's sombre imagination was +not long in rendering the birthmark a frightful object, causing +him more trouble and horror than ever Georgiana's beauty, whether +of soul or sense, had given him delight. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +At all the seasons which should have been their happiest he invariably, +and without intending it, nay, in spite of a purpose to the contrary, +reverted to this one disastrous topic. Trifling as it at first +appeared, it so connected itself with innumerable trains of thought +and modes of feeling that it became the central point of all. With +the morning twilight Aylmer opened his eyes upon his wife's face and +recognized the symbol of imperfection; and when they sat together +at the evening hearth his eyes wandered stealthily to her cheek, and +beheld, flickering with the blaze of the wood fire, the spectral +hand that wrote mortality where he would fain have worshipped. +Georgiana soon learned to shudder at his gaze. It needed but a +glance with the peculiar expression that his face often wore to +change the roses of her cheek into a deathlike paleness, amid which +the crimson hand was brought strongly out, like a bas-relief of +ruby on the whitest marble. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Late one night, when the lights were growing dim so as hardly to +betray the stain on the poor wife's cheek, she herself, for the +first time, voluntarily took up the subject. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Do you remember, my dear Aylmer," said she, with a feeble attempt +at a smile, "have you any recollection, of a dream last night about +this odious hand?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"None! none whatever!" replied Aylmer, starting; but then he added, +in a dry, cold tone, affected for the sake of concealing the real +depth of his emotion, "I might well dream of it; for, before I +fell asleep, it had taken a pretty firm hold of my fancy." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"And you did dream of it?" continued Georgiana, hastily; for she +dreaded lest a gush of tears should interrupt what she had to say. +"A terrible dream! I wonder that you can forget it. Is it possible +to forget this one expression?—'It is in her heart now; we +must have it out!' Reflect, my husband; for by all means I would +have you recall that dream." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +The mind is in a sad state when Sleep, the all-involving, cannot +confine her spectres within the dim region of her sway, but suffers +them to break forth affrighting this actual life with secrets that +perchance belong to a deeper one. Aylmer now remembered his dream. +He had fancied himself with his servant Aminadab attempting an +operation for the removal of the birthmark; but the deeper went +the knife, the deeper sank the hand, until at length its tiny grasp +appeared to have caught hold of Georgiana's heart; whence, however, +her husband was inexorably resolved to cut or wrench it away. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +When the dream had shaped itself perfectly in his memory, Aylmer +sat in his wife's presence with a guilty feeling. Truth often finds +its way to the mind close muffled in robes of sleep, and then speaks +with uncompromising directness of matters in regard to which we +practise an unconscious self-deception during our waking moments. +Until now he had not been aware of the tyrannizing influence acquired +by one idea over his mind, and of the lengths which he might find +in his heart to go for the sake of giving himself peace. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Aylmer," resumed Georgiana, solemnly, "I know not what may be +the cost to both of us to rid me of this fatal birthmark. Perhaps +its removal may cause cureless deformity; or it may be the stain +goes as deep as life itself. Again: do we know that there is a +possibility, on any terms, of unclasping the firm gripe of this +little hand which was laid upon me before I came into the world?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Dearest Georgiana, I have spent much thought upon the subject," +hastily interrupted Aylmer. "I am convinced of the perfect +practicability of its removal." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"If there be the remotest possibility of it," continued Georgiana, +"let the attempt be made, at whatever risk. Danger is nothing to +me; for life, while this hateful mark makes me the object of your +horror and disgust,—life is a burden which I would fling down +with joy. Either remove this dreadful hand, or take my wretched +life! You have deep science. All the world bears witness of it. +You have achieved great wonders. Cannot you remove this little, +little mark, which I cover with the tips of two small fingers? +Is this beyond your power, for the sake of your own peace, and to +save your poor wife from madness?" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Noblest, dearest, tenderest wife," cried Aylmer, rapturously, +"doubt not my power. I have already given this matter the deepest +thought,—thought which might almost have enlightened me to +create a being less perfect than yourself. Georgiana, you have led +me deeper than ever into the heart of science. I feel myself fully +competent to render this dear cheek as faultless as its fellow; +and then, most beloved, what will be my triumph when I shall have +corrected what Nature left imperfect in her fairest work! Even +Pygmalion, when his sculptured woman assumed life, felt not greater +ecstasy than mine will be." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"It is resolved, then," said Georgiana, faintly smiling. "And, +Aylmer, spare me not, though you should find the birthmark take +refuge in my heart at last." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Her husband tenderly kissed her cheek,—her right cheek,—not +that which bore the impress of the crimson hand. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +The next day Aylmer apprised his wife of a plan that he had formed +whereby he might have opportunity for the intense thought and constant +watchfulness which the proposed operation would require; while +Georgiana, likewise, would enjoy the perfect repose essential to its +success. They were to seclude themselves in the extensive apartments +occupied by Aylmer as a laboratory, and where, during his toilsome +youth, he had made discoveries in the elemental powers of Nature +that had roused the admiration of all the learned societies in +Europe. Seated calmly in this laboratory, the pale philosopher +had investigated the secrets of the highest cloud region and of +the profoundest mines; he had satisfied himself of the causes that +kindled and kept alive the fires of the volcano; and had explained +the mystery of fountains, and how it is that they gush forth, some +so bright and pure, and others with such rich medicinal virtues, from +the dark bosom of the earth. Here, too, at an earlier period, he had +studied the wonders of the human frame, and attempted to fathom the +very process by which Nature assimilates all her precious influences +from earth and air, and from the spiritual world, to create and foster +man, her masterpiece. The latter pursuit, however, Aylmer had long +laid aside in unwilling recognition of the truth—against +which all seekers sooner or later stumble—that our great +creative Mother, while she amuses us with apparently working in +the broadest sunshine, is yet severely careful to keep her own +secrets, and, in spite of her pretended openness, shows us nothing +but results. She permits us, indeed, to mar, but seldom to mend, +and, like a jealous patentee, on no account to make. Now, however, +Aylmer resumed these half-forgotten investigations; not, of course, +with such hopes or wishes as first suggested them; but because +they involved much physiological truth and lay in the path of his +proposed scheme for the treatment of Georgiana. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +As he led her over the threshold of the laboratory, Georgiana was +cold and tremulous. Aylmer looked cheerfully into her face, with +intent to reassure her, but was so startled with the intense glow +of the birthmark upon the whiteness of her cheek that he could +not restrain a strong convulsive shudder. His wife fainted. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Aminadab! Aminadab!" shouted Aylmer, stamping violently on the +floor. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Forthwith there issued from an inner apartment a man of low stature, +but bulky frame, with shaggy hair hanging about his visage, which +was grimed with the vapors of the furnace. This personage had been +Aylmer's under-worker during his whole scientific career, and was +admirably fitted for that office by his great mechanical readiness, +and the skill with which, while incapable of comprehending a single +principle, he executed all the details of his master's experiments. +With his vast strength, his shaggy hair, his smoky aspect, and the +indescribable earthiness that incrusted him, he seemed to represent +man's physical nature; while Aylmer's slender figure and pale, +intellectual face were no less apt a type of the spiritual element. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Throw open the door of the boudoir, Aminadab," said Aylmer, "and +burn a pastil." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Yes, master," answered Aminadab, looking intently at the lifeless +form of Georgiana; and then he muttered to himself, "If she were +my wife, I'd never part with that birthmark." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +When Georgiana recovered consciousness she found herself breathing +an atmosphere of penetrating fragrance, the gentle potency of which +had recalled her from her deathlike faintness. The scene around +her looked like enchantment. Aylmer had converted those smoky, +dingy, sombre rooms, where he had spent his brightest years in +recondite pursuits, into a series of beautiful apartments not unfit +to be the secluded abode of a lovely woman. The walls were hung +with gorgeous curtains, which imparted the combination of grandeur +and grace that no other species of adornment can achieve; and, as +they fell from the ceiling to the floor, their rich and ponderous +folds, concealing all angles and straight lines, appeared to shut +in the scene from infinite space. For aught Georgiana knew, it +might be a pavilion among the clouds. And Aylmer, excluding the +sunshine, which would have interfered with his chemical processes, +had supplied its place with perfumed lamps, emitting flames of +various hue, but all uniting in a soft, impurpled radiance. He +now knelt by his wife's side, watching her earnestly, but without +alarm; for he was confident in his science, and felt that he could +draw a magic circle round her within which no evil might intrude. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Where am I? Ah, I remember," said Georgiana, faintly; and she +placed her hand over her cheek to hide the terrible mark from her +husband's eyes. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Fear not, dearest!" exclaimed he. "Do not shrink from me! Believe +me, Georgiana, I even rejoice in this single imperfection, since +it will be such a rapture to remove it." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"O, spare me!" sadly replied his wife. "Pray do not look at it again. +I never can forget that convulsive shudder." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +In order to soothe Georgiana, and, as it were, to release her mind +from the burden of actual things, Aylmer now put in practice some +of the light and playful secrets which science had taught him among +its profounder lore. Airy figures, absolutely bodiless ideas, and +forms of unsubstantial beauty came and danced before her, imprinting +their momentary footsteps on beams of light. Though she had some +indistinct idea of the method of these optical phenomena, still the +illusion was almost perfect enough to warrant the belief that her +husband possessed sway over the spiritual world. Then again, when +she felt a wish to look forth from her seclusion, immediately, as +if her thoughts were answered, the procession of external existence +flitted across a screen. The scenery and the figures of actual +life were perfectly represented, but with that bewitching yet +indescribable difference which always makes a picture, an image, +or a shadow so much more attractive than the original. When wearied +of this, Aylmer bade her cast her eyes upon a vessel containing a +quantity of earth. She did so, with little interest at first; but +was soon startled to perceive the germ of a plant shooting upward +from the soil. Then came the slender stalk; the leaves gradually +unfolded themselves; and amid them was a perfect and lovely flower. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"It is magical!" cried Georgiana. "I dare not touch it." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Nay, pluck it," answered Aylmer,—"pluck it, and inhale its +brief perfume while you may. The flower will wither in a few moments +and leave nothing save its brown seed-vessels; but thence may be +perpetuated a race as ephemeral as itself." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +But Georgiana had no sooner touched the flower than the whole plant +suffered a blight, its leaves turning coal-black as if by the agency +of fire. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"There was too powerful a stimulus," said Aylmer, thoughtfully. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +To make up for this abortive experiment, he proposed to take her +portrait by a scientific process of his own invention. It was to be +effected by rays of light striking upon a polished plate of metal. +Georgiana assented; but, on looking at the result, was affrighted to +find the features of the portrait blurred and indefinable; while +the minute figure of a hand appeared where the cheek should have +been. Aylmer snatched the metallic plate and threw it into a jar +of corrosive acid. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Soon, however, he forgot these mortifying failures. In the intervals +of study and chemical experiment he came to her flushed and exhausted, +but seemed invigorated by her presence, and spoke in glowing language +of the resources of his art. He gave a history of the long dynasty +of the alchemists, who spent so many ages in quest of the universal +solvent by which the golden principle might be elicited from all +things vile and base. Aylmer appeared to believe that, by the plainest +scientific logic, it was altogether within the limits of possibility +to discover this long-sought medium. "But," he added, "a philosopher +who should go deep enough to acquire the power would attain too +lofty a wisdom to stoop to the exercise of it." Not less singular +were his opinions in regard to the elixir vitæ. He more than +intimated that it was at his option to concoct a liquid that should +prolong life for years, perhaps interminably; but that it would +produce a discord in Nature which all the world, and chiefly the +quaffer of the immortal nostrum, would find cause to curse. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Aylmer, are you in earnest?" asked Georgiana, looking at him with +amazement and fear. "It is terrible to possess such power, or even +to dream of possessing it." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"O, do not tremble, my love!" said her husband. "I would not wrong +either you or myself by working such inharmonious effects upon our +lives; but I would have you consider how trifling, in comparison, +is the skill requisite to remove this little hand." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +At the mention of the birthmark, Georgiana, as usual, shrank as +if a red-hot iron had touched her cheek. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Again Aylmer applied himself to his labors. She could hear his +voice in the distant furnace-room giving directions to Aminadab, +whose harsh, uncouth, misshapen tones were audible in response, +more like the grunt or growl of a brute than human speech. After +hours of absence, Aylmer reappeared and proposed that she should +now examine his cabinet of chemical products and natural treasures +of the earth. Among the former he showed her a small vial, in which, +he remarked, was contained a gentle yet most powerful fragrance, +capable of impregnating all the breezes that blow across a kingdom. +They were of inestimable value, the contents of that little vial; +and, as he said so, he threw some of the perfume into the air and +filled the room with piercing and invigorating delight. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"And what is this?" asked Georgiana, pointing to a small crystal +globe containing a gold-colored liquid. "It is so beautiful to +the eye that I could imagine it the elixir of life." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"In one sense it is," replied Aylmer; "or rather, the elixir of +immortality. It is the most precious poison that ever was concocted +in this world. By its aid I could apportion the lifetime of any +mortal at whom you might point your finger. The strength of the +dose would determine whether he were to linger out years, or drop +dead in the midst of a breath. No king on his guarded throne could +keep his life if I, in my private station, should deem that the +welfare of millions justified me in depriving him of it." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Why do you keep such a terrific drug?" inquired Georgiana in horror. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Do not mistrust me, dearest," said her husband, smiling; "its +virtuous potency is yet greater than its harmful one. But see! +here is a powerful cosmetic. With a few drops of this in a vase +of water, freckles may be washed away as easily as the hands are +cleansed. A stronger infusion would take the blood out of the cheek, +and leave the rosiest beauty a pale ghost." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Is it with this lotion that you intend to bathe my cheek?" asked +Georgiana, anxiously. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"O, no," hastily replied her husband; "this is merely superficial. +Your case demands a remedy that shall go deeper." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +In his interviews with Georgiana, Aylmer generally made minute +inquiries as to her sensations, and whether the confinement of +the rooms and the temperature of the atmosphere agreed with her. +These questions had such a particular drift that Georgiana began +to conjecture that she was already subjected to certain physical +influences, either breathed in with the fragrant air or taken with +her food. She fancied likewise, but it might be altogether fancy, that +there was a stirring up of her system,—a strange, indefinite +sensation creeping through her veins, and tingling, half painfully, +half pleasurably, at her heart. Still, whenever she dared to look +into the mirror, there she beheld herself pale as a white rose +and with the crimson birthmark stamped upon her cheek. Not even +Aylmer now hated it so much as she. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +To dispel the tedium of the hours which her husband found it necessary +to devote to the processes of combination and analysis, Georgiana +turned over the volumes of his scientific library. In many dark +old tomes she met with chapters full of romance and poetry. They +were the works of the philosophers of the Middle Ages, such as +Albertus Magnus, Cornelius Agrippa, Paracelsus, and the famous +friar who created the prophetic Brazen Head. All these antique +naturalists stood in advance of their centuries, yet were imbued +with some of their credulity, and therefore were believed, and +perhaps imagined themselves to have acquired from the investigation +of nature a power above nature, and from physics a sway over the +spiritual world. Hardly less curious and imaginative were the early +volumes of the Transactions of the Royal Society, in which the +members, knowing little of the limits of natural possibility, were +continually recording wonders or proposing methods whereby wonders +might be wrought. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +But, to Georgiana, the most engrossing volume was a large folio from +her husband's own hand, in which he had recorded every experiment +of his scientific career, its original aim, the methods adopted +for its development, and its final success or failure, with the +circumstances to which either event was attributable. The book, in +truth, was both the history and emblem of his ardent, ambitious, +imaginative, yet practical and laborious life. He handled physical +details as if there were nothing beyond them; yet spiritualized +them all, and redeemed himself from materialism by his strong and +eager aspiration toward the infinite. In his grasp the veriest +clod of earth assumed a soul. Georgiana, as she read, reverenced +Aylmer and loved him more profoundly than ever, but with a less +entire dependence on his judgment than heretofore. Much as he had +accomplished, she could not but observe that his most splendid +successes were almost invariably failures, if compared with the +ideal at which he aimed. His brightest diamonds were the merest +pebbles, and felt to be so by himself, in comparison with the +inestimable gems which lay hidden beyond his reach. The volume, +rich with achievements that had won renown for its author, was yet +as melancholy a record as ever mortal hand had penned. It was the +sad confession and continual exemplification of the shortcomings +of the composite man, the spirit burdened with clay and working +in matter, and of the despair that assails the higher nature at +finding itself so miserably thwarted by the earthly part. Perhaps +every man of genius, in whatever sphere, might recognize the image +of his own experience in Aylmer's journal. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +So deeply did these reflections affect Georgiana, that she laid her +face upon the open volume and burst into tears. In this situation +she was found by her husband. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"It is dangerous to read in a sorcerer's books," said he with a +smile, though his countenance was uneasy and displeased. "Georgiana, +there are pages in that volume which I can scarcely glance over and +keep my senses. Take heed lest it prove as detrimental to you." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"It has made me worship you more than ever," said she. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Ah, wait for this one success," rejoined he, "then worship me if +you will. I shall deem myself hardly unworthy of it. But come, I +have sought you for the luxury of your voice. Sing to me, dearest." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +So she poured out the liquid music of her voice to quench the thirst +of his spirit. He then took his leave with a boyish exuberance of +gayety, assuring her that her seclusion would endure but a little +longer, and that the result was already certain. Scarcely had he +departed when Georgiana felt irresistibly impelled to follow him. She +had forgotten to inform Aylmer of a symptom which for two or three +hours past had begun to excite her attention. It was a sensation in +the fatal birthmark, not painful, but which induced a restlessness +throughout her system. Hastening after her husband, she intruded +for the first time into the laboratory. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +The first thing that struck her eye was the furnace, that hot and +feverish worker, with the intense glow of its fire, which by the +quantities of soot clustered above it seemed to have been burning +for ages. There was a distilling apparatus in full operation. Around +the room were retorts, tubes, cylinders, crucibles, and other apparatus +of chemical research. An electrical machine stood ready for immediate +use. The atmosphere felt oppressively close, and was tainted with +gaseous odors which had been tormented forth by the processes of +science. The severe and homely simplicity of the apartment, with +its naked walls and brick pavement, looked strange, accustomed as +Georgiana had become to the fantastic elegance of her boudoir. +But what chiefly, indeed almost solely, drew her attention, was +the aspect of Aylmer himself. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +He was pale as death, anxious and absorbed, and hung over the furnace +as if it depended upon his utmost watchfulness whether the liquid +which it was distilling should be the draught of immortal happiness +or misery. How different from the sanguine and joyous mien that +he had assumed for Georgiana's encouragement! +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Carefully now, Aminadab; carefully, thou human machine; carefully, +thou man of clay," muttered Aylmer, more to himself than his assistant. +"Now, if there be a thought too much or too little, it is all over." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Ho! ho!" mumbled Aminadab. "Look, master! look!" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Aylmer raised his eyes hastily, and at first reddened, then grew +paler than ever, on beholding Georgiana. He rushed towards her +and seized her arm with a gripe that left the print of his fingers +upon it. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Why do you come hither? Have you no trust in your husband?" cried +he, impetuously. "Would you throw the blight of that fatal birthmark +over my labors? It is not well done. Go, prying woman! go!" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Nay, Aylmer," said Georgiana with the firmness of which she possessed +no stinted endowment, "it is not you that have a right to complain. +You mistrust your wife; you have concealed the anxiety with which +you watch the development of this experiment. Think not so unworthily +of me, my husband. Tell me all the risk we run, and fear not that +I shall shrink; for my share in it is far less than your own." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"No, no, Georgiana!" said Aylmer, impatiently; "it must not be." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"I submit," replied she, calmly. "And, Aylmer, I shall quaff whatever +draught you bring me; but it will be on the same principle that +would induce me to take a dose of poison if offered by your hand." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"My noble wife," said Aylmer, deeply moved, "I knew not the height +and depth of your nature until now. Nothing shall be concealed. +Know, then, that this crimson hand, superficial as it seems, has +clutched its grasp into your being with a strength of which I had +no previous conception. I have already administered agents powerful +enough to do aught except to change your entire physical system. +Only one thing remains to be tried. If that fail us we are ruined." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Why did you hesitate to tell me this?" asked she. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Because, Georgiana," said Aylmer, in a low voice, "there is danger." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Danger? There is but one danger,—that this horrible stigma +shall be left upon my cheek!" cried Georgiana. "Remove it, remove +it, whatever be the cost, or we shall both go mad!" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Heaven knows your words are too true," said Aylmer, sadly. "And +now, dearest, return to your boudoir. In a little while all will +be tested." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +He conducted her back and took leave of her with a solemn tenderness +which spoke far more than his words how much was now at stake. After +his departure Georgiana became rapt in musings. She considered the +character of Aylmer, and did it completer justice than at any previous +moment. Her heart exulted, while it trembled, at his honorable +love,—so pure and lofty that it would accept nothing less than +perfection nor miserably make itself contented with an earthlier +nature than he had dreamed of. She felt how much more precious was +such a sentiment than that meaner kind which would have borne with +the imperfection for her sake, and have been guilty of treason to +holy love by degrading its perfect idea to the level of the actual; +and with her whole spirit she prayed that, for a single moment, she +might satisfy his highest and deepest conception. Longer than one +moment she well knew it could not be; for his spirit was ever on +the march, ever ascending, and each instant required something +that was beyond the scope of the instant before. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +The sound of her husband's footsteps aroused her. He bore a crystal +goblet containing a liquor colorless as water, but bright enough +to be the draught of immortality. Aylmer was pale; but it seemed +rather the consequence of a highly wrought state of mind and tension +of spirit than of fear or doubt. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"The concoction of the draught has been perfect," said he, in answer +to Georgiana's look. "Unless all my science have deceived me, it +cannot fail." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Save on your account, my dearest Aylmer," observed his wife, "I +might wish to put off this birthmark of mortality by relinquishing +mortality itself in preference to any other mode. Life is but a +sad possession to those who have attained precisely the degree of +moral advancement at which I stand. Were I weaker and blinder, it +might be happiness. Were I stronger, it might be endured hopefully. +But, being what I find myself, methinks I am of all mortals the +most fit to die." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"You are fit for heaven without tasting death!" replied her husband. +"But why do we speak of dying? The draught cannot fail. Behold +its effect upon this plant." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +On the window-seat there stood a geranium diseased with yellow +blotches which had overspread all its leaves. Aylmer poured a small +quantity of the liquid upon the soil in which it grew. In a little +time, when the roots of the plant had taken up the moisture, the +unsightly blotches began to be extinguished in a living verdure. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"There needed no proof," said Georgiana, quietly. "Give me the +goblet. I joyfully stake all upon your word." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Drink, then, thou lofty creature!" exclaimed Aylmer, with fervid +admiration. "There is no taint of imperfection on thy spirit. Thy +sensible frame, too, shall soon be all perfect." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +She quaffed the liquid and returned the goblet to his hand. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"It is grateful," said she, with a placid smile. "Methinks it is +like water from a heavenly fountain; for it contains I know not what +of unobtrusive fragrance and deliciousness. It allays a feverish +thirst that had parched me for many days. Now, dearest, let me +sleep. My earthly senses are closing over my spirit like the leaves +around the heart of a rose at sunset." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +She spoke the last words with a gentle reluctance, as if it required +almost more energy than she could command to pronounce the faint and +lingering syllables. Scarcely had they loitered through her lips +ere she was lost in slumber. Aylmer sat by her side, watching her +aspect with the emotions proper to a man the whole value of whose +existence was involved in the process now to be tested. Mingled with +this mood, however, was the philosophic investigation characteristic +of the man of science. Not the minutest symptom escaped him. A +heightened flush of the cheek, a slight irregularity of breath, +a quiver of the eyelid, a hardly perceptible tremor through the +frame,—such were the details which, as the moments passed, +he wrote down in his folio volume. Intense thought had set its +stamp upon every previous page of that volume; but the thoughts of +years were all concentrated upon the last. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +While thus employed, he failed not to gaze often at the fatal hand, +and not without a shudder. Yet once, by a strange and unaccountable +impulse, he pressed it with his lips. His spirit recoiled, however, +in the very act; and Georgiana, out of the midst of her deep sleep, +moved uneasily and murmured as if in remonstrance. Again Aylmer +resumed his watch. Nor was it without avail. The crimson hand, +which at first had been strongly visible upon the marble paleness +of Georgiana's cheek, now grew more faintly outlined. She remained +not less pale than ever; but the birthmark, with every breath that +came and went, lost somewhat of its former distinctness. Its presence +had been awful; its departure was more awful still. Watch the stain +of the rainbow fading out of the sky, and you will know how that +mysterious symbol passed away. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"By Heaven! it is well-nigh gone!" said Aylmer to himself, in almost +irrepressible ecstasy. "I can scarcely trace it now. Success! success! +And now it is like the faintest rose color. The lightest flush of +blood across her cheek would overcome it. But she is so pale!" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +He drew aside the window curtain and suffered the light of natural +day to fall into the room and rest upon her cheek. At the same +time he heard a gross, hoarse chuckle, which he had long known as +his servant Aminadab's expression of delight. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Ah, clod! ah, earthly mass!" cried Aylmer, laughing in a sort +of frenzy, "you have served me well! Matter and spirit—earth +and heaven—have both done their part in this! Laugh, thing +of the senses! You have earned the right to laugh." +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +These exclamations broke Georgiana's sleep. She slowly unclosed +her eyes and gazed into the mirror which her husband had arranged +for that purpose. A faint smile flitted over her lips when she +recognized how barely perceptible was now that crimson hand which +had once blazed forth with such disastrous brilliancy as to scare +away all their happiness. But then her eyes sought Aylmer's face +with a trouble and anxiety that he could by no means account for. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"My poor Aylmer!" murmured she. +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"Poor? Nay, richest, happiest, most favored!" exclaimed he. "My +peerless bride, it is successful! You are perfect!" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +"My poor Aylmer," she repeated, with a more than human tenderness, +"you have aimed loftily; you have done nobly. Do not repent that, +with so high and pure a feeling, you have rejected the best the +earth could offer. Aylmer, dearest Aylmer, I am dying!" +</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Alas! it was too true! The fatal hand had grappled with the mystery +of life, and was the bond by which an angelic spirit kept itself +in union with a mortal frame. As the last crimson tint of the +birthmark—that sole token of human imperfection—faded +from her cheek, the parting breath of the now perfect woman passed +into the atmosphere, and her soul, lingering a moment near her +husband, took its heavenward flight. Then a hoarse, chuckling laugh +was heard again! Thus ever does the gross fatality of earth exult +in its invariable triumph over the immortal essence which, in this +dim sphere of half development, demands the completeness of a higher +state. Yet, had Aylmer reached a profounder wisdom, he need not thus +have flung away the happiness which would have woven his mortal +life of the self-same texture with the celestial. The momentary +circumstance was too strong for him; he failed to look beyond the +shadowy scope of time, and, living once for all in eternity, to +find the perfect future in the present. +</p> + +<div class="img_ctr" style="width: 293px;"> + <img src="images/fig025.gif" width="293" height="157" alt="Fig. 25"> +</div> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full"> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LITTLE CLASSICS, VOLUME 8 (OF 18)***</p> +<p>******* This file should be named 16405-h.txt or 16405-h.zip *******</p> +<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br> +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/6/4/0/16405">http://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/4/0/16405</a></p> +<p>Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed.</p> + +<p>Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Little Classics, Volume 8 (of 18) + Mystery + + +Author: Various + +Editor: Rossiter Johnson + +Release Date: August 1, 2005 [EBook #16405] +Most recently updated: November 16, 2007 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LITTLE CLASSICS, VOLUME 8 (OF +18)*** + + +E-text prepared by Ron Swanson and revised by Robert J. Hall + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original artistic decorations + and two phrases in Greek. + See 16405-h.htm or 16405-h.zip: + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/6/4/0/16405/16405-h/16405-h.htm) + or + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/6/4/0/16405/16405-h.zip) + + + + + + +-------------------------------------------------+ + | Little Classics. | + | | + | Edited by ROSSITER JOHNSON. Each in one volume, | + | 16mo, $1.00. The set, in box, $18.00. | + | | + | 1. EXILE. 10. CHILDHOOD. | + | 2. INTELLECT. 11. HEROISM. | + | 3. TRAGEDY. 12. FORTUNE. | + | 4. LIFE. 13. NARRATIVE POEMS. | + | 5. LAUGHTER. 14. LYRICAL POEMS. | + | 6. LOVE. 15. MINOR POEMS. | + | 7. ROMANCE. 16. NATURE. | + | 8. MYSTERY. 17. HUMANITY. | + | 9. COMEDY. 18. AUTHORS. | + | | + | HOUGHTON MIFFLIN CO. | + | BOSTON AND NEW YORK. | + +-------------------------------------------------+ + + + + +Eighth Volume + +LITTLE CLASSICS + +Edited by + +ROSSITER JOHNSON + +Mystery + + + + + + + +Boston and New York +Houghton Mifflin Company +The Riverside Press Cambridge +1914 + +Copyright, 1875, by James R. Osgood & Co. +All Rights Reserved + + + + +CONTENTS. + + THE GHOST. _William D. O'Connor_ + + THE FOUR-FIFTEEN EXPRESS _Amelia B. Edwards_ + + THE SIGNAL-MAN _Charles Dickens_ + + THE HAUNTED SHIPS _Allan Cunningham_ + + A RAFT THAT NO MAN MADE _Robert T. S. Lowell_ + + THE INVISIBLE PRINCESS _Francis O' Connor_ + + THE ADVOCATE'S WEDDING-DAY _Catherine Crowe_ + + THE BIRTHMARK _Nathaniel Hawthorne_ + + + + +THE GHOST. + +BY WILLIAM D. O'CONNOR. + + +At the West End of Boston is a quarter of some fifty streets, more +or less, commonly known as Beacon Hill. + +It is a rich and respectable quarter, sacred to the abodes of Our +First Citizens. The very houses have become sentient of its prevailing +character of riches and respectability; and, when the twilight +deepens on the place, or at high noon, if your vision is gifted, you +may see them as long rows of Our First Giants, with very corpulent +or very broad fronts, with solid-set feet of sidewalk ending in +square-toed curbstone, with an air about them as if they had thrust +their hard hands into their wealthy pockets forever, with a character +of arctic reserve, and portly dignity, and a well-dressed, full-fed, +self-satisfied, opulent, stony, repellent aspect to each, which +says plainly, "I belong to a rich family, of the very highest +respectability." + +History, having much to say of Beacon Hill generally, has, on the +present occasion, something to say particularly of a certain street +which bends over the eminence, sloping steeply down to its base. +It is an old street,--quaint, quiet, and somewhat picturesque. It +was young once, though,--having been born before the Revolution, +and was then given to the city by its father, Mr. Middlecott, who +died without heirs, and did this much for posterity. Posterity +has not been grateful to Mr. Middlecott. The street bore his name +till he was dust, and then got the more aristocratic epithet of +Bowdoin. Posterity has paid him by effacing what would have been +his noblest epitaph. We may expect, after this, to see Faneuil +Hall robbed of its name, and called Smith Hall! Republics are +proverbially ungrateful. What safer claim to public remembrance +has the old Huguenot, Peter Faneuil, than the old Englishman, Mr. +Middlecott? Ghosts, it is said, have risen from the grave to reveal +wrongs done them by the living; but it needs no ghost from the +grave to prove the proverb about republics. + +Bowdoin Street only differs from its kindred, in a certain shady, grave, +old-fogy, fossil aspect, just touched with a pensive solemnity, as if +it thought to itself, "I'm getting old, but I'm highly respectable; +that's a comfort." It has, moreover, a dejected, injured air, as +if it brooded solemnly on the wrong done to it by taking away its +original name and calling it Bowdoin; but as if, being a very +conservative street, it was resolved to keep a cautious silence on +the subject, lest the Union should go to pieces. Sometimes it wears +a profound and mysterious look, as if it could tell something if it +had a mind to, but thought it best not. Something of the ghost of +its father--it was the only child he ever had!--walking there all +the night, pausing at the corners to look up at the signs, which +bear a strange name, and wringing his ghostly hands in lamentation +at the wrong done his memory! Rumor told it in a whisper, many years +ago. Perhaps it was believed by a few of the oldest inhabitants +of the city; but the highly respectable quarter never heard of +it, and, if it had, would not have been bribed to believe it, by +any sum. Some one had said that some very old person had seen a +phantom there. Nobody knew who some one was. Nobody knew who the +very old person was. Nobody knew who had seen it, nor when, nor +how. The very rumor was spectral. + +All this was many years ago. Since then it has been reported that +a ghost was seen there one bitter Christmas eve, two or three years +back. The twilight was already in the street; but the evening lamps +were not yet lighted in the windows, and the roofs and chimney-tops +were still distinct in the last clear light of the dropping day. +It was light enough, however, for one to read easily, from the +opposite sidewalk, "Dr. C. Renton," in black letters, on the silver +plate of a door, not far from the Gothic portal of the Swedenborgian +church. Near this door stood a misty figure, whose sad, spectral +eyes floated on vacancy, and whose long, shadowy white hair lifted +like an airy weft in the streaming wind. That was the ghost! It +stood near the door a long time, without any other than a shuddering +motion, as though it felt the searching blast, which swept furiously +from the north up the declivity of the street, rattling the shutters +in its headlong passage. Once or twice, when a passer-by, muffled +warmly from the bitter air, hurried past, the phantom shrank closer +to the wall, till he was gone. Its vague, mournful face seemed +to watch for some one. The twilight darkened gradually, but it +did not flit away. Patiently it kept its piteous look fixed in +one direction,--watching,--watching; and, while the howling wind +swept frantically through the chill air, it still seemed to shudder +in the piercing cold. + +A light suddenly kindled in an opposite window. As if touched by a +gleam from the lamp, or as if by some subtle interior illumination, +the spectre became faintly luminous, and a thin smile seemed to +quiver over its features. At the same moment, a strong, energetic +figure--Dr. Renton himself--came in sight, striding down the slope +of the pavement to his own door, his overcoat thrown back, as if +the icy air were a tropical warmth to him, his hat set on the back +of his head, and the loose ends of a 'kerchief about his throat, +streaming in the nor'wester. The wind set up a howl the moment he +came in sight, and swept upon him; and a curious agitation began +on the part of the phantom. It glided rapidly to and fro, and moved +in circles, and then, with the same swift, silent motion, sailed +toward him, as if blown thither by the gale. Its long, thin arms, +with something like a pale flame spiring from the tips of the slender +fingers, were stretched out, as in greeting, while the wan smile +played over its face; and when he rushed by, unheedingly, it made +a futile effort to grasp the swinging arms with which he appeared +to buffet back the buffeting gale. Then it glided on by his side, +looking earnestly into his countenance, and moving its pallid lips +with agonized rapidity, as if it said, "Look at me--speak to me--speak +to me--see me!" But he kept his course with unconscious eyes, and +a vexed frown on his forehead betokening an irritated mind. The +light that had shone in the figure of the phantom darkened slowly, +till the form was only a pale shadow. The wind had suddenly lulled, +and no longer lifted its white hair. It still glided on with him, +its head drooping on its breast, and its long arms hanging by its +side; but when he reached the door, it suddenly sprang before him, +gazing fixedly into his eyes, while a convulsive motion flashed +over its grief-worn features, as if it had shrieked out a word. +He had his foot on the step at the moment. With a start, he put +his gloved hand to his forehead, while the vexed look went out +quickly on his face. The ghost watched him breathlessly. But the +irritated expression came back to his countenance more resolutely +than before, and he began to fumble in his pocket for a latch-key, +muttering petulantly, "What the devil is the matter with me now?" +It seemed to him that a voice had cried clearly, yet as from afar, +"Charles Renton!"--his own name. He had heard it in his startled +mind; but then, he knew he was in a highly wrought state of nervous +excitement, and his medical science, with that knowledge for a basis, +could have reared a formidable fortress of explanation against any +phenomenon, were it even more wonderful than this. + +He entered the house; kicked the door to; pulled off his overcoat; +wrenched off his outer 'kerchief; slammed them on a branch of the +clothes-tree; banged his hat on top of them; wheeled about; pushed +in the door of his library; strode in, and, leaving the door ajar, +threw himself into an easy-chair, and sat there in the fire-reddened +dusk, with his white brows knit, and his arms tightly locked on his +breast. The ghost had followed him, sadly, and now stood motionless +in a corner of the room, its spectral hands crossed on its bosom, +and its white locks drooping down! + +It was evident Dr. Renton was in a bad humor. The very library caught +contagion from him, and became grouty and sombre. The furniture +was grim and sullen and sulky; it made ugly shadows on the carpet +and on the wall, in allopathic quantity; it took the red gleams +from the fire on its polished surfaces in homoeopathic globules, +and got no good from them. The fire itself peered out sulkily from +the black bars of the grate, and seemed resolved not to burn the +fresh deposit of black coals at the top, but to take this as a good +time to remember that those coals had been bought in the summer at +five dollars a ton,--under price, mind you,--when poor people, who +cannot buy at advantage, but must get their firing in the winter, +would then have given nine or ten dollars for them. And so (glowered +the fire), I am determined to think of that outrage, and not to +light them, but to go out myself, directly! And the fire got into +such a spasm of glowing indignation over the injury, that it lit +a whole tier of black coals with a series of little explosions, +before it could cool down, and sent a crimson gleam over the moody +figure of its owner in the easy-chair, and over the solemn furniture, +and into the shadowy corner filled by the ghost. + +The spectre did not move when Dr. Renton arose and lit the chandelier. +It stood there, still and gray, in the flood of mellow light. The +curtains were drawn, and the twilight without had deepened into +darkness. The fire was now burning in despite of itself, fanned +by the wintry gusts, which found their way down the chimney. Dr. +Renton stood with his back to it, his hands behind him, his bold +white forehead shaded by a careless lock of black hair, and knit +sternly; and the same frown in his handsome, open, searching dark +eyes. Tall and strong, with an erect port, and broad, firm shoulders, +high, resolute features, a commanding figure garbed in aristocratic +black, and not yet verging into the proportions of obesity,--take +him for all in all, a very fine and favorable specimen of the solid +men of Boston. And seen in contrast (oh! could he but have known +it!) with the attenuated figure of the poor, dim ghost! + +Hark! a very light foot on the stairs,--a rich rustle of silks. +Everything still again,--Dr. Renton looking fixedly, with great +sternness, at the half-open door, whence a faint, delicious perfume +floats into the library. Somebody there, for certain. Somebody +peeping in with very bright, arch eyes. Dr. Renton knew it, and +prepared to maintain his ill-humor against the invader. His face +became triply armed with severity for the encounter. That's Netty, +I know, he thought. His daughter. So it was. In she bounded. Bright +little Netty! Gay little Netty! A dear and sweet little creature, +to be sure, with a delicate and pleasant beauty of face and figure, +it needed no costly silks to grace or heighten. There she stood. +Not a word from her merry lips, but a smile which stole over all +the solitary grimness of the library, and made everything better, +and brighter, and fairer, in a minute. It floated down into the +cavernous humor of Dr. Renton, and the gloom began to lighten +directly,--though he would not own it, nor relax a single feature. +But the wan ghost in the corner lifted its head to look at her, +and slowly brightened as to something worthy a spirit's love, and +a dim phantom's smiles. Now then, Dr. Renton! the lines are drawn, +and the foe is coming. Be martial, sir, as when you stand in the +ranks of the Cadets on training-days! Steady, and stand the charge! +So he did. He kept an inflexible front as she glided toward him, +softly, slowly, with her bright eyes smiling into his, and doing +dreadful execution. Then she put her white arms around his neck, +laid her dear, fair head on his breast, and peered up archly into +his stern visage. Spite of himself, he could not keep the fixed +lines on his face from breaking confusedly into a faint smile. +Somehow or other, his hands came from behind him, and rested on +her head. There! That's all. Dr. Renton surrendered at discretion! +One of the solid men of Boston was taken after a desperate +struggle,--internal, of course,--for he kissed her, and said, "Dear +little Netty!" and so she was. + +The phantom watched her with a smile, and wavered and brightened +as if about to glide to her; but it grew still, and remained. + +"Pa in the sulks to-night?" she asked, in the most winning, playful, +silvery voice. + +"Pa's a fool," he answered in his deep chest-tones, with a vexed +good-humor; "and you know it." + +"What's the matter with pa? What makes him be a great bear? Papa-sy, +dear," she continued, stroking his face with her little hands, +and patting him, very much as Beauty might have patted the Beast +after she fell in love with him; or as if he were a great baby. +In fact, he began to look then as if he were. + +"Matter? Oh! everything's the matter, little Netty. The world goes +round too fast. My boots pinch. Somebody stole my umbrella last +year. And I've got a headache." He concluded this fanciful abstract +of his grievances by putting his arms around her, and kissing her +again. Then he sat down in the easy-chair, and took her fondly +on his knee. + +"Pa's got a headache! It is t-o-o bad, so it is," she continued +in the same soothing, winning way, caressing his brow with her +tiny hands. "It's a horrid shame, so it is! P-o-o-r pa. Where does +it ache, papa-sy, dear? In the forehead? Cerebrum or cerebellum, +papa-sy? Occiput or sinciput, deary?" + +"Bah! you little quiz," he replied, laughing and pinching her cheek, +"none of your nonsense! And what are you dressed up in this way +for, to-night? Silks, and laces, and essences, and what not! Where +are you going, fairy?" + +"Going out with mother for the evening, Dr. Renton," she replied +briskly; "Mrs. Larrabee's party, papa-sy. Christmas eve, you know. +And what are you going to give me for a present, to-morrow, pa-sy?" + +"To-morrow will tell, little Netty." + +"Good! And what are you going to give me, so that I can make _my_ +presents, Beary?" + +"Ugh!" But he growled it in fun, and had a pocket-book out from his +breast-pocket directly after. Fives--tens--twenties--fifties--all +crisp, and nice, and new bank-notes. + +"Will that be enough, Netty?" He held up a twenty. The smiling face +nodded assent, and the bright eyes twinkled. + +"No, it won't. But _that_ will," he continued, giving her a fifty. + +"Fifty dollars, Globe Bank, Boston!" exclaimed Netty, making great +eyes at him. "But we must take all we can get, pa-sy; mustn't we? +It's too much, though. Thank you all the same, pa-sy, nevertheless." +And she kissed him, and put the bill in a little bit of a portemonnaie +with a gay laugh. + +"Well done, I declare!" he said, smilingly. "But you're going to +the party?" + +"Pretty soon, pa." + +He made no answer; but sat smiling at her. The phantom watched them, +silently. + +"What made pa so cross and grim, to-night? Tell Netty--do," she +pleaded. + +"Oh! because;--everything went wrong with me, to-day. There." And +he looked as sulky, at that moment, as he ever did in his life. + +"No, no, pa-sy; that won't do. I want the particulars," continued +Netty, shaking her head, smilingly. + +"Particulars! Well, then, Miss Nathalie Renton," he began, with +mock gravity, "your professional father is losing some of his oldest +patients. Everybody is in ruinous good health; and the grass is +growing in the graveyards." + +"In the winter time, papa?--smart grass!" + +"Not that I want practice," he went on, getting into soliloquy; +"or patients, either. A rich man who took to the profession simply +for the love of it, can't complain on that score. But to have an +interloping she-doctor take a family I've attended ten years, out +of my hands, and to hear the hodge-podge gabble about physiological +laws, and woman's rights, and no taxation without representation, +they learn from her,--well, it's too bad!" + +"Is that all, pa-sy? Seems to me _I_'d like to vote, too," was Netty's +piquant rejoinder. + +"Hoh! I'll warrant," growled her father. "Hope you'll vote the Whig +ticket, Netty, when you get your rights." + +"Will the Union be dissolved, then, pa-sy,--when the Whigs are beaten?" + +"Bah! you little plague," he growled, with a laugh. "But, then, +you women don't know anything about politics. So, there. As I was +saying, everything went wrong with me to-day. I've been speculating +in railroad stock, and singed my fingers. Then, old Tom Hollis +outbid me to-day, at Leonard's, on a rare medical work I had set +my eyes upon having. Confound him! Then, again, two of my houses +are tenantless, and there are folks in two others that won't pay +their rent, and I can't get them out. Out they'll go, though, or +I'll know why. And, to crown all--um-m. And I wish the Devil had +him! as he will." + +"Had who, Beary-papa?" + +"Him. I'll tell you. The street-floor of one of my houses in Hanover +Street lets for an oyster-room. They keep a bar there, and sell +liquor. Last night they had a grand row,--a drunken fight, and +one man was stabbed, it's thought fatally." + +"O father!" Netty's bright eyes dilated with horror. + +"Yes. I hope he won't die. At any rate, there's likely to be a +stir about the matter, and my name will be called into question, +then, as I'm the landlord. And folks will make a handle of it, +and there'll be the deuce to pay, generally." + +He got back the stern, vexed frown, to his face, with the anticipation, +and beat the carpet with his foot. The ghost still watched from +the angle of the room, and seemed to darken, while its features +looked troubled. + +"But, father," said Netty, a little tremulously, "I wouldn't let +my houses to such people. It's not right; is it? Why, it's horrid +to think of men getting drunk, and killing each other!" + +Dr. Renton rubbed his hair into disorder, with vexation, and then +subsided into solemnity. + +"I know it's not exactly right, Netty; but I can't help it. As I +said before, I wish the Devil had that barkeeper. I ought to have +ordered him out long ago, and then this wouldn't have happened. +I've increased his rent twice, hoping to get rid of him so; but +he pays without a murmur; and what am I to do? You see, he was +an occupant when the building came into my hands, and I let him +stay. He pays me a good, round rent; and, apart from his cursed +traffic, he's a good tenant. What can I do? It's a good thing for +him, and it's a good thing for me, pecuniarily. Confound him! Here's +a nice rumpus brewing!" + +"Dear pa, I'm afraid it's not a good thing for you," said Netty, +caressing him and smoothing his tumbled hair. "Nor for him either. +I wouldn't mind the rent he pays you. I'd order him out. It's +bad money. There's blood on it." + +She had grown pale, and her voice quivered. The phantom glided +over to them, and laid its spectral hand upon her forehead. The +shadowy eyes looked from under the misty hair into the doctor's +face, and the pale lips moved as if speaking the words heard only +in the silence of his heart,--"Hear her, hear her!" + +"I must think of it," resumed Dr. Renton, coldly. "I'm resolved, +at all events, to warn him that if anything of this kind occurs +again, he must quit at once. I dislike to lose a profitable tenant; +for no other business would bring me the sum his does. Hang it, +everybody does the best he can with his property,--why shouldn't +I?" + +The ghost, standing near them, drooped its head again on its breast, +and crossed its arms. Netty was silent. Dr. Renton continued, +petulantly,-- + +"A precious set of people I manage to get into my premises. There's +a woman hires a couple of rooms for a dwelling, overhead, in that +same building, and for three months I haven't got a cent from her. +I know these people's tricks. Her month's notice expires to-morrow, +and out she goes." + +"Poor creature!" sighed Netty. + +He knit his brow, and beat the carpet with his foot, in vexation. + +"Perhaps she can't pay you, pa," trembled the sweet, silvery voice. +"You wouldn't turn her out in this cold winter, when she can't +pay you,--would you, pa?" + +"Why don't she get another house, and swindle some one else?" he +replied, testily; "there's plenty of rooms to let." + +"Perhaps she can't find one, pa," answered Netty. + +"Humbug!" retorted her father; "I know better." + +"Pa, dear, if I were you, I'd turn out that rumseller, and let the +poor woman stay a little longer; just a little, pa." + +"Sha'n't do it. Hah! that would be scattering money out of both +pockets. Sha'n't do it. Out she shall go; and as for him,--well, +he'd better turn over a new leaf. There, let us leave the subject, +darling. It vexes me. How did we contrive to get into this train? +Bah!" + +He drew her closer to him, and kissed her forehead. She sat quietly, +with her head on his shoulder, thinking very gravely. + +"I feel queerly to-day, little Netty," he began, after a short +pause. "My nerves are all high-strung with the turn matters have +taken." + +"How is it, papa? The headache?" she answered. + +"Y-e-s--n-o--not exactly; I don't know," he said dubiously; then, +in an absent way, "it was that letter set me to think of him all +day, I suppose." + +"Why, pa, I declare," cried Netty, starting up, "if I didn't forget +all about it, and I came down expressly to give it to you! Where +is it? Oh! here it is." + +She drew from her pocket an old letter, faded to a pale yellow, +and gave it to him. The ghost started suddenly. + +"Why, bless my soul! it's the very letter! Where did you get that, +Nathalie?" asked Dr. Renton. + +"I found it on the stairs after dinner, pa." + +"Yes, I do remember taking it up with me; I must have dropped it," +he answered, musingly, gazing at the superscription. The ghost +was gazing at it, too, with startled interest. + +"What beautiful writing it is, pa," murmured the young girl. "Who +wrote it to you? It looks yellow enough to have been written a +long time since." + +"Fifteen years ago, Netty. When you were a baby. And the hand that +wrote it has been cold for all that time." + +He spoke with a solemn sadness, as if memory lingered with the +heart of fifteen years ago, on an old grave. The dim figure by his +side had bowed its head, and all was still. + +"It is strange," he resumed, speaking vacantly and slowly, "I have +not thought of him for so long a time, and to-day--especially this +evening--I have felt as if he were constantly near me. It is a +singular feeling." + +He put his left hand to his forehead, and mused,--his right clasped +his daughter's shoulder. The phantom slowly raised its head, and +gazed at him with a look of unutterable tenderness. + +"Who was he, father?" she asked with a hushed voice. + +"A young man, an author, a poet. He had been my dearest friend, +when we were boys; and, though I lost sight of him for years,--he +led an erratic life,--we were friends when he died. Poor, poor +fellow! Well, he is at peace." + +The stern voice had saddened, and was almost tremulous. The spectral +form was still. + +"How did he die, father?" + +"A long story, darling," he replied, gravely, "and a sad one. He +was very poor and proud. He was a genius,--that is, a person without +an atom of practical talent. His parents died, the last, his mother, +when he was near manhood. I was in college then. Thrown upon the +world, he picked up a scanty subsistence with his pen, for a time. +I could have got him a place in the counting-house, but he would +not take it; in fact, he wasn't fit for it. You can't harness +Pegasus to the cart, you know. Besides, he despised mercantile +life, without reason, of course; but he was always notional. His +love of literature was one of the rocks he foundered on. He was +n't successful; his best compositions were too delicate, fanciful, +to please the popular taste; and then he was full of the radical +and fanatical notions which infected so many people at that time +in New England, and infect them now, for that matter; and his +sublimated, impracticable ideas and principles, which he kept till +his dying day, and which, I confess, alienated me from him, always +staved off his chances of success. Consequently, he never rose +above the drudgery of some employment on newspapers. Then he was +terribly passionate, not without cause, I allow; but it wasn't +wise. What I mean is this: if he saw, or if he fancied he saw, +any wrong or injury done to any one, it was enough to throw him +into a frenzy; he would get black in the face and absolutely shriek +out his denunciations of the wrong-doer. I do believe he would +have visited his own brother with the most unsparing invective, +if that brother had laid a harming finger on a street-beggar, or +a colored man, or a poor person of any kind. I don't blame the +feeling; though with a man like him it was very apt to be a false +or mistaken one; but, at any rate, its exhibition wasn't sensible. +Well, as I was saying, he buffeted about in this world a long time, +poorly paid, fed, and clad; taking more care of other people than +he did of himself. Then mental suffering, physical exposure, and +want killed him." + +The stern voice had grown softer than a child's. The same look of +unutterable tenderness brooded on the mournful face of the phantom +by his side; but its thin, shining hand was laid upon his head, +and its countenance had undergone a change. The form was still +undefined; but the features had become distinct. They were those +of a young man, beautiful and wan, and marked with great suffering. + +A pause had fallen on the conversation, in which the father and +daughter heard the solemn sighing of the wintry wind around the +dwelling. The silence seemed scarcely broken by the voice of the +young girl. + +"Dear father, this was very sad. Did you say he died of want?" + +"Of want, my child, of hunger and cold. I don't doubt it. He had +wandered about, as I gather, houseless for a couple of days and +nights. It was in December, too. Some one found him, on a rainy +night, lying in the street, drenched and burning with fever, and had +him taken to the hospital. It appears that he had always cherished +a strange affection for me, though I had grown away from him; and +in his wild ravings he constantly mentioned my name, and they sent +for me. That was our first meeting after two years. I found him +in the hospital--dying. Heaven can witness that I felt all my old +love for him return then, but he was delirious, and never recognized +me. And, Nathalie, his hair,--it had been coal-black, and he wore +it very long,--he wouldn't let them cut it either; and as they +knew no skill could save him, they let him have his way,--his hair +was then as white as snow! God alone knows what that brain must +have suffered to blanch hair which had been as black as the wing +of a raven!" + +He covered his eyes with his hand, and sat silently. The fingers +of the phantom still shone dimly on his head, and its white locks +drooped above him, like a weft of light. + +"What was his name, father?" asked the pitying girl. + +"George Feval. The very name sounds like fever. He died on Christmas +eve, fifteen years ago this night. It was on his death-bed, while +his mind was tossing on a sea of delirious fancies, that he wrote me +this long letter,--for to the last, I was uppermost in his thoughts. +It is a wild, incoherent thing, of course,--a strange mixture of +sense and madness. But I have kept it as a memorial of him. I have +not looked at it for years; but this morning I found it among my +papers, and somehow it has been in my mind all day." + +He slowly unfolded the faded sheets, and sadly gazed at the writing. +His daughter had risen from her half-recumbent posture, and now +bent her graceful head over the leaves. The phantom covered its +face with its hands. + +"What a beautiful manuscript it is, father!" she exclaimed. "The +writing is faultless." + +"It is, indeed," he replied. "Would he had written his life as fairly!" + +"Read it, father," said Nathalie. + +"No, but I'll read you a detached passage here and there," he answered, +after a pause. "The rest you may read yourself some time, if you +wish. It is painful to me. Here's the beginning:-- + +"'_My Dear Charles Renton:--Adieu, and adieu. It is Christmas eve, +and I am going home. I am soon to exhale from my flesh, like the +spirit of a broken flower. Exultemus forever!_' + + * * * * * + +"It is very wild. His mind was in a fever-craze. Here is a passage +that seems to refer to his own experience of life:-- + +"'_Your friendship was dear to me. I give you true love. Stocks +and returns. You are rich, but I did not wish to be your bounty's +pauper. Could I beg? I had my work to do for the world, but oh! +the world has no place for souls that can only love and suffer. +How many miles to Babylon? Threescore and ten. Not so far--not +near so far! Ask starvelings--they know._ + + * * * * * + +_I wanted to do the world good, and the world has killed me, Charles._'" + + * * * * * + +"It frightens me," said Nathalie, as he paused. + +"We will read no more," he replied sombrely. "It belongs to the +psychology of madness. To me, who knew him, there are gleams of +sense in it, and passages where the delirium of the language is +only a transparent veil on the meaning. All the remainder is devoted +to what he thought important advice to me. But it's all wild and +vague. Poor--poor George!" + +The phantom still hid its face in its hands, as the doctor slowly +turned over the pages of the letter. Nathalie, bending over the +leaves, laid her finger on the last, and asked, "What are those +closing sentences, father? Read them." + +"Oh! that is what he called his 'last counsel' to me. It's as wild +as the rest,--tinctured with the prevailing ideas of his career. +First he says, '_Farewell--farewell_'; then he bids me take his +'_counsel into memory on Christmas day_'; then after enumerating +all the wretched classes he can think of in the country, he says: +'_These are your sisters and your brothers,--love them all._' Here +he says, '_O friend, strong in wealth for so much good, take my +last counsel. In the name of the Saviour, I charge you be true +and tender to mankind._' He goes on to bid me '_live and labor +for the fallen, the neglected, the suffering, and the poor_'; and +finally ends by advising me to help upset any, or all, institutions, +laws, and so forth, that bear hardly on the fag-ends of society; +and tells me that what he calls 'a service to humanity' is worth +more to the doer than a service to anything else, or than anything +we can gain from the world. Ah, well! poor George." + +"But isn't all that true, father?" said Netty; "it seems so." + +"H'm," he murmured through his closed lips. Then, with a vague +smile, folding up the letter, meanwhile, he said, "Wild words, +Netty, wild words. I've no objection to charity, judiciously given; +but poor George's notions are not mine. Every man for himself, is a +good general rule. Every man for humanity, as George has it, and in +his acceptation of the principle, would send us all to the almshouse +pretty soon. The greatest good of the greatest number,--that's my +rule of action. There are plenty of good institutions for the +distressed, and I'm willing to help support 'em, and do. But as for +making a martyr of one's self, or tilting against the necessary evils +of society, or turning philanthropist at large, or any quixotism of +that sort, I don't believe in it. We didn't make the world, and +we can't mend it. Poor George. Well--he's at rest. The world was +n't the place for him." + +They grew silent. The spectre glided slowly to the wall, and stood +as if it were thinking what, with Dr. Renton's rule of action, was +to become of the greatest good of the smallest number. Nathalie +sat on her father's knee, thinking only of George Feval, and of +his having been starved and grieved to death. + +"Father," said Nathalie, softly, "I felt, while you were reading +the letter, as if he were near us. Didn't you? The room was so +light and still, and the wind sighed so." + +"Netty, dear, I've felt that all day, I believe," he replied. "Hark! +there is the door-bell. Off goes the spirit-world, and here comes +the actual. Confound it! Some one to see me, I'll warrant, and +I'm not in the mood." + +He got into a fret at once. Netty was not the Netty of an hour +ago, or she would have coaxed him out of it. But she did not notice +it now in her abstraction. She had risen at the tinkle of the bell, +and seated herself in a chair. Presently a nose, with a great pimple +on the end of it, appeared at the edge of the door, and a weak, +piping voice said, reckless of the proper tense, "There was a woman +wanted to see you, sir." + +"Who is it, James?--no matter, show her in." + +He got up with the vexed scowl on his face, and walked the room. +In a minute the library door opened again, and a pale, thin, rigid, +frozen-looking little woman, scantily clad, the weather being +considered, entered, and dropped a curt, awkward bow to Dr. Renton. + +"O, Mrs. Miller! Good evening, ma'am. Sit down," he said, with a +cold, constrained civility. + +The little woman faintly said, "Good evening, Dr. Renton," and +sat down stiffly, with her hands crossed before her, in the chair +nearest the wall. This was the obdurate tenant, who had paid no +rent for three months, and had a notice to quit, expiring to-morrow. + +"Cold evening, ma'am," remarked Dr. Renton, in his hard way. + +"Yes, sir, it is," was the cowed, awkward answer. + +"Won't you sit near the fire, ma'am?" said Netty, gently; "you look +cold." + +"No, miss, thank you. I'm not cold," was the faint reply. She was +cold, though, as well she might be with her poor, thin shawl, and +open bonnet, in such a bitter night as it was outside. And there +was a rigid, sharp, suffering look in her pinched features that +betokened she might have been hungry, too. "Poor people don't mind +the cold weather, miss," she said, with a weak smile, her voice +getting a little stronger. "They have to bear it, and they get +used to it." + +She had not evidently borne it long enough to effect the point of +indifference. Netty looked at her with a tender pity. Dr. Renton +thought to himself, Hoh!--blazoning her poverty,--manufacturing +sympathy already,--the old trick; and steeled himself against any +attacks of that kind, looking jealously, meanwhile, at Netty. + +"Well, Mrs. Miller," he said, "what is it this evening? I suppose +you've brought me my rent." + +The little woman grew paler, and her voice seemed to fail on her +quivering lips. Netty cast a quick, beseeching look at her father. + +"Nathalie, please to leave the room." We'll have no nonsense carried +on here, he thought, triumphantly, as Netty rose, and obeyed the +stern, decisive order, leaving the door ajar behind her. + +He seated himself in his chair, and resolutely put his right leg +up to rest on his left knee. He did not look at his tenant's face, +determined that her piteous expressions (got up for the occasion, +of course) should be wasted on him. + +"Well, Mrs. Miller," he said again. + +"Dr. Renton," she began, faintly gathering her voice as she proceeded, +"I have come to see you about the rent. I am very sorry, sir, to +have made you wait, but we have been unfortunate." + +"Sorry, ma'am," he replied, knowing what was coming; "but your +misfortunes are not my affair. We all have misfortunes, ma'am. But +we must pay our debts, you know." + +"I expected to have got money from my husband before this, sir," +she resumed, "and I wrote to him. I got a letter from him to-day, +sir, and it said that he sent me fifty dollars a month ago, in a +letter; and it appears that the post-office is to blame, or somebody, +for I never got it. It was nearly three months' wages, sir, and it +is very hard to lose it. If it had n't been for that your rent +would have been paid long ago, sir." + +"Don't believe a word of _that_ story," thought Dr. Renton, +sententiously. + +"I thought, sir," she continued, emboldened by his silence, "that +if you would be willing to wait a little longer, we would manage +to pay you soon, and not let it occur again. It has been a hard +winter with us, sir; firing is high, and provisions, and everything; +and we're only poor people, you know, and it's difficult to get +along." + +The doctor made no reply. + +"My husband was unfortunate, sir, in not being able to get employment +here," she resumed; "his being out of work in the autumn, threw us +all back, and we've got nothing to depend on but his earnings. The +family that he's in now, sir, don't give him very good pay,--only +twenty dollars a month, and his board,--but it was the best chance +he could get, and it was either go to Baltimore with them, or stay +at home and starve, and so he went, sir. It's been a hard time +with us, and one of the children is sick, now, with a fever, and +we don't hardly know how to make out a living. And so, sir, I have +come here this evening, leaving the children alone, to ask you if +you wouldn't be kind enough to wait a little longer, and we'll +hope to make it right with you in the end." + +"Mrs. Miller," said Dr. Renton, with stern composure, "I have no +wish to question the truth of any statement you may make; but I +must tell you plainly, that I can't afford to let my houses for +nothing. I told you a month ago, that if you couldn't pay me my +rent, you must vacate the premises. You know very well that there +are plenty of tenants who are able and willing to pay when the +money comes due. You _know_ that." + +He paused as he said this, and, glancing at her, saw her pale lips +falter. It shook the cruelty of his purpose a little, and he had a +vague feeling that he was doing wrong. Not without a proud struggle, +during which no word was spoken, could he beat it down. Meanwhile, +the phantom had advanced a pace toward the centre of the room. + +"That is the state of the matter, ma'am," he resumed, coldly. "People +who will not pay me my rent must not live in my tenements. You +must move out. I have no more to say." + +"Dr. Renton," she said, faintly, "I have a sick child,--how can +I move now? O, sir, it's Christmas eve,--don't be hard with us!" + +Instead of touching him, this speech irritated him beyond measure. +Passing all considerations of her difficult position involved in +her piteous statement, his anger flashed at once on her implication +that he was unjust and unkind. So violent was his excitement that +it whirled away the words that rushed to his lips, and only fanned +the fury that sparkled from the whiteness of his face in his eyes. + +"Be patient with us, sir," she continued; "we are poor, but we mean +to pay you; and we can't move now in this cold weather; please, +don't be hard with us, sir." + +The fury now burst out on his face in a red and angry glow, and +the words came. + +"Now, attend to me!" He rose to his feet. "I will not hear any +more from you. I know nothing of your poverty, nor of the condition +of your family. All I know is that you owe me three months' rent, +and that you can't or won't pay me. I say, therefore, leave the +premises to people who can and will. You have had your legal notice; +quit my house to-morrow; if you don't, your furniture shall be +put in the street. Mark me,--to-morrow!" + +The phantom had rushed into the centre of the room. Standing face +to face with him,--dilating,--blackening,--its whole form shuddering +with a fury to which his own was tame,--the semblance of a shriek upon +its flashing lips, and on its writhing features, and an unearthly +anger streaming from its bright and terrible eyes,--it seemed to +throw down, with its tossing arms, mountains of hate and malediction +on the head of him whose words had smitten poverty and suffering, +and whose heavy hand was breaking up the barriers of a home. + +Dr. Renton sank again into his chair. His tenant,--not a woman!--not +a sister in humanity!--but only his tenant; she sat crushed and +frightened by the wall. He knew it vaguely. Conscience was battling +in his heart with the stubborn devils that had entered there. The +phantom stood before him, like a dark cloud in the image of a man. +But its darkness was lightening slowly, and its ghostly anger had +passed away. + +The poor woman, paler than before, had sat mute and trembling, with +all her hopes ruined. Yet her desperation forbade her to abandon +the chances of his mercy, and she now said,-- + +"Dr. Renton, you surely don't mean what you have told me. Won't +you bear with me a little longer, and we will yet make it all right +with you?" + +"I have given you my answer," he returned, coldly; "I have no more +to add. I never take back anything I say--never!" + +It was true. He never did--never! She half rose from her seat as if +to go; but weak and sickened with the bitter result of her visit, +she sunk down again with her head bowed. There was a pause. Then, +solemnly gliding across the lighted room, the phantom stole to her +side with a glory of compassion on its wasted features. Tenderly, +as a son to a mother, it bent over her; its spectral hands of light +rested upon her in caressing and benediction; its shadowy fall of +hair, once blanched by the anguish of living and loving, floated +on her throbbing brow; and resignation and comfort not of this +world sank upon her spirit, and consciousness grew dim within her, +and care and sorrow seemed to die. + +He who had been so cruel and so hard, sat silent in black gloom. +The stern and sullen mood, from which had dropped but one fierce +flash of anger, still hung above the heat of his mind, like a dark +rack of thundercloud. It would have burst anew into a fury of rebuke, +had he but known his daughter was listening at the door, while the +colloquy went on. It might have flamed violently, had his tenant +made any further attempt to change his purpose. She had not. She +had left the room meekly, with the same curt, awkward bow that +marked her entrance. He recalled her manner very indistinctly; +for a feeling like a mist began to gather in his mind, and make +the occurrences of moments before uncertain. + +Alone, now, he was yet oppressed with a sensation that something +was near him. Was it a spiritual instinct? for the phantom stood +by his side. It stood silent, with one hand raised above his head, +from which a pale flame seemed to flow downward to his brain; its +other hand pointed movelessly to the open letter on the table beside +him. + +He took the sheets from the table, thinking, at the moment, only +of George Feval; but the first line on which his eye rested was, +"In the name of the Saviour, I charge you, be true and tender to +mankind!" And the words touched him like a low voice from the grave. +Their penetrant reproach pierced the hardness of his heart. He +tossed the letter back on the table. The very manner of the act +accused him of an insult to the dead. In a moment he took up the +faded sheets more reverently, but only to lay them down again. + +He had not been well that day, and he now felt worse than before. +The pain in his head had given place to a strange sense of dilation, +and there was a silent, confused riot in his fevered brain, which +seemed to him like the incipience of insanity. Striving to divert +his mind from what had passed, by reflection on other themes, he +could not hold his thoughts; they came teeming but dim, and slipped +and fell away; and only the one circumstance of his recent cruelty, +mixed with remembrance of George Feval, recurred and clung with +vivid persistence. This tortured him. Sitting there, with arms +tightly interlocked, he resolved to wrench his mind down by sheer +will upon other things; and a savage pleasure at what at once seemed +success, took possession of him. In this mood, he heard soft footsteps +and the rustle of festal garments on the stairs, and had a fierce +complacency in being able to apprehend clearly that it was his +wife and daughter going out to the party. In a moment he heard the +controlled and even voice of Mrs. Renton,--a serene and polished +lady with whom he had lived for years in cold and civil alienation, +both seeing as little of each other as possible. With a scowl of +will upon his brow, he received her image distinctly into his mind, +even to the minutia of the dress and ornaments he knew she wore, +and felt an absolutely savage exultation in his ability to retain +it. Then came the sound of the closing of the hall door and the +rattle of receding wheels, and somehow it was Nathalie and not +his wife that he was holding so grimly in his thought, and with +her, salient and vivid as before, the tormenting remembrance of +his tenant, connected with the memory of George Feval. Springing +to his feet, he walked the room. + +He had thrown himself on a sofa, still striving to be rid of his +remorseful visitations, when the library door opened, and the inside +man appeared, with his hand held bashfully over his nose. It flashed +on him at once that his tenant's husband was the servant of a family +like this fellow; and, irritated that the whole matter should be +thus broadly forced upon him in another way, he harshly asked him +what he wanted. The man only came in to say that Mrs. Renton and +the young lady had gone out for the evening, but that tea was laid +for him in the dining-room. He did not want any tea, and if anybody +called, he was not at home. With this charge, the man left the +room, closing the door behind him. + +If he could but sleep a little! Rising from the sofa, he turned +the lights of the chandelier low, and screened the fire. The room +was still. The ghost stood, faintly radiant, in a remote corner. Dr. +Renton lay down again, but not to repose. Things he had forgotten +of his dead friend, now started up again in remembrance, fresh from +the grave of many years; and not one of them but linked itself +by some mysterious bond to something connected with his tenant, +and became an accusation. + +He had lain thus for more than an hour, feeling more and more unmanned +by illness, and his mental excitement fast becoming intolerable, +when he heard a low strain of music, from the Swedenborgian chapel, +hard by. Its first impression was one of solemnity and rest, and its +first sense, in his mind, was of relief. Perhaps it was the music +of an evening meeting; or it might be that the organist and choir +had met for practice. Whatever its purpose, it breathed through his +heated fancy like a cool and fragrant wind. It was vague and sweet +and wandering at first, straying on into a strain more mysterious and +melancholy, but very shadowy and subdued, and evoking the innocent +and tender moods of early youth before worldliness had hardened +around his heart. Gradually, as he listened to it, the fires in +his brain were allayed, and all yielded to a sense of coolness +and repose. He seemed to sink from trance to trance of utter rest, +and yet was dimly aware that either something in his own condition, +or some supernatural accession of tone, was changing the music from +its proper quality to a harmony more infinite and awful. It was +still low and indeterminate and sweet, but had unaccountably and +strangely swelled into a gentle and sombre dirge, incommunicably +mournful, and filled with a dark significance that touched him in +his depth of rest with a secret tremor and awe. As he listened, +rapt and vaguely wondering, the sense of his tranced sinking seemed +to come to an end, and with the feeling of one who had been descending +for many hours, and at length lay motionless at the bottom of a +deep, dark chasm, he heard the music fail and cease. + +A pause, and then it rose again, blended with the solemn voices +of the choir, sublimed and dilated now, reaching him as though +from weird night gulfs of the upper air, and charged with an +overmastering pathos as of the lamentations of angels. In the dimness +and silence, in the aroused and exalted condition of his being, the +strains seemed unearthly in their immense and desolate grandeur +of sorrow, and their mournful and dark significance was now for +him. Working within him the impression of vast, innumerable fleeing +shadows, thick-crowding memories of all the ways and deeds of an +existence fallen from its early dreams and aims, poured across +the midnight of his soul, and under the streaming melancholy of +the dirge, his life showed like some monstrous treason. It did not +terrify or madden him; he listened to it rapt utterly as in some +deadening ether of dream; yet feeling to his inmost core all its +powerful grief and accusation, and quietly aghast at the sinister +consciousness it gave him. Still it swelled, gathering and sounding +on into yet mightier pathos, till all at once it darkened and spread +wide in wild despair, and aspiring again into a pealing agony of +supplication, quivered and died away in a low and funereal sigh. + +The tears streamed suddenly upon his face; his soul lightened and +turned dark within him; and, as one faints away, so consciousness +swooned, and he fell suddenly down a precipice of sleep. The music +rose again, a pensive and holy chant, and sounded on to its close, +unaffected by the action of his brain, for he slept and heard it no +more. He lay tranquilly, hardly seeming to breathe, in motionless +repose. The room was dim and silent, and the furniture took uncouth +shapes around him. The red glow upon the ceiling, from the screened +fire, showed the misty figure of the phantom kneeling by his side. +All light had gone from the spectral form. It knelt beside him, +mutely, as in prayer. Once it gazed at his quiet face with a mournful +tenderness, and its shadowy hands caressed his forehead. Then it +resumed its former attitude, and the slow hours crept by. + +At last it rose and glided to the table, on which lay the open +letter. It seemed to try to lift the sheets with its misty hands, +but vainly. Next it essayed the lifting of a pen which lay there, +but failed. It was a piteous sight, to see its idle efforts on +these shapes of grosser matter, which appeared now to have to it +but the existence of illusions. Wandering about the shadowy room, +it wrung its phantom hands as in despair. + +Presently it grew still. Then it passed quickly to his side, and +stood before him. He slept calmly. It placed one ghostly hand above +his forehead, and with the other pointed to the open letter. In +this attitude its shape grew momentarily more distinct. It began +to kindle into brightness. The pale flame again flowed from its +hand, streaming downward to his brain. A look of trouble darkened +the sleeping face. Stronger,--stronger; brighter,--brighter; until, +at last, it stood before him, a glorious shape of light, with an +awful look of commanding love in its shining features: and the +sleeper sprang to his feet with a cry! + +The phantom had vanished. He saw nothing. His first impression +was, not that he had dreamed, but that, awaking in the familiar +room, he had seen the spirit of his dead friend, bright and awful by +his side, and that it had gone! In the flash of that quick change, +from sleeping to waking, he had detected, he thought, the unearthly +being that, he now felt, watched him from behind the air, and it +had vanished! The library was the same as in the moment of that +supernatural revealing; the open letter lay upon the table still; +only _that_ was gone which had made these common aspects terrible. +Then all the hard, strong scepticism of his nature, which had been +driven backward by the shock of his first conviction, recoiled, +and rushed within him, violently struggling for its former +vantage-ground; till, at length, it achieved the foothold for a +doubt. Could he have dreamed? The ghost, invisible, still watched +him. Yes, a dream,--only a dream; but, how vivid, how strange! +With a slow thrill creeping through his veins, the blood curdling +at his heart, a cold sweat starting on his forehead, he stared +through the dimness of the room. All was vacancy. + +With a strong shudder, he strode forward, and turned up the flames +of the chandelier. A flood of garish light filled the apartment. +In a moment, remembering the letter to which the phantom of his +dream had pointed, he turned and took it from the table. The last +page lay upward, and every word of the solemn counsel at the end +seemed to dilate on the paper, and all its mighty meaning rushed +upon his soul. Trembling in his own despite, he laid it down and +moved away. A physician, he remembered that he was in a state of +violent nervous excitement, and thought that when he grew calmer +its effects would pass from him. But the hand that had touched +him had gone down deeper than the physician, and reached what God +had made. + +He strove in vain. The very room, in its light and silence, and the +lurking sentiment of something watching him, became terrible. He +could not endure it. The devils in his heart, grown pusillanimous, +cowered beneath the flashing strokes of his aroused and terrible +conscience. He could not endure it. He must go out. He will walk +the streets. It is not late,--it is but ten o'clock. He will go. + +The air of his dream still hung heavily about him. He was in the +street,--he hardly remembered how he had got there, or when; but +there he was, wrapped up from the searching cold, thinking, with a +quiet horror in his mind, of the darkened room he had left behind, +and haunted by the sense that something was groping about there +in the darkness, searching for him. The night was still and cold. +The full moon was in the zenith. Its icy splendor lay on the bare +streets, and on the walls of the dwellings. The lighted oblong +squares of curtained windows, here and there, seemed dim and waxen +in the frigid glory. The familiar aspect of the quarter had passed +away, leaving behind only a corpse-like neighborhood, whose huge, +dead features, staring rigidly through the thin, white shroud of +moonlight that covered all, left no breath upon the stainless skies. +Through the vast silence of the night he passed along; the very +sound of his footfalls was remote to his muffled sense. + +Gradually, as he reached the first corner, he had an uneasy feeling +that a thing--a formless, unimaginable thing--was dogging him. +He had thought of going down to his club-room; but he now shrank +from entering, with this thing near him, the lighted rooms where +his set were busy with cards and billiards, over their liquors +and cigars, and where the heated air was full of their idle faces +and careless chatter, lest some one should bawl out that he was +pale, and ask him what was the matter, and he should answer, +tremblingly, that something was following him, and was near him +then! He must get rid of it first; he must walk quickly, and baffle +its pursuit by turning sharp corners, and plunging into devious +streets and crooked lanes, and so lose it! + +It was difficult to reach through memory to the crazy chaos of +his mind on that night, and recall the route he took while haunted +by this feeling; but he afterward remembered that, without any +other purpose than to baffle his imaginary pursuer, he traversed +at a rapid pace a large portion of the moonlit city; always (he +knew not why) avoiding the more populous thoroughfares, and choosing +unfrequented and tortuous byways, but never ridding himself of +that horrible confusion of mind in which the faces of his dead +friend and the pale woman were strangely blended, nor of the fancy +that he was followed. Once, as he passed the hospital where Feval +died, a faint hint seemed to flash and vanish from the clouds of +his lunacy, and almost identify the dogging goblin with the figure +of his dream; but the conception instantly mixed with a disconnected +remembrance that this was Christmas eve, and then slipped from +him, and was lost. He did not pause there, but strode on. But just +there, what had been frightful became hideous. For at once he was +possessed with the conviction that the thing that lurked at a distance +behind him was quickening its movement, and coming up to seize +him. The dreadful fancy stung him like a goad, and, with a start, +he accelerated his flight, horribly conscious that what he feared +was slinking along in the shadow, close to the dark bulks of the +houses, resolutely pursuing, and bent on overtaking him. Faster! +His footfalls rang hollowly and loud on the moonlit pavement, and in +contrast with their rapid thuds he felt it as something peculiarly +terrible that the furtive thing behind slunk after him with soundless +feet. Faster, faster! Traversing only the most unfrequented streets, +and at that late hour of a cold winter night he met no one, and +with a terrifying consciousness that his pursuer was gaining on +him, he desperately strode on. He did not dare to look behind, +dreading less what he might see than the momentary loss of speed +the action might occasion. Faster, faster, faster! And all at once +he knew that the dogging thing had dropped its stealthy pace and +was racing up to him. With a bound he broke into a run, seeing, +hearing, heeding nothing, aware only that the other was silently +louping on his track two steps to his one; and with that frantic +apprehension upon him, he gained the next street, flung himself +around the corner with his back to the wall, and his arms convulsively +drawn up for a grapple; and felt something rush whirring past his +flank, striking him on the shoulder as it went by, with a buffet +that made a shock break through his frame. That shock restored +him to his senses. His delusion was suddenly shattered. The goblin +was gone. He was free. + +He stood panting, like one just roused from some terrible dream, +wiping the reeking perspiration from his forehead, and thinking +confusedly and wearily what a fool he had been. He felt he had +wandered a long distance from his house, but had no distinct perception +of his whereabouts. He only knew he was in some thinly peopled +street, whose familiar aspect seemed lost to him in the magical +disguise the superb moonlight had thrown over all. Suddenly a film +seemed to drop from his eyes, as they became riveted on a lighted +window, on the opposite side of the way. He started, and a secret +terror crept over him, vaguely mixed with the memory of the shock +he had felt as he turned the last corner, and his distinct, awful +feeling that something invisible had passed him. At the same instant +he felt, and thrilled to feel, a touch, as of a light finger, on +his cheek. He was in Hanover Street. Before him was the house,--the +oyster-room staring at him through the lighted transparencies of +its two windows, like two square eyes, below; and his tenant's +light in a chamber above! The added shock which this discovery +gave to the heaving of his heart made him gasp for breath. Could +it be? Did he still dream? While he stood panting and staring at +the building the city clocks began to strike. Eleven o'clock; it +was ten when he came away; how he must have driven! His thoughts +caught up the word. Driven,--by what? Driven from his house in +horror, through street and lane, over half the city,--driven,--hunted +in terror, and smitten by a shock here! Driven,--driven! He could +not rid his mind of the word, nor of the meaning it suggested. +The pavements about him began to ring and echo with the tramp of +many feet, and the cold, brittle air was shivered with the noisy +voices that had roared and bawled applause and laughter at the +National Theatre all the evening, and were now singing and howling +homeward. Groups of rude men, and ruder boys, their breaths steaming +in the icy air, began to tramp by, jostling him as they passed, +till he was forced to draw back to the wall, and give them the +sidewalk. Dazed and giddy, in cold fear, and with the returning +sense of something near him, he stood and watched the groups that +pushed and tumbled in through the entrance of the oyster-room, +whistling and chattering as they went, and banging the door behind +them. He noticed that some came out presently, banging the door +harder, and went, smoking and shouting, down the street. Still +they poured in and out, while the street was startled with their +stimulated riot, and the bar-room within echoed their trampling +feet and hoarse voices. Then, as his glance wandered upward to +his tenant's window, he thought of the sick child, mixing this +hideous discord in the dreams of fever. The word brought up the name +and the thought of his dead friend. "In the name of the Saviour, +I charge you be true and tender to mankind!" The memory of these +words seemed to ring clearly, as if a voice had spoken them, above +the roar that suddenly rose in his mind. In that moment he felt +himself a wretched and most guilty man. He felt that his cruel +words had entered that humble home, to make desperate poverty more +desperate, to sicken sickness, and to sadden sorrow. Before him +was the dram-shop, let and licensed to nourish the worst and most +brutal appetites and instincts of human natures, at the sacrifice +of all their highest and holiest tendencies. The throng of tipplers +and drunkards was swarming through its hopeless door, to gulp the +fiery liquor whose fumes give all shames, vices, miseries, and +crimes a lawless strength and life, and change the man into the +pig or tiger. Murder was done, or nearly done, within those walls +last night. Within those walls no good was ever done; but daily, +unmitigated evil, whose results were reaching on to torture unborn +generations. He had consented to it all! He could not falter, or +equivocate, or evade, or excuse. His dead friend's words rang in his +conscience like the trump of the judgment angel. He was conquered. + +Slowly, the resolve instantly to go in uprose within him, and with +it a change came upon his spirit, and the natural world, sadder than +before, but sweeter, seemed to come back to him. A great feeling +of relief flowed upon his mind. Pale and trembling still, he crossed +the street with a quick, unsteady step, entered a yard at the side +of the house, and, brushing by a host of white, rattling spectres of +frozen clothes, which dangled from lines in the enclosure, mounted +some wooden steps, and rang the bell. In a minute he heard footsteps +within, and saw the gleam of a lamp. His heart palpitated violently +as he heard the lock turning, lest the answerer of his summons +might be his tenant. The door opened, and, to his relief, he stood +before a rather decent-looking Irishman, bending forward in his +stocking-feet, with one boot and a lamp in his hand. The man stared +at him from a wild head of tumbled red hair, with a half-smile round +his loose open mouth, and said, "Begorra!" This was a second-floor +tenant. + +Dr. Renton was relieved at the sight of him; but he rather failed +in an attempt at his rent-day suavity of manner, when he said,-- + +"Good evening, Mr. Flanagan. Do you think I can see Mrs. Miller +to-night?" + +"She's up _there_, docther, anyway." Mr. Flanagan made a sudden +start for the stairs, with the boot and lamp at arm's length before +him, and stopped as suddenly. "Yull go up? or wud she come down to +ye?" There was as much anxious indecision in Mr. Flanagan's general +aspect, pending the reply, as if he had to answer the question +himself. + +"I'll go up, Mr. Flanagan," returned Dr. Renton, stepping in, after +a pause, and shutting the door. "But I'm afraid she's in bed." + +"Naw--she's not, sur." Mr. Flanagan made another feint with the boot +and lamp at the stairs, but stopped again in curious bewilderment, +and rubbed his head. Then, with another inspiration, and speaking +with such velocity that his words ran into each other, pell-mell, +he continued: "Th' small girl's sick, sur. Begorra, I wor just +pullin' on th' boots tuh gaw for the docther, in th' nixt streth, +an' summons him to her relehf, fur it's bad she is. A'id betther be +goan." Another start, and a movement to put on the boot instantly, +baffled by his getting the lamp into the leg of it, and involving +himself in difficulties in trying to get it out again without dropping +either, and stopped finally by Dr. Renton. + +"You needn't go, Mr. Flanagan. I'll see to the child. Don't go." + +He stepped slowly up the stairs, followed by the bewildered Flanagan. +All this time Dr. Renton was listening to the racket from the bar-room. +Clinking of glasses, rattling of dishes, trampling of feet, oaths +and laughter, and a confused din of coarse voices, mingling with +boisterous calls for oysters and drink, came, hardly deadened by +the partition walls, from the haunt below, and echoed through the +corridors. Loud enough within,--louder in the street without, where +the oysters and drink were reeling and roaring off to brutal dreams. +People trying to sleep here; a sick child up stairs. Listen! "_Two_ +stew! _One_ roast! _Four_ ale! Hurry 'em up! _Three_ stew! _In_ number +six! _One_ fancy--_two_ roast! _One_ sling! Three brandy--_hot! +Two_ stew! _One_ whisk' _skin!_ Hurry 'em up! _What_ yeh _'bout!_ +_Three_ brand' punch--_hot! Four_ stew! _What_-ye-e-h 'BOUT! _Two_ +gin-cock-t'il! _One_ stew! Hu-r-r-y 'em up!" Clashing, rattling, +cursing, swearing, laughing, shouting, trampling, stumbling, driving, +slamming of doors. "Hu-r-ry 'em UP." + +"Flanagan," said Dr. Renton, stopping at the first landing, "do +you have this noise every night?" + +"Naise? Hoo! Divil a night, docther, but I'm wehked out ov me bed +wid 'em, Sundays an' all. Sure didn't they murdher wan of 'em, +out an' out, last night!" + +"Is the man dead?" + +"Dead? Troth he is. An' cowld." + +"H'm"--through his compressed lips. "Flanagan, you needn't come +up. I know the door. Just hold the light for me here. There, that'll +do. Thank you." He whispered the last words from the top of the +second flight. + +"Are ye there, docther?" Flanagan anxious to the last, and trying +to peer up at him with the lamplight in his eyes. + +"Yes. That'll do. Thank you!" in the same whisper. Before he could +tap at the door, then darkening in the receding light, it opened +suddenly, and a big Irishwoman bounced out, and then whisked in +again, calling to some one in an inner room, "Here he is, Mrs. +Mill'r"; and then bounced out again, with a, "Walk royt in, if _you_ +plaze; here's the choild"; and whisked in again, with a "Sure an' +Jehms was quick"; never once looking at him, and utterly unconscious +of the presence of her landlord. He had hardly stepped into the +room and taken off his hat, when Mrs. Miller came from the inner +chamber with a lamp in her hand. How she started! With her pale +face grown suddenly paler, and her hand on her bosom, she could +only exclaim, "Why, it's Dr. Renton!" and stand, still and dumb, +gazing with a frightened look at his face, whiter than her own. +Whereupon Mrs. Flanagan came bolting out again, with wild eyes and +a sort of stupefied horror in her good, coarse, Irish features; +and then, with some uncouth ejaculation, ran back, and was heard +to tumble over something within, and tumble something else over in +her fall, and gather herself up with a subdued howl, and subside. + +"Mrs. Miller," began Dr. Renton, in a low, husky voice, glancing +at her frightened face, "I hope you'll be composed. I spoke to you +very harshly and rudely to-night; but I really was not myself--I +was in anger--and I ask your pardon. Please to overlook it all, +and--but I will speak of this presently; now--I am a physician; +will you let me look now at your sick child?" + +He spoke hurriedly, but with evident sincerity. For a moment her +lips faltered; then a slow flush came up, with a quick change of +expression on her thin, worn face, and, reddening to painful scarlet, +died away in a deeper pallor. + +"Dr. Renton," she said, hastily, "I have no ill-feeling for you, +sir, and I know you were hurt and vexed; and I know you have tried +to make it up to me again, sir, secretly. I know who it was, now; +but I can't take it, sir. You must take it back. You know it was +you sent it, sir?" + +"Mrs. Miller," he replied, puzzled beyond measure, "I don't understand +you. What do you mean?" + +"Don't deny it, sir. Please not to," she said imploringly, the +tears starting to her eyes. "I am very grateful,--indeed I am. But +I can't accept it. Do take it again." + +"Mrs. Miller," he replied, in a hasty voice, "what do you mean? I +have sent you nothing,--nothing at all. I have, therefore, nothing +to receive again." + +She looked at him fixedly, evidently impressed by the fervor of +his denial. + +"You sent me nothing to-night, sir?" she asked, doubtfully. + +"Nothing at any time, nothing," he answered, firmly. + +It would have been folly to have disbelieved the truthful look of +his wondering face, and she turned away in amazement and confusion. +There was a long pause. + +"I hope, Mrs. Miller, you will not refuse any assistance I can render +to your child," he said, at length. + +She started, and replied, tremblingly and confusedly, "No, sir; we +shall be grateful to you, if you can save her"; and went quickly, +with a strange abstraction on her white face, into the inner room. +He followed her at once, and, hardly glancing at Mrs. Flanagan, +who sat there in stupefaction, with her apron over her head and +face, he laid his hat on a table, went to the bedside of the little +girl, and felt her head and pulse. He soon satisfied himself that +the little sufferer was in no danger, under proper remedies, and +now dashed down a prescription on a leaf from his pocket-book. +Mrs. Flanagan, who had come out from the retirement of her apron, +to stare stupidly at him during the examination, suddenly bobbed +up on her legs, with enlightened alacrity, when he asked if there +was any one that could go out to the apothecary's, and said, "Sure +I wull!" He had a little trouble to make her understand that the +prescription, which she took by the corner, holding it away from +her, as if it were going to explode presently, and staring at it +upside down, was to be left--"_left_, mind you, Mrs. Flanagan--with +the apothecary--Mr. Flint--at the nearest corner--and he will give +you some things, which you are to bring here." But she had shuffled +off at last with a confident, "Yis, sur--aw, I knoo," her head +nodding satisfied assent, and her big thumb covering the note on +the margin, "Charge to Dr. C. Renton, Bowdoin Street," (which, +_I_ know, could not keep it from the eyes of the angels!) and he +sat down to await her return. + +"Mrs. Miller," he said, kindly, "don't be alarmed about your child. +She is doing well; and, after you have given her the medicine Mrs. +Flanagan will bring, you'll find her much better, to-morrow. She +must be kept cool and quiet, you know, and she'll be all right +soon." + +"O Dr. Renton, I am very grateful," was the tremulous reply; "and +we will follow all directions, sir. It is hard to keep her quiet, +sir; we keep as still as we can, and the other children are very +still; but the street is very noisy all the daytime and evening, +sir, and--" + +"I know it, Mrs. Miller. And I'm afraid those people down stairs +disturb you somewhat." + +"They make some stir in the evening, sir; and it's rather loud +in the street sometimes, at night. The folks on the lower floors +are troubled a good deal, they say." + +Well they may be. Listen to the bawling outside, now, cold as it +is. Hark! A hoarse group on the opposite sidewalk beginning a +song,--"Ro-o-l on, sil-ver mo-o-n--" The silver moon ceases to +roll in a sudden explosion of yells and laughter, sending up broken +fragments of curses, ribald jeers, whoopings, and cat-calls, high +into the night air. "Ga-l-a-ng! Hi-hi! What ye-e-h _'bout!_" + +"This is outrageous, Mrs. Miller. Where's the watchman?" + +She smiled faintly. "He takes one of them off occasionally, sir; +but he's afraid; they beat him sometimes." A long pause. + +"Isn't your room rather cold, Mrs. Miller?" He glanced at the black +stove, dimly seen in the outer room. "It is necessary to keep the +rooms cool just now, but this air seems to me cold." + +Receiving no answer, he looked at her, and saw the sad truth in +her averted face. + +"I beg your pardon," he said quickly, flushing to the roots of his +hair. "I might have known, after what you said to me this evening." + +"We had a little fire here to-day, sir," she said, struggling with +the pride and shame of poverty; "but we have been out of firing +for two or three days, and we owe the wharfman something now. The +two boys picked up a few chips; but the poor children find it hard +to get them, sir. Times are very hard with us, sir; indeed they +are. We'd have got along better, if my husband's money had come, +and your rent would have been paid--" + +"Never mind the rent!--don't speak of that!" he broke in, with his +face all aglow. "Mrs. Miller, I haven't done right by you,--I know +it. Be frank with me. Are you in want of--have you--need of--food?" + +No need of answer to that faintly stammered question. The thin, +rigid face was covered from his sight by the worn, wan hands, and +all the pride and shame of poverty, and all the frigid truth of +cold, hunger, anxiety, and sickened sorrow they had concealed, had +given way at last in a rush of tears. He could not speak. With a +smitten heart, he knew it all now. Ah! Dr. Renton, you know these +people's tricks? you know their lying blazon of poverty, to gather +sympathy? + +"Mrs. Miller,"--she had ceased weeping, and as he spoke, she looked +at him, with the tear-stains still on her agitated face, half ashamed +that he had seen her,--"Mrs. Miller, I am sorry. This shall be +remedied. Don't tell me it sha'n't! Don't! I say it shall! Mrs. +Miller, I'm--I'm ashamed of myself. I am indeed." + +"I am very grateful, sir, I'm sure," said she; "but we don't like +to take charity, though we need help; but we can get along now, +sir; for I suppose I must keep it, as you say you didn't send +it, and use it for the children's sake, and thank God for his good +mercy,--since I don't know, and never shall, where it came from, +now." + +"Mrs. Miller," he said quickly, "you spoke in this way before; +and I don't know what you refer to. What do you mean by--_it?_" + +"Oh! I forgot, sir: it puzzles me so. You see, sir, I was sitting +here after I got home from your house, thinking what I should do, +when Mrs. Flanagan came up stairs with a letter for me, that she said +a strange man left at the door for Mrs. Miller; and Mrs. Flanagan +couldn't describe him well, or understandingly; and it had no +direction at all, only the man inquired who was the landlord, and +if Mrs. Miller had a sick child, and then said the letter was for +me; and there was no writing inside the letter, but there was fifty +dollars. That's all, sir. It gave me a great shock, sir; and I +couldn't think who sent it, only when you came to-night, I thought +it was you; but you said it wasn't, and I never shall know who +it was, now. It seems as if the hand of God was in it, sir, for +it came when everything was darkest, and I was in despair." + +"Why, Mrs. Miller," he slowly answered, "this is very mysterious. +The man inquired if I was the owner of the house--oh! no--he only +inquired who was--but then he knew I was the--oh! bother! I'm getting +nowhere. Let's see. Why, it must be some one you know, or that +knows your circumstances." + +"But there's no one knows them but yourself; and I told you," she +replied; "no one else but the people in the house. It must have +been some rich person, for the letter was a gilt-edge sheet, and +there was perfume in it, sir." + +"Strange," he murmured. "Well, I give it up. All is, I advise you to +keep it, and I'm very glad some one did his duty by you in your hour +of need, though I'm sorry it was not myself. Here's Mrs. Flanagan." + +There was a good deal done, and a great burden lifted off an humble +heart--nay, two!--before Dr. Renton thought of going home. There +was a patient gained, likely to do Dr. Renton more good than any +patient he had lost. There was a kettle singing on the stove, and +blowing off a happier steam than any engine ever blew on that railroad +whose unmarketable stock had singed Dr. Renton's fingers. There +was a yellow gleam flickering from the blazing fire on the sober +binding of a good old Book upon a shelf with others, a rarer medical +work than ever slipped at auction from Dr. Renton's hands, since +it kept the sacred lore of Him who healed the sick, and fed the +hungry, and comforted the poor, and who was also the Physician +of souls. + +And there were other offices performed, of lesser range than these, +before he rose to go. There were cooling mixtures blended for the +sick child; medicines arranged; directions given; and all the items +of her tendance orderly foreseen, and put in pigeon-holes of When +and How, for service. + +At last he rose to go. "And now, Mrs. Miller," he said, "I'll come +here at ten in the morning, and see to our patient. She'll be nicely +by that time. And (listen to those brutes in the street!--twelve +o'clock, too--ah! there's the bell), as I was saying, my offence +to you being occasioned by your debt to me, I feel my receipt for +your debt should commence my reparation to you; and I'll bring it +to-morrow. Mrs. Miller, you don't quite come at me--what I mean +is--you owe me, under a notice to quit, three months' rent. Consider +that paid in full. I never will take a cent of it from you,--not +a copper. And I take back the notice. Stay in my house as long as +you like; the longer the better. But, up to this date, your rent's +paid. There. I hope you'll have as happy a Christmas as circumstances +will allow, and I mean you shall." + +A flush of astonishment, of indefinable emotion, overspread her +face. + +"Dr. Renton, stop, sir!" He was moving to the door. "Please, sir, +_do_ hear me! You are very good--but I can't allow you to--Dr. +Renton, we are able to pay you the rent, and we _will_, and we +_must_--here--now. O, sir, my gratefulness will never fail to +you--but here--here--be fair with me, sir, and _do_ take it." + +She had hurried to a chest of drawers, and came back with the letter +which she had rustled apart with eager, trembling hands, and now, +unfolding the single banknote it had contained, she thrust it into +his fingers as they closed. + +"Here, Mrs. Miller,"--she had drawn back with her arms locked on +her bosom, and he stepped forward,--"no, no. This sha'n't be. +Come, come, you must take it back. Good heavens!" He spoke low, +but his eyes blazed in the red glow which broke out on his face, +and the crisp note in his extended hand shook violently at her. +"Sooner than take this money from you, I would perish in the street! +What! Do you think I will rob you of the gift sent you by some +one who had a human heart for the distresses I was aggravating? +Sooner than-- Here, take it! O my God! what's this?" + +The red glow on his face went out, with this exclamation, in a +pallor like marble, and he jerked back the note to his starting +eyes. Globe Bank--Boston--Fifty Dollars. For a minute he gazed at the +motionless bill in his hand. Then, with his hueless lips compressed, +he seized the blank letter from his astonished tenant, and looked at +it, turning it over and over. Grained letter-paper--gilt-edged--with +a favorite perfume in it. Where's Mrs. Flanagan? Outside the door, +sitting on the top of the stairs, with her apron over her head, +crying. Mrs. Flanagan! Here! In she tumbled, her big feet kicking +her skirts before her, and her eyes and face as red as a beet. + +"Mrs. Flanagan, what kind of a looking man gave you this letter +at the door to-night?" + +"A-w, Docther Rinton, dawn't ax me!--Bother, an' all, an' sure +an' I cudn't see him wud his fur-r hat, an' he a-ll boondled oop +wud his co-at oop on his e-ars, an' his big han'kershuf smotherin' +thuh mouth uv him, an' sorra a bit uv him tuh be looked at, sehvin' +thuh poomple on thuh ind uv his naws." + +"The _what_ on the end of his nose?" + +"Thuh poomple, sur." + +"What does she mean, Mrs. Miller?" said the puzzled questioner, +turning to his tenant. + +"I don't know, sir, indeed," was the reply. "She said that to me, +and I couldn't understand her." + +"It's thuh poomple, docther. Dawn't ye knoo? Thuh big, flehmin +poomple oop there." She indicated the locality, by flattening the +rude tip of her own nose with her broad forefinger. + +"Oh! the pimple! I have it." So he had. Netty, Netty! + +He said nothing, but sat down in a chair, with his bold, white brow +knitted, and the warm tears in his dark eyes. + +"You know who sent it, sir, don't you?" asked his wondering tenant, +catching the meaning of all this. + +"Mrs. Miller, I do. But I cannot tell you. Take it, now, and use +it. It is doubly yours. There. Thank you." + +She had taken it with an emotion in her face that gave a quicker +motion to his throbbing heart. He rose to his feet, hat in hand, +and turned away. The noise of a passing group of roysterers in +the street without came strangely loud into the silence of that +room. + +"Good night, Mrs. Miller. I'll be here in the morning. Good night." + +"Good night, sir. God bless you, sir!" + +He turned around quickly. The warm tears in his dark eyes had flowed +on his face, which was pale; and his firm lip quivered. + +"I hope He will, Mrs. Miller,--I hope He will. It should have been +said oftener." + +He was on the outer threshold. Mrs. Flanagan had, somehow, got +there before him, with a lamp, and he followed her down through +the dancing shadows, with blurred eyes. On the lower landing he +stopped to hear the jar of some noisy wrangle, thick with oaths, +from the bar-room. He listened for a moment, and then turned to +the staring stupor of Mrs. Flanagan's rugged visage. + +"Sure, they're at ut, docther, wud a wull," she said, smiling. + +"Yes. Mrs. Flanagan, you'll stay up with Mrs. Miller to-night, won't +you?" + +"Dade an' I wull, sur." + +"That's right. Do. And make her try and sleep, for she must be +tired. Keep up a fire,--not too warm, you understand. There'll be +wood and coal coming to-morrow, and she'll pay you back." + +"A-w, docther, dawn't noo!" + +"Well, well. And--look here; have you got anything to eat in the +house? Yes; well, take it up stairs. Wake up those two boys, and +give them something to eat. Don't let Mrs. Miller stop you. Make +her eat something. Tell her I said she must. And, first of all, get +your bonnet, and go to that apothecary's,--Flint's,--for a bottle +of port wine, for Mrs. Miller. Hold on. There's the order." (He had +a leaf out of his pocket-book in a minute, and wrote it down.) "Go +with this the first thing. Ring Flint's bell, and he'll wake up. +And here's something for your own Christmas dinner, to-morrow." Out +of the roll of bills he drew one of the tens--Globe Bank--Boston--and +gave it to Mrs. Flanagan. + +"A-w, dawn't noo, docther." + +"Bother! It's for yourself, mind. Take it. There. And now unlock +the door. That's it. Good night, Mrs. Flanagan." + +"An' meh thuh Hawly Vurgin hape bless'n's on ye, Docther Rinton, +wud a-ll thuh compliments uv thuh sehzin, for yur thuh--" + +He lost the end of Mrs. Flanagan's parting benedictions in the +moonlit street. He did not pause till he was at the door of the +oyster-room. He paused then, to make way for a tipsy company of +four, who reeled out,--the gaslight from the bar-room on the edges +of their sodden, distorted faces,--giving three shouts and a yell, +as they slammed the door behind them. + +He pushed after a party that was just entering. They went at once +for a drink to the upper end of the room, where a rowdy crew, with +cigars in their mouths, and liquor in their hands, stood before +the bar, in a knotty wrangle concerning some one who was killed. +Where is the keeper? O, there he is, mixing hot brandy punch for +two! Here, you, sir, go up quietly, and tell Mr. Rollins Dr. Renton +wants to see him. The waiter came back presently to say Mr. Rollins +would be right along. Twenty-five minutes past twelve. Oyster trade +nearly over. Gaudy-curtained booths on the left all empty but two. +Oyster-openers and waiters--three of them in all--nearly done for +the night, and two of them sparring and scuffling behind a pile of +oysters on the trough, with the colored print of the great prize +fight between Tom Hyer and Yankee Sullivan, in a veneered frame +above them on the wall. Blower up from the fire opposite the bar, +and stewpans and griddles empty and idle on the bench beside it, +among the unwashed bowls and dishes. Oyster trade nearly over. +Bar still busy. + +Here comes Rollins in his shirt-sleeves, with an apron on. Thick-set, +muscular man,--frizzled head, low forehead, sharp, black eyes, +flabby face, with a false, greasy smile on it now, oiling over +a curious, stealthy expression of mingled surprise and inquiry, +as he sees his landlord here at this unusual hour. + +"Come in here, Mr. Rollins; I want to speak to you." + +"Yes, sir. Jim" (to the waiter), "go and tend bar." They sat down +in one of the booths, and lowered the curtain. Dr. Renton, at one +side of the table within, looking at Rollins, sitting leaning on +his folded arms, at the other side. + +"Mr. Rollins, I am told the man who was stabbed here last night +is dead. Is that so?" + +"Well, he is, Dr. Renton. Died this afternoon." + +"Mr. Rollins, this is a serious matter; what are you going to do +about it?" + +"Can't help it, sir. Who's a-goin' to touch _me?_ Called in a watchman. +Whole mess of 'em had cut. Who knows 'em? Nobody knows 'em. Man that +was stuck never see the fellers as stuck him in all his life till +then. Didn't know which one of 'em did it. Didn't know nothing. +Don't now, an' never will, 'nless he meets 'em in hell. That's +all. Feller's dead, an' who's a-goin' to touch _me?_ Can't do it. +Ca-n-'t do it." + +"Mr. Rollins," said Dr. Renton, thoroughly disgusted with this man's +brutal indifference, "your lease expires in three days." + +"Well, it does. Hope to make a renewal with you, Dr. Renton. Trade's +good here. Shouldn't mind more rent on, if you insist,--hope you +won't,--if it's anything in reason. Promise sollum, I sha'n't have +no more fightin' in here. Couldn't help this. Accidents _will_ +happen, yo' know." + +"Mr. Rollins, the case is this: if you didn't sell liquor here, +you'd have no murder done in your place,--murder, sir. That man +was murdered. It's your fault, and it's mine, too. I ought not to +have let you the place for your business. It _is_ a cursed traffic, +and you and I ought to have found it out long ago. _I_ have. I hope +_you_ will. Now, I advise you, as a friend, to give up selling rum +for the future; you see what it comes to,--don't you? At any rate, +I will not be responsible for the outrages that are perpetrated in +my building any more,--I will not have liquor sold here. I refuse +to renew your lease. In three days you must move." + +"Dr. Renton, you hurt my feelin's. Now, how would you--" + +"Mr. Rollins, I have spoken to you as a friend, and you have no +cause for pain. You must quit these premises when your lease expires. +I'm sorry I can't make you go before that. Make no appeals to me, +if you please. I am fixed. Now, sir, good night." + +The curtain was pulled up, and Rollins rolled over to his beloved +bar, soothing his lacerated feelings by swearing like a pirate, +while Dr. Renton strode to the door, and went into the street, +homeward. + +He walked fast through the magical moonlight, with a strange feeling +of sternness, and tenderness, and weariness, in his mind. In this +mood, the sensation of spiritual and physical fatigue gaining on +him, but a quiet moonlight in all his reveries, he reached his +house. He was just putting his latch-key in the door, when it was +opened by James, who stared at him for a second, and then dropped +his eyes, and put his hand before his nose. Dr. Renton compressed +his lips on an involuntary smile. + +"Ah! James, you're up late. It's near one." + +"I sat up for Mrs. Renton and the young lady, sir. They're just +come, and gone up stairs." + +"All right, James. Take your lamp and come in here. I've got something +to say to you." The man followed him into the library at once, with +some wonder on his sleepy face. + +"First, put some coal on that fire, and light the chandelier. I +shall not go up stairs to-night." The man obeyed. "Now, James, +sit down in that chair." He did so, beginning to look frightened +at Dr. Renton's grave manner. + +"James,"--a long pause,--"I want you to tell me the truth. Where +did you go to-night? Come, I have found you out. Speak." + +The man turned as white as a sheet, and looked wretched with the +whites of his bulging eyes, and the great pimple on his nose awfully +distinct in the livid hue of his features. He was a rather slavish +fellow, and thought he was going to lose his situation. Please +not to blame him, for he, too, was one of the poor. + +"O Dr. Renton, excuse me, sir; I didn't mean doing any harm." + +"James, my daughter gave you an undirected letter this evening; you +carried it to one of my houses in Hanover Street. Is that true?" + +"Ye-yes, sir. I couldn't help it. I only did what she told me, +sir." + +"James, if my daughter told you to set fire to this house, what +would you do?" + +"I wouldn't do it, sir," he stammered, after some hesitation. + +"You wouldn't? James, if my daughter ever tells you to set fire +to this house, do it, sir! Do it. At once. Do whatever she tells +you. Promptly. And I'll back you." + +The man stared wildly at him, as he received this astonishing command. +Dr. Renton was perfectly grave, and had spoken slowly and seriously. +The man was at his wits' end. + +"You'll do it, James,--will you?" + +"Ye-yes, sir, certainly." + +"That's right. James, you're a good fellow. James, you've got a +wife and children, hav'n't you?" + +"Yes, sir, I have; living in the country, sir. In Chelsea, over +the ferry. For cheapness, sir." + +"For cheapness, eh? Hard times, James? How is it?" + +"Pretty hard, sir. Close, but toler'ble comfortable. Rub and go, +sir." + +"Rub and go. Ve-r-y well. Rub and go. James, I'm going to raise +your wages--to-morrow. Generally, because you're a good servant. +Principally, because you carried that letter to-night, when my +daughter asked you. I sha'n't forget it. To-morrow, mind. And +if I can do anything for you, James, at any time, just tell me. +That's all. Now, you'd better go to bed. And a happy Christmas +to you!" + +"Much obliged to you, sir. Same to you and many of 'em. Good night, +sir." And with Dr. Renton's "good-night" he stole up to bed, thoroughly +happy, and determined to obey Miss Renton's future instructions to +the letter. The shower of golden light which had been raining for +the last two hours had fallen even on him. It would fall all day +to-morrow in many places, and the day after, and for long years +to come. Would that it could broaden and increase to a general +deluge, and submerge the world! + +Now the whole house was still, and its master was weary. He sat +there, quietly musing, feeling the sweet and tranquil presence +near him. Now the fire was screened, the lights were out, save +one dim glimmer, and he had lain down on the couch with the letter +in his hand, and slept the dreamless sleep of a child. + +He slept until the gray dawn of Christmas day stole into the room, +and showed him the figure of his friend, a shape of glorious light, +standing by his side, and gazing at him with large and tender eyes! +He had no fear. All was deep, serene, and happy with the happiness of +heaven. Looking up into that beautiful, wan face,--so tranquil,--so +radiant; watching, with a childlike awe, the star-fire in those shadowy +eyes; smiling faintly, with a great, unutterable love thrilling +slowly through his frame, in answer to the smile of light that shone +upon the phantom countenance; so he passed a space of time which +seemed a calm eternity, till, at last, the communion of spirit +with spirit--of mortal love with love immortal--was perfected, +and the shining hands were laid on his forehead, as with a touch +of air. Then the phantom smiled, and, as its shining hands were +withdrawn, the thought of his daughter mingled in the vision. She +was bending over him! The dawn, the room, were the same. But the +ghost of Feval had gone out from earth, away to its own land! + +"Father, dear father! Your eyes were open, and they did not look at +me. There is a light on your face, and your features are changed! +What is it,--what have you seen?" + +"Hush, darling: here--kneel by me, for a little while, and be still. +I have seen the dead." + +She knelt by him, burying her awe-struck face in his bosom, and +clung to him with all the fervor of her soul. He clasped her to +his breast, and for minutes all was still. + +"Dear child, good and dear child!" + +The voice was tremulous and low. She lifted her fair, bright +countenance, now convulsed with a secret trouble, and dimmed with +streaming tears, to his, and gazed on him. His eyes were shining; +but his pallid cheeks, like hers, were wet with tears. How still +the room was! How like a thought of solemn tenderness the pale +gray dawn! The world was far away, and his soul still wandered +in the peaceful awe of his dream. The world was coming back to +him,--but oh! how changed!--in the trouble of his daughter's face. + +"Darling, what is it? Why are you here? Why are you weeping? Dear +child, the friend of my better days,--of the boyhood when I had +noble aims, and life was beautiful before me,--he has been here! I +have seen him. He has been with me--oh! for a good I cannot tell!" + +"Father, dear father!"--he had risen, and sat upon the couch, but she +still knelt before him, weeping, and clasped his hands in hers,--"I +thought of you and of this letter, all the time. All last night +till I slept, and then I dreamed you were tearing it to pieces, +and trampling on it. I awoke, and lay thinking of you, and of ----. +And I thought I heard you come down stairs, and I came here to +find you. But you were lying here so quietly, with your eyes open, +and so strange a light on your face. And I knew,--I knew you were +dreaming of him, and that you saw him, for the letter lay beside +you. O father! forgive me, but do hear me! In the name of this +day,--it's Christmas day, father,--in the name of the time when +we must both die,--in the name of that time, father, hear me! That +poor woman last night,--O father! forgive me, but don't tear that +letter in pieces and trample it under foot! You know what I mean--you +know--you know. Don't tear it, and tread it under foot." + +She clung to him, sobbing violently, her face buried in his hands. + +"Hush, hush! It's all well,--it's all well. Here, sit by me. So. +I have--" His voice failed him, and he paused. But sitting by +him,--clinging to him,--her face hidden in his bosom,--she heard +the strong beating of his disenchanted heart. + +"My child, I know your meaning. I will not tear the letter to pieces +and trample it under foot. God forgive me my life's slight to those +words. But I learned their value last night, in the house where +your blank letter had entered before me." + +She started, and looked into his face steadfastly, while a bright +scarlet shot into her own. + +"I know all, Netty,--all. Your secret was well kept, but it is +yours and mine now. It was well done, darling, well done. O, I +have been through strange mysteries of thought and life since that +starving woman sat here! Well--thank God!" + +"Father, what have you done?" The flush had failed, but a glad +color still brightened her face, while the tears stood trembling +in her eyes. + +"All that you wished yesterday," he answered. "And all that you +ever could have wished, henceforth I will do." + +"O father!" She stopped. The bright scarlet shot again into her +face, but with an April shower of tears, and the rainbow of a smile. + +"Listen to me, Netty, and I will tell you, and only you, what I +have done." Then, while she mutely listened, sitting by his side, +and the dawn of Christmas broadened into Christmas day, he told +her all. + +And when he had told all, and emotion was stilled, they sat together +in silence for a time, she with her innocent head drooped upon his +shoulder, and her eyes closed, lost in tender and mystic reveries; +and he musing with a contrite heart. Till at last, the stir of +daily life began to waken in the quiet dwelling, and without, from +steeples in the frosty air, there was a sound of bells. + +They rose silently, and stood, clinging to each other, side by side. + +"Love, we must part," he said, gravely and tenderly. "Read me, +before we go, the closing lines of George Feval's letter. In the +spirit of this let me strive to live. Let it be for me the lesson +of the day. Let it also be the lesson of my life." + +Her face was pale and lit with exaltation as she took the letter +from his hand. There was a pause, and then upon the thrilling and +tender silver of her voice, the words arose like solemn music:-- + +"_Farewell--farewell! But, oh! take my counsel into memory on Christmas +Day, and forever. Once again, the ancient prophecy of peace and +good-will shines on a world of wars and wrongs and woes. Its soft +ray shines into the darkness of a land wherein swarm slaves, poor +laborers, social pariahs, weeping women, homeless exiles, hunted +fugitives, despised aliens, drunkards, convicts, wicked children, +and Magdalens unredeemed. These are but the ghastliest figures +in that sad army of humanity which advances, by a dreadful road, +to the Golden Age of the poets' dream. These are your sisters and +your brothers. Love them all. Beware of wronging one of them by +word or deed. O friend! strong in wealth for so much good,--take +my last counsel. In the name of the Saviour, I charge you, be true +and tender to mankind. Come out from Babylon into manhood, and +live and labor for the fallen, the neglected, the suffering, and +the poor. Lover of arts, customs, laws, institutions, and forms of +society, love these things only as they help mankind! With stern +love, overturn them, or help to overturn them, when they become cruel +to a single--the humblest--human being. In the world's scale, social +position, influence, public power, the applause of majorities, heaps +of funded gold, services rendered to creeds, codes, sects, parties, +or federations--they weigh weight; but in God's scale--remember!--on +the day if hope, remember!--your least service to Humanity outweighs +them all._" + + + + +THE FOUR-FIFTEEN EXPRESS. + +BY AMELIA B. EDWARDS. + + +I. + +The events which I am about to relate took place between nine and +ten years ago. Sebastopol had fallen in the early spring; the peace +of Paris had been concluded since March; our commercial relations with +the Russian Empire were but recently renewed; and I, returning home +after my first northward journey since the war, was well pleased with +the prospect of spending the month of December under the hospitable +and thoroughly English roof of my excellent friend Jonathan Jelf, +Esquire, of Dumbleton Manor, Clayborough, East Anglia. Travelling +in the interests of the well-known firm in which it is my lot to +be a junior partner, I had been called upon to visit not only the +capitals of Russia and Poland, but had found it also necessary +to pass some weeks among the trading-ports of the Baltic; whence +it came that the year was already far spent before I again set +foot on English soil, and that, instead of shooting pheasants with +him, as I had hoped, in October, I came to be my friend's guest +during the more genial Christmastide. + +My voyage over, and a few days given up to business in Liverpool +and London, I hastened down to Clayborough with all the delight of +a school-boy whose holidays are at hand. My way lay by the Great +East Anglian line as far as Clayborough station, where I was to +be met by one of the Dumbleton carriages and conveyed across the +remaining nine miles of country. It was a foggy afternoon, singularly +warm for the 4th of December, and I had arranged to leave London by +the 4.15 express. The early darkness of winter had already closed +in; the lamps were lighted in the carriages; a clinging damp dimmed +the windows, adhered to the door-handles, and pervaded all the +atmosphere; while the gas-jets at the neighboring bookstand diffused +a luminous haze that only served to make the gloom of the terminus +more visible. Having arrived some seven minutes before the starting of +the train, and, by the connivance of the guard, taken sole possession +of an empty compartment, I lighted my travelling-lamp, made myself +particularly snug, and settled down to the undisturbed enjoyment of +a book and a cigar. Great, therefore, was my disappointment when, +at the last moment, a gentleman came hurrying along the platform, +glanced into my carriage, opened the locked door with a private +key, and stepped in. + +It struck me at the first glance that I had seen him before,--a +tall, spare man, thin-lipped, light-eyed, with an ungraceful stoop +in the shoulders, and scant gray hair worn somewhat long upon the +collar. He carried a light water-proof coat, an umbrella, and a +large brown japanned deed-box, which last he placed under the seat. +This done, he felt carefully in his breast-pocket, as if to make +certain of the safety of his purse or pocket-book; laid his umbrella +in the netting overhead; spread the water-proof across his knees; +and exchanged his hat for a travelling-cap of some Scotch material. +By this time the train was moving out of the station, and into +the faint gray of the wintry twilight beyond. + +I now recognized my companion. I recognized him from the moment when +he removed his hat and uncovered the lofty, furrowed, and somewhat +narrow brow beneath. I had met him, as I distinctly remembered, +some three years before, at the very house for which, in all +probability, he was now bound, like myself. His name was Dwerrihouse; +he was a lawyer by profession; and, if I was not greatly mistaken, +was first-cousin to the wife of my host. I knew also that he was +a man eminently "well to do," both as regarded his professional +and private means. The Jelfs entertained him with that sort of +observant courtesy which falls to the lot of the rich relation; +the children made much of him; and the old butler, albeit somewhat +surly "to the general," treated him with deference. I thought, +observing him by the vague mixture of lamplight and twilight, that +Mrs. Jelf's cousin looked all the worse for the three years' wear +and tear which had gone over his head since our last meeting. He +was very pale, and had a restless light in his eye that I did not +remember to have observed before. The anxious lines, too, about +his mouth were deepened, and there was a cavernous, hollow look +about his cheeks and temples which seemed to speak of sickness or +sorrow. He had glanced at me as he came in, but without any gleam +of recognition in his face. Now he glanced again, as I fancied, +somewhat doubtfully. When he did so for the third or fourth time, +I ventured to address him. + +"Mr. John Dwerrihouse, I think?" + +"That is my name," he replied. + +"I had the pleasure of meeting you at Dumbleton about three years +ago." + +Mr. Dwerrihouse bowed. + +"I thought I knew your face," he said. "But your name, I regret +to say--" + +"Langford,--William Langford. I have known Jonathan Jelf since +we were boys together at Merchant Taylor's, and I generally spend +a few weeks at Dumbleton in the shooting-season. I suppose we are +bound for the same destination?" + +"Not if you are on your way to the Manor," he replied. "I am travelling +upon business,--rather troublesome business, too,--whilst you, +doubtless, have only pleasure in view." + +"Just so. I am in the habit of looking forward to this visit as +to the brightest three weeks in all the year." + +"It is a pleasant house," said Mr. Dwerrihouse. + +"The pleasantest I know." + +"And Jelf is thoroughly hospitable." + +"The best and kindest fellow in the world!" + +"They have invited me to spend Christmas week with them," pursued +Mr. Dwerrihouse, after a moment's pause. + +"And you are coming?" + +"I cannot tell. It must depend on the issue of this business which I +have in hand. You have heard, perhaps, that we are about to construct +a branch line from Blackwater to Stockbridge." + +I explained that I had been for some months away from England, +and had therefore heard nothing of the contemplated improvement. + +Mr. Dwerrihouse smiled complacently. + +"It _will_ be an improvement," he said; "a great improvement. +Stockbridge is a flourishing town, and needs but a more direct +railway communication with the metropolis to become an important +centre of commerce. This branch was my own idea. I brought the +project before the board, and have myself superintended the execution +of it up to the present time." + +"You are an East Anglian director, I presume?" + +"My interest in the company," replied Mr. Dwerrihouse, "is threefold. +I am a director; I am a considerable shareholder; and, as head of +the firm of Dwerrihouse, Dwerrihouse, and Craik, I am the company's +principal solicitor." + +Loquacious, self-important, full of his pet project, and apparently +unable to talk on any other subject, Mr. Dwerrihouse then went on +to tell of the opposition he had encountered and the obstacles he +had overcome in the cause of the Stockbridge branch. I was entertained +with a multitude of local details and local grievances. The rapacity +of one squire; the impracticability of another; the indignation of +the rector whose glebe was threatened; the culpable indifference +of the Stockbridge townspeople, who could _not_ be brought to see +that their most vital interests hinged upon a junction with the +Great East Anglian line; the spite of the local newspaper; and the +unheard-of difficulties attending the Common question,--were each +and all laid before me with a circumstantiality that possessed +the deepest interest for my excellent fellow-traveller, but none +whatever for myself. From these, to my despair, he went on to more +intricate matters: to the approximate expenses of construction +per mile; to the estimates sent in by different contractors; to +the probable traffic returns of the new line; to the provisional +clauses of the new Act as enumerated in Schedule D of the company's +last half-yearly report; and so on, and on, and on, till my head +ached, and my attention flagged, and my eyes kept closing in spite +of every effort that I made to keep them open. At length I was +roused by these words:-- + +"Seventy-five thousand pounds, cash down." + +"Seventy-five thousand pounds, cash down," I repeated, in the liveliest +tone I could assume. "That is a heavy sum." + +"A heavy sum to carry here," replied Mr. Dwerrihouse, pointing +significantly to his breast-pocket; "but a mere fraction of what +we shall ultimately have to pay." + +"You do not mean to say that you have seventy-five thousand pounds +at this moment upon your person?" I exclaimed. + +"My good sir, have I not been telling you so for the last half-hour?" +said Mr. Dwerrihouse, testily. + +"That money has to be paid over at half past eight o'clock this +evening, at the office of Sir Thomas's solicitors, on completion +of the deed of sale." + +"But how will you get across by night from Blackwater to Stockbridge +with seventy-five thousand pounds in your pocket?" + +"To Stockbridge!" echoed the lawyer. "I find I have made myself +very imperfectly understood. I thought I had explained how this +sum only carries us as far as Mallingford,--the first stage, as +it were, of our journey,--and how our route from Blackwater to +Mallingford lies entirely through Sir Thomas Liddell's property." + +"I beg your pardon," I stammered. "I fear my thoughts were wandering. +So you only go as far as Mallingford to-night?" + +"Precisely. I shall get a conveyance from the 'Blackwater Arms.' +And you?" + +"O, Jelf sends a trap to meet me at Clayborough! Can I be the bearer +of any message from you?" + +"You may say, if you please, Mr. Langford, that I wished I could +have been your companion all the way, and that I will come over, +if possible, before Christmas." + +"Nothing more?" + +Mr. Dwerrihouse smiled grimly. "Well," he said, "you may tell my +cousin that she need not burn the hall down in my honor _this_ +time, and that I shall be obliged if she will order the blue-room +chimney to be swept before I arrive." + +"That sounds tragic. Had you a conflagration on the occasion of +your last visit to Dumbleton?" + +"Something like it. There had been no fire lighted in my bedroom +since the spring, the flue was foul, and the rooks had built in +it; so when I went up to dress for dinner, I found the room full +of smoke, and the chimney on fire. Are we already at Blackwater?" + +The train had gradually come to a pause while Mr. Dwerrihouse was +speaking, and, on putting my head out of the window, I could see +the station some few hundred yards ahead. There was another train +before us blocking the way, and the guard was making use of the +delay to collect the Blackwater tickets. I had scarcely ascertained +our position, when the ruddy-faced official appeared at our +carriage-door. + +"Tickets, sir!" said he. + +"I am for Clayborough," I replied, holding out the tiny pink card. + +He took it; glanced at it by the light of his little lantern; gave it +back; looked, as I fancied, somewhat sharply at my fellow-traveller, +and disappeared. + +"He did not ask for yours," I said with some surprise. + +"They never do," replied Mr. Dwerrihouse. "They all know me; and, +of course, I travel free." + +"Blackwater! Blackwater!" cried the porter, running along the platform +beside us, as we glided into the station. + +Mr. Dwerrihouse pulled out his deed-box, put his travelling-cap in +his pocket, resumed his hat, took down his umbrella, and prepared +to be gone. + +"Many thanks, Mr. Langford, for your society," he said, with +old-fashioned courtesy. "I wish you a good evening." + +"Good evening," I replied, putting out my hand. + +But he either did not see it, or did not choose to see it, and, +slightly lifting his hat, stepped out upon the platform. Having +done this, he moved slowly away, and mingled with the departing +crowd. + +Leaning forward to watch him out of sight, I trod upon something +which proved to be a cigar-case. It had fallen, no doubt, from +the pocket of his water-proof coat, and was made of dark morocco +leather, with a silver monogram upon the side. I sprang out of +the carriage just as the guard came up to lock me in. + +"Is there one minute to spare?" I asked eagerly. "The gentleman +who travelled down with me from town has dropped his cigar-case; +he is not yet out of the station!" + +"Just a minute and a half, sir," replied the guard. "You must be +quick." + +I dashed along the platform as fast as my feet could carry me. +It was a large station, and Mr. Dwerrihouse had by this time got +more than half-way to the farther end. + +I, however, saw him distinctly, moving slowly with the stream. +Then, as I drew nearer, I saw that he had met some friend,--that +they were talking as they walked,--that they presently fell back +somewhat from the crowd, and stood aside in earnest conversation. +I made straight for the spot where they were waiting. There was a +vivid gas-jet just above their heads, and the light fell full upon +their faces. I saw both distinctly,--the face of Mr. Dwerrihouse +and the face of his companion. Running, breathless, eager as I +was, getting in the way of porters and passengers, and fearful +every instant lest I should see the train going on without me, +I yet observed that the new-comer was considerably younger and +shorter than the director, that he was sandy-haired, mustachioed, +small-featured, and dressed in a close-cut suit of Scotch tweed. +I was now within a few yards of them. I ran against a stout +gentleman,--I was nearly knocked down by a luggage-truck,--I stumbled +over a carpet-bag,--I gained the spot just as the driver's whistle +warned me to return. + +To my utter stupefaction they were no longer there. I had seen +them but two seconds before,--and they were gone! I stood still. I +looked to right and left. I saw no sign of them in any direction. +It was as if the platform had gaped and swallowed them. + +"There were two gentlemen standing here a moment ago," I said to +a porter at my elbow; "which way can they have gone?" + +"I saw no gentlemen, sir," replied the man. + +The whistle shrilled out again. The guard, far up the platform, +held up his arm, and shouted to me to "Come on!" + +"If you're going on by this train, sir," said the porter, "you must +run for it." + +I did run for it, just gained the carriage as the train began to +move, was shoved in by the guard, and left breathless and bewildered, +with Mr. Dwerrihouse's cigar-case still in my hand. + +It was the strangest disappearance in the world. It was like a +transformation trick in a pantomime. They were there one +moment,--palpably there, talking, with the gaslight full upon their +faces; and the next moment they were gone. There was no door near,--no +window,--no staircase. It was a mere slip of barren platform, tapestried +with big advertisements. Could anything be more mysterious? + +It was not worth thinking about; and yet, for my life, I could +not help pondering upon it,--pondering, wondering, conjecturing, +turning it over and over in my mind, and beating my brains for a +solution of the enigma. I thought of it all the way from Blackwater +to Clayborough. I thought of it all the way from Clayborough to +Dumbleton, as I rattled along the smooth highway in a trim dog-cart +drawn by a splendid black mare, and driven by the silentest and +dapperest of East Anglian grooms. + +We did the nine miles in something less than an hour, and pulled +up before the lodge-gates just as the church-clock was striking +half past seven. A couple of minutes more, and the warm glow of +the lighted hall was flooding out upon the gravel, a hearty grasp +was on my hand, and a clear jovial voice was bidding me "Welcome +to Dumbleton." + +"And now, my dear fellow," said my host, when the first greeting +was over, "you have no time to spare. We dine at eight, and there +are people coming to meet you; so you must just get the dressing +business over as quickly as may be. By the way, you will meet some +acquaintances. The Biddulphs are coming, and Prendergast (Prendergast, +of the Skirmishers) is staying in the house. Adieu! Mrs. Jelf will +be expecting you in the drawing-room." + +I was ushered to my room,--not the blue room, of which Mr. Dwerrihouse +had made disagreeable experience, but a pretty little bachelor's +chamber, hung with a delicate chintz, and made cheerful by a blazing +fire. I unlocked my portmanteau. I tried to be expeditious; but +the memory of my railway adventure haunted me. I could not get +free of it. I could not shake it off. It impeded me,--it worried +me,--it tripped me up,--it caused me to mislay my studs,--to mistie +my cravat,--to wrench the buttons off my gloves. Worst of all, it +made me so late that the party had all assembled before I reached +the drawing-room. I had scarcely paid my respects to Mrs. Jelf +when dinner was announced, and we paired off, some eight or ten +couples strong, into the dining-room. + +I am not going to describe either the guests or the dinner. All +provincial parties bear the strictest family resemblance, and I +am not aware that an East Anglian banquet offers any exception +to the rule. There was the usual country baronet and his wife; +there were the usual country parsons and their wives; there was +the sempiternal turkey and haunch of venison. _Vanitas vanitatum._ +There is nothing new under the sun. + +I was placed about midway down the table. I had taken one rector's +wife down to dinner, and I had another at my left hand. They talked +across me, and their talk was about babies. It was dreadfully dull. +At length there came a pause. The entrees had just been removed, +and the turkey had come upon the scene. The conversation had all +along been of the languidest, but at this moment it happened to +have stagnated altogether. Jelf was carving the turkey. Mrs. Jelf +looked as if she was trying to think of something to say. Everybody +else was silent. Moved by an unlucky impulse, I thought I would +relate my adventure. + +"By the way, Jelf," I began, "I came down part of the way to-day +with a friend of yours." + +"Indeed!" said the master of the feast, slicing scientifically into +the breast of the turkey. "With whom, pray?" + +"With one who bade me tell you that he should, if possible, pay +you a visit before Christmas." + +"I cannot think who that could be," said my friend, smiling. + +"It must be Major Thorp," suggested Mrs. Jelf. + +I shook my head. + +"It was not Major Thorp," I replied. "It was a near relation of +your own, Mrs. Jelf." + +"Then I am more puzzled than ever," replied my hostess. "Pray tell +me who it was." + +"It was no less a person than your cousin, Mr. John Dwerrihouse." + +Jonathan Jelf laid down his knife and fork. Mrs. Jelf looked at +me in a strange, startled way, and said never a word. + +"And he desired me to tell you, my dear madam, that you need not +take the trouble to burn the hall down in his honor this time; but +only to have the chimney of the blue room swept before his arrival." + +Before I had reached the end of my sentence, I became aware of +something ominous in the faces of the guests. I felt I had said +something which I had better have left unsaid, and that for some +unexplained reason my words had evoked a general consternation. I +sat confounded, not daring to utter another syllable, and for at +least two whole minutes there was dead silence round the table. +Then Captain Prendergast came to the rescue. + +"You have been abroad for some months, have you not, Mr. Langford?" +he said, with the desperation of one who flings himself into the +breach. "I heard you had been to Russia. Surely you have something +to tell us of the state and temper of the country after the war?" + +I was heartily grateful to the gallant Skirmisher for this diversion +in my favor. I answered him, I fear, somewhat lamely; but he kept +the conversation up, and presently one or two others joined in, +and so the difficulty, whatever it might have been, was bridged +over. Bridged over, but not repaired. A something, an awkwardness, +a visible constraint, remained. The guests hitherto had been simply +dull; but now they were evidently uncomfortable and embarrassed. + +The dessert had scarcely been placed upon the table when the ladies +left the room. I seized the opportunity to select a vacant chair +next Captain Prendergast. + +"In Heaven's name," I whispered, "what was the matter just now? +What had I said?" + +"You mentioned the name of John Dwerrihouse." + +"What of that? I had seen him not two hours before." + +"It is a most astounding circumstance that you should have seen +him," said Captain Prendergast. "Are you sure it was he?" + +"As sure as of my own identity. We were talking all the way between +London and Blackwater. But why does that surprise you?" + +"_Because_," replied Captain Prendergast, dropping his voice to +the lowest whisper,--"_because John Dwerrihouse absconded three +months ago, with seventy-five thousand pounds of the company's +money, and has never been heard of since._" + +II. + +John Dwerrihouse had absconded three months ago,--and I had seen him +only a few hours back. John Dwerrihouse had embezzled seventy-five +thousand pounds of the company's money, yet told me that he carried +that sum upon his person. Were ever facts so strangely incongruous, +so difficult to reconcile? How should he have ventured again into +the light of day? How dared he show himself along the line? Above +all, what had he been doing throughout those mysterious three months +of disappearance? + +Perplexing questions these. Questions which at once suggested themselves +to the minds of all concerned, but which admitted of no easy solution. +I could find no reply to them. Captain Prendergast had not even a +suggestion to offer. Jonathan Jelf, who seized the first opportunity +of drawing me aside and learning all that I had to tell, was more +amazed and bewildered than either of us. He came to my room that +night, when all the guests were gone, and we talked the thing over +from every point of view; without, it must be confessed, arriving +at any kind of conclusion. + +"I do not ask you," he said, "whether you can have mistaken your +man. That is impossible." + +"As impossible as that I should mistake some stranger for yourself." + +"It is not a question of looks or voice, but of facts. That he +should have alluded to the fire in the blue room is proof enough +of John Dwerrihouse's identity. How did he look?" + +"Older, I thought. Considerably older, paler, and more anxious." + +"He has had enough to make him look anxious, anyhow," said my friend, +gloomily; "be he innocent or guilty." + +"I am inclined to believe that he is innocent," I replied. "He +showed no embarrassment when I addressed him, and no uneasiness +when the guard came round. His conversation was open to a fault. +I might almost say that he talked too freely of the business which +he had in hand." + +"That again is strange; for I know no one more reticent on such +subjects. He actually told you that he had the seventy-five thousand +pounds in his pocket?" + +"He did." + +"Humph! My wife has an idea about it, and she may be right--" + +"What idea?" + +"Well, she fancies,--women are so clever, you know, at putting +themselves inside people's motives,--she fancies that he was tempted; +that he did actually take the money; and that he has been concealing +himself these three months in some wild part of the country,--struggling +possibly with his conscience all the time, and daring neither to +abscond with his booty nor to come back and restore it." + +"But now that he has come back?" + +"That is the point. She conceives that he has probably thrown himself +upon the company's mercy; made restitution of the money; and, being +forgiven, is permitted to carry the business through as if nothing +whatever had happened." + +"The last," I replied, "is an impossible case. Mrs. Jelf thinks +like a generous and delicate-minded woman, but not in the least like +a board of railway directors. They would never carry forgiveness +so far." + +"I fear not; and yet it is the only conjecture that bears a semblance +of likelihood. However, we can run over to Clayborough to-morrow, +and see if anything is to be learned. By the way, Prendergast tells +me you picked up his cigar-case." + +"I did so, and here it is." + +Jelf took the cigar-case, examined it by the light of the lamp, and +said at once that it was beyond doubt Mr. Dwerrihouse's property, +and that he remembered to have seen him use it. + +"Here, too, is his monogram on the side," he added. "A big J transfixing +a capital D. He used to carry the same on his note-paper." + +"It offers, at all events, a proof that I was not dreaming." + +"Ay; but it is time you were asleep and dreaming now. I am ashamed +to have kept you up so long. Good night." + +"Good night, and remember that I am more than ready to go with +you to Clayborough, or Blackwater, or London, or anywhere, if I +can be of the least service." + +"Thanks! I know you mean it, old friend, and it may be that I shall +put you to the test. Once more, good night." + +So we parted for that night, and met again in the breakfast-room at +half past eight next morning. It was a hurried, silent, uncomfortable +meal. None of us had slept well, and all were thinking of the same +subject. Mrs. Jelf had evidently been crying; Jelf was impatient +to be off; and both Captain Prendergast and myself felt ourselves +to be in the painful position of outsiders, who are involuntarily +brought into a domestic trouble. Within twenty minutes after we +had left the breakfast-table the dog-cart was brought round, and +my friend and I were on the road to Clayborough. + +"Tell you what it is, Langford," he said, as we sped along between +the wintry hedges, "I do not much fancy to bring up Dwerrihouse's +name at Clayborough. All the officials know that he is my wife's +relation, and the subject just now is hardly a pleasant one. If +you don't much mind, we will take the 11.10 to Blackwater. It's +an important station, and we shall stand a far better chance of +picking up information there than at Clayborough." + +So we took the 11.10, which happened to be an express, and, arriving +at Blackwater about a quarter before twelve, proceeded at once to +prosecute our inquiry. + +We began by asking for the station-master,--a big, blunt, business-like +person, who at once averred that he knew Mr. John Dwerrihouse perfectly +well, and that there was no director on the line whom he had seen +and spoken to so frequently. + +"He used to be down here two or three times a week, about three +months ago," said he, "when the new line was first set afoot; but +since then, you know, gentlemen--" + +He paused, significantly. + +Jelf flushed scarlet. + +"Yes, yes," he said hurriedly, "we know all about that. The point +now to be ascertained is whether anything has been seen or heard +of him lately." + +"Not to my knowledge," replied the station-master. + +"He is not known to have been down the line any time yesterday, +for instance?" + +The station-master shook his head. + +"The East Anglian, sir," said he, "is about the last place where +he would dare to show himself. Why, there isn't a station-master, +there isn't a guard, there isn't a porter, who doesn't know +Mr. Dwerrihouse by sight as well as he knows his own face in the +looking-glass; or who wouldn't telegraph for the police as soon +as he had set eyes on him at any point along the line. Bless you, +sir! there's been a standing order out against him ever since the +twenty-fifth of September last." + +"And yet," pursued my friend, "a gentleman who travelled down yesterday +from London to Clayborough by the afternoon express testifies that he +saw Mr. Dwerrihouse in the train, and that Mr. Dwerrihouse alighted +at Blackwater station." + +"Quite impossible, sir," replied the station-master, promptly. + +"Why impossible?" + +"Because there is no station along the line where he is so well +known, or where he would run so great a risk. It would be just +running his head into the lion's mouth. He would have been mad to +come nigh Blackwater station; and if he had come, he would have +been arrested before he left the platform." + +"Can you tell me who took the Blackwater tickets of that train?" + +"I can, sir. It was the guard,--Benjamin Somers." + +"And where can I find him?" + +"You can find him, sir, by staying here, if you please, till one +o'clock. He will be coming through with the up express from Crampton, +which stays at Blackwater for ten minutes." + +We waited for the up express, beguiling the time as best we could +by strolling along the Blackwater road till we came almost to the +outskirts of the town, from which the station was distant nearly a +couple of miles. By one o'clock we were back again upon the platform, +and waiting for the train. It came punctually, and I at once recognized +the ruddy-faced guard who had gone down with my train the evening +before. + +"The gentlemen want to ask you something about Mr. Dwerrihouse, +Somers," said the station-master, by way of introduction. + +The guard flashed a keen glance from my face to Jelf's, and back +again to mine. + +"Mr. John Dwerrihouse, the late director?" said he, interrogatively. + +"The same," replied my friend. "Should you know him if you saw him?" + +"Anywhere, sir." + +"Do you know if he was in the 4.15 express yesterday afternoon?" + +"He was not, sir." + +"How can you answer so positively?" + +"Because I looked into every carriage, and saw every face in that +train, and I could take my oath that Mr. Dwerrihouse was not in +it. This gentleman was," he added, turning sharply upon me. "I +don't know that I ever saw him before in my life, but I remember +_his_ face perfectly. You nearly missed taking your seat in time +at this station, sir, and you got out at Clayborough." + +"Quite true, guard," I replied; "but do you not also remember the +face of the gentleman who travelled down in the same carriage with +me as far as here?" + +"It was my impression, sir, that you travelled down alone," said +Somers, with a look of some surprise. + +"By no means. I had a fellow-traveller as far as Blackwater, and +it was in trying to restore him the cigar-case which he had dropped +in the carriage that I so nearly let you go on without me." + +"I remember your saying something about a cigar-case, certainly," +replied the guard, "but--" + +"You asked for my ticket just before we entered the station." + +"I did, sir." + +"Then you must have seen him. He sat in the corner next the very +door to which you came." + +"No, indeed. I saw no one." + +I looked at Jelf. I began to think the guard was in the ex-director's +confidence, and paid for his silence. + +"If I had seen another traveller I should have asked for his ticket," +added Somers. "Did you see me ask for his ticket, sir?" + +"I observed that you did not ask for it, but he explained that +by saying--" I hesitated. I feared I might be telling too much, +and so broke off abruptly. + +The guard and the station-master exchanged glances. The former looked +impatiently at his watch. + +"I am obliged to go on in four minutes more, sir," he said. + +"One last question, then," interposed Jelf, with a sort of desperation. +"If this gentleman's fellow-traveller had been Mr. John Dwerrihouse, +and he had been sitting in the corner next the door by which you +took the tickets, could you have failed to see and recognize him?" + +"No, sir; it would have been quite impossible." + +"And you are certain you did _not_ see him?" + +"As I said before, sir, I could take my oath I did not see him. +And if it wasn't that I don't like to contradict a gentleman, I +would say I could also take my oath that this gentleman was quite +alone in the carriage the whole way from London to Clayborough. +Why, sir," he added, dropping his voice so as to be inaudible to +the station-master, who had been called away to speak to some person +close by, "you expressly asked me to give you a compartment to +yourself, and I did so. I locked you in, and you were so good as +to give me something for myself." + +"Yes; but Mr. Dwerrihouse had a key of his own." + +"I never saw him, sir; I saw no one in that compartment but yourself. +Beg pardon, sir, my time's up." + +And with this the ruddy guard touched his cap and was gone. In +another minute the heavy panting of the engine began afresh, and +the train glided slowly out of the station. + +We looked at each other for some moments in silence. I was the first +to speak. + +"Mr. Benjamin Somers knows more than he chooses to tell," I said. + +"Humph! do you think so?" + +"It must be. He could not have come to the door without seeing him. +It's impossible." + +"There is one thing not impossible, my dear fellow." + +"What is that?" + +"That you may have fallen asleep, and dreamt the whole thing." + +"Could I dream of a branch line that I had never heard of? Could +I dream of a hundred and one business details that had no kind of +interest for me? Could I dream of the seventy-five thousand pounds?" + +"Perhaps you might have seen or heard some vague account of the +affair while you were abroad. It might have made no impression +upon you at the time, and might have come back to you in your +dreams,--recalled, perhaps, by the mere names of the stations on +the line." + +"What about the fire in the chimney of the blue room,--should I +have heard of that during my journey?" + +"Well, no; I admit there is a difficulty about that point." + +"And what about the cigar-case?" + +"Ay, by Jove! there is the cigar-case. That _is_ a stubborn fact. +Well, it's a mysterious affair, and it will need a better detective +than myself, I fancy, to clear it up. I suppose we may as well go +home." + +III. + +A week had not gone by when I received a letter from the Secretary +of the East Anglian Railway Company, requesting the favor of my +attendance at a special board meeting, not then many days distant. +No reasons were alleged, and no apologies offered, for this demand +upon my time; but they had heard, it was clear, of my inquiries +anent the missing director, and had a mind to put me through some +sort of official examination upon the subject. Being still a guest +at Dumbleton Hall, I had to go up to London for the purpose, and +Jonathan Jelf accompanied me. I found the direction of the Great +East Anglian line represented by a party of some twelve or fourteen +gentlemen seated in solemn conclave round a huge green-baize table, +in a gloomy board-room, adjoining the London terminus. + +Being courteously received by the chairman (who at once began by +saying that certain statements of mine respecting Mr. John Dwerrihouse +had come to the knowledge of the direction, and that they in consequence +desired to confer with me on those points), we were placed at the +table, and the inquiry proceeded in due form. + +I was first asked if I knew Mr. John Dwerrihouse, how long I had +been acquainted with him, and whether I could identify him at sight. +I was then asked when I had seen him last. To which I replied, +"On the fourth of this present month, December, eighteen hundred +and fifty-six." Then came the inquiry of where I had seen him on +that fourth day of December; to which I replied that I met him in +a first-class compartment of the 4.15 down express; that he got +in just as the train was leaving the London terminus, and that he +alighted at Blackwater station. The chairman then inquired whether +I had held any communication with my fellow-traveller; whereupon +I related, as nearly as I could remember it, the whole bulk and +substance of Mr. John Dwerrihouse's diffuse information respecting +the new branch line. + +To all this the board listened with profound attention, while the +chairman presided and the secretary took notes. I then produced +the cigar-case. It was passed from hand to hand, and recognized by +all. There was not a man present who did not remember that plain +cigar-case with its silver monogram, or to whom it seemed anything +less than entirely corroborative of my evidence. When at length I +had told all that I had to tell, the chairman whispered something +to the secretary; the secretary touched a silver hand-bell; and +the guard, Benjamin Somers, was ushered into the room. He was then +examined as carefully as myself. He declared that he knew Mr. John +Dwerrihouse perfectly well; that he could not be mistaken in him; +that he remembered going down with the 4.15 express on the afternoon +in question; that he remembered me; and that, there being one or +two empty first-class compartments on that especial afternoon, he +had, in compliance with my request, placed me in a carriage by +myself. He was positive that I remained alone in that compartment +all the way from London to Clayborough. He was ready to take his +oath that Mr. Dwerrihouse was neither in that carriage with me, +nor in any compartment of that train. He remembered distinctly to +have examined my ticket at Blackwater; was certain that there was +no one else at that time in the carriage; could not have failed +to observe a second person, if there had been one; had that second +person been Mr. John Dwerrihouse, should have quietly double-locked +the door of the carriage, and have at once given information to the +Blackwater station-master. So clear, so decisive, so ready, was +Somers with this testimony, that the board looked fairly puzzled. + +"You hear this person's statement, Mr. Langford," said the chairman. +"It contradicts yours in every particular. What have you to say +in reply?" + +"I can only repeat what I said before. I am quite as positive of +the truth of my own assertions as Mr. Somers can be of the truth +of his." + +"You say that Mr. Dwerrihouse alighted at Blackwater, and that +he was in possession of a private key. Are you sure that he had +not alighted by means of that key before the guard came round for +the tickets?" + +"I am quite positive that he did not leave the carriage till the +train had fairly entered the station, and the other Blackwater +passengers alighted. I even saw that he was met there by a friend." + +"Indeed! Did you see that person distinctly?" + +"Quite distinctly." + +"Can you describe his appearance?" + +"I think so. He was short and very slight, sandy-haired, with a +bushy mustache and beard, and he wore a closely fitting suit of gray +tweed. His age I should take to be about thirty-eight or forty." + +"Did Mr. Dwerrihouse leave the station in this person's company?" + +"I cannot tell. I saw them walking together down the platform, and +then I saw them standing aside under a gas-jet, talking earnestly. +After that I lost sight of them quite suddenly; and just then my +train went on, and I with it" + +The chairman and secretary conferred together in an undertone. The +directors whispered to each other. One or two looked suspiciously +at the guard. I could see that my evidence remained unshaken, and +that, like myself, they suspected some complicity between the guard +and the defaulter. + +"How far did you conduct that 4.15 express on the day in question, +Somers?" asked the chairman. + +"All through, sir," replied the guard; "from London to Crampton." + +"How was it that you were not relieved at Clayborough? I thought +there was always a change of guards at Clayborough." + +"There used to be, sir, till the new regulations came in force +last midsummer; since when, the guards in charge of express trains +go the whole way through." + +The chairman turned to the secretary. + +"I think it would be as well," he said, "if we had the day-book +to refer to upon this point." + +Again the secretary touched the silver hand-bell, and desired the +porter in attendance to summon Mr. Raikes. From a word or two dropped +by another of the directors, I gathered that Mr. Raikes was one +of the under-secretaries. + +He came,--a small, slight, sandy-haired, keen-eyed man, with an +eager, nervous manner, and a forest of light beard and mustache. +He just showed himself at the door of the board-room, and, being +requested to bring a certain day-book from a certain shelf in a +certain room, bowed and vanished. + +He was there such a moment, and the surprise of seeing him was so +great and sudden, that it was not till the door had closed upon +him that I found voice to speak. He was no sooner gone, however, +than I sprang to my feet. + +"That person," I said, "is the same who met Mr. Dwerrihouse upon +the platform at Blackwater!" + +There was a general movement of surprise. The chairman looked grave, +and somewhat agitated. + +"Take care, Mr. Langford," he said, "take care what you say!" + +"I am as positive of his identity as of my own." + +"Do you consider the consequences of your words? Do you consider +that you are bringing a charge of the gravest character against +one of the company's servants?" + +"I am willing to be put upon my oath, if necessary. The man who +came to that door a minute since is the same whom I saw talking +with Mr. Dwerrihouse on the Blackwater platform. Were he twenty +times the company's servant, I could say neither more nor less." + +The chairman turned again to the guard. + +"Did you see Mr. Raikes in the train, or on the platform?" he asked. + +Somers shook his head. + +"I am confident Mr. Raikes was not in the train," he said; "and +I certainly did not see him on the platform." + +The chairman turned next to the secretary. + +"Mr. Raikes is in your office, Mr. Hunter," he said. "Can you remember +if he was absent on the fourth instant?" + +"I do not think he was," replied the secretary; "but I am not prepared +to speak positively. I have been away most afternoons myself lately, +and Mr. Raikes might easily have absented himself if he had been +disposed." + +At this moment the under-secretary returned with the day-book under +his arm. + +"Be pleased to refer, Mr. Raikes," said the chairman, "to the entries +of the fourth instant, and see what Benjamin Somers's duties were +on that day." + +Mr. Raikes threw open the cumbrous volume, and ran a practised eye +and finger down some three or four successive columns of entries. +Stopping suddenly at the foot of a page, he then read aloud that +Benjamin Somers had on that day conducted the 4.15 express from +London to Crampton. + +The chairman leaned forward in his seat, looked the under-secretary +full in the face, and said, quite sharply and suddenly,-- + +"Where were _you_, Mr. Raikes, on the same afternoon?" + +"_I_, sir?" + +"You, Mr. Raikes. Where were you on the afternoon and evening of +the fourth of the present month?" + +"Here, sir,--in Mr. Hunter's office. Where else should I be?" + +There was a dash of trepidation in the under-secretary's voice as +he said this; but his look of surprise was natural enough. + +"We have some reason for believing, Mr. Raikes, that you were absent +that afternoon without leave. Was this the case?" + +"Certainly not, sir. I have not had a day's holiday since September. +Mr. Hunter will bear me out in this." + +Mr. Hunter repeated what he had previously said on the subject, +but added that the clerks in the adjoining office would be certain +to know. Whereupon the senior clerk, a grave, middle-aged person, +in green glasses, was summoned and interrogated. + +His testimony cleared the under-secretary at once. He declared +that Mr. Raikes had in no instance, to his knowledge, been absent +during office hours since his return from his annual holiday in +September. + +I was confounded. The chairman turned to me with a smile, in which +a shade of covert annoyance was scarcely apparent. + +"You hear, Mr. Langford?" he said. + +"I hear, sir; but my conviction remains unshaken." + +"I fear, Mr. Langford, that your convictions are very insufficiently +based," replied the chairman, with a doubtful cough. "I fear that +you 'dream dreams,' and mistake them for actual occurrences. It is +a dangerous habit of mind, and might lead to dangerous results. +Mr. Raikes here would have found himself in an unpleasant position, +had he not proved so satisfactory an _alibi_." + +I was about to reply, but he gave me no time. + +"I think, gentlemen," he went on to say, addressing the board, +"that we should be wasting time to push this inquiry further. Mr. +Langford's evidence would seem to be of an equal value throughout. +The testimony of Benjamin Somers disproves his first statement, and +the testimony of the last witness disproves his second. I think +we may conclude that Mr. Langford fell asleep in the train on the +occasion of his journey to Clayborough, and dreamt an unusually +vivid and circumstantial dream,--of which, however, we have now +heard quite enough." + +There are few things more annoying than to find one's positive +convictions met with incredulity. I could not help feeling impatience +at the turn that affairs had taken. I was not proof against the +civil sarcasm of the chairman's manner. Most intolerable of all, +however, was the quiet smile lurking about the corners of Benjamin +Somers's mouth, and the half-triumphant, half-malicious gleam in +the eyes of the under-secretary. The man was evidently puzzled, +and somewhat alarmed. His looks seemed furtively to interrogate +me. Who was I? What did I want? Why had I come there to do him +an ill turn with his employers? What was it to me whether or no +he was absent without leave? + +Seeing all this, and perhaps more irritated by it than the thing +deserved, I begged leave to detain the attention of the board for +a moment longer. Jelf plucked me impatiently by the sleeve. + +"Better let the thing drop," he whispered. "The chairman's right +enough. You dreamt it; and the less said now the better." + +I was not to be silenced, however, in this fashion. I had yet something +to say, and I would say it. It was to this effect: that dreams were +not usually productive of tangible results, and that I requested +to know in what way the chairman conceived I had evolved from my +dream so substantial and well-made a delusion as the cigar-case +which I had had the honor to place before him at the commencement +of our interview. + +"The cigar-case, I admit, Mr. Langford," the chairman replied, +"is a very strong point in your evidence. It is your _only_ strong +point, however, and there is just a possibility that we may all +be misled by a mere accidental resemblance. Will you permit me +to see the case again?" + +"It is unlikely," I said, as I handed it to him, "that any other +should bear precisely this monogram, and yet be in all other particulars +exactly similar." + +The chairman examined it for a moment in silence, and then passed +it to Mr. Hunter. Mr. Hunter turned it over and over, and shook +his head. + +"This is no mere resemblance," he said. "It is John Dwerrihouse's +cigar-case to a certainty. I remember it perfectly. I have seen +it a hundred times." + +"I believe I may say the same," added the chairman. "Yet how account +for the way in which Mr. Langford asserts that it came into his +possession?" + +"I can only repeat," I replied, "that I found it on the floor of +the carriage after Mr. Dwerrihouse had alighted. It was in leaning +out to look after him that I trod upon it; and it was in running +after him for the purpose of restoring it that I saw--or believed +I saw--Mr. Raikes standing aside with him in earnest conversation." + +Again I felt Jonathan Jelf plucking at my sleeve. + +"Look at Raikes," he whispered,--"look at Raikes!" + +I turned to where the under-secretary had been standing a moment +before, and saw him, white as death with lips trembling and livid, +stealing towards the door. + +To conceive a sudden, strange, and indefinite suspicion; to fling +myself in his way; to take him by the shoulders as if he were a +child, and turn his craven face, perforce, towards the board, were +with me the work of an instant. + +"Look at him!" I exclaimed. "Look at his face! I ask no better witness +to the truth of my words." + +The chairman's brow darkened. + +"Mr. Raikes," he said, sternly, "if you know anything, you had better +speak." + +Vainly trying to wrench himself from my grasp, the under-secretary +stammered out an incoherent denial. + +"Let me go," he said. "I know nothing,--you have no right to detain +me,--let me go!" + +"Did you, or did you not, meet Mr. John Dwerrihouse at Blackwater +station? The charge brought against you is either true or false. +If true, you will do well to throw yourself upon the mercy of the +board, and make full confession of all that you know." + +The under-secretary wrung his hands in an agony of helpless terror. + +"I was away," he cried. "I was two hundred miles away at the time! +I know nothing about it--I have nothing to confess--I am innocent--I +call God to witness I am innocent!" + +"Two hundred miles away!" echoed the chairman. "What do you mean?" + +"I was in Devonshire. I had three weeks' leave of absence--I appeal +to Mr. Hunter--Mr. Hunter knows I had three weeks' leave of absence! +I was in Devonshire all the time--I can prove I was in Devonshire!" + +Seeing him so abject, so incoherent, so wild with apprehension, +the directors began to whisper gravely among themselves; while +one got quietly up, and called the porter to guard the door. + +"What has your being in Devonshire to do with the matter?" said +the chairman. "When were you in Devonshire?" + +"Mr. Raikes took his leave in September," said the secretary; "about +the time when Mr. Dwerrihouse disappeared." + +"I never even heard that he had disappeared till I came back!" + +"That must remain to be proved," said the chairman. "I shall at +once put this matter in the hands of the police. In the mean while, +Mr. Raikes, being myself a magistrate, and used to deal with these +cases, I advise you to offer no resistance, but to confess while +confession may yet do you service. As for your accomplice--" + +The frightened wretch fell upon his knees. + +"I had no accomplice!" he cried. "Only have mercy upon me,--only +spare my life, and I will confess all! I didn't mean to harm him! +I didn't mean to hurt a hair of his head. Only have mercy upon +me, and let me go!" + +The chairman rose in his place, pale and agitated. "Good heavens!" +he exclaimed, "what horrible mystery is this? What does it mean?" + +"As sure as there is a God in heaven," said Jonathan Jelf, "it means +that murder has been done." + +"No--no--no!" shrieked Raikes, still upon his knees, and cowering +like a beaten hound. "Not murder! No jury that ever sat could bring +it in murder. I thought I had only stunned him--I never meant to +do more than stun him! Manslaughter--manslaughter--not murder!" + +Overcome by the horror of this unexpected revelation, the chairman +covered his face with his hand, and for a moment or two remained +silent. + +"Miserable man," he said at length, "you have betrayed yourself." + +"You bade me confess! You urged me to throw myself upon the mercy +of the board!" + +"You have confessed to a crime which no one suspected you of having +committed," replied the chairman, "and which this board has no +power either to punish or forgive. All that I can do for you is to +advise you to submit to the law, to plead guilty, and to conceal +nothing. When did you do this deed?" + +The guilty man rose to his feet, and leaned heavily against the +table. His answer came reluctantly, like the speech of one dreaming. + +"On the twenty-second of September!" + +On the twenty-second of September! I looked in Jonathan Jelf's +face, and he in mine. I felt my own paling with a strange sense +of wonder and dread. I saw his blanch suddenly, even to the lips. + +"Merciful heaven!" he whispered, "_what was it, then, that you saw +in the train?_" + + +What was it that I saw in the train? That question remains unanswered +to this day. I have never been able to reply to it. I only know that +it bore the living likeness of the murdered man, whose body had +then been lying some ten weeks under a rough pile of branches, and +brambles, and rotting leaves, at the bottom of a deserted chalk-pit +about half-way between Blackwater and Mallingford. I know that it +spoke, and moved, and looked as that man spoke, and moved, and +looked in life; that I heard, or seemed to hear, things related +which I could never otherwise have learned; that I was guided, as +it were, by that vision on the platform to the identification of +the murderer; and that, a passive instrument myself, I was destined, +by means of these mysterious teachings, to bring about the ends of +justice. For these things I have never been able to account. + +As for that matter of the cigar-case, it proved on inquiry, that +the carriage in which I travelled down that afternoon to Clayborough +had not been in use for several weeks, and was in point of fact +the same in which poor John Dwerrihouse had performed his last +journey. The case had, doubtless, been dropped by him, and had lain +unnoticed till I found it. + +Upon the details of the murder I have no need to dwell. Those who +desire more ample particulars may find them, and the written confession +of Augustus Raikes, in the files of the Times for 1856. Enough +that the under-secretary, knowing the history of the new line, +and following the negotiation step by step through all its stages, +determined to waylay Mr. Dwerrihouse, rob him of the seventy-five +thousand pounds, and escape to America with his booty. + +In order to effect these ends he obtained leave of absence a few +days before the time appointed for the payment of the money; secured +his passage across the Atlantic in a steamer advertised to start +on the twenty-third; provided himself with a heavily loaded +"life-preserver," and went down to Blackwater to await the arrival +of his victim. How he met him on the platform with a pretended +message from the board; how he offered to conduct him by a short +cut across the fields to Mallingford; how, having brought him to +a lonely place, he struck him down with the life-preserver, and +so killed him; and how, finding what he had done, he dragged the +body to the verge of an out-of-the-way chalk-pit, and there flung +it in, and piled it over with branches and brambles,--are facts +still fresh in the memories of those who, like the connoisseurs in +De Quincey's famous essay, regard murder as a fine art. Strangely +enough, the murderer, having done his work, was afraid to leave the +country. He declared that he had not intended to take the director's +life, but only to stun and rob him; and that, finding the blow +had killed, he dared not fly for fear of drawing down suspicion +upon his own head. As a mere robber he would have been safe in the +States, but as a murderer he would inevitably have been pursued, +and given up to justice. So he forfeited his passage, returned to +the office as usual at the end of his leave, and locked up his +ill-gotten thousands till a more convenient opportunity. In the +mean while he had the satisfaction of finding that Mr. Dwerrihouse +was universally believed to have absconded with the money, no one +knew how or whither. + +Whether he meant murder or not, however, Mr. Augustus Raikes paid +the full penalty of his crime, and was hanged at the Old Bailey +in the second week in January, 1857. Those who desire to make his +further acquaintance may see him any day (admirably done in wax) +in the Chamber of Horrors at Madame Tussaud's exhibition, in Baker +Street. He is there to be found in the midst of a select society of +ladies and gentlemen of atrocious memory, dressed in the close-cut +tweed suit which he wore on the evening of the murder, and holding +in his hand the identical life-preserver with which he committed +it. + + + + +THE SIGNAL-MAN. + +BY CHARLES DICKENS. + + +"Halloa! Below there!" + +When he heard a voice thus calling to him, he was standing at the +door of his box, with a flag in his hand, furled round its short +pole. One would have thought, considering the nature of the ground, +that he could not have doubted from what quarter the voice came; +but, instead of looking up to where I stood on the top of the steep +cutting nearly over his head, he turned himself about and looked +down the Line. There was something remarkable in his manner of +doing so, though I could not have said, for my life, what. But I +know it was remarkable enough to attract my notice, even though +his figure was foreshortened and shadowed, down in the deep trench, +and mine was high above him, and so steeped in the glow of an angry +sunset that I had shaded my eyes with my hand before I saw him at +all. + +"Halloa! Below!" + +From looking down the Line, he turned himself about again, and, +raising his eyes, saw my figure high above him. + +"Is there any path by which I can come down and speak to you?" + +He looked up at me without replying, and I looked down at him without +pressing him too soon with a repetition of my idle question. Just +then there came a vague vibration in the earth and air, quickly +changing into a violent pulsation, and an oncoming rush that caused +me to start back, as though it had force to draw me down. When +such vapor as rose to my height from this rapid train had passed +me and was skimming away over the landscape, I looked down again, +and saw him refurling the flag he had shown while the train went +by. + +I repeated my inquiry. After a pause, during which he seemed to +regard me with fixed attention, he motioned with his rolled-up +flag towards a point on my level, some two or three hundred yards +distant. I called down to him, "All right!" and made for that point. +There, by dint of looking closely about me, I found a rough zigzag +descending path notched out; which I followed. + +The cutting was extremely deep, and unusually precipitate. It was +made through a clammy stone that became oozier and wetter as I +went down. For these reasons, I found the way long enough to give +me time to recall a singular air of reluctance or compulsion with +which he had pointed out the path. + +When I came down low enough upon the zigzag descent to see him +again, I saw that he was standing between the rails on the way by +which the train had lately passed, in an attitude as if he were +waiting for me to appear. He had his left hand at his chin, and +that left elbow rested on his right hand crossed over his breast. +His attitude was one of such expectation and watchfulness, that +I stopped a moment, wondering at it. + +I resumed my downward way, and, stepping out upon the level of +the railroad and drawing nearer to him, saw that he was a dark, +sallow man, with a dark beard and rather heavy eyebrows. His post +was in as solitary and dismal a place as ever I saw. On either side, +a dripping-wet wall of jagged stone, excluding all view but a strip +of sky: the perspective one way, only a crooked prolongation of +this great dungeon; the shorter perspective in the other direction, +terminating in a gloomy red light, and the gloomier entrance to a +black tunnel, in whose massive architecture there was a barbarous, +depressing, and forbidding air. So little sunlight ever found its +way to this spot, and it had an earthy deadly smell; and so much +cold wind rushed through it, that it struck chill to me, as if +I had left the natural world. + +Before he stirred, I was near enough to him to have touched him. +Not even then removing his eyes from mine, he stepped back one +step, and lifted his hand. + +This was a lonesome post to occupy (I said), and it had riveted +my attention when I looked down from up yonder. A visitor was a +rarity, I should suppose; not an unwelcome rarity, I hoped? In +me, he merely saw a man who had been shut up within narrow limits +all his life, and who, being at last set free, had a newly awakened +interest in these great works. To such purpose I spoke to him; +but I am far from sure of the terms I used, for, besides that I +am not happy in opening any conversation, there was something in +the man that daunted me. + +He directed a most curious look towards the red light near the +tunnel's mouth, and looked all about it, as if something were missing +from it, and then looked at me. + +That light was part of his charge? Was it not? + +He answered in a low voice, "Don't you know it is?" + +The monstrous thought came into my mind, as I perused the fixed +eyes and the saturnine face, that this was a spirit, not a man. +I have speculated since whether there may have been infection in +his mind. + +In my turn, I stepped back. But in making the action, I detected +in his eyes some latent fear of me. This put the monstrous thought +to flight. + +"You look at me," I said, forcing a smile, "as if you had a dread +of me." + +"I was doubtful," he returned, "whether I had seen you before." + +"Where?" + +He pointed to the red light he had looked at. + +"There?" I said. + +Intently watchful of me, he replied (but without sound), "Yes." + +"My good fellow, what should I do there? However, be that as it +may, I never was there, you may swear." + +"I think I may," he rejoined. "Yes, I am sure I may." + +His manner cleared, like my own. He replied to my remarks with +readiness, and in well-chosen words. Had he much to do there? Yes; +that was to say, he had enough responsibility to bear; but exactness +and watchfulness were what was required of him, and of actual +work--manual labor--he had next to none. To change that signal, +to trim those lights, and to turn this iron handle now and then, +was all he had to do under that head. Regarding those many long +and lonely hours of which I seemed to make so much, he could only +say that the routine of his life had shaped itself into that form, +and he had grown used to it. He had taught himself a language down +here,--if only to know it by sight, and to have formed his own +crude ideas of its pronunciation, could be called learning it. +He had also worked at fractions and decimals, and tried a little +algebra; but he was, and had been as a boy, a poor hand at figures. +Was it necessary for him, when on duty, always to remain in that +channel of damp air, and could he never rise into the sunshine from +between those high stone walls? Why, that depended upon times and +circumstances. Under some conditions there would be less upon the +Line than under others, and the same held good as to certain hours +of the day and night. In bright weather, he did choose occasions +for getting a little above these lower shadows; but, being at all +times liable to be called by his electric bell, and at such times +listening for it with redoubled anxiety, the relief was less than +I would suppose. + +He took me into his box, where there was a fire, a desk for an +official book in which he had to make certain entries, a telegraphic +instrument with its dial face and needles, and the little bell +of which he had spoken. On my trusting that he would excuse the +remark that he had been well educated, and (I hoped I might say +without offence) perhaps educated above that station, he observed +that instances of slight incongruity in such-wise would rarely be +found wanting among large bodies of men; that he had heard it was +so in workhouses, in the police force, even in that last desperate +resource, the army; and that he knew it was so, more or less, in any +great railway staff. He had been, when young (if I could believe +it, sitting in that hut; he scarcely could), a student of natural +philosophy, and had attended lectures; but he had run wild, misused +his opportunities, gone down, and never risen again. He had no +complaint to offer about that. He had made his bed, and he lay upon +it. It was far too late to make another. + +All that I have here condensed he said in a quiet manner, with his +grave dark regards divided between me and the fire. He threw in +the word "Sir" from time to time, and especially when he referred +to his youth, as though to request me to understand that he claimed +to be nothing but what I found him. He was several times interrupted +by the little bell, and had to read off messages, and send replies. +Once he had to stand without the door and display a flag as a train +passed, and make some verbal communication to the driver. In the +discharge of his duties I observed him to be remarkably exact and +vigilant, breaking off his discourse at a syllable, and remaining +silent until what he had to do was done. + +In a word, I should have set this man down as one of the safest +of men to be employed in that capacity, but for the circumstance +that while he was speaking to me he twice broke off with a fallen +color, turned his face towards the little bell when it did NOT +ring, opened the door of the hut (which was kept shut to exclude +the unhealthy damp), and looked out towards the red light near the +mouth of the tunnel. On both of those occasions he came back to +the fire with the inexplicable air upon him which I had remarked, +without being able to define, when we were so far asunder. + +Said I, when I rose to leave him, "You almost make me think that +I have met with a contented man." + +(I am afraid I must acknowledge that I said it to lead him on.) + +"I believe I used to be so," he rejoined, in the low voice in which +he had first spoken; "but I am troubled, sir, I am troubled." + +He would have recalled the words if he could. He had said them, +however, and I took them up quickly. + +"With what? What is your trouble?" + +"It is very difficult to impart, sir. It is very, very difficult +to speak of. If ever you make me another visit, I will try to tell +you." + +"But I expressly intend to make you another visit. Say, when shall +it be?" + +"I go off early in the morning, and I shall be on again at ten to-morrow +night, sir." + +"I will come at eleven." + +He thanked me, and went out at the door with me. "I'll show my +white light, sir," he said, in his peculiar low voice, "till you +have found the way up. When you have found it, don't call out! +And when you are at the top, don't call out!" + +His manner seemed to make the place strike colder to me, but I said +no more than, "Very well." + +"And when you come down to-morrow night, don't call out! Let me ask +you a parting question. What made you cry, 'Halloa! Below there!' +to-night?" + +"Heaven knows," said I. "I cried something to that effect--" + +"Not to that effect, sir. Those were the very words. I know them +well." + +"Admit those were the very words. I said them, no doubt, because +I saw you below." + +"For no other reason?" + +"What other reason could I possibly have?" + +"You had no feeling that they were conveyed to you in any supernatural +way?" + +"No." + +He wished me good night, and held up his light. I walked by the +side of the down Line of rails (with a very disagreeable sensation +of a train coming behind me), until I found the path. It was easier +to mount than to descend, and I got back to my inn without any +adventure. + +Punctual to my appointment, I placed my foot on the first notch of +the zigzag next night, as the distant clocks were striking eleven. +He was waiting for me at the bottom, with his white light on. + +"I have not called out," I said, when we came close together; "may +I speak now?" + +"By all means, sir." + +"Good night, then, and here's my hand." + +"Good night, sir, and here's mine." + +With that, we walked side by side to his box, entered it, closed +the door, and sat down by the fire. + +"I have made up my mind, sir," he began, bending forward as soon +as we were seated, and speaking in a tone but a little above a +whisper, "that you shall not have to ask me twice what troubles +me. I took you for some one else yesterday evening. That troubles +me." + +"That mistake?" + +"No. That some one else." + +"Who is it?" + +"I don't know." + +"Like me?" + +"I don't know. I never saw the face. The left arm is across the +face, and the right arm is waved. Violently waved. This way." + +I followed his action with my eyes, and it was the action of an +arm gesticulating with the utmost passion and vehemence: "For God's +sake clear the way!" + +"One moonlight night," said the man, "I was sitting here, when +I heard a voice cry, 'Halloa! Below there!' I started up, looked +from that door, and saw this Some one else standing by the red +light near the tunnel, waving as I just now showed you. The voice +seemed hoarse with shouting, and it cried, 'Look out! Look out!' +And then again, 'Halloa! Below there! Look out!' I caught up my +lamp, turned it on red, and ran towards the figure, calling, 'What's +wrong? What has happened? Where?' It stood just outside the blackness +of the tunnel. I advanced so close upon it that I wondered at its +keeping the sleeve across its eyes. I ran right up at it, and had +my hand stretched out to pull the sleeve away, when it was gone." + +"Into the tunnel?" said I. + +"No. I ran on into the tunnel, five hundred yards. I stopped and +held my lamp above my head, and saw the figures of the measured +distance, and saw the wet stains stealing down the walls and trickling +through the arch. I ran out again, faster than I had run in (for I +had a mortal abhorrence of the place upon me), and I looked all +round the red light with my own red light, and I went up the iron +ladder to the gallery atop of it, and I came down again, and ran +back here. I telegraphed both ways, 'An alarm has been given. Is +anything wrong?' The answer came back, both ways, 'All well.'" + +Resisting the slow touch of a frozen finger tracing out my spine, I +showed him how that this figure must be a deception of his sense of +sight, and how that figures, originating in disease of the delicate +nerves that minister to the functions of the eye, were known to have +often troubled patients, some of whom had become conscious of the +nature of their affliction, and had even proved it by experiments +upon themselves. "As to an imaginary cry," said I, "do but listen +for a moment to the wind in this unnatural valley while we speak +so low, and to the wild harp it makes of the telegraph wires!" + +That was all very well, he returned, after we had sat listening +for a while, and he ought to know something of the wind and the +wires, he who so often passed long winter nights there, alone and +watching. But he would beg to remark that he had not finished. + +I asked his pardon, and he slowly added these words, touching my +arm:-- + +"Within six hours after the Appearance, the memorable accident on +this Line happened, and within ten hours the dead and wounded were +brought along through the tunnel over the spot where the figure +had stood." + +A disagreeable shudder crept over me, but I did my best against +it. It was not to be denied, I rejoined, that this was a remarkable +coincidence, calculated deeply to impress the mind. But it was +unquestionable that remarkable coincidences did continually occur, +and they must be taken into account in dealing with such a subject. +Though to be sure I must admit, I added (for I thought I saw that +he was going to bring the objection to bear upon me), men of +common-sense did not allow much for coincidences in making the ordinary +calculations of life. + +He again begged to remark that he had not finished. + +I again begged his pardon for being betrayed into interruptions. + +"This," he said, again laying his hand upon my arm, and glancing +over his shoulder with hollow eyes, "was just a year ago. Six or +seven months passed, and I had recovered from the surprise and +shock, when one morning, as the day was breaking, I, standing at +that door, looked towards the red light, and saw the spectre again." +He stopped, with a fixed look at me. + +"Did it cry out?" + +"No. It was silent." + +"Did it wave its arm?" + +"No. It leaned against the shaft of the light, with both hands before +the face. Like this." + +Once more, I followed his action with my eyes. It was an action of +mourning. I have seen such an attitude in stone figures on tombs. + +"Did you go up to it?" + +"I came in and sat down, partly to collect my thoughts, partly +because it had turned me faint. When I went to the door again, daylight +was above me, and the ghost was gone." + +"But nothing followed? Nothing came of this?" + +He touched me on the arm with his forefinger twice or thrice, giving +a ghastly nod each time. + +"That very day, as a train came out of the tunnel, I noticed, at a +carriage window on my side, what looked like a confusion of hands +and heads, and something waved. I saw it just in time to signal +the driver, Stop! He shut off, and put his brake on, but the train +drifted past here a hundred and fifty yards or more. I ran after it, +and as I went along heard terrible screams and cries. A beautiful +young lady had died instantaneously in one of the compartments, and +was brought in here, and laid down on this floor between us." + +Involuntarily I pushed my chair back, as I looked from the boards +at which he pointed, to himself. + +"True, sir. True. Precisely as it happened, so I tell it you." + +I could think of nothing to say, to any purpose, and my mouth was +very dry. The wind and the wires took up the story with a long +lamenting wail. + +He resumed. "Now, sir, mark this, and judge how my mind is troubled. +The spectre came back, a week ago. Ever since, it has been there, +now and again, by fits and starts." + +"At the light?" + +"At the Danger-light." + +"What does it seem to do?" + +He repeated, if possible with increased passion and vehemence, that +former gesticulation of "For God's sake clear the way!" + +Then he went on. "I have no peace or rest for it. It calls to me, +for many minutes together, in an agonized manner, 'Below there! +Look out! Look out!' It stands waving to me. It rings my little +bell--" + +I caught at that. "Did it ring your bell yesterday evening when +I was here, and you went to the door?" + +"Twice." + +"Why, see," said I, "how your imagination misleads you. My eyes +were on the bell, and my ears were open to the bell, and, if I am +a living man, it did NOT ring at those times. No, nor at any other +time, except when it was rung in the natural course of physical +things by the station communicating with you." + +He shook his head. "I have never made a mistake as to that, yet, +sir. I have never confused the spectre's ring with the man's. The +ghost's ring is a strange vibration in the bell that it derives +from nothing else, and I have not asserted that the bell stirs to +the eye. I don't wonder that you failed to hear it. But _I_ heard +it." + +"And did the spectre seem to be there, when you looked out?" + +"It WAS there." + +"Both times?" + +He repeated firmly: "Both times." + +"Will you come to the door with me, and look for it now?" + +He bit his under-lip as though he were somewhat unwilling, but +arose. I opened the door, and stood on the step, while he stood +in the doorway. There was the Danger-light. There was the dismal +mouth of the tunnel. There were the high wet stone walls of the +cutting. There were the stars above them. + +"Do you see it?" I asked him, taking particular note of his face. +His eyes were prominent and strained; but not very much more so, +perhaps, than my own had been when I had directed them earnestly +towards the same point. + +"No," he answered. "It is not there." + +"Agreed," said I. + +We went in again, shut the door, and resumed our seats. I was thinking +how best to improve this advantage, if it might be called one, when +he took up the conversation in such a matter-of-course way, so +assuming that there could be no serious question of fact between +us, that I felt myself placed in the weakest of positions. + +"By this time you will fully understand, sir," he said, "that what +troubles me so dreadfully is the question, What does the spectre +mean?" + +I was not sure, I told him, that I did fully understand. + +"What is its warning against?" he said, ruminating, with his eyes +on the fire, and only by times turning them on me. "What is the +danger? Where is the danger? There is danger overhanging, somewhere +on the Line. Some dreadful calamity will happen. It is not to be +doubted this third time, after what has gone before. But surely +this is a cruel haunting of _me_. What can _I_ do?" + +He pulled out his handkerchief, and wiped the drops from his heated +forehead. + +"If I telegraph Danger on either side of me, or on both, I can +give no reason for it," he went on, wiping the palms of his hands. +"I should get into trouble, and do no good. They would think I +was mad. This is the way it would work:--Message: 'Danger! Take +care!' Answer: 'What Danger? Where?' Message: 'Don't know. But +for God's sake take care!' They would displace me. What else could +they do?" + +His pain of mind was most pitiable to see. It was the mental torture +of a conscientious man, oppressed beyond endurance by an unintelligible +responsibility involving life. + +"When it first stood under the Danger-light," he went on, putting +his dark hair back from his head, and drawing his hands outward +across and across his temples in an extremity of feverish distress, +"why not tell me where that accident was to happen,--if it must +happen? Why not tell me how it could be averted,--if it could have +been averted? When on its second coming it hid its face, why not +tell me instead: 'She is going to die. Let them keep her at home'? +If it came, on those two occasions, only to show me that its warnings +were true, and so to prepare me for the third, why not warn me +plainly now? And I, Lord help me! A mere poor signal-man on this +solitary station! Why not go to somebody with credit to be believed, +and power to act?" + +When I saw him in this state, I saw that for the poor man's sake, +as well as for the public safety, what I had to do for the time +was to compose his mind. Therefore, setting aside all question of +reality or unreality between us, I represented to him that whoever +thoroughly discharged his duty must do well, and that at least it +was his comfort that he understood his duty, though he did not +understand these confounding Appearances. In this effort I succeeded +far better than in the attempt to reason him out of his conviction. +He became calm; the occupations incidental to his post, as the +night advanced, began to make larger demands on his attention; and +I left him at two in the morning. I had offered to stay through +the night, but he would not hear of it. + +That I more than once looked back at the red light as I ascended +the pathway, that I did not like the red light, and that I should +have slept but poorly if my bed had been under it, I see no reason +to conceal. Nor did I like the two sequences of the accident and +the dead girl. I see no reason to conceal that, either. + +But what ran most in my thoughts was the consideration, how ought +I to act, having become the recipient of this disclosure? I had +proved the man to be intelligent, vigilant, painstaking, and exact; +but how long might he remain so, in his state of mind? Though in +a subordinate position, still he held a most important trust, and +would I (for instance) like to stake my own life on the chances +of his continuing to execute it with precision? + +Unable to overcome a feeling that there would be something treacherous +in my communicating what he had told me to his superiors in the +Company, without first being plain with himself and proposing a +middle course to him, I ultimately resolved to offer to accompany +him (otherwise keeping his secret for the present) to the wisest +medical practitioner we could hear of in those parts, and to take +his opinion. A change in his time of duty would come round next +night, he had apprised me, and he would be off an hour or two after +sunrise, and on again soon after sunset. I had appointed to return +accordingly. + +Next evening was a lovely evening, and I walked out early to enjoy +it. The sun was not yet quite down when I traversed the field-path +near the top of the deep cutting. I would extend my walk for an +hour, I said to myself, half an hour on and half an hour back, +and it would then be time to go to my signal-man's box. + +Before pursuing my stroll I stepped to the brink, and mechanically +looked down, from the point from which I had first seen him. I +cannot describe the thrill that seized upon me, when, close at +the mouth of the tunnel, I saw the appearance of a man, with his +left sleeve across his eyes, passionately waving his right arm. + +The nameless horror that oppressed me passed in a moment, for in +a moment I saw that this appearance of a man was a man indeed, +and that there was a little group of other men standing at a short +distance, to whom he seemed to be rehearsing the gesture he made. +The Danger-light was not yet lighted. Against its shaft, a little +low hut, entirely new to me, had been made of some wooden supports +and tarpaulin. It looked no bigger than a bed. + +With an irresistible sense that something was wrong, with a flashing +self-reproachful fear that fatal mischief had come of my leaving +the man there, and causing no one to be sent to overlook or correct +what he did,--I descended the notched path with all the speed I +could make. + +"What is the matter?" I asked the men. + +"Signal-man killed this morning, sir." + +"Not the man belonging to that box?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"Not the man I know?" + +"You will recognize him, sir, if you knew him," said the man who +spoke for the others, solemnly uncovering his own head and raising +an end of the tarpaulin, "for his face is quite composed." + +"O, how did this happen, how did this happen?" I asked, turning +from one to another as the hut closed in again. + +"He was cut down by an engine, sir. No man in England knew his +work better. But somehow he was not clear of the outer rail. It +was just at broad day. He had struck the light, and had the lamp +in his hand. As the engine came out of the tunnel, his back was +towards her, and she cut him down. That man drove her, and was +showing how it happened. Show the gentleman, Tom." + +The man, who wore a rough, dark dress, stepped back to his former +place at the mouth of the tunnel. + +"Coming round the curve in the tunnel, sir," he said, "I saw him +at the end, like as if I saw him down a perspective-glass. There +was no time to check speed, and I knew him to be very careful. As +he didn't seem to take heed of the whistle, I shut it off when +we were running down upon him, and called to him as loud as I could +call." + +"What did you say?" + +"I said, Below there! Look out! Look out! For God's sake, clear +the way!" + +I started. + +"Ah! it was a dreadful time, sir. I never left off calling to him. +I put this arm before my eyes, not to see, and I waved this arm +to the last; but it was no use." + + +Without prolonging the narrative to dwell on any one of its curious +circumstances more than on any other, I may, in closing it, point +out the coincidence that the warning of the Engine-Driver included, +not only the words which the unfortunate signal-man had repeated to +me as haunting him, but also the words which I myself--not he--had +attached, and that only in my own mind, to the gesticulation he +had imitated. + + + + +THE HAUNTED SHIPS. + +BY ALLAN CUNNINGHAM. + + +Along the sea of Solway, romantic on the Scottish side, with its +woodlands, its bays, its cliffs, and headlands,--and interesting on +the English side, with its many beautiful towns with their shadows +on the water, rich pastures, safe harbors, and numerous ships,--there +still linger many traditional stories of a maritime nature, most of +them connected with superstitions singularly wild and unusual. To +the curious these tales afford a rich fund of entertainment, from +the many diversities of the same story; some dry and barren, and +stripped of all the embellishments of poetry; others dressed out in +all the riches of a superstitious belief and haunted imagination. In +this they resemble the inland traditions of the peasants; but many +of the oral treasures of the Galwegian or the Cumbrian coast have +the stamp of the Dane and the Norseman upon them, and claim but a +remote or faint affinity with the legitimate legends of Caledonia. +Something like a rude prosaic outline of several of the most noted +of the Northern ballads, the adventures and depredations of the +old ocean kings, still lends life to the evening tale; and among +others, the story of the Haunted Ships is still popular among the +maritime peasantry. + +One fine harvest evening I went on board the shallop of Richard +Faulder, of Allanbay; and, committing ourselves to the waters, +we allowed a gentle wind from the east to waft us at its pleasure +toward the Scottish coast. We passed the sharp promontory of Siddick; +and skirting the land within a stone-cast, glided along the shore +till we came within sight of the ruined Abbey of Sweetheart. The +green mountain of Criffell ascended beside us; and the bleat of the +flocks from its summit, together with the winding of the evening +horn of the reapers, came softened into something like music over +land and sea. We pushed our shallop into a deep and wooded bay, +and sat silently looking on the serene beauty of the place. The +moon glimmered in her rising through the tall shafts of the pines +of Caerlaverock; and the sky, with scarce a cloud, showered down +on wood, and headland, and bay, the twinkling beams of a thousand +stars, rendering every object visible. The tide, too, was coming +with that swift and silent swell observable when the wind is gentle; +the woody curves along the land were filling with the flood, till +it touched the green branches of the drooping trees; while in the +centre current the roll and the plunge of a thousand pellocks told +to the experienced fisherman that salmon were abundant. + +As we looked, we saw an old man emerging from a path that winded to +the shore through a grove of doddered hazel; he carried a halve-net +on his back, while behind him came a girl, bearing a small harpoon with +which the fishers are remarkably dexterous in striking their prey. +The senior seated himself on a large gray stone, which overlooked the +bay, laid aside his bonnet, and submitted his bosom and neck to the +refreshing sea-breeze; and taking his harpoon from his attendant, +sat with the gravity and composure of a spirit of the flood, with +his ministering nymph behind him. We pushed our shallop to the +shore, and soon stood at their side. + +"This is old Mark Macmoran, the mariner, with his grand-daughter +Barbara," said Richard Faulder, in a whisper that had something +of fear in it; "he knows every creek and cavern and quicksand in +Solway,--has seen the Spectre Hound that haunts the Isle of Man; +has heard him bark, and at every bark has seen a ship sink; and he +has seen, too, the Haunted Ships in full sail; and, if all tales +be true, he has sailed in them himself: he's an awful person." + +Though I perceived in the communication of my friend something +of the superstition of the sailor, I could not help thinking that +common rumor had made a happy choice in singling out old Mark to +maintain her intercourse with the invisible world. His hair, which +seemed to have refused all intercourse with the comb, hung matted +upon his shoulders; a kind of mantle, or rather blanket, pinned +with a wooden skewer round his neck, fell mid-leg down, concealing +all his nether garments as far as a pair of hose, darned with yarn +of all conceivable colors, and a pair of shoes, patched and repaired +till nothing of the original structure remained, and clasped on +his feet with two massy silver buckles. If the dress of the old +man was rude and sordid, that of his grand-daughter was gay, and +even rich. She wore a bodice of fine wool, wrought round the bosom +with alternate leaf and lily, and a kirtle of the same fabric, +which, almost touching her white and delicate ankle, showed her +snowy feet, so fairy-light and round that they scarcely seemed +to touch the grass where she stood. Her hair, a natural ornament +which woman seeks much to improve, was of bright glossy brown, +and encumbered rather than adorned with a snood, set thick with +marine productions, among which the small clear pearl found in +the Solway was conspicuous. Nature had not trusted to a handsome +shape, and a sylph-like air, for young Barbara's influence over +the heart of man; but had bestowed a pair of large bright blue +eyes, swimming in liquid light, so full of love and gentleness +and joy, that all the sailors from Annanwater to far Saint Bees +acknowledged their power, and sung songs about the bonnie lass +of Mark Macmoran. She stood holding a small gaff-hook of polished +steel in her hand, and seemed not dissatisfied with the glances +I bestowed on her from time to time, and which I held more than +requited by a single glance of those eyes which retained so many +capricious hearts in subjection. + +The tide, though rapidly augmenting, had not yet filled the bay at +our feet. The moon now streamed fairly over the tops of Caerlaverock +pines, and showed the expanse of ocean dimpling and swelling, on +which sloops and shallops came dancing, and displaying at every +turn their extent of white sail against the beam of the moon. I +looked on old Mark the Mariner, who, seated motionless on his gray +stone, kept his eye fixed on the increasing waters with a look of +seriousness and sorrow in which I saw little of the calculating +spirit of a mere fisherman. Though he looked on the coming tide, +his eyes seemed to dwell particularly on the black and decayed +hulls of two vessels, which, half immersed in the quicksand, still +addressed to every heart a tale of shipwreck and desolation. The +tide wheeled and foamed around them; and creeping inch by inch +up the side, at last fairly threw its waters over the top, and a +long and hollow eddy showed the resistance which the liquid element +received. + +The moment they were fairly buried in the water, the old man clasped +his hands together, and said, "Blessed be the tide that will break +over and bury ye forever! Sad to mariners, and sorrowful to maids +and mothers, has the time been you have choked up this deep and +bonnie bay. For evil were you sent, and for evil have you continued. +Every season finds from you its song of sorrow and wail, its funeral +processions, and its shrouded corses. Woe to the land where the +wood grew that made ye! Cursed be the axe that hewed ye on the +mountains, the hands that joined ye together, the bay that ye first +swam in, and the wind that wafted ye here! Seven times have ye put +my life in peril, three fair sons have you swept from my side, +and two bonnie grand-bairns; and now, even now, your waters foam +and flash for my destruction, did I venture my infirm limbs in +quest of food in your deadly bay. I see by that ripple and that +foam, and hear by the sound and singing of your surge, that ye +yearn for another victim; but it shall not be me nor mine." + +Even as the old mariner addressed himself to the wrecked ships, a +young man appeared at the southern extremity of the bay, holding +his halve-net in his hand, and hastening into the current. Mark +rose, and shouted, and waved him back from a place which, to a person +unacquainted with the dangers of the bay, real and superstitious, +seemed sufficiently perilous: his grand-daughter, too, added her +voice to his, and waved her white hands; but the more they strove, +the faster advanced the peasant, till he stood to his middle in the +water, while the tide increased every moment in depth and strength. +"Andrew, Andrew," cried the young woman, in a voice quavering with +emotion, "turn, turn, I tell you: O the ships, the Haunted Ships!" +But the appearance of a fine run of fish had more influence with +the peasant than the voice of bonnie Barbara, and forward he dashed, +net in hand. In a moment he was borne off his feet, and mingled +like foam with the water, and hurried toward the fatal eddies which +whirled and roared round the sunken ships. But he was a powerful +young man, and an expert swimmer: he seized on one of the projecting +ribs of the nearest hulk, and clinging to it with the grasp of +despair, uttered yell after yell, sustaining himself against the +prodigious rush of the current. + +From a shealing of turf and straw, within the pitch of a bar from +the spot where we stood, came out an old woman bent with age, and +leaning on a crutch. "I heard the voice of that lad Andrew Lammie; +can the chield be drowning, that he skirls sae uncannilie?" said +the old woman, seating herself on the ground, and looking earnestly +at the water. "Ou aye," she continued, "he's doomed, he's doomed; +heart and hand can never save him; boats, ropes, and man's strength, +and wit, all vain! vain! he's doomed, he's doomed!" + +By this time I had thrown myself into the shallop, followed reluctantly +by Richard Faulder, over whose courage and kindness of heart +superstition had great power; and with one push from the shore, +and some exertion in sculling, we came within a quoitcast of the +unfortunate fisherman. He stayed not to profit by our aid; for +when he perceived us near, he uttered a piercing shriek of joy, +and bounded toward us through the agitated element the full length +of an oar. I saw him for a second on the surface of the water; +but the eddying current sucked him down; and all I ever beheld +of him again was his hand held above the flood, and clutching in +agony at some imaginary aid. I sat gazing in horror on the vacant +sea before us: but a breathing time before, a human being, full +of youth and strength and hope, was there: his cries were still +ringing in my ears and echoing in the woods; and now nothing was +seen or heard save the turbulent expanse of water, and the sound of +its chafing on the shores. We pushed back our shallop, and resumed +our station on the cliff beside the old mariner and his descendant. + +"Wherefore sought ye to peril your own lives fruitlessly," said +Mark, "in attempting to save the doomed? Whoso touches those infernal +ships, never survives to tell the tale. Woe to the man who is found +nigh them at midnight when the tide has subsided, and they arise +in their former beauty, with forecastle, and deck, and sail, and +pennon, and shroud! Then is seen the streaming of lights along +the water from their cabin windows, and then is heard the sound +of mirth and the clamor of tongues, and the infernal whoop and +halloo, and song, ringing far and wide. Woe to the man who comes +nigh them!" + +To all this my Allanbay companion listened with a breathless attention. +I felt something touched with a superstition to which I partly +believed I had seen one victim offered up; and I inquired of the +old mariner, "How and when came these haunted ships there? To me +they seem but the melancholy relics of some unhappy voyagers, and +much more likely to warn people to shun destruction, than entice +and delude them to it." + +"And so," said the old man with a smile, which had more of sorrow +in it than of mirth,--"and so, young man, these black and shattered +hulks seem to the eye of the multitude. But things are not what +they seem: that water, a kind and convenient servant to the wants +of man, which seems so smooth, and so dimpling, and so gentle, +has swallowed up a human soul even now; and the place which it +covers, so fair and so level, is a faithless quicksand, out of +which none escape. Things are otherwise than they seem. Had you +lived as long as I have had the sorrow to live; had you seen the +storms, and braved the perils, and endured the distresses which +have befallen me; had you sat gazing out on the dreary ocean at +midnight on a haunted coast; had you seen comrade after comrade, +brother after brother, and son after son, swept away by the merciless +ocean from your very side; had you seen the shapes of friends, +doomed to the wave and the quicksand, appearing to you in the dreams +and visions of the night,--then would your mind have been prepared +for crediting the maritime legends of mariners; and the two haunted +Danish ships would have had their terrors for you, as they have +for all who sojourn on this coast. + +"Of the time and the cause of their destruction," continued the +old man, "I know nothing certain: they have stood as you have seen +them for uncounted time; and while all other ships wrecked on this +unhappy coast have gone to pieces, and rotted, and sunk away in a few +years, these two haunted hulks have neither sunk in the quicksand, +nor has a single spar or board been displaced. Maritime legend says, +that two ships of Denmark having had permission, for a time, to work +deeds of darkness and dolor on the deep, were at last condemned to +the whirlpool and the sunken rock, and were wrecked in this bonnie +bay, as a sign to seamen to be gentle and devout. The night when they +were lost was a harvest evening of uncommon mildness and beauty: +the sun had newly set; the moon came brighter and brighter out; +and the reapers, laying their sickles at the root of the standing +corn, stood on rock and bank, looking at the increasing magnitude +of the waters, for sea and land were visible from Saint Bees to +Barnhourie. The sails of two vessels were soon seen bent for the +Scottish coast; and with a speed outrunning the swiftest ship, they +approached the dangerous quicksands and headland of Borranpoint. +On the deck of the foremost ship not a living soul was seen, or +shape, unless something in darkness and form resembling a human +shadow could be called a shape, which flitted from extremity to +extremity of the ship, with the appearance of trimming the sails, +and directing the vessel's course. But the decks of its companion +were crowded with human shapes: the captain, and mate, and sailor, +and cabin-boy, all seemed there; and from them the sound of mirth +and minstrelsy echoed over land and water. The coast which they +skirted along was one of extreme danger; and the reapers shouted +to warn them to beware of sandbank and rock; but of this friendly +counsel no notice was taken, except that a large and famished dog, +which sat on the prow, answered every shout with a long, loud, and +melancholy howl. The deep sandbank of Carsethorn was expected to +arrest the career of these desperate navigators; but they passed, +with the celerity of waterfowl, over an obstruction which had wrecked +many pretty ships. + +"Old men shook their heads and departed, saying, 'We have seen +the fiend sailing in a bottomless ship; let us go home and pray': +but one young and wilful man said, 'Fiend! I'll warrant it's nae +fiend, but douce Janet Withershins, the witch, holding a carouse +with some of her Cumberland cummers, and mickle red wine will be +spilt atween them. Dod I would gladly have a toothfu'! I'll warrant +it's nane o' your cauld, sour slae-water, like a bottle of Bailie +Skrinkie's port, but right drap-o'-my-heart's-blood stuff, that +would waken a body out of their last linen. I wonder where the +cummers will anchor their craft?'--'And I'll vow,' said another +rustic, 'the wine they quaff is none of your visionary drink, such +as a drouthie body has dished out to his lips in a dream; nor is +it shadowy and unsubstantial, like the vessels they sail in, which +are made out of a cockleshell or a cast-off slipper, or the paring +of a seaman's right thumb-nail. I once got a hansel out of a witch's +quaigh myself,--auld Marion Mathers, of Dustiefoot, whom they tried +to bury in the old kirkyard of Dunscore, but the cummer raise as +fast as they laid her down, and naewhere else would she lie but +in the bonnie green kirkyard of Kier, among douce and sponsible +fowk. So I'll vow that the wine of a witch's cup is as fell liquor +as ever did a kindly turn to a poor man's heart; and be they fiends, +or be they witches, if they have red wine asteer, I'll risk a drouket +sark for ae glorious tout on't.'--'Silence, ye sinners,' said the +minister's son of a neighboring parish, who united in his own person +his father's lack of devotion with his mother's love of liquor. +'Whisht!--speak as if ye had the fear of something holy before +ye. Let the vessels run their own way to destruction: who can stay +the eastern wind, and the current of the Solway sea? I can find +ye Scripture warrant for that: so let them try their strength on +Blawhooly rocks, and their might on the broad quicksand. There's a +surf running there would knock the ribs together of a galley built +by the imps of the pit, and commanded by the Prince of Darkness. +Bonnilie and bravely they sail away there; but before the blast +blows by they'll be wrecked: and red wine and strong brandy will +be as rife as dyke-water, and we'll drink the health of bonnie +Bell Blackness out of her left-foot slipper.' + +"The speech of the young profligate was applauded by several of +his companions, and away they flew to the bay of Blawhooly, from +whence they never returned. The two vessels were observed all at +once to stop in the bosom of the bay on the spot where their hulls +now appear: the mirth and the minstrelsy waxed louder than ever; +and the forms of maidens, with instruments of music, and wine-cups +in their hands, thronged the decks. A boat was lowered; and the +same shadowy pilot who conducted the ships made it start toward +the shore with the rapidity of lightning, and its head knocked +against the bank where the four young men stood, who longed for +the unblest drink. They leaped in with a laugh, and with a laugh +were they welcomed on deck; wine-cups were given to each, and as +they raised them to their lips the vessels melted away beneath +their feet; and one loud shriek, mingled with laughter still louder, +was heard over land and water for many miles. Nothing more was heard +or seen till the morning, when the crowd who came to the beach saw +with fear and wonder the two Haunted Ships, such as they now seem, +masts and tackle gone; nor mark, nor sign, by which their name, +country, or destination could be known, was left remaining. Such is +the tradition of the mariners; and its truth has been attested by +many families whose sons and whose fathers have been drowned in +the haunted bay of Blawhooly." + +"And trow ye," said the old woman, who, attracted from her hut by +the drowning cries of the young fisherman, had remained an auditor +of the mariner's legend,--"and trow ye, Mark Macmoran, that the +tale of the Haunted Ships is done? I can say no to that. Mickle +have mine ears heard; but more mine eyes have witnessed since I +came to dwell in this humble home by the side of the deep sea. +I mind the night weel: it was on Hallowmass eve: the nuts were +cracked, and the apples were eaten, and spell and charm were tried +at my fireside; till, wearied with diving into the dark waves of +futurity, the lads and lasses fairly took to the more visible blessings +of kind words, tender clasps, and gentle courtship. Soft words +in a maiden's ear, and a kindly kiss o' her lip, were old-world +matters to me, Mark Macmoran; though I mean not to say that I have +been free of the folly of daunering and daffin with a youth in +my day, and keeping tryste with him in dark and lonely places. +However, as I say, these times of enjoyment were passed and gone +with me; the mair's the pity that pleasure should fly sae fast +away,--and as I could nae make sport I thought I should not mar +any; so out I sauntered into the fresh cold air, and sat down behind +that old oak, and looked abroad on the wide sea. I had my ain sad +thoughts, ye may think, at the time: it was in that very bay my +blythe goodman perished, with seven more in his company, and on +that very bank where ye see the waves leaping and foaming, I saw +seven stately corses streeked, but the dearest was the eighth. +It was a woful sight to me, a widow, with four bonnie boys, with +nought to support them but these twa hands, and God's blessing, +and a cow's grass. I have never liked to live out of sight of this +bay since that time; and mony's the moonlight night I sit looking +on these watery mountains, and these waste shores; it does my heart +good, whatever it may do to my head. So ye see it was Hallowmass +night; and looking on sea and land sat I; and my heart wandering +to other thoughts soon made me forget my youthful company at hame. +It might be near the howe hour of the night; the tide was making, +and its singing brought strange old-world stories with it; and I +thought on the dangers that sailors endure, the fates they meet +with, and the fearful forms they see. My own blythe goodman had +seen sights that made him grave enough at times, though he aye +tried to laugh them away. + +"Aweel, atween that very rock aneath us and the coming tide, I +saw, or thought I saw, for the tale is so dream-like, that the +whole might pass for a vision of the night, I saw the form of a +man: his plaid was gray; his face was gray; and his hair, which +hung low down till it nearly came to the middle of his back, was +as white as the white sea-foam. He began to howk and dig under the +bank; an' God be near me, thought I, this maun be the unblessed +spirit of Auld Adam Gowdgowpin, the miser, who is doomed to dig +for shipwrecked treasure, and count how many millions are hidden +forever from man's enjoyment. The Form found something which in +shape and hue seemed a left-foot slipper of brass; so down to the +tide he marched, and placing it on the water, whirled it thrice +round; and the infernal slipper dilated at every turn, till it +became a bonnie barge with its sails bent, and on board leaped +the form, and scudded swiftly away. He came to one of the Haunted +Ships; and striking it with his oar, a fair ship, with mast, and +canvas, and mariners, started up: he touched the other Haunted +Ship, and produced the like transformation; and away the three +spectre ships bounded, leaving a track of fire behind them on the +billows which was long unextinguished. Now was nae that a bonnie +and a fearful sight to see beneath the light of the Hallowmass +moon? But the tale is far frae finished; for mariners say that +once a year, on a certain night, if ye stand on the Borranpoint, ye +will see the infernal shallops coming snoring through the Solway; +ye will hear the same laugh, and song, and mirth, and minstrelsy, +which our ancestors heard; see them bound over the sandbanks and +sunken rocks like sea-gulls, cast their anchor in Blawhooly Bay, +while the shadowy figure lowers down the boat, and augments their +numbers with the four unhappy mortals, to whose memory a stone +stands in the kirkyard, with a sinking ship and a shoreless sea +cut upon it. Then the spectre ships vanish, and the drowning shriek +of mortals and the rejoicing laugh of fiends are heard, and the old +hulls are left as a memorial that the old spiritual kingdom has +not departed from the earth. But I maun away, and trim my little +cottage fire, and make it burn and blaze up bonnie, to warm the +crickets, and my cold and crazy bones, that maun soon be laid aneath +the green sod in the eerie kirkyard." And away the old dame tottered +to her cottage, secured the door on the inside, and soon the +hearth-flame was seen to glimmer and gleam through the key-hole +and window. + +"I'll tell ye what," said the old mariner, in a subdued tone, and +with a shrewd and suspicious glance of his eye after the old sibyl, +"it's a word that may not very well be uttered, but there are many +mistakes made in evening stories if old Moll Moray there, where +she lives, knows not mickle more than she is willing to tell of +the Haunted Ships and their unhallowed mariners. She lives cannilie +and quietly; no one knows how she is fed or supported; but her +dress is aye whole, her cottage ever smokes, and her table lacks +neither of wine, white and red, nor of fowl and fish, and white +bread and brown. It was a dear scoff to Jock Matheson, when he +called old Moll the uncannie carline of Blawhooly: his boat ran +round and round in the centre of the Solway,--everybody said it +was enchanted,--and down it went head foremost: and had nae Jock +been a swimmer equal to a sheldrake, he would have fed the fish; +but I'll warrant it sobered the lad's speech; and he never reckoned +himself safe till he made auld Moll the present of a new kirtle +and a stone of cheese." + +"O father," said his grand-daughter Barbara, "ye surely wrong poor +old Mary Moray; what use could it be to an old woman like her, who +has no wrongs to redress, no malice to work out against mankind, +and nothing to seek of enjoyment save a cannie hour and a quiet +grave,--what use could the fellowship of fiends, and the communion +of evil spirits, be to her? I know Jenny Primrose puts rowan-tree +above the door-head when she sees old Mary coming; I know the good +wife of Kittlenaket wears rowan-berry leaves in the headband of +her blue kirtle, and all for the sake of averting the unsonsie +glance of Mary's right ee; and I know that the auld laird of +Burntroutwater drives his seven cows to their pasture with a wand +of witch-tree, to keep Mary from milking them. But what has all +that to do with haunted shallops, visionary mariners, and bottomless +boats? I have heard myself as pleasant a tale about the Haunted +Ships and their unworldly crews, as any one would wish to hear +in a winter evening. It was told me by young Benjie Macharg, one +summer night, sitting on Arbiglandbank: the lad intended a sort +of love meeting; but all that he could talk of was about smearing +sheep and shearing sheep, and of the wife which the Norway elves +of the Haunted Ships made for his uncle Sandie Macharg. And I shall +tell ye the tale as the honest lad told it to me. + +"Alexander Macharg, besides being the laird of three acres of peatmoss, +two kale gardens, and the owner of seven good milch cows, a pair of +horses, and six pet sheep, was the husband of one of the handsomest +women in seven parishes. Many a lad sighed the day he was brided; +and a Nithsdale laird and two Annandale moorland farmers drank +themselves to their last linen, as well as their last shilling, +through sorrow for her loss. But married was the dame; and home +she was carried, to bear rule over her home and her husband, as +an honest woman should. Now ye maun ken that though the flesh and +blood lovers of Alexander's bonnie wife all ceased to love and to +sue her after she became another's, there were certain admirers +who did not consider their claim at all abated, or their hopes +lessened, by the kirk's famous obstacle of matrimony. Ye have heard +how the devout minister of Tinwald had a fair son carried away, +and bedded against his liking to an unchristened bride, whom the +elves and the fairies provided; ye have heard how the bonnie bride +of the drunken laird of Soukitup was stolen by the fairies out at +the back-window of the bridal chamber, the time the bridegroom +was groping his way to the chamber-door; and ye have heard-- But +why need I multiply cases? such things in the ancient days were +as common as candle-light. So ye'll no hinder certain water-elves +and sea-fairies, who sometimes keep festival and summer mirth in +these old haunted hulks, from falling in love with the weel-faured +wife of Laird Macharg; and to their plots and contrivances they went +how they might accomplish to sunder man and wife; and sundering +such a man and such a wife was like sundering the green leaf from +the summer, or the fragrance from the flower. + +"So it fell on a time that Laird Macharg took his halve-net on his +back, and his steel spear in his hand, and down to Blawhooly Bay +gaed he, and into the water he went right between the two haunted +hulks, and placing his net awaited the coming of the tide. The +night, ye maun ken, was mirk, and the wind lowne, and the singing +of the increasing waters among the shells and the pebbles was heard +for sundry miles. All at once lights began to glance and twinkle on +board the two Haunted Ships from every hole and seam, and presently +the sound as of a hatchet employed in squaring timber echoed far +and wide. But if the toil of these unearthly workmen amazed the +Laird, how much more was his amazement increased when a sharp shrill +voice called out, 'Ho! brother, what are you doing now?' A voice +still shriller responded from the other haunted ship, 'I'm making +a wife to Sandie Macharg!' and a loud quavering laugh running from +ship to ship, and from bank to bank, told the joy they expected +from their labor. + +"Now the Laird, besides being a devout and a God-fearing man, was +shrewd and bold; and in plot, and contrivance, and skill in conducting +his designs, was fairly an overmatch for any dozen land-elves; but +the water-elves are far more subtle; besides, their haunts and +their dwellings being in the great deep, pursuit and detection is +hopeless if they succeed in carrying their prey to the waves. But +ye shall hear. Home flew the Laird, collected his family around +the hearth, spoke of the signs and the sins of the times, and talked +of mortification and prayer for averting calamity; and finally, +taking his father's Bible, brass clasps, black print, and covered +with calf-skin, from the shelf, he proceeded without let or stint +to perform domestic worship. I should have told ye that he bolted +and locked the door, shut up all inlet to the house, threw salt +into the fire, and proceeded in every way like a man skilful in +guarding against the plots of fairies and fiends. His wife looked +on all this with wonder; but she saw something in her husband's +looks that hindered her from intruding either question or advice, +and a wise woman was she. + +"Near the mid-hour of the night the rush of a horse's feet was +heard, and the sound of a rider leaping from its back, and a heavy +knock came to the door, accompanied by a voice saying, 'The cummer +drink's hot, and the knave bairn is expected at Laird Laurie's +to-night; sae mount, goodwife, and come.' + +"'Preserve me!' said the wife of Sandie Macharg; 'that's news indeed! +who could have thought it? the Laird has been heirless for seventeen +years! Now, Sandie, my man, fetch me my skirt and hood.' + +"But he laid his arm round his wife's neck, and said, 'If all the +lairds in Galloway go heirless, over this door threshold shall you +not stir to-night; and I have said, and I have sworn it: seek not +to know why or wherefore; but, Lord, send us thy blessed mornlight.' +The wife looked for a moment in her husband's eyes, and desisted +from further entreaty. + +"'But let us send a civil message to the gossips, Sandie; and hadnae +ye better say I am sair laid with a sudden sickness? though it's +sinful-like to send the poor messenger a mile agate with a lie +in his mouth without a glass of brandy.' + +"'To such a messenger, and to those who sent him, no apology is +needed,' said the austere Laird, 'so let him depart.' And the clatter +of a horse's hoofs was heard, and the muttered imprecations of its +rider on the churlish treatment he had experienced. + +"'Now, Sandie, my lad,' said his wife, laying an arm particularly +white and round about his neck as she spoke, 'are you not a queer +man and a stern? I have been your wedded wife now these three years; +and, beside my dower, have brought you three as bonnie bairns as +ever smiled aneath a summer sun. O man, you a douce man, and fitter +to be an elder than even Willie Greer himself, I have the minister's +ain word for't, to put on these hard-hearted looks, and gang waving +your arms that way, as if ye said, "I winna take the counsel of +sic a hempie as you"; I'm your ain leal wife, and will and maun +have an explanation.' + +"To all this Sandie Macharg replied, 'It is written, "Wives, obey +your husbands"; but we have been stayed in our devotion, so let +us pray.' And down he knelt: his wife knelt also, for she was as +devout as bonnie; and beside them knelt their household, and all +lights were extinguished. + +"'Now this beats a',' muttered his wife to herself; 'however, I +shall be obedient for a time; but if I dinna ken what all this +is for before the morn by sunket-time, my tongue is nae langer a +tongue, nor my hands worth wearing.' + +"The voice of her husband in prayer interrupted this mental soliloquy; +and ardently did he beseech to be preserved from the wiles of the +fiends, and the snares of Satan; 'from witches, ghosts, goblins, +elves, fairies, spunkies, and water-kelpies; from the spectre shallop +of Solway; from spirits visible and invisible; from the Haunted Ships +and their unearthly tenants; from maritime spirits that plotted +against godly men, and fell in love with their wives--' + +"'Nay, but His presence be near us!' said his wife in a low tone of +dismay. 'God guide my gudeman's wits: I never heard such a prayer +from human lips before. But, Sandie, my man, Lord's sake, rise: +what fearful light is this?--barn and byre and stable maun be in a +blaze; and Hawkie and Hurley,--Doddie, and Cherrie, and Damson-plum, +will be smoored with reek and scorched with flame.' + +"And a flood of light, but not so gross as a common fire, which +ascended to heaven and filled all the court before the house, amply +justified the good wife's suspicions. But to the terrors of fire, +Sandie was as immovable as he was to the imaginary groans of the +barren wife of Laird Laurie; and he held his wife, and threatened +the weight of his right hand--and it was a heavy one--to all who +ventured abroad, or even unbolted the door. The neighing and prancing +of horses, and the bellowing of cows, augmented the horrors of the +night; and to any one who only heard the din, it seemed that the +whole onstead was in a blaze, and horses and cattle perishing in +the flame. All wiles, common or extraordinary, were put in practice +to entice or force the honest farmer and his wife to open the door; +and when the like success attended every new stratagem, silence +for a little while ensued, and a long, loud, and shrilling laugh +wound up the dramatic efforts of the night. In the morning, when +Laird Macharg went to the door, he found standing against one of +the pilasters a piece of black ship oak, rudely fashioned into +something like human form, and which skilful people declared would +have been clothed with seeming flesh and blood, and palmed upon him +by elfin adroitness for his wife, had he admitted his visitants. +A synod of wise men and women sat upon the woman of timber, and +she was finally ordered to be devoured by fire, and that in the +open air. A fire was soon made, and into it the elfin sculpture +was tossed from the prongs of two pairs of pitchforks. The blaze +that arose was awful to behold; and hissings, and burstings, and +loud cracklings, and strange noises, were heard in the midst of +the flame; and when the whole sank into ashes, a drinking-cup of +some precious metal was found; and this cup, fashioned no doubt +by elfin skill, but rendered harmless by the purification with +fire, the sons and daughters of Sandie Macharg and his wife drink +out of to this very day. Bless all bold men, say I, and obedient +wives!" + + + + +A RAFT THAT NO MAN MADE. + +BY ROBERT T. S. LOWELL. + + +I am a soldier: but my tale, this time, is not of war. + +The man of whom the Muse talked to the blind bard of old had grown +wise in wayfaring. He had seen such men and cities as the sun shines +on, and the great wonders of land and sea; and he had visited the +farther countries, whose indwellers, having been once at home in +the green fields and under the sky and roofs of the cheery earth, +were now gone forth and forward into a dim and shadowed land, from +which they found no backward path to these old haunts, and their +old loves:-- + + Eeri kai nephele kekalummenoi oude pot autous + Eelios phaethon kataderketai aktinessin. + + _Od_. XI. + +At the Charter-House I learned the story of the King of Ithaca, +and read it for something better than a task; and since, though +I have never seen so many cities as the much-wandering man, nor +grown so wise, yet have heard and seen and remembered, for myself, +words and things from crowded streets and fairs and shows and +wave-washed quays and murmurous market-places, in many lands; and +for his Kimmerion andron demos,--his people wrapt in cloud and +vapor, whom "no glad sun finds with his beams,"--have been borne +along a perilous path through thick mists, among the crashing ice +of the Upper Atlantic, as well as sweltered upon a Southern sea, +and have learned something of men and something of God. + +I was in Newfoundland, a lieutenant of Royal Engineers, in Major +Gore's time, and went about a good deal among the people, in surveying +for Government. One of my old friends there was Skipper Benjie +Westham, of Brigus, a shortish, stout, bald man, with a cheerful, +honest face and a kind voice; and he, mending a caplin-seine one +day, told me this story, which I will try to tell after him. + +We were upon the high ground, beyond where the church stands now, +and Prudence, the fisherman's daughter, and Ralph Barrows, her +husband, were with Skipper Benjie when he began; and I had an hour +by the watch to spend. The neighborhood, all about, was still; the +only men who were in sight were so far off that we heard nothing +from them; no wind was stirring near us, and a slow sail could be +seen outside. Everything was right for listening and telling. + +"I can tell 'ee what I sid[1] myself, Sir," said Skipper Benjie. +"It is n' like a story that's put down in books: it's on'y like +what we planters[2] tells of a winter's night or sech: but it's +_feelun_, mubbe, an' 'ee won't expect much off a man as could n' +never read,--not so much as Bible or Prayer-Book, even." + +[Footnote 1: Saw.] + +[Footnote 2: Fishermen.] + +Skipper Benjie looked just like what he was thought: a true-hearted, +healthy man, a good fisherman and a good seaman. There was no need +of any one's saying it. So I only waited till he went on speaking. + +"'T was one time I goed to th' Ice, Sir. I never goed but once, an' +'t was a'most the first v'yage ever was, ef 't was n' the _very_ +first; an' 't was the last for me, an' worse agen for the rest-part +o' that crew, that never goed no more! 'T was tarrible sad douns +wi' they!" + +This preface was accompanied by some preliminary handling of the +caplin-seine, also, to find out the broken places and get them +about him. Ralph and Prudence deftly helped him. Then, making his +story wait, after this opening, he took one hole to begin at in +mending, chose his seat, and drew the seine up to his knee. At the +same time I got nearer to the fellowship of the family by persuading +the planter (who yielded with a pleasant smile) to let me try my +hand at the netting. Prudence quietly took to herself a share of +the work, and Ralph alone was unbusied. + +"They calls th' Ice a wicked place,--Sundays an' weekin days all +alike; an' to my seemun it's a cruel, bloody place, jes' so well,--but +not all thinks alike, surely.--Rafe, lad, mubbe 'ee 'd ruther go +down coveways, an' overhaul the punt a bit." + +Ralph, who perhaps had stood waiting for the very dismissal that he +now got, assented and left us three. Prudence, to be sure, looked +after him as if she would a good deal rather go with him than stay; +but she stayed, nevertheless, and worked at the seine. I interpreted +to myself Skipper Benjie's sending away of one of his hearers by +supposing that his son-in-law had often heard his tales; but the +planter explained himself:-- + +"'Ee sees, Sir, I knocked off goun to th' Ice becase 't was sech +a tarrible cruel place, to my seemun. They swiles[3] be so knowun +like,--as knowun as a dog, in a manner, an' lovun to their own, +like Christens, a'most, more than bastes; an' they'm got red blood, +for all they lives most-partly in water; an' then I found 'em so +friendly, when I was wantun friends badly. But I s'pose the +swile-fishery's needful; an' I knows, in course, that even Christens' +blood's got to be taken sometimes, when it's bad blood, an' I would +n' be childish about they things: on'y--ef it's me--when I can +live by fishun, I don' want to go an' club an' shoot an' cut an' +slash among poor harmless things that 'ould never harm man or 'oman, +an' 'ould cry great tears down for pity-sake, an' got a sound like +a Christen: I 'ould n' like to go a-swilun for gain,--not after +beun among 'em, way I was, anyways." + +[Footnote 3: Seals.] + +This apology made it plain that Skipper Benjie was large-hearted +enough, or indulgent enough, not to seek to strain others, even his +own family, up to his own way in everything; and it might easily +be thought that the young fisherman had different feelings about +sealing from those that the planter's story was meant to bring +out. All being ready, he began his tale again:-- + +"I shipped wi' Skipper Isra'l Gooden, from Carbonear; the schooner +was the Baccaloue, wi' forty men, all told. 'T was of a Sunday +morn'n 'e 'ould sail, twel'th day o' March, wi' another schooner +in company,--the Sparrow. There was a many of us was n' too good, +but we thowt wrong of 'e's takun the Lord's Day to 'e'sself. Wull, +Sir, afore I comed 'ome, I was in a great desert country, an' floated +on sea wi' a monstrous great raft that no man never made, creakun +an' crashun an' groanun an' tumblun an' wastun an' goun to pieces, +an' no man on her but me, an' full o' livun things,--dreadful! + +"About a five hours out, 't was, we first sid the blink,[4] an' +comed up wi' th' Ice about off Cape Bonavis'. We fell in wi' it +south, an' worked up nothe along: but we did n' see swiles for two +or three days yet; on'y we was workun along; pokun the cakes of +ice away, an' haulun through wi' main strength sometimes, holdun +on wi' bights o' ropes out o' the bow; an' more times, agen, in +clear water: sometimes mist all round us, 'ee could n' see the +ship's len'th, sca'ce; an' more times snow, jes' so thick; an' +then a gale o' wind, mubbe, would a'most blow all the spars out +of her, seemunly. + +[Footnote 4: A dull glare on the horizon, from the immense masses +of ice.] + +"We kep' sight o' th' other schooner, most-partly; an' when we +did n' keep it, we'd get it agen. So one night 't was a beautiful +moonlight night: I think I never sid a moon so bright as that moon +was; an' such lovely sights a body 'ould n' think could be! Little +islands, an' bigger, agen, there was, on every hand, shinun so +bright, wi' great, awful-lookun shadows! an' then the sea all black, +between! They did look so beautiful as ef a body could go an' bide +on 'em, in' a manner; an' the sky was jes' so blue, an' the stars +all shinun out, an' the moon all so bright! I never looked upon +the like. An' so I stood in the bows; an' I don' know ef I thowt +o' God first, but I was thinkun o' my girl that I was troth-plight +wi' then, an' a many things, when all of a sudden we comed upon +the hardest ice we'd a-had; an' into it; an' then, wi' pokun an' +haulun, workun along. An' there was a cry goed up,--like the cry +of a babby, 't was, an' I thowt mubbe 't was a somethun had got +upon one o' they islands; but I said, agen, 'How could it?' an' one +John Harris said 'e thowt 't was a bird. Then another man (Moffis +'e's name was) started off wi' what they calls a gaff ('t is somethun +like a short boat-hook), over the bows, an' run; an' we sid un +strike, an' strike, an' we hard it go wump! wump! an' the cry goun +up so tarrible feelun, seemed as ef 'e was murderun some poor wild +Inden child 'e 'd a-found (on'y mubbe 'e would n' do so bad as +that: but there 've a-been tarrible bloody, cruel work wi' Indens +in my time), an' then 'e comed back wi' a white-coat[5] over 'e's +shoulder; an' the poor thing was n' dead, but cried an' soughed +like any poor little babby." + +[Footnote 5: A young seal.] + +The young wife was very restless at this point, and, though she +did not look up, I saw her tears. The stout fisherman smoothed out +the net a little upon his knee, and drew it in closer, and heaved +a great sigh: he did not look at his hearers. + +"When 'e throwed it down, it walloped, an' cried, an' soughed,--an' +its poor eyes blinded wi' blood! ('Ee sees, Sir," said the planter, +by way of excusing his tenderness, "they swiles were friends to +I, after.) Dear, O dear! I could n' stand it; for 'e _might_ ha' +killed un; an' so 'e goes for a quart o' rum, for fetchun first +swile, an' I went an' put the poor thing out o' pain. I did n' +want to look at they beautiful islands no more, somehow. Bumby it +comed on thick, an' then snow. + +"Nex' day swiles bawlun[6] every way, poor things! (I knowed their +voice, now,) but 't was blowun a gale o' wind, an' we under bare +poles, an' snow comun agen, so fast as ever it could come: but out +the men 'ould go, all mad like, an' my watch goed, an' so I mus' +go. (I did n' think what I was goun to!) The skipper never said +no; but to keep near the schooner, an' fetch in first we could, +close by; an' keep near the schooner. + +[Footnote 6: Technical word for the crying of the seals.] + +"So we got abroad, an' the men that was wi' me jes' began to knock +right an' left: 't was heartless to see an' hear it. They laved +two old uns an' a young whelp to me, as they runned by. The mother +did cry like a Christen, in a manner, an' the big tears 'ould run +down, an' they 'ould both be so brave for the poor whelp that 'ould +cuddle up an' cry; an' the mother looked this way an' that way, +wi' big, pooty, black eyes, to see what was the manun of it, when +they'd never doned any harm in God's world that 'E made, an' would +n', even ef you killed 'em: on'y the poor mother baste ketched +my gaff, that I was goun to strike wi', betwixt her teeth, an' I +could n' get it away. 'T was n' like fishun! (I was weak-hearted +like: I s'pose 't was wi' what was comun that I did n' know.) Then +comed a hail, all of a sudden, from the schooner (we had n' been +gone more 'n a five minutes, ef 't was so much,--no, not more 'n +a three); but I was glad to hear it come then, however: an' so +every man ran, one afore t' other. There the schooner was, tearun +through all, an' we runnun for dear life. I falled among the slob,[7] +and got out agen. 'T was another man pushun agen me doned it. I +could n' 'elp myself from goun in, an' when I got out I was astarn +of all, an' there was the schooner carryun on, right through to +clear water! So, hold of a bight o' line, or anything! an' they +swung up in over bows an' sides! an' swash! she struck the water, +an' was out o' sight in a minute, an' the snow drivun as ef 't +would bury her, an' a man laved behind on a pan of ice, an' the +great black say two fathom ahead, an' the storm-wind blowun 'im +into it!" + +[Footnote 7: Broken ice, between large cakes, or against the shore.] + +The planter stopped speaking. We had all gone along so with the +story, that the stout seafarer, as he wrought the whole scene up +about us, seemed instinctively to lean back and brace his feet +against the ground, and clutch his net. The young woman looked +up, this time; and the cold snow-blast seemed to howl through that +still summer's noon, and the terrific ice-fields and hills to be +crashing against the solid earth that we sat upon, and all things +round changed to the far-off stormy ocean and boundless frozen +wastes. + +The planter began to speak again:-- + +"So I falled right down upon th' ice, sayun, 'Lard, help me! Lard, +help me!' an' crawlun away, wi' the snow in my face (I was afeard, +a'most, to stand), 'Lard, help me! Lard, help me!' + +"'T was n' all hard ice, but many places lolly;[8] an' once I goed +right down wi' my hand-wristes an' my armes in cold water, part-ways +to the bottom o' th' ocean; and a'most head-first into un, as I'd +a-been in wi' my legs afore: but, thanks be to God! 'E helped me +out of un, but colder an' wetter agen. + +[Footnote 8: Snow in water, not yet frozen, but looking like the +white ice.] + +"In course I wanted to folly the schooner; so I runned up along, +a little ways from the edge, an' then I runned down along: but 't +was all great black ocean outside, an' she gone miles an' miles +away; an' by two hours' time, even ef she'd come to, itself, an' +all clear weather, I could n' never see her; an' ef she could come +back, she could n' never find me, more 'n I could find any one o' +they flakes o' snow. The schooner was gone, an' I was laved out +o' the world! + +"Bumby, when I got on the big field agen, I stood up on my feet, +an' I sid that was my ship! She had n' e'er a sail, an' she had +n' e'er a spar, an' she had n' e'er a compass, an' she had n' e'er +a helm, an' she had n' no hold, an' she had n' no cabin. I could +n' sail her, nor I could n' steer her, nor I could n' anchor her, +nor bring her to, but she would go, wind or calm, an' she'd never +come to port, but out in th' ocean she'd go to pieces! I sid 't +was so, an' I must take it, an' do my best wi' it. 'T was jest a +great, white, frozen raft, driftun bodily away, wi' storm blowun +over, an' current runnun under, an' snow comun down so thick, an' +a poor Christen laved all alone wi' it. 'T would drift as long +as anything was of it, an' 't was n' likely there'd be any life +in the poor man by time th' ice goed to nawthun; an' the swiles +'ould swim back agen up to the Nothe! + +"I was th' only one, seemunly, to be cast out alive, an' wi' the +dearest maid in the world (so I thought) waitun for me. I s'pose +'ee might ha' knowed somethun better, Sir; but I was n' larned, +an' I ran so fast as ever I could up the way I thowt home was, +an' I groaned, an' groaned, an' shook my handes, an' then I thowt, +'Mubbe I may be goun wrong way.' So I groaned to the Lard to stop +the snow. Then I on'y ran this way an' that way, an' groaned for +snow to knock off.[9] I knowed we was driftun mubbe a twenty leagues +a day, and anyways I wanted to be doun what I could, keepun up over +th' Ice so well as I could, Noofundland-ways, an' I might come +to somethun,--to a schooner or somethun; anyways I'd get up so +near as I could. So I looked for a lee. I s'pose 'ee 'd ha' knowed +better what to do, Sir," said the planter, here again appealing to +me, and showing by his question that he understood me, in spite +of my pea-jacket. + +[Footnote 9: To stop.] + +I had been so carried along with his story that I had felt as if +I were the man on the Ice, myself, and assured him, that, though I +could get along pretty well on land, _and could even do something +at netting_, I should have been very awkward in his place. + +"Wull, Sir, I looked for a lee. ('T would n' ha' been so cold, to +say cold, ef it had n' a-blowed so tarrible hard.) First step, I +stumbled upon somethun in the snow, seemed soft, like a body! Then +I comed all together, hopun an' fearun an' all together. Down I goed +upon my knees to un, an' I smoothed away the snow, all tremblun, +an' there was a moan, as ef 't was a-livun. + +"'O Lard!' I said, 'who's this? Be this one of our men?' + +"But how could it? So I scraped the snow away, but 't was easy to +see 't was smaller than a man. There was n' no man on that dreadful +place but me! Wull, Sir, 't was a poor swile, wi' blood runnun +all under; an' I got my cuffs[10] an' sleeves all red wi' it. It +looked like a fellow-creatur's blood, a'most, an' I was a lost man, +left to die away out there in th' Ice, an' I said, 'Poor thing! +poor thing!' an' I did n' mind about the wind, or th' ice, or the +schooner goun away from me afore a gale (I _would_ n' mind about +'em), an' a poor lost Christen may show a good turn to a hurt thing, +ef 't was on'y a baste. So I smoothed away the snow wi' my cuffs, +an' I sid 't was a poor thing wi' her whelp close by her, an' her +tongue out, as ef she'd a-died fondlun an' lickun it; an' a great +puddle o' blood,--it looked tarrible heartless, when I was so nigh +to death, an' was n' hungry. An' then I feeled a stick, an' I thowt, +'It may be a help to me,' an' so I pulled un, an' it would n' come, +an' I found she was lyun on it; so I hauled agen, an' when it comed, +'t was my gaff the poor baste had got away from me, an' got it +under her, an' she was a-lyun on it. Some o' the men, when they +was runnun for dear life, must ha' struck 'em, out o' madness like, +an' laved 'em to die where they was. 'T was the whelp was n' quite +dead. 'Ee'll think 't was foolish, Sir, but it seemed as though +they was somethun to me, an' I'd a-lost the last friendly thing +there was. + +[Footnote 10: Mittens.] + +"I found a big hummock an' sheltered under it, standun on my feet, +wi' nawthun to do but think, an' think, an' pray to God; an' so +I doned. I could n' help feelun to God then, surely. Nawthun to +do, an' no place to go, tull snow cleared away; but jes' drift +wi' the great Ice down from the Nothe, away down over the say, +a sixty mile a day, mubbe. I was n' a good Christen, an' I could +n' help a-thinkun o' home an' she I was troth-plight wi', an' I +doubled over myself an' groaned,--I could n' help it; but bumby +it comed into me to say my prayers, an' it seemed as thof she was +askun me to pray (an' she _was_ good, Sir, al'ays), an' I seemed +all opened, somehow, an' I knowed how to pray." + +While the words were coming tenderly from the weather-beaten fisherman, +I could not help being moved, and glanced over toward the daughter's +seat; but she was gone, and, turning round, I saw her going quietly, +almost stealthily, and very quickly, _toward the cove_. + +The father gave no heed to her leaving, but went on with his tale:-- + +"Then the wind began to fall down, an' the snow knocked off altogether, +an' the sun comed out; an' I sid th' Ice, field-ice an' icebargs, +an' every one of 'em flashun up as ef they'd kendled up a bonfire, +but no sign of a schooner! no sign of a schooner! nor no sign o' +man's douns, but on'y ice, every way, high an' low, an' some places +black water, in-among; an' on'y the poor swiles bawlun all over, +an' I standun amongst 'em. + +"While I was lookun out, I sid a great icebarg (they calls 'em) +a quarter of a mile away, or thereabouts, standun up,--one end +a twenty fathom out o' water, an' about a forty fathom across, +wi' hills like, an' houses,--an' then, jest as ef 'e was alive +an' had tooked a notion in 'e'sself, seemunly, all of a sudden +'e rared up, an' turned over an' over, wi' a tarrible thunderun +noise, an' comed right on, breakun everything an' throwun up great +seas; 't was frightsome for a lone body away out among 'em! I stood +an' looked at un, but then agen I thowt I may jes' so well be goun +to thick ice an' over Noofundland-ways a piece, so well as I could. +So I said my bit of a prayer, an' told Un I could n' help myself; +an' I made my confession how bad I'd been, an' I was sorry, an ef +'E 'd be so pitiful an' forgive me; an' ef I mus' loss my life, +ef 'E 'd be so good as make me a good Christen first,--an' make +_they_ happy, in course. + +"So then I started; an' first I goed to where my gaff was, by the +mother-swile an' her whelp. There was swiles every two or three +yards a'most, old uns an' young uns, all round everywhere; an' +I feeled shamed in a manner: but I got my gaff, an' cleaned un, +an' then, in God's name, I took the big swile, that was dead by +its dead whelp, an' hauled it away, where the t' other poor things +could n' si' me, an' I sculped[11] it, an' took the pelt;--for I +thowt I'd wear un, now the poor dead thing did n' want to make +oose of un no more,--an' partly becase 't was sech a lovun thing. +An' so I set out, walkun this way for a spurt, an' then t' other +way, keepun up mostly a Nor-norwest, so well as I could: sometimes +away round th' open, an' more times round a lump of ice, an' more +times, agen, off from one an' on to another, every minute. I did +n' feel hungry, for I drinked fresh water off th' ice. No schooner! +no schooner! + +[Footnote 11: Skinned.] + +"Bumby the sun was goun down: 't was slow work feelun my way along, +an' I did n' want to look about; but then agen I thowt God 'ad +made it to be sid; an' so I come to, an' turned all round, an' +looked; an' surely it seemed like another world, someway, 't was +so beautiful,--yellow, an' different sorts o' red, like the sky +itself in a manner, an' flashun like glass. So then it comed night; +an' I thowt I should n' go to bed, an' I may forget my prayers, an' +so I'd, mubbe, best say 'em right away; an' so I doned: 'Lighten +our darkness,' and others we was oosed to say; an' it comed into +my mind, the Lard said to Saint Peter, 'Why did n' 'ee have faith?' +when there was nawthun on the water for un to go on; an' I had ice +under foot,--'t was but frozen water, but 't was frozen,--an' I +thanked Un. + +"I could n' help thinkun o' Brigus an' them I'd laved in it, an' +then I prayed for 'em; an' I could n' help cryun a'most; but then +I give over agen, an' would n' think, ef I could help it; on'y +tryun to say an odd psalm, all through singun-psalms an' other, for +I knowed a many of 'em by singun wi' Patience, on'y now I cared +more about 'em: I said that one,-- + + 'Sech as in ships an' brickle barks + Into the seas descend, + Their merchantun, through fearful floods, + To compass an' to end: + They men are force-put to behold + The Lard's works, what they be; + An' in the dreadful deep the same + Most marvellous they see.' + +An' I said a many more (I can't be accountable how many I said), an' +same uns many times, over: for I would keep on; an' 'ould sometimes +sing 'em very loud in my poor way. + +"A poor baste (a silver fox 'e was) comed an' looked at me; an' +when I turned round, he walked away a piece, an' then 'e comed +back, an' looked. + +"So I found a high piece, wi' a wall of ice atop for shelter, ef +it comed on to blow; an' so I stood, an' said, an' sung. I knowed +well I was on'y driftun away. + +"It was tarrible lonely in the night, when night comed; it's no +use! 'T was tarrible lonely: but I 'ould n' think, ef I could help +it; an' I prayed a bit, an' kep' up my psalms, an' varses out o' +the Bible, I'd a-larned. I had n' a-prayed for sleep, but for wakun +all night, an' there I was, standun. + +"The moon was out agen, so bright; an' all the hills of ice shinun +up to her; an' stars twinklun, so busy, all over; an' No'ther' +Lights goun up wi' a faint, blaze, seemunly, from th' ice, an' +meetun up aloft; an' sometimes a great groanun, an' more times +tarrible loud shriekun! There was great white fields, an' great +white hills, like countries, comun down to be destroyed; an' some +great bargs a-goun faster, an' tearun through, breakun others to +pieces; an' the groanun an' screechun,--ef all the dead that ever +was, wi' their white clothes--But no!" said the stout fisherman, +recalling himself from gazing, as he seemed to be, on the far-off +ghastly scene, in memory. + +"No!--an' thank 'E's marcy, I'm sittun by my own room. 'E tooked +me off; but 't was a dreadful sight,--it's no use,--ef a body'd +let 'e'sself think! I sid a great black bear, an' hard un growl; +an' 't was feelun, like, to hear un so bold an' so stout, among +all they dreadful things, an' bumby the time 'ould come when 'e +could n' save 'e'sself, do what 'e woul'. + +"An' more times 't was all still: on'y swiles bawlun, all over. +Ef it had n' a-been for they poor swiles, how could I stan' it? +Many's the one I'd a-ketched, daytime, an' talked to un, an' patted +un on the head, as ef they'd a-been dogs by the door, like; an' +they'd oose to shut their eyes, an' draw their poor foolish faces +together. It seemed neighbor-like to have some live thing. + +"So I kep' awake, sayun an' singun, an' it was n' very cold; an' +so,--first thing I knowed, I started, an' there I was lyun in a +heap; an' I must have been asleep, an' did n' know how 't was, +nor how long I'd a-been so: an' some sort o' baste started away, +an' 'e must have waked me up; I could n' rightly see what 't was, +wi' sleepiness: an' then I hard a sound, sounded like breakers; +an' that waked me fairly. 'T was like a lee-shore; an' 't was a +comfort to think o' land, ef 't was on'y to be wrecked on itself: +but I did n' go, an' I stood an' listened to un; an' now an' agen +I'd walk a piece, back an' forth, an' back an' forth; an' so I +passed a many, many longsome hours, seemunly, tull night goed +down tarrible slowly, an' it comed up day o' t' other side: an' +there was n' no land; nawthun but great mountains meltun an' breakun +up, an' fields wastun away. I sid 't was a rollun barg made the +noise like breakers; throwun up great seas o' both sides of un; +no sight nor sign o' shore, nor ship, but dazun white,--enough +to blind a body,--an' I knowed 't was all floatun away, over the +say. Then I said my prayers, an' tooked a drink o' water, an' set +out agen for Nor-norwest: 't was all I could do. Sometimes snow, +an' more times fair agen; but no sign o' man's things, an' no sign +o' land, on'y white ice an' black water; an' ef a schooner was n' +into un a'ready, 't was n' likely they woul', for we was gettun +furder an' furder away. Tired I was wi' goun, though I had n' walked +more n' a twenty or thirty mile, mubbe, an' it all comun down so +fast as I could go up, an' faster, an' never stoppun! 'T was a +tarrible long journey up over the driftun ice, at sea! So, then +I went on a high bit to wait tull all was done; I thowt 't would +be last to melt, an' mubbe, I thowt 'e may capsize wi' me, when +I did n' know (for I don' say I was stouthearted); an' I prayed +Un to take care o' them I loved; an' the tears comed. Then I felt +somethun tryun to turn me round like, an' it seemed as ef _she_ +was doun it, somehow, an' she seemed to be very nigh, somehow, +an' I did n' look. + +"After a bit, I got up to look out where most swiles was, for company, +while I was livun: an' the first look struck me a'most like a bullet! +There I sid a sail! _'T was_ a sail, an' 't was like heaven openun, +an' God settun her down there. About three mile away she was, to +nothe'ard, in th' Ice. + +"I could ha' sid, at first look, what schooner 't was; but I did +n' want to look hard at her. I kep' my peace, a spurt, an' then +I runned an' bawled out, 'Glory be to God!' an' then I stopped, +an' made proper thanks to Un. An' there she was, same as ef I'd +a-walked off from her an hour ago! It felt so long as ef I'd been +livun years, an' they would n' know me, sca'ce. Somehow, I did +n' think I could come up wi' her. + +"I started, in the name o' God, wi' all my might, an' went, an' +went,--'t was a five mile, wi' goun round,--an' got her, thank +God! 'T was n' the Baccaloue (I sid that long before), 't was t' +other schooner, the Sparrow, repairun damages they'd got day before. +So that kep' 'em there, an' I'd a-been took from one an' brought +to t' other. + +"I could n' do a hand's turn tull we got into the Bay agen,--I +was so clear beat out. The Sparrow kep' her men, an' fotch home +about thirty-eight hundred swiles, an' a poor man off th' Ice: +but they, poor fellows, that I went out wi', never comed no more: +an' I never went agen. + +"I kep' the skin o' the poor baste, Sir: that's 'e on my cap." + +When the planter had fairly finished his tale, it was a little +while before I could teach my eyes to see the things about me in +their places. The slow-going sail, outside, I at first saw as the +schooner that brought away the lost man from the Ice; the green +of the earth would not, at first, show itself through the white +with which the fancy covered it; and at first I could not quite +feel that the ground was fast under my feet. I even mistook one +of my own men (the sight of whom was to warn me that I was wanted +elsewhere) for one of the crew of the schooner Sparrow of a generation +ago. + +I got the tale and its scene gathered away, presently, inside my +mind, and shook myself into a present association with surrounding +things, and took my leave. I went away the more gratified that I +had a chance of lifting my cap to a matron, dark-haired and comely +(who, I was sure, at a glance, had once been the maiden of Benjie +Westham's "troth-plight"), and receiving a handsome courtesy in +return. + + + + +THE INVISIBLE PRINCESS. + +BY FRANCIS O'CONNOR. + + +I could be "as tedious as a king," in analyzing those chivalrous +instincts of masculine youth that lured me from college at nineteen, +and away over the watery deserts of the sea; and, like Dogberry, +"I could find in my heart to bestow it all of your worships." But +since, like the auditor of that worthy, you do not want it, I will +pass over the embarkation, which was tedious, over the sea-sickness, +which was more tedious, over the home-sickness, over the monotonous +duties assigned me, and the unvarying prospect of sea and sky, all so +tedious that I grew as morose after a time as a travelling Englishman. +Neither was coasting, with restricted liberty and much toil, amongst +people whose language I could not speak, quite all that my fancy +painted it,--although Genoa, Venice, the Bay of Naples,--crimsoned by +Vesuvius, and canopied by an Italian sky,--and the storied scenes +of Greece, all rich in beauties and historic associations, repaid +many discomforts at the time and remain to me forever as treasures +of memory the more precious for being dearly bought. But these, +with the pleasures and displeasures of Constantinople,--the limit +of our voyage,--I will pass over, to the midsummer eve when, with +all the arrangements for our return voyage completed, we swung +slowly out of the northern eddy of the Golden Horn into the clear +blue Bosphorus. + +Already the lengthening shadows of a thousand domes and minarets +stretched across its waters, and glimpses of sunlight lay between +them, like golden clasps linking continent to continent. Around us +were ships and sailors from all parts of the habitable globe; while +through shine and shadow flitted boats and caiques innumerable, and +except where these, or the rising of a porpoise, or the dipping +of a gull, broke the surface of the water, it lay as smooth as a +mirror, reflecting its palace-guarded shores. + +The men were lounging about the deck or leaning over the bulwarks, +listening to a neighboring crew chanting their vespers, while we +awaited the coming on board of our captain. Meanwhile the shadows +crept up the Asian hills, till the last sombre answering smile to +the sun's good-night faded from the cypress-trees above the graves +of Scutari. + +Beside me, long in silent admiration of the scene, stood my messmates, +Fred Smith and Mike O'Hanlon,--two genuine specimens of Young New +York, the first of whom disappointed love had driven to sea, whither +also friendship and a reckless spirit of adventure had impelled +the second. Behind us was one, a just impression of whom--if I +could but convey it--would make what followed appear as possible +to you as it did to us who were long his companions. I never knew +to what country he belonged; for he spoke any language occasion +called for, with the same apparent ease and fluency. He was far +beyond the ordinary stature, yet it was only when you saw him in +comparison with other men that you observed anything gigantic in +his form. His hair was black, and hung in a smooth, heavy, even +wave down to his massive jaw, which was always clean shaved, if +indeed beard ever grew upon it. Neither could I guess his age; +for though he was apparently in manhood's prime, it often appeared +to me that the spirit I saw looking through his eyes must have +been looking from them for a thousand years. + +And how I used to exult in watching him deal with matter! He never +took anything by the wrong end, nor failed to grasp a swinging +rope or a flapping sail, nor miscalculated the effort necessary +to the performance of whatever he undertook. He was silent, but +not morose. Yet there was something in his measured tones and the +gaze of his large gray eyes which Mike compared in their mingled +effects to the charms of sight and sound that the victims of the +rattlesnake's fascination are said to undergo. Whatever sensations +they occasioned, men shrank from renewing them, and the frankest and +boldest of the crew shunned occasions for addressing him. Stranger +still, this feeling, instead of wearing off by the close companionship +of our little bark, seemed to deepen and strengthen, until at length, +except myself, no one spoke to him who could avoid it. Even the +captain, when circumstances allowed him a choice, always directed +his orders to another, though this man's duties were performed +with the quiet promptness of a machine. If he was conscious of +anything peculiar in the behavior of his companions toward him, +he betrayed no indication of it. Such he was who stood listening, +with an appearance of interest unusual in him, to our otherwise +inconsequent chat. + +"You are bidding a very silent adieu to the Genius of the East," +I said. + +"Yes," Fred answered, "it's her first actual revelation to me, but +it's a glorious one." + +"Let those who love to decipher illegible inscriptions, to contemplate +a throttled centaur on a dilapidated frieze, or a carved acanthus +on a fallen capital, grope over the Acropolis and invoke Athenian +Pallas," said Mike; "but for me these painted seraglios and terraced, +bower-canopied gardens, vocal with nightingales and seeming to +impregnate the very air with the pleasures of desire, justify the +decision of Paris. Hurrah for Asiatic Venus!" + +"You are no true Christian knight," I said. "Your Rinaldos and +Sir Guyons always waste your gardens of voluptuous delight, and +wipe out their abominations." + +"Yes," he retorted, "all but the abomination of desolation." + +"But do you consider," said Fred, "how many sweet birds may be +looking out through the bars of those bright lattice cages even +now, who can follow neither their hearts' desires nor their souls' +aspirations, but whom fate has degraded to be the slaves of some +miserable old Blue Beard?" + +"Why don't you sail in and rescue some of them?" said Mike mockingly. +"Tell the old tyrant to his cerulean beard that he has too many +strings to his bow, and he will undoubtedly spare a bow-string to +twine around your manly neck. But I guess you had better, after +all, leave the Fatimas to their fate. The barriers that fence them +in from their hearts' desires and souls' aspirations here are not +more real, if more palpable, than those that guard them in our +land of boasted freedom; neither are they altogether secure from +sale and barter there; and as for us outside barbarians, I'd as +lief be shut out by palace walls from a beauty I can only imagine, +as by custom still more insurmountable from beauty set visibly +before me and enhanced with intellectual and social graces." + +I cited the lady in the song, who says:-- + + A tarry sailor I'll ne'er disdain, + But always I will treat the same, + +as proof that such exclusiveness was far from being the universal +rule at home, and encouraged him to rival the "swabber, the boatswain +and mate" for "Moll, Mag, Marion, and Margery." + +"Or," said he, "like the jolly tar you quote, dismiss both your +songs as 'scurvy tunes,' and, swigging at a black jack, say: Here's +my comfort." + +"I am not sure," said Fred bitterly, thinking of his own rejected +suit, "that Stephano's philosophy is not the best for wretches +like us." + +"Yes," said Mike, "until after the Millennium. Then the march of +civilization will be ended, and the ranks may be broken. Then soft +hands and hard hands may clasp each other. Then rays from the purest +and most refined souls may shine through bright eyes without being +especially chilled for those whom a cold destiny makes especially +needful of their heart-warming influences. Then you, poor as you +are, may aspire to wed the daughter of a banker, and Joe or I may +seek to satisfy the heart's desires of the Sultan's daughter, without +Aladdin's lamp or Oberon's whistle." + +Here our strange auditor came forward with a small tin whistle in +his hand, and gravely presenting it to Fred, he advised him to try +its note on the hard-hearted parent who opposed his happiness. In +the deepening twilight, Fred and Mike, putting their heads together, +read the following legend graven upon it:-- + + O whistle, and I'll come to you, my lad! + +We all laughed outright, except the donor. + +"This is not Oberon's whistle, at any rate," I said. + +"No," he answered, "the inspiration of this is from Mammon, whose +gates I understood shut Mr. Smith out from his true love. A single +blast on it will, I dare say, open them wide enough to let him +in." + +"Then it's as good as money to you, Fred," said Mike. + +"That's what our old boss used to tell us," answered Fred ruefully, +"when he gave us orders on a neighboring grocery, in lieu of cash +for our wages. But I must confess I have now, as I had then, a +prejudice in favor of the circulating medium." + +"If so, whistle for it at once," said the other. + +Fred looked at him, and then at Mike and me, with a puzzled expression +which seemed to ask: Is this a crazy freak, or an absurd, insulting +joke? + +"Now," said the object of this scrutiny, turning to me, "I have a +talisman for you also, wherewith to entice the Sultan's daughter. +It is a ruby of rare size and color, and therefore valuable. But +the power of the spell it is said to possess remains to be tested. +I give it to you because in you, at this moment, are fulfilled +the conditions necessary to exercise this spell; which you do by +simply taking the jewel in your hand thus, and saying,-- + + Come, O royal maiden, come to me this hour." + +"And she'll come, of course," said Mike, bantering me in his turn. +"Now hoist your signal and hail the daughter of the Grand Turk, +and let Fred pipe for his princess at the same auspicious moment." + +"Amen!" I said, holding up the gem till the moonbeams blushed red +in it, and calling out with a strange, impulsive sense of power,-- + + "Come, O royal maiden, come to me this hour." + +But no responsive tooting of the whistle echoed from the lips of +Fred. I looked toward him for an explanation of the silence, and +beheld him spitting out the fragments of the instrument, which +had gone to pieces in his mouth. + +"What's all this?" he exclaimed, unrolling a little scroll of paper +that had been compressed within it, and holding it up to the light. +"See here, Joe, what do you make of this?" + +"A draft for ten thousand pounds sterling, on the Bank of England, +duly signed and indorsed," I answered after scrutinizing it carefully. + +We turned simultaneously for an explanation, but there was no one +to give it. + +"I always suspected who _he_ was," said Mike, "but he's got no +hold on me,--no claim to a bond signed with _my_ blood. See, there +he goes!" + +I looked, and saw a boat shooting across the stream with a swiftness +that argued some optical delusion. That unmistakable figure stood in +the stern, urging it with a single scull, and as it disappeared in +the confusion of boats and the darkness, a superstitious suspicion +crept over me that he might be the person Mike suggested. Soon the +captain came on board, and on learning the absence of the boat +and its occupant, he expressed considerable anxiety and impatience. +A breeze sprang up and began to curl the surface of the water, +and clouds obscured the moon. Then the wind freshened to a storm, +and lifted the waves on the channel, and roared in the cypress +forests above Pera and Scutari. Under the light sails already set, +the ship tugged hard at her cable. Yet the boat did not return. +The captain walked the deck nervously, and finally gave orders +to weigh anchor, when just as our bark, freed to the wind and the +current, sprang forward on her long voyage, the boat for which we +were looking shot suddenly under the prow, and in an instant our +mysterious comrade stepped in upon the deck from the bow-chains. +As he did so, the light of the mate's lantern fell full upon him, +and the scene it revealed will certainly never be forgotten by +anyone who witnessed it. + +There he stood, looming out from the tempestuous darkness more +gigantic and terrible than ever, with the form of a beautiful girl, +gorgeously clad and flashing with jewels, held easily and firmly +by one encircling arm. His disengaged right hand was stained as +if with blood, and spots of the same sanguinary hue were on his +brow and his garments. The expression of his face was unmoved as +usual. + +For a moment he permitted the slippered feet of the trembling girl +to rest upon the deck, though his arm still encompassed her shrinking +form, and, while her great dark eyes, dilated with horror, like +those of a captured bird, threw wild, eager glances to left and +right, as if in search of any desperate refuge from the terrors that +possessed her, he said in his usual quiet tones to the captain,-- + +"This is the passenger for whom I engaged the cabin. She will, +by your leave, take possession of it at once." So saying, he led +her gently forward and disappeared at the companion-way, conducted +by the captain. + +Every face on deck had grown pale, and every heart throbbed with +the conviction that we had just beheld the consummation of a most +desperate and bloody deed. It was evident the girl had been snatched +suddenly from the harem of some palace, probably from the royal +seraglio itself, off which we had been lying. And the horror depicted +on her face, as well as the stains of blood on her abductor, told +with what ruthless violence. Here then, I thought, in all human +probability, was the royal maiden I had summoned; here was the +wildest vagary of my imagination realized. But how different from +the bright fancy was the woful reality! + +Soon the captain returned on deck, pale and excited like the rest +of us, and ordered a rash amount of sail to be set. The mate, a +bluff, powerful man, swore an oath that we should first understand +the meaning of what had just transpired. + +"I know no more about it than you do," avowed the captain, "except +that it's a piece of business very likely to bring all our heads +to the block unless we show a clean pair of heels for it. So now +avast jawing, and obey orders!" + +"Never! boys," I said, "till we are assured of that girl's safety. +What's done cannot be helped; but if she suffers further wrong +in our midst, we ought all to be hanged as cowardly accessories +to it." + +"Dismiss your uneasiness in that regard," said a voice behind us, +at whose sound there was a general start. "To keep her safe and +inviolate is more my right and interest than yours, and it must +therefore be my especial duty to do so; but if I fail in it, I +care not though you make my life the forfeit, nor by what mode you +exact it." + +So saying, he took his place at the helm, a press of sail was set, +and the ship fairly rent her way through the sea of Marmora before +the tempest. But the ship, like all around, seemed to acknowledge +his controlling power; and when I turned in with my watch, my sleep +was undisturbed by any fear of wind or water, though it was full +of troubled dreams. Now a lovely form in royal vesture beckoned +to me from a lattice; anon the gleam of a lantern flickered across +the terribly familiar face of a gnome, bearing out of a dark cavern +an armful of the most precious jewels, which had a wild appealing in +their light that puzzled me; while the roaring of the sea pervaded +it all with a kind of dream harmony. + +After a time, the fury of the tempest abated; but the ship still +fled onward before strong gales, through those famous seas we had +cruised so often in youthful fancy with the Greek and the Trojan, +and the fear of pursuit ceased to haunt us. + +Meanwhile we saw no more of our lovely passenger. Her strange guardian +kept a watch beside her cabin door as vigilant as that of a sentinel +at his post, or a saint before his shrine. His eye never swept the +horizon behind us with an anxious gaze, as ours did, while we looked +for the smoke of a pursuing steamer. Neither did it kindle at sight +of the famous landmarks that measured our rapid course, each of which +we hailed with delight as another harbinger of safety. He had ceased +to perform the duties of a seaman, and devoted himself entirely to +the care of the INVISIBLE PRINCESS, as we grew to call her. But +though invisible to our eyes, hers was the pervading presence of +our thoughts. Not a wave rocked the ship, not a cloud overshadowed +it, not a morning breeze came fresh from the sea, or an evening +breeze brought fragrance from the shore, but was thought of in +some relation with her. There was none like her, we said, in the +broad continents to right of us, to left of us, or before us; and +we doubted if there was her like in the lands of enchantment we +had left behind. Her wondrous beauty, the flashing of the jewels +that encrusted her belt, and that seemed to gleam and sparkle all +over her picturesque attire, the haunting look of those great, +lustrous eyes, all the reminiscence of that eventful night,--how +fondly we recurred to them again and again in the forecastle or +the night-watch, and with what pleasure we recognized the first +indications that her trance of terror had passed, and that she +had resumed a living interest in the strange world around her. + +First the open window of the cabin gave evidence that the balmy +air and the pleasant shores we skirted were no longer indifferent +to her; then came flitting glimpses of bright garments and brighter +eyes quickly withdrawn from observation into the depths of the +fairy grotto she inhabited; and finally, one beautiful moonlight +evening, while most of the crew were on deck watching the lurid +peak of Etna and the pavement of golden waves stretching toward +it, and listening not to premonitions of Scylla or Charybdis, but +to the song of the nightingales from the dim shore, or to tales +of Enceladus and the Cyclops from Fred, and whimsical comments +from Mike, she came hesitatingly forth, arousing an excitement and +curiosity among us as intense as if she were a ghost arising from +the tomb. Her dress was the same in which she had been brought among +us, without addition of yashmak or veil of any kind,--excepting +the mistiness of the moonlight,--to conceal her face, though there +was a shy drawing down of the tasselled cap or turban she wore, +that shadowed it somewhat. + +I need hardly say how soon the glories of earth, sea, and sky, +which we had been contemplating, shrank into mere accessories around +that one central figure, as she stood gazing upon them through the +shrouds and spars from our deck. But, notwithstanding the beauty of +the scene and the hour, she did not hold her position long to enjoy +them. She had, in appearing thus before strange men, evidently by a +great effort, done that which she shrank from doing; but whether +in obedience to her own will or to that of another, we could not +guess. The ice thus broken, however, she was the INVISIBLE PRINCESS +no longer. Emboldened by two or three subsequent moonlight and +twilight ventures, she at length came out in the sunset, and I +doubt if the setting sun ever revealed a lovelier sight than greeted +our eyes on that evening. A glance in the clear light satisfied us +that the superhuman beauty we almost worshipped, and the splendor +that seemed too lavish to be real, were no mere glamor of lamplight +or moonlight, but surpassed in the reality all that our stunted, +sceptical, Western imaginations, even stimulated as they were, +had dared to anticipate. + +I might attempt to describe her. I might tell you that her every +limb and every feature seemed perfect in its form and its harmony +with the others; that her complexion was a fresh, delicate bloom, +without spot or blemish; that the innumerable braids of her long, +black hair were ravishingly glossy and soft; that her great, dark +eyes were bewilderingly bright and wise, and expressive of everything +enchanting and good that eyes can express; that her smile,--but +no! her smile was an expression of her individuality too subtle +for words to catch; and without any power of revealing this +individuality, this all that distinguished her from merely mortal +woman and made her angelic, where is the use of attempting to describe +her? Of her garments, by a recurrence to Lady Mary Wortley Montagu +for the names of them, I could give you a description, from the +golden-flowered, diamond-studded kerchief wreathed in her hair, +to the yellow Cinderella slippers that covered her fairy feet. +But the gauzy fabric that enfolded though it scarcely concealed +her bosom, the vest of white damask stuff inwoven and fringed with +gold and silver, the caftan, and the trousers of crimson embossed +and embroidered with flowers of the same gorgeous materials, all +were buttoned and guarded and overstrewn with jewels, while the +broad belt that confined them was literally encrusted with diamonds +and clasped by a magnificent bouquet of flowers wrought by the +lapidary from diamonds, rubies, emeralds, sapphires, and pearls, +so exquisitely that the artist showed a skill in them almost worthy +of his materials. + +From our ardent gaze the beautiful vision was soon withdrawn,--often +to reappear, however, in the bright, calm weather that followed, +each time with less of blushing and confusion in the beautiful +face; and at length, some of us began to flatter ourselves, with +a shy glance of interest and recognition for us in the luminous +eyes. + +On her strange companion, also, her presence shed a beam that lightened +the darkness of our thoughts toward him. We marked the long, dark +lashes of her eyes rising and falling, now trustingly, now fearingly, +before that inscrutable countenance, as if her spirit wavered between +a dream of terror and a contentful awaking. And many imagined that, +as those dark eyes began to turn more lovingly and more longingly +toward him, the strange brilliance of his own became imbued with +their softness, while a faint auroral tinge seemed just ready to +change his countenance from marble to flesh and blood. + +Thus day after day we crept along the European coast, enjoying a +dream of romance in which we could have gone on sailing contentedly +forever, our only cause of uneasiness being that, at some of the +numerous ports we touched, the magic presence on which the spell +depended might go from us, as it came to us, without ceremony or +warning, and leave us to cross the great ocean in the world of +intolerable loneliness that would settle on the ship when she was +gone. There was something like a patriotic aspiration in our desire +to transplant this brightest of Eastern blossoms to diffuse its +supreme beauty and sweetness in the West. And though we feared for +her the stormy autumn passage of the Atlantic, a load was taken +from every spirit when we left the Pillars of Hercules behind us +and pointed our prow straight out across the cloud-bound ocean. + +Just as we lost sight of land, we were attacked by a most violent +storm, that buffeted us for many a day, during which we saw nothing +of our fair passenger, and we learned that she was seriously ill. +But never had invalid such a nurse as she. No one knew if he slept +or ate, and no one was allowed to share his office, and no one +obtruded on him the sorrow or sympathy which all felt in spite +of our engrossing battle for life against the tempest. For though +there was no change in his appearance or demeanor, all were conscious +that a deep feeling stirred his heart. Even when we doubted if +all our energies could preserve the vessel from being dashed back +upon the coast we had just left, he gave us neither help nor heed, +till in the final moment when we had given up all for lost, he +seized the helm and shot us into shelter and safety behind the reef +whereon we expected to go to pieces, through a channel which, in +the calm that followed the storm, we found it difficult to retrace +to the deep water, towing the ship with boats. + +Again we got well out to sea, and were becalmed. For nearly a week, +not a breeze had broken the surface of the ocean. Then another +of those enchanting scenes we had feared to behold no more was +presented to us. The beautiful invalid, assisted by her now inseparable +companion, came upon the deck to watch the sunset. From her cheek +the bloom of health was gone; but the look of wild dread with which +hitherto she had never quite ceased to regard him who supported her +was gone also, and in its place the large, dark eyes were filled +by a glance of such indescribable gratitude and trust as only her +eyes could express. He, for the first time, looked neither more +nor less than a man. Her shrinking from our presence, too, had +disappeared, and her look of recognition now was unmistakable and +cordial. She had resumed her original garb, long disused as if +to avoid remark at the ports we visited, and its glowing colors +seemed to heighten the contrast between the pallid cheek and the +long, dark lashes that drooped languidly over them, as, wearied at +length by the unusual exertion, she sank heavily on her companion, +and was rather borne than assisted back to the cabin. + +During another week of breezeless autumn calm, this strange drama +was re-enacted many times before us, with each time a deepening +of the tragic shades that were gathering above it. But even after +it became evident that the sweet evening air had no balm for the +drooping girl, she loved to look out on the glories of the sunset, +as if conscious that soon she should behold them no more forever. +And when her strength no longer enabled her to walk, her nurse +carried her out like a child in his arms. + +But this also ceased after a time, and the hope that our transplanted +blossom would ever flourish on a new soil had already faded from the +bosom of the most sanguine among us, when one evening the guardian +genius of the cabin beckoned to me from its portal. My entrance +seemed to arouse the fair invalid, who was reclined upon a couch. +The enchanting halo of her perfect beauty was unabated by disease; +and she was surrounded by articles so rare, so costly, and in such +profusion, as to force themselves upon my attention even in that +first glance. A faint smile, and a recognition from those now too +bright eyes, were my welcome. But they did not rest upon me long; +for, as if by some fascination, those eyes seemed always turned +toward him, or, if by chance he was beyond their reach, to the +spot where they could first behold his return. + +So this nursling of a palace, evidently dying out on the wide sea, +with only rough men about her, had neither a word nor a look of +reproach for the one who had dragged her forth to so wretched a +fate. Even in her mind's wanderings, she seldom went back to former +pomps or pleasures, and her tongue preferred rather to stumble +through the rough and unfamiliar language in which of late she +had been so terribly schooled, than to speak that of her youth. +Once, when after a short absence her attendant returned to her +side, she said,-- + +"My heart was trying to cross the waves that were between us, and +oh! how it was tossed upon them--and it ached, and--and--" Then, +giving a sigh of relief, she sank back, closed her eyes, and slumbered +restfully. + +He disposed of the lamp he had just lighted, and then, with an +expression as inscrutable as ever, he stood looking down upon her. + +While this scene was being enacted, I marked through the open portal +of the cabin--in one of those strange distractions that occur to +us amidst the most intense feelings of our lives--the stars above +us growing brighter and brighter as the shades of the twilight +deepened. Suddenly turning from the couch, he also, at a stride, +stood in full view of those bright revelations of the darkness; but +his eye sought them with no such abstracted regard as mine. Fixedly +and sternly he seemed to be watching among them some portentous +index of fate. Soon a change came over his countenance, and he +resumed his place beside the scarcely breathing form. Then the +fountains of the great deep within him were broken up, and the +rushing torrent of its emotions shook his whole frame and convulsed +his features. Stooping, he kissed the insensible girl passionately, +again and again, and he would, I believe, have clasped her to his +bosom if I, fearing for her the effects of his stormy transports, +had not caught his arm. He needed no explanation of my interruption, +neither was he startled or incensed by it, and he seemed more like +one reluctantly obeying some sudden restraining impulse of his +own than yielding to that of another. + +"No," he said, "I must not cut short a single flicker of that bright +spirit; the wondrously beautiful vessel that it glorifies will be +cold clay soon enough! ashes from which no future Phoenix shall +arise. O," he exclaimed, "this sacrifice is too great, too great! +and for nothing! Even had she perished on the destined altar, an +accepted sacrifice, it were too great! But I tore her from home +and friends, and life itself, for this,--for nothing! O Destiny, +thou art a subtle adversary, and infinite are thy devices for our +overthrow! But I never reckoned on such an impediment as this +heart-weakness." + +Then approaching me, he laid a hand upon my shoulder, and said: +"As the representative of the young, hopeful, living world she +is about to leave, I called you here that you and she might look +your last upon each other. Go now, and though your present emotion +accords duly with the part I have assigned you, see that you do +not play false to it hereafter by letting this woful event impress +you with too deep or too lasting a sorrow." + +Then to my Ideal, so strangely found and lost, I looked and murmured +an adieu, and returned among my companions, reverenced as one who +had been in a hallowed place. + +It was the third evening after this, to me, memorable visit. Streaks +of sable, with golden edges, barred the face of the setting sun, +and promised to our hopes a change of weather. But this indication, +important as it was after the long calm, was evidently not that which +the whole ship's crew, officers and men, were now discussing,--as the +converged attention of the scattered groups on the closed entrance +of that silent, mysterious cabin testified. + +"I know," said O'Hanlon, answering to an objection from some one +in the group where he stood, "it would be like invading a sanctuary +to intrude there; but the conviction sometimes comes over me that +we have, all hands of us, from the captain down, acted in regard +to this matter with the incapacity of men in a nightmare. Fear is +a condition under which a true man should not breathe a moment +without contest; and yet I know we have been all, more or less +consciously, under its influence since this man came on board. +Out upon us! I will, for myself at least, break through this dream +of terror at once, by a tap at yonder door." + +"It's the captain's place, not ours," said Smith, "to investigate +this affair. Don't be too impulsive; you will get yourself into +serious trouble." + +"This is no matter of ordinary discipline," said the other; "the +captain has a more substantial awe of this man than you or I,--and +for more substantial reasons. He was aware of his wealth and power +when we were not. How, without his knowledge, could the treasures +worth a king's ransom, that adorn yonder coop, have been smuggled +in or arranged there? But I am resolved, right or wrong, to do +as I said." + +I was questioning within myself whether to second him, when the +door toward which he was advancing slowly opened, and once more +the object of our discussion issued from it, and again in his arms +was the beautiful form to which they had proved such a fatal +resting-place. But none of the emotions of terror, trustfulness, +or affection, which had alternately thrilled it in that position, +did it now exhibit. The bright eyes were closed, the beautiful +features settled in lasting repose. The glossy hair was daintily +braided. The spotless garments were gracefully disposed. The jewels +glittered conspicuously, as if relieved from the outvying lustre of +her eyes. All, as in life, was pure and perfect; and as in life, +so in death, she was still a revelation of transcendent beauty. +A snowy winding-sheet, fringed with heavy coins, alternately of +gold and of silver, and looped with silken cords on which bunches +of the same precious metals hung as tassels, was so disposed that +he could enfold her in it without laying her from his arms. + +Stepping to the side of the vessel, he stood holding her thus in +our view for a few moments; then, deftly and deliberately as usual, +he wrapped the preciously weighted linen around her, stepped easily +upon the bulwark, and with that perfect and deliberate poise so +peculiar to him, and with his burden clasped firmly to his breast, +he flung himself far clear of the ship, into the ocean, and was +seen no more. + +Thus vanished like a dream the romance of my life. Indeed, but for +the lurid gleam of this strange jewel, a true type and testimony of +it, I might yet grow to persuade myself it was a dream, so wondrous +it becomes to me in memory. + + + + +THE ADVOCATE'S WEDDING-DAY. + +BY CATHERINE CROWE. + + +Antoine de Chaulieu was the son of a poor gentleman of Normandy, +with a long genealogy, a short rent-roll, and a large family. Jacques +Rollet was the son of a brewer, who did not know who his grandfather +was; but he had a long purse, and only two children. As these youths +flourished in the early days of liberty, equality, and fraternity, +and were near neighbors, they naturally hated each other. Their enmity +commenced at school, where the delicate and refined De Chaulieu, +being the only _gentilhomme_ amongst the scholars, was the favorite +of the master (who was a bit of an aristocrat in his heart), although +he was about the worst dressed boy in the establishment, and never +had a sou to spend; whilst Jacques Rollet, sturdy and rough, with +smart clothes and plenty of money, got flogged six days in the week, +ostensibly for being stupid and not learning his lessons,--which +he did not,--but in reality for constantly quarrelling with and +insulting De Chaulieu, who had not strength to cope with him. + +When they left the academy, the feud continued in all its vigor, +and was fostered by a thousand little circumstances, arising out +of the state of the times, till a separation ensued, in consequence +of an aunt of Antoine de Chaulieu's undertaking the expense of +sending him to Paris to study the law, and of maintaining him there +during the necessary period. + +With the progress of events came some degree of reaction in favor +of birth and nobility; and then Antoine, who had passed for the +bar, began to hold up his head, and endeavor to push his fortunes; +but fate seemed against him. He felt certain that if he possessed +any gift in the world, it was that of eloquence, but he could get +no cause to plead; and his aunt dying inopportunely, first his +resources failed, and then his health. He had no sooner returned +to his home than, to complicate his difficulties completely, he +fell in love with Miss Natalie de Bellefonds, who had just returned +from Paris, where she had been completing her education. To expatiate +on the perfections of Mademoiselle Natalie would be a waste of +ink and paper; it is sufficient to say that she really was a very +charming girl, with a fortune which, though not large, would have +been a most desirable addition to De Chaulieu, who had nothing. +Neither was the fair Natalie indisposed to listen to his addresses; +but her father could not be expected to countenance the suit of +a gentleman, however well-born, who had not a ten-sous piece in +the world, and whose prospects were a blank. + +Whilst the ambitious and love-sick barrister was thus pining in +unwelcome obscurity, his old acquaintance, Jacques Rollet, had +been acquiring an undesirable notoriety. There was nothing really +bad in Jacques; but having been bred up a democrat, with a hatred +of the nobility, he could not easily accommodate his rough humor +to treat them with civility when it was no longer safe to insult +them. The liberties he allowed himself whenever circumstances brought +him into contact with the higher classes of society, had led him +into many scrapes, out of which his father's money had in one way +or another released him; but that source of safety had now failed. +Old Rollet, having been too busy with the affairs of the nation to +attend to his business, had died insolvent, leaving his son with +nothing but his own wits to help him out of future difficulties; +and it was not long before their exercise was called for. + +Claudine Rollet, his sister, who was a very pretty girl, had attracted +the attention of Mademoiselle de Bellefonds's brother, Alphonse; +and as he paid her more attention than from such a quarter was +agreeable to Jacques, the young men had had more than one quarrel +on the subject, on which occasion they had each, characteristically, +given vent to their enmity, the one in contemptuous monosyllables, +and the other in a volley of insulting words. But Claudine had +another lover, more nearly of her own condition of life; this was +Claperon, the deputy-governor of the Rouen jail, with whom she +had made acquaintance during one or two compulsory visits paid +by her brother to that functionary. Claudine, who was a bit of a +coquette, though she did not altogether reject his suit, gave him +little encouragement, so that, betwixt hopes and fears and doubts +and jealousies, poor Claperon led a very uneasy kind of life. + +Affairs had been for some time in this position, when, one fine +morning, Alphonse de Bellefonds was not to be found in his chamber +when his servant went to call him; neither had his bed been slept +in. He had been observed to go out rather late on the previous +evening, but whether he had returned nobody could tell. He had not +appeared at supper, but that was too ordinary an event to awaken +suspicion; and little alarm was excited till several hours had +elapsed, when inquiries were instituted and a search commenced, +which terminated in the discovery of his body, a good deal mangled, +lying at the bottom of a pond which had belonged to the old brewery. + +Before any investigation had been made, every person had jumped +to the conclusion that the young man had been murdered, and that +Jacques Rollet was the assassin. There was a strong presumption +in favor of that opinion, which further perquisitions tended to +confirm. Only the day before, Jacques had been heard to threaten +Monsieur de Bellefonds with speedy vengeance. On the fatal evening, +Alphonse and Claudine had been seen together in the neighborhood +of the now dismantled brewery; and as Jacques, betwixt poverty and +democracy, was in bad odor with the respectable part of society, +it was not easy for him to bring witnesses to character or to prove +an unexceptionable _alibi_. As for the Bellefonds and De Chaulieus, +and the aristocracy in general, they entertained no doubt of his +guilt; and finally, the magistrates coming to the same opinion, +Jacques Rollet was committed for trial at the next assizes, and +as a testimony of good-will, Antoine de Chaulieu was selected by +the injured family to conduct the prosecution. + +Here, at last, was the opportunity he had sighed for. So interesting +a case, too, furnishing such ample occasion for passion, pathos, +indignation! And how eminently fortunate that the speech which +he set himself with ardor to prepare would be delivered in the +presence of the father and brother of his mistress, and perhaps +of the lady herself. The evidence against Jacques, it is true, +was altogether presumptive; there was no proof whatever that he +had committed the crime; and for his own part, he stoutly denied +it. But Antoine de Chaulieu entertained no doubt of his guilt, +and the speech he composed was certainly well calculated to carry +that conviction into the bosom of others. It was of the highest +importance to his own reputation that he should procure a verdict, +and he confidently assured the afflicted and enraged family of +the victim that their vengeance should be satisfied. + +Under these circumstances, could anything be more unwelcome than +a piece of intelligence that was privately conveyed to him late on +the evening before the trial was to come on, which tended strongly +to exculpate the prisoner, without indicating any other person +as the criminal. Here was an opportunity lost. The first step of +the ladder on which he was to rise to fame, fortune, and a wife +was slipping from under his feet. + +Of course so interesting a trial was anticipated with great eagerness +by the public; the court was crowded with all the beauty and fashion +of Rouen, and amongst the rest, doubly interesting in her mourning, +sat the fair Natalie, accompanied by her family. + +The young advocate's heart beat high; he felt himself inspired by +the occasion; and although Jacques Rollet persisted in asserting +his innocence, founding his defence chiefly on circumstances which +were strongly corroborated by the information that had reached De +Chaulieu the preceding evening, he was nevertheless convicted. + +In spite of the very strong doubts he privately entertained respecting +the justice of the verdict, even De Chaulieu himself, in the first +flush of success, amidst a crowd of congratulating friends and +the approving smiles of his mistress, felt gratified and happy; +his speech had, for the time being, not only convinced others but +himself; warmed with his own eloquence, he believed what he said. +But when the glow was over, and he found himself alone, he did not +feel so comfortable. A latent doubt of Rollet's guilt now pressed +strongly on his mind, and he felt that the blood of the innocent +would be on his head. It was true there was yet time to save the +life of the prisoner; but to admit Jacques innocent, was to take +the glory out of his own speech, and turn the sting of his argument +against himself. Besides, if he produced the witness who had secretly +given him the information, he should be self-condemned, for he could +not conceal that he had been aware of the circumstance before the +trial. + +Matters having gone so far, therefore, it was necessary that Jacques +Rollet should die; and so the affair took its course; and early +one morning the guillotine was erected in the court-yard of the +gaol, three criminals ascended the scaffold, and three heads fell +into the basket, which were presently afterward, with the trunks +that had been attached to them, buried in a corner of the cemetery. + +Antoine de Chaulieu was now fairly started in his career, and his +success was as rapid as the first step toward it had been tardy. He +took a pretty apartment in the Hotel Marboeuf, Rue Grange Bateliere, +and in a short time was looked upon as one of the most rising young +advocates in Paris. His success in one line brought him success +in another; he was soon a favorite in society, and an object of +interest to speculating mothers; but his affections still adhered +to his old love, Natalie de Bellefonds, whose family now gave their +assent to the match,--at least prospectively,--a circumstance which +furnished such additional incentive to his exertions, that in about +two years from his first brilliant speech he was in a sufficiently +flourishing condition to offer the young lady a suitable home. + +In anticipation of the happy event, he engaged and furnished a +suite of apartments in the Rue de Helder; and as it was necessary +that the bride should come to Paris to provide her trousseau, it +was agreed that the wedding should take place there, instead of at +Bellefonds, as had been first projected,--an arrangement the more +desirable, that a press of business rendered Monsieur de Chaulieu's +absence from Paris inconvenient. + +Brides and bridegrooms in France, except of the very high classes, +are not much in the habit of making those honeymoon excursions so +universal in this country. A day spent in visiting Versailles, or +St. Cloud, or even the public places of the city, is generally all +that precedes the settling down into the habits of daily life. In +the present instance, St. Denis was selected, from the circumstance +of Natalie's having a younger sister at school there, and also +because she had a particular desire to see the Abbey. + +The wedding was to take place on a Thursday; and on the Wednesday +evening, having spent some hours most agreeably with Natalie, Antoine +de Chaulieu returned to spend his last night in his bachelor apartments. +His wardrobe and other small possessions had already been packed +up, and sent to his future home; and there was nothing left in +his room now but his new wedding suit, which he inspected with +considerable satisfaction before he undressed and lay down to sleep. + +Sleep, however, was somewhat slow to visit him, and the clock had +struck one before he closed his eyes. When he opened them again, +it was broad daylight, and his first thought was, had he overslept +himself? He sat up in bed to look at the clock, which was exactly +opposite; and as he did so, in the large mirror over the fireplace, +he perceived a figure standing behind him. As the dilated eyes +met his own, he saw it was the face of Jacques Rollet. Overcome +with horror, he sank back on his pillow, and it was some minutes +before he ventured to look again in that direction; when he did +so, the figure had disappeared. + +The sudden revulsion of feeling which such a vision was calculated +to occasion in a man elate with joy may be conceived. For some +time after the death of his former foe, he had been visited by +not infrequent twinges of conscience; but of late, borne along by +success and the hurry of Parisian life, these unpleasant remembrances +had grown rarer, till at length they had faded away altogether. +Nothing had been further from his thoughts than Jacques Rollet +when he closed his eyes on the preceding night, or when he opened +them to that sun which was to shine on what he expected to be the +happiest day of his life. Where were the high-strung nerves now, +the elastic frame, the bounding heart? + +Heavily and slowly he arose from his bed, for it was time to do +so; and with a trembling hand and quivering knees he went through +the processes of the toilet, gashing his cheek with the razor, +and spilling the water over his well-polished boots. When he was +dressed, scarcely venturing to cast a glance in the mirror as he +passed it, he quitted the room and descended the stairs, taking +the key of the door with him, for the purpose of leaving it with +the porter; the man, however, being absent, he laid it on the table +in his lodge, and with a relaxed hand and languid step he proceeded +to the carriage which quickly conveyed him to the church, where +he was met by Natalie and her friends. + +How difficult it was now to look happy, with that pallid face and +extinguished eye! + +"How pale you are! Has anything happened? You are surely ill?" were +the exclamations that assailed him on all sides. + +He tried to carry the thing off as well as he could, but he felt +that the movements he would have wished to appear alert were only +convulsive, and that the smiles with which he attempted to relax +his features were but distorted grimaces. However, the church was +not the place for further inquiries; and whilst Natalie gently +pressed his hand in token of sympathy, they advanced to the altar, +and the ceremony was performed; after which they stepped into the +carriages waiting at the door, and drove to the apartments of Madame +de Bellefonds, where an elegant _dejeuner_ was prepared. + +"What ails you, my dear husband?" inquired Natalie, as soon as they +were alone. + +"Nothing, love," he replied; "nothing, I assure you, but a restless +night and a little overwork, in order that I might have to-day +free to enjoy my happiness." + +"Are you quite sure? Is there nothing else?" + +"Nothing, indeed, and pray don't take notice of it; it only makes +me worse." + +Natalie was not deceived, but she saw that what he said was +true,--notice made him worse; so she contented herself with observing +him quietly and saying nothing; but as he felt she was observing +him, she might almost better have spoken; words are often less +embarrassing things than too curious eyes. + +When they reached Madame de Bellefonds' he had the same sort of +scrutiny to undergo, till he grew quite impatient under it, and +betrayed a degree of temper altogether unusual with him. Then everybody +looked astonished; some whispered their remarks, and others expressed +them by their wondering eyes, till his brow knit, and his pallid +cheeks became flushed with anger. + +Neither could he divert attention by eating; his parched mouth +would not allow him to swallow anything but liquids, of which he +indulged in copious libations; and it was an exceeding relief to +him when the carriage which was to convey them to St. Denis, being +announced, furnished an excuse for hastily leaving the table. + +Looking at his watch, he declared it was late; and Natalie, who saw +how eager he was to be gone, threw her shawl over her shoulders, +and bidding her friends good morning they hurried away. + +It was a fine sunny day in June; and as they drove along the crowded +boulevards and through the Porte St. Denis, the young bride and +bridegroom, to avoid each other's eyes, affected to be gazing out +of the windows; but when they reached that part of the road where +there was nothing but trees on each side, they felt it necessary +to draw in their heads, and make an attempt at conversation. + +De Chaulieu put his arm round his wife's waist, and tried to rouse +himself from his depression; but it had by this time so reacted +upon her, that she could not respond to his efforts; and thus the +conversation languished, till both felt glad when they reached their +destination, which would, at all events, furnish them something +to talk about. + +Having quitted the carriage and ordered a dinner at the Hotel de +l'Abbaye, the young couple proceeded to visit Mademoiselle de +Bellefonds, who was overjoyed to see her sister and new brother-in-law, +and doubly so when she found that they had obtained permission to +take her out to spend the afternoon with them. + +As there is little to be seen at St. Denis but the Abbey, on quitting +that part of it devoted to education, they proceeded to visit the +church with its various objects of interest; and as De Chaulieu's +thoughts were now forced into another direction, his cheerfulness +began insensibly to return. Natalie looked so beautiful, too, and the +affection betwixt the two young sisters was so pleasant to behold! +And they spent a couple of hours wandering about with Hortense, who +was almost as well informed as the Suisse, till the brazen doors +were open which admitted them to the royal vault. + +Satisfied at length with what they had seen, they began to think +of returning to the inn, the more especially as De Chaulieu, who +had not eaten a morsel of food since the previous evening, confessed +to being hungry; so they directed their steps to the door, lingering +here and there as they went to inspect a monument or a painting, when +happening to turn his head aside to see if his wife, who had stopped +to take a last look at the tomb of King Dagobert, was following, +he beheld with horror the face of Jacques Rollet appearing from +behind a column. At the same instant his wife joined him and took +his arm, inquiring if he was not very much delighted with what +he had seen. He attempted to say yes, but the word died upon his +lips; and staggering out of the door, he alleged that a sudden +faintness had overcome him. + +They conducted him to the hotel, but Natalie now became seriously +alarmed; and well she might. His complexion looked ghastly, his +limbs shook, and his features bore an expression of indescribable +horror and anguish. What could be the meaning of so extraordinary +a change in the gay, witty, prosperous De Chaulieu, who, till that +morning, seemed not to have a care in the world? For, plead illness +as he might, she felt certain, from the expression of his features, +that his sufferings were not of the body, but of the mind; and +unable to imagine any reason for such extraordinary manifestations, +of which she had never before seen a symptom, but a sudden aversion +to herself, and regret for the step he had taken, her pride took the +alarm, and, concealing the distress she really felt, she began to +assume a haughty and reserved manner toward him, which he naturally +interpreted into an evidence of anger and contempt. + +The dinner was placed upon the table, but De Chaulieu's appetite, of +which he had lately boasted, was quite gone; nor was his wife better +able to eat. The young sister alone did justice to the repast; but +although the bridegroom could not eat, he could swallow champagne +in such copious draughts that erelong the terror and remorse which +the apparition of Jacques Rollet had awakened in his breast were +drowned in intoxication. + +Amazed and indignant, poor Natalie sat silently observing this elect +of her heart, till, overcome with disappointment and grief, she +quitted the room with her sister, and retired to another apartment, +where she gave free vent to her feelings in tears. + +After passing a couple of hours in confidences and lamentations, +they recollected that the hours of liberty, granted as an especial +favor to Mademoiselle Hortense, had expired; but ashamed to exhibit +her husband in his present condition to the eyes of strangers, +Natalie prepared to reconduct her to the Maison Royal herself. +Looking into the dining-room as they passed, they saw De Chaulieu +lying on a sofa, fast asleep, in which state he continued when +his wife returned. At length the driver of their carriage begged +to know if monsieur and madame were ready to return to Paris, and +it became necessary to arouse him. + +The transitory effects of the champagne had now subsided; but when +De Chaulieu recollected what had happened, nothing could exceed +his shame and mortification. So engrossing, indeed, were these +sensations, that they quite overpowered his previous ones, and, +in his present vexation, he for the moment forgot his fears. He +knelt at his wife's feet, begged her pardon a thousand times, swore +that he adored her, and declared that the illness and the effect of +the wine had been purely the consequences of fasting and overwork. + +It was not the easiest thing in the world to reassure a woman whose +pride, affection, and taste had been so severely wounded; but Natalie +tried to believe, or to appear to do so, and a sort of reconciliation +ensued, not quite sincere on the part of the wife, and very humbling +on the part of the husband. Under these circumstances it was impossible +that he should recover his spirits or facility of manner; his gayety +was forced, his tenderness constrained; his heart was heavy within +him; and ever and anon the source whence all this disappointment +and woe had sprung would recur to his perplexed and tortured mind. + +Thus mutually pained and distrustful, they returned to Paris, which +they reached about nine o'clock. In spite of her depression, Natalie, +who had not seen her new apartments, felt some curiosity about them, +whilst De Chaulieu anticipated a triumph in exhibiting the elegant +home he had prepared for her. With some alacrity, therefore, they +stepped out of the carriage, the gates of the hotel were thrown +open, the _concierge_ rang the bell which announced to the servants +that their master and mistress had arrived; and whilst these domestics +appeared above, holding lights over the balusters, Natalie, followed +by her husband, ascended the stairs. + +But when they reached the landing-place of the first flight, they +saw the figure of a man standing in a corner, as if to make way for +them. The flash from above fell upon his face, and again Antoine +de Chaulieu recognized the features of Jacques Rollet. + +From the circumstance of his wife preceding him, the figure was +not observed by De Chaulieu till he was lifting his foot to place +it on the top stair: the sudden shock caused him to miss the step, +and without uttering a sound, he fell back, and never stopped until +he reached the stones at the bottom. + +The screams of Natalie brought the _concierge_ from below and the +maids from above, and an attempt was made to raise the unfortunate +man from the ground; but with cries of anguish he besought them +to desist. + +"Let me," he said, "die here. O God! what a dreadful vengeance +is thine! Natalie, Natalie," he exclaimed to his wife, who was +kneeling beside him, "to win fame, and fortune, and yourself, I +committed a dreadful crime. With lying words I argued away the +life of a fellow-creature, whom, whilst I uttered them, I half +believed to be innocent; and now, when I have attained all I desired +and reached the summit of my hopes, the Almighty has sent him back +upon the earth to blast me with the sight. Three times this day--three +times this day! Again! Again! Again!" And as he spoke, his wild +and dilated eyes fixed themselves on one of the individuals that +surrounded him. + +"He is delirious," said they. + +"No," said the stranger, "what he says is true enough, at least in +part." And, bending over the expiring man, he added, "May Heaven +forgive you, Antoine de Chaulieu! I am no apparition, but the veritable +Jacques Rollet, who was saved by one who well knew my innocence. I +may name him, for he is beyond the reach of the law now: it was +Claperon, the jailer, who, in a fit of jealousy, had himself killed +Alphonse de Bellefonds." + +"But--but there were three," gasped Antoine. + +"Yes, a miserable idiot, who had been so long in confinement for +a murder that he was forgotten by the authorities, was substituted +for me. At length I obtained, through the assistance of my sister, +the position of _concierge_ in the Hotel Marboeuf, in the Rue Grange +Bateliere. I entered on my new place yesterday evening, and was +desired to awaken the gentleman on the third floor at seven o'clock. +When I entered the room to do so, you were asleep; but before I +had time to speak, you awoke, and I recognized your features in +the glass. Knowing that I could not vindicate my innocence if you +chose to seize me, I fled, and seeing an omnibus starting for St. +Denis, I got on it with a vague idea of getting on to Calais and +crossing the Channel to England. But having only a franc or two in +my pocket, or indeed in the world, I did not know how to procure +the means of going forward; and whilst I was lounging about the +place, forming first one plan and then another, I saw you in the +church, and, concluding that you were in pursuit of me, I thought +the best way of eluding your vigilance was to make my way back to +Paris as fast as I could; so I set off instantly, and walked all +the way; but having no money to pay my night's lodging, I came +here to borrow a couple of livres of my sister Claudine, who is +a _brodeuse_ and resides _au cinquieme_." + +"Thank Heaven!" exclaimed the dying man, "that sin is off my soul. +Natalie, dear wife, farewell! Forgive--forgive all." + +These were the last words he uttered; the priest, who had been +summoned in haste, held up the cross before his failing sight; a +few strong convulsions shook the poor bruised and mangled frame; +and then all was still. + + + + +THE BIRTHMARK. + +BY NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE. + + +In the latter part of the last century there lived a man of science, +an eminent proficient in every branch of natural philosophy, who +not long before our story opens had made experience of a spiritual +affinity more attractive than any chemical one. He had left his +laboratory to the care of an assistant, cleared his fine countenance +from the furnace-smoke, washed the stain of acids from his fingers, +and persuaded a beautiful woman to become his wife. In those days, +when the comparatively recent discovery of electricity and other +kindred mysteries of Nature seemed to open paths into the region +of miracle, it was not unusual for the love of science to rival +the love of woman in its depth and absorbing energy. The higher +intellect, the imagination, the spirit, and even the heart might +all find their congenial aliment in pursuits which, as some of their +ardent votaries believed, would ascend from one step of powerful +intelligence to another, until the philosopher should lay his hand +on the secret of creative force and perhaps make new worlds for +himself. We know not whether Aylmer possessed this degree of faith +in man's ultimate control over nature. He had devoted himself, +however, too unreservedly to scientific studies ever to be weaned +from them by any second passion. His love for his young wife might +prove the stronger of the two; but it could only be by intertwining +itself with his love of science and uniting the strength of the +latter to its own. + +Such a union accordingly took place, and was attended with truly +remarkable consequences and a deeply impressive moral. One day, +very soon after their marriage, Aylmer sat gazing at his wife with +a trouble in his countenance that grew stronger until he spoke. + +"Georgiana," said he, "has it never occurred to you that the mark +upon your cheek might be removed?" + +"No, indeed," said she, smiling; but, perceiving the seriousness +of his manner, she blushed deeply. "To tell you the truth, it has +been so often called a charm, that I was simple enough to imagine +it might be so." + +"Ah, upon another face perhaps it might," replied her husband; +"but never on yours. No, dearest Georgiana, you came so nearly +perfect from the hand of Nature that this slightest possible defect, +which we hesitate whether to term a defect or a beauty, shocks +me, as being the visible mark of earthly imperfection." + +"Shocks you, my husband!" cried Georgiana, deeply hurt; at first +reddening with momentary anger, but then bursting into tears. "Then +why did you take me from my mother's side? You cannot love what +shocks you!" + +To explain this conversation, it must be mentioned that in the +centre of Georgiana's left cheek there was a singular mark, deeply +interwoven, as it were, with the texture and substance of her face. +In the usual state of her complexion,--a healthy though delicate +bloom,--the mark wore a tint of deeper crimson, which imperfectly +defined its shape amid the surrounding rosiness. When she blushed +it gradually became more indistinct, and finally vanished amid +the triumphant rush of blood that bathed the whole cheek with its +brilliant glow. But if any shifting emotion caused her to turn +pale there was the mark again, a crimson stain upon the snow, in +what Aylmer sometimes deemed an almost fearful distinctness. Its +shape bore not a little similarity to the human hand, though of the +smallest pygmy size. Georgiana's lovers were wont to say that some +fairy at her birth hour had laid her tiny hand upon the infant's +cheek, and left this impress there in token of the magic endowments +that were to give her such sway over all hearts. Many a desperate +swain would have risked life for the privilege of pressing his lips +to the mysterious hand. It must not be concealed, however, that +the impression wrought by this fairy sign-manual varied exceedingly +according to the difference of temperament in the beholders. Some +fastidious persons--but they were exclusively of her own sex--affirmed +that the bloody hand, as they chose to call it, quite destroyed the +effect of Georgiana's beauty and rendered her countenance even +hideous. But it would be as reasonable to say that one of those +small blue stains which sometimes occur in the purest statuary +marble would convert the Eve of Powers to a monster. Masculine +observers, if the birthmark did not heighten their admiration, +contented themselves with wishing it away, that the world might +possess one living specimen of ideal loveliness without the semblance +of a flaw. After his marriage--for he thought little or nothing +of the matter before--Aylmer discovered that this was the case +with himself. + +Had she been less beautiful,--if Envy's self could have found aught +else to sneer at,--he might have felt his affection heightened +by the prettiness of this mimic hand, now vaguely portrayed, now +lost, now stealing forth again and glimmering to and fro with every +pulse of emotion that throbbed within her heart; but, seeing her +otherwise so perfect, he found this one defect grow more and more +intolerable with every moment of their united lives. It was the +fatal flaw of humanity which Nature, in one shape or another, stamps +ineffaceably on all her productions, either to imply that they are +temporary and finite, or that their perfection must be wrought by +toil and pain. The crimson hand expressed the ineludible gripe in +which mortality clutches the highest and purest of earthly mould, +degrading them into kindred with the lowest, and even with the +very brutes, like whom their visible frames return to dust. In +this manner, selecting it as the symbol of his wife's liability +to sin, sorrow, decay, and death, Aylmer's sombre imagination was +not long in rendering the birthmark a frightful object, causing +him more trouble and horror than ever Georgiana's beauty, whether +of soul or sense, had given him delight. + +At all the seasons which should have been their happiest he invariably, +and without intending it, nay, in spite of a purpose to the contrary, +reverted to this one disastrous topic. Trifling as it at first +appeared, it so connected itself with innumerable trains of thought +and modes of feeling that it became the central point of all. With +the morning twilight Aylmer opened his eyes upon his wife's face and +recognized the symbol of imperfection; and when they sat together +at the evening hearth his eyes wandered stealthily to her cheek, and +beheld, flickering with the blaze of the wood fire, the spectral +hand that wrote mortality where he would fain have worshipped. +Georgiana soon learned to shudder at his gaze. It needed but a +glance with the peculiar expression that his face often wore to +change the roses of her cheek into a deathlike paleness, amid which +the crimson hand was brought strongly out, like a bas-relief of +ruby on the whitest marble. + +Late one night, when the lights were growing dim so as hardly to +betray the stain on the poor wife's cheek, she herself, for the +first time, voluntarily took up the subject. + +"Do you remember, my dear Aylmer," said she, with a feeble attempt +at a smile, "have you any recollection, of a dream last night about +this odious hand?" + +"None! none whatever!" replied Aylmer, starting; but then he added, +in a dry, cold tone, affected for the sake of concealing the real +depth of his emotion, "I might well dream of it; for, before I +fell asleep, it had taken a pretty firm hold of my fancy." + +"And you did dream of it?" continued Georgiana, hastily; for she +dreaded lest a gush of tears should interrupt what she had to say. +"A terrible dream! I wonder that you can forget it. Is it possible +to forget this one expression?--'It is in her heart now; we must +have it out!' Reflect, my husband; for by all means I would have +you recall that dream." + +The mind is in a sad state when Sleep, the all-involving, cannot +confine her spectres within the dim region of her sway, but suffers +them to break forth affrighting this actual life with secrets that +perchance belong to a deeper one. Aylmer now remembered his dream. +He had fancied himself with his servant Aminadab attempting an +operation for the removal of the birthmark; but the deeper went +the knife, the deeper sank the hand, until at length its tiny grasp +appeared to have caught hold of Georgiana's heart; whence, however, +her husband was inexorably resolved to cut or wrench it away. + +When the dream had shaped itself perfectly in his memory, Aylmer +sat in his wife's presence with a guilty feeling. Truth often finds +its way to the mind close muffled in robes of sleep, and then speaks +with uncompromising directness of matters in regard to which we +practise an unconscious self-deception during our waking moments. +Until now he had not been aware of the tyrannizing influence acquired +by one idea over his mind, and of the lengths which he might find +in his heart to go for the sake of giving himself peace. + +"Aylmer," resumed Georgiana, solemnly, "I know not what may be +the cost to both of us to rid me of this fatal birthmark. Perhaps +its removal may cause cureless deformity; or it may be the stain +goes as deep as life itself. Again: do we know that there is a +possibility, on any terms, of unclasping the firm gripe of this +little hand which was laid upon me before I came into the world?" + +"Dearest Georgiana, I have spent much thought upon the subject," +hastily interrupted Aylmer. "I am convinced of the perfect +practicability of its removal." + +"If there be the remotest possibility of it," continued Georgiana, +"let the attempt be made, at whatever risk. Danger is nothing to +me; for life, while this hateful mark makes me the object of your +horror and disgust,--life is a burden which I would fling down +with joy. Either remove this dreadful hand, or take my wretched +life! You have deep science. All the world bears witness of it. +You have achieved great wonders. Cannot you remove this little, +little mark, which I cover with the tips of two small fingers? +Is this beyond your power, for the sake of your own peace, and to +save your poor wife from madness?" + +"Noblest, dearest, tenderest wife," cried Aylmer, rapturously, +"doubt not my power. I have already given this matter the deepest +thought,--thought which might almost have enlightened me to create +a being less perfect than yourself. Georgiana, you have led me +deeper than ever into the heart of science. I feel myself fully +competent to render this dear cheek as faultless as its fellow; +and then, most beloved, what will be my triumph when I shall have +corrected what Nature left imperfect in her fairest work! Even +Pygmalion, when his sculptured woman assumed life, felt not greater +ecstasy than mine will be." + +"It is resolved, then," said Georgiana, faintly smiling. "And, +Aylmer, spare me not, though you should find the birthmark take +refuge in my heart at last." + +Her husband tenderly kissed her cheek,--her right cheek,--not that +which bore the impress of the crimson hand. + +The next day Aylmer apprised his wife of a plan that he had formed +whereby he might have opportunity for the intense thought and constant +watchfulness which the proposed operation would require; while +Georgiana, likewise, would enjoy the perfect repose essential to its +success. They were to seclude themselves in the extensive apartments +occupied by Aylmer as a laboratory, and where, during his toilsome +youth, he had made discoveries in the elemental powers of Nature +that had roused the admiration of all the learned societies in +Europe. Seated calmly in this laboratory, the pale philosopher +had investigated the secrets of the highest cloud region and of +the profoundest mines; he had satisfied himself of the causes that +kindled and kept alive the fires of the volcano; and had explained +the mystery of fountains, and how it is that they gush forth, some +so bright and pure, and others with such rich medicinal virtues, +from the dark bosom of the earth. Here, too, at an earlier period, +he had studied the wonders of the human frame, and attempted to +fathom the very process by which Nature assimilates all her precious +influences from earth and air, and from the spiritual world, to +create and foster man, her masterpiece. The latter pursuit, however, +Aylmer had long laid aside in unwilling recognition of the +truth--against which all seekers sooner or later stumble--that +our great creative Mother, while she amuses us with apparently +working in the broadest sunshine, is yet severely careful to keep +her own secrets, and, in spite of her pretended openness, shows us +nothing but results. She permits us, indeed, to mar, but seldom +to mend, and, like a jealous patentee, on no account to make. Now, +however, Aylmer resumed these half-forgotten investigations; not, +of course, with such hopes or wishes as first suggested them; but +because they involved much physiological truth and lay in the path +of his proposed scheme for the treatment of Georgiana. + +As he led her over the threshold of the laboratory, Georgiana was +cold and tremulous. Aylmer looked cheerfully into her face, with +intent to reassure her, but was so startled with the intense glow +of the birthmark upon the whiteness of her cheek that he could +not restrain a strong convulsive shudder. His wife fainted. + +"Aminadab! Aminadab!" shouted Aylmer, stamping violently on the +floor. + +Forthwith there issued from an inner apartment a man of low stature, +but bulky frame, with shaggy hair hanging about his visage, which +was grimed with the vapors of the furnace. This personage had been +Aylmer's under-worker during his whole scientific career, and was +admirably fitted for that office by his great mechanical readiness, +and the skill with which, while incapable of comprehending a single +principle, he executed all the details of his master's experiments. +With his vast strength, his shaggy hair, his smoky aspect, and the +indescribable earthiness that incrusted him, he seemed to represent +man's physical nature; while Aylmer's slender figure and pale, +intellectual face were no less apt a type of the spiritual element. + +"Throw open the door of the boudoir, Aminadab," said Aylmer, "and +burn a pastil." + +"Yes, master," answered Aminadab, looking intently at the lifeless +form of Georgiana; and then he muttered to himself, "If she were +my wife, I'd never part with that birthmark." + +When Georgiana recovered consciousness she found herself breathing +an atmosphere of penetrating fragrance, the gentle potency of which +had recalled her from her deathlike faintness. The scene around +her looked like enchantment. Aylmer had converted those smoky, +dingy, sombre rooms, where he had spent his brightest years in +recondite pursuits, into a series of beautiful apartments not unfit +to be the secluded abode of a lovely woman. The walls were hung +with gorgeous curtains, which imparted the combination of grandeur +and grace that no other species of adornment can achieve; and, as +they fell from the ceiling to the floor, their rich and ponderous +folds, concealing all angles and straight lines, appeared to shut +in the scene from infinite space. For aught Georgiana knew, it +might be a pavilion among the clouds. And Aylmer, excluding the +sunshine, which would have interfered with his chemical processes, +had supplied its place with perfumed lamps, emitting flames of +various hue, but all uniting in a soft, impurpled radiance. He +now knelt by his wife's side, watching her earnestly, but without +alarm; for he was confident in his science, and felt that he could +draw a magic circle round her within which no evil might intrude. + +"Where am I? Ah, I remember," said Georgiana, faintly; and she +placed her hand over her cheek to hide the terrible mark from her +husband's eyes. + +"Fear not, dearest!" exclaimed he. "Do not shrink from me! Believe +me, Georgiana, I even rejoice in this single imperfection, since +it will be such a rapture to remove it." + +"O, spare me!" sadly replied his wife. "Pray do not look at it again. +I never can forget that convulsive shudder." + +In order to soothe Georgiana, and, as it were, to release her mind +from the burden of actual things, Aylmer now put in practice some +of the light and playful secrets which science had taught him among +its profounder lore. Airy figures, absolutely bodiless ideas, and +forms of unsubstantial beauty came and danced before her, imprinting +their momentary footsteps on beams of light. Though she had some +indistinct idea of the method of these optical phenomena, still the +illusion was almost perfect enough to warrant the belief that her +husband possessed sway over the spiritual world. Then again, when +she felt a wish to look forth from her seclusion, immediately, as +if her thoughts were answered, the procession of external existence +flitted across a screen. The scenery and the figures of actual +life were perfectly represented, but with that bewitching yet +indescribable difference which always makes a picture, an image, +or a shadow so much more attractive than the original. When wearied +of this, Aylmer bade her cast her eyes upon a vessel containing a +quantity of earth. She did so, with little interest at first; but +was soon startled to perceive the germ of a plant shooting upward +from the soil. Then came the slender stalk; the leaves gradually +unfolded themselves; and amid them was a perfect and lovely flower. + +"It is magical!" cried Georgiana. "I dare not touch it." + +"Nay, pluck it," answered Aylmer,--"pluck it, and inhale its brief +perfume while you may. The flower will wither in a few moments +and leave nothing save its brown seed-vessels; but thence may be +perpetuated a race as ephemeral as itself." + +But Georgiana had no sooner touched the flower than the whole plant +suffered a blight, its leaves turning coal-black as if by the agency +of fire. + +"There was too powerful a stimulus," said Aylmer, thoughtfully. + +To make up for this abortive experiment, he proposed to take her +portrait by a scientific process of his own invention. It was to be +effected by rays of light striking upon a polished plate of metal. +Georgiana assented; but, on looking at the result, was affrighted to +find the features of the portrait blurred and indefinable; while +the minute figure of a hand appeared where the cheek should have +been. Aylmer snatched the metallic plate and threw it into a jar +of corrosive acid. + +Soon, however, he forgot these mortifying failures. In the intervals +of study and chemical experiment he came to her flushed and exhausted, +but seemed invigorated by her presence, and spoke in glowing language +of the resources of his art. He gave a history of the long dynasty +of the alchemists, who spent so many ages in quest of the universal +solvent by which the golden principle might be elicited from all +things vile and base. Aylmer appeared to believe that, by the plainest +scientific logic, it was altogether within the limits of possibility +to discover this long-sought medium. "But," he added, "a philosopher +who should go deep enough to acquire the power would attain too lofty +a wisdom to stoop to the exercise of it." Not less singular were +his opinions in regard to the elixir vitae. He more than intimated +that it was at his option to concoct a liquid that should prolong +life for years, perhaps interminably; but that it would produce +a discord in Nature which all the world, and chiefly the quaffer +of the immortal nostrum, would find cause to curse. + +"Aylmer, are you in earnest?" asked Georgiana, looking at him with +amazement and fear. "It is terrible to possess such power, or even +to dream of possessing it." + +"O, do not tremble, my love!" said her husband. "I would not wrong +either you or myself by working such inharmonious effects upon our +lives; but I would have you consider how trifling, in comparison, +is the skill requisite to remove this little hand." + +At the mention of the birthmark, Georgiana, as usual, shrank as +if a red-hot iron had touched her cheek. + +Again Aylmer applied himself to his labors. She could hear his +voice in the distant furnace-room giving directions to Aminadab, +whose harsh, uncouth, misshapen tones were audible in response, +more like the grunt or growl of a brute than human speech. After +hours of absence, Aylmer reappeared and proposed that she should +now examine his cabinet of chemical products and natural treasures +of the earth. Among the former he showed her a small vial, in which, +he remarked, was contained a gentle yet most powerful fragrance, +capable of impregnating all the breezes that blow across a kingdom. +They were of inestimable value, the contents of that little vial; +and, as he said so, he threw some of the perfume into the air and +filled the room with piercing and invigorating delight. + +"And what is this?" asked Georgiana, pointing to a small crystal +globe containing a gold-colored liquid. "It is so beautiful to +the eye that I could imagine it the elixir of life." + +"In one sense it is," replied Aylmer; "or rather, the elixir of +immortality. It is the most precious poison that ever was concocted +in this world. By its aid I could apportion the lifetime of any +mortal at whom you might point your finger. The strength of the +dose would determine whether he were to linger out years, or drop +dead in the midst of a breath. No king on his guarded throne could +keep his life if I, in my private station, should deem that the +welfare of millions justified me in depriving him of it." + +"Why do you keep such a terrific drug?" inquired Georgiana in horror. + +"Do not mistrust me, dearest," said her husband, smiling; "its +virtuous potency is yet greater than its harmful one. But see! +here is a powerful cosmetic. With a few drops of this in a vase +of water, freckles may be washed away as easily as the hands are +cleansed. A stronger infusion would take the blood out of the cheek, +and leave the rosiest beauty a pale ghost." + +"Is it with this lotion that you intend to bathe my cheek?" asked +Georgiana, anxiously. + +"O, no," hastily replied her husband; "this is merely superficial. +Your case demands a remedy that shall go deeper." + +In his interviews with Georgiana, Aylmer generally made minute +inquiries as to her sensations, and whether the confinement of +the rooms and the temperature of the atmosphere agreed with her. +These questions had such a particular drift that Georgiana began +to conjecture that she was already subjected to certain physical +influences, either breathed in with the fragrant air or taken with +her food. She fancied likewise, but it might be altogether fancy, +that there was a stirring up of her system,--a strange, indefinite +sensation creeping through her veins, and tingling, half painfully, +half pleasurably, at her heart. Still, whenever she dared to look +into the mirror, there she beheld herself pale as a white rose +and with the crimson birthmark stamped upon her cheek. Not even +Aylmer now hated it so much as she. + +To dispel the tedium of the hours which her husband found it necessary +to devote to the processes of combination and analysis, Georgiana +turned over the volumes of his scientific library. In many dark +old tomes she met with chapters full of romance and poetry. They +were the works of the philosophers of the Middle Ages, such as +Albertus Magnus, Cornelius Agrippa, Paracelsus, and the famous +friar who created the prophetic Brazen Head. All these antique +naturalists stood in advance of their centuries, yet were imbued +with some of their credulity, and therefore were believed, and +perhaps imagined themselves to have acquired from the investigation +of nature a power above nature, and from physics a sway over the +spiritual world. Hardly less curious and imaginative were the early +volumes of the Transactions of the Royal Society, in which the +members, knowing little of the limits of natural possibility, were +continually recording wonders or proposing methods whereby wonders +might be wrought. + +But, to Georgiana, the most engrossing volume was a large folio from +her husband's own hand, in which he had recorded every experiment +of his scientific career, its original aim, the methods adopted +for its development, and its final success or failure, with the +circumstances to which either event was attributable. The book, in +truth, was both the history and emblem of his ardent, ambitious, +imaginative, yet practical and laborious life. He handled physical +details as if there were nothing beyond them; yet spiritualized +them all, and redeemed himself from materialism by his strong and +eager aspiration toward the infinite. In his grasp the veriest +clod of earth assumed a soul. Georgiana, as she read, reverenced +Aylmer and loved him more profoundly than ever, but with a less +entire dependence on his judgment than heretofore. Much as he had +accomplished, she could not but observe that his most splendid +successes were almost invariably failures, if compared with the +ideal at which he aimed. His brightest diamonds were the merest +pebbles, and felt to be so by himself, in comparison with the +inestimable gems which lay hidden beyond his reach. The volume, +rich with achievements that had won renown for its author, was yet +as melancholy a record as ever mortal hand had penned. It was the +sad confession and continual exemplification of the shortcomings +of the composite man, the spirit burdened with clay and working +in matter, and of the despair that assails the higher nature at +finding itself so miserably thwarted by the earthly part. Perhaps +every man of genius, in whatever sphere, might recognize the image +of his own experience in Aylmer's journal. + +So deeply did these reflections affect Georgiana, that she laid her +face upon the open volume and burst into tears. In this situation +she was found by her husband. + +"It is dangerous to read in a sorcerer's books," said he with a +smile, though his countenance was uneasy and displeased. "Georgiana, +there are pages in that volume which I can scarcely glance over and +keep my senses. Take heed lest it prove as detrimental to you." + +"It has made me worship you more than ever," said she. + +"Ah, wait for this one success," rejoined he, "then worship me if +you will. I shall deem myself hardly unworthy of it. But come, I +have sought you for the luxury of your voice. Sing to me, dearest." + +So she poured out the liquid music of her voice to quench the thirst +of his spirit. He then took his leave with a boyish exuberance of +gayety, assuring her that her seclusion would endure but a little +longer, and that the result was already certain. Scarcely had he +departed when Georgiana felt irresistibly impelled to follow him. She +had forgotten to inform Aylmer of a symptom which for two or three +hours past had begun to excite her attention. It was a sensation in +the fatal birthmark, not painful, but which induced a restlessness +throughout her system. Hastening after her husband, she intruded +for the first time into the laboratory. + +The first thing that struck her eye was the furnace, that hot and +feverish worker, with the intense glow of its fire, which by the +quantities of soot clustered above it seemed to have been burning +for ages. There was a distilling apparatus in full operation. Around +the room were retorts, tubes, cylinders, crucibles, and other apparatus +of chemical research. An electrical machine stood ready for immediate +use. The atmosphere felt oppressively close, and was tainted with +gaseous odors which had been tormented forth by the processes of +science. The severe and homely simplicity of the apartment, with +its naked walls and brick pavement, looked strange, accustomed as +Georgiana had become to the fantastic elegance of her boudoir. +But what chiefly, indeed almost solely, drew her attention, was +the aspect of Aylmer himself. + +He was pale as death, anxious and absorbed, and hung over the furnace +as if it depended upon his utmost watchfulness whether the liquid +which it was distilling should be the draught of immortal happiness +or misery. How different from the sanguine and joyous mien that +he had assumed for Georgiana's encouragement! + +"Carefully now, Aminadab; carefully, thou human machine; carefully, +thou man of clay," muttered Aylmer, more to himself than his assistant. +"Now, if there be a thought too much or too little, it is all over." + +"Ho! ho!" mumbled Aminadab. "Look, master! look!" + +Aylmer raised his eyes hastily, and at first reddened, then grew +paler than ever, on beholding Georgiana. He rushed towards her +and seized her arm with a gripe that left the print of his fingers +upon it. + +"Why do you come hither? Have you no trust in your husband?" cried +he, impetuously. "Would you throw the blight of that fatal birthmark +over my labors? It is not well done. Go, prying woman! go!" + +"Nay, Aylmer," said Georgiana with the firmness of which she possessed +no stinted endowment, "it is not you that have a right to complain. +You mistrust your wife; you have concealed the anxiety with which +you watch the development of this experiment. Think not so unworthily +of me, my husband. Tell me all the risk we run, and fear not that +I shall shrink; for my share in it is far less than your own." + +"No, no, Georgiana!" said Aylmer, impatiently; "it must not be." + +"I submit," replied she, calmly. "And, Aylmer, I shall quaff whatever +draught you bring me; but it will be on the same principle that +would induce me to take a dose of poison if offered by your hand." + +"My noble wife," said Aylmer, deeply moved, "I knew not the height +and depth of your nature until now. Nothing shall be concealed. +Know, then, that this crimson hand, superficial as it seems, has +clutched its grasp into your being with a strength of which I had +no previous conception. I have already administered agents powerful +enough to do aught except to change your entire physical system. +Only one thing remains to be tried. If that fail us we are ruined." + +"Why did you hesitate to tell me this?" asked she. + +"Because, Georgiana," said Aylmer, in a low voice, "there is danger." + +"Danger? There is but one danger,--that this horrible stigma shall +be left upon my cheek!" cried Georgiana. "Remove it, remove it, +whatever be the cost, or we shall both go mad!" + +"Heaven knows your words are too true," said Aylmer, sadly. "And +now, dearest, return to your boudoir. In a little while all will +be tested." + +He conducted her back and took leave of her with a solemn tenderness +which spoke far more than his words how much was now at stake. After +his departure Georgiana became rapt in musings. She considered the +character of Aylmer, and did it completer justice than at any previous +moment. Her heart exulted, while it trembled, at his honorable +love,--so pure and lofty that it would accept nothing less than +perfection nor miserably make itself contented with an earthlier +nature than he had dreamed of. She felt how much more precious was +such a sentiment than that meaner kind which would have borne with +the imperfection for her sake, and have been guilty of treason to +holy love by degrading its perfect idea to the level of the actual; +and with her whole spirit she prayed that, for a single moment, she +might satisfy his highest and deepest conception. Longer than one +moment she well knew it could not be; for his spirit was ever on +the march, ever ascending, and each instant required something +that was beyond the scope of the instant before. + +The sound of her husband's footsteps aroused her. He bore a crystal +goblet containing a liquor colorless as water, but bright enough +to be the draught of immortality. Aylmer was pale; but it seemed +rather the consequence of a highly wrought state of mind and tension +of spirit than of fear or doubt. + +"The concoction of the draught has been perfect," said he, in answer +to Georgiana's look. "Unless all my science have deceived me, it +cannot fail." + +"Save on your account, my dearest Aylmer," observed his wife, "I +might wish to put off this birthmark of mortality by relinquishing +mortality itself in preference to any other mode. Life is but a +sad possession to those who have attained precisely the degree of +moral advancement at which I stand. Were I weaker and blinder, it +might be happiness. Were I stronger, it might be endured hopefully. +But, being what I find myself, methinks I am of all mortals the +most fit to die." + +"You are fit for heaven without tasting death!" replied her husband. +"But why do we speak of dying? The draught cannot fail. Behold +its effect upon this plant." + +On the window-seat there stood a geranium diseased with yellow +blotches which had overspread all its leaves. Aylmer poured a small +quantity of the liquid upon the soil in which it grew. In a little +time, when the roots of the plant had taken up the moisture, the +unsightly blotches began to be extinguished in a living verdure. + +"There needed no proof," said Georgiana, quietly. "Give me the +goblet. I joyfully stake all upon your word." + +"Drink, then, thou lofty creature!" exclaimed Aylmer, with fervid +admiration. "There is no taint of imperfection on thy spirit. Thy +sensible frame, too, shall soon be all perfect." + +She quaffed the liquid and returned the goblet to his hand. + +"It is grateful," said she, with a placid smile. "Methinks it is +like water from a heavenly fountain; for it contains I know not what +of unobtrusive fragrance and deliciousness. It allays a feverish +thirst that had parched me for many days. Now, dearest, let me +sleep. My earthly senses are closing over my spirit like the leaves +around the heart of a rose at sunset." + +She spoke the last words with a gentle reluctance, as if it required +almost more energy than she could command to pronounce the faint and +lingering syllables. Scarcely had they loitered through her lips +ere she was lost in slumber. Aylmer sat by her side, watching her +aspect with the emotions proper to a man the whole value of whose +existence was involved in the process now to be tested. Mingled with +this mood, however, was the philosophic investigation characteristic +of the man of science. Not the minutest symptom escaped him. A +heightened flush of the cheek, a slight irregularity of breath, +a quiver of the eyelid, a hardly perceptible tremor through the +frame,--such were the details which, as the moments passed, he +wrote down in his folio volume. Intense thought had set its stamp +upon every previous page of that volume; but the thoughts of years +were all concentrated upon the last. + +While thus employed, he failed not to gaze often at the fatal hand, +and not without a shudder. Yet once, by a strange and unaccountable +impulse, he pressed it with his lips. His spirit recoiled, however, +in the very act; and Georgiana, out of the midst of her deep sleep, +moved uneasily and murmured as if in remonstrance. Again Aylmer +resumed his watch. Nor was it without avail. The crimson hand, +which at first had been strongly visible upon the marble paleness +of Georgiana's cheek, now grew more faintly outlined. She remained +not less pale than ever; but the birthmark, with every breath that +came and went, lost somewhat of its former distinctness. Its presence +had been awful; its departure was more awful still. Watch the stain +of the rainbow fading out of the sky, and you will know how that +mysterious symbol passed away. + +"By Heaven! it is well-nigh gone!" said Aylmer to himself, in almost +irrepressible ecstasy. "I can scarcely trace it now. Success! success! +And now it is like the faintest rose color. The lightest flush of +blood across her cheek would overcome it. But she is so pale!" + +He drew aside the window curtain and suffered the light of natural +day to fall into the room and rest upon her cheek. At the same +time he heard a gross, hoarse chuckle, which he had long known as +his servant Aminadab's expression of delight. + +"Ah, clod! ah, earthly mass!" cried Aylmer, laughing in a sort +of frenzy, "you have served me well! Matter and spirit--earth and +heaven--have both done their part in this! Laugh, thing of the +senses! You have earned the right to laugh." + +These exclamations broke Georgiana's sleep. She slowly unclosed +her eyes and gazed into the mirror which her husband had arranged +for that purpose. A faint smile flitted over her lips when she +recognized how barely perceptible was now that crimson hand which +had once blazed forth with such disastrous brilliancy as to scare +away all their happiness. But then her eyes sought Aylmer's face +with a trouble and anxiety that he could by no means account for. + +"My poor Aylmer!" murmured she. + +"Poor? Nay, richest, happiest, most favored!" exclaimed he. "My +peerless bride, it is successful! You are perfect!" + +"My poor Aylmer," she repeated, with a more than human tenderness, +"you have aimed loftily; you have done nobly. Do not repent that, +with so high and pure a feeling, you have rejected the best the +earth could offer. Aylmer, dearest Aylmer, I am dying!" + +Alas! it was too true! The fatal hand had grappled with the mystery +of life, and was the bond by which an angelic spirit kept itself +in union with a mortal frame. As the last crimson tint of the +birthmark--that sole token of human imperfection--faded from her +cheek, the parting breath of the now perfect woman passed into +the atmosphere, and her soul, lingering a moment near her husband, +took its heavenward flight. Then a hoarse, chuckling laugh was +heard again! Thus ever does the gross fatality of earth exult in +its invariable triumph over the immortal essence which, in this dim +sphere of half development, demands the completeness of a higher +state. Yet, had Aylmer reached a profounder wisdom, he need not thus +have flung away the happiness which would have woven his mortal +life of the self-same texture with the celestial. The momentary +circumstance was too strong for him; he failed to look beyond the +shadowy scope of time, and, living once for all in eternity, to +find the perfect future in the present. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LITTLE CLASSICS, VOLUME 8 (OF 18)*** + + +******* This file should be named 16405.txt or 16405.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/6/4/0/16405 + + + +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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