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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Paul Patoff, by F. Marion Crawford
+
+
+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: Paul Patoff
+
+
+Author: F. Marion Crawford
+
+
+
+Release Date: October 3, 2007  [eBook #22879]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PAUL PATOFF***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Bruce Albrecht, Chuck Greif, and the Project Gutenberg
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net)
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original illustration.
+      See 22879-h.htm or 22879-h.zip:
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/2/8/7/22879/22879-h/22879-h.htm)
+      or
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/2/8/7/22879/22879-h.zip)
+
+
+
+
+
+PAUL PATOFF
+
+by
+
+F. MARION CRAWFORD
+
+Author of "A Roman Singer," "To Leeward," "An American
+Politician," "Saracinesca," Etc.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+New York
+The MacMillan Company
+London: MacMillan & Co., Ltd.
+1911
+
+All rights reserved
+
+Copyright, 1887,
+by F. Marion Crawford.
+
+Copyright, 1892,
+by F. Marion Crawford.
+
+First published elsewhere. Reprinted with corrections, April,
+1893; June, 1894; June, 1899; July, 1906; January, 1912.
+
+Norwood Press
+J. S. Cushing & Co.--Berwick & Smith
+Norwood Mass. U.S.A.
+
+
+
+
+PAUL PATOFF.
+
+
+My dear lady--my dear friend--you have asked me to tell you a story, and
+I am going to try, because there is not anything I would not try if you
+asked it of me. I do not yet know what it will be about, but it is
+impossible that I should disappoint you; and if the proverb says, "Needs
+must when the devil drives," I can mend the proverb into a show of
+grace, and say, The most barren earth must needs bear flowers when an
+angel sows the seed.
+
+When you asked for the story I could only find a dry tale of my own
+doings, which I detailed to you somewhat at length, as we cantered down
+into the Valley of the Sweet Waters. The south wind was warm this
+afternoon, though it brought rain with it and wetted us a little as we
+rode; it was soft and dreamy, and made everything look sleepy, and
+misty, and a little uncertain in outline. Baghdad sniffed it in his deep
+red nostrils, for it was the wind of his home; but Haroun al Raschid
+shook the raindrops restlessly from his gray mane, as though he hated to
+be damp, and was thinking longingly of the hot sand and the desert sun.
+But he had no right to complain, for water must needs come in the
+oases,--and truly I know of no fairer and sweeter resting-place in
+life's journey than the Valley of the Sweet Waters above the Golden
+Horn.
+
+That same south wind--when I think, it is a point or two easterly, and
+it seems to smell of Persia--well, that same soft wind is blowing at my
+windows now in the dark night, and is murmuring, sometimes almost
+complaining, then dying away in a fitful, tearful sigh, sorry even to
+weeping for its restless fate, sorry perhaps for me and sighing for me.
+God knows, there is enough to sigh for in this working-day world, is
+there not? I have heard you sigh, too, very sadly, as though something
+hurt you, although you are so bright and young and fair. The wind sighs
+hopelessly, in great sobs of weariness and despair, for he is filled
+with the ghosts of the past; but your breath has a music in it that is
+more like the song of the sunrise that used to break out from the heart
+of the beautiful marble at dawn.
+
+Poor wind! He is trying to speak to me through the pines,--perhaps he is
+bringing a message. It is long since any one brought me a message I
+cared to hear. I will open the door to the terrace and let him in, and
+see what he has to say.
+
+Truly, he speaks great words:--
+
+"I am the belt and the girdle of this world. I carry in my arms the
+souls of the dead and the sins of them; the souls of them that have not
+yet lived, with their deeds, are in my bosom. I am sorrowful with the
+sorrow of ages, and strong with the strength of ages yet unlived. What
+is thy sorrow to my sorrow, or thy strength to my strength? Listen.
+
+"Knowest thou whence I come, or whither I go? Fool, thou knowest not
+even of thyself what thou shalt do to-morrow, and it may be that on the
+next day I shall have thy soul, to take it away, and hold it, and buffet
+it, and tear it as I will. Fool, thou knowest little! The gardens of
+Persia are sweet this night; this night the maidens of Hindustan have
+gone forth to greet the new moon, and I am full of their soft prayers
+and gentle thoughts, for I am come from them. But the north, whither I
+go, is cold and cruel, full of snow and darkness and gloom. Along the
+lands where I will pass I shall see men and women dying in the frost,
+and little children, too, poor and hungry, and shivering out the last
+breathings of a wretched life; and some of them I will take with me
+this night, to my journey's end among the ice-floes and the brown,
+driving mists of the uttermost north. Dost thou wonder that I am sad?
+
+"That is thy life. Thou art come from the sweet-scented gardens of thy
+youth, thou must go to the ice desert of thine old age; and now thou art
+full of strength and boastfulness, and thinkest thou shalt perchance be
+the first mortal who shall cheat death. Go to! Thou shalt die like the
+rest, the more miserably that thou lovest life more than the others."
+
+The wind is in an ill humor to-night; I should not have thought he could
+say such hard things. But he is a hopeless old cynic, even when he blows
+warm from the south; he has seen so much and done so much, and has
+furnished so many metaphors to threadbare poets, that he believes in
+nothing good, or young, or in any way fresh. He is bad company, and I
+have shut the window again. You asked me for a story, and you are
+beginning to wonder why I do not tell you one. Do you like long stories
+or short stories? Sad or gay? True or fanciful? What shall it be? My
+true stories are all sad, but the ones I imagine are often merry. Could
+I not think of one true, and gay as well? There was once a bad old man
+who said that when the truth ceased to be solemn it became dull. Between
+solemnity and dullness you would not find what you want, which, I take
+it, is a little laughter, a little sadness, and, when it is done, the
+comfortable assurance of your own senses that you have been amused, and
+not bored. The bad old gentleman was right. When our lives are not
+filled with great emotions they are crammed with insignificant details,
+and one may tell them ever so well, they will be insignificant to the
+end. But the fancy is a great store-house, filled with all the beautiful
+things that we do not find in our lives. My dear friend, if true love
+were an every-day phenomenon, experienced by everybody, it would cease
+to be in any way interesting; people would be so familiar with it that
+it would bore them to extinction; they would have it for breakfast,
+dinner, and supper as a matter of course, and would be as fastidious of
+its niceties as an Anglo-Indian about the quality of the pepper. It is
+because only one man or woman in a hundred thousand is personally
+acquainted with the sufferings of true-love fever that the other
+ninety-nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine take delight in
+observing the contortions and convulsions of the patient. It is a great
+satisfaction to them to compare the slight touch of ague they once had
+when they were young with the raging sickness of a breaking heart; to
+see a resemblance between the tiny scratch upon themselves, which they
+delight in irritating, and the ghastly wound by which the tortured soul
+has sped from its prison.
+
+To tell the truth, they are not so very much to blame. Even the
+momentary reflection of love is a good thing; at least, it is better
+than to know nothing of it. One can fancy that a violin upon which no
+one had ever played would yet be glad to vibrate faintly in unison with
+the music of a more favored neighbor; it would bring a sensation of the
+possibility of music. The stronger harmony is caught up and carried on
+forever in endless sound waves, but the slight responsive murmur of the
+passive strings is lost and forgotten.
+
+And now you will tell me that I am making phrases. That is my
+profession: I am a twister of words; I torture language by trade. You
+know it, for you have known me a long time, and, if you will pardon my
+vanity, or rudeness, I observe that my mode of putting the dictionary on
+the rack amuses you. The fact that you ask for a story shows that well
+enough. I am a plain man, and there never was any poetry in me, but I
+have seen it in other people, and I understand why some persons like it.
+As for stories, I have plenty of them. I, Paul Griggs, have seen a
+variety of sights, and I have a good memory. There is the south-east
+wind again. I was speaking of love, a moment ago,--there is a story of
+the wind falling in love. There is a garden of roses far away to the
+east, where a maiden lies asleep; the roses have no thorns in that
+garden, and they grow softly about her and make a pillow for her fair
+head. A blustering wind came once and nearly waked her, but she was so
+beautiful that he fell deep in love; and he turned into the softest
+breeze that ever fanned a woman's cheek in summer, for fear lest he
+should trouble her sleep. There was a poor woman in rags, in the streets
+of London, on that March night, but she could not soften the heart of
+the cruel blast for all her shivering and praying; for she was very poor
+and wretched, and never was beautiful, even when she was young.
+
+That is a short tale, and it has no moral application, for it is too
+common a truth. If people would only act directly on things instead of
+expecting the morality of their cant phrases to act for them, to feed
+the hungry, to clothe the naked, to pay their bills, and to save their
+souls into the bargain, what a vast deal of good would be done, and what
+an incalculable amount of foolish talk would be spared! But there is a
+diplomatic spirit abroad in our day, and it is necessary to enter into
+polite relations with a drowning man before it is possible to pull him
+out of the water.
+
+But the story, you say,--where is it? Forgive me. I am rusty and
+ponderous at the start, like an old dredger that has stuck too long in
+the mud. Let me move a little and swing out with the tide till I am in
+clearer waters, and I will promise to bring up something pretty from the
+bottom of the sea for you to look at. I would not have you see any of
+the blackness that lies in the stagnant harbor.
+
+I will tell you the story of Paul Patoff. I played a small part in it
+myself last summer, and so, in a certain way, it is a tale of my own
+experience. I say a tale, because it is emphatically a tale, and nothing
+else. I might almost call it a yarn, though the word would look
+strangely on a printed title-page. We are vain in our generation; we
+fancy we have discovered something new under the sun, and we give the
+name "novel" to the things we write. I will not insult literature by
+honoring this story with any such high-sounding designation. A great
+many of the things I am going to tell you were told to me, so that I
+shall have some difficulty in putting the whole together in a connected
+shape, and I must begin by asking your indulgence if I transgress all
+sorts of rules, and if I do not succeed in getting the interesting
+points into the places assigned to them by the traditional laws of art.
+I tell what happened, and I do not pretend to tell any more.
+
+
+
+
+I.
+
+
+If places could speak, they would describe people far better than people
+can describe places. No two men agree together in giving an account of a
+country, of natural scenery, or of a city; and though we may read the
+most accurate descriptions of a place, and vividly picture to ourselves
+what we have never seen, yet, when we are at last upon the spot, we
+realize that we have known nothing about it, and we loudly blame the
+author, whose word-painting is so palpably false. People will always
+think of places as being full of poetry if they are in love, as being
+beautiful if they are well, hideous if they are ill, wearisome if they
+are bored, and gay if they are making money.
+
+Constantinople and the Bosphorus are no exceptions to this general rule.
+People who live there are sometimes well and sometimes ill, sometimes
+rich and sometimes poor, sometimes in love with themselves and sometimes
+in love with each other. A grave Persian carpet merchant sits smoking on
+the quay of Buyukdere. He sees them all go by, from the gay French
+secretary of embassy, puffing at a cigarette as he hurries from one
+visit to the next, to the neat and military German diplomat, landing
+from his steam launch on his return from the palace; from the
+devil-may-care English youth in white flannel to the graceful Turkish
+adjutant on his beautiful Arab horse; from the dark-eyed Armenian lady,
+walking slowly by the water's edge, to the terrifically arrayed little
+Greek dandy, with a spotted waistcoat and a thunder-and-lightning tie.
+He sees them all: the Levantine with the weak and cunning face, the
+swarthy Kurdish porter, the gorgeously arrayed Dalmatian embassy
+servant, the huge, fair Turkish waterman in his spotless white dress,
+and the countless veiled Turkish women from the small harems of the
+little town, shuffling along in silence, or squatted peacefully upon a
+jutting point of the pier, veiled in _yashmaks_, the more transparent as
+they have the more beauty to show or the less ugliness to conceal. The
+carpet merchant sees them all, and sits like Patience upon a monumental
+heap of stuffs, waiting for customers and smoking his water-pipe. His
+eyes are greedy and his fingers are long, but the peace of a superior
+mendacity is on his brow, and in his heart the lawful price of goods is
+multiplied exceedingly.
+
+By the side of the quay, separated from the quiet water by the broad
+white road, stand the villas, the embassies, the houses, large and
+small, a varying front, following the curve of the Bosphorus for half a
+mile between the Turkish towns of Buyukdere and Mesar Burnu. Behind the
+villas rise the gardens, terraces upon terraces of roses, laurels,
+lemons, Japanese medlars, and trees and shrubs of all sorts, with a
+stone pine or a cypress here and there, dark green against the faint
+blue sky. Beyond the breadth of smooth sapphire water, scarcely rippling
+under the gentle northerly breeze, the long hills of the Asian mainland
+stretch to the left as far as the mouth of the Black Sea, and to the
+right until the quick bend of the narrow channel hides Asia from view
+behind the low promontories of the European shore. Now and then a big
+ferry-boat puffs into sight, churning the tranquil waters into foam with
+her huge paddles; a dozen sailing craft are in view, from Lord
+Mavourneen's smart yawl to the outlandishly rigged Turkish schooner, her
+masts raking forward like the antlers of a stag at bay, and spreading a
+motley collection of lateen-sails, stay-sails, square top-sails, and
+vast spinnakers rigged out with booms and sprits, which it would puzzle
+a northern sailor to name. Far to the right, towards Therapia, glimmer
+the brilliant uniforms and the long bright oars of an ambassador's
+twelve-oared caïque, returning from an official visit at the palace; and
+near the shore are loitering half a dozen _barcas_,--commodious
+row-boats, with awnings and cushioned seats,--on the lookout for a fare.
+
+It is the month of June, and the afternoon air is warm and hazy upon the
+land, though a gentle northerly breeze is on the water, just enough to
+fill the sails of Lord Mavourneen's little yacht, so that by making many
+short tacks he may beat up to the mouth of the Black Sea before sunset.
+But his excellency the British ambassador is in no hurry; he would go on
+tacking in his little yawl to all eternity of nautical time, with vast
+satisfaction, rather than be bored and worried and harrowed by the
+predestinating servants of Allah, at the palace of his majesty the
+commander of the faithful. Even Fate, the universal Kismet,
+procrastinates in Turkey, and Lord Mavourneen's special mission is to
+out-procrastinate the procrastinator. For the present the little yawl is
+an important factor in his operations, and as he stands in his rough
+blue clothes, looking up through his single eyeglass at the bellying
+canvas, a gentle smile upon his strongly marked face betrays
+considerable satisfaction. Lord Mavourneen is a very successful man, and
+his smile and his yacht have been elements of no small importance in his
+success. They characterize him historically, like the tear which always
+trembles under the left eyelid of Prince Bismarck, like the gray
+overcoat of Bonaparte, the black tights and gloomy looks of Hamlet the
+Dane, or Richelieu's kitten. Lord Mavourneen is a man of action, but he
+can wait. When he came to Constantinople the Turks thought they could
+keep him waiting, but they have discovered that they are more generally
+kept waiting themselves, while his excellency is up the Bosphorus,
+beating about in his little yawl near the mouth of the Black Sea. His
+actions are thought worthy of high praise, but on some occasions his
+inaction borders upon the sublime. Of the men who moved along the
+Buyukdere quay, many paused and glanced out over the water at the
+white-sailed yawl, with the single streamer flying from the mast-head;
+and some smiled as they recognized the ambassadorial yacht, and some
+looked grave.
+
+The sun sank lower towards the point where he disappears from the sight
+of the inhabitants of Buyukdere; for he is not seen to set from this
+part of the upper Bosphorus. He sinks early behind the wooded hills
+above Therapia, and when he is hidden the evening freshness begins, and
+the crowd upon the quay swells to a multitude, as the people from the
+embassies and villas sally forth to mount their horses or to get into
+their caïques.
+
+Two young men came out of the white gates of the Russian embassy, and,
+crossing the road, stood upon the edge of the stone pier. They were
+brothers, but the resemblance was slight between them. The one looked
+like an Englishman, tall, fair, and rather angular, with hard blue eyes,
+an aquiline nose, a heavy yellow mustache concealing his mouth, and a
+ruddy complexion. He was extremely well dressed, and, though one might
+detect some awkwardness in his movements, his manner had that composure
+which comes from a great knowledge of the world, and from a natural
+self-possession and independence of character.
+
+His brother, though older by a year, might have passed for being several
+years younger. He was in reality two and thirty years of age, but his
+clear complexion was that of a boy, his dark brown hair curled closely
+on his head, and his soft brown eyes had a young and trustful look in
+them, which contrasted strangely with his brother's hard and dominating
+expression. He was shorter, too, and more slender, but also more
+graceful; his hands and feet were small and well shaped. Nevertheless,
+his manner was at least as self-possessed as that of his tall brother,
+and there was something in his look which suggested the dashing,
+reckless spirit sometimes found in delicately constituted men.
+Alexander Patoff was a soldier, and had obtained leave to visit his
+younger brother Paul in Constantinople, where the latter held the
+position of second secretary in the Russian embassy. At first sight one
+would have said that Paul should have been the cavalry officer, and
+Alexander the diplomatist: but fate had ordered it otherwise, for the
+elder son had inherited the bulk of his father's fortune, and was,
+consequently, able to bear the expenses of a career in a guard regiment;
+while Paul, the younger, just managed to live comfortably the life of a
+fashionable diplomacy, by dint of economy and an intelligent use of his
+small income.
+
+They were Russians, but their mother was an Englishwoman. Their father
+had married a Miss Anne Dabstreak, with whom he had fallen in love when
+in London, shortly before the Crimean War. She was a beautiful woman,
+and had a moderate portion. Old Patoff's fortune, however, was
+sufficient, and they had lived happily for ten years, when he had died
+very suddenly, leaving a comfortable provision for his wife, and the
+chief part of his possessions to Alexander Paolovitch Patoff, his eldest
+boy. Paul, he thought, showed even as a child the character necessary to
+fight his own way; and as he had since advanced regularly in the
+diplomacy, it seemed probable that he would fulfill his father's
+predictions, and die an embassador.
+
+At the time when this story opens Madame Patoff was traveling in
+Switzerland for her health. She was not strong, and dared not undertake
+a journey to Constantinople at present. On the other hand, the climate
+of northern Russia suited her even less well in summer than in winter,
+and, to her great regret, her son Alexander, whom she loved better than
+Paul, as he was also more like herself, had persisted in spending his
+leave in a visit to his brother.
+
+Madame Patoff had been surprised at Alexander's determination. Her sons
+were not congenial to each other. They had been brought up differently
+to different careers, which might partially account for the lack of
+sympathy between them, but in reality the evil had a deeper root. Madame
+Patoff had either never realized that Alexander had been the favored
+son, and that Paul had suffered acutely from the preference shown to his
+elder brother, or she had loved the latter too passionately to care to
+hide her preference. Alexander had been a beautiful child, full of
+grace, and gifted with that charm which in young children is not easily
+resisted. Paul was ugly in his boyhood, cold and reserved, rarely
+showing sympathy, and too proud to ask for what was not given him
+freely. Alexander was quick-witted, talented, and showy, if I may use so
+barbarous a word. Paul was slow at first, ungainly as a young foal,
+strong without grace, shy of attempting anything new to him, and not
+liking to be noticed. Both father and mother, as the boys grew up, loved
+the older lad, and spoiled him, while the younger was kept forever at
+his books, was treated coldly, and got little praise for the performance
+of his tasks. Had Paul possessed less real energy of character, he must
+have hated his brother; as it was, he silently disliked him, but
+inwardly resolved to outshine him in everything, laboring to that end
+from his boyhood, and especially after his father's death, with a dogged
+determination which promised success. The result was that, although Paul
+never outgrew a certain ungainliness of appearance, due to his large and
+bony frame, he nevertheless acquired a perfection of manner, an ease and
+confidence in conversation, which, in the end, might well impress people
+who knew him more favorably than the bearing of Alexander, whose soft
+voice and graceful attitudes began to savor of affectation when he had
+attained to mature manhood. As they stood together on the quay at
+Buyukdere, one could guess that, in the course of years, Alexander would
+be an irritable, peevish old dandy, while Paul would turn out a stern,
+successful old man.
+
+They stood looking at the water, watching the caïques shoot out from
+the shore upon the bosom of the broad stream.
+
+"Have you made up your mind?" asked Paul, without looking at his
+brother.
+
+"Oh, yes. I do not care where we go. I suppose it is worth seeing?"
+
+"Well worth seeing. You have never seen anything like it."
+
+"Is it as fine as Easter Eve in Moscow?" asked Alexander, incredulously.
+
+"It is different," said Paul. "It corresponds to our Easter Eve in some
+ways. All through the Ramazán they fast all day--never smoke, nor drink
+a glass of water, and of course they eat nothing--until sunset, when the
+gun is fired. During the last week there are services in Santa Sophia
+every night, and that is what is most remarkable. They go on until the
+news comes that the new moon has been seen."
+
+"That does not sound very interesting," remarked Alexander, languidly,
+lighting a cigarette with a bit of yellow fuse that dangled from his
+heavy Moscow case.
+
+"It is interesting, nevertheless, and you must see it. You cannot be
+here at this time and not see what is most worth seeing."
+
+"Is there nothing else this evening?" asked Alexander.
+
+"No. We have to respect the prejudices of the country a little. After
+all, we really have a holiday during this month. Nothing can be done.
+The people at the palace do not get up until one o'clock or later, so as
+to make the time while they fast seem shorter."
+
+"Very sensible of them. I wonder why they get up at all, until their
+ridiculous gun fires, and they can smoke."
+
+"Whether you like it or not, you must go to Santa Sophia to-night, and
+see the service," said Paul, firmly. "You need not stay long, unless you
+like."
+
+"If you take me there, I will stay rather than have the trouble of
+coming away," answered the other. "Bah!" he exclaimed suddenly, "there
+is that caïque again!"
+
+Paul followed the direction of his brother's glance, and saw a graceful
+caïque pulling slowly upstream towards them. Four sturdy Turks in
+snow-white cotton tugged at the long oars, and in the deep body of the
+boat, upon low cushions, sat two ladies, side by side. Behind them, upon
+the stern, was perched a hideous and beardless African, gorgeously
+arrayed in a dark tunic heavily laced with gold, a richly chased and
+adorned scimiter at his side, and a red fez jauntily set on one side of
+his misshapen head. But Alexander's attention was arrested by the
+ladies, or rather by one of them, as the caïque passed within oar's
+length of the quay.
+
+"She must be hideous," said Paul, contemptuously. "I never saw such a
+yashmak. It is as thick as a towel. You cannot see her face at all."
+
+"Look at her hand," said Alexander. "I tell you she is not hideous."
+
+The figures of the two ladies were completely hidden in the wide black
+silk garments they wore, the eternal ferigee which makes all women
+alike. Upon their heads they wore caps, such as in the jargon of fashion
+are called toques, and their faces were enveloped in yashmaks, white
+veils which cross the forehead above the eyes and are brought back just
+below them, so as to cover the rest of the face. But there was this
+difference; that whereas the veil worn by one of the ladies was of the
+thinnest gauze, showing every feature of her dark, coarse face through
+its transparent texture, the veil of the other was perfectly opaque, and
+disguised her like a mask. Paul Patoff justly remarked that this was
+very unusual. He had observed the same peculiarity at least twenty
+times; for in the course of three weeks, since Alexander arrived, the
+brothers had seen this same lady almost every day, till they had grown
+to expect her, and had exhausted all speculation in regard to her
+personality. Paul maintained that she was ugly, because she would not
+show her face. Alexander swore that she was beautiful, because her hand
+was young and white and shapely, and because, as he said, her attitude
+was graceful and her head moved well when she turned it. Concerning her
+hand, at least, there was no doubt, for as the delicate fingers stole
+out from the black folds of the ferigee their whiteness shone by
+contrast upon the dark silk; there was something youthful and nervous
+and sensitive in their shape and movement which fascinated the young
+Russian, and made him mad with curiosity to see the face of the veiled
+woman to whom they belonged. She turned her head a little, as the caïque
+passed, and her dark eyes met his with an expression which seemed one of
+intelligence; but unfortunately all black eyes look very much alike when
+they are just visible between the upper and the lower folds of a thick
+yashmak, and Alexander uttered an exclamation of discontent.
+
+Thereupon the hideous negro at the stern, who had noticed the stare of
+the two Russians, shook his light stick at Alexander, and hissed out
+something that sounded very like "Kiope 'oul kiopek,"--dog and son of a
+dog; the oarsmen grinned and pulled harder than ever, and the caïque
+shot past the pier. Paul shrugged his shoulders contemptuously, but did
+not translate the Turkish ejaculation to his brother. A boatman stood
+lounging near them, leaning on a stone post, and following the
+retreating caïque with his eyes.
+
+"Ask that fellow who she is," said Alexander.
+
+"He does not know," answered Paul. "Those fellows never know anything."
+
+"Ask him," insisted his brother. "I am sure he knows." Paul was willing
+to be obliging, and went up to the man.
+
+"Do you know who that Khanum is?" he asked, in Turkish.
+
+"Bilmem,--I don't know," replied the man, without moving a muscle of his
+face.
+
+"Do you know who her father is?"
+
+"Allah bilir,--God knows. Probably Abraham, who is the father of all the
+faithful." Paul laughed.
+
+"I told you he knew nothing about her," he said, turning to his brother.
+
+"It did you no harm to ask," answered Alexander testily. "Let us take a
+caïque and follow her."
+
+"You may, if you please," said Paul. "I have no intention of getting
+myself into trouble."
+
+"Nonsense! Why should we get into trouble? We have as good a right to
+row on the Bosphorus as they have."
+
+"We have no right to go near them. It is contrary to the customs of the
+country."
+
+"I do not care for custom," retorted Alexander.
+
+"If you walked down the Boulevard des Italiens in Paris on Easter Day
+and kissed every woman you met, merely saying, 'The Lord is risen,' by
+way of excuse, as we do in Russia, you would discover that customs are
+not the same everywhere."
+
+"You are as slow as an ox-cart, Paul," said Alexander.
+
+"The simile is graceful. Thank you. As I say, you may do anything you
+please, as you are a stranger here. But if you do anything flagrantly
+contrary to the manners of the country, you will not find my chief
+disposed to help you out of trouble. We are disliked enough
+already,--hated expresses it better. Come along. Take a turn upon the
+quay before dinner, and then we will go to Stamboul and see the
+ceremony."
+
+"I hate the quay," replied Alexander, who was now in a very bad humor.
+
+"Then we will go the other way. We can walk through Mesar Burnu and get
+to the Valley of Roses."
+
+"That sounds better."
+
+So the two turned northwards, and followed the quay upstream till they
+came to the wooden steamboat landing, and then, turning to the left,
+they entered the small Turkish village of Mesar Burnu. While they walked
+upon the road Alexander could still follow the caïque, now far ahead,
+shooting along through the smooth water, and he slackened his pace more
+slowly when it was out of sight. The dirty little bazaar of the village
+did not interest him, and he was not inclined to talk as he picked his
+way over the muddy stones, chewing his discontent and regretting the
+varnish of his neat boots. Presently they emerged from the crowd of
+vegetable venders, fishmongers, and sweetmeat sellers into a broad green
+lane between two grave-yards, where the huge silent trees grew up
+straight and sad from the sea of white tombstones which stood at every
+angle, some already fallen, some looking as though they must fall at
+once, some still erect, according to the length of time which had
+elapsed since they were set up. For in Turkey the headstones of graves
+are narrow at the base and broaden like leaves towards the top, and they
+are not set deep in the ground; so that they are top-heavy, and with the
+sinking of the soil they invariably fall to one side or the other.
+
+Paul turned again, where four roads meet at a drinking fountain, and the
+two brothers entered the narrow Valley of Roses. The roses are not,
+indeed, so numerous as one might expect, but the path is beautiful,
+green and quiet, and below it the tinkle of a little stream is heard,
+flowing down from the spring where the lane ends. There they sat down
+beneath a giant tree on a beaten terrace, where a Kaffegee has his
+little shop. The water pours from the spring in the hillside into a
+great basin bordered with green, the air is cool, and there is a
+delicious sense of rest after leaving the noise and dust of the quay.
+Both men smoked and drank their coffee in silence. Paul could not help
+wishing that his brother would take a little more interest in Turkey and
+a little less in the lady of the thick yashmak; and especially he wished
+that Alexander might finish his visit without getting into trouble. He
+had successfully controlled him during three weeks, and in another
+fortnight he must return to Russia. Paul confessed to himself that his
+brother's visit was not an unmitigated blessing, and found it hard to
+explain the object of it. Indeed, it was so simple that his diplomatic
+mind did not find it out; for Alexander had merely said to himself that
+he had never seen Constantinople, and that, as his brother was there, in
+the embassy, he could see it under favorable circumstances, at a very
+moderate cost. He was impetuous, spoiled by too much flattery, and
+incapable of imagining that Paul could consider his visit in any light
+but that of a compliment. Accordingly he had come, and had enjoyed
+himself very much.
+
+"Let us dine here," he said suddenly, as he finished his coffee.
+
+"There is nothing to eat," answered Paul. "Coffee, cold water, and a few
+cakes. That is all, and that would hardly satisfy you."
+
+"What a nuisance!" exclaimed the elder brother. "What a barbarous
+country this is! Nothing to eat but coffee, cold water, and cakes!"
+
+"It is rather hard on the Turks to abuse them for not keeping
+restaurants in their woods," remarked Paul.
+
+"I detest the Turks. I shall never forget the discomfort I had to put up
+with in the war. They might have learned something from us then; but
+they never learn anything. Come along. Let us go and dine in your
+rooms."
+
+"It is impossible to be more discontented than you are," said Paul,
+rather bitterly. "It is utterly impossible to please you,--and yet you
+have most things which are necessary to happiness."
+
+"I suppose you mean the money?" sneered his brother. But Paul kept his
+temper.
+
+"I mean everything," he answered. "You have money, youth, good looks,
+and social success; and yet you can hardly see anything without abusing
+it."
+
+"You forget that I do not know the name of the lady in the yashmak,"
+objected Alexander.
+
+Paul shrugged his shoulders, and said nothing. Both men rose, and began
+to go down the green lane, returning towards Mesar Burnu. By this time
+the sun had sunk low behind the western hills, and the cool of the
+evening had descended on the woods and the Valley of Roses. The green
+grass and the thick growth of shrubs took a darker color, and the first
+dampness of the dew was in the air. The two walked briskly down the
+path. Suddenly a turn in the narrow way brought them face to face with a
+party of three persons, strolling slowly towards them.
+
+"Luck!" ejaculated Alexander. "Here they are again!"
+
+He was right. There was no mistaking the lady with the thick,
+impenetrable veil, nor her companion, whose heavy dark face was
+distinctly visible through the thin Indian gauze. Behind them walked the
+hideous negro, swinging his light cane jauntily, but beginning to cast
+angry glances at the two Russians, whom he had already recognized. The
+way was very narrow, and the ladies saw that retreat was impossible.
+Paul bit his lip, fearing some foolish rashness on the part of his
+brother. As they all met, the ladies drew close to the hedge on one side
+of the path, their black attendant standing before them, as though to
+prevent the Giaours from even brushing against the wide silken ferigees
+of his charges. Paul pushed his brother in front of him, hoping that
+Alexander would have the sense to pass quietly by; but he trembled for
+the result.
+
+Alexander moved slowly forward, turning his head as he passed, and
+looking long into the black eyes of the veiled lady.
+
+"Pek güzel,--very pretty indeed," he said aloud, using the only words of
+Turkish he had learned in three weeks. But they were enough; the effect
+was instantaneous. Without a word and without hesitation, the tall negro
+struck a violent blow at Alexander with the light bamboo he carried.
+Paul, who was immediately behind his brother, saw the action and caught
+the man's hand in the air, but the end of the flexible cane flew down
+and knocked Alexander's hat from his head.
+
+"Run!" cried Paul excitedly, as the negro struggled in his grip.
+
+The two Turkish ladies laughed aloud. They were used to such adventures,
+but the spectacle of the negro beating a Frank gentleman was novel and
+refreshing. Alexander picked up his hat, but showed no disposition to
+move. The African struggled vainly in Paul's powerful arms.
+
+"Go, I say!" cried the latter authoritatively. "There will be trouble if
+any one comes."
+
+But Alexander had received a blow, and his blood was up. Moreover, he
+was a Russian, and utterly regardless of consequences,--or perhaps he
+only wanted to annoy his brother by a show of violence.
+
+"I think I will shoot him," he said, quietly producing a small revolver
+from his pocket.
+
+At the sight of the weapon, the two ladies, who, on seeing the fight
+prolonged, had retired a few paces up the path, began to scream loudly
+for help. The negro, who was proof against blows and would not have
+shown much fear at the sight of a knife, fell on his knees, crying aloud
+for mercy. Thereupon Paul released him and bid him go.
+
+"For God's sake, Alexander, do not make a fool of yourself!" he said
+coldly, walking up to his brother. But he turned once more to the black
+attendant, and added quietly in Turkish, "You had better go. We both
+have pistols."
+
+The negro did not wait, but sprang back and flew towards the two ladies,
+speaking excitedly, and imploring them to make haste. The two brothers
+made their way quickly down the path, Paul pushing Alexander before him.
+
+"You have done it now. You will have to leave Constantinople to-morrow,"
+he said, sternly. "You cannot play these tricks here."
+
+"Bah!" returned Alexander, "it is of no consequence. They do not know
+who we are."
+
+"They have not seen us coming out of our embassy half a dozen times
+without knowing where to look for us. There will be a complaint made
+within two hours, and there will be trouble. The law protects them.
+These fellows are authorized to strike anybody who speaks to the women
+they have in charge, or who even goes too near them. Be quick! We must
+get back to the quay before there is any alarm raised."
+
+Alexander knew that his brother Paul was no coward, and, being
+thoroughly convinced of the danger, he quickened his walk. In twenty
+minutes they reached Mesar Burnu, and in five minutes more they were
+within the gates of the embassy. The huge Cossack who stood by the
+entrance saluted them gravely, and Paul drew a long breath of relief as
+he entered the pretty pavilion in the garden in which he had his
+quarters. Alexander threw himself upon a low divan, and laughed with
+true Russian indifference. Paul pretended not to notice him, but
+silently took up the local French paper, which came every evening, and
+began to read.
+
+"You are excellent company, upon my word!" exclaimed Alexander,
+irritated at his brother's coldness. Paul laid down the paper, and
+stared at him with his hard blue eyes.
+
+"Alexander, you are a fool," he said coolly.
+
+"Look here," said the other, suddenly losing his temper, and rising to
+his feet, "I will not submit to this sort of language."
+
+"Then do not expose yourself to it. Are you aware that you do me very
+serious injury by your escapades?"
+
+"Escapades indeed!" cried Alexander indignantly. "As if there were any
+harm in telling a woman she is pretty!"
+
+"You will probably have occasion to hear what the chief thinks of it
+before long," retorted his brother. "There will be a complaint. It will
+get to the palace, and the result will be that I shall be sent to
+another post, with a black mark in the service. Do you call that a joke?
+It is very well for you, a rich officer in the guards, taking a turn in
+the East by way of recreation. You will go back to Petersburg and tell
+the story and enjoy the laugh. I may be sent to China or Japan for three
+or four years, in consequence."
+
+"Bah!" ejaculated the soldier, sitting down on the divan. "I do not
+believe it. You are an old woman. You are always afraid of injuring your
+career."
+
+"If it is to be injured at all, I prefer that it should be by my own
+fault."
+
+"What do you want me to do?" asked Alexander, rising once more. "I think
+I will go back to the Valley of Roses, and see if I cannot find her
+again." Suiting the action to the word, he moved towards the door. All
+the willfulness of the angry Slav shone in his dark eyes, and he was
+really capable of fulfilling his threat.
+
+"If you try it," said Paul, touching an electric bell behind his chair,
+"I will have you arrested. We are in Russia inside these gates, and
+there are a couple of Cossacks outside. I am quite willing to assume the
+responsibility."
+
+Paul was certainly justified in taking active measures to coerce his
+headstrong brother. The spoilt child of a brilliant society was not
+accustomed to being thwarted in his caprices, and beneath his delicate
+pale skin the angry blood boiled up to his face. He strode towards his
+brother as though he would have struck him, but something in Paul's eyes
+checked the intention. He held his heavy silver cigarette case in his
+hand; turning on his heel with an oath, he dashed it angrily across the
+room. It struck a small mirror that stood upon a table in the corner,
+and broke it into shivers with a loud crash. At that moment the door
+opened, and Paul's servant appeared in answer to the bell.
+
+"A glass of water," said Paul calmly. The man glanced at Alexander's
+angry face and at the broken looking-glass, and then retired.
+
+"What do you mean by calling in your accursed servants when I am
+angry?" cried the soldier. "You shall pay for this, Paul,--you shall pay
+for it!" His soft voice rose to loud and harsh tones, as he impatiently
+paced the room. "You shall pay for it!" he almost yelled, and then stood
+still, suddenly, while Paul rose from his chair. The door was opened
+again, but instead of the servant with the glass of water a tall and
+military figure stood in the entrance. It was the ambassador himself. He
+looked sternly from one brother to the other.
+
+"Gentlemen," he said, "what is this quarrel? Lieutenant Patoff, I must
+beg you to remember that you are my guest as well as your brother's, and
+that the windows are open. Even the soldiers at the gates can hear your
+cries. Be good enough either to cease quarreling, or to retire to some
+place where you cannot be heard."
+
+Without waiting for an answer, the old diplomat faced about and walked
+away.
+
+"That is the beginning," said Paul, in a low voice. "You see what you
+are doing? You are ruining me,--and for what? Not even because you have
+a caprice for a woman, but merely because I have warned you not to make
+trouble."
+
+Paul crossed the room and picked up the fallen cigarette case. Then he
+handed it to his brother, with a conciliatory look.
+
+"There,--smoke a cigarette and be quiet, like a good fellow," he said.
+
+The servant entered with the glass of water, and put it down upon the
+table. Glancing at the fragments of the mirror upon the floor, he looked
+inquiringly at his master. Paul made a gesture signifying that he might
+leave the room. The presence of the servant did not tend to pacify
+Alexander, whose face was still flushed with anger, as he roughly took
+the silver case and turned away with a furious glance. The servant had
+noticed, in the course of three weeks, that the brothers were not
+congenial to each other, but this was the first time he had witnessed a
+violent quarrel between them. When he was gone Alexander turned again
+and confronted Paul.
+
+"You are insufferable," he said, in low tones.
+
+"It is easy for you to escape my company," returned the other. "The
+Varna boat leaves here to-morrow afternoon at three."
+
+"Set your mind at rest," said Alexander, regaining some control of his
+temper at the prospect of immediate departure. "I will leave to-morrow."
+
+He went towards the door.
+
+"Dinner is at seven," said Paul quietly. But his brother left the room
+without noticing the remark, and, retiring to his room, he revenged
+himself by writing a long letter to his mother, in which he explained at
+length the violence and, as he described it, the "impossibility" of his
+brother's character. He had all the pettiness of a bad child; he knew
+that he was his mother's favorite, and he naturally went to her for
+sympathy when he was angry with his brother, as he had done from his
+infancy. Having so far vented his wrath, he closed his letter without
+re-reading it, and delivered it to be posted before the clock struck
+seven.
+
+He found Paul waiting for him in the sitting-room, and was received by
+him as though nothing had happened. Paul was indeed neither so forgiving
+nor so long-suffering as he appeared. He cordially disliked his brother,
+and was annoyed at his presence and outraged at his rashness. He felt
+bitterly enough that Alexander had quartered himself in the little
+pavilion for nearly a month without an invitation, and that, even
+financially, the visit caused him inconvenience; but he felt still more
+the danger to himself which lay in Alexander's folly, and he was not far
+wrong when he said that the ambassador's rebuke was the beginning of
+trouble. Accustomed to rely upon himself and his own wise conduct in the
+pursuance of his career, he resented the injury done him by such
+incidents as had taken place that afternoon. On the other hand, since
+Alexander had expressed his determination to leave Buyukdere the next
+day, he was determined that on his side the parting should be amicable.
+He could control his mood so far as to be civil during dinner, and to
+converse upon general topics. Alexander sat down to table in silence.
+His face was pale again, and his eyes had regained that simple, trustful
+look which was so much at variance with his character, and which, in the
+opinion of his admirers, constituted one of his chief attractions. It is
+unfortunate that, in general, the expression of the eyes should have
+less importance than that of the other features, for it always seems
+that by the eyes we should judge most justly. As a matter of fact, I
+think that the passions leave no trace in them, although they express
+the emotions of the moment clearly enough. The dark pupils may flash
+with anger, contract with determination, expand with love or fear; but
+so soon as the mind ceases to be under the momentary influence of any of
+these, the pupil returns to its normal state, the iris takes its natural
+color, and the eye, if seen through a hole in a screen, expresses
+nothing. If we were in the habit of studying men's mouths rather than
+their eyes, we should less often be deceived in the estimates we form of
+their character. Alexander Patoff's eyes were like a child's when he was
+peaceably inclined, like a wild-cat's when he was angry; but his
+nervous, scornful lips were concealed by the carefully trained dark
+brown mustache, and with them lay hidden the secret of his
+ill-controlled, ill-balanced nature.
+
+When dinner was finished, the servant announced that the steam launch
+was at the pier, and that the embassy _kaváss_ was waiting outside to
+conduct them to Santa Sophia. Alexander, who wanted diversion of some
+kind during the evening, said he would go, and the two brothers left the
+pavilion together.
+
+The kaváss is a very important functionary in Constantinople, and,
+though his office is lucrative, it is no sinecure. In former times the
+appearance of Franks in the streets of Constantinople was very likely to
+cause disturbance. Those were the great days of Turkey, when the Osmanli
+was master of the East, and regarded himself as the master of the world.
+A Frank--that is to say, a person from the west of Europe--was scarcely
+safe out of Pera without an escort; and even at the present day most
+people are advised not to venture into Stamboul without the attendance
+of a native, unless willing to wear a fez instead of a hat. It became
+necessary to furnish the embassies with some outward and visible means
+of protection, and the kaváss was accordingly instituted. This man, who
+was formerly always a Janizary, is at present a veteran soldier, and
+therefore a Mussulman; for Christians rarely enter the army in
+Constantinople, being permitted to buy themselves off. He is usually a
+man remarkable for his trustworthy character, of fine presence, and
+generally courageous. He wears a magnificent Turkish military dress,
+very richly adorned with gold embroidery, girt with a splendid sash, in
+which are thrust enough weapons to fill an armory,--knives, dirks,
+pistols, and daggers,--while a huge scimiter hangs from his sword-belt.
+When he is on active service, you will detect somewhere among his
+trappings the brown leather case of a serviceable army revolver. The
+reason of this outfit is a very simple one. The kaváss is answerable
+with his head for those he protects,--neither more nor less. Whenever
+the ambassador or the minister goes to the palace, or to Stamboul, or on
+any expedition whatsoever, the kaváss follows him, frequently acting as
+interpreter, and certainly never failing to impose respect upon the
+populace. Moreover, when he is not needed by the head of the mission in
+person, he is ready to accompany any member of the household when
+necessary. A lady may cross Stamboul in safety with no other attendant,
+for he is answerable for her with his life. Whether or not, in existing
+circumstances, he would be put to death, in case his charge were killed
+by a mob, is not easy to say; it is at least highly probable that he
+would be executed within twenty-four hours.
+
+It chanced, on the evening chosen by Paul and Alexander for their visit
+to Santa Sophia, that no other members of the embassy accompanied them.
+Some had seen the ceremony before, some intended to go the next day, and
+some were too lazy to go at all. They followed the kaváss in silence
+across the road, and went on board the beautiful steam launch which lay
+alongside the quay. The night was exceedingly dark, for as the
+appearance of the new moon terminates the month Ramazán, and as the
+ceremonies take place only during the last week of the month, there can,
+of course, be no moonlight. But a dark night is darker on the black
+waters of the Bosphorus than anywhere else in the world; and the
+darkness is not relieved by the illumination of the shores. On the
+contrary, the countless twinkling points seem to make the shadow in
+midstream deeper, and accidents are not unfrequent. In some places the
+current is very rapid, and it is no easy matter to steer a steam launch
+skillfully through it, without running over some belated fisherman or
+some shadowy caïque, slowly making way against the stream in the dark.
+
+The two brothers sat in the deep cane easy-chairs on the small raised
+deck at the stern, the weather being too warm to admit of remaining in
+the cushioned cabin. The sailors cast off the moorings, and the strong
+little screw began to beat the water. In two minutes the launch was far
+out in the darkness. The kaváss gave the order to the man at the wheel,
+an experienced old pilot:--
+
+"To the Vinegar Sellers' Landing."
+
+The engine was put at full speed, and the launch rushed down stream
+towards Constantinople. Paul and Alexander looked at the retreating
+shore and at the lights of the embassy, fast growing dim in the
+distance. Paul wished himself alone in his quiet pavilion, with a
+cigarette and one of Gogol's novels. His brother, who was ashamed of
+his violent temper and disgusted with his brother's coldness, wished
+that he might never come back. Indeed, he was inclined to say so, and to
+spend the night at a hotel in Pera; but he was ashamed of that too, now
+that his anger had subsided, and he made up his mind to be morally
+uncomfortable for at least twenty-four hours. For it is the nature of
+violent people to be ashamed of themselves, and then to work themselves
+into new fits of anger in order to escape their shame, a process which
+may be exactly compared to the drunkard's glass of brandy in the
+morning, and which generally leads to very much the same result.
+
+But Paul said nothing, and so long as he was silent it was impossible to
+quarrel with him. Alexander, therefore, stretched out his legs and
+puffed at his cigarette, wondering whether he should ever see the lady
+in the yashmak again, trying to imagine what her face could be like, but
+never doubting that she was beautiful. He had been in love with many
+faces. It was the first time he had ever fallen in love with a veil. The
+sweet air of the Bosphorus blew in his face, the distant lights twinkled
+and flashed past as the steam launch ran swiftly on, and Alexander dozed
+in his chair, dreaming that the scented breeze had blown aside the folds
+of the yashmak, and that he was gazing on the most beautiful face in the
+world. That is one of the characteristics of the true Russian. The Slav
+is easily roused to frenzied excitement, and he as easily falls back to
+an indolent and luxurious repose. There is something poetic in his
+temperament, but the extremes are too violent for all poetry. To be
+easily sad and easily gay may belong to the temper of the poet, but to
+be bloodthirsty and luxurious by turns savors of the barbarian.
+
+Alexander was aroused by the lights of Stamboul and by the noise of the
+large ferry-boats just making up to the wooden piers of Galata bridge,
+or rushing away into the darkness amidst tremendous splashing of
+paddles and blowing of steam whistles. A few minutes later the launch
+ran alongside of the Vinegar Sellers' Landing on the Stamboul shore, and
+the kaváss came aft to inform the brothers that the carriage was waiting
+by the water-stairs.
+
+
+
+
+II.
+
+
+There is probably no nation in the world more attached to religion, both
+in form and principle, than the Osmanli; and it is probably for this
+reason that their public ceremonies bear a stamp of vigor and sincerity
+rarely equaled in Christian countries. No one can witness the rites
+practiced in the mosque of Agia Sophia without being profoundly
+impressed with the power of the Mohammedan faith. The famous church of
+Justinian is indeed in itself magnificent and awe-inspiring; the vast
+dome is more effective than that of Saint Peter's, in proportion as the
+masses which support it are smaller and less apparent; the double
+stories of the nave are less burdened with detail and ornament, and are
+therefore better calculated to convey an impression of size; the view
+from the galleries is less obstructed in all directions, and there is
+something startling in the enormous shields of green inscribed in gold
+with the names of God, Mohammed, and the earliest khalifs. Everything in
+the building produces a sensation of smallness in the beholder, almost
+amounting to stupor. But the Agia Sophia seen by day, in the company of
+a chattering Greek guide, is one thing; it is quite another when viewed
+at night from the solitude of the vast galleries, during the religious
+ceremonies of the last week in the month Ramazán.
+
+Paul and Alexander Patoff were driven through dark streets to a narrow
+lane, where the carriage stopped before a flight of broad steps which
+suddenly descended into blackness. The kaváss was at the door, and
+seemed anxious that they should be quick in their movements. He held a
+small lantern in his hand, and, carrying it low down, showed them the
+way. Entering a gloomy doorway, they were aware of a number of Turks,
+clad mostly in white tunics, with white turbans, and congregated near
+the heavy leathern curtain which separates this back entrance from the
+portico. One of these men, a tall fellow with an ugly scowl, came
+forward, holding a pair of keys in his hand, and after a moment's parley
+with the kaváss unlocked a heavily ironed door, lighting a taper at the
+lantern.
+
+As they entered, both the brothers cast a glance at the knot of scowling
+men, and Alexander felt in his pocket for his pistol. He had forgotten
+it, and the discovery did not tend to make him feel more safe. Then he
+smiled to himself, recognizing that it was but a passing feeling of
+distrust which he experienced, and remembering how many thousands of
+Franks must have passed through that very door to reach the winding
+staircase. As for Paul, he had been there the previous year, and was
+accustomed to the sour looks of Mussulmans when a Frank visitor enters
+one of their mosques. He also went in, and the kaváss, who was the last
+of the party, followed, pulling the door on its hinges behind him.
+During several minutes they mounted the rough stone steps in silence, by
+the dim light of the lantern and the taper. Then emerging into the
+gallery through a narrow arch, a strange sound reached them, and
+Alexander stood still for a moment.
+
+Far down in the vast church an Imam was intoning a passage of the Koran
+in a voice which hardly seemed human; indeed, such a sound is probably
+not to be heard anywhere else in the world. The pitch was higher than
+what is attainable by the highest men's voices elsewhere, and yet the
+voice possessed the ringing, manly quality of the tenor, and its immense
+volume never dwindled to the proportions of a soprano. The priest
+recited and modulated in this extraordinary key, introducing all the
+ornaments peculiar to the ancient Arabic chant with a facility which an
+operatic singer might have envied. Then there was a moment's silence,
+broken again almost immediately by a succession of heavy sounds which
+can only be described as resembling rhythmical thunder, rising and
+falling three times at equal intervals; another short but intense
+silence, and again the voice burst out with the wild clang of a trumpet,
+echoing and reverberating through the galleries and among the hundred
+marble pillars of the vast temple.
+
+The two brothers walked forward to the carved stone balustrade of the
+high gallery, and gazed down from the height upon the scene below. The
+multitude of worshipers surged like crested waves blown obliquely on a
+shingly shore. For the apse of the Christian church is not built so
+that, facing it, the true believer shall look towards Mecca, and the
+Mussulmans have made their _mihrab_--their shrine--a little to the right
+of what was once the altar, in the true direction of the sacred city.
+The long lines of matting spread on the floor all lie evenly at an angle
+with the axis of the nave, and when the mosque is full the whole
+congregation, amounting to thousands of men, are drawn up like regiments
+of soldiers in even ranks to face the mihrab, but not at right angles
+with the nave. The effect is startling and strangely inharmonious, like
+the studied distortions of some Japanese patterns, but yet fascinating
+from its very contrariety to what the eye expects.
+
+There they stand, the ranks of the faithful, as they have stood yearly
+for centuries in the last week of Ramazán. As the trumpet notes of each
+recited verse die away among the arches, every man raises his hands
+above his head, then falls upon his knees, prostrates himself, and rises
+again, renewing the act of homage three times with the precision of a
+military evolution. At each prostration, performed exactly and
+simultaneously by that countless multitude, the air is filled with the
+tremendous roar of muffled rhythmical thunder, in which no voice is
+heard, but only the motion of ten thousand human bodies, swaying,
+bending, and kneeling in unison. Nor is the sound alone impressive. From
+the vaulted roof, from the galleries, from the dome itself, are hung
+hundreds of gigantic chandeliers, each having concentric rings of
+lighted lamps, suspended a few feet above the heads of the worshipers.
+Seen from the great height of the gallery, these thousands of lights do
+not dazzle nor hide the multitude below, which seems too great to be
+hidden, as the heavens are not hid by the stars; but the soft
+illumination fills every corner and angle of the immense building, and,
+lest any detail of the architecture and splendid music should escape the
+light, rows of little lamps are kindled along the cornices of the
+galleries and roof, filling up the interstices of darkness as a carver
+burnishes the inner petals of the roses on a huge gilt frame of
+exquisite design, in which not the smallest beauty of the workmanship
+can be allowed to pass unnoticed.
+
+This whole flood of glorious illumination descends then to the floor of
+the nave, and envelops the ranks of white and green clothed men, who
+rise and fall in long sloping lines, like a field of corn under the
+slanting breeze. There is something mystic and awe-inspiring in the
+sight, the sound, the whole condition, of this strange worship. A man
+looks down upon the serried army of believers, closely packed, but not
+crowded nor irregular, shoulder to shoulder, knee to knee, not one of
+them standing a hair's breadth in front of his rank nor behind it,
+moving all as one body, animated by one principle of harmonious motion,
+elevated by one unquestioning faith in something divine,--a man looks
+down upon this scene, and, whatever be his own belief, he cannot but
+feel an unwonted thrill of admiration, a tremor of awe, a quiver of
+dread, at the grand solemnity of this unanimous worship of the unseen.
+And then, as the movement ceases, and the files of white turbans remain
+motionless, the unearthly voice of the Imam rings out like a battle
+signal from the lofty balcony of the _mastaba_,[1] awaking in the
+fervent spirits of the believers the warlike memories of mighty
+conquest. For the Osmanli is a warrior, and his nation is a warrior
+tribe; his belief is too simple for civilization, his courage too blind
+and devoted for the military operations of our times, his heart too
+easily roused by the bloodthirsty instincts of the fanatic, and too
+ready to bear the misfortunes of life with the grave indifference of the
+fatalist. He lacks the balance of the faculties which is imposed upon
+civilized man by a conscious distinction of the possible from the
+impossible; he lacks the capacity for being contented with that state of
+life in which he is placed. Instead of the quiet courage and
+self-knowledge of a serviceable strength, he possesses the reckless and
+all-destroying zeal of the frenzied iconoclast; in place of patience
+under misfortune, in the hope of better times, he cultivates the
+insensibility begotten of a belief in hopeless predestination,--instead
+of strength he has fury, instead of patience, apathy. He is a strange
+being, beyond our understanding, as he is too often beyond our sympathy.
+It is only when we see him roused to the highest expression of his
+religious fervor that we involuntarily feel that thrill of astonishment
+and awe which in our hearts we know to be genuine admiration.
+
+[Note 1: The tribune, or marble platform, from which the prayers are
+read; not to be confounded with the _minber_, or pulpit, from which the
+Khatib preaches on Fridays, with a drawn sword in his hand.]
+
+Alexander Patoff stood by his brother's side, watching the ceremony with
+intense interest. He hated the Turks and despised their faith, but what
+he now saw appealed to the Orientalism of his nature. Himself capable of
+the most distant extremes of feeling, sensitive, passionate, and
+accustomed to delight in strong impressions, he could not fail to be
+moved by the profound solemnity of the scene and by the indescribable
+wildness of the Imam's chant. Paul, too, was silent, and, though far
+less able to feel such emotions than his elder brother, the sight of
+such unanimous and heart-felt devotion called up strange trains of
+thought in his mind, and forced him to speculate upon the qualities and
+the character which still survived in these hereditary enemies of his
+nation. It was not possible, he said to himself, that such men could
+ever be really conquered. They might be driven from the capital of the
+East by overwhelming force, but they would soon rally in greater numbers
+on the Asian shore. They might be crushed for a moment, but they could
+never be kept under, nor really dominated. Their religion might be
+oppressed and condemned by the oppressor, but it was of the sort to gain
+new strength at every fresh persecution. To slay such men was to sow
+dragon's teeth and to reap a harvest of still more furious fanatics,
+who, in their turn being destroyed, would multiply as the heads of the
+Hydra beneath the blows of Heracles. The even rise and fall of those
+long lines of stalwart Mussulmans seemed like the irrepressible tide of
+an ocean, which if restrained, would soon break every barrier raised to
+obstruct it. Paul sickened at the thought that these men were bowing
+themselves upon the pavement from which their forefathers had washed the
+dust of Christian feet in the blood of twenty thousand Christians, and
+the sullen longing for vengeance rankled in his heart. At that moment he
+wished he were a soldier, like his brother; he wished he could feel a
+soldier's pride in the strong fellowship of the ranks, and a soldier's
+hope of retaliation. He almost shuddered when he reflected that he and
+his brother stood alone, two hated Russians, with that mighty,
+rhythmically surging mass of enemies below. The bravest man might feel
+his nerves a little shaken in such a place, at such an hour. Paul leaned
+his chin upon his hand, and gazed intently down into the body of the
+church. The armed kaváss stood a few paces from him on his left, and
+Alexander was leaning against a column on his right.
+
+The kaváss was a good Mussulman, and regarded the ceremony not only with
+interest, but with a devotion akin to that of those who took part in it.
+He also looked fixedly down, turning his eyes to the mihrab, and
+listening attentively to the chanting of the Imam, of whose Arabic
+recitation, however, he could not understand any more than Paul
+himself. For a long time no one of the three spoke, nor indeed noticed
+his companions.
+
+"Shall we go to the other side of the gallery?" asked Paul, presently,
+in a low voice, but without looking round. Alexander did not answer, but
+the kaváss moved, and uttered a low exclamation of surprise. Paul turned
+his head to repeat his question, and saw that Alexander was no longer in
+the place where he had been standing. He was nowhere to be seen.
+
+"He is gone round the gallery alone," said Paul to the kaváss, and
+leading the way he went to the end of the balcony, and turning in the
+shadow looked down the long gallery which runs parallel with the nave.
+Alexander was not in sight, and Paul, supposing him to be hidden behind
+one of the heavy pillars which divided the balustrade into equal
+portions, walked rapidly to the end. But his brother was not there.
+
+"Bah!" Paul exclaimed to the kaváss, "he is on the other side." He
+looked attentively at the opposite balconies, across the brilliantly
+lighted church, but saw no one. He and the soldier retraced their steps,
+and explored every corner of the galleries, without success. The kaváss
+was pale to the lips.
+
+"He is gone down alone," he muttered, hastening to the head of the
+winding stair in the northwest corner of the dim gallery. He had left
+his lantern by the door, but it was not there. Alexander must have taken
+it with him. The Turk with the keys and the taper had long since gone
+down, in expectation of some other Frank visitors, but as yet none had
+appeared. Paul breathed hard, for he knew that a stranger could not with
+safety descend alone, on such a night, to the vestibule of the mosque,
+filled as it was with turbaned Mussulmans who had not found room in the
+interior, and who were pursuing their devotions before the great open
+doors. On the other hand, if Alexander had not entered the vestibule, he
+must have gone out into the street, where he would not be much safer,
+for his hat proclaimed him a Frank to every party of strolling Turks he
+chanced to meet.
+
+Paul lit a wax taper from his case, and, holding others in readiness,
+began to follow the rugged descent, the kaváss close at his elbow. It
+seemed interminable. At every deep embrasure Paul paused, searching the
+recess by the flickering glare of the match, and then, finding nothing,
+both men went on. At last they reached the bottom, and the heavy door
+creaked as the kaváss pressed it back.
+
+"You must stay here," he said, in his broken jargon. "Or, better still,
+you should go outside with me and get into the carriage. I will come
+back and search."
+
+"No," said Paul. "I will go with you. I am not afraid of them."
+
+"You cannot," answered the kaváss firmly. "I cannot protect you inside
+the vestibule."
+
+"I tell you I will go!" exclaimed Paul impatiently. "I do not expect you
+to protect me. I will protect myself." But the kaváss would not yield so
+easily. He was a powerful man, and stood calmly in the doorway. Paul
+could not pass him without using violence.
+
+"Effendim," said the man, speaking Turkish, which he knew that Paul
+understood, "if I let you go in there, and anything happens to you, my
+life is forfeited."
+
+Paul hesitated. The man was in earnest, and they were losing time which
+might be precious. It was clear that Alexander might already be in
+trouble, and that the kaváss was the only person capable of imposing
+respect upon the crowd.
+
+"Go," said Paul. "I will wait by the carriage."
+
+The kaváss opened the door, and both men went out into the dim entry.
+Paul turned to the right and the soldier to the left, towards the heavy
+curtain which closed the entrance of the vestibule. The knot of Turks
+who had stood there when the Russians had arrived had disappeared, and
+the place was silent and deserted, while from behind the curtain faint
+echoes of the priest's high voice were audible, and at intervals the
+distant thundering roll from the church told that the worshipers were
+prostrating themselves in the intervals of the chanting. Paul retired up
+the dark way, but paused at the deserted gate, unwilling to go so far as
+the carriage, and thus lengthen the time before the kaváss could rejoin
+him with his brother. He trembled lest Alexander should have given way
+to some foolhardy impulse to enter the mosque in defiance of the
+ceremony which was then proceeding, but it did not strike him that
+anything very serious could have occurred, nor that the kaváss would
+really have any great difficulty in finding him. Alexander would
+probably escape with some rough treatment, which might not be altogether
+unprofitable, provided he sustained no serious injury. It was indeed a
+rash and foolish thing to go alone and unarmed among a crowd of fanatic
+Mohammedans at their devotions; but, after all, civilization had
+progressed in Turkey, and the intruder was no longer liable to be torn
+in pieces by the mob. He would most likely be forcibly ejected from the
+vestibule, and left to repent of his folly in peace.
+
+All these reflections passed through Paul's mind, as he stood waiting in
+the shadow of the gate at the back of the mosque; but the time began to
+seem unreasonably long, and his doubts presently took the shape of
+positive fears. Still the echoes came to his ears through the heavy
+curtain, while from without the distant hum of the city, given up to
+gayety after the day's long fast, mingled discordantly with the sounds
+from within. He was aware that his heart was beating faster than usual,
+and that he was beginning to suffer the excitement of fear. He tried to
+reason with himself, saying that it was foolish to make so much of so
+little; but in the arguments of reason against terror, the latter
+generally gets the advantage and keeps it. Paul had a strong desire to
+follow the kaváss into the vestibule, and to see for himself whether his
+brother were there or not. He rarely carried weapons, as Alexander did,
+but he trusted in his own strength to save him. He drew his watch from
+his pocket, resolving to wait five minutes longer, and then, if the
+kaváss did not return, to lift the curtain, come what might. He struck a
+match, and looked at the dial. It was a quarter past ten o'clock. Then,
+to occupy his mind, he began to try and count the three hundred seconds,
+fancying that he could see a pendulum swinging before his eyes in the
+dark. At twenty minutes past ten he would go in.
+
+But he did not reach the end of his counting. The curtain suddenly moved
+a little, allowing a ray of bright light to fall out into the darkness,
+and in the momentary flash Paul saw the gorgeous uniform and
+accoutrements of the embassy kaváss. He was alone, and Paul's heart
+sank. He remembered very vividly the dark and scowling faces and the
+fiery eyes of the turbaned men who had stood before the door an hour
+earlier, and he began to fear some dreadful catastrophe. The kaváss came
+quickly forward, and Paul stepped out of the shadow and confronted him.
+
+"Well?"
+
+"He has not been there," answered the soldier, in agitated tones. "I
+went all through the crowd, and searched everywhere. I asked many
+persons. They laughed at the idea of a Frank gentleman in a hat
+appearing amongst them. He must have gone out into the street."
+
+"We searched the gallery thoroughly, did we not?" asked Paul. "Are you
+sure he could not have been hidden somewhere?"
+
+"Perfectly, Effendim. He is not there."
+
+"Then we must look for him in the streets," said Paul, growing very
+pale. He turned to ascend the steps from the gate to the road.
+
+"It is not my fault, Effendim," answered the soldier. "Did you not see
+him leave the gallery?"
+
+"It is nobody's fault but his own," returned Patoff. "I was looking down
+at the people. He must have slipped away like a cat."
+
+They reached the carriage, and Paul got inside. It was a landau, and the
+kaváss and the coachman opened the front, so that Patoff might get a
+better view of the streets. The kaváss mounted the box, and explained to
+the coachman that they must search Stamboul as far as possible for the
+lost Effendi. But the coachman turned sharply round on his seat and
+spoke to Paul.
+
+"The gentleman did not come out," he said emphatically. "I have been
+watching for you ever since you went in. He is inside the Agia
+Sophia--somewhere."
+
+Paul was disconcerted. He had not thought of making inquiries of the
+coachman, supposing that Alexander might easily have slipped past in the
+darkness. But the man seemed very positive.
+
+"Wait in the carriage, Effendim," said the kaváss, once more descending
+from his seat. "If he is inside I will find him. I will search the
+galleries again. He cannot have gone through the vestibule."
+
+Before Paul could answer him the man had plunged once more down the
+black steps, and the Russian was condemned a second time to a long
+suspense, during which he was frequently tempted to leave the carriage
+and explore the church for himself. He felt the cold perspiration on his
+brow, and his hand trembled as he took out his watch again and again. It
+was nearly a quarter of an hour before the kaváss returned. The man was
+now very pale, and seemed as much distressed as Paul himself. He
+silently shook his head, and, mounting to the box seat, ordered the
+coachman to drive on.
+
+The city was ablaze with lights. Every mosque was illuminated, and the
+minarets, decked out with thousands of little lamps, looked like fiery
+needles piercing the black bosom of the sky. The carriage drove from
+place to place, passing where a crowd was gathered together, hastening
+down dark and deserted streets, to emerge again upon some brilliantly
+lighted square, thronged with men in fez and turban and with women
+veiled in the eternal yashmak. More than once Paul started in his seat,
+fancying that he could discover on the borders of the crowd the two
+ladies, with their attendant, who had been the cause of the scuffle in
+the Valley of Roses that afternoon. Again, he thought he could
+distinguish his brother's features among the moving faces, but always
+the sight of the dark red fez told him that he was wrong. He was driven
+round Agia Sophia, beneath the splendid festoons of lamps, some hung so
+as to form huge Arabic letters, some merely bound together in great
+ropes of light; back towards the water and through the Atmaidam, the
+ancient Hippodrome, down to the Serai point, then up to the Seraskierat,
+where the glorious tower shot upwards like the pillar of flame that went
+before the Israelites of old; on to the mosque of Suleiman, over whose
+tomb the great dome burned like a fiery mountain, round once more to the
+Atmaidam, past the tall trees amidst which blazed the six minarets of
+Sultan Achmet; then, trying a new route, down by the bazaar gates to
+Sultan Validé and the head of Galata bridge, and at last back again to
+the Seraskierat, and, leaving the Dove Mosque of Bajazet on the right,
+once more to the Vinegar Sellers' Landing, in the vain hope that
+Alexander might have found his way down to the quay where the steam
+launch was moored.
+
+In vain did the terrified kaváss bid the coachman turn and turn again;
+in vain did Paul, in agonized excitement, try to pierce the darkness
+with his eyes, and to distinguish the well-known face in the throngs
+that crowded the brightly lighted squares. At the end of two hours he
+began to realize the hopelessness of the search. Suddenly it struck him
+that Alexander might have found the bridge, and, recognizing it, might
+have crossed to Pera rather than run the risk of losing himself in
+Stamboul again.
+
+"Tell the launch to be at Beschik Tasch to-morrow morning at ten
+o'clock," said Paul. "Take me to Galata bridge. I will cross on foot to
+Pera. Then go back and wait behind Agia Sophia, in case he comes that
+way again to look for the carriage. If I find him in Pera, I will send a
+messenger to tell you. If he does not come, meet me at Missiri's early
+to-morrow morning."
+
+"Pek eyi--very good," answered the kaváss, who understood the wisdom of
+the plan. Again the carriage turned, and in five minutes Paul was
+crossing Galata bridge, alone, on his way to Pera.
+
+He was terribly agitated. Stories of the disappearance of foreigners in
+the labyrinths of Stamboul rose to his mind, and though he had never
+known of such a case in his own experience, he did not believe the thing
+impossible. His brother was the rashest and most foolhardy of men,
+capable of risking his life for a mere caprice, and perhaps the more
+inclined to do so on that night because he had had a violent quarrel
+with Paul that very afternoon, about his own foolish conduct. Of all
+nights in the year, the last four or five of Ramazán are the most
+dangerous to unprotected foreigners, and as he walked the spectacle of
+the scowling Turks thrust itself once more before Paul's mental vision.
+If Alexander had descended the steps, and had ventured, as well he
+might, to push past those fellows into the vestibule of the mosque, it
+must have gone hard with him. The fanatic worshipers of Allah were not
+in a mood that night to bear with the capricious humors of a haughty
+Frank; and though Alexander was active, strong, and brave, his strength
+would avail him little against such odds. He would be overpowered,
+stunned, and thrown out before he could utter a cry, and he might think
+himself lucky if he escaped with one or two broken bones. But then,
+again, if he had suffered such treatment, some one must have heard of
+it, and Paul remembered the blank face and frightened look of the kaváss
+when he returned the second time from his search. They had gone
+carefully round the great building, and must have seen such an object as
+the body of a man lying in the street. Perhaps Alexander had broken away
+without injury, and fled out into the streets of Stamboul. If so, he
+was in no common danger, for, utterly ignorant of the topography of the
+great city, he might as easily have gone towards the Seven Towers or to
+Aiwán Serai as to Galata bridge or Topkapussi, the Canon Gate at Serai
+point. There was still one hope left. He might have reached Pera, and be
+at that very moment refreshing himself with coffee and cigarettes at
+Missiri's hotel.
+
+Paul hastened his walk, and, reaching Galata, began at once to ascend
+the steep street which further on is called the Grande Rue, but which of
+all "great" streets least deserves the name. He then walked slowly,
+scrutinizing every face he saw. But indeed there were few people about,
+for Christian Pera does not fast in Ramazán, and consequently does not
+spend the night in parading the streets. Nevertheless, Paul began a
+systematic search, leaving no small café or eating-house unvisited,
+rousing the sleepy porters of the inns with his inquiries, and finally
+entering the hotel. It was now past midnight, but he would not give up
+the quest. He caused all the guides to be collected from their obscure
+habitations by messengers from the hotel, and representing to them the
+urgency of the case, and giving them money in advance with the promise
+of more to come, he dispatched them in all directions. Alexander had
+been at the hotel very often during the last month, while visiting the
+sights of the city, and most of these fellows knew him by sight. At all
+events, it would be easy for them to recognize a well-dressed Frank
+gentleman in trouble.
+
+Patoff saw the last of them leave the hotel, and stood staring out upon
+the Grande Rue de Pera, wondering what should be done next. The town
+residence of the embassy was closed for the summer, and there were only
+two or three sleepy servants in the place, who could be of no use. He
+thought of getting a horse and riding rapidly back to Buyukdere, in
+order to warn the ambassador of his brother's disappearance; but on
+reflection it seemed that he would do better to stay where he was. The
+short June night would soon be past, and by daylight he could at once
+prosecute his search in Stamboul with safety and with far greater
+probability of finding the lost man. He knew that the kaváss would
+remain with the carriage all night behind Santa Sophia, and then at dawn
+he should still find them there. Meanwhile, he took a _hamál_,--a
+luggage porter from the hotel,--and, armed with a lantern and a stick,
+began to beat the different quarters of Pera, judging that in the three
+or four hours before daylight he could pass through most of the streets.
+
+Hour after hour he trudged along, pale with fatigue and anxiety, his big
+features hardening with despairing determination as he walked. He
+searched every street and alley; he interviewed the Bekjees, who stamp
+along the streets, pounding the pavement with their iron-shod clubs; he
+tramped out to the Taksim, and down again to Galata tower, plunging into
+the dark alleys about the Oriental Bank, skirting lower Pera to the
+Austrian embassy, and climbing up the narrow path between tall houses,
+till he was once more in the Grande Rue; crossing to the filthy quarters
+of Kassim Paschá and emerging at the German Lutheran church, crossing,
+recrossing, stumbling over gutters and up dirty back lanes, silent and
+determined still, addressing only the sturdy Kurd by his side to ask if
+there were any streets still unexplored, and entering every new by-path
+with new hope. At last he found himself once more at Galata bridge, and
+the light of the lantern began to pale before the grayness of the coming
+morning. He paid the Kurdish porter a generous fee, and giving his tiny
+coin to the tall keeper of the bridge, whose white garments looked
+whiter in the dawn, he walked on until he was half way over the Golden
+Horn.
+
+Stepping aside on to the wooden pier where the great ferry-boats were
+moored, he leaned upon the rail and looked out over the water,
+momentarily exhausted and unable to go further. The tender light tinged
+the southeastern sky, and the far mist of the horizon seemed already hot
+with the rising day. On the lapping water of the Horn the light fell
+like petals of roses tossed in a mantle of some soft dark fabric
+interwoven with a silvery sheen. Far across the mouth of the Bosphorus
+the minarets of Scutari came faintly into view, and on the Stamboul side
+the few lingering lamps which had outlasted the darkness, upon the lofty
+minarets, paled and lost their yellow color, and then ceased to shine,
+outdone in their turn by the rosy morning light. A wonderful stillness
+had fallen on the great city, as one by one the tired parties of friends
+had gone to rest, to shorten the day of fasting by prolonging their
+sleep till late in the hot afternoon. The clank of some capstan on one
+of the ferry-boats struck loud and clear on the still air, as the
+reluctant sailors and firemen prepared for their first run to the Black
+Sea, or across to Kadi Köi on the Sea of Marmara. Paul turned and looked
+towards the mighty dome of Santa Sophia, and his haggard face was almost
+as pale as the white walls. He lingered still, and suddenly the sun
+sprang up behind the Serai, and gilded the delicate spires, and caught
+the gold of the crescents on the mosques, and shone full upon the broad
+water. Paul followed the light as it touched one glorious building after
+another, and his hand trembled convulsively on the railing. Somewhere in
+that great awakening city--his brother was somewhere, alive or dead,
+amongst those white walls and glittering crescents and towering
+minarets--somewhere, and he must be found. Paul bent his head, and
+turning away hurried across the bridge, and plunged once more into
+Stamboul, alone as he had come.
+
+The streets were deserted, and the early morning air was full of the
+smell of thousands of extinguished oil lamps, that peculiar and
+pervading odor which suggests past revelry, sleepless hours, and the
+vanity of turning night into day. It oppressed Paul's overwrought
+senses, as he passed the melancholy remains of the illumination before
+the post-office and the Sultan Validé mosque, and he hurried on towards
+the more secluded streets leading to Santa Sophia, in which the night's
+gayety had left no perceptible signs. At last he came to the narrow lane
+behind the huge pile, feeling that he had at last reached the end of his
+five hours' tramp.
+
+There stood the carriage, all dusty with the night's driving, looking
+dilapidated and forlorn; the tired horses drooped their heads in the
+flaccid and empty canvas nose-bags. The extinguished lamps were black
+with the smoke from the last flare of their sputtering wicks. The
+coachman lay inside, snoring,--a mere heap of cloth and brass buttons
+surmounted by a shapeless fez. On the stone steps leading down to the
+church sat the kaváss; his head had fallen on the low parapet behind
+him, and his half-shaved scalp was bare. His face was deadly pale, and
+his mouth was wide open as he slept, breathing heavily; his left hand
+rested on the hilt of his scimiter; his right was extended, palm
+upwards, on the stone step on which he sat, the very picture of
+exhaustion.
+
+At any other time Paul would have laughed at the scene. But he was very
+far from mirth now, as he bent down and laid his hand upon the sleeping
+kaváss's shoulder.
+
+
+
+
+III.
+
+
+At ten o'clock on that morning, Paul and the kaváss went on board the
+steam launch at Beschik Tasch, the landing most convenient for persons
+coming from the upper part of Pera. They had done everything possible,
+and it was manifestly Paul's duty to inform his chief of the occurrences
+of the night. The authorities had been put in possession of the details
+of Alexander's disappearance, and the scanty machinery of the Stamboul
+police had been set in motion; notice had been given at every hotel and
+circulated to every place of resort, and it was impossible that if
+Alexander showed himself in Pera he should escape observation, even if
+he desired to do so. But Stamboul was not Pera, and as Paul gave the
+order to steam to Buyukdere he resolutely turned his back on the eastern
+shore of the Golden Horn, unable to bear the sight of the buildings so
+intimately associated with his night's search. He was convinced that his
+brother was in Stamboul, and he knew that the search in Pera was a mere
+formality. He knew, also, that to find any one in Stamboul was only
+possible provided the person were free, or at least able to give some
+sign of his presence; and he began to believe that Alexander had fallen
+a victim to some rash prank. He had, perhaps, repeated his folly of the
+previous afternoon,--had wandered into the streets, had foolishly
+ventured to look too closely at a pair of black eyes, and had been
+spirited away by the prompt vengeance of the lady's attendants.
+
+But Paul's speculations concerning the fate of his brother were just now
+interrupted by the consideration of the difficulties which lay before
+him. Cold and resolute by nature, he found himself in a position in
+which any man's calmness would have been shaken. He knew that he must
+tell his tale to his chief, and he knew that he was to blame for not
+having watched Alexander more closely. It was improbable that any one
+who had not been present could understand how, in the intense interest
+caused by the ceremony, Paul could have overlooked his brother's
+departure from the gallery. But not only had Paul failed to notice his
+going; the kaváss had not observed the lost man's movements any more
+than Paul himself. It was inconceivable to any one except Paul that
+Alexander should have been capable of creeping past him and the soldier,
+on tip-toe, purposely eluding observation; nevertheless, such an action
+would not be unnatural to his character. He had perhaps conceived a
+sudden desire to go down into the church and view the ceremony more
+closely. He must have known that both his companions would forcibly
+prevent him from such a course, and it was like him to escape them,
+laughing to himself at their carelessness. The passion for adventure was
+in his blood, and his training had not tended to cool it; fate had
+thrown an attractive possibility into his way, and he had seized the
+opportunity of doing something unusual, and annoying his more prudent
+brother at the same time.
+
+But though Paul understood this clearly enough, he felt that it would be
+anything but easy to make it clear to his chief; and yet, if he did not
+succeed in doing so, it would be hard for him to account for his
+carelessness, and he might spend a very unpleasant season of waiting
+until the missing man was found. In such a case as this, Paul was too
+good a diplomatist not to tell the truth very exactly. Indeed, he was
+always a truthful man, according to his lights; but had it been
+necessary to shield his brother's reputation in any way, he would have
+so arranged his story as not to tell any more of the truth than was
+necessary. What had occurred was probably more to his own discredit than
+to Alexander's, and Paul reflected that, on the other hand, there was
+no need to inform the ambassador of the quarrel on the previous
+afternoon, since the chief had overheard it, and had himself interposed
+to produce quiet, if not peace. He resolved, therefore, to tell every
+particular, from the moment of his arrival with Alexander at the Vinegar
+Sellers' Landing to the time of his leaving Pera, that morning, on his
+way back to Buyukdere.
+
+There was some relief in having thus decided upon the course he should
+follow; but the momentary satisfaction did not in the least lighten the
+burden that weighed upon his heart. His anxiety was intense, and he
+could not escape it, nor find any argument whereby to alleviate it. He
+did not love his brother, or at least had never loved him before; but we
+often find in life that a sudden fear for the safety of an individual,
+for whom we believe we care nothing, brings out a latent affection which
+we had not expected to feel. The bond of blood is a very strong one, and
+asserts itself in extreme moments with an unsuspected tenacity which
+works wonders, and which astonishes ourselves. The silken cord is
+slender, but the hands must be strong that can break it. In spite of all
+the misery his brother had caused him in boyhood, in spite of the
+coolness which had existed between them in later years, in spite of the
+humiliation he had so often suffered in seeing Alexander preferred
+before him, yet at this moment, when, for a time, the only man who bore
+his name had suddenly disappeared from the scene of life, Paul
+discovered deep down in his heart a strange sympathy for the lost man.
+He blamed himself bitterly for his carelessness, and, going back in his
+memory, he recalled with sorrow the hard words which had passed between
+them. He would have given much to be able to revoke the past and to
+weave more affection into his remembrance of his brother; and at the
+idea that he might perhaps never see him again, he turned pale, and
+twisted his fingers uneasily in his agitation.
+
+Meanwhile, the launch steamed bravely against the current, deftly
+avoiding the swift eddies under the skillful hand of the pilot,
+slackening her pace to let a big ferry-boat cross before her from Europe
+to Asia, facing the fierce stream at Bala Hissar,--the devil's stream,
+as the Turks call it,--and finally ploughing through the rushing waters
+of Yeni Köj round the point where the Therapia pier juts out into the
+placid bay of Buyukdere. Paul could see far down the pier the white
+gates of the Russian embassy, and when, some ten minutes later, the
+launch ran alongside the landing, he gathered his courage with all his
+might, and stepped boldly ashore, and entered the grounds, the kaváss
+following him with bent head and dejected looks.
+
+His excellency the Russian ambassador was seated in his private study,
+alternately sipping a cup of tea and puffing at a cigarette. The green
+blinds were closed, and the air of the luxurious little apartment was
+cool and refreshing. The diplomatist had very little to do, as no
+business could be transacted until after the Bairam feast, which begins
+with the new moon succeeding the month Ramazán; he sat late over his
+tea, smoking and turning over a few letters, while he enjoyed the gentle
+breeze which found its way into his room with the softened light. He was
+a gray-headed man, but not old. His keen gray eyes seemed exceedingly
+alive to every sight presented to them, and the lines on his face were
+the expression of thought and power rather than of age. He was tall,
+thin, and soldier-like, extremely courteous in manner and speech, but
+grave and not inclined to mirth; he belonged to that class of active men
+in whom the constant exercise of vitality and intelligence appears to
+prolong life instead of exhausting its force, who possess a constitution
+in which the body is governed by the mind, and who, being generally
+little capable of enjoying the pleasure of the moment, find it easy to
+devote their energies to the attainment of an object in the future.
+Count Ananoff was the ideal diplomatist: cautious, far-sighted,
+impenetrable, and exact, outwardly ceremonious and dignified, not too
+skeptical of other men's qualities nor too confident of his own. His
+convictions might be summed up, according to the old Russian joke, in
+the one word Nabuchadnezar,--_Na Bogh ad ne Czar_,--"There is no God but
+the Czar."
+
+As Paul entered the ambassador's study, he was glad that he had always
+been on good terms with his chief. Indeed, there was much sympathy
+between them, and it might well have been predicted at that time that
+Paul would some day become just such a man as he under whom he now
+served. Convinced as he was that in his present career quite as much of
+success depended upon the manner of carrying out a scheme as on the
+scheme itself, Paul had long come to the conclusion that no manner could
+possibly be so effective as that of Count Ananoff, and that in order to
+cultivate it the utmost attention must be bestowed upon the study of his
+chief's motives. Himself grave and cautious, he possessed the two main
+elements noticeable in the character of his model, and to acquire the
+rest could only be a matter of time. The ambassador noticed the ease
+with which Paul comprehended his point of view, and fancied that he saw
+in his secretary a desire to imitate himself, which of course was
+flattering. The result was that a sincere good feeling existed between
+the two, made up of a genuine admiration on the one side, and of
+considerable self-satisfaction on the other. Patoff felt that the moment
+had come when he must test the extent of the regard his chief felt for
+him, and, considering the difficulty of his position and the personal
+anxiety he felt for his brother, it is not surprising that he was
+nervous and ill at ease.
+
+"I have a painful story to tell, excellency," he said, standing before
+the broad writing-desk at which the count was sitting. The latter looked
+up from his tea.
+
+"Be seated," he said gravely, but fixing a keen look on Paul's haggard
+face.
+
+"I will tell you everything, with all the details," said Patoff, sitting
+down; and he forthwith began his story. The narrative was clear and
+connected, and embraced the history of the night from the time when Paul
+had left Buyukdere with his brother to the time of his return. Nothing
+was omitted which he could remember, but when he had done he was
+conscious that he had only told the tale of his long search for the
+missing man. He had thrown no light upon the cause of the disappearance.
+The ambassador looked very grave, and his thoughtful brows knit
+themselves together, while he never took his eyes from Paul's face.
+
+"It is very serious," he said at last. "Will you kindly explain to me,
+if you can do so without indiscretion, the causes of the violent quarrel
+which took place between you yesterday afternoon?"
+
+Paul had foreseen the question, and proceeded to detail the occurrences
+in the Valley of Roses, explaining the part he had played, and how he
+had remonstrated with Alexander. The latter, he said, had lost his
+temper, after they had got home.
+
+"I would not tell that story to any one else," said Paul, in conclusion.
+"It shows the disposition of my brother, and does him no credit. It was
+a foolish escapade, but I should be sorry to have it known. I expected
+that a complaint would have been lodged already."
+
+"None has been made. Is the kaváss who went with you come back?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Do you think," said the count, looking quietly at Paul, "that he can
+tell us anything you have forgotten?"
+
+There was a peculiar emphasis upon the last words which did not escape
+the secretary, though in that first moment he did not understand what
+was meant.
+
+"No," he answered, quite simply, returning his chief's look with perfect
+calmness. "I do not believe he can tell anything more. I will call him."
+
+"By all means. There is the bell," said the ambassador. Paul rang, and
+sent the servant to call his kaváss, who had been waiting, and appeared
+immediately, looking very ill and exhausted with the fatigue of the
+night. He trembled visibly, as he stood before the table and made his
+military salute, bringing his right hand quickly to his mouth, then to
+his forehead, and letting it drop again to his side. Count Ananoff
+cross-examined him with short, sharp questions. The man was very pale,
+and stammered his replies, but the extraordinary accuracy with which he
+recounted the details already given by Patoff did not escape the
+diplomatist.
+
+"Have you anything more to tell?" asked the ambassador, at last.
+
+"It was not my fault, Effendim," said the kaváss, in great agitation.
+"Paul Effendi and I were looking at the people, and when we turned
+Alexander Effendi was gone, and we could not find him. I had warned him
+beforehand not to separate himself from us"----
+
+"Do you think he can be found?" inquired Ananoff, cutting short the
+man's repetitions.
+
+"Surely, the Effendi can be found," returned the kaváss. "But it may
+take time."
+
+"Why should it take time? Unless he is injured or imprisoned somewhere,
+he ought to find his way to Pera to-day."
+
+"Effendim, he may have strayed into the dark streets. If the _bekji_
+found him without a lantern, he would be arrested, according to the
+law."
+
+"He had our lantern," said Paul. "We could not find it."
+
+"That is true," answered the kaváss, in dejected tones. "There is the
+Persian ambassador, Effendim," he said, with a sudden revival of hope.
+
+"What can he do?" asked the count.
+
+"He is lord over all the donkey-drivers in Stamboul, Effendim. The
+Sultan allows him to exact tribute of them, which is the most part of
+his fortune.[2] Perhaps if he gave orders that they should all be
+beaten unless they found Alexander Effendi, they would find him. They go
+everywhere and see everybody."
+
+[Note 2: Fact.]
+
+"That is an idea," said the ambassador, hardly able to repress a grim
+smile. "I will send word to his excellency at once. I have no doubt but
+that he will do it."
+
+"But it was not my fault"--began the kaváss again.
+
+"I am not sure of that," answered the diplomatist. "If you find him, you
+will be excused."
+
+"I think the man is not to be blamed," remarked Paul, who had not
+forgotten the anxiety the kaváss had shown in trying to find Alexander.
+"It is my belief that my brother's disappearance did not occur in any
+ordinary way."
+
+"I think so, too," replied the count. "You may go," he said to the
+soldier, who at once left the room. A short silence followed his
+departure.
+
+"Monsieur Patoff," resumed the elder man presently, "you are in a very
+dangerous and distressing position."
+
+"Distressing," said Paul. "Not dangerous, so far as I can see."
+
+"Let us be frank," answered the other. "Alexander Patoff is your elder
+brother. You feel that he had too large a share of your father's
+fortune. You have never liked him. He came here without an invitation,
+and made himself very disagreeable to you. You had a violent quarrel
+yesterday afternoon, and you were justly provoked,--quite justly, I have
+no doubt. You go to Stamboul at night with only one man to attend you.
+You come back without your rich, overbearing, intolerable brother. What
+will the world say to all that?"
+
+In spite of his pallor, the blood rushed violently to Paul's face, and
+he sprang from his chair in the wildest excitement.
+
+"You have no right--you do not mean to say it--Great God! How can you
+think of such a"----
+
+"I do not think it," said the ambassador, seizing him by the arm and
+trying to calm him. "I do not think anything of the kind. Command
+yourself, and be a man. Sit down,--there, be reasonable. I only mean to
+put you in your right position."
+
+"You will drive me mad," answered Paul in low tones, sinking into the
+chair again.
+
+"Now listen to me," continued the count, "and understand that you are
+listening to your best friend. The world will not fail to say that you
+have spirited away your brother,--got rid of him, in short, for your own
+ends. There is no one but a Turkish soldier to prove the contrary. No,
+do not excite yourself again. I am telling you the truth. I know
+perfectly well that Alexander has lost himself by his own folly, but I
+must foresee what other people will say, in case he is not found"----
+
+"But he must be found!" interrupted Paul. "I say he shall be found!"
+
+"Yes, so do I. But there is just a possibility that he may not be found.
+Meanwhile, the alarm is given. The story will be in every one's mouth
+to-night, and to-morrow you will be assailed with all manner of
+questions. My dear Patoff, if Alexander does not turn up in a few days,
+you had better go away, until the whole matter has blown over. You can
+safely leave your reputation in my hands, as well as the care of finding
+your brother, if he can be found at all, and you will be spared much
+that is painful and embarrassing. I will arrange that you may be
+transferred for a year to some distant post, and when the mystery is
+cleared up you can come back and brave your accusers."
+
+"But," said Paul, who had grown pale again, "it seems to me impossible
+that I could be accused of murdering my brother on such slender grounds,
+even if the worst were to happen and he were never found. It is an awful
+imputation to put upon a man. I do not see how any one would dare to
+suggest such a thing."
+
+"In the first place," answered the ambassador, arguing the point as he
+would have discussed the framing of a dispatch, "the Turks are very
+cunning, and they hate us. They will begin by saying that you had an
+interest in disposing of Alexander. They will search out the whole
+story, and will assert the fact because they will be safe in saying that
+there is no evidence to the contrary. They will take care that the
+suggestion shall reach our ears, and that it shall spread throughout our
+little society. What can you answer to the question, 'Where is your
+brother?' If people do not ask it, they will let you know that it is in
+their hearts."
+
+"I do not know," said Paul, stunned by the possible truth of his chief's
+argument.
+
+"Exactly. You do not know, nor I either. But if you stay here, you will
+have to fight for your own reputation. If you are absent, I can put down
+such scandal by my authority, and it will soon be forgotten. I do not
+believe that this disappearance can remain a secret forever. At present,
+and for some time to come, it is only a disappearance, and it will be
+expected that your brother may yet come back. But when months are
+past,--should such a catastrophe occur,--people will find another word,
+and the murder of Alexander Patoff will be the common topic of
+conversation."
+
+"It is awful to think of," murmured Paul. "But why do you suppose that
+he will not come back? He may have got into some scrape, and he may
+appear this evening. There is hope yet and for days to come."
+
+"I am sorry to say I do not believe it," answered the count. "There have
+been several disappearances of insignificant individuals since I have
+been here. No pains were spared to find them, but no one ever obtained
+the smallest trace of their fate. They were probably murdered for the
+small sums of money they carried. Of course there is possibility, but I
+think there is very little hope."
+
+"But I cannot bear to think that poor Alexander should have come to
+such an end," cried Paul. "I could not go away feeling that I had left
+anything untried in searching for him. I never loved him, God forgive
+me! But he was my brother, and my mother's favorite son. He was with me,
+and by my carelessness he lost himself. Who is to tell her that? No, I
+cannot go until I know what has become of him."
+
+"My friend," said old Ananoff gently, "you have all my sympathy, and you
+shall have all my help. I will myself write to your mother, if Alexander
+does not return in a week. But if in a month he is not heard of, there
+will be no hope at all. Then you must go away, and I will shut the
+mouths of the gossips. Now go and rest, for you are exhausted. Be quite
+sure that between the measures you have taken yourself and those which I
+shall take, everything possible will be done."
+
+Paul rose unsteadily to his feet, and took the count's hand. Then,
+without a word, he went to his pavilion, and gave himself up to his own
+agonizing thoughts.
+
+The ambassador lost no time, for he felt how serious the case was. In
+spite of the heat, he proceeded to Stamboul at once, visited Santa
+Sophia, and explored every foot of the gallery whence Alexander had
+disappeared, but without discovering any trace. He asked questions of
+the warden of the church, the scowling Turk who had admitted the
+brothers on the previous night; but the man only answered that Allah was
+great, and that he knew nothing of the circumstances, having left the
+two gentlemen in charge of their kaváss. Then the count went to the
+house of the Persian ambassador, and obtained his promise to aid in the
+search by means of his army of donkey-drivers. He went in person to the
+Ottoman Bank, to the chief of police, to every office through which he
+could hope for any information. Returning to Buyukdere, he sent notes to
+all his colleagues, informing them of what had occurred, and requesting
+their assistance in searching for the lost man. At last he felt that he
+had done everything in his power, and he desisted from his labors. But,
+as he had said, he had small expectation of ever hearing again from
+Lieutenant Alexander Patoff, and he meditated upon the letter he had
+promised to write to the missing man's mother. He was shocked at the
+accident, and he felt a real sympathy for Paul, besides the
+responsibility for the safety of Russian subjects in Turkey, which in
+some measure rested with him.
+
+As for Paul, he paced his room for an hour after he had left his chief,
+and then at last he fell upon the divan, faint with bodily fatigue and
+exhausted by mental anxiety. He slept a troubled sleep for some hours,
+and did not leave his apartments again that day.
+
+The view of the situation presented to him by Count Ananoff had stunned
+him almost beyond the power of thought, and when he tried to think his
+reflections only confirmed his fears. He saw himself branded as a
+murderer, though the deed could not be proved, and he knew how such an
+accusation, once put upon a man, will cling to him in spite of the lack
+of evidence. He realized with awful force the meaning of the question,
+"Where is your brother?" and he understood how easily such a question
+would suggest itself to the minds of those who knew his position. That
+question which was put to the first murderer, and which will be put to
+the last, has been asked many times of innocent men, and the mere fact
+that they could find no ready answer has sufficed to send them to their
+death. Why should it not be the same with him? Until he could show them
+his brother, they would have a right to ask, and they would ask,
+rejoicing in the pain inflicted. Paul cursed the day when Alexander had
+come to visit him, and he had received him with a show of satisfaction.
+Had he been more honest in showing his dislike, the poor fellow would
+perhaps have gone angrily away, but he would not have been lost in the
+night in the labyrinths of Stamboul. And then again Paul repented
+bitterly of the hard words he had spoken, and, working himself into a
+fever of unreasonable remorse, walked the floor of his room as a wild
+beast tramps in its cage.
+
+The night was interminable, though there were only six hours of
+darkness; but when the morning rose the light was more intolerable
+still, and Paul felt as though he must go mad from inaction. He dressed
+hastily, and went out into the cool dawn to wait for the first boat to
+Pera. Even the early shadows on the water reminded him of yesterday,
+when he had crossed Galata bridge on foot, still feeling some hope. He
+closed his eyes as he leaned upon the rail of the landing, wishing that
+the sun would rise and dispel at least some portion of his sorrow.
+
+He reached Pera, and spent the whole day in fruitless inquiries. In the
+evening he returned, and the next morning he went back again; sleeping
+little, hardly eating at all, speaking to no one he knew, and growing
+hourly more thin and haggard, till the Cossacks at the gate hardly
+recognized him. But day after day he searched, and all the countless
+messengers, officials, guides, porters, and people of every class
+searched, too, attracted by the large reward which the ambassador
+offered for any information concerning Alexander Patoff. But not the
+slightest clue could be obtained. Alexander Patoff had disappeared
+hopelessly and completely, and had left no more trace than if he had
+been thrown into the Bosphorus, with a couple of round shot at his neck.
+The days lengthened into weeks, and the weeks became a month, and still
+Paul hoped against all possibility of hope, and wearied the officials of
+every class with his perpetual inquiries.
+
+Count Ananoff had long since communicated the news of Alexander's
+disappearance to the authorities in St. Petersburg, thinking it barely
+possible that he might have gone home secretly, out of anger against his
+brother. But the only answer was an instruction to leave nothing untried
+in attempting to find the lost man, provided that no harm should be
+done to the progress of certain diplomatic negotiations then proceeding.
+As the count had foreseen, the Turkish authorities, while exhibiting
+considerable alacrity in the prosecution of the search, vaguely hinted
+that Paul Patoff himself was the only person able to give a satisfactory
+explanation of the case; and in due time these hints found their way
+into the gossip of the Bosphorus tea-parties. Paul was not unpopular,
+but in spite of his studied ease in conversation there was a reserve in
+his manner which many persons foolishly resented; and they were not slow
+to find out that his brother's disappearance was very odd,--so strange,
+they said, that it seemed impossible that Paul should know nothing of
+it. The ambassador thought it was time to speak to him on the subject.
+Moreover, in his present state of excitement Paul was utterly useless in
+the embassy, and the work which had accumulated during the month of
+Ramazán was now unusually heavy. Count Ananoff had arranged this matter,
+without speaking of it to any one, a fortnight after Alexander's
+disappearance, and now a secretary who had been in Athens had arrived,
+ostensibly on a visit to the ambassador. But Ananoff had Paul's
+appointment to Teheran in his pocket, with the permission to take a
+month's leave for procuring his outfit for Persia.
+
+The explanation was inevitable. It was impossible that things should go
+on any longer as they had proceeded during the last fortnight; and now
+that there was really no hope whatever, and people were beginning to
+talk as they had not talked before, the best thing to be done was to
+send Paul away. Count Ananoff came to his rooms one morning, and found
+him staring at the wall, his untasted breakfast on the table beside him,
+his face very thin and drawn, looking altogether like a man in a severe
+illness. The ambassador explained the reason of his visit, reminded him
+of what had been said at their first interview, and entreated him to
+spend his month's leave in regaining some of his former calmness.
+
+"Go to the Crimea, or to Tiflis," he said. "You will not be far from
+your way. I will write to Madame Patoff."
+
+"You are kind,--too kind," answered Paul. "Thank you, but I will go to
+my mother myself. I will be back in time," he added bitterly. "She will
+not care to keep me, now that poor Alexander is gone. Yes, I know; you
+need not tell me. There is no hope left. We shall not even find his body
+now. But I must tell my mother. I have already written, for I thought it
+better. I told her the story, just as it all happened. She has never
+answered my letter. I fancy she must have had news from some one else,
+or perhaps she is ill."
+
+"Do not go," said his chief, looking sorrowfully at Paul's white face
+and wasted, nervous hands. "You are not able to bear the strain of such
+a meeting. I will write to her, and explain."
+
+"No," answered Paul firmly. "I must go myself. There is no help for it.
+May I leave to-day? I think there is a boat to Varna. As for my
+strength, I am as strong as ever, though I am a little thinner than I
+was."
+
+The old diplomatist shook his head gravely, but he knew that it was of
+no use to try and prevent Paul from undertaking the journey. After all,
+if he could bear it, it was the most manly course. He had done his best,
+had labored in the search as no one else could have labored, and if he
+were strong enough he was entitled to tell his own tale.
+
+The two men parted affectionately that day, and when Paul was fairly on
+board the Varna boat Count Ananoff owned to himself that he had lost one
+of the best secretaries he had ever known.
+
+
+
+
+IV.
+
+
+Three days later Paul descended from the train which runs twice a day
+from Pforzheim to Constance, at a station in the heart of the Swabian
+Black Forest. The name painted in black Gothic letters over the neat,
+cottage-like building before which the train stopped was _Teinach_. Paul
+had never heard of the place until his mother had telegraphed that she
+was there, and he looked about him with curiosity, while a dark youth,
+in leather breeches, rough stockings, and a blouse, possessed himself of
+the traveler's slender luggage, and began to lead the way to the hotel.
+
+It was late in the afternoon, and the sinking sun had almost touched the
+top of the hill. On all sides but one the pines and firs presented a
+black, absorbing surface to the light, while at the upper end of the
+valley the ancient and ruined castle of Zavelstein caught the sun's
+rays, and stood clearly out against the dark background. It is
+impossible to imagine anything more monotonous in color than this
+boundless forest of greenish-black trees, and it is perhaps for this
+reason that the ruins of the many old fortresses, which once commanded
+every eminence from Weissenstein to the Boden-See, are seen to such
+singular advantage. The sober gray or brown masonry, which anywhere else
+would offer but a neutral tint in the landscape, here constitutes high
+lights as compared with the impenetrable shadows of the woods; and even
+the sky above, generally seen through the thick masses of evergreen,
+seems to be of a more sombre blue. In the deep gorges the black water of
+the Nagold foams and tumbles among the hollow rocks, or glides smoothly
+over the long and shallow races by which the jointed timber rafts are
+shot down to the Neckar, and thence to the Rhine and the ocean, many
+hundreds of miles away. For the chief wealth of Swabia and of the
+kingdom of Würtemberg lies in the splendid timber of the forest, which
+is carefully preserved, and in which no tree is felled without the order
+of the royal foresters. Indeed, Nature herself does most of the felling,
+for in winter fierce wind-storms gather and spread themselves in the
+winding valleys, tearing down acres of trees upon the hill-sides in
+broad, straight bands, and leaving them there, uprooted and fallen over
+each other in every direction, like a box of wooden matches carelessly
+emptied upon a dark green table. Then come the wood-cutters in the
+spring, and lop off the branches, and roll the great logs down to the
+torrent below, and float them away in long flexible rafts, which spin
+down the smooth water-ways at a giddy speed, or float silently along the
+broad, still reaches of the widening river, or dash over the dangerous
+rapids, skillfully guided by the wild raftsmen, bare-legged and armed
+with long poles, whose practiced feet support them as safely on the
+slippery, rolling timber as ours would carry us on the smoothest
+pavement.
+
+At Teinach the valley is wider than in other places, and a huge
+establishment, built over the wonderful iron springs, rears above the
+tops of the trees its walls of mingled stone, wood and stucco, gayly
+painted and ornamented with balconies and pavilions, in startling and
+unpleasant contrast with the sober darkness of the surroundings. The
+broad post-road runs past the hotels and bath-houses, and a great
+garden, or rather an esplanade with a few scattered beds of flowers, has
+been cleared and smoothed for the benefit of the visitors, who take
+their gentle exercise in the wide walks, or sip their weak German
+coffee, to the accompaniment of a small band, at the wooden tables set
+up under the few remaining trees. The place is little known, either to
+tourists or invalids, beyond the limits of the kingdom of Würtemberg,
+but its waters are full of healing properties, and the seclusion of the
+little village amidst the wild scenery of the Black Forest is refreshing
+to soul and body.
+
+Paul followed his guide along the winding path which leads from the
+railway station to the hotel, smelling with delight the aromatic odor of
+the pines, and enjoying the coolness of the evening air. The fatigues of
+the last month and of the rapid journey from Varna had told upon his
+strength, as the fearful anxiety he had endured had wearied his brain.
+He felt, as he walked, how delicious it would be to forget all the past,
+to shoulder a broad axe, and to plunge forever into the silent forest;
+to lead the life of one of those rude woodmen, without a thought at
+night save of the trees to be felled to-morrow; to rise in the morning
+with no care save to accomplish the daily task before night; to sleep in
+summer on the carpet of sweet pine needles, and to watch the stars peep
+through the lofty branches of the ancient trees; in winter to lie by the
+warm fire of some mountain hut, with no disturbing dreams or nervous
+wakings, master of himself, his axe, and his freedom.
+
+But the thought of such peace only made the present moment more painful,
+and Paul bent his head as though to shut out all pleasant thoughts, till
+presently he reached the wide porch of the hotel, and, summoning his
+courage, asked for Madame Patoff.
+
+"Number seventeen," said the Swiss clerk, laconically, to the waiter who
+stood at hand, by way of intimating that he should conduct the gentleman
+to the number he had mentioned. As Paul turned to follow the functionary
+in the white tie and the shabby dress-coat, he was stopped by a
+thick-set, broad-shouldered man, with gold-rimmed spectacles and a bushy
+beard, who addressed him in English:--
+
+"I beg your pardon, I heard you ask for Madame Patoff. Have I the honor
+of addressing her son?"
+
+"Yes," said Paul, bowing stiffly, for the man was evidently a gentleman.
+"May I ask to whom"----
+
+"I am Dr. Cutter," replied the other, interrupting him. "Madame Patoff
+is ill, and I am taking care of her."
+
+The average doctor would have said, "I am attending her," and Paul,
+whose English mother had brought him up to speak English as fluently and
+correctly as Russian, noticed the shade in the expression. But he was
+startled by the news of his mother's illness, and did not stop to think
+of such a trifle.
+
+"What is the matter with her?" he asked briefly, turning from the desk
+of the hotel office, and walking across the vestibule by Dr. Cutter's
+side.
+
+"I don't know," replied the doctor, quietly.
+
+"You are a strange physician, sir," said Paul sternly. "You tell me that
+you are attending my mother, and yet you do not know what is the matter
+with her."
+
+The doctor was not in the least offended by Paul's sharp answer. He
+smiled a little, but instantly became grave again, as he answered,--
+
+"I am not a practicing physician. I am a specialist, and I devote my
+life to the study of mental complaints. Your mother is ill in mind, not
+in body."
+
+"Mad!" exclaimed Paul, turning very pale. His life seemed to be nothing
+but a series of misfortunes.
+
+"Certainly not hopelessly insane," replied Dr. Cutter, in a musing tone.
+"She has suffered a terrible shock, as you may imagine."
+
+"Yes," said Paul, "of course. That is the reason why I have come all the
+way from Constantinople to see her. I could not go to my new post
+without telling her the whole story myself."
+
+"Her manner is very strange," returned the other. "That is the reason
+why I waited for you here. I could not have allowed you to see her
+without being warned. She has a strange delusion, and you ought to know
+it."
+
+"What is it?" asked Paul, in a thick voice.
+
+"It is a very delicate matter. Come out into the garden, and I will tell
+you what I know."
+
+The two men went out together, and walked slowly along the open path
+towards the woods. In the distance a few invalids moved painfully about
+the garden, or rested on the benches beneath the trees. Far off a party
+of children were playing and laughing merrily at their games.
+
+"It is a delicate matter," repeated Dr. Cutter. "In the first place, I
+must explain my own position here. I am an Englishman, devoted to
+scientific pursuits. Originally a physician, subsequently professor in
+one of our universities, I have given up both practice and professorship
+in order to be at liberty to follow my studies. I am often abroad, and I
+generally spend the summer in Switzerland or somewhere in South Germany.
+I was at Rugby with Madame Patoff's brother-in-law, John Carvel, whom I
+dare say you know, and I met Madame Patoff two years ago at Wiesbaden. I
+met her there again, last year, and this summer, as I was coming to the
+South, I found her in the same place,--little more than a month ago. In
+both the former years your brother Alexander came to visit her, on leave
+from St. Petersburg. I knew him, therefore, and was aware of her deep
+affection for him. This time I found her very much depressed in spirits
+because he had resolved to join you in Constantinople. Excuse me if I
+pain you by referring to him. It is unavoidable. One morning she told me
+that she had made up her mind to go to Turkey, traveling by easy stages
+through Switzerland to Italy, and thence by steamer to the East. She
+dreaded the long railway journey through Austria, and preferred the sea.
+She was in bad health, and seemed very melancholy, and I proposed to
+accompany her as far as the Italian frontier. We went to Lucerne, and
+thence to Como, where I intended to leave her. She chose to wait there a
+few days, in order to have her letters sent on to her before going to
+the East. Among those which came was a long letter from you, in which
+you told in detail the story of your brother's disappearance. Your
+mother was alone in her sitting-room when she received it, but the
+effect of the news was such that her maid found her lying insensible in
+her chair some time afterwards, and thought it best to call me. I easily
+revived her from the fit of fainting, and when she came to herself she
+thrust your letter into my hand, and insisted that I should read it. She
+was very hysterical, and I judged that I should comply with her request.
+The scene which followed was very painful."
+
+"Well?" asked Paul, who was visibly agitated. "What then?" he inquired
+rather sharply, seeing that Dr. Cutter was silent.
+
+"To be short about it," said the professor, "it has been evident to me
+from that moment that her mind is deranged. No argument can affect the
+distorted view she takes."
+
+"But what is the view? What does she think?" inquired Paul, trembling
+with excitement.
+
+"She thinks that you were the cause of your brother's death," answered
+Cutter shortly.
+
+"That I murdered him?" cried Paul, feeling that his worst fears were
+realized.
+
+"Poor lady!" exclaimed the professor, fixing his gray eyes on Paul's
+face. "It is of no use to go over the story. That is what she thinks."
+
+Paul turned from his companion, and leaned against a tree for support.
+He was utterly overcome, and unmanned for the moment. Cutter stood
+beside him, fearing lest he might fall, for he could see that he was
+wasted with anxiety and weak with fatigue. But he possessed great
+strength of will and that command of himself which is acquired by living
+much among strangers. After a few seconds he stood erect, and, making a
+great effort, continued to walk upon the road, steadying himself with
+his stick.
+
+"Go on, please," he said. "How did you come here?"
+
+"You will understand that I could not leave Madame Patoff at such a
+time," continued the professor, inwardly admiring the strength of his
+new acquaintance. "She insisted upon returning northwards, saying that
+she would go to her relations in England. Fearing lest her mind should
+become more deranged, I suggested traveling slowly by an unfrequented
+route. I intended to take her to England by short stages, endeavoring to
+avoid all places where she might, at this season, have met any of her
+numerous acquaintances. I chose to cross the Splügen Pass to the Lake of
+Constance. Thence we came here by the Nagold railway. I propose to take
+her to the Rhine, where we will take the Rhine boat to Rotterdam. Nobody
+travels by the Rhine nowadays. You got my telegram at Vienna? Yes. Yours
+went to Wiesbaden, was telegraphed to Como, and thence here. I had just
+time to send an answer directed to you at Vienna, as a passenger by the
+Oriental Express, giving you the name of this place. I signed it with
+your mother's name."
+
+"She does not know I have left Constantinople, then?"
+
+"No. I feared that the news would have a bad effect. She receives her
+letters, of course, but telegrams often do harm to people in her
+state,--so I naturally opened yours."
+
+"Is she perfectly sane in all other respects?" asked Paul, speaking with
+an effort.
+
+"Perfectly."
+
+"Then she is not insane at all," said Paul, in a tone of conviction.
+
+"I do not understand you," answered the professor, staring at him in
+some surprise.
+
+"If you knew how she loved my poor brother, and how little she loves me,
+you would understand better. Without being insane, she might well
+believe that I had let him lose himself in Stamboul, or even that I had
+killed him. You read my letter,--you can remember how strange a story it
+was. There is nothing but the evidence of a Turkish soldier to show that
+I did not contribute to Alexander's disappearance."
+
+"It was certainly a very queer story," said the professor gravely.
+"Nevertheless, I am of opinion that Madame Patoff is under the
+influence of a delusion. I cannot think that if she were in her right
+mind she would insist as she does, and with such violence, that you are
+guilty of making away with your brother."
+
+"I must see her," said Paul firmly. "I have come from Constantinople to
+see her, and I cannot go back disappointed."
+
+"I think it would be a great mistake for you to seek an interview,"
+answered the professor, no less decidedly. "It might bring on a fit of
+anger."
+
+"Which might be fatal?" inquired Paul.
+
+"No, but which might affect her brain."
+
+"I do not think so. Pardon my contradicting you, professor, but I have a
+very strong impression that my mother is not in the least insane, and
+that I may succeed in bringing her to look at this dreadful business in
+its true light."
+
+"I fear not," answered Dr. Cutter sadly.
+
+"But you do not know," insisted Paul. "Unless you are perfectly sure
+that my mother is really mad, you can have no right to prevent my seeing
+her. I may possibly persuade her. I am the only one left," he added
+bitterly, "and I must be a son to her in fact as well as in relation. I
+cannot, for my own sake, let her go to our English relatives, with this
+story to tell, without at least contradicting it."
+
+"It is of no use to contradict it to her."
+
+"Of no use!" exclaimed Paul, impatiently. "Do you think that if the
+slightest suspicion, however unfounded, had rested on me, my chief would
+have allowed me to leave Constantinople without clearing it up? I should
+think that anybody in his senses would see that!"
+
+"Yes,--anybody in his or her senses," answered the professor coldly.
+
+Paul stopped in his walk, and faced the strong man with the gold
+spectacles and the intelligent features who had thus obstinately thrust
+himself in his path.
+
+"Sir," he said, "I know you very slightly, and I do not want to insult
+you. But if you continue to oppose me, I shall begin to think that you
+have some other object in view besides a concern for my mother's
+health." His drawn and haggard features wore an expression of desperate
+determination as he spoke, and his cold blue eyes began to brighten
+dangerously.
+
+"I have nothing more to say," replied the scientist, meeting his look
+with perfect steadiness. "I admit the justice of your argument. I can
+only implore you to take my advice, and to reflect on what you are
+doing. I have no moral right to oppose you."
+
+"No," said Paul, "and you must not prevent this meeting. I wish to see
+her only once. Then I will go. I need not tell you that I am deeply
+indebted to you for the assistance you have rendered to my mother in
+this affair. If she does not believe my story, she will certainly not
+tolerate my presence, and I venture to hope that you will see her safely
+to England. If possible, I should like to meet her to-night."
+
+"You shall," replied the professor. "But if any harm comes of it,
+remember that I protested against the meeting. That is all I ask."
+
+"I will remember," answered Paul quietly. Both men turned in their walk,
+and went back towards the hotel.
+
+"You must give me time to warn her of your presence," said Cutter, as
+they reached the steps.
+
+Paul nodded, and they both went in. Cutter disappeared up-stairs, and
+Patoff was shown to his room by a servant.
+
+"I shall probably leave to-morrow morning," he remarked, as the man
+deposited his effects in the corner, and looked round, waiting for
+orders. Paul threw himself on the bed, closing his eyes, and trying to
+collect his courage and his senses for this meeting, which had turned
+out so much more difficult than he had expected. Nevertheless, he was
+glad that Cutter had met him, and had warned him of the state of his
+mother's mind. He did not in the least believe her insane,--he almost
+wished that he could. Lying there on his bed, he remembered his youth,
+and the time when he had longed for some little portion of the affection
+lavished on his elder brother. He remembered how often he had in vain
+looked to his mother for a smile of approbation, and how he had ever
+been disappointed. He had grown up feeling that, by some fault not his
+own, he was disliked and despised, a victim to one of those unreasoning
+antipathies which parents sometimes feel for one of their children. He
+remembered how he had choked down his anger, swallowed his tears, and
+affected indifference to censure, until his child's heart had grown
+case-hardened and steely; asking nothing, doing his tasks for his own
+satisfaction, and finally taking a sad pleasure in that silence which
+was so frequently imposed upon him. Then he had grown up, and the sullen
+determination to outdo his brother in everything had got possession of
+his strong nature. He remembered how, coming home from school, he had
+presented his mother with the report which spoke of his final
+examinations as brilliant compared with Alexander's; how his mother had
+said a cold word of praise; and how he himself had turned silently away,
+able already, in his young self-dependence, to rejoice secretly over his
+victory, without demanding the least approbation from those who should
+have loved him best. He remembered, when his brother was an ensign in
+the guards, spoiled and reckless, making debts and getting into all
+kinds of trouble, how he himself had labored at the dry work assigned to
+him in the foreign office, without amusements, without pleasure, and
+without pocket money, toiling day and night to win by force that
+position which Alexander had got for nothing; never relaxing in his
+exertions, and scrupulous in the performance of his duties. Even in the
+present moment of anxiety he thought with satisfaction of his
+well-earned advancement, and of the promotion which could not now be far
+distant. He remembered himself a big, bony youth of twenty, and he
+reflected that he had made himself what he now was, the accomplished
+man of the world, the rising diplomatist among those of his years,
+steadily moving on to success. But he saw that he was the same to-day as
+he had been then; if he had not gained affection in his life, he had
+gained strength and hardness and indifference to opposition.
+
+Then this blow had come upon him. This brother, whom he had striven to
+surpass in everything, had been suddenly and mysteriously taken from his
+very side; and not that only, but the mother who had borne them both had
+put the crowning touch to her life-long injustice, and had accused him
+of being his brother's murderer,--accused him to a stranger, or to one
+who was little nearer than a stranger,--refusing to hear him in his own
+defense.
+
+He wished that she might be indeed mad. He hoped that she was beside
+herself with grief, even wholly insane, rather than that he should be
+forced to believe that she could be so unjust. What construction the
+world would put upon the catastrophe he knew from Count Ananoff; but
+surely he might expect his mother to be more merciful. A mother should
+hope against hope for her child's innocence, even when every one else
+has forsaken him; how was it possible that this mother of his could so
+harden her heart as to be first to suspect him of such a crime, and to
+be of all people the one to refuse to hear his defense! He hoped she was
+mad, as he lay there on his bed, in the little room of the hotel, in the
+gathering gloom.
+
+At last some one knocked at the door, and Professor Cutter entered,
+admitting a stream of light from the corridor outside. Paul sprang to
+his feet, pale and haggard.
+
+"You are in the dark," said the professor quietly, as he shut the door
+behind him. Then he struck a match, and lit the two candles which stood
+on each side of the mirror on the bare dressing-table.
+
+"Can I go now?" asked Paul. The scientist eyed him deliberately.
+
+"Pardon me," he said. "You have not thought of your appearance. You have
+traveled for three or four days, and look rather disheveled."
+
+Paul understood. The professor did not want him to be seen as he was. He
+was wild and excited, and his clothes were in disorder. Silently he
+unlocked his dressing-case and bag, and proceeded to dress himself.
+Cutter sat quietly watching him, as though still studying his character;
+for he was a student of men, and prided himself on his ability to detect
+people's peculiarities from their unconscious movements. Paul dressed
+rapidly, with the neatness of a man accustomed to wait upon himself. In
+twenty minutes his toilet was completed, during which time neither of
+the two spoke a word. At last Paul turned to the professor. "Did you
+have difficulty in arranging it?" he asked coldly.
+
+"Yes. But you may see her, if you go at once," answered the other.
+
+"I am ready," said Paul. "Let us go." They left the room, and went down
+the corridor together. The quiet and solitude of his room had
+strengthened Paul's nerves, and he walked more erect and with a firmer
+step than before. Presently the professor stopped before one of the
+doors.
+
+"Go in," he said. "This is a little passage room. Knock at the door
+opposite. She is there, and will receive you."
+
+Paul followed the professor's instructions, and knocked at the door
+within. A voice which he hardly recognized as his mother's bid him
+enter, and he was in the presence of Madame Patoff.
+
+A bright lamp, unshaded and filling the little sitting-room with a broad
+yellow light, stood upon the table. The details of the apartment were
+insignificant, and seemed to throw the figure of the seated woman into
+strong relief. She had been beautiful, and was beautiful still, though
+now in her fifty-second year. Her features were high and noble, and her
+rich dark hair was only lightly streaked with gray. Her eyes were
+brown, but of that brown which easily looks black when not exposed
+directly to the light. Her face was now very pale, but there was a
+slight flush upon her cheeks, which for a moment brought back a
+reflection of her former brilliant beauty. She was dressed entirely in
+black, and her thin white hands lay folded on the dark material of her
+gown; she wore no ring save the plain band of gold upon the third finger
+of her left hand.
+
+Paul entered, and closed the door behind him without taking his eyes
+from his mother. She rose from her seat as he came forward, as though to
+draw back. He came nearer, and bending low would have taken her hand,
+but she stepped backwards and withdrew it, while the flush darkened on
+her cheek.
+
+"Mother, will you not give me your hand?" he asked, in a low and broken
+voice.
+
+"No," she answered sternly. "Why have you come here?"
+
+"To tell you my brother's story," said Paul, drawing himself up and
+facing her. When he entered the room he had felt sorrow and pity for
+her, in spite of Cutter's account, and he would willingly have kneeled
+and kissed her hand. But her rough refusal brought vividly to his mind
+the situation.
+
+"You have told me already, by your letter," she replied. "Have you found
+him, that you come here? Do you think I want to see you--you?" she
+repeated, with rising emphasis.
+
+"I might think it natural that you should," said Paul, very coldly. "Be
+calm. I am going to-morrow. Had I supposed that you would meet me as you
+have, I should have spared myself the trouble of coming here."
+
+"Indeed you might!" she exclaimed scornfully. "Have you come here to
+tell me how you did it?" Her voice trembled hysterically.
+
+"Did what?" asked Paul, in the same cold tone. "Do you mean to accuse
+me to my face of my brother's death, as your doctor says you do behind
+my back? And if you dare to do so, do you think I will permit it without
+defending myself?"
+
+His mother looked at him for one moment; then, clasping her hands to her
+forehead, she staggered across the room, and hid her face in the
+cushions of the sofa, moaning and crying aloud.
+
+"Alexis, Alexis!" she sobbed. "Ah--my beloved son--if only I could have
+seen your dear face once more--to close your eyes--and kiss you--those
+sweet eyes--oh, my boy, my boy! Where are you--my own child?"
+
+She was beside herself with grief, and ceased to notice Paul's presence
+for some minutes, moaning, and tossing herself upon the sofa, and
+wringing her hands as the tears streamed down. Paul could not look
+unmoved on such a sight. He came near and touched her shoulder.
+
+"You must not give up all hope, mother," he said softly. "He may yet
+come back." He did not know what else to say, to comfort her.
+
+"Come back?" she cried hysterically, suddenly sitting up and facing him.
+"Come back, when you are standing there with his blood on your hands!
+You murderer! You monster! Go--for God's sake, go! Don't touch me! Don't
+look at me!"
+
+Paul was horrified at her violence, and could not believe that she was
+in her senses. But he had heard the words she had spoken, and the wound
+had entered into his soul. His look was colder than ever as he answered.
+
+"You are evidently insane," he said
+
+"Go--go, I tell you! Let me never see you again!" cried the frantic
+woman, rising to her feet, and staring at him with wide and blood-shot
+eyes.
+
+Paul went up to her, and quickly seizing her hands held them in his firm
+grip, without pressure, but so that she could not withdraw them.
+
+"Mother," he said, in low and distinct tones, "I believe you are mad. If
+you are not, God forgive you, and grant that you may forget what you
+have said. I am as innocent of Alexander's death--if indeed he is
+dead--as you are yourself."
+
+She seemed awed by his manner, and spoke more quietly.
+
+"Where is he, then? Paul, where is your brother?"
+
+"I cannot tell where he is. He left me and never returned, as the man
+who was with me can testify. I came here to tell you the story with my
+own lips. If you do not care to hear it, I will go, and you shall have
+your wish, for you need never see me again." He released her hands, and
+turned from her as though to leave the room.
+
+Madame Patoff's mood changed. Though Alexander was more like her, she
+possessed, too, some of the inexorable coldness which Paul had inherited
+so abundantly. She now drew herself up, and retired to the other side of
+the room. Paul's hand was on the door. Then she turned once more, and he
+saw that her face was as pale as death.
+
+"Go," she said, for the last time. "And above all, do not come back.
+Unless you can bring Alexis with you, and show him to me alive, I will
+always believe that you killed him, like the heartless, cruel monster
+you have been from a child."
+
+"Is that your last word, mother?" asked Paul, controlling his voice by a
+great effort.
+
+"My very last word, to you," she answered, pointing to the door.
+
+Paul went out, and left her alone. In the corridor he found Professor
+Cutter, calmly walking up and down. The scientist stopped, and looked at
+Paul's pale face.
+
+"Was I right?" he asked.
+
+"Too right."
+
+"I thought so," said the professor. "Do you mean to leave to-morrow?"
+
+"Yes," answered Paul quietly. "I must eat something. I am exhausted."
+
+He staggered against Dr. Cutter's strong arm, and caught himself by it.
+The professor held him firmly on his feet, and looked at him curiously.
+
+"You are worn out," he said. "Come with me."
+
+He led him through the corridor to the restaurant of the hotel, and
+poured out a glass of wine from a bottle which stood on a table set
+ready for dinner. Paul drank it slowly, stopping twice to look at his
+companion, who watched him with the eye of a physician.
+
+"Have you ever had any trouble with your heart?" asked the latter.
+
+"No," said Paul. "I have never been ill."
+
+"Then you must have been half starved on your journey," replied the
+professor, philosophically. "Let us dine here."
+
+They sat down, and ordered dinner. Paul was conscious that his manner
+must seem strange to his new acquaintance, and indeed what he felt was
+strange to himself. He was conscious that since he had left his mother
+his ideas had undergone a change. He was calmer than he had been before,
+and he could not account for it on the ground of his having begun to eat
+something. He was indeed exhausted, for he had hardly thought of taking
+any nourishment during his long journey, and the dinner revived him. But
+the odd consciousness that he was not exactly the same man he had been
+before had come upon him as he closed the door of his mother's room. Up
+to the time he had entered her presence he had been in a state of the
+wildest anxiety and excitement. The moment the interview was over his
+mind worked normally and easily, and he felt himself completely master
+of his own actions.
+
+Indeed, a change had taken place. He had gone to his mother feeling that
+he was accountable to her for his brother's disappearance, and prepared
+to tell his story with every detail he could recall, yet knowing that he
+was wholly innocent of the catastrophe, and that he had done everything
+in his power to find the lost man. But in that moment he was unconscious
+of two things: first, of the extreme hardness of his own nature; and
+secondly, that he had not in reality the slightest real love either for
+his mother or for Alexander. The moral sufferings of his childhood had
+killed the natural affections in him, and there had remained nothing in
+their stead but a strong sense of duty to his nearest relations. It was
+this sense which had prompted him to receive Alexander kindly, and to
+take the utmost care of him during his visit; and it was the same
+feeling which had impelled him to come to his mother, in order to give
+the best account he could of the terrible catastrophe. But the frightful
+accusation she had put upon him, and her stubborn determination to abide
+by it, had destroyed even that lingering sense of duty which he had so
+long obeyed. He knew now that he experienced no more pain at Alexander's
+loss than he would naturally have felt at the death of an ordinary
+acquaintance, and that his mother had absolved him by her crowning
+injustice from the last tie which bound him to his family. In the first
+month at Buyukdere, after Alexander had disappeared, he had been
+overcome by the horror of the situation, and by the knowledge that he
+must tell his mother of the loss of her favorite son. He had mistaken
+these two incentives to the search for a feeling of love for the missing
+man. A quarter of an hour with his mother had shown him how little love
+there had ever been between them, and her frantic behavior, which he
+felt was not insanity, had disgusted him, and had shown him that he was
+henceforth free from all responsibility towards her.
+
+The love of a child for his mother may be instinctive in the first
+instance, but as the child grows to manhood he becomes subject to
+reason; and that which reason first rejects is injustice, because
+injustice is the most destructive form of lie imaginable. Paul had borne
+much, had cherished to the last his feeling of duty and his outward
+rendering of respect, but his mother had gone too far. He felt that she
+was not mad, and that in accusing him she was only treating him as she
+had always done since he was a boy; giving way to her unaccountable
+dislike, and suffering her antipathy to get the better of all sense of
+truth.
+
+As Paul sat at table with Professor Cutter, he felt that the yoke had
+suddenly been taken from his neck, and that he was henceforth free to
+follow his own career and his own interests, without further thought for
+her who had cast him off. He was not a boy, to grow sulky at an unkind
+word, or to resent a fancied insult. He was a grown man, more than
+thirty years of age, and he fully realized his position, without
+exaggeration and without any superfluous exhibition of feeling. All at
+once he felt like a man who has done his day's work, and has a right to
+think no more about it.
+
+"I am glad to see that you have a good appetite," observed the
+professor.
+
+"I am conscious of not having eaten for a long time," answered Paul. "I
+suppose I was too much excited to be hungry before."
+
+"You are not excited any longer?" inquired Dr. Cutter, with a smile.
+
+"No. I believe I am perfectly calm. I have accomplished the journey, I
+have seen my mother, I have heard her last word, and I shall go to
+Persia to-morrow."
+
+"Your programme is a simple one," answered his companion. "However, I am
+sure you can be of no use here. Your mother is quite safe under my
+care."
+
+"It is my belief that she would be quite safe alone," said Paul, "though
+your presence is a help to her. You are a friend of her family, you knew
+my poor brother, you are intimate with my uncle by marriage, Mr. John
+Carvel. I am sure that, since you are good enough to accompany my
+mother, she cannot fail to appreciate your kindness and to enjoy your
+society. But I do not think she really stands in need of assistance."
+
+"That is a matter of opinion," replied the professor, sipping his wine.
+
+"Yes; but shall I be frank with you, Dr. Cutter? I fancy that, as a
+scientist and a student of diseases of the mind, you are over-ready to
+suspect insanity where my mother's conduct can be explained by ordinary
+causes."
+
+"My dear sir," said the professor, "if I am a scientist, I am not one
+for nothing. I know how very little science knows, and in due time I
+shall be quite ready to own myself mistaken, if your mother turns out to
+be perfectly sane."
+
+"You are very honest," returned Patoff. "All I want to express is that,
+although I am grateful to you for taking her home, I think she is quite
+able to take care of herself. I should be very sorry to think that you
+felt yourself bound not to leave her. She is fifty-two years old, I
+believe, but she is very strong, though she used to fancy herself in bad
+health, for some reason or other; she has a maid, a courier, and plenty
+of money. You yourself admit that she has no delusion except about this
+sad business. I think that under the circumstances she could safely
+travel alone."
+
+"Possibly. But the case is an interesting one. I am a free man, and your
+mother's age and my position procure me the advantage of studying the
+state of her mind by traveling with her without causing any scandal. I
+am not disposed to abandon my patient."
+
+"I can assure you," said Paul, "that if I thought she would tolerate my
+presence I should go with her myself, and I repeat that I am sincerely
+obliged to you. Only, I do not believe she is mad. I hope you will write
+to me, however, and tell me how she is."
+
+"Of course. And I hope you will tell me whether you have changed your
+mind about her. I confess that you seem to me to be the calmest person I
+ever met."
+
+"I?" exclaimed Paul. "Yes, I am calm now, but I have not had a moment's
+rest during the last month."
+
+"I can understand that. You know the worst now, and you have nothing
+more to anticipate. I have no right to inquire into your personal
+feelings, but I should say that you cared very little for your mother,
+and less for your brother, and that hitherto you had been animated by a
+sort of fictitious sense of responsibility. That has ceased, and you
+feel like a man released from prison."
+
+The professor fixed his keen gray eyes on Paul's face as he spoke. His
+speech was rather incisive, considering how little he had seen of Paul.
+Perhaps he intended that it should be, for he watched the effect of his
+words with interest.
+
+"You are not a bad judge of human nature," answered Patoff, coolly. But
+he did not vouchsafe any further answer.
+
+"It is my business," said the professor. "If, as a friend of Madame
+Patoff's family, I take the liberty of being plain, and of telling you
+what I think, you may believe that I have not wholly misjudged your
+mother, since I have hit the mark in judging you."
+
+"I am not sure that you have hit the mark," replied Paul. "Perhaps you
+have. Time will show. Meanwhile, I am going to Teheran to reflect upon
+it. It is impossible to choose a more secluded spot," he added, with a
+smile.
+
+"Why do you not return to Constantinople?" asked the inquisitive
+professor.
+
+"Because it has pleased the Minister for Foreign Affairs to send me to
+Persia. I am a government servant, and must go whither I am sent. I dare
+say I shall not be there very long. The climate is not very pleasant,
+and the society is limited. But it will be an agreeable change for me."
+
+"I suppose that efforts will still be made to find your brother?"
+
+"Yes. The search will never be given up while there is the least hope."
+
+"I wonder what the effect would be upon Madame Patoff, if Alexander were
+found after six months?"
+
+"I have not the least idea," answered Paul. "I suppose we should all
+return to our former relations with each other. Perhaps the shock might
+drive her mad in earnest,--I cannot tell. You are a psychologist; it is
+a case for you."
+
+"A puzzle without an answer. I am afraid it can never be tried."
+
+"No, I am afraid not," said Paul quietly.
+
+The two men finished their dinner, and went out. Paul meant to leave
+early the next morning, and was anxious to go to bed. He felt that at
+last he could sleep, and he took his leave of Professor Cutter.
+
+"Good-by," he said, with more feeling than he had shown since he had
+left his mother's room. "I am glad we have met. Believe me, I am really
+grateful to you for your kindness, and I hope you will let me know that
+you have reached England safely. If my mother refers to me, please tell
+her that after what she said to me I thought it best to leave here at
+once. Good-by, and thank you again."
+
+"Good-by," said the professor, shaking Paul's hand warmly. "The world is
+a little place, and I dare say we shall meet again somewhere."
+
+"I hope so," answered Paul.
+
+And so these two parted, to go to the opposite ends of the earth, not
+satisfied with each other, and yet each feeling that he should like to
+meet his new acquaintance again. But Persia and England, in the present
+imperfect state of civilization, are tolerably far apart.
+
+
+
+
+V.
+
+
+Early on the next morning Paul was on his way to Munich, Vienna, and the
+East again, and on the afternoon of the same day Professor Cutter and
+Madame Patoff, with two servants, got into a spacious carriage, in which
+they had determined to drive as far as Weissenstein, the last village of
+the Black Forest before reaching Pforzheim. Pursuing his plan of
+traveling by unfrequented routes, the professor had proposed to spend
+the night in the beautiful old place which he had formerly visited,
+intending to proceed the next day by rail to Carlsruhe, and thence down
+the Rhine.
+
+He had not seen Madame Patoff in the evening after her interview with
+Paul, and when he met her in the morning it struck him that her manner
+was greatly changed. She was very silent, and when she spoke at all
+talked of indifferent subjects. She never referred in any way to the
+meeting with her son, and the professor observed that for the first time
+she allowed the day to pass without once mentioning the disappearance of
+Alexander. He attributed this silence to the deep emotion she had felt
+on seeing Paul, and to her natural desire to avoid any reference to the
+pain she had suffered. As usual she allowed him to make all the
+necessary arrangements for the journey, and she even spoke with some
+pleasure of the long drive through the forest. She was evidently
+fatigued and nervous, and her face was much paler than usual, but she
+was quiet and did not seem ill. All through the long afternoon they
+drove over the beautiful winding road, enjoying the views, discussing
+the scenery, and breathing in the healthy odor of the pines. The
+professor was an agreeable companion, for he had traveled much in
+Southern Germany, and amused Madame Patoff with all manner of curious
+information concerning the people, the legends connected with the
+different parts of the Black Forest, the fairy tales of the Rhine, and
+the history of the barons before Rudolf of Hapsburg destroyed them in
+his raid upon the freebooters. This he sprinkled with anecdotes, small
+talk about books, and comments on European society; speaking with ease
+and remarkable knowledge of his subjects, and so pleasantly that Madame
+Patoff never perceived that he wished to amuse her, and was trying to
+distract her thoughts from the one subject which too easily beset them.
+Indeed, the professor in the society of a woman of the world was a very
+different man from the earnest, plain-speaking person who had dined with
+Paul on the previous night. Even his gold-rimmed spectacles were worn
+with a less professional air. His well-cut traveling costume of plain
+tweed did not suggest the traditional scientist, and his bronzed and
+manly face was that of a sportsman or an Alpine Club man rather than of
+a student. Madame Patoff leaned back in the carriage, and fairly enjoyed
+the hours; saying to herself that Cutter had never been so agreeable
+before, and that indeed in her long life she had met few men who
+possessed so much charm in conversation. She was an old lady, and could
+judge of men, for she had spent nearly forty years in the midst of the
+most brilliant society in Europe, and was not to be deceived by the ring
+of false metal.
+
+At last they reached the place in the road where they had to descend
+from the carriage and mount the ascent to Weissenstein. Madame Patoff
+was well pleased with the place, and said so as she slowly climbed the
+narrow path, leaning on the professor's arm. The inn--the old Gasthaus
+zum Goldenen Anker--stands upon the very edge of the precipice above the
+tumbling Nagold, and is indeed partly built down the face of the cliff.
+Rooms have been hollowed, so that their windows look down on the river
+from a sheer height of two hundred feet, the surface of the natural
+wall, broken only here and there by a projecting ledge, or by the
+crooked stem of a strong wild cherry tree which somehow finds enough
+soil and moisture there to support its hardy growth. The inn is very
+primitive, but comfortable in its simple way, and the scenery is
+surpassingly beautiful. Far below, on the other side of the torrent, the
+small village nestles among the dark pines, the single spire of the
+diminutive church standing high above the surrounding cottages. Above,
+the hill is crowned by the ruins of the ancient castle of
+Weissenstein,--the castle of Bellrem, the crusader, who fell from the
+lofty ramparts on a moonlight night in the twelfth century, terrified by
+the ghost of a woman he had loved and wronged. At least, the legend says
+so, and as the ruined ramparts are still there it is probably all quite
+true. On the back of the hill, where the narrow path descends from the
+inn to the road, the still, deep waters of the great mill pool lie
+stagnant in the hot air, and the long-legged water spiders shoot over
+the surface, inviting the old carp to snap at them, well knowing that
+they will not, but skimming away like mad when a mountain trout, who has
+strayed in from the river through the sluices, comes suddenly to the
+surface with a short, sharp splash. But there are flies for the trout,
+and he prefers them, so that the water spiders lead, on the whole, a
+quiet and unmolested life.
+
+The travelers entered the inn, and were soon established for the night.
+Madame Patoff was still enchanted with the view, and insisted on sitting
+out upon the low balcony until late at night, though the air was very
+cool and the dampness rose from the river. There was something in the
+wild place which soothed her. She almost wished she could stay there
+forever, and hide her sorrow from the world in such a nest as this,
+overhanging the wild water, perched high in air, and surrounded on all
+sides by the soft black forest. For the Black Forest is indeed black, as
+only such impenetrable masses of evergreen can be.
+
+In the early morning the tall old lady in black was again at her place
+on the balcony when Professor Cutter appeared. She sat by the low
+parapet, and gazed down as in a trance at the tumbling water, and at the
+solitary fisherman who stood bare-legged on a jutting rock, casting his
+rough tackle on the eddying stream. She was calmer than she had seemed
+for a long time, and the professor began seriously to doubt the wisdom
+of taking her to England, although he had already written to her
+brother-in-law, naming the date when they expected to arrive.
+
+"Shall we go on this morning?" he asked, in a tone which left the answer
+wholly at Madame Patoff's decision.
+
+"Where?" she asked, dreamily.
+
+"Another stage on our way home," answered the professor.
+
+"Yes," she said, with sudden determination. "If we stay here any longer,
+I shall be so much in love with the place that I shall never be able to
+leave it. Let us go at once. I feel as though something might happen to
+prevent us."
+
+"Very well. I will make all the arrangements." Professor Cutter
+forthwith went to consult the landlord, leaving Madame Patoff upon the
+balcony. She sat there without moving, absorbed in the beauty of the
+scene, and happy to forget her troubles even for a moment in the sight
+of something altogether new. Her thoughts were indeed confused. It was
+but the day before yesterday that she had seen her son Paul after years
+of separation, and that alone was sufficient to disturb her. She had
+never liked him,--she could not tell why, except it were because she
+loved Alexander better,--and she could not help looking on Paul as on
+the man who had robbed her of what she loved best in the world. But the
+recollection of the interview was cloudy and uncertain. She had given
+way to a violent burst of anger, and was not quite sure of what had
+happened. She tried to thrust it all away from her weary brain, and she
+looked down again at the fisherman, far below. He had moved a little,
+and just then she could see him only through the branches of a
+projecting cherry-tree. He seemed to be baiting his hook for another
+cast in the river.
+
+"Madame Patoff, are you quite ready?" asked the professor's voice from
+the window.
+
+"Yes," she said, rising to her feet. "I am coming."
+
+"One moment,--I am just paying the bill," answered Cutter from within;
+and Madame Patoff could hear the landlord counting out the small change
+upon a plate, the ringing silver marks and the dull little clatter of
+the nickel ten-pfennig pieces.
+
+She was standing now, and she looked over the torrent at the dark forest
+beyond, endeavoring to fix the beautiful scene in her mind, and trying
+to forget her trouble. But it would not be forgotten, and as she stood
+up the whole scene with Paul came vividly to her mind. She remembered
+all her loathing for him, all the horror and all the furious anger she
+had felt at the sight of him. In the keen memory of that bitter meeting,
+rendered tenfold more vivid by the overwrought state of her brain, the
+blood rushed violently to her face, her head swam, and she put out her
+hand to steady herself, thinking there was a railing before her. But the
+parapet was low, scarcely reaching to her knees. She tottered, lost her
+balance, and with a wild shriek fell headlong into the abyss.
+
+Cutter dropped his change and rushed frantically to the window,
+well-nigh falling over the low parapet himself. His face was ghastly, as
+he leaned far forward and looked down. Then he uttered an exclamation of
+terror, and seemed about to attempt to climb over the balcony. Not ten
+feet below him the wretched woman hung suspended in the thick branches
+of the wild cherry tree, caught by her clothes. Cutter breathed hard,
+for he had never seen so horrible a sight. At any moment the material of
+her dress might give way, the branches might break under the heavy
+strain. He looked wildly round for help. Between the balcony and the
+trees there were ten feet of smooth rock, which would not have given a
+foothold to a lizard.
+
+"Catch hold, there!" cried a loud voice from above, and Cutter saw a new
+rope dangling before him into the abyss. He looked up as he seized the
+means of help, and saw at the upper window the square dark face of a
+strong man, who was clad in a flannel shirt and had a silver-mounted
+pipe in his mouth.
+
+"Go ahead,--it's fast," said the man, letting out more rope. "Or if
+you're afraid, I'll come down the rope myself."
+
+But Cutter was not afraid. It was the work of a moment to make a wide
+bowline knot in the pliant Manilla cord. With an agility which in so
+heavily built a frame surprised the dark man above, the doctor let
+himself down as far as the tree; then seizing the insensible lady firmly
+by the arm, and bracing himself on the roots of the cherry close to the
+rock, so that he could stand for a moment without support from above, he
+deftly slipped the rope twice round her waist with what are called
+technically two half hitches, close to his own loop, in which he
+intended to sit, clasping her body with his arms.
+
+"Can you haul us up?" he shouted.
+
+Slowly the rope was raised, with its heavy burden. The strong tourist
+had got help from the terrified landlord, who had followed Cutter to the
+balcony, but who was a stalwart Swabian, and not easily disconcerted. He
+had rushed up-stairs, and was hauling away with all his might. In less
+than a minute and a half Cutter was on a level with the balcony, and in
+a few seconds more he had disengaged himself and the rescued lady from
+the coils of the rope. It is not surprising that his first thought
+should have been for her, and not for the quiet man with the pipe, who
+had been the means of her escape. He bore Madame Patoff to her room, and
+with the assistance of her maid set about reviving her as fast as
+possible, though the perspiration streamed from his forehead, and he was
+trembling with fright in every limb and joint.
+
+The tourist wound up his rope, and took his pipe from his mouth, which
+he had forgotten to do in the hurry of the moment. Then he slipped on an
+old jacket, and descended the stairs, to inquire whether he could be of
+any use, and whether the lady were alive or dead. He was a strongly
+built man, with an ugly but not unkindly face, small gray eyes, and
+black hair just beginning to grizzle at the temples. He was an extremely
+quiet fellow, and the people of the inn remarked that he gave very
+little trouble, though he had been at Weissenstein nearly a week. He had
+told the landlord that he was going to Switzerland, but that he liked
+roundabout ways, and was loitering along the road, as the season was not
+yet far enough advanced for a certain ascent which he meditated. He had
+nothing with him but a knapsack, a coil of rope, and a weather-beaten
+ice-axe, besides one small book, which he read whenever he read at all.
+He spoke German fluently, but said he was an American. Thereupon the
+landlady, who had a cousin who had a nephew who had gone to Brazil,
+asked the tourist if he did not know August Bürgin, and was very much
+disappointed to find that he did not.
+
+The excitement outside of Madame Patoff's room was intense. But the Herr
+Doctor, as the landlord called Cutter, had admitted no one but the maid,
+and as yet had not given any news of the patient. The little group stood
+in the passage a long time before Cutter came out.
+
+"She is not badly hurt," he said, and was about to re-enter the
+apartment, when his eye fell on the tall tourist, who, on hearing the
+news, had turned quickly away. Cutter went hastily after him, and,
+grasping his hand, thanked him warmly for his timely help.
+
+"Don't mention it," said the stranger. "You did the thing beautifully
+when once you had got hold of the rope. Excuse me--I have an
+engagement--good-by--glad to hear the lady is not hurt." Wherewith the
+tourist quickly shook the professor's hand once more, and was gone
+before the latter could ask his name.
+
+"Queer fellow," muttered Cutter, as he returned to Madame Patoff's side.
+
+She was not injured, as he had at once announced, but it was impossible
+to say what effect the awful shock might produce upon her overwrought
+brain. She opened her eyes, indeed, but she did not seem to recognize
+any one; and when the professor asked her how she felt, in order to see
+if she could speak intelligibly, she laughed harshly, and turned her
+head away. She was badly bruised, but he could discover no mark of any
+blow upon the head which could have caused a suspension of intelligence.
+There was therefore nothing to be done but to take care of her, and if
+she recovered her normal health she must be removed to her home at once.
+All day he sat beside her bed, with the patience of a man accustomed to
+tend the sick, and to regard them as studies for his own improvement.
+Towards evening she slept, and Cutter went out, hoping to find the
+tourist again. But the landlord said he was gone, and as the little inn
+kept no book wherein strangers were asked to register their names, and
+as the landlord could only say that the gentleman had declared his name
+to be Paul, Cutter was obliged to suffer the pangs of unsatisfied
+curiosity.
+
+"I am sick of the name of Paul!" exclaimed the professor, half angrily.
+"Is the fellow a Russian, too, I wonder? Paul, Paul,--everybody seems to
+be called Paul!" Therewith he turned away, and began to walk up and down
+before the house, lighting a cigar, and smoking savagely in his
+annoyance with things in general.
+
+He was thinking that if it had been so easy for Madame Patoff to throw
+herself over the balcony, just when he was not looking, it was after all
+not so very improbable that Alexander might have slipped away from his
+brother in the dark. The coincidence of the two cases was remarkable.
+As for Madame Patoff, he did not doubt for a moment that she had
+intended to commit suicide by throwing herself down the precipice.
+According to his theory, all her calmness of yesterday and this morning,
+succeeding the great excitement of her meeting with Paul, proved that
+she had been quietly meditating death. She had escaped. But had her mind
+escaped the suicide she had attempted on her body? In its effects, her
+anger against Paul and her fixed idea concerning him were as nothing
+when compared with the terrible shock she had experienced that morning.
+It was absolutely impossible to predict what would occur: whether she
+would recover her faculties, or remain apathetic for the rest of her
+life. She was a nervous, sensitive, and overstrung woman at all times,
+and would suffer far more under a sudden and violent strain than a
+duller nature could. The view she took in regard to Alexander's
+disappearance proved that her faculties were not evenly balanced. Of
+course the story was a very queer one, and Russians are queer people, as
+the professor said to himself. It was not going beyond the bounds of
+possibility to suppose that Paul might have murdered his brother, but
+Cutter would have expected that Madame Patoff would be the last person
+to suspect it, and especially to say it aloud. The way she had raved
+against Paul on more than one occasion sufficiently showed that she
+seized at false conclusions, like a person of unsound mind. Alexander
+had resembled her, too, and had always acted like an irritable,
+beautiful, spoiled child. There was a distinct streak of "queerness," as
+Cutter expressed it, in the family. Probably Paul had inherited it in a
+different way. His conduct at Teinach, after leaving his mother, had
+been strange. He had shown no sorrow, scarcely any annoyance, indeed,
+and during their dinner had seemed thoroughly at his ease.
+Scientifically speaking, the professor regretted the accident of the
+morning. Madame Patoff had been a very interesting study so long as she
+was under the influence of a dominating idea. Her case might now
+degenerate into one of common apathy such as Cutter had seen hundreds of
+times. There would be nothing to be done but to try the usual methods,
+with the usual unsatisfactory results, abandoning her at last to the
+care of her relations and nurses as a hopeless idiot.
+
+But Professor Cutter was not destined to such a disappointment. His
+patient recovered in a way which was new to him, and he realized that in
+losing his former case he had found one even more interesting. She was
+apathetic, indeed, in a certain degree, and did not appear to understand
+everything that was said to her, but this was the only sign of any
+degeneracy. She never again addressed by name either the professor or
+her maid, and never spoke except to express her wants, which she did in
+few words, and very concisely and correctly. Nothing would induce her,
+in conversation, to make any answer save a simple yes or no, and Cutter
+was struck by the fact that her color ceased to change when he spoke of
+Alexander. This, he thought, showed that she no longer associated any
+painful idea with the name of her lost son. But there were none of the
+signs of a softening brain,--no foolish ravings, nor any expressed
+desire to do anything not perfectly rational. She accomplished the
+journey with evident comfort, and was evidently delighted at the
+beautiful sights she saw on the way, though she said nothing, but only
+smiled and looked pleased. Her habitual expression was one of calm
+melancholy. Her features wore a sad but placid expression, and she
+appeared to thrive in health, and to be better than when the professor
+had first known her. She was more scrupulous than ever about her
+appearance, and there was an almost unnatural perfection in her dress
+and in her calm and graceful manner. Cutter was puzzled. With these
+symptoms he would have expected some apparent delusion on one point. But
+he could detect nothing of the kind, and he exhausted his theories in
+trying to find out what particular form of insanity afflicted her. He
+could see nothing and define nothing, save her absolute refusal to talk.
+She asked for what she wanted, or got it for herself, and she answered
+readily yes and no to direct questions. Gradually, as they traveled by
+short stages, drawing near to their destination, Cutter altogether lost
+the habit of talking to her, and almost ceased to notice her one
+peculiarity. She would sit for hours in the same position, apparently
+never wearied of her silence, her placid expression never changing save
+into a gentle smile when she saw anything that pleased her.
+
+They reached England at last, and Madame Patoff was installed in her
+brother-in-law's house in the country. Cutter came frequently from town
+to see her, and always studied her case with new interest; but after a
+whole year he could detect no change whatever in her condition, and
+began to despair of ever classifying her malady in the scientific
+catalogue of his mind.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was at this point, my dear friend, that I became an actor in the
+story of Paul Patoff and his mother, and I will now for a time tell my
+tale in my own person,--in the prosaic person of Paul Griggs, with whom
+you are so well acquainted that you are good enough to call him your
+friend. To give you at once an idea of my own connection with this
+history, I will confess that it was I who dropped the rope out of the
+window at Weissenstein, as you may have already guessed from the
+description I have given of myself.
+
+
+
+
+VI.
+
+
+Mankind may be divided and classified in many ways, according to the
+tests applied, and the reason why any new classification of people is
+always striking is not far to seek. For, since all the mental and moral
+qualities of which we have ever heard belong to men and women, it is
+obviously easy to say that we can divide our fellow-creatures into two
+classes, one class possessing the vice or virtue in point, and the other
+not possessing it. The only division which is hard to make is that which
+should separate the human race into classes of good and bad,--to speak
+biblically, the division of the sheep from the goats; but as no one has
+ever been able to draw the line, some people have said, in their haste,
+that all men are bad, while others have arrived at the no less hasty and
+equally false conclusion that all men are good. The Preacher was nearer
+the truth when he said, "All is vanity," than was David when he said in
+his heart, "All men are liars;" for if the bad man is foolish enough to
+boast of his error, the good man is generally inclined to vaunt his
+virtue after the most mature reflection, and the secret of success,
+whether in good or in evil, is not to allow the right hand to know the
+doings of the left. There are men who give lavishly with the one hand,
+while they steal even more freely with the other, and are covered with
+glory, until their biography is written by an intelligent enemy.
+
+The faculty of persuading the world at large to consider that you are in
+the right is called your "prestige," a word closely connected with the
+term "prestidigitation,"--if not in derivation, most certainly in
+meaning. When you have found out your neighbor's sin, your prestige is
+increased; when your neighbor has found out yours, your prestige is
+gone. There is little credit to be got from charity; for if you conceal
+your good deeds it is certain that nobody will suspect you of doing
+them, and if you do them before the world every one will say that you
+are vainglorious and purse-proud, and altogether a dangerous hypocrite.
+On the other hand, there is undeniably much social interest attached to
+a man who is supposed to be bad, but who has never been caught in his
+wickedness; and if a thorough-going sinner is discovered, after having
+concealed his doings for many years, people at least give him all the
+credit he can expect, saying, "Surely he was a very clever fellow to
+deceive us for so long!" There are plenty of ways which serve to conceal
+evil doings, from the vulgar lies which make up the code of schoolboy
+honor, to the national bad faith which systematically violates all
+treaties when they cease to be lucrative; from the promising youth who
+borrows money from his tailor, and has it charged to his father with
+compound interest as "account rendered for clothes furnished," down to
+the driveling dishonesty of some old statesman who clings to office
+because his ornate eloquence still survives his scanty wit. Verily, if
+the boy be father to the man, it is not pleasant to imagine what manner
+of men they will be to whom the modern boy stands in the relation of
+paternity. The big boys who kill little ones with their fists, and spend
+a pleasant hour in watching a couple of cats, slung over a clothes-line
+by the tails, fight each other to death, are likely to be less
+remarkable for their singular lack of intelligence than for their
+extraordinary excess of brutality. It is true that a nation's greatest
+activity for good is developed in the time of its transition from
+coarseness to refinement. It may also be true that its period of
+greatest harmfulness is when, from a fictitious refinement, it is
+dragged down again by the natural brutality of its nature; when the
+ideal has ceased to correspond with the real; when the poet has lost
+his hold upon the hearts of the people; when poetry itself is no longer
+the strong fire bursting through the thick, foul crust of the earth, but
+is only the faint and shadowy smoke of the fire, wreathed for a moment
+into ethereal shapes of fleeting grace that have neither heat enough to
+burn the earth from which they come, nor strength to withstand the rough
+winds of heaven by which they shall soon be scattered. For as the
+evolution of the ideal from the real is life, so the final separation of
+the soul from the body is death.
+
+Almost all men have the qualities which can give moderate success. Very
+few have those gifts which lead to greatness, and those who have them
+invariably become great. There is no unrecognized genius; for genius
+means the production of what is not only beautiful, but enduring, and
+the works of man are all sooner or later judged by his fellows, and
+judged fairly. But it is unprofitable to discuss these matters; for
+those who are very great seldom know that they are, and those who are
+not cannot be persuaded that they might not attain to greatness if
+circumstances were slightly changed in their favor. Perhaps also there
+is very little use in making any preamble to what I have to tell. I
+remember to have been at a great meeting of American bankers at Niagara
+some years ago, where, as usual at American meetings, many speeches were
+made. There was an old gentleman there from the West who appeared to
+have something to say, but although his voice rose to impassioned tones
+and his gestures were highly effective as he delivered a variety of
+ornate phrases, he did not come to the point. An irreverent hearer rose
+and inquired what was the object of his distinguished friend's
+discourse, which did not appear to bear at all upon the matters in hand.
+The old gentleman stopped instantly in his flow of words, and said very
+quietly and naturally, "I feel a little shy, and I want to speak some
+before getting to the point, so as to get used to you." There was a
+good-natured laugh, in which the speaker joined. But he presently began
+again, and before long he was talking very well and very much to the
+point. It may be doubted, however, whether any well-conditioned
+chronicler needs a preliminary breather before so short a race as this
+is likely to be. In these wild days there is small time for man to work
+or for woman to weep, and those who would tell a tale must tell it
+quickly, lest the traveler be out of hearing before the song is ended,
+and the minstrel be left harping at the empty air and wasting his
+eloquence upon the stones.
+
+Last year I was staying in an English country house on the borders of
+Hertfordshire and Essex. It is not what is called a "romantic
+neighborhood," but there are plenty of pretty places and some fine old
+trees where the green lanes of Essex begin to undulate into the wooded
+valleys of Herts. The name of the place where I was stopping is Carvel
+Place, and the people who generally live in it are John Carvel, Esq.,
+formerly member for the borough; Mary Carvel, his wife, who was a Miss
+Dabstreak; Hermione Carvel, their daughter; and, when he is at home on
+leave, Macaulay Carvel, their son, a young man who has been in the
+diplomatic service several years, and who once had the good fortune to
+be selected as private secretary to Lord Mavourneen, when that noble
+diplomatist was sent on a special mission to India. Mrs. Carvel has a
+younger sister, a spinster, thirty-eight years of age, who rejoices in
+the name of Chrysophrasia. Her parents had christened their eldest
+daughter Anne, their second Mary, and had regretted the simple
+appellations bitterly, so that when a third little girl came into the
+world, seven years afterwards, their latent love for euphony was poured
+out upon her in a double measure at the baptismal font. Anne, eldest
+sister of Mrs. Carvel and Miss Chrysophrasia Dabstreak, married a
+Russian in the year 1850, and was never mentioned after the Crimean War,
+until her son, Paul Patoff, being a diplomatist, made the acquaintance
+of his first cousin in the person of Macaulay Carvel, who happened to
+be third secretary in Berlin, when Paul passed through that capital, on
+his return from a distant post in the East.
+
+It is taken for granted that the Carvels have lived at Carvel Place
+since the memory of man. I know very little of their family history; my
+acquaintance with John Carvel is of comparatively recent date, and Miss
+Chrysophrasia eyes me with evident suspicion, as being an American and
+probably an adventurer. I cannot say that Carvel and I are precisely old
+friends, but we enjoy each other's society, and have been of
+considerable service to each other in the last ten years. There is a
+certain kind of mutual respect, not untempered by substantial mutual
+obligation, which very nearly approaches to friendship when the parties
+concerned have common tastes and are not unsympathetic. John Carvel is a
+man fifty years of age: he is short, well built, and active, delighting
+in the chase; slender rather than stout, but not thin; red in the face
+from constant exposure, scrupulous in the shaving of his smooth chin and
+in the scrubbing processes, dressed with untarnishing neatness; having
+large hands with large nails, smooth and tolerably thick gray hair,
+strongly marked eyebrows, and small, bright eyes of a gray-blue color.
+In his personal appearance he is a type of a fine race; in character and
+tastes he is a specimen of the best class of men to be met with in our
+day. He is a country gentleman, educated in the traditions of Rugby and
+Oxford at a time when those institutions had not succumbed to the subtle
+evils of our times, whereby the weak are corrupted into effeminate fools
+and the strong into abominable bullies. John Carvel's Latin has survived
+his school-days, and his manliness has outlived the university. He
+belongs to that class of Englishmen who proverbially speak the truth.
+
+When he began life, an orphan at twenty-two years of age, he found
+himself comparatively poor, but in spite of the prejudices of those days
+he was not ashamed to better his fortunes by manufacture, and he is now
+a rich man. He married Mary Dabstreak for love, and has never regretted
+it. He has lived most of his life at Carvel Place, has hunted
+perpetually, and has of late years developed a taste for books which is
+likely to stand him in good stead in his old age. There is a fine
+library in the house, and much has been added to it in the last ten
+years. Miss Chrysophrasia occasionally strays into the repository of
+learning, but she has little sympathy with the contents of the shelves.
+
+Miss Chrysophrasia Dabstreak is a lady concerning whom there is much
+speculation, to very little purpose, in the world as represented by the
+select society in which she droops,--not moves. She is an amateur.
+
+Her eye rejoices only in the tints of the crushed strawberry and the
+faded olive; her ear loves the limited poetry of doubtful sound produced
+by abortive attempts to revive the unbarred melodies of the troubadours;
+and her soul thrills responsively in the checkered light falling through
+a stained-glass window, as a sensitive-plant waves its sticky leaves
+when a fly is in the neighborhood.
+
+But life has attractions for Chrysophrasia. She enjoys it after her own
+fashion. It is a little disconnected. The relation between cause and
+effect is a little obscure. She is fragmentary. She is a series of
+unfinished sketches in various manners. She has her being in the past
+tense, and her future, if she could have it after her taste, would be
+the past made present. She has many aspirations, and few of them are
+realized, but all of them are sketched in faint hues upon the mist of
+her mediæval atmosphere. She is, in the language of a lyric from her own
+pen,
+
+    "The shadow of fair and of joyous impossible, infinite, faintness
+    That is cast on the mist of the sea by the light of the ages to come."
+
+Her handwriting is Gothic. Her heart is of the type created by Mr.
+Swinburne in the minds of those who do not understand him,--in their
+minds, for in the flesh the type is not found. Moreover, she resents
+modernness of every kind, including the steam-engine, the electric
+telegraph, the continent of North America, and myself. Her political
+creed shadows forth the government of the future as a pleasant
+combination of communism and knight-baronry, wherein all oppressed
+persons shall have republics, and all nice people shall wear armor, and
+live in castles, and strew the floors of their rooms with rushes and
+their garments with the anatomic monstrosities of heraldic blazon.
+
+As for religion, her mind is disturbed in its choice between a palatable
+form of Buddhism and a particularly luscious adaptation of Greek
+mythology; but in either case as much Christianity would be
+indispensable as would give the whole a flavor of crusading. I hope I am
+not hard upon Miss Chrysophrasia, but the fact is she is not--what shall
+I say?--not sympathetic to me. John Carvel does not often speak of her,
+but he has more than once attempted to argue with her, and on these
+occasions his sister-in-law invariably winds up her defense by remarking
+very wearily that "argument is the negation of poetry, and, indeed, of
+all that is fair and joyous."
+
+Personally Miss Dabstreak is a faded blonde, with a very large nose, a
+wide mouth garnished with imperfect teeth, a very thin figure of
+considerable height, a poor complexion ill set off by scanty, straggling
+fair hair; garments of unusual greenish hues, fitted in an unusual and
+irregular manner, hang in fantastic folds about the angles of her frame,
+and her attitudes are strange and improbable. I repeat that I do not
+mean to be hard upon Chrysophrasia, but her looks are not much to my
+taste. She is too strongly contrasted with her niece, Miss Carvel. There
+is, besides, something in Chrysophrasia's cold green eyes which gives me
+an unpleasant sensation. She was at Carvel Place when I arrived, and she
+is generally there, although she has a little house in Brompton, where
+she preserves the objects she most loves, consisting chiefly of earthen
+vessels, abominable in color and useless to civilized man; nevertheless,
+so great is her influence with her sister's family that even John
+speaks of majolica with a certain reverence, as a man lowers his voice
+when he mentions some dear relation not long dead. As for Mrs. Carvel,
+she is silent when Chrysophrasia holds forth concerning pots and plates,
+though I have seen her raise her gentle face and cast up her eyes with a
+faint, hopeless smile when her sister was more than usually eloquent
+about her Spanow-Morescow things, as she calls them, her
+Marstrow-Geawgiow and her Robby-ah. It seems to me that objects of that
+description are a trifle too perishable. Perhaps John Carvel wishes Miss
+Dabstreak were perishable, too; but she is not.
+
+I would not weary you with too many portraits, my dear lady, and I will
+describe the beautiful Hermione another day. As for her mother, Mary
+Carvel, she is an angel upon earth, and if her trials have not been many
+until lately, her good deeds are without number as the sands of the sea;
+for it is a poor country that lies on the borders of Essex, and there
+have been bad times in these years. The harvests have failed, and many
+other misfortunes have happened, not the least of which is that the old
+race of farmers is dying out, and that the young ones cannot live as
+their fathers did, but sell their goods and chattels and emigrate, one
+after another, to the far, rich West. Some of them prosper, and some of
+them die on the road; but they leave the land behind them a waste, and
+there are eleven millions of acres now lying fallow in England which
+were ploughed and sowed and reaped ten years ago. People are poor, and
+Mrs. Carvel takes care of them. Her soft brown eyes have a way of
+finding out trouble, and when it is found her great heart cannot help
+easing it. She loves her husband and her daughter, understanding them in
+different degrees. She loves her son also, but she does not pretend to
+understand him; he is the outcome of a new state of things; but he has
+no vices, and is thought exceedingly clever. As for her sister, she is
+very good to her, but she does not profess to understand her, either.
+
+I had been in Persia and Turkey some time, and had not been many days in
+London, when John Carvel wrote to ask me if I would spend the winter
+with him. I was tired and wanted to be quiet, so I accepted his offer.
+Carvel Place is peaceful, and I like the woods about it, and the old
+towers, and the great library in the house itself, and the general sense
+of satisfaction at being among congenial people who are friendly. I knew
+I should have to encounter Miss Chrysophrasia, but I reflected that
+there was room for both of us, and that if it were not easy to agree
+with her it was not easy to quarrel with her, either. I packed my traps,
+and went down to the country one afternoon in November.
+
+John Carvel had grown a trifle older; I thought he was a little less
+cheerful than he had been in former days, but I was welcomed as warmly
+as ever. The great fire burned brightly in the old hall, lighting up the
+dark wainscoting and the heavy furniture with a glow that turned the old
+oak from brown to red. The dim portraits looked down as of old from the
+panels, and Fang, the white deerhound, shook his shaggy coat and
+stretched his vast jaws as I came in. It was cold outside, and the rain
+was falling fast, as the early darkness gathered gloomily over the
+landscape, so that I was glad to stand by the blazing logs after the
+disagreeable drive. John Carvel was alone in the hall. He stretched out
+his broad hand and grasped mine, and it did my heart good to see the
+smile of honest gladness on his clean, manly face.
+
+"I hardly thought you would come," he said, looking into my eyes. "I was
+never so glad to see you in my life. You have been wandering
+again,--half over the world. How are you? You look tougher than ever,
+and here am I growing palpably old. How in the world do you manage it?"
+
+"A hard heart, a melancholy temperament, and a large appetite," I
+answered, with a laugh. "Besides, you have four or five years the better
+of me."
+
+"The worse, you mean. I'm as gray as a badger."
+
+"Nonsense. It is your climate that makes people gray. How is Mrs.
+Carvel, and Hermione,--she must have grown up since I saw her,--and Miss
+Dabstreak?"
+
+"She is after her pots and pans as usual," said John. "Mary and Hermy
+are all right, thank you. We will have tea with them presently."
+
+He turned and poked the fire with a huge pair of old-fashioned tongs. I
+thought his cheerful manner subsided a little as he took me to my room.
+He lingered a moment, till the man who brought in my boxes had
+unstrapped them, and trimmed the candles, and was gone.
+
+"Is there anything you would like?" he asked. "A little whiskey? a glass
+of sherry?"
+
+"No, thanks,--nothing. I will come down to tea in a few minutes. It is
+in the same old room, I suppose?"
+
+"Oh, yes, same as ever. By the bye, Griggs," he added suddenly, as he
+laid his hand on the handle of the door, "how long is it since you were
+here?"
+
+"Three years and a month," I answered, after a moment's thought. "It
+does not seem so long. I suppose that is because we have met abroad
+since then."
+
+"No, it does not seem long," said John Carvel, thoughtfully. Then he
+opened the door, and went out without another word.
+
+Nothing especially worthy of mention happened on that evening, nor on
+the next day, nor for many days. I hunted a little, and shot a great
+deal more, and spent many hours in the library. The weather improved in
+the first week of December; it was rather warmer, and the scent lay very
+well. I gave myself up to the pleasant country life, and enjoyed the
+society of my host, without much thought of the present or care for the
+future. Hermione had grown, since I had seen her, from a grave and
+rather silent girl of seventeen to a somewhat less reserved young woman
+of twenty, always beautiful, but apparently not much changed. Her
+mother had taken her out in London during the previous season, and there
+was occasionally some talk about London and society, in which the young
+girl did not appear to take very much interest. With this exception the
+people and things at Carvel Place were the same as I had always known
+them. I was treated as one of the household, and was allowed to go my
+own ways without question or interference. Of course, I had to answer
+many questions about my wanderings and my doings in the last years, but
+I am used to that and do not mind it.
+
+All this sounds as though I were going to give you some quiet chronicle
+of English country life, as if I were about to begin a report of
+household doings: how Mrs. Carvel and Hermione went to church on Sunday;
+how the Rev. Trumpington Soulsby used to stroll back with them across
+the park on fine days, and how he and Miss Dabstreak raved over the
+joyousness of a certain majolica plate; how the curate gently reproved,
+yet half indulged, Chrysophrasia's erratic religionism; how Mrs. Carvel
+distributed blankets to the old men and red cloaks to the old women; how
+the deerhound followed Hermione like Mary's little lamb, and how the
+worthy keeper, James Grubb, did not quite catch the wicked William
+Saltmarsh in the act of setting a beautiful new brass wire snare at a
+particular spot in the quickset hedge between the park and the
+twelve-acre field, but was confident he would catch him the next time he
+tried it, how Moses Skingle, the sexton, fell out with Mr. Speller, the
+superannuated village schoolmaster, because the juvenile Spellers would
+not refrain from the preparation of luscious mud pies upon the newly
+made grave of the late Peter Sullins, farmer, whose promising heir had
+not yet recovered sufficiently from the dissipation attending the
+funeral to erect a monument to his uncle; and so on and so forth,
+cackling through a volume or two of village chronicle, "and so home to
+bed."
+
+I do not care a straw for the ducks in the horse-pond, nor for the
+naughty boy who throws stones at them, robs bird's-nests, and sets
+snares for hares under the wire fence of Carvel Park. I blush to say I
+have done most things of that kind myself, in one part of the world or
+in another, and they no longer have any sort of interest for me. No, my
+dear friend, the world is not yet turned into a farm-yard; there are
+other things to tell of besides the mud pies of the Speller children and
+the marks of little Billy Saltmarsh's hob-nailed shoes in the grass
+where he set the snare. The Turks say that a fool has three points in
+common with an ass,--he eats, he drinks, and he brays at other asses. I
+must fain eat and drink; let me at least refrain from braying.
+
+It is not every one who cares for the beauty of nature as reflected in a
+horse-pond, or for the conversations of a class of people who have not
+more than seven or eight hundred words in their language, and with whom
+every word does not by any means correspond with an idea; we cannot all
+be farmer's lads, nor, if we were, could each of us find a Wordsworth to
+describe feelings we should certainly not possess.
+
+I had been nearly a month at Carvel Place, and Christmas was
+approaching. We sat one afternoon in the drawing-room, drinking tea.
+John Carvel was turning over the leaves of a rare book he had just
+received, before transferring it to its place in the library. His heavy
+brows were contracted, and his large, clean hands touched the pages
+lovingly. Mrs. Carvel was installed in her favorite upright chair near
+an enormous student-lamp that had a pink shade, and her fingers were
+busy with some sort of needle-work. She, too, was silent, and her gentle
+face was bent over her hand. I can remember exactly how she always looks
+when she is working, and how her soft brown hair, that is just turning a
+little gray at the temples, waves above her forehead. Chrysophrasia
+Dabstreak lay languidly extended upon a couch, her thin hands clasped
+together in a studied attitude. She was bemoaning the evils of
+civilization, and no one was listening to her, for Hermione and I were
+engaged in putting a new silver collar round the neck of Fang; the great
+hound sat up patiently between us, yawning prodigiously from time to
+time, for the operation was tedious, and the patent lock of the collar
+would not fasten.
+
+"I was just going to say it was time the letters came," said Mrs.
+Carvel, as the door opened and a servant entered with the post-bag. The
+master of the house unlocked the leathern case, and distributed the
+contents. We each received our share, and without ceremony opened our
+letters. There was a short silence while we were all reading.
+
+"Macaulay has got his leave," said Mrs. Carvel, joyfully. "Is not that
+delightful! And he is going to bring--wait a minute--I cannot make out
+the name--let me get nearer to the light, dear--John, look here, is it
+not Paul Patoff? Look, dear!"
+
+John looked. "It is certainly Paul Patoff," he said quietly. "I told
+Macaulay to bring him."
+
+"Gracious!" ejaculated Hermione.
+
+"How extremely interesting!" said Miss Chrysophrasia. "I adore Russians!
+They have such a joyous savor of the wild, free steppes!"
+
+"You have exactly described the Russian of the steppes, Miss Dabstreak,"
+I remarked. "His savor is so wild that it is perceptible at a great
+distance. But Patoff is not at all a bad fellow. I met him in Teheran
+last year. He had a trick of beating his servants which excited the
+wildest admiration among the Persians. The Shah decorated him before he
+left."
+
+"Do you know him?" asked John Carvel quickly, as he caught my last
+words.
+
+"Yes. I was just telling Miss Dabstreak that I met Paul Patoff last
+year. He was at the Russian legation in Teheran." John showed do
+surprise, and relapsed into silence.
+
+"He and Macaulay are both in Paris," said Mrs. Carvel, "and I suppose
+Macaulay has made up his mind that we must know his cousin."
+
+"Is not Professor Cutter coming, too, mamma?" asked Hermione. "I heard
+papa say so the other day."
+
+"Oh, dear, yes!" exclaimed Chrysophrasia, wearily. "Professor Cutter is
+coming, with his nasty science, and his lenses, and his mathematics. Of
+course he will wear those vivid green spectacles morning, noon, and
+night,--such a dreadfully offensive color."
+
+"Yes," said John, gazing down at his neat shoes, as he stood rubbing his
+broad hands slowly together before the fire, "Cutter is coming, too.
+What a queer party we shall be at Christmas."
+
+And when Christmas came, we were a very queer party indeed.
+
+At the prospect of seeing united, under an English roof, an English
+family, consisting of a great manufacturer,--at the same time a
+thorough-going country gentleman of old descent,--his wife, his
+beautiful daughter, and his æsthetic sister-in-law, having with them as
+guests the son of the master of the house, being a young English
+diplomatist; an English professor, who had given up his professorship to
+devote himself to the study of diseases of the mind; a Russian secretary
+of the embassy, who had seen the world, and was thirty years old; and,
+lastly, your humble slave of the pen, being an American,--at the
+prospect of such a heterogeneous assembly of men and women, you will
+suppose, my dear lady, that I am about to embark upon the cerulean
+waters of a potentially platonic republic, humbly steering my craft by
+the charts of a recent voyager, who, after making a noble but
+ineffectual attempt to discover the Isles of the Blessed, appears to
+have stumbled into the drawing-rooms of the Damned.
+
+I am not going to do anything of the kind. My story is written for the
+sole purpose of amusing you, and as a form of diversion for your
+leisure moments I would select neither the Wordsworthian pastoral, nor
+the platonic doctrine of Ideas. Mary Carvel would give her vote for the
+Dalesman, and Chrysophrasia for Plato, but I have not consulted them;
+and if I do not consult you, it is because I think I understand your
+tastes. You will, moreover, readily understand that in telling this tale
+I sometimes speak of things I did not actually see, because I know the
+people concerned very well, and some of them told me at the time, and
+have told me since, what they felt and thought about the things they did
+and saw done. For myself, I am the man you have long known, Paul Griggs,
+the American; a man of many acquaintances and of few friends, who has
+seen the world, and is forty-three years of age, ugly and tough, not so
+poor as I have been, not so good as I might be, melancholic by
+temperament, and a little sour by force of circumstances.
+
+
+
+
+VII.
+
+
+It chanced, one evening, that I was walking alone through the park. I
+had been on foot to the village to send a telegram, which I had not
+cared to trust to a servant. The weather had suddenly cleared, and there
+had been a sharp frost in the morning; towards midday it had thawed a
+little, but by the time it was dark everything was frozen hard again.
+The moon was nearly full, and shone brightly upon the frozen grass,
+casting queer shadows through the bare branches of the trees; it was
+very cold, and I walked fast; the brittle, frozen mud of the road broke
+beneath my feet with a creaking, crunching sound, and startled the deep
+stillness. As I neared the house the moon was before me, and the mass of
+buildings cast a dark shadow.
+
+Carvel Place is like many old country houses in England; it is a typical
+dwelling of its kind, irregular, yet imposing, and though it has no
+plan, for it has been added to and enlarged, and in part rebuilt, it is
+yet harmonious and of good proportion. I had often reflected that it was
+too large for the use of the present family, and I knew that there must
+be a great number of rooms in the house which were never opened; but no
+one had ever proposed to show them to me, and I was not sufficiently
+curious to ask permission to visit the disused apartments. I had
+observed, however, that a wing of the building ran into an inclosure,
+surrounded by a wall seven or eight feet high, against which were ranged
+upon the one side a series of hot-houses, while another formed the back
+of a covered tennis court. The third wall of the inclosure was covered
+with a lattice, upon which fruit trees had been trained without any
+great success, and I had noticed that the lattice now completely
+covered an old oak door which led into the inclosure. I had never seen
+the door open, but I remembered very well that it was uncovered the last
+time I had been at Carvel Place.
+
+When I reached the house I was no longer cold, and the night was so
+clear and sparkling that I idly strolled round the great place,
+wandering across the frozen lawn and through the winding paths of the
+flower garden beyond, till I came to the wall I have described, and
+stood still, half wondering why the door had been covered over with
+fruit trees, as though no one would ever wish to enter the house from
+that side. The space could hardly be so valuable for gardening purposes,
+I thought, for the slender peach-trees that were bound upon the lattice
+on each side of the door had not thriven. There was something melancholy
+about the unsuccessful attempt to cultivate the delicate southern fruit
+in the unkindly air of England, and the branches and stems, all wrapped
+in straw against the frost, looked unhappy and unnatural in the cold
+moonlight. I stood looking at them, with my hands in my pockets,
+thinking somewhat regretfully of my southern birthplace. I smiled at
+myself and turned away, but as I went the very faintest echo of a laugh
+seemed to come from the other side of the wall. It sounded disagreeably
+in the stillness, and I slowly finished my walk around the house and
+came back to the front door, still wondering who it was that had laughed
+at me from behind the wall in the moonlight. There was certainly no
+original reason in the nature of things why it should not chance that
+some one should laugh on the other side of the wall just as I happened
+to be standing before the closed gate. The inclosure was probably in
+connection with the servants' apartments; or it might be the exclusive
+privilege of Chrysophrasia to walk there, composing anapæstic verse to
+the infinite faintness of the moon,--or anything. A quarter of an hour
+later I was in the drawing-room drinking a cup of tea. I came in when
+the others had finished reading their evening letters, and there were
+none for me. The tea was cold. I wished I had walked half an hour
+longer, and had not come into the drawing-room at all.
+
+"Let me make you a fresh cup, Mr. Griggs," said Hermione; "do,--it will
+be ready in a moment!"
+
+I politely declined, and the conversation of the rest soon began where
+it had left off. It appeared that Professor Cutter was expected that
+night, and the son of the house, with Patoff, on the following day. It
+was Thursday, and Christmas was that day week. John Carvel seemed
+unusually depressed; his words were few and very grave, and he did not
+smile, but answered in the shortest manner possible the questions
+addressed to him. He thought Cutter might arrive at any moment. Hermione
+hazarded a remark to the effect that the professor was rather dull.
+
+"No, my dear," answered John, "he is not at all dull."
+
+"But, papa, I thought he was so immensely learned"----
+
+"He is very learned," said her father, shortly, and buried himself in
+his newspaper, so that hardly anything was visible of him but his feet,
+encased in exceedingly neat shoes; those nether extremities moved
+impatiently from time to time. Chrysophrasia was not present, a
+circumstance which made it seem likely that she might have been the
+person who had laughed behind the wall. Mary Carvel, like her husband,
+was unusually silent, and I was sitting not far from Hermione. She
+looked at me after her father's curt answer to her innocent remark, and
+smiled faintly.
+
+The drawing-room where we sat exhibited a curious instance of the effect
+produced upon inanimate things when subjected to the contact of persons
+who differ widely from each other in taste. You smile, dear lady, at the
+complicated form of expression. I mean merely that if two people who
+like very different things live in the same room, each of them will try
+to give the place the look he or she likes. At Carvel Place there were
+four to be consulted, instead of two; for John had his own opinions as
+to taste, and they were certainly sounder than those of his wife and
+sister-in-law, and at least as clearly defined.
+
+John Carvel liked fine pictures, and he had placed three or four in the
+drawing-room,--a couple of good Hogarths, a beautiful woman's head by
+Andrea del Sarto, and a military scene by Meissonnier,--about as
+heterogeneous a quartette of really valuable works as could be got for
+money; and John had given a great deal of money for them. Besides the
+pictures, there stood in the drawing-room an enormous leathern
+easy-chair, of the old-fashioned type with semicircular wings projecting
+forward from the high back on each side, made to protect the rheumatic
+old head of some ancestor who suffered from the toothache before the
+invention of dentists. Near this stood a low, square, revolving
+bookcase, which always contained the volumes which John was reading at
+the time, to be changed from day to day as circumstances required.
+
+Mary Carvel was, and is, an exceedingly religious woman, and her tastes
+are to some extent the expression of her religious feelings. She has a
+number of excellent engravings of celebrated pictures, such as Holbein's
+Madonna, Raphael's Transfiguration, and the Dresden Madonna di San
+Sisto; she owns the entire collection of chromo-lithographs published by
+the Arundel Society, and many other reproductions of a similar nature.
+Many of these she had hung in the drawing-room at Carvel Place. Here and
+there, also, were little shelves of oak in the common Anglomaniac style
+of woodwork, ornamented with trefoils, crosses, circles, and triangles,
+and containing a curious collection of sacred literature, beginning with
+the ancient volume entitled Wilberforce's View, including the poetry
+published in a series of Lyras,--Lyra Anglicana, Lyra Germanica, and so
+on,--culminating at last in the works of Dr. Pusey; the whole perhaps
+exhibiting in a succinct form the stages through which Mary Carvel had
+passed, or was still passing, in her religious convictions. And here
+let me say at once that I am very far from intending to jest at those
+same convictions of Mary Carvel's, and if you smile it is because the
+picture is true, not because it is ridiculous. She may read what she
+pleases, but the world would be a better place if there were more women
+like her.
+
+There were many other possessions of hers in the drawing-room: for
+instance, upon the mantel-piece were placed three magnificent Wedgwood
+urns, after Flaxman's designs, inherited from her father, and now of
+great value; upon the tables there were several vases of old Vienna, but
+of a green color, vivid enough to elicit Chrysophrasia's most eloquent
+disapprobation; there were several embroideries of a sufficiently
+harmless nature, the work of Mary Carvel's patient fingers, but
+conceived in a style no longer popular; and on the whole, there was a
+great number of objects in the drawing-room which belonged to her and by
+which she set great store, but which bore decidedly the character of
+English household decoration and furniture at the beginning of the
+present century, and are consequently abhorrent to the true æsthete.
+
+Chrysophrasia Dabstreak, however, had sworn to cast the shadow of beauty
+over what she called the substance of the hideous, and to this end and
+intention, by dint of honeyed eloquence and stinging satire, she had
+persuaded John and Mary to allow her to insert stained glass in one of
+the windows, which formerly opened upon and afforded a view of a certain
+particularly brilliant flower bed. Beneath the many-colored light from
+this Gothic window--for she insisted upon the pointed arch--Miss
+Dabstreak had made her own especial corner of the drawing-room. There
+one might see strange pots and plates, and withered rushes, and
+fantastic greenish draperies of Eastern weft, which, however, would not
+fetch five piastres a yard in the bazaar of Stamboul, curious
+water-colors said to represent "impressions," though one would be shy of
+meeting, beyond the bounds of an insane asylum, the individual whose
+impressions could take so questionable a shape; lastly, the centre of
+the collection, a "polka mazurka harmony in yellow," by Sardanapalus
+Stiggins, the great impressionist painter of the day. Chrysophrasia paid
+five hundred pounds for this little gem.
+
+But it was not enough for Miss Dabstreak to have collected so many
+worthless objects of price in her own little corner of the room. She had
+encumbered the tables with useless articles of pottery; she had fastened
+a green plate between the better of the two Hogarths and an Arundel
+chromo-lithograph, and connected it with both the pictures by a drooping
+scarf of faint pink silk; she had adorned the engraving of Raphael's
+Transfiguration with a bit of Broussa embroidery, because it looked so
+very Oriental; and she had bedizened Mary Carvel's water-color view of
+Carisbrooke Castle with peacock's feathers, because they looked so very
+English. There was no spot in the room where Chrysophrasia's hand had
+not fallen, and often it had fallen heavily. She had respected John
+Carvel's easy-chair and revolving bookcase, but she had respected
+nothing else.
+
+There was a fourth person, however, who had set her especial impress on
+the appearance of the room where all met in common. I mean Hermione
+Carvel. Educated and brought up among the conflicting tastes and views
+of her parents and her aunt, she had imbibed some of the characteristics
+of each, although in widely different degrees. At that time, perhaps,
+the various traits which were united in her had not yet blended
+harmoniously so as to form a satisfactory whole. The resultant of so
+many more or less conflicting forces was prone to extremes of enthusiasm
+or of indifference. Her heart was capable of feeling the warmest
+sympathy, but was liable also to conceive unwarrantable antipathies; her
+mind was of admirable quality, fairly well gifted and sensibly trained;
+though not marvelously quick to understand, yet tenacious and slow to
+forget. The constant attempt to reconcile the irreconcilable opinions
+of her mother and aunt had given Hermione a certain versatility of
+thought, and a certain capacity to see both sides of the question when
+not under the momentary influence of her enthusiasm. She is, and was
+even then, a fine type of the English girl who has grown up under the
+most favorable circumstances; that is to say, with an excellent
+education and a decided preference for the country. It is not necessary
+to allow her any of the privileges and immunities usually granted to
+exceptional people; in any ordinary position of life she would bear the
+test of any ordinary difficulty very well. She inherits common sense
+from her father, an honest country gentleman of the kind now
+unfortunately growing every day more rare; a man not so countrified as
+to break his connection with the intelligent world, nor so foolishly
+ambitious as to abandon a happy life in the country in order to pursue
+the mirage of petty political importance: a man who holds humbug in
+supreme contempt, and having purged it from his being has still
+something to fall back upon. From her mother Hermione inherits an
+extreme conscientiousness in the things of every-day life; but whereas
+in Mary Carvel this scrupulous pursuance of what is right is on the
+verge of degenerating into morbid religionism, in Hermione it is
+tempered by occasional bursts of enthusiasm, and relieved by a wholesome
+and natural capacity for liking some people and disliking others.
+
+In the drawing-room I have been describing, Hermione touched everything,
+and did her best to cast over the various objects some grace, some air
+of harmony, which should make the contrasted tastes of the rest of her
+family less glaring and unpleasant to the eye. Her task was not easy,
+and it was no fault of hers if the room was out of joint. Her love of
+flowers showed itself everywhere, and she knew how to take advantage of
+each inch of room on shelf, or table, or window-seat, filling all
+available spaces with a profusion of roses, geraniums, and blossoms of
+every kind that chanced to be in season. Flowers in a room will do what
+nothing else can accomplish. The eye turns gladly to the living plant,
+when wearied and strained with the incongruities of inanimate things. A
+pot of pinks makes the lowliest and most dismal cottage chamber look gay
+by comparison; a single rose in a glass of water lights up the most
+dusty den of the most dusty student. A bit of climbing ivy converts a
+hideous ruin into a bower, as the Alp roses and the Iva make a garden
+for one short month of the roughest rocks in the Grisons. Only that
+which lives and of which the life is beautiful can reconcile us to those
+surroundings which would otherwise offend our sense of harmony, or
+oppress us with a dullness even more deadly than mere ugliness can ever
+be.
+
+Hermione loves all flowers, and at Carvel Place she was the sweetest
+blossom of them all. Her fresh vitality is of the contagious kind, and
+even plants seem to revive and get new life from the touch of her small
+fingers, as though feeling the necessity of growing like her. Her beauty
+may not last. It is not of the imperious kind, nor even quite classic,
+but it has a wonderful fineness and delicacy. Her soft brown hair coils
+closely on her small, well-shaped head; her gentle, serious blue eyes
+look tenderly on all that lives and has being within the circle of her
+sight; her small mouth smiles graciously and readily, though sometimes a
+little sadly; and her pleasant voice has a frank ring in it that is good
+to hear. Her slight fingers, neither too long nor too short, are often
+busy, but her labors are generally labors of love, and she is never
+weary of them. Of middle height, she has the grace of a taller woman,
+and the ease in motion which comes only from natural, healthy, elastic
+strength, not weakened by enforced idleness, not overdeveloped by
+abominable and unwomanly gymnastic exercises. Everything she does is
+graceful.
+
+It is very strange and interesting to see in her the combination of such
+different elements. Even her aunt Chrysophrasia's queer nature is
+represented, though it needs some ingenuity to trace the resemblance
+between the two. There are indeed tones of the voice, phrases and
+expressions, which seem to belong to particular families, and by which
+one may sometimes discover the relationship. But the modification of
+leading characteristics in the individual is not so easily detected.
+Miss Dabstreak is eccentric, but the wild ideas which continue to
+flourish in the æsthetic cells of Chrysophrasia's brain are softened and
+made more gentle and delicate in Hermione, so that even if they were
+inconsequent they would not seem offensive; though one might not admire
+them, one could not despise them. The young girl loves all that is
+beautiful: not as Chrysophrasia loves it, by sheer force of habitual
+affectation, without discernment and without real enjoyment, but from
+the bottom of her heart, from the well-springs of her own beautiful
+soul; knowing and understanding the great divisions between the graceful
+and the clumsy, between the true and the false, the lovely and the
+unlovely. The extraordinary passion for the eccentric is tempered to an
+honest and natural craving after the beautiful; the admixture of the
+gentleness the girl has inherited from her saintly mother and of the
+genuine common sense which characterizes her father has produced a
+rational desire and ability to do good to every one. Mary Carvel is
+sometimes exaggerated in her ideas of charity, and John on rare
+occasions--very rarely--used to be a little too much inclined to the
+practice of economy; "near" was the term applied by the village people.
+It was at first with him but the reminiscence of poorer years, when
+economy was necessary, and forethought was an indispensable element in
+his life; but the tendency has remained and sometimes shows itself. All
+that can be traced of this quality in the daughter is a certain power of
+keen discernment, which saves her from being cheated by the sham paupers
+who abound in the neighborhood of Carvel Place, and from being led into
+spoiling the school-children with too many feasts of tea, jam, and
+cake.
+
+It is not easy to be brief in describing Hermione Carvel, because in her
+fair self she combines a great many qualities belonging to contradictory
+persons, which one would suppose impossible to unite in one harmonious
+whole; and yet Hermione is one of the most harmonious persons I ever
+knew. Nothing about her ever offended my sense of fitness. I often used
+to wonder how she managed to be loved equally by the different members
+of the household, but there is no doubt of the fact that all the members
+of her family not only love her, but excuse readily enough those of
+their own bad qualities which they fancy they recognize in her; for,
+indeed, nothing ever seems bad in Hermione, and I doubt greatly whether
+there is not some touch of white magic in her nature that protects her
+and shields her, so that bad things turn to good when they come near
+her. If she likes the curious notions of her aunt, she certainly changes
+them so that they become delicate fancies, and agree together with the
+gentle charity she has from her mother and the sterling honesty she gets
+from her father. John sometimes shrugs his shoulders at what he calls
+his wife's extraordinary faith in human nature, and both he and Mary are
+sometimes driven to the verge of distraction by Chrysophrasia's
+perpetual moaning over civilization; but no one is ever out of temper
+with Hermione, nor is Hermione ever impatient with any one of the three.
+She is the peace-maker, the one whose sympathy never fails, whose
+gentleness is never ruffled, and whose fair judgment is never at fault.
+
+When John Carvel answered Hermione's question about Professor Cutter by
+a simple affirmation to the effect that he was a very learned man, the
+young girl did not press her father with any more inquiries, but turned
+to me.
+
+"Do you not think learned people are very often dull, Mr. Griggs?" she
+asked.
+
+"Oppressively," I answered.
+
+"What makes them so?"
+
+"It is the very low and common view which they take of life," put in
+Miss Dabstreak, who entered the room while we were speaking, and sank
+upon the couch with a little sigh. "They have no aspirations after the
+beautiful,--and what else can satisfy the human mind? The Greeks were
+never dull."
+
+"What do you call dull?" asked Mrs. Carvel very mildly.
+
+"Oh--anything; parliamentary reports, for instance, and agricultural
+shows, and the Rural Dean,--anything of that sort," answered Miss
+Chrysophrasia languidly.
+
+"In other words, civilization as compared with barbarism," I suggested.
+"It is true that there cannot be much boredom among barbarous tribes who
+are always scalping their enemies or being scalped themselves; those
+things help to pass the time."
+
+"Yes, scalping must be most interesting," murmured Chrysophrasia, with
+an air of conviction.
+
+Hermione laughed.
+
+"I really believe you would like to see it done, aunt Chrysophrasia,"
+said she.
+
+"Hermy, Hermy, what dreadful ideas you have!" exclaimed Mrs. Carvel, in
+gentle horror. But she immediately returned to her embroidery, and
+relapsed into silence.
+
+"It is Mr. Griggs, mamma," said Hermione, still laughing. "He agrees
+with me that learned people are all oppressively dull, and that the only
+tolerably exciting society is found among scalping Indians."
+
+"Did you not once scalp somebody yourself, Griggs?" asked John, suddenly
+lowering his newspaper.
+
+"Not quite," I answered; "but I once shaved a poodle with a
+pocket-knife. Perhaps you were thinking of that?"
+
+While I spoke there was a sound of wheels without, and John rose to his
+feet. He seemed impatient.
+
+"That must be Cutter at last'" he exclaimed, moving towards the door
+that led into the hall. "I thought he was never coming."
+
+I rose also, and followed him. It was Cutter. The learned professor
+arrived wrapped in a huge ulster overcoat, his hands in the deep pockets
+thereof, and the end of an extinguished cigar between his teeth. He
+furtively disposed of the remains of the weed before shaking hands with
+our host. After the first greetings John led him away to his room, and I
+remained standing in the hall. The professor's luggage was rather
+voluminous, and various boxes, bags, and portmanteaus bore the labels of
+many journeys. The men brought them in from the dog-cart; the strong cob
+pawed the gravel a little, and the moonlight flashed back from the
+silver harness, from the smooth varnished dashboard, the polished
+chains, and the plated lamps. I stood staring out of the door, hardly
+seeing anything. Indeed, I was lost in a fruitless effort of memory. The
+groom gathered up the reins and drove away, and presently I was aware
+that Stubbs, the butler, was offering me a hat, as a hint, I supposed,
+that he wanted to shut the front door. I mechanically covered my head
+and strolled away.
+
+I was trying to remember where I had seen Professor Cutter. I could not
+have known him well, for I never forget a man I have met three or four
+times; and yet his face was perfectly familiar to me, and came vividly
+before me as I paced the garden walks. Instinctively I walked round the
+house again, and paused before the door that had attracted my attention
+an hour earlier. I listened, but heard nothing, and still I tried to
+recall my former meeting with Cutter. Strange, I thought, that I should
+seem to know him so well, and that I should nevertheless be unable to
+connect him in my mind with any date, or country, or circumstance. In
+vain I went over many scenes of my life, endeavoring to limit this
+remembrance to a particular period. I argued that our meeting, if we
+really had met, could not have taken place many years ago, for I
+recognized exactly the curling gray hairs in the professor's beard, the
+wrinkles in his forehead, and a slight mark upon one cheek, just below
+the eye. I recollected the same spectacles; the same bushy, cropped gray
+hair; the same massive, square head set upon a short but powerful body;
+the same huge hands, spotlessly clean, the big nails kept closely pared
+and polished, but so large that they might have belonged to an extinct
+species of gigantic man. The whole of him and his belongings, to the
+very clothes he wore, seemed familiar to me and witnesses to his
+identity; but though I did my best for half an hour, I could not bring
+back one circumstance connected with him. I grew impatient and returned
+to the house, for it was time to dress for dinner, and I felt cold as I
+strolled about in the frosty moonlight.
+
+We met again before dinner, for a few minutes, in the drawing-room. I
+went near to the professor, and examined his appearance very carefully.
+His evening dress set off the robust proportions of his frame, and the
+recollection I had of him struck me more forcibly than ever. I am not
+superstitious, but I began to fancy that we must have met in some former
+state, in some other sphere. He stood before the fire, rubbing his hands
+and answering all manner of questions that were put to him. He appeared
+to be an old friend of the family, to judge by the conversation, and yet
+I was positively certain that I had never seen him at Carvel Place. He
+knew all the family, however, and seemed familiar with their tastes and
+pursuits: he inquired about John's manufacturing interests, and about
+Mrs. Carvel's poor people; he asked Hermione several questions about the
+recent exhibitions of flowers, and discussed with Chrysophrasia a sale
+of majolica which had just taken place in London. After this round of
+remarks I suspected that the professor would address himself to me, for
+his gray eyes rested on me from time to time with a look of recognition.
+But he held his peace, and we presently went to dinner.
+
+Professor Cutter talked much and talked well, in a continuous,
+consistent manner that was satisfactory for a time, but a little
+wearisome in the long run. His ideas were often brilliant, and his
+expression of them was always original, but he had an extraordinary
+faculty of dominating the conversation. Even John Carvel, who knew a
+great deal in his way, found it hard to make any headway against the
+professor's eloquence, though I could sometimes see that he was far from
+being convinced. The professor had been everywhere and had seen most
+things; he talked with absolute conviction of what he had seen, and
+avoided talking of what he had not seen, doubtless inferring that it was
+not worth seeing. Nevertheless, he was not a disagreeable person, as
+such men often are; on the contrary, there was a charm of manner about
+him that was felt by every one present. I longed for the meal to be
+over, however, for I intended to seize the first opportunity which
+presented itself of asking him whether he remembered where we had met
+before.
+
+I was destined to remain in suspense for some time. We had no sooner
+risen from dinner than John Carvel came up to me and spoke in a low
+voice.
+
+"Will you excuse me if I leave you alone, Griggs?" he said. "I have very
+important business with Professor Cutter, which will not keep until
+to-morrow. We will join you in the drawing-room in about an hour."
+
+It was nothing to me if the two men had business together; I was
+sufficiently intimate in the house to be treated without ceremony, and I
+did not care for anybody's company until I could find what I was
+searching for in the forgotten corners of my brain.
+
+"Do not mind me," I answered, and I retired into the smoking-room, and
+began to turn over the evening papers. How long I read I do not know,
+nor whether the news of the day was more or less interesting and
+credible than usual; I do not believe that an hour elapsed, either, for
+an hour is a long time when a man is not interested in what he is doing,
+and is trying to recall something to his mind. I cannot even tell why I
+so longed to recollect the professor's face; I only remember that the
+effort was intense, but wholly fruitless. I lay back in the deep
+leathern easy-chair, and all sorts of visions flitted before my
+half-closed eyes,--visions of good and visions of evil, visions of
+yesterday and visions of long ago. Somehow I fell to thinking about the
+lattice-covered door in the wall, and I caught myself wondering who had
+been behind it when I passed; and then I laughed, for I had made up my
+mind that it must have been Miss Chrysophrasia, who had entered the
+drawing-room five minutes after I did. I sat staring at the fire. I was
+conscious that some one had entered the room, and presently the
+scratching of a match upon something rough roused me from my reverie. I
+looked round, and saw Professor Cutter standing by the table.
+
+It sometimes happens that a very slight thing will recall a very long
+chain of circumstances; a look, the intonation of a word, the attitude
+of a moment, will call up other looks and words and attitudes in quick
+succession, until the chain is complete. So it happened to me, when I
+saw the learned professor standing by the table, with a cigar in his
+mouth, and his great gray eyes fixed upon me from behind his enormous
+spectacles. I recognized the man, and the little I knew of him came back
+to me.
+
+The professor is one of the most learned specialists in neurology and
+the study of the brain now living; he is, moreover, a famous
+anthropologist. He began his career as a surgeon, and would have been
+celebrated as an operator had he not one day inherited a private
+fortune, which permitted him to abandon his surgical practice in favor
+of a special branch for which he knew himself more particularly fitted.
+So soon as I recalled the circumstances of our first meeting I realized
+that I had been in his company only a few moments, and had not known his
+name.
+
+He came and sat himself down in an easy-chair by my side, and puffed in
+silence at a big cigar.
+
+"We have met before," I said. "I could not make you out at first. You
+were at Weissenstein last year. You remember that affair?"
+
+Professor Cutter looked at me curiously for several seconds before he
+answered.
+
+"You are the man who let down the rope," he said at last. "I remember
+you now very well."
+
+There was a short pause.
+
+"Did you ever hear any more of that lady?" asked he, presently.
+
+"No, I did not even know her name, any more than I knew yours," I
+replied. "I took you for a physician, and the lady for your patient."
+
+We heard steps on the polished floor outside the smoking-room.
+
+"If I were you, I would not say anything to Carvel about that matter,"
+said the professor quickly.
+
+The door opened, and John entered the room. He was a little pale and
+looked nervous.
+
+"Ah," he ejaculated, "I thought you would fraternize over the tobacco."
+
+"We are doing our best," said I.
+
+"It is written that the free should be brothers and equal," said the
+professor, with a laugh.
+
+"I never knew two brothers who were equal," said Carvel, in reflective
+tones. "I do not know why the ideal freedom and equality, attaching to
+the ideal brothers, should not be as good as any other visionary aim for
+tangible earthly government; but it certainly does not seem so easy of
+realization, nor so sound in the working, as our good English principle
+that exceptions prove the rule, and that the more exceptions there are
+the better the rule will be."
+
+"Is that speech an attack upon American freedom?" asked the professor,
+laughing a little. "I believe Mr. Griggs is an American."
+
+"No, indeed. Why should I attack American freedom?" said John.
+
+"American freedom is not so easily attacked," I remarked. "It eludes
+definition and rejects political paradox. No one ever connects our
+republic with the fashionable liberty-fraternity-and-equality doctrines
+of European emancipation; still less with the communistic idea that,
+although men have very different capacities for originating things, all
+men have an equal right to destroy them."
+
+"Griggs is mounted upon his hobby," remarked John Carvel, stretching his
+feet out towards the fire. The professor turned the light of his
+spectacles upon me, and puffed a cloud of smoke.
+
+"Are you a political enthusiast and a rider of hobby-horses, Mr.
+Griggs?" he asked.
+
+"I do not know; you must ask our host."
+
+"Pardon me. I think you know very well," said the professor. "I should
+say you belonged to a class of persons who know very well what they
+think."
+
+"How do you judge?"
+
+"That is, of all questions a man can ask, the most difficult to answer.
+How do you judge of anything?"
+
+"By applying the test of past experience to present fact," I replied.
+
+"Then past experience is that by which I judge. How can you expect me to
+tell you the whole of my past experience, in order that you may
+understand how my judgment is formed? It would take years."
+
+"You are a pair of very singular men," remarked John Carvel. "You seem
+to take to argument as fish to the water. You ought to be successful in
+a school of walking philosophers."
+
+John seemed more depressed than I had ever seen him, and only made an
+observation from time to time, as though to make a show of hospitality.
+The professor interested me, but I could see that we were boring Carvel.
+The conversation languished, and before long the latter proposed that we
+should go into the drawing-room for half an hour before bed-time.
+
+We found the ladies seated around the fire. Their voices fell suddenly
+as we entered the room, and all of them looked towards John and the
+professor, as though expecting something. It struck me that they had
+been talking of some matter which was not intended for our ears.
+
+"We have been making plans for Christmas," said Mrs. Carvel, as though
+to break the awkward silence that followed our entrance.
+
+
+
+
+VIII.
+
+
+Early on the following morning John Carvel came to my room. He looked
+less anxious than on the previous night, but he was evidently not
+altogether his former self.
+
+"Would you care to drive to the station and meet those boys?" he asked,
+cheerfully.
+
+The weather was bright and frosty, and I was glad enough of an excuse
+for being alone for half an hour with my friend. I assented, therefore,
+to his proposition, and presently we were rattling along the hard road
+through the park. The hoar-frost was on the trees and on the blue-green
+frozen grass beneath them, and on the reeds and sedges beside the pond,
+which was overspread with a sheet of black ice. The breath flew from the
+horses' nostrils in white clouds to right and left, and the low morning
+sun flashed back from the harness, and made the little icicles and laces
+of frost upon the trees shine like diamonds.
+
+"Carvel," I said presently, as we spun past the lodge, through the great
+iron gates, "I am not inquisitive, but it is easy to see that there is
+something going on in your house which is not agreeable to you. Will you
+tell me frankly whether you would like me to go away?"
+
+"Not for worlds," my companion ejaculated, and he turned a shade paler
+as he spoke. "I would rather tell you all about it--only"---- He paused.
+
+"Don't," said I. "I don't want to know. I merely thought you might
+prefer to be left free of outsiders at present."
+
+"We hardly look upon you as an outsider, Griggs," said John, quietly.
+"You have been here so much and we have been so intimate that you are
+almost like one of the family. Besides, you know this young nephew of my
+wife's, Paul Patoff; and your knowing him will make matters a little
+easier. I am not at all sure I shall like him."
+
+"I think you will. At all events, I can give you some idea of him."
+
+"I wish you would," answered John.
+
+"He is a thorough Russian in his ideas and an Englishman in
+appearance,--perhaps you might say he is more like a Scotchman. He is
+fair, with blue eyes, a brown mustache, and a prominent nose. He is
+angular in his movements and rather tall. He has a remarkable talent for
+languages, and is regarded as a very promising diplomatist. His temper
+is violent and changeable, but he has excellent manners and is full of
+tact. I should call him an extremely clever fellow in a general way, and
+he has done wisely in the selection of his career."
+
+"That is not a bad description. Is there anything against him?"
+
+"I cannot say; I only knew him in Persia,--a chance acquaintance. People
+said he was very eccentric."
+
+"Eccentric?" asked John. "How?"
+
+"Moody, I suppose, because he would sometimes shut himself up for days,
+and see nobody unless the minister sent for him. He used to beat his
+native servants when he was in a bad humor, and was said to be a
+reckless sort of fellow."
+
+"I hope he will not indulge his eccentricities here. Heaven knows, he
+has reason enough for being odd, poor fellow. We must make the best of
+him," continued John hurriedly, as though regretting his last remark,
+"and you must help us to amuse him and keep him out of mischief. Those
+Russians are the very devil, sometimes, as I have no doubt you know, and
+just at present our relations with them are not of the best; but, after
+all, he is my nephew and one of the family, so that we must do what we
+can for him, and avoid trouble. Macaulay likes him, and I dare say he
+likes Macaulay. They will get on together very well."
+
+"Yes--perhaps so--though I do not see what the two can have in common,"
+I answered. "Macaulay can hardly have much sympathy for Patoff's
+peculiarities, however much he may like the man himself."
+
+"Macaulay is very young, although he has seen something of the world. He
+has not outgrown the age which mistakes eccentricity for genius and bad
+temper for boldness. We shall see,--we shall see very soon. They will
+both hate Cutter, with his professorial wisdom and his immense
+experience of things they have never seen. How do you like him
+yourself?"
+
+"Without being congenial to me, he represents what I would like to be
+myself."
+
+"Would you change with him, if you could?" asked John.
+
+"No, indeed. I, in my person, would like to be what he is in his,--that
+is all. People often talk of changing. No man alive would really
+exchange his personality for that of another man, if he had the chance.
+He only wishes to adorn what he most admires in himself with those
+things which, in his neighbor, excite the admiration of others. He
+meditates no change which does not give his vanity a better appearance
+to himself, and his reputation a dash of more brilliant color in the
+popular eye."
+
+"Perhaps you are right," said John. "At all events, the professor has
+qualities that any man might envy."
+
+We reached the station just as the train ran in, and Macaulay Carvel and
+Patoff waved their hats from the carriage window. In a moment we were
+all shaking hands upon the platform.
+
+"Papa, this is cousin Paul," said Macaulay, and he turned to greet me
+next. He is a good-looking fellow, with rather delicate features and a
+quiet, conscientious sort of expression, exquisite in his dress and
+scrupulous in his manners, with more of his mother's gentleness than of
+his father's bold frankness in his brown eyes. His small hand grasped
+mine readily enough, but seemed nerveless and lacking in vitality, a
+contrast to Paul Patoff's grip. The Russian was as angular as ever, and
+his wiry fingers seemed to discharge an electric shock as they touched
+mine. I realized that he was a very tall man, and that he was far from
+ugly. His prominent nose and high cheek-bones gave a singular eagle-like
+look to his face, and his cold, bright eyes added to the impression. He
+lacked grace of form, but he had plenty of force, and though his
+movements were sometimes sudden and ungainly he was not without a
+certain air of nobility. His brown mustache did not altogether hide the
+half-scornful expression of his mouth.
+
+"How is everybody?" asked Macaulay Carvel of his father. "We shall have
+a most jolly Christmas, all together."
+
+"Well, Mr. Griggs," said Patoff to me, "I did not expect, when we parted
+in Persia, that we should meet again in my uncle's house, did you? You
+will hardly believe that this is my first visit to England, and to my
+relations here."
+
+"You will certainly not be taken for a foreigner here," I said,
+laughing.
+
+"Oh, of course not. You see my mother is English, so that I speak the
+language. The difficulty for me will lie in learning the customs. The
+English have so many peculiar habits. Is Professor Cutter at the house?"
+
+"Yes. You know him?"
+
+"Very well. He has been my mother's physician for some time."
+
+"Indeed--I was not aware that he practiced as a physician." I was
+surprised by the news, and a suspicion crossed my mind that the lady at
+Weissenstein might have been Patoff's mother. Instantly the meaning of
+the professor's warning flashed upon me,--I was not to mention that
+affair in the Black Forest to Carvel. Of course not. Carvel was the
+brother-in-law of the lady in question. However, I kept my own counsel
+as we drove rapidly homewards. The sun had risen higher in the cloudless
+sky, and the frozen ground was beginning to thaw, so that now and then
+the mud splashed high from under the horses' hoofs. The vehicle in which
+we drove was a mail phaeton, and Macaulay sat in front by his father's
+side, while Patoff and I sat behind. We chatted pleasantly along the
+road, and in half an hour were deposited at Carvel Place, where the
+ladies came out to meet us, and the new cousin was introduced to every
+one. He seemed to make himself at home very easily, and I think the
+first impression he produced was favorable. Mrs. Carvel held his hand
+for several seconds, and looked up into his cold blue eyes as though
+searching for some resemblance to his mother, and he met her gentle look
+frankly enough. Chrysophrasia eyed him and eyed him again, trying to
+discover in him the attributes she had bestowed upon him in her
+imagination; he was certainly a bold-looking fellow, and she was not
+altogether disappointed. She allowed her hand to linger in his, and her
+sentimental eyes turned upwards towards him with a look that was
+intended to express profound sympathy. As for Paul, he looked at his
+aunt Chrysophrasia with a certain surprise, and he looked upon Hermione
+with a great admiration as she came forward and put out her hand. John
+Carvel stood near by, and I thought his expression changed as he saw the
+glance his nephew bestowed upon his daughter. I slipped away to the
+library, and left the family party to themselves. Professor Cutter had
+not yet appeared, and I hoped to find him. Sure enough, he was among the
+books. Three or four large volumes lay open upon a table near the
+window, and the sturdy professor was turning over the leaves, holding a
+pencil in his mouth and a sheet of paper in one hand, the image of a
+student in the pursuit of knowledge. I went straight up to him.
+
+"Professor Cutter," I said, "you asked me last night whether I had ever
+heard anything more of the lady with whom I met you at Weissenstein. I
+have heard of her this morning."
+
+The scientist took the pencil from his mouth, and thrust his hands into
+his pockets, gazing upon me through the large round lenses of his
+spectacles. He glanced towards the door before he spoke.
+
+"Well, what have you heard?" he asked.
+
+"Only that she was Paul Patoff's mother," I answered.
+
+"Nothing else?"
+
+"Nothing."
+
+"And how did you come by the information, if you please?" he inquired.
+
+"Very simply. Paul Patoff volunteered to tell me that you had been his
+mother's physician for some time. I remembered that you warned me not to
+speak of the Weissenstein affair to our friend Carvel; that was natural
+enough, since the lady was his sister-in-law. She did not look at all
+like Paul, it is true, but you are not in the habit of playing
+physician, and it is a thousand to one that you have attended no one
+else in the last year who is in any way connected with John Carvel."
+
+The learned doctor smiled.
+
+"You have made a very good guess, Mr. Griggs," he said. "Paul Patoff is
+a silly fellow enough, or he would not have spoken so plainly. Why do
+you tell me that you have found me out?"
+
+"Because I imagine that you are still interested in the lady, and that
+you had better be informed of everything connected with the case."
+
+"The case--yes--it is a very singular case, and I am intensely
+interested in it. Besides, it has very nearly cost me my reputation, as
+well as my life. I assure you I have rarely had to do with such a case,
+nor have I ever experienced such a sensation as when I went over the
+cliff at Weissenstein after Madame Patoff."
+
+"Probably not," I remarked. "I never saw a braver thing more
+successfully accomplished."
+
+"There is small courage in acting under necessity," said the professor,
+walking slowly across the room towards the fire. "If I had not rescued
+my patient, I should have been much more injured than if I had broken my
+neck in the attempt. I was responsible for her. What would have become
+of the 'great neurologist,' the celebrated 'mad-doctor,' as they call
+me, if one of the few patients to whom I ever devoted my whole personal
+attention had committed suicide under my very eyes? You can understand
+that there was something more than her life and mine at stake."
+
+"I never knew exactly how it happened," I replied. "I was looking out of
+my window, when I saw a woman fall over the balcony below me. Her
+clothes caught in the crooked branches of a wild cherry tree that grew
+some ten feet below; and as she struggled, I saw you leaning over the
+parapet, as if you meant to scramble down the face of the cliff after
+her. I had a hundred feet of manilla rope which I was taking with me to
+Switzerland for a special expedition, and I let it down to you. The
+people of the inn came to my assistance, and we managed to haul you up
+together, thanks to your knowing how to tie the rope around you both.
+Then I saw you down-stairs for a few minutes and you told me the lady
+was not hurt. I left almost immediately. I never knew what led to the
+accident."
+
+Professor Cutter passed his heavy hand slowly over his thick gray hair,
+and looked pensively into the fire.
+
+"It was simple enough," he said at last. "I was paying our bill to the
+landlord, and in doing so I turned my back upon Madame Patoff for a
+moment. She was standing on a low balcony outside the window, and she
+must have thrown herself over. Luckily she was dressed in a gown of
+strong Scotch stuff, which did not tear when it caught in the tree. It
+was the most extraordinary escape I ever saw."
+
+"I should think so, indeed. But why did she want to kill herself? Was
+she insane?"
+
+"Are people always insane who try to kill themselves?" asked the
+professor, eying me keenly through his glasses.
+
+"Very generally they are. I suppose that she was."
+
+"That is precisely the question," said the scientist. "Insanity is an
+expression that covers a multitude of sins of all kinds, but explains
+none of them, nor is itself explained. If I could tell you what insanity
+is, I could tell you whether Madame Patoff was insane or not. I can say
+that a man possesses a dog, because I can classify the dogs I have seen
+all over the world. But supposing I had never met any specimen of the
+canine race but a King Charles spaniel, and on seeing a Scotch deerhound
+in the possession of a friend was told that the man had a 'dog:' I
+should be justified in doubting whether the deerhound was a dog at all
+in the sense in which the tiny spaniel--the only dog I had ever
+seen--represented the canine race in my mind and experience. The
+biblical 'devil,' which 'possessed' men, took as many shapes and
+characteristics as the _genus_ 'dog' does: there was the devil that
+dwelt in tombs, the devil that tore its victim, the devil that entered
+into swine, the devil that spoke false prophecies, and many more. It is
+the same with insanity. No two mad people are alike. If I find a person
+with any madness I know, I can say he is mad; but if I find a person
+acting in a very unusual way under the influence of strong and
+protracted emotion, I am not justified in concluding that he is crazy. I
+have not seen everything in the world yet. I have not seen every kind of
+dog, nor every kind of devil, nor every kind of madness."
+
+"You choose strange illustrations," I said, "but you speak clearly."
+
+"Strange cases and strange examples. Insanity is the strangest phase of
+human nature, because it is the least common state of humanity. If a
+majority of men were mad, they would have a right to consider themselves
+sane, and sane men crazy. Your original question was whether, when she
+attempted suicide, Madame Patoff were sane or not. I do not know. I have
+known many persons to attempt to take their lives when, according to all
+their other actions, they were perfectly sane. The question of their
+sanity could be decided by placing a large number of sensible people in
+similar circumstances, in order to see whether the majority of them
+would kill themselves or not. That sort of experiment is not likely to
+be tried. I found Madame Patoff placed in very extraordinary
+circumstances, but I did not know her before she was so placed. The case
+interests me exceedingly. I am still trying to understand it."
+
+"You speak as though you were still treating it," I remarked.
+
+"A physician, in his imagination, will continue to study a case for
+years after it has passed out of his treatment," answered my companion.
+"I must go and see Paul, however, since he was good enough to mention me
+to you." Whereupon Professor Cutter buttoned up his coat and went away,
+leaving me to my reflections by the library fire.
+
+If Carvel had intended to have a family party in his house at Christmas,
+including his nephew whom he had never seen, and whose mother had been
+mad, and the great scientist who had attended her, it seemed strange
+that he should have asked me as directly as he had done to spend the
+whole winter under his roof. I had never been asked for so long a visit
+before, and had never been treated with such confidence and received so
+intimately as I now was. I could not help wondering whether I was to be
+told the reason of what was going on, whether, indeed, anything was
+going on at all, and whether the air of depression and mystery which I
+thought I observed were not the result of my own imagination, rather
+than of any actual foundation in fact. The professor might be making a
+visit for his pleasure, but I knew how valuable his time must be, and I
+wondered how he could afford to spend it in mere amusement. I
+remembered John Carvel's hesitation as we drove to the station that
+morning, and his evident annoyance when I proposed to leave. He knew me
+well enough to say, "All right, if you don't mind, run up to town for a
+day or two," but he had not said it. He had manifested the strongest
+desire that I should stay, and I had determined to comply with his
+request. At the same time I was left entirely in the dark as to what was
+going on in the family, and whispered words, conversations that ceased
+abruptly on my approach, and many other little signs told me beyond all
+doubt that something was occurring of which I had no knowledge. Without
+being inquisitive, it is hard to live in such surroundings without
+having one's curiosity roused, and the circumstance of my former meeting
+with the professor, now so suddenly illuminated by the discovery that
+the lady whose life he had saved was the sister-in-law of our host, led
+me to believe, almost intuitively, that the mystery, if mystery there
+were, was connected in some way with Madame Patoff. As I thought of her,
+the memory of the little inn, the Gasthof zum Goldenen Anker, in
+Weissenstein, came vividly back to me. The splash of the plunging Nagold
+was in my ears, the smell of the boundless pine forest was in my
+nostrils; once more I seemed to be looking down from the upper window of
+the hostelry upon the deep ravine, a sheer precipice from the back of
+the house, broken only by some few struggling trees that appeared
+scarcely able to find roothold on the straight fall of rock,--one tree
+projecting just below the foundations of the inn, ten feet lower than
+the lowest window, a knotted wild cherry, storm-beaten and crooked,--and
+then, suddenly, something of uncertain shape, huddled together and
+falling from the balcony down the precipice,--a woman's figure, caught
+in the gnarled boughs of the cherry-tree, hanging and swinging over the
+abyss, while shriek on shriek echoed down to the swollen torrent and up
+to the turrets of the old inn in an agonized reverberation of horror.
+
+It was a fearful memory, and the thought of being brought into the
+company of the woman whose life I had seen so risked and so saved was
+strange and fascinating. Often and often I had wondered about her fate,
+speculating upon the question whether her fall was due to accident or to
+the intention of suicide, and I had tried to realize the terrible waking
+when she found herself saved from the destruction she sought by the man
+I had seen,--perhaps by the very man from whom she was endeavoring to
+escape. I was thrown off my balance by being so suddenly brought face to
+face with this woman's son, the tall, blue-eyed, awkward fine gentleman,
+Paul Patoff. I sat by the library fire and thought it all over, and I
+said to myself at last, "Paul Griggs, thou art an ass for thy pains, and
+an inquisitive idiot for thy curiosity." I, who am rarely out of conceit
+with myself, was disgusted at my lack of dignity at actually desiring to
+find out things that were in no way my business, nor ever concerned me.
+So I took a book and fell to reading. Far off in the house I could hear
+voices now and then, the voices of the family making the acquaintance of
+their new-found relation. The great fire blazed upon the broad hearth
+within, and the wintry sun shone brightly without, and there came
+gradually upon me the delight of comfort that reigns within a luxurious
+library when the frost is biting without, and there is no scent upon the
+frozen fields,--the comfort that lies in the contrasts we make for
+ourselves against nature; most of all, the peace that a wanderer on the
+face of the earth, as I am, can feel when he rests his weary limbs in
+some quiet home, half wishing he might at last be allowed to lay down
+the staff and scrip, and taste freely of the world's good things, yet
+knowing that before many days the devil of unrest will drive him forth
+again upon his road. So I sat in John Carvel's library, and read his
+books, and enjoyed his cushioned easy-chair with the swinging desk; and
+I envied John Carvel his home, and his quiet life, and his defenses
+against intrusion, saying that I also might be made happy by the
+trifling addition of twenty thousand pounds a year to my income.
+
+But I was not long permitted to enjoy the undisturbed possession of this
+temple of sweet dreams, reveling in my imagination at the idea of what I
+should do if I possessed such a place. The door of the library opened
+suddenly with the noise of many feet upon the polished floor.
+
+"And this is the library," said the voice of Hermione, who led the way,
+followed by her mother and aunt and Paul; John Carvel brought up the
+rear, quietly looking on while his daughter showed the new cousin the
+wonders of Carvel Place.
+
+"This is the library," she repeated, "and this is Mr. Griggs," she
+added, with a little laugh, as she discovered me in the deep easy-chair.
+"This is the celebrated Mr. Griggs. His name is Paul, like yours, but
+otherwise he is not in the least like you, I fancy. Everybody knows him,
+and he knows everybody."
+
+"We have met before," said Patoff, "not only this morning, but in the
+East. Mr. Griggs certainly seemed to know everybody there, from the Shah
+to the Greek consul. What a splendid room! It must have taken you years
+of thought to construct such a literary retreat, uncle John," he added,
+turning to the master of the house as he spoke.
+
+Indeed, Paul Patoff appeared much struck with everything he saw at
+Carvel Place. I left my chair and joined the party, who wandered through
+the rooms and into the great conservatory, and finally gravitated to the
+drawing-room. Patoff examined everything with an air of extreme
+interest, and seemed to understand intuitively the tastes of each member
+of the household. He praised John's pictures and Mrs. Carvel's
+engravings; he admired Chrysophrasia's stained-glass window, and her
+pots, and plates, and bits of drapery, he glanced reverently at Mrs.
+Carvel's religious books, and stopped now and then to smell the flowers
+Hermione loved. He noted the view upon the park from the south windows,
+and thought the disposal of the shrubbery near the house was a
+masterpiece of landscape gardening. As he proceeded, surrounded by his
+relations, remarking upon everything he saw, and giving upon all things
+opinions which marvelously flattered the individual tastes of each one
+of the family, it became evident that he was making a very favorable
+impression upon them.
+
+"It is delightful to show you things," said Hermione. "You are so
+appreciative."
+
+"It needs little skill to appreciate, where everything is so beautiful,"
+he answered. "Indeed," he continued, addressing himself to all present,
+"your home is the most charming I ever saw: I had no idea that the
+English understood luxury so well. You know that with us Continental
+people you have the reputation of being extravagant, even magnificent,
+in your ideas, but of being also ascetics in some measure,--loving to
+make yourselves strangely uncomfortable, fond of getting very hot, and
+of taking very cold baths, and of living on raw meat and cold potatoes
+and all manner of strange things. I do not see here any evidences of
+great asceticism."
+
+"How wonderfully he speaks English!" exclaimed Mrs. Carvel, aside, to
+her husband.
+
+"I should say," continued Paul, without noticing the flattering
+interruption, "that you are the most luxurious people in the world, that
+you have more taste than any people I have ever known, and that if I had
+had the least idea how charming my relations were, I should have come
+from our Russian wilds ten years ago to visit you and tell you how
+superior I think you are to ourselves."
+
+Paul laughed pleasantly as he made this speech, and there was a little
+murmur of applause.
+
+"We were very different, ten years ago," said John Carvel. "In the first
+place, there was no Hermione then, to do the honors and show you the
+sights. She was quite a little thing, ten years ago."
+
+"That would have made no difference in the place, though," said
+Hermione, simply.
+
+"On the contrary," said Paul. "I am inclined to think, on reflection,
+that I would have postponed my visit, after all, for the sake of having
+my cousin for a guide."
+
+"Ah, how gracefully these wild northern men can turn a phrase!"
+whispered Chrysophrasia in my ear,--"so strong and yet so tender!" She
+could not take her eyes from her nephew, and he appeared to understand
+that he had already made a conquest of the æsthetic old maid, for he
+took her admiration for granted, and addressed himself to Mrs. Carvel;
+not losing sight of Chrysophrasia, however, but looking pleasantly at
+her as he talked, though his words were meant for her sister.
+
+"It is the whole atmosphere of this life that is delightful, and every
+little thing seems so harmonious," he said. "You have here the solidity
+of traditional English country life, combined with the comforts of the
+most advanced civilization; and, to make it all perfection, you have at
+every turn the lingering romance of the glorious mediæval life," with a
+glance at Miss Dabstreak, "that middle age which in beauty was the prime
+of age, from which began and spread all your most glorious ideas, your
+government, your warfare, your science. Did you never have an alchemist
+in your family, Uncle John? Surely he found for you the golden secret,
+and it is his touch which has beautified these old walls!"
+
+"I don't know," said John Carvel.
+
+"Indeed there was!" cried Chrysophrasia, in delight. "I have found out
+all about him. He was not exactly an alchemist; he was an astrologer,
+and there are the ruins of his tower in the park. There are some old
+books up-stairs, upon the Black Art, with his name in them, Johannes
+Carvellius, written in the most enchanting angular handwriting."
+
+"I believe there was somebody of that name," remarked John.
+
+"They are full of delicious incantations for raising the devil,--such
+exquisite ceremonies, with all the dress described that you must wear,
+and the phases of the moon, and hazel wands cut at midnight. Imagine how
+delightful!"
+
+"The tower in the park is a beautiful place," said Hermione. "I have it
+all filled with flowers in summer, and the gardener's boy once saw a
+ghost there on All Hallow E'en."
+
+"You must take me there," said Paul, smiling good-humoredly at the
+reference to the alchemist. "I have a passion for ruins, and I had no
+idea that you had any; nothing seems ruined here, and yet everything
+appears old. What a delightful place!" Paul sat far back in his
+comfortable chair, and inserted a single eyeglass in the angle between
+his heavy brow and his aquiline nose; his bony fingers were spotless,
+long, and white, and as he sat there he had the appearance of a
+personage receiving the respectful homage of a body of devoted
+attendants, the indescribable air of easy superiority and condescending
+good-nature which a Roman patrician might have assumed when visiting the
+country villa of one of his clients. Everybody seemed delighted to be
+noticed by him and flattered by his words.
+
+I am by nature cross-grained and crabbed, I presume. I admitted that
+Paul Patoff, though not graceful in his movements, was a fine-looking
+fellow, with an undeniable distinction of manner; he had a pleasant
+voice, an extraordinary command of English, though he was but half an
+Englishman, and a tact which he certainly owed to his foreign blood; he
+was irreproachable in appearance, in the simplicity of his dress, in the
+smoothness of his fair hair and well-trimmed mustache; he appeared
+thoroughly at home among his new-found relations, and anxious to please
+them all alike; he was modest and unassuming, for he did not speak of
+himself, and he gave no opinion saving such as should be pleasing to
+his audience. He had all this, and yet in the cold stare of his stony
+eyes, in the ungainly twist of his broad white hand, where the bones
+and sinews crossed and recrossed like a network of marble, in the
+decisive tone with which he uttered the most flattering remarks,
+there was something which betrayed a tyrannical and unyielding
+character,--something which struck me at first sight, and which
+suggested a nature by no means so gentle and amiable as he was willing
+it should appear.
+
+Nevertheless, I was the only one to notice these signs, to judge by the
+enthusiasm which Patoff produced at Carvel Place in those first hours of
+his stay. It is true that the professor was not present, although he had
+left me on the pretense of going to see Paul, and Macaulay Carvel was
+resting from his journey in his own rooms, in a remote part of the
+house; but I judged that the latter had already fallen under the spell
+of Patoff's manner, and that it would not be easy to find out what the
+man of science really thought about the Anglo-Russian. They probably
+knew each other of old, and whatever opinions they held of each other
+were fully formed.
+
+Paul sat in his easy-chair in the midst of the family, and smiled and
+surveyed everything through his single eyeglass, and if anything did not
+please him he did not say so. John had something to do, and went away,
+then Mrs. Carvel wanted to see her son alone, and she left us too; so
+that Chrysophrasia and Hermione and I remained to amuse Patoff. Hermione
+immediately began to do so after her own fashion. I think that of all of
+us she was the one least inclined to give him absolute supremacy at
+first, but he interested her, for she had seen little of the world, and
+nothing of such men as her cousin Paul, who was thirty years of age, and
+had been to most of the courts of the world in the course of twelve
+years in the diplomatic service. She was not inclined to admit that
+knowledge of the world was superiority of itself, nor that an easy
+manner and an irreproachable appearance constituted the ideal of a man;
+but she was barely twenty, and had seen little of those things. She
+recognized their importance, and desired to understand them; she felt
+that wonderful suspicion of possibilities which a young girl loves to
+dwell on in connection with every exceptional man she meets; she
+unconsciously said to herself that such a man as Patoff might possibly
+be her ideal, because there was nothing apparent to her at first sight
+which was in direct contradiction with the typical picture she had
+conceived of the typical man she hoped to meet.
+
+Every young girl has an ideal, I presume. If it be possible to reason
+about so unreasonable a thing as love, I should say that love at first
+sight is probably due to the sudden supposed realization in every
+respect of an ideal long cherished and carefully developed in the
+imagination. But in most cases a young girl sees one man after another,
+hopes in each one to find those qualities which she has elected to
+admire, and finally submits to be satisfied with far less than she had
+at first supposed could satisfy her. As for young men, they are mostly
+fools, and they talk of love with a vast deal of swagger and bravery,
+laughing it to scorn, as a landsman talks of seasickness, telling you it
+is nothing but an impression and a mere lack of courage, till one day
+the land-bred boaster puts to sea in a Channel steamer, and experiences
+a new sensation, and becomes a very sick man indeed before he is out of
+sight of Dover cliffs.
+
+But with Hermione there was certainly no realization of her ideal, but
+probably only the faint, unformulated hope that in her cousin Paul she
+might find some of those qualities which her own many-sided nature
+longed to find in man.
+
+"You must tell us all about Russia, cousin Paul," she said, when her
+father and mother were gone. "Aunt Chrysophrasia believes that you are
+the most extraordinary set of barbarians up there, and she adores
+barbarians, you know."
+
+"Of course we are rather barbarous."
+
+"Hermione! How can you say I ever said such a thing!" interposed Miss
+Dabstreak, with a deprecating glance at Paul. "I only said the Russians
+were such a young and manly race, so interesting, so unlike the
+inhabitants of this dreary den of printing-presses and steam-engines,
+so"----
+
+"Thanks, aunt Chrysophrasia," said Paul, "for the delightful ideal you
+have formed of us. We are certainly less civilized than you, and
+perhaps, as you are so good as to believe, we are the more interesting.
+I suppose the unbroken colt of the desert is more interesting than an
+American trotting horse, but for downright practical use"----
+
+"There is such a tremendous talk of usefulness!" ejaculated
+Chrysophrasia, a faint, sad smile flickering over her sallow features.
+
+"Usefulness is so remarkably useful," I remarked.
+
+"Oh, Mr. Griggs," exclaimed Hermione, "what an immensely witty speech!"
+
+"There is nothing so witty as truth, Miss Carvel, though you laugh at
+it," I answered, "for where there is no truth, there is no wit. I
+maintain that usefulness is really useful. Miss Dabstreak, I believe,
+maintains the contrary."
+
+"Indeed, I care more for beauty than for usefulness," replied the
+æsthetic lady, with a fine smile.
+
+"Beauty is indeed truly useful," said Paul, with a very faint imitation
+of Chrysophrasia's accent, "and it should be sought in everything. But
+that need not prevent us from seeing true beauty in all that is truly
+useful."
+
+I had a faint suspicion that if Patoff had mimicked Miss Dabstreak in
+the first half of his speech, he had imitated me in the second portion
+of the sentiment. I do not like to be made game of, because I am aware
+that I am naturally pedantic. It is an old trick of the schools to rouse
+a pedant to desperate and distracted self-contradiction by quietly
+imitating everything he says.
+
+"You are very clever at taking both sides of a question at once," said
+Hermione, with a smile.
+
+"Almost all questions have two sides," answered Paul, "but very often
+both sides are true. A man may perfectly appreciate and approve of the
+opinions of two persons who take diametrically opposite views of the
+same point, provided there be no question of right and wrong involved."
+
+"Perhaps," retorted Hermione; "but then the man who takes both sides has
+no opinion of his own. I do not like that."
+
+"In general, cousin Hermione," said Paul, with a polite smile, "you may
+be sure that any man will make your opinion his. In this case, I submit
+that both beauty and usefulness are good, and that they need not at all
+interfere with each other. As for the compliment my aunt Chrysophrasia
+has paid to us Russians, I do not think we can be said to have gone very
+far in either direction as yet." After which diplomatic speech Paul
+dropped his eyeglass, and looked pleasantly round upon all three of us,
+as much as to say that it was impossible to draw him into the position
+of disagreeing with any one present by any device whatsoever.
+
+
+
+
+IX.
+
+
+Professor Cutter and I walked to the village that afternoon. He is a
+great pedestrian, and is never satisfied unless he can walk four or five
+miles a day. His robust and somewhat heavy frame was planned rather for
+bodily labor than for the housing of so active a mind, and he often
+complains that the exercise of his body has robbed him of years of
+intellectual labor. He grumbles at the necessity of wasting time in that
+way, but he never omits his daily walk.
+
+"I should like to possess your temperament, Mr. Griggs," he remarked, as
+we walked briskly through the park. "You might renounce exercise and
+open air for the rest of your life, and never be the worse for it."
+
+"I hardly know," I answered. "I have never tried any regular method of
+life, and I have never been ill. I do not believe in regular methods."
+
+"That is the ideal constitution. By the by, I had hoped to induce Patoff
+to come with us, but he said he would stay with the ladies."
+
+"You will never induce him to do anything he does not want to do," I
+replied. "However, I dare say you know that as well as I do."
+
+"What makes you say that?"
+
+"I can see it,--it is plain enough. Carvel wanted him to go and shoot
+something after lunch, you wanted him to come for a walk, Macaulay
+wanted him to bury himself up-stairs and talk out the Egyptian question,
+I wanted to get him into the smoking-room to ask him questions about
+some friends of mine in the East, Miss Dabstreak had plans to waylay him
+with her pottery. Not a bit of it! He smiled at us all, and serenely
+sat by Mrs. Carvel, talking to her and Miss Hermione. He has a will of
+his own."
+
+"Indeed he has," assented the professor. "He is a moderately clever
+fellow, with a smooth tongue and a despotic character, a much better
+combination than a weak will and the mind of a genius. You are right, he
+is not to be turned by trifles."
+
+"I see that he must be a good diplomatist in these days."
+
+"Diplomacy has got past the stage of being intellectual," said the
+professor. "There was a time when a fine intellect was thought important
+in an ambassador; nowadays it is enough if his excellency can hold his
+tongue and show his teeth. The question is, whether the low estimate of
+intellect in our day is due to the exigency of modern affairs, or to the
+exiguity of modern intelligence."
+
+"Men are stronger in our time," I answered, "and consequently have less
+need to be clever. The transition from the joint government of the world
+by a herd of wily foxes to the domination of the universe by the mammoth
+ox is marked by the increase of clumsy strength and the disappearance of
+graceful deception."
+
+"That is true; but the graceful deception continues to be the more
+interesting, if not the more agreeable. As for me, I would rather be
+gracefully deceived, as you call it, than pounded to jelly by the hoofs
+of the mammoth,--unless I could be the mammoth myself."
+
+"To return to Patoff," said I, "what are they going to do with him?"
+
+"The question is much more likely to be what he will do with them, I
+should say," answered the scientist, looking straight before him, and
+increasing the speed of his walk. "I am not at all sure what he might
+do, if no one prevented him. He is capable of considerable originality
+if left to himself, and they follow him up there at the Place as the
+boys and girls followed the Pied Piper."
+
+"Is he at all like his mother?" I asked.
+
+"In point of originality?" inquired the professor, with a curious smile.
+"She was certainly a most original woman. I hardly know whether he is
+like her. Boys are said to resemble their mother in appearance and their
+father in character. He is certainly not of the same type of
+constitution as his mother, he has not even the same shape of head, and
+I am glad of it. But his father was a Slav, and what is madness in an
+Englishwoman is sanity in a Russian. Her most extraordinary aberrations
+might not seem at all extraordinary when set off by the natural violence
+he inherits from his father."
+
+"That is a novel idea to me," I remarked. "You mean that what is madness
+in one man is not necessarily insanity in another; besides, you refused
+to allow this morning that Madame Patoff was crazy."
+
+"I did not refuse to allow it; I only said I did not know it to be the
+case. But as for what I just said, take two types of mankind, a Chinese
+and an Englishman, for instance. If you met a fair-haired, blue-eyed,
+sanguine Englishman, whose head and features were shaped precisely like
+those of a Chinaman, you could predicate of him that he must be a very
+extraordinary creature, capable, perhaps, of becoming a driveling idiot.
+The same of a Chinese, if you met one with a brain shaped like that of
+an Englishman, and similar features, but with straight black hair, a
+yellow skin, and red eyes. He would have the brain of the Anglo-Saxon
+with the temperament of the Mongol, and would probably become a raving
+maniac. It is not the temperament only, nor the intellect only, which
+produces the idiot or the madman; it is the lack of balance between the
+two. Arrant cowards frequently have very warlike imaginations, and in
+their dreams conceive themselves doing extremely violent things. Suppose
+that with such an imagination you unite the temperament of an Arab
+fanatic, or the coarse, brutal courage of an English prize-fighter, you
+can put no bounds to the possible actions of the monster you create.
+The salvation of the human race lies in the fact that very strong and
+brave people commonly have a peaceable disposition, or else commit
+murder and get hanged for it. It is far better that they should be
+hanged, because nobody knows where violence ends and insanity begins,
+and it is just as well to be on the safe side. Whenever a given form of
+intellect happens to be joined to a totally inappropriate temperament,
+we say it is a case of idiocy or insanity. Of course there are many
+other cases which arise from the mind or the body being injured by
+extraneous causes; but they are not genuine cases of insanity, because
+the evil has not been transmitted from the parents, nor will it be to
+the children."
+
+The professor marched forward as he gave his lecture on unsoundness of
+brain, and I strode by his side, silent and listening. What he said
+seemed very natural, and yet I had never heard it before. Was Madame
+Patoff such a monster as he described? It was more likely that her son
+might be, seeing that he in some points answered precisely to the
+description of a man with the intellect of one race and the temperament
+of another; and yet any one would scoff at the idea that Paul Patoff
+could go mad. He was so correct, so staid, so absolutely master of what
+he said, and probably of what he felt, that one could not imagine him a
+pray to insanity.
+
+"What you say is very interesting," I remarked, at last, "but how does
+it apply to Madame Patoff?"
+
+"It does not apply to her," returned Professor Cutter. "She belongs to
+the class of people in whom the mind has been injured by extraneous
+circumstances."
+
+"I suppose it is possible. I suppose a perfectly sound mind may be
+completely destroyed by an accident, even by the moral shock from a
+sorrow or disappointment."
+
+"Yes," said the professor. "It is even possible to produce artificial
+insanity,--perfectly genuine while it lasts; but it is not possible for
+any one to pretend to be insane."
+
+"Really? I should have thought it quite possible," said I.
+
+"No. It is impossible. I was once called to give my opinion in such a
+case. The man betrayed himself in half an hour, and yet he was a very
+clever fellow. He was a servant; murdered his master to rob him; was
+caught, but succeeded in restoring the valuables to their places, and
+pretended to be crazy. It was very well managed and he played the fool
+splendidly, but I caught him."
+
+"How?" I asked.
+
+"Simply by bullying. I treated him roughly, and never stopped talking to
+him,--just the worst treatment for a person really insane. In less than
+an hour I had wearied him out, his feigned madness became so fatiguing
+to him that there was finally only a spasmodic attempt, and when I had
+done with him the sane man was perfectly apparent. He grew too much
+frightened and too tired to act a part. He was hanged, to the
+satisfaction of all concerned, and he made a complete confession."
+
+"But how about the artificial insanity you spoke of? How can it be
+produced?"
+
+"By any poison, from coffee to alcohol, from tobacco to belladonna. A
+man who is drunk is insane."
+
+"I wonder whether, if a madman got drunk, he would be sane?" I said.
+
+"Sometimes. A man who has delirium tremens can be brought to his right
+mind for a time by alcohol, unless he is too far gone. The habitual
+drunkard is not in his right mind until he has had a certain amount of
+liquor. All habitual poisons act in that way, even tea. How often do you
+hear a woman or a student say, 'I do not feel like myself to-day,--I
+have not had my tea'! When a man does not feel like himself, he means
+that he feels like some one else, and he is mildly crazy. Generally
+speaking, any sudden change in our habits of eating and drinking will
+produce a temporary unsoundness of the mind. Every one knows that
+thirst sometimes brings on a dangerous madness, and hunger produces
+hallucinations and visions which take a very real character."
+
+"I know,--I have seen that. In the East it is thought that insanity can
+be caused by mesmerism, or something like it."
+
+"It is not impossible," answered the scientist. "We do not deny that
+some very extraordinary circumstances can be induced by sympathy and
+antipathy."
+
+"I suppose you do not believe in actual mesmerism, do you?"
+
+"I neither affirm nor deny,--I wait; and until I have been convinced I
+do not consider my opinion worth giving."
+
+"That is the only rational position for a man of science. I fancy that
+nothing but experience satisfies you,--why should it?"
+
+"The trouble is that experiments, according to the old maxim, are
+generally made, and should be made, upon worthless bodies, and that they
+are necessarily very far from being conclusive in regard to the human
+body. There is no doubt that dogs are subject to grief, joy, hope, and
+disappointment; but it is not possible to conclude from the conduct of a
+dog who is deprived of a particularly interesting bone he is gnawing,
+for instance, how a man will act who is robbed of his possessions.
+Similarity of misfortune does not imply analogy in the consequences."
+
+"Certainly not. Otherwise everybody would act in the same way, if put in
+the same case."
+
+The professor's conversation was interesting if only on account of the
+extreme simplicity with which he spoke of such a complicated subject. I
+was impressed with the belief that he belonged to a class of scientists
+whose interest in what they hope to learn surpasses their enthusiasm for
+what they have already learned,--a class of scientists unfortunately
+very rare in our day. For we talk more nonsense about science than
+would fill many volumes, because we devote so much time to the pursuit
+of knowledge; nevertheless, the amount of knowledge actually acquired,
+beyond all possibility of contradiction, is ludicrously small as
+compared with the energy expended in the pursuit of it and the noise
+made over its attainment. Science lays many eggs, but few are hatched.
+Science boasts much, but accomplishes little; is vainglorious, puffed
+up, and uncharitable; desires to be considered as the root of all
+civilization and the seed of all good, whereas it is the heart that
+civilizes, never the head.
+
+I walked by the professor's side in deep thought, and he, too, became
+silent, so that we talked little more until we were coming home and had
+almost reached the house.
+
+"Why has Patoff never been in England before?" I asked, suddenly.
+
+"I believe he has," answered Cutter.
+
+"He says he has not."
+
+"Never mind. I believe he was in London during nearly eighteen months,
+about four or five years ago, as secretary in the Russian embassy. He
+never went near his relations."
+
+"Why should he say now that he never was in the country?"
+
+"Because they would not like it, if they knew he had been so near them
+without ever visiting them."
+
+"Was his mother with him? Did she never write to her people?"
+
+"No," said Cutter, with a short laugh, "she never wrote to them."
+
+"How very odd!" I exclaimed, as we entered the hall-door.
+
+"It was odd," answered my companion, and went up-stairs. There was
+something very unsatisfactory about him, I thought; and then I cursed my
+own curiosity. What business was it all of mine? If Paul Patoff chose to
+tell a diplomatic falsehood, it certainly did not concern me. It was
+possible that his mother might have quarreled with her family,--indeed,
+in former years I had sometimes thought as much from their never
+mentioning her; and in that case it would be natural that her son might
+not have cared to visit his relations when he was in England before. He
+need not have made such a show of never having visited the country, but
+people often do that sort of thing. And now it was probable that since
+Madame Patoff had been insane there might have been a reconciliation and
+a smoothing over of the family difficulties. I had no idea where Madame
+Patoff might be. I could not ask any one such a delicate question, for I
+supposed she was confined in an asylum, and no one volunteered the
+information. Probably Cutter's visit to Carvel Place was connected with
+her sad state; perhaps Patoff's coming might be the result of it, also.
+It was impossible to say. But of this I was certain: that John Carvel
+and his wife had both grown older and sadder in the past two years, and
+that there was an air of concealment about the house which made me very
+uncomfortable. I have been connected with more than one odd story in my
+time, and I confess that I no longer care for excitement as I once did.
+If people are going to get into trouble, I would rather not be there to
+see it, and I have a strong dislike to being suddenly called upon to
+play an unexpected part in sensational events. Above all, I hate
+mystery; I hate the mournful air of superior sorrow that hangs about
+people who have a disagreeable secret, and the constant depression of
+long-protracted anxiety in those about me. It spoiled my pleasure in the
+quiet country life to see John's face grow every day more grave and Mary
+Carvel's eyes turn sadder. Pain of any sort is unpleasant to witness,
+but there is nothing so depressing as to watch the progress of
+melancholy in one's friends; to feel that from some cause which they
+will not confide they are losing peace and health and happiness. Even if
+one knew the cause one might not be able to do anything to remove it,
+for it is no bodily ill, that can be doctored and studied and
+experimented upon, a subject for dissertation and barbarous,
+semi-classic nomenclature; quacks do not pretend to cure it with patent
+medicines, and great physicians do not write nebulous articles about it
+in the reviews. There is little room for speculation in the matter of
+grief, for most people know well enough what it is, and need no Latin
+words with Greek terminations to express it. It is the breaking of the
+sea of life over the harbor bar where science ends and humanity begins.
+
+Poor John! It needed something strong indeed to sadden his cheerfulness
+and leaden his energy. That evening I talked with Hermione in the
+drawing room. She looked more lovely than ever dressed all in white,
+with a single row of pearls around her throat. Her delicate features
+were pale and luminous, and her brown eyes brighter than usual,--a mere
+girl, scarcely yet gone into the world, but such a woman! It was no
+wonder that Paul glanced from time to time in admiration at his cousin.
+
+We were seated in Chrysophrasia's corner, Hermione and I. There was
+nothing odd in that; the young girl likes me and enjoys talking to me,
+and I am no longer young. You know, dear friend, that I am forty-six
+years old this summer, and it is a long time since any one thought of
+flirting with me. I am not dangerous,--nature has taken care of
+that,--and I am thought very safe company for the young.
+
+"Tell me one of your stories, Mr. Griggs. I am so tired this evening,"
+said Hermione.
+
+"I do not know what to tell you," I answered. "I was hoping that you
+would tell me one of yours, all about the fairies and the elves in the
+park, as you used to when you were a little girl."
+
+"I do not believe in fairies any more," said Hermione, with a little
+sigh. "I believed in them once,--it was so nice. I want stories of real
+life now,--sad ones, that end happily."
+
+"A great many happy stories end sadly," I replied, "but few sad ones
+end happily. Why do you want a sad story? You ought to be gay."
+
+"Ought I? I am not, I am sure. I cannot take everything with a laugh, as
+some people can; and I cannot be always resigned and religious, as mamma
+is."
+
+"The pleasantest people are the ones who are always good, but not always
+alike," I remarked. "It is variety that makes life charming, and
+goodness that makes it worth living."
+
+Hermione laughed a little.
+
+"That sounds very good,--a little goody, as we used to say when we were
+small. I wonder whether it is true. I suppose I have not enough variety,
+or not enough goodness, just at present."
+
+"Why?" I asked. "I should think you had both."
+
+"I do not see the great variety," she answered.
+
+"Have you not found a new relation to-day? An interesting cousin who has
+seen the whole world ought to go far towards making a variety in life."
+
+"What should you think of a man, Mr. Griggs, whose brother has not been
+dead eighteen months, and whose mother is dangerously ill, perhaps
+dying, and who shows no more feeling than a stone?"
+
+The question came sharply and distinctly; Hermione's short lip curled in
+scorn, and the words were spoken through her closed teeth. Of course she
+was speaking of Paul Patoff. She turned to me for an answer, and there
+was an angry light in her eyes.
+
+"Is your cousin's mother very ill?" I asked.
+
+"She is not really dying, but she can never get well. Oh, Mr. Griggs,"
+she cried, clasping her hands together on her knees, and leaning back in
+her seat, "I wish I could tell you all about it! I am sure you might do
+some good, but they would be very angry if I told you. I wonder whether
+he is really so hard-hearted as he looks!"
+
+"Oh, no," I answered. "Men who have lived so much in the world learn to
+conceal their feelings."
+
+"It is not thought good manners to have any feeling, is it?"
+
+"Most people try to hide what they feel. What is good of showing every
+one that you are hurt, when nobody can do anything to help you? It is
+undignified to make an exhibition of sorrow for the benefit of one's
+neighbors."
+
+"Perhaps. But I almost think aunt Chrysophrasia is right: the world was
+a nicer place, and life was more interesting, when everybody showed what
+they felt, and fought for what they wanted, and ran away with people
+they loved, and killed people they hated."
+
+"I think you would get very tired of it," I said, laughing. "It is
+uncomfortable to live in constant danger of one's life. You used not to
+talk so, Miss Carvel; what has happened to you?"
+
+"Oh, I do not know; everything is happening that ought not. I should
+think you might see that we are all very anxious. But I do not half
+understand it myself. Will you not tell me a story, and help me to
+forget all about it? Here comes papa with Professor Cutter, looking
+graver than ever; they have been to see--I mean they have been talking
+about it again."
+
+"Once upon a time there was a"---- I stopped. John Carvel came straight
+across the room to where we were sitting.
+
+"Griggs," he said, in a low voice, "will you come with me for a moment?"
+I sprang to my feet. John laid his hand upon my arm; he was very pale.
+"Don't look as though anything were the matter," he added.
+
+Accordingly I sauntered across the room, and made a show of stopping a
+moment before the fire to warm my hands and listen to the general
+conversation that was going on there. Presently I walked away, and John
+followed me. As I passed, I looked at the professor, who seemed already
+absorbed in listening to one of Chrysophrasia's speeches. He did not
+return my glance, and I left the room with my friend. A moment later we
+were in his study. A student's lamp with a green shade burned steadily
+upon the table, and there was a bright fire on the hearth. A huge
+writing-table filled the centre of the room, covered with papers and
+pamphlets. John did not sit down, but stood leaning back against a heavy
+bookcase, with one hand behind him.
+
+"Griggs," he said, and his voice trembled with excitement, "I am going
+to ask you a favor, and in order to ask it I am obliged to take you into
+my confidence."
+
+"I am ready," said I. "You can trust me."
+
+"Since you were here last, very painful things have occurred. In
+consequence of the death of her eldest son, and of certain circumstances
+attending it which I need not, cannot, detail, my wife's sister, Madame
+Patoff, became insane about eighteen months ago. Professor Cutter
+chanced to be with her at the time, and informed me at once. Her
+husband, as you know, died twenty years ago, and Paul was away, so that
+Cutter was so good as to take care of her. He said her only chance of
+recovery lay in being removed to her native country and carefully
+nursed. Thank God, I am rich. I received her here, and she has been here
+ever since. Do not look surprised. For the sake of all I have taken
+every precaution to keep her absolutely removed from us, though we visit
+her from time to time. Cutter told me that dreadful story of her trying
+to kill herself in Suabia. He has just informed me that it was you who
+saved both her life and his with your rope,--not knowing either of them.
+I need not tell you my gratitude."
+
+John paused, and grasped my hand; his own was cold and moist.
+
+"It was nothing," I said. "I did not even incur any danger; it was
+Cutter who risked his life."
+
+"No matter," continued Carvel. "It was you who saved them both. From
+that time she has recognized no one. Cutter brought her here, and the
+north wing of the house was fitted up for her. He has come from time to
+time to see her, and she has proper attendants. You never see them nor
+her, for she has a walled garden,--the one against which the hot-houses
+and the tennis-court are built. Of course the servants know,--everybody
+in the house knows all about it; but this is a huge old place, and there
+is plenty of room. It is not thought safe to take her out, and there
+appears to be something so peculiar about her insanity that Cutter
+discourages the idea of the ordinary treatment of placing the patient in
+the company of other insane, giving them all manner of amusement, and so
+on. He seems to think that if she is left alone, and is well cared for,
+seeing only, from time to time, the faces of persons she has known
+before, she may recover."
+
+"I trust so, indeed," I said earnestly.
+
+"We all pray that she may, poor thing!" rejoined Carvel, very sadly.
+
+"Now listen. Her son. Paul Patoff, arrived this morning, and insisted
+upon seeing her this afternoon. Cutter said it could do no harm, as she
+probably would not recognize him. To our astonishment and delight she
+knew him at once for her son, though she treated him with a coldness
+almost amounting to horror. She stepped back from him, and folded her
+arms, only saying, over and over again, 'Paul, why did you come
+here,--why did you come?' We could get nothing more from her than that,
+and at the end of ten minutes we left her. She seemed very much
+exhausted, excited, too, and the nurse who was with her advised us to
+go."
+
+"It is a great step, however, that she should have recognized any one,
+especially her own son," I remarked.
+
+"So Cutter holds. She never takes the least notice of him. But he has
+suggested to me that while she is still in this humor it would be worth
+while trying whether she has any recollection of you. He says that
+anything which recalls so violent a shock as the one she experienced
+when you saved her life may possibly recall a connected train of
+thought, even though it be a very painful reminiscence; and anything
+which helps memory helps recovery. He considers hers the most
+extraordinary case he has ever seen, and he must have seen a great many;
+he says that there is almost always some delusion, some fixed idea, in
+insanity. Madame Patoff seems to have none, but she has absolutely no
+recognition for any one, nor any memory for events beyond a few minutes.
+She can hardly be induced to speak at all, but will sit quite still for
+hours with any book that is given her, turning over the pages
+mechanically. She has a curious fancy for big books, and will always
+select the thickest from a number of volumes; but whether or not she
+retains any impression of what she reads, or whether, in fact, she
+really reads at all, it is quite impossible to say. She will sometimes
+answer 'yes' or 'no' to a question, but she will give opposite answers
+to the same question in five minutes. She will stare stolidly at any one
+who talks to her consecutively; or will simply turn away, and close her
+eyes as though she were going to sleep. In other respects she is in
+normal health. She eats little, but regularly, and sleeps soundly; goes
+out into her garden at certain hours, and seems to enjoy fine weather,
+and to be annoyed when it rains. She is not easily startled by a sudden
+noise, or the abrupt appearance of those of us who go to see her. Cutter
+does not know what to make of it. She was once a very beautiful woman,
+and is still as handsome as a woman can be at fifty. Cutter says that if
+she had softening of the brain she would behave very differently, and
+that if she had become feeble-minded the decay of her faculties would
+show in her face; but there is nothing of that observable in her. She
+has as much dignity and beauty as ever, and, excepting when she stares
+blankly at those who talk to her, her face is intelligent, though very
+sad."
+
+"Poor lady!" I said. "How old did you say she is?"
+
+"She must be fifty-two, in her fifty-third year. Her hair is gray, but
+it is not white."
+
+"Had she any children besides Paul and his brother?"
+
+"No. I know very little of her family life. It was a love match; but old
+Patoff was rich. I never heard that they quarreled. Alexander entered
+the army, and remained in a guard regiment in St. Petersburg, while Paul
+went into the diplomacy. Madame Patoff must have spent much of her time
+with Alexander until he died, and Cutter says he was always the favorite
+son. I dare say that Paul has a bad temper, and he may have been
+extravagant. At all events, she loved Alexander devotedly, and it was
+his death that first affected her mind."
+
+John had grown more calm during this long conversation. To tell the
+truth, I did not precisely understand why he should have looked so pale
+and seemed so anxious, seeing that the news of Madame Patoff was
+decidedly of an encouraging nature. I myself was too much astonished at
+learning that the insane lady was actually an inmate of the house, and I
+was too much interested at the prospect of seeing her so soon, to think
+much of John and his anxiety; but on looking back I remember that his
+mournful manner produced a certain impression upon me at the moment.
+
+The story was strange enough. I began to comprehend what Hermione had
+meant when she spoke of Paul's cold nature. An hour before dinner the
+man had seen his mother for the first time in eighteen months,--it might
+be more, for all I knew,--for the first time since she had been out of
+her mind. I had learned from John that she had recognized him, indeed,
+but had coldly repulsed him when he came before her. If Paul Patoff had
+been a warm-hearted man, he could not have been at that very moment
+making conversation for his cousins in the drawing-room, laughing and
+chatting, his eyeglass in his eye, his bony fingers toying with the
+flower Chrysophrasia had given him. It struck me that neither Mrs.
+Carvel nor her sister could have known of the interview, or they would
+have manifested some feeling, or at least would not have behaved just as
+they always did. I asked John if they knew.
+
+"No," he answered. "He told my daughter because he broke off his
+conversation with her to go and see his mother, but Hermy never tells
+anything except to me."
+
+"When would you like me to go?" I asked.
+
+"Now, if you will. I will call Cutter. He thinks that, as she last saw
+you with him, your coming together now will be more likely to recall
+some memory of the accident. Besides, it is better to go this evening,
+before she has slept, as the return of memory this afternoon may have
+been very transitory, and anything which might stimulate it again should
+be tried before the mood changes. Will you go now?"
+
+"Certainly," I replied, and John Carvel left the room to call the
+professor.
+
+While I was waiting alone in the study, I happened to take up a pamphlet
+that lay upon the table. It was something about the relations of England
+with Russia. An idea crossed my mind.
+
+"I wonder," I said to myself, "whether they have ever tried speaking to
+her in Russian. Cutter does not know a word of the language; I suppose
+nobody else here does, either, except Paul, and she seems to have spoken
+to him in English."
+
+The door opened, and John entered with the professor. I laid down the
+pamphlet, and prepared to accompany them.
+
+"I suppose Carvel has told you all that I could not tell you, Mr.
+Griggs," said the learned man, eying me through his glasses with an air
+of inquiry, and slowly rubbing his enormous hands together.
+
+"Yes," I said. "I understand that we are about to make an experiment in
+order to ascertain if this unfortunate lady will recognize me."
+
+"Precisely. It is not impossible that she may know you, though, if she
+saw you at all, it was only for a moment. You have a very striking face
+and figure, and you have not changed in the least. Besides, the moment
+was that in which she experienced an awful shock. Such things are
+sometimes photographed on the mind."
+
+"Has she never recognized you in any way?" I asked.
+
+"Never since that day at Weissenstein. There is just a faint possibility
+that when she sees us together she may recall that catastrophe. I think
+Carvel had better stay behind."
+
+"Very well," said John, "I will leave you at the door."
+
+Carvel led the way to the great hall, and then turned through a passage
+I had never entered. The narrow corridor was brightly lighted by a
+number of lamps; at the end of it we came to a massive door. John took a
+little key from a niche in the wall, and inserted it in the small metal
+plate of the patent lock.
+
+"Cutter will lead you now," he said, as he pushed the heavy mahogany
+back upon its hinges. Beyond it the passage continued, still brilliantly
+illuminated, to a dark curtain which closed the other end. It was very
+warm. Carvel closed the door behind us, and the professor and I
+proceeded alone.
+
+
+
+
+X.
+
+
+The professor pushed aside the heavy curtain, and we entered a small
+room, simply furnished with a couple of tables, a bookcase, one or two
+easy-chairs, and a divan. The walls were dark, and the color of the
+curtains and carpet was a dark green, but two large lamps illuminated
+every corner of the apartment. At one of the tables a middle-aged woman
+sat reading; as we entered she looked up at us, and I saw that she was
+one of the nurses in charge of Madame Patoff. She wore a simple gown of
+dark material, and upon her head a dainty cap of French appearance was
+pinned, with a certain show of taste. The nurse had a kindly face and
+quiet eyes, accustomed, one would think, to look calmly upon sights
+which would astonish ordinary people. Her features were strongly marked,
+but gentle in expression and somewhat pale, and as she sat facing us,
+her large white hands were folded together on the foot of the open page,
+with an air of resolution that seemed appropriate to her character. She
+rose deliberately to her feet, as we came forward, and I saw that she
+was short, though when seated I should have guessed her to be tall.
+
+"Mrs. North," said the professor, "this is my friend Mr. Griggs, who
+formerly knew Madame Patoff. I have hopes that she may recognize him.
+Can we see her now?"
+
+"If you will wait one moment," answered Mrs. North, "I will see whether
+you may go in." Her voice was like herself, calm and gentle, but with a
+ring of strength and determination in it that was very attractive. She
+moved to the door opposite to the one by which we had entered, and
+opened it cautiously; after looking in, she turned and beckoned to us
+to advance. We went in, and she softly closed the door behind us.
+
+I shall never forget the impression made upon me when I saw Madame
+Patoff. She was tall, and, though she was much over fifty years of age,
+her figure was erect and commanding, slight, but of good proportion;
+whether by nature, or owing to her mental disease, it seemed as though
+she had escaped the effects of time, and had she concealed her hair with
+a veil she might easily have passed for a woman still young. Mary Carvel
+had been beautiful, and was beautiful still in a matronly, old-fashioned
+way; Hermione was beautiful after another and a smaller manner, slender
+and delicate and lovely; but Madame Patoff belonged to a very different
+category. She was on a grander scale, and in her dark eyes there was
+room for deeper feeling than in the gentle looks of her sister and
+niece. One could understand how in her youth she had braved the
+opposition of father and mother and sisters, and had married the
+brilliant Russian, and had followed him to the ends of the earth during
+ten years, through peace and through war, till he died. One could
+understand how some great trouble and despair, which would send a
+duller, gentler soul to prayers and sad meditations, might have driven
+this grand, passionate creature to the very defiance of all despair and
+trouble, into the abyss of a self-sought death. I shuddered when I
+remembered that I had seen this very woman suspended in mid-air, her
+life depending on the slender strength of a wild cherry tree upon the
+cliff side. I had seen her, and yet had not seen her; for the sudden
+impression of that terrible moment bore little or no relation to the
+calmer view of the present time.
+
+Madame Patoff stood before us, dressed in a close-fitting gown of black
+velvet, closed at the throat with a clasp of pearls; her thick hair,
+just turning gray, was coiled in masses low behind her head, drawn back
+in long broad waves on each side, in the manner of the Greeks. Her
+features, slightly aquiline and strongly defined, wore an expression of
+haughty indifference, not at all like the stolid stare which John Carvel
+had described to me, and though her dark eyes gazed upon us without
+apparent recognition, their look was not without intelligence. She had
+been walking up and down in the long drawing-room where we found her,
+and she had paused in her walk as we entered, standing beneath a
+chandelier which carried five lamps; there were others upon the wall,
+high up on brackets and beyond her reach. There was no fireplace, but
+the air was very warm, heated, I suppose, by some concealed apparatus.
+The furniture consisted of deep chairs, lounges and divans of every
+description; three or four bookcases were filled with books, and there
+were many volumes piled in a disorderly fashion upon the different
+tables, and some lay upon the floor beside a cushioned lounge, which
+looked as though it were the favorite resting-place of the inmate of the
+apartment. At first sight it seemed to me that few precautions were
+observed; the nurse was seated in an outer apartment, and Madame Patoff
+was quite alone and free. But the room where she was left was so
+constructed that she could do herself no harm. There was no fire; the
+lamps were all out of reach; the windows were locked, and she could only
+go out by passing through the antechamber where the nurse was watching.
+There was a singular lack of all those little objects which encumbered
+the drawing-room of Carvel Place; there was not a bit of porcelain or
+glass, nor a paper-knife, nor any kind of metal object. There were a few
+pictures upon the walls, and the walls themselves were hung with a light
+gray material, that looked like silk and brilliantly reflected the
+strong light, making an extraordinary background for Madame Patoff's
+figure, clad as she was in black velvet and white lace.
+
+We stood before her, Cutter and I, for several seconds, watching for
+some change of expression in her face. He had hoped that my sudden
+appearance would arouse a memory in her disordered mind. I understood
+his anxiety, but it appeared to me very unlikely that when she failed to
+recognize him she should remember me. For some moments she gazed upon
+me, and then a slight flush rose to her pale cheeks, her fixed stare
+wavered, and her eyes fell. I could hear Cutter's long-drawn breath of
+excitement. She clasped her hands together and turned away, resuming her
+walk. It was strange,--perhaps she really remembered.
+
+"He saved your life in Weissenstein," said Cutter, in loud, clear tones.
+"You ought to thank him for it,--you never did."
+
+The unhappy woman paused in her walk, stood still, then came swiftly
+towards us, and again paused. Her face had changed completely in its
+expression. Her teeth were closely set together, and her lip curled in
+scorn, while a dark flush overspread her pale face, and her hands
+twisted each other convulsively.
+
+"Do you remember Weissenstein?" asked the professor, in the same
+incisive voice, and through his round glasses he fixed his commanding
+glance upon her. But as he looked her eyes grew dull, and the blush
+subsided from her cheek. With a low, short laugh she turned away.
+
+I started. I had forgotten the laugh behind the latticed wall, and if I
+had found time to reflect I should have known, from what John Carvel had
+told me, that it could have come from no one but the mad lady, who had
+been walking in the garden with her nurse, on that bright evening. It
+was the same low, rippling sound, silvery and clear, and it came so
+suddenly that I was startled. I thought that the professor sighed as he
+heard it. It was, perhaps, a strong evidence of insanity. In all my life
+of wandering and various experience I have chanced to be thrown into the
+society of but one insane person besides Madame Patoff. That was a
+curious case: a hardy old sea-captain, who chanced to make a fortune
+upon the New York stock exchange, and went stark mad a few weeks later.
+His madness seemed to come from elation at his success, and it was very
+curious to watch its progress, and very sad. He was a strong man, and in
+all his active life had never touched liquor nor tobacco. Nothing but
+wealth could have driven him out of his mind; but within two months of
+his acquiring a fortune he was confined in an asylum, and within the
+year he died of softening of the brain. I only mention this to show you
+that I had had no experience of insanity worth speaking of before I met
+Madame Patoff. I knew next to nothing of the signs of the disease.
+
+Madame Patoff turned away, and crossed the room; then she sank down upon
+the lounge which I have described as surrounded with books, and, taking
+a volume in her hand, she began to read, with the utmost unconcern.
+
+"Come," said the professor, "we may as well go."
+
+"Wait a minute," I suggested. "Stay where you are." Cutter looked at me,
+and shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"You can't do any harm," he replied, indifferently. "I think she has a
+faint remembrance of you."
+
+You know I can speak the Russian language fairly well, for I have lived
+some time in the country. It had struck me, while I was waiting in the
+study, that it would be worth while to try the effect of a remark in a
+tongue with which Madame Patoff had been familiar for over thirty years.
+I went quietly up to the couch where she was lying, and spoke to her.
+
+"I am sorry I saved your life, since you wished to die," I said, in a
+low voice, in Russian. "Forgive me."
+
+Madame Patoff started violently, and her white hands closed upon her
+book with such force that the strong binding bent and cracked. Cutter
+could not have seen this, for I was between him and her. She looked up
+at me, and fixed her dark eyes on mine. There was a great sadness in
+them, and at the same time a certain terror, but she did not speak.
+However, as I had made an impression, I addressed her again in the same
+language.
+
+"Do you remember seeing Paul to-day?" I asked.
+
+"Paul?" she repeated, in a soft, sad voice, that seemed to stir the
+heart into sympathy. "Paul is dead."
+
+I thought it might have been her husband's name as well as her son's.
+
+"I mean your son. He was with you to-day; you were unkind to him."
+
+"Was I?" she asked. "I have no son." Still her eyes gazed into mine as
+though searching for something, and as I looked I thought the tears rose
+in them and trembled, but they did not overflow. I was profoundly
+surprised. They had told me that she had no memory for any one, and yet
+she seemed to have told me that her husband was dead,--if indeed his
+name had been Paul,--and although she said she had no son, her tears
+rose at the mention of him. Probably for the very reason that I had not
+then had any experience of insane persons, the impression formed itself
+in my mind that this poor lady was not mad, after all. It seemed madness
+on my own part to doubt the evidence before me,--the evidence of
+attendants trained to the duty of watching lunatics, the assurances of a
+man who had grown famous by studying diseases of the brain as Professor
+Cutter had, the unanimous opinion of Madame Patoff's family. How could
+they all be mistaken? Besides, she might have been really mad, and she
+might be now recovering; this might be one of her first lucid moments. I
+hardly knew how to continue, but I was so much interested by her first
+answers that I felt I must say something.
+
+"Why do you say you have no son! He is here in the house; you have seen
+him to-day. Your son is Paul Patoff. He loves you, and has come to see
+you."
+
+Again the low, silvery laugh came rippling from her lips. She let the
+book fall from her hands upon her lap, and leaned far back upon the
+couch.
+
+"Why do you torment me so?" she asked. "I tell you I have no son." Again
+she laughed,--less sweetly than before. "Why do you torment me?"
+
+"I do not want to torment you. I will leave you. Shall I come again?"
+
+"Again?" she repeated, vacantly, as though not understanding. But as I
+stood beside her I moved a little, and I thought her eyes rested on the
+figure of the professor, standing at the other end of the room, and her
+face expressed dislike of him, while her answer to me was a meaningless
+repetition of my own word.
+
+"Yes," I said. "Shall I come again? Do you like to talk Russian?" This
+time she said nothing, but her eyes remained fixed upon the professor.
+"I am going," I added. "Good-by."
+
+She looked up suddenly. I bowed to her, out of habit, I suppose. Do
+people generally bow to insane persons? To my surprise, she put out her
+hand and took mine, and shook it, in the most natural way imaginable;
+but she did not answer me. Just as I was turning from her she spoke
+again.
+
+"Who are you?" she asked in English.
+
+"My name is Griggs," I replied, and lingered to see if she would say
+more. But she laughed again,--very little this time,--and she took up
+the book she had dropped and began to read.
+
+Cutter smiled, too, as we left the room. I glanced back at the graceful
+figure of the gray-haired woman, extended upon her couch. She did not
+look up, and a moment later Cutter and I stood again in the antechamber.
+The professor slowly rubbed his hands together,--his gigantic hands,
+modeled by nature for dealing with big things. Mrs. North rose from her
+reading.
+
+"I have an idea that our patient has recognized this gentleman," said
+the scientist. "This has been a remarkably eventful day. She is probably
+very tired, and if you could induce her to go to bed it would be a very
+good thing, Mrs. North. Good-evening."
+
+"Good-evening," I said. Mrs. North made a slight inclination with her
+head, in answer to our salutation. I pushed aside the heavy curtain,
+and we went out. Cutter had a pass-key to the heavy door in the passage,
+and opened it and closed it noiselessly behind us. I felt as though I
+had been in a dream, as we emerged into the dimly lighted great hall,
+where a huge fire burned in the old-fashioned fireplace, and Fang, the
+white deerhound, lay asleep upon the thick rug.
+
+"And now, Mr. Griggs," said the professor, stopping short and thrusting
+his hands into his pockets, "will you tell me what she said to you, and
+whether she gave any signs of intelligence?" He faced me very sharply,
+as though to disconcert me by the suddenness of his question. It was a
+habit he had.
+
+"She said very little," I replied. "She said that 'Paul' was dead. Was
+that her husband's name as well as her son's?"
+
+"Yes. What else?"
+
+"She told me she had no son; and when I reminded her that she had seen
+him that very afternoon, she laughed and answered, 'I tell you I have no
+son,--why do you torment me?' She said all that in Russian. As I was
+going away you heard her ask me who I was, in English. My name appeared
+to amuse her."
+
+"Yes," assented Cutter, with a smile. "Was that all?"
+
+"That was all she said," I answered, with perfect truth. Somehow I did
+not care to tell the professor of the look I thought I had seen in her
+face when her eyes rested on him. In the first place, as he was doing
+his best to cure her, it seemed useless to tell him that I thought she
+disliked him. It might have been only my imagination. Besides, that
+nameless, undefined suspicion had crossed my brain that Madame Patoff
+was not really mad; and though her apparently meaningless words might
+have been interpreted to mean something in connection with her
+expression of face in speaking, it was all too vague to be worth
+detailing. I had determined that I would see her again and see her
+alone, before long. I might then make some discovery, or satisfy myself
+that she was really insane.
+
+"Well," observed the professor, "it looks as though she remembered her
+husband's death, at all events; and if she remembers that, she has the
+memory of her own identity, which is something in such cases. I think
+she faintly recognized you. That flush that came into her face was there
+when she saw her son this afternoon, so far as I can gather from
+Carvel's description. I wish they had waited for me. This remark about
+her son is very curious, too. It is more like a monomania than anything
+we have had yet. It is like a fixed idea in character; she certainly is
+not sane enough to have meant it ironically,--to have meant that Paul
+Patoff is not a son to her while thinking only of the other one who is
+dead. Did she speak Russian fluently? She has not spoken it for more
+than eighteen months,--perhaps longer."
+
+"She speaks it perfectly," I replied.
+
+"What strange tricks this brain of ours will play us!" exclaimed the
+professor. "Here is a woman who has forgotten every circumstance of her
+former life, has forgotten her friends and relations, and is puzzling us
+all with her extraordinary lack of memory, and who, nevertheless,
+remembers fluently the forms and expressions of one of the most
+complicated languages in the world. At the same time we do not think
+that she remembers what she reads. I wish we could find out. She acts
+like a person who has had an injury to some part of the head which has
+not affected the rest. But then, she never received any injury, to my
+knowledge."
+
+"Not even when she fell at Weissenstein?"
+
+"Not the least. I made a careful examination."
+
+"I do not see that we are likely to arrive at a conclusion by any amount
+of guessing," I remarked. "Nothing but time and experiments will show
+what is the matter with her."
+
+"I have not the time, and I cannot invent the experiments," replied the
+professor, impatiently. "I have a great mind to advise Carvel to put her
+into an asylum, and have done with all this sort of thing."
+
+"He will never consent to do that," I answered. "He evidently believes
+that she is recovering. I could see it in his face this evening. What do
+the nurses think of it?"
+
+"Mrs. North never says anything very encouraging, excepting that she has
+taken care of many insane women before, and remembers no case like this.
+She is a famous nurse, too. Those people, from their constant daily
+experience, sometimes understand things that we specialists do not. But
+on the other hand, she is so taciturn and cautious that she can hardly
+be induced to speak at all. The other woman is younger and more
+enthusiastic, but she has not half so much sense."
+
+I was silent. I was thinking that, according to all accounts, I had been
+more successful than any one hitherto, and that a possible clue to
+Madame Patoff's condition might be obtained by encouraging her to speak
+in her adopted language. Perhaps something of the sort crossed the
+professor's mind.
+
+"Should you like to see her again?" he inquired. "It will be interesting
+to know whether this return of memory is wholly transitory. She
+recognized her son to-day, and I think she had some recognition of you.
+You might both see her again to-morrow, and discover if the same
+symptoms present themselves."
+
+"I should be glad to go again," I replied. "But if I can be of any
+service, it seems to me that I ought to be informed of the circumstances
+which led to her insanity. I might have a better chance of rousing her
+attention."
+
+"Carvel will never consent to that," said the professor, shortly, and he
+looked away from me as I spoke.
+
+I was about to ask whether Cutter himself was acquainted with the whole
+story, when Fang, the dog, who had taken no notice whatever of our
+presence in the hall, suddenly sprang to his feet and trotted across the
+floor, wagging his tail. He had recognized the tread of his mistress,
+and a moment later Hermione entered and came towards us. Hermione did
+not like the professor very much, and the professor knew it; for he was
+a man of quick and intuitive perceptions, who had a marvelous
+understanding of the sympathies and antipathies of those with whom he
+was thrown. He sniffed the air rather discontentedly as the young girl
+approached, and he looked at his watch.
+
+"Fang has good ears, Miss Carvel," said he. "He knew your step before
+you came in."
+
+"Yes," answered Hermione, seating herself in one of the deep chairs by
+the fireside, and caressing the dog's head as he laid his long muzzle
+upon her knee. "Poor Fang, you know your friends, don't you? Mr. Griggs,
+this new collar is always unfastening itself. I believe you have
+bewitched it! See, here it is falling off again."
+
+I bent down to examine the lock. The professor was not interested in the
+dog nor his collar, and, muttering something about speaking to Carvel
+before he went to bed, he left us.
+
+"I could not stay in there," said Hermione. "Aunt Chrysophrasia is
+talking to cousin Paul in her usual way, and Macaulay has got into a
+corner with mamma, so that I was left alone. Where have you been all
+this time?"
+
+"I have heard what you could not tell me," I answered. "I have been to
+see Madame Patoff with the professor."
+
+"Not really? Oh, I am so glad! Now I can always talk to you about it.
+Did papa tell you? Why did he want you to go?"
+
+I briefly explained the circumstances of my seeing Madame Patoff in the
+Black Forest, and the hope that was entertained of her recognizing me.
+
+"Do you ever go in to see her, Miss Carvel?" I asked.
+
+"Sometimes. They do not like me to go," said she; "they think it is too
+depressing for me. I cannot tell why. Poor dear aunt! she used to be
+glad to see me. Is not it dreadfully sad? Can you imagine a man who has
+just seen his mother in such a condition, behaving as Paul Patoff
+behaves this evening? He talks as if nothing had happened."
+
+"No, I cannot imagine it. I suppose he does not want to make everybody
+feel badly about it."
+
+"Mr. Griggs, is she really mad?" asked Hermione, in a low voice, leaning
+forward and clasping her hands.
+
+"Why," I began, very much surprised, "does anybody doubt that she is
+insane?"
+
+"I do," said the young girl, decidedly. "I do not believe she is any
+more insane than you and I are."
+
+"That is a very bold thing to say," I objected, "when a man of Professor
+Cutter's reputation in those things says that she is crazy, and gives up
+so much time to visiting her."
+
+"All the same," said Hermione, "I do not believe it. I am sure people
+sometimes try to kill themselves without being insane, and that is all
+it rests on."
+
+"But she has never recognized any one since that," I urged.
+
+"Perhaps she is ashamed," suggested my companion, simply.
+
+I was struck by the reply. It was such a simple idea that it seemed
+almost foolish. But it was a woman's thought about another woman, and it
+had its value. I laughed a little, but I answered seriously enough.
+
+"Why should she be ashamed?"
+
+"It seems to me," said the young girl, "that if I had done something
+very foolish and wicked, like trying to kill myself, and if people took
+it for granted that I was crazy, I would let them believe it, because I
+should be too much ashamed of myself to allow that I had consciously
+done anything so bad. Perhaps that is very silly; do you think so?"
+
+"I do not think it is silly," I replied. "It is a very original idea."
+
+"Well, I will tell you something. Soon after she was first brought here
+I used to go and see her more often than I do now. She interested me so
+much. I was often alone with her. She never answered any questions, but
+she would sometimes let me read aloud to her. I do not know whether she
+understood anything I read, but it soothed her, and occasionally she
+would go to sleep while I was reading. One day I was sitting quite
+quietly beside her, and she looked at me very sadly, as though she were
+thinking of somebody she had loved,--I cannot tell why; and without
+thinking I looked at her, and said, 'Dear aunt Annie, tell me, you are
+not really mad, are you?' Then she turned very pale and began to cry, so
+that I was frightened, and called the nurse, and went away. I never told
+anybody, because it seemed so foolish of me, and I thought I had been
+unkind, and had hurt her feelings. But after that she did not seem to
+want to see me when I came, and so I have thought a great deal about it.
+Do you see? Perhaps there is not much connection."
+
+"I think you ought to have told some one; your father, for instance," I
+said. "It is very interesting."
+
+"I have told you, though it is so long since it happened," she answered;
+and then she added, quickly, "Shall you tell Professor Cutter?"
+
+"No," I replied, after a moment's hesitation. "I do not think I shall.
+Should you like me to tell him?"
+
+"Oh, no," she exclaimed quickly, "I should much rather you would not."
+
+"Why?" I inquired. "I agree with you, but I should like to know your
+reason."
+
+"I think Professor Cutter knows more already than he will tell you or
+me"---- She checked herself, and then continued in a lower voice: "It is
+prejudice, of course, but I do not like him. I positively cannot bear
+the sight of him."
+
+"I fancy he knows that you do not like him," I remarked.
+
+"Tell me, Miss Carvel, do you know anything of the reason why Madame
+Patoff became insane? If you do know, you must not tell me what it was,
+because your father does not wish me to hear it. But I should like to be
+sure whether you know all about it or not; whether you and I judge her
+from the same point of view, or whether you are better instructed than I
+am."
+
+"I know nothing about it," said Hermione, quietly.
+
+She sat gazing into the great fire, one small hand supporting her chin,
+and the other resting upon the sharp white head of Fang, who never moved
+from her knee. There was a pause, during which we were both wondering
+what strange circumstance could have brought the unhappy woman to her
+present condition, whether it were that of real or of assumed insanity.
+
+"I do not know," she repeated, at last. "I wish I did; but I suppose it
+was something too dreadful to be told. There are such dreadful things in
+the world, you know."
+
+"Yes, I know there are," I answered, gravely; and in truth I was
+persuaded that the prime cause must have been extraordinary indeed,
+since even John Carvel had said that he could not tell me.
+
+"There are such dreadful things," Hermione said again. "Just think how
+horrible it would be if"---- She stopped short, and blushed crimson in
+the ruddy firelight.
+
+"What?" I asked. But she did not answer, and I saw that the idea had
+pained her, whatever it might be. Presently she turned the phrase so as
+to make it appear natural enough.
+
+"What a horrible thing it would be if we found that poor aunt Annie only
+let us believe she was mad, because she had done something she was sorry
+for, and would not own it!"
+
+"Dreadful indeed," I replied. Hermione rose from her deep chair.
+
+"Good-night, Mr. Griggs," she said. "I hope we may all understand
+everything some day."
+
+"Good-night, Miss Carvel."
+
+"How careful you are of the formalities!" she said, laughing. "How two
+years change everything! It used to be 'Good-night, Hermy,' so short a
+time ago!"
+
+"Good-night, Hermy," I said, laughing too, as she took my hand. "If you
+are old enough to be called Miss Carvel, I am old enough to call you
+Hermy still."
+
+"Oh, I did not mean that," she said, and went away.
+
+I sat a few minutes by the fire after she had gone, and then, fearing
+lest I should be disturbed by the professor or John Carvel, I too left
+the hall, and went to my own room, to think over the events of the day.
+I had learned so much that I was confused, and needed rest and leisure
+to reflect. That morning I had waked with a sensation of unsatisfied
+curiosity. All I had wanted to discover had been told me before
+bed-time, and more also; and now I was unpleasantly aware that this very
+curiosity was redoubled, and that, having been promoted from knowing
+nothing to knowing something, I felt I had only begun to guess how much
+there was to be known.
+
+Oh, this interest in other people's business! How grand and beautiful
+and simple a thing it is to mind one's own affairs, and leave other
+people to mind what concerns them! And yet I defy the most indifferent
+man alive to let himself be put in my position, and not to feel
+curiosity; to be taken into a half confidence of the most intense
+interest, and not to desire exceedingly to be trusted with the
+remainder; to be asked to consider and give an opinion upon certain
+effects, and to be deliberately informed that he may never know the
+causes which led to the results he sees.
+
+On mature reflection, what had struck me as most remarkable in
+connection with the whole matter was Hermione's simple, almost childlike
+guess,--that Madame Patoff was ashamed of something, and was willing to
+be considered insane, rather than let it be thought she was in
+possession of her faculties at the time when she did the deed, whatever
+it might be. That this was a conceivable hypothesis there was no manner
+of doubt, only I could hardly imagine what action, apart from the poor
+woman's attempt at suicide, could have been so serious as to persuade
+her to act insanity for the rest of her life. Surely John Carvel, with
+his great, kind heart, would not be unforgiving. But John Carvel might
+not have been concerned in the matter at all. He spoke of knowing the
+details and being unable to tell them to me, but he never said they
+concerned any one but Madame Patoff.
+
+Strange that Hermione should not know, either. Whatever the details
+were, they were not fit for her young ears. It was strange, too, that
+she should have conceived an antipathy for the professor. He was a man
+who was generally popular, or who at least had the faculty of making
+himself acceptable when he chose; but it was perfectly evident that the
+scientist and the young girl disliked each other. There was more in it
+than appeared upon the surface. Innocent young girls do not suddenly
+contract violent prejudices against elderly and inoffensive men who do
+not weary them or annoy them in some way; still less do men of large
+intellect and experience take unreasoning and foolish dislikes to young
+and beautiful maidens. We know little of the hidden sympathies and
+antipathies of the human heart, but we know enough to say with certainty
+that in broad cases the average human being will not, without cause, act
+wholly in contradiction to the dictates of reason and the probabilities
+of human nature.
+
+I lay awake long that night, and for many nights afterwards, trying to
+explain to myself these problems, and planning ways and means for
+discovering whether or not the beautiful old lady down-stairs was in her
+right mind, or was playing a shameful and wicked trick upon the man who
+sheltered her. But though other events followed each other with
+rapidity, it was long before I got at the truth and settled the
+question. Whether or not I was right in wishing to pursue the secret to
+its ultimate source and explanation, I leave you to judge. I will only
+say that, although I was at first impelled by what seems now a wretched
+and worthless curiosity, I found, as time went on, that there was such a
+multiplicity of interests at stake, that the complications were so
+singular and unexpected and the passions aroused so masterful and
+desperate, that, being in the fight, I had no choice but to fight it to
+the end. So I did my very best in helping those to whom I owed
+allegiance by all the laws of hospitality and gratitude, and in
+concentrating my whole strength and intelligence and activity in the
+discovery of an evil which I suspected from the first to be very great,
+but of which I was far from realizing the magnitude and extent.
+
+You will forgive my thus speaking of myself, and this apology for my
+doings at this stage of my story; but I am aware that my motives
+hitherto may have appeared contemptible, and I am anxious to have you
+understand that when I found myself suddenly placed in what I regard as
+one of the most extraordinary situations of my life, I honestly put my
+hand out, and strove to become an agent for good in that strange series
+of events into which my poor curiosity had originally brought me. And
+having thus explained and expressed myself in concluding what I may
+regard as the first part of my story, I promise that I will not trouble
+you again, dear lady, with any unnecessary asseverations of my good
+faith, nor with any useless defense of my actions; conceiving that
+although I am responsible to you for the telling of this tale, I am
+answerable to many for the part I played in the circumstances here
+related; and that, on the other hand, though no one can find much fault
+with me for my doings, none but you will have occasion to criticise my
+mode of telling them.
+
+Henceforth, therefore, and to the end, I will speak of events which
+happened from an historical point of view, frequently detailing
+conversations in which I took no part and scenes of which I had not at
+the time any knowledge, and only introducing myself in the first person
+when the nature of the story requires it.
+
+
+
+
+XI.
+
+
+One might perhaps define the difference between Professor Cutter and
+Paul Patoff by saying that the Russian endeavored to make a favorable
+impression upon people about him, and then to lead them on by means of
+the impression he had created, whereas the scientist enjoyed feeling
+that he had a hidden power over his surroundings, while he allowed
+people to think that he was only blunt and outspoken. Essentially, there
+was between the two men the difference that exists between a diplomatist
+and a conspirator. Patoff loved to appear brilliant, to talk well, to be
+liked by everybody, and to accomplish everything by persuasion; he
+seemed to enjoy the world and his position in it, and it was part of his
+plan of life to acknowledge his little vanities, and to make others feel
+that they need only take a sufficient pride in themselves to become as
+shining lights in the social world as Paul Patoff. At a small cost to
+himself, he favored the general opinion in regard to his eccentricity,
+because the reputation of it gave him a certain amount of freedom he
+would not otherwise have enjoyed. He undertook many obligations, in his
+constant readiness to be agreeable to all men, and perhaps, if he had
+not reserved to himself the liberty of some occasional repose, he would
+have found the burden of his responsibilities intolerable. It was his
+maxim that one should never appear to refuse anything to any one, and it
+is no easy matter to do that, especially when it is necessary never to
+neglect an opportunity of gaining an advantage for one's self. For the
+whole aim of Patoff's policy at that time was selfish. He believed that
+he possessed the secret of power in his own indomitable will, and he
+cultivated the science of persuasion, until he acquired an infinite art
+in adapting the means to the end. Every kind of knowledge served him,
+and though his mind was perhaps not really profound, it was far from
+being superficial, and the surface of it which he presented when he
+chose was vast. It was impossible to speak of any question of history,
+science, ethics, or æsthetics of which Patoff was ignorant, and his
+information on most points was more than sufficient to help him in
+artfully indorsing the opinions of those about him. He was full of tact.
+It was impossible to make him disagree with any one, and yet he was so
+skillful in his conversation that he was generally thought to have a
+very sound judgment. His system was substantially one of harmless
+flattery, and he never departed from it. He reckoned on the unfathomable
+vanity of man, and he rarely was out in his reckoning; he counted upon
+woman's admiration of dominating characters, and was not disappointed,
+for women respected him, and were proportionately delighted when he
+asked their opinion.
+
+In this, as in all other things, the professor was the precise opposite
+of the diplomatist. Cutter affected an air of sublime simplicity, and
+cultivated a straightforward bluntness of expression which was not
+without weight. He prided himself on saying at once that he either had
+an opinion upon a subject, or had none; and if he chanced to have formed
+any judgment he was hot in its support. His intellect was really
+profound within the limits he had chosen for his activity, and his
+experience of mankind was varied and singular. He was a man who cared
+little for detail, except when details tended to elucidate the whole,
+for his first impressions were accurate and large. With his strong and
+sanguine nature he exhibited a rough frankness appropriate to his
+character. He was strong-handed, strong-minded, and strong-tongued; a
+man who loved to rule others, and who made no secret of it; impatient of
+contradiction when he stated his views, but sure never to assume a
+position in argument or in affairs which he did not believe himself
+able to maintain against all comers.
+
+But with this appearance of hearty honesty the scientist possessed the
+remarkable quality of discretion, not often found in sanguine
+temperaments. He loved to understand the secrets of men's lives, and to
+feel that if need be he could govern people by main force and wholly
+against their will. He could conceal anything, any knowledge he
+possessed, any strong passion he felt, with amazing skill. At the very
+time when he seemed to be most frankly speaking his mind, when he made
+his honest strength appear as open as the day, as though scorning all
+concealment and courting inquiry into his motives, he was capable of
+completely hiding his real intentions, of professing ignorance in
+matters in which he was profoundly versed, of appearing to be as cold as
+stone when his heart was as hot as fire. He was a man of violent
+passions in love and hate, unforgetting and unforgiving, who never
+relented in the pursuit of an object, nor weighed the cruelty of the
+means in comparison with the importance of the end. He had by nature a
+temperament fitted for conspiracy and planned to disarm suspicion. He
+was incomparably superior to Paul Patoff in powers of mind and in the
+art of concealment, he was equal to him in the unchanging determination
+of his will, but he was by far inferior to him in those external gifts
+which charm the world and command social success.
+
+These two remarkable men had met before they found themselves together
+under John Carvel's roof, but they did not appear to have been intimate.
+It was, indeed, very difficult to imagine what their relations could
+have been, for they occasionally seemed to understand each other
+perfectly upon matters not understood by the rest of us, whereas they
+sometimes betrayed a surprising ignorance in regard to each other's
+affairs.
+
+From the time when the professor arrived it was apparent that Hermione
+did not like him; and that Cutter was aware of the fact. It had not
+needed the young girl's own assurance to inform me of the antipathy she
+felt for the man of science. He had seen her before, but Hermione had
+suddenly grown into a young lady since his last visit, and the
+consequence was that she was thrown far more often into the society of
+the man she disliked than had been the case when she was still in the
+schoolroom. John Carvel never liked governesses, and as soon as
+practicable the last one had been discharged, so that Hermione was left
+to the society of her mother and aunt and of such visitors as chanced to
+be staying in the house. She was fond of her brother, but had seen
+little of him, and stood rather in awe of his superior genius; for
+Macaulay was a young man who possessed in a very high degree what we
+call the advantages of modern education. She loved him and looked up to
+him, but did not understand him in the least, because people who have a
+great deal of heart do not easily comprehend the nature of people who
+have little; and Macaulay Carvel's manner of talking about men, and even
+nations, as though they were mere wooden pawns, or sets of pawns,
+puzzled his sister's simpler views of humanity. Her mother did not
+always interest her, either; she was devotedly attached to her, but Mrs.
+Carvel, as she grew older, became more and more absolved in the strange
+sort of inner religious life which she had created for herself as a kind
+of stronghold in the midst of her surroundings, and when alone with her
+daughter was apt to talk too much upon serious subjects. To a young and
+beautiful girl, who felt herself entering the vestibule of the world in
+the glow of a wondrous dawn, the somewhat mournful contemplation of the
+spiritual future could not possibly have the charm such meditation
+possessed for a woman in middle age, who had passed through the halls of
+the palace of life without seeing many of its beauties, and who already,
+in the dim distance, caught sight of the shadowy gate whereby we must
+all descend from this world's sumptuous dwelling, to tread the silent
+labyrinths of the unknown future.
+
+Such society as Mrs. Carvel's was not good for Hermione. It is not good
+for any girl. It is before all things important that youth should be
+young, lest it should not know how to be old when age comes upon it. Nor
+is there anything that should be further removed from youth than the
+contemplation of death, which to old age is but a haven of rest to be
+desired, whereas to those who are still young it is an abyss to be
+abhorred. It is well to say, "_Memento, homo, quia pulvis es_," but not
+to say it too often, lest the dust of individual human existence make
+cobwebs in the existence of humanity.
+
+As for her aunt Chrysophrasia, Hermione liked to talk to her, because
+Miss Dabstreak was amusing, with her everlasting paradoxes upon
+everything; and because, not being by nature of an evil heart, and
+desiring to be eccentric beyond her fellows, she was not altogether
+averse to the mild martyrdom of being thought ridiculous by those who
+held contrary opinions. Nevertheless, her aunt's company did not satisfy
+all Hermione's want of society, and the advent of strangers, even of
+myself, was hailed by her with delight. The fact of her conceiving a
+particular antipathy for the professor was therefore all the more
+remarkable, because she rarely shunned the society of any one with whom
+she had an opportunity of exchanging ideas. But Cutter did not like to
+be disliked, and he sought an occasion of making her change her mind in
+regard to him. A few days after my visit to Madame Patoff, the professor
+found his chance. Macaulay Carvel, Paul Patoff, and I left the house
+early to ride to a distant meet, for Patoff had expressed his desire to
+follow the hounds, and, as usual, everybody was anxious to oblige him.
+
+After breakfast the professor watched until he saw Hermione enter the
+conservatory, where she usually spent a part of the morning alone among
+the flowers; sometimes making an elaborate inspection of the plants she
+loved best, sometimes sitting for an hour or two with a book in some
+remote corner, among the giant tropical leaves and the bright-colored
+blossoms. She loved not only the flowers, but the warmth of the place,
+in the bitter winter weather.
+
+Cutter entered with a supremely unconscious air, as though he believed
+there was no one in the conservatory. There was nothing professorial
+about his appearance, except his great spectacles, through which he
+gazed benignly at the luxuriant growth of plants, as he advanced, his
+hands in the pockets of his plaid shooting-coat. He was dressed as any
+other man might be in the country; he had selected an unostentatious
+plaid for the material of his clothes, and he wore a colored tie, which
+just showed beneath the wave of his thick beard. He trod slowly but
+firmly, putting his feet down as though prepared to prove his right to
+the ground he trod on.
+
+"Oh! Are you here, Miss Carvel?" he exclaimed, as he caught sight of
+Hermione installed in a cane chair behind some plants. She was not much
+pleased at being disturbed, but she looked up with a slight smile,
+willing to be civil.
+
+"Since you ask me, I am," she replied.
+
+"Whereas if I had not asked you, you would have affected not to be here,
+you mean? How odd it is that just when one sees a person one should
+always ask them if one sees them or not! In this case, I suppose the
+pleasure of seeing you was so great that I doubted the evidence of my
+senses. Is that the way to turn a speech?"
+
+"It is a way of turning one, certainly," answered Hermione. "There may
+be other ways. I have not much experience of people who turn speeches."
+
+"I have had great experience of them," said the professor, "and I
+confess to you that I consider the practice of turning everything into
+compliment as a disagreeable and tiresome humbug."
+
+"I was just thinking the same thing," said Hermione.
+
+"Then we shall agree."
+
+"Provided you practice what you preach, we shall."
+
+"Did you ever know me to preach what I did not practice?" asked Cutter,
+with a smile of honest amusement.
+
+"I have not known much of you, either in preaching or in practicing, as
+yet. We shall see."
+
+"Shall I begin now?"
+
+"If you like," answered the young girl.
+
+"Which shall it be, preaching or practicing?"
+
+"I should say that, as you have me entirely at your mercy, the
+opportunity is favorable for preaching."
+
+"I would not make such an unfair use of my advantage," said the
+professor. "I detest preaching. In practice I never preach"----
+
+"You are making too much conversation out of those two words,"
+interrupted Hermione. "If I let you go on, you will be making puns upon
+them."
+
+"You do not like puns?"
+
+"I think nothing is more contemptible."
+
+"Merely because that way of being funny is grown old-fashioned," said
+Cutter. "Fifty or sixty years ago, a hundred years ago, when a man
+wanted to be very bitingly sarcastic, he would compose a criticism upon
+his enemy which was only a long string of abominable puns; each pun was
+printed in italics. That was thought to be very funny."
+
+"You would not imitate that sort of fun, would you?" asked Hermione.
+
+"No. You would think it no joke if I did," answered Cutter, gravely.
+
+"I am not going to laugh," said Hermione. But she laughed, nevertheless.
+
+"Pray do not laugh if you do not want to," said Cutter. "I am used to
+being thought dull. Your gravity would not wound me though I were chief
+clown to the whole universe, and yours were the only grave face in the
+world. By the by, you are laughing, I see. I am much obliged for the
+appreciation. Shall I go on being funny?"
+
+"Not if you can help it," said Hermione.
+
+"Do you insinuate that I am naturally an object for laughter?" asked
+Cutter, smiling. "Do you mean that 'I am not only witty in myself, but
+the cause that wit is in other men'? If so, I may yet make you spend a
+pleasant hour in despite of yourself, without any great effort on my own
+part. I will sit here, and you shall laugh at me. The morning will pass
+very agreeably."
+
+"I should think you might find something better to do," returned
+Hermione. "But they say that small things amuse great minds."
+
+"If I had a great mind, do you think I should look upon it as a small
+thing to be laughed at by you, Miss Carvel?" inquired Cutter, quietly.
+
+"You offer yourself so readily to be my laughing-stock that I am forced
+to consider what you offer a small thing," returned his companion.
+
+"You are exceedingly sarcastic. In that case, I have not a great mind,
+as you supposed."
+
+"You are fishing for a compliment, I presume."
+
+"Perhaps. I wish you would pay me compliments--in earnest. I am vain. I
+like to be appreciated. You do not like me,--I should like to be liked
+by you."
+
+"You are talking nonsense, Professor Cutter," said the young girl,
+raising her eyebrows a little. "If I did not like you, it would be
+uncivil of you to say you had found it out, unless I treated you
+rudely."
+
+"It may be nonsense, Miss Carvel. I speak according to my lights."
+
+"Then I should say that for a luminary of science your light is very
+limited," returned Hermione.
+
+"In future I will hide my light under a bushel, since it displeases
+you."
+
+"Something smaller than a bushel would serve the purpose. But it does
+not please me that you should be in the dark; I would rather you had
+more light."
+
+"You have only to look at me," said the scientist, with a laugh.
+
+"I thought you professed not to make silly compliments. My mother tells
+me that the true light should come from within," added Hermione, with a
+little scorn.
+
+"Religious enthusiasts, who make those phrases, spend their lives in
+studying themselves," retorted Cutter. "They think they see light where
+they most wish to find it. I spend my time in studying other people."
+
+"I should think you would find it vastly more interesting."
+
+"I do; especially when you are one of the people I am permitted to
+study."
+
+"If you think I will permit it long, you are mistaken," said Hermione,
+who was beginning to lose her temper, without precisely knowing why. She
+took up her book and a piece of embroidery she had brought with her, as
+though she would go.
+
+"You cannot help my making a study of you," returned the professor,
+calmly. "If you leave me now, I regard it as an interesting feature in
+your case."
+
+"I will afford you that much interest, at all events," answered
+Hermione, rising to her feet. She was annoyed, and the blood rose to her
+delicate cheeks, while her downcast lashes hid the anger in her eyes.
+But she did not know the man, if she thought he would let himself be
+treated so lightly. She knew neither him nor his weapons.
+
+"Miss Carvel, permit me to ask your forgiveness," he said. "I am so fond
+of hearing myself talk that my tongue runs away with me."
+
+"Why do you tease me so?" asked Hermione, suddenly raising her eyes and
+facing Cutter. But before he could answer her she laid down her work and
+her book, and walked slowly away from him. She reached the opposite side
+of the broad conservatory, and turned back.
+
+Cutter's whole manner had changed the moment he saw that she was
+seriously annoyed. He knew well enough that he had said nothing for
+which the girl could be legitimately angry, but he understood her
+antipathy to him too well not to know that it could easily be excited at
+any moment to an open expression of dislike. On the present occasion,
+however, he had resolved to fathom, if possible, the secret cause of the
+feeling the beautiful Hermione entertained against him.
+
+"Miss Carvel," he said, very gently, as she advanced again towards him,
+"I like to talk to you, of all people, but you do not like me,--forgive
+my saying it, for I am in earnest,--and I lose my temper because I
+cannot find out why."
+
+Hermione stood still for a moment, and looked straight into the
+professor's eyes; she saw that they met hers with such an honest
+expression of regret that her heart was touched. She stooped and picked
+a flower, and held it in her hand some seconds before she answered.
+
+"It was I who was wrong," she said, presently. "Let us be friends. It is
+not that I do not like you,--really I believe it is not that. It is
+that, somehow, you do manage to--to tease me, I suppose." She blushed.
+"I am sure you do not mean it. It is very foolish of me, I know."
+
+"If you could only tell me exactly where my fault lies," said Cutter,
+earnestly, "I am sure I would never commit it again. You do not
+seriously believe that I ever intend to annoy you?"
+
+"N--no," hesitated Hermione. "No, you do not intend to annoy me, and yet
+I think it amuses you sometimes to see that I am angry about nothing."
+
+"It does not amuse me," said Cutter. "My tongue gets the better of me,
+and then I am very sorry afterwards. Let us be friends, as you say. We
+have more serious things to think of than quarreling in our
+conversation. Say you forgive me, as freely as I say that it has been my
+fault."
+
+There was something so natural and humble in the way the man spoke that
+Hermione had no choice but to put out her hand and agree to the truce.
+Professor Cutter was as old as her father, though he looked ten years
+younger, or more; he had a world-wide reputation in more than one branch
+of science; he was altogether what is called a celebrated man; and he
+stood before her asking to "make friends," as simply as a schoolboy.
+Hermione had no choice.
+
+"Of course," she answered, and then added with a smile, "only you must
+really not tease me any more."
+
+"I won't," said Cutter, emphatically.
+
+They sat down again, side by side, and were silent for some moments. It
+seemed to Hermione as though she had made an important compact, and she
+did not feel altogether certain of the result. She could have laughed at
+the idea that her making up her differences with the professor was of
+any real importance in her life, but nevertheless she felt that it was
+so, and she was inclined to think over what she had done. Her hands lay
+folded upon her lap, and she idly gazed at them, and thought how small
+and white they looked upon the dark blue serge. Cutter spoke first.
+
+"I suppose," he began, "that when we are not concerned with our own
+immediate affairs, we are all of us thinking of the same thing. Indeed,
+though we live very much as though nothing were the matter, we are
+constantly aware that one subject occupies us all alike."
+
+To tell the truth, Hermione was not at that moment thinking of poor
+Madame Patoff. She raised her eyes with an inquiring glance.
+
+"I am very much preoccupied," continued the professor. "I have not the
+least idea whether we have done wisely in allowing Paul to see his
+mother."
+
+"If she knew him, I imagine it was a good thing," answered Hermione.
+"How long is it since they met?"
+
+"Eighteen months, or more. They met last in very painful circumstances,
+I believe. You see the impression was strong enough to outlive her
+insanity. She was not glad to see him."
+
+"Why will they not tell me what drove her mad?" asked Hermione.
+
+"It is not a very nice story," answered the professor. "It is probably
+on account of Paul." There was a short pause.
+
+"Do you mean that she went mad on account of something Paul did?" asked
+Hermione presently.
+
+"I am not sure I can tell you that. I wish you could know the whole
+story, but your father would never consent to it, I am sure."
+
+"If it is not nice, I do not wish to hear it," said Hermione, quietly.
+"I only wanted to know about Paul. You gave me the impression that it
+was in some way his fault."
+
+"In some way it was," replied Cutter. "Poor lady,--I am not sure we
+should have let her see him."
+
+"Does she suffer much, do you think?"
+
+"No. If she suffered much, she would fall ill and probably die. I do not
+think she has any consciousness of her situation. I have known people
+like that who were mad only three or four days in the week. She never
+has a lucid moment. I am beginning to think it is hopeless, and we might
+as well advise your father to have her taken to a private asylum. The
+experiment would be interesting."
+
+"Why?" asked Hermione. "She gives nobody any trouble here. It would be
+unkind. She is not violent, nor anything of that sort. We should all
+feel dreadfully if anything happened to her in the asylum. Besides, I
+thought it was a great thing that she should have known Paul yesterday."
+
+"Not so great as one might fancy. I think that if there were much chance
+of her recovery, the recognition of her son ought to have brought back a
+long train of memories, amounting almost to a lucid interval."
+
+"I understood that you had spoken more hopefully last night," said
+Hermione, doubtfully. "You seem discouraged to-day."
+
+"With most people it is necessary to appear hopeful at any price,"
+answered Cutter. "I feel that with you I am perfectly safe in saying
+precisely what I think. You will not misinterpret what I say, nor repeat
+it to every other member of the household."
+
+"No, indeed. I am glad you tell me the truth, but I had hoped it was not
+as bad as you say."
+
+"Your aunt is very mad indeed, Miss Carvel," said the professor.
+
+I may observe, in passing, that what the professor said to me differed
+very materially from what he said to Hermione, a circumstance we did not
+discover until a later date. For Hermione, having given her promise not
+to repeat what Cutter told her about her aunt, kept it faithfully, and
+did not even assume an air of superiority when speaking about the case
+to others. She believed exactly what the professor said, namely, that he
+trusted her, and no one else, with his true views of the matter; and
+that, to all others, he assumed an air of hopefulness very far removed
+from his actual state of mind.
+
+Singularly,--or naturally, as you look at it,--the result of the
+conversation between Hermione and the professor was the complete
+disappearance, for some time, of all their differences. Cutter ceased to
+annoy her with his sharp answers to all she said, and she showed a
+growing interest in him and in his conversation. They were frequently
+seen talking together, apparently taking pleasure in each other's
+society, a fact which I alone noticed as interesting, for Patoff had not
+been long enough at Carvel Place to discover that there had ever been
+any antipathy between the two. On looking back, I ascribe the change to
+the influence Cutter obtained over Hermione by suddenly affecting a
+great earnestness and a sincere regret for the annoyance he had given in
+the past, and by admitting her, as he gave her to understand that he
+did, to his confidence in the matter of Madame Patoff's insanity. Be
+that as it may, the result was obtained very easily by the professor;
+and when Hermione left him, before lunch, it is probable that in the
+solitude of the conservatory the man of science rubbed his gigantic
+hands together, and beamed upon the orchids with unusual benignity.
+
+But while this new alliance was being formed in the conservatory,
+another conversation was taking place in a distant part of the house,
+not less interesting, perhaps, but not destined to reach so peaceable a
+conclusion. The scene of this other meeting was Miss Chrysophrasia
+Dabstreak's especial boudoir, an apartment so singular in its furniture
+and adornment that I will leave out all description of it, and ask you
+merely to imagine, at will, the most æsthetic retreat of the most
+æsthetic old maid in existence.
+
+After breakfast, that morning, Chrysophrasia had sent word to Mrs.
+Carvel that she should be glad to see her, if she could come up to her
+boudoir. Chrysophrasia never came down to breakfast. She regarded that
+meal as a barbarism, forgetting that the mediæval persons she admired
+began their days by taking to themselves a goodly supply of food. She
+never appeared before lunch, but spent her mornings in the solitude of
+her own apartment, probably in the composition of verses which have
+remained hitherto unpublished. Mrs. Carvel at once acceded to the
+request conveyed in her sister's message, and went to answer the
+summons. She was not greatly pleased at the idea of spending the morning
+with her sister, for she devoted the early hours to religious reading
+whenever she was able; but she was the most obliging woman in the world,
+and so she quietly put aside her own wishes, and mounted the stairs to
+Miss Dabstreak's boudoir. She found the latter clad in loose garments of
+strange cut and hue, and a green silk handkerchief was tied about her
+forehead, presumably out of respect for certain concealed curl papers
+rather than for any direct purpose of adornment. Chrysophrasia looked
+very faded in the morning. As Mrs. Carvel entered the room, her sister
+pointed languidly to a chair, and then paused a moment, as though to
+recover from the exertion.
+
+"Mary," said she at last, and even from the first tone of her voice Mrs.
+Carvel felt that a severe lecture was imminent,--"Mary, this thing is a
+hollow sham. It cannot be allowed to go on any longer."
+
+Mrs. Carvel's face assumed a sweet and sad expression, and folding her
+hands upon her knees, she leaned slightly forward from the chair upon
+which she sat, and prepared to soothe her sister's views upon hollow
+shams in general.
+
+"My dear," said she, "you must endeavor to be charitable."
+
+"I do not see the use of being charitable," returned Chrysophrasia, with
+more energy than she was wont to display. "Dear me, Mary, what in the
+world has charity to do with the matter? Can you look at me and say that
+it has anything to do with it?"
+
+No. Mary could not look at her and say so, for a very good reason. She
+had not the most distant idea what Chrysophrasia was talking about. On
+general principles, she had made a remark about being charitable, and
+was now held to account for it. She smiled timidly, as though to
+deprecate her sister's vengeance.
+
+"Mary," said Chrysophrasia, in a tone of sorrowful rebuke, "I am afraid
+you are not listening to me."
+
+"Indeed I am," said Mrs. Carvel, patiently.
+
+"Well, then, Mary, I say it is a hollow sham, and that it cannot go on
+any longer."
+
+"Yes, my dear," assented her sister. "I have no doubt you are right; but
+what were you referring to as a hollow sham?"
+
+"You are hopeless, Mary,--you have no intuitions. Of course I mean
+Paul."
+
+Even this was not perfectly clear, and Mrs. Carvel looked inquiringly at
+her sister.
+
+"Is it possible you do not understand?" asked Chrysophrasia. "Do you
+propose to allow my niece--my niece, Mary, and your daughter," she
+repeated with awful emphasis--"to fall in love with her own cousin?"
+
+"I am sure the dear child would never think of such a thing," answered
+Mary Carvel, very gently, and as though not wishing to contradict her
+sister. "He has not been here twenty-four hours."
+
+"The dear child is thinking of it at this very moment," said
+Chrysophrasia. "And what is more, Paul has come here with the deliberate
+intention of marrying her. I have seen it from the first moment he
+entered the house. I can see it in his eyes."
+
+"Well, my dear, you may be right. But I have not noticed anything of the
+sort, and I think you go too far. You will jump at conclusions,
+Chrysophrasia."
+
+"If I went at them at all, Mary, I would glide,--I certainly would not
+jump," replied the æsthetic lady, with a languid smile. Mrs. Carvel
+looked wearily out of the window. "Besides," continued Chrysophrasia,
+"the thing is quite impossible. Paul is not at all a match. Hermy will
+be very rich, some day. John will not leave everything to Macaulay: I
+have heard him say so."
+
+"Why do you discuss the matter, Chrysophrasia?" objected Mrs. Carvel,
+with a little shade of very mild impatience. "There is no question of
+Hermy marrying Paul."
+
+"Then Paul ought to go away at once."
+
+"We cannot send him away. Besides, I think he is a very good fellow. You
+forget that poor Annie is in the house, and he has a right to see her,
+at least for a week."
+
+"It seems to me that Annie might go and live with him."
+
+"He has no home, poor fellow,--he is in the diplomatic service. He is
+made to fly from Constantinople to Persia, and from Persia to St.
+Petersburg; how could he take poor Annie with him?"
+
+"If poor Annie chose," said Chrysophrasia, sniffing the air with a
+disagreeable expression, "poor Annie could go. If she has sense enough
+to dress herself gorgeously and to read dry books all day, she has sense
+enough to travel."
+
+"Oh, Chrysophrasia! How dreadfully unkind you are! You know how--ill she
+is."
+
+Mrs. Carvel did not like to pronounce the word "insane." She always
+spoke of Madame Patoff's "illness."
+
+"I do not believe it," returned Miss Dabstreak. "She is no more crazy
+than I am. I believe Professor Cutter knows it, too. Only he has been
+used to saying that she is mad for so long that he will not believe his
+senses, for fear of contradicting himself."
+
+"In any case I would rather trust to him than to my own judgment."
+
+"I would not. I am utterly sick of this perpetual disturbance about
+Annie's state of mind. It destroys the charm of a peaceful existence. If
+I had the strength, I would go to her and tell her that I know she is
+perfectly sane, and that she must leave the house. John is so silly
+about her. He turns the place into an asylum, just because she chooses
+to hold her tongue."
+
+Mrs. Carvel rose with great dignity.
+
+"I will leave you, Chrysophrasia," she said. "I cannot bear to hear you
+talk in this way. You really ought to be more charitable."
+
+"You are angry, Mary," replied her sister. "Good-by. I cannot bear the
+strain of arguing with you. When you are calmer you will remember what I
+have said."
+
+Poor Mrs. Carvel certainly exhibited none of the ordinary symptoms of
+anger, as she quietly left the room, with an expression of pain upon her
+gentle face. When Chrysophrasia was very unreasonable her only course
+was to go away; for she was wholly unable to give a rough answer, or to
+defend herself against her sister's attacks. Mary went in search of her
+husband, and was glad to find him in the library, among his books.
+
+"John dear, may I come in?" asked Mrs. Carvel, opening the door of her
+husband's library, and standing on the threshold.
+
+"By all means," exclaimed John, looking up. "Anything wrong?" he
+inquired, observing the expression of his wife's face.
+
+"John," said Mrs. Carvel, coming near to him and laying her hand gently
+on his shoulder, "tell me--do you think there is likely to be anything
+between Paul and Hermy?"
+
+"Gracious goodness! what put that into your head?" asked Carvel.
+
+"I have been with Chrysophrasia"--began Mary.
+
+"Chrysophrasia! Oh! Is that it?" cried John in discontented tones. "I
+wish Chrysophrasia would mind her own business, and not talk nonsense!"
+
+"It is nonsense, is it not?"
+
+"Of course,--absolute rubbish! I would not hear of it, to begin with!"
+he exclaimed, as though that were sufficient evidence that the thing was
+impossible.
+
+"No, indeed," echoed Mrs. Carvel, but in more doubtful tones. "Of
+course, Paul is a very good fellow. But yet"---- She hesitated. "After
+all, they are cousins," she added suddenly, "and that is a great
+objection."
+
+"I hope you will not think seriously of any such marriage, Mary," said
+John Carvel, with great decision. "They are cousins, and there are
+twenty other reasons why they should not marry."
+
+"Are there? I dare say you are right, and of course there is no
+probability of either of them thinking of such a thing. But after all,
+Paul is a very marriageable fellow, John."
+
+"I would not consent to his marrying my daughter, though," returned
+Carvel. "I have no doubt it is all right about his brother, who
+disappeared on a dark night in Constantinople. But I would not let Hermy
+marry anybody who had such a story connected with his name."
+
+"Surely, John, you are not so unkind as to give any weight to that
+spiteful accusation. It was very dreadful, but there never was the
+slightest ground for believing that Paul had a hand in it. Even
+Professor Cutter, who does not like him, always said so. That was one of
+the principal proofs of poor Annie's madness."
+
+"I know, my dear. But to the end of time people will go on asking where
+Paul's brother is, and will look suspicious when he is mentioned.
+Cutter, whom you quote, says the same thing, though he believes Paul
+perfectly innocent, as I do myself. Do you suppose I would have a man in
+the house whom I suspected of having murdered his brother?"
+
+"What a dreadful idea!" exclaimed Mrs. Carvel. "But if you liked him
+very much, and wanted him to marry Hermy, would you let that silly bit
+of gossip stand in the way of the match?"
+
+"I don't know what I should do. Perhaps not. But Hermy shall marry whom
+she pleases, provided she marries a gentleman. She has no more idea of
+marrying Paul than Chrysophrasia has, or than Paul has of marrying her.
+Besides, she is far too young to think of such things."
+
+"Really, John, Hermy is nineteen. She is nearly twenty."
+
+"My dear," retorted Carvel, "you will make me think you want them to
+marry."
+
+"Nonsense, John!"
+
+"Well, nonsense, if you like. But Chrysophrasia has been putting this
+ridiculous notion into your head. I believe she is in love with Paul
+herself."
+
+"Oh, John!" exclaimed Mrs. Carvel, smiling at the idea.
+
+But John rose from his chair, and indulged in a hearty laugh at the
+thought of Chrysophrasia's affection for Patoff. Then he stirred the
+fire vigorously, till the coals broke into a bright blaze.
+
+"Annie is better," he said presently, without looking round. "You know
+she recognized Paul; and Griggs thought she knew him, too, when he went
+in with Cutter, the other night."
+
+"Would you like me to go and see her to-day?" asked Mrs. Carvel. Her
+husband had already told her the news and seemed to be repeating it now
+out of sheer satisfaction.
+
+"Perhaps she may know you," he answered. "Have you seen Mrs. North this
+morning?"
+
+"Yes. She says Annie has not slept very well since that day."
+
+"The meeting excited her. Better wait a day or two longer, before doing
+anything else. At any rate, we ought to ask Cutter before making another
+experiment."
+
+"Why did you not go to the meet to-day?" asked Mrs. Carvel suddenly.
+
+"I wanted to have a morning at my books," answered John. His wife took
+the answer as a hint to go away, and presently left the room, feeling
+that her mind had been unnecessarily troubled by her sister. But in her
+honest self-examination, when she had returned to her own room and to
+the perusal of Jeremy Taylor's sermons, she acknowledged to herself that
+she had a liking for Paul Patoff, and that she could not understand why
+both her sister and her husband should at the very beginning scout the
+idea of his marrying Hermione. Of course there was not the slightest
+reason for supposing that Hermione liked him at all, but there was
+nothing to show that she would not like him here-after.
+
+Late in the afternoon we three came back from our long day with the
+hounds, hungry and thirsty and tired. When I came down from my room to
+get some tea, I found that Patoff had been quicker than I; he was
+already comfortably installed by the fireside, with Fang at his feet,
+while Hermione sat beside him. Mrs. Carvel was at the tea-table, at some
+little distance, with her work in her hands, but neither John nor
+Chrysophrasia was in the room. As I sat down and began to drink my tea,
+I watched Paul's face, and it seemed to me that he had changed since I
+had seen him in Teheran, six months ago. I had not liked him much. I am
+not given to seeking acquaintance, and had certainly not sought his, but
+in the Persian capital one necessarily knew every one in the little
+European colony, and I had met him frequently. I had then been struck by
+the stony coldness which appeared to underlie his courteous manner, and
+I had thought it was part of the strange temper he was said to possess.
+Treating his colleagues and all whom he met with the utmost affability,
+never sullenly silent and often even brilliant in conversation, he
+nevertheless had struck me as a man who hated and despised his
+fellow-creatures. There had been then a sort of scornful, defiant look
+on his large features, which inevitably repelled a stranger until he
+began to talk. But he understood eminently the science of making himself
+agreeable, and, when he chose, few could so well lead conversation
+without imposing themselves upon their hearers. I well remembered the
+disdainful coldness of his face when he was listening to some one else,
+and I recollected how oddly it contrasted with his courteous forbearing
+speech. He would look at a man who made a remark with a cynical stare,
+and then in the very next moment would agree with him, and produce
+excellent arguments for doing so. One felt that the man's own nature was
+at war with itself, and that, while forcing himself to be sociable, he
+despised society. It was a thing so evident that I used to avoid looking
+at him, because his expression was so unpleasant.
+
+But as I saw him seated by Hermione's side, playing with the great hound
+at his feet, and talking quietly with his companion, I was forcibly
+struck by the change. His face could not be said to have softened; but
+instead of the cold, defiant sneer which had formerly been peculiar to
+him, his look was now very grave, and from time to time a pleasant light
+passed quickly over his features. Watching him now, I could not fancy
+him either violent or eccentric in temper, as he was said to be. It was
+as though the real nature of the man had got the better of some malady.
+
+"This is like home," I heard him say. "How happy you must be!"
+
+"Yes, I am very happy," answered Hermione. "I have only one unhappiness
+in my life."
+
+"What is that?"
+
+"Poor aunt Annie," said the girl. "I am so dreadfully sorry for her."
+The words were spoken in a low tone, and Mrs. Carvel said something to
+me just then, so that I could not hear Patoff's answer. But while
+talking with my hostess I noticed his earnest manner, and that he seemed
+to be telling some story which interested Hermione intensely. His voice
+dropped to a lower key, and I heard no more, though he talked for a long
+time, as I thought. Then Macaulay Carvel and Professor Cutter entered
+the room. I saw Cutter look at the pair by the fire, and, after
+exchanging a few words with Mrs. Carvel, he immediately joined them.
+Paul's face assumed suddenly the expression of stony indifference, once
+so familiar to me, and I did not hear his voice again. It struck me that
+his more gentle look might have been wholly due to the pleasure he took
+in Hermione's society; but I dismissed the idea as improbable.
+
+Macaulay sat down by his mother, and began telling the incidents of the
+day's hunting in his smooth, unmodulated voice. He was altogether smooth
+and unmodulated in appearance, in conversation, and in manner, and he
+reminded me more of a model schoolboy, rather vain of his acquirements
+and of the favor he enjoyed in the eyes of his masters, than of a grown
+Englishman. It would be impossible to imagine a greater contrast than
+that which existed between the two cousins, and, little as I was
+inclined to like Patoff at first, I was bound to acknowledge that he was
+more manly, more dignified, and altogether more attractive than Macaulay
+Carvel. It was strange that the sturdy, active, intelligent John should
+have such a son, although, on looking at the mother, one recognized the
+sweet smile and gentle features, the dutiful submission and quiet
+feminine forbearance, which in her face so well expressed her character.
+
+But in spite of the vast difference between them in temperament,
+appearance, and education, Macaulay was destined to play a small part in
+Patoff's life. He had from the first taken a fancy to his big Russian
+cousin, and admired him with all his heart. Paul seemed to be his ideal,
+probably because he differed so much from himself; and though Macaulay
+felt it was impossible to imitate him, he was content to give him his
+earnest admiration. It was to be foreseen that if Paul fell in love with
+Hermione he would find a powerful ally in her brother, who was prepared
+to say everything good about him, and to extol his virtues to the skies.
+Indeed, it was likely that during their short acquaintance Macaulay had
+only seen the best points in his cousin's character; for the principal
+sins imputed to Patoff were his violence of temper and his selfishness,
+and it appeared to me that he had done much to overcome both since I had
+last seen him. It is probable that in the last analysis, if this
+reputation could have been traced to its source, it would have been
+found to have arisen from the gossip concerning his quarrel with his
+brother in Constantinople, and from his having once or twice boxed the
+ears of some lazy Persian servant in Teheran. None of the Carvel family
+knew much of Paul's antecedents. His mother never spoke, and before she
+was brought home in her present state, by Professor Cutter, there had
+been hardly any communication between her and her sisters since her
+marriage. Time had effaced the remembrance of what they had called her
+folly when she married Patoff, but the breach had never been healed.
+Mrs. Carvel had made one or two efforts at reconciliation, but they had
+been coldly received; she was a timid woman, and soon gave up the
+attempt. It was not till poor Madame Patoff was brought home hopelessly
+insane, and Macaulay had conceived an unbounded admiration for his
+cousin, that the old affection was revived, and transferred in some
+degree to this son of the lost sister.
+
+As I sat with Mrs. Carvel listening to Macaulay's nerveless,
+conscientious description of the day's doings, I thought over all these
+things, and wondered what would happen next.
+
+* * *
+
+The days passed much as usual at Carvel Place after the first excitement
+of Paul's arrival had worn off; but I regretted that I saw less of
+Hermione than formerly, though I found Cutter's society very
+interesting. Remembering my promise to see Madame Patoff again, I
+visited her once more, but, to my great disappointment, she seemed to
+have forgotten me; and though I again spoke to her in Russian, she gave
+no answer to my questions, and after a quarter of an hour I retired,
+much shaken in my theory that she was not really as mad as was supposed.
+It was reserved for some one else to break the spell, if it could be
+broken at all, and I felt the hopelessness of making any further
+attempt. Though I was not aware of it at the time, I afterwards learned
+that Paul visited her again within a week of his arrival. She behaved
+very much as on the first occasion, it appears, except that her manner
+was more violent than before, so that Cutter deemed it imprudent to
+repeat the experiment.
+
+One morning, three weeks after the events last recorded, I was walking
+with Hermione in the garden. She was as fond of me as ever, though we
+now saw little of each other. But this morning she had seen me alone
+among the empty flower-beds, smoking a solitary cigar after breakfast,
+and, having nothing better to do, she wrapped herself in a fur cloak and
+came out to join me. For a few minutes we talked of the day, and of the
+prospect of an early spring, though we were still in January. People
+always talk of spring before the winter is half over. I said I wondered
+whether Paul would stay to the end of the hunting season.
+
+"I hope so," said Hermione.
+
+"By the by," I remarked, "you seem to have overcome your antipathy for
+your cousin. You are very good friends."
+
+"Yes, he is interesting," she answered. "I wonder"---- She paused, and
+looked at me rather wistfully. "Have you known him long?" she asked,
+suddenly.
+
+"Not very long."
+
+"Do you know anything of his past life?"
+
+"Nothing," I answered. "Nobody does, I fancy, unless it be Professor
+Cutter."
+
+"He has been very unhappy, I should think," she said, presently.
+
+"Has he? Has he told you so?" I resented the idea of Paul's confiding
+his woes, if he had any, to the lovely girl I had known from a child. It
+is too common a way of making love.
+
+"No--that is--yes. He told me about his childhood; how his brother was
+the favorite, and he was always second best, and it made him very
+unhappy."
+
+"Indeed!" I ejaculated, indifferently enough. I knew nothing about his
+brother except that he was dead, or had disappeared and was thought to
+be dead. The story had never reached my ears, and I did not know
+anything about the circumstances.
+
+"How did his brother die?" I asked.
+
+"Oh, he is dead," answered Hermione gravely. "He died in the East
+eighteen months ago. Aunt Annie worshiped him; it was his death that
+affected her mind. At least, I believe so. Professor Cutter says it is
+something else,--something connected with cousin Paul; but papa seems to
+think it was Alexander's death."
+
+"What does the professor say?" I inquired.
+
+"He will not tell me. He is a very odd person. He says it is something
+about Paul, and that it is not nice, and that papa would not like me to
+know it. And then papa tells me that it was only Alexander's death."
+
+"That is very strange," I said. "If I were you, I would believe your
+father rather than the professor."
+
+"Of course; how could I help believing papa?" Hermione turned her
+beautiful blue eyes full upon my face, as though wondering at the
+simplicity of my remark. Of course she believed her father.
+
+"You would not think Paul capable of doing anything not nice, would
+you?" I asked.
+
+Hermione blushed, and looked away towards the distant woods.
+
+"I think he is very nice," she said.
+
+I am Hermione's old friend, but I saw that I had no right to press her
+with questions. No friendship gives a man the right to ask the
+confidence of a young girl, and, moreover, it was evident from her few
+words and from the blush which accompanied them that this was a delicate
+subject. If any one were to speak to her, it must be her father. As far
+as I knew, there was no reason why she should not love her cousin Paul,
+if she admired him half as much as her brother was inclined to do.
+
+"There is only one thing about him which I cannot understand," she
+continued, after a short pause. "He seems not to care in the least for
+his mother; and yet," she added thoughtfully, "I cannot believe that he
+is heartless. I suppose it is because she did not treat him well when he
+was a child. I cannot think of any other reason."
+
+"No," I echoed mechanically, "I cannot think of any other reason."
+
+And indeed I could not. I had known nothing of his unhappy childhood
+before Hermione had told me of it, and though that did not afford a
+sufficient explanation of his evident indifference in regard to his
+mother, it was better than nothing. The whole situation seemed to me to
+be wrapped in impenetrable mystery, and I was beginning to despair of
+ever understanding what was going on about me. John Carvel treated me
+most affectionately, and delighted in entrapping me into the library to
+talk about books; but he scarcely ever referred to Madame Patoff. Cutter
+would walk or ride with me for hours, talking over the extraordinary
+cases of insanity he had met with in his experience; but he never would
+give me the least information in regard to the events which had preceded
+the accident at Weissenstein. I was entirely in the dark.
+
+A catastrophe was soon to occur, however, which led to my acquaintance
+with all the details of Alexander's disappearance in Stamboul. I will
+tell what happened as well as I can from what was afterwards told me by
+the persons most concerned.
+
+A week after my conversation with Hermione, the train was fired which
+led to a very remarkable concatenation of circumstances. You have
+foreseen that Paul would fall in love with his beautiful young cousin.
+Chrysophrasia foresaw it from the first moment of his appearance at
+Carvel Place, with that keen scent for romance which sometimes
+characterizes romantic old maids. If I were telling you a love story, I
+could make a great deal out of Paul's courtship. But this is the history
+of the extraordinary things which befell Paul Patoff, and for the
+present it is sufficient to say that he was in love with Hermione, and
+that he had never before cared seriously for any woman. He was cold by
+nature, and his wandering life as a diplomatist, together with his fixed
+determination to excel in his career, had not been favorable to the
+development of love in his heart. The repose of Carvel Place, the
+novelty of the life, and the comparative freedom from all
+responsibility, had relaxed the hard shell of his sensibilities, and the
+beauty and grace of Hermione had easily fascinated him. She, on her
+part, had distinguished with a woman's natural instinct the curious
+duality of his character. The grave, powerful, dominating man attracted
+her very forcibly; the cold, impenetrable, apparently heartless soul, on
+the other hand, repelled her, and almost inspired her with horror when
+it showed itself.
+
+One afternoon in the end of January, Paul and Hermione were walking in
+the park. The weather was raw and gusty, and the ground hard frozen.
+They had been merely strolling up and down before the house, as they
+often did, but, being in earnest conversation, had forgotten at last to
+turn back, and had gone on along the avenue, till they were far from the
+old mansion and quite out of sight. They had been talking of Paul's
+approaching departure, and they were both in low spirits at the
+prospect.
+
+"I am like those patches of snow," said Paul. "The clouds drop me in a
+beautiful place, and I feel very comfortable; and then I have to melt
+away again, and the clouds pick me up and carry me a thousand miles off,
+and drop me somewhere else. I wish they would leave me alone for a
+while."
+
+"Yes," said Hermione. "I wish you could stay with us longer."
+
+"It is of no use to wish," answered Paul bitterly. "I am always wishing
+for things I cannot possibly have. I would give anything to stay here. I
+have grown so fond of you all, and you have all been so kind to me--it
+is very hard to go, Hermione!"
+
+He looked almost tenderly at the beautiful girl beside him, as he spoke.
+But she looked down, so that he could hardly see her face at all.
+
+"I have never before felt as though I were at home," he continued. "I
+never had much of a home, at the best. Latterly I have had none at all.
+I had almost forgotten the idea when I came to England. It is hard to
+think how soon I must forget it again, and all the dear people I have
+known here."
+
+"You must not quite forget us," said Hermione. Her voice trembled a
+little.
+
+"I will never forget you--Hermione--for I love you with all my heart."
+
+He took her little gloved hand in his, and held it tightly. They stood
+still in the midst of the lonely park. Hermione blushed like an Alp-rose
+in the snow, and turned her head away from him. But her lip quivered
+slightly, and she left her hand in his.
+
+"I love you, my darling," he repeated, drawing her to him, till her head
+rested for a moment on his shoulder. "I cannot live without you,--I
+cannot leave you."
+
+What could she do? When he spoke in that tone his voice was so very
+gentle; she loved him, and she was under the fascination of his love.
+She said nothing, but she looked up into his face, and her blue eyes saw
+themselves in his. Then she bent her head and hid her face against his
+coat, and her small hand tightened convulsively upon his fingers.
+
+"Do you really love me?" he asked as he bent down and kissed her white
+forehead.
+
+"You know I do," she answered in a low voice.
+
+That was all they said, I suppose. But it was quite enough. When a man
+and a woman have told each other their love, there is little more to
+say. They probably say it again, and repeat it in different keys and
+with different modulations. I can imagine that a man in love might find
+many pretty expressions, but the gist of the thing is the same. Model
+conversation as follows, in fugue form, for two voices:--
+
+_He._ I love you. Do you love me? (Theme.)
+
+_She._ Very much. I love you more than you love me. (Answer.)
+
+_He._ No. I love you most. (Sub-theme.)
+
+_She._ Not more. That is impossible. (Sub-answer.)
+
+_He and She._ Then we love each other very much. (_A due voci._)
+
+_She._ Yes. But I am not sure that you _can_ love me as much as I do
+you. (_Stretto._) Etc., etc., etc.
+
+By using these simple themes you may easily write a series of
+conversations in at least twenty-four keys, on the principle of Bach's
+Wohltemperirtes Klavier, but your fugues must be composed for two
+voices only, unless you are very clever. A third voice increases the
+difficulty, a fourth causes a high degree of complication, five voices
+are distracting, and six impossible.
+
+It is certain that when Paul and Hermione returned from their walk they
+had arranged matters to their own satisfaction, or had at least settled
+the preliminaries. I think every one noticed the change in their manner.
+Hermione was radiant, and talked better than I had ever heard her talk
+before. Paul was quiet, even taciturn, but his silence was evidently not
+due to bad temper. His expression was serene and happy, and the cold
+look seemed to have left his face forever. His peace of mind, however,
+was destined to be short-lived.
+
+Chrysophrasia and Professor Cutter watched the couple with extreme
+interest when they appeared at tea, and each arrived at the same
+conclusion. They had probably expected for a long time what had now
+occurred, and, as they were eagerly looking for some evidence that their
+convictions were well founded, they did not overlook the sudden change
+of manner which succeeded the walk in the park. They did not communicate
+their suspicions to each other, however. Chrysophrasia had protested
+again and again to Mary Carvel and to John that things were going too
+far. But Paul was a favorite with the Carvels, and they refused to see
+anything in his conduct which could be interpreted to mean love for
+Hermione. Chrysophrasia resolved at once to throw a bomb into the camp,
+and to enjoy the effect of the explosion.
+
+Cutter's position was more delicate. He was very fond of John, and was,
+moreover, his guest. It was not his business to criticise what occurred
+in the house. He was profoundly interested in Madame Patoff, but he did
+not like Paul. Indeed, in his inmost heart he had never settled the
+question of Alexander's disappearance from the world, and in his opinion
+Paul Patoff was a man accused of murder, who had not sufficiently
+established his innocence. In his desire to be wholly unprejudiced in
+judging mankind and their mental aberrations, he did not allow that the
+social position of the individual was in itself a guaranty against
+committing any crime whatever. On the contrary, he had found reason to
+believe, from his own experience, that people belonging to the higher
+classes have generally a much keener appreciation of the construction
+which will be put upon their smallest actions, and are therefore far
+more ingenious in concealing their evil deeds than the common ruffian
+could possibly be. John Carvel would have said that it was impossible
+that a gentleman should murder his brother. Professor Cutter said it was
+not only possible, but, under certain circumstances, very probable. It
+must also be remembered that he had got most of his information
+concerning Paul from Madame Patoff and from Alexander, who both detested
+him, in the two summers when he had met the mother and son at Wiesbaden.
+His idea of Paul's character had therefore received a bias from the
+first, and was to a great extent unjust. Conceiving it possible that
+Patoff might be responsible for his brother's death, he therefore
+regarded the prospect of Paul's marriage with Hermione with the
+strongest aversion, though he could not make up his mind to speak to
+John Carvel on the subject. He had told the whole story to him eighteen
+months earlier, when he had brought home Madame Patoff; and he had told
+it without ornament, leaving John to judge for himself. But at that time
+there had been no prospect whatever of Paul's coming to Carvel Place.
+Cutter might easily have turned his story in such a way as to make Paul
+look guilty, or at least so as to cast a slight upon his character. But
+he had given the plain facts as they occurred. John had said the thing
+was absurd, and a great injustice to the young man; and he had,
+moreover, told his wife and sister, as well as Cutter, that Hermione was
+never to know anything of the story. It was not right, he said, that the
+young girl should ever know that any member of the family had even been
+suspected of such a crime. She should grow up in ignorance of it, and it
+was not untruthful to say that Madame Patoff's insanity had been caused
+by Alexander's death.
+
+But now Cutter regretted that he had not put the matter in a stronger
+light from the first, giving John to understand that Paul had never
+really cleared himself of the imputation. The professor did not know
+what to do, and would very likely have done nothing at all, had Miss
+Dabstreak not fired the mine. He had, indeed, endeavored to stop the
+progress of the attachment, but, in attempting always to intervene as a
+third person in their conversations, he had roused Paul's obstinacy
+instead of interrupting his love-making. And Paul was a very obstinate
+man.
+
+As we sat at dinner that evening, the conversation turned upon general
+topics. Chrysophrasia sat opposite to Paul, as usual, and her green eyes
+watched him with interest for some time. As luck would have it, our talk
+approached the subject of crime in general, and John Carvel asked me
+some question about the average number of murders in India, taking ten
+years together, as compared with the number committed in Europe. While I
+was hesitating and trying to recollect some figures I had once known,
+Chrysophrasia rushed into the conversation in her usual wild way.
+
+"I think murders are so extremely interesting," said she to Patoff. "I
+always wonder what it must be like to commit one, don't you?"
+
+"No," said Paul, quietly. "I confess that I do not generally devote much
+thought to the matter. Murder is not a particularly pleasant subject for
+contemplation."
+
+"Oh, do you think so?" answered Chrysophrasia. "Of course not pleasant,
+no, but so very interesting. I read such a delightfully thrilling
+account this morning of a man who killed his own brother,--quite like
+Cain."
+
+Paul made no answer, and continued to eat his dinner in silence. Though
+at that time I knew nothing of his story, I remember noticing how
+Professor Cutter slowly turned his face towards Patoff, and the peculiar
+expression of his gray eyes as I saw them through the gold-rimmed
+spectacles. Then he looked at John Carvel, who grew very red in the
+pause which followed. Mrs. Carvel looked down at her plate, and her
+features showed that her sister's remark had given her some pain; for
+she was quite incapable of concealing her slightest emotions, like many
+extremely truthful and sensitive people. But Chrysophrasia had launched
+herself, and was not to be silenced by an awkward pause. Not
+understanding the situation in the least, I nevertheless tried to
+relieve the unpleasantness by answering her.
+
+"I think it is a great mistake that the newspapers should publish the
+horrible details of every crime committed," I said. "It is bad for the
+public morals, and worse for the public taste."
+
+"Really, we must be allowed some emotion," answered Chrysophrasia. "It
+is so very thrilling to read about such cases. Now I can quite well
+imagine what it must be like to kill somebody, and then to hear every
+one saying to me, 'Where is thy brother?' Poor Cain! He must have had
+the most deliciously complicated feelings!"
+
+She fixed her green eyes on Paul so intently as she spoke that I looked
+at him, too, and was surprised to see that he was very pale. He said
+nothing, however, but he looked up and returned her gaze. His cold blue
+eyes glittered disagreeably. At that moment, John Carvel, who was redder
+than ever, addressed me in loud tones. I thought his voice had an
+artificial ring in it as he spoke.
+
+"Well, Griggs," he cried, "without going into the question of Cain and
+Abel, can you tell me anything about the figures?"
+
+I said something. I gave some approximate account, and, speaking loudly,
+I ran on readily with a long string of statistics, most of them, I
+grieve to say, manufactured on the spur of the moment. But I knew that
+Carvel was not listening, and did not care what I said. Hermione was
+watching Paul with evident concern; Mrs. Carvel and Macaulay at once
+affected the greatest interest in what I was saying, while Professor
+Cutter looked at Chrysophrasia, as though trying to attract her
+attention.
+
+"What a wonderful memory you have, Mr. Griggs!" said Macaulay Carvel, in
+sincere admiration.
+
+"Oh, not at all," I answered, with perfect truth. "Statistics of that
+kind are very easily got."
+
+By this time the awkwardness had disappeared, and by dint of talking
+very loud and saying a great many things which meant very little, John
+and I succeeded in making the remainder of the dinner pass off very
+well. But every one seemed to be afraid of Chrysophrasia, and when, once
+or twice, she was on the point of making a remark, there was a general
+attempt made to prevent her from leading the conversation. As soon as
+dinner was over we scattered in all directions, like a flock of sheep.
+Chrysophrasia retired to her room. John Carvel went to the library,
+whither his wife followed him in a few minutes. Macaulay, Patoff, and I
+went to the smoking-room, contrary to all precedent; but as Macaulay led
+the way, we followed with delight. The result of this general separation
+was that Hermione and Professor Cutter were left alone in the
+drawing-room.
+
+"I want to ask you a question," said the young girl, as they stood
+before the great fireplace.
+
+"Yes," answered the scientist, anticipating trouble. "I am at your
+service."
+
+"Why did Paul turn so pale when aunt Chrysophrasia talked about Cain at
+dinner, and why did everybody feel so uncomfortable?"
+
+"It is not surprising. But I cannot tell you the story."
+
+"You must," said Hermione, growing pale, and laying her hand upon his
+arm. "I must know. I insist that you shall tell me."
+
+"If I tell you, will you promise not to blame me here-after?" asked
+Cutter.
+
+"Certainly,--of course. Please go on."
+
+"Do not be shocked. There is no truth in the story, I fancy. When
+Alexander Patoff was lost on a dark night in Constantinople, the world
+said that Paul had made away with him. That is all."
+
+Hermione did not scream nor faint, as Cutter had expected. The blood
+rushed to her face, and then sank again as suddenly. She steadied
+herself with one hand on the chimney-piece before she answered.
+
+"What a horrible, infamous lie!" she exclaimed in low tones.
+
+"You insisted upon knowing it, Miss Carvel," said the professor quietly.
+"You must not blame me for telling you. After all, it was as well that
+you should know it."
+
+"Yes--it was as well." She turned away, and with bent head left the
+room. So it came about that both Chrysophrasia and Cutter on the same
+evening struck a blow at the new-found happiness of the cousins, raising
+between them, as it were, the spectre of the lost man.
+
+After what had occurred in the afternoon, Paul had intended to seek a
+formal interview with John Carvel. He had no intention of keeping his
+engagement a secret, and indeed he already felt that, according to his
+European notions, he had done wrong in declaring his love to Hermione
+before asking her father's consent. It had been an accident, and he
+regretted it. But after the scene at the dinner-table, he felt that he
+must see Hermione again before going to her father. Chrysophrasia's
+remarks had been so evidently directed against him that he had betrayed
+himself, and he knew that Hermione had noticed his expression, as well
+as the momentary stupefaction which had chilled the whole party. He had
+no idea whether Hermione had ever heard his story or not. She had of
+course never referred to it, and he thought it was now his duty to speak
+to her, to ascertain the extent of her information, and, if necessary,
+to tell her all the circumstances; honestly avowing that, although he
+had never been accused openly of his brother's death except by his
+mother, he knew that many persons had suspected him of having been
+voluntarily concerned in it. He would state the case plainly, and she
+might then decide upon her own course. But the question, "Where is your
+brother?" had been asked again, and he was deeply wounded,--far more
+deeply than he would acknowledge to himself. As we three sat together in
+the smoking-room, keeping up a dry, strained conversation, the old
+expression returned to his face, and I watched him with a kind of regret
+as I saw the cold, defiant look harden again, where lately there had
+been nothing but gentleness.
+
+Hermione left the drawing-room, and glided through the hall towards the
+passage which led to Madame Patoff's rooms. She had formed a desperate
+resolution,--one of those which must be carried out quickly, or not at
+all. Mrs. North, the nurse, opened the door at the end of the corridor,
+and admitted the young girl.
+
+"Can I see my aunt?" asked Hermione, trying to control her voice.
+
+"Has anything happened, Miss Carvel?" inquired Mrs. North, scrutinizing
+her features and noticing her paleness.
+
+"No--yes, dear Mrs. North, something has happened. I want to see aunt
+Annie," answered Hermione. "Do let me go in!"
+
+The nurse did not suppose that anything Hermione could say would rouse
+Madame Patoff from her habitual apathy. After a moment's hesitation, she
+nodded, and opened the door into the sitting-room. Hermione passed her
+in silence, and entered, closing the door behind her. Her aunt sat as
+usual in a deep chair near the fire, beneath the brilliant light, the
+rich folds of her sweeping gown gathered around her, her face pale and
+calm, holding a book upon her knee. She did not look up as the young
+girl came in, but an uneasy expression passed over her features.
+Hermione had never believed that Madame Patoff was mad, in spite of
+Professor Cutter's assurances to the contrary. On this occasion she
+resolved to speak as though her aunt were perfectly sane.
+
+"Dear aunt Annie," she began, sitting down beside the deep chair, and
+laying her hand on Madame Patoff's apathetic fingers,--"dear aunt Annie,
+I have something to tell you, and I am sure you will listen to me."
+
+"Yes," answered the lady, in her mechanical voice.
+
+"Aunt Annie, Paul is still here. I love him, and we are going to be
+married."
+
+"No," said Madame Patoff, in the same tone as before. Hermione's heart
+sank, for her aunt did not seem to understand in the least. But before
+she could speak again, a curious change seemed to come over the
+invalid's face. The features were drawn into an expression of pain, such
+as Hermione had never seen there before, the lip trembled hysterically,
+the blood rushed to her face, and Madame Patoff suddenly broke into a
+fit of violent weeping. The tears streamed down her cheeks, bursting
+between her fingers as she covered her eyes. She sobbed as though her
+heart would break, rocking herself backwards and forwards in her chair.
+Hermione was frightened, and rose to call Mrs. North; but to her extreme
+surprise her aunt put out her hand, all wet with tears, and held her
+back.
+
+"No, no," she moaned; "let me cry."
+
+For several minutes nothing was heard in the room but her passionate
+sobs. It seemed as though they would never stop, and again Hermione
+would have called the nurse, but again Madame Patoff prevented her.
+
+"Aunt Annie,--dear aunt Annie!" said the young girl, trying to soothe
+her, and laying her hand upon the thick gray hair. "What is the matter?
+Can I do nothing? I cannot bear to see you cry like this!"
+
+Gradually the hysteric emotion spent itself, and Madame Patoff grew more
+calm. Then she spoke, and, to Hermione's amazement, she spoke
+connectedly.
+
+"Hermione, you must not betray my secret,--you will not betray me? Swear
+that you will not, my child!" She was evidently suffering some great
+emotion.
+
+"Aunt Annie," said Hermione in the greatest excitement, "you are not
+mad! I always said you were not!"
+
+Madame Patoff shook her head sorrowfully.
+
+"No, child, I am not mad,--I never was. I am only unhappy. I let them
+think so, because I am so miserable, and I can live alone, and perhaps
+die very soon. But you have found me out."
+
+Again it seemed as though she would burst into tears. Hermione hastened
+to reassure her, not knowing what she said, in the anxiety of the
+moment.
+
+"You are safe with me, aunt Annie. I will not tell. But why, why have
+you deceived them all so long, a year and a half,--why?"
+
+"I am the most wretched woman alive," moaned Madame Patoff. Then,
+looking suddenly into Hermione's eyes, she spoke in low, distinct tones.
+"You cannot marry Paul, Hermione. You must never think of it again. You
+must promise me never to think of it."
+
+"I will not promise that," answered the young girl, summoning all her
+courage. "It is not true that he killed his brother. You never believed
+it,--nobody ever believed it!"
+
+"It is true--true--truer than anything else can be!" exclaimed Madame
+Patoff, lowering her voice to a strong, clear whisper.
+
+"No," said Hermione. "You are wrong, aunt Annie; it is an abominable
+lie."
+
+"I tell you I know it is true," retorted her aunt, still whispering, but
+emphasizing every word with the greatest decision. "If you do not
+believe it, go to him and say, 'Paul, where is your brother?' and you
+will see how he will look."
+
+"I will. I will ask him, and I will tell you what he says."
+
+"He murdered him, Hermione," continued Madame Patoff, not heeding the
+interruption. "He murdered him in Constantinople,--he and a Turkish
+soldier whom he hired. And now he has come here to marry you. He thinks
+I am mad--he is the worst man that ever lived. You must never see him
+again. There is blood on his hands--blood, do you hear? Rather than that
+you should love him, I will tell them all that I am a sane woman. I will
+confess that I have imposed upon them in order to be alone, to die in
+peace, or, while I live to mourn for my poor murdered boy,--the boy I
+loved. Oh how I loved him!"
+
+This time her tears could not be controlled, and at the thought of
+Alexander she sobbed again, as she had sobbed before. Hermione was too
+much astonished and altogether thrown off her mental balance to know
+what to do. Her amazement at discovering that her aunt had for more than
+a year imposed upon Professor Cutter and upon the whole household was
+almost obliterated in the horror inspired by Madame Patoff's words.
+There was a conviction in her way of speaking which terrified Hermione,
+and for a moment she was completely unnerved.
+
+Meanwhile, Madame Patoff's tears ceased again. In the strange deception
+she had practiced upon all around her for so long, she had acquired an
+extraordinary command of her features and voice. It was only Hermione's
+discovery which had thrown her off her guard, and once feeling that the
+girl knew her secret, she had perhaps enjoyed the luxury of tears and of
+expressed emotion. But this stage being past, she regained her
+self-control. She had meditated so long on the death of her eldest son
+that the mention of his name had ceased to affect her, and though she
+had been betrayed into recognizing Paul, she had cleverly resumed her
+play of apathetic indifference so soon as he had left her. Had Hermione
+known of the early stages which had led to her present state, she would
+have asked herself how Madame Patoff could have suddenly begun to act
+her part so well as to deceive even Professor Cutter from the first.
+But Hermione knew nothing of all those details. She only realized that
+her aunt was a perfectly sane woman, and that she had fully confirmed
+the fearful accusation against Paul.
+
+"Go now, my child," said Madame Patoff. "Remember your promise. Remember
+that I am a wretched old woman, come here to be left alone, to die.
+Remember what I have told you, and beware of being deceived. You love a
+murderer--a murderer--remember that."
+
+Hermione stood a moment and gazed at her aunt's face, grown calm and
+almost beautiful again. Her tears had left no trace, her thick gray hair
+was as smooth as ever, her great dark eyes were deep and full of light.
+Then, without another word, the young girl turned away and left the
+room, closing the door behind her, and nodding a good-night to Mrs.
+North, who sat by her lamp in the outer room, gray and watchful as ever.
+
+If her aunt was sane, was she human? The question suggested itself to
+Hermione's brain as she walked along the passage; but she had not time
+to frame an answer. As she went out into the hall she saw Paul standing
+by the huge carved, fireplace, his back turned towards her, his tall
+figure thrown into high relief by the leaping flames. She went up to
+him, and as he heard her step he started and faced her. He had finished
+his cigar with us, and was about to go quietly to his room in search of
+solitude, when he had paused by the hall fire. His face was very sad as
+he looked up.
+
+"Paul," said the young girl, taking both his hands and looking into his
+eyes, "I believe in you,--you could not do anything wrong. People would
+never suspect you if you answered them, if you would only take the
+trouble to defend yourself."
+
+"Defend myself?" repeated Paul. "Against what, Hermione?"
+
+"When people say, 'Where is your brother?'--or mean to say it, as aunt
+Chrysophrasia did this evening,--you ought to answer; you ought not to
+turn pale and be silent."
+
+"You too!" groaned the unhappy man, looking into her eyes. "You too, my
+darling! Ah, no! It is too much." He dropped her hands, and turned
+again, leaning on the chimney-piece.
+
+"How can you think I believe it? Oh, Paul! how unkind!" exclaimed
+Hermione, clasping her hands upon his shoulder, and trying to look at
+his averted face. "I never, never believed it, dear. But no one else
+must believe it either; you must make them not believe it."
+
+"My dearest," said Paul, almost sternly, but not unkindly, "this thing
+has pursued me for a long time. I thought it was dead. It has come
+between you and me on the very day of our happiness. You say you believe
+in me. I say you shall not believe in me without proof. Good-by,
+love,--good-by!"
+
+He drew her to him and kissed her once; then he tried to go.
+
+"Paul," she cried, holding him, "where are you going?" She was terrified
+by his manner.
+
+"I am going away," he said slowly. "I will find my brother, or his body,
+and I will not come back until then."
+
+"But you must not go! I cannot bear to let you go!" she cried, in
+agonized tones.
+
+"You must," he answered, and the color left his cheeks. "You cannot
+marry a man who is suspected. Good-by, my beloved!"
+
+Once more he kissed her, and then he turned quickly away and left the
+hall. Hermione stood still one moment, staring at his retreating figure.
+Then she sank into the deep chair by the side of the great fire and
+burst into tears. She had good cause for sorrow, for she had sent Paul
+Patoff away, she knew not whither. She had not even the satisfaction of
+feeling that she had been quite right in speaking to him as she had
+spoken, and above all she feared lest he should believe, in spite of her
+words, that in her own mind there was some shadow of suspicion left. But
+he was gone. He would probably leave the house early in the morning, and
+she might never see him again. What could she do but let her tears flow
+down as freely as they could?
+
+Late at night I sat in my room, reading by the light of the candles, and
+watching the fire as it gradually died away in the grate. It was very
+late, and I was beginning to think of going to bed, when some one
+knocked at the door. It was Paul Patoff. I was very much surprised to
+see him, and I suppose my face showed it, for he apologized for the
+intrusion.
+
+"Excuse me," he said. "It is very late, but could you spare me half an
+hour before going to bed?"
+
+"Certainly," I answered, noticing his pallor, and fancying that
+something had happened.
+
+"Thank you," said he. "I believe I have heard you say that you know
+Constantinople very well?"
+
+"Tolerably well--yes. I know many of the natives. I have been there very
+often."
+
+"I am going back there," said Patoff. "They sent me to Persia for a year
+and more, and now I am to return to my old post. I want to ask your
+advice about a very delicate matter. You know--or perhaps you do not
+know--that my brother disappeared in Stamboul, a year ago last summer,
+under very strange circumstances. I did all I could to find him, and the
+ambassador did more. But we never discovered any trace of him. I have
+made up my mind that I will not be disappointed this time."
+
+"Could you tell me any of the details?" I asked.
+
+Paul looked at me once, and hesitated. Then he settled himself in his
+chair, and told me his story very much as I have told it, from the
+afternoon of the day on which Alexander disappeared to the moment when
+Paul left his mother at Teinach in the Black Forest. He told me also how
+Professor Cutter had written to him his account of the accident at
+Weissenstein, when Madame Patoff, as he said, had attempted to commit
+suicide.
+
+"Pardon me," I said, when he had reached this stage. "I do not believe
+she tried to kill herself."
+
+"Why not?" asked Patoff, in some surprise.
+
+"I was the man with the rope. Cutter has never realized that you did not
+know it."
+
+Paul was very much astonished at the news, and looked at me as though
+hardly believing his senses.
+
+"Yes," I continued. "I happened to be leaning out of the window
+immediately over the balcony, and I saw your mother fall. I do not
+believe she threw herself over; if she had done that, she would probably
+not have been caught on the tree. The parapet was very low, and she is
+very tall. I heard her say to Professor Cutter, 'I am coming;' then she
+stood up. Suddenly she grew red in the face, tottered, tried to save
+herself, but missed the parapet, and fell over with a loud scream of
+terror."
+
+"I am very much surprised," said Paul, "very grateful to you, of course,
+for saving her life. I do not know how to thank you; but how strange
+that Cutter should never have told me!"
+
+"He saw that we knew each other," I remarked. "He supposed that I had
+told you."
+
+"So it was not an attempt at suicide, after all. It is amazing to think
+how one may be deceived in this world."
+
+For some minutes he sat silent in his chair, evidently in deep thought.
+I did not disturb him, though I watched the melancholy expression of his
+face, thinking of the great misfortunes which had overtaken him, and
+pitying him, perhaps, more than he would have liked.
+
+"Griggs," he said at last, "do you know of any one in Constantinople who
+would help me,--who could help me if he would?"
+
+"To find your brother? It is a serious affair. Yes, I do know of one
+man; if he could be induced to take an interest in the matter, he might
+do a great deal."
+
+"What is his name?"
+
+"Balsamides Bey," I answered.
+
+"I have seen him, but I do not know him," said Paul. "Could you give me
+a letter?"
+
+"It would not be of the slightest use. You can easily make his
+acquaintance, but it will be a very different matter to get him to help
+you. He is one of the strangest men in the world. If he takes a fancy to
+you, he will do anything imaginable to oblige you."
+
+"And if not?"
+
+"If not, he will laugh at you. He is a queer fellow."
+
+"Eccentric, I should think. I am not prepared to be laughed at, but I
+will risk it, if there is any chance."
+
+"Look here, Patoff," I said. "I have nothing to do this spring, and the
+devil of unrest is on me again. I will go to Constantinople with you,
+and we will see what can be done. You are a Russian, and those people
+will not trust you; your nationality will be against you at every turn.
+Balsamides himself hates Russians, having fought against them ten years
+ago, in the last war."
+
+Paul started up in his chair, and stretched out his hand. "Will you
+really go with me?" he cried in great excitement. "That would be too
+good of you. Shall we start to-morrow?"
+
+"Let me see,--we must have an excuse. Could you not telegraph to your
+chief to recall you at once? You must have something to show to Carvel.
+He will be startled at our leaving so suddenly."
+
+"Will he?" said Paul, absently. "I suppose so. Perhaps I can manage it."
+
+It was very late when he left my room. I went to bed, but slept little,
+thinking over all he had told me, but knowing that he had not told me
+all. I guessed then what I knew later,--that he had asked Hermione to
+marry him, and that, in consequence of Chrysophrasia's remark at
+dinner, she had asked him about his brother. It was easy to understand
+that the question, coming from her, would produce a revival of his
+former energy in the search for Alexander. But it was long before I knew
+all the details of Hermione's visit to Madame Patoff.
+
+The matter was arranged without much difficulty. Paul received a
+despatch the next day from Count Ananoff, requesting him to return as
+soon as possible, and I announced my determination to accompany him. The
+news was received by the different members of the household in different
+ways, according to the views of each. Poor Hermione was pale and silent.
+Chrysophrasia's disagreeable eyes wore a greenish air of cat-like
+satisfaction. Mrs. Carvel herself was sincerely distressed, and John
+opened his eyes in astonishment. Professor Cutter looked about with an
+inquiring air, and Macaulay expressed a hope that he might be appointed
+to Constantinople very soon, adding that he should take pains to learn
+Turkish as quickly as possible. That fellow regards everything in life
+as a sort of lesson, and takes part in events as a highly moral and
+studious undergraduate would attend a course of lectures.
+
+I think Paul and I both breathed more freely when we had announced our
+departure. He looked ill, and it was evident that he was sorry to go,
+but it was also quite clear that nothing could move him from his
+determination. Even at the last minute he kept himself calm, and though
+he was obliged to part from Hermione in the presence of all the rest, he
+did not wince. Every one joined in saying that they hoped he would pay
+them another visit, and even Chrysophrasia drawled out something to that
+effect, though I have no doubt she was inwardly rejoicing at his going
+away; and just as we were starting she ostentatiously kissed poor
+Hermione, as though to reassert her protectorate, and to show that
+Hermione's safety was due entirely to her aunt Chrysophrasia's exertions
+on her behalf.
+
+Paul would have been willing to go to his mother once again before
+parting, but Cutter thought it better not to let him do so, as his
+presence irritated her beyond measure. Hermione looked as though she
+would have said something, but seemed to think better of it. At last we
+drove away from the old place in the chilly February afternoon, and I
+confess that for a moment I half repented of my sudden resolution to go
+to the East. But in a few minutes the old longing for some active
+occupation came back, and though I thought gratefully of John Carvel's
+friendly ways and pleasant conversation, I found myself looking forward
+to the sight of the crowded bazaars and the solemn Turks, smelling
+already the indescribable atmosphere of the Levant, and enjoying the
+prospect almost as keenly as when I first set my face eastwards, many
+years ago.
+
+These were the circumstances which brought me back to Constantinople
+last year. If, in telling my story, I have dwelt long upon what happened
+in England, I must beg you to remember that it is one thing to construct
+a drama with all possible regard for the unities and no regard whatever
+for probability, whereas it is quite another to tell the story of a
+man's life, or even of those years which have been to him the most
+important part of it.
+
+
+
+
+XII.
+
+
+It was not an easy matter to make Balsamides Bey take a fancy to Paul,
+for he was, and still is, a man full of prejudice, if also full of wit.
+In his well-shaped head resides an intelligence of no mean order, and
+the lines graven in his pale face express thought and study, while
+suggesting also an extreme love of sarcasm and a caustic, incredulous
+humor. His large and deep-set blue eyes seem to look at things only to
+criticise them, never to enjoy them, and his arched eyebrows bristle
+like defenses set up between the world with its interests on the one
+side and the inner man Balsamides on the other. Though he wears a heavy
+brown mustache, it is easy to see that underneath it his thin lips curl
+scornfully, and are drawn down at the extremities of his mouth. He is
+very scrupulous in his appearance, whether he wears the uniform of a
+Sultan's adjutant, or the morning dress of an ordinary man of the world,
+or the official evening coat of the Turks, made like that of an English
+clergyman, but ornamented by a string of tiny decorations attached to
+the buttonhole on the left side. Gregorios Balsamides is of middle
+height, slender and well built, a matchless horseman, and long inured to
+every kind of hardship, though his pallor and his delicate white hands
+suggest a constitution anything but hardy.
+
+He is the natural outcome of the present state of civilization in
+Turkey; and as it is not easy for the ordinary mind to understand the
+state of the Ottoman Empire without long study, so it is not by any
+means a simple matter to comprehend the characters produced by the
+modern condition of things in the East. Balsamides Bey is a man who
+seems to unite in himself as many contradictory qualities and
+characteristics as are to be found in any one living man. He is a
+thorough Turk in principle, but also a thorough Western Frank in
+education. He has read immensely in many languages, and speaks French
+and English with remarkable fluency. He has made an especial study of
+modern history, and can give an important date, a short account of a
+great battle, or a brief notice of a living celebrity, with an ease and
+accuracy that many a student might envy. He reads French and English
+novels, and probably possesses a contraband copy of Byron, whose works
+are proscribed in Turkey and confiscated by the custom-house. He goes
+into European society as well as among Turks, Greeks, and Armenians.
+Although a Greek by descent, he loves the Turks and is profoundly
+attached to the reigning dynasty, under whom his father and grandfather
+lived and prospered. A Christian by birth and education, he has a
+profound respect for the Mussulman faith, as being the religion of the
+government he serves, and a profound hatred of the Armenian, whom he
+regards as the evil genius of the Osmanli. He is a man whom many trust,
+but whose chief desire seems to be to avoid all show of power. He is
+often consulted on important matters, but his discretion is proof
+against all attacks, and there is not a journalist nor correspondent in
+Pera who can boast of ever having extracted the smallest item of
+information from Balsamides Bey.
+
+These are his good qualities, and they are solid ones, for he is a
+thoroughly well-informed man, exceedingly clever, and absolutely
+trustworthy. On the other hand, he is cold, sarcastic, and possibly
+cruel, and occasionally he is frank almost to brutality.
+
+On the very evening of our arrival in Pera I went to see him, for he is
+an old friend of mine. I found him alone in his small lodgings in the
+Grande Rue, reading a yellow-covered French novel by the light of a
+German student-lamp. The room was simply furnished with a table, a
+divan, three or four stiff, straight-backed chairs, and a bookcase. But
+on the matted floor and divan there were two or three fine Siné carpets;
+a couple of trophies of splendidly ornamented weapons adorned the wall;
+by his side, upon a small eight-sided table inlaid with tortoise-shell
+and mother-of-pearl, stood a silver salver with an empty coffee-cup of
+beautiful workmanship,--the stand of beaten gold, and the delicate shell
+of the most exquisite transparent china. He had evidently been on duty
+at the palace, for he was in uniform, and had removed only his long
+riding-boots, throwing himself down in his chair to read the book in
+which he was interested.
+
+On seeing me, he rose suddenly and put out his hand.
+
+"Is it you? Where have you come from?" he cried.
+
+"From England, to see you," I answered.
+
+"You must stay with me," he said at once. "The spare room is ready," he
+added, leading me to the door. Then he clapped his hands to call the
+servant, before I could prevent him.
+
+"But I have already been to the hotel," I protested.
+
+"Go to Missiri's with a hamál, and bring the Effendi's luggage," he said
+to the servant, who instantly disappeared.
+
+"Caught," he exclaimed, laughing, as he opened the door and showed me my
+little room. I had slept there many a night in former times, and I loved
+his simple hospitality.
+
+"You are the same as ever," I said. "A man cannot put his nose inside
+your door without being caught, as you call it."
+
+"Many a man may," he answered. "But not you, my dear fellow. Now--you
+will have coffee and a cigarette. We will dine at home. There is pilaff
+and kebabi and a bottle of champagne. How are you? I forgot to ask."
+
+"Very well, thanks," said I, as we came back to the sitting-room. "I am
+always well, you know. You look pale, but that is nothing new. You have
+been on duty at the palace?"
+
+"Friday," he answered laconically, which meant that he had been at the
+Selamlek, attending the Sultan to the weekly service at the mosque.
+
+"You used to get back early in the day. Have the hours changed?"
+
+"Man of Belial," he replied, "with us nothing changes. I was detained at
+the palace. So you have come all the way from England to see me?"
+
+"Yes,--and to ask you a question and a favor."
+
+"You shall have the answer and my services."
+
+"Do not promise before you have heard. 'Two acrobats cannot always dance
+on the same rope,' as your proverb says."
+
+"And 'Every sheep hangs by its own heels,'" said he. "I will take my
+chance with you. First, the question, please."
+
+"Did you ever hear of Alexander Patoff?"
+
+Balsamides looked at me a moment, with the air of a man who is asked an
+exceedingly foolish question.
+
+"Hear of him? I have heard of nothing else for the last eighteen months.
+I have an indigestion brought on by too much Alexander Patoff. Is that
+your errand, Griggs? How in the world did you come to take up that
+question?"
+
+"You have been asked about him before?" I inquired.
+
+"I tell you there is not a dog in Constantinople that has not been
+kicked for not knowing where that fellow is. I am sick of him, alive or
+dead. What do I care about your Patoffs? The fool could not take care of
+himself when he was alive, and now the universe is turned upside down to
+find his silly body. Where is he? At the bottom of the Bosphorus. How
+did he get there? By the kind exertions of his brother, who then played
+the comedy of tearing his hair so cleverly that his ambassador believed
+him. Very simple: if you want to find his body, I can tell you how to do
+it."
+
+"How?" I asked eagerly.
+
+"Drain the Bosphorus," he answered, with a sneer. "You will find plenty
+of skulls at the bottom of it. The smallest will be his, to a dead
+certainty."
+
+"My dear fellow," I protested, "his brother did not kill him. The proof
+is that Paul Patoff has come hack swearing that he will find some trace
+of Alexander. He came with me, and I believe his story."
+
+"He is only renewing the comedy,--tearing his hair on the anniversary of
+the death, like a well-paid mourner. Of course, somebody has accused him
+again of the murder. He will have to tear his hair every time he is
+accused, in order to keep up appearances. He knows, and he alone knows,
+where the dead man is."
+
+"But if he killed him the kaváss must have known it--must have helped
+him. You remember the story?"
+
+"I should think so. What does the kaváss prove? Nothing. He was probably
+told to go off for a moment, and now will not confess it. Money will do
+anything."
+
+"There remains the driver of the carriage," I objected. "He saw
+Alexander go into Agia Sophia, but he never saw him come out."
+
+"And is anything easier than that? A man might learn those few words in
+three minutes. That proves nothing."
+
+"There is the probability," I argued. "Many persons have disappeared in
+Stamboul before now."
+
+"Nonsense, Griggs," he answered. "You know that when anything of the
+kind has occurred it has generally turned out that the missing man was
+bankrupt. He disappeared to reappear somewhere else under another name.
+I do not believe a word of all those romances. To you Franks we are a
+nation of robbers, murderers, and thieves; we are the Turkey of Byron,
+always thirsting for blood, spilling it senselessly, and crying out for
+more. If that idiot allowed his brother to kill him without attracting a
+crowd,--in Stamboul, in the last week of Ramazán, when everybody is out
+of doors,--he deserved his fate, that is all."
+
+"I do not believe he is dead," I said, "and I have come here to ask you
+to make the acquaintance of Paul Patoff. If you still believe him to be
+a murderer when you have heard him tell his story, I shall be very much
+surprised."
+
+"I should tear him to pieces if I met him," said Balsamides, with a
+laugh. "The mere sight of anybody called Patoff would bring on an attack
+of the nerves."
+
+"Be serious," said I. "Do you think I would be so foolish as to interest
+myself in this business unless I believed that it could be cleared of
+all mystery and explained?"
+
+"You have been in England," retorted Gregorios. "That will explain any
+kind of insanity. Do you want me to pester every office in the
+government with new inquiries? It will do no good. Everything has been
+tried. The man is gone without leaving a trace. No amount of money will
+produce information. Can I say more? Where money fails, a man need not
+be so foolish as to hope anything from his intelligence."
+
+"I am foolish enough to hope something," I replied. "If you will not
+help me, I must go elsewhere. I will not give up the thing at the
+start."
+
+"Well, if I say I will help you, what do you expect me to do? Can I do
+anything which has not been done already? If so, I will do it. But I
+will not harness myself to a rotten cart, as the proverb says. It is
+quite useless to expect anything more from the police."
+
+"I expect nothing from them. I believe that Alexander is alive, and has
+been hidden by somebody rich enough and strong enough to baffle
+pursuit."
+
+"What put that into your head?" asked my companion, looking at me with
+sudden curiosity.
+
+"Nothing but the reduction of the thing to the last analysis. Either he
+is dead, or he is alive. As you say, he could hardly have been killed on
+such a night without attracting attention. Besides, the motives for
+Paul's killing him were wholly inadequate. No, let me go on. Therefore
+I say that he was taken alive."
+
+"Where?"
+
+"In Santa Sophia."
+
+"But then," argued Balsamides, "the driver would have seen him carried
+out."
+
+"Yes," I admitted. "That is the difficulty. But he might perhaps have
+been taken through the porch; at all events, he must have gone down the
+stairs alone, taking the lantern."
+
+"They found the lantern," said Gregorios. "You did not know that? A long
+time afterwards the man who opens the towers confessed that when he had
+gone up with the brothers and the kaváss he had found that his taper was
+burnt out. He picked up the kaváss's lantern and carried it down,
+meaning to return with the next party of foreigners. No other foreigners
+came, and when he went up to find the Patoffs they were gone and the
+carriage was gone. He kept the lantern, until the offers of reward
+induced him to give it up and tell his story."
+
+"That proves nothing, except that Alexander went down-stairs in the
+dark."
+
+"I have an idea, Griggs!" cried Balsamides, suddenly changing his tone.
+"It proves this,--that Alexander did not necessarily go down the steps
+at all."
+
+"I do not understand."
+
+"There is another way out of that gallery. Did you know that? At the
+other end, in exactly the same position, hidden in the deep arch, there
+is a second door. There is also a winding staircase, which leads to the
+street on the opposite side of the mosque. Foreigners are never admitted
+by that side, but it is barely possible that the door may have been
+open. Alexander Patoff may have gone down that way, thinking it was the
+staircase by which he had come up."
+
+"You see," I said, delighted at this information, "everything is not
+exhausted yet."
+
+"No, I begin to think we are nearer to an explanation. If that door was
+open,--which, however, is very improbable,--he could have gone down and
+have got into the street without passing the carriage, which stood on
+the other side of the mosque. But, after all, we are no nearer to
+knowing what ultimately became of him."
+
+"Would it be possible to find out whether the door was really open, and,
+if so, who passed that way?" I inquired.
+
+"We shall see," said Gregorios. "I will change my mind. I will make the
+acquaintance of your Russian friend. I know him by sight, though I never
+spoke to him. When I have talked the matter over with him I will tell
+you what I think about it. Let us go to dinner."
+
+I felt that I had overcome the first great difficulty in persuading
+Balsamides to take some interest in my errand. He is one of those men
+who are very hard to move, but who, when once they are disposed to act
+at all, are ready to do their best. Moreover, the existence of the
+second staircase, leading from the gallery to the street, at once
+explained how Alexander might have left the church unobserved by the
+coachman. I wondered why no one had thought of this. It had probably not
+suggested itself to any one, because strangers are never admitted from
+that side, and because the door is almost always closed.
+
+Gregorios did not refer to the subject again that evening, but amused
+himself by asking me all manner of questions about the state of England.
+We fell to talking about European politics, and the hours passed very
+pleasantly until midnight.
+
+On the next day I went to see Paul, and told him the result of my first
+step. He appeared very grateful.
+
+"It seems hard that my life should be ruined by this thing," he said
+wearily. "Any prospect of news is delightful, however small. I am under
+a sort of curse,--as much as though I had really had something to do
+with poor Alexander's death. It comes up in all sorts of ways. Unless we
+can solve the mystery, I shall never be really free."
+
+"We will solve it," I said, in order to reassure him. "Nothing shall be
+left undone, and I hope that in a few weeks you may feel relieved from
+all this anxiety."
+
+"It is more than anxiety; it is pain," he answered. I supposed that he
+was thinking of Hermione, and was silent. Presently he proposed to go
+out. It was a fine day in February, though the snow was on the ground
+and filled the ruts in the pavement of the Grande Rue de Pera. Every one
+was wrapped in furs and every one wore overshoes, without which it is
+impossible to go out in winter in Constantinople. The streets were
+crowded with that strange multitude seen nowhere else in the world; the
+shops were full of people of all sorts, from the ladies of the embassies
+to the veiled Turkish ladies, who have small respect for the regulation
+forbidding them to buy in Frank establishments. At Galata Serai the huge
+Kurdish hamáls loitered in the sun, waiting for a job, their ropes and
+the heavy pillows on which they carry their burdens lying at their feet.
+The lean dogs sat up and glared hungrily at the huge joints of meat
+which the butchers' lads carried through the crowd, forcing their way
+past the delicate Western ladies, who drew back in horror at the sight
+of so much raw beef, and through knots of well-dressed men standing
+before the cafés in the narrow street. Numberless soldiers moved in the
+crowd, tall, fair Turks, with broad shoulders and blue eyes, in the
+shabby uniform of the foot-guards, but looking as though they could
+fight as well as any smart Prussian grenadier, as indeed they can when
+they get enough to eat. Now and then a closed sedan-chair moved rapidly
+along, borne by sturdy Kurds, and occasionally a considerable
+disturbance was caused by the appearance of a carriage. Paul and I
+strolled down the steep street, past Galata Tower and down into Galata
+itself.
+
+"Shall we cross?" asked Paul, as we reached the bridge.
+
+"Let us go up the Bosphorus," I said. "There will probably be a steamer
+before long."
+
+He assented readily enough. It was about eleven o'clock in the
+morning,--five by the Turkish clocks,--and the day was magnificent. The
+sun was high, and illuminated everything in the bright, cold air, so
+that the domes and minarets of the city were white as snow, with bluish
+shadows, while the gilded crescents and spires glistened with unnatural
+brilliancy in the clear winter's daylight. It is hard to say whether
+Stamboul is more beautiful at any one season of the year than during the
+other three, for every season brings with it some especial loveliness,
+some new phase of color. You may reach Serai point on a winter's morning
+in a driving snow-storm, so that everything is hidden in the gray veil
+of the falling flakes; suddenly the clouds will part and the sunlight
+will fall full upon the city, so that it seems as if every mosque and
+spire were built of diamonds. Or you may cross to Scutari in the early
+dawn of a morning in June, when the sky is like a vast Eastern flower,
+dark blue in the midst overhead, the petals shaded with every tint to
+the faint purple on the horizon; and every hue in turn passes over the
+fantastic buildings, as the shadows gradually take color from the sky,
+and the soft velvety water laps up the light in broad pools and delicate
+streaks of tinted reflection. It is always beautiful, always new; but of
+all times, I think the hour when the high sun illuminates most
+distinctly everything on land and sea is the time when Stamboul is most
+splendid and queenly.
+
+The great ferry-boat heaved and thumped the water, and swung slowly off
+the wooden pier, while we stood on the upper deck watching the scene
+before us. For two men as familiar with Constantinople in all its
+aspects as we were, it seemed almost ridiculous to go on board a steamer
+merely for the sake of being carried to the mouth of the Black Sea and
+back again. But I have always loved the Bosphorus, and I thought it
+would amuse Paul to pass the many landings, and to see the crowds of
+passengers, and to walk about the empty deck. He was tired with the
+journey and harassed in mind, and for those ills the open air is the
+best medicine.
+
+He appeared to enjoy it, and asked me many questions about the palaces
+and villas on both shores, for I was better acquainted with the place
+than he. It seemed to interest him to know that such a villa belonged to
+such a Pasha, that such another was the property of an old princess of
+evil fame, while the third had seen strange doings in the days of
+Mehemet Ali, and was now deserted or inhabited only by ghosts of the
+past,--the resort of ghouls and jins from the neighboring grave-yards.
+As we lay a moment at the pier of Yeni Köj,--"New town" sounds less
+interesting,--we watched the stream of passengers, and I thought Paul
+started slightly as a tall, smooth-faced, and hideous negro suddenly
+turned and looked up to where we stood on the deck, as he left the
+steamer. I might have been mistaken, but it was the only approach to an
+incident of interest which occurred that day. We reached the upper part
+of the Bosphorus, and at Yeni Mahallè, within sight of the Black Sea,
+the ferry-boat described a wide circle and turned once more in the
+direction of Stamboul.
+
+"I feel better," said Paul, as we reached Galata bridge and elbowed our
+way ashore through the crowd. "We will go again."
+
+"By all means," I answered.
+
+From that time during several weeks we frequently made excursions into
+Stamboul and up the Bosphorus, and the constant enjoyment of the open
+air did Paul good. But I could see that wherever we went he watched the
+people with intense interest; following some individual with his eyes in
+silence, or trying to see into dark archways and through latticed
+windows, staring at the files of passengers who came on board the boats
+or went ashore at the different landings, and apparently never relaxing
+his attention. The people grew familiar to me, too, and gradually it
+appeared that Paul was constructing a method for our peregrinations. It
+was he, and not I, who suggested the direction of our expeditions, and I
+noticed that he chose certain places on certain days. On Monday, for
+instance, he never failed to propose a visit to the bazaars, on Tuesday
+we generally went up the Bosphorus, on Wednesday into Stamboul. On
+Friday afternoons, when the weather was fine, we used to ride out to the
+Sweet Waters of Europe; for Friday is the Mussulman's day of rest, and
+on that day all who are able love to go out to the Kiat-hané--the
+"paper-mill,"--where they pass the afternoon in driving and walking,
+eating sweetmeats, smoking, drinking coffee, watching gypsy girls dance,
+or listening to the long-winded tales of professional story-tellers.
+Almost every day had its regular excursion, and it was clear to me that
+he always chose the place where on that day of the week there was likely
+to be the greatest crowd.
+
+Meanwhile Balsamides, in whose house I continued to live, alternately
+laughed at me for believing Paul's story, and expressed in the next
+breath a hope that Alexander might yet be found. He had been to Santa
+Sophia, and had ascertained that the other staircase was usually opened
+on the nights when the mosque was illuminated, for the convenience of
+the men employed in lighting the lamps, and this confirmed his theory
+about the direction taken by Alexander when he left the gallery. But
+here all trace ceased again, and Balsamides was almost ready to give up
+the search, when an incident occurred which renewed our energy and hope,
+and which had the effect of rousing Paul to the greatest excitement.
+
+We were wandering under the gloomy arches of the vast bazaar one day,
+and had reached the quarter where the Spanish Jews have their shops and
+collect their wonderful mass of valuables, chiefly antiquities, offering
+them for sale in their little dens, and ever hungry for a bargain. We
+strolled along, smoking and chatting as we went, when a Jew named
+Marchetto, with whom I had had dealings in former days and who knew me
+very well, came suddenly out into the broad covered way, and invited us
+into his shop. He said he had an object of rare beauty which he was sure
+I would buy. We went in, and sat down on a low divan against the wall.
+The sides of the little shop were piled to the ceiling with neatly
+folded packages of stuffs, embroideries, and prayer carpets. In one
+corner stood a shabby old table with a glass case, under which various
+objects of gold and silver were exposed for sale. The whole place
+smelled strongly of Greek tobacco, but otherwise it was clean and neat.
+A little raised dome in the middle of the ceiling admitted light and
+air.
+
+Marchetto disappeared for a moment, and instantly returned with two cups
+of Turkish coffee on a pewter salver, which he deposited on a stool
+before us. He evidently meant business, for he began to talk of the
+weather, and seemed in no hurry to show us the object he had vaguely
+mentioned. At last I asked for it, which I would certainly not have done
+had I meant to buy it. It proved to be a magnificent strip of Rhodes
+tapestry, of the kind formerly made for the Knights of Malta, but not
+manufactured since the last century. It consists always of Maltese
+crosses, of various sizes and designs, embroidered in heavy dark red
+silk upon strips of coarse strong linen about two feet wide, or of the
+same design worked upon square pieces for cushions. The value of this
+tapestry is very great, and is principally determined by the fineness of
+the stitch and the shade of red in the silk used.
+
+Marchetto's face fell as we admired his tapestry, for he knew that we
+would not begin a bargain by conceding the smallest merit to the object
+offered. But he put a brave face on the matter, and began to show us
+other things: a Giordès carpet, a magnificent piece of old Broussa gold
+embroidery on pale blue satin, curious embroideries on towels, known as
+Persian lace,--indeed, every variety of ancient stuff. Tired of sitting
+still, I rose and turned over some of the things myself. In doing so I
+struck my elbow against the old glass case in the corner, and looked to
+see whether I had broken it. In so doing my eye naturally fell upon the
+things laid out on white paper beneath the glazed frame. Among them I
+saw a watch which attracted my attention. It was of silver, but very
+beautifully engraved and adorned in Russian _niello_. The ribbed knob
+which served to wind it was of gold. Altogether the workmanship was very
+fine, and the watch looked new.
+
+"Here is a Russian watch, Patoff," I said, tapping the glass pane with
+my finger. Paul rose languidly and came to the table. When he saw the
+thing he turned pale, and gripped my arm in sudden excitement.
+
+"It is his," he said, in a low voice, trying to raise the lid.
+
+"Alexander's?" Paul nodded. "Pretend to be indifferent," I said in
+Russian, fearing lest Marchetto should understand.
+
+The Jew unclosed the case and handed us the watch. Paul took it with
+trembling fingers and opened it at the back. There in Russian letters
+were engraved the words ALEXANDER PAULOVITCH, FROM HIS FATHER; the date
+followed. There was no doubt about it. The watch had belonged to the
+lost man; he had, therefore, been robbed.
+
+"You got this from some bankrupt Pasha, Marchetto?" I inquired.
+Everything offered for sale in the bazaar at second hand is said to come
+from the establishment of a Pasha; the statement is supposed to attract
+foreigners.
+
+Marchetto nodded and smiled.
+
+"A Russian Pasha," I continued. "Did you ever hear of a Russian Pasha,
+Marchetto? The fellow who sold it to you lied."
+
+"He who lies on the first day of Ramazán repents on the day of Bairam,"
+returned the Jew, quoting a Turkish proverb, and grinning. I was struck
+by the words. Somehow the mention of Bairam made me think of Alexander's
+uncertain fate, and suggested the idea that Marchetto knew something
+about it.
+
+"Yes," I answered, looking sharply at him; "and another proverb says
+that the fox ends his days in the furrier's shop. Where did you buy the
+watch?"
+
+"Allah bilir! I have forgotten."
+
+"Allah knows, undoubtedly. But you know too," I said, laughing, and
+pretending to be amused. Paul had resumed his seat upon the small divan,
+and was listening with intense interest; but he knew it was best to
+leave the thing to me. Marchetto was a fat man, with red hair and
+red-brown eyes. He looked at me doubtfully for a moment.
+
+"I will buy it if you will tell me where you got it," I said.
+
+"I got it"--He hesitated. "It came out of a harem," he added suddenly,
+with a sort of chuckle.
+
+"Out of a harem!" I exclaimed, in utter incredulity. "What harem?"
+
+"I will not tell you," he answered, gravely, the smile fading from his
+face. "I swore that I would not tell."
+
+"Will you swear that it really came from a harem?" I asked.
+
+"I give you my word of honor," asseverated Marchetto. "I swear by my
+head, by your beard"----
+
+"I do not mean that," I said quietly. "Will you swear to me, solemnly,
+before God, that you are telling the truth?"
+
+Marchetto looked at me in surprise, for no people in the world are so
+averse to making a solemn oath as the Hebrews, as, perhaps, no people
+are more exact in regard to the truth when so made to bind themselves.
+The man looked at me for a moment.
+
+"You seem very curious about that watch," he said at last, turning away
+and busying himself with his stuffs.
+
+"Then you will not swear?" I asked, putting the watch back in its place.
+
+"I cannot swear to what I do not know. But I know the man who sold it to
+me. He is the Lala of a harem, that is certain. I will not tell you his
+name, nor the name of the Effendi to whose harem he belongs. Will you
+buy my watch?--birindjí--first quality--it is a beautiful thing. On my
+honor, I have never seen a finer one, though it is of silver."
+
+"Not unless you will tell me where it came from," I said firmly.
+"Besides, I must show it to Vartan in Pera before I buy it. Perhaps the
+works are not good."
+
+"It is yours," said Marchetto. "Take it. When you have had it two days
+you will buy it."
+
+"How much?"
+
+"Twenty liras,--twenty Turkish pounds," answered the Jew promptly.
+
+"You mean five," I said. The watch was worth ten, I thought, about two
+hundred and thirty francs.
+
+"Impossible. I would rather let you take it as a gift. It is
+birindjí--first quality--upon my honor. I never saw"----
+
+"Rubbish, Marchetto!" I exclaimed. "Let me take it to Vartan to be
+examined. Then we will bargain."
+
+"Take it," he answered. "Keep it as long as you like. I know you very
+well, and I thank Heaven I have profited a little with you. But the
+price of the watch is twenty pounds. You will pay it, and all your life
+you will look at it and say, 'What an honest man Marchetto is!' By my
+head--it is birindjí--first quality--I never"----
+
+"I have no doubt," I answered, cutting him short. I motioned to Paul
+that we had better go: he rose without a word.
+
+"Good-by, Marchetto," I said. "I will come back in a day or two and
+bargain with you."
+
+"It is birindjí--by my head--first quality"--were the last words we
+heard as we left the Jew amongst his stuffs. Then we threaded the
+subterranean passages of the bazaar, and soon afterwards were walking in
+the direction of Galata bridge, on our way back to Pera. At last Paul
+spoke.
+
+"We are on the scent," he said. "That fellow was speaking the truth when
+he said the watch came from a harem. I could see it in his face. I begin
+to think that Alexander did some absurdly rash thing,--followed some
+veiled Turkish woman, as he would have done before if I had not stopped
+him,--was seized, imprisoned in some cellar or other, and ultimately
+murdered."
+
+"It looks like it," I answered. "Of course I would not buy the watch
+outright, because as long as it is not paid for I have a hold upon
+Marchetto. I will talk to Balsamides to-night. He is very clever about
+those things, and he will find out the name of the black man who sold
+it."
+
+We separated, and I went to find my friend; but he was on duty and would
+not return until evening. I spent the rest of the day in making visits,
+trying to get rid of the time. On returning to the house of Gregorios I
+found a letter from John Carvel, the first I had received from him since
+I had left England. It ran as follows:--
+
+* * *
+
+MY DEAR GRIGGS: Since you left us something very extraordinary and
+unexpected has taken place, and considering the part you took in our
+household affairs, you should not be kept in the dark. I have suffered
+more annoyance in connection with my unfortunate sister-in-law than I
+can ever tell you; and the thing has culminated in a sort of
+transformation scene, such as you certainly never expected any more than
+I did. What will you say when I tell you that Madame Patoff has suddenly
+emerged from her rooms in all respects a sane woman? You will not be any
+less surprised--unless Paul has confided in you--to hear that he asked
+Hermione to marry him before leaving us, and that Hermione did not
+refuse him! I am so nervous that I have cut three meets in the last
+month.
+
+Of course you will want to know how all this came out. I do not see how
+I can manage to write so long a letter as this must be. But the _labor
+improbus_ knocks the stuffing out of all difficulties, as you put it in
+your neat American way. I dare say I shall survive. If I do not, the
+directions for my epitaph are, "Here lies the body of Anne Patoff's
+brother-in-law." If you could see me, you would appreciate the justice
+of the inscription.
+
+Madame Patoff is perfectly sane; dines with us, drives out, walks,
+talks, and reads like any other human being,--in which she differs
+materially from Chrysophrasia, who does all these things as they were
+never done, before or after the flood. We do not know what to make of
+the situation, but we try to make the best of it. It came about in this
+way. Hermione had taken a fancy to pay her aunt a visit, a day or two
+after you had left. Mrs. North was outside, as usual, reading or working
+in the next room. It chanced that the door was left open, or not quite
+closed. Mrs. North had the habit of listening to what went on,
+professionally, because it was her business to watch the case. As she
+sat there working, she heard Madame Patoff's voice, talking
+consecutively. She had never heard her talk before, more than to say
+"Yes," or "No," or "It is a fine day," or "It rains." She rose and went
+near the door. Her patient was talking very connectedly about a book she
+had been reading, and Hermione was answering her as though not at all
+surprised at the conversation. Then, presently, Hermione began to beg
+her to come out into the house and to live with the rest of us, since
+she was now perfectly sane. Mrs. North was thunderstruck, but did not
+lose her head. She probably did the best thing she could have done, as
+the event proved. She entered the room very quietly,--she is always so
+quiet,--and said in the most natural way in the world, "I am so glad you
+are better, Madame Patoff. Excuse me, Miss Hermione left the door open
+and I heard you talking." The old lady started and looked at her a
+moment. Then she turned away, and presently, looking rather white, she
+answered the nurse: "Thank you, Mrs. North, I am quite well. Will you
+send for Professor Cutter?" So Cutter was sent for, and when he had
+seen her he sent for me, and told me that my sister-in-law was in a
+lucid state, but that it would be just as well not to excite her. If she
+chose to leave her room she might, he said, but she ought to be watched.
+"The deuce!" said I, "this is most extraordinary!" "Exactly," said he,
+"most extraordinary."
+
+The lucid moment lasted, and she has been perfectly sane ever since. She
+goes about the house, touching everything and admiring everything, and
+enjoys driving with me in the dog-cart. I do not know what to make of
+it. I asked Hermione how it began. She only said that she thought her
+aunt had been better when she was with her, and then it had come very
+suddenly. The other day Madame Patoff asked about Paul, and I told her
+he had gone to the East with you. But she did not seem to know anything
+about you, though I told her you had seen her. "Poor Paul," she said, "I
+should like to see him so much. He is the only one left." She was sad
+for a moment, but that was all. Cutter said it was very strange; that
+her insanity must have been caused in some way by the shock she had when
+she threw herself out of the window in Germany. Perhaps so. At all
+events she is sane now, and Cutter says she will not be crazy again. I
+hope he is right. She appeared very grateful for all I had done for her,
+and I believe she has written to Paul. Queer story, is it not?
+
+Now for the sequel. Hermione came to me one morning in the library, and
+confessed that Paul had asked her to marry him, and that she had not
+exactly refused. Girls' ideas about those things are apt to be very
+inexact when they are in love with a man and do not want to own it. Of
+course I said I was glad she had not accepted him; but when I put it to
+her in that way she seemed more uncertain than ever. The end of it was
+that she said she could not marry him, however much she liked him,
+unless he could put an end to a certain foolish tale which is told
+against him. I dare say you have heard that he had been half suspected
+of helping his brother out of the world. Was there ever such nonsense?
+That was what Chrysophrasia meant with her disgusting personalities
+about Cain and Abel. I dare say you remember. I do not mind telling you
+that I like Paul very much more than I expected to when he first came.
+He has a hard shell, but he is a good fellow, and as innocent of his
+brother's death as I am. But--they are cousins, and Paul's mother has
+certainly been insane. Of course insanity brought on by an accident can
+never be hereditary; but then, there is Chrysophrasia, who is certainly
+very odd. However, Paul is a fine fellow, and I will think of it. Mrs.
+Carvel likes him even better than I do. I would have preferred that
+Hermione should marry an out-and-out Englishman, but I always said she
+should marry the man she loved, if he were a gentleman, and I will not
+go back on my word. They will not have much to live on, for I believe
+Paul has refused to touch a penny of his brother's fortune, believing
+that he may yet be found.
+
+But the plot thickens. What do you suppose Macaulay has been doing? He
+has written a letter to his old chief, Lord Mavourneen, who always liked
+him so much, begging to be sent to Constantinople. The ambassador had a
+secretary out there of the same standing who wanted to go to Paris, so
+the matter was arranged at the Foreign Office, and Macaulay is going out
+at once. Naturally the female establishment set up a howl that they must
+spend the summer on the Bosphorus; that I had taken them everywhere
+else, and that no one of them could die happy without having seen
+Constantinople. The howl lasted a week. Then I went the way of all
+flesh, and gave in. Mrs. Carvel wanted to see Macaulay, Madame Patoff
+wanted to see the place where poor Alexander disappeared, Hermione
+wanted to see Paul, and Chrysophrasia wanted to see the Golden Horn and
+dance upon the glad waters of the joyous Bosphorus in the light caïque
+of commerce. I am rather glad I have submitted. I think that Hermione's
+affection is serious,--she looks ill, poor child,--and I want to see
+more of Paul before deciding. Of course, with Macaulay in one embassy
+and Paul in another, we shall see everything; and Mary says I am growing
+crusty over my books. You understand now how all this has occurred.
+
+Now I want your advice, for you not only know Constantinople, but you
+are living there. Do you advise us to come at once and spend the spring,
+or to come later and stay all summer? Is there anything to eat? Must I
+bring a cook? Can I get a house, or must we encamp in a hotel? What
+clothes does one wear? In short, tell me everything you know, on a
+series of post cards or by telegraph,--for you hate writing letters more
+than I do. I await your answer with anxiety, as we shall regulate our
+movements by what you say. All send affectionate messages to you and to
+Paul, to whom please read this letter.
+
+Yours ever, JOHN CARVEL.
+
+* * *
+
+I had not recovered from my astonishment in reading this long epistle,
+when Gregorios came in and sat down by the fire. His entrance reminded
+me of the watch, and for the moment banished John Carvel and his family
+from my thoughts. I showed him the thing, and told him what Marchetto
+had said.
+
+"We have him now!" he exclaimed, examining the name and date with
+interest, though he could not read the Russian characters.
+
+"It is not so sure," I said. "He will never tell the name of the negro."
+
+"No; but we can see the fellow easily enough, I fancy," returned
+Balsamides. "You do not know how these things are done. It is most
+probable that Marchetto has not paid him for the watch. Things of that
+sort are generally not paid for until they have been sold out of the
+shop. Marchetto would not give him a good price for the watch until he
+knew what it would fetch, and the man would not take a small sum because
+he believes it to be valuable. The chances are that the Lala comes from
+time to time to inquire if it is sold, and Marchetto shows it to him to
+prove that he has not got any money for it."
+
+"That sounds rather far-fetched," I observed. "Marchetto may have had it
+in his keeping ever since Alexander disappeared. The Lala would not wait
+as long as that. He would take it to some one else."
+
+"No, I do not believe so," said Gregorios thoughtfully. "Besides, it may
+not have been brought to the Jew more than a week ago. Those fellows do
+not part with jewelry unless they need money. It is a pretty thing, too,
+and would attract the attention of any foreigner."
+
+"How can you manage to watch Marchetto so closely as to get a sight of
+the man?"
+
+"Bribe the Jew in the next shop; or, still better, pay a hamál to spend
+his time in the neighborhood. The man probably comes once a week on a
+certain day. Keep the watch. The next time he comes it will be gone, but
+Marchetto will not have been paid for it and will refuse to pay the
+Lala. There will inevitably be a hubbub and a noise over it. The hamál
+can easily find out the name of the negro, who is probably well known in
+the bazaar."
+
+"But suppose that I am right, and it is already paid for?" I objected.
+
+"It is very unlikely. I know these people better than you do. At all
+events, we will put the hamál there to watch for the row. If it does not
+come off in a month, I will begin to think you are right."
+
+Gregorios is a true Oriental. He possesses the inborn instinct of the
+bazaar.
+
+
+
+
+XIII.
+
+
+That night I went in search of Paul, and found him standing silent and
+alone in the corner of a drawing-room at one of the embassies. There was
+a great reception and a dance, and all the diplomats had turned out
+officially to see that portion of the native Pera society which is
+invited on such occasions.
+
+There is a brilliancy about such affairs in Constantinople which is
+hardly rivaled elsewhere. The display of jewels is something wonderful,
+for the great Fanariote families are still rich, in spite of the
+devastations of the late war, and the light of their hereditary diamonds
+and pearls is not hidden under a bushel. There is beauty, too, of the
+Oriental and Western kind, and plenty of it. The black eyes and
+transparently white complexions of the Greek ladies, their raven hair
+and heavy brows, their magnificent calm and their languid attitudes,
+contrast strangely with the fair women of many countries, whose
+husbands, or fathers, or brothers, or uncles are attached to the
+different embassies. The uniforms, too, are often superb, and the
+display of decorations is amazing. The conversation is an enlargement on
+the ordinary idea of Babel, for almost every known language is spoken
+within the limits of the ball-room.
+
+I found Paul alone, with an abstracted expression on his face, as he
+stood aside from the crowd, unnoticed in his corner.
+
+"My dear fellow," I said, "I believe I may congratulate you."
+
+"Upon what?" he asked, in some surprise.
+
+"Let us get out of this crowd," I answered. "I have a letter from John
+Carvel, which you ought to read."
+
+We threaded the rooms till we reached a small boudoir, occupied only by
+one or two couples, exceedingly interested in each other.
+
+"Read that," said I. It was the best thing I could do for him, I
+thought. He might be annoyed to find that I knew his secret, but he
+could not fail to rejoice at the view John took of the engagement. His
+face changed many times in expression, as he read the letter carefully.
+When he had finished he was silent and held it in his hand.
+
+"What do you think of all this?" I asked.
+
+"She never was mad. Or if she was, this is the strangest recovery I ever
+heard of. So she is coming here with the rest! And uncle John thinks me
+a very fine fellow," he added with a laugh, meant to be a little
+sarcastic, but which ended with the irrepressible ring of genuine
+happiness.
+
+"I congratulate you," I said. "I think the affair is as good as settled.
+You have only to wait a few weeks, and they will be here. By the by, I
+hope you do not mind Carvel's frankness in telling me all about it?"
+
+"Not in the least," answered Paul, with a smile. "I believe you are the
+best friend I have in the world, and you are his friend. You will do
+good rather than harm."
+
+"I hope so," said I. "But if any one had foretold a month ago that we
+should all be together again so soon,--and here, too,--I could have
+laughed at him."
+
+"It is fate," answered Paul. "It would be better if it could be put off
+until we reach the end of our search, especially as we seem to be nearer
+the track than ever before. I am afraid that their arrival will hinder
+us--or, at least, me--from working as hard as I would like."
+
+"On the contrary," I replied, "I fancy you will work all the harder. I
+have been talking to Balsamides about the watch. He feels sure that he
+can catch the man who took it to Marchetto."
+
+I explained to Paul the course Gregorios proposed to follow. He seemed
+to think the chance was a poor one.
+
+"I have been pursued by an idea ever since this morning," he said at
+last. "I dare say you will think it very foolish, but I cannot get rid
+of it. Do you remember the adventure in the Valley of Roses? I told you
+about it at Carvel Place. Very well. I cannot help thinking that the
+negro who took the watch to Marchetto was the one who accompanied those
+two Turkish women. The man was exasperated. He probably knew us by
+sight, for we had constantly met him and the lady with the thick
+yashmak. They had often seen us come out of the Russian embassy. No
+complaint was ever made against Alexander. It looks to me like a piece
+of private vengeance."
+
+"Yes," I assented, struck by the idea. "Besides, if the fellow had
+succeeded in making away with your brother, it is natural that he should
+have waited a long time before disposing of his jewelry."
+
+"I wonder what became of the other things," said Patoff. "Alexander had
+with him his Moscow cigarette case, he wore a gold chain with the watch,
+and he had on his finger a ring with a sapphire and two diamonds in a
+heavy gold band. If all those things have been disposed of, they must
+have passed through the bazaar, probably through Marchetto's hands."
+
+At this moment Balsamides Bey's pale, intelligent face showed itself at
+the door. He came quickly forward on seeing us, and drew up a chair. I
+told him in a few words what we had said. He smiled and twirled the end
+of his brown mustache.
+
+"There is something in that," he answered. "I fancy, too, that such a
+fellow would first part with the chain, then with the cigarette case,
+thirdly with the watch, and last of all with the ring, which he probably
+wears."
+
+"We must find out if Marchetto has sold the chain and the case for him,"
+I said.
+
+"Leave Marchetto to me," said Gregorios, confidently. "I will spend the
+day with him to-morrow. Have you ever seen the negro since that affair
+in the Valley of Roses?"
+
+"Often," replied Paul, somewhat to my surprise. "He goes to Yeni Köj
+every Thursday."
+
+"You seem to have watched his movements," observed Balsamides, with a
+smile of admiration. "Did you never tell Griggs?"
+
+"No," said I, rather amazed.
+
+"What would have been the use? I only watched the man because I fancied
+he might be in some way connected with the matter, but it seemed so
+absurd, until the finding of the watch made it look more probable, that
+I never spoke of it."
+
+"I am glad you have spoken of it now," said Gregorios. "It is probably
+the key to the whole affair."
+
+We talked on for a few minutes, and Paul told Balsamides that his mother
+and the Carvels were coming, explaining his anxiety to hasten the search
+so as to have something positive to show when they arrived. Then Paul
+left us, and went to fulfill such social obligations as his position
+imposed upon him. He was not a man to forget such things, even in times
+of great excitement; and when he returned to Constantinople, his chief
+had expressed the hope that Paul would not shut himself up, but would go
+everywhere, as he had formerly done.
+
+"This thing is beginning to interest me, Griggs," said Gregorios,
+arching his eyebrows, and looking at me with a peculiar expression. "You
+are doing more than I am, and I will not bear it," he added, with a
+laugh. "What is my little bit of evidence about the staircase in Santa
+Sophia compared to your discovery of the watch? I believe that in the
+end Marchetto will be the _deus ex machina_ who will pull us out of all
+our difficulties. I believe, too, that the best thing to do is to
+confide the matter to him. I will go and see him to-morrow."
+
+"He will never break his oath to the Lala," I answered.
+
+"Perhaps not. But he has only sworn that he will not tell his name. He
+has not sworn that he will not let me see him. So the fellow goes to
+Yeni Köj on Thursday. Then he probably lives there, and chooses that day
+to come to Stamboul. You have seen him going home. If he goes to
+Stamboul, he most likely visits the bazaar early in the morning. If so,
+I will catch him to-morrow, and to-morrow night I will tell you whether
+he is the man or not. I will come upon Marchetto by accident, and he
+will of course want to show me the Rhodes tapestry; then I will spend
+the whole morning over the bargain, and I shall not miss the Lala if he
+comes."
+
+Balsamides was evidently fully roused, and as we smoked a last cigarette
+in his rooms that night he talked enthusiastically of what he hoped to
+accomplish on the next day. He kept his word, and very early in the
+morning I heard him go out. From the sound of his walk I could tell that
+he had no spurs, and was therefore in civilian's dress. He told me
+afterwards what occurred.
+
+At half past eight o'clock he was drinking a cup of coffee in
+Marchetto's shop in the bazaar, and the Jew was displaying his tapestry,
+and swearing that it was birindjí, first quality. Balsamides wanted to
+produce the impression that he intended to make a bargain.
+
+"Kaldyr! Take it away!" he exclaimed. "It is rubbish."
+
+Marchetto held the stuff up over his customer's head so that the light
+from the little dome could fall upon it.
+
+"There is not a hole in the whole length of it," he cried
+enthusiastically. "It is perfect; not a thread loose. Examine it; is
+there a patch? By my head, if you can find such another piece I will
+give you a present."
+
+"Is that a color?" asked Balsamides contemptuously. "Is that red? It is
+pink. It is magenta. How much did you pay to have it made?"
+
+"If I could make Rhodes tapestry, I should be as rich as the Hunkyar,"
+retorted Marchetto, squatting on the matted floor and slowly drawing the
+magnificent tapestry across his knees, so that Gregorios could see it to
+advantage.
+
+"Do you take me for a madman?" asked the aid-de-camp. "I do not care for
+Rhodes tapestry. Kaldyr! If it were old, it would have holes in it."
+
+"I have Rhodes full of holes, beautiful holes," observed Marchetto, with
+a grin.
+
+"Fox!" retorted Gregorios. "Do you think when I buy tapestry I want to
+buy holes?"
+
+"But this piece has none," argued the Jew.
+
+"You want me to buy it. I can see you do. You are laughing at my beard.
+You think I will give a thousand pounds for your rubbish?"
+
+"Not a thousand pounds," said Marchetto. "It is worth a hundred and
+fifty pounds, neither more nor less. Marchetto is an honest man. He is
+not a Persian fox."
+
+"No," answered Balsamides, "he is an Israelite of Saloniki. What have I
+to do with such a fellow as you, who have the impudence to ask a hundred
+and fifty liras for that rag?"
+
+"How shall the lion and the lamb lie down together?" inquired Marchetto.
+"And is it a rag?"
+
+"I will tell you, Marchetto," said Gregorios, gravely. "The lion and the
+lamb shall lie down together, when the lion lies down with the lamb
+inside of him."
+
+"Take, and eat!" exclaimed the ready Jew, holding out the Rhodes
+tapestry to Balsamides.
+
+"A man who has fasted throughout Ramazán shall not break his fast with
+an onion," retorted Gregorios, laughing.
+
+"Who eats little earns much," replied Marchetto. "Is it not the most
+beautiful piece of Rhodes you ever saw, Effendim? There is not a Pasha
+in Stamboul, nor in Pera, nor in Scutari, who possesses the like of it.
+Only a hundred and fifty pounds; it is very cheap."
+
+"I will give you ten pounds for it, if you will give me a good
+backsheesh," said Gregorios at last. In Stamboul it is customary, when a
+bargain of any importance is completed, for the seller to make the buyer
+a present of some small object, which is called the backsheesh, or gift.
+
+On hearing the offer, Marchetto looked slyly at Gregorios and laughed,
+without saying anything. Then he slowly began to fold the tapestry
+together.
+
+"Ten pounds," said Balsamides. "Pek chok,--that is quite enough, and too
+much."
+
+"Yes, of course it is," answered the Jew, ironically. "I paid a hundred
+and nineteen pounds and eighty-five piastres for it. I only ask fifteen
+piastres profit. Small profits. Get rid of everything quickly. Who sells
+cheaply sells soon; who sells soon earns much."
+
+"I told you from the first that I did not want your Rhodes," said
+Balsamides. "I came here to see what you had. Have you nothing else that
+is good?"
+
+"Everything Marchetto has is good. His carpets are all of silk, and of
+the finest colors. His embroideries are the envy of the bazaar.
+Marchetto has everything."
+
+He did not finish folding the Rhodes, but thrust it aside upon the
+matting, and began to pull down other stuffs and carpets from the
+shelves. From the obstinacy Gregorios displayed, he really judged that
+he meant to buy the tapestry, and to make a good bargain he would
+willingly have turned everything in his little shop upside down.
+
+Gregorios admired several pieces very much, whereupon the Jew threw them
+aside in disgust, well knowing that his customer would not buy them. The
+latter had now been an hour in the shop, and showed no signs of going
+away. Marchetto returned to the original question.
+
+"If it is worth so much, why do you not take it to one of the
+embassies?" asked Balsamides at last. He had resolved that he would
+prolong the discussion until twelve o'clock, judging that by midday the
+negro would be on his way back to Yeni Köj, and that there would be no
+further chance of seeing him. He therefore broached the subject of
+Marchetto's trade with the foreigners, knowing that once upon this tack
+the Jew would have endless stories and anecdotes to relate. But
+Gregorios was not destined to stand in need of so much ingenuity. He
+would never have made the attempt in which he was now engaged unless he
+had anticipated success, and he was not surprised when a tall,
+smooth-faced negro, of hideous countenance but exceedingly well dressed,
+put his head into the shop. He saluted Gregorios and entered. Marchetto
+touched his mouth and his fez with his right hand, but did not at first
+rise from his seat upon the floor. Balsamides watched the man. He looked
+about the shop, and then approached the old glass case in the corner. He
+had hardly glanced at it when he turned and tried to catch Marchetto's
+eye. The latter made an almost imperceptible motion of the head.
+Gregorios was satisfied that the pantomime referred to the watch, which
+was no longer in its place. He continued to talk with the Jew for a few
+minutes, and then slowly rose from his seat.
+
+"I see you have business with this gentleman," he said. "I have
+something to do in the bazaar. I will return in half an hour."
+
+The Lala seemed delighted, and politely made way for Gregorios to pass,
+but Marchetto of course protested loudly that the negro's business could
+wait. He accompanied Gregorios to the door, and with many inclinations
+stood looking after him for a few moments. At a little distance
+Gregorios pretended to be attracted by something exposed for sale, and,
+pausing, looked furtively back. The Jew had gone in again. Then
+Balsamides returned and entered a shop almost opposite to Marchetto's,
+kept by another Spanish Hebrew of Saloniki, who made a specialty of
+selling shawls,--a smart young fellow, with beady black eyes.
+
+"Good morning, Abraham," he said. "Have you manufactured any new Kashmir
+shawls out of old rags of borders and French imitations since I saw
+you?"
+
+Abraham smiled pleasantly, and began to unfold his wares. Before many
+minutes the sound of angry voices was heard outside. Gregorios had
+ensconced himself in a corner, whence he could see what went on without
+being seen. The quarrelers were Marchetto and the Lala.
+
+"Dog of a Jew!" screamed the black man in his high, cracked voice. "Will
+you rob me, and then turn me out of your filthy den? You shall suffer
+for it, you Saloniki beast!"
+
+"Dog yourself, and son of a dog!" bellowed Marchetto, his big face
+growing fiery red as he blocked the doorway with his bulky shoulders.
+"Behold the gratitude of this vile wretch!" he cried, as though
+addressing an audience. "Look at this insatiate jackal, this pork-eater,
+this defiler of his father's grave! Oh! beware of touching what is
+black, for the filth will surely rub off!"
+
+Exasperated at the Jew's eloquent abuse, the Lala tried to push him back
+into the shop, flourishing his light cane in his right hand. In a moment
+a crowd collected, and the epithets of the combatants were drowned
+amidst the jeers and laughter of the by-standers, delighted at seeing
+the dandy keeper of a great harem in the clutches of the sturdy
+Marchetto.
+
+Abraham looked out, and then turned back to his customer.
+
+"It is Selim," he said with a chuckle. "He has been trying to cheat
+Marchetto again."
+
+"Again?" repeated Gregorios, who had at last attained his end. "And who
+is Selim, Abraham?"
+
+"Selim? Everybody in the bazaar knows Selim, the most insolent,
+avaricious, money-grabbing Lala in Stamboul. He is more like a Persian
+than anything else. He is the Lala of Laleli Khanum Effendi, who lives
+at Yeni Köj. They say she is a witch since her husband died," added
+Abraham, lowering his voice.
+
+"I have heard so," said Gregorios calmly. But in reality he was
+triumphant. He knew now what had become of Alexander Patoff.
+
+The noise outside was rapidly growing to an uproar. Gregorios slipped
+quickly out of the shop and made his way through the crowd, for he felt
+that it was time to put a stop to the quarrel. Many of the people knew
+him, and knew that he was an officer and a man in authority; recognizing
+him, they stopped yelling and made way for him.
+
+"What is this?" he cried, violently separating Marchetto and the negro,
+who were screaming insults at each other and shaking their fists in each
+other's faces. "Stop this noise," he continued, "or I will send a score
+of soldiers down to keep you in order. If the Lala is not satisfied, he
+can go before the magistrate. So can Marchetto, if he likes.--Go!" he
+said to the negro, pushing him away and scattering the crowd. "If you
+have any complaints to make, go to the magistrate."
+
+"Who are you?" asked the fellow, insolently.
+
+"It is none of your business," answered Gregorios, dragging the man away
+in the nervous grip of his white hand; then lowering his voice, he spoke
+quickly in the man's ear: "Do you remember the Bairam, a year ago last
+summer? If you are not quiet, I will ask you what became of the chain of
+that watch, of the silver box, and especially of that beautiful ring
+with the sapphire and two diamonds. Moreover, I may ask you what became
+of a certain Frank Effendi, to whom they belonged,--do you understand?"
+
+The man trembled in every joint, and a greenish livid hue seemed to
+drive the blackness out of his face.
+
+"I know nothing!" he gasped hysterically. But Balsamides let him go.
+
+"Be quick," he said. "The watch will be paid for, but do not venture to
+come to the bazaar again for some time. Fear nothing,--I have an eye to
+your safety."
+
+The last speech was perhaps somewhat ambiguous, but the man, being once
+released, dived into a narrow passage and disappeared. The crowd of
+Jews had shrunk into their shops again. Gregorios hastily concluded a
+bargain with Abraham, and then returned to finish his conversation with
+Marchetto. He found the latter mopping his forehead, and talking
+excitedly to a couple of sympathetic Hebrews who had entered his place
+of business. On seeing Balsamides they immediately left the shop.
+
+"I have sent him away," said Gregorios. "He will not trouble you again."
+
+"It is not my fault if the dog of a Turk is angry," answered Marchetto.
+
+"I hardly know. He says he had left a watch with you to be sold, and
+that now he can get neither the watch nor the money. You like to keep
+your customers waiting when they have anything to sell, Marchetto. How
+long is it since he gave you the watch?"
+
+"On my head, it is only three weeks," answered the Jew. "How can I sell
+a watch in three weeks and get the money for it? An Effendi took the
+watch yesterday to show it to Vartan, the jeweler. He is a friend of
+yours, Effendim; you first brought him here a long time ago. His name is
+a strange name,--Cricks,--a very strange name, like the creaking of an
+ungreased cart-wheel."
+
+"Oh, did he take the watch? I will speak to him about it. He will pay
+you immediately. How did the Lala come to have a watch to sell?"
+
+"Allah bilir. He is always bringing me things to sell."
+
+"Other things?"
+
+"He showed me a gold chain one day in the winter. But it was not
+curious, so he took it to a jeweler in the jeweler's tcharshee, who gave
+him the value of the gold by weight."
+
+"Who is he?" asked Gregorios, judging that he ought to show some
+curiosity about the man.
+
+"I cannot tell," answered the Jew.
+
+"That means that you will not, of course. Very well. It is your affair.
+Curiosity is the mother of deception. Will you give me the Rhodes for
+ten pounds?"
+
+They began to bargain again, but nothing was concluded on that day, for
+Gregorios had got what he wanted, and was anxious to reach home and to
+see me.
+
+Patoff and I, as usual on Thursday, had made a trip up the Bosphorus,
+and it was on this occasion that he first pointed out to me the hideous
+negro. He proved to be the same man I had seen once before, on our very
+first excursion. To-day he looked more ugly than ever, as he went ashore
+at Yeni Köj. There was a malignity in his face such as I have never seen
+equaled in the expression of any human being.
+
+"I wonder what we shall find out," said Paul thoughtfully. "I have a
+very strong belief that he is the fellow who sold the watch. If he is,
+poor Alexander can have had but small chance of escape. Did you ever see
+such a diabolical face? Of course it may be a mere fancy, but I cannot
+rid myself of the thought."
+
+"Balsamides will find out," I replied. "He can handle those fellows in
+the bazaar as only an Oriental can."
+
+It was not long before I heard the story of the morning's adventure from
+Gregorios. I found him waiting for me and very impatient. He told his
+tale triumphantly, dwelling on the fact that Marchetto himself had never
+suspected that he was interested in the matter.
+
+"And who is Laleli Khanum Effendi?" I inquired when he had finished.
+"And how are we to get into her house?"
+
+"You never heard of Laleli? You Franks think you know Constantinople,
+but you know very little in reality. Laleli means 'a tulip.' A pretty
+name, Tulip. Why not 'cabbage rose,' or 'artichoke,' or 'asparagus'?
+Laleli is an extraordinary woman, my friend, and has been in the habit
+of doing extraordinary things, ever since she poisoned her husband. She
+is the sister of a very high and mighty personage, who has been dead
+some time. She was married to an important officer in the government.
+She was concerned in the conspiracy against Abdul Azis; she is said to
+have poisoned her husband; she fell in her turn a victim to the
+conspiracy against Murad, and, though not banished, lost all favor. She
+managed to keep her fortune, however, which is very large, and she has
+lived for many years in Yeni Köj. There are all sorts of legends about
+her. Some say she is old and hideous, others declare that she has
+preserved her beauty by witchcraft. There is nothing absurd which has
+not been said of her. She certainly at one time exercised considerable
+influence in politics. That is all I know of her except this, which I
+have never believed: it has been said that more than one person has been
+seen to enter her house, but has never been seen to leave it."
+
+"How can one believe that?" I asked skeptically. "If it were really
+known, her house would have been searched, especially as she is out of
+favor."
+
+"It is curious, however," said Gregorios, without contradicting me,
+"that we should have traced Alexander Patoff's personal possessions to
+her house."
+
+"What shall we do next?" I asked.
+
+"There are only two courses open. In the first place, we can easily
+catch the Lala who sold the watch, and take him to a quiet place."
+
+"Well, do you suppose he will tell us what he knows?"
+
+"We will torture him," said Balsamides, coolly. I confess that I was
+rather startled by the calm way in which he made the proposition. I
+inwardly determined that we should do nothing of the kind.
+
+"What is the other alternative?" I inquired, without showing any
+surprise.
+
+"To break into the house and make a search, I suppose," answered my
+friend, still quite unmoved, and speaking as though he were proposing a
+picnic on the Bosphorus.
+
+"That is not an easy matter," I remarked, "besides being slightly
+illegal."
+
+"Whatever we do must be illegal," answered Gregorios. "If we begin to
+use the law, the Khanum will have timely warning. If Alexander is still
+alive and imprisoned in her house, it would be the work of a moment to
+drop him into the Bosphorus. If he is dead already, we should have less
+chance of getting evidence of the fact by using legal means than by
+extracting a confession by bribery or violence."
+
+"In other words, you think it is indispensable that we should undertake
+a burglary?"
+
+"Unless we succeed in persuading the Lala to confess," said Balsamides.
+
+"This is a very unpleasant business," I remarked, with a pardonable
+hesitation. "I do not quite see where it will end. If we break into the
+house and find nothing, we shall be amenable to the law. I object to
+that."
+
+"Very well. What do you propose?"
+
+"I cannot say what would be best. In my opinion, Paul should consult
+with his ambassador, and take his advice. But before all else it is
+necessary to find out whether Alexander is dead or alive."
+
+"Of course. That is precisely what I want to find out," answered
+Balsamides, rather impatiently. "The person who can best answer the
+question is Selim, the Lala."
+
+"I object to using violence," I said, boldly. "I fancy he might be
+bribed. Those fellows will do anything for money."
+
+"You do not know them. They will commit any baseness for money, except
+betraying their masters. It has been tried a hundred times. We may avoid
+using violence, as you call it, but the man must be frightened with the
+show of it. The people who can be bribed are the women slaves of the
+harem. But they are not easily reached."
+
+"It is not impossible, though," I answered. "Nevertheless, if I were
+acting alone, I would put the matter in the hands of the Russian
+embassy."
+
+"Do you think they would hesitate at any means of getting information,
+any more than I would?" inquired Gregorios, scornfully.
+
+"We shall see," I said. "We must discuss the matter thoroughly before
+doing anything more. I have no experience of affairs of this sort; your
+knowledge of them is very great. On the other hand, I am more prudent
+than you are, and I do not like to risk everything on one throw of the
+dice."
+
+"We might set fire to the house and burn them out," said Gregorios,
+thoughtfully. "The danger would be that we might burn Alexander alive."
+
+My friend did not stick at trifles. Under his cold exterior lurked the
+desperate rashness of the true Oriental, ready to blaze out at any
+moment.
+
+"No," I said, laughing; "that would not do, either. Is it not possible
+to send a spy into the house? It seems to me that the thing might be
+done. What sort of women are they who gain access to the harems?"
+
+"Women who sell finery and sweetmeats; women who amuse the Khanums by
+dressing their hair, when they have any, in the Frank style; women who
+tell stories"----
+
+"A story-teller would do," I said. "They are often admitted, are they
+not? It is almost the only amusement those poor creatures have. I fancy
+that one who could interest them might be admitted again and again."
+
+Balsamides was silent, and smoked meditatively for some minutes.
+
+"That is an idea," he said at last. "I know of such a woman, and I dare
+say she could get in. But if she did, she might go to the house twenty
+times, and get no information worth having."
+
+"Never mind. It would be a great step to establish a means of
+communication with the interior of the house. You could easily force the
+Lala to recommend the story-teller to his Khanum. She could tell us
+about the internal arrangement of the place, at all events, which would
+make it easier for us to search the house, if we ever got a chance."
+
+"If one could get as far as that, it would be a wise precaution and a
+benefit to the human race to convey a little strychnine to the Khanum in
+a sweetmeat," said Gregorios, with a laugh.
+
+"How horribly bloodthirsty you are!" I answered, laughing in my turn. "I
+believe you would massacre half of Stamboul to find a man who may be
+dead already."
+
+"It is our way of looking at things, I suppose," returned Balsamides. "I
+will see the story-teller, and explain as much as possible of the
+situation. What I most fear is that we may have to take somebody else
+into our confidence."
+
+"Do none of the ladies in the embassies know this Laleli, as you call
+her?" I asked.
+
+"Yes. Many Frank ladies have been to see her. But their visits are
+merely the satisfaction of curiosity on the one side, and of formality
+on the other."
+
+"I was wondering whether one of them would not be the best person in
+whom to confide."
+
+"Not yet," said Balsamides.
+
+And so our interview ended. When I saw Paul and told him the news, he
+seemed to think that the search was already at an end. I found it hard
+to persuade him that a week or two might elapse before anything definite
+was known. In his enthusiasm he insisted that I should answer John
+Carvel's letter by begging him to come at once. As he was the person
+most concerned, I yielded, and wrote.
+
+"It is strange," said Paul, "that we should have accomplished more in a
+single month than has been done by all the official searching in a year
+and a half."
+
+"The reason is very simple," I answered. "The Lala did not chance to be
+in want of money until lately. Everything we have discovered has been
+found out by means of that watch."
+
+"Griggs," said Paul, "Balsamides is a very clever fellow, but he has not
+thought of asking one question. Why was the Lala never in want of money
+before?"
+
+"I do not know."
+
+"Because, in some way or other, he is out of favor with his Khanum. If
+that is the case, this is the time to bribe him."
+
+"Very true," I said. "In any case, if he is trying to get money, it is a
+sign that he needs it, in spite of our friend's declaration that he and
+his kind cannot be bribed."
+
+
+
+
+XIV.
+
+
+It often happens, when our hopes are raised to the highest pitch of
+expectation, and when we think we are on the eve of realizing our
+well-considered plans, that an unexpected obstacle arises in our path,
+like the impenetrable wall which so often in our dreams suddenly
+interposes itself between us and the enemy we are pursuing. At such
+moments we are apt to despair of ourselves, and it is the inability to
+rise above this dejection at the important crisis which too often causes
+failure. After we had discovered the watch, and after Balsamides had
+traced it to the house of Laleli Khanum Effendi, it seemed to me that
+the end could not be far. It could not be an operation of superhuman
+difficulty to bribe some one in the harem to tell us what we wanted to
+know. In a few days this might be accomplished, and we should learn the
+fate of Alexander Patoff.
+
+It was at this point, however, that failure awaited us. The house of
+Laleli was impenetrable. The scheme to establish communication by means
+of the story-teller did not succeed. The old woman was received once,
+but saw nothing, and never succeeded in gaining admittance again. Selim,
+the Lala, ceased at that time to pay regular visits to Stamboul on
+Thursday, and Balsamides realized that he had perhaps not done wisely in
+letting him go free from the bazaar. We paid several visits to Yeni Köj,
+and contemplated the dismal exterior of the Khanum's villa. High walls
+of mud and stone surrounded it on all sides except the front, and there
+the long, low wooden facade exhibited only its double row of latticed
+windows, overlooking the water, while two small doors, which were always
+closed, constituted the entrance from the narrow stone quay. Nothing
+could penetrate those lattices, nor surmount the blank steepness of
+those walls. Our only means of reaching the interior of the dwelling and
+the secrets which perhaps were hidden there lay in our power over Selim;
+but the Lala had no difficulty in eluding us, and either kept resolutely
+within doors, or sallied out in company with his mistress. It was
+remarkable, however, that we had never met him in charge of the ladies
+of the harem, as Paul had so often met him during the summer when
+Alexander had made his visit to his brother. We went to every place
+where Turkish ladies are wont to resort in their carriages during the
+winter, but we never saw Selim nor the lady with the thick veil.
+
+Meanwhile, Paul grew nervous, and his anxiety for the result of our
+operations began to show itself in his face. I had written to John
+Carvel, and he had replied that he was making his preparations, and
+would soon join us. Then Macaulay Carvel arrived, and, having found
+Paul, came with him to see me. The young man's delight at being at last
+appointed to Constantinople knew no bounds, and he almost became
+enthusiastic in his praises of the city and the scenery. He smiled
+perpetually, and was smoother than ever in speech and manner. Balsamides
+conceived a strong dislike for him, but condescended to treat him with
+civility in consideration of the fact that he was Paul's cousin and the
+son of my old friend.
+
+Indeed, Macaulay had every reason to be happy. He had succeeded in
+getting transferred to the East, where he could see his cousin every
+day; he was under one of the most agreeable and kind-hearted chiefs in
+the service; and now his whole family had determined to spend the summer
+with him. What more could the heart of a good boy desire? It was rather
+odd that Paul should like him so much, I thought. It seemed as though
+Patoff, who was inclined to repel all attempts at intimacy, and who at
+four-and-thirty years of age was comparatively friendless, was touched
+by the admiration of his younger cousin, and had for him a sort of
+half-paternal affection, which was quite enough to satisfy the modest
+expectations of the quiet young man. Yet Macaulay was far from being a
+match for Paul in any respect. Where Paul exhibited the force of his
+determination by intelligent hard work, Macaulay showed his desire for
+excellence by doggedly memorizing in a parrot-like way everything which
+he wished to know. Where Paul was enthusiastic, Macaulay was
+conscientious. Where Paul was original, Macaulay was a studious but dull
+imitator of the originality of others. Instead of Paul's indescribable
+air of good-breeding, Macaulay possessed what might be called a
+well-bred respectability. Where Paul was bold, Macaulay exhibited a
+laudable desire to do his duty.
+
+Yet Macaulay Carvel was not to be despised on account of his high-class
+mediocrity. He did his best, according to his lights. He endeavored to
+improve the shining hour, and admired the busy little bee, as he had
+been taught to do in the nursery. If he had not the air of a
+thoroughbred, he had none of the plebeian clumsiness of the cart-horse.
+Though he was not the man to lead a forlorn hope, he was no coward; and
+though he had not invented gunpowder, he had the requisite intelligence
+to make use of already existing inventions under the direction of
+others. He had a way of remembering what he had learned laboriously
+which his brilliant chief found to be very convenient, and he was a
+useful secretary. His admiration for Paul was the honest admiration
+which many a young man feels for those qualities which he does not
+possess, but which he believes he can create in himself by closely
+imitating the actions of others.
+
+It is unnecessary to add that Macaulay was discreet, and that in the
+course of a few days he was put in possession of the details of what had
+occurred. I had feared at first that his presence might irritate Paul,
+in the present state of affairs, but I soon found out that the younger
+man's uniformly cheerful, if rather colorless, disposition seemed to
+act like a sort of calming medicine upon his cousin's anxious moods.
+
+"That fellow Carvel," Balsamides would say, "is the ultimate expression
+of your Western civilization, which tends to make all men alike. I
+cannot understand why you are both so fond of him. To me he is insipid
+as boiled cucumber. He ought to be a banker's clerk instead of a
+diplomatist. The idea of his serving his country is about as absurd as
+hunting bears with toy spaniels."
+
+"You do not do him justice," I always answered. "You forget that the
+days of original and personal diplomacy are over, or very nearly over.
+Plenipotentiaries now are merely persons who have an unlimited credit at
+the telegraph office. The clever ones complain that they can do nothing
+without authority; the painstaking ones, like Macaulay Carvel,
+congratulate themselves that they need not use their own judgment in any
+case whatever. They make the best government servants, after all."
+
+"When servants begin to think, they are dangerous. That is quite true,"
+was Gregorios' scornful retort; and I knew how useless it was to attempt
+to convince him. Nevertheless, I believe that as time proceeded he began
+to respect Macaulay on account of his extreme calmness. The young man
+had made up his mind that he would not be astonished in life, and had
+therefore systematically deadened his mental organs of astonishment, or
+the capacity of his mental organs for being astonished. As no one has
+the least idea what a mental organ is, one phrase is about as good as
+another.
+
+We had not advanced another step in our investigations, in spite of all
+our efforts, when we received news that the Carvels, accompanied by
+Madame Patoff and Chrysophrasia Dabstreak, were on their way to
+Constantinople. We had looked at several houses which we thought might
+suit them, but as the season was advancing we supposed that John would
+prefer to spend the remainder of the spring in a hotel, and then engage
+a villa on the Bosphorus, at Therapia or Buyukdere. At last the day came
+for their arrival, and Macaulay took the kaváss of his embassy with him
+to facilitate the operations of the custom-house. Paul did not go with
+him, thinking it best not to meet his mother, for the first time since
+her recovery, in the hubbub of landing. I, however, went with Macaulay
+Carvel on board the Varna boat. In a few minutes we were exchanging
+happy greetings on the deck of the steamer, and in the midst of the
+confusion I was presented to Madame Patoff.
+
+She was not changed since I had seen her last, except that she now
+looked quietly at me and offered her hand. Her fine features were
+perhaps a little less pale, her dark eyes were a little less cold, and
+her small traveling-bonnet concealed most of her thick gray hair. She
+was dressed in a simple costume of some neutral tint which I cannot
+remember, and she wore those long loose gauntlets commonly known as
+Biarritz gloves. I thought her less tall and less imposing than when I
+had seen her in the black velvet which it was her caprice to wear during
+the period of her insanity; but she looked more natural, too, and at
+first sight one would have merely said that she was a woman of sixty,
+who had once been beautiful, and who had not lost the youthful
+proportions of her figure. As I observed her more closely in the broad
+daylight, on the deck of the steamer, however, I began to see that her
+face was marked by innumerable small lines, which followed the shape of
+her features like the carefully traced shadows of an engraving; they
+crossed her forehead, they made labyrinths of infinitesimal wrinkles
+about her eyes, they curved along the high cheek-bones and the somewhat
+sunken cheeks, and they surrounded the mouth and made shadings on her
+chin. They were not like ordinary wrinkles. They looked as though they
+had been drawn with infinite precision and care by the hand of a cunning
+workman. To me they betrayed an abnormally nervous temperament, such as
+I had not suspected that Madame Patoff possessed, when in the yellow
+lamp-light of her apartment her white skin had seemed so smooth and
+even. But she was evidently in her right mind, and very quiet, as she
+gave me her hand, with the conventional smile which we use to convey the
+idea of an equally conventional satisfaction when a stranger is
+introduced to us.
+
+John was delighted to see me, and was more like his old self than when I
+had last seen him. Mrs. Carvel's gentle temper was not ruffled by the
+confusion of landing, and she greeted me as ever, with her sweet smile
+and air of sympathetic inquiry. Chrysophrasia held out her hand, a very
+forlorn hope of anatomy cased in flabby kid. She also smiled, as one may
+fancy that a mosquito smiles in the dark when it settles upon the nose
+of some happy sleeper. I am sure that mosquitoes have green eyes,
+exactly of the hue of Chrysophrasia's.
+
+"So deliciously barbarous, is it not, Mr. Griggs?" she murmured,
+subduing the creaking of her thin voice.
+
+"Dear Mr. Griggs, I am so awfully glad to see you again," said Hermione
+with genuine pleasure, as she laid her little hand in mine.
+
+It seemed to me that Hermione was taller and thinner than she had been
+in the winter. But there was something womanly in her lovely face, as
+she looked at me, which I had not seen before. Her soft blue eyes were
+more shaded,--not more sad, but less carelessly happy than they used to
+be,--and the delicate color was fainter in her transparent skin. There
+was an indescribable look of gravity about her, something which made me
+think that she was very much in earnest with her life.
+
+"Paul is at the hotel," I said, rather loudly, when the first meeting
+was over. "He has made everything comfortable for you up there. The
+kaváss will see to your things. Let us go ashore at once, out of all
+this din."
+
+We left the steamer, and landed where the carriages were waiting. John
+talked all the time, recounting the incidents of the journey, the
+annoyance they had had in crossing the Danube at Rustchuk, the rough
+night in the Black Sea, the delight of watching the shores of the
+Bosphorus in the morning. When we landed, Chrysophrasia turned suddenly
+round and surveyed the scene.
+
+"We are not in Constantinople at all," she said, in a tone of bitter
+disappointment.
+
+"No," said Macaulay; "nobody lives in Stamboul. This is Galata, and we
+are going up to Pera, which is the European town, formerly occupied by
+the Genoese, who built that remarkable tower you may have observed from
+the harbor. The place was formerly fortified, and the tower has now been
+applied to the use of the fire brigade. Much interest is attached"----
+
+How long Macaulay would have continued his lecture on Galata Tower is
+uncertain. Chrysophrasia interrupted him in disgust.
+
+"A fire brigade!" she exclaimed. "We might as well be in America at
+once. Really, John, this is a terrible disappointment. A fire brigade!
+Do not tell me that the people here understand the steam-engine,--pray
+do not! All the delicacy of my illusions is vanishing like a dream!"
+
+Chrysophrasia sometimes reminds me of a certain imperial sportsman who
+once shot an eagle in the Tyrol.
+
+"An eagle!" he cried contemptuously, when told what it was. "Gentlemen,
+do not trifle with me,--an eagle always has two heads. This must be some
+other bird."
+
+In due time we reached the hotel. Paul was standing in the doorway, and
+came forward to help the ladies as they descended from the carriage,
+greeting them one by one. When his mother got out, he respectfully
+kissed her hand. To the surprise of most of us, Madame Patoff threw her
+arms round his neck, and embraced him with considerable emotion.
+
+"Dear, dear Paul,--my dear son!" she cried. "What a happy meeting!"
+
+Paul was evidently very much astonished, but I will do him the credit to
+say that he seemed moved as he kissed his mother on both cheeks, for his
+face was pale and he appeared to tremble a little.
+
+The travelers were conducted to their rooms by Macaulay, and I saw no
+more of them. But John insisted that I should dine with them in the
+evening. In the mean while I went home, and found Gregorios reading, as
+usual when he was not on duty at Yildiz-Kiöshk,--the "Star-Palace,"
+where the Sultan resides.
+
+"Have you deposited your friends in a place of safety?" he asked,
+looking up from his book. "Have they all come,--even the old maid with
+the green eyes, and the mad lady whom Patoff is so unfortunate as to
+call his mother?"
+
+"All," I answered. "They are real English people, and my old friend John
+Carvel is the patriarch of the establishment. There are maid-servants
+and men-servants, and more boxes than any house in Pera will hold. The
+old lady seems perfectly sane again."
+
+"Then she will probably die," said Gregorios, reassuringly. "Crazy
+people almost always have a lucid interval before death."
+
+"You take a cheerful view," I observed.
+
+"Fate would confer a great benefit on Patoff by removing his mother from
+this valley of tears," returned my friend. "Besides, as our proverb
+says, mad people are the only happy people. Madame Patoff, in passing
+from insanity to sanity, has therefore fallen from happiness to
+unhappiness."
+
+"If all your proverbs were true, the world would be a strange place."
+
+"I will not discuss the inexhaustible subject of the truth of proverbs,"
+answered Balsamides. "I only doubt whether Madame Patoff will be happy
+now that she is sane, and whether the uncertainty of the issue of our
+search may not drive her mad again. She will probably spoil everything
+by chattering at all the embassies. By the by, since we are on the
+subject of death, lunacy, and other similar annoyances, I may as well
+tell you that Laleli is very ill, and it is not expected that she can
+live. I heard it this morning on very good authority."
+
+"That is rather startling," I said.
+
+"Very. Dying people sometimes make confessions of their crimes, but to
+hear the confession you must be there when they are about to give up the
+ghost."
+
+"That is impossible in this case, unless you can get into the harem as a
+doctor."
+
+"Who knows? We must make a desperate attempt of some kind. Leave it to
+me, and do not be surprised if I do not appear for a day or two. I have
+made up my mind to strike a blow. You are too evidently a Frank to be of
+any use. I wish you were a Turk, Griggs. You have such an enviably sober
+appearance. You speak Turkish just well enough to make me wish you would
+never betray yourself by little slips in the verbs and mistakes in using
+Arabic words. Only educated Osmanlis can detect those errors: just now
+they are the very people we want to deceive."
+
+"I can pass for anything else here without being found out," I answered.
+"I can pass for a Persian when there are no Persians about, or for a
+Panjabí Mussulman, if necessary."
+
+"That is an idea. You might be an Indian Hadji. I will think of it."
+
+"What in the world do you intend to do?" I asked, suspecting my friend
+of some rash or violent project.
+
+"A very sly trick," he replied, with his usual sarcastic smile. "There
+need not necessarily be any violence about it, unless we find Alexander
+alive, in which case you and I must manage to get him out of the house."
+
+"Tell me your plan," I said. "Let me hear what it is like."
+
+"No; I will tell you to-night, when I know whether it is possible or
+not. You are going to dine with your friends? Yes; very well, when you
+have finished, come here, and we will see what can be done. We must only
+pray that the iniquitous old woman may live till morning."
+
+It was clear that Gregorios was not ready, and that nothing would induce
+him to speak what was in his mind. I showed no further curiosity, and at
+the appointed time I left the house to go and dine with the Carvels.
+
+"Say nothing to Patoff," said Balsamides, as I went out.
+
+I found the Carvels assembled in their sitting-room, and we went to
+dinner. I could not help looking from time to time at Paul's mother, who
+surprised me by her fluent conversation and perfect self-possession.
+With the exception that she was present and that Professor Cutter was
+absent, the dinner was very much like the meals at Carvel Place. I
+noticed that Paul was placed between Mrs. Carvel and his mother, while
+Hermione was on the opposite side of the table. But their eyes met
+constantly, and there was evidently a perfect understanding between
+them. Paul looked once more as I had seen him when he was talking to
+Hermione in England, and the coldness I so much disliked had temporarily
+disappeared from his face. I did not know what had occurred during the
+afternoon, since I had left the hotel, and it was not until later that I
+learned some of the details of the meeting.
+
+When the members of the party retired to their rooms, on arriving at
+Missiri's, Macaulay had gone off with his father, and Paul had been left
+alone for a few minutes in the sitting-room. When all was quiet,
+Hermione opened her door softly and looked in. Paul was standing by the
+chimney-piece, contemplating the smouldering logs with the interest of a
+man who has nothing to do. He raised his head suddenly, and saw that
+Hermione had entered the room and was standing near him. She had taken
+off her traveling-hat, and her golden hair was in some disorder, but the
+tangled coils and waves of it only showed more perfectly how beautiful
+she was. She came forward, and he, too, left his place. She took his
+hands rather timidly in hers.
+
+"Paul--I never meant that you should go!" she exclaimed, while the tears
+stood in her eyes. "Why did you take me so literally at my word?"
+
+"It was better, darling," said he, drawing her nearer to him. "You were
+quite right. I could not bear the idea of any one being free to speak to
+me as your aunt did; but I was very unhappy. How could I know that you
+were coming here so soon?"
+
+"I did not know," she said simply. "But I was very unhappy, too, and the
+days seemed so long. I could worship my brother for bringing it about."
+
+"So could I," answered Paul, rather absently. He was looking down into
+her eyes that met his so trustfully. "Do you really and truly believe in
+me, Hermione?" he asked.
+
+"Indeed I do; I always did!" she cried passionately. Then he kissed her
+very tenderly, and held her in his arms.
+
+"Thank you,--thank you, my darling," he murmured in her ear.
+
+Presently they stood by the chimney-piece, still holding each other's
+hands.
+
+"I must speak to your father," he said. "You know his way. He wrote all
+about it to Griggs, telling him to show me the letter."
+
+"I could not keep the secret to myself any longer," she answered. "And I
+knew that papa loved me and liked you."
+
+"Yes, dear, you were quite right," said Paul. "But I did not mean to
+tell him, after what happened that evening, until I had found my
+brother. Do you know? I have almost found him. I hope to reach the end
+in a day or two."
+
+"Oh, Paul! that is splendid!" cried Hermione. "I knew you would. You
+must tell me all about it."
+
+There was a sound of footsteps in one of the rooms. Hermione slipped
+quickly away, and throwing a kiss towards Paul with her fingers,
+disappeared through the door by which she had entered, leaving him once
+more alone. The moments of their meeting had been few and short, but
+they had more than sufficed to show that these two loved each other as
+much as ever. Some time afterwards Paul had been alone with his mother
+for half an hour and had frankly asked her whether she was able to hear
+him speak of Alexander or not. Her face twitched nervously, but she
+answered calmly enough that she wished to hear all he had to tell. But
+when he had finished she shook her head sadly.
+
+"You may find out how he died, but you will never find him," she said.
+Then, with a sudden energy which startled Paul, she gazed straight into
+his eyes. "You know that you cannot," she added, almost savagely.
+
+"I do not know, mother," he answered, calmly. "I still have hope."
+
+Madame Patoff looked down, and seemed to regain her self-control almost
+immediately. The long habit of concealing her feelings, which she had
+acquired when deceiving Professor Cutter, stood her in good stead, and
+she had not forgotten what she had studied so carefully. But Paul had
+seen the angry glance of her eyes, and the excited tone of her voice
+still rang in his ears. He guessed that, although she had come to
+Constantinople with the full intention of forgetting the accusations she
+had once uttered, the mere sight of him was enough to bring back all her
+virulent hatred. She still believed that he had killed his brother. That
+was clear from her words, and from the tone in which they were spoken.
+Whether the thought was a delusion, or whether she sanely believed Paul
+to be a murderer, made little difference. Her mind was evidently still
+under the influence of the idea. But Paul determined that he would hold
+his peace, and it was not until later, when all necessity for
+concealment was removed, that I learned what had passed. Paul believed
+that in a few days he should certainly solve the mystery of Alexander's
+disappearance, and thus effectually root out his mother's suspicions.
+
+All this had occurred before dinner, and without my knowledge. Madame
+Patoff seemed determined to be agreeable and to make everything go
+smoothly. Even Chrysophrasia relaxed a little, as we talked of the city
+and of what the party must see.
+
+"I am afraid," said I, "that you do not find all this as Oriental as you
+expected, Miss Dabstreak."
+
+"Ah, no!" she sighed. "If by 'this' you mean the hotel, it is European,
+and unpleasantly so at that."
+
+"I think it is a very good hotel; and this rice--what do you call
+it?--is very good, too," said John Carvel, who was tasting pilaff for
+the first time.
+
+"Your carnal love of food always shocks me, John," murmured
+Chrysophrasia. "But I dare say there is a good deal that is Oriental on
+the other side. There, I am sure, we should be sitting on very precious
+carpets, and eating sweetmeats with golden spoons, while some fair young
+Circassian slave sang wild melodies and played upon a rare old inlaid
+lute."
+
+"Yes," I answered. "I have dined with Turks in Stamboul."
+
+"Oh, do describe it!" exclaimed Miss Dabstreak.
+
+"We squatted on the floor around a tiny table, and we devoured ragouts
+of mutton and onions with our fingers," I said.
+
+"How very disgusting!" Miss Dabstreak made an unæsthetic grimace, and
+looked at me with profound contempt.
+
+"But I suppose they eat other things, Griggs?" asked John, laughing.
+
+"Yes. But mutton and onions and pilaff are the staple of their
+consumption. They eat jams of all sorts. Sometimes soup is brought in in
+a huge bowl, and put down in the middle of the table. Then each one dips
+in his spoon in the order of precedence, and eats as much as he can.
+They will give you a dozen courses in half an hour, and they never speak
+at their meals if they can help it."
+
+"Pigs!" exclaimed Chrysophrasia, whose delicacy did not always assert
+itself in her selection of epithets.
+
+"No; I assure you," I objected, "they are nothing of the kind. They
+consider it cleaner to eat with their fingers, which they can wash
+themselves, than with forks, which are washed in a common bath of
+soapsuds by the grimy hands of a scullery maid. It is not so
+unreasonable."
+
+"You have such a terrible way of putting things, Mr. Griggs!" exclaimed
+Mrs. Carvel in a tone of gentle protest. "But I dare say," she added, as
+though fearing lest her mild rebuke should have hurt my feelings,--"I
+dare say you are quite right."
+
+"To tell the truth," I answered, "I am rather fond of the Turks."
+
+"I have always noticed," remarked Madame Patoff, "that you Americans
+generally admire people who live under a despotic government. Americans
+all like Russia and Russians."
+
+"Our government is not quite despotic," observed Paul, who felt bound to
+defend his country. "We have laws, and the laws are respected. The Czar
+would not think of acting against the established law, even though in
+theory he might."
+
+"The Turks must have laws, too," objected Madame Patoff.
+
+"I don't know," said Chrysophrasia. "I already feel a delicious
+sensation, as though I might be strangled with a bow-string at any
+moment and dropped into the Bosphorus."
+
+John Carvel looked very grave. Perhaps he was offering up a silent
+prayer to the end that such a consummation might soon be reached; but
+more probably he considered the topic of sudden death by violence as one
+to be avoided. Macaulay Carvel came to the rescue.
+
+"The Turks have laws," he said, fluently. "All their law is founded upon
+the Koran, and they are most ingenious in making the Koran answer the
+purpose of our more learned and therefore more efficacious codes. The
+Supreme Court really exists in the person of the Sheik ul Islam, who may
+be called the High Pontiff, a sort of Pontifex Maximus with judicial
+powers. All important cases are ultimately referred to him, and as most
+of these important cases are connected with the Vakuf, the real estate
+held by the mosques, like our glebe lands at home, it follows that the
+Sheik ul Islam generally decides in favor of his own class, who are the
+Ulema, or priests. The consequences of this mode of administering the
+laws are very"----
+
+"Capital!" exclaimed John Carvel. "Where on earth did you learn all
+that, my boy?"
+
+"I began to coach the East when I saw there was a chance of my coming
+here," answered Macaulay, much pleased at his father's acknowledgment of
+his learning. It struck me that the young man had got his information
+out of some rather antiquated book, in which no mention was made of the
+present division of the civil and criminal courts under the Ministry of
+Justice, and of the ecclesiastical courts under the Sheik ul Islam. But
+I held my peace, being grateful to Macaulay for delivering his lecture
+at the right moment. Mrs. Carvel looked with undisguised admiration at
+her son, and even Hermione smiled and felt proud of her brother.
+
+"Wonderful, this modern education, is it not?" said John Carvel, turning
+to me.
+
+"Amazing," I replied.
+
+"I want to see all those delightful creatures, you know," said
+Chrysophrasia. "The Sultan and the Sheik--what do you call him?"
+
+"Sheik ul Islam," said the ready Macaulay.
+
+"Sheik Ool is lamb!" repeated Chrysophrasia, thoughtfully. "Lamb,--so
+symbolical in our own very symbolic religion. It means so much, you
+know."
+
+"Chrysophrasia!" ejaculated Mary Carvel, in a tone of gentle reproach.
+She thought she detected the far-off shadow of a possible irreverence in
+her sister's tone. Macaulay again interposed, while Paul and I
+endeavored to avoid each other's eyes, lest we should be overtaken by an
+explosion of laughter.
+
+"It is '_Is_lam,' not 'is _lamb_,' aunt Chrysophrasia," said Macaulay,
+mildly.
+
+"I don't see much difference," retorted Miss Dabstreak, "except that you
+say it _is_ lamb, and I say it is _lamb_. Oh! you mean it is one
+word,--yes; I dare say," she added quickly, in some confusion. "Of
+course, I don't speak Turkish."
+
+"It is Arabic," observed the implacable Macaulay.
+
+"John," said Chrysophrasia, ignoring the correction with a fine
+indifference, "we must see everything at once. When shall we begin?"
+
+The question effectually turned the conversation, for all the party were
+anxious to see what Macaulay was equally anxious to show, having himself
+only seen each sight once. The remainder of the time while we sat at
+table was occupied in discussing the various expeditions which the party
+must undertake in order to see the city and its surroundings
+systematically. After dinner John and I remained behind for a while.
+Paul wanted to talk to Hermione, and Macaulay, who was the most domestic
+of young men, preferred the society of his mother and aunts, whom he had
+not seen for several months, to the smell of cigars and Turkish coffee.
+
+"What do you think of her?" asked John Carvel when we were alone. "She
+seems perfectly sane, does she not?"
+
+"Perfectly. What proves it best is the way she treats Paul. She is very
+affectionate. I suppose there is no fear of a relapse?"
+
+"I hope not, I hope not!" repeated John fervently. "She has behaved
+admirably during the journey. Now, about Paul," he continued, lowering
+his voice a little: "how does he strike you since you have known him
+better? You have seen him every day for some time. What sort of a fellow
+is he?"
+
+"I think he is very much in earnest," I answered.
+
+"Yes, yes,--no doubt. But you know what I mean, Griggs: is he the kind
+of man to whom I can give my daughter? That is what I am thinking of. I
+know that he works hard and will succeed, and all that."
+
+"I can tell you what I think," said I, "but you must form your own
+judgment as well. I like Paul very much, but you must like him too,
+before you decide. In my opinion he is a man of fine character,
+scrupulously honest, and not at all capricious. I cannot say more."
+
+"A little wild when he was younger?" suggested John.
+
+"Not very, I am sure. He was unhappy in his childhood; he was one of
+those boys who make up their minds to work, and who grow so fond of it
+that they go on working when other boys begin to play."
+
+"Very odd," observed John. "He is not at all a prig."
+
+"No, indeed. He is as manly a fellow as you could meet, and at first
+sight he does not produce the impression of being so serious as he is. I
+think that is put on. He once told me that he had made a study of small
+talk and of the art of appearing well, because he thinks it so important
+in his career. I dare say he is right. He knows a great deal, and knows
+it thoroughly."
+
+"He does not know any more than Macaulay," said John, as though in
+praising Paul I had attacked his son. "What a clever fellow he is! I
+only wish he were a little tougher,--just a little more shell to him, I
+mean."
+
+"He will get that," I answered. "He is younger than Paul, and has not
+seen so much of the world."
+
+"You say you like Paul. Do you think he would make a good husband?"
+
+"Yes, I really believe he would," I replied. "But do not take him on my
+recommendation. You must know him better yourself. You will meet many
+people here who know him, and some who know him well."
+
+"What do you think of that story about his brother?" asked John, looking
+at me very earnestly.
+
+"I believe he is as innocent as you or I. But we are getting near the
+truth, and have made some valuable discoveries."
+
+I explained to Carvel what we had found, and without mentioning the name
+of Laleli Khanum I told him how far we had traced the mystery, and he
+listened with profound interest to my account.
+
+"I hope you may find him alive," he said, as we rose from the table.
+"For my part, I do not believe we shall ever see him. Paul was alone
+with his mother this afternoon, and I dare say he told her what you have
+told me. She does not seem to object to the subject, though of course we
+generally avoid it."
+
+I stayed an hour longer with the party, during which time Paul talked a
+great deal to Hermione, occasionally joining in the general
+conversation, and certainly not trying to prevent what he said to the
+young girl from being heard. At last I took my leave and went home, for
+I was anxious to see Gregorios, and to hear from him what plan he
+proposed to adopt for the solution of our difficulties at this critical
+moment. I found him waiting for me.
+
+"Have you made up your mind?" I asked.
+
+Balsamides was sitting beside his table with a book. He looked even
+paler than usual, and was evidently more excited than he liked to own.
+He is eminently a man who loves danger, and his nature never warms so
+genially as when something desperate is to be done. A Christian by race
+and belief, he has absorbed much of the fatalism of the Oriental races,
+and his courage is of the fatalist kind, reckless and devoted.
+
+"Yes," he answered. "I have made up my mind. One must either be the
+camel or the camel-driver. One must either submit to the course of
+events, or do something to violently change their direction. If we
+submit much longer, we shall lose the game. The old woman will die,--the
+Turkish women always die when they are ill; and if she is once dead
+without confessing, we may give up all hope."
+
+"We should always have Selim to examine," I remarked.
+
+"If Laleli Khanum dies, Selim will disappear the same hour,--laying
+hands on everything within reach, of course. How could we catch him? He
+would cross the Bosphorus, put on a disguise of some sort, and make his
+way to Egypt in no time. Those fellows are very cunning."
+
+"Then you mean to try and extort a confession from Laleli herself? How
+in the world do you mean to do it? It is a case of life or death."
+
+"I have got life and death in my pocket," answered Gregorios, his eyes
+beginning to sparkle. "Can you read Turkish? Of course you can. Read
+that."
+
+I took the folded document and examined it.
+
+"This is an Iradè!" I exclaimed, in great surprise; "an imperial order
+to arrest Laleli Khanum Effendi,--good heavens! Balsamides, I had no
+idea that you possessed such tools as this!"
+
+"To tell you how I got it would be to tell you my own history during the
+last ten years," he answered, in low tones. "I trust you, Griggs, but
+there are other reasons why I cannot tell you all that. You see the
+result, at all events, and a result very dearly paid for," he added
+gravely. "But I have got the thing, and what is more, I have permission
+to personate the Sultan's private physician."
+
+"What is that for? I should think the Iradè were quite enough."
+
+"Laleli might die of fright, if I merely presented myself and threatened
+to arrest her. But I shall see her in the assumed character of the court
+physician. Laleli is a Turkish woman, who understands no other language
+but her own and Greek. She is very superstitious, and believes in all
+manner of charms and spells; for she has no ideas at all concerning
+Western science, except that it is all contrary to the Koran. I can talk
+the jargon of an old Hadji well enough, and besides I know something of
+medicine; very little, but enough to tell me whether she is absolutely
+in a dying state. It is a great compliment for the Sultan to send his
+private physician, and if she is in a conscious state she will be
+flattered and thrown off her guard. If I can manage to get her slaves
+out of the way, I may induce her to confess. If I fail in this, I have
+the means to frighten her. If she dies, I have the means of arresting
+Selim before he can escape. It is all very well arranged, and there is
+nothing to be done but to put the plan into execution. When you left me
+I had not got the Iradè; it came about an hour ago."
+
+"How can I help you?" I asked.
+
+"You must have a disguise, too. When the court physician is sent to
+visit a person of consequence, he is always accompanied by an adjutant
+from the palace. You must play this part. I have borrowed a uniform from
+a brother officer which will fit you. It is in your room, and I will
+help you to put it on. You need say nothing, nor answer any questions
+the slaves may put to you unless you are quite sure of your words. You
+have a very military figure, and the sight of a uniform acts like magic
+on fellows like the Lala and his companions. As I am an adjutant myself,
+I can tell you exactly what to do, so that no one could detect you. Are
+you willing to try?"
+
+"Of course," I said, rising and going towards my room. "How are we to go
+to Yeni Köj?"
+
+"A carriage from the palace will be at the door in half an hour,"
+answered Gregorios, looking at his watch. "Now, then, we must turn you
+into a Turkish officer," he added, with a laugh.
+
+In ten minutes the change was complete, and I do not believe that my
+best friend would have recognized me in the close-fitting dress, cut
+like that of a Prussian dragoon's parade uniform, but made of dark cloth
+with red facings. I buckled on the sabre, and Gregorios set the fez
+carefully on my head. I looked at myself in the glass. The costume
+fitted as though it were made for me.
+
+"I feel as though I were going to a masked ball," I said, laughing. "I
+never was so disguised before in my life."
+
+"I hope you may feel so when you come home," answered Balsamides, with a
+smile. "Now you must take some of your own clothes in a bag. We may not
+get home before morning, and we might meet some one of the adjutants
+when we come back. They would know that you are not one of us, and there
+might be trouble. We must take some money, too. We may need to hire a
+boat or horses; one can never tell."
+
+Balsamides stood a moment and looked at me, apparently well satisfied
+with my appearance. Then he opened the window to see whether the
+carriage was below, but it had not yet come.
+
+"While we are waiting, I will explain our plan of action," he said, as
+he opened his writing-desk and took a small roll of gold pieces and a
+handful of silver. "We shall be driven to the door of the house, and
+when we knock, Selim or some other Lala, if there are others, will open
+the door. He will see you and recognize your uniform, as well as the
+livery of the palace carriage. He will salute us, and you must of course
+return the salutation. I will then explain that I am the court
+physician, and that his majesty, having just heard of the Khanum
+Effendi's illness, has sent me down to attend her. Selim will salute us
+again, and show us into the house. You will be left in the _salamlek_,
+the lower hall, and I shall be shown into the harem, after a few minutes
+have elapsed to give time for preparation. Then you will have to wait,
+but you will probably not be disturbed, unless a slave brings you
+coffee and cigarettes. Selim will probably remain in the harem all the
+time I am there. But if you hear anything like a scuffle, you must come
+when you recognize my voice. This will not occur unless Selim hears
+something which frightens him, and tries to get away. Of course you are
+supposed to be present for my protection, and you must affect a certain
+deference towards me."
+
+"I will be humility itself," I answered.
+
+"No, not too much humility. A mere show of respect for my position will
+do. We adjutants about the palace are not much given to self-abasement
+of any sort. There is one catastrophe which may occur. If the old woman
+is really dying, as they say she is, she may die while we are there. We
+must then take possession of the person of Selim and carry him off.
+There will not be much trouble about that. The house is in a lonely
+place, and the driver of the carriage knows his orders. He will obey
+instantly, no matter what I tell him to do."
+
+"And if we should, by any chance, find Alexander in the house," I asked,
+"shall we be able to get him out without trouble?"
+
+"Not without trouble," answered Gregorios, with a grim smile. "But we
+will not stick at trifles so long as we have the imperial Iradè with us.
+I hear the carriage. Let us be off."
+
+So we left the house on our errand without further words.
+
+
+
+
+XV.
+
+
+Paul stayed at the hotel until a late hour, and went home, feeling
+lighter at heart than he had felt for many days. He was in love, and the
+passion had a very salutary effect upon his nature. His heart had been
+crushed down when he was a child, until he doubted whether he had any
+heart at all. His early sufferings had hardened his nature, and his cool
+strong mind had approved the process, so that he was well satisfied with
+his solitary condition and his loveless life. He had seen much of the
+world, and had known many women of all nations, but his immovable
+indifference was proverbial among his colleagues, and if he had ever
+entertained a passing fancy for any one, the fact was unknown to gossip.
+It might be supposed that this very coldness would have rendered him
+attractive to women, for it is commonly said, and with some truth, that
+they are sometimes drawn to those men who show them no manner of
+attention. But I think that the case is not always the same, and admits
+of very subtle distinctions. It is not a man's coldness that attracts a
+woman, but the belief that, though he is cold to others, he may soften
+towards herself; and this belief often rests on mere vanity, and often
+on the truth of the supposition. There are many men who systematically
+affect outward indifference in order to make themselves interesting in
+the eyes of the other sex, allowing a word, a look, a gesture, to betray
+at stated intervals that they are not indifferent to the one woman
+whose love they covet. They give these signs with the utmost skill and
+with a strange, calculating avarice. Women watch such men jealously from
+a distance, to see if they can detect the slightest softening of manner
+towards other women; and when they have convinced themselves that they
+alone have the power to influence the frozen nature they admire, they
+very easily fall wholly in love. In general a man who is very cold and
+indifferent is not to be trusted. The chances are ten to one that he is
+playing the old and time-honored part for a definite purpose.
+
+But there are those who play no part, nor need to affect any
+characteristic not theirs. When women find out that a man is really
+indifferent to all women, their disgust knows no bounds. So long as he
+is known to have loved any one in the past, or to love any one in the
+present, or to be even likely to love any one in the future, he may be
+pardoned. But if it is firmly believed that he is incapable of love,
+woman-kind arises in a body and abuses him in unmeasured terms. He is
+selfish. He is arrogant. He is so conceited that he thinks no one good
+enough for him. He is a stone, a prig, a hypocrite, a maniac, a monster,
+a statue, and especially he is a bore. In other words, he is a man's
+man, and not a woman's man; and unless it can be proved that his madness
+proceeds from disappointed love, even Dives in hell is not further
+removed from forgiveness than he. Men may admire his strength, his
+talents, his perseverance, and some friend will be found foolish enough
+to sing his praises to some woman of the world. She will answer the
+panegyrist with a blank stare, and will very likely say coldly, that he
+is a bore, or that he is very rude. No amount of praise or ingenious
+argument will extort an admission that the unfortunate man is worthy of
+human sympathy. And yet, he may be very human, after all. At all events,
+if we say with the Greek philosopher that a man shall not be called
+happy until he be dead, we should not allow that he is beyond the reach
+of love until the life has gone out of him, certainly not until he is
+sixty years of age at the very least.
+
+Now Paul Patoff was not sixty years old when he found himself in the
+quiet English country house, and looked on his fair English cousin and
+loved her. He was, as the times go, a young man, just entered upon the
+prime of his life, just past the age when youth is considered foolish,
+and just reaching the time when it is considered desirable. The fact
+that he had not loved before was not likely to make his passion less
+strong now that it had come at last, and he knew it, as men generally
+understand themselves better when they are in love with a good woman. He
+asked himself, indeed, why he had so suddenly given himself up, heart
+and soul, to the lovely girl he had known only for a month; but such
+questions are necessarily futile, because the heart does not always go
+through the formality of asking the mind's consent before acting, and
+the mind consequently refuses to be called to account in a matter for
+which it is in no way responsible. It seemed to Paul very strange that
+after so many years of a busy life, in which no passion but ambition had
+played any part, he should all at once find his whole existence involved
+in a new and un-dreamed-of labyrinth of feeling. But though it was
+indeed a labyrinth, from which he did not even desire to escape, he
+acknowledged that the paths of it were full of roses, and that life in
+its winding walks was pleasanter than life outside.
+
+The uncertainty of his position, however, disturbed his dreams, and even
+the pleasant hours he spent with Hermione, listening to her rippling
+laughter and gentle voice, were somewhat disturbed by the thought of the
+morrow, and of what the end would be. His own instinct would have led
+him to speak to Carvel at once and to have the matter settled, but
+another set of ideas argued that he should wait and see what happened,
+and if possible put off asking the fatal question until he had
+unraveled the mystery of his brother's disappearance. That Carvel could
+have believed him in any way implicated in the tragedy, and yet have
+asked him to his house, he knew to be impossible; but he knew also that
+the shadow of Alexander's fate hung over him, and now that there existed
+a chance of completely and brilliantly establishing his innocence before
+the world, he was unwilling to take so serious a step as formally
+proposing for Hermione's hand, until the long desired result should be
+reached. He had deeply felt the truth of what she had said to him in
+England,--that he should be able to silence hints like those
+Chrysophrasia had let fall, that he should place himself in such a
+position as to defy insults instead of being obliged to bear them
+quietly; and the conviction brought home to him by Hermione's words had
+resulted in his immediate departure, with the determination to fathom
+the mystery, and to clear himself forever, or to sacrifice his love in
+case of failure.
+
+But he had not counted upon the visit of the Carvels to Constantinople.
+So long as he could not see Hermione, he had felt that it was possible
+to contemplate with some calmness the prospect of giving her up if he
+failed in his search. When Carvel had proposed to come out and had asked
+my advice, we had fancied ourselves on the verge of the final discovery,
+and with natural and pardonable enthusiasm Paul had joined me in urging
+John to bring his family at once. He had felt sure that the end was
+near, and he had wished that Hermione might arrive at the moment of his
+triumph. It would not be a complete triumph, he thought, unless she were
+there, and this idea showed how the man had changed under the influence
+of his love. In former times Paul Patoff would never have thought of
+anticipating success until he held it securely in his own hands; he
+would have worked silently, giving no sign, and when the result was
+obtained he would have presented it to the world with his coldest and
+most sarcastic stare, content in the thought that he had satisfied
+himself, and demanding no appreciation from others. To feel that he had
+succeeded was then the most delicious part of success. Now, he was so
+changed that he could not imagine success as being at all worth having
+unless Hermione were there to share it. No one else would do, and
+something of his exclusiveness might still be found in his desire for
+her sympathy, and for that of no one else. But the transformation was
+very great, and as he had realized it, he had understood the extent of
+his love for his cousin. The sensation was wholly novel, and he again
+asked himself what it meant, half doubting its reality, but never
+doubting that it would last forever,--in the highly contradictory spirit
+of a man who is in love for the first time.
+
+Then Hermione arrived, and Paul awoke to find himself between two fires.
+To contemplate the possibility of not marrying Hermione, when she was in
+the same city, when he must see her and hear her voice every day of his
+life, was now out of the question. His love had grown ten times stronger
+in the separation of the last months, and he knew that it was now
+useless to think of putting it away. With a modesty not found in men who
+have loved many women, Paul discarded the idea that Hermione's happiness
+was as deeply concerned as his own. He did not understand how very much
+she loved him, and it would have seemed to his softened soul an
+outrageous piece of arrogance to suppose that she could not be quite as
+happy with some one else as with himself. But of his own feelings he had
+no doubt. It was perfectly clear that without Hermione life could never
+be worth living, and he found himself face to face with a most difficult
+question,--a true dilemma, from which there could be no issue unless he
+found his brother, or the evidences of his brother's death.
+
+If the search proved fruitless, he was still in the position of a man
+who is liable to suspicion, and he had firmly resolved that he would not
+permit the woman he loved to marry a man who could be accused, however
+unjustly, of the crime of murder. On the other hand, he knew that while
+she was present in Constantinople he was not master of his feelings,
+hardly of his words; and he could not go away: first, because to go away
+would be to leave the search wholly in the hands of others; and
+secondly, because his presence was required at the embassy and his
+services were constantly in requisition. To abandon his career was a
+course he never contemplated for a moment. His personal resources were
+small, and his pay was now considerable, so that he depended upon it for
+the necessities of life. He had never been willing to touch his
+brother's money, either, and this honorable refusal had practically
+crushed all gossip about Alexander's disappearance; so that at the
+present time he was dependent upon himself. With the prospect of being a
+_chargé d'affaires_ in a short time, and of being chancellor of an
+embassy at forty, he believed that he could fairly propose to marry
+Hermione. But to do this he must abide by his career, a conclusion which
+effectually prevented his flying from danger and giving the inquiry
+entirely into my hands. With a keen sense of honor and a very strong
+determination on the one side, and all the force of his love for
+Hermione on the other, Paul's position was not an easy one, and he knew
+it.
+
+Nor was his mind wholly at rest concerning his mother. He had seen her
+that afternoon, and had recognized that in the ordinary sense of the
+word, and in the common opinion of people on the subject, she was
+perfectly sane. She looked, moved, talked, ate, and dressed as though
+she were wholly in her right mind; but Paul was not satisfied. He had
+seen the old gleam of unreasoning anger in her eyes, when she had said
+that he knew Alexander could never be found; meaning, as Paul supposed,
+that he knew how the unfortunate man had come to his end. That this
+belief had been the cause and first beginning of her madness, he was
+convinced; and if the disturbing element was still present in her mind,
+it might assert itself again at any moment with direful results. He was
+willing, for the sake of argument, to believe that her idea was a
+delusion, and indeed he preferred to think so. He did not like the
+thought that his mother could seriously and sanely believe him to be a
+murderer, though she had given him reason enough for knowing how she had
+always disliked him. There was no affection between the mother and the
+son, there was not even much respect; but beyond respect and affection
+we recognize in the relations of a mother with her children a sort of
+universal law of fitness, embracing the few conditions without which
+there can be no relations at all between them. That a mother should
+dislike her child offends our feelings and our conceptions of human
+sympathy; but that a mother should wantonly and without evidence accuse
+her son of a fearful crime, and be his only accuser, is a sin against
+humanity itself, and our reason revolts against it as much as our heart.
+
+It was hopeless to attempt an explanation of Madame Patoff's state of
+mind. Paul might have understood her better had he known how she talked
+and behaved when he was not present. John Carvel and his wife had indeed
+assured Paul that his mother was entirely sane, and had forgotten her
+resentment against him, speaking of him affectionately, and showing
+herself anxious to see him during the long journey. But there was one of
+the party who could have told a different story; who could have repeated
+some of her aunt's utterances, and could have described certain phases
+in her temper in such a way as would have surprised the rest. Madame
+Patoff had naturally chosen to confide in Hermione, for Hermione had
+first startled her into a confession of her sanity, and with her rested
+the secret of the last two years. On the occasion which Carvel had
+mentioned in his letter to me, when Madame Patoff had been surprised in
+a sensible conversation by her nurse, the old lady had shown very great
+presence of mind. She had recognized immediately that she was detected,
+and that she would find it extremely difficult in future to deceive the
+practiced eye of the vigilant Mrs. North. She was tired, too, in spite
+of what she said to Hermione, of the absolute seclusion in which she
+lived; not that she was wearied of mourning for Alexander, but because
+she had exhausted one way of expressing her grief. So, at least, it
+seemed to Hermione. Madame Patoff had therefore accepted the situation
+and made the best of it, declaring herself sane and entirely recovered.
+She had always contemplated the possibility of some such termination to
+her pretended madness, and was perhaps glad that it had come at last.
+She even found at first a pleasant relaxation in leading the life of an
+ordinary person, and she tried to join in the life of the family in such
+a way as to be no longer a burden or a source of anxiety to those she
+had capriciously sacrificed during a year and a half. But with Hermione
+she was not the same as with the rest. She was with her what she had
+been on the first day when Hermione had declared her love for Paul, and
+it appeared to the young girl that her aunt was in reality leading a
+double existence, being in one state when with the assembled family, and
+in quite another when she was alone with Hermione.
+
+Madame Patoff was able to force herself upon her niece, for the young
+girl had given a promise not to betray her secret, and though often in
+hard straits to elude her father's questions without falling into
+falsehood, felt herself bound to her aunt, and obliged to submit to long
+conversations with her. It was a difficult position, and any one less
+honest than Hermione and less sensitively tactful would have found it
+hard to maintain the balance. She herself avoided carefully all mention
+of Paul, but her aunt delighted in talking of him. One of these
+conversations took place on the evening of their arrival in
+Constantinople, and may well serve as a specimen of the rest. When all
+the party had retired for the night, Madame Patoff came into Hermione's
+room and sat down, evidently with the intention of staying at least an
+hour. Hermione looked at her with a deprecating expression, being indeed
+very tired, and wishing that her aunt would put off her visit until the
+next day. She saw, however, that there was no hope of this, and
+submitted herself with a good grace.
+
+"Are you not tired, aunt Annie?" asked the young girl.
+
+"No, no, not very, my dear," said the old lady, smoothing her thick gray
+hair with her hand, and fixing her dark eyes on her niece's face. "Oh,
+Hermy, what a meeting!" she suddenly exclaimed. "If you knew how hard I
+tried to be kind to him, I am sure you would pity me. It is so hard, so
+hard!"
+
+"It is the least you can do,--to treat him kindly," answered Hermione,
+somewhat coldly. "But I was very glad to see that you kissed him when we
+arrived."
+
+"It was dreadfully hard to do it. The very sight of him freezes my
+blood. Oh, Hermy dear, how can you love him so much, when I love you as
+I do? It frightens me"----
+
+"It does not frighten me, aunt Annie," said her niece. "I can say, when
+you love me as you do, how can you not love him?"
+
+"It is not the same, my dear. How could I love him, knowing what I
+know?"
+
+"You do not know it," answered Hermione very firmly, "and you must not
+suggest it to me. Sometimes I could almost think you were really mad,
+aunt Annie,--forgive me, I must say it. Not mad as you pretended to be,
+but mad on this one point. You have always hated poor Paul since he was
+a child, and you have treated him very unkindly. But you have no right
+to accuse him now, and I would not listen to you unless I believed that
+I could help to make you see him as you should."
+
+Madame Patoff bent her head and hid her eyes in her hand, as though
+greatly distressed.
+
+"I love you so much, dear Hermy--I cannot bear to think of your marrying
+him. You cannot understand me--I know--and you think me very unkind. But
+I hate him!" she cried, with a burst of uncontrollable anger. "Oh, how I
+hate him!"
+
+Her hands had dropped from her face, and her dark eyes flashed wickedly
+as she stared at the young girl. Hermione was startled for a moment, but
+she also had learned a lesson of self-possession.
+
+"Do you think that I am afraid when you look at me like that, aunt
+Annie?" she asked, very quietly.
+
+Madame Patoff's features relaxed, and she laughed a little foolishly, as
+though ashamed of herself.
+
+"No, child; why should you be afraid? I am only an unhappy old woman. I
+cannot speak to any one else."
+
+"And you must not speak to me in that way," answered Hermione, in a
+gentle tone. "I love Paul with all my heart, and I cannot hear him
+abused by you, even though I know you are out of your mind when you say
+such things. I should be despicable if I listened to you."
+
+"If I loved you less, dear," returned the old lady, "I might hate him
+less. Ah, if you could only have married Alexis,--if it could only have
+been the other way!"
+
+"Hush!" exclaimed Hermione, almost roughly. "You are wishing that Paul
+were dead, instead of his brother. I will go away, if you talk like
+that."
+
+She suited the action to the word, and rose to go towards the door. She
+knew her aunt very well. Madame Patoff changed her tone at once.
+
+"Oh, don't go away, don't go away!" she cried nervously. "I will never
+speak of him again, if you will only stay with me."
+
+Hermione turned and came back, and saw that her threat had for the
+present produced its effect, as it usually did. Madame Patoff had
+indeed a strange affection for her niece, and the latter knew how to
+manage her by means of it. At the mere idea of Hermione's leaving her in
+anger, the aunt softened and became docile.
+
+"I did not mean it, child," she said, dolefully. "I am always so
+unhappy, so dreadfully wretched, that I say things I do not altogether
+mean. I am not quite myself to-night, either. Coming here, to the place
+where my poor boy was lost, has upset my nerves; and, really, your aunt
+Chrysophrasia is so very tactless. She always was like that. I remember
+the way in which she treated my poor husband before we were married. It
+was she who made all the quarrel, you know. It broke up my life at the
+very beginning, and we two sisters never saw each other again. I do not
+know what would have become of me if my husband had not loved me as he
+did. He was so kind to me, always, and he sympathized in all my feelings
+and ideas. If he had only lived, how different it might all have been!"
+
+Hermione thought so, too; reflecting that if Paul's father had been
+alive during the time when he was growing up, the unfortunate boy would
+have been spared a vast deal of suffering, and Madame Patoff would
+perhaps have been held in check. Her character was not of the kind which
+could safely be left to its own development, for she called her caprices
+justice and her obstinacy principle, a mode of viewing life not
+conducive to much permanent satisfaction when not modified by the
+salutary restraint of a more sensible companion. But Hermione was glad
+that her aunt was willing to talk of anything except Paul, and
+encouraged her to continue, though she had heard again and again Madame
+Patoff's account of her own life and of the family quarrels. By
+carefully listening and watching her, it was possible to keep her from
+reaching the point at which Hermione was always obliged to protest that
+she would not hear more.
+
+It may be judged from this scene that the young girl's position was not
+an easy one. She was beginning to feel that Madame Patoff's hatred for
+Paul approached in reality much nearer to insanity than the affected
+apathy she had assumed before Hermione discovered the imposition; but,
+nevertheless, the young girl felt that, sane or not sane, she could
+allow no one to cast a slur on the name of the man she loved. She was
+glad, indeed, that Madame Patoff did not make her hatred and her
+suspicion topics for conversation with the rest of the family, and she
+was willing to suffer much in order that her aunt might confide in her
+alone, and behave herself with propriety and dignity before the others.
+But when Madame Patoff overstepped the limits Hermione had set for her,
+the old lady invariably found herself checked and even frightened by the
+authoritative manner of her niece. The anxiety, however, and the
+constant annoyance to which she was subjected, together with the sorrow
+of the separation from Paul, had told upon the girl's strength, and it
+was no wonder that she had grown thinner during the last months. Her
+young character was forming itself under terrible difficulties, and it
+was well that she inherited more of her father's good sense and courage
+than of her mother's meekness and gentleness under all circumstances.
+Hermione looked back and tried to remember what she had been six months
+ago, but she hardly recognized herself in the picture called up by her
+memories. She thought of her ignorance about her aunt's state, and of
+how she had sometimes felt sad and sorry for the old lady, but had on
+the whole not found that her presence in the house materially changed
+her own smooth life. She looked further back, and remembered as in a
+dream her first London season. She had not enjoyed herself; she had been
+oppressed rather than delighted by the crowds, the lights, the whirl of
+a life she could not understand, the terrors of presentation, the men
+suddenly brought up to her, who bowed and immediately whirled her away
+amongst a crowd of young people, all spinning madly round, and knowing
+each other probably as little as she knew her partner of the moment. It
+had all been strange to her, and she realized with pleasure that she
+should not be obliged to go through it again this year. Her mother was
+not a worldly woman, and had not inspired her, while still in the
+schoolroom, with a mad desire for the world. Hermione was an only
+daughter, and there was no reason for hastening her marriage; nor had
+she ever been told, as many young girls are, that she must marry well,
+and if possible in her first season. She saw many men in the round of
+parties to which she was taken, but she found it hard to remember the
+names of even a few of them. They had been presented, had danced with
+her, had perhaps danced with her again somewhere else, and had dropped
+out of her existence without inspiring in her the smallest interest.
+Now, after nearly a year, she would not have known their faces. Some had
+talked to her, but their language was not hers; it was the jargon of
+society, the petty gossip, the eternal chatter of people and people's
+doings. Her answers were vague, and when she asked a question about a
+book, about an idea, about a fact, the faultlessly correct young men
+smiled sweetly, and answered that they did not understand that sort of
+thing. Towards the end of the season, when the first surprise of
+watching the moving crowds, the dancing, the women's gowns, and the
+men's faces, had worn out, Hermione had regarded the whole thing as an
+inexpressible bore, and had returned with delight to the quiet life at
+Carvel Place, glad that her father's position and tastes did not lead
+him to keep open house, as some of his neighbors did, and that she was
+allowed to read and to be quiet, and to do everything she liked.
+
+Then her real life had begun, and her character, untouched and unchanged
+by what she had seen in a London season, had suddenly come under the
+influence of another character, strong, dominant, and apparently good,
+but in the eyes of the young girl eminently mysterious. She had known
+Paul Patoff as one knows people in the midst of a small family party in
+a country house, and he had at first repelled her, as he repelled many
+people; but soon, very soon, she thought, the feeling of repulsion had
+grown to be a curiosity to know the man's history, the secret of his
+coldness towards his mother, and of his hard and cynical expression.
+From such interest as she felt for him, it was but a step to love, and
+the step was soon taken. The nearer she came to him, the more she felt
+the power of his fascination, and the more she wondered that every one
+else did not see it as she saw it, and yield to it as she yielded to it.
+Then had come the afternoon in the park; the joy of those few hours; the
+scene at dinner on the same evening; the revelation she had extracted
+from Cutter; the discovery that her aunt was sane; her interview with
+Paul, and his sudden departure, wounded by her speech;--all these events
+following on each other in less than four-and-twenty hours. From that
+day she knew that she had changed much, and she realized the strength of
+her love for Paul. And on that day, also, had begun her annoyances with
+Madame Patoff, her constant defense of the son against the accusations
+of the mother, and her own fears lest she should be playing a double
+part. She had suffered much by the separation from Paul; she suffered
+more whenever her aunt fell into her passionate way of abusing him, and
+she felt that her faculties were overstrained when she was in the
+society of her strange relative. But Madame Patoff loved her, and her
+affection was so evident to Hermione that she found it hard to cut her
+speeches short with a sharp word, however painful it might be to her to
+listen to them. Of late she had adopted the practice of treating her as
+she did on the first night, assuming that her hatred was very nearly an
+insanity in itself, and managing her almost like a child, threatening to
+leave her when she said too much, and bringing her to her senses by
+seeming to withdraw her affection. Indeed, there was something
+exaggerated in Madame Patoff's love for the girl, as there appeared to
+be in everything she really felt. With the other members of the
+household she behaved with perfect self-possession, but when she was
+alone with Hermione she laid aside all her assumed calm, and spoke
+unreasonably about her son, as though it gave her pleasure; always
+submitting, however, to the rebuke which Hermione invariably
+administered on such occasions. But the idea that whenever she was alone
+with her aunt something of the kind was sure to occur made Hermione
+nervous, so that she avoided an interview whenever she could.
+
+
+
+
+XVI.
+
+
+If any of the party could have guessed what Gregorios Balsamides and I
+were doing on that dark night, they would not have slept as soundly as
+they did. It was an evil night, a night for a bad deed, I thought, as I
+looked out of the carriage-window, when we were clear of the houses and
+streets of Pera. The black clouds drove angrily down before the north
+wind, seeming to tear themselves in pieces on the stars, as one might
+tear a black veil upon steel nails. The wind swept the desolate country,
+and made the panes of the windows rattle even more loudly than did the
+hoofs and wheels upon the stony road. But the horses were strong, and
+the driver was not a shivering Greek, but a sturdy Turk, who could laugh
+at the wind as it whistled past his ears, striking full upon his broad
+chest. He drove fast along the rising ground, and faster as he reached
+the high bend which the road follows above the Bosphorus, winding in and
+out among the hills till it descends at last to Therapia.
+
+"The clouds look like the souls of the lost, to-night," said Balsamides,
+drawing his fur coat closely around him. "One can imagine how Dante
+conceived the idea of the scene in hell, when the souls stream down the
+wind."
+
+"You seem poetically inclined," I answered.
+
+"Why not? We are out upon a romantic errand. Our lives are not often
+romantic. We may as well make the best of it, as a beggar does when he
+gets a bowl of rice."
+
+"I should fancy you had led a very romantic life," said I, lighting a
+cigarette in the dark, and leaning back against the cushions.
+
+"That is what women always say when they want a man to make
+confidences," laughed Balsamides. "No, I have not led a romantic life. I
+pass most of my time sitting on my horse in the hot sun, or the driving
+snow, preserving, or pretending to preserve, the life of his Majesty
+from real or imaginary dangers. Or else I sit eight or nine hours a day
+chatting and smoking with the other adjutants. It is not a healthy life.
+It is certainly not romantic."
+
+"Not as you describe it. But I judged from the ease with which you made
+the preparations for this expedition that you had done things of the
+sort before."
+
+My friend laughed again, but turned the subject.
+
+"I hope that when we meet your friends to-morrow morning, we may have
+something to show for our night's work," he said. "Fancy what an
+excitement there would be if we brought Alexander Patoff back with us!
+Not that it is at all probable. We may bring back nothing but broken
+bones."
+
+"I do not think Selim will hurt us much," I answered. "He is not exactly
+an athlete. I would risk a fight with him."
+
+"I dare say. But there may be plenty of strong fellows about the
+premises. There are the four caïdjs, the boatmen, to begin with. There
+is a coachman and probably two grooms. Very likely there are half a
+dozen big hamáls about."
+
+"That makes thirteen," I said. "Six and a half to one, or four and a
+third to one, if we count upon our own driver."
+
+"You may count upon him," replied Gregorios. "He is an old soldier, and
+as strong as a lion. In case of necessity he will call the watch from
+Yeni Köj. There is a small detachment of infantry there. But we shall
+not have to resort to such measures. I believe that I can make the
+Khanum confess. If so, I can make her order Selim to give up Patoff, if
+he is alive."
+
+"And if he is dead?"
+
+"It will be the worse for the Khanum and her people. She is not in good
+odor at the palace. It would not take much to have her exiled to Arabia,
+even though she be dying, as they say she is. That is the question. Let
+me only find her alive, and I will answer for the rest."
+
+"She might very well refuse to confess, I fancy," I remarked, surprised
+at my friend's tone of conviction.
+
+"I believe not," he said shortly. Then he remained silent for some time.
+
+My nerves are good; but I did not like the business, though I knew it
+was undertaken for a good purpose, and that if we were successful we
+should be conferring great and lasting happiness upon more than one of
+my friends. I had heard many queer stories of wild deeds in the East,
+and in my own experience had been concerned in at least one strange and
+unhappy story, which had ended in my losing sight forever of a man who
+was very dear to me. I do not think that the fact of having been in
+danger necessarily brings with it a liking for dangerous adventures,
+though it undoubtedly makes a man more fit to encounter perils of all
+kinds. Few men are absolutely careless of life, and those who are, do
+not of necessity court death. It is one thing to say that one would
+readily die at any moment; it is quite another to seek risks and to
+incur them voluntarily. The brave man, as a general rule, does not feel
+a thrill of pleasure until the struggle has actually begun; when he is
+expecting it he is grave and cautious, lest it should come upon him
+unawares. This, at least, I believe to be the character of the Northern
+man, and I think it constitutes one of his elements of superiority.
+
+Balsamides is an Oriental, and looks at things very differently. In his
+belief death will come at its appointed time, whether a man stay at home
+and nurse his safety, or whether he lead the front in battle. The
+essence of fatalism is the conviction that death must come at a certain
+time, no matter what a man is doing, nor how he may try to protect
+himself. This is the reason why the fanatic Mussulman is absolutely
+indifferent to danger. He firmly believes that if he is to die, death
+will overtake him at the plow as surely as in storming an enemy's
+battery. But he believes also that if he dies fighting against
+unbelievers his place in Paradise will be far higher than if he dies
+upon his farm, his ambrosial refreshment more abundant, and the
+dark-eyed houris who will soothe his eternal repose more beautiful and
+more numerous. The low-born hamál in the street will march up to the
+mouth of the guns without so much as a cup of coffee to animate him,
+with an absolute courage not found in men who have not his unswerving
+faith. To him Paradise is an almost visible reality, and the attainment
+of it depends only on his individual exertions. But what is most strange
+is the fact that this indifference to death is contagious, so that
+Christians who live among Turks unconsciously acquire much of the Moslem
+belief in fate. The Albanians, who are chiefly Christians, are among the
+bravest officers in the Turkish army, as they are amongst the most
+faithfully devoted to the Sultan and to the interests of the Empire.
+
+Balsamides was in a mood which differed widely from mine. As we
+clattered over the rough road in the face of the north wind, I was
+thinking of what was before us, anticipating trouble, and determining
+within myself what I would do. If I were ready to meet danger, it was
+from an inward conviction of necessity which clearly presented itself to
+me, and I consequently made the best of it. But Balsamides grew merry as
+we proceeded. His spirits rose at the mere thought of a fight, until I
+almost fancied that he would provoke an unnecessary struggle rather than
+forego the pleasure of dealing a few blows. It was a new phase of his
+character, and I watched him, or rather listened to him, with interest.
+
+"This is positively delightful," he said in a cheerful voice.
+
+"What?" I inquired, with pardonable curiosity.
+
+"What? In an hour or two we may have strangled the Lala, have forced the
+old Khanum to confess her iniquities, kicked the retainers into the
+Bosphorus, and be on our way back, with Alexander Patoff in this very
+carriage! I cannot imagine a more delightful prospect."
+
+"It is certainly a lively entertainment for a cold night," I replied.
+"But if you expect me to murder anybody in cold blood, I warn you that I
+will not do it."
+
+"No; but they may show fight," he said. "A little scuffle would be such
+a rest after leading this monotonous life. I should think you would be
+more enthusiastic."
+
+"I shall reserve my enthusiasm until the fight is over."
+
+"Then it will be of no use to you. Where is the pleasure in talking
+about things when they are past? The real pleasure is in action."
+
+"Action is not necessarily bloodshed," said I. "Active exercise is
+undoubtedly good for mind and body, but when you take it by strangling
+your fellow-creatures"----
+
+"Rubbish!" exclaimed Balsamides. "What is the life of one Lala more or
+less in this world? Besides, he will not be killed unless he deserves
+it."
+
+"With your ideas about the delight of such amusements, you will be
+likely to find that he deserves it. I do not think he would be very safe
+in your keeping."
+
+"No, perhaps not," he answered, with a light laugh. "If he objects to
+letting me in, I shall take great pleasure in making short work of him.
+I am rather sorry you have put on that uniform. Your appearance will
+probably inspire so much respect that they will all act like sheep in a
+thunderstorm,--huddle together, and bleat or squeal. It is some
+consolation to think that unless I appeared with an adjutant they would
+not believe that I came from the palace."
+
+"It is a consolation to me to think that my presence may render it
+unnecessary for you to strangle, crucify, burn alive, and drown the
+whole population of Yeni Köj," I answered. "I dare say you have done
+most of those things at one time or another."
+
+"In insurrections, such as we occasionally have in Albania and Crete, it
+is imperative sometimes to make an example. But I am not bloodthirsty."
+
+"No; from your conversation I should take you for a lamb," said I.
+
+"I am not bloodthirsty," continued Gregorios. "I should not care to kill
+a man who was quite defenseless, or who was innocent. Indeed, I would
+not do such a thing on any account."
+
+"You amaze me," I observed.
+
+"No. But I like fighting. I enter into the spirit of the thing. There is
+really nothing more exhilarating,--I even believe it is healthy."
+
+"For the survivors it is good exercise. Those who do not survive are, of
+course, no longer in a condition to appreciate the fun."
+
+"Exactly; the fun consists in surviving."
+
+"One does not always survive," I objected.
+
+"What is the difference?" exclaimed Balsamides, who probably shrugged
+his shoulders, in his dark corner of the carriage. "A man can die only
+once, and then it is all over."
+
+"A man can also live only once," said I. "A living dog is better than a
+dead lion."
+
+"Very little," answered Balsamides, with a laugh. "I would rather have
+been a living lion for ever so short a time, and be dead, than be a Pera
+dog forever. The Preacher would have been nearer to the truth if he had
+said that a living man is better than a dead man. But the Preacher was
+an Oriental, and naturally had to use a simile to express his meaning."
+
+Suddenly the carriage stopped in the road. Then, after a moment's pause,
+we turned to the right, and began to descend a steep hill, slowly and
+cautiously, for the night was very dark and the road bad.
+
+"We are going down to Yeni Köj," said Balsamides. "In twenty minutes we
+shall be there. I will get out of the carriage first. Remember that,
+once there, you must not speak a word of any language but Turkish."
+
+Slowly we crept down the hill, the wheels grinding in the drag, and
+jolting heavily from time to time. There were trees by the
+roadside,--indeed, we were on the outskirts of the Belgrade forest. The
+bare boughs swayed and creaked in the bitter March wind, and as I peered
+out through the window the night seemed more hideous than ever.
+
+"By the by," said I, suddenly, "we have no names. What am I to call you,
+if I have to speak to you?"
+
+"Anything," said Balsamides. "She does not know the name of the court
+physician, I suppose. However, you had better call me by his name. She
+might know, after all. Call me Kalopithaki Bey. You are Mehemet Bey.
+That is simple enough. Here we are coming to the house; be ready, they
+will open the door if they recognize the palace carriage through the
+lattice. Of course every one will be up if the old lady is dying, and it
+is not much past twelve. The man has driven fast."
+
+The wheels rattled over the pavement, and we drew up before the door of
+Laleli's house. We both descended quickly, and Balsamides went up the
+broad steps which led to the door and knocked. Some one opened almost
+immediately, and a harsh voice--not Selim's--called out,--
+
+"Who is there?"
+
+"From the palace, by order of his Majesty," answered Balsamides,
+promptly. I showed myself by his side, and, as he had predicted, the
+effect produced by the adjutant's uniform was instantaneous. The man
+made a low salute, which we hastily returned, and held the door wide
+open for us to pass; closing it and bolting it, however, when we had
+entered. I noticed that the bolts slid easily and noiselessly in their
+sockets. The man was a sturdy and military Turk, I observed, with
+grizzled mustaches and a face deeply marked with small-pox.
+
+We entered a lofty vestibule, lighted by two hanging lamps. The floor
+was matted, but there was no furniture of any description. At the
+opposite end a high doorway was closed by a heavy curtain. A large
+Turkish mangál, or brazier, stood in the middle of the wide hall. The
+man turned to the right and led us into a smaller apartment, of which
+the walls were ornamented with mirrors in gilt frames. A low divan,
+covered with satin of the disagreeable color known as magenta,
+surrounded the room on all sides. Two small tables, inlaid with
+tortoise-shell and mother-of-pearl, stood side by side in the middle of
+the apartment.
+
+"Buyurun, be seated, Effendimlir," said the man, who then left the room.
+A moment later we heard his harsh voice at some distance:--
+
+"Selim, Selim! There are two Effendilir from Yildiz-Kiöshk in the
+selamlek!"
+
+We sat down to wait.
+
+"The porter is a genuine Turk, and not a Circassian. A Circassian would
+have said 'Effendilir,' without the 'm,' in the vocative when he spoke
+to us, as he did when he used it in the nominative to Selim."
+
+I reflected that Balsamides had good nerves if he could notice
+grammatical niceties at such a moment.
+
+
+
+
+XVII.
+
+
+In a few moments Selim, the hideous Lala, entered the room, making the
+usual salutation as he advanced. He must have recognized Balsamides at
+once, for he started and stood still when he saw him, and seemed about
+to speak. But my appearance probably prevented him from saying what was
+on his lips, and he stood motionless before us. Balsamides assumed a
+suave manner, and informed him that he was sent by his Majesty to afford
+relief, if possible, to Laleli Khanum Effendi. His Majesty, said
+Gregorios, was deeply grieved at hearing of the Khanum's illness, and
+desired that every means should be employed to alleviate her sufferings.
+He begged that Selim would at once inform the Khanum of the physician's
+presence, as every moment might be of importance at such a juncture.
+
+Selim could hardly have guessed the truth. He did not know the court
+doctor by sight, and Balsamides played his part with consummate
+coolness. The negro could never have imagined that a Frank and a
+foreigner would dare to assume the uniform of one of the Sultan's
+adjutants,--a uniform which he knew very well, and which he knew that he
+must respect. He was terrified when he recognized in the Sultan's
+medical adviser the man who had scattered the crowd in the bazaar, and
+who had so startled him by his references to the ring, the box, and the
+chain. He was frightened, but he knew he could not attempt to resist the
+imperial order, and after a moment's hesitation he answered.
+
+"The Khanum Effendi," he said, "is indeed very ill. It is past midnight,
+and no one in the harem thinks of sleep. I will prepare the Khanum for
+the Effendi's visit."
+
+Thereupon he withdrew, and we were once more left alone. I confess that
+my courage rose as I grew more confident of the excellence of my
+disguise. If the Lala himself had no doubts concerning me, it was not
+likely that any one else would venture to question my identity. As for
+Balsamides, he seemed as calm as though he were making an ordinary
+visit.
+
+"They will make us wait," he said. "It will take half an hour to prepare
+the harem for my entrance. The old lady may be dying, but she will not
+sacrifice the formalities. It is no light thing with such as she to
+receive a visit from a Frank doctor."
+
+He spoke in a low voice, lest the porter in the hall should hear us. But
+he did not speak again. I fancied he was framing his speech to the
+Khanum. The preparations within did not take so long as he had expected,
+for scarcely ten minutes had elapsed when Selim returned.
+
+"Buyurun," said the negro, shortly. The word is the universal formula in
+Turkey for "walk in," "sit down," "make yourself comfortable," "help
+yourself."
+
+Balsamides glanced at me, as we both rose from our seats, and I saw that
+he was perfectly calm and confident. A moment later I was alone.
+
+Gregorios followed Selim into the hall; then, passing under the heavy
+curtain and through a door which the Lala opened on the other side, he
+found himself within the precincts of the harem, in a wide vestibule not
+unlike the one he had just quitted, though more brilliantly lighted, and
+furnished with low divans covered with pale blue satin. There was no one
+to be seen, however, and Balsamides followed the negro, who entered a
+door on the right-hand side, at the end of the hall. They passed through
+a narrow passage, entirely hung with rose-colored silk and matted, but
+devoid of furniture, and then Selim raised a curtain and admitted
+Gregorios to the presence of the sick lady.
+
+The apartment was vast and brilliantly illuminated with lamps. Huge
+mirrors in gilt frames of the fashion of the last century filled the
+panels from the ceiling to the wainscoting. In the corners, and in every
+available space between the larger ones, small mirrors bearing branches
+of lights were hung, and groups of lamps were suspended from the
+ceiling. The whole effect was as though the room had been lighted for a
+ball. The Khanum had always loved lights, and feeling her sight dimmed
+by illness she had ordered every lamp in the house to be lighted,
+producing a fictitious daylight, and perhaps in some measure the
+exhilaration which daylight brings with it.
+
+The floor of the hall was of highly polished wood, and the everlasting
+divans of disagreeable magenta satin, so dear to the modern Turkish
+woman, lined the walls on three sides. At the upper end, however, a dais
+was raised about a foot from the floor. Here rich Siné and Giordès
+carpets were spread, and a broad divan extended across the whole width
+of the apartment, covered with silk of a very delicate hue, such as in
+the last century was called "bloom" in England. The long stiff cushions,
+of the same material, leaned stiffly against the wall at the back of the
+low seat, in an even row. Several dwarf tables, of the inlaid sort,
+stood within arm's-length of the divan, and on one of them lay a golden
+salver, bearing a crystal jar of strawberry preserves, and a glass half
+full of water, with a gold spoon in it. In the right-hand corner of the
+divan was the Khanum herself.
+
+The old lady's dress was in striking contrast to her surroundings. She
+wore a shapeless, snuff-colored gown, very loose and only slightly
+gathered at the waist. As she sat propped among her cushions, her feet
+entirely concealed beneath her, she seemed to be inclosed in a brown
+bag, from which emerged her head and hands. The latter were very small
+and white, and might well have belonged to a young woman, but her head
+was that of an aged crone. Balsamides was amazed at her ugliness and the
+extraordinary expression of her features. She wore no head-dress, and
+the bit of gauze about her throat, which properly speaking should have
+concealed her face, did not even cover her chin. Her hair was perfectly
+black in spite of her age, and being cut so short as only to reach the
+collar of her gown, hung straight down like that of an American Indian,
+brushed back from the high yellow forehead, and falling like stiff
+horse-hair over her ears and cheeks when she bent forward. Her eyes,
+too, were black, and were set so near together as to give her a very
+disagreeable expression, while the heavy eyebrows rose slightly from the
+nose towards the temples. The nose was long, straight, and pointed, but
+very thin; and the nostrils, which had once been broad and sensitive,
+were pinched and wrinkled by old age and the play of strong emotions.
+Her cheeks were hollowed and yellow, as the warped parchment cover of an
+old manuscript, seamed with furrows in all directions, so that the
+slightest motion of her face destroyed one set of deep-traced lines only
+to exhibit another new and unexpected network of wrinkles. The upper lip
+was long and drawn down, while the thin mouth curved upwards at the
+corners in a disagreeable smile, something like that which seems to play
+about the long, slit lips of a dead viper. This unpleasant combination
+of features was terminated by a short but prominent chin, indicating a
+determined and undeviating will. The ghastly yellow color of her face
+made the unnatural brightness of her beady eyes more extraordinary
+still.
+
+To judge from her appearance, she had not long to live, and Balsamides
+realized the fact as soon as he was in her presence. It was not a fever;
+it was no sudden illness which had attacked her, depriving her of
+strength, speech, and consciousness. She was dying of a slow and
+incurable disease, which fed upon the body without weakening the
+energies of the brain, and which had now reached its last stage. She
+might live a month, or she might die that very night, but her end was
+close at hand. With the iron determination of a tyrannical old woman,
+she kept up appearances to the last, and had insisted on being carried
+to the great hall and set in the place of honor upon the divan to
+receive the visit of the physician. Indeed, for many days she had given
+the slaves of her harem no rest, causing herself to be carried from one
+part of the house to another, in the vain hope of finding some relief
+from the pain which devoured her. All night the great rooms were
+illuminated. Day and night the slaves exhausted themselves in the
+attempt to amuse her: the trained and educated Circassian girl
+translated the newspapers to her, or read aloud whole chapters of Victor
+Hugo's Misérables, one of the few foreign novels which have been
+translated into Turkish; the almehs danced and sang to their small
+lutes; the black slaves succeeded each other in bringing every kind of
+refreshment which the ingenuity of the Dalmatian cook could devise; the
+whole establishment was in perpetual motion, and had rarely in the last
+few days snatched a few minutes of uneasy rest when the Khanum slept her
+short and broken sleep. It chanced that Laleli had all her life detested
+opium, and was so quick to detect its presence in a sweetmeat or in a
+sherbet, that now, when its use might have soothed her agonies, no
+member of her household had the courage to offer it to her. Her
+sleepless days and nights passed in the perpetual effort to obtain some
+diversion from her pain, and with every hour it became more difficult to
+satisfy her craving for change and amusement.
+
+Balsamides came forward, touching his hand to his mouth and forehead;
+and then approaching nearer, he awaited her invitation to sit down. The
+old woman made a feeble, almost palsied gesture with her thin white
+hand, and Gregorios advanced and seated himself upon the divan at some
+distance from his patient.
+
+"His Majesty has sent you?" she inquired presently, slowly turning her
+head and fixing her beady eyes upon his face. Her voice was weak and
+hoarse, scarcely rising above a whisper.
+
+"It is his Majesty's pleasure that I should use my art to stay the hand
+of death," replied Balsamides. "His Majesty is deeply grieved to hear of
+the Khanum Effendi's illness."
+
+"My gratitude is profound as the sea," said Laleli Khanum, but as she
+spoke the viper smile wreathed and curled upon her seamed lips. "I thank
+his Majesty. My time is come,--it is my kadèr, my fate. Allah alone can
+save. None else can help me."
+
+"Nevertheless, though it be in vain, I must try my arts, Khanum
+Effendim," said Balsamides.
+
+"What are your arts?" asked the sick woman, scornfully. "Can you burn me
+with fire, and make a new Laleli out of the ashes of my bones?"
+
+"No," said Gregorios, "I cannot do that, but I can ease your pain, and
+perhaps you may recover."
+
+"If you can ease my pain, you shall be rich. But you can not. Only Allah
+is great!"
+
+"If the Khanum will permit her servant to approach her and to touch her
+hand"--suggested Balsamides, humbly.
+
+"Gelinis, come," muttered Laleli. But she drew the pale green veil that
+was round her throat a little higher, so as to cover her mouth. "What is
+this vile body that it should be any longer withheld from the touch of
+the unbeliever? What is your medicine, Giaour? Shall the touch of your
+unbelieving hand, wherewith you daily make signs before images, heal the
+sickness of her who is a daughter of the prophet of the Most High?"
+
+Balsamides rose from his seat and came to her side. She shrank together
+in her snuff-colored, bag-shaped gown, and hesitated before she would
+put out her small hand, and her eyes expressed ineffable disgust. But at
+last she held out her fingers, and Gregorios succeeded in getting at her
+wrist. The pulse was very quick, and fluttered and sank at every fourth
+or fifth beat.
+
+"The Khanum is in great pain," said Gregorios. He saw indeed that she
+was in a very weak state, and he fancied she could not last long.
+
+"Ay, the pains of Gehennam are upon me," she answered in her hoarse
+whisper, and at the same time she trembled violently, while the
+perspiration broke out in a clammy moisture on her yellow forehead.
+
+Gregorios produced a small case from his pocket. It is the magical
+transformer of the modern physician.
+
+"The prick of a pin," said he, "and your pain will cease. If the Khanum
+will consent?"
+
+She was in an access of terrible agony, and could not speak. Gregorios
+took from his case a tiny syringe and a small bottle containing a
+colorless liquid. It was the work of an instant to puncture the skin of
+Laleli's hand, and to inject a small dose of morphine,--a very small
+dose indeed, for the solution was weak. But the effect was almost
+instantaneous. The Khanum opened her small black eyes, the contortion of
+her wrinkled face gave way to a more natural expression, and she
+gradually assumed a look of peace and relief which told Gregorios that
+the drug had done its work. Even her voice sounded less hoarse and
+indistinct when she spoke again.
+
+"I am cured!" she exclaimed in sudden delight. "The pain is gone,--Allah
+be praised, the pain is gone, the fire is put out! I shall live! I shall
+live!"
+
+Not one word of thanks to Gregorios escaped her lips. It was
+characteristic of the woman that she expressed only her own satisfaction
+at the relief she experienced, feeling not the smallest gratitude
+towards the physician. She clapped her thin hands, and a black slave
+girl appeared, one of those called halaïk, or "creatures." The Khanum
+ordered coffee and chibouques. She had never accepted the modern
+cigarette.
+
+"The relief is instantaneous," remarked Balsamides, carefully putting
+back the syringe and the bottle in the little case, which he returned to
+his pocket.
+
+"Tell me," said the old woman, lowering her voice, "is it the magic of
+the Franks?"
+
+"It is, and it is not," answered Gregorios, willing to play upon her
+superstition. "It is, truly, very mysterious, and a man who employs it
+must have clean hands and a brave heart. And so, indeed, must the person
+who benefits by the cure. Otherwise it cannot be permanent. The sins
+which burden the soul have power to consume the body, and if there is no
+repentance, no device to undo the harm done, the magic properties of the
+fluid are soon destroyed by the more powerful arts of Satan."
+
+The Khanum looked anxiously at Balsamides as he spoke. At that moment
+the black slave girl returned, bearing two little cups of coffee, while
+two other girls, exactly like the first, followed with two lighted
+chibouques, a mangál filled with coals, two small brass dishes upon
+which the bowls of the pipes were to rest, so as not to burn the carpet,
+and a little pair of steel firetongs inlaid with gold. At a sign the
+three slaves silently retired. The Khanum drank the hot coffee eagerly,
+and, placing the huge amber mouthpiece against her lips, began to inhale
+the smoke. Gregorios followed her example.
+
+"What is this you say of Satan destroying the power of your medicine?"
+asked Laleli, presently.
+
+"It is the truth, Khanum Effendim," answered Balsamides, solemnly. "If,
+therefore, you would be healed, repent of sin, and if you have done
+anything that is sinful, command that it be undone, if possible. If not,
+your pain will return, and I cannot save you."
+
+"How do you, a Giaour, talk to me of repentance?" asked Laleli, in
+scornful tones. "While you try to extract the eyelash from my eye, you
+do not see the beam which has entered your own."
+
+"Nevertheless, unless you repent my medicine will not heal you,"
+returned Gregorios, calmly.
+
+"What have I to repent? Shall you find out my sin?"
+
+"That I be unable to find it out does not destroy the necessity for your
+repenting it. The time is short. If your heart is not clean you will
+soon be writhing in a worse agony than when I charmed away your pain."
+
+"We shall see," retorted the Khanum, her features wrinkling in a
+contemptuous smile. "I tell you I feel perfectly well. I have
+recovered."
+
+But she had hardly spoken, and puffed a great cloud of aromatic smoke
+into the still air of the illuminated room, when the smile began to
+fade. Balsamides watched her narrowly, and saw the former expression of
+pain slowly returning to her face. He had not expected it so soon, but
+in his fear of producing death he had administered a very small dose of
+morphine, and the disease was far advanced. Laleli, however, though
+terrified as she felt that the agony she had so long endured was
+returning after so brief a respite, endeavored bravely to hide her
+sufferings, lest she should seem to confess that the Giaour was right,
+and that it was the presence of the devil in her heart which prevented
+the medicine from having its full effect. Gradually, as she smoked on in
+silence, Gregorios saw that the disease had got the mastery over her
+again, and that she was struggling to control her features. He pretended
+not to observe the change, and waited philosophically for the inevitable
+result. At last the unfortunate woman could bear it no longer; the pipe
+dropped from her trembling hand, and the sweat stood upon her brow.
+
+"I wonder whether there is any truth in what you say!" she exclaimed, in
+a voice broken with the pain she would not confess.
+
+"It is useless to deny it," answered Balsamides. "The Khanum Effendim is
+already suffering."
+
+"No, I am not!" she said between her teeth. But the perspiration
+trickled down her hollow cheeks. Suddenly, unable to hide the horrible
+agony which was gnawing in her bosom, she uttered a short, harsh cry,
+and rocked herself backwards and forwards.
+
+"It is even so," said Balsamides, eying her coldly, and not moving from
+his place as he blew the clouds of smoke into the warm air. "My medicine
+is of no use when the soul is dark and diseased by a black deed."
+
+"Where is the medicine?" cried the wretched woman, swaying from side to
+side in her agony. "Where is it? Give it to me again, or I shall die!"
+
+"It cannot help you unless you confess your sin," returned her torturer
+indifferently.
+
+"In the name of Allah! I will confess all, even to you an unbeliever, if
+you will only give me rest again!" cried Laleli. From the momentary
+respite the pain seemed far greater than before.
+
+"If you will do that, I will try and save you," answered Balsamides,
+producing the case from his pocket. He had been very far from expecting
+the advantage he had obtained through the combination of the old woman's
+credulity and extreme suffering; but in his usual cold fashion he now
+resolved to use it to the utmost. Laleli saw him take the syringe from
+the case, and her eyes glittered with the anticipation of immediate
+relief.
+
+"Speak," said Gregorios,--"confess your sin, and you shall have rest."
+
+"What am I to confess?" asked the old woman, hungrily watching the tiny
+instrument in his fingers.
+
+"This," answered Balsamides, lowering his voice. "You must tell me what
+became of a Russian Effendi, whose name was Alexander, whom you caused
+to be seized one night in the last week of"----
+
+Again Laleli cried out, and rocked her body, apparently suffering more
+than ever.
+
+"The medicine!" she whispered almost inaudibly.--"Quick--I cannot
+speak---- am dying of the pain." The perspiration streamed down her
+yellow wrinkled face, and Balsamides feared the end was come.
+
+"You must tell me first, or it will be of no use," he said. But he
+quickly filled the syringe, and prepared to repeat the former operation.
+
+"I cannot," groaned Laleli. "I die!--quick! Then I will tell."
+
+A physician might have known whether the woman were really dying or not,
+but Balsamides' science did not go so far as that. Without further
+hesitation he pricked the skin of her hand and injected a small
+quantity, a very little more than the first time. The effect was not
+quite so sudden as before, but it followed after a few seconds. The
+signs of extreme suffering disappeared from the Khanum's face, and she
+once more looked up.
+
+"Your medicine is good, Giaour," she said, with the ghost of a
+disdainful laugh. But her voice was still very weak and hoarse.
+
+"It will not save you unless you confess what became of the Frank," said
+Gregorios, again putting his instrument into the case, and the case into
+his pocket.
+
+"It is very easy for me to have you kept here, and to force you to cure
+me," she answered with a wicked smile. "Do you think you can leave my
+house without my permission?"
+
+"Easily," returned Balsamides, coolly. "I have not come here
+unprotected. His Majesty's adjutant is outside. You will not find it
+easy to take him prisoner."
+
+"Who knows?" exclaimed Laleli. "The only thing which prevents me from
+keeping you is, that I see you have very little of your medicine. It is
+a good medicine. But I do not believe your story about repentance. It
+may serve for Franks; it is not enough for a daughter of the true
+Prophet."
+
+"You shall see. If you wish to avoid further suffering, I advise you to
+tell me what became of Alexander Patoff, and to tell me quickly. I was
+wrong to give you the medicine until you had confessed, but if you
+refuse I have another medicine ready which may persuade you."
+
+"What do I know of your unbelieving dogs of Russians?" retorted the old
+woman, fiercely.
+
+"You know the answer to my question well enough. If you do not tell me
+within five minutes what I want to know, I will tell you what the other
+medicine is."
+
+Laleli relapsed into a scornful silence. She was better of her pain, but
+she was angry at the physician's manner. Balsamides took out his watch,
+and began to count the minutes. There was a dead silence in the spacious
+hall, where the lights burned as brightly as ever, while the heavy
+clouds of tobacco smoke slowly wreathed themselves around the
+chandeliers and mirrors. The two sat watching each other. It seemed an
+eternity to the old woman, but the dose had been stronger this time, and
+she was free from pain. At last Balsamides shut his watch and returned
+it to his pocket.
+
+"Will you, or will you not, tell me what became of Alexander Patoff,
+whom you caused to be seized in or near Agia Sophia, one night in the
+last week of the month of Ramazán before the last?"
+
+Laleli's beady eyes were fixed on his as he spoke, with an air of
+surprise, not unmingled with curiosity, and strongly tinged with
+contempt.
+
+"I know nothing about him," she answered steadily. "I never caused him
+to be seized. I never heard of him."
+
+"Then here is my medicine," said Gregorios, coldly. "It is a terrible
+medicine. Listen to the pleasure of his Majesty the Hunkyar." He rose,
+and pressed the document to his lips and forehead.
+
+"What!" cried Laleli, in sudden terror, her voice gathering strength
+from her fright.
+
+"It is an order, dated to-day, to arrest Laleli Khanum Effendi, and to
+convey her to a place of safety, where she shall await the further
+commands of his Majesty."
+
+"It is false," murmured the Khanum. But her white fingers twisted each
+other nervously. "It is a forgery."
+
+"So false," replied Balsamides, with cold contempt, "that the adjutant
+is waiting outside, and a troop of horse is stationed within call to
+conduct you to the place of safety aforesaid. I can force you to lay his
+Majesty's signature on your forehead and to follow me to my carriage, if
+I please."
+
+"Allah alone is great!" groaned the Khanum, her head sinking on her
+breast in despair. "Kadèr,--it is my fate."
+
+"But if you will deliver me this man alive, I will save you out of the
+hands even of the Hunkyar. I will say that you are too ill to be removed
+from your house,--unless I give you my medicine," he added, flattering
+her hopes to the last.
+
+"Give me time. I know nothing--what shall I say?" muttered Laleli
+incoherently, her thin fingers twitching at the stuff of her
+snuff-colored gown, while as she bent her head her short, coarse, black
+hair fell over her yellow cheeks, and concealed her expression from
+Gregorios.
+
+"You have not much time," he answered. "The pain will soon seize you
+more sharply than before. If I arrest you, your sentence will be
+banishment to Arabia,--not for this crime, but for that other which you
+thought was pardoned. If I leave you here without help, my sentence upon
+you is pain, pain and agony until you die. It is already returning; I
+can see it in your face."
+
+"I must have time to consider," said Laleli, her old firmness returning,
+as it generally did in moments of great difficulty. She looked up,
+tossing back her hair. "How long will you give me?"
+
+"Till the morning light is first gray in the sky above Beikos," replied
+Gregorios, without hesitation. "But for your own sake you had better
+decide sooner."
+
+Laleli was silent. She must have had the strongest reasons for refusing
+to tell the secret of Alexander's fate, for the penalty of silence was a
+fearful one. She felt herself to be dying, but the morphine had revived
+in her the hope of life, and she loved life yet. But to live and suffer,
+to go through the horrors of an exile to Arabia, to drag her gnawing
+pain through the sands of the desert, was a prospect too awful to be
+contemplated. As the effects of the last dose administered began to
+disappear, and her sufferings recommenced, she realized her situation
+with frightful vividness. Still she strove to be calm and to baffle her
+tormentor to the very end. If she had not felt the unspeakable relief
+she had gained from his medicine, she would have wished to die, but she
+had tasted of life again. The problem was how to preserve this new life
+while refusing to answer the question Gregorios had asked of her. She
+was so clever, so thoroughly able to deal with difficulties, that if she
+could but have relief from her sufferings, so that her mind might be
+free to work undisturbed, she still hoped to find the solution. But the
+pain was already returning. In a few minutes she would be writhing in
+agony again.
+
+"I will wait until morning,--it is not many hours now," said Balsamides,
+after a pause. "But I strongly advise you to decide at once. You are
+beginning to suffer, and I warn you that unless you confess you shall
+not have the medicine."
+
+"I lived without it until you came," answered Laleli. "I can live
+without it now, if it is my fate." Her voice trembled convulsively, but
+she finished her sentence by a great effort.
+
+"It is not your fate," returned Gregorios. "You can not live without
+it."
+
+"Then at least I shall die and escape you," she groaned; but even in her
+groan there was a sort of scorn. On the last occasion she had indeed
+exaggerated her sufferings, pretending that she was at the point of
+death in order to get relief without telling her secret. She had always
+believed that at the last minute Balsamides would relent, out of fear
+lest she should die, and that she could thus obtain a series of
+intervals of rest, during which she might think what was to be done. She
+did not know the relentless character of the man with whom she had to
+deal.
+
+"You cannot escape me," said Balsamides, sternly. "But you can save me
+trouble by deciding quickly."
+
+"I have decided to die!" she cried at last, with a great effort. She
+groaned again, and began to rock herself in her seat upon the divan.
+
+"You will not die yet," observed Gregorios, contemptuously. He had
+understood that he had been deceived the previous time, and had
+determined to let her suffer.
+
+Indeed, she was suffering, and very terribly. Her groans had a different
+character now, and it was evident that she was not playing a comedy. A
+livid hue overspread her face, and she gasped for breath.
+
+"If you are really in pain," said Balsamides, "confess, and I will give
+you relief."
+
+But Laleli shook her head, and did not look up. He attributed her
+constancy to an intention to impose upon him a second time by appearing
+to suffer in silence rather than to sell her secret for the medicine. He
+looked on, quite unmoved, for some minutes. At last she raised her head
+and showed the deathly color of her face.
+
+"Medicine!" she gasped.
+
+"Not this time, unless you make a full confession," said Balsamides
+calmly. "I will not be deceived again."
+
+The wretched woman cast an imploring glance at him, and seemed trying to
+speak. But he thought she was acting again, and did not move from his
+seat.
+
+"You understand the price," he said, slowly taking the case from his
+pocket. "Tell what you know, and you shall have it all, if you like."
+
+The old Khanum's eyes glittered as she saw the receptacle of the coveted
+medicine. Her lips moved, producing only inarticulate sounds. Then, with
+a convulsive movement, she suddenly began to try and drag herself along
+the divan to the place where Gregorios sat. He gazed at her scornfully.
+She was very weak, and painfully moved on her hands and knees, the
+straight hair falling about her face, while her eyes gleamed and her
+lips moved. Occasionally she paused as though exhausted, and groaned
+heavily in her agony. But Balsamides believed it to be but a comedy to
+frighten him into administering the dose, and he sat still in his place,
+holding the case in his hand and keeping his eyes upon her.
+
+"You cannot deceive me," he said coldly. "All these contortions will not
+prevail upon me. You must tell your secret, or you will get nothing."
+
+Still Laleli dragged herself along, apparently trying to speak, but
+uttering only inarticulate sounds. As she got nearer to him, still on
+her hands and knees, Gregorios thought he had never seen so awful a
+sight. The straight black hair was matted in the moisture upon her
+clammy face; a deathly, greenish livid hue had overspread her features;
+her chin was extended forward hungrily and her eyes shone dangerously,
+while her lips chattered perpetually. She was very near to Balsamides.
+Had she had the strength to stretch out her hand she could almost have
+touched the small black case he held. He thought she was too near, at
+last, and his grip tightened on the little box.
+
+"Confess," he said once more, "and you shall have it."
+
+For one moment more she tried to struggle on, still not speaking.
+Balsamides rose and quietly put the case into his pocket, anticipating a
+struggle. He little knew what the result would be. The miserable
+creature uttered a short cry, and a wild look of despair was in her
+eyes. Suddenly, as she crawled upon the divan, she reared herself up on
+her knees, stretching out her wasted hands towards him.
+
+"Give--give"--she cried. "I will tell you all--he is alive--he is--a
+wan--"
+
+Her staring black eyes abruptly seemed to turn white, and instantly her
+face became ashy pale. One last convulsive effort,--the jaw dropped, the
+features relaxed, the limbs were unstrung, and Laleli Khanum fell
+forward to her full length upon her face on the peach-colored satin of
+the divan.
+
+She was dead, and Gregorios Balsamides knew it, as he turned her limp
+body so that she lay upon her back. She was quite dead, but he was
+neither startled nor horrified; he was bitterly disappointed, and again
+and again he ground his heel into the thick Siné carpet under his feet.
+What was it to him whether this hideous old hag were dead in one way or
+another? She had died with her secret. There she lay in her shapeless
+bag-like gown of snuff-colored stuff, under the brilliant lights and the
+gorgeous mirrors, upon the delicate satin cushions, her white eyes
+staring wide, her hands clenched still in the death agony, the coarse
+hair clinging to her wet temples.
+
+Presently the body moved, and appeared to draw one--two--three
+convulsive breaths. Gregorios was startled, and bent down. But it was
+only the very end.
+
+"Bah!" he exclaimed, half aloud, "they often do that." Indeed, he had
+many times in his life seen men die, on the battlefield, on the hospital
+pallet, in their beds at home. But he had never seen such a death as
+this, and for a moment longer he gazed at the dead woman's face. Then
+the whole sense of disappointment rushed back upon him, and he hastily
+strode down the long hall, under the lamps, between the mirrors, without
+once looking behind him.
+
+
+
+
+XVIII.
+
+
+Balsamides found Selim outside the door at the other end of the passage,
+sitting disconsolately upon the divan. The Lala turned up his ugly face
+as Gregorios entered, and then rose from his seat, reluctantly, as
+though much exhausted. Balsamides laid his hand upon the fellow's arm
+and looked into his small red eyes.
+
+"The Khanum is dead," said the pretended physician.
+
+The negro trembled violently, and throwing up his arms would have
+clapped his hands together. But Balsamides stopped him.
+
+"No noise," he said sternly. "Come with me. All may yet be well with
+you; but you must be quiet, or it will be the worse for you." He held
+the Lala's arm and led him without resistance to the outer hall.
+
+"Mehemet Bey! Mehemet Bey!" I heard him call, and I hastened from the
+room where I had waited to join him in the vestibule. He was very pale
+and grave. On hearing him enter, the porter appeared, and silently
+opened the outer door. Balsamides addressed him as we prepared to leave
+the house.
+
+"The Khanum Effendi is dead," he said. "Selim will accompany us to the
+palace, and will return in the morning."
+
+The man's face, deeply marked with the small-pox and weather-beaten in
+many a campaign, did not change color. Perhaps he had long expected the
+news, for he bowed his head as though submitting to a superior order.
+
+"It is the will of Allah," he said in a low voice. In another moment we
+had descended the steps, Selim walking between us. The coachman was
+standing at the horses' heads in the light of the bright carriage lamps.
+Balsamides entered the carriage first, then I made Selim get in, and
+last of all I took my seat and closed the door.
+
+"Yildiz-Kiöshk!" shouted Balsamides out of the window to the driver, and
+once more we rattled over the pavement and along the rough road. I
+imagined that the order had been given only to mislead the porter, who
+had stood upon the steps until we drove away. I knew well enough that
+Balsamides would not present himself at the palace with me in my present
+disguise, and that it was very improbable that he would take Selim
+there. I hesitated to speak to him, because I did not know whether I was
+to continue to personate the adjutant or to reveal myself in my true
+character. I had comprehended the situation when I heard my friend tell
+the porter that the Khanum was dead, and I congratulated myself that we
+had secured the person of Selim without the smallest struggle or
+difficulty of any kind. I argued from this, either that the Khanum had
+died without telling her story, or else that she had told it all, and
+that Selim was to accompany us to the place where Alexander was buried
+or hidden.
+
+At last we turned to the left. Balsamides again put his head out of the
+window, and called to the coachman to drive on the Belgrade road instead
+of turning towards Pera. The negro started violently when he heard the
+order given, and I thought he put out his hand to take the handle of the
+door; but my own was in the hanging loop fastened to the inside of the
+door, and I knew that he could not open it. The road indicated by
+Gregorios leads through the heart of the Belgrade forest.
+
+The fierce north wind had moderated a little, or rather, as we drove up
+the thickly wooded valley, we were not exposed to it as we had been upon
+the shore of the Bosphorus and on the heights above. Overhead, the
+driving clouds took a silvery-gray tinge, as the last quarter of the
+waning moon rose slowly behind the hills of the Asian shore. The bare
+trees swayed and moved slowly in the wind with the rhythmical motion of
+aquatic plants under moving water. I looked through the glass as we
+drove along, recognizing the well-known turns, the big trees, the
+occasional low stone cottages by the roadside. Everything was familiar
+to me, even in the bleak winter weather; only the landscape was
+inexpressibly wild in its leafless grayness, under the faint light of
+the waning moon. From time to time the Lala moved uneasily, but said
+nothing. We were ascending the hill which leads to the huge arch of the
+lonely aqueduct which pierces the forest, when Balsamides tapped upon
+the window. The carriage stopped in the road and he opened the door on
+his side and descended.
+
+"Get down," he said to Selim. I pushed the negro forward, and got out
+after him. Balsamides seized his arm firmly.
+
+"Take him on the other side," he said to me in Turkish, dragging the
+fellow along the road in the direction of a stony bridle-path which from
+this point ascends into the forest. Then Selim's coolness failed him,
+and he yelled aloud, struggling in our grip, and turning his head back
+towards the coachman.
+
+"Help! help!" he cried. "In the name of Allah! They will murder me!"
+
+From the lonely road the coachman's careless laugh echoed after us, as
+we hurried up the steep way.
+
+"It is a solitary spot," observed Balsamides to the terrified Selim.
+"You may yell yourself hoarse, if it pleases you."
+
+We continued to ascend the path, dragging the Lala between us. He had
+little chance of escape between two such men as we, and he seemed to
+know it, for after a few minutes he submitted quietly enough. At last we
+reached an open space among the rocks and trees, and Balsamides stopped.
+We were quite out of earshot from the road, and it would be hard to
+imagine a more desolate place than it appeared, between two and three
+o'clock on that March night, the bare twigs of the birch-trees wriggling
+in the bleak wind, the faint light of the decrescent moon, that seemed
+to be upside down in the sky, falling on the white rocks, and on the
+whitened branches torn down by the winter's storms, lying like bleached
+bones upon the ground before us.
+
+"Now," said Balsamides to the negro, "no one can hear us. You have one
+chance of life. Tell us at once where we can find the Russian Effendi
+whose property you stole and sold to Marchetto in the bazaar."
+
+In the dim gloom I almost fancied that the black man changed color as
+Gregorios put this question, but he answered coolly enough.
+
+"You cannot find him," he said. "You need not have brought me here to
+ask me about him. I would have told you what you wanted to know at Yeni
+Köj, willingly enough."
+
+"Why can he not be found?"
+
+"Because he has been dead nearly two years, and his body was thrown into
+the Bosphorus," answered the Lala defiantly.
+
+"You killed him, I suppose?" Balsamides tightened his grip upon the
+man's arm. But Selim was ready with his reply.
+
+"You need not tear me in pieces. He killed himself."
+
+The news was so unexpected that Balsamides and I both started and looked
+at each other. The Lala spoke with the greatest decision.
+
+"How did he kill himself?" asked Gregorios sternly.
+
+"I will tell you, as far as I know. The Bekjí of Agia Sophia, the same
+who admitted the Effendi, took me up by the other staircase. Franks are
+never allowed to pass that way, as you know. When we were halfway up,
+holding the tapers before us, we stumbled over the body of a man lying
+at the foot of one of the flights, with his hand against the wall. We
+stooped down and examined him. He was quite dead. 'Selim,' said the
+Bekjí, who knows me very well, 'the Effendi has fallen down the stairs
+in the dark, and has broken his neck.' 'If we give the alarm,' said I,
+'we shall be held responsible for his death.' 'Leave it to me,' answered
+the Bekjí. 'Behold, the man is dead. It is his fate. He has no further
+use for valuables.' So the Bekjí took a ring, and a tobacco-box, and the
+watch and chain, and some money which was in the man's pockets. Then he
+said we should leave the corpse where it was. And when the prayers in
+the mosque were over, before it was day, he got a vegetable-seller's
+cart, and put the body in it and covered it with cabbages. Then we took
+it down to the point below Top Kapu Serai, where the waters are swift
+and deep. So we threw him in, for he was but a dog of a Giaour, and had
+broken his neck in stumbling where it was forbidden to go. Is it my
+fault that he stumbled?"
+
+"No," answered Balsamides, "it was not your fault if he stumbled, and
+the Bekjí was a Persian fox. But you robbed his body, and divided the
+spoil. What share did the Bekjí take?"
+
+"He took the ring and the tobacco-box and the money, for he was the
+stronger," answered the Lala.
+
+"Selim," said Balsamides quietly, "before the Khanum died to-night she
+said that Alexander Patoff was alive. If so, you are lying. You are a
+greater liar than Moseylama, the false prophet, as they say in your
+country. But if not, you are a robber of dead bodies. Therefore, Selim,
+say a Fatihah, for your hour is come."
+
+With that, Balsamides drew a short revolver from his pocket and cocked
+it before the man's eyes. The negro's limbs relaxed, and with a howl he
+fell upon his knees.
+
+"Mercy! In the name of Allah!" he cried. "I have told all the truth, I
+swear by the grave of my father"----
+
+"Don't move," said Gregorios, with horrible calmness. "You will do very
+well in that position. Now--say your Fatihah, and be quick about it. I
+cannot wait all night."
+
+"You are not in earnest, Gregorios?" I asked in English, for my blood
+ran cold at the sight.
+
+"Very much in earnest," he answered in Turkish, presenting the muzzle of
+the pistol to the Lala's head. "This fellow shall not laugh at our
+beards a second time. I will count three. If you do not wish to say your
+prayers, I will fire when I have said three. One--two"----
+
+"He is alive!" screamed the Lala, before the fatal "three" was spoken by
+Balsamides. "I have lied: he is alive! Mercy! and I will tell you all."
+
+"I thought so," said Balsamides, coolly uncocking his pistol and putting
+it back into his pocket. "Get up, dog, and tell us what you know."
+
+Selim was literally almost frightened to death, as he kneeled on the
+sharp stones at our feet. He could hardly speak, and I dragged him up
+and made him sit upon the trunk of a fallen tree. I was indeed glad that
+he was still alive, for though Balsamides had not yet told me the events
+of the night, I could see that he was in no humor to be trifled with.
+Even I, who am peaceably disposed towards all men, felt my blood boil
+when the fellow told how he and the Bekjí had robbed the body of
+Alexander Patoff, and thrown it into the Bosphorus for fear of being
+suspected. But the whole story seemed improbable, and I had a strong
+impression that Selim was lying. Perhaps nothing but the fear of death
+could have made him confess, after all, and Balsamides had a way of
+making death seem very real and near.
+
+"I will tell you this, Selim," said Gregorios. "If you will give me
+Alexander Patoff Effendi to-night, alive, well, and uninjured in any
+way, you shall go free, and I will engage that you shall not be hurt.
+You evidently wished to keep the Khanum's secret. The Khanum is dead,
+and her secrets are the Padishah's, like everything else she possessed.
+You are bound to deliver those secrets to my keeping. Therefore tell us
+shortly where the Russian is, that we may liberate him and take him home
+at once."
+
+"He is alive and well. That is to say, he has been well treated,"
+answered Selim. "If you can take him, you may take him to-night, for all
+I care. But you must swear that you will then protect me."
+
+"Filthy liquor in a dirty bottle!" exclaimed Balsamides angrily. "Will
+you make conditions with me, you soul of a dog in a snake's body?"
+
+"Very well," returned the Lala cunningly. "But if you should kill me by
+mistake before I have taken you to him, you will never find him."
+
+"I have told you that you shall not be hurt, if you will give him up.
+That is enough. My word is good, and I will keep it. Speak; you are
+safe."
+
+"In the first place, we must go back to Yeni Köj. You might have saved
+yourself the trouble of coming up here on such a night as this."
+
+"I want no comments on my doings. Tell me where the man is."
+
+"I will take you to him," said the Lala.
+
+"Well, then, get up and come back to the carriage," said Balsamides,
+seeing it was useless to bandy words with the fellow. Moreover, it was
+bitterly cold in the forest, and the idea of being once more in the
+comfortable carriage was attractive. Again we took Selim between us, and
+rapidly descended the stony path. In a few moments we were driving
+swiftly away from the arches of the aqueduct in the direction whence we
+had come.
+
+Before we had reached the door of Laleli's house, Selim asked Balsamides
+to stop the carriage. We got out, and he took us up a narrow and filthy
+lane between two high walls. The feeble light of the moon did not
+penetrate the blackness, and we stumbled along in the mud as best we
+could. After climbing in this way for nearly ten minutes, Selim stopped
+before what appeared to be a small door sunk in a niche in the wall. I
+heard a bunch of keys jingling in his hand, and in a few seconds he
+admitted us. Balsamides held him firmly by the sleeve, as he turned to
+lock the door behind us.
+
+"You shall not lock it," he said in a low voice. "Are we mice to be
+caught in a trap?"
+
+Having made sure that the door was open, he pushed Selim forward. We
+seemed to be in a very spacious garden, surrounded by high walls on all
+sides. The trees were bare, excepting a few tall cypresses, which reared
+their black spear-like heads against the dim sky. The flower-beds were
+covered with dark earth, and the gravel in the paths was rough, as
+though no one had trod upon it for a long time. The walls protected the
+place from the wind, and a gloomy stillness prevailed, broken only by
+the distant sighing of trees higher up, which caught the northern gale.
+
+Selim followed the wall for some distance, and at last stood still. We
+had reached one angle of the garden, and as well as I could see the
+corner made by the walls was filled by a low stone building with
+latticed windows, from one of which issued a faint light. Going nearer,
+I saw that the lattices were not of wood, but were strong iron gratings,
+such as no man's strength could break. The door in the middle of this
+stone box was also heavily ironed. Selim went forward, and again I heard
+the keys rattle in his hands. Almost instantly the shadow of a head
+appeared at the window whence the light came. While the Lala was
+unfastening the lock I went close to the grating. I was just tall enough
+to meet a pair of dark eyes gazing at me intently through the lowest
+bars.
+
+"Alexander Patoff, is it you?" I asked in Russian.
+
+"Good God!" exclaimed a tremulous voice. "Have the Russians taken
+Constantinople at last? Who are you?"
+
+"I am Paul Griggs. We have come to set you free."
+
+The heavy door yielded and moved. I rushed in, and in another moment I
+clasped the lost man's hand. Gregorios, far more prudent than I, held
+Selim by the collar as a man would hold a dog, for he feared some
+treachery.
+
+"Is it really you?" I asked, for I could scarcely believe my eyes.
+Alexander looked at me once, then broke into hysterical tears, laughing
+and crying and sobbing all at once. He was indeed unrecognizable. I
+remembered the descriptions I had heard of the young dandy, the gay
+officer of a crack regiment, irreproachable in every detail of his
+dress, and delicate as a woman in his tastes. I saw before me a man of
+good height, wrapped in an old Turkish kaftan of green cloth lined with
+fur, his feet thrust into a pair of worn-out red slippers. His dark
+brown hair had grown till it fell upon his shoulders, his beard reached
+halfway to his waist, his face was ghastly white and thin to emaciation.
+The hand he had given me was like a parcel of bones in a thin glove. I
+doubted whether he were the man, after all.
+
+"We must be quick," I said. "Have you anything to take away?" He cast a
+piteous glance at his poor clothing.
+
+"This is all I have," he said in a low voice. Then, with a half-feminine
+touch of vanity, he added, "You must excuse me: I am hardly fit to go
+with you." He looked wildly at me for a moment, and again laughed and
+sobbed hysterically. The apartment was indeed empty enough. There was a
+low round table, a wretched old divan at one end, and a sort of bed
+spread upon the floor, in the old Turkish fashion. The whole place
+seemed to consist of a single room, lighted by a small oil lamp which
+hung in one corner. The stuccoed walls were green with dampness, and the
+cold was intense. I wondered how the poor man had lived so long in such
+a place. I put my arm under his, and threw my heavy military cloak over
+his shoulders. Then I led him away through the open door. The key was
+still in the lock without, and Balsamides held Selim tightly by the
+collar. When we had passed, Gregorios, instead of following us, held the
+Lala at arm's-length before him. Then he administered one tremendous
+kick, and sent the wretch flying into the empty cell; he locked the door
+on him with care, and withdrew the keys.
+
+"I told you I would protect you," he called out through the keyhole.
+"You will be quite safe there for the present." Then he turned away,
+laughing to himself, and we all three hurried down the path under the
+wall, till we reached the small door by which we had entered the garden.
+Stumbling down the narrow lane, we soon got to the road, and found the
+carriage where we had left it. There was no time for words as we almost
+lifted the wretched Russian into the carriage and got in after him.
+
+"To my house in Pera!" cried Balsamides to the patient coachman. "Pek
+tchabuk! As fast as you can drive!"
+
+"Evvét Effendim," replied the old soldier, and in another moment we were
+tearing along the road at breakneck speed.
+
+Hitherto Alexander Patoff had been too much surprised and overcome by
+his emotions to speak connectedly or to ask us any questions. When once
+we were in the carriage and on our way to Pera, however, he recovered
+his senses.
+
+"Will you kindly tell me how all this has happened? Are you a Turkish
+officer?"
+
+"No," I answered. "This is a disguise. Let me present you to the man who
+has really liberated you,--Balsamides Bey."
+
+Patoff took the hand Gregorios stretched out towards him in both of his,
+and would have kissed it had Gregorios allowed him.
+
+"God bless you! God bless you!" he repeated fervently. He was evidently
+still very much shaken, and in order to give him a little strength I
+handed him a flask of spirits which I had left in the carriage. He drank
+eagerly, and grasped even more greedily the case of cigarettes which I
+offered him.
+
+"Ah!" he cried, in a sort of ecstasy, as he tasted the tobacco. "I feel
+that I am free."
+
+I began to tell him in a few words what had happened: how we had
+stumbled upon his watch in the bazaar, had identified Selim, and traced
+the Lala to Laleli Khanum's house; how the Khanum had died while
+Balsamides was there, just as she was about to tell the truth; how we
+had dragged Selim into the forest, and had threatened him with death;
+and how at last, feeling that since his mistress was dead he was no
+longer in danger, the fellow had conducted us to Alexander's cell in the
+garden. I told him that his brother and mother were in Pera, and that he
+should see them in the morning. I said that Madame Patoff had been very
+ill in consequence of his disappearance, and that every one had mourned
+for him as dead. In short, I endeavored to explain the whole situation
+as clearly as I could. While I was telling our story Balsamides never
+spoke a word, but sat smoking in his corner, probably thinking of the
+single kick in which he had tried to concentrate all his vengeance.
+
+As we drove along, the dawn began to appear,--the cold dawn of a March
+morning. I asked Balsamides whether it would be necessary to change my
+clothes before entering the city.
+
+"No," he answered; "we shall be at home at sunrise. The fellow drives
+well."
+
+"I shall have to ask you to take me in for a few hours," said Alexander.
+"I am in a pitiable state."
+
+"You must have suffered horribly in that den," observed Balsamides. "Of
+course you must come home with me. We will send for your brother at
+once, and when you are rested you can tell us something of your story.
+It must be even more interesting than ours."
+
+"It would not take so long to tell," answered Patoff, with a melancholy
+smile. In the gray light of the morning I was horrified to notice how
+miserably thin and ill he looked; but even in his squalor, and in spite
+of the long hair and immense beard, I could see traces of the beauty I
+had so often heard described by Paul, and even by Cutter, who was rarely
+enthusiastic about the appearance of his fellows. He seemed weak, too,
+as though he had been half starved in his prison. I asked him how long
+it was since he had eaten.
+
+"Last night," he said, wearily, "they brought me food, but I could not
+eat. A man in prison has no appetite." Then suddenly he opened the
+window beside him, and put his head out into the cold blast, as though
+to drink in more fully the sense of freedom regained. Balsamides looked
+at him with a sort of pity which I hardly ever saw in his face.
+
+"Poor devil!" he said, in a low voice. "We were just in time. He could
+not have lasted much longer."
+
+We reached the outskirts of Pera, and Alexander hastily withdrew his
+head and sank back in the corner, as though afraid of being seen. He had
+the startled look of a man who fears pursuit. At last we rattled down
+the Grande Rue, and stopped before the door of Balsamides' house. It was
+six o'clock in the morning, and the sun was nearly up. I thought it had
+been one of the longest nights I ever remembered.
+
+While Balsamides dismissed the coachman, I led Alexander quickly into
+the house and up the narrow stairs. In a few minutes Gregorios joined
+us, and coffee was brought.
+
+"I think you could wear my clothes," he said, looking at Alexander with
+a scarcely perceptible smile. "We are nearly the same height, and I am
+almost as thin as you."
+
+"If you would be so very kind as to send for a barber," suggested
+Patoff. "I have never been allowed one, for fear I should get hold of
+his razor and kill myself or somebody else."
+
+"I will go and send one," said I. "And I will rouse your brother and
+bring him back with me."
+
+"Stop!" cried Balsamides. "You cannot go like that!" I had forgotten
+that I still wore the adjutant's uniform. "Take care of our friend," he
+added, "and I will go myself."
+
+We should probably have felt very tired, after our night's excursion,
+had we not been sustained by the sense of triumph at having at last
+succeeded beyond all hope. It was hard to imagine what the effect would
+be upon Madame Patoff, and I began to fear for her reason as I
+remembered how improbable it had always seemed to me that we should find
+her son alive. I was full of curiosity to hear his story, but I knew
+that he was exhausted with fatigue and emotion, so that I put him in
+possession of my room and gave him some of my friend's clothes. In a few
+moments the barber arrived, and while he was performing his operations I
+myself resumed my ordinary dress.
+
+Balsamides found Paul in bed and fast asleep, but, pushing the servant
+aside, he walked in and opened the windows.
+
+"Wake up, Patoff!" he shouted, making a great noise with the fastenings.
+
+"Holloa! What is the matter?" cried Paul, opening his sleepy eyes wide
+with astonishment as he saw Balsamides standing before him, white as
+death with the excitement of the night. "Has anything happened?"
+
+"Everything has happened," said Gregorios. "The sun is risen, the birds
+are singing, the Jews are wrangling in the bazaar, the dogs are fighting
+at Galata Serai, and, last of all, your brother, Alexander Patoff, is at
+this moment drinking his coffee in my rooms."
+
+"My brother!" cried Paul, fairly leaping out of bed in his excitement.
+"Are you in earnest? Come, let us go at once."
+
+"Your costume," remarked Balsamides quietly, "smacks too much of the
+classic for the Grande Rue de Pera. I will wait while you dress."
+
+"Does my mother know?" asked Patoff.
+
+"No," replied Balsamides. "Your brother had not been five minutes in my
+house when I came here." Then he told Paul briefly how we had found
+Alexander.
+
+Paul Patoff was not a man to be easily surprised; but in the present
+case the issue had been so important, that, being taken utterly unawares
+by the news, he felt stunned and dazed as he tried to realize the whole
+truth. He sat down in the midst of dressing, and for one moment buried
+his face in his hands. Balsamides looked on quietly. He knew how much
+even that simple action meant in a man of Paul's proud and
+undemonstrative temper. In a few seconds Paul rose from his seat and
+completed his toilette.
+
+"You know how grateful I am to you both," he said. "You must guess it,
+for nothing I could say could express what I feel."
+
+"Do not mention it," answered Balsamides. "No thanks could give me half
+the pleasure I have in seeing your satisfaction. You must prepare to
+find your brother much changed, I fancy. He seemed to me to be thin and
+pale, but I think he is not ill in any way. If you are ready, we will
+go."
+
+Meanwhile, Alexander had had his hair cut short, in the military
+fashion, and had been divested of the immense beard which hid half his
+face. A tub and a suit of civilized clothes did the rest, even though
+the latter did not fit him as well as Gregorios had expected. Gregorios
+is a deceptive man and is larger than he looks, for his coat was too
+broad for Alexander, and hung loosely over the latter's shoulders and
+chest. But in spite of the imperfect fit, the change in the man's
+appearance was so great that I started in surprise when he entered the
+sitting-room, taking him for an intruder who had walked in unannounced.
+
+He was very beautiful; that is the only word which applies to his
+appearance. His regular features, in their extreme thinness, were
+ethereal as the face of an angel, but he had not the painful look of
+emaciation which one so often sees in the faces of those long kept in
+confinement. He was very thin indeed, but there was a perfect grace in
+all his movements, an ease and self-possession in his gestures, a quiet,
+earnest, trustful look in his dark eyes, which seemed almost unearthly.
+I watched him with the greatest interest, and with the greatest
+admiration also. Had I been asked at that moment to state what man or
+woman in the whole world I considered most perfectly beautiful, I should
+have answered unhesitatingly, Alexander Patoff. He had that about him
+which is scarcely ever met with in men, and which does not always please
+others, though it never fails to attract attention. I mean that he had
+the delicate beauty of a woman combined with the activity and dash of a
+man. I saw how the lightness, the alternate indolence and reckless
+excitement, of such a nature must act upon a man of Paul Patoff's
+character. Every point and peculiarity of Alexander's temper and bearing
+would necessarily irritate Paul, who was stern, cold, and manly before
+all else, and who readily despised every species of weakness except
+pride, and every demonstration of feeling except physical courage.
+Alexander was like his mother; so like her, indeed, that as soon as I
+saw him without his beard I realized the cause of Madame Patoff's
+singular preference for the older son, and much which had seemed
+unnatural before was explained by this sudden revelation. Paul probably
+resembled his father's family more than his mother's. Madame Patoff, who
+had loved that same cold, determined character in her husband, because
+she was awed by it, hated it in her child, because she could neither
+bend it nor influence it, nor make it express any of that exuberant
+affection which Alexander so easily felt. Both boys had inherited from
+their father a goodly share of the Slav element, but, finding very
+different ground upon which to work in the natures of the two brothers,
+the strong Russian individuality had developed in widely different ways.
+In Alexander were expressed all the wild extremes of mood of which the
+true Russian is so eminently capable; all the overflowing and
+uncultivated talent and love of art and beauty, which in Russia brings
+forth so much that approaches indefinitely near to genius without ever
+quite reaching it. In Paul the effect of the Slavonic blood was totally
+opposite, and showed itself in that strange stolidity, that cold and
+ruthless exercise of force and pursuance of conviction, which have
+characterized so many Russian generals, so many Russian monarchs, and
+which have produced also so many Russian martyrs. There is something
+fateful in that terrible sternness, something which very well excites
+horror while imposing respect, and especially when forced to submit to
+superior force; and when vanquished, there is something grand in the
+capacity such a character possesses for submitting to destiny, and
+bearing the extremest suffering.
+
+It was clear enough that there could never be any love lost between two
+such men, and I was curious to see their meeting. I wondered whether
+each would fall upon the other's neck and shed tears of rejoicing, or
+whether they would shake hands and express their satisfaction more
+formally. In looking forward to the scene which was soon to take place,
+I almost wished that Paul might have accompanied us in the disguise of a
+second adjutant, and thus have had a hand in the final stroke by which
+we had effected Alexander's liberation. But I knew that he would only
+have been in the way, and that, considering the whole situation, we had
+done wisely. The least mistake on his part might have led to a struggle
+inside the Khanum's house, and we had good cause to congratulate
+ourselves upon having freed the prisoner without shedding blood. There
+was something pleasantly ludicrous in the thought that all our
+anticipations of a fight had ended in that one solemn kick with which
+Balsamides had consigned Selim to the prison whence we had taken
+Alexander.
+
+I was giving the latter a few more details of the events of the night,
+when Paul and Balsamides entered the room together. Paul showed more
+emotion than I had expected, and clasped his brother in his arms in
+genuine delight at having found him at last. Then he looked long at his
+face, as though trying to see how far Alexander was changed in the
+twenty months which had elapsed since they had met.
+
+"You are a little thinner,--you look as though you had been ill," said
+Paul.
+
+"No, I have not been ill, but I have suffered horribly in many ways,"
+answered Alexander, in his smooth, musical voice.
+
+For some minutes they exchanged questions, while they overcame their
+first excitement at being once more together. It was indeed little less
+than a resurrection, and Alexander's ethereal face was that of a spirit
+returning to earth rather than of a living man who had never left it. At
+last Paul grew calmer.
+
+"Will you tell us how it happened?" he asked, as he sat down upon the
+divan beside his brother. Balsamides and I established ourselves in
+chairs, ready to listen with breathless interest to the tale Alexander
+was about to tell.
+
+"You remember that night at Santa Sophia, Paul?" began the young man,
+leaning back among the cushions, which showed to strong advantage the
+extreme beauty of his delicate face. "Yes, of course you remember it,
+very vividly, for Mr. Griggs has told me how you acted, and all the
+trouble you took to find me. Very well; you remember, then, that the
+last time I saw you we were all looking down at those fellows as they
+went through their prayers and prostrations, and I stood a little apart
+from you. You were very much absorbed in the sight, and the kaváss, who
+was a Mussulman, was looking on very devoutly. I thought I should like
+to see the sight from the other side, and I walked away and turned the
+corner of the gallery. You did not notice me, I suppose, and the noise
+of the crowd, rising and falling on their knees, must have drowned my
+footsteps."
+
+"I had not the slightest idea that you had moved from where you stood,"
+said Paul.
+
+"No. When I reached the corner, I was very much surprised to see a man
+standing in the shadow of the pillar. I was still more astonished when I
+recognized the hideous negro who had knocked off my hat in the
+afternoon. I expected that he would insult me, and I suppose I made as
+though I would show fight; but he raised his finger to his lips, and
+with the other hand held out a letter, composing his face into a sort of
+horrible leer, intended to be attractive. I took the letter without
+speaking, for I knew he could not understand a word I said, and that I
+could not understand him. The envelope contained a sheet of pink paper,
+on which, in an ill-formed hand, but in tolerably good French, were
+written a few words. It was a declaration of love."
+
+"From Laleli?" asked Balsamides, with a laugh.
+
+"Exactly," replied Alexander. "It was a declaration of love from Laleli.
+I leave you to imagine what I supposed Laleli to be like at that time,
+and Paul, who knows me, will tell you that I was not likely to hesitate
+at such a moment. The note ended by saying that the faithful Selim would
+conduct me to her presence without delay. I was delighted with the
+adventure, and crept noiselessly after him in the shadow of the gallery,
+lest you should see me; for I knew you would prevent my going with the
+man. We descended the stairs, but it was not until we reached the bottom
+that I saw we had not come down by the way I had ascended. Selim was
+most obsequious, and seemed ready to do everything for my comfort. As we
+walked down a narrow street, he presented me with a new fez, and made
+signs to me to put it on instead of my hat, which he then carefully
+wrapped in a handkerchief and carried in his hand. At a place near the
+bridge several caïques were lying side by side. He invited me to enter
+one, which I observed was very luxuriously fitted, and which I thought I
+recognized as the one in which I had so often seen the woman with the
+impenetrable veil. I lay back among the cushions and smoked, while Selim
+perched himself on the raised seat behind me, and the four boatmen
+pulled rapidly away. It was heavy work for them, I dare say, tugging
+upstream, but to me the voyage was enchanting. The shores were all
+illuminated, and the Bosphorus swarmed with boats. It was the last time
+I was in a caïque. I do not know whether I could bear the sight of one
+now."
+
+"So they took you to Laleli's house?" said Paul, anxious to hear the
+rest.
+
+"Yes; I was taken to Laleli's house, and I never got out of it till last
+night," continued Alexander. "How long is it? I have not the least idea
+of the European date."
+
+"This is the 29th of March," said I.
+
+"And that was the end of June,--twenty-one months. I have learned
+Turkish since I was caught, to pass the time, and I always knew the
+Turkish date after I had learned their way of counting, but I had lost
+all reckoning by our style. Well, to go on with my story. They brought
+me to the stone pier before the house. Selim admitted me by a curiously
+concealed panel at one end of the building, and we found ourselves in a
+very narrow place, whence half a dozen steps ascended to a small door. A
+little oil lamp burned in one corner. He led the way, and the door at
+the top slid back into the wall. We entered, and he closed it again. We
+were in the corner of a small room, richly furnished in the worst
+possible taste. I dare say you know the style these natives admire.
+Selim left me there for a moment. I looked carefully at the wall, and
+tried to find the panel; but to my surprise, the wainscoting was
+perfectly smooth and even, and I could not discover the place where it
+opened, nor detect any spring or sign of a fastening. Laleli, I thought,
+understood those things. Presently a door opened on one side of the
+room, and I saw the figure I had often watched, beckoning to me to come.
+Of course I obeyed, and she retired into the room beyond, which was very
+high and had no windows, though I noticed that there was a dome at the
+top, which in the day-time would admit the light."
+
+"The Khanum was waiting for you?" I asked.
+
+"Yes. I was surprised to see her dressed in the clothes she wore
+out-of-doors, and as thickly veiled as ever. There were lights in the
+room. She held out her small hand,--you remember noticing that she had
+small white hands?"
+
+"Like a young woman's," replied Balsamides.
+
+"Yes. I took her hand, and spoke in French. I dare say I looked very
+sentimental and passionate as I gazed into her black eyes. I could see
+nothing of her face. She answered me in Turkish, which of course I could
+not understand. All I could say was Pek güzel, very beautiful, which I
+repeated amidst my French phrases, giving the words as passionate an
+accent as I could command. At last she seemed to relent, and as she bent
+towards me I expected that she was about to speak very softly some
+Turkish love-word. What was my horror when she suddenly screamed into my
+ear, with a hideous harsh voice, my own words, Pek güzel! In a moment
+she threw off her black ferigee, and tore the thick veil from her head.
+I could have yelled with rage, for I saw what a fool I had made of
+myself, and that the old hag had played a practical joke on me in
+revenge for the affair in the Valley of Roses. I cursed her in French, I
+cursed her in Russian, I cursed her in English, and stamped about the
+room, trying to get out. The horrible old witch screamed herself hoarse
+with laughter, making hideous grimaces and pointing at me in scorn. What
+could I do? I tried to force one of the doors, and twisted at the
+handle, and tugged and pushed with all my might. While I was thus
+engaged I heard the door at the other end of the room open quickly, and
+as I turned and sprang towards it I caught sight of her baggy,
+snuff-colored gown disappearing, as she slammed the door behind her.
+Before I could reach it the lock was turned, and I was caught in the
+trap,--caught like a mouse."
+
+"What a spiteful old thing she was!" I exclaimed. "She might have been
+satisfied with keeping you there a day instead of two years."
+
+"Nearly two years. I did everything humanly possible to escape. I gave
+all I possessed to Selim to take a message to Paul, to anybody; but of
+course that was useless. At first they kept me in the room where I had
+been caught. My food was brought to me by the Turkish porter, a brawny
+fellow, who could have brained me with his fist. He was always
+accompanied by another man, as big as himself, who carried a loaded
+pistol, in case I attacked the first. I had no chance, and I wished I
+might go mad. Then, one night, they set upon me suddenly, and tied a
+handkerchief over my mouth, and bound me hand and foot, in spite of my
+struggles. I thought I was to be put into a sack and drowned. They
+carried me like a log out into the garden, and put me into that cell
+where you found me, which had apparently just been built, for the stones
+were new and the cement was fresh. There, at least, I could look through
+the gratings. I even thought at one time that I could make myself heard,
+having no idea of the desolate position of the place. But I soon gave up
+the attempt and abandoned myself to despair. There it was that Selim
+used to come occasionally, and talk to me through the bars. That was
+better than nothing, and the villain amused his leisure moments by
+teaching me to speak Turkish. One day he brought me a book, which I
+hailed with delight. It was an old French method for learning the
+language. I made great progress, as I studied from morning to night.
+Selim grew more familiar to me, and I confess with shame that I missed
+his visits when he did not come. The men who brought my food seemed
+absolutely mute, and I never succeeded in extracting a word from either
+of them. Even Selim was a companion, and talking to him saved me from
+going mad. I asked him all sorts of questions, and at last I guessed
+from his answers that the Khanum had been terrified by the disturbance
+my disappearance had created, and was afraid to set me free lest I
+should take vengeance on her. She was also afraid to kill me, for some
+reason or other. The result was, that, from having merely wished to
+revenge upon me the affair in the Valley of Roses by means of a
+practical joke, she found herself obliged to keep me a prisoner. I used
+every means of persuasion to move Selim. I told him I was rich, and
+would make him rich if he would help me to escape. I promised to take
+no steps against the Khanum. It was in vain, I assure you I have
+conceived a very high opinion of the fidelity of Lalas in general, and
+of Selim in particular."
+
+"They are very faithful," said Balsamides gravely. I have since fancied
+that he had some reason for knowing.
+
+Alexander afterwards told us many more details of his confinement; but
+this was his first account of it, and embraced all that is most
+important to know. The whole affair made a very strong impression on me.
+The unfortunate man had fallen a victim to a chain of circumstances
+which it had been entirely impossible to foresee, all resulting directly
+from his first imprudent action in addressing the veiled lady in the
+Valley of Roses. A little piece of folly had ruined two years of his
+life, and subjected him to a punishment such as a court of justice would
+have inflicted for a very considerable crime.
+
+The remainder of the day was occupied by the meeting of Alexander with
+his mother and his introduction to his English relations, upon which it
+is needless to dwell long. I never knew what passed between the mother
+and son, but the interview must have been a very extraordinary one. It
+was necessary, of course, to prepare Madame Patoff for the news and for
+the sight of the child she seemed to love better than anything in the
+world. Hermione performed the task, as being the one who understood her
+best. She began by hinting vaguely that we had advanced another step in
+our search, and that we were now confident of finding Alexander before
+long, perhaps in a few hours. She gradually, in talking, spoke of the
+moment when he would appear, wondering how he would look, and insensibly
+accustoming Madame Patoff to the idea. At last she confessed that he had
+been found during the night, and that he was ready to come to his mother
+at any moment.
+
+It was well done, and the force of the shock was broken. The old lady
+nearly swooned with joy, but the danger was past when she recovered her
+consciousness and demanded to see Alexander at once. He was admitted to
+her room, and the two were left alone to their happiness.
+
+The rest of the family were mad with delight. John Carvel grew ten years
+younger, and Mrs. Carvel fairly cried with joy, while Chrysophrasia
+declared that it was worth while to be disappointed by the first
+impression of Constantinople, when one was consoled by such a thrilling
+tale with so joyous a termination,--or happy end, as I should have said.
+Hermione's face beamed with happiness, and Macaulay literally melted in
+smiles, as he retired to write down the story in his diary.
+
+"Oh, Paul!" Hermione exclaimed when they were alone, "you never told me
+he was such a beauty!"
+
+"Yes," he answered quietly, "he is far better-looking than I am. You
+must not fall in love with him, Hermy."
+
+"The idea of such a thing!" she cried, with a light laugh.
+
+"I should not be surprised if he fell in love with you, dear," said
+Paul, smiling.
+
+"You only say that because you do not like him," she answered. "But you
+will like him now, won't you? You are so good,--I am sure you will. But
+think what a splendid thing it is that you should have found him. If
+aunt Chrysophrasia says, 'Where is your brother?' you can just answer
+that he is in the next room."
+
+"Yes; I am a free man now. No one can ever accuse me again. But apart
+from that, I am really and sincerely glad that he is alive. I wish him
+no ill. It is not his fault that I have been under a cloud for nearly
+two years. He was as anxious to be found as I was to find him. After
+all, it was not I. It was Balsamides and Griggs who did it at last. I
+dare say that if I had been with them I should have spoiled it all. I
+could not have dressed myself like a Turkish officer, to begin with. If
+I had been caught in the uniform, belonging as I do to the embassy,
+there would have been a terrible fuss. I should have been obliged to go
+away, very likely without having found my brother at all. I owe
+everything to those two men."
+
+"If you had not made up your mind that he should be found, they would
+never have found him; they would not have thought of taking the
+trouble."
+
+Hermione spoke in a reassuring tone, as though to comfort Paul for
+having had no share in the final stroke which had liberated his brother.
+In reality Paul needed no consolation. In his heart he was glad that
+Alexander had been set free by others, and need therefore never feel
+himself under heavy obligations to Paul. It was not in the strong man's
+nature to wish to revenge himself upon his brother because the latter
+had been the favored child and the favorite son. Nor, if he had
+contemplated any kind of vengeance, would he have chosen the Christian
+method of heaping coals of fire upon his head. He merely thought of
+Alexander as he would have thought of any other man not his relation at
+all, and he did not wish to appear in the light of his liberator. It was
+enough for Paul that he had been found at last, and that his own
+reputation was now free from stain. Nothing prevented him any longer
+from marrying Hermione, and he looked forward to the consummation of all
+his hopes in the immediate future.
+
+The day closed in a great rejoicing. John Carvel insisted that we should
+all dine with him that night; and our numbers being now swelled by the
+addition of Alexander Patoff and Gregorios Balsamides, we were a large
+party,--ten at table. I shall never forget the genuine happiness which
+was on every face. The conversation flowed brilliantly, and every one
+felt as though a weight had been lifted from his or her spirits.
+Alexander Patoff was of course the most prominent person, and as he
+turned his beautiful eyes from one to the other of us, and told us his
+story with many episodes and comments, I think we all fell under his
+fascination, and understood the intense love his mother felt for him. He
+had indeed a woman's beauty with a man's energy, when his energy was
+roused at all; and though the feminine element at first seemed out of
+place in him, it gave him that singular faculty of charming when he
+pleased, and that brilliancy which no manly beauty can ever have.
+
+It was late when we got home, and I went to bed with a profound
+conviction that Paul Patoff's troubles had come to a happy end, and that
+he would probably be married to Hermione in the course of the summer. If
+things had ended thus, my story would end here, and perhaps it would be
+complete. Unfortunately, events rarely take place as we expect that they
+will, still more rarely as we hope that they may; and it is generally
+when our hopes coincide with our expectations, and we feel most sure of
+ourselves, that fate overtakes us with the most cruel disappointments.
+Paul Patoff had not yet reached the quiet haven of his hopes, and I have
+not reached the end of my story. It would indeed be a very easy matter,
+as I have said before, to collect all the things which happened to him
+into a neat romance, of which the action should not cover more than
+four-and-twenty hours of such excitement as no one of the actors could
+have borne in real life, any more than Salvini could act a tragedy which
+should begin at noon to-day and end at midday to-morrow. I might have
+divested Paul of many of his surroundings, have bereaved him of many of
+his friends, and made him do himself what others did to him; but if he
+were to read such an account of his life he would laugh scornfully, and
+say that the real thing was very different indeed, as without doubt it
+was.
+
+This is the reason why I have not hesitated to bring before you a great
+number of personages, each of whom, in a great or a small way, affected
+his life. I do not believe that you could understand his actions in the
+sequel without knowing the details of those situations through which he
+had passed before. We are largely influenced by little things and little
+events. The statement is a truism in the eyes of the moralist, but the
+truth is, unfortunately, too often forgotten in real life. The man who
+falls down-stairs and breaks his leg has not noticed the tiny spot of
+candle grease which made the polished step so slippery just where he
+trod.
+
+
+
+
+XIX.
+
+
+There were great rejoicings when it was known in Pera that Alexander
+Patoff had been found. His disappearance had furnished the gossips with
+a subject of conversation during many weeks, and his coming back revived
+the whole story, with the addition of a satisfactory ending. In
+consideration of the fact that Laleli Khanum was dead, Count Ananoff
+thought it best to take no official notice of the matter. To treat it
+diplomatically would be useless, he said. Alexander had fallen a victim
+to his own folly, and though the penalty had been severe, it was
+impossible to hold the Ottoman government responsible for what Patoff
+had suffered, now that the Khanum had departed this life. Alexander
+received permission to take three months' leave to recruit his health
+before returning to his regiment, and he resolved to spend a part of the
+time in Constantinople, after which his mother promised to accompany him
+to St. Petersburg.
+
+The Carvels had very soon made the acquaintance of the small but
+brilliant society of which the diplomatic corps constituted the chief
+element; and if anything had been needed to make them thoroughly
+popular, their near connection with the young man whose story was in
+every one's mouth would alone have sufficed to surround them with
+interest. The adventure was told with every conceivable variety of
+detail, and Alexander was often called upon to settle disputes as to
+what had happened to him. He was ready enough at all times to play the
+chief part in a drawing-room, and delighted in being questioned by grave
+old gentlemen, as well as by inquisitive young women. The women admired
+him for his beauty, his grace and brilliancy, and especially for the
+expression of his eyes, which they declared in a variety of languages to
+be absolutely fascinating. The men were interested in his story, and
+envied him the additional social success which he obtained as the hero
+of so strange an adventure. Some people admired and praised his devotion
+to his mother, which they said was most touching, whatever that may
+mean. Others said that he had an angelic disposition, flavored by a dash
+of the devil, which saved him from being goody; and this criticism of
+his character conveyed some meaning to the minds of those who uttered
+it. People have a strange way of talking about their favorites, and when
+the praise they mean to bestow is not faint, the expression of it is apt
+to be feeble and involved.
+
+Pera is a gay place, for when a set of men and women are temporarily
+exiled from their homes to a strange country, where they do not find the
+society of a great capital, they naturally seek amusement and pursue it;
+creating among themselves those pastimes which in the great European
+cities others so often provide for them. Politically, also,
+Constantinople is a very important place to most of the powers, who
+choose their representatives for the post from among the cleverest men
+they can find; and I will venture to say that there is scarcely a court
+in the world where so many first-rate diplomatists are gathered together
+as are to be met with among the missions to the Sublime Porte. Diplomacy
+in Constantinople has preserved something of the character it had all
+over the world fifty years ago. Personal influence is of far greater
+importance when negotiations are to be undertaken with a half-civilized
+form of administration, which is carried on chiefly by persons of
+imperfect education, but of immense natural talent for intrigue. The
+absence of an hereditary nobility in Turkey, and the extremely
+democratic nature of the army and the civil service, make it possible
+for men of the lowest birth to attain to the highest power. The immense
+and complicated bureaucracy is not in the hands of any one class of the
+people; its prizes are won by men of all sorts and conditions, who
+continue to pursue their own interests and fortunes with undiminished
+energy, when they ought to be devoting their whole powers to the service
+of the country. Their power is indeed checked by the centralization of
+all the executive faculties in the person of the sovereign. Without the
+Sultan's signature the minister of war cannot order a gun to be cast in
+the arsenal of Tophanè, the minister of marine cannot buy a ton of coal
+for the ironclads which lie behind Galata bridge in the Golden Horn, the
+minister of foreign affairs cannot give a reply to an ambassador, nor
+can the minister of justice avail himself of the machinery of the law.
+Every smallest act must be justified by the Sultan's own signature, and
+the chief object of all diplomacy from without, and of all personal
+intrigue from within, is to obtain this imperial consent to measures
+suggested by considerations of private advantage or public necessity.
+The Ottoman Empire may be described as an irregular democracy, whose
+acts are all subject to the veto of an absolute autocrat. The officials
+pass their lives in proposing, and his Majesty very generally spends his
+time in opposing, all manner of schemes, good, bad, and indifferent. The
+contradictory nature of the system produces the anomalous position
+occupied by the Ottoman Empire in Europe.
+
+The fact that there is no aristocracy and the seclusion of women among
+the Mussulmans are the chief reasons why there is no native society, in
+our sense of the word. A few of the great Greek families still survive,
+descendants of those Fanariotes whose ancestors had played an important
+part in the decadence of the Eastern Empire. A certain number of
+Armenians who have gained wealth and influence follow more or less
+closely the customs of the West. But beyond these few there cannot be
+said to be many houses of the social kind. Two or three pashas, of
+European origin, and Christians by religion, mix with their families in
+the gayety of Pera and the Bosphorus. A few Turkish officers, and
+Prussian officers in Turkish service, show their brilliant uniforms in
+the ball-rooms, and occasionally some high official of the Porte appears
+at formal receptions; but on the whole the society is diplomatic, and
+depends almost entirely upon the diplomatists for its existence and for
+its diversions. The lead once given, the old Greek aristocrats have not
+been behindhand in following it; but their numbers are small, and the
+movement and interest in Pera, or on the Bosphorus, centre in the great
+embassies, as they do nowhere else in the world.
+
+Small as the society is, it is, nevertheless exceedingly brilliant and
+very amusing. Intimacies grow up quickly, and often become lasting
+friendships when fostered by such influences. Every one knows every one
+else, and every one meets everybody else at least once a week. The
+arrival of a new secretary is expected with unbounded interest. The
+departure of one who has been long in Constantinople is mourned as a
+public loss. Occasionally society is convulsed to its foundations by the
+departure of an ambassador to whom every one has been so long accustomed
+that he has come to be regarded as one of the fathers of the community,
+whose hospitality every one has enjoyed, whose tact and knowledge of the
+world have been a source of satisfaction to his colleagues in many a
+diplomatic difficulty, and whose palace in Pera is associated in the
+minds of all with many hours of pleasure and with much delightful
+intercourse. He goes, and society turns out in a body to see him off.
+The occasion is like a funeral. People send hundreds of baskets of
+flowers. There is an address, there are many leave-takings. Once, at
+least, I remember seeing two thirds of the people shedding
+tears,--genuine wet tears of sorrow. And there was good reason for their
+grief. In such communities as the diplomatic colony in Pera, people
+understand the value of those who not only do more than their share in
+contributing to the pleasantness of life, but who possess in an
+abundant degree those talents which delight us in individuals, and those
+qualities which are dear to us in friends. It would be easy to write a
+book about society in Pera, and it would be a pleasant book. But these
+are not the days of Samuel Pepys; we have hardly passed the age of Mr.
+George Ticknor.
+
+In a short time after their arrival, and after the reappearance of
+Alexander Patoff, the Carvels knew everybody, and everybody knew them.
+Each member of the party found something to praise and some one to like.
+John Carvel was soon lost in admiration of Lord Mavourneen, while Mrs.
+Carvel talked much with the English missionary bishop of Western
+Kamtchatka, who happened to be spending a few days at the embassy. She
+asked him many questions concerning the differences between Armenian
+orthodox, Armenian catholic, Greek orthodox, and Russian orthodox; and
+though his lordship found a great deal to say on the subject, I am bound
+to allow that he was almost as much puzzled as herself when brought face
+to face in the reality with such a variety of sects. Chrysophrasia had
+not come to the East for nothing, either. She meant to indulge what John
+called her fancy for pots and pans and old rags; in other words, she
+intended to try her luck in the bazaar, and with the bloodhound's scent
+of the true collector she detected by instinct the bricabrac hunters of
+society. There is always a goodly number of them wherever antiquities
+are to be found, and Chrysophrasia was hailed by those of her persuasion
+with the mingled delight and jealousy which scientific bodies feel when
+a new scientist appears upon the horizon.
+
+As for Hermione, she created a great sensation, and the hearts of many
+secretaries palpitated in the most lively manner when she first entered
+the ball-room of one of the embassies, two days after her arrival. The
+astonishment was great when it was known that she was Paul Patoff's own
+cousin; and when it was observed that Paul was very often with her the
+cry went up that he had fallen in love at last. Thereupon all the women
+who had said that he was a bore, a monster, a statue, and a piece of
+ice, immediately declared that there must be something in him, after
+all, and began to talk to him whenever they got a chance. Some
+disappointment was felt, too, when it was observed that Alexander Patoff
+also showed a manifest preference for the society of his beautiful
+cousin, and wise old ladies said there would be trouble. Everybody,
+however, received the addition to society with open arms, and hoped that
+the Carvels' visit might be prolonged for at least a whole year.
+
+Many of these comments reached my ears, and the remarks concerning
+Alexander's growing attachment for Hermione startled me, and chilled me
+with a sense of evil to come. I opened my eyes and watched, as every one
+else was doing, and in a short time I came to the conclusion that public
+opinion was right. It was very disagreeable to me to admit it, but I
+soon saw that there was no doubt that Alexander was falling in love with
+his cousin. I saw, too, what others who knew them less well did not see:
+Madame Patoff exercised all her ingenuity in giving her favorite son
+opportunities of seeing Hermione alone. It was very easy to do this, and
+she did it in the most natural way; she affected to repent bitterly of
+her injustice to Paul, and took delight in calling him to her side, and
+keeping him with her as long as possible. Sometimes she would make him
+stay an hour by her side at a party, going over and over the strange
+story of Alexander's imprisonment, and asking him questions again and
+again, until he grew weary and absent, and answered her with rather
+incoherent phrases, or in short monosyllables not always to the point.
+Then at last, when she saw that she could keep him no longer, she would
+let him go, asking him to forgive her for being so importunate, and
+explaining as an excuse that she could never hear enough of a story that
+had ended so happily. Meanwhile Alexander had found ample opportunity
+for talking with Hermione, and had made the most of his time.
+
+I have said that I had always been very fond of the young girl, and I
+thought that I understood her character well enough; but I find it hard
+to understand the phases through which she passed after she first met
+Alexander. I believe she loved Paul very sincerely from the first, and I
+know that she contemplated the prospect of marrying him at no distant
+time. But I am equally sure that she did not escape the influence of
+that wonderful fascination which Alexander exercised over everybody. If
+it is possible to explain it at all, which is more than doubtful, I
+should think that it might be accounted for on some such theory as this.
+Hermione was negative as compared with Paul, but in comparison with
+Alexander she was positive. It is clear that if this were so she must
+have experienced two totally different sets of impressions, according as
+she was with the one or the other of the brothers.
+
+To define more clearly what I mean, I will state this theory in other
+words. Paul Patoff was a very masculine and dominating man. Hermione
+Carvel was a young girl, who resembled her strong, sensible, and manly
+father far more than her meek and delicate mother. Though she was still
+very young, there was much in her which showed the determined will and
+energetic purpose which a man needs to possess more than a woman.
+Alexander Patoff, on the other hand, without being effeminate, was
+intensely feminine. He had fine sensibilities, he had quick intuitions,
+he was capricious and womanly in his ideas. It follows that, in the
+scale of characters, Hermione held the mean between the two brothers.
+Compared with Paul's powerful nature, her qualities were those of a
+woman; in comparison with Alexander's delicate organization of mind,
+Hermione's character was more like that of a man. The effect of this
+singular scale of personalities was, that when she found herself
+alternately in the society of the two brothers she felt as though she
+were alternately two different women. To a man entering a house on a
+bitter winter's night the hall seems comfortably warm; but it seems
+cold to a man who has been sitting over a fire in a hermetically sealed
+study.
+
+Now Hermione had loved Paul when he was practically the only man of
+those she had ever known intimately whom she believed it possible to
+love at all. But she had seen very little of the world, and had known
+very few men. Her first recollections of society were indistinct, and no
+one individual had made any more impression upon her than another,
+perhaps because she was in reality not very impressionable. But Paul was
+preëminently a man able to impress himself upon others when he chose. He
+had come to Carvel Place, had loved his cousin, and she had returned his
+love with a readiness which had surprised herself. It was genuine in its
+way, and she knew that it was; nor could she doubt that Paul was in
+earnest, since a word from her had sufficed to make him curtail his
+visit, and go to the ends of the earth to find his brother. Hermione
+more than once wished that she had never spoken that word.
+
+She now entered upon a new phase of her life, she saw a new sort of
+society, and she met a man who upset in a moment all her convictions
+about men in general. The result of all this novelty was that she began
+to look at life from a different point of view. Alexander amused her,
+and at the same time he made her feel of more importance in her own
+eyes. He talked well, but he made her fancy that she herself talked
+better. His thoughts were subtle, though not always logical, and his
+quick instincts gave him an immense advantage over people of slower
+intelligence. He knew all this himself, perhaps; at all events, he used
+his gifts in the cleverest possible way. He possessed the power to
+attract Hermione without dominating her; in other words, he made her
+like him of her own free will.
+
+She liked him very much, and she felt that there was no harm in it. He
+was the brother of her future husband, so that she easily felt it a duty
+to like him, as well as a pleasure. Alexander himself affected to treat
+her with a sort of cousinly-brotherly affection, and spoke always of
+Paul with the greatest respect, when he spoke of him at all; but he
+manifestly sought opportunities of expressing his affection, and avoided
+all mention of Paul when not absolutely necessary. The position was
+certainly a difficult one, but he managed it with the tact of a woman
+and the daring of a man. I have always believed that he was really fond
+of Hermione; for I cannot imagine him so vile as to attempt to take her
+from Paul, when Paul had done so much towards liberating him from his
+prison. But whatever were his motives or his feelings, it was evident to
+me that he was making love to her in good earnest, that the girl was
+more interested in him than she supposed, and that Madame Patoff was
+cunningly scheming to break off the match with Paul in order to marry
+Hermione to Alexander.
+
+Balsamides had of course become a friend of the family, after the part
+he had played in effecting Alexander's escape, and in his own way I
+think he watched the situation when he got a chance with as much
+interest as I myself. One evening we were sitting in his rooms, about
+midnight, talking, as we talked eternally, upon all manner of subjects.
+
+"Griggs," said he, suddenly changing the topic of our conversation, "it
+is a great pity we ever took the trouble to find Alexander. I often wish
+he were still lying in that pleasant den in Laleli's garden."
+
+"It would be better for every one concerned, except himself, if he
+were," I answered.
+
+"I detest the fellow's face. If it were not for his mustache, he might
+pass for a woman anywhere."
+
+"He is as beautiful as an angel," I said, wishing to give him his due.
+
+"What business have men with such beauty as that?" asked Gregorios,
+scornfully. "I would rather look like a Kurd hamál than like Alexander
+Patoff. He is spoiling Paul's life. Not that I care!" he added,
+shrugging his shoulders.
+
+"No," I said, "it is none of our business. I liked him at first, I
+confess, and I thought that Alexander and Miss Carvel would make a very
+pretty couple. But I like him less the more I see of him. However, he
+will soon be going back to his regiment, and we shall hear no more of
+him."
+
+"His leave is not over yet," answered my friend. "A fellow like that can
+do a deal of harm in a few weeks."
+
+Gregorios is a man of violent sympathies and antipathies, though no one
+would suppose it from his cold manner and general indifference. But I
+know him better than I have known most men, and he is less reticent with
+me than with the generality of his friends. It was impossible to say
+whether he took enough interest in the Carvels or in Paul to attempt to
+influence their destiny, but I was sure that if he crossed Alexander's
+path the latter would get the worst of it, and I mentally noted the fact
+in summing up Paul's chances.
+
+At that time nothing had openly occurred which suggested the possibility
+of a rupture of the unacknowledged engagement between Paul and Hermione.
+Paul several times told her that he wished to speak formally to John
+Carvel, and obtain his consent to the marriage; but Hermione advised him
+to wait a little longer, arguing that she herself had spoken, and that
+there was therefore no concealment about the matter. The longer they
+waited, she said, the more her father would become accustomed to the
+idea, and the more he would learn to like Paul, so that in another month
+there would be no doubt but that he would gladly give his consent. But
+Paul himself was not satisfied. His mother's conduct irritated him
+beyond measure, and he began seriously to suspect her of wishing to make
+trouble. He was no longer deceived by her constant show of affection for
+himself, for she continued always to make it most manifest just when it
+prevented him from talking with Hermione. Alexander, too, treated him as
+he had not done before, with a deference and a sort of feline softness
+which inspired distrust. Two years ago Paul would have been the first to
+expect foul play from his brother, and would have been upon his guard
+from the beginning; but Paul himself was changed, and had grown more
+merciful in his judgment of others. He found it hard to persuade himself
+that Alexander really meant to steal Hermione's love; and even when he
+began to suspect the possibility of such a thing, he believed that he
+could treat the matter lightly enough. Nevertheless, Hermione continued
+to dissuade him from going to her father, and he yielded to her advice,
+though much against his will. He found himself in a situation which to
+his conscience seemed equivocal. He knew from what John Carvel had
+written to me that his suit was not likely to meet with any serious
+opposition; he understood that John expected him to speak, and he began
+to fancy that his future father-in-law looked at him inquiringly from
+time to time, as though anticipating a question, and wondering why it
+was not asked.
+
+One day he came to see me, and found me alone. Gregorios had gone to the
+palace, and I have no doubt that Paul, who knew his habits, had chosen a
+morning for his visit when he was certain that Balsamides would not be
+at home. He looked annoyed and almost nervous, as he sat down in silence
+and began to smoke.
+
+"Anything wrong?" I asked.
+
+"I hardly know," he replied. "I am very uncomfortable. I am in a very
+disagreeable situation."
+
+I was silent. I did not want to invite his confidence, and if he had
+come to tell me anything about himself, it was better to let him tell it
+in his own way.
+
+"I am in a very disagreeable position," he repeated slowly. "I want to
+ask your advice."
+
+"That is always a rash thing to do," I replied.
+
+"I do not care. I must confide in you, as I did once before, but this
+time I only want your advice. My position is intolerable. I feel every
+day that I ought to ask Mr. Carvel to give me his daughter, and yet I
+cannot do it."
+
+"Why not? It is certainly your duty," said I.
+
+"Because Miss Carvel objects," he answered, with sudden energy. His
+voice sounded almost fierce as he spoke.
+
+"Do you mean that she has not accepted"----
+
+"I do not know what I mean, nor what she means, either!" exclaimed Paul,
+rising, and beginning to pace the floor.
+
+"My dear Patoff," I said, "you made a grave mistake in making me find
+your brother. Excuse my abruptness, but that is my opinion."
+
+He turned suddenly upon me, and his face was very pale, while his eyes
+gleamed disagreeably and his lip trembled.
+
+"So you have noticed that, too," he said in a low voice. "Well--go on!
+What do you advise me to do? How am I to get him out of the way?"
+
+"There can be no doubt that Balsamides would advise you to cut his
+throat," I replied. "As for me, I advise you to wait, and see what comes
+of it. He must soon go home and rejoin his regiment."
+
+"Wait!" exclaimed Paul impatiently. "Wait! Yes,--and while I am waiting
+he will be working, and he will succeed! With that angel's face of his,
+he will certainly succeed! Besides, my mother will help him, as you
+know."
+
+"Look here," said I. "Either Miss Carvel loves you, or she does not. If
+she does, she will not love your brother. If she does not love you, you
+had better not marry her. That is the reasonable view."
+
+"No doubt,--no doubt. But I do not mean to be reasonable in that way.
+You forget that I love her. The argument might have some weight."
+
+"Not much. After all, why do you love her? You do not know her well."
+
+Paul stared at me as though he thought I were going mad. I dare say that
+I must have appeared to him to be perfectly insane. But I was
+disconcerted by the gravity of the situation, and I believed that he had
+a bad chance against Alexander. It was wiser to accustom his mind to the
+idea of failure than to flatter him with imaginary hopes of success. A
+man in love is either a hero or a fool; heroes who fail are generally
+called fools for their pains, and fools who succeed are sometimes called
+heroes. Paul stared, and turned away in silence.
+
+"You do not seem to have any answer ready," I observed. "You say you
+love a certain lady. Is there any reason, in the nature of things, why
+some one else should not love her at the same time? Then it follows that
+the most important point is this,--she must love you. If she does not,
+your affection is wasted. I am not an old man, but I am far from being a
+young one, and I have seen much in my time. You may analyze your
+feelings and those of others, when in love, as much as you please, but
+you will not get at any other result. Unless a woman loves you, it is of
+very little use that you love her."
+
+"What in the world are you talking about, Griggs?" asked Paul, whose
+ideas, perhaps, did not coincide with mine. "What can you know about
+love? You are nothing but a hardened old bachelor; you never loved a
+woman in your life, I am sure."
+
+I was much struck by the truth of this observation, and I held my peace.
+A cannibal cannot be expected to understand French cooking.
+
+"I tell you," continued Paul, "that Miss Carvel has promised to marry
+me, and I constantly speak to her of our marriage."
+
+"But does she speak to you of it?" I asked. "I fancy that she never
+alludes to it except to tell you not to go to her father."
+
+In his turn Paul was silent, and bent his brows. He must have been half
+distracted, or he would not have talked to me as he did. I never knew a
+less communicative man.
+
+"This is a very delicate matter," I said presently. "You ask my advice;
+I will give you the best I can. Do one of two things. Either go to Mr.
+Carvel without his daughter's permission, or else fight it out as you
+can until your brother goes. Then you will have the field to yourself."
+
+"The difficulty lies in the choice," said Paul.
+
+"The choice depends upon your own state of mind, and upon your strength,
+or rather upon the strength of your position. If Miss Carvel has
+promised to marry you, I think you have a right to push matters as fast
+as you can."
+
+"I will," said Paul. "Good-by."
+
+He left me at once, and I began to reflect upon what had passed. It
+seemed to me that he was foolish and irrational, altogether unlike
+himself. He had asked my advice upon a point in which his own judgment
+would serve him better than mine, and it was contrary to his nature to
+ask advice at all in such matters. He was evidently hard pressed and
+unhappy, and I wished I could help him, but it was impossible. He was in
+a dilemma from which he could issue only by his own efforts; and
+although I was curious to see what he would do, I felt that I was not in
+a position to suggest any very definite line of action. I looked idly
+out of the window at the people who passed, and I began to wonder
+whether even my curiosity to see the end could keep me much longer in
+Pera. The crowd jostled and elbowed itself in the narrow way, as usual.
+The fez, in every shade of red, and in every condition of newness,
+shabbiness, and mediocrity, with tassel and without, rocked, swayed,
+wagged, turned, and moved beneath my window till I grew sick of the
+sight of it, and longed to see a turban, or a tall hat, or no hat at
+all,--anything for a change of head-dress. I left the window rather
+wearily, and took up one of the many novels which lay on the table,
+pondering on the probable fate of Paul Patoff's love for his cousin.
+
+
+
+
+XX.
+
+
+Hermione found herself placed in quite as embarrassing a position as
+Paul, and before long she began to feel that she had lost herself in a
+sort of labyrinth of new sensations. She hardly trusted herself to think
+or to reflect, so confusing were the questions which constantly
+presented themselves to her mind. It seems an easy matter for a woman to
+say, I love this man, or, I love that man, and to know that she speaks
+truly in so saying. With some natures first love is a fact, a certainty
+against which there is no appeal, and beside which there is no
+alternative. To see, with them, is practically to love, and to love once
+is to love forever. We may laugh over "love at first sight," as we call
+it, but history and every-day life afford so many instances of its
+reality that we cannot deny its existence. But the conditions in which
+it is found are rare. To love each other at first sight, both the
+persons must be impulsive; each must find in the other exactly what each
+has long sought and most earnestly desired, and each must recognize the
+discovery instantaneously. I suppose, also, that unless such love lasts
+it does not deserve the name; but in order that it may be durable it is
+necessary that the persons should realize that they have not been
+deceived in their estimate of each other, that they should possess in
+themselves the capacity for endurance, that their tastes should change
+little and their hearts not at all. People who are at once very
+impulsive and very enduring are few in the world and very hard to mate;
+wherefore love at first sight, but of a lasting nature, is a rare
+phenomenon.
+
+Hermione did not belong to this class, and she had certainly not loved
+Paul during the first few days of their acquaintance. Her nature was
+relatively slow and hard to rouse. A season in society had produced no
+impression upon her; and if Paul had stayed only a week, or even a
+fortnight, at Carvel Place he might have fared no better than all the
+other men who had been presented to her, had talked and danced with her,
+and had gone away, leaving her life serenely calm as before. But Paul
+had been very assiduous, and had lost no time. Moreover, he loved her,
+and was in earnest about it; so that when, on that memorable day in the
+park, he had spoken at last, she had accepted his speech and had sealed
+her answer.
+
+She believed that she loved him with all her heart, but she was new to
+love, and the waking sentiment was not yet a passion. It was only a
+sensation, and though its strength was great enough to influence
+Hermione's life, it had not yet acquired any great stability. A more
+impulsive nature would have been more suddenly moved, but Hermione's
+love needed time for its development, and the time had been very short.
+Since she had admitted that she loved Paul, she had not seen him until
+the eve of his brother's reappearance; and now, owing to Madame Patoff's
+skillful management, she talked with Alexander more frequently than with
+Paul. Alexander was apparently doing his best to make her love him, and
+the world said that he was succeeding. Hermione herself was startled
+when she tried to understand her own feelings, for she saw that a great
+change had taken place in her, and she could neither account for it nor
+assure herself where it would end. It would be unjust to blame her, or
+to say that she was unfaithful. She did not waver in her determination
+to marry Paul, but she tried to put it off as long as possible,
+struggling to clear away her doubts, and trying hard to feel that she
+was acting rightly. After all, it is easy to comprehend the confusion
+which arises in a young girl's mind when placed in such a position. We
+say too readily that a woman who wavers and hesitates is treating a man
+badly. Men are so quick to jump at the conclusion that women love them
+that they resent violently the smallest signs of hesitation in the other
+sex. They do not see that a woman needs time to decide, just as a man
+does; and they think it quite enough that they themselves have made up
+their minds, as if women existed only to submit themselves to the choice
+of men, and had no manner of right to question that choice when once
+made.
+
+Paul could not imagine why Hermione hesitated, and she herself would
+certainly have refused to account for the delay she caused, by admitting
+that Alexander had made an impression upon her heart. But she felt the
+charm the man exercised, and her life was really influenced by it. The
+strange adventure which had so long kept him a prisoner in Laleli's
+house lent him an atmosphere of romantic interest, and his own nature
+increased the illusion. The brilliant young officer, with his almost
+supernatural beauty, his ready tongue, his sweet voice, and his dashing
+grace, was well calculated to make an impression upon any woman; to a
+young girl who had grown up in very quiet surroundings, who had hitherto
+regarded Paul Patoff as the ideal of all that a man should be, the
+soldier brother seemed like a being from another world. At the same time
+Hermione was reaching the age when she could enjoy society, because she
+began to feel at home in it, because the first dazzling impression of it
+had given way to a quieter appreciation of what it offered, and lastly
+because she herself was surrounded by many admirers, and had become a
+personage of more importance than she had ever thought possible before.
+Under such circumstances a young girl's impressions change very rapidly.
+She feels the disturbing influence and enjoys the moment, but while it
+lasts she feels also that she is unfit to decide upon the greatest
+question of her life. She needs time, because she can employ very little
+of the time she has in serious thought, and because she doubts whether
+all her previous convictions are not shaken to their foundations. She
+dreads a mistake, and is afraid that in speaking too quickly she may
+speak untruly. It is the desire to be honest which forbids her to
+continue in the course she had chosen before this new phase of her life
+began, or to come to any new decision involving immediate action,
+especially immediate marriage.
+
+Herein lies the great danger to a young girl who has promised to marry a
+man before she has seen anything of the world, and who suddenly begins
+to see a great deal of the world before the marriage actually takes
+place. She is just enough attached to the man to feel that she loves
+him, but the bonds are not yet so close as to make her know that his
+love is altogether the dominating influence of her life. Unless this
+same man whom she has chosen stands out as conspicuously in the new
+world she has entered as in the quiet home she has left, there is great
+danger that he may fall in her estimation; and in those early stages of
+love, estimation is a terribly important element. By estimation I do not
+mean esteem. There is a subtle difference between the two; for though
+our estimation may be high or low, our esteem is generally high. When a
+young girl is old enough to be at home in society, she sets a value on
+every man, and perhaps on every woman, whom she meets. They take their
+places in the scale she forms, and their places are not easily changed.
+Among them the man she has previously promised to marry almost
+inevitably finds his rank, and she is fortunate if he is among the
+highest; for if he is not, she will not fail to regret that he does not
+possess some quality or qualities which she supposes to exist in those
+men whom she ranks first among her acquaintance. Where criticism begins,
+sympathy very often ends, and with it love. Then, if she is honest, a
+woman owns that she has made a mistake, and refuses to abide by her
+engagement, because she feels that she cannot make the man happy. Or if
+her ideas of faith forbid her from doing this, she marries him in spite
+of her convictions, and generally makes him miserable for the rest of
+his days. When a girl throws a man over, as the phrase goes, the world
+sets up a howl, and vows that she has treated him very badly; but it
+always seems to me that by a single act of courage she has freed herself
+and the man who loves her from the fearful consequences of a marriage
+where all the love would have been on one side, and all the criticism on
+the other. It is not always a girl's own fault when she does not know
+her own mind, and when she has discovered her mistake she is wise if she
+refuses to persist in it. There is more to be said in favor of breaking
+off engagements than is generally allowed, and there is usually far too
+much said against the woman who has the courage to pursue such a course.
+
+In comparing the two brothers, as she undoubtedly did, Hermione was not
+aware that she was making any real comparison between them. What she
+felt and understood was that when she was with Paul she was one person,
+and when she was with Alexander she was quite another; and the knowledge
+of this fact confused her, and made her uncertain of herself. With Paul
+she was, in her own feelings, the Hermione he had known in England; with
+Alexander she was some one else,--some one she did not recognize, and
+who should have been called by another name. Until she could unravel
+this mystery, and explain to herself what she felt, she was resolved not
+to take any further steps in regard to her marriage.
+
+Pera, at this time, was indulging itself in its last gayeties before the
+beginning of the summer season, when every one who is able to leave the
+town goes up the Bosphorus, or to the islands. The weather was growing
+warm, but still the dancing continued with undiminished vigor. Among
+other festivities there was to be a masked ball, a species of amusement
+which is very rare in Constantinople; but somebody had suggested the
+idea, one of the great embassies had taken it up, and at last the day
+was fixed and the invitations were issued. It was to be a great affair,
+and everybody went secretly about the business of composing costumes
+and disguises. There was much whispering and plotting and agreeing
+together in schemes of mystification. The evening came, everybody went,
+and the ball was a great success.
+
+Hermione had entirely hidden her costume with a black domino, which is
+certainly the surest disguise which anyone can wear. Its wide folds
+reached to the ground, and completely hid her figure, while even her
+hands were rendered unrecognizable by loose black gloves. Paul had been
+told what she was to wear; but he probably knew her by some sign, agreed
+upon beforehand, from all the other black dominos; for a number of other
+ladies had chosen the same over-garment to hide the brilliant costumes
+until the time came for unmasking. He came up to her immediately, and
+offered his arm, proposing to walk through the rooms before dancing; but
+Hermione would not hear of it, saying that if she were seen with him at
+first she would be found out at once.
+
+"Do not be unreasonable," said she, as she saw the disappointed look on
+his face. "I want to mystify ever so many people first. Then I will
+dance with you as much as you like."
+
+"Very well," said Paul, rather coldly. "When you want me, come to me."
+
+Hermione nodded, and moved away, mixing with the crowd under the
+hundreds of lights in the great ball-room. Paul sighed, and stood by the
+door, caring little for what went on. He was not a man who really took
+pleasure in society, though he had cultivated his social faculties to
+the utmost, as being necessary to his career. The fact that all the
+ladies were masked dispensed him for the time from the duty of making
+the round of the room and speaking to all his acquaintances, and he was
+glad of it. But Hermione was bent upon enjoying her first masked ball,
+and all the freedom of moving about alone. She spoke to many men whom
+she knew, using a high, squeaking voice which in no way recalled her
+natural tones. In the course of half an hour she found Alexander Patoff
+talking earnestly with a lady in a white domino, whom she recognized, to
+her surprise, as her aunt Chrysophrasia. Alexander evidently had no idea
+of her identity, for he was speaking in low and passionate tones, while
+Miss Dabstreak, who seemed to enter into the spirit of the mystification
+with amazing readiness, replied in the conventional squeak. She had
+concealed her hands in the loose sleeves of her domino, and as she was
+of about the same height as Hermione, it was absolutely impossible to
+prove that she was not Hermione herself.
+
+"Hermione," exclaimed Alexander, just as the real Hermione came up to
+him, "I cannot bear to hear you talk in that voice! What is the use of
+keeping up this ridiculous disguise? Do you not see that I am in
+earnest?"
+
+"Perfectly," squeaked Chrysophrasia. "So am I. But somebody might hear
+my natural voice, you know."
+
+Hermione started, and drew back a little. It was a strange position, for
+Alexander was evidently under the impression that he was making love to
+herself, and her aunt was amused by drawing him on. She hesitated, not
+knowing what she ought to do. It was clear that, unless she made herself
+known to him, he might remain under the impression that she had accepted
+his love-making. She waited to see what would happen. But Chrysophrasia
+had probably detected her, for presently the white domino moved quickly
+away towards the crowd. Alexander sprang forward, and would have
+followed, but Hermione crossed his path, and laid her hand on his
+sleeve.
+
+"Will you give me your arm, Alexander?" she said, quietly, in her
+natural way.
+
+He stopped short, stared at her, and then broke into a short, half-angry
+laugh. But he gave her his arm, and walked by her side, with an
+expression of bewilderment and annoyance on his beautiful face. Hermione
+was too wise to say that she had overheard the conversation, and
+Alexander was ashamed to own that he had made a mistake, and taken some
+one else for her. But by making herself known Hermione had effectually
+annulled whatever false impression Chrysophrasia had made upon him.
+
+"Do you know who that lady in the white domino is, with whom I was
+talking a moment ago? Did you see her?" he asked, rather nervously.
+
+"It is our beloved aunt Chrysophrasia," said Hermione, calmly.
+
+"Good heavens! Aunt Chrysophrasia!" exclaimed Alexander, in some horror.
+
+"Why 'good heavens'?" inquired Hermione. "Have you been doing anything
+foolish? I am sure you have been making love to her. Tell me about it."
+
+"There is nothing to tell. But what a wonderful disguise! How many
+dances will you give me? May I have the cotillon?"
+
+"You may have a quadrille," answered Hermione.
+
+"A quadrille, two waltzes, and the cotillon. That will do very well. As
+nobody knows you in that domino, we can dance as often as we please, and
+you will only be seen with me in the cotillon. What is your costume? I
+am sure it is something wonderful."
+
+"How you run on!" exclaimed the young girl. "You do not give one the
+time to refuse one thing before you take another!"
+
+"That is the best way, and you know it," answered Alexander, laughing.
+"A man should never give a woman time to refuse. It is the greatest
+mistake that can be imagined."
+
+"Did aunt Chrysophrasia refuse to dance with you?" inquired Hermione.
+
+Alexander bit his lip, and a faint color rose in his transparent skin.
+
+"Aunt Chrysophrasia is a hard-hearted old person," he replied,
+evasively; but he almost shuddered at the thought that under the white
+domino there had lurked the green eyes and the faded, sour face of his
+æsthetic relative.
+
+"To think that even she should have resisted you!" exclaimed Hermione,
+wickedly.
+
+"Better she than you," said Alexander, lowering his tone as they passed
+near a group of persons who chattered loudly in feigned voices. "Better
+she than you, dear cousin," he repeated, gently. "To be refused anything
+by you"----
+
+"They do things very well here," interrupted Hermione, pretending not to
+hear. "They have such magnificent rooms, and the floor is so good."
+
+"Hermione, why do you"----
+
+"Because," said Hermione quickly, before he could finish his sentence,
+"because you say too much, cousin Alexander. I interrupt you because you
+go too far, and because the only possible way of checking you is to cut
+you short."
+
+"And why must you check me? Am I rude or rough with you? Do I say
+anything that you should not hear? You know that I love you; why may I
+not tell you so? I know. You will say that Paul has spoken before me.
+But do you love Paul? Hermione, can you own to yourself that you love
+him,--not as a brother, but as the man you would choose to marry? He
+does not love you as I love you."
+
+"Hush!" exclaimed the young girl. "You must not. I will go away and
+leave you."
+
+"I will follow you."
+
+"Why will you torment me so?" Perhaps her tone of voice did not express
+all the annoyance she meant to show, for Alexander did not desist. He
+only changed his manner, growing suddenly as soft and yielding as a
+girl.
+
+"I did not mean to annoy you," he said. "You know that I never mean to.
+You must forgive me, you must be kind to me, Hermione. You have the
+stronger position, and you should be merciful. How can I help saying
+something of what I feel?"
+
+"You should not feel it, to begin with," answered his cousin.
+
+"Will you teach me how I may not love you?" His voice dropped almost to
+a whisper, as he bent down to her and asked the question. But Hermione
+was silent for a moment, not having any very satisfactory plan to
+propose. Half reluctant, she sat down by him upon a sofa in the corner
+of an almost empty room. There were tall plants in the windows, and the
+light was softened by rose-colored shades.
+
+"It must be a hard lesson to learn," said Alexander, speaking again.
+"But if you will teach me, I will try and learn it; for I will do
+anything you ask me. You say I must not love you, but I love you
+already. When I am with you I am carried away, like a boat spinning down
+the Neva in the springtime. Can the river stop itself in order that what
+lives in it may not move any more? Can it say to the skiff, 'Go no
+further,' when the skiff is already far from the shore, at the mercy of
+the water?"
+
+"The boatman must pull hard at his oars," laughed Hermione. "Have you
+never seen a caïque pull through the Devil's Stream on the Bosphorus, at
+Bala Hissar? It is hard work, but it generally succeeds."
+
+"A man may fight against the devil, but he cannot struggle against what
+he worships. Or, if he can, you must teach me how to do it, and give me
+some weapon to fight with."
+
+"You must rely on yourself for that. You must say, 'I will not,' and it
+will be very easy. Besides," she added, with another laugh, in which
+there was a rather nervous ring,--"besides, you know all this is only a
+comedy, or a pastime. You are not in earnest."
+
+"I wish I were not," answered Alexander, softly. "You tell me to rely
+upon myself. I rely on you. I love you, and that makes you stronger than
+me."
+
+Hermione believed him, and perhaps she was right. She felt, and he made
+her feel, that she dominated him, and could turn him whither she would.
+Her pride was flattered, and though she promised herself that she would
+make him give up his love for her by the mere exertion of a superior
+common sense, she was conscious that the task was not wholly
+distasteful. She enjoyed the sensation of being the stronger, of
+realizing that Alexander was wholly at her feet and subject to her
+commands. That he should have gradually grown so intimate as to speak so
+freely to her is not altogether surprising. They were own cousins, and
+called each other by their Christian names. They met daily, and were
+often together for many consecutive hours, and Madame Patoff did her
+best to promote this state of things. Hermione had become accustomed to
+his devotion, for he had advanced by imperceptible stages. When he first
+said that he loved her, she took it as she might have taken such an
+expression from her brother,--as the exuberant expression of an
+affection purely platonic, not to say brotherly. When he had repeated it
+more earnestly, she had laughed at him, and he had laughed with her in a
+way which disarmed all her suspicions. But each time that he said it he
+laughed less, until she realized that he was not jesting. Then she
+reproached herself a little for having let the intimacy grow, and
+determined to persuade him by gentle means that he had made a mistake.
+She felt that she was responsible for his conduct, because she had not
+been wise enough to stop him at the outset, and she therefore felt also
+that it would be unjust to make a violent scene, and that it was
+altogether out of the question to speak to Paul about the matter. To
+tell the truth, she was not sorry that it was out of the question, and
+this was the most dangerous element in her intimacy with Alexander. When
+a young woman who has not a profound experience of the world undertakes
+to convince a man by sheer argument that he ought not to love her, the
+result is likely to be unsatisfactory, and she stands less chance of
+persuading than of being persuaded. A man who persuades a woman that
+she is able to influence him, and that he is wholly at her mercy, has
+already succeeded in making himself interesting to her; and she will not
+readily abandon the exercise of her power, since she is provided with
+the too plausible excuse that she is doing him good, and consequently is
+herself doing right.
+
+"I wish you would really listen to me, and take my advice," said
+Hermione, after a pause. "There is so much that is good in you,--so much
+that is far better than this foolish love-making."
+
+Alexander Patoff smiled softly, and his brown eyes gazed dreamily at
+hers, that just showed through the openings in the black domino.
+
+"If there is anything good in me, you have put it there," he answered.
+"Do not take it away; do not give me the physic of good advice."
+
+"I think you need it more than usual to-night," said his cousin. "You
+are more than usually foolish, you know."
+
+"You are more than usually wise. But if you tell me to do anything
+to-night, I will do it."
+
+"Then go away and dance with some one else," laughed Hermione. To her
+surprise, Alexander rose quietly, and with one gentle glance turned
+away. Then she repented.
+
+"Alexander!" she exclaimed, almost involuntarily.
+
+"Yes," he answered, coming back, and seating himself again by her side.
+
+"I did not tell you to come back," she said, amused at his docility.
+
+"No--but I came," he replied. "You called me. I thought you had
+forgotten something. Shall I go away again?"
+
+"No. You may stay, if you will be good," said she, leaning back and
+looking away from him.
+
+"I promise. Besides, you admitted a moment ago that I was very good.
+Perhaps I am too good, and that is the reason why you sent me away."
+
+"I did not say you were good. I said there was some good in you. You
+always take everything for granted."
+
+"I will take all you grant," said he.
+
+"I grant nothing. It is you who fancy that I do. You have altogether too
+much imagination."
+
+"I never need it with you, even if I have it," answered Alexander. "You
+are infinitely beyond anything I ever imagined in my wildest dreams."
+
+"So are you," laughed Hermione. "Only--it is in a different way."
+
+"Why do you think I like you so much?" asked her cousin, suddenly
+changing his tone.
+
+"Because you ought not to," she answered without hesitation.
+
+"Then you think that as soon as any one tells me that I should not like
+a thing, I make up my mind to like it and to have it? No, that is not
+the reason I love you."
+
+"It was 'liking,' not 'loving,' a moment ago," observed Hermione.
+"Please always say 'liking.' It is a much better word."
+
+"Perhaps. It leaves more to the imagination, of which you say I have so
+much. The reason I like you so much, Hermione, is because you are so
+honest. You always say just what you mean."
+
+"Yes. The difficulty lies in making you understand what I mean."
+
+"As the Frenchman said when a man misunderstood him. You furnish me with
+an argument; you are not bound to furnish me with an understanding. No,
+I am afraid that would be asking the impossible. It is easier for a
+woman to talk than for a man to know what she thinks."
+
+"I thought you said I was honest. Please explain," returned Hermione.
+
+"Honesty does not always carry conviction. I mean that you are evidently
+most wonderfully honest, from your own point of view. If I could make my
+opinion yours, everything would be settled very soon."
+
+"In what way?"
+
+"Why should I tell you? I have told you so often, and you will not
+believe me. If I say it, you will send me away again. I do not say
+it,--another proof of my goodness to-night."
+
+"I am deeply sensible," answered Hermione, with a laugh. "Come, I will
+give you one dance, and then you must go."
+
+So they left their seat, and went into the ball-room just as the
+musicians began to play Nur für Natur; and the enchanting strains of the
+waltz carried them away in the swaying movement, and did them no manner
+of good. Just such conversations had taken place before, and would take
+place again so long as Hermione maintained the possibility of converting
+Alexander to the platonic view of cousinly affection. But each time some
+chance expression, some softer tone of voice, some warmer gleam of light
+in the Russian's brown eyes, betrayed that he was gaining ground rather
+than losing anything of the advantage he had already obtained.
+
+Half an hour later Hermione laid her hand on Paul's arm, and looked up
+rather timidly into his eyes through the holes in her domino. His
+expression was very cold and hard, but it changed as he recognized her.
+
+"At last," he said happily, as he led her away.
+
+"At last," she echoed, with a little sigh. "Do you want to dance?" she
+asked. "It is so hot; let us go and sit down somewhere."
+
+Almost by accident they came to the place where Hermione had sat with
+Alexander. There was no one there, and they installed themselves upon
+the same sofa.
+
+"I thought you were never coming," said Paul. "After all, what does it
+matter whether people see us together or not? I never can understand
+what amusement there is, after the first five minutes, in rushing about
+in a domino and trying to mystify people."
+
+"No," answered Hermione, "it is not very amusing. I would much rather
+sit quietly and talk with some one I know and who knows me."
+
+"I want to tell you something to-night, dear," said Paul, after a short
+silence. "Do you mind if I tell you now?"
+
+"No bad news?" asked Hermione, rather nervously.
+
+"No. It is simply this: I have made up my mind that I must speak to your
+father to-morrow. Do not be startled, darling. This position cannot
+last. I am not acting an honorable part, and he expects me to ask him
+the question. I know you have objected to my going to him for a long
+time, but I feel that the thing must be done. There can be no good
+objection to our marriage,--Mr. Carvel made Griggs understand that. Tell
+me, is there any real reason why I should not speak?"
+
+Hermione turned her head away. Under the long sleeves of her domino her
+small hands were tightly clasped together.
+
+"Is there any reason, dear?" repeated Paul, very gently. But as her
+silence continued his lips set themselves firmly, and his face grew
+slowly pale.
+
+"Will you please speak, darling?" he said, in changed tones. "I am very
+nervous," he added, with a short, harsh laugh.
+
+"Oh--Paul! Don't!" cried Hermione. Her voice seemed to choke her as she
+spoke. Then she took courage, and continued more calmly: "Please, please
+wait a little longer,--it is such a risk!"
+
+Paul laughed again, almost roughly.
+
+"A risk! What risk? Your father has done all but give his formal
+consent. What possible danger can there be?"
+
+"No. Not from him,--it is not that!"
+
+"Well, what is it? Hermione, what in the name of Heaven is the matter?
+Speak, darling! Tell me what it is. I cannot bear this much longer."
+Indeed, the man's suppressed passion was on the very point of breaking
+out, and the blue light quivered in his eyes, while his face grew
+unnaturally pale.
+
+"Oh, Paul--I cannot tell you--you frighten me so," murmured Hermione in
+broken tones. "Oh, Paul! Forgive me--forgive me!"
+
+At that moment Gregorios Balsamides passed before their corner, a lady
+in a red hood and a red mask leaning on his arm.
+
+"Hush!" exclaimed Paul, under his breath, as the couple came near them.
+But Gregorios only nodded familiarly to Paul, stared a moment at his
+pale face, glanced at the black domino, and went on with his partner. "I
+do not want to frighten you, dearest," continued Paul, when no one could
+hear them. "And what have I to forgive? Do not be afraid, and tell me
+what all this means."
+
+"I must," answered Hermione, her strength returning suddenly. "I must,
+or I should despise myself. You must not go to my father, Paul--because
+I--I am not sure of myself."
+
+She trembled visibly under her domino, as she spoke the last words
+almost in a whisper, hesitating and yet forcing herself to tell the
+truth. Paul glanced uneasily at the black drapery which veiled all her
+head and figure, and with one hand he grasped the carved end of the
+sofa, so that it cracked under the pressure. For some seconds there was
+an awful silence, broken only by low sounds which told that Hermione was
+crying.
+
+"You mean--that you do not love me," said Paul at last, very slowly,
+steadying his voice on every syllable.
+
+The young girl shook her head, and tried to speak. But the words would
+not come. Meanwhile the strong man's anger was slowly rising, very
+slowly but very surely, so that Hermione felt it coming, as a belated
+traveler on the sands sees the tide creeping nearer to the black cliff.
+
+"Hermione," he said, very sternly, "if you mean that you are no longer
+willing to marry me, say so plainly. I will forgive you if I can,
+because I love you. But please do not trifle with me. I can bear the
+worst, but I cannot bear waiting."
+
+"Do not talk like that, Paul!" cried his cousin in an agonized voice,
+but recovering her power of speech before the pent-up anger he seemed to
+be controlling. "Let us wait, Paul; let us wait and be sure. I cannot
+marry you unless I am sure that I love you as I ought to love you. I do
+love you, but I feel that I could love you so much more--as--as I should
+like to love my--the man I marry. Have patience,--please have patience
+for a little while."
+
+Paul's white lips opened and shut mechanically as he answered her.
+
+"I am very patient. I have been patient for long. But it cannot last
+forever. I believed you loved me and had promised to marry me. If you
+have made a mistake, it is much to be regretted. But I must really beg
+you to make up your mind as soon as possible."
+
+"Oh, pray do not talk like that. You are so cold. I am so very unhappy!"
+
+"What would you have me say?" asked Paul, his voice growing clearer and
+harder with every word. "Will you answer me one question? Will you tell
+me whether you have learned to care so much for another man that your
+liking for him makes you doubt?"
+
+"I am afraid"--She stopped, then suddenly exclaimed, "How can you ask me
+such a question?"
+
+"What are you afraid of?" inquired Paul, in the same hard tone. "You
+always tell the truth. You will tell it now. Has any other man come
+between you and me?"
+
+It was of no use for her to hesitate. She could command Alexander and
+give him any answer she chose, but Paul's strong nature completely
+dominated her. She bent her head in assent, and the Yes she spoke was
+almost inaudible.
+
+"And you ask time to choose between us?" asked Paul, icily. "Yes, I
+understand. You shall have the time,--as long as you please to remain
+in Constantinople. I am much obliged to you for being so frank. May I
+give you my arm to go into the next room?"
+
+"How unkind you are!" said Hermione, making an effort to rise. But her
+strength failed her, and she fell back into her seat. "Excuse me," she
+faltered. "Please wait one moment,--I am not well."
+
+Paul looked at her, and hesitated. But her weakness touched him, and he
+spoke more gently as he turned to her.
+
+"May I get you a glass of water, or anything?"
+
+"Thanks, nothing. It will be over in a moment,--only a little
+dizziness."
+
+For a few seconds they remained seated in silence. Then Hermione turned
+her head, and looked at her cousin's white face. Her small gloved hand
+stole out from under her domino and rested on his arm. He took no notice
+of the action; he did not even look at her.
+
+"Paul," she said, very gently, "you will thank me some day for having
+waited."
+
+A contemptuous answer rose to his lips, but he was ashamed of it before
+it was spoken, and merely raised his eyebrows as he answered in
+perfectly monotonous tones:
+
+"I believe you have done what you think best."
+
+"Indeed I have," replied Hermione, rising to her feet.
+
+He offered her his arm, and they went out together. But when supper-time
+came, and with it the hour for unmasking, Hermione was not to be seen;
+and Alexander, who had counted upon her half-given assent to dance the
+cotillon with him, leaned disconsolately against a door, wondering
+whether it could be worth while to sacrifice himself by engaging any one
+in her place.
+
+But Paul did not go home. He was too angry to be alone, and above all
+too deeply wounded. Besides, his position required that he should stay
+at least until supper was over, and it was almost a relief to move about
+among the gorgeous costumes of all kinds which now issued from the
+black, white, and red dominos, as a moth from the chrysalis. He spoke to
+many people, saying the same thing to each, with the same mechanical
+smile, as men do when they are obliged day after day to accomplish a
+certain social task. But the effort was agreeable, and took off the
+first keen edge of his wrath.
+
+He had no need to ask the name of the man who had come between him and
+the woman he loved. For weeks he had watched his brother and Hermione,
+asking himself if their intimacy meant anything, and then driving away
+the tormenting question, as though it contained something of disloyalty
+to her. Now he remembered that for weeks this thing she had spoken must
+have been in her mind, since she had always entreated him to wait a
+little longer before speaking with her father. It had appeared such an
+easy matter to her to wait; it was such a hard matter for him,--harder
+than death it seemed now. For it was all over. He believed that she had
+spoken her last word that night, and that in speaking of waiting still
+longer she had only intended to make it less troublesome to break it
+off. She had admitted that another man had come between them. Was
+anything further needed? It followed, of course, that she loved this
+other man--Alexander--better than himself. For the present he could see
+only one side of the question, and he repeated to himself that all was
+over, saying it again and again in his heart, as he went the rounds of
+the room, asking each acquaintance he met concerning his or her plans
+for the summer, commenting on the weather, and praising the successful
+arrangement of the masked ball.
+
+But Paul was ignorant of two things, in his present frame of mind. He
+did not know that Hermione had been perfectly sincere in what she had
+said, and he did not calculate upon his own nature. It was a simple
+matter, in the impulse of the first moment, to say that all was at an
+end, that he gave her up, even as she had rejected him, with a sort of
+savage pleasure in the coldness of the words he spoke. He could not
+imagine, after this interview, that he could ever think of her again as
+his possible wife, and if the idea had presented itself he would have
+cast it behind him as a piece of unpardonable weakness. All his former
+cynical determination to trust only in what he could do himself, for the
+satisfaction of his ambition, returned with renewed strength; and as he
+shook hands with the people he met, he felt that he would never again
+ask man or woman for anything which he could not take by force. He did
+not know that in at least one respect his nature had changed, and that
+the love he had lavished on Hermione was a deep-rooted passion, which
+had grown and strengthened and spread in his hard character, as the
+sculptor adapts the heavy iron framework in the body and limbs of a
+great clay statue. In the first sudden revulsion of his feeling, he
+thought he could pluck away his love and leave it behind him like an old
+garment, and the general contempt with which he regarded his
+surroundings after he left Hermione reminded him almost reassuringly of
+his old self. If his old self still lived, he could live his old life as
+before, without Hermione, and above all, without love. There was a
+bitter comfort in the thought that once more he was to look at all
+things, at success in everything, at his career, his aims both great and
+small, surrounded by obstacles which could be overcome only by main
+force, as prizes to be wrested from his fellows by his own unaided
+exertions.
+
+He had forgotten that Hermione had been the chiefest aim of his
+existence for several months, and at the same time he did not realize
+that he loved her in such a way as to make it almost impossible for him
+to live without her. It was not in accordance with his character to
+relinquish without a struggle, and a very desperate struggle, that for
+which he had labored so long, and an outsider would have prophesied that
+whosoever would take from Paul Patoff the woman he loved would find that
+he had attempted a dangerous thing. Mere senseless anger does not often
+last long, and before an hour had passed Paul began to feel those
+suspicious little thrusts of pain in the breast and midriff which warn
+us that we miss some one we love. For a long time he tried to persuade
+himself that he was deceived, because he did not believe himself capable
+of such weakness. But the feeling was unmistakable.
+
+The dancing was at its height, for all those who did not mean to stay
+until the end of the cotillon had gone home, so that the more distant
+rooms were already deserted. Almost unconsciously Paul strayed to the
+spot where he had sat with Hermione. He looked towards the sofa where
+they had been seated, and he saw a strange sight.
+
+Alexander Patoff was there, half sitting, half lying, on the small sofa,
+unaware of his brother's presence. His face was turned away, and he was
+passionately kissing the cushions,--the very spot against which
+Hermione's head had rested. Paul stared stupidly at him for a moment, as
+though not comprehending the action, which indeed was wild and
+incomprehensible enough; then he seemed to understand, and strode
+forward in bitter anger. His brother, he thought, had seen them there
+together, had been told what had passed, and had chosen this passionate
+way of expressing his joy and his gratitude to Hermione. Alexander heard
+his brother's footsteps, and, starting, looked wildly round; then
+recognizing Paul, he sprang to his feet, and a faint color mounted to
+his pale cheeks.
+
+"Fool!" cried Paul, bitterly, as he came forward. But Alexander had
+already recovered himself, and faced him coolly enough.
+
+"What is the matter? What do you mean?" he asked, contemptuously.
+
+"You know very well what I mean," retorted his brother, fiercely. "You
+know very well why you are making a fool of yourself,--kissing a heap of
+cushions, like a silly schoolboy in love."
+
+"My dear fellow, you are certainly quite mad. I waltzed too long just
+now, and was dizzy. I was trying to get over it, that was all. My nerves
+are not so sound in dancing as they were before I was caught in that
+trap. Really, you have the most extraordinary ideas."
+
+Paul was confused by the smooth lie. He did not believe his brother, but
+he could not find a ready answer.
+
+"You do not know who sat there a little while ago?" he asked, sternly.
+
+"Not the remotest idea," replied Alexander. "Was it that adorable red
+mask, who would not leave Balsamides even for a moment? Bah! You must
+think me very foolish. Come along and have some supper before we go
+home. I have no partner, and have had nothing to eat and very little to
+drink."
+
+Paul was obliged to be content with the answer; but he understood his
+brother well enough to know that if there had been nothing to conceal,
+Alexander would have been furious at the way in which he was addressed.
+His conviction remained unchanged that his brother had known what
+passed, and was so overcome with joy that he had kissed the sofa whereon
+Hermione had sat. The two men left the room together, but Paul presently
+slipped away, and went home.
+
+Strange to say, what he had seen did not have the effect of renewing his
+resentment against Hermione so much as of exciting his anger against his
+brother. He now felt for the first time that though he might give her up
+to another, he could not give her up to Alexander. The feeling was
+perhaps only an excuse suggested by the real love for her which filled
+him, but it was strongly mixed with pride, and with the old hostility
+which during so many years had divided the two brothers.
+
+To give her up, and to his own brother,--the thing was impossible, not
+to be thought of for a moment. As he walked quickly home over the rough
+stones of the Grande Rue, he realized all that it meant, and stopped
+short, staring at the dusky houses. He was not a man of dramatic
+instincts. He did not strike his forehead, nor stamp his foot, nor
+formulate in words the resolution he made out there in the dark street.
+He merely thrust his hands deeper into the pockets of his overcoat, and
+walked on; but he knew from that moment that he would fight for
+Hermione, and that his mood of an hour ago had been but the passing
+effect of a sudden anger. He regretted his hard speech and bitter looks,
+and he wished that he had merely assented to her proposal to wait, and
+had said no more about it until the next day. Hermione might talk of not
+marrying him, but he would marry her in spite of all objections, and
+especially in spite of Alexander.
+
+Had she spoken thoughtlessly? In the light of his stronger emotion it
+seemed so to him, and it was long before he realized that she had
+suffered almost as much in making this sacrifice to her honesty as he
+had suffered himself. But she had indeed been in earnest, and had done
+courageously a very hard thing. She was conscious that she had made a
+great mistake, and she wanted to avert the consequences of it, if there
+were to be any consequences, before it was too late. She had allowed
+Alexander to become too fond of her, as their interview that evening had
+shown; and though she knew that she did not love him, she knew also that
+she felt a growing sympathy for him, which was in some measure a wrong
+to Paul. This sympathy had increased until it began to frighten her, and
+she asked herself where it would end, while she yet felt that she had no
+right to inflict pain on Alexander by suddenly forcing him to change his
+tone. Her mind was very much confused, and as she could not imagine that
+a real and undivided love admitted of any confusion, she had simply
+asked Paul to wait, in perfect good faith, meaning that she needed time
+to decide and to settle the matter in her own conscience. He had pressed
+her with questions, and had finally extorted the confession that
+another man had come between them. She had not meant to say that, but
+she was too honest to deny the charge. Paul had instantly taken it for
+granted that she already loved this other man better than himself, and
+had treated her as though everything were over between them.
+
+The poor girl was in great trouble when she went home that night.
+Although nothing had been openly discussed, she knew that her engagement
+to Paul was tacitly acknowledged. She asked herself how he would treat
+her when they met; whether they should meet at all, indeed, for she
+feared that he would refuse to come to the house altogether. She
+wondered what questions her father would put to her, and how Madame
+Patoff would take the matter. More than all, she hesitated in deciding
+whether she had done well in speaking as she had spoken, seeing what the
+first results had been.
+
+She shut herself in her room, and just as she was, in the beautiful
+Eastern dress which she was to have shown at the ball when the masking
+was over, she sat down upon a chair in the corner, and leaned her tired
+head against the wall. But for the disastrous ending of the evening, she
+would doubtless have sat before her glass, and looked with innocent
+satisfaction at her own beautiful face. But the dark corner suited her
+better, in her present mood. Her cheek rested against the wall, and very
+soon the silent tears welled over and trickled down, staining the green
+wall paper of the hotel bedroom, as they slowly reached the floor and
+soaked into the dusty carpet. She was very miserable and very tired,
+poor child, and perhaps she would have fallen asleep at last, just as
+she sat, had she not been roused by sounds which reached her from the
+next room, and which finally attracted her attention. Madame Patoff
+slept there, or should have been sleeping at that hour, for she was
+evidently awake. She seemed to be walking up and down, up and down
+eternally, between the window and the door. As she walked, she spoke
+aloud from time to time. At first she always spoke just as she was
+moving away from the door, and consequently, when her back was turned
+towards the place where Hermione sat on the other side of the wall, her
+words were lost, and only incoherent sounds reached the young girl's
+ears. Presently, however, she stopped just behind the door, and her
+voice came clear and distinct through the thin wooden panel:--
+
+"I wish he were dead. I wish he were dead. Oh, I wish I could kill him
+myself!" Then the voice ceased, and the sound of the footsteps began
+again, pacing up and down.
+
+Hermione started, and sat upright in her chair, while the tears dried
+slowly on her cheeks. The habit of considering her aunt to be insane was
+not wholly lost, and it was natural that she should listen to such
+unwonted sounds. For some time she could hear the voice at intervals,
+but the words were indistinct and confused. Her aunt was probably very
+ill, or under the influence of some hallucination which kept her awake.
+Hermione crept stealthily near the door, and listened intently. Madame
+Patoff continued to walk regularly up and down. At last she heard clear
+words again:--
+
+"I wish I could kill him; then Alexis could marry her. Alexis ought to
+marry her, but he never will. Cannot Paul die!"
+
+Hermione shrank from the door in horror. She was frightened and shaken,
+and after the events of the evening her aunt's soliloquies produced a
+much greater effect upon her than would have been possible six hours
+earlier. Her first impulse was not to listen more, and she hastily began
+to undress, making a noise with the chairs, and walking as heavily as
+she could. Then she listened a moment, and all was still in the next
+room. Her aunt had probably heard her, and had feared lest she herself
+should be overheard. Hermione crept into bed, and closed her eyes. At
+the end of a few minutes the steps began again, and after some time the
+indistinct sounds of Madame Patoffs voice reached the young girl's ears.
+She seemed to speak in lower tones than before, however, for the words
+she spoke could not be distinguished. But Hermione strained her
+attention to the utmost, while telling herself that it was better she
+should not hear. The nervous anxiety to know whether Madame Patoff were
+still repeating the same phrases made her heart beat fast, and she lay
+there in the dark, her eyes wide open, her little hands tightening on
+the sheet, praying that the sounds might cease altogether, or that she
+might understand their import. Her pulse beat audibly for a few seconds,
+then seemed to stop altogether in sudden fear, while her forehead grew
+damp with terror. She thought that any supernatural visitation would
+have been less fearful than this reality, and she strove to collect her
+senses and to compose herself to rest.
+
+At last she could bear it no longer. She got up and groped her way to
+the door of her aunt's room, not meaning to enter, but unable to
+withstand the desire to hear the words of which the incoherent murmur
+alone came to her in her bed. She reached the door, but in feeling for
+it her outstretched hand tapped sharply upon the panel. Instantly the
+footsteps ceased. She knew that Madame Patoff had heard her, and that
+the best thing she could do was to ask admittance.
+
+"May I come in, aunt Annie?" she inquired, in trembling tones.
+
+"Come in," was the answer; but the voice was almost as uncertain as her
+own.
+
+She opened the door. By the light of the single candle--an English
+reading-light with a reflecting hood--she saw her aunt's figure standing
+out in strong relief against the dark background of shadow. Madame
+Patoff's thick gray hair was streaming down her back and over her
+shoulders, and she held a hairbrush in her hand, as though the fit of
+walking had come upon her while she was at her toilet. Her white
+dressing-gown hung in straight folds to the floor, and her dark eyes
+stared curiously at the young girl. Hermione was more startled than
+before, for there was something unearthly about the apparition.
+
+"Are you ill, aunt Annie?" she asked timidly, but she was awed by the
+glare in the old lady's eyes. She glanced round the room. The bed was in
+the shadow, and the bed-clothes were rolled together, so that they took
+the shape of a human figure. Hermione shuddered, and for a moment
+thought her aunt must be dead, and that she was looking at her ghost.
+The girl's nerves were already so overstrained that the horrible idea
+terrified her; the more, as several seconds elapsed before Madame Patoff
+answered the question.
+
+"No, I am not ill," she said slowly. "What made you ask?"
+
+"I heard you walking up and down," explained Hermione. "It is very late;
+you generally go to sleep so early"----
+
+"I? I never sleep," answered the old lady, in a tone of profound
+conviction, keeping her eyes fixed upon her niece's face.
+
+"I cannot sleep, either, to-night," said Hermione, uneasily. She sat
+down upon a chair, and shivered slightly. Madame Patoff remained
+standing, the hairbrush still in her hand.
+
+"Why should you not sleep? Why should you? What difference does it make?
+One is just as well without it, and one can think all night,--one can
+think of things one would like to do."
+
+"Yes," answered the young girl, growing more and more nervous. "You must
+have been thinking aloud, aunt Annie. I thought I heard your voice."
+
+Madame Patoff moved suddenly and bent forward, bringing her face close
+to her niece's, so that the latter was startled and drew back in her
+chair.
+
+"Did you hear what I said?" asked the old lady, almost fiercely, in low
+tones.
+
+Sometimes a very slight thing is enough to turn the balance of our
+beliefs, especially when all our feelings are wrought to the highest
+pitch of excitement. In a moment the conviction seized Hermione that her
+aunt was mad,--not mad as she had once pretended to be, but really and
+dangerously insane.
+
+"I did not understand what you said," answered the young girl, too
+frightened to own the truth, as she saw the angry eyes glaring into her
+face. It seemed impossible that this should be the quiet, sweet-tempered
+woman whom she was accustomed to talk with every day. She certainly did
+the wisest thing, for her aunt's face instantly relaxed, and she drew
+herself up again and turned away.
+
+"Go to bed, child," she said, presently. "I dare say I frightened you. I
+sometimes frighten myself. Go to bed and sleep. I will not make any more
+noise to-night."
+
+There was something in the quick change, from apparent anger to apparent
+gentleness, which confirmed the idea that Madame Patoff's brain was
+seriously disturbed. Hermione rose and quietly left the room. She locked
+her door, and went to bed, hoping that she might sleep and find some
+rest; for she was worn out with excitement, and shaken by a sort of
+nervous fear.
+
+Sleep came at last, troubled by dreams and restless, but it was sleep,
+nevertheless. Several times she started up awake, thinking that she
+again heard her aunt's low voice and the regular fall of her footsteps
+in the next room. But all was still, and her weary head sank back on the
+pillow in the dark, her eyelids closed again in sheer weariness, and
+once more her dreams wove fantastic scenes of happiness, ending always
+in despair, with the suddenness of revulsion which makes the visions of
+the night ten times more agonizing while they last than the worst of our
+real troubles.
+
+But the morning brought a calmer reflection; and when Hermione was
+awake she began to think of what had passed. The horror inspired by her
+aunt's words and looks faded before the greater anxiety of the girl's
+position with regard to Paul. She tried to go over the interview in her
+mind. Her conscience told her that she had done right, but her heart
+said that she had done wrong, and its beating hurt her. Then came the
+difficult task of reconciling those two opposing voices, which are never
+so contradictory as when the heart and the conscience fall out, and
+argue their cause before the bewildered court of justice we call our
+intelligence. First she remembered all the many reasons she had found
+for speaking plainly to Paul on the previous night. She had said to
+herself that she did not feel sure of her love, allowing tacitly that
+she expected to feel sure of it before long. But until the matter was
+settled she could not let him hurry the marriage nor take any decisive
+step. If he had only been willing to wait another month, he might have
+been spared all the suffering she had seen in his face; she herself
+could have escaped it, too. But he had insisted, and she had tried to do
+right in telling him that she was not ready. Then he had been angry and
+hurt, and had coldly told her that she might wait forever, or something
+very like it, and she had felt that the deed was done. It was dreadful;
+yet how could she tell him that she was ready? Half an hour earlier, on
+that very spot, she had suffered Alexander to speak as he had spoken,
+only laughing kindly at his expressions of love; not rebuking him and
+leaving him, as she should have done, and would have done, had she loved
+Paul with her whole heart.
+
+And yet this morning, as she lay awake and thought it all over,
+something within her spoke very differently, like an incoherent cry,
+telling her that she loved him in spite of all. She tried to listen to
+what it said, and then the answer came quickly enough, and told her that
+she had been unkind, that she had given needless pain, that she had
+broken a man's life for an over-conscientious scruple which had no real
+foundation. But then her conscience returned to the charge, refuting the
+slighting accusation, so that the confusion was renewed, and became
+worse than before. For the sake of discovering something in support of
+her action, she began to think about Alexander; and finding that she
+remembered very accurately what they had said to each other, her
+thoughts dwelt upon him. It was pleasant to think of his beautiful face,
+his soft voice, and his marvelous dancing. It was a fascination from
+which she could not easily escape, even when he was absent; and there
+was a charm in the memory of him, in thinking of how she would turn him
+from being a lover to being a friend, which drew her mind away from the
+main question that occupied it, and gave her a momentary sensation of
+peace.
+
+Suddenly the two men came vividly before her in profile, side by side.
+The bold, manly features and cold glance of the strong man contrasted
+very strangely with the exquisitely chiseled lines of his brother's
+face, with the soft brown eyes veiled under long lashes, and the
+indescribable delicacy of the feminine mouth. Paul wore the stern
+expression of a man superior to events and very careless of them.
+Alexander smiled, as though he loved his life, and would let no moment
+of it pass without enjoying it to the full.
+
+It was but the vision of an instant, as she closed her eyes, and opened
+them again to the faint light which came in through the blinds. But
+Hermione felt that she must choose between the two men, and it was
+perhaps the first time she had quite realized the fact. Hitherto
+Alexander had appeared to her only as a man who disturbed her previous
+determinations. If she had hesitated to marry Paul while the disturbance
+lasted, it was not because she had ever thought of taking his brother
+instead. Now it seemed clear that she must accept either the one or the
+other, for the comparison of the two had asserted itself in her mind. In
+that moment she felt that she was worse than she had ever been before;
+for the fact that she compared the two men as possible husbands showed
+her that she set no value on the promises she had made to Paul.
+
+To choose,--but how to choose? Had she a right to choose at all? If she
+refused to marry Paul, was she not bound to refuse any one
+else,--morally bound in honor? The questions came fast, and would not be
+answered. Just then her aunt moved in the next room, and the thought of
+her possible insanity returned instantly to Hermione's mind. She
+determined that it was best to speak to her father about it. He was the
+person who ought to know immediately, and he should decide whether
+anything should be done. She made up her mind to go to him at once, and
+she rang for her maid.
+
+But before she was dressed she had half decided to act differently, to
+wait at least a day or two, and see whether Madame Patoff would talk to
+herself again during the night. To tell her father would certainly be to
+give an alarm, and would perhaps involve the necessity of putting her
+aunt once more under the care of a nurse. John Carvel could not know, as
+Hermione knew, that the old lady's resentment against Paul was caused by
+her niece's preference for him, and it would not be easy for the young
+girl to explain this. But Hermione wished that she might speak to Paul
+himself, and warn him of what his mother had said. She sighed as she
+thought how impossible that would be. Nevertheless, in the morning light
+and in the presence of her maid, while her gold-brown hair was being
+smoothed and twisted, and the noises from the street told her that all
+the world was awake, the horror of the night disappeared, and Hermione
+almost doubted whether her aunt had really spoken those words at all. If
+she had, it had been but the angry out-break of a moment, and should not
+be taken too seriously.
+
+
+
+
+XXI.
+
+
+It was probably curiosity that induced Professor Cutter to pay a visit
+to Constantinople in the spring. He is a scientist, and curiosity is the
+basis of all science, past, present, and future. His mind was not at
+rest in regard to Madame Patoff, and he found it very hard to persuade
+himself that she should suddenly have become perfectly sane, after
+having made him believe during eighteen months that she was quite mad.
+After her recovery he had had long interviews with Mrs. North, and had
+done his best to extract all the information she was able to give about
+the case. He had studied the matter very carefully, and had almost
+arrived at a satisfactory conclusion; but he felt that in order to
+remove all doubt he must see her again. He was deeply interested, and
+such a trifle as a journey to Constantinople could not stand in the way
+of his observations. Accordingly he wrote a post-card to John Carvel to
+say that he was coming, and on the following day he left England. But he
+likes to travel comfortably, and especially he is very fond of finding
+out old acquaintances when he is abroad, and of having an hour's chat
+with scientific men like himself. He therefore did not arrive until a
+week after John had news of his intended journey.
+
+For some reason unknown to me, Carvel did not speak beforehand of the
+professor's coming. It may be that, in the hurry of preparation for
+moving up the Bosphorus, he forgot the matter; or perhaps he thought it
+would be an agreeable surprise to most of us. I myself was certainly
+very much astonished when he came, but the person who showed the
+greatest delight at his arrival was Hermione. It is not hard to imagine
+why she was pleased, and when I knew all that I have already told I
+understood her satisfaction well enough. The professor appeared on the
+day before the Carvels were to transfer themselves to Buyukdere. His
+gold-rimmed spectacles were on his nose, his thick and short gray hair
+stood up perpendicularly on his head as of old, his beard was as bushy
+and his great hands were as huge and as spotless as ever. But after not
+having seen him for some months, I was more struck than ever by his
+massive build and the imposing strength of his manner.
+
+Several days had elapsed since the events recorded in the last chapter.
+To Hermione's surprise, Paul had come to the hotel as usual, on the day
+after the ball, and behaved as though nothing had happened, except that
+he had at first avoided finding himself alone with his cousin. She on
+her part was very silent, and even Alexander could not rouse her to talk
+as she used to do. When questioned, she said that the heat gave her a
+headache; and as Chrysophrasia spent much time in languidly complaining
+of the weather, the excuse had a show of probability. But after a day or
+two she was reassured by Paul's manner, and no longer tried to keep out
+of his way. Then it was that they found themselves together for the
+first time since the ball. It was only for a moment, but it was long
+enough.
+
+Hermione took his passive hand in hers, very timidly, and looked into
+his face.
+
+"You are not angry with me any more?" she said.
+
+"No, not in the least," he answered. "I believe you did what you
+believed to be best, the other night. No one can do more than that."
+
+"Yes, but you thought I was not in earnest."
+
+"I thought you were more in earnest than you admitted. I thought you
+meant to break it off altogether. I have changed my mind."
+
+"Have you? I am so glad. I meant just what I said, Paul. You should not
+have doubted that I meant it."
+
+"I was angry. Forgive me if I was rude. I will not give you up. I will
+marry you in spite of everybody."
+
+Hermione looked at him, curiously at first, then with a sort of
+admiration which she could not explain,--the admiration we all feel for
+a strong man who is very much in earnest.
+
+"In spite of myself?" she asked, after a pause.
+
+"Yes, almost," he began hotly, but his tone softened as he finished the
+sentence,--"almost in spite of yourself, Hermione."
+
+"Indeed, I begin to think that you will," she answered, turning away her
+head to hide a smile that had in it more of happiness than of unbelief.
+Some one entered the room where they were standing, and nothing more was
+said; nor did Paul repeat his words at the next opportunity, for he was
+not much given to repetition. When he had said a thing, he meant it, and
+he was in no hurry to say it again.
+
+Meanwhile, also, the young girl had more than once listened, during the
+night, for any sounds which might proceed from Madame Patoff's bedroom;
+but she had heard nothing more, and the impression gradually faded from
+her mind, or was stored away there as a fact to be remembered at some
+future time. When Professor Cutter arrived, she determined to tell him
+in strictest confidence what had occurred. This, however, was not what
+gave her so much satisfaction in meeting him. She had long looked
+forward to the day when she could enjoy the triumph of seeing him meet
+Alexander Patoff, alive and well; for she knew how strongly his
+suspicions had fastened upon Paul, and it was he who had first told her
+what the common story was.
+
+The professor arrived in the early morning by the Brindisi boat, and
+Hermione proposed that Chrysophrasia, Paul, Cutter, and herself should
+make a party to go over to Stamboul on the same afternoon. It was warm
+indeed, but she represented that as the whole family were to move up the
+Bosphorus on the following day, it would be long before they would have
+a chance of going to Stamboul again. Chrysophrasia moaned a little, but
+at last accepted the proposition, and Paul and the professor expressed
+themselves delighted with the idea.
+
+The four set off together, descended by the Galata tunnel, and crossed
+the bridge on foot. Then they took a carriage and drove to Santa Sophia.
+There was little chance for conversation, as they rattled over the
+stones towards the mosque. Chrysophrasia leaned wearily back in her
+corner. Paul and Hermione tried to talk, and failed, and Professor
+Cutter promenaded his regards, to borrow an appropriate French
+expression, upon the buildings, the people, and the view. Perhaps he was
+wondering whether more cases of insanity presented themselves amongst
+the vegetable sellers as a class than amongst the public scribes, whose
+booths swarm before the Turkish post-office. He had seen the city
+before, but only during a very short visit, as a mere tourist, and he
+was glad to see it again.
+
+They reached the mosque, and after skating about in the felt overshoes
+provided for the use of unbelievers, Cutter suggested going up to the
+galleries.
+
+"It is so very, very far!" murmured Chrysophrasia, who was watching a
+solitary young Sufí, who sat reciting his lesson aloud to himself in a
+corner, swaying his body backwards and forwards with the measure of his
+chant.
+
+"I will go," said Hermione, with alacrity. "Paul can stay with my aunt."
+
+"I would rather stay," answered Paul, whose reminiscences of the gallery
+were not of the most pleasant sort.
+
+So Professor Cutter and the young girl left the mosque, and with the
+guide ascended the dim staircase.
+
+"Papa wrote you the story, did he not?" asked Hermione. "Yes. This is
+the way they went up."
+
+The professor looked about him curiously, as they followed the guide.
+Emerging amidst the broad arches of the gallery, they walked forward,
+and Hermione explained, as Paul had explained to her, what had taken
+place on that memorable night two years ago. It was a simple matter, and
+the position of the columns made the story very clear.
+
+"Professor Cutter, I want to speak to you about my aunt," said Hermione,
+at last. The professor stopped and looked sharply at her, but said
+nothing. "Do you remember that morning in the conservatory?" she
+continued. "You told me that she was very mad indeed,--those were your
+own words. I did not believe it, and I was triumphant when she came
+out--in--well, quite in her senses, you know. I thought she had
+recovered,--I hope she has. But she has very queer ways."
+
+"What do you mean by queer ways, Miss Carvel? I have come to
+Constantinople on purpose to see her. I hope there is nothing wrong?"
+
+"I do not know. But I have told nobody what I am going to tell you. I
+think you ought to be told. My room is next to hers, at the hotel, and I
+hear through the door what goes on, without meaning to. The other night
+I came home late from a ball, and she was walking up and down, talking
+to herself so loud that I heard several sentences."
+
+"What did she say?" asked Cutter, whose interest was already aroused.
+The symptom was only too familiar to him.
+
+"She said"--Hermione hesitated before she continued, and the color rose
+faintly in her cheeks--"she said she wished she could kill Paul--and
+then"----
+
+"And then what?" inquired the professor, looking at her steadily.
+"Please tell me all."
+
+"It was very foolish.--she said that then Alexander could marry me. It
+was so silly of her. Just think!"
+
+After all, Professor Cutter was her father's old friend. She need not
+have been so long about telling the thing.
+
+"She thinks that you are going to marry Paul?" observed the professor,
+with an interrogative intonation.
+
+"Well, if I did?" replied the young girl, after a short pause. "If she
+were in her right mind, would that be any reason for her wishing to
+murder him?"
+
+"No. But I never believed she was out of danger," said Cutter. "Did she
+say anything more?"
+
+Hermione told how Madame Patoff had behaved when she had entered the
+room. Her companion looked very grave, and said little during the few
+moments they remained in the gallery. He only promised that he would
+tell no one about it, unless it appeared absolutely necessary for the
+safety of every one concerned. Then they descended the steps again and
+joined Chrysophrasia and Paul, who were waiting below.
+
+"Aunt Chrysophrasia says she must go to the bazaar," said the latter.
+
+"Yes," remarked Miss Dabstreak, "I really must. That Jew! Oh, that Jew!
+He haunts my dreams. I see him at night, dressed like Moses, with a
+linen ephod, you know, holding up that Persian embroidery. It is more
+than my soul can bear!"
+
+"But we were going to take Professor Cutter to the other mosques,"
+objected Hermione.
+
+"I am sure he will not mind if we go to the bazaar instead, will you?"
+she asked, with an engaging squint of her green eyes, as she turned to
+the professor.
+
+"Not at all,--not at all, Miss Dabstreak. Anything you propose--I am
+sure"--ejaculated Cutter, apparently waking from an absorbing meditation
+upon his thumb-nail, and perhaps upon thumb-nails in general.
+
+"You see how kind he is!" murmured Chrysophrasia, as she got into the
+carriage. "To the bazaar, Paul. Could you tell the driver?"
+
+Paul could and did. Ten minutes later the carriage stopped at the gate
+of the bazaar. A dozen Mohammedans, Greeks, and Jews sprang out to
+conduct the visitors whither they would,--or, more probably, whither
+they would not. But Paul, who knew his way about very well, fought them
+off. One only would not be repulsed, and Chrysophrasia took his part.
+
+"Let him come,--pray let him come, Paul. He has such beautiful eyes,
+such soft, languishing eyes,--so sweetly like those of a gazelle."
+
+"His name is Abraham," said Paul. "I know him very well. The gazelle is
+of Jewish extraction, and sells shawls. He is a liar."
+
+"Haïr, Effendim--sir," cried Abraham, who knew a little English. "Him
+Israeleet--hones' Jew--Abraham's name, Effendim."
+
+"I know it is," said Paul. "Git!"--an expression which is good
+Californian, and equally good Turkish.
+
+They threaded the narrow vaulted passages, which were cool in the warm
+spring afternoon, taking the direction of the Jews' quarter, but pausing
+from time to time to survey the thousand articles, of every description,
+exposed for sale by the squatting shopkeepers. Cutter looked at the
+weapons especially, and remarked that they were not so good as those
+which used to be found ten years earlier. Everything, indeed, seemed to
+have changed since that time, and for the worse. There is less wealth in
+the bazaar, and yet the desire to purchase has increased tenfold, so
+that a bit of Rhodes tapestry, which at that earlier time would not have
+fetched forty piastres, is now sold for a pound Turkish, and is hard to
+get at that. It may be supposed that the Jews have made large fortunes
+in the interval, but the fact is not apparent in any way; the
+uncertainty of property in Turkey forcing them to conceal their riches,
+if they have any. Their shops are very fairly clean, but otherwise they
+are humble, and the best and most valuable objects are generally packed
+carefully away in dark corners, and are produced only when asked for.
+You see nothing but a small divan, a table, a matted floor, and shelves
+reaching to the ceiling, piled with packages wrapped in shabby gray
+linen. It is chiefly in the Mohammedan and Greek "tscharshis" of the
+bazaar that jewelry, weapons, and pipes are openly exhibited, and laid
+out upon benches for the selection of the buyer. But the Jews have
+almost a monopoly of everything which comes under the head of
+antiquities, and it is with them that foreigners generally deal. They
+are as intelligent as elsewhere, and perhaps more so, for the traveler
+of to-day is a great cheapener of valuables. Moreover, the Stamboul Jews
+are most of them linguists. They speak a bastard Spanish among
+themselves; they are obliged to know Turkish, Greek, and a little
+Armenian, and many of them speak French and Italian intelligibly.
+
+Chrysophrasia delighted in the bazaar. The flavor of antiquity which
+hangs about it, and makes it the only thoroughly Oriental place in
+Constantinople, ascended gratefully to the old maid's nostrils, while
+her nerves were continually thrilled by strange contrasts of color. It
+was very pleasant, she thought, to be really in the East, and to have
+such a palpable proof of the fact as was afforded by the jargon of loud
+but incomprehensible tongues which filled her ears. She had often been
+in the place, and the Jews were beginning to know her, scenting a
+bargain whenever her yellow face and yellow hair became visible on the
+horizon. She generally patronized Marchetto, however, and on the present
+occasion she had come expressly to see him. He was standing in the door
+of his little shop as usual, and his red face and red-brown eyes lighted
+up when he caught sight of Miss Dabstreak. With many expressions of joy
+he backed into the interior, and immediately went in search of the
+famous piece of Persian embroidery which Chrysophrasia had admired
+during her last visit to the bazaar.
+
+"Upon my honor"--began Marchetto, launching into praises of the stuff.
+Patoff and Hermione stood at the door, but Cutter immediately became
+interested in the bargain, and handled the embroideries with curiosity,
+asking all manner of questions of the Jew and of Miss Dabstreak. Somehow
+or other, the two younger members of the party soon found themselves
+outside the shop, walking slowly up and down and talking, until the
+bargain should be concluded.
+
+"I could not go up to the gallery in Santa Sophia," said Paul. "I am not
+a nervous person, but it brings the story back too vividly."
+
+"What does it matter, since he is found?" asked Hermione.
+
+Patoff was struck by the question, for it was too much at variance with
+his own feelings to seem reasonable. It was not because he preferred to
+avoid all reminiscence of the adventure that he had stayed below, but
+rather because he hated to think what the consequences of Alexander's
+return had been.
+
+"What does it matter?" he repeated slowly. "It matters a great deal.
+What happened on that night, two years ago, was the beginning of a whole
+series of misfortunes. I have had bad luck ever since."
+
+"Why do you say that?" asked Hermione, somewhat reproachfully.
+
+"It is true,--that is one reason why I say it. But for that night, my
+mother would never have been mad. I should never have been sent to
+Persia, and should not have gone to England during my leave. I should
+not have met you"----
+
+"You consider that a terrible misfortune," observed Hermione.
+
+"It is always a man's misfortune when he determines to have what is
+denied him," answered Paul quietly. "Somebody must suffer in the
+encounter, or somebody must yield."
+
+"Somebody,--yes. Why do you talk about it, Paul?"
+
+"Because I think of nothing else. I cannot help it. It is easy to say,
+'Let this or that alone;' it is another matter to talk to you about the
+bazaar, and the Turks, and the weather, when we are together."
+
+Hermione was silent, for there was nothing to be said. She knew how
+well he loved her, and when she was with him she submitted in a measure
+to his influence; so that often she was on the point of yielding, and
+telling him that she no longer hesitated. It was when she was away from
+him that she doubted herself, and refused to be persuaded. Paul needed
+only a very little to complete his conquest, but that little he could
+not command. He had reached the point at which a man talks of the woman
+he loves or of himself, and of nothing else, and the depth of his
+passion seemed to dull his speech. A little more eloquence, a little
+more gentleness, a little more of that charm which Alexander possessed
+in such abundance, might have been enough to turn the scale. But they
+were lacking. The very intensity of what he felt made him for the time a
+man of one idea only, and even the freedom with which he could speak to
+Hermione about his love for her was a disadvantage to him. It had grown
+to be too plain a fact, and there was too little left to the
+imagination. He felt that he wearied her, or he fancied that he did,
+which amounted to the same; and he either remained tongue-tied, or
+repeated in one form or another his half-savage 'I will.' He began to
+long for a change in their relations, or for some opportunity of
+practically showing her how much he would sacrifice for her sake. But in
+these days there are no lists for the silent knights; there are no
+jousts where a man may express his declaration of love by tying a lady's
+colors to his arm, and breaking the bones of half a dozen gentlemen
+before her eyes. And yet the instinct to do something of the kind is
+sometimes felt even now,--the longing to win by physical prowess what it
+is at present the fashion to get by persuasion.
+
+Paul felt it strongly enough, and was disgusted with his own stupidity.
+Of what use was it that during so many years he had cultivated the art
+of conversation as a necessary accomplishment, if at his utmost need his
+wits were to abandon him, and leave him uncouth and taciturn as he had
+been in his childhood? He looked at Hermione's downcast face; at the
+perfect figure displayed by her tightly fitting costume of gray; at her
+small hands, as she stood still and tried to thrust the point of her
+dainty parasol into the crevice between two stones of the pavement. He
+gazed at her, and was seized with a very foolish desire to take her up
+in his arms and walk away with her, whether she liked it or not. But
+just at that moment Hermione glanced at him with a smile, not at all as
+he had expected that she would look.
+
+"I think we had better go back to the shop," said she. So they turned,
+and walked slowly towards the narrow door.
+
+"These Orientals are so full of wonderful imagery!" Chrysophrasia was
+saying to Professor Cutter as the pair came in. "It is delightful to
+hear them talk,--so different from an English shopkeeper."
+
+"Very," assented the learned man. "Their imagery is certainly
+remarkable. Their scale of prices seems to be founded upon it, as
+logarithms depend for their existence on the square root of minus one,
+an impossible quantity."
+
+"Dear me! Could you explain that to Marchetto? It might make a
+difference, you know."
+
+"I am afraid not," answered the professor gravely. "Marchetto is not a
+mathematician; are you, Marchetto?"
+
+"No surr, Effendim. Marchetto very honest man. Twenty-five pounds,
+lady--ah! but it is birindjí--there is not a Pacha in Stamboul"----
+
+"You have said that before," observed the scientist, "Try and say
+something new."
+
+"New!" cried Marchetto. "It is not new. Any one say it new, he lie!
+Old--eski, eski! Very old! Twenty-five-six pounds, lady! Hein! Pacha
+give more."
+
+"I fear that the traditions of his race are very strong," remarked
+Chrysophrasia, languidly examining the embroidery, a magnificent piece
+of work, about a yard and a half square, wrought in gold and silver
+threads upon a dark-red velvet ground; evidently of considerable
+antiquity, but in excellent preservation. "Paul, dear," continued Miss
+Dabstreak, seeing Patoff enter with Hermione, "what would you give for
+this lovely thing? How hard it is to bargain! How low! How infinitely
+fatiguing! Do help me!"
+
+"Begin by offering him a quarter of what he asks,--that is a safe rule,"
+answered Paul.
+
+"How much is a quarter of twenty-five--let me see--three times eight
+are--do tell me, somebody! Figures drive me quite mad."
+
+"I have known of such cases," assented the professor. "Eight and a
+quarter, Miss Dabstreak. Say eight,--I dare say it will do as well."
+
+"Marchetto," said Chrysophrasia sadly, "I am afraid your embroidery is
+only worth eight pounds."
+
+The Jew was kneeling on the floor, squatting upon his heels. He put on
+an injured expression, and looked up at Miss Dabstreak's face.
+
+"Eight pounds!" he exclaimed, in holy horror. "You know where this come
+from, lady? Ha! Laleli Khanum house--dead--no more like it." Marchetto
+of course knew the story of Alexander's confinement, and by a ready lie
+turned it to his advantage. Every one looked surprised, and began to
+examine the embroidery more closely.
+
+"Really!" ejaculated Chrysophrasia. "How strange this little world is!
+To think of all this bit of broidered velvet has seen,--what joyous
+sights! It may have been in the very room where she died. But she was a
+wicked old woman, Marchetto. I could not give more than eight pounds for
+anything which belonged to so depraved a creature."
+
+"Hein?" ejaculated the Jew, with a soft smile. "I know what you want.
+Here!" he exclaimed, springing up, and rummaging among his shelves.
+Presently he brought out a shabby old green cloth caftán, trimmed with a
+little tarnished silver lace, and held it up triumphantly to
+Chrysophrasia's sight.
+
+"Twenty-five-six pounds!" he cried, exultingly. "Cheap. Him
+coat of very big saint-man--die going to Mecca last year. Cheap,
+lady--twenty-five-six pounds!"
+
+"I think you are fairly caught, aunt Chrysophrasia," observed Paul, with
+a laugh.
+
+"Who would have guessed that there was so much humor in an Israelite?"
+asked Chrysophrasia, with a sad intonation. "I cannot wear the saint's
+tea-gown, Marchetto," she continued; "otherwise I would gladly give you
+twenty-five pounds for it. Eight pounds for the embroidery,--no more. It
+is not worth so much. I even think I see a nauseous tint of magenta in
+the velvet."
+
+"Twenty-four-five pounds, lady. I lose pound--your backsheesh."
+
+How long the process of bargaining might have been protracted is
+uncertain. At that moment Balsamides Bey entered the shop. It appeared
+that he had called at the Carvels', and, being told that the party were
+in Stamboul, had gone straight to the Jew's shop, in the hope of finding
+them there. He was introduced to the professor by Paul, with a word of
+explanation. Marchetto's face fell as he saw the adjutant, who had a
+terribly acute knowledge of the value of things. Balsamides was asked to
+give his opinion. He examined the piece carefully.
+
+"Where did you get it?" he asked, in Turkish.
+
+"From the Validé Khan," answered the Jew, in the same language. "It is a
+genuine piece,--a hundred years old at least."
+
+"You probably ask a pound for every year, and a backsheesh for the odd
+months," said the other.
+
+"Twenty pounds," answered Marchetto, imperturbably.
+
+"It is worth ten pounds," remarked Balsamides, in English, to Miss
+Dabstreak. "If you care to give that, you may buy it with a clear
+conscience. But he will take three weeks to think about it."
+
+"To bargain for three weeks!" exclaimed Chrysophrasia. "Oh, no! It takes
+my whole energy to bargain for half an hour. The lovely thing,--those
+faint, mysterious shades intertwined with the dull gold and silver,--it
+breaks my heart!"
+
+Marchetto was obdurate, on that day at least, and with an unusually
+grave face he began to fold the embroidery, wrapping it at last in the
+inevitable piece of shabby gray linen. The party left the shop, and
+threaded the labyrinth of vaulted passages towards the gate. Cutter was
+interested in Gregorios, and asked him a great many questions, so that
+Chrysophrasia felt she was being neglected, and wore her most mournful
+expression. Paul and Hermione came behind, talking a little as they
+walked. They reached the bridge on foot, and, paying the toll to the big
+men in white who guard the entrance, began to cross the long stretch of
+planks which unites Stamboul with Pera. The sun was already low. Indeed,
+Marchetto had kept his shop open beyond the ordinary hour of closing,
+which is ten o'clock by Turkish time, two hours before sunset, and the
+bazaar was nearly deserted when they left it.
+
+Paul and Hermione stopped when they were halfway across the bridge, and
+looked up the Golden Horn. Great clouds were piled up in the west,
+behind which the sun was hidden, and the air was very sultry. A dull
+light, that seemed to cast no shadows, was on all the mosques and
+minarets, and down upon the water the air was thick, and the boats
+looked indistinct as they glided by. The great useless men-of-war lay as
+though water-logged in the heavy, smooth stream, and the flags hung
+motionless from the mastheads.
+
+The two stood side by side for a few moments and said nothing. At last
+Paul spoke.
+
+"It is going to rain," he said, in an odd voice.
+
+"Yes, it is going to rain," answered his companion.
+
+"On parà! Ten paras, for the love of God!" screamed a filthy beggar
+close behind them. Paul threw the wretched creature the tiny coin he
+asked, and they turned away. But his face was very white, and Hermione's
+eyes were filled with tears.
+
+
+
+
+XXII.
+
+
+A few days later the Carvels were installed for the summer in one of the
+many large houses on the Buyukdere quay, which are usually let to any
+one who will hire them. These dwellings are mostly the property of
+Armenians and Greeks who lost heavily during the war, and whose
+diminished fortunes no longer allow them to live in their former state.
+They are vast wooden buildings for the most part, having a huge hall on
+each floor, from which smaller rooms open on two sides; large windows in
+front afford a view of the Bosphorus, and at the back the balconies are
+connected with the gardens by flights of wooden steps. In one of these,
+not far from the Russian embassy, the Carvels took up their abode, and
+John expressed himself extremely well satisfied with his choice and with
+his bargain. In the course of their stay in Pera, the family had
+contrived to collect a considerable quantity of Oriental carpets and
+other objects, some good, some utterly worthless in themselves, but
+useful in filling up the immense rooms of the house. Chrysophrasia
+seemed to find the East sympathetic to her nerves, and was certainly
+more in her element in Constantinople than in Brompton or Carvel Place.
+Strange to say, she was the one of the family who best understood the
+Turks and their ways. In contact with a semi-barbarous people, she
+developed an amount of common sense and keen intelligence which I had
+never suspected her of possessing.
+
+As for me, I had gone up to Buyukdere one day, and had then and there
+changed my mind in regard to my departure. The roses were in full bloom,
+and everything looked so unusually attractive, that I could not resist
+the temptation of spending the summer in the place. A few years ago,
+when I thought of traveling, I set out without hesitation, and went to
+the ends of the earth. I suppose I am growing old, for I begin to
+dislike perpetual motion. The little kiosk on the hill, at the top of a
+beautiful garden, was very tempting, too, and after a few hours'
+consideration I hired it for the season, with that fine disregard for
+consequences which one learns in the East. The only furniture in the
+place was an iron bedstead and an old divan. There was not a chair, not
+a bit of matting; not so much as an earthen pot in the kitchen, nor a
+deal table in the sitting-room. But in Turkey such conveniences are a
+secondary consideration. The rooms were freshly whitewashed, the board
+floors were scrubbed, and the view from the windows was one of the most
+beautiful in the world. A day spent in the bazaar did the rest. I picked
+up a queer, wizened old Dalmatian cook, and with the help of my servant
+was installed in the little place eight-and-forty hours after I had made
+up my mind.
+
+The life on the Bosphorus is totally different from that in Pera.
+Everybody either keeps a horse or keeps a sail-boat, and many people do
+both; for the Belgrade forest stretches five-and-twenty miles inland
+from Buyukdere and Therapia, and the broad Bosphorus lies before,
+widening into a deep bay between the two. The fresh northerly breeze
+blows down from the Black Sea all day, and often all night; and there is
+something invigorating in the air, which revives one after the long, gay
+season in Pera, and makes one feel that anything and everything is
+possible in such a place.
+
+The forest was different in May from what it had been on that bitter
+March night when Gregorios and I drove down to Laleli's house. The
+maidám--the broad stretch of grass at the opening of the valley before
+you reach the woods--was green and fresh and smooth. The trees were full
+of leaves, and gypsies were already camping out for the season. The
+woodland roads were not as full of riders as they are in July and
+August, and the summer dancing had not yet begun, nor the garden
+parties, nor any kind of gayety. There was peace everywhere,--the peace
+of quiet spring weather before one learns to fear the sun and to long
+for rain, when the crocus pushes its tender head timidly through the
+grass, and the bold daisies gayly dance by millions in the light breeze
+as though knowing that their numbers save them from being plucked up and
+tied into nose-gays, and otherwise barbarously dealt with, according to
+the luck of rarer flowers.
+
+So we rode in the forest, and sailed on the Bosphorus, and enjoyed the
+freedom of the life and the freshness of the cool air, and things went
+on very pleasantly for every one, as far as outward appearances were
+concerned. But it was soon clear to me that the matter which more or
+less interested the whole party was no nearer to its termination than it
+had been before. Paul came and went, and his face betrayed no emotion
+when he met Hermione or parted from her. They were sometimes alone
+together, but not often, and it did not seem to me that they showed any
+very great anxiety to procure themselves such interviews. A keen
+observer might have noticed, indeed, that Hermione was a shade less
+cordial in her relations with Alexander, but he himself did not relax
+his attentions, and was as devoted to her as ever. He followed her
+about, always tried to ride by her side in the forest, and to sit by her
+in the boat; but under no circumstances did I see Paul's face change
+either in color or expression. He did not look scornful and cynical, as
+he formerly did, nor was there anything hostile in his manner towards
+his brother. He merely seemed very calm and very sure of himself,--too
+sure, I thought. But he had made up his mind to win, and meant to do it
+in his own fashion, and he appeared to be indifferent to the fact that
+while his duties often kept him at the embassy the whole day, Alexander
+had nothing to do but to talk to Hermione from morning till night. I
+fancied that he was playing a waiting game, but I feared that he would
+wait too long, and lose in the end. I knew, indeed, that under his calm
+exterior his whole nature was wrought up to its highest point of
+excitement; but if he persisted in exercising such perfect self-control
+he ran the risk of being thought too cold, as he appeared to be. I was
+called upon to give an opinion on the matter before we had been many
+days in Buyukdere, and I was embarrassed to explain what I meant.
+
+John Carvel and Hermione, Alexander and I, rode together in the woods,
+one afternoon. Paul was busy that day, and could not come. It fell out
+naturally enough that the young girl and her cousin should pair off
+together, leaving us two elderly men to our conversation. Hermione was
+mounted on a beautiful Arab, nearly black, which her father had bought
+for her in Pera, and Alexander rode a strong white horse that he had
+hired for the short time which remained to him before he should be
+obliged to return to St. Petersburg. They looked well together, as they
+rode before us, and John watched them with interest, if not altogether
+with satisfaction.
+
+"Griggs," he observed at last, "it is very odd. I don't know what to
+make of it at all. You remember the conversation we had in Pera, the
+first night after our arrival? I certainly believed that Hermy wanted to
+marry Paul. She seems to get on amazingly well with his brother; don't
+you think so?"
+
+"It is natural," I answered. "They are cousins. Why should they not like
+each other? Alexander is a most agreeable fellow, and makes the time
+pass very pleasantly when Paul is not there."
+
+"What surprises me most," said John Carvel, "is that Paul does not seem
+to mind in the least. And he has never spoken to me about it, either. I
+am beginning to think he never will. Well, well, there is no reason why
+Hermy should marry just yet, and Paul is no great match, though he is a
+very good fellow."
+
+"A very good fellow," I assented. "A much better fellow than his
+brother, I fancy,--though Alexander has what women call charm. But Paul
+will not change his mind; you need not be afraid of that."
+
+"I should be sorry if Hermy did," said Carvel, gravely. "I should not
+like my daughter to begin life by jilting an honest man for the sake of
+a pretty toy soldier like Alexander."
+
+It was very clear that John Carvel had a fixed opinion in the case, and
+that his judgment did not incline to favor Alexander. On the other hand,
+he could not but be astonished at Paul's silence. Of course I defended
+the latter as well as I could, but as we rode slowly on, talking the
+matter over, I could see that John was not altogether pleased.
+
+Alexander and Hermione had passed a bend in the road before us, and had
+been hidden from our view for some time, for they were nearly half a
+mile in front when we had last seen them. They rode side by side, and
+Alexander seemed to have plenty to say, for he talked incessantly in his
+pleasant, easy voice, and Hermione listened to him. They came to a place
+where the road forked to the right and left. Neither of them were very
+familiar with the forest, and, without stopping to think, they followed
+the lane which looked the straighter and broader of the two, but which
+in reality led by winding ways to a distant part of the woods. When John
+Carvel and I came to the place, I naturally turned to the left, to cross
+the little bridge and ascend the hill towards the Khedive's farm. In
+this way the two young people were separated from us, and we were soon
+very far apart, for we were in reality riding in opposite directions.
+
+The lane taken by Hermione and her cousin led at first through a
+hollowed way, above which the branches of the trees met and twined
+closely together, as beautiful a place as can be found in the whole
+forest. Alexander grew less talkative, and presently relapsed altogether
+into silence. They walked their horses, and he looked at his cousin's
+face, half shaded by a thin gray veil, which set off admirably the
+beauty of her mouth and chin.
+
+"Hermione," he said after a time, in his softest voice.
+
+The girl blushed a little, without knowing why, but did not answer. He
+hesitated, as though he could get no further than her name. As the blush
+faded from her cheek, his cousin glanced timidly at him, not at all as
+she generally looked. Perhaps she felt the magic of the place. She was
+not used to be timid with him, and she experienced a new sensation.
+There was generally something light and gay in his way of speaking to
+her which admitted of a laughing answer; but just now he had spoken her
+name so seriously, so gently, that she felt for the first time that he
+was in earnest. Instinctively she put her horse to a brisker pace,
+before he had said anything more. He kept close at her side.
+
+"Hermione," he said again, and his voice sounded in her ear like the
+voice of an unknown spell, weaving charms about her under the shade of
+the enchanted forest. "Hermione, my beloved,--do not laugh at me any
+more. It is earnest, dear,--it is my whole life."
+
+Still she said nothing, but the blush rose again to her face and died
+away, leaving her very pale. She shortened the reins in her hands,
+keeping the Arab at a regular, even trot.
+
+"It is earnest, darling," continued her cousin, in low, clear tones. "I
+never knew how much I loved you until to-day. No, do not laugh again.
+Tell me you know it is so, as I know it."
+
+The lane grew narrower and the branches lower, but she would not slacken
+speed, though now and then she had to bend her head to avoid the leafy
+twigs as she passed. But this time she answered, not laughing, but very
+gravely.
+
+"You must not talk like that any more," she said. "I do not like to hear
+it."
+
+"Is it so bitter to be told that you are loved--as I love? Is it so
+hard to hear? But you have heard once--twice, twenty times; you will not
+always think it bad to hear; your ears will grow used to it. All,
+Hermione, if you could guess how sweet it is to love as I love, you
+would understand!"
+
+"I do not know--- I cannot guess--I would not if I could," answered the
+young girl desperately. "Hush, Alexander! Do not talk in that way. You
+must not. It is not right."
+
+"Not right?" echoed the young man, with a soft laugh. "I will make it
+right; you shall guess what it is to love, dear,--to love me as I love
+you."
+
+He bent in his saddle as he rode beside her, and laid his left hand on
+hers, but she shook his fingers off impatiently.
+
+"Why are you angry, love?" he asked. "You have let me say it lightly so
+often; will you not let me say it earnestly for once?"
+
+"No," she answered firmly. "I do not want to hear it. I have been very
+wrong, Alexander. I like you very much--because you are my cousin--but I
+do not love you--I will not--I mean, I cannot. No, I am in earnest,
+too--far more than you are. I can never love you--no, no, no--never!"
+
+But she had let fall the words "I will not," and Alexander knew that
+there was a struggle in her mind.
+
+"You will not?" he said tenderly. "No--but you will, darling. I know you
+will. You must; I will make you!"
+
+Again he leaned far out of his saddle, and in an instant his left arm
+went round her slender waist, as they rode quickly along, and his lips
+touched her soft cheek just below the little gray veil. But he had gone
+too far. Hermione's spurred heel just touched the Arab's flank, and he
+sprang forward in a gallop up the narrow lane. Alexander kept close at
+her side. His blood was up, and burning in his delicate cheek. He still
+tried to keep his hand upon her waist, and bent towards her, moving in
+his saddle with the ease of a born horseman as he galloped along. But
+Hermione spurred her horse, and angrily tried to elude her cousin's
+embrace, till in a moment they were tearing through the woods at a
+racing pace.
+
+Suddenly there came a crash, followed by a dull, heavy sound, and
+Hermione saw that she was alone. She tried to look behind her, but
+several seconds elapsed before her Arab could be quieted; at last she
+succeeded in making him turn, and rode quickly back along the path.
+Alexander's horse was standing across the way, and Hermione was obliged
+to dismount and turn him before she could see beyond. Her cousin lay in
+the lane, motionless as he had fallen, his face pale and turned upwards,
+one arm twisted under his body, the other stretched out upon the soft
+mould of the woodland path. Hermione stood holding the two horses, one
+with each hand, and looking intently at the insensible man. She did not
+lose her presence of mind, though she was frightened by his pallor; but
+she could not let the horses run loose in such a place, when they might
+be lost in a moment. She paused a moment, and listened for the sound of
+hoofs, thinking that her father and I could not be far behind. But the
+woods were very still, and she remembered that she and her cousin had
+ridden fast over the last two miles. Drawing the bridles over the
+horses' heads, she proceeded to fasten them to a couple of trees, not
+without some trouble, for her own horse was excited and nervous from the
+sharp gallop; but at last she succeeded, and, gathering her habit in one
+hand, she ran quickly to Alexander's side.
+
+There he lay, quite unconscious, and so pale that she thought he might
+be dead. His head was bare, and his hat, crumpled and broken, lay in the
+path, some distance behind him. There was a dark mark on the right side
+of his forehead, high up and half covered by his silky brown hair.
+Hermione knelt down and tried to lift his head upon her knee. But his
+body was heavy, and she was not very strong. She dragged him with
+difficulty to the side of the path, and raised his shoulders a little
+against the bank. She felt for his pulse, but there was no motion in the
+lifeless veins, nor could she decide whether he breathed or not. Utterly
+without means of reviving him, for she had not so much as a bottle of
+salts in the pocket of her saddle, she kneeled over him, and wiped his
+pale forehead with her handkerchief, and blew gently on his face. She
+was pale herself, and was beginning to be frightened, though she had
+good nerves. Nevertheless she took courage, feeling sure that we should
+appear in five minutes at the latest.
+
+It was clear that in galloping by her side at full speed Alexander's
+head had struck violently against a heavy branch, which grew lower than
+the rest. His eyes had been turned on her, and he had not seen the
+danger. The branch was so placed that Hermione, lowering her head to
+avoid the leaves, as she looked straight before, had passed under it in
+safety; whereas her cousin must have struck full upon the thickest part,
+three or four feet nearer to the tree. At the pace they were riding, the
+blow might well have been fatal; and as the moments passed and the
+injured man showed no signs of life, Hermione's heart beat faster and
+her face grew whiter. Her first thought was of his mother, and a keen,
+sharp fear shot through her as she thought of the dreadful moment when
+Madame Patoff must be told; but the next instant brought her a feeling
+of far deeper horror. He had been hurt almost while speaking words of
+love to her; he had struck his head because he was looking at her
+instead of before him, and it was in some measure her fault, for she had
+urged the speed of that foolish race. She bent down over him, and the
+tears started to her eyes. She tried to listen for the beating of his
+heart, and, opening his coat, she laid her ear to his breast. Something
+cold touched her cheek, and she quickly raised her head again and looked
+down. It was a small flat silver flask which he carried in the pocket of
+his waistcoat, and which in the fall had slipped up from its place.
+Hermione withdrew it eagerly and unscrewed the cap. It contained some
+kind of spirits, and she poured a little between his parted lips.
+
+The deathly features contracted a little, and the eyelids quivered. She
+poured the brandy into the palm of her hand, and chafed his temples and
+forehead. Alexander drew a long breath and slowly opened his eyes; then
+shut them again; then, after a few moments, opened them wide, stared,
+and uttered an exclamation of surprise in Russian.
+
+"Are you better?" asked Hermione, breathlessly. "I thought you were
+dead."
+
+"No, I am all right," he said, faintly, trying to raise himself. But his
+head swam, and he fell back, once more insensible. This time, however,
+the fainting fit did not last long, and he soon opened his eyes again
+and looked at Hermione without speaking. She continued to rub the
+spirits upon his forehead. Then he put out his hand and grasped the
+flask she held, and drank a long draught from it.
+
+"It is nothing," he said. "I can get up now, thank you." He struggled to
+his feet, leaning on the young girl's arm. "How did it happen?" he
+asked. "I cannot remember anything."
+
+"You must have struck your head against that branch," answered Hermione,
+pointing to the thick bough which projected over the lane. "Do you feel
+better?"
+
+"Yes. I can mount in a minute," he replied, steadying himself. "I have
+had a bad shaking, and my head hurts me. It is nothing serious."
+
+"Better sit down for a few minutes, until the others come up," suggested
+the young girl, who was surprised to see him recover himself so quickly.
+He seemed glad enough to follow her advice, and they sat down together
+on the mossy bank.
+
+"It was my fault," said Hermione, penitently. "It was so foolish of me
+to ride fast in such a place."
+
+"Women care for nothing but galloping when they are on horseback," said
+Alexander. It was not a very civil speech, and though Hermione forgave
+him because he was half stunned with pain, the words rang unpleasantly
+in her ear. He might have been satisfied, she thought, when she owned
+that it was her fault. It was not generous to agree with her so
+unhesitatingly. She wondered whether Paul would have spoken like that.
+
+"Do you really think you can ride back?" she asked, in a colder tone.
+
+"Certainly," he said; "provided we ride slowly. What can have become of
+uncle John and Griggs?"
+
+Uncle John and Griggs were at that moment wondering what had become of
+the two young people. We had ridden on to the top of the hill, and had
+stopped on reaching the open space near the Khedive's farm, where there
+is a beautiful view, and where we expected to find our companions
+waiting for us. But we were surprised to see no one there. After a great
+deal of hesitation we agreed that John Carvel, who did not know the
+forest, should follow the main road down the hill on the other side,
+while I rode back over the way we had come. I suspected that Alexander
+and Hermione had taken the wrong turn, and I was more anxious about them
+than I would show. The forest is indeed said to be safe, but hardly a
+year passes without some solitary rider being molested by gypsies or
+wandering thieves, if he has ventured too far from the beaten tracks. I
+rode as fast as I could, but it was nearly twenty minutes before I
+struck into the hollow lane. I found the pair seated on the bank, a mile
+further on, and Hermione hailed me with delight. Everything was
+explained in a few words. Alexander seemed sufficiently recovered from
+his accident to get into the saddle, and we were soon walking our horses
+back towards the maidám of Buyukdere. Neither Alexander nor Hermione
+talked much by the way, and we were all glad when we reached the tiny
+bazaar, and were picking out way over the uneven street, amongst the
+coppersmiths, the lounging soldiers, the solemn narghylè smokers, the
+kaffejis, the beggars, and the half-naked children.
+
+On that evening, two things occurred which precipitated the course of
+events. John Carvel had an interview with Hermione, and I had a most
+unlucky idea. John Carvel's mind was disturbed concerning the future of
+his only daughter, and though he was not a man who hastily took fright,
+his character was such that when once persuaded that things were not as
+they should be, he never hesitated as to the course he should pursue.
+Accordingly, that night he called Hermione into his study, and
+determined to ask her for an explanation. The poor girl was nervous, for
+she suspected trouble, and did not see very clearly how it could be
+avoided.
+
+"Sit down, Hermy," said John, establishing himself in a deep chair with
+a cigar. "I want to talk with you, my dear."
+
+"Yes, papa," answered Hermione, meekly.
+
+"Hermy, do you mean to marry Paul, or not? Don't be nervous, my child,
+but think the matter over before you answer. If you mean to have him, I
+have no objection to the match; but if you do not mean to, I would like
+to know. That is all. You know you spoke to me about it in England
+before we left home. Things have been going on a long time now, and yet
+Paul has said nothing to me about it."
+
+It was impossible to put the matter more clearly than this, and Hermione
+knew it. She said nothing for some minutes, but sat staring out of the
+window at the dark water, where the boats moved slowly about, each
+bearing a little light at the bow. Far down the quay a band was playing
+the eternal _Stella Confidente_, which has become a sort of national air
+in Turkey. The strains floated in through the window, and the young girl
+struggled hard to concentrate her thoughts, which somehow wound
+themselves in and out of the music in a very irrelevant manner.
+
+"Must I answer now, papa?" she asked at last, almost desperately.
+
+"My dear," replied the inexorable John, in kind tones, "I cannot see why
+you should not. You are probably in very much the same state of mind
+to-night as you were in yesterday, or as you will be in to-morrow. It is
+better to settle the matter and be done with it. I do not believe that a
+fortnight, a month, or even a longer time will make any perceptible
+difference in your ideas about this matter." He puffed at his cigar, and
+again looked at his daughter.
+
+"Hermy," he continued, after another interval of silence, "if you do not
+mean to marry Paul, you are treating him very badly. You are letting
+that idiot of a brother of his make love to you from morning till
+night."
+
+"Oh, papa! How can you!" exclaimed Hermione, who was not accustomed to
+hearing any kind of strong language from her father.
+
+"Idiot,--yes, my dear, that expresses it very well. He is my nephew, and
+I have a right to call him an idiot if I please. I believe the fellow
+wears stays, and curls his hair with tongs. He has a face like a girl,
+and he talks unmitigated rubbish."
+
+"I thought you liked him, papa," objected Hermione. "I do not think he
+is at all as silly as you say he is. He is very agreeable."
+
+"I have no objection to him," retorted John Carvel. "I tolerate him.
+Toleration is not liking. He fascinated us all for a day or two, but it
+did not last long; that sort of fascination never does."
+
+There was another long pause. The band had finished the _Stella
+Confidente_, and ran on without stopping to the performance of the
+drinking chorus in the _Traviata_. Hermione twisted her fingers
+together, and bit her lips. Her father's opinion of Alexander was a
+revelation to her, but it carried weight with it, and it aroused a whole
+train of recollections in her mind, culminating in the accident of the
+afternoon. She remembered vividly what she had felt during those long
+minutes before Alexander had recovered consciousness, and she knew that
+her feelings bore not the slightest relation to love. She had been
+terrified, and had blamed herself, and had thought of his mother; but
+the idea that he might be dead had not hurt her as it would have done
+had she loved him. She had felt no wild grief, no awful sense of
+blankness; the tears which had risen to her eyes had been tears of pity,
+of genuine sorrow, but not of despair. She tried to think what she would
+have felt had she seen Paul lying dead before her, and the mere idea
+sent a sharp thrust through her heart that almost frightened her.
+
+"Well, my dear," said John, at last, "can you give me an answer? Do you
+mean to marry Paul or Alexander, or neither?"
+
+"Not Alexander,--oh, never!" exclaimed Hermione. "I never thought of
+such a thing."
+
+"Paul, then?"
+
+"Papa, dear," said the young girl, after a moment's hesitation, "I will
+tell you all about it. When Paul came, I firmly intended to marry him.
+Then I began to know Alexander--and--well, I was very wrong, but he
+began to make pretty phrases, and to talk of loving me. Of course I told
+him he was very foolish, and I laughed at him. But he only went on, and
+said a great deal more, in spite of me. Then I thought that because I
+could not stop him I was interested in him. Paul wanted to speak to you,
+but I would not let him. I did not feel that my conscience was quite
+clear. I was not sure that I should always love him. Do you see? I think
+I love him, really, but Alexander interests me."
+
+"But you never for a moment thought of marrying Alexander? You said so
+just now."
+
+"Oh, never! I laughed at him, and he amused me,--nothing more than
+that."
+
+"Then I don't quite see"--began John Carvel, who was rather puzzled by
+the explanation.
+
+"Of course not. You are a man,--how can you understand? I will promise
+you this, papa: if I cannot make up my mind in a week, I will tell Paul
+so."
+
+"How will a week help you, my dear? Ever so many weeks have passed, and
+you are still uncertain."
+
+"I am sure that a week will make all the difference. I think I shall
+have decided then. I am in earnest, dear papa," she added, gravely. "Do
+you think I would willingly do anything to hurt Paul?"
+
+"No, my dear, I don't," answered John Carvel. "Only--you might do it
+unwillingly, you know, and as far as he is concerned it would come to
+very much the same thing." And with this word of warning the interview
+ended.
+
+When I went home to dinner, I found Gregorios Balsamides seated on the
+wooden bench under the honeysuckle outside my door. He had escaped from
+the dust and heat of Pera, and had come to spend the night, sure of
+finding a hearty welcome at my kiosk on the hill. I sat down beside him,
+and he began asking me questions about the people who had arrived,
+giving me in return the news and gossip of Pera.
+
+"You have a very pretty place here," he said. "A man I knew took it last
+summer, and used to give tea-parties and little fêtes in the evening. It
+is easy to string lanterns from one tree to another, and it makes a very
+pretty effect. It is a mild form of idiocy, it is true,--much milder
+than the prevailing practice of dancing in-doors, with the thermometer
+at the boiling point."
+
+"It is not a bad idea," I answered. "We will experiment upon our friends
+the Carvels in a small way. I will ask them and the Patoffs to come here
+next Saturday. Can you come, too?"
+
+The thing was settled, and Gregorios promised to be of the party. We
+dined, and sat late together, talking long before we went to bed.
+Gregorios is a soldier, and does not mind roughing it a little; so he
+slept on the divan, and declared the next day that he had slept very
+well.
+
+
+
+
+XXIII.
+
+
+Madame Patoff had not received the news of Alexander's accident with
+indifference, and it had been necessary that he should assure her
+himself that he was not seriously hurt before she could be quieted. He
+had been badly stunned, however, and his head gave him much pain during
+several days, as was natural enough. He spent most of his time on the
+sofa in his mother's sitting-room, and she would sit for hours talking
+to him and trying to soothe his pain. The sympathy between the two
+seemed strengthened, and it was strange to see how, when together, their
+manner changed. The relation between the mother and the spoiled child is
+a very peculiar one, and occupies an entirely separate division in the
+scale of human affections; for while the mother's love in such a case is
+sincere, though generally founded on a mere capricious preference, the
+over-indulged affection of the child breeds nothing but caprice and a
+ruthless desire to see that caprice satisfied. Madame Patoff loved
+Alexander so much that the belief in his death had driven her mad; he on
+his side loved his mother because he knew that in all cases, just and
+unjust, she would defend him, take his part, and help him to get what he
+wanted. But he never missed her when they were separated, and he never
+took any pains to see her unless in so doing he could satisfy some other
+wish at the same time. He was selfish, willful, and obstinate at
+two-and-thirty as he had been at ten years of age. His mother was
+willful, obstinate, and capricious, but as far as he was concerned she
+was incapable of selfishness.
+
+What was most remarkable in her manner was her ease in talking with
+Professor Cutter, and her indifference in referring to her past
+insanity. She did not appear to realize it; she hardly seemed to care
+whether any one knew it or not, and regarded it as an unfortunate
+accident, but one which there was little object in concealing. As the
+scientist talked with her and observed her, he opened his eyes wider and
+wider behind his gold-rimmed spectacles, and grew more and more silent
+when any one spoke to him of her. I knew later that he detected in her
+conduct certain symptoms which alarmed him, but felt obliged to hold his
+peace on account of the extreme difficulty of his position. He felt that
+to watch her again, or to put her under any kind of restraint, might now
+lead to far more serious results than before, and he determined to bide
+his time. An incident occurred very soon, however, which helped him to
+make up his mind.
+
+One afternoon we arranged an excursion to the ruined castle of Anadoli
+Kavák, on the Asian shore, near the mouth of the Black Sea. Mrs. Carvel,
+who was not a good sailor, stayed at home, but Miss Dabstreak, Madame
+Patoff, and Hermione were of the party, with Paul, Macaulay Carvel,
+Professor Cutter, and myself. Macaulay had borrowed a good-sized cutter
+from one of his many colleagues who kept yachts on the Bosphorus, and at
+three o'clock in the afternoon we started from the Buyukdere quay. There
+was a smart northerly breeze as we hoisted the jib, and it was evident
+that we should have to make several tacks before we could beat up to our
+destination. The boat was of about ten tons burden, with a full deck,
+broken only by a well leading to the cabin; a low rail ran round the
+bulwarks, for the yacht was intended for pleasure excursions and the
+accommodation of ladies. The members of the party sat in a group on the
+edge of the well, and I took the helm. Chrysophrasia was in a
+particularly Oriental frame of mind. The deep blue sky, the emerald
+green of the hills, and the cool clear water rippling under the breeze,
+no doubt acted soothingly upon her nerves.
+
+"I feel quite like Sindbad the Sailor," she said. "Mr. Griggs, you ought
+really to tell us a tale from the Arabian Nights. I am sure it would
+seem so very real, you know."
+
+"If I were to spin yarns while steering, Miss Dabstreak," I said, "your
+fate would probably resemble Sindbad's. You would be wrecked six or
+seven times between here and Kavák."
+
+"So delightfully exciting," murmured Chrysophrasia. "Annie," she
+continued, addressing her sister, "shall we not ask Mr. Griggs to wreck
+us? I have always longed to be on a wreck."
+
+"No," said Madame Patoff, glancing at her foolish sister with her great
+dark eyes. "I should not like to be drowned."
+
+"Of course not; how very dreadful!" exclaimed Miss Dabstreak. "But
+Sindbad was never drowned, you remember. It was always somebody else."
+
+"Oh--somebody else," repeated Madame Patoff, looking down at the deep
+water. "Yes, to drown somebody else,--that would be very different."
+
+I think we were all a little startled, and Hermione looked at Paul and
+turned pale. As for Cutter, he very slowly and solemnly drew a cigar
+from his case, lit it carefully, crossed one knee over the other, and
+gazed fixedly at Madame Patoff during several minutes, before he spoke.
+
+"Would you really like to see anybody drowned?" he asked at last.
+
+"Why do you ask?" inquired Madame Patoff, rather sharply.
+
+"Because I thought you said so, and I wanted to know if you were in
+earnest."
+
+"I suppose we should all like to see our enemies die," said the old
+lady. "Not painfully, of course, but so that we should be quite sure of
+it." She laid a strong emphasis on the last words, and as she looked up
+I thought she glanced at Paul.
+
+"If you had seen many people die, you would not care for the sight,"
+said the professor quietly. "Besides, you have no enemies."
+
+"What is death?" asked Madame Patoff, looking at him with a curiously
+calm smile as she asked the question.
+
+"The only thing we know about it, is that it appears to be in every way
+the opposite of life," was the scientist's answer. "Life separates us
+for a time from the state of what we call inanimate matter. When life
+ceases, we return to that state."
+
+"Why do you say 'what we call inanimate matter'?" inquired Paul.
+
+"Because it has been very well said that names are labels, not
+definitions. As a definition, inanimate matter means generally the
+earth, the water, the air; but the name would be a very poor
+definition,--as poor as the word 'man' used to define the human animal."
+
+"You do not think that inanimate matter is really lifeless?" I asked.
+
+"Unless it is so hot that it melts," laughed the professor. "Even then
+it may not be true,--indeed, it may be quite false. We call the moon
+dead, because we have reason to believe that she has cooled to the
+centre. We call Jupiter and Saturn live planets, though we believe them
+still too hot to support life."
+
+"All that does not explain death," objected Madame Patoff.
+
+"If I could explain death, I could explain life," answered Cutter. "And
+if I could explain life, I should have made a great step towards
+producing it artificially."
+
+"If one could only produce artificial death!" exclaimed Madame Patoff.
+
+"It would be very amusing," answered Cutter, with a smile, folding his
+huge white hands upon his knee. "We could try it on ourselves, and then
+we should know what to expect. I have often thought about it, I assure
+you. I once had the curiosity to put myself into a trance by the Munich
+method of shining disks,--they use it in the hospitals instead of ether,
+you know,--and I remained in the state half an hour."
+
+"And then, what happened when you woke up?"
+
+"I had a bad headache and my eyes hurt me," replied the professor dryly.
+"I dare say that if a dead man came to life he would feel much the same
+thing."
+
+"I dare say," assented Madame Patoff; but there was a vague look in her
+eyes, which showed that her thoughts were somewhere else. We were close
+upon the Asian shore, and I put the helm down to go about. The ladies
+changed their places, and there was a little confusion, in which Cutter
+found himself close to me.
+
+"Keep an eye on her," he said quickly, in a low voice. "She is very
+queer."
+
+I thought so, too, and I watched Madame Patoff to see whether she would
+return to the subject which seemed to attract her. Cutter kept up the
+conversation, however, and did not again show any apprehension about his
+former patient's state of mind, though I could see that he watched her
+as closely as I did. The fresh breeze filled the sails, and the next
+tack took us clear up to Yeni Mahallè on the European side; for the
+little yacht was quick in stays, and, moreover, had a good hold on the
+water, enabling her to beat quickly up against wind and current. Once
+again I went about, and, running briskly across, made the little pier
+below Anadoli Kavák, little more than three quarters of an hour after we
+had started. We landed, and went up the green slope to the place where
+the little coffee-shop stands under the trees. We intended to climb the
+hill to the ruined castle. To my surprise, Professor Cutter suggested to
+Madame Patoff that they should stay below, while the rest made the
+ascent. He said he feared she would tire herself too much. But she would
+not listen to him.
+
+"I insist upon going," she said. "I am as strong as any of you. It is
+quite absurd."
+
+Cutter temporized by suggesting that we should have coffee before the
+walk, and Chrysophrasia sank languidly down upon a straw chair.
+
+"If the man has any loukoum, I could bear a cup of coffee," she
+murmured. The man had loukoum, it appeared, and Chrysophrasia was
+satisfied. We all sat down in a circle under the huge oak-tree, and
+enjoyed the freshness and greenness of the place. The kaffeji, in loose
+white garments and a fez, presently brought out a polished brass tray,
+bearing the requisite number of tiny cups and two little white saucers
+filled with pieces of loukoum-rahat, the Turkish national sweetmeat,
+commonly called by schoolboys fig-paste.
+
+"Why was I not born a Turk!" exclaimed Chrysophrasia. "This joyous life
+in the open air is so intensely real, so profoundly true!"
+
+"Life is real anywhere," remarked Cutter, with a smile. "The important
+question is whether it is agreeable to the liver."
+
+"Death is real, too," said Madame Patoff, in such a curious tone that we
+all started slightly, as we had done in the boat. My nerves are good,
+but I felt a weird horror of the woman stealing over me. The
+imperturbable scientist only glanced at me, as though to remind me of
+what he had said before. Then he took up the question.
+
+"No, madam," he said, coldly. "Death is a negation, almost a universal
+negation. It is not real; it only devours reality, and then denies it.
+You can see that life is to breathe, to think, to eat, to drink, to
+love, to fear,--any of these. Death is only the negation of all these
+things, because we can only say that in death we do none of them.
+Reality is motion, in the broad sense, as far as man is concerned; death
+is only the cessation of the ability to move. You cannot predicate
+anything else of it."
+
+"Oh, your dry, dry science!" exclaimed Chrysophrasia, casting
+up her green eyes. "You would turn our fair fields and
+limpid--ahem--skies--into the joyless waste of a London pavement, or one
+of your horrid dissecting-rooms!"
+
+"I don't see the point of your simile, Miss Dabstreak," answered Cutter,
+with pardonable bluntness. "Besides, that is philosophy, and not
+science."
+
+"What is the difference. Mr. Griggs?" asked Hermione, turning to me.
+
+"My dear young lady," said I, "science, I think, means the state of
+being wise, and hence, the thing known, which gives a man the title of
+wise. Philosophy means the love of wisdom."
+
+"Rather involved definition," observed the professor, with a laugh.
+"There is not much difference between the state of being wise and the
+state of loving wisdom."
+
+"The one asserts the possession of that which the other aspires to
+possess, but considers to be very difficult of attainment," I tried to
+explain. "The scientist says to the world, 'I have found the origin of
+life: it is protoplasm, it is your God, and all your religious beliefs
+are merely the result of your ignorance of protoplasm.' The philosopher
+answers, 'I allow that this protoplasm is the origin of life, but how
+did this origin itself originate? And if you can show how it originated
+from inanimate matter, how did the inanimate matter begin to exist? And
+how was space found in which it could exist? And why does anything
+exist, animate or inanimate? And is the existence of matter a proof of a
+supreme design, or is it not?' Thereupon science gets very red in the
+face, and says that these questions are absurd, after previously stating
+that everything ought to be questioned."
+
+"Science," answered the professor, "says that man has enough to do in
+questioning his immediate surroundings, without going into the matter of
+transcendental inquiry."
+
+"Then she ought to keep to her own proper sphere," said I, waxing hot.
+"The fact is that science, armed with miserably imperfect tools, but
+unbounded assumption, has discovered a jelly-fish in a basin of water,
+and has deduced from that premise the tremendous conclusion that there
+is no God."
+
+"That is strong language, Mr. Griggs,--very strong language," repeated
+the professor. "You exaggerate the position too much, I think. But it is
+useless to argue with transcendentalists. You always fall back upon the
+question of faith, and you refuse to listen to reason."
+
+"When you can disprove our position, we will listen to your proof. But
+since the whole human race, as far as we can ascertain, without any
+exception whatsoever, has believed always in the survival of the soul
+after death, allow me to say that when you deny the existence of the
+soul the _onus probandi_ lies with you, and not with us."
+
+Therewith I drank my coffee in silence, and looked at the half-naked
+Turkish children playing upon the little pier over the bright water. It
+struck me that if the learned scientist had told them that they had no
+souls, they would have laughed at him very heartily. I think that in the
+opinion of the company I had the best of the argument, and Cutter knew
+it, for he did not answer.
+
+"I have always believed that I have a soul," said Macaulay Carvel, in
+his smooth, monotonous tone. But there was as much conviction in his
+tone as though he had expressed his belief in the fact that he had a
+nose.
+
+"Of course you have," said Hermione. "Let us go up to the castle and see
+the view before it is too late. Aunt Annie, do wait for us here; it is
+very tiring, really."
+
+"You seem to think I am a decrepit old woman," answered Madame Patoff,
+impatiently, as she rose from her chair.
+
+Paul felt that it was his duty to offer his mother his arm for the
+ascent, though the professor came forward at the same moment.
+
+"Dear Paul, you are so good," said she, accepting his assistance as we
+began to climb the hill.
+
+I saw her face in that moment. It was as calm and beautiful as ever, but
+I thought she glanced sideways to see whether every one had heard her
+speech and appreciated it. Little was said as we breasted the steep
+ascent, for the path was rough, and there was barely room for two people
+to walk side by side. At last we emerged upon a broad slope of grass
+outside the walls of the old fortress. A goatherd lives inside it, and
+has turned the old half-open vaults into a stable for his flocks. We
+paused under the high walls, which on one side are built above the
+precipitous cliff, with a sheer fall of a hundred feet or more. Towards
+the land they are not more than forty feet high, where the grass grows
+up to their base. There is a curious gate on that side, with the carved
+arms of the Genoese republic imbedded in the brick masonry.
+
+Some one suggested that we should go inside, and after a short interview
+with the goatherd he consented to chain up his enormous dog, and let us
+pass the small wooden gate which leads to the interior. Inside the
+fortress the falling in of the roof and walls has filled the old court
+so that it is nearly on a level with the walls. It is easy to scramble
+up to the top, and the thickness is so great that it is safe to walk
+along for a little distance, provided one does not go too near the edge.
+We wandered about below, and some of us climbed up to see the beautiful
+view, which extends far down the Bosphorus on the one side, and looks
+over the broad Black Sea on the other. Madame Patoff still leaned on
+Paul's arm, while the professor gallantly helped the languid
+Chrysophrasia to reach the most accessible places. Macaulay was engaged
+in an attempt to measure the circumference of the castle, and rambled
+about in quest of facts, as usual, noting down the figures in his
+pocket-book very conscientiously. I was left alone with Hermione for a
+few minutes. We sat down on a heap of broken masonry to rest, talking of
+the place and its history. Hermione was so placed that she could not see
+the top of the wall which overhung the precipice on the outer side, but
+from where I sat I could watch Paul slowly helping his mother to reach
+the top.
+
+"It belonged to the Genoese, and was built by them," I said. "The arms
+over the gate are theirs. Perhaps you noticed them." Paul and his mother
+had reached the summit of the wall, and were standing there, looking out
+at the view.
+
+"How did the Genoese come to be here?" asked Hermione, digging her
+parasol into the loose earth.
+
+"They were once very powerful in Constantinople," I answered. "They held
+Pera for many years, and"----
+
+I broke off with an exclamation of horror, starting to my feet at the
+same instant. I had idly watched the mother and son as they stood
+together, and I could hear their voices as they spoke. Suddenly, and
+without a moment's warning, Madame Patoff put out her hand, and seemed
+to push Paul with all her might. He stumbled, and fell upon the edge,
+but from my position I could not tell whether he had saved himself or
+had fallen into the abyss.
+
+I suppose Hermione followed my look, and saw that Madame Patoff was
+standing alone upon the top, but I did not stop to speak or explain. I
+sprang upon the wall, and in a second more I saw that Paul had fallen
+his full length along the brink, but had saved himself, and was
+scrambling to his feet. Madame Patoff stood quite still, her face rigid
+and drawn, and an expression of horror in her eyes that was bad to see.
+But I was not alone in coming to Paul's assistance. As I put out my arm
+to help him to his feet, I saw Hermione's small hands lay hold of him
+with desperate strength, dragging him from the fatal brink. But Paul was
+unhurt, and was on his legs in another moment. He was ghastly white, and
+his lips worked curiously as his eyes settled on his mother's face.
+
+"How did it happen?" asked Hermione, as soon as she could speak, but
+still clinging to his arm, while she glanced inquiringly at her aunt.
+
+"I do not know," said Paul, in a thick voice, between his teeth.
+
+"I was dizzy," gasped Madame Patoff. "I put out my hand to save
+myself"----
+
+"Do me the favor to come down from this place at once," I said, grasping
+her firmly by the arm, and leading her away.
+
+"Paul, Paul, how did it happen?" I heard Hermione saying, as we
+descended.
+
+But Paul's lips were resolutely shut, and he would say nothing more
+about it. Indeed, he was badly startled, but I knew his paleness was not
+caused by fear. In my own mind the conviction was strong that his mother
+had deliberately attempted to murder him by pushing him over the edge. I
+remembered Cutter's warning, and I wondered that he should have allowed
+her to go out of his sight since he recognized the condition of her
+brain, but a moment's reflection made me recollect that I had understood
+him differently. He had meant that she might try to kill herself, not
+her son; and that had been my own impression, for it was not till later
+that I learned how she had spoken of Paul to herself, that night in
+Pera, after the ball. At that time the professor knew more about the
+matter than I did, for Hermione had confided in him when they were alone
+in Santa Sophia.
+
+I think Madame Patoff tried to explain the accident to me as I got her
+down into the ruined court, but I do not remember what she said. My only
+wish was to get the party back to Buyukdere, and to be alone with Cutter
+for five minutes.
+
+"Patoff has met with an accident," I said, as the others came up. "He
+stumbled near the edge of the wall, and is badly shaken. We had better
+go home."
+
+There was very little explanation needed, and Paul protested that he had
+incurred no danger, though he acquiesced readily enough to the
+suggestion. I did not let Madame Patoff leave my arm until we were once
+more on board the little yacht, for I was convinced that the woman was
+dangerously mad. The drawn expression of her pale face did not change,
+and she soon ceased speaking altogether. I noted the fact that in all
+the excitement of the moment she expressed no satisfaction at Paul's
+escape. It was not until we reached the water that she said something
+about "dear Paul," in a tone that made me shudder. We were a silent
+party as we ran down the wind to Buyukdere. Cutter sat beside Madame
+Patoff, and watched her curiously; for the expression of her face had
+not escaped him, though he had no idea of what had happened. Sitting on
+the deck, at the edge of the wall, she looked down at the water as we
+rushed along.
+
+"What do you see in the water?" asked the professor, quietly. The answer
+came in a very low voice, but I heard it as I stood by the helm:--
+
+"I see a man's face under the water, looking up at me."
+
+"And whose face is it?" inquired Cutter, in the same matter-of-fact
+tone.
+
+"I will not tell you, nor any one," she answered. Cutter looked up at me
+to see whether I had heard, and I nodded to him. In a few minutes we
+were alongside of the pier. I refused Chrysophrasia's not very pressing
+invitation to tea, and, bidding good-by to the rest, I put my arm
+through the professor's. He seemed ready enough to go with me, so we
+walked along the smooth quay in the sunset, arm in arm.
+
+"I wanted to speak to you," I said. "You ought to know what happened up
+there this afternoon. Madame Patoff tried to push Paul over the edge. It
+was a deliberate attempt to murder him." Cutter stopped in his walk and
+looked earnestly into my face.
+
+"Did you see it yourself? Did you positively see it, or is that only
+your impression?"
+
+"I saw it," I answered, shortly.
+
+"She is quite mad still, then. No one but a mad woman would attempt such
+a thing. What is worse, it is a fixed idea that she has." He told me
+what Hermione had confided to him.
+
+"Then Paul's life is not safe for a moment," I said, after a moment's
+pause.
+
+"Unless his brother marries Miss Carvel, I would advise him to be on his
+guard when he is alone with his mother. He is safe enough when other
+people are present. I know those cases. They are sly, cautious, timid.
+She will try and push him over the edge of a precipice when nobody is
+looking. Before you she will call him 'dear Paul,' and all the rest of
+it."
+
+"That looks to me more like the cunning of a murderess than the slyness
+of a maniac," I said.
+
+"Most murderers are only maniacs, mad people," answered the professor.
+"Men and women are born with a certain tendency of mind which makes them
+easily brood over an idea. Their life and circumstances foster one
+particular notion, till it gets a predominant weight in their weak
+reasoning. The occasion presents itself, and they carry out the plan
+they have been forming for years in secret, or even unconsciously. If in
+carrying out their ideas they kill anybody, it is called murder. It
+makes very little difference what you call it. The law distinguishes
+between crimes premeditated and crimes unpremeditated. Murder, willful
+and premeditated, involves in my opinion a process of mind so similar to
+that found in lunatics that it is impossible to distinguish the one from
+the other, and I am quite ready to believe that all premeditated murders
+are brought about by mental aberration in the murderer. On the other
+hand, manslaughter, quick, sudden, and unplanned, is the result of more
+or less inhuman instincts, and those who commit the crime are people who
+approach more or less nearly to wild beasts. For the advancement of
+science, murderers should not be hanged, but should be kept as
+interesting cases of insanity. Much might be learned by carefully
+observing the action of their minds upon ordinary occasions. As for
+homicides, or manslaughterers,--I wish we could use the English
+word,--they are less attractive as a study, and I do not care what
+becomes of them. The brain of a freshly killed tiger would be far more
+interesting."
+
+"What do you propose to do with Madame Patoff?" I asked. "You do not
+suppose that Miss Carvel will marry Alexander Patoff in order to prevent
+his mother from murdering Paul?"
+
+"She ought to," answered Cutter, quietly. "It would be most curious to
+see whether there would be any change in her fixed dislike of the
+younger son."
+
+"And do you mean that that young girl should sacrifice her life to your
+experiments?" I asked, rather hotly. I hated the coldness of the man,
+and his ruthless determination to make scientific capital out of other
+people's troubles.
+
+"I can neither propose nor dispose," he answered. "I only wish that it
+might be so. After all, she could be quite as happy with Alexander as
+with Paul. I doubt whether she has a strong preference for either."
+
+"You are mistaken," said I. "She loves Paul much more than she herself
+imagines. I saw her face to-day when Paul was lying on the edge of the
+precipice. You did not. I have watched them ever since they have been
+together in Constantinople, and I am convinced that she loves Paul, and
+not Alexander. What do you intend to do with Madame Patoff? You know I
+have a little party at my cottage on Saturday,--you promised to come. Is
+it safe to let her come, too?"
+
+"Perfectly," answered my companion. "The only thing to be done at
+present is to prevent her remaining alone with Paul."
+
+"Suppose that Paul tells what happened this afternoon. What then?"
+
+"He will not tell it. I have a great admiration for the fellow, he is so
+manly. If she had done worse than that, he would not tell any one,
+because she is his mother. But he will be on his guard, never fear. She
+will not get such a chance again. Good-night."
+
+The professor left me at the door of the garden through which I had to
+pass to reach the little kiosk. I walked slowly up through the roses
+and the flowers, meditating as I went. Paul had a new enemy in the
+professor, who would certainly try and help Alexander, in order to
+continue his experiments upon Madame Patoff's mind. Poor Paul! He seemed
+to be persecuted by an evil fate, and I pitied him sincerely.
+
+
+
+
+XXIV.
+
+
+It was Saturday afternoon, and my preparations for my little tea-party
+were complete. Gregorios Balsamides had arrived from Pera, and we were
+waiting for the Carvels, seated on the long bench before the house,
+where the view overlooks the Bosphorus. The sun had almost set, and the
+hills of Asia were already tinged with golden light, which caught the
+walls of the white mosque on the Giant's Mountain,--the Yusha-Dagh,
+where the Mussulmans believe that Joshua's body lies buried; Anadoli
+Kavák was bathed in a soft radiance, in which every line of the old
+fortress stood out clear and distinct, so that I could see the very spot
+where Paul had fallen a few days before; the far mouth of the Black Sea
+looked cold and gray in the shadows below the hills, but down below, the
+big steamers, the little yachts, the outlandish Turkish schooners, and
+the tiny caïques moved quickly about in the evening sunshine. My garden
+was become a wilderness of roses in the soft spring weather, too, and
+each flower took a warmer hue as the sun sank in the west, and slowly
+neared the point where it would drop behind the European foreland.
+
+The kiosk was a wooden building, narrow and tall, so that the rooms
+within were high, and the second story was twenty feet above the ground.
+I had caused hundreds of lamps to be hung within and without, to be
+lighted so soon as the darkness set in, and my man, who has an especial
+talent for all sorts of illuminations, and in general for everything
+which in Southern Italy comes under the head of 'festa,' had borrowed
+long strings of little signal-flags and streamers, which he had hung
+fantastically from the house to the surrounding trees. When once the
+lamps should be lighted the effect would be very pretty, and to the eyes
+of English people utterly new.
+
+Gregorios sat beside me on the garden seat, and we talked of Madame
+Patoff and her latest doings. My mind was not at rest about her, and I
+inwardly wished that some accident might prevent her from coming that
+day. I had more than once almost determined to speak to my old friend
+John Carvel, and to tell him what had occurred at Anadoli Kavák. Nothing
+but my respect for Professor Cutter's opinion as a specialist had
+prevented me from doing so; but now, at the last moment, I wished I had
+not been overruled, for I had an unpleasant conviction that his prudence
+had been forgotten in his desire to study the case. For men of his
+profession there seems to be an absorbing interest in deciding the
+question of where crime ends and madness begins, and to put Madame
+Patoff under restraint would have been to cut short one of the most
+valuable experiences of Cutter's life. He probably knew that in the
+present stage of her malady such a proceeding would very likely have
+driven her into hopeless and evident insanity. I could have forgiven him
+if I had thought that he regarded the question from a moralist's point
+of view, and balanced the danger of leaving the unfortunate woman at
+large against the possible advantage she herself might gain from
+enjoying unrestricted liberty. But I was sure that the scientist was not
+thinking of that. He had expressed interest rather than horror at her
+attempt to push Paul over the edge of the wall. He had answered my
+anxious questions concerning the treatment of Madame Patoff by a short
+dissertation on insanity in general, and had left me to continue his
+studies, regardless of any danger to his patient's relations. The moral
+point of view shrank into insignificance as he became more and more
+absorbed in the result of the case, and I believe that he would have let
+us all perish, if necessary, rather than consent to relinquish his
+study. He might have regretted his indifference afterwards, especially
+if he had arrived at no satisfactory conclusion in regard to the unhappy
+woman; but in the fervor of scientific speculation, minor considerations
+of safety were forgotten. Cutter is not a bad man, though he is
+ruthless. He would be incapable of doing any one an injury from a
+personal motive, but in comparison with the importance of one of his
+theories the life of a man is no more to him than the life of a dog. I
+said something of that kind to Balsamides.
+
+"My dear fellow," he answered, "do you expect common sense from people
+who waste their lives in such a senseless fashion? Can anything be more
+absurd than to attempt to explain the vagaries of a diseased mind? They
+call that science in the professor's country. They may as well give it
+up. They will never ultimately discover any better treatment for
+dangerous lunatics than solid bolts and barred windows."
+
+"I believe you are right," I said. "If we could put medicine into the
+head as we can into the stomach, something might be accomplished. It is
+very unpleasant to think that I am to entertain a lady at my tea-party
+who only the other day tried to murder her son in my sight."
+
+"Very," assented Gregorios. "Here they come."
+
+We heard the sound of voices in the garden, and rose to meet the party
+as they came up towards the house. None of them had been to see me
+before, except Paul, and they at once launched into extravagant praises
+of the view and of the kiosk. Chrysophrasia raved about the sunset
+effects, and Hermione was delighted with the way the flags were
+arranged. Macaulay consulted his pocket barometer to see how many feet
+above the sea the house was built, and declared that the air must be far
+more healthy in such a place than on the quay. Madame Patoff looked
+silently out at the view, leaning on Alexander's arm, while John Carvel
+and his wife stood close together, smiling and appreciative, the ideal
+of a well-assorted and perfectly happy middle-aged couple. Cutter
+talked to Balsamides, and Paul followed Hermione as she slowly moved
+from point to point. I stood alone for a few moments, and looked at
+them, going over in my mind all that had happened during the last seven
+months, and wondering how it would all end.
+
+These ten people had lived much together, and had found themselves
+lately united in some very strange occurrences. With the exception of
+Balsamides and the professor, they were all nearly related, and yet they
+were as unlike each other as people of one family could be. The gentle,
+saintly Mary Carvel had little in common with her æsthetic sister
+Chrysophrasia Dabstreak, and neither of them was very like Madame
+Patoff. Sturdy John Carvel was not like his sleek son Macaulay, except
+in honesty and good-nature. Alexander Patoff was indeed like his mother,
+but Paul's stern, cold nature was that of his father, long dead and
+forgotten. As for Hermione, she presented a combination of character
+derived from the best points in her father and mother, marred only, I
+thought, by a little of that vacillation which was the chief
+characteristic of her aunt Chrysophrasia. Cutter and Balsamides were men
+of widely different nationalities and temperaments: the one a ruthless
+scientist, the other an equally ruthless fatalist; the one ready to
+sacrifice the lives of others to a fanatic worship of his profession,
+the other willing to sacrifice himself to the inevitable with heroic
+courage, but holding other men's lives as of no more value than his own.
+A strange company, I thought, and yet in many respects a most
+interesting company, too.
+
+"Shall we go in-doors and have tea?" I said after a few moments,
+collecting my guests together. "The view is even better from the windows
+above."
+
+I led them into the stone-paved vestibule of the wooden house, and up
+the wooden stairs to the upper story. Presently they were all installed
+in the large room where the preparations for the small festivity had
+been made, and I began to do the honors of my bachelor establishment.
+In a Turkish family, the room where we sat, and the three others upon
+the same floor, would have been set apart for the harem, for one door
+separated them from the staircase and from all the rest of the house,--a
+large strong door, painted white, and provided with an excellent lock
+and key. I had selected one room for my bedroom, and the rest were
+furnished with Oriental simplicity, not to say economy. But Balsamides
+had sent down a bale of beautiful carpets, which he lent me for the
+occasion, and which I had hung upon the walls and spread upon the floors
+and divans. Tea, coffee, sherbet, a beautiful view, and a little
+illumination of the gardens, constituted the whole entertainment, but
+the enthusiasm of my guests knew no bounds, probably because they had
+never seen anything of the kind before.
+
+"Griggs is growing to be a true Oriental," said Balsamides, approvingly;
+"he understands how the Turks live."
+
+"Yes," I answered, "I present you the thing in all its bareness. You may
+take this as a specimen of an Eastern house. People are apt to fancy
+that those long, latticed houses on the Bosphorus conceal unheard-of
+luxuries, and that the people live like Sybarites. It is quite untrue.
+They either try to imitate the French style, and do it horribly, or else
+they live in great bare rooms like these."
+
+"What do the women do all day long?" asked Chrysophrasia. "I am sure
+they do not pass their time upon a straw matting, staring at each
+other,--so very dreary!"
+
+"Nevertheless they do," said Gregorios. "They smoke and eat sweetmeats
+from morning till night, and occasionally an old woman comes and tells
+them stories. Some of them can read French. They learn it in order to
+read novels, but cannot speak a word of the language."
+
+"Dreary, dreary!" sighed Chrysophrasia. "And then, the division of the
+affections, you know,--so sad."
+
+"Many of them die of consumption," said Gregorios.
+
+"It would be curious to watch the phases of their intelligence," said
+the professor, slowly sipping his coffee, and staring out of the window
+through his great gold-rimmed spectacles.
+
+The sun had gone down, and the darkness gathered quickly over the
+beautiful scene. At one of the windows Hermione sat silently enjoying
+the evening breeze; Alexander was seated beside her, while Paul stood
+looking out over her head. Neither of the two men spoke, but from time
+to time they exchanged glances which were anything but friendly.
+Outside, my man and the gardener were lighting the little lamps, and
+gradually, as each glass cup received its tiny light, the festoons of
+white and red grew, and seemed to creep stealthily from tree to tree.
+The conversation languished, and the deepening twilight brought with it
+that pleasant silence which is the very embodiment of rest descending at
+evening on the tired earth.
+
+"It is like an evening hymn," said Mrs. Carvel, whose gentle features
+were barely visible in the gloom.
+
+No one spoke, but I fancied I saw John Carvel lay his hand
+affectionately on his wife's arm, as they sat together. There was a
+light above the eastern hills, brightening quickly as we looked, and
+presently the full moon rose and shed her rays through the low open
+windows, making our faces look white and deathly in the dark room. It
+shone on Madame Patoff's marble features, and cast strange shadows
+around her mouth.
+
+"Shall we have lights?" I asked. There was a general refusal; everybody
+preferred the moonlight, which now flooded the apartment.
+
+"It seems to me," said Chrysophrasia, half sadly,--"it seems to me--ah,
+no! I must be mistaken,--and yet--it seems to me that I smell something
+burning."
+
+"I think it is the lamps outside," I answered. No one else took any
+notice of the speech, which jarred upon the pleasant stillness. I myself
+thought she was mistaken.
+
+"What a wonderful contrast!" said Hermione. "I mean the lamps and the
+moonlight." Then she added, suddenly, "Do you know, Mr. Griggs, there
+is really something burning. I can smell it quite well."
+
+A fire in a Turkish house is a serious matter. The old beams and boarded
+walls are like so much tinder, and burn up immediately, as though soaked
+with some inflammable liquid. I rose, and went out to see if there were
+anything wrong. As I opened the door which shut off the whole apartment
+from the stairs, I heard a strange crackling sound, and outside the
+window of the staircase, which was in the back of the house, I saw a red
+glare, which brightened in the moment while I watched it. I did not go
+further, for I knew the danger was imminent.
+
+"Will you be good enough to come down-stairs?" I said, quietly, as I
+re-entered the room where my guests were assembled. "I am afraid
+something is wrong, but there is plenty of time."
+
+A considerable confusion ensued, and everybody rushed to the door.
+Protestations were vain, for all the women were frightened, and all the
+men were anxious to help them. The sight of the flames outside the
+window redoubled their fears, and they rushed out, stumbling on the
+dusky landing. In the confusion of the moment I did not realize how it
+all happened. Chrysophrasia, who was mad with fright, caught her foot
+against something, and fell close beside me. The other ladies were
+already down-stairs, I thought. I picked her up and carried her down as
+fast as I could, and out into the garden.
+
+"Come away from the house!" I cried. "Away from the trees!"
+Chrysophrasia was senseless with fear, and I bore her hastily on till I
+reached the fountain, some twenty yards down the hill. There I put her
+down upon a bench. There were two buckets and a couple of watering-pots
+there, and I shouted to the other men to come to me, as I filled two of
+the vessels and ran round to the back of the house. I passed Madame
+Patoff, standing alone under a festoon of little lamps, by a tree, and I
+remember the strange expression of gladness which was on her face. But
+I had no time to speak to her, and rushed on with my water-cans.
+
+Meanwhile the flames rose higher and higher, crackling and licking the
+brown face of the old timber. There was small chance of saving the
+building now. My men had been busy lighting the lamps in the garden, but
+I found them already on the spot, dipping water out of a small cistern
+with buckets, and dashing it into the fire with all their might, their
+dark faces grim and set in the light of the flames. I worked as hard as
+I could, supposing that all the party were safe. I had no idea of what
+was going on upon the opposite side of the house. In truth, it was
+horrible enough.
+
+Paul and Cutter were very self-possessed, and their first care was to
+see that all the four ladies were safe. They had Hermione and her mother
+with them, and, taking the direction of the fountain, they found
+Chrysophrasia upon the bench where I had left her, in a violent fit of
+hysterics. Madame Patoff was not there.
+
+"I was going back for aunt Annie," said Macaulay Carvel, "for I counted
+them as they came out, and missed her. She ran right into my arms as I
+stood in the door. She is somewhere in the garden; I am quite sure of
+it."
+
+Cutter hurried off, and began to search among the trees. Already the
+bright flames could be seen in the lower story, and in a moment more the
+glass of one of the windows cracked loudly, and the fire leapt through.
+Then from the high windows above a voice was heard calling, loud and
+clear, to those below.
+
+"The door is locked! Can any one help me?" The voice belonged to
+Gregorios, and the party looked into each other's faces in sudden
+horror, and then glanced at the burning house.
+
+"Save him! Save him!" cried Hermione. But Paul had already left her
+side, and had reached the open door of the porch. Alexander stood still,
+staring at the flames.
+
+"He saved you," said Hermione, grasping his arm fiercely. "Will you do
+nothing to help him?"
+
+"Paul is gone already," answered Alexander, impatiently. "There is
+nothing the matter. Paul will let him out."
+
+But the other men were less apathetic, and had followed the brave man to
+the door. He had disappeared already, and as they came up a tremendous
+puff of smoke and ashes was blown into their faces, stifling and burning
+them, so that they drew back.
+
+"Jump for your life!" shouted John Carvel, looking up at the window from
+which the voice had proceeded.
+
+"Yes, jump!" cried Alexander, who had reluctantly followed. "We will
+catch you in our arms!"
+
+But no one answered them. Nothing was heard but the crackling of the
+burning timber and the roaring of the flames, during the awful moments
+which followed. Stupefied with horror, the three men stood staring
+stupidly at the hideous sight. Then suddenly another huge puff of smoke
+and fiery sparks burst from the door, and with it a dark mass flew
+forward, as though shot from a cannon's mouth, and fell in a heap upon
+the ground outside. All three ran forward, but some one else was there
+before them, dragging away a thick carpet, of which the wool was all
+singed and burning.
+
+There lay Gregorios Balsamides as he had fallen, stumbling on the
+doorstep, with the heavy body of Paul Patoff in his arms. Hermione fell
+on her knees and shrieked aloud. It was plain enough. Paul, without the
+least protection from the flames, had struggled up the burning
+staircase, and had unlocked the door, losing consciousness as he opened
+it. Gregorios, who was not to be outdone in bravery, and whom no danger
+could frighten from his senses, had wrapped a carpet round the injured
+man, and, throwing another over his own head, had borne him back through
+the fire, the steps of the wooden staircase, already in flames, almost
+breaking under his tread. But he had done the deed, and had lived
+through it.
+
+He looked up faintly at Hermione as she bent over them both.
+
+"I think he is alive," he gasped, and fainted upon the ground.
+
+They bore the two senseless bodies to the fountain, and laid them down,
+and sprinkled water on their faces. Behind them they could hear the
+crash of the first timbers falling in, as the fire reached the upper
+story of the kiosk; at their feet they saw only the still, pale faces of
+the men who had been ready to give their lives for each other.
+
+But Cutter had gone in search of Madame Patoff, during the five minutes
+which had sufficed for the enacting of this scene. He had found her
+where I had passed her, looking up with a strange smile at the doomed
+house.
+
+"Paul is looking for you," said the professor, taking her arm under his.
+She started, and trembled violently.
+
+"Paul!" she cried in surprise. Then, with a wild laugh, she stared into
+Cutter's eyes. He had heard that laugh many a time in his experience,
+and he silently tightened his grip upon her arm.
+
+"Paul!" she repeated wildly. "There is no more Paul," she added,
+suddenly lowering her voice, and speaking confidentially. "Hermione can
+marry my dear Alexander now. There is no more Paul. You do not know? It
+was so quickly done. He stayed behind in the room, and I locked the
+door, so tight, so fast. He can never get out. Ah!" she screamed all at
+once, "I am so glad! Let me go--let me go"----
+
+At that moment I came upon them. Relinquishing all hopes of saving the
+house, and wondering vaguely, in my confusion of mind, why nobody had
+come to help me, I called my two men off, and was going to see what had
+become of the party. I found Madame Patoff a raving maniac, struggling
+in the gigantic hands of the sturdy scientist. I will not dwell upon the
+hideous scene which followed. It was the last time I ever saw her, and I
+pray that I may never again see man or woman in such a condition.
+
+Meanwhile, the two men who lay by the fountain in the moonlight showed
+signs of life. Gregorios first came to himself, for he had only fainted.
+He was in great pain, but was as eager as the rest to restore Paul to
+consciousness. Patoff was almost asphyxiated by the smoke, his hair and
+eyebrows and mustache were almost burnt off, and his right hand was
+injured. But he was alive, and at last he opened his eyes. In a quarter
+of an hour he could be helped upon his feet. Balsamides was already
+standing, and Paul caught at his hand.
+
+"Not that arm," said Gregorios calmly, holding out the other. In his
+fall he had broken his wrist.
+
+In answer to my cries, the two Carvels left the injured men and came to
+our assistance, while we struggled with the mad woman, who seemed
+possessed of the strength of a dozen athletes. Hermione was left by the
+fountain.
+
+"I was quite sure it would be all right," said Alexander to her,
+presently. It was more than the young girl could bear. She turned upon
+him fiercely, and her beautiful face was very white.
+
+"I despise you!" she exclaimed. That was all she said, but in the next
+moment she turned and threw her arms about Paul's neck, and kissed his
+burnt and wounded face before them all.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+There is little more to be said, for my story is told to the end. When I
+found them all together, Gregorios took me aside and drew a crumpled
+mass of papers from his pocket with his uninjured hand.
+
+"I stayed behind to save your papers and your money," he said quietly.
+"I have seen houses burn before, and there is generally no time to be
+lost."
+
+I wonder what there is at the bottom of that man's strange nature. Cold,
+indifferent, and fatalistic, apparently one of the most selfish of men,
+he nevertheless seems to possess somewhere a kind of devoted heroism, an
+untainted quality of friendship only too rare in our day.
+
+Hermione Carvel is to be married to Paul in the autumn, but there is
+reason to believe that Alexander, who has rejoined his regiment in St.
+Petersburg, will not find it convenient to be at the wedding. When
+Balsamides was crying for help from the upper window, and when Alexander
+stood quietly by Hermione's side while his brother faced the danger, the
+die was cast, and she saw what a wide gulf separated the two men, and
+she knew that she loved the one and hated the other with a fierce
+hatred.
+
+Poor Madame Patoff is dead, but before he left Constantinople Professor
+Cutter spent half an hour in trying to demonstrate to me that she might
+have been cured if Hermione had married Alexander. I am glad he is gone,
+for I always detested his theories.
+
+So the story is ended, my dear friend; and if it is told badly, it is my
+fault, for I assure you that I never in my life spent so exciting a
+year. It has been a long tale, too, but you have told me that from time
+to time you were interested in it; and, after all, a tale is but a tale,
+and is a very different affair from an artistically constructed drama,
+in which facts have to be softened, so as not to look too startling in
+print. I have given you facts, and if you ever meet Gregorios Balsamides
+he will tell you that I have exaggerated nothing. Moreover, if you will
+take the trouble to visit Santa Sophia during the last nights of
+Ramazán, you will understand how Alexander Patoff disappeared; and if
+you will go over the house of Laleli Khanum Effendi, which is now to be
+sold, you will see how impossible it was for him to escape from such a
+place. In the garden above Mesar Burnu you will see the heap of ashes,
+which is all that remains of the kiosk where I gave my unlucky
+tea-party; and if you will turn up the bridle-path at the left of the
+Belgrade road, a hundred yards before you reach the aqueduct, you will
+come upon the spot where Gregorios threatened to kill Selim, the wicked
+Lala, on that bitter March night. I dare say, also, that if you visit
+any of these places by chance you will remember the strange scenes they
+have witnessed, and I hope that you will also remember Paul Griggs, your
+friend, who spun you this yarn because you asked him for a story, when
+he was riding with you on that rainy afternoon last month. I only wish
+you knew the Carvels, for I am sure you would like them, and you would
+find Chrysophrasia very amusing.
+
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+WRITINGS OF F. MARION CRAWFORD
+
+12mo. Cloth
+
+
+Corleone                                          $1.50
+Casa Braccio. 2 vols.                              2.00
+Taquisara                                          1.50
+Saracinesca                                        1.50
+Sant' Ilario                                       1.50
+Don Orsino                                         1.50
+Mr. Isaacs                                         1.50
+A Cigarette-Maker's Romance, and Khaled            1.50
+Marzio's Crucifix                                  1.50
+An American Politician                             1.50
+Paul Patoff                                        1.50
+To Leeward                                         1.50
+Dr. Claudius                                       1.50
+Zoroaster                                          1.50
+A Tale of a Lonely Parish                          1.50
+With the Immortals                                 1.50
+The Witch of Prague                                1.50
+A Roman Singer                                     1.50
+Greifenstein                                       1.50
+Pietro Ghisleri                                    1.50
+Katherine Lauderdale                               1.50
+The Ralstons                                       1.50
+Children of the King                               1.50
+The Three Fates                                    1.50
+Adam Johnstone's Son, and A Rose of Yesterday      1.50
+Marion Darche                                      1.50
+Love in Idleness                                   2.00
+Via Crucis                                         1.50
+In the Palace of the King                          1.50
+Ave Roma Immortalis                               $3.00 net
+Rulers of the South: Sicily, Calabria, Malta. 2 vols. $6.00 net.
+
+
+CORLEONE
+
+A TALE OF SICILY
+
+The last of the famous Saracinesca Series
+
+"It is by far the most stirring and dramatic of all the author's Italian
+stories.... The plot is a masterly one, bringing at almost every page a
+fresh surprise, keeping the reader in suspense to the very end."--_The
+Times_, New York.
+
+
+MR. ISAACS
+
+"It is lofty and uplifting. It is strongly, sweetly, tenderly written.
+It is in all respects an uncommon novel."--_The Literary World._
+
+
+DR. CLAUDIUS
+
+"The characters are strongly marked without any suspicion of caricature,
+and the author's ideas on social and political subjects are often
+brilliant and always striking. It is no exaggeration to say that there
+is not a dull page in the book, which is peculiarly adapted for the
+recreation of the student or thinker."--_Living Church._
+
+
+A ROMAN SINGER
+
+"A powerful story of art and love in Rome."--_The New York Observer._
+
+
+AN AMERICAN POLITICIAN
+
+"One of the characters is a visiting Englishman. Possibly Mr. Crawford's
+long residence abroad has made him select such a hero as a safeguard
+against slips, which does not seem to have been needed. His insight into
+a phase of politics with which he could hardly be expected to be
+familiar is remarkable."--_Buffalo Express._
+
+
+TAQUISARA
+
+"A charming story this is, and one which will certainly be liked by all
+admirers of Mr. Crawford's work."--_New York Herald._
+
+
+ADAM JOHNSTONE'S SON and A ROSE OF YESTERDAY
+
+"It is not only one of the most enjoyable novels that Mr. Crawford has
+ever written, but is a novel that will make people think."--_Boston
+Beacon._
+
+"Don't miss reading Marion Crawford's new novel, 'A Rose of Yesterday.'
+It is brief, but beautiful and strong. It is as charming a piece of pure
+idealism as ever came from Mr. Crawford's pen."--_Chicago Tribune._
+
+
+SARACINESCA
+
+"The work has two distinct merits, either of which would serve to make
+it great: that of telling a perfect story in a perfect way, and of
+giving a graphic picture of Roman society.... The story is exquisitely
+told, and is the author's highest achievement, as yet, in the realm of
+fiction."--_The Boston Traveler._
+
+
+SANT' ILARIO
+
+A SEQUEL TO SARACINESCA
+
+"A singularly powerful and beautiful story.... It fulfils every
+requirement of artistic fiction. It brings out what is most impressive
+in human action, without owing any of its effectiveness to
+sensationalism or artifice. It is natural, fluent in evolution,
+accordant with experience, graphic in description, penetrating in
+analysis, and absorbing in interest."--_The New York Tribune._
+
+
+DON ORSINO
+
+A SEQUEL TO SARACINESCA AND SANT' ILARIO
+
+"Offers exceptional enjoyment in many ways, in the fascinating
+absorption of good fiction, in the interest of faithful historic
+accuracy, and in charm of style. The 'New Italy' is strikingly revealed
+in 'Don Orsino.'"--_Boston Budget._
+
+
+WITH THE IMMORTALS
+
+"The strange central idea of the story could have occurred only to a
+writer whose mind was very sensitive to the current of modern thought
+and progress, while its execution, the setting it forth in proper
+literary clothing, could be successfully attempted only by one whose
+active literary ability should be fully equalled by his power of
+assimilative knowledge both literary and scientific, and no less by his
+courage, and so have a fascination entirely new for the habitual reader
+of novels. Indeed, Mr. Crawford has succeeded in taking his readers
+quite above the ordinary plane of novel interest."--_The Boston
+Advertiser._
+
+
+GREIFENSTEIN
+
+"...Another notable contribution to the literature of the day. Like all
+Mr. Crawford's work, this novel is crisp, clear, and vigorous, and will
+be read with a great deal of interest."--_New York Evening Telegram._
+
+
+A CIGARETTE-MAKER'S ROMANCE and KHALED
+
+"It is a touching romance, filled with scenes of great dramatic
+power."--_Boston Commercial Bulletin._
+
+"It abounds in stirring incidents and barbaric picturesqueness; and the
+love struggle of the unloved Khaled is manly in its simplicity and noble
+in its ending."--_The Mail and Express._
+
+
+THE WITCH OF PRAGUE
+
+"The artistic skill with which this extraordinary story is constructed
+and carried out is admirable and delightful.... Mr. Crawford has scored
+a decided triumph, for the interest of the tale is sustained
+throughout.... A very remarkable, powerful, and interesting
+story."--_New York Tribune._
+
+
+TO LEEWARD
+
+"It is an admirable tale of Italian life told in a spirited way and far
+better than most of the fiction current."--_San Francisco Chronicle._
+
+
+ZOROASTER
+
+"As a matter of literary art solely, we doubt if Mr. Crawford has ever
+before given us better work than the description of Belshazzar's feast
+with which the story begins, or the death-scene with which it
+closes."--_The Christian Union_ (now _The Outlook_).
+
+
+A TALE OF A LONELY PARISH
+
+"It is a pleasure to have anything so perfect of its kind as this brief
+and vivid story. It is doubly a success, being full of human sympathy,
+as well as thoroughly artistic."--_The Critic._
+
+
+MARZIO'S CRUCIFIX
+
+"We take the liberty of saying that this work belongs to the highest
+department of character-painting in words."--_The Churchman._
+
+
+PAUL PATOFF
+
+"It need scarcely be said that the story is skilfully and picturesquely
+written, portraying sharply individual characters in well-defined
+surroundings."--_New York Commercial Advertiser._
+
+
+PIETRO GHISLERI
+
+"The strength of the story lies not only in the artistic and highly
+dramatic working out of the plot, but also in the penetrating analysis
+and understanding of the impulsive and passionate Italian
+character."--_Public Opinion._
+
+
+THE CHILDREN OF THE KING
+
+"One of the most artistic and exquisitely finished pieces of work that
+Crawford has produced. The picturesque setting, Calabria and its
+surroundings, the beautiful Sorrento and the Gulf of Salerno, with the
+bewitching accessories that climate, sea, and sky afford, give Mr.
+Crawford rich opportunities to show his rare descriptive powers. As a
+whole the book is strong and beautiful through its simplicity."--_Public
+Opinion._
+
+
+MARION DARCHE
+
+"We are disposed to rank 'Marion Darche' as the best of Mr. Crawford's
+American stories."--_The Literary World._
+
+
+KATHERINE LAUDERDALE
+
+"It need scarcely be said that the story is skilfully and picturesquely
+written, portraying sharply individual characters in well-defined
+surroundings."--_New York Commercial Advertiser._
+
+
+THE RALSTONS
+
+"The whole group of character studies is strong and vivid."--_The
+Literary World._
+
+
+LOVE IN IDLENESS
+
+"The story is told in the author's lightest vein; it is bright and
+entertaining."--_The Literary World._
+
+
+CASA BRACCIO
+
+"We are grateful when Mr. Crawford keeps to his Italy. The poetry and
+enchantment of the land are all his own, and 'Casa Braccio' gives
+promise of being his masterpiece.... He has the life, the beauty, the
+heart, and the soul of Italy at the tips of his fingers."--_Los Angeles
+Express._
+
+
+THE THREE FATES
+
+"The strength of the story lies in portrayal of the aspirations,
+disciplinary efforts, trials, and triumphs of the man who is a born
+writer, and who by long and painful experiences learns the good that is
+in him and the way in which to give it effectual expression. Taken for
+all in all it is one of the most pleasing of all his productions in
+fiction, and it affords a view of certain phases of American, or perhaps
+we should say of New York, life that have not hitherto been treated with
+anything like the same adequacy and felicity."--_Boston Beacon._
+
+
+AVE ROMA IMMORTALIS
+
+STUDIES FROM THE CHRONICLES OF ROME
+
+In two Volumes. Fully Illustrated with Photogravures and Drawings in the
+Text. Cloth. Crown 8vo. $6.00 net
+
+"I have not for a long while read a book which pleased me more than Mr.
+Crawford's 'Roma.' It is cast in a form so original and so available
+that it must surely take the place of all other books about Rome which
+are needed to help one to understand its story and its archæology....
+The book has for me a rare interest."--DR. S. WEIR MITCHELL
+
+
+THE RULERS OF THE SOUTH
+
+SICILY, CALABRIA, AND MALTA
+
+In two Volumes. Fully Illustrated with Photogravures and Drawings in the
+Text. Cloth. Crown 8vo. $6.00 net
+
+The author has gathered the threads of history and legend which have
+wound themselves around the three kingdoms of Sicily, Calabria, and
+Malta. Their history is of a long line of illustrious deeds, full of
+stirring interest.
+
+The illustrations are of unusual beauty, and have been reproduced in
+both photogravure and half-tone.
+
+
+VIA CRUCIS
+
+A ROMANCE OF THE SECOND CRUSADE
+
+"Throughout 'Via Crucis' the author shows not only the artist's
+selective power and a sense of proportion and comparative values, but
+the Christian's instinct for those things that it is well to think
+upon.... Blessed is the book that exalts, and 'Via Crucis' merits that
+beatitude."--_New York Times._
+
+
+IN THE PALACE OF THE KING
+
+A LOVE STORY OF OLD MADRID
+
+"Marion Crawford's latest story, 'In the Palace of the King,' is quite
+up to the level of his best works for cleverness, grace of style, and
+sustained interest. It is, besides, to some extent a historical story,
+the scene being the royal palace at Madrid, the author drawing the
+characters of Philip II. and Don John of Austria, with an attempt, in a
+broad impressionist way, at historic faithfulness. His reproduction of
+the life at the Spanish court is as brilliant and picturesque as any of
+his Italian scenes, and in minute study of detail is, in a real and
+valuable sense, true history."--_The Advance._
+
+THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
+
+66 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PAUL PATOFF***
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+<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" />
+<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Paul Patoff, by F. Marion Crawford</title>
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+<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, Paul Patoff, by F. Marion Crawford</h1>
+<pre>
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre>
+<p>Title: Paul Patoff</p>
+<p>Author: F. Marion Crawford</p>
+<p>Release Date: October 3, 2007  [eBook #22879]</p>
+<p>Language: English</p>
+<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p>
+<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PAUL PATOFF***</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>E-text prepared by Bruce Albrecht, Chuck Greif,<br />
+    and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br />
+    (http://www.pgdp.net)</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h1 style="font-size:300%;letter-spacing: 5px;">PAUL PATOFF</h1>
+
+<p class="c m">BY</p>
+
+<h2>F. MARION CRAWFORD</h2>
+
+<p class="c">AUTHOR OF "A ROMAN SINGER," "TO LEEWARD," "AN AMERICAN
+POLITICIAN," "SARACINESCA," ETC.</p>
+
+<p class="c m">NEW YORK<br />
+THE MACMILLAN COMPANY<br />
+LONDON: MACMILLAN &amp; CO., Ltd.
+1911</p>
+
+<p class="c"><i>All rights reserved</i></p>
+
+<p class="c"><span class="smcap">COPYRIGHT</span>, 1887,
+By F. MARION CRAWFORD.</p>
+
+<p class="c"><span class="smcap">COPYRIGHT</span>, 1892,
+BY F. MARION CRAWFORD.</p>
+
+<p class="c">First published elsewhere. Reprinted with corrections, April,
+1893; June, 1894; June, 1899; July, 1906; January, 1912.</p>
+
+<p class="c">Norwood Press<br />
+J. S. Cushing &amp; Co.&mdash;Berwick &amp; Smith<br />
+Norwood Mass. U.S.A.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p class="c"><img src="images/port.jpg" alt="Portrait of F. Marion Crawford" /></p>
+<hr />
+<table summary="toc" style="margin-left: 25%; margin-right: 25%;text-align:center;">
+<tr><td>
+<a href="#I"><b>Chapters: I, </b></a>
+<a href="#II"><b>II, </b></a>
+<a href="#III"><b>III, </b></a>
+<a href="#IV"><b>IV, </b></a>
+<a href="#V"><b>V, </b></a>
+<a href="#VI"><b>VI, </b></a>
+<a href="#VII"><b>VII, </b></a>
+<a href="#VIII"><b>VIII, </b></a>
+<a href="#IX"><b>IX, </b></a>
+<a href="#X"><b>X, </b></a>
+<a href="#XI"><b>XI, </b></a>
+<a href="#XII"><b>XII, </b></a>
+<a href="#XIII"><b>XIII, </b></a>
+<a href="#XIV"><b>XIV, </b></a>
+<a href="#XV"><b>XV, </b></a>
+<a href="#XVI"><b>XVI, </b></a>
+<a href="#XVII"><b>XVII, </b></a>
+<a href="#XVIII"><b>XVIII, </b></a>
+<a href="#XIX"><b>XIX, </b></a>
+<a href="#XX"><b>XX, </b></a>
+<a href="#XXI"><b>XXI, </b></a>
+<a href="#XXII"><b>XXII, </b></a>
+<a href="#XXIII"><b>XXIII, </b></a>
+<a href="#XXIV"><b>XXIV.</b></a><br /><br />
+<a href="#WRITINGS"><b>WRITINGS OF F. MARION CRAWFORD</b></a><br />
+</td></tr>
+</table>
+
+<hr />
+<h2 class="m">PAUL PATOFF.</h2>
+
+
+<p>My dear lady&mdash;my dear friend&mdash;you have asked me to tell you a story, and
+I am going to try, because there is not anything I would not try if you
+asked it of me. I do not yet know what it will be about, but it is
+impossible that I should disappoint you; and if the proverb says, "Needs
+must when the devil drives," I can mend the proverb into a show of
+grace, and say, The most barren earth must needs bear flowers when an
+angel sows the seed.</p>
+
+<p>When you asked for the story I could only find a dry tale of my own
+doings, which I detailed to you somewhat at length, as we cantered down
+into the Valley of the Sweet Waters. The south wind was warm this
+afternoon, though it brought rain with it and wetted us a little as we
+rode; it was soft and dreamy, and made everything look sleepy, and
+misty, and a little uncertain in outline. Baghdad sniffed it in his deep
+red nostrils, for it was the wind of his home; but Haroun al Raschid
+shook the raindrops restlessly from his gray mane, as though he hated to
+be damp, and was thinking longingly of the hot sand and the desert sun.
+But he had no right to complain, for water must needs come in the
+oases,&mdash;and truly I know of no fairer and sweeter resting-place in
+life's journey than the Valley of the Sweet Waters above the Golden
+Horn.</p>
+
+<p>That same south wind&mdash;when I think, it is a point or two easterly, and
+it seems to smell of Persia&mdash;well, that same soft wind is blowing at my
+windows now in the dark night, and is murmuring, sometimes almost
+complaining, then dying away in a fitful, tearful sigh, sorry even to
+weeping for its restless fate, sorry perhaps for me and sighing for me.
+God knows, there is enough to sigh for in this working-day world, is
+there not? I have heard you sigh, too, very sadly, as though something
+hurt you, although you are so bright and young and fair. The wind sighs
+hopelessly, in great sobs of weariness and despair, for he is filled
+with the ghosts of the past; but your breath has a music in it that is
+more like the song of the sunrise that used to break out from the heart
+of the beautiful marble at dawn.</p>
+
+<p>Poor wind! He is trying to speak to me through the pines,&mdash;perhaps he is
+bringing a message. It is long since any one brought me a message I
+cared to hear. I will open the door to the terrace and let him in, and
+see what he has to say.</p>
+
+<p>Truly, he speaks great words:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I am the belt and the girdle of this world. I carry in my arms the
+souls of the dead and the sins of them; the souls of them that have not
+yet lived, with their deeds, are in my bosom. I am sorrowful with the
+sorrow of ages, and strong with the strength of ages yet unlived. What
+is thy sorrow to my sorrow, or thy strength to my strength? Listen.</p>
+
+<p>"Knowest thou whence I come, or whither I go? Fool, thou knowest not
+even of thyself what thou shalt do to-morrow, and it may be that on the
+next day I shall have thy soul, to take it away, and hold it, and buffet
+it, and tear it as I will. Fool, thou knowest little! The gardens of
+Persia are sweet this night; this night the maidens of Hindustan have
+gone forth to greet the new moon, and I am full of their soft prayers
+and gentle thoughts, for I am come from them. But the north, whither I
+go, is cold and cruel, full of snow and darkness and gloom. Along the
+lands where I will pass I shall see men and women dying in the frost,
+and little children, too, poor and hungry, and shivering out the last
+breathings of a wretched life; and some of them I will take with me
+this night, to my journey's end among the ice-floes and the brown,
+driving mists of the uttermost north. Dost thou wonder that I am sad?</p>
+
+<p>"That is thy life. Thou art come from the sweet-scented gardens of thy
+youth, thou must go to the ice desert of thine old age; and now thou art
+full of strength and boastfulness, and thinkest thou shalt perchance be
+the first mortal who shall cheat death. Go to! Thou shalt die like the
+rest, the more miserably that thou lovest life more than the others."</p>
+
+<p>The wind is in an ill humor to-night; I should not have thought he could
+say such hard things. But he is a hopeless old cynic, even when he blows
+warm from the south; he has seen so much and done so much, and has
+furnished so many metaphors to threadbare poets, that he believes in
+nothing good, or young, or in any way fresh. He is bad company, and I
+have shut the window again. You asked me for a story, and you are
+beginning to wonder why I do not tell you one. Do you like long stories
+or short stories? Sad or gay? True or fanciful? What shall it be? My
+true stories are all sad, but the ones I imagine are often merry. Could
+I not think of one true, and gay as well? There was once a bad old man
+who said that when the truth ceased to be solemn it became dull. Between
+solemnity and dullness you would not find what you want, which, I take
+it, is a little laughter, a little sadness, and, when it is done, the
+comfortable assurance of your own senses that you have been amused, and
+not bored. The bad old gentleman was right. When our lives are not
+filled with great emotions they are crammed with insignificant details,
+and one may tell them ever so well, they will be insignificant to the
+end. But the fancy is a great store-house, filled with all the beautiful
+things that we do not find in our lives. My dear friend, if true love
+were an every-day phenomenon, experienced by everybody, it would cease
+to be in any way interesting; people would be so familiar with it that
+it would bore them to extinction; they would have it for breakfast,
+dinner, and supper as a matter of course, and would be as fastidious of
+its niceties as an Anglo-Indian about the quality of the pepper. It is
+because only one man or woman in a hundred thousand is personally
+acquainted with the sufferings of true-love fever that the other
+ninety-nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine take delight in
+observing the contortions and convulsions of the patient. It is a great
+satisfaction to them to compare the slight touch of ague they once had
+when they were young with the raging sickness of a breaking heart; to
+see a resemblance between the tiny scratch upon themselves, which they
+delight in irritating, and the ghastly wound by which the tortured soul
+has sped from its prison.</p>
+
+<p>To tell the truth, they are not so very much to blame. Even the
+momentary reflection of love is a good thing; at least, it is better
+than to know nothing of it. One can fancy that a violin upon which no
+one had ever played would yet be glad to vibrate faintly in unison with
+the music of a more favored neighbor; it would bring a sensation of the
+possibility of music. The stronger harmony is caught up and carried on
+forever in endless sound waves, but the slight responsive murmur of the
+passive strings is lost and forgotten.</p>
+
+<p>And now you will tell me that I am making phrases. That is my
+profession: I am a twister of words; I torture language by trade. You
+know it, for you have known me a long time, and, if you will pardon my
+vanity, or rudeness, I observe that my mode of putting the dictionary on
+the rack amuses you. The fact that you ask for a story shows that well
+enough. I am a plain man, and there never was any poetry in me, but I
+have seen it in other people, and I understand why some persons like it.
+As for stories, I have plenty of them. I, Paul Griggs, have seen a
+variety of sights, and I have a good memory. There is the south-east
+wind again. I was speaking of love, a moment ago,&mdash;there is a story of
+the wind falling in love. There is a garden of roses far away to the
+east, where a maiden lies asleep; the roses have no thorns in that
+garden, and they grow softly about her and make a pillow for her fair
+head. A blustering wind came once and nearly waked her, but she was so
+beautiful that he fell deep in love; and he turned into the softest
+breeze that ever fanned a woman's cheek in summer, for fear lest he
+should trouble her sleep. There was a poor woman in rags, in the streets
+of London, on that March night, but she could not soften the heart of
+the cruel blast for all her shivering and praying; for she was very poor
+and wretched, and never was beautiful, even when she was young.</p>
+
+<p>That is a short tale, and it has no moral application, for it is too
+common a truth. If people would only act directly on things instead of
+expecting the morality of their cant phrases to act for them, to feed
+the hungry, to clothe the naked, to pay their bills, and to save their
+souls into the bargain, what a vast deal of good would be done, and what
+an incalculable amount of foolish talk would be spared! But there is a
+diplomatic spirit abroad in our day, and it is necessary to enter into
+polite relations with a drowning man before it is possible to pull him
+out of the water.</p>
+
+<p>But the story, you say,&mdash;where is it? Forgive me. I am rusty and
+ponderous at the start, like an old dredger that has stuck too long in
+the mud. Let me move a little and swing out with the tide till I am in
+clearer waters, and I will promise to bring up something pretty from the
+bottom of the sea for you to look at. I would not have you see any of
+the blackness that lies in the stagnant harbor.</p>
+
+<p>I will tell you the story of Paul Patoff. I played a small part in it
+myself last summer, and so, in a certain way, it is a tale of my own
+experience. I say a tale, because it is emphatically a tale, and nothing
+else. I might almost call it a yarn, though the word would look
+strangely on a printed title-page. We are vain in our generation; we
+fancy we have discovered something new under the sun, and we give the
+name "novel" to the things we write. I will not insult literature by
+honoring this story with any such high-sounding designation. A great
+many of the things I am going to tell you were told to me, so that I
+shall have some difficulty in putting the whole together in a connected
+shape, and I must begin by asking your indulgence if I transgress all
+sorts of rules, and if I do not succeed in getting the interesting
+points into the places assigned to them by the traditional laws of art.
+I tell what happened, and I do not pretend to tell any more.</p>
+
+
+
+<h2 class="m"><a name="I" id="I"></a>I.</h2>
+
+
+<p>If places could speak, they would describe people far better than people
+can describe places. No two men agree together in giving an account of a
+country, of natural scenery, or of a city; and though we may read the
+most accurate descriptions of a place, and vividly picture to ourselves
+what we have never seen, yet, when we are at last upon the spot, we
+realize that we have known nothing about it, and we loudly blame the
+author, whose word-painting is so palpably false. People will always
+think of places as being full of poetry if they are in love, as being
+beautiful if they are well, hideous if they are ill, wearisome if they
+are bored, and gay if they are making money.</p>
+
+<p>Constantinople and the Bosphorus are no exceptions to this general rule.
+People who live there are sometimes well and sometimes ill, sometimes
+rich and sometimes poor, sometimes in love with themselves and sometimes
+in love with each other. A grave Persian carpet merchant sits smoking on
+the quay of Buyukdere. He sees them all go by, from the gay French
+secretary of embassy, puffing at a cigarette as he hurries from one
+visit to the next, to the neat and military German diplomat, landing
+from his steam launch on his return from the palace; from the
+devil-may-care English youth in white flannel to the graceful Turkish
+adjutant on his beautiful Arab horse; from the dark-eyed Armenian lady,
+walking slowly by the water's edge, to the terrifically arrayed little
+Greek dandy, with a spotted waistcoat and a thunder-and-lightning tie.
+He sees them all: the Levantine with the weak and cunning face, the
+swarthy Kurdish porter, the gorgeously arrayed Dalmatian embassy
+servant, the huge, fair Turkish waterman in his spotless white dress,
+and the countless veiled Turkish women from the small harems of the
+little town, shuffling along in silence, or squatted peacefully upon a
+jutting point of the pier, veiled in <i>yashmaks</i>, the more transparent as
+they have the more beauty to show or the less ugliness to conceal. The
+carpet merchant sees them all, and sits like Patience upon a monumental
+heap of stuffs, waiting for customers and smoking his water-pipe. His
+eyes are greedy and his fingers are long, but the peace of a superior
+mendacity is on his brow, and in his heart the lawful price of goods is
+multiplied exceedingly.</p>
+
+<p>By the side of the quay, separated from the quiet water by the broad
+white road, stand the villas, the embassies, the houses, large and
+small, a varying front, following the curve of the Bosphorus for half a
+mile between the Turkish towns of Buyukdere and Mesar Burnu. Behind the
+villas rise the gardens, terraces upon terraces of roses, laurels,
+lemons, Japanese medlars, and trees and shrubs of all sorts, with a
+stone pine or a cypress here and there, dark green against the faint
+blue sky. Beyond the breadth of smooth sapphire water, scarcely rippling
+under the gentle northerly breeze, the long hills of the Asian mainland
+stretch to the left as far as the mouth of the Black Sea, and to the
+right until the quick bend of the narrow channel hides Asia from view
+behind the low promontories of the European shore. Now and then a big
+ferry-boat puffs into sight, churning the tranquil waters into foam with
+her huge paddles; a dozen sailing craft are in view, from Lord
+Mavourneen's smart yawl to the outlandishly rigged Turkish schooner, her
+masts raking forward like the antlers of a stag at bay, and spreading a
+motley collection of lateen-sails, stay-sails, square top-sails, and
+vast spinnakers rigged out with booms and sprits, which it would puzzle
+a northern sailor to name. Far to the right, towards Therapia, glimmer
+the brilliant uniforms and the long bright oars of an ambassador's
+twelve-oared ca&iuml;que, returning from an official visit at the palace; and
+near the shore are loitering half a dozen <i>barcas</i>,&mdash;commodious
+row-boats, with awnings and cushioned seats,&mdash;on the lookout for a fare.</p>
+
+<p>It is the month of June, and the afternoon air is warm and hazy upon the
+land, though a gentle northerly breeze is on the water, just enough to
+fill the sails of Lord Mavourneen's little yacht, so that by making many
+short tacks he may beat up to the mouth of the Black Sea before sunset.
+But his excellency the British ambassador is in no hurry; he would go on
+tacking in his little yawl to all eternity of nautical time, with vast
+satisfaction, rather than be bored and worried and harrowed by the
+predestinating servants of Allah, at the palace of his majesty the
+commander of the faithful. Even Fate, the universal Kismet,
+procrastinates in Turkey, and Lord Mavourneen's special mission is to
+out-procrastinate the procrastinator. For the present the little yawl is
+an important factor in his operations, and as he stands in his rough
+blue clothes, looking up through his single eyeglass at the bellying
+canvas, a gentle smile upon his strongly marked face betrays
+considerable satisfaction. Lord Mavourneen is a very successful man, and
+his smile and his yacht have been elements of no small importance in his
+success. They characterize him historically, like the tear which always
+trembles under the left eyelid of Prince Bismarck, like the gray
+overcoat of Bonaparte, the black tights and gloomy looks of Hamlet the
+Dane, or Richelieu's kitten. Lord Mavourneen is a man of action, but he
+can wait. When he came to Constantinople the Turks thought they could
+keep him waiting, but they have discovered that they are more generally
+kept waiting themselves, while his excellency is up the Bosphorus,
+beating about in his little yawl near the mouth of the Black Sea. His
+actions are thought worthy of high praise, but on some occasions his
+inaction borders upon the sublime. Of the men who moved along the
+Buyukdere quay, many paused and glanced out over the water at the
+white-sailed yawl, with the single streamer flying from the mast-head;
+and some smiled as they recognized the ambassadorial yacht, and some
+looked grave.</p>
+
+<p>The sun sank lower towards the point where he disappears from the sight
+of the inhabitants of Buyukdere; for he is not seen to set from this
+part of the upper Bosphorus. He sinks early behind the wooded hills
+above Therapia, and when he is hidden the evening freshness begins, and
+the crowd upon the quay swells to a multitude, as the people from the
+embassies and villas sally forth to mount their horses or to get into
+their ca&iuml;ques.</p>
+
+<p>Two young men came out of the white gates of the Russian embassy, and,
+crossing the road, stood upon the edge of the stone pier. They were
+brothers, but the resemblance was slight between them. The one looked
+like an Englishman, tall, fair, and rather angular, with hard blue eyes,
+an aquiline nose, a heavy yellow mustache concealing his mouth, and a
+ruddy complexion. He was extremely well dressed, and, though one might
+detect some awkwardness in his movements, his manner had that composure
+which comes from a great knowledge of the world, and from a natural
+self-possession and independence of character.</p>
+
+<p>His brother, though older by a year, might have passed for being several
+years younger. He was in reality two and thirty years of age, but his
+clear complexion was that of a boy, his dark brown hair curled closely
+on his head, and his soft brown eyes had a young and trustful look in
+them, which contrasted strangely with his brother's hard and dominating
+expression. He was shorter, too, and more slender, but also more
+graceful; his hands and feet were small and well shaped. Nevertheless,
+his manner was at least as self-possessed as that of his tall brother,
+and there was something in his look which suggested the dashing,
+reckless spirit sometimes found in delicately constituted men.
+Alexander Patoff was a soldier, and had obtained leave to visit his
+younger brother Paul in Constantinople, where the latter held the
+position of second secretary in the Russian embassy. At first sight one
+would have said that Paul should have been the cavalry officer, and
+Alexander the diplomatist: but fate had ordered it otherwise, for the
+elder son had inherited the bulk of his father's fortune, and was,
+consequently, able to bear the expenses of a career in a guard regiment;
+while Paul, the younger, just managed to live comfortably the life of a
+fashionable diplomacy, by dint of economy and an intelligent use of his
+small income.</p>
+
+<p>They were Russians, but their mother was an Englishwoman. Their father
+had married a Miss Anne Dabstreak, with whom he had fallen in love when
+in London, shortly before the Crimean War. She was a beautiful woman,
+and had a moderate portion. Old Patoff's fortune, however, was
+sufficient, and they had lived happily for ten years, when he had died
+very suddenly, leaving a comfortable provision for his wife, and the
+chief part of his possessions to Alexander Paolovitch Patoff, his eldest
+boy. Paul, he thought, showed even as a child the character necessary to
+fight his own way; and as he had since advanced regularly in the
+diplomacy, it seemed probable that he would fulfill his father's
+predictions, and die an embassador.</p>
+
+<p>At the time when this story opens Madame Patoff was traveling in
+Switzerland for her health. She was not strong, and dared not undertake
+a journey to Constantinople at present. On the other hand, the climate
+of northern Russia suited her even less well in summer than in winter,
+and, to her great regret, her son Alexander, whom she loved better than
+Paul, as he was also more like herself, had persisted in spending his
+leave in a visit to his brother.</p>
+
+<p>Madame Patoff had been surprised at Alexander's determination. Her sons
+were not congenial to each other. They had been brought up differently
+to different careers, which might partially account for the lack of
+sympathy between them, but in reality the evil had a deeper root. Madame
+Patoff had either never realized that Alexander had been the favored
+son, and that Paul had suffered acutely from the preference shown to his
+elder brother, or she had loved the latter too passionately to care to
+hide her preference. Alexander had been a beautiful child, full of
+grace, and gifted with that charm which in young children is not easily
+resisted. Paul was ugly in his boyhood, cold and reserved, rarely
+showing sympathy, and too proud to ask for what was not given him
+freely. Alexander was quick-witted, talented, and showy, if I may use so
+barbarous a word. Paul was slow at first, ungainly as a young foal,
+strong without grace, shy of attempting anything new to him, and not
+liking to be noticed. Both father and mother, as the boys grew up, loved
+the older lad, and spoiled him, while the younger was kept forever at
+his books, was treated coldly, and got little praise for the performance
+of his tasks. Had Paul possessed less real energy of character, he must
+have hated his brother; as it was, he silently disliked him, but
+inwardly resolved to outshine him in everything, laboring to that end
+from his boyhood, and especially after his father's death, with a dogged
+determination which promised success. The result was that, although Paul
+never outgrew a certain ungainliness of appearance, due to his large and
+bony frame, he nevertheless acquired a perfection of manner, an ease and
+confidence in conversation, which, in the end, might well impress people
+who knew him more favorably than the bearing of Alexander, whose soft
+voice and graceful attitudes began to savor of affectation when he had
+attained to mature manhood. As they stood together on the quay at
+Buyukdere, one could guess that, in the course of years, Alexander would
+be an irritable, peevish old dandy, while Paul would turn out a stern,
+successful old man.</p>
+
+<p>They stood looking at the water, watching the ca&iuml;ques shoot out from
+the shore upon the bosom of the broad stream.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you made up your mind?" asked Paul, without looking at his
+brother.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes. I do not care where we go. I suppose it is worth seeing?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well worth seeing. You have never seen anything like it."</p>
+
+<p>"Is it as fine as Easter Eve in Moscow?" asked Alexander, incredulously.</p>
+
+<p>"It is different," said Paul. "It corresponds to our Easter Eve in some
+ways. All through the Ramaz&aacute;n they fast all day&mdash;never smoke, nor drink
+a glass of water, and of course they eat nothing&mdash;until sunset, when the
+gun is fired. During the last week there are services in Santa Sophia
+every night, and that is what is most remarkable. They go on until the
+news comes that the new moon has been seen."</p>
+
+<p>"That does not sound very interesting," remarked Alexander, languidly,
+lighting a cigarette with a bit of yellow fuse that dangled from his
+heavy Moscow case.</p>
+
+<p>"It is interesting, nevertheless, and you must see it. You cannot be
+here at this time and not see what is most worth seeing."</p>
+
+<p>"Is there nothing else this evening?" asked Alexander.</p>
+
+<p>"No. We have to respect the prejudices of the country a little. After
+all, we really have a holiday during this month. Nothing can be done.
+The people at the palace do not get up until one o'clock or later, so as
+to make the time while they fast seem shorter."</p>
+
+<p>"Very sensible of them. I wonder why they get up at all, until their
+ridiculous gun fires, and they can smoke."</p>
+
+<p>"Whether you like it or not, you must go to Santa Sophia to-night, and
+see the service," said Paul, firmly. "You need not stay long, unless you
+like."</p>
+
+<p>"If you take me there, I will stay rather than have the trouble of
+coming away," answered the other. "Bah!" he exclaimed suddenly, "there
+is that ca&iuml;que again!"</p>
+
+<p>Paul followed the direction of his brother's glance, and saw a graceful
+ca&iuml;que pulling slowly upstream towards them. Four sturdy Turks in
+snow-white cotton tugged at the long oars, and in the deep body of the
+boat, upon low cushions, sat two ladies, side by side. Behind them, upon
+the stern, was perched a hideous and beardless African, gorgeously
+arrayed in a dark tunic heavily laced with gold, a richly chased and
+adorned scimiter at his side, and a red fez jauntily set on one side of
+his misshapen head. But Alexander's attention was arrested by the
+ladies, or rather by one of them, as the ca&iuml;que passed within oar's
+length of the quay.</p>
+
+<p>"She must be hideous," said Paul, contemptuously. "I never saw such a
+yashmak. It is as thick as a towel. You cannot see her face at all."</p>
+
+<p>"Look at her hand," said Alexander. "I tell you she is not hideous."</p>
+
+<p>The figures of the two ladies were completely hidden in the wide black
+silk garments they wore, the eternal ferigee which makes all women
+alike. Upon their heads they wore caps, such as in the jargon of fashion
+are called toques, and their faces were enveloped in yashmaks, white
+veils which cross the forehead above the eyes and are brought back just
+below them, so as to cover the rest of the face. But there was this
+difference; that whereas the veil worn by one of the ladies was of the
+thinnest gauze, showing every feature of her dark, coarse face through
+its transparent texture, the veil of the other was perfectly opaque, and
+disguised her like a mask. Paul Patoff justly remarked that this was
+very unusual. He had observed the same peculiarity at least twenty
+times; for in the course of three weeks, since Alexander arrived, the
+brothers had seen this same lady almost every day, till they had grown
+to expect her, and had exhausted all speculation in regard to her
+personality. Paul maintained that she was ugly, because she would not
+show her face. Alexander swore that she was beautiful, because her hand
+was young and white and shapely, and because, as he said, her attitude
+was graceful and her head moved well when she turned it. Concerning her
+hand, at least, there was no doubt, for as the delicate fingers stole
+out from the black folds of the ferigee their whiteness shone by
+contrast upon the dark silk; there was something youthful and nervous
+and sensitive in their shape and movement which fascinated the young
+Russian, and made him mad with curiosity to see the face of the veiled
+woman to whom they belonged. She turned her head a little, as the ca&iuml;que
+passed, and her dark eyes met his with an expression which seemed one of
+intelligence; but unfortunately all black eyes look very much alike when
+they are just visible between the upper and the lower folds of a thick
+yashmak, and Alexander uttered an exclamation of discontent.</p>
+
+<p>Thereupon the hideous negro at the stern, who had noticed the stare of
+the two Russians, shook his light stick at Alexander, and hissed out
+something that sounded very like "Kiope 'oul kiopek,"&mdash;dog and son of a
+dog; the oarsmen grinned and pulled harder than ever, and the ca&iuml;que
+shot past the pier. Paul shrugged his shoulders contemptuously, but did
+not translate the Turkish ejaculation to his brother. A boatman stood
+lounging near them, leaning on a stone post, and following the
+retreating ca&iuml;que with his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Ask that fellow who she is," said Alexander.</p>
+
+<p>"He does not know," answered Paul. "Those fellows never know anything."</p>
+
+<p>"Ask him," insisted his brother. "I am sure he knows." Paul was willing
+to be obliging, and went up to the man.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know who that Khanum is?" he asked, in Turkish.</p>
+
+<p>"Bilmem,&mdash;I don't know," replied the man, without moving a muscle of his
+face.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know who her father is?"</p>
+
+<p>"Allah bilir,&mdash;God knows. Probably Abraham, who is the father of all the
+faithful." Paul laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"I told you he knew nothing about her," he said, turning to his brother.</p>
+
+<p>"It did you no harm to ask," answered Alexander testily. "Let us take a
+ca&iuml;que and follow her."</p>
+
+<p>"You may, if you please," said Paul. "I have no intention of getting
+myself into trouble."</p>
+
+<p>"Nonsense! Why should we get into trouble? We have as good a right to
+row on the Bosphorus as they have."</p>
+
+<p>"We have no right to go near them. It is contrary to the customs of the
+country."</p>
+
+<p>"I do not care for custom," retorted Alexander.</p>
+
+<p>"If you walked down the Boulevard des Italiens in Paris on Easter Day
+and kissed every woman you met, merely saying, 'The Lord is risen,' by
+way of excuse, as we do in Russia, you would discover that customs are
+not the same everywhere."</p>
+
+<p>"You are as slow as an ox-cart, Paul," said Alexander.</p>
+
+<p>"The simile is graceful. Thank you. As I say, you may do anything you
+please, as you are a stranger here. But if you do anything flagrantly
+contrary to the manners of the country, you will not find my chief
+disposed to help you out of trouble. We are disliked enough
+already,&mdash;hated expresses it better. Come along. Take a turn upon the
+quay before dinner, and then we will go to Stamboul and see the
+ceremony."</p>
+
+<p>"I hate the quay," replied Alexander, who was now in a very bad humor.</p>
+
+<p>"Then we will go the other way. We can walk through Mesar Burnu and get
+to the Valley of Roses."</p>
+
+<p>"That sounds better."</p>
+
+<p>So the two turned northwards, and followed the quay upstream till they
+came to the wooden steamboat landing, and then, turning to the left,
+they entered the small Turkish village of Mesar Burnu. While they walked
+upon the road Alexander could still follow the ca&iuml;que, now far ahead,
+shooting along through the smooth water, and he slackened his pace more
+slowly when it was out of sight. The dirty little bazaar of the village
+did not interest him, and he was not inclined to talk as he picked his
+way over the muddy stones, chewing his discontent and regretting the
+varnish of his neat boots. Presently they emerged from the crowd of
+vegetable venders, fishmongers, and sweetmeat sellers into a broad green
+lane between two grave-yards, where the huge silent trees grew up
+straight and sad from the sea of white tombstones which stood at every
+angle, some already fallen, some looking as though they must fall at
+once, some still erect, according to the length of time which had
+elapsed since they were set up. For in Turkey the headstones of graves
+are narrow at the base and broaden like leaves towards the top, and they
+are not set deep in the ground; so that they are top-heavy, and with the
+sinking of the soil they invariably fall to one side or the other.</p>
+
+<p>Paul turned again, where four roads meet at a drinking fountain, and the
+two brothers entered the narrow Valley of Roses. The roses are not,
+indeed, so numerous as one might expect, but the path is beautiful,
+green and quiet, and below it the tinkle of a little stream is heard,
+flowing down from the spring where the lane ends. There they sat down
+beneath a giant tree on a beaten terrace, where a Kaffegee has his
+little shop. The water pours from the spring in the hillside into a
+great basin bordered with green, the air is cool, and there is a
+delicious sense of rest after leaving the noise and dust of the quay.
+Both men smoked and drank their coffee in silence. Paul could not help
+wishing that his brother would take a little more interest in Turkey and
+a little less in the lady of the thick yashmak; and especially he wished
+that Alexander might finish his visit without getting into trouble. He
+had successfully controlled him during three weeks, and in another
+fortnight he must return to Russia. Paul confessed to himself that his
+brother's visit was not an unmitigated blessing, and found it hard to
+explain the object of it. Indeed, it was so simple that his diplomatic
+mind did not find it out; for Alexander had merely said to himself that
+he had never seen Constantinople, and that, as his brother was there, in
+the embassy, he could see it under favorable circumstances, at a very
+moderate cost. He was impetuous, spoiled by too much flattery, and
+incapable of imagining that Paul could consider his visit in any light
+but that of a compliment. Accordingly he had come, and had enjoyed
+himself very much.</p>
+
+<p>"Let us dine here," he said suddenly, as he finished his coffee.</p>
+
+<p>"There is nothing to eat," answered Paul. "Coffee, cold water, and a few
+cakes. That is all, and that would hardly satisfy you."</p>
+
+<p>"What a nuisance!" exclaimed the elder brother. "What a barbarous
+country this is! Nothing to eat but coffee, cold water, and cakes!"</p>
+
+<p>"It is rather hard on the Turks to abuse them for not keeping
+restaurants in their woods," remarked Paul.</p>
+
+<p>"I detest the Turks. I shall never forget the discomfort I had to put up
+with in the war. They might have learned something from us then; but
+they never learn anything. Come along. Let us go and dine in your
+rooms."</p>
+
+<p>"It is impossible to be more discontented than you are," said Paul,
+rather bitterly. "It is utterly impossible to please you,&mdash;and yet you
+have most things which are necessary to happiness."</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose you mean the money?" sneered his brother. But Paul kept his
+temper.</p>
+
+<p>"I mean everything," he answered. "You have money, youth, good looks,
+and social success; and yet you can hardly see anything without abusing
+it."</p>
+
+<p>"You forget that I do not know the name of the lady in the yashmak,"
+objected Alexander.</p>
+
+<p>Paul shrugged his shoulders, and said nothing. Both men rose, and began
+to go down the green lane, returning towards Mesar Burnu. By this time
+the sun had sunk low behind the western hills, and the cool of the
+evening had descended on the woods and the Valley of Roses. The green
+grass and the thick growth of shrubs took a darker color, and the first
+dampness of the dew was in the air. The two walked briskly down the
+path. Suddenly a turn in the narrow way brought them face to face with a
+party of three persons, strolling slowly towards them.</p>
+
+<p>"Luck!" ejaculated Alexander. "Here they are again!"</p>
+
+<p>He was right. There was no mistaking the lady with the thick,
+impenetrable veil, nor her companion, whose heavy dark face was
+distinctly visible through the thin Indian gauze. Behind them walked the
+hideous negro, swinging his light cane jauntily, but beginning to cast
+angry glances at the two Russians, whom he had already recognized. The
+way was very narrow, and the ladies saw that retreat was impossible.
+Paul bit his lip, fearing some foolish rashness on the part of his
+brother. As they all met, the ladies drew close to the hedge on one side
+of the path, their black attendant standing before them, as though to
+prevent the Giaours from even brushing against the wide silken ferigees
+of his charges. Paul pushed his brother in front of him, hoping that
+Alexander would have the sense to pass quietly by; but he trembled for
+the result.</p>
+
+<p>Alexander moved slowly forward, turning his head as he passed, and
+looking long into the black eyes of the veiled lady.</p>
+
+<p>"Pek g&uuml;zel,&mdash;very pretty indeed," he said aloud, using the only words of
+Turkish he had learned in three weeks. But they were enough; the effect
+was instantaneous. Without a word and without hesitation, the tall negro
+struck a violent blow at Alexander with the light bamboo he carried.
+Paul, who was immediately behind his brother, saw the action and caught
+the man's hand in the air, but the end of the flexible cane flew down
+and knocked Alexander's hat from his head.</p>
+
+<p>"Run!" cried Paul excitedly, as the negro struggled in his grip.</p>
+
+<p>The two Turkish ladies laughed aloud. They were used to such adventures,
+but the spectacle of the negro beating a Frank gentleman was novel and
+refreshing. Alexander picked up his hat, but showed no disposition to
+move. The African struggled vainly in Paul's powerful arms.</p>
+
+<p>"Go, I say!" cried the latter authoritatively. "There will be trouble if
+any one comes."</p>
+
+<p>But Alexander had received a blow, and his blood was up. Moreover, he
+was a Russian, and utterly regardless of consequences,&mdash;or perhaps he
+only wanted to annoy his brother by a show of violence.</p>
+
+<p>"I think I will shoot him," he said, quietly producing a small revolver
+from his pocket.</p>
+
+<p>At the sight of the weapon, the two ladies, who, on seeing the fight
+prolonged, had retired a few paces up the path, began to scream loudly
+for help. The negro, who was proof against blows and would not have
+shown much fear at the sight of a knife, fell on his knees, crying aloud
+for mercy. Thereupon Paul released him and bid him go.</p>
+
+<p>"For God's sake, Alexander, do not make a fool of yourself!" he said
+coldly, walking up to his brother. But he turned once more to the black
+attendant, and added quietly in Turkish, "You had better go. We both
+have pistols."</p>
+
+<p>The negro did not wait, but sprang back and flew towards the two ladies,
+speaking excitedly, and imploring them to make haste. The two brothers
+made their way quickly down the path, Paul pushing Alexander before him.</p>
+
+<p>"You have done it now. You will have to leave Constantinople to-morrow,"
+he said, sternly. "You cannot play these tricks here."</p>
+
+<p>"Bah!" returned Alexander, "it is of no consequence. They do not know
+who we are."</p>
+
+<p>"They have not seen us coming out of our embassy half a dozen times
+without knowing where to look for us. There will be a complaint made
+within two hours, and there will be trouble. The law protects them.
+These fellows are authorized to strike anybody who speaks to the women
+they have in charge, or who even goes too near them. Be quick! We must
+get back to the quay before there is any alarm raised."</p>
+
+<p>Alexander knew that his brother Paul was no coward, and, being
+thoroughly convinced of the danger, he quickened his walk. In twenty
+minutes they reached Mesar Burnu, and in five minutes more they were
+within the gates of the embassy. The huge Cossack who stood by the
+entrance saluted them gravely, and Paul drew a long breath of relief as
+he entered the pretty pavilion in the garden in which he had his
+quarters. Alexander threw himself upon a low divan, and laughed with
+true Russian indifference. Paul pretended not to notice him, but
+silently took up the local French paper, which came every evening, and
+began to read.</p>
+
+<p>"You are excellent company, upon my word!" exclaimed Alexander,
+irritated at his brother's coldness. Paul laid down the paper, and
+stared at him with his hard blue eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Alexander, you are a fool," he said coolly.</p>
+
+<p>"Look here," said the other, suddenly losing his temper, and rising to
+his feet, "I will not submit to this sort of language."</p>
+
+<p>"Then do not expose yourself to it. Are you aware that you do me very
+serious injury by your escapades?"</p>
+
+<p>"Escapades indeed!" cried Alexander indignantly. "As if there were any
+harm in telling a woman she is pretty!"</p>
+
+<p>"You will probably have occasion to hear what the chief thinks of it
+before long," retorted his brother. "There will be a complaint. It will
+get to the palace, and the result will be that I shall be sent to
+another post, with a black mark in the service. Do you call that a joke?
+It is very well for you, a rich officer in the guards, taking a turn in
+the East by way of recreation. You will go back to Petersburg and tell
+the story and enjoy the laugh. I may be sent to China or Japan for three
+or four years, in consequence."</p>
+
+<p>"Bah!" ejaculated the soldier, sitting down on the divan. "I do not
+believe it. You are an old woman. You are always afraid of injuring your
+career."</p>
+
+<p>"If it is to be injured at all, I prefer that it should be by my own
+fault."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you want me to do?" asked Alexander, rising once more. "I think
+I will go back to the Valley of Roses, and see if I cannot find her
+again." Suiting the action to the word, he moved towards the door. All
+the willfulness of the angry Slav shone in his dark eyes, and he was
+really capable of fulfilling his threat.</p>
+
+<p>"If you try it," said Paul, touching an electric bell behind his chair,
+"I will have you arrested. We are in Russia inside these gates, and
+there are a couple of Cossacks outside. I am quite willing to assume the
+responsibility."</p>
+
+<p>Paul was certainly justified in taking active measures to coerce his
+headstrong brother. The spoilt child of a brilliant society was not
+accustomed to being thwarted in his caprices, and beneath his delicate
+pale skin the angry blood boiled up to his face. He strode towards his
+brother as though he would have struck him, but something in Paul's eyes
+checked the intention. He held his heavy silver cigarette case in his
+hand; turning on his heel with an oath, he dashed it angrily across the
+room. It struck a small mirror that stood upon a table in the corner,
+and broke it into shivers with a loud crash. At that moment the door
+opened, and Paul's servant appeared in answer to the bell.</p>
+
+<p>"A glass of water," said Paul calmly. The man glanced at Alexander's
+angry face and at the broken looking-glass, and then retired.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean by calling in your accursed servants when I am
+angry?" cried the soldier. "You shall pay for this, Paul,&mdash;you shall pay
+for it!" His soft voice rose to loud and harsh tones, as he impatiently
+paced the room. "You shall pay for it!" he almost yelled, and then stood
+still, suddenly, while Paul rose from his chair. The door was opened
+again, but instead of the servant with the glass of water a tall and
+military figure stood in the entrance. It was the ambassador himself. He
+looked sternly from one brother to the other.</p>
+
+<p>"Gentlemen," he said, "what is this quarrel? Lieutenant Patoff, I must
+beg you to remember that you are my guest as well as your brother's, and
+that the windows are open. Even the soldiers at the gates can hear your
+cries. Be good enough either to cease quarreling, or to retire to some
+place where you cannot be heard."</p>
+
+<p>Without waiting for an answer, the old diplomat faced about and walked
+away.</p>
+
+<p>"That is the beginning," said Paul, in a low voice. "You see what you
+are doing? You are ruining me,&mdash;and for what? Not even because you have
+a caprice for a woman, but merely because I have warned you not to make
+trouble."</p>
+
+<p>Paul crossed the room and picked up the fallen cigarette case. Then he
+handed it to his brother, with a conciliatory look.</p>
+
+<p>"There,&mdash;smoke a cigarette and be quiet, like a good fellow," he said.</p>
+
+<p>The servant entered with the glass of water, and put it down upon the
+table. Glancing at the fragments of the mirror upon the floor, he looked
+inquiringly at his master. Paul made a gesture signifying that he might
+leave the room. The presence of the servant did not tend to pacify
+Alexander, whose face was still flushed with anger, as he roughly took
+the silver case and turned away with a furious glance. The servant had
+noticed, in the course of three weeks, that the brothers were not
+congenial to each other, but this was the first time he had witnessed a
+violent quarrel between them. When he was gone Alexander turned again
+and confronted Paul.</p>
+
+<p>"You are insufferable," he said, in low tones.</p>
+
+<p>"It is easy for you to escape my company," returned the other. "The
+Varna boat leaves here to-morrow afternoon at three."</p>
+
+<p>"Set your mind at rest," said Alexander, regaining some control of his
+temper at the prospect of immediate departure. "I will leave to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>He went towards the door.</p>
+
+<p>"Dinner is at seven," said Paul quietly. But his brother left the room
+without noticing the remark, and, retiring to his room, he revenged
+himself by writing a long letter to his mother, in which he explained at
+length the violence and, as he described it, the "impossibility" of his
+brother's character. He had all the pettiness of a bad child; he knew
+that he was his mother's favorite, and he naturally went to her for
+sympathy when he was angry with his brother, as he had done from his
+infancy. Having so far vented his wrath, he closed his letter without
+re-reading it, and delivered it to be posted before the clock struck
+seven.</p>
+
+<p>He found Paul waiting for him in the sitting-room, and was received by
+him as though nothing had happened. Paul was indeed neither so forgiving
+nor so long-suffering as he appeared. He cordially disliked his brother,
+and was annoyed at his presence and outraged at his rashness. He felt
+bitterly enough that Alexander had quartered himself in the little
+pavilion for nearly a month without an invitation, and that, even
+financially, the visit caused him inconvenience; but he felt still more
+the danger to himself which lay in Alexander's folly, and he was not far
+wrong when he said that the ambassador's rebuke was the beginning of
+trouble. Accustomed to rely upon himself and his own wise conduct in the
+pursuance of his career, he resented the injury done him by such
+incidents as had taken place that afternoon. On the other hand, since
+Alexander had expressed his determination to leave Buyukdere the next
+day, he was determined that on his side the parting should be amicable.
+He could control his mood so far as to be civil during dinner, and to
+converse upon general topics. Alexander sat down to table in silence.
+His face was pale again, and his eyes had regained that simple, trustful
+look which was so much at variance with his character, and which, in the
+opinion of his admirers, constituted one of his chief attractions. It is
+unfortunate that, in general, the expression of the eyes should have
+less importance than that of the other features, for it always seems
+that by the eyes we should judge most justly. As a matter of fact, I
+think that the passions leave no trace in them, although they express
+the emotions of the moment clearly enough. The dark pupils may flash
+with anger, contract with determination, expand with love or fear; but
+so soon as the mind ceases to be under the momentary influence of any of
+these, the pupil returns to its normal state, the iris takes its natural
+color, and the eye, if seen through a hole in a screen, expresses
+nothing. If we were in the habit of studying men's mouths rather than
+their eyes, we should less often be deceived in the estimates we form of
+their character. Alexander Patoff's eyes were like a child's when he was
+peaceably inclined, like a wild-cat's when he was angry; but his
+nervous, scornful lips were concealed by the carefully trained dark
+brown mustache, and with them lay hidden the secret of his
+ill-controlled, ill-balanced nature.</p>
+
+<p>When dinner was finished, the servant announced that the steam launch
+was at the pier, and that the embassy <i>kav&aacute;ss</i> was waiting outside to
+conduct them to Santa Sophia. Alexander, who wanted diversion of some
+kind during the evening, said he would go, and the two brothers left the
+pavilion together.</p>
+
+<p>The kav&aacute;ss is a very important functionary in Constantinople, and,
+though his office is lucrative, it is no sinecure. In former times the
+appearance of Franks in the streets of Constantinople was very likely to
+cause disturbance. Those were the great days of Turkey, when the Osmanli
+was master of the East, and regarded himself as the master of the world.
+A Frank&mdash;that is to say, a person from the west of Europe&mdash;was scarcely
+safe out of Pera without an escort; and even at the present day most
+people are advised not to venture into Stamboul without the attendance
+of a native, unless willing to wear a fez instead of a hat. It became
+necessary to furnish the embassies with some outward and visible means
+of protection, and the kav&aacute;ss was accordingly instituted. This man, who
+was formerly always a Janizary, is at present a veteran soldier, and
+therefore a Mussulman; for Christians rarely enter the army in
+Constantinople, being permitted to buy themselves off. He is usually a
+man remarkable for his trustworthy character, of fine presence, and
+generally courageous. He wears a magnificent Turkish military dress,
+very richly adorned with gold embroidery, girt with a splendid sash, in
+which are thrust enough weapons to fill an armory,&mdash;knives, dirks,
+pistols, and daggers,&mdash;while a huge scimiter hangs from his sword-belt.
+When he is on active service, you will detect somewhere among his
+trappings the brown leather case of a serviceable army revolver. The
+reason of this outfit is a very simple one. The kav&aacute;ss is answerable
+with his head for those he protects,&mdash;neither more nor less. Whenever
+the ambassador or the minister goes to the palace, or to Stamboul, or on
+any expedition whatsoever, the kav&aacute;ss follows him, frequently acting as
+interpreter, and certainly never failing to impose respect upon the
+populace. Moreover, when he is not needed by the head of the mission in
+person, he is ready to accompany any member of the household when
+necessary. A lady may cross Stamboul in safety with no other attendant,
+for he is answerable for her with his life. Whether or not, in existing
+circumstances, he would be put to death, in case his charge were killed
+by a mob, is not easy to say; it is at least highly probable that he
+would be executed within twenty-four hours.</p>
+
+<p>It chanced, on the evening chosen by Paul and Alexander for their visit
+to Santa Sophia, that no other members of the embassy accompanied them.
+Some had seen the ceremony before, some intended to go the next day, and
+some were too lazy to go at all. They followed the kav&aacute;ss in silence
+across the road, and went on board the beautiful steam launch which lay
+alongside the quay. The night was exceedingly dark, for as the
+appearance of the new moon terminates the month Ramaz&aacute;n, and as the
+ceremonies take place only during the last week of the month, there can,
+of course, be no moonlight. But a dark night is darker on the black
+waters of the Bosphorus than anywhere else in the world; and the
+darkness is not relieved by the illumination of the shores. On the
+contrary, the countless twinkling points seem to make the shadow in
+midstream deeper, and accidents are not unfrequent. In some places the
+current is very rapid, and it is no easy matter to steer a steam launch
+skillfully through it, without running over some belated fisherman or
+some shadowy ca&iuml;que, slowly making way against the stream in the dark.</p>
+
+<p>The two brothers sat in the deep cane easy-chairs on the small raised
+deck at the stern, the weather being too warm to admit of remaining in
+the cushioned cabin. The sailors cast off the moorings, and the strong
+little screw began to beat the water. In two minutes the launch was far
+out in the darkness. The kav&aacute;ss gave the order to the man at the wheel,
+an experienced old pilot:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"To the Vinegar Sellers' Landing."</p>
+
+<p>The engine was put at full speed, and the launch rushed down stream
+towards Constantinople. Paul and Alexander looked at the retreating
+shore and at the lights of the embassy, fast growing dim in the
+distance. Paul wished himself alone in his quiet pavilion, with a
+cigarette and one of Gogol's novels. His brother, who was ashamed of
+his violent temper and disgusted with his brother's coldness, wished
+that he might never come back. Indeed, he was inclined to say so, and to
+spend the night at a hotel in Pera; but he was ashamed of that too, now
+that his anger had subsided, and he made up his mind to be morally
+uncomfortable for at least twenty-four hours. For it is the nature of
+violent people to be ashamed of themselves, and then to work themselves
+into new fits of anger in order to escape their shame, a process which
+may be exactly compared to the drunkard's glass of brandy in the
+morning, and which generally leads to very much the same result.</p>
+
+<p>But Paul said nothing, and so long as he was silent it was impossible to
+quarrel with him. Alexander, therefore, stretched out his legs and
+puffed at his cigarette, wondering whether he should ever see the lady
+in the yashmak again, trying to imagine what her face could be like, but
+never doubting that she was beautiful. He had been in love with many
+faces. It was the first time he had ever fallen in love with a veil. The
+sweet air of the Bosphorus blew in his face, the distant lights twinkled
+and flashed past as the steam launch ran swiftly on, and Alexander dozed
+in his chair, dreaming that the scented breeze had blown aside the folds
+of the yashmak, and that he was gazing on the most beautiful face in the
+world. That is one of the characteristics of the true Russian. The Slav
+is easily roused to frenzied excitement, and he as easily falls back to
+an indolent and luxurious repose. There is something poetic in his
+temperament, but the extremes are too violent for all poetry. To be
+easily sad and easily gay may belong to the temper of the poet, but to
+be bloodthirsty and luxurious by turns savors of the barbarian.</p>
+
+<p>Alexander was aroused by the lights of Stamboul and by the noise of the
+large ferry-boats just making up to the wooden piers of Galata bridge,
+or rushing away into the darkness amidst tremendous splashing of
+paddles and blowing of steam whistles. A few minutes later the launch
+ran alongside of the Vinegar Sellers' Landing on the Stamboul shore, and
+the kav&aacute;ss came aft to inform the brothers that the carriage was waiting
+by the water-stairs.</p>
+
+
+
+<h2 class="m"><a name="II" id="II"></a>II.</h2>
+
+
+<p>There is probably no nation in the world more attached to religion, both
+in form and principle, than the Osmanli; and it is probably for this
+reason that their public ceremonies bear a stamp of vigor and sincerity
+rarely equaled in Christian countries. No one can witness the rites
+practiced in the mosque of Agia Sophia without being profoundly
+impressed with the power of the Mohammedan faith. The famous church of
+Justinian is indeed in itself magnificent and awe-inspiring; the vast
+dome is more effective than that of Saint Peter's, in proportion as the
+masses which support it are smaller and less apparent; the double
+stories of the nave are less burdened with detail and ornament, and are
+therefore better calculated to convey an impression of size; the view
+from the galleries is less obstructed in all directions, and there is
+something startling in the enormous shields of green inscribed in gold
+with the names of God, Mohammed, and the earliest khalifs. Everything in
+the building produces a sensation of smallness in the beholder, almost
+amounting to stupor. But the Agia Sophia seen by day, in the company of
+a chattering Greek guide, is one thing; it is quite another when viewed
+at night from the solitude of the vast galleries, during the religious
+ceremonies of the last week in the month Ramaz&aacute;n.</p>
+
+<p>Paul and Alexander Patoff were driven through dark streets to a narrow
+lane, where the carriage stopped before a flight of broad steps which
+suddenly descended into blackness. The kav&aacute;ss was at the door, and
+seemed anxious that they should be quick in their movements. He held a
+small lantern in his hand, and, carrying it low down, showed them the
+way. Entering a gloomy doorway, they were aware of a number of Turks,
+clad mostly in white tunics, with white turbans, and congregated near
+the heavy leathern curtain which separates this back entrance from the
+portico. One of these men, a tall fellow with an ugly scowl, came
+forward, holding a pair of keys in his hand, and after a moment's parley
+with the kav&aacute;ss unlocked a heavily ironed door, lighting a taper at the
+lantern.</p>
+
+<p>As they entered, both the brothers cast a glance at the knot of scowling
+men, and Alexander felt in his pocket for his pistol. He had forgotten
+it, and the discovery did not tend to make him feel more safe. Then he
+smiled to himself, recognizing that it was but a passing feeling of
+distrust which he experienced, and remembering how many thousands of
+Franks must have passed through that very door to reach the winding
+staircase. As for Paul, he had been there the previous year, and was
+accustomed to the sour looks of Mussulmans when a Frank visitor enters
+one of their mosques. He also went in, and the kav&aacute;ss, who was the last
+of the party, followed, pulling the door on its hinges behind him.
+During several minutes they mounted the rough stone steps in silence, by
+the dim light of the lantern and the taper. Then emerging into the
+gallery through a narrow arch, a strange sound reached them, and
+Alexander stood still for a moment.</p>
+
+<p>Far down in the vast church an Imam was intoning a passage of the Koran
+in a voice which hardly seemed human; indeed, such a sound is probably
+not to be heard anywhere else in the world. The pitch was higher than
+what is attainable by the highest men's voices elsewhere, and yet the
+voice possessed the ringing, manly quality of the tenor, and its immense
+volume never dwindled to the proportions of a soprano. The priest
+recited and modulated in this extraordinary key, introducing all the
+ornaments peculiar to the ancient Arabic chant with a facility which an
+operatic singer might have envied. Then there was a moment's silence,
+broken again almost immediately by a succession of heavy sounds which
+can only be described as resembling rhythmical thunder, rising and
+falling three times at equal intervals; another short but intense
+silence, and again the voice burst out with the wild clang of a trumpet,
+echoing and reverberating through the galleries and among the hundred
+marble pillars of the vast temple.</p>
+
+<p>The two brothers walked forward to the carved stone balustrade of the
+high gallery, and gazed down from the height upon the scene below. The
+multitude of worshipers surged like crested waves blown obliquely on a
+shingly shore. For the apse of the Christian church is not built so
+that, facing it, the true believer shall look towards Mecca, and the
+Mussulmans have made their <i>mihrab</i>&mdash;their shrine&mdash;a little to the right
+of what was once the altar, in the true direction of the sacred city.
+The long lines of matting spread on the floor all lie evenly at an angle
+with the axis of the nave, and when the mosque is full the whole
+congregation, amounting to thousands of men, are drawn up like regiments
+of soldiers in even ranks to face the mihrab, but not at right angles
+with the nave. The effect is startling and strangely inharmonious, like
+the studied distortions of some Japanese patterns, but yet fascinating
+from its very contrariety to what the eye expects.</p>
+
+<p>There they stand, the ranks of the faithful, as they have stood yearly
+for centuries in the last week of Ramaz&aacute;n. As the trumpet notes of each
+recited verse die away among the arches, every man raises his hands
+above his head, then falls upon his knees, prostrates himself, and rises
+again, renewing the act of homage three times with the precision of a
+military evolution. At each prostration, performed exactly and
+simultaneously by that countless multitude, the air is filled with the
+tremendous roar of muffled rhythmical thunder, in which no voice is
+heard, but only the motion of ten thousand human bodies, swaying,
+bending, and kneeling in unison. Nor is the sound alone impressive. From
+the vaulted roof, from the galleries, from the dome itself, are hung
+hundreds of gigantic chandeliers, each having concentric rings of
+lighted lamps, suspended a few feet above the heads of the worshipers.
+Seen from the great height of the gallery, these thousands of lights do
+not dazzle nor hide the multitude below, which seems too great to be
+hidden, as the heavens are not hid by the stars; but the soft
+illumination fills every corner and angle of the immense building, and,
+lest any detail of the architecture and splendid music should escape the
+light, rows of little lamps are kindled along the cornices of the
+galleries and roof, filling up the interstices of darkness as a carver
+burnishes the inner petals of the roses on a huge gilt frame of
+exquisite design, in which not the smallest beauty of the workmanship
+can be allowed to pass unnoticed.</p>
+
+<p>This whole flood of glorious illumination descends then to the floor of
+the nave, and envelops the ranks of white and green clothed men, who
+rise and fall in long sloping lines, like a field of corn under the
+slanting breeze. There is something mystic and awe-inspiring in the
+sight, the sound, the whole condition, of this strange worship. A man
+looks down upon the serried army of believers, closely packed, but not
+crowded nor irregular, shoulder to shoulder, knee to knee, not one of
+them standing a hair's breadth in front of his rank nor behind it,
+moving all as one body, animated by one principle of harmonious motion,
+elevated by one unquestioning faith in something divine,&mdash;a man looks
+down upon this scene, and, whatever be his own belief, he cannot but
+feel an unwonted thrill of admiration, a tremor of awe, a quiver of
+dread, at the grand solemnity of this unanimous worship of the unseen.
+And then, as the movement ceases, and the files of white turbans remain
+motionless, the unearthly voice of the Imam rings out like a battle
+signal from the lofty balcony of the <i>mastaba</i>,<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> awaking in the
+fervent spirits of the believers the warlike memories of mighty
+conquest. For the Osmanli is a warrior, and his nation is a warrior
+tribe; his belief is too simple for civilization, his courage too blind
+and devoted for the military operations of our times, his heart too
+easily roused by the bloodthirsty instincts of the fanatic, and too
+ready to bear the misfortunes of life with the grave indifference of the
+fatalist. He lacks the balance of the faculties which is imposed upon
+civilized man by a conscious distinction of the possible from the
+impossible; he lacks the capacity for being contented with that state of
+life in which he is placed. Instead of the quiet courage and
+self-knowledge of a serviceable strength, he possesses the reckless and
+all-destroying zeal of the frenzied iconoclast; in place of patience
+under misfortune, in the hope of better times, he cultivates the
+insensibility begotten of a belief in hopeless predestination,&mdash;instead
+of strength he has fury, instead of patience, apathy. He is a strange
+being, beyond our understanding, as he is too often beyond our sympathy.
+It is only when we see him roused to the highest expression of his
+religious fervor that we involuntarily feel that thrill of astonishment
+and awe which in our hearts we know to be genuine admiration.</p>
+
+<p>Alexander Patoff stood by his brother's side, watching the ceremony with
+intense interest. He hated the Turks and despised their faith, but what
+he now saw appealed to the Orientalism of his nature. Himself capable of
+the most distant extremes of feeling, sensitive, passionate, and
+accustomed to delight in strong impressions, he could not fail to be
+moved by the profound solemnity of the scene and by the indescribable
+wildness of the Imam's chant. Paul, too, was silent, and, though far
+less able to feel such emotions than his elder brother, the sight of
+such unanimous and heart-felt devotion called up strange trains of
+thought in his mind, and forced him to speculate upon the qualities and
+the character which still survived in these hereditary enemies of his
+nation. It was not possible, he said to himself, that such men could
+ever be really conquered. They might be driven from the capital of the
+East by overwhelming force, but they would soon rally in greater numbers
+on the Asian shore. They might be crushed for a moment, but they could
+never be kept under, nor really dominated. Their religion might be
+oppressed and condemned by the oppressor, but it was of the sort to gain
+new strength at every fresh persecution. To slay such men was to sow
+dragon's teeth and to reap a harvest of still more furious fanatics,
+who, in their turn being destroyed, would multiply as the heads of the
+Hydra beneath the blows of Heracles. The even rise and fall of those
+long lines of stalwart Mussulmans seemed like the irrepressible tide of
+an ocean, which if restrained, would soon break every barrier raised to
+obstruct it. Paul sickened at the thought that these men were bowing
+themselves upon the pavement from which their forefathers had washed the
+dust of Christian feet in the blood of twenty thousand Christians, and
+the sullen longing for vengeance rankled in his heart. At that moment he
+wished he were a soldier, like his brother; he wished he could feel a
+soldier's pride in the strong fellowship of the ranks, and a soldier's
+hope of retaliation. He almost shuddered when he reflected that he and
+his brother stood alone, two hated Russians, with that mighty,
+rhythmically surging mass of enemies below. The bravest man might feel
+his nerves a little shaken in such a place, at such an hour. Paul leaned
+his chin upon his hand, and gazed intently down into the body of the
+church. The armed kav&aacute;ss stood a few paces from him on his left, and
+Alexander was leaning against a column on his right.</p>
+
+<p>The kav&aacute;ss was a good Mussulman, and regarded the ceremony not only with
+interest, but with a devotion akin to that of those who took part in it.
+He also looked fixedly down, turning his eyes to the mihrab, and
+listening attentively to the chanting of the Imam, of whose Arabic
+recitation, however, he could not understand any more than Paul
+himself. For a long time no one of the three spoke, nor indeed noticed
+his companions.</p>
+
+<p>"Shall we go to the other side of the gallery?" asked Paul, presently,
+in a low voice, but without looking round. Alexander did not answer, but
+the kav&aacute;ss moved, and uttered a low exclamation of surprise. Paul turned
+his head to repeat his question, and saw that Alexander was no longer in
+the place where he had been standing. He was nowhere to be seen.</p>
+
+<p>"He is gone round the gallery alone," said Paul to the kav&aacute;ss, and
+leading the way he went to the end of the balcony, and turning in the
+shadow looked down the long gallery which runs parallel with the nave.
+Alexander was not in sight, and Paul, supposing him to be hidden behind
+one of the heavy pillars which divided the balustrade into equal
+portions, walked rapidly to the end. But his brother was not there.</p>
+
+<p>"Bah!" Paul exclaimed to the kav&aacute;ss, "he is on the other side." He
+looked attentively at the opposite balconies, across the brilliantly
+lighted church, but saw no one. He and the soldier retraced their steps,
+and explored every corner of the galleries, without success. The kav&aacute;ss
+was pale to the lips.</p>
+
+<p>"He is gone down alone," he muttered, hastening to the head of the
+winding stair in the northwest corner of the dim gallery. He had left
+his lantern by the door, but it was not there. Alexander must have taken
+it with him. The Turk with the keys and the taper had long since gone
+down, in expectation of some other Frank visitors, but as yet none had
+appeared. Paul breathed hard, for he knew that a stranger could not with
+safety descend alone, on such a night, to the vestibule of the mosque,
+filled as it was with turbaned Mussulmans who had not found room in the
+interior, and who were pursuing their devotions before the great open
+doors. On the other hand, if Alexander had not entered the vestibule, he
+must have gone out into the street, where he would not be much safer,
+for his hat proclaimed him a Frank to every party of strolling Turks he
+chanced to meet.</p>
+
+<p>Paul lit a wax taper from his case, and, holding others in readiness,
+began to follow the rugged descent, the kav&aacute;ss close at his elbow. It
+seemed interminable. At every deep embrasure Paul paused, searching the
+recess by the flickering glare of the match, and then, finding nothing,
+both men went on. At last they reached the bottom, and the heavy door
+creaked as the kav&aacute;ss pressed it back.</p>
+
+<p>"You must stay here," he said, in his broken jargon. "Or, better still,
+you should go outside with me and get into the carriage. I will come
+back and search."</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Paul. "I will go with you. I am not afraid of them."</p>
+
+<p>"You cannot," answered the kav&aacute;ss firmly. "I cannot protect you inside
+the vestibule."</p>
+
+<p>"I tell you I will go!" exclaimed Paul impatiently. "I do not expect you
+to protect me. I will protect myself." But the kav&aacute;ss would not yield so
+easily. He was a powerful man, and stood calmly in the doorway. Paul
+could not pass him without using violence.</p>
+
+<p>"Effendim," said the man, speaking Turkish, which he knew that Paul
+understood, "if I let you go in there, and anything happens to you, my
+life is forfeited."</p>
+
+<p>Paul hesitated. The man was in earnest, and they were losing time which
+might be precious. It was clear that Alexander might already be in
+trouble, and that the kav&aacute;ss was the only person capable of imposing
+respect upon the crowd.</p>
+
+<p>"Go," said Paul. "I will wait by the carriage."</p>
+
+<p>The kav&aacute;ss opened the door, and both men went out into the dim entry.
+Paul turned to the right and the soldier to the left, towards the heavy
+curtain which closed the entrance of the vestibule. The knot of Turks
+who had stood there when the Russians had arrived had disappeared, and
+the place was silent and deserted, while from behind the curtain faint
+echoes of the priest's high voice were audible, and at intervals the
+distant thundering roll from the church told that the worshipers were
+prostrating themselves in the intervals of the chanting. Paul retired up
+the dark way, but paused at the deserted gate, unwilling to go so far as
+the carriage, and thus lengthen the time before the kav&aacute;ss could rejoin
+him with his brother. He trembled lest Alexander should have given way
+to some foolhardy impulse to enter the mosque in defiance of the
+ceremony which was then proceeding, but it did not strike him that
+anything very serious could have occurred, nor that the kav&aacute;ss would
+really have any great difficulty in finding him. Alexander would
+probably escape with some rough treatment, which might not be altogether
+unprofitable, provided he sustained no serious injury. It was indeed a
+rash and foolish thing to go alone and unarmed among a crowd of fanatic
+Mohammedans at their devotions; but, after all, civilization had
+progressed in Turkey, and the intruder was no longer liable to be torn
+in pieces by the mob. He would most likely be forcibly ejected from the
+vestibule, and left to repent of his folly in peace.</p>
+
+<p>All these reflections passed through Paul's mind, as he stood waiting in
+the shadow of the gate at the back of the mosque; but the time began to
+seem unreasonably long, and his doubts presently took the shape of
+positive fears. Still the echoes came to his ears through the heavy
+curtain, while from without the distant hum of the city, given up to
+gayety after the day's long fast, mingled discordantly with the sounds
+from within. He was aware that his heart was beating faster than usual,
+and that he was beginning to suffer the excitement of fear. He tried to
+reason with himself, saying that it was foolish to make so much of so
+little; but in the arguments of reason against terror, the latter
+generally gets the advantage and keeps it. Paul had a strong desire to
+follow the kav&aacute;ss into the vestibule, and to see for himself whether his
+brother were there or not. He rarely carried weapons, as Alexander did,
+but he trusted in his own strength to save him. He drew his watch from
+his pocket, resolving to wait five minutes longer, and then, if the
+kav&aacute;ss did not return, to lift the curtain, come what might. He struck a
+match, and looked at the dial. It was a quarter past ten o'clock. Then,
+to occupy his mind, he began to try and count the three hundred seconds,
+fancying that he could see a pendulum swinging before his eyes in the
+dark. At twenty minutes past ten he would go in.</p>
+
+<p>But he did not reach the end of his counting. The curtain suddenly moved
+a little, allowing a ray of bright light to fall out into the darkness,
+and in the momentary flash Paul saw the gorgeous uniform and
+accoutrements of the embassy kav&aacute;ss. He was alone, and Paul's heart
+sank. He remembered very vividly the dark and scowling faces and the
+fiery eyes of the turbaned men who had stood before the door an hour
+earlier, and he began to fear some dreadful catastrophe. The kav&aacute;ss came
+quickly forward, and Paul stepped out of the shadow and confronted him.</p>
+
+<p>"Well?"</p>
+
+<p>"He has not been there," answered the soldier, in agitated tones. "I
+went all through the crowd, and searched everywhere. I asked many
+persons. They laughed at the idea of a Frank gentleman in a hat
+appearing amongst them. He must have gone out into the street."</p>
+
+<p>"We searched the gallery thoroughly, did we not?" asked Paul. "Are you
+sure he could not have been hidden somewhere?"</p>
+
+<p>"Perfectly, Effendim. He is not there."</p>
+
+<p>"Then we must look for him in the streets," said Paul, growing very
+pale. He turned to ascend the steps from the gate to the road.</p>
+
+<p>"It is not my fault, Effendim," answered the soldier. "Did you not see
+him leave the gallery?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is nobody's fault but his own," returned Patoff. "I was looking down
+at the people. He must have slipped away like a cat."</p>
+
+<p>They reached the carriage, and Paul got inside. It was a landau, and the
+kav&aacute;ss and the coachman opened the front, so that Patoff might get a
+better view of the streets. The kav&aacute;ss mounted the box, and explained to
+the coachman that they must search Stamboul as far as possible for the
+lost Effendi. But the coachman turned sharply round on his seat and
+spoke to Paul.</p>
+
+<p>"The gentleman did not come out," he said emphatically. "I have been
+watching for you ever since you went in. He is inside the Agia
+Sophia&mdash;somewhere."</p>
+
+<p>Paul was disconcerted. He had not thought of making inquiries of the
+coachman, supposing that Alexander might easily have slipped past in the
+darkness. But the man seemed very positive.</p>
+
+<p>"Wait in the carriage, Effendim," said the kav&aacute;ss, once more descending
+from his seat. "If he is inside I will find him. I will search the
+galleries again. He cannot have gone through the vestibule."</p>
+
+<p>Before Paul could answer him the man had plunged once more down the
+black steps, and the Russian was condemned a second time to a long
+suspense, during which he was frequently tempted to leave the carriage
+and explore the church for himself. He felt the cold perspiration on his
+brow, and his hand trembled as he took out his watch again and again. It
+was nearly a quarter of an hour before the kav&aacute;ss returned. The man was
+now very pale, and seemed as much distressed as Paul himself. He
+silently shook his head, and, mounting to the box seat, ordered the
+coachman to drive on.</p>
+
+<p>The city was ablaze with lights. Every mosque was illuminated, and the
+minarets, decked out with thousands of little lamps, looked like fiery
+needles piercing the black bosom of the sky. The carriage drove from
+place to place, passing where a crowd was gathered together, hastening
+down dark and deserted streets, to emerge again upon some brilliantly
+lighted square, thronged with men in fez and turban and with women
+veiled in the eternal yashmak. More than once Paul started in his seat,
+fancying that he could discover on the borders of the crowd the two
+ladies, with their attendant, who had been the cause of the scuffle in
+the Valley of Roses that afternoon. Again, he thought he could
+distinguish his brother's features among the moving faces, but always
+the sight of the dark red fez told him that he was wrong. He was driven
+round Agia Sophia, beneath the splendid festoons of lamps, some hung so
+as to form huge Arabic letters, some merely bound together in great
+ropes of light; back towards the water and through the Atmaidam, the
+ancient Hippodrome, down to the Serai point, then up to the Seraskierat,
+where the glorious tower shot upwards like the pillar of flame that went
+before the Israelites of old; on to the mosque of Suleiman, over whose
+tomb the great dome burned like a fiery mountain, round once more to the
+Atmaidam, past the tall trees amidst which blazed the six minarets of
+Sultan Achmet; then, trying a new route, down by the bazaar gates to
+Sultan Valid&eacute; and the head of Galata bridge, and at last back again to
+the Seraskierat, and, leaving the Dove Mosque of Bajazet on the right,
+once more to the Vinegar Sellers' Landing, in the vain hope that
+Alexander might have found his way down to the quay where the steam
+launch was moored.</p>
+
+<p>In vain did the terrified kav&aacute;ss bid the coachman turn and turn again;
+in vain did Paul, in agonized excitement, try to pierce the darkness
+with his eyes, and to distinguish the well-known face in the throngs
+that crowded the brightly lighted squares. At the end of two hours he
+began to realize the hopelessness of the search. Suddenly it struck him
+that Alexander might have found the bridge, and, recognizing it, might
+have crossed to Pera rather than run the risk of losing himself in
+Stamboul again.</p>
+
+<p>"Tell the launch to be at Beschik Tasch to-morrow morning at ten
+o'clock," said Paul. "Take me to Galata bridge. I will cross on foot to
+Pera. Then go back and wait behind Agia Sophia, in case he comes that
+way again to look for the carriage. If I find him in Pera, I will send a
+messenger to tell you. If he does not come, meet me at Missiri's early
+to-morrow morning."</p>
+
+<p>"Pek eyi&mdash;very good," answered the kav&aacute;ss, who understood the wisdom of
+the plan. Again the carriage turned, and in five minutes Paul was
+crossing Galata bridge, alone, on his way to Pera.</p>
+
+<p>He was terribly agitated. Stories of the disappearance of foreigners in
+the labyrinths of Stamboul rose to his mind, and though he had never
+known of such a case in his own experience, he did not believe the thing
+impossible. His brother was the rashest and most foolhardy of men,
+capable of risking his life for a mere caprice, and perhaps the more
+inclined to do so on that night because he had had a violent quarrel
+with Paul that very afternoon, about his own foolish conduct. Of all
+nights in the year, the last four or five of Ramaz&aacute;n are the most
+dangerous to unprotected foreigners, and as he walked the spectacle of
+the scowling Turks thrust itself once more before Paul's mental vision.
+If Alexander had descended the steps, and had ventured, as well he
+might, to push past those fellows into the vestibule of the mosque, it
+must have gone hard with him. The fanatic worshipers of Allah were not
+in a mood that night to bear with the capricious humors of a haughty
+Frank; and though Alexander was active, strong, and brave, his strength
+would avail him little against such odds. He would be overpowered,
+stunned, and thrown out before he could utter a cry, and he might think
+himself lucky if he escaped with one or two broken bones. But then,
+again, if he had suffered such treatment, some one must have heard of
+it, and Paul remembered the blank face and frightened look of the kav&aacute;ss
+when he returned the second time from his search. They had gone
+carefully round the great building, and must have seen such an object as
+the body of a man lying in the street. Perhaps Alexander had broken away
+without injury, and fled out into the streets of Stamboul. If so, he
+was in no common danger, for, utterly ignorant of the topography of the
+great city, he might as easily have gone towards the Seven Towers or to
+Aiw&aacute;n Serai as to Galata bridge or Topkapussi, the Canon Gate at Serai
+point. There was still one hope left. He might have reached Pera, and be
+at that very moment refreshing himself with coffee and cigarettes at
+Missiri's hotel.</p>
+
+<p>Paul hastened his walk, and, reaching Galata, began at once to ascend
+the steep street which further on is called the Grande Rue, but which of
+all "great" streets least deserves the name. He then walked slowly,
+scrutinizing every face he saw. But indeed there were few people about,
+for Christian Pera does not fast in Ramaz&aacute;n, and consequently does not
+spend the night in parading the streets. Nevertheless, Paul began a
+systematic search, leaving no small caf&eacute; or eating-house unvisited,
+rousing the sleepy porters of the inns with his inquiries, and finally
+entering the hotel. It was now past midnight, but he would not give up
+the quest. He caused all the guides to be collected from their obscure
+habitations by messengers from the hotel, and representing to them the
+urgency of the case, and giving them money in advance with the promise
+of more to come, he dispatched them in all directions. Alexander had
+been at the hotel very often during the last month, while visiting the
+sights of the city, and most of these fellows knew him by sight. At all
+events, it would be easy for them to recognize a well-dressed Frank
+gentleman in trouble.</p>
+
+<p>Patoff saw the last of them leave the hotel, and stood staring out upon
+the Grande Rue de Pera, wondering what should be done next. The town
+residence of the embassy was closed for the summer, and there were only
+two or three sleepy servants in the place, who could be of no use. He
+thought of getting a horse and riding rapidly back to Buyukdere, in
+order to warn the ambassador of his brother's disappearance; but on
+reflection it seemed that he would do better to stay where he was. The
+short June night would soon be past, and by daylight he could at once
+prosecute his search in Stamboul with safety and with far greater
+probability of finding the lost man. He knew that the kav&aacute;ss would
+remain with the carriage all night behind Santa Sophia, and then at dawn
+he should still find them there. Meanwhile, he took a <i>ham&aacute;l</i>,&mdash;a
+luggage porter from the hotel,&mdash;and, armed with a lantern and a stick,
+began to beat the different quarters of Pera, judging that in the three
+or four hours before daylight he could pass through most of the streets.</p>
+
+<p>Hour after hour he trudged along, pale with fatigue and anxiety, his big
+features hardening with despairing determination as he walked. He
+searched every street and alley; he interviewed the Bekjees, who stamp
+along the streets, pounding the pavement with their iron-shod clubs; he
+tramped out to the Taksim, and down again to Galata tower, plunging into
+the dark alleys about the Oriental Bank, skirting lower Pera to the
+Austrian embassy, and climbing up the narrow path between tall houses,
+till he was once more in the Grande Rue; crossing to the filthy quarters
+of Kassim Pasch&aacute; and emerging at the German Lutheran church, crossing,
+recrossing, stumbling over gutters and up dirty back lanes, silent and
+determined still, addressing only the sturdy Kurd by his side to ask if
+there were any streets still unexplored, and entering every new by-path
+with new hope. At last he found himself once more at Galata bridge, and
+the light of the lantern began to pale before the grayness of the coming
+morning. He paid the Kurdish porter a generous fee, and giving his tiny
+coin to the tall keeper of the bridge, whose white garments looked
+whiter in the dawn, he walked on until he was half way over the Golden
+Horn.</p>
+
+<p>Stepping aside on to the wooden pier where the great ferry-boats were
+moored, he leaned upon the rail and looked out over the water,
+momentarily exhausted and unable to go further. The tender light tinged
+the southeastern sky, and the far mist of the horizon seemed already hot
+with the rising day. On the lapping water of the Horn the light fell
+like petals of roses tossed in a mantle of some soft dark fabric
+interwoven with a silvery sheen. Far across the mouth of the Bosphorus
+the minarets of Scutari came faintly into view, and on the Stamboul side
+the few lingering lamps which had outlasted the darkness, upon the lofty
+minarets, paled and lost their yellow color, and then ceased to shine,
+outdone in their turn by the rosy morning light. A wonderful stillness
+had fallen on the great city, as one by one the tired parties of friends
+had gone to rest, to shorten the day of fasting by prolonging their
+sleep till late in the hot afternoon. The clank of some capstan on one
+of the ferry-boats struck loud and clear on the still air, as the
+reluctant sailors and firemen prepared for their first run to the Black
+Sea, or across to Kadi K&ouml;i on the Sea of Marmara. Paul turned and looked
+towards the mighty dome of Santa Sophia, and his haggard face was almost
+as pale as the white walls. He lingered still, and suddenly the sun
+sprang up behind the Serai, and gilded the delicate spires, and caught
+the gold of the crescents on the mosques, and shone full upon the broad
+water. Paul followed the light as it touched one glorious building after
+another, and his hand trembled convulsively on the railing. Somewhere in
+that great awakening city&mdash;his brother was somewhere, alive or dead,
+amongst those white walls and glittering crescents and towering
+minarets&mdash;somewhere, and he must be found. Paul bent his head, and
+turning away hurried across the bridge, and plunged once more into
+Stamboul, alone as he had come.</p>
+
+<p>The streets were deserted, and the early morning air was full of the
+smell of thousands of extinguished oil lamps, that peculiar and
+pervading odor which suggests past revelry, sleepless hours, and the
+vanity of turning night into day. It oppressed Paul's overwrought
+senses, as he passed the melancholy remains of the illumination before
+the post-office and the Sultan Valid&eacute; mosque, and he hurried on towards
+the more secluded streets leading to Santa Sophia, in which the night's
+gayety had left no perceptible signs. At last he came to the narrow lane
+behind the huge pile, feeling that he had at last reached the end of his
+five hours' tramp.</p>
+
+<p>There stood the carriage, all dusty with the night's driving, looking
+dilapidated and forlorn; the tired horses drooped their heads in the
+flaccid and empty canvas nose-bags. The extinguished lamps were black
+with the smoke from the last flare of their sputtering wicks. The
+coachman lay inside, snoring,&mdash;a mere heap of cloth and brass buttons
+surmounted by a shapeless fez. On the stone steps leading down to the
+church sat the kav&aacute;ss; his head had fallen on the low parapet behind
+him, and his half-shaved scalp was bare. His face was deadly pale, and
+his mouth was wide open as he slept, breathing heavily; his left hand
+rested on the hilt of his scimiter; his right was extended, palm
+upwards, on the stone step on which he sat, the very picture of
+exhaustion.</p>
+
+<p>At any other time Paul would have laughed at the scene. But he was very
+far from mirth now, as he bent down and laid his hand upon the sleeping
+kav&aacute;ss's shoulder.</p>
+
+
+
+<h2 class="m"><a name="III" id="III"></a>III.</h2>
+
+
+<p>At ten o'clock on that morning, Paul and the kav&aacute;ss went on board the
+steam launch at Beschik Tasch, the landing most convenient for persons
+coming from the upper part of Pera. They had done everything possible,
+and it was manifestly Paul's duty to inform his chief of the occurrences
+of the night. The authorities had been put in possession of the details
+of Alexander's disappearance, and the scanty machinery of the Stamboul
+police had been set in motion; notice had been given at every hotel and
+circulated to every place of resort, and it was impossible that if
+Alexander showed himself in Pera he should escape observation, even if
+he desired to do so. But Stamboul was not Pera, and as Paul gave the
+order to steam to Buyukdere he resolutely turned his back on the eastern
+shore of the Golden Horn, unable to bear the sight of the buildings so
+intimately associated with his night's search. He was convinced that his
+brother was in Stamboul, and he knew that the search in Pera was a mere
+formality. He knew, also, that to find any one in Stamboul was only
+possible provided the person were free, or at least able to give some
+sign of his presence; and he began to believe that Alexander had fallen
+a victim to some rash prank. He had, perhaps, repeated his folly of the
+previous afternoon,&mdash;had wandered into the streets, had foolishly
+ventured to look too closely at a pair of black eyes, and had been
+spirited away by the prompt vengeance of the lady's attendants.</p>
+
+<p>But Paul's speculations concerning the fate of his brother were just now
+interrupted by the consideration of the difficulties which lay before
+him. Cold and resolute by nature, he found himself in a position in
+which any man's calmness would have been shaken. He knew that he must
+tell his tale to his chief, and he knew that he was to blame for not
+having watched Alexander more closely. It was improbable that any one
+who had not been present could understand how, in the intense interest
+caused by the ceremony, Paul could have overlooked his brother's
+departure from the gallery. But not only had Paul failed to notice his
+going; the kav&aacute;ss had not observed the lost man's movements any more
+than Paul himself. It was inconceivable to any one except Paul that
+Alexander should have been capable of creeping past him and the soldier,
+on tip-toe, purposely eluding observation; nevertheless, such an action
+would not be unnatural to his character. He had perhaps conceived a
+sudden desire to go down into the church and view the ceremony more
+closely. He must have known that both his companions would forcibly
+prevent him from such a course, and it was like him to escape them,
+laughing to himself at their carelessness. The passion for adventure was
+in his blood, and his training had not tended to cool it; fate had
+thrown an attractive possibility into his way, and he had seized the
+opportunity of doing something unusual, and annoying his more prudent
+brother at the same time.</p>
+
+<p>But though Paul understood this clearly enough, he felt that it would be
+anything but easy to make it clear to his chief; and yet, if he did not
+succeed in doing so, it would be hard for him to account for his
+carelessness, and he might spend a very unpleasant season of waiting
+until the missing man was found. In such a case as this, Paul was too
+good a diplomatist not to tell the truth very exactly. Indeed, he was
+always a truthful man, according to his lights; but had it been
+necessary to shield his brother's reputation in any way, he would have
+so arranged his story as not to tell any more of the truth than was
+necessary. What had occurred was probably more to his own discredit than
+to Alexander's, and Paul reflected that, on the other hand, there was
+no need to inform the ambassador of the quarrel on the previous
+afternoon, since the chief had overheard it, and had himself interposed
+to produce quiet, if not peace. He resolved, therefore, to tell every
+particular, from the moment of his arrival with Alexander at the Vinegar
+Sellers' Landing to the time of his leaving Pera, that morning, on his
+way back to Buyukdere.</p>
+
+<p>There was some relief in having thus decided upon the course he should
+follow; but the momentary satisfaction did not in the least lighten the
+burden that weighed upon his heart. His anxiety was intense, and he
+could not escape it, nor find any argument whereby to alleviate it. He
+did not love his brother, or at least had never loved him before; but we
+often find in life that a sudden fear for the safety of an individual,
+for whom we believe we care nothing, brings out a latent affection which
+we had not expected to feel. The bond of blood is a very strong one, and
+asserts itself in extreme moments with an unsuspected tenacity which
+works wonders, and which astonishes ourselves. The silken cord is
+slender, but the hands must be strong that can break it. In spite of all
+the misery his brother had caused him in boyhood, in spite of the
+coolness which had existed between them in later years, in spite of the
+humiliation he had so often suffered in seeing Alexander preferred
+before him, yet at this moment, when, for a time, the only man who bore
+his name had suddenly disappeared from the scene of life, Paul
+discovered deep down in his heart a strange sympathy for the lost man.
+He blamed himself bitterly for his carelessness, and, going back in his
+memory, he recalled with sorrow the hard words which had passed between
+them. He would have given much to be able to revoke the past and to
+weave more affection into his remembrance of his brother; and at the
+idea that he might perhaps never see him again, he turned pale, and
+twisted his fingers uneasily in his agitation.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, the launch steamed bravely against the current, deftly
+avoiding the swift eddies under the skillful hand of the pilot,
+slackening her pace to let a big ferry-boat cross before her from Europe
+to Asia, facing the fierce stream at Bala Hissar,&mdash;the devil's stream,
+as the Turks call it,&mdash;and finally ploughing through the rushing waters
+of Yeni K&ouml;j round the point where the Therapia pier juts out into the
+placid bay of Buyukdere. Paul could see far down the pier the white
+gates of the Russian embassy, and when, some ten minutes later, the
+launch ran alongside the landing, he gathered his courage with all his
+might, and stepped boldly ashore, and entered the grounds, the kav&aacute;ss
+following him with bent head and dejected looks.</p>
+
+<p>His excellency the Russian ambassador was seated in his private study,
+alternately sipping a cup of tea and puffing at a cigarette. The green
+blinds were closed, and the air of the luxurious little apartment was
+cool and refreshing. The diplomatist had very little to do, as no
+business could be transacted until after the Bairam feast, which begins
+with the new moon succeeding the month Ramaz&aacute;n; he sat late over his
+tea, smoking and turning over a few letters, while he enjoyed the gentle
+breeze which found its way into his room with the softened light. He was
+a gray-headed man, but not old. His keen gray eyes seemed exceedingly
+alive to every sight presented to them, and the lines on his face were
+the expression of thought and power rather than of age. He was tall,
+thin, and soldier-like, extremely courteous in manner and speech, but
+grave and not inclined to mirth; he belonged to that class of active men
+in whom the constant exercise of vitality and intelligence appears to
+prolong life instead of exhausting its force, who possess a constitution
+in which the body is governed by the mind, and who, being generally
+little capable of enjoying the pleasure of the moment, find it easy to
+devote their energies to the attainment of an object in the future.
+Count Ananoff was the ideal diplomatist: cautious, far-sighted,
+impenetrable, and exact, outwardly ceremonious and dignified, not too
+skeptical of other men's qualities nor too confident of his own. His
+convictions might be summed up, according to the old Russian joke, in
+the one word Nabuchadnezar,&mdash;<i>Na Bogh ad ne Czar</i>,&mdash;"There is no God but
+the Czar."</p>
+
+<p>As Paul entered the ambassador's study, he was glad that he had always
+been on good terms with his chief. Indeed, there was much sympathy
+between them, and it might well have been predicted at that time that
+Paul would some day become just such a man as he under whom he now
+served. Convinced as he was that in his present career quite as much of
+success depended upon the manner of carrying out a scheme as on the
+scheme itself, Paul had long come to the conclusion that no manner could
+possibly be so effective as that of Count Ananoff, and that in order to
+cultivate it the utmost attention must be bestowed upon the study of his
+chief's motives. Himself grave and cautious, he possessed the two main
+elements noticeable in the character of his model, and to acquire the
+rest could only be a matter of time. The ambassador noticed the ease
+with which Paul comprehended his point of view, and fancied that he saw
+in his secretary a desire to imitate himself, which of course was
+flattering. The result was that a sincere good feeling existed between
+the two, made up of a genuine admiration on the one side, and of
+considerable self-satisfaction on the other. Patoff felt that the moment
+had come when he must test the extent of the regard his chief felt for
+him, and, considering the difficulty of his position and the personal
+anxiety he felt for his brother, it is not surprising that he was
+nervous and ill at ease.</p>
+
+<p>"I have a painful story to tell, excellency," he said, standing before
+the broad writing-desk at which the count was sitting. The latter looked
+up from his tea.</p>
+
+<p>"Be seated," he said gravely, but fixing a keen look on Paul's haggard
+face.</p>
+
+<p>"I will tell you everything, with all the details," said Patoff, sitting
+down; and he forthwith began his story. The narrative was clear and
+connected, and embraced the history of the night from the time when Paul
+had left Buyukdere with his brother to the time of his return. Nothing
+was omitted which he could remember, but when he had done he was
+conscious that he had only told the tale of his long search for the
+missing man. He had thrown no light upon the cause of the disappearance.
+The ambassador looked very grave, and his thoughtful brows knit
+themselves together, while he never took his eyes from Paul's face.</p>
+
+<p>"It is very serious," he said at last. "Will you kindly explain to me,
+if you can do so without indiscretion, the causes of the violent quarrel
+which took place between you yesterday afternoon?"</p>
+
+<p>Paul had foreseen the question, and proceeded to detail the occurrences
+in the Valley of Roses, explaining the part he had played, and how he
+had remonstrated with Alexander. The latter, he said, had lost his
+temper, after they had got home.</p>
+
+<p>"I would not tell that story to any one else," said Paul, in conclusion.
+"It shows the disposition of my brother, and does him no credit. It was
+a foolish escapade, but I should be sorry to have it known. I expected
+that a complaint would have been lodged already."</p>
+
+<p>"None has been made. Is the kav&aacute;ss who went with you come back?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think," said the count, looking quietly at Paul, "that he can
+tell us anything you have forgotten?"</p>
+
+<p>There was a peculiar emphasis upon the last words which did not escape
+the secretary, though in that first moment he did not understand what
+was meant.</p>
+
+<p>"No," he answered, quite simply, returning his chief's look with perfect
+calmness. "I do not believe he can tell anything more. I will call him."</p>
+
+<p>"By all means. There is the bell," said the ambassador. Paul rang, and
+sent the servant to call his kav&aacute;ss, who had been waiting, and appeared
+immediately, looking very ill and exhausted with the fatigue of the
+night. He trembled visibly, as he stood before the table and made his
+military salute, bringing his right hand quickly to his mouth, then to
+his forehead, and letting it drop again to his side. Count Ananoff
+cross-examined him with short, sharp questions. The man was very pale,
+and stammered his replies, but the extraordinary accuracy with which he
+recounted the details already given by Patoff did not escape the
+diplomatist.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you anything more to tell?" asked the ambassador, at last.</p>
+
+<p>"It was not my fault, Effendim," said the kav&aacute;ss, in great agitation.
+"Paul Effendi and I were looking at the people, and when we turned
+Alexander Effendi was gone, and we could not find him. I had warned him
+beforehand not to separate himself from us"&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think he can be found?" inquired Ananoff, cutting short the
+man's repetitions.</p>
+
+<p>"Surely, the Effendi can be found," returned the kav&aacute;ss. "But it may
+take time."</p>
+
+<p>"Why should it take time? Unless he is injured or imprisoned somewhere,
+he ought to find his way to Pera to-day."</p>
+
+<p>"Effendim, he may have strayed into the dark streets. If the <i>bekji</i>
+found him without a lantern, he would be arrested, according to the
+law."</p>
+
+<p>"He had our lantern," said Paul. "We could not find it."</p>
+
+<p>"That is true," answered the kav&aacute;ss, in dejected tones. "There is the
+Persian ambassador, Effendim," he said, with a sudden revival of hope.</p>
+
+<p>"What can he do?" asked the count.</p>
+
+<p>"He is lord over all the donkey-drivers in Stamboul, Effendim. The
+Sultan allows him to exact tribute of them, which is the most part of
+his fortune.<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> Perhaps if he gave orders that they should all be
+beaten unless they found Alexander Effendi, they would find him. They go
+everywhere and see everybody."</p>
+
+<p>"That is an idea," said the ambassador, hardly able to repress a grim
+smile. "I will send word to his excellency at once. I have no doubt but
+that he will do it."</p>
+
+<p>"But it was not my fault"&mdash;began the kav&aacute;ss again.</p>
+
+<p>"I am not sure of that," answered the diplomatist. "If you find him, you
+will be excused."</p>
+
+<p>"I think the man is not to be blamed," remarked Paul, who had not
+forgotten the anxiety the kav&aacute;ss had shown in trying to find Alexander.
+"It is my belief that my brother's disappearance did not occur in any
+ordinary way."</p>
+
+<p>"I think so, too," replied the count. "You may go," he said to the
+soldier, who at once left the room. A short silence followed his
+departure.</p>
+
+<p>"Monsieur Patoff," resumed the elder man presently, "you are in a very
+dangerous and distressing position."</p>
+
+<p>"Distressing," said Paul. "Not dangerous, so far as I can see."</p>
+
+<p>"Let us be frank," answered the other. "Alexander Patoff is your elder
+brother. You feel that he had too large a share of your father's
+fortune. You have never liked him. He came here without an invitation,
+and made himself very disagreeable to you. You had a violent quarrel
+yesterday afternoon, and you were justly provoked,&mdash;quite justly, I have
+no doubt. You go to Stamboul at night with only one man to attend you.
+You come back without your rich, overbearing, intolerable brother. What
+will the world say to all that?"</p>
+
+<p>In spite of his pallor, the blood rushed violently to Paul's face, and
+he sprang from his chair in the wildest excitement.</p>
+
+<p>"You have no right&mdash;you do not mean to say it&mdash;Great God! How can you
+think of such a"&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I do not think it," said the ambassador, seizing him by the arm and
+trying to calm him. "I do not think anything of the kind. Command
+yourself, and be a man. Sit down,&mdash;there, be reasonable. I only mean to
+put you in your right position."</p>
+
+<p>"You will drive me mad," answered Paul in low tones, sinking into the
+chair again.</p>
+
+<p>"Now listen to me," continued the count, "and understand that you are
+listening to your best friend. The world will not fail to say that you
+have spirited away your brother,&mdash;got rid of him, in short, for your own
+ends. There is no one but a Turkish soldier to prove the contrary. No,
+do not excite yourself again. I am telling you the truth. I know
+perfectly well that Alexander has lost himself by his own folly, but I
+must foresee what other people will say, in case he is not found"&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"But he must be found!" interrupted Paul. "I say he shall be found!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, so do I. But there is just a possibility that he may not be found.
+Meanwhile, the alarm is given. The story will be in every one's mouth
+to-night, and to-morrow you will be assailed with all manner of
+questions. My dear Patoff, if Alexander does not turn up in a few days,
+you had better go away, until the whole matter has blown over. You can
+safely leave your reputation in my hands, as well as the care of finding
+your brother, if he can be found at all, and you will be spared much
+that is painful and embarrassing. I will arrange that you may be
+transferred for a year to some distant post, and when the mystery is
+cleared up you can come back and brave your accusers."</p>
+
+<p>"But," said Paul, who had grown pale again, "it seems to me impossible
+that I could be accused of murdering my brother on such slender grounds,
+even if the worst were to happen and he were never found. It is an awful
+imputation to put upon a man. I do not see how any one would dare to
+suggest such a thing."</p>
+
+<p>"In the first place," answered the ambassador, arguing the point as he
+would have discussed the framing of a dispatch, "the Turks are very
+cunning, and they hate us. They will begin by saying that you had an
+interest in disposing of Alexander. They will search out the whole
+story, and will assert the fact because they will be safe in saying that
+there is no evidence to the contrary. They will take care that the
+suggestion shall reach our ears, and that it shall spread throughout our
+little society. What can you answer to the question, 'Where is your
+brother?' If people do not ask it, they will let you know that it is in
+their hearts."</p>
+
+<p>"I do not know," said Paul, stunned by the possible truth of his chief's
+argument.</p>
+
+<p>"Exactly. You do not know, nor I either. But if you stay here, you will
+have to fight for your own reputation. If you are absent, I can put down
+such scandal by my authority, and it will soon be forgotten. I do not
+believe that this disappearance can remain a secret forever. At present,
+and for some time to come, it is only a disappearance, and it will be
+expected that your brother may yet come back. But when months are
+past,&mdash;should such a catastrophe occur,&mdash;people will find another word,
+and the murder of Alexander Patoff will be the common topic of
+conversation."</p>
+
+<p>"It is awful to think of," murmured Paul. "But why do you suppose that
+he will not come back? He may have got into some scrape, and he may
+appear this evening. There is hope yet and for days to come."</p>
+
+<p>"I am sorry to say I do not believe it," answered the count. "There have
+been several disappearances of insignificant individuals since I have
+been here. No pains were spared to find them, but no one ever obtained
+the smallest trace of their fate. They were probably murdered for the
+small sums of money they carried. Of course there is possibility, but I
+think there is very little hope."</p>
+
+<p>"But I cannot bear to think that poor Alexander should have come to
+such an end," cried Paul. "I could not go away feeling that I had left
+anything untried in searching for him. I never loved him, God forgive
+me! But he was my brother, and my mother's favorite son. He was with me,
+and by my carelessness he lost himself. Who is to tell her that? No, I
+cannot go until I know what has become of him."</p>
+
+<p>"My friend," said old Ananoff gently, "you have all my sympathy, and you
+shall have all my help. I will myself write to your mother, if Alexander
+does not return in a week. But if in a month he is not heard of, there
+will be no hope at all. Then you must go away, and I will shut the
+mouths of the gossips. Now go and rest, for you are exhausted. Be quite
+sure that between the measures you have taken yourself and those which I
+shall take, everything possible will be done."</p>
+
+<p>Paul rose unsteadily to his feet, and took the count's hand. Then,
+without a word, he went to his pavilion, and gave himself up to his own
+agonizing thoughts.</p>
+
+<p>The ambassador lost no time, for he felt how serious the case was. In
+spite of the heat, he proceeded to Stamboul at once, visited Santa
+Sophia, and explored every foot of the gallery whence Alexander had
+disappeared, but without discovering any trace. He asked questions of
+the warden of the church, the scowling Turk who had admitted the
+brothers on the previous night; but the man only answered that Allah was
+great, and that he knew nothing of the circumstances, having left the
+two gentlemen in charge of their kav&aacute;ss. Then the count went to the
+house of the Persian ambassador, and obtained his promise to aid in the
+search by means of his army of donkey-drivers. He went in person to the
+Ottoman Bank, to the chief of police, to every office through which he
+could hope for any information. Returning to Buyukdere, he sent notes to
+all his colleagues, informing them of what had occurred, and requesting
+their assistance in searching for the lost man. At last he felt that he
+had done everything in his power, and he desisted from his labors. But,
+as he had said, he had small expectation of ever hearing again from
+Lieutenant Alexander Patoff, and he meditated upon the letter he had
+promised to write to the missing man's mother. He was shocked at the
+accident, and he felt a real sympathy for Paul, besides the
+responsibility for the safety of Russian subjects in Turkey, which in
+some measure rested with him.</p>
+
+<p>As for Paul, he paced his room for an hour after he had left his chief,
+and then at last he fell upon the divan, faint with bodily fatigue and
+exhausted by mental anxiety. He slept a troubled sleep for some hours,
+and did not leave his apartments again that day.</p>
+
+<p>The view of the situation presented to him by Count Ananoff had stunned
+him almost beyond the power of thought, and when he tried to think his
+reflections only confirmed his fears. He saw himself branded as a
+murderer, though the deed could not be proved, and he knew how such an
+accusation, once put upon a man, will cling to him in spite of the lack
+of evidence. He realized with awful force the meaning of the question,
+"Where is your brother?" and he understood how easily such a question
+would suggest itself to the minds of those who knew his position. That
+question which was put to the first murderer, and which will be put to
+the last, has been asked many times of innocent men, and the mere fact
+that they could find no ready answer has sufficed to send them to their
+death. Why should it not be the same with him? Until he could show them
+his brother, they would have a right to ask, and they would ask,
+rejoicing in the pain inflicted. Paul cursed the day when Alexander had
+come to visit him, and he had received him with a show of satisfaction.
+Had he been more honest in showing his dislike, the poor fellow would
+perhaps have gone angrily away, but he would not have been lost in the
+night in the labyrinths of Stamboul. And then again Paul repented
+bitterly of the hard words he had spoken, and, working himself into a
+fever of unreasonable remorse, walked the floor of his room as a wild
+beast tramps in its cage.</p>
+
+<p>The night was interminable, though there were only six hours of
+darkness; but when the morning rose the light was more intolerable
+still, and Paul felt as though he must go mad from inaction. He dressed
+hastily, and went out into the cool dawn to wait for the first boat to
+Pera. Even the early shadows on the water reminded him of yesterday,
+when he had crossed Galata bridge on foot, still feeling some hope. He
+closed his eyes as he leaned upon the rail of the landing, wishing that
+the sun would rise and dispel at least some portion of his sorrow.</p>
+
+<p>He reached Pera, and spent the whole day in fruitless inquiries. In the
+evening he returned, and the next morning he went back again; sleeping
+little, hardly eating at all, speaking to no one he knew, and growing
+hourly more thin and haggard, till the Cossacks at the gate hardly
+recognized him. But day after day he searched, and all the countless
+messengers, officials, guides, porters, and people of every class
+searched, too, attracted by the large reward which the ambassador
+offered for any information concerning Alexander Patoff. But not the
+slightest clue could be obtained. Alexander Patoff had disappeared
+hopelessly and completely, and had left no more trace than if he had
+been thrown into the Bosphorus, with a couple of round shot at his neck.
+The days lengthened into weeks, and the weeks became a month, and still
+Paul hoped against all possibility of hope, and wearied the officials of
+every class with his perpetual inquiries.</p>
+
+<p>Count Ananoff had long since communicated the news of Alexander's
+disappearance to the authorities in St. Petersburg, thinking it barely
+possible that he might have gone home secretly, out of anger against his
+brother. But the only answer was an instruction to leave nothing untried
+in attempting to find the lost man, provided that no harm should be
+done to the progress of certain diplomatic negotiations then proceeding.
+As the count had foreseen, the Turkish authorities, while exhibiting
+considerable alacrity in the prosecution of the search, vaguely hinted
+that Paul Patoff himself was the only person able to give a satisfactory
+explanation of the case; and in due time these hints found their way
+into the gossip of the Bosphorus tea-parties. Paul was not unpopular,
+but in spite of his studied ease in conversation there was a reserve in
+his manner which many persons foolishly resented; and they were not slow
+to find out that his brother's disappearance was very odd,&mdash;so strange,
+they said, that it seemed impossible that Paul should know nothing of
+it. The ambassador thought it was time to speak to him on the subject.
+Moreover, in his present state of excitement Paul was utterly useless in
+the embassy, and the work which had accumulated during the month of
+Ramaz&aacute;n was now unusually heavy. Count Ananoff had arranged this matter,
+without speaking of it to any one, a fortnight after Alexander's
+disappearance, and now a secretary who had been in Athens had arrived,
+ostensibly on a visit to the ambassador. But Ananoff had Paul's
+appointment to Teheran in his pocket, with the permission to take a
+month's leave for procuring his outfit for Persia.</p>
+
+<p>The explanation was inevitable. It was impossible that things should go
+on any longer as they had proceeded during the last fortnight; and now
+that there was really no hope whatever, and people were beginning to
+talk as they had not talked before, the best thing to be done was to
+send Paul away. Count Ananoff came to his rooms one morning, and found
+him staring at the wall, his untasted breakfast on the table beside him,
+his face very thin and drawn, looking altogether like a man in a severe
+illness. The ambassador explained the reason of his visit, reminded him
+of what had been said at their first interview, and entreated him to
+spend his month's leave in regaining some of his former calmness.</p>
+
+<p>"Go to the Crimea, or to Tiflis," he said. "You will not be far from
+your way. I will write to Madame Patoff."</p>
+
+<p>"You are kind,&mdash;too kind," answered Paul. "Thank you, but I will go to
+my mother myself. I will be back in time," he added bitterly. "She will
+not care to keep me, now that poor Alexander is gone. Yes, I know; you
+need not tell me. There is no hope left. We shall not even find his body
+now. But I must tell my mother. I have already written, for I thought it
+better. I told her the story, just as it all happened. She has never
+answered my letter. I fancy she must have had news from some one else,
+or perhaps she is ill."</p>
+
+<p>"Do not go," said his chief, looking sorrowfully at Paul's white face
+and wasted, nervous hands. "You are not able to bear the strain of such
+a meeting. I will write to her, and explain."</p>
+
+<p>"No," answered Paul firmly. "I must go myself. There is no help for it.
+May I leave to-day? I think there is a boat to Varna. As for my
+strength, I am as strong as ever, though I am a little thinner than I
+was."</p>
+
+<p>The old diplomatist shook his head gravely, but he knew that it was of
+no use to try and prevent Paul from undertaking the journey. After all,
+if he could bear it, it was the most manly course. He had done his best,
+had labored in the search as no one else could have labored, and if he
+were strong enough he was entitled to tell his own tale.</p>
+
+<p>The two men parted affectionately that day, and when Paul was fairly on
+board the Varna boat Count Ananoff owned to himself that he had lost one
+of the best secretaries he had ever known.</p>
+
+
+
+<h2 class="m"><a name="IV" id="IV"></a>IV.</h2>
+
+
+<p>Three days later Paul descended from the train which runs twice a day
+from Pforzheim to Constance, at a station in the heart of the Swabian
+Black Forest. The name painted in black Gothic letters over the neat,
+cottage-like building before which the train stopped was <i>Teinach</i>. Paul
+had never heard of the place until his mother had telegraphed that she
+was there, and he looked about him with curiosity, while a dark youth,
+in leather breeches, rough stockings, and a blouse, possessed himself of
+the traveler's slender luggage, and began to lead the way to the hotel.</p>
+
+<p>It was late in the afternoon, and the sinking sun had almost touched the
+top of the hill. On all sides but one the pines and firs presented a
+black, absorbing surface to the light, while at the upper end of the
+valley the ancient and ruined castle of Zavelstein caught the sun's
+rays, and stood clearly out against the dark background. It is
+impossible to imagine anything more monotonous in color than this
+boundless forest of greenish-black trees, and it is perhaps for this
+reason that the ruins of the many old fortresses, which once commanded
+every eminence from Weissenstein to the Boden-See, are seen to such
+singular advantage. The sober gray or brown masonry, which anywhere else
+would offer but a neutral tint in the landscape, here constitutes high
+lights as compared with the impenetrable shadows of the woods; and even
+the sky above, generally seen through the thick masses of evergreen,
+seems to be of a more sombre blue. In the deep gorges the black water of
+the Nagold foams and tumbles among the hollow rocks, or glides smoothly
+over the long and shallow races by which the jointed timber rafts are
+shot down to the Neckar, and thence to the Rhine and the ocean, many
+hundreds of miles away. For the chief wealth of Swabia and of the
+kingdom of W&uuml;rtemberg lies in the splendid timber of the forest, which
+is carefully preserved, and in which no tree is felled without the order
+of the royal foresters. Indeed, Nature herself does most of the felling,
+for in winter fierce wind-storms gather and spread themselves in the
+winding valleys, tearing down acres of trees upon the hill-sides in
+broad, straight bands, and leaving them there, uprooted and fallen over
+each other in every direction, like a box of wooden matches carelessly
+emptied upon a dark green table. Then come the wood-cutters in the
+spring, and lop off the branches, and roll the great logs down to the
+torrent below, and float them away in long flexible rafts, which spin
+down the smooth water-ways at a giddy speed, or float silently along the
+broad, still reaches of the widening river, or dash over the dangerous
+rapids, skillfully guided by the wild raftsmen, bare-legged and armed
+with long poles, whose practiced feet support them as safely on the
+slippery, rolling timber as ours would carry us on the smoothest
+pavement.</p>
+
+<p>At Teinach the valley is wider than in other places, and a huge
+establishment, built over the wonderful iron springs, rears above the
+tops of the trees its walls of mingled stone, wood and stucco, gayly
+painted and ornamented with balconies and pavilions, in startling and
+unpleasant contrast with the sober darkness of the surroundings. The
+broad post-road runs past the hotels and bath-houses, and a great
+garden, or rather an esplanade with a few scattered beds of flowers, has
+been cleared and smoothed for the benefit of the visitors, who take
+their gentle exercise in the wide walks, or sip their weak German
+coffee, to the accompaniment of a small band, at the wooden tables set
+up under the few remaining trees. The place is little known, either to
+tourists or invalids, beyond the limits of the kingdom of W&uuml;rtemberg,
+but its waters are full of healing properties, and the seclusion of the
+little village amidst the wild scenery of the Black Forest is refreshing
+to soul and body.</p>
+
+<p>Paul followed his guide along the winding path which leads from the
+railway station to the hotel, smelling with delight the aromatic odor of
+the pines, and enjoying the coolness of the evening air. The fatigues of
+the last month and of the rapid journey from Varna had told upon his
+strength, as the fearful anxiety he had endured had wearied his brain.
+He felt, as he walked, how delicious it would be to forget all the past,
+to shoulder a broad axe, and to plunge forever into the silent forest;
+to lead the life of one of those rude woodmen, without a thought at
+night save of the trees to be felled to-morrow; to rise in the morning
+with no care save to accomplish the daily task before night; to sleep in
+summer on the carpet of sweet pine needles, and to watch the stars peep
+through the lofty branches of the ancient trees; in winter to lie by the
+warm fire of some mountain hut, with no disturbing dreams or nervous
+wakings, master of himself, his axe, and his freedom.</p>
+
+<p>But the thought of such peace only made the present moment more painful,
+and Paul bent his head as though to shut out all pleasant thoughts, till
+presently he reached the wide porch of the hotel, and, summoning his
+courage, asked for Madame Patoff.</p>
+
+<p>"Number seventeen," said the Swiss clerk, laconically, to the waiter who
+stood at hand, by way of intimating that he should conduct the gentleman
+to the number he had mentioned. As Paul turned to follow the functionary
+in the white tie and the shabby dress-coat, he was stopped by a
+thick-set, broad-shouldered man, with gold-rimmed spectacles and a bushy
+beard, who addressed him in English:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I beg your pardon, I heard you ask for Madame Patoff. Have I the honor
+of addressing her son?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Paul, bowing stiffly, for the man was evidently a gentleman.
+"May I ask to whom"&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I am Dr. Cutter," replied the other, interrupting him. "Madame Patoff
+is ill, and I am taking care of her."</p>
+
+<p>The average doctor would have said, "I am attending her," and Paul,
+whose English mother had brought him up to speak English as fluently and
+correctly as Russian, noticed the shade in the expression. But he was
+startled by the news of his mother's illness, and did not stop to think
+of such a trifle.</p>
+
+<p>"What is the matter with her?" he asked briefly, turning from the desk
+of the hotel office, and walking across the vestibule by Dr. Cutter's
+side.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know," replied the doctor, quietly.</p>
+
+<p>"You are a strange physician, sir," said Paul sternly. "You tell me that
+you are attending my mother, and yet you do not know what is the matter
+with her."</p>
+
+<p>The doctor was not in the least offended by Paul's sharp answer. He
+smiled a little, but instantly became grave again, as he answered,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I am not a practicing physician. I am a specialist, and I devote my
+life to the study of mental complaints. Your mother is ill in mind, not
+in body."</p>
+
+<p>"Mad!" exclaimed Paul, turning very pale. His life seemed to be nothing
+but a series of misfortunes.</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly not hopelessly insane," replied Dr. Cutter, in a musing tone.
+"She has suffered a terrible shock, as you may imagine."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Paul, "of course. That is the reason why I have come all the
+way from Constantinople to see her. I could not go to my new post
+without telling her the whole story myself."</p>
+
+<p>"Her manner is very strange," returned the other. "That is the reason
+why I waited for you here. I could not have allowed you to see her
+without being warned. She has a strange delusion, and you ought to know
+it."</p>
+
+<p>"What is it?" asked Paul, in a thick voice.</p>
+
+<p>"It is a very delicate matter. Come out into the garden, and I will tell
+you what I know."</p>
+
+<p>The two men went out together, and walked slowly along the open path
+towards the woods. In the distance a few invalids moved painfully about
+the garden, or rested on the benches beneath the trees. Far off a party
+of children were playing and laughing merrily at their games.</p>
+
+<p>"It is a delicate matter," repeated Dr. Cutter. "In the first place, I
+must explain my own position here. I am an Englishman, devoted to
+scientific pursuits. Originally a physician, subsequently professor in
+one of our universities, I have given up both practice and professorship
+in order to be at liberty to follow my studies. I am often abroad, and I
+generally spend the summer in Switzerland or somewhere in South Germany.
+I was at Rugby with Madame Patoff's brother-in-law, John Carvel, whom I
+dare say you know, and I met Madame Patoff two years ago at Wiesbaden. I
+met her there again, last year, and this summer, as I was coming to the
+South, I found her in the same place,&mdash;little more than a month ago. In
+both the former years your brother Alexander came to visit her, on leave
+from St. Petersburg. I knew him, therefore, and was aware of her deep
+affection for him. This time I found her very much depressed in spirits
+because he had resolved to join you in Constantinople. Excuse me if I
+pain you by referring to him. It is unavoidable. One morning she told me
+that she had made up her mind to go to Turkey, traveling by easy stages
+through Switzerland to Italy, and thence by steamer to the East. She
+dreaded the long railway journey through Austria, and preferred the sea.
+She was in bad health, and seemed very melancholy, and I proposed to
+accompany her as far as the Italian frontier. We went to Lucerne, and
+thence to Como, where I intended to leave her. She chose to wait there a
+few days, in order to have her letters sent on to her before going to
+the East. Among those which came was a long letter from you, in which
+you told in detail the story of your brother's disappearance. Your
+mother was alone in her sitting-room when she received it, but the
+effect of the news was such that her maid found her lying insensible in
+her chair some time afterwards, and thought it best to call me. I easily
+revived her from the fit of fainting, and when she came to herself she
+thrust your letter into my hand, and insisted that I should read it. She
+was very hysterical, and I judged that I should comply with her request.
+The scene which followed was very painful."</p>
+
+<p>"Well?" asked Paul, who was visibly agitated. "What then?" he inquired
+rather sharply, seeing that Dr. Cutter was silent.</p>
+
+<p>"To be short about it," said the professor, "it has been evident to me
+from that moment that her mind is deranged. No argument can affect the
+distorted view she takes."</p>
+
+<p>"But what is the view? What does she think?" inquired Paul, trembling
+with excitement.</p>
+
+<p>"She thinks that you were the cause of your brother's death," answered
+Cutter shortly.</p>
+
+<p>"That I murdered him?" cried Paul, feeling that his worst fears were
+realized.</p>
+
+<p>"Poor lady!" exclaimed the professor, fixing his gray eyes on Paul's
+face. "It is of no use to go over the story. That is what she thinks."</p>
+
+<p>Paul turned from his companion, and leaned against a tree for support.
+He was utterly overcome, and unmanned for the moment. Cutter stood
+beside him, fearing lest he might fall, for he could see that he was
+wasted with anxiety and weak with fatigue. But he possessed great
+strength of will and that command of himself which is acquired by living
+much among strangers. After a few seconds he stood erect, and, making a
+great effort, continued to walk upon the road, steadying himself with
+his stick.</p>
+
+<p>"Go on, please," he said. "How did you come here?"</p>
+
+<p>"You will understand that I could not leave Madame Patoff at such a
+time," continued the professor, inwardly admiring the strength of his
+new acquaintance. "She insisted upon returning northwards, saying that
+she would go to her relations in England. Fearing lest her mind should
+become more deranged, I suggested traveling slowly by an unfrequented
+route. I intended to take her to England by short stages, endeavoring to
+avoid all places where she might, at this season, have met any of her
+numerous acquaintances. I chose to cross the Spl&uuml;gen Pass to the Lake of
+Constance. Thence we came here by the Nagold railway. I propose to take
+her to the Rhine, where we will take the Rhine boat to Rotterdam. Nobody
+travels by the Rhine nowadays. You got my telegram at Vienna? Yes. Yours
+went to Wiesbaden, was telegraphed to Como, and thence here. I had just
+time to send an answer directed to you at Vienna, as a passenger by the
+Oriental Express, giving you the name of this place. I signed it with
+your mother's name."</p>
+
+<p>"She does not know I have left Constantinople, then?"</p>
+
+<p>"No. I feared that the news would have a bad effect. She receives her
+letters, of course, but telegrams often do harm to people in her
+state,&mdash;so I naturally opened yours."</p>
+
+<p>"Is she perfectly sane in all other respects?" asked Paul, speaking with
+an effort.</p>
+
+<p>"Perfectly."</p>
+
+<p>"Then she is not insane at all," said Paul, in a tone of conviction.</p>
+
+<p>"I do not understand you," answered the professor, staring at him in
+some surprise.</p>
+
+<p>"If you knew how she loved my poor brother, and how little she loves me,
+you would understand better. Without being insane, she might well
+believe that I had let him lose himself in Stamboul, or even that I had
+killed him. You read my letter,&mdash;you can remember how strange a story it
+was. There is nothing but the evidence of a Turkish soldier to show that
+I did not contribute to Alexander's disappearance."</p>
+
+<p>"It was certainly a very queer story," said the professor gravely.
+"Nevertheless, I am of opinion that Madame Patoff is under the
+influence of a delusion. I cannot think that if she were in her right
+mind she would insist as she does, and with such violence, that you are
+guilty of making away with your brother."</p>
+
+<p>"I must see her," said Paul firmly. "I have come from Constantinople to
+see her, and I cannot go back disappointed."</p>
+
+<p>"I think it would be a great mistake for you to seek an interview,"
+answered the professor, no less decidedly. "It might bring on a fit of
+anger."</p>
+
+<p>"Which might be fatal?" inquired Paul.</p>
+
+<p>"No, but which might affect her brain."</p>
+
+<p>"I do not think so. Pardon my contradicting you, professor, but I have a
+very strong impression that my mother is not in the least insane, and
+that I may succeed in bringing her to look at this dreadful business in
+its true light."</p>
+
+<p>"I fear not," answered Dr. Cutter sadly.</p>
+
+<p>"But you do not know," insisted Paul. "Unless you are perfectly sure
+that my mother is really mad, you can have no right to prevent my seeing
+her. I may possibly persuade her. I am the only one left," he added
+bitterly, "and I must be a son to her in fact as well as in relation. I
+cannot, for my own sake, let her go to our English relatives, with this
+story to tell, without at least contradicting it."</p>
+
+<p>"It is of no use to contradict it to her."</p>
+
+<p>"Of no use!" exclaimed Paul, impatiently. "Do you think that if the
+slightest suspicion, however unfounded, had rested on me, my chief would
+have allowed me to leave Constantinople without clearing it up? I should
+think that anybody in his senses would see that!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes,&mdash;anybody in his or her senses," answered the professor coldly.</p>
+
+<p>Paul stopped in his walk, and faced the strong man with the gold
+spectacles and the intelligent features who had thus obstinately thrust
+himself in his path.</p>
+
+<p>"Sir," he said, "I know you very slightly, and I do not want to insult
+you. But if you continue to oppose me, I shall begin to think that you
+have some other object in view besides a concern for my mother's
+health." His drawn and haggard features wore an expression of desperate
+determination as he spoke, and his cold blue eyes began to brighten
+dangerously.</p>
+
+<p>"I have nothing more to say," replied the scientist, meeting his look
+with perfect steadiness. "I admit the justice of your argument. I can
+only implore you to take my advice, and to reflect on what you are
+doing. I have no moral right to oppose you."</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Paul, "and you must not prevent this meeting. I wish to see
+her only once. Then I will go. I need not tell you that I am deeply
+indebted to you for the assistance you have rendered to my mother in
+this affair. If she does not believe my story, she will certainly not
+tolerate my presence, and I venture to hope that you will see her safely
+to England. If possible, I should like to meet her to-night."</p>
+
+<p>"You shall," replied the professor. "But if any harm comes of it,
+remember that I protested against the meeting. That is all I ask."</p>
+
+<p>"I will remember," answered Paul quietly. Both men turned in their walk,
+and went back towards the hotel.</p>
+
+<p>"You must give me time to warn her of your presence," said Cutter, as
+they reached the steps.</p>
+
+<p>Paul nodded, and they both went in. Cutter disappeared up-stairs, and
+Patoff was shown to his room by a servant.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall probably leave to-morrow morning," he remarked, as the man
+deposited his effects in the corner, and looked round, waiting for
+orders. Paul threw himself on the bed, closing his eyes, and trying to
+collect his courage and his senses for this meeting, which had turned
+out so much more difficult than he had expected. Nevertheless, he was
+glad that Cutter had met him, and had warned him of the state of his
+mother's mind. He did not in the least believe her insane,&mdash;he almost
+wished that he could. Lying there on his bed, he remembered his youth,
+and the time when he had longed for some little portion of the affection
+lavished on his elder brother. He remembered how often he had in vain
+looked to his mother for a smile of approbation, and how he had ever
+been disappointed. He had grown up feeling that, by some fault not his
+own, he was disliked and despised, a victim to one of those unreasoning
+antipathies which parents sometimes feel for one of their children. He
+remembered how he had choked down his anger, swallowed his tears, and
+affected indifference to censure, until his child's heart had grown
+case-hardened and steely; asking nothing, doing his tasks for his own
+satisfaction, and finally taking a sad pleasure in that silence which
+was so frequently imposed upon him. Then he had grown up, and the sullen
+determination to outdo his brother in everything had got possession of
+his strong nature. He remembered how, coming home from school, he had
+presented his mother with the report which spoke of his final
+examinations as brilliant compared with Alexander's; how his mother had
+said a cold word of praise; and how he himself had turned silently away,
+able already, in his young self-dependence, to rejoice secretly over his
+victory, without demanding the least approbation from those who should
+have loved him best. He remembered, when his brother was an ensign in
+the guards, spoiled and reckless, making debts and getting into all
+kinds of trouble, how he himself had labored at the dry work assigned to
+him in the foreign office, without amusements, without pleasure, and
+without pocket money, toiling day and night to win by force that
+position which Alexander had got for nothing; never relaxing in his
+exertions, and scrupulous in the performance of his duties. Even in the
+present moment of anxiety he thought with satisfaction of his
+well-earned advancement, and of the promotion which could not now be far
+distant. He remembered himself a big, bony youth of twenty, and he
+reflected that he had made himself what he now was, the accomplished
+man of the world, the rising diplomatist among those of his years,
+steadily moving on to success. But he saw that he was the same to-day as
+he had been then; if he had not gained affection in his life, he had
+gained strength and hardness and indifference to opposition.</p>
+
+<p>Then this blow had come upon him. This brother, whom he had striven to
+surpass in everything, had been suddenly and mysteriously taken from his
+very side; and not that only, but the mother who had borne them both had
+put the crowning touch to her life-long injustice, and had accused him
+of being his brother's murderer,&mdash;accused him to a stranger, or to one
+who was little nearer than a stranger,&mdash;refusing to hear him in his own
+defense.</p>
+
+<p>He wished that she might be indeed mad. He hoped that she was beside
+herself with grief, even wholly insane, rather than that he should be
+forced to believe that she could be so unjust. What construction the
+world would put upon the catastrophe he knew from Count Ananoff; but
+surely he might expect his mother to be more merciful. A mother should
+hope against hope for her child's innocence, even when every one else
+has forsaken him; how was it possible that this mother of his could so
+harden her heart as to be first to suspect him of such a crime, and to
+be of all people the one to refuse to hear his defense! He hoped she was
+mad, as he lay there on his bed, in the little room of the hotel, in the
+gathering gloom.</p>
+
+<p>At last some one knocked at the door, and Professor Cutter entered,
+admitting a stream of light from the corridor outside. Paul sprang to
+his feet, pale and haggard.</p>
+
+<p>"You are in the dark," said the professor quietly, as he shut the door
+behind him. Then he struck a match, and lit the two candles which stood
+on each side of the mirror on the bare dressing-table.</p>
+
+<p>"Can I go now?" asked Paul. The scientist eyed him deliberately.</p>
+
+<p>"Pardon me," he said. "You have not thought of your appearance. You have
+traveled for three or four days, and look rather disheveled."</p>
+
+<p>Paul understood. The professor did not want him to be seen as he was. He
+was wild and excited, and his clothes were in disorder. Silently he
+unlocked his dressing-case and bag, and proceeded to dress himself.
+Cutter sat quietly watching him, as though still studying his character;
+for he was a student of men, and prided himself on his ability to detect
+people's peculiarities from their unconscious movements. Paul dressed
+rapidly, with the neatness of a man accustomed to wait upon himself. In
+twenty minutes his toilet was completed, during which time neither of
+the two spoke a word. At last Paul turned to the professor. "Did you
+have difficulty in arranging it?" he asked coldly.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. But you may see her, if you go at once," answered the other.</p>
+
+<p>"I am ready," said Paul. "Let us go." They left the room, and went down
+the corridor together. The quiet and solitude of his room had
+strengthened Paul's nerves, and he walked more erect and with a firmer
+step than before. Presently the professor stopped before one of the
+doors.</p>
+
+<p>"Go in," he said. "This is a little passage room. Knock at the door
+opposite. She is there, and will receive you."</p>
+
+<p>Paul followed the professor's instructions, and knocked at the door
+within. A voice which he hardly recognized as his mother's bid him
+enter, and he was in the presence of Madame Patoff.</p>
+
+<p>A bright lamp, unshaded and filling the little sitting-room with a broad
+yellow light, stood upon the table. The details of the apartment were
+insignificant, and seemed to throw the figure of the seated woman into
+strong relief. She had been beautiful, and was beautiful still, though
+now in her fifty-second year. Her features were high and noble, and her
+rich dark hair was only lightly streaked with gray. Her eyes were
+brown, but of that brown which easily looks black when not exposed
+directly to the light. Her face was now very pale, but there was a
+slight flush upon her cheeks, which for a moment brought back a
+reflection of her former brilliant beauty. She was dressed entirely in
+black, and her thin white hands lay folded on the dark material of her
+gown; she wore no ring save the plain band of gold upon the third finger
+of her left hand.</p>
+
+<p>Paul entered, and closed the door behind him without taking his eyes
+from his mother. She rose from her seat as he came forward, as though to
+draw back. He came nearer, and bending low would have taken her hand,
+but she stepped backwards and withdrew it, while the flush darkened on
+her cheek.</p>
+
+<p>"Mother, will you not give me your hand?" he asked, in a low and broken
+voice.</p>
+
+<p>"No," she answered sternly. "Why have you come here?"</p>
+
+<p>"To tell you my brother's story," said Paul, drawing himself up and
+facing her. When he entered the room he had felt sorrow and pity for
+her, in spite of Cutter's account, and he would willingly have kneeled
+and kissed her hand. But her rough refusal brought vividly to his mind
+the situation.</p>
+
+<p>"You have told me already, by your letter," she replied. "Have you found
+him, that you come here? Do you think I want to see you&mdash;you?" she
+repeated, with rising emphasis.</p>
+
+<p>"I might think it natural that you should," said Paul, very coldly. "Be
+calm. I am going to-morrow. Had I supposed that you would meet me as you
+have, I should have spared myself the trouble of coming here."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed you might!" she exclaimed scornfully. "Have you come here to
+tell me how you did it?" Her voice trembled hysterically.</p>
+
+<p>"Did what?" asked Paul, in the same cold tone. "Do you mean to accuse
+me to my face of my brother's death, as your doctor says you do behind
+my back? And if you dare to do so, do you think I will permit it without
+defending myself?"</p>
+
+<p>His mother looked at him for one moment; then, clasping her hands to her
+forehead, she staggered across the room, and hid her face in the
+cushions of the sofa, moaning and crying aloud.</p>
+
+<p>"Alexis, Alexis!" she sobbed. "Ah&mdash;my beloved son&mdash;if only I could have
+seen your dear face once more&mdash;to close your eyes&mdash;and kiss you&mdash;those
+sweet eyes&mdash;oh, my boy, my boy! Where are you&mdash;my own child?"</p>
+
+<p>She was beside herself with grief, and ceased to notice Paul's presence
+for some minutes, moaning, and tossing herself upon the sofa, and
+wringing her hands as the tears streamed down. Paul could not look
+unmoved on such a sight. He came near and touched her shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>"You must not give up all hope, mother," he said softly. "He may yet
+come back." He did not know what else to say, to comfort her.</p>
+
+<p>"Come back?" she cried hysterically, suddenly sitting up and facing him.
+"Come back, when you are standing there with his blood on your hands!
+You murderer! You monster! Go&mdash;for God's sake, go! Don't touch me! Don't
+look at me!"</p>
+
+<p>Paul was horrified at her violence, and could not believe that she was
+in her senses. But he had heard the words she had spoken, and the wound
+had entered into his soul. His look was colder than ever as he answered.</p>
+
+<p>"You are evidently insane," he said</p>
+
+<p>"Go&mdash;go, I tell you! Let me never see you again!" cried the frantic
+woman, rising to her feet, and staring at him with wide and blood-shot
+eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Paul went up to her, and quickly seizing her hands held them in his firm
+grip, without pressure, but so that she could not withdraw them.</p>
+
+<p>"Mother," he said, in low and distinct tones, "I believe you are mad. If
+you are not, God forgive you, and grant that you may forget what you
+have said. I am as innocent of Alexander's death&mdash;if indeed he is
+dead&mdash;as you are yourself."</p>
+
+<p>She seemed awed by his manner, and spoke more quietly.</p>
+
+<p>"Where is he, then? Paul, where is your brother?"</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot tell where he is. He left me and never returned, as the man
+who was with me can testify. I came here to tell you the story with my
+own lips. If you do not care to hear it, I will go, and you shall have
+your wish, for you need never see me again." He released her hands, and
+turned from her as though to leave the room.</p>
+
+<p>Madame Patoff's mood changed. Though Alexander was more like her, she
+possessed, too, some of the inexorable coldness which Paul had inherited
+so abundantly. She now drew herself up, and retired to the other side of
+the room. Paul's hand was on the door. Then she turned once more, and he
+saw that her face was as pale as death.</p>
+
+<p>"Go," she said, for the last time. "And above all, do not come back.
+Unless you can bring Alexis with you, and show him to me alive, I will
+always believe that you killed him, like the heartless, cruel monster
+you have been from a child."</p>
+
+<p>"Is that your last word, mother?" asked Paul, controlling his voice by a
+great effort.</p>
+
+<p>"My very last word, to you," she answered, pointing to the door.</p>
+
+<p>Paul went out, and left her alone. In the corridor he found Professor
+Cutter, calmly walking up and down. The scientist stopped, and looked at
+Paul's pale face.</p>
+
+<p>"Was I right?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Too right."</p>
+
+<p>"I thought so," said the professor. "Do you mean to leave to-morrow?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," answered Paul quietly. "I must eat something. I am exhausted."</p>
+
+<p>He staggered against Dr. Cutter's strong arm, and caught himself by it.
+The professor held him firmly on his feet, and looked at him curiously.</p>
+
+<p>"You are worn out," he said. "Come with me."</p>
+
+<p>He led him through the corridor to the restaurant of the hotel, and
+poured out a glass of wine from a bottle which stood on a table set
+ready for dinner. Paul drank it slowly, stopping twice to look at his
+companion, who watched him with the eye of a physician.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you ever had any trouble with your heart?" asked the latter.</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Paul. "I have never been ill."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you must have been half starved on your journey," replied the
+professor, philosophically. "Let us dine here."</p>
+
+<p>They sat down, and ordered dinner. Paul was conscious that his manner
+must seem strange to his new acquaintance, and indeed what he felt was
+strange to himself. He was conscious that since he had left his mother
+his ideas had undergone a change. He was calmer than he had been before,
+and he could not account for it on the ground of his having begun to eat
+something. He was indeed exhausted, for he had hardly thought of taking
+any nourishment during his long journey, and the dinner revived him. But
+the odd consciousness that he was not exactly the same man he had been
+before had come upon him as he closed the door of his mother's room. Up
+to the time he had entered her presence he had been in a state of the
+wildest anxiety and excitement. The moment the interview was over his
+mind worked normally and easily, and he felt himself completely master
+of his own actions.</p>
+
+<p>Indeed, a change had taken place. He had gone to his mother feeling that
+he was accountable to her for his brother's disappearance, and prepared
+to tell his story with every detail he could recall, yet knowing that he
+was wholly innocent of the catastrophe, and that he had done everything
+in his power to find the lost man. But in that moment he was unconscious
+of two things: first, of the extreme hardness of his own nature; and
+secondly, that he had not in reality the slightest real love either for
+his mother or for Alexander. The moral sufferings of his childhood had
+killed the natural affections in him, and there had remained nothing in
+their stead but a strong sense of duty to his nearest relations. It was
+this sense which had prompted him to receive Alexander kindly, and to
+take the utmost care of him during his visit; and it was the same
+feeling which had impelled him to come to his mother, in order to give
+the best account he could of the terrible catastrophe. But the frightful
+accusation she had put upon him, and her stubborn determination to abide
+by it, had destroyed even that lingering sense of duty which he had so
+long obeyed. He knew now that he experienced no more pain at Alexander's
+loss than he would naturally have felt at the death of an ordinary
+acquaintance, and that his mother had absolved him by her crowning
+injustice from the last tie which bound him to his family. In the first
+month at Buyukdere, after Alexander had disappeared, he had been
+overcome by the horror of the situation, and by the knowledge that he
+must tell his mother of the loss of her favorite son. He had mistaken
+these two incentives to the search for a feeling of love for the missing
+man. A quarter of an hour with his mother had shown him how little love
+there had ever been between them, and her frantic behavior, which he
+felt was not insanity, had disgusted him, and had shown him that he was
+henceforth free from all responsibility towards her.</p>
+
+<p>The love of a child for his mother may be instinctive in the first
+instance, but as the child grows to manhood he becomes subject to
+reason; and that which reason first rejects is injustice, because
+injustice is the most destructive form of lie imaginable. Paul had borne
+much, had cherished to the last his feeling of duty and his outward
+rendering of respect, but his mother had gone too far. He felt that she
+was not mad, and that in accusing him she was only treating him as she
+had always done since he was a boy; giving way to her unaccountable
+dislike, and suffering her antipathy to get the better of all sense of
+truth.</p>
+
+<p>As Paul sat at table with Professor Cutter, he felt that the yoke had
+suddenly been taken from his neck, and that he was henceforth free to
+follow his own career and his own interests, without further thought for
+her who had cast him off. He was not a boy, to grow sulky at an unkind
+word, or to resent a fancied insult. He was a grown man, more than
+thirty years of age, and he fully realized his position, without
+exaggeration and without any superfluous exhibition of feeling. All at
+once he felt like a man who has done his day's work, and has a right to
+think no more about it.</p>
+
+<p>"I am glad to see that you have a good appetite," observed the
+professor.</p>
+
+<p>"I am conscious of not having eaten for a long time," answered Paul. "I
+suppose I was too much excited to be hungry before."</p>
+
+<p>"You are not excited any longer?" inquired Dr. Cutter, with a smile.</p>
+
+<p>"No. I believe I am perfectly calm. I have accomplished the journey, I
+have seen my mother, I have heard her last word, and I shall go to
+Persia to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>"Your programme is a simple one," answered his companion. "However, I am
+sure you can be of no use here. Your mother is quite safe under my
+care."</p>
+
+<p>"It is my belief that she would be quite safe alone," said Paul, "though
+your presence is a help to her. You are a friend of her family, you knew
+my poor brother, you are intimate with my uncle by marriage, Mr. John
+Carvel. I am sure that, since you are good enough to accompany my
+mother, she cannot fail to appreciate your kindness and to enjoy your
+society. But I do not think she really stands in need of assistance."</p>
+
+<p>"That is a matter of opinion," replied the professor, sipping his wine.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; but shall I be frank with you, Dr. Cutter? I fancy that, as a
+scientist and a student of diseases of the mind, you are over-ready to
+suspect insanity where my mother's conduct can be explained by ordinary
+causes."</p>
+
+<p>"My dear sir," said the professor, "if I am a scientist, I am not one
+for nothing. I know how very little science knows, and in due time I
+shall be quite ready to own myself mistaken, if your mother turns out to
+be perfectly sane."</p>
+
+<p>"You are very honest," returned Patoff. "All I want to express is that,
+although I am grateful to you for taking her home, I think she is quite
+able to take care of herself. I should be very sorry to think that you
+felt yourself bound not to leave her. She is fifty-two years old, I
+believe, but she is very strong, though she used to fancy herself in bad
+health, for some reason or other; she has a maid, a courier, and plenty
+of money. You yourself admit that she has no delusion except about this
+sad business. I think that under the circumstances she could safely
+travel alone."</p>
+
+<p>"Possibly. But the case is an interesting one. I am a free man, and your
+mother's age and my position procure me the advantage of studying the
+state of her mind by traveling with her without causing any scandal. I
+am not disposed to abandon my patient."</p>
+
+<p>"I can assure you," said Paul, "that if I thought she would tolerate my
+presence I should go with her myself, and I repeat that I am sincerely
+obliged to you. Only, I do not believe she is mad. I hope you will write
+to me, however, and tell me how she is."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course. And I hope you will tell me whether you have changed your
+mind about her. I confess that you seem to me to be the calmest person I
+ever met."</p>
+
+<p>"I?" exclaimed Paul. "Yes, I am calm now, but I have not had a moment's
+rest during the last month."</p>
+
+<p>"I can understand that. You know the worst now, and you have nothing
+more to anticipate. I have no right to inquire into your personal
+feelings, but I should say that you cared very little for your mother,
+and less for your brother, and that hitherto you had been animated by a
+sort of fictitious sense of responsibility. That has ceased, and you
+feel like a man released from prison."</p>
+
+<p>The professor fixed his keen gray eyes on Paul's face as he spoke. His
+speech was rather incisive, considering how little he had seen of Paul.
+Perhaps he intended that it should be, for he watched the effect of his
+words with interest.</p>
+
+<p>"You are not a bad judge of human nature," answered Patoff, coolly. But
+he did not vouchsafe any further answer.</p>
+
+<p>"It is my business," said the professor. "If, as a friend of Madame
+Patoff's family, I take the liberty of being plain, and of telling you
+what I think, you may believe that I have not wholly misjudged your
+mother, since I have hit the mark in judging you."</p>
+
+<p>"I am not sure that you have hit the mark," replied Paul. "Perhaps you
+have. Time will show. Meanwhile, I am going to Teheran to reflect upon
+it. It is impossible to choose a more secluded spot," he added, with a
+smile.</p>
+
+<p>"Why do you not return to Constantinople?" asked the inquisitive
+professor.</p>
+
+<p>"Because it has pleased the Minister for Foreign Affairs to send me to
+Persia. I am a government servant, and must go whither I am sent. I dare
+say I shall not be there very long. The climate is not very pleasant,
+and the society is limited. But it will be an agreeable change for me."</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose that efforts will still be made to find your brother?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. The search will never be given up while there is the least hope."</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder what the effect would be upon Madame Patoff, if Alexander were
+found after six months?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have not the least idea," answered Paul. "I suppose we should all
+return to our former relations with each other. Perhaps the shock might
+drive her mad in earnest,&mdash;I cannot tell. You are a psychologist; it is
+a case for you."</p>
+
+<p>"A puzzle without an answer. I am afraid it can never be tried."</p>
+
+<p>"No, I am afraid not," said Paul quietly.</p>
+
+<p>The two men finished their dinner, and went out. Paul meant to leave
+early the next morning, and was anxious to go to bed. He felt that at
+last he could sleep, and he took his leave of Professor Cutter.</p>
+
+<p>"Good-by," he said, with more feeling than he had shown since he had
+left his mother's room. "I am glad we have met. Believe me, I am really
+grateful to you for your kindness, and I hope you will let me know that
+you have reached England safely. If my mother refers to me, please tell
+her that after what she said to me I thought it best to leave here at
+once. Good-by, and thank you again."</p>
+
+<p>"Good-by," said the professor, shaking Paul's hand warmly. "The world is
+a little place, and I dare say we shall meet again somewhere."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope so," answered Paul.</p>
+
+<p>And so these two parted, to go to the opposite ends of the earth, not
+satisfied with each other, and yet each feeling that he should like to
+meet his new acquaintance again. But Persia and England, in the present
+imperfect state of civilization, are tolerably far apart.</p>
+
+
+
+<h2 class="m"><a name="V" id="V"></a>V.</h2>
+
+
+<p>Early on the next morning Paul was on his way to Munich, Vienna, and the
+East again, and on the afternoon of the same day Professor Cutter and
+Madame Patoff, with two servants, got into a spacious carriage, in which
+they had determined to drive as far as Weissenstein, the last village of
+the Black Forest before reaching Pforzheim. Pursuing his plan of
+traveling by unfrequented routes, the professor had proposed to spend
+the night in the beautiful old place which he had formerly visited,
+intending to proceed the next day by rail to Carlsruhe, and thence down
+the Rhine.</p>
+
+<p>He had not seen Madame Patoff in the evening after her interview with
+Paul, and when he met her in the morning it struck him that her manner
+was greatly changed. She was very silent, and when she spoke at all
+talked of indifferent subjects. She never referred in any way to the
+meeting with her son, and the professor observed that for the first time
+she allowed the day to pass without once mentioning the disappearance of
+Alexander. He attributed this silence to the deep emotion she had felt
+on seeing Paul, and to her natural desire to avoid any reference to the
+pain she had suffered. As usual she allowed him to make all the
+necessary arrangements for the journey, and she even spoke with some
+pleasure of the long drive through the forest. She was evidently
+fatigued and nervous, and her face was much paler than usual, but she
+was quiet and did not seem ill. All through the long afternoon they
+drove over the beautiful winding road, enjoying the views, discussing
+the scenery, and breathing in the healthy odor of the pines. The
+professor was an agreeable companion, for he had traveled much in
+Southern Germany, and amused Madame Patoff with all manner of curious
+information concerning the people, the legends connected with the
+different parts of the Black Forest, the fairy tales of the Rhine, and
+the history of the barons before Rudolf of Hapsburg destroyed them in
+his raid upon the freebooters. This he sprinkled with anecdotes, small
+talk about books, and comments on European society; speaking with ease
+and remarkable knowledge of his subjects, and so pleasantly that Madame
+Patoff never perceived that he wished to amuse her, and was trying to
+distract her thoughts from the one subject which too easily beset them.
+Indeed, the professor in the society of a woman of the world was a very
+different man from the earnest, plain-speaking person who had dined with
+Paul on the previous night. Even his gold-rimmed spectacles were worn
+with a less professional air. His well-cut traveling costume of plain
+tweed did not suggest the traditional scientist, and his bronzed and
+manly face was that of a sportsman or an Alpine Club man rather than of
+a student. Madame Patoff leaned back in the carriage, and fairly enjoyed
+the hours; saying to herself that Cutter had never been so agreeable
+before, and that indeed in her long life she had met few men who
+possessed so much charm in conversation. She was an old lady, and could
+judge of men, for she had spent nearly forty years in the midst of the
+most brilliant society in Europe, and was not to be deceived by the ring
+of false metal.</p>
+
+<p>At last they reached the place in the road where they had to descend
+from the carriage and mount the ascent to Weissenstein. Madame Patoff
+was well pleased with the place, and said so as she slowly climbed the
+narrow path, leaning on the professor's arm. The inn&mdash;the old Gasthaus
+zum Goldenen Anker&mdash;stands upon the very edge of the precipice above the
+tumbling Nagold, and is indeed partly built down the face of the cliff.
+Rooms have been hollowed, so that their windows look down on the river
+from a sheer height of two hundred feet, the surface of the natural
+wall, broken only here and there by a projecting ledge, or by the
+crooked stem of a strong wild cherry tree which somehow finds enough
+soil and moisture there to support its hardy growth. The inn is very
+primitive, but comfortable in its simple way, and the scenery is
+surpassingly beautiful. Far below, on the other side of the torrent, the
+small village nestles among the dark pines, the single spire of the
+diminutive church standing high above the surrounding cottages. Above,
+the hill is crowned by the ruins of the ancient castle of
+Weissenstein,&mdash;the castle of Bellrem, the crusader, who fell from the
+lofty ramparts on a moonlight night in the twelfth century, terrified by
+the ghost of a woman he had loved and wronged. At least, the legend says
+so, and as the ruined ramparts are still there it is probably all quite
+true. On the back of the hill, where the narrow path descends from the
+inn to the road, the still, deep waters of the great mill pool lie
+stagnant in the hot air, and the long-legged water spiders shoot over
+the surface, inviting the old carp to snap at them, well knowing that
+they will not, but skimming away like mad when a mountain trout, who has
+strayed in from the river through the sluices, comes suddenly to the
+surface with a short, sharp splash. But there are flies for the trout,
+and he prefers them, so that the water spiders lead, on the whole, a
+quiet and unmolested life.</p>
+
+<p>The travelers entered the inn, and were soon established for the night.
+Madame Patoff was still enchanted with the view, and insisted on sitting
+out upon the low balcony until late at night, though the air was very
+cool and the dampness rose from the river. There was something in the
+wild place which soothed her. She almost wished she could stay there
+forever, and hide her sorrow from the world in such a nest as this,
+overhanging the wild water, perched high in air, and surrounded on all
+sides by the soft black forest. For the Black Forest is indeed black, as
+only such impenetrable masses of evergreen can be.</p>
+
+<p>In the early morning the tall old lady in black was again at her place
+on the balcony when Professor Cutter appeared. She sat by the low
+parapet, and gazed down as in a trance at the tumbling water, and at the
+solitary fisherman who stood bare-legged on a jutting rock, casting his
+rough tackle on the eddying stream. She was calmer than she had seemed
+for a long time, and the professor began seriously to doubt the wisdom
+of taking her to England, although he had already written to her
+brother-in-law, naming the date when they expected to arrive.</p>
+
+<p>"Shall we go on this morning?" he asked, in a tone which left the answer
+wholly at Madame Patoff's decision.</p>
+
+<p>"Where?" she asked, dreamily.</p>
+
+<p>"Another stage on our way home," answered the professor.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," she said, with sudden determination. "If we stay here any longer,
+I shall be so much in love with the place that I shall never be able to
+leave it. Let us go at once. I feel as though something might happen to
+prevent us."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well. I will make all the arrangements." Professor Cutter
+forthwith went to consult the landlord, leaving Madame Patoff upon the
+balcony. She sat there without moving, absorbed in the beauty of the
+scene, and happy to forget her troubles even for a moment in the sight
+of something altogether new. Her thoughts were indeed confused. It was
+but the day before yesterday that she had seen her son Paul after years
+of separation, and that alone was sufficient to disturb her. She had
+never liked him,&mdash;she could not tell why, except it were because she
+loved Alexander better,&mdash;and she could not help looking on Paul as on
+the man who had robbed her of what she loved best in the world. But the
+recollection of the interview was cloudy and uncertain. She had given
+way to a violent burst of anger, and was not quite sure of what had
+happened. She tried to thrust it all away from her weary brain, and she
+looked down again at the fisherman, far below. He had moved a little,
+and just then she could see him only through the branches of a
+projecting cherry-tree. He seemed to be baiting his hook for another
+cast in the river.</p>
+
+<p>"Madame Patoff, are you quite ready?" asked the professor's voice from
+the window.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," she said, rising to her feet. "I am coming."</p>
+
+<p>"One moment,&mdash;I am just paying the bill," answered Cutter from within;
+and Madame Patoff could hear the landlord counting out the small change
+upon a plate, the ringing silver marks and the dull little clatter of
+the nickel ten-pfennig pieces.</p>
+
+<p>She was standing now, and she looked over the torrent at the dark forest
+beyond, endeavoring to fix the beautiful scene in her mind, and trying
+to forget her trouble. But it would not be forgotten, and as she stood
+up the whole scene with Paul came vividly to her mind. She remembered
+all her loathing for him, all the horror and all the furious anger she
+had felt at the sight of him. In the keen memory of that bitter meeting,
+rendered tenfold more vivid by the overwrought state of her brain, the
+blood rushed violently to her face, her head swam, and she put out her
+hand to steady herself, thinking there was a railing before her. But the
+parapet was low, scarcely reaching to her knees. She tottered, lost her
+balance, and with a wild shriek fell headlong into the abyss.</p>
+
+<p>Cutter dropped his change and rushed frantically to the window,
+well-nigh falling over the low parapet himself. His face was ghastly, as
+he leaned far forward and looked down. Then he uttered an exclamation of
+terror, and seemed about to attempt to climb over the balcony. Not ten
+feet below him the wretched woman hung suspended in the thick branches
+of the wild cherry tree, caught by her clothes. Cutter breathed hard,
+for he had never seen so horrible a sight. At any moment the material of
+her dress might give way, the branches might break under the heavy
+strain. He looked wildly round for help. Between the balcony and the
+trees there were ten feet of smooth rock, which would not have given a
+foothold to a lizard.</p>
+
+<p>"Catch hold, there!" cried a loud voice from above, and Cutter saw a new
+rope dangling before him into the abyss. He looked up as he seized the
+means of help, and saw at the upper window the square dark face of a
+strong man, who was clad in a flannel shirt and had a silver-mounted
+pipe in his mouth.</p>
+
+<p>"Go ahead,&mdash;it's fast," said the man, letting out more rope. "Or if
+you're afraid, I'll come down the rope myself."</p>
+
+<p>But Cutter was not afraid. It was the work of a moment to make a wide
+bowline knot in the pliant Manilla cord. With an agility which in so
+heavily built a frame surprised the dark man above, the doctor let
+himself down as far as the tree; then seizing the insensible lady firmly
+by the arm, and bracing himself on the roots of the cherry close to the
+rock, so that he could stand for a moment without support from above, he
+deftly slipped the rope twice round her waist with what are called
+technically two half hitches, close to his own loop, in which he
+intended to sit, clasping her body with his arms.</p>
+
+<p>"Can you haul us up?" he shouted.</p>
+
+<p>Slowly the rope was raised, with its heavy burden. The strong tourist
+had got help from the terrified landlord, who had followed Cutter to the
+balcony, but who was a stalwart Swabian, and not easily disconcerted. He
+had rushed up-stairs, and was hauling away with all his might. In less
+than a minute and a half Cutter was on a level with the balcony, and in
+a few seconds more he had disengaged himself and the rescued lady from
+the coils of the rope. It is not surprising that his first thought
+should have been for her, and not for the quiet man with the pipe, who
+had been the means of her escape. He bore Madame Patoff to her room, and
+with the assistance of her maid set about reviving her as fast as
+possible, though the perspiration streamed from his forehead, and he was
+trembling with fright in every limb and joint.</p>
+
+<p>The tourist wound up his rope, and took his pipe from his mouth, which
+he had forgotten to do in the hurry of the moment. Then he slipped on an
+old jacket, and descended the stairs, to inquire whether he could be of
+any use, and whether the lady were alive or dead. He was a strongly
+built man, with an ugly but not unkindly face, small gray eyes, and
+black hair just beginning to grizzle at the temples. He was an extremely
+quiet fellow, and the people of the inn remarked that he gave very
+little trouble, though he had been at Weissenstein nearly a week. He had
+told the landlord that he was going to Switzerland, but that he liked
+roundabout ways, and was loitering along the road, as the season was not
+yet far enough advanced for a certain ascent which he meditated. He had
+nothing with him but a knapsack, a coil of rope, and a weather-beaten
+ice-axe, besides one small book, which he read whenever he read at all.
+He spoke German fluently, but said he was an American. Thereupon the
+landlady, who had a cousin who had a nephew who had gone to Brazil,
+asked the tourist if he did not know August B&uuml;rgin, and was very much
+disappointed to find that he did not.</p>
+
+<p>The excitement outside of Madame Patoff's room was intense. But the Herr
+Doctor, as the landlord called Cutter, had admitted no one but the maid,
+and as yet had not given any news of the patient. The little group stood
+in the passage a long time before Cutter came out.</p>
+
+<p>"She is not badly hurt," he said, and was about to re-enter the
+apartment, when his eye fell on the tall tourist, who, on hearing the
+news, had turned quickly away. Cutter went hastily after him, and,
+grasping his hand, thanked him warmly for his timely help.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't mention it," said the stranger. "You did the thing beautifully
+when once you had got hold of the rope. Excuse me&mdash;I have an
+engagement&mdash;good-by&mdash;glad to hear the lady is not hurt." Wherewith the
+tourist quickly shook the professor's hand once more, and was gone
+before the latter could ask his name.</p>
+
+<p>"Queer fellow," muttered Cutter, as he returned to Madame Patoff's side.</p>
+
+<p>She was not injured, as he had at once announced, but it was impossible
+to say what effect the awful shock might produce upon her overwrought
+brain. She opened her eyes, indeed, but she did not seem to recognize
+any one; and when the professor asked her how she felt, in order to see
+if she could speak intelligibly, she laughed harshly, and turned her
+head away. She was badly bruised, but he could discover no mark of any
+blow upon the head which could have caused a suspension of intelligence.
+There was therefore nothing to be done but to take care of her, and if
+she recovered her normal health she must be removed to her home at once.
+All day he sat beside her bed, with the patience of a man accustomed to
+tend the sick, and to regard them as studies for his own improvement.
+Towards evening she slept, and Cutter went out, hoping to find the
+tourist again. But the landlord said he was gone, and as the little inn
+kept no book wherein strangers were asked to register their names, and
+as the landlord could only say that the gentleman had declared his name
+to be Paul, Cutter was obliged to suffer the pangs of unsatisfied
+curiosity.</p>
+
+<p>"I am sick of the name of Paul!" exclaimed the professor, half angrily.
+"Is the fellow a Russian, too, I wonder? Paul, Paul,&mdash;everybody seems to
+be called Paul!" Therewith he turned away, and began to walk up and down
+before the house, lighting a cigar, and smoking savagely in his
+annoyance with things in general.</p>
+
+<p>He was thinking that if it had been so easy for Madame Patoff to throw
+herself over the balcony, just when he was not looking, it was after all
+not so very improbable that Alexander might have slipped away from his
+brother in the dark. The coincidence of the two cases was remarkable.
+As for Madame Patoff, he did not doubt for a moment that she had
+intended to commit suicide by throwing herself down the precipice.
+According to his theory, all her calmness of yesterday and this morning,
+succeeding the great excitement of her meeting with Paul, proved that
+she had been quietly meditating death. She had escaped. But had her mind
+escaped the suicide she had attempted on her body? In its effects, her
+anger against Paul and her fixed idea concerning him were as nothing
+when compared with the terrible shock she had experienced that morning.
+It was absolutely impossible to predict what would occur: whether she
+would recover her faculties, or remain apathetic for the rest of her
+life. She was a nervous, sensitive, and overstrung woman at all times,
+and would suffer far more under a sudden and violent strain than a
+duller nature could. The view she took in regard to Alexander's
+disappearance proved that her faculties were not evenly balanced. Of
+course the story was a very queer one, and Russians are queer people, as
+the professor said to himself. It was not going beyond the bounds of
+possibility to suppose that Paul might have murdered his brother, but
+Cutter would have expected that Madame Patoff would be the last person
+to suspect it, and especially to say it aloud. The way she had raved
+against Paul on more than one occasion sufficiently showed that she
+seized at false conclusions, like a person of unsound mind. Alexander
+had resembled her, too, and had always acted like an irritable,
+beautiful, spoiled child. There was a distinct streak of "queerness," as
+Cutter expressed it, in the family. Probably Paul had inherited it in a
+different way. His conduct at Teinach, after leaving his mother, had
+been strange. He had shown no sorrow, scarcely any annoyance, indeed,
+and during their dinner had seemed thoroughly at his ease.
+Scientifically speaking, the professor regretted the accident of the
+morning. Madame Patoff had been a very interesting study so long as she
+was under the influence of a dominating idea. Her case might now
+degenerate into one of common apathy such as Cutter had seen hundreds of
+times. There would be nothing to be done but to try the usual methods,
+with the usual unsatisfactory results, abandoning her at last to the
+care of her relations and nurses as a hopeless idiot.</p>
+
+<p>But Professor Cutter was not destined to such a disappointment. His
+patient recovered in a way which was new to him, and he realized that in
+losing his former case he had found one even more interesting. She was
+apathetic, indeed, in a certain degree, and did not appear to understand
+everything that was said to her, but this was the only sign of any
+degeneracy. She never again addressed by name either the professor or
+her maid, and never spoke except to express her wants, which she did in
+few words, and very concisely and correctly. Nothing would induce her,
+in conversation, to make any answer save a simple yes or no, and Cutter
+was struck by the fact that her color ceased to change when he spoke of
+Alexander. This, he thought, showed that she no longer associated any
+painful idea with the name of her lost son. But there were none of the
+signs of a softening brain,&mdash;no foolish ravings, nor any expressed
+desire to do anything not perfectly rational. She accomplished the
+journey with evident comfort, and was evidently delighted at the
+beautiful sights she saw on the way, though she said nothing, but only
+smiled and looked pleased. Her habitual expression was one of calm
+melancholy. Her features wore a sad but placid expression, and she
+appeared to thrive in health, and to be better than when the professor
+had first known her. She was more scrupulous than ever about her
+appearance, and there was an almost unnatural perfection in her dress
+and in her calm and graceful manner. Cutter was puzzled. With these
+symptoms he would have expected some apparent delusion on one point. But
+he could detect nothing of the kind, and he exhausted his theories in
+trying to find out what particular form of insanity afflicted her. He
+could see nothing and define nothing, save her absolute refusal to talk.
+She asked for what she wanted, or got it for herself, and she answered
+readily yes and no to direct questions. Gradually, as they traveled by
+short stages, drawing near to their destination, Cutter altogether lost
+the habit of talking to her, and almost ceased to notice her one
+peculiarity. She would sit for hours in the same position, apparently
+never wearied of her silence, her placid expression never changing save
+into a gentle smile when she saw anything that pleased her.</p>
+
+<p>They reached England at last, and Madame Patoff was installed in her
+brother-in-law's house in the country. Cutter came frequently from town
+to see her, and always studied her case with new interest; but after a
+whole year he could detect no change whatever in her condition, and
+began to despair of ever classifying her malady in the scientific
+catalogue of his mind.</p>
+
+<p class="g">* * * * * * * * * * * * * *</p>
+
+<p>It was at this point, my dear friend, that I became an actor in the
+story of Paul Patoff and his mother, and I will now for a time tell my
+tale in my own person,&mdash;in the prosaic person of Paul Griggs, with whom
+you are so well acquainted that you are good enough to call him your
+friend. To give you at once an idea of my own connection with this
+history, I will confess that it was I who dropped the rope out of the
+window at Weissenstein, as you may have already guessed from the
+description I have given of myself.</p>
+
+
+
+<h2 class="m"><a name="VI" id="VI"></a>VI.</h2>
+
+
+<p>Mankind may be divided and classified in many ways, according to the
+tests applied, and the reason why any new classification of people is
+always striking is not far to seek. For, since all the mental and moral
+qualities of which we have ever heard belong to men and women, it is
+obviously easy to say that we can divide our fellow-creatures into two
+classes, one class possessing the vice or virtue in point, and the other
+not possessing it. The only division which is hard to make is that which
+should separate the human race into classes of good and bad,&mdash;to speak
+biblically, the division of the sheep from the goats; but as no one has
+ever been able to draw the line, some people have said, in their haste,
+that all men are bad, while others have arrived at the no less hasty and
+equally false conclusion that all men are good. The Preacher was nearer
+the truth when he said, "All is vanity," than was David when he said in
+his heart, "All men are liars;" for if the bad man is foolish enough to
+boast of his error, the good man is generally inclined to vaunt his
+virtue after the most mature reflection, and the secret of success,
+whether in good or in evil, is not to allow the right hand to know the
+doings of the left. There are men who give lavishly with the one hand,
+while they steal even more freely with the other, and are covered with
+glory, until their biography is written by an intelligent enemy.</p>
+
+<p>The faculty of persuading the world at large to consider that you are in
+the right is called your "prestige," a word closely connected with the
+term "prestidigitation,"&mdash;if not in derivation, most certainly in
+meaning. When you have found out your neighbor's sin, your prestige is
+increased; when your neighbor has found out yours, your prestige is
+gone. There is little credit to be got from charity; for if you conceal
+your good deeds it is certain that nobody will suspect you of doing
+them, and if you do them before the world every one will say that you
+are vainglorious and purse-proud, and altogether a dangerous hypocrite.
+On the other hand, there is undeniably much social interest attached to
+a man who is supposed to be bad, but who has never been caught in his
+wickedness; and if a thorough-going sinner is discovered, after having
+concealed his doings for many years, people at least give him all the
+credit he can expect, saying, "Surely he was a very clever fellow to
+deceive us for so long!" There are plenty of ways which serve to conceal
+evil doings, from the vulgar lies which make up the code of schoolboy
+honor, to the national bad faith which systematically violates all
+treaties when they cease to be lucrative; from the promising youth who
+borrows money from his tailor, and has it charged to his father with
+compound interest as "account rendered for clothes furnished," down to
+the driveling dishonesty of some old statesman who clings to office
+because his ornate eloquence still survives his scanty wit. Verily, if
+the boy be father to the man, it is not pleasant to imagine what manner
+of men they will be to whom the modern boy stands in the relation of
+paternity. The big boys who kill little ones with their fists, and spend
+a pleasant hour in watching a couple of cats, slung over a clothes-line
+by the tails, fight each other to death, are likely to be less
+remarkable for their singular lack of intelligence than for their
+extraordinary excess of brutality. It is true that a nation's greatest
+activity for good is developed in the time of its transition from
+coarseness to refinement. It may also be true that its period of
+greatest harmfulness is when, from a fictitious refinement, it is
+dragged down again by the natural brutality of its nature; when the
+ideal has ceased to correspond with the real; when the poet has lost
+his hold upon the hearts of the people; when poetry itself is no longer
+the strong fire bursting through the thick, foul crust of the earth, but
+is only the faint and shadowy smoke of the fire, wreathed for a moment
+into ethereal shapes of fleeting grace that have neither heat enough to
+burn the earth from which they come, nor strength to withstand the rough
+winds of heaven by which they shall soon be scattered. For as the
+evolution of the ideal from the real is life, so the final separation of
+the soul from the body is death.</p>
+
+<p>Almost all men have the qualities which can give moderate success. Very
+few have those gifts which lead to greatness, and those who have them
+invariably become great. There is no unrecognized genius; for genius
+means the production of what is not only beautiful, but enduring, and
+the works of man are all sooner or later judged by his fellows, and
+judged fairly. But it is unprofitable to discuss these matters; for
+those who are very great seldom know that they are, and those who are
+not cannot be persuaded that they might not attain to greatness if
+circumstances were slightly changed in their favor. Perhaps also there
+is very little use in making any preamble to what I have to tell. I
+remember to have been at a great meeting of American bankers at Niagara
+some years ago, where, as usual at American meetings, many speeches were
+made. There was an old gentleman there from the West who appeared to
+have something to say, but although his voice rose to impassioned tones
+and his gestures were highly effective as he delivered a variety of
+ornate phrases, he did not come to the point. An irreverent hearer rose
+and inquired what was the object of his distinguished friend's
+discourse, which did not appear to bear at all upon the matters in hand.
+The old gentleman stopped instantly in his flow of words, and said very
+quietly and naturally, "I feel a little shy, and I want to speak some
+before getting to the point, so as to get used to you." There was a
+good-natured laugh, in which the speaker joined. But he presently began
+again, and before long he was talking very well and very much to the
+point. It may be doubted, however, whether any well-conditioned
+chronicler needs a preliminary breather before so short a race as this
+is likely to be. In these wild days there is small time for man to work
+or for woman to weep, and those who would tell a tale must tell it
+quickly, lest the traveler be out of hearing before the song is ended,
+and the minstrel be left harping at the empty air and wasting his
+eloquence upon the stones.</p>
+
+<p>Last year I was staying in an English country house on the borders of
+Hertfordshire and Essex. It is not what is called a "romantic
+neighborhood," but there are plenty of pretty places and some fine old
+trees where the green lanes of Essex begin to undulate into the wooded
+valleys of Herts. The name of the place where I was stopping is Carvel
+Place, and the people who generally live in it are John Carvel, Esq.,
+formerly member for the borough; Mary Carvel, his wife, who was a Miss
+Dabstreak; Hermione Carvel, their daughter; and, when he is at home on
+leave, Macaulay Carvel, their son, a young man who has been in the
+diplomatic service several years, and who once had the good fortune to
+be selected as private secretary to Lord Mavourneen, when that noble
+diplomatist was sent on a special mission to India. Mrs. Carvel has a
+younger sister, a spinster, thirty-eight years of age, who rejoices in
+the name of Chrysophrasia. Her parents had christened their eldest
+daughter Anne, their second Mary, and had regretted the simple
+appellations bitterly, so that when a third little girl came into the
+world, seven years afterwards, their latent love for euphony was poured
+out upon her in a double measure at the baptismal font. Anne, eldest
+sister of Mrs. Carvel and Miss Chrysophrasia Dabstreak, married a
+Russian in the year 1850, and was never mentioned after the Crimean War,
+until her son, Paul Patoff, being a diplomatist, made the acquaintance
+of his first cousin in the person of Macaulay Carvel, who happened to
+be third secretary in Berlin, when Paul passed through that capital, on
+his return from a distant post in the East.</p>
+
+<p>It is taken for granted that the Carvels have lived at Carvel Place
+since the memory of man. I know very little of their family history; my
+acquaintance with John Carvel is of comparatively recent date, and Miss
+Chrysophrasia eyes me with evident suspicion, as being an American and
+probably an adventurer. I cannot say that Carvel and I are precisely old
+friends, but we enjoy each other's society, and have been of
+considerable service to each other in the last ten years. There is a
+certain kind of mutual respect, not untempered by substantial mutual
+obligation, which very nearly approaches to friendship when the parties
+concerned have common tastes and are not unsympathetic. John Carvel is a
+man fifty years of age: he is short, well built, and active, delighting
+in the chase; slender rather than stout, but not thin; red in the face
+from constant exposure, scrupulous in the shaving of his smooth chin and
+in the scrubbing processes, dressed with untarnishing neatness; having
+large hands with large nails, smooth and tolerably thick gray hair,
+strongly marked eyebrows, and small, bright eyes of a gray-blue color.
+In his personal appearance he is a type of a fine race; in character and
+tastes he is a specimen of the best class of men to be met with in our
+day. He is a country gentleman, educated in the traditions of Rugby and
+Oxford at a time when those institutions had not succumbed to the subtle
+evils of our times, whereby the weak are corrupted into effeminate fools
+and the strong into abominable bullies. John Carvel's Latin has survived
+his school-days, and his manliness has outlived the university. He
+belongs to that class of Englishmen who proverbially speak the truth.</p>
+
+<p>When he began life, an orphan at twenty-two years of age, he found
+himself comparatively poor, but in spite of the prejudices of those days
+he was not ashamed to better his fortunes by manufacture, and he is now
+a rich man. He married Mary Dabstreak for love, and has never regretted
+it. He has lived most of his life at Carvel Place, has hunted
+perpetually, and has of late years developed a taste for books which is
+likely to stand him in good stead in his old age. There is a fine
+library in the house, and much has been added to it in the last ten
+years. Miss Chrysophrasia occasionally strays into the repository of
+learning, but she has little sympathy with the contents of the shelves.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Chrysophrasia Dabstreak is a lady concerning whom there is much
+speculation, to very little purpose, in the world as represented by the
+select society in which she droops,&mdash;not moves. She is an amateur.</p>
+
+<p>Her eye rejoices only in the tints of the crushed strawberry and the
+faded olive; her ear loves the limited poetry of doubtful sound produced
+by abortive attempts to revive the unbarred melodies of the troubadours;
+and her soul thrills responsively in the checkered light falling through
+a stained-glass window, as a sensitive-plant waves its sticky leaves
+when a fly is in the neighborhood.</p>
+
+<p>But life has attractions for Chrysophrasia. She enjoys it after her own
+fashion. It is a little disconnected. The relation between cause and
+effect is a little obscure. She is fragmentary. She is a series of
+unfinished sketches in various manners. She has her being in the past
+tense, and her future, if she could have it after her taste, would be
+the past made present. She has many aspirations, and few of them are
+realized, but all of them are sketched in faint hues upon the mist of
+her medi&aelig;val atmosphere. She is, in the language of a lyric from her own
+pen,</p>
+
+<p><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">The shadow of fair and of joyous impossible, infinite, faintness</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">That is cast on the mist of the sea by the light of the ages to come."</span><br />
+<br /></p>
+
+<p>Her handwriting is Gothic. Her heart is of the type created by Mr.
+Swinburne in the minds of those who do not understand him,&mdash;in their
+minds, for in the flesh the type is not found. Moreover, she resents
+modernness of every kind, including the steam-engine, the electric
+telegraph, the continent of North America, and myself. Her political
+creed shadows forth the government of the future as a pleasant
+combination of communism and knight-baronry, wherein all oppressed
+persons shall have republics, and all nice people shall wear armor, and
+live in castles, and strew the floors of their rooms with rushes and
+their garments with the anatomic monstrosities of heraldic blazon.</p>
+
+<p>As for religion, her mind is disturbed in its choice between a palatable
+form of Buddhism and a particularly luscious adaptation of Greek
+mythology; but in either case as much Christianity would be
+indispensable as would give the whole a flavor of crusading. I hope I am
+not hard upon Miss Chrysophrasia, but the fact is she is not&mdash;what shall
+I say?&mdash;not sympathetic to me. John Carvel does not often speak of her,
+but he has more than once attempted to argue with her, and on these
+occasions his sister-in-law invariably winds up her defense by remarking
+very wearily that "argument is the negation of poetry, and, indeed, of
+all that is fair and joyous."</p>
+
+<p>Personally Miss Dabstreak is a faded blonde, with a very large nose, a
+wide mouth garnished with imperfect teeth, a very thin figure of
+considerable height, a poor complexion ill set off by scanty, straggling
+fair hair; garments of unusual greenish hues, fitted in an unusual and
+irregular manner, hang in fantastic folds about the angles of her frame,
+and her attitudes are strange and improbable. I repeat that I do not
+mean to be hard upon Chrysophrasia, but her looks are not much to my
+taste. She is too strongly contrasted with her niece, Miss Carvel. There
+is, besides, something in Chrysophrasia's cold green eyes which gives me
+an unpleasant sensation. She was at Carvel Place when I arrived, and she
+is generally there, although she has a little house in Brompton, where
+she preserves the objects she most loves, consisting chiefly of earthen
+vessels, abominable in color and useless to civilized man; nevertheless,
+so great is her influence with her sister's family that even John
+speaks of majolica with a certain reverence, as a man lowers his voice
+when he mentions some dear relation not long dead. As for Mrs. Carvel,
+she is silent when Chrysophrasia holds forth concerning pots and plates,
+though I have seen her raise her gentle face and cast up her eyes with a
+faint, hopeless smile when her sister was more than usually eloquent
+about her Spanow-Morescow things, as she calls them, her
+Marstrow-Geawgiow and her Robby-ah. It seems to me that objects of that
+description are a trifle too perishable. Perhaps John Carvel wishes Miss
+Dabstreak were perishable, too; but she is not.</p>
+
+<p>I would not weary you with too many portraits, my dear lady, and I will
+describe the beautiful Hermione another day. As for her mother, Mary
+Carvel, she is an angel upon earth, and if her trials have not been many
+until lately, her good deeds are without number as the sands of the sea;
+for it is a poor country that lies on the borders of Essex, and there
+have been bad times in these years. The harvests have failed, and many
+other misfortunes have happened, not the least of which is that the old
+race of farmers is dying out, and that the young ones cannot live as
+their fathers did, but sell their goods and chattels and emigrate, one
+after another, to the far, rich West. Some of them prosper, and some of
+them die on the road; but they leave the land behind them a waste, and
+there are eleven millions of acres now lying fallow in England which
+were ploughed and sowed and reaped ten years ago. People are poor, and
+Mrs. Carvel takes care of them. Her soft brown eyes have a way of
+finding out trouble, and when it is found her great heart cannot help
+easing it. She loves her husband and her daughter, understanding them in
+different degrees. She loves her son also, but she does not pretend to
+understand him; he is the outcome of a new state of things; but he has
+no vices, and is thought exceedingly clever. As for her sister, she is
+very good to her, but she does not profess to understand her, either.</p>
+
+<p>I had been in Persia and Turkey some time, and had not been many days in
+London, when John Carvel wrote to ask me if I would spend the winter
+with him. I was tired and wanted to be quiet, so I accepted his offer.
+Carvel Place is peaceful, and I like the woods about it, and the old
+towers, and the great library in the house itself, and the general sense
+of satisfaction at being among congenial people who are friendly. I knew
+I should have to encounter Miss Chrysophrasia, but I reflected that
+there was room for both of us, and that if it were not easy to agree
+with her it was not easy to quarrel with her, either. I packed my traps,
+and went down to the country one afternoon in November.</p>
+
+<p>John Carvel had grown a trifle older; I thought he was a little less
+cheerful than he had been in former days, but I was welcomed as warmly
+as ever. The great fire burned brightly in the old hall, lighting up the
+dark wainscoting and the heavy furniture with a glow that turned the old
+oak from brown to red. The dim portraits looked down as of old from the
+panels, and Fang, the white deerhound, shook his shaggy coat and
+stretched his vast jaws as I came in. It was cold outside, and the rain
+was falling fast, as the early darkness gathered gloomily over the
+landscape, so that I was glad to stand by the blazing logs after the
+disagreeable drive. John Carvel was alone in the hall. He stretched out
+his broad hand and grasped mine, and it did my heart good to see the
+smile of honest gladness on his clean, manly face.</p>
+
+<p>"I hardly thought you would come," he said, looking into my eyes. "I was
+never so glad to see you in my life. You have been wandering
+again,&mdash;half over the world. How are you? You look tougher than ever,
+and here am I growing palpably old. How in the world do you manage it?"</p>
+
+<p>"A hard heart, a melancholy temperament, and a large appetite," I
+answered, with a laugh. "Besides, you have four or five years the better
+of me."</p>
+
+<p>"The worse, you mean. I'm as gray as a badger."</p>
+
+<p>"Nonsense. It is your climate that makes people gray. How is Mrs.
+Carvel, and Hermione,&mdash;she must have grown up since I saw her,&mdash;and Miss
+Dabstreak?"</p>
+
+<p>"She is after her pots and pans as usual," said John. "Mary and Hermy
+are all right, thank you. We will have tea with them presently."</p>
+
+<p>He turned and poked the fire with a huge pair of old-fashioned tongs. I
+thought his cheerful manner subsided a little as he took me to my room.
+He lingered a moment, till the man who brought in my boxes had
+unstrapped them, and trimmed the candles, and was gone.</p>
+
+<p>"Is there anything you would like?" he asked. "A little whiskey? a glass
+of sherry?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, thanks,&mdash;nothing. I will come down to tea in a few minutes. It is
+in the same old room, I suppose?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes, same as ever. By the bye, Griggs," he added suddenly, as he
+laid his hand on the handle of the door, "how long is it since you were
+here?"</p>
+
+<p>"Three years and a month," I answered, after a moment's thought. "It
+does not seem so long. I suppose that is because we have met abroad
+since then."</p>
+
+<p>"No, it does not seem long," said John Carvel, thoughtfully. Then he
+opened the door, and went out without another word.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing especially worthy of mention happened on that evening, nor on
+the next day, nor for many days. I hunted a little, and shot a great
+deal more, and spent many hours in the library. The weather improved in
+the first week of December; it was rather warmer, and the scent lay very
+well. I gave myself up to the pleasant country life, and enjoyed the
+society of my host, without much thought of the present or care for the
+future. Hermione had grown, since I had seen her, from a grave and
+rather silent girl of seventeen to a somewhat less reserved young woman
+of twenty, always beautiful, but apparently not much changed. Her
+mother had taken her out in London during the previous season, and there
+was occasionally some talk about London and society, in which the young
+girl did not appear to take very much interest. With this exception the
+people and things at Carvel Place were the same as I had always known
+them. I was treated as one of the household, and was allowed to go my
+own ways without question or interference. Of course, I had to answer
+many questions about my wanderings and my doings in the last years, but
+I am used to that and do not mind it.</p>
+
+<p>All this sounds as though I were going to give you some quiet chronicle
+of English country life, as if I were about to begin a report of
+household doings: how Mrs. Carvel and Hermione went to church on Sunday;
+how the Rev. Trumpington Soulsby used to stroll back with them across
+the park on fine days, and how he and Miss Dabstreak raved over the
+joyousness of a certain majolica plate; how the curate gently reproved,
+yet half indulged, Chrysophrasia's erratic religionism; how Mrs. Carvel
+distributed blankets to the old men and red cloaks to the old women; how
+the deerhound followed Hermione like Mary's little lamb, and how the
+worthy keeper, James Grubb, did not quite catch the wicked William
+Saltmarsh in the act of setting a beautiful new brass wire snare at a
+particular spot in the quickset hedge between the park and the
+twelve-acre field, but was confident he would catch him the next time he
+tried it, how Moses Skingle, the sexton, fell out with Mr. Speller, the
+superannuated village schoolmaster, because the juvenile Spellers would
+not refrain from the preparation of luscious mud pies upon the newly
+made grave of the late Peter Sullins, farmer, whose promising heir had
+not yet recovered sufficiently from the dissipation attending the
+funeral to erect a monument to his uncle; and so on and so forth,
+cackling through a volume or two of village chronicle, "and so home to
+bed."</p>
+
+<p>I do not care a straw for the ducks in the horse-pond, nor for the
+naughty boy who throws stones at them, robs bird's-nests, and sets
+snares for hares under the wire fence of Carvel Park. I blush to say I
+have done most things of that kind myself, in one part of the world or
+in another, and they no longer have any sort of interest for me. No, my
+dear friend, the world is not yet turned into a farm-yard; there are
+other things to tell of besides the mud pies of the Speller children and
+the marks of little Billy Saltmarsh's hob-nailed shoes in the grass
+where he set the snare. The Turks say that a fool has three points in
+common with an ass,&mdash;he eats, he drinks, and he brays at other asses. I
+must fain eat and drink; let me at least refrain from braying.</p>
+
+<p>It is not every one who cares for the beauty of nature as reflected in a
+horse-pond, or for the conversations of a class of people who have not
+more than seven or eight hundred words in their language, and with whom
+every word does not by any means correspond with an idea; we cannot all
+be farmer's lads, nor, if we were, could each of us find a Wordsworth to
+describe feelings we should certainly not possess.</p>
+
+<p>I had been nearly a month at Carvel Place, and Christmas was
+approaching. We sat one afternoon in the drawing-room, drinking tea.
+John Carvel was turning over the leaves of a rare book he had just
+received, before transferring it to its place in the library. His heavy
+brows were contracted, and his large, clean hands touched the pages
+lovingly. Mrs. Carvel was installed in her favorite upright chair near
+an enormous student-lamp that had a pink shade, and her fingers were
+busy with some sort of needle-work. She, too, was silent, and her gentle
+face was bent over her hand. I can remember exactly how she always looks
+when she is working, and how her soft brown hair, that is just turning a
+little gray at the temples, waves above her forehead. Chrysophrasia
+Dabstreak lay languidly extended upon a couch, her thin hands clasped
+together in a studied attitude. She was bemoaning the evils of
+civilization, and no one was listening to her, for Hermione and I were
+engaged in putting a new silver collar round the neck of Fang; the great
+hound sat up patiently between us, yawning prodigiously from time to
+time, for the operation was tedious, and the patent lock of the collar
+would not fasten.</p>
+
+<p>"I was just going to say it was time the letters came," said Mrs.
+Carvel, as the door opened and a servant entered with the post-bag. The
+master of the house unlocked the leathern case, and distributed the
+contents. We each received our share, and without ceremony opened our
+letters. There was a short silence while we were all reading.</p>
+
+<p>"Macaulay has got his leave," said Mrs. Carvel, joyfully. "Is not that
+delightful! And he is going to bring&mdash;wait a minute&mdash;I cannot make out
+the name&mdash;let me get nearer to the light, dear&mdash;John, look here, is it
+not Paul Patoff? Look, dear!"</p>
+
+<p>John looked. "It is certainly Paul Patoff," he said quietly. "I told
+Macaulay to bring him."</p>
+
+<p>"Gracious!" ejaculated Hermione.</p>
+
+<p>"How extremely interesting!" said Miss Chrysophrasia. "I adore Russians!
+They have such a joyous savor of the wild, free steppes!"</p>
+
+<p>"You have exactly described the Russian of the steppes, Miss Dabstreak,"
+I remarked. "His savor is so wild that it is perceptible at a great
+distance. But Patoff is not at all a bad fellow. I met him in Teheran
+last year. He had a trick of beating his servants which excited the
+wildest admiration among the Persians. The Shah decorated him before he
+left."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know him?" asked John Carvel quickly, as he caught my last
+words.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. I was just telling Miss Dabstreak that I met Paul Patoff last
+year. He was at the Russian legation in Teheran." John showed do
+surprise, and relapsed into silence.</p>
+
+<p>"He and Macaulay are both in Paris," said Mrs. Carvel, "and I suppose
+Macaulay has made up his mind that we must know his cousin."</p>
+
+<p>"Is not Professor Cutter coming, too, mamma?" asked Hermione. "I heard
+papa say so the other day."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, dear, yes!" exclaimed Chrysophrasia, wearily. "Professor Cutter is
+coming, with his nasty science, and his lenses, and his mathematics. Of
+course he will wear those vivid green spectacles morning, noon, and
+night,&mdash;such a dreadfully offensive color."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said John, gazing down at his neat shoes, as he stood rubbing his
+broad hands slowly together before the fire, "Cutter is coming, too.
+What a queer party we shall be at Christmas."</p>
+
+<p>And when Christmas came, we were a very queer party indeed.</p>
+
+<p>At the prospect of seeing united, under an English roof, an English
+family, consisting of a great manufacturer,&mdash;at the same time a
+thorough-going country gentleman of old descent,&mdash;his wife, his
+beautiful daughter, and his &aelig;sthetic sister-in-law, having with them as
+guests the son of the master of the house, being a young English
+diplomatist; an English professor, who had given up his professorship to
+devote himself to the study of diseases of the mind; a Russian secretary
+of the embassy, who had seen the world, and was thirty years old; and,
+lastly, your humble slave of the pen, being an American,&mdash;at the
+prospect of such a heterogeneous assembly of men and women, you will
+suppose, my dear lady, that I am about to embark upon the cerulean
+waters of a potentially platonic republic, humbly steering my craft by
+the charts of a recent voyager, who, after making a noble but
+ineffectual attempt to discover the Isles of the Blessed, appears to
+have stumbled into the drawing-rooms of the Damned.</p>
+
+<p>I am not going to do anything of the kind. My story is written for the
+sole purpose of amusing you, and as a form of diversion for your
+leisure moments I would select neither the Wordsworthian pastoral, nor
+the platonic doctrine of Ideas. Mary Carvel would give her vote for the
+Dalesman, and Chrysophrasia for Plato, but I have not consulted them;
+and if I do not consult you, it is because I think I understand your
+tastes. You will, moreover, readily understand that in telling this tale
+I sometimes speak of things I did not actually see, because I know the
+people concerned very well, and some of them told me at the time, and
+have told me since, what they felt and thought about the things they did
+and saw done. For myself, I am the man you have long known, Paul Griggs,
+the American; a man of many acquaintances and of few friends, who has
+seen the world, and is forty-three years of age, ugly and tough, not so
+poor as I have been, not so good as I might be, melancholic by
+temperament, and a little sour by force of circumstances.</p>
+
+
+
+<h2 class="m"><a name="VII" id="VII"></a>VII.</h2>
+
+
+<p>It chanced, one evening, that I was walking alone through the park. I
+had been on foot to the village to send a telegram, which I had not
+cared to trust to a servant. The weather had suddenly cleared, and there
+had been a sharp frost in the morning; towards midday it had thawed a
+little, but by the time it was dark everything was frozen hard again.
+The moon was nearly full, and shone brightly upon the frozen grass,
+casting queer shadows through the bare branches of the trees; it was
+very cold, and I walked fast; the brittle, frozen mud of the road broke
+beneath my feet with a creaking, crunching sound, and startled the deep
+stillness. As I neared the house the moon was before me, and the mass of
+buildings cast a dark shadow.</p>
+
+<p>Carvel Place is like many old country houses in England; it is a typical
+dwelling of its kind, irregular, yet imposing, and though it has no
+plan, for it has been added to and enlarged, and in part rebuilt, it is
+yet harmonious and of good proportion. I had often reflected that it was
+too large for the use of the present family, and I knew that there must
+be a great number of rooms in the house which were never opened; but no
+one had ever proposed to show them to me, and I was not sufficiently
+curious to ask permission to visit the disused apartments. I had
+observed, however, that a wing of the building ran into an inclosure,
+surrounded by a wall seven or eight feet high, against which were ranged
+upon the one side a series of hot-houses, while another formed the back
+of a covered tennis court. The third wall of the inclosure was covered
+with a lattice, upon which fruit trees had been trained without any
+great success, and I had noticed that the lattice now completely
+covered an old oak door which led into the inclosure. I had never seen
+the door open, but I remembered very well that it was uncovered the last
+time I had been at Carvel Place.</p>
+
+<p>When I reached the house I was no longer cold, and the night was so
+clear and sparkling that I idly strolled round the great place,
+wandering across the frozen lawn and through the winding paths of the
+flower garden beyond, till I came to the wall I have described, and
+stood still, half wondering why the door had been covered over with
+fruit trees, as though no one would ever wish to enter the house from
+that side. The space could hardly be so valuable for gardening purposes,
+I thought, for the slender peach-trees that were bound upon the lattice
+on each side of the door had not thriven. There was something melancholy
+about the unsuccessful attempt to cultivate the delicate southern fruit
+in the unkindly air of England, and the branches and stems, all wrapped
+in straw against the frost, looked unhappy and unnatural in the cold
+moonlight. I stood looking at them, with my hands in my pockets,
+thinking somewhat regretfully of my southern birthplace. I smiled at
+myself and turned away, but as I went the very faintest echo of a laugh
+seemed to come from the other side of the wall. It sounded disagreeably
+in the stillness, and I slowly finished my walk around the house and
+came back to the front door, still wondering who it was that had laughed
+at me from behind the wall in the moonlight. There was certainly no
+original reason in the nature of things why it should not chance that
+some one should laugh on the other side of the wall just as I happened
+to be standing before the closed gate. The inclosure was probably in
+connection with the servants' apartments; or it might be the exclusive
+privilege of Chrysophrasia to walk there, composing anap&aelig;stic verse to
+the infinite faintness of the moon,&mdash;or anything. A quarter of an hour
+later I was in the drawing-room drinking a cup of tea. I came in when
+the others had finished reading their evening letters, and there were
+none for me. The tea was cold. I wished I had walked half an hour
+longer, and had not come into the drawing-room at all.</p>
+
+<p>"Let me make you a fresh cup, Mr. Griggs," said Hermione; "do,&mdash;it will
+be ready in a moment!"</p>
+
+<p>I politely declined, and the conversation of the rest soon began where
+it had left off. It appeared that Professor Cutter was expected that
+night, and the son of the house, with Patoff, on the following day. It
+was Thursday, and Christmas was that day week. John Carvel seemed
+unusually depressed; his words were few and very grave, and he did not
+smile, but answered in the shortest manner possible the questions
+addressed to him. He thought Cutter might arrive at any moment. Hermione
+hazarded a remark to the effect that the professor was rather dull.</p>
+
+<p>"No, my dear," answered John, "he is not at all dull."</p>
+
+<p>"But, papa, I thought he was so immensely learned"&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"He is very learned," said her father, shortly, and buried himself in
+his newspaper, so that hardly anything was visible of him but his feet,
+encased in exceedingly neat shoes; those nether extremities moved
+impatiently from time to time. Chrysophrasia was not present, a
+circumstance which made it seem likely that she might have been the
+person who had laughed behind the wall. Mary Carvel, like her husband,
+was unusually silent, and I was sitting not far from Hermione. She
+looked at me after her father's curt answer to her innocent remark, and
+smiled faintly.</p>
+
+<p>The drawing-room where we sat exhibited a curious instance of the effect
+produced upon inanimate things when subjected to the contact of persons
+who differ widely from each other in taste. You smile, dear lady, at the
+complicated form of expression. I mean merely that if two people who
+like very different things live in the same room, each of them will try
+to give the place the look he or she likes. At Carvel Place there were
+four to be consulted, instead of two; for John had his own opinions as
+to taste, and they were certainly sounder than those of his wife and
+sister-in-law, and at least as clearly defined.</p>
+
+<p>John Carvel liked fine pictures, and he had placed three or four in the
+drawing-room,&mdash;a couple of good Hogarths, a beautiful woman's head by
+Andrea del Sarto, and a military scene by Meissonnier,&mdash;about as
+heterogeneous a quartette of really valuable works as could be got for
+money; and John had given a great deal of money for them. Besides the
+pictures, there stood in the drawing-room an enormous leathern
+easy-chair, of the old-fashioned type with semicircular wings projecting
+forward from the high back on each side, made to protect the rheumatic
+old head of some ancestor who suffered from the toothache before the
+invention of dentists. Near this stood a low, square, revolving
+bookcase, which always contained the volumes which John was reading at
+the time, to be changed from day to day as circumstances required.</p>
+
+<p>Mary Carvel was, and is, an exceedingly religious woman, and her tastes
+are to some extent the expression of her religious feelings. She has a
+number of excellent engravings of celebrated pictures, such as Holbein's
+Madonna, Raphael's Transfiguration, and the Dresden Madonna di San
+Sisto; she owns the entire collection of chromo-lithographs published by
+the Arundel Society, and many other reproductions of a similar nature.
+Many of these she had hung in the drawing-room at Carvel Place. Here and
+there, also, were little shelves of oak in the common Anglomaniac style
+of woodwork, ornamented with trefoils, crosses, circles, and triangles,
+and containing a curious collection of sacred literature, beginning with
+the ancient volume entitled Wilberforce's View, including the poetry
+published in a series of Lyras,&mdash;Lyra Anglicana, Lyra Germanica, and so
+on,&mdash;culminating at last in the works of Dr. Pusey; the whole perhaps
+exhibiting in a succinct form the stages through which Mary Carvel had
+passed, or was still passing, in her religious convictions. And here
+let me say at once that I am very far from intending to jest at those
+same convictions of Mary Carvel's, and if you smile it is because the
+picture is true, not because it is ridiculous. She may read what she
+pleases, but the world would be a better place if there were more women
+like her.</p>
+
+<p>There were many other possessions of hers in the drawing-room: for
+instance, upon the mantel-piece were placed three magnificent Wedgwood
+urns, after Flaxman's designs, inherited from her father, and now of
+great value; upon the tables there were several vases of old Vienna, but
+of a green color, vivid enough to elicit Chrysophrasia's most eloquent
+disapprobation; there were several embroideries of a sufficiently
+harmless nature, the work of Mary Carvel's patient fingers, but
+conceived in a style no longer popular; and on the whole, there was a
+great number of objects in the drawing-room which belonged to her and by
+which she set great store, but which bore decidedly the character of
+English household decoration and furniture at the beginning of the
+present century, and are consequently abhorrent to the true &aelig;sthete.</p>
+
+<p>Chrysophrasia Dabstreak, however, had sworn to cast the shadow of beauty
+over what she called the substance of the hideous, and to this end and
+intention, by dint of honeyed eloquence and stinging satire, she had
+persuaded John and Mary to allow her to insert stained glass in one of
+the windows, which formerly opened upon and afforded a view of a certain
+particularly brilliant flower bed. Beneath the many-colored light from
+this Gothic window&mdash;for she insisted upon the pointed arch&mdash;Miss
+Dabstreak had made her own especial corner of the drawing-room. There
+one might see strange pots and plates, and withered rushes, and
+fantastic greenish draperies of Eastern weft, which, however, would not
+fetch five piastres a yard in the bazaar of Stamboul, curious
+water-colors said to represent "impressions," though one would be shy of
+meeting, beyond the bounds of an insane asylum, the individual whose
+impressions could take so questionable a shape; lastly, the centre of
+the collection, a "polka mazurka harmony in yellow," by Sardanapalus
+Stiggins, the great impressionist painter of the day. Chrysophrasia paid
+five hundred pounds for this little gem.</p>
+
+<p>But it was not enough for Miss Dabstreak to have collected so many
+worthless objects of price in her own little corner of the room. She had
+encumbered the tables with useless articles of pottery; she had fastened
+a green plate between the better of the two Hogarths and an Arundel
+chromo-lithograph, and connected it with both the pictures by a drooping
+scarf of faint pink silk; she had adorned the engraving of Raphael's
+Transfiguration with a bit of Broussa embroidery, because it looked so
+very Oriental; and she had bedizened Mary Carvel's water-color view of
+Carisbrooke Castle with peacock's feathers, because they looked so very
+English. There was no spot in the room where Chrysophrasia's hand had
+not fallen, and often it had fallen heavily. She had respected John
+Carvel's easy-chair and revolving bookcase, but she had respected
+nothing else.</p>
+
+<p>There was a fourth person, however, who had set her especial impress on
+the appearance of the room where all met in common. I mean Hermione
+Carvel. Educated and brought up among the conflicting tastes and views
+of her parents and her aunt, she had imbibed some of the characteristics
+of each, although in widely different degrees. At that time, perhaps,
+the various traits which were united in her had not yet blended
+harmoniously so as to form a satisfactory whole. The resultant of so
+many more or less conflicting forces was prone to extremes of enthusiasm
+or of indifference. Her heart was capable of feeling the warmest
+sympathy, but was liable also to conceive unwarrantable antipathies; her
+mind was of admirable quality, fairly well gifted and sensibly trained;
+though not marvelously quick to understand, yet tenacious and slow to
+forget. The constant attempt to reconcile the irreconcilable opinions
+of her mother and aunt had given Hermione a certain versatility of
+thought, and a certain capacity to see both sides of the question when
+not under the momentary influence of her enthusiasm. She is, and was
+even then, a fine type of the English girl who has grown up under the
+most favorable circumstances; that is to say, with an excellent
+education and a decided preference for the country. It is not necessary
+to allow her any of the privileges and immunities usually granted to
+exceptional people; in any ordinary position of life she would bear the
+test of any ordinary difficulty very well. She inherits common sense
+from her father, an honest country gentleman of the kind now
+unfortunately growing every day more rare; a man not so countrified as
+to break his connection with the intelligent world, nor so foolishly
+ambitious as to abandon a happy life in the country in order to pursue
+the mirage of petty political importance: a man who holds humbug in
+supreme contempt, and having purged it from his being has still
+something to fall back upon. From her mother Hermione inherits an
+extreme conscientiousness in the things of every-day life; but whereas
+in Mary Carvel this scrupulous pursuance of what is right is on the
+verge of degenerating into morbid religionism, in Hermione it is
+tempered by occasional bursts of enthusiasm, and relieved by a wholesome
+and natural capacity for liking some people and disliking others.</p>
+
+<p>In the drawing-room I have been describing, Hermione touched everything,
+and did her best to cast over the various objects some grace, some air
+of harmony, which should make the contrasted tastes of the rest of her
+family less glaring and unpleasant to the eye. Her task was not easy,
+and it was no fault of hers if the room was out of joint. Her love of
+flowers showed itself everywhere, and she knew how to take advantage of
+each inch of room on shelf, or table, or window-seat, filling all
+available spaces with a profusion of roses, geraniums, and blossoms of
+every kind that chanced to be in season. Flowers in a room will do what
+nothing else can accomplish. The eye turns gladly to the living plant,
+when wearied and strained with the incongruities of inanimate things. A
+pot of pinks makes the lowliest and most dismal cottage chamber look gay
+by comparison; a single rose in a glass of water lights up the most
+dusty den of the most dusty student. A bit of climbing ivy converts a
+hideous ruin into a bower, as the Alp roses and the Iva make a garden
+for one short month of the roughest rocks in the Grisons. Only that
+which lives and of which the life is beautiful can reconcile us to those
+surroundings which would otherwise offend our sense of harmony, or
+oppress us with a dullness even more deadly than mere ugliness can ever
+be.</p>
+
+<p>Hermione loves all flowers, and at Carvel Place she was the sweetest
+blossom of them all. Her fresh vitality is of the contagious kind, and
+even plants seem to revive and get new life from the touch of her small
+fingers, as though feeling the necessity of growing like her. Her beauty
+may not last. It is not of the imperious kind, nor even quite classic,
+but it has a wonderful fineness and delicacy. Her soft brown hair coils
+closely on her small, well-shaped head; her gentle, serious blue eyes
+look tenderly on all that lives and has being within the circle of her
+sight; her small mouth smiles graciously and readily, though sometimes a
+little sadly; and her pleasant voice has a frank ring in it that is good
+to hear. Her slight fingers, neither too long nor too short, are often
+busy, but her labors are generally labors of love, and she is never
+weary of them. Of middle height, she has the grace of a taller woman,
+and the ease in motion which comes only from natural, healthy, elastic
+strength, not weakened by enforced idleness, not overdeveloped by
+abominable and unwomanly gymnastic exercises. Everything she does is
+graceful.</p>
+
+<p>It is very strange and interesting to see in her the combination of such
+different elements. Even her aunt Chrysophrasia's queer nature is
+represented, though it needs some ingenuity to trace the resemblance
+between the two. There are indeed tones of the voice, phrases and
+expressions, which seem to belong to particular families, and by which
+one may sometimes discover the relationship. But the modification of
+leading characteristics in the individual is not so easily detected.
+Miss Dabstreak is eccentric, but the wild ideas which continue to
+flourish in the &aelig;sthetic cells of Chrysophrasia's brain are softened and
+made more gentle and delicate in Hermione, so that even if they were
+inconsequent they would not seem offensive; though one might not admire
+them, one could not despise them. The young girl loves all that is
+beautiful: not as Chrysophrasia loves it, by sheer force of habitual
+affectation, without discernment and without real enjoyment, but from
+the bottom of her heart, from the well-springs of her own beautiful
+soul; knowing and understanding the great divisions between the graceful
+and the clumsy, between the true and the false, the lovely and the
+unlovely. The extraordinary passion for the eccentric is tempered to an
+honest and natural craving after the beautiful; the admixture of the
+gentleness the girl has inherited from her saintly mother and of the
+genuine common sense which characterizes her father has produced a
+rational desire and ability to do good to every one. Mary Carvel is
+sometimes exaggerated in her ideas of charity, and John on rare
+occasions&mdash;very rarely&mdash;used to be a little too much inclined to the
+practice of economy; "near" was the term applied by the village people.
+It was at first with him but the reminiscence of poorer years, when
+economy was necessary, and forethought was an indispensable element in
+his life; but the tendency has remained and sometimes shows itself. All
+that can be traced of this quality in the daughter is a certain power of
+keen discernment, which saves her from being cheated by the sham paupers
+who abound in the neighborhood of Carvel Place, and from being led into
+spoiling the school-children with too many feasts of tea, jam, and
+cake.</p>
+
+<p>It is not easy to be brief in describing Hermione Carvel, because in her
+fair self she combines a great many qualities belonging to contradictory
+persons, which one would suppose impossible to unite in one harmonious
+whole; and yet Hermione is one of the most harmonious persons I ever
+knew. Nothing about her ever offended my sense of fitness. I often used
+to wonder how she managed to be loved equally by the different members
+of the household, but there is no doubt of the fact that all the members
+of her family not only love her, but excuse readily enough those of
+their own bad qualities which they fancy they recognize in her; for,
+indeed, nothing ever seems bad in Hermione, and I doubt greatly whether
+there is not some touch of white magic in her nature that protects her
+and shields her, so that bad things turn to good when they come near
+her. If she likes the curious notions of her aunt, she certainly changes
+them so that they become delicate fancies, and agree together with the
+gentle charity she has from her mother and the sterling honesty she gets
+from her father. John sometimes shrugs his shoulders at what he calls
+his wife's extraordinary faith in human nature, and both he and Mary are
+sometimes driven to the verge of distraction by Chrysophrasia's
+perpetual moaning over civilization; but no one is ever out of temper
+with Hermione, nor is Hermione ever impatient with any one of the three.
+She is the peace-maker, the one whose sympathy never fails, whose
+gentleness is never ruffled, and whose fair judgment is never at fault.</p>
+
+<p>When John Carvel answered Hermione's question about Professor Cutter by
+a simple affirmation to the effect that he was a very learned man, the
+young girl did not press her father with any more inquiries, but turned
+to me.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you not think learned people are very often dull, Mr. Griggs?" she
+asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Oppressively," I answered.</p>
+
+<p>"What makes them so?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is the very low and common view which they take of life," put in
+Miss Dabstreak, who entered the room while we were speaking, and sank
+upon the couch with a little sigh. "They have no aspirations after the
+beautiful,&mdash;and what else can satisfy the human mind? The Greeks were
+never dull."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you call dull?" asked Mrs. Carvel very mildly.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh&mdash;anything; parliamentary reports, for instance, and agricultural
+shows, and the Rural Dean,&mdash;anything of that sort," answered Miss
+Chrysophrasia languidly.</p>
+
+<p>"In other words, civilization as compared with barbarism," I suggested.
+"It is true that there cannot be much boredom among barbarous tribes who
+are always scalping their enemies or being scalped themselves; those
+things help to pass the time."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, scalping must be most interesting," murmured Chrysophrasia, with
+an air of conviction.</p>
+
+<p>Hermione laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"I really believe you would like to see it done, aunt Chrysophrasia,"
+said she.</p>
+
+<p>"Hermy, Hermy, what dreadful ideas you have!" exclaimed Mrs. Carvel, in
+gentle horror. But she immediately returned to her embroidery, and
+relapsed into silence.</p>
+
+<p>"It is Mr. Griggs, mamma," said Hermione, still laughing. "He agrees
+with me that learned people are all oppressively dull, and that the only
+tolerably exciting society is found among scalping Indians."</p>
+
+<p>"Did you not once scalp somebody yourself, Griggs?" asked John, suddenly
+lowering his newspaper.</p>
+
+<p>"Not quite," I answered; "but I once shaved a poodle with a
+pocket-knife. Perhaps you were thinking of that?"</p>
+
+<p>While I spoke there was a sound of wheels without, and John rose to his
+feet. He seemed impatient.</p>
+
+<p>"That must be Cutter at last'" he exclaimed, moving towards the door
+that led into the hall. "I thought he was never coming."</p>
+
+<p>I rose also, and followed him. It was Cutter. The learned professor
+arrived wrapped in a huge ulster overcoat, his hands in the deep pockets
+thereof, and the end of an extinguished cigar between his teeth. He
+furtively disposed of the remains of the weed before shaking hands with
+our host. After the first greetings John led him away to his room, and I
+remained standing in the hall. The professor's luggage was rather
+voluminous, and various boxes, bags, and portmanteaus bore the labels of
+many journeys. The men brought them in from the dog-cart; the strong cob
+pawed the gravel a little, and the moonlight flashed back from the
+silver harness, from the smooth varnished dashboard, the polished
+chains, and the plated lamps. I stood staring out of the door, hardly
+seeing anything. Indeed, I was lost in a fruitless effort of memory. The
+groom gathered up the reins and drove away, and presently I was aware
+that Stubbs, the butler, was offering me a hat, as a hint, I supposed,
+that he wanted to shut the front door. I mechanically covered my head
+and strolled away.</p>
+
+<p>I was trying to remember where I had seen Professor Cutter. I could not
+have known him well, for I never forget a man I have met three or four
+times; and yet his face was perfectly familiar to me, and came vividly
+before me as I paced the garden walks. Instinctively I walked round the
+house again, and paused before the door that had attracted my attention
+an hour earlier. I listened, but heard nothing, and still I tried to
+recall my former meeting with Cutter. Strange, I thought, that I should
+seem to know him so well, and that I should nevertheless be unable to
+connect him in my mind with any date, or country, or circumstance. In
+vain I went over many scenes of my life, endeavoring to limit this
+remembrance to a particular period. I argued that our meeting, if we
+really had met, could not have taken place many years ago, for I
+recognized exactly the curling gray hairs in the professor's beard, the
+wrinkles in his forehead, and a slight mark upon one cheek, just below
+the eye. I recollected the same spectacles; the same bushy, cropped gray
+hair; the same massive, square head set upon a short but powerful body;
+the same huge hands, spotlessly clean, the big nails kept closely pared
+and polished, but so large that they might have belonged to an extinct
+species of gigantic man. The whole of him and his belongings, to the
+very clothes he wore, seemed familiar to me and witnesses to his
+identity; but though I did my best for half an hour, I could not bring
+back one circumstance connected with him. I grew impatient and returned
+to the house, for it was time to dress for dinner, and I felt cold as I
+strolled about in the frosty moonlight.</p>
+
+<p>We met again before dinner, for a few minutes, in the drawing-room. I
+went near to the professor, and examined his appearance very carefully.
+His evening dress set off the robust proportions of his frame, and the
+recollection I had of him struck me more forcibly than ever. I am not
+superstitious, but I began to fancy that we must have met in some former
+state, in some other sphere. He stood before the fire, rubbing his hands
+and answering all manner of questions that were put to him. He appeared
+to be an old friend of the family, to judge by the conversation, and yet
+I was positively certain that I had never seen him at Carvel Place. He
+knew all the family, however, and seemed familiar with their tastes and
+pursuits: he inquired about John's manufacturing interests, and about
+Mrs. Carvel's poor people; he asked Hermione several questions about the
+recent exhibitions of flowers, and discussed with Chrysophrasia a sale
+of majolica which had just taken place in London. After this round of
+remarks I suspected that the professor would address himself to me, for
+his gray eyes rested on me from time to time with a look of recognition.
+But he held his peace, and we presently went to dinner.</p>
+
+<p>Professor Cutter talked much and talked well, in a continuous,
+consistent manner that was satisfactory for a time, but a little
+wearisome in the long run. His ideas were often brilliant, and his
+expression of them was always original, but he had an extraordinary
+faculty of dominating the conversation. Even John Carvel, who knew a
+great deal in his way, found it hard to make any headway against the
+professor's eloquence, though I could sometimes see that he was far from
+being convinced. The professor had been everywhere and had seen most
+things; he talked with absolute conviction of what he had seen, and
+avoided talking of what he had not seen, doubtless inferring that it was
+not worth seeing. Nevertheless, he was not a disagreeable person, as
+such men often are; on the contrary, there was a charm of manner about
+him that was felt by every one present. I longed for the meal to be
+over, however, for I intended to seize the first opportunity which
+presented itself of asking him whether he remembered where we had met
+before.</p>
+
+<p>I was destined to remain in suspense for some time. We had no sooner
+risen from dinner than John Carvel came up to me and spoke in a low
+voice.</p>
+
+<p>"Will you excuse me if I leave you alone, Griggs?" he said. "I have very
+important business with Professor Cutter, which will not keep until
+to-morrow. We will join you in the drawing-room in about an hour."</p>
+
+<p>It was nothing to me if the two men had business together; I was
+sufficiently intimate in the house to be treated without ceremony, and I
+did not care for anybody's company until I could find what I was
+searching for in the forgotten corners of my brain.</p>
+
+<p>"Do not mind me," I answered, and I retired into the smoking-room, and
+began to turn over the evening papers. How long I read I do not know,
+nor whether the news of the day was more or less interesting and
+credible than usual; I do not believe that an hour elapsed, either, for
+an hour is a long time when a man is not interested in what he is doing,
+and is trying to recall something to his mind. I cannot even tell why I
+so longed to recollect the professor's face; I only remember that the
+effort was intense, but wholly fruitless. I lay back in the deep
+leathern easy-chair, and all sorts of visions flitted before my
+half-closed eyes,&mdash;visions of good and visions of evil, visions of
+yesterday and visions of long ago. Somehow I fell to thinking about the
+lattice-covered door in the wall, and I caught myself wondering who had
+been behind it when I passed; and then I laughed, for I had made up my
+mind that it must have been Miss Chrysophrasia, who had entered the
+drawing-room five minutes after I did. I sat staring at the fire. I was
+conscious that some one had entered the room, and presently the
+scratching of a match upon something rough roused me from my reverie. I
+looked round, and saw Professor Cutter standing by the table.</p>
+
+<p>It sometimes happens that a very slight thing will recall a very long
+chain of circumstances; a look, the intonation of a word, the attitude
+of a moment, will call up other looks and words and attitudes in quick
+succession, until the chain is complete. So it happened to me, when I
+saw the learned professor standing by the table, with a cigar in his
+mouth, and his great gray eyes fixed upon me from behind his enormous
+spectacles. I recognized the man, and the little I knew of him came back
+to me.</p>
+
+<p>The professor is one of the most learned specialists in neurology and
+the study of the brain now living; he is, moreover, a famous
+anthropologist. He began his career as a surgeon, and would have been
+celebrated as an operator had he not one day inherited a private
+fortune, which permitted him to abandon his surgical practice in favor
+of a special branch for which he knew himself more particularly fitted.
+So soon as I recalled the circumstances of our first meeting I realized
+that I had been in his company only a few moments, and had not known his
+name.</p>
+
+<p>He came and sat himself down in an easy-chair by my side, and puffed in
+silence at a big cigar.</p>
+
+<p>"We have met before," I said. "I could not make you out at first. You
+were at Weissenstein last year. You remember that affair?"</p>
+
+<p>Professor Cutter looked at me curiously for several seconds before he
+answered.</p>
+
+<p>"You are the man who let down the rope," he said at last. "I remember
+you now very well."</p>
+
+<p>There was a short pause.</p>
+
+<p>"Did you ever hear any more of that lady?" asked he, presently.</p>
+
+<p>"No, I did not even know her name, any more than I knew yours," I
+replied. "I took you for a physician, and the lady for your patient."</p>
+
+<p>We heard steps on the polished floor outside the smoking-room.</p>
+
+<p>"If I were you, I would not say anything to Carvel about that matter,"
+said the professor quickly.</p>
+
+<p>The door opened, and John entered the room. He was a little pale and
+looked nervous.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah," he ejaculated, "I thought you would fraternize over the tobacco."</p>
+
+<p>"We are doing our best," said I.</p>
+
+<p>"It is written that the free should be brothers and equal," said the
+professor, with a laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"I never knew two brothers who were equal," said Carvel, in reflective
+tones. "I do not know why the ideal freedom and equality, attaching to
+the ideal brothers, should not be as good as any other visionary aim for
+tangible earthly government; but it certainly does not seem so easy of
+realization, nor so sound in the working, as our good English principle
+that exceptions prove the rule, and that the more exceptions there are
+the better the rule will be."</p>
+
+<p>"Is that speech an attack upon American freedom?" asked the professor,
+laughing a little. "I believe Mr. Griggs is an American."</p>
+
+<p>"No, indeed. Why should I attack American freedom?" said John.</p>
+
+<p>"American freedom is not so easily attacked," I remarked. "It eludes
+definition and rejects political paradox. No one ever connects our
+republic with the fashionable liberty-fraternity-and-equality doctrines
+of European emancipation; still less with the communistic idea that,
+although men have very different capacities for originating things, all
+men have an equal right to destroy them."</p>
+
+<p>"Griggs is mounted upon his hobby," remarked John Carvel, stretching his
+feet out towards the fire. The professor turned the light of his
+spectacles upon me, and puffed a cloud of smoke.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you a political enthusiast and a rider of hobby-horses, Mr.
+Griggs?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"I do not know; you must ask our host."</p>
+
+<p>"Pardon me. I think you know very well," said the professor. "I should
+say you belonged to a class of persons who know very well what they
+think."</p>
+
+<p>"How do you judge?"</p>
+
+<p>"That is, of all questions a man can ask, the most difficult to answer.
+How do you judge of anything?"</p>
+
+<p>"By applying the test of past experience to present fact," I replied.</p>
+
+<p>"Then past experience is that by which I judge. How can you expect me to
+tell you the whole of my past experience, in order that you may
+understand how my judgment is formed? It would take years."</p>
+
+<p>"You are a pair of very singular men," remarked John Carvel. "You seem
+to take to argument as fish to the water. You ought to be successful in
+a school of walking philosophers."</p>
+
+<p>John seemed more depressed than I had ever seen him, and only made an
+observation from time to time, as though to make a show of hospitality.
+The professor interested me, but I could see that we were boring Carvel.
+The conversation languished, and before long the latter proposed that we
+should go into the drawing-room for half an hour before bed-time.</p>
+
+<p>We found the ladies seated around the fire. Their voices fell suddenly
+as we entered the room, and all of them looked towards John and the
+professor, as though expecting something. It struck me that they had
+been talking of some matter which was not intended for our ears.</p>
+
+<p>"We have been making plans for Christmas," said Mrs. Carvel, as though
+to break the awkward silence that followed our entrance.</p>
+
+
+
+<h2 class="m"><a name="VIII" id="VIII"></a>VIII.</h2>
+
+
+<p>Early on the following morning John Carvel came to my room. He looked
+less anxious than on the previous night, but he was evidently not
+altogether his former self.</p>
+
+<p>"Would you care to drive to the station and meet those boys?" he asked,
+cheerfully.</p>
+
+<p>The weather was bright and frosty, and I was glad enough of an excuse
+for being alone for half an hour with my friend. I assented, therefore,
+to his proposition, and presently we were rattling along the hard road
+through the park. The hoar-frost was on the trees and on the blue-green
+frozen grass beneath them, and on the reeds and sedges beside the pond,
+which was overspread with a sheet of black ice. The breath flew from the
+horses' nostrils in white clouds to right and left, and the low morning
+sun flashed back from the harness, and made the little icicles and laces
+of frost upon the trees shine like diamonds.</p>
+
+<p>"Carvel," I said presently, as we spun past the lodge, through the great
+iron gates, "I am not inquisitive, but it is easy to see that there is
+something going on in your house which is not agreeable to you. Will you
+tell me frankly whether you would like me to go away?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not for worlds," my companion ejaculated, and he turned a shade paler
+as he spoke. "I would rather tell you all about it&mdash;only"&mdash;&mdash; He paused.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't," said I. "I don't want to know. I merely thought you might
+prefer to be left free of outsiders at present."</p>
+
+<p>"We hardly look upon you as an outsider, Griggs," said John, quietly.
+"You have been here so much and we have been so intimate that you are
+almost like one of the family. Besides, you know this young nephew of my
+wife's, Paul Patoff; and your knowing him will make matters a little
+easier. I am not at all sure I shall like him."</p>
+
+<p>"I think you will. At all events, I can give you some idea of him."</p>
+
+<p>"I wish you would," answered John.</p>
+
+<p>"He is a thorough Russian in his ideas and an Englishman in
+appearance,&mdash;perhaps you might say he is more like a Scotchman. He is
+fair, with blue eyes, a brown mustache, and a prominent nose. He is
+angular in his movements and rather tall. He has a remarkable talent for
+languages, and is regarded as a very promising diplomatist. His temper
+is violent and changeable, but he has excellent manners and is full of
+tact. I should call him an extremely clever fellow in a general way, and
+he has done wisely in the selection of his career."</p>
+
+<p>"That is not a bad description. Is there anything against him?"</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot say; I only knew him in Persia,&mdash;a chance acquaintance. People
+said he was very eccentric."</p>
+
+<p>"Eccentric?" asked John. "How?"</p>
+
+<p>"Moody, I suppose, because he would sometimes shut himself up for days,
+and see nobody unless the minister sent for him. He used to beat his
+native servants when he was in a bad humor, and was said to be a
+reckless sort of fellow."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope he will not indulge his eccentricities here. Heaven knows, he
+has reason enough for being odd, poor fellow. We must make the best of
+him," continued John hurriedly, as though regretting his last remark,
+"and you must help us to amuse him and keep him out of mischief. Those
+Russians are the very devil, sometimes, as I have no doubt you know, and
+just at present our relations with them are not of the best; but, after
+all, he is my nephew and one of the family, so that we must do what we
+can for him, and avoid trouble. Macaulay likes him, and I dare say he
+likes Macaulay. They will get on together very well."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes&mdash;perhaps so&mdash;though I do not see what the two can have in common,"
+I answered. "Macaulay can hardly have much sympathy for Patoff's
+peculiarities, however much he may like the man himself."</p>
+
+<p>"Macaulay is very young, although he has seen something of the world. He
+has not outgrown the age which mistakes eccentricity for genius and bad
+temper for boldness. We shall see,&mdash;we shall see very soon. They will
+both hate Cutter, with his professorial wisdom and his immense
+experience of things they have never seen. How do you like him
+yourself?"</p>
+
+<p>"Without being congenial to me, he represents what I would like to be
+myself."</p>
+
+<p>"Would you change with him, if you could?" asked John.</p>
+
+<p>"No, indeed. I, in my person, would like to be what he is in his,&mdash;that
+is all. People often talk of changing. No man alive would really
+exchange his personality for that of another man, if he had the chance.
+He only wishes to adorn what he most admires in himself with those
+things which, in his neighbor, excite the admiration of others. He
+meditates no change which does not give his vanity a better appearance
+to himself, and his reputation a dash of more brilliant color in the
+popular eye."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps you are right," said John. "At all events, the professor has
+qualities that any man might envy."</p>
+
+<p>We reached the station just as the train ran in, and Macaulay Carvel and
+Patoff waved their hats from the carriage window. In a moment we were
+all shaking hands upon the platform.</p>
+
+<p>"Papa, this is cousin Paul," said Macaulay, and he turned to greet me
+next. He is a good-looking fellow, with rather delicate features and a
+quiet, conscientious sort of expression, exquisite in his dress and
+scrupulous in his manners, with more of his mother's gentleness than of
+his father's bold frankness in his brown eyes. His small hand grasped
+mine readily enough, but seemed nerveless and lacking in vitality, a
+contrast to Paul Patoff's grip. The Russian was as angular as ever, and
+his wiry fingers seemed to discharge an electric shock as they touched
+mine. I realized that he was a very tall man, and that he was far from
+ugly. His prominent nose and high cheek-bones gave a singular eagle-like
+look to his face, and his cold, bright eyes added to the impression. He
+lacked grace of form, but he had plenty of force, and though his
+movements were sometimes sudden and ungainly he was not without a
+certain air of nobility. His brown mustache did not altogether hide the
+half-scornful expression of his mouth.</p>
+
+<p>"How is everybody?" asked Macaulay Carvel of his father. "We shall have
+a most jolly Christmas, all together."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Mr. Griggs," said Patoff to me, "I did not expect, when we parted
+in Persia, that we should meet again in my uncle's house, did you? You
+will hardly believe that this is my first visit to England, and to my
+relations here."</p>
+
+<p>"You will certainly not be taken for a foreigner here," I said,
+laughing.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, of course not. You see my mother is English, so that I speak the
+language. The difficulty for me will lie in learning the customs. The
+English have so many peculiar habits. Is Professor Cutter at the house?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. You know him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Very well. He has been my mother's physician for some time."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed&mdash;I was not aware that he practiced as a physician." I was
+surprised by the news, and a suspicion crossed my mind that the lady at
+Weissenstein might have been Patoff's mother. Instantly the meaning of
+the professor's warning flashed upon me,&mdash;I was not to mention that
+affair in the Black Forest to Carvel. Of course not. Carvel was the
+brother-in-law of the lady in question. However, I kept my own counsel
+as we drove rapidly homewards. The sun had risen higher in the cloudless
+sky, and the frozen ground was beginning to thaw, so that now and then
+the mud splashed high from under the horses' hoofs. The vehicle in which
+we drove was a mail phaeton, and Macaulay sat in front by his father's
+side, while Patoff and I sat behind. We chatted pleasantly along the
+road, and in half an hour were deposited at Carvel Place, where the
+ladies came out to meet us, and the new cousin was introduced to every
+one. He seemed to make himself at home very easily, and I think the
+first impression he produced was favorable. Mrs. Carvel held his hand
+for several seconds, and looked up into his cold blue eyes as though
+searching for some resemblance to his mother, and he met her gentle look
+frankly enough. Chrysophrasia eyed him and eyed him again, trying to
+discover in him the attributes she had bestowed upon him in her
+imagination; he was certainly a bold-looking fellow, and she was not
+altogether disappointed. She allowed her hand to linger in his, and her
+sentimental eyes turned upwards towards him with a look that was
+intended to express profound sympathy. As for Paul, he looked at his
+aunt Chrysophrasia with a certain surprise, and he looked upon Hermione
+with a great admiration as she came forward and put out her hand. John
+Carvel stood near by, and I thought his expression changed as he saw the
+glance his nephew bestowed upon his daughter. I slipped away to the
+library, and left the family party to themselves. Professor Cutter had
+not yet appeared, and I hoped to find him. Sure enough, he was among the
+books. Three or four large volumes lay open upon a table near the
+window, and the sturdy professor was turning over the leaves, holding a
+pencil in his mouth and a sheet of paper in one hand, the image of a
+student in the pursuit of knowledge. I went straight up to him.</p>
+
+<p>"Professor Cutter," I said, "you asked me last night whether I had ever
+heard anything more of the lady with whom I met you at Weissenstein. I
+have heard of her this morning."</p>
+
+<p>The scientist took the pencil from his mouth, and thrust his hands into
+his pockets, gazing upon me through the large round lenses of his
+spectacles. He glanced towards the door before he spoke.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, what have you heard?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Only that she was Paul Patoff's mother," I answered.</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing else?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing."</p>
+
+<p>"And how did you come by the information, if you please?" he inquired.</p>
+
+<p>"Very simply. Paul Patoff volunteered to tell me that you had been his
+mother's physician for some time. I remembered that you warned me not to
+speak of the Weissenstein affair to our friend Carvel; that was natural
+enough, since the lady was his sister-in-law. She did not look at all
+like Paul, it is true, but you are not in the habit of playing
+physician, and it is a thousand to one that you have attended no one
+else in the last year who is in any way connected with John Carvel."</p>
+
+<p>The learned doctor smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"You have made a very good guess, Mr. Griggs," he said. "Paul Patoff is
+a silly fellow enough, or he would not have spoken so plainly. Why do
+you tell me that you have found me out?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because I imagine that you are still interested in the lady, and that
+you had better be informed of everything connected with the case."</p>
+
+<p>"The case&mdash;yes&mdash;it is a very singular case, and I am intensely
+interested in it. Besides, it has very nearly cost me my reputation, as
+well as my life. I assure you I have rarely had to do with such a case,
+nor have I ever experienced such a sensation as when I went over the
+cliff at Weissenstein after Madame Patoff."</p>
+
+<p>"Probably not," I remarked. "I never saw a braver thing more
+successfully accomplished."</p>
+
+<p>"There is small courage in acting under necessity," said the professor,
+walking slowly across the room towards the fire. "If I had not rescued
+my patient, I should have been much more injured than if I had broken my
+neck in the attempt. I was responsible for her. What would have become
+of the 'great neurologist,' the celebrated 'mad-doctor,' as they call
+me, if one of the few patients to whom I ever devoted my whole personal
+attention had committed suicide under my very eyes? You can understand
+that there was something more than her life and mine at stake."</p>
+
+<p>"I never knew exactly how it happened," I replied. "I was looking out of
+my window, when I saw a woman fall over the balcony below me. Her
+clothes caught in the crooked branches of a wild cherry tree that grew
+some ten feet below; and as she struggled, I saw you leaning over the
+parapet, as if you meant to scramble down the face of the cliff after
+her. I had a hundred feet of manilla rope which I was taking with me to
+Switzerland for a special expedition, and I let it down to you. The
+people of the inn came to my assistance, and we managed to haul you up
+together, thanks to your knowing how to tie the rope around you both.
+Then I saw you down-stairs for a few minutes and you told me the lady
+was not hurt. I left almost immediately. I never knew what led to the
+accident."</p>
+
+<p>Professor Cutter passed his heavy hand slowly over his thick gray hair,
+and looked pensively into the fire.</p>
+
+<p>"It was simple enough," he said at last. "I was paying our bill to the
+landlord, and in doing so I turned my back upon Madame Patoff for a
+moment. She was standing on a low balcony outside the window, and she
+must have thrown herself over. Luckily she was dressed in a gown of
+strong Scotch stuff, which did not tear when it caught in the tree. It
+was the most extraordinary escape I ever saw."</p>
+
+<p>"I should think so, indeed. But why did she want to kill herself? Was
+she insane?"</p>
+
+<p>"Are people always insane who try to kill themselves?" asked the
+professor, eying me keenly through his glasses.</p>
+
+<p>"Very generally they are. I suppose that she was."</p>
+
+<p>"That is precisely the question," said the scientist. "Insanity is an
+expression that covers a multitude of sins of all kinds, but explains
+none of them, nor is itself explained. If I could tell you what insanity
+is, I could tell you whether Madame Patoff was insane or not. I can say
+that a man possesses a dog, because I can classify the dogs I have seen
+all over the world. But supposing I had never met any specimen of the
+canine race but a King Charles spaniel, and on seeing a Scotch deerhound
+in the possession of a friend was told that the man had a 'dog:' I
+should be justified in doubting whether the deerhound was a dog at all
+in the sense in which the tiny spaniel&mdash;the only dog I had ever
+seen&mdash;represented the canine race in my mind and experience. The
+biblical 'devil,' which 'possessed' men, took as many shapes and
+characteristics as the <i>genus</i> 'dog' does: there was the devil that
+dwelt in tombs, the devil that tore its victim, the devil that entered
+into swine, the devil that spoke false prophecies, and many more. It is
+the same with insanity. No two mad people are alike. If I find a person
+with any madness I know, I can say he is mad; but if I find a person
+acting in a very unusual way under the influence of strong and
+protracted emotion, I am not justified in concluding that he is crazy. I
+have not seen everything in the world yet. I have not seen every kind of
+dog, nor every kind of devil, nor every kind of madness."</p>
+
+<p>"You choose strange illustrations," I said, "but you speak clearly."</p>
+
+<p>"Strange cases and strange examples. Insanity is the strangest phase of
+human nature, because it is the least common state of humanity. If a
+majority of men were mad, they would have a right to consider themselves
+sane, and sane men crazy. Your original question was whether, when she
+attempted suicide, Madame Patoff were sane or not. I do not know. I have
+known many persons to attempt to take their lives when, according to all
+their other actions, they were perfectly sane. The question of their
+sanity could be decided by placing a large number of sensible people in
+similar circumstances, in order to see whether the majority of them
+would kill themselves or not. That sort of experiment is not likely to
+be tried. I found Madame Patoff placed in very extraordinary
+circumstances, but I did not know her before she was so placed. The case
+interests me exceedingly. I am still trying to understand it."</p>
+
+<p>"You speak as though you were still treating it," I remarked.</p>
+
+<p>"A physician, in his imagination, will continue to study a case for
+years after it has passed out of his treatment," answered my companion.
+"I must go and see Paul, however, since he was good enough to mention me
+to you." Whereupon Professor Cutter buttoned up his coat and went away,
+leaving me to my reflections by the library fire.</p>
+
+<p>If Carvel had intended to have a family party in his house at Christmas,
+including his nephew whom he had never seen, and whose mother had been
+mad, and the great scientist who had attended her, it seemed strange
+that he should have asked me as directly as he had done to spend the
+whole winter under his roof. I had never been asked for so long a visit
+before, and had never been treated with such confidence and received so
+intimately as I now was. I could not help wondering whether I was to be
+told the reason of what was going on, whether, indeed, anything was
+going on at all, and whether the air of depression and mystery which I
+thought I observed were not the result of my own imagination, rather
+than of any actual foundation in fact. The professor might be making a
+visit for his pleasure, but I knew how valuable his time must be, and I
+wondered how he could afford to spend it in mere amusement. I
+remembered John Carvel's hesitation as we drove to the station that
+morning, and his evident annoyance when I proposed to leave. He knew me
+well enough to say, "All right, if you don't mind, run up to town for a
+day or two," but he had not said it. He had manifested the strongest
+desire that I should stay, and I had determined to comply with his
+request. At the same time I was left entirely in the dark as to what was
+going on in the family, and whispered words, conversations that ceased
+abruptly on my approach, and many other little signs told me beyond all
+doubt that something was occurring of which I had no knowledge. Without
+being inquisitive, it is hard to live in such surroundings without
+having one's curiosity roused, and the circumstance of my former meeting
+with the professor, now so suddenly illuminated by the discovery that
+the lady whose life he had saved was the sister-in-law of our host, led
+me to believe, almost intuitively, that the mystery, if mystery there
+were, was connected in some way with Madame Patoff. As I thought of her,
+the memory of the little inn, the Gasthof zum Goldenen Anker, in
+Weissenstein, came vividly back to me. The splash of the plunging Nagold
+was in my ears, the smell of the boundless pine forest was in my
+nostrils; once more I seemed to be looking down from the upper window of
+the hostelry upon the deep ravine, a sheer precipice from the back of
+the house, broken only by some few struggling trees that appeared
+scarcely able to find roothold on the straight fall of rock,&mdash;one tree
+projecting just below the foundations of the inn, ten feet lower than
+the lowest window, a knotted wild cherry, storm-beaten and crooked,&mdash;and
+then, suddenly, something of uncertain shape, huddled together and
+falling from the balcony down the precipice,&mdash;a woman's figure, caught
+in the gnarled boughs of the cherry-tree, hanging and swinging over the
+abyss, while shriek on shriek echoed down to the swollen torrent and up
+to the turrets of the old inn in an agonized reverberation of horror.</p>
+
+<p>It was a fearful memory, and the thought of being brought into the
+company of the woman whose life I had seen so risked and so saved was
+strange and fascinating. Often and often I had wondered about her fate,
+speculating upon the question whether her fall was due to accident or to
+the intention of suicide, and I had tried to realize the terrible waking
+when she found herself saved from the destruction she sought by the man
+I had seen,&mdash;perhaps by the very man from whom she was endeavoring to
+escape. I was thrown off my balance by being so suddenly brought face to
+face with this woman's son, the tall, blue-eyed, awkward fine gentleman,
+Paul Patoff. I sat by the library fire and thought it all over, and I
+said to myself at last, "Paul Griggs, thou art an ass for thy pains, and
+an inquisitive idiot for thy curiosity." I, who am rarely out of conceit
+with myself, was disgusted at my lack of dignity at actually desiring to
+find out things that were in no way my business, nor ever concerned me.
+So I took a book and fell to reading. Far off in the house I could hear
+voices now and then, the voices of the family making the acquaintance of
+their new-found relation. The great fire blazed upon the broad hearth
+within, and the wintry sun shone brightly without, and there came
+gradually upon me the delight of comfort that reigns within a luxurious
+library when the frost is biting without, and there is no scent upon the
+frozen fields,&mdash;the comfort that lies in the contrasts we make for
+ourselves against nature; most of all, the peace that a wanderer on the
+face of the earth, as I am, can feel when he rests his weary limbs in
+some quiet home, half wishing he might at last be allowed to lay down
+the staff and scrip, and taste freely of the world's good things, yet
+knowing that before many days the devil of unrest will drive him forth
+again upon his road. So I sat in John Carvel's library, and read his
+books, and enjoyed his cushioned easy-chair with the swinging desk; and
+I envied John Carvel his home, and his quiet life, and his defenses
+against intrusion, saying that I also might be made happy by the
+trifling addition of twenty thousand pounds a year to my income.</p>
+
+<p>But I was not long permitted to enjoy the undisturbed possession of this
+temple of sweet dreams, reveling in my imagination at the idea of what I
+should do if I possessed such a place. The door of the library opened
+suddenly with the noise of many feet upon the polished floor.</p>
+
+<p>"And this is the library," said the voice of Hermione, who led the way,
+followed by her mother and aunt and Paul; John Carvel brought up the
+rear, quietly looking on while his daughter showed the new cousin the
+wonders of Carvel Place.</p>
+
+<p>"This is the library," she repeated, "and this is Mr. Griggs," she
+added, with a little laugh, as she discovered me in the deep easy-chair.
+"This is the celebrated Mr. Griggs. His name is Paul, like yours, but
+otherwise he is not in the least like you, I fancy. Everybody knows him,
+and he knows everybody."</p>
+
+<p>"We have met before," said Patoff, "not only this morning, but in the
+East. Mr. Griggs certainly seemed to know everybody there, from the Shah
+to the Greek consul. What a splendid room! It must have taken you years
+of thought to construct such a literary retreat, uncle John," he added,
+turning to the master of the house as he spoke.</p>
+
+<p>Indeed, Paul Patoff appeared much struck with everything he saw at
+Carvel Place. I left my chair and joined the party, who wandered through
+the rooms and into the great conservatory, and finally gravitated to the
+drawing-room. Patoff examined everything with an air of extreme
+interest, and seemed to understand intuitively the tastes of each member
+of the household. He praised John's pictures and Mrs. Carvel's
+engravings; he admired Chrysophrasia's stained-glass window, and her
+pots, and plates, and bits of drapery, he glanced reverently at Mrs.
+Carvel's religious books, and stopped now and then to smell the flowers
+Hermione loved. He noted the view upon the park from the south windows,
+and thought the disposal of the shrubbery near the house was a
+masterpiece of landscape gardening. As he proceeded, surrounded by his
+relations, remarking upon everything he saw, and giving upon all things
+opinions which marvelously flattered the individual tastes of each one
+of the family, it became evident that he was making a very favorable
+impression upon them.</p>
+
+<p>"It is delightful to show you things," said Hermione. "You are so
+appreciative."</p>
+
+<p>"It needs little skill to appreciate, where everything is so beautiful,"
+he answered. "Indeed," he continued, addressing himself to all present,
+"your home is the most charming I ever saw: I had no idea that the
+English understood luxury so well. You know that with us Continental
+people you have the reputation of being extravagant, even magnificent,
+in your ideas, but of being also ascetics in some measure,&mdash;loving to
+make yourselves strangely uncomfortable, fond of getting very hot, and
+of taking very cold baths, and of living on raw meat and cold potatoes
+and all manner of strange things. I do not see here any evidences of
+great asceticism."</p>
+
+<p>"How wonderfully he speaks English!" exclaimed Mrs. Carvel, aside, to
+her husband.</p>
+
+<p>"I should say," continued Paul, without noticing the flattering
+interruption, "that you are the most luxurious people in the world, that
+you have more taste than any people I have ever known, and that if I had
+had the least idea how charming my relations were, I should have come
+from our Russian wilds ten years ago to visit you and tell you how
+superior I think you are to ourselves."</p>
+
+<p>Paul laughed pleasantly as he made this speech, and there was a little
+murmur of applause.</p>
+
+<p>"We were very different, ten years ago," said John Carvel. "In the first
+place, there was no Hermione then, to do the honors and show you the
+sights. She was quite a little thing, ten years ago."</p>
+
+<p>"That would have made no difference in the place, though," said
+Hermione, simply.</p>
+
+<p>"On the contrary," said Paul. "I am inclined to think, on reflection,
+that I would have postponed my visit, after all, for the sake of having
+my cousin for a guide."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, how gracefully these wild northern men can turn a phrase!"
+whispered Chrysophrasia in my ear,&mdash;"so strong and yet so tender!" She
+could not take her eyes from her nephew, and he appeared to understand
+that he had already made a conquest of the &aelig;sthetic old maid, for he
+took her admiration for granted, and addressed himself to Mrs. Carvel;
+not losing sight of Chrysophrasia, however, but looking pleasantly at
+her as he talked, though his words were meant for her sister.</p>
+
+<p>"It is the whole atmosphere of this life that is delightful, and every
+little thing seems so harmonious," he said. "You have here the solidity
+of traditional English country life, combined with the comforts of the
+most advanced civilization; and, to make it all perfection, you have at
+every turn the lingering romance of the glorious medi&aelig;val life," with a
+glance at Miss Dabstreak, "that middle age which in beauty was the prime
+of age, from which began and spread all your most glorious ideas, your
+government, your warfare, your science. Did you never have an alchemist
+in your family, Uncle John? Surely he found for you the golden secret,
+and it is his touch which has beautified these old walls!"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know," said John Carvel.</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed there was!" cried Chrysophrasia, in delight. "I have found out
+all about him. He was not exactly an alchemist; he was an astrologer,
+and there are the ruins of his tower in the park. There are some old
+books up-stairs, upon the Black Art, with his name in them, Johannes
+Carvellius, written in the most enchanting angular handwriting."</p>
+
+<p>"I believe there was somebody of that name," remarked John.</p>
+
+<p>"They are full of delicious incantations for raising the devil,&mdash;such
+exquisite ceremonies, with all the dress described that you must wear,
+and the phases of the moon, and hazel wands cut at midnight. Imagine how
+delightful!"</p>
+
+<p>"The tower in the park is a beautiful place," said Hermione. "I have it
+all filled with flowers in summer, and the gardener's boy once saw a
+ghost there on All Hallow E'en."</p>
+
+<p>"You must take me there," said Paul, smiling good-humoredly at the
+reference to the alchemist. "I have a passion for ruins, and I had no
+idea that you had any; nothing seems ruined here, and yet everything
+appears old. What a delightful place!" Paul sat far back in his
+comfortable chair, and inserted a single eyeglass in the angle between
+his heavy brow and his aquiline nose; his bony fingers were spotless,
+long, and white, and as he sat there he had the appearance of a
+personage receiving the respectful homage of a body of devoted
+attendants, the indescribable air of easy superiority and condescending
+good-nature which a Roman patrician might have assumed when visiting the
+country villa of one of his clients. Everybody seemed delighted to be
+noticed by him and flattered by his words.</p>
+
+<p>I am by nature cross-grained and crabbed, I presume. I admitted that
+Paul Patoff, though not graceful in his movements, was a fine-looking
+fellow, with an undeniable distinction of manner; he had a pleasant
+voice, an extraordinary command of English, though he was but half an
+Englishman, and a tact which he certainly owed to his foreign blood; he
+was irreproachable in appearance, in the simplicity of his dress, in the
+smoothness of his fair hair and well-trimmed mustache; he appeared
+thoroughly at home among his new-found relations, and anxious to please
+them all alike; he was modest and unassuming, for he did not speak of
+himself, and he gave no opinion saving such as should be pleasing to his
+audience. He had all this, and yet in the cold stare of his stony eyes,
+in the ungainly twist of his broad white hand, where the bones and
+sinews crossed and recrossed like a network of marble, in the decisive
+tone with which he uttered the most flattering remarks, there was
+something which betrayed a tyrannical and unyielding
+character,&mdash;something which struck me at first sight, and which
+suggested a nature by no means so gentle and amiable as he was willing
+it should appear.</p>
+
+<p>Nevertheless, I was the only one to notice these signs, to judge by the
+enthusiasm which Patoff produced at Carvel Place in those first hours of
+his stay. It is true that the professor was not present, although he had
+left me on the pretense of going to see Paul, and Macaulay Carvel was
+resting from his journey in his own rooms, in a remote part of the
+house; but I judged that the latter had already fallen under the spell
+of Patoff's manner, and that it would not be easy to find out what the
+man of science really thought about the Anglo-Russian. They probably
+knew each other of old, and whatever opinions they held of each other
+were fully formed.</p>
+
+<p>Paul sat in his easy-chair in the midst of the family, and smiled and
+surveyed everything through his single eyeglass, and if anything did not
+please him he did not say so. John had something to do, and went away,
+then Mrs. Carvel wanted to see her son alone, and she left us too; so
+that Chrysophrasia and Hermione and I remained to amuse Patoff. Hermione
+immediately began to do so after her own fashion. I think that of all of
+us she was the one least inclined to give him absolute supremacy at
+first, but he interested her, for she had seen little of the world, and
+nothing of such men as her cousin Paul, who was thirty years of age, and
+had been to most of the courts of the world in the course of twelve
+years in the diplomatic service. She was not inclined to admit that
+knowledge of the world was superiority of itself, nor that an easy
+manner and an irreproachable appearance constituted the ideal of a man;
+but she was barely twenty, and had seen little of those things. She
+recognized their importance, and desired to understand them; she felt
+that wonderful suspicion of possibilities which a young girl loves to
+dwell on in connection with every exceptional man she meets; she
+unconsciously said to herself that such a man as Patoff might possibly
+be her ideal, because there was nothing apparent to her at first sight
+which was in direct contradiction with the typical picture she had
+conceived of the typical man she hoped to meet.</p>
+
+<p>Every young girl has an ideal, I presume. If it be possible to reason
+about so unreasonable a thing as love, I should say that love at first
+sight is probably due to the sudden supposed realization in every
+respect of an ideal long cherished and carefully developed in the
+imagination. But in most cases a young girl sees one man after another,
+hopes in each one to find those qualities which she has elected to
+admire, and finally submits to be satisfied with far less than she had
+at first supposed could satisfy her. As for young men, they are mostly
+fools, and they talk of love with a vast deal of swagger and bravery,
+laughing it to scorn, as a landsman talks of seasickness, telling you it
+is nothing but an impression and a mere lack of courage, till one day
+the land-bred boaster puts to sea in a Channel steamer, and experiences
+a new sensation, and becomes a very sick man indeed before he is out of
+sight of Dover cliffs.</p>
+
+<p>But with Hermione there was certainly no realization of her ideal, but
+probably only the faint, unformulated hope that in her cousin Paul she
+might find some of those qualities which her own many-sided nature
+longed to find in man.</p>
+
+<p>"You must tell us all about Russia, cousin Paul," she said, when her
+father and mother were gone. "Aunt Chrysophrasia believes that you are
+the most extraordinary set of barbarians up there, and she adores
+barbarians, you know."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course we are rather barbarous."</p>
+
+<p>"Hermione! How can you say I ever said such a thing!" interposed Miss
+Dabstreak, with a deprecating glance at Paul. "I only said the Russians
+were such a young and manly race, so interesting, so unlike the
+inhabitants of this dreary den of printing-presses and steam-engines,
+so"&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Thanks, aunt Chrysophrasia," said Paul, "for the delightful ideal you
+have formed of us. We are certainly less civilized than you, and
+perhaps, as you are so good as to believe, we are the more interesting.
+I suppose the unbroken colt of the desert is more interesting than an
+American trotting horse, but for downright practical use"&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"There is such a tremendous talk of usefulness!" ejaculated
+Chrysophrasia, a faint, sad smile flickering over her sallow features.</p>
+
+<p>"Usefulness is so remarkably useful," I remarked.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Mr. Griggs," exclaimed Hermione, "what an immensely witty speech!"</p>
+
+<p>"There is nothing so witty as truth, Miss Carvel, though you laugh at
+it," I answered, "for where there is no truth, there is no wit. I
+maintain that usefulness is really useful. Miss Dabstreak, I believe,
+maintains the contrary."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed, I care more for beauty than for usefulness," replied the
+&aelig;sthetic lady, with a fine smile.</p>
+
+<p>"Beauty is indeed truly useful," said Paul, with a very faint imitation
+of Chrysophrasia's accent, "and it should be sought in everything. But
+that need not prevent us from seeing true beauty in all that is truly
+useful."</p>
+
+<p>I had a faint suspicion that if Patoff had mimicked Miss Dabstreak in
+the first half of his speech, he had imitated me in the second portion
+of the sentiment. I do not like to be made game of, because I am aware
+that I am naturally pedantic. It is an old trick of the schools to rouse
+a pedant to desperate and distracted self-contradiction by quietly
+imitating everything he says.</p>
+
+<p>"You are very clever at taking both sides of a question at once," said
+Hermione, with a smile.</p>
+
+<p>"Almost all questions have two sides," answered Paul, "but very often
+both sides are true. A man may perfectly appreciate and approve of the
+opinions of two persons who take diametrically opposite views of the
+same point, provided there be no question of right and wrong involved."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps," retorted Hermione; "but then the man who takes both sides has
+no opinion of his own. I do not like that."</p>
+
+<p>"In general, cousin Hermione," said Paul, with a polite smile, "you may
+be sure that any man will make your opinion his. In this case, I submit
+that both beauty and usefulness are good, and that they need not at all
+interfere with each other. As for the compliment my aunt Chrysophrasia
+has paid to us Russians, I do not think we can be said to have gone very
+far in either direction as yet." After which diplomatic speech Paul
+dropped his eyeglass, and looked pleasantly round upon all three of us,
+as much as to say that it was impossible to draw him into the position
+of disagreeing with any one present by any device whatsoever.</p>
+
+
+
+<h2 class="m"><a name="IX" id="IX"></a>IX.</h2>
+
+
+<p>Professor Cutter and I walked to the village that afternoon. He is a
+great pedestrian, and is never satisfied unless he can walk four or five
+miles a day. His robust and somewhat heavy frame was planned rather for
+bodily labor than for the housing of so active a mind, and he often
+complains that the exercise of his body has robbed him of years of
+intellectual labor. He grumbles at the necessity of wasting time in that
+way, but he never omits his daily walk.</p>
+
+<p>"I should like to possess your temperament, Mr. Griggs," he remarked, as
+we walked briskly through the park. "You might renounce exercise and
+open air for the rest of your life, and never be the worse for it."</p>
+
+<p>"I hardly know," I answered. "I have never tried any regular method of
+life, and I have never been ill. I do not believe in regular methods."</p>
+
+<p>"That is the ideal constitution. By the by, I had hoped to induce Patoff
+to come with us, but he said he would stay with the ladies."</p>
+
+<p>"You will never induce him to do anything he does not want to do," I
+replied. "However, I dare say you know that as well as I do."</p>
+
+<p>"What makes you say that?"</p>
+
+<p>"I can see it,&mdash;it is plain enough. Carvel wanted him to go and shoot
+something after lunch, you wanted him to come for a walk, Macaulay
+wanted him to bury himself up-stairs and talk out the Egyptian question,
+I wanted to get him into the smoking-room to ask him questions about
+some friends of mine in the East, Miss Dabstreak had plans to waylay him
+with her pottery. Not a bit of it! He smiled at us all, and serenely
+sat by Mrs. Carvel, talking to her and Miss Hermione. He has a will of
+his own."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed he has," assented the professor. "He is a moderately clever
+fellow, with a smooth tongue and a despotic character, a much better
+combination than a weak will and the mind of a genius. You are right, he
+is not to be turned by trifles."</p>
+
+<p>"I see that he must be a good diplomatist in these days."</p>
+
+<p>"Diplomacy has got past the stage of being intellectual," said the
+professor. "There was a time when a fine intellect was thought important
+in an ambassador; nowadays it is enough if his excellency can hold his
+tongue and show his teeth. The question is, whether the low estimate of
+intellect in our day is due to the exigency of modern affairs, or to the
+exiguity of modern intelligence."</p>
+
+<p>"Men are stronger in our time," I answered, "and consequently have less
+need to be clever. The transition from the joint government of the world
+by a herd of wily foxes to the domination of the universe by the mammoth
+ox is marked by the increase of clumsy strength and the disappearance of
+graceful deception."</p>
+
+<p>"That is true; but the graceful deception continues to be the more
+interesting, if not the more agreeable. As for me, I would rather be
+gracefully deceived, as you call it, than pounded to jelly by the hoofs
+of the mammoth,&mdash;unless I could be the mammoth myself."</p>
+
+<p>"To return to Patoff," said I, "what are they going to do with him?"</p>
+
+<p>"The question is much more likely to be what he will do with them, I
+should say," answered the scientist, looking straight before him, and
+increasing the speed of his walk. "I am not at all sure what he might
+do, if no one prevented him. He is capable of considerable originality
+if left to himself, and they follow him up there at the Place as the
+boys and girls followed the Pied Piper."</p>
+
+<p>"Is he at all like his mother?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"In point of originality?" inquired the professor, with a curious smile.
+"She was certainly a most original woman. I hardly know whether he is
+like her. Boys are said to resemble their mother in appearance and their
+father in character. He is certainly not of the same type of
+constitution as his mother, he has not even the same shape of head, and
+I am glad of it. But his father was a Slav, and what is madness in an
+Englishwoman is sanity in a Russian. Her most extraordinary aberrations
+might not seem at all extraordinary when set off by the natural violence
+he inherits from his father."</p>
+
+<p>"That is a novel idea to me," I remarked. "You mean that what is madness
+in one man is not necessarily insanity in another; besides, you refused
+to allow this morning that Madame Patoff was crazy."</p>
+
+<p>"I did not refuse to allow it; I only said I did not know it to be the
+case. But as for what I just said, take two types of mankind, a Chinese
+and an Englishman, for instance. If you met a fair-haired, blue-eyed,
+sanguine Englishman, whose head and features were shaped precisely like
+those of a Chinaman, you could predicate of him that he must be a very
+extraordinary creature, capable, perhaps, of becoming a driveling idiot.
+The same of a Chinese, if you met one with a brain shaped like that of
+an Englishman, and similar features, but with straight black hair, a
+yellow skin, and red eyes. He would have the brain of the Anglo-Saxon
+with the temperament of the Mongol, and would probably become a raving
+maniac. It is not the temperament only, nor the intellect only, which
+produces the idiot or the madman; it is the lack of balance between the
+two. Arrant cowards frequently have very warlike imaginations, and in
+their dreams conceive themselves doing extremely violent things. Suppose
+that with such an imagination you unite the temperament of an Arab
+fanatic, or the coarse, brutal courage of an English prize-fighter, you
+can put no bounds to the possible actions of the monster you create.
+The salvation of the human race lies in the fact that very strong and
+brave people commonly have a peaceable disposition, or else commit
+murder and get hanged for it. It is far better that they should be
+hanged, because nobody knows where violence ends and insanity begins,
+and it is just as well to be on the safe side. Whenever a given form of
+intellect happens to be joined to a totally inappropriate temperament,
+we say it is a case of idiocy or insanity. Of course there are many
+other cases which arise from the mind or the body being injured by
+extraneous causes; but they are not genuine cases of insanity, because
+the evil has not been transmitted from the parents, nor will it be to
+the children."</p>
+
+<p>The professor marched forward as he gave his lecture on unsoundness of
+brain, and I strode by his side, silent and listening. What he said
+seemed very natural, and yet I had never heard it before. Was Madame
+Patoff such a monster as he described? It was more likely that her son
+might be, seeing that he in some points answered precisely to the
+description of a man with the intellect of one race and the temperament
+of another; and yet any one would scoff at the idea that Paul Patoff
+could go mad. He was so correct, so staid, so absolutely master of what
+he said, and probably of what he felt, that one could not imagine him a
+pray to insanity.</p>
+
+<p>"What you say is very interesting," I remarked, at last, "but how does
+it apply to Madame Patoff?"</p>
+
+<p>"It does not apply to her," returned Professor Cutter. "She belongs to
+the class of people in whom the mind has been injured by extraneous
+circumstances."</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose it is possible. I suppose a perfectly sound mind may be
+completely destroyed by an accident, even by the moral shock from a
+sorrow or disappointment."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said the professor. "It is even possible to produce artificial
+insanity,&mdash;perfectly genuine while it lasts; but it is not possible for
+any one to pretend to be insane."</p>
+
+<p>"Really? I should have thought it quite possible," said I.</p>
+
+<p>"No. It is impossible. I was once called to give my opinion in such a
+case. The man betrayed himself in half an hour, and yet he was a very
+clever fellow. He was a servant; murdered his master to rob him; was
+caught, but succeeded in restoring the valuables to their places, and
+pretended to be crazy. It was very well managed and he played the fool
+splendidly, but I caught him."</p>
+
+<p>"How?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Simply by bullying. I treated him roughly, and never stopped talking to
+him,&mdash;just the worst treatment for a person really insane. In less than
+an hour I had wearied him out, his feigned madness became so fatiguing
+to him that there was finally only a spasmodic attempt, and when I had
+done with him the sane man was perfectly apparent. He grew too much
+frightened and too tired to act a part. He was hanged, to the
+satisfaction of all concerned, and he made a complete confession."</p>
+
+<p>"But how about the artificial insanity you spoke of? How can it be
+produced?"</p>
+
+<p>"By any poison, from coffee to alcohol, from tobacco to belladonna. A
+man who is drunk is insane."</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder whether, if a madman got drunk, he would be sane?" I said.</p>
+
+<p>"Sometimes. A man who has delirium tremens can be brought to his right
+mind for a time by alcohol, unless he is too far gone. The habitual
+drunkard is not in his right mind until he has had a certain amount of
+liquor. All habitual poisons act in that way, even tea. How often do you
+hear a woman or a student say, 'I do not feel like myself to-day,&mdash;I
+have not had my tea'! When a man does not feel like himself, he means
+that he feels like some one else, and he is mildly crazy. Generally
+speaking, any sudden change in our habits of eating and drinking will
+produce a temporary unsoundness of the mind. Every one knows that
+thirst sometimes brings on a dangerous madness, and hunger produces
+hallucinations and visions which take a very real character."</p>
+
+<p>"I know,&mdash;I have seen that. In the East it is thought that insanity can
+be caused by mesmerism, or something like it."</p>
+
+<p>"It is not impossible," answered the scientist. "We do not deny that
+some very extraordinary circumstances can be induced by sympathy and
+antipathy."</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose you do not believe in actual mesmerism, do you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I neither affirm nor deny,&mdash;I wait; and until I have been convinced I
+do not consider my opinion worth giving."</p>
+
+<p>"That is the only rational position for a man of science. I fancy that
+nothing but experience satisfies you,&mdash;why should it?"</p>
+
+<p>"The trouble is that experiments, according to the old maxim, are
+generally made, and should be made, upon worthless bodies, and that they
+are necessarily very far from being conclusive in regard to the human
+body. There is no doubt that dogs are subject to grief, joy, hope, and
+disappointment; but it is not possible to conclude from the conduct of a
+dog who is deprived of a particularly interesting bone he is gnawing,
+for instance, how a man will act who is robbed of his possessions.
+Similarity of misfortune does not imply analogy in the consequences."</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly not. Otherwise everybody would act in the same way, if put in
+the same case."</p>
+
+<p>The professor's conversation was interesting if only on account of the
+extreme simplicity with which he spoke of such a complicated subject. I
+was impressed with the belief that he belonged to a class of scientists
+whose interest in what they hope to learn surpasses their enthusiasm for
+what they have already learned,&mdash;a class of scientists unfortunately
+very rare in our day. For we talk more nonsense about science than
+would fill many volumes, because we devote so much time to the pursuit
+of knowledge; nevertheless, the amount of knowledge actually acquired,
+beyond all possibility of contradiction, is ludicrously small as
+compared with the energy expended in the pursuit of it and the noise
+made over its attainment. Science lays many eggs, but few are hatched.
+Science boasts much, but accomplishes little; is vainglorious, puffed
+up, and uncharitable; desires to be considered as the root of all
+civilization and the seed of all good, whereas it is the heart that
+civilizes, never the head.</p>
+
+<p>I walked by the professor's side in deep thought, and he, too, became
+silent, so that we talked little more until we were coming home and had
+almost reached the house.</p>
+
+<p>"Why has Patoff never been in England before?" I asked, suddenly.</p>
+
+<p>"I believe he has," answered Cutter.</p>
+
+<p>"He says he has not."</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind. I believe he was in London during nearly eighteen months,
+about four or five years ago, as secretary in the Russian embassy. He
+never went near his relations."</p>
+
+<p>"Why should he say now that he never was in the country?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because they would not like it, if they knew he had been so near them
+without ever visiting them."</p>
+
+<p>"Was his mother with him? Did she never write to her people?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Cutter, with a short laugh, "she never wrote to them."</p>
+
+<p>"How very odd!" I exclaimed, as we entered the hall-door.</p>
+
+<p>"It was odd," answered my companion, and went up-stairs. There was
+something very unsatisfactory about him, I thought; and then I cursed my
+own curiosity. What business was it all of mine? If Paul Patoff chose to
+tell a diplomatic falsehood, it certainly did not concern me. It was
+possible that his mother might have quarreled with her family,&mdash;indeed,
+in former years I had sometimes thought as much from their never
+mentioning her; and in that case it would be natural that her son might
+not have cared to visit his relations when he was in England before. He
+need not have made such a show of never having visited the country, but
+people often do that sort of thing. And now it was probable that since
+Madame Patoff had been insane there might have been a reconciliation and
+a smoothing over of the family difficulties. I had no idea where Madame
+Patoff might be. I could not ask any one such a delicate question, for I
+supposed she was confined in an asylum, and no one volunteered the
+information. Probably Cutter's visit to Carvel Place was connected with
+her sad state; perhaps Patoff's coming might be the result of it, also.
+It was impossible to say. But of this I was certain: that John Carvel
+and his wife had both grown older and sadder in the past two years, and
+that there was an air of concealment about the house which made me very
+uncomfortable. I have been connected with more than one odd story in my
+time, and I confess that I no longer care for excitement as I once did.
+If people are going to get into trouble, I would rather not be there to
+see it, and I have a strong dislike to being suddenly called upon to
+play an unexpected part in sensational events. Above all, I hate
+mystery; I hate the mournful air of superior sorrow that hangs about
+people who have a disagreeable secret, and the constant depression of
+long-protracted anxiety in those about me. It spoiled my pleasure in the
+quiet country life to see John's face grow every day more grave and Mary
+Carvel's eyes turn sadder. Pain of any sort is unpleasant to witness,
+but there is nothing so depressing as to watch the progress of
+melancholy in one's friends; to feel that from some cause which they
+will not confide they are losing peace and health and happiness. Even if
+one knew the cause one might not be able to do anything to remove it,
+for it is no bodily ill, that can be doctored and studied and
+experimented upon, a subject for dissertation and barbarous,
+semi-classic nomenclature; quacks do not pretend to cure it with patent
+medicines, and great physicians do not write nebulous articles about it
+in the reviews. There is little room for speculation in the matter of
+grief, for most people know well enough what it is, and need no Latin
+words with Greek terminations to express it. It is the breaking of the
+sea of life over the harbor bar where science ends and humanity begins.</p>
+
+<p>Poor John! It needed something strong indeed to sadden his cheerfulness
+and leaden his energy. That evening I talked with Hermione in the
+drawing room. She looked more lovely than ever dressed all in white,
+with a single row of pearls around her throat. Her delicate features
+were pale and luminous, and her brown eyes brighter than usual,&mdash;a mere
+girl, scarcely yet gone into the world, but such a woman! It was no
+wonder that Paul glanced from time to time in admiration at his cousin.</p>
+
+<p>We were seated in Chrysophrasia's corner, Hermione and I. There was
+nothing odd in that; the young girl likes me and enjoys talking to me,
+and I am no longer young. You know, dear friend, that I am forty-six
+years old this summer, and it is a long time since any one thought of
+flirting with me. I am not dangerous,&mdash;nature has taken care of
+that,&mdash;and I am thought very safe company for the young.</p>
+
+<p>"Tell me one of your stories, Mr. Griggs. I am so tired this evening,"
+said Hermione.</p>
+
+<p>"I do not know what to tell you," I answered. "I was hoping that you
+would tell me one of yours, all about the fairies and the elves in the
+park, as you used to when you were a little girl."</p>
+
+<p>"I do not believe in fairies any more," said Hermione, with a little
+sigh. "I believed in them once,&mdash;it was so nice. I want stories of real
+life now,&mdash;sad ones, that end happily."</p>
+
+<p>"A great many happy stories end sadly," I replied, "but few sad ones
+end happily. Why do you want a sad story? You ought to be gay."</p>
+
+<p>"Ought I? I am not, I am sure. I cannot take everything with a laugh, as
+some people can; and I cannot be always resigned and religious, as mamma
+is."</p>
+
+<p>"The pleasantest people are the ones who are always good, but not always
+alike," I remarked. "It is variety that makes life charming, and
+goodness that makes it worth living."</p>
+
+<p>Hermione laughed a little.</p>
+
+<p>"That sounds very good,&mdash;a little goody, as we used to say when we were
+small. I wonder whether it is true. I suppose I have not enough variety,
+or not enough goodness, just at present."</p>
+
+<p>"Why?" I asked. "I should think you had both."</p>
+
+<p>"I do not see the great variety," she answered.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you not found a new relation to-day? An interesting cousin who has
+seen the whole world ought to go far towards making a variety in life."</p>
+
+<p>"What should you think of a man, Mr. Griggs, whose brother has not been
+dead eighteen months, and whose mother is dangerously ill, perhaps
+dying, and who shows no more feeling than a stone?"</p>
+
+<p>The question came sharply and distinctly; Hermione's short lip curled in
+scorn, and the words were spoken through her closed teeth. Of course she
+was speaking of Paul Patoff. She turned to me for an answer, and there
+was an angry light in her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Is your cousin's mother very ill?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"She is not really dying, but she can never get well. Oh, Mr. Griggs,"
+she cried, clasping her hands together on her knees, and leaning back in
+her seat, "I wish I could tell you all about it! I am sure you might do
+some good, but they would be very angry if I told you. I wonder whether
+he is really so hard-hearted as he looks!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no," I answered. "Men who have lived so much in the world learn to
+conceal their feelings."</p>
+
+<p>"It is not thought good manners to have any feeling, is it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Most people try to hide what they feel. What is good of showing every
+one that you are hurt, when nobody can do anything to help you? It is
+undignified to make an exhibition of sorrow for the benefit of one's
+neighbors."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps. But I almost think aunt Chrysophrasia is right: the world was
+a nicer place, and life was more interesting, when everybody showed what
+they felt, and fought for what they wanted, and ran away with people
+they loved, and killed people they hated."</p>
+
+<p>"I think you would get very tired of it," I said, laughing. "It is
+uncomfortable to live in constant danger of one's life. You used not to
+talk so, Miss Carvel; what has happened to you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I do not know; everything is happening that ought not. I should
+think you might see that we are all very anxious. But I do not half
+understand it myself. Will you not tell me a story, and help me to
+forget all about it? Here comes papa with Professor Cutter, looking
+graver than ever; they have been to see&mdash;I mean they have been talking
+about it again."</p>
+
+<p>"Once upon a time there was a"&mdash;&mdash; I stopped. John Carvel came straight
+across the room to where we were sitting.</p>
+
+<p>"Griggs," he said, in a low voice, "will you come with me for a moment?"
+I sprang to my feet. John laid his hand upon my arm; he was very pale.
+"Don't look as though anything were the matter," he added.</p>
+
+<p>Accordingly I sauntered across the room, and made a show of stopping a
+moment before the fire to warm my hands and listen to the general
+conversation that was going on there. Presently I walked away, and John
+followed me. As I passed, I looked at the professor, who seemed already
+absorbed in listening to one of Chrysophrasia's speeches. He did not
+return my glance, and I left the room with my friend. A moment later we
+were in his study. A student's lamp with a green shade burned steadily
+upon the table, and there was a bright fire on the hearth. A huge
+writing-table filled the centre of the room, covered with papers and
+pamphlets. John did not sit down, but stood leaning back against a heavy
+bookcase, with one hand behind him.</p>
+
+<p>"Griggs," he said, and his voice trembled with excitement, "I am going
+to ask you a favor, and in order to ask it I am obliged to take you into
+my confidence."</p>
+
+<p>"I am ready," said I. "You can trust me."</p>
+
+<p>"Since you were here last, very painful things have occurred. In
+consequence of the death of her eldest son, and of certain circumstances
+attending it which I need not, cannot, detail, my wife's sister, Madame
+Patoff, became insane about eighteen months ago. Professor Cutter
+chanced to be with her at the time, and informed me at once. Her
+husband, as you know, died twenty years ago, and Paul was away, so that
+Cutter was so good as to take care of her. He said her only chance of
+recovery lay in being removed to her native country and carefully
+nursed. Thank God, I am rich. I received her here, and she has been here
+ever since. Do not look surprised. For the sake of all I have taken
+every precaution to keep her absolutely removed from us, though we visit
+her from time to time. Cutter told me that dreadful story of her trying
+to kill herself in Suabia. He has just informed me that it was you who
+saved both her life and his with your rope,&mdash;not knowing either of them.
+I need not tell you my gratitude."</p>
+
+<p>John paused, and grasped my hand; his own was cold and moist.</p>
+
+<p>"It was nothing," I said. "I did not even incur any danger; it was
+Cutter who risked his life."</p>
+
+<p>"No matter," continued Carvel. "It was you who saved them both. From
+that time she has recognized no one. Cutter brought her here, and the
+north wing of the house was fitted up for her. He has come from time to
+time to see her, and she has proper attendants. You never see them nor
+her, for she has a walled garden,&mdash;the one against which the hot-houses
+and the tennis-court are built. Of course the servants know,&mdash;everybody
+in the house knows all about it; but this is a huge old place, and there
+is plenty of room. It is not thought safe to take her out, and there
+appears to be something so peculiar about her insanity that Cutter
+discourages the idea of the ordinary treatment of placing the patient in
+the company of other insane, giving them all manner of amusement, and so
+on. He seems to think that if she is left alone, and is well cared for,
+seeing only, from time to time, the faces of persons she has known
+before, she may recover."</p>
+
+<p>"I trust so, indeed," I said earnestly.</p>
+
+<p>"We all pray that she may, poor thing!" rejoined Carvel, very sadly.</p>
+
+<p>"Now listen. Her son. Paul Patoff, arrived this morning, and insisted
+upon seeing her this afternoon. Cutter said it could do no harm, as she
+probably would not recognize him. To our astonishment and delight she
+knew him at once for her son, though she treated him with a coldness
+almost amounting to horror. She stepped back from him, and folded her
+arms, only saying, over and over again, 'Paul, why did you come
+here,&mdash;why did you come?' We could get nothing more from her than that,
+and at the end of ten minutes we left her. She seemed very much
+exhausted, excited, too, and the nurse who was with her advised us to
+go."</p>
+
+<p>"It is a great step, however, that she should have recognized any one,
+especially her own son," I remarked.</p>
+
+<p>"So Cutter holds. She never takes the least notice of him. But he has
+suggested to me that while she is still in this humor it would be worth
+while trying whether she has any recollection of you. He says that
+anything which recalls so violent a shock as the one she experienced
+when you saved her life may possibly recall a connected train of
+thought, even though it be a very painful reminiscence; and anything
+which helps memory helps recovery. He considers hers the most
+extraordinary case he has ever seen, and he must have seen a great many;
+he says that there is almost always some delusion, some fixed idea, in
+insanity. Madame Patoff seems to have none, but she has absolutely no
+recognition for any one, nor any memory for events beyond a few minutes.
+She can hardly be induced to speak at all, but will sit quite still for
+hours with any book that is given her, turning over the pages
+mechanically. She has a curious fancy for big books, and will always
+select the thickest from a number of volumes; but whether or not she
+retains any impression of what she reads, or whether, in fact, she
+really reads at all, it is quite impossible to say. She will sometimes
+answer 'yes' or 'no' to a question, but she will give opposite answers
+to the same question in five minutes. She will stare stolidly at any one
+who talks to her consecutively; or will simply turn away, and close her
+eyes as though she were going to sleep. In other respects she is in
+normal health. She eats little, but regularly, and sleeps soundly; goes
+out into her garden at certain hours, and seems to enjoy fine weather,
+and to be annoyed when it rains. She is not easily startled by a sudden
+noise, or the abrupt appearance of those of us who go to see her. Cutter
+does not know what to make of it. She was once a very beautiful woman,
+and is still as handsome as a woman can be at fifty. Cutter says that if
+she had softening of the brain she would behave very differently, and
+that if she had become feeble-minded the decay of her faculties would
+show in her face; but there is nothing of that observable in her. She
+has as much dignity and beauty as ever, and, excepting when she stares
+blankly at those who talk to her, her face is intelligent, though very
+sad."</p>
+
+<p>"Poor lady!" I said. "How old did you say she is?"</p>
+
+<p>"She must be fifty-two, in her fifty-third year. Her hair is gray, but
+it is not white."</p>
+
+<p>"Had she any children besides Paul and his brother?"</p>
+
+<p>"No. I know very little of her family life. It was a love match; but old
+Patoff was rich. I never heard that they quarreled. Alexander entered
+the army, and remained in a guard regiment in St. Petersburg, while Paul
+went into the diplomacy. Madame Patoff must have spent much of her time
+with Alexander until he died, and Cutter says he was always the favorite
+son. I dare say that Paul has a bad temper, and he may have been
+extravagant. At all events, she loved Alexander devotedly, and it was
+his death that first affected her mind."</p>
+
+<p>John had grown more calm during this long conversation. To tell the
+truth, I did not precisely understand why he should have looked so pale
+and seemed so anxious, seeing that the news of Madame Patoff was
+decidedly of an encouraging nature. I myself was too much astonished at
+learning that the insane lady was actually an inmate of the house, and I
+was too much interested at the prospect of seeing her so soon, to think
+much of John and his anxiety; but on looking back I remember that his
+mournful manner produced a certain impression upon me at the moment.</p>
+
+<p>The story was strange enough. I began to comprehend what Hermione had
+meant when she spoke of Paul's cold nature. An hour before dinner the
+man had seen his mother for the first time in eighteen months,&mdash;it might
+be more, for all I knew,&mdash;for the first time since she had been out of
+her mind. I had learned from John that she had recognized him, indeed,
+but had coldly repulsed him when he came before her. If Paul Patoff had
+been a warm-hearted man, he could not have been at that very moment
+making conversation for his cousins in the drawing-room, laughing and
+chatting, his eyeglass in his eye, his bony fingers toying with the
+flower Chrysophrasia had given him. It struck me that neither Mrs.
+Carvel nor her sister could have known of the interview, or they would
+have manifested some feeling, or at least would not have behaved just as
+they always did. I asked John if they knew.</p>
+
+<p>"No," he answered. "He told my daughter because he broke off his
+conversation with her to go and see his mother, but Hermy never tells
+anything except to me."</p>
+
+<p>"When would you like me to go?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, if you will. I will call Cutter. He thinks that, as she last saw
+you with him, your coming together now will be more likely to recall
+some memory of the accident. Besides, it is better to go this evening,
+before she has slept, as the return of memory this afternoon may have
+been very transitory, and anything which might stimulate it again should
+be tried before the mood changes. Will you go now?"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly," I replied, and John Carvel left the room to call the
+professor.</p>
+
+<p>While I was waiting alone in the study, I happened to take up a pamphlet
+that lay upon the table. It was something about the relations of England
+with Russia. An idea crossed my mind.</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder," I said to myself, "whether they have ever tried speaking to
+her in Russian. Cutter does not know a word of the language; I suppose
+nobody else here does, either, except Paul, and she seems to have spoken
+to him in English."</p>
+
+<p>The door opened, and John entered with the professor. I laid down the
+pamphlet, and prepared to accompany them.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose Carvel has told you all that I could not tell you, Mr.
+Griggs," said the learned man, eying me through his glasses with an air
+of inquiry, and slowly rubbing his enormous hands together.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," I said. "I understand that we are about to make an experiment in
+order to ascertain if this unfortunate lady will recognize me."</p>
+
+<p>"Precisely. It is not impossible that she may know you, though, if she
+saw you at all, it was only for a moment. You have a very striking face
+and figure, and you have not changed in the least. Besides, the moment
+was that in which she experienced an awful shock. Such things are
+sometimes photographed on the mind."</p>
+
+<p>"Has she never recognized you in any way?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Never since that day at Weissenstein. There is just a faint possibility
+that when she sees us together she may recall that catastrophe. I think
+Carvel had better stay behind."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well," said John, "I will leave you at the door."</p>
+
+<p>Carvel led the way to the great hall, and then turned through a passage
+I had never entered. The narrow corridor was brightly lighted by a
+number of lamps; at the end of it we came to a massive door. John took a
+little key from a niche in the wall, and inserted it in the small metal
+plate of the patent lock.</p>
+
+<p>"Cutter will lead you now," he said, as he pushed the heavy mahogany
+back upon its hinges. Beyond it the passage continued, still brilliantly
+illuminated, to a dark curtain which closed the other end. It was very
+warm. Carvel closed the door behind us, and the professor and I
+proceeded alone.</p>
+
+
+
+<h2 class="m"><a name="X" id="X"></a>X.</h2>
+
+
+<p>The professor pushed aside the heavy curtain, and we entered a small
+room, simply furnished with a couple of tables, a bookcase, one or two
+easy-chairs, and a divan. The walls were dark, and the color of the
+curtains and carpet was a dark green, but two large lamps illuminated
+every corner of the apartment. At one of the tables a middle-aged woman
+sat reading; as we entered she looked up at us, and I saw that she was
+one of the nurses in charge of Madame Patoff. She wore a simple gown of
+dark material, and upon her head a dainty cap of French appearance was
+pinned, with a certain show of taste. The nurse had a kindly face and
+quiet eyes, accustomed, one would think, to look calmly upon sights
+which would astonish ordinary people. Her features were strongly marked,
+but gentle in expression and somewhat pale, and as she sat facing us,
+her large white hands were folded together on the foot of the open page,
+with an air of resolution that seemed appropriate to her character. She
+rose deliberately to her feet, as we came forward, and I saw that she
+was short, though when seated I should have guessed her to be tall.</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. North," said the professor, "this is my friend Mr. Griggs, who
+formerly knew Madame Patoff. I have hopes that she may recognize him.
+Can we see her now?"</p>
+
+<p>"If you will wait one moment," answered Mrs. North, "I will see whether
+you may go in." Her voice was like herself, calm and gentle, but with a
+ring of strength and determination in it that was very attractive. She
+moved to the door opposite to the one by which we had entered, and
+opened it cautiously; after looking in, she turned and beckoned to us
+to advance. We went in, and she softly closed the door behind us.</p>
+
+<p>I shall never forget the impression made upon me when I saw Madame
+Patoff. She was tall, and, though she was much over fifty years of age,
+her figure was erect and commanding, slight, but of good proportion;
+whether by nature, or owing to her mental disease, it seemed as though
+she had escaped the effects of time, and had she concealed her hair with
+a veil she might easily have passed for a woman still young. Mary Carvel
+had been beautiful, and was beautiful still in a matronly, old-fashioned
+way; Hermione was beautiful after another and a smaller manner, slender
+and delicate and lovely; but Madame Patoff belonged to a very different
+category. She was on a grander scale, and in her dark eyes there was
+room for deeper feeling than in the gentle looks of her sister and
+niece. One could understand how in her youth she had braved the
+opposition of father and mother and sisters, and had married the
+brilliant Russian, and had followed him to the ends of the earth during
+ten years, through peace and through war, till he died. One could
+understand how some great trouble and despair, which would send a
+duller, gentler soul to prayers and sad meditations, might have driven
+this grand, passionate creature to the very defiance of all despair and
+trouble, into the abyss of a self-sought death. I shuddered when I
+remembered that I had seen this very woman suspended in mid-air, her
+life depending on the slender strength of a wild cherry tree upon the
+cliff side. I had seen her, and yet had not seen her; for the sudden
+impression of that terrible moment bore little or no relation to the
+calmer view of the present time.</p>
+
+<p>Madame Patoff stood before us, dressed in a close-fitting gown of black
+velvet, closed at the throat with a clasp of pearls; her thick hair,
+just turning gray, was coiled in masses low behind her head, drawn back
+in long broad waves on each side, in the manner of the Greeks. Her
+features, slightly aquiline and strongly defined, wore an expression of
+haughty indifference, not at all like the stolid stare which John Carvel
+had described to me, and though her dark eyes gazed upon us without
+apparent recognition, their look was not without intelligence. She had
+been walking up and down in the long drawing-room where we found her,
+and she had paused in her walk as we entered, standing beneath a
+chandelier which carried five lamps; there were others upon the wall,
+high up on brackets and beyond her reach. There was no fireplace, but
+the air was very warm, heated, I suppose, by some concealed apparatus.
+The furniture consisted of deep chairs, lounges and divans of every
+description; three or four bookcases were filled with books, and there
+were many volumes piled in a disorderly fashion upon the different
+tables, and some lay upon the floor beside a cushioned lounge, which
+looked as though it were the favorite resting-place of the inmate of the
+apartment. At first sight it seemed to me that few precautions were
+observed; the nurse was seated in an outer apartment, and Madame Patoff
+was quite alone and free. But the room where she was left was so
+constructed that she could do herself no harm. There was no fire; the
+lamps were all out of reach; the windows were locked, and she could only
+go out by passing through the antechamber where the nurse was watching.
+There was a singular lack of all those little objects which encumbered
+the drawing-room of Carvel Place; there was not a bit of porcelain or
+glass, nor a paper-knife, nor any kind of metal object. There were a few
+pictures upon the walls, and the walls themselves were hung with a light
+gray material, that looked like silk and brilliantly reflected the
+strong light, making an extraordinary background for Madame Patoff's
+figure, clad as she was in black velvet and white lace.</p>
+
+<p>We stood before her, Cutter and I, for several seconds, watching for
+some change of expression in her face. He had hoped that my sudden
+appearance would arouse a memory in her disordered mind. I understood
+his anxiety, but it appeared to me very unlikely that when she failed to
+recognize him she should remember me. For some moments she gazed upon
+me, and then a slight flush rose to her pale cheeks, her fixed stare
+wavered, and her eyes fell. I could hear Cutter's long-drawn breath of
+excitement. She clasped her hands together and turned away, resuming her
+walk. It was strange,&mdash;perhaps she really remembered.</p>
+
+<p>"He saved your life in Weissenstein," said Cutter, in loud, clear tones.
+"You ought to thank him for it,&mdash;you never did."</p>
+
+<p>The unhappy woman paused in her walk, stood still, then came swiftly
+towards us, and again paused. Her face had changed completely in its
+expression. Her teeth were closely set together, and her lip curled in
+scorn, while a dark flush overspread her pale face, and her hands
+twisted each other convulsively.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you remember Weissenstein?" asked the professor, in the same
+incisive voice, and through his round glasses he fixed his commanding
+glance upon her. But as he looked her eyes grew dull, and the blush
+subsided from her cheek. With a low, short laugh she turned away.</p>
+
+<p>I started. I had forgotten the laugh behind the latticed wall, and if I
+had found time to reflect I should have known, from what John Carvel had
+told me, that it could have come from no one but the mad lady, who had
+been walking in the garden with her nurse, on that bright evening. It
+was the same low, rippling sound, silvery and clear, and it came so
+suddenly that I was startled. I thought that the professor sighed as he
+heard it. It was, perhaps, a strong evidence of insanity. In all my life
+of wandering and various experience I have chanced to be thrown into the
+society of but one insane person besides Madame Patoff. That was a
+curious case: a hardy old sea-captain, who chanced to make a fortune
+upon the New York stock exchange, and went stark mad a few weeks later.
+His madness seemed to come from elation at his success, and it was very
+curious to watch its progress, and very sad. He was a strong man, and in
+all his active life had never touched liquor nor tobacco. Nothing but
+wealth could have driven him out of his mind; but within two months of
+his acquiring a fortune he was confined in an asylum, and within the
+year he died of softening of the brain. I only mention this to show you
+that I had had no experience of insanity worth speaking of before I met
+Madame Patoff. I knew next to nothing of the signs of the disease.</p>
+
+<p>Madame Patoff turned away, and crossed the room; then she sank down upon
+the lounge which I have described as surrounded with books, and, taking
+a volume in her hand, she began to read, with the utmost unconcern.</p>
+
+<p>"Come," said the professor, "we may as well go."</p>
+
+<p>"Wait a minute," I suggested. "Stay where you are." Cutter looked at me,
+and shrugged his shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>"You can't do any harm," he replied, indifferently. "I think she has a
+faint remembrance of you."</p>
+
+<p>You know I can speak the Russian language fairly well, for I have lived
+some time in the country. It had struck me, while I was waiting in the
+study, that it would be worth while to try the effect of a remark in a
+tongue with which Madame Patoff had been familiar for over thirty years.
+I went quietly up to the couch where she was lying, and spoke to her.</p>
+
+<p>"I am sorry I saved your life, since you wished to die," I said, in a
+low voice, in Russian. "Forgive me."</p>
+
+<p>Madame Patoff started violently, and her white hands closed upon her
+book with such force that the strong binding bent and cracked. Cutter
+could not have seen this, for I was between him and her. She looked up
+at me, and fixed her dark eyes on mine. There was a great sadness in
+them, and at the same time a certain terror, but she did not speak.
+However, as I had made an impression, I addressed her again in the same
+language.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you remember seeing Paul to-day?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Paul?" she repeated, in a soft, sad voice, that seemed to stir the
+heart into sympathy. "Paul is dead."</p>
+
+<p>I thought it might have been her husband's name as well as her son's.</p>
+
+<p>"I mean your son. He was with you to-day; you were unkind to him."</p>
+
+<p>"Was I?" she asked. "I have no son." Still her eyes gazed into mine as
+though searching for something, and as I looked I thought the tears rose
+in them and trembled, but they did not overflow. I was profoundly
+surprised. They had told me that she had no memory for any one, and yet
+she seemed to have told me that her husband was dead,&mdash;if indeed his
+name had been Paul,&mdash;and although she said she had no son, her tears
+rose at the mention of him. Probably for the very reason that I had not
+then had any experience of insane persons, the impression formed itself
+in my mind that this poor lady was not mad, after all. It seemed madness
+on my own part to doubt the evidence before me,&mdash;the evidence of
+attendants trained to the duty of watching lunatics, the assurances of a
+man who had grown famous by studying diseases of the brain as Professor
+Cutter had, the unanimous opinion of Madame Patoff's family. How could
+they all be mistaken? Besides, she might have been really mad, and she
+might be now recovering; this might be one of her first lucid moments. I
+hardly knew how to continue, but I was so much interested by her first
+answers that I felt I must say something.</p>
+
+<p>"Why do you say you have no son! He is here in the house; you have seen
+him to-day. Your son is Paul Patoff. He loves you, and has come to see
+you."</p>
+
+<p>Again the low, silvery laugh came rippling from her lips. She let the
+book fall from her hands upon her lap, and leaned far back upon the
+couch.</p>
+
+<p>"Why do you torment me so?" she asked. "I tell you I have no son." Again
+she laughed,&mdash;less sweetly than before. "Why do you torment me?"</p>
+
+<p>"I do not want to torment you. I will leave you. Shall I come again?"</p>
+
+<p>"Again?" she repeated, vacantly, as though not understanding. But as I
+stood beside her I moved a little, and I thought her eyes rested on the
+figure of the professor, standing at the other end of the room, and her
+face expressed dislike of him, while her answer to me was a meaningless
+repetition of my own word.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," I said. "Shall I come again? Do you like to talk Russian?" This
+time she said nothing, but her eyes remained fixed upon the professor.
+"I am going," I added. "Good-by."</p>
+
+<p>She looked up suddenly. I bowed to her, out of habit, I suppose. Do
+people generally bow to insane persons? To my surprise, she put out her
+hand and took mine, and shook it, in the most natural way imaginable;
+but she did not answer me. Just as I was turning from her she spoke
+again.</p>
+
+<p>"Who are you?" she asked in English.</p>
+
+<p>"My name is Griggs," I replied, and lingered to see if she would say
+more. But she laughed again,&mdash;very little this time,&mdash;and she took up
+the book she had dropped and began to read.</p>
+
+<p>Cutter smiled, too, as we left the room. I glanced back at the graceful
+figure of the gray-haired woman, extended upon her couch. She did not
+look up, and a moment later Cutter and I stood again in the antechamber.
+The professor slowly rubbed his hands together,&mdash;his gigantic hands,
+modeled by nature for dealing with big things. Mrs. North rose from her
+reading.</p>
+
+<p>"I have an idea that our patient has recognized this gentleman," said
+the scientist. "This has been a remarkably eventful day. She is probably
+very tired, and if you could induce her to go to bed it would be a very
+good thing, Mrs. North. Good-evening."</p>
+
+<p>"Good-evening," I said. Mrs. North made a slight inclination with her
+head, in answer to our salutation. I pushed aside the heavy curtain,
+and we went out. Cutter had a pass-key to the heavy door in the passage,
+and opened it and closed it noiselessly behind us. I felt as though I
+had been in a dream, as we emerged into the dimly lighted great hall,
+where a huge fire burned in the old-fashioned fireplace, and Fang, the
+white deerhound, lay asleep upon the thick rug.</p>
+
+<p>"And now, Mr. Griggs," said the professor, stopping short and thrusting
+his hands into his pockets, "will you tell me what she said to you, and
+whether she gave any signs of intelligence?" He faced me very sharply,
+as though to disconcert me by the suddenness of his question. It was a
+habit he had.</p>
+
+<p>"She said very little," I replied. "She said that 'Paul' was dead. Was
+that her husband's name as well as her son's?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. What else?"</p>
+
+<p>"She told me she had no son; and when I reminded her that she had seen
+him that very afternoon, she laughed and answered, 'I tell you I have no
+son,&mdash;why do you torment me?' She said all that in Russian. As I was
+going away you heard her ask me who I was, in English. My name appeared
+to amuse her."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," assented Cutter, with a smile. "Was that all?"</p>
+
+<p>"That was all she said," I answered, with perfect truth. Somehow I did
+not care to tell the professor of the look I thought I had seen in her
+face when her eyes rested on him. In the first place, as he was doing
+his best to cure her, it seemed useless to tell him that I thought she
+disliked him. It might have been only my imagination. Besides, that
+nameless, undefined suspicion had crossed my brain that Madame Patoff
+was not really mad; and though her apparently meaningless words might
+have been interpreted to mean something in connection with her
+expression of face in speaking, it was all too vague to be worth
+detailing. I had determined that I would see her again and see her
+alone, before long. I might then make some discovery, or satisfy myself
+that she was really insane.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," observed the professor, "it looks as though she remembered her
+husband's death, at all events; and if she remembers that, she has the
+memory of her own identity, which is something in such cases. I think
+she faintly recognized you. That flush that came into her face was there
+when she saw her son this afternoon, so far as I can gather from
+Carvel's description. I wish they had waited for me. This remark about
+her son is very curious, too. It is more like a monomania than anything
+we have had yet. It is like a fixed idea in character; she certainly is
+not sane enough to have meant it ironically,&mdash;to have meant that Paul
+Patoff is not a son to her while thinking only of the other one who is
+dead. Did she speak Russian fluently? She has not spoken it for more
+than eighteen months,&mdash;perhaps longer."</p>
+
+<p>"She speaks it perfectly," I replied.</p>
+
+<p>"What strange tricks this brain of ours will play us!" exclaimed the
+professor. "Here is a woman who has forgotten every circumstance of her
+former life, has forgotten her friends and relations, and is puzzling us
+all with her extraordinary lack of memory, and who, nevertheless,
+remembers fluently the forms and expressions of one of the most
+complicated languages in the world. At the same time we do not think
+that she remembers what she reads. I wish we could find out. She acts
+like a person who has had an injury to some part of the head which has
+not affected the rest. But then, she never received any injury, to my
+knowledge."</p>
+
+<p>"Not even when she fell at Weissenstein?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not the least. I made a careful examination."</p>
+
+<p>"I do not see that we are likely to arrive at a conclusion by any amount
+of guessing," I remarked. "Nothing but time and experiments will show
+what is the matter with her."</p>
+
+<p>"I have not the time, and I cannot invent the experiments," replied the
+professor, impatiently. "I have a great mind to advise Carvel to put her
+into an asylum, and have done with all this sort of thing."</p>
+
+<p>"He will never consent to do that," I answered. "He evidently believes
+that she is recovering. I could see it in his face this evening. What do
+the nurses think of it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. North never says anything very encouraging, excepting that she has
+taken care of many insane women before, and remembers no case like this.
+She is a famous nurse, too. Those people, from their constant daily
+experience, sometimes understand things that we specialists do not. But
+on the other hand, she is so taciturn and cautious that she can hardly
+be induced to speak at all. The other woman is younger and more
+enthusiastic, but she has not half so much sense."</p>
+
+<p>I was silent. I was thinking that, according to all accounts, I had been
+more successful than any one hitherto, and that a possible clue to
+Madame Patoff's condition might be obtained by encouraging her to speak
+in her adopted language. Perhaps something of the sort crossed the
+professor's mind.</p>
+
+<p>"Should you like to see her again?" he inquired. "It will be interesting
+to know whether this return of memory is wholly transitory. She
+recognized her son to-day, and I think she had some recognition of you.
+You might both see her again to-morrow, and discover if the same
+symptoms present themselves."</p>
+
+<p>"I should be glad to go again," I replied. "But if I can be of any
+service, it seems to me that I ought to be informed of the circumstances
+which led to her insanity. I might have a better chance of rousing her
+attention."</p>
+
+<p>"Carvel will never consent to that," said the professor, shortly, and he
+looked away from me as I spoke.</p>
+
+<p>I was about to ask whether Cutter himself was acquainted with the whole
+story, when Fang, the dog, who had taken no notice whatever of our
+presence in the hall, suddenly sprang to his feet and trotted across the
+floor, wagging his tail. He had recognized the tread of his mistress,
+and a moment later Hermione entered and came towards us. Hermione did
+not like the professor very much, and the professor knew it; for he was
+a man of quick and intuitive perceptions, who had a marvelous
+understanding of the sympathies and antipathies of those with whom he
+was thrown. He sniffed the air rather discontentedly as the young girl
+approached, and he looked at his watch.</p>
+
+<p>"Fang has good ears, Miss Carvel," said he. "He knew your step before
+you came in."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," answered Hermione, seating herself in one of the deep chairs by
+the fireside, and caressing the dog's head as he laid his long muzzle
+upon her knee. "Poor Fang, you know your friends, don't you? Mr. Griggs,
+this new collar is always unfastening itself. I believe you have
+bewitched it! See, here it is falling off again."</p>
+
+<p>I bent down to examine the lock. The professor was not interested in the
+dog nor his collar, and, muttering something about speaking to Carvel
+before he went to bed, he left us.</p>
+
+<p>"I could not stay in there," said Hermione. "Aunt Chrysophrasia is
+talking to cousin Paul in her usual way, and Macaulay has got into a
+corner with mamma, so that I was left alone. Where have you been all
+this time?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have heard what you could not tell me," I answered. "I have been to
+see Madame Patoff with the professor."</p>
+
+<p>"Not really? Oh, I am so glad! Now I can always talk to you about it.
+Did papa tell you? Why did he want you to go?"</p>
+
+<p>I briefly explained the circumstances of my seeing Madame Patoff in the
+Black Forest, and the hope that was entertained of her recognizing me.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you ever go in to see her, Miss Carvel?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Sometimes. They do not like me to go," said she; "they think it is too
+depressing for me. I cannot tell why. Poor dear aunt! she used to be
+glad to see me. Is not it dreadfully sad? Can you imagine a man who has
+just seen his mother in such a condition, behaving as Paul Patoff
+behaves this evening? He talks as if nothing had happened."</p>
+
+<p>"No, I cannot imagine it. I suppose he does not want to make everybody
+feel badly about it."</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Griggs, is she really mad?" asked Hermione, in a low voice, leaning
+forward and clasping her hands.</p>
+
+<p>"Why," I began, very much surprised, "does anybody doubt that she is
+insane?"</p>
+
+<p>"I do," said the young girl, decidedly. "I do not believe she is any
+more insane than you and I are."</p>
+
+<p>"That is a very bold thing to say," I objected, "when a man of Professor
+Cutter's reputation in those things says that she is crazy, and gives up
+so much time to visiting her."</p>
+
+<p>"All the same," said Hermione, "I do not believe it. I am sure people
+sometimes try to kill themselves without being insane, and that is all
+it rests on."</p>
+
+<p>"But she has never recognized any one since that," I urged.</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps she is ashamed," suggested my companion, simply.</p>
+
+<p>I was struck by the reply. It was such a simple idea that it seemed
+almost foolish. But it was a woman's thought about another woman, and it
+had its value. I laughed a little, but I answered seriously enough.</p>
+
+<p>"Why should she be ashamed?"</p>
+
+<p>"It seems to me," said the young girl, "that if I had done something
+very foolish and wicked, like trying to kill myself, and if people took
+it for granted that I was crazy, I would let them believe it, because I
+should be too much ashamed of myself to allow that I had consciously
+done anything so bad. Perhaps that is very silly; do you think so?"</p>
+
+<p>"I do not think it is silly," I replied. "It is a very original idea."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I will tell you something. Soon after she was first brought here
+I used to go and see her more often than I do now. She interested me so
+much. I was often alone with her. She never answered any questions, but
+she would sometimes let me read aloud to her. I do not know whether she
+understood anything I read, but it soothed her, and occasionally she
+would go to sleep while I was reading. One day I was sitting quite
+quietly beside her, and she looked at me very sadly, as though she were
+thinking of somebody she had loved,&mdash;I cannot tell why; and without
+thinking I looked at her, and said, 'Dear aunt Annie, tell me, you are
+not really mad, are you?' Then she turned very pale and began to cry, so
+that I was frightened, and called the nurse, and went away. I never told
+anybody, because it seemed so foolish of me, and I thought I had been
+unkind, and had hurt her feelings. But after that she did not seem to
+want to see me when I came, and so I have thought a great deal about it.
+Do you see? Perhaps there is not much connection."</p>
+
+<p>"I think you ought to have told some one; your father, for instance," I
+said. "It is very interesting."</p>
+
+<p>"I have told you, though it is so long since it happened," she answered;
+and then she added, quickly, "Shall you tell Professor Cutter?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," I replied, after a moment's hesitation. "I do not think I shall.
+Should you like me to tell him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no," she exclaimed quickly, "I should much rather you would not."</p>
+
+<p>"Why?" I inquired. "I agree with you, but I should like to know your
+reason."</p>
+
+<p>"I think Professor Cutter knows more already than he will tell you or
+me"&mdash;&mdash; She checked herself, and then continued in a lower voice: "It is
+prejudice, of course, but I do not like him. I positively cannot bear
+the sight of him."</p>
+
+<p>"I fancy he knows that you do not like him," I remarked.</p>
+
+<p>"Tell me, Miss Carvel, do you know anything of the reason why Madame
+Patoff became insane? If you do know, you must not tell me what it was,
+because your father does not wish me to hear it. But I should like to be
+sure whether you know all about it or not; whether you and I judge her
+from the same point of view, or whether you are better instructed than I
+am."</p>
+
+<p>"I know nothing about it," said Hermione, quietly.</p>
+
+<p>She sat gazing into the great fire, one small hand supporting her chin,
+and the other resting upon the sharp white head of Fang, who never moved
+from her knee. There was a pause, during which we were both wondering
+what strange circumstance could have brought the unhappy woman to her
+present condition, whether it were that of real or of assumed insanity.</p>
+
+<p>"I do not know," she repeated, at last. "I wish I did; but I suppose it
+was something too dreadful to be told. There are such dreadful things in
+the world, you know."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I know there are," I answered, gravely; and in truth I was
+persuaded that the prime cause must have been extraordinary indeed,
+since even John Carvel had said that he could not tell me.</p>
+
+<p>"There are such dreadful things," Hermione said again. "Just think how
+horrible it would be if"&mdash;&mdash; She stopped short, and blushed crimson in
+the ruddy firelight.</p>
+
+<p>"What?" I asked. But she did not answer, and I saw that the idea had
+pained her, whatever it might be. Presently she turned the phrase so as
+to make it appear natural enough.</p>
+
+<p>"What a horrible thing it would be if we found that poor aunt Annie only
+let us believe she was mad, because she had done something she was sorry
+for, and would not own it!"</p>
+
+<p>"Dreadful indeed," I replied. Hermione rose from her deep chair.</p>
+
+<p>"Good-night, Mr. Griggs," she said. "I hope we may all understand
+everything some day."</p>
+
+<p>"Good-night, Miss Carvel."</p>
+
+<p>"How careful you are of the formalities!" she said, laughing. "How two
+years change everything! It used to be 'Good-night, Hermy,' so short a
+time ago!"</p>
+
+<p>"Good-night, Hermy," I said, laughing too, as she took my hand. "If you
+are old enough to be called Miss Carvel, I am old enough to call you
+Hermy still."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I did not mean that," she said, and went away.</p>
+
+<p>I sat a few minutes by the fire after she had gone, and then, fearing
+lest I should be disturbed by the professor or John Carvel, I too left
+the hall, and went to my own room, to think over the events of the day.
+I had learned so much that I was confused, and needed rest and leisure
+to reflect. That morning I had waked with a sensation of unsatisfied
+curiosity. All I had wanted to discover had been told me before
+bed-time, and more also; and now I was unpleasantly aware that this very
+curiosity was redoubled, and that, having been promoted from knowing
+nothing to knowing something, I felt I had only begun to guess how much
+there was to be known.</p>
+
+<p>Oh, this interest in other people's business! How grand and beautiful
+and simple a thing it is to mind one's own affairs, and leave other
+people to mind what concerns them! And yet I defy the most indifferent
+man alive to let himself be put in my position, and not to feel
+curiosity; to be taken into a half confidence of the most intense
+interest, and not to desire exceedingly to be trusted with the
+remainder; to be asked to consider and give an opinion upon certain
+effects, and to be deliberately informed that he may never know the
+causes which led to the results he sees.</p>
+
+<p>On mature reflection, what had struck me as most remarkable in
+connection with the whole matter was Hermione's simple, almost childlike
+guess,&mdash;that Madame Patoff was ashamed of something, and was willing to
+be considered insane, rather than let it be thought she was in
+possession of her faculties at the time when she did the deed, whatever
+it might be. That this was a conceivable hypothesis there was no manner
+of doubt, only I could hardly imagine what action, apart from the poor
+woman's attempt at suicide, could have been so serious as to persuade
+her to act insanity for the rest of her life. Surely John Carvel, with
+his great, kind heart, would not be unforgiving. But John Carvel might
+not have been concerned in the matter at all. He spoke of knowing the
+details and being unable to tell them to me, but he never said they
+concerned any one but Madame Patoff.</p>
+
+<p>Strange that Hermione should not know, either. Whatever the details
+were, they were not fit for her young ears. It was strange, too, that
+she should have conceived an antipathy for the professor. He was a man
+who was generally popular, or who at least had the faculty of making
+himself acceptable when he chose; but it was perfectly evident that the
+scientist and the young girl disliked each other. There was more in it
+than appeared upon the surface. Innocent young girls do not suddenly
+contract violent prejudices against elderly and inoffensive men who do
+not weary them or annoy them in some way; still less do men of large
+intellect and experience take unreasoning and foolish dislikes to young
+and beautiful maidens. We know little of the hidden sympathies and
+antipathies of the human heart, but we know enough to say with certainty
+that in broad cases the average human being will not, without cause, act
+wholly in contradiction to the dictates of reason and the probabilities
+of human nature.</p>
+
+<p>I lay awake long that night, and for many nights afterwards, trying to
+explain to myself these problems, and planning ways and means for
+discovering whether or not the beautiful old lady down-stairs was in her
+right mind, or was playing a shameful and wicked trick upon the man who
+sheltered her. But though other events followed each other with
+rapidity, it was long before I got at the truth and settled the
+question. Whether or not I was right in wishing to pursue the secret to
+its ultimate source and explanation, I leave you to judge. I will only
+say that, although I was at first impelled by what seems now a wretched
+and worthless curiosity, I found, as time went on, that there was such a
+multiplicity of interests at stake, that the complications were so
+singular and unexpected and the passions aroused so masterful and
+desperate, that, being in the fight, I had no choice but to fight it to
+the end. So I did my very best in helping those to whom I owed
+allegiance by all the laws of hospitality and gratitude, and in
+concentrating my whole strength and intelligence and activity in the
+discovery of an evil which I suspected from the first to be very great,
+but of which I was far from realizing the magnitude and extent.</p>
+
+<p>You will forgive my thus speaking of myself, and this apology for my
+doings at this stage of my story; but I am aware that my motives
+hitherto may have appeared contemptible, and I am anxious to have you
+understand that when I found myself suddenly placed in what I regard as
+one of the most extraordinary situations of my life, I honestly put my
+hand out, and strove to become an agent for good in that strange series
+of events into which my poor curiosity had originally brought me. And
+having thus explained and expressed myself in concluding what I may
+regard as the first part of my story, I promise that I will not trouble
+you again, dear lady, with any unnecessary asseverations of my good
+faith, nor with any useless defense of my actions; conceiving that
+although I am responsible to you for the telling of this tale, I am
+answerable to many for the part I played in the circumstances here
+related; and that, on the other hand, though no one can find much fault
+with me for my doings, none but you will have occasion to criticise my
+mode of telling them.</p>
+
+<p>Henceforth, therefore, and to the end, I will speak of events which
+happened from an historical point of view, frequently detailing
+conversations in which I took no part and scenes of which I had not at
+the time any knowledge, and only introducing myself in the first person
+when the nature of the story requires it.</p>
+
+
+
+<h2 class="m"><a name="XI" id="XI"></a>XI.</h2>
+
+
+<p>One might perhaps define the difference between Professor Cutter and
+Paul Patoff by saying that the Russian endeavored to make a favorable
+impression upon people about him, and then to lead them on by means of
+the impression he had created, whereas the scientist enjoyed feeling
+that he had a hidden power over his surroundings, while he allowed
+people to think that he was only blunt and outspoken. Essentially, there
+was between the two men the difference that exists between a diplomatist
+and a conspirator. Patoff loved to appear brilliant, to talk well, to be
+liked by everybody, and to accomplish everything by persuasion; he
+seemed to enjoy the world and his position in it, and it was part of his
+plan of life to acknowledge his little vanities, and to make others feel
+that they need only take a sufficient pride in themselves to become as
+shining lights in the social world as Paul Patoff. At a small cost to
+himself, he favored the general opinion in regard to his eccentricity,
+because the reputation of it gave him a certain amount of freedom he
+would not otherwise have enjoyed. He undertook many obligations, in his
+constant readiness to be agreeable to all men, and perhaps, if he had
+not reserved to himself the liberty of some occasional repose, he would
+have found the burden of his responsibilities intolerable. It was his
+maxim that one should never appear to refuse anything to any one, and it
+is no easy matter to do that, especially when it is necessary never to
+neglect an opportunity of gaining an advantage for one's self. For the
+whole aim of Patoff's policy at that time was selfish. He believed that
+he possessed the secret of power in his own indomitable will, and he
+cultivated the science of persuasion, until he acquired an infinite art
+in adapting the means to the end. Every kind of knowledge served him,
+and though his mind was perhaps not really profound, it was far from
+being superficial, and the surface of it which he presented when he
+chose was vast. It was impossible to speak of any question of history,
+science, ethics, or &aelig;sthetics of which Patoff was ignorant, and his
+information on most points was more than sufficient to help him in
+artfully indorsing the opinions of those about him. He was full of tact.
+It was impossible to make him disagree with any one, and yet he was so
+skillful in his conversation that he was generally thought to have a
+very sound judgment. His system was substantially one of harmless
+flattery, and he never departed from it. He reckoned on the unfathomable
+vanity of man, and he rarely was out in his reckoning; he counted upon
+woman's admiration of dominating characters, and was not disappointed,
+for women respected him, and were proportionately delighted when he
+asked their opinion.</p>
+
+<p>In this, as in all other things, the professor was the precise opposite
+of the diplomatist. Cutter affected an air of sublime simplicity, and
+cultivated a straightforward bluntness of expression which was not
+without weight. He prided himself on saying at once that he either had
+an opinion upon a subject, or had none; and if he chanced to have formed
+any judgment he was hot in its support. His intellect was really
+profound within the limits he had chosen for his activity, and his
+experience of mankind was varied and singular. He was a man who cared
+little for detail, except when details tended to elucidate the whole,
+for his first impressions were accurate and large. With his strong and
+sanguine nature he exhibited a rough frankness appropriate to his
+character. He was strong-handed, strong-minded, and strong-tongued; a
+man who loved to rule others, and who made no secret of it; impatient of
+contradiction when he stated his views, but sure never to assume a
+position in argument or in affairs which he did not believe himself
+able to maintain against all comers.</p>
+
+<p>But with this appearance of hearty honesty the scientist possessed the
+remarkable quality of discretion, not often found in sanguine
+temperaments. He loved to understand the secrets of men's lives, and to
+feel that if need be he could govern people by main force and wholly
+against their will. He could conceal anything, any knowledge he
+possessed, any strong passion he felt, with amazing skill. At the very
+time when he seemed to be most frankly speaking his mind, when he made
+his honest strength appear as open as the day, as though scorning all
+concealment and courting inquiry into his motives, he was capable of
+completely hiding his real intentions, of professing ignorance in
+matters in which he was profoundly versed, of appearing to be as cold as
+stone when his heart was as hot as fire. He was a man of violent
+passions in love and hate, unforgetting and unforgiving, who never
+relented in the pursuit of an object, nor weighed the cruelty of the
+means in comparison with the importance of the end. He had by nature a
+temperament fitted for conspiracy and planned to disarm suspicion. He
+was incomparably superior to Paul Patoff in powers of mind and in the
+art of concealment, he was equal to him in the unchanging determination
+of his will, but he was by far inferior to him in those external gifts
+which charm the world and command social success.</p>
+
+<p>These two remarkable men had met before they found themselves together
+under John Carvel's roof, but they did not appear to have been intimate.
+It was, indeed, very difficult to imagine what their relations could
+have been, for they occasionally seemed to understand each other
+perfectly upon matters not understood by the rest of us, whereas they
+sometimes betrayed a surprising ignorance in regard to each other's
+affairs.</p>
+
+<p>From the time when the professor arrived it was apparent that Hermione
+did not like him; and that Cutter was aware of the fact. It had not
+needed the young girl's own assurance to inform me of the antipathy she
+felt for the man of science. He had seen her before, but Hermione had
+suddenly grown into a young lady since his last visit, and the
+consequence was that she was thrown far more often into the society of
+the man she disliked than had been the case when she was still in the
+schoolroom. John Carvel never liked governesses, and as soon as
+practicable the last one had been discharged, so that Hermione was left
+to the society of her mother and aunt and of such visitors as chanced to
+be staying in the house. She was fond of her brother, but had seen
+little of him, and stood rather in awe of his superior genius; for
+Macaulay was a young man who possessed in a very high degree what we
+call the advantages of modern education. She loved him and looked up to
+him, but did not understand him in the least, because people who have a
+great deal of heart do not easily comprehend the nature of people who
+have little; and Macaulay Carvel's manner of talking about men, and even
+nations, as though they were mere wooden pawns, or sets of pawns,
+puzzled his sister's simpler views of humanity. Her mother did not
+always interest her, either; she was devotedly attached to her, but Mrs.
+Carvel, as she grew older, became more and more absolved in the strange
+sort of inner religious life which she had created for herself as a kind
+of stronghold in the midst of her surroundings, and when alone with her
+daughter was apt to talk too much upon serious subjects. To a young and
+beautiful girl, who felt herself entering the vestibule of the world in
+the glow of a wondrous dawn, the somewhat mournful contemplation of the
+spiritual future could not possibly have the charm such meditation
+possessed for a woman in middle age, who had passed through the halls of
+the palace of life without seeing many of its beauties, and who already,
+in the dim distance, caught sight of the shadowy gate whereby we must
+all descend from this world's sumptuous dwelling, to tread the silent
+labyrinths of the unknown future.</p>
+
+<p>Such society as Mrs. Carvel's was not good for Hermione. It is not good
+for any girl. It is before all things important that youth should be
+young, lest it should not know how to be old when age comes upon it. Nor
+is there anything that should be further removed from youth than the
+contemplation of death, which to old age is but a haven of rest to be
+desired, whereas to those who are still young it is an abyss to be
+abhorred. It is well to say, "<i>Memento, homo, quia pulvis es</i>," but not
+to say it too often, lest the dust of individual human existence make
+cobwebs in the existence of humanity.</p>
+
+<p>As for her aunt Chrysophrasia, Hermione liked to talk to her, because
+Miss Dabstreak was amusing, with her everlasting paradoxes upon
+everything; and because, not being by nature of an evil heart, and
+desiring to be eccentric beyond her fellows, she was not altogether
+averse to the mild martyrdom of being thought ridiculous by those who
+held contrary opinions. Nevertheless, her aunt's company did not satisfy
+all Hermione's want of society, and the advent of strangers, even of
+myself, was hailed by her with delight. The fact of her conceiving a
+particular antipathy for the professor was therefore all the more
+remarkable, because she rarely shunned the society of any one with whom
+she had an opportunity of exchanging ideas. But Cutter did not like to
+be disliked, and he sought an occasion of making her change her mind in
+regard to him. A few days after my visit to Madame Patoff, the professor
+found his chance. Macaulay Carvel, Paul Patoff, and I left the house
+early to ride to a distant meet, for Patoff had expressed his desire to
+follow the hounds, and, as usual, everybody was anxious to oblige him.</p>
+
+<p>After breakfast the professor watched until he saw Hermione enter the
+conservatory, where she usually spent a part of the morning alone among
+the flowers; sometimes making an elaborate inspection of the plants she
+loved best, sometimes sitting for an hour or two with a book in some
+remote corner, among the giant tropical leaves and the bright-colored
+blossoms. She loved not only the flowers, but the warmth of the place,
+in the bitter winter weather.</p>
+
+<p>Cutter entered with a supremely unconscious air, as though he believed
+there was no one in the conservatory. There was nothing professorial
+about his appearance, except his great spectacles, through which he
+gazed benignly at the luxuriant growth of plants, as he advanced, his
+hands in the pockets of his plaid shooting-coat. He was dressed as any
+other man might be in the country; he had selected an unostentatious
+plaid for the material of his clothes, and he wore a colored tie, which
+just showed beneath the wave of his thick beard. He trod slowly but
+firmly, putting his feet down as though prepared to prove his right to
+the ground he trod on.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! Are you here, Miss Carvel?" he exclaimed, as he caught sight of
+Hermione installed in a cane chair behind some plants. She was not much
+pleased at being disturbed, but she looked up with a slight smile,
+willing to be civil.</p>
+
+<p>"Since you ask me, I am," she replied.</p>
+
+<p>"Whereas if I had not asked you, you would have affected not to be here,
+you mean? How odd it is that just when one sees a person one should
+always ask them if one sees them or not! In this case, I suppose the
+pleasure of seeing you was so great that I doubted the evidence of my
+senses. Is that the way to turn a speech?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is a way of turning one, certainly," answered Hermione. "There may
+be other ways. I have not much experience of people who turn speeches."</p>
+
+<p>"I have had great experience of them," said the professor, "and I
+confess to you that I consider the practice of turning everything into
+compliment as a disagreeable and tiresome humbug."</p>
+
+<p>"I was just thinking the same thing," said Hermione.</p>
+
+<p>"Then we shall agree."</p>
+
+<p>"Provided you practice what you preach, we shall."</p>
+
+<p>"Did you ever know me to preach what I did not practice?" asked Cutter,
+with a smile of honest amusement.</p>
+
+<p>"I have not known much of you, either in preaching or in practicing, as
+yet. We shall see."</p>
+
+<p>"Shall I begin now?"</p>
+
+<p>"If you like," answered the young girl.</p>
+
+<p>"Which shall it be, preaching or practicing?"</p>
+
+<p>"I should say that, as you have me entirely at your mercy, the
+opportunity is favorable for preaching."</p>
+
+<p>"I would not make such an unfair use of my advantage," said the
+professor. "I detest preaching. In practice I never preach"&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"You are making too much conversation out of those two words,"
+interrupted Hermione. "If I let you go on, you will be making puns upon
+them."</p>
+
+<p>"You do not like puns?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think nothing is more contemptible."</p>
+
+<p>"Merely because that way of being funny is grown old-fashioned," said
+Cutter. "Fifty or sixty years ago, a hundred years ago, when a man
+wanted to be very bitingly sarcastic, he would compose a criticism upon
+his enemy which was only a long string of abominable puns; each pun was
+printed in italics. That was thought to be very funny."</p>
+
+<p>"You would not imitate that sort of fun, would you?" asked Hermione.</p>
+
+<p>"No. You would think it no joke if I did," answered Cutter, gravely.</p>
+
+<p>"I am not going to laugh," said Hermione. But she laughed, nevertheless.</p>
+
+<p>"Pray do not laugh if you do not want to," said Cutter. "I am used to
+being thought dull. Your gravity would not wound me though I were chief
+clown to the whole universe, and yours were the only grave face in the
+world. By the by, you are laughing, I see. I am much obliged for the
+appreciation. Shall I go on being funny?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not if you can help it," said Hermione.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you insinuate that I am naturally an object for laughter?" asked
+Cutter, smiling. "Do you mean that 'I am not only witty in myself, but
+the cause that wit is in other men'? If so, I may yet make you spend a
+pleasant hour in despite of yourself, without any great effort on my own
+part. I will sit here, and you shall laugh at me. The morning will pass
+very agreeably."</p>
+
+<p>"I should think you might find something better to do," returned
+Hermione. "But they say that small things amuse great minds."</p>
+
+<p>"If I had a great mind, do you think I should look upon it as a small
+thing to be laughed at by you, Miss Carvel?" inquired Cutter, quietly.</p>
+
+<p>"You offer yourself so readily to be my laughing-stock that I am forced
+to consider what you offer a small thing," returned his companion.</p>
+
+<p>"You are exceedingly sarcastic. In that case, I have not a great mind,
+as you supposed."</p>
+
+<p>"You are fishing for a compliment, I presume."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps. I wish you would pay me compliments&mdash;in earnest. I am vain. I
+like to be appreciated. You do not like me,&mdash;I should like to be liked
+by you."</p>
+
+<p>"You are talking nonsense, Professor Cutter," said the young girl,
+raising her eyebrows a little. "If I did not like you, it would be
+uncivil of you to say you had found it out, unless I treated you
+rudely."</p>
+
+<p>"It may be nonsense, Miss Carvel. I speak according to my lights."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I should say that for a luminary of science your light is very
+limited," returned Hermione.</p>
+
+<p>"In future I will hide my light under a bushel, since it displeases
+you."</p>
+
+<p>"Something smaller than a bushel would serve the purpose. But it does
+not please me that you should be in the dark; I would rather you had
+more light."</p>
+
+<p>"You have only to look at me," said the scientist, with a laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"I thought you professed not to make silly compliments. My mother tells
+me that the true light should come from within," added Hermione, with a
+little scorn.</p>
+
+<p>"Religious enthusiasts, who make those phrases, spend their lives in
+studying themselves," retorted Cutter. "They think they see light where
+they most wish to find it. I spend my time in studying other people."</p>
+
+<p>"I should think you would find it vastly more interesting."</p>
+
+<p>"I do; especially when you are one of the people I am permitted to
+study."</p>
+
+<p>"If you think I will permit it long, you are mistaken," said Hermione,
+who was beginning to lose her temper, without precisely knowing why. She
+took up her book and a piece of embroidery she had brought with her, as
+though she would go.</p>
+
+<p>"You cannot help my making a study of you," returned the professor,
+calmly. "If you leave me now, I regard it as an interesting feature in
+your case."</p>
+
+<p>"I will afford you that much interest, at all events," answered
+Hermione, rising to her feet. She was annoyed, and the blood rose to her
+delicate cheeks, while her downcast lashes hid the anger in her eyes.
+But she did not know the man, if she thought he would let himself be
+treated so lightly. She knew neither him nor his weapons.</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Carvel, permit me to ask your forgiveness," he said. "I am so fond
+of hearing myself talk that my tongue runs away with me."</p>
+
+<p>"Why do you tease me so?" asked Hermione, suddenly raising her eyes and
+facing Cutter. But before he could answer her she laid down her work and
+her book, and walked slowly away from him. She reached the opposite side
+of the broad conservatory, and turned back.</p>
+
+<p>Cutter's whole manner had changed the moment he saw that she was
+seriously annoyed. He knew well enough that he had said nothing for
+which the girl could be legitimately angry, but he understood her
+antipathy to him too well not to know that it could easily be excited at
+any moment to an open expression of dislike. On the present occasion,
+however, he had resolved to fathom, if possible, the secret cause of the
+feeling the beautiful Hermione entertained against him.</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Carvel," he said, very gently, as she advanced again towards him,
+"I like to talk to you, of all people, but you do not like me,&mdash;forgive
+my saying it, for I am in earnest,&mdash;and I lose my temper because I
+cannot find out why."</p>
+
+<p>Hermione stood still for a moment, and looked straight into the
+professor's eyes; she saw that they met hers with such an honest
+expression of regret that her heart was touched. She stooped and picked
+a flower, and held it in her hand some seconds before she answered.</p>
+
+<p>"It was I who was wrong," she said, presently. "Let us be friends. It is
+not that I do not like you,&mdash;really I believe it is not that. It is
+that, somehow, you do manage to&mdash;to tease me, I suppose." She blushed.
+"I am sure you do not mean it. It is very foolish of me, I know."</p>
+
+<p>"If you could only tell me exactly where my fault lies," said Cutter,
+earnestly, "I am sure I would never commit it again. You do not
+seriously believe that I ever intend to annoy you?"</p>
+
+<p>"N&mdash;no," hesitated Hermione. "No, you do not intend to annoy me, and yet
+I think it amuses you sometimes to see that I am angry about nothing."</p>
+
+<p>"It does not amuse me," said Cutter. "My tongue gets the better of me,
+and then I am very sorry afterwards. Let us be friends, as you say. We
+have more serious things to think of than quarreling in our
+conversation. Say you forgive me, as freely as I say that it has been my
+fault."</p>
+
+<p>There was something so natural and humble in the way the man spoke that
+Hermione had no choice but to put out her hand and agree to the truce.
+Professor Cutter was as old as her father, though he looked ten years
+younger, or more; he had a world-wide reputation in more than one branch
+of science; he was altogether what is called a celebrated man; and he
+stood before her asking to "make friends," as simply as a schoolboy.
+Hermione had no choice.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course," she answered, and then added with a smile, "only you must
+really not tease me any more."</p>
+
+<p>"I won't," said Cutter, emphatically.</p>
+
+<p>They sat down again, side by side, and were silent for some moments. It
+seemed to Hermione as though she had made an important compact, and she
+did not feel altogether certain of the result. She could have laughed at
+the idea that her making up her differences with the professor was of
+any real importance in her life, but nevertheless she felt that it was
+so, and she was inclined to think over what she had done. Her hands lay
+folded upon her lap, and she idly gazed at them, and thought how small
+and white they looked upon the dark blue serge. Cutter spoke first.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose," he began, "that when we are not concerned with our own
+immediate affairs, we are all of us thinking of the same thing. Indeed,
+though we live very much as though nothing were the matter, we are
+constantly aware that one subject occupies us all alike."</p>
+
+<p>To tell the truth, Hermione was not at that moment thinking of poor
+Madame Patoff. She raised her eyes with an inquiring glance.</p>
+
+<p>"I am very much preoccupied," continued the professor. "I have not the
+least idea whether we have done wisely in allowing Paul to see his
+mother."</p>
+
+<p>"If she knew him, I imagine it was a good thing," answered Hermione.
+"How long is it since they met?"</p>
+
+<p>"Eighteen months, or more. They met last in very painful circumstances,
+I believe. You see the impression was strong enough to outlive her
+insanity. She was not glad to see him."</p>
+
+<p>"Why will they not tell me what drove her mad?" asked Hermione.</p>
+
+<p>"It is not a very nice story," answered the professor. "It is probably
+on account of Paul." There was a short pause.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you mean that she went mad on account of something Paul did?" asked
+Hermione presently.</p>
+
+<p>"I am not sure I can tell you that. I wish you could know the whole
+story, but your father would never consent to it, I am sure."</p>
+
+<p>"If it is not nice, I do not wish to hear it," said Hermione, quietly.
+"I only wanted to know about Paul. You gave me the impression that it
+was in some way his fault."</p>
+
+<p>"In some way it was," replied Cutter. "Poor lady,&mdash;I am not sure we
+should have let her see him."</p>
+
+<p>"Does she suffer much, do you think?"</p>
+
+<p>"No. If she suffered much, she would fall ill and probably die. I do not
+think she has any consciousness of her situation. I have known people
+like that who were mad only three or four days in the week. She never
+has a lucid moment. I am beginning to think it is hopeless, and we might
+as well advise your father to have her taken to a private asylum. The
+experiment would be interesting."</p>
+
+<p>"Why?" asked Hermione. "She gives nobody any trouble here. It would be
+unkind. She is not violent, nor anything of that sort. We should all
+feel dreadfully if anything happened to her in the asylum. Besides, I
+thought it was a great thing that she should have known Paul yesterday."</p>
+
+<p>"Not so great as one might fancy. I think that if there were much chance
+of her recovery, the recognition of her son ought to have brought back a
+long train of memories, amounting almost to a lucid interval."</p>
+
+<p>"I understood that you had spoken more hopefully last night," said
+Hermione, doubtfully. "You seem discouraged to-day."</p>
+
+<p>"With most people it is necessary to appear hopeful at any price,"
+answered Cutter. "I feel that with you I am perfectly safe in saying
+precisely what I think. You will not misinterpret what I say, nor repeat
+it to every other member of the household."</p>
+
+<p>"No, indeed. I am glad you tell me the truth, but I had hoped it was not
+as bad as you say."</p>
+
+<p>"Your aunt is very mad indeed, Miss Carvel," said the professor.</p>
+
+<p>I may observe, in passing, that what the professor said to me differed
+very materially from what he said to Hermione, a circumstance we did not
+discover until a later date. For Hermione, having given her promise not
+to repeat what Cutter told her about her aunt, kept it faithfully, and
+did not even assume an air of superiority when speaking about the case
+to others. She believed exactly what the professor said, namely, that he
+trusted her, and no one else, with his true views of the matter; and
+that, to all others, he assumed an air of hopefulness very far removed
+from his actual state of mind.</p>
+
+<p>Singularly,&mdash;or naturally, as you look at it,&mdash;the result of the
+conversation between Hermione and the professor was the complete
+disappearance, for some time, of all their differences. Cutter ceased to
+annoy her with his sharp answers to all she said, and she showed a
+growing interest in him and in his conversation. They were frequently
+seen talking together, apparently taking pleasure in each other's
+society, a fact which I alone noticed as interesting, for Patoff had not
+been long enough at Carvel Place to discover that there had ever been
+any antipathy between the two. On looking back, I ascribe the change to
+the influence Cutter obtained over Hermione by suddenly affecting a
+great earnestness and a sincere regret for the annoyance he had given in
+the past, and by admitting her, as he gave her to understand that he
+did, to his confidence in the matter of Madame Patoff's insanity. Be
+that as it may, the result was obtained very easily by the professor;
+and when Hermione left him, before lunch, it is probable that in the
+solitude of the conservatory the man of science rubbed his gigantic
+hands together, and beamed upon the orchids with unusual benignity.</p>
+
+<p>But while this new alliance was being formed in the conservatory,
+another conversation was taking place in a distant part of the house,
+not less interesting, perhaps, but not destined to reach so peaceable a
+conclusion. The scene of this other meeting was Miss Chrysophrasia
+Dabstreak's especial boudoir, an apartment so singular in its furniture
+and adornment that I will leave out all description of it, and ask you
+merely to imagine, at will, the most &aelig;sthetic retreat of the most
+&aelig;sthetic old maid in existence.</p>
+
+<p>After breakfast, that morning, Chrysophrasia had sent word to Mrs.
+Carvel that she should be glad to see her, if she could come up to her
+boudoir. Chrysophrasia never came down to breakfast. She regarded that
+meal as a barbarism, forgetting that the medi&aelig;val persons she admired
+began their days by taking to themselves a goodly supply of food. She
+never appeared before lunch, but spent her mornings in the solitude of
+her own apartment, probably in the composition of verses which have
+remained hitherto unpublished. Mrs. Carvel at once acceded to the
+request conveyed in her sister's message, and went to answer the
+summons. She was not greatly pleased at the idea of spending the morning
+with her sister, for she devoted the early hours to religious reading
+whenever she was able; but she was the most obliging woman in the world,
+and so she quietly put aside her own wishes, and mounted the stairs to
+Miss Dabstreak's boudoir. She found the latter clad in loose garments of
+strange cut and hue, and a green silk handkerchief was tied about her
+forehead, presumably out of respect for certain concealed curl papers
+rather than for any direct purpose of adornment. Chrysophrasia looked
+very faded in the morning. As Mrs. Carvel entered the room, her sister
+pointed languidly to a chair, and then paused a moment, as though to
+recover from the exertion.</p>
+
+<p>"Mary," said she at last, and even from the first tone of her voice Mrs.
+Carvel felt that a severe lecture was imminent,&mdash;"Mary, this thing is a
+hollow sham. It cannot be allowed to go on any longer."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Carvel's face assumed a sweet and sad expression, and folding her
+hands upon her knees, she leaned slightly forward from the chair upon
+which she sat, and prepared to soothe her sister's views upon hollow
+shams in general.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear," said she, "you must endeavor to be charitable."</p>
+
+<p>"I do not see the use of being charitable," returned Chrysophrasia, with
+more energy than she was wont to display. "Dear me, Mary, what in the
+world has charity to do with the matter? Can you look at me and say that
+it has anything to do with it?"</p>
+
+<p>No. Mary could not look at her and say so, for a very good reason. She
+had not the most distant idea what Chrysophrasia was talking about. On
+general principles, she had made a remark about being charitable, and
+was now held to account for it. She smiled timidly, as though to
+deprecate her sister's vengeance.</p>
+
+<p>"Mary," said Chrysophrasia, in a tone of sorrowful rebuke, "I am afraid
+you are not listening to me."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed I am," said Mrs. Carvel, patiently.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, then, Mary, I say it is a hollow sham, and that it cannot go on
+any longer."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, my dear," assented her sister. "I have no doubt you are right; but
+what were you referring to as a hollow sham?"</p>
+
+<p>"You are hopeless, Mary,&mdash;you have no intuitions. Of course I mean
+Paul."</p>
+
+<p>Even this was not perfectly clear, and Mrs. Carvel looked inquiringly at
+her sister.</p>
+
+<p>"Is it possible you do not understand?" asked Chrysophrasia. "Do you
+propose to allow my niece&mdash;my niece, Mary, and your daughter," she
+repeated with awful emphasis&mdash;"to fall in love with her own cousin?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am sure the dear child would never think of such a thing," answered
+Mary Carvel, very gently, and as though not wishing to contradict her
+sister. "He has not been here twenty-four hours."</p>
+
+<p>"The dear child is thinking of it at this very moment," said
+Chrysophrasia. "And what is more, Paul has come here with the deliberate
+intention of marrying her. I have seen it from the first moment he
+entered the house. I can see it in his eyes."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, my dear, you may be right. But I have not noticed anything of the
+sort, and I think you go too far. You will jump at conclusions,
+Chrysophrasia."</p>
+
+<p>"If I went at them at all, Mary, I would glide,&mdash;I certainly would not
+jump," replied the &aelig;sthetic lady, with a languid smile. Mrs. Carvel
+looked wearily out of the window. "Besides," continued Chrysophrasia,
+"the thing is quite impossible. Paul is not at all a match. Hermy will
+be very rich, some day. John will not leave everything to Macaulay: I
+have heard him say so."</p>
+
+<p>"Why do you discuss the matter, Chrysophrasia?" objected Mrs. Carvel,
+with a little shade of very mild impatience. "There is no question of
+Hermy marrying Paul."</p>
+
+<p>"Then Paul ought to go away at once."</p>
+
+<p>"We cannot send him away. Besides, I think he is a very good fellow. You
+forget that poor Annie is in the house, and he has a right to see her,
+at least for a week."</p>
+
+<p>"It seems to me that Annie might go and live with him."</p>
+
+<p>"He has no home, poor fellow,&mdash;he is in the diplomatic service. He is
+made to fly from Constantinople to Persia, and from Persia to St.
+Petersburg; how could he take poor Annie with him?"</p>
+
+<p>"If poor Annie chose," said Chrysophrasia, sniffing the air with a
+disagreeable expression, "poor Annie could go. If she has sense enough
+to dress herself gorgeously and to read dry books all day, she has sense
+enough to travel."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Chrysophrasia! How dreadfully unkind you are! You know how&mdash;ill she
+is."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Carvel did not like to pronounce the word "insane." She always
+spoke of Madame Patoff's "illness."</p>
+
+<p>"I do not believe it," returned Miss Dabstreak. "She is no more crazy
+than I am. I believe Professor Cutter knows it, too. Only he has been
+used to saying that she is mad for so long that he will not believe his
+senses, for fear of contradicting himself."</p>
+
+<p>"In any case I would rather trust to him than to my own judgment."</p>
+
+<p>"I would not. I am utterly sick of this perpetual disturbance about
+Annie's state of mind. It destroys the charm of a peaceful existence. If
+I had the strength, I would go to her and tell her that I know she is
+perfectly sane, and that she must leave the house. John is so silly
+about her. He turns the place into an asylum, just because she chooses
+to hold her tongue."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Carvel rose with great dignity.</p>
+
+<p>"I will leave you, Chrysophrasia," she said. "I cannot bear to hear you
+talk in this way. You really ought to be more charitable."</p>
+
+<p>"You are angry, Mary," replied her sister. "Good-by. I cannot bear the
+strain of arguing with you. When you are calmer you will remember what I
+have said."</p>
+
+<p>Poor Mrs. Carvel certainly exhibited none of the ordinary symptoms of
+anger, as she quietly left the room, with an expression of pain upon her
+gentle face. When Chrysophrasia was very unreasonable her only course
+was to go away; for she was wholly unable to give a rough answer, or to
+defend herself against her sister's attacks. Mary went in search of her
+husband, and was glad to find him in the library, among his books.</p>
+
+<p>"John dear, may I come in?" asked Mrs. Carvel, opening the door of her
+husband's library, and standing on the threshold.</p>
+
+<p>"By all means," exclaimed John, looking up. "Anything wrong?" he
+inquired, observing the expression of his wife's face.</p>
+
+<p>"John," said Mrs. Carvel, coming near to him and laying her hand gently
+on his shoulder, "tell me&mdash;do you think there is likely to be anything
+between Paul and Hermy?"</p>
+
+<p>"Gracious goodness! what put that into your head?" asked Carvel.</p>
+
+<p>"I have been with Chrysophrasia"&mdash;began Mary.</p>
+
+<p>"Chrysophrasia! Oh! Is that it?" cried John in discontented tones. "I
+wish Chrysophrasia would mind her own business, and not talk nonsense!"</p>
+
+<p>"It is nonsense, is it not?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course,&mdash;absolute rubbish! I would not hear of it, to begin with!"
+he exclaimed, as though that were sufficient evidence that the thing was
+impossible.</p>
+
+<p>"No, indeed," echoed Mrs. Carvel, but in more doubtful tones. "Of
+course, Paul is a very good fellow. But yet"&mdash;&mdash; She hesitated. "After
+all, they are cousins," she added suddenly, "and that is a great
+objection."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope you will not think seriously of any such marriage, Mary," said
+John Carvel, with great decision. "They are cousins, and there are
+twenty other reasons why they should not marry."</p>
+
+<p>"Are there? I dare say you are right, and of course there is no
+probability of either of them thinking of such a thing. But after all,
+Paul is a very marriageable fellow, John."</p>
+
+<p>"I would not consent to his marrying my daughter, though," returned
+Carvel. "I have no doubt it is all right about his brother, who
+disappeared on a dark night in Constantinople. But I would not let Hermy
+marry anybody who had such a story connected with his name."</p>
+
+<p>"Surely, John, you are not so unkind as to give any weight to that
+spiteful accusation. It was very dreadful, but there never was the
+slightest ground for believing that Paul had a hand in it. Even
+Professor Cutter, who does not like him, always said so. That was one of
+the principal proofs of poor Annie's madness."</p>
+
+<p>"I know, my dear. But to the end of time people will go on asking where
+Paul's brother is, and will look suspicious when he is mentioned.
+Cutter, whom you quote, says the same thing, though he believes Paul
+perfectly innocent, as I do myself. Do you suppose I would have a man in
+the house whom I suspected of having murdered his brother?"</p>
+
+<p>"What a dreadful idea!" exclaimed Mrs. Carvel. "But if you liked him
+very much, and wanted him to marry Hermy, would you let that silly bit
+of gossip stand in the way of the match?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know what I should do. Perhaps not. But Hermy shall marry whom
+she pleases, provided she marries a gentleman. She has no more idea of
+marrying Paul than Chrysophrasia has, or than Paul has of marrying her.
+Besides, she is far too young to think of such things."</p>
+
+<p>"Really, John, Hermy is nineteen. She is nearly twenty."</p>
+
+<p>"My dear," retorted Carvel, "you will make me think you want them to
+marry."</p>
+
+<p>"Nonsense, John!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, nonsense, if you like. But Chrysophrasia has been putting this
+ridiculous notion into your head. I believe she is in love with Paul
+herself."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, John!" exclaimed Mrs. Carvel, smiling at the idea.</p>
+
+<p>But John rose from his chair, and indulged in a hearty laugh at the
+thought of Chrysophrasia's affection for Patoff. Then he stirred the
+fire vigorously, till the coals broke into a bright blaze.</p>
+
+<p>"Annie is better," he said presently, without looking round. "You know
+she recognized Paul; and Griggs thought she knew him, too, when he went
+in with Cutter, the other night."</p>
+
+<p>"Would you like me to go and see her to-day?" asked Mrs. Carvel. Her
+husband had already told her the news and seemed to be repeating it now
+out of sheer satisfaction.</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps she may know you," he answered. "Have you seen Mrs. North this
+morning?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. She says Annie has not slept very well since that day."</p>
+
+<p>"The meeting excited her. Better wait a day or two longer, before doing
+anything else. At any rate, we ought to ask Cutter before making another
+experiment."</p>
+
+<p>"Why did you not go to the meet to-day?" asked Mrs. Carvel suddenly.</p>
+
+<p>"I wanted to have a morning at my books," answered John. His wife took
+the answer as a hint to go away, and presently left the room, feeling
+that her mind had been unnecessarily troubled by her sister. But in her
+honest self-examination, when she had returned to her own room and to
+the perusal of Jeremy Taylor's sermons, she acknowledged to herself that
+she had a liking for Paul Patoff, and that she could not understand why
+both her sister and her husband should at the very beginning scout the
+idea of his marrying Hermione. Of course there was not the slightest
+reason for supposing that Hermione liked him at all, but there was
+nothing to show that she would not like him here-after.</p>
+
+<p>Late in the afternoon we three came back from our long day with the
+hounds, hungry and thirsty and tired. When I came down from my room to
+get some tea, I found that Patoff had been quicker than I; he was
+already comfortably installed by the fireside, with Fang at his feet,
+while Hermione sat beside him. Mrs. Carvel was at the tea-table, at some
+little distance, with her work in her hands, but neither John nor
+Chrysophrasia was in the room. As I sat down and began to drink my tea,
+I watched Paul's face, and it seemed to me that he had changed since I
+had seen him in Teheran, six months ago. I had not liked him much. I am
+not given to seeking acquaintance, and had certainly not sought his, but
+in the Persian capital one necessarily knew every one in the little
+European colony, and I had met him frequently. I had then been struck by
+the stony coldness which appeared to underlie his courteous manner, and
+I had thought it was part of the strange temper he was said to possess.
+Treating his colleagues and all whom he met with the utmost affability,
+never sullenly silent and often even brilliant in conversation, he
+nevertheless had struck me as a man who hated and despised his
+fellow-creatures. There had been then a sort of scornful, defiant look
+on his large features, which inevitably repelled a stranger until he
+began to talk. But he understood eminently the science of making himself
+agreeable, and, when he chose, few could so well lead conversation
+without imposing themselves upon their hearers. I well remembered the
+disdainful coldness of his face when he was listening to some one else,
+and I recollected how oddly it contrasted with his courteous forbearing
+speech. He would look at a man who made a remark with a cynical stare,
+and then in the very next moment would agree with him, and produce
+excellent arguments for doing so. One felt that the man's own nature was
+at war with itself, and that, while forcing himself to be sociable, he
+despised society. It was a thing so evident that I used to avoid looking
+at him, because his expression was so unpleasant.</p>
+
+<p>But as I saw him seated by Hermione's side, playing with the great hound
+at his feet, and talking quietly with his companion, I was forcibly
+struck by the change. His face could not be said to have softened; but
+instead of the cold, defiant sneer which had formerly been peculiar to
+him, his look was now very grave, and from time to time a pleasant light
+passed quickly over his features. Watching him now, I could not fancy
+him either violent or eccentric in temper, as he was said to be. It was
+as though the real nature of the man had got the better of some malady.</p>
+
+<p>"This is like home," I heard him say. "How happy you must be!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I am very happy," answered Hermione. "I have only one unhappiness
+in my life."</p>
+
+<p>"What is that?"</p>
+
+<p>"Poor aunt Annie," said the girl. "I am so dreadfully sorry for her."
+The words were spoken in a low tone, and Mrs. Carvel said something to
+me just then, so that I could not hear Patoff's answer. But while
+talking with my hostess I noticed his earnest manner, and that he seemed
+to be telling some story which interested Hermione intensely. His voice
+dropped to a lower key, and I heard no more, though he talked for a long
+time, as I thought. Then Macaulay Carvel and Professor Cutter entered
+the room. I saw Cutter look at the pair by the fire, and, after
+exchanging a few words with Mrs. Carvel, he immediately joined them.
+Paul's face assumed suddenly the expression of stony indifference, once
+so familiar to me, and I did not hear his voice again. It struck me that
+his more gentle look might have been wholly due to the pleasure he took
+in Hermione's society; but I dismissed the idea as improbable.</p>
+
+<p>Macaulay sat down by his mother, and began telling the incidents of the
+day's hunting in his smooth, unmodulated voice. He was altogether smooth
+and unmodulated in appearance, in conversation, and in manner, and he
+reminded me more of a model schoolboy, rather vain of his acquirements
+and of the favor he enjoyed in the eyes of his masters, than of a grown
+Englishman. It would be impossible to imagine a greater contrast than
+that which existed between the two cousins, and, little as I was
+inclined to like Patoff at first, I was bound to acknowledge that he was
+more manly, more dignified, and altogether more attractive than Macaulay
+Carvel. It was strange that the sturdy, active, intelligent John should
+have such a son, although, on looking at the mother, one recognized the
+sweet smile and gentle features, the dutiful submission and quiet
+feminine forbearance, which in her face so well expressed her character.</p>
+
+<p>But in spite of the vast difference between them in temperament,
+appearance, and education, Macaulay was destined to play a small part in
+Patoff's life. He had from the first taken a fancy to his big Russian
+cousin, and admired him with all his heart. Paul seemed to be his ideal,
+probably because he differed so much from himself; and though Macaulay
+felt it was impossible to imitate him, he was content to give him his
+earnest admiration. It was to be foreseen that if Paul fell in love with
+Hermione he would find a powerful ally in her brother, who was prepared
+to say everything good about him, and to extol his virtues to the skies.
+Indeed, it was likely that during their short acquaintance Macaulay had
+only seen the best points in his cousin's character; for the principal
+sins imputed to Patoff were his violence of temper and his selfishness,
+and it appeared to me that he had done much to overcome both since I had
+last seen him. It is probable that in the last analysis, if this
+reputation could have been traced to its source, it would have been
+found to have arisen from the gossip concerning his quarrel with his
+brother in Constantinople, and from his having once or twice boxed the
+ears of some lazy Persian servant in Teheran. None of the Carvel family
+knew much of Paul's antecedents. His mother never spoke, and before she
+was brought home in her present state, by Professor Cutter, there had
+been hardly any communication between her and her sisters since her
+marriage. Time had effaced the remembrance of what they had called her
+folly when she married Patoff, but the breach had never been healed.
+Mrs. Carvel had made one or two efforts at reconciliation, but they had
+been coldly received; she was a timid woman, and soon gave up the
+attempt. It was not till poor Madame Patoff was brought home hopelessly
+insane, and Macaulay had conceived an unbounded admiration for his
+cousin, that the old affection was revived, and transferred in some
+degree to this son of the lost sister.</p>
+
+<p>As I sat with Mrs. Carvel listening to Macaulay's nerveless,
+conscientious description of the day's doings, I thought over all these
+things, and wondered what would happen next.</p>
+
+
+<p class="n">The days passed much as usual at Carvel Place after the first excitement
+of Paul's arrival had worn off; but I regretted that I saw less of
+Hermione than formerly, though I found Cutter's society very
+interesting. Remembering my promise to see Madame Patoff again, I
+visited her once more, but, to my great disappointment, she seemed to
+have forgotten me; and though I again spoke to her in Russian, she gave
+no answer to my questions, and after a quarter of an hour I retired,
+much shaken in my theory that she was not really as mad as was supposed.
+It was reserved for some one else to break the spell, if it could be
+broken at all, and I felt the hopelessness of making any further
+attempt. Though I was not aware of it at the time, I afterwards learned
+that Paul visited her again within a week of his arrival. She behaved
+very much as on the first occasion, it appears, except that her manner
+was more violent than before, so that Cutter deemed it imprudent to
+repeat the experiment.</p>
+
+<p>One morning, three weeks after the events last recorded, I was walking
+with Hermione in the garden. She was as fond of me as ever, though we
+now saw little of each other. But this morning she had seen me alone
+among the empty flower-beds, smoking a solitary cigar after breakfast,
+and, having nothing better to do, she wrapped herself in a fur cloak and
+came out to join me. For a few minutes we talked of the day, and of the
+prospect of an early spring, though we were still in January. People
+always talk of spring before the winter is half over. I said I wondered
+whether Paul would stay to the end of the hunting season.</p>
+
+<p>"I hope so," said Hermione.</p>
+
+<p>"By the by," I remarked, "you seem to have overcome your antipathy for
+your cousin. You are very good friends."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, he is interesting," she answered. "I wonder"&mdash;&mdash; She paused, and
+looked at me rather wistfully. "Have you known him long?" she asked,
+suddenly.</p>
+
+<p>"Not very long."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know anything of his past life?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing," I answered. "Nobody does, I fancy, unless it be Professor
+Cutter."</p>
+
+<p>"He has been very unhappy, I should think," she said, presently.</p>
+
+<p>"Has he? Has he told you so?" I resented the idea of Paul's confiding
+his woes, if he had any, to the lovely girl I had known from a child. It
+is too common a way of making love.</p>
+
+<p>"No&mdash;that is&mdash;yes. He told me about his childhood; how his brother was
+the favorite, and he was always second best, and it made him very
+unhappy."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed!" I ejaculated, indifferently enough. I knew nothing about his
+brother except that he was dead, or had disappeared and was thought to
+be dead. The story had never reached my ears, and I did not know
+anything about the circumstances.</p>
+
+<p>"How did his brother die?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, he is dead," answered Hermione gravely. "He died in the East
+eighteen months ago. Aunt Annie worshiped him; it was his death that
+affected her mind. At least, I believe so. Professor Cutter says it is
+something else,&mdash;something connected with cousin Paul; but papa seems to
+think it was Alexander's death."</p>
+
+<p>"What does the professor say?" I inquired.</p>
+
+<p>"He will not tell me. He is a very odd person. He says it is something
+about Paul, and that it is not nice, and that papa would not like me to
+know it. And then papa tells me that it was only Alexander's death."</p>
+
+<p>"That is very strange," I said. "If I were you, I would believe your
+father rather than the professor."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course; how could I help believing papa?" Hermione turned her
+beautiful blue eyes full upon my face, as though wondering at the
+simplicity of my remark. Of course she believed her father.</p>
+
+<p>"You would not think Paul capable of doing anything not nice, would
+you?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>Hermione blushed, and looked away towards the distant woods.</p>
+
+<p>"I think he is very nice," she said.</p>
+
+<p>I am Hermione's old friend, but I saw that I had no right to press her
+with questions. No friendship gives a man the right to ask the
+confidence of a young girl, and, moreover, it was evident from her few
+words and from the blush which accompanied them that this was a delicate
+subject. If any one were to speak to her, it must be her father. As far
+as I knew, there was no reason why she should not love her cousin Paul,
+if she admired him half as much as her brother was inclined to do.</p>
+
+<p>"There is only one thing about him which I cannot understand," she
+continued, after a short pause. "He seems not to care in the least for
+his mother; and yet," she added thoughtfully, "I cannot believe that he
+is heartless. I suppose it is because she did not treat him well when he
+was a child. I cannot think of any other reason."</p>
+
+<p>"No," I echoed mechanically, "I cannot think of any other reason."</p>
+
+<p>And indeed I could not. I had known nothing of his unhappy childhood
+before Hermione had told me of it, and though that did not afford a
+sufficient explanation of his evident indifference in regard to his
+mother, it was better than nothing. The whole situation seemed to me to
+be wrapped in impenetrable mystery, and I was beginning to despair of
+ever understanding what was going on about me. John Carvel treated me
+most affectionately, and delighted in entrapping me into the library to
+talk about books; but he scarcely ever referred to Madame Patoff. Cutter
+would walk or ride with me for hours, talking over the extraordinary
+cases of insanity he had met with in his experience; but he never would
+give me the least information in regard to the events which had preceded
+the accident at Weissenstein. I was entirely in the dark.</p>
+
+<p>A catastrophe was soon to occur, however, which led to my acquaintance
+with all the details of Alexander's disappearance in Stamboul. I will
+tell what happened as well as I can from what was afterwards told me by
+the persons most concerned.</p>
+
+<p>A week after my conversation with Hermione, the train was fired which
+led to a very remarkable concatenation of circumstances. You have
+foreseen that Paul would fall in love with his beautiful young cousin.
+Chrysophrasia foresaw it from the first moment of his appearance at
+Carvel Place, with that keen scent for romance which sometimes
+characterizes romantic old maids. If I were telling you a love story, I
+could make a great deal out of Paul's courtship. But this is the history
+of the extraordinary things which befell Paul Patoff, and for the
+present it is sufficient to say that he was in love with Hermione, and
+that he had never before cared seriously for any woman. He was cold by
+nature, and his wandering life as a diplomatist, together with his fixed
+determination to excel in his career, had not been favorable to the
+development of love in his heart. The repose of Carvel Place, the
+novelty of the life, and the comparative freedom from all
+responsibility, had relaxed the hard shell of his sensibilities, and the
+beauty and grace of Hermione had easily fascinated him. She, on her
+part, had distinguished with a woman's natural instinct the curious
+duality of his character. The grave, powerful, dominating man attracted
+her very forcibly; the cold, impenetrable, apparently heartless soul, on
+the other hand, repelled her, and almost inspired her with horror when
+it showed itself.</p>
+
+<p>One afternoon in the end of January, Paul and Hermione were walking in
+the park. The weather was raw and gusty, and the ground hard frozen.
+They had been merely strolling up and down before the house, as they
+often did, but, being in earnest conversation, had forgotten at last to
+turn back, and had gone on along the avenue, till they were far from the
+old mansion and quite out of sight. They had been talking of Paul's
+approaching departure, and they were both in low spirits at the
+prospect.</p>
+
+<p>"I am like those patches of snow," said Paul. "The clouds drop me in a
+beautiful place, and I feel very comfortable; and then I have to melt
+away again, and the clouds pick me up and carry me a thousand miles off,
+and drop me somewhere else. I wish they would leave me alone for a
+while."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Hermione. "I wish you could stay with us longer."</p>
+
+<p>"It is of no use to wish," answered Paul bitterly. "I am always wishing
+for things I cannot possibly have. I would give anything to stay here. I
+have grown so fond of you all, and you have all been so kind to me&mdash;it
+is very hard to go, Hermione!"</p>
+
+<p>He looked almost tenderly at the beautiful girl beside him, as he spoke.
+But she looked down, so that he could hardly see her face at all.</p>
+
+<p>"I have never before felt as though I were at home," he continued. "I
+never had much of a home, at the best. Latterly I have had none at all.
+I had almost forgotten the idea when I came to England. It is hard to
+think how soon I must forget it again, and all the dear people I have
+known here."</p>
+
+<p>"You must not quite forget us," said Hermione. Her voice trembled a
+little.</p>
+
+<p>"I will never forget you&mdash;Hermione&mdash;for I love you with all my heart."</p>
+
+<p>He took her little gloved hand in his, and held it tightly. They stood
+still in the midst of the lonely park. Hermione blushed like an Alp-rose
+in the snow, and turned her head away from him. But her lip quivered
+slightly, and she left her hand in his.</p>
+
+<p>"I love you, my darling," he repeated, drawing her to him, till her head
+rested for a moment on his shoulder. "I cannot live without you,&mdash;I
+cannot leave you."</p>
+
+<p>What could she do? When he spoke in that tone his voice was so very
+gentle; she loved him, and she was under the fascination of his love.
+She said nothing, but she looked up into his face, and her blue eyes saw
+themselves in his. Then she bent her head and hid her face against his
+coat, and her small hand tightened convulsively upon his fingers.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you really love me?" he asked as he bent down and kissed her white
+forehead.</p>
+
+<p>"You know I do," she answered in a low voice.</p>
+
+<p>That was all they said, I suppose. But it was quite enough. When a man
+and a woman have told each other their love, there is little more to
+say. They probably say it again, and repeat it in different keys and
+with different modulations. I can imagine that a man in love might find
+many pretty expressions, but the gist of the thing is the same. Model
+conversation as follows, in fugue form, for two voices:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><i>He.</i> I love you. Do you love me? (Theme.)</p>
+
+<p><i>She.</i> Very much. I love you more than you love me. (Answer.)</p>
+
+<p><i>He.</i> No. I love you most. (Sub-theme.)</p>
+
+<p><i>She.</i> Not more. That is impossible. (Sub-answer.)</p>
+
+<p><i>He and She.</i> Then we love each other very much. (<i>A due voci.</i>)</p>
+
+<p><i>She.</i> Yes. But I am not sure that you <i>can</i> love me as much as I do
+you. (<i>Stretto.</i>) Etc., etc., etc.</p>
+
+<p>By using these simple themes you may easily write a series of
+conversations in at least twenty-four keys, on the principle of Bach's
+Wohltemperirtes Klavier, but your fugues must be composed for two
+voices only, unless you are very clever. A third voice increases the
+difficulty, a fourth causes a high degree of complication, five voices
+are distracting, and six impossible.</p>
+
+<p>It is certain that when Paul and Hermione returned from their walk they
+had arranged matters to their own satisfaction, or had at least settled
+the preliminaries. I think every one noticed the change in their manner.
+Hermione was radiant, and talked better than I had ever heard her talk
+before. Paul was quiet, even taciturn, but his silence was evidently not
+due to bad temper. His expression was serene and happy, and the cold
+look seemed to have left his face forever. His peace of mind, however,
+was destined to be short-lived.</p>
+
+<p>Chrysophrasia and Professor Cutter watched the couple with extreme
+interest when they appeared at tea, and each arrived at the same
+conclusion. They had probably expected for a long time what had now
+occurred, and, as they were eagerly looking for some evidence that their
+convictions were well founded, they did not overlook the sudden change
+of manner which succeeded the walk in the park. They did not communicate
+their suspicions to each other, however. Chrysophrasia had protested
+again and again to Mary Carvel and to John that things were going too
+far. But Paul was a favorite with the Carvels, and they refused to see
+anything in his conduct which could be interpreted to mean love for
+Hermione. Chrysophrasia resolved at once to throw a bomb into the camp,
+and to enjoy the effect of the explosion.</p>
+
+<p>Cutter's position was more delicate. He was very fond of John, and was,
+moreover, his guest. It was not his business to criticise what occurred
+in the house. He was profoundly interested in Madame Patoff, but he did
+not like Paul. Indeed, in his inmost heart he had never settled the
+question of Alexander's disappearance from the world, and in his opinion
+Paul Patoff was a man accused of murder, who had not sufficiently
+established his innocence. In his desire to be wholly unprejudiced in
+judging mankind and their mental aberrations, he did not allow that the
+social position of the individual was in itself a guaranty against
+committing any crime whatever. On the contrary, he had found reason to
+believe, from his own experience, that people belonging to the higher
+classes have generally a much keener appreciation of the construction
+which will be put upon their smallest actions, and are therefore far
+more ingenious in concealing their evil deeds than the common ruffian
+could possibly be. John Carvel would have said that it was impossible
+that a gentleman should murder his brother. Professor Cutter said it was
+not only possible, but, under certain circumstances, very probable. It
+must also be remembered that he had got most of his information
+concerning Paul from Madame Patoff and from Alexander, who both detested
+him, in the two summers when he had met the mother and son at Wiesbaden.
+His idea of Paul's character had therefore received a bias from the
+first, and was to a great extent unjust. Conceiving it possible that
+Patoff might be responsible for his brother's death, he therefore
+regarded the prospect of Paul's marriage with Hermione with the
+strongest aversion, though he could not make up his mind to speak to
+John Carvel on the subject. He had told the whole story to him eighteen
+months earlier, when he had brought home Madame Patoff; and he had told
+it without ornament, leaving John to judge for himself. But at that time
+there had been no prospect whatever of Paul's coming to Carvel Place.
+Cutter might easily have turned his story in such a way as to make Paul
+look guilty, or at least so as to cast a slight upon his character. But
+he had given the plain facts as they occurred. John had said the thing
+was absurd, and a great injustice to the young man; and he had,
+moreover, told his wife and sister, as well as Cutter, that Hermione was
+never to know anything of the story. It was not right, he said, that the
+young girl should ever know that any member of the family had even been
+suspected of such a crime. She should grow up in ignorance of it, and it
+was not untruthful to say that Madame Patoff's insanity had been caused
+by Alexander's death.</p>
+
+<p>But now Cutter regretted that he had not put the matter in a stronger
+light from the first, giving John to understand that Paul had never
+really cleared himself of the imputation. The professor did not know
+what to do, and would very likely have done nothing at all, had Miss
+Dabstreak not fired the mine. He had, indeed, endeavored to stop the
+progress of the attachment, but, in attempting always to intervene as a
+third person in their conversations, he had roused Paul's obstinacy
+instead of interrupting his love-making. And Paul was a very obstinate
+man.</p>
+
+<p>As we sat at dinner that evening, the conversation turned upon general
+topics. Chrysophrasia sat opposite to Paul, as usual, and her green eyes
+watched him with interest for some time. As luck would have it, our talk
+approached the subject of crime in general, and John Carvel asked me
+some question about the average number of murders in India, taking ten
+years together, as compared with the number committed in Europe. While I
+was hesitating and trying to recollect some figures I had once known,
+Chrysophrasia rushed into the conversation in her usual wild way.</p>
+
+<p>"I think murders are so extremely interesting," said she to Patoff. "I
+always wonder what it must be like to commit one, don't you?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Paul, quietly. "I confess that I do not generally devote much
+thought to the matter. Murder is not a particularly pleasant subject for
+contemplation."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, do you think so?" answered Chrysophrasia. "Of course not pleasant,
+no, but so very interesting. I read such a delightfully thrilling
+account this morning of a man who killed his own brother,&mdash;quite like
+Cain."</p>
+
+<p>Paul made no answer, and continued to eat his dinner in silence. Though
+at that time I knew nothing of his story, I remember noticing how
+Professor Cutter slowly turned his face towards Patoff, and the peculiar
+expression of his gray eyes as I saw them through the gold-rimmed
+spectacles. Then he looked at John Carvel, who grew very red in the
+pause which followed. Mrs. Carvel looked down at her plate, and her
+features showed that her sister's remark had given her some pain; for
+she was quite incapable of concealing her slightest emotions, like many
+extremely truthful and sensitive people. But Chrysophrasia had launched
+herself, and was not to be silenced by an awkward pause. Not
+understanding the situation in the least, I nevertheless tried to
+relieve the unpleasantness by answering her.</p>
+
+<p>"I think it is a great mistake that the newspapers should publish the
+horrible details of every crime committed," I said. "It is bad for the
+public morals, and worse for the public taste."</p>
+
+<p>"Really, we must be allowed some emotion," answered Chrysophrasia. "It
+is so very thrilling to read about such cases. Now I can quite well
+imagine what it must be like to kill somebody, and then to hear every
+one saying to me, 'Where is thy brother?' Poor Cain! He must have had
+the most deliciously complicated feelings!"</p>
+
+<p>She fixed her green eyes on Paul so intently as she spoke that I looked
+at him, too, and was surprised to see that he was very pale. He said
+nothing, however, but he looked up and returned her gaze. His cold blue
+eyes glittered disagreeably. At that moment, John Carvel, who was redder
+than ever, addressed me in loud tones. I thought his voice had an
+artificial ring in it as he spoke.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Griggs," he cried, "without going into the question of Cain and
+Abel, can you tell me anything about the figures?"</p>
+
+<p>I said something. I gave some approximate account, and, speaking loudly,
+I ran on readily with a long string of statistics, most of them, I
+grieve to say, manufactured on the spur of the moment. But I knew that
+Carvel was not listening, and did not care what I said. Hermione was
+watching Paul with evident concern; Mrs. Carvel and Macaulay at once
+affected the greatest interest in what I was saying, while Professor
+Cutter looked at Chrysophrasia, as though trying to attract her
+attention.</p>
+
+<p>"What a wonderful memory you have, Mr. Griggs!" said Macaulay Carvel, in
+sincere admiration.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, not at all," I answered, with perfect truth. "Statistics of that
+kind are very easily got."</p>
+
+<p>By this time the awkwardness had disappeared, and by dint of talking
+very loud and saying a great many things which meant very little, John
+and I succeeded in making the remainder of the dinner pass off very
+well. But every one seemed to be afraid of Chrysophrasia, and when, once
+or twice, she was on the point of making a remark, there was a general
+attempt made to prevent her from leading the conversation. As soon as
+dinner was over we scattered in all directions, like a flock of sheep.
+Chrysophrasia retired to her room. John Carvel went to the library,
+whither his wife followed him in a few minutes. Macaulay, Patoff, and I
+went to the smoking-room, contrary to all precedent; but as Macaulay led
+the way, we followed with delight. The result of this general separation
+was that Hermione and Professor Cutter were left alone in the
+drawing-room.</p>
+
+<p>"I want to ask you a question," said the young girl, as they stood
+before the great fireplace.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," answered the scientist, anticipating trouble. "I am at your
+service."</p>
+
+<p>"Why did Paul turn so pale when aunt Chrysophrasia talked about Cain at
+dinner, and why did everybody feel so uncomfortable?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is not surprising. But I cannot tell you the story."</p>
+
+<p>"You must," said Hermione, growing pale, and laying her hand upon his
+arm. "I must know. I insist that you shall tell me."</p>
+
+<p>"If I tell you, will you promise not to blame me here-after?" asked
+Cutter.</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly,&mdash;of course. Please go on."</p>
+
+<p>"Do not be shocked. There is no truth in the story, I fancy. When
+Alexander Patoff was lost on a dark night in Constantinople, the world
+said that Paul had made away with him. That is all."</p>
+
+<p>Hermione did not scream nor faint, as Cutter had expected. The blood
+rushed to her face, and then sank again as suddenly. She steadied
+herself with one hand on the chimney-piece before she answered.</p>
+
+<p>"What a horrible, infamous lie!" she exclaimed in low tones.</p>
+
+<p>"You insisted upon knowing it, Miss Carvel," said the professor quietly.
+"You must not blame me for telling you. After all, it was as well that
+you should know it."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes&mdash;it was as well." She turned away, and with bent head left the
+room. So it came about that both Chrysophrasia and Cutter on the same
+evening struck a blow at the new-found happiness of the cousins, raising
+between them, as it were, the spectre of the lost man.</p>
+
+<p>After what had occurred in the afternoon, Paul had intended to seek a
+formal interview with John Carvel. He had no intention of keeping his
+engagement a secret, and indeed he already felt that, according to his
+European notions, he had done wrong in declaring his love to Hermione
+before asking her father's consent. It had been an accident, and he
+regretted it. But after the scene at the dinner-table, he felt that he
+must see Hermione again before going to her father. Chrysophrasia's
+remarks had been so evidently directed against him that he had betrayed
+himself, and he knew that Hermione had noticed his expression, as well
+as the momentary stupefaction which had chilled the whole party. He had
+no idea whether Hermione had ever heard his story or not. She had of
+course never referred to it, and he thought it was now his duty to speak
+to her, to ascertain the extent of her information, and, if necessary,
+to tell her all the circumstances; honestly avowing that, although he
+had never been accused openly of his brother's death except by his
+mother, he knew that many persons had suspected him of having been
+voluntarily concerned in it. He would state the case plainly, and she
+might then decide upon her own course. But the question, "Where is your
+brother?" had been asked again, and he was deeply wounded,&mdash;far more
+deeply than he would acknowledge to himself. As we three sat together in
+the smoking-room, keeping up a dry, strained conversation, the old
+expression returned to his face, and I watched him with a kind of regret
+as I saw the cold, defiant look harden again, where lately there had
+been nothing but gentleness.</p>
+
+<p>Hermione left the drawing-room, and glided through the hall towards the
+passage which led to Madame Patoff's rooms. She had formed a desperate
+resolution,&mdash;one of those which must be carried out quickly, or not at
+all. Mrs. North, the nurse, opened the door at the end of the corridor,
+and admitted the young girl.</p>
+
+<p>"Can I see my aunt?" asked Hermione, trying to control her voice.</p>
+
+<p>"Has anything happened, Miss Carvel?" inquired Mrs. North, scrutinizing
+her features and noticing her paleness.</p>
+
+<p>"No&mdash;yes, dear Mrs. North, something has happened. I want to see aunt
+Annie," answered Hermione. "Do let me go in!"</p>
+
+<p>The nurse did not suppose that anything Hermione could say would rouse
+Madame Patoff from her habitual apathy. After a moment's hesitation, she
+nodded, and opened the door into the sitting-room. Hermione passed her
+in silence, and entered, closing the door behind her. Her aunt sat as
+usual in a deep chair near the fire, beneath the brilliant light, the
+rich folds of her sweeping gown gathered around her, her face pale and
+calm, holding a book upon her knee. She did not look up as the young
+girl came in, but an uneasy expression passed over her features.
+Hermione had never believed that Madame Patoff was mad, in spite of
+Professor Cutter's assurances to the contrary. On this occasion she
+resolved to speak as though her aunt were perfectly sane.</p>
+
+<p>"Dear aunt Annie," she began, sitting down beside the deep chair, and
+laying her hand on Madame Patoff's apathetic fingers,&mdash;"dear aunt Annie,
+I have something to tell you, and I am sure you will listen to me."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," answered the lady, in her mechanical voice.</p>
+
+<p>"Aunt Annie, Paul is still here. I love him, and we are going to be
+married."</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Madame Patoff, in the same tone as before. Hermione's heart
+sank, for her aunt did not seem to understand in the least. But before
+she could speak again, a curious change seemed to come over the
+invalid's face. The features were drawn into an expression of pain, such
+as Hermione had never seen there before, the lip trembled hysterically,
+the blood rushed to her face, and Madame Patoff suddenly broke into a
+fit of violent weeping. The tears streamed down her cheeks, bursting
+between her fingers as she covered her eyes. She sobbed as though her
+heart would break, rocking herself backwards and forwards in her chair.
+Hermione was frightened, and rose to call Mrs. North; but to her extreme
+surprise her aunt put out her hand, all wet with tears, and held her
+back.</p>
+
+<p>"No, no," she moaned; "let me cry."</p>
+
+<p>For several minutes nothing was heard in the room but her passionate
+sobs. It seemed as though they would never stop, and again Hermione
+would have called the nurse, but again Madame Patoff prevented her.</p>
+
+<p>"Aunt Annie,&mdash;dear aunt Annie!" said the young girl, trying to soothe
+her, and laying her hand upon the thick gray hair. "What is the matter?
+Can I do nothing? I cannot bear to see you cry like this!"</p>
+
+<p>Gradually the hysteric emotion spent itself, and Madame Patoff grew more
+calm. Then she spoke, and, to Hermione's amazement, she spoke
+connectedly.</p>
+
+<p>"Hermione, you must not betray my secret,&mdash;you will not betray me? Swear
+that you will not, my child!" She was evidently suffering some great
+emotion.</p>
+
+<p>"Aunt Annie," said Hermione in the greatest excitement, "you are not
+mad! I always said you were not!"</p>
+
+<p>Madame Patoff shook her head sorrowfully.</p>
+
+<p>"No, child, I am not mad,&mdash;I never was. I am only unhappy. I let them
+think so, because I am so miserable, and I can live alone, and perhaps
+die very soon. But you have found me out."</p>
+
+<p>Again it seemed as though she would burst into tears. Hermione hastened
+to reassure her, not knowing what she said, in the anxiety of the
+moment.</p>
+
+<p>"You are safe with me, aunt Annie. I will not tell. But why, why have
+you deceived them all so long, a year and a half,&mdash;why?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am the most wretched woman alive," moaned Madame Patoff. Then,
+looking suddenly into Hermione's eyes, she spoke in low, distinct tones.
+"You cannot marry Paul, Hermione. You must never think of it again. You
+must promise me never to think of it."</p>
+
+<p>"I will not promise that," answered the young girl, summoning all her
+courage. "It is not true that he killed his brother. You never believed
+it,&mdash;nobody ever believed it!"</p>
+
+<p>"It is true&mdash;true&mdash;truer than anything else can be!" exclaimed Madame
+Patoff, lowering her voice to a strong, clear whisper.</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Hermione. "You are wrong, aunt Annie; it is an abominable
+lie."</p>
+
+<p>"I tell you I know it is true," retorted her aunt, still whispering, but
+emphasizing every word with the greatest decision. "If you do not
+believe it, go to him and say, 'Paul, where is your brother?' and you
+will see how he will look."</p>
+
+<p>"I will. I will ask him, and I will tell you what he says."</p>
+
+<p>"He murdered him, Hermione," continued Madame Patoff, not heeding the
+interruption. "He murdered him in Constantinople,&mdash;he and a Turkish
+soldier whom he hired. And now he has come here to marry you. He thinks
+I am mad&mdash;he is the worst man that ever lived. You must never see him
+again. There is blood on his hands&mdash;blood, do you hear? Rather than that
+you should love him, I will tell them all that I am a sane woman. I will
+confess that I have imposed upon them in order to be alone, to die in
+peace, or, while I live to mourn for my poor murdered boy,&mdash;the boy I
+loved. Oh how I loved him!"</p>
+
+<p>This time her tears could not be controlled, and at the thought of
+Alexander she sobbed again, as she had sobbed before. Hermione was too
+much astonished and altogether thrown off her mental balance to know
+what to do. Her amazement at discovering that her aunt had for more than
+a year imposed upon Professor Cutter and upon the whole household was
+almost obliterated in the horror inspired by Madame Patoff's words.
+There was a conviction in her way of speaking which terrified Hermione,
+and for a moment she was completely unnerved.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, Madame Patoff's tears ceased again. In the strange deception
+she had practiced upon all around her for so long, she had acquired an
+extraordinary command of her features and voice. It was only Hermione's
+discovery which had thrown her off her guard, and once feeling that the
+girl knew her secret, she had perhaps enjoyed the luxury of tears and of
+expressed emotion. But this stage being past, she regained her
+self-control. She had meditated so long on the death of her eldest son
+that the mention of his name had ceased to affect her, and though she
+had been betrayed into recognizing Paul, she had cleverly resumed her
+play of apathetic indifference so soon as he had left her. Had Hermione
+known of the early stages which had led to her present state, she would
+have asked herself how Madame Patoff could have suddenly begun to act
+her part so well as to deceive even Professor Cutter from the first.
+But Hermione knew nothing of all those details. She only realized that
+her aunt was a perfectly sane woman, and that she had fully confirmed
+the fearful accusation against Paul.</p>
+
+<p>"Go now, my child," said Madame Patoff. "Remember your promise. Remember
+that I am a wretched old woman, come here to be left alone, to die.
+Remember what I have told you, and beware of being deceived. You love a
+murderer&mdash;a murderer&mdash;remember that."</p>
+
+<p>Hermione stood a moment and gazed at her aunt's face, grown calm and
+almost beautiful again. Her tears had left no trace, her thick gray hair
+was as smooth as ever, her great dark eyes were deep and full of light.
+Then, without another word, the young girl turned away and left the
+room, closing the door behind her, and nodding a good-night to Mrs.
+North, who sat by her lamp in the outer room, gray and watchful as ever.</p>
+
+<p>If her aunt was sane, was she human? The question suggested itself to
+Hermione's brain as she walked along the passage; but she had not time
+to frame an answer. As she went out into the hall she saw Paul standing
+by the huge carved, fireplace, his back turned towards her, his tall
+figure thrown into high relief by the leaping flames. She went up to
+him, and as he heard her step he started and faced her. He had finished
+his cigar with us, and was about to go quietly to his room in search of
+solitude, when he had paused by the hall fire. His face was very sad as
+he looked up.</p>
+
+<p>"Paul," said the young girl, taking both his hands and looking into his
+eyes, "I believe in you,&mdash;you could not do anything wrong. People would
+never suspect you if you answered them, if you would only take the
+trouble to defend yourself."</p>
+
+<p>"Defend myself?" repeated Paul. "Against what, Hermione?"</p>
+
+<p>"When people say, 'Where is your brother?'&mdash;or mean to say it, as aunt
+Chrysophrasia did this evening,&mdash;you ought to answer; you ought not to
+turn pale and be silent."</p>
+
+<p>"You too!" groaned the unhappy man, looking into her eyes. "You too, my
+darling! Ah, no! It is too much." He dropped her hands, and turned
+again, leaning on the chimney-piece.</p>
+
+<p>"How can you think I believe it? Oh, Paul! how unkind!" exclaimed
+Hermione, clasping her hands upon his shoulder, and trying to look at
+his averted face. "I never, never believed it, dear. But no one else
+must believe it either; you must make them not believe it."</p>
+
+<p>"My dearest," said Paul, almost sternly, but not unkindly, "this thing
+has pursued me for a long time. I thought it was dead. It has come
+between you and me on the very day of our happiness. You say you believe
+in me. I say you shall not believe in me without proof. Good-by,
+love,&mdash;good-by!"</p>
+
+<p>He drew her to him and kissed her once; then he tried to go.</p>
+
+<p>"Paul," she cried, holding him, "where are you going?" She was terrified
+by his manner.</p>
+
+<p>"I am going away," he said slowly. "I will find my brother, or his body,
+and I will not come back until then."</p>
+
+<p>"But you must not go! I cannot bear to let you go!" she cried, in
+agonized tones.</p>
+
+<p>"You must," he answered, and the color left his cheeks. "You cannot
+marry a man who is suspected. Good-by, my beloved!"</p>
+
+<p>Once more he kissed her, and then he turned quickly away and left the
+hall. Hermione stood still one moment, staring at his retreating figure.
+Then she sank into the deep chair by the side of the great fire and
+burst into tears. She had good cause for sorrow, for she had sent Paul
+Patoff away, she knew not whither. She had not even the satisfaction of
+feeling that she had been quite right in speaking to him as she had
+spoken, and above all she feared lest he should believe, in spite of her
+words, that in her own mind there was some shadow of suspicion left. But
+he was gone. He would probably leave the house early in the morning, and
+she might never see him again. What could she do but let her tears flow
+down as freely as they could?</p>
+
+<p>Late at night I sat in my room, reading by the light of the candles, and
+watching the fire as it gradually died away in the grate. It was very
+late, and I was beginning to think of going to bed, when some one
+knocked at the door. It was Paul Patoff. I was very much surprised to
+see him, and I suppose my face showed it, for he apologized for the
+intrusion.</p>
+
+<p>"Excuse me," he said. "It is very late, but could you spare me half an
+hour before going to bed?"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly," I answered, noticing his pallor, and fancying that
+something had happened.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you," said he. "I believe I have heard you say that you know
+Constantinople very well?"</p>
+
+<p>"Tolerably well&mdash;yes. I know many of the natives. I have been there very
+often."</p>
+
+<p>"I am going back there," said Patoff. "They sent me to Persia for a year
+and more, and now I am to return to my old post. I want to ask your
+advice about a very delicate matter. You know&mdash;or perhaps you do not
+know&mdash;that my brother disappeared in Stamboul, a year ago last summer,
+under very strange circumstances. I did all I could to find him, and the
+ambassador did more. But we never discovered any trace of him. I have
+made up my mind that I will not be disappointed this time."</p>
+
+<p>"Could you tell me any of the details?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>Paul looked at me once, and hesitated. Then he settled himself in his
+chair, and told me his story very much as I have told it, from the
+afternoon of the day on which Alexander disappeared to the moment when
+Paul left his mother at Teinach in the Black Forest. He told me also how
+Professor Cutter had written to him his account of the accident at
+Weissenstein, when Madame Patoff, as he said, had attempted to commit
+suicide.</p>
+
+<p>"Pardon me," I said, when he had reached this stage. "I do not believe
+she tried to kill herself."</p>
+
+<p>"Why not?" asked Patoff, in some surprise.</p>
+
+<p>"I was the man with the rope. Cutter has never realized that you did not
+know it."</p>
+
+<p>Paul was very much astonished at the news, and looked at me as though
+hardly believing his senses.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," I continued. "I happened to be leaning out of the window
+immediately over the balcony, and I saw your mother fall. I do not
+believe she threw herself over; if she had done that, she would probably
+not have been caught on the tree. The parapet was very low, and she is
+very tall. I heard her say to Professor Cutter, 'I am coming;' then she
+stood up. Suddenly she grew red in the face, tottered, tried to save
+herself, but missed the parapet, and fell over with a loud scream of
+terror."</p>
+
+<p>"I am very much surprised," said Paul, "very grateful to you, of course,
+for saving her life. I do not know how to thank you; but how strange
+that Cutter should never have told me!"</p>
+
+<p>"He saw that we knew each other," I remarked. "He supposed that I had
+told you."</p>
+
+<p>"So it was not an attempt at suicide, after all. It is amazing to think
+how one may be deceived in this world."</p>
+
+<p>For some minutes he sat silent in his chair, evidently in deep thought.
+I did not disturb him, though I watched the melancholy expression of his
+face, thinking of the great misfortunes which had overtaken him, and
+pitying him, perhaps, more than he would have liked.</p>
+
+<p>"Griggs," he said at last, "do you know of any one in Constantinople who
+would help me,&mdash;who could help me if he would?"</p>
+
+<p>"To find your brother? It is a serious affair. Yes, I do know of one
+man; if he could be induced to take an interest in the matter, he might
+do a great deal."</p>
+
+<p>"What is his name?"</p>
+
+<p>"Balsamides Bey," I answered.</p>
+
+<p>"I have seen him, but I do not know him," said Paul. "Could you give me
+a letter?"</p>
+
+<p>"It would not be of the slightest use. You can easily make his
+acquaintance, but it will be a very different matter to get him to help
+you. He is one of the strangest men in the world. If he takes a fancy to
+you, he will do anything imaginable to oblige you."</p>
+
+<p>"And if not?"</p>
+
+<p>"If not, he will laugh at you. He is a queer fellow."</p>
+
+<p>"Eccentric, I should think. I am not prepared to be laughed at, but I
+will risk it, if there is any chance."</p>
+
+<p>"Look here, Patoff," I said. "I have nothing to do this spring, and the
+devil of unrest is on me again. I will go to Constantinople with you,
+and we will see what can be done. You are a Russian, and those people
+will not trust you; your nationality will be against you at every turn.
+Balsamides himself hates Russians, having fought against them ten years
+ago, in the last war."</p>
+
+<p>Paul started up in his chair, and stretched out his hand. "Will you
+really go with me?" he cried in great excitement. "That would be too
+good of you. Shall we start to-morrow?"</p>
+
+<p>"Let me see,&mdash;we must have an excuse. Could you not telegraph to your
+chief to recall you at once? You must have something to show to Carvel.
+He will be startled at our leaving so suddenly."</p>
+
+<p>"Will he?" said Paul, absently. "I suppose so. Perhaps I can manage it."</p>
+
+<p>It was very late when he left my room. I went to bed, but slept little,
+thinking over all he had told me, but knowing that he had not told me
+all. I guessed then what I knew later,&mdash;that he had asked Hermione to
+marry him, and that, in consequence of Chrysophrasia's remark at
+dinner, she had asked him about his brother. It was easy to understand
+that the question, coming from her, would produce a revival of his
+former energy in the search for Alexander. But it was long before I knew
+all the details of Hermione's visit to Madame Patoff.</p>
+
+<p>The matter was arranged without much difficulty. Paul received a
+despatch the next day from Count Ananoff, requesting him to return as
+soon as possible, and I announced my determination to accompany him. The
+news was received by the different members of the household in different
+ways, according to the views of each. Poor Hermione was pale and silent.
+Chrysophrasia's disagreeable eyes wore a greenish air of cat-like
+satisfaction. Mrs. Carvel herself was sincerely distressed, and John
+opened his eyes in astonishment. Professor Cutter looked about with an
+inquiring air, and Macaulay expressed a hope that he might be appointed
+to Constantinople very soon, adding that he should take pains to learn
+Turkish as quickly as possible. That fellow regards everything in life
+as a sort of lesson, and takes part in events as a highly moral and
+studious undergraduate would attend a course of lectures.</p>
+
+<p>I think Paul and I both breathed more freely when we had announced our
+departure. He looked ill, and it was evident that he was sorry to go,
+but it was also quite clear that nothing could move him from his
+determination. Even at the last minute he kept himself calm, and though
+he was obliged to part from Hermione in the presence of all the rest, he
+did not wince. Every one joined in saying that they hoped he would pay
+them another visit, and even Chrysophrasia drawled out something to that
+effect, though I have no doubt she was inwardly rejoicing at his going
+away; and just as we were starting she ostentatiously kissed poor
+Hermione, as though to reassert her protectorate, and to show that
+Hermione's safety was due entirely to her aunt Chrysophrasia's exertions
+on her behalf.</p>
+
+<p>Paul would have been willing to go to his mother once again before
+parting, but Cutter thought it better not to let him do so, as his
+presence irritated her beyond measure. Hermione looked as though she
+would have said something, but seemed to think better of it. At last we
+drove away from the old place in the chilly February afternoon, and I
+confess that for a moment I half repented of my sudden resolution to go
+to the East. But in a few minutes the old longing for some active
+occupation came back, and though I thought gratefully of John Carvel's
+friendly ways and pleasant conversation, I found myself looking forward
+to the sight of the crowded bazaars and the solemn Turks, smelling
+already the indescribable atmosphere of the Levant, and enjoying the
+prospect almost as keenly as when I first set my face eastwards, many
+years ago.</p>
+
+<p>These were the circumstances which brought me back to Constantinople
+last year. If, in telling my story, I have dwelt long upon what happened
+in England, I must beg you to remember that it is one thing to construct
+a drama with all possible regard for the unities and no regard whatever
+for probability, whereas it is quite another to tell the story of a
+man's life, or even of those years which have been to him the most
+important part of it.</p>
+
+
+
+<h2 class="m"><a name="XII" id="XII"></a>XII.</h2>
+
+
+<p>It was not an easy matter to make Balsamides Bey take a fancy to Paul,
+for he was, and still is, a man full of prejudice, if also full of wit.
+In his well-shaped head resides an intelligence of no mean order, and
+the lines graven in his pale face express thought and study, while
+suggesting also an extreme love of sarcasm and a caustic, incredulous
+humor. His large and deep-set blue eyes seem to look at things only to
+criticise them, never to enjoy them, and his arched eyebrows bristle
+like defenses set up between the world with its interests on the one
+side and the inner man Balsamides on the other. Though he wears a heavy
+brown mustache, it is easy to see that underneath it his thin lips curl
+scornfully, and are drawn down at the extremities of his mouth. He is
+very scrupulous in his appearance, whether he wears the uniform of a
+Sultan's adjutant, or the morning dress of an ordinary man of the world,
+or the official evening coat of the Turks, made like that of an English
+clergyman, but ornamented by a string of tiny decorations attached to
+the buttonhole on the left side. Gregorios Balsamides is of middle
+height, slender and well built, a matchless horseman, and long inured to
+every kind of hardship, though his pallor and his delicate white hands
+suggest a constitution anything but hardy.</p>
+
+<p>He is the natural outcome of the present state of civilization in
+Turkey; and as it is not easy for the ordinary mind to understand the
+state of the Ottoman Empire without long study, so it is not by any
+means a simple matter to comprehend the characters produced by the
+modern condition of things in the East. Balsamides Bey is a man who
+seems to unite in himself as many contradictory qualities and
+characteristics as are to be found in any one living man. He is a
+thorough Turk in principle, but also a thorough Western Frank in
+education. He has read immensely in many languages, and speaks French
+and English with remarkable fluency. He has made an especial study of
+modern history, and can give an important date, a short account of a
+great battle, or a brief notice of a living celebrity, with an ease and
+accuracy that many a student might envy. He reads French and English
+novels, and probably possesses a contraband copy of Byron, whose works
+are proscribed in Turkey and confiscated by the custom-house. He goes
+into European society as well as among Turks, Greeks, and Armenians.
+Although a Greek by descent, he loves the Turks and is profoundly
+attached to the reigning dynasty, under whom his father and grandfather
+lived and prospered. A Christian by birth and education, he has a
+profound respect for the Mussulman faith, as being the religion of the
+government he serves, and a profound hatred of the Armenian, whom he
+regards as the evil genius of the Osmanli. He is a man whom many trust,
+but whose chief desire seems to be to avoid all show of power. He is
+often consulted on important matters, but his discretion is proof
+against all attacks, and there is not a journalist nor correspondent in
+Pera who can boast of ever having extracted the smallest item of
+information from Balsamides Bey.</p>
+
+<p>These are his good qualities, and they are solid ones, for he is a
+thoroughly well-informed man, exceedingly clever, and absolutely
+trustworthy. On the other hand, he is cold, sarcastic, and possibly
+cruel, and occasionally he is frank almost to brutality.</p>
+
+<p>On the very evening of our arrival in Pera I went to see him, for he is
+an old friend of mine. I found him alone in his small lodgings in the
+Grande Rue, reading a yellow-covered French novel by the light of a
+German student-lamp. The room was simply furnished with a table, a
+divan, three or four stiff, straight-backed chairs, and a bookcase. But
+on the matted floor and divan there were two or three fine Sin&eacute; carpets;
+a couple of trophies of splendidly ornamented weapons adorned the wall;
+by his side, upon a small eight-sided table inlaid with tortoise-shell
+and mother-of-pearl, stood a silver salver with an empty coffee-cup of
+beautiful workmanship,&mdash;the stand of beaten gold, and the delicate shell
+of the most exquisite transparent china. He had evidently been on duty
+at the palace, for he was in uniform, and had removed only his long
+riding-boots, throwing himself down in his chair to read the book in
+which he was interested.</p>
+
+<p>On seeing me, he rose suddenly and put out his hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Is it you? Where have you come from?" he cried.</p>
+
+<p>"From England, to see you," I answered.</p>
+
+<p>"You must stay with me," he said at once. "The spare room is ready," he
+added, leading me to the door. Then he clapped his hands to call the
+servant, before I could prevent him.</p>
+
+<p>"But I have already been to the hotel," I protested.</p>
+
+<p>"Go to Missiri's with a ham&aacute;l, and bring the Effendi's luggage," he said
+to the servant, who instantly disappeared.</p>
+
+<p>"Caught," he exclaimed, laughing, as he opened the door and showed me my
+little room. I had slept there many a night in former times, and I loved
+his simple hospitality.</p>
+
+<p>"You are the same as ever," I said. "A man cannot put his nose inside
+your door without being caught, as you call it."</p>
+
+<p>"Many a man may," he answered. "But not you, my dear fellow. Now&mdash;you
+will have coffee and a cigarette. We will dine at home. There is pilaff
+and kebabi and a bottle of champagne. How are you? I forgot to ask."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, thanks," said I, as we came back to the sitting-room. "I am
+always well, you know. You look pale, but that is nothing new. You have
+been on duty at the palace?"</p>
+
+<p>"Friday," he answered laconically, which meant that he had been at the
+Selamlek, attending the Sultan to the weekly service at the mosque.</p>
+
+<p>"You used to get back early in the day. Have the hours changed?"</p>
+
+<p>"Man of Belial," he replied, "with us nothing changes. I was detained at
+the palace. So you have come all the way from England to see me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes,&mdash;and to ask you a question and a favor."</p>
+
+<p>"You shall have the answer and my services."</p>
+
+<p>"Do not promise before you have heard. 'Two acrobats cannot always dance
+on the same rope,' as your proverb says."</p>
+
+<p>"And 'Every sheep hangs by its own heels,'" said he. "I will take my
+chance with you. First, the question, please."</p>
+
+<p>"Did you ever hear of Alexander Patoff?"</p>
+
+<p>Balsamides looked at me a moment, with the air of a man who is asked an
+exceedingly foolish question.</p>
+
+<p>"Hear of him? I have heard of nothing else for the last eighteen months.
+I have an indigestion brought on by too much Alexander Patoff. Is that
+your errand, Griggs? How in the world did you come to take up that
+question?"</p>
+
+<p>"You have been asked about him before?" I inquired.</p>
+
+<p>"I tell you there is not a dog in Constantinople that has not been
+kicked for not knowing where that fellow is. I am sick of him, alive or
+dead. What do I care about your Patoffs? The fool could not take care of
+himself when he was alive, and now the universe is turned upside down to
+find his silly body. Where is he? At the bottom of the Bosphorus. How
+did he get there? By the kind exertions of his brother, who then played
+the comedy of tearing his hair so cleverly that his ambassador believed
+him. Very simple: if you want to find his body, I can tell you how to do
+it."</p>
+
+<p>"How?" I asked eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>"Drain the Bosphorus," he answered, with a sneer. "You will find plenty
+of skulls at the bottom of it. The smallest will be his, to a dead
+certainty."</p>
+
+<p>"My dear fellow," I protested, "his brother did not kill him. The proof
+is that Paul Patoff has come hack swearing that he will find some trace
+of Alexander. He came with me, and I believe his story."</p>
+
+<p>"He is only renewing the comedy,&mdash;tearing his hair on the anniversary of
+the death, like a well-paid mourner. Of course, somebody has accused him
+again of the murder. He will have to tear his hair every time he is
+accused, in order to keep up appearances. He knows, and he alone knows,
+where the dead man is."</p>
+
+<p>"But if he killed him the kav&aacute;ss must have known it&mdash;must have helped
+him. You remember the story?"</p>
+
+<p>"I should think so. What does the kav&aacute;ss prove? Nothing. He was probably
+told to go off for a moment, and now will not confess it. Money will do
+anything."</p>
+
+<p>"There remains the driver of the carriage," I objected. "He saw
+Alexander go into Agia Sophia, but he never saw him come out."</p>
+
+<p>"And is anything easier than that? A man might learn those few words in
+three minutes. That proves nothing."</p>
+
+<p>"There is the probability," I argued. "Many persons have disappeared in
+Stamboul before now."</p>
+
+<p>"Nonsense, Griggs," he answered. "You know that when anything of the
+kind has occurred it has generally turned out that the missing man was
+bankrupt. He disappeared to reappear somewhere else under another name.
+I do not believe a word of all those romances. To you Franks we are a
+nation of robbers, murderers, and thieves; we are the Turkey of Byron,
+always thirsting for blood, spilling it senselessly, and crying out for
+more. If that idiot allowed his brother to kill him without attracting a
+crowd,&mdash;in Stamboul, in the last week of Ramaz&aacute;n, when everybody is out
+of doors,&mdash;he deserved his fate, that is all."</p>
+
+<p>"I do not believe he is dead," I said, "and I have come here to ask you
+to make the acquaintance of Paul Patoff. If you still believe him to be
+a murderer when you have heard him tell his story, I shall be very much
+surprised."</p>
+
+<p>"I should tear him to pieces if I met him," said Balsamides, with a
+laugh. "The mere sight of anybody called Patoff would bring on an attack
+of the nerves."</p>
+
+<p>"Be serious," said I. "Do you think I would be so foolish as to interest
+myself in this business unless I believed that it could be cleared of
+all mystery and explained?"</p>
+
+<p>"You have been in England," retorted Gregorios. "That will explain any
+kind of insanity. Do you want me to pester every office in the
+government with new inquiries? It will do no good. Everything has been
+tried. The man is gone without leaving a trace. No amount of money will
+produce information. Can I say more? Where money fails, a man need not
+be so foolish as to hope anything from his intelligence."</p>
+
+<p>"I am foolish enough to hope something," I replied. "If you will not
+help me, I must go elsewhere. I will not give up the thing at the
+start."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, if I say I will help you, what do you expect me to do? Can I do
+anything which has not been done already? If so, I will do it. But I
+will not harness myself to a rotten cart, as the proverb says. It is
+quite useless to expect anything more from the police."</p>
+
+<p>"I expect nothing from them. I believe that Alexander is alive, and has
+been hidden by somebody rich enough and strong enough to baffle
+pursuit."</p>
+
+<p>"What put that into your head?" asked my companion, looking at me with
+sudden curiosity.</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing but the reduction of the thing to the last analysis. Either he
+is dead, or he is alive. As you say, he could hardly have been killed on
+such a night without attracting attention. Besides, the motives for
+Paul's killing him were wholly inadequate. No, let me go on. Therefore
+I say that he was taken alive."</p>
+
+<p>"Where?"</p>
+
+<p>"In Santa Sophia."</p>
+
+<p>"But then," argued Balsamides, "the driver would have seen him carried
+out."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," I admitted. "That is the difficulty. But he might perhaps have
+been taken through the porch; at all events, he must have gone down the
+stairs alone, taking the lantern."</p>
+
+<p>"They found the lantern," said Gregorios. "You did not know that? A long
+time afterwards the man who opens the towers confessed that when he had
+gone up with the brothers and the kav&aacute;ss he had found that his taper was
+burnt out. He picked up the kav&aacute;ss's lantern and carried it down,
+meaning to return with the next party of foreigners. No other foreigners
+came, and when he went up to find the Patoffs they were gone and the
+carriage was gone. He kept the lantern, until the offers of reward
+induced him to give it up and tell his story."</p>
+
+<p>"That proves nothing, except that Alexander went down-stairs in the
+dark."</p>
+
+<p>"I have an idea, Griggs!" cried Balsamides, suddenly changing his tone.
+"It proves this,&mdash;that Alexander did not necessarily go down the steps
+at all."</p>
+
+<p>"I do not understand."</p>
+
+<p>"There is another way out of that gallery. Did you know that? At the
+other end, in exactly the same position, hidden in the deep arch, there
+is a second door. There is also a winding staircase, which leads to the
+street on the opposite side of the mosque. Foreigners are never admitted
+by that side, but it is barely possible that the door may have been
+open. Alexander Patoff may have gone down that way, thinking it was the
+staircase by which he had come up."</p>
+
+<p>"You see," I said, delighted at this information, "everything is not
+exhausted yet."</p>
+
+<p>"No, I begin to think we are nearer to an explanation. If that door was
+open,&mdash;which, however, is very improbable,&mdash;he could have gone down and
+have got into the street without passing the carriage, which stood on
+the other side of the mosque. But, after all, we are no nearer to
+knowing what ultimately became of him."</p>
+
+<p>"Would it be possible to find out whether the door was really open, and,
+if so, who passed that way?" I inquired.</p>
+
+<p>"We shall see," said Gregorios. "I will change my mind. I will make the
+acquaintance of your Russian friend. I know him by sight, though I never
+spoke to him. When I have talked the matter over with him I will tell
+you what I think about it. Let us go to dinner."</p>
+
+<p>I felt that I had overcome the first great difficulty in persuading
+Balsamides to take some interest in my errand. He is one of those men
+who are very hard to move, but who, when once they are disposed to act
+at all, are ready to do their best. Moreover, the existence of the
+second staircase, leading from the gallery to the street, at once
+explained how Alexander might have left the church unobserved by the
+coachman. I wondered why no one had thought of this. It had probably not
+suggested itself to any one, because strangers are never admitted from
+that side, and because the door is almost always closed.</p>
+
+<p>Gregorios did not refer to the subject again that evening, but amused
+himself by asking me all manner of questions about the state of England.
+We fell to talking about European politics, and the hours passed very
+pleasantly until midnight.</p>
+
+<p>On the next day I went to see Paul, and told him the result of my first
+step. He appeared very grateful.</p>
+
+<p>"It seems hard that my life should be ruined by this thing," he said
+wearily. "Any prospect of news is delightful, however small. I am under
+a sort of curse,&mdash;as much as though I had really had something to do
+with poor Alexander's death. It comes up in all sorts of ways. Unless we
+can solve the mystery, I shall never be really free."</p>
+
+<p>"We will solve it," I said, in order to reassure him. "Nothing shall be
+left undone, and I hope that in a few weeks you may feel relieved from
+all this anxiety."</p>
+
+<p>"It is more than anxiety; it is pain," he answered. I supposed that he
+was thinking of Hermione, and was silent. Presently he proposed to go
+out. It was a fine day in February, though the snow was on the ground
+and filled the ruts in the pavement of the Grande Rue de Pera. Every one
+was wrapped in furs and every one wore overshoes, without which it is
+impossible to go out in winter in Constantinople. The streets were
+crowded with that strange multitude seen nowhere else in the world; the
+shops were full of people of all sorts, from the ladies of the embassies
+to the veiled Turkish ladies, who have small respect for the regulation
+forbidding them to buy in Frank establishments. At Galata Serai the huge
+Kurdish ham&aacute;ls loitered in the sun, waiting for a job, their ropes and
+the heavy pillows on which they carry their burdens lying at their feet.
+The lean dogs sat up and glared hungrily at the huge joints of meat
+which the butchers' lads carried through the crowd, forcing their way
+past the delicate Western ladies, who drew back in horror at the sight
+of so much raw beef, and through knots of well-dressed men standing
+before the caf&eacute;s in the narrow street. Numberless soldiers moved in the
+crowd, tall, fair Turks, with broad shoulders and blue eyes, in the
+shabby uniform of the foot-guards, but looking as though they could
+fight as well as any smart Prussian grenadier, as indeed they can when
+they get enough to eat. Now and then a closed sedan-chair moved rapidly
+along, borne by sturdy Kurds, and occasionally a considerable
+disturbance was caused by the appearance of a carriage. Paul and I
+strolled down the steep street, past Galata Tower and down into Galata
+itself.</p>
+
+<p>"Shall we cross?" asked Paul, as we reached the bridge.</p>
+
+<p>"Let us go up the Bosphorus," I said. "There will probably be a steamer
+before long."</p>
+
+<p>He assented readily enough. It was about eleven o'clock in the
+morning,&mdash;five by the Turkish clocks,&mdash;and the day was magnificent. The
+sun was high, and illuminated everything in the bright, cold air, so
+that the domes and minarets of the city were white as snow, with bluish
+shadows, while the gilded crescents and spires glistened with unnatural
+brilliancy in the clear winter's daylight. It is hard to say whether
+Stamboul is more beautiful at any one season of the year than during the
+other three, for every season brings with it some especial loveliness,
+some new phase of color. You may reach Serai point on a winter's morning
+in a driving snow-storm, so that everything is hidden in the gray veil
+of the falling flakes; suddenly the clouds will part and the sunlight
+will fall full upon the city, so that it seems as if every mosque and
+spire were built of diamonds. Or you may cross to Scutari in the early
+dawn of a morning in June, when the sky is like a vast Eastern flower,
+dark blue in the midst overhead, the petals shaded with every tint to
+the faint purple on the horizon; and every hue in turn passes over the
+fantastic buildings, as the shadows gradually take color from the sky,
+and the soft velvety water laps up the light in broad pools and delicate
+streaks of tinted reflection. It is always beautiful, always new; but of
+all times, I think the hour when the high sun illuminates most
+distinctly everything on land and sea is the time when Stamboul is most
+splendid and queenly.</p>
+
+<p>The great ferry-boat heaved and thumped the water, and swung slowly off
+the wooden pier, while we stood on the upper deck watching the scene
+before us. For two men as familiar with Constantinople in all its
+aspects as we were, it seemed almost ridiculous to go on board a steamer
+merely for the sake of being carried to the mouth of the Black Sea and
+back again. But I have always loved the Bosphorus, and I thought it
+would amuse Paul to pass the many landings, and to see the crowds of
+passengers, and to walk about the empty deck. He was tired with the
+journey and harassed in mind, and for those ills the open air is the
+best medicine.</p>
+
+<p>He appeared to enjoy it, and asked me many questions about the palaces
+and villas on both shores, for I was better acquainted with the place
+than he. It seemed to interest him to know that such a villa belonged to
+such a Pasha, that such another was the property of an old princess of
+evil fame, while the third had seen strange doings in the days of
+Mehemet Ali, and was now deserted or inhabited only by ghosts of the
+past,&mdash;the resort of ghouls and jins from the neighboring grave-yards.
+As we lay a moment at the pier of Yeni K&ouml;j,&mdash;"New town" sounds less
+interesting,&mdash;we watched the stream of passengers, and I thought Paul
+started slightly as a tall, smooth-faced, and hideous negro suddenly
+turned and looked up to where we stood on the deck, as he left the
+steamer. I might have been mistaken, but it was the only approach to an
+incident of interest which occurred that day. We reached the upper part
+of the Bosphorus, and at Yeni Mahall&egrave;, within sight of the Black Sea,
+the ferry-boat described a wide circle and turned once more in the
+direction of Stamboul.</p>
+
+<p>"I feel better," said Paul, as we reached Galata bridge and elbowed our
+way ashore through the crowd. "We will go again."</p>
+
+<p>"By all means," I answered.</p>
+
+<p>From that time during several weeks we frequently made excursions into
+Stamboul and up the Bosphorus, and the constant enjoyment of the open
+air did Paul good. But I could see that wherever we went he watched the
+people with intense interest; following some individual with his eyes in
+silence, or trying to see into dark archways and through latticed
+windows, staring at the files of passengers who came on board the boats
+or went ashore at the different landings, and apparently never relaxing
+his attention. The people grew familiar to me, too, and gradually it
+appeared that Paul was constructing a method for our peregrinations. It
+was he, and not I, who suggested the direction of our expeditions, and I
+noticed that he chose certain places on certain days. On Monday, for
+instance, he never failed to propose a visit to the bazaars, on Tuesday
+we generally went up the Bosphorus, on Wednesday into Stamboul. On
+Friday afternoons, when the weather was fine, we used to ride out to the
+Sweet Waters of Europe; for Friday is the Mussulman's day of rest, and
+on that day all who are able love to go out to the Kiat-han&eacute;&mdash;the
+"paper-mill,"&mdash;where they pass the afternoon in driving and walking,
+eating sweetmeats, smoking, drinking coffee, watching gypsy girls dance,
+or listening to the long-winded tales of professional story-tellers.
+Almost every day had its regular excursion, and it was clear to me that
+he always chose the place where on that day of the week there was likely
+to be the greatest crowd.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile Balsamides, in whose house I continued to live, alternately
+laughed at me for believing Paul's story, and expressed in the next
+breath a hope that Alexander might yet be found. He had been to Santa
+Sophia, and had ascertained that the other staircase was usually opened
+on the nights when the mosque was illuminated, for the convenience of
+the men employed in lighting the lamps, and this confirmed his theory
+about the direction taken by Alexander when he left the gallery. But
+here all trace ceased again, and Balsamides was almost ready to give up
+the search, when an incident occurred which renewed our energy and hope,
+and which had the effect of rousing Paul to the greatest excitement.</p>
+
+<p>We were wandering under the gloomy arches of the vast bazaar one day,
+and had reached the quarter where the Spanish Jews have their shops and
+collect their wonderful mass of valuables, chiefly antiquities, offering
+them for sale in their little dens, and ever hungry for a bargain. We
+strolled along, smoking and chatting as we went, when a Jew named
+Marchetto, with whom I had had dealings in former days and who knew me
+very well, came suddenly out into the broad covered way, and invited us
+into his shop. He said he had an object of rare beauty which he was sure
+I would buy. We went in, and sat down on a low divan against the wall.
+The sides of the little shop were piled to the ceiling with neatly
+folded packages of stuffs, embroideries, and prayer carpets. In one
+corner stood a shabby old table with a glass case, under which various
+objects of gold and silver were exposed for sale. The whole place
+smelled strongly of Greek tobacco, but otherwise it was clean and neat.
+A little raised dome in the middle of the ceiling admitted light and
+air.</p>
+
+<p>Marchetto disappeared for a moment, and instantly returned with two cups
+of Turkish coffee on a pewter salver, which he deposited on a stool
+before us. He evidently meant business, for he began to talk of the
+weather, and seemed in no hurry to show us the object he had vaguely
+mentioned. At last I asked for it, which I would certainly not have done
+had I meant to buy it. It proved to be a magnificent strip of Rhodes
+tapestry, of the kind formerly made for the Knights of Malta, but not
+manufactured since the last century. It consists always of Maltese
+crosses, of various sizes and designs, embroidered in heavy dark red
+silk upon strips of coarse strong linen about two feet wide, or of the
+same design worked upon square pieces for cushions. The value of this
+tapestry is very great, and is principally determined by the fineness of
+the stitch and the shade of red in the silk used.</p>
+
+<p>Marchetto's face fell as we admired his tapestry, for he knew that we
+would not begin a bargain by conceding the smallest merit to the object
+offered. But he put a brave face on the matter, and began to show us
+other things: a Giord&egrave;s carpet, a magnificent piece of old Broussa gold
+embroidery on pale blue satin, curious embroideries on towels, known as
+Persian lace,&mdash;indeed, every variety of ancient stuff. Tired of sitting
+still, I rose and turned over some of the things myself. In doing so I
+struck my elbow against the old glass case in the corner, and looked to
+see whether I had broken it. In so doing my eye naturally fell upon the
+things laid out on white paper beneath the glazed frame. Among them I
+saw a watch which attracted my attention. It was of silver, but very
+beautifully engraved and adorned in Russian <i>niello</i>. The ribbed knob
+which served to wind it was of gold. Altogether the workmanship was very
+fine, and the watch looked new.</p>
+
+<p>"Here is a Russian watch, Patoff," I said, tapping the glass pane with
+my finger. Paul rose languidly and came to the table. When he saw the
+thing he turned pale, and gripped my arm in sudden excitement.</p>
+
+<p>"It is his," he said, in a low voice, trying to raise the lid.</p>
+
+<p>"Alexander's?" Paul nodded. "Pretend to be indifferent," I said in
+Russian, fearing lest Marchetto should understand.</p>
+
+<p>The Jew unclosed the case and handed us the watch. Paul took it with
+trembling fingers and opened it at the back. There in Russian letters
+were engraved the words <span class="f">Alexander Paulovitch, from his father</span>; the date
+followed. There was no doubt about it. The watch had belonged to the
+lost man; he had, therefore, been robbed.</p>
+
+<p>"You got this from some bankrupt Pasha, Marchetto?" I inquired.
+Everything offered for sale in the bazaar at second hand is said to come
+from the establishment of a Pasha; the statement is supposed to attract
+foreigners.</p>
+
+<p>Marchetto nodded and smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"A Russian Pasha," I continued. "Did you ever hear of a Russian Pasha,
+Marchetto? The fellow who sold it to you lied."</p>
+
+<p>"He who lies on the first day of Ramaz&aacute;n repents on the day of Bairam,"
+returned the Jew, quoting a Turkish proverb, and grinning. I was struck
+by the words. Somehow the mention of Bairam made me think of Alexander's
+uncertain fate, and suggested the idea that Marchetto knew something
+about it.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," I answered, looking sharply at him; "and another proverb says
+that the fox ends his days in the furrier's shop. Where did you buy the
+watch?"</p>
+
+<p>"Allah bilir! I have forgotten."</p>
+
+<p>"Allah knows, undoubtedly. But you know too," I said, laughing, and
+pretending to be amused. Paul had resumed his seat upon the small divan,
+and was listening with intense interest; but he knew it was best to
+leave the thing to me. Marchetto was a fat man, with red hair and
+red-brown eyes. He looked at me doubtfully for a moment.</p>
+
+<p>"I will buy it if you will tell me where you got it," I said.</p>
+
+<p>"I got it"&mdash;He hesitated. "It came out of a harem," he added suddenly,
+with a sort of chuckle.</p>
+
+<p>"Out of a harem!" I exclaimed, in utter incredulity. "What harem?"</p>
+
+<p>"I will not tell you," he answered, gravely, the smile fading from his
+face. "I swore that I would not tell."</p>
+
+<p>"Will you swear that it really came from a harem?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"I give you my word of honor," asseverated Marchetto. "I swear by my
+head, by your beard"&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I do not mean that," I said quietly. "Will you swear to me, solemnly,
+before God, that you are telling the truth?"</p>
+
+<p>Marchetto looked at me in surprise, for no people in the world are so
+averse to making a solemn oath as the Hebrews, as, perhaps, no people
+are more exact in regard to the truth when so made to bind themselves.
+The man looked at me for a moment.</p>
+
+<p>"You seem very curious about that watch," he said at last, turning away
+and busying himself with his stuffs.</p>
+
+<p>"Then you will not swear?" I asked, putting the watch back in its place.</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot swear to what I do not know. But I know the man who sold it to
+me. He is the Lala of a harem, that is certain. I will not tell you his
+name, nor the name of the Effendi to whose harem he belongs. Will you
+buy my watch?&mdash;birindj&iacute;&mdash;first quality&mdash;it is a beautiful thing. On my
+honor, I have never seen a finer one, though it is of silver."</p>
+
+<p>"Not unless you will tell me where it came from," I said firmly.
+"Besides, I must show it to Vartan in Pera before I buy it. Perhaps the
+works are not good."</p>
+
+<p>"It is yours," said Marchetto. "Take it. When you have had it two days
+you will buy it."</p>
+
+<p>"How much?"</p>
+
+<p>"Twenty liras,&mdash;twenty Turkish pounds," answered the Jew promptly.</p>
+
+<p>"You mean five," I said. The watch was worth ten, I thought, about two
+hundred and thirty francs.</p>
+
+<p>"Impossible. I would rather let you take it as a gift. It is
+birindj&iacute;&mdash;first quality&mdash;upon my honor. I never saw"&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Rubbish, Marchetto!" I exclaimed. "Let me take it to Vartan to be
+examined. Then we will bargain."</p>
+
+<p>"Take it," he answered. "Keep it as long as you like. I know you very
+well, and I thank Heaven I have profited a little with you. But the
+price of the watch is twenty pounds. You will pay it, and all your life
+you will look at it and say, 'What an honest man Marchetto is!' By my
+head&mdash;it is birindj&iacute;&mdash;first quality&mdash;I never"&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I have no doubt," I answered, cutting him short. I motioned to Paul
+that we had better go: he rose without a word.</p>
+
+<p>"Good-by, Marchetto," I said. "I will come back in a day or two and
+bargain with you."</p>
+
+<p>"It is birindj&iacute;&mdash;by my head&mdash;first quality"&mdash;were the last words we
+heard as we left the Jew amongst his stuffs. Then we threaded the
+subterranean passages of the bazaar, and soon afterwards were walking in
+the direction of Galata bridge, on our way back to Pera. At last Paul
+spoke.</p>
+
+<p>"We are on the scent," he said. "That fellow was speaking the truth when
+he said the watch came from a harem. I could see it in his face. I begin
+to think that Alexander did some absurdly rash thing,&mdash;followed some
+veiled Turkish woman, as he would have done before if I had not stopped
+him,&mdash;was seized, imprisoned in some cellar or other, and ultimately
+murdered."</p>
+
+<p>"It looks like it," I answered. "Of course I would not buy the watch
+outright, because as long as it is not paid for I have a hold upon
+Marchetto. I will talk to Balsamides to-night. He is very clever about
+those things, and he will find out the name of the black man who sold
+it."</p>
+
+<p>We separated, and I went to find my friend; but he was on duty and would
+not return until evening. I spent the rest of the day in making visits,
+trying to get rid of the time. On returning to the house of Gregorios I
+found a letter from John Carvel, the first I had received from him since
+I had left England. It ran as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+
+<p class="n"><span class="smcap">My dear Griggs</span>: Since you left us something very extraordinary and
+unexpected has taken place, and considering the part you took in our
+household affairs, you should not be kept in the dark. I have suffered
+more annoyance in connection with my unfortunate sister-in-law than I
+can ever tell you; and the thing has culminated in a sort of
+transformation scene, such as you certainly never expected any more than
+I did. What will you say when I tell you that Madame Patoff has suddenly
+emerged from her rooms in all respects a sane woman? You will not be any
+less surprised&mdash;unless Paul has confided in you&mdash;to hear that he asked
+Hermione to marry him before leaving us, and that Hermione did not
+refuse him! I am so nervous that I have cut three meets in the last
+month.</p>
+
+<p>Of course you will want to know how all this came out. I do not see how
+I can manage to write so long a letter as this must be. But the <i>labor
+improbus</i> knocks the stuffing out of all difficulties, as you put it in
+your neat American way. I dare say I shall survive. If I do not, the
+directions for my epitaph are, "Here lies the body of Anne Patoff's
+brother-in-law." If you could see me, you would appreciate the justice
+of the inscription.</p>
+
+<p>Madame Patoff is perfectly sane; dines with us, drives out, walks,
+talks, and reads like any other human being,&mdash;in which she differs
+materially from Chrysophrasia, who does all these things as they were
+never done, before or after the flood. We do not know what to make of
+the situation, but we try to make the best of it. It came about in this
+way. Hermione had taken a fancy to pay her aunt a visit, a day or two
+after you had left. Mrs. North was outside, as usual, reading or working
+in the next room. It chanced that the door was left open, or not quite
+closed. Mrs. North had the habit of listening to what went on,
+professionally, because it was her business to watch the case. As she
+sat there working, she heard Madame Patoff's voice, talking
+consecutively. She had never heard her talk before, more than to say
+"Yes," or "No," or "It is a fine day," or "It rains." She rose and went
+near the door. Her patient was talking very connectedly about a book she
+had been reading, and Hermione was answering her as though not at all
+surprised at the conversation. Then, presently, Hermione began to beg
+her to come out into the house and to live with the rest of us, since
+she was now perfectly sane. Mrs. North was thunderstruck, but did not
+lose her head. She probably did the best thing she could have done, as
+the event proved. She entered the room very quietly,&mdash;she is always so
+quiet,&mdash;and said in the most natural way in the world, "I am so glad you
+are better, Madame Patoff. Excuse me, Miss Hermione left the door open
+and I heard you talking." The old lady started and looked at her a
+moment. Then she turned away, and presently, looking rather white, she
+answered the nurse: "Thank you, Mrs. North, I am quite well. Will you
+send for Professor Cutter?" So Cutter was sent for, and when he had
+seen her he sent for me, and told me that my sister-in-law was in a
+lucid state, but that it would be just as well not to excite her. If she
+chose to leave her room she might, he said, but she ought to be watched.
+"The deuce!" said I, "this is most extraordinary!" "Exactly," said he,
+"most extraordinary."</p>
+
+<p>The lucid moment lasted, and she has been perfectly sane ever since. She
+goes about the house, touching everything and admiring everything, and
+enjoys driving with me in the dog-cart. I do not know what to make of
+it. I asked Hermione how it began. She only said that she thought her
+aunt had been better when she was with her, and then it had come very
+suddenly. The other day Madame Patoff asked about Paul, and I told her
+he had gone to the East with you. But she did not seem to know anything
+about you, though I told her you had seen her. "Poor Paul," she said, "I
+should like to see him so much. He is the only one left." She was sad
+for a moment, but that was all. Cutter said it was very strange; that
+her insanity must have been caused in some way by the shock she had when
+she threw herself out of the window in Germany. Perhaps so. At all
+events she is sane now, and Cutter says she will not be crazy again. I
+hope he is right. She appeared very grateful for all I had done for her,
+and I believe she has written to Paul. Queer story, is it not?</p>
+
+<p>Now for the sequel. Hermione came to me one morning in the library, and
+confessed that Paul had asked her to marry him, and that she had not
+exactly refused. Girls' ideas about those things are apt to be very
+inexact when they are in love with a man and do not want to own it. Of
+course I said I was glad she had not accepted him; but when I put it to
+her in that way she seemed more uncertain than ever. The end of it was
+that she said she could not marry him, however much she liked him,
+unless he could put an end to a certain foolish tale which is told
+against him. I dare say you have heard that he had been half suspected
+of helping his brother out of the world. Was there ever such nonsense?
+That was what Chrysophrasia meant with her disgusting personalities
+about Cain and Abel. I dare say you remember. I do not mind telling you
+that I like Paul very much more than I expected to when he first came.
+He has a hard shell, but he is a good fellow, and as innocent of his
+brother's death as I am. But&mdash;they are cousins, and Paul's mother has
+certainly been insane. Of course insanity brought on by an accident can
+never be hereditary; but then, there is Chrysophrasia, who is certainly
+very odd. However, Paul is a fine fellow, and I will think of it. Mrs.
+Carvel likes him even better than I do. I would have preferred that
+Hermione should marry an out-and-out Englishman, but I always said she
+should marry the man she loved, if he were a gentleman, and I will not
+go back on my word. They will not have much to live on, for I believe
+Paul has refused to touch a penny of his brother's fortune, believing
+that he may yet be found.</p>
+
+<p>But the plot thickens. What do you suppose Macaulay has been doing? He
+has written a letter to his old chief, Lord Mavourneen, who always liked
+him so much, begging to be sent to Constantinople. The ambassador had a
+secretary out there of the same standing who wanted to go to Paris, so
+the matter was arranged at the Foreign Office, and Macaulay is going out
+at once. Naturally the female establishment set up a howl that they must
+spend the summer on the Bosphorus; that I had taken them everywhere
+else, and that no one of them could die happy without having seen
+Constantinople. The howl lasted a week. Then I went the way of all
+flesh, and gave in. Mrs. Carvel wanted to see Macaulay, Madame Patoff
+wanted to see the place where poor Alexander disappeared, Hermione
+wanted to see Paul, and Chrysophrasia wanted to see the Golden Horn and
+dance upon the glad waters of the joyous Bosphorus in the light ca&iuml;que
+of commerce. I am rather glad I have submitted. I think that Hermione's
+affection is serious,&mdash;she looks ill, poor child,&mdash;and I want to see
+more of Paul before deciding. Of course, with Macaulay in one embassy
+and Paul in another, we shall see everything; and Mary says I am growing
+crusty over my books. You understand now how all this has occurred.</p>
+
+<p>Now I want your advice, for you not only know Constantinople, but you
+are living there. Do you advise us to come at once and spend the spring,
+or to come later and stay all summer? Is there anything to eat? Must I
+bring a cook? Can I get a house, or must we encamp in a hotel? What
+clothes does one wear? In short, tell me everything you know, on a
+series of post cards or by telegraph,&mdash;for you hate writing letters more
+than I do. I await your answer with anxiety, as we shall regulate our
+movements by what you say. All send affectionate messages to you and to
+Paul, to whom please read this letter.</p>
+
+<p>
+Yours ever, <span class="smcap">John Carvel</span>.<br />
+</p>
+
+
+<p class="n">I had not recovered from my astonishment in reading this long epistle,
+when Gregorios came in and sat down by the fire. His entrance reminded
+me of the watch, and for the moment banished John Carvel and his family
+from my thoughts. I showed him the thing, and told him what Marchetto
+had said.</p>
+
+<p>"We have him now!" he exclaimed, examining the name and date with
+interest, though he could not read the Russian characters.</p>
+
+<p>"It is not so sure," I said. "He will never tell the name of the negro."</p>
+
+<p>"No; but we can see the fellow easily enough, I fancy," returned
+Balsamides. "You do not know how these things are done. It is most
+probable that Marchetto has not paid him for the watch. Things of that
+sort are generally not paid for until they have been sold out of the
+shop. Marchetto would not give him a good price for the watch until he
+knew what it would fetch, and the man would not take a small sum because
+he believes it to be valuable. The chances are that the Lala comes from
+time to time to inquire if it is sold, and Marchetto shows it to him to
+prove that he has not got any money for it."</p>
+
+<p>"That sounds rather far-fetched," I observed. "Marchetto may have had it
+in his keeping ever since Alexander disappeared. The Lala would not wait
+as long as that. He would take it to some one else."</p>
+
+<p>"No, I do not believe so," said Gregorios thoughtfully. "Besides, it may
+not have been brought to the Jew more than a week ago. Those fellows do
+not part with jewelry unless they need money. It is a pretty thing, too,
+and would attract the attention of any foreigner."</p>
+
+<p>"How can you manage to watch Marchetto so closely as to get a sight of
+the man?"</p>
+
+<p>"Bribe the Jew in the next shop; or, still better, pay a ham&aacute;l to spend
+his time in the neighborhood. The man probably comes once a week on a
+certain day. Keep the watch. The next time he comes it will be gone, but
+Marchetto will not have been paid for it and will refuse to pay the
+Lala. There will inevitably be a hubbub and a noise over it. The ham&aacute;l
+can easily find out the name of the negro, who is probably well known in
+the bazaar."</p>
+
+<p>"But suppose that I am right, and it is already paid for?" I objected.</p>
+
+<p>"It is very unlikely. I know these people better than you do. At all
+events, we will put the ham&aacute;l there to watch for the row. If it does not
+come off in a month, I will begin to think you are right."</p>
+
+<p>Gregorios is a true Oriental. He possesses the inborn instinct of the
+bazaar.</p>
+
+
+
+<h2 class="m"><a name="XIII" id="XIII"></a>XIII.</h2>
+
+
+<p>That night I went in search of Paul, and found him standing silent and
+alone in the corner of a drawing-room at one of the embassies. There was
+a great reception and a dance, and all the diplomats had turned out
+officially to see that portion of the native Pera society which is
+invited on such occasions.</p>
+
+<p>There is a brilliancy about such affairs in Constantinople which is
+hardly rivaled elsewhere. The display of jewels is something wonderful,
+for the great Fanariote families are still rich, in spite of the
+devastations of the late war, and the light of their hereditary diamonds
+and pearls is not hidden under a bushel. There is beauty, too, of the
+Oriental and Western kind, and plenty of it. The black eyes and
+transparently white complexions of the Greek ladies, their raven hair
+and heavy brows, their magnificent calm and their languid attitudes,
+contrast strangely with the fair women of many countries, whose
+husbands, or fathers, or brothers, or uncles are attached to the
+different embassies. The uniforms, too, are often superb, and the
+display of decorations is amazing. The conversation is an enlargement on
+the ordinary idea of Babel, for almost every known language is spoken
+within the limits of the ball-room.</p>
+
+<p>I found Paul alone, with an abstracted expression on his face, as he
+stood aside from the crowd, unnoticed in his corner.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear fellow," I said, "I believe I may congratulate you."</p>
+
+<p>"Upon what?" he asked, in some surprise.</p>
+
+<p>"Let us get out of this crowd," I answered. "I have a letter from John
+Carvel, which you ought to read."</p>
+
+<p>We threaded the rooms till we reached a small boudoir, occupied only by
+one or two couples, exceedingly interested in each other.</p>
+
+<p>"Read that," said I. It was the best thing I could do for him, I
+thought. He might be annoyed to find that I knew his secret, but he
+could not fail to rejoice at the view John took of the engagement. His
+face changed many times in expression, as he read the letter carefully.
+When he had finished he was silent and held it in his hand.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you think of all this?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"She never was mad. Or if she was, this is the strangest recovery I ever
+heard of. So she is coming here with the rest! And uncle John thinks me
+a very fine fellow," he added with a laugh, meant to be a little
+sarcastic, but which ended with the irrepressible ring of genuine
+happiness.</p>
+
+<p>"I congratulate you," I said. "I think the affair is as good as settled.
+You have only to wait a few weeks, and they will be here. By the by, I
+hope you do not mind Carvel's frankness in telling me all about it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not in the least," answered Paul, with a smile. "I believe you are the
+best friend I have in the world, and you are his friend. You will do
+good rather than harm."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope so," said I. "But if any one had foretold a month ago that we
+should all be together again so soon,&mdash;and here, too,&mdash;I could have
+laughed at him."</p>
+
+<p>"It is fate," answered Paul. "It would be better if it could be put off
+until we reach the end of our search, especially as we seem to be nearer
+the track than ever before. I am afraid that their arrival will hinder
+us&mdash;or, at least, me&mdash;from working as hard as I would like."</p>
+
+<p>"On the contrary," I replied, "I fancy you will work all the harder. I
+have been talking to Balsamides about the watch. He feels sure that he
+can catch the man who took it to Marchetto."</p>
+
+<p>I explained to Paul the course Gregorios proposed to follow. He seemed
+to think the chance was a poor one.</p>
+
+<p>"I have been pursued by an idea ever since this morning," he said at
+last. "I dare say you will think it very foolish, but I cannot get rid
+of it. Do you remember the adventure in the Valley of Roses? I told you
+about it at Carvel Place. Very well. I cannot help thinking that the
+negro who took the watch to Marchetto was the one who accompanied those
+two Turkish women. The man was exasperated. He probably knew us by
+sight, for we had constantly met him and the lady with the thick
+yashmak. They had often seen us come out of the Russian embassy. No
+complaint was ever made against Alexander. It looks to me like a piece
+of private vengeance."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," I assented, struck by the idea. "Besides, if the fellow had
+succeeded in making away with your brother, it is natural that he should
+have waited a long time before disposing of his jewelry."</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder what became of the other things," said Patoff. "Alexander had
+with him his Moscow cigarette case, he wore a gold chain with the watch,
+and he had on his finger a ring with a sapphire and two diamonds in a
+heavy gold band. If all those things have been disposed of, they must
+have passed through the bazaar, probably through Marchetto's hands."</p>
+
+<p>At this moment Balsamides Bey's pale, intelligent face showed itself at
+the door. He came quickly forward on seeing us, and drew up a chair. I
+told him in a few words what we had said. He smiled and twirled the end
+of his brown mustache.</p>
+
+<p>"There is something in that," he answered. "I fancy, too, that such a
+fellow would first part with the chain, then with the cigarette case,
+thirdly with the watch, and last of all with the ring, which he probably
+wears."</p>
+
+<p>"We must find out if Marchetto has sold the chain and the case for him,"
+I said.</p>
+
+<p>"Leave Marchetto to me," said Gregorios, confidently. "I will spend the
+day with him to-morrow. Have you ever seen the negro since that affair
+in the Valley of Roses?"</p>
+
+<p>"Often," replied Paul, somewhat to my surprise. "He goes to Yeni K&ouml;j
+every Thursday."</p>
+
+<p>"You seem to have watched his movements," observed Balsamides, with a
+smile of admiration. "Did you never tell Griggs?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," said I, rather amazed.</p>
+
+<p>"What would have been the use? I only watched the man because I fancied
+he might be in some way connected with the matter, but it seemed so
+absurd, until the finding of the watch made it look more probable, that
+I never spoke of it."</p>
+
+<p>"I am glad you have spoken of it now," said Gregorios. "It is probably
+the key to the whole affair."</p>
+
+<p>We talked on for a few minutes, and Paul told Balsamides that his mother
+and the Carvels were coming, explaining his anxiety to hasten the search
+so as to have something positive to show when they arrived. Then Paul
+left us, and went to fulfill such social obligations as his position
+imposed upon him. He was not a man to forget such things, even in times
+of great excitement; and when he returned to Constantinople, his chief
+had expressed the hope that Paul would not shut himself up, but would go
+everywhere, as he had formerly done.</p>
+
+<p>"This thing is beginning to interest me, Griggs," said Gregorios,
+arching his eyebrows, and looking at me with a peculiar expression. "You
+are doing more than I am, and I will not bear it," he added, with a
+laugh. "What is my little bit of evidence about the staircase in Santa
+Sophia compared to your discovery of the watch? I believe that in the
+end Marchetto will be the <i>deus ex machina</i> who will pull us out of all
+our difficulties. I believe, too, that the best thing to do is to
+confide the matter to him. I will go and see him to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>"He will never break his oath to the Lala," I answered.</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps not. But he has only sworn that he will not tell his name. He
+has not sworn that he will not let me see him. So the fellow goes to
+Yeni K&ouml;j on Thursday. Then he probably lives there, and chooses that day
+to come to Stamboul. You have seen him going home. If he goes to
+Stamboul, he most likely visits the bazaar early in the morning. If so,
+I will catch him to-morrow, and to-morrow night I will tell you whether
+he is the man or not. I will come upon Marchetto by accident, and he
+will of course want to show me the Rhodes tapestry; then I will spend
+the whole morning over the bargain, and I shall not miss the Lala if he
+comes."</p>
+
+<p>Balsamides was evidently fully roused, and as we smoked a last cigarette
+in his rooms that night he talked enthusiastically of what he hoped to
+accomplish on the next day. He kept his word, and very early in the
+morning I heard him go out. From the sound of his walk I could tell that
+he had no spurs, and was therefore in civilian's dress. He told me
+afterwards what occurred.</p>
+
+<p>At half past eight o'clock he was drinking a cup of coffee in
+Marchetto's shop in the bazaar, and the Jew was displaying his tapestry,
+and swearing that it was birindj&iacute;, first quality. Balsamides wanted to
+produce the impression that he intended to make a bargain.</p>
+
+<p>"Kaldyr! Take it away!" he exclaimed. "It is rubbish."</p>
+
+<p>Marchetto held the stuff up over his customer's head so that the light
+from the little dome could fall upon it.</p>
+
+<p>"There is not a hole in the whole length of it," he cried
+enthusiastically. "It is perfect; not a thread loose. Examine it; is
+there a patch? By my head, if you can find such another piece I will
+give you a present."</p>
+
+<p>"Is that a color?" asked Balsamides contemptuously. "Is that red? It is
+pink. It is magenta. How much did you pay to have it made?"</p>
+
+<p>"If I could make Rhodes tapestry, I should be as rich as the Hunkyar,"
+retorted Marchetto, squatting on the matted floor and slowly drawing the
+magnificent tapestry across his knees, so that Gregorios could see it to
+advantage.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you take me for a madman?" asked the aid-de-camp. "I do not care for
+Rhodes tapestry. Kaldyr! If it were old, it would have holes in it."</p>
+
+<p>"I have Rhodes full of holes, beautiful holes," observed Marchetto, with
+a grin.</p>
+
+<p>"Fox!" retorted Gregorios. "Do you think when I buy tapestry I want to
+buy holes?"</p>
+
+<p>"But this piece has none," argued the Jew.</p>
+
+<p>"You want me to buy it. I can see you do. You are laughing at my beard.
+You think I will give a thousand pounds for your rubbish?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not a thousand pounds," said Marchetto. "It is worth a hundred and
+fifty pounds, neither more nor less. Marchetto is an honest man. He is
+not a Persian fox."</p>
+
+<p>"No," answered Balsamides, "he is an Israelite of Saloniki. What have I
+to do with such a fellow as you, who have the impudence to ask a hundred
+and fifty liras for that rag?"</p>
+
+<p>"How shall the lion and the lamb lie down together?" inquired Marchetto.
+"And is it a rag?"</p>
+
+<p>"I will tell you, Marchetto," said Gregorios, gravely. "The lion and the
+lamb shall lie down together, when the lion lies down with the lamb
+inside of him."</p>
+
+<p>"Take, and eat!" exclaimed the ready Jew, holding out the Rhodes
+tapestry to Balsamides.</p>
+
+<p>"A man who has fasted throughout Ramaz&aacute;n shall not break his fast with
+an onion," retorted Gregorios, laughing.</p>
+
+<p>"Who eats little earns much," replied Marchetto. "Is it not the most
+beautiful piece of Rhodes you ever saw, Effendim? There is not a Pasha
+in Stamboul, nor in Pera, nor in Scutari, who possesses the like of it.
+Only a hundred and fifty pounds; it is very cheap."</p>
+
+<p>"I will give you ten pounds for it, if you will give me a good
+backsheesh," said Gregorios at last. In Stamboul it is customary, when a
+bargain of any importance is completed, for the seller to make the buyer
+a present of some small object, which is called the backsheesh, or gift.</p>
+
+<p>On hearing the offer, Marchetto looked slyly at Gregorios and laughed,
+without saying anything. Then he slowly began to fold the tapestry
+together.</p>
+
+<p>"Ten pounds," said Balsamides. "Pek chok,&mdash;that is quite enough, and too
+much."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, of course it is," answered the Jew, ironically. "I paid a hundred
+and nineteen pounds and eighty-five piastres for it. I only ask fifteen
+piastres profit. Small profits. Get rid of everything quickly. Who sells
+cheaply sells soon; who sells soon earns much."</p>
+
+<p>"I told you from the first that I did not want your Rhodes," said
+Balsamides. "I came here to see what you had. Have you nothing else that
+is good?"</p>
+
+<p>"Everything Marchetto has is good. His carpets are all of silk, and of
+the finest colors. His embroideries are the envy of the bazaar.
+Marchetto has everything."</p>
+
+<p>He did not finish folding the Rhodes, but thrust it aside upon the
+matting, and began to pull down other stuffs and carpets from the
+shelves. From the obstinacy Gregorios displayed, he really judged that
+he meant to buy the tapestry, and to make a good bargain he would
+willingly have turned everything in his little shop upside down.</p>
+
+<p>Gregorios admired several pieces very much, whereupon the Jew threw them
+aside in disgust, well knowing that his customer would not buy them. The
+latter had now been an hour in the shop, and showed no signs of going
+away. Marchetto returned to the original question.</p>
+
+<p>"If it is worth so much, why do you not take it to one of the
+embassies?" asked Balsamides at last. He had resolved that he would
+prolong the discussion until twelve o'clock, judging that by midday the
+negro would be on his way back to Yeni K&ouml;j, and that there would be no
+further chance of seeing him. He therefore broached the subject of
+Marchetto's trade with the foreigners, knowing that once upon this tack
+the Jew would have endless stories and anecdotes to relate. But
+Gregorios was not destined to stand in need of so much ingenuity. He
+would never have made the attempt in which he was now engaged unless he
+had anticipated success, and he was not surprised when a tall,
+smooth-faced negro, of hideous countenance but exceedingly well dressed,
+put his head into the shop. He saluted Gregorios and entered. Marchetto
+touched his mouth and his fez with his right hand, but did not at first
+rise from his seat upon the floor. Balsamides watched the man. He looked
+about the shop, and then approached the old glass case in the corner. He
+had hardly glanced at it when he turned and tried to catch Marchetto's
+eye. The latter made an almost imperceptible motion of the head.
+Gregorios was satisfied that the pantomime referred to the watch, which
+was no longer in its place. He continued to talk with the Jew for a few
+minutes, and then slowly rose from his seat.</p>
+
+<p>"I see you have business with this gentleman," he said. "I have
+something to do in the bazaar. I will return in half an hour."</p>
+
+<p>The Lala seemed delighted, and politely made way for Gregorios to pass,
+but Marchetto of course protested loudly that the negro's business could
+wait. He accompanied Gregorios to the door, and with many inclinations
+stood looking after him for a few moments. At a little distance
+Gregorios pretended to be attracted by something exposed for sale, and,
+pausing, looked furtively back. The Jew had gone in again. Then
+Balsamides returned and entered a shop almost opposite to Marchetto's,
+kept by another Spanish Hebrew of Saloniki, who made a specialty of
+selling shawls,&mdash;a smart young fellow, with beady black eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Good morning, Abraham," he said. "Have you manufactured any new Kashmir
+shawls out of old rags of borders and French imitations since I saw
+you?"</p>
+
+<p>Abraham smiled pleasantly, and began to unfold his wares. Before many
+minutes the sound of angry voices was heard outside. Gregorios had
+ensconced himself in a corner, whence he could see what went on without
+being seen. The quarrelers were Marchetto and the Lala.</p>
+
+<p>"Dog of a Jew!" screamed the black man in his high, cracked voice. "Will
+you rob me, and then turn me out of your filthy den? You shall suffer
+for it, you Saloniki beast!"</p>
+
+<p>"Dog yourself, and son of a dog!" bellowed Marchetto, his big face
+growing fiery red as he blocked the doorway with his bulky shoulders.
+"Behold the gratitude of this vile wretch!" he cried, as though
+addressing an audience. "Look at this insatiate jackal, this pork-eater,
+this defiler of his father's grave! Oh! beware of touching what is
+black, for the filth will surely rub off!"</p>
+
+<p>Exasperated at the Jew's eloquent abuse, the Lala tried to push him back
+into the shop, flourishing his light cane in his right hand. In a moment
+a crowd collected, and the epithets of the combatants were drowned
+amidst the jeers and laughter of the by-standers, delighted at seeing
+the dandy keeper of a great harem in the clutches of the sturdy
+Marchetto.</p>
+
+<p>Abraham looked out, and then turned back to his customer.</p>
+
+<p>"It is Selim," he said with a chuckle. "He has been trying to cheat
+Marchetto again."</p>
+
+<p>"Again?" repeated Gregorios, who had at last attained his end. "And who
+is Selim, Abraham?"</p>
+
+<p>"Selim? Everybody in the bazaar knows Selim, the most insolent,
+avaricious, money-grabbing Lala in Stamboul. He is more like a Persian
+than anything else. He is the Lala of Laleli Khanum Effendi, who lives
+at Yeni K&ouml;j. They say she is a witch since her husband died," added
+Abraham, lowering his voice.</p>
+
+<p>"I have heard so," said Gregorios calmly. But in reality he was
+triumphant. He knew now what had become of Alexander Patoff.</p>
+
+<p>The noise outside was rapidly growing to an uproar. Gregorios slipped
+quickly out of the shop and made his way through the crowd, for he felt
+that it was time to put a stop to the quarrel. Many of the people knew
+him, and knew that he was an officer and a man in authority; recognizing
+him, they stopped yelling and made way for him.</p>
+
+<p>"What is this?" he cried, violently separating Marchetto and the negro,
+who were screaming insults at each other and shaking their fists in each
+other's faces. "Stop this noise," he continued, "or I will send a score
+of soldiers down to keep you in order. If the Lala is not satisfied, he
+can go before the magistrate. So can Marchetto, if he likes.&mdash;Go!" he
+said to the negro, pushing him away and scattering the crowd. "If you
+have any complaints to make, go to the magistrate."</p>
+
+<p>"Who are you?" asked the fellow, insolently.</p>
+
+<p>"It is none of your business," answered Gregorios, dragging the man away
+in the nervous grip of his white hand; then lowering his voice, he spoke
+quickly in the man's ear: "Do you remember the Bairam, a year ago last
+summer? If you are not quiet, I will ask you what became of the chain of
+that watch, of the silver box, and especially of that beautiful ring
+with the sapphire and two diamonds. Moreover, I may ask you what became
+of a certain Frank Effendi, to whom they belonged,&mdash;do you understand?"</p>
+
+<p>The man trembled in every joint, and a greenish livid hue seemed to
+drive the blackness out of his face.</p>
+
+<p>"I know nothing!" he gasped hysterically. But Balsamides let him go.</p>
+
+<p>"Be quick," he said. "The watch will be paid for, but do not venture to
+come to the bazaar again for some time. Fear nothing,&mdash;I have an eye to
+your safety."</p>
+
+<p>The last speech was perhaps somewhat ambiguous, but the man, being once
+released, dived into a narrow passage and disappeared. The crowd of
+Jews had shrunk into their shops again. Gregorios hastily concluded a
+bargain with Abraham, and then returned to finish his conversation with
+Marchetto. He found the latter mopping his forehead, and talking
+excitedly to a couple of sympathetic Hebrews who had entered his place
+of business. On seeing Balsamides they immediately left the shop.</p>
+
+<p>"I have sent him away," said Gregorios. "He will not trouble you again."</p>
+
+<p>"It is not my fault if the dog of a Turk is angry," answered Marchetto.</p>
+
+<p>"I hardly know. He says he had left a watch with you to be sold, and
+that now he can get neither the watch nor the money. You like to keep
+your customers waiting when they have anything to sell, Marchetto. How
+long is it since he gave you the watch?"</p>
+
+<p>"On my head, it is only three weeks," answered the Jew. "How can I sell
+a watch in three weeks and get the money for it? An Effendi took the
+watch yesterday to show it to Vartan, the jeweler. He is a friend of
+yours, Effendim; you first brought him here a long time ago. His name is
+a strange name,&mdash;Cricks,&mdash;a very strange name, like the creaking of an
+ungreased cart-wheel."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, did he take the watch? I will speak to him about it. He will pay
+you immediately. How did the Lala come to have a watch to sell?"</p>
+
+<p>"Allah bilir. He is always bringing me things to sell."</p>
+
+<p>"Other things?"</p>
+
+<p>"He showed me a gold chain one day in the winter. But it was not
+curious, so he took it to a jeweler in the jeweler's tcharshee, who gave
+him the value of the gold by weight."</p>
+
+<p>"Who is he?" asked Gregorios, judging that he ought to show some
+curiosity about the man.</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot tell," answered the Jew.</p>
+
+<p>"That means that you will not, of course. Very well. It is your affair.
+Curiosity is the mother of deception. Will you give me the Rhodes for
+ten pounds?"</p>
+
+<p>They began to bargain again, but nothing was concluded on that day, for
+Gregorios had got what he wanted, and was anxious to reach home and to
+see me.</p>
+
+<p>Patoff and I, as usual on Thursday, had made a trip up the Bosphorus,
+and it was on this occasion that he first pointed out to me the hideous
+negro. He proved to be the same man I had seen once before, on our very
+first excursion. To-day he looked more ugly than ever, as he went ashore
+at Yeni K&ouml;j. There was a malignity in his face such as I have never seen
+equaled in the expression of any human being.</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder what we shall find out," said Paul thoughtfully. "I have a
+very strong belief that he is the fellow who sold the watch. If he is,
+poor Alexander can have had but small chance of escape. Did you ever see
+such a diabolical face? Of course it may be a mere fancy, but I cannot
+rid myself of the thought."</p>
+
+<p>"Balsamides will find out," I replied. "He can handle those fellows in
+the bazaar as only an Oriental can."</p>
+
+<p>It was not long before I heard the story of the morning's adventure from
+Gregorios. I found him waiting for me and very impatient. He told his
+tale triumphantly, dwelling on the fact that Marchetto himself had never
+suspected that he was interested in the matter.</p>
+
+<p>"And who is Laleli Khanum Effendi?" I inquired when he had finished.
+"And how are we to get into her house?"</p>
+
+<p>"You never heard of Laleli? You Franks think you know Constantinople,
+but you know very little in reality. Laleli means 'a tulip.' A pretty
+name, Tulip. Why not 'cabbage rose,' or 'artichoke,' or 'asparagus'?
+Laleli is an extraordinary woman, my friend, and has been in the habit
+of doing extraordinary things, ever since she poisoned her husband. She
+is the sister of a very high and mighty personage, who has been dead
+some time. She was married to an important officer in the government.
+She was concerned in the conspiracy against Abdul Azis; she is said to
+have poisoned her husband; she fell in her turn a victim to the
+conspiracy against Murad, and, though not banished, lost all favor. She
+managed to keep her fortune, however, which is very large, and she has
+lived for many years in Yeni K&ouml;j. There are all sorts of legends about
+her. Some say she is old and hideous, others declare that she has
+preserved her beauty by witchcraft. There is nothing absurd which has
+not been said of her. She certainly at one time exercised considerable
+influence in politics. That is all I know of her except this, which I
+have never believed: it has been said that more than one person has been
+seen to enter her house, but has never been seen to leave it."</p>
+
+<p>"How can one believe that?" I asked skeptically. "If it were really
+known, her house would have been searched, especially as she is out of
+favor."</p>
+
+<p>"It is curious, however," said Gregorios, without contradicting me,
+"that we should have traced Alexander Patoff's personal possessions to
+her house."</p>
+
+<p>"What shall we do next?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"There are only two courses open. In the first place, we can easily
+catch the Lala who sold the watch, and take him to a quiet place."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, do you suppose he will tell us what he knows?"</p>
+
+<p>"We will torture him," said Balsamides, coolly. I confess that I was
+rather startled by the calm way in which he made the proposition. I
+inwardly determined that we should do nothing of the kind.</p>
+
+<p>"What is the other alternative?" I inquired, without showing any
+surprise.</p>
+
+<p>"To break into the house and make a search, I suppose," answered my
+friend, still quite unmoved, and speaking as though he were proposing a
+picnic on the Bosphorus.</p>
+
+<p>"That is not an easy matter," I remarked, "besides being slightly
+illegal."</p>
+
+<p>"Whatever we do must be illegal," answered Gregorios. "If we begin to
+use the law, the Khanum will have timely warning. If Alexander is still
+alive and imprisoned in her house, it would be the work of a moment to
+drop him into the Bosphorus. If he is dead already, we should have less
+chance of getting evidence of the fact by using legal means than by
+extracting a confession by bribery or violence."</p>
+
+<p>"In other words, you think it is indispensable that we should undertake
+a burglary?"</p>
+
+<p>"Unless we succeed in persuading the Lala to confess," said Balsamides.</p>
+
+<p>"This is a very unpleasant business," I remarked, with a pardonable
+hesitation. "I do not quite see where it will end. If we break into the
+house and find nothing, we shall be amenable to the law. I object to
+that."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well. What do you propose?"</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot say what would be best. In my opinion, Paul should consult
+with his ambassador, and take his advice. But before all else it is
+necessary to find out whether Alexander is dead or alive."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course. That is precisely what I want to find out," answered
+Balsamides, rather impatiently. "The person who can best answer the
+question is Selim, the Lala."</p>
+
+<p>"I object to using violence," I said, boldly. "I fancy he might be
+bribed. Those fellows will do anything for money."</p>
+
+<p>"You do not know them. They will commit any baseness for money, except
+betraying their masters. It has been tried a hundred times. We may avoid
+using violence, as you call it, but the man must be frightened with the
+show of it. The people who can be bribed are the women slaves of the
+harem. But they are not easily reached."</p>
+
+<p>"It is not impossible, though," I answered. "Nevertheless, if I were
+acting alone, I would put the matter in the hands of the Russian
+embassy."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think they would hesitate at any means of getting information,
+any more than I would?" inquired Gregorios, scornfully.</p>
+
+<p>"We shall see," I said. "We must discuss the matter thoroughly before
+doing anything more. I have no experience of affairs of this sort; your
+knowledge of them is very great. On the other hand, I am more prudent
+than you are, and I do not like to risk everything on one throw of the
+dice."</p>
+
+<p>"We might set fire to the house and burn them out," said Gregorios,
+thoughtfully. "The danger would be that we might burn Alexander alive."</p>
+
+<p>My friend did not stick at trifles. Under his cold exterior lurked the
+desperate rashness of the true Oriental, ready to blaze out at any
+moment.</p>
+
+<p>"No," I said, laughing; "that would not do, either. Is it not possible
+to send a spy into the house? It seems to me that the thing might be
+done. What sort of women are they who gain access to the harems?"</p>
+
+<p>"Women who sell finery and sweetmeats; women who amuse the Khanums by
+dressing their hair, when they have any, in the Frank style; women who
+tell stories"&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"A story-teller would do," I said. "They are often admitted, are they
+not? It is almost the only amusement those poor creatures have. I fancy
+that one who could interest them might be admitted again and again."</p>
+
+<p>Balsamides was silent, and smoked meditatively for some minutes.</p>
+
+<p>"That is an idea," he said at last. "I know of such a woman, and I dare
+say she could get in. But if she did, she might go to the house twenty
+times, and get no information worth having."</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind. It would be a great step to establish a means of
+communication with the interior of the house. You could easily force the
+Lala to recommend the story-teller to his Khanum. She could tell us
+about the internal arrangement of the place, at all events, which would
+make it easier for us to search the house, if we ever got a chance."</p>
+
+<p>"If one could get as far as that, it would be a wise precaution and a
+benefit to the human race to convey a little strychnine to the Khanum in
+a sweetmeat," said Gregorios, with a laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"How horribly bloodthirsty you are!" I answered, laughing in my turn. "I
+believe you would massacre half of Stamboul to find a man who may be
+dead already."</p>
+
+<p>"It is our way of looking at things, I suppose," returned Balsamides. "I
+will see the story-teller, and explain as much as possible of the
+situation. What I most fear is that we may have to take somebody else
+into our confidence."</p>
+
+<p>"Do none of the ladies in the embassies know this Laleli, as you call
+her?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. Many Frank ladies have been to see her. But their visits are
+merely the satisfaction of curiosity on the one side, and of formality
+on the other."</p>
+
+<p>"I was wondering whether one of them would not be the best person in
+whom to confide."</p>
+
+<p>"Not yet," said Balsamides.</p>
+
+<p>And so our interview ended. When I saw Paul and told him the news, he
+seemed to think that the search was already at an end. I found it hard
+to persuade him that a week or two might elapse before anything definite
+was known. In his enthusiasm he insisted that I should answer John
+Carvel's letter by begging him to come at once. As he was the person
+most concerned, I yielded, and wrote.</p>
+
+<p>"It is strange," said Paul, "that we should have accomplished more in a
+single month than has been done by all the official searching in a year
+and a half."</p>
+
+<p>"The reason is very simple," I answered. "The Lala did not chance to be
+in want of money until lately. Everything we have discovered has been
+found out by means of that watch."</p>
+
+<p>"Griggs," said Paul, "Balsamides is a very clever fellow, but he has not
+thought of asking one question. Why was the Lala never in want of money
+before?"</p>
+
+<p>"I do not know."</p>
+
+<p>"Because, in some way or other, he is out of favor with his Khanum. If
+that is the case, this is the time to bribe him."</p>
+
+<p>"Very true," I said. "In any case, if he is trying to get money, it is a
+sign that he needs it, in spite of our friend's declaration that he and
+his kind cannot be bribed."</p>
+
+
+
+<h2 class="m"><a name="XIV" id="XIV"></a>XIV.</h2>
+
+
+<p>It often happens, when our hopes are raised to the highest pitch of
+expectation, and when we think we are on the eve of realizing our
+well-considered plans, that an unexpected obstacle arises in our path,
+like the impenetrable wall which so often in our dreams suddenly
+interposes itself between us and the enemy we are pursuing. At such
+moments we are apt to despair of ourselves, and it is the inability to
+rise above this dejection at the important crisis which too often causes
+failure. After we had discovered the watch, and after Balsamides had
+traced it to the house of Laleli Khanum Effendi, it seemed to me that
+the end could not be far. It could not be an operation of superhuman
+difficulty to bribe some one in the harem to tell us what we wanted to
+know. In a few days this might be accomplished, and we should learn the
+fate of Alexander Patoff.</p>
+
+<p>It was at this point, however, that failure awaited us. The house of
+Laleli was impenetrable. The scheme to establish communication by means
+of the story-teller did not succeed. The old woman was received once,
+but saw nothing, and never succeeded in gaining admittance again. Selim,
+the Lala, ceased at that time to pay regular visits to Stamboul on
+Thursday, and Balsamides realized that he had perhaps not done wisely in
+letting him go free from the bazaar. We paid several visits to Yeni K&ouml;j,
+and contemplated the dismal exterior of the Khanum's villa. High walls
+of mud and stone surrounded it on all sides except the front, and there
+the long, low wooden facade exhibited only its double row of latticed
+windows, overlooking the water, while two small doors, which were always
+closed, constituted the entrance from the narrow stone quay. Nothing
+could penetrate those lattices, nor surmount the blank steepness of
+those walls. Our only means of reaching the interior of the dwelling and
+the secrets which perhaps were hidden there lay in our power over Selim;
+but the Lala had no difficulty in eluding us, and either kept resolutely
+within doors, or sallied out in company with his mistress. It was
+remarkable, however, that we had never met him in charge of the ladies
+of the harem, as Paul had so often met him during the summer when
+Alexander had made his visit to his brother. We went to every place
+where Turkish ladies are wont to resort in their carriages during the
+winter, but we never saw Selim nor the lady with the thick veil.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, Paul grew nervous, and his anxiety for the result of our
+operations began to show itself in his face. I had written to John
+Carvel, and he had replied that he was making his preparations, and
+would soon join us. Then Macaulay Carvel arrived, and, having found
+Paul, came with him to see me. The young man's delight at being at last
+appointed to Constantinople knew no bounds, and he almost became
+enthusiastic in his praises of the city and the scenery. He smiled
+perpetually, and was smoother than ever in speech and manner. Balsamides
+conceived a strong dislike for him, but condescended to treat him with
+civility in consideration of the fact that he was Paul's cousin and the
+son of my old friend.</p>
+
+<p>Indeed, Macaulay had every reason to be happy. He had succeeded in
+getting transferred to the East, where he could see his cousin every
+day; he was under one of the most agreeable and kind-hearted chiefs in
+the service; and now his whole family had determined to spend the summer
+with him. What more could the heart of a good boy desire? It was rather
+odd that Paul should like him so much, I thought. It seemed as though
+Patoff, who was inclined to repel all attempts at intimacy, and who at
+four-and-thirty years of age was comparatively friendless, was touched
+by the admiration of his younger cousin, and had for him a sort of
+half-paternal affection, which was quite enough to satisfy the modest
+expectations of the quiet young man. Yet Macaulay was far from being a
+match for Paul in any respect. Where Paul exhibited the force of his
+determination by intelligent hard work, Macaulay showed his desire for
+excellence by doggedly memorizing in a parrot-like way everything which
+he wished to know. Where Paul was enthusiastic, Macaulay was
+conscientious. Where Paul was original, Macaulay was a studious but dull
+imitator of the originality of others. Instead of Paul's indescribable
+air of good-breeding, Macaulay possessed what might be called a
+well-bred respectability. Where Paul was bold, Macaulay exhibited a
+laudable desire to do his duty.</p>
+
+<p>Yet Macaulay Carvel was not to be despised on account of his high-class
+mediocrity. He did his best, according to his lights. He endeavored to
+improve the shining hour, and admired the busy little bee, as he had
+been taught to do in the nursery. If he had not the air of a
+thoroughbred, he had none of the plebeian clumsiness of the cart-horse.
+Though he was not the man to lead a forlorn hope, he was no coward; and
+though he had not invented gunpowder, he had the requisite intelligence
+to make use of already existing inventions under the direction of
+others. He had a way of remembering what he had learned laboriously
+which his brilliant chief found to be very convenient, and he was a
+useful secretary. His admiration for Paul was the honest admiration
+which many a young man feels for those qualities which he does not
+possess, but which he believes he can create in himself by closely
+imitating the actions of others.</p>
+
+<p>It is unnecessary to add that Macaulay was discreet, and that in the
+course of a few days he was put in possession of the details of what had
+occurred. I had feared at first that his presence might irritate Paul,
+in the present state of affairs, but I soon found out that the younger
+man's uniformly cheerful, if rather colorless, disposition seemed to
+act like a sort of calming medicine upon his cousin's anxious moods.</p>
+
+<p>"That fellow Carvel," Balsamides would say, "is the ultimate expression
+of your Western civilization, which tends to make all men alike. I
+cannot understand why you are both so fond of him. To me he is insipid
+as boiled cucumber. He ought to be a banker's clerk instead of a
+diplomatist. The idea of his serving his country is about as absurd as
+hunting bears with toy spaniels."</p>
+
+<p>"You do not do him justice," I always answered. "You forget that the
+days of original and personal diplomacy are over, or very nearly over.
+Plenipotentiaries now are merely persons who have an unlimited credit at
+the telegraph office. The clever ones complain that they can do nothing
+without authority; the painstaking ones, like Macaulay Carvel,
+congratulate themselves that they need not use their own judgment in any
+case whatever. They make the best government servants, after all."</p>
+
+<p>"When servants begin to think, they are dangerous. That is quite true,"
+was Gregorios' scornful retort; and I knew how useless it was to attempt
+to convince him. Nevertheless, I believe that as time proceeded he began
+to respect Macaulay on account of his extreme calmness. The young man
+had made up his mind that he would not be astonished in life, and had
+therefore systematically deadened his mental organs of astonishment, or
+the capacity of his mental organs for being astonished. As no one has
+the least idea what a mental organ is, one phrase is about as good as
+another.</p>
+
+<p>We had not advanced another step in our investigations, in spite of all
+our efforts, when we received news that the Carvels, accompanied by
+Madame Patoff and Chrysophrasia Dabstreak, were on their way to
+Constantinople. We had looked at several houses which we thought might
+suit them, but as the season was advancing we supposed that John would
+prefer to spend the remainder of the spring in a hotel, and then engage
+a villa on the Bosphorus, at Therapia or Buyukdere. At last the day came
+for their arrival, and Macaulay took the kav&aacute;ss of his embassy with him
+to facilitate the operations of the custom-house. Paul did not go with
+him, thinking it best not to meet his mother, for the first time since
+her recovery, in the hubbub of landing. I, however, went with Macaulay
+Carvel on board the Varna boat. In a few minutes we were exchanging
+happy greetings on the deck of the steamer, and in the midst of the
+confusion I was presented to Madame Patoff.</p>
+
+<p>She was not changed since I had seen her last, except that she now
+looked quietly at me and offered her hand. Her fine features were
+perhaps a little less pale, her dark eyes were a little less cold, and
+her small traveling-bonnet concealed most of her thick gray hair. She
+was dressed in a simple costume of some neutral tint which I cannot
+remember, and she wore those long loose gauntlets commonly known as
+Biarritz gloves. I thought her less tall and less imposing than when I
+had seen her in the black velvet which it was her caprice to wear during
+the period of her insanity; but she looked more natural, too, and at
+first sight one would have merely said that she was a woman of sixty,
+who had once been beautiful, and who had not lost the youthful
+proportions of her figure. As I observed her more closely in the broad
+daylight, on the deck of the steamer, however, I began to see that her
+face was marked by innumerable small lines, which followed the shape of
+her features like the carefully traced shadows of an engraving; they
+crossed her forehead, they made labyrinths of infinitesimal wrinkles
+about her eyes, they curved along the high cheek-bones and the somewhat
+sunken cheeks, and they surrounded the mouth and made shadings on her
+chin. They were not like ordinary wrinkles. They looked as though they
+had been drawn with infinite precision and care by the hand of a cunning
+workman. To me they betrayed an abnormally nervous temperament, such as
+I had not suspected that Madame Patoff possessed, when in the yellow
+lamp-light of her apartment her white skin had seemed so smooth and
+even. But she was evidently in her right mind, and very quiet, as she
+gave me her hand, with the conventional smile which we use to convey the
+idea of an equally conventional satisfaction when a stranger is
+introduced to us.</p>
+
+<p>John was delighted to see me, and was more like his old self than when I
+had last seen him. Mrs. Carvel's gentle temper was not ruffled by the
+confusion of landing, and she greeted me as ever, with her sweet smile
+and air of sympathetic inquiry. Chrysophrasia held out her hand, a very
+forlorn hope of anatomy cased in flabby kid. She also smiled, as one may
+fancy that a mosquito smiles in the dark when it settles upon the nose
+of some happy sleeper. I am sure that mosquitoes have green eyes,
+exactly of the hue of Chrysophrasia's.</p>
+
+<p>"So deliciously barbarous, is it not, Mr. Griggs?" she murmured,
+subduing the creaking of her thin voice.</p>
+
+<p>"Dear Mr. Griggs, I am so awfully glad to see you again," said Hermione
+with genuine pleasure, as she laid her little hand in mine.</p>
+
+<p>It seemed to me that Hermione was taller and thinner than she had been
+in the winter. But there was something womanly in her lovely face, as
+she looked at me, which I had not seen before. Her soft blue eyes were
+more shaded,&mdash;not more sad, but less carelessly happy than they used to
+be,&mdash;and the delicate color was fainter in her transparent skin. There
+was an indescribable look of gravity about her, something which made me
+think that she was very much in earnest with her life.</p>
+
+<p>"Paul is at the hotel," I said, rather loudly, when the first meeting
+was over. "He has made everything comfortable for you up there. The
+kav&aacute;ss will see to your things. Let us go ashore at once, out of all
+this din."</p>
+
+<p>We left the steamer, and landed where the carriages were waiting. John
+talked all the time, recounting the incidents of the journey, the
+annoyance they had had in crossing the Danube at Rustchuk, the rough
+night in the Black Sea, the delight of watching the shores of the
+Bosphorus in the morning. When we landed, Chrysophrasia turned suddenly
+round and surveyed the scene.</p>
+
+<p>"We are not in Constantinople at all," she said, in a tone of bitter
+disappointment.</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Macaulay; "nobody lives in Stamboul. This is Galata, and we
+are going up to Pera, which is the European town, formerly occupied by
+the Genoese, who built that remarkable tower you may have observed from
+the harbor. The place was formerly fortified, and the tower has now been
+applied to the use of the fire brigade. Much interest is attached"&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>How long Macaulay would have continued his lecture on Galata Tower is
+uncertain. Chrysophrasia interrupted him in disgust.</p>
+
+<p>"A fire brigade!" she exclaimed. "We might as well be in America at
+once. Really, John, this is a terrible disappointment. A fire brigade!
+Do not tell me that the people here understand the steam-engine,&mdash;pray
+do not! All the delicacy of my illusions is vanishing like a dream!"</p>
+
+<p>Chrysophrasia sometimes reminds me of a certain imperial sportsman who
+once shot an eagle in the Tyrol.</p>
+
+<p>"An eagle!" he cried contemptuously, when told what it was. "Gentlemen,
+do not trifle with me,&mdash;an eagle always has two heads. This must be some
+other bird."</p>
+
+<p>In due time we reached the hotel. Paul was standing in the doorway, and
+came forward to help the ladies as they descended from the carriage,
+greeting them one by one. When his mother got out, he respectfully
+kissed her hand. To the surprise of most of us, Madame Patoff threw her
+arms round his neck, and embraced him with considerable emotion.</p>
+
+<p>"Dear, dear Paul,&mdash;my dear son!" she cried. "What a happy meeting!"</p>
+
+<p>Paul was evidently very much astonished, but I will do him the credit to
+say that he seemed moved as he kissed his mother on both cheeks, for his
+face was pale and he appeared to tremble a little.</p>
+
+<p>The travelers were conducted to their rooms by Macaulay, and I saw no
+more of them. But John insisted that I should dine with them in the
+evening. In the mean while I went home, and found Gregorios reading, as
+usual when he was not on duty at Yildiz-Ki&ouml;shk,&mdash;the "Star-Palace,"
+where the Sultan resides.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you deposited your friends in a place of safety?" he asked,
+looking up from his book. "Have they all come,&mdash;even the old maid with
+the green eyes, and the mad lady whom Patoff is so unfortunate as to
+call his mother?"</p>
+
+<p>"All," I answered. "They are real English people, and my old friend John
+Carvel is the patriarch of the establishment. There are maid-servants
+and men-servants, and more boxes than any house in Pera will hold. The
+old lady seems perfectly sane again."</p>
+
+<p>"Then she will probably die," said Gregorios, reassuringly. "Crazy
+people almost always have a lucid interval before death."</p>
+
+<p>"You take a cheerful view," I observed.</p>
+
+<p>"Fate would confer a great benefit on Patoff by removing his mother from
+this valley of tears," returned my friend. "Besides, as our proverb
+says, mad people are the only happy people. Madame Patoff, in passing
+from insanity to sanity, has therefore fallen from happiness to
+unhappiness."</p>
+
+<p>"If all your proverbs were true, the world would be a strange place."</p>
+
+<p>"I will not discuss the inexhaustible subject of the truth of proverbs,"
+answered Balsamides. "I only doubt whether Madame Patoff will be happy
+now that she is sane, and whether the uncertainty of the issue of our
+search may not drive her mad again. She will probably spoil everything
+by chattering at all the embassies. By the by, since we are on the
+subject of death, lunacy, and other similar annoyances, I may as well
+tell you that Laleli is very ill, and it is not expected that she can
+live. I heard it this morning on very good authority."</p>
+
+<p>"That is rather startling," I said.</p>
+
+<p>"Very. Dying people sometimes make confessions of their crimes, but to
+hear the confession you must be there when they are about to give up the
+ghost."</p>
+
+<p>"That is impossible in this case, unless you can get into the harem as a
+doctor."</p>
+
+<p>"Who knows? We must make a desperate attempt of some kind. Leave it to
+me, and do not be surprised if I do not appear for a day or two. I have
+made up my mind to strike a blow. You are too evidently a Frank to be of
+any use. I wish you were a Turk, Griggs. You have such an enviably sober
+appearance. You speak Turkish just well enough to make me wish you would
+never betray yourself by little slips in the verbs and mistakes in using
+Arabic words. Only educated Osmanlis can detect those errors: just now
+they are the very people we want to deceive."</p>
+
+<p>"I can pass for anything else here without being found out," I answered.
+"I can pass for a Persian when there are no Persians about, or for a
+Panjab&iacute; Mussulman, if necessary."</p>
+
+<p>"That is an idea. You might be an Indian Hadji. I will think of it."</p>
+
+<p>"What in the world do you intend to do?" I asked, suspecting my friend
+of some rash or violent project.</p>
+
+<p>"A very sly trick," he replied, with his usual sarcastic smile. "There
+need not necessarily be any violence about it, unless we find Alexander
+alive, in which case you and I must manage to get him out of the house."</p>
+
+<p>"Tell me your plan," I said. "Let me hear what it is like."</p>
+
+<p>"No; I will tell you to-night, when I know whether it is possible or
+not. You are going to dine with your friends? Yes; very well, when you
+have finished, come here, and we will see what can be done. We must only
+pray that the iniquitous old woman may live till morning."</p>
+
+<p>It was clear that Gregorios was not ready, and that nothing would induce
+him to speak what was in his mind. I showed no further curiosity, and at
+the appointed time I left the house to go and dine with the Carvels.</p>
+
+<p>"Say nothing to Patoff," said Balsamides, as I went out.</p>
+
+<p>I found the Carvels assembled in their sitting-room, and we went to
+dinner. I could not help looking from time to time at Paul's mother, who
+surprised me by her fluent conversation and perfect self-possession.
+With the exception that she was present and that Professor Cutter was
+absent, the dinner was very much like the meals at Carvel Place. I
+noticed that Paul was placed between Mrs. Carvel and his mother, while
+Hermione was on the opposite side of the table. But their eyes met
+constantly, and there was evidently a perfect understanding between
+them. Paul looked once more as I had seen him when he was talking to
+Hermione in England, and the coldness I so much disliked had temporarily
+disappeared from his face. I did not know what had occurred during the
+afternoon, since I had left the hotel, and it was not until later that I
+learned some of the details of the meeting.</p>
+
+<p>When the members of the party retired to their rooms, on arriving at
+Missiri's, Macaulay had gone off with his father, and Paul had been left
+alone for a few minutes in the sitting-room. When all was quiet,
+Hermione opened her door softly and looked in. Paul was standing by the
+chimney-piece, contemplating the smouldering logs with the interest of a
+man who has nothing to do. He raised his head suddenly, and saw that
+Hermione had entered the room and was standing near him. She had taken
+off her traveling-hat, and her golden hair was in some disorder, but the
+tangled coils and waves of it only showed more perfectly how beautiful
+she was. She came forward, and he, too, left his place. She took his
+hands rather timidly in hers.</p>
+
+<p>"Paul&mdash;I never meant that you should go!" she exclaimed, while the tears
+stood in her eyes. "Why did you take me so literally at my word?"</p>
+
+<p>"It was better, darling," said he, drawing her nearer to him. "You were
+quite right. I could not bear the idea of any one being free to speak to
+me as your aunt did; but I was very unhappy. How could I know that you
+were coming here so soon?"</p>
+
+<p>"I did not know," she said simply. "But I was very unhappy, too, and the
+days seemed so long. I could worship my brother for bringing it about."</p>
+
+<p>"So could I," answered Paul, rather absently. He was looking down into
+her eyes that met his so trustfully. "Do you really and truly believe in
+me, Hermione?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed I do; I always did!" she cried passionately. Then he kissed her
+very tenderly, and held her in his arms.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you,&mdash;thank you, my darling," he murmured in her ear.</p>
+
+<p>Presently they stood by the chimney-piece, still holding each other's
+hands.</p>
+
+<p>"I must speak to your father," he said. "You know his way. He wrote all
+about it to Griggs, telling him to show me the letter."</p>
+
+<p>"I could not keep the secret to myself any longer," she answered. "And I
+knew that papa loved me and liked you."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, dear, you were quite right," said Paul. "But I did not mean to
+tell him, after what happened that evening, until I had found my
+brother. Do you know? I have almost found him. I hope to reach the end
+in a day or two."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Paul! that is splendid!" cried Hermione. "I knew you would. You
+must tell me all about it."</p>
+
+<p>There was a sound of footsteps in one of the rooms. Hermione slipped
+quickly away, and throwing a kiss towards Paul with her fingers,
+disappeared through the door by which she had entered, leaving him once
+more alone. The moments of their meeting had been few and short, but
+they had more than sufficed to show that these two loved each other as
+much as ever. Some time afterwards Paul had been alone with his mother
+for half an hour and had frankly asked her whether she was able to hear
+him speak of Alexander or not. Her face twitched nervously, but she
+answered calmly enough that she wished to hear all he had to tell. But
+when he had finished she shook her head sadly.</p>
+
+<p>"You may find out how he died, but you will never find him," she said.
+Then, with a sudden energy which startled Paul, she gazed straight into
+his eyes. "You know that you cannot," she added, almost savagely.</p>
+
+<p>"I do not know, mother," he answered, calmly. "I still have hope."</p>
+
+<p>Madame Patoff looked down, and seemed to regain her self-control almost
+immediately. The long habit of concealing her feelings, which she had
+acquired when deceiving Professor Cutter, stood her in good stead, and
+she had not forgotten what she had studied so carefully. But Paul had
+seen the angry glance of her eyes, and the excited tone of her voice
+still rang in his ears. He guessed that, although she had come to
+Constantinople with the full intention of forgetting the accusations she
+had once uttered, the mere sight of him was enough to bring back all her
+virulent hatred. She still believed that he had killed his brother. That
+was clear from her words, and from the tone in which they were spoken.
+Whether the thought was a delusion, or whether she sanely believed Paul
+to be a murderer, made little difference. Her mind was evidently still
+under the influence of the idea. But Paul determined that he would hold
+his peace, and it was not until later, when all necessity for
+concealment was removed, that I learned what had passed. Paul believed
+that in a few days he should certainly solve the mystery of Alexander's
+disappearance, and thus effectually root out his mother's suspicions.</p>
+
+<p>All this had occurred before dinner, and without my knowledge. Madame
+Patoff seemed determined to be agreeable and to make everything go
+smoothly. Even Chrysophrasia relaxed a little, as we talked of the city
+and of what the party must see.</p>
+
+<p>"I am afraid," said I, "that you do not find all this as Oriental as you
+expected, Miss Dabstreak."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, no!" she sighed. "If by 'this' you mean the hotel, it is European,
+and unpleasantly so at that."</p>
+
+<p>"I think it is a very good hotel; and this rice&mdash;what do you call
+it?&mdash;is very good, too," said John Carvel, who was tasting pilaff for
+the first time.</p>
+
+<p>"Your carnal love of food always shocks me, John," murmured
+Chrysophrasia. "But I dare say there is a good deal that is Oriental on
+the other side. There, I am sure, we should be sitting on very precious
+carpets, and eating sweetmeats with golden spoons, while some fair young
+Circassian slave sang wild melodies and played upon a rare old inlaid
+lute."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," I answered. "I have dined with Turks in Stamboul."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, do describe it!" exclaimed Miss Dabstreak.</p>
+
+<p>"We squatted on the floor around a tiny table, and we devoured ragouts
+of mutton and onions with our fingers," I said.</p>
+
+<p>"How very disgusting!" Miss Dabstreak made an un&aelig;sthetic grimace, and
+looked at me with profound contempt.</p>
+
+<p>"But I suppose they eat other things, Griggs?" asked John, laughing.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. But mutton and onions and pilaff are the staple of their
+consumption. They eat jams of all sorts. Sometimes soup is brought in in
+a huge bowl, and put down in the middle of the table. Then each one dips
+in his spoon in the order of precedence, and eats as much as he can.
+They will give you a dozen courses in half an hour, and they never speak
+at their meals if they can help it."</p>
+
+<p>"Pigs!" exclaimed Chrysophrasia, whose delicacy did not always assert
+itself in her selection of epithets.</p>
+
+<p>"No; I assure you," I objected, "they are nothing of the kind. They
+consider it cleaner to eat with their fingers, which they can wash
+themselves, than with forks, which are washed in a common bath of
+soapsuds by the grimy hands of a scullery maid. It is not so
+unreasonable."</p>
+
+<p>"You have such a terrible way of putting things, Mr. Griggs!" exclaimed
+Mrs. Carvel in a tone of gentle protest. "But I dare say," she added, as
+though fearing lest her mild rebuke should have hurt my feelings,&mdash;"I
+dare say you are quite right."</p>
+
+<p>"To tell the truth," I answered, "I am rather fond of the Turks."</p>
+
+<p>"I have always noticed," remarked Madame Patoff, "that you Americans
+generally admire people who live under a despotic government. Americans
+all like Russia and Russians."</p>
+
+<p>"Our government is not quite despotic," observed Paul, who felt bound to
+defend his country. "We have laws, and the laws are respected. The Czar
+would not think of acting against the established law, even though in
+theory he might."</p>
+
+<p>"The Turks must have laws, too," objected Madame Patoff.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know," said Chrysophrasia. "I already feel a delicious
+sensation, as though I might be strangled with a bow-string at any
+moment and dropped into the Bosphorus."</p>
+
+<p>John Carvel looked very grave. Perhaps he was offering up a silent
+prayer to the end that such a consummation might soon be reached; but
+more probably he considered the topic of sudden death by violence as one
+to be avoided. Macaulay Carvel came to the rescue.</p>
+
+<p>"The Turks have laws," he said, fluently. "All their law is founded upon
+the Koran, and they are most ingenious in making the Koran answer the
+purpose of our more learned and therefore more efficacious codes. The
+Supreme Court really exists in the person of the Sheik ul Islam, who may
+be called the High Pontiff, a sort of Pontifex Maximus with judicial
+powers. All important cases are ultimately referred to him, and as most
+of these important cases are connected with the Vakuf, the real estate
+held by the mosques, like our glebe lands at home, it follows that the
+Sheik ul Islam generally decides in favor of his own class, who are the
+Ulema, or priests. The consequences of this mode of administering the
+laws are very"&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Capital!" exclaimed John Carvel. "Where on earth did you learn all
+that, my boy?"</p>
+
+<p>"I began to coach the East when I saw there was a chance of my coming
+here," answered Macaulay, much pleased at his father's acknowledgment of
+his learning. It struck me that the young man had got his information
+out of some rather antiquated book, in which no mention was made of the
+present division of the civil and criminal courts under the Ministry of
+Justice, and of the ecclesiastical courts under the Sheik ul Islam. But
+I held my peace, being grateful to Macaulay for delivering his lecture
+at the right moment. Mrs. Carvel looked with undisguised admiration at
+her son, and even Hermione smiled and felt proud of her brother.</p>
+
+<p>"Wonderful, this modern education, is it not?" said John Carvel, turning
+to me.</p>
+
+<p>"Amazing," I replied.</p>
+
+<p>"I want to see all those delightful creatures, you know," said
+Chrysophrasia. "The Sultan and the Sheik&mdash;what do you call him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sheik ul Islam," said the ready Macaulay.</p>
+
+<p>"Sheik Ool is lamb!" repeated Chrysophrasia, thoughtfully. "Lamb,&mdash;so
+symbolical in our own very symbolic religion. It means so much, you
+know."</p>
+
+<p>"Chrysophrasia!" ejaculated Mary Carvel, in a tone of gentle reproach.
+She thought she detected the far-off shadow of a possible irreverence in
+her sister's tone. Macaulay again interposed, while Paul and I
+endeavored to avoid each other's eyes, lest we should be overtaken by an
+explosion of laughter.</p>
+
+<p>"It is '<i>Is</i>lam,' not 'is <i>lamb</i>,' aunt Chrysophrasia," said Macaulay,
+mildly.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't see much difference," retorted Miss Dabstreak, "except that you
+say it <i>is</i> lamb, and I say it is <i>lamb</i>. Oh! you mean it is one
+word,&mdash;yes; I dare say," she added quickly, in some confusion. "Of
+course, I don't speak Turkish."</p>
+
+<p>"It is Arabic," observed the implacable Macaulay.</p>
+
+<p>"John," said Chrysophrasia, ignoring the correction with a fine
+indifference, "we must see everything at once. When shall we begin?"</p>
+
+<p>The question effectually turned the conversation, for all the party were
+anxious to see what Macaulay was equally anxious to show, having himself
+only seen each sight once. The remainder of the time while we sat at
+table was occupied in discussing the various expeditions which the party
+must undertake in order to see the city and its surroundings
+systematically. After dinner John and I remained behind for a while.
+Paul wanted to talk to Hermione, and Macaulay, who was the most domestic
+of young men, preferred the society of his mother and aunts, whom he had
+not seen for several months, to the smell of cigars and Turkish coffee.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you think of her?" asked John Carvel when we were alone. "She
+seems perfectly sane, does she not?"</p>
+
+<p>"Perfectly. What proves it best is the way she treats Paul. She is very
+affectionate. I suppose there is no fear of a relapse?"</p>
+
+<p>"I hope not, I hope not!" repeated John fervently. "She has behaved
+admirably during the journey. Now, about Paul," he continued, lowering
+his voice a little: "how does he strike you since you have known him
+better? You have seen him every day for some time. What sort of a fellow
+is he?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think he is very much in earnest," I answered.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, yes,&mdash;no doubt. But you know what I mean, Griggs: is he the kind
+of man to whom I can give my daughter? That is what I am thinking of. I
+know that he works hard and will succeed, and all that."</p>
+
+<p>"I can tell you what I think," said I, "but you must form your own
+judgment as well. I like Paul very much, but you must like him too,
+before you decide. In my opinion he is a man of fine character,
+scrupulously honest, and not at all capricious. I cannot say more."</p>
+
+<p>"A little wild when he was younger?" suggested John.</p>
+
+<p>"Not very, I am sure. He was unhappy in his childhood; he was one of
+those boys who make up their minds to work, and who grow so fond of it
+that they go on working when other boys begin to play."</p>
+
+<p>"Very odd," observed John. "He is not at all a prig."</p>
+
+<p>"No, indeed. He is as manly a fellow as you could meet, and at first
+sight he does not produce the impression of being so serious as he is. I
+think that is put on. He once told me that he had made a study of small
+talk and of the art of appearing well, because he thinks it so important
+in his career. I dare say he is right. He knows a great deal, and knows
+it thoroughly."</p>
+
+<p>"He does not know any more than Macaulay," said John, as though in
+praising Paul I had attacked his son. "What a clever fellow he is! I
+only wish he were a little tougher,&mdash;just a little more shell to him, I
+mean."</p>
+
+<p>"He will get that," I answered. "He is younger than Paul, and has not
+seen so much of the world."</p>
+
+<p>"You say you like Paul. Do you think he would make a good husband?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I really believe he would," I replied. "But do not take him on my
+recommendation. You must know him better yourself. You will meet many
+people here who know him, and some who know him well."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you think of that story about his brother?" asked John, looking
+at me very earnestly.</p>
+
+<p>"I believe he is as innocent as you or I. But we are getting near the
+truth, and have made some valuable discoveries."</p>
+
+<p>I explained to Carvel what we had found, and without mentioning the name
+of Laleli Khanum I told him how far we had traced the mystery, and he
+listened with profound interest to my account.</p>
+
+<p>"I hope you may find him alive," he said, as we rose from the table.
+"For my part, I do not believe we shall ever see him. Paul was alone
+with his mother this afternoon, and I dare say he told her what you have
+told me. She does not seem to object to the subject, though of course we
+generally avoid it."</p>
+
+<p>I stayed an hour longer with the party, during which time Paul talked a
+great deal to Hermione, occasionally joining in the general
+conversation, and certainly not trying to prevent what he said to the
+young girl from being heard. At last I took my leave and went home, for
+I was anxious to see Gregorios, and to hear from him what plan he
+proposed to adopt for the solution of our difficulties at this critical
+moment. I found him waiting for me.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you made up your mind?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>Balsamides was sitting beside his table with a book. He looked even
+paler than usual, and was evidently more excited than he liked to own.
+He is eminently a man who loves danger, and his nature never warms so
+genially as when something desperate is to be done. A Christian by race
+and belief, he has absorbed much of the fatalism of the Oriental races,
+and his courage is of the fatalist kind, reckless and devoted.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he answered. "I have made up my mind. One must either be the
+camel or the camel-driver. One must either submit to the course of
+events, or do something to violently change their direction. If we
+submit much longer, we shall lose the game. The old woman will die,&mdash;the
+Turkish women always die when they are ill; and if she is once dead
+without confessing, we may give up all hope."</p>
+
+<p>"We should always have Selim to examine," I remarked.</p>
+
+<p>"If Laleli Khanum dies, Selim will disappear the same hour,&mdash;laying
+hands on everything within reach, of course. How could we catch him? He
+would cross the Bosphorus, put on a disguise of some sort, and make his
+way to Egypt in no time. Those fellows are very cunning."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you mean to try and extort a confession from Laleli herself? How
+in the world do you mean to do it? It is a case of life or death."</p>
+
+<p>"I have got life and death in my pocket," answered Gregorios, his eyes
+beginning to sparkle. "Can you read Turkish? Of course you can. Read
+that."</p>
+
+<p>I took the folded document and examined it.</p>
+
+<p>"This is an Irad&egrave;!" I exclaimed, in great surprise; "an imperial order
+to arrest Laleli Khanum Effendi,&mdash;good heavens! Balsamides, I had no
+idea that you possessed such tools as this!"</p>
+
+<p>"To tell you how I got it would be to tell you my own history during the
+last ten years," he answered, in low tones. "I trust you, Griggs, but
+there are other reasons why I cannot tell you all that. You see the
+result, at all events, and a result very dearly paid for," he added
+gravely. "But I have got the thing, and what is more, I have permission
+to personate the Sultan's private physician."</p>
+
+<p>"What is that for? I should think the Irad&egrave; were quite enough."</p>
+
+<p>"Laleli might die of fright, if I merely presented myself and threatened
+to arrest her. But I shall see her in the assumed character of the court
+physician. Laleli is a Turkish woman, who understands no other language
+but her own and Greek. She is very superstitious, and believes in all
+manner of charms and spells; for she has no ideas at all concerning
+Western science, except that it is all contrary to the Koran. I can talk
+the jargon of an old Hadji well enough, and besides I know something of
+medicine; very little, but enough to tell me whether she is absolutely
+in a dying state. It is a great compliment for the Sultan to send his
+private physician, and if she is in a conscious state she will be
+flattered and thrown off her guard. If I can manage to get her slaves
+out of the way, I may induce her to confess. If I fail in this, I have
+the means to frighten her. If she dies, I have the means of arresting
+Selim before he can escape. It is all very well arranged, and there is
+nothing to be done but to put the plan into execution. When you left me
+I had not got the Irad&egrave;; it came about an hour ago."</p>
+
+<p>"How can I help you?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"You must have a disguise, too. When the court physician is sent to
+visit a person of consequence, he is always accompanied by an adjutant
+from the palace. You must play this part. I have borrowed a uniform from
+a brother officer which will fit you. It is in your room, and I will
+help you to put it on. You need say nothing, nor answer any questions
+the slaves may put to you unless you are quite sure of your words. You
+have a very military figure, and the sight of a uniform acts like magic
+on fellows like the Lala and his companions. As I am an adjutant myself,
+I can tell you exactly what to do, so that no one could detect you. Are
+you willing to try?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course," I said, rising and going towards my room. "How are we to go
+to Yeni K&ouml;j?"</p>
+
+<p>"A carriage from the palace will be at the door in half an hour,"
+answered Gregorios, looking at his watch. "Now, then, we must turn you
+into a Turkish officer," he added, with a laugh.</p>
+
+<p>In ten minutes the change was complete, and I do not believe that my
+best friend would have recognized me in the close-fitting dress, cut
+like that of a Prussian dragoon's parade uniform, but made of dark cloth
+with red facings. I buckled on the sabre, and Gregorios set the fez
+carefully on my head. I looked at myself in the glass. The costume
+fitted as though it were made for me.</p>
+
+<p>"I feel as though I were going to a masked ball," I said, laughing. "I
+never was so disguised before in my life."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope you may feel so when you come home," answered Balsamides, with a
+smile. "Now you must take some of your own clothes in a bag. We may not
+get home before morning, and we might meet some one of the adjutants
+when we come back. They would know that you are not one of us, and there
+might be trouble. We must take some money, too. We may need to hire a
+boat or horses; one can never tell."</p>
+
+<p>Balsamides stood a moment and looked at me, apparently well satisfied
+with my appearance. Then he opened the window to see whether the
+carriage was below, but it had not yet come.</p>
+
+<p>"While we are waiting, I will explain our plan of action," he said, as
+he opened his writing-desk and took a small roll of gold pieces and a
+handful of silver. "We shall be driven to the door of the house, and
+when we knock, Selim or some other Lala, if there are others, will open
+the door. He will see you and recognize your uniform, as well as the
+livery of the palace carriage. He will salute us, and you must of course
+return the salutation. I will then explain that I am the court
+physician, and that his majesty, having just heard of the Khanum
+Effendi's illness, has sent me down to attend her. Selim will salute us
+again, and show us into the house. You will be left in the <i>salamlek</i>,
+the lower hall, and I shall be shown into the harem, after a few minutes
+have elapsed to give time for preparation. Then you will have to wait,
+but you will probably not be disturbed, unless a slave brings you
+coffee and cigarettes. Selim will probably remain in the harem all the
+time I am there. But if you hear anything like a scuffle, you must come
+when you recognize my voice. This will not occur unless Selim hears
+something which frightens him, and tries to get away. Of course you are
+supposed to be present for my protection, and you must affect a certain
+deference towards me."</p>
+
+<p>"I will be humility itself," I answered.</p>
+
+<p>"No, not too much humility. A mere show of respect for my position will
+do. We adjutants about the palace are not much given to self-abasement
+of any sort. There is one catastrophe which may occur. If the old woman
+is really dying, as they say she is, she may die while we are there. We
+must then take possession of the person of Selim and carry him off.
+There will not be much trouble about that. The house is in a lonely
+place, and the driver of the carriage knows his orders. He will obey
+instantly, no matter what I tell him to do."</p>
+
+<p>"And if we should, by any chance, find Alexander in the house," I asked,
+"shall we be able to get him out without trouble?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not without trouble," answered Gregorios, with a grim smile. "But we
+will not stick at trifles so long as we have the imperial Irad&egrave; with us.
+I hear the carriage. Let us be off."</p>
+
+<p>So we left the house on our errand without further words.</p>
+
+
+
+<h2 class="m"><a name="XV" id="XV"></a>XV.</h2>
+
+
+<p>Paul stayed at the hotel until a late hour, and went home, feeling
+lighter at heart than he had felt for many days. He was in love, and the
+passion had a very salutary effect upon his nature. His heart had been
+crushed down when he was a child, until he doubted whether he had any
+heart at all. His early sufferings had hardened his nature, and his cool
+strong mind had approved the process, so that he was well satisfied with
+his solitary condition and his loveless life. He had seen much of the
+world, and had known many women of all nations, but his immovable
+indifference was proverbial among his colleagues, and if he had ever
+entertained a passing fancy for any one, the fact was unknown to gossip.
+It might be supposed that this very coldness would have rendered him
+attractive to women, for it is commonly said, and with some truth, that
+they are sometimes drawn to those men who show them no manner of
+attention. But I think that the case is not always the same, and admits
+of very subtle distinctions. It is not a man's coldness that attracts a
+woman, but the belief that, though he is cold to others, he may soften
+towards herself; and this belief often rests on mere vanity, and often
+on the truth of the supposition. There are many men who systematically
+affect outward indifference in order to make themselves interesting in
+the eyes of the other sex, allowing a word, a look, a gesture, to betray
+at stated intervals that they are not indifferent to the one woman
+whose love they covet. They give these signs with the utmost skill and
+with a strange, calculating avarice. Women watch such men jealously from
+a distance, to see if they can detect the slightest softening of manner
+towards other women; and when they have convinced themselves that they
+alone have the power to influence the frozen nature they admire, they
+very easily fall wholly in love. In general a man who is very cold and
+indifferent is not to be trusted. The chances are ten to one that he is
+playing the old and time-honored part for a definite purpose.</p>
+
+<p>But there are those who play no part, nor need to affect any
+characteristic not theirs. When women find out that a man is really
+indifferent to all women, their disgust knows no bounds. So long as he
+is known to have loved any one in the past, or to love any one in the
+present, or to be even likely to love any one in the future, he may be
+pardoned. But if it is firmly believed that he is incapable of love,
+woman-kind arises in a body and abuses him in unmeasured terms. He is
+selfish. He is arrogant. He is so conceited that he thinks no one good
+enough for him. He is a stone, a prig, a hypocrite, a maniac, a monster,
+a statue, and especially he is a bore. In other words, he is a man's
+man, and not a woman's man; and unless it can be proved that his madness
+proceeds from disappointed love, even Dives in hell is not further
+removed from forgiveness than he. Men may admire his strength, his
+talents, his perseverance, and some friend will be found foolish enough
+to sing his praises to some woman of the world. She will answer the
+panegyrist with a blank stare, and will very likely say coldly, that he
+is a bore, or that he is very rude. No amount of praise or ingenious
+argument will extort an admission that the unfortunate man is worthy of
+human sympathy. And yet, he may be very human, after all. At all events,
+if we say with the Greek philosopher that a man shall not be called
+happy until he be dead, we should not allow that he is beyond the reach
+of love until the life has gone out of him, certainly not until he is
+sixty years of age at the very least.</p>
+
+<p>Now Paul Patoff was not sixty years old when he found himself in the
+quiet English country house, and looked on his fair English cousin and
+loved her. He was, as the times go, a young man, just entered upon the
+prime of his life, just past the age when youth is considered foolish,
+and just reaching the time when it is considered desirable. The fact
+that he had not loved before was not likely to make his passion less
+strong now that it had come at last, and he knew it, as men generally
+understand themselves better when they are in love with a good woman. He
+asked himself, indeed, why he had so suddenly given himself up, heart
+and soul, to the lovely girl he had known only for a month; but such
+questions are necessarily futile, because the heart does not always go
+through the formality of asking the mind's consent before acting, and
+the mind consequently refuses to be called to account in a matter for
+which it is in no way responsible. It seemed to Paul very strange that
+after so many years of a busy life, in which no passion but ambition had
+played any part, he should all at once find his whole existence involved
+in a new and un-dreamed-of labyrinth of feeling. But though it was
+indeed a labyrinth, from which he did not even desire to escape, he
+acknowledged that the paths of it were full of roses, and that life in
+its winding walks was pleasanter than life outside.</p>
+
+<p>The uncertainty of his position, however, disturbed his dreams, and even
+the pleasant hours he spent with Hermione, listening to her rippling
+laughter and gentle voice, were somewhat disturbed by the thought of the
+morrow, and of what the end would be. His own instinct would have led
+him to speak to Carvel at once and to have the matter settled, but
+another set of ideas argued that he should wait and see what happened,
+and if possible put off asking the fatal question until he had
+unraveled the mystery of his brother's disappearance. That Carvel could
+have believed him in any way implicated in the tragedy, and yet have
+asked him to his house, he knew to be impossible; but he knew also that
+the shadow of Alexander's fate hung over him, and now that there existed
+a chance of completely and brilliantly establishing his innocence before
+the world, he was unwilling to take so serious a step as formally
+proposing for Hermione's hand, until the long desired result should be
+reached. He had deeply felt the truth of what she had said to him in
+England,&mdash;that he should be able to silence hints like those
+Chrysophrasia had let fall, that he should place himself in such a
+position as to defy insults instead of being obliged to bear them
+quietly; and the conviction brought home to him by Hermione's words had
+resulted in his immediate departure, with the determination to fathom
+the mystery, and to clear himself forever, or to sacrifice his love in
+case of failure.</p>
+
+<p>But he had not counted upon the visit of the Carvels to Constantinople.
+So long as he could not see Hermione, he had felt that it was possible
+to contemplate with some calmness the prospect of giving her up if he
+failed in his search. When Carvel had proposed to come out and had asked
+my advice, we had fancied ourselves on the verge of the final discovery,
+and with natural and pardonable enthusiasm Paul had joined me in urging
+John to bring his family at once. He had felt sure that the end was
+near, and he had wished that Hermione might arrive at the moment of his
+triumph. It would not be a complete triumph, he thought, unless she were
+there, and this idea showed how the man had changed under the influence
+of his love. In former times Paul Patoff would never have thought of
+anticipating success until he held it securely in his own hands; he
+would have worked silently, giving no sign, and when the result was
+obtained he would have presented it to the world with his coldest and
+most sarcastic stare, content in the thought that he had satisfied
+himself, and demanding no appreciation from others. To feel that he had
+succeeded was then the most delicious part of success. Now, he was so
+changed that he could not imagine success as being at all worth having
+unless Hermione were there to share it. No one else would do, and
+something of his exclusiveness might still be found in his desire for
+her sympathy, and for that of no one else. But the transformation was
+very great, and as he had realized it, he had understood the extent of
+his love for his cousin. The sensation was wholly novel, and he again
+asked himself what it meant, half doubting its reality, but never
+doubting that it would last forever,&mdash;in the highly contradictory spirit
+of a man who is in love for the first time.</p>
+
+<p>Then Hermione arrived, and Paul awoke to find himself between two fires.
+To contemplate the possibility of not marrying Hermione, when she was in
+the same city, when he must see her and hear her voice every day of his
+life, was now out of the question. His love had grown ten times stronger
+in the separation of the last months, and he knew that it was now
+useless to think of putting it away. With a modesty not found in men who
+have loved many women, Paul discarded the idea that Hermione's happiness
+was as deeply concerned as his own. He did not understand how very much
+she loved him, and it would have seemed to his softened soul an
+outrageous piece of arrogance to suppose that she could not be quite as
+happy with some one else as with himself. But of his own feelings he had
+no doubt. It was perfectly clear that without Hermione life could never
+be worth living, and he found himself face to face with a most difficult
+question,&mdash;a true dilemma, from which there could be no issue unless he
+found his brother, or the evidences of his brother's death.</p>
+
+<p>If the search proved fruitless, he was still in the position of a man
+who is liable to suspicion, and he had firmly resolved that he would not
+permit the woman he loved to marry a man who could be accused, however
+unjustly, of the crime of murder. On the other hand, he knew that while
+she was present in Constantinople he was not master of his feelings,
+hardly of his words; and he could not go away: first, because to go away
+would be to leave the search wholly in the hands of others; and
+secondly, because his presence was required at the embassy and his
+services were constantly in requisition. To abandon his career was a
+course he never contemplated for a moment. His personal resources were
+small, and his pay was now considerable, so that he depended upon it for
+the necessities of life. He had never been willing to touch his
+brother's money, either, and this honorable refusal had practically
+crushed all gossip about Alexander's disappearance; so that at the
+present time he was dependent upon himself. With the prospect of being a
+<i>charg&eacute; d'affaires</i> in a short time, and of being chancellor of an
+embassy at forty, he believed that he could fairly propose to marry
+Hermione. But to do this he must abide by his career, a conclusion which
+effectually prevented his flying from danger and giving the inquiry
+entirely into my hands. With a keen sense of honor and a very strong
+determination on the one side, and all the force of his love for
+Hermione on the other, Paul's position was not an easy one, and he knew
+it.</p>
+
+<p>Nor was his mind wholly at rest concerning his mother. He had seen her
+that afternoon, and had recognized that in the ordinary sense of the
+word, and in the common opinion of people on the subject, she was
+perfectly sane. She looked, moved, talked, ate, and dressed as though
+she were wholly in her right mind; but Paul was not satisfied. He had
+seen the old gleam of unreasoning anger in her eyes, when she had said
+that he knew Alexander could never be found; meaning, as Paul supposed,
+that he knew how the unfortunate man had come to his end. That this
+belief had been the cause and first beginning of her madness, he was
+convinced; and if the disturbing element was still present in her mind,
+it might assert itself again at any moment with direful results. He was
+willing, for the sake of argument, to believe that her idea was a
+delusion, and indeed he preferred to think so. He did not like the
+thought that his mother could seriously and sanely believe him to be a
+murderer, though she had given him reason enough for knowing how she had
+always disliked him. There was no affection between the mother and the
+son, there was not even much respect; but beyond respect and affection
+we recognize in the relations of a mother with her children a sort of
+universal law of fitness, embracing the few conditions without which
+there can be no relations at all between them. That a mother should
+dislike her child offends our feelings and our conceptions of human
+sympathy; but that a mother should wantonly and without evidence accuse
+her son of a fearful crime, and be his only accuser, is a sin against
+humanity itself, and our reason revolts against it as much as our heart.</p>
+
+<p>It was hopeless to attempt an explanation of Madame Patoff's state of
+mind. Paul might have understood her better had he known how she talked
+and behaved when he was not present. John Carvel and his wife had indeed
+assured Paul that his mother was entirely sane, and had forgotten her
+resentment against him, speaking of him affectionately, and showing
+herself anxious to see him during the long journey. But there was one of
+the party who could have told a different story; who could have repeated
+some of her aunt's utterances, and could have described certain phases
+in her temper in such a way as would have surprised the rest. Madame
+Patoff had naturally chosen to confide in Hermione, for Hermione had
+first startled her into a confession of her sanity, and with her rested
+the secret of the last two years. On the occasion which Carvel had
+mentioned in his letter to me, when Madame Patoff had been surprised in
+a sensible conversation by her nurse, the old lady had shown very great
+presence of mind. She had recognized immediately that she was detected,
+and that she would find it extremely difficult in future to deceive the
+practiced eye of the vigilant Mrs. North. She was tired, too, in spite
+of what she said to Hermione, of the absolute seclusion in which she
+lived; not that she was wearied of mourning for Alexander, but because
+she had exhausted one way of expressing her grief. So, at least, it
+seemed to Hermione. Madame Patoff had therefore accepted the situation
+and made the best of it, declaring herself sane and entirely recovered.
+She had always contemplated the possibility of some such termination to
+her pretended madness, and was perhaps glad that it had come at last.
+She even found at first a pleasant relaxation in leading the life of an
+ordinary person, and she tried to join in the life of the family in such
+a way as to be no longer a burden or a source of anxiety to those she
+had capriciously sacrificed during a year and a half. But with Hermione
+she was not the same as with the rest. She was with her what she had
+been on the first day when Hermione had declared her love for Paul, and
+it appeared to the young girl that her aunt was in reality leading a
+double existence, being in one state when with the assembled family, and
+in quite another when she was alone with Hermione.</p>
+
+<p>Madame Patoff was able to force herself upon her niece, for the young
+girl had given a promise not to betray her secret, and though often in
+hard straits to elude her father's questions without falling into
+falsehood, felt herself bound to her aunt, and obliged to submit to long
+conversations with her. It was a difficult position, and any one less
+honest than Hermione and less sensitively tactful would have found it
+hard to maintain the balance. She herself avoided carefully all mention
+of Paul, but her aunt delighted in talking of him. One of these
+conversations took place on the evening of their arrival in
+Constantinople, and may well serve as a specimen of the rest. When all
+the party had retired for the night, Madame Patoff came into Hermione's
+room and sat down, evidently with the intention of staying at least an
+hour. Hermione looked at her with a deprecating expression, being indeed
+very tired, and wishing that her aunt would put off her visit until the
+next day. She saw, however, that there was no hope of this, and
+submitted herself with a good grace.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you not tired, aunt Annie?" asked the young girl.</p>
+
+<p>"No, no, not very, my dear," said the old lady, smoothing her thick gray
+hair with her hand, and fixing her dark eyes on her niece's face. "Oh,
+Hermy, what a meeting!" she suddenly exclaimed. "If you knew how hard I
+tried to be kind to him, I am sure you would pity me. It is so hard, so
+hard!"</p>
+
+<p>"It is the least you can do,&mdash;to treat him kindly," answered Hermione,
+somewhat coldly. "But I was very glad to see that you kissed him when we
+arrived."</p>
+
+<p>"It was dreadfully hard to do it. The very sight of him freezes my
+blood. Oh, Hermy dear, how can you love him so much, when I love you as
+I do? It frightens me"&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"It does not frighten me, aunt Annie," said her niece. "I can say, when
+you love me as you do, how can you not love him?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is not the same, my dear. How could I love him, knowing what I
+know?"</p>
+
+<p>"You do not know it," answered Hermione very firmly, "and you must not
+suggest it to me. Sometimes I could almost think you were really mad,
+aunt Annie,&mdash;forgive me, I must say it. Not mad as you pretended to be,
+but mad on this one point. You have always hated poor Paul since he was
+a child, and you have treated him very unkindly. But you have no right
+to accuse him now, and I would not listen to you unless I believed that
+I could help to make you see him as you should."</p>
+
+<p>Madame Patoff bent her head and hid her eyes in her hand, as though
+greatly distressed.</p>
+
+<p>"I love you so much, dear Hermy&mdash;I cannot bear to think of your marrying
+him. You cannot understand me&mdash;I know&mdash;and you think me very unkind. But
+I hate him!" she cried, with a burst of uncontrollable anger. "Oh, how I
+hate him!"</p>
+
+<p>Her hands had dropped from her face, and her dark eyes flashed wickedly
+as she stared at the young girl. Hermione was startled for a moment, but
+she also had learned a lesson of self-possession.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think that I am afraid when you look at me like that, aunt
+Annie?" she asked, very quietly.</p>
+
+<p>Madame Patoff's features relaxed, and she laughed a little foolishly, as
+though ashamed of herself.</p>
+
+<p>"No, child; why should you be afraid? I am only an unhappy old woman. I
+cannot speak to any one else."</p>
+
+<p>"And you must not speak to me in that way," answered Hermione, in a
+gentle tone. "I love Paul with all my heart, and I cannot hear him
+abused by you, even though I know you are out of your mind when you say
+such things. I should be despicable if I listened to you."</p>
+
+<p>"If I loved you less, dear," returned the old lady, "I might hate him
+less. Ah, if you could only have married Alexis,&mdash;if it could only have
+been the other way!"</p>
+
+<p>"Hush!" exclaimed Hermione, almost roughly. "You are wishing that Paul
+were dead, instead of his brother. I will go away, if you talk like
+that."</p>
+
+<p>She suited the action to the word, and rose to go towards the door. She
+knew her aunt very well. Madame Patoff changed her tone at once.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, don't go away, don't go away!" she cried nervously. "I will never
+speak of him again, if you will only stay with me."</p>
+
+<p>Hermione turned and came back, and saw that her threat had for the
+present produced its effect, as it usually did. Madame Patoff had
+indeed a strange affection for her niece, and the latter knew how to
+manage her by means of it. At the mere idea of Hermione's leaving her in
+anger, the aunt softened and became docile.</p>
+
+<p>"I did not mean it, child," she said, dolefully. "I am always so
+unhappy, so dreadfully wretched, that I say things I do not altogether
+mean. I am not quite myself to-night, either. Coming here, to the place
+where my poor boy was lost, has upset my nerves; and, really, your aunt
+Chrysophrasia is so very tactless. She always was like that. I remember
+the way in which she treated my poor husband before we were married. It
+was she who made all the quarrel, you know. It broke up my life at the
+very beginning, and we two sisters never saw each other again. I do not
+know what would have become of me if my husband had not loved me as he
+did. He was so kind to me, always, and he sympathized in all my feelings
+and ideas. If he had only lived, how different it might all have been!"</p>
+
+<p>Hermione thought so, too; reflecting that if Paul's father had been
+alive during the time when he was growing up, the unfortunate boy would
+have been spared a vast deal of suffering, and Madame Patoff would
+perhaps have been held in check. Her character was not of the kind which
+could safely be left to its own development, for she called her caprices
+justice and her obstinacy principle, a mode of viewing life not
+conducive to much permanent satisfaction when not modified by the
+salutary restraint of a more sensible companion. But Hermione was glad
+that her aunt was willing to talk of anything except Paul, and
+encouraged her to continue, though she had heard again and again Madame
+Patoff's account of her own life and of the family quarrels. By
+carefully listening and watching her, it was possible to keep her from
+reaching the point at which Hermione was always obliged to protest that
+she would not hear more.</p>
+
+<p>It may be judged from this scene that the young girl's position was not
+an easy one. She was beginning to feel that Madame Patoff's hatred for
+Paul approached in reality much nearer to insanity than the affected
+apathy she had assumed before Hermione discovered the imposition; but,
+nevertheless, the young girl felt that, sane or not sane, she could
+allow no one to cast a slur on the name of the man she loved. She was
+glad, indeed, that Madame Patoff did not make her hatred and her
+suspicion topics for conversation with the rest of the family, and she
+was willing to suffer much in order that her aunt might confide in her
+alone, and behave herself with propriety and dignity before the others.
+But when Madame Patoff overstepped the limits Hermione had set for her,
+the old lady invariably found herself checked and even frightened by the
+authoritative manner of her niece. The anxiety, however, and the
+constant annoyance to which she was subjected, together with the sorrow
+of the separation from Paul, had told upon the girl's strength, and it
+was no wonder that she had grown thinner during the last months. Her
+young character was forming itself under terrible difficulties, and it
+was well that she inherited more of her father's good sense and courage
+than of her mother's meekness and gentleness under all circumstances.
+Hermione looked back and tried to remember what she had been six months
+ago, but she hardly recognized herself in the picture called up by her
+memories. She thought of her ignorance about her aunt's state, and of
+how she had sometimes felt sad and sorry for the old lady, but had on
+the whole not found that her presence in the house materially changed
+her own smooth life. She looked further back, and remembered as in a
+dream her first London season. She had not enjoyed herself; she had been
+oppressed rather than delighted by the crowds, the lights, the whirl of
+a life she could not understand, the terrors of presentation, the men
+suddenly brought up to her, who bowed and immediately whirled her away
+amongst a crowd of young people, all spinning madly round, and knowing
+each other probably as little as she knew her partner of the moment. It
+had all been strange to her, and she realized with pleasure that she
+should not be obliged to go through it again this year. Her mother was
+not a worldly woman, and had not inspired her, while still in the
+schoolroom, with a mad desire for the world. Hermione was an only
+daughter, and there was no reason for hastening her marriage; nor had
+she ever been told, as many young girls are, that she must marry well,
+and if possible in her first season. She saw many men in the round of
+parties to which she was taken, but she found it hard to remember the
+names of even a few of them. They had been presented, had danced with
+her, had perhaps danced with her again somewhere else, and had dropped
+out of her existence without inspiring in her the smallest interest.
+Now, after nearly a year, she would not have known their faces. Some had
+talked to her, but their language was not hers; it was the jargon of
+society, the petty gossip, the eternal chatter of people and people's
+doings. Her answers were vague, and when she asked a question about a
+book, about an idea, about a fact, the faultlessly correct young men
+smiled sweetly, and answered that they did not understand that sort of
+thing. Towards the end of the season, when the first surprise of
+watching the moving crowds, the dancing, the women's gowns, and the
+men's faces, had worn out, Hermione had regarded the whole thing as an
+inexpressible bore, and had returned with delight to the quiet life at
+Carvel Place, glad that her father's position and tastes did not lead
+him to keep open house, as some of his neighbors did, and that she was
+allowed to read and to be quiet, and to do everything she liked.</p>
+
+<p>Then her real life had begun, and her character, untouched and unchanged
+by what she had seen in a London season, had suddenly come under the
+influence of another character, strong, dominant, and apparently good,
+but in the eyes of the young girl eminently mysterious. She had known
+Paul Patoff as one knows people in the midst of a small family party in
+a country house, and he had at first repelled her, as he repelled many
+people; but soon, very soon, she thought, the feeling of repulsion had
+grown to be a curiosity to know the man's history, the secret of his
+coldness towards his mother, and of his hard and cynical expression.
+From such interest as she felt for him, it was but a step to love, and
+the step was soon taken. The nearer she came to him, the more she felt
+the power of his fascination, and the more she wondered that every one
+else did not see it as she saw it, and yield to it as she yielded to it.
+Then had come the afternoon in the park; the joy of those few hours; the
+scene at dinner on the same evening; the revelation she had extracted
+from Cutter; the discovery that her aunt was sane; her interview with
+Paul, and his sudden departure, wounded by her speech;&mdash;all these events
+following on each other in less than four-and-twenty hours. From that
+day she knew that she had changed much, and she realized the strength of
+her love for Paul. And on that day, also, had begun her annoyances with
+Madame Patoff, her constant defense of the son against the accusations
+of the mother, and her own fears lest she should be playing a double
+part. She had suffered much by the separation from Paul; she suffered
+more whenever her aunt fell into her passionate way of abusing him, and
+she felt that her faculties were overstrained when she was in the
+society of her strange relative. But Madame Patoff loved her, and her
+affection was so evident to Hermione that she found it hard to cut her
+speeches short with a sharp word, however painful it might be to her to
+listen to them. Of late she had adopted the practice of treating her as
+she did on the first night, assuming that her hatred was very nearly an
+insanity in itself, and managing her almost like a child, threatening to
+leave her when she said too much, and bringing her to her senses by
+seeming to withdraw her affection. Indeed, there was something
+exaggerated in Madame Patoff's love for the girl, as there appeared to
+be in everything she really felt. With the other members of the
+household she behaved with perfect self-possession, but when she was
+alone with Hermione she laid aside all her assumed calm, and spoke
+unreasonably about her son, as though it gave her pleasure; always
+submitting, however, to the rebuke which Hermione invariably
+administered on such occasions. But the idea that whenever she was alone
+with her aunt something of the kind was sure to occur made Hermione
+nervous, so that she avoided an interview whenever she could.</p>
+
+
+
+<h2 class="m"><a name="XVI" id="XVI"></a>XVI.</h2>
+
+
+<p>If any of the party could have guessed what Gregorios Balsamides and I
+were doing on that dark night, they would not have slept as soundly as
+they did. It was an evil night, a night for a bad deed, I thought, as I
+looked out of the carriage-window, when we were clear of the houses and
+streets of Pera. The black clouds drove angrily down before the north
+wind, seeming to tear themselves in pieces on the stars, as one might
+tear a black veil upon steel nails. The wind swept the desolate country,
+and made the panes of the windows rattle even more loudly than did the
+hoofs and wheels upon the stony road. But the horses were strong, and
+the driver was not a shivering Greek, but a sturdy Turk, who could laugh
+at the wind as it whistled past his ears, striking full upon his broad
+chest. He drove fast along the rising ground, and faster as he reached
+the high bend which the road follows above the Bosphorus, winding in and
+out among the hills till it descends at last to Therapia.</p>
+
+<p>"The clouds look like the souls of the lost, to-night," said Balsamides,
+drawing his fur coat closely around him. "One can imagine how Dante
+conceived the idea of the scene in hell, when the souls stream down the
+wind."</p>
+
+<p>"You seem poetically inclined," I answered.</p>
+
+<p>"Why not? We are out upon a romantic errand. Our lives are not often
+romantic. We may as well make the best of it, as a beggar does when he
+gets a bowl of rice."</p>
+
+<p>"I should fancy you had led a very romantic life," said I, lighting a
+cigarette in the dark, and leaning back against the cushions.</p>
+
+<p>"That is what women always say when they want a man to make
+confidences," laughed Balsamides. "No, I have not led a romantic life. I
+pass most of my time sitting on my horse in the hot sun, or the driving
+snow, preserving, or pretending to preserve, the life of his Majesty
+from real or imaginary dangers. Or else I sit eight or nine hours a day
+chatting and smoking with the other adjutants. It is not a healthy life.
+It is certainly not romantic."</p>
+
+<p>"Not as you describe it. But I judged from the ease with which you made
+the preparations for this expedition that you had done things of the
+sort before."</p>
+
+<p>My friend laughed again, but turned the subject.</p>
+
+<p>"I hope that when we meet your friends to-morrow morning, we may have
+something to show for our night's work," he said. "Fancy what an
+excitement there would be if we brought Alexander Patoff back with us!
+Not that it is at all probable. We may bring back nothing but broken
+bones."</p>
+
+<p>"I do not think Selim will hurt us much," I answered. "He is not exactly
+an athlete. I would risk a fight with him."</p>
+
+<p>"I dare say. But there may be plenty of strong fellows about the
+premises. There are the four ca&iuml;djs, the boatmen, to begin with. There
+is a coachman and probably two grooms. Very likely there are half a
+dozen big ham&aacute;ls about."</p>
+
+<p>"That makes thirteen," I said. "Six and a half to one, or four and a
+third to one, if we count upon our own driver."</p>
+
+<p>"You may count upon him," replied Gregorios. "He is an old soldier, and
+as strong as a lion. In case of necessity he will call the watch from
+Yeni K&ouml;j. There is a small detachment of infantry there. But we shall
+not have to resort to such measures. I believe that I can make the
+Khanum confess. If so, I can make her order Selim to give up Patoff, if
+he is alive."</p>
+
+<p>"And if he is dead?"</p>
+
+<p>"It will be the worse for the Khanum and her people. She is not in good
+odor at the palace. It would not take much to have her exiled to Arabia,
+even though she be dying, as they say she is. That is the question. Let
+me only find her alive, and I will answer for the rest."</p>
+
+<p>"She might very well refuse to confess, I fancy," I remarked, surprised
+at my friend's tone of conviction.</p>
+
+<p>"I believe not," he said shortly. Then he remained silent for some time.</p>
+
+<p>My nerves are good; but I did not like the business, though I knew it
+was undertaken for a good purpose, and that if we were successful we
+should be conferring great and lasting happiness upon more than one of
+my friends. I had heard many queer stories of wild deeds in the East,
+and in my own experience had been concerned in at least one strange and
+unhappy story, which had ended in my losing sight forever of a man who
+was very dear to me. I do not think that the fact of having been in
+danger necessarily brings with it a liking for dangerous adventures,
+though it undoubtedly makes a man more fit to encounter perils of all
+kinds. Few men are absolutely careless of life, and those who are, do
+not of necessity court death. It is one thing to say that one would
+readily die at any moment; it is quite another to seek risks and to
+incur them voluntarily. The brave man, as a general rule, does not feel
+a thrill of pleasure until the struggle has actually begun; when he is
+expecting it he is grave and cautious, lest it should come upon him
+unawares. This, at least, I believe to be the character of the Northern
+man, and I think it constitutes one of his elements of superiority.</p>
+
+<p>Balsamides is an Oriental, and looks at things very differently. In his
+belief death will come at its appointed time, whether a man stay at home
+and nurse his safety, or whether he lead the front in battle. The
+essence of fatalism is the conviction that death must come at a certain
+time, no matter what a man is doing, nor how he may try to protect
+himself. This is the reason why the fanatic Mussulman is absolutely
+indifferent to danger. He firmly believes that if he is to die, death
+will overtake him at the plow as surely as in storming an enemy's
+battery. But he believes also that if he dies fighting against
+unbelievers his place in Paradise will be far higher than if he dies
+upon his farm, his ambrosial refreshment more abundant, and the
+dark-eyed houris who will soothe his eternal repose more beautiful and
+more numerous. The low-born ham&aacute;l in the street will march up to the
+mouth of the guns without so much as a cup of coffee to animate him,
+with an absolute courage not found in men who have not his unswerving
+faith. To him Paradise is an almost visible reality, and the attainment
+of it depends only on his individual exertions. But what is most strange
+is the fact that this indifference to death is contagious, so that
+Christians who live among Turks unconsciously acquire much of the Moslem
+belief in fate. The Albanians, who are chiefly Christians, are among the
+bravest officers in the Turkish army, as they are amongst the most
+faithfully devoted to the Sultan and to the interests of the Empire.</p>
+
+<p>Balsamides was in a mood which differed widely from mine. As we
+clattered over the rough road in the face of the north wind, I was
+thinking of what was before us, anticipating trouble, and determining
+within myself what I would do. If I were ready to meet danger, it was
+from an inward conviction of necessity which clearly presented itself to
+me, and I consequently made the best of it. But Balsamides grew merry as
+we proceeded. His spirits rose at the mere thought of a fight, until I
+almost fancied that he would provoke an unnecessary struggle rather than
+forego the pleasure of dealing a few blows. It was a new phase of his
+character, and I watched him, or rather listened to him, with interest.</p>
+
+<p>"This is positively delightful," he said in a cheerful voice.</p>
+
+<p>"What?" I inquired, with pardonable curiosity.</p>
+
+<p>"What? In an hour or two we may have strangled the Lala, have forced the
+old Khanum to confess her iniquities, kicked the retainers into the
+Bosphorus, and be on our way back, with Alexander Patoff in this very
+carriage! I cannot imagine a more delightful prospect."</p>
+
+<p>"It is certainly a lively entertainment for a cold night," I replied.
+"But if you expect me to murder anybody in cold blood, I warn you that I
+will not do it."</p>
+
+<p>"No; but they may show fight," he said. "A little scuffle would be such
+a rest after leading this monotonous life. I should think you would be
+more enthusiastic."</p>
+
+<p>"I shall reserve my enthusiasm until the fight is over."</p>
+
+<p>"Then it will be of no use to you. Where is the pleasure in talking
+about things when they are past? The real pleasure is in action."</p>
+
+<p>"Action is not necessarily bloodshed," said I. "Active exercise is
+undoubtedly good for mind and body, but when you take it by strangling
+your fellow-creatures"&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Rubbish!" exclaimed Balsamides. "What is the life of one Lala more or
+less in this world? Besides, he will not be killed unless he deserves
+it."</p>
+
+<p>"With your ideas about the delight of such amusements, you will be
+likely to find that he deserves it. I do not think he would be very safe
+in your keeping."</p>
+
+<p>"No, perhaps not," he answered, with a light laugh. "If he objects to
+letting me in, I shall take great pleasure in making short work of him.
+I am rather sorry you have put on that uniform. Your appearance will
+probably inspire so much respect that they will all act like sheep in a
+thunderstorm,&mdash;huddle together, and bleat or squeal. It is some
+consolation to think that unless I appeared with an adjutant they would
+not believe that I came from the palace."</p>
+
+<p>"It is a consolation to me to think that my presence may render it
+unnecessary for you to strangle, crucify, burn alive, and drown the
+whole population of Yeni K&ouml;j," I answered. "I dare say you have done
+most of those things at one time or another."</p>
+
+<p>"In insurrections, such as we occasionally have in Albania and Crete, it
+is imperative sometimes to make an example. But I am not bloodthirsty."</p>
+
+<p>"No; from your conversation I should take you for a lamb," said I.</p>
+
+<p>"I am not bloodthirsty," continued Gregorios. "I should not care to kill
+a man who was quite defenseless, or who was innocent. Indeed, I would
+not do such a thing on any account."</p>
+
+<p>"You amaze me," I observed.</p>
+
+<p>"No. But I like fighting. I enter into the spirit of the thing. There is
+really nothing more exhilarating,&mdash;I even believe it is healthy."</p>
+
+<p>"For the survivors it is good exercise. Those who do not survive are, of
+course, no longer in a condition to appreciate the fun."</p>
+
+<p>"Exactly; the fun consists in surviving."</p>
+
+<p>"One does not always survive," I objected.</p>
+
+<p>"What is the difference?" exclaimed Balsamides, who probably shrugged
+his shoulders, in his dark corner of the carriage. "A man can die only
+once, and then it is all over."</p>
+
+<p>"A man can also live only once," said I. "A living dog is better than a
+dead lion."</p>
+
+<p>"Very little," answered Balsamides, with a laugh. "I would rather have
+been a living lion for ever so short a time, and be dead, than be a Pera
+dog forever. The Preacher would have been nearer to the truth if he had
+said that a living man is better than a dead man. But the Preacher was
+an Oriental, and naturally had to use a simile to express his meaning."</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly the carriage stopped in the road. Then, after a moment's pause,
+we turned to the right, and began to descend a steep hill, slowly and
+cautiously, for the night was very dark and the road bad.</p>
+
+<p>"We are going down to Yeni K&ouml;j," said Balsamides. "In twenty minutes we
+shall be there. I will get out of the carriage first. Remember that,
+once there, you must not speak a word of any language but Turkish."</p>
+
+<p>Slowly we crept down the hill, the wheels grinding in the drag, and
+jolting heavily from time to time. There were trees by the
+roadside,&mdash;indeed, we were on the outskirts of the Belgrade forest. The
+bare boughs swayed and creaked in the bitter March wind, and as I peered
+out through the window the night seemed more hideous than ever.</p>
+
+<p>"By the by," said I, suddenly, "we have no names. What am I to call you,
+if I have to speak to you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Anything," said Balsamides. "She does not know the name of the court
+physician, I suppose. However, you had better call me by his name. She
+might know, after all. Call me Kalopithaki Bey. You are Mehemet Bey.
+That is simple enough. Here we are coming to the house; be ready, they
+will open the door if they recognize the palace carriage through the
+lattice. Of course every one will be up if the old lady is dying, and it
+is not much past twelve. The man has driven fast."</p>
+
+<p>The wheels rattled over the pavement, and we drew up before the door of
+Laleli's house. We both descended quickly, and Balsamides went up the
+broad steps which led to the door and knocked. Some one opened almost
+immediately, and a harsh voice&mdash;not Selim's&mdash;called out,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Who is there?"</p>
+
+<p>"From the palace, by order of his Majesty," answered Balsamides,
+promptly. I showed myself by his side, and, as he had predicted, the
+effect produced by the adjutant's uniform was instantaneous. The man
+made a low salute, which we hastily returned, and held the door wide
+open for us to pass; closing it and bolting it, however, when we had
+entered. I noticed that the bolts slid easily and noiselessly in their
+sockets. The man was a sturdy and military Turk, I observed, with
+grizzled mustaches and a face deeply marked with small-pox.</p>
+
+<p>We entered a lofty vestibule, lighted by two hanging lamps. The floor
+was matted, but there was no furniture of any description. At the
+opposite end a high doorway was closed by a heavy curtain. A large
+Turkish mang&aacute;l, or brazier, stood in the middle of the wide hall. The
+man turned to the right and led us into a smaller apartment, of which
+the walls were ornamented with mirrors in gilt frames. A low divan,
+covered with satin of the disagreeable color known as magenta,
+surrounded the room on all sides. Two small tables, inlaid with
+tortoise-shell and mother-of-pearl, stood side by side in the middle of
+the apartment.</p>
+
+<p>"Buyurun, be seated, Effendimlir," said the man, who then left the room.
+A moment later we heard his harsh voice at some distance:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Selim, Selim! There are two Effendilir from Yildiz-Ki&ouml;shk in the
+selamlek!"</p>
+
+<p>We sat down to wait.</p>
+
+<p>"The porter is a genuine Turk, and not a Circassian. A Circassian would
+have said 'Effendilir,' without the 'm,' in the vocative when he spoke
+to us, as he did when he used it in the nominative to Selim."</p>
+
+<p>I reflected that Balsamides had good nerves if he could notice
+grammatical niceties at such a moment.</p>
+
+
+
+<h2 class="m"><a name="XVII" id="XVII"></a>XVII.</h2>
+
+
+<p>In a few moments Selim, the hideous Lala, entered the room, making the
+usual salutation as he advanced. He must have recognized Balsamides at
+once, for he started and stood still when he saw him, and seemed about
+to speak. But my appearance probably prevented him from saying what was
+on his lips, and he stood motionless before us. Balsamides assumed a
+suave manner, and informed him that he was sent by his Majesty to afford
+relief, if possible, to Laleli Khanum Effendi. His Majesty, said
+Gregorios, was deeply grieved at hearing of the Khanum's illness, and
+desired that every means should be employed to alleviate her sufferings.
+He begged that Selim would at once inform the Khanum of the physician's
+presence, as every moment might be of importance at such a juncture.</p>
+
+<p>Selim could hardly have guessed the truth. He did not know the court
+doctor by sight, and Balsamides played his part with consummate
+coolness. The negro could never have imagined that a Frank and a
+foreigner would dare to assume the uniform of one of the Sultan's
+adjutants,&mdash;a uniform which he knew very well, and which he knew that he
+must respect. He was terrified when he recognized in the Sultan's
+medical adviser the man who had scattered the crowd in the bazaar, and
+who had so startled him by his references to the ring, the box, and the
+chain. He was frightened, but he knew he could not attempt to resist the
+imperial order, and after a moment's hesitation he answered.</p>
+
+<p>"The Khanum Effendi," he said, "is indeed very ill. It is past midnight,
+and no one in the harem thinks of sleep. I will prepare the Khanum for
+the Effendi's visit."</p>
+
+<p>Thereupon he withdrew, and we were once more left alone. I confess that
+my courage rose as I grew more confident of the excellence of my
+disguise. If the Lala himself had no doubts concerning me, it was not
+likely that any one else would venture to question my identity. As for
+Balsamides, he seemed as calm as though he were making an ordinary
+visit.</p>
+
+<p>"They will make us wait," he said. "It will take half an hour to prepare
+the harem for my entrance. The old lady may be dying, but she will not
+sacrifice the formalities. It is no light thing with such as she to
+receive a visit from a Frank doctor."</p>
+
+<p>He spoke in a low voice, lest the porter in the hall should hear us. But
+he did not speak again. I fancied he was framing his speech to the
+Khanum. The preparations within did not take so long as he had expected,
+for scarcely ten minutes had elapsed when Selim returned.</p>
+
+<p>"Buyurun," said the negro, shortly. The word is the universal formula in
+Turkey for "walk in," "sit down," "make yourself comfortable," "help
+yourself."</p>
+
+<p>Balsamides glanced at me, as we both rose from our seats, and I saw that
+he was perfectly calm and confident. A moment later I was alone.</p>
+
+<p>Gregorios followed Selim into the hall; then, passing under the heavy
+curtain and through a door which the Lala opened on the other side, he
+found himself within the precincts of the harem, in a wide vestibule not
+unlike the one he had just quitted, though more brilliantly lighted, and
+furnished with low divans covered with pale blue satin. There was no one
+to be seen, however, and Balsamides followed the negro, who entered a
+door on the right-hand side, at the end of the hall. They passed through
+a narrow passage, entirely hung with rose-colored silk and matted, but
+devoid of furniture, and then Selim raised a curtain and admitted
+Gregorios to the presence of the sick lady.</p>
+
+<p>The apartment was vast and brilliantly illuminated with lamps. Huge
+mirrors in gilt frames of the fashion of the last century filled the
+panels from the ceiling to the wainscoting. In the corners, and in every
+available space between the larger ones, small mirrors bearing branches
+of lights were hung, and groups of lamps were suspended from the
+ceiling. The whole effect was as though the room had been lighted for a
+ball. The Khanum had always loved lights, and feeling her sight dimmed
+by illness she had ordered every lamp in the house to be lighted,
+producing a fictitious daylight, and perhaps in some measure the
+exhilaration which daylight brings with it.</p>
+
+<p>The floor of the hall was of highly polished wood, and the everlasting
+divans of disagreeable magenta satin, so dear to the modern Turkish
+woman, lined the walls on three sides. At the upper end, however, a dais
+was raised about a foot from the floor. Here rich Sin&eacute; and Giord&egrave;s
+carpets were spread, and a broad divan extended across the whole width
+of the apartment, covered with silk of a very delicate hue, such as in
+the last century was called "bloom" in England. The long stiff cushions,
+of the same material, leaned stiffly against the wall at the back of the
+low seat, in an even row. Several dwarf tables, of the inlaid sort,
+stood within arm's-length of the divan, and on one of them lay a golden
+salver, bearing a crystal jar of strawberry preserves, and a glass half
+full of water, with a gold spoon in it. In the right-hand corner of the
+divan was the Khanum herself.</p>
+
+<p>The old lady's dress was in striking contrast to her surroundings. She
+wore a shapeless, snuff-colored gown, very loose and only slightly
+gathered at the waist. As she sat propped among her cushions, her feet
+entirely concealed beneath her, she seemed to be inclosed in a brown
+bag, from which emerged her head and hands. The latter were very small
+and white, and might well have belonged to a young woman, but her head
+was that of an aged crone. Balsamides was amazed at her ugliness and the
+extraordinary expression of her features. She wore no head-dress, and
+the bit of gauze about her throat, which properly speaking should have
+concealed her face, did not even cover her chin. Her hair was perfectly
+black in spite of her age, and being cut so short as only to reach the
+collar of her gown, hung straight down like that of an American Indian,
+brushed back from the high yellow forehead, and falling like stiff
+horse-hair over her ears and cheeks when she bent forward. Her eyes,
+too, were black, and were set so near together as to give her a very
+disagreeable expression, while the heavy eyebrows rose slightly from the
+nose towards the temples. The nose was long, straight, and pointed, but
+very thin; and the nostrils, which had once been broad and sensitive,
+were pinched and wrinkled by old age and the play of strong emotions.
+Her cheeks were hollowed and yellow, as the warped parchment cover of an
+old manuscript, seamed with furrows in all directions, so that the
+slightest motion of her face destroyed one set of deep-traced lines only
+to exhibit another new and unexpected network of wrinkles. The upper lip
+was long and drawn down, while the thin mouth curved upwards at the
+corners in a disagreeable smile, something like that which seems to play
+about the long, slit lips of a dead viper. This unpleasant combination
+of features was terminated by a short but prominent chin, indicating a
+determined and undeviating will. The ghastly yellow color of her face
+made the unnatural brightness of her beady eyes more extraordinary
+still.</p>
+
+<p>To judge from her appearance, she had not long to live, and Balsamides
+realized the fact as soon as he was in her presence. It was not a fever;
+it was no sudden illness which had attacked her, depriving her of
+strength, speech, and consciousness. She was dying of a slow and
+incurable disease, which fed upon the body without weakening the
+energies of the brain, and which had now reached its last stage. She
+might live a month, or she might die that very night, but her end was
+close at hand. With the iron determination of a tyrannical old woman,
+she kept up appearances to the last, and had insisted on being carried
+to the great hall and set in the place of honor upon the divan to
+receive the visit of the physician. Indeed, for many days she had given
+the slaves of her harem no rest, causing herself to be carried from one
+part of the house to another, in the vain hope of finding some relief
+from the pain which devoured her. All night the great rooms were
+illuminated. Day and night the slaves exhausted themselves in the
+attempt to amuse her: the trained and educated Circassian girl
+translated the newspapers to her, or read aloud whole chapters of Victor
+Hugo's Mis&eacute;rables, one of the few foreign novels which have been
+translated into Turkish; the almehs danced and sang to their small
+lutes; the black slaves succeeded each other in bringing every kind of
+refreshment which the ingenuity of the Dalmatian cook could devise; the
+whole establishment was in perpetual motion, and had rarely in the last
+few days snatched a few minutes of uneasy rest when the Khanum slept her
+short and broken sleep. It chanced that Laleli had all her life detested
+opium, and was so quick to detect its presence in a sweetmeat or in a
+sherbet, that now, when its use might have soothed her agonies, no
+member of her household had the courage to offer it to her. Her
+sleepless days and nights passed in the perpetual effort to obtain some
+diversion from her pain, and with every hour it became more difficult to
+satisfy her craving for change and amusement.</p>
+
+<p>Balsamides came forward, touching his hand to his mouth and forehead;
+and then approaching nearer, he awaited her invitation to sit down. The
+old woman made a feeble, almost palsied gesture with her thin white
+hand, and Gregorios advanced and seated himself upon the divan at some
+distance from his patient.</p>
+
+<p>"His Majesty has sent you?" she inquired presently, slowly turning her
+head and fixing her beady eyes upon his face. Her voice was weak and
+hoarse, scarcely rising above a whisper.</p>
+
+<p>"It is his Majesty's pleasure that I should use my art to stay the hand
+of death," replied Balsamides. "His Majesty is deeply grieved to hear of
+the Khanum Effendi's illness."</p>
+
+<p>"My gratitude is profound as the sea," said Laleli Khanum, but as she
+spoke the viper smile wreathed and curled upon her seamed lips. "I thank
+his Majesty. My time is come,&mdash;it is my kad&egrave;r, my fate. Allah alone can
+save. None else can help me."</p>
+
+<p>"Nevertheless, though it be in vain, I must try my arts, Khanum
+Effendim," said Balsamides.</p>
+
+<p>"What are your arts?" asked the sick woman, scornfully. "Can you burn me
+with fire, and make a new Laleli out of the ashes of my bones?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Gregorios, "I cannot do that, but I can ease your pain, and
+perhaps you may recover."</p>
+
+<p>"If you can ease my pain, you shall be rich. But you can not. Only Allah
+is great!"</p>
+
+<p>"If the Khanum will permit her servant to approach her and to touch her
+hand"&mdash;suggested Balsamides, humbly.</p>
+
+<p>"Gelinis, come," muttered Laleli. But she drew the pale green veil that
+was round her throat a little higher, so as to cover her mouth. "What is
+this vile body that it should be any longer withheld from the touch of
+the unbeliever? What is your medicine, Giaour? Shall the touch of your
+unbelieving hand, wherewith you daily make signs before images, heal the
+sickness of her who is a daughter of the prophet of the Most High?"</p>
+
+<p>Balsamides rose from his seat and came to her side. She shrank together
+in her snuff-colored, bag-shaped gown, and hesitated before she would
+put out her small hand, and her eyes expressed ineffable disgust. But at
+last she held out her fingers, and Gregorios succeeded in getting at her
+wrist. The pulse was very quick, and fluttered and sank at every fourth
+or fifth beat.</p>
+
+<p>"The Khanum is in great pain," said Gregorios. He saw indeed that she
+was in a very weak state, and he fancied she could not last long.</p>
+
+<p>"Ay, the pains of Gehennam are upon me," she answered in her hoarse
+whisper, and at the same time she trembled violently, while the
+perspiration broke out in a clammy moisture on her yellow forehead.</p>
+
+<p>Gregorios produced a small case from his pocket. It is the magical
+transformer of the modern physician.</p>
+
+<p>"The prick of a pin," said he, "and your pain will cease. If the Khanum
+will consent?"</p>
+
+<p>She was in an access of terrible agony, and could not speak. Gregorios
+took from his case a tiny syringe and a small bottle containing a
+colorless liquid. It was the work of an instant to puncture the skin of
+Laleli's hand, and to inject a small dose of morphine,&mdash;a very small
+dose indeed, for the solution was weak. But the effect was almost
+instantaneous. The Khanum opened her small black eyes, the contortion of
+her wrinkled face gave way to a more natural expression, and she
+gradually assumed a look of peace and relief which told Gregorios that
+the drug had done its work. Even her voice sounded less hoarse and
+indistinct when she spoke again.</p>
+
+<p>"I am cured!" she exclaimed in sudden delight. "The pain is gone,&mdash;Allah
+be praised, the pain is gone, the fire is put out! I shall live! I shall
+live!"</p>
+
+<p>Not one word of thanks to Gregorios escaped her lips. It was
+characteristic of the woman that she expressed only her own satisfaction
+at the relief she experienced, feeling not the smallest gratitude
+towards the physician. She clapped her thin hands, and a black slave
+girl appeared, one of those called hala&iuml;k, or "creatures." The Khanum
+ordered coffee and chibouques. She had never accepted the modern
+cigarette.</p>
+
+<p>"The relief is instantaneous," remarked Balsamides, carefully putting
+back the syringe and the bottle in the little case, which he returned to
+his pocket.</p>
+
+<p>"Tell me," said the old woman, lowering her voice, "is it the magic of
+the Franks?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is, and it is not," answered Gregorios, willing to play upon her
+superstition. "It is, truly, very mysterious, and a man who employs it
+must have clean hands and a brave heart. And so, indeed, must the person
+who benefits by the cure. Otherwise it cannot be permanent. The sins
+which burden the soul have power to consume the body, and if there is no
+repentance, no device to undo the harm done, the magic properties of the
+fluid are soon destroyed by the more powerful arts of Satan."</p>
+
+<p>The Khanum looked anxiously at Balsamides as he spoke. At that moment
+the black slave girl returned, bearing two little cups of coffee, while
+two other girls, exactly like the first, followed with two lighted
+chibouques, a mang&aacute;l filled with coals, two small brass dishes upon
+which the bowls of the pipes were to rest, so as not to burn the carpet,
+and a little pair of steel firetongs inlaid with gold. At a sign the
+three slaves silently retired. The Khanum drank the hot coffee eagerly,
+and, placing the huge amber mouthpiece against her lips, began to inhale
+the smoke. Gregorios followed her example.</p>
+
+<p>"What is this you say of Satan destroying the power of your medicine?"
+asked Laleli, presently.</p>
+
+<p>"It is the truth, Khanum Effendim," answered Balsamides, solemnly. "If,
+therefore, you would be healed, repent of sin, and if you have done
+anything that is sinful, command that it be undone, if possible. If not,
+your pain will return, and I cannot save you."</p>
+
+<p>"How do you, a Giaour, talk to me of repentance?" asked Laleli, in
+scornful tones. "While you try to extract the eyelash from my eye, you
+do not see the beam which has entered your own."</p>
+
+<p>"Nevertheless, unless you repent my medicine will not heal you,"
+returned Gregorios, calmly.</p>
+
+<p>"What have I to repent? Shall you find out my sin?"</p>
+
+<p>"That I be unable to find it out does not destroy the necessity for your
+repenting it. The time is short. If your heart is not clean you will
+soon be writhing in a worse agony than when I charmed away your pain."</p>
+
+<p>"We shall see," retorted the Khanum, her features wrinkling in a
+contemptuous smile. "I tell you I feel perfectly well. I have
+recovered."</p>
+
+<p>But she had hardly spoken, and puffed a great cloud of aromatic smoke
+into the still air of the illuminated room, when the smile began to
+fade. Balsamides watched her narrowly, and saw the former expression of
+pain slowly returning to her face. He had not expected it so soon, but
+in his fear of producing death he had administered a very small dose of
+morphine, and the disease was far advanced. Laleli, however, though
+terrified as she felt that the agony she had so long endured was
+returning after so brief a respite, endeavored bravely to hide her
+sufferings, lest she should seem to confess that the Giaour was right,
+and that it was the presence of the devil in her heart which prevented
+the medicine from having its full effect. Gradually, as she smoked on in
+silence, Gregorios saw that the disease had got the mastery over her
+again, and that she was struggling to control her features. He pretended
+not to observe the change, and waited philosophically for the inevitable
+result. At last the unfortunate woman could bear it no longer; the pipe
+dropped from her trembling hand, and the sweat stood upon her brow.</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder whether there is any truth in what you say!" she exclaimed, in
+a voice broken with the pain she would not confess.</p>
+
+<p>"It is useless to deny it," answered Balsamides. "The Khanum Effendim is
+already suffering."</p>
+
+<p>"No, I am not!" she said between her teeth. But the perspiration
+trickled down her hollow cheeks. Suddenly, unable to hide the horrible
+agony which was gnawing in her bosom, she uttered a short, harsh cry,
+and rocked herself backwards and forwards.</p>
+
+<p>"It is even so," said Balsamides, eying her coldly, and not moving from
+his place as he blew the clouds of smoke into the warm air. "My medicine
+is of no use when the soul is dark and diseased by a black deed."</p>
+
+<p>"Where is the medicine?" cried the wretched woman, swaying from side to
+side in her agony. "Where is it? Give it to me again, or I shall die!"</p>
+
+<p>"It cannot help you unless you confess your sin," returned her torturer
+indifferently.</p>
+
+<p>"In the name of Allah! I will confess all, even to you an unbeliever, if
+you will only give me rest again!" cried Laleli. From the momentary
+respite the pain seemed far greater than before.</p>
+
+<p>"If you will do that, I will try and save you," answered Balsamides,
+producing the case from his pocket. He had been very far from expecting
+the advantage he had obtained through the combination of the old woman's
+credulity and extreme suffering; but in his usual cold fashion he now
+resolved to use it to the utmost. Laleli saw him take the syringe from
+the case, and her eyes glittered with the anticipation of immediate
+relief.</p>
+
+<p>"Speak," said Gregorios,&mdash;"confess your sin, and you shall have rest."</p>
+
+<p>"What am I to confess?" asked the old woman, hungrily watching the tiny
+instrument in his fingers.</p>
+
+<p>"This," answered Balsamides, lowering his voice. "You must tell me what
+became of a Russian Effendi, whose name was Alexander, whom you caused
+to be seized one night in the last week of"&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Again Laleli cried out, and rocked her body, apparently suffering more
+than ever.</p>
+
+<p>"The medicine!" she whispered almost inaudibly.&mdash;"Quick&mdash;I cannot
+speak&mdash;&mdash; am dying of the pain." The perspiration streamed down her
+yellow wrinkled face, and Balsamides feared the end was come.</p>
+
+<p>"You must tell me first, or it will be of no use," he said. But he
+quickly filled the syringe, and prepared to repeat the former operation.</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot," groaned Laleli. "I die!&mdash;quick! Then I will tell."</p>
+
+<p>A physician might have known whether the woman were really dying or not,
+but Balsamides' science did not go so far as that. Without further
+hesitation he pricked the skin of her hand and injected a small
+quantity, a very little more than the first time. The effect was not
+quite so sudden as before, but it followed after a few seconds. The
+signs of extreme suffering disappeared from the Khanum's face, and she
+once more looked up.</p>
+
+<p>"Your medicine is good, Giaour," she said, with the ghost of a
+disdainful laugh. But her voice was still very weak and hoarse.</p>
+
+<p>"It will not save you unless you confess what became of the Frank," said
+Gregorios, again putting his instrument into the case, and the case into
+his pocket.</p>
+
+<p>"It is very easy for me to have you kept here, and to force you to cure
+me," she answered with a wicked smile. "Do you think you can leave my
+house without my permission?"</p>
+
+<p>"Easily," returned Balsamides, coolly. "I have not come here
+unprotected. His Majesty's adjutant is outside. You will not find it
+easy to take him prisoner."</p>
+
+<p>"Who knows?" exclaimed Laleli. "The only thing which prevents me from
+keeping you is, that I see you have very little of your medicine. It is
+a good medicine. But I do not believe your story about repentance. It
+may serve for Franks; it is not enough for a daughter of the true
+Prophet."</p>
+
+<p>"You shall see. If you wish to avoid further suffering, I advise you to
+tell me what became of Alexander Patoff, and to tell me quickly. I was
+wrong to give you the medicine until you had confessed, but if you
+refuse I have another medicine ready which may persuade you."</p>
+
+<p>"What do I know of your unbelieving dogs of Russians?" retorted the old
+woman, fiercely.</p>
+
+<p>"You know the answer to my question well enough. If you do not tell me
+within five minutes what I want to know, I will tell you what the other
+medicine is."</p>
+
+<p>Laleli relapsed into a scornful silence. She was better of her pain, but
+she was angry at the physician's manner. Balsamides took out his watch,
+and began to count the minutes. There was a dead silence in the spacious
+hall, where the lights burned as brightly as ever, while the heavy
+clouds of tobacco smoke slowly wreathed themselves around the
+chandeliers and mirrors. The two sat watching each other. It seemed an
+eternity to the old woman, but the dose had been stronger this time, and
+she was free from pain. At last Balsamides shut his watch and returned
+it to his pocket.</p>
+
+<p>"Will you, or will you not, tell me what became of Alexander Patoff,
+whom you caused to be seized in or near Agia Sophia, one night in the
+last week of the month of Ramaz&aacute;n before the last?"</p>
+
+<p>Laleli's beady eyes were fixed on his as he spoke, with an air of
+surprise, not unmingled with curiosity, and strongly tinged with
+contempt.</p>
+
+<p>"I know nothing about him," she answered steadily. "I never caused him
+to be seized. I never heard of him."</p>
+
+<p>"Then here is my medicine," said Gregorios, coldly. "It is a terrible
+medicine. Listen to the pleasure of his Majesty the Hunkyar." He rose,
+and pressed the document to his lips and forehead.</p>
+
+<p>"What!" cried Laleli, in sudden terror, her voice gathering strength
+from her fright.</p>
+
+<p>"It is an order, dated to-day, to arrest Laleli Khanum Effendi, and to
+convey her to a place of safety, where she shall await the further
+commands of his Majesty."</p>
+
+<p>"It is false," murmured the Khanum. But her white fingers twisted each
+other nervously. "It is a forgery."</p>
+
+<p>"So false," replied Balsamides, with cold contempt, "that the adjutant
+is waiting outside, and a troop of horse is stationed within call to
+conduct you to the place of safety aforesaid. I can force you to lay his
+Majesty's signature on your forehead and to follow me to my carriage, if
+I please."</p>
+
+<p>"Allah alone is great!" groaned the Khanum, her head sinking on her
+breast in despair. "Kad&egrave;r,&mdash;it is my fate."</p>
+
+<p>"But if you will deliver me this man alive, I will save you out of the
+hands even of the Hunkyar. I will say that you are too ill to be removed
+from your house,&mdash;unless I give you my medicine," he added, flattering
+her hopes to the last.</p>
+
+<p>"Give me time. I know nothing&mdash;what shall I say?" muttered Laleli
+incoherently, her thin fingers twitching at the stuff of her
+snuff-colored gown, while as she bent her head her short, coarse, black
+hair fell over her yellow cheeks, and concealed her expression from
+Gregorios.</p>
+
+<p>"You have not much time," he answered. "The pain will soon seize you
+more sharply than before. If I arrest you, your sentence will be
+banishment to Arabia,&mdash;not for this crime, but for that other which you
+thought was pardoned. If I leave you here without help, my sentence upon
+you is pain, pain and agony until you die. It is already returning; I
+can see it in your face."</p>
+
+<p>"I must have time to consider," said Laleli, her old firmness returning,
+as it generally did in moments of great difficulty. She looked up,
+tossing back her hair. "How long will you give me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Till the morning light is first gray in the sky above Beikos," replied
+Gregorios, without hesitation. "But for your own sake you had better
+decide sooner."</p>
+
+<p>Laleli was silent. She must have had the strongest reasons for refusing
+to tell the secret of Alexander's fate, for the penalty of silence was a
+fearful one. She felt herself to be dying, but the morphine had revived
+in her the hope of life, and she loved life yet. But to live and suffer,
+to go through the horrors of an exile to Arabia, to drag her gnawing
+pain through the sands of the desert, was a prospect too awful to be
+contemplated. As the effects of the last dose administered began to
+disappear, and her sufferings recommenced, she realized her situation
+with frightful vividness. Still she strove to be calm and to baffle her
+tormentor to the very end. If she had not felt the unspeakable relief
+she had gained from his medicine, she would have wished to die, but she
+had tasted of life again. The problem was how to preserve this new life
+while refusing to answer the question Gregorios had asked of her. She
+was so clever, so thoroughly able to deal with difficulties, that if she
+could but have relief from her sufferings, so that her mind might be
+free to work undisturbed, she still hoped to find the solution. But the
+pain was already returning. In a few minutes she would be writhing in
+agony again.</p>
+
+<p>"I will wait until morning,&mdash;it is not many hours now," said Balsamides,
+after a pause. "But I strongly advise you to decide at once. You are
+beginning to suffer, and I warn you that unless you confess you shall
+not have the medicine."</p>
+
+<p>"I lived without it until you came," answered Laleli. "I can live
+without it now, if it is my fate." Her voice trembled convulsively, but
+she finished her sentence by a great effort.</p>
+
+<p>"It is not your fate," returned Gregorios. "You can not live without
+it."</p>
+
+<p>"Then at least I shall die and escape you," she groaned; but even in her
+groan there was a sort of scorn. On the last occasion she had indeed
+exaggerated her sufferings, pretending that she was at the point of
+death in order to get relief without telling her secret. She had always
+believed that at the last minute Balsamides would relent, out of fear
+lest she should die, and that she could thus obtain a series of
+intervals of rest, during which she might think what was to be done. She
+did not know the relentless character of the man with whom she had to
+deal.</p>
+
+<p>"You cannot escape me," said Balsamides, sternly. "But you can save me
+trouble by deciding quickly."</p>
+
+<p>"I have decided to die!" she cried at last, with a great effort. She
+groaned again, and began to rock herself in her seat upon the divan.</p>
+
+<p>"You will not die yet," observed Gregorios, contemptuously. He had
+understood that he had been deceived the previous time, and had
+determined to let her suffer.</p>
+
+<p>Indeed, she was suffering, and very terribly. Her groans had a different
+character now, and it was evident that she was not playing a comedy. A
+livid hue overspread her face, and she gasped for breath.</p>
+
+<p>"If you are really in pain," said Balsamides, "confess, and I will give
+you relief."</p>
+
+<p>But Laleli shook her head, and did not look up. He attributed her
+constancy to an intention to impose upon him a second time by appearing
+to suffer in silence rather than to sell her secret for the medicine. He
+looked on, quite unmoved, for some minutes. At last she raised her head
+and showed the deathly color of her face.</p>
+
+<p>"Medicine!" she gasped.</p>
+
+<p>"Not this time, unless you make a full confession," said Balsamides
+calmly. "I will not be deceived again."</p>
+
+<p>The wretched woman cast an imploring glance at him, and seemed trying to
+speak. But he thought she was acting again, and did not move from his
+seat.</p>
+
+<p>"You understand the price," he said, slowly taking the case from his
+pocket. "Tell what you know, and you shall have it all, if you like."</p>
+
+<p>The old Khanum's eyes glittered as she saw the receptacle of the coveted
+medicine. Her lips moved, producing only inarticulate sounds. Then, with
+a convulsive movement, she suddenly began to try and drag herself along
+the divan to the place where Gregorios sat. He gazed at her scornfully.
+She was very weak, and painfully moved on her hands and knees, the
+straight hair falling about her face, while her eyes gleamed and her
+lips moved. Occasionally she paused as though exhausted, and groaned
+heavily in her agony. But Balsamides believed it to be but a comedy to
+frighten him into administering the dose, and he sat still in his place,
+holding the case in his hand and keeping his eyes upon her.</p>
+
+<p>"You cannot deceive me," he said coldly. "All these contortions will not
+prevail upon me. You must tell your secret, or you will get nothing."</p>
+
+<p>Still Laleli dragged herself along, apparently trying to speak, but
+uttering only inarticulate sounds. As she got nearer to him, still on
+her hands and knees, Gregorios thought he had never seen so awful a
+sight. The straight black hair was matted in the moisture upon her
+clammy face; a deathly, greenish livid hue had overspread her features;
+her chin was extended forward hungrily and her eyes shone dangerously,
+while her lips chattered perpetually. She was very near to Balsamides.
+Had she had the strength to stretch out her hand she could almost have
+touched the small black case he held. He thought she was too near, at
+last, and his grip tightened on the little box.</p>
+
+<p>"Confess," he said once more, "and you shall have it."</p>
+
+<p>For one moment more she tried to struggle on, still not speaking.
+Balsamides rose and quietly put the case into his pocket, anticipating a
+struggle. He little knew what the result would be. The miserable
+creature uttered a short cry, and a wild look of despair was in her
+eyes. Suddenly, as she crawled upon the divan, she reared herself up on
+her knees, stretching out her wasted hands towards him.</p>
+
+<p>"Give&mdash;give"&mdash;she cried. "I will tell you all&mdash;he is alive&mdash;he is&mdash;a
+wan&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Her staring black eyes abruptly seemed to turn white, and instantly her
+face became ashy pale. One last convulsive effort,&mdash;the jaw dropped, the
+features relaxed, the limbs were unstrung, and Laleli Khanum fell
+forward to her full length upon her face on the peach-colored satin of
+the divan.</p>
+
+<p>She was dead, and Gregorios Balsamides knew it, as he turned her limp
+body so that she lay upon her back. She was quite dead, but he was
+neither startled nor horrified; he was bitterly disappointed, and again
+and again he ground his heel into the thick Sin&eacute; carpet under his feet.
+What was it to him whether this hideous old hag were dead in one way or
+another? She had died with her secret. There she lay in her shapeless
+bag-like gown of snuff-colored stuff, under the brilliant lights and the
+gorgeous mirrors, upon the delicate satin cushions, her white eyes
+staring wide, her hands clenched still in the death agony, the coarse
+hair clinging to her wet temples.</p>
+
+<p>Presently the body moved, and appeared to draw one&mdash;two&mdash;three
+convulsive breaths. Gregorios was startled, and bent down. But it was
+only the very end.</p>
+
+<p>"Bah!" he exclaimed, half aloud, "they often do that." Indeed, he had
+many times in his life seen men die, on the battlefield, on the hospital
+pallet, in their beds at home. But he had never seen such a death as
+this, and for a moment longer he gazed at the dead woman's face. Then
+the whole sense of disappointment rushed back upon him, and he hastily
+strode down the long hall, under the lamps, between the mirrors, without
+once looking behind him.</p>
+
+
+
+<h2 class="m"><a name="XVIII" id="XVIII"></a>XVIII.</h2>
+
+
+<p>Balsamides found Selim outside the door at the other end of the passage,
+sitting disconsolately upon the divan. The Lala turned up his ugly face
+as Gregorios entered, and then rose from his seat, reluctantly, as
+though much exhausted. Balsamides laid his hand upon the fellow's arm
+and looked into his small red eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"The Khanum is dead," said the pretended physician.</p>
+
+<p>The negro trembled violently, and throwing up his arms would have
+clapped his hands together. But Balsamides stopped him.</p>
+
+<p>"No noise," he said sternly. "Come with me. All may yet be well with
+you; but you must be quiet, or it will be the worse for you." He held
+the Lala's arm and led him without resistance to the outer hall.</p>
+
+<p>"Mehemet Bey! Mehemet Bey!" I heard him call, and I hastened from the
+room where I had waited to join him in the vestibule. He was very pale
+and grave. On hearing him enter, the porter appeared, and silently
+opened the outer door. Balsamides addressed him as we prepared to leave
+the house.</p>
+
+<p>"The Khanum Effendi is dead," he said. "Selim will accompany us to the
+palace, and will return in the morning."</p>
+
+<p>The man's face, deeply marked with the small-pox and weather-beaten in
+many a campaign, did not change color. Perhaps he had long expected the
+news, for he bowed his head as though submitting to a superior order.</p>
+
+<p>"It is the will of Allah," he said in a low voice. In another moment we
+had descended the steps, Selim walking between us. The coachman was
+standing at the horses' heads in the light of the bright carriage lamps.
+Balsamides entered the carriage first, then I made Selim get in, and
+last of all I took my seat and closed the door.</p>
+
+<p>"Yildiz-Ki&ouml;shk!" shouted Balsamides out of the window to the driver, and
+once more we rattled over the pavement and along the rough road. I
+imagined that the order had been given only to mislead the porter, who
+had stood upon the steps until we drove away. I knew well enough that
+Balsamides would not present himself at the palace with me in my present
+disguise, and that it was very improbable that he would take Selim
+there. I hesitated to speak to him, because I did not know whether I was
+to continue to personate the adjutant or to reveal myself in my true
+character. I had comprehended the situation when I heard my friend tell
+the porter that the Khanum was dead, and I congratulated myself that we
+had secured the person of Selim without the smallest struggle or
+difficulty of any kind. I argued from this, either that the Khanum had
+died without telling her story, or else that she had told it all, and
+that Selim was to accompany us to the place where Alexander was buried
+or hidden.</p>
+
+<p>At last we turned to the left. Balsamides again put his head out of the
+window, and called to the coachman to drive on the Belgrade road instead
+of turning towards Pera. The negro started violently when he heard the
+order given, and I thought he put out his hand to take the handle of the
+door; but my own was in the hanging loop fastened to the inside of the
+door, and I knew that he could not open it. The road indicated by
+Gregorios leads through the heart of the Belgrade forest.</p>
+
+<p>The fierce north wind had moderated a little, or rather, as we drove up
+the thickly wooded valley, we were not exposed to it as we had been upon
+the shore of the Bosphorus and on the heights above. Overhead, the
+driving clouds took a silvery-gray tinge, as the last quarter of the
+waning moon rose slowly behind the hills of the Asian shore. The bare
+trees swayed and moved slowly in the wind with the rhythmical motion of
+aquatic plants under moving water. I looked through the glass as we
+drove along, recognizing the well-known turns, the big trees, the
+occasional low stone cottages by the roadside. Everything was familiar
+to me, even in the bleak winter weather; only the landscape was
+inexpressibly wild in its leafless grayness, under the faint light of
+the waning moon. From time to time the Lala moved uneasily, but said
+nothing. We were ascending the hill which leads to the huge arch of the
+lonely aqueduct which pierces the forest, when Balsamides tapped upon
+the window. The carriage stopped in the road and he opened the door on
+his side and descended.</p>
+
+<p>"Get down," he said to Selim. I pushed the negro forward, and got out
+after him. Balsamides seized his arm firmly.</p>
+
+<p>"Take him on the other side," he said to me in Turkish, dragging the
+fellow along the road in the direction of a stony bridle-path which from
+this point ascends into the forest. Then Selim's coolness failed him,
+and he yelled aloud, struggling in our grip, and turning his head back
+towards the coachman.</p>
+
+<p>"Help! help!" he cried. "In the name of Allah! They will murder me!"</p>
+
+<p>From the lonely road the coachman's careless laugh echoed after us, as
+we hurried up the steep way.</p>
+
+<p>"It is a solitary spot," observed Balsamides to the terrified Selim.
+"You may yell yourself hoarse, if it pleases you."</p>
+
+<p>We continued to ascend the path, dragging the Lala between us. He had
+little chance of escape between two such men as we, and he seemed to
+know it, for after a few minutes he submitted quietly enough. At last we
+reached an open space among the rocks and trees, and Balsamides stopped.
+We were quite out of earshot from the road, and it would be hard to
+imagine a more desolate place than it appeared, between two and three
+o'clock on that March night, the bare twigs of the birch-trees wriggling
+in the bleak wind, the faint light of the decrescent moon, that seemed
+to be upside down in the sky, falling on the white rocks, and on the
+whitened branches torn down by the winter's storms, lying like bleached
+bones upon the ground before us.</p>
+
+<p>"Now," said Balsamides to the negro, "no one can hear us. You have one
+chance of life. Tell us at once where we can find the Russian Effendi
+whose property you stole and sold to Marchetto in the bazaar."</p>
+
+<p>In the dim gloom I almost fancied that the black man changed color as
+Gregorios put this question, but he answered coolly enough.</p>
+
+<p>"You cannot find him," he said. "You need not have brought me here to
+ask me about him. I would have told you what you wanted to know at Yeni
+K&ouml;j, willingly enough."</p>
+
+<p>"Why can he not be found?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because he has been dead nearly two years, and his body was thrown into
+the Bosphorus," answered the Lala defiantly.</p>
+
+<p>"You killed him, I suppose?" Balsamides tightened his grip upon the
+man's arm. But Selim was ready with his reply.</p>
+
+<p>"You need not tear me in pieces. He killed himself."</p>
+
+<p>The news was so unexpected that Balsamides and I both started and looked
+at each other. The Lala spoke with the greatest decision.</p>
+
+<p>"How did he kill himself?" asked Gregorios sternly.</p>
+
+<p>"I will tell you, as far as I know. The Bekj&iacute; of Agia Sophia, the same
+who admitted the Effendi, took me up by the other staircase. Franks are
+never allowed to pass that way, as you know. When we were halfway up,
+holding the tapers before us, we stumbled over the body of a man lying
+at the foot of one of the flights, with his hand against the wall. We
+stooped down and examined him. He was quite dead. 'Selim,' said the
+Bekj&iacute;, who knows me very well, 'the Effendi has fallen down the stairs
+in the dark, and has broken his neck.' 'If we give the alarm,' said I,
+'we shall be held responsible for his death.' 'Leave it to me,' answered
+the Bekj&iacute;. 'Behold, the man is dead. It is his fate. He has no further
+use for valuables.' So the Bekj&iacute; took a ring, and a tobacco-box, and the
+watch and chain, and some money which was in the man's pockets. Then he
+said we should leave the corpse where it was. And when the prayers in
+the mosque were over, before it was day, he got a vegetable-seller's
+cart, and put the body in it and covered it with cabbages. Then we took
+it down to the point below Top Kapu Serai, where the waters are swift
+and deep. So we threw him in, for he was but a dog of a Giaour, and had
+broken his neck in stumbling where it was forbidden to go. Is it my
+fault that he stumbled?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," answered Balsamides, "it was not your fault if he stumbled, and
+the Bekj&iacute; was a Persian fox. But you robbed his body, and divided the
+spoil. What share did the Bekj&iacute; take?"</p>
+
+<p>"He took the ring and the tobacco-box and the money, for he was the
+stronger," answered the Lala.</p>
+
+<p>"Selim," said Balsamides quietly, "before the Khanum died to-night she
+said that Alexander Patoff was alive. If so, you are lying. You are a
+greater liar than Moseylama, the false prophet, as they say in your
+country. But if not, you are a robber of dead bodies. Therefore, Selim,
+say a Fatihah, for your hour is come."</p>
+
+<p>With that, Balsamides drew a short revolver from his pocket and cocked
+it before the man's eyes. The negro's limbs relaxed, and with a howl he
+fell upon his knees.</p>
+
+<p>"Mercy! In the name of Allah!" he cried. "I have told all the truth, I
+swear by the grave of my father"&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Don't move," said Gregorios, with horrible calmness. "You will do very
+well in that position. Now&mdash;say your Fatihah, and be quick about it. I
+cannot wait all night."</p>
+
+<p>"You are not in earnest, Gregorios?" I asked in English, for my blood
+ran cold at the sight.</p>
+
+<p>"Very much in earnest," he answered in Turkish, presenting the muzzle of
+the pistol to the Lala's head. "This fellow shall not laugh at our
+beards a second time. I will count three. If you do not wish to say your
+prayers, I will fire when I have said three. One&mdash;two"&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"He is alive!" screamed the Lala, before the fatal "three" was spoken by
+Balsamides. "I have lied: he is alive! Mercy! and I will tell you all."</p>
+
+<p>"I thought so," said Balsamides, coolly uncocking his pistol and putting
+it back into his pocket. "Get up, dog, and tell us what you know."</p>
+
+<p>Selim was literally almost frightened to death, as he kneeled on the
+sharp stones at our feet. He could hardly speak, and I dragged him up
+and made him sit upon the trunk of a fallen tree. I was indeed glad that
+he was still alive, for though Balsamides had not yet told me the events
+of the night, I could see that he was in no humor to be trifled with.
+Even I, who am peaceably disposed towards all men, felt my blood boil
+when the fellow told how he and the Bekj&iacute; had robbed the body of
+Alexander Patoff, and thrown it into the Bosphorus for fear of being
+suspected. But the whole story seemed improbable, and I had a strong
+impression that Selim was lying. Perhaps nothing but the fear of death
+could have made him confess, after all, and Balsamides had a way of
+making death seem very real and near.</p>
+
+<p>"I will tell you this, Selim," said Gregorios. "If you will give me
+Alexander Patoff Effendi to-night, alive, well, and uninjured in any
+way, you shall go free, and I will engage that you shall not be hurt.
+You evidently wished to keep the Khanum's secret. The Khanum is dead,
+and her secrets are the Padishah's, like everything else she possessed.
+You are bound to deliver those secrets to my keeping. Therefore tell us
+shortly where the Russian is, that we may liberate him and take him home
+at once."</p>
+
+<p>"He is alive and well. That is to say, he has been well treated,"
+answered Selim. "If you can take him, you may take him to-night, for all
+I care. But you must swear that you will then protect me."</p>
+
+<p>"Filthy liquor in a dirty bottle!" exclaimed Balsamides angrily. "Will
+you make conditions with me, you soul of a dog in a snake's body?"</p>
+
+<p>"Very well," returned the Lala cunningly. "But if you should kill me by
+mistake before I have taken you to him, you will never find him."</p>
+
+<p>"I have told you that you shall not be hurt, if you will give him up.
+That is enough. My word is good, and I will keep it. Speak; you are
+safe."</p>
+
+<p>"In the first place, we must go back to Yeni K&ouml;j. You might have saved
+yourself the trouble of coming up here on such a night as this."</p>
+
+<p>"I want no comments on my doings. Tell me where the man is."</p>
+
+<p>"I will take you to him," said the Lala.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, then, get up and come back to the carriage," said Balsamides,
+seeing it was useless to bandy words with the fellow. Moreover, it was
+bitterly cold in the forest, and the idea of being once more in the
+comfortable carriage was attractive. Again we took Selim between us, and
+rapidly descended the stony path. In a few moments we were driving
+swiftly away from the arches of the aqueduct in the direction whence we
+had come.</p>
+
+<p>Before we had reached the door of Laleli's house, Selim asked Balsamides
+to stop the carriage. We got out, and he took us up a narrow and filthy
+lane between two high walls. The feeble light of the moon did not
+penetrate the blackness, and we stumbled along in the mud as best we
+could. After climbing in this way for nearly ten minutes, Selim stopped
+before what appeared to be a small door sunk in a niche in the wall. I
+heard a bunch of keys jingling in his hand, and in a few seconds he
+admitted us. Balsamides held him firmly by the sleeve, as he turned to
+lock the door behind us.</p>
+
+<p>"You shall not lock it," he said in a low voice. "Are we mice to be
+caught in a trap?"</p>
+
+<p>Having made sure that the door was open, he pushed Selim forward. We
+seemed to be in a very spacious garden, surrounded by high walls on all
+sides. The trees were bare, excepting a few tall cypresses, which reared
+their black spear-like heads against the dim sky. The flower-beds were
+covered with dark earth, and the gravel in the paths was rough, as
+though no one had trod upon it for a long time. The walls protected the
+place from the wind, and a gloomy stillness prevailed, broken only by
+the distant sighing of trees higher up, which caught the northern gale.</p>
+
+<p>Selim followed the wall for some distance, and at last stood still. We
+had reached one angle of the garden, and as well as I could see the
+corner made by the walls was filled by a low stone building with
+latticed windows, from one of which issued a faint light. Going nearer,
+I saw that the lattices were not of wood, but were strong iron gratings,
+such as no man's strength could break. The door in the middle of this
+stone box was also heavily ironed. Selim went forward, and again I heard
+the keys rattle in his hands. Almost instantly the shadow of a head
+appeared at the window whence the light came. While the Lala was
+unfastening the lock I went close to the grating. I was just tall enough
+to meet a pair of dark eyes gazing at me intently through the lowest
+bars.</p>
+
+<p>"Alexander Patoff, is it you?" I asked in Russian.</p>
+
+<p>"Good God!" exclaimed a tremulous voice. "Have the Russians taken
+Constantinople at last? Who are you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am Paul Griggs. We have come to set you free."</p>
+
+<p>The heavy door yielded and moved. I rushed in, and in another moment I
+clasped the lost man's hand. Gregorios, far more prudent than I, held
+Selim by the collar as a man would hold a dog, for he feared some
+treachery.</p>
+
+<p>"Is it really you?" I asked, for I could scarcely believe my eyes.
+Alexander looked at me once, then broke into hysterical tears, laughing
+and crying and sobbing all at once. He was indeed unrecognizable. I
+remembered the descriptions I had heard of the young dandy, the gay
+officer of a crack regiment, irreproachable in every detail of his
+dress, and delicate as a woman in his tastes. I saw before me a man of
+good height, wrapped in an old Turkish kaftan of green cloth lined with
+fur, his feet thrust into a pair of worn-out red slippers. His dark
+brown hair had grown till it fell upon his shoulders, his beard reached
+halfway to his waist, his face was ghastly white and thin to emaciation.
+The hand he had given me was like a parcel of bones in a thin glove. I
+doubted whether he were the man, after all.</p>
+
+<p>"We must be quick," I said. "Have you anything to take away?" He cast a
+piteous glance at his poor clothing.</p>
+
+<p>"This is all I have," he said in a low voice. Then, with a half-feminine
+touch of vanity, he added, "You must excuse me: I am hardly fit to go
+with you." He looked wildly at me for a moment, and again laughed and
+sobbed hysterically. The apartment was indeed empty enough. There was a
+low round table, a wretched old divan at one end, and a sort of bed
+spread upon the floor, in the old Turkish fashion. The whole place
+seemed to consist of a single room, lighted by a small oil lamp which
+hung in one corner. The stuccoed walls were green with dampness, and the
+cold was intense. I wondered how the poor man had lived so long in such
+a place. I put my arm under his, and threw my heavy military cloak over
+his shoulders. Then I led him away through the open door. The key was
+still in the lock without, and Balsamides held Selim tightly by the
+collar. When we had passed, Gregorios, instead of following us, held the
+Lala at arm's-length before him. Then he administered one tremendous
+kick, and sent the wretch flying into the empty cell; he locked the door
+on him with care, and withdrew the keys.</p>
+
+<p>"I told you I would protect you," he called out through the keyhole.
+"You will be quite safe there for the present." Then he turned away,
+laughing to himself, and we all three hurried down the path under the
+wall, till we reached the small door by which we had entered the garden.
+Stumbling down the narrow lane, we soon got to the road, and found the
+carriage where we had left it. There was no time for words as we almost
+lifted the wretched Russian into the carriage and got in after him.</p>
+
+<p>"To my house in Pera!" cried Balsamides to the patient coachman. "Pek
+tchabuk! As fast as you can drive!"</p>
+
+<p>"Evv&eacute;t Effendim," replied the old soldier, and in another moment we were
+tearing along the road at breakneck speed.</p>
+
+<p>Hitherto Alexander Patoff had been too much surprised and overcome by
+his emotions to speak connectedly or to ask us any questions. When once
+we were in the carriage and on our way to Pera, however, he recovered
+his senses.</p>
+
+<p>"Will you kindly tell me how all this has happened? Are you a Turkish
+officer?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," I answered. "This is a disguise. Let me present you to the man who
+has really liberated you,&mdash;Balsamides Bey."</p>
+
+<p>Patoff took the hand Gregorios stretched out towards him in both of his,
+and would have kissed it had Gregorios allowed him.</p>
+
+<p>"God bless you! God bless you!" he repeated fervently. He was evidently
+still very much shaken, and in order to give him a little strength I
+handed him a flask of spirits which I had left in the carriage. He drank
+eagerly, and grasped even more greedily the case of cigarettes which I
+offered him.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah!" he cried, in a sort of ecstasy, as he tasted the tobacco. "I feel
+that I am free."</p>
+
+<p>I began to tell him in a few words what had happened: how we had
+stumbled upon his watch in the bazaar, had identified Selim, and traced
+the Lala to Laleli Khanum's house; how the Khanum had died while
+Balsamides was there, just as she was about to tell the truth; how we
+had dragged Selim into the forest, and had threatened him with death;
+and how at last, feeling that since his mistress was dead he was no
+longer in danger, the fellow had conducted us to Alexander's cell in the
+garden. I told him that his brother and mother were in Pera, and that he
+should see them in the morning. I said that Madame Patoff had been very
+ill in consequence of his disappearance, and that every one had mourned
+for him as dead. In short, I endeavored to explain the whole situation
+as clearly as I could. While I was telling our story Balsamides never
+spoke a word, but sat smoking in his corner, probably thinking of the
+single kick in which he had tried to concentrate all his vengeance.</p>
+
+<p>As we drove along, the dawn began to appear,&mdash;the cold dawn of a March
+morning. I asked Balsamides whether it would be necessary to change my
+clothes before entering the city.</p>
+
+<p>"No," he answered; "we shall be at home at sunrise. The fellow drives
+well."</p>
+
+<p>"I shall have to ask you to take me in for a few hours," said Alexander.
+"I am in a pitiable state."</p>
+
+<p>"You must have suffered horribly in that den," observed Balsamides. "Of
+course you must come home with me. We will send for your brother at
+once, and when you are rested you can tell us something of your story.
+It must be even more interesting than ours."</p>
+
+<p>"It would not take so long to tell," answered Patoff, with a melancholy
+smile. In the gray light of the morning I was horrified to notice how
+miserably thin and ill he looked; but even in his squalor, and in spite
+of the long hair and immense beard, I could see traces of the beauty I
+had so often heard described by Paul, and even by Cutter, who was rarely
+enthusiastic about the appearance of his fellows. He seemed weak, too,
+as though he had been half starved in his prison. I asked him how long
+it was since he had eaten.</p>
+
+<p>"Last night," he said, wearily, "they brought me food, but I could not
+eat. A man in prison has no appetite." Then suddenly he opened the
+window beside him, and put his head out into the cold blast, as though
+to drink in more fully the sense of freedom regained. Balsamides looked
+at him with a sort of pity which I hardly ever saw in his face.</p>
+
+<p>"Poor devil!" he said, in a low voice. "We were just in time. He could
+not have lasted much longer."</p>
+
+<p>We reached the outskirts of Pera, and Alexander hastily withdrew his
+head and sank back in the corner, as though afraid of being seen. He had
+the startled look of a man who fears pursuit. At last we rattled down
+the Grande Rue, and stopped before the door of Balsamides' house. It was
+six o'clock in the morning, and the sun was nearly up. I thought it had
+been one of the longest nights I ever remembered.</p>
+
+<p>While Balsamides dismissed the coachman, I led Alexander quickly into
+the house and up the narrow stairs. In a few minutes Gregorios joined
+us, and coffee was brought.</p>
+
+<p>"I think you could wear my clothes," he said, looking at Alexander with
+a scarcely perceptible smile. "We are nearly the same height, and I am
+almost as thin as you."</p>
+
+<p>"If you would be so very kind as to send for a barber," suggested
+Patoff. "I have never been allowed one, for fear I should get hold of
+his razor and kill myself or somebody else."</p>
+
+<p>"I will go and send one," said I. "And I will rouse your brother and
+bring him back with me."</p>
+
+<p>"Stop!" cried Balsamides. "You cannot go like that!" I had forgotten
+that I still wore the adjutant's uniform. "Take care of our friend," he
+added, "and I will go myself."</p>
+
+<p>We should probably have felt very tired, after our night's excursion,
+had we not been sustained by the sense of triumph at having at last
+succeeded beyond all hope. It was hard to imagine what the effect would
+be upon Madame Patoff, and I began to fear for her reason as I
+remembered how improbable it had always seemed to me that we should find
+her son alive. I was full of curiosity to hear his story, but I knew
+that he was exhausted with fatigue and emotion, so that I put him in
+possession of my room and gave him some of my friend's clothes. In a few
+moments the barber arrived, and while he was performing his operations I
+myself resumed my ordinary dress.</p>
+
+<p>Balsamides found Paul in bed and fast asleep, but, pushing the servant
+aside, he walked in and opened the windows.</p>
+
+<p>"Wake up, Patoff!" he shouted, making a great noise with the fastenings.</p>
+
+<p>"Holloa! What is the matter?" cried Paul, opening his sleepy eyes wide
+with astonishment as he saw Balsamides standing before him, white as
+death with the excitement of the night. "Has anything happened?"</p>
+
+<p>"Everything has happened," said Gregorios. "The sun is risen, the birds
+are singing, the Jews are wrangling in the bazaar, the dogs are fighting
+at Galata Serai, and, last of all, your brother, Alexander Patoff, is at
+this moment drinking his coffee in my rooms."</p>
+
+<p>"My brother!" cried Paul, fairly leaping out of bed in his excitement.
+"Are you in earnest? Come, let us go at once."</p>
+
+<p>"Your costume," remarked Balsamides quietly, "smacks too much of the
+classic for the Grande Rue de Pera. I will wait while you dress."</p>
+
+<p>"Does my mother know?" asked Patoff.</p>
+
+<p>"No," replied Balsamides. "Your brother had not been five minutes in my
+house when I came here." Then he told Paul briefly how we had found
+Alexander.</p>
+
+<p>Paul Patoff was not a man to be easily surprised; but in the present
+case the issue had been so important, that, being taken utterly unawares
+by the news, he felt stunned and dazed as he tried to realize the whole
+truth. He sat down in the midst of dressing, and for one moment buried
+his face in his hands. Balsamides looked on quietly. He knew how much
+even that simple action meant in a man of Paul's proud and
+undemonstrative temper. In a few seconds Paul rose from his seat and
+completed his toilette.</p>
+
+<p>"You know how grateful I am to you both," he said. "You must guess it,
+for nothing I could say could express what I feel."</p>
+
+<p>"Do not mention it," answered Balsamides. "No thanks could give me half
+the pleasure I have in seeing your satisfaction. You must prepare to
+find your brother much changed, I fancy. He seemed to me to be thin and
+pale, but I think he is not ill in any way. If you are ready, we will
+go."</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, Alexander had had his hair cut short, in the military
+fashion, and had been divested of the immense beard which hid half his
+face. A tub and a suit of civilized clothes did the rest, even though
+the latter did not fit him as well as Gregorios had expected. Gregorios
+is a deceptive man and is larger than he looks, for his coat was too
+broad for Alexander, and hung loosely over the latter's shoulders and
+chest. But in spite of the imperfect fit, the change in the man's
+appearance was so great that I started in surprise when he entered the
+sitting-room, taking him for an intruder who had walked in unannounced.</p>
+
+<p>He was very beautiful; that is the only word which applies to his
+appearance. His regular features, in their extreme thinness, were
+ethereal as the face of an angel, but he had not the painful look of
+emaciation which one so often sees in the faces of those long kept in
+confinement. He was very thin indeed, but there was a perfect grace in
+all his movements, an ease and self-possession in his gestures, a quiet,
+earnest, trustful look in his dark eyes, which seemed almost unearthly.
+I watched him with the greatest interest, and with the greatest
+admiration also. Had I been asked at that moment to state what man or
+woman in the whole world I considered most perfectly beautiful, I should
+have answered unhesitatingly, Alexander Patoff. He had that about him
+which is scarcely ever met with in men, and which does not always please
+others, though it never fails to attract attention. I mean that he had
+the delicate beauty of a woman combined with the activity and dash of a
+man. I saw how the lightness, the alternate indolence and reckless
+excitement, of such a nature must act upon a man of Paul Patoff's
+character. Every point and peculiarity of Alexander's temper and bearing
+would necessarily irritate Paul, who was stern, cold, and manly before
+all else, and who readily despised every species of weakness except
+pride, and every demonstration of feeling except physical courage.
+Alexander was like his mother; so like her, indeed, that as soon as I
+saw him without his beard I realized the cause of Madame Patoff's
+singular preference for the older son, and much which had seemed
+unnatural before was explained by this sudden revelation. Paul probably
+resembled his father's family more than his mother's. Madame Patoff, who
+had loved that same cold, determined character in her husband, because
+she was awed by it, hated it in her child, because she could neither
+bend it nor influence it, nor make it express any of that exuberant
+affection which Alexander so easily felt. Both boys had inherited from
+their father a goodly share of the Slav element, but, finding very
+different ground upon which to work in the natures of the two brothers,
+the strong Russian individuality had developed in widely different ways.
+In Alexander were expressed all the wild extremes of mood of which the
+true Russian is so eminently capable; all the overflowing and
+uncultivated talent and love of art and beauty, which in Russia brings
+forth so much that approaches indefinitely near to genius without ever
+quite reaching it. In Paul the effect of the Slavonic blood was totally
+opposite, and showed itself in that strange stolidity, that cold and
+ruthless exercise of force and pursuance of conviction, which have
+characterized so many Russian generals, so many Russian monarchs, and
+which have produced also so many Russian martyrs. There is something
+fateful in that terrible sternness, something which very well excites
+horror while imposing respect, and especially when forced to submit to
+superior force; and when vanquished, there is something grand in the
+capacity such a character possesses for submitting to destiny, and
+bearing the extremest suffering.</p>
+
+<p>It was clear enough that there could never be any love lost between two
+such men, and I was curious to see their meeting. I wondered whether
+each would fall upon the other's neck and shed tears of rejoicing, or
+whether they would shake hands and express their satisfaction more
+formally. In looking forward to the scene which was soon to take place,
+I almost wished that Paul might have accompanied us in the disguise of a
+second adjutant, and thus have had a hand in the final stroke by which
+we had effected Alexander's liberation. But I knew that he would only
+have been in the way, and that, considering the whole situation, we had
+done wisely. The least mistake on his part might have led to a struggle
+inside the Khanum's house, and we had good cause to congratulate
+ourselves upon having freed the prisoner without shedding blood. There
+was something pleasantly ludicrous in the thought that all our
+anticipations of a fight had ended in that one solemn kick with which
+Balsamides had consigned Selim to the prison whence we had taken
+Alexander.</p>
+
+<p>I was giving the latter a few more details of the events of the night,
+when Paul and Balsamides entered the room together. Paul showed more
+emotion than I had expected, and clasped his brother in his arms in
+genuine delight at having found him at last. Then he looked long at his
+face, as though trying to see how far Alexander was changed in the
+twenty months which had elapsed since they had met.</p>
+
+<p>"You are a little thinner,&mdash;you look as though you had been ill," said
+Paul.</p>
+
+<p>"No, I have not been ill, but I have suffered horribly in many ways,"
+answered Alexander, in his smooth, musical voice.</p>
+
+<p>For some minutes they exchanged questions, while they overcame their
+first excitement at being once more together. It was indeed little less
+than a resurrection, and Alexander's ethereal face was that of a spirit
+returning to earth rather than of a living man who had never left it. At
+last Paul grew calmer.</p>
+
+<p>"Will you tell us how it happened?" he asked, as he sat down upon the
+divan beside his brother. Balsamides and I established ourselves in
+chairs, ready to listen with breathless interest to the tale Alexander
+was about to tell.</p>
+
+<p>"You remember that night at Santa Sophia, Paul?" began the young man,
+leaning back among the cushions, which showed to strong advantage the
+extreme beauty of his delicate face. "Yes, of course you remember it,
+very vividly, for Mr. Griggs has told me how you acted, and all the
+trouble you took to find me. Very well; you remember, then, that the
+last time I saw you we were all looking down at those fellows as they
+went through their prayers and prostrations, and I stood a little apart
+from you. You were very much absorbed in the sight, and the kav&aacute;ss, who
+was a Mussulman, was looking on very devoutly. I thought I should like
+to see the sight from the other side, and I walked away and turned the
+corner of the gallery. You did not notice me, I suppose, and the noise
+of the crowd, rising and falling on their knees, must have drowned my
+footsteps."</p>
+
+<p>"I had not the slightest idea that you had moved from where you stood,"
+said Paul.</p>
+
+<p>"No. When I reached the corner, I was very much surprised to see a man
+standing in the shadow of the pillar. I was still more astonished when I
+recognized the hideous negro who had knocked off my hat in the
+afternoon. I expected that he would insult me, and I suppose I made as
+though I would show fight; but he raised his finger to his lips, and
+with the other hand held out a letter, composing his face into a sort of
+horrible leer, intended to be attractive. I took the letter without
+speaking, for I knew he could not understand a word I said, and that I
+could not understand him. The envelope contained a sheet of pink paper,
+on which, in an ill-formed hand, but in tolerably good French, were
+written a few words. It was a declaration of love."</p>
+
+<p>"From Laleli?" asked Balsamides, with a laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"Exactly," replied Alexander. "It was a declaration of love from Laleli.
+I leave you to imagine what I supposed Laleli to be like at that time,
+and Paul, who knows me, will tell you that I was not likely to hesitate
+at such a moment. The note ended by saying that the faithful Selim would
+conduct me to her presence without delay. I was delighted with the
+adventure, and crept noiselessly after him in the shadow of the gallery,
+lest you should see me; for I knew you would prevent my going with the
+man. We descended the stairs, but it was not until we reached the bottom
+that I saw we had not come down by the way I had ascended. Selim was
+most obsequious, and seemed ready to do everything for my comfort. As we
+walked down a narrow street, he presented me with a new fez, and made
+signs to me to put it on instead of my hat, which he then carefully
+wrapped in a handkerchief and carried in his hand. At a place near the
+bridge several ca&iuml;ques were lying side by side. He invited me to enter
+one, which I observed was very luxuriously fitted, and which I thought I
+recognized as the one in which I had so often seen the woman with the
+impenetrable veil. I lay back among the cushions and smoked, while Selim
+perched himself on the raised seat behind me, and the four boatmen
+pulled rapidly away. It was heavy work for them, I dare say, tugging
+upstream, but to me the voyage was enchanting. The shores were all
+illuminated, and the Bosphorus swarmed with boats. It was the last time
+I was in a ca&iuml;que. I do not know whether I could bear the sight of one
+now."</p>
+
+<p>"So they took you to Laleli's house?" said Paul, anxious to hear the
+rest.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; I was taken to Laleli's house, and I never got out of it till last
+night," continued Alexander. "How long is it? I have not the least idea
+of the European date."</p>
+
+<p>"This is the 29th of March," said I.</p>
+
+<p>"And that was the end of June,&mdash;twenty-one months. I have learned
+Turkish since I was caught, to pass the time, and I always knew the
+Turkish date after I had learned their way of counting, but I had lost
+all reckoning by our style. Well, to go on with my story. They brought
+me to the stone pier before the house. Selim admitted me by a curiously
+concealed panel at one end of the building, and we found ourselves in a
+very narrow place, whence half a dozen steps ascended to a small door. A
+little oil lamp burned in one corner. He led the way, and the door at
+the top slid back into the wall. We entered, and he closed it again. We
+were in the corner of a small room, richly furnished in the worst
+possible taste. I dare say you know the style these natives admire.
+Selim left me there for a moment. I looked carefully at the wall, and
+tried to find the panel; but to my surprise, the wainscoting was
+perfectly smooth and even, and I could not discover the place where it
+opened, nor detect any spring or sign of a fastening. Laleli, I thought,
+understood those things. Presently a door opened on one side of the
+room, and I saw the figure I had often watched, beckoning to me to come.
+Of course I obeyed, and she retired into the room beyond, which was very
+high and had no windows, though I noticed that there was a dome at the
+top, which in the day-time would admit the light."</p>
+
+<p>"The Khanum was waiting for you?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. I was surprised to see her dressed in the clothes she wore
+out-of-doors, and as thickly veiled as ever. There were lights in the
+room. She held out her small hand,&mdash;you remember noticing that she had
+small white hands?"</p>
+
+<p>"Like a young woman's," replied Balsamides.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. I took her hand, and spoke in French. I dare say I looked very
+sentimental and passionate as I gazed into her black eyes. I could see
+nothing of her face. She answered me in Turkish, which of course I could
+not understand. All I could say was Pek g&uuml;zel, very beautiful, which I
+repeated amidst my French phrases, giving the words as passionate an
+accent as I could command. At last she seemed to relent, and as she bent
+towards me I expected that she was about to speak very softly some
+Turkish love-word. What was my horror when she suddenly screamed into my
+ear, with a hideous harsh voice, my own words, Pek g&uuml;zel! In a moment
+she threw off her black ferigee, and tore the thick veil from her head.
+I could have yelled with rage, for I saw what a fool I had made of
+myself, and that the old hag had played a practical joke on me in
+revenge for the affair in the Valley of Roses. I cursed her in French, I
+cursed her in Russian, I cursed her in English, and stamped about the
+room, trying to get out. The horrible old witch screamed herself hoarse
+with laughter, making hideous grimaces and pointing at me in scorn. What
+could I do? I tried to force one of the doors, and twisted at the
+handle, and tugged and pushed with all my might. While I was thus
+engaged I heard the door at the other end of the room open quickly, and
+as I turned and sprang towards it I caught sight of her baggy,
+snuff-colored gown disappearing, as she slammed the door behind her.
+Before I could reach it the lock was turned, and I was caught in the
+trap,&mdash;caught like a mouse."</p>
+
+<p>"What a spiteful old thing she was!" I exclaimed. "She might have been
+satisfied with keeping you there a day instead of two years."</p>
+
+<p>"Nearly two years. I did everything humanly possible to escape. I gave
+all I possessed to Selim to take a message to Paul, to anybody; but of
+course that was useless. At first they kept me in the room where I had
+been caught. My food was brought to me by the Turkish porter, a brawny
+fellow, who could have brained me with his fist. He was always
+accompanied by another man, as big as himself, who carried a loaded
+pistol, in case I attacked the first. I had no chance, and I wished I
+might go mad. Then, one night, they set upon me suddenly, and tied a
+handkerchief over my mouth, and bound me hand and foot, in spite of my
+struggles. I thought I was to be put into a sack and drowned. They
+carried me like a log out into the garden, and put me into that cell
+where you found me, which had apparently just been built, for the stones
+were new and the cement was fresh. There, at least, I could look through
+the gratings. I even thought at one time that I could make myself heard,
+having no idea of the desolate position of the place. But I soon gave up
+the attempt and abandoned myself to despair. There it was that Selim
+used to come occasionally, and talk to me through the bars. That was
+better than nothing, and the villain amused his leisure moments by
+teaching me to speak Turkish. One day he brought me a book, which I
+hailed with delight. It was an old French method for learning the
+language. I made great progress, as I studied from morning to night.
+Selim grew more familiar to me, and I confess with shame that I missed
+his visits when he did not come. The men who brought my food seemed
+absolutely mute, and I never succeeded in extracting a word from either
+of them. Even Selim was a companion, and talking to him saved me from
+going mad. I asked him all sorts of questions, and at last I guessed
+from his answers that the Khanum had been terrified by the disturbance
+my disappearance had created, and was afraid to set me free lest I
+should take vengeance on her. She was also afraid to kill me, for some
+reason or other. The result was, that, from having merely wished to
+revenge upon me the affair in the Valley of Roses by means of a
+practical joke, she found herself obliged to keep me a prisoner. I used
+every means of persuasion to move Selim. I told him I was rich, and
+would make him rich if he would help me to escape. I promised to take
+no steps against the Khanum. It was in vain, I assure you I have
+conceived a very high opinion of the fidelity of Lalas in general, and
+of Selim in particular."</p>
+
+<p>"They are very faithful," said Balsamides gravely. I have since fancied
+that he had some reason for knowing.</p>
+
+<p>Alexander afterwards told us many more details of his confinement; but
+this was his first account of it, and embraced all that is most
+important to know. The whole affair made a very strong impression on me.
+The unfortunate man had fallen a victim to a chain of circumstances
+which it had been entirely impossible to foresee, all resulting directly
+from his first imprudent action in addressing the veiled lady in the
+Valley of Roses. A little piece of folly had ruined two years of his
+life, and subjected him to a punishment such as a court of justice would
+have inflicted for a very considerable crime.</p>
+
+<p>The remainder of the day was occupied by the meeting of Alexander with
+his mother and his introduction to his English relations, upon which it
+is needless to dwell long. I never knew what passed between the mother
+and son, but the interview must have been a very extraordinary one. It
+was necessary, of course, to prepare Madame Patoff for the news and for
+the sight of the child she seemed to love better than anything in the
+world. Hermione performed the task, as being the one who understood her
+best. She began by hinting vaguely that we had advanced another step in
+our search, and that we were now confident of finding Alexander before
+long, perhaps in a few hours. She gradually, in talking, spoke of the
+moment when he would appear, wondering how he would look, and insensibly
+accustoming Madame Patoff to the idea. At last she confessed that he had
+been found during the night, and that he was ready to come to his mother
+at any moment.</p>
+
+<p>It was well done, and the force of the shock was broken. The old lady
+nearly swooned with joy, but the danger was past when she recovered her
+consciousness and demanded to see Alexander at once. He was admitted to
+her room, and the two were left alone to their happiness.</p>
+
+<p>The rest of the family were mad with delight. John Carvel grew ten years
+younger, and Mrs. Carvel fairly cried with joy, while Chrysophrasia
+declared that it was worth while to be disappointed by the first
+impression of Constantinople, when one was consoled by such a thrilling
+tale with so joyous a termination,&mdash;or happy end, as I should have said.
+Hermione's face beamed with happiness, and Macaulay literally melted in
+smiles, as he retired to write down the story in his diary.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Paul!" Hermione exclaimed when they were alone, "you never told me
+he was such a beauty!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he answered quietly, "he is far better-looking than I am. You
+must not fall in love with him, Hermy."</p>
+
+<p>"The idea of such a thing!" she cried, with a light laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"I should not be surprised if he fell in love with you, dear," said
+Paul, smiling.</p>
+
+<p>"You only say that because you do not like him," she answered. "But you
+will like him now, won't you? You are so good,&mdash;I am sure you will. But
+think what a splendid thing it is that you should have found him. If
+aunt Chrysophrasia says, 'Where is your brother?' you can just answer
+that he is in the next room."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; I am a free man now. No one can ever accuse me again. But apart
+from that, I am really and sincerely glad that he is alive. I wish him
+no ill. It is not his fault that I have been under a cloud for nearly
+two years. He was as anxious to be found as I was to find him. After
+all, it was not I. It was Balsamides and Griggs who did it at last. I
+dare say that if I had been with them I should have spoiled it all. I
+could not have dressed myself like a Turkish officer, to begin with. If
+I had been caught in the uniform, belonging as I do to the embassy,
+there would have been a terrible fuss. I should have been obliged to go
+away, very likely without having found my brother at all. I owe
+everything to those two men."</p>
+
+<p>"If you had not made up your mind that he should be found, they would
+never have found him; they would not have thought of taking the
+trouble."</p>
+
+<p>Hermione spoke in a reassuring tone, as though to comfort Paul for
+having had no share in the final stroke which had liberated his brother.
+In reality Paul needed no consolation. In his heart he was glad that
+Alexander had been set free by others, and need therefore never feel
+himself under heavy obligations to Paul. It was not in the strong man's
+nature to wish to revenge himself upon his brother because the latter
+had been the favored child and the favorite son. Nor, if he had
+contemplated any kind of vengeance, would he have chosen the Christian
+method of heaping coals of fire upon his head. He merely thought of
+Alexander as he would have thought of any other man not his relation at
+all, and he did not wish to appear in the light of his liberator. It was
+enough for Paul that he had been found at last, and that his own
+reputation was now free from stain. Nothing prevented him any longer
+from marrying Hermione, and he looked forward to the consummation of all
+his hopes in the immediate future.</p>
+
+<p>The day closed in a great rejoicing. John Carvel insisted that we should
+all dine with him that night; and our numbers being now swelled by the
+addition of Alexander Patoff and Gregorios Balsamides, we were a large
+party,&mdash;ten at table. I shall never forget the genuine happiness which
+was on every face. The conversation flowed brilliantly, and every one
+felt as though a weight had been lifted from his or her spirits.
+Alexander Patoff was of course the most prominent person, and as he
+turned his beautiful eyes from one to the other of us, and told us his
+story with many episodes and comments, I think we all fell under his
+fascination, and understood the intense love his mother felt for him. He
+had indeed a woman's beauty with a man's energy, when his energy was
+roused at all; and though the feminine element at first seemed out of
+place in him, it gave him that singular faculty of charming when he
+pleased, and that brilliancy which no manly beauty can ever have.</p>
+
+<p>It was late when we got home, and I went to bed with a profound
+conviction that Paul Patoff's troubles had come to a happy end, and that
+he would probably be married to Hermione in the course of the summer. If
+things had ended thus, my story would end here, and perhaps it would be
+complete. Unfortunately, events rarely take place as we expect that they
+will, still more rarely as we hope that they may; and it is generally
+when our hopes coincide with our expectations, and we feel most sure of
+ourselves, that fate overtakes us with the most cruel disappointments.
+Paul Patoff had not yet reached the quiet haven of his hopes, and I have
+not reached the end of my story. It would indeed be a very easy matter,
+as I have said before, to collect all the things which happened to him
+into a neat romance, of which the action should not cover more than
+four-and-twenty hours of such excitement as no one of the actors could
+have borne in real life, any more than Salvini could act a tragedy which
+should begin at noon to-day and end at midday to-morrow. I might have
+divested Paul of many of his surroundings, have bereaved him of many of
+his friends, and made him do himself what others did to him; but if he
+were to read such an account of his life he would laugh scornfully, and
+say that the real thing was very different indeed, as without doubt it
+was.</p>
+
+<p>This is the reason why I have not hesitated to bring before you a great
+number of personages, each of whom, in a great or a small way, affected
+his life. I do not believe that you could understand his actions in the
+sequel without knowing the details of those situations through which he
+had passed before. We are largely influenced by little things and little
+events. The statement is a truism in the eyes of the moralist, but the
+truth is, unfortunately, too often forgotten in real life. The man who
+falls down-stairs and breaks his leg has not noticed the tiny spot of
+candle grease which made the polished step so slippery just where he
+trod.</p>
+
+
+
+<h2 class="m"><a name="XIX" id="XIX"></a>XIX.</h2>
+
+
+<p>There were great rejoicings when it was known in Pera that Alexander
+Patoff had been found. His disappearance had furnished the gossips with
+a subject of conversation during many weeks, and his coming back revived
+the whole story, with the addition of a satisfactory ending. In
+consideration of the fact that Laleli Khanum was dead, Count Ananoff
+thought it best to take no official notice of the matter. To treat it
+diplomatically would be useless, he said. Alexander had fallen a victim
+to his own folly, and though the penalty had been severe, it was
+impossible to hold the Ottoman government responsible for what Patoff
+had suffered, now that the Khanum had departed this life. Alexander
+received permission to take three months' leave to recruit his health
+before returning to his regiment, and he resolved to spend a part of the
+time in Constantinople, after which his mother promised to accompany him
+to St. Petersburg.</p>
+
+<p>The Carvels had very soon made the acquaintance of the small but
+brilliant society of which the diplomatic corps constituted the chief
+element; and if anything had been needed to make them thoroughly
+popular, their near connection with the young man whose story was in
+every one's mouth would alone have sufficed to surround them with
+interest. The adventure was told with every conceivable variety of
+detail, and Alexander was often called upon to settle disputes as to
+what had happened to him. He was ready enough at all times to play the
+chief part in a drawing-room, and delighted in being questioned by grave
+old gentlemen, as well as by inquisitive young women. The women admired
+him for his beauty, his grace and brilliancy, and especially for the
+expression of his eyes, which they declared in a variety of languages to
+be absolutely fascinating. The men were interested in his story, and
+envied him the additional social success which he obtained as the hero
+of so strange an adventure. Some people admired and praised his devotion
+to his mother, which they said was most touching, whatever that may
+mean. Others said that he had an angelic disposition, flavored by a dash
+of the devil, which saved him from being goody; and this criticism of
+his character conveyed some meaning to the minds of those who uttered
+it. People have a strange way of talking about their favorites, and when
+the praise they mean to bestow is not faint, the expression of it is apt
+to be feeble and involved.</p>
+
+<p>Pera is a gay place, for when a set of men and women are temporarily
+exiled from their homes to a strange country, where they do not find the
+society of a great capital, they naturally seek amusement and pursue it;
+creating among themselves those pastimes which in the great European
+cities others so often provide for them. Politically, also,
+Constantinople is a very important place to most of the powers, who
+choose their representatives for the post from among the cleverest men
+they can find; and I will venture to say that there is scarcely a court
+in the world where so many first-rate diplomatists are gathered together
+as are to be met with among the missions to the Sublime Porte. Diplomacy
+in Constantinople has preserved something of the character it had all
+over the world fifty years ago. Personal influence is of far greater
+importance when negotiations are to be undertaken with a half-civilized
+form of administration, which is carried on chiefly by persons of
+imperfect education, but of immense natural talent for intrigue. The
+absence of an hereditary nobility in Turkey, and the extremely
+democratic nature of the army and the civil service, make it possible
+for men of the lowest birth to attain to the highest power. The immense
+and complicated bureaucracy is not in the hands of any one class of the
+people; its prizes are won by men of all sorts and conditions, who
+continue to pursue their own interests and fortunes with undiminished
+energy, when they ought to be devoting their whole powers to the service
+of the country. Their power is indeed checked by the centralization of
+all the executive faculties in the person of the sovereign. Without the
+Sultan's signature the minister of war cannot order a gun to be cast in
+the arsenal of Tophan&egrave;, the minister of marine cannot buy a ton of coal
+for the ironclads which lie behind Galata bridge in the Golden Horn, the
+minister of foreign affairs cannot give a reply to an ambassador, nor
+can the minister of justice avail himself of the machinery of the law.
+Every smallest act must be justified by the Sultan's own signature, and
+the chief object of all diplomacy from without, and of all personal
+intrigue from within, is to obtain this imperial consent to measures
+suggested by considerations of private advantage or public necessity.
+The Ottoman Empire may be described as an irregular democracy, whose
+acts are all subject to the veto of an absolute autocrat. The officials
+pass their lives in proposing, and his Majesty very generally spends his
+time in opposing, all manner of schemes, good, bad, and indifferent. The
+contradictory nature of the system produces the anomalous position
+occupied by the Ottoman Empire in Europe.</p>
+
+<p>The fact that there is no aristocracy and the seclusion of women among
+the Mussulmans are the chief reasons why there is no native society, in
+our sense of the word. A few of the great Greek families still survive,
+descendants of those Fanariotes whose ancestors had played an important
+part in the decadence of the Eastern Empire. A certain number of
+Armenians who have gained wealth and influence follow more or less
+closely the customs of the West. But beyond these few there cannot be
+said to be many houses of the social kind. Two or three pashas, of
+European origin, and Christians by religion, mix with their families in
+the gayety of Pera and the Bosphorus. A few Turkish officers, and
+Prussian officers in Turkish service, show their brilliant uniforms in
+the ball-rooms, and occasionally some high official of the Porte appears
+at formal receptions; but on the whole the society is diplomatic, and
+depends almost entirely upon the diplomatists for its existence and for
+its diversions. The lead once given, the old Greek aristocrats have not
+been behindhand in following it; but their numbers are small, and the
+movement and interest in Pera, or on the Bosphorus, centre in the great
+embassies, as they do nowhere else in the world.</p>
+
+<p>Small as the society is, it is, nevertheless exceedingly brilliant and
+very amusing. Intimacies grow up quickly, and often become lasting
+friendships when fostered by such influences. Every one knows every one
+else, and every one meets everybody else at least once a week. The
+arrival of a new secretary is expected with unbounded interest. The
+departure of one who has been long in Constantinople is mourned as a
+public loss. Occasionally society is convulsed to its foundations by the
+departure of an ambassador to whom every one has been so long accustomed
+that he has come to be regarded as one of the fathers of the community,
+whose hospitality every one has enjoyed, whose tact and knowledge of the
+world have been a source of satisfaction to his colleagues in many a
+diplomatic difficulty, and whose palace in Pera is associated in the
+minds of all with many hours of pleasure and with much delightful
+intercourse. He goes, and society turns out in a body to see him off.
+The occasion is like a funeral. People send hundreds of baskets of
+flowers. There is an address, there are many leave-takings. Once, at
+least, I remember seeing two thirds of the people shedding
+tears,&mdash;genuine wet tears of sorrow. And there was good reason for their
+grief. In such communities as the diplomatic colony in Pera, people
+understand the value of those who not only do more than their share in
+contributing to the pleasantness of life, but who possess in an
+abundant degree those talents which delight us in individuals, and those
+qualities which are dear to us in friends. It would be easy to write a
+book about society in Pera, and it would be a pleasant book. But these
+are not the days of Samuel Pepys; we have hardly passed the age of Mr.
+George Ticknor.</p>
+
+<p>In a short time after their arrival, and after the reappearance of
+Alexander Patoff, the Carvels knew everybody, and everybody knew them.
+Each member of the party found something to praise and some one to like.
+John Carvel was soon lost in admiration of Lord Mavourneen, while Mrs.
+Carvel talked much with the English missionary bishop of Western
+Kamtchatka, who happened to be spending a few days at the embassy. She
+asked him many questions concerning the differences between Armenian
+orthodox, Armenian catholic, Greek orthodox, and Russian orthodox; and
+though his lordship found a great deal to say on the subject, I am bound
+to allow that he was almost as much puzzled as herself when brought face
+to face in the reality with such a variety of sects. Chrysophrasia had
+not come to the East for nothing, either. She meant to indulge what John
+called her fancy for pots and pans and old rags; in other words, she
+intended to try her luck in the bazaar, and with the bloodhound's scent
+of the true collector she detected by instinct the bricabrac hunters of
+society. There is always a goodly number of them wherever antiquities
+are to be found, and Chrysophrasia was hailed by those of her persuasion
+with the mingled delight and jealousy which scientific bodies feel when
+a new scientist appears upon the horizon.</p>
+
+<p>As for Hermione, she created a great sensation, and the hearts of many
+secretaries palpitated in the most lively manner when she first entered
+the ball-room of one of the embassies, two days after her arrival. The
+astonishment was great when it was known that she was Paul Patoff's own
+cousin; and when it was observed that Paul was very often with her the
+cry went up that he had fallen in love at last. Thereupon all the women
+who had said that he was a bore, a monster, a statue, and a piece of
+ice, immediately declared that there must be something in him, after
+all, and began to talk to him whenever they got a chance. Some
+disappointment was felt, too, when it was observed that Alexander Patoff
+also showed a manifest preference for the society of his beautiful
+cousin, and wise old ladies said there would be trouble. Everybody,
+however, received the addition to society with open arms, and hoped that
+the Carvels' visit might be prolonged for at least a whole year.</p>
+
+<p>Many of these comments reached my ears, and the remarks concerning
+Alexander's growing attachment for Hermione startled me, and chilled me
+with a sense of evil to come. I opened my eyes and watched, as every one
+else was doing, and in a short time I came to the conclusion that public
+opinion was right. It was very disagreeable to me to admit it, but I
+soon saw that there was no doubt that Alexander was falling in love with
+his cousin. I saw, too, what others who knew them less well did not see:
+Madame Patoff exercised all her ingenuity in giving her favorite son
+opportunities of seeing Hermione alone. It was very easy to do this, and
+she did it in the most natural way; she affected to repent bitterly of
+her injustice to Paul, and took delight in calling him to her side, and
+keeping him with her as long as possible. Sometimes she would make him
+stay an hour by her side at a party, going over and over the strange
+story of Alexander's imprisonment, and asking him questions again and
+again, until he grew weary and absent, and answered her with rather
+incoherent phrases, or in short monosyllables not always to the point.
+Then at last, when she saw that she could keep him no longer, she would
+let him go, asking him to forgive her for being so importunate, and
+explaining as an excuse that she could never hear enough of a story that
+had ended so happily. Meanwhile Alexander had found ample opportunity
+for talking with Hermione, and had made the most of his time.</p>
+
+<p>I have said that I had always been very fond of the young girl, and I
+thought that I understood her character well enough; but I find it hard
+to understand the phases through which she passed after she first met
+Alexander. I believe she loved Paul very sincerely from the first, and I
+know that she contemplated the prospect of marrying him at no distant
+time. But I am equally sure that she did not escape the influence of
+that wonderful fascination which Alexander exercised over everybody. If
+it is possible to explain it at all, which is more than doubtful, I
+should think that it might be accounted for on some such theory as this.
+Hermione was negative as compared with Paul, but in comparison with
+Alexander she was positive. It is clear that if this were so she must
+have experienced two totally different sets of impressions, according as
+she was with the one or the other of the brothers.</p>
+
+<p>To define more clearly what I mean, I will state this theory in other
+words. Paul Patoff was a very masculine and dominating man. Hermione
+Carvel was a young girl, who resembled her strong, sensible, and manly
+father far more than her meek and delicate mother. Though she was still
+very young, there was much in her which showed the determined will and
+energetic purpose which a man needs to possess more than a woman.
+Alexander Patoff, on the other hand, without being effeminate, was
+intensely feminine. He had fine sensibilities, he had quick intuitions,
+he was capricious and womanly in his ideas. It follows that, in the
+scale of characters, Hermione held the mean between the two brothers.
+Compared with Paul's powerful nature, her qualities were those of a
+woman; in comparison with Alexander's delicate organization of mind,
+Hermione's character was more like that of a man. The effect of this
+singular scale of personalities was, that when she found herself
+alternately in the society of the two brothers she felt as though she
+were alternately two different women. To a man entering a house on a
+bitter winter's night the hall seems comfortably warm; but it seems
+cold to a man who has been sitting over a fire in a hermetically sealed
+study.</p>
+
+<p>Now Hermione had loved Paul when he was practically the only man of
+those she had ever known intimately whom she believed it possible to
+love at all. But she had seen very little of the world, and had known
+very few men. Her first recollections of society were indistinct, and no
+one individual had made any more impression upon her than another,
+perhaps because she was in reality not very impressionable. But Paul was
+pre&euml;minently a man able to impress himself upon others when he chose. He
+had come to Carvel Place, had loved his cousin, and she had returned his
+love with a readiness which had surprised herself. It was genuine in its
+way, and she knew that it was; nor could she doubt that Paul was in
+earnest, since a word from her had sufficed to make him curtail his
+visit, and go to the ends of the earth to find his brother. Hermione
+more than once wished that she had never spoken that word.</p>
+
+<p>She now entered upon a new phase of her life, she saw a new sort of
+society, and she met a man who upset in a moment all her convictions
+about men in general. The result of all this novelty was that she began
+to look at life from a different point of view. Alexander amused her,
+and at the same time he made her feel of more importance in her own
+eyes. He talked well, but he made her fancy that she herself talked
+better. His thoughts were subtle, though not always logical, and his
+quick instincts gave him an immense advantage over people of slower
+intelligence. He knew all this himself, perhaps; at all events, he used
+his gifts in the cleverest possible way. He possessed the power to
+attract Hermione without dominating her; in other words, he made her
+like him of her own free will.</p>
+
+<p>She liked him very much, and she felt that there was no harm in it. He
+was the brother of her future husband, so that she easily felt it a duty
+to like him, as well as a pleasure. Alexander himself affected to treat
+her with a sort of cousinly-brotherly affection, and spoke always of
+Paul with the greatest respect, when he spoke of him at all; but he
+manifestly sought opportunities of expressing his affection, and avoided
+all mention of Paul when not absolutely necessary. The position was
+certainly a difficult one, but he managed it with the tact of a woman
+and the daring of a man. I have always believed that he was really fond
+of Hermione; for I cannot imagine him so vile as to attempt to take her
+from Paul, when Paul had done so much towards liberating him from his
+prison. But whatever were his motives or his feelings, it was evident to
+me that he was making love to her in good earnest, that the girl was
+more interested in him than she supposed, and that Madame Patoff was
+cunningly scheming to break off the match with Paul in order to marry
+Hermione to Alexander.</p>
+
+<p>Balsamides had of course become a friend of the family, after the part
+he had played in effecting Alexander's escape, and in his own way I
+think he watched the situation when he got a chance with as much
+interest as I myself. One evening we were sitting in his rooms, about
+midnight, talking, as we talked eternally, upon all manner of subjects.</p>
+
+<p>"Griggs," said he, suddenly changing the topic of our conversation, "it
+is a great pity we ever took the trouble to find Alexander. I often wish
+he were still lying in that pleasant den in Laleli's garden."</p>
+
+<p>"It would be better for every one concerned, except himself, if he
+were," I answered.</p>
+
+<p>"I detest the fellow's face. If it were not for his mustache, he might
+pass for a woman anywhere."</p>
+
+<p>"He is as beautiful as an angel," I said, wishing to give him his due.</p>
+
+<p>"What business have men with such beauty as that?" asked Gregorios,
+scornfully. "I would rather look like a Kurd ham&aacute;l than like Alexander
+Patoff. He is spoiling Paul's life. Not that I care!" he added,
+shrugging his shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>"No," I said, "it is none of our business. I liked him at first, I
+confess, and I thought that Alexander and Miss Carvel would make a very
+pretty couple. But I like him less the more I see of him. However, he
+will soon be going back to his regiment, and we shall hear no more of
+him."</p>
+
+<p>"His leave is not over yet," answered my friend. "A fellow like that can
+do a deal of harm in a few weeks."</p>
+
+<p>Gregorios is a man of violent sympathies and antipathies, though no one
+would suppose it from his cold manner and general indifference. But I
+know him better than I have known most men, and he is less reticent with
+me than with the generality of his friends. It was impossible to say
+whether he took enough interest in the Carvels or in Paul to attempt to
+influence their destiny, but I was sure that if he crossed Alexander's
+path the latter would get the worst of it, and I mentally noted the fact
+in summing up Paul's chances.</p>
+
+<p>At that time nothing had openly occurred which suggested the possibility
+of a rupture of the unacknowledged engagement between Paul and Hermione.
+Paul several times told her that he wished to speak formally to John
+Carvel, and obtain his consent to the marriage; but Hermione advised him
+to wait a little longer, arguing that she herself had spoken, and that
+there was therefore no concealment about the matter. The longer they
+waited, she said, the more her father would become accustomed to the
+idea, and the more he would learn to like Paul, so that in another month
+there would be no doubt but that he would gladly give his consent. But
+Paul himself was not satisfied. His mother's conduct irritated him
+beyond measure, and he began seriously to suspect her of wishing to make
+trouble. He was no longer deceived by her constant show of affection for
+himself, for she continued always to make it most manifest just when it
+prevented him from talking with Hermione. Alexander, too, treated him as
+he had not done before, with a deference and a sort of feline softness
+which inspired distrust. Two years ago Paul would have been the first to
+expect foul play from his brother, and would have been upon his guard
+from the beginning; but Paul himself was changed, and had grown more
+merciful in his judgment of others. He found it hard to persuade himself
+that Alexander really meant to steal Hermione's love; and even when he
+began to suspect the possibility of such a thing, he believed that he
+could treat the matter lightly enough. Nevertheless, Hermione continued
+to dissuade him from going to her father, and he yielded to her advice,
+though much against his will. He found himself in a situation which to
+his conscience seemed equivocal. He knew from what John Carvel had
+written to me that his suit was not likely to meet with any serious
+opposition; he understood that John expected him to speak, and he began
+to fancy that his future father-in-law looked at him inquiringly from
+time to time, as though anticipating a question, and wondering why it
+was not asked.</p>
+
+<p>One day he came to see me, and found me alone. Gregorios had gone to the
+palace, and I have no doubt that Paul, who knew his habits, had chosen a
+morning for his visit when he was certain that Balsamides would not be
+at home. He looked annoyed and almost nervous, as he sat down in silence
+and began to smoke.</p>
+
+<p>"Anything wrong?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"I hardly know," he replied. "I am very uncomfortable. I am in a very
+disagreeable situation."</p>
+
+<p>I was silent. I did not want to invite his confidence, and if he had
+come to tell me anything about himself, it was better to let him tell it
+in his own way.</p>
+
+<p>"I am in a very disagreeable position," he repeated slowly. "I want to
+ask your advice."</p>
+
+<p>"That is always a rash thing to do," I replied.</p>
+
+<p>"I do not care. I must confide in you, as I did once before, but this
+time I only want your advice. My position is intolerable. I feel every
+day that I ought to ask Mr. Carvel to give me his daughter, and yet I
+cannot do it."</p>
+
+<p>"Why not? It is certainly your duty," said I.</p>
+
+<p>"Because Miss Carvel objects," he answered, with sudden energy. His
+voice sounded almost fierce as he spoke.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you mean that she has not accepted"&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I do not know what I mean, nor what she means, either!" exclaimed Paul,
+rising, and beginning to pace the floor.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear Patoff," I said, "you made a grave mistake in making me find
+your brother. Excuse my abruptness, but that is my opinion."</p>
+
+<p>He turned suddenly upon me, and his face was very pale, while his eyes
+gleamed disagreeably and his lip trembled.</p>
+
+<p>"So you have noticed that, too," he said in a low voice. "Well&mdash;go on!
+What do you advise me to do? How am I to get him out of the way?"</p>
+
+<p>"There can be no doubt that Balsamides would advise you to cut his
+throat," I replied. "As for me, I advise you to wait, and see what comes
+of it. He must soon go home and rejoin his regiment."</p>
+
+<p>"Wait!" exclaimed Paul impatiently. "Wait! Yes,&mdash;and while I am waiting
+he will be working, and he will succeed! With that angel's face of his,
+he will certainly succeed! Besides, my mother will help him, as you
+know."</p>
+
+<p>"Look here," said I. "Either Miss Carvel loves you, or she does not. If
+she does, she will not love your brother. If she does not love you, you
+had better not marry her. That is the reasonable view."</p>
+
+<p>"No doubt,&mdash;no doubt. But I do not mean to be reasonable in that way.
+You forget that I love her. The argument might have some weight."</p>
+
+<p>"Not much. After all, why do you love her? You do not know her well."</p>
+
+<p>Paul stared at me as though he thought I were going mad. I dare say that
+I must have appeared to him to be perfectly insane. But I was
+disconcerted by the gravity of the situation, and I believed that he had
+a bad chance against Alexander. It was wiser to accustom his mind to the
+idea of failure than to flatter him with imaginary hopes of success. A
+man in love is either a hero or a fool; heroes who fail are generally
+called fools for their pains, and fools who succeed are sometimes called
+heroes. Paul stared, and turned away in silence.</p>
+
+<p>"You do not seem to have any answer ready," I observed. "You say you
+love a certain lady. Is there any reason, in the nature of things, why
+some one else should not love her at the same time? Then it follows that
+the most important point is this,&mdash;she must love you. If she does not,
+your affection is wasted. I am not an old man, but I am far from being a
+young one, and I have seen much in my time. You may analyze your
+feelings and those of others, when in love, as much as you please, but
+you will not get at any other result. Unless a woman loves you, it is of
+very little use that you love her."</p>
+
+<p>"What in the world are you talking about, Griggs?" asked Paul, whose
+ideas, perhaps, did not coincide with mine. "What can you know about
+love? You are nothing but a hardened old bachelor; you never loved a
+woman in your life, I am sure."</p>
+
+<p>I was much struck by the truth of this observation, and I held my peace.
+A cannibal cannot be expected to understand French cooking.</p>
+
+<p>"I tell you," continued Paul, "that Miss Carvel has promised to marry
+me, and I constantly speak to her of our marriage."</p>
+
+<p>"But does she speak to you of it?" I asked. "I fancy that she never
+alludes to it except to tell you not to go to her father."</p>
+
+<p>In his turn Paul was silent, and bent his brows. He must have been half
+distracted, or he would not have talked to me as he did. I never knew a
+less communicative man.</p>
+
+<p>"This is a very delicate matter," I said presently. "You ask my advice;
+I will give you the best I can. Do one of two things. Either go to Mr.
+Carvel without his daughter's permission, or else fight it out as you
+can until your brother goes. Then you will have the field to yourself."</p>
+
+<p>"The difficulty lies in the choice," said Paul.</p>
+
+<p>"The choice depends upon your own state of mind, and upon your strength,
+or rather upon the strength of your position. If Miss Carvel has
+promised to marry you, I think you have a right to push matters as fast
+as you can."</p>
+
+<p>"I will," said Paul. "Good-by."</p>
+
+<p>He left me at once, and I began to reflect upon what had passed. It
+seemed to me that he was foolish and irrational, altogether unlike
+himself. He had asked my advice upon a point in which his own judgment
+would serve him better than mine, and it was contrary to his nature to
+ask advice at all in such matters. He was evidently hard pressed and
+unhappy, and I wished I could help him, but it was impossible. He was in
+a dilemma from which he could issue only by his own efforts; and
+although I was curious to see what he would do, I felt that I was not in
+a position to suggest any very definite line of action. I looked idly
+out of the window at the people who passed, and I began to wonder
+whether even my curiosity to see the end could keep me much longer in
+Pera. The crowd jostled and elbowed itself in the narrow way, as usual.
+The fez, in every shade of red, and in every condition of newness,
+shabbiness, and mediocrity, with tassel and without, rocked, swayed,
+wagged, turned, and moved beneath my window till I grew sick of the
+sight of it, and longed to see a turban, or a tall hat, or no hat at
+all,&mdash;anything for a change of head-dress. I left the window rather
+wearily, and took up one of the many novels which lay on the table,
+pondering on the probable fate of Paul Patoff's love for his cousin.</p>
+
+
+
+<h2 class="m"><a name="XX" id="XX"></a>XX.</h2>
+
+
+<p>Hermione found herself placed in quite as embarrassing a position as
+Paul, and before long she began to feel that she had lost herself in a
+sort of labyrinth of new sensations. She hardly trusted herself to think
+or to reflect, so confusing were the questions which constantly
+presented themselves to her mind. It seems an easy matter for a woman to
+say, I love this man, or, I love that man, and to know that she speaks
+truly in so saying. With some natures first love is a fact, a certainty
+against which there is no appeal, and beside which there is no
+alternative. To see, with them, is practically to love, and to love once
+is to love forever. We may laugh over "love at first sight," as we call
+it, but history and every-day life afford so many instances of its
+reality that we cannot deny its existence. But the conditions in which
+it is found are rare. To love each other at first sight, both the
+persons must be impulsive; each must find in the other exactly what each
+has long sought and most earnestly desired, and each must recognize the
+discovery instantaneously. I suppose, also, that unless such love lasts
+it does not deserve the name; but in order that it may be durable it is
+necessary that the persons should realize that they have not been
+deceived in their estimate of each other, that they should possess in
+themselves the capacity for endurance, that their tastes should change
+little and their hearts not at all. People who are at once very
+impulsive and very enduring are few in the world and very hard to mate;
+wherefore love at first sight, but of a lasting nature, is a rare
+phenomenon.</p>
+
+<p>Hermione did not belong to this class, and she had certainly not loved
+Paul during the first few days of their acquaintance. Her nature was
+relatively slow and hard to rouse. A season in society had produced no
+impression upon her; and if Paul had stayed only a week, or even a
+fortnight, at Carvel Place he might have fared no better than all the
+other men who had been presented to her, had talked and danced with her,
+and had gone away, leaving her life serenely calm as before. But Paul
+had been very assiduous, and had lost no time. Moreover, he loved her,
+and was in earnest about it; so that when, on that memorable day in the
+park, he had spoken at last, she had accepted his speech and had sealed
+her answer.</p>
+
+<p>She believed that she loved him with all her heart, but she was new to
+love, and the waking sentiment was not yet a passion. It was only a
+sensation, and though its strength was great enough to influence
+Hermione's life, it had not yet acquired any great stability. A more
+impulsive nature would have been more suddenly moved, but Hermione's
+love needed time for its development, and the time had been very short.
+Since she had admitted that she loved Paul, she had not seen him until
+the eve of his brother's reappearance; and now, owing to Madame Patoff's
+skillful management, she talked with Alexander more frequently than with
+Paul. Alexander was apparently doing his best to make her love him, and
+the world said that he was succeeding. Hermione herself was startled
+when she tried to understand her own feelings, for she saw that a great
+change had taken place in her, and she could neither account for it nor
+assure herself where it would end. It would be unjust to blame her, or
+to say that she was unfaithful. She did not waver in her determination
+to marry Paul, but she tried to put it off as long as possible,
+struggling to clear away her doubts, and trying hard to feel that she
+was acting rightly. After all, it is easy to comprehend the confusion
+which arises in a young girl's mind when placed in such a position. We
+say too readily that a woman who wavers and hesitates is treating a man
+badly. Men are so quick to jump at the conclusion that women love them
+that they resent violently the smallest signs of hesitation in the other
+sex. They do not see that a woman needs time to decide, just as a man
+does; and they think it quite enough that they themselves have made up
+their minds, as if women existed only to submit themselves to the choice
+of men, and had no manner of right to question that choice when once
+made.</p>
+
+<p>Paul could not imagine why Hermione hesitated, and she herself would
+certainly have refused to account for the delay she caused, by admitting
+that Alexander had made an impression upon her heart. But she felt the
+charm the man exercised, and her life was really influenced by it. The
+strange adventure which had so long kept him a prisoner in Laleli's
+house lent him an atmosphere of romantic interest, and his own nature
+increased the illusion. The brilliant young officer, with his almost
+supernatural beauty, his ready tongue, his sweet voice, and his dashing
+grace, was well calculated to make an impression upon any woman; to a
+young girl who had grown up in very quiet surroundings, who had hitherto
+regarded Paul Patoff as the ideal of all that a man should be, the
+soldier brother seemed like a being from another world. At the same time
+Hermione was reaching the age when she could enjoy society, because she
+began to feel at home in it, because the first dazzling impression of it
+had given way to a quieter appreciation of what it offered, and lastly
+because she herself was surrounded by many admirers, and had become a
+personage of more importance than she had ever thought possible before.
+Under such circumstances a young girl's impressions change very rapidly.
+She feels the disturbing influence and enjoys the moment, but while it
+lasts she feels also that she is unfit to decide upon the greatest
+question of her life. She needs time, because she can employ very little
+of the time she has in serious thought, and because she doubts whether
+all her previous convictions are not shaken to their foundations. She
+dreads a mistake, and is afraid that in speaking too quickly she may
+speak untruly. It is the desire to be honest which forbids her to
+continue in the course she had chosen before this new phase of her life
+began, or to come to any new decision involving immediate action,
+especially immediate marriage.</p>
+
+<p>Herein lies the great danger to a young girl who has promised to marry a
+man before she has seen anything of the world, and who suddenly begins
+to see a great deal of the world before the marriage actually takes
+place. She is just enough attached to the man to feel that she loves
+him, but the bonds are not yet so close as to make her know that his
+love is altogether the dominating influence of her life. Unless this
+same man whom she has chosen stands out as conspicuously in the new
+world she has entered as in the quiet home she has left, there is great
+danger that he may fall in her estimation; and in those early stages of
+love, estimation is a terribly important element. By estimation I do not
+mean esteem. There is a subtle difference between the two; for though
+our estimation may be high or low, our esteem is generally high. When a
+young girl is old enough to be at home in society, she sets a value on
+every man, and perhaps on every woman, whom she meets. They take their
+places in the scale she forms, and their places are not easily changed.
+Among them the man she has previously promised to marry almost
+inevitably finds his rank, and she is fortunate if he is among the
+highest; for if he is not, she will not fail to regret that he does not
+possess some quality or qualities which she supposes to exist in those
+men whom she ranks first among her acquaintance. Where criticism begins,
+sympathy very often ends, and with it love. Then, if she is honest, a
+woman owns that she has made a mistake, and refuses to abide by her
+engagement, because she feels that she cannot make the man happy. Or if
+her ideas of faith forbid her from doing this, she marries him in spite
+of her convictions, and generally makes him miserable for the rest of
+his days. When a girl throws a man over, as the phrase goes, the world
+sets up a howl, and vows that she has treated him very badly; but it
+always seems to me that by a single act of courage she has freed herself
+and the man who loves her from the fearful consequences of a marriage
+where all the love would have been on one side, and all the criticism on
+the other. It is not always a girl's own fault when she does not know
+her own mind, and when she has discovered her mistake she is wise if she
+refuses to persist in it. There is more to be said in favor of breaking
+off engagements than is generally allowed, and there is usually far too
+much said against the woman who has the courage to pursue such a course.</p>
+
+<p>In comparing the two brothers, as she undoubtedly did, Hermione was not
+aware that she was making any real comparison between them. What she
+felt and understood was that when she was with Paul she was one person,
+and when she was with Alexander she was quite another; and the knowledge
+of this fact confused her, and made her uncertain of herself. With Paul
+she was, in her own feelings, the Hermione he had known in England; with
+Alexander she was some one else,&mdash;some one she did not recognize, and
+who should have been called by another name. Until she could unravel
+this mystery, and explain to herself what she felt, she was resolved not
+to take any further steps in regard to her marriage.</p>
+
+<p>Pera, at this time, was indulging itself in its last gayeties before the
+beginning of the summer season, when every one who is able to leave the
+town goes up the Bosphorus, or to the islands. The weather was growing
+warm, but still the dancing continued with undiminished vigor. Among
+other festivities there was to be a masked ball, a species of amusement
+which is very rare in Constantinople; but somebody had suggested the
+idea, one of the great embassies had taken it up, and at last the day
+was fixed and the invitations were issued. It was to be a great affair,
+and everybody went secretly about the business of composing costumes
+and disguises. There was much whispering and plotting and agreeing
+together in schemes of mystification. The evening came, everybody went,
+and the ball was a great success.</p>
+
+<p>Hermione had entirely hidden her costume with a black domino, which is
+certainly the surest disguise which anyone can wear. Its wide folds
+reached to the ground, and completely hid her figure, while even her
+hands were rendered unrecognizable by loose black gloves. Paul had been
+told what she was to wear; but he probably knew her by some sign, agreed
+upon beforehand, from all the other black dominos; for a number of other
+ladies had chosen the same over-garment to hide the brilliant costumes
+until the time came for unmasking. He came up to her immediately, and
+offered his arm, proposing to walk through the rooms before dancing; but
+Hermione would not hear of it, saying that if she were seen with him at
+first she would be found out at once.</p>
+
+<p>"Do not be unreasonable," said she, as she saw the disappointed look on
+his face. "I want to mystify ever so many people first. Then I will
+dance with you as much as you like."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well," said Paul, rather coldly. "When you want me, come to me."</p>
+
+<p>Hermione nodded, and moved away, mixing with the crowd under the
+hundreds of lights in the great ball-room. Paul sighed, and stood by the
+door, caring little for what went on. He was not a man who really took
+pleasure in society, though he had cultivated his social faculties to
+the utmost, as being necessary to his career. The fact that all the
+ladies were masked dispensed him for the time from the duty of making
+the round of the room and speaking to all his acquaintances, and he was
+glad of it. But Hermione was bent upon enjoying her first masked ball,
+and all the freedom of moving about alone. She spoke to many men whom
+she knew, using a high, squeaking voice which in no way recalled her
+natural tones. In the course of half an hour she found Alexander Patoff
+talking earnestly with a lady in a white domino, whom she recognized, to
+her surprise, as her aunt Chrysophrasia. Alexander evidently had no idea
+of her identity, for he was speaking in low and passionate tones, while
+Miss Dabstreak, who seemed to enter into the spirit of the mystification
+with amazing readiness, replied in the conventional squeak. She had
+concealed her hands in the loose sleeves of her domino, and as she was
+of about the same height as Hermione, it was absolutely impossible to
+prove that she was not Hermione herself.</p>
+
+<p>"Hermione," exclaimed Alexander, just as the real Hermione came up to
+him, "I cannot bear to hear you talk in that voice! What is the use of
+keeping up this ridiculous disguise? Do you not see that I am in
+earnest?"</p>
+
+<p>"Perfectly," squeaked Chrysophrasia. "So am I. But somebody might hear
+my natural voice, you know."</p>
+
+<p>Hermione started, and drew back a little. It was a strange position, for
+Alexander was evidently under the impression that he was making love to
+herself, and her aunt was amused by drawing him on. She hesitated, not
+knowing what she ought to do. It was clear that, unless she made herself
+known to him, he might remain under the impression that she had accepted
+his love-making. She waited to see what would happen. But Chrysophrasia
+had probably detected her, for presently the white domino moved quickly
+away towards the crowd. Alexander sprang forward, and would have
+followed, but Hermione crossed his path, and laid her hand on his
+sleeve.</p>
+
+<p>"Will you give me your arm, Alexander?" she said, quietly, in her
+natural way.</p>
+
+<p>He stopped short, stared at her, and then broke into a short, half-angry
+laugh. But he gave her his arm, and walked by her side, with an
+expression of bewilderment and annoyance on his beautiful face. Hermione
+was too wise to say that she had overheard the conversation, and
+Alexander was ashamed to own that he had made a mistake, and taken some
+one else for her. But by making herself known Hermione had effectually
+annulled whatever false impression Chrysophrasia had made upon him.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know who that lady in the white domino is, with whom I was
+talking a moment ago? Did you see her?" he asked, rather nervously.</p>
+
+<p>"It is our beloved aunt Chrysophrasia," said Hermione, calmly.</p>
+
+<p>"Good heavens! Aunt Chrysophrasia!" exclaimed Alexander, in some horror.</p>
+
+<p>"Why 'good heavens'?" inquired Hermione. "Have you been doing anything
+foolish? I am sure you have been making love to her. Tell me about it."</p>
+
+<p>"There is nothing to tell. But what a wonderful disguise! How many
+dances will you give me? May I have the cotillon?"</p>
+
+<p>"You may have a quadrille," answered Hermione.</p>
+
+<p>"A quadrille, two waltzes, and the cotillon. That will do very well. As
+nobody knows you in that domino, we can dance as often as we please, and
+you will only be seen with me in the cotillon. What is your costume? I
+am sure it is something wonderful."</p>
+
+<p>"How you run on!" exclaimed the young girl. "You do not give one the
+time to refuse one thing before you take another!"</p>
+
+<p>"That is the best way, and you know it," answered Alexander, laughing.
+"A man should never give a woman time to refuse. It is the greatest
+mistake that can be imagined."</p>
+
+<p>"Did aunt Chrysophrasia refuse to dance with you?" inquired Hermione.</p>
+
+<p>Alexander bit his lip, and a faint color rose in his transparent skin.</p>
+
+<p>"Aunt Chrysophrasia is a hard-hearted old person," he replied,
+evasively; but he almost shuddered at the thought that under the white
+domino there had lurked the green eyes and the faded, sour face of his
+&aelig;sthetic relative.</p>
+
+<p>"To think that even she should have resisted you!" exclaimed Hermione,
+wickedly.</p>
+
+<p>"Better she than you," said Alexander, lowering his tone as they passed
+near a group of persons who chattered loudly in feigned voices. "Better
+she than you, dear cousin," he repeated, gently. "To be refused anything
+by you"&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"They do things very well here," interrupted Hermione, pretending not to
+hear. "They have such magnificent rooms, and the floor is so good."</p>
+
+<p>"Hermione, why do you"&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Because," said Hermione quickly, before he could finish his sentence,
+"because you say too much, cousin Alexander. I interrupt you because you
+go too far, and because the only possible way of checking you is to cut
+you short."</p>
+
+<p>"And why must you check me? Am I rude or rough with you? Do I say
+anything that you should not hear? You know that I love you; why may I
+not tell you so? I know. You will say that Paul has spoken before me.
+But do you love Paul? Hermione, can you own to yourself that you love
+him,&mdash;not as a brother, but as the man you would choose to marry? He
+does not love you as I love you."</p>
+
+<p>"Hush!" exclaimed the young girl. "You must not. I will go away and
+leave you."</p>
+
+<p>"I will follow you."</p>
+
+<p>"Why will you torment me so?" Perhaps her tone of voice did not express
+all the annoyance she meant to show, for Alexander did not desist. He
+only changed his manner, growing suddenly as soft and yielding as a
+girl.</p>
+
+<p>"I did not mean to annoy you," he said. "You know that I never mean to.
+You must forgive me, you must be kind to me, Hermione. You have the
+stronger position, and you should be merciful. How can I help saying
+something of what I feel?"</p>
+
+<p>"You should not feel it, to begin with," answered his cousin.</p>
+
+<p>"Will you teach me how I may not love you?" His voice dropped almost to
+a whisper, as he bent down to her and asked the question. But Hermione
+was silent for a moment, not having any very satisfactory plan to
+propose. Half reluctant, she sat down by him upon a sofa in the corner
+of an almost empty room. There were tall plants in the windows, and the
+light was softened by rose-colored shades.</p>
+
+<p>"It must be a hard lesson to learn," said Alexander, speaking again.
+"But if you will teach me, I will try and learn it; for I will do
+anything you ask me. You say I must not love you, but I love you
+already. When I am with you I am carried away, like a boat spinning down
+the Neva in the springtime. Can the river stop itself in order that what
+lives in it may not move any more? Can it say to the skiff, 'Go no
+further,' when the skiff is already far from the shore, at the mercy of
+the water?"</p>
+
+<p>"The boatman must pull hard at his oars," laughed Hermione. "Have you
+never seen a ca&iuml;que pull through the Devil's Stream on the Bosphorus, at
+Bala Hissar? It is hard work, but it generally succeeds."</p>
+
+<p>"A man may fight against the devil, but he cannot struggle against what
+he worships. Or, if he can, you must teach me how to do it, and give me
+some weapon to fight with."</p>
+
+<p>"You must rely on yourself for that. You must say, 'I will not,' and it
+will be very easy. Besides," she added, with another laugh, in which
+there was a rather nervous ring,&mdash;"besides, you know all this is only a
+comedy, or a pastime. You are not in earnest."</p>
+
+<p>"I wish I were not," answered Alexander, softly. "You tell me to rely
+upon myself. I rely on you. I love you, and that makes you stronger than
+me."</p>
+
+<p>Hermione believed him, and perhaps she was right. She felt, and he made
+her feel, that she dominated him, and could turn him whither she would.
+Her pride was flattered, and though she promised herself that she would
+make him give up his love for her by the mere exertion of a superior
+common sense, she was conscious that the task was not wholly
+distasteful. She enjoyed the sensation of being the stronger, of
+realizing that Alexander was wholly at her feet and subject to her
+commands. That he should have gradually grown so intimate as to speak so
+freely to her is not altogether surprising. They were own cousins, and
+called each other by their Christian names. They met daily, and were
+often together for many consecutive hours, and Madame Patoff did her
+best to promote this state of things. Hermione had become accustomed to
+his devotion, for he had advanced by imperceptible stages. When he first
+said that he loved her, she took it as she might have taken such an
+expression from her brother,&mdash;as the exuberant expression of an
+affection purely platonic, not to say brotherly. When he had repeated it
+more earnestly, she had laughed at him, and he had laughed with her in a
+way which disarmed all her suspicions. But each time that he said it he
+laughed less, until she realized that he was not jesting. Then she
+reproached herself a little for having let the intimacy grow, and
+determined to persuade him by gentle means that he had made a mistake.
+She felt that she was responsible for his conduct, because she had not
+been wise enough to stop him at the outset, and she therefore felt also
+that it would be unjust to make a violent scene, and that it was
+altogether out of the question to speak to Paul about the matter. To
+tell the truth, she was not sorry that it was out of the question, and
+this was the most dangerous element in her intimacy with Alexander. When
+a young woman who has not a profound experience of the world undertakes
+to convince a man by sheer argument that he ought not to love her, the
+result is likely to be unsatisfactory, and she stands less chance of
+persuading than of being persuaded. A man who persuades a woman that
+she is able to influence him, and that he is wholly at her mercy, has
+already succeeded in making himself interesting to her; and she will not
+readily abandon the exercise of her power, since she is provided with
+the too plausible excuse that she is doing him good, and consequently is
+herself doing right.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish you would really listen to me, and take my advice," said
+Hermione, after a pause. "There is so much that is good in you,&mdash;so much
+that is far better than this foolish love-making."</p>
+
+<p>Alexander Patoff smiled softly, and his brown eyes gazed dreamily at
+hers, that just showed through the openings in the black domino.</p>
+
+<p>"If there is anything good in me, you have put it there," he answered.
+"Do not take it away; do not give me the physic of good advice."</p>
+
+<p>"I think you need it more than usual to-night," said his cousin. "You
+are more than usually foolish, you know."</p>
+
+<p>"You are more than usually wise. But if you tell me to do anything
+to-night, I will do it."</p>
+
+<p>"Then go away and dance with some one else," laughed Hermione. To her
+surprise, Alexander rose quietly, and with one gentle glance turned
+away. Then she repented.</p>
+
+<p>"Alexander!" she exclaimed, almost involuntarily.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he answered, coming back, and seating himself again by her side.</p>
+
+<p>"I did not tell you to come back," she said, amused at his docility.</p>
+
+<p>"No&mdash;but I came," he replied. "You called me. I thought you had
+forgotten something. Shall I go away again?"</p>
+
+<p>"No. You may stay, if you will be good," said she, leaning back and
+looking away from him.</p>
+
+<p>"I promise. Besides, you admitted a moment ago that I was very good.
+Perhaps I am too good, and that is the reason why you sent me away."</p>
+
+<p>"I did not say you were good. I said there was some good in you. You
+always take everything for granted."</p>
+
+<p>"I will take all you grant," said he.</p>
+
+<p>"I grant nothing. It is you who fancy that I do. You have altogether too
+much imagination."</p>
+
+<p>"I never need it with you, even if I have it," answered Alexander. "You
+are infinitely beyond anything I ever imagined in my wildest dreams."</p>
+
+<p>"So are you," laughed Hermione. "Only&mdash;it is in a different way."</p>
+
+<p>"Why do you think I like you so much?" asked her cousin, suddenly
+changing his tone.</p>
+
+<p>"Because you ought not to," she answered without hesitation.</p>
+
+<p>"Then you think that as soon as any one tells me that I should not like
+a thing, I make up my mind to like it and to have it? No, that is not
+the reason I love you."</p>
+
+<p>"It was 'liking,' not 'loving,' a moment ago," observed Hermione.
+"Please always say 'liking.' It is a much better word."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps. It leaves more to the imagination, of which you say I have so
+much. The reason I like you so much, Hermione, is because you are so
+honest. You always say just what you mean."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. The difficulty lies in making you understand what I mean."</p>
+
+<p>"As the Frenchman said when a man misunderstood him. You furnish me with
+an argument; you are not bound to furnish me with an understanding. No,
+I am afraid that would be asking the impossible. It is easier for a
+woman to talk than for a man to know what she thinks."</p>
+
+<p>"I thought you said I was honest. Please explain," returned Hermione.</p>
+
+<p>"Honesty does not always carry conviction. I mean that you are evidently
+most wonderfully honest, from your own point of view. If I could make my
+opinion yours, everything would be settled very soon."</p>
+
+<p>"In what way?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why should I tell you? I have told you so often, and you will not
+believe me. If I say it, you will send me away again. I do not say
+it,&mdash;another proof of my goodness to-night."</p>
+
+<p>"I am deeply sensible," answered Hermione, with a laugh. "Come, I will
+give you one dance, and then you must go."</p>
+
+<p>So they left their seat, and went into the ball-room just as the
+musicians began to play Nur f&uuml;r Natur; and the enchanting strains of the
+waltz carried them away in the swaying movement, and did them no manner
+of good. Just such conversations had taken place before, and would take
+place again so long as Hermione maintained the possibility of converting
+Alexander to the platonic view of cousinly affection. But each time some
+chance expression, some softer tone of voice, some warmer gleam of light
+in the Russian's brown eyes, betrayed that he was gaining ground rather
+than losing anything of the advantage he had already obtained.</p>
+
+<p>Half an hour later Hermione laid her hand on Paul's arm, and looked up
+rather timidly into his eyes through the holes in her domino. His
+expression was very cold and hard, but it changed as he recognized her.</p>
+
+<p>"At last," he said happily, as he led her away.</p>
+
+<p>"At last," she echoed, with a little sigh. "Do you want to dance?" she
+asked. "It is so hot; let us go and sit down somewhere."</p>
+
+<p>Almost by accident they came to the place where Hermione had sat with
+Alexander. There was no one there, and they installed themselves upon
+the same sofa.</p>
+
+<p>"I thought you were never coming," said Paul. "After all, what does it
+matter whether people see us together or not? I never can understand
+what amusement there is, after the first five minutes, in rushing about
+in a domino and trying to mystify people."</p>
+
+<p>"No," answered Hermione, "it is not very amusing. I would much rather
+sit quietly and talk with some one I know and who knows me."</p>
+
+<p>"I want to tell you something to-night, dear," said Paul, after a short
+silence. "Do you mind if I tell you now?"</p>
+
+<p>"No bad news?" asked Hermione, rather nervously.</p>
+
+<p>"No. It is simply this: I have made up my mind that I must speak to your
+father to-morrow. Do not be startled, darling. This position cannot
+last. I am not acting an honorable part, and he expects me to ask him
+the question. I know you have objected to my going to him for a long
+time, but I feel that the thing must be done. There can be no good
+objection to our marriage,&mdash;Mr. Carvel made Griggs understand that. Tell
+me, is there any real reason why I should not speak?"</p>
+
+<p>Hermione turned her head away. Under the long sleeves of her domino her
+small hands were tightly clasped together.</p>
+
+<p>"Is there any reason, dear?" repeated Paul, very gently. But as her
+silence continued his lips set themselves firmly, and his face grew
+slowly pale.</p>
+
+<p>"Will you please speak, darling?" he said, in changed tones. "I am very
+nervous," he added, with a short, harsh laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh&mdash;Paul! Don't!" cried Hermione. Her voice seemed to choke her as she
+spoke. Then she took courage, and continued more calmly: "Please, please
+wait a little longer,&mdash;it is such a risk!"</p>
+
+<p>Paul laughed again, almost roughly.</p>
+
+<p>"A risk! What risk? Your father has done all but give his formal
+consent. What possible danger can there be?"</p>
+
+<p>"No. Not from him,&mdash;it is not that!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, what is it? Hermione, what in the name of Heaven is the matter?
+Speak, darling! Tell me what it is. I cannot bear this much longer."
+Indeed, the man's suppressed passion was on the very point of breaking
+out, and the blue light quivered in his eyes, while his face grew
+unnaturally pale.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Paul&mdash;I cannot tell you&mdash;you frighten me so," murmured Hermione in
+broken tones. "Oh, Paul! Forgive me&mdash;forgive me!"</p>
+
+<p>At that moment Gregorios Balsamides passed before their corner, a lady
+in a red hood and a red mask leaning on his arm.</p>
+
+<p>"Hush!" exclaimed Paul, under his breath, as the couple came near them.
+But Gregorios only nodded familiarly to Paul, stared a moment at his
+pale face, glanced at the black domino, and went on with his partner. "I
+do not want to frighten you, dearest," continued Paul, when no one could
+hear them. "And what have I to forgive? Do not be afraid, and tell me
+what all this means."</p>
+
+<p>"I must," answered Hermione, her strength returning suddenly. "I must,
+or I should despise myself. You must not go to my father, Paul&mdash;because
+I&mdash;I am not sure of myself."</p>
+
+<p>She trembled visibly under her domino, as she spoke the last words
+almost in a whisper, hesitating and yet forcing herself to tell the
+truth. Paul glanced uneasily at the black drapery which veiled all her
+head and figure, and with one hand he grasped the carved end of the
+sofa, so that it cracked under the pressure. For some seconds there was
+an awful silence, broken only by low sounds which told that Hermione was
+crying.</p>
+
+<p>"You mean&mdash;that you do not love me," said Paul at last, very slowly,
+steadying his voice on every syllable.</p>
+
+<p>The young girl shook her head, and tried to speak. But the words would
+not come. Meanwhile the strong man's anger was slowly rising, very
+slowly but very surely, so that Hermione felt it coming, as a belated
+traveler on the sands sees the tide creeping nearer to the black cliff.</p>
+
+<p>"Hermione," he said, very sternly, "if you mean that you are no longer
+willing to marry me, say so plainly. I will forgive you if I can,
+because I love you. But please do not trifle with me. I can bear the
+worst, but I cannot bear waiting."</p>
+
+<p>"Do not talk like that, Paul!" cried his cousin in an agonized voice,
+but recovering her power of speech before the pent-up anger he seemed to
+be controlling. "Let us wait, Paul; let us wait and be sure. I cannot
+marry you unless I am sure that I love you as I ought to love you. I do
+love you, but I feel that I could love you so much more&mdash;as&mdash;as I should
+like to love my&mdash;the man I marry. Have patience,&mdash;please have patience
+for a little while."</p>
+
+<p>Paul's white lips opened and shut mechanically as he answered her.</p>
+
+<p>"I am very patient. I have been patient for long. But it cannot last
+forever. I believed you loved me and had promised to marry me. If you
+have made a mistake, it is much to be regretted. But I must really beg
+you to make up your mind as soon as possible."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, pray do not talk like that. You are so cold. I am so very unhappy!"</p>
+
+<p>"What would you have me say?" asked Paul, his voice growing clearer and
+harder with every word. "Will you answer me one question? Will you tell
+me whether you have learned to care so much for another man that your
+liking for him makes you doubt?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am afraid"&mdash;She stopped, then suddenly exclaimed, "How can you ask me
+such a question?"</p>
+
+<p>"What are you afraid of?" inquired Paul, in the same hard tone. "You
+always tell the truth. You will tell it now. Has any other man come
+between you and me?"</p>
+
+<p>It was of no use for her to hesitate. She could command Alexander and
+give him any answer she chose, but Paul's strong nature completely
+dominated her. She bent her head in assent, and the Yes she spoke was
+almost inaudible.</p>
+
+<p>"And you ask time to choose between us?" asked Paul, icily. "Yes, I
+understand. You shall have the time,&mdash;as long as you please to remain
+in Constantinople. I am much obliged to you for being so frank. May I
+give you my arm to go into the next room?"</p>
+
+<p>"How unkind you are!" said Hermione, making an effort to rise. But her
+strength failed her, and she fell back into her seat. "Excuse me," she
+faltered. "Please wait one moment,&mdash;I am not well."</p>
+
+<p>Paul looked at her, and hesitated. But her weakness touched him, and he
+spoke more gently as he turned to her.</p>
+
+<p>"May I get you a glass of water, or anything?"</p>
+
+<p>"Thanks, nothing. It will be over in a moment,&mdash;only a little
+dizziness."</p>
+
+<p>For a few seconds they remained seated in silence. Then Hermione turned
+her head, and looked at her cousin's white face. Her small gloved hand
+stole out from under her domino and rested on his arm. He took no notice
+of the action; he did not even look at her.</p>
+
+<p>"Paul," she said, very gently, "you will thank me some day for having
+waited."</p>
+
+<p>A contemptuous answer rose to his lips, but he was ashamed of it before
+it was spoken, and merely raised his eyebrows as he answered in
+perfectly monotonous tones:</p>
+
+<p>"I believe you have done what you think best."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed I have," replied Hermione, rising to her feet.</p>
+
+<p>He offered her his arm, and they went out together. But when supper-time
+came, and with it the hour for unmasking, Hermione was not to be seen;
+and Alexander, who had counted upon her half-given assent to dance the
+cotillon with him, leaned disconsolately against a door, wondering
+whether it could be worth while to sacrifice himself by engaging any one
+in her place.</p>
+
+<p>But Paul did not go home. He was too angry to be alone, and above all
+too deeply wounded. Besides, his position required that he should stay
+at least until supper was over, and it was almost a relief to move about
+among the gorgeous costumes of all kinds which now issued from the
+black, white, and red dominos, as a moth from the chrysalis. He spoke to
+many people, saying the same thing to each, with the same mechanical
+smile, as men do when they are obliged day after day to accomplish a
+certain social task. But the effort was agreeable, and took off the
+first keen edge of his wrath.</p>
+
+<p>He had no need to ask the name of the man who had come between him and
+the woman he loved. For weeks he had watched his brother and Hermione,
+asking himself if their intimacy meant anything, and then driving away
+the tormenting question, as though it contained something of disloyalty
+to her. Now he remembered that for weeks this thing she had spoken must
+have been in her mind, since she had always entreated him to wait a
+little longer before speaking with her father. It had appeared such an
+easy matter to her to wait; it was such a hard matter for him,&mdash;harder
+than death it seemed now. For it was all over. He believed that she had
+spoken her last word that night, and that in speaking of waiting still
+longer she had only intended to make it less troublesome to break it
+off. She had admitted that another man had come between them. Was
+anything further needed? It followed, of course, that she loved this
+other man&mdash;Alexander&mdash;better than himself. For the present he could see
+only one side of the question, and he repeated to himself that all was
+over, saying it again and again in his heart, as he went the rounds of
+the room, asking each acquaintance he met concerning his or her plans
+for the summer, commenting on the weather, and praising the successful
+arrangement of the masked ball.</p>
+
+<p>But Paul was ignorant of two things, in his present frame of mind. He
+did not know that Hermione had been perfectly sincere in what she had
+said, and he did not calculate upon his own nature. It was a simple
+matter, in the impulse of the first moment, to say that all was at an
+end, that he gave her up, even as she had rejected him, with a sort of
+savage pleasure in the coldness of the words he spoke. He could not
+imagine, after this interview, that he could ever think of her again as
+his possible wife, and if the idea had presented itself he would have
+cast it behind him as a piece of unpardonable weakness. All his former
+cynical determination to trust only in what he could do himself, for the
+satisfaction of his ambition, returned with renewed strength; and as he
+shook hands with the people he met, he felt that he would never again
+ask man or woman for anything which he could not take by force. He did
+not know that in at least one respect his nature had changed, and that
+the love he had lavished on Hermione was a deep-rooted passion, which
+had grown and strengthened and spread in his hard character, as the
+sculptor adapts the heavy iron framework in the body and limbs of a
+great clay statue. In the first sudden revulsion of his feeling, he
+thought he could pluck away his love and leave it behind him like an old
+garment, and the general contempt with which he regarded his
+surroundings after he left Hermione reminded him almost reassuringly of
+his old self. If his old self still lived, he could live his old life as
+before, without Hermione, and above all, without love. There was a
+bitter comfort in the thought that once more he was to look at all
+things, at success in everything, at his career, his aims both great and
+small, surrounded by obstacles which could be overcome only by main
+force, as prizes to be wrested from his fellows by his own unaided
+exertions.</p>
+
+<p>He had forgotten that Hermione had been the chiefest aim of his
+existence for several months, and at the same time he did not realize
+that he loved her in such a way as to make it almost impossible for him
+to live without her. It was not in accordance with his character to
+relinquish without a struggle, and a very desperate struggle, that for
+which he had labored so long, and an outsider would have prophesied that
+whosoever would take from Paul Patoff the woman he loved would find that
+he had attempted a dangerous thing. Mere senseless anger does not often
+last long, and before an hour had passed Paul began to feel those
+suspicious little thrusts of pain in the breast and midriff which warn
+us that we miss some one we love. For a long time he tried to persuade
+himself that he was deceived, because he did not believe himself capable
+of such weakness. But the feeling was unmistakable.</p>
+
+<p>The dancing was at its height, for all those who did not mean to stay
+until the end of the cotillon had gone home, so that the more distant
+rooms were already deserted. Almost unconsciously Paul strayed to the
+spot where he had sat with Hermione. He looked towards the sofa where
+they had been seated, and he saw a strange sight.</p>
+
+<p>Alexander Patoff was there, half sitting, half lying, on the small sofa,
+unaware of his brother's presence. His face was turned away, and he was
+passionately kissing the cushions,&mdash;the very spot against which
+Hermione's head had rested. Paul stared stupidly at him for a moment, as
+though not comprehending the action, which indeed was wild and
+incomprehensible enough; then he seemed to understand, and strode
+forward in bitter anger. His brother, he thought, had seen them there
+together, had been told what had passed, and had chosen this passionate
+way of expressing his joy and his gratitude to Hermione. Alexander heard
+his brother's footsteps, and, starting, looked wildly round; then
+recognizing Paul, he sprang to his feet, and a faint color mounted to
+his pale cheeks.</p>
+
+<p>"Fool!" cried Paul, bitterly, as he came forward. But Alexander had
+already recovered himself, and faced him coolly enough.</p>
+
+<p>"What is the matter? What do you mean?" he asked, contemptuously.</p>
+
+<p>"You know very well what I mean," retorted his brother, fiercely. "You
+know very well why you are making a fool of yourself,&mdash;kissing a heap of
+cushions, like a silly schoolboy in love."</p>
+
+<p>"My dear fellow, you are certainly quite mad. I waltzed too long just
+now, and was dizzy. I was trying to get over it, that was all. My nerves
+are not so sound in dancing as they were before I was caught in that
+trap. Really, you have the most extraordinary ideas."</p>
+
+<p>Paul was confused by the smooth lie. He did not believe his brother, but
+he could not find a ready answer.</p>
+
+<p>"You do not know who sat there a little while ago?" he asked, sternly.</p>
+
+<p>"Not the remotest idea," replied Alexander. "Was it that adorable red
+mask, who would not leave Balsamides even for a moment? Bah! You must
+think me very foolish. Come along and have some supper before we go
+home. I have no partner, and have had nothing to eat and very little to
+drink."</p>
+
+<p>Paul was obliged to be content with the answer; but he understood his
+brother well enough to know that if there had been nothing to conceal,
+Alexander would have been furious at the way in which he was addressed.
+His conviction remained unchanged that his brother had known what
+passed, and was so overcome with joy that he had kissed the sofa whereon
+Hermione had sat. The two men left the room together, but Paul presently
+slipped away, and went home.</p>
+
+<p>Strange to say, what he had seen did not have the effect of renewing his
+resentment against Hermione so much as of exciting his anger against his
+brother. He now felt for the first time that though he might give her up
+to another, he could not give her up to Alexander. The feeling was
+perhaps only an excuse suggested by the real love for her which filled
+him, but it was strongly mixed with pride, and with the old hostility
+which during so many years had divided the two brothers.</p>
+
+<p>To give her up, and to his own brother,&mdash;the thing was impossible, not
+to be thought of for a moment. As he walked quickly home over the rough
+stones of the Grande Rue, he realized all that it meant, and stopped
+short, staring at the dusky houses. He was not a man of dramatic
+instincts. He did not strike his forehead, nor stamp his foot, nor
+formulate in words the resolution he made out there in the dark street.
+He merely thrust his hands deeper into the pockets of his overcoat, and
+walked on; but he knew from that moment that he would fight for
+Hermione, and that his mood of an hour ago had been but the passing
+effect of a sudden anger. He regretted his hard speech and bitter looks,
+and he wished that he had merely assented to her proposal to wait, and
+had said no more about it until the next day. Hermione might talk of not
+marrying him, but he would marry her in spite of all objections, and
+especially in spite of Alexander.</p>
+
+<p>Had she spoken thoughtlessly? In the light of his stronger emotion it
+seemed so to him, and it was long before he realized that she had
+suffered almost as much in making this sacrifice to her honesty as he
+had suffered himself. But she had indeed been in earnest, and had done
+courageously a very hard thing. She was conscious that she had made a
+great mistake, and she wanted to avert the consequences of it, if there
+were to be any consequences, before it was too late. She had allowed
+Alexander to become too fond of her, as their interview that evening had
+shown; and though she knew that she did not love him, she knew also that
+she felt a growing sympathy for him, which was in some measure a wrong
+to Paul. This sympathy had increased until it began to frighten her, and
+she asked herself where it would end, while she yet felt that she had no
+right to inflict pain on Alexander by suddenly forcing him to change his
+tone. Her mind was very much confused, and as she could not imagine that
+a real and undivided love admitted of any confusion, she had simply
+asked Paul to wait, in perfect good faith, meaning that she needed time
+to decide and to settle the matter in her own conscience. He had pressed
+her with questions, and had finally extorted the confession that
+another man had come between them. She had not meant to say that, but
+she was too honest to deny the charge. Paul had instantly taken it for
+granted that she already loved this other man better than himself, and
+had treated her as though everything were over between them.</p>
+
+<p>The poor girl was in great trouble when she went home that night.
+Although nothing had been openly discussed, she knew that her engagement
+to Paul was tacitly acknowledged. She asked herself how he would treat
+her when they met; whether they should meet at all, indeed, for she
+feared that he would refuse to come to the house altogether. She
+wondered what questions her father would put to her, and how Madame
+Patoff would take the matter. More than all, she hesitated in deciding
+whether she had done well in speaking as she had spoken, seeing what the
+first results had been.</p>
+
+<p>She shut herself in her room, and just as she was, in the beautiful
+Eastern dress which she was to have shown at the ball when the masking
+was over, she sat down upon a chair in the corner, and leaned her tired
+head against the wall. But for the disastrous ending of the evening, she
+would doubtless have sat before her glass, and looked with innocent
+satisfaction at her own beautiful face. But the dark corner suited her
+better, in her present mood. Her cheek rested against the wall, and very
+soon the silent tears welled over and trickled down, staining the green
+wall paper of the hotel bedroom, as they slowly reached the floor and
+soaked into the dusty carpet. She was very miserable and very tired,
+poor child, and perhaps she would have fallen asleep at last, just as
+she sat, had she not been roused by sounds which reached her from the
+next room, and which finally attracted her attention. Madame Patoff
+slept there, or should have been sleeping at that hour, for she was
+evidently awake. She seemed to be walking up and down, up and down
+eternally, between the window and the door. As she walked, she spoke
+aloud from time to time. At first she always spoke just as she was
+moving away from the door, and consequently, when her back was turned
+towards the place where Hermione sat on the other side of the wall, her
+words were lost, and only incoherent sounds reached the young girl's
+ears. Presently, however, she stopped just behind the door, and her
+voice came clear and distinct through the thin wooden panel:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I wish he were dead. I wish he were dead. Oh, I wish I could kill him
+myself!" Then the voice ceased, and the sound of the footsteps began
+again, pacing up and down.</p>
+
+<p>Hermione started, and sat upright in her chair, while the tears dried
+slowly on her cheeks. The habit of considering her aunt to be insane was
+not wholly lost, and it was natural that she should listen to such
+unwonted sounds. For some time she could hear the voice at intervals,
+but the words were indistinct and confused. Her aunt was probably very
+ill, or under the influence of some hallucination which kept her awake.
+Hermione crept stealthily near the door, and listened intently. Madame
+Patoff continued to walk regularly up and down. At last she heard clear
+words again:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I wish I could kill him; then Alexis could marry her. Alexis ought to
+marry her, but he never will. Cannot Paul die!"</p>
+
+<p>Hermione shrank from the door in horror. She was frightened and shaken,
+and after the events of the evening her aunt's soliloquies produced a
+much greater effect upon her than would have been possible six hours
+earlier. Her first impulse was not to listen more, and she hastily began
+to undress, making a noise with the chairs, and walking as heavily as
+she could. Then she listened a moment, and all was still in the next
+room. Her aunt had probably heard her, and had feared lest she herself
+should be overheard. Hermione crept into bed, and closed her eyes. At
+the end of a few minutes the steps began again, and after some time the
+indistinct sounds of Madame Patoffs voice reached the young girl's ears.
+She seemed to speak in lower tones than before, however, for the words
+she spoke could not be distinguished. But Hermione strained her
+attention to the utmost, while telling herself that it was better she
+should not hear. The nervous anxiety to know whether Madame Patoff were
+still repeating the same phrases made her heart beat fast, and she lay
+there in the dark, her eyes wide open, her little hands tightening on
+the sheet, praying that the sounds might cease altogether, or that she
+might understand their import. Her pulse beat audibly for a few seconds,
+then seemed to stop altogether in sudden fear, while her forehead grew
+damp with terror. She thought that any supernatural visitation would
+have been less fearful than this reality, and she strove to collect her
+senses and to compose herself to rest.</p>
+
+<p>At last she could bear it no longer. She got up and groped her way to
+the door of her aunt's room, not meaning to enter, but unable to
+withstand the desire to hear the words of which the incoherent murmur
+alone came to her in her bed. She reached the door, but in feeling for
+it her outstretched hand tapped sharply upon the panel. Instantly the
+footsteps ceased. She knew that Madame Patoff had heard her, and that
+the best thing she could do was to ask admittance.</p>
+
+<p>"May I come in, aunt Annie?" she inquired, in trembling tones.</p>
+
+<p>"Come in," was the answer; but the voice was almost as uncertain as her
+own.</p>
+
+<p>She opened the door. By the light of the single candle&mdash;an English
+reading-light with a reflecting hood&mdash;she saw her aunt's figure standing
+out in strong relief against the dark background of shadow. Madame
+Patoff's thick gray hair was streaming down her back and over her
+shoulders, and she held a hairbrush in her hand, as though the fit of
+walking had come upon her while she was at her toilet. Her white
+dressing-gown hung in straight folds to the floor, and her dark eyes
+stared curiously at the young girl. Hermione was more startled than
+before, for there was something unearthly about the apparition.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you ill, aunt Annie?" she asked timidly, but she was awed by the
+glare in the old lady's eyes. She glanced round the room. The bed was in
+the shadow, and the bed-clothes were rolled together, so that they took
+the shape of a human figure. Hermione shuddered, and for a moment
+thought her aunt must be dead, and that she was looking at her ghost.
+The girl's nerves were already so overstrained that the horrible idea
+terrified her; the more, as several seconds elapsed before Madame Patoff
+answered the question.</p>
+
+<p>"No, I am not ill," she said slowly. "What made you ask?"</p>
+
+<p>"I heard you walking up and down," explained Hermione. "It is very late;
+you generally go to sleep so early"&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I? I never sleep," answered the old lady, in a tone of profound
+conviction, keeping her eyes fixed upon her niece's face.</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot sleep, either, to-night," said Hermione, uneasily. She sat
+down upon a chair, and shivered slightly. Madame Patoff remained
+standing, the hairbrush still in her hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Why should you not sleep? Why should you? What difference does it make?
+One is just as well without it, and one can think all night,&mdash;one can
+think of things one would like to do."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," answered the young girl, growing more and more nervous. "You must
+have been thinking aloud, aunt Annie. I thought I heard your voice."</p>
+
+<p>Madame Patoff moved suddenly and bent forward, bringing her face close
+to her niece's, so that the latter was startled and drew back in her
+chair.</p>
+
+<p>"Did you hear what I said?" asked the old lady, almost fiercely, in low
+tones.</p>
+
+<p>Sometimes a very slight thing is enough to turn the balance of our
+beliefs, especially when all our feelings are wrought to the highest
+pitch of excitement. In a moment the conviction seized Hermione that her
+aunt was mad,&mdash;not mad as she had once pretended to be, but really and
+dangerously insane.</p>
+
+<p>"I did not understand what you said," answered the young girl, too
+frightened to own the truth, as she saw the angry eyes glaring into her
+face. It seemed impossible that this should be the quiet, sweet-tempered
+woman whom she was accustomed to talk with every day. She certainly did
+the wisest thing, for her aunt's face instantly relaxed, and she drew
+herself up again and turned away.</p>
+
+<p>"Go to bed, child," she said, presently. "I dare say I frightened you. I
+sometimes frighten myself. Go to bed and sleep. I will not make any more
+noise to-night."</p>
+
+<p>There was something in the quick change, from apparent anger to apparent
+gentleness, which confirmed the idea that Madame Patoff's brain was
+seriously disturbed. Hermione rose and quietly left the room. She locked
+her door, and went to bed, hoping that she might sleep and find some
+rest; for she was worn out with excitement, and shaken by a sort of
+nervous fear.</p>
+
+<p>Sleep came at last, troubled by dreams and restless, but it was sleep,
+nevertheless. Several times she started up awake, thinking that she
+again heard her aunt's low voice and the regular fall of her footsteps
+in the next room. But all was still, and her weary head sank back on the
+pillow in the dark, her eyelids closed again in sheer weariness, and
+once more her dreams wove fantastic scenes of happiness, ending always
+in despair, with the suddenness of revulsion which makes the visions of
+the night ten times more agonizing while they last than the worst of our
+real troubles.</p>
+
+<p>But the morning brought a calmer reflection; and when Hermione was
+awake she began to think of what had passed. The horror inspired by her
+aunt's words and looks faded before the greater anxiety of the girl's
+position with regard to Paul. She tried to go over the interview in her
+mind. Her conscience told her that she had done right, but her heart
+said that she had done wrong, and its beating hurt her. Then came the
+difficult task of reconciling those two opposing voices, which are never
+so contradictory as when the heart and the conscience fall out, and
+argue their cause before the bewildered court of justice we call our
+intelligence. First she remembered all the many reasons she had found
+for speaking plainly to Paul on the previous night. She had said to
+herself that she did not feel sure of her love, allowing tacitly that
+she expected to feel sure of it before long. But until the matter was
+settled she could not let him hurry the marriage nor take any decisive
+step. If he had only been willing to wait another month, he might have
+been spared all the suffering she had seen in his face; she herself
+could have escaped it, too. But he had insisted, and she had tried to do
+right in telling him that she was not ready. Then he had been angry and
+hurt, and had coldly told her that she might wait forever, or something
+very like it, and she had felt that the deed was done. It was dreadful;
+yet how could she tell him that she was ready? Half an hour earlier, on
+that very spot, she had suffered Alexander to speak as he had spoken,
+only laughing kindly at his expressions of love; not rebuking him and
+leaving him, as she should have done, and would have done, had she loved
+Paul with her whole heart.</p>
+
+<p>And yet this morning, as she lay awake and thought it all over,
+something within her spoke very differently, like an incoherent cry,
+telling her that she loved him in spite of all. She tried to listen to
+what it said, and then the answer came quickly enough, and told her that
+she had been unkind, that she had given needless pain, that she had
+broken a man's life for an over-conscientious scruple which had no real
+foundation. But then her conscience returned to the charge, refuting the
+slighting accusation, so that the confusion was renewed, and became
+worse than before. For the sake of discovering something in support of
+her action, she began to think about Alexander; and finding that she
+remembered very accurately what they had said to each other, her
+thoughts dwelt upon him. It was pleasant to think of his beautiful face,
+his soft voice, and his marvelous dancing. It was a fascination from
+which she could not easily escape, even when he was absent; and there
+was a charm in the memory of him, in thinking of how she would turn him
+from being a lover to being a friend, which drew her mind away from the
+main question that occupied it, and gave her a momentary sensation of
+peace.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly the two men came vividly before her in profile, side by side.
+The bold, manly features and cold glance of the strong man contrasted
+very strangely with the exquisitely chiseled lines of his brother's
+face, with the soft brown eyes veiled under long lashes, and the
+indescribable delicacy of the feminine mouth. Paul wore the stern
+expression of a man superior to events and very careless of them.
+Alexander smiled, as though he loved his life, and would let no moment
+of it pass without enjoying it to the full.</p>
+
+<p>It was but the vision of an instant, as she closed her eyes, and opened
+them again to the faint light which came in through the blinds. But
+Hermione felt that she must choose between the two men, and it was
+perhaps the first time she had quite realized the fact. Hitherto
+Alexander had appeared to her only as a man who disturbed her previous
+determinations. If she had hesitated to marry Paul while the disturbance
+lasted, it was not because she had ever thought of taking his brother
+instead. Now it seemed clear that she must accept either the one or the
+other, for the comparison of the two had asserted itself in her mind. In
+that moment she felt that she was worse than she had ever been before;
+for the fact that she compared the two men as possible husbands showed
+her that she set no value on the promises she had made to Paul.</p>
+
+<p>To choose,&mdash;but how to choose? Had she a right to choose at all? If she
+refused to marry Paul, was she not bound to refuse any one
+else,&mdash;morally bound in honor? The questions came fast, and would not be
+answered. Just then her aunt moved in the next room, and the thought of
+her possible insanity returned instantly to Hermione's mind. She
+determined that it was best to speak to her father about it. He was the
+person who ought to know immediately, and he should decide whether
+anything should be done. She made up her mind to go to him at once, and
+she rang for her maid.</p>
+
+<p>But before she was dressed she had half decided to act differently, to
+wait at least a day or two, and see whether Madame Patoff would talk to
+herself again during the night. To tell her father would certainly be to
+give an alarm, and would perhaps involve the necessity of putting her
+aunt once more under the care of a nurse. John Carvel could not know, as
+Hermione knew, that the old lady's resentment against Paul was caused by
+her niece's preference for him, and it would not be easy for the young
+girl to explain this. But Hermione wished that she might speak to Paul
+himself, and warn him of what his mother had said. She sighed as she
+thought how impossible that would be. Nevertheless, in the morning light
+and in the presence of her maid, while her gold-brown hair was being
+smoothed and twisted, and the noises from the street told her that all
+the world was awake, the horror of the night disappeared, and Hermione
+almost doubted whether her aunt had really spoken those words at all. If
+she had, it had been but the angry out-break of a moment, and should not
+be taken too seriously.</p>
+
+
+
+<h2 class="m"><a name="XXI" id="XXI"></a>XXI.</h2>
+
+
+<p>It was probably curiosity that induced Professor Cutter to pay a visit
+to Constantinople in the spring. He is a scientist, and curiosity is the
+basis of all science, past, present, and future. His mind was not at
+rest in regard to Madame Patoff, and he found it very hard to persuade
+himself that she should suddenly have become perfectly sane, after
+having made him believe during eighteen months that she was quite mad.
+After her recovery he had had long interviews with Mrs. North, and had
+done his best to extract all the information she was able to give about
+the case. He had studied the matter very carefully, and had almost
+arrived at a satisfactory conclusion; but he felt that in order to
+remove all doubt he must see her again. He was deeply interested, and
+such a trifle as a journey to Constantinople could not stand in the way
+of his observations. Accordingly he wrote a post-card to John Carvel to
+say that he was coming, and on the following day he left England. But he
+likes to travel comfortably, and especially he is very fond of finding
+out old acquaintances when he is abroad, and of having an hour's chat
+with scientific men like himself. He therefore did not arrive until a
+week after John had news of his intended journey.</p>
+
+<p>For some reason unknown to me, Carvel did not speak beforehand of the
+professor's coming. It may be that, in the hurry of preparation for
+moving up the Bosphorus, he forgot the matter; or perhaps he thought it
+would be an agreeable surprise to most of us. I myself was certainly
+very much astonished when he came, but the person who showed the
+greatest delight at his arrival was Hermione. It is not hard to imagine
+why she was pleased, and when I knew all that I have already told I
+understood her satisfaction well enough. The professor appeared on the
+day before the Carvels were to transfer themselves to Buyukdere. His
+gold-rimmed spectacles were on his nose, his thick and short gray hair
+stood up perpendicularly on his head as of old, his beard was as bushy
+and his great hands were as huge and as spotless as ever. But after not
+having seen him for some months, I was more struck than ever by his
+massive build and the imposing strength of his manner.</p>
+
+<p>Several days had elapsed since the events recorded in the last chapter.
+To Hermione's surprise, Paul had come to the hotel as usual, on the day
+after the ball, and behaved as though nothing had happened, except that
+he had at first avoided finding himself alone with his cousin. She on
+her part was very silent, and even Alexander could not rouse her to talk
+as she used to do. When questioned, she said that the heat gave her a
+headache; and as Chrysophrasia spent much time in languidly complaining
+of the weather, the excuse had a show of probability. But after a day or
+two she was reassured by Paul's manner, and no longer tried to keep out
+of his way. Then it was that they found themselves together for the
+first time since the ball. It was only for a moment, but it was long
+enough.</p>
+
+<p>Hermione took his passive hand in hers, very timidly, and looked into
+his face.</p>
+
+<p>"You are not angry with me any more?" she said.</p>
+
+<p>"No, not in the least," he answered. "I believe you did what you
+believed to be best, the other night. No one can do more than that."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, but you thought I was not in earnest."</p>
+
+<p>"I thought you were more in earnest than you admitted. I thought you
+meant to break it off altogether. I have changed my mind."</p>
+
+<p>"Have you? I am so glad. I meant just what I said, Paul. You should not
+have doubted that I meant it."</p>
+
+<p>"I was angry. Forgive me if I was rude. I will not give you up. I will
+marry you in spite of everybody."</p>
+
+<p>Hermione looked at him, curiously at first, then with a sort of
+admiration which she could not explain,&mdash;the admiration we all feel for
+a strong man who is very much in earnest.</p>
+
+<p>"In spite of myself?" she asked, after a pause.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, almost," he began hotly, but his tone softened as he finished the
+sentence,&mdash;"almost in spite of yourself, Hermione."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed, I begin to think that you will," she answered, turning away her
+head to hide a smile that had in it more of happiness than of unbelief.
+Some one entered the room where they were standing, and nothing more was
+said; nor did Paul repeat his words at the next opportunity, for he was
+not much given to repetition. When he had said a thing, he meant it, and
+he was in no hurry to say it again.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, also, the young girl had more than once listened, during the
+night, for any sounds which might proceed from Madame Patoff's bedroom;
+but she had heard nothing more, and the impression gradually faded from
+her mind, or was stored away there as a fact to be remembered at some
+future time. When Professor Cutter arrived, she determined to tell him
+in strictest confidence what had occurred. This, however, was not what
+gave her so much satisfaction in meeting him. She had long looked
+forward to the day when she could enjoy the triumph of seeing him meet
+Alexander Patoff, alive and well; for she knew how strongly his
+suspicions had fastened upon Paul, and it was he who had first told her
+what the common story was.</p>
+
+<p>The professor arrived in the early morning by the Brindisi boat, and
+Hermione proposed that Chrysophrasia, Paul, Cutter, and herself should
+make a party to go over to Stamboul on the same afternoon. It was warm
+indeed, but she represented that as the whole family were to move up the
+Bosphorus on the following day, it would be long before they would have
+a chance of going to Stamboul again. Chrysophrasia moaned a little, but
+at last accepted the proposition, and Paul and the professor expressed
+themselves delighted with the idea.</p>
+
+<p>The four set off together, descended by the Galata tunnel, and crossed
+the bridge on foot. Then they took a carriage and drove to Santa Sophia.
+There was little chance for conversation, as they rattled over the
+stones towards the mosque. Chrysophrasia leaned wearily back in her
+corner. Paul and Hermione tried to talk, and failed, and Professor
+Cutter promenaded his regards, to borrow an appropriate French
+expression, upon the buildings, the people, and the view. Perhaps he was
+wondering whether more cases of insanity presented themselves amongst
+the vegetable sellers as a class than amongst the public scribes, whose
+booths swarm before the Turkish post-office. He had seen the city
+before, but only during a very short visit, as a mere tourist, and he
+was glad to see it again.</p>
+
+<p>They reached the mosque, and after skating about in the felt overshoes
+provided for the use of unbelievers, Cutter suggested going up to the
+galleries.</p>
+
+<p>"It is so very, very far!" murmured Chrysophrasia, who was watching a
+solitary young Suf&iacute;, who sat reciting his lesson aloud to himself in a
+corner, swaying his body backwards and forwards with the measure of his
+chant.</p>
+
+<p>"I will go," said Hermione, with alacrity. "Paul can stay with my aunt."</p>
+
+<p>"I would rather stay," answered Paul, whose reminiscences of the gallery
+were not of the most pleasant sort.</p>
+
+<p>So Professor Cutter and the young girl left the mosque, and with the
+guide ascended the dim staircase.</p>
+
+<p>"Papa wrote you the story, did he not?" asked Hermione. "Yes. This is
+the way they went up."</p>
+
+<p>The professor looked about him curiously, as they followed the guide.
+Emerging amidst the broad arches of the gallery, they walked forward,
+and Hermione explained, as Paul had explained to her, what had taken
+place on that memorable night two years ago. It was a simple matter, and
+the position of the columns made the story very clear.</p>
+
+<p>"Professor Cutter, I want to speak to you about my aunt," said Hermione,
+at last. The professor stopped and looked sharply at her, but said
+nothing. "Do you remember that morning in the conservatory?" she
+continued. "You told me that she was very mad indeed,&mdash;those were your
+own words. I did not believe it, and I was triumphant when she came
+out&mdash;in&mdash;well, quite in her senses, you know. I thought she had
+recovered,&mdash;I hope she has. But she has very queer ways."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean by queer ways, Miss Carvel? I have come to
+Constantinople on purpose to see her. I hope there is nothing wrong?"</p>
+
+<p>"I do not know. But I have told nobody what I am going to tell you. I
+think you ought to be told. My room is next to hers, at the hotel, and I
+hear through the door what goes on, without meaning to. The other night
+I came home late from a ball, and she was walking up and down, talking
+to herself so loud that I heard several sentences."</p>
+
+<p>"What did she say?" asked Cutter, whose interest was already aroused.
+The symptom was only too familiar to him.</p>
+
+<p>"She said"&mdash;Hermione hesitated before she continued, and the color rose
+faintly in her cheeks&mdash;"she said she wished she could kill Paul&mdash;and
+then"&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"And then what?" inquired the professor, looking at her steadily.
+"Please tell me all."</p>
+
+<p>"It was very foolish.&mdash;she said that then Alexander could marry me. It
+was so silly of her. Just think!"</p>
+
+<p>After all, Professor Cutter was her father's old friend. She need not
+have been so long about telling the thing.</p>
+
+<p>"She thinks that you are going to marry Paul?" observed the professor,
+with an interrogative intonation.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, if I did?" replied the young girl, after a short pause. "If she
+were in her right mind, would that be any reason for her wishing to
+murder him?"</p>
+
+<p>"No. But I never believed she was out of danger," said Cutter. "Did she
+say anything more?"</p>
+
+<p>Hermione told how Madame Patoff had behaved when she had entered the
+room. Her companion looked very grave, and said little during the few
+moments they remained in the gallery. He only promised that he would
+tell no one about it, unless it appeared absolutely necessary for the
+safety of every one concerned. Then they descended the steps again and
+joined Chrysophrasia and Paul, who were waiting below.</p>
+
+<p>"Aunt Chrysophrasia says she must go to the bazaar," said the latter.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," remarked Miss Dabstreak, "I really must. That Jew! Oh, that Jew!
+He haunts my dreams. I see him at night, dressed like Moses, with a
+linen ephod, you know, holding up that Persian embroidery. It is more
+than my soul can bear!"</p>
+
+<p>"But we were going to take Professor Cutter to the other mosques,"
+objected Hermione.</p>
+
+<p>"I am sure he will not mind if we go to the bazaar instead, will you?"
+she asked, with an engaging squint of her green eyes, as she turned to
+the professor.</p>
+
+<p>"Not at all,&mdash;not at all, Miss Dabstreak. Anything you propose&mdash;I am
+sure"&mdash;ejaculated Cutter, apparently waking from an absorbing meditation
+upon his thumb-nail, and perhaps upon thumb-nails in general.</p>
+
+<p>"You see how kind he is!" murmured Chrysophrasia, as she got into the
+carriage. "To the bazaar, Paul. Could you tell the driver?"</p>
+
+<p>Paul could and did. Ten minutes later the carriage stopped at the gate
+of the bazaar. A dozen Mohammedans, Greeks, and Jews sprang out to
+conduct the visitors whither they would,&mdash;or, more probably, whither
+they would not. But Paul, who knew his way about very well, fought them
+off. One only would not be repulsed, and Chrysophrasia took his part.</p>
+
+<p>"Let him come,&mdash;pray let him come, Paul. He has such beautiful eyes,
+such soft, languishing eyes,&mdash;so sweetly like those of a gazelle."</p>
+
+<p>"His name is Abraham," said Paul. "I know him very well. The gazelle is
+of Jewish extraction, and sells shawls. He is a liar."</p>
+
+<p>"Ha&iuml;r, Effendim&mdash;sir," cried Abraham, who knew a little English. "Him
+Israeleet&mdash;hones' Jew&mdash;Abraham's name, Effendim."</p>
+
+<p>"I know it is," said Paul. "Git!"&mdash;an expression which is good
+Californian, and equally good Turkish.</p>
+
+<p>They threaded the narrow vaulted passages, which were cool in the warm
+spring afternoon, taking the direction of the Jews' quarter, but pausing
+from time to time to survey the thousand articles, of every description,
+exposed for sale by the squatting shopkeepers. Cutter looked at the
+weapons especially, and remarked that they were not so good as those
+which used to be found ten years earlier. Everything, indeed, seemed to
+have changed since that time, and for the worse. There is less wealth in
+the bazaar, and yet the desire to purchase has increased tenfold, so
+that a bit of Rhodes tapestry, which at that earlier time would not have
+fetched forty piastres, is now sold for a pound Turkish, and is hard to
+get at that. It may be supposed that the Jews have made large fortunes
+in the interval, but the fact is not apparent in any way; the
+uncertainty of property in Turkey forcing them to conceal their riches,
+if they have any. Their shops are very fairly clean, but otherwise they
+are humble, and the best and most valuable objects are generally packed
+carefully away in dark corners, and are produced only when asked for.
+You see nothing but a small divan, a table, a matted floor, and shelves
+reaching to the ceiling, piled with packages wrapped in shabby gray
+linen. It is chiefly in the Mohammedan and Greek "tscharshis" of the
+bazaar that jewelry, weapons, and pipes are openly exhibited, and laid
+out upon benches for the selection of the buyer. But the Jews have
+almost a monopoly of everything which comes under the head of
+antiquities, and it is with them that foreigners generally deal. They
+are as intelligent as elsewhere, and perhaps more so, for the traveler
+of to-day is a great cheapener of valuables. Moreover, the Stamboul Jews
+are most of them linguists. They speak a bastard Spanish among
+themselves; they are obliged to know Turkish, Greek, and a little
+Armenian, and many of them speak French and Italian intelligibly.</p>
+
+<p>Chrysophrasia delighted in the bazaar. The flavor of antiquity which
+hangs about it, and makes it the only thoroughly Oriental place in
+Constantinople, ascended gratefully to the old maid's nostrils, while
+her nerves were continually thrilled by strange contrasts of color. It
+was very pleasant, she thought, to be really in the East, and to have
+such a palpable proof of the fact as was afforded by the jargon of loud
+but incomprehensible tongues which filled her ears. She had often been
+in the place, and the Jews were beginning to know her, scenting a
+bargain whenever her yellow face and yellow hair became visible on the
+horizon. She generally patronized Marchetto, however, and on the present
+occasion she had come expressly to see him. He was standing in the door
+of his little shop as usual, and his red face and red-brown eyes lighted
+up when he caught sight of Miss Dabstreak. With many expressions of joy
+he backed into the interior, and immediately went in search of the
+famous piece of Persian embroidery which Chrysophrasia had admired
+during her last visit to the bazaar.</p>
+
+<p>"Upon my honor"&mdash;began Marchetto, launching into praises of the stuff.
+Patoff and Hermione stood at the door, but Cutter immediately became
+interested in the bargain, and handled the embroideries with curiosity,
+asking all manner of questions of the Jew and of Miss Dabstreak. Somehow
+or other, the two younger members of the party soon found themselves
+outside the shop, walking slowly up and down and talking, until the
+bargain should be concluded.</p>
+
+<p>"I could not go up to the gallery in Santa Sophia," said Paul. "I am not
+a nervous person, but it brings the story back too vividly."</p>
+
+<p>"What does it matter, since he is found?" asked Hermione.</p>
+
+<p>Patoff was struck by the question, for it was too much at variance with
+his own feelings to seem reasonable. It was not because he preferred to
+avoid all reminiscence of the adventure that he had stayed below, but
+rather because he hated to think what the consequences of Alexander's
+return had been.</p>
+
+<p>"What does it matter?" he repeated slowly. "It matters a great deal.
+What happened on that night, two years ago, was the beginning of a whole
+series of misfortunes. I have had bad luck ever since."</p>
+
+<p>"Why do you say that?" asked Hermione, somewhat reproachfully.</p>
+
+<p>"It is true,&mdash;that is one reason why I say it. But for that night, my
+mother would never have been mad. I should never have been sent to
+Persia, and should not have gone to England during my leave. I should
+not have met you"&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"You consider that a terrible misfortune," observed Hermione.</p>
+
+<p>"It is always a man's misfortune when he determines to have what is
+denied him," answered Paul quietly. "Somebody must suffer in the
+encounter, or somebody must yield."</p>
+
+<p>"Somebody,&mdash;yes. Why do you talk about it, Paul?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because I think of nothing else. I cannot help it. It is easy to say,
+'Let this or that alone;' it is another matter to talk to you about the
+bazaar, and the Turks, and the weather, when we are together."</p>
+
+<p>Hermione was silent, for there was nothing to be said. She knew how
+well he loved her, and when she was with him she submitted in a measure
+to his influence; so that often she was on the point of yielding, and
+telling him that she no longer hesitated. It was when she was away from
+him that she doubted herself, and refused to be persuaded. Paul needed
+only a very little to complete his conquest, but that little he could
+not command. He had reached the point at which a man talks of the woman
+he loves or of himself, and of nothing else, and the depth of his
+passion seemed to dull his speech. A little more eloquence, a little
+more gentleness, a little more of that charm which Alexander possessed
+in such abundance, might have been enough to turn the scale. But they
+were lacking. The very intensity of what he felt made him for the time a
+man of one idea only, and even the freedom with which he could speak to
+Hermione about his love for her was a disadvantage to him. It had grown
+to be too plain a fact, and there was too little left to the
+imagination. He felt that he wearied her, or he fancied that he did,
+which amounted to the same; and he either remained tongue-tied, or
+repeated in one form or another his half-savage 'I will.' He began to
+long for a change in their relations, or for some opportunity of
+practically showing her how much he would sacrifice for her sake. But in
+these days there are no lists for the silent knights; there are no
+jousts where a man may express his declaration of love by tying a lady's
+colors to his arm, and breaking the bones of half a dozen gentlemen
+before her eyes. And yet the instinct to do something of the kind is
+sometimes felt even now,&mdash;the longing to win by physical prowess what it
+is at present the fashion to get by persuasion.</p>
+
+<p>Paul felt it strongly enough, and was disgusted with his own stupidity.
+Of what use was it that during so many years he had cultivated the art
+of conversation as a necessary accomplishment, if at his utmost need his
+wits were to abandon him, and leave him uncouth and taciturn as he had
+been in his childhood? He looked at Hermione's downcast face; at the
+perfect figure displayed by her tightly fitting costume of gray; at her
+small hands, as she stood still and tried to thrust the point of her
+dainty parasol into the crevice between two stones of the pavement. He
+gazed at her, and was seized with a very foolish desire to take her up
+in his arms and walk away with her, whether she liked it or not. But
+just at that moment Hermione glanced at him with a smile, not at all as
+he had expected that she would look.</p>
+
+<p>"I think we had better go back to the shop," said she. So they turned,
+and walked slowly towards the narrow door.</p>
+
+<p>"These Orientals are so full of wonderful imagery!" Chrysophrasia was
+saying to Professor Cutter as the pair came in. "It is delightful to
+hear them talk,&mdash;so different from an English shopkeeper."</p>
+
+<p>"Very," assented the learned man. "Their imagery is certainly
+remarkable. Their scale of prices seems to be founded upon it, as
+logarithms depend for their existence on the square root of minus one,
+an impossible quantity."</p>
+
+<p>"Dear me! Could you explain that to Marchetto? It might make a
+difference, you know."</p>
+
+<p>"I am afraid not," answered the professor gravely. "Marchetto is not a
+mathematician; are you, Marchetto?"</p>
+
+<p>"No surr, Effendim. Marchetto very honest man. Twenty-five pounds,
+lady&mdash;ah! but it is birindj&iacute;&mdash;there is not a Pacha in Stamboul"&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"You have said that before," observed the scientist, "Try and say
+something new."</p>
+
+<p>"New!" cried Marchetto. "It is not new. Any one say it new, he lie!
+Old&mdash;eski, eski! Very old! Twenty-five-six pounds, lady! Hein! Pacha
+give more."</p>
+
+<p>"I fear that the traditions of his race are very strong," remarked
+Chrysophrasia, languidly examining the embroidery, a magnificent piece
+of work, about a yard and a half square, wrought in gold and silver
+threads upon a dark-red velvet ground; evidently of considerable
+antiquity, but in excellent preservation. "Paul, dear," continued Miss
+Dabstreak, seeing Patoff enter with Hermione, "what would you give for
+this lovely thing? How hard it is to bargain! How low! How infinitely
+fatiguing! Do help me!"</p>
+
+<p>"Begin by offering him a quarter of what he asks,&mdash;that is a safe rule,"
+answered Paul.</p>
+
+<p>"How much is a quarter of twenty-five&mdash;let me see&mdash;three times eight
+are&mdash;do tell me, somebody! Figures drive me quite mad."</p>
+
+<p>"I have known of such cases," assented the professor. "Eight and a
+quarter, Miss Dabstreak. Say eight,&mdash;I dare say it will do as well."</p>
+
+<p>"Marchetto," said Chrysophrasia sadly, "I am afraid your embroidery is
+only worth eight pounds."</p>
+
+<p>The Jew was kneeling on the floor, squatting upon his heels. He put on
+an injured expression, and looked up at Miss Dabstreak's face.</p>
+
+<p>"Eight pounds!" he exclaimed, in holy horror. "You know where this come
+from, lady? Ha! Laleli Khanum house&mdash;dead&mdash;no more like it." Marchetto
+of course knew the story of Alexander's confinement, and by a ready lie
+turned it to his advantage. Every one looked surprised, and began to
+examine the embroidery more closely.</p>
+
+<p>"Really!" ejaculated Chrysophrasia. "How strange this little world is!
+To think of all this bit of broidered velvet has seen,&mdash;what joyous
+sights! It may have been in the very room where she died. But she was a
+wicked old woman, Marchetto. I could not give more than eight pounds for
+anything which belonged to so depraved a creature."</p>
+
+<p>"Hein?" ejaculated the Jew, with a soft smile. "I know what you want.
+Here!" he exclaimed, springing up, and rummaging among his shelves.
+Presently he brought out a shabby old green cloth caft&aacute;n, trimmed with a
+little tarnished silver lace, and held it up triumphantly to
+Chrysophrasia's sight.</p>
+
+<p>"Twenty-five-six pounds!" he cried, exultingly. "Cheap. Him coat of very
+big saint-man&mdash;die going to Mecca last year. Cheap,
+lady&mdash;twenty-five-six pounds!"</p>
+
+<p>"I think you are fairly caught, aunt Chrysophrasia," observed Paul, with
+a laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"Who would have guessed that there was so much humor in an Israelite?"
+asked Chrysophrasia, with a sad intonation. "I cannot wear the saint's
+tea-gown, Marchetto," she continued; "otherwise I would gladly give you
+twenty-five pounds for it. Eight pounds for the embroidery,&mdash;no more. It
+is not worth so much. I even think I see a nauseous tint of magenta in
+the velvet."</p>
+
+<p>"Twenty-four-five pounds, lady. I lose pound&mdash;your backsheesh."</p>
+
+<p>How long the process of bargaining might have been protracted is
+uncertain. At that moment Balsamides Bey entered the shop. It appeared
+that he had called at the Carvels', and, being told that the party were
+in Stamboul, had gone straight to the Jew's shop, in the hope of finding
+them there. He was introduced to the professor by Paul, with a word of
+explanation. Marchetto's face fell as he saw the adjutant, who had a
+terribly acute knowledge of the value of things. Balsamides was asked to
+give his opinion. He examined the piece carefully.</p>
+
+<p>"Where did you get it?" he asked, in Turkish.</p>
+
+<p>"From the Valid&eacute; Khan," answered the Jew, in the same language. "It is a
+genuine piece,&mdash;a hundred years old at least."</p>
+
+<p>"You probably ask a pound for every year, and a backsheesh for the odd
+months," said the other.</p>
+
+<p>"Twenty pounds," answered Marchetto, imperturbably.</p>
+
+<p>"It is worth ten pounds," remarked Balsamides, in English, to Miss
+Dabstreak. "If you care to give that, you may buy it with a clear
+conscience. But he will take three weeks to think about it."</p>
+
+<p>"To bargain for three weeks!" exclaimed Chrysophrasia. "Oh, no! It takes
+my whole energy to bargain for half an hour. The lovely thing,&mdash;those
+faint, mysterious shades intertwined with the dull gold and silver,&mdash;it
+breaks my heart!"</p>
+
+<p>Marchetto was obdurate, on that day at least, and with an unusually
+grave face he began to fold the embroidery, wrapping it at last in the
+inevitable piece of shabby gray linen. The party left the shop, and
+threaded the labyrinth of vaulted passages towards the gate. Cutter was
+interested in Gregorios, and asked him a great many questions, so that
+Chrysophrasia felt she was being neglected, and wore her most mournful
+expression. Paul and Hermione came behind, talking a little as they
+walked. They reached the bridge on foot, and, paying the toll to the big
+men in white who guard the entrance, began to cross the long stretch of
+planks which unites Stamboul with Pera. The sun was already low. Indeed,
+Marchetto had kept his shop open beyond the ordinary hour of closing,
+which is ten o'clock by Turkish time, two hours before sunset, and the
+bazaar was nearly deserted when they left it.</p>
+
+<p>Paul and Hermione stopped when they were halfway across the bridge, and
+looked up the Golden Horn. Great clouds were piled up in the west,
+behind which the sun was hidden, and the air was very sultry. A dull
+light, that seemed to cast no shadows, was on all the mosques and
+minarets, and down upon the water the air was thick, and the boats
+looked indistinct as they glided by. The great useless men-of-war lay as
+though water-logged in the heavy, smooth stream, and the flags hung
+motionless from the mastheads.</p>
+
+<p>The two stood side by side for a few moments and said nothing. At last
+Paul spoke.</p>
+
+<p>"It is going to rain," he said, in an odd voice.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, it is going to rain," answered his companion.</p>
+
+<p>"On par&agrave;! Ten paras, for the love of God!" screamed a filthy beggar
+close behind them. Paul threw the wretched creature the tiny coin he
+asked, and they turned away. But his face was very white, and Hermione's
+eyes were filled with tears.</p>
+
+
+
+<h2 class="m"><a name="XXII" id="XXII"></a>XXII.</h2>
+
+
+<p>A few days later the Carvels were installed for the summer in one of the
+many large houses on the Buyukdere quay, which are usually let to any
+one who will hire them. These dwellings are mostly the property of
+Armenians and Greeks who lost heavily during the war, and whose
+diminished fortunes no longer allow them to live in their former state.
+They are vast wooden buildings for the most part, having a huge hall on
+each floor, from which smaller rooms open on two sides; large windows in
+front afford a view of the Bosphorus, and at the back the balconies are
+connected with the gardens by flights of wooden steps. In one of these,
+not far from the Russian embassy, the Carvels took up their abode, and
+John expressed himself extremely well satisfied with his choice and with
+his bargain. In the course of their stay in Pera, the family had
+contrived to collect a considerable quantity of Oriental carpets and
+other objects, some good, some utterly worthless in themselves, but
+useful in filling up the immense rooms of the house. Chrysophrasia
+seemed to find the East sympathetic to her nerves, and was certainly
+more in her element in Constantinople than in Brompton or Carvel Place.
+Strange to say, she was the one of the family who best understood the
+Turks and their ways. In contact with a semi-barbarous people, she
+developed an amount of common sense and keen intelligence which I had
+never suspected her of possessing.</p>
+
+<p>As for me, I had gone up to Buyukdere one day, and had then and there
+changed my mind in regard to my departure. The roses were in full bloom,
+and everything looked so unusually attractive, that I could not resist
+the temptation of spending the summer in the place. A few years ago,
+when I thought of traveling, I set out without hesitation, and went to
+the ends of the earth. I suppose I am growing old, for I begin to
+dislike perpetual motion. The little kiosk on the hill, at the top of a
+beautiful garden, was very tempting, too, and after a few hours'
+consideration I hired it for the season, with that fine disregard for
+consequences which one learns in the East. The only furniture in the
+place was an iron bedstead and an old divan. There was not a chair, not
+a bit of matting; not so much as an earthen pot in the kitchen, nor a
+deal table in the sitting-room. But in Turkey such conveniences are a
+secondary consideration. The rooms were freshly whitewashed, the board
+floors were scrubbed, and the view from the windows was one of the most
+beautiful in the world. A day spent in the bazaar did the rest. I picked
+up a queer, wizened old Dalmatian cook, and with the help of my servant
+was installed in the little place eight-and-forty hours after I had made
+up my mind.</p>
+
+<p>The life on the Bosphorus is totally different from that in Pera.
+Everybody either keeps a horse or keeps a sail-boat, and many people do
+both; for the Belgrade forest stretches five-and-twenty miles inland
+from Buyukdere and Therapia, and the broad Bosphorus lies before,
+widening into a deep bay between the two. The fresh northerly breeze
+blows down from the Black Sea all day, and often all night; and there is
+something invigorating in the air, which revives one after the long, gay
+season in Pera, and makes one feel that anything and everything is
+possible in such a place.</p>
+
+<p>The forest was different in May from what it had been on that bitter
+March night when Gregorios and I drove down to Laleli's house. The
+maid&aacute;m&mdash;the broad stretch of grass at the opening of the valley before
+you reach the woods&mdash;was green and fresh and smooth. The trees were full
+of leaves, and gypsies were already camping out for the season. The
+woodland roads were not as full of riders as they are in July and
+August, and the summer dancing had not yet begun, nor the garden
+parties, nor any kind of gayety. There was peace everywhere,&mdash;the peace
+of quiet spring weather before one learns to fear the sun and to long
+for rain, when the crocus pushes its tender head timidly through the
+grass, and the bold daisies gayly dance by millions in the light breeze
+as though knowing that their numbers save them from being plucked up and
+tied into nose-gays, and otherwise barbarously dealt with, according to
+the luck of rarer flowers.</p>
+
+<p>So we rode in the forest, and sailed on the Bosphorus, and enjoyed the
+freedom of the life and the freshness of the cool air, and things went
+on very pleasantly for every one, as far as outward appearances were
+concerned. But it was soon clear to me that the matter which more or
+less interested the whole party was no nearer to its termination than it
+had been before. Paul came and went, and his face betrayed no emotion
+when he met Hermione or parted from her. They were sometimes alone
+together, but not often, and it did not seem to me that they showed any
+very great anxiety to procure themselves such interviews. A keen
+observer might have noticed, indeed, that Hermione was a shade less
+cordial in her relations with Alexander, but he himself did not relax
+his attentions, and was as devoted to her as ever. He followed her
+about, always tried to ride by her side in the forest, and to sit by her
+in the boat; but under no circumstances did I see Paul's face change
+either in color or expression. He did not look scornful and cynical, as
+he formerly did, nor was there anything hostile in his manner towards
+his brother. He merely seemed very calm and very sure of himself,&mdash;too
+sure, I thought. But he had made up his mind to win, and meant to do it
+in his own fashion, and he appeared to be indifferent to the fact that
+while his duties often kept him at the embassy the whole day, Alexander
+had nothing to do but to talk to Hermione from morning till night. I
+fancied that he was playing a waiting game, but I feared that he would
+wait too long, and lose in the end. I knew, indeed, that under his calm
+exterior his whole nature was wrought up to its highest point of
+excitement; but if he persisted in exercising such perfect self-control
+he ran the risk of being thought too cold, as he appeared to be. I was
+called upon to give an opinion on the matter before we had been many
+days in Buyukdere, and I was embarrassed to explain what I meant.</p>
+
+<p>John Carvel and Hermione, Alexander and I, rode together in the woods,
+one afternoon. Paul was busy that day, and could not come. It fell out
+naturally enough that the young girl and her cousin should pair off
+together, leaving us two elderly men to our conversation. Hermione was
+mounted on a beautiful Arab, nearly black, which her father had bought
+for her in Pera, and Alexander rode a strong white horse that he had
+hired for the short time which remained to him before he should be
+obliged to return to St. Petersburg. They looked well together, as they
+rode before us, and John watched them with interest, if not altogether
+with satisfaction.</p>
+
+<p>"Griggs," he observed at last, "it is very odd. I don't know what to
+make of it at all. You remember the conversation we had in Pera, the
+first night after our arrival? I certainly believed that Hermy wanted to
+marry Paul. She seems to get on amazingly well with his brother; don't
+you think so?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is natural," I answered. "They are cousins. Why should they not like
+each other? Alexander is a most agreeable fellow, and makes the time
+pass very pleasantly when Paul is not there."</p>
+
+<p>"What surprises me most," said John Carvel, "is that Paul does not seem
+to mind in the least. And he has never spoken to me about it, either. I
+am beginning to think he never will. Well, well, there is no reason why
+Hermy should marry just yet, and Paul is no great match, though he is a
+very good fellow."</p>
+
+<p>"A very good fellow," I assented. "A much better fellow than his
+brother, I fancy,&mdash;though Alexander has what women call charm. But Paul
+will not change his mind; you need not be afraid of that."</p>
+
+<p>"I should be sorry if Hermy did," said Carvel, gravely. "I should not
+like my daughter to begin life by jilting an honest man for the sake of
+a pretty toy soldier like Alexander."</p>
+
+<p>It was very clear that John Carvel had a fixed opinion in the case, and
+that his judgment did not incline to favor Alexander. On the other hand,
+he could not but be astonished at Paul's silence. Of course I defended
+the latter as well as I could, but as we rode slowly on, talking the
+matter over, I could see that John was not altogether pleased.</p>
+
+<p>Alexander and Hermione had passed a bend in the road before us, and had
+been hidden from our view for some time, for they were nearly half a
+mile in front when we had last seen them. They rode side by side, and
+Alexander seemed to have plenty to say, for he talked incessantly in his
+pleasant, easy voice, and Hermione listened to him. They came to a place
+where the road forked to the right and left. Neither of them were very
+familiar with the forest, and, without stopping to think, they followed
+the lane which looked the straighter and broader of the two, but which
+in reality led by winding ways to a distant part of the woods. When John
+Carvel and I came to the place, I naturally turned to the left, to cross
+the little bridge and ascend the hill towards the Khedive's farm. In
+this way the two young people were separated from us, and we were soon
+very far apart, for we were in reality riding in opposite directions.</p>
+
+<p>The lane taken by Hermione and her cousin led at first through a
+hollowed way, above which the branches of the trees met and twined
+closely together, as beautiful a place as can be found in the whole
+forest. Alexander grew less talkative, and presently relapsed altogether
+into silence. They walked their horses, and he looked at his cousin's
+face, half shaded by a thin gray veil, which set off admirably the
+beauty of her mouth and chin.</p>
+
+<p>"Hermione," he said after a time, in his softest voice.</p>
+
+<p>The girl blushed a little, without knowing why, but did not answer. He
+hesitated, as though he could get no further than her name. As the blush
+faded from her cheek, his cousin glanced timidly at him, not at all as
+she generally looked. Perhaps she felt the magic of the place. She was
+not used to be timid with him, and she experienced a new sensation.
+There was generally something light and gay in his way of speaking to
+her which admitted of a laughing answer; but just now he had spoken her
+name so seriously, so gently, that she felt for the first time that he
+was in earnest. Instinctively she put her horse to a brisker pace,
+before he had said anything more. He kept close at her side.</p>
+
+<p>"Hermione," he said again, and his voice sounded in her ear like the
+voice of an unknown spell, weaving charms about her under the shade of
+the enchanted forest. "Hermione, my beloved,&mdash;do not laugh at me any
+more. It is earnest, dear,&mdash;it is my whole life."</p>
+
+<p>Still she said nothing, but the blush rose again to her face and died
+away, leaving her very pale. She shortened the reins in her hands,
+keeping the Arab at a regular, even trot.</p>
+
+<p>"It is earnest, darling," continued her cousin, in low, clear tones. "I
+never knew how much I loved you until to-day. No, do not laugh again.
+Tell me you know it is so, as I know it."</p>
+
+<p>The lane grew narrower and the branches lower, but she would not slacken
+speed, though now and then she had to bend her head to avoid the leafy
+twigs as she passed. But this time she answered, not laughing, but very
+gravely.</p>
+
+<p>"You must not talk like that any more," she said. "I do not like to hear
+it."</p>
+
+<p>"Is it so bitter to be told that you are loved&mdash;as I love? Is it so
+hard to hear? But you have heard once&mdash;twice, twenty times; you will not
+always think it bad to hear; your ears will grow used to it. All,
+Hermione, if you could guess how sweet it is to love as I love, you
+would understand!"</p>
+
+<p>"I do not know&mdash;- I cannot guess&mdash;I would not if I could," answered the
+young girl desperately. "Hush, Alexander! Do not talk in that way. You
+must not. It is not right."</p>
+
+<p>"Not right?" echoed the young man, with a soft laugh. "I will make it
+right; you shall guess what it is to love, dear,&mdash;to love me as I love
+you."</p>
+
+<p>He bent in his saddle as he rode beside her, and laid his left hand on
+hers, but she shook his fingers off impatiently.</p>
+
+<p>"Why are you angry, love?" he asked. "You have let me say it lightly so
+often; will you not let me say it earnestly for once?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," she answered firmly. "I do not want to hear it. I have been very
+wrong, Alexander. I like you very much&mdash;because you are my cousin&mdash;but I
+do not love you&mdash;I will not&mdash;I mean, I cannot. No, I am in earnest,
+too&mdash;far more than you are. I can never love you&mdash;no, no, no&mdash;never!"</p>
+
+<p>But she had let fall the words "I will not," and Alexander knew that
+there was a struggle in her mind.</p>
+
+<p>"You will not?" he said tenderly. "No&mdash;but you will, darling. I know you
+will. You must; I will make you!"</p>
+
+<p>Again he leaned far out of his saddle, and in an instant his left arm
+went round her slender waist, as they rode quickly along, and his lips
+touched her soft cheek just below the little gray veil. But he had gone
+too far. Hermione's spurred heel just touched the Arab's flank, and he
+sprang forward in a gallop up the narrow lane. Alexander kept close at
+her side. His blood was up, and burning in his delicate cheek. He still
+tried to keep his hand upon her waist, and bent towards her, moving in
+his saddle with the ease of a born horseman as he galloped along. But
+Hermione spurred her horse, and angrily tried to elude her cousin's
+embrace, till in a moment they were tearing through the woods at a
+racing pace.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly there came a crash, followed by a dull, heavy sound, and
+Hermione saw that she was alone. She tried to look behind her, but
+several seconds elapsed before her Arab could be quieted; at last she
+succeeded in making him turn, and rode quickly back along the path.
+Alexander's horse was standing across the way, and Hermione was obliged
+to dismount and turn him before she could see beyond. Her cousin lay in
+the lane, motionless as he had fallen, his face pale and turned upwards,
+one arm twisted under his body, the other stretched out upon the soft
+mould of the woodland path. Hermione stood holding the two horses, one
+with each hand, and looking intently at the insensible man. She did not
+lose her presence of mind, though she was frightened by his pallor; but
+she could not let the horses run loose in such a place, when they might
+be lost in a moment. She paused a moment, and listened for the sound of
+hoofs, thinking that her father and I could not be far behind. But the
+woods were very still, and she remembered that she and her cousin had
+ridden fast over the last two miles. Drawing the bridles over the
+horses' heads, she proceeded to fasten them to a couple of trees, not
+without some trouble, for her own horse was excited and nervous from the
+sharp gallop; but at last she succeeded, and, gathering her habit in one
+hand, she ran quickly to Alexander's side.</p>
+
+<p>There he lay, quite unconscious, and so pale that she thought he might
+be dead. His head was bare, and his hat, crumpled and broken, lay in the
+path, some distance behind him. There was a dark mark on the right side
+of his forehead, high up and half covered by his silky brown hair.
+Hermione knelt down and tried to lift his head upon her knee. But his
+body was heavy, and she was not very strong. She dragged him with
+difficulty to the side of the path, and raised his shoulders a little
+against the bank. She felt for his pulse, but there was no motion in the
+lifeless veins, nor could she decide whether he breathed or not. Utterly
+without means of reviving him, for she had not so much as a bottle of
+salts in the pocket of her saddle, she kneeled over him, and wiped his
+pale forehead with her handkerchief, and blew gently on his face. She
+was pale herself, and was beginning to be frightened, though she had
+good nerves. Nevertheless she took courage, feeling sure that we should
+appear in five minutes at the latest.</p>
+
+<p>It was clear that in galloping by her side at full speed Alexander's
+head had struck violently against a heavy branch, which grew lower than
+the rest. His eyes had been turned on her, and he had not seen the
+danger. The branch was so placed that Hermione, lowering her head to
+avoid the leaves, as she looked straight before, had passed under it in
+safety; whereas her cousin must have struck full upon the thickest part,
+three or four feet nearer to the tree. At the pace they were riding, the
+blow might well have been fatal; and as the moments passed and the
+injured man showed no signs of life, Hermione's heart beat faster and
+her face grew whiter. Her first thought was of his mother, and a keen,
+sharp fear shot through her as she thought of the dreadful moment when
+Madame Patoff must be told; but the next instant brought her a feeling
+of far deeper horror. He had been hurt almost while speaking words of
+love to her; he had struck his head because he was looking at her
+instead of before him, and it was in some measure her fault, for she had
+urged the speed of that foolish race. She bent down over him, and the
+tears started to her eyes. She tried to listen for the beating of his
+heart, and, opening his coat, she laid her ear to his breast. Something
+cold touched her cheek, and she quickly raised her head again and looked
+down. It was a small flat silver flask which he carried in the pocket of
+his waistcoat, and which in the fall had slipped up from its place.
+Hermione withdrew it eagerly and unscrewed the cap. It contained some
+kind of spirits, and she poured a little between his parted lips.</p>
+
+<p>The deathly features contracted a little, and the eyelids quivered. She
+poured the brandy into the palm of her hand, and chafed his temples and
+forehead. Alexander drew a long breath and slowly opened his eyes; then
+shut them again; then, after a few moments, opened them wide, stared,
+and uttered an exclamation of surprise in Russian.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you better?" asked Hermione, breathlessly. "I thought you were
+dead."</p>
+
+<p>"No, I am all right," he said, faintly, trying to raise himself. But his
+head swam, and he fell back, once more insensible. This time, however,
+the fainting fit did not last long, and he soon opened his eyes again
+and looked at Hermione without speaking. She continued to rub the
+spirits upon his forehead. Then he put out his hand and grasped the
+flask she held, and drank a long draught from it.</p>
+
+<p>"It is nothing," he said. "I can get up now, thank you." He struggled to
+his feet, leaning on the young girl's arm. "How did it happen?" he
+asked. "I cannot remember anything."</p>
+
+<p>"You must have struck your head against that branch," answered Hermione,
+pointing to the thick bough which projected over the lane. "Do you feel
+better?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. I can mount in a minute," he replied, steadying himself. "I have
+had a bad shaking, and my head hurts me. It is nothing serious."</p>
+
+<p>"Better sit down for a few minutes, until the others come up," suggested
+the young girl, who was surprised to see him recover himself so quickly.
+He seemed glad enough to follow her advice, and they sat down together
+on the mossy bank.</p>
+
+<p>"It was my fault," said Hermione, penitently. "It was so foolish of me
+to ride fast in such a place."</p>
+
+<p>"Women care for nothing but galloping when they are on horseback," said
+Alexander. It was not a very civil speech, and though Hermione forgave
+him because he was half stunned with pain, the words rang unpleasantly
+in her ear. He might have been satisfied, she thought, when she owned
+that it was her fault. It was not generous to agree with her so
+unhesitatingly. She wondered whether Paul would have spoken like that.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you really think you can ride back?" she asked, in a colder tone.</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly," he said; "provided we ride slowly. What can have become of
+uncle John and Griggs?"</p>
+
+<p>Uncle John and Griggs were at that moment wondering what had become of
+the two young people. We had ridden on to the top of the hill, and had
+stopped on reaching the open space near the Khedive's farm, where there
+is a beautiful view, and where we expected to find our companions
+waiting for us. But we were surprised to see no one there. After a great
+deal of hesitation we agreed that John Carvel, who did not know the
+forest, should follow the main road down the hill on the other side,
+while I rode back over the way we had come. I suspected that Alexander
+and Hermione had taken the wrong turn, and I was more anxious about them
+than I would show. The forest is indeed said to be safe, but hardly a
+year passes without some solitary rider being molested by gypsies or
+wandering thieves, if he has ventured too far from the beaten tracks. I
+rode as fast as I could, but it was nearly twenty minutes before I
+struck into the hollow lane. I found the pair seated on the bank, a mile
+further on, and Hermione hailed me with delight. Everything was
+explained in a few words. Alexander seemed sufficiently recovered from
+his accident to get into the saddle, and we were soon walking our horses
+back towards the maid&aacute;m of Buyukdere. Neither Alexander nor Hermione
+talked much by the way, and we were all glad when we reached the tiny
+bazaar, and were picking out way over the uneven street, amongst the
+coppersmiths, the lounging soldiers, the solemn narghyl&egrave; smokers, the
+kaffejis, the beggars, and the half-naked children.</p>
+
+<p>On that evening, two things occurred which precipitated the course of
+events. John Carvel had an interview with Hermione, and I had a most
+unlucky idea. John Carvel's mind was disturbed concerning the future of
+his only daughter, and though he was not a man who hastily took fright,
+his character was such that when once persuaded that things were not as
+they should be, he never hesitated as to the course he should pursue.
+Accordingly, that night he called Hermione into his study, and
+determined to ask her for an explanation. The poor girl was nervous, for
+she suspected trouble, and did not see very clearly how it could be
+avoided.</p>
+
+<p>"Sit down, Hermy," said John, establishing himself in a deep chair with
+a cigar. "I want to talk with you, my dear."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, papa," answered Hermione, meekly.</p>
+
+<p>"Hermy, do you mean to marry Paul, or not? Don't be nervous, my child,
+but think the matter over before you answer. If you mean to have him, I
+have no objection to the match; but if you do not mean to, I would like
+to know. That is all. You know you spoke to me about it in England
+before we left home. Things have been going on a long time now, and yet
+Paul has said nothing to me about it."</p>
+
+<p>It was impossible to put the matter more clearly than this, and Hermione
+knew it. She said nothing for some minutes, but sat staring out of the
+window at the dark water, where the boats moved slowly about, each
+bearing a little light at the bow. Far down the quay a band was playing
+the eternal <i>Stella Confidente</i>, which has become a sort of national air
+in Turkey. The strains floated in through the window, and the young girl
+struggled hard to concentrate her thoughts, which somehow wound
+themselves in and out of the music in a very irrelevant manner.</p>
+
+<p>"Must I answer now, papa?" she asked at last, almost desperately.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear," replied the inexorable John, in kind tones, "I cannot see why
+you should not. You are probably in very much the same state of mind
+to-night as you were in yesterday, or as you will be in to-morrow. It is
+better to settle the matter and be done with it. I do not believe that a
+fortnight, a month, or even a longer time will make any perceptible
+difference in your ideas about this matter." He puffed at his cigar, and
+again looked at his daughter.</p>
+
+<p>"Hermy," he continued, after another interval of silence, "if you do not
+mean to marry Paul, you are treating him very badly. You are letting
+that idiot of a brother of his make love to you from morning till
+night."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, papa! How can you!" exclaimed Hermione, who was not accustomed to
+hearing any kind of strong language from her father.</p>
+
+<p>"Idiot,&mdash;yes, my dear, that expresses it very well. He is my nephew, and
+I have a right to call him an idiot if I please. I believe the fellow
+wears stays, and curls his hair with tongs. He has a face like a girl,
+and he talks unmitigated rubbish."</p>
+
+<p>"I thought you liked him, papa," objected Hermione. "I do not think he
+is at all as silly as you say he is. He is very agreeable."</p>
+
+<p>"I have no objection to him," retorted John Carvel. "I tolerate him.
+Toleration is not liking. He fascinated us all for a day or two, but it
+did not last long; that sort of fascination never does."</p>
+
+<p>There was another long pause. The band had finished the <i>Stella
+Confidente</i>, and ran on without stopping to the performance of the
+drinking chorus in the <i>Traviata</i>. Hermione twisted her fingers
+together, and bit her lips. Her father's opinion of Alexander was a
+revelation to her, but it carried weight with it, and it aroused a whole
+train of recollections in her mind, culminating in the accident of the
+afternoon. She remembered vividly what she had felt during those long
+minutes before Alexander had recovered consciousness, and she knew that
+her feelings bore not the slightest relation to love. She had been
+terrified, and had blamed herself, and had thought of his mother; but
+the idea that he might be dead had not hurt her as it would have done
+had she loved him. She had felt no wild grief, no awful sense of
+blankness; the tears which had risen to her eyes had been tears of pity,
+of genuine sorrow, but not of despair. She tried to think what she would
+have felt had she seen Paul lying dead before her, and the mere idea
+sent a sharp thrust through her heart that almost frightened her.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, my dear," said John, at last, "can you give me an answer? Do you
+mean to marry Paul or Alexander, or neither?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not Alexander,&mdash;oh, never!" exclaimed Hermione. "I never thought of
+such a thing."</p>
+
+<p>"Paul, then?"</p>
+
+<p>"Papa, dear," said the young girl, after a moment's hesitation, "I will
+tell you all about it. When Paul came, I firmly intended to marry him.
+Then I began to know Alexander&mdash;and&mdash;well, I was very wrong, but he
+began to make pretty phrases, and to talk of loving me. Of course I told
+him he was very foolish, and I laughed at him. But he only went on, and
+said a great deal more, in spite of me. Then I thought that because I
+could not stop him I was interested in him. Paul wanted to speak to you,
+but I would not let him. I did not feel that my conscience was quite
+clear. I was not sure that I should always love him. Do you see? I think
+I love him, really, but Alexander interests me."</p>
+
+<p>"But you never for a moment thought of marrying Alexander? You said so
+just now."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, never! I laughed at him, and he amused me,&mdash;nothing more than
+that."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I don't quite see"&mdash;began John Carvel, who was rather puzzled by
+the explanation.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course not. You are a man,&mdash;how can you understand? I will promise
+you this, papa: if I cannot make up my mind in a week, I will tell Paul
+so."</p>
+
+<p>"How will a week help you, my dear? Ever so many weeks have passed, and
+you are still uncertain."</p>
+
+<p>"I am sure that a week will make all the difference. I think I shall
+have decided then. I am in earnest, dear papa," she added, gravely. "Do
+you think I would willingly do anything to hurt Paul?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, my dear, I don't," answered John Carvel. "Only&mdash;you might do it
+unwillingly, you know, and as far as he is concerned it would come to
+very much the same thing." And with this word of warning the interview
+ended.</p>
+
+<p>When I went home to dinner, I found Gregorios Balsamides seated on the
+wooden bench under the honeysuckle outside my door. He had escaped from
+the dust and heat of Pera, and had come to spend the night, sure of
+finding a hearty welcome at my kiosk on the hill. I sat down beside him,
+and he began asking me questions about the people who had arrived,
+giving me in return the news and gossip of Pera.</p>
+
+<p>"You have a very pretty place here," he said. "A man I knew took it last
+summer, and used to give tea-parties and little f&ecirc;tes in the evening. It
+is easy to string lanterns from one tree to another, and it makes a very
+pretty effect. It is a mild form of idiocy, it is true,&mdash;much milder
+than the prevailing practice of dancing in-doors, with the thermometer
+at the boiling point."</p>
+
+<p>"It is not a bad idea," I answered. "We will experiment upon our friends
+the Carvels in a small way. I will ask them and the Patoffs to come here
+next Saturday. Can you come, too?"</p>
+
+<p>The thing was settled, and Gregorios promised to be of the party. We
+dined, and sat late together, talking long before we went to bed.
+Gregorios is a soldier, and does not mind roughing it a little; so he
+slept on the divan, and declared the next day that he had slept very
+well.</p>
+
+
+
+<h2 class="m"><a name="XXIII" id="XXIII"></a>XXIII.</h2>
+
+
+<p>Madame Patoff had not received the news of Alexander's accident with
+indifference, and it had been necessary that he should assure her
+himself that he was not seriously hurt before she could be quieted. He
+had been badly stunned, however, and his head gave him much pain during
+several days, as was natural enough. He spent most of his time on the
+sofa in his mother's sitting-room, and she would sit for hours talking
+to him and trying to soothe his pain. The sympathy between the two
+seemed strengthened, and it was strange to see how, when together, their
+manner changed. The relation between the mother and the spoiled child is
+a very peculiar one, and occupies an entirely separate division in the
+scale of human affections; for while the mother's love in such a case is
+sincere, though generally founded on a mere capricious preference, the
+over-indulged affection of the child breeds nothing but caprice and a
+ruthless desire to see that caprice satisfied. Madame Patoff loved
+Alexander so much that the belief in his death had driven her mad; he on
+his side loved his mother because he knew that in all cases, just and
+unjust, she would defend him, take his part, and help him to get what he
+wanted. But he never missed her when they were separated, and he never
+took any pains to see her unless in so doing he could satisfy some other
+wish at the same time. He was selfish, willful, and obstinate at
+two-and-thirty as he had been at ten years of age. His mother was
+willful, obstinate, and capricious, but as far as he was concerned she
+was incapable of selfishness.</p>
+
+<p>What was most remarkable in her manner was her ease in talking with
+Professor Cutter, and her indifference in referring to her past
+insanity. She did not appear to realize it; she hardly seemed to care
+whether any one knew it or not, and regarded it as an unfortunate
+accident, but one which there was little object in concealing. As the
+scientist talked with her and observed her, he opened his eyes wider and
+wider behind his gold-rimmed spectacles, and grew more and more silent
+when any one spoke to him of her. I knew later that he detected in her
+conduct certain symptoms which alarmed him, but felt obliged to hold his
+peace on account of the extreme difficulty of his position. He felt that
+to watch her again, or to put her under any kind of restraint, might now
+lead to far more serious results than before, and he determined to bide
+his time. An incident occurred very soon, however, which helped him to
+make up his mind.</p>
+
+<p>One afternoon we arranged an excursion to the ruined castle of Anadoli
+Kav&aacute;k, on the Asian shore, near the mouth of the Black Sea. Mrs. Carvel,
+who was not a good sailor, stayed at home, but Miss Dabstreak, Madame
+Patoff, and Hermione were of the party, with Paul, Macaulay Carvel,
+Professor Cutter, and myself. Macaulay had borrowed a good-sized cutter
+from one of his many colleagues who kept yachts on the Bosphorus, and at
+three o'clock in the afternoon we started from the Buyukdere quay. There
+was a smart northerly breeze as we hoisted the jib, and it was evident
+that we should have to make several tacks before we could beat up to our
+destination. The boat was of about ten tons burden, with a full deck,
+broken only by a well leading to the cabin; a low rail ran round the
+bulwarks, for the yacht was intended for pleasure excursions and the
+accommodation of ladies. The members of the party sat in a group on the
+edge of the well, and I took the helm. Chrysophrasia was in a
+particularly Oriental frame of mind. The deep blue sky, the emerald
+green of the hills, and the cool clear water rippling under the breeze,
+no doubt acted soothingly upon her nerves.</p>
+
+<p>"I feel quite like Sindbad the Sailor," she said. "Mr. Griggs, you ought
+really to tell us a tale from the Arabian Nights. I am sure it would
+seem so very real, you know."</p>
+
+<p>"If I were to spin yarns while steering, Miss Dabstreak," I said, "your
+fate would probably resemble Sindbad's. You would be wrecked six or
+seven times between here and Kav&aacute;k."</p>
+
+<p>"So delightfully exciting," murmured Chrysophrasia. "Annie," she
+continued, addressing her sister, "shall we not ask Mr. Griggs to wreck
+us? I have always longed to be on a wreck."</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Madame Patoff, glancing at her foolish sister with her great
+dark eyes. "I should not like to be drowned."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course not; how very dreadful!" exclaimed Miss Dabstreak. "But
+Sindbad was never drowned, you remember. It was always somebody else."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh&mdash;somebody else," repeated Madame Patoff, looking down at the deep
+water. "Yes, to drown somebody else,&mdash;that would be very different."</p>
+
+<p>I think we were all a little startled, and Hermione looked at Paul and
+turned pale. As for Cutter, he very slowly and solemnly drew a cigar
+from his case, lit it carefully, crossed one knee over the other, and
+gazed fixedly at Madame Patoff during several minutes, before he spoke.</p>
+
+<p>"Would you really like to see anybody drowned?" he asked at last.</p>
+
+<p>"Why do you ask?" inquired Madame Patoff, rather sharply.</p>
+
+<p>"Because I thought you said so, and I wanted to know if you were in
+earnest."</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose we should all like to see our enemies die," said the old
+lady. "Not painfully, of course, but so that we should be quite sure of
+it." She laid a strong emphasis on the last words, and as she looked up
+I thought she glanced at Paul.</p>
+
+<p>"If you had seen many people die, you would not care for the sight,"
+said the professor quietly. "Besides, you have no enemies."</p>
+
+<p>"What is death?" asked Madame Patoff, looking at him with a curiously
+calm smile as she asked the question.</p>
+
+<p>"The only thing we know about it, is that it appears to be in every way
+the opposite of life," was the scientist's answer. "Life separates us
+for a time from the state of what we call inanimate matter. When life
+ceases, we return to that state."</p>
+
+<p>"Why do you say 'what we call inanimate matter'?" inquired Paul.</p>
+
+<p>"Because it has been very well said that names are labels, not
+definitions. As a definition, inanimate matter means generally the
+earth, the water, the air; but the name would be a very poor
+definition,&mdash;as poor as the word 'man' used to define the human animal."</p>
+
+<p>"You do not think that inanimate matter is really lifeless?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Unless it is so hot that it melts," laughed the professor. "Even then
+it may not be true,&mdash;indeed, it may be quite false. We call the moon
+dead, because we have reason to believe that she has cooled to the
+centre. We call Jupiter and Saturn live planets, though we believe them
+still too hot to support life."</p>
+
+<p>"All that does not explain death," objected Madame Patoff.</p>
+
+<p>"If I could explain death, I could explain life," answered Cutter. "And
+if I could explain life, I should have made a great step towards
+producing it artificially."</p>
+
+<p>"If one could only produce artificial death!" exclaimed Madame Patoff.</p>
+
+<p>"It would be very amusing," answered Cutter, with a smile, folding his
+huge white hands upon his knee. "We could try it on ourselves, and then
+we should know what to expect. I have often thought about it, I assure
+you. I once had the curiosity to put myself into a trance by the Munich
+method of shining disks,&mdash;they use it in the hospitals instead of ether,
+you know,&mdash;and I remained in the state half an hour."</p>
+
+<p>"And then, what happened when you woke up?"</p>
+
+<p>"I had a bad headache and my eyes hurt me," replied the professor dryly.
+"I dare say that if a dead man came to life he would feel much the same
+thing."</p>
+
+<p>"I dare say," assented Madame Patoff; but there was a vague look in her
+eyes, which showed that her thoughts were somewhere else. We were close
+upon the Asian shore, and I put the helm down to go about. The ladies
+changed their places, and there was a little confusion, in which Cutter
+found himself close to me.</p>
+
+<p>"Keep an eye on her," he said quickly, in a low voice. "She is very
+queer."</p>
+
+<p>I thought so, too, and I watched Madame Patoff to see whether she would
+return to the subject which seemed to attract her. Cutter kept up the
+conversation, however, and did not again show any apprehension about his
+former patient's state of mind, though I could see that he watched her
+as closely as I did. The fresh breeze filled the sails, and the next
+tack took us clear up to Yeni Mahall&egrave; on the European side; for the
+little yacht was quick in stays, and, moreover, had a good hold on the
+water, enabling her to beat quickly up against wind and current. Once
+again I went about, and, running briskly across, made the little pier
+below Anadoli Kav&aacute;k, little more than three quarters of an hour after we
+had started. We landed, and went up the green slope to the place where
+the little coffee-shop stands under the trees. We intended to climb the
+hill to the ruined castle. To my surprise, Professor Cutter suggested to
+Madame Patoff that they should stay below, while the rest made the
+ascent. He said he feared she would tire herself too much. But she would
+not listen to him.</p>
+
+<p>"I insist upon going," she said. "I am as strong as any of you. It is
+quite absurd."</p>
+
+<p>Cutter temporized by suggesting that we should have coffee before the
+walk, and Chrysophrasia sank languidly down upon a straw chair.</p>
+
+<p>"If the man has any loukoum, I could bear a cup of coffee," she
+murmured. The man had loukoum, it appeared, and Chrysophrasia was
+satisfied. We all sat down in a circle under the huge oak-tree, and
+enjoyed the freshness and greenness of the place. The kaffeji, in loose
+white garments and a fez, presently brought out a polished brass tray,
+bearing the requisite number of tiny cups and two little white saucers
+filled with pieces of loukoum-rahat, the Turkish national sweetmeat,
+commonly called by schoolboys fig-paste.</p>
+
+<p>"Why was I not born a Turk!" exclaimed Chrysophrasia. "This joyous life
+in the open air is so intensely real, so profoundly true!"</p>
+
+<p>"Life is real anywhere," remarked Cutter, with a smile. "The important
+question is whether it is agreeable to the liver."</p>
+
+<p>"Death is real, too," said Madame Patoff, in such a curious tone that we
+all started slightly, as we had done in the boat. My nerves are good,
+but I felt a weird horror of the woman stealing over me. The
+imperturbable scientist only glanced at me, as though to remind me of
+what he had said before. Then he took up the question.</p>
+
+<p>"No, madam," he said, coldly. "Death is a negation, almost a universal
+negation. It is not real; it only devours reality, and then denies it.
+You can see that life is to breathe, to think, to eat, to drink, to
+love, to fear,&mdash;any of these. Death is only the negation of all these
+things, because we can only say that in death we do none of them.
+Reality is motion, in the broad sense, as far as man is concerned; death
+is only the cessation of the ability to move. You cannot predicate
+anything else of it."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, your dry, dry science!" exclaimed Chrysophrasia, casting up her
+green eyes. "You would turn our fair fields and
+limpid&mdash;ahem&mdash;skies&mdash;into the joyless waste of a London pavement, or one
+of your horrid dissecting-rooms!"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't see the point of your simile, Miss Dabstreak," answered Cutter,
+with pardonable bluntness. "Besides, that is philosophy, and not
+science."</p>
+
+<p>"What is the difference. Mr. Griggs?" asked Hermione, turning to me.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear young lady," said I, "science, I think, means the state of
+being wise, and hence, the thing known, which gives a man the title of
+wise. Philosophy means the love of wisdom."</p>
+
+<p>"Rather involved definition," observed the professor, with a laugh.
+"There is not much difference between the state of being wise and the
+state of loving wisdom."</p>
+
+<p>"The one asserts the possession of that which the other aspires to
+possess, but considers to be very difficult of attainment," I tried to
+explain. "The scientist says to the world, 'I have found the origin of
+life: it is protoplasm, it is your God, and all your religious beliefs
+are merely the result of your ignorance of protoplasm.' The philosopher
+answers, 'I allow that this protoplasm is the origin of life, but how
+did this origin itself originate? And if you can show how it originated
+from inanimate matter, how did the inanimate matter begin to exist? And
+how was space found in which it could exist? And why does anything
+exist, animate or inanimate? And is the existence of matter a proof of a
+supreme design, or is it not?' Thereupon science gets very red in the
+face, and says that these questions are absurd, after previously stating
+that everything ought to be questioned."</p>
+
+<p>"Science," answered the professor, "says that man has enough to do in
+questioning his immediate surroundings, without going into the matter of
+transcendental inquiry."</p>
+
+<p>"Then she ought to keep to her own proper sphere," said I, waxing hot.
+"The fact is that science, armed with miserably imperfect tools, but
+unbounded assumption, has discovered a jelly-fish in a basin of water,
+and has deduced from that premise the tremendous conclusion that there
+is no God."</p>
+
+<p>"That is strong language, Mr. Griggs,&mdash;very strong language," repeated
+the professor. "You exaggerate the position too much, I think. But it is
+useless to argue with transcendentalists. You always fall back upon the
+question of faith, and you refuse to listen to reason."</p>
+
+<p>"When you can disprove our position, we will listen to your proof. But
+since the whole human race, as far as we can ascertain, without any
+exception whatsoever, has believed always in the survival of the soul
+after death, allow me to say that when you deny the existence of the
+soul the <i>onus probandi</i> lies with you, and not with us."</p>
+
+<p>Therewith I drank my coffee in silence, and looked at the half-naked
+Turkish children playing upon the little pier over the bright water. It
+struck me that if the learned scientist had told them that they had no
+souls, they would have laughed at him very heartily. I think that in the
+opinion of the company I had the best of the argument, and Cutter knew
+it, for he did not answer.</p>
+
+<p>"I have always believed that I have a soul," said Macaulay Carvel, in
+his smooth, monotonous tone. But there was as much conviction in his
+tone as though he had expressed his belief in the fact that he had a
+nose.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course you have," said Hermione. "Let us go up to the castle and see
+the view before it is too late. Aunt Annie, do wait for us here; it is
+very tiring, really."</p>
+
+<p>"You seem to think I am a decrepit old woman," answered Madame Patoff,
+impatiently, as she rose from her chair.</p>
+
+<p>Paul felt that it was his duty to offer his mother his arm for the
+ascent, though the professor came forward at the same moment.</p>
+
+<p>"Dear Paul, you are so good," said she, accepting his assistance as we
+began to climb the hill.</p>
+
+<p>I saw her face in that moment. It was as calm and beautiful as ever, but
+I thought she glanced sideways to see whether every one had heard her
+speech and appreciated it. Little was said as we breasted the steep
+ascent, for the path was rough, and there was barely room for two people
+to walk side by side. At last we emerged upon a broad slope of grass
+outside the walls of the old fortress. A goatherd lives inside it, and
+has turned the old half-open vaults into a stable for his flocks. We
+paused under the high walls, which on one side are built above the
+precipitous cliff, with a sheer fall of a hundred feet or more. Towards
+the land they are not more than forty feet high, where the grass grows
+up to their base. There is a curious gate on that side, with the carved
+arms of the Genoese republic imbedded in the brick masonry.</p>
+
+<p>Some one suggested that we should go inside, and after a short interview
+with the goatherd he consented to chain up his enormous dog, and let us
+pass the small wooden gate which leads to the interior. Inside the
+fortress the falling in of the roof and walls has filled the old court
+so that it is nearly on a level with the walls. It is easy to scramble
+up to the top, and the thickness is so great that it is safe to walk
+along for a little distance, provided one does not go too near the edge.
+We wandered about below, and some of us climbed up to see the beautiful
+view, which extends far down the Bosphorus on the one side, and looks
+over the broad Black Sea on the other. Madame Patoff still leaned on
+Paul's arm, while the professor gallantly helped the languid
+Chrysophrasia to reach the most accessible places. Macaulay was engaged
+in an attempt to measure the circumference of the castle, and rambled
+about in quest of facts, as usual, noting down the figures in his
+pocket-book very conscientiously. I was left alone with Hermione for a
+few minutes. We sat down on a heap of broken masonry to rest, talking of
+the place and its history. Hermione was so placed that she could not see
+the top of the wall which overhung the precipice on the outer side, but
+from where I sat I could watch Paul slowly helping his mother to reach
+the top.</p>
+
+<p>"It belonged to the Genoese, and was built by them," I said. "The arms
+over the gate are theirs. Perhaps you noticed them." Paul and his mother
+had reached the summit of the wall, and were standing there, looking out
+at the view.</p>
+
+<p>"How did the Genoese come to be here?" asked Hermione, digging her
+parasol into the loose earth.</p>
+
+<p>"They were once very powerful in Constantinople," I answered. "They held
+Pera for many years, and"&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>I broke off with an exclamation of horror, starting to my feet at the
+same instant. I had idly watched the mother and son as they stood
+together, and I could hear their voices as they spoke. Suddenly, and
+without a moment's warning, Madame Patoff put out her hand, and seemed
+to push Paul with all her might. He stumbled, and fell upon the edge,
+but from my position I could not tell whether he had saved himself or
+had fallen into the abyss.</p>
+
+<p>I suppose Hermione followed my look, and saw that Madame Patoff was
+standing alone upon the top, but I did not stop to speak or explain. I
+sprang upon the wall, and in a second more I saw that Paul had fallen
+his full length along the brink, but had saved himself, and was
+scrambling to his feet. Madame Patoff stood quite still, her face rigid
+and drawn, and an expression of horror in her eyes that was bad to see.
+But I was not alone in coming to Paul's assistance. As I put out my arm
+to help him to his feet, I saw Hermione's small hands lay hold of him
+with desperate strength, dragging him from the fatal brink. But Paul was
+unhurt, and was on his legs in another moment. He was ghastly white, and
+his lips worked curiously as his eyes settled on his mother's face.</p>
+
+<p>"How did it happen?" asked Hermione, as soon as she could speak, but
+still clinging to his arm, while she glanced inquiringly at her aunt.</p>
+
+<p>"I do not know," said Paul, in a thick voice, between his teeth.</p>
+
+<p>"I was dizzy," gasped Madame Patoff. "I put out my hand to save
+myself"&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Do me the favor to come down from this place at once," I said, grasping
+her firmly by the arm, and leading her away.</p>
+
+<p>"Paul, Paul, how did it happen?" I heard Hermione saying, as we
+descended.</p>
+
+<p>But Paul's lips were resolutely shut, and he would say nothing more
+about it. Indeed, he was badly startled, but I knew his paleness was not
+caused by fear. In my own mind the conviction was strong that his mother
+had deliberately attempted to murder him by pushing him over the edge. I
+remembered Cutter's warning, and I wondered that he should have allowed
+her to go out of his sight since he recognized the condition of her
+brain, but a moment's reflection made me recollect that I had understood
+him differently. He had meant that she might try to kill herself, not
+her son; and that had been my own impression, for it was not till later
+that I learned how she had spoken of Paul to herself, that night in
+Pera, after the ball. At that time the professor knew more about the
+matter than I did, for Hermione had confided in him when they were alone
+in Santa Sophia.</p>
+
+<p>I think Madame Patoff tried to explain the accident to me as I got her
+down into the ruined court, but I do not remember what she said. My only
+wish was to get the party back to Buyukdere, and to be alone with Cutter
+for five minutes.</p>
+
+<p>"Patoff has met with an accident," I said, as the others came up. "He
+stumbled near the edge of the wall, and is badly shaken. We had better
+go home."</p>
+
+<p>There was very little explanation needed, and Paul protested that he had
+incurred no danger, though he acquiesced readily enough to the
+suggestion. I did not let Madame Patoff leave my arm until we were once
+more on board the little yacht, for I was convinced that the woman was
+dangerously mad. The drawn expression of her pale face did not change,
+and she soon ceased speaking altogether. I noted the fact that in all
+the excitement of the moment she expressed no satisfaction at Paul's
+escape. It was not until we reached the water that she said something
+about "dear Paul," in a tone that made me shudder. We were a silent
+party as we ran down the wind to Buyukdere. Cutter sat beside Madame
+Patoff, and watched her curiously; for the expression of her face had
+not escaped him, though he had no idea of what had happened. Sitting on
+the deck, at the edge of the wall, she looked down at the water as we
+rushed along.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you see in the water?" asked the professor, quietly. The answer
+came in a very low voice, but I heard it as I stood by the helm:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I see a man's face under the water, looking up at me."</p>
+
+<p>"And whose face is it?" inquired Cutter, in the same matter-of-fact
+tone.</p>
+
+<p>"I will not tell you, nor any one," she answered. Cutter looked up at me
+to see whether I had heard, and I nodded to him. In a few minutes we
+were alongside of the pier. I refused Chrysophrasia's not very pressing
+invitation to tea, and, bidding good-by to the rest, I put my arm
+through the professor's. He seemed ready enough to go with me, so we
+walked along the smooth quay in the sunset, arm in arm.</p>
+
+<p>"I wanted to speak to you," I said. "You ought to know what happened up
+there this afternoon. Madame Patoff tried to push Paul over the edge. It
+was a deliberate attempt to murder him." Cutter stopped in his walk and
+looked earnestly into my face.</p>
+
+<p>"Did you see it yourself? Did you positively see it, or is that only
+your impression?"</p>
+
+<p>"I saw it," I answered, shortly.</p>
+
+<p>"She is quite mad still, then. No one but a mad woman would attempt such
+a thing. What is worse, it is a fixed idea that she has." He told me
+what Hermione had confided to him.</p>
+
+<p>"Then Paul's life is not safe for a moment," I said, after a moment's
+pause.</p>
+
+<p>"Unless his brother marries Miss Carvel, I would advise him to be on his
+guard when he is alone with his mother. He is safe enough when other
+people are present. I know those cases. They are sly, cautious, timid.
+She will try and push him over the edge of a precipice when nobody is
+looking. Before you she will call him 'dear Paul,' and all the rest of
+it."</p>
+
+<p>"That looks to me more like the cunning of a murderess than the slyness
+of a maniac," I said.</p>
+
+<p>"Most murderers are only maniacs, mad people," answered the professor.
+"Men and women are born with a certain tendency of mind which makes them
+easily brood over an idea. Their life and circumstances foster one
+particular notion, till it gets a predominant weight in their weak
+reasoning. The occasion presents itself, and they carry out the plan
+they have been forming for years in secret, or even unconsciously. If in
+carrying out their ideas they kill anybody, it is called murder. It
+makes very little difference what you call it. The law distinguishes
+between crimes premeditated and crimes unpremeditated. Murder, willful
+and premeditated, involves in my opinion a process of mind so similar to
+that found in lunatics that it is impossible to distinguish the one from
+the other, and I am quite ready to believe that all premeditated murders
+are brought about by mental aberration in the murderer. On the other
+hand, manslaughter, quick, sudden, and unplanned, is the result of more
+or less inhuman instincts, and those who commit the crime are people who
+approach more or less nearly to wild beasts. For the advancement of
+science, murderers should not be hanged, but should be kept as
+interesting cases of insanity. Much might be learned by carefully
+observing the action of their minds upon ordinary occasions. As for
+homicides, or manslaughterers,&mdash;I wish we could use the English
+word,&mdash;they are less attractive as a study, and I do not care what
+becomes of them. The brain of a freshly killed tiger would be far more
+interesting."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you propose to do with Madame Patoff?" I asked. "You do not
+suppose that Miss Carvel will marry Alexander Patoff in order to prevent
+his mother from murdering Paul?"</p>
+
+<p>"She ought to," answered Cutter, quietly. "It would be most curious to
+see whether there would be any change in her fixed dislike of the
+younger son."</p>
+
+<p>"And do you mean that that young girl should sacrifice her life to your
+experiments?" I asked, rather hotly. I hated the coldness of the man,
+and his ruthless determination to make scientific capital out of other
+people's troubles.</p>
+
+<p>"I can neither propose nor dispose," he answered. "I only wish that it
+might be so. After all, she could be quite as happy with Alexander as
+with Paul. I doubt whether she has a strong preference for either."</p>
+
+<p>"You are mistaken," said I. "She loves Paul much more than she herself
+imagines. I saw her face to-day when Paul was lying on the edge of the
+precipice. You did not. I have watched them ever since they have been
+together in Constantinople, and I am convinced that she loves Paul, and
+not Alexander. What do you intend to do with Madame Patoff? You know I
+have a little party at my cottage on Saturday,&mdash;you promised to come. Is
+it safe to let her come, too?"</p>
+
+<p>"Perfectly," answered my companion. "The only thing to be done at
+present is to prevent her remaining alone with Paul."</p>
+
+<p>"Suppose that Paul tells what happened this afternoon. What then?"</p>
+
+<p>"He will not tell it. I have a great admiration for the fellow, he is so
+manly. If she had done worse than that, he would not tell any one,
+because she is his mother. But he will be on his guard, never fear. She
+will not get such a chance again. Good-night."</p>
+
+<p>The professor left me at the door of the garden through which I had to
+pass to reach the little kiosk. I walked slowly up through the roses
+and the flowers, meditating as I went. Paul had a new enemy in the
+professor, who would certainly try and help Alexander, in order to
+continue his experiments upon Madame Patoff's mind. Poor Paul! He seemed
+to be persecuted by an evil fate, and I pitied him sincerely.</p>
+
+
+
+<h2 class="m"><a name="XXIV" id="XXIV"></a>XXIV.</h2>
+
+
+<p>It was Saturday afternoon, and my preparations for my little tea-party
+were complete. Gregorios Balsamides had arrived from Pera, and we were
+waiting for the Carvels, seated on the long bench before the house,
+where the view overlooks the Bosphorus. The sun had almost set, and the
+hills of Asia were already tinged with golden light, which caught the
+walls of the white mosque on the Giant's Mountain,&mdash;the Yusha-Dagh,
+where the Mussulmans believe that Joshua's body lies buried; Anadoli
+Kav&aacute;k was bathed in a soft radiance, in which every line of the old
+fortress stood out clear and distinct, so that I could see the very spot
+where Paul had fallen a few days before; the far mouth of the Black Sea
+looked cold and gray in the shadows below the hills, but down below, the
+big steamers, the little yachts, the outlandish Turkish schooners, and
+the tiny ca&iuml;ques moved quickly about in the evening sunshine. My garden
+was become a wilderness of roses in the soft spring weather, too, and
+each flower took a warmer hue as the sun sank in the west, and slowly
+neared the point where it would drop behind the European foreland.</p>
+
+<p>The kiosk was a wooden building, narrow and tall, so that the rooms
+within were high, and the second story was twenty feet above the ground.
+I had caused hundreds of lamps to be hung within and without, to be
+lighted so soon as the darkness set in, and my man, who has an especial
+talent for all sorts of illuminations, and in general for everything
+which in Southern Italy comes under the head of 'festa,' had borrowed
+long strings of little signal-flags and streamers, which he had hung
+fantastically from the house to the surrounding trees. When once the
+lamps should be lighted the effect would be very pretty, and to the eyes
+of English people utterly new.</p>
+
+<p>Gregorios sat beside me on the garden seat, and we talked of Madame
+Patoff and her latest doings. My mind was not at rest about her, and I
+inwardly wished that some accident might prevent her from coming that
+day. I had more than once almost determined to speak to my old friend
+John Carvel, and to tell him what had occurred at Anadoli Kav&aacute;k. Nothing
+but my respect for Professor Cutter's opinion as a specialist had
+prevented me from doing so; but now, at the last moment, I wished I had
+not been overruled, for I had an unpleasant conviction that his prudence
+had been forgotten in his desire to study the case. For men of his
+profession there seems to be an absorbing interest in deciding the
+question of where crime ends and madness begins, and to put Madame
+Patoff under restraint would have been to cut short one of the most
+valuable experiences of Cutter's life. He probably knew that in the
+present stage of her malady such a proceeding would very likely have
+driven her into hopeless and evident insanity. I could have forgiven him
+if I had thought that he regarded the question from a moralist's point
+of view, and balanced the danger of leaving the unfortunate woman at
+large against the possible advantage she herself might gain from
+enjoying unrestricted liberty. But I was sure that the scientist was not
+thinking of that. He had expressed interest rather than horror at her
+attempt to push Paul over the edge of the wall. He had answered my
+anxious questions concerning the treatment of Madame Patoff by a short
+dissertation on insanity in general, and had left me to continue his
+studies, regardless of any danger to his patient's relations. The moral
+point of view shrank into insignificance as he became more and more
+absorbed in the result of the case, and I believe that he would have let
+us all perish, if necessary, rather than consent to relinquish his
+study. He might have regretted his indifference afterwards, especially
+if he had arrived at no satisfactory conclusion in regard to the unhappy
+woman; but in the fervor of scientific speculation, minor considerations
+of safety were forgotten. Cutter is not a bad man, though he is
+ruthless. He would be incapable of doing any one an injury from a
+personal motive, but in comparison with the importance of one of his
+theories the life of a man is no more to him than the life of a dog. I
+said something of that kind to Balsamides.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear fellow," he answered, "do you expect common sense from people
+who waste their lives in such a senseless fashion? Can anything be more
+absurd than to attempt to explain the vagaries of a diseased mind? They
+call that science in the professor's country. They may as well give it
+up. They will never ultimately discover any better treatment for
+dangerous lunatics than solid bolts and barred windows."</p>
+
+<p>"I believe you are right," I said. "If we could put medicine into the
+head as we can into the stomach, something might be accomplished. It is
+very unpleasant to think that I am to entertain a lady at my tea-party
+who only the other day tried to murder her son in my sight."</p>
+
+<p>"Very," assented Gregorios. "Here they come."</p>
+
+<p>We heard the sound of voices in the garden, and rose to meet the party
+as they came up towards the house. None of them had been to see me
+before, except Paul, and they at once launched into extravagant praises
+of the view and of the kiosk. Chrysophrasia raved about the sunset
+effects, and Hermione was delighted with the way the flags were
+arranged. Macaulay consulted his pocket barometer to see how many feet
+above the sea the house was built, and declared that the air must be far
+more healthy in such a place than on the quay. Madame Patoff looked
+silently out at the view, leaning on Alexander's arm, while John Carvel
+and his wife stood close together, smiling and appreciative, the ideal
+of a well-assorted and perfectly happy middle-aged couple. Cutter
+talked to Balsamides, and Paul followed Hermione as she slowly moved
+from point to point. I stood alone for a few moments, and looked at
+them, going over in my mind all that had happened during the last seven
+months, and wondering how it would all end.</p>
+
+<p>These ten people had lived much together, and had found themselves
+lately united in some very strange occurrences. With the exception of
+Balsamides and the professor, they were all nearly related, and yet they
+were as unlike each other as people of one family could be. The gentle,
+saintly Mary Carvel had little in common with her &aelig;sthetic sister
+Chrysophrasia Dabstreak, and neither of them was very like Madame
+Patoff. Sturdy John Carvel was not like his sleek son Macaulay, except
+in honesty and good-nature. Alexander Patoff was indeed like his mother,
+but Paul's stern, cold nature was that of his father, long dead and
+forgotten. As for Hermione, she presented a combination of character
+derived from the best points in her father and mother, marred only, I
+thought, by a little of that vacillation which was the chief
+characteristic of her aunt Chrysophrasia. Cutter and Balsamides were men
+of widely different nationalities and temperaments: the one a ruthless
+scientist, the other an equally ruthless fatalist; the one ready to
+sacrifice the lives of others to a fanatic worship of his profession,
+the other willing to sacrifice himself to the inevitable with heroic
+courage, but holding other men's lives as of no more value than his own.
+A strange company, I thought, and yet in many respects a most
+interesting company, too.</p>
+
+<p>"Shall we go in-doors and have tea?" I said after a few moments,
+collecting my guests together. "The view is even better from the windows
+above."</p>
+
+<p>I led them into the stone-paved vestibule of the wooden house, and up
+the wooden stairs to the upper story. Presently they were all installed
+in the large room where the preparations for the small festivity had
+been made, and I began to do the honors of my bachelor establishment.
+In a Turkish family, the room where we sat, and the three others upon
+the same floor, would have been set apart for the harem, for one door
+separated them from the staircase and from all the rest of the house,&mdash;a
+large strong door, painted white, and provided with an excellent lock
+and key. I had selected one room for my bedroom, and the rest were
+furnished with Oriental simplicity, not to say economy. But Balsamides
+had sent down a bale of beautiful carpets, which he lent me for the
+occasion, and which I had hung upon the walls and spread upon the floors
+and divans. Tea, coffee, sherbet, a beautiful view, and a little
+illumination of the gardens, constituted the whole entertainment, but
+the enthusiasm of my guests knew no bounds, probably because they had
+never seen anything of the kind before.</p>
+
+<p>"Griggs is growing to be a true Oriental," said Balsamides, approvingly;
+"he understands how the Turks live."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," I answered, "I present you the thing in all its bareness. You may
+take this as a specimen of an Eastern house. People are apt to fancy
+that those long, latticed houses on the Bosphorus conceal unheard-of
+luxuries, and that the people live like Sybarites. It is quite untrue.
+They either try to imitate the French style, and do it horribly, or else
+they live in great bare rooms like these."</p>
+
+<p>"What do the women do all day long?" asked Chrysophrasia. "I am sure
+they do not pass their time upon a straw matting, staring at each
+other,&mdash;so very dreary!"</p>
+
+<p>"Nevertheless they do," said Gregorios. "They smoke and eat sweetmeats
+from morning till night, and occasionally an old woman comes and tells
+them stories. Some of them can read French. They learn it in order to
+read novels, but cannot speak a word of the language."</p>
+
+<p>"Dreary, dreary!" sighed Chrysophrasia. "And then, the division of the
+affections, you know,&mdash;so sad."</p>
+
+<p>"Many of them die of consumption," said Gregorios.</p>
+
+<p>"It would be curious to watch the phases of their intelligence," said
+the professor, slowly sipping his coffee, and staring out of the window
+through his great gold-rimmed spectacles.</p>
+
+<p>The sun had gone down, and the darkness gathered quickly over the
+beautiful scene. At one of the windows Hermione sat silently enjoying
+the evening breeze; Alexander was seated beside her, while Paul stood
+looking out over her head. Neither of the two men spoke, but from time
+to time they exchanged glances which were anything but friendly.
+Outside, my man and the gardener were lighting the little lamps, and
+gradually, as each glass cup received its tiny light, the festoons of
+white and red grew, and seemed to creep stealthily from tree to tree.
+The conversation languished, and the deepening twilight brought with it
+that pleasant silence which is the very embodiment of rest descending at
+evening on the tired earth.</p>
+
+<p>"It is like an evening hymn," said Mrs. Carvel, whose gentle features
+were barely visible in the gloom.</p>
+
+<p>No one spoke, but I fancied I saw John Carvel lay his hand
+affectionately on his wife's arm, as they sat together. There was a
+light above the eastern hills, brightening quickly as we looked, and
+presently the full moon rose and shed her rays through the low open
+windows, making our faces look white and deathly in the dark room. It
+shone on Madame Patoff's marble features, and cast strange shadows
+around her mouth.</p>
+
+<p>"Shall we have lights?" I asked. There was a general refusal; everybody
+preferred the moonlight, which now flooded the apartment.</p>
+
+<p>"It seems to me," said Chrysophrasia, half sadly,&mdash;"it seems to me&mdash;ah,
+no! I must be mistaken,&mdash;and yet&mdash;it seems to me that I smell something
+burning."</p>
+
+<p>"I think it is the lamps outside," I answered. No one else took any
+notice of the speech, which jarred upon the pleasant stillness. I myself
+thought she was mistaken.</p>
+
+<p>"What a wonderful contrast!" said Hermione. "I mean the lamps and the
+moonlight." Then she added, suddenly, "Do you know, Mr. Griggs, there
+is really something burning. I can smell it quite well."</p>
+
+<p>A fire in a Turkish house is a serious matter. The old beams and boarded
+walls are like so much tinder, and burn up immediately, as though soaked
+with some inflammable liquid. I rose, and went out to see if there were
+anything wrong. As I opened the door which shut off the whole apartment
+from the stairs, I heard a strange crackling sound, and outside the
+window of the staircase, which was in the back of the house, I saw a red
+glare, which brightened in the moment while I watched it. I did not go
+further, for I knew the danger was imminent.</p>
+
+<p>"Will you be good enough to come down-stairs?" I said, quietly, as I
+re-entered the room where my guests were assembled. "I am afraid
+something is wrong, but there is plenty of time."</p>
+
+<p>A considerable confusion ensued, and everybody rushed to the door.
+Protestations were vain, for all the women were frightened, and all the
+men were anxious to help them. The sight of the flames outside the
+window redoubled their fears, and they rushed out, stumbling on the
+dusky landing. In the confusion of the moment I did not realize how it
+all happened. Chrysophrasia, who was mad with fright, caught her foot
+against something, and fell close beside me. The other ladies were
+already down-stairs, I thought. I picked her up and carried her down as
+fast as I could, and out into the garden.</p>
+
+<p>"Come away from the house!" I cried. "Away from the trees!"
+Chrysophrasia was senseless with fear, and I bore her hastily on till I
+reached the fountain, some twenty yards down the hill. There I put her
+down upon a bench. There were two buckets and a couple of watering-pots
+there, and I shouted to the other men to come to me, as I filled two of
+the vessels and ran round to the back of the house. I passed Madame
+Patoff, standing alone under a festoon of little lamps, by a tree, and I
+remember the strange expression of gladness which was on her face. But
+I had no time to speak to her, and rushed on with my water-cans.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile the flames rose higher and higher, crackling and licking the
+brown face of the old timber. There was small chance of saving the
+building now. My men had been busy lighting the lamps in the garden, but
+I found them already on the spot, dipping water out of a small cistern
+with buckets, and dashing it into the fire with all their might, their
+dark faces grim and set in the light of the flames. I worked as hard as
+I could, supposing that all the party were safe. I had no idea of what
+was going on upon the opposite side of the house. In truth, it was
+horrible enough.</p>
+
+<p>Paul and Cutter were very self-possessed, and their first care was to
+see that all the four ladies were safe. They had Hermione and her mother
+with them, and, taking the direction of the fountain, they found
+Chrysophrasia upon the bench where I had left her, in a violent fit of
+hysterics. Madame Patoff was not there.</p>
+
+<p>"I was going back for aunt Annie," said Macaulay Carvel, "for I counted
+them as they came out, and missed her. She ran right into my arms as I
+stood in the door. She is somewhere in the garden; I am quite sure of
+it."</p>
+
+<p>Cutter hurried off, and began to search among the trees. Already the
+bright flames could be seen in the lower story, and in a moment more the
+glass of one of the windows cracked loudly, and the fire leapt through.
+Then from the high windows above a voice was heard calling, loud and
+clear, to those below.</p>
+
+<p>"The door is locked! Can any one help me?" The voice belonged to
+Gregorios, and the party looked into each other's faces in sudden
+horror, and then glanced at the burning house.</p>
+
+<p>"Save him! Save him!" cried Hermione. But Paul had already left her
+side, and had reached the open door of the porch. Alexander stood still,
+staring at the flames.</p>
+
+<p>"He saved you," said Hermione, grasping his arm fiercely. "Will you do
+nothing to help him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Paul is gone already," answered Alexander, impatiently. "There is
+nothing the matter. Paul will let him out."</p>
+
+<p>But the other men were less apathetic, and had followed the brave man to
+the door. He had disappeared already, and as they came up a tremendous
+puff of smoke and ashes was blown into their faces, stifling and burning
+them, so that they drew back.</p>
+
+<p>"Jump for your life!" shouted John Carvel, looking up at the window from
+which the voice had proceeded.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, jump!" cried Alexander, who had reluctantly followed. "We will
+catch you in our arms!"</p>
+
+<p>But no one answered them. Nothing was heard but the crackling of the
+burning timber and the roaring of the flames, during the awful moments
+which followed. Stupefied with horror, the three men stood staring
+stupidly at the hideous sight. Then suddenly another huge puff of smoke
+and fiery sparks burst from the door, and with it a dark mass flew
+forward, as though shot from a cannon's mouth, and fell in a heap upon
+the ground outside. All three ran forward, but some one else was there
+before them, dragging away a thick carpet, of which the wool was all
+singed and burning.</p>
+
+<p>There lay Gregorios Balsamides as he had fallen, stumbling on the
+doorstep, with the heavy body of Paul Patoff in his arms. Hermione fell
+on her knees and shrieked aloud. It was plain enough. Paul, without the
+least protection from the flames, had struggled up the burning
+staircase, and had unlocked the door, losing consciousness as he opened
+it. Gregorios, who was not to be outdone in bravery, and whom no danger
+could frighten from his senses, had wrapped a carpet round the injured
+man, and, throwing another over his own head, had borne him back through
+the fire, the steps of the wooden staircase, already in flames, almost
+breaking under his tread. But he had done the deed, and had lived
+through it.</p>
+
+<p>He looked up faintly at Hermione as she bent over them both.</p>
+
+<p>"I think he is alive," he gasped, and fainted upon the ground.</p>
+
+<p>They bore the two senseless bodies to the fountain, and laid them down,
+and sprinkled water on their faces. Behind them they could hear the
+crash of the first timbers falling in, as the fire reached the upper
+story of the kiosk; at their feet they saw only the still, pale faces of
+the men who had been ready to give their lives for each other.</p>
+
+<p>But Cutter had gone in search of Madame Patoff, during the five minutes
+which had sufficed for the enacting of this scene. He had found her
+where I had passed her, looking up with a strange smile at the doomed
+house.</p>
+
+<p>"Paul is looking for you," said the professor, taking her arm under his.
+She started, and trembled violently.</p>
+
+<p>"Paul!" she cried in surprise. Then, with a wild laugh, she stared into
+Cutter's eyes. He had heard that laugh many a time in his experience,
+and he silently tightened his grip upon her arm.</p>
+
+<p>"Paul!" she repeated wildly. "There is no more Paul," she added,
+suddenly lowering her voice, and speaking confidentially. "Hermione can
+marry my dear Alexander now. There is no more Paul. You do not know? It
+was so quickly done. He stayed behind in the room, and I locked the
+door, so tight, so fast. He can never get out. Ah!" she screamed all at
+once, "I am so glad! Let me go&mdash;let me go"&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>At that moment I came upon them. Relinquishing all hopes of saving the
+house, and wondering vaguely, in my confusion of mind, why nobody had
+come to help me, I called my two men off, and was going to see what had
+become of the party. I found Madame Patoff a raving maniac, struggling
+in the gigantic hands of the sturdy scientist. I will not dwell upon the
+hideous scene which followed. It was the last time I ever saw her, and I
+pray that I may never again see man or woman in such a condition.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, the two men who lay by the fountain in the moonlight showed
+signs of life. Gregorios first came to himself, for he had only fainted.
+He was in great pain, but was as eager as the rest to restore Paul to
+consciousness. Patoff was almost asphyxiated by the smoke, his hair and
+eyebrows and mustache were almost burnt off, and his right hand was
+injured. But he was alive, and at last he opened his eyes. In a quarter
+of an hour he could be helped upon his feet. Balsamides was already
+standing, and Paul caught at his hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Not that arm," said Gregorios calmly, holding out the other. In his
+fall he had broken his wrist.</p>
+
+<p>In answer to my cries, the two Carvels left the injured men and came to
+our assistance, while we struggled with the mad woman, who seemed
+possessed of the strength of a dozen athletes. Hermione was left by the
+fountain.</p>
+
+<p>"I was quite sure it would be all right," said Alexander to her,
+presently. It was more than the young girl could bear. She turned upon
+him fiercely, and her beautiful face was very white.</p>
+
+<p>"I despise you!" she exclaimed. That was all she said, but in the next
+moment she turned and threw her arms about Paul's neck, and kissed his
+burnt and wounded face before them all.</p>
+
+<p class="g">* * * * * * * * * * * * * *</p>
+
+<p>There is little more to be said, for my story is told to the end. When I
+found them all together, Gregorios took me aside and drew a crumpled
+mass of papers from his pocket with his uninjured hand.</p>
+
+<p>"I stayed behind to save your papers and your money," he said quietly.
+"I have seen houses burn before, and there is generally no time to be
+lost."</p>
+
+<p>I wonder what there is at the bottom of that man's strange nature. Cold,
+indifferent, and fatalistic, apparently one of the most selfish of men,
+he nevertheless seems to possess somewhere a kind of devoted heroism, an
+untainted quality of friendship only too rare in our day.</p>
+
+<p>Hermione Carvel is to be married to Paul in the autumn, but there is
+reason to believe that Alexander, who has rejoined his regiment in St.
+Petersburg, will not find it convenient to be at the wedding. When
+Balsamides was crying for help from the upper window, and when Alexander
+stood quietly by Hermione's side while his brother faced the danger, the
+die was cast, and she saw what a wide gulf separated the two men, and
+she knew that she loved the one and hated the other with a fierce
+hatred.</p>
+
+<p>Poor Madame Patoff is dead, but before he left Constantinople Professor
+Cutter spent half an hour in trying to demonstrate to me that she might
+have been cured if Hermione had married Alexander. I am glad he is gone,
+for I always detested his theories.</p>
+
+<p>So the story is ended, my dear friend; and if it is told badly, it is my
+fault, for I assure you that I never in my life spent so exciting a
+year. It has been a long tale, too, but you have told me that from time
+to time you were interested in it; and, after all, a tale is but a tale,
+and is a very different affair from an artistically constructed drama,
+in which facts have to be softened, so as not to look too startling in
+print. I have given you facts, and if you ever meet Gregorios Balsamides
+he will tell you that I have exaggerated nothing. Moreover, if you will
+take the trouble to visit Santa Sophia during the last nights of
+Ramaz&aacute;n, you will understand how Alexander Patoff disappeared; and if
+you will go over the house of Laleli Khanum Effendi, which is now to be
+sold, you will see how impossible it was for him to escape from such a
+place. In the garden above Mesar Burnu you will see the heap of ashes,
+which is all that remains of the kiosk where I gave my unlucky
+tea-party; and if you will turn up the bridle-path at the left of the
+Belgrade road, a hundred yards before you reach the aqueduct, you will
+come upon the spot where Gregorios threatened to kill Selim, the wicked
+Lala, on that bitter March night. I dare say, also, that if you visit
+any of these places by chance you will remember the strange scenes they
+have witnessed, and I hope that you will also remember Paul Griggs, your
+friend, who spun you this yarn because you asked him for a story, when
+he was riding with you on that rainy afternoon last month. I only wish
+you knew the Carvels, for I am sure you would like them, and you would
+find Chrysophrasia very amusing.</p>
+
+
+
+<h2 class="m"><a name="WRITINGS" id="WRITINGS"></a>WRITINGS OF F. MARION CRAWFORD</h2>
+
+<p class="c">12mo. Cloth</p>
+
+<p class="c">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+<table summary="works" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
+<tr><td>Corleone</td><td align="right" style="border-right:solid black 1px; padding-right: 5px;">$1.50</td><td style="padding-left: 10px;">With the Immortals</td><td align="right" valign="bottom">1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Casa Braccio. 2 vols.</td><td align="right" style="border-right:solid black 1px; padding-right: 5px;">2.00</td><td style="padding-left: 10px;">The Witch of Prague</td><td align="right">1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Taquisara</td><td align="right" style="border-right:solid black 1px; padding-right: 5px;">1.50</td><td style="padding-left: 10px;">A Roman Singer</td><td align="right">1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Saracinesca</td><td align="right" style="border-right:solid black 1px; padding-right: 5px;">1.50</td><td style="padding-left: 10px;">Greifenstein</td><td align="right">1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Sant' Ilario</td><td align="right" style="border-right:solid black 1px; padding-right: 5px;">1.50</td><td style="padding-left: 10px;">Pietro Ghisleri</td><td align="right">1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Don Orsino</td><td align="right" style="border-right:solid black 1px; padding-right: 5px;">1.50</td><td style="padding-left: 10px;">Katherine Lauderdale</td><td align="right">1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Mr. Isaacs</td><td align="right" style="border-right:solid black 1px; padding-right: 5px;">1.50</td><td style="padding-left: 10px;">The Ralstons</td><td align="right">1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td>A Cigarette-Maker's Romance, and Khaled</td><td align="right" style="border-right:solid black 1px; padding-right: 5px;">1.50</td><td style="padding-left: 10px;">Children of the King</td><td align="right">1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Marzio's Crucifix</td><td align="right" style="border-right:solid black 1px; padding-right: 5px;">1.50</td><td style="padding-left: 10px;">The Three Fates</td><td align="right">1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td>An American Politician</td><td align="right" style="border-right:solid black 1px; padding-right: 5px;">1.50</td><td style="padding-left: 10px;">Adam Johnstone's Son, and A Rose of Yesterday</td><td align="right">1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Paul Patoff</td><td align="right" style="border-right:solid black 1px; padding-right: 5px;">1.50</td><td style="padding-left: 10px;">Marion Darche</td><td align="right">1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td>To Leeward</td><td align="right" style="border-right:solid black 1px; padding-right: 5px;">1.50</td><td style="padding-left: 10px;">Love in Idleness</td><td align="right">2.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Dr. Claudius</td><td align="right" style="border-right:solid black 1px; padding-right: 5px;">1.50</td><td style="padding-left: 10px;">Via Crucis</td><td align="right">1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Zoroaster</td><td align="right" style="border-right:solid black 1px; padding-right: 5px;">1.50</td><td style="padding-left: 10px;">In the Palace of the King</td><td align="right">1.50</td></tr>
+<tr><td>A Tale of a Lonely Parish</td><td align="right" style="border-right:solid black 1px; padding-right: 5px;">1.50</td><td style="padding-left: 10px;">Ave Roma Immortalis</td><td align="right">$3.00 net</td></tr>
+<tr><td colspan="4" align="center">Rulers of the South: Sicily, Calabria, Malta. 2 vols. $6.00 net.</td></tr>
+</table>
+
+<p class="c">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+
+<p class="c"><b>CORLEONE</b></p>
+
+<p class="c"><b>A TALE OF SICILY</b></p>
+
+<p class="c">The last of the famous Saracinesca Series</p>
+
+<p class="c">"It is by far the most stirring and dramatic of all the author's Italian
+stories.... The plot is a masterly one, bringing at almost every page a
+fresh surprise, keeping the reader in suspense to the very end."&mdash;<i>The
+Times</i>, New York.</p>
+
+
+<p class="c"><b>MR. ISAACS</b></p>
+
+<p class="c">"It is lofty and uplifting. It is strongly, sweetly, tenderly written.
+It is in all respects an uncommon novel."&mdash;<i>The Literary World.</i></p>
+
+
+<p class="c"><b>DR. CLAUDIUS</b></p>
+
+<p class="c">"The characters are strongly marked without any suspicion of caricature,
+and the author's ideas on social and political subjects are often
+brilliant and always striking. It is no exaggeration to say that there
+is not a dull page in the book, which is peculiarly adapted for the
+recreation of the student or thinker."&mdash;<i>Living Church.</i></p>
+
+
+<p class="c"><b>A ROMAN SINGER</b></p>
+
+<p class="c">"A powerful story of art and love in Rome."&mdash;<i>The New York Observer.</i></p>
+
+
+<p class="c">AN AMERICAN POLITICIAN</p>
+
+<p class="c">"One of the characters is a visiting Englishman. Possibly Mr. Crawford's
+long residence abroad has made him select such a hero as a safeguard
+against slips, which does not seem to have been needed. His insight into
+a phase of politics with which he could hardly be expected to be
+familiar is remarkable."&mdash;<i>Buffalo Express.</i></p>
+
+
+<p class="c"><b>TAQUISARA</b></p>
+
+<p class="c">"A charming story this is, and one which will certainly be liked by all
+admirers of Mr. Crawford's work."&mdash;<i>New York Herald.</i></p>
+
+
+<p class="c"><b>ADAM JOHNSTONE'S SON and A ROSE OF YESTERDAY</b></p>
+
+<p class="c">"It is not only one of the most enjoyable novels that Mr. Crawford has
+ever written, but is a novel that will make people think."&mdash;<i>Boston
+Beacon.</i></p>
+
+<p class="c">"Don't miss reading Marion Crawford's new novel, 'A Rose of Yesterday.'
+It is brief, but beautiful and strong. It is as charming a piece of pure
+idealism as ever came from Mr. Crawford's pen."&mdash;<i>Chicago Tribune.</i></p>
+
+
+<p class="c"><b>SARACINESCA</b></p>
+
+<p class="c">"The work has two distinct merits, either of which would serve to make
+it great: that of telling a perfect story in a perfect way, and of
+giving a graphic picture of Roman society.... The story is exquisitely
+told, and is the author's highest achievement, as yet, in the realm of
+fiction."&mdash;<i>The Boston Traveler.</i></p>
+
+
+<p class="c"><b>SANT' ILARIO</b></p>
+
+<p class="c"><b>A SEQUEL TO SARACINESCA</b></p>
+
+<p class="c">"A singularly powerful and beautiful story.... It fulfils every
+requirement of artistic fiction. It brings out what is most impressive
+in human action, without owing any of its effectiveness to
+sensationalism or artifice. It is natural, fluent in evolution,
+accordant with experience, graphic in description, penetrating in
+analysis, and absorbing in interest."&mdash;<i>The New York Tribune.</i></p>
+
+
+<p class="c"><b>DON ORSINO</b></p>
+
+<p class="c"><b>A SEQUEL TO SARACINESCA AND SANT' ILARIO</b></p>
+
+<p class="c">"Offers exceptional enjoyment in many ways, in the fascinating
+absorption of good fiction, in the interest of faithful historic
+accuracy, and in charm of style. The 'New Italy' is strikingly revealed
+in 'Don Orsino.'"&mdash;<i>Boston Budget.</i></p>
+
+
+<p class="c"><b>WITH THE IMMORTALS</b></p>
+
+<p class="c">"The strange central idea of the story could have occurred only to a
+writer whose mind was very sensitive to the current of modern thought
+and progress, while its execution, the setting it forth in proper
+literary clothing, could be successfully attempted only by one whose
+active literary ability should be fully equalled by his power of
+assimilative knowledge both literary and scientific, and no less by his
+courage, and so have a fascination entirely new for the habitual reader
+of novels. Indeed, Mr. Crawford has succeeded in taking his readers
+quite above the ordinary plane of novel interest."&mdash;<i>The Boston
+Advertiser.</i></p>
+
+
+<p class="c"><b>GREIFENSTEIN</b></p>
+
+<p class="c">"...Another notable contribution to the literature of the day. Like all
+Mr. Crawford's work, this novel is crisp, clear, and vigorous, and will
+be read with a great deal of interest."&mdash;<i>New York Evening Telegram.</i></p>
+
+
+<p class="c"><b>A CIGARETTE-MAKER'S ROMANCE and KHALED</b></p>
+
+<p class="c">"It is a touching romance, filled with scenes of great dramatic
+power."&mdash;<i>Boston Commercial Bulletin.</i></p>
+
+<p class="c">"It abounds in stirring incidents and barbaric picturesqueness; and the
+love struggle of the unloved Khaled is manly in its simplicity and noble
+in its ending."&mdash;<i>The Mail and Express.</i></p>
+
+
+<p class="c"><b>THE WITCH OF PRAGUE</b></p>
+
+<p class="c">"The artistic skill with which this extraordinary story is constructed
+and carried out is admirable and delightful.... Mr. Crawford has scored
+a decided triumph, for the interest of the tale is sustained
+throughout.... A very remarkable, powerful, and interesting
+story."&mdash;<i>New York Tribune.</i></p>
+
+
+<p class="c"><b>TO LEEWARD</b></p>
+
+<p class="c">"It is an admirable tale of Italian life told in a spirited way and far
+better than most of the fiction current."&mdash;<i>San Francisco Chronicle.</i></p>
+
+
+<p class="c"><b>ZOROASTER</b></p>
+
+<p class="c">"As a matter of literary art solely, we doubt if Mr. Crawford has ever
+before given us better work than the description of Belshazzar's feast
+with which the story begins, or the death-scene with which it
+closes."&mdash;<i>The Christian Union</i> (now <i>The Outlook</i>).</p>
+
+
+<p class="c"><b>A TALE OF A LONELY PARISH</b></p>
+
+<p class="c">"It is a pleasure to have anything so perfect of its kind as this brief
+and vivid story. It is doubly a success, being full of human sympathy,
+as well as thoroughly artistic."&mdash;<i>The Critic.</i></p>
+
+
+<p class="c">MARZIO'S CRUCIFIX</p>
+
+<p class="c">"We take the liberty of saying that this work belongs to the highest
+department of character-painting in words."&mdash;<i>The Churchman.</i></p>
+
+
+<p class="c"><b>PAUL PATOFF</b></p>
+
+<p class="c">"It need scarcely be said that the story is skilfully and picturesquely
+written, portraying sharply individual characters in well-defined
+surroundings."&mdash;<i>New York Commercial Advertiser.</i></p>
+
+
+<p class="c"><b>PIETRO GHISLERI</b></p>
+
+<p class="c">"The strength of the story lies not only in the artistic and highly
+dramatic working out of the plot, but also in the penetrating analysis
+and understanding of the impulsive and passionate Italian
+character."&mdash;<i>Public Opinion.</i></p>
+
+
+<p class="c"><b>THE CHILDREN OF THE KING</b></p>
+
+<p class="c">"One of the most artistic and exquisitely finished pieces of work that
+Crawford has produced. The picturesque setting, Calabria and its
+surroundings, the beautiful Sorrento and the Gulf of Salerno, with the
+bewitching accessories that climate, sea, and sky afford, give Mr.
+Crawford rich opportunities to show his rare descriptive powers. As a
+whole the book is strong and beautiful through its simplicity."&mdash;<i>Public
+Opinion.</i></p>
+
+
+<p class="c"><b>MARION DARCHE</b></p>
+
+<p class="c">"We are disposed to rank 'Marion Darche' as the best of Mr. Crawford's
+American stories."&mdash;<i>The Literary World.</i></p>
+
+
+<p class="c"><b>KATHERINE LAUDERDALE</b></p>
+
+<p class="c">"It need scarcely be said that the story is skilfully and picturesquely
+written, portraying sharply individual characters in well-defined
+surroundings."&mdash;<i>New York Commercial Advertiser.</i></p>
+
+
+<p class="c"><b>THE RALSTON</b>S</p>
+
+<p class="c">"The whole group of character studies is strong and vivid."&mdash;<i>The
+Literary World.</i></p>
+
+
+<p class="c"><b>LOVE IN IDLENESS</b></p>
+
+<p class="c">"The story is told in the author's lightest vein; it is bright and
+entertaining."&mdash;<i>The Literary World.</i></p>
+
+
+<p class="c"><b>CASA BRACCIO</b></p>
+
+<p class="c">"We are grateful when Mr. Crawford keeps to his Italy. The poetry and
+enchantment of the land are all his own, and 'Casa Braccio' gives
+promise of being his masterpiece.... He has the life, the beauty, the
+heart, and the soul of Italy at the tips of his fingers."&mdash;<i>Los Angeles
+Express.</i></p>
+
+
+<p class="c"><b>THE THREE FATES</b></p>
+
+<p class="c">"The strength of the story lies in portrayal of the aspirations,
+disciplinary efforts, trials, and triumphs of the man who is a born
+writer, and who by long and painful experiences learns the good that is
+in him and the way in which to give it effectual expression. Taken for
+all in all it is one of the most pleasing of all his productions in
+fiction, and it affords a view of certain phases of American, or perhaps
+we should say of New York, life that have not hitherto been treated with
+anything like the same adequacy and felicity."&mdash;<i>Boston Beacon.</i></p>
+
+
+<p class="c"><b>AVE ROMA IMMORTALIS</b></p>
+
+<p class="c">STUDIES FROM THE CHRONICLES OF ROME</p>
+
+<p class="c">In two Volumes. Fully Illustrated with Photogravures and Drawings in the
+Text. Cloth. Crown 8vo. $6.00 net</p>
+
+<p class="c">"I have not for a long while read a book which pleased me more than Mr.
+Crawford's 'Roma.' It is cast in a form so original and so available
+that it must surely take the place of all other books about Rome which
+are needed to help one to understand its story and its arch&aelig;ology....
+The book has for me a rare interest."&mdash;<span class="smcap">Dr. S. Weir Mitchell</span></p>
+
+
+<p class="c"><b>THE RULERS OF THE SOUTH</b></p>
+
+<p class="c">SICILY, CALABRIA, AND MALTA</p>
+
+<p class="c">In two Volumes. Fully Illustrated with Photogravures and Drawings in the
+Text. Cloth. Crown 8vo. $6.00 net</p>
+
+<p class="c">The author has gathered the threads of history and legend which have
+wound themselves around the three kingdoms of Sicily, Calabria, and
+Malta. Their history is of a long line of illustrious deeds, full of
+stirring interest.</p>
+
+<p class="c">The illustrations are of unusual beauty, and have been reproduced in
+both photogravure and half-tone.</p>
+
+
+<p class="c"><b>VIA CRUCIS</b></p>
+
+<p class="c">A ROMANCE OF THE SECOND CRUSADE</p>
+
+<p class="c">"Throughout 'Via Crucis' the author shows not only the artist's
+selective power and a sense of proportion and comparative values, but
+the Christian's instinct for those things that it is well to think
+upon.... Blessed is the book that exalts, and 'Via Crucis' merits that
+beatitude."&mdash;<i>New York Times.</i></p>
+
+
+<p class="c"><b>IN THE PALACE OF THE KING</b></p>
+
+<p class="c">A LOVE STORY OF OLD MADRID</p>
+
+<p class="c">"Marion Crawford's latest story, 'In the Palace of the King,' is quite
+up to the level of his best works for cleverness, grace of style, and
+sustained interest. It is, besides, to some extent a historical story,
+the scene being the royal palace at Madrid, the author drawing the
+characters of Philip II. and Don John of Austria, with an attempt, in a
+broad impressionist way, at historic faithfulness. His reproduction of
+the life at the Spanish court is as brilliant and picturesque as any of
+his Italian scenes, and in minute study of detail is, in a real and
+valuable sense, true history."&mdash;<i>The Advance.</i></p>
+
+<p class="c">THE MACMILLAN COMPANY</p>
+
+<p class="c">66 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK</p>
+
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>NOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> The tribune, or marble platform, from which the prayers are
+read; not to be confounded with the <i>minber</i>, or pulpit, from which the
+Khatib preaches on Fridays, with a drawn sword in his hand.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> Fact.</p></div>
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@@ -0,0 +1,16454 @@
+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Paul Patoff, by F. Marion Crawford
+
+
+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: Paul Patoff
+
+
+Author: F. Marion Crawford
+
+
+
+Release Date: October 3, 2007  [eBook #22879]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PAUL PATOFF***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Bruce Albrecht, Chuck Greif, and the Project Gutenberg
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net)
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original illustration.
+      See 22879-h.htm or 22879-h.zip:
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/2/8/7/22879/22879-h/22879-h.htm)
+      or
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/2/8/7/22879/22879-h.zip)
+
+
+
+
+
+PAUL PATOFF
+
+by
+
+F. MARION CRAWFORD
+
+Author of "A Roman Singer," "To Leeward," "An American
+Politician," "Saracinesca," Etc.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+New York
+The MacMillan Company
+London: MacMillan & Co., Ltd.
+1911
+
+All rights reserved
+
+Copyright, 1887,
+by F. Marion Crawford.
+
+Copyright, 1892,
+by F. Marion Crawford.
+
+First published elsewhere. Reprinted with corrections, April,
+1893; June, 1894; June, 1899; July, 1906; January, 1912.
+
+Norwood Press
+J. S. Cushing & Co.--Berwick & Smith
+Norwood Mass. U.S.A.
+
+
+
+
+PAUL PATOFF.
+
+
+My dear lady--my dear friend--you have asked me to tell you a story, and
+I am going to try, because there is not anything I would not try if you
+asked it of me. I do not yet know what it will be about, but it is
+impossible that I should disappoint you; and if the proverb says, "Needs
+must when the devil drives," I can mend the proverb into a show of
+grace, and say, The most barren earth must needs bear flowers when an
+angel sows the seed.
+
+When you asked for the story I could only find a dry tale of my own
+doings, which I detailed to you somewhat at length, as we cantered down
+into the Valley of the Sweet Waters. The south wind was warm this
+afternoon, though it brought rain with it and wetted us a little as we
+rode; it was soft and dreamy, and made everything look sleepy, and
+misty, and a little uncertain in outline. Baghdad sniffed it in his deep
+red nostrils, for it was the wind of his home; but Haroun al Raschid
+shook the raindrops restlessly from his gray mane, as though he hated to
+be damp, and was thinking longingly of the hot sand and the desert sun.
+But he had no right to complain, for water must needs come in the
+oases,--and truly I know of no fairer and sweeter resting-place in
+life's journey than the Valley of the Sweet Waters above the Golden
+Horn.
+
+That same south wind--when I think, it is a point or two easterly, and
+it seems to smell of Persia--well, that same soft wind is blowing at my
+windows now in the dark night, and is murmuring, sometimes almost
+complaining, then dying away in a fitful, tearful sigh, sorry even to
+weeping for its restless fate, sorry perhaps for me and sighing for me.
+God knows, there is enough to sigh for in this working-day world, is
+there not? I have heard you sigh, too, very sadly, as though something
+hurt you, although you are so bright and young and fair. The wind sighs
+hopelessly, in great sobs of weariness and despair, for he is filled
+with the ghosts of the past; but your breath has a music in it that is
+more like the song of the sunrise that used to break out from the heart
+of the beautiful marble at dawn.
+
+Poor wind! He is trying to speak to me through the pines,--perhaps he is
+bringing a message. It is long since any one brought me a message I
+cared to hear. I will open the door to the terrace and let him in, and
+see what he has to say.
+
+Truly, he speaks great words:--
+
+"I am the belt and the girdle of this world. I carry in my arms the
+souls of the dead and the sins of them; the souls of them that have not
+yet lived, with their deeds, are in my bosom. I am sorrowful with the
+sorrow of ages, and strong with the strength of ages yet unlived. What
+is thy sorrow to my sorrow, or thy strength to my strength? Listen.
+
+"Knowest thou whence I come, or whither I go? Fool, thou knowest not
+even of thyself what thou shalt do to-morrow, and it may be that on the
+next day I shall have thy soul, to take it away, and hold it, and buffet
+it, and tear it as I will. Fool, thou knowest little! The gardens of
+Persia are sweet this night; this night the maidens of Hindustan have
+gone forth to greet the new moon, and I am full of their soft prayers
+and gentle thoughts, for I am come from them. But the north, whither I
+go, is cold and cruel, full of snow and darkness and gloom. Along the
+lands where I will pass I shall see men and women dying in the frost,
+and little children, too, poor and hungry, and shivering out the last
+breathings of a wretched life; and some of them I will take with me
+this night, to my journey's end among the ice-floes and the brown,
+driving mists of the uttermost north. Dost thou wonder that I am sad?
+
+"That is thy life. Thou art come from the sweet-scented gardens of thy
+youth, thou must go to the ice desert of thine old age; and now thou art
+full of strength and boastfulness, and thinkest thou shalt perchance be
+the first mortal who shall cheat death. Go to! Thou shalt die like the
+rest, the more miserably that thou lovest life more than the others."
+
+The wind is in an ill humor to-night; I should not have thought he could
+say such hard things. But he is a hopeless old cynic, even when he blows
+warm from the south; he has seen so much and done so much, and has
+furnished so many metaphors to threadbare poets, that he believes in
+nothing good, or young, or in any way fresh. He is bad company, and I
+have shut the window again. You asked me for a story, and you are
+beginning to wonder why I do not tell you one. Do you like long stories
+or short stories? Sad or gay? True or fanciful? What shall it be? My
+true stories are all sad, but the ones I imagine are often merry. Could
+I not think of one true, and gay as well? There was once a bad old man
+who said that when the truth ceased to be solemn it became dull. Between
+solemnity and dullness you would not find what you want, which, I take
+it, is a little laughter, a little sadness, and, when it is done, the
+comfortable assurance of your own senses that you have been amused, and
+not bored. The bad old gentleman was right. When our lives are not
+filled with great emotions they are crammed with insignificant details,
+and one may tell them ever so well, they will be insignificant to the
+end. But the fancy is a great store-house, filled with all the beautiful
+things that we do not find in our lives. My dear friend, if true love
+were an every-day phenomenon, experienced by everybody, it would cease
+to be in any way interesting; people would be so familiar with it that
+it would bore them to extinction; they would have it for breakfast,
+dinner, and supper as a matter of course, and would be as fastidious of
+its niceties as an Anglo-Indian about the quality of the pepper. It is
+because only one man or woman in a hundred thousand is personally
+acquainted with the sufferings of true-love fever that the other
+ninety-nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine take delight in
+observing the contortions and convulsions of the patient. It is a great
+satisfaction to them to compare the slight touch of ague they once had
+when they were young with the raging sickness of a breaking heart; to
+see a resemblance between the tiny scratch upon themselves, which they
+delight in irritating, and the ghastly wound by which the tortured soul
+has sped from its prison.
+
+To tell the truth, they are not so very much to blame. Even the
+momentary reflection of love is a good thing; at least, it is better
+than to know nothing of it. One can fancy that a violin upon which no
+one had ever played would yet be glad to vibrate faintly in unison with
+the music of a more favored neighbor; it would bring a sensation of the
+possibility of music. The stronger harmony is caught up and carried on
+forever in endless sound waves, but the slight responsive murmur of the
+passive strings is lost and forgotten.
+
+And now you will tell me that I am making phrases. That is my
+profession: I am a twister of words; I torture language by trade. You
+know it, for you have known me a long time, and, if you will pardon my
+vanity, or rudeness, I observe that my mode of putting the dictionary on
+the rack amuses you. The fact that you ask for a story shows that well
+enough. I am a plain man, and there never was any poetry in me, but I
+have seen it in other people, and I understand why some persons like it.
+As for stories, I have plenty of them. I, Paul Griggs, have seen a
+variety of sights, and I have a good memory. There is the south-east
+wind again. I was speaking of love, a moment ago,--there is a story of
+the wind falling in love. There is a garden of roses far away to the
+east, where a maiden lies asleep; the roses have no thorns in that
+garden, and they grow softly about her and make a pillow for her fair
+head. A blustering wind came once and nearly waked her, but she was so
+beautiful that he fell deep in love; and he turned into the softest
+breeze that ever fanned a woman's cheek in summer, for fear lest he
+should trouble her sleep. There was a poor woman in rags, in the streets
+of London, on that March night, but she could not soften the heart of
+the cruel blast for all her shivering and praying; for she was very poor
+and wretched, and never was beautiful, even when she was young.
+
+That is a short tale, and it has no moral application, for it is too
+common a truth. If people would only act directly on things instead of
+expecting the morality of their cant phrases to act for them, to feed
+the hungry, to clothe the naked, to pay their bills, and to save their
+souls into the bargain, what a vast deal of good would be done, and what
+an incalculable amount of foolish talk would be spared! But there is a
+diplomatic spirit abroad in our day, and it is necessary to enter into
+polite relations with a drowning man before it is possible to pull him
+out of the water.
+
+But the story, you say,--where is it? Forgive me. I am rusty and
+ponderous at the start, like an old dredger that has stuck too long in
+the mud. Let me move a little and swing out with the tide till I am in
+clearer waters, and I will promise to bring up something pretty from the
+bottom of the sea for you to look at. I would not have you see any of
+the blackness that lies in the stagnant harbor.
+
+I will tell you the story of Paul Patoff. I played a small part in it
+myself last summer, and so, in a certain way, it is a tale of my own
+experience. I say a tale, because it is emphatically a tale, and nothing
+else. I might almost call it a yarn, though the word would look
+strangely on a printed title-page. We are vain in our generation; we
+fancy we have discovered something new under the sun, and we give the
+name "novel" to the things we write. I will not insult literature by
+honoring this story with any such high-sounding designation. A great
+many of the things I am going to tell you were told to me, so that I
+shall have some difficulty in putting the whole together in a connected
+shape, and I must begin by asking your indulgence if I transgress all
+sorts of rules, and if I do not succeed in getting the interesting
+points into the places assigned to them by the traditional laws of art.
+I tell what happened, and I do not pretend to tell any more.
+
+
+
+
+I.
+
+
+If places could speak, they would describe people far better than people
+can describe places. No two men agree together in giving an account of a
+country, of natural scenery, or of a city; and though we may read the
+most accurate descriptions of a place, and vividly picture to ourselves
+what we have never seen, yet, when we are at last upon the spot, we
+realize that we have known nothing about it, and we loudly blame the
+author, whose word-painting is so palpably false. People will always
+think of places as being full of poetry if they are in love, as being
+beautiful if they are well, hideous if they are ill, wearisome if they
+are bored, and gay if they are making money.
+
+Constantinople and the Bosphorus are no exceptions to this general rule.
+People who live there are sometimes well and sometimes ill, sometimes
+rich and sometimes poor, sometimes in love with themselves and sometimes
+in love with each other. A grave Persian carpet merchant sits smoking on
+the quay of Buyukdere. He sees them all go by, from the gay French
+secretary of embassy, puffing at a cigarette as he hurries from one
+visit to the next, to the neat and military German diplomat, landing
+from his steam launch on his return from the palace; from the
+devil-may-care English youth in white flannel to the graceful Turkish
+adjutant on his beautiful Arab horse; from the dark-eyed Armenian lady,
+walking slowly by the water's edge, to the terrifically arrayed little
+Greek dandy, with a spotted waistcoat and a thunder-and-lightning tie.
+He sees them all: the Levantine with the weak and cunning face, the
+swarthy Kurdish porter, the gorgeously arrayed Dalmatian embassy
+servant, the huge, fair Turkish waterman in his spotless white dress,
+and the countless veiled Turkish women from the small harems of the
+little town, shuffling along in silence, or squatted peacefully upon a
+jutting point of the pier, veiled in _yashmaks_, the more transparent as
+they have the more beauty to show or the less ugliness to conceal. The
+carpet merchant sees them all, and sits like Patience upon a monumental
+heap of stuffs, waiting for customers and smoking his water-pipe. His
+eyes are greedy and his fingers are long, but the peace of a superior
+mendacity is on his brow, and in his heart the lawful price of goods is
+multiplied exceedingly.
+
+By the side of the quay, separated from the quiet water by the broad
+white road, stand the villas, the embassies, the houses, large and
+small, a varying front, following the curve of the Bosphorus for half a
+mile between the Turkish towns of Buyukdere and Mesar Burnu. Behind the
+villas rise the gardens, terraces upon terraces of roses, laurels,
+lemons, Japanese medlars, and trees and shrubs of all sorts, with a
+stone pine or a cypress here and there, dark green against the faint
+blue sky. Beyond the breadth of smooth sapphire water, scarcely rippling
+under the gentle northerly breeze, the long hills of the Asian mainland
+stretch to the left as far as the mouth of the Black Sea, and to the
+right until the quick bend of the narrow channel hides Asia from view
+behind the low promontories of the European shore. Now and then a big
+ferry-boat puffs into sight, churning the tranquil waters into foam with
+her huge paddles; a dozen sailing craft are in view, from Lord
+Mavourneen's smart yawl to the outlandishly rigged Turkish schooner, her
+masts raking forward like the antlers of a stag at bay, and spreading a
+motley collection of lateen-sails, stay-sails, square top-sails, and
+vast spinnakers rigged out with booms and sprits, which it would puzzle
+a northern sailor to name. Far to the right, towards Therapia, glimmer
+the brilliant uniforms and the long bright oars of an ambassador's
+twelve-oared caique, returning from an official visit at the palace; and
+near the shore are loitering half a dozen _barcas_,--commodious
+row-boats, with awnings and cushioned seats,--on the lookout for a fare.
+
+It is the month of June, and the afternoon air is warm and hazy upon the
+land, though a gentle northerly breeze is on the water, just enough to
+fill the sails of Lord Mavourneen's little yacht, so that by making many
+short tacks he may beat up to the mouth of the Black Sea before sunset.
+But his excellency the British ambassador is in no hurry; he would go on
+tacking in his little yawl to all eternity of nautical time, with vast
+satisfaction, rather than be bored and worried and harrowed by the
+predestinating servants of Allah, at the palace of his majesty the
+commander of the faithful. Even Fate, the universal Kismet,
+procrastinates in Turkey, and Lord Mavourneen's special mission is to
+out-procrastinate the procrastinator. For the present the little yawl is
+an important factor in his operations, and as he stands in his rough
+blue clothes, looking up through his single eyeglass at the bellying
+canvas, a gentle smile upon his strongly marked face betrays
+considerable satisfaction. Lord Mavourneen is a very successful man, and
+his smile and his yacht have been elements of no small importance in his
+success. They characterize him historically, like the tear which always
+trembles under the left eyelid of Prince Bismarck, like the gray
+overcoat of Bonaparte, the black tights and gloomy looks of Hamlet the
+Dane, or Richelieu's kitten. Lord Mavourneen is a man of action, but he
+can wait. When he came to Constantinople the Turks thought they could
+keep him waiting, but they have discovered that they are more generally
+kept waiting themselves, while his excellency is up the Bosphorus,
+beating about in his little yawl near the mouth of the Black Sea. His
+actions are thought worthy of high praise, but on some occasions his
+inaction borders upon the sublime. Of the men who moved along the
+Buyukdere quay, many paused and glanced out over the water at the
+white-sailed yawl, with the single streamer flying from the mast-head;
+and some smiled as they recognized the ambassadorial yacht, and some
+looked grave.
+
+The sun sank lower towards the point where he disappears from the sight
+of the inhabitants of Buyukdere; for he is not seen to set from this
+part of the upper Bosphorus. He sinks early behind the wooded hills
+above Therapia, and when he is hidden the evening freshness begins, and
+the crowd upon the quay swells to a multitude, as the people from the
+embassies and villas sally forth to mount their horses or to get into
+their caiques.
+
+Two young men came out of the white gates of the Russian embassy, and,
+crossing the road, stood upon the edge of the stone pier. They were
+brothers, but the resemblance was slight between them. The one looked
+like an Englishman, tall, fair, and rather angular, with hard blue eyes,
+an aquiline nose, a heavy yellow mustache concealing his mouth, and a
+ruddy complexion. He was extremely well dressed, and, though one might
+detect some awkwardness in his movements, his manner had that composure
+which comes from a great knowledge of the world, and from a natural
+self-possession and independence of character.
+
+His brother, though older by a year, might have passed for being several
+years younger. He was in reality two and thirty years of age, but his
+clear complexion was that of a boy, his dark brown hair curled closely
+on his head, and his soft brown eyes had a young and trustful look in
+them, which contrasted strangely with his brother's hard and dominating
+expression. He was shorter, too, and more slender, but also more
+graceful; his hands and feet were small and well shaped. Nevertheless,
+his manner was at least as self-possessed as that of his tall brother,
+and there was something in his look which suggested the dashing,
+reckless spirit sometimes found in delicately constituted men.
+Alexander Patoff was a soldier, and had obtained leave to visit his
+younger brother Paul in Constantinople, where the latter held the
+position of second secretary in the Russian embassy. At first sight one
+would have said that Paul should have been the cavalry officer, and
+Alexander the diplomatist: but fate had ordered it otherwise, for the
+elder son had inherited the bulk of his father's fortune, and was,
+consequently, able to bear the expenses of a career in a guard regiment;
+while Paul, the younger, just managed to live comfortably the life of a
+fashionable diplomacy, by dint of economy and an intelligent use of his
+small income.
+
+They were Russians, but their mother was an Englishwoman. Their father
+had married a Miss Anne Dabstreak, with whom he had fallen in love when
+in London, shortly before the Crimean War. She was a beautiful woman,
+and had a moderate portion. Old Patoff's fortune, however, was
+sufficient, and they had lived happily for ten years, when he had died
+very suddenly, leaving a comfortable provision for his wife, and the
+chief part of his possessions to Alexander Paolovitch Patoff, his eldest
+boy. Paul, he thought, showed even as a child the character necessary to
+fight his own way; and as he had since advanced regularly in the
+diplomacy, it seemed probable that he would fulfill his father's
+predictions, and die an embassador.
+
+At the time when this story opens Madame Patoff was traveling in
+Switzerland for her health. She was not strong, and dared not undertake
+a journey to Constantinople at present. On the other hand, the climate
+of northern Russia suited her even less well in summer than in winter,
+and, to her great regret, her son Alexander, whom she loved better than
+Paul, as he was also more like herself, had persisted in spending his
+leave in a visit to his brother.
+
+Madame Patoff had been surprised at Alexander's determination. Her sons
+were not congenial to each other. They had been brought up differently
+to different careers, which might partially account for the lack of
+sympathy between them, but in reality the evil had a deeper root. Madame
+Patoff had either never realized that Alexander had been the favored
+son, and that Paul had suffered acutely from the preference shown to his
+elder brother, or she had loved the latter too passionately to care to
+hide her preference. Alexander had been a beautiful child, full of
+grace, and gifted with that charm which in young children is not easily
+resisted. Paul was ugly in his boyhood, cold and reserved, rarely
+showing sympathy, and too proud to ask for what was not given him
+freely. Alexander was quick-witted, talented, and showy, if I may use so
+barbarous a word. Paul was slow at first, ungainly as a young foal,
+strong without grace, shy of attempting anything new to him, and not
+liking to be noticed. Both father and mother, as the boys grew up, loved
+the older lad, and spoiled him, while the younger was kept forever at
+his books, was treated coldly, and got little praise for the performance
+of his tasks. Had Paul possessed less real energy of character, he must
+have hated his brother; as it was, he silently disliked him, but
+inwardly resolved to outshine him in everything, laboring to that end
+from his boyhood, and especially after his father's death, with a dogged
+determination which promised success. The result was that, although Paul
+never outgrew a certain ungainliness of appearance, due to his large and
+bony frame, he nevertheless acquired a perfection of manner, an ease and
+confidence in conversation, which, in the end, might well impress people
+who knew him more favorably than the bearing of Alexander, whose soft
+voice and graceful attitudes began to savor of affectation when he had
+attained to mature manhood. As they stood together on the quay at
+Buyukdere, one could guess that, in the course of years, Alexander would
+be an irritable, peevish old dandy, while Paul would turn out a stern,
+successful old man.
+
+They stood looking at the water, watching the caiques shoot out from
+the shore upon the bosom of the broad stream.
+
+"Have you made up your mind?" asked Paul, without looking at his
+brother.
+
+"Oh, yes. I do not care where we go. I suppose it is worth seeing?"
+
+"Well worth seeing. You have never seen anything like it."
+
+"Is it as fine as Easter Eve in Moscow?" asked Alexander, incredulously.
+
+"It is different," said Paul. "It corresponds to our Easter Eve in some
+ways. All through the Ramazan they fast all day--never smoke, nor drink
+a glass of water, and of course they eat nothing--until sunset, when the
+gun is fired. During the last week there are services in Santa Sophia
+every night, and that is what is most remarkable. They go on until the
+news comes that the new moon has been seen."
+
+"That does not sound very interesting," remarked Alexander, languidly,
+lighting a cigarette with a bit of yellow fuse that dangled from his
+heavy Moscow case.
+
+"It is interesting, nevertheless, and you must see it. You cannot be
+here at this time and not see what is most worth seeing."
+
+"Is there nothing else this evening?" asked Alexander.
+
+"No. We have to respect the prejudices of the country a little. After
+all, we really have a holiday during this month. Nothing can be done.
+The people at the palace do not get up until one o'clock or later, so as
+to make the time while they fast seem shorter."
+
+"Very sensible of them. I wonder why they get up at all, until their
+ridiculous gun fires, and they can smoke."
+
+"Whether you like it or not, you must go to Santa Sophia to-night, and
+see the service," said Paul, firmly. "You need not stay long, unless you
+like."
+
+"If you take me there, I will stay rather than have the trouble of
+coming away," answered the other. "Bah!" he exclaimed suddenly, "there
+is that caique again!"
+
+Paul followed the direction of his brother's glance, and saw a graceful
+caique pulling slowly upstream towards them. Four sturdy Turks in
+snow-white cotton tugged at the long oars, and in the deep body of the
+boat, upon low cushions, sat two ladies, side by side. Behind them, upon
+the stern, was perched a hideous and beardless African, gorgeously
+arrayed in a dark tunic heavily laced with gold, a richly chased and
+adorned scimiter at his side, and a red fez jauntily set on one side of
+his misshapen head. But Alexander's attention was arrested by the
+ladies, or rather by one of them, as the caique passed within oar's
+length of the quay.
+
+"She must be hideous," said Paul, contemptuously. "I never saw such a
+yashmak. It is as thick as a towel. You cannot see her face at all."
+
+"Look at her hand," said Alexander. "I tell you she is not hideous."
+
+The figures of the two ladies were completely hidden in the wide black
+silk garments they wore, the eternal ferigee which makes all women
+alike. Upon their heads they wore caps, such as in the jargon of fashion
+are called toques, and their faces were enveloped in yashmaks, white
+veils which cross the forehead above the eyes and are brought back just
+below them, so as to cover the rest of the face. But there was this
+difference; that whereas the veil worn by one of the ladies was of the
+thinnest gauze, showing every feature of her dark, coarse face through
+its transparent texture, the veil of the other was perfectly opaque, and
+disguised her like a mask. Paul Patoff justly remarked that this was
+very unusual. He had observed the same peculiarity at least twenty
+times; for in the course of three weeks, since Alexander arrived, the
+brothers had seen this same lady almost every day, till they had grown
+to expect her, and had exhausted all speculation in regard to her
+personality. Paul maintained that she was ugly, because she would not
+show her face. Alexander swore that she was beautiful, because her hand
+was young and white and shapely, and because, as he said, her attitude
+was graceful and her head moved well when she turned it. Concerning her
+hand, at least, there was no doubt, for as the delicate fingers stole
+out from the black folds of the ferigee their whiteness shone by
+contrast upon the dark silk; there was something youthful and nervous
+and sensitive in their shape and movement which fascinated the young
+Russian, and made him mad with curiosity to see the face of the veiled
+woman to whom they belonged. She turned her head a little, as the caique
+passed, and her dark eyes met his with an expression which seemed one of
+intelligence; but unfortunately all black eyes look very much alike when
+they are just visible between the upper and the lower folds of a thick
+yashmak, and Alexander uttered an exclamation of discontent.
+
+Thereupon the hideous negro at the stern, who had noticed the stare of
+the two Russians, shook his light stick at Alexander, and hissed out
+something that sounded very like "Kiope 'oul kiopek,"--dog and son of a
+dog; the oarsmen grinned and pulled harder than ever, and the caique
+shot past the pier. Paul shrugged his shoulders contemptuously, but did
+not translate the Turkish ejaculation to his brother. A boatman stood
+lounging near them, leaning on a stone post, and following the
+retreating caique with his eyes.
+
+"Ask that fellow who she is," said Alexander.
+
+"He does not know," answered Paul. "Those fellows never know anything."
+
+"Ask him," insisted his brother. "I am sure he knows." Paul was willing
+to be obliging, and went up to the man.
+
+"Do you know who that Khanum is?" he asked, in Turkish.
+
+"Bilmem,--I don't know," replied the man, without moving a muscle of his
+face.
+
+"Do you know who her father is?"
+
+"Allah bilir,--God knows. Probably Abraham, who is the father of all the
+faithful." Paul laughed.
+
+"I told you he knew nothing about her," he said, turning to his brother.
+
+"It did you no harm to ask," answered Alexander testily. "Let us take a
+caique and follow her."
+
+"You may, if you please," said Paul. "I have no intention of getting
+myself into trouble."
+
+"Nonsense! Why should we get into trouble? We have as good a right to
+row on the Bosphorus as they have."
+
+"We have no right to go near them. It is contrary to the customs of the
+country."
+
+"I do not care for custom," retorted Alexander.
+
+"If you walked down the Boulevard des Italiens in Paris on Easter Day
+and kissed every woman you met, merely saying, 'The Lord is risen,' by
+way of excuse, as we do in Russia, you would discover that customs are
+not the same everywhere."
+
+"You are as slow as an ox-cart, Paul," said Alexander.
+
+"The simile is graceful. Thank you. As I say, you may do anything you
+please, as you are a stranger here. But if you do anything flagrantly
+contrary to the manners of the country, you will not find my chief
+disposed to help you out of trouble. We are disliked enough
+already,--hated expresses it better. Come along. Take a turn upon the
+quay before dinner, and then we will go to Stamboul and see the
+ceremony."
+
+"I hate the quay," replied Alexander, who was now in a very bad humor.
+
+"Then we will go the other way. We can walk through Mesar Burnu and get
+to the Valley of Roses."
+
+"That sounds better."
+
+So the two turned northwards, and followed the quay upstream till they
+came to the wooden steamboat landing, and then, turning to the left,
+they entered the small Turkish village of Mesar Burnu. While they walked
+upon the road Alexander could still follow the caique, now far ahead,
+shooting along through the smooth water, and he slackened his pace more
+slowly when it was out of sight. The dirty little bazaar of the village
+did not interest him, and he was not inclined to talk as he picked his
+way over the muddy stones, chewing his discontent and regretting the
+varnish of his neat boots. Presently they emerged from the crowd of
+vegetable venders, fishmongers, and sweetmeat sellers into a broad green
+lane between two grave-yards, where the huge silent trees grew up
+straight and sad from the sea of white tombstones which stood at every
+angle, some already fallen, some looking as though they must fall at
+once, some still erect, according to the length of time which had
+elapsed since they were set up. For in Turkey the headstones of graves
+are narrow at the base and broaden like leaves towards the top, and they
+are not set deep in the ground; so that they are top-heavy, and with the
+sinking of the soil they invariably fall to one side or the other.
+
+Paul turned again, where four roads meet at a drinking fountain, and the
+two brothers entered the narrow Valley of Roses. The roses are not,
+indeed, so numerous as one might expect, but the path is beautiful,
+green and quiet, and below it the tinkle of a little stream is heard,
+flowing down from the spring where the lane ends. There they sat down
+beneath a giant tree on a beaten terrace, where a Kaffegee has his
+little shop. The water pours from the spring in the hillside into a
+great basin bordered with green, the air is cool, and there is a
+delicious sense of rest after leaving the noise and dust of the quay.
+Both men smoked and drank their coffee in silence. Paul could not help
+wishing that his brother would take a little more interest in Turkey and
+a little less in the lady of the thick yashmak; and especially he wished
+that Alexander might finish his visit without getting into trouble. He
+had successfully controlled him during three weeks, and in another
+fortnight he must return to Russia. Paul confessed to himself that his
+brother's visit was not an unmitigated blessing, and found it hard to
+explain the object of it. Indeed, it was so simple that his diplomatic
+mind did not find it out; for Alexander had merely said to himself that
+he had never seen Constantinople, and that, as his brother was there, in
+the embassy, he could see it under favorable circumstances, at a very
+moderate cost. He was impetuous, spoiled by too much flattery, and
+incapable of imagining that Paul could consider his visit in any light
+but that of a compliment. Accordingly he had come, and had enjoyed
+himself very much.
+
+"Let us dine here," he said suddenly, as he finished his coffee.
+
+"There is nothing to eat," answered Paul. "Coffee, cold water, and a few
+cakes. That is all, and that would hardly satisfy you."
+
+"What a nuisance!" exclaimed the elder brother. "What a barbarous
+country this is! Nothing to eat but coffee, cold water, and cakes!"
+
+"It is rather hard on the Turks to abuse them for not keeping
+restaurants in their woods," remarked Paul.
+
+"I detest the Turks. I shall never forget the discomfort I had to put up
+with in the war. They might have learned something from us then; but
+they never learn anything. Come along. Let us go and dine in your
+rooms."
+
+"It is impossible to be more discontented than you are," said Paul,
+rather bitterly. "It is utterly impossible to please you,--and yet you
+have most things which are necessary to happiness."
+
+"I suppose you mean the money?" sneered his brother. But Paul kept his
+temper.
+
+"I mean everything," he answered. "You have money, youth, good looks,
+and social success; and yet you can hardly see anything without abusing
+it."
+
+"You forget that I do not know the name of the lady in the yashmak,"
+objected Alexander.
+
+Paul shrugged his shoulders, and said nothing. Both men rose, and began
+to go down the green lane, returning towards Mesar Burnu. By this time
+the sun had sunk low behind the western hills, and the cool of the
+evening had descended on the woods and the Valley of Roses. The green
+grass and the thick growth of shrubs took a darker color, and the first
+dampness of the dew was in the air. The two walked briskly down the
+path. Suddenly a turn in the narrow way brought them face to face with a
+party of three persons, strolling slowly towards them.
+
+"Luck!" ejaculated Alexander. "Here they are again!"
+
+He was right. There was no mistaking the lady with the thick,
+impenetrable veil, nor her companion, whose heavy dark face was
+distinctly visible through the thin Indian gauze. Behind them walked the
+hideous negro, swinging his light cane jauntily, but beginning to cast
+angry glances at the two Russians, whom he had already recognized. The
+way was very narrow, and the ladies saw that retreat was impossible.
+Paul bit his lip, fearing some foolish rashness on the part of his
+brother. As they all met, the ladies drew close to the hedge on one side
+of the path, their black attendant standing before them, as though to
+prevent the Giaours from even brushing against the wide silken ferigees
+of his charges. Paul pushed his brother in front of him, hoping that
+Alexander would have the sense to pass quietly by; but he trembled for
+the result.
+
+Alexander moved slowly forward, turning his head as he passed, and
+looking long into the black eyes of the veiled lady.
+
+"Pek guezel,--very pretty indeed," he said aloud, using the only words of
+Turkish he had learned in three weeks. But they were enough; the effect
+was instantaneous. Without a word and without hesitation, the tall negro
+struck a violent blow at Alexander with the light bamboo he carried.
+Paul, who was immediately behind his brother, saw the action and caught
+the man's hand in the air, but the end of the flexible cane flew down
+and knocked Alexander's hat from his head.
+
+"Run!" cried Paul excitedly, as the negro struggled in his grip.
+
+The two Turkish ladies laughed aloud. They were used to such adventures,
+but the spectacle of the negro beating a Frank gentleman was novel and
+refreshing. Alexander picked up his hat, but showed no disposition to
+move. The African struggled vainly in Paul's powerful arms.
+
+"Go, I say!" cried the latter authoritatively. "There will be trouble if
+any one comes."
+
+But Alexander had received a blow, and his blood was up. Moreover, he
+was a Russian, and utterly regardless of consequences,--or perhaps he
+only wanted to annoy his brother by a show of violence.
+
+"I think I will shoot him," he said, quietly producing a small revolver
+from his pocket.
+
+At the sight of the weapon, the two ladies, who, on seeing the fight
+prolonged, had retired a few paces up the path, began to scream loudly
+for help. The negro, who was proof against blows and would not have
+shown much fear at the sight of a knife, fell on his knees, crying aloud
+for mercy. Thereupon Paul released him and bid him go.
+
+"For God's sake, Alexander, do not make a fool of yourself!" he said
+coldly, walking up to his brother. But he turned once more to the black
+attendant, and added quietly in Turkish, "You had better go. We both
+have pistols."
+
+The negro did not wait, but sprang back and flew towards the two ladies,
+speaking excitedly, and imploring them to make haste. The two brothers
+made their way quickly down the path, Paul pushing Alexander before him.
+
+"You have done it now. You will have to leave Constantinople to-morrow,"
+he said, sternly. "You cannot play these tricks here."
+
+"Bah!" returned Alexander, "it is of no consequence. They do not know
+who we are."
+
+"They have not seen us coming out of our embassy half a dozen times
+without knowing where to look for us. There will be a complaint made
+within two hours, and there will be trouble. The law protects them.
+These fellows are authorized to strike anybody who speaks to the women
+they have in charge, or who even goes too near them. Be quick! We must
+get back to the quay before there is any alarm raised."
+
+Alexander knew that his brother Paul was no coward, and, being
+thoroughly convinced of the danger, he quickened his walk. In twenty
+minutes they reached Mesar Burnu, and in five minutes more they were
+within the gates of the embassy. The huge Cossack who stood by the
+entrance saluted them gravely, and Paul drew a long breath of relief as
+he entered the pretty pavilion in the garden in which he had his
+quarters. Alexander threw himself upon a low divan, and laughed with
+true Russian indifference. Paul pretended not to notice him, but
+silently took up the local French paper, which came every evening, and
+began to read.
+
+"You are excellent company, upon my word!" exclaimed Alexander,
+irritated at his brother's coldness. Paul laid down the paper, and
+stared at him with his hard blue eyes.
+
+"Alexander, you are a fool," he said coolly.
+
+"Look here," said the other, suddenly losing his temper, and rising to
+his feet, "I will not submit to this sort of language."
+
+"Then do not expose yourself to it. Are you aware that you do me very
+serious injury by your escapades?"
+
+"Escapades indeed!" cried Alexander indignantly. "As if there were any
+harm in telling a woman she is pretty!"
+
+"You will probably have occasion to hear what the chief thinks of it
+before long," retorted his brother. "There will be a complaint. It will
+get to the palace, and the result will be that I shall be sent to
+another post, with a black mark in the service. Do you call that a joke?
+It is very well for you, a rich officer in the guards, taking a turn in
+the East by way of recreation. You will go back to Petersburg and tell
+the story and enjoy the laugh. I may be sent to China or Japan for three
+or four years, in consequence."
+
+"Bah!" ejaculated the soldier, sitting down on the divan. "I do not
+believe it. You are an old woman. You are always afraid of injuring your
+career."
+
+"If it is to be injured at all, I prefer that it should be by my own
+fault."
+
+"What do you want me to do?" asked Alexander, rising once more. "I think
+I will go back to the Valley of Roses, and see if I cannot find her
+again." Suiting the action to the word, he moved towards the door. All
+the willfulness of the angry Slav shone in his dark eyes, and he was
+really capable of fulfilling his threat.
+
+"If you try it," said Paul, touching an electric bell behind his chair,
+"I will have you arrested. We are in Russia inside these gates, and
+there are a couple of Cossacks outside. I am quite willing to assume the
+responsibility."
+
+Paul was certainly justified in taking active measures to coerce his
+headstrong brother. The spoilt child of a brilliant society was not
+accustomed to being thwarted in his caprices, and beneath his delicate
+pale skin the angry blood boiled up to his face. He strode towards his
+brother as though he would have struck him, but something in Paul's eyes
+checked the intention. He held his heavy silver cigarette case in his
+hand; turning on his heel with an oath, he dashed it angrily across the
+room. It struck a small mirror that stood upon a table in the corner,
+and broke it into shivers with a loud crash. At that moment the door
+opened, and Paul's servant appeared in answer to the bell.
+
+"A glass of water," said Paul calmly. The man glanced at Alexander's
+angry face and at the broken looking-glass, and then retired.
+
+"What do you mean by calling in your accursed servants when I am
+angry?" cried the soldier. "You shall pay for this, Paul,--you shall pay
+for it!" His soft voice rose to loud and harsh tones, as he impatiently
+paced the room. "You shall pay for it!" he almost yelled, and then stood
+still, suddenly, while Paul rose from his chair. The door was opened
+again, but instead of the servant with the glass of water a tall and
+military figure stood in the entrance. It was the ambassador himself. He
+looked sternly from one brother to the other.
+
+"Gentlemen," he said, "what is this quarrel? Lieutenant Patoff, I must
+beg you to remember that you are my guest as well as your brother's, and
+that the windows are open. Even the soldiers at the gates can hear your
+cries. Be good enough either to cease quarreling, or to retire to some
+place where you cannot be heard."
+
+Without waiting for an answer, the old diplomat faced about and walked
+away.
+
+"That is the beginning," said Paul, in a low voice. "You see what you
+are doing? You are ruining me,--and for what? Not even because you have
+a caprice for a woman, but merely because I have warned you not to make
+trouble."
+
+Paul crossed the room and picked up the fallen cigarette case. Then he
+handed it to his brother, with a conciliatory look.
+
+"There,--smoke a cigarette and be quiet, like a good fellow," he said.
+
+The servant entered with the glass of water, and put it down upon the
+table. Glancing at the fragments of the mirror upon the floor, he looked
+inquiringly at his master. Paul made a gesture signifying that he might
+leave the room. The presence of the servant did not tend to pacify
+Alexander, whose face was still flushed with anger, as he roughly took
+the silver case and turned away with a furious glance. The servant had
+noticed, in the course of three weeks, that the brothers were not
+congenial to each other, but this was the first time he had witnessed a
+violent quarrel between them. When he was gone Alexander turned again
+and confronted Paul.
+
+"You are insufferable," he said, in low tones.
+
+"It is easy for you to escape my company," returned the other. "The
+Varna boat leaves here to-morrow afternoon at three."
+
+"Set your mind at rest," said Alexander, regaining some control of his
+temper at the prospect of immediate departure. "I will leave to-morrow."
+
+He went towards the door.
+
+"Dinner is at seven," said Paul quietly. But his brother left the room
+without noticing the remark, and, retiring to his room, he revenged
+himself by writing a long letter to his mother, in which he explained at
+length the violence and, as he described it, the "impossibility" of his
+brother's character. He had all the pettiness of a bad child; he knew
+that he was his mother's favorite, and he naturally went to her for
+sympathy when he was angry with his brother, as he had done from his
+infancy. Having so far vented his wrath, he closed his letter without
+re-reading it, and delivered it to be posted before the clock struck
+seven.
+
+He found Paul waiting for him in the sitting-room, and was received by
+him as though nothing had happened. Paul was indeed neither so forgiving
+nor so long-suffering as he appeared. He cordially disliked his brother,
+and was annoyed at his presence and outraged at his rashness. He felt
+bitterly enough that Alexander had quartered himself in the little
+pavilion for nearly a month without an invitation, and that, even
+financially, the visit caused him inconvenience; but he felt still more
+the danger to himself which lay in Alexander's folly, and he was not far
+wrong when he said that the ambassador's rebuke was the beginning of
+trouble. Accustomed to rely upon himself and his own wise conduct in the
+pursuance of his career, he resented the injury done him by such
+incidents as had taken place that afternoon. On the other hand, since
+Alexander had expressed his determination to leave Buyukdere the next
+day, he was determined that on his side the parting should be amicable.
+He could control his mood so far as to be civil during dinner, and to
+converse upon general topics. Alexander sat down to table in silence.
+His face was pale again, and his eyes had regained that simple, trustful
+look which was so much at variance with his character, and which, in the
+opinion of his admirers, constituted one of his chief attractions. It is
+unfortunate that, in general, the expression of the eyes should have
+less importance than that of the other features, for it always seems
+that by the eyes we should judge most justly. As a matter of fact, I
+think that the passions leave no trace in them, although they express
+the emotions of the moment clearly enough. The dark pupils may flash
+with anger, contract with determination, expand with love or fear; but
+so soon as the mind ceases to be under the momentary influence of any of
+these, the pupil returns to its normal state, the iris takes its natural
+color, and the eye, if seen through a hole in a screen, expresses
+nothing. If we were in the habit of studying men's mouths rather than
+their eyes, we should less often be deceived in the estimates we form of
+their character. Alexander Patoff's eyes were like a child's when he was
+peaceably inclined, like a wild-cat's when he was angry; but his
+nervous, scornful lips were concealed by the carefully trained dark
+brown mustache, and with them lay hidden the secret of his
+ill-controlled, ill-balanced nature.
+
+When dinner was finished, the servant announced that the steam launch
+was at the pier, and that the embassy _kavass_ was waiting outside to
+conduct them to Santa Sophia. Alexander, who wanted diversion of some
+kind during the evening, said he would go, and the two brothers left the
+pavilion together.
+
+The kavass is a very important functionary in Constantinople, and,
+though his office is lucrative, it is no sinecure. In former times the
+appearance of Franks in the streets of Constantinople was very likely to
+cause disturbance. Those were the great days of Turkey, when the Osmanli
+was master of the East, and regarded himself as the master of the world.
+A Frank--that is to say, a person from the west of Europe--was scarcely
+safe out of Pera without an escort; and even at the present day most
+people are advised not to venture into Stamboul without the attendance
+of a native, unless willing to wear a fez instead of a hat. It became
+necessary to furnish the embassies with some outward and visible means
+of protection, and the kavass was accordingly instituted. This man, who
+was formerly always a Janizary, is at present a veteran soldier, and
+therefore a Mussulman; for Christians rarely enter the army in
+Constantinople, being permitted to buy themselves off. He is usually a
+man remarkable for his trustworthy character, of fine presence, and
+generally courageous. He wears a magnificent Turkish military dress,
+very richly adorned with gold embroidery, girt with a splendid sash, in
+which are thrust enough weapons to fill an armory,--knives, dirks,
+pistols, and daggers,--while a huge scimiter hangs from his sword-belt.
+When he is on active service, you will detect somewhere among his
+trappings the brown leather case of a serviceable army revolver. The
+reason of this outfit is a very simple one. The kavass is answerable
+with his head for those he protects,--neither more nor less. Whenever
+the ambassador or the minister goes to the palace, or to Stamboul, or on
+any expedition whatsoever, the kavass follows him, frequently acting as
+interpreter, and certainly never failing to impose respect upon the
+populace. Moreover, when he is not needed by the head of the mission in
+person, he is ready to accompany any member of the household when
+necessary. A lady may cross Stamboul in safety with no other attendant,
+for he is answerable for her with his life. Whether or not, in existing
+circumstances, he would be put to death, in case his charge were killed
+by a mob, is not easy to say; it is at least highly probable that he
+would be executed within twenty-four hours.
+
+It chanced, on the evening chosen by Paul and Alexander for their visit
+to Santa Sophia, that no other members of the embassy accompanied them.
+Some had seen the ceremony before, some intended to go the next day, and
+some were too lazy to go at all. They followed the kavass in silence
+across the road, and went on board the beautiful steam launch which lay
+alongside the quay. The night was exceedingly dark, for as the
+appearance of the new moon terminates the month Ramazan, and as the
+ceremonies take place only during the last week of the month, there can,
+of course, be no moonlight. But a dark night is darker on the black
+waters of the Bosphorus than anywhere else in the world; and the
+darkness is not relieved by the illumination of the shores. On the
+contrary, the countless twinkling points seem to make the shadow in
+midstream deeper, and accidents are not unfrequent. In some places the
+current is very rapid, and it is no easy matter to steer a steam launch
+skillfully through it, without running over some belated fisherman or
+some shadowy caique, slowly making way against the stream in the dark.
+
+The two brothers sat in the deep cane easy-chairs on the small raised
+deck at the stern, the weather being too warm to admit of remaining in
+the cushioned cabin. The sailors cast off the moorings, and the strong
+little screw began to beat the water. In two minutes the launch was far
+out in the darkness. The kavass gave the order to the man at the wheel,
+an experienced old pilot:--
+
+"To the Vinegar Sellers' Landing."
+
+The engine was put at full speed, and the launch rushed down stream
+towards Constantinople. Paul and Alexander looked at the retreating
+shore and at the lights of the embassy, fast growing dim in the
+distance. Paul wished himself alone in his quiet pavilion, with a
+cigarette and one of Gogol's novels. His brother, who was ashamed of
+his violent temper and disgusted with his brother's coldness, wished
+that he might never come back. Indeed, he was inclined to say so, and to
+spend the night at a hotel in Pera; but he was ashamed of that too, now
+that his anger had subsided, and he made up his mind to be morally
+uncomfortable for at least twenty-four hours. For it is the nature of
+violent people to be ashamed of themselves, and then to work themselves
+into new fits of anger in order to escape their shame, a process which
+may be exactly compared to the drunkard's glass of brandy in the
+morning, and which generally leads to very much the same result.
+
+But Paul said nothing, and so long as he was silent it was impossible to
+quarrel with him. Alexander, therefore, stretched out his legs and
+puffed at his cigarette, wondering whether he should ever see the lady
+in the yashmak again, trying to imagine what her face could be like, but
+never doubting that she was beautiful. He had been in love with many
+faces. It was the first time he had ever fallen in love with a veil. The
+sweet air of the Bosphorus blew in his face, the distant lights twinkled
+and flashed past as the steam launch ran swiftly on, and Alexander dozed
+in his chair, dreaming that the scented breeze had blown aside the folds
+of the yashmak, and that he was gazing on the most beautiful face in the
+world. That is one of the characteristics of the true Russian. The Slav
+is easily roused to frenzied excitement, and he as easily falls back to
+an indolent and luxurious repose. There is something poetic in his
+temperament, but the extremes are too violent for all poetry. To be
+easily sad and easily gay may belong to the temper of the poet, but to
+be bloodthirsty and luxurious by turns savors of the barbarian.
+
+Alexander was aroused by the lights of Stamboul and by the noise of the
+large ferry-boats just making up to the wooden piers of Galata bridge,
+or rushing away into the darkness amidst tremendous splashing of
+paddles and blowing of steam whistles. A few minutes later the launch
+ran alongside of the Vinegar Sellers' Landing on the Stamboul shore, and
+the kavass came aft to inform the brothers that the carriage was waiting
+by the water-stairs.
+
+
+
+
+II.
+
+
+There is probably no nation in the world more attached to religion, both
+in form and principle, than the Osmanli; and it is probably for this
+reason that their public ceremonies bear a stamp of vigor and sincerity
+rarely equaled in Christian countries. No one can witness the rites
+practiced in the mosque of Agia Sophia without being profoundly
+impressed with the power of the Mohammedan faith. The famous church of
+Justinian is indeed in itself magnificent and awe-inspiring; the vast
+dome is more effective than that of Saint Peter's, in proportion as the
+masses which support it are smaller and less apparent; the double
+stories of the nave are less burdened with detail and ornament, and are
+therefore better calculated to convey an impression of size; the view
+from the galleries is less obstructed in all directions, and there is
+something startling in the enormous shields of green inscribed in gold
+with the names of God, Mohammed, and the earliest khalifs. Everything in
+the building produces a sensation of smallness in the beholder, almost
+amounting to stupor. But the Agia Sophia seen by day, in the company of
+a chattering Greek guide, is one thing; it is quite another when viewed
+at night from the solitude of the vast galleries, during the religious
+ceremonies of the last week in the month Ramazan.
+
+Paul and Alexander Patoff were driven through dark streets to a narrow
+lane, where the carriage stopped before a flight of broad steps which
+suddenly descended into blackness. The kavass was at the door, and
+seemed anxious that they should be quick in their movements. He held a
+small lantern in his hand, and, carrying it low down, showed them the
+way. Entering a gloomy doorway, they were aware of a number of Turks,
+clad mostly in white tunics, with white turbans, and congregated near
+the heavy leathern curtain which separates this back entrance from the
+portico. One of these men, a tall fellow with an ugly scowl, came
+forward, holding a pair of keys in his hand, and after a moment's parley
+with the kavass unlocked a heavily ironed door, lighting a taper at the
+lantern.
+
+As they entered, both the brothers cast a glance at the knot of scowling
+men, and Alexander felt in his pocket for his pistol. He had forgotten
+it, and the discovery did not tend to make him feel more safe. Then he
+smiled to himself, recognizing that it was but a passing feeling of
+distrust which he experienced, and remembering how many thousands of
+Franks must have passed through that very door to reach the winding
+staircase. As for Paul, he had been there the previous year, and was
+accustomed to the sour looks of Mussulmans when a Frank visitor enters
+one of their mosques. He also went in, and the kavass, who was the last
+of the party, followed, pulling the door on its hinges behind him.
+During several minutes they mounted the rough stone steps in silence, by
+the dim light of the lantern and the taper. Then emerging into the
+gallery through a narrow arch, a strange sound reached them, and
+Alexander stood still for a moment.
+
+Far down in the vast church an Imam was intoning a passage of the Koran
+in a voice which hardly seemed human; indeed, such a sound is probably
+not to be heard anywhere else in the world. The pitch was higher than
+what is attainable by the highest men's voices elsewhere, and yet the
+voice possessed the ringing, manly quality of the tenor, and its immense
+volume never dwindled to the proportions of a soprano. The priest
+recited and modulated in this extraordinary key, introducing all the
+ornaments peculiar to the ancient Arabic chant with a facility which an
+operatic singer might have envied. Then there was a moment's silence,
+broken again almost immediately by a succession of heavy sounds which
+can only be described as resembling rhythmical thunder, rising and
+falling three times at equal intervals; another short but intense
+silence, and again the voice burst out with the wild clang of a trumpet,
+echoing and reverberating through the galleries and among the hundred
+marble pillars of the vast temple.
+
+The two brothers walked forward to the carved stone balustrade of the
+high gallery, and gazed down from the height upon the scene below. The
+multitude of worshipers surged like crested waves blown obliquely on a
+shingly shore. For the apse of the Christian church is not built so
+that, facing it, the true believer shall look towards Mecca, and the
+Mussulmans have made their _mihrab_--their shrine--a little to the right
+of what was once the altar, in the true direction of the sacred city.
+The long lines of matting spread on the floor all lie evenly at an angle
+with the axis of the nave, and when the mosque is full the whole
+congregation, amounting to thousands of men, are drawn up like regiments
+of soldiers in even ranks to face the mihrab, but not at right angles
+with the nave. The effect is startling and strangely inharmonious, like
+the studied distortions of some Japanese patterns, but yet fascinating
+from its very contrariety to what the eye expects.
+
+There they stand, the ranks of the faithful, as they have stood yearly
+for centuries in the last week of Ramazan. As the trumpet notes of each
+recited verse die away among the arches, every man raises his hands
+above his head, then falls upon his knees, prostrates himself, and rises
+again, renewing the act of homage three times with the precision of a
+military evolution. At each prostration, performed exactly and
+simultaneously by that countless multitude, the air is filled with the
+tremendous roar of muffled rhythmical thunder, in which no voice is
+heard, but only the motion of ten thousand human bodies, swaying,
+bending, and kneeling in unison. Nor is the sound alone impressive. From
+the vaulted roof, from the galleries, from the dome itself, are hung
+hundreds of gigantic chandeliers, each having concentric rings of
+lighted lamps, suspended a few feet above the heads of the worshipers.
+Seen from the great height of the gallery, these thousands of lights do
+not dazzle nor hide the multitude below, which seems too great to be
+hidden, as the heavens are not hid by the stars; but the soft
+illumination fills every corner and angle of the immense building, and,
+lest any detail of the architecture and splendid music should escape the
+light, rows of little lamps are kindled along the cornices of the
+galleries and roof, filling up the interstices of darkness as a carver
+burnishes the inner petals of the roses on a huge gilt frame of
+exquisite design, in which not the smallest beauty of the workmanship
+can be allowed to pass unnoticed.
+
+This whole flood of glorious illumination descends then to the floor of
+the nave, and envelops the ranks of white and green clothed men, who
+rise and fall in long sloping lines, like a field of corn under the
+slanting breeze. There is something mystic and awe-inspiring in the
+sight, the sound, the whole condition, of this strange worship. A man
+looks down upon the serried army of believers, closely packed, but not
+crowded nor irregular, shoulder to shoulder, knee to knee, not one of
+them standing a hair's breadth in front of his rank nor behind it,
+moving all as one body, animated by one principle of harmonious motion,
+elevated by one unquestioning faith in something divine,--a man looks
+down upon this scene, and, whatever be his own belief, he cannot but
+feel an unwonted thrill of admiration, a tremor of awe, a quiver of
+dread, at the grand solemnity of this unanimous worship of the unseen.
+And then, as the movement ceases, and the files of white turbans remain
+motionless, the unearthly voice of the Imam rings out like a battle
+signal from the lofty balcony of the _mastaba_,[1] awaking in the
+fervent spirits of the believers the warlike memories of mighty
+conquest. For the Osmanli is a warrior, and his nation is a warrior
+tribe; his belief is too simple for civilization, his courage too blind
+and devoted for the military operations of our times, his heart too
+easily roused by the bloodthirsty instincts of the fanatic, and too
+ready to bear the misfortunes of life with the grave indifference of the
+fatalist. He lacks the balance of the faculties which is imposed upon
+civilized man by a conscious distinction of the possible from the
+impossible; he lacks the capacity for being contented with that state of
+life in which he is placed. Instead of the quiet courage and
+self-knowledge of a serviceable strength, he possesses the reckless and
+all-destroying zeal of the frenzied iconoclast; in place of patience
+under misfortune, in the hope of better times, he cultivates the
+insensibility begotten of a belief in hopeless predestination,--instead
+of strength he has fury, instead of patience, apathy. He is a strange
+being, beyond our understanding, as he is too often beyond our sympathy.
+It is only when we see him roused to the highest expression of his
+religious fervor that we involuntarily feel that thrill of astonishment
+and awe which in our hearts we know to be genuine admiration.
+
+[Note 1: The tribune, or marble platform, from which the prayers are
+read; not to be confounded with the _minber_, or pulpit, from which the
+Khatib preaches on Fridays, with a drawn sword in his hand.]
+
+Alexander Patoff stood by his brother's side, watching the ceremony with
+intense interest. He hated the Turks and despised their faith, but what
+he now saw appealed to the Orientalism of his nature. Himself capable of
+the most distant extremes of feeling, sensitive, passionate, and
+accustomed to delight in strong impressions, he could not fail to be
+moved by the profound solemnity of the scene and by the indescribable
+wildness of the Imam's chant. Paul, too, was silent, and, though far
+less able to feel such emotions than his elder brother, the sight of
+such unanimous and heart-felt devotion called up strange trains of
+thought in his mind, and forced him to speculate upon the qualities and
+the character which still survived in these hereditary enemies of his
+nation. It was not possible, he said to himself, that such men could
+ever be really conquered. They might be driven from the capital of the
+East by overwhelming force, but they would soon rally in greater numbers
+on the Asian shore. They might be crushed for a moment, but they could
+never be kept under, nor really dominated. Their religion might be
+oppressed and condemned by the oppressor, but it was of the sort to gain
+new strength at every fresh persecution. To slay such men was to sow
+dragon's teeth and to reap a harvest of still more furious fanatics,
+who, in their turn being destroyed, would multiply as the heads of the
+Hydra beneath the blows of Heracles. The even rise and fall of those
+long lines of stalwart Mussulmans seemed like the irrepressible tide of
+an ocean, which if restrained, would soon break every barrier raised to
+obstruct it. Paul sickened at the thought that these men were bowing
+themselves upon the pavement from which their forefathers had washed the
+dust of Christian feet in the blood of twenty thousand Christians, and
+the sullen longing for vengeance rankled in his heart. At that moment he
+wished he were a soldier, like his brother; he wished he could feel a
+soldier's pride in the strong fellowship of the ranks, and a soldier's
+hope of retaliation. He almost shuddered when he reflected that he and
+his brother stood alone, two hated Russians, with that mighty,
+rhythmically surging mass of enemies below. The bravest man might feel
+his nerves a little shaken in such a place, at such an hour. Paul leaned
+his chin upon his hand, and gazed intently down into the body of the
+church. The armed kavass stood a few paces from him on his left, and
+Alexander was leaning against a column on his right.
+
+The kavass was a good Mussulman, and regarded the ceremony not only with
+interest, but with a devotion akin to that of those who took part in it.
+He also looked fixedly down, turning his eyes to the mihrab, and
+listening attentively to the chanting of the Imam, of whose Arabic
+recitation, however, he could not understand any more than Paul
+himself. For a long time no one of the three spoke, nor indeed noticed
+his companions.
+
+"Shall we go to the other side of the gallery?" asked Paul, presently,
+in a low voice, but without looking round. Alexander did not answer, but
+the kavass moved, and uttered a low exclamation of surprise. Paul turned
+his head to repeat his question, and saw that Alexander was no longer in
+the place where he had been standing. He was nowhere to be seen.
+
+"He is gone round the gallery alone," said Paul to the kavass, and
+leading the way he went to the end of the balcony, and turning in the
+shadow looked down the long gallery which runs parallel with the nave.
+Alexander was not in sight, and Paul, supposing him to be hidden behind
+one of the heavy pillars which divided the balustrade into equal
+portions, walked rapidly to the end. But his brother was not there.
+
+"Bah!" Paul exclaimed to the kavass, "he is on the other side." He
+looked attentively at the opposite balconies, across the brilliantly
+lighted church, but saw no one. He and the soldier retraced their steps,
+and explored every corner of the galleries, without success. The kavass
+was pale to the lips.
+
+"He is gone down alone," he muttered, hastening to the head of the
+winding stair in the northwest corner of the dim gallery. He had left
+his lantern by the door, but it was not there. Alexander must have taken
+it with him. The Turk with the keys and the taper had long since gone
+down, in expectation of some other Frank visitors, but as yet none had
+appeared. Paul breathed hard, for he knew that a stranger could not with
+safety descend alone, on such a night, to the vestibule of the mosque,
+filled as it was with turbaned Mussulmans who had not found room in the
+interior, and who were pursuing their devotions before the great open
+doors. On the other hand, if Alexander had not entered the vestibule, he
+must have gone out into the street, where he would not be much safer,
+for his hat proclaimed him a Frank to every party of strolling Turks he
+chanced to meet.
+
+Paul lit a wax taper from his case, and, holding others in readiness,
+began to follow the rugged descent, the kavass close at his elbow. It
+seemed interminable. At every deep embrasure Paul paused, searching the
+recess by the flickering glare of the match, and then, finding nothing,
+both men went on. At last they reached the bottom, and the heavy door
+creaked as the kavass pressed it back.
+
+"You must stay here," he said, in his broken jargon. "Or, better still,
+you should go outside with me and get into the carriage. I will come
+back and search."
+
+"No," said Paul. "I will go with you. I am not afraid of them."
+
+"You cannot," answered the kavass firmly. "I cannot protect you inside
+the vestibule."
+
+"I tell you I will go!" exclaimed Paul impatiently. "I do not expect you
+to protect me. I will protect myself." But the kavass would not yield so
+easily. He was a powerful man, and stood calmly in the doorway. Paul
+could not pass him without using violence.
+
+"Effendim," said the man, speaking Turkish, which he knew that Paul
+understood, "if I let you go in there, and anything happens to you, my
+life is forfeited."
+
+Paul hesitated. The man was in earnest, and they were losing time which
+might be precious. It was clear that Alexander might already be in
+trouble, and that the kavass was the only person capable of imposing
+respect upon the crowd.
+
+"Go," said Paul. "I will wait by the carriage."
+
+The kavass opened the door, and both men went out into the dim entry.
+Paul turned to the right and the soldier to the left, towards the heavy
+curtain which closed the entrance of the vestibule. The knot of Turks
+who had stood there when the Russians had arrived had disappeared, and
+the place was silent and deserted, while from behind the curtain faint
+echoes of the priest's high voice were audible, and at intervals the
+distant thundering roll from the church told that the worshipers were
+prostrating themselves in the intervals of the chanting. Paul retired up
+the dark way, but paused at the deserted gate, unwilling to go so far as
+the carriage, and thus lengthen the time before the kavass could rejoin
+him with his brother. He trembled lest Alexander should have given way
+to some foolhardy impulse to enter the mosque in defiance of the
+ceremony which was then proceeding, but it did not strike him that
+anything very serious could have occurred, nor that the kavass would
+really have any great difficulty in finding him. Alexander would
+probably escape with some rough treatment, which might not be altogether
+unprofitable, provided he sustained no serious injury. It was indeed a
+rash and foolish thing to go alone and unarmed among a crowd of fanatic
+Mohammedans at their devotions; but, after all, civilization had
+progressed in Turkey, and the intruder was no longer liable to be torn
+in pieces by the mob. He would most likely be forcibly ejected from the
+vestibule, and left to repent of his folly in peace.
+
+All these reflections passed through Paul's mind, as he stood waiting in
+the shadow of the gate at the back of the mosque; but the time began to
+seem unreasonably long, and his doubts presently took the shape of
+positive fears. Still the echoes came to his ears through the heavy
+curtain, while from without the distant hum of the city, given up to
+gayety after the day's long fast, mingled discordantly with the sounds
+from within. He was aware that his heart was beating faster than usual,
+and that he was beginning to suffer the excitement of fear. He tried to
+reason with himself, saying that it was foolish to make so much of so
+little; but in the arguments of reason against terror, the latter
+generally gets the advantage and keeps it. Paul had a strong desire to
+follow the kavass into the vestibule, and to see for himself whether his
+brother were there or not. He rarely carried weapons, as Alexander did,
+but he trusted in his own strength to save him. He drew his watch from
+his pocket, resolving to wait five minutes longer, and then, if the
+kavass did not return, to lift the curtain, come what might. He struck a
+match, and looked at the dial. It was a quarter past ten o'clock. Then,
+to occupy his mind, he began to try and count the three hundred seconds,
+fancying that he could see a pendulum swinging before his eyes in the
+dark. At twenty minutes past ten he would go in.
+
+But he did not reach the end of his counting. The curtain suddenly moved
+a little, allowing a ray of bright light to fall out into the darkness,
+and in the momentary flash Paul saw the gorgeous uniform and
+accoutrements of the embassy kavass. He was alone, and Paul's heart
+sank. He remembered very vividly the dark and scowling faces and the
+fiery eyes of the turbaned men who had stood before the door an hour
+earlier, and he began to fear some dreadful catastrophe. The kavass came
+quickly forward, and Paul stepped out of the shadow and confronted him.
+
+"Well?"
+
+"He has not been there," answered the soldier, in agitated tones. "I
+went all through the crowd, and searched everywhere. I asked many
+persons. They laughed at the idea of a Frank gentleman in a hat
+appearing amongst them. He must have gone out into the street."
+
+"We searched the gallery thoroughly, did we not?" asked Paul. "Are you
+sure he could not have been hidden somewhere?"
+
+"Perfectly, Effendim. He is not there."
+
+"Then we must look for him in the streets," said Paul, growing very
+pale. He turned to ascend the steps from the gate to the road.
+
+"It is not my fault, Effendim," answered the soldier. "Did you not see
+him leave the gallery?"
+
+"It is nobody's fault but his own," returned Patoff. "I was looking down
+at the people. He must have slipped away like a cat."
+
+They reached the carriage, and Paul got inside. It was a landau, and the
+kavass and the coachman opened the front, so that Patoff might get a
+better view of the streets. The kavass mounted the box, and explained to
+the coachman that they must search Stamboul as far as possible for the
+lost Effendi. But the coachman turned sharply round on his seat and
+spoke to Paul.
+
+"The gentleman did not come out," he said emphatically. "I have been
+watching for you ever since you went in. He is inside the Agia
+Sophia--somewhere."
+
+Paul was disconcerted. He had not thought of making inquiries of the
+coachman, supposing that Alexander might easily have slipped past in the
+darkness. But the man seemed very positive.
+
+"Wait in the carriage, Effendim," said the kavass, once more descending
+from his seat. "If he is inside I will find him. I will search the
+galleries again. He cannot have gone through the vestibule."
+
+Before Paul could answer him the man had plunged once more down the
+black steps, and the Russian was condemned a second time to a long
+suspense, during which he was frequently tempted to leave the carriage
+and explore the church for himself. He felt the cold perspiration on his
+brow, and his hand trembled as he took out his watch again and again. It
+was nearly a quarter of an hour before the kavass returned. The man was
+now very pale, and seemed as much distressed as Paul himself. He
+silently shook his head, and, mounting to the box seat, ordered the
+coachman to drive on.
+
+The city was ablaze with lights. Every mosque was illuminated, and the
+minarets, decked out with thousands of little lamps, looked like fiery
+needles piercing the black bosom of the sky. The carriage drove from
+place to place, passing where a crowd was gathered together, hastening
+down dark and deserted streets, to emerge again upon some brilliantly
+lighted square, thronged with men in fez and turban and with women
+veiled in the eternal yashmak. More than once Paul started in his seat,
+fancying that he could discover on the borders of the crowd the two
+ladies, with their attendant, who had been the cause of the scuffle in
+the Valley of Roses that afternoon. Again, he thought he could
+distinguish his brother's features among the moving faces, but always
+the sight of the dark red fez told him that he was wrong. He was driven
+round Agia Sophia, beneath the splendid festoons of lamps, some hung so
+as to form huge Arabic letters, some merely bound together in great
+ropes of light; back towards the water and through the Atmaidam, the
+ancient Hippodrome, down to the Serai point, then up to the Seraskierat,
+where the glorious tower shot upwards like the pillar of flame that went
+before the Israelites of old; on to the mosque of Suleiman, over whose
+tomb the great dome burned like a fiery mountain, round once more to the
+Atmaidam, past the tall trees amidst which blazed the six minarets of
+Sultan Achmet; then, trying a new route, down by the bazaar gates to
+Sultan Valide and the head of Galata bridge, and at last back again to
+the Seraskierat, and, leaving the Dove Mosque of Bajazet on the right,
+once more to the Vinegar Sellers' Landing, in the vain hope that
+Alexander might have found his way down to the quay where the steam
+launch was moored.
+
+In vain did the terrified kavass bid the coachman turn and turn again;
+in vain did Paul, in agonized excitement, try to pierce the darkness
+with his eyes, and to distinguish the well-known face in the throngs
+that crowded the brightly lighted squares. At the end of two hours he
+began to realize the hopelessness of the search. Suddenly it struck him
+that Alexander might have found the bridge, and, recognizing it, might
+have crossed to Pera rather than run the risk of losing himself in
+Stamboul again.
+
+"Tell the launch to be at Beschik Tasch to-morrow morning at ten
+o'clock," said Paul. "Take me to Galata bridge. I will cross on foot to
+Pera. Then go back and wait behind Agia Sophia, in case he comes that
+way again to look for the carriage. If I find him in Pera, I will send a
+messenger to tell you. If he does not come, meet me at Missiri's early
+to-morrow morning."
+
+"Pek eyi--very good," answered the kavass, who understood the wisdom of
+the plan. Again the carriage turned, and in five minutes Paul was
+crossing Galata bridge, alone, on his way to Pera.
+
+He was terribly agitated. Stories of the disappearance of foreigners in
+the labyrinths of Stamboul rose to his mind, and though he had never
+known of such a case in his own experience, he did not believe the thing
+impossible. His brother was the rashest and most foolhardy of men,
+capable of risking his life for a mere caprice, and perhaps the more
+inclined to do so on that night because he had had a violent quarrel
+with Paul that very afternoon, about his own foolish conduct. Of all
+nights in the year, the last four or five of Ramazan are the most
+dangerous to unprotected foreigners, and as he walked the spectacle of
+the scowling Turks thrust itself once more before Paul's mental vision.
+If Alexander had descended the steps, and had ventured, as well he
+might, to push past those fellows into the vestibule of the mosque, it
+must have gone hard with him. The fanatic worshipers of Allah were not
+in a mood that night to bear with the capricious humors of a haughty
+Frank; and though Alexander was active, strong, and brave, his strength
+would avail him little against such odds. He would be overpowered,
+stunned, and thrown out before he could utter a cry, and he might think
+himself lucky if he escaped with one or two broken bones. But then,
+again, if he had suffered such treatment, some one must have heard of
+it, and Paul remembered the blank face and frightened look of the kavass
+when he returned the second time from his search. They had gone
+carefully round the great building, and must have seen such an object as
+the body of a man lying in the street. Perhaps Alexander had broken away
+without injury, and fled out into the streets of Stamboul. If so, he
+was in no common danger, for, utterly ignorant of the topography of the
+great city, he might as easily have gone towards the Seven Towers or to
+Aiwan Serai as to Galata bridge or Topkapussi, the Canon Gate at Serai
+point. There was still one hope left. He might have reached Pera, and be
+at that very moment refreshing himself with coffee and cigarettes at
+Missiri's hotel.
+
+Paul hastened his walk, and, reaching Galata, began at once to ascend
+the steep street which further on is called the Grande Rue, but which of
+all "great" streets least deserves the name. He then walked slowly,
+scrutinizing every face he saw. But indeed there were few people about,
+for Christian Pera does not fast in Ramazan, and consequently does not
+spend the night in parading the streets. Nevertheless, Paul began a
+systematic search, leaving no small cafe or eating-house unvisited,
+rousing the sleepy porters of the inns with his inquiries, and finally
+entering the hotel. It was now past midnight, but he would not give up
+the quest. He caused all the guides to be collected from their obscure
+habitations by messengers from the hotel, and representing to them the
+urgency of the case, and giving them money in advance with the promise
+of more to come, he dispatched them in all directions. Alexander had
+been at the hotel very often during the last month, while visiting the
+sights of the city, and most of these fellows knew him by sight. At all
+events, it would be easy for them to recognize a well-dressed Frank
+gentleman in trouble.
+
+Patoff saw the last of them leave the hotel, and stood staring out upon
+the Grande Rue de Pera, wondering what should be done next. The town
+residence of the embassy was closed for the summer, and there were only
+two or three sleepy servants in the place, who could be of no use. He
+thought of getting a horse and riding rapidly back to Buyukdere, in
+order to warn the ambassador of his brother's disappearance; but on
+reflection it seemed that he would do better to stay where he was. The
+short June night would soon be past, and by daylight he could at once
+prosecute his search in Stamboul with safety and with far greater
+probability of finding the lost man. He knew that the kavass would
+remain with the carriage all night behind Santa Sophia, and then at dawn
+he should still find them there. Meanwhile, he took a _hamal_,--a
+luggage porter from the hotel,--and, armed with a lantern and a stick,
+began to beat the different quarters of Pera, judging that in the three
+or four hours before daylight he could pass through most of the streets.
+
+Hour after hour he trudged along, pale with fatigue and anxiety, his big
+features hardening with despairing determination as he walked. He
+searched every street and alley; he interviewed the Bekjees, who stamp
+along the streets, pounding the pavement with their iron-shod clubs; he
+tramped out to the Taksim, and down again to Galata tower, plunging into
+the dark alleys about the Oriental Bank, skirting lower Pera to the
+Austrian embassy, and climbing up the narrow path between tall houses,
+till he was once more in the Grande Rue; crossing to the filthy quarters
+of Kassim Pascha and emerging at the German Lutheran church, crossing,
+recrossing, stumbling over gutters and up dirty back lanes, silent and
+determined still, addressing only the sturdy Kurd by his side to ask if
+there were any streets still unexplored, and entering every new by-path
+with new hope. At last he found himself once more at Galata bridge, and
+the light of the lantern began to pale before the grayness of the coming
+morning. He paid the Kurdish porter a generous fee, and giving his tiny
+coin to the tall keeper of the bridge, whose white garments looked
+whiter in the dawn, he walked on until he was half way over the Golden
+Horn.
+
+Stepping aside on to the wooden pier where the great ferry-boats were
+moored, he leaned upon the rail and looked out over the water,
+momentarily exhausted and unable to go further. The tender light tinged
+the southeastern sky, and the far mist of the horizon seemed already hot
+with the rising day. On the lapping water of the Horn the light fell
+like petals of roses tossed in a mantle of some soft dark fabric
+interwoven with a silvery sheen. Far across the mouth of the Bosphorus
+the minarets of Scutari came faintly into view, and on the Stamboul side
+the few lingering lamps which had outlasted the darkness, upon the lofty
+minarets, paled and lost their yellow color, and then ceased to shine,
+outdone in their turn by the rosy morning light. A wonderful stillness
+had fallen on the great city, as one by one the tired parties of friends
+had gone to rest, to shorten the day of fasting by prolonging their
+sleep till late in the hot afternoon. The clank of some capstan on one
+of the ferry-boats struck loud and clear on the still air, as the
+reluctant sailors and firemen prepared for their first run to the Black
+Sea, or across to Kadi Koei on the Sea of Marmara. Paul turned and looked
+towards the mighty dome of Santa Sophia, and his haggard face was almost
+as pale as the white walls. He lingered still, and suddenly the sun
+sprang up behind the Serai, and gilded the delicate spires, and caught
+the gold of the crescents on the mosques, and shone full upon the broad
+water. Paul followed the light as it touched one glorious building after
+another, and his hand trembled convulsively on the railing. Somewhere in
+that great awakening city--his brother was somewhere, alive or dead,
+amongst those white walls and glittering crescents and towering
+minarets--somewhere, and he must be found. Paul bent his head, and
+turning away hurried across the bridge, and plunged once more into
+Stamboul, alone as he had come.
+
+The streets were deserted, and the early morning air was full of the
+smell of thousands of extinguished oil lamps, that peculiar and
+pervading odor which suggests past revelry, sleepless hours, and the
+vanity of turning night into day. It oppressed Paul's overwrought
+senses, as he passed the melancholy remains of the illumination before
+the post-office and the Sultan Valide mosque, and he hurried on towards
+the more secluded streets leading to Santa Sophia, in which the night's
+gayety had left no perceptible signs. At last he came to the narrow lane
+behind the huge pile, feeling that he had at last reached the end of his
+five hours' tramp.
+
+There stood the carriage, all dusty with the night's driving, looking
+dilapidated and forlorn; the tired horses drooped their heads in the
+flaccid and empty canvas nose-bags. The extinguished lamps were black
+with the smoke from the last flare of their sputtering wicks. The
+coachman lay inside, snoring,--a mere heap of cloth and brass buttons
+surmounted by a shapeless fez. On the stone steps leading down to the
+church sat the kavass; his head had fallen on the low parapet behind
+him, and his half-shaved scalp was bare. His face was deadly pale, and
+his mouth was wide open as he slept, breathing heavily; his left hand
+rested on the hilt of his scimiter; his right was extended, palm
+upwards, on the stone step on which he sat, the very picture of
+exhaustion.
+
+At any other time Paul would have laughed at the scene. But he was very
+far from mirth now, as he bent down and laid his hand upon the sleeping
+kavass's shoulder.
+
+
+
+
+III.
+
+
+At ten o'clock on that morning, Paul and the kavass went on board the
+steam launch at Beschik Tasch, the landing most convenient for persons
+coming from the upper part of Pera. They had done everything possible,
+and it was manifestly Paul's duty to inform his chief of the occurrences
+of the night. The authorities had been put in possession of the details
+of Alexander's disappearance, and the scanty machinery of the Stamboul
+police had been set in motion; notice had been given at every hotel and
+circulated to every place of resort, and it was impossible that if
+Alexander showed himself in Pera he should escape observation, even if
+he desired to do so. But Stamboul was not Pera, and as Paul gave the
+order to steam to Buyukdere he resolutely turned his back on the eastern
+shore of the Golden Horn, unable to bear the sight of the buildings so
+intimately associated with his night's search. He was convinced that his
+brother was in Stamboul, and he knew that the search in Pera was a mere
+formality. He knew, also, that to find any one in Stamboul was only
+possible provided the person were free, or at least able to give some
+sign of his presence; and he began to believe that Alexander had fallen
+a victim to some rash prank. He had, perhaps, repeated his folly of the
+previous afternoon,--had wandered into the streets, had foolishly
+ventured to look too closely at a pair of black eyes, and had been
+spirited away by the prompt vengeance of the lady's attendants.
+
+But Paul's speculations concerning the fate of his brother were just now
+interrupted by the consideration of the difficulties which lay before
+him. Cold and resolute by nature, he found himself in a position in
+which any man's calmness would have been shaken. He knew that he must
+tell his tale to his chief, and he knew that he was to blame for not
+having watched Alexander more closely. It was improbable that any one
+who had not been present could understand how, in the intense interest
+caused by the ceremony, Paul could have overlooked his brother's
+departure from the gallery. But not only had Paul failed to notice his
+going; the kavass had not observed the lost man's movements any more
+than Paul himself. It was inconceivable to any one except Paul that
+Alexander should have been capable of creeping past him and the soldier,
+on tip-toe, purposely eluding observation; nevertheless, such an action
+would not be unnatural to his character. He had perhaps conceived a
+sudden desire to go down into the church and view the ceremony more
+closely. He must have known that both his companions would forcibly
+prevent him from such a course, and it was like him to escape them,
+laughing to himself at their carelessness. The passion for adventure was
+in his blood, and his training had not tended to cool it; fate had
+thrown an attractive possibility into his way, and he had seized the
+opportunity of doing something unusual, and annoying his more prudent
+brother at the same time.
+
+But though Paul understood this clearly enough, he felt that it would be
+anything but easy to make it clear to his chief; and yet, if he did not
+succeed in doing so, it would be hard for him to account for his
+carelessness, and he might spend a very unpleasant season of waiting
+until the missing man was found. In such a case as this, Paul was too
+good a diplomatist not to tell the truth very exactly. Indeed, he was
+always a truthful man, according to his lights; but had it been
+necessary to shield his brother's reputation in any way, he would have
+so arranged his story as not to tell any more of the truth than was
+necessary. What had occurred was probably more to his own discredit than
+to Alexander's, and Paul reflected that, on the other hand, there was
+no need to inform the ambassador of the quarrel on the previous
+afternoon, since the chief had overheard it, and had himself interposed
+to produce quiet, if not peace. He resolved, therefore, to tell every
+particular, from the moment of his arrival with Alexander at the Vinegar
+Sellers' Landing to the time of his leaving Pera, that morning, on his
+way back to Buyukdere.
+
+There was some relief in having thus decided upon the course he should
+follow; but the momentary satisfaction did not in the least lighten the
+burden that weighed upon his heart. His anxiety was intense, and he
+could not escape it, nor find any argument whereby to alleviate it. He
+did not love his brother, or at least had never loved him before; but we
+often find in life that a sudden fear for the safety of an individual,
+for whom we believe we care nothing, brings out a latent affection which
+we had not expected to feel. The bond of blood is a very strong one, and
+asserts itself in extreme moments with an unsuspected tenacity which
+works wonders, and which astonishes ourselves. The silken cord is
+slender, but the hands must be strong that can break it. In spite of all
+the misery his brother had caused him in boyhood, in spite of the
+coolness which had existed between them in later years, in spite of the
+humiliation he had so often suffered in seeing Alexander preferred
+before him, yet at this moment, when, for a time, the only man who bore
+his name had suddenly disappeared from the scene of life, Paul
+discovered deep down in his heart a strange sympathy for the lost man.
+He blamed himself bitterly for his carelessness, and, going back in his
+memory, he recalled with sorrow the hard words which had passed between
+them. He would have given much to be able to revoke the past and to
+weave more affection into his remembrance of his brother; and at the
+idea that he might perhaps never see him again, he turned pale, and
+twisted his fingers uneasily in his agitation.
+
+Meanwhile, the launch steamed bravely against the current, deftly
+avoiding the swift eddies under the skillful hand of the pilot,
+slackening her pace to let a big ferry-boat cross before her from Europe
+to Asia, facing the fierce stream at Bala Hissar,--the devil's stream,
+as the Turks call it,--and finally ploughing through the rushing waters
+of Yeni Koej round the point where the Therapia pier juts out into the
+placid bay of Buyukdere. Paul could see far down the pier the white
+gates of the Russian embassy, and when, some ten minutes later, the
+launch ran alongside the landing, he gathered his courage with all his
+might, and stepped boldly ashore, and entered the grounds, the kavass
+following him with bent head and dejected looks.
+
+His excellency the Russian ambassador was seated in his private study,
+alternately sipping a cup of tea and puffing at a cigarette. The green
+blinds were closed, and the air of the luxurious little apartment was
+cool and refreshing. The diplomatist had very little to do, as no
+business could be transacted until after the Bairam feast, which begins
+with the new moon succeeding the month Ramazan; he sat late over his
+tea, smoking and turning over a few letters, while he enjoyed the gentle
+breeze which found its way into his room with the softened light. He was
+a gray-headed man, but not old. His keen gray eyes seemed exceedingly
+alive to every sight presented to them, and the lines on his face were
+the expression of thought and power rather than of age. He was tall,
+thin, and soldier-like, extremely courteous in manner and speech, but
+grave and not inclined to mirth; he belonged to that class of active men
+in whom the constant exercise of vitality and intelligence appears to
+prolong life instead of exhausting its force, who possess a constitution
+in which the body is governed by the mind, and who, being generally
+little capable of enjoying the pleasure of the moment, find it easy to
+devote their energies to the attainment of an object in the future.
+Count Ananoff was the ideal diplomatist: cautious, far-sighted,
+impenetrable, and exact, outwardly ceremonious and dignified, not too
+skeptical of other men's qualities nor too confident of his own. His
+convictions might be summed up, according to the old Russian joke, in
+the one word Nabuchadnezar,--_Na Bogh ad ne Czar_,--"There is no God but
+the Czar."
+
+As Paul entered the ambassador's study, he was glad that he had always
+been on good terms with his chief. Indeed, there was much sympathy
+between them, and it might well have been predicted at that time that
+Paul would some day become just such a man as he under whom he now
+served. Convinced as he was that in his present career quite as much of
+success depended upon the manner of carrying out a scheme as on the
+scheme itself, Paul had long come to the conclusion that no manner could
+possibly be so effective as that of Count Ananoff, and that in order to
+cultivate it the utmost attention must be bestowed upon the study of his
+chief's motives. Himself grave and cautious, he possessed the two main
+elements noticeable in the character of his model, and to acquire the
+rest could only be a matter of time. The ambassador noticed the ease
+with which Paul comprehended his point of view, and fancied that he saw
+in his secretary a desire to imitate himself, which of course was
+flattering. The result was that a sincere good feeling existed between
+the two, made up of a genuine admiration on the one side, and of
+considerable self-satisfaction on the other. Patoff felt that the moment
+had come when he must test the extent of the regard his chief felt for
+him, and, considering the difficulty of his position and the personal
+anxiety he felt for his brother, it is not surprising that he was
+nervous and ill at ease.
+
+"I have a painful story to tell, excellency," he said, standing before
+the broad writing-desk at which the count was sitting. The latter looked
+up from his tea.
+
+"Be seated," he said gravely, but fixing a keen look on Paul's haggard
+face.
+
+"I will tell you everything, with all the details," said Patoff, sitting
+down; and he forthwith began his story. The narrative was clear and
+connected, and embraced the history of the night from the time when Paul
+had left Buyukdere with his brother to the time of his return. Nothing
+was omitted which he could remember, but when he had done he was
+conscious that he had only told the tale of his long search for the
+missing man. He had thrown no light upon the cause of the disappearance.
+The ambassador looked very grave, and his thoughtful brows knit
+themselves together, while he never took his eyes from Paul's face.
+
+"It is very serious," he said at last. "Will you kindly explain to me,
+if you can do so without indiscretion, the causes of the violent quarrel
+which took place between you yesterday afternoon?"
+
+Paul had foreseen the question, and proceeded to detail the occurrences
+in the Valley of Roses, explaining the part he had played, and how he
+had remonstrated with Alexander. The latter, he said, had lost his
+temper, after they had got home.
+
+"I would not tell that story to any one else," said Paul, in conclusion.
+"It shows the disposition of my brother, and does him no credit. It was
+a foolish escapade, but I should be sorry to have it known. I expected
+that a complaint would have been lodged already."
+
+"None has been made. Is the kavass who went with you come back?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Do you think," said the count, looking quietly at Paul, "that he can
+tell us anything you have forgotten?"
+
+There was a peculiar emphasis upon the last words which did not escape
+the secretary, though in that first moment he did not understand what
+was meant.
+
+"No," he answered, quite simply, returning his chief's look with perfect
+calmness. "I do not believe he can tell anything more. I will call him."
+
+"By all means. There is the bell," said the ambassador. Paul rang, and
+sent the servant to call his kavass, who had been waiting, and appeared
+immediately, looking very ill and exhausted with the fatigue of the
+night. He trembled visibly, as he stood before the table and made his
+military salute, bringing his right hand quickly to his mouth, then to
+his forehead, and letting it drop again to his side. Count Ananoff
+cross-examined him with short, sharp questions. The man was very pale,
+and stammered his replies, but the extraordinary accuracy with which he
+recounted the details already given by Patoff did not escape the
+diplomatist.
+
+"Have you anything more to tell?" asked the ambassador, at last.
+
+"It was not my fault, Effendim," said the kavass, in great agitation.
+"Paul Effendi and I were looking at the people, and when we turned
+Alexander Effendi was gone, and we could not find him. I had warned him
+beforehand not to separate himself from us"----
+
+"Do you think he can be found?" inquired Ananoff, cutting short the
+man's repetitions.
+
+"Surely, the Effendi can be found," returned the kavass. "But it may
+take time."
+
+"Why should it take time? Unless he is injured or imprisoned somewhere,
+he ought to find his way to Pera to-day."
+
+"Effendim, he may have strayed into the dark streets. If the _bekji_
+found him without a lantern, he would be arrested, according to the
+law."
+
+"He had our lantern," said Paul. "We could not find it."
+
+"That is true," answered the kavass, in dejected tones. "There is the
+Persian ambassador, Effendim," he said, with a sudden revival of hope.
+
+"What can he do?" asked the count.
+
+"He is lord over all the donkey-drivers in Stamboul, Effendim. The
+Sultan allows him to exact tribute of them, which is the most part of
+his fortune.[2] Perhaps if he gave orders that they should all be
+beaten unless they found Alexander Effendi, they would find him. They go
+everywhere and see everybody."
+
+[Note 2: Fact.]
+
+"That is an idea," said the ambassador, hardly able to repress a grim
+smile. "I will send word to his excellency at once. I have no doubt but
+that he will do it."
+
+"But it was not my fault"--began the kavass again.
+
+"I am not sure of that," answered the diplomatist. "If you find him, you
+will be excused."
+
+"I think the man is not to be blamed," remarked Paul, who had not
+forgotten the anxiety the kavass had shown in trying to find Alexander.
+"It is my belief that my brother's disappearance did not occur in any
+ordinary way."
+
+"I think so, too," replied the count. "You may go," he said to the
+soldier, who at once left the room. A short silence followed his
+departure.
+
+"Monsieur Patoff," resumed the elder man presently, "you are in a very
+dangerous and distressing position."
+
+"Distressing," said Paul. "Not dangerous, so far as I can see."
+
+"Let us be frank," answered the other. "Alexander Patoff is your elder
+brother. You feel that he had too large a share of your father's
+fortune. You have never liked him. He came here without an invitation,
+and made himself very disagreeable to you. You had a violent quarrel
+yesterday afternoon, and you were justly provoked,--quite justly, I have
+no doubt. You go to Stamboul at night with only one man to attend you.
+You come back without your rich, overbearing, intolerable brother. What
+will the world say to all that?"
+
+In spite of his pallor, the blood rushed violently to Paul's face, and
+he sprang from his chair in the wildest excitement.
+
+"You have no right--you do not mean to say it--Great God! How can you
+think of such a"----
+
+"I do not think it," said the ambassador, seizing him by the arm and
+trying to calm him. "I do not think anything of the kind. Command
+yourself, and be a man. Sit down,--there, be reasonable. I only mean to
+put you in your right position."
+
+"You will drive me mad," answered Paul in low tones, sinking into the
+chair again.
+
+"Now listen to me," continued the count, "and understand that you are
+listening to your best friend. The world will not fail to say that you
+have spirited away your brother,--got rid of him, in short, for your own
+ends. There is no one but a Turkish soldier to prove the contrary. No,
+do not excite yourself again. I am telling you the truth. I know
+perfectly well that Alexander has lost himself by his own folly, but I
+must foresee what other people will say, in case he is not found"----
+
+"But he must be found!" interrupted Paul. "I say he shall be found!"
+
+"Yes, so do I. But there is just a possibility that he may not be found.
+Meanwhile, the alarm is given. The story will be in every one's mouth
+to-night, and to-morrow you will be assailed with all manner of
+questions. My dear Patoff, if Alexander does not turn up in a few days,
+you had better go away, until the whole matter has blown over. You can
+safely leave your reputation in my hands, as well as the care of finding
+your brother, if he can be found at all, and you will be spared much
+that is painful and embarrassing. I will arrange that you may be
+transferred for a year to some distant post, and when the mystery is
+cleared up you can come back and brave your accusers."
+
+"But," said Paul, who had grown pale again, "it seems to me impossible
+that I could be accused of murdering my brother on such slender grounds,
+even if the worst were to happen and he were never found. It is an awful
+imputation to put upon a man. I do not see how any one would dare to
+suggest such a thing."
+
+"In the first place," answered the ambassador, arguing the point as he
+would have discussed the framing of a dispatch, "the Turks are very
+cunning, and they hate us. They will begin by saying that you had an
+interest in disposing of Alexander. They will search out the whole
+story, and will assert the fact because they will be safe in saying that
+there is no evidence to the contrary. They will take care that the
+suggestion shall reach our ears, and that it shall spread throughout our
+little society. What can you answer to the question, 'Where is your
+brother?' If people do not ask it, they will let you know that it is in
+their hearts."
+
+"I do not know," said Paul, stunned by the possible truth of his chief's
+argument.
+
+"Exactly. You do not know, nor I either. But if you stay here, you will
+have to fight for your own reputation. If you are absent, I can put down
+such scandal by my authority, and it will soon be forgotten. I do not
+believe that this disappearance can remain a secret forever. At present,
+and for some time to come, it is only a disappearance, and it will be
+expected that your brother may yet come back. But when months are
+past,--should such a catastrophe occur,--people will find another word,
+and the murder of Alexander Patoff will be the common topic of
+conversation."
+
+"It is awful to think of," murmured Paul. "But why do you suppose that
+he will not come back? He may have got into some scrape, and he may
+appear this evening. There is hope yet and for days to come."
+
+"I am sorry to say I do not believe it," answered the count. "There have
+been several disappearances of insignificant individuals since I have
+been here. No pains were spared to find them, but no one ever obtained
+the smallest trace of their fate. They were probably murdered for the
+small sums of money they carried. Of course there is possibility, but I
+think there is very little hope."
+
+"But I cannot bear to think that poor Alexander should have come to
+such an end," cried Paul. "I could not go away feeling that I had left
+anything untried in searching for him. I never loved him, God forgive
+me! But he was my brother, and my mother's favorite son. He was with me,
+and by my carelessness he lost himself. Who is to tell her that? No, I
+cannot go until I know what has become of him."
+
+"My friend," said old Ananoff gently, "you have all my sympathy, and you
+shall have all my help. I will myself write to your mother, if Alexander
+does not return in a week. But if in a month he is not heard of, there
+will be no hope at all. Then you must go away, and I will shut the
+mouths of the gossips. Now go and rest, for you are exhausted. Be quite
+sure that between the measures you have taken yourself and those which I
+shall take, everything possible will be done."
+
+Paul rose unsteadily to his feet, and took the count's hand. Then,
+without a word, he went to his pavilion, and gave himself up to his own
+agonizing thoughts.
+
+The ambassador lost no time, for he felt how serious the case was. In
+spite of the heat, he proceeded to Stamboul at once, visited Santa
+Sophia, and explored every foot of the gallery whence Alexander had
+disappeared, but without discovering any trace. He asked questions of
+the warden of the church, the scowling Turk who had admitted the
+brothers on the previous night; but the man only answered that Allah was
+great, and that he knew nothing of the circumstances, having left the
+two gentlemen in charge of their kavass. Then the count went to the
+house of the Persian ambassador, and obtained his promise to aid in the
+search by means of his army of donkey-drivers. He went in person to the
+Ottoman Bank, to the chief of police, to every office through which he
+could hope for any information. Returning to Buyukdere, he sent notes to
+all his colleagues, informing them of what had occurred, and requesting
+their assistance in searching for the lost man. At last he felt that he
+had done everything in his power, and he desisted from his labors. But,
+as he had said, he had small expectation of ever hearing again from
+Lieutenant Alexander Patoff, and he meditated upon the letter he had
+promised to write to the missing man's mother. He was shocked at the
+accident, and he felt a real sympathy for Paul, besides the
+responsibility for the safety of Russian subjects in Turkey, which in
+some measure rested with him.
+
+As for Paul, he paced his room for an hour after he had left his chief,
+and then at last he fell upon the divan, faint with bodily fatigue and
+exhausted by mental anxiety. He slept a troubled sleep for some hours,
+and did not leave his apartments again that day.
+
+The view of the situation presented to him by Count Ananoff had stunned
+him almost beyond the power of thought, and when he tried to think his
+reflections only confirmed his fears. He saw himself branded as a
+murderer, though the deed could not be proved, and he knew how such an
+accusation, once put upon a man, will cling to him in spite of the lack
+of evidence. He realized with awful force the meaning of the question,
+"Where is your brother?" and he understood how easily such a question
+would suggest itself to the minds of those who knew his position. That
+question which was put to the first murderer, and which will be put to
+the last, has been asked many times of innocent men, and the mere fact
+that they could find no ready answer has sufficed to send them to their
+death. Why should it not be the same with him? Until he could show them
+his brother, they would have a right to ask, and they would ask,
+rejoicing in the pain inflicted. Paul cursed the day when Alexander had
+come to visit him, and he had received him with a show of satisfaction.
+Had he been more honest in showing his dislike, the poor fellow would
+perhaps have gone angrily away, but he would not have been lost in the
+night in the labyrinths of Stamboul. And then again Paul repented
+bitterly of the hard words he had spoken, and, working himself into a
+fever of unreasonable remorse, walked the floor of his room as a wild
+beast tramps in its cage.
+
+The night was interminable, though there were only six hours of
+darkness; but when the morning rose the light was more intolerable
+still, and Paul felt as though he must go mad from inaction. He dressed
+hastily, and went out into the cool dawn to wait for the first boat to
+Pera. Even the early shadows on the water reminded him of yesterday,
+when he had crossed Galata bridge on foot, still feeling some hope. He
+closed his eyes as he leaned upon the rail of the landing, wishing that
+the sun would rise and dispel at least some portion of his sorrow.
+
+He reached Pera, and spent the whole day in fruitless inquiries. In the
+evening he returned, and the next morning he went back again; sleeping
+little, hardly eating at all, speaking to no one he knew, and growing
+hourly more thin and haggard, till the Cossacks at the gate hardly
+recognized him. But day after day he searched, and all the countless
+messengers, officials, guides, porters, and people of every class
+searched, too, attracted by the large reward which the ambassador
+offered for any information concerning Alexander Patoff. But not the
+slightest clue could be obtained. Alexander Patoff had disappeared
+hopelessly and completely, and had left no more trace than if he had
+been thrown into the Bosphorus, with a couple of round shot at his neck.
+The days lengthened into weeks, and the weeks became a month, and still
+Paul hoped against all possibility of hope, and wearied the officials of
+every class with his perpetual inquiries.
+
+Count Ananoff had long since communicated the news of Alexander's
+disappearance to the authorities in St. Petersburg, thinking it barely
+possible that he might have gone home secretly, out of anger against his
+brother. But the only answer was an instruction to leave nothing untried
+in attempting to find the lost man, provided that no harm should be
+done to the progress of certain diplomatic negotiations then proceeding.
+As the count had foreseen, the Turkish authorities, while exhibiting
+considerable alacrity in the prosecution of the search, vaguely hinted
+that Paul Patoff himself was the only person able to give a satisfactory
+explanation of the case; and in due time these hints found their way
+into the gossip of the Bosphorus tea-parties. Paul was not unpopular,
+but in spite of his studied ease in conversation there was a reserve in
+his manner which many persons foolishly resented; and they were not slow
+to find out that his brother's disappearance was very odd,--so strange,
+they said, that it seemed impossible that Paul should know nothing of
+it. The ambassador thought it was time to speak to him on the subject.
+Moreover, in his present state of excitement Paul was utterly useless in
+the embassy, and the work which had accumulated during the month of
+Ramazan was now unusually heavy. Count Ananoff had arranged this matter,
+without speaking of it to any one, a fortnight after Alexander's
+disappearance, and now a secretary who had been in Athens had arrived,
+ostensibly on a visit to the ambassador. But Ananoff had Paul's
+appointment to Teheran in his pocket, with the permission to take a
+month's leave for procuring his outfit for Persia.
+
+The explanation was inevitable. It was impossible that things should go
+on any longer as they had proceeded during the last fortnight; and now
+that there was really no hope whatever, and people were beginning to
+talk as they had not talked before, the best thing to be done was to
+send Paul away. Count Ananoff came to his rooms one morning, and found
+him staring at the wall, his untasted breakfast on the table beside him,
+his face very thin and drawn, looking altogether like a man in a severe
+illness. The ambassador explained the reason of his visit, reminded him
+of what had been said at their first interview, and entreated him to
+spend his month's leave in regaining some of his former calmness.
+
+"Go to the Crimea, or to Tiflis," he said. "You will not be far from
+your way. I will write to Madame Patoff."
+
+"You are kind,--too kind," answered Paul. "Thank you, but I will go to
+my mother myself. I will be back in time," he added bitterly. "She will
+not care to keep me, now that poor Alexander is gone. Yes, I know; you
+need not tell me. There is no hope left. We shall not even find his body
+now. But I must tell my mother. I have already written, for I thought it
+better. I told her the story, just as it all happened. She has never
+answered my letter. I fancy she must have had news from some one else,
+or perhaps she is ill."
+
+"Do not go," said his chief, looking sorrowfully at Paul's white face
+and wasted, nervous hands. "You are not able to bear the strain of such
+a meeting. I will write to her, and explain."
+
+"No," answered Paul firmly. "I must go myself. There is no help for it.
+May I leave to-day? I think there is a boat to Varna. As for my
+strength, I am as strong as ever, though I am a little thinner than I
+was."
+
+The old diplomatist shook his head gravely, but he knew that it was of
+no use to try and prevent Paul from undertaking the journey. After all,
+if he could bear it, it was the most manly course. He had done his best,
+had labored in the search as no one else could have labored, and if he
+were strong enough he was entitled to tell his own tale.
+
+The two men parted affectionately that day, and when Paul was fairly on
+board the Varna boat Count Ananoff owned to himself that he had lost one
+of the best secretaries he had ever known.
+
+
+
+
+IV.
+
+
+Three days later Paul descended from the train which runs twice a day
+from Pforzheim to Constance, at a station in the heart of the Swabian
+Black Forest. The name painted in black Gothic letters over the neat,
+cottage-like building before which the train stopped was _Teinach_. Paul
+had never heard of the place until his mother had telegraphed that she
+was there, and he looked about him with curiosity, while a dark youth,
+in leather breeches, rough stockings, and a blouse, possessed himself of
+the traveler's slender luggage, and began to lead the way to the hotel.
+
+It was late in the afternoon, and the sinking sun had almost touched the
+top of the hill. On all sides but one the pines and firs presented a
+black, absorbing surface to the light, while at the upper end of the
+valley the ancient and ruined castle of Zavelstein caught the sun's
+rays, and stood clearly out against the dark background. It is
+impossible to imagine anything more monotonous in color than this
+boundless forest of greenish-black trees, and it is perhaps for this
+reason that the ruins of the many old fortresses, which once commanded
+every eminence from Weissenstein to the Boden-See, are seen to such
+singular advantage. The sober gray or brown masonry, which anywhere else
+would offer but a neutral tint in the landscape, here constitutes high
+lights as compared with the impenetrable shadows of the woods; and even
+the sky above, generally seen through the thick masses of evergreen,
+seems to be of a more sombre blue. In the deep gorges the black water of
+the Nagold foams and tumbles among the hollow rocks, or glides smoothly
+over the long and shallow races by which the jointed timber rafts are
+shot down to the Neckar, and thence to the Rhine and the ocean, many
+hundreds of miles away. For the chief wealth of Swabia and of the
+kingdom of Wuertemberg lies in the splendid timber of the forest, which
+is carefully preserved, and in which no tree is felled without the order
+of the royal foresters. Indeed, Nature herself does most of the felling,
+for in winter fierce wind-storms gather and spread themselves in the
+winding valleys, tearing down acres of trees upon the hill-sides in
+broad, straight bands, and leaving them there, uprooted and fallen over
+each other in every direction, like a box of wooden matches carelessly
+emptied upon a dark green table. Then come the wood-cutters in the
+spring, and lop off the branches, and roll the great logs down to the
+torrent below, and float them away in long flexible rafts, which spin
+down the smooth water-ways at a giddy speed, or float silently along the
+broad, still reaches of the widening river, or dash over the dangerous
+rapids, skillfully guided by the wild raftsmen, bare-legged and armed
+with long poles, whose practiced feet support them as safely on the
+slippery, rolling timber as ours would carry us on the smoothest
+pavement.
+
+At Teinach the valley is wider than in other places, and a huge
+establishment, built over the wonderful iron springs, rears above the
+tops of the trees its walls of mingled stone, wood and stucco, gayly
+painted and ornamented with balconies and pavilions, in startling and
+unpleasant contrast with the sober darkness of the surroundings. The
+broad post-road runs past the hotels and bath-houses, and a great
+garden, or rather an esplanade with a few scattered beds of flowers, has
+been cleared and smoothed for the benefit of the visitors, who take
+their gentle exercise in the wide walks, or sip their weak German
+coffee, to the accompaniment of a small band, at the wooden tables set
+up under the few remaining trees. The place is little known, either to
+tourists or invalids, beyond the limits of the kingdom of Wuertemberg,
+but its waters are full of healing properties, and the seclusion of the
+little village amidst the wild scenery of the Black Forest is refreshing
+to soul and body.
+
+Paul followed his guide along the winding path which leads from the
+railway station to the hotel, smelling with delight the aromatic odor of
+the pines, and enjoying the coolness of the evening air. The fatigues of
+the last month and of the rapid journey from Varna had told upon his
+strength, as the fearful anxiety he had endured had wearied his brain.
+He felt, as he walked, how delicious it would be to forget all the past,
+to shoulder a broad axe, and to plunge forever into the silent forest;
+to lead the life of one of those rude woodmen, without a thought at
+night save of the trees to be felled to-morrow; to rise in the morning
+with no care save to accomplish the daily task before night; to sleep in
+summer on the carpet of sweet pine needles, and to watch the stars peep
+through the lofty branches of the ancient trees; in winter to lie by the
+warm fire of some mountain hut, with no disturbing dreams or nervous
+wakings, master of himself, his axe, and his freedom.
+
+But the thought of such peace only made the present moment more painful,
+and Paul bent his head as though to shut out all pleasant thoughts, till
+presently he reached the wide porch of the hotel, and, summoning his
+courage, asked for Madame Patoff.
+
+"Number seventeen," said the Swiss clerk, laconically, to the waiter who
+stood at hand, by way of intimating that he should conduct the gentleman
+to the number he had mentioned. As Paul turned to follow the functionary
+in the white tie and the shabby dress-coat, he was stopped by a
+thick-set, broad-shouldered man, with gold-rimmed spectacles and a bushy
+beard, who addressed him in English:--
+
+"I beg your pardon, I heard you ask for Madame Patoff. Have I the honor
+of addressing her son?"
+
+"Yes," said Paul, bowing stiffly, for the man was evidently a gentleman.
+"May I ask to whom"----
+
+"I am Dr. Cutter," replied the other, interrupting him. "Madame Patoff
+is ill, and I am taking care of her."
+
+The average doctor would have said, "I am attending her," and Paul,
+whose English mother had brought him up to speak English as fluently and
+correctly as Russian, noticed the shade in the expression. But he was
+startled by the news of his mother's illness, and did not stop to think
+of such a trifle.
+
+"What is the matter with her?" he asked briefly, turning from the desk
+of the hotel office, and walking across the vestibule by Dr. Cutter's
+side.
+
+"I don't know," replied the doctor, quietly.
+
+"You are a strange physician, sir," said Paul sternly. "You tell me that
+you are attending my mother, and yet you do not know what is the matter
+with her."
+
+The doctor was not in the least offended by Paul's sharp answer. He
+smiled a little, but instantly became grave again, as he answered,--
+
+"I am not a practicing physician. I am a specialist, and I devote my
+life to the study of mental complaints. Your mother is ill in mind, not
+in body."
+
+"Mad!" exclaimed Paul, turning very pale. His life seemed to be nothing
+but a series of misfortunes.
+
+"Certainly not hopelessly insane," replied Dr. Cutter, in a musing tone.
+"She has suffered a terrible shock, as you may imagine."
+
+"Yes," said Paul, "of course. That is the reason why I have come all the
+way from Constantinople to see her. I could not go to my new post
+without telling her the whole story myself."
+
+"Her manner is very strange," returned the other. "That is the reason
+why I waited for you here. I could not have allowed you to see her
+without being warned. She has a strange delusion, and you ought to know
+it."
+
+"What is it?" asked Paul, in a thick voice.
+
+"It is a very delicate matter. Come out into the garden, and I will tell
+you what I know."
+
+The two men went out together, and walked slowly along the open path
+towards the woods. In the distance a few invalids moved painfully about
+the garden, or rested on the benches beneath the trees. Far off a party
+of children were playing and laughing merrily at their games.
+
+"It is a delicate matter," repeated Dr. Cutter. "In the first place, I
+must explain my own position here. I am an Englishman, devoted to
+scientific pursuits. Originally a physician, subsequently professor in
+one of our universities, I have given up both practice and professorship
+in order to be at liberty to follow my studies. I am often abroad, and I
+generally spend the summer in Switzerland or somewhere in South Germany.
+I was at Rugby with Madame Patoff's brother-in-law, John Carvel, whom I
+dare say you know, and I met Madame Patoff two years ago at Wiesbaden. I
+met her there again, last year, and this summer, as I was coming to the
+South, I found her in the same place,--little more than a month ago. In
+both the former years your brother Alexander came to visit her, on leave
+from St. Petersburg. I knew him, therefore, and was aware of her deep
+affection for him. This time I found her very much depressed in spirits
+because he had resolved to join you in Constantinople. Excuse me if I
+pain you by referring to him. It is unavoidable. One morning she told me
+that she had made up her mind to go to Turkey, traveling by easy stages
+through Switzerland to Italy, and thence by steamer to the East. She
+dreaded the long railway journey through Austria, and preferred the sea.
+She was in bad health, and seemed very melancholy, and I proposed to
+accompany her as far as the Italian frontier. We went to Lucerne, and
+thence to Como, where I intended to leave her. She chose to wait there a
+few days, in order to have her letters sent on to her before going to
+the East. Among those which came was a long letter from you, in which
+you told in detail the story of your brother's disappearance. Your
+mother was alone in her sitting-room when she received it, but the
+effect of the news was such that her maid found her lying insensible in
+her chair some time afterwards, and thought it best to call me. I easily
+revived her from the fit of fainting, and when she came to herself she
+thrust your letter into my hand, and insisted that I should read it. She
+was very hysterical, and I judged that I should comply with her request.
+The scene which followed was very painful."
+
+"Well?" asked Paul, who was visibly agitated. "What then?" he inquired
+rather sharply, seeing that Dr. Cutter was silent.
+
+"To be short about it," said the professor, "it has been evident to me
+from that moment that her mind is deranged. No argument can affect the
+distorted view she takes."
+
+"But what is the view? What does she think?" inquired Paul, trembling
+with excitement.
+
+"She thinks that you were the cause of your brother's death," answered
+Cutter shortly.
+
+"That I murdered him?" cried Paul, feeling that his worst fears were
+realized.
+
+"Poor lady!" exclaimed the professor, fixing his gray eyes on Paul's
+face. "It is of no use to go over the story. That is what she thinks."
+
+Paul turned from his companion, and leaned against a tree for support.
+He was utterly overcome, and unmanned for the moment. Cutter stood
+beside him, fearing lest he might fall, for he could see that he was
+wasted with anxiety and weak with fatigue. But he possessed great
+strength of will and that command of himself which is acquired by living
+much among strangers. After a few seconds he stood erect, and, making a
+great effort, continued to walk upon the road, steadying himself with
+his stick.
+
+"Go on, please," he said. "How did you come here?"
+
+"You will understand that I could not leave Madame Patoff at such a
+time," continued the professor, inwardly admiring the strength of his
+new acquaintance. "She insisted upon returning northwards, saying that
+she would go to her relations in England. Fearing lest her mind should
+become more deranged, I suggested traveling slowly by an unfrequented
+route. I intended to take her to England by short stages, endeavoring to
+avoid all places where she might, at this season, have met any of her
+numerous acquaintances. I chose to cross the Spluegen Pass to the Lake of
+Constance. Thence we came here by the Nagold railway. I propose to take
+her to the Rhine, where we will take the Rhine boat to Rotterdam. Nobody
+travels by the Rhine nowadays. You got my telegram at Vienna? Yes. Yours
+went to Wiesbaden, was telegraphed to Como, and thence here. I had just
+time to send an answer directed to you at Vienna, as a passenger by the
+Oriental Express, giving you the name of this place. I signed it with
+your mother's name."
+
+"She does not know I have left Constantinople, then?"
+
+"No. I feared that the news would have a bad effect. She receives her
+letters, of course, but telegrams often do harm to people in her
+state,--so I naturally opened yours."
+
+"Is she perfectly sane in all other respects?" asked Paul, speaking with
+an effort.
+
+"Perfectly."
+
+"Then she is not insane at all," said Paul, in a tone of conviction.
+
+"I do not understand you," answered the professor, staring at him in
+some surprise.
+
+"If you knew how she loved my poor brother, and how little she loves me,
+you would understand better. Without being insane, she might well
+believe that I had let him lose himself in Stamboul, or even that I had
+killed him. You read my letter,--you can remember how strange a story it
+was. There is nothing but the evidence of a Turkish soldier to show that
+I did not contribute to Alexander's disappearance."
+
+"It was certainly a very queer story," said the professor gravely.
+"Nevertheless, I am of opinion that Madame Patoff is under the
+influence of a delusion. I cannot think that if she were in her right
+mind she would insist as she does, and with such violence, that you are
+guilty of making away with your brother."
+
+"I must see her," said Paul firmly. "I have come from Constantinople to
+see her, and I cannot go back disappointed."
+
+"I think it would be a great mistake for you to seek an interview,"
+answered the professor, no less decidedly. "It might bring on a fit of
+anger."
+
+"Which might be fatal?" inquired Paul.
+
+"No, but which might affect her brain."
+
+"I do not think so. Pardon my contradicting you, professor, but I have a
+very strong impression that my mother is not in the least insane, and
+that I may succeed in bringing her to look at this dreadful business in
+its true light."
+
+"I fear not," answered Dr. Cutter sadly.
+
+"But you do not know," insisted Paul. "Unless you are perfectly sure
+that my mother is really mad, you can have no right to prevent my seeing
+her. I may possibly persuade her. I am the only one left," he added
+bitterly, "and I must be a son to her in fact as well as in relation. I
+cannot, for my own sake, let her go to our English relatives, with this
+story to tell, without at least contradicting it."
+
+"It is of no use to contradict it to her."
+
+"Of no use!" exclaimed Paul, impatiently. "Do you think that if the
+slightest suspicion, however unfounded, had rested on me, my chief would
+have allowed me to leave Constantinople without clearing it up? I should
+think that anybody in his senses would see that!"
+
+"Yes,--anybody in his or her senses," answered the professor coldly.
+
+Paul stopped in his walk, and faced the strong man with the gold
+spectacles and the intelligent features who had thus obstinately thrust
+himself in his path.
+
+"Sir," he said, "I know you very slightly, and I do not want to insult
+you. But if you continue to oppose me, I shall begin to think that you
+have some other object in view besides a concern for my mother's
+health." His drawn and haggard features wore an expression of desperate
+determination as he spoke, and his cold blue eyes began to brighten
+dangerously.
+
+"I have nothing more to say," replied the scientist, meeting his look
+with perfect steadiness. "I admit the justice of your argument. I can
+only implore you to take my advice, and to reflect on what you are
+doing. I have no moral right to oppose you."
+
+"No," said Paul, "and you must not prevent this meeting. I wish to see
+her only once. Then I will go. I need not tell you that I am deeply
+indebted to you for the assistance you have rendered to my mother in
+this affair. If she does not believe my story, she will certainly not
+tolerate my presence, and I venture to hope that you will see her safely
+to England. If possible, I should like to meet her to-night."
+
+"You shall," replied the professor. "But if any harm comes of it,
+remember that I protested against the meeting. That is all I ask."
+
+"I will remember," answered Paul quietly. Both men turned in their walk,
+and went back towards the hotel.
+
+"You must give me time to warn her of your presence," said Cutter, as
+they reached the steps.
+
+Paul nodded, and they both went in. Cutter disappeared up-stairs, and
+Patoff was shown to his room by a servant.
+
+"I shall probably leave to-morrow morning," he remarked, as the man
+deposited his effects in the corner, and looked round, waiting for
+orders. Paul threw himself on the bed, closing his eyes, and trying to
+collect his courage and his senses for this meeting, which had turned
+out so much more difficult than he had expected. Nevertheless, he was
+glad that Cutter had met him, and had warned him of the state of his
+mother's mind. He did not in the least believe her insane,--he almost
+wished that he could. Lying there on his bed, he remembered his youth,
+and the time when he had longed for some little portion of the affection
+lavished on his elder brother. He remembered how often he had in vain
+looked to his mother for a smile of approbation, and how he had ever
+been disappointed. He had grown up feeling that, by some fault not his
+own, he was disliked and despised, a victim to one of those unreasoning
+antipathies which parents sometimes feel for one of their children. He
+remembered how he had choked down his anger, swallowed his tears, and
+affected indifference to censure, until his child's heart had grown
+case-hardened and steely; asking nothing, doing his tasks for his own
+satisfaction, and finally taking a sad pleasure in that silence which
+was so frequently imposed upon him. Then he had grown up, and the sullen
+determination to outdo his brother in everything had got possession of
+his strong nature. He remembered how, coming home from school, he had
+presented his mother with the report which spoke of his final
+examinations as brilliant compared with Alexander's; how his mother had
+said a cold word of praise; and how he himself had turned silently away,
+able already, in his young self-dependence, to rejoice secretly over his
+victory, without demanding the least approbation from those who should
+have loved him best. He remembered, when his brother was an ensign in
+the guards, spoiled and reckless, making debts and getting into all
+kinds of trouble, how he himself had labored at the dry work assigned to
+him in the foreign office, without amusements, without pleasure, and
+without pocket money, toiling day and night to win by force that
+position which Alexander had got for nothing; never relaxing in his
+exertions, and scrupulous in the performance of his duties. Even in the
+present moment of anxiety he thought with satisfaction of his
+well-earned advancement, and of the promotion which could not now be far
+distant. He remembered himself a big, bony youth of twenty, and he
+reflected that he had made himself what he now was, the accomplished
+man of the world, the rising diplomatist among those of his years,
+steadily moving on to success. But he saw that he was the same to-day as
+he had been then; if he had not gained affection in his life, he had
+gained strength and hardness and indifference to opposition.
+
+Then this blow had come upon him. This brother, whom he had striven to
+surpass in everything, had been suddenly and mysteriously taken from his
+very side; and not that only, but the mother who had borne them both had
+put the crowning touch to her life-long injustice, and had accused him
+of being his brother's murderer,--accused him to a stranger, or to one
+who was little nearer than a stranger,--refusing to hear him in his own
+defense.
+
+He wished that she might be indeed mad. He hoped that she was beside
+herself with grief, even wholly insane, rather than that he should be
+forced to believe that she could be so unjust. What construction the
+world would put upon the catastrophe he knew from Count Ananoff; but
+surely he might expect his mother to be more merciful. A mother should
+hope against hope for her child's innocence, even when every one else
+has forsaken him; how was it possible that this mother of his could so
+harden her heart as to be first to suspect him of such a crime, and to
+be of all people the one to refuse to hear his defense! He hoped she was
+mad, as he lay there on his bed, in the little room of the hotel, in the
+gathering gloom.
+
+At last some one knocked at the door, and Professor Cutter entered,
+admitting a stream of light from the corridor outside. Paul sprang to
+his feet, pale and haggard.
+
+"You are in the dark," said the professor quietly, as he shut the door
+behind him. Then he struck a match, and lit the two candles which stood
+on each side of the mirror on the bare dressing-table.
+
+"Can I go now?" asked Paul. The scientist eyed him deliberately.
+
+"Pardon me," he said. "You have not thought of your appearance. You have
+traveled for three or four days, and look rather disheveled."
+
+Paul understood. The professor did not want him to be seen as he was. He
+was wild and excited, and his clothes were in disorder. Silently he
+unlocked his dressing-case and bag, and proceeded to dress himself.
+Cutter sat quietly watching him, as though still studying his character;
+for he was a student of men, and prided himself on his ability to detect
+people's peculiarities from their unconscious movements. Paul dressed
+rapidly, with the neatness of a man accustomed to wait upon himself. In
+twenty minutes his toilet was completed, during which time neither of
+the two spoke a word. At last Paul turned to the professor. "Did you
+have difficulty in arranging it?" he asked coldly.
+
+"Yes. But you may see her, if you go at once," answered the other.
+
+"I am ready," said Paul. "Let us go." They left the room, and went down
+the corridor together. The quiet and solitude of his room had
+strengthened Paul's nerves, and he walked more erect and with a firmer
+step than before. Presently the professor stopped before one of the
+doors.
+
+"Go in," he said. "This is a little passage room. Knock at the door
+opposite. She is there, and will receive you."
+
+Paul followed the professor's instructions, and knocked at the door
+within. A voice which he hardly recognized as his mother's bid him
+enter, and he was in the presence of Madame Patoff.
+
+A bright lamp, unshaded and filling the little sitting-room with a broad
+yellow light, stood upon the table. The details of the apartment were
+insignificant, and seemed to throw the figure of the seated woman into
+strong relief. She had been beautiful, and was beautiful still, though
+now in her fifty-second year. Her features were high and noble, and her
+rich dark hair was only lightly streaked with gray. Her eyes were
+brown, but of that brown which easily looks black when not exposed
+directly to the light. Her face was now very pale, but there was a
+slight flush upon her cheeks, which for a moment brought back a
+reflection of her former brilliant beauty. She was dressed entirely in
+black, and her thin white hands lay folded on the dark material of her
+gown; she wore no ring save the plain band of gold upon the third finger
+of her left hand.
+
+Paul entered, and closed the door behind him without taking his eyes
+from his mother. She rose from her seat as he came forward, as though to
+draw back. He came nearer, and bending low would have taken her hand,
+but she stepped backwards and withdrew it, while the flush darkened on
+her cheek.
+
+"Mother, will you not give me your hand?" he asked, in a low and broken
+voice.
+
+"No," she answered sternly. "Why have you come here?"
+
+"To tell you my brother's story," said Paul, drawing himself up and
+facing her. When he entered the room he had felt sorrow and pity for
+her, in spite of Cutter's account, and he would willingly have kneeled
+and kissed her hand. But her rough refusal brought vividly to his mind
+the situation.
+
+"You have told me already, by your letter," she replied. "Have you found
+him, that you come here? Do you think I want to see you--you?" she
+repeated, with rising emphasis.
+
+"I might think it natural that you should," said Paul, very coldly. "Be
+calm. I am going to-morrow. Had I supposed that you would meet me as you
+have, I should have spared myself the trouble of coming here."
+
+"Indeed you might!" she exclaimed scornfully. "Have you come here to
+tell me how you did it?" Her voice trembled hysterically.
+
+"Did what?" asked Paul, in the same cold tone. "Do you mean to accuse
+me to my face of my brother's death, as your doctor says you do behind
+my back? And if you dare to do so, do you think I will permit it without
+defending myself?"
+
+His mother looked at him for one moment; then, clasping her hands to her
+forehead, she staggered across the room, and hid her face in the
+cushions of the sofa, moaning and crying aloud.
+
+"Alexis, Alexis!" she sobbed. "Ah--my beloved son--if only I could have
+seen your dear face once more--to close your eyes--and kiss you--those
+sweet eyes--oh, my boy, my boy! Where are you--my own child?"
+
+She was beside herself with grief, and ceased to notice Paul's presence
+for some minutes, moaning, and tossing herself upon the sofa, and
+wringing her hands as the tears streamed down. Paul could not look
+unmoved on such a sight. He came near and touched her shoulder.
+
+"You must not give up all hope, mother," he said softly. "He may yet
+come back." He did not know what else to say, to comfort her.
+
+"Come back?" she cried hysterically, suddenly sitting up and facing him.
+"Come back, when you are standing there with his blood on your hands!
+You murderer! You monster! Go--for God's sake, go! Don't touch me! Don't
+look at me!"
+
+Paul was horrified at her violence, and could not believe that she was
+in her senses. But he had heard the words she had spoken, and the wound
+had entered into his soul. His look was colder than ever as he answered.
+
+"You are evidently insane," he said
+
+"Go--go, I tell you! Let me never see you again!" cried the frantic
+woman, rising to her feet, and staring at him with wide and blood-shot
+eyes.
+
+Paul went up to her, and quickly seizing her hands held them in his firm
+grip, without pressure, but so that she could not withdraw them.
+
+"Mother," he said, in low and distinct tones, "I believe you are mad. If
+you are not, God forgive you, and grant that you may forget what you
+have said. I am as innocent of Alexander's death--if indeed he is
+dead--as you are yourself."
+
+She seemed awed by his manner, and spoke more quietly.
+
+"Where is he, then? Paul, where is your brother?"
+
+"I cannot tell where he is. He left me and never returned, as the man
+who was with me can testify. I came here to tell you the story with my
+own lips. If you do not care to hear it, I will go, and you shall have
+your wish, for you need never see me again." He released her hands, and
+turned from her as though to leave the room.
+
+Madame Patoff's mood changed. Though Alexander was more like her, she
+possessed, too, some of the inexorable coldness which Paul had inherited
+so abundantly. She now drew herself up, and retired to the other side of
+the room. Paul's hand was on the door. Then she turned once more, and he
+saw that her face was as pale as death.
+
+"Go," she said, for the last time. "And above all, do not come back.
+Unless you can bring Alexis with you, and show him to me alive, I will
+always believe that you killed him, like the heartless, cruel monster
+you have been from a child."
+
+"Is that your last word, mother?" asked Paul, controlling his voice by a
+great effort.
+
+"My very last word, to you," she answered, pointing to the door.
+
+Paul went out, and left her alone. In the corridor he found Professor
+Cutter, calmly walking up and down. The scientist stopped, and looked at
+Paul's pale face.
+
+"Was I right?" he asked.
+
+"Too right."
+
+"I thought so," said the professor. "Do you mean to leave to-morrow?"
+
+"Yes," answered Paul quietly. "I must eat something. I am exhausted."
+
+He staggered against Dr. Cutter's strong arm, and caught himself by it.
+The professor held him firmly on his feet, and looked at him curiously.
+
+"You are worn out," he said. "Come with me."
+
+He led him through the corridor to the restaurant of the hotel, and
+poured out a glass of wine from a bottle which stood on a table set
+ready for dinner. Paul drank it slowly, stopping twice to look at his
+companion, who watched him with the eye of a physician.
+
+"Have you ever had any trouble with your heart?" asked the latter.
+
+"No," said Paul. "I have never been ill."
+
+"Then you must have been half starved on your journey," replied the
+professor, philosophically. "Let us dine here."
+
+They sat down, and ordered dinner. Paul was conscious that his manner
+must seem strange to his new acquaintance, and indeed what he felt was
+strange to himself. He was conscious that since he had left his mother
+his ideas had undergone a change. He was calmer than he had been before,
+and he could not account for it on the ground of his having begun to eat
+something. He was indeed exhausted, for he had hardly thought of taking
+any nourishment during his long journey, and the dinner revived him. But
+the odd consciousness that he was not exactly the same man he had been
+before had come upon him as he closed the door of his mother's room. Up
+to the time he had entered her presence he had been in a state of the
+wildest anxiety and excitement. The moment the interview was over his
+mind worked normally and easily, and he felt himself completely master
+of his own actions.
+
+Indeed, a change had taken place. He had gone to his mother feeling that
+he was accountable to her for his brother's disappearance, and prepared
+to tell his story with every detail he could recall, yet knowing that he
+was wholly innocent of the catastrophe, and that he had done everything
+in his power to find the lost man. But in that moment he was unconscious
+of two things: first, of the extreme hardness of his own nature; and
+secondly, that he had not in reality the slightest real love either for
+his mother or for Alexander. The moral sufferings of his childhood had
+killed the natural affections in him, and there had remained nothing in
+their stead but a strong sense of duty to his nearest relations. It was
+this sense which had prompted him to receive Alexander kindly, and to
+take the utmost care of him during his visit; and it was the same
+feeling which had impelled him to come to his mother, in order to give
+the best account he could of the terrible catastrophe. But the frightful
+accusation she had put upon him, and her stubborn determination to abide
+by it, had destroyed even that lingering sense of duty which he had so
+long obeyed. He knew now that he experienced no more pain at Alexander's
+loss than he would naturally have felt at the death of an ordinary
+acquaintance, and that his mother had absolved him by her crowning
+injustice from the last tie which bound him to his family. In the first
+month at Buyukdere, after Alexander had disappeared, he had been
+overcome by the horror of the situation, and by the knowledge that he
+must tell his mother of the loss of her favorite son. He had mistaken
+these two incentives to the search for a feeling of love for the missing
+man. A quarter of an hour with his mother had shown him how little love
+there had ever been between them, and her frantic behavior, which he
+felt was not insanity, had disgusted him, and had shown him that he was
+henceforth free from all responsibility towards her.
+
+The love of a child for his mother may be instinctive in the first
+instance, but as the child grows to manhood he becomes subject to
+reason; and that which reason first rejects is injustice, because
+injustice is the most destructive form of lie imaginable. Paul had borne
+much, had cherished to the last his feeling of duty and his outward
+rendering of respect, but his mother had gone too far. He felt that she
+was not mad, and that in accusing him she was only treating him as she
+had always done since he was a boy; giving way to her unaccountable
+dislike, and suffering her antipathy to get the better of all sense of
+truth.
+
+As Paul sat at table with Professor Cutter, he felt that the yoke had
+suddenly been taken from his neck, and that he was henceforth free to
+follow his own career and his own interests, without further thought for
+her who had cast him off. He was not a boy, to grow sulky at an unkind
+word, or to resent a fancied insult. He was a grown man, more than
+thirty years of age, and he fully realized his position, without
+exaggeration and without any superfluous exhibition of feeling. All at
+once he felt like a man who has done his day's work, and has a right to
+think no more about it.
+
+"I am glad to see that you have a good appetite," observed the
+professor.
+
+"I am conscious of not having eaten for a long time," answered Paul. "I
+suppose I was too much excited to be hungry before."
+
+"You are not excited any longer?" inquired Dr. Cutter, with a smile.
+
+"No. I believe I am perfectly calm. I have accomplished the journey, I
+have seen my mother, I have heard her last word, and I shall go to
+Persia to-morrow."
+
+"Your programme is a simple one," answered his companion. "However, I am
+sure you can be of no use here. Your mother is quite safe under my
+care."
+
+"It is my belief that she would be quite safe alone," said Paul, "though
+your presence is a help to her. You are a friend of her family, you knew
+my poor brother, you are intimate with my uncle by marriage, Mr. John
+Carvel. I am sure that, since you are good enough to accompany my
+mother, she cannot fail to appreciate your kindness and to enjoy your
+society. But I do not think she really stands in need of assistance."
+
+"That is a matter of opinion," replied the professor, sipping his wine.
+
+"Yes; but shall I be frank with you, Dr. Cutter? I fancy that, as a
+scientist and a student of diseases of the mind, you are over-ready to
+suspect insanity where my mother's conduct can be explained by ordinary
+causes."
+
+"My dear sir," said the professor, "if I am a scientist, I am not one
+for nothing. I know how very little science knows, and in due time I
+shall be quite ready to own myself mistaken, if your mother turns out to
+be perfectly sane."
+
+"You are very honest," returned Patoff. "All I want to express is that,
+although I am grateful to you for taking her home, I think she is quite
+able to take care of herself. I should be very sorry to think that you
+felt yourself bound not to leave her. She is fifty-two years old, I
+believe, but she is very strong, though she used to fancy herself in bad
+health, for some reason or other; she has a maid, a courier, and plenty
+of money. You yourself admit that she has no delusion except about this
+sad business. I think that under the circumstances she could safely
+travel alone."
+
+"Possibly. But the case is an interesting one. I am a free man, and your
+mother's age and my position procure me the advantage of studying the
+state of her mind by traveling with her without causing any scandal. I
+am not disposed to abandon my patient."
+
+"I can assure you," said Paul, "that if I thought she would tolerate my
+presence I should go with her myself, and I repeat that I am sincerely
+obliged to you. Only, I do not believe she is mad. I hope you will write
+to me, however, and tell me how she is."
+
+"Of course. And I hope you will tell me whether you have changed your
+mind about her. I confess that you seem to me to be the calmest person I
+ever met."
+
+"I?" exclaimed Paul. "Yes, I am calm now, but I have not had a moment's
+rest during the last month."
+
+"I can understand that. You know the worst now, and you have nothing
+more to anticipate. I have no right to inquire into your personal
+feelings, but I should say that you cared very little for your mother,
+and less for your brother, and that hitherto you had been animated by a
+sort of fictitious sense of responsibility. That has ceased, and you
+feel like a man released from prison."
+
+The professor fixed his keen gray eyes on Paul's face as he spoke. His
+speech was rather incisive, considering how little he had seen of Paul.
+Perhaps he intended that it should be, for he watched the effect of his
+words with interest.
+
+"You are not a bad judge of human nature," answered Patoff, coolly. But
+he did not vouchsafe any further answer.
+
+"It is my business," said the professor. "If, as a friend of Madame
+Patoff's family, I take the liberty of being plain, and of telling you
+what I think, you may believe that I have not wholly misjudged your
+mother, since I have hit the mark in judging you."
+
+"I am not sure that you have hit the mark," replied Paul. "Perhaps you
+have. Time will show. Meanwhile, I am going to Teheran to reflect upon
+it. It is impossible to choose a more secluded spot," he added, with a
+smile.
+
+"Why do you not return to Constantinople?" asked the inquisitive
+professor.
+
+"Because it has pleased the Minister for Foreign Affairs to send me to
+Persia. I am a government servant, and must go whither I am sent. I dare
+say I shall not be there very long. The climate is not very pleasant,
+and the society is limited. But it will be an agreeable change for me."
+
+"I suppose that efforts will still be made to find your brother?"
+
+"Yes. The search will never be given up while there is the least hope."
+
+"I wonder what the effect would be upon Madame Patoff, if Alexander were
+found after six months?"
+
+"I have not the least idea," answered Paul. "I suppose we should all
+return to our former relations with each other. Perhaps the shock might
+drive her mad in earnest,--I cannot tell. You are a psychologist; it is
+a case for you."
+
+"A puzzle without an answer. I am afraid it can never be tried."
+
+"No, I am afraid not," said Paul quietly.
+
+The two men finished their dinner, and went out. Paul meant to leave
+early the next morning, and was anxious to go to bed. He felt that at
+last he could sleep, and he took his leave of Professor Cutter.
+
+"Good-by," he said, with more feeling than he had shown since he had
+left his mother's room. "I am glad we have met. Believe me, I am really
+grateful to you for your kindness, and I hope you will let me know that
+you have reached England safely. If my mother refers to me, please tell
+her that after what she said to me I thought it best to leave here at
+once. Good-by, and thank you again."
+
+"Good-by," said the professor, shaking Paul's hand warmly. "The world is
+a little place, and I dare say we shall meet again somewhere."
+
+"I hope so," answered Paul.
+
+And so these two parted, to go to the opposite ends of the earth, not
+satisfied with each other, and yet each feeling that he should like to
+meet his new acquaintance again. But Persia and England, in the present
+imperfect state of civilization, are tolerably far apart.
+
+
+
+
+V.
+
+
+Early on the next morning Paul was on his way to Munich, Vienna, and the
+East again, and on the afternoon of the same day Professor Cutter and
+Madame Patoff, with two servants, got into a spacious carriage, in which
+they had determined to drive as far as Weissenstein, the last village of
+the Black Forest before reaching Pforzheim. Pursuing his plan of
+traveling by unfrequented routes, the professor had proposed to spend
+the night in the beautiful old place which he had formerly visited,
+intending to proceed the next day by rail to Carlsruhe, and thence down
+the Rhine.
+
+He had not seen Madame Patoff in the evening after her interview with
+Paul, and when he met her in the morning it struck him that her manner
+was greatly changed. She was very silent, and when she spoke at all
+talked of indifferent subjects. She never referred in any way to the
+meeting with her son, and the professor observed that for the first time
+she allowed the day to pass without once mentioning the disappearance of
+Alexander. He attributed this silence to the deep emotion she had felt
+on seeing Paul, and to her natural desire to avoid any reference to the
+pain she had suffered. As usual she allowed him to make all the
+necessary arrangements for the journey, and she even spoke with some
+pleasure of the long drive through the forest. She was evidently
+fatigued and nervous, and her face was much paler than usual, but she
+was quiet and did not seem ill. All through the long afternoon they
+drove over the beautiful winding road, enjoying the views, discussing
+the scenery, and breathing in the healthy odor of the pines. The
+professor was an agreeable companion, for he had traveled much in
+Southern Germany, and amused Madame Patoff with all manner of curious
+information concerning the people, the legends connected with the
+different parts of the Black Forest, the fairy tales of the Rhine, and
+the history of the barons before Rudolf of Hapsburg destroyed them in
+his raid upon the freebooters. This he sprinkled with anecdotes, small
+talk about books, and comments on European society; speaking with ease
+and remarkable knowledge of his subjects, and so pleasantly that Madame
+Patoff never perceived that he wished to amuse her, and was trying to
+distract her thoughts from the one subject which too easily beset them.
+Indeed, the professor in the society of a woman of the world was a very
+different man from the earnest, plain-speaking person who had dined with
+Paul on the previous night. Even his gold-rimmed spectacles were worn
+with a less professional air. His well-cut traveling costume of plain
+tweed did not suggest the traditional scientist, and his bronzed and
+manly face was that of a sportsman or an Alpine Club man rather than of
+a student. Madame Patoff leaned back in the carriage, and fairly enjoyed
+the hours; saying to herself that Cutter had never been so agreeable
+before, and that indeed in her long life she had met few men who
+possessed so much charm in conversation. She was an old lady, and could
+judge of men, for she had spent nearly forty years in the midst of the
+most brilliant society in Europe, and was not to be deceived by the ring
+of false metal.
+
+At last they reached the place in the road where they had to descend
+from the carriage and mount the ascent to Weissenstein. Madame Patoff
+was well pleased with the place, and said so as she slowly climbed the
+narrow path, leaning on the professor's arm. The inn--the old Gasthaus
+zum Goldenen Anker--stands upon the very edge of the precipice above the
+tumbling Nagold, and is indeed partly built down the face of the cliff.
+Rooms have been hollowed, so that their windows look down on the river
+from a sheer height of two hundred feet, the surface of the natural
+wall, broken only here and there by a projecting ledge, or by the
+crooked stem of a strong wild cherry tree which somehow finds enough
+soil and moisture there to support its hardy growth. The inn is very
+primitive, but comfortable in its simple way, and the scenery is
+surpassingly beautiful. Far below, on the other side of the torrent, the
+small village nestles among the dark pines, the single spire of the
+diminutive church standing high above the surrounding cottages. Above,
+the hill is crowned by the ruins of the ancient castle of
+Weissenstein,--the castle of Bellrem, the crusader, who fell from the
+lofty ramparts on a moonlight night in the twelfth century, terrified by
+the ghost of a woman he had loved and wronged. At least, the legend says
+so, and as the ruined ramparts are still there it is probably all quite
+true. On the back of the hill, where the narrow path descends from the
+inn to the road, the still, deep waters of the great mill pool lie
+stagnant in the hot air, and the long-legged water spiders shoot over
+the surface, inviting the old carp to snap at them, well knowing that
+they will not, but skimming away like mad when a mountain trout, who has
+strayed in from the river through the sluices, comes suddenly to the
+surface with a short, sharp splash. But there are flies for the trout,
+and he prefers them, so that the water spiders lead, on the whole, a
+quiet and unmolested life.
+
+The travelers entered the inn, and were soon established for the night.
+Madame Patoff was still enchanted with the view, and insisted on sitting
+out upon the low balcony until late at night, though the air was very
+cool and the dampness rose from the river. There was something in the
+wild place which soothed her. She almost wished she could stay there
+forever, and hide her sorrow from the world in such a nest as this,
+overhanging the wild water, perched high in air, and surrounded on all
+sides by the soft black forest. For the Black Forest is indeed black, as
+only such impenetrable masses of evergreen can be.
+
+In the early morning the tall old lady in black was again at her place
+on the balcony when Professor Cutter appeared. She sat by the low
+parapet, and gazed down as in a trance at the tumbling water, and at the
+solitary fisherman who stood bare-legged on a jutting rock, casting his
+rough tackle on the eddying stream. She was calmer than she had seemed
+for a long time, and the professor began seriously to doubt the wisdom
+of taking her to England, although he had already written to her
+brother-in-law, naming the date when they expected to arrive.
+
+"Shall we go on this morning?" he asked, in a tone which left the answer
+wholly at Madame Patoff's decision.
+
+"Where?" she asked, dreamily.
+
+"Another stage on our way home," answered the professor.
+
+"Yes," she said, with sudden determination. "If we stay here any longer,
+I shall be so much in love with the place that I shall never be able to
+leave it. Let us go at once. I feel as though something might happen to
+prevent us."
+
+"Very well. I will make all the arrangements." Professor Cutter
+forthwith went to consult the landlord, leaving Madame Patoff upon the
+balcony. She sat there without moving, absorbed in the beauty of the
+scene, and happy to forget her troubles even for a moment in the sight
+of something altogether new. Her thoughts were indeed confused. It was
+but the day before yesterday that she had seen her son Paul after years
+of separation, and that alone was sufficient to disturb her. She had
+never liked him,--she could not tell why, except it were because she
+loved Alexander better,--and she could not help looking on Paul as on
+the man who had robbed her of what she loved best in the world. But the
+recollection of the interview was cloudy and uncertain. She had given
+way to a violent burst of anger, and was not quite sure of what had
+happened. She tried to thrust it all away from her weary brain, and she
+looked down again at the fisherman, far below. He had moved a little,
+and just then she could see him only through the branches of a
+projecting cherry-tree. He seemed to be baiting his hook for another
+cast in the river.
+
+"Madame Patoff, are you quite ready?" asked the professor's voice from
+the window.
+
+"Yes," she said, rising to her feet. "I am coming."
+
+"One moment,--I am just paying the bill," answered Cutter from within;
+and Madame Patoff could hear the landlord counting out the small change
+upon a plate, the ringing silver marks and the dull little clatter of
+the nickel ten-pfennig pieces.
+
+She was standing now, and she looked over the torrent at the dark forest
+beyond, endeavoring to fix the beautiful scene in her mind, and trying
+to forget her trouble. But it would not be forgotten, and as she stood
+up the whole scene with Paul came vividly to her mind. She remembered
+all her loathing for him, all the horror and all the furious anger she
+had felt at the sight of him. In the keen memory of that bitter meeting,
+rendered tenfold more vivid by the overwrought state of her brain, the
+blood rushed violently to her face, her head swam, and she put out her
+hand to steady herself, thinking there was a railing before her. But the
+parapet was low, scarcely reaching to her knees. She tottered, lost her
+balance, and with a wild shriek fell headlong into the abyss.
+
+Cutter dropped his change and rushed frantically to the window,
+well-nigh falling over the low parapet himself. His face was ghastly, as
+he leaned far forward and looked down. Then he uttered an exclamation of
+terror, and seemed about to attempt to climb over the balcony. Not ten
+feet below him the wretched woman hung suspended in the thick branches
+of the wild cherry tree, caught by her clothes. Cutter breathed hard,
+for he had never seen so horrible a sight. At any moment the material of
+her dress might give way, the branches might break under the heavy
+strain. He looked wildly round for help. Between the balcony and the
+trees there were ten feet of smooth rock, which would not have given a
+foothold to a lizard.
+
+"Catch hold, there!" cried a loud voice from above, and Cutter saw a new
+rope dangling before him into the abyss. He looked up as he seized the
+means of help, and saw at the upper window the square dark face of a
+strong man, who was clad in a flannel shirt and had a silver-mounted
+pipe in his mouth.
+
+"Go ahead,--it's fast," said the man, letting out more rope. "Or if
+you're afraid, I'll come down the rope myself."
+
+But Cutter was not afraid. It was the work of a moment to make a wide
+bowline knot in the pliant Manilla cord. With an agility which in so
+heavily built a frame surprised the dark man above, the doctor let
+himself down as far as the tree; then seizing the insensible lady firmly
+by the arm, and bracing himself on the roots of the cherry close to the
+rock, so that he could stand for a moment without support from above, he
+deftly slipped the rope twice round her waist with what are called
+technically two half hitches, close to his own loop, in which he
+intended to sit, clasping her body with his arms.
+
+"Can you haul us up?" he shouted.
+
+Slowly the rope was raised, with its heavy burden. The strong tourist
+had got help from the terrified landlord, who had followed Cutter to the
+balcony, but who was a stalwart Swabian, and not easily disconcerted. He
+had rushed up-stairs, and was hauling away with all his might. In less
+than a minute and a half Cutter was on a level with the balcony, and in
+a few seconds more he had disengaged himself and the rescued lady from
+the coils of the rope. It is not surprising that his first thought
+should have been for her, and not for the quiet man with the pipe, who
+had been the means of her escape. He bore Madame Patoff to her room, and
+with the assistance of her maid set about reviving her as fast as
+possible, though the perspiration streamed from his forehead, and he was
+trembling with fright in every limb and joint.
+
+The tourist wound up his rope, and took his pipe from his mouth, which
+he had forgotten to do in the hurry of the moment. Then he slipped on an
+old jacket, and descended the stairs, to inquire whether he could be of
+any use, and whether the lady were alive or dead. He was a strongly
+built man, with an ugly but not unkindly face, small gray eyes, and
+black hair just beginning to grizzle at the temples. He was an extremely
+quiet fellow, and the people of the inn remarked that he gave very
+little trouble, though he had been at Weissenstein nearly a week. He had
+told the landlord that he was going to Switzerland, but that he liked
+roundabout ways, and was loitering along the road, as the season was not
+yet far enough advanced for a certain ascent which he meditated. He had
+nothing with him but a knapsack, a coil of rope, and a weather-beaten
+ice-axe, besides one small book, which he read whenever he read at all.
+He spoke German fluently, but said he was an American. Thereupon the
+landlady, who had a cousin who had a nephew who had gone to Brazil,
+asked the tourist if he did not know August Buergin, and was very much
+disappointed to find that he did not.
+
+The excitement outside of Madame Patoff's room was intense. But the Herr
+Doctor, as the landlord called Cutter, had admitted no one but the maid,
+and as yet had not given any news of the patient. The little group stood
+in the passage a long time before Cutter came out.
+
+"She is not badly hurt," he said, and was about to re-enter the
+apartment, when his eye fell on the tall tourist, who, on hearing the
+news, had turned quickly away. Cutter went hastily after him, and,
+grasping his hand, thanked him warmly for his timely help.
+
+"Don't mention it," said the stranger. "You did the thing beautifully
+when once you had got hold of the rope. Excuse me--I have an
+engagement--good-by--glad to hear the lady is not hurt." Wherewith the
+tourist quickly shook the professor's hand once more, and was gone
+before the latter could ask his name.
+
+"Queer fellow," muttered Cutter, as he returned to Madame Patoff's side.
+
+She was not injured, as he had at once announced, but it was impossible
+to say what effect the awful shock might produce upon her overwrought
+brain. She opened her eyes, indeed, but she did not seem to recognize
+any one; and when the professor asked her how she felt, in order to see
+if she could speak intelligibly, she laughed harshly, and turned her
+head away. She was badly bruised, but he could discover no mark of any
+blow upon the head which could have caused a suspension of intelligence.
+There was therefore nothing to be done but to take care of her, and if
+she recovered her normal health she must be removed to her home at once.
+All day he sat beside her bed, with the patience of a man accustomed to
+tend the sick, and to regard them as studies for his own improvement.
+Towards evening she slept, and Cutter went out, hoping to find the
+tourist again. But the landlord said he was gone, and as the little inn
+kept no book wherein strangers were asked to register their names, and
+as the landlord could only say that the gentleman had declared his name
+to be Paul, Cutter was obliged to suffer the pangs of unsatisfied
+curiosity.
+
+"I am sick of the name of Paul!" exclaimed the professor, half angrily.
+"Is the fellow a Russian, too, I wonder? Paul, Paul,--everybody seems to
+be called Paul!" Therewith he turned away, and began to walk up and down
+before the house, lighting a cigar, and smoking savagely in his
+annoyance with things in general.
+
+He was thinking that if it had been so easy for Madame Patoff to throw
+herself over the balcony, just when he was not looking, it was after all
+not so very improbable that Alexander might have slipped away from his
+brother in the dark. The coincidence of the two cases was remarkable.
+As for Madame Patoff, he did not doubt for a moment that she had
+intended to commit suicide by throwing herself down the precipice.
+According to his theory, all her calmness of yesterday and this morning,
+succeeding the great excitement of her meeting with Paul, proved that
+she had been quietly meditating death. She had escaped. But had her mind
+escaped the suicide she had attempted on her body? In its effects, her
+anger against Paul and her fixed idea concerning him were as nothing
+when compared with the terrible shock she had experienced that morning.
+It was absolutely impossible to predict what would occur: whether she
+would recover her faculties, or remain apathetic for the rest of her
+life. She was a nervous, sensitive, and overstrung woman at all times,
+and would suffer far more under a sudden and violent strain than a
+duller nature could. The view she took in regard to Alexander's
+disappearance proved that her faculties were not evenly balanced. Of
+course the story was a very queer one, and Russians are queer people, as
+the professor said to himself. It was not going beyond the bounds of
+possibility to suppose that Paul might have murdered his brother, but
+Cutter would have expected that Madame Patoff would be the last person
+to suspect it, and especially to say it aloud. The way she had raved
+against Paul on more than one occasion sufficiently showed that she
+seized at false conclusions, like a person of unsound mind. Alexander
+had resembled her, too, and had always acted like an irritable,
+beautiful, spoiled child. There was a distinct streak of "queerness," as
+Cutter expressed it, in the family. Probably Paul had inherited it in a
+different way. His conduct at Teinach, after leaving his mother, had
+been strange. He had shown no sorrow, scarcely any annoyance, indeed,
+and during their dinner had seemed thoroughly at his ease.
+Scientifically speaking, the professor regretted the accident of the
+morning. Madame Patoff had been a very interesting study so long as she
+was under the influence of a dominating idea. Her case might now
+degenerate into one of common apathy such as Cutter had seen hundreds of
+times. There would be nothing to be done but to try the usual methods,
+with the usual unsatisfactory results, abandoning her at last to the
+care of her relations and nurses as a hopeless idiot.
+
+But Professor Cutter was not destined to such a disappointment. His
+patient recovered in a way which was new to him, and he realized that in
+losing his former case he had found one even more interesting. She was
+apathetic, indeed, in a certain degree, and did not appear to understand
+everything that was said to her, but this was the only sign of any
+degeneracy. She never again addressed by name either the professor or
+her maid, and never spoke except to express her wants, which she did in
+few words, and very concisely and correctly. Nothing would induce her,
+in conversation, to make any answer save a simple yes or no, and Cutter
+was struck by the fact that her color ceased to change when he spoke of
+Alexander. This, he thought, showed that she no longer associated any
+painful idea with the name of her lost son. But there were none of the
+signs of a softening brain,--no foolish ravings, nor any expressed
+desire to do anything not perfectly rational. She accomplished the
+journey with evident comfort, and was evidently delighted at the
+beautiful sights she saw on the way, though she said nothing, but only
+smiled and looked pleased. Her habitual expression was one of calm
+melancholy. Her features wore a sad but placid expression, and she
+appeared to thrive in health, and to be better than when the professor
+had first known her. She was more scrupulous than ever about her
+appearance, and there was an almost unnatural perfection in her dress
+and in her calm and graceful manner. Cutter was puzzled. With these
+symptoms he would have expected some apparent delusion on one point. But
+he could detect nothing of the kind, and he exhausted his theories in
+trying to find out what particular form of insanity afflicted her. He
+could see nothing and define nothing, save her absolute refusal to talk.
+She asked for what she wanted, or got it for herself, and she answered
+readily yes and no to direct questions. Gradually, as they traveled by
+short stages, drawing near to their destination, Cutter altogether lost
+the habit of talking to her, and almost ceased to notice her one
+peculiarity. She would sit for hours in the same position, apparently
+never wearied of her silence, her placid expression never changing save
+into a gentle smile when she saw anything that pleased her.
+
+They reached England at last, and Madame Patoff was installed in her
+brother-in-law's house in the country. Cutter came frequently from town
+to see her, and always studied her case with new interest; but after a
+whole year he could detect no change whatever in her condition, and
+began to despair of ever classifying her malady in the scientific
+catalogue of his mind.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was at this point, my dear friend, that I became an actor in the
+story of Paul Patoff and his mother, and I will now for a time tell my
+tale in my own person,--in the prosaic person of Paul Griggs, with whom
+you are so well acquainted that you are good enough to call him your
+friend. To give you at once an idea of my own connection with this
+history, I will confess that it was I who dropped the rope out of the
+window at Weissenstein, as you may have already guessed from the
+description I have given of myself.
+
+
+
+
+VI.
+
+
+Mankind may be divided and classified in many ways, according to the
+tests applied, and the reason why any new classification of people is
+always striking is not far to seek. For, since all the mental and moral
+qualities of which we have ever heard belong to men and women, it is
+obviously easy to say that we can divide our fellow-creatures into two
+classes, one class possessing the vice or virtue in point, and the other
+not possessing it. The only division which is hard to make is that which
+should separate the human race into classes of good and bad,--to speak
+biblically, the division of the sheep from the goats; but as no one has
+ever been able to draw the line, some people have said, in their haste,
+that all men are bad, while others have arrived at the no less hasty and
+equally false conclusion that all men are good. The Preacher was nearer
+the truth when he said, "All is vanity," than was David when he said in
+his heart, "All men are liars;" for if the bad man is foolish enough to
+boast of his error, the good man is generally inclined to vaunt his
+virtue after the most mature reflection, and the secret of success,
+whether in good or in evil, is not to allow the right hand to know the
+doings of the left. There are men who give lavishly with the one hand,
+while they steal even more freely with the other, and are covered with
+glory, until their biography is written by an intelligent enemy.
+
+The faculty of persuading the world at large to consider that you are in
+the right is called your "prestige," a word closely connected with the
+term "prestidigitation,"--if not in derivation, most certainly in
+meaning. When you have found out your neighbor's sin, your prestige is
+increased; when your neighbor has found out yours, your prestige is
+gone. There is little credit to be got from charity; for if you conceal
+your good deeds it is certain that nobody will suspect you of doing
+them, and if you do them before the world every one will say that you
+are vainglorious and purse-proud, and altogether a dangerous hypocrite.
+On the other hand, there is undeniably much social interest attached to
+a man who is supposed to be bad, but who has never been caught in his
+wickedness; and if a thorough-going sinner is discovered, after having
+concealed his doings for many years, people at least give him all the
+credit he can expect, saying, "Surely he was a very clever fellow to
+deceive us for so long!" There are plenty of ways which serve to conceal
+evil doings, from the vulgar lies which make up the code of schoolboy
+honor, to the national bad faith which systematically violates all
+treaties when they cease to be lucrative; from the promising youth who
+borrows money from his tailor, and has it charged to his father with
+compound interest as "account rendered for clothes furnished," down to
+the driveling dishonesty of some old statesman who clings to office
+because his ornate eloquence still survives his scanty wit. Verily, if
+the boy be father to the man, it is not pleasant to imagine what manner
+of men they will be to whom the modern boy stands in the relation of
+paternity. The big boys who kill little ones with their fists, and spend
+a pleasant hour in watching a couple of cats, slung over a clothes-line
+by the tails, fight each other to death, are likely to be less
+remarkable for their singular lack of intelligence than for their
+extraordinary excess of brutality. It is true that a nation's greatest
+activity for good is developed in the time of its transition from
+coarseness to refinement. It may also be true that its period of
+greatest harmfulness is when, from a fictitious refinement, it is
+dragged down again by the natural brutality of its nature; when the
+ideal has ceased to correspond with the real; when the poet has lost
+his hold upon the hearts of the people; when poetry itself is no longer
+the strong fire bursting through the thick, foul crust of the earth, but
+is only the faint and shadowy smoke of the fire, wreathed for a moment
+into ethereal shapes of fleeting grace that have neither heat enough to
+burn the earth from which they come, nor strength to withstand the rough
+winds of heaven by which they shall soon be scattered. For as the
+evolution of the ideal from the real is life, so the final separation of
+the soul from the body is death.
+
+Almost all men have the qualities which can give moderate success. Very
+few have those gifts which lead to greatness, and those who have them
+invariably become great. There is no unrecognized genius; for genius
+means the production of what is not only beautiful, but enduring, and
+the works of man are all sooner or later judged by his fellows, and
+judged fairly. But it is unprofitable to discuss these matters; for
+those who are very great seldom know that they are, and those who are
+not cannot be persuaded that they might not attain to greatness if
+circumstances were slightly changed in their favor. Perhaps also there
+is very little use in making any preamble to what I have to tell. I
+remember to have been at a great meeting of American bankers at Niagara
+some years ago, where, as usual at American meetings, many speeches were
+made. There was an old gentleman there from the West who appeared to
+have something to say, but although his voice rose to impassioned tones
+and his gestures were highly effective as he delivered a variety of
+ornate phrases, he did not come to the point. An irreverent hearer rose
+and inquired what was the object of his distinguished friend's
+discourse, which did not appear to bear at all upon the matters in hand.
+The old gentleman stopped instantly in his flow of words, and said very
+quietly and naturally, "I feel a little shy, and I want to speak some
+before getting to the point, so as to get used to you." There was a
+good-natured laugh, in which the speaker joined. But he presently began
+again, and before long he was talking very well and very much to the
+point. It may be doubted, however, whether any well-conditioned
+chronicler needs a preliminary breather before so short a race as this
+is likely to be. In these wild days there is small time for man to work
+or for woman to weep, and those who would tell a tale must tell it
+quickly, lest the traveler be out of hearing before the song is ended,
+and the minstrel be left harping at the empty air and wasting his
+eloquence upon the stones.
+
+Last year I was staying in an English country house on the borders of
+Hertfordshire and Essex. It is not what is called a "romantic
+neighborhood," but there are plenty of pretty places and some fine old
+trees where the green lanes of Essex begin to undulate into the wooded
+valleys of Herts. The name of the place where I was stopping is Carvel
+Place, and the people who generally live in it are John Carvel, Esq.,
+formerly member for the borough; Mary Carvel, his wife, who was a Miss
+Dabstreak; Hermione Carvel, their daughter; and, when he is at home on
+leave, Macaulay Carvel, their son, a young man who has been in the
+diplomatic service several years, and who once had the good fortune to
+be selected as private secretary to Lord Mavourneen, when that noble
+diplomatist was sent on a special mission to India. Mrs. Carvel has a
+younger sister, a spinster, thirty-eight years of age, who rejoices in
+the name of Chrysophrasia. Her parents had christened their eldest
+daughter Anne, their second Mary, and had regretted the simple
+appellations bitterly, so that when a third little girl came into the
+world, seven years afterwards, their latent love for euphony was poured
+out upon her in a double measure at the baptismal font. Anne, eldest
+sister of Mrs. Carvel and Miss Chrysophrasia Dabstreak, married a
+Russian in the year 1850, and was never mentioned after the Crimean War,
+until her son, Paul Patoff, being a diplomatist, made the acquaintance
+of his first cousin in the person of Macaulay Carvel, who happened to
+be third secretary in Berlin, when Paul passed through that capital, on
+his return from a distant post in the East.
+
+It is taken for granted that the Carvels have lived at Carvel Place
+since the memory of man. I know very little of their family history; my
+acquaintance with John Carvel is of comparatively recent date, and Miss
+Chrysophrasia eyes me with evident suspicion, as being an American and
+probably an adventurer. I cannot say that Carvel and I are precisely old
+friends, but we enjoy each other's society, and have been of
+considerable service to each other in the last ten years. There is a
+certain kind of mutual respect, not untempered by substantial mutual
+obligation, which very nearly approaches to friendship when the parties
+concerned have common tastes and are not unsympathetic. John Carvel is a
+man fifty years of age: he is short, well built, and active, delighting
+in the chase; slender rather than stout, but not thin; red in the face
+from constant exposure, scrupulous in the shaving of his smooth chin and
+in the scrubbing processes, dressed with untarnishing neatness; having
+large hands with large nails, smooth and tolerably thick gray hair,
+strongly marked eyebrows, and small, bright eyes of a gray-blue color.
+In his personal appearance he is a type of a fine race; in character and
+tastes he is a specimen of the best class of men to be met with in our
+day. He is a country gentleman, educated in the traditions of Rugby and
+Oxford at a time when those institutions had not succumbed to the subtle
+evils of our times, whereby the weak are corrupted into effeminate fools
+and the strong into abominable bullies. John Carvel's Latin has survived
+his school-days, and his manliness has outlived the university. He
+belongs to that class of Englishmen who proverbially speak the truth.
+
+When he began life, an orphan at twenty-two years of age, he found
+himself comparatively poor, but in spite of the prejudices of those days
+he was not ashamed to better his fortunes by manufacture, and he is now
+a rich man. He married Mary Dabstreak for love, and has never regretted
+it. He has lived most of his life at Carvel Place, has hunted
+perpetually, and has of late years developed a taste for books which is
+likely to stand him in good stead in his old age. There is a fine
+library in the house, and much has been added to it in the last ten
+years. Miss Chrysophrasia occasionally strays into the repository of
+learning, but she has little sympathy with the contents of the shelves.
+
+Miss Chrysophrasia Dabstreak is a lady concerning whom there is much
+speculation, to very little purpose, in the world as represented by the
+select society in which she droops,--not moves. She is an amateur.
+
+Her eye rejoices only in the tints of the crushed strawberry and the
+faded olive; her ear loves the limited poetry of doubtful sound produced
+by abortive attempts to revive the unbarred melodies of the troubadours;
+and her soul thrills responsively in the checkered light falling through
+a stained-glass window, as a sensitive-plant waves its sticky leaves
+when a fly is in the neighborhood.
+
+But life has attractions for Chrysophrasia. She enjoys it after her own
+fashion. It is a little disconnected. The relation between cause and
+effect is a little obscure. She is fragmentary. She is a series of
+unfinished sketches in various manners. She has her being in the past
+tense, and her future, if she could have it after her taste, would be
+the past made present. She has many aspirations, and few of them are
+realized, but all of them are sketched in faint hues upon the mist of
+her mediaeval atmosphere. She is, in the language of a lyric from her own
+pen,
+
+    "The shadow of fair and of joyous impossible, infinite, faintness
+    That is cast on the mist of the sea by the light of the ages to come."
+
+Her handwriting is Gothic. Her heart is of the type created by Mr.
+Swinburne in the minds of those who do not understand him,--in their
+minds, for in the flesh the type is not found. Moreover, she resents
+modernness of every kind, including the steam-engine, the electric
+telegraph, the continent of North America, and myself. Her political
+creed shadows forth the government of the future as a pleasant
+combination of communism and knight-baronry, wherein all oppressed
+persons shall have republics, and all nice people shall wear armor, and
+live in castles, and strew the floors of their rooms with rushes and
+their garments with the anatomic monstrosities of heraldic blazon.
+
+As for religion, her mind is disturbed in its choice between a palatable
+form of Buddhism and a particularly luscious adaptation of Greek
+mythology; but in either case as much Christianity would be
+indispensable as would give the whole a flavor of crusading. I hope I am
+not hard upon Miss Chrysophrasia, but the fact is she is not--what shall
+I say?--not sympathetic to me. John Carvel does not often speak of her,
+but he has more than once attempted to argue with her, and on these
+occasions his sister-in-law invariably winds up her defense by remarking
+very wearily that "argument is the negation of poetry, and, indeed, of
+all that is fair and joyous."
+
+Personally Miss Dabstreak is a faded blonde, with a very large nose, a
+wide mouth garnished with imperfect teeth, a very thin figure of
+considerable height, a poor complexion ill set off by scanty, straggling
+fair hair; garments of unusual greenish hues, fitted in an unusual and
+irregular manner, hang in fantastic folds about the angles of her frame,
+and her attitudes are strange and improbable. I repeat that I do not
+mean to be hard upon Chrysophrasia, but her looks are not much to my
+taste. She is too strongly contrasted with her niece, Miss Carvel. There
+is, besides, something in Chrysophrasia's cold green eyes which gives me
+an unpleasant sensation. She was at Carvel Place when I arrived, and she
+is generally there, although she has a little house in Brompton, where
+she preserves the objects she most loves, consisting chiefly of earthen
+vessels, abominable in color and useless to civilized man; nevertheless,
+so great is her influence with her sister's family that even John
+speaks of majolica with a certain reverence, as a man lowers his voice
+when he mentions some dear relation not long dead. As for Mrs. Carvel,
+she is silent when Chrysophrasia holds forth concerning pots and plates,
+though I have seen her raise her gentle face and cast up her eyes with a
+faint, hopeless smile when her sister was more than usually eloquent
+about her Spanow-Morescow things, as she calls them, her
+Marstrow-Geawgiow and her Robby-ah. It seems to me that objects of that
+description are a trifle too perishable. Perhaps John Carvel wishes Miss
+Dabstreak were perishable, too; but she is not.
+
+I would not weary you with too many portraits, my dear lady, and I will
+describe the beautiful Hermione another day. As for her mother, Mary
+Carvel, she is an angel upon earth, and if her trials have not been many
+until lately, her good deeds are without number as the sands of the sea;
+for it is a poor country that lies on the borders of Essex, and there
+have been bad times in these years. The harvests have failed, and many
+other misfortunes have happened, not the least of which is that the old
+race of farmers is dying out, and that the young ones cannot live as
+their fathers did, but sell their goods and chattels and emigrate, one
+after another, to the far, rich West. Some of them prosper, and some of
+them die on the road; but they leave the land behind them a waste, and
+there are eleven millions of acres now lying fallow in England which
+were ploughed and sowed and reaped ten years ago. People are poor, and
+Mrs. Carvel takes care of them. Her soft brown eyes have a way of
+finding out trouble, and when it is found her great heart cannot help
+easing it. She loves her husband and her daughter, understanding them in
+different degrees. She loves her son also, but she does not pretend to
+understand him; he is the outcome of a new state of things; but he has
+no vices, and is thought exceedingly clever. As for her sister, she is
+very good to her, but she does not profess to understand her, either.
+
+I had been in Persia and Turkey some time, and had not been many days in
+London, when John Carvel wrote to ask me if I would spend the winter
+with him. I was tired and wanted to be quiet, so I accepted his offer.
+Carvel Place is peaceful, and I like the woods about it, and the old
+towers, and the great library in the house itself, and the general sense
+of satisfaction at being among congenial people who are friendly. I knew
+I should have to encounter Miss Chrysophrasia, but I reflected that
+there was room for both of us, and that if it were not easy to agree
+with her it was not easy to quarrel with her, either. I packed my traps,
+and went down to the country one afternoon in November.
+
+John Carvel had grown a trifle older; I thought he was a little less
+cheerful than he had been in former days, but I was welcomed as warmly
+as ever. The great fire burned brightly in the old hall, lighting up the
+dark wainscoting and the heavy furniture with a glow that turned the old
+oak from brown to red. The dim portraits looked down as of old from the
+panels, and Fang, the white deerhound, shook his shaggy coat and
+stretched his vast jaws as I came in. It was cold outside, and the rain
+was falling fast, as the early darkness gathered gloomily over the
+landscape, so that I was glad to stand by the blazing logs after the
+disagreeable drive. John Carvel was alone in the hall. He stretched out
+his broad hand and grasped mine, and it did my heart good to see the
+smile of honest gladness on his clean, manly face.
+
+"I hardly thought you would come," he said, looking into my eyes. "I was
+never so glad to see you in my life. You have been wandering
+again,--half over the world. How are you? You look tougher than ever,
+and here am I growing palpably old. How in the world do you manage it?"
+
+"A hard heart, a melancholy temperament, and a large appetite," I
+answered, with a laugh. "Besides, you have four or five years the better
+of me."
+
+"The worse, you mean. I'm as gray as a badger."
+
+"Nonsense. It is your climate that makes people gray. How is Mrs.
+Carvel, and Hermione,--she must have grown up since I saw her,--and Miss
+Dabstreak?"
+
+"She is after her pots and pans as usual," said John. "Mary and Hermy
+are all right, thank you. We will have tea with them presently."
+
+He turned and poked the fire with a huge pair of old-fashioned tongs. I
+thought his cheerful manner subsided a little as he took me to my room.
+He lingered a moment, till the man who brought in my boxes had
+unstrapped them, and trimmed the candles, and was gone.
+
+"Is there anything you would like?" he asked. "A little whiskey? a glass
+of sherry?"
+
+"No, thanks,--nothing. I will come down to tea in a few minutes. It is
+in the same old room, I suppose?"
+
+"Oh, yes, same as ever. By the bye, Griggs," he added suddenly, as he
+laid his hand on the handle of the door, "how long is it since you were
+here?"
+
+"Three years and a month," I answered, after a moment's thought. "It
+does not seem so long. I suppose that is because we have met abroad
+since then."
+
+"No, it does not seem long," said John Carvel, thoughtfully. Then he
+opened the door, and went out without another word.
+
+Nothing especially worthy of mention happened on that evening, nor on
+the next day, nor for many days. I hunted a little, and shot a great
+deal more, and spent many hours in the library. The weather improved in
+the first week of December; it was rather warmer, and the scent lay very
+well. I gave myself up to the pleasant country life, and enjoyed the
+society of my host, without much thought of the present or care for the
+future. Hermione had grown, since I had seen her, from a grave and
+rather silent girl of seventeen to a somewhat less reserved young woman
+of twenty, always beautiful, but apparently not much changed. Her
+mother had taken her out in London during the previous season, and there
+was occasionally some talk about London and society, in which the young
+girl did not appear to take very much interest. With this exception the
+people and things at Carvel Place were the same as I had always known
+them. I was treated as one of the household, and was allowed to go my
+own ways without question or interference. Of course, I had to answer
+many questions about my wanderings and my doings in the last years, but
+I am used to that and do not mind it.
+
+All this sounds as though I were going to give you some quiet chronicle
+of English country life, as if I were about to begin a report of
+household doings: how Mrs. Carvel and Hermione went to church on Sunday;
+how the Rev. Trumpington Soulsby used to stroll back with them across
+the park on fine days, and how he and Miss Dabstreak raved over the
+joyousness of a certain majolica plate; how the curate gently reproved,
+yet half indulged, Chrysophrasia's erratic religionism; how Mrs. Carvel
+distributed blankets to the old men and red cloaks to the old women; how
+the deerhound followed Hermione like Mary's little lamb, and how the
+worthy keeper, James Grubb, did not quite catch the wicked William
+Saltmarsh in the act of setting a beautiful new brass wire snare at a
+particular spot in the quickset hedge between the park and the
+twelve-acre field, but was confident he would catch him the next time he
+tried it, how Moses Skingle, the sexton, fell out with Mr. Speller, the
+superannuated village schoolmaster, because the juvenile Spellers would
+not refrain from the preparation of luscious mud pies upon the newly
+made grave of the late Peter Sullins, farmer, whose promising heir had
+not yet recovered sufficiently from the dissipation attending the
+funeral to erect a monument to his uncle; and so on and so forth,
+cackling through a volume or two of village chronicle, "and so home to
+bed."
+
+I do not care a straw for the ducks in the horse-pond, nor for the
+naughty boy who throws stones at them, robs bird's-nests, and sets
+snares for hares under the wire fence of Carvel Park. I blush to say I
+have done most things of that kind myself, in one part of the world or
+in another, and they no longer have any sort of interest for me. No, my
+dear friend, the world is not yet turned into a farm-yard; there are
+other things to tell of besides the mud pies of the Speller children and
+the marks of little Billy Saltmarsh's hob-nailed shoes in the grass
+where he set the snare. The Turks say that a fool has three points in
+common with an ass,--he eats, he drinks, and he brays at other asses. I
+must fain eat and drink; let me at least refrain from braying.
+
+It is not every one who cares for the beauty of nature as reflected in a
+horse-pond, or for the conversations of a class of people who have not
+more than seven or eight hundred words in their language, and with whom
+every word does not by any means correspond with an idea; we cannot all
+be farmer's lads, nor, if we were, could each of us find a Wordsworth to
+describe feelings we should certainly not possess.
+
+I had been nearly a month at Carvel Place, and Christmas was
+approaching. We sat one afternoon in the drawing-room, drinking tea.
+John Carvel was turning over the leaves of a rare book he had just
+received, before transferring it to its place in the library. His heavy
+brows were contracted, and his large, clean hands touched the pages
+lovingly. Mrs. Carvel was installed in her favorite upright chair near
+an enormous student-lamp that had a pink shade, and her fingers were
+busy with some sort of needle-work. She, too, was silent, and her gentle
+face was bent over her hand. I can remember exactly how she always looks
+when she is working, and how her soft brown hair, that is just turning a
+little gray at the temples, waves above her forehead. Chrysophrasia
+Dabstreak lay languidly extended upon a couch, her thin hands clasped
+together in a studied attitude. She was bemoaning the evils of
+civilization, and no one was listening to her, for Hermione and I were
+engaged in putting a new silver collar round the neck of Fang; the great
+hound sat up patiently between us, yawning prodigiously from time to
+time, for the operation was tedious, and the patent lock of the collar
+would not fasten.
+
+"I was just going to say it was time the letters came," said Mrs.
+Carvel, as the door opened and a servant entered with the post-bag. The
+master of the house unlocked the leathern case, and distributed the
+contents. We each received our share, and without ceremony opened our
+letters. There was a short silence while we were all reading.
+
+"Macaulay has got his leave," said Mrs. Carvel, joyfully. "Is not that
+delightful! And he is going to bring--wait a minute--I cannot make out
+the name--let me get nearer to the light, dear--John, look here, is it
+not Paul Patoff? Look, dear!"
+
+John looked. "It is certainly Paul Patoff," he said quietly. "I told
+Macaulay to bring him."
+
+"Gracious!" ejaculated Hermione.
+
+"How extremely interesting!" said Miss Chrysophrasia. "I adore Russians!
+They have such a joyous savor of the wild, free steppes!"
+
+"You have exactly described the Russian of the steppes, Miss Dabstreak,"
+I remarked. "His savor is so wild that it is perceptible at a great
+distance. But Patoff is not at all a bad fellow. I met him in Teheran
+last year. He had a trick of beating his servants which excited the
+wildest admiration among the Persians. The Shah decorated him before he
+left."
+
+"Do you know him?" asked John Carvel quickly, as he caught my last
+words.
+
+"Yes. I was just telling Miss Dabstreak that I met Paul Patoff last
+year. He was at the Russian legation in Teheran." John showed do
+surprise, and relapsed into silence.
+
+"He and Macaulay are both in Paris," said Mrs. Carvel, "and I suppose
+Macaulay has made up his mind that we must know his cousin."
+
+"Is not Professor Cutter coming, too, mamma?" asked Hermione. "I heard
+papa say so the other day."
+
+"Oh, dear, yes!" exclaimed Chrysophrasia, wearily. "Professor Cutter is
+coming, with his nasty science, and his lenses, and his mathematics. Of
+course he will wear those vivid green spectacles morning, noon, and
+night,--such a dreadfully offensive color."
+
+"Yes," said John, gazing down at his neat shoes, as he stood rubbing his
+broad hands slowly together before the fire, "Cutter is coming, too.
+What a queer party we shall be at Christmas."
+
+And when Christmas came, we were a very queer party indeed.
+
+At the prospect of seeing united, under an English roof, an English
+family, consisting of a great manufacturer,--at the same time a
+thorough-going country gentleman of old descent,--his wife, his
+beautiful daughter, and his aesthetic sister-in-law, having with them as
+guests the son of the master of the house, being a young English
+diplomatist; an English professor, who had given up his professorship to
+devote himself to the study of diseases of the mind; a Russian secretary
+of the embassy, who had seen the world, and was thirty years old; and,
+lastly, your humble slave of the pen, being an American,--at the
+prospect of such a heterogeneous assembly of men and women, you will
+suppose, my dear lady, that I am about to embark upon the cerulean
+waters of a potentially platonic republic, humbly steering my craft by
+the charts of a recent voyager, who, after making a noble but
+ineffectual attempt to discover the Isles of the Blessed, appears to
+have stumbled into the drawing-rooms of the Damned.
+
+I am not going to do anything of the kind. My story is written for the
+sole purpose of amusing you, and as a form of diversion for your
+leisure moments I would select neither the Wordsworthian pastoral, nor
+the platonic doctrine of Ideas. Mary Carvel would give her vote for the
+Dalesman, and Chrysophrasia for Plato, but I have not consulted them;
+and if I do not consult you, it is because I think I understand your
+tastes. You will, moreover, readily understand that in telling this tale
+I sometimes speak of things I did not actually see, because I know the
+people concerned very well, and some of them told me at the time, and
+have told me since, what they felt and thought about the things they did
+and saw done. For myself, I am the man you have long known, Paul Griggs,
+the American; a man of many acquaintances and of few friends, who has
+seen the world, and is forty-three years of age, ugly and tough, not so
+poor as I have been, not so good as I might be, melancholic by
+temperament, and a little sour by force of circumstances.
+
+
+
+
+VII.
+
+
+It chanced, one evening, that I was walking alone through the park. I
+had been on foot to the village to send a telegram, which I had not
+cared to trust to a servant. The weather had suddenly cleared, and there
+had been a sharp frost in the morning; towards midday it had thawed a
+little, but by the time it was dark everything was frozen hard again.
+The moon was nearly full, and shone brightly upon the frozen grass,
+casting queer shadows through the bare branches of the trees; it was
+very cold, and I walked fast; the brittle, frozen mud of the road broke
+beneath my feet with a creaking, crunching sound, and startled the deep
+stillness. As I neared the house the moon was before me, and the mass of
+buildings cast a dark shadow.
+
+Carvel Place is like many old country houses in England; it is a typical
+dwelling of its kind, irregular, yet imposing, and though it has no
+plan, for it has been added to and enlarged, and in part rebuilt, it is
+yet harmonious and of good proportion. I had often reflected that it was
+too large for the use of the present family, and I knew that there must
+be a great number of rooms in the house which were never opened; but no
+one had ever proposed to show them to me, and I was not sufficiently
+curious to ask permission to visit the disused apartments. I had
+observed, however, that a wing of the building ran into an inclosure,
+surrounded by a wall seven or eight feet high, against which were ranged
+upon the one side a series of hot-houses, while another formed the back
+of a covered tennis court. The third wall of the inclosure was covered
+with a lattice, upon which fruit trees had been trained without any
+great success, and I had noticed that the lattice now completely
+covered an old oak door which led into the inclosure. I had never seen
+the door open, but I remembered very well that it was uncovered the last
+time I had been at Carvel Place.
+
+When I reached the house I was no longer cold, and the night was so
+clear and sparkling that I idly strolled round the great place,
+wandering across the frozen lawn and through the winding paths of the
+flower garden beyond, till I came to the wall I have described, and
+stood still, half wondering why the door had been covered over with
+fruit trees, as though no one would ever wish to enter the house from
+that side. The space could hardly be so valuable for gardening purposes,
+I thought, for the slender peach-trees that were bound upon the lattice
+on each side of the door had not thriven. There was something melancholy
+about the unsuccessful attempt to cultivate the delicate southern fruit
+in the unkindly air of England, and the branches and stems, all wrapped
+in straw against the frost, looked unhappy and unnatural in the cold
+moonlight. I stood looking at them, with my hands in my pockets,
+thinking somewhat regretfully of my southern birthplace. I smiled at
+myself and turned away, but as I went the very faintest echo of a laugh
+seemed to come from the other side of the wall. It sounded disagreeably
+in the stillness, and I slowly finished my walk around the house and
+came back to the front door, still wondering who it was that had laughed
+at me from behind the wall in the moonlight. There was certainly no
+original reason in the nature of things why it should not chance that
+some one should laugh on the other side of the wall just as I happened
+to be standing before the closed gate. The inclosure was probably in
+connection with the servants' apartments; or it might be the exclusive
+privilege of Chrysophrasia to walk there, composing anapaestic verse to
+the infinite faintness of the moon,--or anything. A quarter of an hour
+later I was in the drawing-room drinking a cup of tea. I came in when
+the others had finished reading their evening letters, and there were
+none for me. The tea was cold. I wished I had walked half an hour
+longer, and had not come into the drawing-room at all.
+
+"Let me make you a fresh cup, Mr. Griggs," said Hermione; "do,--it will
+be ready in a moment!"
+
+I politely declined, and the conversation of the rest soon began where
+it had left off. It appeared that Professor Cutter was expected that
+night, and the son of the house, with Patoff, on the following day. It
+was Thursday, and Christmas was that day week. John Carvel seemed
+unusually depressed; his words were few and very grave, and he did not
+smile, but answered in the shortest manner possible the questions
+addressed to him. He thought Cutter might arrive at any moment. Hermione
+hazarded a remark to the effect that the professor was rather dull.
+
+"No, my dear," answered John, "he is not at all dull."
+
+"But, papa, I thought he was so immensely learned"----
+
+"He is very learned," said her father, shortly, and buried himself in
+his newspaper, so that hardly anything was visible of him but his feet,
+encased in exceedingly neat shoes; those nether extremities moved
+impatiently from time to time. Chrysophrasia was not present, a
+circumstance which made it seem likely that she might have been the
+person who had laughed behind the wall. Mary Carvel, like her husband,
+was unusually silent, and I was sitting not far from Hermione. She
+looked at me after her father's curt answer to her innocent remark, and
+smiled faintly.
+
+The drawing-room where we sat exhibited a curious instance of the effect
+produced upon inanimate things when subjected to the contact of persons
+who differ widely from each other in taste. You smile, dear lady, at the
+complicated form of expression. I mean merely that if two people who
+like very different things live in the same room, each of them will try
+to give the place the look he or she likes. At Carvel Place there were
+four to be consulted, instead of two; for John had his own opinions as
+to taste, and they were certainly sounder than those of his wife and
+sister-in-law, and at least as clearly defined.
+
+John Carvel liked fine pictures, and he had placed three or four in the
+drawing-room,--a couple of good Hogarths, a beautiful woman's head by
+Andrea del Sarto, and a military scene by Meissonnier,--about as
+heterogeneous a quartette of really valuable works as could be got for
+money; and John had given a great deal of money for them. Besides the
+pictures, there stood in the drawing-room an enormous leathern
+easy-chair, of the old-fashioned type with semicircular wings projecting
+forward from the high back on each side, made to protect the rheumatic
+old head of some ancestor who suffered from the toothache before the
+invention of dentists. Near this stood a low, square, revolving
+bookcase, which always contained the volumes which John was reading at
+the time, to be changed from day to day as circumstances required.
+
+Mary Carvel was, and is, an exceedingly religious woman, and her tastes
+are to some extent the expression of her religious feelings. She has a
+number of excellent engravings of celebrated pictures, such as Holbein's
+Madonna, Raphael's Transfiguration, and the Dresden Madonna di San
+Sisto; she owns the entire collection of chromo-lithographs published by
+the Arundel Society, and many other reproductions of a similar nature.
+Many of these she had hung in the drawing-room at Carvel Place. Here and
+there, also, were little shelves of oak in the common Anglomaniac style
+of woodwork, ornamented with trefoils, crosses, circles, and triangles,
+and containing a curious collection of sacred literature, beginning with
+the ancient volume entitled Wilberforce's View, including the poetry
+published in a series of Lyras,--Lyra Anglicana, Lyra Germanica, and so
+on,--culminating at last in the works of Dr. Pusey; the whole perhaps
+exhibiting in a succinct form the stages through which Mary Carvel had
+passed, or was still passing, in her religious convictions. And here
+let me say at once that I am very far from intending to jest at those
+same convictions of Mary Carvel's, and if you smile it is because the
+picture is true, not because it is ridiculous. She may read what she
+pleases, but the world would be a better place if there were more women
+like her.
+
+There were many other possessions of hers in the drawing-room: for
+instance, upon the mantel-piece were placed three magnificent Wedgwood
+urns, after Flaxman's designs, inherited from her father, and now of
+great value; upon the tables there were several vases of old Vienna, but
+of a green color, vivid enough to elicit Chrysophrasia's most eloquent
+disapprobation; there were several embroideries of a sufficiently
+harmless nature, the work of Mary Carvel's patient fingers, but
+conceived in a style no longer popular; and on the whole, there was a
+great number of objects in the drawing-room which belonged to her and by
+which she set great store, but which bore decidedly the character of
+English household decoration and furniture at the beginning of the
+present century, and are consequently abhorrent to the true aesthete.
+
+Chrysophrasia Dabstreak, however, had sworn to cast the shadow of beauty
+over what she called the substance of the hideous, and to this end and
+intention, by dint of honeyed eloquence and stinging satire, she had
+persuaded John and Mary to allow her to insert stained glass in one of
+the windows, which formerly opened upon and afforded a view of a certain
+particularly brilliant flower bed. Beneath the many-colored light from
+this Gothic window--for she insisted upon the pointed arch--Miss
+Dabstreak had made her own especial corner of the drawing-room. There
+one might see strange pots and plates, and withered rushes, and
+fantastic greenish draperies of Eastern weft, which, however, would not
+fetch five piastres a yard in the bazaar of Stamboul, curious
+water-colors said to represent "impressions," though one would be shy of
+meeting, beyond the bounds of an insane asylum, the individual whose
+impressions could take so questionable a shape; lastly, the centre of
+the collection, a "polka mazurka harmony in yellow," by Sardanapalus
+Stiggins, the great impressionist painter of the day. Chrysophrasia paid
+five hundred pounds for this little gem.
+
+But it was not enough for Miss Dabstreak to have collected so many
+worthless objects of price in her own little corner of the room. She had
+encumbered the tables with useless articles of pottery; she had fastened
+a green plate between the better of the two Hogarths and an Arundel
+chromo-lithograph, and connected it with both the pictures by a drooping
+scarf of faint pink silk; she had adorned the engraving of Raphael's
+Transfiguration with a bit of Broussa embroidery, because it looked so
+very Oriental; and she had bedizened Mary Carvel's water-color view of
+Carisbrooke Castle with peacock's feathers, because they looked so very
+English. There was no spot in the room where Chrysophrasia's hand had
+not fallen, and often it had fallen heavily. She had respected John
+Carvel's easy-chair and revolving bookcase, but she had respected
+nothing else.
+
+There was a fourth person, however, who had set her especial impress on
+the appearance of the room where all met in common. I mean Hermione
+Carvel. Educated and brought up among the conflicting tastes and views
+of her parents and her aunt, she had imbibed some of the characteristics
+of each, although in widely different degrees. At that time, perhaps,
+the various traits which were united in her had not yet blended
+harmoniously so as to form a satisfactory whole. The resultant of so
+many more or less conflicting forces was prone to extremes of enthusiasm
+or of indifference. Her heart was capable of feeling the warmest
+sympathy, but was liable also to conceive unwarrantable antipathies; her
+mind was of admirable quality, fairly well gifted and sensibly trained;
+though not marvelously quick to understand, yet tenacious and slow to
+forget. The constant attempt to reconcile the irreconcilable opinions
+of her mother and aunt had given Hermione a certain versatility of
+thought, and a certain capacity to see both sides of the question when
+not under the momentary influence of her enthusiasm. She is, and was
+even then, a fine type of the English girl who has grown up under the
+most favorable circumstances; that is to say, with an excellent
+education and a decided preference for the country. It is not necessary
+to allow her any of the privileges and immunities usually granted to
+exceptional people; in any ordinary position of life she would bear the
+test of any ordinary difficulty very well. She inherits common sense
+from her father, an honest country gentleman of the kind now
+unfortunately growing every day more rare; a man not so countrified as
+to break his connection with the intelligent world, nor so foolishly
+ambitious as to abandon a happy life in the country in order to pursue
+the mirage of petty political importance: a man who holds humbug in
+supreme contempt, and having purged it from his being has still
+something to fall back upon. From her mother Hermione inherits an
+extreme conscientiousness in the things of every-day life; but whereas
+in Mary Carvel this scrupulous pursuance of what is right is on the
+verge of degenerating into morbid religionism, in Hermione it is
+tempered by occasional bursts of enthusiasm, and relieved by a wholesome
+and natural capacity for liking some people and disliking others.
+
+In the drawing-room I have been describing, Hermione touched everything,
+and did her best to cast over the various objects some grace, some air
+of harmony, which should make the contrasted tastes of the rest of her
+family less glaring and unpleasant to the eye. Her task was not easy,
+and it was no fault of hers if the room was out of joint. Her love of
+flowers showed itself everywhere, and she knew how to take advantage of
+each inch of room on shelf, or table, or window-seat, filling all
+available spaces with a profusion of roses, geraniums, and blossoms of
+every kind that chanced to be in season. Flowers in a room will do what
+nothing else can accomplish. The eye turns gladly to the living plant,
+when wearied and strained with the incongruities of inanimate things. A
+pot of pinks makes the lowliest and most dismal cottage chamber look gay
+by comparison; a single rose in a glass of water lights up the most
+dusty den of the most dusty student. A bit of climbing ivy converts a
+hideous ruin into a bower, as the Alp roses and the Iva make a garden
+for one short month of the roughest rocks in the Grisons. Only that
+which lives and of which the life is beautiful can reconcile us to those
+surroundings which would otherwise offend our sense of harmony, or
+oppress us with a dullness even more deadly than mere ugliness can ever
+be.
+
+Hermione loves all flowers, and at Carvel Place she was the sweetest
+blossom of them all. Her fresh vitality is of the contagious kind, and
+even plants seem to revive and get new life from the touch of her small
+fingers, as though feeling the necessity of growing like her. Her beauty
+may not last. It is not of the imperious kind, nor even quite classic,
+but it has a wonderful fineness and delicacy. Her soft brown hair coils
+closely on her small, well-shaped head; her gentle, serious blue eyes
+look tenderly on all that lives and has being within the circle of her
+sight; her small mouth smiles graciously and readily, though sometimes a
+little sadly; and her pleasant voice has a frank ring in it that is good
+to hear. Her slight fingers, neither too long nor too short, are often
+busy, but her labors are generally labors of love, and she is never
+weary of them. Of middle height, she has the grace of a taller woman,
+and the ease in motion which comes only from natural, healthy, elastic
+strength, not weakened by enforced idleness, not overdeveloped by
+abominable and unwomanly gymnastic exercises. Everything she does is
+graceful.
+
+It is very strange and interesting to see in her the combination of such
+different elements. Even her aunt Chrysophrasia's queer nature is
+represented, though it needs some ingenuity to trace the resemblance
+between the two. There are indeed tones of the voice, phrases and
+expressions, which seem to belong to particular families, and by which
+one may sometimes discover the relationship. But the modification of
+leading characteristics in the individual is not so easily detected.
+Miss Dabstreak is eccentric, but the wild ideas which continue to
+flourish in the aesthetic cells of Chrysophrasia's brain are softened and
+made more gentle and delicate in Hermione, so that even if they were
+inconsequent they would not seem offensive; though one might not admire
+them, one could not despise them. The young girl loves all that is
+beautiful: not as Chrysophrasia loves it, by sheer force of habitual
+affectation, without discernment and without real enjoyment, but from
+the bottom of her heart, from the well-springs of her own beautiful
+soul; knowing and understanding the great divisions between the graceful
+and the clumsy, between the true and the false, the lovely and the
+unlovely. The extraordinary passion for the eccentric is tempered to an
+honest and natural craving after the beautiful; the admixture of the
+gentleness the girl has inherited from her saintly mother and of the
+genuine common sense which characterizes her father has produced a
+rational desire and ability to do good to every one. Mary Carvel is
+sometimes exaggerated in her ideas of charity, and John on rare
+occasions--very rarely--used to be a little too much inclined to the
+practice of economy; "near" was the term applied by the village people.
+It was at first with him but the reminiscence of poorer years, when
+economy was necessary, and forethought was an indispensable element in
+his life; but the tendency has remained and sometimes shows itself. All
+that can be traced of this quality in the daughter is a certain power of
+keen discernment, which saves her from being cheated by the sham paupers
+who abound in the neighborhood of Carvel Place, and from being led into
+spoiling the school-children with too many feasts of tea, jam, and
+cake.
+
+It is not easy to be brief in describing Hermione Carvel, because in her
+fair self she combines a great many qualities belonging to contradictory
+persons, which one would suppose impossible to unite in one harmonious
+whole; and yet Hermione is one of the most harmonious persons I ever
+knew. Nothing about her ever offended my sense of fitness. I often used
+to wonder how she managed to be loved equally by the different members
+of the household, but there is no doubt of the fact that all the members
+of her family not only love her, but excuse readily enough those of
+their own bad qualities which they fancy they recognize in her; for,
+indeed, nothing ever seems bad in Hermione, and I doubt greatly whether
+there is not some touch of white magic in her nature that protects her
+and shields her, so that bad things turn to good when they come near
+her. If she likes the curious notions of her aunt, she certainly changes
+them so that they become delicate fancies, and agree together with the
+gentle charity she has from her mother and the sterling honesty she gets
+from her father. John sometimes shrugs his shoulders at what he calls
+his wife's extraordinary faith in human nature, and both he and Mary are
+sometimes driven to the verge of distraction by Chrysophrasia's
+perpetual moaning over civilization; but no one is ever out of temper
+with Hermione, nor is Hermione ever impatient with any one of the three.
+She is the peace-maker, the one whose sympathy never fails, whose
+gentleness is never ruffled, and whose fair judgment is never at fault.
+
+When John Carvel answered Hermione's question about Professor Cutter by
+a simple affirmation to the effect that he was a very learned man, the
+young girl did not press her father with any more inquiries, but turned
+to me.
+
+"Do you not think learned people are very often dull, Mr. Griggs?" she
+asked.
+
+"Oppressively," I answered.
+
+"What makes them so?"
+
+"It is the very low and common view which they take of life," put in
+Miss Dabstreak, who entered the room while we were speaking, and sank
+upon the couch with a little sigh. "They have no aspirations after the
+beautiful,--and what else can satisfy the human mind? The Greeks were
+never dull."
+
+"What do you call dull?" asked Mrs. Carvel very mildly.
+
+"Oh--anything; parliamentary reports, for instance, and agricultural
+shows, and the Rural Dean,--anything of that sort," answered Miss
+Chrysophrasia languidly.
+
+"In other words, civilization as compared with barbarism," I suggested.
+"It is true that there cannot be much boredom among barbarous tribes who
+are always scalping their enemies or being scalped themselves; those
+things help to pass the time."
+
+"Yes, scalping must be most interesting," murmured Chrysophrasia, with
+an air of conviction.
+
+Hermione laughed.
+
+"I really believe you would like to see it done, aunt Chrysophrasia,"
+said she.
+
+"Hermy, Hermy, what dreadful ideas you have!" exclaimed Mrs. Carvel, in
+gentle horror. But she immediately returned to her embroidery, and
+relapsed into silence.
+
+"It is Mr. Griggs, mamma," said Hermione, still laughing. "He agrees
+with me that learned people are all oppressively dull, and that the only
+tolerably exciting society is found among scalping Indians."
+
+"Did you not once scalp somebody yourself, Griggs?" asked John, suddenly
+lowering his newspaper.
+
+"Not quite," I answered; "but I once shaved a poodle with a
+pocket-knife. Perhaps you were thinking of that?"
+
+While I spoke there was a sound of wheels without, and John rose to his
+feet. He seemed impatient.
+
+"That must be Cutter at last'" he exclaimed, moving towards the door
+that led into the hall. "I thought he was never coming."
+
+I rose also, and followed him. It was Cutter. The learned professor
+arrived wrapped in a huge ulster overcoat, his hands in the deep pockets
+thereof, and the end of an extinguished cigar between his teeth. He
+furtively disposed of the remains of the weed before shaking hands with
+our host. After the first greetings John led him away to his room, and I
+remained standing in the hall. The professor's luggage was rather
+voluminous, and various boxes, bags, and portmanteaus bore the labels of
+many journeys. The men brought them in from the dog-cart; the strong cob
+pawed the gravel a little, and the moonlight flashed back from the
+silver harness, from the smooth varnished dashboard, the polished
+chains, and the plated lamps. I stood staring out of the door, hardly
+seeing anything. Indeed, I was lost in a fruitless effort of memory. The
+groom gathered up the reins and drove away, and presently I was aware
+that Stubbs, the butler, was offering me a hat, as a hint, I supposed,
+that he wanted to shut the front door. I mechanically covered my head
+and strolled away.
+
+I was trying to remember where I had seen Professor Cutter. I could not
+have known him well, for I never forget a man I have met three or four
+times; and yet his face was perfectly familiar to me, and came vividly
+before me as I paced the garden walks. Instinctively I walked round the
+house again, and paused before the door that had attracted my attention
+an hour earlier. I listened, but heard nothing, and still I tried to
+recall my former meeting with Cutter. Strange, I thought, that I should
+seem to know him so well, and that I should nevertheless be unable to
+connect him in my mind with any date, or country, or circumstance. In
+vain I went over many scenes of my life, endeavoring to limit this
+remembrance to a particular period. I argued that our meeting, if we
+really had met, could not have taken place many years ago, for I
+recognized exactly the curling gray hairs in the professor's beard, the
+wrinkles in his forehead, and a slight mark upon one cheek, just below
+the eye. I recollected the same spectacles; the same bushy, cropped gray
+hair; the same massive, square head set upon a short but powerful body;
+the same huge hands, spotlessly clean, the big nails kept closely pared
+and polished, but so large that they might have belonged to an extinct
+species of gigantic man. The whole of him and his belongings, to the
+very clothes he wore, seemed familiar to me and witnesses to his
+identity; but though I did my best for half an hour, I could not bring
+back one circumstance connected with him. I grew impatient and returned
+to the house, for it was time to dress for dinner, and I felt cold as I
+strolled about in the frosty moonlight.
+
+We met again before dinner, for a few minutes, in the drawing-room. I
+went near to the professor, and examined his appearance very carefully.
+His evening dress set off the robust proportions of his frame, and the
+recollection I had of him struck me more forcibly than ever. I am not
+superstitious, but I began to fancy that we must have met in some former
+state, in some other sphere. He stood before the fire, rubbing his hands
+and answering all manner of questions that were put to him. He appeared
+to be an old friend of the family, to judge by the conversation, and yet
+I was positively certain that I had never seen him at Carvel Place. He
+knew all the family, however, and seemed familiar with their tastes and
+pursuits: he inquired about John's manufacturing interests, and about
+Mrs. Carvel's poor people; he asked Hermione several questions about the
+recent exhibitions of flowers, and discussed with Chrysophrasia a sale
+of majolica which had just taken place in London. After this round of
+remarks I suspected that the professor would address himself to me, for
+his gray eyes rested on me from time to time with a look of recognition.
+But he held his peace, and we presently went to dinner.
+
+Professor Cutter talked much and talked well, in a continuous,
+consistent manner that was satisfactory for a time, but a little
+wearisome in the long run. His ideas were often brilliant, and his
+expression of them was always original, but he had an extraordinary
+faculty of dominating the conversation. Even John Carvel, who knew a
+great deal in his way, found it hard to make any headway against the
+professor's eloquence, though I could sometimes see that he was far from
+being convinced. The professor had been everywhere and had seen most
+things; he talked with absolute conviction of what he had seen, and
+avoided talking of what he had not seen, doubtless inferring that it was
+not worth seeing. Nevertheless, he was not a disagreeable person, as
+such men often are; on the contrary, there was a charm of manner about
+him that was felt by every one present. I longed for the meal to be
+over, however, for I intended to seize the first opportunity which
+presented itself of asking him whether he remembered where we had met
+before.
+
+I was destined to remain in suspense for some time. We had no sooner
+risen from dinner than John Carvel came up to me and spoke in a low
+voice.
+
+"Will you excuse me if I leave you alone, Griggs?" he said. "I have very
+important business with Professor Cutter, which will not keep until
+to-morrow. We will join you in the drawing-room in about an hour."
+
+It was nothing to me if the two men had business together; I was
+sufficiently intimate in the house to be treated without ceremony, and I
+did not care for anybody's company until I could find what I was
+searching for in the forgotten corners of my brain.
+
+"Do not mind me," I answered, and I retired into the smoking-room, and
+began to turn over the evening papers. How long I read I do not know,
+nor whether the news of the day was more or less interesting and
+credible than usual; I do not believe that an hour elapsed, either, for
+an hour is a long time when a man is not interested in what he is doing,
+and is trying to recall something to his mind. I cannot even tell why I
+so longed to recollect the professor's face; I only remember that the
+effort was intense, but wholly fruitless. I lay back in the deep
+leathern easy-chair, and all sorts of visions flitted before my
+half-closed eyes,--visions of good and visions of evil, visions of
+yesterday and visions of long ago. Somehow I fell to thinking about the
+lattice-covered door in the wall, and I caught myself wondering who had
+been behind it when I passed; and then I laughed, for I had made up my
+mind that it must have been Miss Chrysophrasia, who had entered the
+drawing-room five minutes after I did. I sat staring at the fire. I was
+conscious that some one had entered the room, and presently the
+scratching of a match upon something rough roused me from my reverie. I
+looked round, and saw Professor Cutter standing by the table.
+
+It sometimes happens that a very slight thing will recall a very long
+chain of circumstances; a look, the intonation of a word, the attitude
+of a moment, will call up other looks and words and attitudes in quick
+succession, until the chain is complete. So it happened to me, when I
+saw the learned professor standing by the table, with a cigar in his
+mouth, and his great gray eyes fixed upon me from behind his enormous
+spectacles. I recognized the man, and the little I knew of him came back
+to me.
+
+The professor is one of the most learned specialists in neurology and
+the study of the brain now living; he is, moreover, a famous
+anthropologist. He began his career as a surgeon, and would have been
+celebrated as an operator had he not one day inherited a private
+fortune, which permitted him to abandon his surgical practice in favor
+of a special branch for which he knew himself more particularly fitted.
+So soon as I recalled the circumstances of our first meeting I realized
+that I had been in his company only a few moments, and had not known his
+name.
+
+He came and sat himself down in an easy-chair by my side, and puffed in
+silence at a big cigar.
+
+"We have met before," I said. "I could not make you out at first. You
+were at Weissenstein last year. You remember that affair?"
+
+Professor Cutter looked at me curiously for several seconds before he
+answered.
+
+"You are the man who let down the rope," he said at last. "I remember
+you now very well."
+
+There was a short pause.
+
+"Did you ever hear any more of that lady?" asked he, presently.
+
+"No, I did not even know her name, any more than I knew yours," I
+replied. "I took you for a physician, and the lady for your patient."
+
+We heard steps on the polished floor outside the smoking-room.
+
+"If I were you, I would not say anything to Carvel about that matter,"
+said the professor quickly.
+
+The door opened, and John entered the room. He was a little pale and
+looked nervous.
+
+"Ah," he ejaculated, "I thought you would fraternize over the tobacco."
+
+"We are doing our best," said I.
+
+"It is written that the free should be brothers and equal," said the
+professor, with a laugh.
+
+"I never knew two brothers who were equal," said Carvel, in reflective
+tones. "I do not know why the ideal freedom and equality, attaching to
+the ideal brothers, should not be as good as any other visionary aim for
+tangible earthly government; but it certainly does not seem so easy of
+realization, nor so sound in the working, as our good English principle
+that exceptions prove the rule, and that the more exceptions there are
+the better the rule will be."
+
+"Is that speech an attack upon American freedom?" asked the professor,
+laughing a little. "I believe Mr. Griggs is an American."
+
+"No, indeed. Why should I attack American freedom?" said John.
+
+"American freedom is not so easily attacked," I remarked. "It eludes
+definition and rejects political paradox. No one ever connects our
+republic with the fashionable liberty-fraternity-and-equality doctrines
+of European emancipation; still less with the communistic idea that,
+although men have very different capacities for originating things, all
+men have an equal right to destroy them."
+
+"Griggs is mounted upon his hobby," remarked John Carvel, stretching his
+feet out towards the fire. The professor turned the light of his
+spectacles upon me, and puffed a cloud of smoke.
+
+"Are you a political enthusiast and a rider of hobby-horses, Mr.
+Griggs?" he asked.
+
+"I do not know; you must ask our host."
+
+"Pardon me. I think you know very well," said the professor. "I should
+say you belonged to a class of persons who know very well what they
+think."
+
+"How do you judge?"
+
+"That is, of all questions a man can ask, the most difficult to answer.
+How do you judge of anything?"
+
+"By applying the test of past experience to present fact," I replied.
+
+"Then past experience is that by which I judge. How can you expect me to
+tell you the whole of my past experience, in order that you may
+understand how my judgment is formed? It would take years."
+
+"You are a pair of very singular men," remarked John Carvel. "You seem
+to take to argument as fish to the water. You ought to be successful in
+a school of walking philosophers."
+
+John seemed more depressed than I had ever seen him, and only made an
+observation from time to time, as though to make a show of hospitality.
+The professor interested me, but I could see that we were boring Carvel.
+The conversation languished, and before long the latter proposed that we
+should go into the drawing-room for half an hour before bed-time.
+
+We found the ladies seated around the fire. Their voices fell suddenly
+as we entered the room, and all of them looked towards John and the
+professor, as though expecting something. It struck me that they had
+been talking of some matter which was not intended for our ears.
+
+"We have been making plans for Christmas," said Mrs. Carvel, as though
+to break the awkward silence that followed our entrance.
+
+
+
+
+VIII.
+
+
+Early on the following morning John Carvel came to my room. He looked
+less anxious than on the previous night, but he was evidently not
+altogether his former self.
+
+"Would you care to drive to the station and meet those boys?" he asked,
+cheerfully.
+
+The weather was bright and frosty, and I was glad enough of an excuse
+for being alone for half an hour with my friend. I assented, therefore,
+to his proposition, and presently we were rattling along the hard road
+through the park. The hoar-frost was on the trees and on the blue-green
+frozen grass beneath them, and on the reeds and sedges beside the pond,
+which was overspread with a sheet of black ice. The breath flew from the
+horses' nostrils in white clouds to right and left, and the low morning
+sun flashed back from the harness, and made the little icicles and laces
+of frost upon the trees shine like diamonds.
+
+"Carvel," I said presently, as we spun past the lodge, through the great
+iron gates, "I am not inquisitive, but it is easy to see that there is
+something going on in your house which is not agreeable to you. Will you
+tell me frankly whether you would like me to go away?"
+
+"Not for worlds," my companion ejaculated, and he turned a shade paler
+as he spoke. "I would rather tell you all about it--only"---- He paused.
+
+"Don't," said I. "I don't want to know. I merely thought you might
+prefer to be left free of outsiders at present."
+
+"We hardly look upon you as an outsider, Griggs," said John, quietly.
+"You have been here so much and we have been so intimate that you are
+almost like one of the family. Besides, you know this young nephew of my
+wife's, Paul Patoff; and your knowing him will make matters a little
+easier. I am not at all sure I shall like him."
+
+"I think you will. At all events, I can give you some idea of him."
+
+"I wish you would," answered John.
+
+"He is a thorough Russian in his ideas and an Englishman in
+appearance,--perhaps you might say he is more like a Scotchman. He is
+fair, with blue eyes, a brown mustache, and a prominent nose. He is
+angular in his movements and rather tall. He has a remarkable talent for
+languages, and is regarded as a very promising diplomatist. His temper
+is violent and changeable, but he has excellent manners and is full of
+tact. I should call him an extremely clever fellow in a general way, and
+he has done wisely in the selection of his career."
+
+"That is not a bad description. Is there anything against him?"
+
+"I cannot say; I only knew him in Persia,--a chance acquaintance. People
+said he was very eccentric."
+
+"Eccentric?" asked John. "How?"
+
+"Moody, I suppose, because he would sometimes shut himself up for days,
+and see nobody unless the minister sent for him. He used to beat his
+native servants when he was in a bad humor, and was said to be a
+reckless sort of fellow."
+
+"I hope he will not indulge his eccentricities here. Heaven knows, he
+has reason enough for being odd, poor fellow. We must make the best of
+him," continued John hurriedly, as though regretting his last remark,
+"and you must help us to amuse him and keep him out of mischief. Those
+Russians are the very devil, sometimes, as I have no doubt you know, and
+just at present our relations with them are not of the best; but, after
+all, he is my nephew and one of the family, so that we must do what we
+can for him, and avoid trouble. Macaulay likes him, and I dare say he
+likes Macaulay. They will get on together very well."
+
+"Yes--perhaps so--though I do not see what the two can have in common,"
+I answered. "Macaulay can hardly have much sympathy for Patoff's
+peculiarities, however much he may like the man himself."
+
+"Macaulay is very young, although he has seen something of the world. He
+has not outgrown the age which mistakes eccentricity for genius and bad
+temper for boldness. We shall see,--we shall see very soon. They will
+both hate Cutter, with his professorial wisdom and his immense
+experience of things they have never seen. How do you like him
+yourself?"
+
+"Without being congenial to me, he represents what I would like to be
+myself."
+
+"Would you change with him, if you could?" asked John.
+
+"No, indeed. I, in my person, would like to be what he is in his,--that
+is all. People often talk of changing. No man alive would really
+exchange his personality for that of another man, if he had the chance.
+He only wishes to adorn what he most admires in himself with those
+things which, in his neighbor, excite the admiration of others. He
+meditates no change which does not give his vanity a better appearance
+to himself, and his reputation a dash of more brilliant color in the
+popular eye."
+
+"Perhaps you are right," said John. "At all events, the professor has
+qualities that any man might envy."
+
+We reached the station just as the train ran in, and Macaulay Carvel and
+Patoff waved their hats from the carriage window. In a moment we were
+all shaking hands upon the platform.
+
+"Papa, this is cousin Paul," said Macaulay, and he turned to greet me
+next. He is a good-looking fellow, with rather delicate features and a
+quiet, conscientious sort of expression, exquisite in his dress and
+scrupulous in his manners, with more of his mother's gentleness than of
+his father's bold frankness in his brown eyes. His small hand grasped
+mine readily enough, but seemed nerveless and lacking in vitality, a
+contrast to Paul Patoff's grip. The Russian was as angular as ever, and
+his wiry fingers seemed to discharge an electric shock as they touched
+mine. I realized that he was a very tall man, and that he was far from
+ugly. His prominent nose and high cheek-bones gave a singular eagle-like
+look to his face, and his cold, bright eyes added to the impression. He
+lacked grace of form, but he had plenty of force, and though his
+movements were sometimes sudden and ungainly he was not without a
+certain air of nobility. His brown mustache did not altogether hide the
+half-scornful expression of his mouth.
+
+"How is everybody?" asked Macaulay Carvel of his father. "We shall have
+a most jolly Christmas, all together."
+
+"Well, Mr. Griggs," said Patoff to me, "I did not expect, when we parted
+in Persia, that we should meet again in my uncle's house, did you? You
+will hardly believe that this is my first visit to England, and to my
+relations here."
+
+"You will certainly not be taken for a foreigner here," I said,
+laughing.
+
+"Oh, of course not. You see my mother is English, so that I speak the
+language. The difficulty for me will lie in learning the customs. The
+English have so many peculiar habits. Is Professor Cutter at the house?"
+
+"Yes. You know him?"
+
+"Very well. He has been my mother's physician for some time."
+
+"Indeed--I was not aware that he practiced as a physician." I was
+surprised by the news, and a suspicion crossed my mind that the lady at
+Weissenstein might have been Patoff's mother. Instantly the meaning of
+the professor's warning flashed upon me,--I was not to mention that
+affair in the Black Forest to Carvel. Of course not. Carvel was the
+brother-in-law of the lady in question. However, I kept my own counsel
+as we drove rapidly homewards. The sun had risen higher in the cloudless
+sky, and the frozen ground was beginning to thaw, so that now and then
+the mud splashed high from under the horses' hoofs. The vehicle in which
+we drove was a mail phaeton, and Macaulay sat in front by his father's
+side, while Patoff and I sat behind. We chatted pleasantly along the
+road, and in half an hour were deposited at Carvel Place, where the
+ladies came out to meet us, and the new cousin was introduced to every
+one. He seemed to make himself at home very easily, and I think the
+first impression he produced was favorable. Mrs. Carvel held his hand
+for several seconds, and looked up into his cold blue eyes as though
+searching for some resemblance to his mother, and he met her gentle look
+frankly enough. Chrysophrasia eyed him and eyed him again, trying to
+discover in him the attributes she had bestowed upon him in her
+imagination; he was certainly a bold-looking fellow, and she was not
+altogether disappointed. She allowed her hand to linger in his, and her
+sentimental eyes turned upwards towards him with a look that was
+intended to express profound sympathy. As for Paul, he looked at his
+aunt Chrysophrasia with a certain surprise, and he looked upon Hermione
+with a great admiration as she came forward and put out her hand. John
+Carvel stood near by, and I thought his expression changed as he saw the
+glance his nephew bestowed upon his daughter. I slipped away to the
+library, and left the family party to themselves. Professor Cutter had
+not yet appeared, and I hoped to find him. Sure enough, he was among the
+books. Three or four large volumes lay open upon a table near the
+window, and the sturdy professor was turning over the leaves, holding a
+pencil in his mouth and a sheet of paper in one hand, the image of a
+student in the pursuit of knowledge. I went straight up to him.
+
+"Professor Cutter," I said, "you asked me last night whether I had ever
+heard anything more of the lady with whom I met you at Weissenstein. I
+have heard of her this morning."
+
+The scientist took the pencil from his mouth, and thrust his hands into
+his pockets, gazing upon me through the large round lenses of his
+spectacles. He glanced towards the door before he spoke.
+
+"Well, what have you heard?" he asked.
+
+"Only that she was Paul Patoff's mother," I answered.
+
+"Nothing else?"
+
+"Nothing."
+
+"And how did you come by the information, if you please?" he inquired.
+
+"Very simply. Paul Patoff volunteered to tell me that you had been his
+mother's physician for some time. I remembered that you warned me not to
+speak of the Weissenstein affair to our friend Carvel; that was natural
+enough, since the lady was his sister-in-law. She did not look at all
+like Paul, it is true, but you are not in the habit of playing
+physician, and it is a thousand to one that you have attended no one
+else in the last year who is in any way connected with John Carvel."
+
+The learned doctor smiled.
+
+"You have made a very good guess, Mr. Griggs," he said. "Paul Patoff is
+a silly fellow enough, or he would not have spoken so plainly. Why do
+you tell me that you have found me out?"
+
+"Because I imagine that you are still interested in the lady, and that
+you had better be informed of everything connected with the case."
+
+"The case--yes--it is a very singular case, and I am intensely
+interested in it. Besides, it has very nearly cost me my reputation, as
+well as my life. I assure you I have rarely had to do with such a case,
+nor have I ever experienced such a sensation as when I went over the
+cliff at Weissenstein after Madame Patoff."
+
+"Probably not," I remarked. "I never saw a braver thing more
+successfully accomplished."
+
+"There is small courage in acting under necessity," said the professor,
+walking slowly across the room towards the fire. "If I had not rescued
+my patient, I should have been much more injured than if I had broken my
+neck in the attempt. I was responsible for her. What would have become
+of the 'great neurologist,' the celebrated 'mad-doctor,' as they call
+me, if one of the few patients to whom I ever devoted my whole personal
+attention had committed suicide under my very eyes? You can understand
+that there was something more than her life and mine at stake."
+
+"I never knew exactly how it happened," I replied. "I was looking out of
+my window, when I saw a woman fall over the balcony below me. Her
+clothes caught in the crooked branches of a wild cherry tree that grew
+some ten feet below; and as she struggled, I saw you leaning over the
+parapet, as if you meant to scramble down the face of the cliff after
+her. I had a hundred feet of manilla rope which I was taking with me to
+Switzerland for a special expedition, and I let it down to you. The
+people of the inn came to my assistance, and we managed to haul you up
+together, thanks to your knowing how to tie the rope around you both.
+Then I saw you down-stairs for a few minutes and you told me the lady
+was not hurt. I left almost immediately. I never knew what led to the
+accident."
+
+Professor Cutter passed his heavy hand slowly over his thick gray hair,
+and looked pensively into the fire.
+
+"It was simple enough," he said at last. "I was paying our bill to the
+landlord, and in doing so I turned my back upon Madame Patoff for a
+moment. She was standing on a low balcony outside the window, and she
+must have thrown herself over. Luckily she was dressed in a gown of
+strong Scotch stuff, which did not tear when it caught in the tree. It
+was the most extraordinary escape I ever saw."
+
+"I should think so, indeed. But why did she want to kill herself? Was
+she insane?"
+
+"Are people always insane who try to kill themselves?" asked the
+professor, eying me keenly through his glasses.
+
+"Very generally they are. I suppose that she was."
+
+"That is precisely the question," said the scientist. "Insanity is an
+expression that covers a multitude of sins of all kinds, but explains
+none of them, nor is itself explained. If I could tell you what insanity
+is, I could tell you whether Madame Patoff was insane or not. I can say
+that a man possesses a dog, because I can classify the dogs I have seen
+all over the world. But supposing I had never met any specimen of the
+canine race but a King Charles spaniel, and on seeing a Scotch deerhound
+in the possession of a friend was told that the man had a 'dog:' I
+should be justified in doubting whether the deerhound was a dog at all
+in the sense in which the tiny spaniel--the only dog I had ever
+seen--represented the canine race in my mind and experience. The
+biblical 'devil,' which 'possessed' men, took as many shapes and
+characteristics as the _genus_ 'dog' does: there was the devil that
+dwelt in tombs, the devil that tore its victim, the devil that entered
+into swine, the devil that spoke false prophecies, and many more. It is
+the same with insanity. No two mad people are alike. If I find a person
+with any madness I know, I can say he is mad; but if I find a person
+acting in a very unusual way under the influence of strong and
+protracted emotion, I am not justified in concluding that he is crazy. I
+have not seen everything in the world yet. I have not seen every kind of
+dog, nor every kind of devil, nor every kind of madness."
+
+"You choose strange illustrations," I said, "but you speak clearly."
+
+"Strange cases and strange examples. Insanity is the strangest phase of
+human nature, because it is the least common state of humanity. If a
+majority of men were mad, they would have a right to consider themselves
+sane, and sane men crazy. Your original question was whether, when she
+attempted suicide, Madame Patoff were sane or not. I do not know. I have
+known many persons to attempt to take their lives when, according to all
+their other actions, they were perfectly sane. The question of their
+sanity could be decided by placing a large number of sensible people in
+similar circumstances, in order to see whether the majority of them
+would kill themselves or not. That sort of experiment is not likely to
+be tried. I found Madame Patoff placed in very extraordinary
+circumstances, but I did not know her before she was so placed. The case
+interests me exceedingly. I am still trying to understand it."
+
+"You speak as though you were still treating it," I remarked.
+
+"A physician, in his imagination, will continue to study a case for
+years after it has passed out of his treatment," answered my companion.
+"I must go and see Paul, however, since he was good enough to mention me
+to you." Whereupon Professor Cutter buttoned up his coat and went away,
+leaving me to my reflections by the library fire.
+
+If Carvel had intended to have a family party in his house at Christmas,
+including his nephew whom he had never seen, and whose mother had been
+mad, and the great scientist who had attended her, it seemed strange
+that he should have asked me as directly as he had done to spend the
+whole winter under his roof. I had never been asked for so long a visit
+before, and had never been treated with such confidence and received so
+intimately as I now was. I could not help wondering whether I was to be
+told the reason of what was going on, whether, indeed, anything was
+going on at all, and whether the air of depression and mystery which I
+thought I observed were not the result of my own imagination, rather
+than of any actual foundation in fact. The professor might be making a
+visit for his pleasure, but I knew how valuable his time must be, and I
+wondered how he could afford to spend it in mere amusement. I
+remembered John Carvel's hesitation as we drove to the station that
+morning, and his evident annoyance when I proposed to leave. He knew me
+well enough to say, "All right, if you don't mind, run up to town for a
+day or two," but he had not said it. He had manifested the strongest
+desire that I should stay, and I had determined to comply with his
+request. At the same time I was left entirely in the dark as to what was
+going on in the family, and whispered words, conversations that ceased
+abruptly on my approach, and many other little signs told me beyond all
+doubt that something was occurring of which I had no knowledge. Without
+being inquisitive, it is hard to live in such surroundings without
+having one's curiosity roused, and the circumstance of my former meeting
+with the professor, now so suddenly illuminated by the discovery that
+the lady whose life he had saved was the sister-in-law of our host, led
+me to believe, almost intuitively, that the mystery, if mystery there
+were, was connected in some way with Madame Patoff. As I thought of her,
+the memory of the little inn, the Gasthof zum Goldenen Anker, in
+Weissenstein, came vividly back to me. The splash of the plunging Nagold
+was in my ears, the smell of the boundless pine forest was in my
+nostrils; once more I seemed to be looking down from the upper window of
+the hostelry upon the deep ravine, a sheer precipice from the back of
+the house, broken only by some few struggling trees that appeared
+scarcely able to find roothold on the straight fall of rock,--one tree
+projecting just below the foundations of the inn, ten feet lower than
+the lowest window, a knotted wild cherry, storm-beaten and crooked,--and
+then, suddenly, something of uncertain shape, huddled together and
+falling from the balcony down the precipice,--a woman's figure, caught
+in the gnarled boughs of the cherry-tree, hanging and swinging over the
+abyss, while shriek on shriek echoed down to the swollen torrent and up
+to the turrets of the old inn in an agonized reverberation of horror.
+
+It was a fearful memory, and the thought of being brought into the
+company of the woman whose life I had seen so risked and so saved was
+strange and fascinating. Often and often I had wondered about her fate,
+speculating upon the question whether her fall was due to accident or to
+the intention of suicide, and I had tried to realize the terrible waking
+when she found herself saved from the destruction she sought by the man
+I had seen,--perhaps by the very man from whom she was endeavoring to
+escape. I was thrown off my balance by being so suddenly brought face to
+face with this woman's son, the tall, blue-eyed, awkward fine gentleman,
+Paul Patoff. I sat by the library fire and thought it all over, and I
+said to myself at last, "Paul Griggs, thou art an ass for thy pains, and
+an inquisitive idiot for thy curiosity." I, who am rarely out of conceit
+with myself, was disgusted at my lack of dignity at actually desiring to
+find out things that were in no way my business, nor ever concerned me.
+So I took a book and fell to reading. Far off in the house I could hear
+voices now and then, the voices of the family making the acquaintance of
+their new-found relation. The great fire blazed upon the broad hearth
+within, and the wintry sun shone brightly without, and there came
+gradually upon me the delight of comfort that reigns within a luxurious
+library when the frost is biting without, and there is no scent upon the
+frozen fields,--the comfort that lies in the contrasts we make for
+ourselves against nature; most of all, the peace that a wanderer on the
+face of the earth, as I am, can feel when he rests his weary limbs in
+some quiet home, half wishing he might at last be allowed to lay down
+the staff and scrip, and taste freely of the world's good things, yet
+knowing that before many days the devil of unrest will drive him forth
+again upon his road. So I sat in John Carvel's library, and read his
+books, and enjoyed his cushioned easy-chair with the swinging desk; and
+I envied John Carvel his home, and his quiet life, and his defenses
+against intrusion, saying that I also might be made happy by the
+trifling addition of twenty thousand pounds a year to my income.
+
+But I was not long permitted to enjoy the undisturbed possession of this
+temple of sweet dreams, reveling in my imagination at the idea of what I
+should do if I possessed such a place. The door of the library opened
+suddenly with the noise of many feet upon the polished floor.
+
+"And this is the library," said the voice of Hermione, who led the way,
+followed by her mother and aunt and Paul; John Carvel brought up the
+rear, quietly looking on while his daughter showed the new cousin the
+wonders of Carvel Place.
+
+"This is the library," she repeated, "and this is Mr. Griggs," she
+added, with a little laugh, as she discovered me in the deep easy-chair.
+"This is the celebrated Mr. Griggs. His name is Paul, like yours, but
+otherwise he is not in the least like you, I fancy. Everybody knows him,
+and he knows everybody."
+
+"We have met before," said Patoff, "not only this morning, but in the
+East. Mr. Griggs certainly seemed to know everybody there, from the Shah
+to the Greek consul. What a splendid room! It must have taken you years
+of thought to construct such a literary retreat, uncle John," he added,
+turning to the master of the house as he spoke.
+
+Indeed, Paul Patoff appeared much struck with everything he saw at
+Carvel Place. I left my chair and joined the party, who wandered through
+the rooms and into the great conservatory, and finally gravitated to the
+drawing-room. Patoff examined everything with an air of extreme
+interest, and seemed to understand intuitively the tastes of each member
+of the household. He praised John's pictures and Mrs. Carvel's
+engravings; he admired Chrysophrasia's stained-glass window, and her
+pots, and plates, and bits of drapery, he glanced reverently at Mrs.
+Carvel's religious books, and stopped now and then to smell the flowers
+Hermione loved. He noted the view upon the park from the south windows,
+and thought the disposal of the shrubbery near the house was a
+masterpiece of landscape gardening. As he proceeded, surrounded by his
+relations, remarking upon everything he saw, and giving upon all things
+opinions which marvelously flattered the individual tastes of each one
+of the family, it became evident that he was making a very favorable
+impression upon them.
+
+"It is delightful to show you things," said Hermione. "You are so
+appreciative."
+
+"It needs little skill to appreciate, where everything is so beautiful,"
+he answered. "Indeed," he continued, addressing himself to all present,
+"your home is the most charming I ever saw: I had no idea that the
+English understood luxury so well. You know that with us Continental
+people you have the reputation of being extravagant, even magnificent,
+in your ideas, but of being also ascetics in some measure,--loving to
+make yourselves strangely uncomfortable, fond of getting very hot, and
+of taking very cold baths, and of living on raw meat and cold potatoes
+and all manner of strange things. I do not see here any evidences of
+great asceticism."
+
+"How wonderfully he speaks English!" exclaimed Mrs. Carvel, aside, to
+her husband.
+
+"I should say," continued Paul, without noticing the flattering
+interruption, "that you are the most luxurious people in the world, that
+you have more taste than any people I have ever known, and that if I had
+had the least idea how charming my relations were, I should have come
+from our Russian wilds ten years ago to visit you and tell you how
+superior I think you are to ourselves."
+
+Paul laughed pleasantly as he made this speech, and there was a little
+murmur of applause.
+
+"We were very different, ten years ago," said John Carvel. "In the first
+place, there was no Hermione then, to do the honors and show you the
+sights. She was quite a little thing, ten years ago."
+
+"That would have made no difference in the place, though," said
+Hermione, simply.
+
+"On the contrary," said Paul. "I am inclined to think, on reflection,
+that I would have postponed my visit, after all, for the sake of having
+my cousin for a guide."
+
+"Ah, how gracefully these wild northern men can turn a phrase!"
+whispered Chrysophrasia in my ear,--"so strong and yet so tender!" She
+could not take her eyes from her nephew, and he appeared to understand
+that he had already made a conquest of the aesthetic old maid, for he
+took her admiration for granted, and addressed himself to Mrs. Carvel;
+not losing sight of Chrysophrasia, however, but looking pleasantly at
+her as he talked, though his words were meant for her sister.
+
+"It is the whole atmosphere of this life that is delightful, and every
+little thing seems so harmonious," he said. "You have here the solidity
+of traditional English country life, combined with the comforts of the
+most advanced civilization; and, to make it all perfection, you have at
+every turn the lingering romance of the glorious mediaeval life," with a
+glance at Miss Dabstreak, "that middle age which in beauty was the prime
+of age, from which began and spread all your most glorious ideas, your
+government, your warfare, your science. Did you never have an alchemist
+in your family, Uncle John? Surely he found for you the golden secret,
+and it is his touch which has beautified these old walls!"
+
+"I don't know," said John Carvel.
+
+"Indeed there was!" cried Chrysophrasia, in delight. "I have found out
+all about him. He was not exactly an alchemist; he was an astrologer,
+and there are the ruins of his tower in the park. There are some old
+books up-stairs, upon the Black Art, with his name in them, Johannes
+Carvellius, written in the most enchanting angular handwriting."
+
+"I believe there was somebody of that name," remarked John.
+
+"They are full of delicious incantations for raising the devil,--such
+exquisite ceremonies, with all the dress described that you must wear,
+and the phases of the moon, and hazel wands cut at midnight. Imagine how
+delightful!"
+
+"The tower in the park is a beautiful place," said Hermione. "I have it
+all filled with flowers in summer, and the gardener's boy once saw a
+ghost there on All Hallow E'en."
+
+"You must take me there," said Paul, smiling good-humoredly at the
+reference to the alchemist. "I have a passion for ruins, and I had no
+idea that you had any; nothing seems ruined here, and yet everything
+appears old. What a delightful place!" Paul sat far back in his
+comfortable chair, and inserted a single eyeglass in the angle between
+his heavy brow and his aquiline nose; his bony fingers were spotless,
+long, and white, and as he sat there he had the appearance of a
+personage receiving the respectful homage of a body of devoted
+attendants, the indescribable air of easy superiority and condescending
+good-nature which a Roman patrician might have assumed when visiting the
+country villa of one of his clients. Everybody seemed delighted to be
+noticed by him and flattered by his words.
+
+I am by nature cross-grained and crabbed, I presume. I admitted that
+Paul Patoff, though not graceful in his movements, was a fine-looking
+fellow, with an undeniable distinction of manner; he had a pleasant
+voice, an extraordinary command of English, though he was but half an
+Englishman, and a tact which he certainly owed to his foreign blood; he
+was irreproachable in appearance, in the simplicity of his dress, in the
+smoothness of his fair hair and well-trimmed mustache; he appeared
+thoroughly at home among his new-found relations, and anxious to please
+them all alike; he was modest and unassuming, for he did not speak of
+himself, and he gave no opinion saving such as should be pleasing to
+his audience. He had all this, and yet in the cold stare of his stony
+eyes, in the ungainly twist of his broad white hand, where the bones
+and sinews crossed and recrossed like a network of marble, in the
+decisive tone with which he uttered the most flattering remarks,
+there was something which betrayed a tyrannical and unyielding
+character,--something which struck me at first sight, and which
+suggested a nature by no means so gentle and amiable as he was willing
+it should appear.
+
+Nevertheless, I was the only one to notice these signs, to judge by the
+enthusiasm which Patoff produced at Carvel Place in those first hours of
+his stay. It is true that the professor was not present, although he had
+left me on the pretense of going to see Paul, and Macaulay Carvel was
+resting from his journey in his own rooms, in a remote part of the
+house; but I judged that the latter had already fallen under the spell
+of Patoff's manner, and that it would not be easy to find out what the
+man of science really thought about the Anglo-Russian. They probably
+knew each other of old, and whatever opinions they held of each other
+were fully formed.
+
+Paul sat in his easy-chair in the midst of the family, and smiled and
+surveyed everything through his single eyeglass, and if anything did not
+please him he did not say so. John had something to do, and went away,
+then Mrs. Carvel wanted to see her son alone, and she left us too; so
+that Chrysophrasia and Hermione and I remained to amuse Patoff. Hermione
+immediately began to do so after her own fashion. I think that of all of
+us she was the one least inclined to give him absolute supremacy at
+first, but he interested her, for she had seen little of the world, and
+nothing of such men as her cousin Paul, who was thirty years of age, and
+had been to most of the courts of the world in the course of twelve
+years in the diplomatic service. She was not inclined to admit that
+knowledge of the world was superiority of itself, nor that an easy
+manner and an irreproachable appearance constituted the ideal of a man;
+but she was barely twenty, and had seen little of those things. She
+recognized their importance, and desired to understand them; she felt
+that wonderful suspicion of possibilities which a young girl loves to
+dwell on in connection with every exceptional man she meets; she
+unconsciously said to herself that such a man as Patoff might possibly
+be her ideal, because there was nothing apparent to her at first sight
+which was in direct contradiction with the typical picture she had
+conceived of the typical man she hoped to meet.
+
+Every young girl has an ideal, I presume. If it be possible to reason
+about so unreasonable a thing as love, I should say that love at first
+sight is probably due to the sudden supposed realization in every
+respect of an ideal long cherished and carefully developed in the
+imagination. But in most cases a young girl sees one man after another,
+hopes in each one to find those qualities which she has elected to
+admire, and finally submits to be satisfied with far less than she had
+at first supposed could satisfy her. As for young men, they are mostly
+fools, and they talk of love with a vast deal of swagger and bravery,
+laughing it to scorn, as a landsman talks of seasickness, telling you it
+is nothing but an impression and a mere lack of courage, till one day
+the land-bred boaster puts to sea in a Channel steamer, and experiences
+a new sensation, and becomes a very sick man indeed before he is out of
+sight of Dover cliffs.
+
+But with Hermione there was certainly no realization of her ideal, but
+probably only the faint, unformulated hope that in her cousin Paul she
+might find some of those qualities which her own many-sided nature
+longed to find in man.
+
+"You must tell us all about Russia, cousin Paul," she said, when her
+father and mother were gone. "Aunt Chrysophrasia believes that you are
+the most extraordinary set of barbarians up there, and she adores
+barbarians, you know."
+
+"Of course we are rather barbarous."
+
+"Hermione! How can you say I ever said such a thing!" interposed Miss
+Dabstreak, with a deprecating glance at Paul. "I only said the Russians
+were such a young and manly race, so interesting, so unlike the
+inhabitants of this dreary den of printing-presses and steam-engines,
+so"----
+
+"Thanks, aunt Chrysophrasia," said Paul, "for the delightful ideal you
+have formed of us. We are certainly less civilized than you, and
+perhaps, as you are so good as to believe, we are the more interesting.
+I suppose the unbroken colt of the desert is more interesting than an
+American trotting horse, but for downright practical use"----
+
+"There is such a tremendous talk of usefulness!" ejaculated
+Chrysophrasia, a faint, sad smile flickering over her sallow features.
+
+"Usefulness is so remarkably useful," I remarked.
+
+"Oh, Mr. Griggs," exclaimed Hermione, "what an immensely witty speech!"
+
+"There is nothing so witty as truth, Miss Carvel, though you laugh at
+it," I answered, "for where there is no truth, there is no wit. I
+maintain that usefulness is really useful. Miss Dabstreak, I believe,
+maintains the contrary."
+
+"Indeed, I care more for beauty than for usefulness," replied the
+aesthetic lady, with a fine smile.
+
+"Beauty is indeed truly useful," said Paul, with a very faint imitation
+of Chrysophrasia's accent, "and it should be sought in everything. But
+that need not prevent us from seeing true beauty in all that is truly
+useful."
+
+I had a faint suspicion that if Patoff had mimicked Miss Dabstreak in
+the first half of his speech, he had imitated me in the second portion
+of the sentiment. I do not like to be made game of, because I am aware
+that I am naturally pedantic. It is an old trick of the schools to rouse
+a pedant to desperate and distracted self-contradiction by quietly
+imitating everything he says.
+
+"You are very clever at taking both sides of a question at once," said
+Hermione, with a smile.
+
+"Almost all questions have two sides," answered Paul, "but very often
+both sides are true. A man may perfectly appreciate and approve of the
+opinions of two persons who take diametrically opposite views of the
+same point, provided there be no question of right and wrong involved."
+
+"Perhaps," retorted Hermione; "but then the man who takes both sides has
+no opinion of his own. I do not like that."
+
+"In general, cousin Hermione," said Paul, with a polite smile, "you may
+be sure that any man will make your opinion his. In this case, I submit
+that both beauty and usefulness are good, and that they need not at all
+interfere with each other. As for the compliment my aunt Chrysophrasia
+has paid to us Russians, I do not think we can be said to have gone very
+far in either direction as yet." After which diplomatic speech Paul
+dropped his eyeglass, and looked pleasantly round upon all three of us,
+as much as to say that it was impossible to draw him into the position
+of disagreeing with any one present by any device whatsoever.
+
+
+
+
+IX.
+
+
+Professor Cutter and I walked to the village that afternoon. He is a
+great pedestrian, and is never satisfied unless he can walk four or five
+miles a day. His robust and somewhat heavy frame was planned rather for
+bodily labor than for the housing of so active a mind, and he often
+complains that the exercise of his body has robbed him of years of
+intellectual labor. He grumbles at the necessity of wasting time in that
+way, but he never omits his daily walk.
+
+"I should like to possess your temperament, Mr. Griggs," he remarked, as
+we walked briskly through the park. "You might renounce exercise and
+open air for the rest of your life, and never be the worse for it."
+
+"I hardly know," I answered. "I have never tried any regular method of
+life, and I have never been ill. I do not believe in regular methods."
+
+"That is the ideal constitution. By the by, I had hoped to induce Patoff
+to come with us, but he said he would stay with the ladies."
+
+"You will never induce him to do anything he does not want to do," I
+replied. "However, I dare say you know that as well as I do."
+
+"What makes you say that?"
+
+"I can see it,--it is plain enough. Carvel wanted him to go and shoot
+something after lunch, you wanted him to come for a walk, Macaulay
+wanted him to bury himself up-stairs and talk out the Egyptian question,
+I wanted to get him into the smoking-room to ask him questions about
+some friends of mine in the East, Miss Dabstreak had plans to waylay him
+with her pottery. Not a bit of it! He smiled at us all, and serenely
+sat by Mrs. Carvel, talking to her and Miss Hermione. He has a will of
+his own."
+
+"Indeed he has," assented the professor. "He is a moderately clever
+fellow, with a smooth tongue and a despotic character, a much better
+combination than a weak will and the mind of a genius. You are right, he
+is not to be turned by trifles."
+
+"I see that he must be a good diplomatist in these days."
+
+"Diplomacy has got past the stage of being intellectual," said the
+professor. "There was a time when a fine intellect was thought important
+in an ambassador; nowadays it is enough if his excellency can hold his
+tongue and show his teeth. The question is, whether the low estimate of
+intellect in our day is due to the exigency of modern affairs, or to the
+exiguity of modern intelligence."
+
+"Men are stronger in our time," I answered, "and consequently have less
+need to be clever. The transition from the joint government of the world
+by a herd of wily foxes to the domination of the universe by the mammoth
+ox is marked by the increase of clumsy strength and the disappearance of
+graceful deception."
+
+"That is true; but the graceful deception continues to be the more
+interesting, if not the more agreeable. As for me, I would rather be
+gracefully deceived, as you call it, than pounded to jelly by the hoofs
+of the mammoth,--unless I could be the mammoth myself."
+
+"To return to Patoff," said I, "what are they going to do with him?"
+
+"The question is much more likely to be what he will do with them, I
+should say," answered the scientist, looking straight before him, and
+increasing the speed of his walk. "I am not at all sure what he might
+do, if no one prevented him. He is capable of considerable originality
+if left to himself, and they follow him up there at the Place as the
+boys and girls followed the Pied Piper."
+
+"Is he at all like his mother?" I asked.
+
+"In point of originality?" inquired the professor, with a curious smile.
+"She was certainly a most original woman. I hardly know whether he is
+like her. Boys are said to resemble their mother in appearance and their
+father in character. He is certainly not of the same type of
+constitution as his mother, he has not even the same shape of head, and
+I am glad of it. But his father was a Slav, and what is madness in an
+Englishwoman is sanity in a Russian. Her most extraordinary aberrations
+might not seem at all extraordinary when set off by the natural violence
+he inherits from his father."
+
+"That is a novel idea to me," I remarked. "You mean that what is madness
+in one man is not necessarily insanity in another; besides, you refused
+to allow this morning that Madame Patoff was crazy."
+
+"I did not refuse to allow it; I only said I did not know it to be the
+case. But as for what I just said, take two types of mankind, a Chinese
+and an Englishman, for instance. If you met a fair-haired, blue-eyed,
+sanguine Englishman, whose head and features were shaped precisely like
+those of a Chinaman, you could predicate of him that he must be a very
+extraordinary creature, capable, perhaps, of becoming a driveling idiot.
+The same of a Chinese, if you met one with a brain shaped like that of
+an Englishman, and similar features, but with straight black hair, a
+yellow skin, and red eyes. He would have the brain of the Anglo-Saxon
+with the temperament of the Mongol, and would probably become a raving
+maniac. It is not the temperament only, nor the intellect only, which
+produces the idiot or the madman; it is the lack of balance between the
+two. Arrant cowards frequently have very warlike imaginations, and in
+their dreams conceive themselves doing extremely violent things. Suppose
+that with such an imagination you unite the temperament of an Arab
+fanatic, or the coarse, brutal courage of an English prize-fighter, you
+can put no bounds to the possible actions of the monster you create.
+The salvation of the human race lies in the fact that very strong and
+brave people commonly have a peaceable disposition, or else commit
+murder and get hanged for it. It is far better that they should be
+hanged, because nobody knows where violence ends and insanity begins,
+and it is just as well to be on the safe side. Whenever a given form of
+intellect happens to be joined to a totally inappropriate temperament,
+we say it is a case of idiocy or insanity. Of course there are many
+other cases which arise from the mind or the body being injured by
+extraneous causes; but they are not genuine cases of insanity, because
+the evil has not been transmitted from the parents, nor will it be to
+the children."
+
+The professor marched forward as he gave his lecture on unsoundness of
+brain, and I strode by his side, silent and listening. What he said
+seemed very natural, and yet I had never heard it before. Was Madame
+Patoff such a monster as he described? It was more likely that her son
+might be, seeing that he in some points answered precisely to the
+description of a man with the intellect of one race and the temperament
+of another; and yet any one would scoff at the idea that Paul Patoff
+could go mad. He was so correct, so staid, so absolutely master of what
+he said, and probably of what he felt, that one could not imagine him a
+pray to insanity.
+
+"What you say is very interesting," I remarked, at last, "but how does
+it apply to Madame Patoff?"
+
+"It does not apply to her," returned Professor Cutter. "She belongs to
+the class of people in whom the mind has been injured by extraneous
+circumstances."
+
+"I suppose it is possible. I suppose a perfectly sound mind may be
+completely destroyed by an accident, even by the moral shock from a
+sorrow or disappointment."
+
+"Yes," said the professor. "It is even possible to produce artificial
+insanity,--perfectly genuine while it lasts; but it is not possible for
+any one to pretend to be insane."
+
+"Really? I should have thought it quite possible," said I.
+
+"No. It is impossible. I was once called to give my opinion in such a
+case. The man betrayed himself in half an hour, and yet he was a very
+clever fellow. He was a servant; murdered his master to rob him; was
+caught, but succeeded in restoring the valuables to their places, and
+pretended to be crazy. It was very well managed and he played the fool
+splendidly, but I caught him."
+
+"How?" I asked.
+
+"Simply by bullying. I treated him roughly, and never stopped talking to
+him,--just the worst treatment for a person really insane. In less than
+an hour I had wearied him out, his feigned madness became so fatiguing
+to him that there was finally only a spasmodic attempt, and when I had
+done with him the sane man was perfectly apparent. He grew too much
+frightened and too tired to act a part. He was hanged, to the
+satisfaction of all concerned, and he made a complete confession."
+
+"But how about the artificial insanity you spoke of? How can it be
+produced?"
+
+"By any poison, from coffee to alcohol, from tobacco to belladonna. A
+man who is drunk is insane."
+
+"I wonder whether, if a madman got drunk, he would be sane?" I said.
+
+"Sometimes. A man who has delirium tremens can be brought to his right
+mind for a time by alcohol, unless he is too far gone. The habitual
+drunkard is not in his right mind until he has had a certain amount of
+liquor. All habitual poisons act in that way, even tea. How often do you
+hear a woman or a student say, 'I do not feel like myself to-day,--I
+have not had my tea'! When a man does not feel like himself, he means
+that he feels like some one else, and he is mildly crazy. Generally
+speaking, any sudden change in our habits of eating and drinking will
+produce a temporary unsoundness of the mind. Every one knows that
+thirst sometimes brings on a dangerous madness, and hunger produces
+hallucinations and visions which take a very real character."
+
+"I know,--I have seen that. In the East it is thought that insanity can
+be caused by mesmerism, or something like it."
+
+"It is not impossible," answered the scientist. "We do not deny that
+some very extraordinary circumstances can be induced by sympathy and
+antipathy."
+
+"I suppose you do not believe in actual mesmerism, do you?"
+
+"I neither affirm nor deny,--I wait; and until I have been convinced I
+do not consider my opinion worth giving."
+
+"That is the only rational position for a man of science. I fancy that
+nothing but experience satisfies you,--why should it?"
+
+"The trouble is that experiments, according to the old maxim, are
+generally made, and should be made, upon worthless bodies, and that they
+are necessarily very far from being conclusive in regard to the human
+body. There is no doubt that dogs are subject to grief, joy, hope, and
+disappointment; but it is not possible to conclude from the conduct of a
+dog who is deprived of a particularly interesting bone he is gnawing,
+for instance, how a man will act who is robbed of his possessions.
+Similarity of misfortune does not imply analogy in the consequences."
+
+"Certainly not. Otherwise everybody would act in the same way, if put in
+the same case."
+
+The professor's conversation was interesting if only on account of the
+extreme simplicity with which he spoke of such a complicated subject. I
+was impressed with the belief that he belonged to a class of scientists
+whose interest in what they hope to learn surpasses their enthusiasm for
+what they have already learned,--a class of scientists unfortunately
+very rare in our day. For we talk more nonsense about science than
+would fill many volumes, because we devote so much time to the pursuit
+of knowledge; nevertheless, the amount of knowledge actually acquired,
+beyond all possibility of contradiction, is ludicrously small as
+compared with the energy expended in the pursuit of it and the noise
+made over its attainment. Science lays many eggs, but few are hatched.
+Science boasts much, but accomplishes little; is vainglorious, puffed
+up, and uncharitable; desires to be considered as the root of all
+civilization and the seed of all good, whereas it is the heart that
+civilizes, never the head.
+
+I walked by the professor's side in deep thought, and he, too, became
+silent, so that we talked little more until we were coming home and had
+almost reached the house.
+
+"Why has Patoff never been in England before?" I asked, suddenly.
+
+"I believe he has," answered Cutter.
+
+"He says he has not."
+
+"Never mind. I believe he was in London during nearly eighteen months,
+about four or five years ago, as secretary in the Russian embassy. He
+never went near his relations."
+
+"Why should he say now that he never was in the country?"
+
+"Because they would not like it, if they knew he had been so near them
+without ever visiting them."
+
+"Was his mother with him? Did she never write to her people?"
+
+"No," said Cutter, with a short laugh, "she never wrote to them."
+
+"How very odd!" I exclaimed, as we entered the hall-door.
+
+"It was odd," answered my companion, and went up-stairs. There was
+something very unsatisfactory about him, I thought; and then I cursed my
+own curiosity. What business was it all of mine? If Paul Patoff chose to
+tell a diplomatic falsehood, it certainly did not concern me. It was
+possible that his mother might have quarreled with her family,--indeed,
+in former years I had sometimes thought as much from their never
+mentioning her; and in that case it would be natural that her son might
+not have cared to visit his relations when he was in England before. He
+need not have made such a show of never having visited the country, but
+people often do that sort of thing. And now it was probable that since
+Madame Patoff had been insane there might have been a reconciliation and
+a smoothing over of the family difficulties. I had no idea where Madame
+Patoff might be. I could not ask any one such a delicate question, for I
+supposed she was confined in an asylum, and no one volunteered the
+information. Probably Cutter's visit to Carvel Place was connected with
+her sad state; perhaps Patoff's coming might be the result of it, also.
+It was impossible to say. But of this I was certain: that John Carvel
+and his wife had both grown older and sadder in the past two years, and
+that there was an air of concealment about the house which made me very
+uncomfortable. I have been connected with more than one odd story in my
+time, and I confess that I no longer care for excitement as I once did.
+If people are going to get into trouble, I would rather not be there to
+see it, and I have a strong dislike to being suddenly called upon to
+play an unexpected part in sensational events. Above all, I hate
+mystery; I hate the mournful air of superior sorrow that hangs about
+people who have a disagreeable secret, and the constant depression of
+long-protracted anxiety in those about me. It spoiled my pleasure in the
+quiet country life to see John's face grow every day more grave and Mary
+Carvel's eyes turn sadder. Pain of any sort is unpleasant to witness,
+but there is nothing so depressing as to watch the progress of
+melancholy in one's friends; to feel that from some cause which they
+will not confide they are losing peace and health and happiness. Even if
+one knew the cause one might not be able to do anything to remove it,
+for it is no bodily ill, that can be doctored and studied and
+experimented upon, a subject for dissertation and barbarous,
+semi-classic nomenclature; quacks do not pretend to cure it with patent
+medicines, and great physicians do not write nebulous articles about it
+in the reviews. There is little room for speculation in the matter of
+grief, for most people know well enough what it is, and need no Latin
+words with Greek terminations to express it. It is the breaking of the
+sea of life over the harbor bar where science ends and humanity begins.
+
+Poor John! It needed something strong indeed to sadden his cheerfulness
+and leaden his energy. That evening I talked with Hermione in the
+drawing room. She looked more lovely than ever dressed all in white,
+with a single row of pearls around her throat. Her delicate features
+were pale and luminous, and her brown eyes brighter than usual,--a mere
+girl, scarcely yet gone into the world, but such a woman! It was no
+wonder that Paul glanced from time to time in admiration at his cousin.
+
+We were seated in Chrysophrasia's corner, Hermione and I. There was
+nothing odd in that; the young girl likes me and enjoys talking to me,
+and I am no longer young. You know, dear friend, that I am forty-six
+years old this summer, and it is a long time since any one thought of
+flirting with me. I am not dangerous,--nature has taken care of
+that,--and I am thought very safe company for the young.
+
+"Tell me one of your stories, Mr. Griggs. I am so tired this evening,"
+said Hermione.
+
+"I do not know what to tell you," I answered. "I was hoping that you
+would tell me one of yours, all about the fairies and the elves in the
+park, as you used to when you were a little girl."
+
+"I do not believe in fairies any more," said Hermione, with a little
+sigh. "I believed in them once,--it was so nice. I want stories of real
+life now,--sad ones, that end happily."
+
+"A great many happy stories end sadly," I replied, "but few sad ones
+end happily. Why do you want a sad story? You ought to be gay."
+
+"Ought I? I am not, I am sure. I cannot take everything with a laugh, as
+some people can; and I cannot be always resigned and religious, as mamma
+is."
+
+"The pleasantest people are the ones who are always good, but not always
+alike," I remarked. "It is variety that makes life charming, and
+goodness that makes it worth living."
+
+Hermione laughed a little.
+
+"That sounds very good,--a little goody, as we used to say when we were
+small. I wonder whether it is true. I suppose I have not enough variety,
+or not enough goodness, just at present."
+
+"Why?" I asked. "I should think you had both."
+
+"I do not see the great variety," she answered.
+
+"Have you not found a new relation to-day? An interesting cousin who has
+seen the whole world ought to go far towards making a variety in life."
+
+"What should you think of a man, Mr. Griggs, whose brother has not been
+dead eighteen months, and whose mother is dangerously ill, perhaps
+dying, and who shows no more feeling than a stone?"
+
+The question came sharply and distinctly; Hermione's short lip curled in
+scorn, and the words were spoken through her closed teeth. Of course she
+was speaking of Paul Patoff. She turned to me for an answer, and there
+was an angry light in her eyes.
+
+"Is your cousin's mother very ill?" I asked.
+
+"She is not really dying, but she can never get well. Oh, Mr. Griggs,"
+she cried, clasping her hands together on her knees, and leaning back in
+her seat, "I wish I could tell you all about it! I am sure you might do
+some good, but they would be very angry if I told you. I wonder whether
+he is really so hard-hearted as he looks!"
+
+"Oh, no," I answered. "Men who have lived so much in the world learn to
+conceal their feelings."
+
+"It is not thought good manners to have any feeling, is it?"
+
+"Most people try to hide what they feel. What is good of showing every
+one that you are hurt, when nobody can do anything to help you? It is
+undignified to make an exhibition of sorrow for the benefit of one's
+neighbors."
+
+"Perhaps. But I almost think aunt Chrysophrasia is right: the world was
+a nicer place, and life was more interesting, when everybody showed what
+they felt, and fought for what they wanted, and ran away with people
+they loved, and killed people they hated."
+
+"I think you would get very tired of it," I said, laughing. "It is
+uncomfortable to live in constant danger of one's life. You used not to
+talk so, Miss Carvel; what has happened to you?"
+
+"Oh, I do not know; everything is happening that ought not. I should
+think you might see that we are all very anxious. But I do not half
+understand it myself. Will you not tell me a story, and help me to
+forget all about it? Here comes papa with Professor Cutter, looking
+graver than ever; they have been to see--I mean they have been talking
+about it again."
+
+"Once upon a time there was a"---- I stopped. John Carvel came straight
+across the room to where we were sitting.
+
+"Griggs," he said, in a low voice, "will you come with me for a moment?"
+I sprang to my feet. John laid his hand upon my arm; he was very pale.
+"Don't look as though anything were the matter," he added.
+
+Accordingly I sauntered across the room, and made a show of stopping a
+moment before the fire to warm my hands and listen to the general
+conversation that was going on there. Presently I walked away, and John
+followed me. As I passed, I looked at the professor, who seemed already
+absorbed in listening to one of Chrysophrasia's speeches. He did not
+return my glance, and I left the room with my friend. A moment later we
+were in his study. A student's lamp with a green shade burned steadily
+upon the table, and there was a bright fire on the hearth. A huge
+writing-table filled the centre of the room, covered with papers and
+pamphlets. John did not sit down, but stood leaning back against a heavy
+bookcase, with one hand behind him.
+
+"Griggs," he said, and his voice trembled with excitement, "I am going
+to ask you a favor, and in order to ask it I am obliged to take you into
+my confidence."
+
+"I am ready," said I. "You can trust me."
+
+"Since you were here last, very painful things have occurred. In
+consequence of the death of her eldest son, and of certain circumstances
+attending it which I need not, cannot, detail, my wife's sister, Madame
+Patoff, became insane about eighteen months ago. Professor Cutter
+chanced to be with her at the time, and informed me at once. Her
+husband, as you know, died twenty years ago, and Paul was away, so that
+Cutter was so good as to take care of her. He said her only chance of
+recovery lay in being removed to her native country and carefully
+nursed. Thank God, I am rich. I received her here, and she has been here
+ever since. Do not look surprised. For the sake of all I have taken
+every precaution to keep her absolutely removed from us, though we visit
+her from time to time. Cutter told me that dreadful story of her trying
+to kill herself in Suabia. He has just informed me that it was you who
+saved both her life and his with your rope,--not knowing either of them.
+I need not tell you my gratitude."
+
+John paused, and grasped my hand; his own was cold and moist.
+
+"It was nothing," I said. "I did not even incur any danger; it was
+Cutter who risked his life."
+
+"No matter," continued Carvel. "It was you who saved them both. From
+that time she has recognized no one. Cutter brought her here, and the
+north wing of the house was fitted up for her. He has come from time to
+time to see her, and she has proper attendants. You never see them nor
+her, for she has a walled garden,--the one against which the hot-houses
+and the tennis-court are built. Of course the servants know,--everybody
+in the house knows all about it; but this is a huge old place, and there
+is plenty of room. It is not thought safe to take her out, and there
+appears to be something so peculiar about her insanity that Cutter
+discourages the idea of the ordinary treatment of placing the patient in
+the company of other insane, giving them all manner of amusement, and so
+on. He seems to think that if she is left alone, and is well cared for,
+seeing only, from time to time, the faces of persons she has known
+before, she may recover."
+
+"I trust so, indeed," I said earnestly.
+
+"We all pray that she may, poor thing!" rejoined Carvel, very sadly.
+
+"Now listen. Her son. Paul Patoff, arrived this morning, and insisted
+upon seeing her this afternoon. Cutter said it could do no harm, as she
+probably would not recognize him. To our astonishment and delight she
+knew him at once for her son, though she treated him with a coldness
+almost amounting to horror. She stepped back from him, and folded her
+arms, only saying, over and over again, 'Paul, why did you come
+here,--why did you come?' We could get nothing more from her than that,
+and at the end of ten minutes we left her. She seemed very much
+exhausted, excited, too, and the nurse who was with her advised us to
+go."
+
+"It is a great step, however, that she should have recognized any one,
+especially her own son," I remarked.
+
+"So Cutter holds. She never takes the least notice of him. But he has
+suggested to me that while she is still in this humor it would be worth
+while trying whether she has any recollection of you. He says that
+anything which recalls so violent a shock as the one she experienced
+when you saved her life may possibly recall a connected train of
+thought, even though it be a very painful reminiscence; and anything
+which helps memory helps recovery. He considers hers the most
+extraordinary case he has ever seen, and he must have seen a great many;
+he says that there is almost always some delusion, some fixed idea, in
+insanity. Madame Patoff seems to have none, but she has absolutely no
+recognition for any one, nor any memory for events beyond a few minutes.
+She can hardly be induced to speak at all, but will sit quite still for
+hours with any book that is given her, turning over the pages
+mechanically. She has a curious fancy for big books, and will always
+select the thickest from a number of volumes; but whether or not she
+retains any impression of what she reads, or whether, in fact, she
+really reads at all, it is quite impossible to say. She will sometimes
+answer 'yes' or 'no' to a question, but she will give opposite answers
+to the same question in five minutes. She will stare stolidly at any one
+who talks to her consecutively; or will simply turn away, and close her
+eyes as though she were going to sleep. In other respects she is in
+normal health. She eats little, but regularly, and sleeps soundly; goes
+out into her garden at certain hours, and seems to enjoy fine weather,
+and to be annoyed when it rains. She is not easily startled by a sudden
+noise, or the abrupt appearance of those of us who go to see her. Cutter
+does not know what to make of it. She was once a very beautiful woman,
+and is still as handsome as a woman can be at fifty. Cutter says that if
+she had softening of the brain she would behave very differently, and
+that if she had become feeble-minded the decay of her faculties would
+show in her face; but there is nothing of that observable in her. She
+has as much dignity and beauty as ever, and, excepting when she stares
+blankly at those who talk to her, her face is intelligent, though very
+sad."
+
+"Poor lady!" I said. "How old did you say she is?"
+
+"She must be fifty-two, in her fifty-third year. Her hair is gray, but
+it is not white."
+
+"Had she any children besides Paul and his brother?"
+
+"No. I know very little of her family life. It was a love match; but old
+Patoff was rich. I never heard that they quarreled. Alexander entered
+the army, and remained in a guard regiment in St. Petersburg, while Paul
+went into the diplomacy. Madame Patoff must have spent much of her time
+with Alexander until he died, and Cutter says he was always the favorite
+son. I dare say that Paul has a bad temper, and he may have been
+extravagant. At all events, she loved Alexander devotedly, and it was
+his death that first affected her mind."
+
+John had grown more calm during this long conversation. To tell the
+truth, I did not precisely understand why he should have looked so pale
+and seemed so anxious, seeing that the news of Madame Patoff was
+decidedly of an encouraging nature. I myself was too much astonished at
+learning that the insane lady was actually an inmate of the house, and I
+was too much interested at the prospect of seeing her so soon, to think
+much of John and his anxiety; but on looking back I remember that his
+mournful manner produced a certain impression upon me at the moment.
+
+The story was strange enough. I began to comprehend what Hermione had
+meant when she spoke of Paul's cold nature. An hour before dinner the
+man had seen his mother for the first time in eighteen months,--it might
+be more, for all I knew,--for the first time since she had been out of
+her mind. I had learned from John that she had recognized him, indeed,
+but had coldly repulsed him when he came before her. If Paul Patoff had
+been a warm-hearted man, he could not have been at that very moment
+making conversation for his cousins in the drawing-room, laughing and
+chatting, his eyeglass in his eye, his bony fingers toying with the
+flower Chrysophrasia had given him. It struck me that neither Mrs.
+Carvel nor her sister could have known of the interview, or they would
+have manifested some feeling, or at least would not have behaved just as
+they always did. I asked John if they knew.
+
+"No," he answered. "He told my daughter because he broke off his
+conversation with her to go and see his mother, but Hermy never tells
+anything except to me."
+
+"When would you like me to go?" I asked.
+
+"Now, if you will. I will call Cutter. He thinks that, as she last saw
+you with him, your coming together now will be more likely to recall
+some memory of the accident. Besides, it is better to go this evening,
+before she has slept, as the return of memory this afternoon may have
+been very transitory, and anything which might stimulate it again should
+be tried before the mood changes. Will you go now?"
+
+"Certainly," I replied, and John Carvel left the room to call the
+professor.
+
+While I was waiting alone in the study, I happened to take up a pamphlet
+that lay upon the table. It was something about the relations of England
+with Russia. An idea crossed my mind.
+
+"I wonder," I said to myself, "whether they have ever tried speaking to
+her in Russian. Cutter does not know a word of the language; I suppose
+nobody else here does, either, except Paul, and she seems to have spoken
+to him in English."
+
+The door opened, and John entered with the professor. I laid down the
+pamphlet, and prepared to accompany them.
+
+"I suppose Carvel has told you all that I could not tell you, Mr.
+Griggs," said the learned man, eying me through his glasses with an air
+of inquiry, and slowly rubbing his enormous hands together.
+
+"Yes," I said. "I understand that we are about to make an experiment in
+order to ascertain if this unfortunate lady will recognize me."
+
+"Precisely. It is not impossible that she may know you, though, if she
+saw you at all, it was only for a moment. You have a very striking face
+and figure, and you have not changed in the least. Besides, the moment
+was that in which she experienced an awful shock. Such things are
+sometimes photographed on the mind."
+
+"Has she never recognized you in any way?" I asked.
+
+"Never since that day at Weissenstein. There is just a faint possibility
+that when she sees us together she may recall that catastrophe. I think
+Carvel had better stay behind."
+
+"Very well," said John, "I will leave you at the door."
+
+Carvel led the way to the great hall, and then turned through a passage
+I had never entered. The narrow corridor was brightly lighted by a
+number of lamps; at the end of it we came to a massive door. John took a
+little key from a niche in the wall, and inserted it in the small metal
+plate of the patent lock.
+
+"Cutter will lead you now," he said, as he pushed the heavy mahogany
+back upon its hinges. Beyond it the passage continued, still brilliantly
+illuminated, to a dark curtain which closed the other end. It was very
+warm. Carvel closed the door behind us, and the professor and I
+proceeded alone.
+
+
+
+
+X.
+
+
+The professor pushed aside the heavy curtain, and we entered a small
+room, simply furnished with a couple of tables, a bookcase, one or two
+easy-chairs, and a divan. The walls were dark, and the color of the
+curtains and carpet was a dark green, but two large lamps illuminated
+every corner of the apartment. At one of the tables a middle-aged woman
+sat reading; as we entered she looked up at us, and I saw that she was
+one of the nurses in charge of Madame Patoff. She wore a simple gown of
+dark material, and upon her head a dainty cap of French appearance was
+pinned, with a certain show of taste. The nurse had a kindly face and
+quiet eyes, accustomed, one would think, to look calmly upon sights
+which would astonish ordinary people. Her features were strongly marked,
+but gentle in expression and somewhat pale, and as she sat facing us,
+her large white hands were folded together on the foot of the open page,
+with an air of resolution that seemed appropriate to her character. She
+rose deliberately to her feet, as we came forward, and I saw that she
+was short, though when seated I should have guessed her to be tall.
+
+"Mrs. North," said the professor, "this is my friend Mr. Griggs, who
+formerly knew Madame Patoff. I have hopes that she may recognize him.
+Can we see her now?"
+
+"If you will wait one moment," answered Mrs. North, "I will see whether
+you may go in." Her voice was like herself, calm and gentle, but with a
+ring of strength and determination in it that was very attractive. She
+moved to the door opposite to the one by which we had entered, and
+opened it cautiously; after looking in, she turned and beckoned to us
+to advance. We went in, and she softly closed the door behind us.
+
+I shall never forget the impression made upon me when I saw Madame
+Patoff. She was tall, and, though she was much over fifty years of age,
+her figure was erect and commanding, slight, but of good proportion;
+whether by nature, or owing to her mental disease, it seemed as though
+she had escaped the effects of time, and had she concealed her hair with
+a veil she might easily have passed for a woman still young. Mary Carvel
+had been beautiful, and was beautiful still in a matronly, old-fashioned
+way; Hermione was beautiful after another and a smaller manner, slender
+and delicate and lovely; but Madame Patoff belonged to a very different
+category. She was on a grander scale, and in her dark eyes there was
+room for deeper feeling than in the gentle looks of her sister and
+niece. One could understand how in her youth she had braved the
+opposition of father and mother and sisters, and had married the
+brilliant Russian, and had followed him to the ends of the earth during
+ten years, through peace and through war, till he died. One could
+understand how some great trouble and despair, which would send a
+duller, gentler soul to prayers and sad meditations, might have driven
+this grand, passionate creature to the very defiance of all despair and
+trouble, into the abyss of a self-sought death. I shuddered when I
+remembered that I had seen this very woman suspended in mid-air, her
+life depending on the slender strength of a wild cherry tree upon the
+cliff side. I had seen her, and yet had not seen her; for the sudden
+impression of that terrible moment bore little or no relation to the
+calmer view of the present time.
+
+Madame Patoff stood before us, dressed in a close-fitting gown of black
+velvet, closed at the throat with a clasp of pearls; her thick hair,
+just turning gray, was coiled in masses low behind her head, drawn back
+in long broad waves on each side, in the manner of the Greeks. Her
+features, slightly aquiline and strongly defined, wore an expression of
+haughty indifference, not at all like the stolid stare which John Carvel
+had described to me, and though her dark eyes gazed upon us without
+apparent recognition, their look was not without intelligence. She had
+been walking up and down in the long drawing-room where we found her,
+and she had paused in her walk as we entered, standing beneath a
+chandelier which carried five lamps; there were others upon the wall,
+high up on brackets and beyond her reach. There was no fireplace, but
+the air was very warm, heated, I suppose, by some concealed apparatus.
+The furniture consisted of deep chairs, lounges and divans of every
+description; three or four bookcases were filled with books, and there
+were many volumes piled in a disorderly fashion upon the different
+tables, and some lay upon the floor beside a cushioned lounge, which
+looked as though it were the favorite resting-place of the inmate of the
+apartment. At first sight it seemed to me that few precautions were
+observed; the nurse was seated in an outer apartment, and Madame Patoff
+was quite alone and free. But the room where she was left was so
+constructed that she could do herself no harm. There was no fire; the
+lamps were all out of reach; the windows were locked, and she could only
+go out by passing through the antechamber where the nurse was watching.
+There was a singular lack of all those little objects which encumbered
+the drawing-room of Carvel Place; there was not a bit of porcelain or
+glass, nor a paper-knife, nor any kind of metal object. There were a few
+pictures upon the walls, and the walls themselves were hung with a light
+gray material, that looked like silk and brilliantly reflected the
+strong light, making an extraordinary background for Madame Patoff's
+figure, clad as she was in black velvet and white lace.
+
+We stood before her, Cutter and I, for several seconds, watching for
+some change of expression in her face. He had hoped that my sudden
+appearance would arouse a memory in her disordered mind. I understood
+his anxiety, but it appeared to me very unlikely that when she failed to
+recognize him she should remember me. For some moments she gazed upon
+me, and then a slight flush rose to her pale cheeks, her fixed stare
+wavered, and her eyes fell. I could hear Cutter's long-drawn breath of
+excitement. She clasped her hands together and turned away, resuming her
+walk. It was strange,--perhaps she really remembered.
+
+"He saved your life in Weissenstein," said Cutter, in loud, clear tones.
+"You ought to thank him for it,--you never did."
+
+The unhappy woman paused in her walk, stood still, then came swiftly
+towards us, and again paused. Her face had changed completely in its
+expression. Her teeth were closely set together, and her lip curled in
+scorn, while a dark flush overspread her pale face, and her hands
+twisted each other convulsively.
+
+"Do you remember Weissenstein?" asked the professor, in the same
+incisive voice, and through his round glasses he fixed his commanding
+glance upon her. But as he looked her eyes grew dull, and the blush
+subsided from her cheek. With a low, short laugh she turned away.
+
+I started. I had forgotten the laugh behind the latticed wall, and if I
+had found time to reflect I should have known, from what John Carvel had
+told me, that it could have come from no one but the mad lady, who had
+been walking in the garden with her nurse, on that bright evening. It
+was the same low, rippling sound, silvery and clear, and it came so
+suddenly that I was startled. I thought that the professor sighed as he
+heard it. It was, perhaps, a strong evidence of insanity. In all my life
+of wandering and various experience I have chanced to be thrown into the
+society of but one insane person besides Madame Patoff. That was a
+curious case: a hardy old sea-captain, who chanced to make a fortune
+upon the New York stock exchange, and went stark mad a few weeks later.
+His madness seemed to come from elation at his success, and it was very
+curious to watch its progress, and very sad. He was a strong man, and in
+all his active life had never touched liquor nor tobacco. Nothing but
+wealth could have driven him out of his mind; but within two months of
+his acquiring a fortune he was confined in an asylum, and within the
+year he died of softening of the brain. I only mention this to show you
+that I had had no experience of insanity worth speaking of before I met
+Madame Patoff. I knew next to nothing of the signs of the disease.
+
+Madame Patoff turned away, and crossed the room; then she sank down upon
+the lounge which I have described as surrounded with books, and, taking
+a volume in her hand, she began to read, with the utmost unconcern.
+
+"Come," said the professor, "we may as well go."
+
+"Wait a minute," I suggested. "Stay where you are." Cutter looked at me,
+and shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"You can't do any harm," he replied, indifferently. "I think she has a
+faint remembrance of you."
+
+You know I can speak the Russian language fairly well, for I have lived
+some time in the country. It had struck me, while I was waiting in the
+study, that it would be worth while to try the effect of a remark in a
+tongue with which Madame Patoff had been familiar for over thirty years.
+I went quietly up to the couch where she was lying, and spoke to her.
+
+"I am sorry I saved your life, since you wished to die," I said, in a
+low voice, in Russian. "Forgive me."
+
+Madame Patoff started violently, and her white hands closed upon her
+book with such force that the strong binding bent and cracked. Cutter
+could not have seen this, for I was between him and her. She looked up
+at me, and fixed her dark eyes on mine. There was a great sadness in
+them, and at the same time a certain terror, but she did not speak.
+However, as I had made an impression, I addressed her again in the same
+language.
+
+"Do you remember seeing Paul to-day?" I asked.
+
+"Paul?" she repeated, in a soft, sad voice, that seemed to stir the
+heart into sympathy. "Paul is dead."
+
+I thought it might have been her husband's name as well as her son's.
+
+"I mean your son. He was with you to-day; you were unkind to him."
+
+"Was I?" she asked. "I have no son." Still her eyes gazed into mine as
+though searching for something, and as I looked I thought the tears rose
+in them and trembled, but they did not overflow. I was profoundly
+surprised. They had told me that she had no memory for any one, and yet
+she seemed to have told me that her husband was dead,--if indeed his
+name had been Paul,--and although she said she had no son, her tears
+rose at the mention of him. Probably for the very reason that I had not
+then had any experience of insane persons, the impression formed itself
+in my mind that this poor lady was not mad, after all. It seemed madness
+on my own part to doubt the evidence before me,--the evidence of
+attendants trained to the duty of watching lunatics, the assurances of a
+man who had grown famous by studying diseases of the brain as Professor
+Cutter had, the unanimous opinion of Madame Patoff's family. How could
+they all be mistaken? Besides, she might have been really mad, and she
+might be now recovering; this might be one of her first lucid moments. I
+hardly knew how to continue, but I was so much interested by her first
+answers that I felt I must say something.
+
+"Why do you say you have no son! He is here in the house; you have seen
+him to-day. Your son is Paul Patoff. He loves you, and has come to see
+you."
+
+Again the low, silvery laugh came rippling from her lips. She let the
+book fall from her hands upon her lap, and leaned far back upon the
+couch.
+
+"Why do you torment me so?" she asked. "I tell you I have no son." Again
+she laughed,--less sweetly than before. "Why do you torment me?"
+
+"I do not want to torment you. I will leave you. Shall I come again?"
+
+"Again?" she repeated, vacantly, as though not understanding. But as I
+stood beside her I moved a little, and I thought her eyes rested on the
+figure of the professor, standing at the other end of the room, and her
+face expressed dislike of him, while her answer to me was a meaningless
+repetition of my own word.
+
+"Yes," I said. "Shall I come again? Do you like to talk Russian?" This
+time she said nothing, but her eyes remained fixed upon the professor.
+"I am going," I added. "Good-by."
+
+She looked up suddenly. I bowed to her, out of habit, I suppose. Do
+people generally bow to insane persons? To my surprise, she put out her
+hand and took mine, and shook it, in the most natural way imaginable;
+but she did not answer me. Just as I was turning from her she spoke
+again.
+
+"Who are you?" she asked in English.
+
+"My name is Griggs," I replied, and lingered to see if she would say
+more. But she laughed again,--very little this time,--and she took up
+the book she had dropped and began to read.
+
+Cutter smiled, too, as we left the room. I glanced back at the graceful
+figure of the gray-haired woman, extended upon her couch. She did not
+look up, and a moment later Cutter and I stood again in the antechamber.
+The professor slowly rubbed his hands together,--his gigantic hands,
+modeled by nature for dealing with big things. Mrs. North rose from her
+reading.
+
+"I have an idea that our patient has recognized this gentleman," said
+the scientist. "This has been a remarkably eventful day. She is probably
+very tired, and if you could induce her to go to bed it would be a very
+good thing, Mrs. North. Good-evening."
+
+"Good-evening," I said. Mrs. North made a slight inclination with her
+head, in answer to our salutation. I pushed aside the heavy curtain,
+and we went out. Cutter had a pass-key to the heavy door in the passage,
+and opened it and closed it noiselessly behind us. I felt as though I
+had been in a dream, as we emerged into the dimly lighted great hall,
+where a huge fire burned in the old-fashioned fireplace, and Fang, the
+white deerhound, lay asleep upon the thick rug.
+
+"And now, Mr. Griggs," said the professor, stopping short and thrusting
+his hands into his pockets, "will you tell me what she said to you, and
+whether she gave any signs of intelligence?" He faced me very sharply,
+as though to disconcert me by the suddenness of his question. It was a
+habit he had.
+
+"She said very little," I replied. "She said that 'Paul' was dead. Was
+that her husband's name as well as her son's?"
+
+"Yes. What else?"
+
+"She told me she had no son; and when I reminded her that she had seen
+him that very afternoon, she laughed and answered, 'I tell you I have no
+son,--why do you torment me?' She said all that in Russian. As I was
+going away you heard her ask me who I was, in English. My name appeared
+to amuse her."
+
+"Yes," assented Cutter, with a smile. "Was that all?"
+
+"That was all she said," I answered, with perfect truth. Somehow I did
+not care to tell the professor of the look I thought I had seen in her
+face when her eyes rested on him. In the first place, as he was doing
+his best to cure her, it seemed useless to tell him that I thought she
+disliked him. It might have been only my imagination. Besides, that
+nameless, undefined suspicion had crossed my brain that Madame Patoff
+was not really mad; and though her apparently meaningless words might
+have been interpreted to mean something in connection with her
+expression of face in speaking, it was all too vague to be worth
+detailing. I had determined that I would see her again and see her
+alone, before long. I might then make some discovery, or satisfy myself
+that she was really insane.
+
+"Well," observed the professor, "it looks as though she remembered her
+husband's death, at all events; and if she remembers that, she has the
+memory of her own identity, which is something in such cases. I think
+she faintly recognized you. That flush that came into her face was there
+when she saw her son this afternoon, so far as I can gather from
+Carvel's description. I wish they had waited for me. This remark about
+her son is very curious, too. It is more like a monomania than anything
+we have had yet. It is like a fixed idea in character; she certainly is
+not sane enough to have meant it ironically,--to have meant that Paul
+Patoff is not a son to her while thinking only of the other one who is
+dead. Did she speak Russian fluently? She has not spoken it for more
+than eighteen months,--perhaps longer."
+
+"She speaks it perfectly," I replied.
+
+"What strange tricks this brain of ours will play us!" exclaimed the
+professor. "Here is a woman who has forgotten every circumstance of her
+former life, has forgotten her friends and relations, and is puzzling us
+all with her extraordinary lack of memory, and who, nevertheless,
+remembers fluently the forms and expressions of one of the most
+complicated languages in the world. At the same time we do not think
+that she remembers what she reads. I wish we could find out. She acts
+like a person who has had an injury to some part of the head which has
+not affected the rest. But then, she never received any injury, to my
+knowledge."
+
+"Not even when she fell at Weissenstein?"
+
+"Not the least. I made a careful examination."
+
+"I do not see that we are likely to arrive at a conclusion by any amount
+of guessing," I remarked. "Nothing but time and experiments will show
+what is the matter with her."
+
+"I have not the time, and I cannot invent the experiments," replied the
+professor, impatiently. "I have a great mind to advise Carvel to put her
+into an asylum, and have done with all this sort of thing."
+
+"He will never consent to do that," I answered. "He evidently believes
+that she is recovering. I could see it in his face this evening. What do
+the nurses think of it?"
+
+"Mrs. North never says anything very encouraging, excepting that she has
+taken care of many insane women before, and remembers no case like this.
+She is a famous nurse, too. Those people, from their constant daily
+experience, sometimes understand things that we specialists do not. But
+on the other hand, she is so taciturn and cautious that she can hardly
+be induced to speak at all. The other woman is younger and more
+enthusiastic, but she has not half so much sense."
+
+I was silent. I was thinking that, according to all accounts, I had been
+more successful than any one hitherto, and that a possible clue to
+Madame Patoff's condition might be obtained by encouraging her to speak
+in her adopted language. Perhaps something of the sort crossed the
+professor's mind.
+
+"Should you like to see her again?" he inquired. "It will be interesting
+to know whether this return of memory is wholly transitory. She
+recognized her son to-day, and I think she had some recognition of you.
+You might both see her again to-morrow, and discover if the same
+symptoms present themselves."
+
+"I should be glad to go again," I replied. "But if I can be of any
+service, it seems to me that I ought to be informed of the circumstances
+which led to her insanity. I might have a better chance of rousing her
+attention."
+
+"Carvel will never consent to that," said the professor, shortly, and he
+looked away from me as I spoke.
+
+I was about to ask whether Cutter himself was acquainted with the whole
+story, when Fang, the dog, who had taken no notice whatever of our
+presence in the hall, suddenly sprang to his feet and trotted across the
+floor, wagging his tail. He had recognized the tread of his mistress,
+and a moment later Hermione entered and came towards us. Hermione did
+not like the professor very much, and the professor knew it; for he was
+a man of quick and intuitive perceptions, who had a marvelous
+understanding of the sympathies and antipathies of those with whom he
+was thrown. He sniffed the air rather discontentedly as the young girl
+approached, and he looked at his watch.
+
+"Fang has good ears, Miss Carvel," said he. "He knew your step before
+you came in."
+
+"Yes," answered Hermione, seating herself in one of the deep chairs by
+the fireside, and caressing the dog's head as he laid his long muzzle
+upon her knee. "Poor Fang, you know your friends, don't you? Mr. Griggs,
+this new collar is always unfastening itself. I believe you have
+bewitched it! See, here it is falling off again."
+
+I bent down to examine the lock. The professor was not interested in the
+dog nor his collar, and, muttering something about speaking to Carvel
+before he went to bed, he left us.
+
+"I could not stay in there," said Hermione. "Aunt Chrysophrasia is
+talking to cousin Paul in her usual way, and Macaulay has got into a
+corner with mamma, so that I was left alone. Where have you been all
+this time?"
+
+"I have heard what you could not tell me," I answered. "I have been to
+see Madame Patoff with the professor."
+
+"Not really? Oh, I am so glad! Now I can always talk to you about it.
+Did papa tell you? Why did he want you to go?"
+
+I briefly explained the circumstances of my seeing Madame Patoff in the
+Black Forest, and the hope that was entertained of her recognizing me.
+
+"Do you ever go in to see her, Miss Carvel?" I asked.
+
+"Sometimes. They do not like me to go," said she; "they think it is too
+depressing for me. I cannot tell why. Poor dear aunt! she used to be
+glad to see me. Is not it dreadfully sad? Can you imagine a man who has
+just seen his mother in such a condition, behaving as Paul Patoff
+behaves this evening? He talks as if nothing had happened."
+
+"No, I cannot imagine it. I suppose he does not want to make everybody
+feel badly about it."
+
+"Mr. Griggs, is she really mad?" asked Hermione, in a low voice, leaning
+forward and clasping her hands.
+
+"Why," I began, very much surprised, "does anybody doubt that she is
+insane?"
+
+"I do," said the young girl, decidedly. "I do not believe she is any
+more insane than you and I are."
+
+"That is a very bold thing to say," I objected, "when a man of Professor
+Cutter's reputation in those things says that she is crazy, and gives up
+so much time to visiting her."
+
+"All the same," said Hermione, "I do not believe it. I am sure people
+sometimes try to kill themselves without being insane, and that is all
+it rests on."
+
+"But she has never recognized any one since that," I urged.
+
+"Perhaps she is ashamed," suggested my companion, simply.
+
+I was struck by the reply. It was such a simple idea that it seemed
+almost foolish. But it was a woman's thought about another woman, and it
+had its value. I laughed a little, but I answered seriously enough.
+
+"Why should she be ashamed?"
+
+"It seems to me," said the young girl, "that if I had done something
+very foolish and wicked, like trying to kill myself, and if people took
+it for granted that I was crazy, I would let them believe it, because I
+should be too much ashamed of myself to allow that I had consciously
+done anything so bad. Perhaps that is very silly; do you think so?"
+
+"I do not think it is silly," I replied. "It is a very original idea."
+
+"Well, I will tell you something. Soon after she was first brought here
+I used to go and see her more often than I do now. She interested me so
+much. I was often alone with her. She never answered any questions, but
+she would sometimes let me read aloud to her. I do not know whether she
+understood anything I read, but it soothed her, and occasionally she
+would go to sleep while I was reading. One day I was sitting quite
+quietly beside her, and she looked at me very sadly, as though she were
+thinking of somebody she had loved,--I cannot tell why; and without
+thinking I looked at her, and said, 'Dear aunt Annie, tell me, you are
+not really mad, are you?' Then she turned very pale and began to cry, so
+that I was frightened, and called the nurse, and went away. I never told
+anybody, because it seemed so foolish of me, and I thought I had been
+unkind, and had hurt her feelings. But after that she did not seem to
+want to see me when I came, and so I have thought a great deal about it.
+Do you see? Perhaps there is not much connection."
+
+"I think you ought to have told some one; your father, for instance," I
+said. "It is very interesting."
+
+"I have told you, though it is so long since it happened," she answered;
+and then she added, quickly, "Shall you tell Professor Cutter?"
+
+"No," I replied, after a moment's hesitation. "I do not think I shall.
+Should you like me to tell him?"
+
+"Oh, no," she exclaimed quickly, "I should much rather you would not."
+
+"Why?" I inquired. "I agree with you, but I should like to know your
+reason."
+
+"I think Professor Cutter knows more already than he will tell you or
+me"---- She checked herself, and then continued in a lower voice: "It is
+prejudice, of course, but I do not like him. I positively cannot bear
+the sight of him."
+
+"I fancy he knows that you do not like him," I remarked.
+
+"Tell me, Miss Carvel, do you know anything of the reason why Madame
+Patoff became insane? If you do know, you must not tell me what it was,
+because your father does not wish me to hear it. But I should like to be
+sure whether you know all about it or not; whether you and I judge her
+from the same point of view, or whether you are better instructed than I
+am."
+
+"I know nothing about it," said Hermione, quietly.
+
+She sat gazing into the great fire, one small hand supporting her chin,
+and the other resting upon the sharp white head of Fang, who never moved
+from her knee. There was a pause, during which we were both wondering
+what strange circumstance could have brought the unhappy woman to her
+present condition, whether it were that of real or of assumed insanity.
+
+"I do not know," she repeated, at last. "I wish I did; but I suppose it
+was something too dreadful to be told. There are such dreadful things in
+the world, you know."
+
+"Yes, I know there are," I answered, gravely; and in truth I was
+persuaded that the prime cause must have been extraordinary indeed,
+since even John Carvel had said that he could not tell me.
+
+"There are such dreadful things," Hermione said again. "Just think how
+horrible it would be if"---- She stopped short, and blushed crimson in
+the ruddy firelight.
+
+"What?" I asked. But she did not answer, and I saw that the idea had
+pained her, whatever it might be. Presently she turned the phrase so as
+to make it appear natural enough.
+
+"What a horrible thing it would be if we found that poor aunt Annie only
+let us believe she was mad, because she had done something she was sorry
+for, and would not own it!"
+
+"Dreadful indeed," I replied. Hermione rose from her deep chair.
+
+"Good-night, Mr. Griggs," she said. "I hope we may all understand
+everything some day."
+
+"Good-night, Miss Carvel."
+
+"How careful you are of the formalities!" she said, laughing. "How two
+years change everything! It used to be 'Good-night, Hermy,' so short a
+time ago!"
+
+"Good-night, Hermy," I said, laughing too, as she took my hand. "If you
+are old enough to be called Miss Carvel, I am old enough to call you
+Hermy still."
+
+"Oh, I did not mean that," she said, and went away.
+
+I sat a few minutes by the fire after she had gone, and then, fearing
+lest I should be disturbed by the professor or John Carvel, I too left
+the hall, and went to my own room, to think over the events of the day.
+I had learned so much that I was confused, and needed rest and leisure
+to reflect. That morning I had waked with a sensation of unsatisfied
+curiosity. All I had wanted to discover had been told me before
+bed-time, and more also; and now I was unpleasantly aware that this very
+curiosity was redoubled, and that, having been promoted from knowing
+nothing to knowing something, I felt I had only begun to guess how much
+there was to be known.
+
+Oh, this interest in other people's business! How grand and beautiful
+and simple a thing it is to mind one's own affairs, and leave other
+people to mind what concerns them! And yet I defy the most indifferent
+man alive to let himself be put in my position, and not to feel
+curiosity; to be taken into a half confidence of the most intense
+interest, and not to desire exceedingly to be trusted with the
+remainder; to be asked to consider and give an opinion upon certain
+effects, and to be deliberately informed that he may never know the
+causes which led to the results he sees.
+
+On mature reflection, what had struck me as most remarkable in
+connection with the whole matter was Hermione's simple, almost childlike
+guess,--that Madame Patoff was ashamed of something, and was willing to
+be considered insane, rather than let it be thought she was in
+possession of her faculties at the time when she did the deed, whatever
+it might be. That this was a conceivable hypothesis there was no manner
+of doubt, only I could hardly imagine what action, apart from the poor
+woman's attempt at suicide, could have been so serious as to persuade
+her to act insanity for the rest of her life. Surely John Carvel, with
+his great, kind heart, would not be unforgiving. But John Carvel might
+not have been concerned in the matter at all. He spoke of knowing the
+details and being unable to tell them to me, but he never said they
+concerned any one but Madame Patoff.
+
+Strange that Hermione should not know, either. Whatever the details
+were, they were not fit for her young ears. It was strange, too, that
+she should have conceived an antipathy for the professor. He was a man
+who was generally popular, or who at least had the faculty of making
+himself acceptable when he chose; but it was perfectly evident that the
+scientist and the young girl disliked each other. There was more in it
+than appeared upon the surface. Innocent young girls do not suddenly
+contract violent prejudices against elderly and inoffensive men who do
+not weary them or annoy them in some way; still less do men of large
+intellect and experience take unreasoning and foolish dislikes to young
+and beautiful maidens. We know little of the hidden sympathies and
+antipathies of the human heart, but we know enough to say with certainty
+that in broad cases the average human being will not, without cause, act
+wholly in contradiction to the dictates of reason and the probabilities
+of human nature.
+
+I lay awake long that night, and for many nights afterwards, trying to
+explain to myself these problems, and planning ways and means for
+discovering whether or not the beautiful old lady down-stairs was in her
+right mind, or was playing a shameful and wicked trick upon the man who
+sheltered her. But though other events followed each other with
+rapidity, it was long before I got at the truth and settled the
+question. Whether or not I was right in wishing to pursue the secret to
+its ultimate source and explanation, I leave you to judge. I will only
+say that, although I was at first impelled by what seems now a wretched
+and worthless curiosity, I found, as time went on, that there was such a
+multiplicity of interests at stake, that the complications were so
+singular and unexpected and the passions aroused so masterful and
+desperate, that, being in the fight, I had no choice but to fight it to
+the end. So I did my very best in helping those to whom I owed
+allegiance by all the laws of hospitality and gratitude, and in
+concentrating my whole strength and intelligence and activity in the
+discovery of an evil which I suspected from the first to be very great,
+but of which I was far from realizing the magnitude and extent.
+
+You will forgive my thus speaking of myself, and this apology for my
+doings at this stage of my story; but I am aware that my motives
+hitherto may have appeared contemptible, and I am anxious to have you
+understand that when I found myself suddenly placed in what I regard as
+one of the most extraordinary situations of my life, I honestly put my
+hand out, and strove to become an agent for good in that strange series
+of events into which my poor curiosity had originally brought me. And
+having thus explained and expressed myself in concluding what I may
+regard as the first part of my story, I promise that I will not trouble
+you again, dear lady, with any unnecessary asseverations of my good
+faith, nor with any useless defense of my actions; conceiving that
+although I am responsible to you for the telling of this tale, I am
+answerable to many for the part I played in the circumstances here
+related; and that, on the other hand, though no one can find much fault
+with me for my doings, none but you will have occasion to criticise my
+mode of telling them.
+
+Henceforth, therefore, and to the end, I will speak of events which
+happened from an historical point of view, frequently detailing
+conversations in which I took no part and scenes of which I had not at
+the time any knowledge, and only introducing myself in the first person
+when the nature of the story requires it.
+
+
+
+
+XI.
+
+
+One might perhaps define the difference between Professor Cutter and
+Paul Patoff by saying that the Russian endeavored to make a favorable
+impression upon people about him, and then to lead them on by means of
+the impression he had created, whereas the scientist enjoyed feeling
+that he had a hidden power over his surroundings, while he allowed
+people to think that he was only blunt and outspoken. Essentially, there
+was between the two men the difference that exists between a diplomatist
+and a conspirator. Patoff loved to appear brilliant, to talk well, to be
+liked by everybody, and to accomplish everything by persuasion; he
+seemed to enjoy the world and his position in it, and it was part of his
+plan of life to acknowledge his little vanities, and to make others feel
+that they need only take a sufficient pride in themselves to become as
+shining lights in the social world as Paul Patoff. At a small cost to
+himself, he favored the general opinion in regard to his eccentricity,
+because the reputation of it gave him a certain amount of freedom he
+would not otherwise have enjoyed. He undertook many obligations, in his
+constant readiness to be agreeable to all men, and perhaps, if he had
+not reserved to himself the liberty of some occasional repose, he would
+have found the burden of his responsibilities intolerable. It was his
+maxim that one should never appear to refuse anything to any one, and it
+is no easy matter to do that, especially when it is necessary never to
+neglect an opportunity of gaining an advantage for one's self. For the
+whole aim of Patoff's policy at that time was selfish. He believed that
+he possessed the secret of power in his own indomitable will, and he
+cultivated the science of persuasion, until he acquired an infinite art
+in adapting the means to the end. Every kind of knowledge served him,
+and though his mind was perhaps not really profound, it was far from
+being superficial, and the surface of it which he presented when he
+chose was vast. It was impossible to speak of any question of history,
+science, ethics, or aesthetics of which Patoff was ignorant, and his
+information on most points was more than sufficient to help him in
+artfully indorsing the opinions of those about him. He was full of tact.
+It was impossible to make him disagree with any one, and yet he was so
+skillful in his conversation that he was generally thought to have a
+very sound judgment. His system was substantially one of harmless
+flattery, and he never departed from it. He reckoned on the unfathomable
+vanity of man, and he rarely was out in his reckoning; he counted upon
+woman's admiration of dominating characters, and was not disappointed,
+for women respected him, and were proportionately delighted when he
+asked their opinion.
+
+In this, as in all other things, the professor was the precise opposite
+of the diplomatist. Cutter affected an air of sublime simplicity, and
+cultivated a straightforward bluntness of expression which was not
+without weight. He prided himself on saying at once that he either had
+an opinion upon a subject, or had none; and if he chanced to have formed
+any judgment he was hot in its support. His intellect was really
+profound within the limits he had chosen for his activity, and his
+experience of mankind was varied and singular. He was a man who cared
+little for detail, except when details tended to elucidate the whole,
+for his first impressions were accurate and large. With his strong and
+sanguine nature he exhibited a rough frankness appropriate to his
+character. He was strong-handed, strong-minded, and strong-tongued; a
+man who loved to rule others, and who made no secret of it; impatient of
+contradiction when he stated his views, but sure never to assume a
+position in argument or in affairs which he did not believe himself
+able to maintain against all comers.
+
+But with this appearance of hearty honesty the scientist possessed the
+remarkable quality of discretion, not often found in sanguine
+temperaments. He loved to understand the secrets of men's lives, and to
+feel that if need be he could govern people by main force and wholly
+against their will. He could conceal anything, any knowledge he
+possessed, any strong passion he felt, with amazing skill. At the very
+time when he seemed to be most frankly speaking his mind, when he made
+his honest strength appear as open as the day, as though scorning all
+concealment and courting inquiry into his motives, he was capable of
+completely hiding his real intentions, of professing ignorance in
+matters in which he was profoundly versed, of appearing to be as cold as
+stone when his heart was as hot as fire. He was a man of violent
+passions in love and hate, unforgetting and unforgiving, who never
+relented in the pursuit of an object, nor weighed the cruelty of the
+means in comparison with the importance of the end. He had by nature a
+temperament fitted for conspiracy and planned to disarm suspicion. He
+was incomparably superior to Paul Patoff in powers of mind and in the
+art of concealment, he was equal to him in the unchanging determination
+of his will, but he was by far inferior to him in those external gifts
+which charm the world and command social success.
+
+These two remarkable men had met before they found themselves together
+under John Carvel's roof, but they did not appear to have been intimate.
+It was, indeed, very difficult to imagine what their relations could
+have been, for they occasionally seemed to understand each other
+perfectly upon matters not understood by the rest of us, whereas they
+sometimes betrayed a surprising ignorance in regard to each other's
+affairs.
+
+From the time when the professor arrived it was apparent that Hermione
+did not like him; and that Cutter was aware of the fact. It had not
+needed the young girl's own assurance to inform me of the antipathy she
+felt for the man of science. He had seen her before, but Hermione had
+suddenly grown into a young lady since his last visit, and the
+consequence was that she was thrown far more often into the society of
+the man she disliked than had been the case when she was still in the
+schoolroom. John Carvel never liked governesses, and as soon as
+practicable the last one had been discharged, so that Hermione was left
+to the society of her mother and aunt and of such visitors as chanced to
+be staying in the house. She was fond of her brother, but had seen
+little of him, and stood rather in awe of his superior genius; for
+Macaulay was a young man who possessed in a very high degree what we
+call the advantages of modern education. She loved him and looked up to
+him, but did not understand him in the least, because people who have a
+great deal of heart do not easily comprehend the nature of people who
+have little; and Macaulay Carvel's manner of talking about men, and even
+nations, as though they were mere wooden pawns, or sets of pawns,
+puzzled his sister's simpler views of humanity. Her mother did not
+always interest her, either; she was devotedly attached to her, but Mrs.
+Carvel, as she grew older, became more and more absolved in the strange
+sort of inner religious life which she had created for herself as a kind
+of stronghold in the midst of her surroundings, and when alone with her
+daughter was apt to talk too much upon serious subjects. To a young and
+beautiful girl, who felt herself entering the vestibule of the world in
+the glow of a wondrous dawn, the somewhat mournful contemplation of the
+spiritual future could not possibly have the charm such meditation
+possessed for a woman in middle age, who had passed through the halls of
+the palace of life without seeing many of its beauties, and who already,
+in the dim distance, caught sight of the shadowy gate whereby we must
+all descend from this world's sumptuous dwelling, to tread the silent
+labyrinths of the unknown future.
+
+Such society as Mrs. Carvel's was not good for Hermione. It is not good
+for any girl. It is before all things important that youth should be
+young, lest it should not know how to be old when age comes upon it. Nor
+is there anything that should be further removed from youth than the
+contemplation of death, which to old age is but a haven of rest to be
+desired, whereas to those who are still young it is an abyss to be
+abhorred. It is well to say, "_Memento, homo, quia pulvis es_," but not
+to say it too often, lest the dust of individual human existence make
+cobwebs in the existence of humanity.
+
+As for her aunt Chrysophrasia, Hermione liked to talk to her, because
+Miss Dabstreak was amusing, with her everlasting paradoxes upon
+everything; and because, not being by nature of an evil heart, and
+desiring to be eccentric beyond her fellows, she was not altogether
+averse to the mild martyrdom of being thought ridiculous by those who
+held contrary opinions. Nevertheless, her aunt's company did not satisfy
+all Hermione's want of society, and the advent of strangers, even of
+myself, was hailed by her with delight. The fact of her conceiving a
+particular antipathy for the professor was therefore all the more
+remarkable, because she rarely shunned the society of any one with whom
+she had an opportunity of exchanging ideas. But Cutter did not like to
+be disliked, and he sought an occasion of making her change her mind in
+regard to him. A few days after my visit to Madame Patoff, the professor
+found his chance. Macaulay Carvel, Paul Patoff, and I left the house
+early to ride to a distant meet, for Patoff had expressed his desire to
+follow the hounds, and, as usual, everybody was anxious to oblige him.
+
+After breakfast the professor watched until he saw Hermione enter the
+conservatory, where she usually spent a part of the morning alone among
+the flowers; sometimes making an elaborate inspection of the plants she
+loved best, sometimes sitting for an hour or two with a book in some
+remote corner, among the giant tropical leaves and the bright-colored
+blossoms. She loved not only the flowers, but the warmth of the place,
+in the bitter winter weather.
+
+Cutter entered with a supremely unconscious air, as though he believed
+there was no one in the conservatory. There was nothing professorial
+about his appearance, except his great spectacles, through which he
+gazed benignly at the luxuriant growth of plants, as he advanced, his
+hands in the pockets of his plaid shooting-coat. He was dressed as any
+other man might be in the country; he had selected an unostentatious
+plaid for the material of his clothes, and he wore a colored tie, which
+just showed beneath the wave of his thick beard. He trod slowly but
+firmly, putting his feet down as though prepared to prove his right to
+the ground he trod on.
+
+"Oh! Are you here, Miss Carvel?" he exclaimed, as he caught sight of
+Hermione installed in a cane chair behind some plants. She was not much
+pleased at being disturbed, but she looked up with a slight smile,
+willing to be civil.
+
+"Since you ask me, I am," she replied.
+
+"Whereas if I had not asked you, you would have affected not to be here,
+you mean? How odd it is that just when one sees a person one should
+always ask them if one sees them or not! In this case, I suppose the
+pleasure of seeing you was so great that I doubted the evidence of my
+senses. Is that the way to turn a speech?"
+
+"It is a way of turning one, certainly," answered Hermione. "There may
+be other ways. I have not much experience of people who turn speeches."
+
+"I have had great experience of them," said the professor, "and I
+confess to you that I consider the practice of turning everything into
+compliment as a disagreeable and tiresome humbug."
+
+"I was just thinking the same thing," said Hermione.
+
+"Then we shall agree."
+
+"Provided you practice what you preach, we shall."
+
+"Did you ever know me to preach what I did not practice?" asked Cutter,
+with a smile of honest amusement.
+
+"I have not known much of you, either in preaching or in practicing, as
+yet. We shall see."
+
+"Shall I begin now?"
+
+"If you like," answered the young girl.
+
+"Which shall it be, preaching or practicing?"
+
+"I should say that, as you have me entirely at your mercy, the
+opportunity is favorable for preaching."
+
+"I would not make such an unfair use of my advantage," said the
+professor. "I detest preaching. In practice I never preach"----
+
+"You are making too much conversation out of those two words,"
+interrupted Hermione. "If I let you go on, you will be making puns upon
+them."
+
+"You do not like puns?"
+
+"I think nothing is more contemptible."
+
+"Merely because that way of being funny is grown old-fashioned," said
+Cutter. "Fifty or sixty years ago, a hundred years ago, when a man
+wanted to be very bitingly sarcastic, he would compose a criticism upon
+his enemy which was only a long string of abominable puns; each pun was
+printed in italics. That was thought to be very funny."
+
+"You would not imitate that sort of fun, would you?" asked Hermione.
+
+"No. You would think it no joke if I did," answered Cutter, gravely.
+
+"I am not going to laugh," said Hermione. But she laughed, nevertheless.
+
+"Pray do not laugh if you do not want to," said Cutter. "I am used to
+being thought dull. Your gravity would not wound me though I were chief
+clown to the whole universe, and yours were the only grave face in the
+world. By the by, you are laughing, I see. I am much obliged for the
+appreciation. Shall I go on being funny?"
+
+"Not if you can help it," said Hermione.
+
+"Do you insinuate that I am naturally an object for laughter?" asked
+Cutter, smiling. "Do you mean that 'I am not only witty in myself, but
+the cause that wit is in other men'? If so, I may yet make you spend a
+pleasant hour in despite of yourself, without any great effort on my own
+part. I will sit here, and you shall laugh at me. The morning will pass
+very agreeably."
+
+"I should think you might find something better to do," returned
+Hermione. "But they say that small things amuse great minds."
+
+"If I had a great mind, do you think I should look upon it as a small
+thing to be laughed at by you, Miss Carvel?" inquired Cutter, quietly.
+
+"You offer yourself so readily to be my laughing-stock that I am forced
+to consider what you offer a small thing," returned his companion.
+
+"You are exceedingly sarcastic. In that case, I have not a great mind,
+as you supposed."
+
+"You are fishing for a compliment, I presume."
+
+"Perhaps. I wish you would pay me compliments--in earnest. I am vain. I
+like to be appreciated. You do not like me,--I should like to be liked
+by you."
+
+"You are talking nonsense, Professor Cutter," said the young girl,
+raising her eyebrows a little. "If I did not like you, it would be
+uncivil of you to say you had found it out, unless I treated you
+rudely."
+
+"It may be nonsense, Miss Carvel. I speak according to my lights."
+
+"Then I should say that for a luminary of science your light is very
+limited," returned Hermione.
+
+"In future I will hide my light under a bushel, since it displeases
+you."
+
+"Something smaller than a bushel would serve the purpose. But it does
+not please me that you should be in the dark; I would rather you had
+more light."
+
+"You have only to look at me," said the scientist, with a laugh.
+
+"I thought you professed not to make silly compliments. My mother tells
+me that the true light should come from within," added Hermione, with a
+little scorn.
+
+"Religious enthusiasts, who make those phrases, spend their lives in
+studying themselves," retorted Cutter. "They think they see light where
+they most wish to find it. I spend my time in studying other people."
+
+"I should think you would find it vastly more interesting."
+
+"I do; especially when you are one of the people I am permitted to
+study."
+
+"If you think I will permit it long, you are mistaken," said Hermione,
+who was beginning to lose her temper, without precisely knowing why. She
+took up her book and a piece of embroidery she had brought with her, as
+though she would go.
+
+"You cannot help my making a study of you," returned the professor,
+calmly. "If you leave me now, I regard it as an interesting feature in
+your case."
+
+"I will afford you that much interest, at all events," answered
+Hermione, rising to her feet. She was annoyed, and the blood rose to her
+delicate cheeks, while her downcast lashes hid the anger in her eyes.
+But she did not know the man, if she thought he would let himself be
+treated so lightly. She knew neither him nor his weapons.
+
+"Miss Carvel, permit me to ask your forgiveness," he said. "I am so fond
+of hearing myself talk that my tongue runs away with me."
+
+"Why do you tease me so?" asked Hermione, suddenly raising her eyes and
+facing Cutter. But before he could answer her she laid down her work and
+her book, and walked slowly away from him. She reached the opposite side
+of the broad conservatory, and turned back.
+
+Cutter's whole manner had changed the moment he saw that she was
+seriously annoyed. He knew well enough that he had said nothing for
+which the girl could be legitimately angry, but he understood her
+antipathy to him too well not to know that it could easily be excited at
+any moment to an open expression of dislike. On the present occasion,
+however, he had resolved to fathom, if possible, the secret cause of the
+feeling the beautiful Hermione entertained against him.
+
+"Miss Carvel," he said, very gently, as she advanced again towards him,
+"I like to talk to you, of all people, but you do not like me,--forgive
+my saying it, for I am in earnest,--and I lose my temper because I
+cannot find out why."
+
+Hermione stood still for a moment, and looked straight into the
+professor's eyes; she saw that they met hers with such an honest
+expression of regret that her heart was touched. She stooped and picked
+a flower, and held it in her hand some seconds before she answered.
+
+"It was I who was wrong," she said, presently. "Let us be friends. It is
+not that I do not like you,--really I believe it is not that. It is
+that, somehow, you do manage to--to tease me, I suppose." She blushed.
+"I am sure you do not mean it. It is very foolish of me, I know."
+
+"If you could only tell me exactly where my fault lies," said Cutter,
+earnestly, "I am sure I would never commit it again. You do not
+seriously believe that I ever intend to annoy you?"
+
+"N--no," hesitated Hermione. "No, you do not intend to annoy me, and yet
+I think it amuses you sometimes to see that I am angry about nothing."
+
+"It does not amuse me," said Cutter. "My tongue gets the better of me,
+and then I am very sorry afterwards. Let us be friends, as you say. We
+have more serious things to think of than quarreling in our
+conversation. Say you forgive me, as freely as I say that it has been my
+fault."
+
+There was something so natural and humble in the way the man spoke that
+Hermione had no choice but to put out her hand and agree to the truce.
+Professor Cutter was as old as her father, though he looked ten years
+younger, or more; he had a world-wide reputation in more than one branch
+of science; he was altogether what is called a celebrated man; and he
+stood before her asking to "make friends," as simply as a schoolboy.
+Hermione had no choice.
+
+"Of course," she answered, and then added with a smile, "only you must
+really not tease me any more."
+
+"I won't," said Cutter, emphatically.
+
+They sat down again, side by side, and were silent for some moments. It
+seemed to Hermione as though she had made an important compact, and she
+did not feel altogether certain of the result. She could have laughed at
+the idea that her making up her differences with the professor was of
+any real importance in her life, but nevertheless she felt that it was
+so, and she was inclined to think over what she had done. Her hands lay
+folded upon her lap, and she idly gazed at them, and thought how small
+and white they looked upon the dark blue serge. Cutter spoke first.
+
+"I suppose," he began, "that when we are not concerned with our own
+immediate affairs, we are all of us thinking of the same thing. Indeed,
+though we live very much as though nothing were the matter, we are
+constantly aware that one subject occupies us all alike."
+
+To tell the truth, Hermione was not at that moment thinking of poor
+Madame Patoff. She raised her eyes with an inquiring glance.
+
+"I am very much preoccupied," continued the professor. "I have not the
+least idea whether we have done wisely in allowing Paul to see his
+mother."
+
+"If she knew him, I imagine it was a good thing," answered Hermione.
+"How long is it since they met?"
+
+"Eighteen months, or more. They met last in very painful circumstances,
+I believe. You see the impression was strong enough to outlive her
+insanity. She was not glad to see him."
+
+"Why will they not tell me what drove her mad?" asked Hermione.
+
+"It is not a very nice story," answered the professor. "It is probably
+on account of Paul." There was a short pause.
+
+"Do you mean that she went mad on account of something Paul did?" asked
+Hermione presently.
+
+"I am not sure I can tell you that. I wish you could know the whole
+story, but your father would never consent to it, I am sure."
+
+"If it is not nice, I do not wish to hear it," said Hermione, quietly.
+"I only wanted to know about Paul. You gave me the impression that it
+was in some way his fault."
+
+"In some way it was," replied Cutter. "Poor lady,--I am not sure we
+should have let her see him."
+
+"Does she suffer much, do you think?"
+
+"No. If she suffered much, she would fall ill and probably die. I do not
+think she has any consciousness of her situation. I have known people
+like that who were mad only three or four days in the week. She never
+has a lucid moment. I am beginning to think it is hopeless, and we might
+as well advise your father to have her taken to a private asylum. The
+experiment would be interesting."
+
+"Why?" asked Hermione. "She gives nobody any trouble here. It would be
+unkind. She is not violent, nor anything of that sort. We should all
+feel dreadfully if anything happened to her in the asylum. Besides, I
+thought it was a great thing that she should have known Paul yesterday."
+
+"Not so great as one might fancy. I think that if there were much chance
+of her recovery, the recognition of her son ought to have brought back a
+long train of memories, amounting almost to a lucid interval."
+
+"I understood that you had spoken more hopefully last night," said
+Hermione, doubtfully. "You seem discouraged to-day."
+
+"With most people it is necessary to appear hopeful at any price,"
+answered Cutter. "I feel that with you I am perfectly safe in saying
+precisely what I think. You will not misinterpret what I say, nor repeat
+it to every other member of the household."
+
+"No, indeed. I am glad you tell me the truth, but I had hoped it was not
+as bad as you say."
+
+"Your aunt is very mad indeed, Miss Carvel," said the professor.
+
+I may observe, in passing, that what the professor said to me differed
+very materially from what he said to Hermione, a circumstance we did not
+discover until a later date. For Hermione, having given her promise not
+to repeat what Cutter told her about her aunt, kept it faithfully, and
+did not even assume an air of superiority when speaking about the case
+to others. She believed exactly what the professor said, namely, that he
+trusted her, and no one else, with his true views of the matter; and
+that, to all others, he assumed an air of hopefulness very far removed
+from his actual state of mind.
+
+Singularly,--or naturally, as you look at it,--the result of the
+conversation between Hermione and the professor was the complete
+disappearance, for some time, of all their differences. Cutter ceased to
+annoy her with his sharp answers to all she said, and she showed a
+growing interest in him and in his conversation. They were frequently
+seen talking together, apparently taking pleasure in each other's
+society, a fact which I alone noticed as interesting, for Patoff had not
+been long enough at Carvel Place to discover that there had ever been
+any antipathy between the two. On looking back, I ascribe the change to
+the influence Cutter obtained over Hermione by suddenly affecting a
+great earnestness and a sincere regret for the annoyance he had given in
+the past, and by admitting her, as he gave her to understand that he
+did, to his confidence in the matter of Madame Patoff's insanity. Be
+that as it may, the result was obtained very easily by the professor;
+and when Hermione left him, before lunch, it is probable that in the
+solitude of the conservatory the man of science rubbed his gigantic
+hands together, and beamed upon the orchids with unusual benignity.
+
+But while this new alliance was being formed in the conservatory,
+another conversation was taking place in a distant part of the house,
+not less interesting, perhaps, but not destined to reach so peaceable a
+conclusion. The scene of this other meeting was Miss Chrysophrasia
+Dabstreak's especial boudoir, an apartment so singular in its furniture
+and adornment that I will leave out all description of it, and ask you
+merely to imagine, at will, the most aesthetic retreat of the most
+aesthetic old maid in existence.
+
+After breakfast, that morning, Chrysophrasia had sent word to Mrs.
+Carvel that she should be glad to see her, if she could come up to her
+boudoir. Chrysophrasia never came down to breakfast. She regarded that
+meal as a barbarism, forgetting that the mediaeval persons she admired
+began their days by taking to themselves a goodly supply of food. She
+never appeared before lunch, but spent her mornings in the solitude of
+her own apartment, probably in the composition of verses which have
+remained hitherto unpublished. Mrs. Carvel at once acceded to the
+request conveyed in her sister's message, and went to answer the
+summons. She was not greatly pleased at the idea of spending the morning
+with her sister, for she devoted the early hours to religious reading
+whenever she was able; but she was the most obliging woman in the world,
+and so she quietly put aside her own wishes, and mounted the stairs to
+Miss Dabstreak's boudoir. She found the latter clad in loose garments of
+strange cut and hue, and a green silk handkerchief was tied about her
+forehead, presumably out of respect for certain concealed curl papers
+rather than for any direct purpose of adornment. Chrysophrasia looked
+very faded in the morning. As Mrs. Carvel entered the room, her sister
+pointed languidly to a chair, and then paused a moment, as though to
+recover from the exertion.
+
+"Mary," said she at last, and even from the first tone of her voice Mrs.
+Carvel felt that a severe lecture was imminent,--"Mary, this thing is a
+hollow sham. It cannot be allowed to go on any longer."
+
+Mrs. Carvel's face assumed a sweet and sad expression, and folding her
+hands upon her knees, she leaned slightly forward from the chair upon
+which she sat, and prepared to soothe her sister's views upon hollow
+shams in general.
+
+"My dear," said she, "you must endeavor to be charitable."
+
+"I do not see the use of being charitable," returned Chrysophrasia, with
+more energy than she was wont to display. "Dear me, Mary, what in the
+world has charity to do with the matter? Can you look at me and say that
+it has anything to do with it?"
+
+No. Mary could not look at her and say so, for a very good reason. She
+had not the most distant idea what Chrysophrasia was talking about. On
+general principles, she had made a remark about being charitable, and
+was now held to account for it. She smiled timidly, as though to
+deprecate her sister's vengeance.
+
+"Mary," said Chrysophrasia, in a tone of sorrowful rebuke, "I am afraid
+you are not listening to me."
+
+"Indeed I am," said Mrs. Carvel, patiently.
+
+"Well, then, Mary, I say it is a hollow sham, and that it cannot go on
+any longer."
+
+"Yes, my dear," assented her sister. "I have no doubt you are right; but
+what were you referring to as a hollow sham?"
+
+"You are hopeless, Mary,--you have no intuitions. Of course I mean
+Paul."
+
+Even this was not perfectly clear, and Mrs. Carvel looked inquiringly at
+her sister.
+
+"Is it possible you do not understand?" asked Chrysophrasia. "Do you
+propose to allow my niece--my niece, Mary, and your daughter," she
+repeated with awful emphasis--"to fall in love with her own cousin?"
+
+"I am sure the dear child would never think of such a thing," answered
+Mary Carvel, very gently, and as though not wishing to contradict her
+sister. "He has not been here twenty-four hours."
+
+"The dear child is thinking of it at this very moment," said
+Chrysophrasia. "And what is more, Paul has come here with the deliberate
+intention of marrying her. I have seen it from the first moment he
+entered the house. I can see it in his eyes."
+
+"Well, my dear, you may be right. But I have not noticed anything of the
+sort, and I think you go too far. You will jump at conclusions,
+Chrysophrasia."
+
+"If I went at them at all, Mary, I would glide,--I certainly would not
+jump," replied the aesthetic lady, with a languid smile. Mrs. Carvel
+looked wearily out of the window. "Besides," continued Chrysophrasia,
+"the thing is quite impossible. Paul is not at all a match. Hermy will
+be very rich, some day. John will not leave everything to Macaulay: I
+have heard him say so."
+
+"Why do you discuss the matter, Chrysophrasia?" objected Mrs. Carvel,
+with a little shade of very mild impatience. "There is no question of
+Hermy marrying Paul."
+
+"Then Paul ought to go away at once."
+
+"We cannot send him away. Besides, I think he is a very good fellow. You
+forget that poor Annie is in the house, and he has a right to see her,
+at least for a week."
+
+"It seems to me that Annie might go and live with him."
+
+"He has no home, poor fellow,--he is in the diplomatic service. He is
+made to fly from Constantinople to Persia, and from Persia to St.
+Petersburg; how could he take poor Annie with him?"
+
+"If poor Annie chose," said Chrysophrasia, sniffing the air with a
+disagreeable expression, "poor Annie could go. If she has sense enough
+to dress herself gorgeously and to read dry books all day, she has sense
+enough to travel."
+
+"Oh, Chrysophrasia! How dreadfully unkind you are! You know how--ill she
+is."
+
+Mrs. Carvel did not like to pronounce the word "insane." She always
+spoke of Madame Patoff's "illness."
+
+"I do not believe it," returned Miss Dabstreak. "She is no more crazy
+than I am. I believe Professor Cutter knows it, too. Only he has been
+used to saying that she is mad for so long that he will not believe his
+senses, for fear of contradicting himself."
+
+"In any case I would rather trust to him than to my own judgment."
+
+"I would not. I am utterly sick of this perpetual disturbance about
+Annie's state of mind. It destroys the charm of a peaceful existence. If
+I had the strength, I would go to her and tell her that I know she is
+perfectly sane, and that she must leave the house. John is so silly
+about her. He turns the place into an asylum, just because she chooses
+to hold her tongue."
+
+Mrs. Carvel rose with great dignity.
+
+"I will leave you, Chrysophrasia," she said. "I cannot bear to hear you
+talk in this way. You really ought to be more charitable."
+
+"You are angry, Mary," replied her sister. "Good-by. I cannot bear the
+strain of arguing with you. When you are calmer you will remember what I
+have said."
+
+Poor Mrs. Carvel certainly exhibited none of the ordinary symptoms of
+anger, as she quietly left the room, with an expression of pain upon her
+gentle face. When Chrysophrasia was very unreasonable her only course
+was to go away; for she was wholly unable to give a rough answer, or to
+defend herself against her sister's attacks. Mary went in search of her
+husband, and was glad to find him in the library, among his books.
+
+"John dear, may I come in?" asked Mrs. Carvel, opening the door of her
+husband's library, and standing on the threshold.
+
+"By all means," exclaimed John, looking up. "Anything wrong?" he
+inquired, observing the expression of his wife's face.
+
+"John," said Mrs. Carvel, coming near to him and laying her hand gently
+on his shoulder, "tell me--do you think there is likely to be anything
+between Paul and Hermy?"
+
+"Gracious goodness! what put that into your head?" asked Carvel.
+
+"I have been with Chrysophrasia"--began Mary.
+
+"Chrysophrasia! Oh! Is that it?" cried John in discontented tones. "I
+wish Chrysophrasia would mind her own business, and not talk nonsense!"
+
+"It is nonsense, is it not?"
+
+"Of course,--absolute rubbish! I would not hear of it, to begin with!"
+he exclaimed, as though that were sufficient evidence that the thing was
+impossible.
+
+"No, indeed," echoed Mrs. Carvel, but in more doubtful tones. "Of
+course, Paul is a very good fellow. But yet"---- She hesitated. "After
+all, they are cousins," she added suddenly, "and that is a great
+objection."
+
+"I hope you will not think seriously of any such marriage, Mary," said
+John Carvel, with great decision. "They are cousins, and there are
+twenty other reasons why they should not marry."
+
+"Are there? I dare say you are right, and of course there is no
+probability of either of them thinking of such a thing. But after all,
+Paul is a very marriageable fellow, John."
+
+"I would not consent to his marrying my daughter, though," returned
+Carvel. "I have no doubt it is all right about his brother, who
+disappeared on a dark night in Constantinople. But I would not let Hermy
+marry anybody who had such a story connected with his name."
+
+"Surely, John, you are not so unkind as to give any weight to that
+spiteful accusation. It was very dreadful, but there never was the
+slightest ground for believing that Paul had a hand in it. Even
+Professor Cutter, who does not like him, always said so. That was one of
+the principal proofs of poor Annie's madness."
+
+"I know, my dear. But to the end of time people will go on asking where
+Paul's brother is, and will look suspicious when he is mentioned.
+Cutter, whom you quote, says the same thing, though he believes Paul
+perfectly innocent, as I do myself. Do you suppose I would have a man in
+the house whom I suspected of having murdered his brother?"
+
+"What a dreadful idea!" exclaimed Mrs. Carvel. "But if you liked him
+very much, and wanted him to marry Hermy, would you let that silly bit
+of gossip stand in the way of the match?"
+
+"I don't know what I should do. Perhaps not. But Hermy shall marry whom
+she pleases, provided she marries a gentleman. She has no more idea of
+marrying Paul than Chrysophrasia has, or than Paul has of marrying her.
+Besides, she is far too young to think of such things."
+
+"Really, John, Hermy is nineteen. She is nearly twenty."
+
+"My dear," retorted Carvel, "you will make me think you want them to
+marry."
+
+"Nonsense, John!"
+
+"Well, nonsense, if you like. But Chrysophrasia has been putting this
+ridiculous notion into your head. I believe she is in love with Paul
+herself."
+
+"Oh, John!" exclaimed Mrs. Carvel, smiling at the idea.
+
+But John rose from his chair, and indulged in a hearty laugh at the
+thought of Chrysophrasia's affection for Patoff. Then he stirred the
+fire vigorously, till the coals broke into a bright blaze.
+
+"Annie is better," he said presently, without looking round. "You know
+she recognized Paul; and Griggs thought she knew him, too, when he went
+in with Cutter, the other night."
+
+"Would you like me to go and see her to-day?" asked Mrs. Carvel. Her
+husband had already told her the news and seemed to be repeating it now
+out of sheer satisfaction.
+
+"Perhaps she may know you," he answered. "Have you seen Mrs. North this
+morning?"
+
+"Yes. She says Annie has not slept very well since that day."
+
+"The meeting excited her. Better wait a day or two longer, before doing
+anything else. At any rate, we ought to ask Cutter before making another
+experiment."
+
+"Why did you not go to the meet to-day?" asked Mrs. Carvel suddenly.
+
+"I wanted to have a morning at my books," answered John. His wife took
+the answer as a hint to go away, and presently left the room, feeling
+that her mind had been unnecessarily troubled by her sister. But in her
+honest self-examination, when she had returned to her own room and to
+the perusal of Jeremy Taylor's sermons, she acknowledged to herself that
+she had a liking for Paul Patoff, and that she could not understand why
+both her sister and her husband should at the very beginning scout the
+idea of his marrying Hermione. Of course there was not the slightest
+reason for supposing that Hermione liked him at all, but there was
+nothing to show that she would not like him here-after.
+
+Late in the afternoon we three came back from our long day with the
+hounds, hungry and thirsty and tired. When I came down from my room to
+get some tea, I found that Patoff had been quicker than I; he was
+already comfortably installed by the fireside, with Fang at his feet,
+while Hermione sat beside him. Mrs. Carvel was at the tea-table, at some
+little distance, with her work in her hands, but neither John nor
+Chrysophrasia was in the room. As I sat down and began to drink my tea,
+I watched Paul's face, and it seemed to me that he had changed since I
+had seen him in Teheran, six months ago. I had not liked him much. I am
+not given to seeking acquaintance, and had certainly not sought his, but
+in the Persian capital one necessarily knew every one in the little
+European colony, and I had met him frequently. I had then been struck by
+the stony coldness which appeared to underlie his courteous manner, and
+I had thought it was part of the strange temper he was said to possess.
+Treating his colleagues and all whom he met with the utmost affability,
+never sullenly silent and often even brilliant in conversation, he
+nevertheless had struck me as a man who hated and despised his
+fellow-creatures. There had been then a sort of scornful, defiant look
+on his large features, which inevitably repelled a stranger until he
+began to talk. But he understood eminently the science of making himself
+agreeable, and, when he chose, few could so well lead conversation
+without imposing themselves upon their hearers. I well remembered the
+disdainful coldness of his face when he was listening to some one else,
+and I recollected how oddly it contrasted with his courteous forbearing
+speech. He would look at a man who made a remark with a cynical stare,
+and then in the very next moment would agree with him, and produce
+excellent arguments for doing so. One felt that the man's own nature was
+at war with itself, and that, while forcing himself to be sociable, he
+despised society. It was a thing so evident that I used to avoid looking
+at him, because his expression was so unpleasant.
+
+But as I saw him seated by Hermione's side, playing with the great hound
+at his feet, and talking quietly with his companion, I was forcibly
+struck by the change. His face could not be said to have softened; but
+instead of the cold, defiant sneer which had formerly been peculiar to
+him, his look was now very grave, and from time to time a pleasant light
+passed quickly over his features. Watching him now, I could not fancy
+him either violent or eccentric in temper, as he was said to be. It was
+as though the real nature of the man had got the better of some malady.
+
+"This is like home," I heard him say. "How happy you must be!"
+
+"Yes, I am very happy," answered Hermione. "I have only one unhappiness
+in my life."
+
+"What is that?"
+
+"Poor aunt Annie," said the girl. "I am so dreadfully sorry for her."
+The words were spoken in a low tone, and Mrs. Carvel said something to
+me just then, so that I could not hear Patoff's answer. But while
+talking with my hostess I noticed his earnest manner, and that he seemed
+to be telling some story which interested Hermione intensely. His voice
+dropped to a lower key, and I heard no more, though he talked for a long
+time, as I thought. Then Macaulay Carvel and Professor Cutter entered
+the room. I saw Cutter look at the pair by the fire, and, after
+exchanging a few words with Mrs. Carvel, he immediately joined them.
+Paul's face assumed suddenly the expression of stony indifference, once
+so familiar to me, and I did not hear his voice again. It struck me that
+his more gentle look might have been wholly due to the pleasure he took
+in Hermione's society; but I dismissed the idea as improbable.
+
+Macaulay sat down by his mother, and began telling the incidents of the
+day's hunting in his smooth, unmodulated voice. He was altogether smooth
+and unmodulated in appearance, in conversation, and in manner, and he
+reminded me more of a model schoolboy, rather vain of his acquirements
+and of the favor he enjoyed in the eyes of his masters, than of a grown
+Englishman. It would be impossible to imagine a greater contrast than
+that which existed between the two cousins, and, little as I was
+inclined to like Patoff at first, I was bound to acknowledge that he was
+more manly, more dignified, and altogether more attractive than Macaulay
+Carvel. It was strange that the sturdy, active, intelligent John should
+have such a son, although, on looking at the mother, one recognized the
+sweet smile and gentle features, the dutiful submission and quiet
+feminine forbearance, which in her face so well expressed her character.
+
+But in spite of the vast difference between them in temperament,
+appearance, and education, Macaulay was destined to play a small part in
+Patoff's life. He had from the first taken a fancy to his big Russian
+cousin, and admired him with all his heart. Paul seemed to be his ideal,
+probably because he differed so much from himself; and though Macaulay
+felt it was impossible to imitate him, he was content to give him his
+earnest admiration. It was to be foreseen that if Paul fell in love with
+Hermione he would find a powerful ally in her brother, who was prepared
+to say everything good about him, and to extol his virtues to the skies.
+Indeed, it was likely that during their short acquaintance Macaulay had
+only seen the best points in his cousin's character; for the principal
+sins imputed to Patoff were his violence of temper and his selfishness,
+and it appeared to me that he had done much to overcome both since I had
+last seen him. It is probable that in the last analysis, if this
+reputation could have been traced to its source, it would have been
+found to have arisen from the gossip concerning his quarrel with his
+brother in Constantinople, and from his having once or twice boxed the
+ears of some lazy Persian servant in Teheran. None of the Carvel family
+knew much of Paul's antecedents. His mother never spoke, and before she
+was brought home in her present state, by Professor Cutter, there had
+been hardly any communication between her and her sisters since her
+marriage. Time had effaced the remembrance of what they had called her
+folly when she married Patoff, but the breach had never been healed.
+Mrs. Carvel had made one or two efforts at reconciliation, but they had
+been coldly received; she was a timid woman, and soon gave up the
+attempt. It was not till poor Madame Patoff was brought home hopelessly
+insane, and Macaulay had conceived an unbounded admiration for his
+cousin, that the old affection was revived, and transferred in some
+degree to this son of the lost sister.
+
+As I sat with Mrs. Carvel listening to Macaulay's nerveless,
+conscientious description of the day's doings, I thought over all these
+things, and wondered what would happen next.
+
+* * *
+
+The days passed much as usual at Carvel Place after the first excitement
+of Paul's arrival had worn off; but I regretted that I saw less of
+Hermione than formerly, though I found Cutter's society very
+interesting. Remembering my promise to see Madame Patoff again, I
+visited her once more, but, to my great disappointment, she seemed to
+have forgotten me; and though I again spoke to her in Russian, she gave
+no answer to my questions, and after a quarter of an hour I retired,
+much shaken in my theory that she was not really as mad as was supposed.
+It was reserved for some one else to break the spell, if it could be
+broken at all, and I felt the hopelessness of making any further
+attempt. Though I was not aware of it at the time, I afterwards learned
+that Paul visited her again within a week of his arrival. She behaved
+very much as on the first occasion, it appears, except that her manner
+was more violent than before, so that Cutter deemed it imprudent to
+repeat the experiment.
+
+One morning, three weeks after the events last recorded, I was walking
+with Hermione in the garden. She was as fond of me as ever, though we
+now saw little of each other. But this morning she had seen me alone
+among the empty flower-beds, smoking a solitary cigar after breakfast,
+and, having nothing better to do, she wrapped herself in a fur cloak and
+came out to join me. For a few minutes we talked of the day, and of the
+prospect of an early spring, though we were still in January. People
+always talk of spring before the winter is half over. I said I wondered
+whether Paul would stay to the end of the hunting season.
+
+"I hope so," said Hermione.
+
+"By the by," I remarked, "you seem to have overcome your antipathy for
+your cousin. You are very good friends."
+
+"Yes, he is interesting," she answered. "I wonder"---- She paused, and
+looked at me rather wistfully. "Have you known him long?" she asked,
+suddenly.
+
+"Not very long."
+
+"Do you know anything of his past life?"
+
+"Nothing," I answered. "Nobody does, I fancy, unless it be Professor
+Cutter."
+
+"He has been very unhappy, I should think," she said, presently.
+
+"Has he? Has he told you so?" I resented the idea of Paul's confiding
+his woes, if he had any, to the lovely girl I had known from a child. It
+is too common a way of making love.
+
+"No--that is--yes. He told me about his childhood; how his brother was
+the favorite, and he was always second best, and it made him very
+unhappy."
+
+"Indeed!" I ejaculated, indifferently enough. I knew nothing about his
+brother except that he was dead, or had disappeared and was thought to
+be dead. The story had never reached my ears, and I did not know
+anything about the circumstances.
+
+"How did his brother die?" I asked.
+
+"Oh, he is dead," answered Hermione gravely. "He died in the East
+eighteen months ago. Aunt Annie worshiped him; it was his death that
+affected her mind. At least, I believe so. Professor Cutter says it is
+something else,--something connected with cousin Paul; but papa seems to
+think it was Alexander's death."
+
+"What does the professor say?" I inquired.
+
+"He will not tell me. He is a very odd person. He says it is something
+about Paul, and that it is not nice, and that papa would not like me to
+know it. And then papa tells me that it was only Alexander's death."
+
+"That is very strange," I said. "If I were you, I would believe your
+father rather than the professor."
+
+"Of course; how could I help believing papa?" Hermione turned her
+beautiful blue eyes full upon my face, as though wondering at the
+simplicity of my remark. Of course she believed her father.
+
+"You would not think Paul capable of doing anything not nice, would
+you?" I asked.
+
+Hermione blushed, and looked away towards the distant woods.
+
+"I think he is very nice," she said.
+
+I am Hermione's old friend, but I saw that I had no right to press her
+with questions. No friendship gives a man the right to ask the
+confidence of a young girl, and, moreover, it was evident from her few
+words and from the blush which accompanied them that this was a delicate
+subject. If any one were to speak to her, it must be her father. As far
+as I knew, there was no reason why she should not love her cousin Paul,
+if she admired him half as much as her brother was inclined to do.
+
+"There is only one thing about him which I cannot understand," she
+continued, after a short pause. "He seems not to care in the least for
+his mother; and yet," she added thoughtfully, "I cannot believe that he
+is heartless. I suppose it is because she did not treat him well when he
+was a child. I cannot think of any other reason."
+
+"No," I echoed mechanically, "I cannot think of any other reason."
+
+And indeed I could not. I had known nothing of his unhappy childhood
+before Hermione had told me of it, and though that did not afford a
+sufficient explanation of his evident indifference in regard to his
+mother, it was better than nothing. The whole situation seemed to me to
+be wrapped in impenetrable mystery, and I was beginning to despair of
+ever understanding what was going on about me. John Carvel treated me
+most affectionately, and delighted in entrapping me into the library to
+talk about books; but he scarcely ever referred to Madame Patoff. Cutter
+would walk or ride with me for hours, talking over the extraordinary
+cases of insanity he had met with in his experience; but he never would
+give me the least information in regard to the events which had preceded
+the accident at Weissenstein. I was entirely in the dark.
+
+A catastrophe was soon to occur, however, which led to my acquaintance
+with all the details of Alexander's disappearance in Stamboul. I will
+tell what happened as well as I can from what was afterwards told me by
+the persons most concerned.
+
+A week after my conversation with Hermione, the train was fired which
+led to a very remarkable concatenation of circumstances. You have
+foreseen that Paul would fall in love with his beautiful young cousin.
+Chrysophrasia foresaw it from the first moment of his appearance at
+Carvel Place, with that keen scent for romance which sometimes
+characterizes romantic old maids. If I were telling you a love story, I
+could make a great deal out of Paul's courtship. But this is the history
+of the extraordinary things which befell Paul Patoff, and for the
+present it is sufficient to say that he was in love with Hermione, and
+that he had never before cared seriously for any woman. He was cold by
+nature, and his wandering life as a diplomatist, together with his fixed
+determination to excel in his career, had not been favorable to the
+development of love in his heart. The repose of Carvel Place, the
+novelty of the life, and the comparative freedom from all
+responsibility, had relaxed the hard shell of his sensibilities, and the
+beauty and grace of Hermione had easily fascinated him. She, on her
+part, had distinguished with a woman's natural instinct the curious
+duality of his character. The grave, powerful, dominating man attracted
+her very forcibly; the cold, impenetrable, apparently heartless soul, on
+the other hand, repelled her, and almost inspired her with horror when
+it showed itself.
+
+One afternoon in the end of January, Paul and Hermione were walking in
+the park. The weather was raw and gusty, and the ground hard frozen.
+They had been merely strolling up and down before the house, as they
+often did, but, being in earnest conversation, had forgotten at last to
+turn back, and had gone on along the avenue, till they were far from the
+old mansion and quite out of sight. They had been talking of Paul's
+approaching departure, and they were both in low spirits at the
+prospect.
+
+"I am like those patches of snow," said Paul. "The clouds drop me in a
+beautiful place, and I feel very comfortable; and then I have to melt
+away again, and the clouds pick me up and carry me a thousand miles off,
+and drop me somewhere else. I wish they would leave me alone for a
+while."
+
+"Yes," said Hermione. "I wish you could stay with us longer."
+
+"It is of no use to wish," answered Paul bitterly. "I am always wishing
+for things I cannot possibly have. I would give anything to stay here. I
+have grown so fond of you all, and you have all been so kind to me--it
+is very hard to go, Hermione!"
+
+He looked almost tenderly at the beautiful girl beside him, as he spoke.
+But she looked down, so that he could hardly see her face at all.
+
+"I have never before felt as though I were at home," he continued. "I
+never had much of a home, at the best. Latterly I have had none at all.
+I had almost forgotten the idea when I came to England. It is hard to
+think how soon I must forget it again, and all the dear people I have
+known here."
+
+"You must not quite forget us," said Hermione. Her voice trembled a
+little.
+
+"I will never forget you--Hermione--for I love you with all my heart."
+
+He took her little gloved hand in his, and held it tightly. They stood
+still in the midst of the lonely park. Hermione blushed like an Alp-rose
+in the snow, and turned her head away from him. But her lip quivered
+slightly, and she left her hand in his.
+
+"I love you, my darling," he repeated, drawing her to him, till her head
+rested for a moment on his shoulder. "I cannot live without you,--I
+cannot leave you."
+
+What could she do? When he spoke in that tone his voice was so very
+gentle; she loved him, and she was under the fascination of his love.
+She said nothing, but she looked up into his face, and her blue eyes saw
+themselves in his. Then she bent her head and hid her face against his
+coat, and her small hand tightened convulsively upon his fingers.
+
+"Do you really love me?" he asked as he bent down and kissed her white
+forehead.
+
+"You know I do," she answered in a low voice.
+
+That was all they said, I suppose. But it was quite enough. When a man
+and a woman have told each other their love, there is little more to
+say. They probably say it again, and repeat it in different keys and
+with different modulations. I can imagine that a man in love might find
+many pretty expressions, but the gist of the thing is the same. Model
+conversation as follows, in fugue form, for two voices:--
+
+_He._ I love you. Do you love me? (Theme.)
+
+_She._ Very much. I love you more than you love me. (Answer.)
+
+_He._ No. I love you most. (Sub-theme.)
+
+_She._ Not more. That is impossible. (Sub-answer.)
+
+_He and She._ Then we love each other very much. (_A due voci._)
+
+_She._ Yes. But I am not sure that you _can_ love me as much as I do
+you. (_Stretto._) Etc., etc., etc.
+
+By using these simple themes you may easily write a series of
+conversations in at least twenty-four keys, on the principle of Bach's
+Wohltemperirtes Klavier, but your fugues must be composed for two
+voices only, unless you are very clever. A third voice increases the
+difficulty, a fourth causes a high degree of complication, five voices
+are distracting, and six impossible.
+
+It is certain that when Paul and Hermione returned from their walk they
+had arranged matters to their own satisfaction, or had at least settled
+the preliminaries. I think every one noticed the change in their manner.
+Hermione was radiant, and talked better than I had ever heard her talk
+before. Paul was quiet, even taciturn, but his silence was evidently not
+due to bad temper. His expression was serene and happy, and the cold
+look seemed to have left his face forever. His peace of mind, however,
+was destined to be short-lived.
+
+Chrysophrasia and Professor Cutter watched the couple with extreme
+interest when they appeared at tea, and each arrived at the same
+conclusion. They had probably expected for a long time what had now
+occurred, and, as they were eagerly looking for some evidence that their
+convictions were well founded, they did not overlook the sudden change
+of manner which succeeded the walk in the park. They did not communicate
+their suspicions to each other, however. Chrysophrasia had protested
+again and again to Mary Carvel and to John that things were going too
+far. But Paul was a favorite with the Carvels, and they refused to see
+anything in his conduct which could be interpreted to mean love for
+Hermione. Chrysophrasia resolved at once to throw a bomb into the camp,
+and to enjoy the effect of the explosion.
+
+Cutter's position was more delicate. He was very fond of John, and was,
+moreover, his guest. It was not his business to criticise what occurred
+in the house. He was profoundly interested in Madame Patoff, but he did
+not like Paul. Indeed, in his inmost heart he had never settled the
+question of Alexander's disappearance from the world, and in his opinion
+Paul Patoff was a man accused of murder, who had not sufficiently
+established his innocence. In his desire to be wholly unprejudiced in
+judging mankind and their mental aberrations, he did not allow that the
+social position of the individual was in itself a guaranty against
+committing any crime whatever. On the contrary, he had found reason to
+believe, from his own experience, that people belonging to the higher
+classes have generally a much keener appreciation of the construction
+which will be put upon their smallest actions, and are therefore far
+more ingenious in concealing their evil deeds than the common ruffian
+could possibly be. John Carvel would have said that it was impossible
+that a gentleman should murder his brother. Professor Cutter said it was
+not only possible, but, under certain circumstances, very probable. It
+must also be remembered that he had got most of his information
+concerning Paul from Madame Patoff and from Alexander, who both detested
+him, in the two summers when he had met the mother and son at Wiesbaden.
+His idea of Paul's character had therefore received a bias from the
+first, and was to a great extent unjust. Conceiving it possible that
+Patoff might be responsible for his brother's death, he therefore
+regarded the prospect of Paul's marriage with Hermione with the
+strongest aversion, though he could not make up his mind to speak to
+John Carvel on the subject. He had told the whole story to him eighteen
+months earlier, when he had brought home Madame Patoff; and he had told
+it without ornament, leaving John to judge for himself. But at that time
+there had been no prospect whatever of Paul's coming to Carvel Place.
+Cutter might easily have turned his story in such a way as to make Paul
+look guilty, or at least so as to cast a slight upon his character. But
+he had given the plain facts as they occurred. John had said the thing
+was absurd, and a great injustice to the young man; and he had,
+moreover, told his wife and sister, as well as Cutter, that Hermione was
+never to know anything of the story. It was not right, he said, that the
+young girl should ever know that any member of the family had even been
+suspected of such a crime. She should grow up in ignorance of it, and it
+was not untruthful to say that Madame Patoff's insanity had been caused
+by Alexander's death.
+
+But now Cutter regretted that he had not put the matter in a stronger
+light from the first, giving John to understand that Paul had never
+really cleared himself of the imputation. The professor did not know
+what to do, and would very likely have done nothing at all, had Miss
+Dabstreak not fired the mine. He had, indeed, endeavored to stop the
+progress of the attachment, but, in attempting always to intervene as a
+third person in their conversations, he had roused Paul's obstinacy
+instead of interrupting his love-making. And Paul was a very obstinate
+man.
+
+As we sat at dinner that evening, the conversation turned upon general
+topics. Chrysophrasia sat opposite to Paul, as usual, and her green eyes
+watched him with interest for some time. As luck would have it, our talk
+approached the subject of crime in general, and John Carvel asked me
+some question about the average number of murders in India, taking ten
+years together, as compared with the number committed in Europe. While I
+was hesitating and trying to recollect some figures I had once known,
+Chrysophrasia rushed into the conversation in her usual wild way.
+
+"I think murders are so extremely interesting," said she to Patoff. "I
+always wonder what it must be like to commit one, don't you?"
+
+"No," said Paul, quietly. "I confess that I do not generally devote much
+thought to the matter. Murder is not a particularly pleasant subject for
+contemplation."
+
+"Oh, do you think so?" answered Chrysophrasia. "Of course not pleasant,
+no, but so very interesting. I read such a delightfully thrilling
+account this morning of a man who killed his own brother,--quite like
+Cain."
+
+Paul made no answer, and continued to eat his dinner in silence. Though
+at that time I knew nothing of his story, I remember noticing how
+Professor Cutter slowly turned his face towards Patoff, and the peculiar
+expression of his gray eyes as I saw them through the gold-rimmed
+spectacles. Then he looked at John Carvel, who grew very red in the
+pause which followed. Mrs. Carvel looked down at her plate, and her
+features showed that her sister's remark had given her some pain; for
+she was quite incapable of concealing her slightest emotions, like many
+extremely truthful and sensitive people. But Chrysophrasia had launched
+herself, and was not to be silenced by an awkward pause. Not
+understanding the situation in the least, I nevertheless tried to
+relieve the unpleasantness by answering her.
+
+"I think it is a great mistake that the newspapers should publish the
+horrible details of every crime committed," I said. "It is bad for the
+public morals, and worse for the public taste."
+
+"Really, we must be allowed some emotion," answered Chrysophrasia. "It
+is so very thrilling to read about such cases. Now I can quite well
+imagine what it must be like to kill somebody, and then to hear every
+one saying to me, 'Where is thy brother?' Poor Cain! He must have had
+the most deliciously complicated feelings!"
+
+She fixed her green eyes on Paul so intently as she spoke that I looked
+at him, too, and was surprised to see that he was very pale. He said
+nothing, however, but he looked up and returned her gaze. His cold blue
+eyes glittered disagreeably. At that moment, John Carvel, who was redder
+than ever, addressed me in loud tones. I thought his voice had an
+artificial ring in it as he spoke.
+
+"Well, Griggs," he cried, "without going into the question of Cain and
+Abel, can you tell me anything about the figures?"
+
+I said something. I gave some approximate account, and, speaking loudly,
+I ran on readily with a long string of statistics, most of them, I
+grieve to say, manufactured on the spur of the moment. But I knew that
+Carvel was not listening, and did not care what I said. Hermione was
+watching Paul with evident concern; Mrs. Carvel and Macaulay at once
+affected the greatest interest in what I was saying, while Professor
+Cutter looked at Chrysophrasia, as though trying to attract her
+attention.
+
+"What a wonderful memory you have, Mr. Griggs!" said Macaulay Carvel, in
+sincere admiration.
+
+"Oh, not at all," I answered, with perfect truth. "Statistics of that
+kind are very easily got."
+
+By this time the awkwardness had disappeared, and by dint of talking
+very loud and saying a great many things which meant very little, John
+and I succeeded in making the remainder of the dinner pass off very
+well. But every one seemed to be afraid of Chrysophrasia, and when, once
+or twice, she was on the point of making a remark, there was a general
+attempt made to prevent her from leading the conversation. As soon as
+dinner was over we scattered in all directions, like a flock of sheep.
+Chrysophrasia retired to her room. John Carvel went to the library,
+whither his wife followed him in a few minutes. Macaulay, Patoff, and I
+went to the smoking-room, contrary to all precedent; but as Macaulay led
+the way, we followed with delight. The result of this general separation
+was that Hermione and Professor Cutter were left alone in the
+drawing-room.
+
+"I want to ask you a question," said the young girl, as they stood
+before the great fireplace.
+
+"Yes," answered the scientist, anticipating trouble. "I am at your
+service."
+
+"Why did Paul turn so pale when aunt Chrysophrasia talked about Cain at
+dinner, and why did everybody feel so uncomfortable?"
+
+"It is not surprising. But I cannot tell you the story."
+
+"You must," said Hermione, growing pale, and laying her hand upon his
+arm. "I must know. I insist that you shall tell me."
+
+"If I tell you, will you promise not to blame me here-after?" asked
+Cutter.
+
+"Certainly,--of course. Please go on."
+
+"Do not be shocked. There is no truth in the story, I fancy. When
+Alexander Patoff was lost on a dark night in Constantinople, the world
+said that Paul had made away with him. That is all."
+
+Hermione did not scream nor faint, as Cutter had expected. The blood
+rushed to her face, and then sank again as suddenly. She steadied
+herself with one hand on the chimney-piece before she answered.
+
+"What a horrible, infamous lie!" she exclaimed in low tones.
+
+"You insisted upon knowing it, Miss Carvel," said the professor quietly.
+"You must not blame me for telling you. After all, it was as well that
+you should know it."
+
+"Yes--it was as well." She turned away, and with bent head left the
+room. So it came about that both Chrysophrasia and Cutter on the same
+evening struck a blow at the new-found happiness of the cousins, raising
+between them, as it were, the spectre of the lost man.
+
+After what had occurred in the afternoon, Paul had intended to seek a
+formal interview with John Carvel. He had no intention of keeping his
+engagement a secret, and indeed he already felt that, according to his
+European notions, he had done wrong in declaring his love to Hermione
+before asking her father's consent. It had been an accident, and he
+regretted it. But after the scene at the dinner-table, he felt that he
+must see Hermione again before going to her father. Chrysophrasia's
+remarks had been so evidently directed against him that he had betrayed
+himself, and he knew that Hermione had noticed his expression, as well
+as the momentary stupefaction which had chilled the whole party. He had
+no idea whether Hermione had ever heard his story or not. She had of
+course never referred to it, and he thought it was now his duty to speak
+to her, to ascertain the extent of her information, and, if necessary,
+to tell her all the circumstances; honestly avowing that, although he
+had never been accused openly of his brother's death except by his
+mother, he knew that many persons had suspected him of having been
+voluntarily concerned in it. He would state the case plainly, and she
+might then decide upon her own course. But the question, "Where is your
+brother?" had been asked again, and he was deeply wounded,--far more
+deeply than he would acknowledge to himself. As we three sat together in
+the smoking-room, keeping up a dry, strained conversation, the old
+expression returned to his face, and I watched him with a kind of regret
+as I saw the cold, defiant look harden again, where lately there had
+been nothing but gentleness.
+
+Hermione left the drawing-room, and glided through the hall towards the
+passage which led to Madame Patoff's rooms. She had formed a desperate
+resolution,--one of those which must be carried out quickly, or not at
+all. Mrs. North, the nurse, opened the door at the end of the corridor,
+and admitted the young girl.
+
+"Can I see my aunt?" asked Hermione, trying to control her voice.
+
+"Has anything happened, Miss Carvel?" inquired Mrs. North, scrutinizing
+her features and noticing her paleness.
+
+"No--yes, dear Mrs. North, something has happened. I want to see aunt
+Annie," answered Hermione. "Do let me go in!"
+
+The nurse did not suppose that anything Hermione could say would rouse
+Madame Patoff from her habitual apathy. After a moment's hesitation, she
+nodded, and opened the door into the sitting-room. Hermione passed her
+in silence, and entered, closing the door behind her. Her aunt sat as
+usual in a deep chair near the fire, beneath the brilliant light, the
+rich folds of her sweeping gown gathered around her, her face pale and
+calm, holding a book upon her knee. She did not look up as the young
+girl came in, but an uneasy expression passed over her features.
+Hermione had never believed that Madame Patoff was mad, in spite of
+Professor Cutter's assurances to the contrary. On this occasion she
+resolved to speak as though her aunt were perfectly sane.
+
+"Dear aunt Annie," she began, sitting down beside the deep chair, and
+laying her hand on Madame Patoff's apathetic fingers,--"dear aunt Annie,
+I have something to tell you, and I am sure you will listen to me."
+
+"Yes," answered the lady, in her mechanical voice.
+
+"Aunt Annie, Paul is still here. I love him, and we are going to be
+married."
+
+"No," said Madame Patoff, in the same tone as before. Hermione's heart
+sank, for her aunt did not seem to understand in the least. But before
+she could speak again, a curious change seemed to come over the
+invalid's face. The features were drawn into an expression of pain, such
+as Hermione had never seen there before, the lip trembled hysterically,
+the blood rushed to her face, and Madame Patoff suddenly broke into a
+fit of violent weeping. The tears streamed down her cheeks, bursting
+between her fingers as she covered her eyes. She sobbed as though her
+heart would break, rocking herself backwards and forwards in her chair.
+Hermione was frightened, and rose to call Mrs. North; but to her extreme
+surprise her aunt put out her hand, all wet with tears, and held her
+back.
+
+"No, no," she moaned; "let me cry."
+
+For several minutes nothing was heard in the room but her passionate
+sobs. It seemed as though they would never stop, and again Hermione
+would have called the nurse, but again Madame Patoff prevented her.
+
+"Aunt Annie,--dear aunt Annie!" said the young girl, trying to soothe
+her, and laying her hand upon the thick gray hair. "What is the matter?
+Can I do nothing? I cannot bear to see you cry like this!"
+
+Gradually the hysteric emotion spent itself, and Madame Patoff grew more
+calm. Then she spoke, and, to Hermione's amazement, she spoke
+connectedly.
+
+"Hermione, you must not betray my secret,--you will not betray me? Swear
+that you will not, my child!" She was evidently suffering some great
+emotion.
+
+"Aunt Annie," said Hermione in the greatest excitement, "you are not
+mad! I always said you were not!"
+
+Madame Patoff shook her head sorrowfully.
+
+"No, child, I am not mad,--I never was. I am only unhappy. I let them
+think so, because I am so miserable, and I can live alone, and perhaps
+die very soon. But you have found me out."
+
+Again it seemed as though she would burst into tears. Hermione hastened
+to reassure her, not knowing what she said, in the anxiety of the
+moment.
+
+"You are safe with me, aunt Annie. I will not tell. But why, why have
+you deceived them all so long, a year and a half,--why?"
+
+"I am the most wretched woman alive," moaned Madame Patoff. Then,
+looking suddenly into Hermione's eyes, she spoke in low, distinct tones.
+"You cannot marry Paul, Hermione. You must never think of it again. You
+must promise me never to think of it."
+
+"I will not promise that," answered the young girl, summoning all her
+courage. "It is not true that he killed his brother. You never believed
+it,--nobody ever believed it!"
+
+"It is true--true--truer than anything else can be!" exclaimed Madame
+Patoff, lowering her voice to a strong, clear whisper.
+
+"No," said Hermione. "You are wrong, aunt Annie; it is an abominable
+lie."
+
+"I tell you I know it is true," retorted her aunt, still whispering, but
+emphasizing every word with the greatest decision. "If you do not
+believe it, go to him and say, 'Paul, where is your brother?' and you
+will see how he will look."
+
+"I will. I will ask him, and I will tell you what he says."
+
+"He murdered him, Hermione," continued Madame Patoff, not heeding the
+interruption. "He murdered him in Constantinople,--he and a Turkish
+soldier whom he hired. And now he has come here to marry you. He thinks
+I am mad--he is the worst man that ever lived. You must never see him
+again. There is blood on his hands--blood, do you hear? Rather than that
+you should love him, I will tell them all that I am a sane woman. I will
+confess that I have imposed upon them in order to be alone, to die in
+peace, or, while I live to mourn for my poor murdered boy,--the boy I
+loved. Oh how I loved him!"
+
+This time her tears could not be controlled, and at the thought of
+Alexander she sobbed again, as she had sobbed before. Hermione was too
+much astonished and altogether thrown off her mental balance to know
+what to do. Her amazement at discovering that her aunt had for more than
+a year imposed upon Professor Cutter and upon the whole household was
+almost obliterated in the horror inspired by Madame Patoff's words.
+There was a conviction in her way of speaking which terrified Hermione,
+and for a moment she was completely unnerved.
+
+Meanwhile, Madame Patoff's tears ceased again. In the strange deception
+she had practiced upon all around her for so long, she had acquired an
+extraordinary command of her features and voice. It was only Hermione's
+discovery which had thrown her off her guard, and once feeling that the
+girl knew her secret, she had perhaps enjoyed the luxury of tears and of
+expressed emotion. But this stage being past, she regained her
+self-control. She had meditated so long on the death of her eldest son
+that the mention of his name had ceased to affect her, and though she
+had been betrayed into recognizing Paul, she had cleverly resumed her
+play of apathetic indifference so soon as he had left her. Had Hermione
+known of the early stages which had led to her present state, she would
+have asked herself how Madame Patoff could have suddenly begun to act
+her part so well as to deceive even Professor Cutter from the first.
+But Hermione knew nothing of all those details. She only realized that
+her aunt was a perfectly sane woman, and that she had fully confirmed
+the fearful accusation against Paul.
+
+"Go now, my child," said Madame Patoff. "Remember your promise. Remember
+that I am a wretched old woman, come here to be left alone, to die.
+Remember what I have told you, and beware of being deceived. You love a
+murderer--a murderer--remember that."
+
+Hermione stood a moment and gazed at her aunt's face, grown calm and
+almost beautiful again. Her tears had left no trace, her thick gray hair
+was as smooth as ever, her great dark eyes were deep and full of light.
+Then, without another word, the young girl turned away and left the
+room, closing the door behind her, and nodding a good-night to Mrs.
+North, who sat by her lamp in the outer room, gray and watchful as ever.
+
+If her aunt was sane, was she human? The question suggested itself to
+Hermione's brain as she walked along the passage; but she had not time
+to frame an answer. As she went out into the hall she saw Paul standing
+by the huge carved, fireplace, his back turned towards her, his tall
+figure thrown into high relief by the leaping flames. She went up to
+him, and as he heard her step he started and faced her. He had finished
+his cigar with us, and was about to go quietly to his room in search of
+solitude, when he had paused by the hall fire. His face was very sad as
+he looked up.
+
+"Paul," said the young girl, taking both his hands and looking into his
+eyes, "I believe in you,--you could not do anything wrong. People would
+never suspect you if you answered them, if you would only take the
+trouble to defend yourself."
+
+"Defend myself?" repeated Paul. "Against what, Hermione?"
+
+"When people say, 'Where is your brother?'--or mean to say it, as aunt
+Chrysophrasia did this evening,--you ought to answer; you ought not to
+turn pale and be silent."
+
+"You too!" groaned the unhappy man, looking into her eyes. "You too, my
+darling! Ah, no! It is too much." He dropped her hands, and turned
+again, leaning on the chimney-piece.
+
+"How can you think I believe it? Oh, Paul! how unkind!" exclaimed
+Hermione, clasping her hands upon his shoulder, and trying to look at
+his averted face. "I never, never believed it, dear. But no one else
+must believe it either; you must make them not believe it."
+
+"My dearest," said Paul, almost sternly, but not unkindly, "this thing
+has pursued me for a long time. I thought it was dead. It has come
+between you and me on the very day of our happiness. You say you believe
+in me. I say you shall not believe in me without proof. Good-by,
+love,--good-by!"
+
+He drew her to him and kissed her once; then he tried to go.
+
+"Paul," she cried, holding him, "where are you going?" She was terrified
+by his manner.
+
+"I am going away," he said slowly. "I will find my brother, or his body,
+and I will not come back until then."
+
+"But you must not go! I cannot bear to let you go!" she cried, in
+agonized tones.
+
+"You must," he answered, and the color left his cheeks. "You cannot
+marry a man who is suspected. Good-by, my beloved!"
+
+Once more he kissed her, and then he turned quickly away and left the
+hall. Hermione stood still one moment, staring at his retreating figure.
+Then she sank into the deep chair by the side of the great fire and
+burst into tears. She had good cause for sorrow, for she had sent Paul
+Patoff away, she knew not whither. She had not even the satisfaction of
+feeling that she had been quite right in speaking to him as she had
+spoken, and above all she feared lest he should believe, in spite of her
+words, that in her own mind there was some shadow of suspicion left. But
+he was gone. He would probably leave the house early in the morning, and
+she might never see him again. What could she do but let her tears flow
+down as freely as they could?
+
+Late at night I sat in my room, reading by the light of the candles, and
+watching the fire as it gradually died away in the grate. It was very
+late, and I was beginning to think of going to bed, when some one
+knocked at the door. It was Paul Patoff. I was very much surprised to
+see him, and I suppose my face showed it, for he apologized for the
+intrusion.
+
+"Excuse me," he said. "It is very late, but could you spare me half an
+hour before going to bed?"
+
+"Certainly," I answered, noticing his pallor, and fancying that
+something had happened.
+
+"Thank you," said he. "I believe I have heard you say that you know
+Constantinople very well?"
+
+"Tolerably well--yes. I know many of the natives. I have been there very
+often."
+
+"I am going back there," said Patoff. "They sent me to Persia for a year
+and more, and now I am to return to my old post. I want to ask your
+advice about a very delicate matter. You know--or perhaps you do not
+know--that my brother disappeared in Stamboul, a year ago last summer,
+under very strange circumstances. I did all I could to find him, and the
+ambassador did more. But we never discovered any trace of him. I have
+made up my mind that I will not be disappointed this time."
+
+"Could you tell me any of the details?" I asked.
+
+Paul looked at me once, and hesitated. Then he settled himself in his
+chair, and told me his story very much as I have told it, from the
+afternoon of the day on which Alexander disappeared to the moment when
+Paul left his mother at Teinach in the Black Forest. He told me also how
+Professor Cutter had written to him his account of the accident at
+Weissenstein, when Madame Patoff, as he said, had attempted to commit
+suicide.
+
+"Pardon me," I said, when he had reached this stage. "I do not believe
+she tried to kill herself."
+
+"Why not?" asked Patoff, in some surprise.
+
+"I was the man with the rope. Cutter has never realized that you did not
+know it."
+
+Paul was very much astonished at the news, and looked at me as though
+hardly believing his senses.
+
+"Yes," I continued. "I happened to be leaning out of the window
+immediately over the balcony, and I saw your mother fall. I do not
+believe she threw herself over; if she had done that, she would probably
+not have been caught on the tree. The parapet was very low, and she is
+very tall. I heard her say to Professor Cutter, 'I am coming;' then she
+stood up. Suddenly she grew red in the face, tottered, tried to save
+herself, but missed the parapet, and fell over with a loud scream of
+terror."
+
+"I am very much surprised," said Paul, "very grateful to you, of course,
+for saving her life. I do not know how to thank you; but how strange
+that Cutter should never have told me!"
+
+"He saw that we knew each other," I remarked. "He supposed that I had
+told you."
+
+"So it was not an attempt at suicide, after all. It is amazing to think
+how one may be deceived in this world."
+
+For some minutes he sat silent in his chair, evidently in deep thought.
+I did not disturb him, though I watched the melancholy expression of his
+face, thinking of the great misfortunes which had overtaken him, and
+pitying him, perhaps, more than he would have liked.
+
+"Griggs," he said at last, "do you know of any one in Constantinople who
+would help me,--who could help me if he would?"
+
+"To find your brother? It is a serious affair. Yes, I do know of one
+man; if he could be induced to take an interest in the matter, he might
+do a great deal."
+
+"What is his name?"
+
+"Balsamides Bey," I answered.
+
+"I have seen him, but I do not know him," said Paul. "Could you give me
+a letter?"
+
+"It would not be of the slightest use. You can easily make his
+acquaintance, but it will be a very different matter to get him to help
+you. He is one of the strangest men in the world. If he takes a fancy to
+you, he will do anything imaginable to oblige you."
+
+"And if not?"
+
+"If not, he will laugh at you. He is a queer fellow."
+
+"Eccentric, I should think. I am not prepared to be laughed at, but I
+will risk it, if there is any chance."
+
+"Look here, Patoff," I said. "I have nothing to do this spring, and the
+devil of unrest is on me again. I will go to Constantinople with you,
+and we will see what can be done. You are a Russian, and those people
+will not trust you; your nationality will be against you at every turn.
+Balsamides himself hates Russians, having fought against them ten years
+ago, in the last war."
+
+Paul started up in his chair, and stretched out his hand. "Will you
+really go with me?" he cried in great excitement. "That would be too
+good of you. Shall we start to-morrow?"
+
+"Let me see,--we must have an excuse. Could you not telegraph to your
+chief to recall you at once? You must have something to show to Carvel.
+He will be startled at our leaving so suddenly."
+
+"Will he?" said Paul, absently. "I suppose so. Perhaps I can manage it."
+
+It was very late when he left my room. I went to bed, but slept little,
+thinking over all he had told me, but knowing that he had not told me
+all. I guessed then what I knew later,--that he had asked Hermione to
+marry him, and that, in consequence of Chrysophrasia's remark at
+dinner, she had asked him about his brother. It was easy to understand
+that the question, coming from her, would produce a revival of his
+former energy in the search for Alexander. But it was long before I knew
+all the details of Hermione's visit to Madame Patoff.
+
+The matter was arranged without much difficulty. Paul received a
+despatch the next day from Count Ananoff, requesting him to return as
+soon as possible, and I announced my determination to accompany him. The
+news was received by the different members of the household in different
+ways, according to the views of each. Poor Hermione was pale and silent.
+Chrysophrasia's disagreeable eyes wore a greenish air of cat-like
+satisfaction. Mrs. Carvel herself was sincerely distressed, and John
+opened his eyes in astonishment. Professor Cutter looked about with an
+inquiring air, and Macaulay expressed a hope that he might be appointed
+to Constantinople very soon, adding that he should take pains to learn
+Turkish as quickly as possible. That fellow regards everything in life
+as a sort of lesson, and takes part in events as a highly moral and
+studious undergraduate would attend a course of lectures.
+
+I think Paul and I both breathed more freely when we had announced our
+departure. He looked ill, and it was evident that he was sorry to go,
+but it was also quite clear that nothing could move him from his
+determination. Even at the last minute he kept himself calm, and though
+he was obliged to part from Hermione in the presence of all the rest, he
+did not wince. Every one joined in saying that they hoped he would pay
+them another visit, and even Chrysophrasia drawled out something to that
+effect, though I have no doubt she was inwardly rejoicing at his going
+away; and just as we were starting she ostentatiously kissed poor
+Hermione, as though to reassert her protectorate, and to show that
+Hermione's safety was due entirely to her aunt Chrysophrasia's exertions
+on her behalf.
+
+Paul would have been willing to go to his mother once again before
+parting, but Cutter thought it better not to let him do so, as his
+presence irritated her beyond measure. Hermione looked as though she
+would have said something, but seemed to think better of it. At last we
+drove away from the old place in the chilly February afternoon, and I
+confess that for a moment I half repented of my sudden resolution to go
+to the East. But in a few minutes the old longing for some active
+occupation came back, and though I thought gratefully of John Carvel's
+friendly ways and pleasant conversation, I found myself looking forward
+to the sight of the crowded bazaars and the solemn Turks, smelling
+already the indescribable atmosphere of the Levant, and enjoying the
+prospect almost as keenly as when I first set my face eastwards, many
+years ago.
+
+These were the circumstances which brought me back to Constantinople
+last year. If, in telling my story, I have dwelt long upon what happened
+in England, I must beg you to remember that it is one thing to construct
+a drama with all possible regard for the unities and no regard whatever
+for probability, whereas it is quite another to tell the story of a
+man's life, or even of those years which have been to him the most
+important part of it.
+
+
+
+
+XII.
+
+
+It was not an easy matter to make Balsamides Bey take a fancy to Paul,
+for he was, and still is, a man full of prejudice, if also full of wit.
+In his well-shaped head resides an intelligence of no mean order, and
+the lines graven in his pale face express thought and study, while
+suggesting also an extreme love of sarcasm and a caustic, incredulous
+humor. His large and deep-set blue eyes seem to look at things only to
+criticise them, never to enjoy them, and his arched eyebrows bristle
+like defenses set up between the world with its interests on the one
+side and the inner man Balsamides on the other. Though he wears a heavy
+brown mustache, it is easy to see that underneath it his thin lips curl
+scornfully, and are drawn down at the extremities of his mouth. He is
+very scrupulous in his appearance, whether he wears the uniform of a
+Sultan's adjutant, or the morning dress of an ordinary man of the world,
+or the official evening coat of the Turks, made like that of an English
+clergyman, but ornamented by a string of tiny decorations attached to
+the buttonhole on the left side. Gregorios Balsamides is of middle
+height, slender and well built, a matchless horseman, and long inured to
+every kind of hardship, though his pallor and his delicate white hands
+suggest a constitution anything but hardy.
+
+He is the natural outcome of the present state of civilization in
+Turkey; and as it is not easy for the ordinary mind to understand the
+state of the Ottoman Empire without long study, so it is not by any
+means a simple matter to comprehend the characters produced by the
+modern condition of things in the East. Balsamides Bey is a man who
+seems to unite in himself as many contradictory qualities and
+characteristics as are to be found in any one living man. He is a
+thorough Turk in principle, but also a thorough Western Frank in
+education. He has read immensely in many languages, and speaks French
+and English with remarkable fluency. He has made an especial study of
+modern history, and can give an important date, a short account of a
+great battle, or a brief notice of a living celebrity, with an ease and
+accuracy that many a student might envy. He reads French and English
+novels, and probably possesses a contraband copy of Byron, whose works
+are proscribed in Turkey and confiscated by the custom-house. He goes
+into European society as well as among Turks, Greeks, and Armenians.
+Although a Greek by descent, he loves the Turks and is profoundly
+attached to the reigning dynasty, under whom his father and grandfather
+lived and prospered. A Christian by birth and education, he has a
+profound respect for the Mussulman faith, as being the religion of the
+government he serves, and a profound hatred of the Armenian, whom he
+regards as the evil genius of the Osmanli. He is a man whom many trust,
+but whose chief desire seems to be to avoid all show of power. He is
+often consulted on important matters, but his discretion is proof
+against all attacks, and there is not a journalist nor correspondent in
+Pera who can boast of ever having extracted the smallest item of
+information from Balsamides Bey.
+
+These are his good qualities, and they are solid ones, for he is a
+thoroughly well-informed man, exceedingly clever, and absolutely
+trustworthy. On the other hand, he is cold, sarcastic, and possibly
+cruel, and occasionally he is frank almost to brutality.
+
+On the very evening of our arrival in Pera I went to see him, for he is
+an old friend of mine. I found him alone in his small lodgings in the
+Grande Rue, reading a yellow-covered French novel by the light of a
+German student-lamp. The room was simply furnished with a table, a
+divan, three or four stiff, straight-backed chairs, and a bookcase. But
+on the matted floor and divan there were two or three fine Sine carpets;
+a couple of trophies of splendidly ornamented weapons adorned the wall;
+by his side, upon a small eight-sided table inlaid with tortoise-shell
+and mother-of-pearl, stood a silver salver with an empty coffee-cup of
+beautiful workmanship,--the stand of beaten gold, and the delicate shell
+of the most exquisite transparent china. He had evidently been on duty
+at the palace, for he was in uniform, and had removed only his long
+riding-boots, throwing himself down in his chair to read the book in
+which he was interested.
+
+On seeing me, he rose suddenly and put out his hand.
+
+"Is it you? Where have you come from?" he cried.
+
+"From England, to see you," I answered.
+
+"You must stay with me," he said at once. "The spare room is ready," he
+added, leading me to the door. Then he clapped his hands to call the
+servant, before I could prevent him.
+
+"But I have already been to the hotel," I protested.
+
+"Go to Missiri's with a hamal, and bring the Effendi's luggage," he said
+to the servant, who instantly disappeared.
+
+"Caught," he exclaimed, laughing, as he opened the door and showed me my
+little room. I had slept there many a night in former times, and I loved
+his simple hospitality.
+
+"You are the same as ever," I said. "A man cannot put his nose inside
+your door without being caught, as you call it."
+
+"Many a man may," he answered. "But not you, my dear fellow. Now--you
+will have coffee and a cigarette. We will dine at home. There is pilaff
+and kebabi and a bottle of champagne. How are you? I forgot to ask."
+
+"Very well, thanks," said I, as we came back to the sitting-room. "I am
+always well, you know. You look pale, but that is nothing new. You have
+been on duty at the palace?"
+
+"Friday," he answered laconically, which meant that he had been at the
+Selamlek, attending the Sultan to the weekly service at the mosque.
+
+"You used to get back early in the day. Have the hours changed?"
+
+"Man of Belial," he replied, "with us nothing changes. I was detained at
+the palace. So you have come all the way from England to see me?"
+
+"Yes,--and to ask you a question and a favor."
+
+"You shall have the answer and my services."
+
+"Do not promise before you have heard. 'Two acrobats cannot always dance
+on the same rope,' as your proverb says."
+
+"And 'Every sheep hangs by its own heels,'" said he. "I will take my
+chance with you. First, the question, please."
+
+"Did you ever hear of Alexander Patoff?"
+
+Balsamides looked at me a moment, with the air of a man who is asked an
+exceedingly foolish question.
+
+"Hear of him? I have heard of nothing else for the last eighteen months.
+I have an indigestion brought on by too much Alexander Patoff. Is that
+your errand, Griggs? How in the world did you come to take up that
+question?"
+
+"You have been asked about him before?" I inquired.
+
+"I tell you there is not a dog in Constantinople that has not been
+kicked for not knowing where that fellow is. I am sick of him, alive or
+dead. What do I care about your Patoffs? The fool could not take care of
+himself when he was alive, and now the universe is turned upside down to
+find his silly body. Where is he? At the bottom of the Bosphorus. How
+did he get there? By the kind exertions of his brother, who then played
+the comedy of tearing his hair so cleverly that his ambassador believed
+him. Very simple: if you want to find his body, I can tell you how to do
+it."
+
+"How?" I asked eagerly.
+
+"Drain the Bosphorus," he answered, with a sneer. "You will find plenty
+of skulls at the bottom of it. The smallest will be his, to a dead
+certainty."
+
+"My dear fellow," I protested, "his brother did not kill him. The proof
+is that Paul Patoff has come hack swearing that he will find some trace
+of Alexander. He came with me, and I believe his story."
+
+"He is only renewing the comedy,--tearing his hair on the anniversary of
+the death, like a well-paid mourner. Of course, somebody has accused him
+again of the murder. He will have to tear his hair every time he is
+accused, in order to keep up appearances. He knows, and he alone knows,
+where the dead man is."
+
+"But if he killed him the kavass must have known it--must have helped
+him. You remember the story?"
+
+"I should think so. What does the kavass prove? Nothing. He was probably
+told to go off for a moment, and now will not confess it. Money will do
+anything."
+
+"There remains the driver of the carriage," I objected. "He saw
+Alexander go into Agia Sophia, but he never saw him come out."
+
+"And is anything easier than that? A man might learn those few words in
+three minutes. That proves nothing."
+
+"There is the probability," I argued. "Many persons have disappeared in
+Stamboul before now."
+
+"Nonsense, Griggs," he answered. "You know that when anything of the
+kind has occurred it has generally turned out that the missing man was
+bankrupt. He disappeared to reappear somewhere else under another name.
+I do not believe a word of all those romances. To you Franks we are a
+nation of robbers, murderers, and thieves; we are the Turkey of Byron,
+always thirsting for blood, spilling it senselessly, and crying out for
+more. If that idiot allowed his brother to kill him without attracting a
+crowd,--in Stamboul, in the last week of Ramazan, when everybody is out
+of doors,--he deserved his fate, that is all."
+
+"I do not believe he is dead," I said, "and I have come here to ask you
+to make the acquaintance of Paul Patoff. If you still believe him to be
+a murderer when you have heard him tell his story, I shall be very much
+surprised."
+
+"I should tear him to pieces if I met him," said Balsamides, with a
+laugh. "The mere sight of anybody called Patoff would bring on an attack
+of the nerves."
+
+"Be serious," said I. "Do you think I would be so foolish as to interest
+myself in this business unless I believed that it could be cleared of
+all mystery and explained?"
+
+"You have been in England," retorted Gregorios. "That will explain any
+kind of insanity. Do you want me to pester every office in the
+government with new inquiries? It will do no good. Everything has been
+tried. The man is gone without leaving a trace. No amount of money will
+produce information. Can I say more? Where money fails, a man need not
+be so foolish as to hope anything from his intelligence."
+
+"I am foolish enough to hope something," I replied. "If you will not
+help me, I must go elsewhere. I will not give up the thing at the
+start."
+
+"Well, if I say I will help you, what do you expect me to do? Can I do
+anything which has not been done already? If so, I will do it. But I
+will not harness myself to a rotten cart, as the proverb says. It is
+quite useless to expect anything more from the police."
+
+"I expect nothing from them. I believe that Alexander is alive, and has
+been hidden by somebody rich enough and strong enough to baffle
+pursuit."
+
+"What put that into your head?" asked my companion, looking at me with
+sudden curiosity.
+
+"Nothing but the reduction of the thing to the last analysis. Either he
+is dead, or he is alive. As you say, he could hardly have been killed on
+such a night without attracting attention. Besides, the motives for
+Paul's killing him were wholly inadequate. No, let me go on. Therefore
+I say that he was taken alive."
+
+"Where?"
+
+"In Santa Sophia."
+
+"But then," argued Balsamides, "the driver would have seen him carried
+out."
+
+"Yes," I admitted. "That is the difficulty. But he might perhaps have
+been taken through the porch; at all events, he must have gone down the
+stairs alone, taking the lantern."
+
+"They found the lantern," said Gregorios. "You did not know that? A long
+time afterwards the man who opens the towers confessed that when he had
+gone up with the brothers and the kavass he had found that his taper was
+burnt out. He picked up the kavass's lantern and carried it down,
+meaning to return with the next party of foreigners. No other foreigners
+came, and when he went up to find the Patoffs they were gone and the
+carriage was gone. He kept the lantern, until the offers of reward
+induced him to give it up and tell his story."
+
+"That proves nothing, except that Alexander went down-stairs in the
+dark."
+
+"I have an idea, Griggs!" cried Balsamides, suddenly changing his tone.
+"It proves this,--that Alexander did not necessarily go down the steps
+at all."
+
+"I do not understand."
+
+"There is another way out of that gallery. Did you know that? At the
+other end, in exactly the same position, hidden in the deep arch, there
+is a second door. There is also a winding staircase, which leads to the
+street on the opposite side of the mosque. Foreigners are never admitted
+by that side, but it is barely possible that the door may have been
+open. Alexander Patoff may have gone down that way, thinking it was the
+staircase by which he had come up."
+
+"You see," I said, delighted at this information, "everything is not
+exhausted yet."
+
+"No, I begin to think we are nearer to an explanation. If that door was
+open,--which, however, is very improbable,--he could have gone down and
+have got into the street without passing the carriage, which stood on
+the other side of the mosque. But, after all, we are no nearer to
+knowing what ultimately became of him."
+
+"Would it be possible to find out whether the door was really open, and,
+if so, who passed that way?" I inquired.
+
+"We shall see," said Gregorios. "I will change my mind. I will make the
+acquaintance of your Russian friend. I know him by sight, though I never
+spoke to him. When I have talked the matter over with him I will tell
+you what I think about it. Let us go to dinner."
+
+I felt that I had overcome the first great difficulty in persuading
+Balsamides to take some interest in my errand. He is one of those men
+who are very hard to move, but who, when once they are disposed to act
+at all, are ready to do their best. Moreover, the existence of the
+second staircase, leading from the gallery to the street, at once
+explained how Alexander might have left the church unobserved by the
+coachman. I wondered why no one had thought of this. It had probably not
+suggested itself to any one, because strangers are never admitted from
+that side, and because the door is almost always closed.
+
+Gregorios did not refer to the subject again that evening, but amused
+himself by asking me all manner of questions about the state of England.
+We fell to talking about European politics, and the hours passed very
+pleasantly until midnight.
+
+On the next day I went to see Paul, and told him the result of my first
+step. He appeared very grateful.
+
+"It seems hard that my life should be ruined by this thing," he said
+wearily. "Any prospect of news is delightful, however small. I am under
+a sort of curse,--as much as though I had really had something to do
+with poor Alexander's death. It comes up in all sorts of ways. Unless we
+can solve the mystery, I shall never be really free."
+
+"We will solve it," I said, in order to reassure him. "Nothing shall be
+left undone, and I hope that in a few weeks you may feel relieved from
+all this anxiety."
+
+"It is more than anxiety; it is pain," he answered. I supposed that he
+was thinking of Hermione, and was silent. Presently he proposed to go
+out. It was a fine day in February, though the snow was on the ground
+and filled the ruts in the pavement of the Grande Rue de Pera. Every one
+was wrapped in furs and every one wore overshoes, without which it is
+impossible to go out in winter in Constantinople. The streets were
+crowded with that strange multitude seen nowhere else in the world; the
+shops were full of people of all sorts, from the ladies of the embassies
+to the veiled Turkish ladies, who have small respect for the regulation
+forbidding them to buy in Frank establishments. At Galata Serai the huge
+Kurdish hamals loitered in the sun, waiting for a job, their ropes and
+the heavy pillows on which they carry their burdens lying at their feet.
+The lean dogs sat up and glared hungrily at the huge joints of meat
+which the butchers' lads carried through the crowd, forcing their way
+past the delicate Western ladies, who drew back in horror at the sight
+of so much raw beef, and through knots of well-dressed men standing
+before the cafes in the narrow street. Numberless soldiers moved in the
+crowd, tall, fair Turks, with broad shoulders and blue eyes, in the
+shabby uniform of the foot-guards, but looking as though they could
+fight as well as any smart Prussian grenadier, as indeed they can when
+they get enough to eat. Now and then a closed sedan-chair moved rapidly
+along, borne by sturdy Kurds, and occasionally a considerable
+disturbance was caused by the appearance of a carriage. Paul and I
+strolled down the steep street, past Galata Tower and down into Galata
+itself.
+
+"Shall we cross?" asked Paul, as we reached the bridge.
+
+"Let us go up the Bosphorus," I said. "There will probably be a steamer
+before long."
+
+He assented readily enough. It was about eleven o'clock in the
+morning,--five by the Turkish clocks,--and the day was magnificent. The
+sun was high, and illuminated everything in the bright, cold air, so
+that the domes and minarets of the city were white as snow, with bluish
+shadows, while the gilded crescents and spires glistened with unnatural
+brilliancy in the clear winter's daylight. It is hard to say whether
+Stamboul is more beautiful at any one season of the year than during the
+other three, for every season brings with it some especial loveliness,
+some new phase of color. You may reach Serai point on a winter's morning
+in a driving snow-storm, so that everything is hidden in the gray veil
+of the falling flakes; suddenly the clouds will part and the sunlight
+will fall full upon the city, so that it seems as if every mosque and
+spire were built of diamonds. Or you may cross to Scutari in the early
+dawn of a morning in June, when the sky is like a vast Eastern flower,
+dark blue in the midst overhead, the petals shaded with every tint to
+the faint purple on the horizon; and every hue in turn passes over the
+fantastic buildings, as the shadows gradually take color from the sky,
+and the soft velvety water laps up the light in broad pools and delicate
+streaks of tinted reflection. It is always beautiful, always new; but of
+all times, I think the hour when the high sun illuminates most
+distinctly everything on land and sea is the time when Stamboul is most
+splendid and queenly.
+
+The great ferry-boat heaved and thumped the water, and swung slowly off
+the wooden pier, while we stood on the upper deck watching the scene
+before us. For two men as familiar with Constantinople in all its
+aspects as we were, it seemed almost ridiculous to go on board a steamer
+merely for the sake of being carried to the mouth of the Black Sea and
+back again. But I have always loved the Bosphorus, and I thought it
+would amuse Paul to pass the many landings, and to see the crowds of
+passengers, and to walk about the empty deck. He was tired with the
+journey and harassed in mind, and for those ills the open air is the
+best medicine.
+
+He appeared to enjoy it, and asked me many questions about the palaces
+and villas on both shores, for I was better acquainted with the place
+than he. It seemed to interest him to know that such a villa belonged to
+such a Pasha, that such another was the property of an old princess of
+evil fame, while the third had seen strange doings in the days of
+Mehemet Ali, and was now deserted or inhabited only by ghosts of the
+past,--the resort of ghouls and jins from the neighboring grave-yards.
+As we lay a moment at the pier of Yeni Koej,--"New town" sounds less
+interesting,--we watched the stream of passengers, and I thought Paul
+started slightly as a tall, smooth-faced, and hideous negro suddenly
+turned and looked up to where we stood on the deck, as he left the
+steamer. I might have been mistaken, but it was the only approach to an
+incident of interest which occurred that day. We reached the upper part
+of the Bosphorus, and at Yeni Mahalle, within sight of the Black Sea,
+the ferry-boat described a wide circle and turned once more in the
+direction of Stamboul.
+
+"I feel better," said Paul, as we reached Galata bridge and elbowed our
+way ashore through the crowd. "We will go again."
+
+"By all means," I answered.
+
+From that time during several weeks we frequently made excursions into
+Stamboul and up the Bosphorus, and the constant enjoyment of the open
+air did Paul good. But I could see that wherever we went he watched the
+people with intense interest; following some individual with his eyes in
+silence, or trying to see into dark archways and through latticed
+windows, staring at the files of passengers who came on board the boats
+or went ashore at the different landings, and apparently never relaxing
+his attention. The people grew familiar to me, too, and gradually it
+appeared that Paul was constructing a method for our peregrinations. It
+was he, and not I, who suggested the direction of our expeditions, and I
+noticed that he chose certain places on certain days. On Monday, for
+instance, he never failed to propose a visit to the bazaars, on Tuesday
+we generally went up the Bosphorus, on Wednesday into Stamboul. On
+Friday afternoons, when the weather was fine, we used to ride out to the
+Sweet Waters of Europe; for Friday is the Mussulman's day of rest, and
+on that day all who are able love to go out to the Kiat-hane--the
+"paper-mill,"--where they pass the afternoon in driving and walking,
+eating sweetmeats, smoking, drinking coffee, watching gypsy girls dance,
+or listening to the long-winded tales of professional story-tellers.
+Almost every day had its regular excursion, and it was clear to me that
+he always chose the place where on that day of the week there was likely
+to be the greatest crowd.
+
+Meanwhile Balsamides, in whose house I continued to live, alternately
+laughed at me for believing Paul's story, and expressed in the next
+breath a hope that Alexander might yet be found. He had been to Santa
+Sophia, and had ascertained that the other staircase was usually opened
+on the nights when the mosque was illuminated, for the convenience of
+the men employed in lighting the lamps, and this confirmed his theory
+about the direction taken by Alexander when he left the gallery. But
+here all trace ceased again, and Balsamides was almost ready to give up
+the search, when an incident occurred which renewed our energy and hope,
+and which had the effect of rousing Paul to the greatest excitement.
+
+We were wandering under the gloomy arches of the vast bazaar one day,
+and had reached the quarter where the Spanish Jews have their shops and
+collect their wonderful mass of valuables, chiefly antiquities, offering
+them for sale in their little dens, and ever hungry for a bargain. We
+strolled along, smoking and chatting as we went, when a Jew named
+Marchetto, with whom I had had dealings in former days and who knew me
+very well, came suddenly out into the broad covered way, and invited us
+into his shop. He said he had an object of rare beauty which he was sure
+I would buy. We went in, and sat down on a low divan against the wall.
+The sides of the little shop were piled to the ceiling with neatly
+folded packages of stuffs, embroideries, and prayer carpets. In one
+corner stood a shabby old table with a glass case, under which various
+objects of gold and silver were exposed for sale. The whole place
+smelled strongly of Greek tobacco, but otherwise it was clean and neat.
+A little raised dome in the middle of the ceiling admitted light and
+air.
+
+Marchetto disappeared for a moment, and instantly returned with two cups
+of Turkish coffee on a pewter salver, which he deposited on a stool
+before us. He evidently meant business, for he began to talk of the
+weather, and seemed in no hurry to show us the object he had vaguely
+mentioned. At last I asked for it, which I would certainly not have done
+had I meant to buy it. It proved to be a magnificent strip of Rhodes
+tapestry, of the kind formerly made for the Knights of Malta, but not
+manufactured since the last century. It consists always of Maltese
+crosses, of various sizes and designs, embroidered in heavy dark red
+silk upon strips of coarse strong linen about two feet wide, or of the
+same design worked upon square pieces for cushions. The value of this
+tapestry is very great, and is principally determined by the fineness of
+the stitch and the shade of red in the silk used.
+
+Marchetto's face fell as we admired his tapestry, for he knew that we
+would not begin a bargain by conceding the smallest merit to the object
+offered. But he put a brave face on the matter, and began to show us
+other things: a Giordes carpet, a magnificent piece of old Broussa gold
+embroidery on pale blue satin, curious embroideries on towels, known as
+Persian lace,--indeed, every variety of ancient stuff. Tired of sitting
+still, I rose and turned over some of the things myself. In doing so I
+struck my elbow against the old glass case in the corner, and looked to
+see whether I had broken it. In so doing my eye naturally fell upon the
+things laid out on white paper beneath the glazed frame. Among them I
+saw a watch which attracted my attention. It was of silver, but very
+beautifully engraved and adorned in Russian _niello_. The ribbed knob
+which served to wind it was of gold. Altogether the workmanship was very
+fine, and the watch looked new.
+
+"Here is a Russian watch, Patoff," I said, tapping the glass pane with
+my finger. Paul rose languidly and came to the table. When he saw the
+thing he turned pale, and gripped my arm in sudden excitement.
+
+"It is his," he said, in a low voice, trying to raise the lid.
+
+"Alexander's?" Paul nodded. "Pretend to be indifferent," I said in
+Russian, fearing lest Marchetto should understand.
+
+The Jew unclosed the case and handed us the watch. Paul took it with
+trembling fingers and opened it at the back. There in Russian letters
+were engraved the words ALEXANDER PAULOVITCH, FROM HIS FATHER; the date
+followed. There was no doubt about it. The watch had belonged to the
+lost man; he had, therefore, been robbed.
+
+"You got this from some bankrupt Pasha, Marchetto?" I inquired.
+Everything offered for sale in the bazaar at second hand is said to come
+from the establishment of a Pasha; the statement is supposed to attract
+foreigners.
+
+Marchetto nodded and smiled.
+
+"A Russian Pasha," I continued. "Did you ever hear of a Russian Pasha,
+Marchetto? The fellow who sold it to you lied."
+
+"He who lies on the first day of Ramazan repents on the day of Bairam,"
+returned the Jew, quoting a Turkish proverb, and grinning. I was struck
+by the words. Somehow the mention of Bairam made me think of Alexander's
+uncertain fate, and suggested the idea that Marchetto knew something
+about it.
+
+"Yes," I answered, looking sharply at him; "and another proverb says
+that the fox ends his days in the furrier's shop. Where did you buy the
+watch?"
+
+"Allah bilir! I have forgotten."
+
+"Allah knows, undoubtedly. But you know too," I said, laughing, and
+pretending to be amused. Paul had resumed his seat upon the small divan,
+and was listening with intense interest; but he knew it was best to
+leave the thing to me. Marchetto was a fat man, with red hair and
+red-brown eyes. He looked at me doubtfully for a moment.
+
+"I will buy it if you will tell me where you got it," I said.
+
+"I got it"--He hesitated. "It came out of a harem," he added suddenly,
+with a sort of chuckle.
+
+"Out of a harem!" I exclaimed, in utter incredulity. "What harem?"
+
+"I will not tell you," he answered, gravely, the smile fading from his
+face. "I swore that I would not tell."
+
+"Will you swear that it really came from a harem?" I asked.
+
+"I give you my word of honor," asseverated Marchetto. "I swear by my
+head, by your beard"----
+
+"I do not mean that," I said quietly. "Will you swear to me, solemnly,
+before God, that you are telling the truth?"
+
+Marchetto looked at me in surprise, for no people in the world are so
+averse to making a solemn oath as the Hebrews, as, perhaps, no people
+are more exact in regard to the truth when so made to bind themselves.
+The man looked at me for a moment.
+
+"You seem very curious about that watch," he said at last, turning away
+and busying himself with his stuffs.
+
+"Then you will not swear?" I asked, putting the watch back in its place.
+
+"I cannot swear to what I do not know. But I know the man who sold it to
+me. He is the Lala of a harem, that is certain. I will not tell you his
+name, nor the name of the Effendi to whose harem he belongs. Will you
+buy my watch?--birindji--first quality--it is a beautiful thing. On my
+honor, I have never seen a finer one, though it is of silver."
+
+"Not unless you will tell me where it came from," I said firmly.
+"Besides, I must show it to Vartan in Pera before I buy it. Perhaps the
+works are not good."
+
+"It is yours," said Marchetto. "Take it. When you have had it two days
+you will buy it."
+
+"How much?"
+
+"Twenty liras,--twenty Turkish pounds," answered the Jew promptly.
+
+"You mean five," I said. The watch was worth ten, I thought, about two
+hundred and thirty francs.
+
+"Impossible. I would rather let you take it as a gift. It is
+birindji--first quality--upon my honor. I never saw"----
+
+"Rubbish, Marchetto!" I exclaimed. "Let me take it to Vartan to be
+examined. Then we will bargain."
+
+"Take it," he answered. "Keep it as long as you like. I know you very
+well, and I thank Heaven I have profited a little with you. But the
+price of the watch is twenty pounds. You will pay it, and all your life
+you will look at it and say, 'What an honest man Marchetto is!' By my
+head--it is birindji--first quality--I never"----
+
+"I have no doubt," I answered, cutting him short. I motioned to Paul
+that we had better go: he rose without a word.
+
+"Good-by, Marchetto," I said. "I will come back in a day or two and
+bargain with you."
+
+"It is birindji--by my head--first quality"--were the last words we
+heard as we left the Jew amongst his stuffs. Then we threaded the
+subterranean passages of the bazaar, and soon afterwards were walking in
+the direction of Galata bridge, on our way back to Pera. At last Paul
+spoke.
+
+"We are on the scent," he said. "That fellow was speaking the truth when
+he said the watch came from a harem. I could see it in his face. I begin
+to think that Alexander did some absurdly rash thing,--followed some
+veiled Turkish woman, as he would have done before if I had not stopped
+him,--was seized, imprisoned in some cellar or other, and ultimately
+murdered."
+
+"It looks like it," I answered. "Of course I would not buy the watch
+outright, because as long as it is not paid for I have a hold upon
+Marchetto. I will talk to Balsamides to-night. He is very clever about
+those things, and he will find out the name of the black man who sold
+it."
+
+We separated, and I went to find my friend; but he was on duty and would
+not return until evening. I spent the rest of the day in making visits,
+trying to get rid of the time. On returning to the house of Gregorios I
+found a letter from John Carvel, the first I had received from him since
+I had left England. It ran as follows:--
+
+* * *
+
+MY DEAR GRIGGS: Since you left us something very extraordinary and
+unexpected has taken place, and considering the part you took in our
+household affairs, you should not be kept in the dark. I have suffered
+more annoyance in connection with my unfortunate sister-in-law than I
+can ever tell you; and the thing has culminated in a sort of
+transformation scene, such as you certainly never expected any more than
+I did. What will you say when I tell you that Madame Patoff has suddenly
+emerged from her rooms in all respects a sane woman? You will not be any
+less surprised--unless Paul has confided in you--to hear that he asked
+Hermione to marry him before leaving us, and that Hermione did not
+refuse him! I am so nervous that I have cut three meets in the last
+month.
+
+Of course you will want to know how all this came out. I do not see how
+I can manage to write so long a letter as this must be. But the _labor
+improbus_ knocks the stuffing out of all difficulties, as you put it in
+your neat American way. I dare say I shall survive. If I do not, the
+directions for my epitaph are, "Here lies the body of Anne Patoff's
+brother-in-law." If you could see me, you would appreciate the justice
+of the inscription.
+
+Madame Patoff is perfectly sane; dines with us, drives out, walks,
+talks, and reads like any other human being,--in which she differs
+materially from Chrysophrasia, who does all these things as they were
+never done, before or after the flood. We do not know what to make of
+the situation, but we try to make the best of it. It came about in this
+way. Hermione had taken a fancy to pay her aunt a visit, a day or two
+after you had left. Mrs. North was outside, as usual, reading or working
+in the next room. It chanced that the door was left open, or not quite
+closed. Mrs. North had the habit of listening to what went on,
+professionally, because it was her business to watch the case. As she
+sat there working, she heard Madame Patoff's voice, talking
+consecutively. She had never heard her talk before, more than to say
+"Yes," or "No," or "It is a fine day," or "It rains." She rose and went
+near the door. Her patient was talking very connectedly about a book she
+had been reading, and Hermione was answering her as though not at all
+surprised at the conversation. Then, presently, Hermione began to beg
+her to come out into the house and to live with the rest of us, since
+she was now perfectly sane. Mrs. North was thunderstruck, but did not
+lose her head. She probably did the best thing she could have done, as
+the event proved. She entered the room very quietly,--she is always so
+quiet,--and said in the most natural way in the world, "I am so glad you
+are better, Madame Patoff. Excuse me, Miss Hermione left the door open
+and I heard you talking." The old lady started and looked at her a
+moment. Then she turned away, and presently, looking rather white, she
+answered the nurse: "Thank you, Mrs. North, I am quite well. Will you
+send for Professor Cutter?" So Cutter was sent for, and when he had
+seen her he sent for me, and told me that my sister-in-law was in a
+lucid state, but that it would be just as well not to excite her. If she
+chose to leave her room she might, he said, but she ought to be watched.
+"The deuce!" said I, "this is most extraordinary!" "Exactly," said he,
+"most extraordinary."
+
+The lucid moment lasted, and she has been perfectly sane ever since. She
+goes about the house, touching everything and admiring everything, and
+enjoys driving with me in the dog-cart. I do not know what to make of
+it. I asked Hermione how it began. She only said that she thought her
+aunt had been better when she was with her, and then it had come very
+suddenly. The other day Madame Patoff asked about Paul, and I told her
+he had gone to the East with you. But she did not seem to know anything
+about you, though I told her you had seen her. "Poor Paul," she said, "I
+should like to see him so much. He is the only one left." She was sad
+for a moment, but that was all. Cutter said it was very strange; that
+her insanity must have been caused in some way by the shock she had when
+she threw herself out of the window in Germany. Perhaps so. At all
+events she is sane now, and Cutter says she will not be crazy again. I
+hope he is right. She appeared very grateful for all I had done for her,
+and I believe she has written to Paul. Queer story, is it not?
+
+Now for the sequel. Hermione came to me one morning in the library, and
+confessed that Paul had asked her to marry him, and that she had not
+exactly refused. Girls' ideas about those things are apt to be very
+inexact when they are in love with a man and do not want to own it. Of
+course I said I was glad she had not accepted him; but when I put it to
+her in that way she seemed more uncertain than ever. The end of it was
+that she said she could not marry him, however much she liked him,
+unless he could put an end to a certain foolish tale which is told
+against him. I dare say you have heard that he had been half suspected
+of helping his brother out of the world. Was there ever such nonsense?
+That was what Chrysophrasia meant with her disgusting personalities
+about Cain and Abel. I dare say you remember. I do not mind telling you
+that I like Paul very much more than I expected to when he first came.
+He has a hard shell, but he is a good fellow, and as innocent of his
+brother's death as I am. But--they are cousins, and Paul's mother has
+certainly been insane. Of course insanity brought on by an accident can
+never be hereditary; but then, there is Chrysophrasia, who is certainly
+very odd. However, Paul is a fine fellow, and I will think of it. Mrs.
+Carvel likes him even better than I do. I would have preferred that
+Hermione should marry an out-and-out Englishman, but I always said she
+should marry the man she loved, if he were a gentleman, and I will not
+go back on my word. They will not have much to live on, for I believe
+Paul has refused to touch a penny of his brother's fortune, believing
+that he may yet be found.
+
+But the plot thickens. What do you suppose Macaulay has been doing? He
+has written a letter to his old chief, Lord Mavourneen, who always liked
+him so much, begging to be sent to Constantinople. The ambassador had a
+secretary out there of the same standing who wanted to go to Paris, so
+the matter was arranged at the Foreign Office, and Macaulay is going out
+at once. Naturally the female establishment set up a howl that they must
+spend the summer on the Bosphorus; that I had taken them everywhere
+else, and that no one of them could die happy without having seen
+Constantinople. The howl lasted a week. Then I went the way of all
+flesh, and gave in. Mrs. Carvel wanted to see Macaulay, Madame Patoff
+wanted to see the place where poor Alexander disappeared, Hermione
+wanted to see Paul, and Chrysophrasia wanted to see the Golden Horn and
+dance upon the glad waters of the joyous Bosphorus in the light caique
+of commerce. I am rather glad I have submitted. I think that Hermione's
+affection is serious,--she looks ill, poor child,--and I want to see
+more of Paul before deciding. Of course, with Macaulay in one embassy
+and Paul in another, we shall see everything; and Mary says I am growing
+crusty over my books. You understand now how all this has occurred.
+
+Now I want your advice, for you not only know Constantinople, but you
+are living there. Do you advise us to come at once and spend the spring,
+or to come later and stay all summer? Is there anything to eat? Must I
+bring a cook? Can I get a house, or must we encamp in a hotel? What
+clothes does one wear? In short, tell me everything you know, on a
+series of post cards or by telegraph,--for you hate writing letters more
+than I do. I await your answer with anxiety, as we shall regulate our
+movements by what you say. All send affectionate messages to you and to
+Paul, to whom please read this letter.
+
+Yours ever, JOHN CARVEL.
+
+* * *
+
+I had not recovered from my astonishment in reading this long epistle,
+when Gregorios came in and sat down by the fire. His entrance reminded
+me of the watch, and for the moment banished John Carvel and his family
+from my thoughts. I showed him the thing, and told him what Marchetto
+had said.
+
+"We have him now!" he exclaimed, examining the name and date with
+interest, though he could not read the Russian characters.
+
+"It is not so sure," I said. "He will never tell the name of the negro."
+
+"No; but we can see the fellow easily enough, I fancy," returned
+Balsamides. "You do not know how these things are done. It is most
+probable that Marchetto has not paid him for the watch. Things of that
+sort are generally not paid for until they have been sold out of the
+shop. Marchetto would not give him a good price for the watch until he
+knew what it would fetch, and the man would not take a small sum because
+he believes it to be valuable. The chances are that the Lala comes from
+time to time to inquire if it is sold, and Marchetto shows it to him to
+prove that he has not got any money for it."
+
+"That sounds rather far-fetched," I observed. "Marchetto may have had it
+in his keeping ever since Alexander disappeared. The Lala would not wait
+as long as that. He would take it to some one else."
+
+"No, I do not believe so," said Gregorios thoughtfully. "Besides, it may
+not have been brought to the Jew more than a week ago. Those fellows do
+not part with jewelry unless they need money. It is a pretty thing, too,
+and would attract the attention of any foreigner."
+
+"How can you manage to watch Marchetto so closely as to get a sight of
+the man?"
+
+"Bribe the Jew in the next shop; or, still better, pay a hamal to spend
+his time in the neighborhood. The man probably comes once a week on a
+certain day. Keep the watch. The next time he comes it will be gone, but
+Marchetto will not have been paid for it and will refuse to pay the
+Lala. There will inevitably be a hubbub and a noise over it. The hamal
+can easily find out the name of the negro, who is probably well known in
+the bazaar."
+
+"But suppose that I am right, and it is already paid for?" I objected.
+
+"It is very unlikely. I know these people better than you do. At all
+events, we will put the hamal there to watch for the row. If it does not
+come off in a month, I will begin to think you are right."
+
+Gregorios is a true Oriental. He possesses the inborn instinct of the
+bazaar.
+
+
+
+
+XIII.
+
+
+That night I went in search of Paul, and found him standing silent and
+alone in the corner of a drawing-room at one of the embassies. There was
+a great reception and a dance, and all the diplomats had turned out
+officially to see that portion of the native Pera society which is
+invited on such occasions.
+
+There is a brilliancy about such affairs in Constantinople which is
+hardly rivaled elsewhere. The display of jewels is something wonderful,
+for the great Fanariote families are still rich, in spite of the
+devastations of the late war, and the light of their hereditary diamonds
+and pearls is not hidden under a bushel. There is beauty, too, of the
+Oriental and Western kind, and plenty of it. The black eyes and
+transparently white complexions of the Greek ladies, their raven hair
+and heavy brows, their magnificent calm and their languid attitudes,
+contrast strangely with the fair women of many countries, whose
+husbands, or fathers, or brothers, or uncles are attached to the
+different embassies. The uniforms, too, are often superb, and the
+display of decorations is amazing. The conversation is an enlargement on
+the ordinary idea of Babel, for almost every known language is spoken
+within the limits of the ball-room.
+
+I found Paul alone, with an abstracted expression on his face, as he
+stood aside from the crowd, unnoticed in his corner.
+
+"My dear fellow," I said, "I believe I may congratulate you."
+
+"Upon what?" he asked, in some surprise.
+
+"Let us get out of this crowd," I answered. "I have a letter from John
+Carvel, which you ought to read."
+
+We threaded the rooms till we reached a small boudoir, occupied only by
+one or two couples, exceedingly interested in each other.
+
+"Read that," said I. It was the best thing I could do for him, I
+thought. He might be annoyed to find that I knew his secret, but he
+could not fail to rejoice at the view John took of the engagement. His
+face changed many times in expression, as he read the letter carefully.
+When he had finished he was silent and held it in his hand.
+
+"What do you think of all this?" I asked.
+
+"She never was mad. Or if she was, this is the strangest recovery I ever
+heard of. So she is coming here with the rest! And uncle John thinks me
+a very fine fellow," he added with a laugh, meant to be a little
+sarcastic, but which ended with the irrepressible ring of genuine
+happiness.
+
+"I congratulate you," I said. "I think the affair is as good as settled.
+You have only to wait a few weeks, and they will be here. By the by, I
+hope you do not mind Carvel's frankness in telling me all about it?"
+
+"Not in the least," answered Paul, with a smile. "I believe you are the
+best friend I have in the world, and you are his friend. You will do
+good rather than harm."
+
+"I hope so," said I. "But if any one had foretold a month ago that we
+should all be together again so soon,--and here, too,--I could have
+laughed at him."
+
+"It is fate," answered Paul. "It would be better if it could be put off
+until we reach the end of our search, especially as we seem to be nearer
+the track than ever before. I am afraid that their arrival will hinder
+us--or, at least, me--from working as hard as I would like."
+
+"On the contrary," I replied, "I fancy you will work all the harder. I
+have been talking to Balsamides about the watch. He feels sure that he
+can catch the man who took it to Marchetto."
+
+I explained to Paul the course Gregorios proposed to follow. He seemed
+to think the chance was a poor one.
+
+"I have been pursued by an idea ever since this morning," he said at
+last. "I dare say you will think it very foolish, but I cannot get rid
+of it. Do you remember the adventure in the Valley of Roses? I told you
+about it at Carvel Place. Very well. I cannot help thinking that the
+negro who took the watch to Marchetto was the one who accompanied those
+two Turkish women. The man was exasperated. He probably knew us by
+sight, for we had constantly met him and the lady with the thick
+yashmak. They had often seen us come out of the Russian embassy. No
+complaint was ever made against Alexander. It looks to me like a piece
+of private vengeance."
+
+"Yes," I assented, struck by the idea. "Besides, if the fellow had
+succeeded in making away with your brother, it is natural that he should
+have waited a long time before disposing of his jewelry."
+
+"I wonder what became of the other things," said Patoff. "Alexander had
+with him his Moscow cigarette case, he wore a gold chain with the watch,
+and he had on his finger a ring with a sapphire and two diamonds in a
+heavy gold band. If all those things have been disposed of, they must
+have passed through the bazaar, probably through Marchetto's hands."
+
+At this moment Balsamides Bey's pale, intelligent face showed itself at
+the door. He came quickly forward on seeing us, and drew up a chair. I
+told him in a few words what we had said. He smiled and twirled the end
+of his brown mustache.
+
+"There is something in that," he answered. "I fancy, too, that such a
+fellow would first part with the chain, then with the cigarette case,
+thirdly with the watch, and last of all with the ring, which he probably
+wears."
+
+"We must find out if Marchetto has sold the chain and the case for him,"
+I said.
+
+"Leave Marchetto to me," said Gregorios, confidently. "I will spend the
+day with him to-morrow. Have you ever seen the negro since that affair
+in the Valley of Roses?"
+
+"Often," replied Paul, somewhat to my surprise. "He goes to Yeni Koej
+every Thursday."
+
+"You seem to have watched his movements," observed Balsamides, with a
+smile of admiration. "Did you never tell Griggs?"
+
+"No," said I, rather amazed.
+
+"What would have been the use? I only watched the man because I fancied
+he might be in some way connected with the matter, but it seemed so
+absurd, until the finding of the watch made it look more probable, that
+I never spoke of it."
+
+"I am glad you have spoken of it now," said Gregorios. "It is probably
+the key to the whole affair."
+
+We talked on for a few minutes, and Paul told Balsamides that his mother
+and the Carvels were coming, explaining his anxiety to hasten the search
+so as to have something positive to show when they arrived. Then Paul
+left us, and went to fulfill such social obligations as his position
+imposed upon him. He was not a man to forget such things, even in times
+of great excitement; and when he returned to Constantinople, his chief
+had expressed the hope that Paul would not shut himself up, but would go
+everywhere, as he had formerly done.
+
+"This thing is beginning to interest me, Griggs," said Gregorios,
+arching his eyebrows, and looking at me with a peculiar expression. "You
+are doing more than I am, and I will not bear it," he added, with a
+laugh. "What is my little bit of evidence about the staircase in Santa
+Sophia compared to your discovery of the watch? I believe that in the
+end Marchetto will be the _deus ex machina_ who will pull us out of all
+our difficulties. I believe, too, that the best thing to do is to
+confide the matter to him. I will go and see him to-morrow."
+
+"He will never break his oath to the Lala," I answered.
+
+"Perhaps not. But he has only sworn that he will not tell his name. He
+has not sworn that he will not let me see him. So the fellow goes to
+Yeni Koej on Thursday. Then he probably lives there, and chooses that day
+to come to Stamboul. You have seen him going home. If he goes to
+Stamboul, he most likely visits the bazaar early in the morning. If so,
+I will catch him to-morrow, and to-morrow night I will tell you whether
+he is the man or not. I will come upon Marchetto by accident, and he
+will of course want to show me the Rhodes tapestry; then I will spend
+the whole morning over the bargain, and I shall not miss the Lala if he
+comes."
+
+Balsamides was evidently fully roused, and as we smoked a last cigarette
+in his rooms that night he talked enthusiastically of what he hoped to
+accomplish on the next day. He kept his word, and very early in the
+morning I heard him go out. From the sound of his walk I could tell that
+he had no spurs, and was therefore in civilian's dress. He told me
+afterwards what occurred.
+
+At half past eight o'clock he was drinking a cup of coffee in
+Marchetto's shop in the bazaar, and the Jew was displaying his tapestry,
+and swearing that it was birindji, first quality. Balsamides wanted to
+produce the impression that he intended to make a bargain.
+
+"Kaldyr! Take it away!" he exclaimed. "It is rubbish."
+
+Marchetto held the stuff up over his customer's head so that the light
+from the little dome could fall upon it.
+
+"There is not a hole in the whole length of it," he cried
+enthusiastically. "It is perfect; not a thread loose. Examine it; is
+there a patch? By my head, if you can find such another piece I will
+give you a present."
+
+"Is that a color?" asked Balsamides contemptuously. "Is that red? It is
+pink. It is magenta. How much did you pay to have it made?"
+
+"If I could make Rhodes tapestry, I should be as rich as the Hunkyar,"
+retorted Marchetto, squatting on the matted floor and slowly drawing the
+magnificent tapestry across his knees, so that Gregorios could see it to
+advantage.
+
+"Do you take me for a madman?" asked the aid-de-camp. "I do not care for
+Rhodes tapestry. Kaldyr! If it were old, it would have holes in it."
+
+"I have Rhodes full of holes, beautiful holes," observed Marchetto, with
+a grin.
+
+"Fox!" retorted Gregorios. "Do you think when I buy tapestry I want to
+buy holes?"
+
+"But this piece has none," argued the Jew.
+
+"You want me to buy it. I can see you do. You are laughing at my beard.
+You think I will give a thousand pounds for your rubbish?"
+
+"Not a thousand pounds," said Marchetto. "It is worth a hundred and
+fifty pounds, neither more nor less. Marchetto is an honest man. He is
+not a Persian fox."
+
+"No," answered Balsamides, "he is an Israelite of Saloniki. What have I
+to do with such a fellow as you, who have the impudence to ask a hundred
+and fifty liras for that rag?"
+
+"How shall the lion and the lamb lie down together?" inquired Marchetto.
+"And is it a rag?"
+
+"I will tell you, Marchetto," said Gregorios, gravely. "The lion and the
+lamb shall lie down together, when the lion lies down with the lamb
+inside of him."
+
+"Take, and eat!" exclaimed the ready Jew, holding out the Rhodes
+tapestry to Balsamides.
+
+"A man who has fasted throughout Ramazan shall not break his fast with
+an onion," retorted Gregorios, laughing.
+
+"Who eats little earns much," replied Marchetto. "Is it not the most
+beautiful piece of Rhodes you ever saw, Effendim? There is not a Pasha
+in Stamboul, nor in Pera, nor in Scutari, who possesses the like of it.
+Only a hundred and fifty pounds; it is very cheap."
+
+"I will give you ten pounds for it, if you will give me a good
+backsheesh," said Gregorios at last. In Stamboul it is customary, when a
+bargain of any importance is completed, for the seller to make the buyer
+a present of some small object, which is called the backsheesh, or gift.
+
+On hearing the offer, Marchetto looked slyly at Gregorios and laughed,
+without saying anything. Then he slowly began to fold the tapestry
+together.
+
+"Ten pounds," said Balsamides. "Pek chok,--that is quite enough, and too
+much."
+
+"Yes, of course it is," answered the Jew, ironically. "I paid a hundred
+and nineteen pounds and eighty-five piastres for it. I only ask fifteen
+piastres profit. Small profits. Get rid of everything quickly. Who sells
+cheaply sells soon; who sells soon earns much."
+
+"I told you from the first that I did not want your Rhodes," said
+Balsamides. "I came here to see what you had. Have you nothing else that
+is good?"
+
+"Everything Marchetto has is good. His carpets are all of silk, and of
+the finest colors. His embroideries are the envy of the bazaar.
+Marchetto has everything."
+
+He did not finish folding the Rhodes, but thrust it aside upon the
+matting, and began to pull down other stuffs and carpets from the
+shelves. From the obstinacy Gregorios displayed, he really judged that
+he meant to buy the tapestry, and to make a good bargain he would
+willingly have turned everything in his little shop upside down.
+
+Gregorios admired several pieces very much, whereupon the Jew threw them
+aside in disgust, well knowing that his customer would not buy them. The
+latter had now been an hour in the shop, and showed no signs of going
+away. Marchetto returned to the original question.
+
+"If it is worth so much, why do you not take it to one of the
+embassies?" asked Balsamides at last. He had resolved that he would
+prolong the discussion until twelve o'clock, judging that by midday the
+negro would be on his way back to Yeni Koej, and that there would be no
+further chance of seeing him. He therefore broached the subject of
+Marchetto's trade with the foreigners, knowing that once upon this tack
+the Jew would have endless stories and anecdotes to relate. But
+Gregorios was not destined to stand in need of so much ingenuity. He
+would never have made the attempt in which he was now engaged unless he
+had anticipated success, and he was not surprised when a tall,
+smooth-faced negro, of hideous countenance but exceedingly well dressed,
+put his head into the shop. He saluted Gregorios and entered. Marchetto
+touched his mouth and his fez with his right hand, but did not at first
+rise from his seat upon the floor. Balsamides watched the man. He looked
+about the shop, and then approached the old glass case in the corner. He
+had hardly glanced at it when he turned and tried to catch Marchetto's
+eye. The latter made an almost imperceptible motion of the head.
+Gregorios was satisfied that the pantomime referred to the watch, which
+was no longer in its place. He continued to talk with the Jew for a few
+minutes, and then slowly rose from his seat.
+
+"I see you have business with this gentleman," he said. "I have
+something to do in the bazaar. I will return in half an hour."
+
+The Lala seemed delighted, and politely made way for Gregorios to pass,
+but Marchetto of course protested loudly that the negro's business could
+wait. He accompanied Gregorios to the door, and with many inclinations
+stood looking after him for a few moments. At a little distance
+Gregorios pretended to be attracted by something exposed for sale, and,
+pausing, looked furtively back. The Jew had gone in again. Then
+Balsamides returned and entered a shop almost opposite to Marchetto's,
+kept by another Spanish Hebrew of Saloniki, who made a specialty of
+selling shawls,--a smart young fellow, with beady black eyes.
+
+"Good morning, Abraham," he said. "Have you manufactured any new Kashmir
+shawls out of old rags of borders and French imitations since I saw
+you?"
+
+Abraham smiled pleasantly, and began to unfold his wares. Before many
+minutes the sound of angry voices was heard outside. Gregorios had
+ensconced himself in a corner, whence he could see what went on without
+being seen. The quarrelers were Marchetto and the Lala.
+
+"Dog of a Jew!" screamed the black man in his high, cracked voice. "Will
+you rob me, and then turn me out of your filthy den? You shall suffer
+for it, you Saloniki beast!"
+
+"Dog yourself, and son of a dog!" bellowed Marchetto, his big face
+growing fiery red as he blocked the doorway with his bulky shoulders.
+"Behold the gratitude of this vile wretch!" he cried, as though
+addressing an audience. "Look at this insatiate jackal, this pork-eater,
+this defiler of his father's grave! Oh! beware of touching what is
+black, for the filth will surely rub off!"
+
+Exasperated at the Jew's eloquent abuse, the Lala tried to push him back
+into the shop, flourishing his light cane in his right hand. In a moment
+a crowd collected, and the epithets of the combatants were drowned
+amidst the jeers and laughter of the by-standers, delighted at seeing
+the dandy keeper of a great harem in the clutches of the sturdy
+Marchetto.
+
+Abraham looked out, and then turned back to his customer.
+
+"It is Selim," he said with a chuckle. "He has been trying to cheat
+Marchetto again."
+
+"Again?" repeated Gregorios, who had at last attained his end. "And who
+is Selim, Abraham?"
+
+"Selim? Everybody in the bazaar knows Selim, the most insolent,
+avaricious, money-grabbing Lala in Stamboul. He is more like a Persian
+than anything else. He is the Lala of Laleli Khanum Effendi, who lives
+at Yeni Koej. They say she is a witch since her husband died," added
+Abraham, lowering his voice.
+
+"I have heard so," said Gregorios calmly. But in reality he was
+triumphant. He knew now what had become of Alexander Patoff.
+
+The noise outside was rapidly growing to an uproar. Gregorios slipped
+quickly out of the shop and made his way through the crowd, for he felt
+that it was time to put a stop to the quarrel. Many of the people knew
+him, and knew that he was an officer and a man in authority; recognizing
+him, they stopped yelling and made way for him.
+
+"What is this?" he cried, violently separating Marchetto and the negro,
+who were screaming insults at each other and shaking their fists in each
+other's faces. "Stop this noise," he continued, "or I will send a score
+of soldiers down to keep you in order. If the Lala is not satisfied, he
+can go before the magistrate. So can Marchetto, if he likes.--Go!" he
+said to the negro, pushing him away and scattering the crowd. "If you
+have any complaints to make, go to the magistrate."
+
+"Who are you?" asked the fellow, insolently.
+
+"It is none of your business," answered Gregorios, dragging the man away
+in the nervous grip of his white hand; then lowering his voice, he spoke
+quickly in the man's ear: "Do you remember the Bairam, a year ago last
+summer? If you are not quiet, I will ask you what became of the chain of
+that watch, of the silver box, and especially of that beautiful ring
+with the sapphire and two diamonds. Moreover, I may ask you what became
+of a certain Frank Effendi, to whom they belonged,--do you understand?"
+
+The man trembled in every joint, and a greenish livid hue seemed to
+drive the blackness out of his face.
+
+"I know nothing!" he gasped hysterically. But Balsamides let him go.
+
+"Be quick," he said. "The watch will be paid for, but do not venture to
+come to the bazaar again for some time. Fear nothing,--I have an eye to
+your safety."
+
+The last speech was perhaps somewhat ambiguous, but the man, being once
+released, dived into a narrow passage and disappeared. The crowd of
+Jews had shrunk into their shops again. Gregorios hastily concluded a
+bargain with Abraham, and then returned to finish his conversation with
+Marchetto. He found the latter mopping his forehead, and talking
+excitedly to a couple of sympathetic Hebrews who had entered his place
+of business. On seeing Balsamides they immediately left the shop.
+
+"I have sent him away," said Gregorios. "He will not trouble you again."
+
+"It is not my fault if the dog of a Turk is angry," answered Marchetto.
+
+"I hardly know. He says he had left a watch with you to be sold, and
+that now he can get neither the watch nor the money. You like to keep
+your customers waiting when they have anything to sell, Marchetto. How
+long is it since he gave you the watch?"
+
+"On my head, it is only three weeks," answered the Jew. "How can I sell
+a watch in three weeks and get the money for it? An Effendi took the
+watch yesterday to show it to Vartan, the jeweler. He is a friend of
+yours, Effendim; you first brought him here a long time ago. His name is
+a strange name,--Cricks,--a very strange name, like the creaking of an
+ungreased cart-wheel."
+
+"Oh, did he take the watch? I will speak to him about it. He will pay
+you immediately. How did the Lala come to have a watch to sell?"
+
+"Allah bilir. He is always bringing me things to sell."
+
+"Other things?"
+
+"He showed me a gold chain one day in the winter. But it was not
+curious, so he took it to a jeweler in the jeweler's tcharshee, who gave
+him the value of the gold by weight."
+
+"Who is he?" asked Gregorios, judging that he ought to show some
+curiosity about the man.
+
+"I cannot tell," answered the Jew.
+
+"That means that you will not, of course. Very well. It is your affair.
+Curiosity is the mother of deception. Will you give me the Rhodes for
+ten pounds?"
+
+They began to bargain again, but nothing was concluded on that day, for
+Gregorios had got what he wanted, and was anxious to reach home and to
+see me.
+
+Patoff and I, as usual on Thursday, had made a trip up the Bosphorus,
+and it was on this occasion that he first pointed out to me the hideous
+negro. He proved to be the same man I had seen once before, on our very
+first excursion. To-day he looked more ugly than ever, as he went ashore
+at Yeni Koej. There was a malignity in his face such as I have never seen
+equaled in the expression of any human being.
+
+"I wonder what we shall find out," said Paul thoughtfully. "I have a
+very strong belief that he is the fellow who sold the watch. If he is,
+poor Alexander can have had but small chance of escape. Did you ever see
+such a diabolical face? Of course it may be a mere fancy, but I cannot
+rid myself of the thought."
+
+"Balsamides will find out," I replied. "He can handle those fellows in
+the bazaar as only an Oriental can."
+
+It was not long before I heard the story of the morning's adventure from
+Gregorios. I found him waiting for me and very impatient. He told his
+tale triumphantly, dwelling on the fact that Marchetto himself had never
+suspected that he was interested in the matter.
+
+"And who is Laleli Khanum Effendi?" I inquired when he had finished.
+"And how are we to get into her house?"
+
+"You never heard of Laleli? You Franks think you know Constantinople,
+but you know very little in reality. Laleli means 'a tulip.' A pretty
+name, Tulip. Why not 'cabbage rose,' or 'artichoke,' or 'asparagus'?
+Laleli is an extraordinary woman, my friend, and has been in the habit
+of doing extraordinary things, ever since she poisoned her husband. She
+is the sister of a very high and mighty personage, who has been dead
+some time. She was married to an important officer in the government.
+She was concerned in the conspiracy against Abdul Azis; she is said to
+have poisoned her husband; she fell in her turn a victim to the
+conspiracy against Murad, and, though not banished, lost all favor. She
+managed to keep her fortune, however, which is very large, and she has
+lived for many years in Yeni Koej. There are all sorts of legends about
+her. Some say she is old and hideous, others declare that she has
+preserved her beauty by witchcraft. There is nothing absurd which has
+not been said of her. She certainly at one time exercised considerable
+influence in politics. That is all I know of her except this, which I
+have never believed: it has been said that more than one person has been
+seen to enter her house, but has never been seen to leave it."
+
+"How can one believe that?" I asked skeptically. "If it were really
+known, her house would have been searched, especially as she is out of
+favor."
+
+"It is curious, however," said Gregorios, without contradicting me,
+"that we should have traced Alexander Patoff's personal possessions to
+her house."
+
+"What shall we do next?" I asked.
+
+"There are only two courses open. In the first place, we can easily
+catch the Lala who sold the watch, and take him to a quiet place."
+
+"Well, do you suppose he will tell us what he knows?"
+
+"We will torture him," said Balsamides, coolly. I confess that I was
+rather startled by the calm way in which he made the proposition. I
+inwardly determined that we should do nothing of the kind.
+
+"What is the other alternative?" I inquired, without showing any
+surprise.
+
+"To break into the house and make a search, I suppose," answered my
+friend, still quite unmoved, and speaking as though he were proposing a
+picnic on the Bosphorus.
+
+"That is not an easy matter," I remarked, "besides being slightly
+illegal."
+
+"Whatever we do must be illegal," answered Gregorios. "If we begin to
+use the law, the Khanum will have timely warning. If Alexander is still
+alive and imprisoned in her house, it would be the work of a moment to
+drop him into the Bosphorus. If he is dead already, we should have less
+chance of getting evidence of the fact by using legal means than by
+extracting a confession by bribery or violence."
+
+"In other words, you think it is indispensable that we should undertake
+a burglary?"
+
+"Unless we succeed in persuading the Lala to confess," said Balsamides.
+
+"This is a very unpleasant business," I remarked, with a pardonable
+hesitation. "I do not quite see where it will end. If we break into the
+house and find nothing, we shall be amenable to the law. I object to
+that."
+
+"Very well. What do you propose?"
+
+"I cannot say what would be best. In my opinion, Paul should consult
+with his ambassador, and take his advice. But before all else it is
+necessary to find out whether Alexander is dead or alive."
+
+"Of course. That is precisely what I want to find out," answered
+Balsamides, rather impatiently. "The person who can best answer the
+question is Selim, the Lala."
+
+"I object to using violence," I said, boldly. "I fancy he might be
+bribed. Those fellows will do anything for money."
+
+"You do not know them. They will commit any baseness for money, except
+betraying their masters. It has been tried a hundred times. We may avoid
+using violence, as you call it, but the man must be frightened with the
+show of it. The people who can be bribed are the women slaves of the
+harem. But they are not easily reached."
+
+"It is not impossible, though," I answered. "Nevertheless, if I were
+acting alone, I would put the matter in the hands of the Russian
+embassy."
+
+"Do you think they would hesitate at any means of getting information,
+any more than I would?" inquired Gregorios, scornfully.
+
+"We shall see," I said. "We must discuss the matter thoroughly before
+doing anything more. I have no experience of affairs of this sort; your
+knowledge of them is very great. On the other hand, I am more prudent
+than you are, and I do not like to risk everything on one throw of the
+dice."
+
+"We might set fire to the house and burn them out," said Gregorios,
+thoughtfully. "The danger would be that we might burn Alexander alive."
+
+My friend did not stick at trifles. Under his cold exterior lurked the
+desperate rashness of the true Oriental, ready to blaze out at any
+moment.
+
+"No," I said, laughing; "that would not do, either. Is it not possible
+to send a spy into the house? It seems to me that the thing might be
+done. What sort of women are they who gain access to the harems?"
+
+"Women who sell finery and sweetmeats; women who amuse the Khanums by
+dressing their hair, when they have any, in the Frank style; women who
+tell stories"----
+
+"A story-teller would do," I said. "They are often admitted, are they
+not? It is almost the only amusement those poor creatures have. I fancy
+that one who could interest them might be admitted again and again."
+
+Balsamides was silent, and smoked meditatively for some minutes.
+
+"That is an idea," he said at last. "I know of such a woman, and I dare
+say she could get in. But if she did, she might go to the house twenty
+times, and get no information worth having."
+
+"Never mind. It would be a great step to establish a means of
+communication with the interior of the house. You could easily force the
+Lala to recommend the story-teller to his Khanum. She could tell us
+about the internal arrangement of the place, at all events, which would
+make it easier for us to search the house, if we ever got a chance."
+
+"If one could get as far as that, it would be a wise precaution and a
+benefit to the human race to convey a little strychnine to the Khanum in
+a sweetmeat," said Gregorios, with a laugh.
+
+"How horribly bloodthirsty you are!" I answered, laughing in my turn. "I
+believe you would massacre half of Stamboul to find a man who may be
+dead already."
+
+"It is our way of looking at things, I suppose," returned Balsamides. "I
+will see the story-teller, and explain as much as possible of the
+situation. What I most fear is that we may have to take somebody else
+into our confidence."
+
+"Do none of the ladies in the embassies know this Laleli, as you call
+her?" I asked.
+
+"Yes. Many Frank ladies have been to see her. But their visits are
+merely the satisfaction of curiosity on the one side, and of formality
+on the other."
+
+"I was wondering whether one of them would not be the best person in
+whom to confide."
+
+"Not yet," said Balsamides.
+
+And so our interview ended. When I saw Paul and told him the news, he
+seemed to think that the search was already at an end. I found it hard
+to persuade him that a week or two might elapse before anything definite
+was known. In his enthusiasm he insisted that I should answer John
+Carvel's letter by begging him to come at once. As he was the person
+most concerned, I yielded, and wrote.
+
+"It is strange," said Paul, "that we should have accomplished more in a
+single month than has been done by all the official searching in a year
+and a half."
+
+"The reason is very simple," I answered. "The Lala did not chance to be
+in want of money until lately. Everything we have discovered has been
+found out by means of that watch."
+
+"Griggs," said Paul, "Balsamides is a very clever fellow, but he has not
+thought of asking one question. Why was the Lala never in want of money
+before?"
+
+"I do not know."
+
+"Because, in some way or other, he is out of favor with his Khanum. If
+that is the case, this is the time to bribe him."
+
+"Very true," I said. "In any case, if he is trying to get money, it is a
+sign that he needs it, in spite of our friend's declaration that he and
+his kind cannot be bribed."
+
+
+
+
+XIV.
+
+
+It often happens, when our hopes are raised to the highest pitch of
+expectation, and when we think we are on the eve of realizing our
+well-considered plans, that an unexpected obstacle arises in our path,
+like the impenetrable wall which so often in our dreams suddenly
+interposes itself between us and the enemy we are pursuing. At such
+moments we are apt to despair of ourselves, and it is the inability to
+rise above this dejection at the important crisis which too often causes
+failure. After we had discovered the watch, and after Balsamides had
+traced it to the house of Laleli Khanum Effendi, it seemed to me that
+the end could not be far. It could not be an operation of superhuman
+difficulty to bribe some one in the harem to tell us what we wanted to
+know. In a few days this might be accomplished, and we should learn the
+fate of Alexander Patoff.
+
+It was at this point, however, that failure awaited us. The house of
+Laleli was impenetrable. The scheme to establish communication by means
+of the story-teller did not succeed. The old woman was received once,
+but saw nothing, and never succeeded in gaining admittance again. Selim,
+the Lala, ceased at that time to pay regular visits to Stamboul on
+Thursday, and Balsamides realized that he had perhaps not done wisely in
+letting him go free from the bazaar. We paid several visits to Yeni Koej,
+and contemplated the dismal exterior of the Khanum's villa. High walls
+of mud and stone surrounded it on all sides except the front, and there
+the long, low wooden facade exhibited only its double row of latticed
+windows, overlooking the water, while two small doors, which were always
+closed, constituted the entrance from the narrow stone quay. Nothing
+could penetrate those lattices, nor surmount the blank steepness of
+those walls. Our only means of reaching the interior of the dwelling and
+the secrets which perhaps were hidden there lay in our power over Selim;
+but the Lala had no difficulty in eluding us, and either kept resolutely
+within doors, or sallied out in company with his mistress. It was
+remarkable, however, that we had never met him in charge of the ladies
+of the harem, as Paul had so often met him during the summer when
+Alexander had made his visit to his brother. We went to every place
+where Turkish ladies are wont to resort in their carriages during the
+winter, but we never saw Selim nor the lady with the thick veil.
+
+Meanwhile, Paul grew nervous, and his anxiety for the result of our
+operations began to show itself in his face. I had written to John
+Carvel, and he had replied that he was making his preparations, and
+would soon join us. Then Macaulay Carvel arrived, and, having found
+Paul, came with him to see me. The young man's delight at being at last
+appointed to Constantinople knew no bounds, and he almost became
+enthusiastic in his praises of the city and the scenery. He smiled
+perpetually, and was smoother than ever in speech and manner. Balsamides
+conceived a strong dislike for him, but condescended to treat him with
+civility in consideration of the fact that he was Paul's cousin and the
+son of my old friend.
+
+Indeed, Macaulay had every reason to be happy. He had succeeded in
+getting transferred to the East, where he could see his cousin every
+day; he was under one of the most agreeable and kind-hearted chiefs in
+the service; and now his whole family had determined to spend the summer
+with him. What more could the heart of a good boy desire? It was rather
+odd that Paul should like him so much, I thought. It seemed as though
+Patoff, who was inclined to repel all attempts at intimacy, and who at
+four-and-thirty years of age was comparatively friendless, was touched
+by the admiration of his younger cousin, and had for him a sort of
+half-paternal affection, which was quite enough to satisfy the modest
+expectations of the quiet young man. Yet Macaulay was far from being a
+match for Paul in any respect. Where Paul exhibited the force of his
+determination by intelligent hard work, Macaulay showed his desire for
+excellence by doggedly memorizing in a parrot-like way everything which
+he wished to know. Where Paul was enthusiastic, Macaulay was
+conscientious. Where Paul was original, Macaulay was a studious but dull
+imitator of the originality of others. Instead of Paul's indescribable
+air of good-breeding, Macaulay possessed what might be called a
+well-bred respectability. Where Paul was bold, Macaulay exhibited a
+laudable desire to do his duty.
+
+Yet Macaulay Carvel was not to be despised on account of his high-class
+mediocrity. He did his best, according to his lights. He endeavored to
+improve the shining hour, and admired the busy little bee, as he had
+been taught to do in the nursery. If he had not the air of a
+thoroughbred, he had none of the plebeian clumsiness of the cart-horse.
+Though he was not the man to lead a forlorn hope, he was no coward; and
+though he had not invented gunpowder, he had the requisite intelligence
+to make use of already existing inventions under the direction of
+others. He had a way of remembering what he had learned laboriously
+which his brilliant chief found to be very convenient, and he was a
+useful secretary. His admiration for Paul was the honest admiration
+which many a young man feels for those qualities which he does not
+possess, but which he believes he can create in himself by closely
+imitating the actions of others.
+
+It is unnecessary to add that Macaulay was discreet, and that in the
+course of a few days he was put in possession of the details of what had
+occurred. I had feared at first that his presence might irritate Paul,
+in the present state of affairs, but I soon found out that the younger
+man's uniformly cheerful, if rather colorless, disposition seemed to
+act like a sort of calming medicine upon his cousin's anxious moods.
+
+"That fellow Carvel," Balsamides would say, "is the ultimate expression
+of your Western civilization, which tends to make all men alike. I
+cannot understand why you are both so fond of him. To me he is insipid
+as boiled cucumber. He ought to be a banker's clerk instead of a
+diplomatist. The idea of his serving his country is about as absurd as
+hunting bears with toy spaniels."
+
+"You do not do him justice," I always answered. "You forget that the
+days of original and personal diplomacy are over, or very nearly over.
+Plenipotentiaries now are merely persons who have an unlimited credit at
+the telegraph office. The clever ones complain that they can do nothing
+without authority; the painstaking ones, like Macaulay Carvel,
+congratulate themselves that they need not use their own judgment in any
+case whatever. They make the best government servants, after all."
+
+"When servants begin to think, they are dangerous. That is quite true,"
+was Gregorios' scornful retort; and I knew how useless it was to attempt
+to convince him. Nevertheless, I believe that as time proceeded he began
+to respect Macaulay on account of his extreme calmness. The young man
+had made up his mind that he would not be astonished in life, and had
+therefore systematically deadened his mental organs of astonishment, or
+the capacity of his mental organs for being astonished. As no one has
+the least idea what a mental organ is, one phrase is about as good as
+another.
+
+We had not advanced another step in our investigations, in spite of all
+our efforts, when we received news that the Carvels, accompanied by
+Madame Patoff and Chrysophrasia Dabstreak, were on their way to
+Constantinople. We had looked at several houses which we thought might
+suit them, but as the season was advancing we supposed that John would
+prefer to spend the remainder of the spring in a hotel, and then engage
+a villa on the Bosphorus, at Therapia or Buyukdere. At last the day came
+for their arrival, and Macaulay took the kavass of his embassy with him
+to facilitate the operations of the custom-house. Paul did not go with
+him, thinking it best not to meet his mother, for the first time since
+her recovery, in the hubbub of landing. I, however, went with Macaulay
+Carvel on board the Varna boat. In a few minutes we were exchanging
+happy greetings on the deck of the steamer, and in the midst of the
+confusion I was presented to Madame Patoff.
+
+She was not changed since I had seen her last, except that she now
+looked quietly at me and offered her hand. Her fine features were
+perhaps a little less pale, her dark eyes were a little less cold, and
+her small traveling-bonnet concealed most of her thick gray hair. She
+was dressed in a simple costume of some neutral tint which I cannot
+remember, and she wore those long loose gauntlets commonly known as
+Biarritz gloves. I thought her less tall and less imposing than when I
+had seen her in the black velvet which it was her caprice to wear during
+the period of her insanity; but she looked more natural, too, and at
+first sight one would have merely said that she was a woman of sixty,
+who had once been beautiful, and who had not lost the youthful
+proportions of her figure. As I observed her more closely in the broad
+daylight, on the deck of the steamer, however, I began to see that her
+face was marked by innumerable small lines, which followed the shape of
+her features like the carefully traced shadows of an engraving; they
+crossed her forehead, they made labyrinths of infinitesimal wrinkles
+about her eyes, they curved along the high cheek-bones and the somewhat
+sunken cheeks, and they surrounded the mouth and made shadings on her
+chin. They were not like ordinary wrinkles. They looked as though they
+had been drawn with infinite precision and care by the hand of a cunning
+workman. To me they betrayed an abnormally nervous temperament, such as
+I had not suspected that Madame Patoff possessed, when in the yellow
+lamp-light of her apartment her white skin had seemed so smooth and
+even. But she was evidently in her right mind, and very quiet, as she
+gave me her hand, with the conventional smile which we use to convey the
+idea of an equally conventional satisfaction when a stranger is
+introduced to us.
+
+John was delighted to see me, and was more like his old self than when I
+had last seen him. Mrs. Carvel's gentle temper was not ruffled by the
+confusion of landing, and she greeted me as ever, with her sweet smile
+and air of sympathetic inquiry. Chrysophrasia held out her hand, a very
+forlorn hope of anatomy cased in flabby kid. She also smiled, as one may
+fancy that a mosquito smiles in the dark when it settles upon the nose
+of some happy sleeper. I am sure that mosquitoes have green eyes,
+exactly of the hue of Chrysophrasia's.
+
+"So deliciously barbarous, is it not, Mr. Griggs?" she murmured,
+subduing the creaking of her thin voice.
+
+"Dear Mr. Griggs, I am so awfully glad to see you again," said Hermione
+with genuine pleasure, as she laid her little hand in mine.
+
+It seemed to me that Hermione was taller and thinner than she had been
+in the winter. But there was something womanly in her lovely face, as
+she looked at me, which I had not seen before. Her soft blue eyes were
+more shaded,--not more sad, but less carelessly happy than they used to
+be,--and the delicate color was fainter in her transparent skin. There
+was an indescribable look of gravity about her, something which made me
+think that she was very much in earnest with her life.
+
+"Paul is at the hotel," I said, rather loudly, when the first meeting
+was over. "He has made everything comfortable for you up there. The
+kavass will see to your things. Let us go ashore at once, out of all
+this din."
+
+We left the steamer, and landed where the carriages were waiting. John
+talked all the time, recounting the incidents of the journey, the
+annoyance they had had in crossing the Danube at Rustchuk, the rough
+night in the Black Sea, the delight of watching the shores of the
+Bosphorus in the morning. When we landed, Chrysophrasia turned suddenly
+round and surveyed the scene.
+
+"We are not in Constantinople at all," she said, in a tone of bitter
+disappointment.
+
+"No," said Macaulay; "nobody lives in Stamboul. This is Galata, and we
+are going up to Pera, which is the European town, formerly occupied by
+the Genoese, who built that remarkable tower you may have observed from
+the harbor. The place was formerly fortified, and the tower has now been
+applied to the use of the fire brigade. Much interest is attached"----
+
+How long Macaulay would have continued his lecture on Galata Tower is
+uncertain. Chrysophrasia interrupted him in disgust.
+
+"A fire brigade!" she exclaimed. "We might as well be in America at
+once. Really, John, this is a terrible disappointment. A fire brigade!
+Do not tell me that the people here understand the steam-engine,--pray
+do not! All the delicacy of my illusions is vanishing like a dream!"
+
+Chrysophrasia sometimes reminds me of a certain imperial sportsman who
+once shot an eagle in the Tyrol.
+
+"An eagle!" he cried contemptuously, when told what it was. "Gentlemen,
+do not trifle with me,--an eagle always has two heads. This must be some
+other bird."
+
+In due time we reached the hotel. Paul was standing in the doorway, and
+came forward to help the ladies as they descended from the carriage,
+greeting them one by one. When his mother got out, he respectfully
+kissed her hand. To the surprise of most of us, Madame Patoff threw her
+arms round his neck, and embraced him with considerable emotion.
+
+"Dear, dear Paul,--my dear son!" she cried. "What a happy meeting!"
+
+Paul was evidently very much astonished, but I will do him the credit to
+say that he seemed moved as he kissed his mother on both cheeks, for his
+face was pale and he appeared to tremble a little.
+
+The travelers were conducted to their rooms by Macaulay, and I saw no
+more of them. But John insisted that I should dine with them in the
+evening. In the mean while I went home, and found Gregorios reading, as
+usual when he was not on duty at Yildiz-Kioeshk,--the "Star-Palace,"
+where the Sultan resides.
+
+"Have you deposited your friends in a place of safety?" he asked,
+looking up from his book. "Have they all come,--even the old maid with
+the green eyes, and the mad lady whom Patoff is so unfortunate as to
+call his mother?"
+
+"All," I answered. "They are real English people, and my old friend John
+Carvel is the patriarch of the establishment. There are maid-servants
+and men-servants, and more boxes than any house in Pera will hold. The
+old lady seems perfectly sane again."
+
+"Then she will probably die," said Gregorios, reassuringly. "Crazy
+people almost always have a lucid interval before death."
+
+"You take a cheerful view," I observed.
+
+"Fate would confer a great benefit on Patoff by removing his mother from
+this valley of tears," returned my friend. "Besides, as our proverb
+says, mad people are the only happy people. Madame Patoff, in passing
+from insanity to sanity, has therefore fallen from happiness to
+unhappiness."
+
+"If all your proverbs were true, the world would be a strange place."
+
+"I will not discuss the inexhaustible subject of the truth of proverbs,"
+answered Balsamides. "I only doubt whether Madame Patoff will be happy
+now that she is sane, and whether the uncertainty of the issue of our
+search may not drive her mad again. She will probably spoil everything
+by chattering at all the embassies. By the by, since we are on the
+subject of death, lunacy, and other similar annoyances, I may as well
+tell you that Laleli is very ill, and it is not expected that she can
+live. I heard it this morning on very good authority."
+
+"That is rather startling," I said.
+
+"Very. Dying people sometimes make confessions of their crimes, but to
+hear the confession you must be there when they are about to give up the
+ghost."
+
+"That is impossible in this case, unless you can get into the harem as a
+doctor."
+
+"Who knows? We must make a desperate attempt of some kind. Leave it to
+me, and do not be surprised if I do not appear for a day or two. I have
+made up my mind to strike a blow. You are too evidently a Frank to be of
+any use. I wish you were a Turk, Griggs. You have such an enviably sober
+appearance. You speak Turkish just well enough to make me wish you would
+never betray yourself by little slips in the verbs and mistakes in using
+Arabic words. Only educated Osmanlis can detect those errors: just now
+they are the very people we want to deceive."
+
+"I can pass for anything else here without being found out," I answered.
+"I can pass for a Persian when there are no Persians about, or for a
+Panjabi Mussulman, if necessary."
+
+"That is an idea. You might be an Indian Hadji. I will think of it."
+
+"What in the world do you intend to do?" I asked, suspecting my friend
+of some rash or violent project.
+
+"A very sly trick," he replied, with his usual sarcastic smile. "There
+need not necessarily be any violence about it, unless we find Alexander
+alive, in which case you and I must manage to get him out of the house."
+
+"Tell me your plan," I said. "Let me hear what it is like."
+
+"No; I will tell you to-night, when I know whether it is possible or
+not. You are going to dine with your friends? Yes; very well, when you
+have finished, come here, and we will see what can be done. We must only
+pray that the iniquitous old woman may live till morning."
+
+It was clear that Gregorios was not ready, and that nothing would induce
+him to speak what was in his mind. I showed no further curiosity, and at
+the appointed time I left the house to go and dine with the Carvels.
+
+"Say nothing to Patoff," said Balsamides, as I went out.
+
+I found the Carvels assembled in their sitting-room, and we went to
+dinner. I could not help looking from time to time at Paul's mother, who
+surprised me by her fluent conversation and perfect self-possession.
+With the exception that she was present and that Professor Cutter was
+absent, the dinner was very much like the meals at Carvel Place. I
+noticed that Paul was placed between Mrs. Carvel and his mother, while
+Hermione was on the opposite side of the table. But their eyes met
+constantly, and there was evidently a perfect understanding between
+them. Paul looked once more as I had seen him when he was talking to
+Hermione in England, and the coldness I so much disliked had temporarily
+disappeared from his face. I did not know what had occurred during the
+afternoon, since I had left the hotel, and it was not until later that I
+learned some of the details of the meeting.
+
+When the members of the party retired to their rooms, on arriving at
+Missiri's, Macaulay had gone off with his father, and Paul had been left
+alone for a few minutes in the sitting-room. When all was quiet,
+Hermione opened her door softly and looked in. Paul was standing by the
+chimney-piece, contemplating the smouldering logs with the interest of a
+man who has nothing to do. He raised his head suddenly, and saw that
+Hermione had entered the room and was standing near him. She had taken
+off her traveling-hat, and her golden hair was in some disorder, but the
+tangled coils and waves of it only showed more perfectly how beautiful
+she was. She came forward, and he, too, left his place. She took his
+hands rather timidly in hers.
+
+"Paul--I never meant that you should go!" she exclaimed, while the tears
+stood in her eyes. "Why did you take me so literally at my word?"
+
+"It was better, darling," said he, drawing her nearer to him. "You were
+quite right. I could not bear the idea of any one being free to speak to
+me as your aunt did; but I was very unhappy. How could I know that you
+were coming here so soon?"
+
+"I did not know," she said simply. "But I was very unhappy, too, and the
+days seemed so long. I could worship my brother for bringing it about."
+
+"So could I," answered Paul, rather absently. He was looking down into
+her eyes that met his so trustfully. "Do you really and truly believe in
+me, Hermione?" he asked.
+
+"Indeed I do; I always did!" she cried passionately. Then he kissed her
+very tenderly, and held her in his arms.
+
+"Thank you,--thank you, my darling," he murmured in her ear.
+
+Presently they stood by the chimney-piece, still holding each other's
+hands.
+
+"I must speak to your father," he said. "You know his way. He wrote all
+about it to Griggs, telling him to show me the letter."
+
+"I could not keep the secret to myself any longer," she answered. "And I
+knew that papa loved me and liked you."
+
+"Yes, dear, you were quite right," said Paul. "But I did not mean to
+tell him, after what happened that evening, until I had found my
+brother. Do you know? I have almost found him. I hope to reach the end
+in a day or two."
+
+"Oh, Paul! that is splendid!" cried Hermione. "I knew you would. You
+must tell me all about it."
+
+There was a sound of footsteps in one of the rooms. Hermione slipped
+quickly away, and throwing a kiss towards Paul with her fingers,
+disappeared through the door by which she had entered, leaving him once
+more alone. The moments of their meeting had been few and short, but
+they had more than sufficed to show that these two loved each other as
+much as ever. Some time afterwards Paul had been alone with his mother
+for half an hour and had frankly asked her whether she was able to hear
+him speak of Alexander or not. Her face twitched nervously, but she
+answered calmly enough that she wished to hear all he had to tell. But
+when he had finished she shook her head sadly.
+
+"You may find out how he died, but you will never find him," she said.
+Then, with a sudden energy which startled Paul, she gazed straight into
+his eyes. "You know that you cannot," she added, almost savagely.
+
+"I do not know, mother," he answered, calmly. "I still have hope."
+
+Madame Patoff looked down, and seemed to regain her self-control almost
+immediately. The long habit of concealing her feelings, which she had
+acquired when deceiving Professor Cutter, stood her in good stead, and
+she had not forgotten what she had studied so carefully. But Paul had
+seen the angry glance of her eyes, and the excited tone of her voice
+still rang in his ears. He guessed that, although she had come to
+Constantinople with the full intention of forgetting the accusations she
+had once uttered, the mere sight of him was enough to bring back all her
+virulent hatred. She still believed that he had killed his brother. That
+was clear from her words, and from the tone in which they were spoken.
+Whether the thought was a delusion, or whether she sanely believed Paul
+to be a murderer, made little difference. Her mind was evidently still
+under the influence of the idea. But Paul determined that he would hold
+his peace, and it was not until later, when all necessity for
+concealment was removed, that I learned what had passed. Paul believed
+that in a few days he should certainly solve the mystery of Alexander's
+disappearance, and thus effectually root out his mother's suspicions.
+
+All this had occurred before dinner, and without my knowledge. Madame
+Patoff seemed determined to be agreeable and to make everything go
+smoothly. Even Chrysophrasia relaxed a little, as we talked of the city
+and of what the party must see.
+
+"I am afraid," said I, "that you do not find all this as Oriental as you
+expected, Miss Dabstreak."
+
+"Ah, no!" she sighed. "If by 'this' you mean the hotel, it is European,
+and unpleasantly so at that."
+
+"I think it is a very good hotel; and this rice--what do you call
+it?--is very good, too," said John Carvel, who was tasting pilaff for
+the first time.
+
+"Your carnal love of food always shocks me, John," murmured
+Chrysophrasia. "But I dare say there is a good deal that is Oriental on
+the other side. There, I am sure, we should be sitting on very precious
+carpets, and eating sweetmeats with golden spoons, while some fair young
+Circassian slave sang wild melodies and played upon a rare old inlaid
+lute."
+
+"Yes," I answered. "I have dined with Turks in Stamboul."
+
+"Oh, do describe it!" exclaimed Miss Dabstreak.
+
+"We squatted on the floor around a tiny table, and we devoured ragouts
+of mutton and onions with our fingers," I said.
+
+"How very disgusting!" Miss Dabstreak made an unaesthetic grimace, and
+looked at me with profound contempt.
+
+"But I suppose they eat other things, Griggs?" asked John, laughing.
+
+"Yes. But mutton and onions and pilaff are the staple of their
+consumption. They eat jams of all sorts. Sometimes soup is brought in in
+a huge bowl, and put down in the middle of the table. Then each one dips
+in his spoon in the order of precedence, and eats as much as he can.
+They will give you a dozen courses in half an hour, and they never speak
+at their meals if they can help it."
+
+"Pigs!" exclaimed Chrysophrasia, whose delicacy did not always assert
+itself in her selection of epithets.
+
+"No; I assure you," I objected, "they are nothing of the kind. They
+consider it cleaner to eat with their fingers, which they can wash
+themselves, than with forks, which are washed in a common bath of
+soapsuds by the grimy hands of a scullery maid. It is not so
+unreasonable."
+
+"You have such a terrible way of putting things, Mr. Griggs!" exclaimed
+Mrs. Carvel in a tone of gentle protest. "But I dare say," she added, as
+though fearing lest her mild rebuke should have hurt my feelings,--"I
+dare say you are quite right."
+
+"To tell the truth," I answered, "I am rather fond of the Turks."
+
+"I have always noticed," remarked Madame Patoff, "that you Americans
+generally admire people who live under a despotic government. Americans
+all like Russia and Russians."
+
+"Our government is not quite despotic," observed Paul, who felt bound to
+defend his country. "We have laws, and the laws are respected. The Czar
+would not think of acting against the established law, even though in
+theory he might."
+
+"The Turks must have laws, too," objected Madame Patoff.
+
+"I don't know," said Chrysophrasia. "I already feel a delicious
+sensation, as though I might be strangled with a bow-string at any
+moment and dropped into the Bosphorus."
+
+John Carvel looked very grave. Perhaps he was offering up a silent
+prayer to the end that such a consummation might soon be reached; but
+more probably he considered the topic of sudden death by violence as one
+to be avoided. Macaulay Carvel came to the rescue.
+
+"The Turks have laws," he said, fluently. "All their law is founded upon
+the Koran, and they are most ingenious in making the Koran answer the
+purpose of our more learned and therefore more efficacious codes. The
+Supreme Court really exists in the person of the Sheik ul Islam, who may
+be called the High Pontiff, a sort of Pontifex Maximus with judicial
+powers. All important cases are ultimately referred to him, and as most
+of these important cases are connected with the Vakuf, the real estate
+held by the mosques, like our glebe lands at home, it follows that the
+Sheik ul Islam generally decides in favor of his own class, who are the
+Ulema, or priests. The consequences of this mode of administering the
+laws are very"----
+
+"Capital!" exclaimed John Carvel. "Where on earth did you learn all
+that, my boy?"
+
+"I began to coach the East when I saw there was a chance of my coming
+here," answered Macaulay, much pleased at his father's acknowledgment of
+his learning. It struck me that the young man had got his information
+out of some rather antiquated book, in which no mention was made of the
+present division of the civil and criminal courts under the Ministry of
+Justice, and of the ecclesiastical courts under the Sheik ul Islam. But
+I held my peace, being grateful to Macaulay for delivering his lecture
+at the right moment. Mrs. Carvel looked with undisguised admiration at
+her son, and even Hermione smiled and felt proud of her brother.
+
+"Wonderful, this modern education, is it not?" said John Carvel, turning
+to me.
+
+"Amazing," I replied.
+
+"I want to see all those delightful creatures, you know," said
+Chrysophrasia. "The Sultan and the Sheik--what do you call him?"
+
+"Sheik ul Islam," said the ready Macaulay.
+
+"Sheik Ool is lamb!" repeated Chrysophrasia, thoughtfully. "Lamb,--so
+symbolical in our own very symbolic religion. It means so much, you
+know."
+
+"Chrysophrasia!" ejaculated Mary Carvel, in a tone of gentle reproach.
+She thought she detected the far-off shadow of a possible irreverence in
+her sister's tone. Macaulay again interposed, while Paul and I
+endeavored to avoid each other's eyes, lest we should be overtaken by an
+explosion of laughter.
+
+"It is '_Is_lam,' not 'is _lamb_,' aunt Chrysophrasia," said Macaulay,
+mildly.
+
+"I don't see much difference," retorted Miss Dabstreak, "except that you
+say it _is_ lamb, and I say it is _lamb_. Oh! you mean it is one
+word,--yes; I dare say," she added quickly, in some confusion. "Of
+course, I don't speak Turkish."
+
+"It is Arabic," observed the implacable Macaulay.
+
+"John," said Chrysophrasia, ignoring the correction with a fine
+indifference, "we must see everything at once. When shall we begin?"
+
+The question effectually turned the conversation, for all the party were
+anxious to see what Macaulay was equally anxious to show, having himself
+only seen each sight once. The remainder of the time while we sat at
+table was occupied in discussing the various expeditions which the party
+must undertake in order to see the city and its surroundings
+systematically. After dinner John and I remained behind for a while.
+Paul wanted to talk to Hermione, and Macaulay, who was the most domestic
+of young men, preferred the society of his mother and aunts, whom he had
+not seen for several months, to the smell of cigars and Turkish coffee.
+
+"What do you think of her?" asked John Carvel when we were alone. "She
+seems perfectly sane, does she not?"
+
+"Perfectly. What proves it best is the way she treats Paul. She is very
+affectionate. I suppose there is no fear of a relapse?"
+
+"I hope not, I hope not!" repeated John fervently. "She has behaved
+admirably during the journey. Now, about Paul," he continued, lowering
+his voice a little: "how does he strike you since you have known him
+better? You have seen him every day for some time. What sort of a fellow
+is he?"
+
+"I think he is very much in earnest," I answered.
+
+"Yes, yes,--no doubt. But you know what I mean, Griggs: is he the kind
+of man to whom I can give my daughter? That is what I am thinking of. I
+know that he works hard and will succeed, and all that."
+
+"I can tell you what I think," said I, "but you must form your own
+judgment as well. I like Paul very much, but you must like him too,
+before you decide. In my opinion he is a man of fine character,
+scrupulously honest, and not at all capricious. I cannot say more."
+
+"A little wild when he was younger?" suggested John.
+
+"Not very, I am sure. He was unhappy in his childhood; he was one of
+those boys who make up their minds to work, and who grow so fond of it
+that they go on working when other boys begin to play."
+
+"Very odd," observed John. "He is not at all a prig."
+
+"No, indeed. He is as manly a fellow as you could meet, and at first
+sight he does not produce the impression of being so serious as he is. I
+think that is put on. He once told me that he had made a study of small
+talk and of the art of appearing well, because he thinks it so important
+in his career. I dare say he is right. He knows a great deal, and knows
+it thoroughly."
+
+"He does not know any more than Macaulay," said John, as though in
+praising Paul I had attacked his son. "What a clever fellow he is! I
+only wish he were a little tougher,--just a little more shell to him, I
+mean."
+
+"He will get that," I answered. "He is younger than Paul, and has not
+seen so much of the world."
+
+"You say you like Paul. Do you think he would make a good husband?"
+
+"Yes, I really believe he would," I replied. "But do not take him on my
+recommendation. You must know him better yourself. You will meet many
+people here who know him, and some who know him well."
+
+"What do you think of that story about his brother?" asked John, looking
+at me very earnestly.
+
+"I believe he is as innocent as you or I. But we are getting near the
+truth, and have made some valuable discoveries."
+
+I explained to Carvel what we had found, and without mentioning the name
+of Laleli Khanum I told him how far we had traced the mystery, and he
+listened with profound interest to my account.
+
+"I hope you may find him alive," he said, as we rose from the table.
+"For my part, I do not believe we shall ever see him. Paul was alone
+with his mother this afternoon, and I dare say he told her what you have
+told me. She does not seem to object to the subject, though of course we
+generally avoid it."
+
+I stayed an hour longer with the party, during which time Paul talked a
+great deal to Hermione, occasionally joining in the general
+conversation, and certainly not trying to prevent what he said to the
+young girl from being heard. At last I took my leave and went home, for
+I was anxious to see Gregorios, and to hear from him what plan he
+proposed to adopt for the solution of our difficulties at this critical
+moment. I found him waiting for me.
+
+"Have you made up your mind?" I asked.
+
+Balsamides was sitting beside his table with a book. He looked even
+paler than usual, and was evidently more excited than he liked to own.
+He is eminently a man who loves danger, and his nature never warms so
+genially as when something desperate is to be done. A Christian by race
+and belief, he has absorbed much of the fatalism of the Oriental races,
+and his courage is of the fatalist kind, reckless and devoted.
+
+"Yes," he answered. "I have made up my mind. One must either be the
+camel or the camel-driver. One must either submit to the course of
+events, or do something to violently change their direction. If we
+submit much longer, we shall lose the game. The old woman will die,--the
+Turkish women always die when they are ill; and if she is once dead
+without confessing, we may give up all hope."
+
+"We should always have Selim to examine," I remarked.
+
+"If Laleli Khanum dies, Selim will disappear the same hour,--laying
+hands on everything within reach, of course. How could we catch him? He
+would cross the Bosphorus, put on a disguise of some sort, and make his
+way to Egypt in no time. Those fellows are very cunning."
+
+"Then you mean to try and extort a confession from Laleli herself? How
+in the world do you mean to do it? It is a case of life or death."
+
+"I have got life and death in my pocket," answered Gregorios, his eyes
+beginning to sparkle. "Can you read Turkish? Of course you can. Read
+that."
+
+I took the folded document and examined it.
+
+"This is an Irade!" I exclaimed, in great surprise; "an imperial order
+to arrest Laleli Khanum Effendi,--good heavens! Balsamides, I had no
+idea that you possessed such tools as this!"
+
+"To tell you how I got it would be to tell you my own history during the
+last ten years," he answered, in low tones. "I trust you, Griggs, but
+there are other reasons why I cannot tell you all that. You see the
+result, at all events, and a result very dearly paid for," he added
+gravely. "But I have got the thing, and what is more, I have permission
+to personate the Sultan's private physician."
+
+"What is that for? I should think the Irade were quite enough."
+
+"Laleli might die of fright, if I merely presented myself and threatened
+to arrest her. But I shall see her in the assumed character of the court
+physician. Laleli is a Turkish woman, who understands no other language
+but her own and Greek. She is very superstitious, and believes in all
+manner of charms and spells; for she has no ideas at all concerning
+Western science, except that it is all contrary to the Koran. I can talk
+the jargon of an old Hadji well enough, and besides I know something of
+medicine; very little, but enough to tell me whether she is absolutely
+in a dying state. It is a great compliment for the Sultan to send his
+private physician, and if she is in a conscious state she will be
+flattered and thrown off her guard. If I can manage to get her slaves
+out of the way, I may induce her to confess. If I fail in this, I have
+the means to frighten her. If she dies, I have the means of arresting
+Selim before he can escape. It is all very well arranged, and there is
+nothing to be done but to put the plan into execution. When you left me
+I had not got the Irade; it came about an hour ago."
+
+"How can I help you?" I asked.
+
+"You must have a disguise, too. When the court physician is sent to
+visit a person of consequence, he is always accompanied by an adjutant
+from the palace. You must play this part. I have borrowed a uniform from
+a brother officer which will fit you. It is in your room, and I will
+help you to put it on. You need say nothing, nor answer any questions
+the slaves may put to you unless you are quite sure of your words. You
+have a very military figure, and the sight of a uniform acts like magic
+on fellows like the Lala and his companions. As I am an adjutant myself,
+I can tell you exactly what to do, so that no one could detect you. Are
+you willing to try?"
+
+"Of course," I said, rising and going towards my room. "How are we to go
+to Yeni Koej?"
+
+"A carriage from the palace will be at the door in half an hour,"
+answered Gregorios, looking at his watch. "Now, then, we must turn you
+into a Turkish officer," he added, with a laugh.
+
+In ten minutes the change was complete, and I do not believe that my
+best friend would have recognized me in the close-fitting dress, cut
+like that of a Prussian dragoon's parade uniform, but made of dark cloth
+with red facings. I buckled on the sabre, and Gregorios set the fez
+carefully on my head. I looked at myself in the glass. The costume
+fitted as though it were made for me.
+
+"I feel as though I were going to a masked ball," I said, laughing. "I
+never was so disguised before in my life."
+
+"I hope you may feel so when you come home," answered Balsamides, with a
+smile. "Now you must take some of your own clothes in a bag. We may not
+get home before morning, and we might meet some one of the adjutants
+when we come back. They would know that you are not one of us, and there
+might be trouble. We must take some money, too. We may need to hire a
+boat or horses; one can never tell."
+
+Balsamides stood a moment and looked at me, apparently well satisfied
+with my appearance. Then he opened the window to see whether the
+carriage was below, but it had not yet come.
+
+"While we are waiting, I will explain our plan of action," he said, as
+he opened his writing-desk and took a small roll of gold pieces and a
+handful of silver. "We shall be driven to the door of the house, and
+when we knock, Selim or some other Lala, if there are others, will open
+the door. He will see you and recognize your uniform, as well as the
+livery of the palace carriage. He will salute us, and you must of course
+return the salutation. I will then explain that I am the court
+physician, and that his majesty, having just heard of the Khanum
+Effendi's illness, has sent me down to attend her. Selim will salute us
+again, and show us into the house. You will be left in the _salamlek_,
+the lower hall, and I shall be shown into the harem, after a few minutes
+have elapsed to give time for preparation. Then you will have to wait,
+but you will probably not be disturbed, unless a slave brings you
+coffee and cigarettes. Selim will probably remain in the harem all the
+time I am there. But if you hear anything like a scuffle, you must come
+when you recognize my voice. This will not occur unless Selim hears
+something which frightens him, and tries to get away. Of course you are
+supposed to be present for my protection, and you must affect a certain
+deference towards me."
+
+"I will be humility itself," I answered.
+
+"No, not too much humility. A mere show of respect for my position will
+do. We adjutants about the palace are not much given to self-abasement
+of any sort. There is one catastrophe which may occur. If the old woman
+is really dying, as they say she is, she may die while we are there. We
+must then take possession of the person of Selim and carry him off.
+There will not be much trouble about that. The house is in a lonely
+place, and the driver of the carriage knows his orders. He will obey
+instantly, no matter what I tell him to do."
+
+"And if we should, by any chance, find Alexander in the house," I asked,
+"shall we be able to get him out without trouble?"
+
+"Not without trouble," answered Gregorios, with a grim smile. "But we
+will not stick at trifles so long as we have the imperial Irade with us.
+I hear the carriage. Let us be off."
+
+So we left the house on our errand without further words.
+
+
+
+
+XV.
+
+
+Paul stayed at the hotel until a late hour, and went home, feeling
+lighter at heart than he had felt for many days. He was in love, and the
+passion had a very salutary effect upon his nature. His heart had been
+crushed down when he was a child, until he doubted whether he had any
+heart at all. His early sufferings had hardened his nature, and his cool
+strong mind had approved the process, so that he was well satisfied with
+his solitary condition and his loveless life. He had seen much of the
+world, and had known many women of all nations, but his immovable
+indifference was proverbial among his colleagues, and if he had ever
+entertained a passing fancy for any one, the fact was unknown to gossip.
+It might be supposed that this very coldness would have rendered him
+attractive to women, for it is commonly said, and with some truth, that
+they are sometimes drawn to those men who show them no manner of
+attention. But I think that the case is not always the same, and admits
+of very subtle distinctions. It is not a man's coldness that attracts a
+woman, but the belief that, though he is cold to others, he may soften
+towards herself; and this belief often rests on mere vanity, and often
+on the truth of the supposition. There are many men who systematically
+affect outward indifference in order to make themselves interesting in
+the eyes of the other sex, allowing a word, a look, a gesture, to betray
+at stated intervals that they are not indifferent to the one woman
+whose love they covet. They give these signs with the utmost skill and
+with a strange, calculating avarice. Women watch such men jealously from
+a distance, to see if they can detect the slightest softening of manner
+towards other women; and when they have convinced themselves that they
+alone have the power to influence the frozen nature they admire, they
+very easily fall wholly in love. In general a man who is very cold and
+indifferent is not to be trusted. The chances are ten to one that he is
+playing the old and time-honored part for a definite purpose.
+
+But there are those who play no part, nor need to affect any
+characteristic not theirs. When women find out that a man is really
+indifferent to all women, their disgust knows no bounds. So long as he
+is known to have loved any one in the past, or to love any one in the
+present, or to be even likely to love any one in the future, he may be
+pardoned. But if it is firmly believed that he is incapable of love,
+woman-kind arises in a body and abuses him in unmeasured terms. He is
+selfish. He is arrogant. He is so conceited that he thinks no one good
+enough for him. He is a stone, a prig, a hypocrite, a maniac, a monster,
+a statue, and especially he is a bore. In other words, he is a man's
+man, and not a woman's man; and unless it can be proved that his madness
+proceeds from disappointed love, even Dives in hell is not further
+removed from forgiveness than he. Men may admire his strength, his
+talents, his perseverance, and some friend will be found foolish enough
+to sing his praises to some woman of the world. She will answer the
+panegyrist with a blank stare, and will very likely say coldly, that he
+is a bore, or that he is very rude. No amount of praise or ingenious
+argument will extort an admission that the unfortunate man is worthy of
+human sympathy. And yet, he may be very human, after all. At all events,
+if we say with the Greek philosopher that a man shall not be called
+happy until he be dead, we should not allow that he is beyond the reach
+of love until the life has gone out of him, certainly not until he is
+sixty years of age at the very least.
+
+Now Paul Patoff was not sixty years old when he found himself in the
+quiet English country house, and looked on his fair English cousin and
+loved her. He was, as the times go, a young man, just entered upon the
+prime of his life, just past the age when youth is considered foolish,
+and just reaching the time when it is considered desirable. The fact
+that he had not loved before was not likely to make his passion less
+strong now that it had come at last, and he knew it, as men generally
+understand themselves better when they are in love with a good woman. He
+asked himself, indeed, why he had so suddenly given himself up, heart
+and soul, to the lovely girl he had known only for a month; but such
+questions are necessarily futile, because the heart does not always go
+through the formality of asking the mind's consent before acting, and
+the mind consequently refuses to be called to account in a matter for
+which it is in no way responsible. It seemed to Paul very strange that
+after so many years of a busy life, in which no passion but ambition had
+played any part, he should all at once find his whole existence involved
+in a new and un-dreamed-of labyrinth of feeling. But though it was
+indeed a labyrinth, from which he did not even desire to escape, he
+acknowledged that the paths of it were full of roses, and that life in
+its winding walks was pleasanter than life outside.
+
+The uncertainty of his position, however, disturbed his dreams, and even
+the pleasant hours he spent with Hermione, listening to her rippling
+laughter and gentle voice, were somewhat disturbed by the thought of the
+morrow, and of what the end would be. His own instinct would have led
+him to speak to Carvel at once and to have the matter settled, but
+another set of ideas argued that he should wait and see what happened,
+and if possible put off asking the fatal question until he had
+unraveled the mystery of his brother's disappearance. That Carvel could
+have believed him in any way implicated in the tragedy, and yet have
+asked him to his house, he knew to be impossible; but he knew also that
+the shadow of Alexander's fate hung over him, and now that there existed
+a chance of completely and brilliantly establishing his innocence before
+the world, he was unwilling to take so serious a step as formally
+proposing for Hermione's hand, until the long desired result should be
+reached. He had deeply felt the truth of what she had said to him in
+England,--that he should be able to silence hints like those
+Chrysophrasia had let fall, that he should place himself in such a
+position as to defy insults instead of being obliged to bear them
+quietly; and the conviction brought home to him by Hermione's words had
+resulted in his immediate departure, with the determination to fathom
+the mystery, and to clear himself forever, or to sacrifice his love in
+case of failure.
+
+But he had not counted upon the visit of the Carvels to Constantinople.
+So long as he could not see Hermione, he had felt that it was possible
+to contemplate with some calmness the prospect of giving her up if he
+failed in his search. When Carvel had proposed to come out and had asked
+my advice, we had fancied ourselves on the verge of the final discovery,
+and with natural and pardonable enthusiasm Paul had joined me in urging
+John to bring his family at once. He had felt sure that the end was
+near, and he had wished that Hermione might arrive at the moment of his
+triumph. It would not be a complete triumph, he thought, unless she were
+there, and this idea showed how the man had changed under the influence
+of his love. In former times Paul Patoff would never have thought of
+anticipating success until he held it securely in his own hands; he
+would have worked silently, giving no sign, and when the result was
+obtained he would have presented it to the world with his coldest and
+most sarcastic stare, content in the thought that he had satisfied
+himself, and demanding no appreciation from others. To feel that he had
+succeeded was then the most delicious part of success. Now, he was so
+changed that he could not imagine success as being at all worth having
+unless Hermione were there to share it. No one else would do, and
+something of his exclusiveness might still be found in his desire for
+her sympathy, and for that of no one else. But the transformation was
+very great, and as he had realized it, he had understood the extent of
+his love for his cousin. The sensation was wholly novel, and he again
+asked himself what it meant, half doubting its reality, but never
+doubting that it would last forever,--in the highly contradictory spirit
+of a man who is in love for the first time.
+
+Then Hermione arrived, and Paul awoke to find himself between two fires.
+To contemplate the possibility of not marrying Hermione, when she was in
+the same city, when he must see her and hear her voice every day of his
+life, was now out of the question. His love had grown ten times stronger
+in the separation of the last months, and he knew that it was now
+useless to think of putting it away. With a modesty not found in men who
+have loved many women, Paul discarded the idea that Hermione's happiness
+was as deeply concerned as his own. He did not understand how very much
+she loved him, and it would have seemed to his softened soul an
+outrageous piece of arrogance to suppose that she could not be quite as
+happy with some one else as with himself. But of his own feelings he had
+no doubt. It was perfectly clear that without Hermione life could never
+be worth living, and he found himself face to face with a most difficult
+question,--a true dilemma, from which there could be no issue unless he
+found his brother, or the evidences of his brother's death.
+
+If the search proved fruitless, he was still in the position of a man
+who is liable to suspicion, and he had firmly resolved that he would not
+permit the woman he loved to marry a man who could be accused, however
+unjustly, of the crime of murder. On the other hand, he knew that while
+she was present in Constantinople he was not master of his feelings,
+hardly of his words; and he could not go away: first, because to go away
+would be to leave the search wholly in the hands of others; and
+secondly, because his presence was required at the embassy and his
+services were constantly in requisition. To abandon his career was a
+course he never contemplated for a moment. His personal resources were
+small, and his pay was now considerable, so that he depended upon it for
+the necessities of life. He had never been willing to touch his
+brother's money, either, and this honorable refusal had practically
+crushed all gossip about Alexander's disappearance; so that at the
+present time he was dependent upon himself. With the prospect of being a
+_charge d'affaires_ in a short time, and of being chancellor of an
+embassy at forty, he believed that he could fairly propose to marry
+Hermione. But to do this he must abide by his career, a conclusion which
+effectually prevented his flying from danger and giving the inquiry
+entirely into my hands. With a keen sense of honor and a very strong
+determination on the one side, and all the force of his love for
+Hermione on the other, Paul's position was not an easy one, and he knew
+it.
+
+Nor was his mind wholly at rest concerning his mother. He had seen her
+that afternoon, and had recognized that in the ordinary sense of the
+word, and in the common opinion of people on the subject, she was
+perfectly sane. She looked, moved, talked, ate, and dressed as though
+she were wholly in her right mind; but Paul was not satisfied. He had
+seen the old gleam of unreasoning anger in her eyes, when she had said
+that he knew Alexander could never be found; meaning, as Paul supposed,
+that he knew how the unfortunate man had come to his end. That this
+belief had been the cause and first beginning of her madness, he was
+convinced; and if the disturbing element was still present in her mind,
+it might assert itself again at any moment with direful results. He was
+willing, for the sake of argument, to believe that her idea was a
+delusion, and indeed he preferred to think so. He did not like the
+thought that his mother could seriously and sanely believe him to be a
+murderer, though she had given him reason enough for knowing how she had
+always disliked him. There was no affection between the mother and the
+son, there was not even much respect; but beyond respect and affection
+we recognize in the relations of a mother with her children a sort of
+universal law of fitness, embracing the few conditions without which
+there can be no relations at all between them. That a mother should
+dislike her child offends our feelings and our conceptions of human
+sympathy; but that a mother should wantonly and without evidence accuse
+her son of a fearful crime, and be his only accuser, is a sin against
+humanity itself, and our reason revolts against it as much as our heart.
+
+It was hopeless to attempt an explanation of Madame Patoff's state of
+mind. Paul might have understood her better had he known how she talked
+and behaved when he was not present. John Carvel and his wife had indeed
+assured Paul that his mother was entirely sane, and had forgotten her
+resentment against him, speaking of him affectionately, and showing
+herself anxious to see him during the long journey. But there was one of
+the party who could have told a different story; who could have repeated
+some of her aunt's utterances, and could have described certain phases
+in her temper in such a way as would have surprised the rest. Madame
+Patoff had naturally chosen to confide in Hermione, for Hermione had
+first startled her into a confession of her sanity, and with her rested
+the secret of the last two years. On the occasion which Carvel had
+mentioned in his letter to me, when Madame Patoff had been surprised in
+a sensible conversation by her nurse, the old lady had shown very great
+presence of mind. She had recognized immediately that she was detected,
+and that she would find it extremely difficult in future to deceive the
+practiced eye of the vigilant Mrs. North. She was tired, too, in spite
+of what she said to Hermione, of the absolute seclusion in which she
+lived; not that she was wearied of mourning for Alexander, but because
+she had exhausted one way of expressing her grief. So, at least, it
+seemed to Hermione. Madame Patoff had therefore accepted the situation
+and made the best of it, declaring herself sane and entirely recovered.
+She had always contemplated the possibility of some such termination to
+her pretended madness, and was perhaps glad that it had come at last.
+She even found at first a pleasant relaxation in leading the life of an
+ordinary person, and she tried to join in the life of the family in such
+a way as to be no longer a burden or a source of anxiety to those she
+had capriciously sacrificed during a year and a half. But with Hermione
+she was not the same as with the rest. She was with her what she had
+been on the first day when Hermione had declared her love for Paul, and
+it appeared to the young girl that her aunt was in reality leading a
+double existence, being in one state when with the assembled family, and
+in quite another when she was alone with Hermione.
+
+Madame Patoff was able to force herself upon her niece, for the young
+girl had given a promise not to betray her secret, and though often in
+hard straits to elude her father's questions without falling into
+falsehood, felt herself bound to her aunt, and obliged to submit to long
+conversations with her. It was a difficult position, and any one less
+honest than Hermione and less sensitively tactful would have found it
+hard to maintain the balance. She herself avoided carefully all mention
+of Paul, but her aunt delighted in talking of him. One of these
+conversations took place on the evening of their arrival in
+Constantinople, and may well serve as a specimen of the rest. When all
+the party had retired for the night, Madame Patoff came into Hermione's
+room and sat down, evidently with the intention of staying at least an
+hour. Hermione looked at her with a deprecating expression, being indeed
+very tired, and wishing that her aunt would put off her visit until the
+next day. She saw, however, that there was no hope of this, and
+submitted herself with a good grace.
+
+"Are you not tired, aunt Annie?" asked the young girl.
+
+"No, no, not very, my dear," said the old lady, smoothing her thick gray
+hair with her hand, and fixing her dark eyes on her niece's face. "Oh,
+Hermy, what a meeting!" she suddenly exclaimed. "If you knew how hard I
+tried to be kind to him, I am sure you would pity me. It is so hard, so
+hard!"
+
+"It is the least you can do,--to treat him kindly," answered Hermione,
+somewhat coldly. "But I was very glad to see that you kissed him when we
+arrived."
+
+"It was dreadfully hard to do it. The very sight of him freezes my
+blood. Oh, Hermy dear, how can you love him so much, when I love you as
+I do? It frightens me"----
+
+"It does not frighten me, aunt Annie," said her niece. "I can say, when
+you love me as you do, how can you not love him?"
+
+"It is not the same, my dear. How could I love him, knowing what I
+know?"
+
+"You do not know it," answered Hermione very firmly, "and you must not
+suggest it to me. Sometimes I could almost think you were really mad,
+aunt Annie,--forgive me, I must say it. Not mad as you pretended to be,
+but mad on this one point. You have always hated poor Paul since he was
+a child, and you have treated him very unkindly. But you have no right
+to accuse him now, and I would not listen to you unless I believed that
+I could help to make you see him as you should."
+
+Madame Patoff bent her head and hid her eyes in her hand, as though
+greatly distressed.
+
+"I love you so much, dear Hermy--I cannot bear to think of your marrying
+him. You cannot understand me--I know--and you think me very unkind. But
+I hate him!" she cried, with a burst of uncontrollable anger. "Oh, how I
+hate him!"
+
+Her hands had dropped from her face, and her dark eyes flashed wickedly
+as she stared at the young girl. Hermione was startled for a moment, but
+she also had learned a lesson of self-possession.
+
+"Do you think that I am afraid when you look at me like that, aunt
+Annie?" she asked, very quietly.
+
+Madame Patoff's features relaxed, and she laughed a little foolishly, as
+though ashamed of herself.
+
+"No, child; why should you be afraid? I am only an unhappy old woman. I
+cannot speak to any one else."
+
+"And you must not speak to me in that way," answered Hermione, in a
+gentle tone. "I love Paul with all my heart, and I cannot hear him
+abused by you, even though I know you are out of your mind when you say
+such things. I should be despicable if I listened to you."
+
+"If I loved you less, dear," returned the old lady, "I might hate him
+less. Ah, if you could only have married Alexis,--if it could only have
+been the other way!"
+
+"Hush!" exclaimed Hermione, almost roughly. "You are wishing that Paul
+were dead, instead of his brother. I will go away, if you talk like
+that."
+
+She suited the action to the word, and rose to go towards the door. She
+knew her aunt very well. Madame Patoff changed her tone at once.
+
+"Oh, don't go away, don't go away!" she cried nervously. "I will never
+speak of him again, if you will only stay with me."
+
+Hermione turned and came back, and saw that her threat had for the
+present produced its effect, as it usually did. Madame Patoff had
+indeed a strange affection for her niece, and the latter knew how to
+manage her by means of it. At the mere idea of Hermione's leaving her in
+anger, the aunt softened and became docile.
+
+"I did not mean it, child," she said, dolefully. "I am always so
+unhappy, so dreadfully wretched, that I say things I do not altogether
+mean. I am not quite myself to-night, either. Coming here, to the place
+where my poor boy was lost, has upset my nerves; and, really, your aunt
+Chrysophrasia is so very tactless. She always was like that. I remember
+the way in which she treated my poor husband before we were married. It
+was she who made all the quarrel, you know. It broke up my life at the
+very beginning, and we two sisters never saw each other again. I do not
+know what would have become of me if my husband had not loved me as he
+did. He was so kind to me, always, and he sympathized in all my feelings
+and ideas. If he had only lived, how different it might all have been!"
+
+Hermione thought so, too; reflecting that if Paul's father had been
+alive during the time when he was growing up, the unfortunate boy would
+have been spared a vast deal of suffering, and Madame Patoff would
+perhaps have been held in check. Her character was not of the kind which
+could safely be left to its own development, for she called her caprices
+justice and her obstinacy principle, a mode of viewing life not
+conducive to much permanent satisfaction when not modified by the
+salutary restraint of a more sensible companion. But Hermione was glad
+that her aunt was willing to talk of anything except Paul, and
+encouraged her to continue, though she had heard again and again Madame
+Patoff's account of her own life and of the family quarrels. By
+carefully listening and watching her, it was possible to keep her from
+reaching the point at which Hermione was always obliged to protest that
+she would not hear more.
+
+It may be judged from this scene that the young girl's position was not
+an easy one. She was beginning to feel that Madame Patoff's hatred for
+Paul approached in reality much nearer to insanity than the affected
+apathy she had assumed before Hermione discovered the imposition; but,
+nevertheless, the young girl felt that, sane or not sane, she could
+allow no one to cast a slur on the name of the man she loved. She was
+glad, indeed, that Madame Patoff did not make her hatred and her
+suspicion topics for conversation with the rest of the family, and she
+was willing to suffer much in order that her aunt might confide in her
+alone, and behave herself with propriety and dignity before the others.
+But when Madame Patoff overstepped the limits Hermione had set for her,
+the old lady invariably found herself checked and even frightened by the
+authoritative manner of her niece. The anxiety, however, and the
+constant annoyance to which she was subjected, together with the sorrow
+of the separation from Paul, had told upon the girl's strength, and it
+was no wonder that she had grown thinner during the last months. Her
+young character was forming itself under terrible difficulties, and it
+was well that she inherited more of her father's good sense and courage
+than of her mother's meekness and gentleness under all circumstances.
+Hermione looked back and tried to remember what she had been six months
+ago, but she hardly recognized herself in the picture called up by her
+memories. She thought of her ignorance about her aunt's state, and of
+how she had sometimes felt sad and sorry for the old lady, but had on
+the whole not found that her presence in the house materially changed
+her own smooth life. She looked further back, and remembered as in a
+dream her first London season. She had not enjoyed herself; she had been
+oppressed rather than delighted by the crowds, the lights, the whirl of
+a life she could not understand, the terrors of presentation, the men
+suddenly brought up to her, who bowed and immediately whirled her away
+amongst a crowd of young people, all spinning madly round, and knowing
+each other probably as little as she knew her partner of the moment. It
+had all been strange to her, and she realized with pleasure that she
+should not be obliged to go through it again this year. Her mother was
+not a worldly woman, and had not inspired her, while still in the
+schoolroom, with a mad desire for the world. Hermione was an only
+daughter, and there was no reason for hastening her marriage; nor had
+she ever been told, as many young girls are, that she must marry well,
+and if possible in her first season. She saw many men in the round of
+parties to which she was taken, but she found it hard to remember the
+names of even a few of them. They had been presented, had danced with
+her, had perhaps danced with her again somewhere else, and had dropped
+out of her existence without inspiring in her the smallest interest.
+Now, after nearly a year, she would not have known their faces. Some had
+talked to her, but their language was not hers; it was the jargon of
+society, the petty gossip, the eternal chatter of people and people's
+doings. Her answers were vague, and when she asked a question about a
+book, about an idea, about a fact, the faultlessly correct young men
+smiled sweetly, and answered that they did not understand that sort of
+thing. Towards the end of the season, when the first surprise of
+watching the moving crowds, the dancing, the women's gowns, and the
+men's faces, had worn out, Hermione had regarded the whole thing as an
+inexpressible bore, and had returned with delight to the quiet life at
+Carvel Place, glad that her father's position and tastes did not lead
+him to keep open house, as some of his neighbors did, and that she was
+allowed to read and to be quiet, and to do everything she liked.
+
+Then her real life had begun, and her character, untouched and unchanged
+by what she had seen in a London season, had suddenly come under the
+influence of another character, strong, dominant, and apparently good,
+but in the eyes of the young girl eminently mysterious. She had known
+Paul Patoff as one knows people in the midst of a small family party in
+a country house, and he had at first repelled her, as he repelled many
+people; but soon, very soon, she thought, the feeling of repulsion had
+grown to be a curiosity to know the man's history, the secret of his
+coldness towards his mother, and of his hard and cynical expression.
+From such interest as she felt for him, it was but a step to love, and
+the step was soon taken. The nearer she came to him, the more she felt
+the power of his fascination, and the more she wondered that every one
+else did not see it as she saw it, and yield to it as she yielded to it.
+Then had come the afternoon in the park; the joy of those few hours; the
+scene at dinner on the same evening; the revelation she had extracted
+from Cutter; the discovery that her aunt was sane; her interview with
+Paul, and his sudden departure, wounded by her speech;--all these events
+following on each other in less than four-and-twenty hours. From that
+day she knew that she had changed much, and she realized the strength of
+her love for Paul. And on that day, also, had begun her annoyances with
+Madame Patoff, her constant defense of the son against the accusations
+of the mother, and her own fears lest she should be playing a double
+part. She had suffered much by the separation from Paul; she suffered
+more whenever her aunt fell into her passionate way of abusing him, and
+she felt that her faculties were overstrained when she was in the
+society of her strange relative. But Madame Patoff loved her, and her
+affection was so evident to Hermione that she found it hard to cut her
+speeches short with a sharp word, however painful it might be to her to
+listen to them. Of late she had adopted the practice of treating her as
+she did on the first night, assuming that her hatred was very nearly an
+insanity in itself, and managing her almost like a child, threatening to
+leave her when she said too much, and bringing her to her senses by
+seeming to withdraw her affection. Indeed, there was something
+exaggerated in Madame Patoff's love for the girl, as there appeared to
+be in everything she really felt. With the other members of the
+household she behaved with perfect self-possession, but when she was
+alone with Hermione she laid aside all her assumed calm, and spoke
+unreasonably about her son, as though it gave her pleasure; always
+submitting, however, to the rebuke which Hermione invariably
+administered on such occasions. But the idea that whenever she was alone
+with her aunt something of the kind was sure to occur made Hermione
+nervous, so that she avoided an interview whenever she could.
+
+
+
+
+XVI.
+
+
+If any of the party could have guessed what Gregorios Balsamides and I
+were doing on that dark night, they would not have slept as soundly as
+they did. It was an evil night, a night for a bad deed, I thought, as I
+looked out of the carriage-window, when we were clear of the houses and
+streets of Pera. The black clouds drove angrily down before the north
+wind, seeming to tear themselves in pieces on the stars, as one might
+tear a black veil upon steel nails. The wind swept the desolate country,
+and made the panes of the windows rattle even more loudly than did the
+hoofs and wheels upon the stony road. But the horses were strong, and
+the driver was not a shivering Greek, but a sturdy Turk, who could laugh
+at the wind as it whistled past his ears, striking full upon his broad
+chest. He drove fast along the rising ground, and faster as he reached
+the high bend which the road follows above the Bosphorus, winding in and
+out among the hills till it descends at last to Therapia.
+
+"The clouds look like the souls of the lost, to-night," said Balsamides,
+drawing his fur coat closely around him. "One can imagine how Dante
+conceived the idea of the scene in hell, when the souls stream down the
+wind."
+
+"You seem poetically inclined," I answered.
+
+"Why not? We are out upon a romantic errand. Our lives are not often
+romantic. We may as well make the best of it, as a beggar does when he
+gets a bowl of rice."
+
+"I should fancy you had led a very romantic life," said I, lighting a
+cigarette in the dark, and leaning back against the cushions.
+
+"That is what women always say when they want a man to make
+confidences," laughed Balsamides. "No, I have not led a romantic life. I
+pass most of my time sitting on my horse in the hot sun, or the driving
+snow, preserving, or pretending to preserve, the life of his Majesty
+from real or imaginary dangers. Or else I sit eight or nine hours a day
+chatting and smoking with the other adjutants. It is not a healthy life.
+It is certainly not romantic."
+
+"Not as you describe it. But I judged from the ease with which you made
+the preparations for this expedition that you had done things of the
+sort before."
+
+My friend laughed again, but turned the subject.
+
+"I hope that when we meet your friends to-morrow morning, we may have
+something to show for our night's work," he said. "Fancy what an
+excitement there would be if we brought Alexander Patoff back with us!
+Not that it is at all probable. We may bring back nothing but broken
+bones."
+
+"I do not think Selim will hurt us much," I answered. "He is not exactly
+an athlete. I would risk a fight with him."
+
+"I dare say. But there may be plenty of strong fellows about the
+premises. There are the four caidjs, the boatmen, to begin with. There
+is a coachman and probably two grooms. Very likely there are half a
+dozen big hamals about."
+
+"That makes thirteen," I said. "Six and a half to one, or four and a
+third to one, if we count upon our own driver."
+
+"You may count upon him," replied Gregorios. "He is an old soldier, and
+as strong as a lion. In case of necessity he will call the watch from
+Yeni Koej. There is a small detachment of infantry there. But we shall
+not have to resort to such measures. I believe that I can make the
+Khanum confess. If so, I can make her order Selim to give up Patoff, if
+he is alive."
+
+"And if he is dead?"
+
+"It will be the worse for the Khanum and her people. She is not in good
+odor at the palace. It would not take much to have her exiled to Arabia,
+even though she be dying, as they say she is. That is the question. Let
+me only find her alive, and I will answer for the rest."
+
+"She might very well refuse to confess, I fancy," I remarked, surprised
+at my friend's tone of conviction.
+
+"I believe not," he said shortly. Then he remained silent for some time.
+
+My nerves are good; but I did not like the business, though I knew it
+was undertaken for a good purpose, and that if we were successful we
+should be conferring great and lasting happiness upon more than one of
+my friends. I had heard many queer stories of wild deeds in the East,
+and in my own experience had been concerned in at least one strange and
+unhappy story, which had ended in my losing sight forever of a man who
+was very dear to me. I do not think that the fact of having been in
+danger necessarily brings with it a liking for dangerous adventures,
+though it undoubtedly makes a man more fit to encounter perils of all
+kinds. Few men are absolutely careless of life, and those who are, do
+not of necessity court death. It is one thing to say that one would
+readily die at any moment; it is quite another to seek risks and to
+incur them voluntarily. The brave man, as a general rule, does not feel
+a thrill of pleasure until the struggle has actually begun; when he is
+expecting it he is grave and cautious, lest it should come upon him
+unawares. This, at least, I believe to be the character of the Northern
+man, and I think it constitutes one of his elements of superiority.
+
+Balsamides is an Oriental, and looks at things very differently. In his
+belief death will come at its appointed time, whether a man stay at home
+and nurse his safety, or whether he lead the front in battle. The
+essence of fatalism is the conviction that death must come at a certain
+time, no matter what a man is doing, nor how he may try to protect
+himself. This is the reason why the fanatic Mussulman is absolutely
+indifferent to danger. He firmly believes that if he is to die, death
+will overtake him at the plow as surely as in storming an enemy's
+battery. But he believes also that if he dies fighting against
+unbelievers his place in Paradise will be far higher than if he dies
+upon his farm, his ambrosial refreshment more abundant, and the
+dark-eyed houris who will soothe his eternal repose more beautiful and
+more numerous. The low-born hamal in the street will march up to the
+mouth of the guns without so much as a cup of coffee to animate him,
+with an absolute courage not found in men who have not his unswerving
+faith. To him Paradise is an almost visible reality, and the attainment
+of it depends only on his individual exertions. But what is most strange
+is the fact that this indifference to death is contagious, so that
+Christians who live among Turks unconsciously acquire much of the Moslem
+belief in fate. The Albanians, who are chiefly Christians, are among the
+bravest officers in the Turkish army, as they are amongst the most
+faithfully devoted to the Sultan and to the interests of the Empire.
+
+Balsamides was in a mood which differed widely from mine. As we
+clattered over the rough road in the face of the north wind, I was
+thinking of what was before us, anticipating trouble, and determining
+within myself what I would do. If I were ready to meet danger, it was
+from an inward conviction of necessity which clearly presented itself to
+me, and I consequently made the best of it. But Balsamides grew merry as
+we proceeded. His spirits rose at the mere thought of a fight, until I
+almost fancied that he would provoke an unnecessary struggle rather than
+forego the pleasure of dealing a few blows. It was a new phase of his
+character, and I watched him, or rather listened to him, with interest.
+
+"This is positively delightful," he said in a cheerful voice.
+
+"What?" I inquired, with pardonable curiosity.
+
+"What? In an hour or two we may have strangled the Lala, have forced the
+old Khanum to confess her iniquities, kicked the retainers into the
+Bosphorus, and be on our way back, with Alexander Patoff in this very
+carriage! I cannot imagine a more delightful prospect."
+
+"It is certainly a lively entertainment for a cold night," I replied.
+"But if you expect me to murder anybody in cold blood, I warn you that I
+will not do it."
+
+"No; but they may show fight," he said. "A little scuffle would be such
+a rest after leading this monotonous life. I should think you would be
+more enthusiastic."
+
+"I shall reserve my enthusiasm until the fight is over."
+
+"Then it will be of no use to you. Where is the pleasure in talking
+about things when they are past? The real pleasure is in action."
+
+"Action is not necessarily bloodshed," said I. "Active exercise is
+undoubtedly good for mind and body, but when you take it by strangling
+your fellow-creatures"----
+
+"Rubbish!" exclaimed Balsamides. "What is the life of one Lala more or
+less in this world? Besides, he will not be killed unless he deserves
+it."
+
+"With your ideas about the delight of such amusements, you will be
+likely to find that he deserves it. I do not think he would be very safe
+in your keeping."
+
+"No, perhaps not," he answered, with a light laugh. "If he objects to
+letting me in, I shall take great pleasure in making short work of him.
+I am rather sorry you have put on that uniform. Your appearance will
+probably inspire so much respect that they will all act like sheep in a
+thunderstorm,--huddle together, and bleat or squeal. It is some
+consolation to think that unless I appeared with an adjutant they would
+not believe that I came from the palace."
+
+"It is a consolation to me to think that my presence may render it
+unnecessary for you to strangle, crucify, burn alive, and drown the
+whole population of Yeni Koej," I answered. "I dare say you have done
+most of those things at one time or another."
+
+"In insurrections, such as we occasionally have in Albania and Crete, it
+is imperative sometimes to make an example. But I am not bloodthirsty."
+
+"No; from your conversation I should take you for a lamb," said I.
+
+"I am not bloodthirsty," continued Gregorios. "I should not care to kill
+a man who was quite defenseless, or who was innocent. Indeed, I would
+not do such a thing on any account."
+
+"You amaze me," I observed.
+
+"No. But I like fighting. I enter into the spirit of the thing. There is
+really nothing more exhilarating,--I even believe it is healthy."
+
+"For the survivors it is good exercise. Those who do not survive are, of
+course, no longer in a condition to appreciate the fun."
+
+"Exactly; the fun consists in surviving."
+
+"One does not always survive," I objected.
+
+"What is the difference?" exclaimed Balsamides, who probably shrugged
+his shoulders, in his dark corner of the carriage. "A man can die only
+once, and then it is all over."
+
+"A man can also live only once," said I. "A living dog is better than a
+dead lion."
+
+"Very little," answered Balsamides, with a laugh. "I would rather have
+been a living lion for ever so short a time, and be dead, than be a Pera
+dog forever. The Preacher would have been nearer to the truth if he had
+said that a living man is better than a dead man. But the Preacher was
+an Oriental, and naturally had to use a simile to express his meaning."
+
+Suddenly the carriage stopped in the road. Then, after a moment's pause,
+we turned to the right, and began to descend a steep hill, slowly and
+cautiously, for the night was very dark and the road bad.
+
+"We are going down to Yeni Koej," said Balsamides. "In twenty minutes we
+shall be there. I will get out of the carriage first. Remember that,
+once there, you must not speak a word of any language but Turkish."
+
+Slowly we crept down the hill, the wheels grinding in the drag, and
+jolting heavily from time to time. There were trees by the
+roadside,--indeed, we were on the outskirts of the Belgrade forest. The
+bare boughs swayed and creaked in the bitter March wind, and as I peered
+out through the window the night seemed more hideous than ever.
+
+"By the by," said I, suddenly, "we have no names. What am I to call you,
+if I have to speak to you?"
+
+"Anything," said Balsamides. "She does not know the name of the court
+physician, I suppose. However, you had better call me by his name. She
+might know, after all. Call me Kalopithaki Bey. You are Mehemet Bey.
+That is simple enough. Here we are coming to the house; be ready, they
+will open the door if they recognize the palace carriage through the
+lattice. Of course every one will be up if the old lady is dying, and it
+is not much past twelve. The man has driven fast."
+
+The wheels rattled over the pavement, and we drew up before the door of
+Laleli's house. We both descended quickly, and Balsamides went up the
+broad steps which led to the door and knocked. Some one opened almost
+immediately, and a harsh voice--not Selim's--called out,--
+
+"Who is there?"
+
+"From the palace, by order of his Majesty," answered Balsamides,
+promptly. I showed myself by his side, and, as he had predicted, the
+effect produced by the adjutant's uniform was instantaneous. The man
+made a low salute, which we hastily returned, and held the door wide
+open for us to pass; closing it and bolting it, however, when we had
+entered. I noticed that the bolts slid easily and noiselessly in their
+sockets. The man was a sturdy and military Turk, I observed, with
+grizzled mustaches and a face deeply marked with small-pox.
+
+We entered a lofty vestibule, lighted by two hanging lamps. The floor
+was matted, but there was no furniture of any description. At the
+opposite end a high doorway was closed by a heavy curtain. A large
+Turkish mangal, or brazier, stood in the middle of the wide hall. The
+man turned to the right and led us into a smaller apartment, of which
+the walls were ornamented with mirrors in gilt frames. A low divan,
+covered with satin of the disagreeable color known as magenta,
+surrounded the room on all sides. Two small tables, inlaid with
+tortoise-shell and mother-of-pearl, stood side by side in the middle of
+the apartment.
+
+"Buyurun, be seated, Effendimlir," said the man, who then left the room.
+A moment later we heard his harsh voice at some distance:--
+
+"Selim, Selim! There are two Effendilir from Yildiz-Kioeshk in the
+selamlek!"
+
+We sat down to wait.
+
+"The porter is a genuine Turk, and not a Circassian. A Circassian would
+have said 'Effendilir,' without the 'm,' in the vocative when he spoke
+to us, as he did when he used it in the nominative to Selim."
+
+I reflected that Balsamides had good nerves if he could notice
+grammatical niceties at such a moment.
+
+
+
+
+XVII.
+
+
+In a few moments Selim, the hideous Lala, entered the room, making the
+usual salutation as he advanced. He must have recognized Balsamides at
+once, for he started and stood still when he saw him, and seemed about
+to speak. But my appearance probably prevented him from saying what was
+on his lips, and he stood motionless before us. Balsamides assumed a
+suave manner, and informed him that he was sent by his Majesty to afford
+relief, if possible, to Laleli Khanum Effendi. His Majesty, said
+Gregorios, was deeply grieved at hearing of the Khanum's illness, and
+desired that every means should be employed to alleviate her sufferings.
+He begged that Selim would at once inform the Khanum of the physician's
+presence, as every moment might be of importance at such a juncture.
+
+Selim could hardly have guessed the truth. He did not know the court
+doctor by sight, and Balsamides played his part with consummate
+coolness. The negro could never have imagined that a Frank and a
+foreigner would dare to assume the uniform of one of the Sultan's
+adjutants,--a uniform which he knew very well, and which he knew that he
+must respect. He was terrified when he recognized in the Sultan's
+medical adviser the man who had scattered the crowd in the bazaar, and
+who had so startled him by his references to the ring, the box, and the
+chain. He was frightened, but he knew he could not attempt to resist the
+imperial order, and after a moment's hesitation he answered.
+
+"The Khanum Effendi," he said, "is indeed very ill. It is past midnight,
+and no one in the harem thinks of sleep. I will prepare the Khanum for
+the Effendi's visit."
+
+Thereupon he withdrew, and we were once more left alone. I confess that
+my courage rose as I grew more confident of the excellence of my
+disguise. If the Lala himself had no doubts concerning me, it was not
+likely that any one else would venture to question my identity. As for
+Balsamides, he seemed as calm as though he were making an ordinary
+visit.
+
+"They will make us wait," he said. "It will take half an hour to prepare
+the harem for my entrance. The old lady may be dying, but she will not
+sacrifice the formalities. It is no light thing with such as she to
+receive a visit from a Frank doctor."
+
+He spoke in a low voice, lest the porter in the hall should hear us. But
+he did not speak again. I fancied he was framing his speech to the
+Khanum. The preparations within did not take so long as he had expected,
+for scarcely ten minutes had elapsed when Selim returned.
+
+"Buyurun," said the negro, shortly. The word is the universal formula in
+Turkey for "walk in," "sit down," "make yourself comfortable," "help
+yourself."
+
+Balsamides glanced at me, as we both rose from our seats, and I saw that
+he was perfectly calm and confident. A moment later I was alone.
+
+Gregorios followed Selim into the hall; then, passing under the heavy
+curtain and through a door which the Lala opened on the other side, he
+found himself within the precincts of the harem, in a wide vestibule not
+unlike the one he had just quitted, though more brilliantly lighted, and
+furnished with low divans covered with pale blue satin. There was no one
+to be seen, however, and Balsamides followed the negro, who entered a
+door on the right-hand side, at the end of the hall. They passed through
+a narrow passage, entirely hung with rose-colored silk and matted, but
+devoid of furniture, and then Selim raised a curtain and admitted
+Gregorios to the presence of the sick lady.
+
+The apartment was vast and brilliantly illuminated with lamps. Huge
+mirrors in gilt frames of the fashion of the last century filled the
+panels from the ceiling to the wainscoting. In the corners, and in every
+available space between the larger ones, small mirrors bearing branches
+of lights were hung, and groups of lamps were suspended from the
+ceiling. The whole effect was as though the room had been lighted for a
+ball. The Khanum had always loved lights, and feeling her sight dimmed
+by illness she had ordered every lamp in the house to be lighted,
+producing a fictitious daylight, and perhaps in some measure the
+exhilaration which daylight brings with it.
+
+The floor of the hall was of highly polished wood, and the everlasting
+divans of disagreeable magenta satin, so dear to the modern Turkish
+woman, lined the walls on three sides. At the upper end, however, a dais
+was raised about a foot from the floor. Here rich Sine and Giordes
+carpets were spread, and a broad divan extended across the whole width
+of the apartment, covered with silk of a very delicate hue, such as in
+the last century was called "bloom" in England. The long stiff cushions,
+of the same material, leaned stiffly against the wall at the back of the
+low seat, in an even row. Several dwarf tables, of the inlaid sort,
+stood within arm's-length of the divan, and on one of them lay a golden
+salver, bearing a crystal jar of strawberry preserves, and a glass half
+full of water, with a gold spoon in it. In the right-hand corner of the
+divan was the Khanum herself.
+
+The old lady's dress was in striking contrast to her surroundings. She
+wore a shapeless, snuff-colored gown, very loose and only slightly
+gathered at the waist. As she sat propped among her cushions, her feet
+entirely concealed beneath her, she seemed to be inclosed in a brown
+bag, from which emerged her head and hands. The latter were very small
+and white, and might well have belonged to a young woman, but her head
+was that of an aged crone. Balsamides was amazed at her ugliness and the
+extraordinary expression of her features. She wore no head-dress, and
+the bit of gauze about her throat, which properly speaking should have
+concealed her face, did not even cover her chin. Her hair was perfectly
+black in spite of her age, and being cut so short as only to reach the
+collar of her gown, hung straight down like that of an American Indian,
+brushed back from the high yellow forehead, and falling like stiff
+horse-hair over her ears and cheeks when she bent forward. Her eyes,
+too, were black, and were set so near together as to give her a very
+disagreeable expression, while the heavy eyebrows rose slightly from the
+nose towards the temples. The nose was long, straight, and pointed, but
+very thin; and the nostrils, which had once been broad and sensitive,
+were pinched and wrinkled by old age and the play of strong emotions.
+Her cheeks were hollowed and yellow, as the warped parchment cover of an
+old manuscript, seamed with furrows in all directions, so that the
+slightest motion of her face destroyed one set of deep-traced lines only
+to exhibit another new and unexpected network of wrinkles. The upper lip
+was long and drawn down, while the thin mouth curved upwards at the
+corners in a disagreeable smile, something like that which seems to play
+about the long, slit lips of a dead viper. This unpleasant combination
+of features was terminated by a short but prominent chin, indicating a
+determined and undeviating will. The ghastly yellow color of her face
+made the unnatural brightness of her beady eyes more extraordinary
+still.
+
+To judge from her appearance, she had not long to live, and Balsamides
+realized the fact as soon as he was in her presence. It was not a fever;
+it was no sudden illness which had attacked her, depriving her of
+strength, speech, and consciousness. She was dying of a slow and
+incurable disease, which fed upon the body without weakening the
+energies of the brain, and which had now reached its last stage. She
+might live a month, or she might die that very night, but her end was
+close at hand. With the iron determination of a tyrannical old woman,
+she kept up appearances to the last, and had insisted on being carried
+to the great hall and set in the place of honor upon the divan to
+receive the visit of the physician. Indeed, for many days she had given
+the slaves of her harem no rest, causing herself to be carried from one
+part of the house to another, in the vain hope of finding some relief
+from the pain which devoured her. All night the great rooms were
+illuminated. Day and night the slaves exhausted themselves in the
+attempt to amuse her: the trained and educated Circassian girl
+translated the newspapers to her, or read aloud whole chapters of Victor
+Hugo's Miserables, one of the few foreign novels which have been
+translated into Turkish; the almehs danced and sang to their small
+lutes; the black slaves succeeded each other in bringing every kind of
+refreshment which the ingenuity of the Dalmatian cook could devise; the
+whole establishment was in perpetual motion, and had rarely in the last
+few days snatched a few minutes of uneasy rest when the Khanum slept her
+short and broken sleep. It chanced that Laleli had all her life detested
+opium, and was so quick to detect its presence in a sweetmeat or in a
+sherbet, that now, when its use might have soothed her agonies, no
+member of her household had the courage to offer it to her. Her
+sleepless days and nights passed in the perpetual effort to obtain some
+diversion from her pain, and with every hour it became more difficult to
+satisfy her craving for change and amusement.
+
+Balsamides came forward, touching his hand to his mouth and forehead;
+and then approaching nearer, he awaited her invitation to sit down. The
+old woman made a feeble, almost palsied gesture with her thin white
+hand, and Gregorios advanced and seated himself upon the divan at some
+distance from his patient.
+
+"His Majesty has sent you?" she inquired presently, slowly turning her
+head and fixing her beady eyes upon his face. Her voice was weak and
+hoarse, scarcely rising above a whisper.
+
+"It is his Majesty's pleasure that I should use my art to stay the hand
+of death," replied Balsamides. "His Majesty is deeply grieved to hear of
+the Khanum Effendi's illness."
+
+"My gratitude is profound as the sea," said Laleli Khanum, but as she
+spoke the viper smile wreathed and curled upon her seamed lips. "I thank
+his Majesty. My time is come,--it is my kader, my fate. Allah alone can
+save. None else can help me."
+
+"Nevertheless, though it be in vain, I must try my arts, Khanum
+Effendim," said Balsamides.
+
+"What are your arts?" asked the sick woman, scornfully. "Can you burn me
+with fire, and make a new Laleli out of the ashes of my bones?"
+
+"No," said Gregorios, "I cannot do that, but I can ease your pain, and
+perhaps you may recover."
+
+"If you can ease my pain, you shall be rich. But you can not. Only Allah
+is great!"
+
+"If the Khanum will permit her servant to approach her and to touch her
+hand"--suggested Balsamides, humbly.
+
+"Gelinis, come," muttered Laleli. But she drew the pale green veil that
+was round her throat a little higher, so as to cover her mouth. "What is
+this vile body that it should be any longer withheld from the touch of
+the unbeliever? What is your medicine, Giaour? Shall the touch of your
+unbelieving hand, wherewith you daily make signs before images, heal the
+sickness of her who is a daughter of the prophet of the Most High?"
+
+Balsamides rose from his seat and came to her side. She shrank together
+in her snuff-colored, bag-shaped gown, and hesitated before she would
+put out her small hand, and her eyes expressed ineffable disgust. But at
+last she held out her fingers, and Gregorios succeeded in getting at her
+wrist. The pulse was very quick, and fluttered and sank at every fourth
+or fifth beat.
+
+"The Khanum is in great pain," said Gregorios. He saw indeed that she
+was in a very weak state, and he fancied she could not last long.
+
+"Ay, the pains of Gehennam are upon me," she answered in her hoarse
+whisper, and at the same time she trembled violently, while the
+perspiration broke out in a clammy moisture on her yellow forehead.
+
+Gregorios produced a small case from his pocket. It is the magical
+transformer of the modern physician.
+
+"The prick of a pin," said he, "and your pain will cease. If the Khanum
+will consent?"
+
+She was in an access of terrible agony, and could not speak. Gregorios
+took from his case a tiny syringe and a small bottle containing a
+colorless liquid. It was the work of an instant to puncture the skin of
+Laleli's hand, and to inject a small dose of morphine,--a very small
+dose indeed, for the solution was weak. But the effect was almost
+instantaneous. The Khanum opened her small black eyes, the contortion of
+her wrinkled face gave way to a more natural expression, and she
+gradually assumed a look of peace and relief which told Gregorios that
+the drug had done its work. Even her voice sounded less hoarse and
+indistinct when she spoke again.
+
+"I am cured!" she exclaimed in sudden delight. "The pain is gone,--Allah
+be praised, the pain is gone, the fire is put out! I shall live! I shall
+live!"
+
+Not one word of thanks to Gregorios escaped her lips. It was
+characteristic of the woman that she expressed only her own satisfaction
+at the relief she experienced, feeling not the smallest gratitude
+towards the physician. She clapped her thin hands, and a black slave
+girl appeared, one of those called halaik, or "creatures." The Khanum
+ordered coffee and chibouques. She had never accepted the modern
+cigarette.
+
+"The relief is instantaneous," remarked Balsamides, carefully putting
+back the syringe and the bottle in the little case, which he returned to
+his pocket.
+
+"Tell me," said the old woman, lowering her voice, "is it the magic of
+the Franks?"
+
+"It is, and it is not," answered Gregorios, willing to play upon her
+superstition. "It is, truly, very mysterious, and a man who employs it
+must have clean hands and a brave heart. And so, indeed, must the person
+who benefits by the cure. Otherwise it cannot be permanent. The sins
+which burden the soul have power to consume the body, and if there is no
+repentance, no device to undo the harm done, the magic properties of the
+fluid are soon destroyed by the more powerful arts of Satan."
+
+The Khanum looked anxiously at Balsamides as he spoke. At that moment
+the black slave girl returned, bearing two little cups of coffee, while
+two other girls, exactly like the first, followed with two lighted
+chibouques, a mangal filled with coals, two small brass dishes upon
+which the bowls of the pipes were to rest, so as not to burn the carpet,
+and a little pair of steel firetongs inlaid with gold. At a sign the
+three slaves silently retired. The Khanum drank the hot coffee eagerly,
+and, placing the huge amber mouthpiece against her lips, began to inhale
+the smoke. Gregorios followed her example.
+
+"What is this you say of Satan destroying the power of your medicine?"
+asked Laleli, presently.
+
+"It is the truth, Khanum Effendim," answered Balsamides, solemnly. "If,
+therefore, you would be healed, repent of sin, and if you have done
+anything that is sinful, command that it be undone, if possible. If not,
+your pain will return, and I cannot save you."
+
+"How do you, a Giaour, talk to me of repentance?" asked Laleli, in
+scornful tones. "While you try to extract the eyelash from my eye, you
+do not see the beam which has entered your own."
+
+"Nevertheless, unless you repent my medicine will not heal you,"
+returned Gregorios, calmly.
+
+"What have I to repent? Shall you find out my sin?"
+
+"That I be unable to find it out does not destroy the necessity for your
+repenting it. The time is short. If your heart is not clean you will
+soon be writhing in a worse agony than when I charmed away your pain."
+
+"We shall see," retorted the Khanum, her features wrinkling in a
+contemptuous smile. "I tell you I feel perfectly well. I have
+recovered."
+
+But she had hardly spoken, and puffed a great cloud of aromatic smoke
+into the still air of the illuminated room, when the smile began to
+fade. Balsamides watched her narrowly, and saw the former expression of
+pain slowly returning to her face. He had not expected it so soon, but
+in his fear of producing death he had administered a very small dose of
+morphine, and the disease was far advanced. Laleli, however, though
+terrified as she felt that the agony she had so long endured was
+returning after so brief a respite, endeavored bravely to hide her
+sufferings, lest she should seem to confess that the Giaour was right,
+and that it was the presence of the devil in her heart which prevented
+the medicine from having its full effect. Gradually, as she smoked on in
+silence, Gregorios saw that the disease had got the mastery over her
+again, and that she was struggling to control her features. He pretended
+not to observe the change, and waited philosophically for the inevitable
+result. At last the unfortunate woman could bear it no longer; the pipe
+dropped from her trembling hand, and the sweat stood upon her brow.
+
+"I wonder whether there is any truth in what you say!" she exclaimed, in
+a voice broken with the pain she would not confess.
+
+"It is useless to deny it," answered Balsamides. "The Khanum Effendim is
+already suffering."
+
+"No, I am not!" she said between her teeth. But the perspiration
+trickled down her hollow cheeks. Suddenly, unable to hide the horrible
+agony which was gnawing in her bosom, she uttered a short, harsh cry,
+and rocked herself backwards and forwards.
+
+"It is even so," said Balsamides, eying her coldly, and not moving from
+his place as he blew the clouds of smoke into the warm air. "My medicine
+is of no use when the soul is dark and diseased by a black deed."
+
+"Where is the medicine?" cried the wretched woman, swaying from side to
+side in her agony. "Where is it? Give it to me again, or I shall die!"
+
+"It cannot help you unless you confess your sin," returned her torturer
+indifferently.
+
+"In the name of Allah! I will confess all, even to you an unbeliever, if
+you will only give me rest again!" cried Laleli. From the momentary
+respite the pain seemed far greater than before.
+
+"If you will do that, I will try and save you," answered Balsamides,
+producing the case from his pocket. He had been very far from expecting
+the advantage he had obtained through the combination of the old woman's
+credulity and extreme suffering; but in his usual cold fashion he now
+resolved to use it to the utmost. Laleli saw him take the syringe from
+the case, and her eyes glittered with the anticipation of immediate
+relief.
+
+"Speak," said Gregorios,--"confess your sin, and you shall have rest."
+
+"What am I to confess?" asked the old woman, hungrily watching the tiny
+instrument in his fingers.
+
+"This," answered Balsamides, lowering his voice. "You must tell me what
+became of a Russian Effendi, whose name was Alexander, whom you caused
+to be seized one night in the last week of"----
+
+Again Laleli cried out, and rocked her body, apparently suffering more
+than ever.
+
+"The medicine!" she whispered almost inaudibly.--"Quick--I cannot
+speak---- am dying of the pain." The perspiration streamed down her
+yellow wrinkled face, and Balsamides feared the end was come.
+
+"You must tell me first, or it will be of no use," he said. But he
+quickly filled the syringe, and prepared to repeat the former operation.
+
+"I cannot," groaned Laleli. "I die!--quick! Then I will tell."
+
+A physician might have known whether the woman were really dying or not,
+but Balsamides' science did not go so far as that. Without further
+hesitation he pricked the skin of her hand and injected a small
+quantity, a very little more than the first time. The effect was not
+quite so sudden as before, but it followed after a few seconds. The
+signs of extreme suffering disappeared from the Khanum's face, and she
+once more looked up.
+
+"Your medicine is good, Giaour," she said, with the ghost of a
+disdainful laugh. But her voice was still very weak and hoarse.
+
+"It will not save you unless you confess what became of the Frank," said
+Gregorios, again putting his instrument into the case, and the case into
+his pocket.
+
+"It is very easy for me to have you kept here, and to force you to cure
+me," she answered with a wicked smile. "Do you think you can leave my
+house without my permission?"
+
+"Easily," returned Balsamides, coolly. "I have not come here
+unprotected. His Majesty's adjutant is outside. You will not find it
+easy to take him prisoner."
+
+"Who knows?" exclaimed Laleli. "The only thing which prevents me from
+keeping you is, that I see you have very little of your medicine. It is
+a good medicine. But I do not believe your story about repentance. It
+may serve for Franks; it is not enough for a daughter of the true
+Prophet."
+
+"You shall see. If you wish to avoid further suffering, I advise you to
+tell me what became of Alexander Patoff, and to tell me quickly. I was
+wrong to give you the medicine until you had confessed, but if you
+refuse I have another medicine ready which may persuade you."
+
+"What do I know of your unbelieving dogs of Russians?" retorted the old
+woman, fiercely.
+
+"You know the answer to my question well enough. If you do not tell me
+within five minutes what I want to know, I will tell you what the other
+medicine is."
+
+Laleli relapsed into a scornful silence. She was better of her pain, but
+she was angry at the physician's manner. Balsamides took out his watch,
+and began to count the minutes. There was a dead silence in the spacious
+hall, where the lights burned as brightly as ever, while the heavy
+clouds of tobacco smoke slowly wreathed themselves around the
+chandeliers and mirrors. The two sat watching each other. It seemed an
+eternity to the old woman, but the dose had been stronger this time, and
+she was free from pain. At last Balsamides shut his watch and returned
+it to his pocket.
+
+"Will you, or will you not, tell me what became of Alexander Patoff,
+whom you caused to be seized in or near Agia Sophia, one night in the
+last week of the month of Ramazan before the last?"
+
+Laleli's beady eyes were fixed on his as he spoke, with an air of
+surprise, not unmingled with curiosity, and strongly tinged with
+contempt.
+
+"I know nothing about him," she answered steadily. "I never caused him
+to be seized. I never heard of him."
+
+"Then here is my medicine," said Gregorios, coldly. "It is a terrible
+medicine. Listen to the pleasure of his Majesty the Hunkyar." He rose,
+and pressed the document to his lips and forehead.
+
+"What!" cried Laleli, in sudden terror, her voice gathering strength
+from her fright.
+
+"It is an order, dated to-day, to arrest Laleli Khanum Effendi, and to
+convey her to a place of safety, where she shall await the further
+commands of his Majesty."
+
+"It is false," murmured the Khanum. But her white fingers twisted each
+other nervously. "It is a forgery."
+
+"So false," replied Balsamides, with cold contempt, "that the adjutant
+is waiting outside, and a troop of horse is stationed within call to
+conduct you to the place of safety aforesaid. I can force you to lay his
+Majesty's signature on your forehead and to follow me to my carriage, if
+I please."
+
+"Allah alone is great!" groaned the Khanum, her head sinking on her
+breast in despair. "Kader,--it is my fate."
+
+"But if you will deliver me this man alive, I will save you out of the
+hands even of the Hunkyar. I will say that you are too ill to be removed
+from your house,--unless I give you my medicine," he added, flattering
+her hopes to the last.
+
+"Give me time. I know nothing--what shall I say?" muttered Laleli
+incoherently, her thin fingers twitching at the stuff of her
+snuff-colored gown, while as she bent her head her short, coarse, black
+hair fell over her yellow cheeks, and concealed her expression from
+Gregorios.
+
+"You have not much time," he answered. "The pain will soon seize you
+more sharply than before. If I arrest you, your sentence will be
+banishment to Arabia,--not for this crime, but for that other which you
+thought was pardoned. If I leave you here without help, my sentence upon
+you is pain, pain and agony until you die. It is already returning; I
+can see it in your face."
+
+"I must have time to consider," said Laleli, her old firmness returning,
+as it generally did in moments of great difficulty. She looked up,
+tossing back her hair. "How long will you give me?"
+
+"Till the morning light is first gray in the sky above Beikos," replied
+Gregorios, without hesitation. "But for your own sake you had better
+decide sooner."
+
+Laleli was silent. She must have had the strongest reasons for refusing
+to tell the secret of Alexander's fate, for the penalty of silence was a
+fearful one. She felt herself to be dying, but the morphine had revived
+in her the hope of life, and she loved life yet. But to live and suffer,
+to go through the horrors of an exile to Arabia, to drag her gnawing
+pain through the sands of the desert, was a prospect too awful to be
+contemplated. As the effects of the last dose administered began to
+disappear, and her sufferings recommenced, she realized her situation
+with frightful vividness. Still she strove to be calm and to baffle her
+tormentor to the very end. If she had not felt the unspeakable relief
+she had gained from his medicine, she would have wished to die, but she
+had tasted of life again. The problem was how to preserve this new life
+while refusing to answer the question Gregorios had asked of her. She
+was so clever, so thoroughly able to deal with difficulties, that if she
+could but have relief from her sufferings, so that her mind might be
+free to work undisturbed, she still hoped to find the solution. But the
+pain was already returning. In a few minutes she would be writhing in
+agony again.
+
+"I will wait until morning,--it is not many hours now," said Balsamides,
+after a pause. "But I strongly advise you to decide at once. You are
+beginning to suffer, and I warn you that unless you confess you shall
+not have the medicine."
+
+"I lived without it until you came," answered Laleli. "I can live
+without it now, if it is my fate." Her voice trembled convulsively, but
+she finished her sentence by a great effort.
+
+"It is not your fate," returned Gregorios. "You can not live without
+it."
+
+"Then at least I shall die and escape you," she groaned; but even in her
+groan there was a sort of scorn. On the last occasion she had indeed
+exaggerated her sufferings, pretending that she was at the point of
+death in order to get relief without telling her secret. She had always
+believed that at the last minute Balsamides would relent, out of fear
+lest she should die, and that she could thus obtain a series of
+intervals of rest, during which she might think what was to be done. She
+did not know the relentless character of the man with whom she had to
+deal.
+
+"You cannot escape me," said Balsamides, sternly. "But you can save me
+trouble by deciding quickly."
+
+"I have decided to die!" she cried at last, with a great effort. She
+groaned again, and began to rock herself in her seat upon the divan.
+
+"You will not die yet," observed Gregorios, contemptuously. He had
+understood that he had been deceived the previous time, and had
+determined to let her suffer.
+
+Indeed, she was suffering, and very terribly. Her groans had a different
+character now, and it was evident that she was not playing a comedy. A
+livid hue overspread her face, and she gasped for breath.
+
+"If you are really in pain," said Balsamides, "confess, and I will give
+you relief."
+
+But Laleli shook her head, and did not look up. He attributed her
+constancy to an intention to impose upon him a second time by appearing
+to suffer in silence rather than to sell her secret for the medicine. He
+looked on, quite unmoved, for some minutes. At last she raised her head
+and showed the deathly color of her face.
+
+"Medicine!" she gasped.
+
+"Not this time, unless you make a full confession," said Balsamides
+calmly. "I will not be deceived again."
+
+The wretched woman cast an imploring glance at him, and seemed trying to
+speak. But he thought she was acting again, and did not move from his
+seat.
+
+"You understand the price," he said, slowly taking the case from his
+pocket. "Tell what you know, and you shall have it all, if you like."
+
+The old Khanum's eyes glittered as she saw the receptacle of the coveted
+medicine. Her lips moved, producing only inarticulate sounds. Then, with
+a convulsive movement, she suddenly began to try and drag herself along
+the divan to the place where Gregorios sat. He gazed at her scornfully.
+She was very weak, and painfully moved on her hands and knees, the
+straight hair falling about her face, while her eyes gleamed and her
+lips moved. Occasionally she paused as though exhausted, and groaned
+heavily in her agony. But Balsamides believed it to be but a comedy to
+frighten him into administering the dose, and he sat still in his place,
+holding the case in his hand and keeping his eyes upon her.
+
+"You cannot deceive me," he said coldly. "All these contortions will not
+prevail upon me. You must tell your secret, or you will get nothing."
+
+Still Laleli dragged herself along, apparently trying to speak, but
+uttering only inarticulate sounds. As she got nearer to him, still on
+her hands and knees, Gregorios thought he had never seen so awful a
+sight. The straight black hair was matted in the moisture upon her
+clammy face; a deathly, greenish livid hue had overspread her features;
+her chin was extended forward hungrily and her eyes shone dangerously,
+while her lips chattered perpetually. She was very near to Balsamides.
+Had she had the strength to stretch out her hand she could almost have
+touched the small black case he held. He thought she was too near, at
+last, and his grip tightened on the little box.
+
+"Confess," he said once more, "and you shall have it."
+
+For one moment more she tried to struggle on, still not speaking.
+Balsamides rose and quietly put the case into his pocket, anticipating a
+struggle. He little knew what the result would be. The miserable
+creature uttered a short cry, and a wild look of despair was in her
+eyes. Suddenly, as she crawled upon the divan, she reared herself up on
+her knees, stretching out her wasted hands towards him.
+
+"Give--give"--she cried. "I will tell you all--he is alive--he is--a
+wan--"
+
+Her staring black eyes abruptly seemed to turn white, and instantly her
+face became ashy pale. One last convulsive effort,--the jaw dropped, the
+features relaxed, the limbs were unstrung, and Laleli Khanum fell
+forward to her full length upon her face on the peach-colored satin of
+the divan.
+
+She was dead, and Gregorios Balsamides knew it, as he turned her limp
+body so that she lay upon her back. She was quite dead, but he was
+neither startled nor horrified; he was bitterly disappointed, and again
+and again he ground his heel into the thick Sine carpet under his feet.
+What was it to him whether this hideous old hag were dead in one way or
+another? She had died with her secret. There she lay in her shapeless
+bag-like gown of snuff-colored stuff, under the brilliant lights and the
+gorgeous mirrors, upon the delicate satin cushions, her white eyes
+staring wide, her hands clenched still in the death agony, the coarse
+hair clinging to her wet temples.
+
+Presently the body moved, and appeared to draw one--two--three
+convulsive breaths. Gregorios was startled, and bent down. But it was
+only the very end.
+
+"Bah!" he exclaimed, half aloud, "they often do that." Indeed, he had
+many times in his life seen men die, on the battlefield, on the hospital
+pallet, in their beds at home. But he had never seen such a death as
+this, and for a moment longer he gazed at the dead woman's face. Then
+the whole sense of disappointment rushed back upon him, and he hastily
+strode down the long hall, under the lamps, between the mirrors, without
+once looking behind him.
+
+
+
+
+XVIII.
+
+
+Balsamides found Selim outside the door at the other end of the passage,
+sitting disconsolately upon the divan. The Lala turned up his ugly face
+as Gregorios entered, and then rose from his seat, reluctantly, as
+though much exhausted. Balsamides laid his hand upon the fellow's arm
+and looked into his small red eyes.
+
+"The Khanum is dead," said the pretended physician.
+
+The negro trembled violently, and throwing up his arms would have
+clapped his hands together. But Balsamides stopped him.
+
+"No noise," he said sternly. "Come with me. All may yet be well with
+you; but you must be quiet, or it will be the worse for you." He held
+the Lala's arm and led him without resistance to the outer hall.
+
+"Mehemet Bey! Mehemet Bey!" I heard him call, and I hastened from the
+room where I had waited to join him in the vestibule. He was very pale
+and grave. On hearing him enter, the porter appeared, and silently
+opened the outer door. Balsamides addressed him as we prepared to leave
+the house.
+
+"The Khanum Effendi is dead," he said. "Selim will accompany us to the
+palace, and will return in the morning."
+
+The man's face, deeply marked with the small-pox and weather-beaten in
+many a campaign, did not change color. Perhaps he had long expected the
+news, for he bowed his head as though submitting to a superior order.
+
+"It is the will of Allah," he said in a low voice. In another moment we
+had descended the steps, Selim walking between us. The coachman was
+standing at the horses' heads in the light of the bright carriage lamps.
+Balsamides entered the carriage first, then I made Selim get in, and
+last of all I took my seat and closed the door.
+
+"Yildiz-Kioeshk!" shouted Balsamides out of the window to the driver, and
+once more we rattled over the pavement and along the rough road. I
+imagined that the order had been given only to mislead the porter, who
+had stood upon the steps until we drove away. I knew well enough that
+Balsamides would not present himself at the palace with me in my present
+disguise, and that it was very improbable that he would take Selim
+there. I hesitated to speak to him, because I did not know whether I was
+to continue to personate the adjutant or to reveal myself in my true
+character. I had comprehended the situation when I heard my friend tell
+the porter that the Khanum was dead, and I congratulated myself that we
+had secured the person of Selim without the smallest struggle or
+difficulty of any kind. I argued from this, either that the Khanum had
+died without telling her story, or else that she had told it all, and
+that Selim was to accompany us to the place where Alexander was buried
+or hidden.
+
+At last we turned to the left. Balsamides again put his head out of the
+window, and called to the coachman to drive on the Belgrade road instead
+of turning towards Pera. The negro started violently when he heard the
+order given, and I thought he put out his hand to take the handle of the
+door; but my own was in the hanging loop fastened to the inside of the
+door, and I knew that he could not open it. The road indicated by
+Gregorios leads through the heart of the Belgrade forest.
+
+The fierce north wind had moderated a little, or rather, as we drove up
+the thickly wooded valley, we were not exposed to it as we had been upon
+the shore of the Bosphorus and on the heights above. Overhead, the
+driving clouds took a silvery-gray tinge, as the last quarter of the
+waning moon rose slowly behind the hills of the Asian shore. The bare
+trees swayed and moved slowly in the wind with the rhythmical motion of
+aquatic plants under moving water. I looked through the glass as we
+drove along, recognizing the well-known turns, the big trees, the
+occasional low stone cottages by the roadside. Everything was familiar
+to me, even in the bleak winter weather; only the landscape was
+inexpressibly wild in its leafless grayness, under the faint light of
+the waning moon. From time to time the Lala moved uneasily, but said
+nothing. We were ascending the hill which leads to the huge arch of the
+lonely aqueduct which pierces the forest, when Balsamides tapped upon
+the window. The carriage stopped in the road and he opened the door on
+his side and descended.
+
+"Get down," he said to Selim. I pushed the negro forward, and got out
+after him. Balsamides seized his arm firmly.
+
+"Take him on the other side," he said to me in Turkish, dragging the
+fellow along the road in the direction of a stony bridle-path which from
+this point ascends into the forest. Then Selim's coolness failed him,
+and he yelled aloud, struggling in our grip, and turning his head back
+towards the coachman.
+
+"Help! help!" he cried. "In the name of Allah! They will murder me!"
+
+From the lonely road the coachman's careless laugh echoed after us, as
+we hurried up the steep way.
+
+"It is a solitary spot," observed Balsamides to the terrified Selim.
+"You may yell yourself hoarse, if it pleases you."
+
+We continued to ascend the path, dragging the Lala between us. He had
+little chance of escape between two such men as we, and he seemed to
+know it, for after a few minutes he submitted quietly enough. At last we
+reached an open space among the rocks and trees, and Balsamides stopped.
+We were quite out of earshot from the road, and it would be hard to
+imagine a more desolate place than it appeared, between two and three
+o'clock on that March night, the bare twigs of the birch-trees wriggling
+in the bleak wind, the faint light of the decrescent moon, that seemed
+to be upside down in the sky, falling on the white rocks, and on the
+whitened branches torn down by the winter's storms, lying like bleached
+bones upon the ground before us.
+
+"Now," said Balsamides to the negro, "no one can hear us. You have one
+chance of life. Tell us at once where we can find the Russian Effendi
+whose property you stole and sold to Marchetto in the bazaar."
+
+In the dim gloom I almost fancied that the black man changed color as
+Gregorios put this question, but he answered coolly enough.
+
+"You cannot find him," he said. "You need not have brought me here to
+ask me about him. I would have told you what you wanted to know at Yeni
+Koej, willingly enough."
+
+"Why can he not be found?"
+
+"Because he has been dead nearly two years, and his body was thrown into
+the Bosphorus," answered the Lala defiantly.
+
+"You killed him, I suppose?" Balsamides tightened his grip upon the
+man's arm. But Selim was ready with his reply.
+
+"You need not tear me in pieces. He killed himself."
+
+The news was so unexpected that Balsamides and I both started and looked
+at each other. The Lala spoke with the greatest decision.
+
+"How did he kill himself?" asked Gregorios sternly.
+
+"I will tell you, as far as I know. The Bekji of Agia Sophia, the same
+who admitted the Effendi, took me up by the other staircase. Franks are
+never allowed to pass that way, as you know. When we were halfway up,
+holding the tapers before us, we stumbled over the body of a man lying
+at the foot of one of the flights, with his hand against the wall. We
+stooped down and examined him. He was quite dead. 'Selim,' said the
+Bekji, who knows me very well, 'the Effendi has fallen down the stairs
+in the dark, and has broken his neck.' 'If we give the alarm,' said I,
+'we shall be held responsible for his death.' 'Leave it to me,' answered
+the Bekji. 'Behold, the man is dead. It is his fate. He has no further
+use for valuables.' So the Bekji took a ring, and a tobacco-box, and the
+watch and chain, and some money which was in the man's pockets. Then he
+said we should leave the corpse where it was. And when the prayers in
+the mosque were over, before it was day, he got a vegetable-seller's
+cart, and put the body in it and covered it with cabbages. Then we took
+it down to the point below Top Kapu Serai, where the waters are swift
+and deep. So we threw him in, for he was but a dog of a Giaour, and had
+broken his neck in stumbling where it was forbidden to go. Is it my
+fault that he stumbled?"
+
+"No," answered Balsamides, "it was not your fault if he stumbled, and
+the Bekji was a Persian fox. But you robbed his body, and divided the
+spoil. What share did the Bekji take?"
+
+"He took the ring and the tobacco-box and the money, for he was the
+stronger," answered the Lala.
+
+"Selim," said Balsamides quietly, "before the Khanum died to-night she
+said that Alexander Patoff was alive. If so, you are lying. You are a
+greater liar than Moseylama, the false prophet, as they say in your
+country. But if not, you are a robber of dead bodies. Therefore, Selim,
+say a Fatihah, for your hour is come."
+
+With that, Balsamides drew a short revolver from his pocket and cocked
+it before the man's eyes. The negro's limbs relaxed, and with a howl he
+fell upon his knees.
+
+"Mercy! In the name of Allah!" he cried. "I have told all the truth, I
+swear by the grave of my father"----
+
+"Don't move," said Gregorios, with horrible calmness. "You will do very
+well in that position. Now--say your Fatihah, and be quick about it. I
+cannot wait all night."
+
+"You are not in earnest, Gregorios?" I asked in English, for my blood
+ran cold at the sight.
+
+"Very much in earnest," he answered in Turkish, presenting the muzzle of
+the pistol to the Lala's head. "This fellow shall not laugh at our
+beards a second time. I will count three. If you do not wish to say your
+prayers, I will fire when I have said three. One--two"----
+
+"He is alive!" screamed the Lala, before the fatal "three" was spoken by
+Balsamides. "I have lied: he is alive! Mercy! and I will tell you all."
+
+"I thought so," said Balsamides, coolly uncocking his pistol and putting
+it back into his pocket. "Get up, dog, and tell us what you know."
+
+Selim was literally almost frightened to death, as he kneeled on the
+sharp stones at our feet. He could hardly speak, and I dragged him up
+and made him sit upon the trunk of a fallen tree. I was indeed glad that
+he was still alive, for though Balsamides had not yet told me the events
+of the night, I could see that he was in no humor to be trifled with.
+Even I, who am peaceably disposed towards all men, felt my blood boil
+when the fellow told how he and the Bekji had robbed the body of
+Alexander Patoff, and thrown it into the Bosphorus for fear of being
+suspected. But the whole story seemed improbable, and I had a strong
+impression that Selim was lying. Perhaps nothing but the fear of death
+could have made him confess, after all, and Balsamides had a way of
+making death seem very real and near.
+
+"I will tell you this, Selim," said Gregorios. "If you will give me
+Alexander Patoff Effendi to-night, alive, well, and uninjured in any
+way, you shall go free, and I will engage that you shall not be hurt.
+You evidently wished to keep the Khanum's secret. The Khanum is dead,
+and her secrets are the Padishah's, like everything else she possessed.
+You are bound to deliver those secrets to my keeping. Therefore tell us
+shortly where the Russian is, that we may liberate him and take him home
+at once."
+
+"He is alive and well. That is to say, he has been well treated,"
+answered Selim. "If you can take him, you may take him to-night, for all
+I care. But you must swear that you will then protect me."
+
+"Filthy liquor in a dirty bottle!" exclaimed Balsamides angrily. "Will
+you make conditions with me, you soul of a dog in a snake's body?"
+
+"Very well," returned the Lala cunningly. "But if you should kill me by
+mistake before I have taken you to him, you will never find him."
+
+"I have told you that you shall not be hurt, if you will give him up.
+That is enough. My word is good, and I will keep it. Speak; you are
+safe."
+
+"In the first place, we must go back to Yeni Koej. You might have saved
+yourself the trouble of coming up here on such a night as this."
+
+"I want no comments on my doings. Tell me where the man is."
+
+"I will take you to him," said the Lala.
+
+"Well, then, get up and come back to the carriage," said Balsamides,
+seeing it was useless to bandy words with the fellow. Moreover, it was
+bitterly cold in the forest, and the idea of being once more in the
+comfortable carriage was attractive. Again we took Selim between us, and
+rapidly descended the stony path. In a few moments we were driving
+swiftly away from the arches of the aqueduct in the direction whence we
+had come.
+
+Before we had reached the door of Laleli's house, Selim asked Balsamides
+to stop the carriage. We got out, and he took us up a narrow and filthy
+lane between two high walls. The feeble light of the moon did not
+penetrate the blackness, and we stumbled along in the mud as best we
+could. After climbing in this way for nearly ten minutes, Selim stopped
+before what appeared to be a small door sunk in a niche in the wall. I
+heard a bunch of keys jingling in his hand, and in a few seconds he
+admitted us. Balsamides held him firmly by the sleeve, as he turned to
+lock the door behind us.
+
+"You shall not lock it," he said in a low voice. "Are we mice to be
+caught in a trap?"
+
+Having made sure that the door was open, he pushed Selim forward. We
+seemed to be in a very spacious garden, surrounded by high walls on all
+sides. The trees were bare, excepting a few tall cypresses, which reared
+their black spear-like heads against the dim sky. The flower-beds were
+covered with dark earth, and the gravel in the paths was rough, as
+though no one had trod upon it for a long time. The walls protected the
+place from the wind, and a gloomy stillness prevailed, broken only by
+the distant sighing of trees higher up, which caught the northern gale.
+
+Selim followed the wall for some distance, and at last stood still. We
+had reached one angle of the garden, and as well as I could see the
+corner made by the walls was filled by a low stone building with
+latticed windows, from one of which issued a faint light. Going nearer,
+I saw that the lattices were not of wood, but were strong iron gratings,
+such as no man's strength could break. The door in the middle of this
+stone box was also heavily ironed. Selim went forward, and again I heard
+the keys rattle in his hands. Almost instantly the shadow of a head
+appeared at the window whence the light came. While the Lala was
+unfastening the lock I went close to the grating. I was just tall enough
+to meet a pair of dark eyes gazing at me intently through the lowest
+bars.
+
+"Alexander Patoff, is it you?" I asked in Russian.
+
+"Good God!" exclaimed a tremulous voice. "Have the Russians taken
+Constantinople at last? Who are you?"
+
+"I am Paul Griggs. We have come to set you free."
+
+The heavy door yielded and moved. I rushed in, and in another moment I
+clasped the lost man's hand. Gregorios, far more prudent than I, held
+Selim by the collar as a man would hold a dog, for he feared some
+treachery.
+
+"Is it really you?" I asked, for I could scarcely believe my eyes.
+Alexander looked at me once, then broke into hysterical tears, laughing
+and crying and sobbing all at once. He was indeed unrecognizable. I
+remembered the descriptions I had heard of the young dandy, the gay
+officer of a crack regiment, irreproachable in every detail of his
+dress, and delicate as a woman in his tastes. I saw before me a man of
+good height, wrapped in an old Turkish kaftan of green cloth lined with
+fur, his feet thrust into a pair of worn-out red slippers. His dark
+brown hair had grown till it fell upon his shoulders, his beard reached
+halfway to his waist, his face was ghastly white and thin to emaciation.
+The hand he had given me was like a parcel of bones in a thin glove. I
+doubted whether he were the man, after all.
+
+"We must be quick," I said. "Have you anything to take away?" He cast a
+piteous glance at his poor clothing.
+
+"This is all I have," he said in a low voice. Then, with a half-feminine
+touch of vanity, he added, "You must excuse me: I am hardly fit to go
+with you." He looked wildly at me for a moment, and again laughed and
+sobbed hysterically. The apartment was indeed empty enough. There was a
+low round table, a wretched old divan at one end, and a sort of bed
+spread upon the floor, in the old Turkish fashion. The whole place
+seemed to consist of a single room, lighted by a small oil lamp which
+hung in one corner. The stuccoed walls were green with dampness, and the
+cold was intense. I wondered how the poor man had lived so long in such
+a place. I put my arm under his, and threw my heavy military cloak over
+his shoulders. Then I led him away through the open door. The key was
+still in the lock without, and Balsamides held Selim tightly by the
+collar. When we had passed, Gregorios, instead of following us, held the
+Lala at arm's-length before him. Then he administered one tremendous
+kick, and sent the wretch flying into the empty cell; he locked the door
+on him with care, and withdrew the keys.
+
+"I told you I would protect you," he called out through the keyhole.
+"You will be quite safe there for the present." Then he turned away,
+laughing to himself, and we all three hurried down the path under the
+wall, till we reached the small door by which we had entered the garden.
+Stumbling down the narrow lane, we soon got to the road, and found the
+carriage where we had left it. There was no time for words as we almost
+lifted the wretched Russian into the carriage and got in after him.
+
+"To my house in Pera!" cried Balsamides to the patient coachman. "Pek
+tchabuk! As fast as you can drive!"
+
+"Evvet Effendim," replied the old soldier, and in another moment we were
+tearing along the road at breakneck speed.
+
+Hitherto Alexander Patoff had been too much surprised and overcome by
+his emotions to speak connectedly or to ask us any questions. When once
+we were in the carriage and on our way to Pera, however, he recovered
+his senses.
+
+"Will you kindly tell me how all this has happened? Are you a Turkish
+officer?"
+
+"No," I answered. "This is a disguise. Let me present you to the man who
+has really liberated you,--Balsamides Bey."
+
+Patoff took the hand Gregorios stretched out towards him in both of his,
+and would have kissed it had Gregorios allowed him.
+
+"God bless you! God bless you!" he repeated fervently. He was evidently
+still very much shaken, and in order to give him a little strength I
+handed him a flask of spirits which I had left in the carriage. He drank
+eagerly, and grasped even more greedily the case of cigarettes which I
+offered him.
+
+"Ah!" he cried, in a sort of ecstasy, as he tasted the tobacco. "I feel
+that I am free."
+
+I began to tell him in a few words what had happened: how we had
+stumbled upon his watch in the bazaar, had identified Selim, and traced
+the Lala to Laleli Khanum's house; how the Khanum had died while
+Balsamides was there, just as she was about to tell the truth; how we
+had dragged Selim into the forest, and had threatened him with death;
+and how at last, feeling that since his mistress was dead he was no
+longer in danger, the fellow had conducted us to Alexander's cell in the
+garden. I told him that his brother and mother were in Pera, and that he
+should see them in the morning. I said that Madame Patoff had been very
+ill in consequence of his disappearance, and that every one had mourned
+for him as dead. In short, I endeavored to explain the whole situation
+as clearly as I could. While I was telling our story Balsamides never
+spoke a word, but sat smoking in his corner, probably thinking of the
+single kick in which he had tried to concentrate all his vengeance.
+
+As we drove along, the dawn began to appear,--the cold dawn of a March
+morning. I asked Balsamides whether it would be necessary to change my
+clothes before entering the city.
+
+"No," he answered; "we shall be at home at sunrise. The fellow drives
+well."
+
+"I shall have to ask you to take me in for a few hours," said Alexander.
+"I am in a pitiable state."
+
+"You must have suffered horribly in that den," observed Balsamides. "Of
+course you must come home with me. We will send for your brother at
+once, and when you are rested you can tell us something of your story.
+It must be even more interesting than ours."
+
+"It would not take so long to tell," answered Patoff, with a melancholy
+smile. In the gray light of the morning I was horrified to notice how
+miserably thin and ill he looked; but even in his squalor, and in spite
+of the long hair and immense beard, I could see traces of the beauty I
+had so often heard described by Paul, and even by Cutter, who was rarely
+enthusiastic about the appearance of his fellows. He seemed weak, too,
+as though he had been half starved in his prison. I asked him how long
+it was since he had eaten.
+
+"Last night," he said, wearily, "they brought me food, but I could not
+eat. A man in prison has no appetite." Then suddenly he opened the
+window beside him, and put his head out into the cold blast, as though
+to drink in more fully the sense of freedom regained. Balsamides looked
+at him with a sort of pity which I hardly ever saw in his face.
+
+"Poor devil!" he said, in a low voice. "We were just in time. He could
+not have lasted much longer."
+
+We reached the outskirts of Pera, and Alexander hastily withdrew his
+head and sank back in the corner, as though afraid of being seen. He had
+the startled look of a man who fears pursuit. At last we rattled down
+the Grande Rue, and stopped before the door of Balsamides' house. It was
+six o'clock in the morning, and the sun was nearly up. I thought it had
+been one of the longest nights I ever remembered.
+
+While Balsamides dismissed the coachman, I led Alexander quickly into
+the house and up the narrow stairs. In a few minutes Gregorios joined
+us, and coffee was brought.
+
+"I think you could wear my clothes," he said, looking at Alexander with
+a scarcely perceptible smile. "We are nearly the same height, and I am
+almost as thin as you."
+
+"If you would be so very kind as to send for a barber," suggested
+Patoff. "I have never been allowed one, for fear I should get hold of
+his razor and kill myself or somebody else."
+
+"I will go and send one," said I. "And I will rouse your brother and
+bring him back with me."
+
+"Stop!" cried Balsamides. "You cannot go like that!" I had forgotten
+that I still wore the adjutant's uniform. "Take care of our friend," he
+added, "and I will go myself."
+
+We should probably have felt very tired, after our night's excursion,
+had we not been sustained by the sense of triumph at having at last
+succeeded beyond all hope. It was hard to imagine what the effect would
+be upon Madame Patoff, and I began to fear for her reason as I
+remembered how improbable it had always seemed to me that we should find
+her son alive. I was full of curiosity to hear his story, but I knew
+that he was exhausted with fatigue and emotion, so that I put him in
+possession of my room and gave him some of my friend's clothes. In a few
+moments the barber arrived, and while he was performing his operations I
+myself resumed my ordinary dress.
+
+Balsamides found Paul in bed and fast asleep, but, pushing the servant
+aside, he walked in and opened the windows.
+
+"Wake up, Patoff!" he shouted, making a great noise with the fastenings.
+
+"Holloa! What is the matter?" cried Paul, opening his sleepy eyes wide
+with astonishment as he saw Balsamides standing before him, white as
+death with the excitement of the night. "Has anything happened?"
+
+"Everything has happened," said Gregorios. "The sun is risen, the birds
+are singing, the Jews are wrangling in the bazaar, the dogs are fighting
+at Galata Serai, and, last of all, your brother, Alexander Patoff, is at
+this moment drinking his coffee in my rooms."
+
+"My brother!" cried Paul, fairly leaping out of bed in his excitement.
+"Are you in earnest? Come, let us go at once."
+
+"Your costume," remarked Balsamides quietly, "smacks too much of the
+classic for the Grande Rue de Pera. I will wait while you dress."
+
+"Does my mother know?" asked Patoff.
+
+"No," replied Balsamides. "Your brother had not been five minutes in my
+house when I came here." Then he told Paul briefly how we had found
+Alexander.
+
+Paul Patoff was not a man to be easily surprised; but in the present
+case the issue had been so important, that, being taken utterly unawares
+by the news, he felt stunned and dazed as he tried to realize the whole
+truth. He sat down in the midst of dressing, and for one moment buried
+his face in his hands. Balsamides looked on quietly. He knew how much
+even that simple action meant in a man of Paul's proud and
+undemonstrative temper. In a few seconds Paul rose from his seat and
+completed his toilette.
+
+"You know how grateful I am to you both," he said. "You must guess it,
+for nothing I could say could express what I feel."
+
+"Do not mention it," answered Balsamides. "No thanks could give me half
+the pleasure I have in seeing your satisfaction. You must prepare to
+find your brother much changed, I fancy. He seemed to me to be thin and
+pale, but I think he is not ill in any way. If you are ready, we will
+go."
+
+Meanwhile, Alexander had had his hair cut short, in the military
+fashion, and had been divested of the immense beard which hid half his
+face. A tub and a suit of civilized clothes did the rest, even though
+the latter did not fit him as well as Gregorios had expected. Gregorios
+is a deceptive man and is larger than he looks, for his coat was too
+broad for Alexander, and hung loosely over the latter's shoulders and
+chest. But in spite of the imperfect fit, the change in the man's
+appearance was so great that I started in surprise when he entered the
+sitting-room, taking him for an intruder who had walked in unannounced.
+
+He was very beautiful; that is the only word which applies to his
+appearance. His regular features, in their extreme thinness, were
+ethereal as the face of an angel, but he had not the painful look of
+emaciation which one so often sees in the faces of those long kept in
+confinement. He was very thin indeed, but there was a perfect grace in
+all his movements, an ease and self-possession in his gestures, a quiet,
+earnest, trustful look in his dark eyes, which seemed almost unearthly.
+I watched him with the greatest interest, and with the greatest
+admiration also. Had I been asked at that moment to state what man or
+woman in the whole world I considered most perfectly beautiful, I should
+have answered unhesitatingly, Alexander Patoff. He had that about him
+which is scarcely ever met with in men, and which does not always please
+others, though it never fails to attract attention. I mean that he had
+the delicate beauty of a woman combined with the activity and dash of a
+man. I saw how the lightness, the alternate indolence and reckless
+excitement, of such a nature must act upon a man of Paul Patoff's
+character. Every point and peculiarity of Alexander's temper and bearing
+would necessarily irritate Paul, who was stern, cold, and manly before
+all else, and who readily despised every species of weakness except
+pride, and every demonstration of feeling except physical courage.
+Alexander was like his mother; so like her, indeed, that as soon as I
+saw him without his beard I realized the cause of Madame Patoff's
+singular preference for the older son, and much which had seemed
+unnatural before was explained by this sudden revelation. Paul probably
+resembled his father's family more than his mother's. Madame Patoff, who
+had loved that same cold, determined character in her husband, because
+she was awed by it, hated it in her child, because she could neither
+bend it nor influence it, nor make it express any of that exuberant
+affection which Alexander so easily felt. Both boys had inherited from
+their father a goodly share of the Slav element, but, finding very
+different ground upon which to work in the natures of the two brothers,
+the strong Russian individuality had developed in widely different ways.
+In Alexander were expressed all the wild extremes of mood of which the
+true Russian is so eminently capable; all the overflowing and
+uncultivated talent and love of art and beauty, which in Russia brings
+forth so much that approaches indefinitely near to genius without ever
+quite reaching it. In Paul the effect of the Slavonic blood was totally
+opposite, and showed itself in that strange stolidity, that cold and
+ruthless exercise of force and pursuance of conviction, which have
+characterized so many Russian generals, so many Russian monarchs, and
+which have produced also so many Russian martyrs. There is something
+fateful in that terrible sternness, something which very well excites
+horror while imposing respect, and especially when forced to submit to
+superior force; and when vanquished, there is something grand in the
+capacity such a character possesses for submitting to destiny, and
+bearing the extremest suffering.
+
+It was clear enough that there could never be any love lost between two
+such men, and I was curious to see their meeting. I wondered whether
+each would fall upon the other's neck and shed tears of rejoicing, or
+whether they would shake hands and express their satisfaction more
+formally. In looking forward to the scene which was soon to take place,
+I almost wished that Paul might have accompanied us in the disguise of a
+second adjutant, and thus have had a hand in the final stroke by which
+we had effected Alexander's liberation. But I knew that he would only
+have been in the way, and that, considering the whole situation, we had
+done wisely. The least mistake on his part might have led to a struggle
+inside the Khanum's house, and we had good cause to congratulate
+ourselves upon having freed the prisoner without shedding blood. There
+was something pleasantly ludicrous in the thought that all our
+anticipations of a fight had ended in that one solemn kick with which
+Balsamides had consigned Selim to the prison whence we had taken
+Alexander.
+
+I was giving the latter a few more details of the events of the night,
+when Paul and Balsamides entered the room together. Paul showed more
+emotion than I had expected, and clasped his brother in his arms in
+genuine delight at having found him at last. Then he looked long at his
+face, as though trying to see how far Alexander was changed in the
+twenty months which had elapsed since they had met.
+
+"You are a little thinner,--you look as though you had been ill," said
+Paul.
+
+"No, I have not been ill, but I have suffered horribly in many ways,"
+answered Alexander, in his smooth, musical voice.
+
+For some minutes they exchanged questions, while they overcame their
+first excitement at being once more together. It was indeed little less
+than a resurrection, and Alexander's ethereal face was that of a spirit
+returning to earth rather than of a living man who had never left it. At
+last Paul grew calmer.
+
+"Will you tell us how it happened?" he asked, as he sat down upon the
+divan beside his brother. Balsamides and I established ourselves in
+chairs, ready to listen with breathless interest to the tale Alexander
+was about to tell.
+
+"You remember that night at Santa Sophia, Paul?" began the young man,
+leaning back among the cushions, which showed to strong advantage the
+extreme beauty of his delicate face. "Yes, of course you remember it,
+very vividly, for Mr. Griggs has told me how you acted, and all the
+trouble you took to find me. Very well; you remember, then, that the
+last time I saw you we were all looking down at those fellows as they
+went through their prayers and prostrations, and I stood a little apart
+from you. You were very much absorbed in the sight, and the kavass, who
+was a Mussulman, was looking on very devoutly. I thought I should like
+to see the sight from the other side, and I walked away and turned the
+corner of the gallery. You did not notice me, I suppose, and the noise
+of the crowd, rising and falling on their knees, must have drowned my
+footsteps."
+
+"I had not the slightest idea that you had moved from where you stood,"
+said Paul.
+
+"No. When I reached the corner, I was very much surprised to see a man
+standing in the shadow of the pillar. I was still more astonished when I
+recognized the hideous negro who had knocked off my hat in the
+afternoon. I expected that he would insult me, and I suppose I made as
+though I would show fight; but he raised his finger to his lips, and
+with the other hand held out a letter, composing his face into a sort of
+horrible leer, intended to be attractive. I took the letter without
+speaking, for I knew he could not understand a word I said, and that I
+could not understand him. The envelope contained a sheet of pink paper,
+on which, in an ill-formed hand, but in tolerably good French, were
+written a few words. It was a declaration of love."
+
+"From Laleli?" asked Balsamides, with a laugh.
+
+"Exactly," replied Alexander. "It was a declaration of love from Laleli.
+I leave you to imagine what I supposed Laleli to be like at that time,
+and Paul, who knows me, will tell you that I was not likely to hesitate
+at such a moment. The note ended by saying that the faithful Selim would
+conduct me to her presence without delay. I was delighted with the
+adventure, and crept noiselessly after him in the shadow of the gallery,
+lest you should see me; for I knew you would prevent my going with the
+man. We descended the stairs, but it was not until we reached the bottom
+that I saw we had not come down by the way I had ascended. Selim was
+most obsequious, and seemed ready to do everything for my comfort. As we
+walked down a narrow street, he presented me with a new fez, and made
+signs to me to put it on instead of my hat, which he then carefully
+wrapped in a handkerchief and carried in his hand. At a place near the
+bridge several caiques were lying side by side. He invited me to enter
+one, which I observed was very luxuriously fitted, and which I thought I
+recognized as the one in which I had so often seen the woman with the
+impenetrable veil. I lay back among the cushions and smoked, while Selim
+perched himself on the raised seat behind me, and the four boatmen
+pulled rapidly away. It was heavy work for them, I dare say, tugging
+upstream, but to me the voyage was enchanting. The shores were all
+illuminated, and the Bosphorus swarmed with boats. It was the last time
+I was in a caique. I do not know whether I could bear the sight of one
+now."
+
+"So they took you to Laleli's house?" said Paul, anxious to hear the
+rest.
+
+"Yes; I was taken to Laleli's house, and I never got out of it till last
+night," continued Alexander. "How long is it? I have not the least idea
+of the European date."
+
+"This is the 29th of March," said I.
+
+"And that was the end of June,--twenty-one months. I have learned
+Turkish since I was caught, to pass the time, and I always knew the
+Turkish date after I had learned their way of counting, but I had lost
+all reckoning by our style. Well, to go on with my story. They brought
+me to the stone pier before the house. Selim admitted me by a curiously
+concealed panel at one end of the building, and we found ourselves in a
+very narrow place, whence half a dozen steps ascended to a small door. A
+little oil lamp burned in one corner. He led the way, and the door at
+the top slid back into the wall. We entered, and he closed it again. We
+were in the corner of a small room, richly furnished in the worst
+possible taste. I dare say you know the style these natives admire.
+Selim left me there for a moment. I looked carefully at the wall, and
+tried to find the panel; but to my surprise, the wainscoting was
+perfectly smooth and even, and I could not discover the place where it
+opened, nor detect any spring or sign of a fastening. Laleli, I thought,
+understood those things. Presently a door opened on one side of the
+room, and I saw the figure I had often watched, beckoning to me to come.
+Of course I obeyed, and she retired into the room beyond, which was very
+high and had no windows, though I noticed that there was a dome at the
+top, which in the day-time would admit the light."
+
+"The Khanum was waiting for you?" I asked.
+
+"Yes. I was surprised to see her dressed in the clothes she wore
+out-of-doors, and as thickly veiled as ever. There were lights in the
+room. She held out her small hand,--you remember noticing that she had
+small white hands?"
+
+"Like a young woman's," replied Balsamides.
+
+"Yes. I took her hand, and spoke in French. I dare say I looked very
+sentimental and passionate as I gazed into her black eyes. I could see
+nothing of her face. She answered me in Turkish, which of course I could
+not understand. All I could say was Pek guezel, very beautiful, which I
+repeated amidst my French phrases, giving the words as passionate an
+accent as I could command. At last she seemed to relent, and as she bent
+towards me I expected that she was about to speak very softly some
+Turkish love-word. What was my horror when she suddenly screamed into my
+ear, with a hideous harsh voice, my own words, Pek guezel! In a moment
+she threw off her black ferigee, and tore the thick veil from her head.
+I could have yelled with rage, for I saw what a fool I had made of
+myself, and that the old hag had played a practical joke on me in
+revenge for the affair in the Valley of Roses. I cursed her in French, I
+cursed her in Russian, I cursed her in English, and stamped about the
+room, trying to get out. The horrible old witch screamed herself hoarse
+with laughter, making hideous grimaces and pointing at me in scorn. What
+could I do? I tried to force one of the doors, and twisted at the
+handle, and tugged and pushed with all my might. While I was thus
+engaged I heard the door at the other end of the room open quickly, and
+as I turned and sprang towards it I caught sight of her baggy,
+snuff-colored gown disappearing, as she slammed the door behind her.
+Before I could reach it the lock was turned, and I was caught in the
+trap,--caught like a mouse."
+
+"What a spiteful old thing she was!" I exclaimed. "She might have been
+satisfied with keeping you there a day instead of two years."
+
+"Nearly two years. I did everything humanly possible to escape. I gave
+all I possessed to Selim to take a message to Paul, to anybody; but of
+course that was useless. At first they kept me in the room where I had
+been caught. My food was brought to me by the Turkish porter, a brawny
+fellow, who could have brained me with his fist. He was always
+accompanied by another man, as big as himself, who carried a loaded
+pistol, in case I attacked the first. I had no chance, and I wished I
+might go mad. Then, one night, they set upon me suddenly, and tied a
+handkerchief over my mouth, and bound me hand and foot, in spite of my
+struggles. I thought I was to be put into a sack and drowned. They
+carried me like a log out into the garden, and put me into that cell
+where you found me, which had apparently just been built, for the stones
+were new and the cement was fresh. There, at least, I could look through
+the gratings. I even thought at one time that I could make myself heard,
+having no idea of the desolate position of the place. But I soon gave up
+the attempt and abandoned myself to despair. There it was that Selim
+used to come occasionally, and talk to me through the bars. That was
+better than nothing, and the villain amused his leisure moments by
+teaching me to speak Turkish. One day he brought me a book, which I
+hailed with delight. It was an old French method for learning the
+language. I made great progress, as I studied from morning to night.
+Selim grew more familiar to me, and I confess with shame that I missed
+his visits when he did not come. The men who brought my food seemed
+absolutely mute, and I never succeeded in extracting a word from either
+of them. Even Selim was a companion, and talking to him saved me from
+going mad. I asked him all sorts of questions, and at last I guessed
+from his answers that the Khanum had been terrified by the disturbance
+my disappearance had created, and was afraid to set me free lest I
+should take vengeance on her. She was also afraid to kill me, for some
+reason or other. The result was, that, from having merely wished to
+revenge upon me the affair in the Valley of Roses by means of a
+practical joke, she found herself obliged to keep me a prisoner. I used
+every means of persuasion to move Selim. I told him I was rich, and
+would make him rich if he would help me to escape. I promised to take
+no steps against the Khanum. It was in vain, I assure you I have
+conceived a very high opinion of the fidelity of Lalas in general, and
+of Selim in particular."
+
+"They are very faithful," said Balsamides gravely. I have since fancied
+that he had some reason for knowing.
+
+Alexander afterwards told us many more details of his confinement; but
+this was his first account of it, and embraced all that is most
+important to know. The whole affair made a very strong impression on me.
+The unfortunate man had fallen a victim to a chain of circumstances
+which it had been entirely impossible to foresee, all resulting directly
+from his first imprudent action in addressing the veiled lady in the
+Valley of Roses. A little piece of folly had ruined two years of his
+life, and subjected him to a punishment such as a court of justice would
+have inflicted for a very considerable crime.
+
+The remainder of the day was occupied by the meeting of Alexander with
+his mother and his introduction to his English relations, upon which it
+is needless to dwell long. I never knew what passed between the mother
+and son, but the interview must have been a very extraordinary one. It
+was necessary, of course, to prepare Madame Patoff for the news and for
+the sight of the child she seemed to love better than anything in the
+world. Hermione performed the task, as being the one who understood her
+best. She began by hinting vaguely that we had advanced another step in
+our search, and that we were now confident of finding Alexander before
+long, perhaps in a few hours. She gradually, in talking, spoke of the
+moment when he would appear, wondering how he would look, and insensibly
+accustoming Madame Patoff to the idea. At last she confessed that he had
+been found during the night, and that he was ready to come to his mother
+at any moment.
+
+It was well done, and the force of the shock was broken. The old lady
+nearly swooned with joy, but the danger was past when she recovered her
+consciousness and demanded to see Alexander at once. He was admitted to
+her room, and the two were left alone to their happiness.
+
+The rest of the family were mad with delight. John Carvel grew ten years
+younger, and Mrs. Carvel fairly cried with joy, while Chrysophrasia
+declared that it was worth while to be disappointed by the first
+impression of Constantinople, when one was consoled by such a thrilling
+tale with so joyous a termination,--or happy end, as I should have said.
+Hermione's face beamed with happiness, and Macaulay literally melted in
+smiles, as he retired to write down the story in his diary.
+
+"Oh, Paul!" Hermione exclaimed when they were alone, "you never told me
+he was such a beauty!"
+
+"Yes," he answered quietly, "he is far better-looking than I am. You
+must not fall in love with him, Hermy."
+
+"The idea of such a thing!" she cried, with a light laugh.
+
+"I should not be surprised if he fell in love with you, dear," said
+Paul, smiling.
+
+"You only say that because you do not like him," she answered. "But you
+will like him now, won't you? You are so good,--I am sure you will. But
+think what a splendid thing it is that you should have found him. If
+aunt Chrysophrasia says, 'Where is your brother?' you can just answer
+that he is in the next room."
+
+"Yes; I am a free man now. No one can ever accuse me again. But apart
+from that, I am really and sincerely glad that he is alive. I wish him
+no ill. It is not his fault that I have been under a cloud for nearly
+two years. He was as anxious to be found as I was to find him. After
+all, it was not I. It was Balsamides and Griggs who did it at last. I
+dare say that if I had been with them I should have spoiled it all. I
+could not have dressed myself like a Turkish officer, to begin with. If
+I had been caught in the uniform, belonging as I do to the embassy,
+there would have been a terrible fuss. I should have been obliged to go
+away, very likely without having found my brother at all. I owe
+everything to those two men."
+
+"If you had not made up your mind that he should be found, they would
+never have found him; they would not have thought of taking the
+trouble."
+
+Hermione spoke in a reassuring tone, as though to comfort Paul for
+having had no share in the final stroke which had liberated his brother.
+In reality Paul needed no consolation. In his heart he was glad that
+Alexander had been set free by others, and need therefore never feel
+himself under heavy obligations to Paul. It was not in the strong man's
+nature to wish to revenge himself upon his brother because the latter
+had been the favored child and the favorite son. Nor, if he had
+contemplated any kind of vengeance, would he have chosen the Christian
+method of heaping coals of fire upon his head. He merely thought of
+Alexander as he would have thought of any other man not his relation at
+all, and he did not wish to appear in the light of his liberator. It was
+enough for Paul that he had been found at last, and that his own
+reputation was now free from stain. Nothing prevented him any longer
+from marrying Hermione, and he looked forward to the consummation of all
+his hopes in the immediate future.
+
+The day closed in a great rejoicing. John Carvel insisted that we should
+all dine with him that night; and our numbers being now swelled by the
+addition of Alexander Patoff and Gregorios Balsamides, we were a large
+party,--ten at table. I shall never forget the genuine happiness which
+was on every face. The conversation flowed brilliantly, and every one
+felt as though a weight had been lifted from his or her spirits.
+Alexander Patoff was of course the most prominent person, and as he
+turned his beautiful eyes from one to the other of us, and told us his
+story with many episodes and comments, I think we all fell under his
+fascination, and understood the intense love his mother felt for him. He
+had indeed a woman's beauty with a man's energy, when his energy was
+roused at all; and though the feminine element at first seemed out of
+place in him, it gave him that singular faculty of charming when he
+pleased, and that brilliancy which no manly beauty can ever have.
+
+It was late when we got home, and I went to bed with a profound
+conviction that Paul Patoff's troubles had come to a happy end, and that
+he would probably be married to Hermione in the course of the summer. If
+things had ended thus, my story would end here, and perhaps it would be
+complete. Unfortunately, events rarely take place as we expect that they
+will, still more rarely as we hope that they may; and it is generally
+when our hopes coincide with our expectations, and we feel most sure of
+ourselves, that fate overtakes us with the most cruel disappointments.
+Paul Patoff had not yet reached the quiet haven of his hopes, and I have
+not reached the end of my story. It would indeed be a very easy matter,
+as I have said before, to collect all the things which happened to him
+into a neat romance, of which the action should not cover more than
+four-and-twenty hours of such excitement as no one of the actors could
+have borne in real life, any more than Salvini could act a tragedy which
+should begin at noon to-day and end at midday to-morrow. I might have
+divested Paul of many of his surroundings, have bereaved him of many of
+his friends, and made him do himself what others did to him; but if he
+were to read such an account of his life he would laugh scornfully, and
+say that the real thing was very different indeed, as without doubt it
+was.
+
+This is the reason why I have not hesitated to bring before you a great
+number of personages, each of whom, in a great or a small way, affected
+his life. I do not believe that you could understand his actions in the
+sequel without knowing the details of those situations through which he
+had passed before. We are largely influenced by little things and little
+events. The statement is a truism in the eyes of the moralist, but the
+truth is, unfortunately, too often forgotten in real life. The man who
+falls down-stairs and breaks his leg has not noticed the tiny spot of
+candle grease which made the polished step so slippery just where he
+trod.
+
+
+
+
+XIX.
+
+
+There were great rejoicings when it was known in Pera that Alexander
+Patoff had been found. His disappearance had furnished the gossips with
+a subject of conversation during many weeks, and his coming back revived
+the whole story, with the addition of a satisfactory ending. In
+consideration of the fact that Laleli Khanum was dead, Count Ananoff
+thought it best to take no official notice of the matter. To treat it
+diplomatically would be useless, he said. Alexander had fallen a victim
+to his own folly, and though the penalty had been severe, it was
+impossible to hold the Ottoman government responsible for what Patoff
+had suffered, now that the Khanum had departed this life. Alexander
+received permission to take three months' leave to recruit his health
+before returning to his regiment, and he resolved to spend a part of the
+time in Constantinople, after which his mother promised to accompany him
+to St. Petersburg.
+
+The Carvels had very soon made the acquaintance of the small but
+brilliant society of which the diplomatic corps constituted the chief
+element; and if anything had been needed to make them thoroughly
+popular, their near connection with the young man whose story was in
+every one's mouth would alone have sufficed to surround them with
+interest. The adventure was told with every conceivable variety of
+detail, and Alexander was often called upon to settle disputes as to
+what had happened to him. He was ready enough at all times to play the
+chief part in a drawing-room, and delighted in being questioned by grave
+old gentlemen, as well as by inquisitive young women. The women admired
+him for his beauty, his grace and brilliancy, and especially for the
+expression of his eyes, which they declared in a variety of languages to
+be absolutely fascinating. The men were interested in his story, and
+envied him the additional social success which he obtained as the hero
+of so strange an adventure. Some people admired and praised his devotion
+to his mother, which they said was most touching, whatever that may
+mean. Others said that he had an angelic disposition, flavored by a dash
+of the devil, which saved him from being goody; and this criticism of
+his character conveyed some meaning to the minds of those who uttered
+it. People have a strange way of talking about their favorites, and when
+the praise they mean to bestow is not faint, the expression of it is apt
+to be feeble and involved.
+
+Pera is a gay place, for when a set of men and women are temporarily
+exiled from their homes to a strange country, where they do not find the
+society of a great capital, they naturally seek amusement and pursue it;
+creating among themselves those pastimes which in the great European
+cities others so often provide for them. Politically, also,
+Constantinople is a very important place to most of the powers, who
+choose their representatives for the post from among the cleverest men
+they can find; and I will venture to say that there is scarcely a court
+in the world where so many first-rate diplomatists are gathered together
+as are to be met with among the missions to the Sublime Porte. Diplomacy
+in Constantinople has preserved something of the character it had all
+over the world fifty years ago. Personal influence is of far greater
+importance when negotiations are to be undertaken with a half-civilized
+form of administration, which is carried on chiefly by persons of
+imperfect education, but of immense natural talent for intrigue. The
+absence of an hereditary nobility in Turkey, and the extremely
+democratic nature of the army and the civil service, make it possible
+for men of the lowest birth to attain to the highest power. The immense
+and complicated bureaucracy is not in the hands of any one class of the
+people; its prizes are won by men of all sorts and conditions, who
+continue to pursue their own interests and fortunes with undiminished
+energy, when they ought to be devoting their whole powers to the service
+of the country. Their power is indeed checked by the centralization of
+all the executive faculties in the person of the sovereign. Without the
+Sultan's signature the minister of war cannot order a gun to be cast in
+the arsenal of Tophane, the minister of marine cannot buy a ton of coal
+for the ironclads which lie behind Galata bridge in the Golden Horn, the
+minister of foreign affairs cannot give a reply to an ambassador, nor
+can the minister of justice avail himself of the machinery of the law.
+Every smallest act must be justified by the Sultan's own signature, and
+the chief object of all diplomacy from without, and of all personal
+intrigue from within, is to obtain this imperial consent to measures
+suggested by considerations of private advantage or public necessity.
+The Ottoman Empire may be described as an irregular democracy, whose
+acts are all subject to the veto of an absolute autocrat. The officials
+pass their lives in proposing, and his Majesty very generally spends his
+time in opposing, all manner of schemes, good, bad, and indifferent. The
+contradictory nature of the system produces the anomalous position
+occupied by the Ottoman Empire in Europe.
+
+The fact that there is no aristocracy and the seclusion of women among
+the Mussulmans are the chief reasons why there is no native society, in
+our sense of the word. A few of the great Greek families still survive,
+descendants of those Fanariotes whose ancestors had played an important
+part in the decadence of the Eastern Empire. A certain number of
+Armenians who have gained wealth and influence follow more or less
+closely the customs of the West. But beyond these few there cannot be
+said to be many houses of the social kind. Two or three pashas, of
+European origin, and Christians by religion, mix with their families in
+the gayety of Pera and the Bosphorus. A few Turkish officers, and
+Prussian officers in Turkish service, show their brilliant uniforms in
+the ball-rooms, and occasionally some high official of the Porte appears
+at formal receptions; but on the whole the society is diplomatic, and
+depends almost entirely upon the diplomatists for its existence and for
+its diversions. The lead once given, the old Greek aristocrats have not
+been behindhand in following it; but their numbers are small, and the
+movement and interest in Pera, or on the Bosphorus, centre in the great
+embassies, as they do nowhere else in the world.
+
+Small as the society is, it is, nevertheless exceedingly brilliant and
+very amusing. Intimacies grow up quickly, and often become lasting
+friendships when fostered by such influences. Every one knows every one
+else, and every one meets everybody else at least once a week. The
+arrival of a new secretary is expected with unbounded interest. The
+departure of one who has been long in Constantinople is mourned as a
+public loss. Occasionally society is convulsed to its foundations by the
+departure of an ambassador to whom every one has been so long accustomed
+that he has come to be regarded as one of the fathers of the community,
+whose hospitality every one has enjoyed, whose tact and knowledge of the
+world have been a source of satisfaction to his colleagues in many a
+diplomatic difficulty, and whose palace in Pera is associated in the
+minds of all with many hours of pleasure and with much delightful
+intercourse. He goes, and society turns out in a body to see him off.
+The occasion is like a funeral. People send hundreds of baskets of
+flowers. There is an address, there are many leave-takings. Once, at
+least, I remember seeing two thirds of the people shedding
+tears,--genuine wet tears of sorrow. And there was good reason for their
+grief. In such communities as the diplomatic colony in Pera, people
+understand the value of those who not only do more than their share in
+contributing to the pleasantness of life, but who possess in an
+abundant degree those talents which delight us in individuals, and those
+qualities which are dear to us in friends. It would be easy to write a
+book about society in Pera, and it would be a pleasant book. But these
+are not the days of Samuel Pepys; we have hardly passed the age of Mr.
+George Ticknor.
+
+In a short time after their arrival, and after the reappearance of
+Alexander Patoff, the Carvels knew everybody, and everybody knew them.
+Each member of the party found something to praise and some one to like.
+John Carvel was soon lost in admiration of Lord Mavourneen, while Mrs.
+Carvel talked much with the English missionary bishop of Western
+Kamtchatka, who happened to be spending a few days at the embassy. She
+asked him many questions concerning the differences between Armenian
+orthodox, Armenian catholic, Greek orthodox, and Russian orthodox; and
+though his lordship found a great deal to say on the subject, I am bound
+to allow that he was almost as much puzzled as herself when brought face
+to face in the reality with such a variety of sects. Chrysophrasia had
+not come to the East for nothing, either. She meant to indulge what John
+called her fancy for pots and pans and old rags; in other words, she
+intended to try her luck in the bazaar, and with the bloodhound's scent
+of the true collector she detected by instinct the bricabrac hunters of
+society. There is always a goodly number of them wherever antiquities
+are to be found, and Chrysophrasia was hailed by those of her persuasion
+with the mingled delight and jealousy which scientific bodies feel when
+a new scientist appears upon the horizon.
+
+As for Hermione, she created a great sensation, and the hearts of many
+secretaries palpitated in the most lively manner when she first entered
+the ball-room of one of the embassies, two days after her arrival. The
+astonishment was great when it was known that she was Paul Patoff's own
+cousin; and when it was observed that Paul was very often with her the
+cry went up that he had fallen in love at last. Thereupon all the women
+who had said that he was a bore, a monster, a statue, and a piece of
+ice, immediately declared that there must be something in him, after
+all, and began to talk to him whenever they got a chance. Some
+disappointment was felt, too, when it was observed that Alexander Patoff
+also showed a manifest preference for the society of his beautiful
+cousin, and wise old ladies said there would be trouble. Everybody,
+however, received the addition to society with open arms, and hoped that
+the Carvels' visit might be prolonged for at least a whole year.
+
+Many of these comments reached my ears, and the remarks concerning
+Alexander's growing attachment for Hermione startled me, and chilled me
+with a sense of evil to come. I opened my eyes and watched, as every one
+else was doing, and in a short time I came to the conclusion that public
+opinion was right. It was very disagreeable to me to admit it, but I
+soon saw that there was no doubt that Alexander was falling in love with
+his cousin. I saw, too, what others who knew them less well did not see:
+Madame Patoff exercised all her ingenuity in giving her favorite son
+opportunities of seeing Hermione alone. It was very easy to do this, and
+she did it in the most natural way; she affected to repent bitterly of
+her injustice to Paul, and took delight in calling him to her side, and
+keeping him with her as long as possible. Sometimes she would make him
+stay an hour by her side at a party, going over and over the strange
+story of Alexander's imprisonment, and asking him questions again and
+again, until he grew weary and absent, and answered her with rather
+incoherent phrases, or in short monosyllables not always to the point.
+Then at last, when she saw that she could keep him no longer, she would
+let him go, asking him to forgive her for being so importunate, and
+explaining as an excuse that she could never hear enough of a story that
+had ended so happily. Meanwhile Alexander had found ample opportunity
+for talking with Hermione, and had made the most of his time.
+
+I have said that I had always been very fond of the young girl, and I
+thought that I understood her character well enough; but I find it hard
+to understand the phases through which she passed after she first met
+Alexander. I believe she loved Paul very sincerely from the first, and I
+know that she contemplated the prospect of marrying him at no distant
+time. But I am equally sure that she did not escape the influence of
+that wonderful fascination which Alexander exercised over everybody. If
+it is possible to explain it at all, which is more than doubtful, I
+should think that it might be accounted for on some such theory as this.
+Hermione was negative as compared with Paul, but in comparison with
+Alexander she was positive. It is clear that if this were so she must
+have experienced two totally different sets of impressions, according as
+she was with the one or the other of the brothers.
+
+To define more clearly what I mean, I will state this theory in other
+words. Paul Patoff was a very masculine and dominating man. Hermione
+Carvel was a young girl, who resembled her strong, sensible, and manly
+father far more than her meek and delicate mother. Though she was still
+very young, there was much in her which showed the determined will and
+energetic purpose which a man needs to possess more than a woman.
+Alexander Patoff, on the other hand, without being effeminate, was
+intensely feminine. He had fine sensibilities, he had quick intuitions,
+he was capricious and womanly in his ideas. It follows that, in the
+scale of characters, Hermione held the mean between the two brothers.
+Compared with Paul's powerful nature, her qualities were those of a
+woman; in comparison with Alexander's delicate organization of mind,
+Hermione's character was more like that of a man. The effect of this
+singular scale of personalities was, that when she found herself
+alternately in the society of the two brothers she felt as though she
+were alternately two different women. To a man entering a house on a
+bitter winter's night the hall seems comfortably warm; but it seems
+cold to a man who has been sitting over a fire in a hermetically sealed
+study.
+
+Now Hermione had loved Paul when he was practically the only man of
+those she had ever known intimately whom she believed it possible to
+love at all. But she had seen very little of the world, and had known
+very few men. Her first recollections of society were indistinct, and no
+one individual had made any more impression upon her than another,
+perhaps because she was in reality not very impressionable. But Paul was
+preeminently a man able to impress himself upon others when he chose. He
+had come to Carvel Place, had loved his cousin, and she had returned his
+love with a readiness which had surprised herself. It was genuine in its
+way, and she knew that it was; nor could she doubt that Paul was in
+earnest, since a word from her had sufficed to make him curtail his
+visit, and go to the ends of the earth to find his brother. Hermione
+more than once wished that she had never spoken that word.
+
+She now entered upon a new phase of her life, she saw a new sort of
+society, and she met a man who upset in a moment all her convictions
+about men in general. The result of all this novelty was that she began
+to look at life from a different point of view. Alexander amused her,
+and at the same time he made her feel of more importance in her own
+eyes. He talked well, but he made her fancy that she herself talked
+better. His thoughts were subtle, though not always logical, and his
+quick instincts gave him an immense advantage over people of slower
+intelligence. He knew all this himself, perhaps; at all events, he used
+his gifts in the cleverest possible way. He possessed the power to
+attract Hermione without dominating her; in other words, he made her
+like him of her own free will.
+
+She liked him very much, and she felt that there was no harm in it. He
+was the brother of her future husband, so that she easily felt it a duty
+to like him, as well as a pleasure. Alexander himself affected to treat
+her with a sort of cousinly-brotherly affection, and spoke always of
+Paul with the greatest respect, when he spoke of him at all; but he
+manifestly sought opportunities of expressing his affection, and avoided
+all mention of Paul when not absolutely necessary. The position was
+certainly a difficult one, but he managed it with the tact of a woman
+and the daring of a man. I have always believed that he was really fond
+of Hermione; for I cannot imagine him so vile as to attempt to take her
+from Paul, when Paul had done so much towards liberating him from his
+prison. But whatever were his motives or his feelings, it was evident to
+me that he was making love to her in good earnest, that the girl was
+more interested in him than she supposed, and that Madame Patoff was
+cunningly scheming to break off the match with Paul in order to marry
+Hermione to Alexander.
+
+Balsamides had of course become a friend of the family, after the part
+he had played in effecting Alexander's escape, and in his own way I
+think he watched the situation when he got a chance with as much
+interest as I myself. One evening we were sitting in his rooms, about
+midnight, talking, as we talked eternally, upon all manner of subjects.
+
+"Griggs," said he, suddenly changing the topic of our conversation, "it
+is a great pity we ever took the trouble to find Alexander. I often wish
+he were still lying in that pleasant den in Laleli's garden."
+
+"It would be better for every one concerned, except himself, if he
+were," I answered.
+
+"I detest the fellow's face. If it were not for his mustache, he might
+pass for a woman anywhere."
+
+"He is as beautiful as an angel," I said, wishing to give him his due.
+
+"What business have men with such beauty as that?" asked Gregorios,
+scornfully. "I would rather look like a Kurd hamal than like Alexander
+Patoff. He is spoiling Paul's life. Not that I care!" he added,
+shrugging his shoulders.
+
+"No," I said, "it is none of our business. I liked him at first, I
+confess, and I thought that Alexander and Miss Carvel would make a very
+pretty couple. But I like him less the more I see of him. However, he
+will soon be going back to his regiment, and we shall hear no more of
+him."
+
+"His leave is not over yet," answered my friend. "A fellow like that can
+do a deal of harm in a few weeks."
+
+Gregorios is a man of violent sympathies and antipathies, though no one
+would suppose it from his cold manner and general indifference. But I
+know him better than I have known most men, and he is less reticent with
+me than with the generality of his friends. It was impossible to say
+whether he took enough interest in the Carvels or in Paul to attempt to
+influence their destiny, but I was sure that if he crossed Alexander's
+path the latter would get the worst of it, and I mentally noted the fact
+in summing up Paul's chances.
+
+At that time nothing had openly occurred which suggested the possibility
+of a rupture of the unacknowledged engagement between Paul and Hermione.
+Paul several times told her that he wished to speak formally to John
+Carvel, and obtain his consent to the marriage; but Hermione advised him
+to wait a little longer, arguing that she herself had spoken, and that
+there was therefore no concealment about the matter. The longer they
+waited, she said, the more her father would become accustomed to the
+idea, and the more he would learn to like Paul, so that in another month
+there would be no doubt but that he would gladly give his consent. But
+Paul himself was not satisfied. His mother's conduct irritated him
+beyond measure, and he began seriously to suspect her of wishing to make
+trouble. He was no longer deceived by her constant show of affection for
+himself, for she continued always to make it most manifest just when it
+prevented him from talking with Hermione. Alexander, too, treated him as
+he had not done before, with a deference and a sort of feline softness
+which inspired distrust. Two years ago Paul would have been the first to
+expect foul play from his brother, and would have been upon his guard
+from the beginning; but Paul himself was changed, and had grown more
+merciful in his judgment of others. He found it hard to persuade himself
+that Alexander really meant to steal Hermione's love; and even when he
+began to suspect the possibility of such a thing, he believed that he
+could treat the matter lightly enough. Nevertheless, Hermione continued
+to dissuade him from going to her father, and he yielded to her advice,
+though much against his will. He found himself in a situation which to
+his conscience seemed equivocal. He knew from what John Carvel had
+written to me that his suit was not likely to meet with any serious
+opposition; he understood that John expected him to speak, and he began
+to fancy that his future father-in-law looked at him inquiringly from
+time to time, as though anticipating a question, and wondering why it
+was not asked.
+
+One day he came to see me, and found me alone. Gregorios had gone to the
+palace, and I have no doubt that Paul, who knew his habits, had chosen a
+morning for his visit when he was certain that Balsamides would not be
+at home. He looked annoyed and almost nervous, as he sat down in silence
+and began to smoke.
+
+"Anything wrong?" I asked.
+
+"I hardly know," he replied. "I am very uncomfortable. I am in a very
+disagreeable situation."
+
+I was silent. I did not want to invite his confidence, and if he had
+come to tell me anything about himself, it was better to let him tell it
+in his own way.
+
+"I am in a very disagreeable position," he repeated slowly. "I want to
+ask your advice."
+
+"That is always a rash thing to do," I replied.
+
+"I do not care. I must confide in you, as I did once before, but this
+time I only want your advice. My position is intolerable. I feel every
+day that I ought to ask Mr. Carvel to give me his daughter, and yet I
+cannot do it."
+
+"Why not? It is certainly your duty," said I.
+
+"Because Miss Carvel objects," he answered, with sudden energy. His
+voice sounded almost fierce as he spoke.
+
+"Do you mean that she has not accepted"----
+
+"I do not know what I mean, nor what she means, either!" exclaimed Paul,
+rising, and beginning to pace the floor.
+
+"My dear Patoff," I said, "you made a grave mistake in making me find
+your brother. Excuse my abruptness, but that is my opinion."
+
+He turned suddenly upon me, and his face was very pale, while his eyes
+gleamed disagreeably and his lip trembled.
+
+"So you have noticed that, too," he said in a low voice. "Well--go on!
+What do you advise me to do? How am I to get him out of the way?"
+
+"There can be no doubt that Balsamides would advise you to cut his
+throat," I replied. "As for me, I advise you to wait, and see what comes
+of it. He must soon go home and rejoin his regiment."
+
+"Wait!" exclaimed Paul impatiently. "Wait! Yes,--and while I am waiting
+he will be working, and he will succeed! With that angel's face of his,
+he will certainly succeed! Besides, my mother will help him, as you
+know."
+
+"Look here," said I. "Either Miss Carvel loves you, or she does not. If
+she does, she will not love your brother. If she does not love you, you
+had better not marry her. That is the reasonable view."
+
+"No doubt,--no doubt. But I do not mean to be reasonable in that way.
+You forget that I love her. The argument might have some weight."
+
+"Not much. After all, why do you love her? You do not know her well."
+
+Paul stared at me as though he thought I were going mad. I dare say that
+I must have appeared to him to be perfectly insane. But I was
+disconcerted by the gravity of the situation, and I believed that he had
+a bad chance against Alexander. It was wiser to accustom his mind to the
+idea of failure than to flatter him with imaginary hopes of success. A
+man in love is either a hero or a fool; heroes who fail are generally
+called fools for their pains, and fools who succeed are sometimes called
+heroes. Paul stared, and turned away in silence.
+
+"You do not seem to have any answer ready," I observed. "You say you
+love a certain lady. Is there any reason, in the nature of things, why
+some one else should not love her at the same time? Then it follows that
+the most important point is this,--she must love you. If she does not,
+your affection is wasted. I am not an old man, but I am far from being a
+young one, and I have seen much in my time. You may analyze your
+feelings and those of others, when in love, as much as you please, but
+you will not get at any other result. Unless a woman loves you, it is of
+very little use that you love her."
+
+"What in the world are you talking about, Griggs?" asked Paul, whose
+ideas, perhaps, did not coincide with mine. "What can you know about
+love? You are nothing but a hardened old bachelor; you never loved a
+woman in your life, I am sure."
+
+I was much struck by the truth of this observation, and I held my peace.
+A cannibal cannot be expected to understand French cooking.
+
+"I tell you," continued Paul, "that Miss Carvel has promised to marry
+me, and I constantly speak to her of our marriage."
+
+"But does she speak to you of it?" I asked. "I fancy that she never
+alludes to it except to tell you not to go to her father."
+
+In his turn Paul was silent, and bent his brows. He must have been half
+distracted, or he would not have talked to me as he did. I never knew a
+less communicative man.
+
+"This is a very delicate matter," I said presently. "You ask my advice;
+I will give you the best I can. Do one of two things. Either go to Mr.
+Carvel without his daughter's permission, or else fight it out as you
+can until your brother goes. Then you will have the field to yourself."
+
+"The difficulty lies in the choice," said Paul.
+
+"The choice depends upon your own state of mind, and upon your strength,
+or rather upon the strength of your position. If Miss Carvel has
+promised to marry you, I think you have a right to push matters as fast
+as you can."
+
+"I will," said Paul. "Good-by."
+
+He left me at once, and I began to reflect upon what had passed. It
+seemed to me that he was foolish and irrational, altogether unlike
+himself. He had asked my advice upon a point in which his own judgment
+would serve him better than mine, and it was contrary to his nature to
+ask advice at all in such matters. He was evidently hard pressed and
+unhappy, and I wished I could help him, but it was impossible. He was in
+a dilemma from which he could issue only by his own efforts; and
+although I was curious to see what he would do, I felt that I was not in
+a position to suggest any very definite line of action. I looked idly
+out of the window at the people who passed, and I began to wonder
+whether even my curiosity to see the end could keep me much longer in
+Pera. The crowd jostled and elbowed itself in the narrow way, as usual.
+The fez, in every shade of red, and in every condition of newness,
+shabbiness, and mediocrity, with tassel and without, rocked, swayed,
+wagged, turned, and moved beneath my window till I grew sick of the
+sight of it, and longed to see a turban, or a tall hat, or no hat at
+all,--anything for a change of head-dress. I left the window rather
+wearily, and took up one of the many novels which lay on the table,
+pondering on the probable fate of Paul Patoff's love for his cousin.
+
+
+
+
+XX.
+
+
+Hermione found herself placed in quite as embarrassing a position as
+Paul, and before long she began to feel that she had lost herself in a
+sort of labyrinth of new sensations. She hardly trusted herself to think
+or to reflect, so confusing were the questions which constantly
+presented themselves to her mind. It seems an easy matter for a woman to
+say, I love this man, or, I love that man, and to know that she speaks
+truly in so saying. With some natures first love is a fact, a certainty
+against which there is no appeal, and beside which there is no
+alternative. To see, with them, is practically to love, and to love once
+is to love forever. We may laugh over "love at first sight," as we call
+it, but history and every-day life afford so many instances of its
+reality that we cannot deny its existence. But the conditions in which
+it is found are rare. To love each other at first sight, both the
+persons must be impulsive; each must find in the other exactly what each
+has long sought and most earnestly desired, and each must recognize the
+discovery instantaneously. I suppose, also, that unless such love lasts
+it does not deserve the name; but in order that it may be durable it is
+necessary that the persons should realize that they have not been
+deceived in their estimate of each other, that they should possess in
+themselves the capacity for endurance, that their tastes should change
+little and their hearts not at all. People who are at once very
+impulsive and very enduring are few in the world and very hard to mate;
+wherefore love at first sight, but of a lasting nature, is a rare
+phenomenon.
+
+Hermione did not belong to this class, and she had certainly not loved
+Paul during the first few days of their acquaintance. Her nature was
+relatively slow and hard to rouse. A season in society had produced no
+impression upon her; and if Paul had stayed only a week, or even a
+fortnight, at Carvel Place he might have fared no better than all the
+other men who had been presented to her, had talked and danced with her,
+and had gone away, leaving her life serenely calm as before. But Paul
+had been very assiduous, and had lost no time. Moreover, he loved her,
+and was in earnest about it; so that when, on that memorable day in the
+park, he had spoken at last, she had accepted his speech and had sealed
+her answer.
+
+She believed that she loved him with all her heart, but she was new to
+love, and the waking sentiment was not yet a passion. It was only a
+sensation, and though its strength was great enough to influence
+Hermione's life, it had not yet acquired any great stability. A more
+impulsive nature would have been more suddenly moved, but Hermione's
+love needed time for its development, and the time had been very short.
+Since she had admitted that she loved Paul, she had not seen him until
+the eve of his brother's reappearance; and now, owing to Madame Patoff's
+skillful management, she talked with Alexander more frequently than with
+Paul. Alexander was apparently doing his best to make her love him, and
+the world said that he was succeeding. Hermione herself was startled
+when she tried to understand her own feelings, for she saw that a great
+change had taken place in her, and she could neither account for it nor
+assure herself where it would end. It would be unjust to blame her, or
+to say that she was unfaithful. She did not waver in her determination
+to marry Paul, but she tried to put it off as long as possible,
+struggling to clear away her doubts, and trying hard to feel that she
+was acting rightly. After all, it is easy to comprehend the confusion
+which arises in a young girl's mind when placed in such a position. We
+say too readily that a woman who wavers and hesitates is treating a man
+badly. Men are so quick to jump at the conclusion that women love them
+that they resent violently the smallest signs of hesitation in the other
+sex. They do not see that a woman needs time to decide, just as a man
+does; and they think it quite enough that they themselves have made up
+their minds, as if women existed only to submit themselves to the choice
+of men, and had no manner of right to question that choice when once
+made.
+
+Paul could not imagine why Hermione hesitated, and she herself would
+certainly have refused to account for the delay she caused, by admitting
+that Alexander had made an impression upon her heart. But she felt the
+charm the man exercised, and her life was really influenced by it. The
+strange adventure which had so long kept him a prisoner in Laleli's
+house lent him an atmosphere of romantic interest, and his own nature
+increased the illusion. The brilliant young officer, with his almost
+supernatural beauty, his ready tongue, his sweet voice, and his dashing
+grace, was well calculated to make an impression upon any woman; to a
+young girl who had grown up in very quiet surroundings, who had hitherto
+regarded Paul Patoff as the ideal of all that a man should be, the
+soldier brother seemed like a being from another world. At the same time
+Hermione was reaching the age when she could enjoy society, because she
+began to feel at home in it, because the first dazzling impression of it
+had given way to a quieter appreciation of what it offered, and lastly
+because she herself was surrounded by many admirers, and had become a
+personage of more importance than she had ever thought possible before.
+Under such circumstances a young girl's impressions change very rapidly.
+She feels the disturbing influence and enjoys the moment, but while it
+lasts she feels also that she is unfit to decide upon the greatest
+question of her life. She needs time, because she can employ very little
+of the time she has in serious thought, and because she doubts whether
+all her previous convictions are not shaken to their foundations. She
+dreads a mistake, and is afraid that in speaking too quickly she may
+speak untruly. It is the desire to be honest which forbids her to
+continue in the course she had chosen before this new phase of her life
+began, or to come to any new decision involving immediate action,
+especially immediate marriage.
+
+Herein lies the great danger to a young girl who has promised to marry a
+man before she has seen anything of the world, and who suddenly begins
+to see a great deal of the world before the marriage actually takes
+place. She is just enough attached to the man to feel that she loves
+him, but the bonds are not yet so close as to make her know that his
+love is altogether the dominating influence of her life. Unless this
+same man whom she has chosen stands out as conspicuously in the new
+world she has entered as in the quiet home she has left, there is great
+danger that he may fall in her estimation; and in those early stages of
+love, estimation is a terribly important element. By estimation I do not
+mean esteem. There is a subtle difference between the two; for though
+our estimation may be high or low, our esteem is generally high. When a
+young girl is old enough to be at home in society, she sets a value on
+every man, and perhaps on every woman, whom she meets. They take their
+places in the scale she forms, and their places are not easily changed.
+Among them the man she has previously promised to marry almost
+inevitably finds his rank, and she is fortunate if he is among the
+highest; for if he is not, she will not fail to regret that he does not
+possess some quality or qualities which she supposes to exist in those
+men whom she ranks first among her acquaintance. Where criticism begins,
+sympathy very often ends, and with it love. Then, if she is honest, a
+woman owns that she has made a mistake, and refuses to abide by her
+engagement, because she feels that she cannot make the man happy. Or if
+her ideas of faith forbid her from doing this, she marries him in spite
+of her convictions, and generally makes him miserable for the rest of
+his days. When a girl throws a man over, as the phrase goes, the world
+sets up a howl, and vows that she has treated him very badly; but it
+always seems to me that by a single act of courage she has freed herself
+and the man who loves her from the fearful consequences of a marriage
+where all the love would have been on one side, and all the criticism on
+the other. It is not always a girl's own fault when she does not know
+her own mind, and when she has discovered her mistake she is wise if she
+refuses to persist in it. There is more to be said in favor of breaking
+off engagements than is generally allowed, and there is usually far too
+much said against the woman who has the courage to pursue such a course.
+
+In comparing the two brothers, as she undoubtedly did, Hermione was not
+aware that she was making any real comparison between them. What she
+felt and understood was that when she was with Paul she was one person,
+and when she was with Alexander she was quite another; and the knowledge
+of this fact confused her, and made her uncertain of herself. With Paul
+she was, in her own feelings, the Hermione he had known in England; with
+Alexander she was some one else,--some one she did not recognize, and
+who should have been called by another name. Until she could unravel
+this mystery, and explain to herself what she felt, she was resolved not
+to take any further steps in regard to her marriage.
+
+Pera, at this time, was indulging itself in its last gayeties before the
+beginning of the summer season, when every one who is able to leave the
+town goes up the Bosphorus, or to the islands. The weather was growing
+warm, but still the dancing continued with undiminished vigor. Among
+other festivities there was to be a masked ball, a species of amusement
+which is very rare in Constantinople; but somebody had suggested the
+idea, one of the great embassies had taken it up, and at last the day
+was fixed and the invitations were issued. It was to be a great affair,
+and everybody went secretly about the business of composing costumes
+and disguises. There was much whispering and plotting and agreeing
+together in schemes of mystification. The evening came, everybody went,
+and the ball was a great success.
+
+Hermione had entirely hidden her costume with a black domino, which is
+certainly the surest disguise which anyone can wear. Its wide folds
+reached to the ground, and completely hid her figure, while even her
+hands were rendered unrecognizable by loose black gloves. Paul had been
+told what she was to wear; but he probably knew her by some sign, agreed
+upon beforehand, from all the other black dominos; for a number of other
+ladies had chosen the same over-garment to hide the brilliant costumes
+until the time came for unmasking. He came up to her immediately, and
+offered his arm, proposing to walk through the rooms before dancing; but
+Hermione would not hear of it, saying that if she were seen with him at
+first she would be found out at once.
+
+"Do not be unreasonable," said she, as she saw the disappointed look on
+his face. "I want to mystify ever so many people first. Then I will
+dance with you as much as you like."
+
+"Very well," said Paul, rather coldly. "When you want me, come to me."
+
+Hermione nodded, and moved away, mixing with the crowd under the
+hundreds of lights in the great ball-room. Paul sighed, and stood by the
+door, caring little for what went on. He was not a man who really took
+pleasure in society, though he had cultivated his social faculties to
+the utmost, as being necessary to his career. The fact that all the
+ladies were masked dispensed him for the time from the duty of making
+the round of the room and speaking to all his acquaintances, and he was
+glad of it. But Hermione was bent upon enjoying her first masked ball,
+and all the freedom of moving about alone. She spoke to many men whom
+she knew, using a high, squeaking voice which in no way recalled her
+natural tones. In the course of half an hour she found Alexander Patoff
+talking earnestly with a lady in a white domino, whom she recognized, to
+her surprise, as her aunt Chrysophrasia. Alexander evidently had no idea
+of her identity, for he was speaking in low and passionate tones, while
+Miss Dabstreak, who seemed to enter into the spirit of the mystification
+with amazing readiness, replied in the conventional squeak. She had
+concealed her hands in the loose sleeves of her domino, and as she was
+of about the same height as Hermione, it was absolutely impossible to
+prove that she was not Hermione herself.
+
+"Hermione," exclaimed Alexander, just as the real Hermione came up to
+him, "I cannot bear to hear you talk in that voice! What is the use of
+keeping up this ridiculous disguise? Do you not see that I am in
+earnest?"
+
+"Perfectly," squeaked Chrysophrasia. "So am I. But somebody might hear
+my natural voice, you know."
+
+Hermione started, and drew back a little. It was a strange position, for
+Alexander was evidently under the impression that he was making love to
+herself, and her aunt was amused by drawing him on. She hesitated, not
+knowing what she ought to do. It was clear that, unless she made herself
+known to him, he might remain under the impression that she had accepted
+his love-making. She waited to see what would happen. But Chrysophrasia
+had probably detected her, for presently the white domino moved quickly
+away towards the crowd. Alexander sprang forward, and would have
+followed, but Hermione crossed his path, and laid her hand on his
+sleeve.
+
+"Will you give me your arm, Alexander?" she said, quietly, in her
+natural way.
+
+He stopped short, stared at her, and then broke into a short, half-angry
+laugh. But he gave her his arm, and walked by her side, with an
+expression of bewilderment and annoyance on his beautiful face. Hermione
+was too wise to say that she had overheard the conversation, and
+Alexander was ashamed to own that he had made a mistake, and taken some
+one else for her. But by making herself known Hermione had effectually
+annulled whatever false impression Chrysophrasia had made upon him.
+
+"Do you know who that lady in the white domino is, with whom I was
+talking a moment ago? Did you see her?" he asked, rather nervously.
+
+"It is our beloved aunt Chrysophrasia," said Hermione, calmly.
+
+"Good heavens! Aunt Chrysophrasia!" exclaimed Alexander, in some horror.
+
+"Why 'good heavens'?" inquired Hermione. "Have you been doing anything
+foolish? I am sure you have been making love to her. Tell me about it."
+
+"There is nothing to tell. But what a wonderful disguise! How many
+dances will you give me? May I have the cotillon?"
+
+"You may have a quadrille," answered Hermione.
+
+"A quadrille, two waltzes, and the cotillon. That will do very well. As
+nobody knows you in that domino, we can dance as often as we please, and
+you will only be seen with me in the cotillon. What is your costume? I
+am sure it is something wonderful."
+
+"How you run on!" exclaimed the young girl. "You do not give one the
+time to refuse one thing before you take another!"
+
+"That is the best way, and you know it," answered Alexander, laughing.
+"A man should never give a woman time to refuse. It is the greatest
+mistake that can be imagined."
+
+"Did aunt Chrysophrasia refuse to dance with you?" inquired Hermione.
+
+Alexander bit his lip, and a faint color rose in his transparent skin.
+
+"Aunt Chrysophrasia is a hard-hearted old person," he replied,
+evasively; but he almost shuddered at the thought that under the white
+domino there had lurked the green eyes and the faded, sour face of his
+aesthetic relative.
+
+"To think that even she should have resisted you!" exclaimed Hermione,
+wickedly.
+
+"Better she than you," said Alexander, lowering his tone as they passed
+near a group of persons who chattered loudly in feigned voices. "Better
+she than you, dear cousin," he repeated, gently. "To be refused anything
+by you"----
+
+"They do things very well here," interrupted Hermione, pretending not to
+hear. "They have such magnificent rooms, and the floor is so good."
+
+"Hermione, why do you"----
+
+"Because," said Hermione quickly, before he could finish his sentence,
+"because you say too much, cousin Alexander. I interrupt you because you
+go too far, and because the only possible way of checking you is to cut
+you short."
+
+"And why must you check me? Am I rude or rough with you? Do I say
+anything that you should not hear? You know that I love you; why may I
+not tell you so? I know. You will say that Paul has spoken before me.
+But do you love Paul? Hermione, can you own to yourself that you love
+him,--not as a brother, but as the man you would choose to marry? He
+does not love you as I love you."
+
+"Hush!" exclaimed the young girl. "You must not. I will go away and
+leave you."
+
+"I will follow you."
+
+"Why will you torment me so?" Perhaps her tone of voice did not express
+all the annoyance she meant to show, for Alexander did not desist. He
+only changed his manner, growing suddenly as soft and yielding as a
+girl.
+
+"I did not mean to annoy you," he said. "You know that I never mean to.
+You must forgive me, you must be kind to me, Hermione. You have the
+stronger position, and you should be merciful. How can I help saying
+something of what I feel?"
+
+"You should not feel it, to begin with," answered his cousin.
+
+"Will you teach me how I may not love you?" His voice dropped almost to
+a whisper, as he bent down to her and asked the question. But Hermione
+was silent for a moment, not having any very satisfactory plan to
+propose. Half reluctant, she sat down by him upon a sofa in the corner
+of an almost empty room. There were tall plants in the windows, and the
+light was softened by rose-colored shades.
+
+"It must be a hard lesson to learn," said Alexander, speaking again.
+"But if you will teach me, I will try and learn it; for I will do
+anything you ask me. You say I must not love you, but I love you
+already. When I am with you I am carried away, like a boat spinning down
+the Neva in the springtime. Can the river stop itself in order that what
+lives in it may not move any more? Can it say to the skiff, 'Go no
+further,' when the skiff is already far from the shore, at the mercy of
+the water?"
+
+"The boatman must pull hard at his oars," laughed Hermione. "Have you
+never seen a caique pull through the Devil's Stream on the Bosphorus, at
+Bala Hissar? It is hard work, but it generally succeeds."
+
+"A man may fight against the devil, but he cannot struggle against what
+he worships. Or, if he can, you must teach me how to do it, and give me
+some weapon to fight with."
+
+"You must rely on yourself for that. You must say, 'I will not,' and it
+will be very easy. Besides," she added, with another laugh, in which
+there was a rather nervous ring,--"besides, you know all this is only a
+comedy, or a pastime. You are not in earnest."
+
+"I wish I were not," answered Alexander, softly. "You tell me to rely
+upon myself. I rely on you. I love you, and that makes you stronger than
+me."
+
+Hermione believed him, and perhaps she was right. She felt, and he made
+her feel, that she dominated him, and could turn him whither she would.
+Her pride was flattered, and though she promised herself that she would
+make him give up his love for her by the mere exertion of a superior
+common sense, she was conscious that the task was not wholly
+distasteful. She enjoyed the sensation of being the stronger, of
+realizing that Alexander was wholly at her feet and subject to her
+commands. That he should have gradually grown so intimate as to speak so
+freely to her is not altogether surprising. They were own cousins, and
+called each other by their Christian names. They met daily, and were
+often together for many consecutive hours, and Madame Patoff did her
+best to promote this state of things. Hermione had become accustomed to
+his devotion, for he had advanced by imperceptible stages. When he first
+said that he loved her, she took it as she might have taken such an
+expression from her brother,--as the exuberant expression of an
+affection purely platonic, not to say brotherly. When he had repeated it
+more earnestly, she had laughed at him, and he had laughed with her in a
+way which disarmed all her suspicions. But each time that he said it he
+laughed less, until she realized that he was not jesting. Then she
+reproached herself a little for having let the intimacy grow, and
+determined to persuade him by gentle means that he had made a mistake.
+She felt that she was responsible for his conduct, because she had not
+been wise enough to stop him at the outset, and she therefore felt also
+that it would be unjust to make a violent scene, and that it was
+altogether out of the question to speak to Paul about the matter. To
+tell the truth, she was not sorry that it was out of the question, and
+this was the most dangerous element in her intimacy with Alexander. When
+a young woman who has not a profound experience of the world undertakes
+to convince a man by sheer argument that he ought not to love her, the
+result is likely to be unsatisfactory, and she stands less chance of
+persuading than of being persuaded. A man who persuades a woman that
+she is able to influence him, and that he is wholly at her mercy, has
+already succeeded in making himself interesting to her; and she will not
+readily abandon the exercise of her power, since she is provided with
+the too plausible excuse that she is doing him good, and consequently is
+herself doing right.
+
+"I wish you would really listen to me, and take my advice," said
+Hermione, after a pause. "There is so much that is good in you,--so much
+that is far better than this foolish love-making."
+
+Alexander Patoff smiled softly, and his brown eyes gazed dreamily at
+hers, that just showed through the openings in the black domino.
+
+"If there is anything good in me, you have put it there," he answered.
+"Do not take it away; do not give me the physic of good advice."
+
+"I think you need it more than usual to-night," said his cousin. "You
+are more than usually foolish, you know."
+
+"You are more than usually wise. But if you tell me to do anything
+to-night, I will do it."
+
+"Then go away and dance with some one else," laughed Hermione. To her
+surprise, Alexander rose quietly, and with one gentle glance turned
+away. Then she repented.
+
+"Alexander!" she exclaimed, almost involuntarily.
+
+"Yes," he answered, coming back, and seating himself again by her side.
+
+"I did not tell you to come back," she said, amused at his docility.
+
+"No--but I came," he replied. "You called me. I thought you had
+forgotten something. Shall I go away again?"
+
+"No. You may stay, if you will be good," said she, leaning back and
+looking away from him.
+
+"I promise. Besides, you admitted a moment ago that I was very good.
+Perhaps I am too good, and that is the reason why you sent me away."
+
+"I did not say you were good. I said there was some good in you. You
+always take everything for granted."
+
+"I will take all you grant," said he.
+
+"I grant nothing. It is you who fancy that I do. You have altogether too
+much imagination."
+
+"I never need it with you, even if I have it," answered Alexander. "You
+are infinitely beyond anything I ever imagined in my wildest dreams."
+
+"So are you," laughed Hermione. "Only--it is in a different way."
+
+"Why do you think I like you so much?" asked her cousin, suddenly
+changing his tone.
+
+"Because you ought not to," she answered without hesitation.
+
+"Then you think that as soon as any one tells me that I should not like
+a thing, I make up my mind to like it and to have it? No, that is not
+the reason I love you."
+
+"It was 'liking,' not 'loving,' a moment ago," observed Hermione.
+"Please always say 'liking.' It is a much better word."
+
+"Perhaps. It leaves more to the imagination, of which you say I have so
+much. The reason I like you so much, Hermione, is because you are so
+honest. You always say just what you mean."
+
+"Yes. The difficulty lies in making you understand what I mean."
+
+"As the Frenchman said when a man misunderstood him. You furnish me with
+an argument; you are not bound to furnish me with an understanding. No,
+I am afraid that would be asking the impossible. It is easier for a
+woman to talk than for a man to know what she thinks."
+
+"I thought you said I was honest. Please explain," returned Hermione.
+
+"Honesty does not always carry conviction. I mean that you are evidently
+most wonderfully honest, from your own point of view. If I could make my
+opinion yours, everything would be settled very soon."
+
+"In what way?"
+
+"Why should I tell you? I have told you so often, and you will not
+believe me. If I say it, you will send me away again. I do not say
+it,--another proof of my goodness to-night."
+
+"I am deeply sensible," answered Hermione, with a laugh. "Come, I will
+give you one dance, and then you must go."
+
+So they left their seat, and went into the ball-room just as the
+musicians began to play Nur fuer Natur; and the enchanting strains of the
+waltz carried them away in the swaying movement, and did them no manner
+of good. Just such conversations had taken place before, and would take
+place again so long as Hermione maintained the possibility of converting
+Alexander to the platonic view of cousinly affection. But each time some
+chance expression, some softer tone of voice, some warmer gleam of light
+in the Russian's brown eyes, betrayed that he was gaining ground rather
+than losing anything of the advantage he had already obtained.
+
+Half an hour later Hermione laid her hand on Paul's arm, and looked up
+rather timidly into his eyes through the holes in her domino. His
+expression was very cold and hard, but it changed as he recognized her.
+
+"At last," he said happily, as he led her away.
+
+"At last," she echoed, with a little sigh. "Do you want to dance?" she
+asked. "It is so hot; let us go and sit down somewhere."
+
+Almost by accident they came to the place where Hermione had sat with
+Alexander. There was no one there, and they installed themselves upon
+the same sofa.
+
+"I thought you were never coming," said Paul. "After all, what does it
+matter whether people see us together or not? I never can understand
+what amusement there is, after the first five minutes, in rushing about
+in a domino and trying to mystify people."
+
+"No," answered Hermione, "it is not very amusing. I would much rather
+sit quietly and talk with some one I know and who knows me."
+
+"I want to tell you something to-night, dear," said Paul, after a short
+silence. "Do you mind if I tell you now?"
+
+"No bad news?" asked Hermione, rather nervously.
+
+"No. It is simply this: I have made up my mind that I must speak to your
+father to-morrow. Do not be startled, darling. This position cannot
+last. I am not acting an honorable part, and he expects me to ask him
+the question. I know you have objected to my going to him for a long
+time, but I feel that the thing must be done. There can be no good
+objection to our marriage,--Mr. Carvel made Griggs understand that. Tell
+me, is there any real reason why I should not speak?"
+
+Hermione turned her head away. Under the long sleeves of her domino her
+small hands were tightly clasped together.
+
+"Is there any reason, dear?" repeated Paul, very gently. But as her
+silence continued his lips set themselves firmly, and his face grew
+slowly pale.
+
+"Will you please speak, darling?" he said, in changed tones. "I am very
+nervous," he added, with a short, harsh laugh.
+
+"Oh--Paul! Don't!" cried Hermione. Her voice seemed to choke her as she
+spoke. Then she took courage, and continued more calmly: "Please, please
+wait a little longer,--it is such a risk!"
+
+Paul laughed again, almost roughly.
+
+"A risk! What risk? Your father has done all but give his formal
+consent. What possible danger can there be?"
+
+"No. Not from him,--it is not that!"
+
+"Well, what is it? Hermione, what in the name of Heaven is the matter?
+Speak, darling! Tell me what it is. I cannot bear this much longer."
+Indeed, the man's suppressed passion was on the very point of breaking
+out, and the blue light quivered in his eyes, while his face grew
+unnaturally pale.
+
+"Oh, Paul--I cannot tell you--you frighten me so," murmured Hermione in
+broken tones. "Oh, Paul! Forgive me--forgive me!"
+
+At that moment Gregorios Balsamides passed before their corner, a lady
+in a red hood and a red mask leaning on his arm.
+
+"Hush!" exclaimed Paul, under his breath, as the couple came near them.
+But Gregorios only nodded familiarly to Paul, stared a moment at his
+pale face, glanced at the black domino, and went on with his partner. "I
+do not want to frighten you, dearest," continued Paul, when no one could
+hear them. "And what have I to forgive? Do not be afraid, and tell me
+what all this means."
+
+"I must," answered Hermione, her strength returning suddenly. "I must,
+or I should despise myself. You must not go to my father, Paul--because
+I--I am not sure of myself."
+
+She trembled visibly under her domino, as she spoke the last words
+almost in a whisper, hesitating and yet forcing herself to tell the
+truth. Paul glanced uneasily at the black drapery which veiled all her
+head and figure, and with one hand he grasped the carved end of the
+sofa, so that it cracked under the pressure. For some seconds there was
+an awful silence, broken only by low sounds which told that Hermione was
+crying.
+
+"You mean--that you do not love me," said Paul at last, very slowly,
+steadying his voice on every syllable.
+
+The young girl shook her head, and tried to speak. But the words would
+not come. Meanwhile the strong man's anger was slowly rising, very
+slowly but very surely, so that Hermione felt it coming, as a belated
+traveler on the sands sees the tide creeping nearer to the black cliff.
+
+"Hermione," he said, very sternly, "if you mean that you are no longer
+willing to marry me, say so plainly. I will forgive you if I can,
+because I love you. But please do not trifle with me. I can bear the
+worst, but I cannot bear waiting."
+
+"Do not talk like that, Paul!" cried his cousin in an agonized voice,
+but recovering her power of speech before the pent-up anger he seemed to
+be controlling. "Let us wait, Paul; let us wait and be sure. I cannot
+marry you unless I am sure that I love you as I ought to love you. I do
+love you, but I feel that I could love you so much more--as--as I should
+like to love my--the man I marry. Have patience,--please have patience
+for a little while."
+
+Paul's white lips opened and shut mechanically as he answered her.
+
+"I am very patient. I have been patient for long. But it cannot last
+forever. I believed you loved me and had promised to marry me. If you
+have made a mistake, it is much to be regretted. But I must really beg
+you to make up your mind as soon as possible."
+
+"Oh, pray do not talk like that. You are so cold. I am so very unhappy!"
+
+"What would you have me say?" asked Paul, his voice growing clearer and
+harder with every word. "Will you answer me one question? Will you tell
+me whether you have learned to care so much for another man that your
+liking for him makes you doubt?"
+
+"I am afraid"--She stopped, then suddenly exclaimed, "How can you ask me
+such a question?"
+
+"What are you afraid of?" inquired Paul, in the same hard tone. "You
+always tell the truth. You will tell it now. Has any other man come
+between you and me?"
+
+It was of no use for her to hesitate. She could command Alexander and
+give him any answer she chose, but Paul's strong nature completely
+dominated her. She bent her head in assent, and the Yes she spoke was
+almost inaudible.
+
+"And you ask time to choose between us?" asked Paul, icily. "Yes, I
+understand. You shall have the time,--as long as you please to remain
+in Constantinople. I am much obliged to you for being so frank. May I
+give you my arm to go into the next room?"
+
+"How unkind you are!" said Hermione, making an effort to rise. But her
+strength failed her, and she fell back into her seat. "Excuse me," she
+faltered. "Please wait one moment,--I am not well."
+
+Paul looked at her, and hesitated. But her weakness touched him, and he
+spoke more gently as he turned to her.
+
+"May I get you a glass of water, or anything?"
+
+"Thanks, nothing. It will be over in a moment,--only a little
+dizziness."
+
+For a few seconds they remained seated in silence. Then Hermione turned
+her head, and looked at her cousin's white face. Her small gloved hand
+stole out from under her domino and rested on his arm. He took no notice
+of the action; he did not even look at her.
+
+"Paul," she said, very gently, "you will thank me some day for having
+waited."
+
+A contemptuous answer rose to his lips, but he was ashamed of it before
+it was spoken, and merely raised his eyebrows as he answered in
+perfectly monotonous tones:
+
+"I believe you have done what you think best."
+
+"Indeed I have," replied Hermione, rising to her feet.
+
+He offered her his arm, and they went out together. But when supper-time
+came, and with it the hour for unmasking, Hermione was not to be seen;
+and Alexander, who had counted upon her half-given assent to dance the
+cotillon with him, leaned disconsolately against a door, wondering
+whether it could be worth while to sacrifice himself by engaging any one
+in her place.
+
+But Paul did not go home. He was too angry to be alone, and above all
+too deeply wounded. Besides, his position required that he should stay
+at least until supper was over, and it was almost a relief to move about
+among the gorgeous costumes of all kinds which now issued from the
+black, white, and red dominos, as a moth from the chrysalis. He spoke to
+many people, saying the same thing to each, with the same mechanical
+smile, as men do when they are obliged day after day to accomplish a
+certain social task. But the effort was agreeable, and took off the
+first keen edge of his wrath.
+
+He had no need to ask the name of the man who had come between him and
+the woman he loved. For weeks he had watched his brother and Hermione,
+asking himself if their intimacy meant anything, and then driving away
+the tormenting question, as though it contained something of disloyalty
+to her. Now he remembered that for weeks this thing she had spoken must
+have been in her mind, since she had always entreated him to wait a
+little longer before speaking with her father. It had appeared such an
+easy matter to her to wait; it was such a hard matter for him,--harder
+than death it seemed now. For it was all over. He believed that she had
+spoken her last word that night, and that in speaking of waiting still
+longer she had only intended to make it less troublesome to break it
+off. She had admitted that another man had come between them. Was
+anything further needed? It followed, of course, that she loved this
+other man--Alexander--better than himself. For the present he could see
+only one side of the question, and he repeated to himself that all was
+over, saying it again and again in his heart, as he went the rounds of
+the room, asking each acquaintance he met concerning his or her plans
+for the summer, commenting on the weather, and praising the successful
+arrangement of the masked ball.
+
+But Paul was ignorant of two things, in his present frame of mind. He
+did not know that Hermione had been perfectly sincere in what she had
+said, and he did not calculate upon his own nature. It was a simple
+matter, in the impulse of the first moment, to say that all was at an
+end, that he gave her up, even as she had rejected him, with a sort of
+savage pleasure in the coldness of the words he spoke. He could not
+imagine, after this interview, that he could ever think of her again as
+his possible wife, and if the idea had presented itself he would have
+cast it behind him as a piece of unpardonable weakness. All his former
+cynical determination to trust only in what he could do himself, for the
+satisfaction of his ambition, returned with renewed strength; and as he
+shook hands with the people he met, he felt that he would never again
+ask man or woman for anything which he could not take by force. He did
+not know that in at least one respect his nature had changed, and that
+the love he had lavished on Hermione was a deep-rooted passion, which
+had grown and strengthened and spread in his hard character, as the
+sculptor adapts the heavy iron framework in the body and limbs of a
+great clay statue. In the first sudden revulsion of his feeling, he
+thought he could pluck away his love and leave it behind him like an old
+garment, and the general contempt with which he regarded his
+surroundings after he left Hermione reminded him almost reassuringly of
+his old self. If his old self still lived, he could live his old life as
+before, without Hermione, and above all, without love. There was a
+bitter comfort in the thought that once more he was to look at all
+things, at success in everything, at his career, his aims both great and
+small, surrounded by obstacles which could be overcome only by main
+force, as prizes to be wrested from his fellows by his own unaided
+exertions.
+
+He had forgotten that Hermione had been the chiefest aim of his
+existence for several months, and at the same time he did not realize
+that he loved her in such a way as to make it almost impossible for him
+to live without her. It was not in accordance with his character to
+relinquish without a struggle, and a very desperate struggle, that for
+which he had labored so long, and an outsider would have prophesied that
+whosoever would take from Paul Patoff the woman he loved would find that
+he had attempted a dangerous thing. Mere senseless anger does not often
+last long, and before an hour had passed Paul began to feel those
+suspicious little thrusts of pain in the breast and midriff which warn
+us that we miss some one we love. For a long time he tried to persuade
+himself that he was deceived, because he did not believe himself capable
+of such weakness. But the feeling was unmistakable.
+
+The dancing was at its height, for all those who did not mean to stay
+until the end of the cotillon had gone home, so that the more distant
+rooms were already deserted. Almost unconsciously Paul strayed to the
+spot where he had sat with Hermione. He looked towards the sofa where
+they had been seated, and he saw a strange sight.
+
+Alexander Patoff was there, half sitting, half lying, on the small sofa,
+unaware of his brother's presence. His face was turned away, and he was
+passionately kissing the cushions,--the very spot against which
+Hermione's head had rested. Paul stared stupidly at him for a moment, as
+though not comprehending the action, which indeed was wild and
+incomprehensible enough; then he seemed to understand, and strode
+forward in bitter anger. His brother, he thought, had seen them there
+together, had been told what had passed, and had chosen this passionate
+way of expressing his joy and his gratitude to Hermione. Alexander heard
+his brother's footsteps, and, starting, looked wildly round; then
+recognizing Paul, he sprang to his feet, and a faint color mounted to
+his pale cheeks.
+
+"Fool!" cried Paul, bitterly, as he came forward. But Alexander had
+already recovered himself, and faced him coolly enough.
+
+"What is the matter? What do you mean?" he asked, contemptuously.
+
+"You know very well what I mean," retorted his brother, fiercely. "You
+know very well why you are making a fool of yourself,--kissing a heap of
+cushions, like a silly schoolboy in love."
+
+"My dear fellow, you are certainly quite mad. I waltzed too long just
+now, and was dizzy. I was trying to get over it, that was all. My nerves
+are not so sound in dancing as they were before I was caught in that
+trap. Really, you have the most extraordinary ideas."
+
+Paul was confused by the smooth lie. He did not believe his brother, but
+he could not find a ready answer.
+
+"You do not know who sat there a little while ago?" he asked, sternly.
+
+"Not the remotest idea," replied Alexander. "Was it that adorable red
+mask, who would not leave Balsamides even for a moment? Bah! You must
+think me very foolish. Come along and have some supper before we go
+home. I have no partner, and have had nothing to eat and very little to
+drink."
+
+Paul was obliged to be content with the answer; but he understood his
+brother well enough to know that if there had been nothing to conceal,
+Alexander would have been furious at the way in which he was addressed.
+His conviction remained unchanged that his brother had known what
+passed, and was so overcome with joy that he had kissed the sofa whereon
+Hermione had sat. The two men left the room together, but Paul presently
+slipped away, and went home.
+
+Strange to say, what he had seen did not have the effect of renewing his
+resentment against Hermione so much as of exciting his anger against his
+brother. He now felt for the first time that though he might give her up
+to another, he could not give her up to Alexander. The feeling was
+perhaps only an excuse suggested by the real love for her which filled
+him, but it was strongly mixed with pride, and with the old hostility
+which during so many years had divided the two brothers.
+
+To give her up, and to his own brother,--the thing was impossible, not
+to be thought of for a moment. As he walked quickly home over the rough
+stones of the Grande Rue, he realized all that it meant, and stopped
+short, staring at the dusky houses. He was not a man of dramatic
+instincts. He did not strike his forehead, nor stamp his foot, nor
+formulate in words the resolution he made out there in the dark street.
+He merely thrust his hands deeper into the pockets of his overcoat, and
+walked on; but he knew from that moment that he would fight for
+Hermione, and that his mood of an hour ago had been but the passing
+effect of a sudden anger. He regretted his hard speech and bitter looks,
+and he wished that he had merely assented to her proposal to wait, and
+had said no more about it until the next day. Hermione might talk of not
+marrying him, but he would marry her in spite of all objections, and
+especially in spite of Alexander.
+
+Had she spoken thoughtlessly? In the light of his stronger emotion it
+seemed so to him, and it was long before he realized that she had
+suffered almost as much in making this sacrifice to her honesty as he
+had suffered himself. But she had indeed been in earnest, and had done
+courageously a very hard thing. She was conscious that she had made a
+great mistake, and she wanted to avert the consequences of it, if there
+were to be any consequences, before it was too late. She had allowed
+Alexander to become too fond of her, as their interview that evening had
+shown; and though she knew that she did not love him, she knew also that
+she felt a growing sympathy for him, which was in some measure a wrong
+to Paul. This sympathy had increased until it began to frighten her, and
+she asked herself where it would end, while she yet felt that she had no
+right to inflict pain on Alexander by suddenly forcing him to change his
+tone. Her mind was very much confused, and as she could not imagine that
+a real and undivided love admitted of any confusion, she had simply
+asked Paul to wait, in perfect good faith, meaning that she needed time
+to decide and to settle the matter in her own conscience. He had pressed
+her with questions, and had finally extorted the confession that
+another man had come between them. She had not meant to say that, but
+she was too honest to deny the charge. Paul had instantly taken it for
+granted that she already loved this other man better than himself, and
+had treated her as though everything were over between them.
+
+The poor girl was in great trouble when she went home that night.
+Although nothing had been openly discussed, she knew that her engagement
+to Paul was tacitly acknowledged. She asked herself how he would treat
+her when they met; whether they should meet at all, indeed, for she
+feared that he would refuse to come to the house altogether. She
+wondered what questions her father would put to her, and how Madame
+Patoff would take the matter. More than all, she hesitated in deciding
+whether she had done well in speaking as she had spoken, seeing what the
+first results had been.
+
+She shut herself in her room, and just as she was, in the beautiful
+Eastern dress which she was to have shown at the ball when the masking
+was over, she sat down upon a chair in the corner, and leaned her tired
+head against the wall. But for the disastrous ending of the evening, she
+would doubtless have sat before her glass, and looked with innocent
+satisfaction at her own beautiful face. But the dark corner suited her
+better, in her present mood. Her cheek rested against the wall, and very
+soon the silent tears welled over and trickled down, staining the green
+wall paper of the hotel bedroom, as they slowly reached the floor and
+soaked into the dusty carpet. She was very miserable and very tired,
+poor child, and perhaps she would have fallen asleep at last, just as
+she sat, had she not been roused by sounds which reached her from the
+next room, and which finally attracted her attention. Madame Patoff
+slept there, or should have been sleeping at that hour, for she was
+evidently awake. She seemed to be walking up and down, up and down
+eternally, between the window and the door. As she walked, she spoke
+aloud from time to time. At first she always spoke just as she was
+moving away from the door, and consequently, when her back was turned
+towards the place where Hermione sat on the other side of the wall, her
+words were lost, and only incoherent sounds reached the young girl's
+ears. Presently, however, she stopped just behind the door, and her
+voice came clear and distinct through the thin wooden panel:--
+
+"I wish he were dead. I wish he were dead. Oh, I wish I could kill him
+myself!" Then the voice ceased, and the sound of the footsteps began
+again, pacing up and down.
+
+Hermione started, and sat upright in her chair, while the tears dried
+slowly on her cheeks. The habit of considering her aunt to be insane was
+not wholly lost, and it was natural that she should listen to such
+unwonted sounds. For some time she could hear the voice at intervals,
+but the words were indistinct and confused. Her aunt was probably very
+ill, or under the influence of some hallucination which kept her awake.
+Hermione crept stealthily near the door, and listened intently. Madame
+Patoff continued to walk regularly up and down. At last she heard clear
+words again:--
+
+"I wish I could kill him; then Alexis could marry her. Alexis ought to
+marry her, but he never will. Cannot Paul die!"
+
+Hermione shrank from the door in horror. She was frightened and shaken,
+and after the events of the evening her aunt's soliloquies produced a
+much greater effect upon her than would have been possible six hours
+earlier. Her first impulse was not to listen more, and she hastily began
+to undress, making a noise with the chairs, and walking as heavily as
+she could. Then she listened a moment, and all was still in the next
+room. Her aunt had probably heard her, and had feared lest she herself
+should be overheard. Hermione crept into bed, and closed her eyes. At
+the end of a few minutes the steps began again, and after some time the
+indistinct sounds of Madame Patoffs voice reached the young girl's ears.
+She seemed to speak in lower tones than before, however, for the words
+she spoke could not be distinguished. But Hermione strained her
+attention to the utmost, while telling herself that it was better she
+should not hear. The nervous anxiety to know whether Madame Patoff were
+still repeating the same phrases made her heart beat fast, and she lay
+there in the dark, her eyes wide open, her little hands tightening on
+the sheet, praying that the sounds might cease altogether, or that she
+might understand their import. Her pulse beat audibly for a few seconds,
+then seemed to stop altogether in sudden fear, while her forehead grew
+damp with terror. She thought that any supernatural visitation would
+have been less fearful than this reality, and she strove to collect her
+senses and to compose herself to rest.
+
+At last she could bear it no longer. She got up and groped her way to
+the door of her aunt's room, not meaning to enter, but unable to
+withstand the desire to hear the words of which the incoherent murmur
+alone came to her in her bed. She reached the door, but in feeling for
+it her outstretched hand tapped sharply upon the panel. Instantly the
+footsteps ceased. She knew that Madame Patoff had heard her, and that
+the best thing she could do was to ask admittance.
+
+"May I come in, aunt Annie?" she inquired, in trembling tones.
+
+"Come in," was the answer; but the voice was almost as uncertain as her
+own.
+
+She opened the door. By the light of the single candle--an English
+reading-light with a reflecting hood--she saw her aunt's figure standing
+out in strong relief against the dark background of shadow. Madame
+Patoff's thick gray hair was streaming down her back and over her
+shoulders, and she held a hairbrush in her hand, as though the fit of
+walking had come upon her while she was at her toilet. Her white
+dressing-gown hung in straight folds to the floor, and her dark eyes
+stared curiously at the young girl. Hermione was more startled than
+before, for there was something unearthly about the apparition.
+
+"Are you ill, aunt Annie?" she asked timidly, but she was awed by the
+glare in the old lady's eyes. She glanced round the room. The bed was in
+the shadow, and the bed-clothes were rolled together, so that they took
+the shape of a human figure. Hermione shuddered, and for a moment
+thought her aunt must be dead, and that she was looking at her ghost.
+The girl's nerves were already so overstrained that the horrible idea
+terrified her; the more, as several seconds elapsed before Madame Patoff
+answered the question.
+
+"No, I am not ill," she said slowly. "What made you ask?"
+
+"I heard you walking up and down," explained Hermione. "It is very late;
+you generally go to sleep so early"----
+
+"I? I never sleep," answered the old lady, in a tone of profound
+conviction, keeping her eyes fixed upon her niece's face.
+
+"I cannot sleep, either, to-night," said Hermione, uneasily. She sat
+down upon a chair, and shivered slightly. Madame Patoff remained
+standing, the hairbrush still in her hand.
+
+"Why should you not sleep? Why should you? What difference does it make?
+One is just as well without it, and one can think all night,--one can
+think of things one would like to do."
+
+"Yes," answered the young girl, growing more and more nervous. "You must
+have been thinking aloud, aunt Annie. I thought I heard your voice."
+
+Madame Patoff moved suddenly and bent forward, bringing her face close
+to her niece's, so that the latter was startled and drew back in her
+chair.
+
+"Did you hear what I said?" asked the old lady, almost fiercely, in low
+tones.
+
+Sometimes a very slight thing is enough to turn the balance of our
+beliefs, especially when all our feelings are wrought to the highest
+pitch of excitement. In a moment the conviction seized Hermione that her
+aunt was mad,--not mad as she had once pretended to be, but really and
+dangerously insane.
+
+"I did not understand what you said," answered the young girl, too
+frightened to own the truth, as she saw the angry eyes glaring into her
+face. It seemed impossible that this should be the quiet, sweet-tempered
+woman whom she was accustomed to talk with every day. She certainly did
+the wisest thing, for her aunt's face instantly relaxed, and she drew
+herself up again and turned away.
+
+"Go to bed, child," she said, presently. "I dare say I frightened you. I
+sometimes frighten myself. Go to bed and sleep. I will not make any more
+noise to-night."
+
+There was something in the quick change, from apparent anger to apparent
+gentleness, which confirmed the idea that Madame Patoff's brain was
+seriously disturbed. Hermione rose and quietly left the room. She locked
+her door, and went to bed, hoping that she might sleep and find some
+rest; for she was worn out with excitement, and shaken by a sort of
+nervous fear.
+
+Sleep came at last, troubled by dreams and restless, but it was sleep,
+nevertheless. Several times she started up awake, thinking that she
+again heard her aunt's low voice and the regular fall of her footsteps
+in the next room. But all was still, and her weary head sank back on the
+pillow in the dark, her eyelids closed again in sheer weariness, and
+once more her dreams wove fantastic scenes of happiness, ending always
+in despair, with the suddenness of revulsion which makes the visions of
+the night ten times more agonizing while they last than the worst of our
+real troubles.
+
+But the morning brought a calmer reflection; and when Hermione was
+awake she began to think of what had passed. The horror inspired by her
+aunt's words and looks faded before the greater anxiety of the girl's
+position with regard to Paul. She tried to go over the interview in her
+mind. Her conscience told her that she had done right, but her heart
+said that she had done wrong, and its beating hurt her. Then came the
+difficult task of reconciling those two opposing voices, which are never
+so contradictory as when the heart and the conscience fall out, and
+argue their cause before the bewildered court of justice we call our
+intelligence. First she remembered all the many reasons she had found
+for speaking plainly to Paul on the previous night. She had said to
+herself that she did not feel sure of her love, allowing tacitly that
+she expected to feel sure of it before long. But until the matter was
+settled she could not let him hurry the marriage nor take any decisive
+step. If he had only been willing to wait another month, he might have
+been spared all the suffering she had seen in his face; she herself
+could have escaped it, too. But he had insisted, and she had tried to do
+right in telling him that she was not ready. Then he had been angry and
+hurt, and had coldly told her that she might wait forever, or something
+very like it, and she had felt that the deed was done. It was dreadful;
+yet how could she tell him that she was ready? Half an hour earlier, on
+that very spot, she had suffered Alexander to speak as he had spoken,
+only laughing kindly at his expressions of love; not rebuking him and
+leaving him, as she should have done, and would have done, had she loved
+Paul with her whole heart.
+
+And yet this morning, as she lay awake and thought it all over,
+something within her spoke very differently, like an incoherent cry,
+telling her that she loved him in spite of all. She tried to listen to
+what it said, and then the answer came quickly enough, and told her that
+she had been unkind, that she had given needless pain, that she had
+broken a man's life for an over-conscientious scruple which had no real
+foundation. But then her conscience returned to the charge, refuting the
+slighting accusation, so that the confusion was renewed, and became
+worse than before. For the sake of discovering something in support of
+her action, she began to think about Alexander; and finding that she
+remembered very accurately what they had said to each other, her
+thoughts dwelt upon him. It was pleasant to think of his beautiful face,
+his soft voice, and his marvelous dancing. It was a fascination from
+which she could not easily escape, even when he was absent; and there
+was a charm in the memory of him, in thinking of how she would turn him
+from being a lover to being a friend, which drew her mind away from the
+main question that occupied it, and gave her a momentary sensation of
+peace.
+
+Suddenly the two men came vividly before her in profile, side by side.
+The bold, manly features and cold glance of the strong man contrasted
+very strangely with the exquisitely chiseled lines of his brother's
+face, with the soft brown eyes veiled under long lashes, and the
+indescribable delicacy of the feminine mouth. Paul wore the stern
+expression of a man superior to events and very careless of them.
+Alexander smiled, as though he loved his life, and would let no moment
+of it pass without enjoying it to the full.
+
+It was but the vision of an instant, as she closed her eyes, and opened
+them again to the faint light which came in through the blinds. But
+Hermione felt that she must choose between the two men, and it was
+perhaps the first time she had quite realized the fact. Hitherto
+Alexander had appeared to her only as a man who disturbed her previous
+determinations. If she had hesitated to marry Paul while the disturbance
+lasted, it was not because she had ever thought of taking his brother
+instead. Now it seemed clear that she must accept either the one or the
+other, for the comparison of the two had asserted itself in her mind. In
+that moment she felt that she was worse than she had ever been before;
+for the fact that she compared the two men as possible husbands showed
+her that she set no value on the promises she had made to Paul.
+
+To choose,--but how to choose? Had she a right to choose at all? If she
+refused to marry Paul, was she not bound to refuse any one
+else,--morally bound in honor? The questions came fast, and would not be
+answered. Just then her aunt moved in the next room, and the thought of
+her possible insanity returned instantly to Hermione's mind. She
+determined that it was best to speak to her father about it. He was the
+person who ought to know immediately, and he should decide whether
+anything should be done. She made up her mind to go to him at once, and
+she rang for her maid.
+
+But before she was dressed she had half decided to act differently, to
+wait at least a day or two, and see whether Madame Patoff would talk to
+herself again during the night. To tell her father would certainly be to
+give an alarm, and would perhaps involve the necessity of putting her
+aunt once more under the care of a nurse. John Carvel could not know, as
+Hermione knew, that the old lady's resentment against Paul was caused by
+her niece's preference for him, and it would not be easy for the young
+girl to explain this. But Hermione wished that she might speak to Paul
+himself, and warn him of what his mother had said. She sighed as she
+thought how impossible that would be. Nevertheless, in the morning light
+and in the presence of her maid, while her gold-brown hair was being
+smoothed and twisted, and the noises from the street told her that all
+the world was awake, the horror of the night disappeared, and Hermione
+almost doubted whether her aunt had really spoken those words at all. If
+she had, it had been but the angry out-break of a moment, and should not
+be taken too seriously.
+
+
+
+
+XXI.
+
+
+It was probably curiosity that induced Professor Cutter to pay a visit
+to Constantinople in the spring. He is a scientist, and curiosity is the
+basis of all science, past, present, and future. His mind was not at
+rest in regard to Madame Patoff, and he found it very hard to persuade
+himself that she should suddenly have become perfectly sane, after
+having made him believe during eighteen months that she was quite mad.
+After her recovery he had had long interviews with Mrs. North, and had
+done his best to extract all the information she was able to give about
+the case. He had studied the matter very carefully, and had almost
+arrived at a satisfactory conclusion; but he felt that in order to
+remove all doubt he must see her again. He was deeply interested, and
+such a trifle as a journey to Constantinople could not stand in the way
+of his observations. Accordingly he wrote a post-card to John Carvel to
+say that he was coming, and on the following day he left England. But he
+likes to travel comfortably, and especially he is very fond of finding
+out old acquaintances when he is abroad, and of having an hour's chat
+with scientific men like himself. He therefore did not arrive until a
+week after John had news of his intended journey.
+
+For some reason unknown to me, Carvel did not speak beforehand of the
+professor's coming. It may be that, in the hurry of preparation for
+moving up the Bosphorus, he forgot the matter; or perhaps he thought it
+would be an agreeable surprise to most of us. I myself was certainly
+very much astonished when he came, but the person who showed the
+greatest delight at his arrival was Hermione. It is not hard to imagine
+why she was pleased, and when I knew all that I have already told I
+understood her satisfaction well enough. The professor appeared on the
+day before the Carvels were to transfer themselves to Buyukdere. His
+gold-rimmed spectacles were on his nose, his thick and short gray hair
+stood up perpendicularly on his head as of old, his beard was as bushy
+and his great hands were as huge and as spotless as ever. But after not
+having seen him for some months, I was more struck than ever by his
+massive build and the imposing strength of his manner.
+
+Several days had elapsed since the events recorded in the last chapter.
+To Hermione's surprise, Paul had come to the hotel as usual, on the day
+after the ball, and behaved as though nothing had happened, except that
+he had at first avoided finding himself alone with his cousin. She on
+her part was very silent, and even Alexander could not rouse her to talk
+as she used to do. When questioned, she said that the heat gave her a
+headache; and as Chrysophrasia spent much time in languidly complaining
+of the weather, the excuse had a show of probability. But after a day or
+two she was reassured by Paul's manner, and no longer tried to keep out
+of his way. Then it was that they found themselves together for the
+first time since the ball. It was only for a moment, but it was long
+enough.
+
+Hermione took his passive hand in hers, very timidly, and looked into
+his face.
+
+"You are not angry with me any more?" she said.
+
+"No, not in the least," he answered. "I believe you did what you
+believed to be best, the other night. No one can do more than that."
+
+"Yes, but you thought I was not in earnest."
+
+"I thought you were more in earnest than you admitted. I thought you
+meant to break it off altogether. I have changed my mind."
+
+"Have you? I am so glad. I meant just what I said, Paul. You should not
+have doubted that I meant it."
+
+"I was angry. Forgive me if I was rude. I will not give you up. I will
+marry you in spite of everybody."
+
+Hermione looked at him, curiously at first, then with a sort of
+admiration which she could not explain,--the admiration we all feel for
+a strong man who is very much in earnest.
+
+"In spite of myself?" she asked, after a pause.
+
+"Yes, almost," he began hotly, but his tone softened as he finished the
+sentence,--"almost in spite of yourself, Hermione."
+
+"Indeed, I begin to think that you will," she answered, turning away her
+head to hide a smile that had in it more of happiness than of unbelief.
+Some one entered the room where they were standing, and nothing more was
+said; nor did Paul repeat his words at the next opportunity, for he was
+not much given to repetition. When he had said a thing, he meant it, and
+he was in no hurry to say it again.
+
+Meanwhile, also, the young girl had more than once listened, during the
+night, for any sounds which might proceed from Madame Patoff's bedroom;
+but she had heard nothing more, and the impression gradually faded from
+her mind, or was stored away there as a fact to be remembered at some
+future time. When Professor Cutter arrived, she determined to tell him
+in strictest confidence what had occurred. This, however, was not what
+gave her so much satisfaction in meeting him. She had long looked
+forward to the day when she could enjoy the triumph of seeing him meet
+Alexander Patoff, alive and well; for she knew how strongly his
+suspicions had fastened upon Paul, and it was he who had first told her
+what the common story was.
+
+The professor arrived in the early morning by the Brindisi boat, and
+Hermione proposed that Chrysophrasia, Paul, Cutter, and herself should
+make a party to go over to Stamboul on the same afternoon. It was warm
+indeed, but she represented that as the whole family were to move up the
+Bosphorus on the following day, it would be long before they would have
+a chance of going to Stamboul again. Chrysophrasia moaned a little, but
+at last accepted the proposition, and Paul and the professor expressed
+themselves delighted with the idea.
+
+The four set off together, descended by the Galata tunnel, and crossed
+the bridge on foot. Then they took a carriage and drove to Santa Sophia.
+There was little chance for conversation, as they rattled over the
+stones towards the mosque. Chrysophrasia leaned wearily back in her
+corner. Paul and Hermione tried to talk, and failed, and Professor
+Cutter promenaded his regards, to borrow an appropriate French
+expression, upon the buildings, the people, and the view. Perhaps he was
+wondering whether more cases of insanity presented themselves amongst
+the vegetable sellers as a class than amongst the public scribes, whose
+booths swarm before the Turkish post-office. He had seen the city
+before, but only during a very short visit, as a mere tourist, and he
+was glad to see it again.
+
+They reached the mosque, and after skating about in the felt overshoes
+provided for the use of unbelievers, Cutter suggested going up to the
+galleries.
+
+"It is so very, very far!" murmured Chrysophrasia, who was watching a
+solitary young Sufi, who sat reciting his lesson aloud to himself in a
+corner, swaying his body backwards and forwards with the measure of his
+chant.
+
+"I will go," said Hermione, with alacrity. "Paul can stay with my aunt."
+
+"I would rather stay," answered Paul, whose reminiscences of the gallery
+were not of the most pleasant sort.
+
+So Professor Cutter and the young girl left the mosque, and with the
+guide ascended the dim staircase.
+
+"Papa wrote you the story, did he not?" asked Hermione. "Yes. This is
+the way they went up."
+
+The professor looked about him curiously, as they followed the guide.
+Emerging amidst the broad arches of the gallery, they walked forward,
+and Hermione explained, as Paul had explained to her, what had taken
+place on that memorable night two years ago. It was a simple matter, and
+the position of the columns made the story very clear.
+
+"Professor Cutter, I want to speak to you about my aunt," said Hermione,
+at last. The professor stopped and looked sharply at her, but said
+nothing. "Do you remember that morning in the conservatory?" she
+continued. "You told me that she was very mad indeed,--those were your
+own words. I did not believe it, and I was triumphant when she came
+out--in--well, quite in her senses, you know. I thought she had
+recovered,--I hope she has. But she has very queer ways."
+
+"What do you mean by queer ways, Miss Carvel? I have come to
+Constantinople on purpose to see her. I hope there is nothing wrong?"
+
+"I do not know. But I have told nobody what I am going to tell you. I
+think you ought to be told. My room is next to hers, at the hotel, and I
+hear through the door what goes on, without meaning to. The other night
+I came home late from a ball, and she was walking up and down, talking
+to herself so loud that I heard several sentences."
+
+"What did she say?" asked Cutter, whose interest was already aroused.
+The symptom was only too familiar to him.
+
+"She said"--Hermione hesitated before she continued, and the color rose
+faintly in her cheeks--"she said she wished she could kill Paul--and
+then"----
+
+"And then what?" inquired the professor, looking at her steadily.
+"Please tell me all."
+
+"It was very foolish.--she said that then Alexander could marry me. It
+was so silly of her. Just think!"
+
+After all, Professor Cutter was her father's old friend. She need not
+have been so long about telling the thing.
+
+"She thinks that you are going to marry Paul?" observed the professor,
+with an interrogative intonation.
+
+"Well, if I did?" replied the young girl, after a short pause. "If she
+were in her right mind, would that be any reason for her wishing to
+murder him?"
+
+"No. But I never believed she was out of danger," said Cutter. "Did she
+say anything more?"
+
+Hermione told how Madame Patoff had behaved when she had entered the
+room. Her companion looked very grave, and said little during the few
+moments they remained in the gallery. He only promised that he would
+tell no one about it, unless it appeared absolutely necessary for the
+safety of every one concerned. Then they descended the steps again and
+joined Chrysophrasia and Paul, who were waiting below.
+
+"Aunt Chrysophrasia says she must go to the bazaar," said the latter.
+
+"Yes," remarked Miss Dabstreak, "I really must. That Jew! Oh, that Jew!
+He haunts my dreams. I see him at night, dressed like Moses, with a
+linen ephod, you know, holding up that Persian embroidery. It is more
+than my soul can bear!"
+
+"But we were going to take Professor Cutter to the other mosques,"
+objected Hermione.
+
+"I am sure he will not mind if we go to the bazaar instead, will you?"
+she asked, with an engaging squint of her green eyes, as she turned to
+the professor.
+
+"Not at all,--not at all, Miss Dabstreak. Anything you propose--I am
+sure"--ejaculated Cutter, apparently waking from an absorbing meditation
+upon his thumb-nail, and perhaps upon thumb-nails in general.
+
+"You see how kind he is!" murmured Chrysophrasia, as she got into the
+carriage. "To the bazaar, Paul. Could you tell the driver?"
+
+Paul could and did. Ten minutes later the carriage stopped at the gate
+of the bazaar. A dozen Mohammedans, Greeks, and Jews sprang out to
+conduct the visitors whither they would,--or, more probably, whither
+they would not. But Paul, who knew his way about very well, fought them
+off. One only would not be repulsed, and Chrysophrasia took his part.
+
+"Let him come,--pray let him come, Paul. He has such beautiful eyes,
+such soft, languishing eyes,--so sweetly like those of a gazelle."
+
+"His name is Abraham," said Paul. "I know him very well. The gazelle is
+of Jewish extraction, and sells shawls. He is a liar."
+
+"Hair, Effendim--sir," cried Abraham, who knew a little English. "Him
+Israeleet--hones' Jew--Abraham's name, Effendim."
+
+"I know it is," said Paul. "Git!"--an expression which is good
+Californian, and equally good Turkish.
+
+They threaded the narrow vaulted passages, which were cool in the warm
+spring afternoon, taking the direction of the Jews' quarter, but pausing
+from time to time to survey the thousand articles, of every description,
+exposed for sale by the squatting shopkeepers. Cutter looked at the
+weapons especially, and remarked that they were not so good as those
+which used to be found ten years earlier. Everything, indeed, seemed to
+have changed since that time, and for the worse. There is less wealth in
+the bazaar, and yet the desire to purchase has increased tenfold, so
+that a bit of Rhodes tapestry, which at that earlier time would not have
+fetched forty piastres, is now sold for a pound Turkish, and is hard to
+get at that. It may be supposed that the Jews have made large fortunes
+in the interval, but the fact is not apparent in any way; the
+uncertainty of property in Turkey forcing them to conceal their riches,
+if they have any. Their shops are very fairly clean, but otherwise they
+are humble, and the best and most valuable objects are generally packed
+carefully away in dark corners, and are produced only when asked for.
+You see nothing but a small divan, a table, a matted floor, and shelves
+reaching to the ceiling, piled with packages wrapped in shabby gray
+linen. It is chiefly in the Mohammedan and Greek "tscharshis" of the
+bazaar that jewelry, weapons, and pipes are openly exhibited, and laid
+out upon benches for the selection of the buyer. But the Jews have
+almost a monopoly of everything which comes under the head of
+antiquities, and it is with them that foreigners generally deal. They
+are as intelligent as elsewhere, and perhaps more so, for the traveler
+of to-day is a great cheapener of valuables. Moreover, the Stamboul Jews
+are most of them linguists. They speak a bastard Spanish among
+themselves; they are obliged to know Turkish, Greek, and a little
+Armenian, and many of them speak French and Italian intelligibly.
+
+Chrysophrasia delighted in the bazaar. The flavor of antiquity which
+hangs about it, and makes it the only thoroughly Oriental place in
+Constantinople, ascended gratefully to the old maid's nostrils, while
+her nerves were continually thrilled by strange contrasts of color. It
+was very pleasant, she thought, to be really in the East, and to have
+such a palpable proof of the fact as was afforded by the jargon of loud
+but incomprehensible tongues which filled her ears. She had often been
+in the place, and the Jews were beginning to know her, scenting a
+bargain whenever her yellow face and yellow hair became visible on the
+horizon. She generally patronized Marchetto, however, and on the present
+occasion she had come expressly to see him. He was standing in the door
+of his little shop as usual, and his red face and red-brown eyes lighted
+up when he caught sight of Miss Dabstreak. With many expressions of joy
+he backed into the interior, and immediately went in search of the
+famous piece of Persian embroidery which Chrysophrasia had admired
+during her last visit to the bazaar.
+
+"Upon my honor"--began Marchetto, launching into praises of the stuff.
+Patoff and Hermione stood at the door, but Cutter immediately became
+interested in the bargain, and handled the embroideries with curiosity,
+asking all manner of questions of the Jew and of Miss Dabstreak. Somehow
+or other, the two younger members of the party soon found themselves
+outside the shop, walking slowly up and down and talking, until the
+bargain should be concluded.
+
+"I could not go up to the gallery in Santa Sophia," said Paul. "I am not
+a nervous person, but it brings the story back too vividly."
+
+"What does it matter, since he is found?" asked Hermione.
+
+Patoff was struck by the question, for it was too much at variance with
+his own feelings to seem reasonable. It was not because he preferred to
+avoid all reminiscence of the adventure that he had stayed below, but
+rather because he hated to think what the consequences of Alexander's
+return had been.
+
+"What does it matter?" he repeated slowly. "It matters a great deal.
+What happened on that night, two years ago, was the beginning of a whole
+series of misfortunes. I have had bad luck ever since."
+
+"Why do you say that?" asked Hermione, somewhat reproachfully.
+
+"It is true,--that is one reason why I say it. But for that night, my
+mother would never have been mad. I should never have been sent to
+Persia, and should not have gone to England during my leave. I should
+not have met you"----
+
+"You consider that a terrible misfortune," observed Hermione.
+
+"It is always a man's misfortune when he determines to have what is
+denied him," answered Paul quietly. "Somebody must suffer in the
+encounter, or somebody must yield."
+
+"Somebody,--yes. Why do you talk about it, Paul?"
+
+"Because I think of nothing else. I cannot help it. It is easy to say,
+'Let this or that alone;' it is another matter to talk to you about the
+bazaar, and the Turks, and the weather, when we are together."
+
+Hermione was silent, for there was nothing to be said. She knew how
+well he loved her, and when she was with him she submitted in a measure
+to his influence; so that often she was on the point of yielding, and
+telling him that she no longer hesitated. It was when she was away from
+him that she doubted herself, and refused to be persuaded. Paul needed
+only a very little to complete his conquest, but that little he could
+not command. He had reached the point at which a man talks of the woman
+he loves or of himself, and of nothing else, and the depth of his
+passion seemed to dull his speech. A little more eloquence, a little
+more gentleness, a little more of that charm which Alexander possessed
+in such abundance, might have been enough to turn the scale. But they
+were lacking. The very intensity of what he felt made him for the time a
+man of one idea only, and even the freedom with which he could speak to
+Hermione about his love for her was a disadvantage to him. It had grown
+to be too plain a fact, and there was too little left to the
+imagination. He felt that he wearied her, or he fancied that he did,
+which amounted to the same; and he either remained tongue-tied, or
+repeated in one form or another his half-savage 'I will.' He began to
+long for a change in their relations, or for some opportunity of
+practically showing her how much he would sacrifice for her sake. But in
+these days there are no lists for the silent knights; there are no
+jousts where a man may express his declaration of love by tying a lady's
+colors to his arm, and breaking the bones of half a dozen gentlemen
+before her eyes. And yet the instinct to do something of the kind is
+sometimes felt even now,--the longing to win by physical prowess what it
+is at present the fashion to get by persuasion.
+
+Paul felt it strongly enough, and was disgusted with his own stupidity.
+Of what use was it that during so many years he had cultivated the art
+of conversation as a necessary accomplishment, if at his utmost need his
+wits were to abandon him, and leave him uncouth and taciturn as he had
+been in his childhood? He looked at Hermione's downcast face; at the
+perfect figure displayed by her tightly fitting costume of gray; at her
+small hands, as she stood still and tried to thrust the point of her
+dainty parasol into the crevice between two stones of the pavement. He
+gazed at her, and was seized with a very foolish desire to take her up
+in his arms and walk away with her, whether she liked it or not. But
+just at that moment Hermione glanced at him with a smile, not at all as
+he had expected that she would look.
+
+"I think we had better go back to the shop," said she. So they turned,
+and walked slowly towards the narrow door.
+
+"These Orientals are so full of wonderful imagery!" Chrysophrasia was
+saying to Professor Cutter as the pair came in. "It is delightful to
+hear them talk,--so different from an English shopkeeper."
+
+"Very," assented the learned man. "Their imagery is certainly
+remarkable. Their scale of prices seems to be founded upon it, as
+logarithms depend for their existence on the square root of minus one,
+an impossible quantity."
+
+"Dear me! Could you explain that to Marchetto? It might make a
+difference, you know."
+
+"I am afraid not," answered the professor gravely. "Marchetto is not a
+mathematician; are you, Marchetto?"
+
+"No surr, Effendim. Marchetto very honest man. Twenty-five pounds,
+lady--ah! but it is birindji--there is not a Pacha in Stamboul"----
+
+"You have said that before," observed the scientist, "Try and say
+something new."
+
+"New!" cried Marchetto. "It is not new. Any one say it new, he lie!
+Old--eski, eski! Very old! Twenty-five-six pounds, lady! Hein! Pacha
+give more."
+
+"I fear that the traditions of his race are very strong," remarked
+Chrysophrasia, languidly examining the embroidery, a magnificent piece
+of work, about a yard and a half square, wrought in gold and silver
+threads upon a dark-red velvet ground; evidently of considerable
+antiquity, but in excellent preservation. "Paul, dear," continued Miss
+Dabstreak, seeing Patoff enter with Hermione, "what would you give for
+this lovely thing? How hard it is to bargain! How low! How infinitely
+fatiguing! Do help me!"
+
+"Begin by offering him a quarter of what he asks,--that is a safe rule,"
+answered Paul.
+
+"How much is a quarter of twenty-five--let me see--three times eight
+are--do tell me, somebody! Figures drive me quite mad."
+
+"I have known of such cases," assented the professor. "Eight and a
+quarter, Miss Dabstreak. Say eight,--I dare say it will do as well."
+
+"Marchetto," said Chrysophrasia sadly, "I am afraid your embroidery is
+only worth eight pounds."
+
+The Jew was kneeling on the floor, squatting upon his heels. He put on
+an injured expression, and looked up at Miss Dabstreak's face.
+
+"Eight pounds!" he exclaimed, in holy horror. "You know where this come
+from, lady? Ha! Laleli Khanum house--dead--no more like it." Marchetto
+of course knew the story of Alexander's confinement, and by a ready lie
+turned it to his advantage. Every one looked surprised, and began to
+examine the embroidery more closely.
+
+"Really!" ejaculated Chrysophrasia. "How strange this little world is!
+To think of all this bit of broidered velvet has seen,--what joyous
+sights! It may have been in the very room where she died. But she was a
+wicked old woman, Marchetto. I could not give more than eight pounds for
+anything which belonged to so depraved a creature."
+
+"Hein?" ejaculated the Jew, with a soft smile. "I know what you want.
+Here!" he exclaimed, springing up, and rummaging among his shelves.
+Presently he brought out a shabby old green cloth caftan, trimmed with a
+little tarnished silver lace, and held it up triumphantly to
+Chrysophrasia's sight.
+
+"Twenty-five-six pounds!" he cried, exultingly. "Cheap. Him
+coat of very big saint-man--die going to Mecca last year. Cheap,
+lady--twenty-five-six pounds!"
+
+"I think you are fairly caught, aunt Chrysophrasia," observed Paul, with
+a laugh.
+
+"Who would have guessed that there was so much humor in an Israelite?"
+asked Chrysophrasia, with a sad intonation. "I cannot wear the saint's
+tea-gown, Marchetto," she continued; "otherwise I would gladly give you
+twenty-five pounds for it. Eight pounds for the embroidery,--no more. It
+is not worth so much. I even think I see a nauseous tint of magenta in
+the velvet."
+
+"Twenty-four-five pounds, lady. I lose pound--your backsheesh."
+
+How long the process of bargaining might have been protracted is
+uncertain. At that moment Balsamides Bey entered the shop. It appeared
+that he had called at the Carvels', and, being told that the party were
+in Stamboul, had gone straight to the Jew's shop, in the hope of finding
+them there. He was introduced to the professor by Paul, with a word of
+explanation. Marchetto's face fell as he saw the adjutant, who had a
+terribly acute knowledge of the value of things. Balsamides was asked to
+give his opinion. He examined the piece carefully.
+
+"Where did you get it?" he asked, in Turkish.
+
+"From the Valide Khan," answered the Jew, in the same language. "It is a
+genuine piece,--a hundred years old at least."
+
+"You probably ask a pound for every year, and a backsheesh for the odd
+months," said the other.
+
+"Twenty pounds," answered Marchetto, imperturbably.
+
+"It is worth ten pounds," remarked Balsamides, in English, to Miss
+Dabstreak. "If you care to give that, you may buy it with a clear
+conscience. But he will take three weeks to think about it."
+
+"To bargain for three weeks!" exclaimed Chrysophrasia. "Oh, no! It takes
+my whole energy to bargain for half an hour. The lovely thing,--those
+faint, mysterious shades intertwined with the dull gold and silver,--it
+breaks my heart!"
+
+Marchetto was obdurate, on that day at least, and with an unusually
+grave face he began to fold the embroidery, wrapping it at last in the
+inevitable piece of shabby gray linen. The party left the shop, and
+threaded the labyrinth of vaulted passages towards the gate. Cutter was
+interested in Gregorios, and asked him a great many questions, so that
+Chrysophrasia felt she was being neglected, and wore her most mournful
+expression. Paul and Hermione came behind, talking a little as they
+walked. They reached the bridge on foot, and, paying the toll to the big
+men in white who guard the entrance, began to cross the long stretch of
+planks which unites Stamboul with Pera. The sun was already low. Indeed,
+Marchetto had kept his shop open beyond the ordinary hour of closing,
+which is ten o'clock by Turkish time, two hours before sunset, and the
+bazaar was nearly deserted when they left it.
+
+Paul and Hermione stopped when they were halfway across the bridge, and
+looked up the Golden Horn. Great clouds were piled up in the west,
+behind which the sun was hidden, and the air was very sultry. A dull
+light, that seemed to cast no shadows, was on all the mosques and
+minarets, and down upon the water the air was thick, and the boats
+looked indistinct as they glided by. The great useless men-of-war lay as
+though water-logged in the heavy, smooth stream, and the flags hung
+motionless from the mastheads.
+
+The two stood side by side for a few moments and said nothing. At last
+Paul spoke.
+
+"It is going to rain," he said, in an odd voice.
+
+"Yes, it is going to rain," answered his companion.
+
+"On para! Ten paras, for the love of God!" screamed a filthy beggar
+close behind them. Paul threw the wretched creature the tiny coin he
+asked, and they turned away. But his face was very white, and Hermione's
+eyes were filled with tears.
+
+
+
+
+XXII.
+
+
+A few days later the Carvels were installed for the summer in one of the
+many large houses on the Buyukdere quay, which are usually let to any
+one who will hire them. These dwellings are mostly the property of
+Armenians and Greeks who lost heavily during the war, and whose
+diminished fortunes no longer allow them to live in their former state.
+They are vast wooden buildings for the most part, having a huge hall on
+each floor, from which smaller rooms open on two sides; large windows in
+front afford a view of the Bosphorus, and at the back the balconies are
+connected with the gardens by flights of wooden steps. In one of these,
+not far from the Russian embassy, the Carvels took up their abode, and
+John expressed himself extremely well satisfied with his choice and with
+his bargain. In the course of their stay in Pera, the family had
+contrived to collect a considerable quantity of Oriental carpets and
+other objects, some good, some utterly worthless in themselves, but
+useful in filling up the immense rooms of the house. Chrysophrasia
+seemed to find the East sympathetic to her nerves, and was certainly
+more in her element in Constantinople than in Brompton or Carvel Place.
+Strange to say, she was the one of the family who best understood the
+Turks and their ways. In contact with a semi-barbarous people, she
+developed an amount of common sense and keen intelligence which I had
+never suspected her of possessing.
+
+As for me, I had gone up to Buyukdere one day, and had then and there
+changed my mind in regard to my departure. The roses were in full bloom,
+and everything looked so unusually attractive, that I could not resist
+the temptation of spending the summer in the place. A few years ago,
+when I thought of traveling, I set out without hesitation, and went to
+the ends of the earth. I suppose I am growing old, for I begin to
+dislike perpetual motion. The little kiosk on the hill, at the top of a
+beautiful garden, was very tempting, too, and after a few hours'
+consideration I hired it for the season, with that fine disregard for
+consequences which one learns in the East. The only furniture in the
+place was an iron bedstead and an old divan. There was not a chair, not
+a bit of matting; not so much as an earthen pot in the kitchen, nor a
+deal table in the sitting-room. But in Turkey such conveniences are a
+secondary consideration. The rooms were freshly whitewashed, the board
+floors were scrubbed, and the view from the windows was one of the most
+beautiful in the world. A day spent in the bazaar did the rest. I picked
+up a queer, wizened old Dalmatian cook, and with the help of my servant
+was installed in the little place eight-and-forty hours after I had made
+up my mind.
+
+The life on the Bosphorus is totally different from that in Pera.
+Everybody either keeps a horse or keeps a sail-boat, and many people do
+both; for the Belgrade forest stretches five-and-twenty miles inland
+from Buyukdere and Therapia, and the broad Bosphorus lies before,
+widening into a deep bay between the two. The fresh northerly breeze
+blows down from the Black Sea all day, and often all night; and there is
+something invigorating in the air, which revives one after the long, gay
+season in Pera, and makes one feel that anything and everything is
+possible in such a place.
+
+The forest was different in May from what it had been on that bitter
+March night when Gregorios and I drove down to Laleli's house. The
+maidam--the broad stretch of grass at the opening of the valley before
+you reach the woods--was green and fresh and smooth. The trees were full
+of leaves, and gypsies were already camping out for the season. The
+woodland roads were not as full of riders as they are in July and
+August, and the summer dancing had not yet begun, nor the garden
+parties, nor any kind of gayety. There was peace everywhere,--the peace
+of quiet spring weather before one learns to fear the sun and to long
+for rain, when the crocus pushes its tender head timidly through the
+grass, and the bold daisies gayly dance by millions in the light breeze
+as though knowing that their numbers save them from being plucked up and
+tied into nose-gays, and otherwise barbarously dealt with, according to
+the luck of rarer flowers.
+
+So we rode in the forest, and sailed on the Bosphorus, and enjoyed the
+freedom of the life and the freshness of the cool air, and things went
+on very pleasantly for every one, as far as outward appearances were
+concerned. But it was soon clear to me that the matter which more or
+less interested the whole party was no nearer to its termination than it
+had been before. Paul came and went, and his face betrayed no emotion
+when he met Hermione or parted from her. They were sometimes alone
+together, but not often, and it did not seem to me that they showed any
+very great anxiety to procure themselves such interviews. A keen
+observer might have noticed, indeed, that Hermione was a shade less
+cordial in her relations with Alexander, but he himself did not relax
+his attentions, and was as devoted to her as ever. He followed her
+about, always tried to ride by her side in the forest, and to sit by her
+in the boat; but under no circumstances did I see Paul's face change
+either in color or expression. He did not look scornful and cynical, as
+he formerly did, nor was there anything hostile in his manner towards
+his brother. He merely seemed very calm and very sure of himself,--too
+sure, I thought. But he had made up his mind to win, and meant to do it
+in his own fashion, and he appeared to be indifferent to the fact that
+while his duties often kept him at the embassy the whole day, Alexander
+had nothing to do but to talk to Hermione from morning till night. I
+fancied that he was playing a waiting game, but I feared that he would
+wait too long, and lose in the end. I knew, indeed, that under his calm
+exterior his whole nature was wrought up to its highest point of
+excitement; but if he persisted in exercising such perfect self-control
+he ran the risk of being thought too cold, as he appeared to be. I was
+called upon to give an opinion on the matter before we had been many
+days in Buyukdere, and I was embarrassed to explain what I meant.
+
+John Carvel and Hermione, Alexander and I, rode together in the woods,
+one afternoon. Paul was busy that day, and could not come. It fell out
+naturally enough that the young girl and her cousin should pair off
+together, leaving us two elderly men to our conversation. Hermione was
+mounted on a beautiful Arab, nearly black, which her father had bought
+for her in Pera, and Alexander rode a strong white horse that he had
+hired for the short time which remained to him before he should be
+obliged to return to St. Petersburg. They looked well together, as they
+rode before us, and John watched them with interest, if not altogether
+with satisfaction.
+
+"Griggs," he observed at last, "it is very odd. I don't know what to
+make of it at all. You remember the conversation we had in Pera, the
+first night after our arrival? I certainly believed that Hermy wanted to
+marry Paul. She seems to get on amazingly well with his brother; don't
+you think so?"
+
+"It is natural," I answered. "They are cousins. Why should they not like
+each other? Alexander is a most agreeable fellow, and makes the time
+pass very pleasantly when Paul is not there."
+
+"What surprises me most," said John Carvel, "is that Paul does not seem
+to mind in the least. And he has never spoken to me about it, either. I
+am beginning to think he never will. Well, well, there is no reason why
+Hermy should marry just yet, and Paul is no great match, though he is a
+very good fellow."
+
+"A very good fellow," I assented. "A much better fellow than his
+brother, I fancy,--though Alexander has what women call charm. But Paul
+will not change his mind; you need not be afraid of that."
+
+"I should be sorry if Hermy did," said Carvel, gravely. "I should not
+like my daughter to begin life by jilting an honest man for the sake of
+a pretty toy soldier like Alexander."
+
+It was very clear that John Carvel had a fixed opinion in the case, and
+that his judgment did not incline to favor Alexander. On the other hand,
+he could not but be astonished at Paul's silence. Of course I defended
+the latter as well as I could, but as we rode slowly on, talking the
+matter over, I could see that John was not altogether pleased.
+
+Alexander and Hermione had passed a bend in the road before us, and had
+been hidden from our view for some time, for they were nearly half a
+mile in front when we had last seen them. They rode side by side, and
+Alexander seemed to have plenty to say, for he talked incessantly in his
+pleasant, easy voice, and Hermione listened to him. They came to a place
+where the road forked to the right and left. Neither of them were very
+familiar with the forest, and, without stopping to think, they followed
+the lane which looked the straighter and broader of the two, but which
+in reality led by winding ways to a distant part of the woods. When John
+Carvel and I came to the place, I naturally turned to the left, to cross
+the little bridge and ascend the hill towards the Khedive's farm. In
+this way the two young people were separated from us, and we were soon
+very far apart, for we were in reality riding in opposite directions.
+
+The lane taken by Hermione and her cousin led at first through a
+hollowed way, above which the branches of the trees met and twined
+closely together, as beautiful a place as can be found in the whole
+forest. Alexander grew less talkative, and presently relapsed altogether
+into silence. They walked their horses, and he looked at his cousin's
+face, half shaded by a thin gray veil, which set off admirably the
+beauty of her mouth and chin.
+
+"Hermione," he said after a time, in his softest voice.
+
+The girl blushed a little, without knowing why, but did not answer. He
+hesitated, as though he could get no further than her name. As the blush
+faded from her cheek, his cousin glanced timidly at him, not at all as
+she generally looked. Perhaps she felt the magic of the place. She was
+not used to be timid with him, and she experienced a new sensation.
+There was generally something light and gay in his way of speaking to
+her which admitted of a laughing answer; but just now he had spoken her
+name so seriously, so gently, that she felt for the first time that he
+was in earnest. Instinctively she put her horse to a brisker pace,
+before he had said anything more. He kept close at her side.
+
+"Hermione," he said again, and his voice sounded in her ear like the
+voice of an unknown spell, weaving charms about her under the shade of
+the enchanted forest. "Hermione, my beloved,--do not laugh at me any
+more. It is earnest, dear,--it is my whole life."
+
+Still she said nothing, but the blush rose again to her face and died
+away, leaving her very pale. She shortened the reins in her hands,
+keeping the Arab at a regular, even trot.
+
+"It is earnest, darling," continued her cousin, in low, clear tones. "I
+never knew how much I loved you until to-day. No, do not laugh again.
+Tell me you know it is so, as I know it."
+
+The lane grew narrower and the branches lower, but she would not slacken
+speed, though now and then she had to bend her head to avoid the leafy
+twigs as she passed. But this time she answered, not laughing, but very
+gravely.
+
+"You must not talk like that any more," she said. "I do not like to hear
+it."
+
+"Is it so bitter to be told that you are loved--as I love? Is it so
+hard to hear? But you have heard once--twice, twenty times; you will not
+always think it bad to hear; your ears will grow used to it. All,
+Hermione, if you could guess how sweet it is to love as I love, you
+would understand!"
+
+"I do not know--- I cannot guess--I would not if I could," answered the
+young girl desperately. "Hush, Alexander! Do not talk in that way. You
+must not. It is not right."
+
+"Not right?" echoed the young man, with a soft laugh. "I will make it
+right; you shall guess what it is to love, dear,--to love me as I love
+you."
+
+He bent in his saddle as he rode beside her, and laid his left hand on
+hers, but she shook his fingers off impatiently.
+
+"Why are you angry, love?" he asked. "You have let me say it lightly so
+often; will you not let me say it earnestly for once?"
+
+"No," she answered firmly. "I do not want to hear it. I have been very
+wrong, Alexander. I like you very much--because you are my cousin--but I
+do not love you--I will not--I mean, I cannot. No, I am in earnest,
+too--far more than you are. I can never love you--no, no, no--never!"
+
+But she had let fall the words "I will not," and Alexander knew that
+there was a struggle in her mind.
+
+"You will not?" he said tenderly. "No--but you will, darling. I know you
+will. You must; I will make you!"
+
+Again he leaned far out of his saddle, and in an instant his left arm
+went round her slender waist, as they rode quickly along, and his lips
+touched her soft cheek just below the little gray veil. But he had gone
+too far. Hermione's spurred heel just touched the Arab's flank, and he
+sprang forward in a gallop up the narrow lane. Alexander kept close at
+her side. His blood was up, and burning in his delicate cheek. He still
+tried to keep his hand upon her waist, and bent towards her, moving in
+his saddle with the ease of a born horseman as he galloped along. But
+Hermione spurred her horse, and angrily tried to elude her cousin's
+embrace, till in a moment they were tearing through the woods at a
+racing pace.
+
+Suddenly there came a crash, followed by a dull, heavy sound, and
+Hermione saw that she was alone. She tried to look behind her, but
+several seconds elapsed before her Arab could be quieted; at last she
+succeeded in making him turn, and rode quickly back along the path.
+Alexander's horse was standing across the way, and Hermione was obliged
+to dismount and turn him before she could see beyond. Her cousin lay in
+the lane, motionless as he had fallen, his face pale and turned upwards,
+one arm twisted under his body, the other stretched out upon the soft
+mould of the woodland path. Hermione stood holding the two horses, one
+with each hand, and looking intently at the insensible man. She did not
+lose her presence of mind, though she was frightened by his pallor; but
+she could not let the horses run loose in such a place, when they might
+be lost in a moment. She paused a moment, and listened for the sound of
+hoofs, thinking that her father and I could not be far behind. But the
+woods were very still, and she remembered that she and her cousin had
+ridden fast over the last two miles. Drawing the bridles over the
+horses' heads, she proceeded to fasten them to a couple of trees, not
+without some trouble, for her own horse was excited and nervous from the
+sharp gallop; but at last she succeeded, and, gathering her habit in one
+hand, she ran quickly to Alexander's side.
+
+There he lay, quite unconscious, and so pale that she thought he might
+be dead. His head was bare, and his hat, crumpled and broken, lay in the
+path, some distance behind him. There was a dark mark on the right side
+of his forehead, high up and half covered by his silky brown hair.
+Hermione knelt down and tried to lift his head upon her knee. But his
+body was heavy, and she was not very strong. She dragged him with
+difficulty to the side of the path, and raised his shoulders a little
+against the bank. She felt for his pulse, but there was no motion in the
+lifeless veins, nor could she decide whether he breathed or not. Utterly
+without means of reviving him, for she had not so much as a bottle of
+salts in the pocket of her saddle, she kneeled over him, and wiped his
+pale forehead with her handkerchief, and blew gently on his face. She
+was pale herself, and was beginning to be frightened, though she had
+good nerves. Nevertheless she took courage, feeling sure that we should
+appear in five minutes at the latest.
+
+It was clear that in galloping by her side at full speed Alexander's
+head had struck violently against a heavy branch, which grew lower than
+the rest. His eyes had been turned on her, and he had not seen the
+danger. The branch was so placed that Hermione, lowering her head to
+avoid the leaves, as she looked straight before, had passed under it in
+safety; whereas her cousin must have struck full upon the thickest part,
+three or four feet nearer to the tree. At the pace they were riding, the
+blow might well have been fatal; and as the moments passed and the
+injured man showed no signs of life, Hermione's heart beat faster and
+her face grew whiter. Her first thought was of his mother, and a keen,
+sharp fear shot through her as she thought of the dreadful moment when
+Madame Patoff must be told; but the next instant brought her a feeling
+of far deeper horror. He had been hurt almost while speaking words of
+love to her; he had struck his head because he was looking at her
+instead of before him, and it was in some measure her fault, for she had
+urged the speed of that foolish race. She bent down over him, and the
+tears started to her eyes. She tried to listen for the beating of his
+heart, and, opening his coat, she laid her ear to his breast. Something
+cold touched her cheek, and she quickly raised her head again and looked
+down. It was a small flat silver flask which he carried in the pocket of
+his waistcoat, and which in the fall had slipped up from its place.
+Hermione withdrew it eagerly and unscrewed the cap. It contained some
+kind of spirits, and she poured a little between his parted lips.
+
+The deathly features contracted a little, and the eyelids quivered. She
+poured the brandy into the palm of her hand, and chafed his temples and
+forehead. Alexander drew a long breath and slowly opened his eyes; then
+shut them again; then, after a few moments, opened them wide, stared,
+and uttered an exclamation of surprise in Russian.
+
+"Are you better?" asked Hermione, breathlessly. "I thought you were
+dead."
+
+"No, I am all right," he said, faintly, trying to raise himself. But his
+head swam, and he fell back, once more insensible. This time, however,
+the fainting fit did not last long, and he soon opened his eyes again
+and looked at Hermione without speaking. She continued to rub the
+spirits upon his forehead. Then he put out his hand and grasped the
+flask she held, and drank a long draught from it.
+
+"It is nothing," he said. "I can get up now, thank you." He struggled to
+his feet, leaning on the young girl's arm. "How did it happen?" he
+asked. "I cannot remember anything."
+
+"You must have struck your head against that branch," answered Hermione,
+pointing to the thick bough which projected over the lane. "Do you feel
+better?"
+
+"Yes. I can mount in a minute," he replied, steadying himself. "I have
+had a bad shaking, and my head hurts me. It is nothing serious."
+
+"Better sit down for a few minutes, until the others come up," suggested
+the young girl, who was surprised to see him recover himself so quickly.
+He seemed glad enough to follow her advice, and they sat down together
+on the mossy bank.
+
+"It was my fault," said Hermione, penitently. "It was so foolish of me
+to ride fast in such a place."
+
+"Women care for nothing but galloping when they are on horseback," said
+Alexander. It was not a very civil speech, and though Hermione forgave
+him because he was half stunned with pain, the words rang unpleasantly
+in her ear. He might have been satisfied, she thought, when she owned
+that it was her fault. It was not generous to agree with her so
+unhesitatingly. She wondered whether Paul would have spoken like that.
+
+"Do you really think you can ride back?" she asked, in a colder tone.
+
+"Certainly," he said; "provided we ride slowly. What can have become of
+uncle John and Griggs?"
+
+Uncle John and Griggs were at that moment wondering what had become of
+the two young people. We had ridden on to the top of the hill, and had
+stopped on reaching the open space near the Khedive's farm, where there
+is a beautiful view, and where we expected to find our companions
+waiting for us. But we were surprised to see no one there. After a great
+deal of hesitation we agreed that John Carvel, who did not know the
+forest, should follow the main road down the hill on the other side,
+while I rode back over the way we had come. I suspected that Alexander
+and Hermione had taken the wrong turn, and I was more anxious about them
+than I would show. The forest is indeed said to be safe, but hardly a
+year passes without some solitary rider being molested by gypsies or
+wandering thieves, if he has ventured too far from the beaten tracks. I
+rode as fast as I could, but it was nearly twenty minutes before I
+struck into the hollow lane. I found the pair seated on the bank, a mile
+further on, and Hermione hailed me with delight. Everything was
+explained in a few words. Alexander seemed sufficiently recovered from
+his accident to get into the saddle, and we were soon walking our horses
+back towards the maidam of Buyukdere. Neither Alexander nor Hermione
+talked much by the way, and we were all glad when we reached the tiny
+bazaar, and were picking out way over the uneven street, amongst the
+coppersmiths, the lounging soldiers, the solemn narghyle smokers, the
+kaffejis, the beggars, and the half-naked children.
+
+On that evening, two things occurred which precipitated the course of
+events. John Carvel had an interview with Hermione, and I had a most
+unlucky idea. John Carvel's mind was disturbed concerning the future of
+his only daughter, and though he was not a man who hastily took fright,
+his character was such that when once persuaded that things were not as
+they should be, he never hesitated as to the course he should pursue.
+Accordingly, that night he called Hermione into his study, and
+determined to ask her for an explanation. The poor girl was nervous, for
+she suspected trouble, and did not see very clearly how it could be
+avoided.
+
+"Sit down, Hermy," said John, establishing himself in a deep chair with
+a cigar. "I want to talk with you, my dear."
+
+"Yes, papa," answered Hermione, meekly.
+
+"Hermy, do you mean to marry Paul, or not? Don't be nervous, my child,
+but think the matter over before you answer. If you mean to have him, I
+have no objection to the match; but if you do not mean to, I would like
+to know. That is all. You know you spoke to me about it in England
+before we left home. Things have been going on a long time now, and yet
+Paul has said nothing to me about it."
+
+It was impossible to put the matter more clearly than this, and Hermione
+knew it. She said nothing for some minutes, but sat staring out of the
+window at the dark water, where the boats moved slowly about, each
+bearing a little light at the bow. Far down the quay a band was playing
+the eternal _Stella Confidente_, which has become a sort of national air
+in Turkey. The strains floated in through the window, and the young girl
+struggled hard to concentrate her thoughts, which somehow wound
+themselves in and out of the music in a very irrelevant manner.
+
+"Must I answer now, papa?" she asked at last, almost desperately.
+
+"My dear," replied the inexorable John, in kind tones, "I cannot see why
+you should not. You are probably in very much the same state of mind
+to-night as you were in yesterday, or as you will be in to-morrow. It is
+better to settle the matter and be done with it. I do not believe that a
+fortnight, a month, or even a longer time will make any perceptible
+difference in your ideas about this matter." He puffed at his cigar, and
+again looked at his daughter.
+
+"Hermy," he continued, after another interval of silence, "if you do not
+mean to marry Paul, you are treating him very badly. You are letting
+that idiot of a brother of his make love to you from morning till
+night."
+
+"Oh, papa! How can you!" exclaimed Hermione, who was not accustomed to
+hearing any kind of strong language from her father.
+
+"Idiot,--yes, my dear, that expresses it very well. He is my nephew, and
+I have a right to call him an idiot if I please. I believe the fellow
+wears stays, and curls his hair with tongs. He has a face like a girl,
+and he talks unmitigated rubbish."
+
+"I thought you liked him, papa," objected Hermione. "I do not think he
+is at all as silly as you say he is. He is very agreeable."
+
+"I have no objection to him," retorted John Carvel. "I tolerate him.
+Toleration is not liking. He fascinated us all for a day or two, but it
+did not last long; that sort of fascination never does."
+
+There was another long pause. The band had finished the _Stella
+Confidente_, and ran on without stopping to the performance of the
+drinking chorus in the _Traviata_. Hermione twisted her fingers
+together, and bit her lips. Her father's opinion of Alexander was a
+revelation to her, but it carried weight with it, and it aroused a whole
+train of recollections in her mind, culminating in the accident of the
+afternoon. She remembered vividly what she had felt during those long
+minutes before Alexander had recovered consciousness, and she knew that
+her feelings bore not the slightest relation to love. She had been
+terrified, and had blamed herself, and had thought of his mother; but
+the idea that he might be dead had not hurt her as it would have done
+had she loved him. She had felt no wild grief, no awful sense of
+blankness; the tears which had risen to her eyes had been tears of pity,
+of genuine sorrow, but not of despair. She tried to think what she would
+have felt had she seen Paul lying dead before her, and the mere idea
+sent a sharp thrust through her heart that almost frightened her.
+
+"Well, my dear," said John, at last, "can you give me an answer? Do you
+mean to marry Paul or Alexander, or neither?"
+
+"Not Alexander,--oh, never!" exclaimed Hermione. "I never thought of
+such a thing."
+
+"Paul, then?"
+
+"Papa, dear," said the young girl, after a moment's hesitation, "I will
+tell you all about it. When Paul came, I firmly intended to marry him.
+Then I began to know Alexander--and--well, I was very wrong, but he
+began to make pretty phrases, and to talk of loving me. Of course I told
+him he was very foolish, and I laughed at him. But he only went on, and
+said a great deal more, in spite of me. Then I thought that because I
+could not stop him I was interested in him. Paul wanted to speak to you,
+but I would not let him. I did not feel that my conscience was quite
+clear. I was not sure that I should always love him. Do you see? I think
+I love him, really, but Alexander interests me."
+
+"But you never for a moment thought of marrying Alexander? You said so
+just now."
+
+"Oh, never! I laughed at him, and he amused me,--nothing more than
+that."
+
+"Then I don't quite see"--began John Carvel, who was rather puzzled by
+the explanation.
+
+"Of course not. You are a man,--how can you understand? I will promise
+you this, papa: if I cannot make up my mind in a week, I will tell Paul
+so."
+
+"How will a week help you, my dear? Ever so many weeks have passed, and
+you are still uncertain."
+
+"I am sure that a week will make all the difference. I think I shall
+have decided then. I am in earnest, dear papa," she added, gravely. "Do
+you think I would willingly do anything to hurt Paul?"
+
+"No, my dear, I don't," answered John Carvel. "Only--you might do it
+unwillingly, you know, and as far as he is concerned it would come to
+very much the same thing." And with this word of warning the interview
+ended.
+
+When I went home to dinner, I found Gregorios Balsamides seated on the
+wooden bench under the honeysuckle outside my door. He had escaped from
+the dust and heat of Pera, and had come to spend the night, sure of
+finding a hearty welcome at my kiosk on the hill. I sat down beside him,
+and he began asking me questions about the people who had arrived,
+giving me in return the news and gossip of Pera.
+
+"You have a very pretty place here," he said. "A man I knew took it last
+summer, and used to give tea-parties and little fetes in the evening. It
+is easy to string lanterns from one tree to another, and it makes a very
+pretty effect. It is a mild form of idiocy, it is true,--much milder
+than the prevailing practice of dancing in-doors, with the thermometer
+at the boiling point."
+
+"It is not a bad idea," I answered. "We will experiment upon our friends
+the Carvels in a small way. I will ask them and the Patoffs to come here
+next Saturday. Can you come, too?"
+
+The thing was settled, and Gregorios promised to be of the party. We
+dined, and sat late together, talking long before we went to bed.
+Gregorios is a soldier, and does not mind roughing it a little; so he
+slept on the divan, and declared the next day that he had slept very
+well.
+
+
+
+
+XXIII.
+
+
+Madame Patoff had not received the news of Alexander's accident with
+indifference, and it had been necessary that he should assure her
+himself that he was not seriously hurt before she could be quieted. He
+had been badly stunned, however, and his head gave him much pain during
+several days, as was natural enough. He spent most of his time on the
+sofa in his mother's sitting-room, and she would sit for hours talking
+to him and trying to soothe his pain. The sympathy between the two
+seemed strengthened, and it was strange to see how, when together, their
+manner changed. The relation between the mother and the spoiled child is
+a very peculiar one, and occupies an entirely separate division in the
+scale of human affections; for while the mother's love in such a case is
+sincere, though generally founded on a mere capricious preference, the
+over-indulged affection of the child breeds nothing but caprice and a
+ruthless desire to see that caprice satisfied. Madame Patoff loved
+Alexander so much that the belief in his death had driven her mad; he on
+his side loved his mother because he knew that in all cases, just and
+unjust, she would defend him, take his part, and help him to get what he
+wanted. But he never missed her when they were separated, and he never
+took any pains to see her unless in so doing he could satisfy some other
+wish at the same time. He was selfish, willful, and obstinate at
+two-and-thirty as he had been at ten years of age. His mother was
+willful, obstinate, and capricious, but as far as he was concerned she
+was incapable of selfishness.
+
+What was most remarkable in her manner was her ease in talking with
+Professor Cutter, and her indifference in referring to her past
+insanity. She did not appear to realize it; she hardly seemed to care
+whether any one knew it or not, and regarded it as an unfortunate
+accident, but one which there was little object in concealing. As the
+scientist talked with her and observed her, he opened his eyes wider and
+wider behind his gold-rimmed spectacles, and grew more and more silent
+when any one spoke to him of her. I knew later that he detected in her
+conduct certain symptoms which alarmed him, but felt obliged to hold his
+peace on account of the extreme difficulty of his position. He felt that
+to watch her again, or to put her under any kind of restraint, might now
+lead to far more serious results than before, and he determined to bide
+his time. An incident occurred very soon, however, which helped him to
+make up his mind.
+
+One afternoon we arranged an excursion to the ruined castle of Anadoli
+Kavak, on the Asian shore, near the mouth of the Black Sea. Mrs. Carvel,
+who was not a good sailor, stayed at home, but Miss Dabstreak, Madame
+Patoff, and Hermione were of the party, with Paul, Macaulay Carvel,
+Professor Cutter, and myself. Macaulay had borrowed a good-sized cutter
+from one of his many colleagues who kept yachts on the Bosphorus, and at
+three o'clock in the afternoon we started from the Buyukdere quay. There
+was a smart northerly breeze as we hoisted the jib, and it was evident
+that we should have to make several tacks before we could beat up to our
+destination. The boat was of about ten tons burden, with a full deck,
+broken only by a well leading to the cabin; a low rail ran round the
+bulwarks, for the yacht was intended for pleasure excursions and the
+accommodation of ladies. The members of the party sat in a group on the
+edge of the well, and I took the helm. Chrysophrasia was in a
+particularly Oriental frame of mind. The deep blue sky, the emerald
+green of the hills, and the cool clear water rippling under the breeze,
+no doubt acted soothingly upon her nerves.
+
+"I feel quite like Sindbad the Sailor," she said. "Mr. Griggs, you ought
+really to tell us a tale from the Arabian Nights. I am sure it would
+seem so very real, you know."
+
+"If I were to spin yarns while steering, Miss Dabstreak," I said, "your
+fate would probably resemble Sindbad's. You would be wrecked six or
+seven times between here and Kavak."
+
+"So delightfully exciting," murmured Chrysophrasia. "Annie," she
+continued, addressing her sister, "shall we not ask Mr. Griggs to wreck
+us? I have always longed to be on a wreck."
+
+"No," said Madame Patoff, glancing at her foolish sister with her great
+dark eyes. "I should not like to be drowned."
+
+"Of course not; how very dreadful!" exclaimed Miss Dabstreak. "But
+Sindbad was never drowned, you remember. It was always somebody else."
+
+"Oh--somebody else," repeated Madame Patoff, looking down at the deep
+water. "Yes, to drown somebody else,--that would be very different."
+
+I think we were all a little startled, and Hermione looked at Paul and
+turned pale. As for Cutter, he very slowly and solemnly drew a cigar
+from his case, lit it carefully, crossed one knee over the other, and
+gazed fixedly at Madame Patoff during several minutes, before he spoke.
+
+"Would you really like to see anybody drowned?" he asked at last.
+
+"Why do you ask?" inquired Madame Patoff, rather sharply.
+
+"Because I thought you said so, and I wanted to know if you were in
+earnest."
+
+"I suppose we should all like to see our enemies die," said the old
+lady. "Not painfully, of course, but so that we should be quite sure of
+it." She laid a strong emphasis on the last words, and as she looked up
+I thought she glanced at Paul.
+
+"If you had seen many people die, you would not care for the sight,"
+said the professor quietly. "Besides, you have no enemies."
+
+"What is death?" asked Madame Patoff, looking at him with a curiously
+calm smile as she asked the question.
+
+"The only thing we know about it, is that it appears to be in every way
+the opposite of life," was the scientist's answer. "Life separates us
+for a time from the state of what we call inanimate matter. When life
+ceases, we return to that state."
+
+"Why do you say 'what we call inanimate matter'?" inquired Paul.
+
+"Because it has been very well said that names are labels, not
+definitions. As a definition, inanimate matter means generally the
+earth, the water, the air; but the name would be a very poor
+definition,--as poor as the word 'man' used to define the human animal."
+
+"You do not think that inanimate matter is really lifeless?" I asked.
+
+"Unless it is so hot that it melts," laughed the professor. "Even then
+it may not be true,--indeed, it may be quite false. We call the moon
+dead, because we have reason to believe that she has cooled to the
+centre. We call Jupiter and Saturn live planets, though we believe them
+still too hot to support life."
+
+"All that does not explain death," objected Madame Patoff.
+
+"If I could explain death, I could explain life," answered Cutter. "And
+if I could explain life, I should have made a great step towards
+producing it artificially."
+
+"If one could only produce artificial death!" exclaimed Madame Patoff.
+
+"It would be very amusing," answered Cutter, with a smile, folding his
+huge white hands upon his knee. "We could try it on ourselves, and then
+we should know what to expect. I have often thought about it, I assure
+you. I once had the curiosity to put myself into a trance by the Munich
+method of shining disks,--they use it in the hospitals instead of ether,
+you know,--and I remained in the state half an hour."
+
+"And then, what happened when you woke up?"
+
+"I had a bad headache and my eyes hurt me," replied the professor dryly.
+"I dare say that if a dead man came to life he would feel much the same
+thing."
+
+"I dare say," assented Madame Patoff; but there was a vague look in her
+eyes, which showed that her thoughts were somewhere else. We were close
+upon the Asian shore, and I put the helm down to go about. The ladies
+changed their places, and there was a little confusion, in which Cutter
+found himself close to me.
+
+"Keep an eye on her," he said quickly, in a low voice. "She is very
+queer."
+
+I thought so, too, and I watched Madame Patoff to see whether she would
+return to the subject which seemed to attract her. Cutter kept up the
+conversation, however, and did not again show any apprehension about his
+former patient's state of mind, though I could see that he watched her
+as closely as I did. The fresh breeze filled the sails, and the next
+tack took us clear up to Yeni Mahalle on the European side; for the
+little yacht was quick in stays, and, moreover, had a good hold on the
+water, enabling her to beat quickly up against wind and current. Once
+again I went about, and, running briskly across, made the little pier
+below Anadoli Kavak, little more than three quarters of an hour after we
+had started. We landed, and went up the green slope to the place where
+the little coffee-shop stands under the trees. We intended to climb the
+hill to the ruined castle. To my surprise, Professor Cutter suggested to
+Madame Patoff that they should stay below, while the rest made the
+ascent. He said he feared she would tire herself too much. But she would
+not listen to him.
+
+"I insist upon going," she said. "I am as strong as any of you. It is
+quite absurd."
+
+Cutter temporized by suggesting that we should have coffee before the
+walk, and Chrysophrasia sank languidly down upon a straw chair.
+
+"If the man has any loukoum, I could bear a cup of coffee," she
+murmured. The man had loukoum, it appeared, and Chrysophrasia was
+satisfied. We all sat down in a circle under the huge oak-tree, and
+enjoyed the freshness and greenness of the place. The kaffeji, in loose
+white garments and a fez, presently brought out a polished brass tray,
+bearing the requisite number of tiny cups and two little white saucers
+filled with pieces of loukoum-rahat, the Turkish national sweetmeat,
+commonly called by schoolboys fig-paste.
+
+"Why was I not born a Turk!" exclaimed Chrysophrasia. "This joyous life
+in the open air is so intensely real, so profoundly true!"
+
+"Life is real anywhere," remarked Cutter, with a smile. "The important
+question is whether it is agreeable to the liver."
+
+"Death is real, too," said Madame Patoff, in such a curious tone that we
+all started slightly, as we had done in the boat. My nerves are good,
+but I felt a weird horror of the woman stealing over me. The
+imperturbable scientist only glanced at me, as though to remind me of
+what he had said before. Then he took up the question.
+
+"No, madam," he said, coldly. "Death is a negation, almost a universal
+negation. It is not real; it only devours reality, and then denies it.
+You can see that life is to breathe, to think, to eat, to drink, to
+love, to fear,--any of these. Death is only the negation of all these
+things, because we can only say that in death we do none of them.
+Reality is motion, in the broad sense, as far as man is concerned; death
+is only the cessation of the ability to move. You cannot predicate
+anything else of it."
+
+"Oh, your dry, dry science!" exclaimed Chrysophrasia, casting
+up her green eyes. "You would turn our fair fields and
+limpid--ahem--skies--into the joyless waste of a London pavement, or one
+of your horrid dissecting-rooms!"
+
+"I don't see the point of your simile, Miss Dabstreak," answered Cutter,
+with pardonable bluntness. "Besides, that is philosophy, and not
+science."
+
+"What is the difference. Mr. Griggs?" asked Hermione, turning to me.
+
+"My dear young lady," said I, "science, I think, means the state of
+being wise, and hence, the thing known, which gives a man the title of
+wise. Philosophy means the love of wisdom."
+
+"Rather involved definition," observed the professor, with a laugh.
+"There is not much difference between the state of being wise and the
+state of loving wisdom."
+
+"The one asserts the possession of that which the other aspires to
+possess, but considers to be very difficult of attainment," I tried to
+explain. "The scientist says to the world, 'I have found the origin of
+life: it is protoplasm, it is your God, and all your religious beliefs
+are merely the result of your ignorance of protoplasm.' The philosopher
+answers, 'I allow that this protoplasm is the origin of life, but how
+did this origin itself originate? And if you can show how it originated
+from inanimate matter, how did the inanimate matter begin to exist? And
+how was space found in which it could exist? And why does anything
+exist, animate or inanimate? And is the existence of matter a proof of a
+supreme design, or is it not?' Thereupon science gets very red in the
+face, and says that these questions are absurd, after previously stating
+that everything ought to be questioned."
+
+"Science," answered the professor, "says that man has enough to do in
+questioning his immediate surroundings, without going into the matter of
+transcendental inquiry."
+
+"Then she ought to keep to her own proper sphere," said I, waxing hot.
+"The fact is that science, armed with miserably imperfect tools, but
+unbounded assumption, has discovered a jelly-fish in a basin of water,
+and has deduced from that premise the tremendous conclusion that there
+is no God."
+
+"That is strong language, Mr. Griggs,--very strong language," repeated
+the professor. "You exaggerate the position too much, I think. But it is
+useless to argue with transcendentalists. You always fall back upon the
+question of faith, and you refuse to listen to reason."
+
+"When you can disprove our position, we will listen to your proof. But
+since the whole human race, as far as we can ascertain, without any
+exception whatsoever, has believed always in the survival of the soul
+after death, allow me to say that when you deny the existence of the
+soul the _onus probandi_ lies with you, and not with us."
+
+Therewith I drank my coffee in silence, and looked at the half-naked
+Turkish children playing upon the little pier over the bright water. It
+struck me that if the learned scientist had told them that they had no
+souls, they would have laughed at him very heartily. I think that in the
+opinion of the company I had the best of the argument, and Cutter knew
+it, for he did not answer.
+
+"I have always believed that I have a soul," said Macaulay Carvel, in
+his smooth, monotonous tone. But there was as much conviction in his
+tone as though he had expressed his belief in the fact that he had a
+nose.
+
+"Of course you have," said Hermione. "Let us go up to the castle and see
+the view before it is too late. Aunt Annie, do wait for us here; it is
+very tiring, really."
+
+"You seem to think I am a decrepit old woman," answered Madame Patoff,
+impatiently, as she rose from her chair.
+
+Paul felt that it was his duty to offer his mother his arm for the
+ascent, though the professor came forward at the same moment.
+
+"Dear Paul, you are so good," said she, accepting his assistance as we
+began to climb the hill.
+
+I saw her face in that moment. It was as calm and beautiful as ever, but
+I thought she glanced sideways to see whether every one had heard her
+speech and appreciated it. Little was said as we breasted the steep
+ascent, for the path was rough, and there was barely room for two people
+to walk side by side. At last we emerged upon a broad slope of grass
+outside the walls of the old fortress. A goatherd lives inside it, and
+has turned the old half-open vaults into a stable for his flocks. We
+paused under the high walls, which on one side are built above the
+precipitous cliff, with a sheer fall of a hundred feet or more. Towards
+the land they are not more than forty feet high, where the grass grows
+up to their base. There is a curious gate on that side, with the carved
+arms of the Genoese republic imbedded in the brick masonry.
+
+Some one suggested that we should go inside, and after a short interview
+with the goatherd he consented to chain up his enormous dog, and let us
+pass the small wooden gate which leads to the interior. Inside the
+fortress the falling in of the roof and walls has filled the old court
+so that it is nearly on a level with the walls. It is easy to scramble
+up to the top, and the thickness is so great that it is safe to walk
+along for a little distance, provided one does not go too near the edge.
+We wandered about below, and some of us climbed up to see the beautiful
+view, which extends far down the Bosphorus on the one side, and looks
+over the broad Black Sea on the other. Madame Patoff still leaned on
+Paul's arm, while the professor gallantly helped the languid
+Chrysophrasia to reach the most accessible places. Macaulay was engaged
+in an attempt to measure the circumference of the castle, and rambled
+about in quest of facts, as usual, noting down the figures in his
+pocket-book very conscientiously. I was left alone with Hermione for a
+few minutes. We sat down on a heap of broken masonry to rest, talking of
+the place and its history. Hermione was so placed that she could not see
+the top of the wall which overhung the precipice on the outer side, but
+from where I sat I could watch Paul slowly helping his mother to reach
+the top.
+
+"It belonged to the Genoese, and was built by them," I said. "The arms
+over the gate are theirs. Perhaps you noticed them." Paul and his mother
+had reached the summit of the wall, and were standing there, looking out
+at the view.
+
+"How did the Genoese come to be here?" asked Hermione, digging her
+parasol into the loose earth.
+
+"They were once very powerful in Constantinople," I answered. "They held
+Pera for many years, and"----
+
+I broke off with an exclamation of horror, starting to my feet at the
+same instant. I had idly watched the mother and son as they stood
+together, and I could hear their voices as they spoke. Suddenly, and
+without a moment's warning, Madame Patoff put out her hand, and seemed
+to push Paul with all her might. He stumbled, and fell upon the edge,
+but from my position I could not tell whether he had saved himself or
+had fallen into the abyss.
+
+I suppose Hermione followed my look, and saw that Madame Patoff was
+standing alone upon the top, but I did not stop to speak or explain. I
+sprang upon the wall, and in a second more I saw that Paul had fallen
+his full length along the brink, but had saved himself, and was
+scrambling to his feet. Madame Patoff stood quite still, her face rigid
+and drawn, and an expression of horror in her eyes that was bad to see.
+But I was not alone in coming to Paul's assistance. As I put out my arm
+to help him to his feet, I saw Hermione's small hands lay hold of him
+with desperate strength, dragging him from the fatal brink. But Paul was
+unhurt, and was on his legs in another moment. He was ghastly white, and
+his lips worked curiously as his eyes settled on his mother's face.
+
+"How did it happen?" asked Hermione, as soon as she could speak, but
+still clinging to his arm, while she glanced inquiringly at her aunt.
+
+"I do not know," said Paul, in a thick voice, between his teeth.
+
+"I was dizzy," gasped Madame Patoff. "I put out my hand to save
+myself"----
+
+"Do me the favor to come down from this place at once," I said, grasping
+her firmly by the arm, and leading her away.
+
+"Paul, Paul, how did it happen?" I heard Hermione saying, as we
+descended.
+
+But Paul's lips were resolutely shut, and he would say nothing more
+about it. Indeed, he was badly startled, but I knew his paleness was not
+caused by fear. In my own mind the conviction was strong that his mother
+had deliberately attempted to murder him by pushing him over the edge. I
+remembered Cutter's warning, and I wondered that he should have allowed
+her to go out of his sight since he recognized the condition of her
+brain, but a moment's reflection made me recollect that I had understood
+him differently. He had meant that she might try to kill herself, not
+her son; and that had been my own impression, for it was not till later
+that I learned how she had spoken of Paul to herself, that night in
+Pera, after the ball. At that time the professor knew more about the
+matter than I did, for Hermione had confided in him when they were alone
+in Santa Sophia.
+
+I think Madame Patoff tried to explain the accident to me as I got her
+down into the ruined court, but I do not remember what she said. My only
+wish was to get the party back to Buyukdere, and to be alone with Cutter
+for five minutes.
+
+"Patoff has met with an accident," I said, as the others came up. "He
+stumbled near the edge of the wall, and is badly shaken. We had better
+go home."
+
+There was very little explanation needed, and Paul protested that he had
+incurred no danger, though he acquiesced readily enough to the
+suggestion. I did not let Madame Patoff leave my arm until we were once
+more on board the little yacht, for I was convinced that the woman was
+dangerously mad. The drawn expression of her pale face did not change,
+and she soon ceased speaking altogether. I noted the fact that in all
+the excitement of the moment she expressed no satisfaction at Paul's
+escape. It was not until we reached the water that she said something
+about "dear Paul," in a tone that made me shudder. We were a silent
+party as we ran down the wind to Buyukdere. Cutter sat beside Madame
+Patoff, and watched her curiously; for the expression of her face had
+not escaped him, though he had no idea of what had happened. Sitting on
+the deck, at the edge of the wall, she looked down at the water as we
+rushed along.
+
+"What do you see in the water?" asked the professor, quietly. The answer
+came in a very low voice, but I heard it as I stood by the helm:--
+
+"I see a man's face under the water, looking up at me."
+
+"And whose face is it?" inquired Cutter, in the same matter-of-fact
+tone.
+
+"I will not tell you, nor any one," she answered. Cutter looked up at me
+to see whether I had heard, and I nodded to him. In a few minutes we
+were alongside of the pier. I refused Chrysophrasia's not very pressing
+invitation to tea, and, bidding good-by to the rest, I put my arm
+through the professor's. He seemed ready enough to go with me, so we
+walked along the smooth quay in the sunset, arm in arm.
+
+"I wanted to speak to you," I said. "You ought to know what happened up
+there this afternoon. Madame Patoff tried to push Paul over the edge. It
+was a deliberate attempt to murder him." Cutter stopped in his walk and
+looked earnestly into my face.
+
+"Did you see it yourself? Did you positively see it, or is that only
+your impression?"
+
+"I saw it," I answered, shortly.
+
+"She is quite mad still, then. No one but a mad woman would attempt such
+a thing. What is worse, it is a fixed idea that she has." He told me
+what Hermione had confided to him.
+
+"Then Paul's life is not safe for a moment," I said, after a moment's
+pause.
+
+"Unless his brother marries Miss Carvel, I would advise him to be on his
+guard when he is alone with his mother. He is safe enough when other
+people are present. I know those cases. They are sly, cautious, timid.
+She will try and push him over the edge of a precipice when nobody is
+looking. Before you she will call him 'dear Paul,' and all the rest of
+it."
+
+"That looks to me more like the cunning of a murderess than the slyness
+of a maniac," I said.
+
+"Most murderers are only maniacs, mad people," answered the professor.
+"Men and women are born with a certain tendency of mind which makes them
+easily brood over an idea. Their life and circumstances foster one
+particular notion, till it gets a predominant weight in their weak
+reasoning. The occasion presents itself, and they carry out the plan
+they have been forming for years in secret, or even unconsciously. If in
+carrying out their ideas they kill anybody, it is called murder. It
+makes very little difference what you call it. The law distinguishes
+between crimes premeditated and crimes unpremeditated. Murder, willful
+and premeditated, involves in my opinion a process of mind so similar to
+that found in lunatics that it is impossible to distinguish the one from
+the other, and I am quite ready to believe that all premeditated murders
+are brought about by mental aberration in the murderer. On the other
+hand, manslaughter, quick, sudden, and unplanned, is the result of more
+or less inhuman instincts, and those who commit the crime are people who
+approach more or less nearly to wild beasts. For the advancement of
+science, murderers should not be hanged, but should be kept as
+interesting cases of insanity. Much might be learned by carefully
+observing the action of their minds upon ordinary occasions. As for
+homicides, or manslaughterers,--I wish we could use the English
+word,--they are less attractive as a study, and I do not care what
+becomes of them. The brain of a freshly killed tiger would be far more
+interesting."
+
+"What do you propose to do with Madame Patoff?" I asked. "You do not
+suppose that Miss Carvel will marry Alexander Patoff in order to prevent
+his mother from murdering Paul?"
+
+"She ought to," answered Cutter, quietly. "It would be most curious to
+see whether there would be any change in her fixed dislike of the
+younger son."
+
+"And do you mean that that young girl should sacrifice her life to your
+experiments?" I asked, rather hotly. I hated the coldness of the man,
+and his ruthless determination to make scientific capital out of other
+people's troubles.
+
+"I can neither propose nor dispose," he answered. "I only wish that it
+might be so. After all, she could be quite as happy with Alexander as
+with Paul. I doubt whether she has a strong preference for either."
+
+"You are mistaken," said I. "She loves Paul much more than she herself
+imagines. I saw her face to-day when Paul was lying on the edge of the
+precipice. You did not. I have watched them ever since they have been
+together in Constantinople, and I am convinced that she loves Paul, and
+not Alexander. What do you intend to do with Madame Patoff? You know I
+have a little party at my cottage on Saturday,--you promised to come. Is
+it safe to let her come, too?"
+
+"Perfectly," answered my companion. "The only thing to be done at
+present is to prevent her remaining alone with Paul."
+
+"Suppose that Paul tells what happened this afternoon. What then?"
+
+"He will not tell it. I have a great admiration for the fellow, he is so
+manly. If she had done worse than that, he would not tell any one,
+because she is his mother. But he will be on his guard, never fear. She
+will not get such a chance again. Good-night."
+
+The professor left me at the door of the garden through which I had to
+pass to reach the little kiosk. I walked slowly up through the roses
+and the flowers, meditating as I went. Paul had a new enemy in the
+professor, who would certainly try and help Alexander, in order to
+continue his experiments upon Madame Patoff's mind. Poor Paul! He seemed
+to be persecuted by an evil fate, and I pitied him sincerely.
+
+
+
+
+XXIV.
+
+
+It was Saturday afternoon, and my preparations for my little tea-party
+were complete. Gregorios Balsamides had arrived from Pera, and we were
+waiting for the Carvels, seated on the long bench before the house,
+where the view overlooks the Bosphorus. The sun had almost set, and the
+hills of Asia were already tinged with golden light, which caught the
+walls of the white mosque on the Giant's Mountain,--the Yusha-Dagh,
+where the Mussulmans believe that Joshua's body lies buried; Anadoli
+Kavak was bathed in a soft radiance, in which every line of the old
+fortress stood out clear and distinct, so that I could see the very spot
+where Paul had fallen a few days before; the far mouth of the Black Sea
+looked cold and gray in the shadows below the hills, but down below, the
+big steamers, the little yachts, the outlandish Turkish schooners, and
+the tiny caiques moved quickly about in the evening sunshine. My garden
+was become a wilderness of roses in the soft spring weather, too, and
+each flower took a warmer hue as the sun sank in the west, and slowly
+neared the point where it would drop behind the European foreland.
+
+The kiosk was a wooden building, narrow and tall, so that the rooms
+within were high, and the second story was twenty feet above the ground.
+I had caused hundreds of lamps to be hung within and without, to be
+lighted so soon as the darkness set in, and my man, who has an especial
+talent for all sorts of illuminations, and in general for everything
+which in Southern Italy comes under the head of 'festa,' had borrowed
+long strings of little signal-flags and streamers, which he had hung
+fantastically from the house to the surrounding trees. When once the
+lamps should be lighted the effect would be very pretty, and to the eyes
+of English people utterly new.
+
+Gregorios sat beside me on the garden seat, and we talked of Madame
+Patoff and her latest doings. My mind was not at rest about her, and I
+inwardly wished that some accident might prevent her from coming that
+day. I had more than once almost determined to speak to my old friend
+John Carvel, and to tell him what had occurred at Anadoli Kavak. Nothing
+but my respect for Professor Cutter's opinion as a specialist had
+prevented me from doing so; but now, at the last moment, I wished I had
+not been overruled, for I had an unpleasant conviction that his prudence
+had been forgotten in his desire to study the case. For men of his
+profession there seems to be an absorbing interest in deciding the
+question of where crime ends and madness begins, and to put Madame
+Patoff under restraint would have been to cut short one of the most
+valuable experiences of Cutter's life. He probably knew that in the
+present stage of her malady such a proceeding would very likely have
+driven her into hopeless and evident insanity. I could have forgiven him
+if I had thought that he regarded the question from a moralist's point
+of view, and balanced the danger of leaving the unfortunate woman at
+large against the possible advantage she herself might gain from
+enjoying unrestricted liberty. But I was sure that the scientist was not
+thinking of that. He had expressed interest rather than horror at her
+attempt to push Paul over the edge of the wall. He had answered my
+anxious questions concerning the treatment of Madame Patoff by a short
+dissertation on insanity in general, and had left me to continue his
+studies, regardless of any danger to his patient's relations. The moral
+point of view shrank into insignificance as he became more and more
+absorbed in the result of the case, and I believe that he would have let
+us all perish, if necessary, rather than consent to relinquish his
+study. He might have regretted his indifference afterwards, especially
+if he had arrived at no satisfactory conclusion in regard to the unhappy
+woman; but in the fervor of scientific speculation, minor considerations
+of safety were forgotten. Cutter is not a bad man, though he is
+ruthless. He would be incapable of doing any one an injury from a
+personal motive, but in comparison with the importance of one of his
+theories the life of a man is no more to him than the life of a dog. I
+said something of that kind to Balsamides.
+
+"My dear fellow," he answered, "do you expect common sense from people
+who waste their lives in such a senseless fashion? Can anything be more
+absurd than to attempt to explain the vagaries of a diseased mind? They
+call that science in the professor's country. They may as well give it
+up. They will never ultimately discover any better treatment for
+dangerous lunatics than solid bolts and barred windows."
+
+"I believe you are right," I said. "If we could put medicine into the
+head as we can into the stomach, something might be accomplished. It is
+very unpleasant to think that I am to entertain a lady at my tea-party
+who only the other day tried to murder her son in my sight."
+
+"Very," assented Gregorios. "Here they come."
+
+We heard the sound of voices in the garden, and rose to meet the party
+as they came up towards the house. None of them had been to see me
+before, except Paul, and they at once launched into extravagant praises
+of the view and of the kiosk. Chrysophrasia raved about the sunset
+effects, and Hermione was delighted with the way the flags were
+arranged. Macaulay consulted his pocket barometer to see how many feet
+above the sea the house was built, and declared that the air must be far
+more healthy in such a place than on the quay. Madame Patoff looked
+silently out at the view, leaning on Alexander's arm, while John Carvel
+and his wife stood close together, smiling and appreciative, the ideal
+of a well-assorted and perfectly happy middle-aged couple. Cutter
+talked to Balsamides, and Paul followed Hermione as she slowly moved
+from point to point. I stood alone for a few moments, and looked at
+them, going over in my mind all that had happened during the last seven
+months, and wondering how it would all end.
+
+These ten people had lived much together, and had found themselves
+lately united in some very strange occurrences. With the exception of
+Balsamides and the professor, they were all nearly related, and yet they
+were as unlike each other as people of one family could be. The gentle,
+saintly Mary Carvel had little in common with her aesthetic sister
+Chrysophrasia Dabstreak, and neither of them was very like Madame
+Patoff. Sturdy John Carvel was not like his sleek son Macaulay, except
+in honesty and good-nature. Alexander Patoff was indeed like his mother,
+but Paul's stern, cold nature was that of his father, long dead and
+forgotten. As for Hermione, she presented a combination of character
+derived from the best points in her father and mother, marred only, I
+thought, by a little of that vacillation which was the chief
+characteristic of her aunt Chrysophrasia. Cutter and Balsamides were men
+of widely different nationalities and temperaments: the one a ruthless
+scientist, the other an equally ruthless fatalist; the one ready to
+sacrifice the lives of others to a fanatic worship of his profession,
+the other willing to sacrifice himself to the inevitable with heroic
+courage, but holding other men's lives as of no more value than his own.
+A strange company, I thought, and yet in many respects a most
+interesting company, too.
+
+"Shall we go in-doors and have tea?" I said after a few moments,
+collecting my guests together. "The view is even better from the windows
+above."
+
+I led them into the stone-paved vestibule of the wooden house, and up
+the wooden stairs to the upper story. Presently they were all installed
+in the large room where the preparations for the small festivity had
+been made, and I began to do the honors of my bachelor establishment.
+In a Turkish family, the room where we sat, and the three others upon
+the same floor, would have been set apart for the harem, for one door
+separated them from the staircase and from all the rest of the house,--a
+large strong door, painted white, and provided with an excellent lock
+and key. I had selected one room for my bedroom, and the rest were
+furnished with Oriental simplicity, not to say economy. But Balsamides
+had sent down a bale of beautiful carpets, which he lent me for the
+occasion, and which I had hung upon the walls and spread upon the floors
+and divans. Tea, coffee, sherbet, a beautiful view, and a little
+illumination of the gardens, constituted the whole entertainment, but
+the enthusiasm of my guests knew no bounds, probably because they had
+never seen anything of the kind before.
+
+"Griggs is growing to be a true Oriental," said Balsamides, approvingly;
+"he understands how the Turks live."
+
+"Yes," I answered, "I present you the thing in all its bareness. You may
+take this as a specimen of an Eastern house. People are apt to fancy
+that those long, latticed houses on the Bosphorus conceal unheard-of
+luxuries, and that the people live like Sybarites. It is quite untrue.
+They either try to imitate the French style, and do it horribly, or else
+they live in great bare rooms like these."
+
+"What do the women do all day long?" asked Chrysophrasia. "I am sure
+they do not pass their time upon a straw matting, staring at each
+other,--so very dreary!"
+
+"Nevertheless they do," said Gregorios. "They smoke and eat sweetmeats
+from morning till night, and occasionally an old woman comes and tells
+them stories. Some of them can read French. They learn it in order to
+read novels, but cannot speak a word of the language."
+
+"Dreary, dreary!" sighed Chrysophrasia. "And then, the division of the
+affections, you know,--so sad."
+
+"Many of them die of consumption," said Gregorios.
+
+"It would be curious to watch the phases of their intelligence," said
+the professor, slowly sipping his coffee, and staring out of the window
+through his great gold-rimmed spectacles.
+
+The sun had gone down, and the darkness gathered quickly over the
+beautiful scene. At one of the windows Hermione sat silently enjoying
+the evening breeze; Alexander was seated beside her, while Paul stood
+looking out over her head. Neither of the two men spoke, but from time
+to time they exchanged glances which were anything but friendly.
+Outside, my man and the gardener were lighting the little lamps, and
+gradually, as each glass cup received its tiny light, the festoons of
+white and red grew, and seemed to creep stealthily from tree to tree.
+The conversation languished, and the deepening twilight brought with it
+that pleasant silence which is the very embodiment of rest descending at
+evening on the tired earth.
+
+"It is like an evening hymn," said Mrs. Carvel, whose gentle features
+were barely visible in the gloom.
+
+No one spoke, but I fancied I saw John Carvel lay his hand
+affectionately on his wife's arm, as they sat together. There was a
+light above the eastern hills, brightening quickly as we looked, and
+presently the full moon rose and shed her rays through the low open
+windows, making our faces look white and deathly in the dark room. It
+shone on Madame Patoff's marble features, and cast strange shadows
+around her mouth.
+
+"Shall we have lights?" I asked. There was a general refusal; everybody
+preferred the moonlight, which now flooded the apartment.
+
+"It seems to me," said Chrysophrasia, half sadly,--"it seems to me--ah,
+no! I must be mistaken,--and yet--it seems to me that I smell something
+burning."
+
+"I think it is the lamps outside," I answered. No one else took any
+notice of the speech, which jarred upon the pleasant stillness. I myself
+thought she was mistaken.
+
+"What a wonderful contrast!" said Hermione. "I mean the lamps and the
+moonlight." Then she added, suddenly, "Do you know, Mr. Griggs, there
+is really something burning. I can smell it quite well."
+
+A fire in a Turkish house is a serious matter. The old beams and boarded
+walls are like so much tinder, and burn up immediately, as though soaked
+with some inflammable liquid. I rose, and went out to see if there were
+anything wrong. As I opened the door which shut off the whole apartment
+from the stairs, I heard a strange crackling sound, and outside the
+window of the staircase, which was in the back of the house, I saw a red
+glare, which brightened in the moment while I watched it. I did not go
+further, for I knew the danger was imminent.
+
+"Will you be good enough to come down-stairs?" I said, quietly, as I
+re-entered the room where my guests were assembled. "I am afraid
+something is wrong, but there is plenty of time."
+
+A considerable confusion ensued, and everybody rushed to the door.
+Protestations were vain, for all the women were frightened, and all the
+men were anxious to help them. The sight of the flames outside the
+window redoubled their fears, and they rushed out, stumbling on the
+dusky landing. In the confusion of the moment I did not realize how it
+all happened. Chrysophrasia, who was mad with fright, caught her foot
+against something, and fell close beside me. The other ladies were
+already down-stairs, I thought. I picked her up and carried her down as
+fast as I could, and out into the garden.
+
+"Come away from the house!" I cried. "Away from the trees!"
+Chrysophrasia was senseless with fear, and I bore her hastily on till I
+reached the fountain, some twenty yards down the hill. There I put her
+down upon a bench. There were two buckets and a couple of watering-pots
+there, and I shouted to the other men to come to me, as I filled two of
+the vessels and ran round to the back of the house. I passed Madame
+Patoff, standing alone under a festoon of little lamps, by a tree, and I
+remember the strange expression of gladness which was on her face. But
+I had no time to speak to her, and rushed on with my water-cans.
+
+Meanwhile the flames rose higher and higher, crackling and licking the
+brown face of the old timber. There was small chance of saving the
+building now. My men had been busy lighting the lamps in the garden, but
+I found them already on the spot, dipping water out of a small cistern
+with buckets, and dashing it into the fire with all their might, their
+dark faces grim and set in the light of the flames. I worked as hard as
+I could, supposing that all the party were safe. I had no idea of what
+was going on upon the opposite side of the house. In truth, it was
+horrible enough.
+
+Paul and Cutter were very self-possessed, and their first care was to
+see that all the four ladies were safe. They had Hermione and her mother
+with them, and, taking the direction of the fountain, they found
+Chrysophrasia upon the bench where I had left her, in a violent fit of
+hysterics. Madame Patoff was not there.
+
+"I was going back for aunt Annie," said Macaulay Carvel, "for I counted
+them as they came out, and missed her. She ran right into my arms as I
+stood in the door. She is somewhere in the garden; I am quite sure of
+it."
+
+Cutter hurried off, and began to search among the trees. Already the
+bright flames could be seen in the lower story, and in a moment more the
+glass of one of the windows cracked loudly, and the fire leapt through.
+Then from the high windows above a voice was heard calling, loud and
+clear, to those below.
+
+"The door is locked! Can any one help me?" The voice belonged to
+Gregorios, and the party looked into each other's faces in sudden
+horror, and then glanced at the burning house.
+
+"Save him! Save him!" cried Hermione. But Paul had already left her
+side, and had reached the open door of the porch. Alexander stood still,
+staring at the flames.
+
+"He saved you," said Hermione, grasping his arm fiercely. "Will you do
+nothing to help him?"
+
+"Paul is gone already," answered Alexander, impatiently. "There is
+nothing the matter. Paul will let him out."
+
+But the other men were less apathetic, and had followed the brave man to
+the door. He had disappeared already, and as they came up a tremendous
+puff of smoke and ashes was blown into their faces, stifling and burning
+them, so that they drew back.
+
+"Jump for your life!" shouted John Carvel, looking up at the window from
+which the voice had proceeded.
+
+"Yes, jump!" cried Alexander, who had reluctantly followed. "We will
+catch you in our arms!"
+
+But no one answered them. Nothing was heard but the crackling of the
+burning timber and the roaring of the flames, during the awful moments
+which followed. Stupefied with horror, the three men stood staring
+stupidly at the hideous sight. Then suddenly another huge puff of smoke
+and fiery sparks burst from the door, and with it a dark mass flew
+forward, as though shot from a cannon's mouth, and fell in a heap upon
+the ground outside. All three ran forward, but some one else was there
+before them, dragging away a thick carpet, of which the wool was all
+singed and burning.
+
+There lay Gregorios Balsamides as he had fallen, stumbling on the
+doorstep, with the heavy body of Paul Patoff in his arms. Hermione fell
+on her knees and shrieked aloud. It was plain enough. Paul, without the
+least protection from the flames, had struggled up the burning
+staircase, and had unlocked the door, losing consciousness as he opened
+it. Gregorios, who was not to be outdone in bravery, and whom no danger
+could frighten from his senses, had wrapped a carpet round the injured
+man, and, throwing another over his own head, had borne him back through
+the fire, the steps of the wooden staircase, already in flames, almost
+breaking under his tread. But he had done the deed, and had lived
+through it.
+
+He looked up faintly at Hermione as she bent over them both.
+
+"I think he is alive," he gasped, and fainted upon the ground.
+
+They bore the two senseless bodies to the fountain, and laid them down,
+and sprinkled water on their faces. Behind them they could hear the
+crash of the first timbers falling in, as the fire reached the upper
+story of the kiosk; at their feet they saw only the still, pale faces of
+the men who had been ready to give their lives for each other.
+
+But Cutter had gone in search of Madame Patoff, during the five minutes
+which had sufficed for the enacting of this scene. He had found her
+where I had passed her, looking up with a strange smile at the doomed
+house.
+
+"Paul is looking for you," said the professor, taking her arm under his.
+She started, and trembled violently.
+
+"Paul!" she cried in surprise. Then, with a wild laugh, she stared into
+Cutter's eyes. He had heard that laugh many a time in his experience,
+and he silently tightened his grip upon her arm.
+
+"Paul!" she repeated wildly. "There is no more Paul," she added,
+suddenly lowering her voice, and speaking confidentially. "Hermione can
+marry my dear Alexander now. There is no more Paul. You do not know? It
+was so quickly done. He stayed behind in the room, and I locked the
+door, so tight, so fast. He can never get out. Ah!" she screamed all at
+once, "I am so glad! Let me go--let me go"----
+
+At that moment I came upon them. Relinquishing all hopes of saving the
+house, and wondering vaguely, in my confusion of mind, why nobody had
+come to help me, I called my two men off, and was going to see what had
+become of the party. I found Madame Patoff a raving maniac, struggling
+in the gigantic hands of the sturdy scientist. I will not dwell upon the
+hideous scene which followed. It was the last time I ever saw her, and I
+pray that I may never again see man or woman in such a condition.
+
+Meanwhile, the two men who lay by the fountain in the moonlight showed
+signs of life. Gregorios first came to himself, for he had only fainted.
+He was in great pain, but was as eager as the rest to restore Paul to
+consciousness. Patoff was almost asphyxiated by the smoke, his hair and
+eyebrows and mustache were almost burnt off, and his right hand was
+injured. But he was alive, and at last he opened his eyes. In a quarter
+of an hour he could be helped upon his feet. Balsamides was already
+standing, and Paul caught at his hand.
+
+"Not that arm," said Gregorios calmly, holding out the other. In his
+fall he had broken his wrist.
+
+In answer to my cries, the two Carvels left the injured men and came to
+our assistance, while we struggled with the mad woman, who seemed
+possessed of the strength of a dozen athletes. Hermione was left by the
+fountain.
+
+"I was quite sure it would be all right," said Alexander to her,
+presently. It was more than the young girl could bear. She turned upon
+him fiercely, and her beautiful face was very white.
+
+"I despise you!" she exclaimed. That was all she said, but in the next
+moment she turned and threw her arms about Paul's neck, and kissed his
+burnt and wounded face before them all.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+There is little more to be said, for my story is told to the end. When I
+found them all together, Gregorios took me aside and drew a crumpled
+mass of papers from his pocket with his uninjured hand.
+
+"I stayed behind to save your papers and your money," he said quietly.
+"I have seen houses burn before, and there is generally no time to be
+lost."
+
+I wonder what there is at the bottom of that man's strange nature. Cold,
+indifferent, and fatalistic, apparently one of the most selfish of men,
+he nevertheless seems to possess somewhere a kind of devoted heroism, an
+untainted quality of friendship only too rare in our day.
+
+Hermione Carvel is to be married to Paul in the autumn, but there is
+reason to believe that Alexander, who has rejoined his regiment in St.
+Petersburg, will not find it convenient to be at the wedding. When
+Balsamides was crying for help from the upper window, and when Alexander
+stood quietly by Hermione's side while his brother faced the danger, the
+die was cast, and she saw what a wide gulf separated the two men, and
+she knew that she loved the one and hated the other with a fierce
+hatred.
+
+Poor Madame Patoff is dead, but before he left Constantinople Professor
+Cutter spent half an hour in trying to demonstrate to me that she might
+have been cured if Hermione had married Alexander. I am glad he is gone,
+for I always detested his theories.
+
+So the story is ended, my dear friend; and if it is told badly, it is my
+fault, for I assure you that I never in my life spent so exciting a
+year. It has been a long tale, too, but you have told me that from time
+to time you were interested in it; and, after all, a tale is but a tale,
+and is a very different affair from an artistically constructed drama,
+in which facts have to be softened, so as not to look too startling in
+print. I have given you facts, and if you ever meet Gregorios Balsamides
+he will tell you that I have exaggerated nothing. Moreover, if you will
+take the trouble to visit Santa Sophia during the last nights of
+Ramazan, you will understand how Alexander Patoff disappeared; and if
+you will go over the house of Laleli Khanum Effendi, which is now to be
+sold, you will see how impossible it was for him to escape from such a
+place. In the garden above Mesar Burnu you will see the heap of ashes,
+which is all that remains of the kiosk where I gave my unlucky
+tea-party; and if you will turn up the bridle-path at the left of the
+Belgrade road, a hundred yards before you reach the aqueduct, you will
+come upon the spot where Gregorios threatened to kill Selim, the wicked
+Lala, on that bitter March night. I dare say, also, that if you visit
+any of these places by chance you will remember the strange scenes they
+have witnessed, and I hope that you will also remember Paul Griggs, your
+friend, who spun you this yarn because you asked him for a story, when
+he was riding with you on that rainy afternoon last month. I only wish
+you knew the Carvels, for I am sure you would like them, and you would
+find Chrysophrasia very amusing.
+
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+WRITINGS OF F. MARION CRAWFORD
+
+12mo. Cloth
+
+
+Corleone                                          $1.50
+Casa Braccio. 2 vols.                              2.00
+Taquisara                                          1.50
+Saracinesca                                        1.50
+Sant' Ilario                                       1.50
+Don Orsino                                         1.50
+Mr. Isaacs                                         1.50
+A Cigarette-Maker's Romance, and Khaled            1.50
+Marzio's Crucifix                                  1.50
+An American Politician                             1.50
+Paul Patoff                                        1.50
+To Leeward                                         1.50
+Dr. Claudius                                       1.50
+Zoroaster                                          1.50
+A Tale of a Lonely Parish                          1.50
+With the Immortals                                 1.50
+The Witch of Prague                                1.50
+A Roman Singer                                     1.50
+Greifenstein                                       1.50
+Pietro Ghisleri                                    1.50
+Katherine Lauderdale                               1.50
+The Ralstons                                       1.50
+Children of the King                               1.50
+The Three Fates                                    1.50
+Adam Johnstone's Son, and A Rose of Yesterday      1.50
+Marion Darche                                      1.50
+Love in Idleness                                   2.00
+Via Crucis                                         1.50
+In the Palace of the King                          1.50
+Ave Roma Immortalis                               $3.00 net
+Rulers of the South: Sicily, Calabria, Malta. 2 vols. $6.00 net.
+
+
+CORLEONE
+
+A TALE OF SICILY
+
+The last of the famous Saracinesca Series
+
+"It is by far the most stirring and dramatic of all the author's Italian
+stories.... The plot is a masterly one, bringing at almost every page a
+fresh surprise, keeping the reader in suspense to the very end."--_The
+Times_, New York.
+
+
+MR. ISAACS
+
+"It is lofty and uplifting. It is strongly, sweetly, tenderly written.
+It is in all respects an uncommon novel."--_The Literary World._
+
+
+DR. CLAUDIUS
+
+"The characters are strongly marked without any suspicion of caricature,
+and the author's ideas on social and political subjects are often
+brilliant and always striking. It is no exaggeration to say that there
+is not a dull page in the book, which is peculiarly adapted for the
+recreation of the student or thinker."--_Living Church._
+
+
+A ROMAN SINGER
+
+"A powerful story of art and love in Rome."--_The New York Observer._
+
+
+AN AMERICAN POLITICIAN
+
+"One of the characters is a visiting Englishman. Possibly Mr. Crawford's
+long residence abroad has made him select such a hero as a safeguard
+against slips, which does not seem to have been needed. His insight into
+a phase of politics with which he could hardly be expected to be
+familiar is remarkable."--_Buffalo Express._
+
+
+TAQUISARA
+
+"A charming story this is, and one which will certainly be liked by all
+admirers of Mr. Crawford's work."--_New York Herald._
+
+
+ADAM JOHNSTONE'S SON and A ROSE OF YESTERDAY
+
+"It is not only one of the most enjoyable novels that Mr. Crawford has
+ever written, but is a novel that will make people think."--_Boston
+Beacon._
+
+"Don't miss reading Marion Crawford's new novel, 'A Rose of Yesterday.'
+It is brief, but beautiful and strong. It is as charming a piece of pure
+idealism as ever came from Mr. Crawford's pen."--_Chicago Tribune._
+
+
+SARACINESCA
+
+"The work has two distinct merits, either of which would serve to make
+it great: that of telling a perfect story in a perfect way, and of
+giving a graphic picture of Roman society.... The story is exquisitely
+told, and is the author's highest achievement, as yet, in the realm of
+fiction."--_The Boston Traveler._
+
+
+SANT' ILARIO
+
+A SEQUEL TO SARACINESCA
+
+"A singularly powerful and beautiful story.... It fulfils every
+requirement of artistic fiction. It brings out what is most impressive
+in human action, without owing any of its effectiveness to
+sensationalism or artifice. It is natural, fluent in evolution,
+accordant with experience, graphic in description, penetrating in
+analysis, and absorbing in interest."--_The New York Tribune._
+
+
+DON ORSINO
+
+A SEQUEL TO SARACINESCA AND SANT' ILARIO
+
+"Offers exceptional enjoyment in many ways, in the fascinating
+absorption of good fiction, in the interest of faithful historic
+accuracy, and in charm of style. The 'New Italy' is strikingly revealed
+in 'Don Orsino.'"--_Boston Budget._
+
+
+WITH THE IMMORTALS
+
+"The strange central idea of the story could have occurred only to a
+writer whose mind was very sensitive to the current of modern thought
+and progress, while its execution, the setting it forth in proper
+literary clothing, could be successfully attempted only by one whose
+active literary ability should be fully equalled by his power of
+assimilative knowledge both literary and scientific, and no less by his
+courage, and so have a fascination entirely new for the habitual reader
+of novels. Indeed, Mr. Crawford has succeeded in taking his readers
+quite above the ordinary plane of novel interest."--_The Boston
+Advertiser._
+
+
+GREIFENSTEIN
+
+"...Another notable contribution to the literature of the day. Like all
+Mr. Crawford's work, this novel is crisp, clear, and vigorous, and will
+be read with a great deal of interest."--_New York Evening Telegram._
+
+
+A CIGARETTE-MAKER'S ROMANCE and KHALED
+
+"It is a touching romance, filled with scenes of great dramatic
+power."--_Boston Commercial Bulletin._
+
+"It abounds in stirring incidents and barbaric picturesqueness; and the
+love struggle of the unloved Khaled is manly in its simplicity and noble
+in its ending."--_The Mail and Express._
+
+
+THE WITCH OF PRAGUE
+
+"The artistic skill with which this extraordinary story is constructed
+and carried out is admirable and delightful.... Mr. Crawford has scored
+a decided triumph, for the interest of the tale is sustained
+throughout.... A very remarkable, powerful, and interesting
+story."--_New York Tribune._
+
+
+TO LEEWARD
+
+"It is an admirable tale of Italian life told in a spirited way and far
+better than most of the fiction current."--_San Francisco Chronicle._
+
+
+ZOROASTER
+
+"As a matter of literary art solely, we doubt if Mr. Crawford has ever
+before given us better work than the description of Belshazzar's feast
+with which the story begins, or the death-scene with which it
+closes."--_The Christian Union_ (now _The Outlook_).
+
+
+A TALE OF A LONELY PARISH
+
+"It is a pleasure to have anything so perfect of its kind as this brief
+and vivid story. It is doubly a success, being full of human sympathy,
+as well as thoroughly artistic."--_The Critic._
+
+
+MARZIO'S CRUCIFIX
+
+"We take the liberty of saying that this work belongs to the highest
+department of character-painting in words."--_The Churchman._
+
+
+PAUL PATOFF
+
+"It need scarcely be said that the story is skilfully and picturesquely
+written, portraying sharply individual characters in well-defined
+surroundings."--_New York Commercial Advertiser._
+
+
+PIETRO GHISLERI
+
+"The strength of the story lies not only in the artistic and highly
+dramatic working out of the plot, but also in the penetrating analysis
+and understanding of the impulsive and passionate Italian
+character."--_Public Opinion._
+
+
+THE CHILDREN OF THE KING
+
+"One of the most artistic and exquisitely finished pieces of work that
+Crawford has produced. The picturesque setting, Calabria and its
+surroundings, the beautiful Sorrento and the Gulf of Salerno, with the
+bewitching accessories that climate, sea, and sky afford, give Mr.
+Crawford rich opportunities to show his rare descriptive powers. As a
+whole the book is strong and beautiful through its simplicity."--_Public
+Opinion._
+
+
+MARION DARCHE
+
+"We are disposed to rank 'Marion Darche' as the best of Mr. Crawford's
+American stories."--_The Literary World._
+
+
+KATHERINE LAUDERDALE
+
+"It need scarcely be said that the story is skilfully and picturesquely
+written, portraying sharply individual characters in well-defined
+surroundings."--_New York Commercial Advertiser._
+
+
+THE RALSTONS
+
+"The whole group of character studies is strong and vivid."--_The
+Literary World._
+
+
+LOVE IN IDLENESS
+
+"The story is told in the author's lightest vein; it is bright and
+entertaining."--_The Literary World._
+
+
+CASA BRACCIO
+
+"We are grateful when Mr. Crawford keeps to his Italy. The poetry and
+enchantment of the land are all his own, and 'Casa Braccio' gives
+promise of being his masterpiece.... He has the life, the beauty, the
+heart, and the soul of Italy at the tips of his fingers."--_Los Angeles
+Express._
+
+
+THE THREE FATES
+
+"The strength of the story lies in portrayal of the aspirations,
+disciplinary efforts, trials, and triumphs of the man who is a born
+writer, and who by long and painful experiences learns the good that is
+in him and the way in which to give it effectual expression. Taken for
+all in all it is one of the most pleasing of all his productions in
+fiction, and it affords a view of certain phases of American, or perhaps
+we should say of New York, life that have not hitherto been treated with
+anything like the same adequacy and felicity."--_Boston Beacon._
+
+
+AVE ROMA IMMORTALIS
+
+STUDIES FROM THE CHRONICLES OF ROME
+
+In two Volumes. Fully Illustrated with Photogravures and Drawings in the
+Text. Cloth. Crown 8vo. $6.00 net
+
+"I have not for a long while read a book which pleased me more than Mr.
+Crawford's 'Roma.' It is cast in a form so original and so available
+that it must surely take the place of all other books about Rome which
+are needed to help one to understand its story and its archaeology....
+The book has for me a rare interest."--DR. S. WEIR MITCHELL
+
+
+THE RULERS OF THE SOUTH
+
+SICILY, CALABRIA, AND MALTA
+
+In two Volumes. Fully Illustrated with Photogravures and Drawings in the
+Text. Cloth. Crown 8vo. $6.00 net
+
+The author has gathered the threads of history and legend which have
+wound themselves around the three kingdoms of Sicily, Calabria, and
+Malta. Their history is of a long line of illustrious deeds, full of
+stirring interest.
+
+The illustrations are of unusual beauty, and have been reproduced in
+both photogravure and half-tone.
+
+
+VIA CRUCIS
+
+A ROMANCE OF THE SECOND CRUSADE
+
+"Throughout 'Via Crucis' the author shows not only the artist's
+selective power and a sense of proportion and comparative values, but
+the Christian's instinct for those things that it is well to think
+upon.... Blessed is the book that exalts, and 'Via Crucis' merits that
+beatitude."--_New York Times._
+
+
+IN THE PALACE OF THE KING
+
+A LOVE STORY OF OLD MADRID
+
+"Marion Crawford's latest story, 'In the Palace of the King,' is quite
+up to the level of his best works for cleverness, grace of style, and
+sustained interest. It is, besides, to some extent a historical story,
+the scene being the royal palace at Madrid, the author drawing the
+characters of Philip II. and Don John of Austria, with an attempt, in a
+broad impressionist way, at historic faithfulness. His reproduction of
+the life at the Spanish court is as brilliant and picturesque as any of
+his Italian scenes, and in minute study of detail is, in a real and
+valuable sense, true history."--_The Advance._
+
+THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
+
+66 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PAUL PATOFF***
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