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diff --git a/old/orphe10.txt b/old/orphe10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d913c52 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/orphe10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6065 @@ +The Project Gutenberg Etext of Orpheus in Mayfair and Other Stories +and Sketches by Maurice Baring + + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the copyright laws for your country before posting these files!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. Do not remove this. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations* + +Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and +further information is included below. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + + + + + ORPHEUS IN MAYFAIR + AND OTHER STORIES AND SKETCHES + + BY + + MAURICE BARING + + + + TO ETHEL SMYTH + + + + NOTE + + Most of the stories and sketches in this book have appeared in the + /Morning Post/. One of them was published in the /Westminster + Gazette/. I have to thank the editors and proprietors concerned + for their kindness in allowing me to republish them. + + + + CONTENTS + +Orpheus in Mayfair +The Cricket Match +The Shadow of a Midnight +Jean Francois +The Flute of Chang Liang +"What is Truth?" +A Luncheon-Party +Fete Galante +The Garland +The Spider's Web +Edward II. At Berkeley Castle +The Island +The Man Who Gave Good Advice +Russalka +The Old Woman +Dr. Faust's Last Day +The Flute-Player's Story +A Chinaman on Oxford +Venus +The Fire +The Conqueror +The Ikon +The Thief +The Star +Chun Wa + + + + ORPHEUS IN MAYFAIR + +Heraclius Themistocles Margaritis was a professional musician. He was +a singer and a composer of songs; he wrote poetry in Romaic, and +composed tunes to suit rhymes. But it was not thus that he earned his +daily bread, and he was poor, very poor. To earn his livelihood he +gave lessons, music lessons during the day, and in the evening lessons +in Greek, ancient and modern, to such people (and these were rare) who +wished to learn these languages. He was a young man, only twenty-four, +and he had married, before he came of age, an Italian girl called +Tina. They had come to England in order to make their fortune. They +lived in apartments in the Hereford Road, Bayswater. + +They had two children, a little girl and a little boy; they were very +much in love with each other, as happy as birds, and as poor as church +mice. For Heraclius Themistocles got but few pupils, and although he +had sung in public at one or two concerts, and had not been received +unfavourably, he failed to obtain engagements to sing in private +houses, which was his ambition. He hoped by this means to become well +known, and then to be able to give recitals of his own where he would +reveal to the world those tunes in which he knew the spirit of Hellas +breathed. The whole desire of his life was to bring back and to give +to the world the forgotten but undying Song of Greece. In spite of +this, the modest advertisement which was to be found at concert +agencies announcing that Mr. Heraclius Themistocles Margaritis was +willing to attend evening parties and to give an exhibition of Greek +music, ancient and modern, had as yet met with no response. After he +had been a year in England the only steps towards making a fortune +were two public performances at charity matinees, one or two pupils in +pianoforte playing, and an occasional but rare engagement for stray +pupils at a school of modern languages. + +It was in the middle of the second summer after his arrival that an +incident occurred which proved to be the turning point of his career. +A London hostess was giving a party in honour of a foreign Personage. +It had been intimated that some kind of music would be expected. The +hostess had neither the means nor the desire to secure for her +entertainment stars of the first magnitude, but she gathered together +some lesser lights--a violinist, a pianist, and a singer of French +drawing-room melodies. On the morning of the day on which her concert +was to be given, the hostess received a telegram from the singer of +French drawing-room melodies to say that she had got a bad cold, and +could not possibly sing that night. The hostess was in despair, but a +musical friend of hers came to the rescue, and promised to obtain for +her an excellent substitute, a man who sang Greek songs. + + * * * * * + +When Margaritis received the telegram from Arkwright's Agency that he +was to sing that night at A---- House, he was overjoyed, and could +scarcely believe his eyes. He at once communicated the news to Tina, +and they spent hours in discussing what songs he should sing, who the +good fairy could have been who recommended him, and in building +castles in the air with regard to the result of this engagement. He +would become famous; they would have enough money to go to Italy for a +holiday; he would give concerts; he would reveal to the modern world +the music of Hellas. + +About half-past four in the afternoon Margaritis went out to buy +himself some respectable evening studs from a large emporium in the +neighbourhood. When he returned, singing and whistling on the stairs +for joy, he was met by Tina, who to his astonishment was quite pale, +and he saw at a glance that something had happened. + +"They've put me off!" he said. "Or it was a mistake. I knew it was too +good to be true." + +"It's not that," said Tina, "it's Carlo!" Carlo was their little boy, +who was nearly four years old. + +"What?" said Margaritis. + +Tina dragged him into their little sitting-room. "He is ill," she +said, "very ill, and I don't know what's the matter with him." + +Margaritis turned pale. "Let me see him," he said. "We must get a +doctor." + +"The doctor is coming: I went for him at once," she said. And then +they walked on tiptoe into the bedroom where Carlo was lying in his +cot, tossing about, and evidently in a raging fever. Half an hour +later the doctor came. Margaritis and Tina waited, silent and +trembling with anxiety, while he examined the child. At last he came +from the bedroom with a grave face. He said that the child was very +seriously ill, but that if he got through the night he would very +probably recover. + +"I must send a telegram," said Margaritis to Tina. "I cannot possibly +go." Tina squeezed his hand, and then with a brave smile she went back +to the sick-room. + +Margaritis took a telegraph form out of a shabby leather portfolio, +sat down before the dining-table on which the cloth had been laid for +tea (for the sitting-room was the dining-room also), and wrote out the +telegram. And as he wrote his tears fell on the writing and smudged +it. His grief overcame him, and he buried his face in his hands and +sobbed. "What the Fates give with one hand," he thought to himself, +"they take away with another!" Then he heard himself, he knew not why, +invoking the gods of Greece, the ancient gods of Olympus, to help him. +And at that moment the whole room seemed to be filled with a strange +light, and he saw the wonderful figure of a man with a shining face +and eyes that seemed infinitely sad and at the same time infinitely +luminous. The figure held a lyre, and said to him in Greek:-- + +"It is well. All will be well. I will take your place at the concert!" + +When the vision had vanished, the half written telegram on his table +had disappeared also. + + * * * * * + +The party at A---- House that night was brilliant rather than large. +In one of the drawing-rooms there was a piano, in front of which were +six or seven rows of gilt chairs. The other rooms were filled with +shifting groups of beautiful women, and men wearing orders and medals. +There was a continuous buzz of conversation, except in the room where +the music was going on; and even there in the background there was a +subdued whispering. The violinist was playing some elaborate nothings, +and displaying astounding facility, but the audience did not seem to +be much interested, for when he stopped, after some faint applause, +conversation broke loose like a torrent. + +"I do hope," said some one to the lady next him, "that the music will +be over soon. One gets wedged in here, one doesn't dare move, and one +had to put up with having one's conversation spoilt and interrupted." + +"It's an extraordinary thing," answered the lady, "that nobody dares +give a party in London without some kind of entertainment. It /is/ +such a mistake!" + +At that moment the fourth and last item on the programme began, which +was called "Greek Songs by Heraclius Themistocles Margaritis." + +"He certainly looks like a Greek," said the lady who had been talking; +"in fact if his hair was cut he would be quite good-looking." + +"It's not my idea of a Greek," whispered her neighbour. "He is too +fair. I thought Greeks were dark." + +"Hush!" said the lady, and the first song began. It was a strange +thread of sound that came upon the ears of the listeners, rather high +and piercing, and the accompaniment (Margaritis accompanied himself) +was twanging and monotonous like the sound of an Indian tom-tom. The +same phrase was repeated two or three times over, the melody seemed to +consist of only a very few notes, and to come over and over again with +extraordinary persistence. Then the music rose into a high shrill call +and ended abruptly. + +"What has happened?" asked the lady. "Has he forgotten the words?" + +"I think the song is over," said the man. "That's one comfort at any +rate. I hate songs which I can't understand." + +But their comments were stopped by the beginning of another song. The +second song was soft and very low, and seemed to be almost entirely on +one note. It was still shorter than the first one, and ended still +more abruptly. + +"I don't believe he's a Greek at all," said the man. "His songs are +just like the noise of bagpipes." + +"I daresay he's a Scotch," said the lady. "Scotchmen are very clever. +But I must say his songs are short." + +An indignant "Hush!" from a musician with long hair who was sitting +not far off heralded the beginning of the third song. It began on a +high note, clear and loud, so that the audience was startled, and for +a moment or two there was not a whisper to be heard in the drawing- +room. Then it died away in a piteous wail like the scream of a sea- +bird, and the high insistent note came back once more, and this +process seemed to be repeated several times till the sad scream +prevailed, and stopped suddenly. A little desultory clapping was +heard, but it was instantly suppressed when the audience became aware +that the song was not over. + +"He's going on again," whispered the man. A low, long note was heard +like the drone of a bee, which went on, sometimes rising and sometimes +getting lower, like a strange throbbing sob; and then once more it +ceased. The audience hesitated a moment, being not quite certain +whether the music was really finished or not. Then when they saw +Margaritis rise from the piano, some meagre well-bred applause was +heard, and an immense sigh of relief. The people streamed into the +other rooms, and the conversation became loud and general. + +The lady who had talked went quickly into the next room to find out +what was the right thing to say about the music, and if possible to +get the opinion of a musician. + +Sir Anthony Holdsworth, who had translated Pindar, was talking to +Ralph Enderby, who had written a book on "Modern Greek Folk Lore." + +"It hurts me," said Sir Anthony, "to hear ancient Greek pronounced +like that. It is impossible to distinguish the words; besides which +its wrong to pronounce ancient Greek like modern Greek. Did you +understand it?" + +"No," said Ralph Enderby, "I did not. If it is modern Greek it was +certainly wrongly pronounced. I think the man must be singing some +kind of Asiatic dialect--unless he's a fraud." + +Hard by there was another group discussing the music: Blythe, the +musical critic, and Lawson, who had the reputation of being a great +connoisseur. + +"He's distinctly clever," Blythe was saying; "the songs are amusing +'pastiches' of Eastern folk song." + +"Yes, I think he's clever," said Lawson, "but there's nothing original +in it, and besides, as I expect you noticed, two of the songs were +gross plagiarisms of De Bussy." + +"Clever, but not original," said the lady to herself. "That's it." And +two hostesses who had overheard this conversation made up their minds +to get Margaritis for their parties, for they scented the fact that he +would ultimately be talked about. But most of the people did not +discuss the music at all. + +As soon as the music had stopped, James Reddaway, who was a Member of +Parliament, left the house and went home. He was engrossed in +politics, and had little time at his disposal for anything else. As +soon as he got home he went up to his wife's bedroom; she had not been +able to go to the party owing to a sudden attack of neuralgia. She +asked him to tell her all about it. + +"Well," he said, "there were the usual people there, and there was +some music: some violin and piano playing, to which I didn't listen. +After that a man sang some Greek songs, and a curious thing happened +to me. When it began I felt my head swimming, and then I entirely lost +account of my surroundings. I forgot the party, the drawing-room and +the people, and I seemed to be sitting on the rocks of a cliff near a +small bay; in front of me was the sea: it was a kind of blue green, +but far more blue or at least of quite a different kind of blue than +any I have seen. It was transparent, and the sky above it was like a +turquoise. Behind me the cliff merged into a hill which was covered +with red and white flowers, as bright as a Persian carpet. On the +beach in front, a tall man was standing, wading in the water, little +bright waves sparkling round his feet. He was tall and dark, and he +was spearing a lot of little silver fish which were lying on the sand +with a small wooden trident; and somewhere behind me a voice was +singing. I could not see where it came from, but it was wonderfully +soft and delicious, and a lot of wild bees came swarming over the +flowers, and a green lizard came right up close to me, and the air was +burning hot, and there was a smell of thyme and mint in it. And then +the song stopped, and I came to myself, and I was back again in the +drawing-room. Then when the man began to sing again, I again lost +consciousness, and I seemed to be in a dark orchard on a breathless +summer night. And somewhere near me there was a low white house with +an opening which might have been a window, shrouded by creepers and +growing things. And in it there was a faint light. And from the house +came the sound of a sad love-song; and although I had never heard the +song before I understood it, and it was about the moon and the Pleiads +having set, and the hour passing, and the voice sang, 'But I sleep +alone!' And this was repeated over and over again, and it was the +saddest and most beautiful thing I had ever heard. And again it +stopped, and I was back again in the drawing-room. Then when the +singer began his third song I felt cold all over, and at the same time +half suffocated, as people say they feel when they are nearly +drowning. I realised that I was in a huge, dark, empty space, and +round me and far off in front of me were vague shadowy forms; and in +the distance there was something which looked like two tall thrones, +pillared and dim. And on one of the thrones there was the dark form of +a man, and on the other a woman like a queen, pale as marble, and +unreal as a ghost, with great grey eyes that shone like moons. In +front of them was another form, and he was singing a song, and the +song was so sad and so beautiful that tears rolled down the shadowy +cheeks of the ghosts in front of me. And all at once the singer gave a +great cry of joy, and something white and blinding flashed past me and +disappeared, and he with it. But I remained in the same place with the +dark ghosts far off in front of me. And I seemed to be there an +eternity till I heard a cry of desperate pain and anguish, and the +white form flashed past me once more, and vanished, and with it the +whole thing, and I was back again in the drawing-room, and I felt +faint and giddy, and could not stay there any longer." + + + + THE CRICKET MATCH + AN INCIDENT AT A PRIVATE SCHOOL + + To Winston Churchill + +It was a Saturday afternoon in June. St. James's School was playing a +cricket match against Chippenfield's. The whole school, which +consisted of forty boys, with the exception of the eleven who were +playing in the match, were gathered together near the pavilion on the +steep, grassy bank which faced the cricket ground. It was a +swelteringly hot day. One of the masters was scoring in the pavilion; +two of the boys sat under the post and board where the score was +recorded in big white figures painted on the black squares. Most of +the boys were sitting on the grass in front of the pavilion. + +St. James's won the toss and went in first. After scoring 5 for the +first wicket they collapsed; in an hour and five minutes their last +wicket fell. They had only made 27 runs. Fortune was against St. +James's that day. Hitchens, their captain, in whom the school +confidently trusted, was caught out in his first over. And Wormald and +Bell minor, their two best men, both failed to score. + +Then Chippenfield's went in. St. James's fast bowlers, Blundell and +Anderson minor, seemed unable to do anything against the +Chippenfield's batsmen. The first wicket went down at 70. + +The boys who were looking on grew listless: three of them, Gordon, +Smith, and Hart minor, wandered off from the pavilion further up the +slope of the hill, where there was a kind of wooden scaffolding raised +for letting off fireworks on the 5th of November. The headmaster, who +was a fanatical Conservative, used to burn on that anniversary +effigies of Liberal politicians such as Mr. Gladstone and Mr. +Chamberlain, who was at that time a Radical; while the boys whose +politics were Conservative, and who formed the vast majority, cheered, +and kicked the Liberals, of whom there were only eight. + +Smith, Gordon, and Hart minor, three little boys aged about eleven, +were in the third division of the school. They were not in the eleven, +nor had they any hopes of ever attaining that glory, which conferred +the privilege of wearing white flannel instead of grey flannel +trousers, and a white flannel cap with a red Maltese cross on it. To +tell the truth, the spectacle of this seemingly endless game, in which +they did not have even the satisfaction of seeing their own side +victorious, began to weigh on their spirits. + +They climbed up on to the wooden scaffolding and organised a game of +their own, an utterly childish game, which consisted of one boy +throwing some dried horse chestnuts from the top of the scaffolding +into the mouth of the boy at the bottom. They soon became engrossed in +their occupation, and were thoroughly enjoying themselves, when one of +the masters, Mr. Whitehead by name, came towards them with a face like +thunder, biting his knuckles, a thing which he did when he was very +angry. + +"Go indoors at once," he said. "Go up to the third division school- +room and do two hours' work. You can copy out the Greek irregular +verbs." + +The boys, taken completely by surprise, but accepting this decree as +they accepted everything else, because it never occurred to them it +could be otherwise, trotted off, not very disconsolate, to the school- +room. It was very hot out of doors; it was cool in the third division +school-room. + +They got out their steel pens, their double-lined copy books, and +began mechanically copying out the Greek irregular verbs, with which +they were so superficially familiar, and from which they were so +fundamentally divorced. + +"Whitey," said Gordon, "was in an awful wax!" + +"I don't care," said Smith. "I'd just as soon sit here as look on at +that beastly match." + +"But why," said Hart, "have we got to do two hours' work?" + +"Oh," said Gordon, "he's just in a wax, that's all." + +And the matter was not further discussed. At six o'clock the boys had +tea. The cricket match had, of course, resulted in a crushing and +overwhelming defeat for St. James's. The rival eleven had been asked +to tea; there were cherries for tea in their honour. + +When Gordon, Smith, and Hart minor entered the dining-room they at +once perceived that an atmosphere of gloom and menacing storm was +overhanging the school. Their spirits had hitherto been unflagging; +they sat next to each other at the tea-table, but no sooner had they +sat down than they were seized by that terrible, uncomfortable feeling +so familiar to schoolboys, that something unpleasant was impending, +some crime, some accusation; some doom, the nature of which they could +not guess, was lying in ambush. This was written on the headmaster's +face. The headmaster sat at a square table in the centre of the +dining-room. The boys sat round on the further side of three tables +which formed the three sides of the square room. + +The meal passed in gloomy silence. Gordon, Smith and Hart began a +fitful conversation, but a message was immediately passed up to them +from Mr. Whitehead, who sat at the bottom of one of the tables, to +stop talking. At the end of tea the guests filed out of the room. + +The headmaster stood up and rapped on his table with a knife. + +"The whole school," he said, "will come to the library in ten minutes' +time." + +The boys left the dining-room. They began to whisper to one another +with bated breath. "What's the matter?" And the boys of the second +division shook their heads ominously, and pointing to Gordon, Smith, +and Hart, said: "You're in for it this time!" The boys of the first +division were too important to take any notice of the rest of the +school, and retired to the first division school-room in dignified +silence. + +Ten minutes later the whole school was assembled in the library, from +which one flight of stairs led to the upper storeys. The staircase was +shrouded from view by a dark curtain hanging from a Gothic arch; it +was through this curtain that the headmaster used dramatically to +appear on important occasions, and it was up this staircase that boys +guilty of cardinal offences were led off to corporal punishment. + +The boys waited in breathless silence. Acute suspense was felt by the +whole school, but by none so keenly as by Gordon, Smith, and Hart +minor. These three little boys felt perfectly sick with fear of the +unknown and the terror of having in some unknown way made themselves +responsible for the calamity which would perhaps vitally affect the +whole school. + +Presently a rustle was heard, and the headmaster swept down the +staircase and through the curtain, robed in the black silk gown of an +LL.D. He stood at a high desk which was placed opposite the staircase +in front of the boys, who sat, in the order of their divisions, on +rows of chairs. The three assistant masters walked in from a side +door, also in their gowns, and took seats to the right and left of the +headmaster's desk. There was a breathless silence. + +The headmaster began to speak in grave and icily cold tones; his face +was contracted by a permanent frown. + +"I had thought," he said, "that there were in this school some boys +who had a notion of gentlemanly behaviour, manly conduct, and common +decency. I see that I was mistaken. The behaviour of certain of you +to-day--I will not mention them because of their exceeding shame, but +you will all know whom I mean. . . ." At this moment all the boys +turned round and looked hard at Gordon, Smith, and Hart minor, who +blushed scarlet, and whose eyes filled with tears. . . . "The less +said about the matter the better," continued the headmaster, "but I +confess that it is difficult for me to understand how any one, however +young, can be so hardened and so wanton as to behave in the callous +and indecent way in which certain of you--I need not mention who--have +behaved to-day. You have disgraced the school in the eyes of +strangers; you have violated the laws of hospitality and courtesy; you +have shown that in St. James's there is not a gleam of patriotism, not +a spark of interest in the school, not a touch of that ordinary common +English manliness, that sense for the interests of the school and the +community which makes Englishmen what they are. The boys who have been +most guilty in this matter have already been punished, and I do not +propose to punish them further; but I had intended to take the whole +school for an expedition to the New Forest next week. That expedition +will be put off: in fact it will never take place. Only the eleven +shall go, and I trust that another time the miserable idlers and +loafers who have brought this shame, this disgrace on the school, who +have no self-respect and no self-control, who do not know how to +behave like gentlemen, who are idle, vulgar and depraved, will learn +by this lesson to mend their ways and to behave better in the future. +But I am sorry to say that it is not only the chief offenders, who, as +I have already said, have been punished, who are guilty in the matter. +Many of the other boys, although they did not descend to the depths of +vulgar behaviour reached by the culprits I have mentioned, showed a +considerable lack of patriotism by their apathy and their lack of +attention while the cricket match was proceeding this afternoon. I can +only hope this may be a lesson to you all; but while I trust the chief +offenders will feel specially uncomfortable, I wish to impress upon +you that you are all, with the exception of the eleven, in a sense +guilty." + +With these words the headmaster swept out of the room. + +The boys dispersed in whispering groups. Gordon, Smith, and Hart +minor, when they attempted to speak, were met with stony silence; they +were boycotted and cut by the remaining boys. + +Gordon and Smith slept in two adjoining cubicles, and in a third +adjoining cubicle was an upper division boy called Worthing. That +night, after they had gone to bed, Gordon asked Worthing whether, +among all the guilty, one just man had not been found. + +"Surely," he said, "Campbell minor, who put up the score during the +cricket match, was attentive right through the game, and wouldn't he +be allowed to go to the New Forest with the eleven?" + +"No," said Worthing, "he whistled twice." + +"Oh!" said Gordon, "I didn't know that. Of course, he can't go!" + + + + THE SHADOW OF A MIDNIGHT + A GHOST STORY + +It was nine o'clock in the evening. Sasha, the maid, had brought in +the samovar and placed it at the head of the long table. Marie +Nikolaevna, our hostess, poured out the tea. Her husband was playing +Vindt with his daughter, the doctor, and his son-in-law in another +corner of the room. And Jameson, who had just finished his Russian +lesson--he was working for the Civil Service examination--was reading +the last number of the /Rouskoe Slovo/. + +"Have you found anything interesting, Frantz Frantzovitch?" said Marie +Nikolaevna to Jameson, as she handed him a glass of tea. + +"Yes, I have," answered the Englishman, looking up. His eyes had a +clear dreaminess about them, which generally belongs only to fanatics +or visionaries, and I had no reason to believe that Jameson, who +seemed to be common sense personified, was either one or the other. +"At least," he continued, "it interests me. And it's odd--very odd." + +"What is it?" asked Marie Nikolaevna. + +"Well, to tell you what it is would mean a long story which you +wouldn't believe," said Jameson; "only it's odd--very odd." + +"Tell us the story," I said. + +"As you won't believe a word of it," Jameson repeated, "it's not much +use my telling it." + +We insisted on hearing the story, so Jameson lit a cigarette, and +began:-- + +"Two years ago," he said, "I was at Heidelberg, at the University, and +I made friends with a young fellow called Braun. His parents were +German, but he had lived five or six years in America, and he was +practically an American. I made his acquaintance by chance at a +lecture, when I first arrived, and he helped me in a number of ways. +He was an energetic and kind-hearted fellow, and we became great +friends. He was a student, but he did not belong to any /Korps/ or +/Bursenschaft/, he was working hard then. Afterwards he became an +engineer. When the summer /Semester/ came to an end, we both stayed on +at Heidelberg. One day Braun suggested that we should go for a walking +tour and explore the country. I was only too pleased, and we started. +It was glorious weather, and we enjoyed ourselves hugely. On the third +night after we had started we arrived at a village called Salzheim. It +was a picturesque little place, and there was a curious old church in +it with some interesting tombs and relics of the Thirty Years War. But +the inn where we put up for the night was even more picturesque than +the church. It had been a convent for nuns, only the greater part of +it had been burnt, and only a quaint gabled house, and a kind of tower +covered with ivy, which I suppose had once been the belfry, remained. +We had an excellent supper and went to bed early. We had been given +two bedrooms, which were airy and clean, and altogether we were +satisfied. My bedroom opened into Braun's, which was beyond it, and +had no other door of its own. It was a hot night in July, and Braun +asked me to leave the door open. I did--we opened both the windows. +Braun went to bed and fell asleep almost directly, for very soon I +heard his snores. + +"I had imagined that I was longing for sleep, but no sooner had I got +into bed than all my sleepiness left me. This was odd, because we had +walked a good many miles, and it had been a blazing hot day, and up +till then I had slept like a log the moment I got into bed. I lit a +candle and began reading a small volume of Heine I carried with me. I +heard the clock strike ten, and then eleven, and still I felt that +sleep was out of the question. I said to myself: 'I will read till +twelve and then I will stop.' My watch was on a chair by my bedside, +and when the clock struck eleven I noticed that it was five minutes +slow, and set it right. I could see the church tower from my window, +and every time the clock struck--and it struck the quarters--the noise +boomed through the room. + +"When the clock struck a quarter to twelve I yawned for the first +time, and I felt thankful that sleep seemed at last to be coming to +me. I left off reading, and taking my watch in my hand I waited for +midnight to strike. This quarter of an hour seemed an eternity. At +last the hands of my watch showed that it was one minute to twelve. I +put out my candle and began counting sixty, waiting for the clock to +strike. I had counted a hundred and sixty, and still the clock had not +struck. I counted up to four hundred; then I thought I must have made +a mistake. I lit my candle again, and looked at my watch: it was two +minutes past twelve. And still the clock had not struck! + +"A curious uncomfortable feeling came over me, and I sat up in bed +with my watch in my hand and longed to call Braun, who was peacefully +snoring, but I did not like to. I sat like this till a quarter past +twelve; the clock struck the quarter as usual. I made up my mind that +the clock must have struck twelve, and that I must have slept for a +minute--at the same time I knew I had not slept--and I put out my +candle. I must have fallen asleep almost directly. + +"The next thing I remember was waking with a start. It seemed to me +that some one had shut the door between my room and Braun's. I felt +for the matches. The match-box was empty. Up to that moment--I cannot +tell why--something--an unaccountable dread--had prevented me looking +at the door. I made an effort and looked. It was shut, and through the +cracks and through the keyhole I saw the glimmer of a light. Braun had +lit his candle. I called him, not very loudly: there was no answer. I +called again more loudly: there was still no answer. + +"Then I got out of bed and walked to the door. As I went, it was +gently and slightly opened, just enough to show me a thin streak of +light. At that moment I felt that some one was looking at me. Then it +was instantly shut once more, as softly as it had been opened. There +was not a sound to be heard. I walked on tiptoe towards the door, but +it seemed to me that I had taken a hundred years to cross the room. +And when at last I reached the door I felt I could not open it. I was +simply paralysed with fear. And still I saw the glimmer through the +key-hole and the cracks. + +"Suddenly, as I was standing transfixed with fright in front of the +door, I heard sounds coming from Braun's room, a shuffle of footsteps, +and voices talking low but distinctly in a language I could not +understand. It was not Italian, Spanish, nor French. The voices grew +all at once louder; I heard the noise of a struggle and a cry which +ended in a stifled groan, very painful and horrible to hear. Then, +whether I regained my self-control, or whether it was excess of fright +which prompted me, I don't know, but I flew to the door and tried to +open it. Some one or something was pressing with all its might against +it. Then I screamed at the top of my voice, and as I screamed I heard +the cock crow. + +"The door gave, and I almost fell into Braun's room. It was quite +dark. But Braun was waked by my screams and quietly lit a match. He +asked me gently what on earth was the matter. The room was empty and +everything was in its place. Outside the first greyness of dawn was in +the sky. + +"I said I had had a nightmare, and asked him if he had not had one as +well; but Braun said he had never slept better in his life. + +"The next day we went on with our walking tour, and when we got back +to Heidelberg Braun sailed for America. I never saw him again, +although we corresponded frequently, and only last week I had a letter +from him, dated Nijni Novgorod, saying he would be at Moscow before +the end of the month. + +"And now I suppose you are all wondering what this can have to do with +anything that's in the newspaper. Well, listen," and he read out the +following paragraph from the /Rouskoe Slovo/:-- + + "Samara, II, ix. In the centre of the town, in the Hotel ----, a + band of armed swindlers attacked a German engineer named Braun and + demanded money. On his refusal one of the robbers stabbed Braun + with a knife. The robbers, taking the money which was on him, + amounting to 500 roubles, got away. Braun called for assistance, + but died of his wounds in the night. It appears that he had met + the swindlers at a restaurant." + +"Since I have been in Russia," Jameson added, "I have often thought +that I knew what language it was that was talked behind the door that +night in the inn at Salzheim, but now I know it was Russian." + + + + JEAN FRANCOIS + +Jean Francois was a vagabond by nature, a balladmonger by profession. +Like many poets in many times, he found that the business of writing +verse was more amusing than lucrative; and he was constrained to +supplement the earnings of his pen and his guitar by other and more +profitable work. He had run away from what had been his home at the +age of seven (he was a foundling, and his adopted father was a shoe- +maker), without having learnt a trade. When the necessity arose he +decided to supplement the art of balladmongering by that of stealing. +He was skilful in both arts: he wrote verse, sang ballads, picked +pockets (in the city), and stole horses (in the country) with equal +facility and success. Some of his verse has reached posterity, for +instance the "Ballads du Paradis Peint," which he wrote on white +vellum, and illustrated himself with illuminations in red, blue and +gold, for the Dauphin. It ends thus in the English version of a +Balliol scholar:-- + + Prince, do not let your nose, your Royal nose, + Your large Imperial nose get out of joint; + Forbear to criticise my perfect prose-- + Painting on vellum is my weakest point. + +Again, the /ballade/ of which the "Envoi" runs:-- + + Prince, when you light your pipe with radium spills, + Especially invented for the King-- + Remember this, the worst of human ills: + Life without matches is a dismal thing, + +is, in reality, only a feeble adaptation of his "Priez pour feu le +vrai tresor de vie." + +But although Jean Francois was not unknown during his lifetime, and +although, as his verse testifies, he knew his name would live among +those of the enduring poets after his death, his life was one of rough +hardship, brief pleasures, long anxieties, and constant uncertainty. +Sometimes for a few days at a time he would live in riotous luxury, +but these rare epochs would immediately be succeeded by periods of +want bordering on starvation. Besides which he was nearly always in +peril of his life; the shadow of the gallows darkened his merriment, +and the thought of the wheel made bitter his joy. Yet in spite of this +hazardous and harassing life, in spite of the sharp and sudden +transitions in his career, in spite of the menace of doom, the hint of +the wheel and the gallows, his fund of joy remained undiminished, and +this we see in his verse, which reflects with equal vividness his +alternate moods of infinite enjoyment and unmitigated despair. For +instance, the only two triolets which have survived from his "Trente +deux Triolets joyeux and tristes" are an example of his twofold +temperament. They run thus in the literal and exact translations of +them made by an eminent official:-- + + I wish I was dead, + And lay deep in the grave. + I've a pain in my head, + I wish I was dead. + In a coffin of lead-- + With the Wise and the Brave-- + I wish I was dead, + And lay deep in the grave. + +This passionate utterance immediately preceded, in the original text, +the following verses in which his buoyant spirits rise once more to +the surface:-- + + Thank God I'm alive + In the light of the Sun! + It's a quarter to five; + Thank God I'm alive! + Now the hum of the hive + Of the world has begun, + Thank God I'm alive + In the light of the Sun! + +A more plaintive, in fact a positively wistful note, which is almost +incongruous amongst the definite and sharply defined moods of Jean +Francois, is struck in the sonnet of which only the first line has +reached us: "I wish I had a hundred thousand pounds." ("Voulentiers +serais pauvre avec dix mille escus.") But in nearly all his verse, +whether joyous as in the "Chant de vin et vie," or gloomy as in the +"Ballade des Treize Pendus," there is a curious recurrent aspiration +towards a warm fire, a sure and plentiful supper, a clean bed, and a +long, long sleep. Whether Jean Francois moped or made merry, and in +spite of the fact that he enjoyed his roving career and would not have +exchanged it for the throne of an Emperor or the money-bags of +Croesus, there is no doubt that he experienced the burden of an +immense fatigue. He was never quite warm enough; always a little +hungry; and never got as much sleep as he desired. A place where he +could sleep his fill represented the highest joys of Heaven to him; +and he looked forward to Death as a traveller looks forward to a warm +inn where (its terrible threshold once passed), a man can sleep the +clock round. Witness the sonnet which ends (the translation is +mine):-- + + For thou has never turned + A stranger from thy gates or hast denied, + O hospitable Death, a place to rest. + +And it is of his death and not of his life or works which I wish to +tell, for it was singular. He died on Christmas Eve, 1432. The winter +that year in the north of France was, as is well known, terrible for +its severe cold. The rich stayed at home, the poor died, and the +unfortunate third estate of gipsies, balladmongers, tinkers, tumblers, +and thieves had no chance of displaying their dexterity. In fact, they +starved. Ever since the 1st of December Jean Francois had been unable +to make a silver penny either by his song or his sleight of hand. +Christmas was drawing near, and he was starving; and this was +especially bitter to him, as it was his custom (for he was not only a +lover of good cheer, but a good Catholic and a strict observer of +fasts and feasts) to keep the great day of Christendom fittingly. This +year he had nothing to keep it with. Luck seemed to be against him; +for three days before Christmas he met in a dark side street of the +town the rich and stingy Sieur de Ranquet. He picked the pocket of +that nobleman, but owing to the extreme cold his fingers faltered, and +he was discovered. He ran like a hare and managed easily enough to +outstrip the miser, and to conceal himself in a den where he was well +known. But unfortunately the matter did not end there. The Sieur de +Ranquet was influential at Court; he was implacable as well as +avaricious, and his disposition positively forbade him to forgive any +one who had nearly picked his pocket. Besides which he knew that Jean +had often stolen his horses. He made a formal complaint at high +quarters, and a warrant was issued against Jean, offering a large sum +in silver coin to the man who should bring him, alive or dead, to +justice. + +Now the police were keenly anxious to make an end of Jean. They knew +he was guilty of a hundred thefts, but such was his skill that they +had never been able to convict him; he had often been put in prison, +but he had always been released for want of evidence. This time no +mistake was possible. So Jean, aware of the danger, fled from the city +and sought a gipsy encampment in a neighbouring forest, where he had +friends. These gipsy friends of his were robbers, outlaws, murderers +and horse-stealers all of them, and hardened criminals; they called +themselves gipsies, but it was merely a courtesy title. + +On Christmas Eve--it was snowing hard--Jean was walking through the +forest towards the town, ready for a desperate venture, for in the +camp they were starving, and he was sick almost to death of his +hunted, miserable life. As he plunged through the snow he heard a +moan, and he saw a child sitting at the roots of a tall tree crying. +He asked what was the matter. The child--it was a little boy about +five years old--said that it had run away from home because its nurse +had beaten it, and had lost its way. + +"Where do you live?" asked Jean. + +"My father is the Sieur de Ranquet," said the child. + +At that moment Jean heard the shouts of his companions in the +distance. + +"I want to go home," said the little boy quietly. "You must take me +home," and he put his hand into Jean's hand and looked up at him and +smiled. + +Jean thought for a moment. The boy was richly dressed; he had a large +ruby cross hanging from a golden collar worth many hundred gold +pieces. Jean knew well what would happen if his gipsy companions came +across the child. They would kill it instantly. + +"All right," said Jean, "climb on my back." + +The little boy climbed on to his back, and Jean trudged through the +snow. In an hour's time they reached the Sieur de Ranquet's castle; +the place was alive with bustling men and flaring torches, for the +Sieur's heir had been missed. + +The Sieur looked at Jean and recognised him immediately. Jean was a +public character, and especially well known to the Sieur de Ranquet. A +few words were whispered. The child was sent to bed, and the archers +civilly lead Jean to his dungeon. Jean was tired and sleepy. He fell +asleep at once on the straw. They told him he would have to get up +early the next morning, in time for a long, cold journey. The gallows, +they added, would be ready. + +But in the night Jean dreamed a dream: he saw a child in glittering +clothes and with a shining face who came into the dungeon and broke +the bars. + +The child said: "I am little St. Nicholas, the children's friend, and +I think you are tired, so I'm going to take you to a quiet place. + +Jean followed the child, who led him by the hand till they came to a +nice inn, very high up on the top of huge mountains. There was a +blazing log fire in the room, a clean warm bed, and the windows opened +on a range of snowy mountains, bright as diamonds. And the stars +twinkled in the sky like the candles of a Christmas tree. + +"You can go to bed here," said St. Nicholas, "nobody will disturb you, +and when you do wake you will be quite happy and rested. Good-night, +Jean." And he went away. + + * * * * * + +The next day in the dawn, when the archers came to fetch Jean, they +found he was fast asleep. They thought it was almost a pity to wake +him, because he looked so happy and contented in his sleep; but when +they tried they found it was impossible. + + + + THE FLUTE OF CHANG LIANG + + To P. Kershaw + +The village was called Moe-tung. It was on the edge of the big main +road which leads from Liao-yang to Ta-shi-chiao. It consisted of a few +baked mud-houses, a dilapidated temple, a wall, a clump of willows, +and a pond. One of the houses I knew well; in its square open yard, in +which the rude furniture of toil lay strewn about, I had halted more +than once for my midday meal, when riding from Liao-yang to the South. +I had been entertained there by the owner of the house, a brawny +husbandman and his fat brown children, and they had given me eggs and +Indian corn. Now it was empty; the house was deserted; the owner, his +wife and his children, had all gone, to the city probably, to seek +shelter. We occupied the house; and the Cossacks at once made a fire +with the front door and any fragments of wood they could find. The +house was converted into a stable and a kitchen, and the officers' +quarters were established in another smaller building across the road, +on the edge of a great plain, which was bright green with the standing +giant millet. + +This smaller cottage had an uncultivated garden in front of it, and a +kind of natural summer-house made by the twining of a pumpkin plant +which spread its broad leaves over some stakes. We lay down to rest in +this garden. About five miles to the north of us was the town of Liao- +yang; to the east in the distance was a range of pale blue hills, and +immediately in front of us to the south, and scarcely a mile off, was +the big hill of Sho-shantze. It was five o'clock in the afternoon, and +we had been on the move since two o'clock in the morning. The Cossacks +brought us tea and pancakes, and presently news came from the town +that the big battle would be fought the next day: the big battle; the +real battle, which had been expected for so long and which had been +constantly put off. There was a complete stillness everywhere. The +officers unpacked their valises and their camp-beds. Every one +arranged his bed and his goods in his chosen place, and it seemed as +if we had merely begun once more to settle down for a further period +of siesta in the long picnic which had been going on for the last two +months. Nobody was convinced in spite of the authentic news which we +had received, that the Japanese would attack the next day. + +The sunset faded into a twilight of delicious summer calm. + +From the hills in the east came the noise of a few shots fired by the +batteries there, and a captive balloon soared slowly, like a soap- +bubble, into the eastern sky. I walked into the village; here and +there fires were burning, and I was attracted by the sight of the +deserted temple in which the wooden painted gods were grinning, bereft +of their priest and of their accustomed dues. I sat down on the mossy +steps of the little wooden temple, and somewhere, either from one of +the knolls hard by or from one of the houses, came the sound of a +flute, or rather of some primitive wooden pipe, which repeated over +and over again a monotonous and piercingly sad little tune. I wondered +whether it was one of the soldiers playing, but I decided this could +not be the case, as the tune was more eastern than any Russian tune. +On the other hand, it seemed strange that any Chinaman should be +about. The tune continued to break the perfect stillness with its +iterated sadness, and a vague recollection came into my mind of a +Chinese legend or poem I had read long ago in London, about a flute- +player called Chang Liang. But I could not bring my memory to work; +its tired wheels all seemed to be buzzing feebly in different +directions, and my thoughts came like thistledown and seemed to elude +all efforts of concentration. And so I capitulated utterly to my +drowsiness, and fell asleep as I sat on the steps of the temple. + +I thought I had been sleeping for a long time and had woken before the +dawn: the earth was misty, although the moon was shining; and I was no +longer in the temple, but back once more at the edge of the plain. +"They must have fetched me back while I slept," I thought to myself. +But when I looked round I saw no trace of the officers, nor of the +Cossacks, nor of the small house and the garden, and, stranger still, +the millet had been reaped and the plain was covered with low stubble, +and on it were pitched some curiously-shaped tents, which I saw were +guarded by soldiers. But these soldiers were Chinamen, and yet unlike +any Chinamen I had ever seen; for some of them carried halberds, the +double-armed halberds of the period of Charles I., and others, +halberds with a crescent on one side, like those which were used in +the days of Henry VII. And I then noticed that a whole multitude of +soldiers were lying asleep on the ground, armed with two-edged swords +and bows and arrows. And their clothes seemed unfamiliar and brighter +than the clothes which Chinese soldiers wear nowadays. + +As I wondered what all this meant, a note of music came stealing +through the night, and at first it seemed to be the same tune as I +heard in the temple before I dropped off to sleep; but presently I was +sure that this was a mistake, for the sound was richer and more +mellow, and like that of a bell, only of an enchanted bell, such as +that which is fabled to sound beneath the ocean. And the music seemed +to rise and fall, to grow clear and full, and just as it was floating +nearer and nearer, it died away in a sigh: but as it did so the +distant hills seemed to catch it and to send it back in the company of +a thousand echoes, till the whole night was filled and trembling with +an unearthly chorus. The sleeping soldiers gradually stirred and sat +listening spellbound to the music. And in the eyes of the sentries, +who were standing as motionless as bronze statues in front of the +tents, I could see the tears glistening. And the whole of the sleeping +army awoke from its slumber and listened to the strange sound. From +the tents came men in glittering silks (the Generals, I supposed) and +listened also. The soldiers looked at each other and said no word. And +then all at once, as though obeying some silent word of command given +by some unseen captain, one by one they walked away over the plain, +leaving their tents behind them. They all marched off into the east, +as if they were following the music into the heart of the hills, and +soon, of all that great army which had been gathered together on the +plain, not one man was left. Then the music changed and seemed to grow +different and more familiar, and with a start I became aware that I +had been asleep and dreaming, and that I was sitting on the temple +steps once more in the twilight, and that not far off, round a fire, +some soldiers were singing. It was a dream, and my sleep could not +have been a long one, for it was still twilight and the darkness had +not yet come. + +Fully awake now, I remembered clearly the old legend which had haunted +me, and had taken shape in my dream. It was that of an army which on +the night before the battle had heard the flute of Chang Liang. By his +playing he had brought before the rude soldiers the far-off scenes of +their childhood, which they had not looked upon for years--the sights +and sounds of their homes, the faces and the spots which were familiar +to them and dear. And they, as they heard this music, and felt these +memories well up in their hearts, were seized with a longing and a +desire for home so potent and so imperative that one by one they left +the battlefield in silence, and when the enemy came at the dawn, they +found the plain deserted and empty, for in one minute the flute of +Chang Liang had stolen the hearts of eight thousand men. + +And I felt certain that I had heard the flute of Chang Liang this +night and that the soldiers had heard it too; for now round a fire a +group of them were listening to the song of one of their comrades, a +man from the south, who was singing of the quiet waters of the Don, +and of a Cossack who had come back to his native land after many days +and found his true love wedded to another. I felt it was the flute of +Chang Liang which had prompted the southerner to sing, and without +doubt the men saw before them the great moon shining over the broad +village street in the dark July and August nights, and heard the noise +of dancing and song and the cheerful rhythmic accompaniment of the +concertina. Or (if they came from the south) they saw the smiling +thatched farms, whitewashed, or painted in light green distemper, with +vines growing on their walls; or again, they felt the smell of the +beanfields in June, and saw in their minds' eye the panorama of the +melting snows, when at a fairy touch the long winter is defeated, the +meadows are flooded, and the trees seem to float about in the shining +water like shapes invoked by a wizard. They saw these things and +yearned towards them with all their hearts, here in this uncouth +country where they were to fight a strange people for some +unaccountable reason. But Chang Liang had played his flute to them in +vain. It was in vain that he had tried to lure them back to their +homes, and in vain that he had melted their hearts with the memories +of their childhood. For the battle began at dawn the next morning, and +when the enemy attacked they found an army there to meet them; and the +battle lasted for two days on this very spot; and many of the men to +whom Chang Liang had brought back through his flute the sights and the +sounds of their childhood, were fated never to hear again those +familiar sounds, nor to see the land and the faces which they loved. + + + + "WHAT IS TRUTH?" + + To E. I. Huber + +Sitting opposite me in the second-class carriage of the express train +which was crawling at a leisurely pace from Moscow to the south was a +little girl who looked as if she were about twelve years old, with her +mother. The mother was a large fair-haired person, with a good-natured +expression. They had a dog with them, and the little girl, whose whole +face twitched every now and then from St. Vitus' dance, got out at +nearly every station to buy food for the dog. On the same side of the +carriage, in the opposite corner, another lady (thin, fair, and +wearing a pince-nez) was reading the newspaper. She and the mother of +the child soon made friends over the dog. That is to say, the dog made +friends with the strange lady and was reproved by its mistress, and +the strange lady said: "Please don't scold him. He is not in the least +in my way, and I like dogs." They then began to talk. + +The large lady was going to the country. She and her daughter had been +ordered to go there by the doctor. She had spent six weeks in Moscow +under medical treatment, and they had now been told to finish this +cure with a thorough rest in the country air. The thin lady asked her +the name of her doctor, and before ascertaining what was the disease +in question, recommended another doctor who had cured a friend of +hers, almost as though by miracle, of heart disease. The large lady +seemed interested and wrote down the direction of the marvellous +physician. She was herself suffering, she said, from a nervous +illness, and her daughter had St. Vitus' dance. They were so far quite +satisfied with their doctor. They talked for some time exclusively +about medical matters, comparing notes about doctors, diseases, and +remedies. The thin lady said she had been cured of all her ills by +aspirin and cinnamon. + +In the course of the conversation the stout lady mentioned her +husband, who, it turned out, was the head of the gendarmerie in a town +in Siberia, not far from Irkutsk. This seemed to interest the thin +lady immensely. She at once asked what were his political views, and +what she herself thought about politics. + +The large lady seemed to be reluctant to talk politics and evaded the +questions for some time, but after much desultory conversation, which +always came back to the same point, she said:-- + +"My husband is a Conservative; they call him a 'Black Hundred,' but +it's most unfair and untrue, because he is a very good man and very +just. He has his own opinions and he is sincere. He does not believe +in the revolution or in the revolutionaries. He took the oath to serve +the Emperor when everything went quietly and well, and now, although I +have often begged him to leave the Service, he says it would be very +wrong to leave just because it is dangerous. 'I have taken the oath,' +he says, 'and I must keep it.' " + +Here she stopped, but after some further questions on the part of the +thin lady, she said: "I never had time or leisure to think of these +questions. I was married when I was sixteen. I have had eight +children, and they all died one after the other except this one, who +was the eldest. I used to see political exiles and prisoners, and I +used to feel sympathy for them. I used to hear about people being sent +here and there, and sometimes I used to go down on my knees to my +husband to do what he could for them, but I never thought about there +being any particular idea at the back of all this." Then after a short +pause she added: "It first dawned on me at Moscow. It was after the +big strike, and I was on my way home. I had been staying with some +friends in the country, and I happened by chance to see the funeral of +that man Bauman, the doctor, who was killed. I was very much impressed +when I saw that huge procession go past, all the men singing the +funeral march, and I understood that Bauman himself had nothing to do +with it. Who cared about Bauman? But I understood that he was a +symbol. I saw that there must be a big idea which moves all these +people to give up everything, to go to prison, to kill, and be killed. +I understood this for the first time at that funeral. I cried when the +crowd went past. I understood there was a big idea, a great cause +behind it all. Then I went home. + +"There were disorders in Siberia: you know in Siberia we are much +freer than you are. There is only one society. The officials, the +political people, revolutionaries, exiles, everybody, in fact, all +meet constantly. I used to go to political meetings, and to see and +talk with the Liberal and revolutionary leaders. Then I began to be +disappointed because what had always struck me as unjust was that one +man, just because he happened to be, say, Ivan Pavlovitch, should be +able to rule over another man who happened to be, say, Ivan +Ivanovitch. And now that these Republics were being made, it seemed +that the same thing was beginning all over again--that all the places +of authority were being seized and dealt out amongst another lot of +people who were behaving exactly like those who had authority before. +The arbitrary authority was there just the same, only it had changed +hands, and this puzzled me very much, and I began to ask myself, +'Where is the truth?' " + +"What did your husband think?" asked the thin lady. + +"My husband did not like to talk about these things," she answered. +"He says, 'I am in the Service, and I have to serve. It is not my +business to have opinions.' " + +"But all those Republics didn't last very long," rejoined the thin +lady. + +"No," continued the other; "we never had a Republic, and after a time +they arrested the chief agitator, who was the soul of the +revolutionary movement in our town, a wonderful orator. I had heard +him speak several times and been carried away. When he was arrested I +saw him taken to prison, and he said 'Good-bye' to the people, and +bowed to them in the street in such an exaggerated theatrical way that +I was astonished and felt uncomfortable. Here, I thought, is a man who +can sacrifice himself for an idea, and who seemed to be thoroughly +sincere, and yet he behaves theatrically and poses as if he were not +sincere. I felt more puzzled than ever, and I asked my husband to let +me go and see him in prison. I thought that perhaps after talking to +him I could solve the riddle, and find out once for all who was right +and who was wrong. My husband let me go, and I was admitted into his +cell. + +" 'You know who I am,' I said, 'since I am here, and I am admitted +inside these locked doors?' He nodded. Then I asked him whether I +could be of any use to him. He said that he had all that he wanted; +and like this the ice was broken, and I asked him presently if he +believed in the whole movement. He said that until the 17th of +October, when the Manifesto had been issued, he had believed with all +his soul in it; but the events of the last months had caused him to +change his mind. He now thought that the work of his party, and, in +fact, the whole movement, which had been going on for over fifty +years, had really been in vain. 'We shall have,' he said, 'to begin +again from the very beginning, because the Russian people are not +ready for us yet, and probably another fifty years will have to go by +before they are ready.' + +"I left him very much perplexed. He was set free not long afterwards, +in virtue of some manifesto, and because there had been no disorders +in our town and he had not been the cause of any bloodshed. Soon after +he came out of prison my husband met him, and he said to my husband: +'I suppose you will not shake hands with me?' And my husband replied: +'Because our views are different there is no reason why both of us +should not be honest men,' and he shook hands with him." + +The conversation now became a discussion about the various ideals of +various people and parties holding different political views. The +large lady kept on expressing the puzzled state of mind in which she +was. + +The whole conversation, of which I have given a very condensed report, +was spread over a long time, and often interrupted. Later they reached +the subject of political assassination, and the large lady said:-- + +"About two months after I came home that year, one day when I was out +driving with my daughter in a sledge the revolutionaries fired six +shots at us from revolvers. We were not hit, but one bullet went +through the coachman's cap. Ever since then I have had nervous fits +and my daughter has had St. Vitus' dance. We have to go to Moscow +every year to be treated. And it is so difficult. I don't know how to +manage. When I am at home I feel as if I ought to go, and when I am +away I never have a moment's peace, because I cannot help thinking the +whole time that my husband is in danger. A few weeks after they shot +at us I met some of the revolutionary party at a meeting, and I asked +them why they had shot at myself and my daughter. I could have +understood it if they had shot at my husband. But why at us? He said: +'When the wood is cut down, the chips fly about.'[*] And now I don't +know what to think about it all. + +[*] A Russian proverb. + +"Sometimes I think it is all a mistake, and I feel that the +revolutionaries are posing and playing a part, and that so soon as +they get the upper hand they will be as bad as what we have now; and +then I say to myself, all the same they are acting in a cause, and it +is a great cause, and they are working for liberty and for the people. +And, then, would the people be better off if they had their way? The +more I think of it the more puzzled I am. Who is right? Is my husband +right? Are they right? Is it a great cause? How can they be wrong if +they are imprisoned and killed for what they believe? Where is the +truth, and what is truth?" + + + + A LUNCHEON-PARTY + + I + +Mrs. Bergmann was a widow. She was American by birth and marriage, and +English by education and habits. She was a fair, beautiful woman, with +large eyes and a white complexion. Her weak point was ambition, and +ambition with her took the form of luncheon-parties. + +It was one summer afternoon that she was seized with the great idea of +her life. It consisted in giving a luncheon-party which should be more +original and amusing than any other which had ever been given in +London. The idea became a mania. It left her no peace. It possessed +her like venom or like madness. She could think of nothing else. She +racked her brains in imagining how it could be done. But the more she +was harassed by this aim the further off its realisation appeared to +her to be. At last it began to weigh upon her. She lost her spirits +and her appetite; her friends began to remark with anxiety on the +change in her behaviour and in her looks. She herself felt that the +situation was intolerable, and that success or suicide lay before her. + +One evening towards the end of June, as she was sitting in her lovely +drawing-room in her house in Mayfair, in front of her tea-table, on +which the tea stood untasted, brooding over the question which +unceasingly tormented her, she cried out, half aloud:-- + +"I'd sell my soul to the devil if he would give me what I wish." + +At that moment the footman entered the room and said there was a +gentleman downstairs who wished to speak with her. + +"What is his name?" asked Mrs. Bergmann. + +The footman said he had not caught the gentleman's name, and he handed +her a card on a tray. + +She took the card. On it was written:-- + + MR. NICHOLAS L. SATAN, + I, Pandemonium Terrace, + BURNING MARLE, HELL. + Telephone, No. I Central. + +"Show him up," said Mrs. Bergmann, quite naturally, as though she had +been expecting the visitor. She wondered at her own behaviour, and +seemed to herself to be acting inevitably, as one does in dreams. + +Mr. Satan was shown in. He had a professional air about him, but not +of the kind that suggests needy or even learned professionalism. He +was dark; his features were sharp and regular, his eyes keen, his +complexion pale, his mouth vigorous, and his chin prominent. He was +well dressed in a frock coat, black tie, and patent leather boots. He +would never have been taken for a conjurer or a shop-walker, but he +might have been taken for a slightly depraved Art-photographer who had +known better days. He sat down near the tea-table opposite Mrs. +Bergmann, holding his top hat, which had a slight mourning band round +it, in his hand. + +"I understand, madam," he spoke with an even American intonation, "you +wish to be supplied with a guest who will make all other luncheon- +parties look, so to speak, like thirty cents." + +"Yes, that is just what I want," answered Mrs. Bergmann, who continued +to be surprised at herself. + +"Well, I reckon there's no one living who'd suit," said Mr. Satan, +"and I'd better supply you with a celebrity of /a/ former generation." +He then took out a small pocket-book from his coat pocket, and quickly +turning over its leaves he asked in a monotonous tone: "Would you like +a Philosopher? Anaxagoras, Aristotle, Aurelius, M.?" + +"Oh! no," answered Mrs. Bergmann with decision, "they would ruin any +luncheon." + +"A Saint?" suggested Mr. Satan, "Antony, Ditto of Padua, Athanasius, +Augustine, Anselm?" + +"Good heavens, no," said Mrs. Bergmann. + +"A Theologian, good arguer?" asked Mr. Satan, "Aquinas, T?" + +"No," interrupted Mrs. Bergmann, "for heaven's sake don't always give +me the A's, or we shall never get on to anything. You'll be offering +me Adam and Abel next." + +"I beg your pardon," said Mr. Satan, "Latimer, Laud--Historic +Interest, Church and Politics combined," he added quickly. + +"I don't want a clergyman," said Mrs. Bergmann. + +"Artist?" said Mr. Satan, "Andrea del Sarto, Angelo, M., Apelles?" + +"You're going back to the A's," interrupted Mrs. Bergmann. + +"Bellini, Benvenuto Cellini, Botticelli?" he continued imperturbably. + +"What's the use of them when I can get Sargent every day?" asked Mrs. +Bergmann. + +"A man of action, perhaps? Alexander, Bonaparte, Caesar, J., Cromwell, +O., Hannibal?" + +"Too heavy for luncheon," she answered, "they would do for /dinner/." + +"Plain statesman? Bismarck, Count; Chatham, Lord; Franklin, B; +Richelieu, Cardinal." + +"That would make the members of the Cabinet feel uncomfortable," she +said. + +"A Monarch? Alfred; beg pardon, he's an A. Richard III., Peter the +Great, Louis XI., Nero?" + +"No," said Mrs. Bergmann. "I can't have a Royalty. It would make it +too stiff." + +"I have it," said Mr. Satan, "a highwayman: Dick Turpin; or a +housebreaker: Jack Sheppard or Charles Peace?" + +"Oh! no," said Mrs. Bergmann, "they might steal the Sevres." + +"A musician? Bach or Beethoven?" he suggested. + +"He's getting into the B's now," thought Mrs. Bergmann. "No," she +added aloud, "we should have to ask him to play, and he can't play +Wagner, I suppose, and musicians are so touchy." + +"I think I have it," said Mr. Satan, "a wit: Dr. Johnson, Sheridan, +Sidney Smith?" + +"We should probably find their jokes dull /now/," said Mrs. Bergmann, +thoughtfully. + +"Miscellaneous?" inquired Mr. Satan, and turning over several leaves +of his notebook, he rattled out the following names: "Alcibiades, kind +of statesman; Beau Brummel, fop; Cagliostro, conjurer; Robespierre, +politician; Charles Stuart, Pretender; Warwick, King-maker; Borgia, +A., Pope; Ditto, C., toxicologist; Wallenstein, mercenary; Bacon, +Roger, man of science; Ditto, F., dishonest official; Tell, W., +patriot; Jones, Paul, pirate; Lucullus, glutton; Simon Stylites, +eccentric; Casanova, loose liver; Casabianca, cabin-boy; Chicot, +jester; Sayers, T., prize-fighter; Cook, Captain, tourist; +Nebuchadnezzar, food-faddist; Juan, D., lover; Froissart, war +correspondent; Julian, apostate?" + +"Don't you see," said Mrs. Bergmann, "we must have some one everybody +has heard of?" + +"David Garrick, actor and wit?" suggested Mr. Satan. + +"It's no good having an actor nobody has seen act," said Mrs. +Bergmann. + +"What about a poet?" asked Mr. Satan, "Homer, Virgil, Dante, Byron, +Shakespeare?" + +"Shakespeare!" she cried out, "the very thing. Everybody has heard of +Shakespeare, more or less, and I expect he'd get on with everybody, +and wouldn't feel offended if I asked Alfred Austin or some other poet +to meet him. Can you get me Shakespeare?" + +"Certainly," said Mr. Satan, "day and date?" + +"It must be Thursday fortnight," said Mrs. Bergmann. "And what, ah--er +--your terms?" + +"The usual terms," he answered. "In return for supernatural service +rendered you during your lifetime, your soul reverts to me at your +death." + +Mrs. Bergmann's brain began to work quickly. She was above all things +a practical woman, and she immediately felt she was being defrauded. + +"I cannot consent to such terms," she said. "Surely you recognise the +fundamental difference between this proposed contract and those which +you concluded with others--with Faust, for instance? They sold the +full control of their soul after death on condition of your putting +yourself at their entire disposal during the whole of their lifetime, +whereas you ask me to do the same thing in return for a few hours' +service. The proposal is preposterous." + +Mr. Satan rose from his chair. "In that case, madam," he said, "I have +the honour to wish you a good afternoon." + +"Stop a moment," said Mrs. Bergmann, "I don't see why we shouldn't +arrive at a compromise. I am perfectly willing that you should have +the control over my soul for a limited number of years--I believe +there are precedents for such a course--let us say a million years." + +"Ten million," said Mr. Satan, quietly but firmly. + +"In that case," answered Mrs. Bergmann, "we will take no notice of +leap year, and we will count 365 days in every year." + +"Certainly," said Mr. Satan, with an expression of somewhat ruffled +dignity, "we always allow leap year, but, of course, thirteen years +will count as twelve." + +"Of course," said Mrs. Bergmann with equal dignity. + +"Then perhaps you will not mind signing the contract at once," said +Mr. Satan, drawing from his pocket a type-written page. + +Mrs. Bergmann walked to the writing-table and took the paper from his +hand. + +"Over the stamp, please," said Mr. Satan. + +"Must I--er--sign it in blood?" asked Mrs. Bergmann, hesitatingly. + +"You can if you like," said Mr. Satan, "but I prefer red ink; it is +quicker and more convenient." + +He handed her a stylograph pen. + +"Must it be witnessed?" she asked. + +"No," he replied, "these kind of documents don't need a witness." + +In a firm, bold handwriting Mrs. Bergmann signed her name in red ink +across the sixpenny stamp. She half expected to hear a clap of thunder +and to see Mr. Satan disappear, but nothing of the kind occurred. Mr. +Satan took the document, folded it, placed it in his pocket-book, took +up his hat and gloves, and said: + +"Mr. William Shakespeare will call to luncheon on Thursday week. At +what hour is the luncheon to be?" + +"One-thirty," said Mrs. Bergmann. + +"He may be a few minutes late," answered Mr. Satan. "Good afternoon, +madam," and he bowed and withdrew. + +Mrs. Bergmann chuckled to herself when she was alone. "I have done +him," she thought to herself, "because ten million years in eternity +is nothing. He might just as well have said one second as ten million +years, since anything less than eternity in eternity is nothing. It is +curious how stupid the devil is in spite of all his experience. Now I +must think about my invitations." + + + + II + +The morning of Mrs. Bergmann's luncheon had arrived. She had asked +thirteen men and nine women. + +But an hour before luncheon an incident happened which nearly drove +Mrs. Bergmann distracted. One of her guests, who was also one of her +most intimate friends, Mrs. Lockton, telephoned to her saying she had +quite forgotten, but she had asked on that day a man to luncheon whom +she did not know, and who had been sent to her by Walford, the famous +professor. She ended the message by saying she would bring the +stranger with her. + +"What is his name?" asked Mrs. Bergmann, not without intense +irritation, meaning to put a veto on the suggestion. + +"His name is----" and at that moment the telephone communication was +interrupted, and in spite of desperate efforts Mrs. Bergmann was +unable to get on to Mrs. Lockton again. She reflected that it was +quite useless for her to send a message saying that she had no room at +her table, because Angela Lockton would probably bring the stranger +all the same. Then she further reflected that in the excitement caused +by the presence of Shakespeare it would not really much matter whether +there was a stranger there or not. A little before half-past one the +guests began to arrive. Lord Pantry of Assouan, the famous soldier, +was the first comer. He was soon followed by Professor Morgan, an +authority on Greek literature; Mr. Peebles, the ex-Prime Minister; +Mrs. Hubert Baldwin, the immensely popular novelist; the fascinating +Mrs. Rupert Duncan, who was lending her genius to one of Ibsen's +heroines at that moment; Miss Medea Tring, one of the latest American +beauties; Corporal, the portrait-painter; Richard Giles, critic and +man of letters; Hereward Blenheim, a young and rising politician, who +before the age of thirty had already risen higher than most men of +sixty; Sir Horace Silvester, K.C.M.G., the brilliant financier, with +his beautiful wife Lady Irene; Professor Leo Newcastle, the eminent +man of science; Lady Hyacinth Gloucester, and Mrs. Milden, who were +well known for their beauty and charm; Osmond Hall, the paradoxical +playwright; Monsieur Faubourg, the psychological novelist; Count +Sciarra, an Italian nobleman, about fifty years old, who had written a +history of the Popes, and who was now staying in London; Lady Herman, +the beauty of a former generation, still extremely handsome; and +Willmott, the successful actor-manager. They were all assembled in the +drawing-room upstairs, talking in knots and groups, and pervaded by a +feeling of pleasurable excitement and expectation, so much so that +conversation was intermittent, and nearly everybody was talking about +the weather. The Right Hon. John Lockton, the eminent lawyer, was the +last guest to arrive. + +"Angela will be here in a moment," he explained; "she asked me to come +on first." + +Mrs. Bergmann grew restless. It was half-past one, and no Shakespeare. +She tried to make her guests talk, with indifferent success. The +expectation was too great. Everybody was absorbed by the thought of +what was going to happen next. Ten minutes passed thus, and Mrs. +Bergmann grew more and more anxious. + +At last the bell rang, and soon Mrs. Lockton walked upstairs, leading +with her a quite insignificant, ordinary-looking, middle-aged, rather +portly man with shiny black hair, bald on the top of his head, and a +blank, good-natured expression. + +"I'm so sorry to be so late, Louise, dear," she said. "Let me +introduce Mr. ---- to you." And whether she had forgotten the name or +not, Mrs. Bergmann did not know or care at the time, but it was +mumbled in such a manner that it was impossible to catch it. Mrs. +Bergmann shook hands with him absent-mindedly, and, looking at the +clock, saw that it was ten minutes to two. + +"I have been deceived," she thought to herself, and anger rose in her +breast like a wave. At the same time she felt the one thing necessary +was not to lose her head, or let anything damp the spirits of her +guests. + +"We'll go down to luncheon directly," she said. "I'm expecting some +one else, but he probably won't come till later." She led the way and +everybody trooped downstairs to the dining-room, feeling that +disappointment was in store for them. Mrs. Bergmann left the place on +her right vacant; she did not dare fill it up, because in her heart of +hearts she felt certain Shakespeare would arrive, and she looked +forward to a /coup de theatre/, which would be quite spoilt if his +place was occupied. On her left sat Count Sciarra; the unknown friend +of Angela Lockton sat at the end of the table next to Willmott. + +The luncheon started haltingly. Angela Lockton's friend was heard +saying in a clear voice that the dust in London was very trying. + +"Have you come from the country?" asked M. Faubourg. "I myself am just +returned from Oxford, where I once more admired your admirable English +lawns--/vos pelouses seculaires/." + +"Yes," said the stranger, "I only came up to town to-day, because it +seems indeed a waste and a pity to spend the finest time of the year +in London." + +Count Sciarra, who had not uttered a word since he had entered the +house, turned to his hostess and asked her whom she considered, after +herself, to be the most beautiful woman in the room, Lady Irene, Lady +Hyacinth, or Mrs. Milden? + +"Mrs. Milden," he went on, "has the smile of La Gioconda, and hands +and hair for Leonardo to paint. Lady Gloucester," he continued, +leaving out the Christian name, "is English, like one of Shakespeare's +women, Desdemona or Imogen; and Lady Irene has no nationality, she +belongs to the dream worlds of Shelley and D'Annunzio: she is the +guardian Lady of Shelley's 'Sensitiva,' the vision of the lily. 'Quale +un vaso liturgico d'argento.' And you, madame, you take away all my +sense of criticism. 'Vous me troublez trop pour que je definisse votre +genre de beaute.' " + +Mrs. Milden was soon engaged in a deep tete-a-tete with Mr. Peebles, +who was heard every now and then to say, "Quite, quite," Miss Tring +was holding forth to Silvester on French sculpture, and Silvester now +and again said: "Oh! really!" in the tone of intense interest which +his friends knew indicated that he was being acutely bored. Lady +Hyacinth was discussing Socialism with Osmond Hall, Lady Herman was +discussing the theory of evolution with Professor Newcastle, Mrs. +Lockton, the question of the French Church, with Faubourg; and +Blenheim was discharging molten fragments of embryo exordiums and +perorations on the subject of the stage to Willmott; in fact, there +was a general buzz of conversation. + +"Have you been to see Antony and Cleopatra?" asked Willmott of the +stranger. + +"Yes," said the neighbour, "I went last night; many authors have +treated the subject, and the version I saw last night was very pretty. +I couldn't get a programme so I didn't see who----" + +"I think my version," interrupted Willmott, with pride, "is admitted +to be the best." + +"Ah! it is your version!" said the stranger. "I beg your pardon, I +think you treated the subject very well." + +"Yes," said Willmott, "it is ungrateful material, but I think I made +something fine of it." + +"No doubt, no doubt," said the stranger. + +"Do tell us," Mrs. Baldwin was heard to ask M. Faubourg across the +table, "what the young generation are doing in France? Who are the +young novelists?" + +"There are no young novelists worth mentioning," answered M. Faubourg. + +Miss Tring broke in and said she considered "Le Visage Emerveille," by +the Comtesse de Noailles, to be the most beautiful book of the +century, with the exception, perhaps, of the "Tagebuch einer +Verlorenen." + +But from the end of the table Blenheim's utterance was heard +preponderating over that of his neighbours. He was making a fine +speech on the modern stage, comparing an actor-manager to Napoleon, +and commenting on the campaigns of the latter in detail. + +Quite heedless of this Mr. Willmott was carrying on an equally +impassioned but much slower monologue on his conception of the +character of Cyrano de Bergerac, which he said he intended to produce. +"Cyrano," he said, "has been maligned by Coquelin. Coquelin is a great +artist, but he did not understand Cyrano. Cyrano is a dreamer, a poet; +he is a martyr of thought like Tolstoi, a sacrifice to wasted, useless +action, like Hamlet; he is a Moliere come too soon, a Bayard come too +late, a John the Baptist of the stage, calling out in vain in the +wilderness--of bricks and mortar; he is misunderstood;--an enigma, an +anachronism, a premature herald, a false dawn." + +Count Sciarra was engaged in a third monologue at the head of the +table. He was talking at the same time to Mrs. Bergmann, Lady Irene, +and Lady Hyacinth about the devil. "Ah que j'aime le diable!" he was +saying in low, tender tones. "The devil who creates your beauty to +lure us to destruction, the devil who puts honey into the voice of the +siren, the dolce sirena-- + + "Che i marinari in mezzo il mar dismaga" + +(and he hummed this line in a sing-song two or three times over)--"the +devil who makes us dream and doubt, and who made life interesting by +persuading Eve to eat the silver apple--what would life have been if +she had not eaten the apple? We should all be in the silly trees of +the Garden of Eden, and I should be sitting next to you" (he said to +Mrs. Bergmann), "without knowing that you were beautiful; que vous +etes belle et que vous etes desirable; que vous etes puissante et +caline, que je fais naufrage dans une mer d'amour--e il naufragio m'e +dolce in questo mare--en un mot, que je vous aime." + +"Life outside the garden of Eden has many drawbacks," said Mrs. +Bergmann, who, although she was inwardly pleased by Count Sciarra's +remarks, saw by Lady Irene's expression that she thought he was mad. + +"Aucun 'drawback,' " answered Sciarra, "n'egalerait celui de +comtempler les divins contours feminins sans un frisson. Pensez donc +si Madame Bergmann----" + +"Count Sciarra," interrupted Mrs. Bergmann, terrified of what was +coming next, "do tell me about the book you are writing on Venice." + +Mrs. Lockton was at that moment discussing portraiture in novels with +M. Faubourg, and during a pause Miss Tring was heard to make the +following remark: "And is it true M. Faubourg, that 'Cecile' in 'La +Mauvaise Bonte' is a portrait of some one you once loved and who +treated you very badly?" + +M. Faubourg, a little embarrassed, said that a creative artist made a +character out of many originals. + +Then, seeing that nobody was saying a word to his neighbour, he turned +round and asked him if he had been to the Academy. + +"Yes," answered the stranger; "it gets worse every year doesn't it?" + +"But Mr. Corporal's pictures are always worth seeing," said Faubourg. + +"I think he paints men better than women," said the stranger; "he +doesn't flatter people, but of course his pictures are very clever." + +At this moment the attention of the whole table was monopolised by +Osmond Hall, who began to discuss the scenario of a new play he was +writing. "My play," he began, "is going to be called 'The King of the +North Pole.' I have never been to the North Pole, and I don't mean to +go there. It's not necessary to have first-hand knowledge of technical +subjects in order to write a play. People say that Shakespeare must +have studied the law, because his allusions to the law are frequent +and accurate. That does not prove that he knew law any more than the +fact that he put a sea in Bohemia proves that he did not know +geography. It proves he was a dramatist. He wanted a sea in Bohemia. +He wanted lawyer's 'shop.' I should do just the same thing myself. I +wrote a play about doctors, knowing nothing about medicine: I asked a +friend to give me the necessary information. Shakespeare, I expect, +asked his friends to give him the legal information he required." + +Every allusion to Shakespeare was a stab to Mrs. Bergmann. + +"Shakespeare's knowledge of the law is very thorough," broke in +Lockton. + +"Not so thorough as the knowledge of medicine which is revealed in my +play," said Hall. + +"Shakespeare knew law by intuition," murmured Willmott, "but he did +not guess what the modern stage would make of his plays." + +"Let us hope not," said Giles. + +"Shakespeare," said Faubourg, "was a psychologue; he had the power, I +cannot say it in English, de deviner ce qu'il ne savait pas en puisant +dans le fond et le trefond de son ame." + +"Gammon!" said Hall; "he had the power of asking his friends for the +information he required." + +"Do you really think," asked Giles, "that before he wrote 'Time delves +the parallel on beauty's brow,' he consulted his lawyer as to a legal +metaphor suitable for a sonnet?" + +"And do you think," asked Mrs. Duncan, "that he asked his female +relations what it would feel like to be jealous of Octavia if one +happened to be Cleopatra?" + +"Shakespeare was a married man," said Hall, "and if his wife found the +MSS. of his sonnets lying about he must have known a jealous woman." + +"Shakespeare evidently didn't trouble his friends for information on +natural history, not for a playwright," said Hall. "I myself should +not mind what liberty I took with the cuckoo, the bee, or even the +basilisk. I should not trouble you for accurate information on the +subject; I should not even mind saying the cuckoo lays eggs in its own +nest if it suited the dramatic situation." + +The whole of this conversation was torture to Mrs. Bergmann. + +"Shakespeare," said Lady Hyacinth, "had a universal nature; one can't +help thinking he was almost like God." + +"That's what people will say of me a hundred years hence," said Hall; +"only it is to be hoped they'll leave out the 'almost.' " + +"Shakespeare understood love," said Lady Herman, in a loud voice; "he +knew how a man makes love to a woman. If Richard III. had made love to +me as Shakespeare describes him doing it, I'm not sure that I could +have resisted him. But the finest of all Shakespeare's men is Othello. +That's a real man. Desdemona was a fool. It's not wonderful that +Othello didn't see through Iago; but Desdemona ought to have seen +through him. The stupidest woman can see through a clever man like +him; but, of course, Othello was a fool too." + +"Yes," broke in Mrs. Lockton, "if Napoleon had married Desdemona he +would have made Iago marry one of his sisters." + +"I think Desdemona is the most pathetic of Shakespeare's heroines," +said Lady Hyacinth; "don't you think so, Mr. Hall?" + +"It's easy enough to make a figure pathetic, who is strangled by a +nigger," answered Hall. "Now if Desdemona had been a negress +Shakespeare would have started fair." + +"If only Shakespeare had lived later," sighed Willmott, "and +understood the condition of the modern stage, he would have written +quite differently." + +"If Shakespeare had lived now he would have written novels," said +Faubourg. + +"Yes," said Mrs. Baldwin, "I feel sure you are right there." + +"If Shakespeare had lived now," said Sciarra to Mrs. Bergmann, "we +shouldn't notice his existence; he would be just un monsieur comme +tout le monde--like that monsieur sitting next to Faubourg," he added +in a low voice. + +"The problem about Shakespeare," broke in Hall, "is not how he wrote +his plays. I could teach a poodle to do that in half an hour. But the +problem is--What made him leave off writing just when he was beginning +to know how to do it? It is as if I had left off writing plays ten +years ago." + +"Perhaps," said the stranger, hesitatingly and modestly, "he had made +enough money by writing plays to retire on his earnings and live in +the country." + +Nobody took any notice of this remark. + +"If Bacon was really the playwright," said Lockton, "the problem is a +very different one." + +"If Bacon had written Shakespeare's plays," said Silvester, "they +wouldn't have been so bad." + +"There seems to me to be only one argument," said Professor Morgan, +"in favour of the Bacon theory, and that is that the range of mind +displayed in Shakespeare's plays is so great that it would have been +child's play for the man who wrote Shakespeare's plays to have written +the works of Bacon." + +"Yes," said Hall, "but because it would be child's play for the man +who wrote my plays to have written your works and those of Professor +Newcastle--which it would--it doesn't prove that you wrote my plays." + +"Bacon was a philosopher," said Willmott, "and Shakespeare was a poet +--a dramatic poet; but Shakespeare was also an actor, an actor- +manager, and only an actor-manager could have written the plays." + +"What do you think of the Bacon theory?" asked Faubourg of the +stranger. + +"I think," said the stranger, "that we shall soon have to say eggs and +Shakespeare instead of eggs and Bacon." + +This remark caused a slight shudder to pass through all the guests, +and Mrs. Bergmann felt sorry that she had not taken decisive measures +to prevent the stranger's intrusion. + +"Shakespeare wrote his own plays," said Sciarra, "and I don't know if +he knew law, but he knew /le coeur de la femme/. Cleopatra bids her +slave find out the colour of Octavia's hair; that is just what my +wife, my Angelica, would do if I were to marry some one in London +while she was at Rome." + +"Mr. Gladstone used to say," broke in Lockton, "that Dante was +inferior to Shakespeare, because he was too great an optimist." + +"Dante was not an optimist," said Sciarra, "about the future life of +politicians. But I think they were both of them pessimists about man +and both optimists about God." + +"Shakespeare," began Blenheim; but he was interrupted by Mrs. Duncan +who cried out:-- + +"I wish he were alive now and would write me a part, a real woman's +part. The women have so little to do in Shakespeare's plays. There's +Juliet; but one can't play Juliet till one's forty, and then one's too +old to look fourteen. There's Lady Macbeth; but she's got nothing to +do except walk in her sleep and say, 'Out, damned spot!' There were +not actresses in his days, and of course it was no use writing a +woman's part for a boy." + +"You should have been born in France," said Faubourg, "Racine's women +are created for you to play." + +"Ah! you've got Sarah," said Mrs. Duncan, "you don't want anyone +else." + +"I think Racine's boring," said Mrs. Lockton, "he's so artificial." + +"Oh! don't say that," said Giles, "Racine is the most exquisite of +poets, so sensitive, so acute, and so harmonious." + +"I like Rostand better," said Mrs. Lockton. + +"Rostand!" exclaimed Miss Tring, in disgust, "he writes such bad +verses--du caoutchouc--he's so vulgar." + +"It is true," said Willmott, "he's an amateur. He has never written +professionally for his bread but only for his pleasure." + +"But in that sense," said Giles, "God is an amateur." + +"I confess," said Peebles, "that I cannot appreciate French poetry. I +can read Rousseau with pleasure, and Bossuet; but I cannot admire +Corneille and Racine." + +"Everybody writes plays now," said Faubourg, with a sigh. + +"I have never written a play," said Lord Pantry. + +"Nor I," said Lockton. + +"But nearly everyone at this table has," said Faubourg. "Mrs. Baldwin +has written 'Matilda,' Mr. Giles has written a tragedy called 'Queen +Swaflod,' I wrote a play in my youth, my 'Le Menetrier de Parme'; I'm +sure Corporal has written a play. Count Sciarra must have written +several; have you ever written a play?" he said, turning to his +neighbour, the stranger. + +"Yes," answered the stranger, "I once wrote a play called 'Hamlet.' " + +"You were courageous with such an original before you," said Faubourg, +severely. + +"Yes," said the stranger, "the original was very good, but I think," +he added modestly, "that I improved upon it." + +"Encore un faiseur de paradoxes!" murmured Faubourg to himself in +disgust. + +In the meantime Willmott was giving Professor Morgan the benefit of +his views on Greek art, punctuated with allusions to Tariff Reform and +devolution for the benefit of Blenheim. + +Luncheon was over and cigarettes were lighted. Mrs. Bergmann had quite +made up her mind that she had been cheated, and there was only one +thing for which she consoled herself, and that was that she had not +waited for luncheon but had gone down immediately, since so far all +her guests had kept up a continuous stream of conversation, which had +every now and then become general, though they still every now and +then glanced at the empty chair and wondered what the coming +attraction was going to be. Mrs. Milden had carried on two almost +interrupted tete-a-tetes, first with one of her neighbours, then with +the other. In fact everybody had talked, except the stranger, who had +hardly spoken, and since Faubourg had turned away from him in disgust, +nobody had taken any further notice of him. + +Mrs. Baldwin, remarking this, good-naturedly leant across the table +and asked him if he had come to London for the Wagner cycle. + +"No," he answered, "I came for the Horse Show at Olympia." + +At this moment Count Sciarra, having finished his third cigarette, +turned to his hostess and thanked her for having allowed him to meet +the most beautiful women of London in the most beautiful house in +London, and in the house of the most beautiful hostess in London. + +"J'ai vu chez vous," he said, "le lys argente et la rose blanche, mais +vous etes la rose ecarlate, la rose d'amour dont le parfum vivra dans +mon coeur comme un poison dore (and here he hummed in a sing-song):-- +'Io son, cantava, Io son, dolce sirena' Addio, dolce sirena." + +Then he suddenly and abruptly got up, kissed his hostess's hand +vehemently three times, and said he was very sorry, but he must hasten +to keep a pressing engagement. He then left the room. + +Mrs. Bergmann got up and said, "Let us go upstairs." But the men had +most of them to go, some to the House of Commons, others to fulfil +various engagements. + +The stranger thanked Mrs. Bergmann for her kind hospitality and left. +And the remaining guests, seeing that it was obvious that no further +attraction was to be expected, now took their leave reluctantly and +went, feeling that they had been cheated. + +Angela Lockton stayed a moment. + +"Who were you expecting, Louise, dear?" she asked. + +"Only an old friend," said Mrs. Bergmann, "whom you would all have +been very glad to see. Only as he doesn't want anybody to know he's in +London, I couldn't tell you all who he was." + +"But tell me now," said Mrs. Lockton; "you know how discreet I am." + +"I promised not to, dearest Angela," she answered; "and, by the way, +what was the name of the man you brought with you?" + +"Didn't I tell you? How stupid of me!" said Mrs. Lockton. "It's a very +easy name to remember: Shakespeare, William Shakespeare." + + + + FETE GALANTE + + To Cecilia Fisher + +"The King said that nobody had ever danced as I danced to-night," said +Columbine. "He said it was more than dancing, it was magic." + +"It is true," said Harlequin, "you never danced like that before." + +But Pierrot paid no heed to their remarks, and stared vacantly at the +sky. They were sitting on the deserted stage of the grass amphitheatre +where they had been playing. Behind them were the clumps of cypress +trees which framed a vista of endless wooden garden and formed their +drop scene. They were sitting immediately beneath the wooden framework +made of two upright beams and one horizontal, which formed the +primitive proscenium, and from which little coloured lights had hung +during the performance. The King and Queen and their lords and ladies +who had looked on at the living puppet show had all left the +amphitheatre; they had put on their masks and their dominoes, and were +now dancing on the lawns, whispering in the alleys and the avenues, or +sitting in groups under the tall dark trees. Some of them were in +boats on the lake, and everywhere one went, from the dark boscages, +came sounds of music, thin, tinkling tunes played on guitars by +skilled hands, and the bird-like twittering and whistling of +flageolets. + +"The King said I looked like a moon fairy," said Columbine to Pierrot. +Pierrot only stared in the sky and laughed inanely. "If you persist in +slighting me like this," she whispered in his ear, in a whisper which +was like a hiss, "I will abandon you for ever. I will give my heart to +Harlequin, and you shall never see me again." But Pierrot continued to +stare at the sky, and laughed once more inanely. Then Columbine got +up, her eyes flashing with rage; taking Harlequin by the arm she +dragged him swiftly away. They danced across the grass semi-circle of +the amphitheatre and up the steps away into the alleys. Pierrot was +left alone with Pantaloon, who was asleep, for he was old and clowning +fatigued him. Then Pierrot left the amphitheatre also, and putting a +black mask on his face he joined the revellers who were everywhere +dancing, whispering, talking, and making music in subdued tones. He +sought out a long lonely avenue, in one side of which there nestled, +almost entirely concealed by bushes and undergrowth, a round open +Greek temple. Right at the end of the avenue a foaming waterfall +splashed down into a large marble basin, from which a tall fountain +rose, white and ghostly, and made a sobbing noise. Pierrot went +towards the temple, then he turned back and walked right into the +undergrowth through the bushes, and lay down on the grass, and +listened to the singing of the night-jar. The whole garden that night +seemed to be sighing and whispering; there was a soft warm wind, and a +smell of mown hay in the air, and an intoxicating sweetness came from +the bushes of syringa. Columbine and Harlequin also joined the +revellers. They passed from group to group, with aimless curiosity, +pausing sometimes by the artificial ponds and sometimes by the dainty +groups of dancers, whose satin and whose pearls glimmered faintly in +the shifting moonlight, for the night was cloudy. At last they too +were tired of the revel, they wandered towards a more secluded place +and made for the avenue which Pierrot had sought. On their way they +passed through a narrow grass walk between two rows of closely cropped +yew hedges. There on a marble seat a tall man in a black domino was +sitting, his head resting on his hands; and between the loose folds of +his satin cloak, one caught the glint of precious stones. When they +had passed him Columbine whispered to Harlequin: "That is the King. I +caught sight of his jewelled collar." They presently found themselves +in the long avenue at the end of which were the waterfall and the +fountain. They wandered on till they reached the Greek temple, and +there suddenly Columbine put her finger on her lips. Then she led +Harlequin back a little way and took him round through the undergrowth +to the back of the temple, and, crouching down in the bushes, bade him +look. In the middle of the temple there was a statue of Eros holding a +torch in his hands. Standing close beside the statue were two figures, +a man dressed as a Pierrot, and a beautiful lady who wore a grey satin +domino. She had taken off her mask and pushed back the hood from her +hair, which was encircled by a diadem made of something shining and +silvery, and a ray of moonlight fell on her face, which was as +delicate as the petal of a flower. Pierrot was masked; he was holding +her hand and looking into her eyes, which were turned upwards towards +his. + +"It is the Queen!" whispered Columbine to Harlequin. And once more +putting her finger on her lips, she deftly led him by the hand and +noiselessly threaded her way through the bushes and back into the +avenue, and without saying a word ran swiftly with him to the place +where they had seen the King. He was still there, alone, his head +resting upon his hands. + + * * * * * + +In the temple the Queen was upbraiding her lover for his temerity in +having crossed the frontier into the land from which he had been +banished for ever, and for having dared to appear at the court revel +disguised as Pierrot. "Remember," she was saying, "the enemies that +surround us, the dreadful peril, and the doom that awaits us." And her +lover said: "What is doom, and what is death? You whispered to the +night and I heard. You sighed and I am here!" He tore the mask from +his face, and the Queen looked at him and smiled. At that moment a +rustle was heard in the undergrowth, and the Queen started back from +him, whispering: "We are betrayed! Fly!" And her lover put on his mask +and darted through the undergrowth, following a path which he and no +one else knew, till he came to an open space where his squire awaited +him with horses, and they galloped away safe from all pursuit. + +Then the King walked into the temple and led the Queen back to the +palace without saying a word; but the whole avenue was full of dark +men bearing torches and armed with swords, who were searching the +undergrowth. And presently they found Pierrot who, ignorant of all +that had happened, had been listening all night to the song of the +night-jar. He was dragged to the palace and cast into a dungeon, and +the King was told. But the revel did not cease, and the dancing and +the music continued softly as before. The King sent for Columbine and +told her she should have speech with Pierrot in his prison, for haply +he might have something to confess to her. And Columbine was taken to +Pierrot's dungeon, and the King followed her without her knowing it, +and concealed himself behind the door, which he set ajar. + +Columbine upbraided Pierrot and said: "All this was my work. I have +always known that you loved the Queen. And yet for the sake of past +days, tell me the truth. Was it love or a joke, such as those you love +to play?" + +Pierrot laughed inanely. "It was a joke," he said. "It is my trade to +make jokes. What else can I do?" + +"You love the Queen nevertheless," said Columbine, "of that I am sure, +and for that I have had my revenge." + +"It was a joke," said Pierrot, and he laughed again. + +And though she talked and raved and wept, she could get no other +answer from him. Then she left him, and the King entered the dungeon. + +"I have heard what you said," said the King, "but to me you must tell +the truth. I do not believe it was you who met the Queen in the +temple; tell me the truth, and your life shall be spared." + +"It was a joke," said Pierrot, and he laughed. Then the King grew +fierce and stormed and threatened. But his rage and threats were in +vain! for Pierrot only laughed. Then the King appealed to him as man +to man and implored him to tell him the truth; for he would have given +his kingdom to believe that it was the real Pierrot who had met the +Queen and that the adventure had been a joke. Pierrot only repeated +what he had said, and laughed and giggled inanely. + +At dawn the prison door was opened and three masked men led Pierrot +out through the courtyard into the garden. The revellers had gone +home, but here and there lights still twinkled and flickered and a +stray note or two of music was still heard. Some of the latest of the +revellers were going home. The dawn was grey and chilly; they led +Pierrot through the alleys to the grass amphitheatre, and they hanged +him on the horizontal beam which formed part of the primitive +proscenium where he and Columbine had danced so wildly in the night. +They hanged him and his white figure dangled from the beam as though +he were still dancing; and the new Pierrot, who was appointed the next +day, was told that such would be the fate of all mummers who went too +far, and whose jokes and pranks overstepped the limits of decency and +good breeding. + + + + THE GARLAND + +The /Referendarius/ had three junior clerks to carry on the business +of his department, and they in their turn were assisted by two +scribes, who did most of the copying and kept the records. The work of +the Department consisted in filing and annotating the petitions and +cases which were referred from the lower Courts, through the channel +of the /Referendarius/, to the Emperor. + +The three clerks and their two scribes occupied a high marble room in +the spacious office. It was as yet early in April, but, nevertheless, +the sun out of doors was almost fierce. The high marble rooms of the +office were cool and stuffy at the same time, and the spring sunshine +without, the soft breeze from the sea, the call of the flower-sellers +in the street, and the lazy murmur of the town had, in these shaded, +musty, and parchment-smelling halls, diffused an atmosphere of +laziness which inspired the clerks in question with an overwhelming +desire to do nothing. + +There was, indeed, no pressing work on hand. Only from time to time +the /Referendarius/, who occupied a room to himself next door to +theirs, would communicate with them through a hole in the wall, +demanding information on some point or asking to be supplied with +certain documents. Then the clerks would make a momentary pretence of +being busy, and ultimately the scribes would find either the documents +or the information which were required. + +As it was, the clerks were all of them engaged in occupations which +were remote from official work. The eldest of them, Cephalus by name-- +a man who was distinguished from the others by a certain refined +sobriety both in his dark dress and in his quiet demeanour--was +reading a treatise on algebra; the second, Theophilus, a musician, +whose tunic was as bright as his flaming hair, was mending a small +organ; and the third, Rufinus, a rather pale, short-sighted, and +untidy youth, was scribbling on a tablet. The scribes were busy +sorting old records and putting them away in their permanent places. + +Presently an official strolled in from another department. He was a +middle-aged, corpulent, and cheerful-looking man, dressed in gaudy +coloured tissue, on which all manner of strange birds were depicted. +He was bursting with news. + +"Phocas is going to win," he said. "It is certain." + +Cephalus looked vaguely up from his book and said: "Oh!" + +Theophilus and Rufinus paid no attention to the remark. + +"Well," continued the new-comer cheerfully, "Who will come to the +races with me?" + +As soon as he heard the word races, Rufinus looked up from his +scribbling. "I will come," he said, "if I can get leave." + +"I did not know you cared for that sort of thing," said Cephalus. + +Rufinus blushed and murmured something about going every now and then. +He walked out of the room, and sought the /Referendarius/ in the next +room. This official was reading a document. He did not look up when +Rufinus entered, but went on with his reading. At last, after a +prolonged interval, he turned round and said: "What is it?" + +"May I go to the races?" asked Rufinus. + +"Well," said the high official, "what about your work?" + +"We've finished everything," said the clerk. + +The Head of the Department assumed an air of mystery and coughed. + +"I don't think I can very well see my way to letting you go," he said. +"I am very sorry," he added quickly, "and if it depended on me you +should go at once. But He," he added--he always alluded to the Head of +the Office as He--"does not like it. He may come in at any moment and +find you gone. No; I'm afraid I can't let you go to-day. Now, if it +had been yesterday you could have gone." + +"I should only be away an hour," said Rufinus, tentatively. + +"He might choose just that hour to come round. If it depended only on +me you should go at once," and he laughed and slapped Rufinus on the +back, jocularly. + +The clerk did not press the point further. + +"You'd better get on with that index," said the high official as +Rufinus withdrew. + +He told the result of his interview to his sporting friend, who +started out by himself to the Hippodrome. + +Rufinus settled down to his index. But he soon fell into a mood of +abstraction. The races and the games did not interest him in the +least. It was something else which attracted him. And, as he sat +musing, the vision of the Hippodrome as he had last seen it rose +clearly before him. He saw the seaweed-coloured marble; the glistening +porticoes, adorned with the masterpieces of Greece, crowded with women +in gemmed embroideries and men in white tunics hemmed with broad +purple; he saw the Generals with their barbaric officers--Bulgarians, +Persians, Arabs, Slavs--the long line of savage-looking prisoners in +their chains, and the golden breastplates of the standard-bearers. He +saw the immense silk /velum/ floating in the azure air over that +rippling sea of men, those hundreds of thousands who swarmed on the +marble steps of the Hippodrome. He saw the Emperor in his high- +pillared box, on his circular throne of dull gold, surrounded by +slaves fanning him with jewel-coloured plumes, and fenced round with +golden swords. + +And opposite him, on the other side of the Stadium, the Empress, +mantled in a stiff pontifical robe, laden with heavy embroidered +stuffs, her little head framed like a portrait in a square crown of +gold and diamonds, whence chains of emeralds hung down to her breast; +motionless as an idol, impassive as a gilded mummy. + +He saw the crowd of gorgeous women, grouped like Eastern flowers +around her: he saw one woman. He saw one form as fresh as a lily of +the valley, all white amidst that hard metallic splendour; frail as a +dewy anemone, slender as the moist narcissus. He saw one face like the +chalice of a rose, and amidst all those fiery jewels two large eyes as +soft as dark violets. And the sumptuous Court, the plumes, the swords, +the standards, the hot, vari-coloured crowd melted away and +disappeared, so that when the Emperor rose and made the sign of the +Cross over his people, first to the right, and then to the left, and +thirdly over the half-circle behind him, and the singers of Saint +Sofia and the Church of the Holy Apostles mingled their bass chant +with the shrill trebles of the chorus of the Hippodrome, to the sound +of silver organs, he thought that the great hymn of praise was rising +to her and to her alone; and that men had come from the uttermost +parts of the earth to pay homage to her, to sing her praise, to kneel +to her--to her, the wondrous, the very beautiful: peerless, radiant, +perfect. + +A voice, followed by a cough, called from the hole in the wall; but +Rufinus paid no heed, so deeply sunk was he in his vision. + +"Rufinus, the Chief is calling you," said Cephalus. + +Rufinus started, and hurried to the hole in the wall. The Head of the +Department gave him a message for an official in another department. + +Rufinus hurried with the message downstairs and delivered it. On his +way back he passed the main portico on the ground floor. He walked out +into the street: it was empty. Everybody was at the games. + +A dark-skinned country girl passed him singing a song about the +swallow and the spring. She was bearing a basket full of anemones, +violets, narcissi, wild roses, and lilies of the valley. + +"Will you sell me your flowers?" he asked, and he held out a silver +coin. + +"You are welcome to them," said the girl. "I do not need your money." + +He took the flowers and returned to the room upstairs. The flowers +filled the stuffy place with an unwonted and wonderful fragrance. + +Then he sat down and appeared to be once more busily engrossed in his +index. But side by side with the index he had a small tablet, and on +this, every now and then, he added or erased a word to a short poem. +The sense of it was something like this:-- + + Rhodocleia, flowers of spring + I have woven in a ring; + Take this wreath, my offering, Rhodocleia. + + Here's the lily, here the rose + Her full chalice shall disclose; + Here's narcissus wet with dew, + Windflower and the violet blue. + Wear the garland I have made; + Crowned with it, put pride away; + For the wreath that blooms must fade; + Thou thyself must fade some day, Rhodocleia. + + + + THE SPIDER'S WEB + + To K. L. + +He heard the bell of the Badia sound hour after hour, and still sleep +refused its solace. He got up and looked through the narrow window. +The sky in the East was soft with that luminous intensity, as of a +melted sapphire, that comes just before the dawn. One large star was +shining next to the paling moon. He watched the sky as it grew more +and more transparent, and a fresh breeze blew from the hills. It was +the second night that he had spent without sleeping, but the weariness +of his body was as nothing compared with the aching emptiness which +possessed his spirit. Only three days ago the world had seemed to him +starred and gemmed like the Celestial City--an enchanted kingdom, +waiting like a sleeping Princess for the kiss of the adventurous +conqueror; and now the colours had faded, the dream had vanished, the +sun seemed to be deprived of his glory, and the summer had lost its +sweetness. + +His eye fell upon some papers which were lying loose upon his table. +There was an unfinished sonnet which he had begun three days ago. The +octet was finished and the first two lines of the sestet. He would +never finish it now. It had no longer any reason to be; for it was a +cry to ears which were now deaf, a question, an appeal, which demanded +an answering smile, a consenting echo; and the lips, the only lips +which could frame that answer, were dumb. He remembered that Casella, +the musician, had asked him a week ago for the text of a /canzone/ +which he had repeated to him one day. He had promised to let him have +it. The promise had entirely gone out of his mind. Then he reflected +that because the ship of his hopes and dreams had been wrecked there +was no reason why he should neglect his obligations to his fellow- +travellers on the uncertain sea. + +He sat down and transcribed by the light of the dawn in his exquisite +handwriting the stanzas which had been the fruit of a brighter day. +And the memory of this dead joy was exceedingly bitter to him, so that +he sat musing for some time on the unutterable sadness which the +ghosts of perished joys bring to man in his misery, and a line of +Virgil buzzed in his brain; but not, as of yore, did it afford him the +luxury of causeless melancholy, but like a cruel finger it touched his +open wound. The ancients, he thought, knew how to bear misfortune. + + Levius fit patientia + Quidquid corrigere est nefas. + +As the words occurred to him he thought how much better equipped he +was for the bitter trial, since had he not the certain hope of another +life, and of meeting his beloved in the spaces of endless felicity? +Surely then he should be able to bear his sorrow with as great a +fortitude as the pagan poets, who looked forward to nothing but the +dust; to whom the fabled dim country beyond the Styx was a cheerless +dream, and to whom a living dog upon the earth was more worthy of envy +than the King of all Elysium. He must learn of the ancients. + +The magic of the lemon-coloured dawn had vanished now before the swift +daylight. Many bells were ringing in the city, and the first signs of +life were stirring in the streets. He searched for a little book, and +read of the consolation which Cicero gave to Laelius in the /De +Amicitia/. But he had not read many lines before he closed the book. +His wound was too fresh for the balm of reason and philosophy. + +"Later," he thought, "this will strengthen and help me, but not +to-day; to-day my wound must bleed and be allowed to bleed, for all +the philosophy in the world cannot lessen the fact that yesterday she +was and to-day she is not." + +He felt a desire to escape from his room, which had been the chapel of +such holy prayers, the shrine where so many fervent tapers of hope had +burnt, where so sweet an incense of dream had risen. He left his room +and hurried down the narrow stone stairs into the street. As he left +the house he turned to his right and walked on till he reached Or San +Michele; there he turned to his right again and walked straight on +till he reached the churches of Santa Reparata and San Giovanni. He +entered San Giovanni and said a brief prayer; then he took the nearest +street, east of Santa Reparata, to the Porta a ballo, and found +himself beyond the walls of the city. He walked towards Fiesole. + +The glory of the sunrise was still in the sky, the fragrance of the +dawning summer (it was the 11th of June) was in the air. He walked +towards the East. The corn on the hills was green, and pink wild roses +fringed every plot of wheat. The grass was wet with dew. The city +glittered in the plain beneath, clean and fresh in the dazzling air; +it seemed a part of the pageant of summer, an unreal piece of imagery, +distinct and clear-cut, yet miraculous, like a mirage seen in mid- +ocean. "Truly," he thought, "this is the city of the flower, and the +lily is its fitting emblem." + +But while his heart went out towards his native town he felt a sharp +pang as he remembered that the flower of flowers, the queen of the +lilies, had been mowed down by the scythe, and the city which to him +had heretofore been an altar was now a tomb. The lovely Virgilian +dirge, + + Manibus date lilia plenis . . . + His saltem accumulem donis et fungar inani + Munere, + +rang in his ears, and he thought that he too must bring a gift and +scatter lilies on her grave; handfuls of lilies; but they must be +unfading flowers, wet with immortal tears. He pondered on this gift. +It must be a gift of song, a temple built in verse. But he was still +unsatisfied. No dirge, however tender and solemn; no elegy, however +soft and majestic; no song, however piteous, could be a sufficient +offering for the glorious being who had died in her youth and beauty. +But what could he fashion or build? He thought with envy of Arnolfo +and of Giotto: the one with his bricks could have built a tomb which +would prove to be one of the wonders of the world, and the other with +his brush could have fixed her features for ever, for the wonder of +future generations. And yet was not his instrument the most potent of +all, his vehicle the most enduring? Stones decayed, and colours faded, +but verse remained, outliving bronze and marble. Yes, his monument +should be more lasting than all the masterpieces of Giotto, than all +the proud designs of Arnolfo; but how should it be? + +He had reached a narrow lane at the foot of a steep hill covered with +corn and dotted with olives. He lay down under a hedge in the shade. +The sun was shining on two large bramble bushes which grew on the +hedge opposite him. Above him, on his right, was a tall cypress tree +standing by itself, and the corn plots stretched up behind him till +they reached the rocky summits tufted with firs. Between the two +bramble bushes a spider had spun a large web, and he was sitting in +the midst of it awaiting his prey. But the bramble and the web were +still wet with the morning dew, whose little drops glistened in the +sunshine like diamonds. Every tiny thread and filament of the web was +dewy and lit by the newly-awakened sun. He lay on his back in the +shade and pondered on the shape and nature of his gift of song, and on +the deathless flowers that he must grow and gather and lay upon her +tomb. + +The spider's web caught his eye, and from where he lay the sight was +marvellous. The spider seemed like a small globe of fire in the midst +of a number of concentric silvery lines studded with dewy gems; it was +like a miniature sun in the midst of a system of gleaming stars. The +delicate web with its shining films and dewdrops seemed to him as he +lay there to be a vision of the whole universe, with all its worlds +and stars revolving around the central orb of light. It was as though +a veil had been torn away and he were looking on the naked glory of +the spheres, the heart of Heaven, the very home of God. + +He looked and looked, his whole spirit filled with ineffable awe and +breathless humility. He lay gazing on the chance miracle of nature +till a passing cloud obscured the sun, and the spider's web wore once +more its ordinary appearance. Then he arose with tears in his eyes and +gave a great sigh of thankfulness. + +"I have found it," he thought, "I will say of her what has never yet +been said of any woman. I will paint all Hell, all Purgatory, and all +that is in them, to make more glorious the glory of her abode, and I +will reveal to man that glory. I will show her in the circle of +spotless flame, among the rivers and rings of eternal light, which +revolve around the inmost heart, the fiery rose, and move obedient to +the Love which moves the sun." And his thought shaped itself into +verse and he murmured to himself: + + L'amor che muove il sole e l'altre stelle. + + + + EDWARD II. AT BERKELEY CASTLE + BY AN EYE-WITNESS + (With apologies to Mr. H. Belloc) + +The King had not slept for three nights. He looked at his face in the +muddy pool of water which had settled in the worn flagstones of his +prison floor, and noticed that his beard was of a week's growth. Beads +of sweat stood on his forehead, and his eyes were bloodshot. In the +room next door, which was the canteen, the soldiers were playing on a +drum. Over the tall hills the dawn was ruffling the clouds. There was +a faint glimmer on the waters of the river. The footsteps of the +gaolers were heard on the outer rampart. At seven o'clock they brought +the King a good dinner: they allowed him burgundy from France, and +yellow mead, and white bread baked in the ovens of the Abbey, although +he was constrained to drink out of pewter, and plates were forbidden +him. Eustace, his page, timidly offered him music. The King bade him +sing the "Lay of the Sussex Lass," which begins thus: + + Triumphant, oh! triumphant now she stands, + Above my Sussex, and above my sea! + She stretches out her thin ulterior hands + Across the morning . . . + +But the King, to whom memories were portentous, called for another +song and Eustace sang a stave of that ballad which was made on the +Pyrenees, and which is still unfinished (for the modern world has no +need of these things), telling of how Lord Raymond drank in a little +tent with Charlemagne: + + Enormous through the morning the tall battalions run: + The men who fought with Charlemagne are very dearly done; + The wine is dark beneath the night, the stars are in the sky, + The hammer's in the blacksmith's hand in case he wants to try. + We'll ride to Fontarabia, we'll storm the stubborn wall, + And I call. + + And Uriel and his Seraphim are hammering a shield; + And twice along the valley has the horn of Roland pealed; + And Cleopatra on the Nile, Iseult in Brittany, + And Lancelot in Camelot, and Drake upon the sea; + And behind the young Republic are the fellows with the flag, + And I brag! + +The King listlessly opened his eyes and said that he had no stomach +for such song, and from the next door came the mutter of the drums. +For on that night--which was Candlemas--Thursday, or as we should now +call it "Friday"--the gaolers were keeping holiday, and drinking +English beer brewed in Sussex; for the beer of West England was not to +their liking, as any one who has walked down the old Roman Road +through Daglingworth, Brimpsfield, and Birdlip towards Cardigan on a +warm summer's day can know. For a man may tramp that road and stop and +ask for drink at an inn, and receive nothing but Imperialist whisky, +and drinks that annoy rather than satisfy the great thirst of a +Christian. + +Outside, a little breeze had crept out of the West. The morning star +was paling over the Quantock Hills, and the King was mortally weary. +"This day three years ago," he thought, "I was spurred and harnessed +for the lists in a tunic of mail, with an emerald on my shoulder- +strap, and I was tilting with my lord of Cleremont before Queen +Isabella of France. The birds were singing in Touraine, and the sun +was beating on the lists; and the minstrels of Val-es-Dunes were +chanting the song of the men who died for the Faith when they stormed +Jerusalem. What is the lilt of that song," said the King, "which the +singers of Val-es-Dunes sang?" And Eustace pondered, for his memory +was weak and he was overwrought by nights of watching and days of +vigilance; but presently he touched his strings and sang: + + The captains came from Normandy + In clamorous ships across the sea; + And from the trees in Gascony + The masts were cloven, tall and free. + And Turpin swung the helm and sang; + And stars like all the bells at Brie + From cloudy steeples rang. + + The rotten leaves are whirling down + Dishevelled from September's crown; + The Emperors have left the town; + The Weald of Sussex, burnt and brown, + Is trampled by the kings. + And Harmuth gallops up the Down, + And, as he rides, he sings. + + He sings of battles and of wine, + Of boats that leap the bellowing brine, + Of April eyes that smile and shine, + Of Raymond and Lord Catiline + And Carthage by the sea, + Of saints, and of the Muses Nine + That dwell in Gascony. + +And to the King, as he heard this stave, came visions of his youth; of +how he had galloped from Woodstock to Stonesfield on a night of June +within eleven hours, with a company of minstrels, and of how during +that long feast at Arundel he made a song in the vernacular in praise +of St. Anselm. And he remembered that he owed a candle to that saint. +For he had vowed that if the wife of Westermain should meet him after +the tournament he would burn a tall candle at Canterbury before +Michaelmas. But this had escaped his mind, for it had been tossed +hither and thither during days of conflict which had come later, and +he was not loth to believe that the neglect of this service and the +idle vow had been corner-stone of his misfortunes, and had helped to +bring about his miserable plight. + +While these threads of memory glimmered in his mind the small tallow +rush-light which lit the dungeon flickered and went out. The chapel +clock struck six. The King made a gesture which meant that the time of +music was over, and Eustace went back to the canteen, where the men of +the guard were playing at dice by the light of smoky rush-lights. The +King lay down on his wooden pallet, whose linen was delicate and of +lawn, embroidered with his own cipher and crown. The pillow, which was +stuffed with scented rushes, was delicious to the cheek, and yielding. + + * * * * * + +All that night in London Queen Isabella had been waiting for the news +from France. A storm was blowing across the Channel, and the ships +(their pilots were Germans, and bungled in reading the stars) making +for the port turned back towards Dunquerque. It was a storm such as, +if you are in a small boat, turns you back from Broughty Ferry to the +Goodwin Sands. The Queen, who took counsel of no one, was in two minds +as to her daring deed, and her hostage trembled in an uncertain grasp. +In Saxony the banished favourites talked wildly, cursing the counsels +of London; but Saxony was heedless and unmoved. And Piers Gaveston +spoke heated words in vain. + +The King, who was in that lethargic state of slumber, between sleep +and waking, heard a shuffle of steps beyond the door; a cold sweat +broke once more on his forehead, and he waved his left hand +listlessly. Outside the sun had risen, and a broad daylight flooded +the wet meadows and the brimming tide of the Severn, catching the +sails of the boats that were heeling and trembling on the ripple of +the water, which was stirred by the South wind. The King looked +towards the window with weariness, expecting, as far as his lethargy +allowed, the advent of another monotonous day. + +The door opened. The faces he saw by the gaoler's torch were not those +he expected. The King, I say, looked towards them, and his hands +trembled, and the moisture on them glistened. They were dark, and one +of them was concealed by a silken mask. + +Three men entered the dungeon. In the hands of the foremost of the +three glowed a red-hot iron, which was to be the manner of his doom. + + + + THE ISLAND + +"Perhaps we had better not land after all," said Lewis as he was +stepping into the boat; "we can explore this island on our way home." + +"We had much better land now," said Stewart; "we shall get to +Teneriffe to-morrow in any case. Besides, an island that's not on the +chart is too exciting a thing to wait for." + +Lewis gave in to his younger companion, and the two ornithologists, +who were on their way to the Canary Islands in search of eggs, were +rowed to shore. + +"They had better fetch us at sunset," said Lewis as they landed. + +"Perhaps we shall stay the night," responded Stewart. + +"I don't think so," said Lewis; but after a pause he told the sailors +that if they should be more than half an hour late they were not to +wait, but to come back in the morning at ten. Lewis and Stewart walked +from the sandy bay up a steep basaltic cliff which sloped right down +to the beach. + +"The island is volcanic," said Stewart. + +"All the islands about here are volcanic," said Lewis. "We shan't be +able to climb much in this heat," he added. + +"It will be all right when we get to the trees," said Stewart. +Presently they reached the top of the cliff. The basaltic rock ceased +and an open grassy incline was before them covered with myrtle and +cactus bushes; and further off a thick wood, to the east of which rose +a hill sparsely dotted with olive trees. They sat down on the grass, +panting. The sun beat down on the dry rock; there was not a cloud in +the sky nor a ripple on the emerald sea. In the air there was a +strange aromatic scent; and the stillness was heavy. + +"I don't think it can be inhabited," said Lewis. + +"Perhaps it's merely a volcanic island cast up by a sea disturbance," +suggested Stewart. + +"Look at those trees," said Lewis, pointing to the wood in the +distance. + +"What about them?" asked Stewart. + +"They are oak trees," said Lewis. "Do you know why I didn't want to +land?" he asked abruptly. "I am not superstitious, you know, but as I +got into the boat I distinctly heard a voice calling out: 'Don't +land!' " + +Stewart laughed. "I think it was a good thing to land," he said. +"Let's go on now." + +They walked towards the wood, and the nearer they got to it the more +their surprise increased. It was a thick wood of large oak trees which +must certainly have been a hundred years old. When they had got quite +close to it they paused. + +"Before we explore the wood," said Lewis, "let us climb the hill and +see if we can get a general view of the island." + +Stewart agreed, and they climbed the hill in silence. When they +reached the top they found it was not the highest point of the island, +but only one of several hills, so that they obtained only a limited +view. The valleys seemed to be densely wooded, and the oak wood was +larger than they had imagined. They laid down and rested and lit their +pipes. + +"No birds," remarked Lewis gloomily. + +"I haven't seen one--the island is extraordinarily still," said +Stewart. The further they had penetrated inland the more oppressive +and sultry the air had become; and the pungent aroma they had noticed +directly was stronger. It was like that of mint, and yet it was not +mint; and although sweet it was not agreeable. The heat seemed to +weigh even on Stewart's buoyant spirits, for he sat smoking in +silence, and no longer urged Lewis to continue their exploration. + +"I think the island is inhabited," said Lewis, "and that the houses +are on the other side. There are some sheep and some goats on that +hill opposite. Do you see?" + +"Yes," said Stewart, "I think they are mouflon, but I don't think the +island is inhabited all the same." No sooner were the words out of his +mouth than he started, and rising to his feet, cried: "Look there!" +and he pointed to a thin wreath of smoke which was rising from the +wood. Their languor seemed to leave them, and they ran down the hill +and reached the wood once more. Just as they were about to enter it +Lewis stooped and pointed to a small plant with white flowers and +three oval-shaped leaves rising from the root. + +"What's that?" he asked Stewart, who was the better botanist of the +two. The flowers were quite white, and each had six pointed petals. + +"It's a kind of garlic, I think," said Stewart. Lewis bent down over +it. "It doesn't smell," he said. "It's not unlike moly (/Allium +flavum/), only it's white instead of yellow, and the flowers are +larger. I'm going to take it with me." He began scooping away the +earth with a knife so as to take out the plant by the roots. After he +had been working for some minutes he exclaimed: "This is the toughest +plant I've ever seen; I can't get it out." He was at last successful, +but as he pulled the root he gave a cry of surprise. + +"There's no bulb," he said. "Look! Only a black root." + +Stewart examined the plant. "I can't make it out," he said. + +Lewis wrapped the plant in his handkerchief and put it in his pocket. +They entered the wood. The air was still more sultry here than +outside, and the stillness even more oppressive. There were no birds +and not a vestige of bird life. + +"This exploration is evidently a waste of time as far as birds are +concerned," remarked Lewis. At that moment there was a rustle in the +undergrowth, and five pigs crossed their path and disappeared, +grunting. Lewis started, and for some reason he could not account for, +shuddered; he looked at Stewart, who appeared unconcerned. + +"They are not wild," said Stewart. They walked on in silence. The +place and its heavy atmosphere had again affected their spirits. When +they spoke it was almost in a whisper. Lewis wished they had not +landed, but he could give no reason to himself for his wish. After +they had been walking for about twenty minutes they suddenly came on +an open space and a low white house. They stopped and looked at each +other. + +"It's got no chimney!" cried Lewis, who was the first to speak. It was +a one-storeyed building, with large windows (which had no glass in +them) reaching to the ground, wider at the bottom than at the top. The +house was overgrown with creepers; the roof was flat. They entered in +silence by the large open doorway and found themselves in a low hall. +There was no furniture and the floor was mossy. + +"It's rather like an Egyptian tomb," said Stewart, and he shivered. +The hall led into a further room, which was open in the centre to the +sky, like the /impluvium/ of a Roman house. It also contained a square +basin of water, which was filled by water bubbling from a lion's mouth +carved in stone. Beyond the /impluvium/ there were two smaller rooms, +in one of which there was a kind of raised stone platform. The house +was completely deserted and empty. Lewis and Stewart said little; they +examined the house in silent amazement. + +"Look," said Lewis, pointing to one of the walls. Stewart examined the +wall and noticed that there were traces on it of a faded painted +decoration. + +"It's like the wall paintings at Pompeii," he said. + +"I think the house is modern," remarked Lewis. "It was probably built +by some eccentric at the beginning of the nineteenth century, who did +it up in Empire style." + +"Do you know what time it is?" said Stewart, suddenly. "The sun has +set and it's growing dark." + +"We must go at once," said Lewis, "we'll come back here to-morrow." +They walked on in silence. The wood was dim in the twilight, a fitful +breeze made the trees rustle now and again, but the air was just as +sultry as ever. The shapes of the trees seemed fantastic and almost +threatening in the dimness, and the rustle of the leaves was like a +human moan. Once or twice they seemed to hear the grunting of pigs in +the undergrowth and to catch sight of bristly backs. + +"We don't seem to be getting any nearer the end," said Stewart after a +time. "I think we've taken the wrong path. They stopped. "I remember +that tree," said Stewart, pointing to a twisted oak; "we must go +straight on from there to the left." They walked on and in ten +minutes' time found themselves once more at the back of the house. It +was now quite dark. + +"We shall never find the way now," said Lewis. "We had better sleep in +the house." They walked through the house into one of the furthest +rooms and settled themselves on the mossy platform. The night was warm +and starry, the house deathly still except for the splashing of the +water in the basin. + +"We shan't get any food," Lewis said. + +"I'm not hungry," said Stewart, and Lewis knew that he could not have +eaten anything to save his life. He felt utterly exhausted and yet not +at all sleepy. Stewart, on the other hand, was overcome with +drowsiness. He lay down on the mossy platform and fell asleep almost +instantly. Lewis lit a pipe; the vague forebodings he had felt in the +morning had returned to him, only increased tenfold. He felt an +unaccountable physical discomfort, an inexplicable sensation of +uneasiness. Then he realised what it was. He felt there was someone in +the house besides themselves, someone or something that was always +behind him, moving when he moved and watching him. He walked into the +/impluvium/, but heard nothing and saw nothing. There were none of the +thousand little sounds, such as the barking of a dog, or the hoot of a +night-bird, which generally complete the silence of a summer night. +Everything was uncannily still. He returned to the room. He would have +given anything to be back on the yacht, for besides the physical +sensation of discomfort and of the something watching him he also felt +the unmistakable feeling of impending danger that had been with him +nearly all day. + +He lay down and at last fell into a doze. As he dozed he heard a +subdued noise, a kind of buzzing, such as is made by a spinning wheel +or a shuttle on a loom, and more strongly than ever he felt that he +was being watched. Then all at once his body seemed to grow stiff with +fright. He saw someone enter the room from the /impluvium/. It was a +dim, veiled figure, the figure of a woman. He could not distinguish +her features, but he had the impression that she was strangely +beautiful; she was bearing a cup in her hands, and she walked towards +Stewart and bent over him, offering him the cup. + +Something in Lewis prompted him to cry out with all his might: "Don't +drink! Don't drink!" He heard the words echoing in the air, just as he +had heard the voice in the boat; he felt that it was imperative to +call out, and yet he could not: he was paralysed; the words would not +come. He formed them with his lips, but no sound came. He tried with +all his might to rise and scream, and he could not move. Then a sudden +cold faintness came upon him, and he remembered no more till he woke +and found the sun shining brightly. Stewart was lying with his eyes +closed, moaning loudly in his sleep. + +Lewis tried to wake him. He opened his eyes and stared with a fixed, +meaningless stare. Lewis tried to lift him from the platform, and then +a horrible thing happened. Stewart struggled violently and made a +snarling noise, which froze the blood in Lewis's veins. He ran out of +the house with cold beads of sweat on his forehead. He ran through the +wood to the shore, and there he found the boat. He rowed back to the +yacht and fetched some quinine. Then, together with the skipper, the +steward, and some other sailors, he returned to the ominous house. +They found it empty. There was no trace of Stewart. They shouted in +the wood till they were hoarse, but no answer broke the heavy +stillness. + +Then sending for the rest of the crew, Lewis organised a regular +search over the whole island. This lasted till sunset, and they +returned in the evening without having found any trace of Stewart or +of any other human being. In the night a high wind rose, which soon +became a gale; they were obliged to weigh anchor so as not to be +dashed against the island, and for twenty-four hours they underwent a +terrific tossing. Then the storm subsided as quickly as it had come. + +They made for the island once more and reached the spot where they had +anchored three days before. There was no trace of the island. It had +completely disappeared. + +When they reached Teneriffe the next day they found that everybody was +talking of the great tidal wave which had caused such great damage and +destruction in the islands. + + + + THE MAN WHO GAVE GOOD ADVICE + + To Henry Cust + +When he was a child his baby brother came to him one day and said that +their elder brother, who was grown up, had got a beautiful small ship +in his room. Should he ask him for it? The child who gave good advice +said: "No, if you ask him for it he will say you are a spoilt child; +but go and play in his room with it before he gets up in the morning, +and he will give it to you." The baby brother followed this advice, +and sure enough two days afterwards he appeared triumphant in the +nursery with the ship in his hands, saying: "He said I might choose, +the ship or the picture-book." Now the picture-book was a coloured +edition of Baron Munchausen's adventures; the boy who gave good advice +had seen it and hankered for it. As the baby brother had refused it +there could be no harm in asking for it, so the next time his elder +brother sent him on an errand (it was to fetch a pin-cushion from his +room) judging the moment to be propitious, he said to him: "May I have +the picture-book that baby wouldn't have?" "I don't like little boys +who ask," answered the big brother, and there the matter ended. + +The child who gave good advice went to school. There was a rage for +stag beetles at the school; the boys painted them and made them run +races on a chessboard. They imagined--rightly or wrongly--that some +stag beetles were much faster than others. A little boy called Bell +possessed the stag beetle which was the favourite for the coming +races. Another boy called Mason was consumed with longing for this +stag beetle; and Bell had said he would give it to him in exchange for +Mason's catapult, which was famous in the school for the unique +straightness of its two prongs. Mason went to the boy who gave good +advice and asked him for his opinion. "Don't swap it for your catty," +said the boy who gave good advice, "because Bell's stag beetle may not +win after all; and even if it does stag beetles won't be the rage for +very long; but a catty is always a catty, and yours is the best in the +school." Mason took the advice. When the races came off, the stag +beetles were so erratic that no prize was awarded, and they +immediately ceased to be the rage. The rage for stag beetles was +succeeded by a rage for secret alphabets. One boy invented a secret +alphabet made of simple hieroglyphics, which was imparted only to a +select few, who spent their spare time in corresponding with each +other by these cryptic signs. The boy who gave good advice was not of +those initiated into the mystery of the cypher, and he longed to be. +He made several overtures, but they were all rejected, the reason +being that boys of the second division could not let a "third division +squit" into their secret. At last the boy who gave good advice offered +to one of the initiated the whole of his stamp collection in return +for the secret of the alphabet. This offer was accepted. The boy took +the stamp collection, but the boy who gave good advice received in +return not the true alphabet but a sham one especially manufactured +for him. This he found out later; but recriminations were useless; +besides which the rage for secret alphabets soon died out and was +replaced by a rage for aquariums, newts, and natterjack toads. + +The boy went to a public school. He was a fag. His fag-master had two +fags. One morning the other fag came to the boy who gave good advice +and said: "Clarke (he was the fag-master) told me three days ago to +clean his football boots. He's been 'staying out' and hasn't used +them, and I forgot. He'll want them to-day, and now there isn't time. +I shall pretend I did clean them." + +"No, don't do that," said the boy who gave good advice, "because if +you say you have cleaned them he will lick you twice as much for +having cleaned them badly--say you forgot." The advice was taken, and +the fag-master merely said: "Don't forget again." A little later the +fag-master had some friends to tea, and told the boy who gave good +advice to boil him six eggs for not more than three minutes and a +half. The boy who gave good advice, while they were on the fire, took +part in a rag that which was going on in the passage; the result was +that the eggs remained seven minutes in boiling water. They were hard. +When the fag-master pointed this out and asked his fag what he meant +by it, the boy who gave good advice persisted in his statement that +they had been exactly three minutes and a half in the saucepan, and +that he had timed them by his watch. So the fag-master caned him for +telling lies. + +The boy who gave good advice grew into a man and went to the +university. There he made friends with a man called Crawley, who went +to a neighbouring race meeting one day and lost two or three hundred +pounds. + +"I must raise the money from a money-lender somehow," said Crawley to +the man who gave good advice, "and on no account must the Master hear +of it or he would send me down; or write home, which would be worse." + +"On the contrary," said the man who gave good advice, "you must go +straight to the Master and tell him all about it. He will like you +twice as much for ever afterwards; he never minds people getting into +scrapes when he happens to like them, and he likes you and believes +you have a great career before you." + +Crawley went to the Master of the college and made a clean breast of +it. The Master told him he had been foolish--very foolish; but he +arranged the whole matter in such a manner that it never came to the +ears of Crawley's extremely violent-tempered and puritanical father. + +The man who gave good advice got a "First" in Mods, and everyone felt +confident he would get a first in Greats; he did brilliantly in nearly +all his papers; but during the Latin unseen a temporary and sudden +lapse of memory came over him and he forgot the English for +/manubioe/, which the day before he had known quite well means prize- +money. In fact the word was written on the first page of his note- +book. The word was in his brain, but a small shutter had closed on it +for the moment and he could not recall it. He looked over his +neighbour's shoulder. His neighbour had translated it "booty." He +copied the word mechanically, knowing it was wrong. As he did so he +was detected and accused of cribbing. He denied the charge, the matter +was investigated, the papers were compared, and the man who gave good +advice was disqualified. In all his other papers he had done +incomparably better than anyone else. + +When he left Oxford the man who gave good advice went into a +Government office. He had not been in it long before he perceived that +by certain simple reforms the work of the office could be done twice +as effectually and half as expensively. He embodied these reforms in a +memorandum and they were not long afterwards adopted. He became +private secretary to Snipe, a rising politician and persuaded him to +change his party and his politics. Snipe, owing to this advice, became +a Cabinet Minister, and the man who gave good advice, having inherited +some money, stood for Parliament himself. He stood as a Conservative +at a General Election and spoke eloquently to enthusiastic meetings. +The wire-pullers prophecied an overwhelming majority, when shortly +before the poll, at one of his meetings, he suddenly declared himself +to be an Independent, and made a speech violently in favour of Home +Rule and conscription. The result was that the Liberal Imperialist got +in by a huge majority, and the man who gave good advice was pelted +with rotten eggs. + +After this the man who gave good advice abandoned politics and took to +finance; in this branch of human affairs he made the fortune of +several of his friends, preventing some from putting their money in +alluring South African schemes, and advising others to risk theirs on +events which seemed to him certain, such as the election of a +President or the short-lived nature of a revolution; events which he +foresaw with intuition amounting to second-sight. At the same time he +lost nearly all his own money by investing it in a company which +professed to have discovered a manner--cheap and rapid--of +transforming copper into platinum. He made the fortune of a publisher +by insisting on the publication of a novel which six intelligent men +had declared to be unreadable. It was called "The Conscience of John +Digby," and when published it sold by thousands and tens of thousands. +But he lost the handsome reward he received for this service by +publishing at his own expense, on magnificent paper, an edition of +Rabelais' works in their original tongue. He frequently spotted +winners for his friends and for himself, but any money that he won at +a race meeting he invariably lost coming home in the train on the +Three Card Trick. + +Nor did he lose touch with politicians, and this brought about the +final catastrophe. A great friend of his, the eminent John Brooke, had +the chance of becoming Prime Minister. Parties were at that time in a +state of confusion. The question was, should his friend ally himself +with or sever himself for ever from Mr. Capax Nissy, the leader of the +Liberal Aristocracy Party, who seemed to have a large following? His +friend, John Brooke, gave a small dinner to his most intimate friends +in order to talk over the matter. The man who gave good advice was so +eloquent, so cogent in his reasoning, so acute in his perception, that +he persuaded Brooke to sever himself for ever from Capax Nissy. He +persuaded all who were present, with the exception of Mr. Short-Sight, +a pig-headed man who reasoned falsely. So annoyed did the man who gave +good advice become with Short-Sight, and so excited in his vexation, +that he finally lost his self-control, and hit him as hard as he could +on the head--after Short-Sight had repeated a groundless assertion for +the seventh time--with the poker. + +Short-Sight died, and the man who gave good advice was convicted of +wilful murder. He gave admirable advice to his counsel, but threw away +his own case as soon as he entered the box himself, which he insisted +on doing. He was hanged in gaol at Reading. Many people whom he had +benefited in various ways visited him in prison, among others John +Brooke, the Prime Minister. It is said that he would certainly have +been reprieved but for the intemperate and inexcusable letters he +wrote to the Home Secretary from prison. + +"It's a great tragedy--he was a clever man," said Brooke after dinner +when they were discussing the misfortune at Downing Street; "a very +clever man, but he had no judgment." + +"No," said Snipe, the man whose private secretary the man who gave +good advice had been, "That's it. It's an awful thing--but he had no +judgment." + + + + RUSSALKA + +Peter, or Petrushka, which was the name he was known by, was the +carpenter's mate; his hair was like light straw, and his eyes were +mild and blue. He was good at his trade; a quiet and sober youth; +thoughtful, too, for he knew how to read and had read several books +when he was still a boy. A translation of "Monte Cristo" once fell +into his hands, and this story had kindled his imagination and stirred +in him the desire to travel, to see new countries and strange people. +He had made up his mind to leave the village and to try his luck in +one of the big towns, when, before he was eighteen, something happened +to him which entirely changed the colour of his thoughts and the range +of his desires. It was an ordinary experience enough: he fell in love. +He fell in love with Tatiana, who worked in the starch factory. +Tatiana's eyes were grey, her complexion was white, her features small +and delicate, and her hair a beautiful dark brown with gold lights and +black shadows in it; her movements were quick and her glance keen; she +was like a swallow. + +It happened when the snows melted and the meadows were flooded; the +first fine day in April. The larks were singing over the plains, which +were beginning to show themselves once more under the melting snow; +the sun shone on the large patches of water, and turned the flooded +meadows in the valley into a fantastic vision. It was on a Sunday +after church that this new thing happened. He had often seen Tatiana +before: that day she was different and new to him. It was as if a +bandage had been taken from his eyes, and at the same moment he +realised that Tatiana was a new Tatiana. He also knew that the old +world in which he had lived hitherto had crumbled to pieces; and that +a new world, far brighter and more wonderful, had been created for +him. As for Tatiana, she loved him at once. There was no delay, no +hesitation, no misunderstandings, no doubt: and at the first not much +speech; but first love came to them straight and swift, with the first +sunshine of the spring, as it does to the birds. + +All the spring and summer they kept company and walked out together in +the evenings. When the snows entirely melted and the true spring came, +it came with a rush; in a fortnight's time all the trees except the +ash were green, and the bees boomed round the thick clusters of pear- +blossom and apple-blossom, which shone like snow against the bright +azure. During that time Petrushka and Tatiana walked in the apple +orchard in the evening and they talked to each other in the divinest +of all languages, the language of first love, which is no language at +all but a confused medley and murmur of broken phrases, whisperings, +twitterings, pauses, and silences--a language so wonderful that it +cannot be put down into speech or words, although Shakespeare and the +very great poets translate the spirit of it into music, and the great +musicians catch the echo of it in their song. Then a fortnight later, +when the woods were carpeted and thick with lilies of the valley, +Petrushka and Tatiana walked in the woods and picked the last white +violets, and later again they sought the alleys of the landlord's +property, where the lilac bushes were a mass of blossom and fragrance, +and there they listened to the nightingale, the bird of spring. Then +came the summer, the fragrance of the beanfields, and the ripening of +corn and the wonderful long twilights, and July, when the corn, ripe +and tall and stiff, changed the plains into a vast rippling ocean of +gold. + +After the harvest, at the very beginning of autumn, they were to be +married. There had been a slight difficulty about money. Tatiana's +father had insisted that Petrushka should produce a certain not very +large sum; but the difficulty had been overcome and the money had been +found. There were no more obstacles, everything was smooth and +settled. Petrushka no longer thought of travels in foreign lands; he +had forgotten the old dreams which "Monte Cristo" had once kindled in +him. + +It was in the middle of August that the carpenter received +instructions from the landowner to make some wooden steps and a small +raft and to fix them up on the banks of the river for the convenience +of bathers. It did not take the carpenter and Petrushka long to make +these things, and one afternoon Petrushka drove down to the river to +fix them in their place. The river was broad, the banks were wooded +with willow trees, and the undergrowth was thick, for the woods +reached to the river bank, which was flat, but which ended sheer above +the water over a slope of mud and roots, so that a bather needed steps +or a raft or a springboard, so as to dive or to enter and leave the +water with comfort. + +Petrushka put the steps in their place--which was where the wood ended +--and made fast the floating raft to them. Not far from the bank the +ground was marshy and the spot was suspected by some people of being +haunted by malaria. It was a still, sultry day. The river was like +oil, the sky clouded but not entirely overclouded, and among the high +banks of grey cloud there were patches of blue. + +When Petrushka had finished the job, he sat on the wooden steps, and +rolling some tobacco into a primitive cigarette, contemplated the +grey, oily water and the willow trees. It was too late in the year, he +thought, to make a bathing place. He dipped his hand in the water: it +was cold, but not too cold. Yet in a fortnight's time it would not be +pleasant to bathe. However, people had their whims, and he mused on +the scheme of the universe which ordained that certain people should +have whims, and that others should humour those whims whether they +liked it or not. Many people--many of his fellow-workers--talked of +the day when the universal levelling would take place and when all men +could be equal. Petrushka did not much believe in the advent of that +day; he was not quite sure whether he ardently desired it; in any +case, he was very happy as he was. + +At that moment he heard two sharp short sounds, less musical than a +pipe and not so loud or harsh as a scream. He looked up. A kingfisher +had flown across the oily water. Petrushka shouted; and the kingfisher +skimmed over the water once more and disappeared in the trees on the +other side of the river. Petrushka rolled and lit another cigarette. +Presently he heard the two sharp sounds once more, and the kingfisher +darted again across the water: a bit of fish was in its beak. It +disappeared into the bank of the river on the same side on which +Petrushka was sitting, only lower down. + +"Its nest must be there," thought Petrushka, and he remembered that he +had heard it said that no one had ever been able to carry off a +kingfisher's nest intact. Why should he not be the first person to do +so? He was skilful with his fingers, his touch was sure and light. It +was evidently a carpenter's job, and few carpenters had the leisure or +opportunity to look for kingfishers' nests. What a rare present it +would be for Tatiana--a whole kingfisher's nest with every bone in it +intact. + +He walked stealthily through the bushes down the bank of the river, +making as little noise as possible. He thought he had marked the spot +where the kingfisher had dived into the bank. As he walked, the +undergrowth grew thicker and the path darker, for he had reached the +wood, on the outskirts and end of which was the spot where he had made +the steps. He walked on and on without thinking, oblivious of his +surroundings, until he suddenly realised that he had gone too far. +Moreover, he must have been walking for some time, for it was getting +dark, or was it a thunder-shower? The air, too, was unbearably sultry; +he stopped and wiped his forehead with a big print handkerchief. It +was impossible to reach the bank from the place where he now stood, as +he was separated from it by a wide ditch of stagnant water. He +therefore retraced his footsteps through the wood. It grew darker and +darker; it must be, he thought, the evening deepening and no storm. + +All at once he started; he had heard a sound, a high pipe. Was it the +kingfisher? He paused and listened. Distinctly, and not far off in the +undergrowth, he heard a laugh, a woman's laugh. It flashed across his +mind that it might be Tatiana, but it was not her laugh. Something +rustled in the bushes to the left of him; he followed the rustling and +it led him through the bushes--he had now passed the ditch--to the +river bank. The sun had set behind the woods from which he had just +emerged; the sky was as grey as the water, and there was no reflection +of the sunset in the east. Except the water and the trees he saw +nothing; there was not a sound to be heard, not a ripple on the river, +not a whisper from the woods. + +Then all at once the stillness was broken again by quick rippling +laughs immediately behind him. He turned sharply round, and saw a +woman in the bushes: her eyes were large and green and sad; her hair +straggling and dishevelled; she was dressed in reeds and leaves; she +was very pale. She stared at him fixedly, and smiled, showing gleaming +teeth, and when she smiled there was no light nor laughter in her +eyes, which remained sad and green and glazed like those of a drowned +person. She laughed again and ran into the bushes. Petrushka ran after +her, but although he was quite close to her he lost all trace of her +immediately. It was as if she had vanished under the earth or into the +air. + +"It's a Russalka," thought Petrushka, and he shivered. Then he added +to himself, with the pride of the new scepticism he had learnt from +the factory hands: "There is no such thing; only women believe in such +things. It was some drunken woman." + +Petrushka walked quickly back to the edge of the wood, where he had +left his cart, and drove home. The next day was Sunday, and Tatiana +noticed that he was different--moody, melancholy, and absent-minded. +She asked him what was the matter; he said his head ached. Towards +five o'clock he told her--they were standing outside her cottage--that +he was obliged to go to the river to work. + +"To-day is holiday," she said quietly. + +"I left something there yesterday: one of my tools. I must fetch it," +he explained. + +Tatiana looked at him, and her intuition told her, firstly, that this +was not true, and, secondly, that it was not well for Petrushka to go +to the river. She begged him not to go. Petrushka laughed and said he +would be back quickly. Tatiana cried, and implored him on her knees +not to go. Then Petrushka grew irritable and almost rough, and told +her not to vex him with foolishness. Reluctantly and sadly she gave in +at last. + +Petrushka went to the river, and Tatiana watched him go with a heavy +heart. She felt quite certain some disaster was about to happen. + +At seven o'clock Petrushka had not yet returned, and he did not return +that night. The next morning the carpenter and two others went to the +river to look for him. They found his body in the shallow water, +entangled in the ropes of the raft he had made. He had been drowned, +no doubt, in setting the raft straight. + +During all that Sunday night, Tatiana had said no word, nor had she +moved from her doorstep: it was only when they brought back the +dripping body to the village that she stirred, and when she saw it she +laughed a dreadful laugh, and the spirit went from her eyes, leaving a +fixed stare. + + + + THE OLD WOMAN + +The old woman was spinning at her wheel near a fire of myrtle boughs +which burnt fragrantly in the open yard. Through the stone columns the +sea was visible, smooth, dark, and blue; the low sun bathed the brown +hills of the coast in a golden mist. It was December. The shepherds +were driving home their flocks, the work of the day was done, and a +noise of light laughter and rippling talk came from the Slaves' +quarter. + +In the middle of the stone-flagged yard two little boys were playing +at quoits. Their eyes and hair were as dark as their brown skin, which +had been tanned by the sun. In one of the corners of the yard a fair- +haired, blue-eyed girl was nursing a kitten and singing it to sleep. +The old woman was singing too, or rather humming a tune to herself as +she turned her wheel. She was very old: her hair was white and +silvery, and her face was furrowed by a hundred wrinkles. Her eyes +were blue as the sky, and perhaps they had once been full of fire and +laughter, but all that had been quenched and washed out long ago, and +Time, with his noiseless chisel, had sharpened her delicate features +and hollowed out her cheeks, which were as white as ivory. But her +hands as they twisted the wood were the hands of a young woman, and +seemed as though they had been fashioned by a rare craftsman, so +perfect were they in shape and proportion, as firm as carved marble, +as delicate as flowers. + +The sun sank behind the hills of the coast, and a flood of scarlet +light spread along the West just above them, melting higher up into +orange, and still higher into a luminous blue, which turned to green +later as the evening deepened. The air was cool and sharp, and the +little boys, who had finished their game, drew near to the fire. + +"Tell us a story," said the elder of the two boys, as they curled +themselves up at the feet of the old woman. + +"You know all my stories," she said. + +"That doesn't matter," said the boy. "You can tell us an old one." + +"Well," said the old woman, "I suppose I must. There was once upon a +time a King and a Queen who had three sons and one daughter." At the +sound of these words the little girl ran up and nestled in the folds +of the old woman's long cloak. + +"No, not that one," one of the little boys interrupted, "tell us about +the Queen without a heart." So the old woman began and said:-- + +"There was once upon a time a King and a Queen who had one daughter, +and they invited all the gods and goddesses to the feast which they +gave in honour of the birth of their child. The gods and goddesses +came and gave the child every gift they could think of; she was to be +the most beautiful woman in the whole world, she was to dance like the +West wind, to laugh like the stream, and to sing like the lark. Her +hair should be made of sunshine, and her eyes should be as the sea in +midsummer. She should excel in all things, in knowledge, in wit, and +in skill; she should be fleet of foot, a cunning harp-player, adept at +all manner of woman-like crafts, and deft with the needle and the +spinning-wheel, and at the loom. Zeus himself gave her stateliness and +majesty, the Lord of the Sun gave a voice as of a golden flute; +Poseidon gave her the laughter of all the waves of the sea, the King +of the Underworld gave her a red ruby to wear on her breast more +precious than all the gems of the world. Artemis gave her swiftness +and radiance, Persephone the fragrance and the freshness of all the +flowers of spring; Pallas Athene gave her curious knowledge and +pleasant speech; and, lastly, the Seaborn Goddess breathed upon her +and gave her the beauty of the rose, the pearl, the dew, and the +shells and the foam of the sea. But, alas! the King and Queen had +forgotten to ask one guest. The Goddess of Envy and Discord had been +left out, and she came unbidden, and when all the gods and goddesses +had given their gifts, she said: 'I too have a gift to give, a gift +that will be more precious to her than any. I will give her a heart +that shall be proof against all the onsets of the world.' So saying +the Goddess of Envy took away the child's heart and put in its place a +heart of stone, hard as adamant, bright and glittering as a gem. And +the Goddess of Envy went her way mocking. The King and Queen were +greatly concerned, and they asked the gods and goddesses whether their +daughter would ever recover her human heart. They were told that the +Goddess of Envy would be obliged to give back the child's heart to the +man who loved her enough to seek and to find it, and this would surely +happen; but when and how it was forbidden to them to reveal. + +"The child grew up and became the wonder of the world. She was married +to a powerful King, and they lived in peace and plenty until the +Goddess of Envy once more troubled the child's life. For owing to her +subtle planning a Prince was promised for wife the fairest woman in +the world, and he took the wife of the powerful King and carried her +away to Asia to the six-gated city. The King prepared a host of ships +and armed men and sailed to Asia to win back his wife. And he and his +army fought for ten years until the six-gated city was taken, and he +brought his wife home once more. Now during all the time the war +lasted, although the whole world was filled with the fame of the +King's wife and of her beauty, there was not found one man who was +willing to seek for her heart and to find it, for some gave no +credence to the tale, and others, believing it, reasoned that the +quest might last a life-time, and that by the time they accomplished +it the King's wife would be an old woman, and there would be fairer +women in the world. Others, again, could not believe that in so +perfect a woman there could be any fault; they vowed her heart must be +one with her matchless beauty, and they said that even if the tale +were true, they preferred to worship her as she was, and they would +not have her be otherwise or changed by a hair's breadth for all the +world. Some, indeed, did set out upon the quest, but abandoned it soon +from weariness and returned to bask in the beauty of the great Queen. + +"The years went by. The Queen journeyed to Egypt, to the mountains of +the South, and the cities of the desert; to the Pillars of Hercules +and to the islands of the West. Wherever she went her fame spread like +fire, and men fought and died for a glimpse of her marvellous beauty; +and wherever she passed she left behind her strife and sorrow like a +burning trail. After many voyages she returned home and lived +prosperously. The King her husband died, her children grew up and +married and bore children themselves, and she continued to live +peacefully in her palace. Her fame and her glory brought her neither +joy nor sorrow, nor did she heed the spell that she cast on the hearts +of men. + +"One day a harp-player came to her palace and sang and played before +her; he made music so ravishing and so sad that all who heard him wept +save the Queen, who listened and smiled, listless and indifferent. But +her smile filled him with such a passion of wonder and worship that he +resolved to rest no more until he had found her heart, for he knew the +tale. So he sought the whole world over in vain; and for years and +years he roamed the world fruitlessly. At last one day in a far +country he found a little bird in a trap and he set it free, and in +return the bird promised him that he should find the Queen's heart. +All he had to do was to go home and to seek the Queen's palace. So the +harper went home to the Queen's palace, and when he reached it he +found the Queen had grown old; her hair was grey and there were lines +on her cheek. But she smiled on him, and he knelt down before her, for +he loved her more than ever, and to him she was as beautiful as ever +she had been. At that moment, for the first time in her life the +Queen's eyes filled with tears, for her heart had been given back to +her. And that is all the story." + +"And what happened to the harper?" asked one of the little boys. + +"He lived in the palace and played to the Queen till he died." + +"And is the story true?" asked the other little boy. + +"Yes," said the old woman, "quite true." + +The boys jumped up and kissed the old woman, and the elder of them, +growing pensive, said:-- + +"Grandmother, were you ever young yourself?" + +"Yes, my child," said the old woman, smiling, "I was once young--a +very long time ago." + +She got up, for the twilight had come and it was almost dark. She +walked into the house, and as she rose she was neither bowed nor bent, +but she trod the ground with a straightness which was not stiff but +full of grace, and she moved royally like a goddess. As she walked +past the smoking flames the children noticed that large tears were +welling from her eyes and trickling down her faded cheek. + + + + DR. FAUST'S LAST DAY + +The Doctor got up at dawn, as was his wont, and as soon as he was +dressed he sat down at his desk in his library overlooking the sea, +and immersed himself in the studies which were the lodestar of his +existence. His hours were mapped out with rigid regularity like those +of a school-boy, and his methodical life worked as though by +clockwork. He rose at dawn and read without interruption until eight +o'clock. He then partook of some light food (he was a strict +vegetarian), after which he walked in the garden of his house, +overlooking the Bay of Naples, until ten. From ten to twelve he +received sick people, peasants from the village, or any visitors that +needed his advice or his company. At twelve he ate a frugal meal. From +one o'clock until three he enjoyed a siesta. At three he resumed his +studies, which continued without interruption until six when he +partook of a second meal. At seven he took another stroll in the +village or by the seashore and remained out of doors until nine. He +then withdrew into his study, and at midnight went to bed. + +It was, perhaps, the extreme regularity of his life, combined with the +strict diet which he observed, that accounted for his good health. +This day was his seventieth birthday, and his body was as vigorous and +his mind as alert as they had been in his fortieth year. His thick +hair and beard were scarcely grey, and the wrinkles on his white, +thoughtful face were rare. Yet the Doctor, when questioned as to the +secret of his youthfulness, being like many learned men fond of a +paradox, used to reply that diet and regularity had nothing to do with +it, and that the Southern sun and the climate of the Neapolitan coast, +which he had chosen among all places to be the abode of his old age, +were in reality responsible for his excellent health. + +"I lead a regular life," he used to say, "not in order to keep well, +but in order to get through my work. Unless my hours were mapped out +regularly I should be the prey of every idler in the place and I +should never get any work done at all." + +On this day, as it was his seventieth birthday, the Doctor had asked a +few friends to share his mid-day meal, and when he returned from his +morning stroll he sent for his housekeeper to give her a few final +instructions. The housekeeper, who was a voluble Italian peasant- +woman, after receiving his orders, handed him a piece of paper on +which a few words were scrawled in reddish-brown ink, saying it had +been left by a Signore. + +"What Signore?" asked the Doctor, as he perused the document, which +consisted of words in the German tongue to the effect that the writer +regretted his absence from the Doctor's feast, but would call at +midnight. It was not signed. + +"He was a Signore, like all Signores," said the housekeeper; "he just +left the letter and went away." + +The Doctor was puzzled, and in spite of much cross-examination he was +unable to extract anything more beyond the fact that he was a +"Signore." + +"Shall I lay one place less?" asked the housekeeper. + +"Certainly not," said the Doctor. "All my guests will be present." And +he threw the piece of paper on the table. + +The housekeeper left the room, but she had not been gone many minutes +before she returned and said that Maria, the wife of the late +Giovanni, the baker, wished to speak to him. The Doctor nodded, and +Maria burst into the room, sobbing. + +When her tears had somewhat subsided she told her story in broken +sentences. Her daughter, Margherita, who was seventeen years old, had +been allowed to spend the summer at Sorrento with her late father's +sister. There, it appeared, she had met a "Signore," who had given her +jewels, made love to her, promised her marriage, and held clandestine +meetings with her. Her aunt professed now to have been unaware of +this; but Maria assured the Doctor that her sister-in-law, who had the +evil eye and had more than once trafficked with Satan, must have had +knowledge of the business, even if she were not directly responsible, +which was highly probable. In the meantime Margherita's brother +Anselmo had returned from the wars in the North, and, discovering the +truth, had sworn to kill the Signore unless he married Margherita. + +"And what do you wish me to do?" asked the Doctor, after he had +listened to the story. + +"Anything, anything," she answered, "only calm my son Anselmo or else +there will be a disaster." + +"Who is the Signore?" asked the Doctor. + +"The Conte Guido da Siena," she answered. + +The Doctor reflected a moment, and then said: "I will see what can be +done. The matter can be arranged. Send your son to me later." And +then, after scolding Maria for not having taken proper care of her +daughter, he sent her away. + +As he did so he caught sight of the dirty piece of paper on his table. +For one second he had the impression that the letters on it were +written in blood, and he shivered, but the momentary hallucination and +sense of discomfort passed immediately. + +At mid-day the guests arrived. They consisted of Dr. Cornelius, +Vienna's most learned scholar; Taddeo Mainardi, the painter; a Danish +student from the University of Wittenberg; a young English nobleman, +who was travelling in Italy; and Guido da Siena, philosopher and poet, +who was said to be the handsomest man in Italy. The Doctor set before +his guests a precious wine from Cyprus, in which he toasted them, +although as a rule he drank only water. The meal was served in the +cool loggia overlooking the bay, and the talk, which was of the men +and books of many climes, flowed like a rippling stream on which the +sunshine of laughter lightly played. + +The student asked the Doctor whether in Italy men of taste took any +interest in the recent experiments of a French Huguenot, who professed +to be able to send people into a trance. Moreover, the patient when in +the trance, so it was alleged, was able to act as a bridge between the +material and the spiritual worlds, and the dead could be summoned and +made to speak through the unconscious patient. + +"We take no thought of such things here," said the Doctor. "In my +youth, when I studied in the North, experiments of that nature +exercised a powerful sway over my mind. I dabbled in alchemy; I tried +and indeed considered that I succeeded in raising spirits and visions; +but two things are necessary for such a study: youth, and the mists of +the Northern country. Here the generous sun kills such phantasies. +There are no phantoms here. Moreover, I am convinced that in all such +experiments success depends on the state of mind of the inquirer, +which not only persuades, but indeed compels itself by a strange +magnetic quality to see the vision it desires. In my youth I +considered that I had evoked visions of Satan and Helen of Troy, and +what not--such things are fit for the young. We greybeards have more +serious things to occupy us, and when a man has one foot in the grave, +he has no time to waste." + +"To my mind," said the painter, "this world has sufficient beauty and +mystery to satisfy the most ardent inquirer." + +"But," said the Englishman, "is not this world a phantom and a dream +as insubstantial as the visions of the ardent mind?" + +"Men and women are the only study fit for a man," interrupted Guido, +"and as for the philosopher's stone I have found it. I found it some +months ago in a garden at Sorrento. It is a pearl radiant with all the +hues of the rainbow." + +"With regard to that matter," said the Doctor, "we will have some talk +later. The wench's brother has returned from the war. We must find her +a husband." + +"You misunderstand me," said Guido. "You do not think I am going to +throw my precious pearl to the swine? I have sworn to wed Margherita, +and wed her I shall, and that swiftly." + +"Such an act of folly would only lead," said the Doctor, "to your +unhappiness and to hers. It is the selfish act of a fool. You must not +think of it." + +"Ah!" said Guido, "you are young at seventy, Doctor, but you were old +at twenty-five, and you cannot know what these things mean." + +"I was young in my day," said the Doctor, "and I found many such +pearls; believe me, they are all very well in their native shell. To +move them is to destroy their beauty." + +"You do not understand," said Guido. "I have loved countless times; +but she is different. You never felt the revelation of the real, true +thing that is different from all the rest and transforms a man's +life." + +"No," said the Doctor, "I confess that to me it was always the same +thing." And for the second time that day the Doctor shivered, he knew +not why. + +Soon after the meal was over the guests departed, and although the +Doctor detained Guido and endeavoured to persuade him to listen to the +voice of reason and commonsense, his efforts were in vain. Guido had +determined to wed Margherita. + +"Besides which, if I left her now, I should bring shame and ruin on +her," he said. + +The Doctor started--a familiar voice seemed to whisper in his ear: +"She is not the first one." A strange shudder passed through him, and +he distinctly heard a mocking voice laughing. "Go your way," he said, +"but do not come and complain to me if you bring unhappiness on +yourself and her." + +Guido departed and the Doctor retired to enjoy his siesta. + +For the first time during all the years he had lived at Naples the +Doctor was not able to sleep. "This and the hallucinations I have +suffered from to-day come from drinking that Cyprus wine," he said to +himself. + +He lay in the darkened room tossing uneasily on his bed and sleep +would not come to him. Stranger still, before his eyes fiery letters +seemed to dance before him in the air. At seven o'clock he went out +into the garden. Never had he beheld a more glorious evening. He +strolled down towards the seashore and watched the sunset. Mount +Vesuvius seemed to have dissolved into a rosy haze; the waves of the +sea were phosphorescent. A fisherman was singing in his boat. The sky +was an apocalypse of glory and peace. + +The Doctor sighed and watched the pageant of light until it faded and +the stars lit up the magical blue darkness. Then out of the night came +another song--a song which seemed familiar to the Doctor, although for +the moment he could not place it, about a King in the Northern Country +who was faithful to the grave and to whom his dying mistress a golden +beaker gave. + +"Strange," thought the Doctor, "it must come from some Northern +fishing smack," and he went home. + +He sat reading in his study until midnight, and for the first time in +thirty years he could not fix his mind on his book. For the vision of +the sunset and the song of the Northern fisherman, which in some +unaccountable way brought back to him the days of his youth, kept on +surging up in his mind. + +Twelve o'clock struck. He rose to go to bed, and as he did so he heard +a loud knock at the door. + +"Come in," said the Doctor, but his voice faltered ("the Cyprus wine +again!" he thought), and his heart beat loudly. + +The door opened and an icy draught blew into the room. The visitor +beckoned, but spoke no word, and Doctor Faust rose and followed him +into the outer darkness. + + + + THE FLUTE-PLAYER'S STORY + +There is a village in the South of England not far from the sea, which +possesses a curious inn called "The Green Tower." Why it is called +thus, nobody knows. This inn must in days gone by have been the +dwelling of some well-to-do squire, but nothing now remains of its +former prosperity, except the square grey tower, partially covered +with ivy, from which it takes its name. The inn stands on the +roadside, on the brow of a hill, and at the top of the tower there is +a room with four large windows, whence you can see all over the wooded +country. The ex-Prime Minister of a foreign state, who had been driven +from office and home by a revolution, happening to pass the night in +the inn and being of an eccentric disposition, was so much struck with +this room that he secured it, together with two bedrooms, permanently +for himself. He determined to spend the rest of his life here, and as +he was within certain limits not unsociable, he invited his friends to +come and stay with him on any Saturday they pleased, without giving +him notice. + +Thus it happened that of a Saturday and Sunday there was nearly always +a mixed gathering of men at "The Green Tower, and after they had dined +they would sit in the tower room and drink old Southern wines from the +ex-Prime Minister's country, and talk, or tell each other stories. But +the ex-Prime Minister made it a stringent rule that at least one guest +should tell one story during his stay, for while he had been Prime +Minister a Court official had been in his service whose only duty it +was to tell him a story every evening, and this was the only thing he +regretted of all his former privileges. + +On this particular Sunday, besides myself, the clerk, the flute- +player, the wine merchant (the friends of the ex-Prime Minister were +exceedingly various), and the scholar were present. They were smoking +in the tower room. It was summer, and the windows were wide open. +Every inch of wall which was not occupied by the windows was crowded +with books. The clerk was turning over the leaves of the ex-Prime +Minister's stamp collection (which was magnificent), the flute-player +was reading the score of Handel's flute sonatas (which was rare), the +scholar was reading a translation in Latin hexameters of the "Ring and +the Book" (which the ex-Prime Minister has written in his spare +moments), and the wine merchant was drinking generously of a curious +red wine, which was very old. + +"I think," said the ex-Prime Minister, "that the flute-player has +never yet told us a story." + +The guests knew that this hint was imperative, and so putting away the +score, the flute-player said: "My story is called, 'The Fiddler.'" And +he began:-- + +"This happened a long time ago in one of the German-speaking countries +of the Holy Roman Empire. There was a Count who lived in a large +castle. He was rich, powerful, and the owner of large lands. He had a +wife, and one daughter, who was dazzlingly beautiful, and she was +betrothed to the eldest son of a neighbouring lord. When I say +betrothed, I mean that her parents had arranged the marriage. She +herself--her name was Elisinde--had had no voice in the matter, and +she disliked, or rather loathed, her future husband, who was boorish, +sullen, and ill-tempered; he cared for nothing except hunting and deep +drinking, and had nothing to recommend him but his ducats and his +land. But it was quite useless for Elisinde to cry or protest. Her +parents had settled the marriage and it was to be. She understood this +herself very well. + +"All the necessary preparations for the wedding, which was to be held +on a splendid scale, were made. There was to be a whole week of +feasting; and tumblers and musicians came from distant parts of the +country to take part in the festivities and merry-making. In the +village, which was close to the castle, a fair was held, and the +musicians, tumblers, and mountebanks, who had thronged to it, +performed in front of the castle walls for the amusement of the +Count's guests. + +"Among these strolling vagabonds was a fiddler who far excelled all +the others in skill. He drew the most ravishing tones from his +instrument, which seemed to speak in trills as liquid as those of the +nightingale, and in accents as plaintive as those of a human voice. +And one of the inmates of the castle was so much struck by the +performance of this fiddler that he told the Count of it, and the +fiddler was commanded to come and play at the Castle, after the +banquet which was to be held on the eve of the wedding. The banquet +took place in great pomp and solemnity, and lasted for many hours. +When it was over the fiddler was summoned to the large hall and bidden +to play before the Lords and Ladies. + +"The fiddler was a strange looking, tall fellow with unkempt fair +hair, and eyes that glittered like gold; but as he was dressed in +tattered uncouth rags (and they were his best too) he cut an +extraordinary and almost ridiculous figure amongst that splendid +jewelled gathering. The guests tittered when they saw him. But as soon +as he began to play, their tittering ceased, for never had they heard +such music. + +"He played--in view of the festive occasion--a joyous melody. And, as +he played, the air seemed full of sunlight, and the smell of wine vats +and the hum of bees round ripe fruit. The guests could not keep still +in their places, and at last the Count gave orders for a general +dance. The hall was cleared, and soon all the guests were breathlessly +dancing to the divine lilt of the fiddler's melody. All except +Elisinde who, when her betrothed came forward to lead her to the +dance, pleaded fatigue, and remained seated in her chair, pale and +distraught, and staring at the fiddler. This did not, to tell the +truth, displease her betrothed, who was a clumsy dancer and had no ear +for music. Breathless at last with exhaustion the guests begged the +untiring fiddler to pause while they rested for a moment to get their +breath. + +"And while they were resting the fiddler played another tune. This +time it was a sad tune: a low, soft tune, liquid and lovely as a human +voice. A great hush came on the company. It seemed as if after the +heat and splendour of a summer's day the calm of evening had fallen; +the quiet of the dusk, when the moon rises in the sky, still faintly +yellow in the west with the ebb of sunset, and pours on the stiff +cornfields its cool, silvery frost; and the trees quiver, as though +they felt the freshness and were relieved, and a breeze comes, almost +imperceptible and not strong enough to shake the boughs, from the sea; +and a bird, hidden somewhere in the leaves, sings a throbbing song. + +"Everyone was spellbound, but none so much as Elisinde. The music +seemed to be speaking straight to her, to pierce the very core of her +heart. It was an inarticulate language which she understood better +than any words. She heard a lonely spirit crying out to her, that it +understood her sorrow and shared her pain. And large tears poured down +her cheeks. + +"The fiddler stopped playing, and for a moment or two no one spoke. At +last Elisinde's betrothed gave a great yawn, and the spell was broken. + +" 'You play very well--very well, indeed,' said the Count. + +" 'But that sad music is, I think, rather out of place to-day,' said +the Countess. + +" 'Yes, let us have another cheerful tune,' said the Count. + +"The fiddler struck up once more and played another dance. This time +there was an almost elfish magic in his melody. It took you captive; +it was irresistible; it called and commanded and compelled; you longed +to follow, follow, anywhere, over the hills, over the sea, to the end +of the world. + +"Elisinde rose from her chair as though the spirit of the music +beckoned her, but looking round she saw no partner to her taste. She +sat down again and stared at the fiddler. His eyes were fixed on her, +and as she looked at him his squalor and rags seemed to fade away and +his blue eyes that glittered like gold seemed to grow larger, and his +hair to grow brighter till it shone like fire. And he seemed to be +caught in a rosy cloud of light: tall, splendid, young, and glowing +like a god. + +"After this dance was over the Count rose, and he and his guests +retired to rest. The fiddler was given a purse full of money, and the +Count gave orders that he should be served refreshment in the kitchen. + +"Elisinde went up to her bedroom, which overlooked the garden. She +threw the window wide open and looked out into the starry darkness. It +was a breathless summer night. The air was full of warm scents. Lights +still twinkled in the village; now and again a dog barked, otherwise +everything was still. She leant out of the window, and cried bitterly +because her lot was loathsome to her, and she had not a friend in the +world to whom she could confide her sorrow. + +"While she was thus sobbing she heard a rustling in the bushes +beneath; she looked down and she saw a face looking up towards her, a +beautiful face, glistening in the moonlight. It was the fiddler. + +" 'Elisinde,' he called to her in a low voice, 'if you want to escape +I have the means. Come with me; I love you, and I will save you from +your doom.' + +" 'I would come with you to the end of the world,' she said, 'but how +can I get away from this castle?' + +"He threw a rope ladder up to her. 'Make it fast to the bar,' he said, +'and let yourself down.' + +"She let herself down into the garden. 'We can easily climb the wall +with this,' he said; 'but before you come I must tell you that if you +will be my bride your life will be hard and full of misery. Think +before you come.' + +" 'Rather all the misery in the world,' she said, 'than the awful doom +that awaits me here. Besides which I love you, and we shall be very +happy.' + +"They scaled the wall, and on the other side of it the fiddler had two +horses, waiting tied to the gate. They galloped through many villages, +and by the dawn they had reached a village far beyond the Count's +lands. Here they stopped at an inn, and they were married by the +priest that day. But they did not stop in this village; they sought a +further country, beyond reach of all pursuit. They settled in a +village, and the fiddler earned his bread by his fiddling, and +Elisinde kept their cottage neat and clean. For awhile they were as +happy as the day was long; the fiddler found favour everywhere by his +fiddling, and Elisinde ingratiated herself by her gentle ways. But one +day when Elisinde was lying in bed and the fiddler had lulled her to +sleep with his music, some neighbours, attracted by the sound, passed +the cottage and looked in at the window. And to their astonishment +they saw the fiddler sitting by a bed on which lay what seemed to them +to be a sleeping princess; and the whole cottage was full of dazzling +light, and the fiddler's face shone, and his hair and his eyes +glittered like gold. They went away much frightened, and told the +whole village the news. + +"Now there were already not a few of the villagers who looked askance +on the fiddler; and this incident set all the evil and envious tongues +wagging. When the fiddler went to play the next day at the inn men +turned away from him, and a child in the street threw a stone at him. +Presently he was warned that he had better swiftly fly or else he +would be drowned as a sorcerer. + +"So he and Elisinde fled in the night to a neighbouring village. But +soon the dark rumours followed them, and they were forced to flee once +more. This happened again and again, till at last in the whole country +there was not a village which would receive them, and one night they +were obliged to take refuge in a barn, for Elisinde was expecting the +birth of her child. That night their child was born, a beautiful +little boy, and an hour afterwards Elisinde smiled and died. + +"All that night the villagers heard from afar a piteous wailing music, +infinitely sad and beautiful, and those that heard it shuddered and +crossed themselves. + +"The next day the villagers sought the barn, for they had resolved to +drown the sorcerer; but he was not there. All they found was the dead +body of Elisinde, and a little baby lying on some straw. The body of +Elisinde was covered with roses. And this was strange, for it was +midwinter. The fiddler had disappeared and was never heard of again, +and an old wood-cutter, who was too old to know any better, took +charge of the baby. + +"I will tell you what happened to it another day." + + * * * * * + +"We wish to hear the end of your story," said the ex-Prime Minister to +the flute-player. + +"Yes," said the scholar, "and I want to know who the fiddler was." + +This conversation took place at the Green Tower two weeks after the +gathering I have already described. The same people were present; but +there was another guest, namely, the musician, who, unlike the flute- +player, was not an amateur. + +"The child of Elisinde and the fiddler," began the flute-player, "was, +as I have already told you, a boy. The woodcutter who took pity on him +was old and childless. He brought the baby to his hut, and gave it +over to the care of his wife. At first she pretended to be angry, and +said that nothing would persuade her to have anything to do with the +child, and that it was all they could do to feed themselves without +picking up waifs in the gutter; but she ended by looking after the +baby with the utmost tenderness and care, and by loving it as much as +if it had been her own child. The baby was christened Franz. As soon +as he was able to walk and talk there were two things about him which +were remarkable. The first was his hair, which glittered like +sunlight; the second was his fondness for all musical sounds. When he +was four years old he had made himself a flute out of a reed, and on +this he played all day, imitating the song of the birds. He was in his +sixth year when an event happened which changed his life. He was +sitting in front of the woodcutter's cottage one day, when a bright +cavalcade passed him. It was a nobleman from a neighbouring castle, +who was travelling to the city with his retainers. Among these was a +Kapellmeister, who organised the music of this nobleman's household. +The moment he caught sight of Franz and heard his piping, he stopped, +and asked who he was. + +"The woodcutter's wife told him the story of the finding of the waif, +to which both the nobleman and himself listened with great interest. +The Kapellmeister said that they should take the child with them; that +he should be attached to the nobleman's house and trained as a member +of his choir or his string band, according to his capacities. The +nobleman, who was passionately fond of music, and extremely particular +with regard to the manner of its performance, was delighted with the +idea. The offer was made to the woodcutter and his wife, and although +she cried a good deal they were both forced to recognise that they had +no right to interfere with the child's good fortune. Moreover, the +gift of a purse full of gold (which the nobleman gave them) did not +make the matter more distasteful. + +"Finally it was settled that the child should go with the nobleman +then and there; and Franz took leave of his adopted parents, not +without many and bitter tears being shed on both sides. + +"Franz travelled with the nobleman to a large city, and he became a +member--the youngest--of the nobleman's household. He was taught his +letters, which he learnt with ease, and the rudiments of music, which +he absorbed with such astounding rapidity, that the Kapellmeister said +that it seemed as if he already knew everything that was taught him. +When he was seven years old, he could not only play several +instruments, but he composed fugues and sonatas. When the nobleman +invited the magnates of the place to listen to his musicians, Franz, +the prodigy, was the centre of interest, and very soon he became the +talk of the town. At the age of ten he was an accomplished organ +player, and he played with skill on the flute and the clavichord. + +"He grew up a tall and handsome lad, with clear, dreamy eyes, and hair +that continued to glitter like sunlight. He was happy in the +nobleman's household, for the nobleman and his wife were kind people; +like the woodcutter they were childless and came to look upon him as +their own child. He was a quiet youth, and so deeply engrossed in his +music and his studies that he seemed to be quite unaware of the +outside world and its inhabitants and its doings. But although he led +a retired, studious life, his fame had got abroad and had even reached +the Emperor's ears. + +"When Franz was seventeen years old it happened that the Court was in +need of an organist. The Emperor's curiosity had been aroused by what +he had heard of Franz, and one fine day the youth was summoned to +Court to play before his Majesty. This he did with such success that +he was appointed organist of the Court on the spot. + +"He was sad at leaving the nobleman, but there was nothing to be done. +The Emperor's wish was law. He became Court organist and he played the +organ in the Imperial chapel during Mass on Sundays. As before, he +spent all his leisure time in composing music. + +"Now the Emperor had a daughter called Kunigmunde, who was beautiful +and wildly romantic. She was immediately spellbound by Franz's music, +and he became the lodestar of her dreams. Often in the afternoon she +would steal up to the organ loft, where he was playing alone, and sit +for hours listening to his improvisations. They did not speak to each +other much, but ever since Franz had set eyes on her something new had +entered into his soul and spoke in his music, something tremulous and +strange and wonderful. + +"For a year Franz's life ran placidly and smoothly. He was made much +of, praised and petted; but now, as before, he seemed quite unaware of +the outside world and its doings, and he moved in a world of his own, +only he was no longer alone in his secret habitation, it was inhabited +by another shape, the beautiful dark-haired Princess Kunigmunde, and +in her honour he composed songs, minuets, sonatas, hymns, and +triumphal marches. As was only natural, there were not wanting at +Court persons who were envious of Franz, his talent, and his good +fortune. And among them there was a musician, a tenor in the Imperial +choir, called Albrecht, who hated Franz with his whole heart. He was a +dark-eyed, dark-haired creature, slightly deformed; he limped, and he +had a sinister look as though of a satyr. Nevertheless he was highly +gifted and composed music of his own which, although it was not +radiant like that of Franz, was full of brilliance and not without a +certain compelling power. Albrecht revolved in his mind how he might +ruin Franz. He tried to excite the envy of the courtiers against him, +but Franz was such a modest fellow, so kindly and good-natured, that +it was not easy to make people dislike him. Nevertheless there were +many who were tired of hearing him praised, and many who were secretly +tired of the perpetual beauty and radiance of Franz's music, and +wished for something new even though it should be ugly. + +"An opportunity soon presented itself for Albrecht to carry out his +evil and envious designs. The Court Kapellmeister died, and not long +after this event a great feast was to be held at Court to celebrate +Princess Kunigmunde's birthday. The Emperor had offered a prize, a +wreath of gilt laurels, as well as the post of Court Kapellmeister to +him who should compose the most beautiful piece of music in his +daughter's honour. Franz seemed so certain of success that nobody even +dared to compete with him except Albrecht. + +"When the hour of the contest came--it took place in the great throne- +room before the Emperor, the Empress, their sons, their daughters, and +the whole court after the banquet--Franz was the first to display his +work. He sat down at the clavichord and sang what he had composed in +honour of the Princess. He had made three little songs for her. Franz +had not much voice, but it had a peculiar wail in it, and he sang, +like the born and trained musician that he was, with that absolute +mastery over his means, that certain perfection of utterance, that +power of conveying, to the shade of a shade, the inmost spirit and +meaning of the music which only belong to those great and rare artists +whose perfect art is alive with the inspiration that cannot be learnt. + +"The first song he sang was the call of a home-going shepherd to his +flock on the hills at sunset, and when he sang it he brought the +largeness of the dying evening and the solemn hills into the elegant +throne-room. The second song was the cry of a lonely fisherman on the +river at midnight, and as he sang it he brought the mystery of broad +starlit waters into the taper-lit, gilded hall. The third song was the +song of the happy lover in the orchard at dawn. And when he sang it he +brought the smell of dewy leaves and grass, the soaring radiance of +spring and early morning, to that powdered and silken assembly. The +Court applauded him, but they were astonished and slightly +disappointed, for they had expected something grand and complicated, +and not three simple tunes. But the nobleman who had educated Franz, +and his Kapellmeister, who were among the guests, wept tears in +silence. + +"Albrecht followed him. The swarthy singer sat down to the instrument +and struck a ringing chord. He had a pure and infinitely powerful +tenor voice, clear as crystal, loud as a clarion, strong, rich, and +rippling. He sang a love-song he had composed himself. He called it +'The Homage of King Pan to the Princess.' It was voluptuous and +vehement and sweet as honey, full of bold conceits and audacious turns +and trills, which startled the audience and took their breath away. He +sang his song with almost devilish skill and power; and his warm, +captivating voice rang through the room and shook the tall window- +panes, and finally died away like the vibrations of a great bell. The +whole Court shouted, delirious with applause, and unanimously declared +him to be the victor. A witty courtier said that Marsyas had avenged +himself on Apollo; but the nobleman and his Kapellmeister snorted and +sniffed and said nothing. Albrecht was given the prize and appointed +Kapellmeister to the Court without further discussion. + +"When the ceremony was over, Franz, who was indifferent to his defeat, +went to the chapel of the palace, and lighting a candle, walked up +into the organ loft. There he played to himself another song, a hymn +he had composed in honour of Princess Kunigmunde. It was filled with +rapture and a breathless wonder, and in it his inmost soul spoke its +unuttered love. He had not sung this song in public, it was too +sacred. As he played and sang to himself in a low voice he was aware +of a soft footstep. He started and looked round, and there was the +Princess, bright in silk and jewels, with a pink rose in her powdered +hair. She took this rose and laid it lightly on the black keys. + +" 'That is the prize,' she said. 'You won it, and I want to thank you. +I never knew music could be so beautiful.' + +"Franz looked at her, and said 'Thank you.' He had risen from his seat +and was about to go, but the light of his candle caught Princess +Kunigmunde's brown eyes (which were wet with tears), and something +rose like fire in his breast and made him forget his bashfulness, his +respect, and his sense of decorum. + +" 'Come with me,' he said, in a broken voice. 'Let us fly from this +Court to the hills and be happy.' + +"But the Princess shook her head sadly, and said: 'Alas! It is +impossible. I am betrothed to the King of the Two Sicilies.' + +"Then Franz mastered himself once more, and said: 'Of course, it is +impossible. I was mad.' + +"The Princess kissed her hand to him and fled. + +"At that moment Franz heard a noise in the nave of the chapel; he +looked over the gallery of the organ loft, and saw sidling away in the +darkness the dim figure of a deformed man. + +"That night Princess Kunigmunde had a strange dream. She thought she +was transported into a beautiful southern country where the azure sky +seemed to scintillate with the dust of myriads and myriads of +diamonds, and to sparkle with sunlight like dancing wine. The low blue +hills were bare and sparsely clothed with delicate trees, and the +fields, sprinkled with innumerable red, yellow, white and purple +flowers, were bright as fabulous Persian carpets. On a grassy knoll +before her the rosy columns of a temple shone in the gleaming dust of +the atmosphere. Beside her there was a running stream, on the bank of +which grew a bay-tree. There was a chirping of grasshoppers in the +air, a noise of bees, and a delicious warm smell of burnt grass and +thyme and mint. + +"Near the stream a man was standing; he was an ordinary man, and yet +he seemed to tower above the landscape without being unusually tall; +his hair was bright as gold, and his eyes, more lustrous still, +reflected the silvery blue sky and shone like opals. In his hands he +held a golden lyre, and around him a warm golden cloud seemed to rise, +on a transparent aura of light, like the glow of the sunset. In front +of him there stood a creature of the woods, a satyr, with pointed +ears, cloven hoofs, and human eyes, in his hairy hands holding a flute +made out of a reed. + +"Presently the satyr breathed on his flute and a wonderful note +trembled in the air, soft, low, and liquid. The note was followed by +others, and a stillness fell upon Nature; the birds ceased to sing, +the grasshoppers were still, the bees paused. All Nature was listening +and the Princess was conscious in her dream that there were others +besides herself listening, unseen shapes and sightless phantoms; a +crowd, a multitude of attentive ghosts, that were hidden from her +sight. The melody rose and swelled in stillness; it was melting and +ravishing and bold with a human audacity. As she listened it reminded +her of something; she felt she had heard such sounds before, though +she could not remember where and when. But suddenly it flashed across +her that the music resembled Albrecht's song; it was Albrecht's song, +only transfigured as it were, and a thousand times more beautiful in +her dream than in reality. More beautiful, and at the same time as +though it belonged to the days of youth and spring which Albrecht had +never known. The satyr ceased playing and the pleasant noises of the +world began once more. The shining figure who stood before him looked +on the satyr with divine scorn and smiled a radiant, merciless smile. +Then he struck his lyre and Nature once more was dumb. + +"But this time the magic was of another kind and a thousand times more +mighty; a song rose into the air which leapt and soared like a flame, +imperious as the flashing of a sword, triumphant as the waving of a +banner, wonderful as the dawn and fresh as the laughing sea. And once +more Princess Kunigmunde was aware that the music was familiar to her. +She had heard something like it in the chapel that evening, when in +the darkness Franz had played and sung the hymn that he had composed +in her honour. Only now it was more than human, unearthly and divine. +As soon as he ceased an eclipse seemed to darken the world, a thick +cloud of rolling darkness; there was a crash of thunder, a flash of +lightning, and out of the blackness came a piteous, human cry, the cry +of a creature in anguish, and then a faint moaning. + +"Presently all was still, but the dark cloud remained, and she heard a +mocking laugh and the accents of a clear, scornful voice (she +recognised the voice, it was the voice of Albrecht), and the voice +said: 'Thou hast conquered, Apollo, and cruelly hast thou used thy +victory; and cruelly has thou punished me for daring to challenge thy +divine skill. It was mad indeed to compete with a god; and yet shall I +avenge my wrong and thy harshness shall recoil on thee. For not even +gods can be unjust with impunity, and the Fates are above us all. And +I shall be avenged; for all thy sons shall suffer what I have +suffered; and there is not one of them that shall escape the doom and +not share the fate of Marsyas the Satyr, whom thou didst cruelly slay. +The music and the skill which shall be their inheritance shall be the +cause to them of sorrow and grief unending and pitiless pain and +misery. Their life shall be as bitter to them as my death has been to +me. Their music shall fill the world with sweetness and ravish the +ears of listening nations, but to them it shall bring no joy; for life +like a cruel blade shall flay and lay bare their hearts, and sorrow +like a searching wind shall play upon their souls and make them +tremble, even as the scabbard of my body trembled in the breeze; and +just as from that trembling husk of what was once myself there came +forth sweet sounds, so shall it be with their souls, shivering and +trembling in the cold wind of life. Music shall come from them, but +this music shall be born of agony; nor shall they utter a single note +that is not begotten of sorrow or pain. And so shall the children of +Apollo suffer and share the pain of Marsyas. + +"The voice died away, and a pitiful wail was heard as of a wind +blowing through the reeds of a river. And the Princess awoke, +trembling with fear of some unknown and impending disaster. + +"The next morning Franz, as he walked into the chapel to practice on +the organ, was met by two soldiers, who bade him follow them, and he +was shut up in the prison of the palace. No word of explanation was +given him; nor had he any idea what the crime might be of which he was +accused, or of his ultimate fate. But in the evening, when the +gaoler's daughter brought him his food, she made him a sign, and he +found in his loaf of bread a rose, a file, and a tiny scroll, on which +the following words were written; 'Albrecht denounced you. Fly for +your life. K.' Later, when the gaolers had gone to sleep, the gaoler's +daughter stole to his cell. She brought him a rope, and a purse full +of silver. He filed the bars and let himself down into a narrow street +of the city. + +"By the time the sun rose he had left the city far behind him. He +journeyed on and on till he passed the frontier of the Emperor's +dominions and reached a neighbouring State. By the time he came to a +city he had spent his money, and he was in rags and tatters; +nevertheless, he managed to earn his bread by making music in the +streets, and after a time a well-to-do citizen who noticed him took +him into his house and entrusted him with the task of teaching music +to his sons and of playing him to sleep in the evening. Franz spent +his leisure hours in composing an opera called 'The Death of Adonis,' +into which he poured all the music of his soul, all his love, his +sorrow, and his infinite desire. He lived for this only, and during +all the hours he spent when he was not working at his opera he was +like a man in a dream, unconscious of the realities around him. In a +year his opera was finished. He took it to the Intendant of the Ducal +Theatre in the city and played it to him, and the Intendant, greatly +pleased, determined to have it performed without delay. The best +singers were allotted parts in it, and it was performed before the +Arch-Duke and his Court, and a multitude of people. + +"The music told the story of Franz's love; it was bright with all his +dreams, and sorrowful with his great despair. Never had such music +been heard; so sweet, so sunlit in its joys, so radiant in its +sadness. But the Arch-Duke and his Court, startled by the new accent +of this music, and influenced by the local and established musicians, +who were envious of this newcomer, listened in frigid silence, so that +the common people in the gallery dared not show signs of their +delight. In fact, the opera was a complete failure. Public opinion +followed the Court, and found no words, bad or strong enough to +condemn what they called the new-fangled rubbish. Among those who +blamed the new work there was none so bitter as the citizen whose +children Franz had been teaching. For this man considered himself to +be a genius, and was inordinately vain, and his ignorance was equal to +his conceit. He dismissed Franz from his service. All doors were now +closed to him, and being on the verge of starvation he was reduced to +earning his bread in the streets by playing his pipe. This also proved +unsuccessful, and it was with difficulty that he earned a few pence +every day. + +"At last he burnt all his manuscripts, and went into the hills; the +hill people welcomed him, but their kindness came too late; his heart +was broken, and when sickness came to him with the winter snow, he had +no longer any strength to resist it. The peasants found him one day +lying cold and stiff in his hut. They buried him on the hill-side. The +night of his funeral a strange fiddler with a shining face was seen +standing beside his grave and playing the most lovely tunes on a +violin. + +"The name of Franz was soon forgotten, but although he died obscure +and penniless he left a rich legacy. For he taught the hill-people +three songs, the songs he had sung at Court in honour of Princess +Kunigmunde, and they never died. They spread from the hills to the +plains, from the plains to the river, from the river to the woods, and +indeed you can still hear them on the hills of the north, on the great +broad rivers of the east, and in the orchards of the south." + + + + A CHINAMAN ON OXFORD + +"Yes, I am a student," said the Chinaman, "And I came here to study +the English manners and customs." + +We were seated on the top of the electric tram which goes to Hampton +Court. It was a bitterly cold spring day. The suburbs of London were +not looking their best. + +"I spent three days at Oxford last week," he said. + +"It's a beautiful place, is it not?" I remarked. + +The Chinaman smiled. "The country which you see from the windows of +the railway carriages," he said, "on the way from Oxford to London +strikes me as being beautiful. It reminded me of the Chinese Plain, +only it is prettier. But the houses at Oxford are hideous: there is no +symmetry about them. The houses in this country are like blots on the +landscape. In China the houses are made to harmonise with the +landscape just as trees do." + +"What did you see at Oxford?" I asked. + +"I saw boat races," he said, "and a great many ignorant old men." + +"What did you think of that?" + +"I think," he said, "the young people seemed to enjoy it, and if they +enjoy it they are quite right to do it. But the way the older men talk +about these things struck me as being foolish. They talk as if these +games and these sports were a solemn affair, a moral or religious +question; they said the virtues and the prowess of the English race +were founded on these things. They said that competition was the +mainspring of life; they seemed to think exercise was the goal of +existence. A man whom I saw there and who, I learnt, had been chosen +to teach the young on account of his wisdom, told me that competition +trained the man to sharpen his faculties; and that the tension which +it provoked is in itself a useful training. I do not believe this. A +cat or a boa constrictor will lie absolutely idle until it perceives +an object worthy of its appetite; it will then catch it and swallow +it, and once more relapse into repose without thinking of keeping +itself 'in training.' But it will lie dormant and rise to the occasion +when it occurs. These people who talked of games seem to me to +undervalue repose. They forget that repose is the mother of action, +and exercise only a frittering away of the same." + +"What did you think," I asked, "of the education that the students at +Oxford receive?" + +"I think," said the Chinaman, "that inasmuch as the young men waste +their time in idleness they do well; for the wise men who are chosen +to instruct the young at your places of learning, are not always wise. +I visited a professor of Oriental languages. His servant asked me to +wait, and after I had waited three quarters of an hour, he sent word +to say that he had tried everywhere to find the professor in the +University who spoke French, but that he had not been able to find +him. And so he asked me to call another day. I had dinner in a college +hall. I found that the professors talked of many things in such a way +as would be impossible to children of five and six in our country. +They are quite ignorant of the manners and customs of the people of +other European countries. They pronounce Greek and Latin and even +French in the same way as English. I mentioned to one of them that I +had been employed for some time in the Chinese Legation; he asked me +if I had had much work to do. I said yes, the work had been heavy. +'But,' he observed, 'I suppose a great deal of the work is carried on +directly between the Governments and not through the Ambassadors.' I +cannot conceive what he meant or how such a thing could be possible, +or what he considered the use and function of Embassies and Legations +to be. They most of them seemed to take for granted that I could not +speak English: some of them addressed me in a kind of baby language; +one of them spoke French. The professor who spoke to me in this +language told me that the French possessed no poetical literature, and +he said the reason of this was that the French language was a bastard +language; that it was, in fact, a kind of pidgin Latin. He said when a +Frenchman says a girl is 'beaucoup belle,' he is using pidgin Latin. +The courtesy due to a host prevented me from suggesting that if a +Frenchman said 'beaucoup belle' he would be talking pidgin French. + +"Another professor said to me that China would soon develop if she +adopted a large Imperial ideal, and that in time the Chinese might +attain to a great position in the world, such as the English now held. +He said the best means of bringing this about would be to introduce +cricket and football into China. I told him that I thought this was +improbable, because if the Chinese play games, they do not care who is +the winner; the fun of the game is to us the improvisation of it as +opposed to the organisation which appeals to the people here. Upon +which he said that cricket was like a symphony of music. In a symphony +every instrument plays its part in obedience to one central will, not +for its individual advantage, but in order to make a beautiful whole. +'So it is with our games,' he said, 'every man plays his part not for +the sake of personal advantage, but so that his side may win; and thus +the citizen is taught to sink his own interests in those of the +community.' I told him the Chinese did not like symphonies, and +Western music was intolerable to them for this very reason. Western +musicians seem to us to take a musical idea which is only worthy of a +penny whistle (and would be very good indeed if played on a penny +whistle!); and they sit down and make a score of it twenty yards +broad, and set a hundred highly-trained and highly-paid musicians to +play it. It is the contrast between the tremendous apparatus and waste +of energy on one side, and the light and playful character of the +business itself on the other which makes me, a Chinaman, as incapable +of appreciating your complicated games as I am of appreciating the +complicated symphonies of the Germans or the elaborate rules which +their students make with regard to the drinking of beer. We like a man +for taking his fun and not missing a joke when he finds it by chance +on his way, but we cannot understand his going out of his way to +prepare a joke and to make arrangements for having some fun at a +certain fixed date. This is why we consider a wayside song, a tune +that is heard wandering in the summer darkness, to be better than +twenty concerts." + +"What did that professor say?" I asked. + +"He said that if I were to stay long enough in England and go to a +course of concerts at the Chelsea Town Hall, I would soon learn to +think differently. And that if cricket and football were introduced +into China, the Chinese would soon emerge out of their backwardness +and barbarism and take a high place among the enlightened nations of +the world. I thought to myself as he said this that your games are no +doubt an excellent substitute for drill, but if we were to submit to +so complicated an organisation it would be with a purpose: in order to +turn the Europeans out of China, for instance; but that organisation +without a purpose would always seem to us to be stupid, and we should +no more dream of organising our play than of organising a stroll in +the twilight to see the Evening Star, or the chase of a butterfly in +the spring. If we were to decide on drill it would be drill with a +vengeance and with a definite aim; but we should not therefore and +thereby destroy our play. Play cannot exist for us without fun, and +for us the open air, the fields, and the meadows are like wine: if we +feel inclined, we roam and jump about in them, but we should never +submit to standing to attention for hours lest a ball should escape +us. Besides which, we invented the foundations of all our games many +thousand of years ago. We invented and played at 'Diabolo' when the +Britons were painted blue and lived in the woods. The English knew how +to play once, in the days of Queen Elizabeth; then they had masques +and madrigals and Morris dances and music. A gentleman was ashamed if +he did not speak six or seven languages, handle the sword with a +deadly dexterity, play chess, and write good sonnets. Men were broken +on the wheel for an idea: they were brave, cultivated, and gay; they +fought, they played, and they wrote excellent verse. Now they organise +games and lay claim to a special morality and to a special mission; +they send out missionaries to civilise us savages; and if our people +resent having an alien creed stuffed down their throats, they take our +hand and burn our homes in the name of Charity, Progress, and +Civilisation. They seek for one thing--gold; they preach competition, +but competition for what? For this: who shall possess the most, who +shall most successfully 'do' his neighbour. These ideals and aims do +not tempt us. The quality of the life is to us more important than the +quantity of what is done and achieved. We live, as we play, for the +sake of living. I did not say this to the professors because we have a +proverb that when you are in a man's country you should not speak ill +of it. I say it to you because I see you have an inquiring mind, and +you will feel it more insulting to be served with meaningless phrases +and empty civilities than with the truth, however bitter. For those +who have once looked the truth in the face cannot afterwards be put +off with false semblances." + +"You speak true words," I said, "but what do you like best in +England?" + +"The gardens," he answered, "and the little yellow flowers that are +sprinkled like stars on your green grass." + +"And what do you like least in England?" + +"The horrible smells," he said. + +"Have you no smells in China?" I asked. + +"Yes," he replied, "we have natural smells, but not the smell of gas +and smoke and coal which sickens me here. It is strange to me that +people can find the smell of human beings disgusting and be able to +stand the foul stenches of a London street. This very road along which +we are now travelling (we were passing through one of the less +beautiful portions of the tramway line) makes me homesick for my +country. I long to see a Chinese village once more built of mud and +fenced with mud, muddy-roaded and muddy-baked, with a muddy little +stream to be waded across or passed by stepping on stones; with a +delicate one-storeyed temple on the water-eaten bank, and green poppy +fields round it; and the women in dark blue standing at the doorways, +smoking their pipes; and the children, with three small budding +pigtails on the head of each, clinging to them; and the river fringed +with a thousand masts: the boats, the houseboats, the barges and the +ships in the calm, wide estuaries, each with a pair of huge eyes +painted on the front bow. And the people: the men working at their +looms and whistling a happy tune out of the gladness of their hearts. +And everywhere the sense of leisure, the absence of hurry and bustle +and confusion; the dignity of manners and the grace of expression and +of address. And, above all, the smell of life everywhere." + +"I admit," I said, "that our streets smell horribly of smoke and coal, +but surely our people are clean?" + +"Yes," he said, "no doubt; but you forget that to us there is nothing +so intolerably nasty as the smell of a clean white man!" + + + + VENUS + +John Fletcher was an overworked minor official in a Government office. +He lived a lonely life, and had done so ever since he had been a boy. +At school he had mixed little with his fellow school-boys, and he took +no interest in the things that interested them, that is to say, games. +On the other hand, although he was what is called "good at work," and +did his lessons with facility and ease, he was not a literary boy, and +did not care for books. He was drawn towards machinery of all kinds, +and spent his spare time in dabbling in scientific experiments or in +watching trains go by on the Great Western line. Once he blew off his +eyebrows while making some experiment with explosive chemicals; his +hands were always smudged with dark, mysterious stains, and his room +was like that of a mediaeval alchemist, littered with retorts, +bottles, and test-glasses. Before leaving school he invented a flying +machine (heavier than air), and an unsuccessful attempt to start it on +the high road caused him to be the victim of much chaff and ridicule. + +When he left school he went to Oxford. His life there was as lonely as +it had been at school. The dirty, untidy, ink-stained, and chemical- +stained little boy grew up into a tall, lank, slovenly-dressed man, +who kept entirely to himself, not because he cherished any dislike or +disdain for his fellow-creatures, but because he seemed to be entirely +absorbed in his own thoughts and isolated from the world by a barrier +of dreams. + +He did well at Oxford, and when he went down he passed high into the +Civil Service and became a clerk in a Government office. There he kept +as much to himself as ever. He did his work rapidly and well, for this +man, who seemed so slovenly in his person, had an accurate mind, and +was what was called a good clerk, although his incurable absent- +mindedness once or twice caused him to forget certain matters of +importance. + +His fellow clerks treated him as a crank and as a joke, but none of +them, try as they would, could get to know him or win his confidence. +They used to wonder what Fletcher did with his spare time, what were +his pursuits, what were his hobbies, if he had any. They suspected +that Fletcher had some hobby of an engrossing kind, since in everyday +life he conveyed the impression of a man who is walking in his sleep, +who acts mechanically and automatically. Somewhere else, they thought, +in some other circumstances, he must surely wake up and take a living +interest in somebody or in something. + +Yet had they followed him home to his small room in Canterbury- +mansions they would have been astonished. For when he returned from +the office after a hard day's work he would do nothing more engrossing +than slowly to turn over the leaves of a book in which there were +elaborate drawings and diagrams of locomotives and other kinds of +engines. And on Sunday he would take a train to one of the large +junctions and spend the whole day in watching express trains go past, +and in the evening would return again to London. + +One day after he had returned from the office somewhat earlier than +usual, he was telephoned for. He had no telephone in his own room, but +he could use a public telephone which was attached to the building. He +went into the small box, but found on reaching the telephone that he +had been cut off by the exchange. He imagined that he had been rung up +by the office, so he asked to be given their number. As he did so his +eye caught an advertisement which was hung just over the telephone. It +was an elaborate design in black and white, pointing out the merits of +a particular kind of soap called the Venus: a classical lady, holding +a looking-glass in one hand and a cake of this invaluable soap in the +other, was standing in a sphere surrounded by pointed rays, which was +no doubt intended to represent the most brilliant of the planets. + +Fletcher sat down on the stool and took the receiver in his hand. As +he did so he had for one second the impression that the floor +underneath him gave way and that he was falling down a precipice. But +before he had time to realise what was happening the sensation of +falling left him; he shook himself as though he had been asleep, and +for one moment a faint recollection as though of the dreams of the +night twinkled in his mind, and vanished beyond all possibility of +recall. He said to himself that he had had a long and curious dream, +and he knew that it was too late to remember what it had been about. +Then he opened his eyes wide and looked round him. + +He was standing on the slope of a hill. At his feet there was a kind +of green moss, very soft to tread on. It was sprinkled here and there +with light red, wax-like flowers such as he had never seen before. He +was standing in an open space; beneath him there was a plain covered +with what seemed to be gigantic mushrooms, much taller than a man. +Above him rose a mass of vegetation, and over all this was a dense, +heavy, streaming cloud faintly glimmering with a white, silvery light +which seemed to be beyond it. + +He walked towards the vegetation, and soon found himself in the middle +of a wood, or rather of a jungle. Tangled plants grew on every side; +large hanging creepers with great blue flowers hung downwards. There +was a profound stillness in this wood; there were no birds singing and +he heard not the slightest rustle in the rich undergrowth. It was +oppressively hot and the air was full of a pungent, aromatic +sweetness. He felt as though he were in a hot-house full of gardenias +and stephanotis. At the same time the atmosphere of the place was +pleasant to him. It was neither strange nor disagreeable. He felt at +home in this green shimmering jungle and in this hot, aromatic +twilight, as though he had lived there all his life. + +He walked mechanically onwards as if he were going to a definite spot +of which he knew. He walked fast, but in spite of the oppressive +atmosphere and the thickness of the growth he grew neither hot nor out +of breath; on the contrary, he took pleasure in the motion, and the +stifling, sweet air seemed to invigorate him. He walked steadily on +for over three hours, choosing his way nicely, avoiding certain places +and seeking others, following a definite path and making for a +definite goal. During all this time the stillness continued unbroken, +nor did he meet a single living thing, either bird or beast. + +After he had been walking for what seemed to him several hours, the +vegetation grew thinner, the jungle less dense, and from a more or +less open space in it he seemed to discern what might have been a +mountain entirely submerged in a multitude of heavy grey clouds. He +sat down on the green stuff which was like grass and yet was not +grass, at the edge of the open space whence he got this view, and +quite naturally he picked from the boughs of an overhanging tree a +large red, juicy fruit, and ate it. Then he said to himself, he knew +not why, that he must not waste time, but must be moving on. + +He took a path to the right of him and descended the sloping jungle +with big, buoyant strides, almost running; he knew the way as though +he had been down that path a thousand times. He knew that in a few +moments he would reach a whole hanging garden of red flowers, and he +knew that when he had reached this he must again turn to the right. It +was as he thought: the red flowers soon came to view. He turned +sharply, and then through the thinning greenery he caught sight of an +open plain where more mushrooms grew. But the plain was as yet a great +way off, and the mushrooms seemed quite small. + +"I shall get there in time," he said to himself, and walked steadily +on, looking neither to the right nor to the left. It was evening by +the time he reached the edge of the plain: everything was growing +dark. The endless vapours and the high banks of cloud in which the +whole of this world was sunk grew dimmer and dimmer. In front of him +was an empty level space, and about two miles further on the huge +mushrooms stood out, tall and wide like the monuments of some +prehistoric age. And underneath them on the soft carpet there seemed +to move a myriad vague and shadowy forms. + +"I shall get there in time," he thought. He walked on for another half +hour, and by this time the tall mushrooms were quite close to him, and +he could see moving underneath them, distinctly now, green, living +creatures like huge caterpillars, with glowing eyes. They moved slowly +and did not seem to interfere with each other in any way. Further off, +and beyond them, there was a broad and endless plain of high green +stalks like ears of green wheat or millet, only taller and thinner. + +He ran on, and now at his very feet, right in front of him, the green +caterpillars were moving. They were as big as leopards. As he drew +nearer they seemed to make way for him, and to gather themselves into +groups under the thick stems of the mushrooms. He walked along the +pathway they made for him, under the shadow of the broad, sunshade- +like roofs of these gigantic growths. It was almost dark now, yet he +had no doubt or difficulty as to finding his way. He was making for +the green plain beyond. The ground was dense with caterpillars; they +were as plentiful as ants in an ant's nest, and yet they never seemed +to interfere with each other or with him; they instinctively made way +for him, nor did they appear to notice him in any way. He felt neither +surprise nor wonder at their presence. + +It grew quite dark; the only lights which were in this world came from +the twinkling eyes of the moving figures, which shone like little +stars. The night was no whit cooler than the day. The atmosphere was +as steamy, as dense and as aromatic as before. He walked on and on, +feeling no trace of fatigue or hunger, and every now and then he said +to himself: "I shall be there in time." The plain was flat and level, +and covered the whole way with the mushrooms, whose roofs met and shut +out from him the sight of the dark sky. + +At last he came to the end of the plain of mushrooms and reached the +high green stalks he had been making for. Beyond the dark clouds a +silver glimmer had begun once more to show itself. "I am just in +time," he said to himself, "the night is over, the sun is rising." + +At that moment there was a great whirr in the air, and from out of the +green stalks rose a flight of millions and millions of enormous broad- +winged butterflies of every hue and description--silver, gold, purple, +brown and blue. Some with dark and velvety wings like the Purple +Emperor, or the Red Admiral, others diaphanous and iridescent as +dragon-flies. Others again like vast soft and silvery moths. They rose +from every part of that green plain of stalks, they filled the sky, +and then soared upwards and disappeared into the silvery cloudland. + +Fletcher was about to leap forward when he heard a voice in his ear +saying-- + +"Are you 6493 Victoria? You are talking to the Home Office." + + * * * * * + +As soon as Fletcher heard the voice of the office messenger through +the telephone he instantly realised his surroundings, and the strange +experience he had just gone through, which had seemed so long and +which in reality had been so brief, left little more impression on him +than that which remains with a man who has been immersed in a brown +study or who has been staring at something, say a poster in the +street, and has not noticed the passage of time. + +The next day he returned to his work at the office, and his fellow- +clerks, during the whole of the next week, noticed that he was more +zealous and more painstaking than ever. On the other hand, his +periodical fits of abstraction grew more frequent and more pronounced. +On one occasion he took a paper to the head of the department for +signature, and after it had been signed, instead of removing it from +the table, he remained staring in front of him, and it was not until +the head of the department had called him three times loudly by name +that he took any notice and regained possession of his faculties. As +these fits of absent-mindedness grew to be somewhat severely commented +on, he consulted a doctor, who told him that what he needed was change +of air, and advised him to spend his Sundays at Brighton or at some +other bracing and exhilarating spot. Fletcher did not take the +doctor's advice, but continued spending his spare time as he did +before, that is to say, in going to some big junction and watching the +express trains go by all day long. + +One day while he was thus employed--it was Sunday, in August of 19--, +when the Egyptian Exhibition was attracting great crowds of visitors-- +and sitting, as was his habit, on a bench on the centre platform of +Slough Station, he noticed an Indian pacing up and down the platform, +who every now and then stopped and regarded him with peculiar +interest, hesitating as though he wished to speak to him. Presently +the Indian came and sat down on the same bench, and after having sat +there in silence for some minutes he at last made a remark about the +heat. + +"Yes," said Fletcher, "it is trying, especially for people like +myself, who have to remain in London during these months." + +"You are in an office, no doubt," said the Indian. + +"Yes," said Fletcher. + +"And you are no doubt hard worked." + +"Our hours are not long," Fletcher replied, "and I should not complain +of overwork if I did not happen to suffer from--well, I don't know +what it is, but I suppose they would call it nerves." + +"Yes," said the Indian, "I could see that by your eyes." + +"I am a prey to sudden fits of abstraction," said Fletcher, "they are +growing upon me. Sometimes in the office I forget where I am +altogether for a space of about two or three minutes; people are +beginning to notice it and to talk about it. I have been to a doctor, +and he said I needed change of air. I shall have my leave in about a +month's time, and then perhaps I shall get some change of air, but I +doubt if it will do me any good. But these fits are annoying, and once +something quite uncanny seemed to happen to me." + +The Indian showed great interest and asked for further details +concerning this strange experience, and Fletcher told him all that he +could recall--for the memory of it was already dimmed--of what had +happened when he had telephoned that night. + +The Indian was thoughtful for a while after hearing this tale. At last +he said: "I am not a doctor, I am not even what you call a quack +doctor--I am a mere conjurer, and I gain my living by conjuring tricks +and fortune-telling at the Exhibition which is going on in London. But +although I am a poor man and an ignorant man, I have an inkling, a few +sparks in me of ancient knowledge, and I know what is the matter with +you." + +"What is it?" asked Fletcher. + +"You have the power, or something has the power," said the Indian, "of +detaching you from your actual body, and your astral body has been +into another planet. By your description I think it must be the planet +Venus. It may happen to you again, and for a longer period--for a very +much longer period." + +"Is there anything I can do to prevent it?" asked Fletcher. + +"Nothing," said the Indian. "You can try change of air if you like, +but," he said with a smile, "I do not think it will do you much good." + +At that moment a train came in, and the Indian said good-bye and +jumped into it. + +On the next day, which was Monday, when Fletcher got to the office it +was necessary for him to use the telephone with regard to some +business. No sooner had he taken the receiver off the telephone than +he vividly recalled the minute details of the evening he had +telephoned, when the strange experience had come to him. The +advertisement of Venus Soap that had hung in the telephone box in his +house appeared distinctly before him, and as he thought of that he +once more experienced a falling sensation which lasted only a fraction +of a second, and rubbing his eyes he awoke to find himself in the +tepid atmosphere of a green and humid world. + +This time he was not near the wood, but on the sea-shore. In front of +him was a grey sea, smooth as oil and clouded with steaming vapours, +and behind him the wide green plain stretched into a cloudy distance. +He could discern, faint on the far-off horizon, the shadowy forms of +the gigantic mushrooms which he knew, and on the level plain which +reached the sea beach, but not so far off as the mushrooms, he could +plainly see the huge green caterpillars moving slowly and lazily in an +endless herd. The sea was breaking on the sand with a faint moan. But +almost at once he became aware of another sound, which came he knew +not whence, and which was familiar to him. It was a low whistling +noise, and it seemed to come from the sky. + +At that moment Fletcher was seized by an unaccountable panic. He was +afraid of something; he did not know what it was, but he knew, he felt +absolutely certain, that some danger, no vague calamity, no distant +misfortune, but some definite physical danger was hanging over him and +quite close to him--something from which it would be necessary to run +away, and to run fast in order to save his life. And yet there was no +sign of danger visible, for in front of him was the motionless oily +sea, and behind him was the empty and silent plain. It was then he +noticed that the caterpillars were fast disappearing, as if into the +earth: he was too far off to make out how. + +He began to run along the coast. He ran as fast as he could, but he +dared not look round. He ran back from the coast to the plain, from +which a white mist was rising. By this time every single caterpillar +had disappeared. The whistling noise continued and grew louder. + +At last he reached the wood and bounded on, trampling down long +trailing grasses and tangled weeds through the thick, muggy gloom of +those endless aisles of jungle. He came to a somewhat open space where +there was the trunk of a tree larger than the others; it stood by +itself and disappeared into the tangle of creepers above. He thought +he would climb the tree, but the trunk was too wide, and his efforts +failed. He stood by the tree trembling and panting with fear. He could +not hear a sound, but he felt that the danger, whatever it was, was at +hand. + +It grew darker and darker. It was night in the forest. He stood +paralysed with terror; he felt as though bound hand and foot, but +there was nothing to be done except to wait until his invisible enemy +should choose to inflict his will on him and achieve his doom. And yet +the agony of this suspense was so terrible that he felt that if it +lasted much longer something must inevitably break inside him . . . +and just as he was thinking that eternity could not be so long as the +moments he was passing through, a blessed unconsciousness came over +him. He woke from this state to find himself face to face with one of +the office messengers, who said to him that he had been given his +number two or three times but had taken no notice of it. + +Fletcher executed his commission and then went upstairs to his office. +His fellow-clerks at once asked what had happened to him, for he was +looking white. He said that he had a headache and was not feeling +quite himself, but made no further explanations. + +This last experience changed the whole tenor of his life. When fits of +abstraction had occurred to him before he had not troubled about them, +and after his first strange experience he had felt only vaguely +interested; but now it was a different matter. He was consumed with +dread lest the thing should occur again. He did not want to get back +to that green world and that oily sea; he did not want to hear the +whistling noise, and to be pursued by an invisible enemy. So much did +the dread of this weigh on him that he refused to go to the telephone +lest the act of telephoning should set alight in his mind the train of +associations and bring his thoughts back to his dreadful experience. + +Shortly after this he went for leave, and following the doctor's +advice he spent it by the sea. During all this time he was perfectly +well, and was not once troubled by his curious fits. He returned to +London in the autumn refreshed and well. + +On the first day that he went to the office a friend of his telephoned +to him. When he was told that the line was being held for him he +hesitated, but at last he went down to the telephone office. + +He remained away twenty minutes. Finally his prolonged absence was +noticed, and he was sent for. He was found in the telephone room stiff +and unconscious, having fallen forward on the telephone desk. His face +was quite white, and his eyes wide open and glazed with an expression +of piteous and harrowing terror. When they tried to revive him their +efforts were in vain. A doctor was sent for, and he said that Fletcher +had died of heart disease. + + + + THE FIRE + +Before the bell had time to sound the alarm a huge pillar of smoke and +flame, leaping high in the breathless August night, told the whole +village the news of the fire. Men, women, and children hurried to the +burning place. The firemen galloped down the rutty road with their +barrels of water and hand-pumps, yelling. The bell rang, with hurried, +throbbing beats. The fire, which was further off than it seemed to be +at first sight, was in the middle of the village. Two houses were +burning--a house built of bricks and a wooden cottage. The flame was +prodigious: it soared into the sky like the eruption of a volcano, and +the wooden cottage, with its flat logs and blazing roof, looked like a +sacrificial pyre consuming the body of some warrior or Viking. In the +light of the flames the soft sky, which was starless and flooded with +stillness by the large full moon, had turned from blue to green. A +dense crowd had gathered round the burning houses. + +The firemen, working like bees, were doing what they could to +extinguish the flames and to prevent the fire spreading. Volunteers +from the crowd helped them. One man climbed up on the edge of the +wooden house, where the flames had been overcome, and shovelled earth +from the roof on the little flames, which were leaping like earth +spirits from the ground. His wife stood below and called on him in +forcible language to descend from such a dangerous place. The crowd +jeered at her fears, and she spoke her mind to them in frank and +unvarnished terms. It was St. John the Baptist's Day. Some of the men +had been celebrating the feast by drinking. One of them, out of the +fulness of his heart, cried out: "Oh, how happy I am! I'm drunk, and +there's a fire, and all at the same time!" But most of the crowd--they +looked like black shadows against the glare--looked on quietly, every +now and then making comments on the situation. One of the peasants +tried to knock down the burning house with an axe. He failed. Someone +not far off was playing an accordion and singing a monotonous +rhythmical song. + +Amidst the shifting crowd of shadows I noticed a strange figure, who +beckoned to me. "I see you are short-sighted," he said, "let me lend +you a glass." His voice sounded thin and distant, and he handed me a +piece of glass which seemed to be more opaque than transparent. I +looked through it and I noticed a difference in things: + +The cottages had disappeared; in their place were great high buildings +with lofty porticos, broad columns and carved friezes, but flames were +leaping round them, intenser and greater than before, and the noise of +the fire had increased. In front of me was an open court, in the +centre of which was an altar, and to the right of this altar stood an +old bay-tree. An old man and a grey-haired woman were clinging to this +altar; it was drenched with blood, and on the steps of it lay several +bodies of young men clothed in armour, but squalid with dust and +blood. + +I had scarcely become aware of the scene before a great cloud of smoke +passed through the court, and when it rose I saw there had been +another change: in that few moments' space the fire seemed to have +wrought incredible havoc. Nothing was left of all the tall pillared +buildings, the friezes and the porticos, the altar, the bay-tree and +the bodies--nothing but the pile of logs which vomited a rolling cloud +of flame and smoke into the sky. The moon was still shining calmly, +and the sky was softer and greener. On the ground there were hundreds +of dead and dying men; the dying were groaning in their agony. Far +away on the horizon there was a thin line of light, a faint trembling +thread as though of foam, and I seemed to hear the moaning of the sea. + +All at once a woman walked in front of the burning pile. She was tall, +and silken folds clothed the perfect lines of her body and fell +straight to the ground. She walked royally, and when she moved her +gestures were like the rhythm of majestic music. The firelight shone +on her hair, which was bound with a narrow golden band. Her hair was +like a cloud of spun sunshine, and it seemed brighter than the flames. +She was walking with downcast eyes, but presently she looked up. Her +face was calm, and faultless as skilfully-hewn marble, and it seemed +to be made of some substance different from the clay which goes to the +making of men and women. It was not an angel's face; it was not a +divine face; neither was it a wicked face, nor had it anything cruel, +nor anything of the siren or the witch. Love and pleasure seemed to +have moulded the flower-like lips; but an infinite carelessness shone +in the still blue eyes. They seemed like two seas that had never known +what winds and tempests mean, but which bask for ever under unruffled +skies lulled by a slumber-scented breeze. + +She looked up at the fire and smiled, and at that smile one thought +the heavens must open and the stars break into song, so marvellous was +its loveliness, so infinitely radiant the glory of it. She was a +woman, and yet more than a woman, a creature of the earth, yet +fashioned of pearls and dew and the petals of flowers: delicate as a +gossamer, and yet radiant with the flush of life, soft as the +twilight, and glowing with the blood of the ruby; and, above all +things, serene, calm, aloof, and unruffled like the silver moon. When +the dying men saw her smile they raised their eyes towards her, and +one could see that there shone in them a strange and wonderful +happiness. And when they had looked they fell back and died. + +Then a cloud of smoke blinded me. When it rose the full moon was still +shining in a sky even bluer and softer than it had yet been. The fire +was further off, but it had spread. The whole village was on fire; but +the village had grown; it seemed endless, and covered several hills. +Right in front of me was a grove of cypresses, dark against the +intense glow of the flames, which leapt all round in the distance: a +huge circle of light, a chain of fiery tongues and dancing lightnings. + +We were on the top of a hill, and we looked down into a place where +tall buildings and temples stood, where the fire had not penetrated. +This place was crowded with men, women and children. It was the same +shifting crowd of shadows: some shouting, some gesticulating, some +looking on indifferent. And straight in front of me was a short, dark, +and rather fat man with a low forehead, deep-set eyes, and a heavy +jaw. He was crowned with a golden wreath, and he was twanging a kind +of harp. In the distance suddenly the cypress trees became alive with +huge flaring torches, which lit the garden like Bengal lights. The man +threw down his harp and clapped his hands in ecstasy at the bright +fireworks. Again a cloud of smoke obscured everything. + +When it lifted I was in the village once more, and once more it was +different. It was on fire, and it seemed infinitely larger and more +straggling than when I had arrived. The moon was still in the sky, but +the air had a chilly touch. Instead of one church there was an +infinite number of churches, for in the glare countless minarets and +small cupolas were visible. There was no crowd, no voices, and no +shouting; only a long line of low, blazing wooden houses. The place +was deserted and silent save for the crackling blaze. Then down the +street a short, fat man on horseback rode towards us. He was riding a +white horse. He wore a grey overcoat and a cocked hat. I became aware +of a rhythmical tramping: a noise of hundreds and hundreds of hoofs, a +champing of bits, and the tramp of innumerable feet and the rumble of +guns. In the distance there was a hill with crenelated battlements +round it; it was crowned with the domes and minarets of several +churches, taller and greater than all the other churches in sight. +These minarets shone out clean-cut and distinct against the ruddy sky. + +The short man on horseback looked back for a moment at this hill. He +took a pinch of snuff. + + + + THE CONQUEROR + +When the ancient gods were turned out of Olympus, and the groan of +dying Pan shook the world like an earthquake, none of the fallen +deities was so disconsolate as Proserpine. She wandered across the +world, assuming now this shape and now that, but nowhere could she +find a resting-place or a home. In the Southern country which she +regarded as her own, whatever shape or disguise she assumed, whether +that of a gleaner or of an old woman begging for alms, the country +people would scent something uncanny about her and chase her from the +place. Thus it was that she left the Southern country, which she +loved; she said farewell to the azure skies, the hills covered with +corn and fringed everywhere with rose bushes, the white oxen, the +cypress, the olive, the vine, the croaking frogs, and the million +fireflies; and she sought the green pastures and the woods of a +Northern country. + +One evening, not long after her arrival (it was Midsummer Eve), as she +was wandering in a thick wood, she noticed that the trees and the +under-growth were twinkling with a myriad soft flames which reminded +her of the fireflies of her own country, and presently she perceived +that these flames were stars which, soft as dew and bright as +moonbeams, formed the diadems crowning the hair of unearthly shapes. +These shapes were like those of men and maidens, transfigured and +rendered strange and delicate, as light as foam, and radiant as +dragonflies hovering over a pool. They were rimmed with rainbow- +coloured films, and sometimes they flew and sometimes they danced, but +they rarely seemed to touch the ground. And as Proserpine approached +them, in the sad majesty of her fallen divinity, they gathered round +her in a circle and bowed down before her. And one of them, taller +than the rest, advanced towards her and said:-- + +"We are the Fairies, and for a long time we have been mournful, for we +have lost our Queen, our beautiful Queen. She loved a mortal, and on +this account she was banished from Fairyland, nor may she ever revisit +the haunt and the kingdom that were hers. But Merlin, the oldest and +the wisest of the wizards, told us we should find another Queen, and +that we should know her by the poppies in her hair, the whiteness of +her brow, and the stillness of her eyes, and with or without such +tokens we should know, as soon as we set eyes on her, that it was she +and no other who was to be our Queen. And now we know that it was you +and no other. Therefore shall you be our Queen and rule over us until +he comes who, Merlin said, shall conquer your kingdom and deliver its +secrets to the mortal world. Then shall you abandon the kingdom of the +Fairies--the everlasting Limbo shall receive you." + + * * * * * + +It was one summer's day a long time ago, many and many years after +Proserpine had become Queen of the Fairies, that a butcher's +apprentice called William was enjoying a holiday, and strolling in the +woods with no other purpose than to stroll and enjoy the fresh air and +the cool leaves and the song of the birds. William loved the sights +and sounds of the country; unlike many boys of his age, he was not +deeply versed in the habits of birds and beasts, but devoted his spare +time to reading such books as he could borrow from the village +schoolmaster whose school he had lately left to go into trade, or to +taking part in the games of his companions, for he loved human +fellowship and the talk and laughter of his fellow-creatures. + +The day was hot--it was Midsummer Day--and William, having stumbled on +a convenient mound, fell asleep. And he dreamt a curious dream. He +thought he saw a beautiful maiden walking towards him. She was tall, +and clothed in dark draperies, and her hair was bound with a coronal +of scarlet flowers, her face was pale and lustrous, and he could not +see her eyes because they were veiled. She approached him and said:-- + +"You are he who has been chosen to try to conquer my kingdom, which is +faery, and to possess it: if, indeed, you are able to endure the +fierce ordeal and to perform the three dreadful tasks which have been +appointed. If he who sets out to conquer my kingdom should fail in any +one of the three tasks he dies, and the world hears of him no more. +Many have tried and failed." + +And William said he would try with all his might to conquer the faery +kingdom, and he asked what the three tasks might be. + +The maiden, who was none other than Proserpine, Queen of the Fairies, +told him that the first task was to pluck the crystal apple from the +laughing tree, and second to pluck the blood-red rose from the fiery +rose tree, and the third to cull the white poppy from the quiet +fields. William asked her how he was to set about these tasks. +Proserpine told him that he had but to accept the quest and all would +be made clear. So he accepted the quest without further talk. + +Immediately Proserpine vanished, and William found himself in a large +green garden of fruit trees, and in the distance he heard the noise of +rippling laughter. He walked along many paths to the place whence he +thought the laughter came, until he found a large fruit tree which +grew by itself. It was laden with fruit, and from one of its boughs +hung a crystal apple which shone with all the colours of the rainbow. + +But the tree was guarded by a hideous old hag, covered with sores and +leprous scales, loathsome to behold. And a laughing voice came from +the tree saying: "He who would pluck the crystal apple must embrace +its guardian." And William looked at her and felt no loathing but +rather a deep pity, so that tears welled in his eyes and dropped on +her, and he took her face in his hands to embrace her, and as he did +so she changed into a beautiful maiden with veiled eyes, who plucked +the crystal apple from the tree and gave it to him and vanished. + +Then the garden changed its semblance, and all around him there seemed +to be a hedge of smoking thorns and before him a fiery tree on which +blood-red roses shone like rubies. The tree was guarded by a maiden +with long grey eyes and flowing hair, and of spun moonshine, beautiful +exceedingly, and a moaning voice came from the tree, saying: "He who +would pluck the rose must slay its guardian." On the grass beneath the +tree lay an unsheathed sword. William took the sword in his hands, but +the maiden looked at him piteously and wept, so that he hesitated; +then, hardening himself, he plunged the sword into her heart and a +great moan was heard, and the fire disappeared, and only a withered +rose-tree stood before him. Then he heard the voice say that he must +pierce his own heart with a thorn from the tree and let the blood fall +upon its roots. This he did, and as he did so he felt the sharpness of +Death, as though the last dreadful moment had come; but as the drops +of blood fell on the roots the beautiful maiden with veiled eyes, whom +he had seen before stood before him and gave him the blood-red rose, +and she touched his wound and straightway it was healed. + +Then the garden vanished altogether, and he stood before a dark porch +and a gate beyond which he caught a pale glimmer. And by the porch +stood a terrible shape: a hooded skeleton bearing a scythe, with white +sockets of fire which had no eyes in them but which were so terrible +that no mortal could look on them and live. And here he heard a voice +saying: "He who would cull the white poppy must look into the eyes of +its guardian and take the scythe from the bony hands." And William +seized the scythe and an icy darkness descended upon him, and he felt +dizzy and faint; yet he persisted and wrestled with the skeleton, +although the darkness seemed to be overwhelming him. He tore the hood +from the bony head and looked boldly into the fiery sockets. + +Then with a crash of thunder the skeleton vanished, and the maiden +with veiled eyes led him through the gate into the quiet fields, and +there he culled the white poppy. Then the maiden turned to him and +unveiled herself, and it was Proserpine, the Queen of the Fairies. + +"You have conquered," she said, "and the faery kingdom is yours for +ever, and you shall visit it and dwell in it whenever you desire, and +reveal its sounds and its sights to the mortals of the world: and in +my kingdom you shall see, as though in a mirror, the pageant of +mankind, the scroll of history, and the story of man which is writ in +brave, golden and glowing letters, of blood and tears and fire. And +there is nothing in the soul of man that shall be hid from you; and +you shall speak the secrets of my kingdom to mortal men with a voice +of gold and of honey. And when you grow weary of life you shall +withdraw for ever into the island of faery voices which lies in the +heart of my kingdom. And as for me I go to the everlasting Limbo." + +Then Proserpine vanished, and William awoke from his dream, and went +home to his butcher's shop. + +Soon after this he left his native village and went to London, where +he became well known; although how his surname shall be spelt is a +matter of dispute, some spelling it Shakespeare, some Shakespere, and +some Shaksper. + + + + THE IKON + +Ferroll was an intellectual, and he prided himself on the fact. At +Cambridge he had narrowly missed being a Senior Wrangler, and his +principal study there had been Lunar Theory. But when he went down +from Cambridge for good, being a man of some means, he travelled. For +a year he was an honorary Attache at one of the big Embassies. He +finally settled in London with a vague idea of some day writing a +/magnum opus/ about the stupidity of mankind; for he had come to the +conclusion by the age of twenty-five that all men were stupid, +irreclaimably, irredeemably stupid; that everything was wrong; that +all literature was really bad, all art much overrated, and all music +tedious in the long run. + +The years slipped by and he never began his /magnum opus/; he joined a +literary club instead and discussed the current topic of the day. +Sometimes he wrote a short article; never in the daily Press, which he +despised, nor in the reviews (for he never wrote anything as long as a +magazine article), but in a literary weekly he would express in weary +and polished phrases the unemphatic boredom or the mitigated approval +with which the works of his fellow-men inspired him. He was the kind +of man who had nothing in him you could positively dislike, but to +whom you could not talk for five minutes without having a vague +sensation of blight. Things seemed to shrivel up in his presence as +though they had been touched by an insidious east wind, a subtle +frost, a secret chill. He never praised anything, though he sometimes +condescended to approve. The faint puffs of blame in which he more +generally indulged were never sharp or heavy, but were like the smoke +rings of a cigarette which a man indolently smoking blows from time to +time up to the ceiling. + +He lived in rooms in the Temple. They were comfortably, not +luxuriously furnished; a great many French books--French was the only +modern language worth reading he used to say--a few modern German +etchings, a low Turkish divan, and some Egyptian antiquities, made up +the furniture of his two sitting-rooms. Above all things he despised +Greek art; it was, he said decadent. The Egyptians and the Germans +were, in his opinion, the only people who knew anything about the +plastic arts, whereas the only music he could endure was that of the +modern French School. Over his chimney-piece there was a large German +landscape in oils, called "Im Walde"; it represented a wood at +twilight in the autumn, and if you looked at it carefully and for a +long time you saw that the objects depicted were meant to be trees +from which the leaves were falling; but if you looked at the picture +carelessly and from a distance, it looked like a man-of-war on a rough +sea, for which it was frequently taken, much to Ferrol's annoyance. + +One day an artist friend of his presented him with a small Chinese god +made of crystal; he put this on his chimney-piece. It was on the +evening of the day on which he received this gift that he dined, +together with a friend named Sledge who had travelled much in Eastern +countries, at his club. After dinner they went to Ferrol's rooms to +smoke and to talk. He wanted to show Sledge his antiquities, which +consisted of three large Egyptian statuettes, a small green Egyptian +god, and the Chinese idol which he had lately been given. Sledge, who +was a middle-aged, bearded man, frank and unconventional, examined the +antiquities with care, pronounced them to be genuine, and singled out +for special praise the crystal god. + +"Your things are very good," he said, "very good. But don't you really +mind having all these things about you?" + +"Why should I mind?" asked Ferrol. + +"Well, you have travelled a good deal, haven't you?" + +"Yes," said Ferrol, "I have travelled; I have been as far east as +Nijni-Novgorod to see the Fair, and as far west as Lisbon." + +"I suppose," said Sledge, "you were a long time in Greece and Italy?" + +"No," said Ferrol, "I have never been to Greece. Greek art distresses +me. All classical art is a mistake and a superstition." + +"Talking of superstition," said Sledge, "you have never been to the +Far East, have you?" + +"No," Ferrol answered, "Egypt is Eastern enough for me, and cannot be +bettered." + +"Well," said Sledge, "I have been in the Far East. I have lived there +many years. I am not a superstitious man; but there is one thing I +would not do in any circumstances whatsoever, and that is to keep in +my sitting-room the things you have got there." + +"But why?" asked Ferrol. + +"Well," said Sledge, "nearly all of them have come from the tombs of +the dead, and some of them are gods. Such things may have attached to +them heaven knows what spooks and spirits." + +Ferrol shut his eyes and smiled, a faint, seraphic smile. "My dear +boy," he said, "you forget. This is the Twentieth Century." + +"And you," answered Sledge, "forget that the things you have here were +made before the Twentieth Century. B.C." + +"You don't seriously mean," said Ferrol, "that you attach any +importance to these--" he hesitated. + +"Children's stories?" suggested Sledge. + +Ferrol nodded. + +"I have lived long enough in the East," said Sledge, "to know that the +sooner you learn to believe children's stories the better." + +"I am afraid, then," said Ferrol, with civil tolerance, "that our +points of view are too different for us to discuss the matter." And +they talked of other things until late into the night. + +Just as Sledge was leaving Ferrol's rooms and had said "Good-night," +he paused by the chimney-piece, and, pointing to the tiny Ikon which +was lying on it, asked: "What is that?" + +"Oh, that's nothing," said Ferrol, "only a small Ikon I bought for +twopence at the Fair of Nijni-Novgorod." + +Sledge said "Good-night" again, but when he was on the stairs he +called back: "In any case remember one thing, that East is East and +West is West. Don't mix your deities." + +Ferrol had not the slightest idea what he was alluding to, nor did he +care. He dismissed the matter from his mind. + +The next day he spent in the country, returning to London late in the +evening. As he entered his rooms the first thing which met his eye was +that his great picture, "Im Walde," which he considered to be one of +the few products of modern art that a man who respected himself could +look at without positive pain in the eyes, had fallen from its place +over the chimney-piece to the floor in front of the fender, and the +glass was shattered into a thousand fragments. He was much vexed. He +sought the cause of the accident. The nail was a strong one, and it +was still in its place. The picture had been hung by a wire; the wire +seemed strong also and was not broken. He concluded that the picture +must have been badly balanced and that a sudden shock such a door +banging had thrown it over. He had no servant in his rooms, and when +he had gone out that morning he had locked the door, so no one could +have entered his rooms during his absence. + +Next morning he sent for a framemaker and told him to mend the frame +as soon as possible, to make the wire strong, and to see that the +picture was firmly fixed on the wall. In two or three days' time the +picture returned and was once more hung on the wall over the chimney- +piece immediately above the little crystal Chinese god. Ferrol +supervised the hanging of the picture in person. He saw that the nail +was strong, and firmly fixed in the wall; he took care that the wire +left nothing to be desired and was properly attached to the rings of +the picture. + +The picture was hung early one morning. That day he went to play golf. +He returned at five o'clock, and again the first thing which met his +eye was the picture. It had again fallen down, and this time it had +brought with it in its fall the small Chinese god, which was broken in +two. The glass had again been shattered to bits, and the picture +itself was somewhat damaged. Everything else on the chimney-piece, +that is to say, a few matchboxes and two candle-sticks, had also been +thrown to the ground--everything with the exception of the little Ikon +he had bought at Nijni-Novgorod, a small object about two inches +square on which two Saints were pictured. This still rested in its +place against the wall. + +Ferrol investigated the disaster. The nail was in its place in the +wall; the wire at the back of the picture was not broken or damaged in +any way. The accident seemed to him quite inexplicable. He was greatly +annoyed. The Chinese god was a valuable thing. He stood in front of +the chimney-piece contemplating the damage with a sense of great +irritation. + +"To think that everything should have been broken except this beastly +little Ikon!" he said to himself. "I wonder whether that was what +Sledge meant when he said I should not mix my deities." + +Next morning he sent again for the framemaker, and abused him roundly. +The framemaker said he could not understand how the accident had +happened. The nail was an excellent nail, the picture, Mr. Ferrol must +admit, had been hung with great care before his very eyes and under +his own direct and personal supervision. What more could be done?" + +"It's something to do with the balance," said Ferrol. "I told you that +before. The picture is half spoiled now." + +The framemaker said the damage would not show once the glass was +repaired, and took the picture away again to mend it. A few days later +it was brought back. Two men came to fix it this time; steps were +brought and the hanging lasted about twenty minutes. Nails were put +under the picture; it was hung by a double wire. All accidents in the +future seemed guarded against. + +The following morning Ferrol telephoned to Sledge and asked him to +dine with him. Sledge was engaged to dine out that evening, but said +that he would look in at the Temple late after dinner. + +Ferrol dined alone at the Club; he reached his rooms about half-past +nine; he made up a blazing fire and drew an armchair near it. He lit a +cigarette, made some Turkish coffee, and took down a French novel. +Every now and then he looked up at his picture. No damage was visible; +it looked, he thought, as well as ever. In the place of the Chinese +idol he had put his little green Egyptian god on the chimney-piece. +The candlesticks and the Ikon were still in their places. + +"After all," thought Ferrol, "I did wrong to have any Chinese art in +the place at all. Egyptian things are the only things worth having. It +is a lesson to me not to dabble with things out of my period." + +After he had read for about a quarter of an hour he fell into a doze. + + * * * * * + +Sledge arrived at the rooms about half-past ten, and an ugly sight met +his eyes. There had been an accident. The picture over the chimney- +piece had fallen down right on Ferrol. His face was badly cut. They +put Ferrol to bed, and his wounds were seen to and everything that was +necessary was done. A nurse was sent for to look after him, and Sledge +decided to stay in the house all night. After all the arrangements had +been made, the doctor, before he went away, said to Sledge: "He will +recover all right, he is not in the slightest danger; but I don't know +who is to break the news to him." + +"What is that?" asked Sledge. + +"He will be quite blind," said the doctor. + +Then the doctor went away, and Sledge sat down in front of the fire. +The broken glass had been swept up. The picture had been placed on the +Oriental divan, and as Sledge looked at the chimney-piece he noticed +that the little Ikon was still in its place. Something caught his eye +just under the low fender in front of the fireplace. He bent forward +and picked up the object. + +It was Ferrol's green Egyptian god, which had been broken into two +pieces. + + + + THE THIEF + + To Jack Gordon + +Hart Minor and Smith were behind-hand with their sums. It was Hart +Minor's first term: Smith had already been one term at school. They +were in the fourth division at St. James's. A certain number of sums +in short division had to be finished. Hart Minor and Smith got up +early to finish these sums before breakfast, which was at half-past +seven. Hart Minor divided slowly, and Smith reckoned quickly. Smith +finished his sums with ease. When half-past seven struck, Hart Minor +had finished four of them and there was still a fifth left: 3888 had +to be divided by 36; short division had to be employed. Hart Minor was +busily trying to divide 3888 by 4 and by 9; he had got as far as +saying, "Four's into 38 will go six times and two over; four's into +twenty-eight go seven times; four's into eight go twice." He was +beginning to divide 672 by 9, an impossible task, when the breakfast +bell rang, and Smith said to him: "Come on!" + +"I can't," said Hart Minor, "I haven't finished my sum." + +Smith glanced at his page and said: "Oh that's all right, don't you +see? The answer's 108." + +Hart Minor wrote down 108 and put a large R next to the sum, which +meant Right. + +The boys went in to breakfast. After breakfast they returned to the +fourth division schoolroom, where they were to be instructed in +arithmetic for an hour by Mr. Whitehead. Mr. Whitehead called for the +sums. He glanced through Smith's and found them correct, and then +through Hart Minor's. His attention was arrested by the last division. + +"What's this?" he demanded. "Four's into thirty-eight don't go six +times. You've got the right answer and the wrong working. What does +this mean?" And Mr. Whitehead bit his knuckles savagely. "Somebody," +he said, "has been helping you." + +Hart Minor owned that he had received help from Smith. Mr. Whitehead +shook him violently, and said, "Do you know what this means?" + +Hart Minor had no sort of idea as to the inner significance of his +act, except that he had finished his sums. + +"It means," said Mr. Whitehead, "that you're a cheat and a thief: +you've been stealing marks. For the present you can stand on the stool +of penitence and I'll see what is to be done with you later." + +The stool of penitence was a high, three-cornered stool, very narrow +at the top. When boys in this division misbehaved themselves they had +to stand on it during the rest of the lesson in the middle of the +room. + +Hart Minor fetched the stool of penitence and climbed up on it. It +wobbled horribly. + +After the lesson, which was punctuated throughout by Mr. Whitehead +with bitter comments on the enormity of theft, the boys went to +chapel. Smith and Hart were in the choir: they wore white surplices +which were put on in the vestry. Hart Minor, who knew that he was in +for a terrific row of some kind, thought he observed something unusual +in the conduct of the masters who were assembled in the vestry. They +were all tittering. Mr. Whitehead seemed to be convulsed with +uncontrollable laughter. The choir walked up the aisle. Hart Minor +noticed that all the boys in the school, and the servants who sat +behind them, and the master's wife who sat in front, and the organist +who played the harmonium, were all staring at him with unwonted +interest; the boys were nudging each other: he could not understand +why. + +When the service, which lasted twenty minutes, was over, and the boys +came out of chapel, Hart Minor was the centre of a jeering crowd of +boys. He asked Smith what the cause of this was, and Smith confessed +to him that before going into chapel Mr. Whitehead had pinned on his +back a large sheet of paper with "Cheat" written on it, and had only +removed it just before the procession walked up the aisle, hence the +interest aroused. But, contrary to his expectation, nothing further +occurred; none of the masters alluded to his misdemeanour, and Hart +Minor almost thought that the incident was closed--almost, and yet +really not at all; he tried to delude himself into thinking the affair +would blow over, but all the while at the bottom of his heart sat a +horrible misgiving. + +Every Monday there was in this school what was called "reading over." +The boys all assembled in the library and the Head Master, standing in +front of his tall desk, summoned each division before him in turn. The +marks of the week were read out and the boys took places, moving +either up or down according to their marks; so that a boy who was at +the top of his division one week might find himself at the bottom the +next week, and vice versa. + +On the Sunday after the incident recorded, the boys of the fourth +division were sitting in their schoolroom before luncheon, in order to +write their weekly letter home. This was the rule of the school. Mr. +Whitehead sat at his desk and talked in a friendly manner to the boys. +He was writing his weekly report in the large black report book that +was used for reading over. Mr. Whitehead was talking in a chaffing way +as to who was his favourite boy. + +"You can tell your people," he said to Hart Minor, "that my favourite +is old Polly." Polly was Hart Minor's nickname, which was given to him +owing to his resemblance to a parrot. Hart Minor was much pleased at +this friendly attitude, and began to think that the unpleasant +incident of the week had been really forgotten and that the misgiving +which haunted him night and day was a foolish delusion. + +"We shall soon be writing the half-term reports," said Mr. Whitehead. +"You've all been doing well, especially old Polly: you can put that in +your letter," he said to Hart Minor. "I'm very much pleased with you," +and he chuckled. + +On Monday morning at eleven o'clock was reading over. When the fourth +division were called up, the Head Master paused, looked down the page, +then at the boys, then at the book once more; then he frowned. There +was a second pause, then he read out in icy tones:-- + +"I'm sorry to say that Smith and Hart Minor have been found guilty of +gross dishonesty; they combined--in fact they entered into a +conspiracy, to cheat, to steal marks and obtain by unfair means, a +higher place and an advantage which was not due to them." + +The Head Master paused. "Hart Minor and Smith," he continued, "go to +the bottom of the division. Smith," he added, "I'm astounded at you. +Your conduct in this affair is inexplicable. If it were not for your +previous record and good conduct, I should have you severely flogged; +and if Hart Minor were not a new boy, I should treat him in the same +way and have him turned out of the choir. (The choir had special +privileges.) As it is, you shall lose, each of you, 200 marks, and I +shall report the whole matter in detail to your parents in your half- +term report, and if anything of the sort ever occurs again, you shall +be severely punished. You have been guilty of an act for which, were +you not schoolboys, but grown up, you would be put in prison. It is +this kind of thing that leads people to penal servitude." + +After the reading over was finished and the lessons that followed +immediately on it, and the boys went out to wash their hands for +luncheon, the boys of the second division crowded round Hart Minor and +asked him how he could have perpetrated such a horrible and daring +crime. The matter, however, was soon forgotten by the boys, but Hart +Minor had not heard the last of it. On the following Sunday in chapel, +at the evening service, the Head Master preached a sermon. He chose as +his text "Thou shalt not steal!" The eyes of the whole school were +fixed on Smith and Hart Minor. The Head Master pointed out in his +discourse that one might think at first sight that boys at a school +might not have the opportunity to violate the tremendous Commandments; +but, he said, this was not so. The Commandments were as much a living +actuality in school life as they were in the larger world. Coming +events cast their shadows before them; the child was the father of the +man; what a boy was at school, such would he be in after life. Theft, +the boys perhaps thought, was not a sin which immediately concerned +them. But there were things which were morally the same if not worse +than the actual theft of material and tangible objects--dishonesty in +the matter of marks, for instance, and cheating in order to gain an +undue advantage over one's fellow-schoolboys. A boy who was guilty of +such an act at school would probably end by being a criminal when he +went out into the larger world. The seeds of depravity were already +sown; the tree whose early shoots were thus blemished would probably +be found to be rotten when it grew up; and for such trees and for such +noxious growths there could only be one fate--to be cut down and cast +into the unquenchable fire! + +In Hart Minor's half-term report, which was sent home to his parents, +it was stated that he had been found guilty of the meanest and +grossest dishonesty, and that should it occur again he would be first +punished and finally expelled. + + + + THE STAR + +He had long ago retired from public life, and in his Tuscan villa, +where he now lived quite alone, seldom seeing his friends, he never +regretted the strenuous days of his activity. He had done his work +well; he had been more than a competent public servant; as Pro-Consul +he proved a pillar of strength to the State, a man whose name at one +time was on men's lips as having left plenty where he had found +dearth, and order and justice where corruption, oppression, and +anarchy, had once run riot. His retirement had been somewhat of a +surprise to his friends, for although he was ripe in years, his mental +powers were undiminished and his body was active and vigorous. But his +withdrawal from public life was due not so much to fatigue or to a +longing for leisure as to a lack of sympathy, which he felt to be +growing stronger and stronger as the years went by, with the manners +and customs, the mode of thought, and the manner of living of the new +world and the new generation which was growing up around him. Nurtured +as he had been in the old school and the strong traditions which +taught an austere simplicity of life, a contempt for luxury and show, +he was bewildered and saddened by the rapid growth of riches, the +shameless worship of wealth, the unrestrained passion for amusement at +all costs, the thirst for new sensations, and the ostentatious airs of +the youth of the day, who seemed to be born disillusioned and whose +palates were jaded before they knew the taste of food. He found much +to console him in literature, not only in the literature of the past +but in the literature of his day, but here again he was beset with +misgivings and haunted by forebodings. He felt that the State had +reached its zenith both in material prosperity and intellectual +achievement, and that all the future held in reserve was decline and +decay. This thought was ever present with him; in the vast extension +of empire he foresaw the inevitable disintegration, and he wondered in +a melancholy fashion what would be the fate of mankind when the +Empire, dismembered and rotten, should become the prey of the +Barbarians. + +It was in the winter of the second year after his retirement that his +melancholy increased to a pitch of almost intolerable heaviness. That +winter was an extraordinarily mild one, and even during the coldest +month he strolled every evening after he had supped on the terrace +walk which was before the portico. He was strolling one night on the +terrace pondering on the fate of mankind, and more especially on the +life--if there was such a thing--beyond the grave. He was not a +superstitious man, but, saturated with tradition, he was a scrupulous +observer of religious feast, custom, and ritual. He had lately been +disturbed by what he considered to be an ill-favoured omen. One night +--it was twelve nights ago he reckoned--the statues of Pan and Apollo, +standing in his dining-room, which was at the end of the portico, had +fallen to the ground without any apparent cause and had been shattered +into fragments. And it had seemed to him that the crash of this +accident was immediately followed by a low and prolonged wail, which +appeared to come from nowhere in particular and yet to fill the world; +the noise of the moan had seemed to be quite close to him, and as it +died away its echo had seemed to be miles and miles distant. He +thought it had been a hallucination, but that same night a still +stranger thing happened. After the accident, which had wakened the +whole household, he had been unable to go to sleep again and he had +gone from his sleeping chamber into an adjoining room, and, lighting a +lamp, had taken down and read out of the "Iliad" of Homer. After he +had been reading for about half an hour he heard a voice calling him +very distinctly by his name, but as soon as the sound had ceased he +was not quite certain whether he had heard it or not. At that moment +one of his slaves, who had been born in the East, entered the room and +asked him what he required, saying that he had heard his master +calling loudly. What these signs and portents signified he had no +idea; perhaps, he mused, they mean my own death, which is of no +consequence; or perhaps--which may the Fates forfend--some disaster to +an absent friend or even to the State. But so far--and twelve days had +passed since he had seen these strange manifestations--he had received +no news which confirmed his fears. + +As he was thus musing he looked up at the sky, and he noticed the +presence of a new and unfamiliar star, which he had never seen before. +He was a close observer of the heavens and learned in astronomy, and +he felt quite certain that he had never seen this star before. It was +a star of peculiar radiance, large and white--almost blue in its +whiteness--it shone in the East, and seemed to put all the other stars +to shame by its overwhelming radiance and purity. While he was thus +gazing at the star it seemed to him as though a great darkness had +come upon the world. He heard a low muttering sound as of a distant +earthquake, and this was quickly followed by the tramping of +innumerable armies. He knew that the end had come. It is the +Barbarians, he thought, who have already conquered the world. Rome has +fallen never to rise again; Rome has shared the fate of Troy and +Carthage, of Babylon, and Memphis; Rome is a name in an old wife's +tale; and little savage children shall be given our holy trophies for +playthings, and shall use our ruined temples and our overthrown +palaces as their playground. And so sharp was the vividness of his +vision that he wondered what would happen to his villa, and whether or +no the Barbarians would destroy the image of Ceres on the terrace, +which he especially cherished, not for its beauty but because it had +belonged to his father and to his grandfather before him. + +An eternity seemed to pass, and the tramp, tramp, tramp of the armies +of those untrained hordes which were coming from the North and +overrunning the world seemed to get nearer and nearer. He wondered +what they would do with him; he had no place for fear in his heart, +but he remembered that on the portico in the morning his freedman's +child had been playing with the pieces of a broken jar, a copper coin, +and a dog made of terra-cotta. He remembered the child's brown eyes +and curly hair, its smile, its laughter, and lisping talk--it was a +piece of earth and sun--and he thought of the spears of the +Barbarians, and then shifted his thoughts because they sickened him. + +Then, just when he thought the heavy footsteps had reached the +approach of his villa, the vision changed. The noise of tramping +ceased, and through the thick darkness there pierced the radiance of +the star: the strange star he had seen that night. The world seemed to +awake from a dark slumber. The ruins rose from the dust and took once +more a stately shape, even lordlier than before. Rome had risen from +the dead, and once more she dominated the world like a starry diadem. +Before him he seemed to see the pillars and the portals of a huge +temple, more splendid and gorgeous than the Temples of Caesar. The +gates were wide open, and from within came a blare of trumpets. He saw +a kneeling multitude; and soldiers with shining breastplates, far +taller than the legionaries of Caesar, were keeping a way through the +dense crowd, while the figure of an aged man--was it the Pontifex +Maximus, he wondered?--was borne aloft in a chair over their heads. + +Then once more the vision changed. At least the temple seemed to grow +wider, higher, and lighter; the crowd vanished; it seemed to him as +though a long corridor of light was opening on some ultimate and +mysterious doorway. At last this doorway was opened, and he saw +distinctly before him a dark and low manger where oxen and asses were +stalled. It was littered with straw. He could hear the peaceful beasts +munching their food. + +In the corner lay a woman, and in her arms was a child and his face +shone like the sun and lit up the whole place, in which there were +neither torches nor lamps. The door of the manger was ajar, and +through it he saw the sky and the strange star still shining brightly. +He heard a voice, the same voice which he had heard twelve nights +before; but the voice was not calling him, it was singing a song, and +the song was as it were a part of a larger music, a symphony of clear +voices, more joyous and different from anything he had ever heard. + +The vision vanished altogether; he was standing once more under the +portico amongst the surroundings which were familiar to him. The +strange star was still shining in the sky. He went back through the +folding-doors of the piazza into the dining-room. His gloom and his +perplexity had been lifted from him; he felt quite happy; he could not +have explained why. He called his slave and told him to get plenty of +provisions on the morrow, for he expected friends to dinner. He added +that he wanted nothing further and that the slaves could go to bed. + + + + CHUN WA + + To Henry de C. Ward + +His name was Chun Wa; possibly there was some more of it, but that is +all I can remember. He was about four or five years old, and I made +his acquaintance the day we arrived at the temple. It was at the end +of September. We had left Mukden in order to take part in what they +said was going to be a great battle. I don't know what the village was +called at which we arrived on the second day of our march. I can only +remember that it was a beautiful and deliciously quiet spot, and that +we established ourselves in a temple; that is to say not actually in +the temple itself, but in the house of the priest. He was a Buddhist +who looked after the deities of the place, which were made of carved +and painted wood, and lived in a small pagoda. The building consisted +of three quadrangles surrounded by a high stone wall. The first of +these quadrangles, which you entered from the road, reminded me of the +yard in front of any farm. There was a good deal of straw lying about, +some broken ploughshares, buckets, wooden bowls, spades, and other +implements of toil. A few hens hurried about searching for grains here +and there; a dog was sleeping in the sun. At the further end of the +yard a yellow cat seemed to have set aside a space for its exclusive +use. This farmyard was separated from the next quadrangle by the house +of the priest, which occupied the whole of the second enclosure; that +is to say the living rooms extended right round the quadrangle, +leaving a square and open space in the centre. The part of the house +which separated the second quadrangle from the next consisted solely +of a roof supported by pillars, making an open verandah, through which +from the second enclosure you saw into the third. The third enclosure +was a garden, consisting of a square grass plot and some cypress +trees. At the further end of the garden was the temple itself. + +We arrived in the afternoon. We were met by an elderly man, the +priest, who put the place at our disposal and established us in the +rooms situated in the second quadrangle to the east and west. He +himself and his family lived in the part of the house which lay +between the farmyard and the second enclosure. The Cossacks of the +battery with which I was living encamped in a field on the other side +of the farmyard, but the treasure chest was placed in the farmyard +itself, and a sentry stood near it with a drawn sword. + +The owner of the house had two sons. One of them, aged about thirteen, +had something to do with the temple services, and wore a kind of tunic +made of white silk. The second was Chun Wa. It was when the sentry +went on guard that we first made the acquaintance of Chun Wa. His +cheeks were round and fat, and his face seemed to bulge out towards +the base. His little eyes were soft and brown and twinkled like +onyxes. His tiny little hands were most beautifully shaped, and this +child moved about the farmyard with the dignity of an Emperor and the +serenity of a great Pontiff. Gravely and without a smile he watched +the Cossacks unharnessing their horses, lighting a fire and arranging +the officers' kit. + +He walked up to the sentry who was standing near the treasure chest, a +big, grey-eyed Cossack with a great tuft of fair hair, and the +expression of a faithful retriever, and in a tone of indescribable +contempt, Chun Wa said "Ping!" "Ping" in Chinese means soldier-man, +and if you wish to express your contempt for a man there is no word in +the whole of the Chinese language which expresses it so fully and so +emphatically as the word "Ping." + +The Cossack smiled on Chun Wa and called him by a long list of +endearing diminutives, but Chun Wa took no notice, and retired into +the inner part of the house as if he had determined to pay no more +attention to the barbarous intruders. The next day, however, curiosity +got the better of him, and he could not resist inspecting the yard, +and observing the doings of the foreign devils. And one of the +Cossacks--his name was Lieskov and he looked after my mule--made +friends with Chun Wa. He made friends with him by playing with the +dog. The dog, like most Chinese dogs, was dirty, distrustful, and not +used to being played with; he slunk away if you called him, and if you +took any notice of him he evidently expected to be beaten, kicked, or +to have stones thrown at him. He was too thin to be eaten. But Lieskov +tamed the dog and taught him how to play, and the big Cossack used to +roll on the ground while the dog pretended to bite him, until Chun Wa +forgot his dignity, his contempt, and his superior culture, and +smiled. I remember coming home that very afternoon from a short stroll +with one of the officers, and we found Lieskov lying fast asleep in +the farmyard right across the steps of the door through which we +wanted to go, and Chun Wa and the dog were sitting beside him. We woke +him up and the officer asked him why he had gone to sleep. + +"I was playing with the dog, your honour," he said, "and I played so +hard that I was exhausted and fell asleep." + +After that Chun Wa made friends with everybody, officers and men, and +he ruled the battery like an autocrat. He ruled by charm and a +thousand winning ways. But his special friend was Lieskov, who carried +the child about on his back, performed many droll antics to amuse him, +and taught him words of pidgin Russian. Among other things he made him +a kite--a large and beautiful kite--out of an old piece of yellow +silk, shaped like a butterfly. And Chun Wa's brother flew this kite +with wonderful skill, so that it looked like a glittering golden bird +hovering in the air. + +I forget how long we stayed at this temple, whether it was three days +or four days; possibly it was not so long, but it seemed like many +months, or rather it seemed at the same time very long and very short, +like a pleasant dream. The weather was so soft and so fine, the +sunshine so bright, the air so still, that had not the nights been +chilly we should never have dreamt that it was autumn. It seemed +rather as though the spring had been unburied and had returned to the +earth by mistake. And all this time fighting was going on to the east +of us. The battle of Sha-Ho had begun, but we were in the reserve, in +what they called the deepest reserve, and we heard no sound of firing, +neither did we receive any news of it. We seemed to be sheltered from +the world in an island of dreamy lotus-eating; and the only noise that +reached us was the sound of the tinkling gongs of the temple. We lived +a life of absolute indolence, getting up with the sun, eating, playing +cards, strolling about on the plains where the millet had now been +reaped, eating again and going to bed about nine o'clock in the +evening. Our chief amusement was to talk with Chun Wa and to watch the +way in which he treated the Cossacks, who had become his humble +slaves. I am sure there was not one of the men who would not have died +gladly for Chun Wa. + +One afternoon, just as we were finishing our midday meal, we received +orders to start. We were no longer in the reserve; we were needed +further on. Everything was packed up in a hurry, and by half-past two +the whole battery was on the march, and we left the lovely calm +temple, the cypress trees, the chiming gongs, and Chun Wa. The idyll +was over, the reality was about to begin. As we left the place Chun Wa +stood by the gate, dignified, and grave as usual. In one hand he held +his kite, and in the other a paper flower, and he gave this flower to +Lieskov. + +Next day we arrived at another village, and from there we were sent +still further on, to a place whence, from the hills, all the fighting +that was going on in the centre of that big battle was visible. From +half-past six in the morning until sunset the noise of the artillery +never ceased, and all night long there was a rattle of rifle firing. +The troops which were in front drew each day nearer to us. Another two +days passed; the battery took part in the action, some of the men were +killed, and some of the men and the officers were wounded, and we +retreated to the River Sha-Ho. Then just as we thought a final retreat +was about to take place, a retreat right back to Mukden, we recrossed +the river, took part in another action, and then a great stillness +came. The battle was practically over. The advance of the enemy had +ceased, and we were ordered to go to a certain place. + +We started, and on our way we passed through the village where we had +lived before the battle began. The place was scarcely recognisable. It +was quite deserted; some of the houses looked like empty shells or +husks, as though the place had suffered from earthquake. A dead horse +lay across the road just outside the farmyard. + +One of the officers and myself had the curiosity to go into the temple +buildings where we had enjoyed such pleasant days. They were deserted. +Part of the inner courtyard was all scorched and crumbled as if there +had been a fire. The straw was still lying about in the yard, and the +implements of toil. The actual temple itself at the end of the grassy +plot remained untouched, and the grinning gods inside it were intact; +but the dwelling rooms of our host were destroyed, and the rooms where +we had lived ourselves were a mass of broken fragments, rubbish, and +dust. The place had evidently been heavily shelled. There was not a +trace of any human being, save that in the only room which remained +undestroyed, on the matting of the hard /Khang/--that is the divan +which stretches like a platform across three-quarters of every Chinese +room--lay the dead body of a Chinese coolie. The dog, the cat, and the +hens had all gone. + +We only remained a moment or two in the place, and as we left it the +officer pulled my sleeve and pointed to a heap of rubbish near the +gate. There, amidst some broken furniture, a mass of refuse, burned +and splintered wood, lay the tattered remains of a golden kite. + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg Etext of Orpheus in Mayfair and Other +Stories and Sketches by Maurice Baring diff --git a/old/orphe10.zip b/old/orphe10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..80b9324 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/orphe10.zip |